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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a752054e9fa5d9b21cec3c35fe7606ff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f822aafc-d013-42f9-81fa-50a9c57f5600/retrieve","id":"1759592236"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b2124891-86fc-4f6c-87f9-9a62592a1ec6","pagecount":"68","content":"Esta publicación no hubiera sido posible sin la participación de las familias que facilitaron la información de sus experiencias y recetas con el proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima\" del Ecuador.Agradecemos también el apoyo de las organizaciones de productores Guangaló Tierra Mía, Santa Teresita, La Florida, Agropapa, Chiquicahua, Tambaló, La Dolorosa, UODIC, Fuente de Vida Rumipamba, Ajospamba, Asopropangor y Conpapa. Finalmente, queremos reconocer la contribución de Elena de Jesús Quinga Toasa, que fue clave para el trabajo de investigación en campo.La presente publicación ha sido elaborada con el apoyo financiero de la Unión Europea. Su contenido es responsabilidad exclusiva del Proyecto Regional \"Papa, Familia y Clima. Biodiversidad y buenas prácticas de agricultura climáticamente inteligente para mejorar la resiliencia y productividad de la agricultura familiar en sistemas alimentarios andinos basados en papa\" y no necesariamente refleja los puntos de vista de la Unión Europea.El CIP agradece a los donantes y organizaciones que apoyan globalmente su trabajo, a través de sus contribuciones al Fondo Fiduciario del CGIAR: www.cgiar.org/fundersLos Andes son la región donde la agricultura se practica a la mayor altitud en nuestro planeta. Por ello, los eventos climáticos extremos afectan con una intensidad más pronunciada a la agricultura familiar, campesina e indígena altoandina en comparación con otras agroecologías.Como estrategia de supervivencia, muchos productores de papa han trasladado su producción a las partes más elevadas de las montañas para evitar el impacto de altas temperaturas en el rendimiento y calidad de sus cultivos. En promedio, la papa se cultiva hoy 350 metros más arriba con respecto a 1970. Esto ha generado más emisiones de carbono a la atmósfera, el cual había sido almacenado en los suelos altoandinos intactos por milenios. Así, en una especie de círculo vicioso, la agricultura andina se ubica como uno de los sectores más amenazantes y amenazados por el cambio climático.Para afrontar esta situación, entre junio de 2019 y septiembre de 2021, el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) y el Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA) desarrollaron, aplicaron y difundieron prácticas de agricultura climáticamente inteligente (ACI) y articulación a mercados diferenciados para mejorar la capacidad adaptativa de agricultores y actores públicos y privados de los sistemas agroalimentarios andinos basados en papa en Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú.Con una inversión de más de 1.2 millones de euros aportados por CIP, IICA y la Unión Europea, a través del Programa Euroclima+, Componente Producción Resiliente de Alimentos, ejecutado por GIZ y Expertise France, se implementó el proyecto regional \"Papa, Familia y Clima\", que impulsa la biodiversidad y buenas prácticas ACI para mejorar la resiliencia y productividad de la agricultura familiar en sistemas alimentarios andinos basados en papa, en las provincias ecuatorianas de Tungurahua y Chimborazo, en alianza con el Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP), el Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG), 12 organizaciones de productores y otros aliados.Esta publicación busca difundir, como síntesis de logros y lecciones del proyecto, las historias de vida de algunas familias que participaron, así como motivar el consumo de alimentos producidos de forma amigable con el medio ambiente, reconociendo el esfuerzo que implica para las familias campesinas cambiar sus prácticas para aumentar su resiliencia climática. Se llama Euclides por afición de su madre y Asdrúbal por gusto de su padre. Es un hombre de hablar agradable y fluido, apasionado por la agricultura; tiene en su alma ese carisma de aprender con facilidad todo lo que tiene que ver con la tierra. El día que conoció cómo atrapar al gusano blan-Euclides Ocaña, el terror de los gusanos La familia que le ganó la batalla a la plaga co (Premnotrypes vorax) que daña la papa todo cambió para él y su familia.Euclides Asdrúbal Ocaña nació hace 61 años, vive en la parroquia Rumipamba del cantón Quero y pertenece a la Asociación Tierra Mía. En su terreno nacen papas de colores, de PRÁCTICA ACI: Trampas para gusano blanco Euclides Ocaña comparte una tarde con su familia (esposa, hija y hermana), luego de una jornada en el campo.texturas y de sabores únicos. Su afición por este cultivo lo ha llevado, no solo a sembrar la conocida papa chola, sino otras variedades nativas que le han sorprendido por su sabor y su resistencia a la sequía. Él es socio del programa \"Papa, Familia y Clima\", que busca mejorar la resiliencia y productividad de la agricultura familiar.Un grupo de técnicos del CIP, MAG e INIAP, que forma parte de esta iniciativa, le enseñó que hay formas alternativas de atraer al gusano blanco hasta un lugar donde no pueda dañar al tubérculo. El día que se enteró de esto, no solo salvó a sus papas y todo el cultivo, sino que aprendió el comportamiento natural de esta plaga, lo que le permitió planificar sus siembras y usar menos agroquímicos.Sentado en su casa junto a una chimenea, cuenta que antes de aprender sobre la colocación de las trampas, solo conoció al gusano cuando era larva, porque lo veía al final del camino que había hecho, mientras se alimentaba de la papa. Hoy, sabe más de este insecto. Sus ojos se iluminan y relata: \"no solo conozco a la larva que se mete en la papa, sino también a la mamá y al papá, que es más chiquito. Los técnicos me enseñaron que al mes ponen hasta 300 huevos\".Ahora que sabe cómo es el ciclo de vida completo del gusano destructor, se ha dado el trabajo de tomar el tiempo en el que se alimenta de las hojas de papa. Sabe que lo visita a las seis de la tarde, con mucha hambre y sin ninguna contemplación, pero para ese momento Euclides ya tiene listas las herramientas de manejo integrado de plagas para atraparlo.En esa tarea también le ayuda su hija Azucena. Ella toma una botella plástica reciclable, hace dos orificios en la parte alta y adentro coloca una rama de la planta de papa humedecida en un compuesto orgánico, cuyo olor atrae al gusano; luego mete el recipiente en el suelo. La sustancia que usa para atraer al gusano es una mezcla de microorganismos y hierbas que ha sido fermentada previamente en un recipiente.Este no es el único truco que conoce; también tiene otras trampas que le permiten capturar vivo al enemigo para estimar cuándo podría convertirse en un problema grave y de esa forma aplicar insecticidas solo cuando sea absolutamente necesario. Él aprovecha para mostrar su trabajo a los vecinos y que ellos también cultiven sus papas sin molestos inquilinos. Así podrán hacer como Euclides, que cada miércoles vende sus papas en el mercado, confiado en que ningún gusano afectará los ingresos de su familia.Este es un plato típico muy consumido en el lugar. Es habitual en las ferias de los lunes y martes en Ambato, donde lo comercializan de 07:00 a 14:00. Incluso en el cantón Mocha existen carros repartidores que anuncian su venta a través de altoparlantes. La gente del lugar aprovecha para comprarlo durante el almuerzo o llaman por teléfono a los comerciantes para que les entreguen en sus hogares. Generalmente lo venden acompañado de un porción de tostado y un fresco. Cuando se enfríe, pele el grano y lave para retirar cualquier impureza. 4. Licúe el maní hasta el punto de lograr una consistencia granulada. 5. Licúe la cebolla paiteña pelada, lavada y partida en cuatro con media taza de agua. 6. Coloque al fuego la cebolla licuada con la manteca vegetal. Revuelva constantemente hasta que tenga una consistencia pastosa. Añada el maní y mezcle. 7. Coloque dos panes en la licuadora con un cuarto de taza de agua y añada a la mezcla principal. Ponga perejil y sal al gusto. 8. Una vez que esté listo el cuero, retire los excesos de grasa y corte en cuadritos. 9. Para servir: coloque las papas cocinadas, la salsa de maní y el cuero encima. Puede servir con queso alrededor. También se acostumbra acompañar con tostado. 10. Complemente este delicioso plato con ají y adorne con huevo cocinado. Agosto era el mes en el que las heladas llegaban normalmente a la parroquia San Fernando, en el cantón Ambato. De la intensidad del temporal y de los días de duración dependía la magnitud de los daños que podía ocasionar a los cultivos, que se transformaban de un verde intenso a negro. Hasta allí llegaba el deseo de una buena cosecha.Ese día la temperatura caía bajo cero. Y si alguien dejaba una tina de agua a la intemperie se podía apreciar claramente una capa de hielo, como un vidrio fino, que aparecía en la superficie.Ahora, por el cambio climático, no saben cuándo llegarán las heladas. La naturaleza ya no es predecible. Se volvió variable y eso les alerta e intriga.PRÁCTICA ACI: Barreras vivas para proteger los cultivos Alrededor de los cultivos de Raúl Bombón aparecen unas plantas diferentes, no son de papa. Son más altas y están colocadas en los alrededores, como si fueran una cerca. Son hileras de malva, que sirven como barreras vivas para proteger a los sembradíos del viento.Por encima de los 3.000 metros de altura, el aire sopla fuerte y la malva tiene la función de proteger a los cultivos, de evitar que la ventisca vuelva moradas las hojas de la papa y afecte al producto.Este tipo de acciones son parte de lo que se conoce como las buenas prácticas de agricultura climáticamente inteligente (ACI), promovidas por el proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima\".En San Isidro de Tambaló, sector donde vive Raúl con su esposa y sus seis hijos, miran a la agricultura de una manera diferente. Comprobaron que fertilizar con abono orgánico fortalece las plantas y mejora el sabor de las papas. \"La comida es más agradable, más arenosa y medio dulce, al momento de servir\", dice este hombre de 47 años, quien combina esta práctica con las barreras vivas de malva como una forma de enfrentar la variabilidad climática.Hace más de tres meses, los Bombón sembraron papa chaucha en su terreno. Desde su casa, Raúl observa que la planta está amarilla y eso significa que la papa está lista para dejar la tierra. Entonces, todos toman sus herramientas: azadones, palas, rastrillos y un balde rojo. Unos cavan, otros sacuden y desde el suelo salen unas papas rojas que contrastan con el negruzco de la tierra. Hoy fue un buen día para esta familia…En la comunidad de Tambaló, en el cantón Ambato, la familia Bombón cosecha la papa chaucha roja.La papa roja a la que no le dio el viento Llegó un poco después de la cosecha de papa. Caminaba sin nombre, su dueña no sabía si era macho o hembra y, cuando descifró este misterio gracias a una vecina, decidió llamarla Josefina. Lleva el nombre de una variedad de papa que se ha vuelto famosa en el lugar, porque es más resistente a los impactos del cambio climático. Algunos creen que la felina salió de la tierra, igual que la papa.Esta gatita ha sido una testigo silenciosa de cómo los abonos verdes incrementaron la productividad de la papa en la familia de Gloria Tibán.Para alimentar a su ganado, Gloria sembró avena y vicia, la primera una gramínea como el maíz, pero sin choclo, y la segunda una leguminosa de gran calidad forrajera. Pero, además de nutrir a los animales, son excelentes abonos verdes que mejoran la calidad de los suelos y permiten a productores como Gloria utilizar menos fertilizantes químicos. Los técnicos agrícolas del programa \"Papa, Familia y Clima\", le recomendaron a Gloria no quemar ni deshacerse de los residuos de la cosecha de avena y vicia, sino incorporarlos al suelo para aumentar el contenido de materia orgánica y mejorar la fertilidad de su terreno de forma natural y más amigable con el medio ambiente. Después de mezclar el suelo con los restos de vicia y avena, lo dejó reposar tres semanas antes de sembrar las semillas de papa.Junto a 11 compañeras de la Asociación de Mujeres Santa Teresita, sembró 5 quintales de papa de la variedad Josefina que le rindieron 44 quintales en la cosecha. Tenía temor de que la producción no fuera buena, pues en mayo y en junio les afectaron las heladas. Sin embargo, gracias a que las plantas crecieron más fuertes y vigorosas por el uso de abonos verdes, el intenso frío solamente dejó unas cuantas hojas quemadas, pero el tallo siguió recto e intacto.Esa es Josefina, la variedad de papa que cuando se combina con prácticas de agricultura climáticamente inteligente resiste mejor a los cambios climáticos, mientras que Josefina, la gata, recorre las plantaciones de papa y sale corriendo cuando llega la helada.PRÁCTICA ACI: Abonos verdes de avena más viciacontra el viento de manera natural.Autora: Gloria Tibán El Runaucho es un plato tradicional del cantón Tisaleo. Los habitantes del lugar refieren que su preparación es común para las grandes fiestas y celebraciones familiares, sobre todo bodas. Tradicionalmente se acostumbra que los priostes de las 40 horas, fiesta en honor al Santísimo Sacramento, ofrezcan este plato a sus más de 200 invitados en el día principal de la fiesta. Esta festividad se celebra antes de la Semana Santa y es un acontecimiento religioso de especial importancia, que convoca a una gran cantidad de personas que participan del arreglo de la iglesia, de oraciones y de la misa central.Ingredientes 1 libra de harina de arveja 2 pepas de ajo macho 3 libras de papa Josefina 1 cuy 1 zanahoria grande 2 ramas de orégano 2 ramas de cebolla blanca 1 cebolla paiteña 1 cucharada de manteca de chancho 1 hoja de apioSal al gusto 1. Hierva dos litros de agua, mientras tanto en una sartén coloque la cebolla blanca, el ajo y el orégano picados con la cucharada de manteca de chancho, sofría y añada al caldo, junto con la zanahoria picada finamente y las papas. 2. En un recipiente con agua fría disuelva la harina de arveja, hasta lograr una mezcla homogénea y ponga en el agua hirviendo. 3. Agregue sal al gusto y remueva constantemente para que no se pegue. 4. Preparación del cuy: Licúe 1 ajo, 1 cebolla paiteña, 1 cebolla blanca, orégano, apio, pimiento y sal al gusto. Condimente el cuy con este preparado, deje macerar por una hora y lleve al carbón para asarlo. 5. Sirva la sopa y coloque una presa de cuy encima. En la casa de Nelly Sánchez hay cinco piedras de moler antiguas. Calculan que la más desgastada puede tener más de 300 años. Nadie las usa, pero no se mueven del patio, son el recuerdo de sus antepasados y de la habilidad que tenían para convertir la cebada, el morocho o el maíz en harina.Esta familia se resiste a olvidar los saberes ancestrales de los Andes. Por eso el día en que Luis Ernesto Sánchez, esposo de Nelly, encontró por casualidad a un vecino que resguardaba la papa cacho, una variedad nativa de color negro que tiene la forma de cornamentas de toro, no dudó en recuperar esta semilla. En su familia la habían dejado de ver hace mucho tiempo, pero les traía recuerdos de su niñez y siempre añoraban su sabor. Igual nombran con nostalgia las papas tabaquera, jardinera, lima, que forman parte de las 350 variedades de papas nativas registradas en el Ecuador.Así, con las pocas semillas de papa cacho que su vecino, custodio de la agrobiodiversidad, les regaló, sembraron tres guachos, pero al principio cultivaron unos tubérculos muy pequeños. Porfiado en que no se podía perder el patrimonio natural y cultural del país, Luis Ernesto las sembró en otro lugar y allí crecieron grandes, relucientes, con una curva que hasta parecía sonrisa. Ese día empezaron a recuperar la semilla ancestral. De eso, hace dos años.Se dieron cuenta que tuvieron mejores resultados porque el segundo terreno estaba fertilizado orgánicamente con productos naturales.Este hogar también forma parte del programa \"Papa, Familia y Clima\". Y, además de revalorar a las papas nativas, también están aplicando otra práctica de agricultura climáticamente inteligente (ACI) que reaprendieron en las capacitaciones del CIP, MAG e INIAP: el uso de plantas repelentes para ahuyentar a las plagas de forma natural, sin la necesidad de aplicar tantos insecticidas químicos. \"Cuando íbamos a cosechar la planta, no había papas. Hoy, no nos ha ganado la plaga y estamos cuidando nuestro bolsillo y al medio ambiente\", cuenta Nelly Sánchez.Ella recorre sus cultivos y observa que están verdes y sanos. Alrededor de ellos, como si fuera una hilera, se observan tallos de cebolla blanca a cincuenta centímetros de distancia. Más allá aparece una barrera de apio, que también ahuyenta a mosquitos que tienen bien identificados los Sánchez-Sánchez.El día que perdieron sus cosechas tomaron una lupa y vieron a los insectos de cerca. Querían conocer a detalle a esta plaga para estar mejor preparados. Ahora, ya no les cogerá de sorpresa porque están armados con \"barreras vivas\" y bien capacitados.Plantas repelentes, las mejores amigas de la papa PRÁCTICA ACI: Siembra de plantas repelentes Autora: Nelly Sánchez Este es un potaje de autoría de la familia Sánchez, que buscó una forma novedosa de presentar la papa cacho. La madre de este hogar decidió armar una combinación que resalte el sabor de esta papa andina y consideró que la salsa de maní y la pata de res serían una buena opción. También recomienda que se acompañe el platillo con un delicioso jugo de mora, que es otro de los cultivos populares de la zona.Papa cacho en salsa de maní con pata de res PRÁCTICA ACI: Asociación de cultivosIntegrantes de la Asociación Carihuairazo de Chiquicahua posan en una hacienda antigua, que ahora es su sede.pero que acompaña siempre a los paisajes altoandinos.Los 20 quintales de papa se sembraron con prácticas de Agricultura Climáticamente Inteligente (ACI) promovidas por el proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima\". Antes de depositar las semillas en la tierra, llegó un camión lleno de abono orgánico que dejó el suelo como una cobija suave y esponjosa enriquecida con nutrientes naturales.Ese día, José Manuel Pilamunga se sintió muy complacido pues esta práctica pone en valor los saberes ancestrales de la agricultura andina y los fortalece con la ciencia del CIP y el INIAP. Lleva un poncho rojo que le llega más allá de la cintura. Casi no habla, solo asiente, pero cuando pronuncia una frase es precisa y reveladora.Al escuchar a los compañeros de la comunidad comentar sobre el cultivo con abonos orgánicos, alza un tanto la voz para recordar: \"Así mismo hacíamos antes y las papas nos duraban hasta un año, guardábamos en el soberado (bodega ubicada en la parte alta de la casa, antes del tejado). Con tanto químico la tierra se cansa, hay que volver a lo orgánico. Mi mamita, sin químico, vive hasta ahora y tiene casi 100 años\".Esta comunidad no solo volvió a utilizar fertilizantes orgánicos, sino a la práctica agroecológica de asociación de cultivos. En los terrenos de la comunidad se puede ver papa en una hilera y haba en la otra. Aprendieron la importancia de esta combinación para mejorar los suelos y obtener rendimientos estables en las capacitaciones de EURO-CLIMA+, que conjugaron los saberes locales con las últimas innovaciones basadas en la ciencia.Damián Punina, uno de los más jóvenes de la comunidad, entusiasta por implementar estas prácticas, quiere mirar a la tierra con los ojos de sus abuelos. Y dice que hay que entender que los cultivos se ayudan entre sí. \"Si se siembra papa y chocho no se perderá el lote de la siembra, porque el chocho es una planta agria que evita que lleguen las plagas, los moscos y protege a la papa de las heladas al ser una plata alta\".Los 123 socios de esta asociación esperan ansiosos la cosecha. Están contentos con el esfuerzo que hacen en la producción cada vez más amigable con el ambiente y con papas más saludables y nutritivas para la mesa de las familias.Cuando las mujeres del lugar dan a luz es habitual que se prepare este platillo, con el propósito que recuperen fuerzas durante los primeros 15 días. La receta inicialmente incluye solo cuy y cebolla; solo después de transcurrido este tiempo se puede añadir papas y otros elementos al preparado. El cuy es parte de la dieta central luego del parto pues existe la creencia que ayuda a producir leche, al igual que la papa que proporciona nutrientes. El sábado llegó con viento y baja temperatura a Mulanleo, en la parroquia Pilahuín, en Ambato. Allí el clima hace temblar de frío a los extraños. En ese lugar, las papas nativas tienen un espacio especial desde que los miembros de la Asociación Agropapa decidieron recuperar la agrobiodiversidad andina.Son papas deliciosas y adaptables a cualquier preparación. Se pueden cocinar, hacer puré o freír. Mientras más oscuro es su color de piel o pulpa, mayor es el contenido de antioxidantes.Por los alrededores se pueden ver plantaciones de Yana Shungo, que significa corazón negro. Son más largas que anchas, tienen ojos profundos y el color de la corteza es de un marrón intenso. Cuando se la corta, la pulpa es morada con un anillo de color crema.También está la Puca Shungo. Si se traduce del quichua al español significa corazón rojo, por el color predominante de la pulpa. El trío de estas papas nativas lo completa la Chumbi, de color rojizo.El día que salieron al mercado con estas papas y no hubo interés en los compradores, la creatividad de losagricultores se puso a prueba y buscaron la forma de volverlas atractivas. Así, nació \"Yapu Chips\", una golosina que combina estas variedades nativas en hojuelas altamente nutritivas. Ahora, ya tienen su planta de industrialización propia, que se levantó con el apoyo del CIP y el MAG. Luego, con el apoyo del IICA dentro del proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima\", se innovó la comercialización de la organización al diseñar la marca AGROPAPA, su logotipo y una mejor estrategia para la venta de las Yapu y de otros productos que tienenPRÁCTICA ACI: Innovaciones comerciales tritis, por las cualidades especiales que tienen las papas nativas.Paulina López, ingeniera agrónoma de profesión, vio la potencialidad de este producto en el tema culinario y decidió estudiar un curso de cocina andina para crear sus propias recetas, inspiradas en las papas de colores. Su familia, que forma parte de la Asociación Agropapa, es una apasionada de estas variedades únicas del Ecuador. Las comen de día, de noche, en sopa, en puré, fritas y hasta en llapingachos de colores.las familias de Agropapa. Ahora se los encuentran en varios mercados locales y regionales, y pronto esperan estar en las grandes ciudades del país.El ingenio no paró allí. También se creó el cóctel de papas nativas, una bebida hecha con una pequeña cantidad de licor y pulpa de guanábana y desde luego las deliciosas papas que le dan un atractivo color a estas bebidas. Es una mezcla que logra un sabor único y exótico. Aseguran que sirve no solo para amenizar los encuentros sociales, sino para curar la gas-La familia Montesdeoca-López exhibe todos los productos que fueron inspirados con las papas nativas.El llapingacho, palabra quichua que quiere decir papa aplastada, es un plato que aparece luego del terremoto de 1949, en Ambato. Generalmente, se prepara con papa chola y se añade achiote y queso. Sin embargo, en Mulanleo han propuesto una variación, la cual consiste en mantener los ingredientes habituales, pero usar papas nativas para su preparación, con lo que dan más vistosidad al plato, ya que cada tortilla tiene un color diferente que va desde el morado hasta el amarillo pálido. Además, aprovechan los cultivos de la zona y dan valor a las papas nativas. Las tres variedades de papa se cocinan por separado, con sal y cebolla según el tiempo de cocción de cada una. 2. Una vez cocidas, aplaste cada papa por separado con un poco de mantequilla. Haga tortillas y fría. 3. Cocine la remolacha y corte en cuadritos. Añada sal, aceite y limón. 4. Cocine el chorizo por unos tres minutos en agua hirviendo y luego proceda a freírlo. 5. Fría los huevos 6. Sirva las tortillas con el chorizo, el huevo y la ensalada de remolacha sobre una sábana de lechuga. Añada el tomate cortado en cuadros y el aguacate en tajadas y la cebolla colorada curtida. 7. Opcional: si desea puede acompañar el plato de alguna salsa. Para ello, pique cebolla blanca y haga un refrito con achiote, dos dientes de ajo y sal. Aparte, licúe un pan con una taza de leche y agregue al refrito. Hierva hasta que espese y añada al plato principal.La lucha contra el mosco que produce la enfermedad de la punta morada punta morada de la papa, que puede causar la pérdida total del cultivo en poco tiempo. Por si esto fuera poco, este insecto también puede transmitir otras enfermedades como \"cebra chip\" o \"papa rayada\".A esta plaga no le atraen solo las papas, tiene una fascinación por el color amarillo. Cuando lo ve, vuela hipnotizada hacia él. Es su perdición.Le conocen como Bactericera cockerelli. Tiene alas transparentes y el color de su cuerpo varía entre amarillo, café oscuro o negro. Vuela por el campo buscando cultivos de papa y otras solanáceas, como el tomate y los ajíes. Es un ser sediento que, cuando llega a la planta, extrae la savia provocando que una parte de sus hojas se torne violeta, como si tuviera una hemorragia. Es la temible PRÁCTICA ACI: Trampas para bactericera Hasta hace un tiempo era un enemigo invencible, cuya llegada producía que la planta de la papa no crezca y que los tubérculos nazcan en los tallos, en lugar de la tierra. Es decir, crecían papas aéreas, que no se desarrollaban.Afortunadamente, esa es una historia que ya no se repetirá en las plantaciones de las mujeres de la Asociación La Dolorosa. Interesadas en garantizar su cosecha, formaron parte de las capacitaciones del proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima\", que les mostró prácticas de manejo integrado de plagas, como el uso de trampas amarillas para Bactericera y el software ILCYM del CIP, que les permite identificar qué zonas son más propensas a los daños de esta plaga a medida que el clima va cambiando.Una de las más entusiastas es Yamari Flores. Ella viene de un sitio donde se consume más yuca o plátano. Oriunda de Shushufindi, en la Amazonía, llegó al cantón Tisaleo, parroquia La Matriz, hace un año y medio. Poco a poco la papa la sedujo. En su casa reservó un espacio de terreno para su primer sembrío, pero antes quiere aprender todo y saber cómo cuidar y defender a su cultivo.Casi son las seis de la tarde y un grupo de 7 mujeres extiende sobre los sembríos de papa un plástico amarillo untado con aceite. El trabajo da buenos resultados pues atrapan a muchos insectos. Luego los cuentan para estimar la cantidad de bichos por temporadas y de esa forma saber el momento preciso en que vale la pena implementar medidas de control de plagas, cuidando su bolsillo, el medio ambiente y, lo más importante, la salud de ellas, sus familias y de quienes consuman las papas que cosechen. Yamari se siente más preparada para sembrar y para sorprender a sus compañeras con una papa tan grande como una yuca.Un grupo de mujeres unta con aceite vegetal un plástico amarillo para atrapar al insecto que enferma a la papa.Esta es una combinación de granos, cuyo ingrediente principal son las papas nativas que se siembran en el cantón Tisaleo. Es común que los habitantes de este lugar lleven este plato al campo cuando realizan trabajos en conjunto, lo que popularmente se conoce como la minga. Se sirve de manera comunitaria, es decir se coloca un mantel en el suelo y se riega toda la comida que se va a compartir. A esta práctica se llama Pambamesa. Manuel Pucha, uno de los pobladores más antiguos de La Pradera en el cantón Colta, Chimborazo, estuvo presente el día en que la luz eléctrica llegó a la comunidad, hace casi 30 años.También fue testigo del momento en que niñas y niños dejaron de ir al pozo a cargar agua porque llegó el agua potable. De la misma manera, Manuel acompañó al proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima\" desde que inició actividades en La Pradera, participando activamente en las capacitaciones del CIP, MAG e INIAP para elaborar un abono orgánico con el cual las matas producen más y mejores papas.Cada vez que la comunidad se reúne para preparar este compuesto, conocido como compost, él llega con cuaderno y esfero en mano para anotar la receta exacta de la mezcla perfecta: melaza, ortiga, marco, chilca y estiércol. Observa con detalle la cantidad que se debe añadir de roca fosfórica, un elemento natural que nutre las plantas al aportarles calcio y fósforo.Con sus ojos expresivos, mira atento cuando Manuel Parco, líder de la comunidad, dirige la elaboración del fertilizante orgánico. Tiene muchas historias por escribir sobre el cultivo de papa, pero su cuaderno lo utiliza exclusivamente para registrar el trabajo que vienen realizando en cuanto a la agricultura climáticamente inteligente (ACI), que ayuda al manejo integral de El abono orgánico se hace en minga los sistemas agroalimentarios altoandinos para responder de forma eficaz al cambio climático. Su impresión es que los resultados de EUROCLIMA+ en su comunidad son buenos porque en la última cosecha obtuvieron 50 sacos de papas. Antes, solo conseguían 30.Allí todo se hace en comunidad. Las personas que integran la Asociación Comuna La Pradera siembran juntas, construyen caminos juntas y cosechan juntas los frutos de su trabajo. Se consideran como una gran familia y comparten historias en común, como la preparación de compost y biol.En un espacio de a p ro x i m a d a m e n t e veinte metros cuadrados se van mezclando uno a uno los ingredientes, que deberán reposar por dos meses antes que el abono esté listo para usarse en los terrenos de las 30 familias que viven en el lugar. El cultivo actual de papa ha soportado ya tres heladas, pero sigue en pie. La comunidad atribuye esta mejora en su resiliencia, a que ahora las plantas están más fuertes por el uso de biol y otras prácticas ACI, como el uso de semillas más resistentes a estos fenómenos.Si los efectos del cambio climático son impredecibles, la comunidad es ingeniosa… PRÁCTICA ACI: Elaboración de abonos orgánicos (compost y biol) La sopa de quinua con cuy es un platillo muy consumido en la comunidad La Pradera. Es una tradición heredada de generación en generación y se prepara con productos cosechados por los habitantes del lugar. Los pobladores refieren que el secreto del sabor es la cocción en leña y el correcto lavado del grano para quitar el sabor amargo. Esta sopa puede hacerse también con carne de cerdo, pero es más común el uso del cuy.Ingredientes 1 1 / 2 libra de quinua 2 libras de papa 1 cuy 1 rama de cebolla blanca 1 cebolla paiteña 1 zanahoria 2 ajos 1 rama de apio 2 ramas de cilantro 1 rama de perejil 1 taza de leche Sal y achiote al gusto 1. Lave bien la quinua hasta que el grano quede completamente limpio. 2. Coloque cinco litros de agua en una olla y cuando hierva ponga la quinua. 3. Cocine por media hora o hasta que el grano esté suave. Luego, añada las papas peladas, el cuy en presas y la zanahoria picada. 4. Agregue la cebolla blanca, la paiteña y el ajo, finamente picados. 5. Coloque el cilantro y el perejil picados. 6. Como paso final, ponga achiote y una taza de leche antes de servir.En la comunidad Lig-Lig hay una vistosa laguna a la que llegaban unas aves pequeñas de color café oscuro con pecho blanco. A su paso hacían un sonido como lig, lig, lig, lig... Ahora llegan pocas, de vez en cuando, pero dejaron el recuerdo de su nombre. Esta es la historia que narran en este lugar del cantón Colta en la provincia de Chimborazo.Allí se cuentan relatos que no se pueden creer, por lo impresionantes. Uno de ellos es el de una variedad de papa que parece chola, pero que se cosecha tres meses antes de lo acostumbrado.El personaje principal tiene el nombre de una mujer resiliente: la papa Josefina, que requiere menos agua para crecer, tolera algunas enfermedades como el tizón tardío o lancha, que al PRÁCTICA ACI: Uso de variedades adecuadas de papa consumirla nos aporta cantidades importantes de vitamina C, hierro y caroteno. De esto hay evidencias científicas en el INIAP y el CIP.Josefina es una variedad de papa que no le teme a las alturas, que entre los 2.700 y los 3.500 metros sobre el nivel del mar está lista para cosechar en 4 o 5 meses, aproximadamente. En la región andina del Ecuador soporta sequías, enfermedades y hasta las temibles heladas.Alicia Naula quedó impresionada cuando vio que de cada planta de la variedad Josefina salían entre 25 y 30 papas. En las mejores cosechas de otra variedad cultivaban solamente 15 tubérculos por mata, si es que los efectos del cambio climático y las plagas no acababan antes con el cultivo.La correcta elección de semillas, adaptadas al entorno, es lo que se conoce como uso adecuado de variedades de papa y que forma parte de las prácticas de Agricultura Climáticamente Inteligente (ACI) promovidas por el proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima\". Aplicar esta medida permitió que la comunidad, en su última cosecha, obtenga 150 sacos del producto, cuando antes sólo obtenían 60 sacos.Desde ese día, Josefina es una de las principales aliadas de las 33 familias de esta comunidad.Día especial en la comunidad Lig Lig. Los cultivos de papa Josefina están listos para la cosecha.Este platillo, cuyo ingrediente principal es el achiote, surge del ingenio de los abuelos y abuelas del lugar para lograr una combinación que potencie el sabor de la papa. Esto en vista de que eran escasos otros ingredientes para hacer salsas que acompañen al tubérculo, que se cultiva permanentemente en la zona y que es un elemento central en la dieta de las familias. El secreto para lograr un sabor diferente y un toque ahumado es la cocción en leña, así como la colocación de tallos de quinua y haba en el fuego. Esto otorga un sabor diferente, tanto a las papas como al cuy asado.Ingredientes 5 libras de papa 3 cucharaditas de achiote 2 ramas de cebolla 3 pepas de ajo 2 cuyes Sal al gusto 1. Ponga a cocinar la papa cuando hierva el agua. 2. Ase el ajo y la cebolla en el fogón y triture en la piedra de moler junto con el achiote, hasta que la mezcla se vuelva homogénea. 3. Añada tres cucharadas del caldo donde se cocinó la papa. 4. Coloque la mezcla en las papas cocinadas, recién sacadas del fuego. Es importante que se mantenga el calor de las papas para que el achiote se cocine ligeramente y se obtenga el sabor característico de este plato. 5. Para preparar el cuy: sazónelo con ajo y sal. En la barriga y en la boca del animal coloque ajo y cebolla. Ase en el carbón hasta el punto deseado. 6. Para servir: ponga las papas y encima el cuy. Puede acompañar con un vaso de chicha y con ají. Igual que un ejército, cada uno tiene habilidades especiales, que van desde la destreza para disolver los micronutrientes del suelo, para que la papa pueda asimilarlos fácilmente, hasta la gracia para encontrar a los insectos que causan daño a la planta y parasitarlos.En el teléfono celular de César Asaquibay, ingeniero agrónomo del Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP), hay evidencia de esto. Él tomó una foto a una de las contrincantes más feroces de la papa: la mamá del gusano blanco. La encontró cuando caminaba cerca de las papas, cubierta de microorganismos benéficos que simulaban ser bolas de algodón y que la destruyeron.En otra parcela del señor Sadva, los microorganismos benéficos perdieron la batalla, no por falta de fuerza ni de talento. Un terreno desfavorable produjo que la planta empiece a podrirse. Se tomaron varias muestras de este suelo para un análisis específico en laboratorio y ver cuál es la causa exacta. Mientras tanto, un nuevo batallón de microorganismos benéficos espera para entrar a combatir y recuperar el terreno.Seres microscópicos que mejoran el terreno PRÁCTICA ACI: Utilización de microorganismos para el suelo Es el plato preferido para servirse en grandes compromisos sociales. Los pobladores de Chimborazo refieren que su consumo se ha incrementado debido a la creencia de que su carne es beneficiosa para combatir el coronavirus. Es usual que se sirva en mercados y restaurantes.Ingredientes 1 cuy pelado 4 dientes de ajo machacados 1 cucharada de comino ½ cucharadita de achiote 2 kilos de papas peladas 2 cucharadas de aceite 2 ramitas de cebolla finamente cortadas 2 cebollas coloradas finamente picadas 1 pizca de orégano 1 pizca de pimienta molida 1 cucharada de cilantro ½ litro de leche ½ libra de maní 1 lechuga pequeña Sal al gusto 1. Cocine las papas 2. Muela en la piedra 2 ajos, 2 cebollas coloradas y 1 rama de cebolla blanca. Añada comino, achiote, pimienta molida y sal. Aliñe el cuy con este preparado y deje reposar por una hora. Ase en el fuego, o al horno si lo desea. 3. Tueste el maní, pele y retire las impurezas, licúe con media taza de leche y reserve. 4. Haga un refrito con 2 ajos, 1 cebolla colorada, 1 rama de cebolla blanca y cilantro finamente picados. Añada la mezcla de maní y hierva hasta que espese, coloque sal al gusto. Adicione una pizca de orégano al final. 5. Para servir, ponga la lechuga debajo de las papas y riegue la salsa de maní alrededor del tubérculo. Coloque el cuy encima de este preparado.En la vía Panamericana, en el sector Rumipamba del cantón Colta, el cruce de vehículos es muy cotidiano. En ese lugar se ubica una tienda comunal y una construcción rústica hecha de madera y paja, que se activa en tiempo de cosecha para vender las papas frescas. Así, la arenosa papa chaucha amarilla llega a varios destinos en los autos de los compradores: Guayaquil, Milagro, Machala y otros sitios.Cerca de ahí, bajando por caminos inclinados se llega a un gran terreno, cuya siembra pertenece a 12 familias de la Asociación Fuente de Vida Rumipamba. Bajo tierra, están creciendo dos variedades de papa: Josefina y Fripapa, con las cuales los agricultores están aprendiendo a usar un juego de ruedas diseñado por el CIP, que les ayuda a tomar decisiones informadas sobre si es necesario fumigar y cuándo hacerlo. De esta forma evitan el uso excesivo de agroquímicos, protegen el suelo y cuidan a sus plantas de la lancha, una enfermedad que afecta al follaje y destruye a la papa. Se presenta cuando el tiempo es húmedo, hay niebla, frío y luego temperaturas altas.El juego de ruedas es una herramienta circular que los miembros de la Asociación Fuente de Vida Rumipamba recibieron en el marco del programa \"Papa, Familia y Clima\", que llevan adelante el CIP y el IICA en alianza con el MAG y el INIAP y el apoyo de la Unión Europea.Elena Quinga, agrónoma del CIP, llega a sus visitas de acompañamiento técnico en campo -alegre y preparada, como siempre. En su mochila tiene todas estas herramientas. Son tan vistosas que parece que va a una celebración del Inti Raymi.Con su mano derecha sostiene una pila de tarrinas pequeñas transparentes, con bordes de colores: amarillo, rojo y verde, los mismos del semáforo. Las entregan a los agricultores para que las coloquen en la tierra y puedan medir la lluvia que cae, dato indispensable para mover las ruedas.De acuerdo con la variedad de papa, la cantidad de lluvia y la última fecha de fumigación, se obtienen datos que, al sumarlos, revelan cuándo se debe fumigar y qué tipo de producto usar, cuidando siempre la alternabilidad para que la tierra no se acostumbre y pierda efecto.De esta forma, las familias campesinas protegen con esmero la nueva papa que ofertarán al filo de la carretera, con la historia de que fue cosechada usando técnicas de la Agricultura Climáticamente Inteligente (ACI) y que, por lo tanto, son más saludables y amigables con el medio ambiente. Esta es una historia que apenas comienza…Nuevas herramientas para proteger los cultivos de papa PRÁCTICA ACI: Sistema de Apoyo a la Decision (SAD) para el control de lancha La última vez que José Guamán levantó su mirada para ver volar a un cóndor tenía 15 años, de eso ya hace seis décadas. Sentado frente al fuego, junto con su esposa Doralitza Fernández, se abriga con el calor que produce la leña y recuerda que en la parroquia Juan de Velasco Pangor, en el cantón Colta en Chimborazo, los veranos ya no son como antes. \"Parecen inviernos, ya casi ni las cobijas de lana de borrego nos abrigan en las noches\".El lugar donde nació ya no es el mismo de cuando era joven o niño. Con María Guamán, su hermana, recorría los caminos y al paso se encontraba sapos que se atravesaban en el trayecto, eran tantos que unos estaban sobre otros. Los habíaPRÁCTICA ACI: Aplicación de materia orgánica Materia orgánica para alimentar a la tierra de colores variados, verdes con blanco, tomates, negros, grises. El que más recuerdan es el de barriga verde.La variedad de sapos ha decaído. María Guamán, a sus 68 años, dice que ahora ya no los encuentra, que solo quedan en los pozos o en los bosques. A julio y agosto los conocían como los meses del viento y los esperaban preparados. Hoy esos meses sorprenden con cualquier fenómeno climático, a veces muy extremo.Por el lugar se siembran papas, ocas, habas, melloco, mashua, cebada y últimamente maíz. La gente de los alrededores pertenece a la Asociación Asopropangor y cuando se enteraron que el proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima\" promovía la Agricultura Climáticamente Inteligente (ACI) buscaron ser parte de él. Averiguaron, llamaron, buscaron y encontraron. Conocen de primera mano todas las prácticas ACI que les permiten mejorar la resiliencia y productividad de la agricultura familiar.La nostalgia por el clima que les permitía programar sus siembras y cosechas, el deseo de ahorrar en insumos y mejorar su economía familiar les inspira a practicar las enseñanzas de los técnicos del INIAP y del CIP. Por eso, para empezar su nuevo cultivo utilizando esquemas de fertilización inteligente, recogieron bastante estiércol de sus animales.José y Doralitza llevan esta materia orgánica a su terreno para enriquecer la tierra y empezar la siembra. Lo hacen seguros de obtener mejores resultados en sus cultivos, menores costos de producción y mayores ingresos para sus familias, al tiempo de conservar y mejorar el recurso más valioso para la producción de alimentos: el suelo. Doralitza Fernández coloca estiércol de animales en el suelo, para favorecer el crecimiento de la papa.Este plato tradicional de la parroquia se prepara con gallina de campo y es el banquete ideal cuando hay fiestas o llegan visitas especiales. Se acostumbra prepararlo también cuando los pobladores hacen mingas para sembrar papas u otro producto. Se lo considera un plato fuerte y suculento que puede preparse de manera individual o con la ayuda de la gente de la comunidad. Para dar vistosidad y sabor al plato, se lo acompaña con un picadillo de cebolla blanca, cilantro o perejil. Las papas que sorprendieron a Baltazara PRÁCTICA ACI: Labranza de conservación Gracias a su participación en el proyecto \"Papa, Familia y Clima, en la cosecha pasada, 12 familias de su comunidad lograron producir papas usando abonos orgánicos y otras técnicas de Agricultura Climáticamente Inteligente (ACI). Sembraron 10 quintales de semilla y obtuvieron 60 quintales de tubérculos. Ahora, van por la segunda siembra María Baltazara sostiene un canasto con papa chaucha amarilla, el producto de cultivo más común en Ajospamba.implementando y mejorando las prácticas ACI y ahorrando parte del dinero que gastaban en la compra de agroquímicos.María Baltazara Llongo recuerda lo que le enseñaron sus abuelos, a cultivar de manera natural. Así la papa es \"más rica y dura más\"; adicionalmente, no contamina el agua y los suelos.Sus amigos de la comunidad conversan con ella y le cuentan sobre la recuperación de esta forma ancestral de sembrar. Ella los mira, sonríe levemente con un gesto de satisfacción, mientras dice que \"sin papa no hay comida\".Esta comunidad cultiva en las laderas de las montañas de los Andes. Nelson Caizaghuano Shagñay está listo para la segunda siembra, utilizando el esquema conocido como labranza de conservación. Este tipo de agricultura consiste en mover lo menos posible los suelos para que no pierdan sus propiedades ni se erosionen, incorpora los residuos de la cosecha anterior u otros abonos verdes para aumentar su contenido de nutrientes y capacidad de absorber agua, y maneja la rotación de cultivos para aumentar la agrobiodiversidad: dejar \"descansar al suelo\" del mismo cultivo y minimizar la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades.Convencido de los beneficios de la agricultura de conservación, Nelson toma su azadón y empieza a preparar delicadamente el suelo, que se ve de un color negro intenso.Los platos elaborados con papa chaucha amarilla, o más conocida como limeña, son parte del consumo diario de la comunidad. Usan este producto para todo tipo de preparados como sopas, papas hervidas, fritas, tortillas y la conocida papa dormida, que consiste en cortar las papas y freírlas.Es usual que acompañen los platos con una bebida caliente dulce, que bien puede ser un morocho, arroz de cebada o colada de machica. Cocine la papa en leña por cinco minutos. Si lo hace en una cocina a gas, recuerde que esta papa es de rápida cocción y debe poner atención para que no se pase. 2. Corte la cebolla, el pimiento verde en pedazos largos y el cilantro. Sofría junto con la manteca de chancho por dos minutos. 3. Agregue la papa cocinada y revuelva para que se mezcle de manera uniforme. Añada sal al gusto. 4. Prepare la fritada de acuerdo a su costumbre. Una receta tradicional es cocinar la carne de cerdo en agua hirviendo con condimentos varios como ajo y comino. Luego fría con la grasa del cerdo en una paila o sartén 5. Al momento de servir, puede acompañar con quesillo y arroz de cebada de dulce con leche. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"32614ffa39e3ec1e0532c9d99af55e8b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f65ba52b-9c07-4ec3-bc34-14043bb4602a/retrieve","id":"-1094884193"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bd50c16e-a643-4709-bfbf-edbdadf9f054","pagecount":"13","content":"Over the last decades, sheep population in Tunisia has been increasing reaching over 6.5 million heads in 2016 (Ministry of agriculture, 2016) with the Barbarine sheep as the dominant breed. This fat tail breed has an adaptive capacity that allows animals to cope under harsh environmental and sub-optimal husbandry conditions (Ben Salem et al. 2011).In Tunisia, sheep population face many health challenges including parasitic infections such as toxoplasmosis (Gharbi et al. 2013), fasciolosis (Akkari et al., 2011), lungworms and gastrointestinal helminths (Akkari et al., 2012). Gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections affect the welfare and productivity of small ruminants and are responsible for huge economic losses (Waller, 1997a). These losses are consequent to decreases in weight, reduction in milk yield as well as wool and mortalities can occur (Soulsby, 1983). GIN infections are increased in regions where extensive grazing is practiced (Waller, 1997b). Haemonchus spp. is one of the major and the most prevalent abomasal nematodes of small ruminants (O'Connor et al., 2006) and its prevalence increases in countries of temperate regions (Van Dijk et al., 2008). Akkari et al. (2012) showed that, in North Tunisia, 45.5% of the parasite population were found in the abomasum, with the prevalence of Haemonchus contortus exceeding 35%. This parasite represents a major problem in most flocks as it has developed resistance against most available anthelmintic drugs.The existence of genetic variation amongst sheep and goats in resistance to GINs has been studied by many authors and it has been demonstrated in several situations that genetic improvement could offer a solution to control haemonchosis. Bishop (2011) describesresistance to infection as the host's ability to interact with parasite and control its lifecycle. In the case of nematode infections, probabilities of ingested larvae, parasite development within the host, parasite mortality, parasite fecundity and faecal egg count (FEC) are included in resistance.The study of nematode resistance is first based on phenotypic measurements. The main indicator used for resistance to GINs is FEC. Nematode resistance assessed by using FEC has a low to high heritability in small ruminants, ranging from 0.01 to 0.65 (Zvinorova et al., 2016).In addition to FEC, several indicator traits could be considered in resistance to nematodes. In fact, measurement of anemia can be used as indicator for resistance in animals infected with H. contortus. Anemia can be measured using packed cell volume (PCV) or Famacha score which are heritable in sheep (Baker et al., 2003;Mandonnet et al., 2006;Riley and Van Wyk, 2009).Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping can also be used to understand the resistance to parasites. This technique allows identification of candidate genomic regions. Microsatellite markers (Marshall et al., 2009), microarray and genome-wide association studies (Brown et al., 2013) were used in small ruminant breeds to identify genes implicated in the control of resistance. Some of the genes commonly implicated in immune response such as interferon gamma (Dervishi et al., 2011) and major histocompatibility complex loci (Hassan et al., 2011) were also shown to be involved in the genetic resistance to GIN. In addition, several QTL on different regions and chromosomes (OARs) have been reported by many authors (OAR1, 3, 6, 14, 20) (Beh et al., 2002;Dominik, 2005;Crawford et al., 2006;Davies et al., 2006;Matika et al., 2011;Salle et al., 2012). In few studies, some potential candidate genes were identified on OAR8 (Crawford et al., 2006), OAR13 (Beraldi et al., 2007), and OAR22 (Silva et al., 2012).In Africa, the resistance of the Red Massai breed has been demonstrated (Baker and Gray, 2004). In Tunisia, where GIN represent a huge problem, the genetic resistance to haemonchus contortus has never been studied. The aim of this work is to study the genetic resistance of the Barbarine sheep to Hemonchus contortus infestation. Phenotypic measurements (age, breed, origin, anthelmintic use, diarrhea, anemia, management type, hematological parameters, biochemical parameters, FEC and abundance of infestation) will be performed and will be compiled in a single phenotype database. Genome analysis will be carried out using the 600K SNP Chip which will provide a better resolution of the sheep genomic profiles.This study will be carried out in four districts (Tunis, Bizerte, Beja and Jendouba) in the North of Tunisia (Figure 1). The choice of the geographic area was based on a previous study (Akkari et al. 2012) targeting regions where gastrointestinal parasites, and particularly nematode infestation, represent one of the main constraints in small ruminants' production. Previous studies have shown that smallholder sheep farmers do not deworm their animals using anthelmintic-based products and because exposure is very high and sheep still manage to survive and produce in these environments. Therefore, the likelihood of finding individuals with some kind of resistance is relatively high.During August, September and October 2017, abomasa will be collected from 300 to 400 sheep, aged more than 6 months, from slaughterhouses located in the North of the country (Figure 1).Before slaughter, animals will be identified and blood samples collected in EDTA, heparin and dry tubes via jugular venipuncture. Fecal samples will also be collected from each animal.Information concerning age, sex and breed. The presence of diarrhea, anemia or other symptoms will be noted in the data sheet (Annex 1).Abomasa will be ligated at both ends then transported to the Laboratory of Parasitology at the National Veterinary School of Sidi Thabet (Tunisia) in cooler boxes. Larvae (L3) (both Haemonchus and other parasite species: Ostertargia and Trichostrongylus) will be collected from the abomasum. Parasites will be preserved in 70% ethanol until examination.The identification of gastrointestinal parasites will be made using a microscope equipped with eyepiece micrometer. Prevalence, intensity and abundance of infestation will be estimated as follows:Prevalence of infestation = 100 x number of infested sheep/number of examined sheep Infestation intensity = number of collected larvae/number of infested sheep Abundance of infestation = number of collected larvae/number of examined sheepThe following hematological parameters will be estimated for each animal: White blood cells (10 9 l -1 ), hematocrit (PCV) (%), red blood cell count (×10 12 m -1 ), hemoglobin (g d -1 ), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) (fl), Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin (MCH) (pg), Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration (MCHC) (g dl -1 ), Red Blood Cell Distribution Width (RDW), Index of Red Blood Cells Distribution (IDR) (%), Platelets (10 9 l -1 ), Average Platelet Volume (VPM) (fl), Index of Platelets Distribution (IDP) and Plaquettocrite (Pct) (%) will be estimated using an Auto Hematology analyser BC-2800Vet® (ShenzenMindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd, Hamburg, Germany).The presence and type of anemia will be recorded (Blood & Radostitis, 1989).Plasma will be recovered from the heparin tubes and used to estimate biochemical indicators: albumin (g/L) and total proteins (g/L) with a Random Access Clinical Autolyzer® (Dialab, Vienna, Austria).Fecal samples will be processed by flotation (McMaster Egg Counting Technique). Fecal Egg Count (FEC) will be performed on 5 g of feces using saturated solution and each egg counted representing 50 eggs. In order to identify eggs, coprocultures from each animal will be prepared and incubated at 22-25 •C for 7-10 days to provide third stage larvae (L3) which will be harvested by the Baermann technique. The composition of each coproculture will be examined by microscopically. The identification of fasciola and other gastro-intestinal parasites will be performed.Animal's DNA extraction DNA will be extracted from 300 µL of the blood of each sheep using the Wizard ® Genomic DNA purification kit (Promega, Madison, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions and stored at -20°C for genome analysis.DNA will be extracted from the collected H. contortus and other worms. After washing in PBS, worms will be ground with a pestle in liquid nitrogen in 1.5 ml microcentrifuge tube. Proteinase K will be added and the mix will be incubated overnight at 56°C. DNA will then be extracted using Wizard ® Genomic DNA purification kit (Promega, Madison, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions then stored at -20°C until used.In order to verify the presence of piroplasms (Babesia and Theileria) and if anemia is only caused by gastrointestinal parasitism, Giemsa-stained blood smears will be examined under a microscope with immersion oil at 1000 magnification. For each slide, 50 microscopic fields will be examined.In addition, Catch-all primers (RLB-F and RLB-R) which detect Theileria spp. Babesia spp.and Anaplasma/Ehrlichia spp. pathogens will be used. Reactions were performed in 25 µl volume containing 1 x PCR buffer, 1.5 mM MgCl2, 200 µM of each deoxyribonucleotide triphosphate, 0.125 µg of Taq hot start Ab, 0.1 U of Uracil DNA glycosylase, 25 pmol of each primer and 1.25 U of Super Taq DNA polymerase (Vivantis, Chino, CA, USA). Forty PCR cycles will be performed with a thermocycler (ESCO Swift MaxPro). Each cycle consist of a denaturing step of 1 min at 94°C, an annealing step of 1 min at 50°C, and an extension step of 1.5 min at 72°C. A final extension step of 10 min at 72°C will complete the program.This molecular technique will detect the presence of tick-borne pathogens in sampled animals.Blood, Feces and abomasa were collected from 304 animals belonging to mainly four breeds: Barbarine breed, the main sheep breed in the country which is at-tailed breed characterized by metabolic and digestive adaptations to the contrasting environmental conditions in Tunisia (Ben Salem et al. 2011), Queue fine de l'Ouest breed, Cross bred individuals between the two previous breeds and finally Noire de Thibar, mostly present in the North of the country. Age, sex and breed were recorded for each animal.All abomasa were opened along the greater curvature and the contents were washed into a bucket and then they were carefully examined for the presence of Haemonchus and other gastro intestinal worms. The counting of the parasites of each abomasum was realized, males were separated from females and will be used for morphological identification. All worms from each animal were preserved in 70% ethanol in order to be used for DNA extraction.The number of parasites in each abomasum of each animal was recorded in the database.Haemonchus parasites are already identified and the number of this species in each abomasum was recorded. For other gastrointestinal nematodes males are used for identification and the work is in progress.All hematological parameters (haematocrit (PCV), red blood cell count, haemoglobin, Mean Corpuscular Volume, Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin, Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration, Red Blood Cell Distribution Width, Index of Red Blood Cells Distribution, Platelets, Average Platelet Volume, Index of Platelets Distribution and Plaquettocrite (Pct) were estimated for each animal using an Auto Haematology analyser BC-2800Vet® (ShenzenMindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd, Hamburg, Germany) and were recorded in the database.Albumin (g/L) and total proteins (g/L) were estimated with a Random Access Clinical Autolyzer® (Dialab, Vienna, Austria) and recorded in the database.The coproscopic survey was realized for each feces sample and qualitative coprology allowed identification of gastro intestinal eggs and other eggs which are Trichures, Cocidies, Nematodirus, Moneizia and pulmonary larvae. Quantitative corology examination allowed the counting of these eggs and this information is uploaded in the database.After dissection of the abomasa, 240 samples were collected from normal and affected tissues. Tissue samples were fixed in 10% formalin and processed for a routine histological examination. Samples will be stained with hematoxylin Eosine and examined under microscope for the presence of specific lesions. A correlation will be established between the infestation pattern and the microscopic lesions.Animal's DNA extraction DNA from the blood of each animal was extracted using the Wizard ® Genomic DNA purification kit (Promega, Madison, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions and the concentration was measured using a Spectrophotometer. DNA concentration was recorded in the database. DNA was stored at -20°C for genome analysis.Parasite's DNA extraction will be done at the end of the step of the morphological identification.Catch-all PCR using RLB-F and RLB-R primers which detect Theileria spp. Babesia spp are yet to be carried out.The database on phenotyping indigenous sheep breeds for gastro-intestinal parasites concerned 304 sheep from 4 different breeds and several locations, all in the North of Tunisia. Compilation of the database has now well progressed and should be finalized soon. In summary, phenotyping includes information related to each individual animal which are age, breed, origin, anthelmintic use, slaughter reason, feeding scheme, diarrhea, anemia, management type (grazing, grazing and supplementation, intensive), hematological parameters, biochemical parameters, fecal egg count, abundance of infestation and existence of parasite-induced lesions in the abomasa. DNA, for genome analysis using the 600K SNP Chip, was extracted from the blood of each sheep and first data on genotyping should be made available in 2018. ","tokenCount":"2051"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d609e8298b2e3ecd1652ceb9572ef439","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77413884-d12d-4e4e-a84b-73abc7479949/retrieve","id":"1060874602"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"022c42ad-efc7-42e7-82a7-d83e2caf1b5c","pagecount":"26","content":"• Carbon Dioxide (CO2): CO2 is the most prevalent greenhouse gas emitted by human activities.-It is primarily released through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas for energy production, transportation, and industrial processes. • Methane (CH4): Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a higher warming potential than CO2 over a shorter time frame.-It is emitted from various sources, including livestock digestion, agricultural practices, natural gas production and distribution, and the decay of organic waste in landfills. • Nitrous Oxide (N2O): N2O is released from agricultural and industrial activities, as well as the burning of fossil fuels and solid waste. • The IPCC assesses GHG emission, atmospheric CO2 conc., develops emissions scenarios to explore different trajectories of future GHG emissions and their potential impacts on climate change.-Help policymakers and researchers understand the range of possible futures based on different socioeconomic and technological pathways.• Energy Sector: 35% to 75% of global CO2-equivalent emissions, includes Electricity and Heat Production, fossil Fuel Combustion (coal mining, oil and gas extraction)• Industry: Contributes to around 20% to 30% of global emissions. This sector encompasses emissions from manufacturing processes, cement production, and chemical industries.• Transportation: Road Vehicles: Contribute to around 14 to 24 % of global CO2-equivalent emissions.• Livestock Sector: Contributes to roughly 14% to 18% of global emissions. This includes emissions from enteric fermentation (digestive processes) in ruminant animals (such as cows and sheep), manure management, and other livestock-related activities.• Agriculture (Non-Livestock): Contributes to about 7% to 14% of global emissions. This sector includes emissions from rice cultivation, synthetic fertilizer use, crop residue burning, and other agricultural practices excluding livestock• Residential and Commercial Buildings: Contributes to approximately 6% to 17% of global emissions. Emissions arise from energy use for heating, cooling, lighting, and appliances in residential and commercial buildings.• Waste Management: Contributes to around 2% to 5% of global emissions. Emissions mainly come from the decomposition of organic waste in landfills and the release of methane gas.• Productivity:-Improved livestock breeds that are more productive and resilient to climate stresses -Implementing sustainable intensification practices • Adaptation:-Climate change is already impacting agricultural systems worldwide, and adaptation measures are necessary to build resilience and minimize the negative impacts -Developing climate-resilient livestock breeds that are better adapted to changing climatic conditions. -Enhancing early warning systems and climate information services to support farmers • Mitigation:-Improving livestock breeding/management practices to reduce enteric fermentation and manure-related methane emissions -Genetic selection for lower emission, feed efficiency and lower methane production per feed intake -Improved feeding practices to reduce methane emission   ration of maternal permanent environmental effects to the total phenotypic variance; h 2 t total heritability; r am genetic correlation between direct and maternal additive heritability; σ am .covariance between direct and maternal additive genetic effect; CV A additive coefficient of variance; Log (L) log Likelihood. BW: birth weight, WW: weaning weight, 6MW: six months weight, YWT: yearling weight ADG1: average daily gain from birth to weaning, ADG2: average daily gain from weaning to six months, ADG3: daily gain from six months to yearling.  ","tokenCount":"506"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/0091453669.json b/data/part_6/0091453669.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d698939d2a7f49d60066a41e0865ea4fe8566c42
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a164e456313cc66ae3bc5533c21f6bcd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0b493ec0-642e-4752-91aa-ed67640e5b34/retrieve","id":"311764753"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c0ecec02-446c-49c2-a1ad-1fb9af28178d","pagecount":"2","content":"The hubs are demand driven units and provide intelligence and technical backstopping to farming communities, national and international research programs, development actors, seed companies and policy decision-makers, on resilient seed systems tools, methods, information sources, data management, policy design and compliance with applicable regulations and agreements. Functions include: facilitating establishment of new links among interested seed system actors; support research and training; develop and maintain a digital seed knowledge portal; develop harmonized principles/agreements and policies.• Guidance on enhancing institutional capacities and enabling conditions for scaling food and nutrition security under climate change is disseminated and policy dialogues held in selected countries","tokenCount":"101"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/0100820480.json b/data/part_6/0100820480.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9344433cb4199a52ed4a4a08410dd3fb7d533318
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bbb3e1d6833ad0a202d337e74a1a228e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/336d402e-a6aa-4911-8dee-cec8be6923db/retrieve","id":"-59294014"},"keywords":["Livestock production","silvopastoral systems","soil macrofauna","soil quality indicators"],"sieverID":"5e2943bf-6009-4fa1-bebf-e1ea3e3e4c4a","pagecount":"2","content":"Silvopastoral systems (SPS) are an environmentally and economically beneficial alternative to single grass systems for livestock production. The incorporation of trees, especially legumes, in pastures has been shown to have several positive effects on soil properties and nutrient cycling, while creating a favourable microclimate for the animals and increasing the productivity (i.e. milk and meat). The inclusion of legumes or legume-trees in the pastures systems leads to improved nutrient cycling and increased biological activity creating fertility islands within the SPS. Soil macrofauna has been considered as bioindicator of soil quality because of the direct effect on soil properties and on soil organic matter fragmentation and nutrient dynamics. The present study was performed in an experimental block designed (n=3) (silvo)pastoral trial located at CIAT (Colombia) and aimed to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of the herbaceous legume (Canavalia brasiliensis) and both herbaceous and shrub legume (Leucaena leucocephala) respect to the Brachiaria cv. Cayman monoculture on a set of biological and physical parameters. We measured the abundance and diversity of soil macrofauna, macroaggregate morphology and soil aggregation, as well as their spatial heterogeneity in relation to the trees in the SPS. Soil samples were collected at three different distances from the Leucaena doble-row as follows: i) between the rows, ii) at 1.5 m and iii) 5.5 m from the trees. Results obtained showed that the inclusion of legumes has a positive effect on soil macrofauna with the highest abundance found at 1.5 m distance from Leucaena. On the contrary, reduction of total abundance was found around the trees corresponding to higher soil compaction areas probably due to the animal grazing preference and search for shade. This phenomenon was reflected in higher proportion of physicogenic aggregates and lower amount of large water-stable macroaggregates. In addition to increased productivity of legume-based pastures and the potential to sustain higher densities of animals, our results highlight the importance of an integrated evaluation of spatial heterogeneity within SPS and discuss possible consequences for the management of trade-offs. Multivariate statistics of forthcoming data will reveal possible role of soil macrofauna as a reliable soil quality indicator.","tokenCount":"349"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/0101920677.json b/data/part_6/0101920677.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..004aefcb8487c522bd8cdaf96618a70f2b8f340f
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6764f64e55c4d13d8fa4595d39dbf301","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/410a8b8a-01fd-4845-9f37-5456072e2ce4/retrieve","id":"1376636143"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2a759616-8acc-498f-9d55-73ef786377e2","pagecount":"4","content":"CEA) is the production of plants, fish, insects or animals inside structures, such as greenhouses and buildings, in controlled conditions. In a rapidly urbanizing world, CEA can contribute to sustainable development, e.g. through reduced use of land, water and inputs. There is a need for innovation in policy, technology and business practices to scale up CEA in the Global South sustainably and equitably.n Economic agencies should invest in development of supply chains to support CEA, including growing media, equipment and seeds, and postharvest infrastructure such as cold storage, throughfor example -business support and mentoring, business incubators and tax breaks.n Regional and national governments should form public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the development of regional CEA clusters or tech hubs, enabling growers to share experiences, innovations and information, leverage economies of scale, and market collectively.n National and local governments should acknowledge CEA as a viable form of agriculture and design policy innovations to promote the sector, including in agriculture development policy; land use and planning policy; economic development and employment plans; and import regulations.n Technology developers should dedicate R&D spend to trialing their inventions with growers in low and lower-middle income countries, to ensure they are optimized for these contexts and to provide access to new, environmentally safe, developments as early as possible.The challenge: CEA needs to be a force for sustainable and equitable development For CEA to be a viable option for people from less affluent backgrounds, financial institutions including banks, micro-finance institutions and parastatal agricultural finance agencies should invest in people as well as equipment by designing innovative debt financing models for entry-level, small-scale CEA practitioners. These may include:n Provision of equipment to set up operations, as well as provision of welfare and living costs over an initial period, so that new starters can cover everyday expenses n A payback period that is customized to CEA growing cycles with repayments beginning after the activity starts to be profitable n In cases of contract farming, three-party agreements between lenders, borrowers and buyers, with the latter guaranteeing a market for the borrowers' produce.Grant-making bodies, NGOs and commercial financial institutions that work in Africa and Asia should promote research and innovation through dedicated CEA agribusiness/agripreneur programs and incubators under their agricultural development programs. These may include preferential grant or loan schemes that are tailored to the needs of women, young people and applicants from disadvantaged social groups.Opening CEA to people from a range of backgrounds and socio-economic groups will promote poverty reduction and provision of viable livelihoods for people who currently lack economic opportunities.In addition, locally appropriate CEA techniques should be included in educational programs at all levels, from elementary school to agricultural universities. The installation of demonstration gardens could provide produce for the local community, as well as enable students to develop valuable STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills, and increase the pool of potential employees for CEA businesses as they scale up, expand or replicate in new locations.The self-organization of CEA practitioners into associations or cooperatives (local, regional or national), if necessary with help from development organizations and NGOs, can enable peer-to-peer support, facilitate valuechain development (ensuring availability of inputs and equipment), and allow practitioners to collectively identify their needs and lobby their governments to address them.It can also optimize their access to investors who are unable to deal with individuals.Organization may also be formal, through PPPs for the development of regional CEA clusters or tech hubs where growers can work collectively or in close proximity, sharing experiences and information (e.g. on optimal technologies or disease management), leveraging economies of scale on equipment and inputs, and marketing collectively.Clusters require significant investment in infrastructure (structures, water, etc.), innovative mechanisms to make public or private land available, and incentives for growers to move to the area (tax reduction for initial periods, business support, etc.).Another formal support mechanism is the provision of CEA training by agriculture departments, tailored to specific local needs, regularly updated to include emerging technologies so that the latest knowledge reaches people in low and lower-middle income countries.Agricultural extension services should ensure agents are knowledgeable in CEA techniques so they can identify problems post-setup and know how to help. New, innovative extension models may also be developed to facilitate knowledge exchange between early adopters and extension officers, as well as formalize direct peer-topeer exchange between early adopters and new starters.Collectivity and dedicated support mechanisms will benefit individual CEA practitioners by helping them to overcome operational hurdles and reducing the risk of failure. These mechanisms will stimulate development of the sector as a whole, from vertical farms in slums to hightech container or rooftop farming.At the local level, zoning ordinances and urban agriculture regulations should include specifications on CEA so that there is clarity on what is permitted and where. CEA may also be integrated into spatial design and building codes.At the national and regional levels, governments can create an enabling environment for CEA adoption and mainstreaming through policy innovations in several areas. For example:n Agricultural policy can advance mainstreaming of CEA, through funding provision and extension capacity n Food security and nutrition strategies can recognize the contribution of CEA, especially for ensuring local supply that is less vulnerable to disruptions and promoting year-round stable prices n Employment strategies may recognize and promote employment opportunities in CEA, including the need to develop suitable skillsets for all supply chain roles n Land use policy can acknowledge CEA as a legitimate activity, removing any barriers to land access accordingly.In addition, national governments should develop evidence-based industry standards and regulations, through cooperation between relevant government departments, the private sector and NGOs to ensure they are conducive, relevant and appropriate. These will enable farmers to plan their activities and support a good reputation for the sector. Early development of standards and regulations will pre-emptively discourage harmful or fraudulent practices and help to avoid excessive or punitive regulations in the future.Regulatory standards on the nutrients required in hydroponic growing should be used as a reference for customs inspections to avoid unwarranted import bans or tariff inconsistency. The removal of several regulatory barriers to CEA in a concerted, integrated way will create an enabling environment for practitioners to operate close to urban markets and access inputs, training, extension support and human resources.There is a need for ongoing research into CEA techniques to minimize energy consumption and costs, and reduce use of synthetic or environmentally unfriendly inputs, while optimizing efficiency. As optimal techniques will vary depending on local context, such research should be carried out by local and/or international universities and agricultural research centers in partnership with local CEA growers, and funded by public institutions.The inclusion of CEA in the official overseas trade and development programs of (high income) countries with strong CEA sectors is an innovation that would encourage private CEA companies and technology developers to invest in new (low and lower-middle income) markets, where their solutions can be adapted and adopted to suit the local contexts. This may include dedication of R&D spend to trials of new inventions by African and Asian practitioners to ensure they meet their needs and environmental regulations, and to provide access to new developments as early as possible (especially equipment to monitor or survey crops, and equipment for post-harvest processing and cold storage to reduce food waste and environmental footprint).Where equipment costs cannot be reduced to be immediately affordable by small-scale producers in Africa and Asia, technology companies could help by devising hire-purchase schemes that would enable operators of limited means to access equipment immediately.CEA is not a silver bullet for food security or agrifood system sustainability or equity. It is unlikely to replace open field agriculture, nor render urban areas self-sufficient in fresh produce, but as a form of urban farming it has potential to complement rural systems' ability to deliver fresh produce and niche commodities, for both low-end and high-end customers. With increased awareness, innovative forms of targeted investment, and supportive policies, the application of optimal, appropriate CEA techniques in each context can transform livelihoods and environmental outcomes and contribute to urban diets.Huge technological advances on how to grow food close to consumers, where land is in short supply and conditions are inhospitable, must be made available to communities that stand most to benefit from them.A small but growing number of entrepreneurs are taking up CEA in urban and peri-urban areas across Africa and Asia. These pioneers often learn techniques by watching YouTube videos and apply them using a trial-and-error approach. They are generous with their knowledge, running free or affordable training courses and building their own communities of practitioners from the ground up. These pioneers, their protégés, and the sector as a whole would benefit from the concerted efforts of multiple actors to remove entry barriers and ensure operational viability of CEA, and to promote CEA cultivation of local crops that are accessible and affordable to all. For more information, see the full report at: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/117234Supported by:","tokenCount":"1479"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/0108471149.json b/data/part_6/0108471149.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..73c6d7edbfd63c9e2f93f4724e5bc7e86ba47ebf
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a3776bae3f7368d7c37f0e59a6352197","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a2d454e7-ce96-47dd-8ed3-26b2238d0a91/retrieve","id":"2104252635"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6eec970b-e242-4bbc-9f67-40d1dc811f80","pagecount":"14","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture, and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Egerton University, a member university of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), held an engagement meeting with Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions on 6 th May 2022. The meeting was held under the auspices of the University-TVET forum. This forum sought to enhance the collaboration and working partnership between universities and TVET institutions to strengthen the education value chain. The University-TVET forum is part of an arrangement championed under the RUFORUM's Transforming African Agricultural Universities to meaningfully contribute to Africa's growth and development (TAGDev) programme.The Forum was convened with four objectives;To identify areas of comparative advantage for each ATVET institutionTo identify areas of complementation between Egerton University and TVET institutions •To strategize the modalities for capacity building and co-creation o • f curricula in climate-smart agriculture and entrepreneurship.To explore the participation of universities in the curriculum review and accreditation process to be undertaken by TVET institutions.The Forum was introduced to the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project (https://aiccra.cgiar.org/), a CGIAR initiative currently coordinated by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (https://alliancebioversityciat.org/). The AICCRA project seeks to build up the technical, institutional, and human capacity of targeted regional countries to strengthen resilience to climate change impacts by increasing the dissemination and uptake of CGIAR and partners' research. Through this initiative, the CGIAR will focus its interventions in Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Senegal, Ghana, and Mali with a regional benefit through the RUFORUM for higher education institutions.RUFORUM is one of the implementing partners to the AICCRA project with a focus on higher education institutions for implementing climate-smart agriculture, including; designing and reviewing courses to integrate climate-smart agriculture and information services. RUFORUM, in collaboration with Egerton University, has strategically focused on engaging the ATVETs because of their central role in training the middle cadre agricultural workers that are central to the delivery of agricultural extension services. Secondly, ATVETs are critical players in influencing the adoption of various agricultural technologies, innovations, and management practices among farming communities.The four institutions that responded were Baraka Agricultural College started in 1974 as a farmers training place. It responded to the lack of skills as the white farmers were going back. The St. Franciscan Brothers were given complete authority. The Franciscan brothers were originally from Ireland, Piggery.The purpose of the training was to sell seeds to different farmers; this enabled the institution to be known by other farmers. During the recruitment, it provided the opportunity to get farmers from Baringo and Nakuru. Baringo is a bit dry, but some areas receive rain. They took the approach of engaging other agencies to help with recruitment. They focused on communities/persons that are marginalized. Identified the activities that the youth were involved in and looked out for the people with the motive.Six weeks of training worked on the expectations of the farmers. This enabled the focus of the first two weeks on the foundations of sustainable agriculture. The skills included: Understanding the resources and their sources, understanding the changing circumstances/conditions, handling the soils, including identifying good soils through soil sampling and management of soils. Another skill was terracing because of the hilly locations. Through this, they are able to help the communities.Knowledge of crops, with a focus on requirements for vegetable production; they were taught how to make compost for cropping so that they could begin to appreciate and use it. Other skills imparted were fruit identification against climatic conditions, seeds identification, sowing, potting, nursery management, managing fruits and diseases, harvesting, and post-harvest handling, especially processing farm produce in plenty. Milk and the production of yogurt are aimed at job creation. Fruit juice making to cater to the plenty of fruit harvest. Beekeeping skills include; siting of the apiary and the type of bee hives used.Selected enterprises based on time are dairy, poultry, and beekeeping. Further, it extended to feed formulation that applies to dairy, poultry and fish farming. Skills gained include Slaughtering. Feed conversation; silage making and haymaking, developing a formula, their own formula, and feeding regimes. Selection of different livestock enterprises based on market demand. Further, how to identify each animal based on need. Disease control and basics on treatment. Constructing houses for different livestock. Establishing different pastures and management. They were trained in the inspection of the meat. Land preparation for pastures, e.g., Brachiaria, etc. Breeding/reproduction skills were taught to get the trainees to appreciate basic issues such as; timely breeding records keeping, value addition, including how to produce cheese, value addition of carcass, fodder trees and intensification of fodder production. Heifer inspection, entrepreneurship, processing of honey and how to market. Entrepreneurship in terms of how to start their businesses, managing the business, cost-benefit advisory and then marketing.Income generating unit (generate income for the college's sustainability, units are resource units for trainees, brand the college through the products that the college produces). The farm is the main resource centre; upgrading of facilities used on the farm. Earlier, there was a curriculum developed through RUFORUM support focusing on piggery. For the curriculum to be offered, the facilities needed to be upgraded to a level acceptable to enable quality training; this has not yet been done. Similarly, the dairy unit needed an upgrade, e.g., silage slab, cow handling structure with slurry pit. Development of basic seed production facility because potato seed has a high demand that team is currently unable to meet the demand. The team further seeks to work on the tissue culture facility to multiply the basic seed. This will enable them to expand their production capacity from this year's 5 acres level. In addition, there was a need to enhance irrigation capacity within the college because the irrigation system was lacking. Accordingly, with support from the EU, the college has constructed a rainwater-harvesting pond, from which the water for irrigation will be obtained. The college has also moved towards operationalizing its green energy; this was deemed necessary by adopting solar for lighting and bio-digesters for biogas.The college undertakes an outreach program to contribute to increased food security, income, and environmental sustainability of rural communities. The college worked in three sub-counties. Activities focused on; water provision through the drilling and rehabilitation of boreholes and distributing water in a radius of 10 km and trained water community management committees. Capacity building in diversified food options among 650 households such that; 30% of these households have realized a reduction in household expenditure and 30% increase in household income. Further, the college has been involved in capacity building on nutrition and value addition. The outreach programme also trained smallholder farmers in entrepreneurship and savings. Capacity building on climate resilience within beekeeping as a flagship intervention around the Lakes and wildlife conservation areas (Lake Nakuru National Park), and the provision of energysaving devices such as the local cook stoves (jikos). Beyond agriculture and income, the outreach programme also involved public health education, sanitation and hygiene in parts of Kisii Ndogo, focusing on ending open free defecation. Other cross-cutting issues; in post-election leadership, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding.Avenues available for supporting Baraka college moving forward include; upgrading facilities, capacity building of staff from diploma to degree and degree to master, and capacity building in pedagogy to enhance teaching skills. Further support for curriculum development for levels 3, 4, and 6 and upgrading of science laboratory, including soil testing. They are establishing online learning systems since they are lacking and upgrading the online system and library.Baraka college has been engaged in CSA activities. The courses and activities that are CSA enabled include:• Organic farming; promoting practices such as controlled compositing, bio-fertilizers, biogas production • Tree planting; promoting action for carbon sequestration, and multipurpose trees for income enhancement • Apiculture-bee keeping; promoting environmental conversation/carbon sequestration, zero emissions production, and enhanced ecosystem services • Circular Organic waste management • Integrated pest management • Irrigation and water harvesting • Fish farming • Weather station for climate data collection • Value addition Some CSA-enabled courses include; Sustainable Agriculture for Rural Development (SARD), Apiculture, and modular training. Approach-short courses and outreach on apiculture, SARD, and Soil conservation. Baraka college further seeks to develop level 3, 4, and 6 courses.Baraka college team identified a number of gaps within its institution, including; limited digital competency for forecasting and early detection systems for weather/climate information and limited exploitation of CSA methods in animal production, e.g., vermiculture. Further, it was noted that CSA methods were not as effective as the conventional production approaches and were not competitive economically and practically. There were low adoption rates of CSAs because they are labor intensive and have low automation. There was a lack of premium pricing for products produced using CSA approaches and a limited innovation ecosystem around CSA.However, there were possible areas universities could work with TVETs/Baraka to address the gaps; they include;• Research and innovation • Capacity development in areas of weather and climate information • Funding for capacity development of staff and infrastructureThe Dairy Training Institute (DTI) has been engaged in CSA/I with several activities that included tree planting, circular economy through using fertilizers from animals, putting up solar panels, and engaging in value addition of produce.DTI has had several curricula that were CSA-enabled. These included:• Dairy production and processing (Diploma)• Dairy production and management (certificate) The meeting with ATVETs concluded with identifying a number of gaps that affected the pace at which CSA in their institutions is implemented as well as its adoption. These include:• Limited digital competency in forecasting and early detection systems for weather and climate information, lack of skills for accurately collecting, analyzing and interpreting climate data, and making use of an advanced source of climate information and services • Limited use of modern climate-smart agriculture practices such as vermiculture • Low adoption rates for CSA practices largely because they tend to be labor intensive and limited automation and have low returns on investment in large areas compared to the conventional approaches when deployed • A lack of a premium price on the market for products produced using CSA approachesThe ATVETs recommended that there were several areas of convergence for collaboration with universities in the field of climate-smart agriculture, including:• Capacity building of staff through the training of trainers in various aspects, including climate information services access, modern CSA practices, long and short-term specialized trainings for increasing the skills of staff, and skills in competitive proposals development for resource mobilization • Support for infrastructure improvement for advancing a circular economy. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6ad4cc16dc152d2b269d7608d28e36d4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9d282dfc-970d-4338-92df-f3c69017d4de/retrieve","id":"-679022374"},"keywords":["4.2 Books Collective action, Colombia, Honduras, landscape, natural resource management, participatory methodologies, Venezuela in vitro dry matter digestibility, nutrient release, residue management, resource quality, weight loss Mineralization -Nitrogen -Organic fertilizers -Plant nutrition -Plant tissue quality Mycorrhizae, nutrient uptake, plant growth attributes, phosphorus dynamics, Tithonia, volcanic ash soil activity. New Phytol. 91, 45-56 soil crusting, soil sealing, soil erosion, chicken manure, Inceptisols, tillage system decomposition, mineralization, quality factors, simulation, modelling soil organic matter, charge characteristics, multipurpose trees, CEC, decomposition fertilizer use, maize, missing nutrient trial, Olsen-P, on-farm level, particulate organic matter, pot experiment alley cropping, root abundance, root length density, root weight density, tap root profitability, manure storage, soil fertility, maize P use efficiency, rainfall, soil and crop management, Pearl millet, Cowpea, West Africa Soil physical characteristics, Oxisols, Infiltration, Organic matter, Rainfall acceptance, Lower and upper limits of available water agro-pastoral systems, crop rotation, soil degradation, soil improvement, soil physical vulnerability, tropical savanna Calliandra, fallows, Indigofera, slash and mulch, soil quality, Tithonia Oxisol, land-use system, sequential P fractionation, short term P dynamics, 33 P labeling, metallic (oxy)hydroxides, soil microbial biomass Acid soils, crop-pasture systems, crop rotations, soil P pools, vertical tillage soil fertility, legume cover crops, Mucuna, Canavalia, nutrient budgets farmyard manure, fertilizer, organic-mineral interactions, Organic Resource Database, percentage fertilizer equivalency values, plant materials, residual effects manure, decision guides, farmer perceptions soil organic matter, soil organic matter fractions, soil dispersion, and dispersing agent secondary forest","abandoned pasture","carbon sequestration","plant nutrient stocks","soil nutrient stocks","nutrient loss","Oxisol","succession","Amazon Amazon","Humid Tropics","Ferralsols","Leaching","Nutrient Cycling","Slash-and-Burn Africa, collective action, landscape, local knowledge systems, Latin America, participatory methodologies"],"sieverID":"ebb55e40-53d6-470f-9eb7-af3a06ad5f3d","pagecount":"654","content":"Pathways Towards Integration of Legumes into the Farming Systems of East African Highlands. T. Amede. (Draft Paper)………………………………………….. • Towards Addressing Land Degradation in Ethiopian Highlands: Opportunities and Challenges. T. Amede (Draft Paper)………………………………………….. • Phosphorus use efficiency as related to sources of P fertilizers, rainfall, soil and crop management in the West African Semi-Arid Tropics. Bationo A., and K. Anand Kumar. ………………………………………………………………………………… 6. Output 2: Improved soil management practices developed and disseminated. (Part 1, 1639 kb; Part 2, 494 kb) Papers • Use of deep-rooted tropical pastures to build-up an arable layer through improved soil properties of an Oxisol in the Eastern Plains (Llanos Orientales) of Colombia.• Yields in farmers fields increased.• Land degradation halted/reduced.• Yields per unit area and input increased.• Land use changed • Farmers surveys.• Regional/national production statistics.• Land use surveys (satellite imagery, rapid rural appraisal).• Land survey data available To develop and disseminate to clients strategic principles, concepts, methods and management options for protecting and improving the health and fertility of soils through manipulation of biological processes and the efficient use of soil, water and nutrient resources in tropical agroecosystems.• Technologies for soil improvement/ management developed. • Limiting soil-plant-water processes identified.• Compatible plant components identified for low fertility soils in crop-livestock systems. • Guidelines, manuals and training materials for integrated soil fertility management produced.• Scientific publications other projects (e.g., PE-3, BP-1) • Field sites accessible Output 1. Biophysical and socioeconomic constraints to integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) identified and knowledge on soil processes improved.• Soil, water, nutrient and knowledge constraints to sustainable production defined, and the understanding of the role of soil biota, multipurpose germplasm, and organic and inorganic resources for sustainable management of land resources improved.• Annual Report/ publications • Reviews published • Documents of synthesized results• Detailed tables published in Annual Report. • Decision guides for ISFM developed.• Sufficient operational funds for soil and plant analyses. • Literature on constraints available • Farmers continue to participate.• Projects SN-2, PE-3 and PE-4 actively participate. • Collaboration of participatory research project (SN-3), RII and NARS. Output 2. Improved soil management practices developed and disseminated:• Relevant knowledge, methods and decision tools for improved soil management to combat soil degradation, increase agricultural productivity and maintain soil health provided to land users in the tropics.• Annual reports/ publications.• Management guidelines and decision trees published and available to farmers, NARs, NGOs.• Training manual for use with tools.• Maps published.• Simulation models used to assess alternative management of organic resources for ISFM • A policy brief for ISFM produced.• Sufficient operational funds available for chemical analyses.  Output 1. Biophysical and socioeconomic constraints to integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) identified and knowledge on soil processes improved• Relationships of organic input quality to fertilizer equivalency values established • Quantification of lignin and polyphenols in different organic materials • Nutrient monitoring (NUTMON) approaches introduced at two sites in West Africa • Optimum management for combined use of organic and inorganic resources established • Green manures and grain legumes do not work everywhere but there are niches where they could do well on-farm. • Grain legumes have a much higher likelihood for adoption by farmers due to their multiple benefits and often high profit margins. • High legume biomass and the consequent high amounts of N incorporated in soil do not always translate to high cereal crop yields because the soil systems are leaky though this can be minimised by manipulating timing of incorporation of the green manures. • Building on previous progress the modelling work this year involved revising the APSIM SoilN and MANURE modules so that the three fpools that comprise FOM can have different C:N ratios. • Similarly, following the work in Year 2 a similar approach was taken for the release of plant available P from organic inputs, so that P release depends on the pools having different C:P ratios. In Year 3 changes were also made to the APSIM SoilP and Maize modules to modify the uptake of P and its partitioning within the crop. • A linked soil-crop simulation model, ruminant livestock simulation model, household model and linear program module developed • Farm level crop-livestock integration scenarios in four countries developed • Extension of the preliminary dataset testing fertilizer equivalency value -organic resource quality relationships with data from the AfNet 2001 meeting and West Africa revealed that the original hypothesis put forward by Palm et al. (2001) are valid; the N fertilizer equivalency values were found to be linearly related to the N content of the organic resources for resources with a N content above 2.4% and the slope of the relationship between both characteristics was substantially lower for materials containing a large amount of soluble polyhenols. • Resource flow maps, drawn in various sites across East Africa, confirm the very diverse range of soil management options implemented by small scale farmers and point towards various potential options to improve the use efficiency of add organic and mineral nutrient sources for various farmer wealth classes and overall biophysical and socio-economic conditions. • Community meetings generated a baseline of \"folk ecological\" knowledge in four communities of Western Kenya, along a gradient from high population density Vihiga district, through Busia, to lower population density Teso district. Culturally this gradient also extends from predominantly Luyia (Bantu) to Teso (Nilotic) speakers. Considerable common local knowledge was identified and characterised in local reports. Local soil taxonomies are quite detailed, describing soil quality as a function of topsoil colour and texture, location within the topography, and the presence or absence of signs of degradation (erosion, excessive weediness or stoniness). Since soil 'fertility' is perceived only through indirect means, such as the presence / absence of certain indicator plants or the vigour of crop growth, it is usually conceived of in very holistic terms (i.e.: fertility, weed and pest dynamics are strongly interrelated in local vocabulary). One of the key knowledge gaps identified is that, while many farmers recognise various crop leaf discolorations as signs of 'low fertility' there is not widespread understanding of there being multiple different nutrients in the soil which could be affecting crop performance. Many of the older women, who are frequently the farm managers, were not aware of the different nutrients provided by different commercially available fertilisers.• Seminars held to share findings between the sites led to community-level mapping of the soil types and transect ground-truthing exercises to further refine and verify the local soil classifications, as well as to discuss examples of various forms of soil alteration through management or neglect. Older participants revealed than many of the soil types seen today are degraded forms of older soil types, whereas younger farmers assumed the soils of today had also existed in the past and that 'a soil cannot change itself'. The locally recognised diversity of soils is greater than that depicted on scientific soil maps of the study regions. As a result, local farmers complained that experimental plots for new technologies are often not situated on enough of the local soil types for people to draw inferences about where (or if) they would be appropriate. • Key informants have been selected and interviewed to gather their knowledge of soil fertility processes, indicators of soil fertility status changes, and the evolution of their soil management practices. Many older farmers' felt that they cannot really apply their knowledge of how to match crops with suitable soils or agro-ecological niches because land sizes today are too small, demands for annual maize production are relentless, and access to different niches is limited now that the landscape is fully settled. One unexpected finding has been that local knowledge of soil fertility is not any less amongst younger farmers, in part because those who have stayed in the area are those who by intent (or lack of alternative options) have a commitment to agriculture. They also tended to have better understanding of soil nutrients and of potential new technologies. • Multiple studies of the distribution and extent of knowledge on local indicators of soil fertility status and changes conducted in Teso, Busia, Siaya, and Kakamega districts conducted. • Ethnobotanical study of plant species indicating soil fertility status and changes initiated in Meru South and adjacent districts of Central Kenya as companion study to work conducted in Latin America. (MSc student) • Evaluation of local decision-making related to concepts of 1) high vs. low quality residues and 2) soil nutrients, using community-based demonstration plots in Western Kenya. Initial round of plots completed and follow-up activities with farmers in progress. • Farmers, extension, and KARI-Kakamega field staff were trained in participatory monitoring and evaluation methods. Several forms of farmer recording keeping were introduced in 2001 to monitor and evaluate progress with the soil fertility management technologies. However, lack of funds has limited follow-up, which has lead to widely varying levels of farmer interest and disparate standards of data collection. • A baseline survey of soil fertility management practices and socio-economic conditions was completed and analysed for 314 farmers in the West Kenya site. The methodology was shared with the Ugandan and Tanzanian sites. These data will now be compiled and analysed along with comparable studies conducted at the other BMZ project sites in West Africa (Togo and Benin) to produce a scientific paper relating soil fertility management practices to the contrasting socioeconomic and agro-ecological conditions of the sites. • A formal economic survey of on-farm use of organic and inorganic resources has been designed for the BMZ sites in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Benin, and Togo, and will be implemented at the end of 2002 / early 2003. • Public and private benefits and costs of different ISFM options evaluated using the policy analysis matrix (PAM) technique. This approach is particularly useful for examining the role of transaction costs and market failures in influencing profitability of new technologies. (MSc student) • Evaluating whether the soil fertility management and livelihood enhancement needs of different classes of farmers are being met with the ISFM options currently available to them, by contrasting the profitability of different options (using gross margin analysis). (MSc student) • Evidence for the external constraints (such as the mis-functioning of input and output markets) on adoption and use of ISFM options documented and explained. For example, the bumper harvest reported in Kenya and Uganda in the 2001 short-rain season led to sale prices of maize that were often below production costs. In such situations, farmers face the prospective of losing money if they sell their maize to generate cash, but there is also no incentive for them to invest in their agricultural enterprises given the policy environment they operate within. Clearly, innovations need to address food security and livelihood sustainability, not just increased production as a good in its own right.Policy interventions that would rationalise input and output markets, and buffer smallholders from their volatility, should have as their goal a) increasing farmers' opportunities to innovate, and b) making investments back into agriculture attractive. (Paper presented to ILRI-IFPRI conference on \"Policies for Land use management in highland East Africa\".) • Review of African smallholder experiences with integrated soil fertility management practices found growing use, both indigenously and through participation in agricultural projects. Patterns of use vary considerably across heterogeneous agro-ecological conditions, communities and households.The potential for integrated soil fertility management to expand markets for organic inputs, labour, credit, and fertilizer explored. Markets for organic markets are hampered by inherent constraints such as bulkiness and effects on fertilizer markets are conceivably important, although no good empirical evidence yet exists on these important points. (Paper submitted to Food Policy for special issue on \"Input use and input markets in sub-Saharan Africa\") • Proposal submitted to FASID (Foundation for Advanced Studies in International Development) to examine the links between improved agricultural technologies and practices and productivity change and poverty reduction in smallholder communities and households. Agricultural technologies considered will include crop, livestock, and natural resource management innovations. Technological change is taken to be improvements in productivity of existing resources and enterprises (e.g. adoption of input packages leading to higher yields of crops) as well as the shifts in the composition of resources or enterprises (e.g. adoption of higher value added crops). • The changing theoretical and methodological approaches of integrating social science into TSBF's research activities over the past decade were examined, and strategic lessons relevant to INRM research identified. The interdisciplinary \"experiment\" of TSBF has steadily taken shape as a shared language of understanding integrated soil fertility management. While individual disciplines still retain preferred modes of conducting fieldwork (i.e.: participant observation and community-based learning for \"social\" research, replicated trial plots for the \"biological\" research) a more \"balanced\" integration of these modes is evolving around activities of mutual interest and importance, such as those relating to decision support for farmers using organic resources. Since TSBF is working constantly through partnerships with national research and extension services, it has an important role in stimulating the growth of common bodies of knowledge and practice at the interface between research, extension, and farming. To do so requires strong champions for interdisciplinary, collaborative learning from both natural and social science backgrounds, the commitment of time and resources, and patience. • The proportion of legumes in the farming systems is very low, and integration of legumes into system is constrained mainly by socio-economic factors • Legumes with multiple benefits were accepted by farmers than legume cover crops • The biophysical indicators used by farmers for selection were firm root system, early soil cover, biomass yield, decomposition rate, soil moisture conservation, drought resistance and feed value as important criteria. • The socio-economic indicators that dictated integration of legumes into systems were depended on land productivity, farm size, land ownership, access to market and need for livestock feed. • A draft decision guide was developed by combining the biophysical and socioeconomic indicators • The CIAT-TSBF Working Group prepared a position paper on \"BNF: A key input to integrated soil fertility management in the tropics\" as part of the Pre-Proposal preparation for BNF Challenge Program. • Case studies in Latin America show that there is a consistent rational basis to the use of local indicators of soil quality and their relation to improved soil management.• Initial plant quality parameters that best correlated with decomposion were neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) could be useful lab-tests during screening of plant materials as green manures. • Green manures that decomposed and released N slowly resulted in high N uptake when they were used at pre-sowing in a tropical volcanic-ash soil. • When Tithonia diversifolia is to be used as a fallow species, the use of plantlets as compared to the stake method of establishment was associated with better for nutrient acquisition and use efficiency. • Annual application of high amounts of chicken manure can lead to surface sealing and crusting in volcanic-ash inceptisols in Colombian hillsides which is reflected in reduced water infiltration and air permeability and high superficial values of shear strength. • Extension of the preliminary dataset testing fertilizer equivalency value -organic resource quality relationships with data from the AfNet 2001 meeting and West Africa revealed that the original hypothesis put forward by Palm et al. (2001) are valid; the N fertilizer equivalency values were found to be linearly related to the N content of the organic resources for resources with a N content above 2.4% and the slope of the relationship between both characteristics was substantially lower for materials containing a large amount of soluble polyhenols. • Resource flow maps, drawn in various sites across East Africa, confirm the very diverse range of soil management options implemented by small scale farmers and point towards various potential options to improve the use efficiency of add organic and mineral nutrient sources for various farmer wealth classes and overall biophysical and socio-economic conditions.Output 2: Improved soil management practices developed and disseminated• Biological analysis of ISFM options conducted in collaboration with System wide Livestock Programme (SLP) • Participatory economic analysis of current ISFM options conducted at benchmark sites • Hill placement of small quantities of fertilizers evaluated at four sites on-farm • Establishment of credit systems to increase farmers' access to external inputs at one site in the Sahel of West Africa. • The APSIM model over-predicts the effects of fertilizer N only for the organic-inorganic N combinations and under-predicts release of nutrients from cattle manure. • Manure decision guides have been developed and tested with farmers in Zimbabwe Current efforts are being made to evaluate the usefulness of these guides as communication tools to enhance uptake of soil management options. • Farmers' categorizations of manure quality correlate well with laboratory indices and can be linked to use strategies of different types of manure. • A District co-ordinated and run soil productivity enhancement program established in Tororo District.More than 3000 farmers accessing new and improved sources of information and technology options. Project funded successfully raised for 2003-4. • Improved dual-purpose legume and improved fodder germplasm evaluated in Uganda • Legume cover crops and biomass transfer species for maize production in Uganda evaluated • Economic analysis of Legume cover crops and biomass transfer species for maize production in Uganda conducted • Updated and new extension leaflets produced • Studies of social capital and dissemination pathways completed • Impact of policy on land management options investigated.• Various dual purpose grain legumes are found to perform very well in terms of BNF and biomass production in Western Kenya. A certain level of variation in access to low available soil P between the various accessions was also noted.• Significant rotational benefits were observed on maize after both herbaceous and dual purpose grain legumes, but most of the time only when P had been applied to the legumes. A minimal amount of N fertilizer applied to the cereal following a legume led to equal or higher yields compared to the maizemaize treatment receiving a recommended dose of N fertilizer. • Twenty farmers participated in resource flow mapping (RFM) exercises in Emuhaya sub-location, the AHI/BMZ site in Western Kenya. The objective was to characterise their soil fertility management practices for the 2000-2001 cropping seasons. The participant selection was stratified on the basis of their wealth ranking in PRA's conducted earlier. Partial nutrient balances are in the process of being calculated using NUTMON. Initial results (from both West Kenya and work in Uganda) suggest that wealth class per se is not a good predictor of how well the soil will be managed. Higher wealth class households may use more externally purchased inputs, but their overall nutrient balances are also frequently lower than less resource endowed households. • Following visits by Emuhaya farmers to other regions of Kenya, local initiative has led to the creation of three farmer field schools. These groups have a broader membership than the original farmer research groups, and have stimulated considerable interest in soil fertility management using high quality manure, marketable vegetable crops (particularly kales) and improved maize and bean germplasm. • A community resource centre begun with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MOALD) in Emuhaya currently lacks materials. Renovation is to start after the long rains are finished (July/August 2002) and at this time community involvement will help develop the centre in directions that meet local needs. It is proposed that decision aids and other potential extension tools generated through local research will be disseminated and tested through this centre, to better understand the potential channels of information sharing. Links are also being explored with local NGO's active in soil fertility management (SCODP) and input traders and stockists in the private sector.• Principles for conducting research to integrate local and scientific understanding of soil fertility processes are being compiled for development of a Field Manual to support trainers, farmer leaders, and scientists. • Draft publication on the role of social networks in the generation and sharing of agricultural information has been submitted to the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) for inclusion in their Gatekeeper Series. • A decision support plot was planted in March 2002 in Emuhaya to demonstrate concepts of both a) resource quality and b) nutrient deficiency. Follow up meetings at top-dressing have generated some interest with farmers who have not previously taken part in research activities. However, a better effort at labelling and visually explaining the demonstration site will improve its potential to communicate.• Collective activities at the harvest evaluated which organic material classes should be considered 'high' quality and identified additional local or exotic materials that could be collectively tested on the plot next season. Recommendations on new experimental designs and site locations were made and will be incorporated in next season's activities, which will also include several of the 'folk ecology' project sites. • Land degradation in East African Highlands is at an alarming stage, and yet soil conservation practices are not well accepted as there the technologies did not participate the communities in decision making. • Four major steps were outlined to reverse the trend of land degradation namely, participatory characterization of the determinants of land degradation, community-led soil-water conservation practices, intensification of the system through integrated soil fertility management, and enhanced collective action to address communal resources. • Deep-rooted tropical pastures can enhance soil quality by improving the size and stability of soil aggregates when compared with soils under monocroping.• Increasing intensity of production systems resulted in improved soil physical conditions but decreased soil organic matter and macrofauna populations with the exception of agropastoral systems evaluated where a general improvement was observed. • Improved fallows with species such as Tithonia diversifolia under slash and mulch management can contribute to the rapid restoration of soil fertility that has been exhausted by continuous cassava cultivation with little or no inputs. • Determined the influence of contrasting agropastoral systems and related P fertilizer inputs on size of P fractions in soil and their isotopic exchangeability and showed that organic P dynamics are important when soil Pi reserves are limited. • Showed that the use of vertical tillage and agropastoral treatments can contribute to the build-up of an arable layer in low fertility savanna soils of the Llanos of Colombia as indicated by improved soil physical properties and nutrient availability.Output 3: Ecosystem services enhanced through ISFM• The first Phase (2002)(2003)(2004) of the project on 'Conservation and sustainable management of belowground biodiversity' (BGBD) was endorsed by the Council and Chief Executive Officer of the GEF for $5 million. TSBF-CIAT is the Executing Agency on behalf of partners in seven countries ie. Mexico, Brazil, Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda, Kenya, India and Indonesia. A successful start-up workshop was held in Wageningen in August, hosted by BOT member Ken Giller • TSBF undertook the quantification of biological nitrogen fixation using isotope dilution technique and samples are sent to IAEA in Vienna for 15N analysis. • The chemical analysis of samples from the long-term trials are in progress.• Yield from the long-term trials can be increased up to five fold when organics and inorganics are used in combination in a legume cereal rotation system. • The significant effect in a cereal rotation is not only due to the nitrogen effect of the legume but more on the change in biological soil properties. • Food deficit in Africa is not only the function of food shortage but also quality.• The barley-based systems offer a considerable quantity of calorie and zinc, but deficit in vitamin A and calcium. • It was possible to suggest a balanced human nutrition by reallocation of the land through optimization models using the existing resources. • Tropical Secondary forest regrowth following pasture abandonment in Central Amazonia rapidly sequesters C in the soil where there is greatest potential for long-term C gains. • The slash-and-char technique that involves charcoal additions to the soil significantly increased biomass production of a rice crop in comparison to a control on a Xanthic Ferralsol from the Central Amazon and opens new possibilities to enhance C sequestration in soils in areas where burning is a common management practice. • Introduction of improved pastures with deep rooting abilities can convert savannas from a net source to a net sink of methane. Soils under gallery forests, covering 10% of the area of the Colombian savannas, are responsible for 48% of total methane sinks. For a 20-year time horizon, the global warming potential of the Colombian savannas region under current land use distribution constitutes a very small fraction of estimated global planetary radiative contribution. • Agroforestry systems can lead to net C accumulation in soils close to total C stocks in the primary forest; however, charcoal derived-C found to 1 m depth can account for as much as 15% of total soil C and needs to be quantified when comparing the effect of land use change on soil organic C. Tanzanian universities and NGO's. Economists are the largest social science constituency interested in AfNET, but the input of sociologists, geographers, and anthropologists will also help broaden the relevance of ISFM research in the region • A participatory methodology has been developed that facilitates consensus building about which soil related constraints should be tackled first. Consensus building is presented as an important step prior to collective action by farming communities resulting in the adoption of improved soil management strategies at the landscape scale. • 12 field days were organized in Cauca and 3 training courses were organized in the Colombian Llanos. • Prepared and/or published 34 articles for refereed journals, 3 books, 18 book chapters and 15 articles for conference proceedings most of which which are coauthored with other institutional partners. • 72 students are associated with the project (24 Ph.D. theses).• Established and maintained collaborative links with NARS and ARO partners.Output 1. Biophysical and socioeconomic constraints to integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) identified and knowledge on soil processes improvedInformation related to N fertilizer equivalency values obtained in W-Africa has been added to the information obtained in E and S Africa and was presented during the Nitrogen meeting in September 2001 in France. Trials on the 'optimum management of low quality organic resources' were established in several sites in East and West Africa. The major objective is to determine the immediate and residual response of various cereals (maize, rice, sorghum) to application of low to medium quality materials (manure, maize stover, rice straw, etc) combined or not with various rates of urea. Preliminary results of the first season show significant responses to N in most of the sites and limited impact of the organic resources. The immediate response of these materials was rather neutral in most places, except in the Sahel where strong responses were observed. Currently, the first residual year is being determined. The trials also look at the P supply potential of various organic resources. Moderate applications of manure were observed for supply all the P required by a maize crop in Nigerian and W Kenya. This observation could not be explained in terms of amount of P supplied alone; effects on the P sorption dynamics are likely to have contributed to the observed effect.Trials on the 'optimum N and P management in legume-cereal rotations' were established in several sites in East and West Africa. The trials look at the impact of grain and herbaceous legumes on soil fertility status. Treatments are a herbaceous legume (most of the time Mucuna) and a grain legume (mostly soybean or cowpea) followed by maize with and without application of mineral N. The legume is treated or not with TSP, and significant responses were observed to P application in most sites.. The impact of previous legumes and application of P to the legume on the need for N and P of a subsequent maize crop will be evaluated.Trials on organic/mineral interactions are being established in 2 sites in Ethiopia (Ginchi, Mekelle). Legume species used include local species and improved varieties of 'exotic' species. The work in Mekelle is part of the PhD thesis of Kiros Habtegebriel, in Ginchi of Balesh Tulema.The NUTMON approach was introduced at two sites in Sadore (Niger) and Samanko (Mali) to install capacity to monitor nutrient inputs and outputs from cropping systems. The packages consist of two data collection questionnaires, which were translated into French for ease of use and the NUTMON Toolbox model kit. At both sites, the work was undertaken in collaboration with ICRISAT with funding support from the system wide livestock project. Data wil be analysed in 2002.Following the installation of NUTMON toolbox, farmer input and output inventory survey data has been collected in Mali and Niger. These data are now being logged into the model together with monitoring season data that are being recorded during the current crop and livestock activity season. The initial farm NPK balance output will be available later in 2002. In July 2002 the ICRISAT laboratory supervisor based at Sadore in Niamey visited TSBF for training in resource quality analysis. Currently, several samples of manure and crop residue input materials used in the 2002 season network trials have been analysed for %N, % Lignin, and % Polyphenols.Several network experiments were established at benchmark locations in different agro-ecological zones of West and East Africa to look at N fertilizer equivalencies of organics. The input materials are low quality cattle manures and crop residues (rice and maize stover). The most important research highlight is that whereas the fertilizer equivalency values of low quality manure were very poor in the Sub-humid and humid zones, their values were very high (>250%) in the semi-arid zones. Indicating that the critical value for immobilization and mineralization is site specific.• Soil, water, nutrient and knowledge constraints to sustainable production defined and the understanding of the role of soil biota, multipurpose germplasm, and organic and inorganic resources for sustainable management of land resources improved.Most of the work focussed on integrating legumes into farming systems looking at where some of the legumes could work best and analyzing the reasons why the perform best under the sets of conditions. Legume work was established in the 2000/01 season to screen legumes in two areas, Murewa (annual rainfall 800-1000mm) and Shurugwi (annual rainfall 600mm). Results in the first season showed that the three green manures, Crotalaria grahamiana, Crotalaria juncea and Mucuna pruriens produced high biomass and added higher amounts of N to the soil compared with the grain legumes, Vigna unguiculata and Glycine max. Of the green manures, Mucuna pruriens was found to give the highest biomass and N addition to the soil on some of the sites while Crotalaria grahamiana gave higher biomass yield and N addition to the soil at some of the sites. Biomass yields were as high as 6000 kg ha -1 with N addition of up to 200 kg ha -1 . Vigna unguiculata gave higher biomass and grain yields than Glycine max with biomass as high as 2000 kg ha -1 and 1000 kg ha -1 of grain. In the second season, Crotalaria grahamiana had the highest maize yields of up to 2000 kg ha -1 even on the sites where Mucuna had higher biomass yields in the first season. Early incorporation gave higher yields than late incorporation. There were however no treatment differences in maize yields because of the drought that was experienced during the season causing low yields.Experiments were setup in the 2001/02 season to establish the biophysical boundary conditions under which different legumes perform in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Murewa and Shurugwi). Biomass yields of the legumes were generally high in the clay soils than in the sandy soils. The correlation between clay content and biomass yield was however poor probably because of the drought experienced causing moisture to be the most limiting factor. Similar trends were observed for pH, CEC, %C and available P content with biomass yields. Generally, higher biomass yields were observed for green manures than grain legumes in Zambia and Zimbabwe. There was crop failure in southern Zambia while biomass yields of up to 16 000 kg ha -1 of Crotalaria juncea were observed in the northern parts of the country where rainfall was high. This experiment will be repeated on the sites where biomass yields were low and maize will be planted on the sites where legume biomass yields were greater than 2500 kg ha -1 .A PRA was conducted with farmers from Shurugwi to establish how smallholder farmers prioritise legumes in their farming system, establish factors determining the area allocated to legumes, farmer perceptions on legumes and green manures introduced through farmer participatory research trials and identify opportunities for increasing the role of legumes and green manures in soil fertility management. Farmers identified legumes as the second major crop in the smallholder farming system after maize. Farmers grow legumes mainly for cash and food. More than 90% of the farmers were aware of the potential of legumes especially groundnuts in improving soil fertility. Diseases and limited land available limit opportunities for expanding area under legumes. Green manures were identified as very important in reclaiming poor soils were maize yield responses, even with fertility inputs, is limited and as fallow crops. Farmers identified green manures with multiple uses as more appropriate and likely to be adopted. Multiple benefits and labour requirements were identified as the most important criteria for identifying green manures for adoption. Farmers ranked mucuna highly for its potential in improving soil fertility, controlling weed growth, controlling striga, its use as a coffee bean and that it is easier to incorporate compared to sunhemp and crotalaria. On grain legumes, groundnut was ranked first as it is the main cash crop for most smallholder farmers. Soyabeans appeared to have a much higher likelihood for instant adoption by most farmers due to its multiple benefits and high profit margins. A benefit cost analysis revealed that cowpeas had the most attractive gross margin per hectare compared to the green manure legumes. The value of the other cowpea benefit as a relish, though very important, was not included in computing the margins per hectare. The Net Present Values (NPV) for all the green manures were negative. Cowpea had a positive NPV. The biomass produced by the green manures may not have been large enough to raise the fertility status of the soils to achieve the desired yield levels for maize in the second year.• Soil, water, nutrient and knowledge constraints to sustainable production defined and the understanding of the role of soil biota, multipurpose germplasm, and organic and inorganic resources for sustainable management of land resources improved.Soils at our Central America reference sites in Honduras and Nicaragua appeared to be both N and P limited thus responding best to the combined application of N and P. One Post-Doctoral Fellow started studies in Nicaragua on \"farm resource and nutrient flows\" in the Wibuse watershed at the San Dionisio Reference Site in Nicaragua following training with TSBF colleagues in Africa.In the hillsides of the Cauca department-Colombia, we made progress in the identification of some biophysical mechanisms that are related to crust formation. We found that excessive application of chicken manure as an organic fertilizer on Andean volcanic ash soils leads to soil crusting and sealing due to physical dispersion, chemical dispersion, and the interaction of soil physical and chemical characteristics.For the Llanos of Colombia, field studies conducted at Carimagua and Matazul (Savannas) contributed to define lime and nutrient requirements for acid soil tolerant varieties of rice, maize, cowpea and soybeans in rotational production systems on heavy-textured Oxisols. Field and glasshouse studies on crop and forage components indicated that forage legumes are more efficient in acquiring P per unit root length. Comparative studies of a forage grass (Brachiaria dictyoneura CIAT 6133) and a legume (Arachis pintoi CIAT 17434) demonstrated that the legume could acquire P from relatively less available P forms from oxisols of Colombia.For the Llanos of Colombia….The increasing attention paid to local soil knowledge in recent years is the result of a greater recognition that the knowledge of people who have been interacting with their soils for long time can offer many insights about sustainable management of tropical soils. Case studies show that there is a consistent rational basis to the use of local indicators of soil quality. Biological indicators (native flora and soil fauna) were shown to be important local indicators of soil quality related to soil management. Although benefits of local knowledge include high local relevance and potential sensitivity to complex environmental interactions, without scientific input local definitions can sometimes be inaccurate to cope with environmental change. It is argued that a joint local/scientific approach, capitalizing on complementarities and synergies, would permit overcoming the limitations of site specificity and empirical nature and allow knowledge extrapolation through space and time.Field research in Cauca showed that decomposition and nutrient release rates by green manures of contrasting chemical composition or quality were significantly correlated with initial quality parameters often used by animal nutritionists in the lab like neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). This observation highlights potential usefulness of these lab-based measures as screening methods for large numbers of potential green manure materials in relatively short time. Glasshouse studies showed that at pre-sowing surface application of low-quality green manures (i.e. Calliandra calothyrsus) and/or surface application of high quality green manures (i.e. Indigofera constricta) during periods of high crop demand could be seen as alternative nutrient sources for hillside farmers cropping volcanic-ash soils. We also investigated the effects of establishment in Tithonia diversifolia, from bare root seedlings (plantlets) and vegetative stem cuttings (stakes), because this plant has the ability to sequester nutrients from soil in its tissues, including P, and has been shown to be useful for cycling nutrients via biomass transfer and improved fallow. Nutrient uptake efficiency (μg of shoot nutrient uptake per m of root length) and use efficiency (g of shoot biomass produced per g of shoot nutrient uptake) for N, P, K, Ca and Mg were greater with plants established from plantlets than those established from stakes (is it right). Improved nutrient acquisition could be attributed to relief from P stress and possibly uptake of some essential micronutrients resulting from mycorrhizal association.Field research carried out at Carimagua showed that both native savanna and introduced pastures develop deep root systems compared to field crops such as maize. Studies on root distribution of maize showed that most of the roots are in top 20 cm of soil depth. Application of higher amounts of lime did not improve subsoil-rooting ability of maize but contributed to greater nutrient acquisition. Cultivation with disc harrow (8 passes) markedly improved maize growth and nutrient acquisition. We made progress in demonstrating the importance of deep-rooted tropical pastures to enhance soil quality by improving the size and stability of soil aggregates when compared with soils under monocropping. The concepts and strategies developed from this work are relevant to different areas of the Llanos for improving soil quality and agricultural productivity.Resource flow maps were drawn calculated for various farms belonging to various wealth classes in Lushoto (Tanzania), Western Kenya, Iganga (Uganda), Mekelle (N Ethiopia), Ginchi (W Ethiopia), Hirna (E Ethiopia), and Areka (S Ethiopia). Currently the partial nutrient balances are being calculated and evaluated with the NUTMON toolbox. The partial nutrient balance calculations need to be completed and the impact of wealth and overall economic environment evaluated. Idea is to get a paper out on this topic in the framework of the current projects. Follow-up NUTMON data processing meeting in Addis (planned somewhere in February 2003).Preliminary relationships between OM Q and SOM characteristics are being investigated in existing medium-to-long term trials (Meru, Kabete, Nyabeda) where organic resources of varying quality have been applied (all trials contain Tithonia and Calliandra applications). The delta 13C technique will be used. The SOM status (quantity and quality) of soils will be related to a set of specific soil properties essential for proper crop growth in an attempt to 'valorize' SOM. The use efficiency of mineral fertilizer is being determined using 15N labeled fertilizer, in a set of treatments of the trials (control, Calliandra, Tithonia) to determine relationships between SOM status and fertilizer use efficiency. The soil properties to include in the evaluation work will be decided upon and preliminary relationships between SOM status and these properties will be evaluated. The samples from the microplots will be analyzed before the end of the year and preliminary N recoveries calculated. These activities are implemented through MSc projects of M Kirunditu and B Waswa. As set of trials looking at relationships between organic matter quality, environment, and soil organic matter quantity/quality have been established in Embu and Machanga (Kenya) and or going to be established near Kumasi (Ghana) and in Zimbabwe. Inputs are: Tithonia or Crotalaria, Leucaena of Calliandra, maize stover, sawdust, and manure. The organic resources are applied sole and in presence of N fertilizer. The trials are expected to run for at least 5 years. Further back-stopping of the trials in Kenya, Ghana and Zimbabwe.Output 2: Improved soil management practices developed and disseminatedIn 2001 TSBF was partner in the project of improving crop-livestock systems in the dry Savannah of West Africa with funding from the System wide Livestock Programme (SLP). The activities of this project were established in different sites in Nigeria, Niger and Mali. Most of the activities of TSBF were undertaken in Niger to evaluate on-farm best bet integrated soil fertility management following a rainfall gradient from 400 mm to 800 mm. The best bet options identified are the use of small quantities of fertilizers (4 kg P/ ha) hill placed at planting time, the combination of organic amendments such as manure and crop residue with mineral fertilizers and the increase of cowpea in the cropping systems due to the very positive effect of rotations of cowpea with cereals. The effect of crop residue use as mulch is more critical in the drier zone than in the high rainfall zone. Although the rotation of cereal with cowpea can double the succeeding cereal yield and cowpea is an important cash crop, farmers are not enthusiastic to adopt this option. The adoption of the hill placement of small quantity of fertilizer can double crop yields.Trials looking at the impact of cut-and-carry systems on nutrient balance were established in 2 sites (a poor and a fertile soil) in Nyabeda, Western Kenya in August 2001. Treatments are Tithonia, Calliandra, and natural fallow. The aboveground biomass production in these treatments is to be cut continuously and applied to a maize and kale crop. As such, the nutrient status under the shrubs and its effect on the quality of the aboveground biomass can be evaluated, together with the response of two important crops to organic matter application. Tithonia biomass production was about double as much on the fertile compared to the poor soil. No other data are available yet as the trials are just recently established. Evaluation of the response of maize and kale to the application of Tithonia and Calliandra residues.Trials looking at the impact of grain and herbaceous legumes on soil fertility status were established in East and West Africa during the first or second season of 2001. Treatments are a herbaceous legume (most of the time Mucuna) and a grain legume (mostly soybean or cowpea) followed by maize with and without application of mineral N. The legume is treated or not with TSP, and significant responses were observed to P application in most sites.Various classes of legumes (herbaceous, fodder, tree, grain) are being screened in Ginchi (W Ethiopia) and Mekelle (N Ethiopia) for their potential to accumulate biomass and supply N to the soil. No data are available yet as the trials are just recently established.Demonstration trials to evaluate with farmers the organic resource quality concept were established in BMZ benchmark villages. No data are available yet as the trials were just recently established (April 2002).A PhD student at the economic department of Purdue university used the field data collected to write his PhD dissertation with John Sanders and thesis is already published.Collaborative research continue with ICRISAT and FAO in Niger on the removal of the barriers to the adoption of soil fertility restoration technologies through the introduction of the Warrantage Credit Facility in the Sudano Sahelian zone and a progress has been prepared. The Warrantage Credit Facility was initiated to remove barriers to the adoption of soil fertility restoration. It provides access to cash credit to enable farmers to purchase external inputs such as fertilizers, while using storage of crops to enable farmers to get higher prices during the period when market supply begins to decline. In Karabedji, a village of western Niger, fertilizer consumption increased 10 fold from 350 to 3600 kg due to the warrantage system.• Relevant knowledge, methods and decision tools for improved soil management to combat soil degradation, increase agricultural productivity and maintain soil health provided to land users in the tropics APSIM was used to simulate manure technologies, improved manure storage and organic-inorganic N combination technologies. The model failed to simulate trends that were observed in the field for the improved manure storage systems. The model predicts high maize yields in the season of manure application for both high and low manures followed by yield decreases in the subsequent seasons, and this trend was true for high quality manure. The model under-predicts maize yields for high quality manure in the three seasons while for low quality manure the model over-predicts yields in the first season and under-predicts in the second and third seasons. In the field however, there were yields were low in the first season followed by yield increases in the second and third seasons for the low quality manure. For the organic-inorganic N combinations, APSIM over-predicts the effects of fertilizer N only. Manure decision guides have been developed and tested with farmers in Zimbabwe (see attached paper). Current efforts are being made to evaluate the usefulness of these guides as communication tools to enhance uptake of soil management options. There are, however, still a lot of issues that need to be covered to simplify the farmer decision guide and make it easier to use, for example determining the quality parameters and ranges for the different manures available to the farmers.A follow up PRA exercise was carried out to correlate the farmers' quality parameter and laboratory indices on manure quality three districts of Zimbabwe (see attached paper). This was followed by field trials with manures from different categories to test their effects on maize yield. Low maize yields were observed because of the drought, resulting in no treatment differences. Maize will be planted in the second season to test the residual effects of the manures. Use strategies were linked to manure quality however, there is need to explore these aspects further.Other farmer participatory experiments on manure and mineral fertilizer combinations, and soil moisture and nutrient conservation were not successiful. Differences in treatments on the trials were not observed due to the drought. Farmers expressed great interest in having these trials established again for the 2002/3 season.A logit model was used to analyse the determinants of adoption of pit storage system by smallholder farmers. The variables considered for the analysis were the age of the household head, number of cattle owned, educational status of the household, interaction of the household with extension agents, labour availability, experience of using manure and the total household income. Most of these factors were not statistically significant in explaining adoption of the pit storage system. The age of the household head and the number of cattle owned were significant in explaining the adoption of the pit storage system at 5%. Younger farmers were found to have a higher probability of adopting the pit storage system compared to the older farmers. This could be explained by the fact that young farmers have a lower risk aversion and that they are still able bodied and able to cope with the additional labour demands associated with pitting manure. Farmers with large heads of cattle had a lower probability of adopting pit storage system. Those farmers with larger heads of cattle were able to compensate for the poor quality of the manure by applying higher rates of manure per hectare. This could also be a reflection of the labour demands for storing large quantities of manure in a pit. The experience of using manure was statistically significant in explaining adoption at 10%. Farmers with experience using manure were in a better position to accurately assess the risk and returns of pit storing manure compared to heaping the manure.• Relevant knowledge, methods and decision tools for improved soil management to combat soil degradation, increase agricultural productivity and maintain soil health provided to land users in the tropicsThe concept of building an 'arable layer' has developed from the limited success of introducing intensive as well as no-till systems into acid-soil savannas in Colombia. In practice, this involves vertical tillage practices to overcome physical constraints, an efficient use of amendments and fertilizers to correct chemical constraints and imbalances, and the use of improved tropical forage grasses, green manures and other organic matter inputs such as crop residues, to improve the soil's \"bio-structure\" and biological activity. The use of deep-rooting plants in rotational systems to recover water and nutrients from subsoil is also envisaged in this scheme. Intensification of agricultural production on the acid-soil savannas of south America (mainly Oxisols) is constrained by the lack of diversity in acid (aluminum) tolerant crop germplasm, poor soil fertility and high vulnerability to soil physical, chemical and biological degradation. Out of a suite of croppings system options including monocropping, rotation with grain legumes, green manures and agropastoral systems compared with native savanna, only agropastoral systems (including maize/Panicum maximum+legume cocktail = Arachis pintoi, Centrosema acutifolium, Glycine wightii, Stylosanthes capitata) and rice/Brachiaria humidicola + legume cocktail,) were able to simultaneously improve the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil.We investigated the effect of land-use systems and P fertilizer inputs on size of P fractions and their isotopic exchangeability. Differently managed Colombian Oxisols were labeled with carrier free 33 P and sequentially extracted after different incubation times. The recovery of 33 P in the two soils with annual fertilizer inputs and large positive input-output P balances indicated that resin-P i , Bic-P i and NaOH-P i contained most of the exchangeable P. The organic or more recalcitrant inorganic fractions contained almost no exchangeable P. In contrast, in soils with low or no P fertilization, more than 14% of added 33 P was recovered in NaOH-P o and HCl-P o fractions two weeks after labeling, showing that organic P is involved in short term P dynamics.In the Andean hillsides we have shown that an improved fallow with species such as Tithonia diversifolia in a slash and mulch system can contribute to the rapid restoration of soil fertility that has been exhausted after years of cropping with little or no inputs. Increased biomass production, greater accumulation and recycling of plant nutrients, especially phosphorus, with introduced fallow species are the reasons for the observed increases in soil fertility and biological activity. Tithonia has been shown to increase the pool of plant-available phosphorus.• The soils capacity to provide ecosystem services (global warming potential, water quality and supply, erosion control, nutrient cycling) and maintain soil biodiversity in the face of globl change in land use and climate enhancedIn a unique study for tropical savannas we have shown that the introduction of improved pasture species with deep rooting capacities can convert the agroecosystems of the savannas from a net source of global warming potential (total greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane) into a net negative potential or sink. The study is the first to collect data on all greenhouse gas emissions from different land management practices (cropping and pastures) and develop an overall global warming potential based on current and projected land use.• Research and training capacity of stakeholders in the tropics in the fields of soil biology, fertility and tropical agroecosystem management enhanced through the dissemnation of principles, concepts, methods and tools.A participatory approach in the form of a methodological guide has been developed and used in Latin America and the Caribbean (Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Dominican Republic) and Africa (Uganda, Tanzania) in order to identify and classify local indicators of soil quality related to permanent and modifiable soil properties. This methodological tool aims to empower local communities to better manage their soil resource through better decision making and local monitoring of their environment. It is also designed to steer soil management towards developing practical solutions to identified soil constrains, as well as, to monitor the impact of management strategies implemented to address such constraints. The methodological approach presented here constitutes one tool to capture local demands and perceptions of soil constraints as an essential guide to relevant research and development activities. A considerable component of this approach involves the improvement of the communication between the technical officers and farmers and vice versa by jointly constructing an effective communication channel. The participatory process used is shown to have considerable potential in facilitating farmer consensus about which soil related constraints should be tackled first. Consensus building is presented as an important step prior to collective action by farming communities resulting in the adoption of improved soil management strategies at the landscape scale.• Optimum combination of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients In 2002, network experiments were conducted at 7 benchmark locations across 7 countries to investigate the nitrogen and phosphorus contribution of different low quality organic materials that are available for direct use by farmers. The sites include: Banizoumbou, Niger (Interaction of N, P and manure; Biological nitrogen fixation; Combining organic and inorganic plant nutrients for cowpea production); Maseno, Western Kenya; Kogoni, Mali; Farakou Ba, Kou Valley, Burkina Faso; Zaria, Nigeria; Kumasi, Ghana; Davie, Togo; Kabete, Kenya.• Fertilizer equivalencies of legume-cereal cropping For establishing equivalency of fertilizer value of legume-cereal cropping, experiments were established at Maseno in Western Kenya, Zaria in Nigeria, Kumasi in Ghana and Davie in Togo.Other aspects evaluated are Phosphorus (P) placement and P replenishment with Phosphate rock, Placement of phosphorus and manure, and farmer evaluation of soil fertility restoration technologies (Karabedji and Sadore). Abbreviations and acronyms: AABNF, african association for biological nitrogen fixation; AfNet, african network for soil biology and fertility; BNF, biological nitrogen fixation; CGIAR, consultative group on international agricultural research; CIAT, centro internacional de agricultura tropical; CNDC, combating nutrient depletion consortium; CP, challenge program; DSSAT, decision support system for agrotechnology transfer; ECABREN, eastern and central africa bean research network; FPR, farmer participatory research; FYM, farm yard manure; GIS, geographical information systems; ICARDA; ICRAF, international center for research on agroforestry; ICRISAT, international crops research institute for the semiarid tropics; IITA, international institute for tropical agriculture; INM, integrated nutrient management; INRM, integrated natural resource management; ISFM, integrated soil fertility management; MIS, integrated management of soils; NARS, national agricultural research systems; NGOs, nongovernamental organizations; OM, organic matter; ORD, organic resource database; PABRA, panafrican bean research alliance; PRGA, participatory research and gender analysis; Profrijol, Regional bean network for central America, Caribbean and Mexico; QTL, quantitative trait loci; SROs, specialized research organizations; SWNM, soil, water and nutrient management; TSBF, tropical soil biology and fertility; TSP, triple super phosphate; UNDP, united nations development program.It is widely recognized that biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) by the legume-rhizobium symbiosis is an important component of productivity in tropical agriculture, especially in farmland which is marginal either in terms of distance from the markets, or small farm size and poverty of the farmers. This position paper starts out by describing, the importance of BNF to tropical agriculture, the evolution of BNF paradigms, progress in creation of strategic alliances to combat soil fertility degradation, and past accomplishments of BNF-related research at CIAT-TSBF in collaboration with partners. Based on lessons learned, the paper suggests that BNF research should not be conducted in isolation but that a holisticmultidisciplinary-systems approach is needed to integrate BNF-efficient and stress adapted legumes into smallholder systems of the tropics. The paper proposes a number of research and development priorities for the BNF-CP to address for achieving improved contributions of BNF through integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) in the tropics. ISFM is the adoption of a holistic approach to soil fertility that embraces the full range of driving factors and consequences -biological, physical, chemical, social, economic and political -of soil degradation.BNF research on common bean and tropical forage legumes at CIAT started in the 1970s. CIAT maintains a collection of 5,628 Rhizobium strains. Lessons with BNF research in bean can be summarized as follows. BNF has not been a panacea, neither on the side of strain selection nor breeding of the host, but modest progress has been registered. On the one hand, even if response to inoculation is not dramatic, the technology is so inexpensive that any response at all is economically viable. On the other hand, the environment is at least as limiting on BNF as is the strain and the host. Therefore the benefits of BNF are best expressed in the context of an agronomic management system that addresses other components of the crop, especially phosphorus supply, drought stress and not infrequently starter N. Selection for BNF capacity under physiological stress has revealed genotypes (and possibly genetic systems) that are worth exploiting more fully and which could hold keys to broader progress. Research efforts on BNF in tropical forage legumes indicated that the main constraints to the widespread adoption of forage legumes include a lack of legume persistence, the presence of anti-quality factors such as tannins, variable Bradyrhizobium requirements and a lack of acceptability by farmers. The main problem identified is that there is not enough work done on participatory evaluation of legumes with farmers to identify their criteria for acceptability and feed this information forward into germplasm screening. What is needed here is better collaboration among stakeholders to really get legume adoption under way in the tropics.In other research programmes, it was confirmed that there is little scope for using legumes as an entry point to address soil fertility decline, but that there are various opportunities using multipurpose germplasm to indirectly improve the soil fertility status while providing the farmer with immediate products.TSBF researchers in collaboration with partners made substantial progress in creating an organic resource database and using it to construct a decision support system (DSS) for organic matter management based on organic resource quality. Analysis of organic resource data indicated a hierarchical set of critical values of nitrogen, lignin and polyphenol content for predicting the \"fertilizer equivalence\" of organic inputs. This decision tree provides farmers with guidelines for appropriate use of organic materials for soil fertility improvement. On-going TSBF network experiments are now addressing the organic/inorganic nutrient interactions to allow the refinement of the recommendations to farmers. TSBF and CIAT with a wide range of partners are also developing methods for disseminating ISFM options through processes of interactive learning and evaluation among farmers, extensionists and researchers.BNF-related research should proceed along the process-component-systems continuum and lead to demand-driven, on-farm problem-solving. Addressing farmers' problems in a systems context generates management options better suited to their local needs. Developing adoptable legume-BNF technologies to combat soil fertility degradation remains to be a major challenge. Research and development efforts are needed to integrate BNF efficient and stress-adapted grain and forage legume germplasm into production systems to intensify food and feed systems of the tropics. Several key interventions are needed to achieve greater impact of legume-BNF technologies to improve livelihoods of rural poor. These include: (a) integration of stress-adapted, BNF-efficient, grain and forage legume cultivars in rotational and mixed cropping systems, (b) development of management options aiming at optimal use of the legume-N in combination with strategic applications of mineral fertilizers to maximize Various BNF technologies addressinng the problems of food insecurity, poverty and land degradation can be identified with various potentials for BNF (Table 1). Legume-rhizobium symbiosis can sustain tropical agriculture at moderate levels of output, provided all environmental constraints to the proper functioning of the symbiosis have been alleviated (see later). Legumes can accumulate up to 300 kg N ha -1 in 100 to 150 days in the tropics (Table 1). Rhizobial inoculation in the tropics can enhance yield of grain legumes when phosphorus availability in soil is not a major limitation.Legume-cereal intercrops or rotations are widely practiced in the tropics to minimize the risk of crop failure and to provide households with improved diets. Traditionally, the main contribution of BNF in these systems is to improve household food security and human nutrition rather than improved soil fertility. Table 1, however, indicates various other niches for legumes in croppnig systems, each with their own specific contributions to improvement of food security, or land restoration.The African Association of biological nitrogen fixation (AABNF, 2001) summarized the first paradigm for BNF research of the 20 th century as \"the upper limits of BNF may be steadily increased by the collection and evaluation of ever-more effective N 2 -fixing micro organisms and their hosts because the distribution of this elite germless will necessarily accrue benefits following their introduction to production systems\". This paradigm during the 20 th century faced a major challenge that greater knowledge over time was not accompanied by improved BNF in the field. The widening gap between scientific advance of BNF and opportunities realized from their application is leading to the evolution of a new paradigm for BNF research. The 21 st Century Paradigm designed by AABNF for greater BNF impacts may be summarized as \"research in biological nitrogen fixation must be nested into larger understandings of system nitrogen dynamics and land management goals before the comparative benefits of N 2 -fixation may be realistically appraised and understood by society-as-a-whole\". It is critical to note that this assumption does not reduce the importance of nitrogen-fixing organisms and their products, but rather repositions them from a central auto ecological focus into a more integrated component of a larger, more complex task. The rationale behind this new paradigm is that it is not biologically-fixed nitrogen alone which sets the standard for successful contribution to social needs, but rather the products realized from more resilient and productive ecosystems that are strengthened through BNF.The former Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (TSBF), an international institution devoted to integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) research, has joined with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture to form the TSBF Institute of CIAT. This brings together TSBF's expertise in ISFM with that of CIAT in soils and land management as well as the complementary areas of germplasm improvement, pest management, GIS and participatory research. This merger builds on the strong collaboration between CIAT and TSBF in soil fertility research in East Africa that has developed within the CGIAR Systemwide Programme on Soil Water and Nutrient Management (SWNM) for which CIAT is the convening centre. ISFM is the adoption of a holistic approach to soil fertility that embraces the full range of driving factors and consequences -biological, physical, chemical, social, economic and political -of soil degradation. There is a strong emphasis in ISFM research on understanding and seeking to manage the processes that contribute to change. The emergence of this paradigm, very closely related to the wider concepts of Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM), represents a very significant step beyond the earlier, narrower, nutrient replenishment approach to soil fertility enhancement. 1.4 Strategic alliance to combat soil fertility degradation through holistic approach (CIAT-TSBF-ICRAF)Soil fertility degradation has been described as one of the major constraints to food security in developing countries, particularly in Africa. Despite proposals for a diversity of solutions and the investment of time and resources by a wide range of institutions it continues to prove a substantially intransigent problem. The rural poor are often trapped in a vicious poverty cycle between land degradation, fuelled by the lack of relevant knowledge or appropriate technologies to generate adequate income and opportunities to overcome land degradation. Three international institutions, CIAT, TSBF and ICRAF, have joined together to form a strategic alliance, the goal of which is 'to improve rural livelihoods in Africa through sustainable integrated management of soil fertility' (Figure 1). The three partners have made significant contributions to combating soil fertility degradation over the past decade and have also a long record of collaboration through joint research projects. The alliance will go further however by building on existing networks and partnerships to implement a fully integrated programme of research and development activities. This triple alliance is regarded as the first step in a wider partnership consistent with the process of integration of international, and national, agricultural research activities. The ecoregional alliance, formed in 2000 by CIAT, ICARDA, ICRISAT and IITA, reinforces the regional and global dimension of the evolving research and development paradigm. The alliance represent a unique concentration of multidisciplinary expertise in legume research, with over 65 qualified scientists working on various aspects of legume production and utilization (genetic resources and breeding, agronomy and microbiology, plant protection, quality and post-harvest processing, and socio-economics). This ecoregional alliance sees achieving synergy in legume research as a key opportunity to make progress in improving food security, combating environmental degradation and alleviating poverty in developing countries. A BNF-CP would be an important axis of collaboration among the ecoregional alliance centers for all of whom legumes are a high priority. The BNF-CP would not, however, be the only area of collaboration on legumes research among the four centers. The ecoregional alliance will continue to explore other avenues for collaboration on legume genomics, adaptation to biotic and abiotic constraints, agroecosystem health, and rural innovation.1.6 Systemwide Program on Soil, Water and Nutrient Management (SWNM) SWNM is a systemwide global program of CGIAR created in 1996 to help multiple stakeholders rise to the challenge to reverse degradation of soils through the development of sustainable practices for managing soil, water, and nutrients. Operating through four complementary research consortia (combating nutrient depletion, optimising soil water use, managing sloping lands for erosion control, and integrated soil management), the SWNM program has developed a series of decision support tools and methodologies that are being tested across the different regions in Africa, Asia and Latin America covered by the program. SWNM program could serve as an important vehicle to test, promote and deliver BNFefficient legume technologies to improve rural livelihoods of farmers in the tropics.1.7 Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA)PRGA is a CGIAR systemwide program on participatory research and gender analysis for technology development and institutional innovation. The PRGA program develops and promotes methods and organizational approaches for gender-sensitive participatory research on plant breeding and on the management of crops and natural resources. PRGA is cosponsored by CIAT and three other CGIAR centers (ICARDA, CIMMYT and IRRI). A recent review carried out by the PRGA program found very little relevant experience in ISFM research with attention to gender-related needs or constraints (Kaaria and Ashby, 2001). This lack of a client-oriented, gender sensitive approach to the basic design of ISFM technologies has contributed not only to poor adoption but also to inequity. As a result the PRGA is currently supporting research to test novel approaches to pre-adaptive research for ISFM which are incorporating client-oriented participatory research methods, such as gender and stakeholder analysis, into very early stages of technology design. PRGA currently supports research on gender-differentiated approaches to developing technology for integrated nutrient management being conducted by CIAT's parricipatory research team. Linking BNF-CP with PRGA program could markedly enhance the ability to develop appropriate and adoptable legume technologies in the tropics. PRGA, together with ICRISAT, conducted a study on impact of participatory methods in the development and dissemination of legume soil fertility technologies and identified lessons that will be useful in BNF work (Snapp, 1998;1999a, b;Snapp et al., 2001;Johnson et al., 2001). TSBF is a partner in implementation of a subsequent project on the use of participatory approaches in research on natural resource management to improve rural livelhoods for women farmers in risky environments.BNF research at CIAT started in the 1970s. Several scientists including Peter Graham, Judy Kipe-Nolt, Douglas Beck (Beans) and Dick Date, Jack Halliday, Rosemary Bradley, Richard Thomas (Tropical Pastures) and others made significant contributions to developing practical ways to enhance BNF in legumes. CIAT maintains a collection of Rhizobium strains of 5,628 strains.BNF research in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) has spanned the range of strain selection, host improvement, and agronomic management, and recently QTL (quantitative trait loci) studies have been initiated (Graham, 1981;Graham and Temple, 1984;Kipe-Nolt and Giller, 1993;Kipe-Nolt et al., 1993). Thus, the case of bean illustrates both some of the successes and failures of BNF research. An important attribute of common bean, justifying its inclusion in low input systems, is the ability to fix atmospheric N and thereby reduce the depletion of soil resources. Beans in tropical environments are capable of fixing from 50 (CIAT, 1987) to 80 kg N ha -1 (Castellanos et al., 1996). Yet, actual N 2 fixation in bean cultivars is generally low when compared with many other grain legumes. Early research in the late 1970s indicated that this poor BNF is not due to an intrinsic inability of beans to nodulate because profuse nodulation can occur in controlled conditions in the greenhouse and in some soils. Although poor nodulation is frequently observed, soils in most bean growing areas contain large numbers of compatible and effective rhizobia. Selection of adapted Rhizobium strains for beans sown directly in pots of soils environmental constraints. CIAT has developed a group of 20 strains transformed with the gus gene while maintaining the symbiotic and competitive characteristics of the wild type. These genetically modified strains could serve as valuable tools to evaluate competition x environment interactions.Another valuable tool that was developed in 1990s was a series of non-nodulating lines. Mutagenesis was employed to create a mutant with a total lack of nodules. The non-nodulating gene in turn was backcrossed into a series of elite lines, to have at hand a ready tool for estimating the amount of nitrogen fixation in any given situation, by comparing non-nodulating and wild type paired lines.In summary, lessons with nitrogen fixation in bean can be summarized as follows. BNF has not been a panacea, neither on the side of strain selection nor breeding of the host, but modest progress has been registered. On the one hand, even if response to inoculation is not dramatic, the technology is so inexpensive that any response at all is economically viable. On the other hand, the environment is at least as limiting on BNF as is the strain and the host. Therefore the benefits of BNF are best expressed in the context of an agronomic management system that addresses other components of the crop, especially phosphorus, drought and not infrequently starter N. Selection for BNF capacity under physiological stress has revealed genotypes (and possibly genetic systems) that are worth exploiting more fully and which could hold keys to broader progress.BNF research on tropical forage legumes initiated in the late 1970s and continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s (Date and Halliday, 1979;Sylvester-Bradley et al., 1983, 1988, 1991;Sylvester-Bradley, 1984;Thomas, 1993Thomas, , 1995;;Thomas et al., 1997). Taking into account the wide range of forage legume genera being evaluated, about which very little information concerning BNF was available, the main priority was initially to determine need to inoculate. After improving the methodology for evaluation of need to inoculate, specifically by ensuring that the presence of mineral N was not interfering with the evaluations, by using different methods to immobilize mineral N, it was found that a surprisingly large proportion of the legumes showed responses to added N. This indicated that the naturally occurring rhizobial populations were inadequate, either numerically or in nitrogen fixing capacity under the given soil conditions. A program was developed whereby rhizobium strains which a) were able to compete with the native rhizobial population and b) would be effective on as wide a range of legume species as possible, were selected. A new method for strain selection, viz. the screening of large numbers of strains in undisturbed soil cores, was developed, and proved to be highly successful. Many statistically significant responses to rhizobial inoculation in the field were obtained.With funding from the UNDP, a network of scientists was established in the mid 1980s to evaluate legume-rhizobium symbioses in 14 countries of Latin America. The findings of this network were brought together at a workshop held at CIAT in 1987 where appropriate strain recommendations were made, and continue to be revised as a result of field evaluation by network members. The proceedings of this workshop were published in 3 volumes entitled \"The legume-rhizobium symbiosis, proceedings of a workshop on evaluation, selection and agronomic management\". A list of recommended Rhizobium strains for herbaceous and shrubby legumes is available. In addition, a manual of methods for legume-rhizobium studies plus an accompanying audio-visual package has been available for interested researchers in national programs.The marked responses to rhizobial incoulation observed in these trials led to the realization that a new way of inoculating the seeds of legumes was needed, so that the technology would be more available to farmers. In view of the fact that vaccines for both humans and animals are vital in tropical countries, and that the infrastructure for making them available is being developed in many areas, it was considered that this technology might also be useable for rhizobial strains. Traditional peat-based inocula need a large refrigerated storage space, and even if stored under refrigeration have a shelf life of only 6 months. Several different strains of rhizobia are needed for the different legume species being selected for pasturebased production systems, which complicates even further the possibility of supplying good quality traditional peat-based inoculants to farmers. CIAT therefore initiated a project to develop freeze-dried rhizobial inocula, also with funding from the UNDP. This project demonstrated that such inocula could survive for several years in vacuum-sealed vials, and that they can be suspended in water and applied to the seeds with high survival rates. This technology could well be a realistic alternative for supplying forage legume seeds and rhizobial inocula to farmers.Work on quantification of N 2 fixation using 15 N dilution studies was carried out in the late 1980s through a Swiss Development Corporation funded project (Cadisch et al., 1989(Cadisch et al., , 1993)). This project demonstrated the need to maintain adequate levels of both P and K for legume-based pastures that rely on biologically fixed N to supply the N requirement of the pasture.CIAT researchers were also the first to demonstrate fungal/bacterial inhibitory role of Bradyrhizobium strains isolated from tropical forage legumes (Kelemu et al., 1995). Screening of 15 strains of Bradyrhizobium from CIAT collection with in vitro tests showed that Bradyrhizobium can inhibit mycelial growth, reduce or prevent sclerotial formation, and inhibit sclerotial germination in Rhizoctonia solani. In addition, cell-free culture filtrates of three strains of Bradyrhizobium had inhibitory effects on the growth of the bacteria Escherichia coli and Xanthomonas compestris. The antifungal/antibacterial property may increase the competitiveness of Bradyrhizobium strains and enhance the chance of nodule occupancy and other beneficial responses with compatible forage legumes. Further research is justified to determine the impact of Bradyrhizobium strains on integrated disease and pest management in crop-livestock systems.As the objective of selection for improved N 2 fixation was mostly achieved, research in 1990s broadened from N 2 fixation per se to the role of the legume and N in productive and sustainable pasture and crop-pasture systems (Thomas, 1992;1995). This work showed that tropical forage legumes have the capacity to meet the requirements to balance the N cycle of grazed pastures. It also showed that the actual amounts required could depend on the rate of pasture utilization and the efficiency of recycling via litter, excreta and internal remobilisation. The efficiency of N 2 fixation (%of legume N derived from fixation) was found to be usually high in tropical pastures (> 80%) and is unlikely to be affected by inorganic soil N in the absence of N fertilizer application. This work resulted in a recommendation that an estimate of the amounts of N fixed by tropical forage legumes could be obtained from simple estimates of legume biomass provided tissue levels of P and K are adequate for plant growth.In an on-going and long-term crop-pasture rotations experiment in tropical savannas of Colombia, N dynamics were studied under cereal monocultures and rotations with greenmanure legumes with the objective to determine the use efficiency and fate of N derived from inorganic and organic sources (Friesen et al., 1998). Results indicated that N recovery by crops from residues was low (7-14%) while recovery from fertilizer was far greater (26-50% in biomass). Sequential measurements of soil profile mineral-N concentrations indicated a large accumulation of nitrate content to 1-m depth through the dry season and substantial nitrate movement through the soil profile during the wet season under both rotations and monocultures. Thus in a high leaching environments of humid tropics, poor N supplydemand synchrony can result in substantial leaching of nitrate below the crop rooting zone and eventual contamination of the ground water. Use of deep-rooted crop, forage and fallow components could minimize N losses from legume-based systems in the tropics.It was realized that the main constraints to the widespread adoption of forage legumes include a lack of legume persistence, the presence of anti-quality factors such as tannins, variable Bradyrhizobium requirements and lack of acceptability by farmers. But \"lack of legume persistence\" is not really a limitation if the seed is cheap enough. The legume seed can be broadcast into an already established pasture. Seed can cost as little as $4/kg and only 3 kg of Stylosanthes are needed per hectare. The problem is that there is not enough work done on participatory evaluation of legumes with farmers. What is needed here is better collaboration among stakeholders to really get legume adoption under way in the tropics.In areas where access to adequate quantities of mineral fertilizers is beyond the reach of low resource endowed farmers, organic sources of nutrients of animal and plant origins e.g. legumes will continue to be a critical source of nutrients (Palm et al., 1997). Organic materials influence nutrient availability (i) by nutrients added, (ii) through mineralization-immobilization patterns, (iii) as an energy source for microbial activities, (iv) as precursors to soil organic matter, and (v) by reducing the P sorption of the soil. The TSBF-SWNM (CNDC) organic resource database (ORD) with over 2000 data entries has been used to construct a decision support system (DSS) for organic matter management based on contents of nitrogen, polyphenol and lignin. Most studies indicated a linear response between N content and fertilizer equivalency values (FEQ) of the material with an increase of 8% FEQ for every increase of 0.1% N. In a recent study on evaluating FEQ of Tithonia diversifolia, Tephrosia, Sesbania and pigeon pea, yield increases up to 48% were recorded. This decision tree provides farmers with guidelines for appropriate use of organic materials for soil fertility improvement. On-going TSBF network experiments are now addressing the organic/inorganic nutrient interactions to allow the refinement of the recommendations to farmers. A systematic framework for investigating the combined use of organic and inorganic nutrient sources includes farm surveys, characterization of quality of organic materials, assessment of the FEQ value based on the quality of organics, and experimental designs for determining optimal combinations of nutrient sources. The desired outcome is tools that can be used by researchers, extensionists and farmers for assessing options of using scarce resource for maintaining soil fertility and improving crop yields (Palm et al., 1997). With the recent success of CIAT scientists with their partners in linking of the DSSAT crop models with the CENTURY soil organic matter model (Gijsman et al., 2002), the nutritive value of organic substrates for crop production can be analyzed under a range of climatic and soil conditions and for many different crops. The combined DSSAT-CENTURY also proved to be an excellent tool for evaluating the SOM pattern under low-input systems.A combination of resource flow mapping, ORD and FEQ has helped farmers to identify options for enhancing farm productivity and sustainability. Analysis of organic resource data indicated a hierarchical set of critical values of nitrogen, lignin and polyphenol content for predicting the \"fertilizer equivalence\" of organic inputs. TSBF and CIAT with a wide range of partners are also developing methods for disseminating ISFM options through processes of interactive learning and evaluation among farmers, extensionists and researchers.The potential for legumes is increasing for many smallholder farming systems in Africa as soil fertility declines and livestock management is intensified (Wortman and Kirungu, 2000). These two researchers summerized lessons from several cases where legumes have been promoted for soil improvement or forage. The cases included Mucuna in Benin, Sesbania and Tephrosia in Zambia, Calliandra in Kenya, improved fallows and green manures in Rwanda, Stylosanthes in west Africa, Tephrosia in eastern Uganda, best-bet niche options in central and eastern Uganda, and Lablab in western Kenya. These cases included those where the practice was well adopted by farmers, as well as cases of unconfirmed promise, and adoption failure.Over 15 years of work in West Africa with leguminous trees in alley cropping systems and Mucuna cover crops has led to a series of conclusions. First of all, such systems are technically sound and do maintain crop yields at substantially higher levels than traditional cropping systems. However, their adoption by farmers is relatively low or absent because (i) the appropriate niches for such systems were not properly identified (e.g., alley cropping must be targeted to high population density areas where firewood is needed and fertilizer is not easily available) and (ii) resource poor farmers require immediate benefits besides improved soil fertility.As a result of above developments and maybe due to the existence of crop improvement and resource management programs in the same institute, dual purpose grain and fodder legumes have been developed at IITA which improve the soil fertility status besides providing grains and fodder. Such legumes usually have a large proportion of N derived from the atmosphere, a low N harvest index and produce a substantial amount of above ground biomass. Residual effects on a cereal crop are often dramatic and fertilizer use to a subsequent cereal can be cut by 50% while still producing similar maize yields as a fully fertilized maize crop. Furthermore it was found that, e.g., soybean and cowpea could be false hosts for Striga hermonthica. One dual purpose soybean variety, TGX-1448-2E was specifically appreciated by farmers in Northern Nigeria, who commented that this variety yields more, produces more biomass than their own varieties. In addition, their succeeding maize/sorghum crops gave good yields with less N fertiliser than they would normally apply. The highest net benefits for the two seasons (1450 US$) were obtained with the rotation of TGX 1448-2E followed by the local variety Samsoy 2 (1000 US$). The lowest net benefits (600 US$) were obtained with lablab (Sanginga et al. 2001).From our past achievements, it is clear that BNF can contribute directly to the needs of a growing crop or can be added to the soil so contributing to its fertility. For sustainable agriculture in the tropics, there are two options: inorganic N fertilizers and BNF technologies that are less dependent on external purchased inputs. Approaches relying purely on external inputs are not often feasible, particularly for resource-poor farmers of the smallholder systems. In Africa, where the price of inorganic fertilizers is several times higher than world price, alternatives to inorganic fertilizers are especially important. A consensus has emerged that systems of ISFM are the only way forward, and it is in this context that we must consider the inputs from BNF (Figure 2).Decision by farmers to adopt ISFM is influenced by (and influences) a range of factors which can be grouped in 4 main dimensions, biophysical, economical, social, and policy (Kaaria and Ashby, 2001). The biophysical dimension influence on farmers include the basic characteristics of the BNF technologies as well as the overall quality of the resource base. The main economic factor that influences whether farmers practice ISFM is whether the economic benefits outweigh the costs, especially in the short run. ISFM/BNF technologies are often labor intensive and if labor costs are too high-or come at the wrong time of the year when farmers are busy with other activities--then farmers can not profitably adopt the technologies. Often labor-intensive practices like ISFM are only profitable when used with high value commercial crops. Social dimension also influence adoption and impact of ISFM. Where crop production responsibilities (and rights) are gender specific, ISFM technologies need to be consistent with these, e.g., appropriate for women work schedules or don't add additional labor for women when men get the benefits. Legumes can have important human health benefits, although care must be taken to assure that foods are properly prepared (e.g., mucuna) and culturally appropriate (if people won't eat them then may be can use as animal feed). Finally, a supportive policy environment is key to achieving widespread adoption. Fertilizer prices should be rational (not subsidized or taxed) and reflect real costs. This is the best way to ensure that farmers use the right combinations of organic and inorganic soil fertility management practices in their technologies. In addition, property tenure security is important to realize benefits of long-term investments, land ownership or long-term rental/use arrangements are important. Infrastructure investments such as roads and communications that open up marketing opportunities can help make adoption of ISFM profitable. Legume BNF can be a key input to ISFM. When legume BNF technologies are appropriately designed taking into consideration the incentives provided by each of these four dimensions, they could have positive impacts in each dimension as well. Legume-BNF technolologies can improve the sustainability of crop-livestock systems (biophysical), improve profitability, contribute to improved nutrition and gender equity (social). At the marco level, increased use of legume-BNF technologies could reduce use of costly imported inorganic fertilizers (policy).Most tropical soils have low inherent fertility and exhibit a variety of edaphic and climatic constraints including water stress, nutrient deficiency, low organic matter, and high erodibility. Inadequate soil and crop management has exacerbated these problems to an alarming extent. As a result of insufficient levels of nutrient replacement for that taken in harvest and other losses, high negative nutrient balances are commonly reported, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.Intensification of agricultural production on smallholdings is required to meet the food and income needs of the poor, and this cannot occur without investment in soil fertility. Investing in soil fertility management is necessary to help households mitigate many of the characteristics of poverty, for example by improving the quantity and quality of food, income, and resilience of soil productive capacity. The effects of soil fertility degradation are not confined to the impact on agricultural production. The living system of the soil also provides a range of ecosystem services that are essential to the well-being of farmers and society as a whole.BNF-related research should proceed along the process-component-systems continuum and lead to demand-driven, on-farm problem-solving. Given the diversity of N 2 -fixing organisms, symbioses and habitats in which these organisms operate and the wide application and demand for fixed-nitrogen, BNF studies are by definition multi-disciplinary. Under the first paradigm for BNF research, microbiologists, plant physiologists and agronomists recognized the need for collaboration to respond to challenges posed by better management of nitrogen fixation, and now is the time to recognize the additional strengths derived from expanding this collaboration into wider interdisciplinarity as a means of better translating research findings into social benefits. Systems approach includes the involvement of stakeholders to finetune problem definition, the research itself, and the implementation of results. Stakeholders are farmers and citizens on farm and community levels, and policy makers and planners at higher level of aggregation.A comprehensive systems approach could be a necessary condition for the development of innovative, BNF-efficient, legume-based sustainable systems of the future. A programme of work must build on and use methods that have already proved successful and also develop and borrow others where significant gaps in understanding or application occur.The implementation of ISFM strategies on farms is likely to make the biggest contribution to agricultural sustainability in the tropics during the coming decade. When combined with robust, highly productive crop varieties, it is not uncommon for such systems to double yields in farmers' fields. The use of improved varieties is an integral part of the ISFM approach; ISFM is a specific strategy under the overall INRM research framework that aims at lifting the borders between crop improvement and natural resource management. A vital aspect of these strategies is the incorporation of farmers' indigenous knowledge at an early stage of systems development to enhance the adoption of ensuing technology.Considerable evidence exists that farmers have accumulated knowledge relevant for agronomic management (Carter and Murwira, 1995;Murage et al., 2000). Encouraging as this is, increasing land degradation, including often substantial soil fertility decline, suggests that locally devised methods, on their own, are no longer effective enough to cope with rapidly changing pressures on farmers (Johannes and Lewis, 1993;Pinstrup-Andersen and Pandya-Lorch, 1994;Murdoch and Clark, 1994).Farmers generally possess a vast body of knowledge about environmental resources in their farms but this knowledge is largely based on observable features (Talawar and Rhoades, 1998) rather than generalized knowledge. There is a general lack of process-based knowledge about agro-ecosystem function which is needed to cope with change, especially since much of it is unprecedented (i.e. climate change). This is in particular true for colonist farmers (Muchagata and Brown, 2000). In essence, lack of knowledge creates uncertainty that obstructs sound decision-making under conditions of change. This uncertainty about agro-ecosystem function prevents farmers from taking decisions that are too risky, and may have contributed to their reputation of being risk-averse. However, recent research points out that scientific knowledge can reduce farmers' decision-making uncertainty by enhancing local knowledge (Fujisaka, 1996). Some examples already exist that show how this can have positive synergistic effects for agro-ecosystem management (Steiner, 1998;Norton et al., 1998;Robertson et al., 2000).A holistic systems approach of ISFM is needed to address the smallholder to medium scale farming sector throughout the diverse agroecological zones of the tropics. This systems approach does not exclude process and molecular studies, but rather suggests that these tools be focused upon recognized constraints within farming systems. Research efforts on legume-BNF related aspects thereby become tools toward larger purpose, particularly in achieving food security and improving the diets of poor people in the tropics.Environmental factors affect BNF via growth and development of the host plant, the bacteria and also the process of interaction between the symbionts from the time of infection through the development of the nodules to the production and transport of products. The identification of the processes that are most sensitive to environmental constraints promises the greatest success in breeding programs or in an improvement of agronomic practices (Rao, 2001). The major environmental factors affecting BNF in the tropics are drought, soil acidity, soil nutrient deficiency and soil salinity. As substantial genetic variability in tolerance to most environmental constraints exists in both host legumes and rhizobial strains (Hungria and Vargas, 2000), there is potential for breeding and selection for improved genetic adaptation.Significant gains in impact can be achieved in the short to medium term by taking advantage of the huge legume and Rhizobium gene banks in participatory field evaluation and identification of stress-adapted legumes to specific ecological niches.Drought: It was recognized that drought affects BNF in legumes significantly. Decrease in soil moisture causes a rapid decline in the numbers of rhozobia in soil. However, Bradyrhizobium strains are more tolerant of desiccation than strains of Rhizobium over short periods (Bushby and Marshall, 1977). Rates of N 2 -fixation by legumes are more sensitive to reductions in soil moisture content than other processes such as photosynthesis, transpiration, leaf growth rates or nitrate assimilation (Serraj et al., 1999). Ureide-exporting legumes with determinate nodules appear to be more sensitive to drought than amide-exporting legumes (Serraj et al., 1999).Given the expansion of drought at an alarming state, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and the need for incorporation of legumes into systems to improve soil fertility, there is a real need to improve the drought resistance of nitrogen fixing legumes. Although challenging, there is an opportunity to improve drought resistance using the existing genetic diversity and available tools in genetic engineering. CIAT has been working on development of drought resistant bean varieties, and identified resistant materials like BAT 477, to be used as genetic sources. A drought protocol was also recently developed for improvement of the genetic adaptation of beans in Africa (Amede et al., 2002). A possible strategy in the short-term could be improving water-holding capacity of tropical soils by increasing soil organic matter content and rate of water infiltration while reducing run-off and soil erosion. As most grain legumes in the tropics are grown as intercrops or relay crops, selecting best companion crops and adjusting the planting dates could minimize water stress effects on BNF.Soil acidity: Soil acidity is expanding in the humid and sub-humid tropics, mainly caused by improper land use and high rainfall intensity that encourage leaching of cations. Effects of soil acidity and the associated Al (aluminum) toxicity and P deficiency on BNF could be minimized through increasing the rhizosphere pH. One immediate option is liming but this is beyond the reach of resource-poor farmers, particularly in Africa. There is a consensus that continuous cultivation of legumes over longer time could lead to soil acidification. Therefore, crop rotation or intercropping legumes with cereals (maize-bean or sorghum-cow pea) is one sustainable strategy to improve BNF. Moreover, there are some tropical legumes that produce root exudates (mucilages & organic acids) that could minimize the effects of soil acidification through complexing Al ions. Other potential strategy is to identify legumes less sensitive to Al toxicity. Bean researchers at CIAT are breeding for improved Al resistance. ECABREN bean network in Africa has identified bean materials that are less sensitive to Al toxicity when grown under acidic soils of Democratic Republic of Congo. CIAT researchers in collaboration with NARS partners have selected a number of tropical forage legumes with very high adaptation to acid soils of the tropics (Rao, 2001).Soil nutrient deficiency: As mentioned earlier, the most limiting nutrient for BNF is known to be P, which becomes limiting in most tropical soils not only for legumes but also for all other crops. The P deficit in soils of the tropics is the result of combined effect of low inherent P content, very high P fixation, and limited application of soluble P (Rao et al., 1999). Some legumes (e.g. pigeonpea, chickpea) are much more efficient in utilizing P in P-fixing soils, mainly through release of organic acids that increase its availability. Moreover, ECABREN of CIAT identified bean materials that are performing well under low N, low P and low pH soils of Eastern & Central Africa, indicating genetic difference in nutrient use efficiency. Other institutes are working with P efficient cowpea and soybean (Sanginga et al., 2001).Soil salinity: Legumes that are grown in the drought-prone environments of sub-Saharan Africa, with saline or sodic soils, are commonly exposed to salt stress. Soil salinity could affect BNF through induction of water stress, pH effect, direct effect of Na ions or a combined effect. However, the rhizobia were found to be more tolerant than the host plant. Since the initial effect of slat stress is commonly expressed as water stress, improving the soil water availability would improve salt resistance of both grain and multipurpose legumes. Another strategy is integration of well-adapted N-fixing perennial legumes to reduce soil pH through acidification.As indicated before (section 2.1) one of the bred lines of beans, BAT 477, is not only BNFefficient but also well-adapted to major abiotic stress factors such as water stress and low P availability in soil. What is the probability that independent genes control tolerance of BNF to different stresses; that still other genes control BNF in stress-free environments; and these have come together in one genotype without any conscious selection? This is unlikely. Rather, the same genes probably confer high BNF under all these conditions. In this case, what mechanism could explain the tolerance of these genes to at least two stress factors? The genes of BAT 477 may be regulatory genes that are less sensitive to an internal stimulus that results in down-regulation and are thus less active in regulating BNF. Thus they confer high BNF under a wide range of conditions. It is significant that some QTL, which were tagged in BAT 477 under low P stress, also contributed to better BNF in the high P supply, suggesting that the corresponding alleles in DOR 364 (less adapted to low P supply) may not be expressed fully, even in optimal environments. Could gene regulation therefore limit BNF under optimal conditions? This hypothesis represents a different perspective on what restricts BNF in common bean. There is a need to investigate to what extent the poor BNF of common bean in fact reflects internal limitations of gene regulation.Legumes do occupy space and time in cropping systems and consequently, suitable temporal and spatial niches need to be identified within farming systems for widespread adoption by the farmer community. Temporal niches are defined by sequential or simultaneous occurrence of legumes while spatial niches are defined by the optimum location to plant legumes, based on farmers' production objectives. The latter often include under-utilized spaces on farm such as field boundaries, contour strips, or degraded fields. Snapp et al. (1998) identified six temporal niches for legumes. Spatial niches are also related to the existence of within-farm soil fertility gradients, created by inherent soil properties but more often by deliberate land management by the farmer. Such gradients are very often linked to farmers' wealth, and the overall socio-economic environment (e.g., access to input and output markets, credit schemes for intputs, etc.).Even nutrient use efficient and promiscuous legume germplasm requires proper crop management for optimal contributions of BNF. To alleviate P constraints to BNF, the simplest option is to apply soluble P fertilizer. In absence of such resource, another possible strategy is through application of rock phosphate. Preliminary evidence shows that certain legumes can immediately access P from unreactive rock phosphates where cereals do not have that ability (Vanlauwe et al., 2000a). Proper targeting of P in legume-cereal rotations has also been shown to significantly enhance the growth of maize after application of rock phosphate to herbaceous legumes (Vanlauwe et al., 2000b). A last alternative to alleviate P stress would be through application of farmyard manure which often contains considerable amounts of available P.Even for N, except for the most efficient N 2 fixing legumes, there is often a need to supply a starter N especially for those legumes growing in low fertility soils. In multiple cropping systems of the tropics, it is possibly only the homestead, the most fertile corner of the farm that may not require external P inputs and/or starter N because of continual application of farmyard manure and household residues.The efficient use of fixed N incorporated in the legume biomass is the net result of the dynamics of N in the system and is affected both by intrinsic characteristics of N sources (legume residues, N fertilizers) and N sinks (crop uptake, soil N pools), and by environmental factors (temperature, soil moisture, rainfall intensity and distribution, etc.) that govern process rates. The decomposition and N release rates of crop residues and green manures depend on their composition (ratio of C:N and content of lignin and polyphenols as well as soil temperature and moisture and the interaction of residues with soil (affected by management) (Palm et al., 2001). N derived from organic sources which is not taken up by the crops or incorporated in the soil organic matter pool may be lost from the system through volatilisation, denitrification, and leaching. Improving synchrony of crop demand with the rate of legume residue decomposition is therefore of fundamental importance for the efficient use of N from leguminous green manures, covers and residues.Within the INM framework, it is now recognized that both organic and mineral inputs are necessary to enhance crop yields without deteriorating the soil resource base. This recognition has a practical dimension because either of the two inputs are hardly ever available in sufficient quantities to the small scale farmer, but it also has an important resource management dimension as there is potential for added benefits created by positive interactions between both inputs when applied in combination. Such interactions can lead to improved use efficiency of the nutrients applied in organic or mineral form or both (Vanlauwe et al., 2001). Two sets of hypotheses can be formulated, based on whether interactions between fertilizer and OM are direct or indirect. For N fertilizer, the Direct Hypothesis may be formulated as: Temporary immobilization of applied fertilizer N may improve the synchrony between the supply of and demand for N and reduce losses to the environment. Obviously, residue quality aspects will strongly determine the validity of this hypothesis. The Indirect Hypothesis may be formulated for a certain plant nutrient X supplied as fertilizer as: Any organic matter-related improvement in soil conditions affecting plant growth (except the nutrient X) may lead to better plant growth and consequently enhanced efficiency of the applied nutrient X.Due to the complexity involved, the efficient use of participatory approaches in the early preadaptive stages of BNF research will ensure that BNF technologies are client-oriented and respond to the needs of farmers and other end-users. Farmer participatory research (FPR) is increasingly receiving considerable recognition in both international and national agricultural research and development organizations as an important strategic research issue, vital to achieving impacts that benefit poor people in marginal, diverse and complex environments. There is now a large body of literature that demonstrates considerable advantages and potentials of involving farmers in the research process. FPR can significantly improve the functional efficiency of formal research (better technologies, more widely adopted, more quickly and wide impacts), empower marginalized people and groups to strengthen their own decision making and research capacity to make effective demands on research and extension services and thus have payoffs both for farmers and for scientists.Legumes very often provide other benefits besides fixed N to the cropping system of which they are part. Although rotational effects of legumes on subsequent cereals have often been translated into N fertilizer replacement values, rotational benefits can not always be explained in terms of N addition to the system. Besides improving the soil physical structure, deep-rooting perennial species may recover nutrients from the subsoil and reverse top-soil degradation (e.g., reverse soil acidification caused by fertilizer use, Vanlauwe et al., 2001). Legumes have also been shown to alter pest and disease spectra and to reduce the Striga seedbank. All the above processes are alleviating a constraint to crop growth and may consequently lead to improved use efficiency of applied N fertilizer, following the indirect hypothesis (section 4.1.5.)Innovations can be considered as demand-driven or as supply-driven. It is fair to say that in the eyes of farmers BNF options may belong to the second category, or at best, are a mixture of both. Furthermore soil fertility decline as an ISFM issue is complex, difficult to prevent given farmers' situation, and easily to detect only when yields drop sharply. This infers that many ISFM innovations will be most effective as conservative or preventative innovations; adopting means often to sacrifice short-term profits for reducing a decline in returns in the future. These innovations have often slow rates of adoption. Simultaneously, farmers vary in their risk preferences of an innovation, and perceptions are affected by information introducing further heterogeneity due different sources of and exposure to information. Often farmers do not face the problem targeted by the innovation or the innovation simply does not work. In addition, farmers will not commit to adoption of an innovation without successfully trialling it. If smallscale trials are not possible or not enlightening for some reason, as frequently the case in heterogeneous and fragile environments that are target regions for BNF, the chances of widespread adoption are greatly diminished. Conducting a trial incurs costs of time, energy, finance and land that could be used productively for other purposes. Furthermore the fact that economic and environmental conditions are rapidly changing today makes the adaptation of present land use systems and the process of including BNF in ISFM largely a process of managing the uncertain.By taking a pro-poor approach, international agricultural research has developed the means to achieve large-scale impacts, responding to the demands of small-scale farmers for improved agricultural production and ecosystem services. Many ISFM options are locally profitable, even under intensely cultivated, land-scarce conditions. The knowledge-intensity and complexity of the ISFM approach, however, makes it difficult to translate local successes from one area to another, unless the factors favouring and constraining adoption are better understood. Increasing our understanding of where ISFM options are working, why, and for whom, will address the constraints limiting their wider use. The cost of not engaging in this research is likely to be enormous, in terms of greater poverty, stagnant and declining production, degraded ecosystem services, and the loss of intellectual property rights related to the local genetic resources of the soil.Facilitating widespread use and impact of ISFM to solve soil fertility problems in the tropics will thus require a tighter linkage and feedback between strategic and adaptive research activities. The iterative process of learning and problem solving builds on indigenous knowledge, improves imperfect technologies, and empowers farmers and institutions. Addressing farmers' problems in a systems context generates management options better suited to their local needs. It also produces policy options that are suited to local institutional realities.The paradigm of involving farmers in research is based on strong evidence (Pretty and Hine 2001) that enhancing farmers technical skills and research capabilities, and involving them as decision-makers in the technology development process results in innovations that are more responsive to their priorities, needs and constraints. It is now widely recognized that these farmer participatory research (FPR) approaches may have wider applications for improving rural livelihoods in complex and diverse low potential areas where a \"systems\" approach is critical for the analysis and improvement of the production systems (Okali et al. 1994).The active involvement of producers in the design of the ISFM system enables researchers and stakeholders to examine and understand the local farming systems and the larger context within which they exist, to incorporate local knowledge into technology innovation, and to develop locally appropriate solutions. A hallmark of FPR approaches is the link it establishes between the formal and local research systems (Ashby et al., 2000). This link enables farmers to express their technology needs and to help shape the technology developed through formal research. Participatory research decentralises control over the research agenda and permits much broader set of stakeholders to become involved in research, thereby addressing the differential needs of men and women for technical innovation.Finally, farmer participatory experimentation and learning approaches represent an investment in the human and social capital available to poor farming families that can be harnessed to provide a systematic feedback process on farmers demands and priorities to research providers. These approaches build farmers' capacity to learn about knowledge intensive processes, biological and ecological complexities (Pretty and Hine, 2001) and can create a sustained, collective capacity for innovation focused on improving livelihoods and the management of natural resources.Scientific and local knowledge can be analyzed in relation to prevailing uncertainties about the innovation using an approach to uncertainty suggested by Rowe (1994). Rowe explains how uncertainty extends through many parts of the decision problem by distinguishing temporal, metrical, structural and translational uncertainty. Temporal uncertainty is associated with fluctuations of processes over time. Metrical uncertainty is introduced by errors associated with the estimation of parameters in a spatially varying resource base. Structural uncertainty is related to the imperfection of the decision model itself. Translational uncertainty arises from contrasts between the perspectives of individuals involved in the decision process.For example: In deciding how to apply fertilizer, metrical uncertainty could be reduced by more precise definition of the relationship between inputs and response. Unlike farmers in highly intensive cropping systems, small-scale farmers in tropical systems do not have ready access to modern monitoring techniques. But they do possess long time series understanding of relations at on one location that has been generated through repeated observations. These accumulated observations can be related to relevant scientific soil parameters presented above, or their local counterparts, providing opportunities for the development of spatially explicit indicators.Temporal uncertainty could be reduced by specifying the phase of crop development for which such a relationship is valid. Farmers have already assembled plenty of experience doing this when deciding, for example, when to enter a fallowed plot into the productive system. Scientists can help to render farmers' experiences made in traditional systems transferable to new cropping circumstances by relating them to underlying processes. On this basis, for example, indicator plants can specifically be selected and grown in new cropping systems. Simple monitoring devices such as leaf colour meters provide more opportunities.Structural uncertainty could be reduced by defining more of the interactions of fertilizer applications with other variables, such as pest and weed infestation or rainfall, and translational uncertainty could be reduced by formulating the actions suggested to reduce the other types of uncertainty in terms which are relevant to the hillside farmers. Reducing structural and translational uncertainty is probably least amenable to formal scientific investigation. Structural uncertainty because of huge complexity of the interactions and the variation in the natural resource base in hillside environments, and translational uncertainty because of the little attention given by scientists to what matters for farmers. To reduce the former, scientists need to understand whether variation matters to farmers, and if so how much of it farmers are willing and able to manage. Relevant and informative trials are essential.If farmers had complete information innovations identified as being relevant would be implemented without delay. Information about complex farming systems and their externalities is however not complete. A pragmatic choice of whether or not to implement an innovation at farm level has to be made about whether or not it is sensible to manage variation more closely, which is based on the interrelated questions of whether as-yet unmanaged variation is significant, whether it is controllable and predictable? All three conditions of significance, control and predictability must be satisfied before improvement can occur.Significance: this is largely a question to be decided by individual farmers. But research has demonstrated that farmers are well aware of problems, and their natural tendency to experiment demonstrates their willingness to change.Control and prediction: in most farms there is uncontrolled variation that is usually of no benefit to farmers. Farmers have the capacity for field-by-field control, and some in-field control. However the capacity to control is limited by farmers' experiences based on long-term observations that usually do relate to traditional cropping systems and control by these means cannot directly be used for new innovations. Second, for control to be effective, the relationship between variation of the controllable inputs and output must also be known to some degree.The key to reducing uncertainty is on-farm trialling, preferably on the farmer's own property. For these reasons, rapid adoption of ISFM management options, involving combinations of unfamiliar and complex innovations that are difficult to trial, are unlikely to occur until they are considered relevant and essential by farmers. Furthermore, even if they are considered relevant and essential, appropriate designs of trialling have to be defined that overcome obstacles including:• Treatments often must be implemented in combinations which make it difficult to determine from field observations alone the individual impacts of each element of the combination. For a trial to be worthwhile, the results of the trial must be observable. • The effectiveness of some innovations may be very sensitive to temporal changes (e.g. weather conditions) or the quality of implementation. As a result trials give highly variable results from time to time.• Economic comparisons based on typical agronomic small-scale research trials can be very misleading. However, the larger the trial is, the less likely the farmer is to make the investment in trialling.Principles of ISFM could influence diverse stakeholders in the tropics to alter the ways they address soils and their management, at a variety of scales. Promotion of ISFM approaches will require increasing participation of national and international research and development organizations, networks, NGO's, and extension agencies working in the tropics. Significant adoption of a range of ISFM technologies has been documented across a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These include (a) integrated nutrient management, (b) micro-dose use of fertilisers, (c) improved manure management practices, (d) inter-cropping systems, (e) integration of multipurpose legumes, (f) improved fallows, and (g) biomass transfer of high quality organic inputs. However, much of these adoption studies have focused on conventional factors influencing adoption of agricultural technologies. The complexity of ISFM technologies and processes require the identification farmers' decision-making processes, constraints and opportunities for the adoption of ISFM technologies, and the identification of farmers' criteria for acceptability of BNF technologies. This will require improving understanding of the complex linkages between livelihood assets and strategies and ISFM adoption, and the impacts of ISFM technologies on rural livelihoods. Measuring the impacts of ISFM is a complex task. We need to develop innovative methods that enable to track changes in the systems through the use of participatory monitoring and evaluation systems to learn from successes and failures.The capacity for ISFM research in the tropics is insufficient both in terms of the numbers of professional personnel and the essential laboratory facilities. ISFM is a knowledge intensive approach to soil management. Professional staff and students alike suffer from isolation and lack of access to up-todate educational opportunities. Networks run by SROs and CGIAR Centres, such as the TSBF African Network for Soil Biology and Fertility (AfNet) and MIS (Integrated Management of Soils) consortium in Central America provide a vehicle of opportunity to correct this situation. A substantial number of short term, degree-related, and on-the-job training activities, across the tropics could help spread ISFM approaches at all national levels, including university curricula. Some of the groundwork for scaling up and out has been laid through an emphasis on the synthesis of results and dissemination of information on the technologies and on developing partnerships between research, extension services and NGOs. TSBF-CIAT researchers have experience in developing and applying decision guides to assist extension staff and farmers in selecting among soil fertility options for different situations (Palm et al., 2001). The use of accessible, user-friendly GIS tools and geo-spatial datasets for the region can be used in the scaling process, by identifying recommendation areas for BNF technologies. Scaling up requires sustained capacity building to build the requisite skills among the NARS to ensure that the work is involving and reaching the intended beneficiaries. It also requires building local capacities and empowering rural communities to improve their technical skills and decision-making on soil fertility, in support of scaling up and sustaining impacts of ISFM technologies. Efforts to engage with policy makers and private sector input suppliers and dealers should also be strengthened.In this brief position paper we have argued that BNF is a key input to ISFM strategy to combat soil fertility degradation and for sustainable intensified agriculture in the tropics. The reasons for lack of success in solving the soil fertility problem lie substantially in the failure to deal with the issue in a sufficiently holistic way. Soil fertility decline is not a simple problem. In ecological parlance it is a 'slow variable', which interacts pervasively over time with a wide range of other biological and socio-economic constraints to sustainable agroecosystem management. It is not just a problem of nutrient deficiency but also of inappropriate germplasm and cropping system design, of interactions with pests and diseases, of the linkage between poverty and land degradation, of often perverse national and global policies with respect to incentives, and of institutional failures. Tackling soil fertility issues thus requires a long-term perspective and holistic multidisciplinary systems approach of integrated soil fertility management.Developing adoptable legume-BNF technologies to combat soil fertility degradation remains to be a major challenge. Research and development efforts are needed to integrate BNF efficient and stress adapted grain and multipurpose legume germplasm into production systems to intensify food and feed systems of the tropics. Several key interventions are needed to achieve greater impact of legume-BNF technologies to improve livelihoods of rural poor. These include (a) integration of stress-adapted and BNF efficient legume cultivars in rotational and mixed cropping systems, (b) strategic application of inorganic fertilizers and organic residues to facilitate efficient nutrient cycling and appropriate replenishment of soil organic matter, (c) adoptable strategies of soil and water conservation, (d) integrated pest/disease/weed management through the use of biotic stress resistant germplasm with minimum pesticide/herbicide applications, (e) marketing strategies that are economically efficient, and (f) development of an appropriate policy and institutional environment that provides incentives to farmers to adopt legume-based BNF technologies.Local knowledge related to agriculture can be defined as the indigenous skills, knowledge and technology accumulated by local people derived from their direct interaction with the environment (Altieri 1990). It is the result of an intuitive integration of local agroecosystem responses to climate and land use change through time (Barrios et al. 1994). Transfer of information from generation to generation undergoes successive refinement leading to a system of understanding of natural resources and relevant ecological processes (Pawluk et al. 1992). WinklerPrins (1999) has provided a recent review of the scope and nature of the existing literature about local soil knowledge and the emerging science of ethnopedology.There is increasing consensus about the need for enhanced understanding of local knowledge in planning and implementing development activities (CIRAN 1993). The slow rate of assimilation of new technology and new cropping systems has been often attributed to local inertia rather than the failures to take into account the local experience and needs (Warren 1991). According to Walker et al. (1995), increased application of indigenous knowledge to rural research and development can be attributed to the need to improve the targeting of research to address client needs and thus increase adoption of technological recommendations derived from research. Besides, ethical considerations related to participation and empowerment of local communities have gained considerable importance (Chambers 1983).The complementary role that indigenous knowledge plays to scientific knowledge in agriculture has been increasingly acknowledged (Sandor and Furbee 1996). Experimental research is an important way to improve the information upon which farmers make decisions. It is questionable, however, if relying on experimental scientific methodology alone is the most efficient way to fill gaps in current understanding about the sustainable management of agroecosystems. There has been limited success of imported concepts and scientific interpretation of tropical soils in bringing desired changes in tropical agriculture. This has led an increasing recognition that the knowledge of people who have been interacting with their soils for long time can offer many insights about managing tropical soils in a sustainable way (Hecht 1990).Nevertheless, although benefits of local knowledge include high local relevance and potential sensitivity to complex environmental interactions, without scientific input local definitions can sometimes be inaccurate and unable to cope with environmental change. It is thus argued that a joint local/scientific approach, capitalizing on complementarities and synergies, would permit overcoming the limitations of site specificity and empirical nature and allow knowledge extrapolation through space and time as suggested by Cook et al. (1998).The science of ethnopedology encompasses many aspects, including indigenous perceptions and explanations of soil properties and soil processes, soil classifications, soil management, and knowledge of soil-plant inter-relationships (Talawar 1996). This paper examines three case studies on local soil knowledge and management and the implications of these results on future research on integrated soil management in Latin America. Results from case studies to elicit local information using key-informants are reported for small farmers from Orinoco floodplains in Venezuela and from the Cabuyal river watershed in Cauca, Colombia. A participatory approach was used with farmers from the Tascalapa river watershed in Yoro/Sulaco, Honduras, in order to identify and classify local indicators of soil quality related to permanent and modifiable soil properties. Finally, the potential of the latter approach as a mechanism to facilitate collective action leading to integrated soil management is discussed.The local knowledge about soils and their management by Orinoco floodplain farmers was studied by Barrios et al. (1994). A case study approach with key-informants was used to highlight practices that lead floodplain farmers to high yields and economic success while improving or maintaining soil fertility (Anderson andIngram, 1989, Brown et al., 1994). In this highly unpredictable environment, the basic assumption is that farmer's indigenous knowledge is the result of an intuitive integration of their perception of changes in the agroecosystem as a result of climatic changes, the major driving force for decision making. The systematic assessment of local knowledge about soils and their management focused on criteria used for selection of new agricultural sites in this typically slash and burn agriculture, for soil classification and soil texture \"management\" and for managing inherent soil variability.In the Orinoco floodplains, when farmers are looking for new cropping land they make a first selection based on the type of vegetation growing on the soil. Therefore, traditional farmers use associations of native plants as indicators of soil quality. In order of importance, trees such as 'caujaro' (Cordia sp.), 'taparo' (Crescentia sp.) and 'yagrumo' (Cecropia sp.) and herbaceous species like 'gamelote' (Paspalum fasciculatum), 'paja de agua'(Paspalum repens), 'tarraya'(Glinus sp.) and 'borrajón' (Heliotropium indicum) were used as indicators of \"good soils\" (Table 1). Conversely, they also use native plants as indicators of where not to establish a cropping field. For instance, trees such as 'melero' (Combretum frangulaefolium) and 'toco' (Crataeva gynandra) as well as herbaceous species like 'yerbabuena' (Phyla betulaefolia) and the grasses 'pata colorada' and 'bochocha' were plants indicating \"bad soils\". It is not surprising that farmers use vegetation in their first evaluation of potential cropping sites since these integrate complex and often diffuse soil attributes.Once the agricultural plot has been selected a more detailed examination of the soil allows farmers to plan crop and soil management activities. While darker colored soils are generally recognized as better soils, local farmers identified soil texture as the most important measure on which to select crop and soil management practices. Farmers recognized the importance of fine texture sediment in floodplain soil fertility. Given the great uncertainty of sediment quality every year as influenced by flooding regimes, a traditional system to manage the quality of the incoming sediments was developed by floodplain farmers (Barrios et al., 1994). Vegetation barriers are allowed to grow or are planted by farmers around their agricultural plots in order to \"filter\" the coarse sediment and only allowing the finer sediment into the plots. Vegetation barriers are typically composed of trees like 'Jariso'(Ruprectia sp.), 'guayabo rebalsero' (Psidium ovatifolium) and grasses like 'gamelote'(P. fasciculatum) (Fig. 1). Soil heterogeneity is very conspicuous because of the uneven distribution of sediment throughout the floodplain. The use of different crops in areas with different soil texture by traditional farmers shows an optimization of soil resource use. This could be seen as a traditional basis for modern site-specific management. Local wisdom indicates that while certain crops only grow well in specific soil textures, e.g., watermelon in sandy soil, beans in clay soil and cotton in mixed soil, other crops such as maize and cowpea are ubiquitous and are found in all soil textures (Barrios 1997).Figure 1. Schematic diagram of vegetation barriers used by Orinoco floodplain farmers to manage the quality (particle size) of the incoming sediment into their agricultural plots (modified from Barrios et al., 1994).Studies on local knowledge about soils and their management were conducted within the Cabuyal watershed, Cauca department -Colombia using case study approaches with semi-structured questionnaires, participatory farm mappings of soil qualities and identification of local indicators used to discriminate among different soils (Trejo et al. 1999). Previous studies in the area by CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical) during the last 15 years facilitated the identification of key informants from each village. Key informants were selected from eight villages in three altitudinal zones in the watershed (Salamanca 2000). High elevation villages (1700-2200 m.a.s.l.) included: El Cidral, La Esperanza, La Primavera and El Rosario, middle elevation villages (1450-1700 m.a.s.l.) La Campiña and El Porvenir, and low elevation villages (1175-1450 m.a.s.l.) included La Llanada and La Isla. In the predominantly young volcanic-ash soils, Oxic Dystropepts in the USDA soil classification system, 100% of farmers interviewed use soil color for classification and assessment of soil quality. Black colored soils are considered good for cropping and yellow and red soils are considered marginal. Black soils are often found in soils under forest, fallow or pastures. Increasing use of tillage has lead to increased rates of soil loss and thus the usually darker topsoil has given way to the red sub-soil where cultivation is now taking place in many agricultural plots.Native plants constitute another means by which Andean hillside farmers classify the soils in their farms (Barrios and Escobar, 1998). In Table 2 we find native plants used as indicators of soil quality by farmers in the Cabuyal river watershed. Fertile soils are characterized by trees like 'nacedero' (Trichanthera gigantea) and 'guamo' (Inga sp.) and herbaceous plants like 'papunga' (Bidens pilosa) and 'mariposo'(Clibadium surinamensis) while plants predominating in poor soils invariably include 'helecho marranero' (Pteridium arachnoideum) and 'paja garrapatera' (Andropogon bicornis).Farmers also identify ubiquitous species such as 'yaraguá' (Mellinis minutiflora) and 'caracola' (Koheleria lanata) which are then characterized by their vigor and leaf color. Darker green colored leaves are associated with more fertile soils while yellowish colors are indicative of poor soils.  Soils are also classified by their structure into 'polvoso' or \"powdery\", that is, with no macroaggregates indicating degraded soils on the one hand, and 'granoso' or \"grain-like\" which indicates some level of aggregation associated with better soils. This is an important characteristic used by farmers to assess soil recuperation after degraded soils have been left uncultivated to \"rest\" or fallow. In these hillside soils, topographic position also plays an important role in local soil classification. Hill tops or 'cimas'are identified as containing poorer soils, while the quality of hillsides or 'lomas' depends on how steep is the slope is. The more fertile soils are concentrated in the flat areas or 'planadas', hollowed areas or 'huecadas' because of the accumulation of eroded soils lost from up the hill as well as riverine floodplains by deposition of nutrient rich sediments (Cerón 2000). Inherently infertile soils are named 'tierra brava' or \"angry soils\" which should be distinguished from 'tierra cansada' or \"tired soils\" which are soils degraded by inappropriate management. Farmers consider that while the former are likely to respond to fertilizer applications (i.e. chicken manure) the latter invariably needs a period of fallow phase to recover lost attributes.A participatory approach was used in Honduras to identify and classify local indicators of soil quality and details can be found in Trejo et al. (1999). In short, six communities were selected from the Tascalapa watershed, namely Santa Cruz, Mina Honda (higher zone), San Antonio, Jalapa and Luquigue (middle zone) and Pueblito (lower zone) to identify and classify local indicators of soil quality at a landscape scale. Brainstorming sessions with farmer groups from the six communities respectively were followed by a prioritization phase where farmers from each community were split in smaller groups in order to rank local soil quality indicators identified according to their relative importance using paper cards. The final list of local indicators, in order of importance, was then integrated with their corresponding technical indicator in plenary sessions and organized into indicators of permanent (Tables 3) and modifiable (Table 4) soil properties.Although some local indicators can be rather general like fertility, slope, productivity and age under fallow, other local indicators are more specific. For instance, plant species growing in fallows, soil depth, color, water holding capacity and predominant soil particle sizes provide indicators that can be easily integrated with technical indicators of soil quality.The classification of local indicators into permanent and modifiable factors provides a useful division that helps to focus on those where improved management could have the greatest impact. This strategy is particularly sound when there is considerable need to produce tangible results in a relatively short time in order to maintain farmer interest as well as to develop the credibility and trust needed for wider adoption of improved soil management practices.Key permanent soil properties captured by local indicators that are commonly perceived as important by farming communities included slope, soil depth, soil color, soil texture and soil structure. The importance of slope in this hillside environment is obvious as there is a maximum inclination under which agriculture can be practiced. Because of their topography, hillside soils are prone to erosive processes even under natural vegetation or appropriate management. These soils tend to be relatively shallow compared to valley soils and therefore local farmers identify a minimum soil depth required for crop root growth and development (i.e. 12 inches, half a cutlass). Soil color provides a good measure of inherent soil fertility where black soils are seen as good soils and other red and yellowish colors as bad soils. Nevertheless, despite being classified as a permanent property, local farmers recognize that management practices involving crop residue additions could darken light colored soils indicating improvement in their quality. Soil texture is considered important by local farmers because it affects soil water holding capacity as well as the resistance to tillage. Soil workability is also related to soil structure, as good soils are perceived as those that do not compact, and where soil aggregates can be broken by tillage.Modifiable soil properties of importance were perceived as those related to the lack or presence of burning, the type of native vegetation and the soil biological activity indicated by the presence of soil organisms (i.e. earthworms). The earliest farmers have used fire as an agricultural management tool to recover nutrients held in the native vegetation biomass for the crops, to control pests and to dispose of perceived \"excess\" plant biomass in the fields (Sanchez, 1976). Despite the realization of the harm done by annual fires on the soil, the lack of farmer consensus that could lead to a concerted action appears to be an important limitation. The participatory methodologies presented here have the potential to facilitate consensus amongst the local farmer community on high priority problems and opportunities. In this capacity, their linkage to concrete plans of action, as explained by Thomas et al. (2000), suggests this approach as a way to promote collective action at a landscape scale. A similar rationale has been successfully used in Africa to stimulate the participatory learning and action research process by Defoer and Budelman (2000).It is important to note that the type of native vegetation present in a soil is a local indicator of soil quality (Table 5) that not only cuts across the communities studied in Honduras but also across the other two case studies reported in this article. This observation suggests that there may be an underlying fundamental ecological principle behind farmer observations in the three locations. It is proposed here that one such ecological principle is that of natural succession as suggested by Paniagua et al. (1999). Natural and agricultural ecosystems respond similarly to degradation or regenerative processes through natural succession.Table 3. Integration of local and technical indicators of soil quality related to permanent soil properties identified and ranked according to their importance by Honduran hillside farmers from different villages (adapted from Turcios et al., 1998   The most adapted plants and organisms in the soil gradually replace less adapted ones as continued selective pressures are exerted (i.e. during regeneration of soil fertility or soil degradation). Native plants and \"weeds\", as biological indicators, have the potential to capture subtle changes in soil quality because of their integrative nature. They reflect simultaneous changes in physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. There is considerable scope, therefore, to further explore the use of local knowledge about native plants as indicators of soil quality and as a tool guiding soil management decisions. Farmers are often more enthusiastic to empirical approaches (i.e. local knowledge, on-farm experiments) than prescriptive approaches (i.e. scientific knowledge, recipes for soil management) (Cook et al., 1998). Figure 2 illustrates that while scientific information can be very precise its relevance can be relatively low. On the other hand, while local information can be relatively imprecise, yet, it can be very relevant. Although information should ideally be certain in both meaning and context, in reality this is not the case. Research efforts should further explore a suitable balance between precision and relevance as seen in the figure . The methodological approach proposed by Trejo et al. (1999) goes beyond the identification and classification of local indicators of soil quality. It rests on the hypothesis that in order for sustainable management of the soil resource to take place, it has to be a result of improved capacities of the local communities to better understand agroecosystem functioning. Improved capacities by technical officers (extension agents, NGO's, researchers) to understand the importance of local knowledge is also part of the methodology. Therefore, after identifying if there is poor or a lack of adequate communication between the technical officers and the local farm community as a major constraint to capacity building, the methodology proposed deals with ways of jointly generating a common knowledge that is well understood by both interest groups. The structure of the guide is shown in Fig. 3 shows the different sections of the methodological guide.Section 1, which provides a general overview of soil formation factors and processes, based on Jenny's seminal work (Jenny, 1941(Jenny, , 1980)), is presented in order to bring the trainees (e.g. technical officers) to a common starting point. Section 2 deals with participatory techniques that help gather, organize and classify local indicators of soil quality through consensus building. Section 3 attempts to find correspondence between local indicators and technical indicators. This is carried out in a plenary session exercise of integration where the most important local indicators of soil quality are analyzed in the context of technical knowledge and are classified into indicators of permanent or modifiable soil properties. The idea is to provide a guideline to focus efforts on soil properties where management can have an impact. An important part of this section is the Soils Fair for farmers that is organized by the trainees. The Fair aims to help farmers develop skills to characterize relevant physical, chemical and biological properties of their soils through simple methods that can then be related to their local knowledge about soil management.The result of this two-way exchange process has a positive impact on the technical knowledge by nurturing it with local perceptions and demands. The number of successful experiences in natural resource management in agroecosystems will likely increase because of the solid basis provided by local relevance. On the other hand, local knowledge will also be enriched because of greater possibilities for its wider comprehension, appreciation and use. Local communities will be empowered by the joint ownership of the technical-local soil knowledge base constructed during this process.The two-way improvement of communication channels will likely improve the communication of farmer's perceptions to extension agents and researchers as well as make recommendations by extension agents and NGOs better understood by the farmer community. Better communication opens opportunities for established and/or emerging local organizations to use the methodological approach for consensus building that precedes any collective actions for improved natural resource management through integrated soil management.  Trejo et al. 1999). The considerable importance of local knowledge in guiding future research and development efforts towards a sustainable management of natural resources is highlighted in this study. The case studies presented showed that there is a consistent rational basis to the use of local indicators of soil quality. The use of key-informants was an effective method to elicit local information about soils and their management. In addition, participatory approaches involving group dynamics and consensus building are likely to be key to improve soil management beyond the farm-plot scale to the landscape scale through the required collective action process.Native plants as local indicators of soil quality were important local indicators of soil quality in all three case studies associated with modifiable soil properties. The use of indicator plants, belonging to the local knowledge base, when related to management actions could ease adoption of improved technologies. This approach would allow the use of plants as indicators of soil quality to which local farmers can relate more closely than to common agronomic measures such as phosphorus availability, organic matter content or pH value. Additional research could also include further integration of scientific spatial analysis (i.e. GIS, topographic modeling) with the spatial perception of natural resources by farmers aiming at improved implementation of site-specific management.Hillsides of tropical America cover about 96 million hectares (Jones, 1993) and have important roles as reserves of biodiversity and source of water for areas downslope (Whitmore, 1997). A high proportion of the Colombian Andean soils (i.e. 83% ) suffer from erosion problems (Amezquita et al., 1998). These soils, particularly the volcanic-ash soils, usually contain high levels of soil organic matter (SOM) but low availability of nutrients due to SOM protection by mineral particles which limits decomposition (Phiri et al., 2001). According to Shoji et al. (1993) plant growth in volcanic-ash soils is limited by the low availability of N and P together with low base saturation and deficiency of some micronutrients (Cu, Zn and Co).Use of green manures could reduce soil exposure to erosive processes, promote a greater nutrient cycling and improve the synchrony of nutrient release with crop demand. However, the potential benefit of green manures as a source of nutrients to crops can only be achieved if their decomposition and nutrient release patterns are known so that the synchrony of nutrient release with crop nutrient demand can be improved (Myers et al., 1994). Management options include the selection of plant materials with different chemical composition (quality) and by controlling the timing, quantity and form of application to the soil (Anderson and Ingram, 1993;Palm, 1995;Palm et al., 2001). Besides, the single or combined applications of plant parts used as green manures (i.e. leaves, stems) are likely to influence the decomposition and nutrient release rates to the soil (Lehmann et al., 1995;Handayanto et al., 1997).Several methods have been used to determine decomposition and nutrient release of plant materials in the field, and the litterbag technique is probably the most widely used because of its simplicity, replicability, and ability to selectively exclude classes of soil fauna (Vanlauwe et al., 1997a). However, while this method may underestimate dry matter and nutrient losses it is considered a great tool for treatment comparisons (Vanlauwe et al., 1997a and b). For this technique, standard quantities of litter are enclosed in nylon-mesh bags; litterbags are then incubated in the field, and weight and nutrient loss are monitored during several weeks by partial retrieval of litterbags.The quality of plant materials has been considered one of the most important factors that affect decomposition and nutrient release (Heal et al., 1997;Swift et al., 1979). High nutrient contents in plant materials have generally been correlated with high decomposition rates (Gupta and Singh, 1981). Other researchers have found that low lignin/N ratio (L/N) also leads to faster decomposition (Melillo et al., 1982). According to Palm and Sanchez (1990), polyphenol (PP) concentrations can influence decomposition and nutrient release rates in legume materials to a greater extent than lignin (L) or N content. Furthermore, Thomas and Asakawa (1993) reported that the C/N, L/N, PP/N and (L+PP)/N ratios were all inversely correlated with N release rates from herbaceous materials; while weight loss only correlated with the L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios. More recent studies also showed similar correlations between the (L+PP)/N ratio and decomposition and N release for several agroforestry species (Barrios et al., 1997;Lehmann et al., 1995;Mafongoya et al., 1998;Vanlauwe et al., 1997b). Tian et al. (1996), on the other hand, showed that decomposability of plant residues placing nylon-mesh bags inside the rumen of fistulated animals significantly correlated with that using litterbags in the field. Using a similar principle, another promising plant quality index is the in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) lab test used for animal feed (Harris, 1970). Although the decomposition processes in the rumen and the soil differ, they are sufficiently similar to be thought of as a potential method for comparative plant tissue studies (Chesson, 1997).In this study we determined the decomposition and release of N, P, K, Ca and Mg by 12 plant materials used by farmers in our study areas. These plant materials were surface applied to a soil in a tropical hillside agroecosystem, and we assessed the relationship of some common plant quality indices and IVDMD for such materials to their respective decomposition and nutrient release rates.The study was carried out at 'San Isidro' experimental farm located in Pescador, Cauca department, Colombia, at 2° 48' N, 76° 33' W and 1.500 masl. The area has a mean temperature of 19.3 o C and a mean annual rainfall of 1900 mm (bimodal). The experiment was conducted from April to August during the first cropping season of 1998 (Figure 1).The experimental plot had a slope of approximately 30%. The soils, derived from volcanic ashes, have been classified as Oxic Dystropepts (Inceptisols) in the USDA soil classification system (USDA, 1998). Soil characteristics include: pH (H 2 0): 5.1,50 9 kg -l C, 3 9 kg -l N, 4.6 mg kg -l soil of Bray-II P, and 1.1, 0.6, 2.5 and 0.9 cmol kg -1 soil of Al, K, Ca and Mg, respectively. Soil bulk density was 0.8 g cm -3 and allophane content ranged from 52 to 70 g kg -l (Phiri et al., 2001). Plant materials were selected from plants with known adaptation to the hillside environment and also with contrasting quality. Since two species and three varieties of Mucuna are utilized by farmers in our study areas and they show differences in agronomic behaviour it was considered important to evaluate their decomposition and nutrient release rates. Plant materials included: leaves, with petioles, of  IITA-Benin (MPITm) and Indigofera constricta (INDm), in the proportion found at the time of pruning and collection. Stems and the mixture of leaves and stems were studied to relate to common farmer practice of mixed application. It also contributed to expand the quality spectrum of materials evaluated and to compare them with the leaves alone. Pruned materials were collected from herbaceous plants (Canavalia and 'Mucunas') and Tithonia at flowering, while materials from trees (Cratylia and Indigofera) were pruned 6 months after the last pruning. Harvest time for herbaceous materials followed farmer practices and for tree materials was associated with optimal pruning regime identified in previous unpublished studies.After collection, each plant material was air and oven dried (60 °C), thoroughly mixed and composited, and a sample was taken for chemical analyses. Then, 15 g of each plant material were placed inside litterbags (20x20 cm nylon bags, mesh size 1.5 mm), corresponding to an application rate of 3.75 Mg dry matter ha -l . Litterbags were placed on the soil surface between maize rows in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The maize crop did not receive any additional treatments besides residue quality. At 2, 4, 8, 12 and 20 weeks, one litterbag of each repetition and treatment was collected, manually cleaned, and washed with distilled water to remove soil particles. Remaining plant material was air and oven dried (60 °C) to constant weight before determining dry weight and nutrient contents. Subsamples of plant materials used in litter bags were analyzed for their in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), total carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and contents of acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), hemicellulose (HEM), lignin (L), polyphenols (PP) and N fixed to ADF (N-ADF). In addition, the amount of plant material retrieved from litterbags at each sampling time was analyzed for total N, P, K, Ca, Mg and ash content.All plant material was ground and passed through a 1-mm mesh before analysis. C, N and P were determined colorimetrically with an autoanalyzer (Skalar Sun Plus, Breda, The Netherlands), and K, Ca and Mg with an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Unicam 969, Reading, U.K.). ADF, NDF and lignin were determined using modified techniques of Van Soest and Vine (Harris, 1970) and total polyphenols with a modified Anderson and Ingram (1993) method that uses 70% methanol, 0.5% formic acid and 0.05% ascorbic acid as extractant (Telek, 1989), the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and tannic acid as standard. HEM was calculated by substracting ADF from NDF. IVDMD was determined by the modified methodology of Tilley and Terry, that includes a 48-h incubation of plant materials with rumen microorganisms followed by acid/pepsine digestion (Harris, 1970). Ash contents were determined by heating at 550 °C for 2 h and these data were used to correct the weight of the plant material remaining for contamination with soil.Decomposition of plant materials and their N, P, K, Ca and Mg release were evaluated through assessment of dry weight and nutrient losses from the materials. The percent of dry weight remaining (DWR), and nutrients remaining (NR, PR, KR, CaR and MgR), for each experimental unit, was calculated as shown:where XR is the percent weight or nutrient remaining, Xt the weight or nutrient content at each sampling time and Xo the starting weight or nutrient values. Dry weight and nutrients remaining were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) at each sampling time. Standard errors of the difference in means (SED ) were calculated from the ANOVA and reported with the data. Whenever necessary, variables were logtransformed to normalize data.In order to describe treatment trends, treatment means of dry weight and nutrients remaining were regressed over time using a single exponential decay model (Wieder and Lang, 1982). This model is described by the following equation:where XRt is the dry weight or nutrient remaining at time t and the slope k, the decomposition or nutrient release constant. This model has been recently used by Palm et al. (2001) in their Organic Resource Database (ORD) to allow comparisons of the derived rate constants, over similar evaluation times, for different species and experiments. Root square errors were used to assess fit of the model used.Correlation and linear regression analyses were carried out between chemical parameters of the plant materials used in litterbags and their decomposition and nutrient release rates. The amount of nutrients released by plant materials to the soil was calculated by substracting the nutrients remaining in the residues at the end of the field incubation from the total amount of nutrients initially applied. SAS (SAS Institute, 1989) was used for the statistical analysis. TTH showed the lowest C, NDF, HEM and lignin contents, and the highest IVDMD, K, Ca and Mg values. Conversely, INDs and MPITs had the lowest N and N-ADF contents, but the highest C/N, PP/N and (L+PP)/N ratios (Table I). These materials, along with CRA, were also characterized by having high ADF and NDF, low IVDMD and high L/N ratio. In addition, CRA had the highest lignin content and N/P ratio, but lowest PP, IVDMD and PP/N ratio, while MDEE had the highest N, P, HEM and PP contents, and the lowest ADF value and C/P ratio (Table 1).Large dry weight losses occurred in the first 2 weeks of the experiment but subsequently slowed down and remained relatively stable after week 12 (Figure 2a). A similar pattern was observed for nutrient release (Figures 2b-f), with the exception of Ca release in three of the treatments studied (Figure 2e). Significant differences (p<0.05) were found among treatments as shown by SED bars in Figure 2.Using the single exponential model to fit data was possible to find that the best fits were found for K release, while the worst fit was found for decomposition, as shown by the lowest and highest root square errors, respectively (Table 2)   d -l ) and Mg (k Mg , d -l ) release rates and root square errors (Syx) obtained when fitting the treatment mean values of dry weight and nutrient remaining against time using the single exponential model (Wieder and Lang, 1982)    Relationships between the quality of plant materials and their decomposition and nutrient release rates A significant positive correlation (P<0.05) was found between decomposition rates and N, K, Ca and Mg content, and IVDMD; while a negative correlation was found for ADF, NDF, lignin and the C/N, C/P, L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios (Table 3). The quality parameters showing the stronger relationships were NDF (r = -0.959, P<0.001) and IVDMD (r = 0.871, P<0.001). These relationships could be represented by linear regressions between these quality parameters and decomposition rates (Figure 3), where k D =0.057-0.0008*NDF (R 2 =0.92) or k D =-0.0381 +0.0009*IVDMD (R 2 =0.76).  Some quality parameters of plant materials were also significantly correlated to nutrient release rates (Table 3). While N content and IVDMD showed a positive correlation with N release rates, ADF, NDF and lignin contents and the C/N, L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios were negatively correlated. The best indicators of this process were the L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios and IVDMD as indicated by their greater correlation coefficients. For P release, significant correlations were found for Ca and N-ADF contents and the C/N, N/P and PP/N ratios. While K release rates were only correlated with C and HEM contents, Ca release rates correlated with C, K, Ca, N-ADF and HEM contents and the N/P ratio. Mg release rates only correlated with C/P ratios Total release of nutrients, from plant materials after 20 weeks (Table 4), showed that higher amounts of N were released by MDEE, MPBR, IND and TTH (124-144 kg ha -l ), while MPITs and INDs showed the lowest N release (27.6 and 41.5 kg ha -l , respectively). The largest amount of P was released by MDEE and MPBR (11.4 and 8.9 kg ha -l , respectively), and the lowest by CRA and INDs (3.5 kg ha -l ). TTH, on the other hand, presented the highest release of K, Ca and Mg amounts among all treatments evaluated (129.3, 112.6 and 25.9 kg ha -l , respectively); while the lowest release of these nutrients was 48.3 kg ha -1 K in INDs, 4.4 kg ha -l Ca in MPITs and 10.6 kg ha -l Mg in CAN. Decomposition and nutrient release of plant materials generally followed an exponential trend. Differences among plant materials were related to tissue quality even among closely related species (i.e. Mucuna). Significant relationships were detected between the quality of plant materials and their respective decomposition and nutrient release rates (Table 3). NDF and IVDMD were the quality parameters most related to decomposition rates in this study (Table 3; Figure 3). Our results for NDF are consistent with results by Gupta and Singh (1981) showing that plant cell wall content is an important predictor of decomposition rates. On the other hand, although Tian et al. (1996) estimated the decomposability of plant residues by an 'in vivo' ruminant nylon-mesh bag assay, the use of IVDMD as an index related to decomposition in the field has not been reported elsewhere. The highly significant (P<0.00l) correlations obtained in this study between NDF and IVDMD, and plant decomposition suggests that lab-based NDF or IVDMD tests could be used as surrogates for decomposition of plant tissue. This finding could be of practical importance for screening of plant materials for different farm uses. Such tests can save time and reduce variability associated with decomposition studies in the field. Other indices studied which have already shown potential in the literature include N and lignin content, and the C/N, L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios because of their correlation with decomposition rates (see Mafongoya et al., 1998).The rates of nutrient release were also related to the chemical composition of the plant materials studied as shown in Table 3. Higher correlations were found for N release and the L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios, for P release and the C/N and N/P ratios, for K release and the C and HEM contents, for Ca release and Ca and HEM content, and for Mg release and the CIP ratio. Previous studies have shown that lower N release rates from plant materials were related to high L/N ratios (Singh et al., 1999;Thomas and Asakawa, 1993) and (L+PP)/N (Barrios et al., 1997;Handayanto et al., 1994;Lehmann et al., 1995;Thomas and Asakawa, 1993;Vanlauwe et al., 1997b) for several species. P mineralization rates from decomposing plant materials have been correlated to N/P ratios (Palm and Sanchez, 1990) and L/N and C/N ratios (Singh et al., 1999) and this may be related to different decomposer communities developing on plant materials of different quality. Ca release, on the other hand, has been related to cell wall constituents (Attiwill, 1976;Luna-Orea et al., 1996) and polyphenols (Lehmann et al., 1995). Mg release, also, has been related to cell wall constituents (Luna-Orea et al., 1996) and to initial Mg content in the tissues (Lehmann et al., 1995). Nevertheless, the high potential for K leaching from plant tissues is probably responsible for the limited reports in the literature of significant relationships between plant quality indices and K release as suggested by Tian et al. (1992).High initial nutrient contents in plant materials can be responsible for high decomposition and net nutrient release because of enhanced microbial growth and activity; however, considerable contents of structural polysaccharides like HEM and lignin, can reduce the effect of initial nutrient content because of physical protection of other cell constituents from microbial attack (Chesson, 1997;Mafongoya et al., 1998). Polyphenols in plant tissues can also reduce decomposition and nutrient release by binding of cell wall constituents and proteins (i.e. Vanlauwe et al., 1997b). The type of polyphenols and their relative content in plant tissues is also important to consider when studying N mineralization from plant materials because different polyphenols have different chemical activities. Earlier studies indicate that the method of drying of legume plant materials has an effect on type and concentration of polyphenols. It has been shown that ovendrying can reduce soluble polyphenol concentrations compared to airdrying (Mafongoya et al., 1997).Our total polyphenol values are generally higher than those reported for other tropical plant materials as reviewed by Mafongoya et al. (1998). Higher values may be a result of methodological differences. While higher tissue: solvent ratios may not extract all polyphenols (Constantinides and Fownes, 1994) our modified extraction method using a greater proportion of methanol (70% ) compared to the Anderson and Ingram (1993) standard methodology (50%), as well as the addition of formic and ascorbic acids as antioxidants may have led to higher total polyphenol values. In addition, plants growing in soils with poor N availability, as in the case of volcanic-ash soils, can result in higher concentrations of polyphenols than those growing in more fertile soils (Palm et al., 2001).Decomposition and nutrient release trends for each treatment (Table 2; Figure 2) suggest that these processes are related. Significant correlations (P<0.05) were found between decomposition and N release (r = 0.596), K and Ca release (r = 0.912) and K and Mg release (r = 0.636) (data not shown). Significant correlations were also found by Singh et al. (1999) between dry weight loss and N release rates. Lehmann et al. (1995), on the other hand, found significant correlations among dry matter, N and Ca losses, but no connection between Mg or K with N and dry matter losses.Although decomposition and nutrient release rates found in this study were sometimes higher than those reported by other researchers using similar methodology they fall within the range observed for tropical zones (Handayanto et al., 1994;Mafongoya et al., 1998;Mwiinga et al., 1994;Palm and Sanchez, 1990;Thomas and Asakawa, 1993;Tian et al., 1992). The high rates found in this study could be linked to the intrinsic characteristics of the materials used (species, age, quality, etc.) but also to the climatic conditions (i.e. high moisture and favourable temperature) during the first weeks of the experiment (Figure 1). It is well known that temperature and precipitation can influence the pattern and rate of decomposition of plant materials (Gupta and Singh, 1981).Nitrogen release rates in this study were higher than those of dry weight loss (Table 2), and this is consistent with previous studies by Mwiinga et al. (1994), Palm and Sanchez (1990), Schroth et al. (1992) and Tian et al. (1992). Phosphorus release rates were usually higher than decomposition rates with the exception of TTH and IND. This could be interpreted as potential for a more gradual P release to the soil from these plant materials. Although K and Mg release rates were higher than decomposition rates, Ca release rates were lower for CRA, MDEE and MPITs as they presented initial immobilisation. Ca immobilisation has been previosuly reported by other authors (Lehmann et al., 1995;Palm and Sanchez, 1990;Schroth et al., 1992) and generally explained by the accumulation of Ca by funghi on decomposing residues.Plant parts of the same species often show different patterns and rates of decomposition and nutrient release. In our study, plant leaves showed faster decomposition and N release rates than mixtures of leaves and stems, and these mixtures were faster than stems evaluated. In contrast, P release showed the opposite trend (Table 2). For K, Ca and Mg release, however, no consistent trends were found. These findings suggest that potential nutrient contributions by green manures would be overestimated when rates are based on leaves while their application in the field is generally as a mixture of leaves and stems. Interactions among plant parts could affect expected patterns of decomposition and nutrient release. According to Mafongoya et al. (1998), if decomposition and nutrient release patterns from a mixture of plant materials reflect the weighted averages of the individual components no interactions occurred; if this is not the case, interactions may have taken place. Interactions between stems and leaves have been reported before and explained as a result of high soluble C in the stems, which caused immobilization of N from leaf tissues (Quemada and Cabrera, 1995).Knowledge of decomposition patterns and rates for different plant materials available on-farm is important for decision making about their optimal use. However, the total amount of nutrients contained in plant materials is critical (Palm, 1995). Results in Table 4 show that the application of dry leaf materials from all species (except CRA) at a rate of 3.75 Mg ha -l can release more than 109 kg ha -l of N and 5 kg ha -l of P, and more than 50, 22 and 10 kg ha -l of K, Ca and Mg, respectively, after 20 weeks of surface application to the soil. Provided that an annual crop like maize can extract close to 80 kg ha -l of N, 18 kg ha -l of P, 66 kg ha -l of K and 15 kg ha -l of Ca and 10 kg ha -l of Mg from the soil (Palm, 1995) we could argue that these leaf materials can potentially supply a considerable proportion of nutrient demand by maize plants. Nevertheless, not all these nutrients would be available to the crop due to potential nutrient losses (denitrification, leaching, etc.), nutrient immobilization by the microbial biomass or simply by incorporation into recalcitrant soil organic matter pools (Vanlauwe et al., 1997a). Our results can be used as indicators of the potential amount and rate of nutrient supply by available options tested in order to improve the nutrient management efficiency of green manure systems in farmer fields. There is great interest in improving synchrony between nutrient release from plant materials and demand by the crop in order to minimize potential nutrient losses and increase nutrient recovery by the crop (Myers et al., 1994).The chemical characteristics of plant materials used as green manures play a fundamental role in the decomposition and nutrient release processes. The judicious management of organic nutrient resources as green manures is dependent on using the right amount and quality of plant material, at the right time.Results from this study are useful to tropical hillside farmers for management of on-farm organic resources based on the potential size of the nutrient additions provided by plant materials as well as timing of nutrient additions to meet crop demand. In order to avoid false expectations about the nutrient supplying capacity of plant materials these should closely represent farmer options. The usefulness of different plant quality indices was assessed as they related to decomposition (i.e. NDF, IVDMD) or nutrient release (i.e. (L+PP)/N for N release). Their utility for screening of potential green manure germoplasm was also discussed.N is usually the most limiting nutrient in tropical soils and considerable efforts have been made to develop alternative or complementary cost-effective practices to N fertilization (Sánchez 1981). Green manures (GM) are considered among these alternative management practices since they can lead to increased soil N availability (Giller and Wilson 1991). A predictive knowledge of GM mineralization patterns, however, is needed for improved nutrient use efficiency in agroecosystems (Constantinides and Fownes 1994;Kass et al. 1997;Giller and Cadisch 1997). While very fast N mineralization rates can be responsible for considerable N losses through leaching, denitrification or volatilization, when N mineralization is very slow little N availability can lead to limitations in crop growth (Myers et al. 1994).The best way to synchronize soil N availability to crop demand is by managing the quantity, quality, timing and placement of plant materials added to the soil (Palm 1995;Mafongoya et al. 1998). The chemical composition of plant materials used (or quality) is one of the most important factors that affect N mineralization rates (Swift et al. 1979;Heal et al. 1997). Plant materials poor in N have limited use in the short term (Constantinides and Fownes 1994) since low N content limits the growth of microorganisms involved in decomposition. The C/N ratio is a useful guide to predict N mineralization patterns. According to Frankenberger and Abdelmagid (1985) C/N ratios greater or equal to 19 limit N availability. Nevertheless, the detection of N mineralization in plant materials with C/N ratios >100 suggest that C compounds such as lignin (L), or polyphenols (PP) can be largely regulating this process (Thomas and Asakawa 1993). According to Palm and Sánchez (1991), the PP content in tropical legumes can play a greater role in N mineralization than N content or the L/N ratio. This is consistent with Tian et al. (1992), who showed that plant materials with low contents of N, L and PP decomposed and mineralized N rapidly. Furthermore, Handayanto et al. (1994Handayanto et al. ( , 1995) ) and Barrios et al. (1997) also found that the (L+PP)/N ratio significantly correlated with N mineralization.This study had the following objectives: (1) to evaluate the effect of foliage from nine GM on soil N availability in a tropical volcanic-ash soil, (2) to determine N uptake by an indicator crop (upland rice), and (3) to relate the quality of plant materials evaluated to both their N supplying capacity and the N uptake by the indicator crop.A glasshouse study was carried out at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) located at 3°30'N 76°21'W and 965 masl. Glasshouse mean temperature (21°C) and relative humidity (67%) were maintained constant during the whole period of study.GM were selected on the basis of their adaptation to the tropical hillside environment and to volcanic-ash soils, and their differences in plant chemical composition (plant tissue quality). These N concentrations in GM leaves ranged from 2.65% in CAL to 4.63% in MDEE (Table 1). CAL had the highest concentrations of C, acid detergent fiber (ADF) and PP, and highest C/N, L/N, PP/N and (L+PP)/N ratios; while TTH had the lowest contents of C, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), hemicellulose (HEM) and L, as well as the lowest C/N, L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios. IND also had low NDF and HEM contents. CRA had the highest NDF and L contents, and the lowest PP value and PP/N ratio.The volcanic-ash soil used in the experimental pots was collected from the top 20 cm of an Oxic Dystropept (USDA 1998) located in the San Isidro farm (Pescador, Cauca, Colombia) and later passed through a 2-mm mesh. Soil characteristics included: pH (H 2 0) 5.1, 50 g C kg -1 , 3 g N kg -1 , 12 mg NH 4 + -N kg -1 , 42 mg NO 3 --N kg -1 , and 1.1 and 2.5 cmol kg -1 for Al and Ca, respectively. Soil bulk density was 0.8 g cm -3 and P availability was low (4.6 mg Bray-P kg -1 ) as a result of a high allophane content (52-70 g kg -1 ) and high P sorbing capacity (Gijsman and Sanz 1998). Triple super phosphate was added to the soil at an equivalent rate of 50 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 before establishing the experiment.The experiment was a randomized complete block design with four replicates. The leaves harvested from selected GM were thoroughly mixed and air and oven dried (55±5°C). Dry plant materials were then fragmented into small pieces (<1.5 cm long) and surface applied to 1.5 kg volcanic-ash soil contained in plastic pots at a rate of 100 kg N ha -1 . Three additional treatments were established: urea applications of 50 and 100 kg N ha -1 (FN50 and FN100, respectively) and an unfertilized treatment (FN0) as a control.Soils were capillary-wetted by placing pots on water-filled plastic saucers (Handayanto et al. 1994) so that volumetric moisture content was maintained close to 50%, while leaching was prevented. Fifteen days after plant materials were added five upland rice seeds (Oryza sativa L. var. Oryzica savana 10) were sown in each pot at 1 cm depth. Two weeks after germination rice plants were thinned to two plants per pot.  All treatments were evaluated at 2, 4, 8, 12 and 20 weeks after initiating the experiment by carefully removing the remaining decomposing material and sampling the whole soil from the pots. Two samples (20 g) were taken for moisture determination (105°C until constant weight) and the extraction of inorganic N. Soil inorganic N was extracted by shaking the 20 g of soil in 100 ml of 2 M KCl on an endto-end shaker at 150 r.p.m. for 1 h, and filtering through Whatman no.1 filter paper, previously washed with deionized water and 2 M KCl. The resulting soil extracts were then analyzed colorimetrically with an autoanalyzer (Skalar Sun Plus) to determine NH 4 + -N and NO 3 --N contents, and expressed on a dry soil basis (CIAT 1993).At 20 weeks, the fresh weight of aboveground biomass (leaves+stems and panicles) and roots was determined and they were later air and oven dried (55±5°C) for dry weight determination and chemical analysis. Subsamples of each plant material evaluated were analyzed chemically for C, N, ADF, NDF, HEM, L and PP content. In addition, rice plant components sampled at 20 weeks (leaves+stems, panicles and roots) were analyzed for their N content. Dry plant tissues were ground and sieved (1 mm) before analysis. C and N were determined by colorimetry using an autoanalyzer (Skalar Sun Plus). ADF, NDF and L were determined using modified techniques of Van Soest and Vine (Harris 1970) and PP with a modified Anderson and Ingram (1993) method that uses 70% methanol, 0.5% formic acid and 0.05% ascorbic acid as extractant (Telek 1989), the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and tannic acid as standard. Hemicellulose was calculated by the difference between NDF and ADF.Plant N uptake (milligrams) was calculated by multiplying tissue N contents by tissue dry weights. In order to assess N use efficiency as a function of GM and fertilizer treatments, plant N uptake was expressed as a percent of initial N applied (N recovery) using the following calculation: N recovery (%) = Plant N uptake in treatment -Plant N uptake in control x 100All variables evaluated in soil and rice were subjected to ANOVA. Whenever necessary, variables were root square-transformed to normalize data and homogenize variance. SEs of the difference in means (SED) were calculated from the ANOVA and reported with the data. Correlation analyses were conducted to assess the relationships between quality parameters of GM and soil available N and rice N uptake. SAS (SAS Institute 1989) was used for all statistical analysis.Although fertilized controls (FN100 and FN50) generally produced the highest values of soil available N, considerable quantities of inorganic N were also recovered from soil, after GM application (Fig. 1), suggesting the potential of these plant materials as biofertilizers, as discussed by Palm (1995), Kass et al. (1997), Mafongoya et al. (1998) and Aulakh et al. (2000). GM, however, differed in their impact on soil N availability. Plant materials like MPTL and IND showed high initial soil inorganic N, while MDEE, CRA and CAL had a reduced initial impact on soil N availability, presumably as a result of their higher rates of decomposition and N release (Table 2). A \"priming effect\" on soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization, as a result of N additions (as mineral or organic fertilizers), could also be occurring (Lovell and Hatch 1998). Nevertheless, SOM mineralization in volcanic-ash soils is lower than expected due to the protection of SOM particles in these soils (Gijsman and Sanz 1998).Table 2. Estimated decomposition and N release rates (d -1 ) for initial plant materials added to soil. Data for rate calculations obtained from a 20 weeks litterbag field experiment conducted in Pescador (Cauca). A single exponential model was used to fit the data. (Cobo et al., 2002) Soil NH 4 + levels significantly increased (P<0.01) at week 2, especially in FN100 (111.5 mg N kg -1 soil) and FN50 (81 mg N kg -1 soil), and diminished to almost zero by week 12. Among GM treatments, IND showed the highest value of soil NH 4 + (76.2 mg N kg -1 soil) and CAL the lowest (47.7 mg N kg -1 soil). Conversely, soil NO 3 values after 2 weeks were lower than starting values (i.e. 42 mg N kg -1 soil), except for FN100, but subsequently, at week 4, there was an overall increase in soil NO 3 -, especially in TTH (87.5 mg N kg -1 soil), so that by week 8 soil NO 3 values had surpassed those of NH 4 + . Following this peak, soil NO 3 values also decreased to values close to zero. Total inorganic N [(NH 4 + +NO 3 -)-N)] increased in all treatments during the first 2 weeks of the experiment (Fig. 1). This effect was significantly higher (P<0.01) in FN100 (157.1 mg N kg -1 soil) and FN50 (116 mg N kg -1 soil), while in FN0 we found the lowest value (75 mg N kg -1 soil). Soil inorganic N then followed a declining trend with some treatments showing slightly lower values than FN0 during certain periods (i.e. CAL,CRA and IND at week 4,and MDEE at 8 weeks). This reduction of inorganic N after 4 weeks probably could be the result of rice N uptake and soil N losses, as discussed by Aulakh et al. (2000). Potential soil N losses could be mainly attributed to denitrification since free drainage was prevented by the irrigation system used, and N volatilization is expected to be low in acid soils 1 (Fassbender and Bornemiza 1987). Denitrification may have occurred at microsites because of experimental soil moisture content (50%). On the other hand, the observation that some treatments had lower inorganic N values than FN0 at certain sampling dates suggests N immobilization by soil microorganisms. However, these events were transient and probably due to chemical changes of plant materials to critical levels over time (i.e. higher C/N and L/N ratios).At 20 weeks, plants in FN100, CAL, CAN, MPIT and CRA showed significantly (P<0.01) higher N content than FN0 (83 mg) (Fig. 2). N uptake by rice was highest in FN100 (140 mg), but it was not significantly different from that in CAL (128 mg), CAN (135 mg) and MPIT (114 mg). This observation indicates that these GM could have considerable potential as a source of N to crops in tropical volcanicash soils. N uptake in the other treatments was statistically similar to N uptake in FN50 (98 mg).A more detailed analysis showed significantly higher (P<0.05) leaves+stems and panicle N content in FN100, CAL and CAN than rice plants in FN0. FN100, CAL, CAN, MPIT and CRA also showed significantly higher (P<0.05) root N content than the control. A similar trend was found for plant dry weight. Both plant weight and N uptake were strongly correlated (data not shown).Expressing N uptake as a percent of initial N applied we observed that N recovery by rice plants ranged from 13.1% in MPTL up to about 60% in FN100. N recovery in IND was 20.1% while in CAL it was 47.4%. Plants in FN50 only recovered 15.6% of the N initially applied (Table 3). Likewise, Fox et al. (1990) report a range of 11.2% (Cassia rotundifolia) to 85.1% (Fertilized control) for N recovery by sorghum receiving different legume residues. Aulakh et al. (2000), in a field study using Vigna unguiculata and Sesbania aculeata as GM, reported N recoveries of 60-79% by rice, but 11-16% by wheat. Additionally, our values for C. calothyrsus (47.4%) were higher than those reported by Handayanto et al. (1995) in maize which ranged between 4.2% and 23.1%. The differences in N recovery Total values among studies are probably due to differences in the methodology used (i.e. soil and climate conditions, indicator crop, GM type, form and rate of application, N recovery procedures and evaluation period).Table 3. N recovery by rice from different green manures (GM) and fertilizer treatments after 20 weeks of evaluation. Data are the means of four repetitions. SED SE of the difference in means, FN50 urea application 50 kg N ha-1, FN100 urea application 100 kg N ha-1; for other abbreviations see Relationships among plant tissue quality, soil N availability, and rice N uptake Significant relationships were found between plant quality parameters, soil N availability and rice N uptake (Table 4). Fiber and L content, and C/N, L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios showed a negative relationship with soil NH 4 + -N and total inorganic N [(NH 4 + +NO 3 -)-N)] at 2 and 8 weeks respectively. On the other hand, N and ADF content, and C/N, PP/N and (L+PP)/N ratios correlated to rice N uptake at 20 weeks (Table 4). These results are in agreement with those found by Palm and Sánchez (1991) who observed that 1 and 8 weeks after application of legume leaves to soil, soil inorganic N was significantly correlated with the PP content and the PP/N ratio of the plant material, while the L/N ratio only correlated with soil inorganic N at week 8. On the other hand, Constantinides and Fownes (1994) suggested a significant relationship between N, L, PP, L/N, PP/N, (L+PP)/N and N mineralization from a 16-week incubation experiment using legume and non-legume leaves. Handayanto et al. (1995) also found a significant correlation between N mineralization rates of C. calothyrsus and Gliricidia sepium plant materials with their contents of N, PP, their polyphenol protein binding capacity, and the C/N, PP/N, L/N and (L+PP)/N ratios.Data for soil N availability, N uptake and GM quality, and relationships found suggest that fastdecomposing, high-quality plant materials (e.g. IND) generated high short-term soil N availability but low rice N uptake; while slow-decomposing, lower quality plant materials (e.g. CAL) had a longer-term impact, which resulted in greater N uptake by rice. Reduced performance of higher quality materials could be attributed to the limited synchrony between N mineralization from GM applied and crop uptake. This may be partly explained by the limited effective root system of rice plants before 4 weeks (Fernández et al. 1985), thus missing part of the observed flush of inorganic N at 2 weeks. Therefore, N losses would be expected in treatments generating short-term soil N availability. Pre-sowing surface application of lowquality plant materials (e.g. CAL) and/or surface application of high-quality plant materials (e.g. IND) during periods of high crop N demand (i.e. flowering) could be seen as alternatives for resource poor farmers cropping tropical volcanic ash soils. These practices would increase the agroecosystem nutrient use efficiency and synchrony by reducing potential nutrient losses and increasing N recovery by the crop.ICETEX and CIAT (SWNM project) for financial support during the present research that formed a part of his MSc thesis Table 4. Pearson correlation coefficients and associated probabilities (in parenthesis), according to linear correlation analysis between quality parameters of GM materials added to soil, soil N availability and rice N uptake (n=36). NS Not significant; for other abbreviations see + +NO 3 -)-N)] extracted from soil after 8 weeks of evaluationIn recent years, soil fertility has declined in large areas of the Colombian Andes due to intensive land use. Long-term fallows (6-12 years), needed for soil fertility replenishment, have also virtually disappeared due to increasing population and competing land-use demands. As land use pressures mount, there is a progressive shortening of the fallow period. Hence, the development of technologies that could enhance and accelerate fallow functions and provide a similar level of ecological benefits over a shorter time compared to the natural fallow are urgently needed (Phiri et al., 2001). Such technologies are most likely to be accomplished through the introduction of improved fallow species with fast growing, superior soil conserving and fertility-regenerating properties, and with the ability to control weeds. A useful fallow species must have the ability to sequester nutrients, including P, from soils that have high inherent P reserves but low P availability. Tithonia (Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsfey) A. Gray) is one such species that has been shown to be useful for cycling nutrients via biomass transfer (Nziguheba et al., 1998).Tithonia is a robust succulent non-N 2 -fixing perennial shrub of the family Asteraceae (compositae), which grows 1 to 3 m in height and bears several bright yellow flowers similar to those of the well-known sunflower plant (Helianthus annuus), but the flowers are smaller (about 3 cm in diameter).Tithonia is a native component of natural vegetation in the tropics and subtropics. It grows as a subclimax species that naturally occurs with disturbed soil conditions. Tithonia originated from Mexico, but is now widely distributed throughout the humid and sub-humid tropics in Central and South America, Asia and Africa (Sonke, 1997). It frequently grows wild in hedges, along roadsides, on wastelands and riverbanks, and is common in indigenous fallow systems in Southeast Asia (Jama et al., 2000). It produces large quantities of leaf biomass, and its hedges rapidly grow back after cutting and tolerate repeated pruning. Recently, there has been increasing awareness of the use of Tithonia diversifolia as an indigenous fallow species to improve soil fertility (Niang et al., 1996). Evidence indicates that this species has an ability to accumulate labile soil nutrients, which might otherwise be lost to runoff and leaching, and store them in its rapidly accumulating shoot biomass, which can then be used as a source of plant nutrients or biofertilizers (Nagarajah and Nizar, 1982;Gachengo, 1996;Niang et al., 1996;Jiri and Waddington, 1998;Phiri et al., 2001).Research done by institutions such as Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (TSBF) and International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in the highlands of western Kenya has dramatically raised awareness and expectations of Tithonia green biomass for soil fertility replenishment (Niang et al., 1996). There is also growing interest in the apparent ability of T. diversifolia, probably in association with arbuscular-mycorrhizae (AM), to mobilize and accumulate soil P. Release of P from Tithonia green biomass is rapid, and Tithonia supplies plant available P at least as effectively as an equivalent amount of P from soluble fertilizer (Nziguheba et al., 1998).Tithonia green biomass (green tender stems + green leaves),is relatively high in nutrients when compared to green biomass of other shrubs and trees (Jama et al., 2000). Nagarajah and Nizar (1982) reported nutrient concentration of Tithonia biomass in the ranges of 3.2 to 5.5 % N, 0.2 to 0.5 % P and 2.3 to 5.5 % K based on the analysis of 100 dry samples of green biomass in Sri Lanka. The mean values of nutrient concentration of green leaves of Tithonia collected in East Africa are 3.5 % N, 0.37 % P and 4.1 % K on a dry-weight basis (Jama et al., 2000). The concentration of N in Tithonia green biomass is comparable to that found in N 2 -fixing leguminous shrubs and trees, whereas the P and K concentrations are higher than those typically found in shrubs and trees (Jama et al., 2000;Phiri et al., 2001). Tithonia biomass is also high in nutrients other than N, P and K. Gachengo et al. (1999), for example, found 1.8 % Ca and 0.4 % Mg per unit dry weight of the green Tithonia biomass.Tithonia diversifolia is deliberately being introduced into mid-altitude hillside agriculture system in Colombia to enhance soil fertility (in a chemical, physical and/or biological sense) and to some extent to suppress weeds (Phiri et al., 2001). Compared with natural fallow, Tithonia markedly improved the availability of several essential nutrients, particularly P and K (Phiri et al., 2001). Jama et al. (2000) reported that the biomass production of Tithonia is influenced by establishment methods, frequency of cuttings, stand density and site conditions. To facilitate rapid establishment of Tithonia on a large scale, there is a need to investigate the effect of its establishment method on soil properties and plant growth attributes. Tithonia propagates from seeds that frequently germinate naturally under its canopy. Seedlings can be dug up and transplanted elsewhere. However, when Tithonia is established from seeds in the field, germination can be poor, especially if the seeds are sown deep or covered with a clayey soil (Jama et al., 2000). Under field conditions, Tithonia is more easily established from stem cuttings than from seeds (King'ara, 1998). The main objective of the present study was to determine the effect of method of establishment (vegetative stem cuttings versus bare-root seedlings-here called plantlets) of Tithonia diversifolia on shoot and root growth characteristics, AM association, nutrient acquisition and utilization, and P dynamics in soil.This study was carried out at CIAT's \"San Isidro\" experimental farm in Pescador located in the Andean hillsides of the Cauca Department of southwestern Colombia (2º 48′ N, 76º 33′ W) at 1505 m.a.s.l. The area has a mean temperature of 19.3 °C and a mean annual rainfall of 1900 mm (bimodal).The plots had a slope of approximately 30 %. The soils, derived from volcanic ashes, have been classified as Oxic Dystropepts (Soil Survey Staff, 1998), having the following characteristics: pH (H 2 O) 5.1; 50 mg g -1 C; 3 mg g -1 N; 4.6 mg kg -1 soil of Bray-P; and 1.1 and 2.5 cmol kg -1 soil for Al and Ca, respectively (Cobo et al., 2000). The soil has a medium to fine texture (45 % sand, 27 % silt and 38 % clay) (IGAC, 1979) of high fragility and low cohesion with shallow humic layers. Low soil P availability is presumably the result of high allophane content (52-70 g kg -1 ), which increases its P sorbing capacity (Gijsman and Sanz, 1998).The two treatments used were one-year-old Tithonia diversifolia (Hems.) Gray (1) bare root seedlings (plantlets) and (2) vegetative stem cuttings (stakes). Tithonia stakes, 20-40 cm long with 4 or 5 nodes, were cut from mature plants, planted at a slanting angle of 45-60 degrees with 1 or 2 nodes below the ground level to leave 2 or more nodes above the ground. The two propagating materials were planted at the same plant density (40 000 plants/ha at a staggered spacing of 50 cm x 50 cm) in 20 x 20 m plots. Three one cubic meter monoliths, each including one Tithonia plant, were randomly collected within each treatment plot. The experiment was laid down as a randomized complete block (RCB) design with establishment method as treatment.After one year of plant growth, a sample area of 1 m 2 was randomly selected within each plot and all the above ground biomass in this area was harvested. The biomass from the rest of the plot was harvested for the total biomass determination. The biomass from the sample area was separated into leaves, stems and the reproductive structures (flowers and seeds). The leaves were used for determination of leaf area index, and the leaves, stems and reproductive structures were analysed for N, P, K, Ca and Mg. An area of 0.5 x 0.5 m was selected within the sampling area, and all the soil from the 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-40, 40-60 cm soil depths was collected for root and AM determinations. These samples were air-dried and visible plant roots were removed and then gently crushed to pass through a 2-mm sieve. The <2-mm fraction was used for subsequent chemical analysis.The leaf area (cm²) was determined by measuring fresh leaves with an LI 3000 Area Meter (LI-Cor Inc., Lincoln, NE). The leaf area index (LAI, m² of leaf area per m² of ground area) and the specific leaf area (SLA, m² of leaf area per kg of dried leaves) were calculated. Measurements of photosynthetic efficiency of intact leaves were made with a portable Plant Efficiency Analyzer (Hansatech, King's Lynn, UK). Leaves were dark adapted for 20 min using leaf clips before a 5-s light pulse (1500 μmol m -2 s -1 ) was supplied by an array of red light-emitting diodes The rapid turn-on of the light-emitting diodes allowed the accurate determination of Fo (minimal fluorescence intensity with all photosystem II reaction centers open while the photosynthetic membrane is in the non-energized state in the dark) and, hence, Fv (maximum variable fluorescence in the state when all non-photochemical processes are at a minimum, i.e., Fm-Fo) (Kooten and Snel, 1990;Sundby et al., 1993). The ratio of variable to maximal fluorescence (Fv/Fm = (Fm-Fo)/Fm) (Fm = fluorescence intensity with all photosystem II reaction centers closed) is a measure of the maximal photochemical efficiency of photosystem II.Root distribution was determined using soil coring method (Rao, 1998). For each replication, a total of 12 soil cores at different soil depths (0-10; 10-20; 20-40; and 40-80 cm) were collected 10 cm from the base of the plant across the row. After washing out the roots on a 1 mm sieve, the \"live\" roots were hand separated from organic material. Root length was measured with the Comair Root Length Scanner (Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, Melbourne, Australia) and expressed in km of root length per m² of ground area. Root biomass was determined after drying the samples in an oven at 70 °C for 2 days. The specific root length was calculated in m of root length per g of dried roots. A number of other plant attributes were determined including nutrient status of plant parts, shoot nutrient uptake, nutrient uptake efficiency (μg of uptake in shoot biomass per m of root length), and nutrient use efficiency (g of shoot biomass production per g of total nutrient uptake) (Salinas and Saif, 1990;Rao et al., 1997).Mycorrhizal association was assessed by the number of spores per 100 g soil and AM root infection percentage in coarse and fine roots according to the method of Sieverding (1991). To separate spores from the soil, a 50 g sample of well-mixed soil, was suspended in water for 1 min (for sedimentation of coarse sand), and then the suspension was decanted over a series of soil sieves (a sieve with 0.350over one with 0.125over one with 0.045-mm mesh size). Suspending and decanting were repeated three times. Root material in the top sieve was carefully washed with water and then transferred with a little water to a petri dish. The contents of the medium sieve and of the finest sieve were separately transferred to 100-ml centrifuge tubes. In the tubes, the sievings were brought into suspension in 30 ml water and 30-40 ml of a sugar solution (70 g sugar dissolved in 100 ml water) was injected into the bottom of the tube with the aid of a 50-ml syringe so that a gradient was established in the centrifuge tube. The sample was centrifuged (with a centrifuge with swinging bucket and horizontal head) at 1000 revolutions per min. for 10 min. During this process soil particles settle on the bottom and spores remain on the surface of the sugar gradient. Spores were extracted with syringe from the gradient and placed in a clean sieve with 0.045-mm mesh opening; then the spores were washed with water for 2-3 min. before being transferred in water to a petri dish. Spores in the root fraction and the centrifuged samples were observed and counted under a stereomicroscope at 40x magnification.To determine AM fungal root infection, the soil was immersed in a tub of water and gently agitated to separate the roots from the soil. The roots were separated into coarse (> 2mm diameter) and fine roots. The roots were then washed with water using a hose over a 1-2 mm screen (to catch roots). The roots were then transferred to a flask and heated in 5% KOH at 90 °C for 15 min. The KOH was then rinsed off the roots with water on a fine sieve. Roots were stained in acidic glycerol/trypan blue for 15 min at 90 ºC and then destained and stored in 50 % acidic glycerol and subsequently used for determination of AM root infection using the modified grid intersect method (Newman, 1966).A sequential P fractionation as per the method of Tiessen and Moir (1993) was carried out on 0.5g sieved (<2-mm) soil samples. In brief, a sequence of extractants with increasing strength was applied to subdivide the total soil-P into inorganic (P i ) and organic (P o ) fractions. The following fractions were included: (1) resin P i extracted with anion exchange resin membranes (used in bicarbonate form) was used to extract freely exchangeable P i . The remaining P o in the extraction from of the resin extraction step (H 2 O-P o ) was digested with potassium persulfate (K 2 S 2 O 8 ) (Oberson et al., 1999). (2) Sodium bicarbonate (0.5 M NaHCO 3 , pH = 8.5) was then used to remove labile P i and P o sorbed to the soil surface, plus a small amount of microbial P (Bowman and Cole, 1978). (3) Sodium hydroxide (0.1 M NaOH) was used next to remove P i more strongly bound to Fe and Al compounds (Williams and Walker, 1969) and associated with humic compounds (Bowman and Cole, 1978). (4) HCl P i was obtained by extraction with 1.0 M HCl; (5) HCl hc-P and -P o were extracted with hot and concentrated HCl; and (6) residual P was obtained by digestion with perchloric acid (HClO 4 ). To determine total P in the NaHCO 3 and NaOH extracts, an aliquot of the extracts was digested with K 2 S 2 O 8 in H 2 SO 4 at >150 °C to oxidize organic matter (Bowman, 1989). Organic P was calculated as the difference between total P and P i in the NaHCO 3 and NaOH extracts, respectively. Inorganic P concentrations in all the digests and extracts were measured colorimetrically by the molybdate-ascorbic acid method (Murphy and Riley, 1962). All laboratory analyses were conducted in duplicate and all the data are expressed on an oven-dry weight basis.Analyses of variances were conducted (SAS/ STAT, 1990) to determine the significance of the effects of method of Tithonia establishment on soil properties and plant growth attributes. Planned F ratio was calculated as TMS/EMS, where TMS is the treatment mean square and EMS is the error mean square (Mead et al., 1993). Where significant differences occurred, least-significant-difference (LSD) analysis was performed to permit separation of means. Unless otherwise stated, mention of statistical significance refers to α = 0.05.Establishment of Tithonia by plantlets resulted in significantly greater mycorrhizal root infection (P=0.05) in both coarse and fine roots, as compaewd to Tithonia established by stakes and the differences were of 21 and 31%, respectively (Table 1). The corresponding difference in the number of spores per 100 g of soil was 30% but the difference between the two methods was not statistically significant (P=0.05). The higher AM infection of plants established with plantlets could have contributed to the greater acquisition of nutrients (Table 2) observed under this treatment. Increased mycorrhizal uptake of simple forms of organic P (P o ) (Jayachandran et al., 1992) and increased net release of P from organic matter due to uptake by mycorrhizal hyphae (Joner and Jakobsen, 1994) have been demonstrated. Although the source of soil P is envisaged to be the soil solution and to be the same for both roots and hyphae, the transfer across the symbiotic interface results in increased nutrient acquisition by the plant (Smith and Read, 1997). This is because mycorrhizal hyphae, due to their small size and spatial distribution compared to roots, are able to penetrate soil pores inaccessible to roots resulting in exploitation of a larger soil volume for nutrient acquisition, particularly of non-mobile nutrients such as P, Zn and Cu (Smith and Read, 1997). Rhodes and Gerdemann (1975) demonstrated the ability of the hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi to absorb 32 P from a distance as much as 7 cm away from the roots. The kinetics of P uptake into hyphae may differ from that of roots. The fungal membrane transport system seems to have a higher affinity for phosphorus (lower K m value) than roots (Cress et al., 1979), leading to more effective absorption from low concentrations in the soil solution and possibly lower threshold values below which uptake ceases (Smith and Read, 1997). The work with cassava by Yost and Fox (1979) illustrates this point. This species appears to have a very high P requirement, coupled with a very inefficient P uptake system in the absence of mycorrhizal colonization. Despite this, cassava is well known for its growth on soils of low fertility and its efficiency of uptake is markedly increased when roots are colonized by mycorrhizal fungi (Smith and Read, 1997). The increased efficiency of the plantlet to associate with mycorrhizae may be related to the initial physiological competence of the plantlet compared to the vegetative stem cutting (stake). Plantlets have all the basic components of a mature plant and are able to start photosynthesis shortly after transplanting.Plantlets are also likely to associate with AM faster than cuttings because they already have roots and produce photoassimilates that are an essential component for an effective plant-mycorrhizal symbiosis. This symbiosis is likely to proliferate rapidly once established. Meanwhile, the stakes have to initiate root and shoot growth before they can associate with AM resulting in a time lag for symbiosis to be established. How long this lag period lasts is unknown. Tithonia established by plantlets had a total shoot biomass of 16.5 t/ha, which was significantly higher (P<0.05) than the 7 t/ha under vegetative stem cutting (stake) establishment (Table 2). The total root length and root biomass were not significantly affected by the method of establishment, although, on average, plants established by plantlets had greater root biomass, root length and specific root length indicating that Tithonia under this method of establishment had developed a finer root system. It is generally observed that thicker roots may be more favorable for mycorrhizal association (St John, 1980). It appears that in the case of Tithonia both thick and fine roots were colonized by mycorrhizae. Tithonia plant established by using plantlets had significantly higher shoot uptake and use efficiency of N, P, K, Ca and Mg (Table 2). The higher values of these attributes in plants established using plantlets could be attributed to greater mycorrhizal (AM) colonization under this establishment method, which might have increased the effective volume for nutrient uptake. There is evidence that nitrogen (N) is taken up by AM hyphae from inorganic sources of ammonium (Ames et al., 1983). Any direct effect of AM on NO 3 -uptake is not known (Sieverding, 1991). Potassium (K) and Mg are often found in higher concentrations in mycorrhizal than non-mycorrhizal plants, although a direct transport of K and Mg in AM is not confirmed (Sieverding, 1991). Some experimental work suggests that in K-deficient soils the improved K uptake is related to the AM fungal species and that K may be transported by AM fungal hyphae (Sieverding and Toro, 1988). Calcium (Ca) transport in AM hyphae is not clearly confirmed; the Ca uptake is apparently affected by interaction with other elemental nutrients. However, it should also be noted that this improvement in nutrient acquisition could be as a result of relief from P stress and possibly from the uptake of some essential micronutrients. These processes will result in general improvement in growth, thus indirectly affecting the uptake of other nutrients. The differences between mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants usually disappear if the latter are supplied with a readily available P source (Bethlenfalvay and Newton, 1991;Azcón-Aguilar andBarea, 1992, Barea et al., 1992;Bethlenfalvay, 1992).Available P (Bray-II) in the 0-5 and 5-10 cm soil depth was significantly greater in plots where Tithonia was established by plantlets (Table 3). The plantlet method resulted in significantly higher Ca and Mg in the profile up to 20-cm soil depth (Table 3), and a lower content of exchangeable Al (results not shown for brevity). These differences may be related to the differences in mycorrhizal associations between the plantlet and stake establishment methods. Bowen (1980) and Jehne (1980) reported that AM might play an important role as transport paths for nutrient cycling processes. AM-root external mycelia presumably can efficiently and intensively extract nutrients from a greater soil volume and thus reduce the amount of solubilized or mineralized nutrients that are chemically fixed or leached. This function of AM fungi was concentrated in the 0-20 cm depth of the soil profile where most root growth occurred. Biologically available P (H 2 O-P o , resin-P i , and NaHCO 3 -P i and -P o ): The biologically available P consists of labile P and represents soil solution P, soluble phosphates originating from calcium phosphates, and weakly adsorbed P i on the surfaces of sesquioxides or carbonates (Mattingly, 1975). The resin P i and the NaHCO 3 -P i are considered readily available for plant uptake. At soil layers of 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm, the resin P i was significantly higher under the plantlet establishment method (Table 4). The resin P decreased sharply with increasing soil depth and accounted for 0.4 % and 0.07 % of the total soil P at the 0-5 and 40-60 cm soil layers, respectively. The NaHCO 3 -P i was higher under the plantlet establishment method; however, the differences were not significant except at 10-20 cm soil depth. Similar to the resin P, the NaHCO 3 -P i decreased sharply with increasing soil depth and accounted for 4.5% and 0.4% of the total soil P at the 0-5 and 40-60 cm soil layers, respectively. The organic fractions of the bioavailable P include the H 2 O-P o and NaHCO 3 -P o , which is considered \"readily mineralizable\" and contributes to plant-available P (Fixen and Grove, 1990). This P o fraction includes nucleic acid-P, sugar-P, lipid-P, phytins, and other high-molecular-weight P compounds (Bowman and Cole, 1978). The H 2 O-P o contribution to the total soil P was very small and decreased steadily with depth. The plantlet establishment method had a higher H 2 O-P o at the 0-5 and 5-20 cm soil depths. The NaHCO 3 -P o was on average 4% of the soil total P. The method of establishment of Tithonia did not affect this fraction. The absence of an effect of the establishment method on NaHCO 3 -P o is consistent with results by Tiessen et al. (1992), who found that NaHCO 3 -P o was relatively constant in shifting cultivation systems on an Oxisol. The sum of all the fractions making up the bioavailable P (H 2 O-P o + resin-P i + Total NaHCO 3 P) was less variable and was about the same under the two establishment methods. It decreased with increasing soil depth and ranged from 56.4 (0-5 cm) to 18.0 µg/g (40-60 cm), which was between 4 to 9% of total P (Table 4; Fig. 1).  Moderately resistant P (NaOH-extractable P): This fraction is thought to be associated with humic compounds, and amorphous and some crystalline Al and Fe phosphates (Bowman and Cole, 1978). The NaOH (0.1 M, pH = 8.5) used completely solubilize the synthetic iron, aluminum phosphate and any labile-P o (Anderson, 1964). A large proportion of P was recovered in this fraction, where the total NaOH (P t ) represented between 37 % and 18 % of the total soil P at the 0-5 and 40-60 soil layers, respectively (Fig 1). The plantlet establishment method resulted in high NaOH-P i , however, the results were not significant (Table 4). The effect of the establishment method was variable on the NaOH-P o fraction and did not follow any particular trend with increase in soil depth.The sparingly available P includes the 1M HCl, the hot-and-concentrated HCl (P i and P o ) and the Hedley et al. (1982) residual-P. The dilute HCl (1M) acid extractant is used to dissolve acid-soluble P, which consists of relatively insoluble Ca-phosphate minerals such as apatite (Williams et al., 1980). This fraction is clearly defined as Ca-associated P, since the Fe-or Al-associated P that might remain unextracted after the NaOH extraction is insoluble in acid. There was rarely any P o in this extract. On average the dilute HCl-Pi represent about 1 % of the total soil P and was only significantly affected by the establishment method at 5-10 and 10-20 cm soil layers. It increased sharply with increasing soil depth from the 5-10 to 40-60 cm soil layers. The hot concentrated HCl is useful for distinguishing P i and P o in very stable residue pools. The P o extracted at this step may also simply come from particulate organic matter that is not alkaline extractable, but it may be easily bioavailable. The plantlet establishment method resulted in a significantly higher HCl hc-P i at the 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm soil layers (Table 4). The HCl hc-P o showed a tendency to be greater under the plantlet establishment method, but was only significantly different from the stake establishment method at 5-10 cm soil layer. The residual P is thought not to be available on a short time scale such as one or two crop cycles, but a small fraction of this pool may become available during long-term soil P transformations. The residual P represented a high proportion of the total P and was significantly affected by the establishment method at the 0-5 cm soil layer. This fraction decreased steadily with increasing soil depth.This study has shown that the better method of establishing Tithonia as a fallow species in volcanic-ash soil is the use of bare root seedlings (plantlets) in comparison to vegetative stem cuttings (stakes). Establishment by bare root seedling resulted in increased plant growth and nutrient acquisition, which are desirable plant attributes for fallow systems because of enhanced nutrient cycling.Ames R N, Reid C P P, Porter L K and Cambardella C 1983  Soil erosion is a major problem worldwide. Climatic impacts aside, the main reasons for soil erosion are both, inappropriate land-use and improper fertilizer management, (Lal and Stewart, 1990;Oldeman, 1990;El-Swaify, 1991) as well as socio-economic constraints (Steiner, 1994, Mueller-Saemann, 1998 et al.). In the process of acquiring a basic knowledge of soil degradation, efforts have focused on structural changes at the soil surface (Sumner and Miller, 1992;Sumner and Stewart, 1992;Bresson, 1995;Valentin and Bresson, 1998)). Recent observations indicate that the physical and chemical degradations of soils in the Andean zone are related to the phenomena of soil crusting and sealing.Soil crusts are thin layers of hardened soil on the surface, occurring on dry soils (Roth, 1992;Bresson, 1995). The term \"soil sealing\" is used to describe superficial impermeabilities mainly occurring in wet circumstances. Soil sealing occurs if dissolved aggregates infiltrate in the soil pores leading to compact soil horizons and thus reducing infiltration (Scheffer-Schachtschabel, 1998). Both phenomena negatively impact water infiltration, and reduce air permeability and seedlings' emergence (USDA, 1996, Bajracharya et al., 1996, Le Bissonnais, 1990). Due to the reduction of water infiltration, the surface runoff increases; resulting in enhanced soil erosion and reduced harvest yield.The soil crust development of Andean soils of volcanic origin is not yet well understood. Therefore, the aim of this work is to characterize the phenomenon of soil crusting on Andean Inceptisols. This project is supported by special project funds from the DAAD/Germany, the Eiselen Foundation/Germany, the BMZ/Germany and the University of Hohenheim/Germany.Field research was conducted at the Santander de Quilichao Research Station, Dep. Cauca of Colombia (3°6'N, 76° 31' W, 990 m.a.s.l). Trials had been installed on an amorphous, isohyperthermic oxic Dystropept (Inceptisol), developed from fluvially translocated partly weathered volcanic ashes. The field site has a bimodal rain distribution with two maximas in April-May and October-November, with a mean annual rainfall of 1799 mm, a rain intensity up to 330 mm/h and a mean annual temperature of 23.8°C. The measurements of soil crusting have been made on 27 Standard Erosion Experimental Plots. These plots, originally designed by the soil conservation team from the University of Hohenheim as completely randomized blocks in three repetitions, have been used since 1986 (Table 1). They were sampled at 0 to 5cm depth. The treatments from December 1999 are described in Table 2. Before planting, the experimental plots have been limed with dolomitic lime (500 kg/ha) and plots with mineral fertilizer have been fertilized with 300 kg/ha mineral fertilizer (10N-30P-10K). Chicken manure from a local poultry farm had the following nutrient content (N: 3.43%, P: 1.82%, K: 2.73%, Ca: 3.32%, Mg: 0.64%, Fe: 1364 ppm).To quantify and describe soil crusting and sealing, different measurement tools have been used in the field.After planting Cassava in December 1999, field measurements with a Pocket Penetrometer (Model DIK-5560) were carried out.Besides pentrometer measurement, a Hand Vane Tester (Model EL26-3345) was used to measure shear strength at the soil surface. Both tools were used weekly, each Penetrometer measurement 24 times and Torvane measurement 6 times per plot.To describe direct effects of soil crusting and sealing on infiltration, a mini-rainsimulator was used in the field. Infiltration was measured by irrigating a defined soil area (32,5cm x 40cm) with a special amount of rain (90mm/h). The construction of this mini-rainsimulator enabled to subsample runoff periodically (every 5 min). The difference between irrigated amount of rain water and run-off data is defined as infiltration.Cassava root yield in December 2000 was measured after harvest to determine the impact of soil compaction process. Penetrometer and Torvane Results of Penetrometer and Torvane measurement are presented in Figures 1. During the wet season, penetration resistance was similar in all treatments. At the beginning of the dry season in May/June, differences between treatments were noted. Notably, the Cassava + 8 t/ha chicken manure became a hard soil (penetration resistance 25,4 kPa, shear strength 67 kg/cm²). Over time the minimum tillage plot generally became harder than other plots, but the well-developed and stable aggregate structure prevented negative impact on water infiltration (see below). The high amount of chicken manure caused a dispersion of clays in the wet season and results in uniform clods after drying. It was noticed that the Cassava monoculture and Cassava intensive tillage tended to be extremely soft, thus building up a singlegrain structure also called pseudo-sand. Torvane measurement data tended to be similar to penetrometer measurement. Figure 1 indicates the increase in shear strength in the dry season especially within treatments of Cassava + 8 t/ha chicken manure.In general, all treatments except the Cassava intensive tillage treatment had a high shear strength from June-July and turned from 13 -22 kg/cm 2 in the wet season up to 43 -76 kg/cm 2 in the dry season.Results are presented in Figure 2. Cassava + 8t/ha Chicken manure had the lowest infiltration after 55 minutes with a final infiltration capacity of 36 mm/h. It has to be emphasized that Cassava min. tillage as well as Cassava rotation treatment had both an excellent infiltration capacity. Minimum tillage influenced the soil structure positively in the way that aggregation over a long time period is supported. This helped to build up a soil structure, as also the mulch at the surface led to a better infiltration.Results of harvest data are presented in Table 3. Overall, the best root yields were found in Cassava 4t/ha chicken manure and Cassava rotation. High Cassava root yields in these treatments are due to improved soil conditions such as moderate soil hardening, sufficient fertilization, enhanced soil aggregation and high water infiltration. In contrast, the lowest yields were found with Cassava monoculture and Cassava intensive tillage treatments. The Cassava monoculture treatment is characterized by a low nutrient content in the soil through insufficient fertilization over a long period of time.   The single grain structure and low infiltration capacity contributed to low root yield. The Cassava intensive tillage treatment is characterized by a breakdown of the pore system. Thus, leading to a lack of infiltration and reduced yields. In both treatments, roots were very small and economically worthless. Cassava 8 t/ha chicken manure had high amounts of plant biomass but hard soil structure, preventing optimal development of Cassava roots. In Cassava minimum tillage treatment, root growth was limited to the area loosened before planting. Therefore yields in both treatments were lower than in Cassava rotation and Cassava 4 t/ha chicken manure In summary, penetration resistance and shear strength showed no risk of structural damage in the wet season. This worsened in the dry season when Chicken manure treatment turned into hard and impermeable soils. Although, the minimum tillage treatment had high penetration resistance and high shear strength values, this caused no deterioration because of a good aggregation status. This can clearly be seen in the results of infiltration measurement. Monoculture and intensive tillage had neither high penetration resistance nor high shear strength. In contrast, these treatments easily built up the so-called pseudo-sand that lead to high proportions of small aggregates, and thus to high amounts of soil erosion. The more modern techniques of Minimum tillage and Cassava rotation had the best and most sustainable status. Those treatments had a good aggregation, showed adequate infiltration rates and did not suffer from human induced fertilizer damage, e.g. soil hardening due to chicken manure or deterioration of soil matrix through intensive tillage. Chicken manure, especially 8 t/ha, had a severe impact on soil surface.Further research is needed to specify the reasons why chicken manure has such an influence on aggregates. It is unclear which dispersion agent might be that leads to aggregate dispersion. Furthermore, structural changes through intensive tillage or minimum tillage have to be looked at more closely in order to ascertain how severely aggregate breakdown affects plant growth on Inceptisols.Results from penetration and shear strength measurement showed the marked influence of chicken manure on soil structure. Chicken manure generally resulted in a deterioration of soil's structural status. A reduction of infiltration, especially in chicken manure plots, substantiates the hypothesis that inappropriate fertilizer management is one of the key factors in structural deterioration on Inceptisols. Dispersion of clays, generally cited as the main reason for soil sealing, is influenced by the impact of chicken manure. Further research will need to focus on the impact of fertilizers on the soil surface in order to design sustainable land-use systems for Andean hillside farming.Increasing understanding of local ecological knowledge and strengthening interactions with formal science strengthened. J.J. Ramisch and M. Misiko TSBF-CIAT, PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya Rationale: The project is testing a community-based interactive learning approach, which aims to improve and sustain agricultural productivity by facilitating a common understanding between scientists, farmers and other stakeholders about how agro-ecosystems operate and how best to manage them.The major goal of the project is to develop innovative and interactive learning tools to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and skills between farmers, scientists and other agricultural knowledge brokers. The specific focus of the project is to broaden farmers' soil fertility management strategies by incorporating scientific insights of soil biology and fertility into their repertoire of folk knowledge and practical skills.A parallel goal is to strengthen the understanding of indigenous agro-ecological knowledge among scientists, extensionists and other stakeholders and to elucidate the local realities and complexities that determine farmers' decision making. This interactive and multidirectional communication process provides opportunities for both farmers and scientists to question and validate their knowledge. It also presents a mechanism for disseminating and sharing useful local knowledge between different groups of agricultural stakeholders.The major activities of the first year were largely exploratory in nature, covering three main areas: 1) community studies and learning activities (this Activity section), and 2) development of methodologies for the research and for farmers to share information with each other and with researchers, and 3) monitoring and documentation (for both, see Activity 2.2 \"Community-based learning and dissemination strategy developed\"). The coming year will see much more emphasis on communication strategies, building on existing knowledge, and broadening the scope of farmer-to-farmer exchanges.Community studies and learning activities: The four study sites all have some previous exposure to either TSBF or local NGO's that had worked on soil fertility management. They cover a range of agroecological conditions and ethnicities, and thereby present an interesting and representative diversity of communities in Western Kenya (Box 1).The project began with introductory, community discussions, which led into exploratory group work to assess the types and extent of knowledge and assumptions held locally about soil fertility and soil ecological processes. Once this baseline study of 'folk ecological' knowledge was completed, there were The introduction of the project centred on community interviews held in the four sites. These events, facilitated by a multi-disciplinary team had as their objectives:• Determining the local \"vocabulary\" used for discussing soil fertility • Identifying concepts locally related to soil fertility knowledge (classification, process, relationships) • Identifying the elements of locally understood \"common sense\" related to soil fertility • Identifying the individuals or groups who possess specialised knowledge of soil fertility and its management • Identifying the assumptions or \"rules\" of local soil fertility knowledge.Following the initial meetings, farmers and researchers alike were eager that findings be returned to initial groups for discussion and validation. The collective findings of the community interviews were synthesised and presented back to the communities in open seminar events, which led to follow up activities on locally important themes. In particular, transect walks and other ground-truthing activities helped both broaden the involvement of community members beyond the participants of the initial meetings and to build rapport with potential key informants with specialist knowledge.Key findings from the baseline study activities include:• Local soil types were readily identifiable. Local descriptions distinguished more soil types than were recognised as distinct soils by scientists. Soil maps are based on 'expert opinion' but do not reflect the high familiarity and local knowledge of farmers in daily contact with their land. Individual farmers also adapt common local names to the soils found on their own land. • Soil names reflected features of the surface layer: colour, texture, depth, fertility, erosion, first user or settler (i.e. history). Soil was understood holistically, as \"mother\", \"ourselves\", \"life\", or \"wealth\", and not just as a physical surface on which life is found. The soil was more commonly acknowledged as the source of life and wealth rather than alive or a type of wealth in its own right.• Farmers identified a diversity of directly observable, constituent parts of soil (living and nonliving), including minerals, sand, silt, decaying things, worms, insects, moisture, and temperature. The presence of invisible or microscopic aspects of the soil was observed indirectly, through the growth of specific wild plants, or through crop performance.• No single local terminology exists to describe soils' fertility status, and there was no significant gender difference in the use vocabulary or concepts. A linguistic difference was that the Teso word \"aboseteit\" referred to soil fertility and things that enhance it, while Luyia used a more general word \"obunulu\" to denote both a fertile soil and rich, fatty meat.• Multiple analogies were used when describing soil fertility, including paired opposites like \"healthy / sick or hungry\", \"strong / weak or tired\", \"young / old\", \"moist / dry\". The aspects considered important in describing fertility were texture (light, loose soils were preferred to heavier ones, which would stick on implements), colour (darker soils were considered more fertile), health or energy (as seen in crop performance, \"weak\", \"old\", or \"tired\" soils need to rest or to be fed).• Many locally known plants indicate high or low soil fertility. These indicator species, however, are not universal and their interpretation may vary. The presence of certain uncommon species may be enough to imply \"high\" fertility, while the relative performance of widespread species is often compared to give an indication of fertility. Generally, indicator species appear to reflect \"inherent\" soil properties more than trends of improvement or decline. Knowledge of plant indicators is both widely accepted and highly debated, and will be investigated further. In particular, the distribution and use of this knowledge is being more intensively studied by the Master's student Nelson Otwoma (see \"Training\" below).• Respondents assumed that without inputs soils become \"poor\" or \"worthless\". It was also widely believed that using inorganic fertilisers encourages crops to overexploit the soil's energy and can quickly \"exhaust\" or \"bleach\" the soil. Because organic inputs have longer residual effects than inorganic ones, respondents felt that both must be used in combination, or one will disrupt a desired balance of elements in the soil.• Applying \"farmyard manure\" and constructing terraces were the most common soil management interventions. There was extreme individual variation between farmers in terms of what materials were included in \"manure\" and the manner in which they were managed while decomposing or applied to cropland. Manure management will be a major topic for further investigation. Only farmers in Aludeka did not commonly use manure, since land is relatively abundant and trypanosomiasis limits cattle keeping.Major changes in managing soil fertility over the last fifty years include the introduction of inorganic fertiliser, construction of terraces, systematic use of livestock manure, fallow trees and compost. Traditional farming encompassed fallowing, shifting cultivation and slash-and-burn as major practices. Practices that were introduced by the government and had been or were being abandoned include crop rotation on an annual basis, since land is too limiting. The follow-up activities with key informants have particularly emphasised participant observation of management practices, which are notoriously difficult to discuss in the abstract and are more meaningfully observed on the ground.Traditionally, information was disseminated communally and government did not have a role in provision of services like agricultural extension. Farmers learned mainly through observation, apprenticeship and experience, resources were abundant and knowledge on the environment was extensive. Today, farmers have more knowledge on intensive agriculture but use of this knowledge is constrained by limited access to key resources, including land, biomass and livestock. Many farmers reported that reduced landholdings and the difficulty of acquiring new land limit their ability to fully exploit their traditional knowledge of soils and their management. As a result of land scarcity, there was little correspondence between soil type and crops grown, even when farmers stated that a given soil was not well suited to the crop being grown. Resource constraints will almost certainly limit the relevance and amount of traditional knowledge being passed on to later generations.Usually, information about meetings and other research events is given out to relatively few farmers. This information later reaches their friends and also neighbours and relatives. In addition, most of such events are held in the open where most passers-by see. Nevertheless, some farmers did not feel encouraged to attend these events. As an example, a woman who lives adjacent to a TSBF research plot in Emuhaya said: \"I would like to attend research events, …but I have no one to 'follow' (i.e. orientate her to them)\". She was aware that research on soil fertility had been continuing for long in her village. She also knew it would be beneficial but had never regarded herself to be part of the process.Specifically relating to dissemination of knowledge on soil fertility, there was a common feeling amongst participants in the four sites was that there was inadequate awareness creation on soil fertility research. Many farmers did not understand how they would participate or even directly gain. It is as a result of this that many farmers still expect money or other handouts from researchers. Farmers suggested some steps that could be useful in enhancing the spread of knowledge on soil fertility:• Experimental and demonstration plots should be soil-based; located in different soil types found in the study areas, which would assist farmers to relate the practices to their situation easily.Participants observed that some trial plots may have performed better than others due to differences in soils and that some preferred practises would be inapplicable in certain soils. At present, TSBF hires trial plots depending on their availability, adequacy of size and shape of trial plot, willingness of farmers to rent their plots out and to co-operate, security, accessibility, absence of such barriers as rocks and termite mounts, representativeness of agro-ecological zones. • Plots should bear well-labelled posters showing procedures on experiments and stating that it is pure \"trial\" and not something automatically beneficial or \"interesting\" to farmers. One farmer suggested that trial plots that are managed by the researcher should be hidden from busy roads so that they are not seen by passers-by especially when they perform poorly (as was the case with some plots in 2000).• Technologies should be better adapted to farmer conditions. Participants in focus group discussions suggested that green manure species that mature within a shorter period and which can be inter-planted with crops and/or eaten would be preferred. Such technologies should be developed so that they can be broadcast in the farm, without necessarily having to be planted carefully in lines or rows. The main concern was that new technologies should not require rigorous skill and experience.• Group-based approaches, including collectively identified and run plots can be effective venues and tools for passing new technologies to farmers. In Emuhaya, several 'Farmer Field Schools' have emerged spontaneously to broaden community participation beyond the original, rather exclusive 'Adaptive Research Farmer Groups'. Local level meetings where farmers could exchange ideas have been tried in the past in other sites, but have not been sustained. It is necessary to involve many people in activities of dissemination. Awareness can be done through field days, demonstrations, visits or exposure tours to other areas.• It is widely felt that individualistic behaviour and the absence of 'traditional' practices that once united communities (beer brewing, labour sharing, etc.) undermine collective endeavours today. It is certainly true that few activities promote positive competition amongst farmers. Household differences and clan rivalries are also major sources of division, although most key informants felt that they could be overcome with good leadership.• Low interest in research work was partly attributed to poor leadership. Researchers, like local leaders were said to \"stand before farmers and address them\". The two were therefore similar. Just as local leaders never delivered on their promises, research was initially seen to be unproductive. For instance, a bean variety that is suitable for N Eastern Kenya was planted on one of the key informant's plot in Emuhaya. As with the poorly performing trial plots in 2000, this inadvertently created the impression that \"if a specialist's work failed, what is the point in learning how to copy it?\" • Farmers have 'tools' of measuring researchers. Those with meaningful intentions and hardworking are known and easily draw farmers' attention. Farmers should be consulted when deciding on ways of teaching.• Farmer research groups have limited participation of non-members through charging of subscriptions. Most farmers perceive subscription as extortion and expressed their objection that \"information from research bodies should not be passed through such groups\".To investigate the dynamics of how agro-ecological knowledge is generated and shared within a community, two master's level research activities are being conducted. The first project takes a more anthropological approach to understanding the role of local indicators of soil fertility change (particularly plant species and plant growth traits) and the degree to which different groups or individuals have come to recognise given indicators, or value the information that those indicators impart. The second study (still in preparation) will take a more ethnobotanical approach to understanding the distribution and relevance of indicator species, and will likely be situated in a contrasting environment.\"The role of indigenous knowledge in the management of soil fertility among smallholder farmers of Emuhaya division, Vihiga district.\"Justification: This study will add to the search for information on soil fertility management being pursued by many researchers and planners. Besides, there is a growing appreciation and recognition of the importance of local or indigenous knowledge in the sustainable use of natural resources. But the lack of information stands in the way of good understanding of these methods. By taking time and effort to document the systems, they become accessible to change agents and client groups (Brokensha et al. 1999: xv).The study does not, however, pretend that local knowledge and practices has the quick solution to the many problems facing farmers in the area of soil fertility management. Far from that, it recognizes the importance of integrated knowledge systems (modern and indigenous) and while focusing on the latter the study will pay attention to the former.The Folk Ecology Project (that provides a background for this study) needs specific information that can facilitate the integration of two knowledge systems (modern and indigenous), which eventually will enable scientific information to become a component of the larger pool of local knowledge to be more efficiently applied by the local people themselves particularly in the area of soil management.The Emuhaya division study site lies within a region, which has poor subsistence economy due to unreliable rainfall and highly fragile soils. Smallholder farmers in this region face the double tragedy of environmental degradation and increasing demand for food. While the extension workers and other agencies could be willing to assist, their efforts could be hampered by the prevailing low socio-economic status, especially among the small farmers. This, therefore, calls for the need to carry out a study, which could inform the donor community or, more importantly, the policy makers and communities themselves to enable them formulate a broad strategy within which resources can be more effectively focused.The findings of this study could, therefore, enable governments, policy-making bodies, nongovernmental organizations and donors to formulate and design strategies that can alleviate suffering emanating from soil nutrient depletion among smallholder farmers. Agricultural research institutions can also base on the findings to institute the intervention programmes that could improve the conditions of smallholder farmers so that they are not left vulnerable to adverse environmental effects. Extension workers can also use the report to enable them understand the indigenous knowledge perspective of soil fertility management practices.In addition, the findings are also potentially replicable. Brokensha et al (1999) argue that it is quite apparent that indigenous innovations, which are found to be effective in one part of the globe, can be equally effective when made available to populations in similar ecological conditions in other parts of the world. The documentation of the vast amount of unrecorded; often rapidly disappearing indigenous knowledge could provide the basis for many effective development interventions, if this knowledge could be shared. The general objective of the study is to describe indigenous knowledge of soils and how it relates to the management of soil fertility in the study area. Specific objectives include: i) To identity the local diagnostic criteria for differentiating soil types among smallholder farmers within the study area. ii)To identify local indicators for discerning soil nutrient depletion or loss among the study population. iii)To investigate the soil fertility management practices used by smallholder farmers in the study area.The field research phase of this study covered the long rains growing season of 2002, allowing the student to follow the on-farm activities and decision-making processes of key informants responding to various indicators of crop performance and soil fertility change. As such, it was expected to provide a useful window on an important aspect of local ecological knowledge and the extent to which it can (or does) inform local practice. Many of the older key informants, for example, have stressed that much of the knowledge they have acquired about changing agricultural conditions is no longer particularly relevant to their livelihoods for the simple reason that their land base is now so constrained that there are fewer opportunities to match crops to given micro-sites on farm. The adapted knowledge of younger farmers, however, indicates that local soil variability can still be profitably exploited with different management strategies, at least by some classes of motivated individuals.Somoni Franklin Mairura Kenyatta University, Kenya Rationale: Local plants as indicators of soil quality, like other biological indicators of soil quality, simultaneously reflect changes in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. Because of their integrative nature they are often better early warning indicators than other conventional methods to detect changes in soil quality.Natural and agricultural systems respond in a similar way to degradation and regeneration processes through the ecological principle of succession. During succession, plants and soil organisms that are best adapted, gradually substitute those least adapted, because of the selection exerted by changes in soil characteristics (i.e. some plants can tolerate more degraded soils than others, etc.). If we are able to identify local plants used by farmers to characterize their soils across a region we may be able to organize this information and identify trends which can provide insights about their potential use in making decisions about land management.CIAT's work in Latin America has shown the important role played by local plants as indicators of soil quality (Barrios and Escobar, 1998). This document proposes a collaborative activity among CIAT, SWNM and AHI scientists to identify local plants used as indicators of soil quality in the Eastern Africa region using the AHI sites as a representative sample (i.e. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda).This collaborative work will lead to the preparation of a table with local plants used as indicators of soil quality to be included as a contribution of AHI to Guide #1 \"Identifying and Classifying Local Indicators of Soil Quality (LISQ), Eastern Africa Edition ( 2001)\". Within this context, work will clearly identify the localities where the observations are being conducted, and will select key informants and elder representatives of the different farmer communities in the study area for group analysis (brainstorming) sessions. The following questions will guide the discussion for identifying and prioritizing local plants as indicators of soil quality from the local knowledge base: i) Are there any local plants (weeds, shrubs, trees) that only grow in fertile soils? ii)Are there any local plants (weeds, shrubs, trees) that only grow in poor soils? iii)Are there any local plants (weeds, shrubs, trees) that grow in all soils but that according to their growth, vigor and color can be used as indicator of the soil condition? iv)If you were buying a new plot which plants would you use to characterize the quality of such plot for agricultural purposes? v)After several seasons of cropping, you decide to leave your plot fallow by allowing natural regeneration of the native vegetation to take place. At what stage in that regeneration do you go back to cultivation? Are there any plants that indicate that your plot is ready for cultivation again? Information gathered will be organized and prioritized using pair-wise ranking in order to provide a list of most important to least important of all the plants used as indicators of soil quality.Evaluation of current ISFM options by participatory and formal economic methods JJ Ramisch and I Ekise TSBF-CIAT, PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya Rationale: Declining soil fertility problem is the single greatest threat to food security and livelihoods in Western Kenya. Findings of most soil fertility research work in the region indicate that the soils of this region are generally deficient in Nitrogen and Phosphorus nutrients. This problem has been caused by high population density and poor farming methods. For instance in Emuhaya area, farmers continuously crop their fields with minimal use of inorganic or organic fertilizers. This type of farming can not be sustained in the long run and if not checked could lead to deterioration in the farming environment. Some of the indicators of a deteriorating environment are; sharp decline of crop harvests, high incidences of crop and animal pests and diseases, frequent famine, deteriorating farm incomes among others.Progress: A baseline survey of soil fertility management practices and socio-economic conditions was completed and analysed for 314 farmers in the West Kenya site. The methodology was shared with the Ugandan and Tanzanian sites. These data are being compiled and analysed along with comparable studies conducted at the other BMZ project sites in West Africa (Togo and Benin) to produce a scientific paper relating soil fertility management practices to the contrasting socio-economic and agro-ecological conditions of the sites.Farmers, extension, and KARI-Kakamega field staff were trained in participatory monitoring and evaluation methods. Several forms of farmer recording keeping were introduced in 2001 to monitor and evaluate progress with the soil fertility management technologies. However, lack of funds has limited follow-up, which has lead to widely varying levels of farmer interest and disparate standards of data collection.A good number of partners have since initiated trials in the region whose main goal was to enable farmers to produce agricultural products while reversing nutrient depletion on their soils. The purpose of this was to increase the farmer's capacity to develop, adapt and use integrated nutrient management strategies. The integrated soil fertility management options tried include; biomass transfer using Tithonia diversifolia, use of improved fallow plants (Mucuna, Crotolaria grahamiana, C. ochroleuca, C. paulina, Canavalia, Sesbania sesban etc), use of high quality compost, integration of inorganics and organics. The initial target number of farms was 60 located in 5 villages of Ebusiloli sub-location of Bunyore East location in Emuhaya division of Vihiga district. The work was implemented through the farmer research group framework, which focused the village as the unit of research work. Each village was organized into a research group with elected officials managing their respective groups. The specific objectives of this study are: i) To quantify the costs and benefits of the practiced ISFM technologies in order to show the profitability of each technology. ii)To conduct participatory ranking of the ISFM options based on farmers criteria and perceptions. iii)To identify the constraints facing the ISFM practitioners and possible solutions to overcome them in order to improve the adoption of technologies being practiced. iv)To build the capacity of the farmer field schools to innovate and share the results for collective action.The FFS Framework: The farmer field schools work together to implement the study. Suitable farms were identified and the owner contracted using the procedures of TSBF and ICRAF being currently used to implement other trials. The decision support systems (DSS) layout for the trial (see section 2.3) in Emuhaya was adopted. There is concern from the farmers that treatment plot sizes need to be increased for more visibility. They propose to have 10 m x 10 m plots. The farmer field schools propose to include the local (indigenous) plants and test them as well. The treatments will be randomly selected and established.Rationale: In sub-Saharan African countries like Kenya, small-scale farmers account for about 70% of the over all production and produce more than 75% of the total food crops. Soil erosion, depletion of ground cover due to overgrazing and nutrient depletion due to continuous cropping has lead to low living standards among the majority of the rural households. The depletion of the natural resources (land and forests) as a result of population pressure and continuous cropping in the study area does not augur well for the future generations who are expected to live on and derive their subsistence from such lands.To reverse the trend of rapid decline in the quality of soil and the physical environment, large investment in soil fertility technologies and soil conservation works is needed. This study seeks to justify and warrant such investment by providing quantitative and empirical evidence of the importance, appropriateness and economic competitiveness of agroforestry-based and other integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technologies as strategies that are potentially capable of solving and alleviating productivity problems. The findings will be useful in terms of postulating suggestions to policy makers pertaining the incentives and institutions that can be put in place by the government and other stake holders to enhance the promotion and expansion of the emerging technologies of addressing soil nutrient depletion.Training and capacity building: Two master's level research projects are currently on-going. The first uses the policy analysis matrix (PAM) technique to evaluate the private and public benefits and costs of different ISFM options. This approach is particularly useful for examining the role of transaction costs and market failures in influencing profitability of new technologies. The second study determines whether the soil fertility management and livelihood enhancement needs of different classes of farmers are being met with the ISFM options currently available to them, by contrasting the profitability of different options (using gross margin analysis).The Competitiveness of Agroforestry-based and other Soil Fertility Enhancement Technologies for Smallholder Food Production in Western Kenya.Abstract: Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have been faced with persistent food insecurity accompanied by low and declining agricultural production and productivity. Although in Kenya population growth has been on the decline, increased settlement on arable land has exerted pressure and heavy demands on natural resources especially land. As a consequence, continuous cropping has been very common among majority of the smallholder farmers leading to soil nutrient depletion. Many studies in Kenya have shown that soil fertility depletion among smallholder farms is responsible for the persistent food insecurity and declining per-capita food production.In order to address the soil fertility problem, researchers in International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) and Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility programme (TSBF) have been able to develop and promote agroforestry-based technologies. They include biomass transfer and improved fallows.Although these agro forestry based technologies together with Minjingu rock phosphate are being used by farmers in western Kenya, little is known about their economic competitiveness in terms of how efficient resources are being used to produce food under these soil fertility enhancement technologies. The proposed study is an attempt to bridge the above-mentioned gap in knowledge by providing a quantitative evidence of farm level profitability (both private and social) of food production under the above mentioned soil fertility replenishment technologies. The study will be carried out in Siaya and Vihiga districts, western Kenya.The Policy analysis methodology (PAM) will be used to analyse both primary and secondary data. A multi stage stratified sampling method will be used to select a total of one hundred and twenty farmers, sixty from each of the two districts. The selected farmers will be interviewed using structured questionnaires.A reconnaissance survey will be conducted in the area of study to identify the farmers to be interviewed. A questionnaire pre-test will be done on farmers in the area but the sample of the pre-test farmers will be outside the sampling frame.The over-all objective of the study will be to determine the competitiveness of both agro-forestry based soil enhancement technologies and use of Minjingu Rock Phosphates for smallholder food production. The specific objectives will include: i) To determine the financial profitability of food production under agroforestry-based technologies (improved fallows and biomass transfer) and Minjingu rock phosphate as alternative soil nutrient replenishment technologies. ii)To determine the social profitability of food production under agroforestry-based technologies and Minjingu rock phosphates as strategies of the soil fertility enhancement. iii)To compare the competitiveness of both inorganic fertilizers and agroforestry-based technologies for food production. iv)To compare the profitability of maize and horticultural production using agroforestry based technologies.There has been renewed attention on soil fertility replenishment in Sub-Saharan Africa as critical to the process of poverty alleviation, as symbolized clearly by the award of the 2002 World Food Prize to Pedro Sanchez, a pioneer in the field. Soil fertility is crucial because in Africa poverty is mainly a rural phenomenon. With 70% of the population in the rural areas and 60% of those living below the poverty line, a whopping 85% of the poor are found in rural areas (Mwabu and Thorbecke, 2001). Since over 95% of the rural population is engaged in agriculture to some degree, any short to medium term poverty reduction strategy that ignores agriculture is doomed to fail. In many places, the rural poor cannot expand land holdings. Per capita arable land in Sub-Saharan Africa has shrunk dramatically from .53 to .35 hectares between 1970from .53 to .35 hectares between and 2000from .53 to .35 hectares between (FAOSTAT, 2002)). Accelerated and sustainable agricultural intensification is required. Returns per unit land must increase in order to provide sufficient food for the (rural and urban) poor and output per worker must rise in order to lift the incomes of the poor. This has clearly not taken place as evidenced by the stagnant crop yields and per capita indices for agricultural and food production. For example, per capita agriculture, food, cereal, and livestock production indices are all below levels from 1990. While the first steps to reverse this trend are hotly debated, it is certain that increased agricultural productivity and improved rural livelihoods cannot occur without investment in soil fertility.There is no shortage of evidence showing the dismal state of Africa's soils. African soils exhibit a variety of constraints, among them: physical soil loss from erosion, nutrient deficiency, low organic matter, aluminum and iron toxicity, acidity, crusting, and moisture stress. Some of these constraints occur naturally in some tropical soils, but they are exacerbated by severe degradation processes. Degradation of some form is pervasive on the continent, with less than 20% of soils said to be unaffected by degradation (FAOSTAT, 2002) and about two-thirds of agricultural land to be degraded (Oldeman et al., 1991). About 85% of degradation is attributed to water and wind erosion, with the rest being mainly in situ chemical degradation (Oldeman et al., 1991).The lack of nutrient inputs among smallholder African farmers exacerbates the nutrient deficiency of soils. Fertilizer use was never high in Africa. Exchange rate devaluations and the termination of government fertilizer subsidy programs throughout the continent over the past fifteen years have sharply increased the real price of mineral fertilizers, putting them beyond the reach of most small farmers in Africa, at least at anything approaching recommended application levels. As a result, while the rest of the world averages 97 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare, in Africa, only 9 kilograms are applied to the average hectare of land (Gruhn et al, 2000). The rate is lowest in central Africa (2 kg per ha) and in the Sahel (5 kg per ha). Even when fertilizer is combined with other organic sources, studies throughout the continent have found high negative nutrient balances to occur in nearly all countries (Henao and Baanante, 2001). The estimated losses, due to erosion, leaching, and crop harvests are sometimes staggering, at over 60 -100 kg of N, P, and K per hectare each year in Western and Eastern Africa (e.g. Stoorvogel and Smaling, 1990;de Jager et al. 1998).Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), developed more fully in section 3, is being widely studied and is rapidly becoming more accepted by development and extension programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as, most importantly, by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper begins with a brief setting of the context, demonstrating the key variations in agro-ecology, market opportunities, and farming systems in Africa and how these will condition the incentives for ISFM. The following section synthesizes evidence to date on the biological and financial impacts of organic nutrient practices and ISFM. Section 4 synthesizes available evidence on markets for organic nutrients, including supporting markets for seed, labor and credit. Section 5 provides a comprehensive summary of evidence on farmer investment in and management of organic nutrients and ISFM. Lastly, we conclude the paper with implications for research priorities, design and dissemination of ISFM, and policy reform.Sub-Saharan Africa is very heterogeneous in terms of soils, climate, agricultural potential, market access, and population density. These differences influence the types of organic nutrients that are technically feasible to produce, the types of crops that will benefit from such application, opportunity costs of land and labor, and cost of acquiring mineral fertilizers. In short, the incentives for producing and using specific types of nutrient inputs are highly variable across the continent.The physical and agroclimatic conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa are extremely diverse. Broad agro-ecological zones range from the semi-arid tropics, with around 400-800mm of rain per year, to humid highland regions that may average over 1,800mm of rain supporting two growing seasons. Soils are also quite distinct in texture, inherent soil physical, chemical, and biological health, potential for erosion and other forms of degradation. For example, crusting is a major problem in the semi-arid zone, aluminum toxicity in the humid lowlands, and erosion in the hilly highlands. In the more favorable zones, a wider range of organic based systems will be feasible, but they will also need to compete against a wider range of agricultural enterprises for land and labor. In the drier zones where growing plants becomes riskier and costlier, livestock assumes a more important role in the provision of organic nutrients.Soils are also highly varied within small geographic areas. They maybe affected by physical features such as topography or historical land use and vegetation cover. Thus, it is quite common to find relatively fertile soils where deposition has taken place due to erosion. Soil variation may also occur across or within farms due to management patterns. For example, greater soil fertility status has been found among wealthier than poorer households in western Kenya (Shepherd and Soule, 1998) and in plots near homesteads (Prudencio, 1993).Population densities vary noticeably within each of these zones, but generally, population pressure is highest in the more favorable agricultural zones. They are relatively lower in the semi-arid lands and minor portions of the humid lowlands (e.g. in forest margin areas) and subhumid zone (e.g. Zambia). They are highest in the highlands of East Africa, with densities of over 600/km 2 being very common. Densities of 250/km 2 or more are also found in some humid lowlands and sub-humid areas in West (e.g. Nigeria) and Southern Africa (e.g. Malawi). Such densities imply that average farmsizes among smallholder farmers will be 2 hectares or lower. Small farm sizes limit farmers' ability to find niches for the production of intermediate inputs for green manure or feed for livestock. Despite high population densities, the agricultural labor supply is not always plentiful in such areas, especially where school enrollment rates among children are high and non-farm income-earning opportunities are strong. Moreover, many very poor rural households are relatively labor scarce, exhibiting high shadow wage rates (Barrett and Clay forthcoming), limiting uptake of labor-using technologies, even among the poor in high population density areas.Market infrastructure development is similarly varied across the zones, but is not fully functional or efficient in any of the zones. There are low densities of main trunk roads with feeder roads that are of low quality and often seasonally impassible. The more densely populated areas enjoy somewhat better transportation opportunities, piggy-backing on public transport vehicles and greater densities of market centers. Despite a general tendency towards liberalization of both input and output markets throughout the continent, in some cases government parastatals still play an important role (e.g. coffee in Kenya, maize in Malawi). Further, liberalization has yielded spatially heterogeneous and generally mixed price and market access incentive effects due to changing risk characteristics, limited inter-seasonal credit availability, and meager private storage or transport capacity (Yanggen et al. 1998, Barrett and Carter 1999, Reardon et al. 1999).The Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) paradigm acknowledges the need for both organic and mineral inputs to sustain crop production without compromising on environmental issues (Buresh et al., 1997;Vanlauwe et al., 2002). The paradigm further acknowledges that plants also require a conducive physical, biological, and chemical environment, apart from nutrients, to grow optimally. Besides these organic and mineral inputs, the soil organic matter pool, which reflects past soil management strategies, is another substantial source of nutrients. Each of these sources contributes to crop production and the provision of environmental services individually, but more interestingly, these resources can be hypothesized to interact with each other and generate added benefits in terms of extra crop yield, improved soil fertility status, and/or reduced losses of nutrients to the environment.The earlier work on soil fertility management in SSA focused on the use of mineral inputs to sustain crop production. Numerous studies that have looked at crop responses to applied fertilizer report substantial increases in crop yield and financial returns (e.g. Yanggen et al., 1998;Snapp et al., 1999). National fertilizer recommendations exist for most countries, but actual application rates are nearly always much lower due to constraints of a socio-economic rather than a technical nature (see section 5). On the technical side, however, mineral inputs were further discredited due to the observed environmental degradation resulting from massive applications of fertilizers and pesticides in Asia and Latin America between the mid-1980's and early-1990's as a spin-off of the Green Revolution (Theng, 1991). As a result, soil fertility management strategies were refocused towards the use of organic amendments and considerable enthusiasm emerged around so-called \"agro-ecological\" approaches to agricultural development in the tropics (Uphoff 2001).Among the most commonly used or promising organically based soil nutrient practices are: animal manure, compost, incorporation of crop residues, natural fallowing, improved fallows, relay or intercropping, and biomass transfer. These are briefly described in table 1 below. While we focus on soil nutrient management practices, there are a host of other management practices that are vitally important to overall soil fertility, including soil conservation techniques, weed management practices, and cropping strategies themselves.Initially, organic resources were merely seen as sources of nutrients, mainly nitrogen (N), and a substantial amount of research was done on quantifying the availability N from organic resources as influenced by their resource quality and the physical environment (see Palm et al., 2001, for example). Various classes of organic resources were identified based on their short-term N supply, which in turn depends on nutrient acquisition methods, concentrations of nutrients in biomass, total biomass production, and decomposition characteristics (Vanlauwe and Sanginga, 1995;Vanlauwe et al., 1998). More recently, other contributions of organics have been emphasized in research, such as the provision of other macro and micro-nutrients, reduction of phosphorus sorption capacity, carbon/organic matter, reduction of soil borne pest and disease spectra in rotations, and improvement of soil moisture status. There are some key differences in the way that the organic systems contribute to soil fertility. Those systems that use nitrogen-fixing species are able to add nitrogen without withdrawing it from soils (either in situ or ex situ). Some can produce over 150 kg of nitrogen per hectare (e.g. a single season crotalaria fallow). Plant systems that are based on trees may further recycle deep nutrients (through roots) that would otherwise have been unavailable to annual crops. The different systems are not necessarily equally effective in providing nutrients. Organic sources will differ in terms of nutrient content, mineralization processes (in which the nutrients in the organic compounds can become available to the crop), and the provision of other soil fertility benefits (e.g. weed reduction). Aside from the organic source itself, management aspects can also affect the effectiveness of organics in increasing soil fertility. A key management distinction is the growing of legumes in situ (as opposed to transferring biomass from outside the plot) which can provide other benefits to crops through rotation affects (e.g. reducing the incidence of weed) and through water infiltration effects (from the root systems).Despite these positive aspects, organic nutrient systems are not able to sufficiently replenish soils by themselves. First, concentrations of phosphorus and potassium are very low in organic manures. Second, the efficiency with which N and other nutrients can be used by crops can be low. Other problems related to the sole use of organic inputs are low and/or imbalanced nutrient content, unfavorable biomass quality, limited land for production of organic material, or high labor demand for transporting bulky materials (Palm et al., 1997).It has been recently acknowledged that organic and mineral inputs cannot be substituted by one another and are both required for sustainable crop production (Buresh et al., 1997;Vanlauwe et al., 2002). This is due to (1) practical reasons -the amount of either fertilizer or organic resources alone would not be sufficient or organic resources were found unsuitable to alleviate certain constraints to crop growth, e.g., the lack of P in Nitisols with strong P sorption characteristics (Sanchez and Jama, 2002) and (2) the potential for added benefits created through positive interactions between organic and mineral inputs. Several attempts to quantify the size of added benefits and the mechanisms creating those have been made. Vanlauwe et al. (2002) reported that integration of maize stover increased the recovery of urea-N, most likely due to its temporary immobilization of urea-N. In a multilocational trial in West Africa, Vanlauwe et al. (2002) demonstrated added benefits from combined organic and mineral treatments through reduced moisture stress at critical growth phases of the crop. In a set of trials in sandy soils of Zimbabwe with various mixtures of cattle manure and ammonium nitrate, Nhamo (2001) observed added benefits ranging between 663 and 1188 kg maize grains per hectare. This synergy was attributed to the supply of cations contained in the manure.Although the above list of observed positive interactions between organic and mineral inputs is not exhaustive, very often these inputs are also demonstrated to have only additive effects. But because of declining marginal increases from one single type of input, the additive effects are often superior in terms of overall yields and net returns, as shown by Bationo et al. (1998) for millet in Niger and Rommelse (2000) on maize in Kenya. Fortunately, negative interactions are hardly ever observed, indicating that even without clearly under standing the mechanisms underlying positive interactions, applying organic resources in combination with mineral inputs has negligible downside risk and considerable upside potential, thereby constituting an appropriate fertility management principle.The ISFM paradigm has further broadened the scope for potential interventions in a number of ways. First, interactions between various crop growth factors were widened beyond nutrients. In Sahelian conditions, e.g., Zaongo et al., (1997) observed striking increases in water use efficiency for sorghum after application of fertilizer. Secondly, recognizing that soil fertility varies widely within a farm due to site-specific management by the farmer with drastic effects on crop yields, attempts are on-going to target resources, both of organic and mineral origin, to this within-farm variability in soil fertility status, rather than developing blanket recommendations. Bationo et al. (Unpublished data) showed a considerable improvement in P use efficiency from 47 to 79% when applying the P on a non-degraded homestead field rather than a degraded bush field. Vanlauwe et al. (Unpublished data) showed that N fertilizer use efficiency decreased from 45 to 30% when topsoil carbon contents increased from 0.3 to 0.8%. Thirdly, ISFM also highlights the need for improved germplasm. Improved crop germplasm does not only have a major role to play in improving nutrient acquisition but also in providing more organic inputs. Efforts have recently been made by various research centers to develop dual or multipurpose grain legume varieties (e.g. Sanginga et al., 2001).In summary, there is considerable evidence demonstrating the important contributions of organic matter to agricultural crop yields. There is more limited, but still significant evidence attesting to the positive impacts of integrating organic and mineral nutrient sources in the short and long term. One interesting caveat is that nearly all research on ISFM has taken place on cereal crops. Yet, as we shall see in section 5, much fertilizer use by smallholders in Africa is steered towards more high value crops. The effects of organics and ISFM on non-cereals remain under-researched.There are likewise several socio-economic sources of complementarity between organic and mineral inputs in soil fertility maintenance. Mineral fertilizer must be brought to the farm while organics can be home-grown, saving on transport costs and reducing uncertainties of market acquisition. The two approaches to soil fertility management require investment using different household resources, with fertilizer requiring financial capital and organics requiring labor and land (initial investment in livestock will require capital). The capital-intensive nature of fertilizer use is exacerbated by inflexible packaging arrangements creating a minimum $20 -$30 expenditure for a single bag. Several development projects and retailers sell fertilizer in smaller amounts, but farmers' lack of trust in shopkeepers seems to inhibit the growth of decentralized repackaging. Finally, in terms of quantities available, imported mineral fertilizers are in theory plentiful if the demand is there. On the other hand, production of organics is limited by available land and therefore supplying sufficient amounts for one's farm, let alone for sale in the market, can prove challenging.Macro or meso level factors may impinge on the ability of communities to access certain types of nutrients. For example, fertilizer has been absent from retailers in Uganda until recently and is more readily available in peri-urban areas than in remote areas, very few cattle keepers are found in Malawi, and many types of green manures cannot grow effectively in drier zones. But it is the heterogeneity among households more than variation between agroecological zones that explains most of the observed differentiation in the use of different soil fertility practices. Significant uptake of integrated organic and mineral practices for improving soil fertility has occurred throughout SSA, in the highlands of East Africa (Murithi, 1998;Gebremedhin and Swinton, 2002;Place et al., 2002a;Clay et al., 2002), the humid lowland zone (Tarawali et al., 2002), the sub-humid zone (Mekuria and Waddington, 2002;Kristjanson et al., 2002;Peters, 2002), and the semi-arid areas (Freeman and Coe, 2002;Shapiro and Sanders, 2002;Kelly et al., 2002). Studies also show significant payoffs from the integration of mineral and organic sources of nutrients across different ecozones (Place et al., 2002a;Kelly et al., 2002;Shapiro and Sanders, 2002;Freeman and Coe, 2002;Peters, 2002;Mekuria and Waddington, 2002).Several interrelated micro-level factors are at play in farmer input use patterns, including commercialization and access to land, labor, and capital. It is quite well documented that fertilizer use is strongly linked to commercialized production of cash crops (Kelly et al., 2002), ranging from parastatal run input-output supply programs to informal and opportunistic networks of peri-urban agriculture. There is some evidence to suggest in cash cropping systems organic inputs replace fertilizer when fertilizer supply becomes problematic (Bosma, et al., 1996;Mortimore, 1998) or that the availability of mineral fertilizers for use on cash crops facilitates a broadened use of organic materials on food crops (Raynaut, 1997).The relationship between commercialization and organic systems is also in general positive (Murithi, 1998;Kelly et al., 2002;Freeman and Coe, 2002), but there are obvious exceptions. Use of manure on cereal food crops is an old practice in the Sahel and southern Africa and continues today (Enyong et al, 1999;Williams, 1999;Ndlovu and Mugabe, 2002). Experimentation with new, plantbased, organic inputs often begins with their application on cereal crops, following traditional practices such as heaping or burning of familiar plant residues (Snapp et al., 1999). But animal manure is also commonly used on higher value commodities such as potato, coffee, and vegetables (Freeman and Coe, 2002;Shapiro and Sanders, 2002). And, as with manure, farmers have shifted promising innovations using new green organics systems (or integrations of organic and mineral fertilizers) onto higher value commodities such as vegetables (Place et al., 2002a). Furthermore, small farmers appear to consistently favor organics that serve as more than just a soil fertility amendment, offering food or animal feed that can be consumed or marketed as well, as with dual purpose legumes such as pigeon pea.This pattern underscores that the positive yield returns described in the previous section can make the use of organics remunerative even in semi-subsistence systems, including places where purchased fertilizers remain unattractive. This difference, the propensity for using organics to increase production in high-value systems and farmers' preference for dual-purpose varieties over those that serve as fertilityenhancing inputs only, highlight the value of cash liquidity in areas plagued by a dearth of inter-seasonal credit. Those who earn cash from crop sales, or can avoid spending cash on input purchases, can often afford to hire labor or to purchase food and thereby dedicate their labor to input production on their own farm instead of having to hire out their labor in order to earn wages. But when the labor demands of the low external input (LEI) technology are substantial, as in many biomass transfer systems or other LEI technologies, the foregone wage earnings can impede adoption among poorer farmers (Reardon et al. 1999, Moser andBarrett 2002).Land availability commonly constrains use of organic inputs produced on farm, like improved fallows (Place et al., 2002a). On the other hand it is not a major factor in biomass transfer systems, which are often focused on small plots of high value crops. The evidence on the effect of labor availability on adoption of organic inputs is mixed. While additional labor effort is often identified by farmers, they commonly find ways to reduce labor burdens to fit their needs through adaptation of extended technologies. For example, intercropping of pigeon pea with maize in Malawi saves labor (and land) compared to a sequential system (Waddington, 1999). Farmers in Western Kenya are also opting to use local plant species (such as Tithonia or Vernonia) identified as good nutrient sources as additions to existing composting systems, which use labor in small increments rather than as part of cut-and-carry systems which would demand major labor inputs at the time of crop planting (Misiko and Ramisch, unpublished data).A key motivation for the promotion of organic nutrient systems is that by requiring little capital, they might reach the poor better than commercially distributed fertilizer. This is critical, because many studies have found that the poor are unable to use mineral fertilizers and the consequences on soil fertility and farm incomes are enormous (Soule and Shepherd, 2000). This largely seems not to be true in the case of animal manure because incomes tend to be highly positively related to livestock ownership. Manure use therefore appears to increase with a household's wealth (Mekuria and Waddington, 2002). But poorer households are using agroforestry-based nutrient systems and compost in Western Kenya at the same proportion as wealthier ones (Place et al., 2002a). Moreover, participatory methods are involving the poor much more in technology design.Will the use of organics encourage greater use of mineral fertilizers? 1 A recent study of agroforestry improved fallow and biomass transfer systems in Western Kenya found that the systems were being used by 30 -45 percent of those households who were not using fertilizer or manure (Place et al., 2002c). However, the use of agroforestry has not yet spurred an increase in the use of fertilizer. On the other hand, Abdoulaye and Lowenberg-DeBoer (2000) analyze data from Niger to show that patterns of intensification exhibit a pattern of graduation from manure to mineral fertilizer use. Expansion of options is good for smallholders. However, there remain information gaps as to how much the different options are being perceived as complements or substitutes by farmers.Markets depend fundamentally on there being positive net returns to moving goods across space or time, through transport and storage, respectively. The development of markets (formal or informal) for organic inputs in Africa, as throughout the world, has been shaped and constrained by the extreme variability in the supply of organic resources and their relative 'bulkiness' (low nutrient value per unit mass). These factors conspire to limit trade in organic inputs, leading to extremely localised patterns of use.The supply of organic resources that are potentially important contributors to agriculturemanure, crop residues, and other plant biomass -is both seasonally and spatially variable. Spatial variability can be observed as gradients of input use at the farm scale, inter-household variability based on differential resource endowments, and variability at the landscape and higher levels due to agro-climatic differences. Seasonal variability affects the abundance of key materials: crop residues are available in vast quantities only at harvest or as thinnings before then, manure is more abundant during rainy seasons than in dry ones but more likely to be dispersed by grazing across the landscape. Temporal variability is also seen in the quality of materials. The nitrogen content, in particular, of manure or harvested organic materials declines rapidly with the passage of time, as does the overall nutrient value of young plant materials like leaves if they are allowed to mature or senesce. Inter-seasonal storage of organic soil nutrient amendments is therefore impractical.The second factor, bulkiness, is a key constraint on the transport of organic materials over any significant distance for use as inputs. The much observed 'ring management' of many Sahelian farming systems (cf. Prudencio, 1993;Ruthenberg, 1980) results from the concentration of inputs on fields declining with increasing distance from their source (typically the homestead). Comparing yield benefits from manure application against the labor involved in transporting it, Schleich (1986) found that for a community in Côte d'Ivoire, ox carts were profitable up to a distance of 1 km, whereas transport on foot was not profitable at any distance. Since animal powered transport can increase the efficiency of laborintensive transport activities to the point of profitability, dynamic community-level markets for the exchange of draft power have been reported for transporting manure (Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 2001 in Burkina Faso;Ramisch, 1999 in Mali;Tiffen et al., 1994 in Kenya;Sumberg and Gilbert, 1992 in the Gambia).Because transportation is an important limit, there is a strong incentive to produce organic inputs in situ (such as companion planting of legumes with cereal crops or as improved fallows in rotation with them). An animal based analogue is the corralling of animals on fields in the dry season, which exchanges crop residues for manure. Throughout much of West Africa, the manure of large semisedentary and transhumant herds is a key resource for settled farmers (Landais and Lhoste, 1990;Bonnet, 1988;McIntire and Gryseels, 1987;Powell and Coulibaly, 1995), and such manure is often the catalyst for inserting pastoralists into the exchange networks of a settled community (Ramisch, 1999;Guillard, 1993;Dugué, 1987;Lachaux, 1982). Where markets can valorise increased crop production, exchanges of 'surplus' manure or compost between settled farmers are also common, either for cash (Tiffen et al., 1994) or labor for other activities (Ramisch, 1999;Guillard, 1993).High labor requirements for collection, transportation, and application of organic inputs are an important limiting factor for market participation. Where local labor markets and credit are incomplete, a household's capacity to use organic inputs depends primarily on the availability of household or reciprocal labor (Ahmed et. al, 1997;Barrett et. al., 2002). This has implications for labor allocation decisions that may not be consistent with households' income diversification strategies. The low quality of manure being used by many farmers under traditional management systems results in low concentration of plant nutrients (especially nitrogen and phosphorous) and correspondingly low returns to farm labor (Probert, n.d.). Under these circumstances households may seek to free farm labor to pursue off-farm activities that provide a higher return or are less risky. HIV/AIDS has also reduced labor availability for farm work in many countries in eastern and southern Africa These households are likely to prioritise labor saving technologies even in perceived labor surplus areas. Nonetheless, surprisingly little is known about how returns to integrated soil nutrient management practices compare with alternative investments off-farm.The problem lies not just in markets for soil amendments themselves, but also in the materials for in situ production of organic inputs. Farmer willingness to pay for germplasm for green manure is low because of free distributions by projects, high quantities demanded, and an ability to harvest and reuse seed for most green manure plants. Where intensification of leguminous grains is linked to market development farmers have shown greater willingness to invest in improved seeds (Jones et. al., 2002). The challenge here lies in identifying the right varieties that have the best potential for fixing nitrogen while at the same time meeting preferred market requirements for the food product beyond soil fertility improvement. The proliferation of markets for Mucuna seeds in West Africa, for example, was related to its perceived ability to suppress the noxious grass Imperata. Within 2-3 years this weed was controlled and Mucuna no longer marketed (Houndekon et al., 1998). Species with multiple benefits, such as dualpurpose soybeans or cowpeas are more likely to be adopted than those purely for soil improvement. Social networks play an important role in facilitating the reallocation of slack resources (Mazzucato and Niemeijer, 2001). The anecdotal evidence that exists for the development of seed distribution markets for legume cover crops suggests that social networks are paramount in spreading both information and the small amounts of seed that become periodically available for members outside the group (Misiko, 2000).Integrated soil fertility management practices are thriving in agricultural research and development projects, as the use of organic inputs increases, both on a stand-alone basis and in conjunction with mineral fertilizers. Much of this initiative is due to farmer innovation and adaptation, often in response to macroeconomic and sectoral reforms that have driven up real fertilizer prices throughout the continent. Organic systems have been found to complement fertilizers in many ways, both in a biophysical sense (enhancing soil fertility beyond nutrients alone) and in a socio-economic sense (requiring different types of household resources). Some organic systems are performing well on their own and in integrated systems, as measured by yields and profits. Like mineral fertilizer, there appears to be more interest in, and impact from, the use of organics and integrated systems on higher value crops. Because of their low cash requirements, some organic-based systems are reaching poorer households that otherwise are scarcely using any fertilizer. But there are limits to the amounts of organics that can be produced on-farm, particularly where labor constraints bind. There remains insufficient evidence as to whether increased use or organic inputs is spurring increased overall use of nutrient inputs. While biophysical research in integrated soil fertility management is progressing rapidly, more research is needed on farmers' practices, including their innovations and integration of individual components. There is also an urgent need to extend both bodies of research to higher value crops and whole farm analyses.Markets for organic biomass are limited mainly due to the inherent characteristic of relatively low quality of nutrients per weight resulting in bulkiness. Markets have developed for animal manure, especially quasi-contractual arrangements between owners of free grazing cattle and stover owners. Markets for green manure do not exist to any significant degree. Markets for green manure germplasm have developed in response to demand from projects and from farmers when the plant yields feed or food product in addition to soil nutrient replenishment.In order to ultimately contribute to increased productivity through improved soil fertility management, a few steps can be highlighted. First, there is still need to develop more attractive options, components and integrated strategies for small farmers of which improved germplasm is an integral part. This requires tighter linkage and feedback between strategic and adaptive research activities. Farmers are moving quickly in experimentation and the researcher community must be more active in monitoring this work. This will require more partnerships among farmers, extension, development projects, and researchers to bring wider development efforts into the knowledge base of researcher.Second, because ISFM practices are knowledge intensive, a major challenge is to identify scaling up processes that are both effective and not too costly in terms of information provision and technical support. It will be especially challenging to overcome the many bottlenecks of information flow across different organizations, from organizations to communities, between communities, and between farmers within communities. There is a need to develop incentive systems that reward improved flows of information. Rewards to communities for their efforts similar to the Landcare system in the Philippines or the Presidential award in Kenya are worth exploring, as are ways of utilizing existing rural collective action (e.g. community-based organizations) to facilitate information flow.Third, there must be major efforts to make agricultural commercialization more attractive to small farmers. Low rates of market participation are leading correlates of both poverty and the absence of sustainable agricultural intensification through increased investment in the land (Barrett andCarter 1999, Reardon et al. 1999). Increasing commercialization requires improving access to input markets, including for working capital (e.g., credit, savings) needed to purchase mineral fertilizer, organic inputs and seed and to hire labor, perhaps especially for women, who are key soil fertility managers in much of the continent. This is relatively easier in favorable agricultural zones where investment in market infrastructure can have a big impact. Indeed private, commercial interests sometimes undertake such investment voluntarily in support of lucrative contract farming schemes. Stimulating greater market participation is trickier in drier areas, although research from South Asia suggests that the marginal returns, in terms of both poverty reduction and production value, are highest for road infrastructure investments in low potential rainfed areas (Hazell and Fan 2001). Roads are important, but the organization of marketing and finance demand attention as well, building on local self-help groups to help resolve coordination and contract enforcement problems bedeviling much commerce in rural Africa today.Rapid growth in experimentation with organic soil inputs has fuelled the emergence of an extremely promising integrated soil fertility management paradigm that is just beginning to be evaluated carefully. A wide variety of studies report widespread experimentation with ISFM across all agroecological zones in Africa, including by many farmers who had not been using mineral fertilizers. Nonetheless, problems of market access, and household-level availability of land, labor and working capital continue to limit the extent of adoption of ISFM among poorer small farmers. One finds pockets of active and effective users surrounded by vast areas of non-use. Much remains to be done, both in terms of research and development practice, to establish how best to employ the emergent ISFM paradigm to overcome or increase Africa's miniscule rates of mineral fertilizer application and stimulate agricultural productivity growth. The task is made all the more pressing by economic policy reforms that have caused a sharp drop in fertilizer use by small farmers in many areas. The core challenges to scaling up limited successes with ISFM to date appear threefold: improving integration between strategic and adaptive research, accelerating and expanding the flow of information among farmers, and increasing agricultural commercialization through improved market access, especially in lower potential rainfed regions.Abdoulaye, T., Lowenberg-DeBoer, J., 2000. Intensification of Sahelian farming systems: evidence from Niger. Agricultural Systems 64, 67-81. Ahmed, M., Rohrbach, D.D., Gono, L.T., Mazanghara, E.P., Mugwira, L., Masendeke, D.D. Alibaba, S., 1997. Soil  The spread of solid and liquid excrement from animals, mainly cattle. Intensified livestock production systems involve the collection of manure in stalls or pens, while the more extensive systems involve direct deposition of manure by grazing animals.The collection and distribution of a range of organic compounds that may include soil, animal waste, plant material, food waste, and even doses of mineral fertilizers. Prior to application of compost onto the field, there is a period of incubation to decompose materials.The in situ cutting, chopping, and incorporation of crop residues into the soil. This operation is often done at the time of land preparation for the following season.Withdrawal of land preparation or cultivation for a period of time to permit natural vegetation to grow on the plot. The breaking of the crop cycle and lead to regeneration and the fallows can also recycle nutrients.The purposeful planting of a woody or herbaceous plant to grow on a plot for a period of time. In addition to benefits of natural fallows, improved fallows can achieve equal impacts of natural fallows in shorter time periods because of purposeful selection of plants, such as those that fix atmospheric nitrogen.Nutrient sources are integrated with crops in both time and space. The organic source may be a permanent feature on the plot such as with alley farming or scattered trees or may also be annual legumes. Intercrops are normally carefully planted, but trees in certain parkland systems (e.g. Faidherbia albida) are naturally growing.Relay systems are similar in sharing space with the crop, but the organic source is planted at a different time than the crop.The transport and application of green organic material from its ex situ site to the cropping area. The organic source may be purposefully grown or growing naturally.Finding common ground for social and natural science in an interdisciplinary research organisation -the TSBF experience J.J. Ramisch (TSBF-CIAT), M.T. Misiko (TSBF-CIAT), S.E. Carter (IDRC, Canada) Abstract: Continuing dialogue between the natural and social sciences means that the conception of \"development\", and of integrated natural resource management (INRM) in particular, continues a healthy evolution from largely discipline-based approaches to more integrative, holistic ones. Reflecting a microcosm of this evolution, the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) Institute of CIAT is today dedicated to integrated soil fertility management and the empowerment of farmers through participatory technology development. Yet its origin in 1984 was as a body devoted to researching the role of soil biology in maintaining soil fertility, to combat declining per capita food production and environmental degradation. This paper examines the changing theoretical and methodological approaches of integrating social science into TSBF's research activities over the past decade, and identifies strategic lessons relevant to INRM research. The interdisciplinary \"experiment\" of TSBF has steadily taken shape as a shared language of understanding integrated soil fertility management. While individual disciplines still retain preferred modes of conducting fieldwork (i.e.: participant observation and community-based learning for \"social\" research, replicated trial plots for the \"biological\" research) a more \"balanced\" integration of these modes is evolving around activities of mutual interest and importance, such as those relating to decision support for farmers using organic resources. Since TSBF is working constantly through partnerships with national research and extension services, it has an important role in stimulating the growth of common bodies of knowledge and practice at the interface between research, extension, and farming. To do so requires strong champions for interdisciplinary, collaborative learning from both natural and social science backgrounds, the commitment of time and resources, and patience.As part of a CG-wide review, papers were invited which analyze the contribution of social research (sociology, anthropology, geography, political science, psychology) to research process, results, outcomes and development impact of agricultural or natural resource management research. Papers should assess the extent to which social research has influenced the relevance of research outcomes for the poor. Preference will be given to papers that analyze experience over time with social research and its impact in an organization such as a CGIAR Center, National Agricultural Research Institute or NGO, as distinct from a project. Topics to address include:1. Introduction: brief overview of the history of social research in the institution that identifies main phases and trends over time in number and type of staff and resources involved and their main objectives.processes : e.g. on problem identification, research priorities, client or target group identification, methodologies, on-farm approaches, technology design, criteria for successful results, scaling up, evaluation, impact assessment etc. How and why has this changed in relation to the main phases and trends in use of social research over time identified in (1) above ? 3. How has social research done by the institution been incorporated into the organization, its work culture, team composition, policies and procedures. Have synergies been achieved by combining social research with other disciplines? Why or why not? 4. Are there any effects of social research on results achieved by the institution, on adoption and use of its research results by client groups, outcomes of use for clients, and development impact associated with the institution's research. If there is no evidence to enable you to address this question, why is this ?The Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) Programme (now Institute) was created in 1984 under the patronage of the Man and Biosphere programme of UNESCO and recently incorporated into the Future Harvest system of food and environment research centres as a research Institute of the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). As an international research body, the underlying justification of TSBF's work has been that \"the fertility of tropical soils is controlled by biological processes and can be managed by the manipulation of these processes\" (Woomer and Swift, 1994).Being an organisation with an explicitly biological and ecological mandate and origin, TSBF has nonetheless sought social science input into its research program since 1992. It has always been a small team (never more than six internationally recruited scientists) and therefore much of TSBF's considerable output has been generated through collaboration with partner organisations (both national and international), with special focus on sub-Saharan Africa. The decision to develop and maintain a core competency at the interface of social and natural sciences at TSBF since 1992, rather than looking for such competency from partners, is therefore significant. A decade after the creation of the Resource Integration Officer (since renamed Social Science Officer) position, it is worth re-evaluating the effects and effectiveness of this decision.This paper examines TSBF's historical record as a \"laboratory\" for developing meaningful interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration, and asks whether what has emerged has been \"social soil science\" or merely \"soiled social science\". To illustrate some of the tensions inherent in interdisciplinary undertakings, examples of theoretical and methodological evolution are drawn from \"grey\" project literature, personal commentary, and publications. The strategic lessons learned from this particular organisation reflect in microcosm the much broader debates about the potential for \"rigorous\" science under competing disciplinary approaches to integrated natural resource management (INRM). They also address the assumption that developing a common institutional culture and language within INRM falls more to social scientist \"newcomers\" than to biological or natural scientists.The smallness of TSBF when contrasted with the larger international research centres has obliged an inherent recognition that the organisation cannot do all things in all places. As a result, strategic decisions about which research themes and methods to pursue become all the more important. \"Smallness\" has also meant that individual personalities and disciplinary backgrounds have had a much more direct impact on the organisational research agenda and that agendas can change with less institutional inertia than would be the case in a larger centre. On the down side, the institution has been very vulnerable to changes in core personnel (especially the gaps that occur when posts are changing hands) and frequently science has taken a back seat to mere matters of survival.The development of a TSBF research agenda that looked beyond the soil to the people cultivating it has moved from descriptive, characterisations of farming systems to more strategic study of social differentiation, power, and networks as they relate to soil fertility management innovation. An interest in dissemination has broadened into investigation of social dynamics, knowledge, and farm-level decisionmaking. There has also been a tradition of self-reflection, examining the consistency and coherence of TSBF's stated goals, methods, and actual practice, as well as the extent to which grassroots action conforms to its depiction to outsiders. As such, social science practice has developed quite healthily over the ten years 1992-2002, driven significantly by the following factors:a) The disciplinary background of the Social Science Officer (and to a lesser extent, that of field staff). Three people have held this position -Simon Carter (1992-1997, Geographer), Patrick Sikana (1998-2000, Anthropologist), Joshua Ramisch (2001-present, Human Ecologist) -and each has had preferred research topics and interests. In addition, Eve Crowley (1994-1996, Anthropologist) worked with TSBF on a Rockefeller Social Sciences Fellowship; a position shared half time with ICRAF. b) The demand for \"socio-economic\" understanding of processes being studied by other TSBF staff and collaborators. c) The natural evolution of projects from inception to later stages. This organic growth has typically moved from characterisation using very descriptive studies to more explanatory work building on existing practices through to development of longer-term interactive learning activities. d) Evolving social science debates concerning knowledge, power, and participation. The cosupervision of MSc and MA students from local universities has been an especially useful vehicle for maintaining contact with these debates. e) Responding to donor agendas, including but not limited to perceived needs for research results readily useful to farmers, a clearer understanding of agrarian change and its links to changes in soil fertility, livelihoods analysis, impact assessment, and identifying the most effective ways of \"scaling up\" organisational successes.There has always been a tension between the research agendas demanded from within TSBF by social scientists (i.e.: disciplinary interests, evolving projects and debates) and those expected from outside (i.e.: from other TSBF staff, partners, donors). This tension results from different research paradigms and differing ideas about the role of research in relation to social change. From the natural science perspective, the key contribution of social science to INRM often appears to be identifying and understanding the social factors that limit \"adoption\" or the \"appropriateness\" of given technologies. Other socio-cultural phenomena, such as \"policy\" might be acknowledged as important to the fate of different innovations, but most teams (even multi-disciplinary ones) lack the capacity to generate relevant policy-related questions, experiments or interventions. In other words, when the organisation is researching natural resource problems, the natural-social science dialogue has most often begun with identifying \"black boxes\" of external, social forces that need illumination, rather than defining truly interdisciplinary questions about how research (including technical research) can support positive change in rural societies.This tension is reflected clearest in the history of the social science position itself, which is discussed at length in the next section. Created in 1992, the post was originally charged with \"Resource Integration\". This step was perceived as a natural evolution for TSBF, which always held an ecological, systems-oriented approach to thinking. Although TSBF's strength remained at the plot level, the diversity of forces impinging on the plot draws attention naturally towards a hierarchical systemic analysis (Scholes et al., 1994).The Resource Integration Officer was therefore initially charged with \"developing a model for integrating biophysical and socio-economic determinants of soil fertility for small-scale farms\" (Swift et al., 1994). Under this rubric, social factors were expected to be integrated into holistic models as additional explanatory variables. Once key, perhaps universal variables were identified, these could then be added to a \"minimum set\" of characterisation data collected for TSBF sites (cf. Anderson and Ingram, 1993). However, the main contributions to the TSBF programme remained in terms of site selection, selection of themes for process research, and client group selection, with much less emphasis on experimentation, or monitoring and evaluation (Crowley, 1995).The Resource Integration Officer was therefore initially charged with \"developing a model for integrating biophysical and socio-economic determinants of soil fertility for small-scale farms\" (Swift et al., 1994). Under this rubric, social factors were expected to be integrated into holistic models as additional explanatory variables. Once key, perhaps universal variables were identified, these could then be added to a \"minimum set\" of characterisation data collected for TSBF sites (Anderson and Ingram, 1993). The main contributions to the TSBF programme were expected to centre on site selection, selection of themes for process research, and client group selection, with much less emphasis on experimentation, or monitoring and evaluation (cf. Crowley, 1995).2.2. Historical evolution 2.2.1. Carter (1992Carter ( -1997) ) The first incumbent in this post was a geographer, Simon Carter, with a background in both social and natural scientific traditions. Recognising the need to start from where TSBF \"was at\", but also charged with the task of helping to make the program's research more relevant to farmers, he began to work at the intersection between these two positions, and to generate information about how soil fertility was managed. Everyone in the programme agreed that it was important to know more about resource availability and use, and to begin to think about the relationships between research on soil fertility management and a better understanding of social and environmental change within African farming systems.Understanding spatial variability in soil management was also a common concern to the programme, with practical implications at two different scales. Understanding the importance of spatial variability at plot and landscape scales, and how farmers dealt with these, had clear practical implications for research on-farm and in communities, such as the questions research should address, involving farmers, and designing experiments. Secondly, given that a high priority for TSBF was the development of its African network (AFNET), identifying key regional differences in soil fertility management strategies could be key to developing AFNET. As a result a range of work was undertaken including development of simple GIS databases for East Africa, a more detailed one for Western Kenya, detailed formal survey work in Western Kenya, participatory characterisation of farmers' recognition and management of farm and landscape-level management of soil variability in Kenya and Zimbabwe.Carter (from 1994 with support from Eve Crowley) sought to align research at TSBF with ongoing debates on agrarian change in order to broaden the conceptual base underpinning many of the assumptions about the potential contributions of ecological research on soil fertility management to rural development in Eastern and Southern Africa. Hypotheses generated from the literature drove much of the data collection efforts undertaken from 1993-1996(eg. Crowley and Carter, 2000). In addition, efforts were made to expose AFNET members in Kenya and Zimbabwe to a range of on-farm research methodologies and tools and approaches that could, over time, facilitate inter-disciplinary exchange (Carter et al, 1992;Crowley & Carter, 1996). This work culminated in a four-country project funded by the EU from 1995-1998 (Carter & Riley, 1998).The modus operandi that evolved within TSBF between 1992-1996 had important methodological implications, however, for the research undertaken by the Resource Integration Officer, and later the Social Science Fellow. The pressure was on them to demonstrate, through quantitative means, the validity of social science perspectives and the fallacies underlying some of the assumptions of colleagues, as well as to collect quantitative data that would be of use for biological and economic modelling (little use was made of the additional quantitative survey data that was collected on behalf of other colleagues, who were simply too busy with other projects and priorities to explore the data). With hindsight it was probably a strategic error to agree to conduct an extensive formal survey in Western Kenya. A lot of time and labour was spent generating, collating, cleaning and exploring the data, and insufficient priority was given to interdisciplinary analysis, writing-up and dissemination of the results. Difficulties in collaboration, the departure of the Social Sciences Fellow, and increasing demands from other projects undermined the considerable investment the programme had made in this work, although the long-term worth of the dataset is undoubtedly high. On a more basic note, insufficient priority was given in the early years to simply learning to communicate more effectively across disciplines.Recognising that the unique contribution of the Resource Integration Officer to TSBF's overall research strategy was its attention to social questions, the position was renamed Social Science Officer in 1997. By this time it was recognised that the contribution of the post had had moved beyond collection of an enlarged \"minimum set\" and creating a more open \"sequence\" or menu of methods that would be useful for \"defining the resource bases and management strategies of different socio-economic groups\" (Carter and Crowley, 1995). Changes in personnel during 1996-7 had opened new opportunities for collaboration, and work moved into its strongest experimental phase, including researcher-managed experiments in conjunction with ICRAF, researcher-managed work under the EU project, and farmer participatory research begun in 1996. In 1997 a project was developed to support some of this on-farm experimental work. Significantly, it also included support for two masters students to look at how farmers in Western Kenya gained access to and shared knowledge about soil fertility management. This small step paved the way for a significant shift in focus over the next few years.2.2.2. Sikana (1998Sikana ( -2000) ) The brief tenure of Patrick Sikana brought the newly renamed Social Science Officer position towards much more autonomy on purely \"social\" research topics than had previously been the case. As a social anthropologist with farming system research experience in southern Africa, he prioritised deepening TSBF's understanding of farmers' local soil ecological knowledge and the rationales behind their existing soil management practices. This period also initiated critical investigations of how social networks aid and hinder the functioning of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) research projects and the dissemination of ISFM knowledge. However, there was a significant lag time of nine months between Carter's departure and Sikana's arrival, which would have implications on the ground (discussed in methodological changes below). Furthermore, Sikana had been in the post slightly over a year, and just begun organising new projects for the Social Science Office when he was killed in the crash of a Kenya Airways flight from Abidjan in January 2000. His death devastated the small organisation at a time when its future was also being shaken by financial uncertainty.Indeed, the issue of continuity of personnel has had major impacts on developing an interdisciplinary and social science research agenda, at least in the short to medium term. Not only has TSBF seen significant turnover of personnel since 1992, but so has AFNET. The retrenchment of public sector employees, as part of structural adjustment or other \"reform\" programmes, has gutted national research bodies and extension services. The relatively low numbers of social scientists present in national systems must also been see in the light of the stark fact that they tend to be much more attractive to donors and thus more likely to move on from low paid national positions. Social scientists trained in participatory methods are also much less likely to return to agricultural research jobs when conservation and health present more prominent and well-funded fields. Finally, staff turnover in African organisations has been exacerbated by sudden deaths like Patrick's, attributable to disease, accidents, and general insecurity.The AfNet membership is still overwhelmingly natural scientists (over 150 soil scientists, biologists, agronomists) with social science represented only by six (socio-) economists. While there is a general appreciation that \"social science\" is important to the network, there is still great unfamiliarity with what can really be offered or understood. The emphasis remains on economic information about the \"profitability\" or \"adoptability\" of known technologies, with no expertise or experience in applying strategic, interdisciplinary research questions at the interface of human-environment interactions to soil fertility management. AFNET could have made it a higher priority to try to attract more social scientists, but soil and agricultural scientists need to be trained to recognise where social science can make their lives easier. This has to happen at university and in special training courses, and (rather like gender mainstreaming) has to have the soil and agricultural scientists in TSBF as its champions, not just the social scientists. Host institutions have also to provide the space for scientists to engage in interdisciplinary research. Unfortunately, while recognised by the various AfNet coordinators, this has tended to be subsumed, and therefore obscured, within the larger problem (true within AFNET as within the CG system more generally) of declining numbers of soil scientists faced with increasing obligations and expectations.The lack of \"champions\" for social science research within TSBF can also be seen in the example of Ritu Verma, an IDRC-funded MA student who worked with TSBF in Western Kenya from October 1997 to April 1998. Her research comprehensively examined gender and agricultural practice but without a strong link to the core of TSBF was never meaningfully integrated into other projects. Ironically, her book \"Gender, Land, and Livelihoods in East Africa: Through Farmers' Eyes\" (Verma, 2001) is the most extensive TSBF text produced by social science research but presents its arguments in such detail that it has been difficult to absorb or disseminate, making it a testimony to missed opportunities. Ramisch (2001-present) One of the main objectives since the arrival of Joshua Ramisch in early 2001 has been enhancing the \"institutionalisation\" of the social science research agenda. This search for greater continuity within the research agenda has been assisted by the recruitment of two full time research assistants (a socioeconomist based in Maseno, and anthropologist based in Nairobi), as well as broadened efforts at building a social science \"constituency\" within AfNet. Core activities of the office have retained an anthropological focus, including research on indigenous soil ecological knowledge, farmer decisionmaking, understanding innovation processes, and the role of social differentiation in ISFM practicesStaff turnover in 2001 also gave TSBF a chance at a relatively clean slate. The AFNET coordinator position was filled by Andre Bationo and Bernard Vanlauwe became the ISFM Officer at roughly the same time as Ramisch arrived. While there has been a risk of losing institutional memory through this process, the simultaneous arrival of so many new staff has facilitated team building, new collaborative activities, and presented opportunities for cross-disciplinary learning. Evidence of this interdisciplinary thinking has emerged clearly in presentations and papers written by core TSBF staff (e.g. Bellagio, Centres Week, andINRM presentations 2001, 2002;unpublished), as well as increasing numbers of interdisciplinary activities on the ground in Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.The strategic alliance in 2001 with the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) has helped give TSBF greater financial security and a higher profile. It also presents opportunities to link the Institute to a broader interdisciplinary community and to draw on the expertise of CIAT's longestablished social research programmes. While the transaction costs of inter-continental collaboration are high, crosscutting endeavours within TSBF-CIAT have taken place around the Bellagio meeting in 2002, the training of an Argentinean in NUTMON methods in Ethiopia, and joint supervision of an M.Sc. student in Western Kenya.However, the 8 th AFNET meeting held in Arusha in May 2001, also clearly demonstrated that amongst partners TSBF is still perceived essentially as a biology-based organisation with minimal social science input. Active recruiting of social scientists has begun through networking and proposal development, but has been complicated by the rapid expansion of AFNET in the past two years. The massive influx of new members and the expansion of activity into West Africa have simultaneously increased the potential demand for INRM input and diluted the few interdisciplinary voices present within the network. The AFNET mandate of increasing the use of \"integrated\" approaches frequently takes a back seat to its more \"traditional\" and familiar mandate of increasing support of biological approaches to partner institutes through curriculum development and networked experiments. The role of social science within AFNET remains an unresolved problem, acknowledged as important (for \"integrated\" resource management, for greater \"adoption\", and ultimately donor approval of soil fertility management topics (Bationo, forthcoming)) but not backed by resources or strong champions within the network.A final point to note is that all of the social scientists who have worked at TSBF have been relatively young and in the early stages of their careers, whereas the biological scientists have generally been more senior. The onus has been on the social scientists to communicate novel ideas in terms their colleagues could understand or accept; this was relatively easy with concepts such as spatial variability, but much harder with feminist political ecology. Furthermore, in the past, strong personalities or opinions have tended to block communication between individuals and to limit interactions within the team. The new team that came together in early 2001 has begun to overcome some of these historical difficulties, further stimulated by meetings held in conjunction with the union with CIAT and the formation of the strategic Alliance for ISFM between CIAT, TSBF, and ICRAF. However, without a more senior social scientist or generalist present to mentor or to mediate communication, interdisciplinarity will always be a challenge.The most fundamental evolution has been from largely descriptive, empirical work towards developing more theory-driven, strategic research and the broader use of participatory approaches. At the same time, there has been a search for the optimal degrees of participation relating to the \"fieldwork\" aspects -which actors, doing which tasks, using which methods. This search has highlighted some of the still extant divides between the rhetoric of research aims and the realities of operational daily practice, as well as tensions that exist between different models of the role of research in stimulating change. Examples are drawn from among the longest-running TSBF projects.3.1. \"Research\" or \"action research\"?The development of social science at TSBF has been implicitly predicated on two very different models of how change is brought about in rural communities and what role outsiders and scientists can play in that process. The more conventional approach suggests that a \"good technology sells itself\" and that working with communities merely requires that the \"best bet options\" are made available to the \"categories of farmers\" who are likely to benefit from them. In this model, which is still widely held by many natural scientists including TSBF partners, a \"research\" organisation has too few resources and no comparative advantage in doing dissemination, and is better placed to research and evaluate the dissemination and technology promotion activities carried out by partners (local NGO's or national agricultural bodies). The alternate approach argues that understanding local processes of innovation, resource distribution, resource allocation decisions, and information transfer is essential to developing technologies relevant to their users' conditions. Integral to this second approach is the development of meaningful communication and learning across disciplinary boundaries -something that TSBF has attempted to do repeatedly, but which still remains problematic.As TSBF and its partners became more versed in participatory methods, tension has developed between these models. The desire for more \"development\" oriented activity has been highlighted in the redesigning of the \"Resource Integration\" theme of TSBF in 2000 into the new Focus 1, demonstratively titled \"Empowering Farmers\", into which all the other bio-physical Foci's arrows flow. It may also have been further accentuated by the recruitment in the late 1990s of TSBF field staff for Kenya with NGO backgrounds in action research. The argument has been that without actively engaging in dissemination and community organisation the phenomena of interest to research (knowledge flows, further innovation and adaptation, etc.) will be too scarce to be viable or observable. Indeed, these staff members have found it difficult to define or implement \"research\" as an independent activity, devoid of extension or development components.In reality, most partner organisations have lacked the resources (personnel, transport, and operating funds) to carry out such work, and indeed have often turned to TSBF for material or logistical support. The decision to devolve more of the research, experimentation, and dissemination activities to the host communities, therefore, is not so much ideologically driven as pragmatic. The increasing use of farmer-designed and farmer-run experiments, farmer-to-farmer training, and group-based activities has effectively begun to address the desire for more \"action\" oriented work while providing social processes worthy of investigation. What has emerged in the project areas of Western Kenya (where TSBF and local groups have had a reasonably long, 5-8 year history of contact) are prolonged, one-to-one relationships between scientists and farmers. Interactive, two-way learning, through community-based interactive sessions and farmer-based demonstrations, has been enhanced by researchers, and is widely conducted in local dialects. The ongoing challenge, however, has been finding optimal roles for researcher, extensionist, and farmer participation under these continuing conditions of resource constraint.Under the prevailing orthodoxy of participation, it is difficult to find projects that do not describe themselves as using and embracing \"participatory\" methods, to the extent that the term invites dismissal or covert cynicism (cf. Cooke and Kothari, 2001). These methods are usually assumed to apply only to relationships between researcher / extensionist and \"client\", where they are used to \"level\" the power relationships between actors. Yet in the TSBF context, where planning and implementation of activities is explicitly done in partnership with national research and extension institutions, participatory methods of collaboration have had to evolve. If cross-disciplinary learning has been difficult within TSBF, it has been even more so between TSBF and its partners, a fact which must be acknowledged before looking at the effectiveness of \"participation\" in the dealings of \"researchers\" with farmers.This point needs to be based on what might be called \"realistic expectations\" of change. True collaboration must recognise (however reluctantly) that working with the human resources that are on hand within networks means starting from the perceptions and skills of those partners and moving at the best pace possible. It would have been easy to \"cook\" fancy results about participation if the social scientists had simply gone it alone. Working in partnership through AFNET, however, has forced TSBF to confront the realities of public funded research in Africa, the conservatism and logistical difficulties of which demand considerable patience. It is relatively easy for partners to influence each other's rhetoric, harder to alter each other's conceptualisations of problems, and harder still to make lasting changes in the way each carries out research tasks. \"Participation\" is not an approach whose benefits are learned or appreciated quickly and the socialisation of knowledge backwards and forwards between scientists and farmers depends fundamentally on the generation of experience.The progress of AFNET towards \"internalising\" the rhetoric of farmer participatory research may seem glacially slow for being one of the more advanced scientific networks (cf. review of on-farm research in the EU-funded project, Carter et al., 1998). As mentioned above, the scarcity of AFNET members trained in participatory methods able to act as \"champions\", and the lack of continuity in many institutions facing financial crisis, hinder the development of a more interdisciplinary research culture.However, progress is being made in learning new attitudes and unlearning old ones. For example, the Zambian EU team decided to work on fundikila mound systems and to clear land on the research station to replicate the farmers' practices on-station, in full view of their peers. The Zimbabwean and Kenyan research teams have come to acknowledge the various micro-niches that farmers recognise and manage and have incorporated these into various research designs. Within the BMZ-funded project, increasingly sophisticated understanding of wealth and gender differences as they relate to soil fertility management have been incorporated into the project design. Finally, previously distinct elements of process and on-farm research have been combined in activities where complex soil-crop scenario modelling has been fed back into negotiation or decision support work conducted with farmers.It is, of course, never easy to surrender control of research agendas, even where the research is ostensibly for the benefit of the rural poor (i.e.: TSBF's Theme 1 is \"Empowerment of Farmers\" with new technologies). If TSBF has seemingly embraced what Ashby (1992) calls the \"devolution to farmers [or other stakeholders] the major responsibility for adaptive testing and sharing of accountability for quality control over research\", what have the political implications of this move been? Examples relating to defining innovation, the use of local youth as enumerators, and the micro-political dynamics of groups demonstrate.Farmer participatory research activities at TSBF began in community settings where portions of land were already being hired for research-designed activities, including both \"pure\" experimental treatments and \"demonstration\" plots to showcase the presence of nutrient deficiencies or the efficacy of various technologies. These activities tend to cloud the local understanding of what \"research\" actually is or can be, creating a sense that research generates information that \"important\" (the payments for land are known locally) but which comes in forms not readily accessible or understandable to \"ordinary people\". Even when experimentation has been ostensibly \"turned over\" to farmers, it is common to hear the new technologies being referred to as \"belonging to the researchers\".Beyond a basic unfamiliarity with the intentions and operationalisation of collaborative research with scientists, there is the problem that many of the \"experimentation\" activities undertaken do not provide ideal venues for farmers to innovate in ways familiar to them. TSBF has a goal of providing farmers with a \"basket of options\" for ISFM (Swift et al., 1994), including legume cover crops, improved fallows, biomass transfer (cut-and-carry) systems, improved compost manure, and various combinations of organic and inorganic fertilisers. In the EU and BMZ-funded projects, after initial PRA's in the communities, farmers were given the chance to select technologies from this \"basket\" to try on their own land. Selection of otherwise completed technologies, however, is not the same as participating in the technology design process.The \"over-designing\" of technologies before involving farmers in their development is a natural consequence of scientists failing to a) trust in the innovative capacity of farmers or b) know how to apply farmers' knowledge and innovation as contributions to \"formal\" scientific activity. It limits farmers' role to relatively passive activities, such as selecting niches or adapting application rates to local circumstances, which ultimately discourages any sense of ownership of the technology development process. However, to recognise certain behaviour as an \"innovation\" requires channels of communication and trust to exist between farmer and scientist, and a willingness to see all modifications of practice (including abandonment and complete reversals) as potentially useful.Observations of innovative farmer practice can feed into researchable topics, such as the use of Tithonia as a nutrient-rich mulch (now a staple \"technology\" promoted by TSBF and others in East and Southern Africa). When translating the Tithonia biomass transfer technology to other farms, a commonly heard comment is that the cut-and-carry system is \"labour intensive\". Harvesting biomass from hedgerows all at once before planting one's crops is indeed a large, and previously non-existent task, even if pruning hedgerows or applying plant material on cropland are familiar activities already in the household calendar. As a result, many farmers have begun harvesting their Tithonia sporadically (as part of normal hedge maintenance) and transferring it to their compost pile (another familiar task). Clearly the decision not to continue with the cut-and-carry operation and instead supplement the compost pile with Tithonia should be seen as an \"innovation\" or indeed as a logical supplementation of existing practices. However, while Tithonia had been identified as a \"best bet\" for direct application to fields since it decomposes so rapidly, it may not be the \"best\" option for materials to be added to compost piles that sit for a time before application. A natural entry point for truly interdisciplinary research is experimentation based on farmers' own practices (many report that Tithonia speeds the \"cooking\" of compost piles making it ready for use sooner) to validate the use of Tithonia or alternative materials as part of the composting process.Among the many tools and approaches used for conducting its social fieldwork in Western Kenya in the early 1990s, TSBF relied on young and literate people, recruited from the local communities as enumerators. They were typically given basic training that would allow them to support \"communitylevel\" research activities such as questionnaire administration and the setting up of trial plots. Over time, they began to take on more responsibilities, received further training, and by 1997 were facilitating farmer-led experimentation. However, personnel changes at TSBF, and attitudinal differences between TSBF on the one hand, and the local partner KARI (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute) on the other, had important implications for the role of these enumerators and the work they carried out.TSBF staff had viewed the capacity development of these youth as part of a community-based learning strategy to build rapport with other farmers. Indeed, the local communities were openly sympathetic to this approach, since it provided immediately tangible benefits to locals employed as enumerators, and also ensured that research was carried out by people who would be familiar to community-members and at home with the local cultural norms and vernacular. However, what was perhaps never explicit was how (if at all) the inclusion of these enumerators in project activities differed from the way that other local people were trained to work on experimental plots as paid labourers.During the interval between Carter's departure and Sikana's arrival, the enumerators carried on their work, with backstopping where possible from KARI. However, without strong advocacy for participatory methods rather than more top down approaches, KARI staff tended to view the enumerators who were already \"part of the community\" as a useful channel for \"passing useful scientific skills and knowledge into the local community\". At the same time, because of their training, regular association with TSBF staff, and the perceived status benefits accruing from their employment, many of the enumerators tended to count themselves more as part of TSBF than as part of the \"community\". In the end, this distancing between enumerator and community (enhanced by youth and the fact that many of the enumerators did not themselves farm) undermined their ability to link farmers and researchers effectively.Since then, an effort has been made to build individual capacity within KARI and the national extension service for participatory research. Currently, an agricultural extension agent who speaks the local dialects has been hired for facilitating community-based input. This expert works with community groups, farmer field schools (FFS), individual farmers and other local stakeholders. However, as with the enumerators, these activities have demanded considerable backstopping by the Social Science Officer and other disciplines within TSBF.As TSBF placed more attention on building capacity in its partners for farmer participatory research, it also shifted to working with local farmers as groups and individuals. In the earlier 1990s, onfarm trials were based on individual's farms. In such arrangements, host farmers were expected to define and explain experiments to other local and visiting farmers. While we do not know the exact accomplishment through this arrangement, there are indications in Kabras and Vihiga that selecting \"model\" farmers to work with disaffects them from many other farmers. Down the road, focus shifted to the group approach. Initially, it seemed obvious that involving many farmers would have a multiplier effect. However, it soon became apparent that the manner in which TSBF talks to whom is more important than mere numbers. Groups are on frequently unstable and many are not especially open to new membership. When researchers request farmers to work with them collectively, \"new\" groups emerge. But these \"new\" groups usually comprise members of a previous, defunct group. This means that one has to deliberately seek the inclusion of all types of farmers (within and outside groups) in research and dissemination. This role of a local unifier is tricky and can even appear comical before local farmers.Intervening research on the nature of social capital and the role of local groups and networks in passing agricultural information (Misiko, 2001) has shown that there is still a tendency for some groups or individuals to view their participation in TSBF as \"secret knowledge\" that is not to be shared with others. Likewise, non-participants are often wary of inquiring about project activities, assuming that they are not welcome or need to be invited by some patron. This attitude has persisted for multiple reasons, and in spite of the considerable efforts of TSBF and other research bodies to present their work as \"open to all\" by actively seeking to include marginalized groups. Because local politics takes precedence even over the \"good intentions\" of outsiders, the vast exposure that many farmers have had to project work in Western Kenya does not, therefore, translate into widespread use or understanding of ISFM.The initial willingness of TSBF to accept \"groups\" as representatives of community interests has led to numerous problems. After all, groups exist and persist when they have strong roles and identities, histories of their own which often only become known with time. For example, the most vocal members of groups have frequently been people who are either not well respected by others locally, or possessed of agendas that run far beyond ISFM. This later group tends to see the research project as a vehicle for access to new resources and political leverage than as an opportunity for new learning (Sikana, 1995), although it may take project staff a long time to appreciate this reality. Since much of TSBF's on-farm work has been initiated in the context of structural adjustment programmes and the cessation of donor funding for major local development projects, it is natural that farmer concerns about water, health, poor infrastructure, or education would be mapped onto the \"research\" activities if TSBF was the only \"development\" agency working in their area. Beyond such explicit \"hijacking\" of groups, there are frequently tensions between participants over the definitions of goals, membership, and indeed the \"success\" of the group's activities.Nevertheless, working through groups provides an opportunity to diffuse risk and broaden responsibility and ownership of activities. Groups should be seen neither as a panacea for communitybased management's difficulties, nor as a replacement for effective dissemination strategies. When setting up experiments or demonstrations at the local level, having wider input about where in the landscape, whose land, or which soils are suited to which types of research activity has proven invaluable. With our broadened knowledge of the diversity of local soil types, requests by farmers to have activities replicated on different soils become logical and understandable, when previously they might have been dismissed as unjustified demands for a share of a perceived research \"pie\". In the end, such replication turns out to be both good science and good politics.The challenges that TSBF has tried to address are highly complex in both biophysical and social terms. As such, interdisciplinary collaboration depends on developing a better understanding of what changes are taking place, and of developing a modus operandi that can generate useful knowledge as part of an on-going dialogue between scientists and farmers.The parallel dialogue that must take place, between social and natural scientists, has been easiest around themes that integrate themselves readily into natural science work, including spatial variability, wealth ranking and ISFM practice, and the importance of understanding the strengths and weaknesses of existing local knowledge. It has been considerably harder to incorporate elements that relate to the political nature of \"research\", such as using livelihoods analysis or feminist political ecology to find the place of ISFM and research interventions within local practice.If AFNET collaborators have been slow to adopt interdisciplinary and participatory approaches, it is due in part to the relative lack of successful, convincing models of how such approaches pay short or long-term benefits to NRM research. Further constraints have been staff turnover (which leads to fragmented agendas and loss of institutional memory), scarcity of time and resources, and a shortage of generalists or social scientists within partner organisations. The rhetoric of interdisciplinarity and participation have rapidly infiltrated research bodies because they are relatively cost free and often there is the perception that donor funding is linked to such language. Simplified versions of interdisciplinary activities, linking ISFM with participatory wealth ranking, or moving from local soil taxonomies to broader understanding of how soil fertility is managed locally, have also begun to take hold within local practice. While some natural scientists are \"afraid of having to become social scientists\", there is a slowly growing constituency within AFNET that sees advantages for interdisciplinary collaboration. Nevertheless, without relatively senior \"champions\" for interdisciplinary or socially oriented approaches within TSBF, new methods and approaches are at a disadvantage compared with the more familiar status quo.Given the variables of donor climate, institutional and personnel changes, and socio-political change on the ground, truly interdisciplinary INRM research will need to develop a common language and common priorities that can form a core identity in dealing with outside forces. This requires an iterative process of negotiating the role of \"research\" in the development of local communities. If donors, researchers, and extensionists feel the need to \"scale up\" local successes and achievements to broader communities, it must be reconciled with the desires of the initial community members for taking research accomplishments to greater depth. If moving towards group-based research methods means shifting the burden of implementation to national partners, a common path for \"participation\" will need to be negotiated. In particular, the skills and attitudes necessary to support more decentralised forms of research need to be cultivated by the scientists, agents, and farmers involved.Despite the rhetoric of interdisciplinary collaboration, cross-disciplinary learning and communication remain complicated by the divergent ideas of what role \"research\" can and should play in bringing about change in rural communities. Resolving these divergences often falls to social scientists, since their disciplinary orientation predisposes them to thinking about such issues and their colleagues are more likely to see these issues as somehow separate from their daily activities of research. However, building common bodies of knowledge and practice can only happen with the full participation of all disciplines involved in INRM. If we look at how far an organisation like TSBF has come in ten years, from research foci that concentrated on the integration of biological processes to ones which now embrace the livelihoods and knowledge of the farmers who practice integrated soil fertility management, there is room for hope.The cycling of nutrients through the decomposition of plant residues is important in all ecosystems. However in the soil fertility management of many tropical farming systems, organic sources play a dominant role because of their short-term effects on nutrient supply to crops (Palm et al., 2001). There is now a considerable literature reporting decomposition and nutrient release patterns for a variety of organic materials from tropical agro-ecosystems. This information has been drawn together so that it can be used for improvement of soil fertility through better management of organic inputs (e.g. Giller and Cadisch, 1997;Palm et al., 2001), and understanding has emerged of how resource quality factors influence the release patterns.In nutrient and capital poor tropical farming systems, effective use of whatever nutrient sources are available will be required to raise and maintain productivity (Giller et al., 1997). If models are to be useful in helping to design farming systems that use various nutrient sources more effectively, it is a first requirement that the models must be able to reliably describe the release of nutrients from the different organic sources. Palm et al. (1997) pointed out that there is little predictive ability for making recommendations on combined use of organic and inorganic nutrient sources. One reason for this is the inability of models to adequately capture the short-term dynamics of the release of nutrients from organic materials.In this paper we report on how one particular model, APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulation Model, McCown et al., 1996;Keating et al., 2002), represents the decomposition of organic inputs, and how the quality of the inputs influences nitrogen release. The manner in which the dynamics of soil carbon and nitrogen are modelled in APSIM's SoilN module (Probert et al., 1998) is similar to what is found in many other models -see reviews by Ma and Shaffer (2001) and McGechen and Wu (2001). Models do differ in the pool structure used to describe the decomposition of organic inputs, with the pools differing in their rates of decomposition. However, we are unaware of any model where the pools differ in chemical composition, with the effect that inputs decompose with non-varying composition. We show that the assumption that all pools have the same C:N ratio fails to adequately represent the observed behaviour for release of N from some organic inputs. We present a modification of APSIM SoilN which allows for different C:N ratios in each pool. The modified model was able to better match the mineralization/immobilization of N observed in laboratory incubation studies.The development of the APSIM SoilN module (Probert et al., 1998) can be traced back via CERES models (e.g. Jones and Kiniry, 1986;Godwin and Jones, 1991) to PAPRAN (Seligman and van Keulen, 1981). Briefly, crop residues and roots added to the soil, are designated fresh organic matter (FOM) and are considered to comprise three pools (FPOOLs), sometimes referred to as the carbohydratelike, cellulose-like and lignin-like fractions of the residue. Each FPOOL has its own rate of decomposition, which is modified by factors to allow for effects of soil temperature and soil moisture. For inputs of crop residues/roots it has usually been assumed that the added C in the three FPOOLs is always in the proportions 0.2:0.7:0.1. In this manner the decomposition of added residues ceases to be a simple exponential decay process as would arise if all residues were considered to comprise a single pool.Although the three fractions have different rates of decomposition, they do not have different compositions in terms of C and N content. Thus whilst an input might be specified in terms of the proportion in each of the FPOOLs, thereby affecting its rate of decomposition, the whole of the input will decompose without change to its C:N ratio. If the analogy can be made with the dissolution of a substance, we might say that the whole of the residues decompose congruently. Alternatively the system can be described as having three soil organic C pools but only one soil organic N pool (Gijsman et al., 2002).The release of N from the decomposing residue is determined by the mineralization and immobilization processes that are occurring. The C that is decomposed from the residue is either evolved as CO 2 or is synthesized into soil organic matter. APSIM SoilN assumes that the pathway for synthesis of stable soil organic matter is predominantly through initial formation of soil microbial biomass (BIOM), though some C is transferred directly to the more stable pool (HUM). The model further assumes that the soil organic matter pools (BIOM and HUM) have C:N ratios that are unchanging through time. The formation of BIOM and HUM thus creates an immobilization demand that has to be met from the N released from the decomposition of the residue and/or by drawing on the mineral N (ammonium-and nitrate-N) in the system. Any release of N during the decomposition process in excess of the immobilization demand results in an increase in the ammonium-N. The model operates on a daily time step, so that decomposition of the residue fractions is happening simultaneously with decomposition of the soil organic matter pools.If we ignore the dynamic nature of the system, the N mineralization from a substrate can be expressed succinctly as (Whitmore and Handayanto, 1997):where Z is the C:N ratio of the decomposing substrate, E is a microbiological efficiency factor which can be taken to be 0.4 (the value in APSIM SoilN for the fraction of the decomposing carbon that is transformed into soil organic matter), and Y is the C:N ratio of the soil organic matter being formed. Equation (1) implies that there is a C:N ratio of substrate that determines whether decomposition results in net N mineralization or immobilization. Assuming the initial product of decomposition is soil microbial biomass with Y = 8 (the value used in APSIM SoilN), the critical value can be calculated as 20. As shown by Whitmore and Handayanto (1997), this expression accounts for much of the variation found in the data that have examined N mineralized (or immobilized) in relation to the C:N ratio of the added organic matter.The rate of net N mineralization is dependent on the rate of decomposition. Thus allowing the pool sizes of the three FPOOLs to be an input that characterizes the type of organic input will alter the rate of net N mineralization (as shown by Quemada and Cabrera, 1995;Quemada et al., 1997). However changing the pool sizes alone cannot alter whether a source exhibits initial net N mineralization or immobilization (since this is determined by the C:N ratio of the source).In studies of the mineralization of N from various manures, Kimani et al. (2001) and Delve et al. (2001) encountered situations where there was an initial immobilization of N, despite the fact that the overall C:N ratio of the material was such that it would be expected to result in net mineralization. This behaviour can not be modelled without assuming that the three FPOOLs also differ in their C:N ratios.Modifications were made to the APSIM SoilN module so that any input of organic material could be specified in terms of both its fractionation into the three FPOOLs, and the C:N ratios of each FPOOL. In the modified model, each FPOOL is assumed to decompose congruently. The rates of decomposition of the three FPOOLs were not changed from the released version of APSIM (0.2, 0.05 and 0.0095 day -1 respectively under non-limiting temperature and moisture conditions).Using this enhanced version of the model, we have explored the effects on simulated N mineralization from hypothetical sources that differ in respect of firstly, their fractional composition (the proportion of C in the 3 FPOOLs), and secondly, the C:N ratios of the FPOOLs.The effects are illustrated by contrasting four assumptions as to how an organic input decomposes:1. using the released version of ASPIM SoilN (v 2.0) 2. changing the fractional composition of the FPOOLs but with the C:N ratio being the same in all pools 3. changing the FPOOLs to have different fractional compositions and different C:N ratios, in the first instance with FPOOL1 differing from a common value for FPOOLs 2 and 3 4. with the fractional composition and C:N ratios differing between all 3 FPOOLs.The enhancements made to the model result in extra information being needed to specify the inputs. Ideally it should be possible to derive the necessary information from known (measured) properties of the organic sources.The experimental data reported by Delve et al. (2001) have been used to investigate whether the analytical data for a range of feeds and faecal samples can be used to specify the model to simulate the N mineralization measured in a laboratory incubation experiment.The model was configured to simulate a simple incubation study, involving a single layer of soil under conditions of constant temperature (25 o C) and at a soil water content that ensured there was no moisture restriction on decomposition. Initial nitrate-N concentration in the soil was 20 mg N kg -1 . The effect of different organic inputs was investigated by incorporating materials that contained a constant amount of N (100 mg N kg -1 soil) but with varying C:N ratio. A control system was also simulated without any added organic input.The output from the simulations are presented as net mineralization/immobilization expressed as a percentage of the N added: N mineralization (%) = 100 x (Mineral-N input -Mineral-N control )/N added where Mineral-N input is the simulated ammonium-+ nitrate-N in systems with the added source, and Mineral-N control in the absence of any input.The model was specified to simulate the incubation study of Delve et al. (2001). Using a leaching tube incubation procedure (Stanford and Smith, 1972), they measured net N mineralization for feeds and faecal samples resulting from cattle fed a basal diet of barley straw alone, or supplemented with 15 or 30% of the dry matter as Calliandra calothyrsus, Macrotyloma axillare or poultry manure. The soil used was a humic nitisol with organic C content of 31 g kg -1 , C:N ratio of 10 and pH (in water) of 5.9. The incubations were conducted at 27 o C.Data were reported on the chemical composition of the feeds and faecal samples including: total C and N; water soluble C and N; acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) (van Soest et al., 1987).Experimental data (Kimani et al., 2001), that indicated the need to reconsider how N mineralization from organic inputs is modelled, are illustrated in Figure 1. For a wide range of manures, their results consistently show an initial immobilization or delay in mineralization lasting several weeks, even for materials that have overall C:N ratios of less than 20. This pattern of response is noticeably different to studies of N mineralization from plant materials (e.g. Constantinides and Fownes, 1994); plant materials with low C:N typically exhibit positive net mineralization from the commencement of the incubation period.Other authors also report initial N immobilization followed by net mineralization in experiments with animal manures having low C:N ratios (Trehan and Wild, 1993;Olesen et al., 1997). The faecal samples studied by Delve et al. (2001), with C:N ratios in the range 20-27, had even more complex patterns of mineralization; some materials showed initial net mineralization before an extended period of immobilization lasting for at least 16 weeks of incubation (see below). Simulation of mineralization for sources with different C:N ratios using the released version of APSIM SoilN is shown in Figure 2. The results are in general agreement with experimental studies for plant materials where net N mineralization is closely related to the N content and hence C:N ratio (e.g. Constantinides and Fownes, 1994;Tian et al., 1992). For sources with C:N < 20, net mineralization occurs from the outset (as predicted by equation 1). However with C:N > 20, there is initially immobilization of mineral-N and it is only as newly formed soil organic matter is re-mineralized that mineral-N in the system begins to increase.The lower pane of Figure 2 shows the same data plotted against the C:N ratio for different periods of incubation. Again the pattern of response is familiar from experimental data that have been used to infer the C:N ratio of a substrate, around 20-25, that determines whether net mineralization or immobilization occurs. The simulation results show that the C:N ratio of the substrate that results in zero net mineralization changes with the period of incubation, increasing from approximately 21 at day 10 to 26 at day 100. Such an effect has not generally been recognized when discussing critical C:N ratios with respect to mineralization/immobilization, though its importance was recognized by De Neve and Hofman (1996). Thus incubation period is a factor that will complicate efforts to compare results from different incubation studies. Furthermore other aspects of the incubation conditions can also be expected to have similar effects as the incubation period; in particular higher incubation temperature is likely to have much the same effect as increasing the incubation period.The effect of changing the pool structure of the input by modifying the fractions in each of the FPOOLs is illustrated in Figure 3. For inputs with low C:N (<20), a greater proportion of material in the FPOOLs with lower rates of decomposition simply slows the release of mineral-N. Where C:N is >20 so that net immobilization occurs, inputs with a greater proportion of material with lower rates of decomposition result in less immobilization during the early stages of decomposition, but it also takes longer before the system exhibits positive net mineralization. It is to be noted that simply changing the proportions of the input between the three pools with unaltered C:N ratio can not cause a switch from causing net mineralization to immobilization, or vice versa.  Effects of changing the composition of the input by modifying the C:N ratios of the different FPOOLs are shown in Figures 4 and 5. In Figure 4, all materials have the same overall C:N ratio, but the C:N ratio of FPOOL1 is now greater than for the material in pools 2 and 3. The result is that the material in FPOOL1 which decomposes most rapidly creates an immobilization demand, and the higher the C:N ratio the greater the initial immobilization. However if C:N of FPOOL1 is higher, there must be compensating decreases in the C:N ratios of the other pools. As incubation time increases, the differences between different materials decrease so that there is little longer-term effect of the C:N ratios of the FPOOLs on net mineralization which is determined largely by the overall C:N ratio. Figure 5 illustrates variation in the C:N ratio between FPOOLs 2 and 3. Again all materials have the same overall C:N ratio and here the C:N of FPOOL1 is also fixed at 10. With the low C:N in the rapidly decomposing pool, there can be an initial net mineralization, especially when the C:N of FPOOL2 is also relatively low. However, as FPOOL1 is depleted, there can be a switch from net mineralization to net immobilization. Increasing the C:N of FPOOL2 results in increasing immobilization and the immobilization persists to longer times.  The modelled net mineralization from hypothetical sources display patterns of N release that are similar to published experimental data. Notably the several weeks delay before mineralization became positive, as exhibited by several of the manures studied by Kimani et al. (2001), is consistent with variation in the C:N ratio of FPOOL1 (Figure 4). On the other hand, the longer delay reported by Delve et al. (2001) is more like the pattern shown in Figure 5 associated with variation in FPOOL2 and 3.We have attempted to use the analytical data reported by Delve et al. (2001) to specify the \"quality\" aspects of organic inputs represented in the model. We assume the soluble components of C and N equate to FPOOL1; thus the analytical results are sufficient information to determine the proportion of total C in this pool and its C:N ratio. Also we assume that ADL, which measures lignin, equates to FPOOL3 permitting the fraction of C in this pool to be estimated; the fraction of C in FPOOL2 is found by difference. Since the overall C:N ratio (on a total dry matter basis) is also known, the only missing information is the distribution of non-water soluble N between pools 2 and 3. A series of simulations were carried out for each source with the different combinations on C:N in the two pools (constrained by the C:N of the total DM).Figure 6 shows the simulation of N mineralization for the control treatment. Although there is a slight under-prediction, the general pattern agrees well with the measured data. It is to be noted that in the model the net N mineralization from an organic source is only influenced by the control treatment when there is inadequate mineral N in the system to meet an immobilization demand.The net N mineralization for the feeds and a selection of the faecal samples studied by Delve et al. (2001) is shown in Figure 7. The outputs from two simulations are compared, these being the outputs from the modified and unmodified versions of the model. The input data used for the modified model are set out in Table 1.   Delve et al., 2001). Experimental data shown as symbols with bars representing standard errors. The heavy broken line is for the model where all organic material is assumed to decompose with the same C:N ratio; the continuous line is for the model with different C:N ratio in each FPOOL. Parameters used to specify the different sources (proportion of C and C:N in the three FPOOLs) are set out in Table 1. Net mineralization (%)Table 1. Composition of organic materials (feeds and faecal samples) used for simulating the mineralization study of Delve et al. (2001). 1 simulated N mineralization was not sensitive to partitioning of N between pools 2 and 3 2 value in parentheses denotes proportion of supplement in dietFor most of the materials the goodness of fit is substantially better for the modified than for the unmodified model. Using the analytical data to specify the fraction of C in each of the FPOOLs and the C:N ratio of FPOOL1, it was possible to choose values for the C:N ratios of FPOOL2 and FPOOL3 to obtain satisfactory fits with the measured data.In general the fit is better for the faecal samples than for the feeds, with the poorest fit for the poultry waste. The pattern of net mineralization measured for the poultry waste, which had an overall C:N ratio of 17, is different from the other materials in that the change from immobilization to mineralization that occurred after 50 days was not maintained, and further net immobilization occurred later in the incubation. The simulation for the barley straw (C:N 86) predicts that immobilization continues for at least 200 days. Because all mineral N is immobilized in this treatment, the simulated immobilization is determined by the rate of mineralization of the control treatment and is not sensitive to how N is partitioned between FPOOLs 2 and 3. The under-prediction of N mineralization in the control treatment (Fig. 6) is the cause of the under-prediction of net immobilization by the barley straw.The essence of equation ( 1) is built into many dynamic simulation models that describe the decomposition of organic residues and the associated mineralization of N. Such models are capable of capturing the gross effect of C:N ratio (as illustrated in Fig. 2) on mineralization/ immobilization from plant residues.However they are not able to represent the more complex pattern of mineralization/immobilization that has been reported from laboratory incubation studies of N release from manures with low C:N (e.g. Fig. 1). To capture this pattern of N release it is necessary to conceptualize the organic input as comprising discrete fractions that differ not only in their rates of decomposition but also in their chemical (i.e. C and N) composition.The observed behaviour suggests that the fraction of the substrate that decomposes fastest has a higher C:N ratio than the bulk of the material. If the portion that decomposes fastest can be equated to the water-soluble fraction, this is consistent with the analytical data of Kimani et al. (2001)  (Table 2). Their data show that the soluble component, which amounted to some 12% of the total carbon, had a much higher C:N ratio than the materials as a whole. 3.8 (1.9) 68 ( 60)1 soluble C expressed on total DM basis (i.e. average of 12% of total C was measured in the soluble fraction)In contrast, the mineralization data of Delve et al. (2001) (Fig. 7) and chemical composition of their materials (Table 1) indicate that the measured water-soluble component had a smaller C:N than the bulk materials. To simulate the observed mineralization data it was necessary to assume that the materials had higher C:N in FPOOL2 than in FPOOL3.To some extent, this difference between in the C:N of the water-soluble components in the two studies can be explained by the nature of the manures. Those in the study of Delve et al. (2001) were fresh faecal material, whereas the manures studied by Kimani et al. (2001) had been collected from farm situations where they would have been exposed to varying degrees of weathering what would have been expected to remove some water-soluble components. However if this is the explanation, we are unable to satisfactorily account for why the analytical data of Kimani et al. (2001) should still indicate considerable amounts of water-soluble C, nor why there should have been preferential loss of N relative to C resulting in increased C:N for the water-soluble components.By simulation of hypothetical materials, we have shown that the model can be parameterised to simulate the general pattern of N mineralization that is observed for various organic sources. Nonetheless, it remains a challenge to know how appropriate parameters should be selected for a given source and/or how to derive the parameter values from other information that may be available as analytical data for supposed \"quality factors\". Here we have used data for C and N in the water-soluble components to specify FPOOL1, and the measured ADL to specify the C in FPOOL3. To obtain the goodness of fit shown in Fig. 7 for the manures required C:N in FPOOL2 in the range 36-66, with corresponding C:N in FPOOL3 of 9-10 (Table 1). Attempts to estimate the C:N of FPOOL2 from measured data for N associated with ADF and NDF (Delve et al., 2001) produced values that were considerably higher (range 63-174 for the manure samples) with the corresponding values for pool 3 becoming very narrow (<0.8); the goodness of fit for simulations of N mineralization using these values were substantially worse than those shown in Fig. 7.For the feed materials (Calliandra, Macrotyloma, poultry waste), the predictions were less good than for the faecal samples. To obtain a reasonable fit in the early stages of the mineralization a high C:N in FPOOL2 is required, but this results in very low values for FPOOL3 and over-prediction as the incubation period progresses beyond 100 days.The resource quality factors that have been shown to influence N release from organic sources are the C:N ratio (or N concentration in plant materials for which C concentration varies little), lignin and polyphenol concentrations (Palm et al., 2001). These studies suggest that the effect of lignin is consistent with the concepts in the model in as much as higher lignin content can be represented by a greater proportion of the C in the slow decomposing pool. But it is also necessary to hypothesize that the FPOOLs differ in their C:N ratio. The polyphenol concentration in the materials studied by Delve et al. (2001) were low (<1.6%) except for the Calliandra feed. It remains uncertain how the effects of polyphenols on decomposition and N mineralization can be represented by the model. The beneficial effects of soil organic matter management in the tropics have been amply documented as far as they relate to soil functions such as nutrient release (nitrogen and phosphorus in particular) and soil architecture (Vanlauwe et al., 1998;Nziguheba et al., 2000;Feller and Beare, 1997). Much less information is available on the relations between soil organic matter changes and the associated changes in nutrient retention capacity for neither cations nor anions. Nevertheless, soil organic matter is known to contribute to the total charge of a soil, a charge that is mostly pH-dependent. As a consequence, empirical relations do exist that predict soil cation exchange capacities based on soil organic carbon concentrations (Manrique et al., 1991;Asadu et al., 1997;Krogh et al., 2000). In highly weathered soils, the creation of extra charge, on top of the one derived from soil mineral components, can be an important management goal as CEC values can be increased by factors from values as low as 1 cmol c kg -1 soil to 4 -6 cmol c kg -1 soil (Gallez et al., 1976;Oades et al., 1989). Apart from a general idea on soil organic matter dynamics, we do not have a precise idea on how fast we can positively affect charge characteristics and in which size fractions the impact is most strongly seen. In the present paper we present a dual approach. First, we will investigate the changes in charge brought about by a 20-year continuous input of tree litter of known quality in an attempt to relate litter quality with the ensuing changes in soil charge characteristics. Secondly, we will address an important and ensuing management issue in this that it is crucial to determine how fast the changes in charge come about by an input of litter of a given quality and also, how long lived these changes are.For the first part of the experiment, we relied on a 20-year old arboretum established in 1979 on a ferric Lixisol (WRB, 1998) at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, South Western Nigeria (3°54'E and 7°30'N) where we collected soil samples under seven multi-purpose trees: Afzelia africana, Dactyladenia barteri, Gliricidia sepium, Gmelina arborea, Leucaena leucocephala, Pterocarpus santalinoides and Treculia africana. For more information on this site we refer to Oorts et al., (2000) and Kang and Akinnifesi (1994). We took soil samples in March 1999 from the surface horizons (0-10 cm) of the corresponding plots by taking 4 cores (10 cm depth, 10 cm dia) from each alley at random throughout the alley. Samples from different alleys were considered as field replicates. Litter was collected from the soil surface before soil sampling and leaves from the respective trees collected. Both litter and leaves were air dried before analysis. For the field incubation experiment, decomposition tubes (10 cm depth, 10.5 cm dia) were filled with topsoil (0-10 cm) of a ferric Lixisol (WRB, 1998) sampled at the I.I.T.A. campus and were installed in an adjacent plot. They were either kept bare or were amended with litter derived from Afzelia, Dactyladenia, Gmelina, Leucaena and Treculia. In the amended treatments soil was mixed with litter at an addition rate of 15 tons dry matter/ha in the top 10 cm of each core. Destructive sampling took place at 3, 6, 12 and 23 months after application. In both experiments, all soil samples were air-dried, and passed through a 4 mm sieve to remove roots and large stones before fractionation and analyses.The soil organic matter fractions from the arboretum samples and decomposition tubes sampled at 6 and 23 months after application were obtained by size separation after ultrasound dispersion. To this end, soil suspensions (25g soil and 125 ml distilled water) were subject to a 10 minutes sonication treatment at 62.5 W (=1500 J g -1 soil) with Misonix Sonicator XL2020. The soil suspension so obtained was then separated into the following size classes: > 2 mm, 0.25-2 mm and 0.053 -0.25 mm using wet sieving (Fritsch analysette 3, 50 Hz, 1.5 mm amplitude). The fractions on the sieve were collected and further split into mineral and organic components through flotation-decantation on water. Material smaller than 0.053 mm was collected and manually sieved through a 0.020 mm screen. The fine silt fraction (0.002 -0.20 mm) was separated from a subsample by sedimentation (four cycles) and the clay fraction (< 0.002 mm) collected from the respective supernatants by flocculation with CaCl 2 (± 0.02 M). The clay fraction was next washed salt-free by dialysis (Spectra/Por 4, MWCO 12-14.000). All fractions were dried overnight at 60°C and weighed. The above separation scheme resulted in 9 fractions: 2-4 mm mineral (M2000), 2-4 mm organic (O2000), 0.250-2 mineral (M250), 0.250-2 organic (O250), 0.053-0.250 mineral (M53), 0.053-0.250 organic (O53), 0.020-0.053 (coarse silt), 0.002-0.020 (fine silt) and < 0.002 (clay). Dry weight recoveries over the different samples ranged between 98.1 and 99.6 %.Soil pH was always measured in a 0.01 M CaCl 2 solution at a 1:5 soil:solution ratio after 1 h shaking. Organic carbon and nitrogen contents of soil and plant samples were determined using a CN analyser-mass spectrometer (ANCA-GSL preparation module and 20-20 Stable Isotope Analyser, Europa Scientific) after ball-milling. Plant material was analysed for lignin and (hemi)-cellulose content by the acid detergent method (Van Soest, 1963;Van Soest and Wine, 1967). Polyphenolics were determined by a revised Folin-Denis method (King and Heath, 1967). To account for the specifics of highly weathered soils, we used a CEC method designed to operate at in situ soil pH and at low ionic strengths. An unbuffered AgTU (silver-thiourea complex) solution (0.01 M Ag + , 0.1 M TU) was used to measure CEC and base saturation at prevailing pH of the whole soil samples from the arboretum (Pleysier and Juo, 1980). Variation of CEC with pH was determined on whole soil samples and the three smallest size separates. In short, (a full description of the method is found in Oorts et al., 2000) subsamples were weighed in centrifuge tubes and pH was increased by shaking for 2 h with 15 ml 10 -3 M NaOH. Next, 15 ml unbuffered AgTU (final concentration: 0.01 M Ag + , 0.1 M TU) was added and after shaking overnight, pH was recorded, samples were centrifuged and a first 1 ml subsample was taken from the clear supernatant for Ag analysis by AAS. Subsequently, the soil was gradually acidified by adding small amounts of 1 M HNO 3 and after each equilibration, pH was measured and a subsample taken from the supernatant for Ag analysis. The whole procedure resulted for each sample in 6 CEC measurements between pH 2.5 and 7.5.Soils in the arboretum were predominantly sandy, with an approximate composition of 79% sand, 13% silt and 8% clay. The largest soil organic carbon concentrations were observed in the Dactyladenia, Leucaena and Treculia stands ranging between 10.79 and 13.62 g C kg -1 soil (Table 1). The four other soils had comparable and considerably lower carbon concentrations in a range of 7.16 to 7.97 g kg -1 . CEC values at prevailing soil pH ranged correspondingly between 4.51 and 6.47 cmol c kg -1 for the three top stands and between 2.80 and 3.90 cmol c kg -1 for the four others that were lower in carbon. Most of the variation in CEC could be explained by the differences in carbon content, while an additional part of the CEC variation was explained by the pH. CEC = 0.15 + 0.43* C (g kg -1 ) n = 28, R 2 = 0.767, P<0.001 (1) CEC = -6.97 + 1.25 pH + 0.41*C (g kg -1 ) n = 28, R 2 = 0.870, P<0.001 (2)Also when CEC values were obtained at different pH values, most of the variation could be explained by differences in organic carbon concentration and pH. These two together explained 85% of the variation. CEC = -1.79 + 0.50*pH + 0.36*C (g kg -1 ) n = 168, R² = 0.849, P<0.001 (3)This allows concluding that in these soils the concentration of organic carbon is the main source of variation between the different treatments. The regressions between soil carbon content and CEC allowed calculating values for the CEC of the soil organic matter. From equation (1) it can be seen that values are obtained in the order of 430 ± 50 cmol c kg -1 C, at a pH of 5.8 which is the average in situ pH.The CEC of the coarse silt, fine silt and clay fractions increased with decreasing particle size (clay > fine silt > coarse silt), except for Treculia, Dactyladenia and Leucaena, where the fine silt had comparable or higher CEC values than the clay fractions. Clay and fine silt fraction had the highest contribution to the CEC of the whole soil, together they were responsible for 76 to 90% of the CEC of the soil at pH 5.8 (Table 2). The contribution of the fine silt fraction to the CEC at pH 5.8 ranged from 35% to 50%. For the soils under Treculia and Dactyladenia, this fine silt fraction had the highest contribution. The coarse silt fraction contributed 9 to 15% of the CEC. The recovery of the CEC in the fractions ranged from 95 to 104%. In Table 2, also the changes in organic carbon for the three main size separates are given. In general, the carbon concentrations of both silt fractions followed the same trends as the whole soil samples, with largest values for Dactyladenia, Treculia and Leucaena.As for carbon, the treatment effects on CEC were clearly present in the silt fractions, while the clay fractions were rather similar (Figure 1). The CEC values for the clay fractions varied between 15 and 20 cmol c kg -1 at pH 3 and between 24 and 32 cmol c kg -1 at pH 7. The variation in CEC values for the clay fraction could be explained for 83% by pH only, confirming the absence of a treatment effect through the residue application on CEC values of the clay fraction. Contrary to this, the CEC values of the fine silt fraction were highly dependent on the treatment and pH could only explain 24% of the variation. Carbon concentration and pH together explained 95% of the variation in CEC of the fine silt fraction. The same was true for the coarse silt fraction: pH alone explained 18% of the variation and pH together with carbon concentration explained 90%. It confirms that changes in CEC due to residue management are seen in silt fractions rather than in clay fractions, at least at this time scale.Soil in the decomposition tubes had a similar sandy texture as the arboretum soils: 76% sand, 16% silt and 8% clay. The results in Table 3 show that due to the single application of residues, important differences in soil carbon content and CEC were obtained and still obvious after up to 23 months after application. After 6 months, the residue application resulted in an increase in total soil organic carbon content from 4.22 g C kg -1 soil in the control to concentrations up to 6.07 g C kg -1 soil in the soil amended with Treculia, six months after application. The change in organic carbon content was the largest for this species and decreased from Treculia>Dactyladenia>Gmelina>Leucaena>Afzelia. Correspondingly CEC values decreased from 2.75 cmol c kg -1 soil for the Treculia amendment to 2.07 cmol c kg -1 soil for Afzelia, only slightly larger than the 1.92 cmol c kg -1 soil for the control. The carbon concentrations in the fine silt fraction, six months after amendment, followed the same trend, while the largest values were obtained for Dactyladenia and Treculia, and the smallest for Afzelia. CEC values of the fine silt fraction could be separated into two groups: on the one hand Treculia, Gmelina and Dactyladenia with values between 10.49 and 10.66 cmol c kg -1 fine silt and on the other hand Leucaena and Afzelia with values of 8.76 and 8.41 cmol c kg -1 fine silt respectively. Still, all residue treated soils had larger CEC values in the fine silt fraction than the unamended soil with 7.89 cmol c kg -1 fine silt. Also for the clay fraction after six months, the organic matter concentrations seemed larger in the amended soils than in the control (values between 28.48 and 30.67 g C kg -1 clay for the amended soils and 25.48 g C kg -1 for the control). However, the CEC values were similar for treated and untreated soils in a range of 19.35 to 21.25 cmol c kg -1 clay. After 23 months, the effects were still present in some treatments, while a decrease in carbon concentrations was obvious, both in control and amended soils. For the whole soil, the same order as at 6 months was still visible with Treculia still displaying the largest carbon content (5.25 g C kg -1 soil) and Afzelia and Leucaena becoming similar as the control soil with carbon concentrations between 3.76 and 3.85 g C kg -1 soil. CEC values for the whole soil at 23 months were also still larger than the control for Treculia and Gmelina, while they were similar as for the control for Leucaena, Afzelia and Dactyladenia. Treatment effects could much more clearly be seen in the fine silt fraction. For Treculia, Dactyladenia, Gmelina and Leucaena values were observed between 20.60 and 26.49 g C kg -1 fine silt in contrast to the values of 18.57 and 18.26 g C kg -1 fine silt for the Afzelia and control soils respectively. Trends in CEC values of the fine silt fraction followed the lines set by the organic matter concentrations: larger values for the silt fractions derived from Treculia and Dactyladenia than for those obtained from Gmelina and Leucaena, in turn larger than for Afzelia which was no longer discernible from the control value. Not surprisingly, neither carbon concentrations nor CEC values were affected by the treatments in the clay fraction.In general, the Treculia and Dactyladenia treatments were still displaying strong effects on soil organic carbon concentrations and ensuing CEC values of the total soil and its fine silt fraction in a time frame of up to 23 months after addition. Gmelina also produced similar effects, but definitely to a lesser extent. Referring to the quality of the different residues (Table 4), it becomes clear that the changes brought about in soil carbon and/or CEC are indirectly due to the differences in biochemical quality of the residues. Dactyladenia and Treculia had the lowest nitrogen contents and consequently the larger C/N ratios, predicting a slower decomposition and hence a larger residual carbon build-up. Both species also displayed the largest polyphenol concentrations, hence the largest polyphenol/N ratios, also pointing to slow decay rates. Lignin concentrations, however, were not in line with these observations.The magnitude of the changes is significant and important in view of the generally small values obtained for both organic carbon contents and CEC values in this weathered Lixisol. An increase in carbon content and charge at in situ pH in the order of 20%, still observable, 23 months after a single addition of Treculia residues is a relevant result that may lead to the inclusion of such amendments in a realistic farming system. The phenomena were -as also indicated in earlier work (Oorts et al., 2000) restricted to the fine silt fraction. Whether the absence of any effect in the clay fraction was due to a saturation of the clay fraction with organic matter or to the limited time frame (organic matter derived from the residue not yet sequestered in the clay fraction) could not be ascertained. Yet, the former possibility seems unlikely in this soil, strongly weathered and depleted in carbon. More likely seems the latter possibility confirming the slower turnover of organic components, as size of the soil particles with which they are associated becomes smaller.Both parts of the experimental program confirm the strong relation between soil organic matter and charge development in highly weathered soils, such as the ferric Lixisol in Ibadan, Nigeria. In the soil derived from the arboretum, after 20 years of continuous input of litters widely ranging in nitrogen, lignin and polyphenol contents, large differences in organic matter resulted with concomitant large differences in CEC. Because differences in CEC could be explained almost completely by the variation in soil organic carbon concentration, the effect of residue inputs was judged indirect. Differences in CEC were due to changes in the silt fractions predominantly, indicating that changes in clay fractions are not readily obtained in a time-span of less than 20 years. The decomposition tube experiment was completely in line with the above findings in this that a low quality residue proved instrumental in enhancing charge in these soils. Yet it also demonstrated that such effects could be obtained already after a single addition of 15 Mg/ha and that they were still obvious almost two years after this addition. Table 2: Organic carbon content and contribution to the whole soil CEC at pH 5.8 of the particle size fractions of the surface (0-10 cm) horizons from the selected plots in the Ibadan-arboretum.Organic carbon (g C kg -1 ) CEC (cmol c kg   The fertility status of soils in the West African moist savanna is low. Two major causes are their extensive degree of weathering and the continuous mining of soil nutrients in the absence of sufficiently large amounts of external inputs or sufficiently long soil fertility-regenerating fallow periods (Jones and Wild, 1975;Smaling et al., 1997). In the absence of fertilizer additions, this low soil fertility status usually leads to very low maize grain yields on farmers' fields, e.g., around 0.75 t ha -1 in the Southern Benin Republic (Koudokpon et al., 1994), far below the potential yield of 5 -8 t ha -1 (Fisher and Palmer, 1983). As P sorption by West-African savanna soils is low compared to soils of the humid forest zone (Juo and Fox, 1977), the most limiting nutrient for cereal production in the moist savanna is generally believed to be N, followed by P.Since the early 1990s, research on natural resource management at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has been following an agro-ecozonal approach. The West African moist savanna zone has been sub-divided into different agro-ecozones, each with their distinctive length of growing periods. Within each agroecozone, benchmark areas have been identified in which most of the IITA resource management research is concentrated (EPHTA, 1996). The benchmark area of the derived savanna (DS), with a growing period of 211-270 days (Jagtap, 1995), is located in Southern Benin Republic while the benchmark area of the northern guinea savanna (NGS), with a growing period of 151-180 days (Jagtap, 1995), is located in Northern Nigeria. As benchmark areas are hypothesized to contain all the biophysical and socio-economic variability found in the entire agro-ecozone, one could in principle extrapolate soil fertility management technologies developed and validated in the benchmark area to all of the agro-ecozone (EPHTA, 1996). A resource management survey implemented in the NGS benchmark led to the identification of 4 resource-use domains: a low (13.8% of survey villages), low to medium (49.2%), medium to high (23.1%), and high (13.8%) resource-use domain (Manyong et al., 1998). Resource use is quantified by an index taking into account variables describing use of external inputs, land use intensity, accessibility to markets, and diversification of the farm enterprise (Manyong et al., 1998).Besides length of growing period and the socio-economic environment, soils also vary between and within the benchmark areas. In the DS benchmark, 2 main geological units can be distinguished, giving rise to distinct soil associations. In the southern part of the benchmark the predominant soils are deep, red, kaolinitic, freely draining soils developed on coastal sediments often referred to as 'Terre de Bare' and classified as Ferralic Nitisols (FAO, ISRIC and ISSS, 1998). The northern part is underlain by crystalline basement rocks consisting mainly of granite and gneiss, which gave rise to a complex pattern of Acrisols, Lixisols, Luvisols, and Leptosols with inclusions of Vertisols and Cambisols (Faure and Volkoff, 1998). The saprolite is often found within a few meters and the clay fraction contains kaolinite and swelling (2:1) clays in varying proportions according to parent rock and drainage conditions (Volkoff, 1976a;Volkoff, 1976b). A similar resource management survey as in the NGS was implemented in the DS benchmark. This identified a set of resource use domains overlapping with the geological units (IITA, 2000). In the DS benchmark, the production of cotton is supported by a credit scheme for fertilizers and herbicides and a government-regulated market for selling the produce (Bosc and Freud, 1995).The soils in the NGS benchmark are predominantly developed in a Quaternary loess mantle which covered the Basement Complex granites, gneisses, migmatites and schists (Bennett, 1980;McTainsh, 1984). Processes of clay illuviation, iron segregation, fragmentation and horizontal transport of ironpans, and colluviation led to soil differentiation at the landscape scale. A typical toposequence consists of shallow and/or gravelly soils (Plinthosols or soils with a petroferric phase) on the interfluve crests, deeper soils (Luvisols or Lixisols) on the valley slopes and hydromorphic soils (Gleysols and Fluvisols or soils with gleyic properties) near the valley bottom (Delaure, 1998). As a common characteristic, these soils have a relatively high silt content (20-50%) reflecting the aeolian origin and have a clay fraction with low to medium activity (CEC of clay fraction between 20 and 35 cmol c kg -1 clay).Agronomically, the most straightforward measure to boost cereal grain yields is the application of fertilizers. Although it is currently believed that both fertilizer and organic matter additions are necessary to sustain agricultural production and preserve the environment (Jones and Wild, 1975;Palm et al., 1997;Vanlauwe et al., 2000b), most farmers in the moist savanna do not apply organic matter except for minimal amounts of farmyard manure and/or household waste in the NGS (Houngnandan, 2000;Manyong et al., 2000). Crop residues are commonly removed from the field either for livestock feed and other purposes in the NGS or through burning in the DS. Although average fertilizer application by farmers in the DS as well as in the NGS is low (Houngnandan, 2000;Manyong et al., 2000), the range of application rates is high. In the NGS villages, the average fertilizer N application rate was 40 kg N ha -1 with a large standard deviation of 31 kg N ha -1 (Manyong et al., 2000).The objectives of this paper were: (i) to assess the general soil fertility status of representative farmers' fields in a selected number of villages representative for the DS and NGS benchmarks, (ii) to assess the impact of soil type and fertilizer use on the selected soil characteristics, and (iii) to determine the most limiting nutrients for maize growth in the respective agro-ecozones and their relation with selected soil fertility characteristics.As the NGS benchmark area is fairly homogeneous in terms of major soils associations, the 2 villages selected in the NGS were chosen to represent the major resource use domains identified by Manyong et al. (1998). Danayamaka (7 o 50'E, 11 o 19'N) belongs to the low to medium resource-use domain and is dominated by the traditional production enterprises of the northern Guinea savanna, such as sorghum, cowpea, and livestock. Kayawa (7 o 13'E, 11 o 13'N) belongs to the medium to high resource-use domain. It is characterized by the development of new enterprises such as maize and soybean, and follows a market-oriented strategy in agricultural production (Manyong et al., 1997). The two domains together encompass 72% of the villages surveyed in the NGS benchmark area.As discussed earlier, in the DS benchmark 2 distinct geological formations are present, together covering 84% of the benchmark area (Volkoff, 1976a;Volkoff, 1976b). As the major soil characteristics were hypothesized to influence the soil fertility status of soils in this benchmark area, one village was selected belonging to each of the 2 soil associations. Zouzouvou (1°41'E, 6°53'N) lies on 'terre de barre' soils, while Eglimé (1°40'E, 7°05'N) is situated in the area underlain by crystalline rocks. The Eglimé soils are rejuvenated and much younger than the more weathered soils of Zouzouvou.A socio-economic survey on general farm characteristics and current use of fertilizer and organic inputs at the field level was implemented in the NGS (Manyong et al., 2000) and DS villages (Houngnandan, 2000). The farmers interviewed were selected following a multi-stage sampling procedure, giving a total number of 200 representative farmers in the NGS villages, and 171 in the DS villages (Houngnandan, 2000;Manyong et al., 2000). Of all fields included in the survey, 12-14 fields were randomly selected in each village to implement researcher-managed on-farm trials. In the NGS, soils near the valley-bottom or fadama soils were excluded from the selection procedure. The farmers using the selected fields were interviewed about past management of these fields. Information was obtained on cropping/fallow history and fertilizer use (type and amount) over the past 10 years.In all farmers' fields, trials were laid out containing 8 plots of 8 m by 8 m. In this paper, only the initial soil characteristics of the trials are considered; the trials themselves are the subject of forthcoming papers. Before implementation of the field trials, soil was sampled from each plot at 0-10 cm depth in April 1998 in the DS villages (one diagonal across the plots, 10 cores per plot) and in May and June 1998 in the NGS villages (both diagonals across the plots, 16 cores per plot). Afterwards, equal amounts of soil sampled from each of the 8 plots in a field were mixed to form one composite sample per field. All soil samples were air-dried and sieved to pass 4 mm. Part of the soil was ball-milled for organic C (Amato, 1983) and Kjeldahl-N analysis. A second part was analyzed for Olsen-P (Okalebo et al., 1993), effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) (IITA, 1982), pH-water (soil:water ratio of 2.5), pH-KCl (soil:KCl solution ratio of 2.5), and texture (IITA, 1982). A third part was used to determine particle size classes of soil organic matter (SOM) by wet sieving a previously dispersed soil slurry over a nest of sieves (Vanlauwe et al., 1998). The particulate organic matter (POM) fraction consists of three separately measured SOM fractions: organic material larger than 2 mm (referred to as the 'O2000' fraction), organic material between 2 and 0.250 mm (referred to as the 'O250' fraction), and organic material between 0.250 and 0.053 mm (referred to as the 'O53' fraction).Immediately after taking the soil samples from the 0-10 cm layer, sufficient soil was taken from the same layer from between the plots to implement a missing nutrient trial, described below. The soil was air-dried and sieved to pass 4 mm before use.In the NGS villages, soil was sampled for mineral N extraction before planting maize in June 1998 (1 core in the centre of each plot bulked per field) at the following depths: 0-20 cm, 20-40 cm, 40-60 cm, and 60-80 cm. In the DS villages where a cowpea-maize rotation was implemented, soil was sampled at the same depths (2 cores per plot, bulked per field) after the cowpea harvest and before planting maize in August 1998. All samples were kept cool pending analysis. Mineral N was extracted by shaking 30 g fresh soil in 90 ml of a 2N KCl solution and filtering part of the supernatant after centrifugation of the soil slurry. The nitrate-N and ammonium-N content in the soil extract was determined colorimetrically on a continuous flow analyzer system (IITA, 1982).A missing nutrient trial with soil sampled from all individual fields was established in the greenhouse at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria. Pots were filled with 2.5 kg of air-dried, sieved soil and the treatments presented in Table 1 were implemented. After applying 75 ml of nutrient solution per pot, an additional 340 ml of distilled water was applied just before planting. Although the nutrient solutions were composed such that only the nutrients under consideration were missing -except for the 'all-N' treatment where Clwas added -the final pH (varied between 3.3 and 6.1) and electrical conductivity (varied between 0.9 and 2.4 dS m -1 ) of the solutions were not equal. Preliminary testing, however, showed that after mixing a selected number of soils with the nutrient solutions, final soil pH values were hardly affected due to the buffering capacities of the soils (maximal differences in pH after applying the various nutrient solutions was 0.18 pH units for the selected soils). For the 'minus-N' treatment, a selected number of pots was also included with CaCO 3 as the Ca source rather than CaCl 2 to assess whether the addition of Clhad an effect on plant growth. As both Ca sources gave similar maize growth (data not shown), it was concluded that the addition of Cldid not affect maize growth. Although the differences in electrical conductivity of the nutrient solutions are the only factors besides the missing nutrients considered which could influence maize growth, the total salt concentrations were low (varied between 0.2 and 0.4 dS m -1 after applying the nutrient solutions to the soil as measured in a 1:2.5 soil:water suspension at 25°C) and as such, this factor was presumed not to influence maize growth.The pots were arranged in a randomized complete block design with 3 replicates. After application of the nutrient solutions and distilled water, 4 maize seeds (variety Oba Super 2) were planted in each pot and thinned to 2 plants per pot after germination. The pots were watered twice daily thereby avoiding leakage of water through the bottom of the planting pots and avoiding signs of moisture stress on the maize plants. After 7 weeks, the maize plants were cut at the soil surface, oven-dried (65°C), and weighed. The roots were extracted from the soil by sieving over a 0.5 mm sieve, washed, oven-dried, and weighed.In the pot trial, the relative biomass production in the treatments with one or a range of nutrients removed vs the treatment with complete nutrition was calculated as (equation 1):Maize shoot or root biomass in the treatment with one or more missing nutrients ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ * 100 (1)Maize shoot or root biomass in the treatment with all nutrients applied According to equation ( 1), a higher relative yield indicates a lower response to the missing nutrient considered.The land use management, soil, and maize data were analyzed with the MIXED procedure of the SAS system (SAS, 1992) using 'benchmark' and 'village within benchmark' as fixed variables and 'field*village within benchmark' as a random factor. Significantly different means were separated with the PDIFF option of the LSMEANS statement.To assess the impact of fertilizer use on the observed soil characteristics, the data were also analyzed using 'benchmark' and 'fertilizer class' as fixed variables and 'field*fertilizer class within benchmark' as a random factor. The 'fertilizer class' of a certain field was obtained by rounding the average of the 'N fertilizer class' and the 'P fertilizer class' values for that field. Three 'N fertilizer classes' were defined: I: > 60 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ; II: 30-60 kg N ha -1 yr -1 , III: < 30 kg N ha -1 yr -1 and 3 'P fertilizer classes' I: > 20 kg P ha -1 yr -1 ; II: 10-20 kg P ha -1 yr -1 , III: < 10 kg P ha -1 yr -1 (Fig. 1). As fertilizer class was counfounded within village in the DS villages -nearly all the Zouzouvou soils belong to the class with the lowest fertilizer use, while nearly all Eglimé soils belong to the class with the highest fertilizer use (Fig. 1) -it was not possible to include both 'village' and 'fertilizer class' in the same ANOVA as certain factors were not estimable. Regression analysis was used to calculate relationships between response to N and P and soil nutrient contents.Fallows are still quite common in Zouzouvou (2.3 yrs per 10 yr) and virtually non-existent in all other villages (Table 2). In both benchmark areas, cereals are important crops, while more legume crops were grown during the past 10 yr in the DS villages. In the DS, cotton is a common cash crop, and in the NGS pepper and tomato are commonly grown. The type of NPK fertilizer commonly used is different in the two benchmarks. In the DS, cotton fertilizer (14%N, 23%P, 14%K, 5%S, 1%B) is virtually the only compound fertilizer available, and in the NGS several blends can be found, but 15:15:15 and 20:10:10 are the most common ones (Table 2).While yearly N fertilizer application rates were not significantly different between the 2 benchmark areas, large differences in fertilizer use between the 2 villages in the DS benchmark were observed (Table 2). Farmers in Eglimé used, on average, 88 kg N ha -1 yr -1 for the past 10 years, and farmers in Zouzouvou used less than 10 kg N ha -1 yr -1 . Differences in fertilizer use between the 2 villages in the NGS were not significant. Farmers in the DS villages used significantly more P fertilizer (27 kg P ha -1 yr -1 ) than farmers in the NGS villages (17 kg P ha -1 yr -1 ), but again, striking differences in P use were observed between Zouzouvou (8 kg P ha -1 yr -1 ) and Eglimé (45 kg P ha -1 yr -1 ). In the DS, proportionally more N fertilizer was applied as urea in Eglimé than in Zouzouvou, and the same was true for Danayamaka in the NGS (Table 2).While topsoils in the DS benchmark were generally more sandy and less silty than soils in the NGS benchmark, their organic C, total N, Olsen-P, exchangeable Ca and Mg contents and ECEC were significantly higher (Table 3). Soils in the DS contained more SOM particles with a higher particle size and soils in the NGS contained significantly more of the 'O53' material, leading to similar POM contents in both benchmarks (Table 3).Although the soil chemical and organic matter characteristics of the 0-10 cm layer appeared to have larger values in Kayawa than in Danayamaka, none of the differences were significant, except for the O53 and POM content (Table 3). This is in sharp contrast with the DS villages, where topsoil in Eglimé contained a significantly larger amount of C, N, Olsen-P, exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K, and had a significantly higher ECEC. Topsoils in Eglimé also had a significantly lower sand and a significantly higher silt content than topsoils in Zouzouvou (Table 3). In the DS villages, nitrate-N and ammonium-N contents were similar for all soil depths, except for the 60-80 cm layers in which fields in Eglimé had significantly more ammonium-N than fields in Zouzouvou (Fig. 2a). The ammonium-N content in the 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm layers was significantly higher in Kayawa than in Danayamaka, while differences in nitrate-N content were similar at all soil depths (Fig. 2b). The soil profile contained more ammonium-N than nitrate-N in all soil layers and villages.In both the DS and NGS villages, differences in soil organic C and total N content between fertilizer classes were not significant (Table 4). Olsen-P and exchangeable K contents, on the other hand, were significantly higher in class I than in class II or class III soils in both agro-ecozones. In the DS villages, exchangeable Ca and Mg contents were significantly higher in class I than in class III soils (Table 4). No significant differences in mineral N content of the soil profile were found between the different fertilizer classes (data not shown).The relative biomass yield of maize shoots in absence of N was similar for both benchmarks (Table 5). Soils in the NGS showed a lower relative shoot biomass yield in the absence of P than soils in the DS, indicating a stronger response to applied P (Table 5). In both benchmarks, responses to cations, S, and micronutrients were negligible. In the DS, maize shoot biomass responded more strongly to P in Zouzouvou than in Eglimé, while responses to N were similar in both villages. In the NGS, no differences in responses to N and P between villages were observed (Table 5).Although a significant linear relationship was observed between shoot biomass response to N and the soil total N content, the relationship explained only 36% of the overall variation (Fig. 3a). This value decreases to 18% (significant at the 1% level) if the data point lying outside the cloud of points is omitted from the regression analysis. The relationships between shoot biomass response to P and Olsen-P contents followed a linear pattern up to about 12 mg Olsen-P kg -1 , after which responses tended to reach a plateau (Fig. 3b). The linear relationships between shoot biomass response to P and Olsen-P contents below 12 mg Olsen-P kg -1 explained between 60% and 74% of the overall variation for Zouzouvou, Danayamaka, and Kayawa. Slopes nor intercepts of the linear relationships were significantly different between these villages. Most of the Eglimé soils contained amounts of Olsen-P exceeding 12 mg P kg -1 and responses to P were part of the plateau of the relationship (Fig. 3b).The relative maize shoot biomass yield in absence of P was significantly smaller for soils from the NGS (relative yield of 33%) than from soils from the DS (67%), and within the DS, for soils from Zouzouvou (58%) than for soils from Eglimé (75%). The favourable P status in Eglimé soils is certainly caused by the extensive use of P-containing 'cotton' fertilizer, stimulated by the government-supported credit and marketing schemes for cotton production in Benin Republic. This observation is a good example of how agricultural policies may influence soil fertility status. Although the same policies apply to Zouzouvou, the lower fertilizer use in Zouzouvou compared to Eglimé may be explained by the lower occurrence of cotton (data not shown) and the lower inherent fertility of the soils caused by more intense weathering. Although 'cotton' fertilizer is usually applied to cotton, P fertilizer is known to have considerable residual effects on soils with low P sorption capacities (Bationo et al., 1986;Buresh et al., 1997), allowing other crops grown in rotation with cotton to benefit from this added P. Although use of P fertilizer is much lower in Zouzouvou than in Eglimé and comparable to P use in the NGS villages, the relative shoot biomass yield in absence of P is higher in Zouzouvou than in the latter villages. This may be related to differences in P sorption capacities of the A and Bt soil horizon between the soil profiles (Nwoke et al., unpublished data). The higher P sorption of the NGS soils is most likely related to the greater amount of fine particles and the composition of these fine particles (Mokwunye et al., 1986). On the other hand, adulteration of locally produced fertilizer blends in the NGS can not be excluded and may have led to lower P application rates as calculated from the information given by the farmers.The Olsen-P content appears to be a good indicator for P availability of West African moist savanna soils (Fig. 3b), as previously reported by Vanlauwe et al. (2000a). Soils containing Olsen-P values over 12 mg kg -1 are less likely to respond to applied P than soils with Olsen-P values below 12 mg kg -1 . For the latter soils, the response to P increased linearly with decreasing P content. Due to the high fertilizer application rates in Eglimé, little or no response to added P was observed for these soils. As 'cotton' fertilizer is the only commonly available compound fertilizer in Benin, one could wonder whether the composition of this fertilizer is agronomically and economically optimal for application to maize as maize is known to require relatively higher amounts of N than P (Wichmann, 1998).Notwithstanding significant differences in soil organic C and total N content between benchmarks and, in the DS, between villages, responses to applied N were similar in all villages and benchmarks. Moreover, only a minor fraction of the total variation was explained by a linear relationships between response to N and soil total N content. These observations indicate that total C and N are weak indicators of potential soil N supply. Although inputs of organic matter are expected to be larger in the DS than in the NGS because of the longer growing period, fallow and crop residues are commonly burnt in the DS villages before planting the first season crop. In the NGS, fallow vegetation at the start of the cropping seasons is minimal and crop residues are commonly removed from the field for livestock feed, fencing, or other purposes. As belowground plant components and weeds are the major organic matter inputs, differences between benchmarks may not be as large as would be expected taking into account only the length of growing periods. This is also confirmed by the similar amounts of the easily available POM pool, which was shown to be rather easily influenced by application of fresh organic matter (Vanlauwe et al., 1999). As inputs of organic matter are expected to be in the same order of magnitude in both benchmarks, the larger C contents in the DS soils, and especially in Eglimé, indicate that in the DS, a higher proportion of the C is either physically and/or chemically protected from mineralization. This may be related to the more frequent burning of crop residues and consequent chemical stabilisation of C as charcoal in the DS villages. Physical protection of soil organic C is expected to be higher in the soils of the NGS villages due to their higher silt content and associated C protection capacity (Hassink and Whitmore, 1997). However, commonly used soil tillage practises may hamper the soil C protection mechanisms in contrast with the DS villages, where soils are usually only minimally tilled during weeding activities. Although the input of organic matter as above and belowground crop residues is expected to be larger in Eglimé than in Zouzouvou because of the much higher fertilizer application rates (Table 2), the frequent burning of crop residues and the higher silt content and associated C protection capacity (Hassink and Whitmore, 1997) in the Eglimé soils may mask the potentially higher N supply capacities of these soils. This is also obvious from the similar amounts of mineral N in the soil profile before maize planting. The larger amounts of mineral N in the topsoil in Kayawa compared with Danayamaka are likely the results of a larger amount of easily decomposable POM (Table 3).The response to missing cations, S, and micronutrients was virtually nil in all fields, indicating that these nutrients are not an immediate source of concern. However, applying higher rates of N and P fertilizer may more rapidly exhaust the soil reserves of these nutrients and lead to other major deficiencies. Especially 'terre de barre' soils, which have an inherently low available K content, as confirmed by the data presented in Table 3, may be susceptible to K deficiency when agricultural production increases (Jones and Wild, 1975). On the other hand, as long as local fertilizer recommendation schemes include application of K fertilizer (Carsky and Iwuafor, 1999) and as farmers usually apply NPK fertilizers, this possibility may turn out to be a rather theoretical one.Certain differences in soil characteristics between villages within one benchmark area are surely rather the result of inherent soil type characteristics than of management practices. The higher base status and silt content of the Eglimé soils compared with the Zouzouvou soils, e.g., is related to the higher base content of the parent material rather than to the use of external inputs. After all, the Eglimé soils are rejuvenated and much younger than the more weathered soils of Zouzouvou. The high silt content of the soils in the NGS villages reflects the aeolian origin of the parent material, formed by deposition of loesslike material by Harmattan winds (Bennett, 1980). Through this dust deposition, the soils in the NGS are enriched with bases at an annual rate of 19 kg K ha -1 , 10 kg Ca ha -1 , and 4 kg Mg ha -1 (McTainsh, 1982). Dust deposition decreases from North to South, and annual enrichment rates in the DS are of the order of 3 kg K ha -1 , 5 kg Ca ha -1 , and 2 kg Mg ha -1 (Hermann, 1996, cited by Stahr et al., 1996). Other differences in soil characteristics are more likely brought about by differences in soil management and particularly fertilizer use. Although one could argue that in the DS the larger P and K content of soils belonging fertilizer class I compared with soils belonging to fertilizer classes II and III is caused by the fact that fertilizer classes and soil type are confounded (most Eglimé soils belong to class I, while most Zouzouvou soils belong to class III), similar observations were made for fertilizer classes in the NGS, where soil types are similar (Table 4). This clearly shows that application of external sources of P and even K can improve the general P and K status and benefit future crops. This is not true in the case of N fertilizers, as neither the soil total N content nor the mineral N content in the soil profile varied between fertilizer classes (Table 4). One consequence of this observation is that N fertilizers need to be applied yearly to sustain crop growth. While it is often claimed that excessive long-term use of N fertilizers may decrease the soil pH, it is worth noting that topsoil pH values are similar for Zouzouvou and Eglimé (Table 4), while the difference in average yearly N fertilizer application is substantial (Table 2). This indicates that the acidifying activity is not relevant for all fertilizers. (Juo et al., 1995) already found that the acidifying effect of N fertilizer was highest for ammonium sulphate, lower for urea and virtually absent for calciumammonium-nitrate.Palm CA, Myers RJK and Nandwa SM (1997)  a All pots received 75 ml of the respective nutrient solutions and 340 ml of distilled water at planting. a Fertilizer classes for N application are: I: > 60 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ; II: 30-60 kg N ha -1 yr -1 , III: < 30 kg N ha -1 yr -1 . Fertilizer classes for P application are: I: > 20 kg P ha -1 yr -1 ; II: 10-20 kg P ha -1 yr -1 , III: < 10 kg P ha -1 yr -1 . Overall fertilizer classes, used in the column headings of this   Several of the unresolved questions related to alley cropping in particular and agroforestry systems in general are associated with the root dynamics of the tree component. In alley cropping systems, 'ideal' hedgerows recover soil N and other nutrients only from layers below the rooting depth of the accompanying food crop. By doing so, trees recover nutrients leached beyond the reach of annual food crops and thus improve nutrient use efficiencies. Real-world hedgerows recover a substantial proportion of their nutrients from layers simultaneously exploited by food crop roots and increase competition in favor of the trees. To assess possible belowground competition for water and nutrients between the trees and associated food crops, data on root abundance as a function of soil depth, soil characteristics, and time are needed (Schroth, 1995;Van Noordwijk and Purnomosidhi, 1995).Senna siamea Irwin & Barneby is a non-N 2 -fixing leguminous tree which is commonly found in natural fallows in the moist savanna zone of West-Africa. Senna has been widely used in alley cropping trials (Ruhigwa et al., 1992;Danso and Morgan, 1993;Van der Meersch et al., 1993;Schroth and Lehmann, 1995;Aihou et al., 1999;Tossah et al., 1999;Vanlauwe et al., 2001a) or other agroforestry systems (Leihner et al., 1996) in West-Africa. Tossah et al. (1999) reported annual Senna aboveground biomass productions of 9.2, 1.8, and 9.8 ton ha -1 , in Glidji (Southern Togo) on a Rhodic Ferralsol, in Amoutchou (Central Togo) on a Haplic Arenosol, and in Sarakawa (Northern Togo) on a Ferric Acrisol, respectively. Although Senna has been depicted as an aggressive scavenger for nutrients due to its laterally spreading root system (Hauser, 1993), Aihou et al. (1999) and Tossah et al. (1999) concluded that Senna trees rely mainly on the subsoil as a source of nutrients. While Vanlauwe et al. (2001a) found only a small recovery of applied 15 N-urea in the Senna hedgerow during intercropping with maize on a non-acid Alfisol, Ruhigwa et al. (1992) concluded that Senna would compete for nutrients with the associated food crop in alley cropping systems, as most of its fine root biomass was confined to the top 20 cm of an acid Ultisol. Schroth et al. (1995) stated that the lateral development of Senna roots was favoured by the shallow soil depth on a Ferric Acrisol in Central Togo. Akinnifesi et al. (1995) found significant decreases in root length densities of Enterolobium cyclocarpum and Leucaena leucocephala with increases in soil bulk density. Above observations clearly indicate possible interactions between soil chemical and physical conditions on the one hand and the root distribution and competitive character of Senna trees on the other hand.The objectives of this paper were (i) to quantify the root distribution of Senna hedgerows, growing in alley cropping systems on a number of sites representative for the derived savanna of Togo, (ii) to evaluate the effect of soil profile characteristics on the observed root distributions, (iii) to assess the potential of Senna trees to recover nutrients leached beyond the reach of food crops or the so-called safety-net efficiency, and (iv) to explore relationships between the different methods used to quantify root distributions.The trials were established on a Rhodic Ferralsol in Glidji (Southern Togo -6°15'N, 1°36'E), on a Haplic Arenosol in Amoutchou (Central Togo -7°22'N, 1°10'E), and on a Ferric Acrisol in Sarakawa (Northern Togo -9°37'N, 1°01'E). The present soil types represent about 57% of the soils in the DS (Jagtap, 1995). All sites are located in the Derived Savanna (DS) zone, which is characterized by a length of growing period between 211 and 270 days (Jagtap, 1995). Total rainfall in Glidji was 950 mm in 1995 and 876 mm in 1996 (bimodal pattern), in Amoutchou 1540 mm in 1995 and 1250 mm in 1996 (unimodal pattern), and in Sarakawa 1357 mm in 1995 and 1289 mm in 1996 (unimodal pattern). The site in Amoutchou had a groundwater table between 0.8 and 1.4 m below the soil surface, while the groundwater table of the others sites is deeper than 10 m.The trials were established in 1991 in Glidji and in 1992 in Amoutchou and Sarakawa. A randomized complete block design with four replicates was laid out with five treatments consisting of four alley cropping plots and a no-tree control treatment. Plot size was 10 by 12 m and the hedges were planted at 4 m distance, making 3 10-m-long hedges per plot. The Senna seeds used in the three sites were collected from a Senna fallow near Lomé, Togo. In Glidji, the Senna trees were pruned 3 times yearly (before planting around mid-April, about 5 weeks after planting, and about 11 weeks after planting) in 1992 and again in 1994, 1995, and 1996 at 0.25 m above the soil surface while in Amoutchou and Sarakawa, the Senna trees were pruned 3 times in 1995 and 1996 (Tossah et al., 1999). During the years in which the trees were pruned, maize was planted at a distance of 80 (between rows) by 30 cm (within rows) and thinned to one plant per pocket. A basal application of 26 kg P ha -1 as TSP and 50 kg K ha -1 as KCl was applied to the maize at planting follwed by two applications of 22.5 kg N ha -1 of urea approximately 3.5 and 7.5 weeks after planting.In September 1996, a trench was dug in each field in two Senna alley cropping plots, perpendicular to the hedgerow, 15 cm away from the tree base, extending 2 m away from the trees, and 2 m deep. After leveling the profile wall, Senna root abundance was determined using a 10 by 10 cm grid by counting all living roots within each grid, after removing the top 1 mm of soil, following the method described by Akinnifesi et al. (1999). Dead roots were identified by their brittle structure and dark cortex. Roots > 5 mm, between 2 and 5 mm, and < 2 mm were counted separately.After determining the root abundance, soil samples were taken from the profile wall with a 10 by 10 cm square auger (5 cm deep), 0.1, 0.5 and 1.5 m away from the tree base, from the following soil layers : 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 50-60, 80-90, 110-120, and 140-150 cm. In Amoutchou, both root counting and soil sampling was restricted to 100 cm because of the high water table. In Glidji, soil was also destructively sampled at 190-200 cm. Separate soil samples were taken from the same layers for routine soil analysis (organic C (Amato, 1993); Kjeldahl total N; effective cation exchange capacity (IITA, 1982); base saturation; pH(H 2 0) (20 g dry soil in 50 ml H 2 O); texture (IITA, 1982)). The diameter of the taproot was measured at 10 cm depth intervals up to a depth of 2 m, after taking the soils samples for root and soil characterization. Bulk densities were determined on the wall of a nearby soil profile, dug in 1995 to determine the soil type (Tossah et al., 1999).The roots were removed from the soil collected with the 10 cm by 10 cm square augers by washing over a 0.5 mm sieve after submerging the samples overnight in a hexametaphosphate-Nacarbonate solution (20.94 g Na-hexametaphosphate L -1 and 4.45 g Na 2 CO 3 L -1 ) and stored in a 1% formaldehyde solution. Dead and live roots were separated as described above. The roots < 2 mm were spread evenly on a perspex sheet, scanned with Paintshop Program software, and the root length density (RLD) were measured with the Delta-T-Scan image analysis program (Webb et al., 1993). Preliminary investigations with a limited number of root samples showed a very close relationship between root lengths measured with the image analysis program and the original Tennant-method (Tennant, 1975).All root data were subjected to ANOVA with the MIXED procedure of the SAS system (Littell et al., 1996). Regression analysis between the various root characteristics was carried out with the REG procedure of the SAS system (SAS, 1985). Tap root diameters, root weight densities, and root length densities were log-transformed before ANOVA (Gomez and Gomez, 1984). Large (> 2mm) and small (< 2mm) root abundances, collected on the profile wall, were combined into 4 distances (0-50, 50-100, 100-150, and 150-200 cm away from the tree) and 6 depths (0-20, 20-40, 40-80, 80-120, 120-160, and 160-200 cm) for ANOVA analysis. Values for root abundance were log(n+1) transformed before statistical analysis (Gomez and Gomez, 1984). Two extremely large values for root length density measured on one of the two Glidji profiles (see below) were excluded from the statistical analysis. Means were estimated with the LSMEANS statement, while significantly different means were separated with the PDIFF test of the LSMEANS statement (Littell et al., 1996).The profile in Amoutchou contained mostly sand down to 1 m depth, while the profiles in Glidji and Sarakawa showed clay accumulation below 50 cm (Table 1). Consequently, the organic C and total N content and ECEC are higher in the subsoil in Glidji and Sarakawa than in Amoutchou. While the bulk density of the topsoil was similar in all sites, the bulk density of the layers below 40 cm was lower in Amoutchou than in both other sites (Table 2).For all sites, the abundance of roots < 2 mm diameter in the 0-20 cm, 40-80 cm, and 80-120 cm layers was significantly (P < 0.05) higher between 0 and 0.5 m away from the hedgerow (21.4, 5.3, and 204 5.5 dm -2 in the 0-20 cm layer in Glidji, Amoutchou, and Sarakawa, respectively) than between 1.5 and 2 m away from the hedgerow (13.8, 3.1, and 3.7 dm -2 in the 0-20 cm layer in Glidji, Amoutchou, and Sarakawa, respectively) (Fig. 1). This was also true for the 20-40 cm layer in Amoutchou, for the 120-160 cm layer in Glidji and Sarakawa, and for the 160-200 cm layer in Sarakawa. Distance to hedgerow had no effect on the number of roots < 2 mm in the 20-40 cm layer in Glidji and Sarakawa (Fig. 1). In Glidji and Sarakawa, more shallow soil layers contained significantly (P < 0.05) more roots < 2 mm than deeper soil layers up to 120 cm depth at the 4 considered distances away from the tree base. Below 120 cm, differences between layers were not consistently significant. In Amoutchou, only the top 0-20 cm layer contained more (P < 0.05) roots < 2 mm than the deeper soil layers, while below 20 cm differences in root abundance were not consistently significant (Fig. 1).In Glidji and Sarakawa, the abundance of roots > 2 mm in the 0-20 cm layer was significantly (P < 0.05) higher close to the hedgerow (0-0.5 m) (1.8 and 0.8 dm -2 in Glidji and Sarakawa, respectively) than furthest away from the hedgerow (1.5-2 m) (0.8 and 0.4 dm -2 in Glidji and Sarakawa, respectively) (Figs. 2a and 2c). Below 80 cm no differences in number of roots > 2 mm were observed for the considered lateral distances. In Amoutchou, all soil layers contained more (P < 0.05) roots > 2 mm closest to the hedgerow (0-0.5m) (1.1 dm -2 in the 0-20 cm layer) than furthest away from the hedgerow (1.5-2 m) (0.3 dm -2 in the 0-20 cm layer) except the 20-40 cm layer (Fig. 2b). Generally, in Glidji and Sarakawa, more shallow (0-80 cm) soil layers contained more (P < 0.05) roots > 2 mm, while in Amoutchou, only the 0-20 cm layer contained more (P < 0.05) large roots than the layers below 20 cm. Below 80 cm, no differences in large root abundance were observed between soil layers.The root length density (RLD) of the 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm layers was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in Glidji (1.46 and 1.15 cm cm -3 in 0-10 and 10-20 cm layer, respectively) than in Amoutchou (0.50 and 0.22 cm cm -3 in 0-10 and 10-20 cm layer, respectively) (Fig. 3a). The 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm layers had a significantly (P < 0.05) higher RLD in Sarakawa than in Amoutchou. Differences in RLD between sites were not significant for layers below 30 cm (Fig. 3a). The 0-10 cm layer had a higher (P = 0.08) RLD under the tree than 1.5 m away from the tree (Fig. 3b). Deeper layers contained similar root length densities (RLD's) irrespective of the distance to the tree base (Fig. 3b). In Glidji, 2 soil cores (0-10 cm and 10-20 cm, both 0.5m away from the tree) in one of the profile pits contained very high RLD's (22.8 and 24.9 cm cm -3 , respectively), which were excluded from the statistical analysis, as mentioned previously.The root weight density (RWD) of the 0-10 cm was similar in all sites (0.64, 0.44, and 0.56 mg cm -3 in Glidji, Amoutchou, and Sarakawa, respectively) (Fig. 4a). The 10-20 cm layer had a significantly (P < 0.05) higher RWD in Glidji than in Amoutchou. Differences in RWD between sites were not significant for layers below 20 cm (Fig. 4a). The 0-10 cm layer had a higher (P = 0.09) RWD under the tree than 1.5 m away from the tree (Fig. 4b). Deeper layers contained similar root length densities (RWD's) irrespective of the distance to the tree base (Fig. 4b).At the soil surface, the taproot diameter was significantly (P < 0.05) larger in Glidji (215 mm) than in Amoutchou (91 mm) and in Sarakawa (77 mm) (Fig. 5). Between 10 and 50 cm, no significant differences in taproot diameter between sites were observed. Between 60 and 100 cm, the taproot diameter was significantly (P < 0.05) larger in Amoutchou than in Sarakawa (Fig. 5). For all sites, the taproot diameter decreased with soil depth, although differences between specific soil layers were not consistently significant (Fig. 5).For all sites, significant (P < 0.001) linear regressions were observed between RLD's, RWD's, and abundances of roots < 2 mm (Fig. 6). While the slopes of the regression lines relating RLD's with numbers of small roots were similar for all sites (Fig. 6a), the slope of the regression line relating RWD's with numbers of small roots was significantly higher for Amoutchou than for Glidji (Fig. 6b). The regression line relating RLD's with RWD's had a significantly higher slope for the Glidji data than for the data obtained on the other two sites (Fig. 6c).In Amoutchou, the relative RLD, calculated based upon the regression lines presented in Fig. 6a, appeared to be lower than in Glidji or Sarakawa for the top 40 cm of soil, while the inverse was observed for the layers between 50 and 100 cm deep (Fig. 7).The soil profile characteristics influenced root abundance in the different soil layers. Although none of the soil layers in the top 1 m showed severe chemical (Table 1) or physical (Tables 1 and 2) restrictions to root growth, the soil layers below 50 cm contained a relatively higher RLD in Amoutchou than in the two other sites, most likely because of their more sandy texture (Table 1) and lower bulk density (Table 2). The taproot diameter in the layers below 50 cm was also larger in Amoutchou than in Sarakawa. The presence of local accumulations of roots observed in the Glidji topsoil and local increases in root abundances in the subsoil (Fig. 1) indicates that roots are not homogeneously distributed within a certain soil layer, but follow trails with minimal resistance to root growth, such as macropores or soil cracks. Rowe et al. (1999) reported a large variation in recoveries of subsoil 15 N-labeled ammonium sulphate by Peltophorum dasyrrhachis and attributed this to large heterogeneity in root distributions.The larger values for root abundance in the topsoil in Glidji compared to Sarakawa was most likely caused by the more intense pruning regime, as the chemical and physical characteristics of the topsoil varied only little between the two sites (Tables 1 and 2). After all, in Glidji, the trees were pruned the first time already one year after planting and had been pruned 12 times prior to root quantification, while in Amoutchou and Sarakawa, the hedges grew for 4 years before their first pruning and had been pruned only 6 times before root quantification. Van Noordwijk and Purnomosidhi (1995) observed that a lower pruning height led to a larger number of superficial roots of smaller diameter on an Indonesian Ultisol. Schroth (1995) stated that shoot pruning of trees seemed to increase root branching in the topsoil and restrict tree roots to shallower soil depths compared with roots of unpruned trees. Although in Glidji also root length densities in the top 20 cm layer were much higher than in the two other sites, root weight densities were similar in all sites. This could be an indication that a more intensive pruning regime does not only lead to a larger number of superficial roots but also to roots with a smaller diameter. The necessity to prune the hedgerow trees in alley cropping systems during the cropping season results in a tree root system more comparable to the root system of an annual crop and, as such, reduces the potential of hedgerows to fulfill their hypothesized nutrient recovery potential. As regular pruning affects both the distribution of roots in the profile and their size, one could argue that screening of hedgerow trees for root competitiveness should be done on regularly-pruned trees and not on trees that are allowed to grow continuously.The root safety-net zone is usually equated with that part of the soil profile from where trees recover substantial amounts of nutrients, not accessible to the associated food crop. Cadisch et al. (1997) developed an index for quantifying the nutrient recovery efficiency of the root safety-net -the safety-net efficiency -defined as the ratio [tree N uptake from the safety-net layer]:[tree N uptake from the safetynet layer + N leached beneath the safety-net layer]. A high safety-net efficiency requires a minimal RLD to a certain depth, a minimal level of activity of the roots present in the soil layers considered, and a minimal demand by the tree for the nutrient considered. Assuming that during the major part of the maize growing season few maize roots are found below 60 cm (Vanlauwe et al., 2001b), Senna root safety-nets could be identified in Glidji and Sarakawa with a thickness of at least 140 cm and minimal RLD's of 0.2 and 0.1 cm cm -3 , respectively. In Amoutchou, a Senna root safety net could be identified with a thickness reaching the upper boundary of the ground water table and a minimal RLD of 0.1 cm cm -3 . The safety-net was also observed to cover the complete alley from hedgerow to hedgerow, as the distance to hedgerow had only an impact on RLD's for the 0-10 cm soil layer, maximally 50 cm away from the tree base. The minimal RLD's needed for maximal nutrient uptake depend on the anion, but the safety-net hypothesis is usually linked to the recovery of nitrate-N as this nutrient is very mobile. Van Noordwijk (1989) estimated the minimal RLD to be 0.1 cm cm -3 for nitrate recovery and 1 cm cm -3 for K recovery. Although based on the observed RLD's the trees growing in all sites have the potential to recover a substantial amount of mineral N from the subsoil, some important processes and tree management aspects may hamper the optimal functioning of the root safety-net. Firstly, mineral N dissolved in water flowing preferentially through macropores may bypass any recovery mechanisms of mineral N by the trees. Vanlauwe et al. (2001a) observed substantial amounts of urea-derived N in the 120-150 cm soil layer already at 21 days after urea application and attributed this to preferential flow through macropores. Although tree roots may equally prefer to grow through macropores, it is doubtful whether water moving down macropores can be sufficiently fast absorbed by tree roots growing through these macropores. Secondly, the presence of roots in the subsoil does not necessarily mean that they are actively retrieving nutrients from the soil solution, although Schroth (1995) stated that the presence of roots from competitive crops such as maize may restrict the lateral spread of tree roots and force them into the subsoil. Vanlauwe et al. (2001a) also observed a larger recovery of 15 N-labeled ammonium sulphate by the maize than by the Senna hedgerow in an alley cropping trial. Evidently, during the dry season, trees will rely mostly on their subsoil roots for nutrient and water uptake. Thirdly, pruning of the tree canopy at the start of the food crop growing season strongly restricts the demand of the hedgerow for nutrients and water at a time where nutrient availability may be high due to the application of prunings and/or fertilizer and due to the presence of relatively large amounts of mineral N after the first rains caused by the socalled 'Birch' effect.Although most of the soil layers in the Glidji profile contained a larger RLD than in the Sarakawa profile, especially in the top 20 cm, the average yearly pruning biomass productions was similar on both sites (9.2 and 9.7 t ha -1 in Glidji and Sarakawa, respectively - Tossah et al., 1999). The impact of a more dense root systems in Glidji is likely to be counteracted by the lower yearly precipitation, a lower top and subsoil fertility status (Table 1), and a higher competition with maize due to a relatively higher proliferation of tree roots in the same soil layers with maximal maize root densities. The very low yearly biomass production in Amoutchou (1.8 t ha -1 - Tossah et al., 1999) is likely caused by the very low soil fertility status of the complete profile and the temporarily high groundwater table which restricts nutrient uptake to the top 1 m during the rainy season.The highly significant relationships between RLD's and RWD's and their relatively high R² values indicate that both root characteristics are closely related, irrespective of sampling depth or distance to hedgerow tree. For similar RWD's, Senna roots in Glidji had a significantly higher RLD, which confirms that they had a smaller diameter in Glidji than in the other two sites, as discussed earlier.Although the linear regressions between RLD's or RWD's and the number of small roots counted on a profile wall were highly significant, these regressions explained less of the variation than regressions between RLD's and RWD's. This may not be surprising as the ratio [RLD in a three-dimensional volume]:[number of roots visible on a two-dimensional plane] depends on the spatial arrangement of the tree roots and varies with sample position, sample depth, and sampling time (Van Noordwijk, 1987). As the relationships between RLD and small root abundance are quite similar for all sites, these could be used to estimate RLD's from root counting data on a profile wall, provided the relationship between the various root characteristics is known for the species of interest.The sandy profile in Amoutchou resulted in a relatively higher proportion of RLD's in the subsoil and a larger tap root diameter compared to the Glidji and Sarakawa, of which the soil profile contained a clay accumulation horizon. The Senna roots contained more roots of a smaller diameter in Glidji than in Sarakawa, which was most likely the result of differences in tree management rather than soil profile characteristics.In Glidji and Sarakawa, root safety-nets with a thickness of at least 140 cm and a minimal RLD of 0.2 and 0.1 cm cm -3 , respectively, were present. In Amoutchou, the thickness was limited due to the presence of a temporarily high groundwater table. However, the presence of tree roots at a certain depth does not prove that they are active. Moreover, several processes and tree management practices were identified which may lead to significant bypasses of the safety-net.Close relationships were found between RLD's and RWD's indicating that RLD's could be estimated by a less tedious quantification of RWD's. Although the linear regressions between RLD's or RWD's and the number of small roots counted on a profile wall were highly significant, these regressions explained less of the variation than regressions between RLD's and RWD's. Fig. 1: Abundance of Senna siamea roots with a diameter < 2 mm in Glidji (a), Amoutchou (b), and Sarakawa (c) in Togo, West Africa, as influenced by soil depth and distance to the tree base. Values are averaged over the two halves of the two profile pits. Minimal and maximal standard errors of the differences between log(n+1)-transformed data are 0.044 and 0.062, 0.045 and 0.069, and 0.039 and 0.055, for Glidji, Amoutchou, and Sarakawa, respectively. Note that in Amoutchou no observations were taken below 100 cm. Fig. 2: Abundance of Senna siamea roots with a diameter > 2 mm in Glidji (a), Amoutchou (b), and Sarakawa (c) in Togo, West Africa, as influenced by soil depth and distance to the tree base. Values are averaged over the two halves of the two profile pits. Minimal and maximal standard errors of the differences between log(n+1)-transformed data are 0.020 and 0.028, 0.028 and 0.044, and 0.018 and 0.026, for Glidji, Amoutchou, and Sarakawa, respectively. Note that in Amoutchou no observations were taken below 100 cm. Minimal and maximal standard errors of the differences between log-transformed data are 0.17 and 0.25 for Fig. 3a and 0.15 and 0.23 for Fig. 3b. The interaction between site, soil depth, and distance to tree base was not significant. Note that in Amoutchou no observations were taken below 100 cm. Minimal and maximal standard errors of the differences between log-transformed data are 0.27 and 0.37 for Fig. 4a and 0.23 and 0.33 for Fig. 4b. The interaction between site, soil depth, and distance to tree base was not significant. In Amoutchou, a hardpan prevented to measure the taproot diameter below 100 cm. The different sites were analyzed together. The standard error of the difference between log-transformed data to compare sites at similar depths is 0.22 and to compare depths at similar sites is 0.13.  Glidji Amoutchou SarakawaIn many areas of Zimbabwe, farmers store manure for up to three months for use on field crops especially maize and finger millet. There are several manure storage techniques used, the predominant being heaping (Nzuma, Murwira and Mpepereki, 1998). Storing in pits (anaerobic composting) is a recent innovation that some farmers have tested (Nzuma and Murwira, 2000). This study assessed the profitability of pit and heap stored manure on maize production over a three-year period.The study was based on trials at Nhapi, Musegedi and Manyani in the Murewa Communal area from 1997/98 to 1999/2000. Manure which had been stored in pits and in heaps was applied at a rate equivalent to 100 kgNha -1 in the first season only. No manure was applied to control plots. Ammonium nitrate fertiliser was applied at 100 kgha -1 as top dressing yearly to all crops. Maize yield was measured over the three years. Grain price for the three seasons was obtained from the Grain Marketing Board and details of variable inputs were collected from Zimbabwe Farmers Union and the Department of Agricultural and Technical Extension Services.Information on the labour involved in heap and pit storage was obtained from thirty households which owned cattle. This covered digging and heaping manure and transporting it to the field, the labour and cost of digging a pit, digging manure in the kraal, putting in a pit, covering it and taking manure out of a pit and carrying to the field. Gross margin analysis, Net Present Value (NPV) and Student T-distribution were used. The gross margin was the difference between gross income and total variable costs whilst NPV was calculated as the present worth of benefits less the present worth of costs (Gittinger, 1982).The costs and benefits were discounted to reflect future values at 70%, this social discount needs to be high because the satisfaction of immediate needs is more urgent for most rural folk than the assurance of longer term benefits and also rainfall is unpredictable (Markandya and Pearce, 1991). Labour costs were deflated using annual inflation rates of respective years from 1998 to 2000 which were 37.2, 58.5 and 55.7 respectively (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, 2001). The corrected costs are included in the gross margin budget of these storage techniques during the year of manure application. Costs are in Z$ and a US$1 is equivalent to Z$55 as at August 2000.Of the 30 households interviewed, two families used pits only, four families used heaps only and 24 practised both. The mean number of days and costs of manure storage techniques are in table 1. Heaping required 1.0 to 9.0 days and pitting 2.5 to 11.0 days with means of 3.89 and 4.93 respectively. However, 219 there was no significant difference between these means ( 03 . 1 = − x , t = 1.759 and p= 0.084). Deflated costs of storage were used in the T-test. The cost of heaping varied from $18 to $231 and pitting ranged from $15 to $658 with means $87 and $133 respectively. Again, there was no significant difference between these costs ( 00 . 46 = − x ,t = 1.628, p = 0.110). In the year of manure application, pit stored manure had the largest gross margin ($2 184) and it was the only viable system (Table 1). Heaping (-$330) and the control (-$1363) both had negative gross margins which mean that they are unviable in this period. The adjusted yield from pit-stored manure was 5290 kgha -1 while heaping had 2600 kgha -1 (Figure 1).In a laboratory analysis by Nzuma and Murwira (2000), pit stored manure had a higher N content (2.51% N) compared with 1.12% N for heaped manure at the time of manure application. This resulted in rapid nutrient release from pitted manure during the season hence higher yields. Therefore, manure quality affects profitability by dictating yield level. Heaping produces aerobically decomposed manure which has few nutrients available during the year of application. This would cause higher yield with pits in the first season.Total costs, benefit streams and net incremental benefits are in Table 2. The profits realised from use of heaped manure increased over the three years while those from pit manure fell. Despite this, Mugwira and Mukurumbira (1986) found that with cattle manure yields are often higher with the second crop compared with the first. Total profit and yield of pit stored manure were greater than heaping because poor quality manure produced by heaping has a more pronounced residual effect than pitted manure. Costs of pit storage were higher ($9223) than for heap storage ($8809). The farmers' profits are not necessarily affected by the residual effect of cattle manure. Because of the residual effect, profits were expected to be greater for heaped manure than for pit stored but discounting of future benefits and costs offset this.Pit storage of manure is more profitable for maize than heaping in the year of application and over three-years even though yearly profits and yields decreased. Heaping had a more pronounced residual effect in the second and third seasons.  Food legumes remained to be important components of various farming systems of Eastern Africa, while the attempt to integrate fodder legumes and legume cover crops (LCCs) since 1930s became unsuccessful. Farmers remained reluctant to integrate fodder legumes and LCCs, despite recognising their benefits as soil fertility restorers and high value feeds, mainly due to community/farmer specific socioeconomic factors. Farmers' participatory research was conducted in Ethiopian Highlands to understand the processes of integration of legumes of different use into mixed subsistent farming systems. Areka had an altitude of 1990 masl, and rainfall amount of 1300mm, which is characterised by poor access to resources, intensive cropping, land shortage and soil degradation. Firstly participatory evaluation was conducted on the agronomic performance and adaptability of eight legumes during the main and small growing seasons of 2000 and 2001. The treatments were Vetch, Stylosanthus, Crotalaria, Mucuna, Canavalia, Tephrosia, Field pea and Common bean. Following the agronomic evaluation, the perception of farmers to legumes of different use, the socio-economic factors dictating choices and adoption, and potential niches for legume integration into the cropping systems were considered. Dry matter production among legumes was significant regardless of the length of growing period. For short term fallows, 3 months or less, Crotalaria gave significantly higher biomass yield (4.2 t ha -1 ) followed by Vetch and Mucuna (2 t ha -1 ), while for medium-term fallow, 6 months, Tephrosia was best performing species (13.5 t ha -1 ) followed by Crotalaria (8.5 t ha -1 ). The selection criterion of farmers was far beyond biomass production. Farmers identified firm root system, early soil cover, biomass yield, decomposition rate, soil moisture conservation, drought resistance and feed value as important criteria. There was significant difference in soil moisture conservation among LCCs, and decreased in order of Mucuna (22.8%), Vetch (20.8 %), Stylosanthus (20.2 %), bare soil (17.1 %), Crotalaria (14 %), Canavalia (14 %) and Tephrosia (11.9 %), respectively. The overall sum of farmers' criteria showed that Mucuna followed by Crotalaria could be the most fitting species, but farmers finally decided for Vetch, the low yielder, due to its fast growth and high feed value because of their priority to livestock feed than soil fertility. The final decision of farmers for integrating a non-food legume into their temporal & spatial niches of the system depended on land productivity, farm size, land ownership, access to market and need for livestock feed. The potential adopters of LCCs and forage legumes were less than 7%, while 91% of the farmers integrated the new cultivars of the food legumes. After characterising the farming systems of other benchmark sites, those indicators were used for development of decision guides to be used for integration of legumes into multiple cropping systems of East African Highlands.Food legumes remained to be important components of various farming systems of Eastern Africa as they are the sole protein sources for animals and humans. Besides restoring soil fertility, legumes are grown in rotation with cereals mainly because they accompany the stable cereals in the local dishes. On the other hand, the attempt to integrate fodder legumes and legume cover crops (LCCs) since 1930s became unsuccessful. Farmers remained reluctant to integrate fodder legumes and LCCs, despite recognising their benefits as soil fertility restorers and high value feeds, mainly due to community/farmer specific socio-economic factors. However, as farmers export both grain and stover from the field, the amount of legume residue left to the soil is too small to have a profound effect on restoration of soil fertility.Degradation of arable lands became the major constraint of production the Ethiopian Highlands, due mainly to nutrient loss resulting from soil erosion, lack of soil fertility restoring resources, and unbalanced nutrient mining (Amede et al., 2001). However, most farmers in the region have very low financial resources to combat nutrient depletion, and hence research should be directed to seek affordable and least risky, but profitable amendments necessary to keep nutrient balance neutral (Versteeg et al., 1998). In 1999 and 2000, researchers of the African Highlands Initiative (AHI) conducted farmers participatory research on maize varieties on a degraded arable land in Southern Ethiopia, Areka, by applying inorganic fertilisers. Although the soil is an Eutric Nitisol deficit in nitrogen phosphorus (Waigel, 1986), high level application of inorganic N and P did not improve maize yield. Lack of response to inorganic fertilisers because of low soil organic matter content was also reported elsewhere (Swift and Woomer, 1993). Organic inputs could increase the total amount of nutrients added, and also influence availability of nutrients (Palm et al., 1997). However, more than 50% of the organic resource available in the region is maize stalk, of which 80% is used as a fuel wood (Amede et al., 2001). The strong competition for crop residues between livestock feed, soil fertility and fuel wood in the area limits the use of organic ferilizers unless a suitable strategy that builds the organic resource capital is designed. Fallowing for restoration of soil fertility is no more practised in the region due to extreme land shortage.One strategy could be systematic integration of legume cover crops into the farming system. Organic inputs from legumes could increase crop yield through improved nutrient supply/availability and/or improved soil-water holding capacity. Moreover, legumes offer other benefits such as providing cover to reduce soil erosion, maintenance & improvement of soil physical properties, increasing soil organic matter, cation exchange capacity, microbial activity and reduction of soil temperature (Tarwali et al., 1987;Abayomi et al., 2001) and weed suppression (Versteeg et al., 1998). There are several studies in Africa that showed positive effects of Legume Cover Crops (LCCs) on subsequent crops (Abayomi et al., 2001;Fishler & Wortmann, 1999;Gachene et al., 1999;Wortmann et al., 1994). Studies in Uganda with Crotalaria (Wortmann, et al., 1994;Fishler and Wortmann, 1999), and in Benin with Mucuna (Versteeg et al., 1998) showed that maize grown following LCCs produced significantly higher yield than those without green manure. The positive effect was due to high N& P benefits and nutrient pumping ability of legumes from deeper horizons. However, the success rate in achieving effective adoption of LCCs and forage legumes in Sub-saharan Africa has been low (Thomas and Sumberg, 1995) since farmers prefer food legumes over forage or/legume cover crops in that the opportunity cost is so high to allocate part of the resources of food legumes to LCC. Therefore, there is a need to develop an effective guideline that targets different legume types in different niches of different agro-ecologies and socio-economic strata.The objective of this paper was, therefore a) to analyse the distribution of legumes in the perennial-based (Enset-based) systems, b) test the performance of legumes under short term and medium term periods, c) identify the potential causes of non-adoption of LCC, and d) develop preliminary decision guides that could be used to integrate LCC in small scale farms with various socio-economic settings.The research was conducted at the Gununo site (Areka), Southern Ethiopian Highlands. It is situated on 37 o 39' E and 6 o 51' N, at an altitude range between 1880 and 1960 m.a.s.l The topography of the area is characterised by undulating slopes divided by v-shaped valleys of seasonal and intermittent streams, surrounded by steep slopes.The mean annual rainfall and temperature is about 1350 mm and 19.5 o C, respectively, with relatively low variability, in terms of amount of precepitation, over the years. The rainfall is unimodal with extended growing periods from March to the end of October, with short dry spell in June. The highest rainfall is experienced during the months of July and August and caused soil loss of 27 to 48 t ha -1 ( SCRP, 1996). The dominant soils in the study area are Eutric Nitisols, very deep (>130 m), acidic in nature. These soils originated from kaolinitic minerals which are inherently low in nitrogen and phosphorus (Waigel, 1986). Soil fertility gradient decreases from homestead to the outfield due to management effects.The research site has relatively very high human population density with an average land holding of 0.5 ha household -1. Using LCCs for soil fertility purposes is not a common practise in the area. LCCs were introduced into the system in 2000 following a farmers field school (FFS) approach so as to allow farmers to learn and appreciate various legumes uncommon to the area. The farmers research group (FRG) was mainly composed of mainly men, despite the repeated temptation of researchers to include women. The legumes were planted in two planting dates. The on-farm experiments, used simultaneously for FFS and also for evaluation of biomass productivity and after effect of legumes on the following maize crop, were planted on April 25, 2000 and July 1, 2000 and harvested on October 6, 2000 and January 6, 2001, respectively, using recommended seed rates. The interest of the farmers was to evaluate the effect of planting dates and length of fallow period on biomass productivity of respected species, and to identify the best fitting legumes for a short-term fallow (three months) or medium term (six months) fallow. Longterm fallow became impractical due to land scarcity. Thirty interested farmers, who were organised under one farmers research group (FRG), have studied six different species namely, Stylosanthus (Stylosanthus guianensis), Crotalaria (Crotalaria ochroleuca), Mucuna (Mucuna pruriens), Tephrosia (Tephrosia vogelii), Vetch (Vicia dasycarpa) and Canavalia (Canavalia ensiformis). All LCC were exotic species to the system except Stylosanthus. We also included two food legumes, namely common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and Pea (Pisum sativum), in the study that were existing in the farming system. The FRG studied and monitored growth and biomass productivity in short and long seasons of 2000. The researchers were involved mainly in facilitation of continual visits and stimulation of discussions among farmers. Farmers and researchers were recording their own data independently. After intensive discussion, the FRG identified six major criteria to propose one or the other legume to be integrated into the system. Since farmers considered soil water conservation as one important criterion for selecting LCCs, soil water content was determined under the canopy of each species at top 25-cm depth gravimetrically. Sampling was done in relatively dry weeks of November 2000, five months after planting. We considered four samples per plot, weighed immediately after sampling, oven dried the samples with 120 o C for a week before taking dry weight. Legume ground cover was determined using the beaded string method, knotted at 10-cm interval and laid across the diagonals of each plot, 12 weeks after planting. A supplemantary replicated on-farm experiment (a plot size of 12 m 2 , three replications) was conductedto evaluate biomass production of LCCs under partially controlled replicated experiment to verify earlier obtained results. It was also meant to identify the most promising species for short term fallow, as farmers were reluctant to allocate land for LCCs beyond three months. The species were planted on October 12, 2001 and harvested on January 10, 2002. The legumes received phosphorus at a rate of 30 kg/ha P 2 O 5 at planting. After four months of vegetative growth, the green biomass of the legumes was weighed and incorporated directly to the soil. Maize (var A511) was planted about one month after incorporation on all plots. Three additional nitrogen treatments were included namely, 0 N, 30 N and 60 N per hectare to draw a nitrogen equivalent curve.In August 2002, after farmers monitored the introduced legumes, 26 farmers from four villages selected species of their choice LCC and tested them in their farms together with a food legume, Pea. During the growing seasons of 2000 and 2001, we monitored which farmer selected what, how did they manage the LCCs in comparison to the food legume and for what purpose the legumes were used. Biomass production of the various legumes under farmers' management was also recorded. Besides structured questionnaire and formal survey (Pretty et al., 1995), an informal repeated on-field discussion using transect walks were used to identify the socio-economic factors that dictated farmers to choose one or the other option and to prioritise the most important criteria of decision making using pair wise analysis matrix. More over, farmers invited non-participating neighbouring farmers for discussion; hence the decision made is expected to represent the community.The tested species were those most favoured by farmers for further integration namely Crotalaria (Crotalaria ochroleuca), Mucuna (Mucuna pruriens), Tephrosia (Tephrosia vogelii), Vetch (Vicia dasycarpa) and Canavalia (Canavalia ensiformis) replicated three times arranged in a randomised block design. The plot size was 12 m2, with one-meter gangway between treatments. The field was weed free through out the season by hand weeding. In all cases, phosphorus was applied at a rate of 13-Kg ha-1 to facilitate growth and productivity. Data on biomass production of the species was analysed by ANOVA using statistical packages (Jandel Scientific, 1998).Using the qualitative and quantitative data obtained from the site, and by considering the hierarchy of indicators identified by farmers, we developed draft decision guides on the integration of legumes into the farming systems of the Ethiopian Highlands.The major land use systems in the community include homestead farms, which are characterised by soils with high organic matter content due to continuos application of organic residue. These soils are dark brown to black in colour mainly due to high organic matter content. This part of the farm was used to grow the most important crops such as enset (Enset ventricosum), coffee, vegetables, planting materials for sweet potato and raise tree seedlings are grown. In the system only about 3% of the homestead are occupied by legumes intercropped under the enset/ coffee plants (data not presented). Farmers are not applying inorganic fertiliser in this part of the farm. The homestead field is followed by the main field, which is characterised by red soils. Red soils are considered by the farmers as less fertile due to limited application of organic inputs, hence require application of inorganic fertiliser to get a reasonable amount of yield. In this part of the farm, farmers grow maize in association with taro, beans and sweet potato. This is also where legumes are growing most. The outfield is the most depleted and commonly allocated for growing maize or potato using inorganic fertlizers. This plot does not receive any organic manure, legumes are rarely planted and the crop residue is even exported for different purposes. Farmers do not practice intercropping in this part of the land. Although legumes are major components of the system, the primary objective of the farmers is production of food grains as sources of protein followed by feed production as a secondary product, but not soil fertility. That is also partly the reason why the amount of land allocated for legumes decreases with distance from the homestead (decreasing soil fertility).The rainfall distribution was favorable and there was no extended dry spell within the growing season of 2000 and 2001. For the medium-term fallow, Tephrosia produced the highest dry matter biomass yield, 13.5 t ha -1 followed by Crotalaria, 9 t ha -1 . In the three months growing period, the herbaceous legumes varied in biomass productivity significantly. Crotalaria and vetch were fast growing and also early maturing than the others. On the other hand, tephrosia was growing relatively slow at the initial stage of growth, which is reflected in the biomass accumulation. Accordingly, the biomass yield of crotalaria was significantly higher than the other legumes, while the biomass of tephrosia was much lower than all the others (Fig. 1). A similar experimental result was also obtained in the previous seasons on onfarm trials. Most of the biomass accumulation in Tephrosia was observed four months after planting. For the shortterm fallow, Crotalaria was the best performing species followed by Mucuna and Vetch. On individual farmer's field, Crotalaria was the best performing species regardless of soil fertility. Similar results were reported from Uganda (Wortmann et al., 1994). On the other hand, vetch and mucuna were performing best in fertile corners of the farms. This did not agree with the findings of Versteeg et al., (1998), which indicated that mucuna performed better than other green manures (including crotalaria) to recover completely degraded soils. When those species were planted in the driest part of the season, crotalaria and mucuna performed best and produced up to 2.9 t ha -1 dry matter with in three months of time (data not presented). Besides dry matter yield, we measured soil water content under the canopies of LCCs. The data showed that, the highest soil water content was obtained from mucuna and stylosanthus, which could be due to the self-mulching (Table 2). The ground cover (%) was the highest for Mucuna (100 %), and the lowest for vetch (60%). A similar result was obtained for mucuna in western Nigeria (Abayomi et al., 2001). Higher soil water content under mucuna &, stylosanthus implies that these species could improve soil water availability through reduction of evaporative loss if grown in combination with food crops.The result showed that maize grown after legumes produced significantly higher grain yield than the check (maize grown with out nitrogen fertiliser) and gave a maize yield at least equivalent to 30 kg of N/ha regardless of the legume species (Fig 1). The yield obtained from the plots of vetch, canavalia and mucuna was almost similar, while the yield obtained from crotalaria and tephrosia plots was significantly lower than that of the other species. Although the biomass of crotalaria incorporated to the soil was much higher than the others, the effect was not evident on maize yield. This could be explained by the fact that crotalaria had very high lignin content than the others at the time of harvesting and incorporation, which possibly affected the processes of decomposition and nutrient release.By considering the type of produce the farmers grow in the neighbouring field of equal size, which was sweet potato, and calcultating the costs and benefits of the LCCs and neighboring field, we found out that the opportunity cost of growing LCCs was much higher than anticipated. The maize yield gain obtained after growing LCCs in a short season should be more than two folds for the farmer to consider growing LCCs as potentially profitable interventions. Farmers evaluated the performance of LCCs in the fields individually or in groups through repeated visits. The selection criteria of farmers were beyond biomass production (Table 1). After intensive discussion among them selves, the FRG agreed on seven types of biophysical criteria to be considered for selection of LCCs (Table 1). However, the criteria of choice had different weights for farmers of different socio-economic category. None of the farmers mentioned labour demand as an important criterion. They considered firm root system (based on the strength of the plant during uprooting), rate of decomposition (the strength of the stalk and or the leaf to be broken), moisture conservation (moistness of the soil under the canopy of each species), drought resistance (wilting or nonwilting trends of the leaf during warm days), feed value (livestock preference), biomass production (the combination of early aggressive growth and dry matter production) and early soil cover. For resource poor farmers (who commonly did not own animal or own few) food legumes were the best choices. For farmers who own sloppy lands with erosion problems mucuna and canavalia were considered to be the best: Mucuna for its mulching behaviour and canavalia for its firm root system that reduced the risk of rill erosion. Farmers with exhausted land selected crotalaria, as all the other legumes were not growing well in the degraded corners of their farms. On the other hand, farmers with livestock selected legumes with feed value and fast growth (Vetch and Stylosanths). In general, Vetch was the most favoured legume despite low dry matter production, as it produced a considerable amount of dry matter within a short period of time to be used for livestock feed. It was also easy to incorporate into the soil and found it to be easily decomposable. The over all sum of farmers' ranking, however, showed that mucuna followed by crotalaria are the best candidates for the current farming system of Areka. Since Mucuna is aggressive in competition when grown in combination with other crops (Versteeg et al., 1998) it could be used to increase soil fertility in well established Enset/Coffee fields, while Crotalaria and Canavaia could be used to ameliorate exhausted outfields. Canavalia is found to be best fitting as an intercrop under maize as it has deep root system and did not hang on the stocks of the companion crop (personal observation). The herbaceous LCCs are reported to be of high quality organic resources (Gachene, et al., 1999) to be used as organic fertilisers directly to improve the grain yield of subsequent crops (Caamal-Meldonado et al., 2001;Abayomi et al., 2001). After thorough monitoring about the productivity and growth behavior of LCCs in the experimental plots, 26 farmers have tested various LCCs in their own farm. They tried mainly Canavalia, Crotalaria, Mucuna, Stylosanthus and Vetch. We documented that farmers selected the most degraded corners of the farm for growing LCCs and the fertile corners of their land for growing Pea (Table 2). About 50% of the trial farmers allocated depleted lands (degraded and abandoned) for the LCC. Further discussion with farmers revealed that they took this type of decision partly due to fear of risk, and partly not to occupy land that could be used for growing food crops. From the total respondents, 86.6% of the farmers knew about the role of green manures as soil fertility restorers (Fig. 2). However only 63% of them tested LCCs and of those who tested the green manures only 21 % responded LCCs were effective in improving the fertility status of the soil. About 79% believed that LCCs may not feet into their system mainly because they did not emerge well, or showed poor performance under depleted soils or are competing with food legumes for resources (labour, water and land) (Fig. 2). This was manifested by the fact that almost all of the farmers planted LCCs on the degraded corners of their farm ( Results from informal interviews followed by structured questioner showed that there are 21 different factors that affect the integration of legumes of different purposes. When farmers were asked to prioritise the most important factors that affect adoption and integration of legumes, farmers mentioned a) farm size b) suitability of the species for intecropping with food legumes c) productivity of their land d) suitability for livestock feed e) marketability of the product f) toxicity of the pod to children and animals g) who manages the farm (self or share cropping) h) length of time needed to grow the species and I) risk associated with growing LCCs in terms of introduction of pests and diseases. Earlier works suggested that farm size and land ownership effect integration of LCCs into small holder farms (Wortmann & Kirungu, 1999). After comparing those factors in a pair wise analysis, four major indicators of different hierarchy were identified (data not presented).1) Degree of land productivity: Farmers in Gununo associated land productivity mainly with the fertility status of the soil and distance of the plot from the homestead. The homestead field is commonly fertile due to continual supply of organic resources. Farmers did not apply inorganic fertiliser in this part of the farm. They remained reluctant to allocate a portion of this land to grow LCCs for biomass transfer or otherwise, but they grow food legumes, mainly beans, as intercrops in the coffee and enset fields. The potential niche that farmers were willing to allocate for LCCs is the most out field.2) Farm size: Despite very high interest of farmers to get alternative sources to inorganic fertilisers the probability that farmers may allocate land for growing LCCs depended on the size of their land holdings. For Areka conditions, a farm size of 0.75 ha is considered as large. Farmers with very small land holdings did not grow legumes as sole crops, but integrate as intercrops or relay crops. Therefore, the potential niches for LCCs are partly occupied unless their farm is highly depleted.3) Ownership of the farm: Whether a legume (mainly LCCs) could be grown by farmers or not depended on the authority of the person to decide on the existing land resources, which is linked to land ownership. Those farmers who did not have enough farm inputs (seed, fertilizer, labour and/or oxen) are obliged to give their land for share cropping. In this type of arrangement, the probability of growing LCCs on that farm is minimal. Instead, farmers who contracted the land preferred to grow high yielding cereals (maize & wheat) or root crops (sweet potato). As share cropping is an exhaustive profit-making arrangement, the chance of growing LCCs in such type of contracts was almost nil. Without ownership or security of tenure, farmers are unlikely to invest in new soil fertility amendment technology (Thomas and Sumberg, 1995) 4) Livestock feed: In mixed farming systems of Ethiopia livestock is a very important enterprise.Farmers select crop species/ varieties not only based on grain yield but also straw yield. Similarly legumes with multiple use were more favoured by the community than those legumes that were appropriate solely for green manure purposes.Above mentioned socio-economic criteria of farmers together with the productivity data from the field were used to develop decision guides to help farmers in selecting legumes to be incorporated into their land use systems as presented in Fig. 3. As mentioned above, farmers considered the degree of land productivity as the most important factor (placed at the highest hierarchy) for possible integration of legumes. Farmers who own degraded arable lands were willing to integrate more LCCs while those who own productive lands of large size wanted to grow food legumes with additional feed values. However, all farmers decided to have food legumes in their system regardless of farm size or land productivity. Beans and Pea are already in the system and farmers already found niches to grow them as they are also parts of the local dish. From the LCCs, farmers favoured vetch as mentioned above. Those farmers who wanted soil improving LCCs selected croletaria, as they found it better performing even under extremely degraded farms. However, about 45% the farmers with degraded arable lands are not willing to integrate LCCs, either because they did not manage their own farm, and practice share cropping /contract or have limited options of household income.In general, given very high population pressure and associated severe land shortage, farmers in Areka may not allocate full season for LCC, but preferred fast growing LCCs for short term fallow. The probability of integrating LCCs into the system became even less when the land is relatively fertile. As the homestead fields are relatively fertile and used for intercropping/relay cropping purposes, growing LCC on that part of the land may not be the choice of farmers. On the other hand, farmers with large farm size and high degree of land degradation may go for selected LCCs. The potential niche available in the system would be the least fertile most-out field where intercropping is not practised. The most out field is commonly occupied by potato in rotation with maize with relatively less vegetative cover over the years .The length of the growing period together with the amount and distribution of the rainfall dictates whether the system may allow growing legumes intercroped with maize, intercroped with perennials, or relay cropped with maize or sweet potato. In regions, where the growing season is extended up to eight months, and where the outfield became depleted to sustain crop production, LCCs that could grow under poor soil fertility conditions in drought-prone months would be appreciated. Indeed, crotalaria performed very well under such conditions.We are presenting three guidelines for integration of legumes into the farming systems of multiple cropping, perennial-based systems. The decision trees were developed based on the following back ground information from the site. 1) Farmers preferred food legumes over non-food legumes regardless of soil fertility status of their farm 2) The above ground biomass of grain legumes (grain & stover) is exported to the homestead for feed and food while the below ground biomass of grain legumes is small to effect soil fertility. The probability of the manure to be returned to the same plot is less as farmers prefer to apply manure to the perennial crops (Enset & Coffee) growing in the home stead.3) The tested legumes may fix nitrogen to fulfil their partial demand (we have observed nodules in all although we did not quantify N-fixation), but in conditions where the biomass is exported, like vetch for feed, most of the nutrient stock would be exported. Therefore, we did not expect significant effect on soil fertility. 4) LCCs produced much higher biomass when planted as relay crops in the middle of the growing season than when planted at the end of the growing season as short-term fallows due to possible effects of end-of season drought.5) The homestead field is much more fertile than the outfield; hence those legumes sensitive to water and nutrients will do better in the homestead than in the outfield. Fig. 3 Guideline for integration food, feed legumes and legume cover crops in small-scale farms.The first guide (Fig 2) is intended to assist researchers to get feed back information about technologies that were accepted or rejected by the farmers or farmer research groups. This guide will assist researchers not only to identify the major reasons for the technology to be accepted or rejected, but also to prioritise the reasons of resistance by farmers not to adopt the technology. This type of feed back will help to modify/improve the technology through consultative research to make technologies compatible to the socio-economic conditions of the community.The second guide (Fig 3) integrated both biophysical and socioeconomic indicators. The most important criteria at the lowest level is the presence or absence of livestock in the household followed by who manages the farm, market access, the size of the land holding and the land quality. The factor that dictates the decision at the highest level was land productivity, which was governed mainly by soil fertility status. Growing food legumes was the priority of every farmer regardless of wealth (land size, land quality & number of livestock). Farmers with livestock integrated feed crops regardless of land size, land productivity and market access to products. However, the size and quality of land allocated for growing feed legumes depended on market access to livestock products (milk, butter and meat). Those farmers with good market access are expected to invest part of their income on external inputs, i.e. inorganic fertilisers. Hence farmers of this category did not allocate much land for growing LCCs, but applied inorganic fertilisers. In the homestead field, there was no land allocated for LCCs in the system, not only because farmers gave priority to food legumes, but it also became very expensive for farmers to allocate the fertile plot of the farm for growing LCCs. The most clear spatial niche for growing LCCs is the most out field, especially in poor farmers' field with exhausted land and limited market-driven farm products. Because the land of most poor house holds was on the verge of being out of production due to the iniquitous nature of land management practices through years long share cropping arrangements.Land resource degradation is one of the major threats to food security and natural resource base in Ethiopia. Hundreds of years of exploitve traditional land use, aggravated by high human and livestock population density have led to the extraction of the natural capital, which caused the farming of uncultivable sloppy lands and overexploitation of slowly renewable resources. The outcome is that half of the highlands are eroded, of which 15% are so seriously degraded that it will be difficult to reverse them to be agriculturally productive in the near future. In the mountainous highlands, there is a direct link between land-based resources and rural livelihoods. Decline in soil fertility as a result of land degradation decreases crop/livestock productivity and hence household income. Depleted soils commonly reduce payoffs to agricultural investments, as they rarely respond to external inputs, such as mineral fertilizers, and hence reduce the efficiency and return of fertilizer use. Degraded soils have also very poor water holding capacity partly because of low soil organic matter content that in turn reduce the fertilizer use efficiency. There have been various attempts to reduce land degradation in Ethiopia since the 1970s, through national campaigns on construction of terraces, project afforstation programmes and policy interventions. The objective of this paper is to review the various research/development experiences on integrated soil fertility management and synthesize the positive experiences augumented by the experiences of the African highlands initiative on integrated land management in Ethiopian Highlands. The paper will also suggest an outline that could be used by farmers, researchers and policy makers to reverse the alarming trend of land degradation in the mountainous highlands.This work has consulted the available literature on land degradation and soil fertility management in Ethiopian highlands. While TSBF-CIAT/AHI has been working closely with the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organisation (EARO) and the Buro of Agriculture, and conducting participatory research in two benchmark sites of the Ethiopian highlands on INRM issues, it became apparent that land degradation is the most fundamental threat for the Ethiopian Agriculture. Based on the systems intensification work that we have been conducting in the two benchmark sites of African highlands initiative, Areka and Ginchi, augmented by secondary data on relevant themes, the following approach was suggested to address land degradation in the country.There are multiple factors that cause land degradation at short and long terms in the region. In Sub Saharan Africa, the major bio-physical agents of land degradation are water erosion, wind erosion and chemical degradation that affected soil loss by 47, 36 and 12%, respectively. Given the mountainous and sloppy landscapes, the major environmental factor that causes considerable soil and nutrient loss within a short period of time is water erosion followed by wind erosion. Most of the Wollo and Shewa highlands became erosion-prone due to high rainfall intensity accompanied by very steeply farmlands. Recent surveys showed that erosion effect is severe in high rainfall areas predominantly covered by nitisols and vertisols. In about 40% of the highlands, the erosion effect was so severe that active erosion was transformed to passive erosion, and hence there are rarely visible signs of sheet or rill erosion, but gullies and land slides. The hazards of erosion in the region was accelerated by socio-economic factors, namely absence of land ownership rights that discourage long term investments, population pressure, lack of alternative income generating options, and weak social capital that failed to protect communal grazing lands, up-slope forest covers and water resources.Although the degree of soil erosion is highly related to the interaction of Wischmeier factors, the type of land use and management may have played an important role in the Ethiopian highlands. The contribution of different management factors towards land degradation in Africa is estimated to be 49%, 24%, 14%, 13% and 2% for overgrazing, agricultural activities, deforestation, overexploitation and industrial activities (Vanlauwe et al, 2002). The livestock sector is a very important component of the system both as an economic buffer in times of crop failure and economic crisis and as a supportive enterprise for crop production. There is a considerable concern, however, that the number of animals per household in Ethiopian highlands is much higher than the carrying capacity of land resources. Overgrazing due to very high livestock population density in the Amhara region is expected to contribute most to land degradation. For instance, the total annual feed available in the highlands is estimated to be about 9.1 million tones of biomass while the demand is about 21 million tones, double that of the carrying capacity of the land (Betru, 2002). Another very important factor that aggravated land degradation in the Ethiopian highlands is deforestation. The forest cover went down from 40% at the beginning of this century to less than 3% at present, due to ever-growing demand for wood products and very low commitment in planting trees mainly because of the prevailing nationalization of private woodlots in the 1970s and 1980s. Besides, a very high consumption of wood for fuel and housing, wood products, mainly charcoal, became a major cash generating activities in the country in recent years. Deforestation and overgrazing accelerated land degradation in many ways. Firstly a land without vegetative cover is easily susceptible to erosion, both wind and water, and hence causes a considerable nutrient movement. Secondly, a large amount of litter that could have contributed for maintaining soil organic matter and nutrient status is considerably reduced. Thirdly deforestation in the highlands caused lack of fuel wood, and hence farmers use manure and crop residue as cooking fuel, which otherwise could have been used for soil fertility replenishment.Over-mining of land resources with out returning the basic nutrients to the soil is also an important factor that contributed most for soil fertility decline in the region. For instance, barley is the single dominant crop in the upper highlands of Wollo. The system has very low crop diversity with legume component of less than 3%. The system receives external inputs very rarely with a fertilizer rate of less than 5 kg/ha (Quinones et al., 1997), and the practice of applying this limited amount of mineral fertilizer is a recent practice. Data from the region on the amount of nutrients returned to the soil in comparison to the nutrients lost through removal of crop harvest showed that only 18, 60 and 7 % of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is returned to the soil, respectively (Sanchez et al., 1997). Hence there is an over mining of nutrients from the same rhizosphere for years and years.Another cause of land degradation is lack of early awareness about land degradation by farmers, which is partly associated with the rural poverty. McDonagh, et al., (2001) reported that when farmers were asked to describe their indicators of soil erosion they stated gully/rill formation, exposed underground rocks, land slides, wash away of crops, shallowing of soils and siltation of the soil. Similarly farmers indicators of soil fertility decline include stunted crops, yellowing of crops, weed infestation, and change of soil color to red or grey. These are soil traits that appear in a much later stage of soil degradation, after the soil organic matter and nutrients of the soil are removed. If farmers respond to soil erosion at this stage, the probability of reversing the fertility status to its earlier value would be difficult.Application of small amounts of mineral fertilizer alone, as it has been practiced on the 0.5 ha demonstration plots by FAO and the ministry of Agriculture for years, did not improve crop productivity much. The failure of this mono-technology approach calls for an integrated nutrient management that suits local biophysical, social and economic realities. Integrated nutrient management technologies can be nutrient saving, such as in controlling erosion and recycling of crop residues, manure and other biomass, or nutrient adding, such as in applying mineral fertilizers and importing feed stuffs for livestock (Smaling and Braun, 1996).The traditional field operation in the Ethiopian highlands, which could be characterized by multiple tillage, cereal-dominated cropping and very few perennial components in the system, is very erosive for soils and nutrients. Continual farming in the high lands with out considering conservation measures caused severe land degradation. FAO study in Zimbabwe showed that each hectare of wellmanaged maize growing land lost 10 tones of soil. Depleted soils commonly reduce payoffs to agricultural investments for various reasons. Degraded soils rarely respond to external inputs, such as mineral fertilizers, and hence reduce the efficiency and return of fertilizer use. Degraded soils have also very poor water holding capacity partly because of low soil organic matter content that in turn reduce the fertilizer use efficiency. Results from the dry regions of Niger, Sadore, showed that application of fertilizer increased the millet yield by 71% and also improved the water use efficiency by 70% (Bationo et al., 1993). Hence improved soil fertility enhances the water use efficiency of crops in drought prone areas. Low soil organic matter accompanied by low soil water content may also reduce the bio-chemical activity of the soil that may affect the above and below ground biodiversity of the system. Degraded soils have also low vegetative cover that may accelerate further soil loss and runoff.The effect of soil fertility decline goes beyond nutrient and water losses. There are conviencing results showing that the incidence of some pests and disease is strongly associated with decline in soil fertility. Results from the Amhara and Tigrai region showed that the effect of the notorious parasitic weed, striga, on maize and sorghum was severe in nutrient depleted soil (Esilaba, et al, 2001). It was possible to decrease the population & the incidence of striga significantly by improving the fertility status of the soil through application of organic fertilizers. Similarly the incidence of root rots in beans, stem maggots in beans, take all in barely and wheat is associated with decline in soil fertility (Marschner, 1995). The positive effect of application of organic and inorganic fertilizer on the resistance of the host crop is mainly through improving the vigorosity of the plant at the early phonological stages. Amede et al., (2001) outlined the need for a combination of measures to reverse the trend of soil fertility decline in the African highlands as presented in the following section.There are about 40 different types of indigenous soil and water conservation practices in different parts of the Ethiopian highlands, ranging from narrow ditches on slopping fields in Wollo highlands to the most advanced & integrated conservation measures in Konso, Southern Ethiopia. However, those indigenous practices are location specific and variable in their effectiveness, and call for closer understanding before any attempt is done for scaling-up. However, there is a consensus among actors that any attempt to protect land resources and improve productivity in the sloppy highlands should integrate systemcompatible soil conservation measures. Research conducted in Andit tid and Gununo showed that increasing the vegetation cover of the soil could decreases soil loss and runoff significantly (SCRP, 1996). In Andit tid, the amount of soil loss due to water erosion was 230 t/ha/year under hacked plots. However, it was possible to reduce the soil loss to 30 t/ha or less under crop covers or fallow grasslands (SCRP, 1996). When a cropland covered by crops or grasslands is compared to a frequently hacked farmland, run-off was reduced by about 90 and 100 % and soil loss by 68%, respectively. Hence soil nutrient loss and runoff could be minimized through increasing the frequency of crop cover, especially by those crops with mulching habits and higher leaf area indexs. Moreover, results from SCRP showed that perennial crops like enset and fruit trees or annuals with mulching and runner habits could reduce erosion effects significantly. Recent simulation modules in Northern Ethiopia showed that crop lands allocated for cereal crops like teff were very prone to erosion (Woldu, 2002), and the authors proposed that growing small seeded cereals, like teff, in sloppy farmlands should be discouraged.There has been an attempt to control soil erosion and rehabilitate degraded lands through construction of farmland terraces in the Ethiopian Highlands starting from the early 1970s. The program was facilitated through the food-for-work scheme of the World Food Program, as a response to the frequent droughts of the 70s and 80s in Ethiopia. The program attempted to construct terraces on about 4 millions of hectares of farm land. In early 1990s, the annual physical construction of farmland terraces reached over 220,000 ha (Lakew, et al, 2000). However, as the campaign was trying to address the problem with out the full participation of the rural community, except selling labor, the farmers considered the activity as an external imposition and hence failed to develop sense of ownership. The consequence being that farmers failed to maintain the terraces and, in some case, farmers have destroyed the terraces for getting another round of payment. When farmers were asked to list the reasons for rejecting soil and water conservation technologies they listed five major driving forces (Amede, 2002, unpublished) namely high labor cost, decreased farm size due to terraces, its inconvenience during farm operations especially for U-turn of oxen plough, and inefficiency of the terraces to stop erosion as they were only physical structures without any biological component and technical follow-ups. By considering those farmers criteria and by adopting participatory planning and implementation approaches farmers have adopted and disseminated soil conservation technologies in one the African Highlands Initiative benchmark sites, Areka (Amede et al, 2001). The major driving force for the adoption of the technology was its integration with high value crops (e.g. bananas, hops) and fast growing drought resistant feeds (e.g. Elephant grass, pigeon pea) grown on the soil bunds. The sustainable integration soil & water conservation technologies also depend heavily on the effectiveness of by-laws that limit free grazing and free movement of animals especially during the dry spells. This requires the empowerment of the local and regional policies so as to facilitate the integration of natural resource management technologies to practices of local communities. Moreover, effective landscape management, in terms of controlling soil erosion, is possible only when there is a community collective action. Unless the landscape is treated as a single unit and involves all potential stakeholders, any individual intervention could provoke social conflicts. For instance, construction of soil conservation bunds and deforestation of forests at the upper slope of the Lushoto highlands, Tanzania, decreased the amount of water flew to the valley bottoms, and affected the vegetable production and income of other farmers.Building the organic matter of the soil and the nutrient stock in short period of time requires a systems approach. These include the combination of judicious use of mineral fertilizers, improved integration of crops and livestock, improved organic residue management through composting and application of farmyard manure, deliberate crop rotations, short term fallowing, cereal-legume intercropping and integration of green manures. Because of the inconsistent use of mineral fertilizers and the very limited returns of crop residues to the soil, most of the internal N cycling in small holder systems results from mineralization of soil organic N. Such process may contribute most of the N for the annual crops until the labile soil organic fraction (N-capital) are depleted (Sanchez et al., 1997).Apart from the occasional application of small amounts of mineral fertilisers, all other organic resources form the principal means of increasing soil nutrient stocks and hence soil fertility restorers in small-scale farms. If these approaches are used in combination and appropriately, they could reverse the trend and consequently increase crop yields and, thereby alleviate food insecurity. However, the continued low yields are an indication of insufficient inputs and/or inappropriate use of these technologies. The majority of the small-scale farmers are still aggravating the soil/plant nutrient deficit through improper land management and over-mining of the nutrient pool. However, there is still an opportunity to replenish the soil nutrient pool using integrated approaches depending on the degree of soil degradation, the production system and the type of nutrient in deficit.One potential source of organic fertilizer is farmyard manure. There is a large number of livestock in the Amhara region that could produce a considerable amount of manure to be used for soil fertility replenishment. However, there is a strong competition for manure use between soil fertility and its use as a cooking fuel. Recent survey in the upper central highlands of Ethiopia showed that more than 80% of the manure is used as a source of fuel. Only farmers with access to fuel wood could apply manure in their home steads. Experiences from Zimbabwe showed that most manures had very low nutrient content, N fertlizer equivalency values of less than 30%, sometimes with high initial quality that did not explain the quality of the manure at times of use (Murwira et al., 2002). This could be explained by the fact that most manures were not composed of pure dung but rather a mixture of dung and crop residues from the stall. Besides the quality the quantity of manure produced on-farm is limited. Sandford (1989) indicated that to produce sufficient manure for sustainable production of 1-3 tonnes/ha of maize it requires 10-40 ha of dry season grazing land and 3 to 10 of wet season Range land, which is beyond the capacity of Ethiopian farmers. Moreover, the potential of manure to sustain soil fertility status and productivity of crops is affected by the number and composition of animals, size and quality of the feed resources and manure management. Wet season manure has a higher nutrient content than dry season manure, and pit manure has a better quality than pilled manure. Similarly, Powell (1986) indicated that dry season manure had N-content of 6 g/kg compared with 18.9 g/kg for early rainy season manure when the feed quality is high.Another potential organic source is crop residue. Returning crop residue to the soil, especially of legume origin, could replenish soil nutrients, like nitrogen. However, there is strong tradeoff for use of crop residue between soil fertility, animal feed and cooking fuel. In the upper Ethiopian highlands crop residues are used as a major source for dry season feed and supplementary for wet season feed. Hence little is remaining as a crop aftermath to the soil. Although legumes are known to add nitrogen & improve soil fertility, the frequency of legumes in the crop sequence in the upper highlands is less than 10%, which implies that the probability of growing legume on the same land is only once in ten years. The most reliable option to replenish soil fertility is, therefore, promoting integration of multipurpose legumes into the farming systems. Those legumes, especially those refereed as legume cover crops, could produce up to 10 ton/ha dry matter within four months, and are also fixing up to 120 kg N per season (Giller, 2002). Those high quality legumes adapted to the Ethiopian highlands include tephrosia, mucuna, crotalaria, canavalia, and vetch (Amede & Kirkby, 2002). However, despite a significant after effect of LCCs on the preceeding maize yield (up to 500% yield gain over the local management) farmers were reluctant to adopt the legume technology because of trade-off effects for food, feed and soil fertility purposes (Amede, unpublished data, 2002). In an attempt to understand factors affecting integration of soil improving legumes in to the farming systems of southern Ethiopia, Amede & Kirkby (2002) identified the most important socio-economic criteria of farmers namely, land productivity, farm size, land ownership, access to market and need for livestock feed. By considering the decision-making criteria of farmers on which legumes to integrate into their temporal & spatial niches of the system, it was possible to integrate the technology to about 10% of the partner farmers in southern Ethiopia.Organic resources may provide multiple benefits through improving the structure of the soil, soil water holding capacity, biological activity of the soil and extended nutrient release, but it could be unwise to expect the organics to fulfil the plant demand for all basic nutrients. Most organic fertilizers contain very small quantities of some nutrients (e.g. P and Zn) to cover the full demand of the crop, and hence mineral fertiliser should supplement it. Combined application of organic fertilizers with small amount of mineral fertilizers was found to be promising route to improve the efficiency of mineral fertilizers in small holder farms. For instance, Nziguheba et al., (2002) indicated that organic resources enhanced the availability of P by a variety of mechanisms, including blocking of P-sorption sites and prevention of P fixation by stimulation of the microbial P uptake. Long term trials conducted in Kenya on organic and mineral fertiliser interaction also showed that maize grain yield was consistently higher for 20 years in plots fertilised with mineral NP combined with farmyard manure than plots with sole mineral NP or farmyard manure (S.M Nandwa, KARI, unpublished data 1997). Although most farmers are convinced of using farm-based organic fertilisers, they are challenged by questions like which organic residue is good for soil fertility, how to identify the quality of organic resource, how much to apply, when to apply, and what should be the ratio of organics to mineral fertilisers. This calls for development of decision support guides to support farmers' decision on resource allocation and management. Scientists from Tropical Soils Biology and Fertility Institute of CIAT developed decision guide to identify the quality of organic fertilisers based on the polyphenol, lignin and nutrient content as potential indicators (Palm et al., 1997). As those parameters demand laboratory facilities and intensive knowledge, Giller (2000) simplified the guide by translating it to local knowledge as highly astrigent test (high polyphenol content), fibrous leaves and stems (high lignin content) and green leaf colour (high N content) to make the guides usable to farmers.In general, there is an increasing trend of mineral fertilizer use in the Ethiopian highlands over the past decades, and fertilizer imports into the country have increased from 47000 tonnes N & P in 1993 to 137 000 tones in 1996 (Quinones et al., 1997). It was mainly as a result of a strong campaign of Sasakawa-Global 2000 in collaboration with the Buro of Agriculture. However, there is a declining trend in fertilisers use in 2001/2002 due to increasing cost of fertilizers, lack of credit opportunities to resource poor farmers and low income return due to market problems.Sustainable rural development and natural resource management in the region demands an investment in and improvement of the natural capital, human capital and social capital. As the natural capital in the region had multiple problems that needs multiple solutions, there is a strong need for holistic approach to deliver options for clients of various socio-economic categories.Given the complexity of the problem of land degradation, and its link to social, economical and policy dimensions, it requires a comprehensive approach that combines local and scientific knowledge through community participation, capacity building of the local actors through farmers participatory research and enhanced farmer innovation. This approach requires the full involvement of stakeholder at different levels to facilitate and integrate social, biophysical and policy components towards an improved natural resource management and sustainable livelihoods (Stroud, 2001). Watershed management as a unit of planning and change imposes the need for increased attention to issues of resource conservation and collective action by the community. The issues of land degradation may include afforstation of hillsides, water rehabilitation and/or harvesting and soil stabilization, soil fertility amendment through organic and mineral fertilizers and increasing vegetation cover by systematic use of the existing land and water resources. This could be achieved by working closely with communities and policy implementers in identifying and implementing possible solutions to address land degradation and other common landscape problems, like grazing land improvement, gully stabilization and by monitoring and documenting the processes for wider dissemination and coverage. Some of the watershed conservation related solutions should be tried and implemented on specific test locations using farmers' own contribution and the INRM team's technical supervision. However, a wider application of these solutions to larger areas may require attracting additional funding investments from the district, donors or other NGOs in the area. The local village communities may also effect changes in the norms and rules governing the use of natural resources in their vicinity. Traditional rules and local by-laws (e.g. written and unwritten and called \"afarsata\" or awatcheyache) regarding the use and sharing of resources exist in most villages and these need to be identified and studied with a view to effect reform or renew their emphasis in the community. Integration of Agroforestry technologies in the farming systems of the Ethiopian highlands failed because of absence of national and/or local policies /by-laws that prohibit free grazing and movement of animals in the dry season. Experiences from the 1980s campaign of 'Green Campaign' in Ethiopia also showed that it is almost impossible to address the issue of land degradation without the full involvement and commitment of the local community. The local by-laws in resource arrangement and use should be facilitated and supported, as the rules and regulations at the local level could be implemented effectively through elders and respected members of the community with tolerance and respect. There may be a church and/or witchcraft dimensions to these, and there may be changes over time that might help to understand why people are doing what they are doing. In addition, the influence of national and regional policies on local resource management should be understood. These will form an important subject of community wide discussion and deliberation (Stroud, 2001). The current undertaking of soil and water conservation practices through voluntary participation campaign of the community in the northern Ethiopian Highlands is one positive step forward for initiating collective action.The West African Semi-Arid Tropics is the home of the world's poorest people, 90% of whom live in villages and depend for their livelihood on subsistence agriculture. In this zone, the length of crop growing season ranges from 75 to 150 days. Recurrent droughts, soils of poor native fertility, wind erosion, surface crusting and low water-holding capacity are the main abiotic constraints to crop production.In traditional agricultural systems, when crop yields declined to unacceptable levels, overcropped land was left to fallow until soil fertility was built up, and new land was opened for cultivation. Increasing population pressure is decreasing the availability of land and is leading to reduce duration of fallow relative to the duration of cropping. As a result, shifting cultivation is losing its effectiveness and soil fertility is rapidly declining in many areas. The present farming systems are unsustainable without external inputs of nutrients, will continue to be low in productivity and have long-term destructive potential to the environment. In such systems, plant nutrient balances are negative (Stoorvogel and Smaling, 1990).Among soil fertility factors, phosphorus deficiency is a major constraint to crop production and response to nitrogen is substantial only when both moisture and phosphorus are not limiting (Traoré, 1974). Although lack of water limits crop production in the drier zones in the Sahel, all available evidences indicates that inherent low fertility (mainly P) is a more serious problem (Breman and de Wit, 1983;van Keulen and Breman, 1990).For many years, research has been undertaken to assess the extent of soil phosphorus deficiency, to estimate phosphorus requirements of major crops, and to evaluate the agronomic potential of various phosphate fertilizers including phosphate rock (PR) from local deposits (Goldsworthy, 1967a and1967b;Pichot and Roche, 1972;Thibaut et al., 1980;Bationo et al., 1987;Bationo et al., 1990). In a survey of the fertility status of representatives sites, Manu et al. (1991) found that the total P in these soils ranged from 25 to 349 mg kg -1 with a mean of 109 mg kg -1 . Available P with Bray P1 was also generally low, ranging from 1 to 30 mg kg -1 with an average of 6 mg kg -1 . However, 77% of samples had available P values of less than 8 mg kg -1 which has been determined to be the critical P level required to obtain 90% of the maximum pearl millet yield in the sandy soil of Niger (Bationo et al., 1989a).The method of Fox and Kamprath (1970) was used to study the P-sorption characteristics of those soils and selected adsorption isotherms are presented in Figure 1. Sorption data were fitted to the Langmuir equation (Langmuir, 1918) and phosphorus adsorption maxima were calculated. From these representative sites, Manu et al., (1991) found that the values of maximum P sorbed ranged from 27 mg kg -1 to 253 mg kg -1 with a mean of 94 mg kg -1 . Soils of this region can be considered as having relatively low P sorption capacities compared to clay rich Utisols and Oxisols found in humid tropical regions (Sanchez and Uehera, 1980). As a consequence of the low P retention capacity of these soils, relatively small quantities of P fertilizers will be needed for optimum crop growth.Phosphorus use efficiency in this paper is calculated by dividing the difference in yield between P-treatment and control with the rate of P applied. In addition to the water soluble P sources such as single superphosphate (SSP) and triple superphosphate (TSP), phosphate rocks (PRs) indigenous to this region such as Tahoua PR (TPR) and Parc-W PR (PRW) from Niger, and Kodjari PR (KPR) from Burkina Faso were evaluated in field trials on the main soil types for crop production. In this region, use of water soluble imported P fertilizers is severely limited because of their high cost. The direct application of PR indigenous to the region may be an economical alternative to the use of more expensive imported P fertilizers. Some PRs may not be suitable for direct application because of their low chemical reactivity (Hammond et al., 1986). Partial acidulation of PR (PAPR) represents a technology that improves the agronomic effectiveness of an indigenous PR at a lower cost than would be required to manufacture the conventional, fully acidulated fertilizers from the same rock (Chien and Hammond, 1978;Hammond et al., 1986;Bationo et al., 1990).In this paper, after a brief review of the phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) of crops as effected by sources of P fertilizers, we will discuss the effect of rainfall, crop and soil management on Phosphorus use efficiency (PUE).Effect of P sources and rainfall on PUE Experiment on the evaluation of different sources of P fertilizers. From 1982 a benchmark field trial was initiated on the Sandy Sahelian soils of ICRISAT at Sadoré to evaluate the agronomic efficiency of different sources of P fertilizers. The sources of P fertilizers in those trials were Parc W phosphate rock (Parc W PR), Partially acidulated rock Parc W at 50 % (Parc W PAPR), Triple Superphosphate (TSP), and Single superphosphate (SSP). P was applied at 0, 4.8, 8.8, 13, 17.6 kg.ha -1 . Pearl millet cultivar CIVT was used as test crop. Experiment on PUE efficiency in different agro-ecological zones. In 1996 field trials were conducted at Sadoré, Gobery and Gaya to evaluate the agronomic effectiveness of Kodjari PR (KPR) and Tahoua PR (TPR) compared to single superphosphate (SSP).In a researcher managed trial at Karabedji, hill placement of small quantities of fertilizers were evaluated on water soluble and phosphate rock on pearl millet and cowpea. The two PR used were Tahoua phosphate rock (TPR) and Kodjari phosphate rock (KPR).Effect of mineral and organic fertilizers, ridging, and rotation of pearl millet and cowpea on PUE. In 1998 data were collected in an experiment to evaluate the effect of nitrogen application, crop residue, ridging and rotation of pearl millet with cowpea on PUE.From 1992 to 1995 an experiment was conducted to study the effect of crop rotation of pearl millet and cowpea on PUE at the ICRISAT Sahelian Center. Phosphorus was applied at 0, 6.5 and 13 kg.ha -1 as single superphosphate.For the benchmark experiment was conducted during the period of 1982-1987 SSP outperformed the other sources and its superiority to sulfur-free TSP indicates that with continuous cultivation, sulfur deficiency develops (Frisen, 1991). For both pearl millet grain and total dry matter yields, the relative agronomic effectiveness was almost similar for TSP as compared to PAPR with 50% acidulation (PAPR50) indicating that partial acidulation of PRW at 50% can significantly increase its effectiveness (Figure 2). SSP had the highest PUE values at all rates of P application. Increased rate resulted in a decrease in PUE. For pearl millet grain, application of 4.4 kg P/ha resulted in a PUE of 100 kg grain/kg P, but the PUE decrease to 45 kg grain/kg P at the rate of application of 13 kg P/ha. The difference between the P sources is better resolved at lower application rates of P fertilizers as compared to the higher application rates. The difference between PRW and SSP at 4.4 kg P/ha was 50 kg grain/kg P while at 17.5 kg P/ha, this difference was reduced to only 27 kg grain/kg P (Figure 2).For the trial for agronomic evaluation of P sources in different agro-ecological zones of Niger, the response of pearl millet to different sources of P fertilizers indicates that TPR agronomic effectiveness outperformed KPR (Figure 3 and Table 1). These results are in agreement with the fact that the molar PO 4 /CO 4 ratio is 23.0 for KPR and 4.88 for TPR, and TPR also has a higher solubility in NAC. Mokwunye (1995) found that the level of isomorphic substitution of carbonate for phosphate within the lattice of the apatite crystal influences the solubility of the apatite in the rock and therefore controls the amount of phosphorus that is released when PR is applied to soils. Chien (1977) found that the solubility of PR in neutral ammonium citrate (NAC) was directly related to the level of carbonate substitution. As a result of the higher value of Tilemsi PR in NAC, and the high substitution of carbonate for phosphate, Bationo et al. (1997) found that Tilemsi PR can result in net returns and value/cost ratios similar to recommended cotton or cereal complex imported fertilizers.The PUE at Gobery was 31 kg grain/kg P for TPR, but decreased to 9 kg grain/kg P with KPR application at 17KgP/ha. As soils in Gaya and Gobery are more acidic and receive more rain than the Sadoré site, the agronomic effectiveness is higher at those sites. The ability of the soil to provide the H + ions is essential to ensure the effectiveness of PR to crops (Chien, 1977;Khasawneh and Doll, 1978). Therefore, acidic soils with a high pH buffering capacity provide an ideal environment for PR dissolution.Results presented for upland rice by Bado et al., 1995 indicate that PUE of the unreactive Kodjari PR on an acidic (PH in H 2 0 = 5) soil is similar to the PUE of the water soluble TSP (Mahaman et al., 1998).The agronomic effectiveness of the leguminous cowpea is not better than the cereal pearl millet crop (Table 1). This is in contradiction to others reports where legumes have higher strategy to solubilize PR than cereal by rhizosphere acidulation (Aguilar and van Diest, 1981;Kirk and Nye, 1986;Hedley et al., 1982) and exudation of organic acids (Ohwaki and Hirata, 1992).The increase in soil pH resulting from flooding of rice fields is expected to depress the dissolution of PR. Enhanced performance of PR in flooded systems has been reported (Hammond et al., 1986). Kirk and Nye (1986) explain the enhance PR performance in flooded soils by arguing that rice roots will acidify surrounding soil and that dissolved organic matter may chelate Ca and P. In the irrigated system the PUE of PR often was higher than TSP (INRAN, 1988).Using data of PUE at 13 kg P ha -1 details from experiment presented in Figure 2 conducted over 10 years period, it was found that the rainfall received in September at grain filling and maturation stage was best correlated to PUE (Figure 4). From the results presented in Figure 4, it could be concluded that PUE of SSP was most affected by the amount of September rainfall due to its higher biomass production as compared PR or PAPR50. The predictions indicate that for SSP, a 40 mm rainfall in September will result in a PUE of 118 kg dry matter/kg P while for 100 mm rainfall the PUE will increase to 160 kg dry matter/kg P.In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics, both water and nutrients limits crop production, but from multi-location water-balance studies in Niger, it was shown that an important outcome of fertilizer use is an increase in water-use efficiency (Breman and de Wit, 1983;van Keulen and Breman, 1990). In longterm experiments, water-use efficiency (WUE) for grain yield increased dramatically from 5.4 kg mm -1 ha -1 without the use of fertilizers to 14.4 kg mm -1 ha -1 with the use of fertilizers. Increased root growth due to P application is associated with greater rooting depth and deeper extraction of moisture during dry spells (Payne and al., 1995). Early vigor and enhanced growth due to P application results in more complete ground cover early in the season, which reduces the proportion of water lost through water evaporation to some extent, thus facilitating effective and efficient use of rainfall.Although the application of fertilizers improves WUE, the efficiency of fertilizer depends on the amount of rainfall received by the crop. For nitrogen, Bationo et al. (1989b) developed a model relating grain yield of pearl millet to mid-season rainfall (45 days, from mid-July to end of August). This model predicts that response to N in dry years will be limited, with little benefit to the farmers from the investment in N fertilizers.Relationship between crop and soil management on phosphorus use efficiency Over a period of three years, nine pearl millet cultivars were evaluated to determine their PUE. For both grain and stover, there are very large differences among the nine cultivars for their response to the application of P fertilizer (Figure 5). PUE at 13 kg P ha -1 varied among the 9 cultivars from 25 kg grain/kg P for variety ICMV IS 85333 to 77 kg grain/kg P for Haini-Kirei cultivar the local is 3 weeks later to mature and has a very dense root system. Figure 6 shows PUE of different genotypes was significantly correlated with grain yield at 13 kg P ha -1 was, and explained 77% of total variation in this relationship. This significant relationship indicates that phosphorus use efficient cultivars can be first identified using their grain yield performance at 13 kg P/ha. The relationship between the PUE of the different genotypes with grain yield in the absence of P application was not significant and only 15% of the total variation could be explained. This observation shows that a cultivar with a high PUE coefficient will not necessarily perform better under low P conditions than the one with a low PUE coefficient. This also implies that genotypes selected for high grain yield under low-P situations will not necessarily be Puse efficient. There is ample evidence that indicates marked differences exist between species and genotypes for P uptake (Föhse et al. 1988;McLachlam, 1976;Caradus, 1980;Nielsen and Schjorring, 1983;Spencer et al. 1980).For the researcher managed on-farm trials conducted to study interaction between hill placement of small quantities of P fertilizers on the efficiency of water soluble (SSP,   3). Whereas PUE efficiency is 14 for pearl millet grain yield with KPR broadcast it increased to 31 kg grain/kg P when additional hill placement for 15-15-15 is applied (Table 2). Although hill placement alone of 4 kg P ha -1 gave high PUE values as compared to broadcast of 13 kg P ha -1 , this treatment will result in a net negative P balance. With the association of hill placement and low cost PR sources the net balance of P will be positive and soil mining will be avoided. For most of cases, 15-15-15 hill placement efficiency is higher than SSP hill placement. This is due in part to germination failures most likely due to deleterious pH and salt effects on the seedling. The highest effectiveness of NPK placement is also likely due to a stimulation of early root growth by the ammonium component (Marschner et al., 1986), and an enhanced availability of P in the immediate seedling environment. Over the past few years, on-station research at ICRISAT-Niger has focussed on the placement of small quantities of P fertilizers at planting stage in order to develop optimum farmer-affordable P application recommendation. Compared to control, millet grain yield increased between 60 to 70% when 5 kg P ha -1 was hill placed, and by 100% when 13 kg P ha -1 was broadcast. PUE on total dry matter and grain yield indicate that PUE at 3,5 and 7 kg P ha -1 hill application was higher as compared to broadcasting 13 kg P/ha. For example, in 1995, for total dry matter, the PUE for 13 kg P/ha was 159 kg TDM/kg P as compared to 402 kg TDM/kg P with the application of 3 kg P/ha hill placed. This is due in part to the placement of P where the soil is humid as compared to the surface broadcast where some fertilizers will remain in the dry zone of the soil (Muhelhig-Versen et al., 1997).In long-term soil management trials, application of nitrogen, crop residue and ridging and rotation of pearl millet with cowpea were evaluated to determine their effect on PUE. The results show that soil productivity of the sandy soils can be dramatically increased with the adoption of improved crop and soil management technologies. Whereas the absolute control recorded 33 kg ha -1 of grain, 1829 kg ha -1 was obtained when phosphorus, nitrogen and crop residue were applied to plots that were ridged and followed leguminous cowpea crop the previous season (Table 4). Results indicate that for grain yield, PUE will increase from 46 with only P application to 133 when P combined with nitrogen and crop residue applications and the crop is planted on ridge in a rotation system.In a study on the long-term effect of different cropping systems on PUE it was found that rotation of pearl millet with cowpea could significantly increase pearl millet and cowpea production (Figure 7). For pearl millet total dry matter, PUE increased from 149 kg ha -1 in the continuous cultivation to 252 kg ha -1 in rotation systems. For cowpea fodder, PUE increased from 40 kg ha -1 in the continuous cultivation to 65 kg ha -1 with rotation.In a long-term field trials to study the effect of crop residue application on PUE, PUE was 67 kg/kg P when only P fertilizers were applied, its value doubled when P fertilizers were combined with crop residue (Bationo et al., 1985).In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics, lack of volcanic rejuvenation has caused the region to undergo several cycles of weathering erosion, and leaving soil poor in nutrients.Both total and available P values are very low and P deficiency is a major constraint to crop production. With their sandy texture, these soils have low P retention capacity.The PUE is highly variable and depends on P sources, rainfall, soil and crop management. In the West African Semi-Arid Tropics there is little research on understanding the factors affecting P uptake such as the ability of plants to i) solubilize soil P through pH changes and the release of chelating agents and phosphates enzymes, ii) explore a large soil volume, and iii) absorb P from low soil solution P concentration.Genotypic improvement can come through increased capacity of plants to extract P from the soil or for decreased internal P requirement per unit dry matter produced. The opportunities for increased efficiency of P utilization through cultivar improvement include selection for treatments that favor strong plant demand such as late maturity, increased rootlet activity and increased P solubilization capacity.The available and total P values are very low in the region. With those extremely low values of total P, it can be questionable to select cultivar adapted to low P condition, as one cannot mine what is not there. Direct application of indigenous PR can be an economic alternative to the use of more expensive imported water-soluble P fertilizers.The effectiveness of mycorrhizae in utilizing soil P has been well documented (Silberbush and Barber, 1983;Lee andWani, 1991, Daft, 1991). An important future research opportunity is the selection of plant genotypes that are conducive to colonization by efficient Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) associations for better utilization of P from PR.Previous agronomic research has already identified a significant number of technologies to enhance PUE but future research needs to screen technologies under farmer's management in order to recommend with the highest economic returns.  Agricultural sustainability implies that agriculture will remain the principal land use over long periods of time relative to human life-span and it is economically competitive and ecologically acceptable while the soil resource base maintains or even improves its fertility and health (Hamblin, 1991). One of the major challenges for the achievement of sustainable agriculture in the tropics, is the vulnerability of tropical soils to degradation when they are subjected to mechanization for crop production (Thomas et al., 1995;Thomas and Ayarza, 1999;Amézquita et al., 2000). It is widely believed that tropical savanna soils (mainly Oxisols) have excellent physical characteristics such as high infiltration rates, high permeability, good and stable soil structure and therefore can support mechanized agriculture (Sanchez and Salinas, 1981). However, recent work indicated that Colombian savanna soils (Oxisols of Altillanura), have serious physical, chemical and biological constraints for crop and pasture production (Amézquita et al., 1998a). Physically the fertile layer can be shallow with high bulk densities together with weak structure. Tillage (disc harrowing) practices currently used for seedbed preparation could result in surface sealing and low rainfall acceptance capacity (Amézquita et al., 2000). Chemically the soils have low pH values, high levels of exchangeable Al +3 , low P availability, low base (Ca, Mg and K) saturation and low amounts of organic matter. Also, biologically they show constraints typical of soils with low organic matter such as lower rates of mineralization (Thomas et al., 1995;Lopes et al., 1999).Physical, chemical and biological conditions of these soils need to be improved in order to increase their productivity. Usually this improvement can be achieved by land preparation and by application of lime and fertilizer. However, this effect lasts only for a short time and after 4 to 7 years, farmers abandon the degraded land as it is no longer productive and often migrate to other areas. To avoid the continued degradation of these soils and to achieve sustained production, we propose that the construction of an \"arable layer\", a top layer with improved soil properties, is required (Amézquita et al., 2000).It has been demonstrated that soil physical conditions are usually best under permanent grassland (or forest) and as soil is cultivated, these conditions deteriorate at a rate dependent of climate, soil texture and management (Lal, 1993;White, 1997). Amézquita et al. (1998a), have found significant negative effects of continued cropping on the physical properties of soils in the Llanos. The study by Preciado (1997) from the Casanare region of the Llanos showed that total porosity and macroporosity decrease markedly after 5-7 years of monocropping. Boonman (1997) mentioned similar trends for soils of African savannas.Ploughing and cultivating new land is usually accompanied by a decline in soil organic matter. When land is ploughed, disruption of peds exposes previously inaccessible organic matter to attack by microorganisms and populations of soil structure-stabilizing fungi and earthworms decrease markedly (White, 1997). Introduced pastures can markedly reverse these trends through improvements in soil aggregation (Drury et al., 1991;Gijsman and Thomas, 1995;Franzluebbers et al., 2000).The relatively weak structure of savanna soils of Colombia (Oxisols) and their susceptibility to sealing, compaction, and erosion when subjected to tillage can result in negative effects on sustainable productivity of crop-livestock systems (Amézquita, 1998). To overcome these physical constraints, tillage practices should be developed that are based on the concept of development of an \"arable layer\". The \"arable layer\" is a surface layer (0-15, 0-25, 0-30 cm depth), with improved soil physical, chemical and biological properties. This is essential for developing a soil that is capable to support sustainable agriculture (Amézquita et al., 2000).The \"arable layer\" concept proposed, is based on the combination of: (1) tillage practices to overcome soil physical constraints (high bulk density, surface sealing, low infiltration rates, poor root penetration, etc.). (2) use of chemical amendments (lime and fertilizers) to enhance soil fertility, and (3) use of soil and crop management practices to increase rooting, to promote biostructure, and to avoid repacking of soil after tillage, thus, improving the biological condition of the soil. This concept relies on the use of deep-rooted and acid soil adapted tropical pastures to improve and maintain soil physical conditions via vertical tillage (chisel).The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of deep-rooted tropical pastures in comparison with other land uses such as monocropping of upland rice and native savanna pastures on the build-up of an arable layer through improved soil properties.The experiments were carried out at Matazul farm (4º 9′ 4.9″ N, 72º 38′ 23″ W and 260 m.a.s.l.) located in the Eastern Plains (Llanos) near Puerto López, Colombia. The area has two distinct climatic seasons, a wet season from the beginning of March to December and a dry season from December to March and has an annual average temperature of 26.2 ºC. The area has mean annual rainfall of 2719 mm, potential evapotranspiration of 1623 mm and relative humidity of 81 % (data from the nearby Santa Rosa weather station, located at the Piedmont of the Llanos of Colombia). The soil has low fertility and the availability of P in the soil is low because of the soil's high P fixation capacity (Phiri et al., 2001).To evaluate the impact of deep-rooted pastures on soil physical characteristics, we used the following treatments from long-term experiments: a) Aggregate size distribution and aggregate stability aspects were studied in an experiment where disturbed and undisturbed introduced pasture systems were compared with rice monocropping on two sites of contrasting soil texture (Matazul: clay loam; Primavera: sandy loam). Native savanna (undisturbed) system was used as a control. Disturbed pasture received two harrow passes for every two years to reduce surface sealing and compaction. b) Infiltration rates were measured in an experiment aimed to improve top-soil conditions (cultural profile) using different intensities (1, 2 or 3) of chisel passes (vertical tillage) or different agropastoral treatments (pasture alone, pasture + legume and legumes alone) that were planted after 2 passes of chisel. c) Measurements on volume and chemical composition of gravitational water were studied in an experiment aimed to understand the processes of soil degradation due to either monocropping of rice or introduced pasture (Brachiaria dictyoneura cv. Llanero). Different number of harrow passes (2, 4, 8) were applied every year for a period of two years for each treatment. d) Root biomass and root volume of Brachiaria decumbens were determined in two contrasting textural soils: sandy-loam and clay-loam, under two pasture conditions: productive and degraded (less productive), to compare root growth under these two conditions.Aggregate size distribution and aggregate stability Ten volumetric soil samples were taken in cylinders (120 mm diameter by 25 mm high) and used for dry aggregate size distribution determinations from each of the following treatments: disturbed pasture, undisturbed pasture, monocrop and native savanna. Disturbed pastures means that two harrowing passes were made every 2 years to loosen the soil to improve pasture productivity. By the time of the evaluation, the experimental plots had 8 years of establishment. In each of the 10 samples taken from each treatment, a test for dry aggregate size distribution (Kemper and Rosenau, 1986;White, 1993;Amézquita et al., 1998b) was made using the total volume of soil collected in the cylinders. Sieves of the following openings were used: >6, 6-4, 4-2, 2-1, 1-0.5 mm, which were fitted to a shaker for 5 minutes.Aggregate stability was determined also using 10 samples (50 g of soil) for each treatment with a Yoder apparatus (Angers and Mehuys, 1993). A set of sieves with openings of: 2, 2-1, 1-0.5, 05-0.25, 0.25-0.125 and <0.125 mm was used. The amount of sand found in each sieve was discounted from the total weight.A double ring devise was used to determine infiltration rates (Bower, 1986). Five tests for each treatment were made. Internal cylinder was inserted into the soil to 5-7 cm soil depth. External cylinder was inserted to 3-5 cm. Water was poured first to the external cylinder to reach a height of about 3 cm within the cylinder and then to the internal cylinder to reach a height of 6 cm from the soil surface. The amount of water entering into the soil was measured at different time intervals during a testing period of two to three hours, until a quasi equilibrium of amount of water entering in function of time was reached.It is not common to collect and measure the amount and elemental composition of free water (drainage water) from the precipitation that moves down in a soil profile at different depths. In this study we determined the influence of pastures or monocropping of upland rice on the amount of gravitational water and its elemental composition at different soil depths. A pit of 1.8 m length × 0.7 m wide × 0.5 m depth m was dug in each treatment. Funnels filled with clean fine and very fine sand, were wetted to field capacity and then buried in the soil profile at different depths: 3, 5, 10, 15 and 30 cm to collect the gravitational water that passes through each depth, during part of the rainy season. Measurements of the amount of water and elemental composition, were made at different times. During the period of measurements, the pits were protected around and covered with a sheet of zinc to avoid any other water entering into the pit. This methodology assumes that there is a vertical piston like water movement. The accepted rain was assumed to move through the soil profile and reach the funnels that were buried at different depths. Wet sand present in the funnels favors pore continuity for the drainage process.Root sampling was carried out using trench profile method (Schuster, 1964). Three sampling points were randomly located within each treatment of degraded or productive pasture of Brachiaria decumbens. A trench of 60 cm wide, 50 cm deep and 60 cm long was dug to determine root penetration and root distribution. Root samples were excavated from the wall of each trench, totalling 3 samples from each treatment. The nail-boards were made of a 2 cm thick plywood board (50 cm wide and 40 cm long). Twelve cm long nails were inserted at 10 cm intervals (10 x 10 cm) through the back of the board and protruded into the frame 10 cm.Root samples were excavated by pressing the nail-boards into the trench wall and slicing the enclosed soil monolith from the trench wall with a steel blade. The samples were soaked in water for at least 2 h after which the soil was removed from the roots with a fine spray of water. The root samples were photographed. Root volume was determined with a measuring jar filled with water by registering the increase in volume. Root biomass (dry weight) was recorded after oven drying for 2 days at 65°C.Effect of different management systems.The aggregate size distribution under different management systems is shown in Table 1. At Matazul Farm, the percentage of aggregates >6 mm, 6-4 mm and 4-2 mm decreased in intervened systems compared with the native savanna, while those between 2-1 mm, 1-0.125 mm and <0.125 mm increased. This was noted particularly under monocropped rice. At La Primavera Farm, monocropping with rice resuted in a lower percentage of 4-2 mm and higher percentage of 2-1 mm and 1.0-0.125 mm aggregates. In contrast, the undisturbed pasture had a positive effect on soil aggregation, with the highest (non-significant) percentage of aggregates larger than 2 mm.  The results on aggregate stability are presented in Table 2. Aggregate stability values at Matazul Farm were greater for native savanna than for intervened systems. The percentage of stable aggregates larger than 2 mm was significantly greater in relation to other treatments. At La Primavera Farm, undisturbed pasture and native savanna both had a higher percentage of aggregates larger than 2 mm diameter. Infiltration rates, determined under different management system treatments in an experiment aimed to create an arable layer, are shown in Table 3. In relation to native savanna the treatments that included introduced pastures showed higher and more stable rates. Particularly higher rates of infiltration were found under A. gayanus pasture. The amount of gravitational water draining at different soil depths as a function of soil management system is shown in Table 4. Little water was collected in the top layers of soil of savanna while greater amounts were collected at 15 cm soil depth. The treatment sown to upland rice with 8 harrow passes, did not allow the movement of free water through the soil. With 16 harrow passes more water was able to enter into the soil especially in the top two layers. Under introduced pastures, the amount of free water entering and moving through the soil profile was extremely high (480 cm 3 vs 0 cm 3 with 8 harrow passes and 490 cm 3 vs 100 cm 3 with 16 harrow passes) in comparison with upland rice.The chemical composition of the water collected at different soil depths under upland rice and pastures is shown in Table 5. Higher amounts of nutrients, especially at the first two depths were found under rice.Examination of soil monoliths collected through profile wall technique showed marked differences in root penetration and root distribution between a degraded pasture and a productive pasture of Brachiaria decumbens (Figure 1). Differences in root biomass and root volume at different soil depths, as influenced by soil texture (clay-loam and sandy-loam) are shown in Table 6. Clearly the productive pasture showed greater abundance and distribution of root systems than the degraded one.Good soil management should aim to create optimum physical conditions for plant growth (White, 1977). These include: a) adequate aeration for roots and microorganisms. b) adequate available water, c) easy root penetration, d) rapid and uniform seed germination, and e) resistance of the soil to slaking, surface sealing and accelerated erosion. Results from this study indicate that change in land use as deep-rooted tropical pasture can enhance soil quality by improving the size distribution of stable aggregates when compared with soils under continuous upland rice monocropping. The greater percentage of stable aggregates with introduced pastures compared with monocropping indicates that any kind of soil disturbance negatively affects aggregate stability, possibly through its influence on soil organic matter (Hamblin, 1985;Lal, 1993) or some of its components (Caron et al., 1992). Compared with native savanna, introduced pastures also showed higher and more stable rates of water infiltration, particularly with A. gayanus pasture. These results reconfirm the benefits of introduced pastures in improving soil quality (CIAT, 1998;Gijsman and Thomas, 1996).The improvement of the structural condition of soils by pastures, when they are used for grazing, normally change to less beneficial values of porosity, infiltrability, etc., as a consequence of trampling. However, strategies to maintain a good soil structural quality can be developed with proper grazing management.Little amount of gravitational water was collected in the top layers of soil of native savanna while greater amounts were collected at 15 cm soil depth suggesting the existence of preferential flow. This could be due to the wetting mechanisms dominant in the natural savannas. The treatment sown to upland rice with 8 harrow passes, did not allow the movement of free water through the soil, probably as a result of surface sealing that impeded the entrance of water. Under 16 harrow passes more water was able to enter into the soil especially in the first two depths, showing that there was a better rainfall acceptance under this treatment. The greater amounts of gravitational water entering and moving through the soil profile of introduced pasture in comparison with monocropping of upland rice indicates that introduced pastures are a very good alternative to improve and maintain the amount of macropores (pores that permit the free movement of water). This result confirms the beneficial effects of agropastoral system for improvement of these soils (Angers, 1992). Results on the chemical composition of the gravitational water collected indicate the beneficial effects of introduced pastures both on water and nutrient redistribution in the top-soil layers. However, it is important to note that pastures were sown a year before rice. ` Four aspects of the research deserve to be emphasized. First, the methodology used was appropriate as it was possible to collect drainage water and differentiate between treatments. Second, there was a very high variability in the way the water moved into the soil (preferential flow). Third, the amount of nutrients that moved from one depth to the other was a function of the total amount of water draining through soil profile. Fourth, the greater capacity of the pastures for facilitating a better movement and distribution of nutrients and water could be used for improving soil physical conditions.This study shows that change in land use as introduced pastures can enhance soil quality by improving the size distribution of stable aggregates, water infiltration rates and rainfall acceptance capacity when compared with soils under monocropping. We suggest that the intensive and sustainable use of these soils, is only possible if an \"arable\" or \"productive layer\" is produced and maintained i.e. a layer with little physical, chemical and biological constraints. One option to achieve this arable layer is the use of introduced pastures with deep rooting abilities that can result in increased soil organic matter and associated improvements in soil physical and chemical properties. One land management option that can achieve these improvements is agropastoralism whereby pastures and crops are grown in short-term rotations.The neotropical savannas occupy 243 million hectares in South America and are one of the most rapidly expanding agricultural frontiers in the world (Thomas and Ayarza, 1999). Oxisols predominate in the hyperisothermic savannas and cover an area of 17 million hectares in Colombia alone. Intensification of agricultural production in this ecosystem requires acid soil (aluminum) tolerant crop germplasm, soil fertility improvement and management of highly vulnerable physical properties (Amézquita, 1998;Guimaraes et al., 1999). Monocropping systems with high levels of inputs and excessive cultivation may be unsustainable since they may cause deterioration of soil physical properties as well as escalation of pest and disease problems.Improved legume-based pastures are considered least harmful to the soil resource base but require investments in inputs for establishment that are unattractive or beyond the means of graziers. Establishment of pastures in association with rice (to defray the cost of inputs) is a potential alternative that has seen significant adoption by farmers in frontier areas of the Colombian Llanos (Sanz et al., 1999). Alternative systems incorporating components that attenuate or reverse the deleterious effects of monocultures are required, and biophysical measures of sustainability need to be developed as 'predictors' of system 'health' to sustain agricultural production at high levels while minimizing soil degradation.Grain legumes, green manures, intercrops and leys are possible system components that could increase the stability of systems involving annual crops (Karlen et al., 1994). To test the effects of these components on system sustainability and to identify indicators of soil quality, a long-term field study was implemented in 1993 on a Colombian Oxisol under native savanna grassland using a selection of alternatives based on these components (Friesen et al., 1997). The study has extended through almost two cycles of the principal rotation, i.e., the agropastoral system, recognizing that the degrading or beneficial effects of various agricultural practices are often subtle and only manifest themselves over long periods. This paper presents results from the initial 5-year phase of the experiment, focusing on systems based on upland rice with emphasis on systems' effects on: (a) productivity; (b) soil fertility indicators; (c) soil physical attributes; (d) associated soil organic matter quality; and (d) soil biological health.The experiment was established on a well-drained silt clay loam (Tropeptic Haplustox, isohyperthermic) under native savanna grassland at Carimagua (4°37'N, 71°19'W, 175 m altitude) in the Eastern Plains of Colombia. The mean annual rainfall is 2240 mm with a mean temperature of 27°C. The experiment is laid out in a split-plot design with four replications in which alternative systems (in subplots, size 0.36 ha) based on upland rice or maize (main plots) are compared (Friesen et al., 1997). Only rice-based systems are reported here. They include rice monoculture, rice rotated with cowpeas (for grain), cowpea green manure (GM) or \"improved\" grass-legume pasture leys. Cowpea or GM rotations occurred within each year, i.e., rice was sown in the first season (semester) and the legumes in the second season annually. Pastures were sown simultaneously under rice in 1993 and again in 1998, and grazed in the intervening 4 years. Native savanna plots were maintained for baseline comparisons. Cropped systems were limed with 500 kg ha -1 of dolomite prior to establishment and maintained thereafter with annual applications of 200 kg ha -1 . Each rice crop received 80 kg-N ha -1 (split: 20+30+30), 60 kg-P ha -1 and 100 kg-K ha -1 . Legumes (cowpeas or GM) received 20 kg-N ha -1 , 40 kg-P ha -1 and 60 kg-K ha -1 . Pastures were fertilized biennially with 20 kg-P ha -1 . Plot sizes of 200 m × 18 m (3600 m 2 ) were used to allow for grazing by cattle and the use of conventional machinery which impact directly on soil physical properties especially. A description of treatments is provided in Table 1.Soils were sampled before planting rice each year from different systems including native savanna. The samples were air-dried, and visible plant roots were removed before they were gently crushed to pass a 2-mm sieve. The following chemical analyses were carried out: pH (1:1 soil:H 2 O ratio), exchangeable Al and Ca extracted in 1M KCl, and available P by the Bray-2 method. Soil pore-size distribution was determined from the moisture characteristic curves using undisturbed soil cores (50 mm × 25 mm) taken from the 0-10, 10-20 and 20-40 cm soil layers of each replicate (Phiri et al., 2001). Saturated soil cores were weighed and then subjected to different tensions (5, 10, 100, 300 and 1500 kPa). Pore-size distribution was calculated using the Kelvin equation. Pores were divided into macropores (>50 μm; drained at a tension of ≤6 kPa), mesopores (50-0.2 μm; water retained at >6 kPa but <1500 kPa) and micropores (<0.2 μm; water retained at >1500 kPa). Soil samples were taken for the 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm layers of each treatment in February 1998 in order to characterize the impact of production system on soil organic matter quantity and quality. Total soil C and N were determined by combustion on a Leco CHN analyzer and C:N ratio calculated. Size-density fractionation of soil organic matter (SOM) was done using the Ludox Method to separate three sizedensity fractions: LL (>150 μm, <1.13 g cm -3 ), LM (>150 μm, 1.13-1.37 g cm -3 ) and LH (>150 μm, >1.37 g cm -3 ) identified as most promising by Barrios et al. (1996).In June 1994 and June 1996 (rainy season), the earthworm community, comprising eight species native to the savanna ecology, were sampled by taking 25×25×30 cm soil monoliths at 50 to 120 points on a regular grid in each plot of each system. Samples were taken quickly, sorted and earthworm species identified and counted at each point. Earthworm biomass was estimated using available data of mean weights of each species at the period of sampling (Decaëns and Jiménez, 2002).Rice grain yields were measured each year in at least four 5m × 5m quadrats located randomly in each plot prior to harvesting the rice crop with a combine harvester. Grain, straw and weeds were separated, weighed and subsampled for moisture content and chemical analysis.Soil chemical characteristics under the different systems is shown in Figure 1 where systems are arranged from left to right in order of increasing intensity of input use and cultivation. Temporal changes in soil pH and exchangeable Al were very similar in all systems, with the exception of the inexplicably high Al values in the surface soil under pasture in the later years. The temporal fluctuations in soil pH and exchangeable Al observed in all soil layers can probably be attributed to variability associated with factors such as burning and temporary anaerobic conditions due to high rainfall which directly impact on soil pH and, consequently, soluble Al. Soil fertility indicators for P and Ca generally reflected increasing system intensity. In the absence of inputs to the native savanna system, no significant changes in available P or exchangeable Ca were observed during the five years of experimentation. P availability remained at low levels at all depths (0-10, 10-20 and 20-40 cm), and exchangeable Ca was higher in the surface soil (0-10 cm) than in subsoil layers. Under the rice-agropastoral system, available P and exchangeable Ca levels increased modestly with time in response to the initial applications of lime and P to the pioneer rice crop and the small biennial maintenance applications to the pasture thereafter. The resultant levels of available P (about 10 mg kg -1 ) are considered adequate for acid soil adapted forage germplasm.Under rice-monocrop system, P availability increased during the first three years in response to P fertilization but failed to reflect P additions in the latter two years, especially in the surface soil layer (0-10 cm). This could be due to P removal by weeds which became increasingly prevalent as the experiment progressed, and to P fixation by soil incorporated from subsoil layers through excessive ploughing (Friesen et al., 1997). The increase in available P in the 10-20 cm layer in 1998 supports this interpretation. Exchangeable Ca increased in all soil layers in response to annual lime applications. In the surface soil, the largest increase occurred in the first year and remained unvarying thereafter. Instead, annual Ca inputs were reflected in the 10-20 and 20-40 cm layers which progressively increased during the 5-year period, presumably due to leaching from the surface soil.Changes in soil pH and exchangeable Al were not well correlated with exchangeable Ca, contrary to expectations, probably due to the very low lime rates applied and Ca leaching as a neutral cation with nitrate or chloride which would not affect pH. Changes in exchangeable Ca under the rice-cowpea rotation were very similar to those under rice monoculture although movement of Ca into the subsoil was slightly less, perhaps due to scavenging by deep cowpea roots and cycling of Ca back to the surface through cowpea residues. In contrast, levels of available P in the 0-10 cm layer increased much more sharply over time and were accompanied by increased levels of available P in the subsurface 10-20 cm layer. These increases in available P reflect the additional applications of P fertilizer to cowpea component of the rotation while subsoil increases were probably the result of the increased frequency of cultivation required for the cowpea crop.The rice-GM system was the most intensely cultivated. Although inputs of lime and P fertilizer were the same as for the rice-cowpea system, there were some notable differences in available P and exchangeable Ca dynamics between the two. Exchangeable Ca in the 0-10 cm layer did not rise to the levels observed in either the rice monoculture or the rice-cowpea system, although changes in the subsoil layers were very similar. This can be explained by an increased rate of leaching of soluble Ca through the soil profile with the much higher nitrate concentrations generated by mineralization of ammonia produced by decomposing GM residues (Friesen et al., 1998). Available P followed a similar temporal trend to that observed in the rice-cowpea system in the first three years. However, in the latter two years, the increased intensity of tillage apparently caused some incorporation of P into the subsoil layer, resulting in a reduced level of available P in the surface soil and an increased level in the subsoil.The impact of the different crop rotation and ley pasture systems on some soil physical characteristics 5-years after establishment is shown in Table 2. In general, the saturated hydraulic conductivity of this Oxisol under native savanna is low in the surface soil and even lower in the subsoil layers. A hydraulic conductivity of 10 cm h -1 would be considered critical for the prevailing climatic conditions at Carimagua (2700 mm year -1 rainfall with high intensity 100-120 mm h -1 of rain storms). Most of the observed values were below this critical value. These results indicate that this soil has limited ability for downward movement of water, resulting in temporary waterlogging during intense storms. Infiltration of water through the soil profile is more critical with depth. Thus, any soil management strategy must include improvement of soil hydraulic conductivity. The various rice-based systems had no significant impact on hydraulic conductivity of the surface soil layer after 5 years of tillage at increasing levels of intensity. Measured two years later, chisel ploughing to 30 cm in the annual rotations and monoculture systems caused increased hydraulic conductivity in the 10-20 cm layer but not the 20-40 cm layer. Rooting of cowpeas in the subsoil apparently aided in maintaining the effects of chiseling more than rice alone. Statistically significant differences were found in bulk density among systems at different depths but the values found for 0-10 and 10-20 cm soil layers could be considered non-limiting for root growth and distribution. Below 20 cm soil depth where tillage implements (disc harrows) used for land preparation are not expected to have any direct impact, bulk density values were generally higher than those found in the ploughed layers. However, they were not substantially different than native savanna at that depth, indicating that land preparation was not causing added compaction in subsoil layers.Although some statistically significant differences in macroporosity were found among the different systems, values in the 0-10 and 10-20 cm soil layers are considered non-limiting for root growth and distribution. Below this depth, some values lower than the critical level (10%) were observed. Monocropping of rice resulted in marked decrease of macroporosity for 20-40 cm soil depth when compared with rotation systems.Trends among systems in total soil organic C and SOM fractions (i.e., LL-C) were generally the same (Table 3). However, SOM fractions were more sensitive to the effects of production system than conventional measures of total soil C. LL-C content revealed greater differences among treatments at 0-10 cm soil depth and also found significant effects at 10-20 cm depth. This agrees with results of Barrios et al. (1996Barrios et al. ( , 1997) ) where the LL-C fraction was identified as a sensitive indicator of SOM changes due to soil and crop management not detected by total soil C.Surface soil (0-10 cm) LL-C was usually higher than that of the sub-soil. Both total C and LL-C were highest in the agropastoral system and became progressively lower in the annual rice-based systems, in step with increasing intensity of cultivation in the order:Rice monocrop (1 cultivation yr -1 ) > rice-cowpea (2 yr -1 ) > rice-GM (3 yr -1 )Despite the large quantities of crop and GM residues incorporated into these systems, only the agropastoral system succeeded in building total SOM content; all other systems experienced declining total C values. Only the rice-GM system showed an increase in LL-C at 10-20 cm depth. Soil C:N ratio was significantly reduced in the surface soil of the rice-GM system, corresponding to the inputs of high quality organic residues. On the other hand, C:N ratio increased significantly in the agropastoral system, probably due to the high litter production of the grass component with its high C:N ratio. Lower soil C:N ratios in the rice-GM system are indicative of higher potential soil N availability, which can be equated with improved plant nutrition or alternatively greater potential for N loss from the system. High rates of legume residue decomposition in this experiment were reported previously (Friesen et al, 1998) and explain the failure to generate an increased SOM content in this system despite the high organic matter inputs.Intensification and land use system affected earthworm communities in different ways. One year after breaking native savanna (1993), a drastic reduction in earthworm density and biomass was observed in the established rice monocrop and agropastoral systems. Two years later (1996), earthworm density and biomass decreased sharply along a gradient in which highly intensified annual crop systems had deep detrimental impacts that were more accentuated in the rotations (i.e. systems that were tilled 2 or 3 time per year) -down to 3 individuals m -2 and 0.1 g m -2 in the rice-GM rotation from 50 individuals m -2 and 3.2 g m -2 in the native savanna (Decaëns and Jiménez, 2002).Earthworm species responded differently to intensification. Only one species, the small endogeic Ocnerodrilidae sp., seemed to be enhanced by the conversion of the savanna into annual crops which usually led to a drastic reduction of the number of species. Three species, Andiodrilus n. sp., Aymara n. sp. and Glossodrilus n. sp. often disappeared from the soil of these systems (Decaëns and Jiménez, 2002), although those species with a high surface mobility were able to colonize the agroecosystems again. Other species showed a high population growth potential that allowed them to recover to their population density before the perturbation. Sensitive species disappeared after pasture establishment but richness was recovered 3 years later.Average rice grain yields fluctuated from year to year in response to differences in moisture availability and, more importantly, increased competition from weeds (data not shown). The latter also resulted in increased variability and an inability to detect significant differences among systems in later years (Table 4). Rice-legume (cowpea or GM) rotations tended to produce greater yields throughout the 4year period following establishment in 1993; however, these were only statistically significant in 1994.With the exception of 1995, average rice grain yields did not show any apparent decline with time in any of the three annual production systems.  ------------------------(Mg grain ha -1 ) - ----------------------- This 5-year field study examined the effects of contrasting rice-based production systems on rice productivity and indicators of soil chemical/fertility, physical and biological health. Increased intensity of fertilizer inputs associated with increased system intensity generally resulted in commensurate increases in soil fertility under those systems. A previous report (Friesen et al, 1998) showed increasing levels of inorganic N in soil profiles to 1-m depth under rice monoculture < rice-cowpea < rice-GM, with significant and substantial leaching due primarily to legume residues in the latter two systems. The longterm consequences and externalities of improved N fertility in such systems cannot be discounted.Soil physical characteristics were generally improved with increasing system intensity, probably due to the degraded nature of the soils under native savanna. Cultivation generally helped to create an 'arable layer' (Phiri et al, 2001) by incorporating immobile nutrients such as P to depth in this infertile Oxisol. However, these beneficial effects can only be considered short-term. Cultivation also resulted in declining levels of SOM, particularly in the LL-C fraction, which may have consequences on soil structure in the longer term.Soil macrofauna were the most adversely affected by production systems. Cultivation caused drastic reductions in earthworm populations and biomass, more severely so with increasing intensity and frequency. Since soil macrofauna have direct beneficial effects on many soil characteristics that affect its long term productivity (such as nutrient cycling, soil structure, soil water dynamics, bulk density and root penetrability), managing systems in ways that minimize the impact on macrofaunal populations will be an essential consideration in the sustainable use of this agroecosystem. Within the context of the savannas, Jiménez et al. ( 2001) proposed a hypothetical conservative agricultural production system to preserve benefits of soil fauna which integrated: (i) native vegetation plots possibly used as extensive pastures and as a reserve of biodiversity; (ii) permanent pastures for livestock systems that allow the establishment of important native earthworm biomass; (c) agro-pastoral systems with annual crops managed in rotation with temporary pastures and located contiguously to permanent pastures to maximize migration of populations. Integration of more intense production systems which build the 'arable layer' but thereafter revert to more conservative tillage practices may be viable alternatives whose sustainability should be examined at the landscape scale.In the humid tropics, a substantial proportion (36%) of agricultural land is on steep or very steep slopes (Wood et al., 2000). In mountainous regions of developing countries, these lands often play a central role in rural food security and increasingly supply urban and/or export food and forest product markets. Andean hillsides contribute to food production through agricultural systems but these systems are characterized by low productivity and limited use of nutrient inputs. They harbor a large proportion of the rural poor and are an important source of water for the urban population and agricultural and industrial activities downstream (CIAT, 1996a). Densely populated hillsides in the humid and sub-humid tropics are considered to be areas where diversification of cropping systems to include trees and shrubs could improve soil fertility, increase production of fuel-wood, and result in better watershed management (Young, 1997).Traditional agricultural systems in Colombia's tropical hillsides are based on shifting cultivation that involves slashing and burning of the native vegetation, followed by continuous cultivation and abandonment after 3-5 years because of low crop yields (Knapp et al., 1996). Leaving degraded soils to \"rest\" or \"fallow\" is a traditional management practice throughout the tropics for restoration of soil fertility lost during cropping (Sánchez, 1995). Successful restoration of soil fertility normally requires a long fallow period for sufficient regeneration of the native vegetation and establishment of tree species (Young, 1997). Increased pressure on land as a result of population growth has limited the possibility for long fallow periods. When purchasing power is low, one alternative to traditional fallows is to improve fallows with plants that replenish soil nutrient stocks faster than plants in natural succession (Barrios et al., 1997). Planted fallows are an appropriate technological entry point because of their low risk for the farmer, relatively low cost, and potential to generate additional products that bring immediate benefit while improving soil fertility (i.e. fuel-wood).Slash and mulch agroforestry systems include alley cropping systems where pruned biomass from tree rows is applied in the alleys between the rows before planting (Kang et al., 1990). Alternatively, biomass transfer systems include the harvesting and transporting of biomass from one farm location (e.g., live fences) to another as a source of nutrients for the crop (Jama et al., 2000). Fallow enrichment of traditional slash/mulch systems of 'frijol tapado' in Costa Rica have also shown the importance of the inclusion of trees as a source of biomass and nutrients during soil fertility recovery (Kettler, 1997). In the Honduran 'quezungual' system trees are left in cropped fields and pruned periodically to keep competition low while providing plant residues for soil cover and as a source of nutrients (Hellin et al., 1999).The volcanic-ash soils in Colombian hillsides generally contain high amounts of soil organic matter (SOM) but nutrient cycling through SOM in these soils is limited because most of it is chemically protected, which limit the rate of its decomposition (Phiri et al., 2001). The slash/mulch fallow system described in this work has the spatial design features of an agroforestry planted fallow system but involves prunings with the resulting biomass applied to the same fallow plot. This system is expected to accelerate nutrient recycling through increased biological activity in soils with high inherent nutrient reserves but low nutrient availability. In this paper we explore the agronomic features of this system as well as its impact on soil fertility recovery as measured by some soil chemical, physical and biological parameters before a cropping phase of maize.The study was conducted on two farms in Pescador, located in the Andean hillsides of the Cauca Department, southwestern Colombia (2º48' N, 76º33' W) at 1505 m above sea level. The area has a mean temperature of 19.3°C and a mean annual rainfall of 1900 mm (bimodal). The experiment started in November 1997 and the fallow phase concluded after 27 months (FebruaryMarch 2000).Soils in the area are derived from volcanic-ash deposition and are classified as Oxic Dystropepts in the USDA classification, with predominant medium to fine textures, high fragility, low cohesion, and shallow humic layers (IGAC, 1979). Soil bulk density is close to 0.8 Mg m -3 . Soils in the top 20 cm are moderately acid (pH H20 = 5.1), rich in soil organic matter (C = 50 mg g -1 ), low in base saturation (57%) and effective CEC (6.0 cmol kg -1 ), and also low P availability (Bray-II P = 4.6 mg kg -1 ). Low soil P availability is the result of high allophane content (52-70 g kg -1 ) which increases soil P sorbing capacity (Gijsman and Sanz, 1998).Experiments were set up at two locations in the Cauca Department hillsides on degraded soils previously cultivated with cassava for three years. Experiment BM1 was established at San Isidro Farm in Pescador. It was established as a random complete block (RCB) design with four treatments and three field replications. Treatments included two tree legumes, Indigofera constricta (IND) and Calliandra calothyrsus (CAL), one shrub, Tithonia diversifolia (TTH), and a natural regeneration or fallow (NAT). Plant species were selected on the basis of their adaptation to the hillside environment, ability to withstand periodical prunings, and the contrasting chemical composition of their tissues. The plot size was 18 m by 9 m. Experiment BM2 was established at the Benizio Velazco Farm also in Pescador. It was also established as a RCB design with three treatments due to limited space available and three field replications. Treatments included IND, CAL and NAT with same plot size and management as in BM1. Glasshouse grown two-month old Indigofera and Calliandra plants, inoculated with rhizobium strains CIAT 5071 and CIAT 4910 respectively and a common Acaulospora longula mycorrhizal strain, were planted in the field at 1.5 x 1.5 m spacing for treatments IND and CAL respectively. Tithonia cuttings were initially rooted in plastic bags before transplanting to the field using a 0.5 x 0.5 m spacing. During the first two months all planted fallows were frequently weeded to facilitate rapid establishment, thereafter no additional weeding took place. The natural regeneration treatment, NAT, received no management at all and served as control since this is the common practice of local farmers once their soils have become unproductive. Treatments IND and CAL were pruned to 1.5 m height at 18 months after planting and weighed biomass was laid down on the soil surface. In the TTH treatment, plants were pruned to 20 cm six times, starting six months after planting, and weighed biomass laid on the soil surface. Pruning intensity in TTH was guided by farmers concern that this common weed may become too competitive if allowed to produce seeds. In the case of IND and CAL the strategy was to reduce the impact of prunings on stem diameter increase and thus value as fuel wood at the end of the fallow phase. Whole plot measurement of biomass production during each pruning event was carried out and a composited subsample taken for laboratory analyses before laying down the pruned biomass on the soil surface. All above-ground biomass was harvested after 27 months with the conclusion of the fallow phase and left on the soil surface until soil sampling.Subsamples of each plant material evaluated were analyzed for total carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). All plant material was ground and passed through a 1 mm mesh before analysis. C, N and P were determined with an autoanalyzer . Potassium, Ca and Mg were determined by wet digestion with nitric-perchloric acid followed by atomic absorption spectrometry (CIAT, 1993).High soil variability has been identified as a major limitation to evaluation of soil management strategies because of the difficulty in finding significant treatment differences in the area of study. Several measures were taken to address this potential limitation including splitting field replications in half and treating them as subplots from the beginning of the experiment, grid sampling for a composite subplot sample, and using covariance analysis.Twenty-five samples were collected in a grid pattern and composited for each subplot at 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm respectively after 12 and 28 months under the four fallow treatments. Plant litter on the soil surface was carefully removed before collecting the soil samples. Samples from each plot were air-dried, visible plant roots removed, and the samples gently crushed to pass through a 2-mm sieve.Whole soil was ground with a mortar and pestle to <0.3 mm and then analyzed for C, N, and P. Total organic C was determined by wet oxidation with acidified potassium dichromate and external heating followed by colorimetry (Anderson and Ingram, 1993). Total N and P whole soil were determined by digestion with concentrated sulfuric acid using selenium as a catalyst, followed by colorimetric determination with an autoanalyzer. Bray P and exchangeable K were extracted with Bray II solution followed by colorimetric and atomic absorption determination respectively. Exchangeable Ca and Mg, and Al were extracted with 1M KCl solution and determined as described before (CIAT, 1993). Nitrate and ammonium were extracted in 1M KCl solution and determined by colorimetry with an autoanalyzer. . Separate soil samples were taken from each field replication after 28 months to assess soil physical, chemical and biological parameters at the end of the fallow period. Soil bulk density was determined every 5 cm soil depth by using 50 mm long cores with 50 mm internal diameter (Blake and Hartge, 1986). Measurements for other physical parameters used similar cylinders as those indicated above. Hydraulic conductivity was measured on undisturbed core samples using a constant head of water (Klute and Dirksen, 1986). Air permeability was determined by measuring the rate of air flowing in a core sample equilibrated at a suction of 7.5 KPa, using a Daiki DIK-5001 apparatus. Residual porosity was calculated as percentage of porosity remaining in the soil after subjecting it to a 20 KPa confined pressure at a suction equivalent to field capacity (Hakansson, 1990). Soil samples for chemical analyses were taken at three soil depths (i.e. 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm).Special attention was paid to the soil macrofauna communities (i.e. soil invertebrates larger than 2 mm) in BM1. The sampling was performed using the method recommended by the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (TSBF) (Anderson and Ingram, 1993). In each fallow system and repetition two samples of 25 cm x 25 cm x 30 cm were taken at regular 5 m intervals. A metallic frame was used to isolate soil monoliths that were dug out with a spade and divided into 4 successive layers (i.e., litter, 0-10, 10-20, 20-30 cm). Each layer was then carefully hand-sorted in large trays and all macro-invertebrates seen with the naked eye were collected, counted, weighed and preserved in 75% alcohol, except for the earthworms which were previously fixed in 4% formalin for 2 or 3 days.In the laboratory, invertebrates were then identified into broad taxonomic units (Orders or Families), counted and further grouped in 7 larger units, i.e., earthworms (Oligochaeta), termites (Isoptera), ants (Hymenoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), spiders (Arachnida), millipedes (Myriapoda), and \"other invertebrates\". Density and biomass of each of these 7 major groups were determined in each slash/mulch fallow system. Biomass was expressed as fixed weight in alcohol, 19% lesser than live weight for earthworms and termites, 9% for ants, 11% for Coleoptera, 6% for Arachnida and Myriapoda and 13% for the \"other invertebrates\" (Decaëns et al., 1994).Analyses of variance (ANOVA) for plant biomass and nutrient data from BM1 and BM2 experiments were conducted to determine the impact of experimental site and management regime on planted fallow species. Covariance analyses were conducted on soil data from the BM1 and BM2 experiments to determine the effect of fallow systems on soil parameters. In the case when covariance analysis for a parameter showed no significance, the Tukey's Studentized Range Tests were used to compare treatment means; conversely, when covariance analysis for a parameter was significant, the General Linear Models Procedure of Least Square Means (LSM) was used to compare treatment means. ANOVA for soil physical parameters were used to compare treatment means at the end of the fallow period for BM1 and BM2 respectively. All statistical analyses were conducted using the SAS program (SAS Institute, 1990).Experimental sites were of the same soil type and had a similar recent cropping history as stated above; nevertheless, they showed differences in certain soil parameters probably as a result of previous differences in soil management. Soil at BM1 experimental site was generally more acid, had a lower total C, higher total P, and considerably higher Bray P and exchageable Al than soil at the BM2 experimental site (Table 1).Total biomass production of the different slash/mulch fallow systems evaluated was higher in BM1 than in BM2, independent of treatment (Fig. 1). In BM1 the order of total biomass production was TTH>IND,CAL,NAT, while in BM2 the order was CAL,IND>NAT. Published values for leguminous trees in different agroforestry systems indicate average annual additions of dry matter biomass up to 20 Mg ha -1 yr -1 (Young 1997). The highest total biomass production, 17.1 Mg ha -1 yr -1 , corresponded to T. diversifolia, and was likely a result of fast growth and ability to withstand coppicing about every three months. This value is comparable to the mean dry biomass production of 18.0 Mg ha -1 yr -1 for Leucaena leucocephala and greater than the 11.3 Mg ha -1 yr -1 reported for Senna siamea in alley cropping systems (Van der Mersch et al., 1993). The mean biomass production of C. calothyrsus was 9.8 Mg ha -1 yr -1 and 9.0 Mg ha -1 yr -1 for I. constricta. The natural fallow (NAT), which represents the traditional fallow practice by local farmers, was dominated by herbaceous plants like Panicum viscedellum Scribn, Emilia sonchifolia (L.) DC., Hyptis atrorubens Poit, Mellinis minutiflora Beauv, Richardia scabra L., Panicum laxum SW and Pteridium aracnoideum (Kaulf.) Mabon. (Zamorano, 2000), and showed the lowest mean biomass accumulation (5.5 Mg ha -1 yr -1 ). The difference observed in annual increments of dry matter production between IND and CAL as affected by experimental site suggests that I. constricta is more responsive to better soil conditions found in BM1 than C. calothyrsus while the latter is more tolerant to poorer soil conditions found in BM2. However, further multi-location testing of these species is needed to better define the environmental niches for these slash/mulch fallow species. The relative contributions of nutrients through slash/mulch fallow management, expressed as percent of control (NAT), were generally highest in TTH (Table 2). Relative N contributions were highest in BM2 for both CAL and IND compared to BM1. This is possibly a result of the considerably lower (i.e. 40%) total aboveground biomass production in NAT in BM2 compared to BM1, because actual N inputs values were similar for both species in both experiments (data not shown). Research on the impact of nutrient contributions to the soil through the application of organic materials usually focus on N, increasingly on P, and least frequently on K, Ca or Mg. Nitrogen contributions through prunings of L. leucocephala and S. siamea in alley cropping systems were shown to contribute 307 kg ha -1 and 197 kg ha -1 respectively (Van der Mersch et al., 1993). Nitrogen contributions through slash/mulch systems TTH, IND and CAL in this study were 36%, 5% and 0.5% higher than for the L. leucocephala alley cropping systems mentioned above. Published values indicate that leguminous trees in alley cropping systems can contribute as much as 358 kg N, 28 kg P, 232 kg K, 144 kg Ca and 60 kg Mg per hectare (Palm, 1995). Nevertheless, nutrient availability in the soil is regulated to a large extent by the chemical composition or quality of plant tissues because they affect the rates of decomposition and nutrient release (Cadisch and Giller, 1997). All species used in this experiment have a N content greater than 2.5% which has been suggested as a conceptual threshold for N mineralization resulting in increased soil N availability to arable crops within a growing season (Palm et al., 2001). Nevertheless, while T. diversifolia and I. constricta decompose quickly because of their low lignin (6.9%, 4.6% respectively) and polyphenol (8.6%, 8.7%) contents and high in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) (72.4%, 77.4%), decomposition is slower in C. calothyrsus because of high lignin (14.5%) and polyphenol (18.4%) contents and low IVDMD (28.1%) (Cobo et al., 2002a). Recent studies also showed that fast decomposing, high quality plant materials (i.e. IND, TTH) generated high short-term N availability but low crop uptake; while slow decomposing, lower quality plant materials (i.e. CAL) resulted in greater N crop uptake presumably as a result of improved synchrony between soil nutrient availability and crop demand (Cobo et al., 2002b). Additional benefits from slash/mulch fallow systems include the contribution to soil nutrient pools from fine roots through root turnover and root dieback caused by pruning of above ground biomass. The importance of fine root and mycorrhiza turnover has generally been under emphasized as it has been shown in forest systems that they can contribute up to 4 times more N and up to ten times more P than above ground litterfall (Bowen, 1984). There is little information on the amount of nutrients supplied through roots in agroforestry systems (Palm, 1995). Root biomas of trees is usually between 20-50% of aboveground biomass, giving shoot:root ratios ranging from 4:1 to 1.5:1, but the proportion of roots becomes higher on nutrient-and/or water-limited soils (Young, 1997). Fig. 1. Dry matter aboveground production by slash/mulch and natural fallow systems at the BM1 and BM2 sites after 27 months.One important difference between slash/mulch fallow systems and biomass transfer systems is related to their long-term impact and sustainability. Slash/mulch fallow systems are likely to promote soil nutrient availability through remobilization of nutrients from less available soil nutrient pools. This may be a result of priming effects on soil mineralization processes triggered by labile C added with prunings as well as by root death and decomposition following slash/mulch. A considerable proportion of nutrients released is likely to be reabsorbed by the standing root biomass of fallow species and lead to new biomass growth. This cycle repeats with each slash/mulch event as nutrient recycling constitutes the basis of the functioning and sustainability of this cropping system. On the other hand, biomass transfer systems lead to variable levels of nutrient mining because they generate negative nutrient balances in soils under hedges and thus their long term use is limited as indicated by Gachengo et al. (1999) and Jama et al. (2000).  Soil parameters showing significant differences among treatments included total N, available N (nitrate), exchangeable K, Mg, and Al for BM1 and available N (amonium, nitrate), and exchangeable K and Ca for BM2 (Table 3). Significant differences for most parameters, however, occurred after 12 or 28 months. The only parameters showing consistent significance across fallow age were total N in BM1 and exchangeable K in both BM1 and BM2. Because of high spatial variability, which is the characteristic feature of these hillside soils, significant changes are of considerable importance. Treatments means for soil parameters indicated are presented in Tables 4 and 5. Total soil N was highest (P < 0.05) in TTH, and CAL showed the second highest value after12 and 28 months of fallow duration (Table 4). After 12 months, NAT presented the lowest soil total N while IND had the lowest soil total N at the end of the fallow period (28 months). The beneficial effects of T. diversifolia on soil nutrients observed in the present study confirm previous published results of Gachengo et al. (1999), also on P-fixing soils. T. diversifolia is highly effective in scavenging soil nutrients as previously reported by Jama et al. (2000). This may be a result of profuse rooting systems in association with native mycorrhizae as well as the capacity to stimulate mineralization of adsorbed P and utilize organic phosphorus. C. calothyrsus and I. constricta, on the other hand, are both N-fixers deriving respectively 37 and 42 % of their N from the atmosphere (CIAT, 1996b). For each parameter only treatment means are presented when their effect was shown significant in Table 3 After 12 months, slash/mulch fallow systems containing TTH showed the highest exchangeable K and lowest exchangeable Al (P < 0.05) in BM1 (Table 5). Studies in acid soils of Burundi have also found a reduction in exchangeable Al by green manure additions, suggesting complexing of Al by organic materials (Young, 1997). In BM2 highest exchangeable K and Ca values were found in IND and NAT respectively. At the end of the fallow phase (28 months), exchangeable K was highest for TTH overall, but the trend for the common treatments among BM1 and BM2 was the same, with NAT and IND contributing significantly (P < 0.05) more than CAL. Exchangeable Mg in BM1 showed the same trend as K with the difference that the IND fallow system led to the lowest soil values. The high concentration of cations, especially K in T. diversifolia biomass (Table 2), and the pruning management in TTH is likely to be responsible for the highest contribution to soil exchangeable cations by this slash/mulch fallow system.The lack of significant changes in soil P parameters as a result of the slash/mulch fallow systems evaluated may, however, be influenced by the relative low amounts of P added to the soil compared with other nutrients like N and K (Palm et al., 1995) and also could be due to soils with a high P-sorption capacity (Rao et al., 1999). For each parameter only treatment means are presented when their effect was shown significant in Table 3 Soil fractionation generally increases the capacity to detect soil changes in SOM as a result of treatment compared to bulk soil measures (Barrios et al., 1996;1997). Recent results from Phiri et al. (2001) focusing on soil organic matter (SOM) (Meijboom et al., 1995) and P fractions (Tiessen and Moir, 1993), rather than conventional chemical analyses (e.g., Bray II P), indicate significant differences among treatments in experiment BM1 after 12 months. The slash/mulch fallow species in TTH, IND and CAL had an overall positive effect on soil fertility parameters when compared with the natural unmanaged fallow (NAT). T. diversifolia showed the greatest potential to improve SOM, nutrient availability, and P cycling because of its ability to accumulate high amounts of biomass and nutrients. The amount of P in the light (LL) and medium (LM) fractions of SOM correlated well with the amount of \"readily available\" P in the soil (Fig. 2). It is suggested that the amount of P in the LL and LM fractions of SOM could serve as sensitive indicators of \"readily available\" and \"readily mineralizable\" soil-P pools, respectively, in the volcanic-ash soils studied.Bulk density values reported for BM1 and BM2 are relatively low and are in agreement with published values for other volcanic ash soils (Shoji et al., 1993). After 28 months of fallow with the four systems, significant differences (P < 0.05) in bulk density were only found for the 0-5 cm soil depth of experiment BM2 (Table 6). While CAL and NAT were not different, IND showed significantly higher bulk density values (Table 7). A parameter showing significant treatment effects can result from low random error (i.e. bulk density) or a large separation of treatment means (i.e. air permeability) (Mead et al., 1993). The increased bulk density observed could be the result of a decrease in SOM levels. Although SOM levels in IND were lowest but not statistically significant (data not shown) in BM2, significantly lowest (P < 0.05) total N values were found in IND compared to other system treatment for BM1 (Table 4). Since soil total C and soil total N are highly correlated (Wild, 1988) we can assume that the I. constricta slash/mulch fallow generally promoted a reduction in SOM resulting in an increased soil bulk density. Fig. 2. The relationship between P content in the light (LL) and intermediate (LM) soil organic matter (SOM) fractions and sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) extractable organic P (A) and inorganic P (B) at BM1 after 12 months. The asterisk (*) indicates significance at a = 0.05.Soil air permeability was sensitive to treatment differences in BM1 (Table 6). This parameter measures the resistance of soil to air-flow and is associated to bulk density and hydraulic conductivity. While TTH showed the highest values, CAL and NAT showed intermediate values and IND the lowest values (Table 7). These results indicate that TTH improved structural stability of surface soil presumably as a result of changes in pore size distribution which allowed better air flow while IND led to greater resistance to air flow than the control NAT.  The characterization of the soil macrofauna communities after 28 months of slash/much fallow treatments in BM1 showed taxonomically and functionally diverse taxa. A total of 22 taxonomic units (TU) were found. Macro-invertebrate total density ranged from 376.8 individuals (ind.) m -2 in TTH to 304.8 ind. m -2 in CAL. Conversely, macro-invertebrate biomass ranged from 18.2 g m -2 in IND to 6.1 g m -2 in TTH (Fig. 3). Other invertebrates corresponded to some nematodes (Mermithidae), hemipterans (Hemiptera) , snails (Gastropoda) and grasshoppers (Orthoptera). Termites (Isoptera) were almost absent from all fallow treatments, being less than 1% of total macro-fauna abundance. For each parameter only treatment means are presented when their effect was shown significant in Table 6 The main groups of soil macro-invertebrates were rather abundant, especially ants (Hymenoptera). The abundance of ants, comprised of several species, was highest in TTH (254.8 ind.m -2 ) and lower in IND and NAT (176 ind.m -2 ). Earthworm density was lowest in TTH (19.2 ind.m -2 ) and highest in IND (106.8 ind.m -2 ). These two taxa were the main components of total macro-invertebrate biomass in all systems ranging from 46.9% in TTH to 73.1% in IND in the case of earthworm biomass. We found the exotic earthworm species Pontoscolex corethrurus (Glossoscolecidae) that is commonly found when tropical natural ecosystems are replaced by different production systems (Fragoso et al., 1999). In some Amazonian agroecosystems, the presence of this exotic has had a negative effect on soil properties, mainly due to loss of the original earthworm diversity rather than to the mere presence of this earthworm (Chauvel et al., 1999). Larvae of beetles (Coleoptera) were also highly abundant and their biomass was lowest in IND (78.8 g m -2 ) and highest in TTH (120.8 gm -2 ). Fig. 3. Density and biomass of soil macroinvertebrate communities in the slash/mulch fallow systems at the BM1 site at the end of the fallow phase.The impact of slash/mulch treatment differences is consistent with other results presented and suggest three generally distinct groups TTH, CAL+NAT, and IND. High ant activity in TTH, as indicated by high density, suggests that we may be underestimating the potential impact of T. diversifolia additions because a considerable proportion may be exported by ants to their nests. On the other hand, earthworm activity is well known for stimulating N mineralization rates (Barois et al., 1987;Lavelle et al., 1992;Decaëns et al., 1999;Rangel et al., 1999) and the observation of particularly high numbers of individuals in IND coincides with the observation of a reduction in total soil N and an increase in soil available N. The conspicuous presence of P. corethrurus in IND and the observation that compact casts increase soil compaction (Hallaire et al., 2000), because of the limited presence or absence of soil fauna able to decompact such casts (Blanchart et al., 1997, P.Lavelle pers.comm.), suggests that increased soil bulk density observed in IND may have been mediated by increased activity of this species.Some groups of soil macroinvertebrates may have beneficial effects on some soil parameters evaluated but others, on the contrary, may cause damage since they constitute soilborne pests. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the level of resolution of identifications studies to the species level. This seems to be of particular relevance when using soil macrofauna as biological indicators of soil functioning and health (Pankhurst et al., 1997). Nevertheless, since information on soil fauna was not available at the beginning of the experiment and was limited to BM1, conclusions regarding the impact of production systems on the soil macrofauna communities must be considered preliminary.Slash/mulch planted fallow systems evaluated in this study were more productive in terms of biomass production and nutrient recycling than the traditional practice of natural regeneration by native flora, suggesting that the objective of increased nutrient recycling was achieved. This study attempted to integrate understanding of the impacts of slash/mulch planted fallow systems on soil quality by simultaneously evaluating the chemical, physical and biological dimensions of the soil. The TTH slash/mulch fallow system proved to be the best option to recover the overall soil fertility of degraded soils following cassava monocropping in the study area. Nevertheless, its use may be limited in areas with seasonal drought as it is not very tolerant to extended dry periods. The CAL slash/mulch fallow system proved to be the most resilient as it produced similar amounts of biomass independent of initial soil quality and thus a candidate for wider testing as a potential source of nutrient additions to the soil and fuelwood for rural communities. The slower rates of decomposition in CAL, compared to IND and TTH, suggest that benefits provided may be longer lasting and potential losses would be reduced through improved synchronization between nutrient availability and crop demand. The IND slash/mulch fallow, on the other hand, showed more susceptibility to initial soil quality and this may limit its potential for extended use.Increased soil bulk density as a result of decrease in SOM, observed in slash/mulch planted fallows using IND, was possibly mediated by the presence of large populations of the endogeic earthworm P. corethrurus. This earthworm species is known to stimulate N mineralization and to be responsible for soil compaction when a diverse macrofauna community capable of ameliorating soil physical structure is limited or absent. Although increased available N may have positive short-term impacts, the significant decrease in total soil N suggests that considerable N losses may be occurring during the fallow phase and benefits to subsequent cropping could be limited. Further multilocation testing is needed to confirm these observations, and also to study the 'fallow effect' on crop yield as well as the economic feasibility of slash-mulch fallow systems.Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for plants and often the first limiting element in acid tropical soils. Profound understanding of the P dynamics in the soil/plant system and especially of the short-and long-term fate of P fertilizer in relation to different management practices is essential for the sustainable management of tropical agroecosystems (Friesen et al., 1997). Chemical sequential extraction procedures have been and still are widely used to divide extractable soil P into different inorganic and organic fractions (Chang and Jackson, 1957;Bowman and Cole, 1978;Hedley et al., 1982;Cross and Schlesinger, 1995). The underlying assumption in these approaches is that readily available soil P is removed first with mild extractants, while less available or plant-unavailable P can only be extracted with stronger acids and alkali. In the fractionation procedure developed by Hedley et al. (1982) and modified by Tiessen and Moir (1993), the P fractions (in order of extraction) are interpreted as follows. Resin-P i represents inorganic P (P i ) either from the soil solution or weakly adsorbed on (oxy)hydroxides or carbonates (Mattingly, 1975). Sodium bicarbonate 0.5 M at pH 8.5 also extracts weakly adsorbed P i (Hedley et al., 1982) and easily hydrolysable organic P (P o )-compounds like ribonucleic acids and glycerophosphate (Bowman and Cole, 1978). Sodium hydroxide 0.5 M extracts P i associated with amorphous and crystalline Al and Fe (oxy)hydroxides and clay minerals and P o associated with organic compounds (fulvic and humic acids). Hydrochloric acid 1 M extracts P i associated with apatite or octacalcium P (Frossard et al., 1995). Hot concentrated HCl extracts P i and P o from more stable pools. Organic P extracted at this step may also come from particulate organic matter (Tiessen and Moir, 1993). Residual P, i.e. P that remains after extracting the soil with the already cited extractants, most likely contains very recalcitrant P i and P o forms.Several studies related these different P fractions in tropical soils to plant growth (Crews, 1996;Guo and Yost, 1998) or showed the influence of land-use and the fate of applied fertilizers (Iyamuremye et al., 1996;Linquist et al., 1997;Lilienfein et al, 1999;Oberson et al., 1999), and partly resulted in contrasting assignments of fractions to pools of different availability. By comparing the amounts of P extracted from the surface horizons of Brazilian Oxisols that had been under different land-use systems for 9-20 years, either unfertilized or with mineral P fertilizer application, Lilienfein et al. (1999) showed that most of the fertilizer was recovered in the Bic-and NaOH-P i fractions, irrespective of the land-use system (resin-P i was not measured). In a 4-year field study conducted on a Hawaiian Ultisol, Linquist et al. (1997) recovered one year after fertilizer application almost 40% of the applied triple super phosphate (TSP) fertilizer in the hot HCl and H 2 SO 4 fractions. Oberson et al. (1999) showed that in an Oxisol managed as a legume-grass pasture for 15 years resin-P i , Bic-and NaOH-P i as well as NaOH-P o levels were maintained at a higher level over the whole year in comparison to the same soil with the same total P content but managed as a grass only pasture. Iyamuremye et al. (1996) found an increase of resin-P i , Bic-P i and -P o as well as NaOH-P i after addition of manure or alfalfa residues to acid low-P soils from Rwanda. In the study of Guo and Yost (1998), resin-P i , Bic-and NaOH-P i were most depleted by plant uptake on highly weathered soils. NaOH-P i was important in buffering available P supply while significant depletion of organic fractions could rarely be measured.A possible method to gain information about the availability of different P fractions is to label soil P, fertilizers or plant residues before applying the sequential fractionation scheme (MacKenzie, 1962;Weir andSoper, 1962, Dunbar andBaker, 1965). Two studies followed the movement of labeled P from plant residues to soil P fractions applying a modified Hedley (Daroub et al., 2000) or the Chang and Jackson (1957) fractionation procedures (Friesen and Blair, 1988). They found that at six or eleven days, respectively, after plant residue addition between 20 and 50 % of the label was extractable as P i with a resin (Daroub et al., 2000) or with NH 4 Cl and NH 4 F (Friesen and Blair, 1988). For longer incubation periods up to 34 days, Daroub et al. (2000) showed a subsequent movement of the label from the resin-P i fraction to the NaOH-P i fraction. The results obtained in these studies suggest that, in tropical soils, the amounts of P in the different pools measured by sequential P extraction procedures and the fluxes of P between pools are controlled both by physico chemical factors (sorption/desorption) and by biological reactions (immobilization/mineralization). However, the importance of these different reactions for different land-use systems, such as monocropping, pasture or intercropping, remain largely unknown.The objective of this study was to assess the effect of different land-use systems (native savanna, rice monocropping, rice green manure rotation, grass legume pasture) on some physico chemical and biological reactions involved in P cycling in a Colombian Oxisol. Surface soil sampled in the different cropping systems was labeled with carrier-free radioactive P ( 33 P). After various incubation times, P was sequentially extracted by the modified Hedley procedure (Tiessen and Moir, 1993) and 31 P and 33 P were measured in each fraction.Soils included in the study were sampled during the rainy season in September 1997 from a field experiment (Friesen et al., 1997)   1).The surface soil layer (0-20 cm) was sampled in the long-term \"Culticore\" field experiment, which was established in 1993 with the objective to test the effect of different farming systems on plant productivity and soil fertility (Friesen et al., 1997). The experiment had a split-plot design with four replicates with treatment sub-plots of 0.36 ha size. The soil samples used for this study were taken at random in two replicates of each treatment and the replicates were mixed for the laboratory analysis. For our study, the following treatments were included.1 grown in monoculture; one crop per year followed by a weedy fallow incorporated with early land preparation at the beginning of the rainy season before sowing rice. 4. RGM (Rice green manure rotation): Rice followed by cowpea (Vigna unguiculata, var. ICA Menegua) in the same year. The legume was incorporated at the maximum standing biomass level in the late rainy season before sowing rice in the following rainy season.Before establishing the treatments, GL, CR, and RGM on savanna, the soil was conventionally tilled after burning the native vegetation. At the beginning of the experiment all treatments except SAV were limed using 500 kg dolomitic lime ha -1 . Fertilization of rice was 80 kg N ha year -1 (urea, divided among three applications), 60 kg P ha year -1 (triple superphosphate), 99 kg K as KCl, 15 kg Mg and 20 kg S (as MgSO 4 ) and 10 kg Zn ha -1 at establishment and according to plant needs afterwards. With cowpea additionally 20 kg N and 40 kg P ha year -1 and 60 kg K, 10 kg Mg, 13 kg S and 10 kg Zn ha -1 at establishment and in adequate rates afterwards were applied. The introduced pasture (GL) received additional fertilization only in 1996 (per ha: 20 kg P, 20 kg Ca (lime), 10 kg Mg (lime), 10 kg S (elemental) and 50 kg K (KCl)). Phosphorus input-output balances were estimated by subtracting the P removed from the system by grain and/or with animal live weight gains from the P applied in mineral fertilizers. Phosphorus exports in grain were calculated by multiplying weighed rice grain yields with measured P contents in grains. P exported in the animals was assumed to be 8 g per kg of live weight gain. Live weight gains in GL were on average 68 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Oberson et al., 2001). Cultivated soils were tilled to a maximum of 15 cm depth.Topsoil samples (0-20 cm) were air-dried and sieved at 2 mm before they were used for chemical analysis in the analytical service laboratory of CIAT or shipped to Switzerland where they were stored in air-dried condition until use for the fractionation experiment in 2000.Bray-II P was extracted using dilute acid fluoride (0.03 M NH 4 F, 0.1 M HCl) at 1:7 soil solution ratio using 2 g soil and 40 sec shaking time. Total soil P (P tot ) was determined on samples of 0.25 mg soil with addition of 5 mL concentrated H 2 SO 4 and heating samples to 360° on a digestion block with subsequent stepwise (0.5 mL) additions of H 2 O 2 until the solution was clear (Thomas et al., 1967). letter in a column shows that no significant differences were observed between the treatments Microbial P, C and N (P Chl , C Chl and N Chl ) were determined on the same moist, preincubated samples as for the sequential P fractionation by extraction, of chloroforme fumigated and unfumigated samples, with Bray I (0.03 M NH 4 F, 0.025 M HCl) (P Chl ) (Oberson et al., 1997) or K 2 SO 4 (C Chl and N Chl ) (Vanceet al., 1987). No k-factors (Brookes et al., 1982;Hedley and Stewart, 1982;McLaughlin et al., 1986) were used to calculate P mic , C mic or N mic from measured P Chl , C Chl and N Chl as there exist no proper estimates for these acid tropical soils (Gijsman et al., 1997). P Chl was corrected for sorption of released P according to Oberson et al. (1997). Dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate extractable and oxalate extractable Fe and Al (Fe d , Fe ox , Al d , Al ox ) were determined according to Mehra and Jackson (1960) and McKeague and Day (1966). The mineralogy of the soils was determined on total soil samples, pretreated with H 2 O 2 to remove organic C, using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) (Table 1). The samples were ground under acetone in a tungsten carbide vessel of a vibratory disk mill (Retsch RS1) for 10 minutes. Longer grinding times were not applied due to the detrimental effect that further grinding can have on the crystallinity of minerals, especially Fe (hydr)oxides (Weidler et al., 1998). For the Cu Kα, the Bragg-Brentano geometry was chosen as an XRD routine setup. The measurement were carried out on a Scintag XDS 2000 equipped with a solid state detector from 2 to 52 °2 \\θ with steps of 0.05 °2\\θ and counting times of 16 seconds.Before starting the sequential P fractionation, the soils were preincubated in a climate chamber (24°C and 65 % relative atmospheric humidity, no light) for two weeks in portions of 100 g at 50% of their water holding capacity (300 g water kg -1 soil dry weight). Soil water content was controlled and adjusted every other day by weighing.Subsamples of preincubated soils were labeled in portions of 15 g with 120 MBq 33 P kg -1 which were added with 10 μl deionized water per g soil. The mass of P introduced with the 33 P label can be neglected (<2.5 x 10 -3 g P g -1 soil, Amersham product specification, July 2000). Therefore, the term 'P concentration' always refers to 31 P and specific activities (SA) are calculated as: SA (Bq g -1 P)= 33 P/ 31 P [Eq. 1]Soil P was fractionated sequentially with three replicates per soil following the modified method of Hedley et al. (1982), as described in Tiessen and Moir (1993), with HCO 3 -saturated resin strips (BDH # 55164, 9 x 62 mm), followed by 0.5 M NaHCO 3 (referred to as Bic-P), 0.1 M NaOH, (these first three steps each with an extracting time of 16 h) and concentrated hot HCl at 80° C for 10 minutes. The step using diluted cold HCl was omitted, as Ca-phosphates are only present at very low levels or are absent in highly weathered acidic soils (Agbenin and Tiessen, 1995), as shown for the soils used in this study by Friesen et al. (1997). Residual P was extracted as described previously for determination of P tot .The amount of soil extracted was doubled from 0.5 to 1 g using the original volumes of extractants (2 resin strips in 30 mL H 2 O, 30 mL NaHCO 3 , 30 mL NaOH, 15 mL concentrated HCl, 5 mL conc. H 2 SO 4 ) in order to get higher 33 P-concentrations in the extracts. This was preferred to the alternative of higher label application as the radiation might affect microbes (Halpern and Stöcklin, 1977). After each extraction, the samples were centrifuged at 25000 x g for 10 minutes before filtering the solutions of the Bic-and the NaOH-extraction through 0.45 m pore size millipore filters (Sartorius, cellulose acetate), and the hot HCl and residual P extract through a Whatman filter Nr. 40.Phosphorus concentration in all extracts was measured after neutralization by the Murphy and Riley (1962) method. This method was used directly, after neutralization of the extracts, for the P recovered from the resin strip and for P i determination in the HCl extract. Organic matter was first precipitated by acidification in the Bic-and the NaOH-extracts prior to P i determination (Tiessen and Moir, 1993). Total P (P t ) in the Bic-, the NaOH-and the HCl-extracts was measured after digestion of P o with potassium persulfate (Bowman, 1989). Organic P was calculated as the difference between total P and P i in the Bic-, NaOH-and hot HCl extracts.To partition soluble 33 P i and 33 P o in the Bic-, the NaOH-and the hot HCl-extracts into separate solutions before counting, 5 mL of the extracts were shaken with acidified ammonium molybdate dissolved in isobutanol (Jayachandran et al., 1992). With this method, P i is extracted into the isobutanol while P o remains in the aqueous phase. The complete recovery of P i in the isobutanol phase was verified with the addition of a standard amount of 33 P in 0.5 M HCO 3 , 0.1 M NaOH and in 2.3 M HCl; recovery rates of added 33 P in the isobutanol phase were between 97 % and 103 %, which was not significantly different from 100%. Counts in the aqueous phase were 1.1 % (HCO 3 ), 0.3 % (NaOH) and 0.1 % (HCl) of the original solutions showing that hardly any P i goes into this phase. Determination of total P in the aqueous phase is not possible because the presence of the molybdate interferes with the analysis (Jayachandran et al., 1992).The radioactivity in each phase was determined with a liquid scintillation analyzer (Packard 2500 TR) using Packard Ultima Gold scintillation liquid in the ratio (extract to liquid) 1:5. The values were corrected for radioactive decay back to the day of soil labeling. All extracts were tested for possible quenching effects by adding defined 33 P spikes. Quenching in the acid resin eluate could be prevented by dilution of 250 l eluate with 750 l deionized water for counting. The quench effect in the hot concentrated HCl extract could be avoided by counting in the solutions separated with acidified isobutanol because the separated phases were not affected by quenching. All other extracts were not affected by quench effects.The recovery of the label as sum of all fractions, including residual P, was never complete. Therefore, subsamples of the soil residue after final acid digestion were dried and weighed into scintillation vials. These subsamples were then counted after addition of 1 mL water and 5 mL of scintillation cocktail.The procedure of isotopic exchange kinetics was used to assess the exchangeability of P i in the soils sampled in the different land-use systems. The method was conducted as described by Fardeau (1996). Suspensions of 10 g of soil and 99 mL deionized water were shaken for 16 h on an overhead shaker to reach a steady state equilibrium for P i . Then, at t = 0, 1 mL of carrier free H 3 33 PO 4 tracer solution containing 1.2 MBq was added to each continuously stirred soil water suspension. Three subsamples were taken from each sample after 1, 10 and 100 minutes, immediately filtered through a 0.2 μm pore size micropore filter, and the radioactivity in solution was measured by liquid scintillation as described previously. To determine the 31 P concentration in the soil solution (C p , mg P L -1 ) 10 mL of the solution were filtered through a 0.025 μm filter (Schleicher & Schuell, NC 03) at the end of the experiment. The smaller filter pore size was used to exclude any influence of suspended soil colloids on C p determination (Sinaj et al., 1998). The P concentration in the filtrate was measured in a 1 cm cell using the Malachite green method (Ohno and Zibilske, 1991) with a Shimadzu UV-1601 spectrophotometer. As the concentrations in the solutions of SAV and GL were close to the detection limit, they were additionally measured in samples concentrated by evaporation (5:1). This procedure resulted in C p values that were not significantly different from the non-concentrated solutions.Assuming that at any given exchange time the specific activity (SA) of inorganic phosphate in the solution is equal to the SA of the total quantity of phosphate which has been isotopically exchanged, it is possible to calculate the amount of isotopically exchanged P (E t , mg P kg -1 soil). The amount of P exchangeable within one minute (E 1 ), indicating the immediately available P, is expressed as (Fardeau, 1996):where R is the introduced radioactivity and r 1 is the radioactivity remaining in solution after 1 minute of isotopic exchange. The factor 10 results from the soil solution ratio of 1:10.The effects of land-use systems and incubation time after labeling on P fraction size were tested by two-way ANOVA and Tukey's multiple range over all treatments and times of fractionation. A separate one-way ANOVA was used to test the difference on label recovery and fraction size between samples labeled in soil water ratio 1:10 and samples labeled in incubated moist state 4 hours after labeling. Percentage recovery data were log-transformed to meet the requirements of analysis of variance. Time and soil treatment influences on the Sas of each fraction were tested by a two-way ANOVA and, as the interaction time X treatment was significant for all fractions, the treatment influence was tested for each repitition in time of sequential fractionation, separately.The mineralogy and the Fe and Al (oxy)hydroxides contents of the surface soil from the four treatments was normal for this type of soil (Gaviria, 1993). On average of all treatments, the soil contained 68% quartz, 23% kaolinite, 4% anatase, 3% gibbsite, 2% rutile, and <1% vermiculite. There were no significant differences among the different land-use systems (SAV, GL, CR, RGM). This implies that any difference seen in the P dynamics among land-use systems was mainly due to the land-use system and not to differences in the soil mineralogy.The amounts of total P directly extracted from the soil samples (P tot ) were not significantly different from the sum of P (P sum ) extracted in the different fractions of the sequential extraction for SAV and CR while the direct extraction led to significantly higher values (P<0.05) for GL and RGM (Table 2). To evaluate whether differences in total P content in soils were related to P fertilization, the increase in P tot content (calculated as the difference between total P extracted from fertilized GL, CR or RGM) and P tot extracted from non fertilized SAV was compared to the estimated P balance of these treatments (significant correlation, r 2 =0.87; P<0.001). The increases in P tot were of the same order of magnitude as the calculated P balance. Given the imprecision of the methods used to determine total P contents (O'Halloran, 1993) and of the estimations made to calculate the P balance, these results suggest that most of the P added with fertilizers and not taken up by plants remained in the surface layers of the studied soils. Except for the CR soil these results agree well with Oberson et al. (2001). In their study only about half of the calculated positive P balance was recovered in total P. The sampling depth of 0-10 cm might explain this difference: soil tillage may have mixed P in the 0-10 cm soil layer with soil in the 10-20 cm layer, resulting in incomplete recovery of P in the 0-10 cm sampling depth. The effect of the four land-use systems on P i exchangeability in the surface layer of the studied soil is presented in Table 3. The ratio r 1 /R, which is inversely correlated to the P sorbing capacity of soils (Frossard et al., 1993), was below 0.05 for all treatments suggesting that these soils have a high P sorbing capacity (Frossard et al., 1993). Furthermore, the r 1 /R-values of the four treatments were positively correlated with the directly extracted total soil P (r 2 =0.76 P<0.001). This suggests that the different landuse systems have resulted, through their different P fertilization and cropping, in different sorption rates of P i on soil minerals. Since in Oxisols P sorption is governed by the Al and Fe (oxy)hydroxides, these treatments probably induced different degree of P i saturation on the soil metallic (oxy)hydroxides such as gibbsite, which was identified in the soil from these treatments.The P i concentration in the soil solution (C p ) was close to the detection limit in SAV, GL and CR treatments (Table 3). Although significantly different between all treatments, C p was significantly increased only in the RGM treatment (P<0.001). In SAV, GL and CR, C p was much lower than the critical concentration needed to sustain optimal growth for a large range of crops (Kamprath and Watson, 1980;Fox, 1981). The P i concentration in the soil solution was not correlated with the total soil P content. The clear C p increase in RGM was therefore not only due to an increase in total P but also to other mechanisms. The strong increase in soil biological activity observed in land-use systems including legumes might partly explain this higher C p value (Haynes and Mokolobate, 2001;Oberson et al., 2001). The variation in the amount of P i isotopically exchangeable in one minute (E 1 ) followed the same trend as the variation in C p .  1. § ratio of radioactivity remaining in soil solution to radioactivity added at time 0 after 1 minute of isotopic exchange. ¶ P concentration in the soil solution measured at soil:water ratio 1:10. # Quantity of P exchangeable within 1 minute.The positive P balances of the fertilized GL, CR and RGM treatments resulted in significantly higher P concentrations (P<0.001) compared to the savanna soil in all fractions except the organic fractions and residual P (Table 4). This agrees with the results of Friesen et al. (1997) and Oberson et al. (2001), who fractionated P forms according to the same method in the same field experiment, and studies conducted in other tropical soils (Beck and Sanchez, 1994;Linquist et al., 1997). Our results show that resin-P i , Bic-P i and NaOH-P i increased with P fertilizer input, with the NaOH-P i fraction being the main sink for the applied P. This P sink function of the NaOH-P i fraction can be explained by the adsorption of P i through ligand exchange with hydroxyl groups (Sposito, 1989) located on the surface of Fe and Al (oxy)hydroxides (Ainsworth et al., 1985;Parfitt, 1989;Torrent et al., 1992) and by the desorption of P i from the surface of (oxy)hydroxides in the presence of 0.5 M NaOH (Houmane et al., 1986;Cross and Schlesinger, 1995).During the continuous 2-week incubation of the soil samples, the resin and the Bic-P i fractions increased significantly (P<0.05) between the first and second fractionation date for all soils (between 4 and 14 mg kg -1 for the sum of resin and Bic-P i ). There was no significant and corresponding decrease in any fraction although total extractable P o tended to decline (between 8 and 18 mg kg -1 ) for all soils (Table 5). The absence of significant compensating movements of P out of P o fractions may be due to the high variability of the results, especially for the organic fractions where coefficients of variation for Bic-P o were between 13 and 70 % and for NaOH-P o between 7 and 45 %. Since P o is determined by the difference between P t and P i there are multiple sources of error. High variability of repeated measuring of Bic-and NaOH-P o were reported in Magid and Nielsen, (1992). Problems in the determination of P i are mentioned in Tiessen and Moir (1993), especially the possibility that P i is precipitated along with the organic matter upon acidification and erroneously determined as P o (P t -P i ). On the other hand, P o compounds could be hydrolyzed in the acidic solution during the measurement of P during the colorimetric essay (Condron et al., 1990;Gerke and Jungk, 1991).Increases in resin and Bic-P i between 4 hours and 1 week of incubation suggest that mineralization of P o led to the release of labile P i from P o fractions. As the first fractionation was started 4 hours after labeling, the disturbance by mixing the soil with the label and the momentarily increased humidity might additionally have stimulated the microbial activity despite of the preincubation. A temporary stimulation of the microbial activity by the thorough mixing when labeling soil was indicated in microbial turnover studies conducted on soils from the same field experiment (Oberson et al., 2001). This assumption seems likely, as there were little changes in fraction sizes between the second and the third fractionation indicating a stabilization of the system.The fraction of 33 P recovered in the resin-P i fraction 4 hours after labeling varied between 22 % in SAV and 60 % in RGM (Figure 1). The 33 P recovery in this fraction was positively correlated to the content of total P of the soils (r 2 =0.87; P<0.001, 4 h after labeling). The corresponding decrease of 33 P in the resin fraction in RGM and CR corresponded with an increase in label recovery in Bic-and NaOH-P i , while in SAV and GL the decline in resin 33 P was accompanied by an increase in 33 P in NaOH-P o (GL also NaOH-P i ), HCl-P i and residual-P. For SAV and GL, the label recovered in the resin-P i , and Bic-P i did not change much between the 1 st and the 2 nd week and the amount of 33 P in NaOH-P i was stable over the entire incubation time. This shows that in SAV and GL the label was rapidly exchanged between these fractions and that equilibrium with the (labeled) soil solution was reached. In contrast, 33 P in the Bic-P i and the NaOH-P i of CR and RGM was still increasing after one week while the resin-33 P i continued to decrease, showing that the exchange between these fractions was incomplete.The data for 33 P o were, because of the determination after the separation from Pi with the isobutanol method, not affected by the inherent problems in determination of the P o fractions in the Hedley fractionation scheme as described previously. Only small amounts of the label were found in organic fractions after 4 hours, but there were already significant differences in NaOH-33 Po (P<0.001) in the order: SAV (4%) ≈ GL (2%) > CR (0.4 %) ≈ RGM (0.1 %). This might be due to differences in microbial activity as observed by Oberson et al. (2001) in the same field experiment. Actually, the microbial biomass in incubated soils, indicated by measured P Chl , C Chl and N Chl values, was significantly different between the soils (Table 5), despite the fact that the samples had been stored in air-dried condition for more than three years before being used in this study. The assumption that recovery of the label in organic fractions was actually due to active processes and not to any analytical artifact is supported by the observed increases of NaOH-33 P o and HCl-33 P o for all soils over time. The total recovery of 20 % (SAV) or 14% (GL), respectively, of the label in organic fractions two weeks after labeling shows that these compartments have to be taken into account to understand the fate of P in these very low-P soils (Tiessen et al., 1984;Beck and Sanchez, 1994;Linquist et al, 1997). ‡ see Table 1.The proportion of label in the hot HCl and residual P fractions increased significantly with incubation time in all soils. This contradicts the prevailing opinion of recalcitrance of the P in these fractions (Guo and Yost, 1998;Neufeldt et al., 2000). While the total P content in the residual fraction varied significantly with time (Table 4), this was not the case for hot HCl extractable P i , while hot HCl extractable Po tended to decrease. This suggests that the movement of the label to these fractions was not due to net P-movement but to exchange processes.Total 33 At all sampling times during the incubation study, in total between 67 % and 94 % of the applied 33 P label could be recovered in the sum of all fractions (Fig. 1). This sum was generally in the order SAV<GL<CR<RGM. These incomplete recoveries can be explained by the fact that the method used to assess total P or residual P was not efficient enough to extract all P. Comparative studies have shown that total P can only be reliably extracted by alkali fusion (Syers et al., 1967;Bowman, 1988), which could not be used in this work. The analysis of soil residues after the acid extraction of residual P (Table 6) indicated indeed that significant amounts of the label remained unextracted, these being higher for SAV and GL than CR and RGM. Although counting of 33 P bound to solid phases is generally possible, problems of phase, impurity, self absorption of scintillations by the soil particles or color quenching effects (Gibson, 1980) are difficult to correct, as these influences might be highly variable between samples. However, the recovery of standard additions of 33 P to our soil residues was complete and the correlation of the measured radioactivity in the different soil treatment residues with the sample weight was linear (data not shown), thus confirming the qualitative information obtained from the counting of the soil residues.Altogether the results suggest that the transfer of 33 P among the different fractions determined by the sequential extraction was strongly dependent on the degree of saturation of soil Al and Fe (oxy)hydroxides with P i , and therefore on the bonding energy of P i to the soil minerals. It is indeed known that a high P i saturation of metal oxide surfaces causes a more negative charge on the surface and prevents the specific sorption of further P i ions (Ryden et al., 1977;Bowden et al., 1980). In the P poor soils (SAV and GL), most P i would be sorbed with such a high energy that their exchangeability would be very limited. A specific sorption of 33 P to the surface of Al and Fe (oxy)hydroxides of these soils, although unlikely (Frossard et al., 1994), cannot be excluded (Barrow, 1991). In contrast, in the P rich soils (CR and RGM), the annual P additions might have resulted in the build up of relatively larger quantities of P i exchangeable with 33  The highest specific activities (SA) observed in this incubation experiment were obtained in the resin extract after 4 hours of incubation (Table 7). This is consistent with the assumption that the amount of P desorbed from the soil by a resin is in very rapid exchange with P i in the soil solution, as suggested by other studies (Amer et al., 1955;Bowman and Olsen, 1979;Tran et al., 1992;Schneider and Morel, 2000). The subsequent decrease in the SA of resin-P i reflected the process of isotopic exchange between 33 P and stable P i located on the soil's solid phase (Fardeau, 1996). The order of the SAs in the P i fractions after 4 hours of incubation followed the extraction sequence (resin-P i >Bic-P i >NaOH-P i >HCl-P i >residual P), showing that the strongest reactants extracted either large quantities of slowly exchangeable P or a large quantity of P in which only a small part was rapidly exchangeable. After 2 weeks the SAs of resin-P i , Bic-P i and NaOH-P i became closer, suggesting that equilibrium with respect to P transfer between these fractions was being approached. The SAs of resin-P i , Bic-P t and NaOH-P i were not significantly different in SAV and GL while the SA of resin-P i was still significantly higher than the SA of Bic-P i and NaOH-P i in CR and RGM. These observations show that it is not possible to discuss the exchangeability of a certain P fraction without relation to a defined time of exchange (Fardeau et al., 1996).Although the SAs of the NaOH-P o and HCl-P o fraction were relatively low they showed that, depending on land-use, these fractions were connected through active processes with the soil solution, most probably through microbial activity (Oehl et al., 2001). This indicates that the determination of plant available P with short-term isotopic exchange experiments might lead to errors since the dynamics of organic P forms are excluded.The effect of contrasting land-use systems on the P fractions extracted by the sequential fractionation procedure was assessed in an Oxisol during a 2-week incubation on soils labeled with carrier free 33 P. The results show that in the studied Oxisol, the quantities of 31 P and 33 P recovered in the different fractions were strongly dependent on the total P content of the soil, which was determined by the amount of P added by fertilizers and by plant P uptake.  In the two soils fertilized annually with P and with a large positive P input-output balance, most of the P i was stored in the resin-P i , Bic-P i and NaOH-P i fractions. The use of carrier free 33 P confirmed that, under all land-use systems studied, these soil P fractions contained most of the exchangeable P and that 33 P was transferred from the soil solution first to the resin fraction and then to the Bic-P i and NaOH-P i fraction. This suggests that, when this Oxisol is regularly fertilized, P is stored in these three fractions while the plants might take up P from the same fractions. In the two other soils, which had either never been fertilized or had been fertilized only once at the beginning of the field trial, the transfer of 33 P in these three fractions (i.e. resin-P i , Bic-P i and NaOH-P i ) was less clear, suggesting that the soil P i was much less exchangeable. In these soils, however, the transfer of 33 P into organic P fractions was more important (up to 20 % of the label was found in the organic P fractions two weeks after labeling). As the pool sizes of these organic fractions did not change significantly over time of incubation, the label recovery indicates relatively quick cycling processes, probably mostly of microbial P. In such low P soils, these processes are relevant and should be considered when estimating soil P availability for plants.Tropical savannas cover 45% of the land area in Latin America, or 243 million hectares (Mha), mainly in Brazil (200 Mha), Colombia (20 Mha), and Venezuela (12 Mha). The soils are mainly Oxisols and Ultisols, which are characterized by low nutrient reserves, high acidity (pH 4.0-4.8), high aluminum (Al) saturation (up to 90%), high phosphorus (P) fixing capacity (Sánchez & Logan, 1992), and a low capacity to supply P, K, Mg and S. In addition to soil chemical constraints, these soils also exhibit high bulk density, high resistance to root penetration, low rates of water infiltration, low water holding capacity, and low structural stability (Amézquita, 1998a, b;Phiri et al., 2001a). These chemical and physical constraints have to be alleviated in order to make these infertile soils productive and sustainable for agriculture.These soils have traditionally been used for extensive cattle ranching on native forage, dominated by Andropogon and Trachypogon grasses, with low management and almost no purchased inputs (Fisher et al., 1994). Native pasture productivity on these soils is correspondingly low.Land demand for intensive agricultural production on these soils has increased in the past 20 years. However, intensified agricultural production is usually constrained by poor soil chemical and physical properties. Traditional methods of cultivation by disc harrowing often lead to soil structural deterioration and erosion (Preciado, 1997;White, 1997 ). Research in the eastern plains (Llanos Orientales) of Colombia has shown that these soils are susceptible to physical, chemical, and biological degradation once brought into cultivation (Amézquita, 1998a, b). One of the effects of increasing land preparation is reduction in soil volume due to the decrease in size of soil aggregates. As a consequence, it causes changes in total porosity and pore-size distribution, affecting the flow of water and nutrients. Total porosity, water holding capacity, and macroporosity decline as cultivation is prolonged (McBratney et al., 1992;Preciado, 1997;Amézquita, 1998a). Plowing causes disruption of peds, and this exposes previously inaccessible organic matter to attack by microorganisms while the population of structure-stabilizing fungi and earthworms decrease markedly (White, 1997). These changes result in soil degradation, which reduces water infiltration and increases the loss of soil and plant available nutrients by soil erosion and surface runoff (Amézquita & Londoño, 1997;Amézquita & Molina, 2000).The practicality of rehabilitating degraded lands depends on the cost relative to the output or environmental benefits expected (Scherr & Yadav, 1996) and their influence on yields. The impact of soil degradation should be assessed in relation to critical limits to crop growth of key soil properties. Identification of appropriate methods of soil restoration is facilitated by knowledge of the key soil properties that influence soil quality and their critical limits in relation to the severity of soil degradation (Lal, 1997).To achieve improved and sustainable crop and pasture production and to avoid degradation, key soil properties such as soil's physical constraints must be alleviated by appropriate tillage and cropping practices (Amézquita, 1998a;Phiri et al., 2001a). A highly successful strategy for intensifying agricultural production in a sustainable manner and reversing problems of soil degradation involves the integration of crop-pasture systems (agropastoralism) (Vera et al., 1992;Rao et al., 1993;Thomas et al., 1995). This strategy is based on the assumption that a beneficial synergistic effect on production and on soil quality occurs when annual and perennial species are combined in time and space (Spain, 1990;Lal, 1991). Available nutrients are used more efficiently and the chemical, physical and biological properties of the soil are improved.Phosphorus is among the nutrients that most limits crop production on acid savanna soils (Rao et al., 1999). Studies on P cycling in long-term (16-year-old) introduced pastures in the 'Llanos' of Colombia indicate that legume-based pastures maintain higher organic and available P levels more consistently than grass alone or native pastures (Oberson et al., 1999). Greater turnover of roots and aboveground litter in legume-based pastures could provide steadier organic inputs and, therefore, higher P cycling and availability (Friesen et al., 1997;Rao, 1998;Oberson et al., 1999). Failure of P to enter organic P pools is thought to indicate a degrading system due to low level of P cycling (Friesen et al., 1997;Oberson et al., 2001).To overcome soil constraints and improve soil quality for agricultural productivity, there is potential for improved soil management through vertical tillage using a chisel plow (Amézquita, 1998a). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that vertical tillage combined with adequate fertilizer inputs to adapted crop and pasture germplasm will improve root growth which could avoid soil compaction and improve root turnover and accumulation of soil organic matter. We also hypothesized that this integration of soil tillage and soil fertility together with vigorous root systems of introduced pasture species could result in the build-up of an arable layer. The arable layer is defined as a surface layer (0-15, 0-25 or 0-30 cm depth depending on cropping system) with minimum soil physical, chemical, or biological constraints.We believe that the buildup of an arable layer is essential for low fertility acid soils to support sustainable agriculture (Amézquita, 1998b).The \"arable layer\" concept proposed here is based on combining: (1) adapted crop and forage germplasm; (2) vertical tillage to overcome soil physical constraints (high bulk density, surface sealing, low porosity and infiltration rates, poor root penetration, etc.); (3) use of chemical amendments (lime and fertilizers) to enhance soil fertility; and (4) use of agropastoral systems to increase rooting, to promote soil biological activity, and to avoid soil compaction after tillage.The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of different strategies of vertical tillage (1, 2, or 3 passes of chisel), crop rotations (rice-soybean), and crop-pasture rotations (rice-grass alone pasture; rice-grass/legume pasture) for 4 years on the buildup of an arable layer. Build-up of the arable layer was assessed in terms of improved soil physical characteristics (bulk density, penetration resistance), soil nutrient availability, soil P pools, plant growth, and nutrient acquisition.As part of a major effort to improve quality of native savanna soils for agricultural production in the Llanos of Colombia, a field experiment was established in May 1996 to determine the impact of vertical tillage, application of soil amendments and fertilizers, crop rotations and crop-pasture rotations on the buildup of an arable layer. The experiment tested two methods: (i) vertical tillage (using chisel) at different intensities (1, 2 and 3 passes) plus crop rotations to improve soil physical conditions in a crop rotation (rice-soybean) system; and (ii) vertical tillage plus use of adapted crop and forage germplasm associations (rice-grass/legumes) to improve soil through vigorous root growth, organic matter accumulation, maintenance of soil structure, and improved soil fertility.The experiment was carried out at Matazul farm (4º 9′ 4.9″ N, 72º 38′ 23″ W and 260 m.a.s.l.) located in the Eastern Plains (Llanos) near Puerto Lopez, Colombia. The area has two distinct climatic seasons, a wet season from the beginning of March to December and a dry season from December to the first week of March, and has an annual average temperature of 26.2 ºC. The area has a mean annual rainfall of 2719 mm, potential evapotranspiration of 1623 mm and average relative humidity of 81% (data from the nearby Santa Rosa weather station, located at the Piedmont of the Llanos of Colombia). Before treatment application, the area was under native savanna pasture, consisting for the most part of native savanna grasses. The land is generally flat (slope < 5%), the soil is deep, well structured and has a particle size distribution in the first 10 cm of about 34% clay, 28% silt and 38 % sand (loam texture). The soil has low fertility, particularly low available P because of the soil's high P-fixation capacity. It was classified as Isohyperthermic Kaolinitic Typic Haplustox in the USDA soil classification system (Soil Survey Staff, 1994).Use of acid-soil adapted upland rice and tropical forage germplasm in crop-pasture rotations has been demonstrated to be agronomically and economically viable on the infertile acid soils of the South American savannas (Vera et al., 1992;Rao et al., 1993;Thomas et al., 1995). Based on this strategy, the following treatments were designed to buildup an arable layer:• Upland rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. Savanna 6)-soybean (Glycine max cv. Soyica Altillanura 2) rotation with 1, 2, or 3 passes of chisel before rice planting in May of each year for 4 years. Soybean was planted in October and harvested in December of each year.• Rice-grass alone [Andropogon gayanus (Ag)] pasture, and rice-grass/legumes [Pueraria phaseoloides (Pp) + Desmodium ovalifolium (Do)] pasture with two passes of chisel before planting rice and pasture in May each year for 4 years. In both pasture systems, after harvest of rice in September, the pasture was allowed to grow until November. Pasture biomass was incorporated with two passes of disc harrow in November (end of rainy season) and also before planting rice and grass alone pasture association in May (early rainy season) each year.• Native savanna was used as a control to compare the impact of the above treatments with the natural (undisturbed) soil conditions.During the first two years, incidence of weeds in all introduced treatments was low and we did not apply any herbicides to control weed growth. During the next two years, however, we had to apply different herbicides (propanil, glyphosate, or 2,4-D) at recommended rates to control weeds in rice and soybean. The amount of aboveground biomass incorporated was between 3.5 to 4.5 Mg ha -1 of grass biomass for grass alone pasture and between 3.0 to 4.0 Mg ha -1 of grass biomass and 0.4 to 0.6 Mg ha -1 of legume biomass for grass/legumes pasture. Both grass alone and grass/legumes pastures were left ungrazed. We are aware of the fact that the agropastoral treatments in terms of incorporation of pasture biomass every year may neither be economical in short-term nor may reflect the current farmer practices. But we consider this as an important approach for improving soil conditions over a shorter time period than other options.Vertical tillage was applied in the following sequence: disc harrow, chisel(s), disc harrow to allow good seedbed preparation and sowing with a planting machine. Chisels were applied to a depth of 25 to 30 cm with a distance between chisels of 60 cm. The length of the chisel was 60 cm. Disc harrowing was applied to a depth of 7 to 10 cm with a distance between discs of 12 cm. The diameter of the disc was 60 cm.Dolomitic lime at a level of 1.5 Mg ha -1 to rice-soybean rotation and 0.5 Mg ha -1 to rice-pasture associations was applied via broadcast and incorporated with disc harrow one month before planting. Each year, at the time of planting, rice-soybean rotation and rice-pasture associations received (kg ha -1 ) 80 N (urea), 50 P (TSP), 100 K (KCl), 5 Zn (ZnSO 4 ). Soybean was planted each year after rice with residual soil fertility. Nitrogen and K were split-applied at 4 and 8 weeks for N and 0, 4 and 8 weeks for K after planting rice or rice-pasture associations.The experiment was laid down in a randomized complete block design with three replications in May, 1996. The individual plot size was 50 x 30 m. A composite soil sample consisting of 50 cores from each plot was collected in a grid pattern. These samples were air-dried, visible plant roots were removed, and soil gently crushed to pass a 2-mm sieve. The <2-mm fraction was used for subsequent chemical analysis. Measurements of soil physical characteristics (bulk density, penetration resistance) were carried out during the fourth year (June 1999) after establishment. Bulk density was determined using the core method and penetration resístanse was measured using a cone penetrometer (DIK-5521, Daiki Rika Kogyo Co., Ltd., Japan) (Amézquita, 1998b). Soil nutrient availability, shoot biomass production, root length, plant nutrient composition, and shoot nutrient uptake were determined for each treatment in September 1999. Soil and plant nutrient analyses and nutrient uptake were determined as described in Rao et al. (1992). Root length was measured using a root length scanner (Rao, 1998). Grain yield of upland rice and soybean were recorded after harvest each year (Sanz et al., 1999). The harvested area for grain yield determination was 2 qudrats of 5 x 5 m 2 in each plot.A shortened and modified sequential P fractionation as per the method of Tiessen and Moir (1993) was carried out on 0.5-g sieved (<2-mm) soil samples. In brief, a sequence of extractants with increasing strength was applied to subdivide the total soil P into inorganic (P i ) and organic (P o ) fractions (Phiri et al., 2001b). The following fractions were included: (1) Resin P i , anion exchange resin membranes (used in bicarbonate form) were used to extract freely exchangeable P i . The remaining P o in the extract of the resin extraction step was digested with potassium persulfate (K 2 S 2 O 8 ) (Oberson et al., 1999). (2) Sodium bicarbonate (0.5 M NaHCO 3 , pH = 8.5) was then used to remove labile P i and P o sorbed to the soil surface, plus a small amount of microbial P (Bowman and Cole, 1978). (3) Sodium hydroxide (0.1 M NaOH) was used next to remove P i , more strongly bound to Fe and Al compounds (Williams & Walker, 1969) and associated with humic compounds (Bowman & Cole, 1978). (4) The residue containing insoluble P i and more stable P o forms (residual P) was digested with perchloric acid (HClO 4 ). To determine total P in the NaHCO 3 and NaOH extracts, an aliquot of the extracts was digested with K 2 S 2 O 8 in H 2 SO 4 at >150 °C to oxidize organic matter (Bowman, 1989). Organic P was calculated as the difference between total P and P i in the NaHCO 3 and NaOH extracts, respectively. Inorganic P concentrations in all the digests and extracts were measured colorimetrically by the molybdate-ascorbic acid method (Murphy & Riley, 1962). All laboratory analyses were conducted in duplicate, and the results are expressed on an oven-dry basis.Analyses of variance were conducted (SAS/ STAT, 1990) to determine the significance of the effects of vertical tillage system and crop-pasture rotations on soil and plant parameters. Planned F ratio was calculated as TMS/EMS, where TMS is the treatment mean square and EMS is the error mean square (Mead et al., 1993). Where significant differences occurred, least-significant-difference (LSD) analysis was performed to permit separation of means. Unless otherwise stated, mention of statistical significance refers to α = 0.05.Bulk density values of different soil layers during the fourth year (June 1999) after establishment of the field experiment are shown in Table 1. Note the high bulk densities in the native savanna that served as a control treatment. Compared with native savanna, bulk density was reduced by the agropastoral and rice-soybean rotations. Consistent to the bulk density values, native savanna soil layers exhibited less total porosity (results not shown), which regulates the entry of water and the flux of air into the profile. Root growth is inhibited when bulk density exceeds 1.4-1.6 Mg m -3 and is suppressed at densities near 1.8 Mg m -3 (Heilman, 1981;Mitchell et al., 1982). Agropastoral (crop-pasture) treatments, in general, had 16% lower bulk density in the 0-10 cm soil layer and 13% lower in the 10-20 cm soil layer than those of the native savanna. In the subsoil layers, all treatments presented significantly lower values of bulk density than those of native savanna (Table 1). Previous research showed that legume-based pastures contribute to improved quantity and quality of soil organic matter with depth due to vigorous rooting ability of forage components (Fisher et al., 1994;Rao et al., 1994;Rao, 1998). Suitably low bulk densities are of great importance for soil management in this type of soil as they are indicative of factors that regulate root growth, infiltration, and water movement in the soil, which in turn affects nutrient availability in soil and nutrient acquisition by plants (Rao, 1998).`Results on penetration resistance at different soil layers are shown in Figure 1. In relation to native savanna, all the treatments decreased penetration resistance, particularly in topsoil layers (0-20 cm). These results suggest that it is possible to improve soil physical conditions to enhance water and nutrient availability, which favor rooting of the crop and forage components. The improved soil quality should allow these soils to support greater crop and pasture productivity (Amézquita, 1998b). Lack of additional effects of tillage on rice-soybean rotation compared with rice-pasture treatments (Table 1) indicates that either two passes of the chisel were sufficient in both systems or that deep rooting of introduced pasture species might have contributed biological tillage to improve soil quality. Both tillage and agropastoral treatments improved soil conditions, but whether one treatment is more beneficial than another over a longer period needs to be evaluated further.Soil chemical characteristics and root length distribution for different soil layers during the fourth year (September 1999) are shown in Table 2. As expected, compared to native savanna where nutrient availability was low and Al levels high, the different crop rotation and agropastoral treatments improved nutrient availability and reduced Al levels. The higher rate of dolomitic lime application (1.5 Mg ha -1 ) to rice-soybean rotation reduced the exchangeable Al level and increased the exchangeable Ca and Mg levels in comparison with the agropastoral treatments (0.5 Mg ha -1 ). Exchangeable Al levels decreased in the first two layers, but remained at similar values of native savanna below these depths. Differences in available P between rice-soybean rotations and agropastoral treatments were probably the result of differences in the rate of lime applied, which may have affected P sorption in soil. Other nutrients, such as K, Ca and Mg, accumulated in the topsoil. Nutrient values tended to be greater in the 0-5 cm layer as compared to subsoil layers. Available K was 2 to 4 times greater than that of native savanna (0.09 cmol c kg -1 ). Availability of Ca and Mg was 4 to 10 times higher than that of native savanna. These results suggest that application of lime and fertilizer could markedly improve soil fertility, particularly in topsoil. Chisel treatments were moderately effective to incorporate lime and P to deeper layers. Total C and total root length across the soil profile up to 40 cm soil depth were greater in agropastoral (rice-grass/legumes) treatment than those of rice with vertical tillage.To simplify interpretation of results, the P fractions were divided into three groups using a criterion similar to that given by Bowman and Cole (1978) and by Tiessen et al. (1984). The three groups were: (1) biologically available P, (2) moderately resistant P, and (3) sparingly available P. observed with the three chisel passes with crop rotation and the grass/legumes pasture treatments. The greater P o contribution to the NaOH fraction by agropastoral systems, the two-chisel-passes and the threechisel passes with crop rotation could be highly desirable because the NaOH-P o fraction is usually more stable than NaOHCO 3 -P o and may represent a relatively active pool of P in tropical soils under cultivation, especially those not receiving mineral P fertilizers (Tiessen et al., 1992). These results indicate that vertical tillage with three-chisel-passes with crop-rotation and two-chisel-passes with grass/legumes pasture treatments can markedly improve P availability through moderately resistant P pools. The sparingly available P includes the HCl-P (not done in this study) and the Hedley et al. ( 1982) residual-P. The sparingly available P is not available on a short time scale such as one or more crop cycles, but a small fraction of this pool may become available during long-term soil P transformations. In general, this fraction was slightly affected by tillage system in the top 0-5 cm soil layer (Figure 4A) and then remained fairly consistent through the rest of the soil profile. However, it represented about 49% and 73% of the total P in 0-20 and 20-40 cm soil layers, respectively. This fraction is mainly composed of the stable humus fraction and highly insoluble P i forms (Hedley et al., 1982) and was not affected by chisel, crop rotation and agropastoral treatments in the short-term. We also looked at the sum of the soil Po fraction (H 2 O-P o + NaHCO 3 -P o + NaOH-P o ) to detect any significant effects of treatments on P o that were not evident in the individual fractions. The sum of the soil P o fraction was, on average, 16% of the total P in the top 0-5 cm soil layer and decreased steadily to an average of 13.5% at the 20-40 cm soil layer (Figure 4B). The greatest amounts were obtained in the agropastoral systems, and the two-passes-of-chisel and three-passes-of-chisel treatments of crop rotation. The one-chisel pass treatment with crop rotation had the lowest effect on this fraction. Oxisols have high P-sorbing capacity resulting from their high Al and Fe content. Therefore, the increase of total P o resulting from treatment effects is desirable because the P maintained in organic pools may be better protected from loss through fixation than P flowing through inorganic pools in soil. Adsorption of P occurs mainly through processes in the soil, and as such minimizing P interaction with the soil is an important management tool for increasing P cycling. The trend in rice and soybean grain yields as a function of time is shown in Table 3. It was not possible to maintain yields of either crop in any of the treatments used. During the first year, yields of rice and soybean were relatively high, but they declined with time irrespective of the treatment, with the steepest rate of decline being recorded in the rice-pasture systems. The yield decline with rice may have been due to increase in weed biomass, which had a trend of 35, 320 and 704 kg ha -1 for the years 1996, 1997 and 1998, respectively, in rice crop across treatments. Soybean was relatively less affected by weeds and it failed to produce any grain during 1998 due to severe drought conditions. Shoot biomass of rice was less when associated with pasture components than under chisel treatments with crop rotation (Table 4). This could be mainly due to the competition of pasture components for nutrients, water and light. These results indicate that decrease in rice yields was much greater in agropastoral treatments than in rice-soybean rotation. On average, an increase in the number of chisel passes from 1 to 3 did not significantly affect rice biomass or grain yield production. Amézquita (1998a) reported that three passes could be excessive for these soils causing a collapse of soil volume. Shoot biomass of rice was greater with rice-soybean rotation than with rice/pasture treatments (Table 4). This was mainly due to the competition of pasture components for nutrients, particularly K and Ca which showed greater uptake in rice/pasture treatments than in rice-soybean rotation (Table 4). Previous research showed that pasture legumes could be of great importance in stimulating soil biological activity, nutrient cycling and addition of organic matter to the soil, which have beneficial effects on the production system (Rao et al., 1994;Thomas et al., 1995;Fisher et al., 1999;Sanz et al., 1999). Rao (1998) reported that the deep root systems of improved tropical forages are efficient in extracting nutrients from subsoil and recycling them throughout the plant and back to the soil through the death of plant tissue. Legumes also improve nutrient cycling and the nutritive value of forage. The agropastoral systems had greater root length compared to 1 pass of chisel treatment, particularly in the subsoil layers (Table 2). This is desirable as the turnover of roots through time contributes not only to nutrient cycling but also to soil improvement via positive changes in soil porosity and carbon sequestration in soil (Aerts et al., 1992;Rao et al., 1993;van de Geijn & van Veen, 1993;Veldkamp 1993;Cadisch et al., 1994;Fisher et al., 1994;Rao 1998).This study indicated that vertical tillage with 2 chisel passes for rice/soybean rotation or agropastoral treatments improved soil physical and chemical characteristics. However, these improved soil conditions did not translate into improved and sustained grain yields of either upland rice or soybean. This might have occurred because of crop management, particularly with the increase in incidence of weeds over time. Further research work is needed to develop appropriate crop management to benefit from the improved soil conditions. Buildup of an arable layer requires improvement of soil physical, chemical and biological conditions. Introduction of tropical pasture components with legumes into the production system could provide adequate soil physical conditions, to improve nutrient acquisition and recycling, and to facilitate accumulation of better quality and quantity of soil organic matter leading to the buildup of an arable layer. This study provides experimental evidence to promote the concept of building-up an arable layer in tropical Oxisols using vertical tillage and agropastoral treatments. But to improve and sustain crop production on infertile Oxisols of the tropics, there is a need to develop better crop management strategies to overcome weed problems. We suggest that the buildup of an arable layer is a prerequisite to move towards no-till or direct drilling systems to minimize environmental degradation in savanna soils of the Llanos of Colombia.  The complexity, diversity and peculiarity of rural communities are increasingly being appreciated in research and development work. Social dynamics, like geographical, cultural, soils' physical and biological aspects of a given community pattern agricultural practices. This paper gives a systematic view and analysis of social networks in community institutions and demonstrates their importance and significance in the process of dissemination of agricultural knowledge. This paper is a result of a study within a BMZ-funded Project of the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) Programme. The project sought to involve community institutions in the dissemination of agricultural technologies, and therefore studied mechanisms that could be effective in a socially heterogeneous farming community (Emuhaya, Vihiga District, Western Kenya). Some of the important matters brought to light in this study include:• There were strong social networks among local farmers. Important soil fertility knowledge given to the few farmers who had been involved closely in research and extension filtered to many other farmers through networks. • However, the content and scope of the knowledge was curbed in the process of dissemination.This resulted from the nature of the existing research links, which currently emphasise vertical rather than effective horizontal sharing of information.• The wide variety of social problems facing local farmers constrained their search for soil fertility knowledge. Farmers' efforts were diverted to short-term endeavours that ranked as more important. The understanding gained on networks in community institutions has provided a stage for wider and more meaningful involvement of farmers in research and extension. This paper (i) describes networks among farmers, (ii) demonstrates the importance of networks in community institutions and (iii) explains the function networks play in disseminating agricultural technologies among rural farmers.\"…[I]t is clear that agriculture today is often individualistic, with farming households increasingly going it alone. But in times of trouble, such as following a drought … and labour is critical to ensure a good harvest, networks are re-established and co-operative behaviour is very evident. Social networks based on lineage relations and friendship thus may not be critical to agricultural production in all years as they were in the past, but they are certainly of vital importance as a means of offsetting extreme hardship' (Scoones et al 1996:35). Social networks have an important role in the lives of rural communities. In the recent past, research has been done to understand networks and how they function. This knowledge needs to be synthesised, developed and analysed with the view of enhancing dissemination and adoption of agricultural technologies. Lack of understanding or inadequate appreciation of networks will impede dissemination of soil knowledge.Existing networks can be exploited through engaging community groups (IIRR, 1998). Because group members are themselves typically linked by a variety of network ties, individuals within the group are able to call on collective resources, such as reciprocal labour exchange (Sikana, 1995;Scoones et al 1996). Well-functioning groups develop a spirit of \"…unselfconscious showing, sharing, and checking… [such] Groups have an overlapping spread of knowledge which covers the wider field and crosschecks\" Chambers (1992:41). That implies that farmers of different sorts in such institutions share different types of knowledge and demonstrate or verify it in the process of interaction. By introducing technologies to strong groups comprised of well-networked individuals, researchers may have at their disposal a strong framework and impetus for the adoption of technologies (Sharp and Kone, 1992: 8).Even if strong groups permit the successful diffusion of technologies, researchers and extensionists must be wary of calling immediately for the strengthening (or establishment) of new community institutions. Farmers' institutions have developed and operate within a local context where they may be effective, but farmer groups on their own rarely have influence on higher-level decisions concerning policy. Similarly, because most of the rural population is resource poor, their institutions frequently have weak financial bases. This constant vulnerability does not allow such institutions to bargain with external donors or agencies on equal terms, and leaves them open to having priorities imposed upon them. Since many governmental and non-governmental organisations are eager set up their own farmers' organisations and to shape them in line with their ideas and ideologies, it is therefore crucial to establish practical guidelines through a truly inclusive and acceptable arrangement (Pertev and King, 2000). Empowerment should be about organisation, strengthening networking at grassroots structures. Allowing or enabling democratic control of members on these structures will help establish trust and effective vertical relationships.Although \"communities\" (or even farmer groups) may have boundaries and memberships that appear discrete and accessible to outsiders, social networks are not confined solely to those units. Rural people participate and invest in a diversity of social networks, whose value lies exactly in their wide thematic scope and geographic coverage (Adamo, 2001). It is ultimately going to be more sociologically and culturally sensitive, as well as more sustainable, to identify the range of local networks that could be used as potential entry points for different research activities (Sikana, 1995).However, it is unrealistic to expect that the interests and priorities of farmers' existing institutions will necessarily correspond with those of researchers. For example, Verma (2001) observed in Western Kenya that soil fertility concerns were not top priority for many farmers, even though land per capita is diminishing and the soil fertility in this region is under serious pressure. Greater worries about disease or marital security in fact constrained many households' efforts to conserve soil fertility. Truly participatory technology design will emphasise farmers choosing research activities relevant to their needs that also build on their knowledge of the farming system and their familiarity with local technologies (Haverkort, 1991).The process of study involved both individual actors and collectives in an effort to assess their links and roles, and to outline opportunities of better engaging community institutions for research and extension. To get a comprehensive view of the process of sharing of soil fertility knowledge, this study targeted community institutions, interviewing members of these institutions and focussing on key informants.Ten community institutions were purposively selected on the basis that (i) they were engaged in agricultural activities, (ii) held regular meetings, (iii) had been in existence for more than one year and (iv) engaged in information dissemination in several ways. Seventy-eight questionnaire respondents were randomly sampled from 334 members of these selected institutions. Seventy-eight (23%) was representative given the nature of the study, physical size and population density of the area. The purpose of the study was to maximise access to qualitative information from a group of respondents knitted in social networks. The researcher therefore deliberately selected a diversity of informants who were most likely to provide articulate answers, explanations, descriptions, proposals, and experiences concerning the complex issues of social networks. Eleven key informants were selected purposively. These informants included people with leadership roles and responsibilities (Maguru), those respected in the community, people who had worked in that community and had accumulated essential knowledge and experience in local agricultural aspects, with valuable opinion on community organisations. Some had participated in the project before and had valuable opinion on agricultural research. The researcher carried out several informal interviews, focus group discussion (FGD) and group interviews, engaged repeatedly in participatory learning and observed various phenomena to verify or identify data.The study (and therefore this paper) was largely based on qualitative data: on open conversations 1 , in-depth and group interviews, comparisons more than counting, informal FGD and brainstorming, stories, exchanges and consensus where necessary. Analysis was therefore largely on the spot, while the study occurred.3.1 -Study Area -Social. The study was conducted in Ebusiloli sub-location of Emuhaya Division in Vihiga District. The Luyia speaking people called Abanyore inhabit Emuhaya. They formed a close community in which there was much sharing of life between families and neighbours (Osogo, 1965). Today, a strong individualism is replacing this community consciousness. Since independence, their social system has noticeably transformed and the predominant religion is Christianity (Muruli et al, 1999).In 1995, Vihiga District had 948 registered women groups with membership of 28,440. There were 557 self-help groups (no membership given) and 168 youth groups with registered membership of 4,543 (Republic of Kenya, 1997). Information acquired from the divisional headquarters of Emuhaya during the study show that there were seven registered groups in Ebusiloli (Courtesy: Ministry of Social Services, Emuhaya Division). According to Muruli et al (1999), more than sixty three per cent of farmers in the area actively participate in different kinds of registered and unregistered community institutions.3.2 -Study Area -Physical. Emuhaya has loamy sands that support the growing of maize, sweet potatoes, coffee, beans, finger millet, sorghum, sugar cane, and horticultural crops (Republic of Kenya, 1997). However, these soils are quickly losing their fertility through leaching and over-cultivation due to limited land sizes per household coupled with low usage of suitable farming innovations. Vihiga district has an annual population growth rate of three per cent. Emuhaya's population density is about 1197 people km -2 (Republic of Kenya, 1997).Although networks are the implicit cornerstones of the farmer-to-farmer strategy for disseminating soil knowledge being preferred in many projects, many academic analyses of social networks create a romantic picture that may not be regarded as very useful by agricultural workers. Such texts may for example display a harmonious existence and functioning of networks in community institutions. Such information may not outline specific areas that can be exploited to enhance dissemination of agricultural knowledge. Of course, forming social networks is not an end in itself. The communication of information and reciprocity of networks are in reality a survival mechanism for many poor farmers. They provide the means to acquire material and non-material benefits.Results from the FGD, the study survey and in-depth interviews show that networks play a dominant role in agricultural production. The question remains, however, whether room exists for soil fertility knowledge in these social networks? Soil fertility knowledge may be spread or utilised depending on the type and strength of networks in operation. The following expressions by two farmers attest to this. Boaz:\" These verbatim accounts show that soil fertility knowledge is likely to spread faster among farmers bonded by strong networks, who will share valued information amongst themselves. However, as the second farmer implies, even information that is known to be potentially useful will not spread without it also being seen to be beneficial. In this case, because the soil fertility practices being researched were not perceived to offer immediate financial gain, farmers of that group were not keen to try them. This reluctance within the group of research farmers effectively blocked the further sharing of useful soil fertility practices, even though the research farmers might have been part of extensive and strong networks. This suggests that farmers would more likely engage in social talk about something immediately tangible, like a good yielding crop variety, than they would about something more abstract or complicated, such as a management practice that would directly support that crop by improving soil fertility. It is easier to talk about the benefits of a technology than it is to explain exactly how those benefits were obtained. Nevertheless, most of these new technologies rely on sound management. Because farmers will master this management at differing rates, many may not feel confident enough to discuss soil fertility management, especially the new practices that research is still yielding. Unfamiliar technologies (such as planting of Desmodium sp.) will therefore not enter easily into local discourse and practice. However, Crotalaria ochroleuca, another of the improved fallow species being researched and disseminated is well known by farmers because it is locally eaten as a vegetable. However, if it is known and liked then not enough quantities may be left in the farm to mature so as to contribute to soil fertility. Farmers may generally view it and discuss it as food, not a soil fertility management plant. Therefore knowledge about it may not necessarily be inclined toward improvement of soil fertility.One benefit of strong social networks is the provision of social fora to express or explore new ideas. While most farmers did not necessarily have access to such venues, two examples show how strong networks did allow valuable soil fertility information to be exchanged between members and sometimes used on collective plots. For instance, the 19 members of Emanyonyi Women Group spent between ten and sixteen hours (11-20%) of their working daytime in a week together. Discussion of soil fertility was part of their deliberations on the agricultural and forestry projects that generated their collective income. Each and every member was an official in some capacity. Because this group had several ventures, all the members had to actively contribute labour, cash and importantly information or logistics. Their stronger networks had not just inculcated discussion of soil fertility information; they attracted outside support (especially training and exchange visits). Similarly, Escrava Youth Group whose members were young (18-35), perceived soil fertility research as an opening to enhance returns from their farm projects. During a visit to their plot, the researcher noticed that they had embraced some of the biomass transfer practices that were under research. Most members of this group did not own individual plots, yet their willingness and ability to share soil fertility knowledge was astounding. Only two of the 17 members were participating in TSBF trials, but the level of awareness among the rest was significant due to their attitudes. Networks as strong as those found within these two groups act as invaluable 'talking spaces' and provide counsel to members. It is important for locals to be able to present and discuss new ideas especially in their own language and setting. This may present one way of understanding how farmers conceptualise and use new soil fertility ideas.Farmers with strong networks were able to exchange valuable knowledge on soil fertility (i.e.: biomass transfer and fallow cropping practices) and take certain collective investment risks. In such cases, the general 'farming' talk also led to tangible exchanges such as seed, agricultural labour, cash, manure, land use and other resources. Unlike average networks, strong networks allowed for a relaxed form of balanced reciprocity where one did not necessarily have to 'reply' immediately or directly. For example, one would volunteer one's farm for collective farming without expectation of direct payment from members. One was clearly aware that some members did not have sizeable farm to allow for collective activities.In spite of the decline in soil fertility and the ensuing low farm yields, farming remains a treasured activity, even if it is not one that receives adequate national support. Most people in the study area practised at least some form of farming regardless of their main occupation. One adaptive research farmer, Nashon, portrays this in the following explanation: \"I discuss many things with people. I sit in the [farmers research] group, and I know most of us want to spend a lot of energy on small businesses or to look for office work [i.e.: formal employment]. As you have known, our farms are very small and we are very interested in growing [i.e.: getting money] because we are very poor. This work you are doing will help us also, to train our people in agriculture, to teach us soil fertility practices so that we can increase our maize harvest. Let me tell you something, we feel very fastened to farming even though our maize [harvest] is pitiable. Yet one's own harvest is very precious. If your children want to roast [maize], they will not steal from your neighbour's farm [if your farm has any maize on it?]. So you see, soil fertility is important because if you fail to plant, or do not harvest anything, your child may become a thief and people will say you are lazy. So for me, I ask for soil fertility information from you the agriculture people [researchers and extension agents] and my friends [locals] to help us….\"As this commentary shows, farmers engage in agriculture not because it is inherently profitable but because it is an essential part of life. In this respect, it is wrong to conceive of peasant cultivation as a 'technical industry' per se, since it is also clearly a socially-based activity. Informal discourse within farmers' networks is commonly about what are accepted norms. Resources were 'injected into the soil' even when returns were small, in part because someone who 'failed' to demonstrate capacity as a 'farmer' would risk criticism as 'lazy', a 'thief', etc. Clearly the discussion of new soil fertility practices would fall within such local 'normal' discourse, but quantifying these discussions would be difficult.Nashon is however uses his local networks only cautiously, since he preferred not to rely on locals for important information. He stated that there are certain hindrances to the flow of useful knowledge within his experience of networks, especially related to the sharing of gossip (etsimbemba): \"You hear 'So and so said this or that': how do you rely on that? Avanti vayansa okhuchaya (others will despise you), instead of learning something from you. Valala vali nende omwoyo kwe imbotokha nende wivu (others have bad feelings and are jealous), others are false pretenders (vachuaji), they pretend they know it all and few are delinquent (avahalifu).\" Such feelings were particularly common among men. Many farmers cited such explanations as obstacles to the establishment of stronger networks with certain people in some community institutions. Farmers would rather keep away from those they regarded as pernicious, even if it meant foregoing access to useful information. An implication of this wariness is that in selecting resource people researchers need to be keen to avoid putting locals regarded as 'unpleasant' on the frontline. If they have bad reputation, the project will not have a good standing and locals may not feel enthusiastic about the research.On the other hand, some issues were perceived as so fundamental that farmers were encouraged to unite and create stronger networks. The main reasons behind strong networks of interaction in community institutions gathered in the sample survey have been given in Table 1 below. The most commonly mentioned motive for participation in community institutions was to improve members' livelihoods. Table 1 also reveals that at the grassroots, agriculture is an integral part of the broader system of economic and social contexts that shape involvement in social networking. . FGD, group discussion and informal interviews showed that earnings from other occupations such as formal employment and business are used to improve soil fertility. For instance, poor performance in business or a delay in salary payment affected purchase of fertiliser or seed. Therefore, networks formed on nonagricultural exchanges directly or indirectly support agricultural production. It therefore implies that narrow observation and dealing with local institutional networks as if they were purely 'agricultural' in orientation can be misleading.The history of an institution's development, and the nature of its members' networks significantly influenced the sharing of valuable knowledge, collective action and attitudes and behaviour. The main reason behind the existence of strong networks was the need to improve livelihood foundations. The strength of these networks depended on actors' trust in each other. If this trust was significant, they would invest their time and money together in group activities, one consequence of which would be the sharing of soil fertility knowledge.Nevertheless, the process of inception of the various institutions that existed was not unilinear. The strongest community institutions resulted from one or two individuals inviting their close friends who shared similar problems and aspirations. Leadership in such situation was achieved through mutual agreement, willingness and suitability. Duties would be delegated to any chosen member and everyone's input in drawing a constitution was valued. Constitutions were precise, mutual agreements, normally as written documents, but a few were verbal. They outlined the objectives, procedures and conduct of members in an institution.Researchers facilitated the creation of one farmers' research group, while other institutions were mobilised by local resource persons, church leaders, opinion leaders or even politicians. All the institutions that were selected for study had been in existence for over two years. The oldest was a labour group that had been in existence for over 25 years. Institutions that were formed and defined by narrow schemes such as to gain access to campaign money shortly before the 1997 presidential funds drives did not last long. They were mobilised by politicians and packed by people who did not have strong networks. Soon after inception, jostling for leadership and access to funds ruined them.There were several factors that were favourable for the existence of an institution. The overriding factors included the desire and dedication of actors in networks. Actors relied on existing traditions, and social and cultural attitudes conducive to co-operative participation and common social action. One discussant (Gerishon 2 ) reflects this in the following remark: \"Our people have always had reasons to co-operate. Since the time of my great-greatgrandparents, Abanyore have assisted each other in wars, famine, building huts, farming, hunting, raising children and so on. Many of those things are done individually now while others no longer matter. But, you never know. You may fall sick or even die tomorrow…. I have to maintain some relationship with some people, in the event that I need help they should be willing and available to assist me.\"The success of strong groups also tended to be self-reinforcing since, when members' financial stake in their group was significant they tended to participate actively in an effort to ensure that the group operated efficiently.The strength and nature of interactions within local institutions was significantly shaped by proximity. Most residents had been living in the study area among their lineage relatives for many generations. As a result, local level networks were considered strong. For example, members of Alexander's youth group live nearby and formed a very active institution. However, like other groups, the quality of networks was determined by friendship based on age and socio-economic factors.Table 2 shows that friendship was very important for determining group membership, especially within women and youth groups. Women groups, followed by youth groups, were identified as having the strongest network ties. These two drew membership from across the study area and beyond. Women were more available than men for meetings, able to work with young members, and had fewer leadership wrangles or funds mismanagement problems. Theoretically, networks were vast and primarily open. For instance it was not possible to map out all networks of a member of a community institution. But the nature of networks and goals of an individual defined the level of freedom to move in and/or out of an institution. For instance, a man of sixty-eight years was unlikely to share or discuss goals and aspirations with his twenty-year-old daughter in law. Other than age, this would also be culturally abhorrent. Many of the respondents belonged to more than one institution. However, this did not necessarily reward them with soil fertility knowledge. Members almost always affiliated closely with cliques of their closest friends. In fact, there was evidence of lack of practise and even awareness of notable activities done in other institutions in spite of the fact that some members belonged to both institutions. For instance, one institution had very strong networks that were evident from frequent weekly meetings, loyal contribution of subscriptions, high attendance in meetings, participation in collective activities and sharing of important farming and other knowledge. Members of this group had been trained in tree planting, improvement of soil fertility through improved fallow systems and biomass transfer, basketry and so on. Some of these skills and knowledge had not spread to neighbouring institutions to which some of the members belonged. It is possible that the content of the information that had percolated was very ordinary. It would take a longer period (more than one year) for a remarkable amount of soil knowledge to pass to other institutions and for them to use it.One explanation for the low exchange of ideas was that the new practices were not seen to promise good enough economic returns to compete with other group investment opportunities. Local farmers noted that agriculture is very difficult to capitalise. For example, farmers have trouble obtaining credit for new farm ventures because the profits to the lender are not assured. Furthermore, it was not feasible for most households or groups to engage only in agricultural activities, since land pressure is intense and it was difficult to acquire sizeable farms (over one acre). Even if farmers planted cash crops like kale or other vegetables, the amount they would fetch was little. Such collective proceeds would be meagre when subdivided among members of a given institution. Therefore, networks were not used exclusively for agricultural work. For example, if members set one day a week to work on their group plot, they would spend the rest of the week on other enterprises like selling maize or firewood beside the road. The desire for cash (specifically capital) was important in this respect. There was a resolve to engage in small businesses within homesteads or at local market centres and many groups intended to purchase plots, to construct shops, rental rooms, eating rooms, and so on. Such ventures were seen to be more profitable uses of local 'farm' plots than using that land for agriculture.Smaller institutions of about fifteen were more organised and committed to their course. It is however not possible to map out the boundaries of networks and thus determine an ideal size of farmers' institution. This study points out that it is preferable to work with institutions shaped out of a 'natural' process rather than try to create networks on the basis of research needs. If the goals of research cannot fit somewhere within the wider objectives and aspirations of local farmers, then there is arguably no business to be done with those farmers.In circumstances where local institutions are not already strong, creating or strengthening those existing networks can be worthwhile. It is not uncommon to find farmers who live nearby, share common agricultural problems and have strong networks, but who are yet to form an organised institution. In other words, the formation of a group does not happen spontaneously, it often takes the initiative of a local opinion leader or someone else to facilitate.According to Ritzer (1992), the strength of networks is directly dependent on the returns accruing from them. In reality, farmers do not mechanically act in social networks while making cost-benefit analyses. For instance, most farmers understand that seeking and maintaining links with researchers and extension workers can assist them to improve their soil management practices, among other benefits. Yet even where the researcher-farmer relationship is strong, it does not follow that information shared between them will spread to other farmers. The nature of farmer-to-farmer interactions is a function of local social relations, as explained by this fifty-six year old Liguru (village leader) Bernard: \"Many farmers in your projects do not want others to know what they are doing or how they are benefiting. They feel privileged and under no obligation to spread the knowledge they are given. They wish to stay on top by being advantaged in such ways…. Not all are like that, but it is hard to know. You [researchers] should do things openly. You should involve many people. Let us see, who has joined us here since you came? They [farmers] think it is a private deal between you and me. Those who come may not want soil fertility information but to know our affairs\".The acute under-utilisation of existing technologies is often construed as 'conservatism' or 'traditionalism' on the part of rural farmers. However, as Bernard's comments show, new ideas are not like seeds that can be sown on neutral ground. Instead, they are always being planted in environments where the \"safeguarding of vested interests and a way of life is very conscious\" ( Mbithi, 1974: 60).Networks are dynamic. Regardless of the rules and codes of conduct within community institutions, the networks between members are never constant. The more committed members are to their institution the stronger their networks. The more they exchange information and achieve their goals, the higher the chance that they will remain in those institutions for long.Congenial discourse within an institution creates an air conducive for association, but people will enter and leave institutions as they choose. Fortunes of members keep changing with new experiences, beliefs, opportunities, and even assumptions. In the face of such potential fluidity, an institution's organisation is important. Within institutions that had strong networks, members had unambiguous but to all intents and purposes transcending roles. In institutions where the role of each member was noteworthy, members had a feeling of value and merit. Such groups could endure without significant turnover of membership. However, most institutions did not function like this: rather, they had a small, core membership that provided continuity and direction. Most of these institutions were made of economically poor farmers. Such groups would not persist without the constant initiative of relatively stable members to invite, mobilise and encourage others to join or even remain in those institutions.Informal interviews, in-depth interviews and discussions showed that relatively richer farmers were seen as sources of casual employment, money handouts, food, tools, and so forth. Contribution of resources to institutions was supposed to be uniform for all members in given institutions. Nevertheless, relatively prosperous members of community institutions were expected to be 'monetary pillars' in times of difficulty. Chart 1 below shows the distribution of members of institutions in various social classes as perceived by farmers. These data were gathered in wealth ranking exercises that were carried out during the study. While poorer farmers acknowledged that there were also members who were knowledgeable in soil conservation, their value to the group as 'knowledge reservoirs' was rarely acknowledged or explicitly valued. The low flow of valuable knowledge from resource persons was also made notable as a result of their small number. Discussion also revealed that women were more likely than men to share resources in institutions. While soil fertility found its way (explicitly) on to the agenda of their discussions on relatively few occasions, women's strong networks were however built upon the understanding that they were more vulnerable to hunger and other local problems than men. It therefore became necessary for them to discuss crop performance. Furthermore, women's position in the homestead was precarious, as their stability depended considerably on their husbands' decisions. If they transferred savings to their homesteads, those savings would be counted as their husbands'. It was therefore rational to keep some of their savings with the group so as to safeguard it. Consequently, regardless of how women were perceived (wealthy or poor), their involvement in community institutions was beneficial. For instance, women perceived as relatively well off had children in schools and their parcels of farmland were relatively larger. If their husbands declined to hire labour, they were made to turn to their institutions for labour. In worse circumstances, poor women received comfort from these institutions. They would for example withdraw their investment in the event that they were divorced 3 to 'look for life' elsewhere. The proceeds of institutions were not necessarily immediate or for immediate use. As Kanogo andMaxon (1992), (in Nangendo, 1994:353) say, members of these groups:\"pooled labour resources and shared the proceeds of that labour, and this produced a spirit of sharing and unity. People joined these groups even if they did not immediately need the services provided.\" Hartwig (2000:34) observed in a similar vein that:\"The groups are open to precisely those women who … progressing from dealing with specific problems in the women's work and life, provides the stimulus to exchange information and develop their education.\"To a casual observer, the networks in local institutions are besieged by competition just as much as cooperation. It was however found that competition in these institutions acts as a reminder that farmers do not always network because they are homogenous, but rather because they want to fight poverty. This finding is reflected in this revelation of a sixty-year-old key informant (Repha):\" Her emphasis on tangible results reinforces that that research must be seen (and known) to benefit especially poor farmers. If the agricultural technologies that research is generating can be shown to be useful and sustainable, then researchers may rely on networks to reach the wider community. During the study period, it was found that farmers were willing to participate in collective research activities if research would directly benefit them especially in the short term. Some of the cover crops (especially Desmodium, planted with Napier grass etc.) were appreciated. Some farmers liked this particular leguminous cover crop because it would increase the harvest of Napier grass, which is an important cash crop to many institutions that were studied. However farmers were disheartened due to unavailability of seed. Moreover, if these legumes could be consumed (like Crotalaria) it would be pointless to vigorously disseminate knowledge on their usefulness. Such knowledge would spread quickly through social networks and farmers would first adopt them as food crops regardless of what scientists told them. The importance of informal ways of information dissemination and sharing are difficult to overstate. Table 4 below shows results from a survey carried out by TSBF in 1998, which included the study area. Informal networks were mentioned more than twice as often as being a source of agricultural information than the government extension service (the next most cited source).Despite its prevalence, the success of research and dissemination using informal channels is not straightforward. For instance, knowledge transmission is not based on simple communication channels, conduits or linkages, it involves human agency and occurs within socially and politically constituted networks of different actors, organisations and institutions. Thus, communication occurs through the discontinuous, diffuse, value-bound interactions of different actors and networks (IIRR, 1998;Scoones and Thompson, 1993). At the same time, researchers should not expect that the content of 'their' information would pass through networks unaltered. For information to be locally relevant, it must be continuously tested and validated. Researchers relying on local networks for knowledge diffusion must also embrace the idea that the learning process involved will be 'two-way', with lessons to be learned by both farmers and researchers.Because networks depend on the decisions of individual actors, distribution and content of knowledge cannot be precisely monitored. Network channels filter information differently to different actors. Effective dissemination of information will therefore have to rely on involving collectives. Relying on stronger networks in community institutions represents best the promise of wider reach to poor farmers. Giving information to as many farmers as possible at once improves the chances of information spreading widely through existing social networks (Grigg, 1995).Farmer-to-farmer extension that involves community institutions provides a variety of both formal and informal settings for farmers to learn and share knowledge through participation. Researchers have been working with community institutions in the study area in a variety of activities. The most important venues cited by respondents included: demonstrations mentioned forty-three times (55.1%), field days mentioned thirty-seven times (47.4%), farm visits mentioned thirty-six times (46.1%) and training workshops mentioned twenty-two times (28.2%). These activities presented convenient avenues for researchers to interact with farmers while farmers also got to learn from each other. Although farmers lived close by to one another, in normal, daily interactions they reported rarely finding such valuable occasions or venues to learn new ideas (or even unlearn poor practices). Although researchers considered such 'on-farm' work to be less formal than their other types of interactions, farmers strongly associated such fora with technical knowledge. The talk by both farmers and technical staff was not general; it was direct and vital in enabling farmers to separate facts and reality from rumours. Farmers got to learn with confidence -information validated as 'science'-and to assess things through their own eyes. Such fora also encouraged change, unlike informal interaction where conformity with the status quo was often the norm.Despite the high status afforded to the formal activities, all seventy-eight farmers reported sharing the bulk of their information through informal activities. Such activities included group meetings, interaction at local market centres, farmer-to-farmer visits, singing and so on. For instance, when outside 'visitors' came to the village, women would sing songs containing soil fertility messages. While this certainly served to entertain, it was also a very powerful means of disseminating soil fertility knowledge. One may conclude that those songs bear witness that women had taken into account the soil fertility practices that research was yielding. The songs also further strengthen networks among members and encouraged visitation.During formal events such as demonstrations, consultations between farmers and specialists in a less formal, impromptu atmosphere before dispersing helps answer questions that could not have been addressed during the formal programme of the occasion. This presents an ideal arena for farmers, especially those who would not normally speak in public gatherings (such as poorer women and children) to appropriately learn.Researchers need to take explicit steps have to respect women by listening to their side. Otherwise women's often-placid approach may sometimes be mistaken for ignorance or disinterest. Because resource poor farmers (especially women) are besieged by numerous problems, scientists and extension agents should expect them to bring up topics that are not directly connected with soil fertility. Being the topic of the day, soil fertility may only act as an 'entry point' for dealing with broader development issues. In the midst of what appeared to be a soil-focused discussion, a participant may, for example, ask for a water or dairy project. Such concerns are common and, while seemingly 'off-topic', the outsiders' remarks on them will be keenly noted. Farmers may afterward reflect on what they did not hear from the researcher, and it is important to bear in mind that such dialogue is not uniquely a 'research' endeavour, but part of a longer-term social relationship. It is neither realistic, nor practical to assume that a topic like soil fertility will feature in every social encounter, as demonstrated by this comment by a farmer (Jairo): \"I cannot introduce a technical subject like use of fertiliser on the market or while taking busaa [a local beer] with my friends. They are supposed to be here listening [referring to a field day]. Furthermore they are not children to be taught on the proper practice anywhere…. However, you [researchers] should keep up, I have observed an increase in the number of attendance by farmers. Also, your activities have encouraged more [community] discussion on agriculture and trees [agroforestry].\"While it is entirely legitimate to focus on soil fertility research, crusading to keep farmers consistent may push them away or simply turn them into 'followers'. For instance, at the outset of this study the researcher explained to farmers that he had gone to the community 'to learn'. However, from rapport development up until the end of the work, farmers expected him to be an instructor. During formal interviews, respondents would keep 'other' issues to themselves. But when interacting informally, they would for example say, \"Ooh, it is good you are with us. We look forward to your help…\" or, \"Take these vegetables, you are a good young person, you can make a wonderful son-in-law….\" Farmers who were able to express their various 'off-topic' feelings or remarks and questions were then more willing than before to discuss soil fertility issues. The researcher had penetrated their networks somewhat by allowing the informal 'talk' to be his 'entry point'.There is also a need to understand that different farmers learn well in different settings. Understanding the learning styles of the farmers who researchers and development agents deal with can assist them to establish suitable platforms and processes. Chart 1 (above) showed that more than three quarters of local farmers were resource poor. The interview process found that most of them preferred a balance between the informal forms of knowledge dissemination that were typical within their groups and more formal means. The following is an example of informal aspects as suggested by a farmer during an FGD: \"…. Those [farmers] who are using your ideas [soil fertility practices] can be selected as examples to show the way. Also, all participating farmers should be awarded certificates. Certificates will remind us about your work and encourage us to talk about it openly.\" Such encouragements, while perhaps seeming trivial to an outsider, would actually be like 'adding value' to any information that is provided. Locally, education is highly regarded and any proof that one is knowledgeable may enhance one's confidence. This may not directly contribute to a change in farming practices, but if it can generate enthusiasm in research activities so can it improve communication in social networks.While every farmer involved in this study was involved in social networks, the use of these networks for farmer-to-farmer extension is as complicated as the networks themselves. To disseminate agricultural knowledge through channels that have evolved for a multitude of social, cultural, and economic reasons, one needs to understand the local institutions, agricultural practices and preferences of local farmers. Therefore, researchers and extension workers need to understand the social interactions within local institutions and how these institutions can better serve memberships from varying socio-economic backgrounds.There is also a need to involve farmers in community institutions directly in the dissemination of knowledge. Transferring more of the research and dissemination process off-station and into farmers' hands should not just be viewed as a cost-saving measure, but one of legitimate empowerment. Currently, local innovation is being hampered by the farmers' (often-justified) anticipation that the researched soil fertility technologies generate poor returns. If farmers can monitor and evaluate their activities, the costs and benefits of innovations can be better understood and a subsequent generation of more relevant and effective technologies will result. We can also expect to see greater farmer commitment and thus the greater involvement of their social networks. Such an evolution may involve unlearning old practices on the part of both development agents and farmers. It was observed in this study, as in previous ones, that greater facilitation and involvement of farmers as full partners in research and dissemination would enhance innovation of indigenous technologies. Researchers and extension agents also need to acknowledge that the sharing of information through networks is by definition a 'twoway' learning process, which ultimately generates important understanding of local realities. Questions that need to be clearly understood include: how and when do farmers innovate, who amongst them is foremost in innovating and how do they trust technologies from within and outside and share them amongst themselves?Decision Support Systems for Integrated Soil Fertility Management J.J. Ramisch and M. Misiko TSBF-CIAT, PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya Rationale: Adaptation by farmers of research-designed technologies is crucial for increasing the relevance and therefore adoption of technologies. Adaptive research has to be linked to increasing the capacity of service providers and farmers to disseminate this new information and to ensure effective information flow between research and extension.Since May of 2002, four interactive participatory events have occurred at a TSBF-farmer demonstration plot in Emuhaya, W. Kenya. Efforts have been made to describe and explain to a wider audience (local farmers) TSBF's process of soil fertility research in W. Kenya. Key among the explanations were that TSBF in conjunction with local farmers and other research institutions have identified soil infertility and related problems as major and are researching on alternative or/and potential solutions.Some of the technologies that have been researched are being illustrated on the demonstration plot in Emuhaya. These activities include i) improved fallows ii) efficient recycling of residues iii) use of inorganic and organic fertilisers iv) traditional practices like natural fallows and use of indigenous plants among other technologies. On July 31, 2002 farmers and researchers held an evaluative field day and discussions at the demonstration site. Farmers expressed the main areas of strength and pointed out improvements that were needed. On August 16, 2002, farmers and TSBF staff harvested maize on the demonstration plot in Emuhaya. On August 22, 2002 a community discussion was held involving different types of farmers and TSBF staff to assess achievements, limitations and lessons achieved from the activity. On the former day, a pre-harvest evaluation was done, and also ranking of the different plots under different treatments. On the later day, in-depth deliberations were held about the plot and way forward. This was a furtherance of preliminary discussions that had been held during different stages of the demonstration.The technologies that were demonstrated on the plot include i) efficient recycling of crop residues ii) use of inorganic and organic fertilisers and their iii) different combinations iv) biomass transfer and use of legume trees. Also tackled, and not demonstrated, include use of indigenous plants as manures.Findings: There was a step-wise pre-harvest review of plots under different treatments by farmers and TSBF staff. Many of the attendants had visited the plot before and many had participated in various or different activities at the site and were already acquainted with the plots. A summary of all activities that had been done on and at the demonstration plot was given and the plots were briefly described; the different treatments included: Low quality (maize stover)High quality + polyphenols (Calliandra calothyrsus)Control plot (no organic)No N or P + Urea only + Urea, +TSP A rapid pre-harvest assessment of plots was held; first, amongst the first five (with organic inputs only); second, between plots with organic inputs alone and those with different inorganic fertilisers added; and three, amongst those with inorganic fertilisers. This was done to illustrate nutrient contributions of selected inputs.All maize plants on every plot were counted. After getting the sum of maize on every subdivision, farmers systematically harvested the crop, starting with the control and weighing both stover and maize. Various observations were made, and notes on the following taken by farmers: Differences in dryness, weight, appearance; Effect of striga, other weeds and pests.Most maize had been twisted, lying on the ground due to a past storm. Low harvest was also blamed on late planting and a long dry spell in June. Farmers said that under normal local circumstances one would likely get some harvest, however small, and not to completely miss out even when no input is applied as happened under the control plot.Variability within plots: The soil type on the plot is called ingusi. Ingusi is yellowish brown to dark brown, clayey soils. It occurs commonly in Emuhaya according to the soil study that was done in February 2002. Striga was very prevalent on plots with high fertility, especially where TSP was applied. This contributed to low harvests on those plots. It was clarified that inorganic fertilisers do not 'bring' or increase striga weed as expressed by few farmers during the discussion. Rather, fertility conditions needed by striga were created on those spots where TSP was used.Ranking of treatments: Plots were ranked on the basis of: Green leaves -before drying; Thick and long leaves; Height of stalks relative to seed type (hybrid etc.); Bigness of maize, and cobs; Germination rate; Rate of growth, especially after germination, is determinant; Number of cobs on every plant; Number of lines of maize on every cob, especially important in selection of planting seed [12-14 lines (hybrid 513), 16 lines or even more (pioneer usually has one cob with large seeds). Number of lines is relative to type of seed. Also size of every seed matters. Small seeds are good for roasting]; Weight of maize, through estimation by hand and observation.Farmers used these criteria to rank the various plots. The table below shows results of the ranking. The Table also displays results of previous ranking that had been done and documented two weeks before harvest.  1 shows a shift in ranks, between FYM and Tithonia. This change came as a result of weighing; maize on Tithonia plot was heavier than that on FYM plot. During preliminary ranking, FYM was seen to have had a more positive role in the context of the demonstration trial. Then, the overall aspect was the size and not weight of maize cobs. On the basis of this, FYM had performed better because it would result in higher yield.The order of ranks was respectively similar for plots with organic resources listed above with TSP alone, and TSP and DAP added. It was easier for farmers to tell differences between segments with organic resources only, unlike comparison between those with inorganic fertilisers. Farmers therefore deduced that certain mineral components (i.e.: P) can only be adequately sourced from inorganic fertilisers. P had been unknown to majority of farmers before prior demonstration events were held.• Good harvest (quality and quantity) depends on:o Availability of rain, type of rain o Timing of planting (recommend that TSBF plant at same time as the majority of farmers to enable them to better compare with and borrow ideas from trial site). o Type of soil (recommend that TSBF locate trial sites on each of the major local soil types). • Appropriate use of high quality resources like Tithonia was seen to have a bigger potential locally. However, labour to harvest Tithonia was highlighted as a constraint.• Use of stover as fertiliser was seen as less promising option. Stover is used as fodder and as fuel material, and because it is usually available in small quantities, abandoning it in the field is not very feasible. Other ways to use it more productively should be devised, or to feed it to livestock and to use the resultant dung as FYM.• The site allowed farmers to better learn how to tell whether plant material is good manure e.g. softness, quick to rot, easy to tear, bitter taste. Masatsi, mirembe che sisungu etc.• There is lack of cash to use available technologies, especially because of lack of P in most local soils and the need to buy P-containing fertilisers. • Farmers' comments that the demonstration plots should be 'large' reflect concerns that local farms display considerable variability in soil quality even over small distances and that it is difficult to extrapolate performance from 3 x 3 m plots. This variability results from concentration of resources on certain sections of the plot -driven by labour shortage, on the basis of what section is more promising. These sites tend to be where there is more fertility and where farmers tend to plant first. There are certain sections (especially near the house) where organic materials are dumped regularly.• There was much interest in doing more demonstrations; with the current awareness, more farmers are likely to attend and learn from the process.• Disease and funerals affected attendance in field days at the plotThe depletion of much of sub-Saharan Africa's soils through continuous cropping and decreasing nutrient inputs has been widely reported over the last 10 years. All land on the African sub-continent that is classified as very suitable for cultivation was already under cultivation 15 years ago (FAO, 1986). Farmers are increasingly intensifying their agricultural production activities, for example, through the more efficient utilization of animal manures, crop residues and forages and other organic resources. At the same time, use of inorganic fertilizers is decreasing such that organic resources are often the only source of nutrient inputs for farmers (Giller et al., 1997). Resource-poor farmers face difficult decisions over the use of scarce nutrient sources in their production systems. In addition, land constraints force them to trade-off land use in terms of food crop production, fallowing and animal feed supply, amongst others.Much research has highlighted the benefits of fast-growing legume cover crops (LLCs) to supply nitrogen fixed biologically from the atmosphere to a following non-legume crop in a rotation (e.g. Fujita et al., 1992;Gachene et al., 2000;Giller et al., 1997;Palm et al. 1997). Short growth duration legumes have been used to replenish soil fertility in many parts of Africa (Gutteridge, 1992;Dreschel et al., 1996;Luna-Orea et al., 1996;Jama and Nair, 1996;Gachene and Palm, 1999;Rao and Mathuva, 2000;Kayuki and Wortmann, 2001). LCCs refer to the production and incorporation into the soil of leguminous crops that have been grown to enhance the yield of following crops (Lathwell, 1990). Maximum benefit of this approach is seen where the biomass is incorporated into the soil early giving rapid release of nitrogen but farmers often have other priorities in their production system. This can be in terms of a demand for livestock feed, for production of a durable mulch or to control weeds like couch grass. This implies that the farmer may not always manage for the optimal but balance the needs of their farming enterprise. An understanding of how much of the biomass should be incorporated to increase maize yields, where and how this biomass can be produced and what are the alternative uses of the biomass are critical to targeting these legume cover crop technologies.In Uganda smallholders dominate the agricultural sector with over 90% of crops being produced on household farms averaging less than 2 ha (Appleton, 1998). More than 60% of the land is under cultivation with declining fallow length and increasing periods of continuous cultivation (HASP, 2000). This has greatly reduced crop yields, in addition to increasing pest and weed problems (NARO, 2001). The fallow period has reduced from about 10-12 years of secondary forest fallow in the early 1980s to 3-5 years at present, with the number of crop cycles between a 10-12 year fallow increasing from 2-3 to 4-7 during the same period (Boonman, 1999). Due to these land constraints, the utilization of biomass transfer and legume cover crops was investigated as options for soil fertility management and also in terms of the niches on-farm where they can be grown to fit within the existing production system. Critical to targeting these legume cover crop technologies is an understanding of how much of the biomass should be incorporated to increase maize yields, where and how on the farm this biomass can be produced, what are the alternative uses of the biomass and what are the opportunities and constraints to technology adoption identified by farmers.The objectives of the study were, (i) to evaluate the effects of Mucuna pruriens and Canavalia ensiformis on maize yields, and nutrient balances, (ii) to determine the effects of different management options for Mucuna and Canavalia (full vs. partial incorporation of above-ground biomass into the soil) in farmer-managed trials in maize-based system of eastern Uganda and (iii) use farmer evaluations of the technologies to assess their potential adoption and to identify areas of adaptive research.Farmer managed on-farm experiments were conducted on five farmers' fields in each of two sub-counties (Kisoko and Osukuru) in Tororo District, Eastern Uganda. Both sub-counties are 1000-1200 m.a.s.l., receive bimodal rainfall of 1000-1200 mm per year and maize, groundnuts and cassava are the main crops. The two sites differ in their geographical position with Kisoko being about 20 km North of Osukuru with soil fertility and rainfall, particularly the chance of extended dry spells increasing as you go North. The soils are generally sandy clay loams (Kandiusalf) and have good pH and are generally low in organic C, N and P. The sites significantly differ in their clay content (16.3 vs. 31.3) and total soil N (0.05 vs. 0.11) for Kisoko and Osukuru respectively with all other parameters being non-significant (Table 1).Following the harvesting of an unfertilised maize crop, Mucuna (75 cm by 60 cm) and Canavalia (75 cm by 30 cm) were planted as sole crop fallows for one season. No amendments were added to the soil at the time of legume planting so that the legume cover crops would be produced under farmers' conditions. At the beginning of the next season the legume cover crops LCC were cut, allowed to wilt for five days and incorporated into the soil at either 50% or 100% of the in-situ produced biomass. The treatments were as follows: 1) absolute control, 2) fertilized control, with P and K application, 3) 100% of above-ground Mucuna biomass incorporated, 4) 50% of above-ground Mucuna biomass incorporated, 5) 100% of above-ground Canavalia biomass incorporated and 6) 50% of above-ground Canavalia biomass incorporated. A basal application of TSP (80 kg P ha -1 ) and Muriate of potash (60 kg K ha -1 ) was broadcast and incorporated to a depth of 15 cm in all plots except treatment one. Farmers managed the experiments and conducted weeding and other management practices as they would for their own farm.A RCBD was used with five replicates, with each of the five farms acting as a replicate. Maize (hybrid Longe1) was sown at a spacing of 0.75 m by 0.25 m, with two seeds per hole and was thinned to one seed per hole after two weeks (53,200 plants ha -1 ). Plots were kept weeded during the farmers normal weeding operations. At physiological maturity net plots (3.75 m by 4 m) were harvested and the weight of maize stover, grain and cobs recorded. Sub-samples were collected, chopped and dried at 70°C for 48 hours. After harvest, all plots were cleared of weeds and crop residue and hand ploughed. In the following two seasons maize (hybrid Longe1) was sown to investigate the residual benefits of the LCCs.Soil samples (0-15cm) were collected at the beginning of the experiment and bulked by sub-county for analysis. Samples were analysed for pH (water), Total N (Kjeldahl digestion), Total C (Walkley-Black), extractable P (Olsen and Sommers, 1982), macronutrients (extracted in NH 4 Oac; atomic absorption spectrophotometer) and texture. LCC plant samples were analysed for total N (Kjeldahl) and total P and K (Kjeldahl; atomic absorption spectrophotometer; Parkinson and Allen, 1975).Farmer participatory evaluations were conducted using open questions and probing questions. Qualitative data was also collected on farmer criteria used in selection of LCCs technologies and on innovations made by farmers.Data were analysed by the SAS General Linear Models procedure (SAS Institute Inc., 1988). ANOVA was used for mean separation and significance is reported at the P<0.05 level.Comparative analysis of the macronutrient content of the LCC's shown there was only a significant difference in the plant species for their Calcium contents (Table 2). There were no significant differences in location or in the species by location interaction. Similarly, there were no significant species or location differences in the biomass production of the two LCCs, nor in the amount of N applied in the experimental design. The amount of biomass produced was not significantly different but for both locations Mucuna and Canavalia exceeded 6 t DM ha -1 and 7 t DM ha -1 in Kisoko and Osukulu, respectively.There was no significant difference between the sites except for stover production in the first season (Table 3). Therefore data was combined for further statistical analysis. No significant increases between the control and the positive control (with P and K addition) were observed indicating that the site was N limiting and not P or K deficient.In the first season, at both sites, all treatments (except 50% incorporation of Canavalia biomass in Osukulu) gave significantly higher grain and stover yields compared to the control (Table 3). In all cases where biomass production was significantly higher than the control, the yield increase was more than 100% higher than the control treatment. Incorporation of 100% rather than 50% of the biomass produced in the plot did not significantly increase maize grain yields compared to the control (Table 3). In the second residual season no significant differences were observed for maize grain and stover production between treatments. Combined yields over the two seasons showed significant increases in maize grain yield for all treatments except for maize stover production for maize grain with the 50% Canavalia incorporated treatment. The total dry matter yield of grain and stover over the two seasons was highly significant (P<0.001) for all treatments (Table 3).The farmers normal practice of growing maize without additions of organic or inorganic fertilizers not surprisingly resulted in negative nutrient balances for N, P and K (Fig. 1). In the first season after incorporation of the LCCs, addition of both 100% and 50% of the aboveground biomass reversed this negative nutrient balance for N only. Additions of 100% of the aboveground biomass of either Mucuna or Canavalia were needed for a positive nutrient balance for K, whereas none of the treatments produced a positive balance for P (Fig. 1). Nutrient balances were not calculated for the residual seasons as there were no significant differences in maize grain and stover yields.Farmers assessment of the LCCs species revealed many positive and negative aspects for each species (Table 4). Many positive criteria were mentioned by farmers that were expected for these species, for example, improved soil fertility, provides livestock fodder. More interesting from the research prospective were the negative aspects. For example, Mucuna and Canavalia were notably disliked because their seeds are not edible yet they looked very attractive to eat, and are produced in large numbers, even in dry seasons. Mucuna was further disliked for its unsuitability for intercropping and because it can harbour snakes if planted near the homesteads.The lack of significant differences in biomass yield of the mucuna and canavalia (Table 2) at the sites in spite of Kisoko being more deficient in N (Table 1) would suggest that similar BNF among the two species at both sites. Biomass dry matter productivity averaging 6.8 t DM ha -1 for Mucuna and 7.0 t DM ha -1 for Canavalia in six months compares with other reported data. For Mucuna pruriens other authors have reported varying sole crop one-season biomass production figures. Mucuna produced 1.3-3.50 t DM ha -1 and in some cases up to 9 0 t DM ha -1 in one season in Rwanda (Drechsel, et al., 1996); an average of 5.7 t DM ha -1 across five sites in Malawi (Kumwenda and Gilbert, 2000) and an average of 4-7 t DM ha -1 from sites across Kenya (Dyck, 1997).Comparative data for Canavalia ensiformis has been much harder to find. Gachene et al. (2000) report production figures of 3-6 t DM ha -1 in six months. These different production figures are due to differences and variations in soils, rainfall, seasons and management of the legumes for the different citations.All significant treatments increased maize grain yields by between 106% and 118% in the first season, these yield increases more than compensate the farmer for the loss of one seasons production of maize whilst the legume cover crop is being grown. Kumwenda and Gilbert (2000) reported maize grain yield increases averaging 180% following Mucuna incorporation in five sites across Malawi. Whilst other studies have not reported such yield increases of above 100% and therefore did not find that the extra maize yield compensated for the land being out of production for one season (Drechsel, et al., 1996). Also, work in Uganda work with different legumes found that maize yield increases varied by season and legume species but on average did not consistently return yield increases of above 100% (Fishler, 1997;Tumuhairwe, 2001).Although the grain and stover results were not significant in the second season it has to be remembered that farmers under their own conditions, with individual farmers as replicates, conducted this work. Therefore, the level of error would be expected to be higher than a replicated on-station or a replicated on-farm experiment. The second season results were significant (P<0.10) for maize grain and stover yield, giving the farmer a two-season benefit.Where the yield increases do not compensate for the loss of maize production during the season of LCC production there is unlikely to be any adoption in areas of high population density where there is a high demand every season for cropping land. The advantages of LCC can best be utilized where land is out of production due to low fertility or high pest/disease pressures or where it would be left in a natural fallow system. In addition, the significant increases in associated maize stover provide increased options for the farmers. The extra stover can be used in livestock feed or bedding, soil erosion control, compost making or mulching the banana crop.Another very important conclusion of this work is that incorporation of 50% or 100% of the insitu produced biomass produces a maize grain and stover yield that is not-significantly different from each other. This again then provides the farmers with increased options for their resource management. For example, this would allow the farmer to produce the biomass in one place and to apply the biomass over twice the area for maize production. Alternatively they might want to use 50% for incorporation and the remaining 50% for livestock feed, sale to other farmers or to produce hay for dry season feed. Increasing the resource management options and therefore the production options of the farming enterprise is critical where land sizes and fallow areas are small and little area is available for non-food crop production and where cash is not-readily available to buy inputs for crop and livestock production.The N fixed by LCCs during the fallow period may not a net addition to the system if increases in the following crop yields removes more N than is added by the legume. The large applications of N in the LCC biomass (Table 2) will be exposed to leaching as decomposition occurs, especially during the tropical storms that characterise the beginning of the rainy season. Much work has been conducted on decomposition and nutrient release rates for legumes, with different rates being reported. For example, more than 50% of N, P, K and Mg from Desmodium and Pueraria being released in four weeks (Luna-Orea et al., 1996); 60% of N from Leucaena and Senna in the first four weeks (Jama and Nair, 1996). Drechsel, et al. (1996) concluded that as sowing starts immediately after the first lasting rainfall, it is impossible to optimize the time of green manure incorporation before sowing. This may be true but there are management options available to reduce leaching of N and increase synchrony of release with demand. For example, incorporation of sorghum straw and green manures significantly delayed and reduced leaching of nitrate, by around 30%, of the mobilized legume nitrogen (Hagedorn, 1995in Dreschel et al. 1996). Similarly, other nutrient balance studies in Uganda have reported negative balances for a range of cropping systems (e.g. Bekunda and Woomer, 1996;Wortmann and Kaizzi, 1998).There was no doubt among the farmers that the LCCs technologies work and were better than the traditional practice as far as improving soil fertility was concerned. In terms of costs, it was reported that the use of LCCs and biomass transfer species offered a low input technology to the farmers, as most of them could not afford use of inorganic fertilizers especially on the low value crops like maize. Farmers evaluation however raised many concerns over the adoptalibility of the technology. Farmers observed that the use of LCCs required a substantial amount of land for production and for sole crop production this is left under fallow with no food crop being produced, high labour for clearing and ploughing in the vegetation, and patience in attaining the results (Table 4). In addition, the single purpose use of the LCC was mentioned as a negative aspect in terms of the adoption of the technology.In the on-farm experiments reported here in two areas of Uganda, the use of Mucuna pruriens and Canavalia ensiformis significantly increased the following maize yields in the first season (P<0.05) and in the residual season (P<0.10). Farmer evaluations of the technology highlighted some negative aspects of this technology, for example, it needs increased management by the farmer as well as increasing the labour input into the cropping system, in addition, many farmers do not have the opportunity to leave land fallow for one season to produce the LCC. This method of soil fertility improvement is just one of the many options available to farmers and the exact production system the farmer develops will depend on many other issues, for example, access to inorganic fertilizers, the need for firewood, livestock feed or grain legume production. Farmer evaluations identified research gaps with this technology that are now being investigated in further on-farm experimentation. LCC species, however, still remain a strategic opportunity for the many farmers that have no access to fertilizers or animal manures and who have available land.   ---------------------------------------------t DM ha -1 ---------------------------------------------  In the recent past the image of agricultural and environmental crises in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has become increasingly common. Soil erosion and soil fertility loss are considered to be undermining the productive capacity of the agricultural systems (Giller et al., 1997;Sanchez et al., 1997;Smaling et al., 1997). Within this environment smallholder farmers use a wide range of agro-ecological management techniques, resource management practices and production strategies specific to their environment to minimise risk, cope with change and shocks and to manage the environment (ecological, social, economic etc) they operate within. These can include, for example, agricultural intensification, expanded marketorientation, increased capital and labour investment. Alternatively, farmers have been found to exploit their resource base where constraints are too high, the returns to investment are too low (even negative, as when staple commodity prices plummet during bumper harvests), or environmental conditions too erratically variable for secure investment. Since 1998, a number of collaborating partners working in Tororo district through an adaptive research project, the Integrated Soil Productivity Initiative Through Research and Education (INSPIRE) have been evaluating a range of soil fertility management options with farmers. The collaborators in the INSPIRE initiative which began with the main objective of introducing, developing, on-farm testing and disseminating improved soil fertility management technologies to address the alarming soil productivity problems in Tororo district include, Africa 2000 Network (A2N), Appropriate Technology (Uganda), International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Tororo district Departments of Agriculture and Extension, Farmer group representatives, Food Security and Marketing (FOSEM) project, International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Makerere University, Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (TSBF), and Uganda National Farmers Association (UNFA).During the participatory diagnostic stage of the project, use of legume cover crops and biomass transfer species to improve soil fertility were identified as potential technologies due to their cost effectiveness, appropriateness, simplicity, and multi-purpose nature in meeting the needs of resource poor farmers. In smallholder farming systems of the tropics and sub-tropics, increasing use is being made of legume cover crops (LCCs) and biomass transfer (BT) species as sources of nutrients, particularly nitrogen, for crop growth (Dreschel, et al., 1996;Rommelse, 2001;Buresh and Niang, 1997). This is in part due to the increasing cost and variable availability of inorganic fertilizers at the village level. Less than 5% of the farmers in eastern Uganda use mineral fertilizers and this is usually on an irregular basis (Mirro et al., 2002). In addition, traditional natural fallow is no longer practiced due to the decreasing farm sizes and the availability of animal manure is limited by decreased cattle numbers (Mirro et al., 2002).Six species, Canavalia ensiformis, Crotalaria grahamiana, Dolichos lablab, Mucuna pruriens, Tephrosia vogellii and Tithonia diversifolia were first introduced in two sub-counties of Kisoko and Osukuru. Much work has been conducted on the biophysical performance of these legume cover crop and biomass transfer technologies since 1998 in Tororo (Tumuhairwe, 2002a;Tumuhairwe 2002b;Delve and Jama, 2002b). Beyond agronomic evaluation it is essential to identify opportunities and constraints of each introduced technology, conduct assessments to understand farmers' actual use and management of the technologies, perceived benefits, farmers ideas and perceptions, innovations, and problems and solutions in the use of the technologies (Douthwaite et al., 2002;Bellon, 2001). To address this, a farmer participatory evaluation of these technologies was therefore initiated in December 2001 and January 2002 (after seven seasons) with the main objective of providing a feedback on the performance of the technologies. This paper reports on the findings and analysis of participatory evaluations by 19 farmer groups, involving 234 individual farmers (92 male, 142 female), who had been evaluating through onfarm adaptive research the performance of legume cover crops (LCCs) and biomass transfer (BT) species for soil fertility improvement.Farmer participatory evaluations were conducted using open questions, probing questions and preference matrix ranking. The farmers who participated in the evaluation exercise were purposively selected and belonged to a farmer group who had at least five seasons experience experimenting with LCCs and biomass transfer species. Focus group discussions were used to elicit farmer criteria (negative and positive) used in selection and preference ranking of LCCs and biomass transfer technologies.From the preference rank list of the six species from each group, a frequency table was drawn up of the number of times each species was ranked in a certain position, where one is the most and six is the least preferred species. From this frequency table, the probability of a particular species being ranked in a certain position was calculated, where, Probability = frequency / total number of observations …………….(1)A further calculation was done to produce the cumulative probability of each species, that is, the sum of the probability for that rank and the probabilities for all previous ranks. Further data analysis was done using a logit regression with a Chi-squared test (at 15% level significance) using the Logistic Preference Ranking Analysis Tool for evaluating technology options (Hernandez-Romero, 2000). The preference ranking logic regression allowed the statistical analysis of qualitative preference ranking data and allowed a further separation of species into those likely to be adopted or not.During the focus group discussions and evaluation process, farmers were asked to list the innovations (i.e. what they did differently from the initial aim of the demonstration) for the different species and how this differed from what they had seen in the demonstration sitesFarmers' evaluation of the LCCs and biomass transfer species revealed many positive and negative aspects for each species (Table 1). Some of the positive criteria were, improving soil fertility and providing livestock fodder. More interesting from the research perspective were the negative aspects. For example, Mucuna and Canavalia were notably disliked because their seeds are not edible yet they looked very attractive to eat, and are produced in large numbers even in dry seasons. Mucuna was further disliked for its unsuitability for intercropping and because it can harbour snakes and wild cats if planted near the homesteads. The pest problem on C. grahamiana was cited as a serious set back as the caterpillars that eat the leaves and flowers scare the women and children. Tephrosia also was cited as having a pest problem that leads to flower abortion and hence poor seed formation. Lablab was reportedly having a problem of seed formation while Tithonia was feared to be a potential weed if not managed properly.Criteria for ranking the species' performance were developed and a summary of criteria is given in Table 2. Each group developed its own criteria for ranking, however the four most important criteria for all 19 groups were, yield increase of crop after fallow or intercrop, soil fertility increase, multiple uses of the LCC or BT species and ability to control weeds.Based on the criteria developed with the farmers a ranking analysis tool was used to rank the six species. There was little variation among groups in the rank orders but the overall rank order from the most to the least preferred was Mucuna, Canavalia, Crotalaria, Tithonia, Tephrosia and Lablab (Table 3). Since farmers first experienced most of the LCCs and BT species in the course of the present study, the ranks assigned to some species are a preliminary hint to their adoption potential.Distribution of probabilities of acceptance of LCCs and biomass transfer technologies Table 4 shows the number of times a particular species is ranked in a certain position (acceptance frequencies). For example, Mucuna was ranked in position one seven times, five times in position two, zero times in position three, etc by all the 19 farmer groups. Plotting cumulative probability against the ranking position allows a graphical representation of the acceptance of a technology option (Figure 1). The analysis of cumulative probability versus ranking position showed that for the 19 groups, Mucuna, Crotalaria, Canavalia and Tithonia all had positive intercepts on the y-axis (probability of acceptance), i.e. high probability of being ranked highly by farmers and Tephrosia and Lablab had negative intercepts and are therefore likely to be rejected by the farmers and not adopted (Figure 1; Table 5).A higher slope with a positive intercept on the y-axis means that the technology option has a high probability of being ranked highly by farmers, indicating that they have characteristics that meet farmers needs and therefore should be taken into account while promoting the species. In addition, they are more likely to be adopted. In contrast, a high slope with a negative intercept shows a likelihood of that technology option being ranked often in the last places of the ranking and hence is not liked by farmers.Further analysis of the slope of the regression line and using a Wald chi-square test showed that Mucuna and Crotalaria have low slopes of 0.04 and 0.08 respectively, but with positive intercepts indicating intermediate probabilities of acceptance (Table 5). Canavalia and Tithonia with high slopes of 0.10 and with positive intercepts (differs statistically) have high probabilities of acceptance in accordance with the model used in this analysis. On the other hand Lablab and Tephrosia with high slopes but with negative intercepts indicate low probabilities of acceptance. The analysis of Canavalia was not significantly different (P<0.15) to zero (i.e. there is no difference between the use or no use of the species), indicating likelihood for non-acceptance by the farmers.Farmer innovations with the LCC and biomass transfer species Some farmers indicated that they had tried using the LCCs and biomass transfer species in a different way besides what the researchers had demonstrated during the trials. The ways in which the farmers adapted and adopted the technologies are shown in Table 6. Farmers also invented their own names for some species of the LCC and biomass transfer species they were using (Table 1). Canavalia was locally known as 'Yathipendi' meaning 'medicine for banana' and another group that was dominated by old men identified it as 'Akengu ka Angu' meaning 'trap for the Hyena'. Tephrosia was locally known as 'Yathi fuuko' (medicine for mole rat) or 'Yathirechi' (medicine for fish). Tithonia diversifolia, was locally referred to as 'Mawuwa' but with no particular meaning attached to the name. Mucuna and Crotalaria were known by their botanical names as obtained from the researchers. Farmers' identification of the LCC and biomass transfer species by such names reveals several issues.When faced with many options, framers face complex decisions. This study shows that farmer' assessment of the LCCs and biomass transfer species revealed many positive and negative aspects for each species. The criteria used for selection and the farmers' innovations revealed new research constraints and opportunities. For this farming system, highlighting potential new areas of research, for example, research into suitable niches for the best-bet species (Muhr et al., 2001) and/or identifying varieties that can be consumed by humans, e.g. dual-purpose grain legumes (Ecoregional Alliance, 2001) are important for enhancing the adoption of a technology. This study also confirms the labour constraint with use of LCCs and BT species for soil fertility improvement and therefore a serious constraint in the adoption of the technology (Obonyo, 2001;Tumuhairwe et al., 2002b). Addressing these identified constraints will ensure that future research is relevant to the needs of the farmers and therefore have a higher chance of being adopted.There was no doubt among the farmers that the LCCs technologies work and were better than the traditional practice as far as improving soil fertility was concerned. In terms of costs, it was reported that the use of LCCs and BT species offered a low input technology to the farmers, as most of them could not afford use of inorganic fertilizers especially on the low value crops like maize. Farmers however, observed that the use of LCCs and BT species required a substantial amount of land for production and for sole crop production which is left under fallow with no food crop being produced, high labour for clearing and ploughing in the vegetation, and patience in attaining the results.The fact that food production is the key priority of the farmer means that they are very risk averse and need to produce a food crop every season, so investing present resources in the possibility of future increased production is not necessarily interesting to farmers. As an adaptive research farmer commented, 'Its better to have even one gorogoro tin of maize from a depleted field that was planted with maize than to be guaranteed no maize at all this season by planting a cover crop we can't eat' (Ramisch, pers. Comm..). Despite these constraints, farmers conducting trials on legume cover crops for soil, water and nutrient management in Malawi expressed that through learning-by-doing and doing-by-learning, they learnt that there are some legume cover crops such as Mucuna, pigeon pea, tephrosia, soybeans ground nuts and common beans that improve soil fertility and at the same time be used as a green manure and/or food (Marra et al., 2002;Douthwaite et al., 2002). Recent experiences with farmers using simulation model discussions further provide evidence of the role risk, uncertainty and learning play in the process of adopting/adapting new technologies (Braun, 2001).This study shows that farmers can make use of more than one LCC or BT technology depending on their production objectives and resource endowments. They can observe, compare and decide on alternatives, using criteria drawn from their own experiences. Findings from case studies in Malawi and Zimbabwe also indicate that a broad range of options rather than blanket recommendations (as offered by government extension services) can increase adoption and improve productivity and food security (Marra et al., 2002).The logit preference ranking analysis tool used in this study helps to explain decisions on acceptance or rejection of the technology, based on the criteria and/or farmer group used to choose one technology rather than another. The tool further allows the statistical analysis of qualitative data and a detailed separation of technologies into those likely or unlikely to be accepted, something that is not possible through ranking alone. Information generated from this tool provides essential feedback to the technology development process. This tool has been used to conduct participatory evaluations of cassava, potato, beans and maize varieties in Ecuador and Colombia (Hernandez-Romero, 2000).In the process of technology change and innovation it is essential to understand not only the farmers perceptions but also those of all the stakeholders involved in the research process (Douthwaite et al., 2002;Bellon, 2001). Therefore, the next stage in this adaptive research process involved the systematisation of information, detection of knowledge gaps, and the identification of potential research questions during follow-up community meetings attended by the farmers, extension agents, NGO and CIAT staff. During these meetings the results of the participatory evaluation were discussed and this led to the identification of new research questions that need to be addressed through strategic on-station research; adaptive research conducted by National partners and adaptive research conducted by farmers. The different partners then agreed on the way forward to address these issues:Key farmers to conduct adaptive research on behalf of the community. These farmers will establish a range of experiments, and will be responsible for monitoring the experiments and reporting back to the whole community on the results.Applied research questions to be addressed by National agricultural research partners, through an array of methods from on-station research to on-farm research. Strategic research questions to be addressed by CIAT, TSBF, and other partner international research institutes through an array of methods from, strategic on-station research to on-farm research.In this study, LCC and BT technologies that were introduced to farmers for soil fertility replenishment have been adapted and are being improved through participatory evaluations to include a much wider range of production objectives. The evaluations showed that whilst technologies need to be adapted, a single use technology had little chance of large-scale adoption. This has led to a major rethink by researchers and partners of the methodology and approach taken and the types of research conducted in the project.Whilst technologies exist that increase soil productivity and are profitable for farmers there are many other factors preventing them from adopting the technology. Fallowing the land for example, is not possible where small land sizes or high population densities exist and where seed supply for these legume cover crops is not good. In eastern Uganda, where the population pressure is much lower and where natural fallowing is still part of the farming system, the opportunities for improved fallowing or biomass transfer is much higher. Even so, issues of increased labour requirements for incorporation or collection of biomass are commonly cited by farmers during evaluations.In this dynamic environment farmers assess the different management options available to them and adapt them to fit their own circumstances and production objectives. For example, growing Tithonia on-farm in available niches (around the field boundaries, for example) is one way of over-coming shortage of Tithonia and reducing the labour that would be needed if collecting the biomass from off-farm locations. Innovations in using these legume cover crop and biomass transfer species are very common. This work has identified many adaptations/innovations by farmers not just for increasing crop production but also for pest and weed control, consumption of the seeds and for livestock feeding.The criteria used for species selection and the farmers' innovations provide essential feedback to the participatory action research approach as they reflect the opportunities and constraints of the production systems of the farmers and raise many new areas of research, opportunities of evaluation of new technologies and species and the better targeting of existing information. Young and tender leaves are continuously picked during the entire growing period for sauce. In Tororo, there are several grain legume food crops grown but the major ones in order of importance are cowpea, groundnuts, common bean, simsim, soyabean and green gram. Cowpea was ranked first because it fetches more income than other grains grown in the area.The following criteria was consensually agreed upon and enlisted by the farmers and used to conduct an absolute evaluation: Multiple utilization (e.g. as vegetable sauce, Sumbusa) Pest and disease tolerance Improve soil fertility Good taste and satisfaction obtained when eaten (i.e. ability to stay in the stomach for long) Grain yield obtained (i.e. many grain filled pods) Marketability of the grain seed (i.e. big seed, uniform colour)This present season the farmers are further evaluating the five most promising varieties. In addition, two more varieties breed by Makerere University are being evaluated alongside these. Evaluations will be done at two stages, at 2-3 WAP (for vegetable attributes) and at harvest maturity for grain and biomass yield.The evaluation was done by men and women separately to cater for gender differences. The central objective in conducting a genderized evaluation of the cowpea lines was to make proactive efforts to ensure that women participate and benefit from the technology and capture their innovations. It was anticipated that women face different constraints from men and have different incentives to invest in or adopt cow pea varieties. Based on the evaluation results and field observations, men gave higher score to the local variety compared to the women. However, with regard to the new varieties under evaluation, there wasn't much difference in preference between women and men as reflected also in the evaluation criteria. Furthermore, based on the criteria enlisted by the farmers, the following varieties look promising: IT98K-238-3-3, IT98K-279-3, IT98K-205-8, IT98K-279-3, IT95K-238-3.One of the major problems identified by farmers during participatory research was the lack of seed production from Lablab species due to late flowering and flower abortion, that was severely inhibiting adoption of an otherwise preferred dual-purpose legume option. Thirty-three lines from CSIRO that had early flowering characteristics were introduced with two main objectives of the trials:1. To evaluate the performance of these lines in view of selecting the most promising as regards to improving soil fertility and provision of food 2. To provide grain legumes improvement program with an opportunity to select lines for further testing and use, either directly as varieties or as source of breeding materials.In the 2002b Nitrogen (N) is one of the major limiting nutrients to crop production in Uganda and is depleted at faster rates that replaced. Consequently, yields at farm level are less than 30% of the expected potential.Paradoxically, the majority subsistence farmers are poor to afford use of mineral fertilisers but improved fallow have been reported economically feasible in such conditions. Therefore, a study was initiated in Tororo district, eastern Uganda (i) to determine mineral N contribution of C. grahamiana and M. pruriens short-duration fallows compared with farmers' practices of natural fallow, compost manuring and continuous cropping, (ii) sampling period that closely related to maize grain yield was also determined and also (iii) whether improved fallow provided adequate mineral N for optimum grain yield compared to farmers' practices. It was noted that improved fallows increased mineral N at Dina's site during fallowing (at 0 week sampling), and in the first and fifth week after incorporating their biomass than farmers' practices. For instance, at harvesting fallows (0 week sampling), C. grahamiana and M. pruriens had 12.68 and 12.97 mg Kg -1 N compared to 6.79 and 7.79 mg kg -1 N from following natural fallow and continuous cropping respectively. However, no significant increase was realised at Geoffrey's site at any of the sampling dates attributed to low biomass yield and incorporated. C. grahamiana increased grain yield by 29.3% (Dina's site) and 56.6% (Geoffrey's site) and M. pruriens by 36.0% (Dina's site) and 27.2% (Geoffrey's site) compared to natural fallow with -11.9% (Dina's site) and 17.4% (Geoffrey's site) then compost manure -9.6% (Dina's site and 0% (Geoffrey's site) in relation to continuous cropping as a bench mark. Supplementing the land use systems LUS (C. grahamiana, M. pruriens, natural fallows, compost manure and continuous cropping) with inorganic N fertiliser as urea significantly increased grain yield in all except C. grahamiana at both sites. There were two peaks on mineral N. The first and major peak occurred in the third week dominated by NO 3 --N and the minor one in the tenth week with NH 4 + -N prominent consistent at both sites. Mineral N in the fifth week after incorporating biomass was most closely related to grain yield followed by sampling at planting (0 week).The second Masters thesis (Comparison of the effects of Mucuna pruriens, lablab purpureus, canavalia ensiformis and crotalaria grahamiana on soil productivity in Tororo district eastern Uganda) was submitted in September 2002, the abstract form this thesis is reproduced here.The effect of green manures, Mucuna, Lablab, Canavalia and Crotalaria on soil fertility and productivity in Tororo District, Uganda.There is much concern over the declining crop yields over much of sub-Saharan Africa, and has largely been blamed on declining soil fertility, since increasing population has rendered traditional shifting cultivation and long-term fallowing, less practical. Strategies such as mineral fertilizer application, use of manure (compost and animal) and green manuring have been shown to sustain and/or increase soil productivity. Mineral fertilizers restore lost or limited soil nutrients fast, but are expensive for most farmers and do not improve soil organic matter. Similarly, compost and animal manure use is limited by the quality of the composted and/or feed material as well as the labour requirements for their preparation and application to farm fields. Legume cover crops, which are produced on the field with the crops and later incorporated into the soil to provide plant nutrients upon decomposition, could be a viable option for soil productivity improvement, especially in smallholder low-input agriculture systems. Whereas the technology has been widely adopted in the tropics, it is still low in Uganda, probably due to lack of awareness and performance data. This study was therefore planned to demonstrate the value of legume cover crops on soil productivity improvement and to determine and compare the economic viability of four legume species (Mucuna pruriens, Crotalaria grahamiana, Lablab purpureus and Canavalia ensiformis) in order to give sound recommendation for wider adoption of the technology. To be of relevance to farmers, six on-farm trials (each farmer as a replicate) were set up in two sub-counties Kisoko and Osukuru, and another on-station trial at the District Agricultural Training Centre (DATIC) with four replicates, in Tororo District, eastern Uganda. In August 2000, maize (cv. Longe1) was established on five-5 x 5 m plots and at first weeding stage (4WAP), the four legume cover species were each planted between maize rows in all the plots except the control (maize monocrop). After harvesting maize in December 2000, the cover crops continued to accumulate biomass for two more months, and in February 2001, the above ground biomass of the cover crops and of weeds was harvested, fresh weight taken, sampled for drymatter determination and incorporated into the soil during land preparation for the long rain season in March 2001. Production costs that were different for different treatments were estimated and recorded during the experiment. Maize yields were also recorded to allow computation of the returns from legume cover crops using marginal rate of return of non dominated treatments, as a basis for recommending the cover crop species to farmers. Results indicated significant (p<0.05) maize yield increases for Crotalaria and Lablab treatment of 96.4% and 69.6 % respectively on farmers' fields in the second season (after legume biomass incorporation) and non-significant yield response to all legume cover crops on-station in both seasons, were obtained. The significant maize yield response to Crotalaria and Lablab on-farm and not on-station was probably due better synchrony of nutrients released from their biomass on an initially poorer soil at the on-farm compared the relatively better soil on-station. The analysis of costs and benefits revealed favourable marginal rates of return to Crotalaria, Canavalia and Mucuna of 246, 120 and 30.4% respectively and were all recommended for adoption with more emphasis on Crotalaria.Tumuhairwe, J.B 1 ., B. Jama 2* , and R. Delve 3 , M.C. Rwakaikara-Silver Crotalaria grahamiana and Mucuna pruriens improved fallows are gaining popularity among smallholder farmers in Uganda to address soil fertility decline. The technology supplies nutrients and increases crop yields but its economic viability is uncertain in eastern Uganda. Therefore, two researchermanaged experiments were established in Tororo District, eastern Uganda to determine the financial benefits of the C. grahamiana and M. pruriens improved fallow compared to farmers' practices of natural fallow, compost manure and continuous cropping. Higher returns to land were obtained from improved fallow compared to farmers' practices. C. grahamiana realised US$267.4 (Dina's site) and $ 283.2 (Geoffrey's site), and M. pruriens had $284.1 (Dina's site) and $248.7 (Geoffrey's site) compared to natural fallow $223.3 (Dina's site) and $274.3 (Geoffrey's site), compost manure $70.9 (Dina's site and 114.2 (Geoffrey's site) and continuous cropping $314.2 (Dina's site) and $314.2 (Geoffrey's site) per hectare. Improved fallows saved on labour compared with continuous cropping and compost manure except for natural vegetation fallow. Higher returns to labour were obtained through use of improved fallow than compost manure and continuous cropping. Returns to labour of $0.54 day -1 were obtained for compost manure (at Dina's site), which is less that the wage rate at $0.57 day -1 indicating a loss in labour invested.The second Masters thesis (An assessment of the profitability and acceptance of alternative soil improvement practices in Tororo district, Uganda) was submitted in September 2002, the abstract form of this thesis is reproduced here.Agricultural production in Eastern Uganda is declining due to increasing population pressure on the land. A resultant feature is the dependence of soils on external inputs to attain acceptable crop yields. Resource-poor smallholder farmers, who form the majority of the farmer population in this area, can typically ill-afford recommended levels of inorganic fertilizer use to replenish lost nutrients. Alternative options to expensive and often unavailable inorganic fertilizer use for this small scale farmer population include the integrated use of inorganic fertilizer and organic inputs such as legume cover crops and biomass production shrub and tree technologies. These technologies were incorporated into the farming systems in Eastern Uganda, Tororo district, in 1998 through farmer groups. An economic evaluation of 10 researcher-designed-farmer managed maize trials using Mucuna pruriens and Canavalia ensiformis fallow and Tithonia diversifolia biomass land use systems were conducted. The profitability was determined using gross margins, after which modelling produced the optimal land use system. A survey of 108 respondents was also conducted to determine the acceptance and farmer-perception of 8 previously exposed shrub and tree species. The economic evaluation favoured the use of Integrated Nutrient Management of soil amendments. The 100% incorporation of Mucuna produced the highest benefits of 185,641/= ha -1 as opposed to the net benefit of 134,901/= that would be produced in the optimal solution from 0.6 ha using 191 labour days. The application of 0.91t ha -1 + N biomass system would produce the highest benefits of 445,744/= ha -1 with an optimal net benefit solution of 342,080/= on 0.8ha using 263 labour days. The survey results showed that in the sample size, the acceptance rate was 53 percent. The age and area under shrub were significantly different (0.01) across accepters and non-accepters. The cultivated area (0.1) and employment activities (0.05), institutional support such as belonging to groups and number of extension visits significantly also differed. Alternative uses of shrubs and trees, use of other complimenting inputs and perceptions of the soil fertility were highly significant across acceptor category. Farming experience and use of farmyard manure were not significant. Sesbania sesban, and Mucuna pruriens were found to be the most popular shrubs (36.69%, and 20.6% respectively) and problematic (36.22%, and 25.20% respectively). Popular uses were weed suppressant uses (17.5%) and fuel wood production (23%) for 7 out of 8 shrubs. Major reported problems were the increased labour demands, (21.5%), pest and vermin association (25.3%), and access to planting material and seed (26.7%). Further economic studies that will determine the optimal levels at which the incorporation of livestock management systems into the cropping systems using integrated nutrient management options are recommended. Farmer designed-farmer managed trials would establish preferred farmer management practices to ensure sustainability of these land use systems.Over the last 10 years the image of agricultural and environmental crises in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has become increasingly common. Soil erosion and soil fertility loss are considered to be undermining the productive capacity of the agricultural systems (Giller et al., 1997;Sanchez et al., 1997;Smaling et al., 1997). These problems have been ascribed to many different causes, social, economic, biological and physical. Many authors have also highlighted concern over the increasing land degradation in the highlands of East Africa (e.g. Hilhorst and Muchena, 2000;Farley, 1995;Getahun, 1991) where increases in agricultural production in recent decades have been achieved through intensification of existing agricultural practices and through expanding the cultivated areas of land, especially in fragile environments. Soil degradation, soil erosion and loss of soil fertility have been widely quoted as resulting from these intensive and extensive agricultural production systems.Blaming smallholder farmers for this degradation is over simplistic in the least. Furthermore, tropical agricultural production systems are characterized by dynamic features, resilience and many examples of modified production practices to cope with and adjust to changes (Brookfield and Padoch, 1995;Farley, 1995;Goldman, 1995). Smallholder farmers use a wide range of resource management practices and production strategies specific to their agro-ecology to minimise risk, cope with change and shocks and to manage the environment (ecological, social, economic etc) they operate within. These can include, for example, agricultural intensification, expanded market-orientation, increased capital and labour investment. Alternatively, farmers have been found to exploit their resource base where constraints are too high, the returns to investment are too low (even negative, as when staple commodity prices plummet during bumper harvests), or environmental conditions too erratically variable for secure investment. Where purchased inputs or labour are scarce, mining the soil's nutrient capital resource can appear to smallholders as good economics and an acceptable cost of agricultural production.This paper uses evidence from two sites in eastern Uganda and western Kenya to investigate land management, land use changes, and the policy environment within which smallholders have to operate, and assess their impacts on smallholder farmers' production strategies. Both sides of the border have similar agro-ecosystems and cropping systems, with eastern Uganda through to western Kenya occupying a gradient with changing soil types, from the alfisols in Uganda to humic nitisols in western Kenya, increasing agricultural production and also increasing population densities from east to west. This has resulted in a range of land use systems to manage this gradient.Ugandan and Kenyan national research institutions (in collaboration with international agricultural research centres) have developed an array of technologies that can effectively address local production problems, for example, improved banana and maize varieties for various agro-ecological zones, as well as, legumes and cover crops that improve soil fertility and provide fodder. Many of these technologies have, however, not been disseminated adequately to farmers and have, therefore, little impact at the farm level. The need for improved dissemination of knowledge to farmers has been identified by many studies (e.g. Onesimus et al., 1999). To do this, it is increasingly being recognised that the best approach is one in which farmers, the local administration, and the community participate actively.Examples of technologies developed in the region by collaborative research between farmers and scientists include: Phosphorus replenishment. Phosphorus is a major limiting nutrient to much of the region's crop production due to low soil P availability and many soils' high P-fixing capacity, especially in western Kenya. The socio-economics of smallholder production limit the feasibility of using fertilisers, but combining organic residues with locally available, low-cost rock P, can improve P availability to crops. As well, research on a P-fixing Nitisol in western Kenya has shown that soil P replenishment using seasonal additions of small rates of P fertilisers could be attractive to some small-scale farming systems (Nziguheba, 2001). Seasonal additions of 25 kg P ha -1 increased maize yield with gradual replenishment of soil P. Smaller rates of 10 kg P ha -1 contributed to soil P depletion, while large seasonal applications of 150 kg P ha -1 resulted in low efficiency of applied fertilisers.• Legume cover crops. In regions where natural fallowing is still practiced (as in Eastern Uganda), green manure species like Mucuna pruriens and Canavalia ensiformis increases the following maize yields (Delve and Jama, 2002a). In addition, the significant increases in associated maize stover production increased options available to farmers, such as using it for livestock feed or bedding, soil erosion control, compost making, or mulching the banana crop. Delve and Jama (2002a) also found that incorporating 50% or 100% of the in-situ produced biomass did not result in significantly different increases in maize grain and stover yield. This would allow farmers to use 50% for incorporation and the remaining 50% for livestock feed, sale to other farmers, or to produce hay for dry season feed. Increasing the resource management options and therefore the production options of the farming enterprise is critical where land sizes and the area available for non-food crop production are small, and where cash is not readily available to buy inputs for crop and livestock production.• Biomass transfer. In both western Kenya and eastern Uganda application of high quality local materials, such as Tithonia diversifolia, has shown good potential to increase productivity. Work in western Kenya, supplying a constant rate of 15 kg P ha -1 through combinations of Tithonia leaves low-quality maize stover and triple super-phosphate (TSP), showed that maize yields increased between 18-24% as the share of P contributed by Tithonia in the residue-fertiliser mix was increased above 36%. The results indicate that a high quality organic input can be more profitable than using inorganic P, and comparable to or more effective than inorganic P in increasing P availability in the soil. Work in Uganda combining Tithonia with fertilisers also obtained the greatest benefits by maximising the proportion of Tithonia in the mixture (Delve and Jama, 2002b).Whilst technologies exist that increase soil productivity and are profitable for farmers there are many factors limiting technology adoption. The fact that food production is the key priority of the farmer means that they are very risk averse and need to produce a food crop every season. Even where land is not apparently scarce, investing present resources in the possibility of future increased production is not necessarily attractive to farmers. As a research farmer in Kenya commented, 'Its better to have even one gorogoro tin of maize [from a depleted field that was planted with maize] than to be guaranteed no maize at all this season by planting a cover crop we can't eat'. Issues of increased labour requirements for incorporation or collection of biomass are also commonly cited by farmers during evaluations of the organic technologies. In western Kenya there are even examples of teachers using 'free' labour of children coming to school to harvest Tithonia for use on school plots.The implicit assumption of most agricultural research is that farmers' current resource management decisions are not the optimal ones, and that providing them with 'better information' would lead them to better choices. However, without understanding farmers' priorities and constraints the rationality of their current decisions will also be misunderstood. Similarly, by ignoring farmers' existing knowledge (or not accurately locating the gaps in that knowledge) the impacts of improved land management technologies will be minimal. Agricultural knowledge, access to new sources of information, and control of resources can vary considerably within a given community, especially across axes of difference such as gender or age. Technologies that are designed collaboratively by researchers, extensionists, and farmers are more likely to correctly target the socio-economic and agro-ecological niches where they will be most relevant.Innovations in using these soil fertility management technologies are very common. A recent survey identified many adaptations/innovations by farmers using cover crop and biomass transfer species not just for increasing crop production but also for pest and weed control, consumption of the seeds and for livestock feeding (Nyende and Delve, 2002). Farmers assess the different management options available to them, and adapt them to fit their own circumstances and production objectives. Growing Tithonia onfarm in available niches (around the field boundaries, for example) is one way of overcoming shortage of Tithonia and reducing the labour that would be needed if collecting the biomass from off-farm locations. For other farmers, the rapid decomposition of Tithonia makes it 'more like a fertiliser' (i.e. immediate effect, with little residual benefit) and therefore less attractive than farmyard manure (compost of animal, household, and crop wastes) which 'builds the soil' for the long term.Recognition that innovation comes from multiple sources means that technology development must involve potential users from very early in the design process. To support this, extension must be more intimately linked with research to ensure that nascent technologies take fuller account of farmers' existing knowledge, practices, and priorities. 'Dissemination' would be of prototypes fully intended for modification or rejection by farmers and not of 'finished' products. However, by treating technology itself as politically neutral -i.e.: without knowing who benefits from existing practices, or who will likely benefit from changes -policy recommendations relating to soil fertility management will remain too vague to truly assist policy-makers, or be delivered through inappropriate channels to sectors unable to make use of them.While some of the constraints to crop production and examples of options available for alleviating soil productivity problems have been discussed at the farm level, many of the constraints facing farmers come from external forces, such as the (mis-) functioning of input and output markets, which can only be affected by modification of the 'policy environment'. For example, the bumper harvest reported in Kenya and Uganda in the 2001 short-rain season led to sale prices of maize that were often below production costs. In such situations, farmers face the prospective of losing money if they sell their maize to generate cash, but there is also no incentive for them to invest in their agricultural enterprises given the policy environment they operate within. Clearly, innovations need to address food security and livelihood sustainability, not just increased production as a good in its own right. Policy interventions that would rationalise input and output markets, and buffer smallholders from their volatility, should have as their goal a) increasing farmers' opportunities to innovate, and b) making investments back into agriculture attractive. One way in which such support could be given to smallholders would be by increasing investment in linking research, development, and extension with farm communities. In Kenya, the collapse of the formal extension network over the last five years has led to a shift towards farmer extension and farmer-to-farmer training through for example, farmer field schools. This increased reliance on information diffusion through social networks requires a better understanding of the role of social capital in innovation. In contrast, in Uganda, a newly privatised extension service is being piloted in test districts across the country, where parish level farmer forums feed through sub-county and counties to the district, which then contracts extension providers to provide the demanded services. This demandled process has the potential to allow smallholder farmers increased access to markets, agricultural inputs and extension services and to improve access to information and technologies through the contracting of private sector service providers. This in turn will lead towards a more market orientated smallholder production sector.The shortcomings of traditional economic impact assessment (IA) Folklore in the CGIAR system tells of a golden period in the 1970s when the only financial constraint was the capacity to spend the money wisely. Back then, donors believed that \"if a group of competent scientists were based in a developing country, were provided with excellent facilities, and were isolated from political pressure for several years, they were bound to generate useful new technologies\" (Horton and Prain, 1989, p. 302). Those days have long gone. Not surprisingly donors started to perceive that isolation made CGIAR centres unresponsive to the needs of farmers and agro-industries, and started to demand evidence of priorities set jointly with the intended beneficiaries of the research, research impacts and the efficiency of research investments. In response to this pressure CGIAR centres invested much effort in the 1980s and 1990s in developing impact assessment methods (Ekboir, 2002). Much of this work was driven by the dominant social science approach in the CGIAR system, which remains grounded in traditional agricultural economics (Horton, 1997). These approaches rely on establishing a mechanical causal relationship between the costs and benefits of research. 4 'Best practice' economic impact assessment is represented by the book Science under Scarcity (Alston et al., 1995), which is dismissive of other, less linear approaches as being \"unlikely to yield any meaningful indications of the economic effects of research. … Therefore, they are not useful for informing allocation decisions.\" (p.501-2).We contend that the predominance of traditional economic IA methods in the CGIAR system, often to the exclusion of a whole gamut of evaluation approaches developed in the field of evaluation, does not help solve donors' legitimate concerns about research relevance and impact. This is for two main reasons. Firstly, economic IA methods focus largely on ex-ante IA and then ex-post IA, but have little to offer in the area of monitoring and evaluation (M&E), despite M&E being identified as being important in helping research projects actually achieve impact. Secondly, economic IA, based as it is on linear models that link research inputs to outputs, is only valid if: 1) the causal link dominates from start of research to the measurement of impact; 2) there are no other factors affecting adoption and impact; 3) chance has no influence; and 4) inputs and impacts can be measured to an acceptable degree of accuracy (Ekboir 2002). In practice these assumptions can hold, as Table 5 shows, only for research activities developing 'minor' technological changes intended for use in 'simple' systems. Breeding of new plant varieties for irrigated areas that are already growing improved varieties of that particular crop, is one of the very few CGIAR research activities that would qualify. New varieties are simple to use because they are not new technologies but rather minor improvements of existing techniques along well known technological trajectories. Hence, the need for user modification and innovation, and therefore the unpredictability and non-linearity that this brings to IA, is limited. But since market and policy changes can affect adoption decisions in unforeseen ways, even relatively simple cases like the one described, are becoming increasingly complex due to globalisation and deregulation of agricultural markets. Complex \"hard-to-employ\" Natural resource management in simple systemsSimple \"easy-to-employ\" Plant breeding for irrigated systems Participatory varietal selection in rain-fed systems Key:Where linear innovation approach and conventional impact assessment could eventually workWhere complexity requires close research and user interaction and assumptions underpinning economic impact assessment breakdownBox 1 gives a case study of a 6-fold increase in grain production in MERCOSUR 5 that was the result of the interaction of three technologies with social innovations and explains why impacts cannot be attributed to research outputs alone. The case study also shows that ex-ante impact assessment prioritised the wrong research area, illustrating the point that ex-ante impact assessment can only recognise technological trends once they have begun to emerge. Hence, institutions can only establish research programs in relatively known fields. If new trends are to emerge, researchers must be allowed to explore less known areas of research.Box 1: A case study of impact where traditional economic IA does not work (from Ekboir, 2002) In the 40 years between 1961 and 2001 production of maize, sorghum, sunflower, soybeans and wheat in MERCOSUR increased from 23 million tonnes to 152 million tonnes. The increase came about by farmers adopting three interdependent technologies: the introduction of soybeans in late 1960s, zero tillage and improved germplasm. Soybean production led to an intensification of agriculture, which caused serious soil degradation. A number of technical solutions were proposed to solve the problem, including zero tillage and terracing. At the time, researchers identified terracing as the more promising option, and as a result soil conservation projects neglected work on zero tillage. Nevertheless, by 1985 viable zero tillage systems had been developed by a network of agents, including agrochemical companies, a few public sector researchers, farmers and agricultural machinery manufacturers. In the late 1980s researchers and farmers, with support from Monsanto, created associations to promote zero tillage. Adoption, however, remained low until the early 1990s because the herbicide glyphosate (a key component of the package) was expensive. Then, a change in corporate policies helped bring about a fall in price from US$ 40 per litre to US$ 10 per litre. The new relative prices combined with a very effective diffusion policy organized by the association caused adoption to explode (Ekboir, 2001). Zero tillage reduced production costs, reversed soil erosion and allowed an expansion of agriculture into previously marginal lands. Without zero tillage, grain production would have had to be abandoned in many areas. The impact of these technologies cannot be separated. Without zero tillage, the impact of improved germplasm would have been very small, as zero tillage was necessary to stop soil erosion and improve water management. At the same time, new and improved germplasm increased the profitability of zero tillage, fostering adoption. But adoption only exploded when a key input produced by a private firm became affordable.Economic IA assumes a mechanical link between research outputs and the benefits, and then attempts to separately attribute impact to the different components of the package. However, this is not possible in cases like this characterized by multiple interactions and feedback loops among several physical and social components and agents. Hence, traditional economic IA is not able to evaluate the research that contributed to the impact, because, for example, without the reduction in the price of glyphosate the impact would have been small. But the price reduction was completely unrelated to plant breeding or development of zero tillage.In addition to the failure of ex post economic IA, ex ante impact assessment also failed by wrongly prioritising terracing as the most viable technical solution to soil degradation. As a result resources were siphoned off that might have otherwise hastened the adoption of zero tillage. Only after terracing proved to be unsustainable was zero tillage recognised as the best option.Complex adaptive systems are characterized by three features: several interactions among agents and processes, strong feedback loops and intrinsic randomness. Because of these three features, these systems are essentially unpredictable in the long run, even though limited predictability is possible in the short run. Although outcomes cannot be predicted, key factors that influence the probability of success of agricultural innovation processes have been identified. These are the emergence of strong and flexible networks, the adoption of participatory research and diffusion methods where farmers play a key role, flexible evaluation and monitoring routines in public research institutions and access to internationally generated information (Ekboir and Parellada 2002). Effective monitoring and evaluation routines of these factors that result in rapid corrective measures can greatly increase the chances of large impacts.In addition to traditional IA, the CGIAR system needs innovative M&E approaches that aid a continuous redesign of on-going research projects (including 'learning by doing', 'learning by learning', mapping of innovation networks, creation of organizational capabilities and adaptive management). The importance of M&E to good, adaptive, project management is recognised as key to successful Integrated Natural Resource Management (Sayer and Campbell, 2001). Furthermore, donors at the February 2002 CGIAR Impact Assessment Conference urged centres to focus more on M&E that contributes to institutional learning and change, and less on ex-post IA of successes for publicity purposes. The following are three cases studies of recent and on-going M&E exercises to show the types of knowledge that this work can produce, and how it can feed back into the research and priority setting process. We then follow with a discussion of how inclusion of M&E can build the foundation for more plausible expost IA and be used as an essential tool in priority setting.Conceptual map of the innovation process All three case studies described in this section implicitly assume the conceptual map of the technology development and adoption process shown in Figure 1, and therefore the case studies are described with reference to the model. The model recognises four phases in the innovation process: Development Phase-Innovators (e.g., researchers, farmers, input suppliers or other agents working together or in isolation) are permanently searching for new technological or economic alternatives to achieve their objectives (which may include improved livelihoods for farmers or professional recognition for researchers). Problem diagnosis with the intended target group(s) is part of this process. When an alternative is identified, the innovators develop 'best bet' integrated solutions.Start-Up Phase-The network of early developers take these 'best bet' options and demonstrate them to individual and/or a network of farmers, in the hope that farmers will see that at least some aspects hold out a 'plausible promise' of being benefit to them, sufficient to motivate at least a few to contribute their own time and land in experimenting.Adaptation Phase-Experimenting farmers and other agents work together to adapt and refine the 'plausible promise' into something better; something that is seen to work and make sense to the wider community;Expansion Phase-Adoption levels expand as the community begins to adopt their locally-constructed solution(s). This might be an integrated package and/or a single component of the 'best bet' options originally introduced.While necessary in all phases, M&E is particularly important in the adaptation phase to help ensure the innovations and farmer adaptations can be captured and incorporated into the research process.Implicit to this conceptual map is the premise that once developed, a complex technology that is widely adopted in a pilot site, will scale-out to other, similar, communities through multi-actor interactions. However, scaling-out can be accelerated by a properly designed extension approach that speeds up both the knowledge spread and the experiential learning that is necessary to construct the technology in communities elsewhere.In late 1998, the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT) introduced legume cover crop (LCC) and shrub species, proven to improve soil fertility, into two sub-counties of Tororo District, in eastern Uganda. These legume species were: Canavalia ensiformis; Crotalaria grahamiana; Dolichos lablab; Mucuna pruriens; Tephrosia vogellii; and Tithonia diversifolia. TSBF-CIAT began by setting up several on-farm trials, together with 40 participating farmers. The purpose of these trials was to validate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the LCCs and shrubs as, for example, cover crops to control weeds, or to improve soil fertility, by, in some cases, biomass transfer (BT) from one field to another. These activities were backstopped by project field officers, as well as, by the district extension services of the government. To reach more farmers a range of approaches were implemented, extension agents were trained on the use and management of the technology, innovative farmers were identified in each sub-county and trained, farmer-to-farmer extension formed an important component of the program. Many study and exchange tours were organized to enhance farmer-to-farmer learning and adoption of the technologies promoted. By the end of 2001 over 2000 farmers had established their own evaluation trials as a result of extension visits and farmer-trainer visits and from exchange visits to demonstrations sites.TSBF-CIAT conducted a farmer participatory evaluation of the LCC and BT species after seven seasons in December 2001 and January 2002 with 21 farmer groups, representing 234 farmers (92 male, 142 female). The farmer groups were purposively selected on the basis of having several seasons' experience with the legumes and their management. Group discussions and key informant interviews were then held to:• Establish farmers' assessment of the legume species for soil fertility improvement;• Identify farmer innovations with respect to the use and management of the legumes; • Identify farmers' evaluation criteria when comparing between legumes;• Conduct a matrix ranking based on these criteria.Farmers identified a number of positive and negative characteristics of each legume (Table 6). Some of the positive aspects correspond to innovations made by farmers during their trials (Table 7). Generally, the innovations show that farmers are seeking to increase the benefits of the technologies by finding alternative and dual-purpose uses for the legumes, other than for soil fertility or weed suppression. These include attempting to: eat the seed and leaves in sauce (Lablab, Mucuna), to control crop pests and diseases (Crotalaria, Canavalia, Tephrosia), catch fish (Tephrosia) and curing human ailments (Tithonia). Other innovations, for example, border planting, are designed to reduce the cropland taken by the legumes. An indication that farmers had learnt to value the legumes was that some groups gave them local names. One group called Canavalia 'Yathipendi' meaning 'medicine for banana' while another group, that was dominated by old men, identified it as 'Akengu ka Angu' meaning 'trap for the Hyena'. Tephrosia was locally known as 'Yathi fuuko' (medicine for mole rat) or 'Yathirechi' (medicine for fish). Tithonia diversifolia, was locally referred to as 'Mawuwa' but with no particular meaning attached to the name. It should be noted, that in some cases farmers knew the species before TSBF-CIAT established the trials but were not aware of their potential uses and that some of the names, innovations and discoveries occurred outside the learning cycles that took place as a result of the project trials. Leaves used for treatment of stomach ailments and fevers Farmers were also asked to make explicit the criteria they used when evaluating the legumes Table 8) and the overall farmer ranking, developed using a ranking analysis tool with the 21 groups, is shown in Table 9. The rank order from the most to the least preferred was Mucuna, Tithonia, Canavalia, Crotalaria, Lablab and Tephrosia. For the 21 groups a cumulative probability was plotted against the ranking order given by each group (Figure 2). The area under the lines for the different LCC and BT species is directly related to its ranked popularity. For example nearly all the groups rated Mucuna either first or second, giving a large area under the Mucuna line, while most farmers rated Tephrosia either fifth or sixth giving a much smaller area under the Tephrosia line. What Figure 2 shows is that Mucuna is clearly the most popular, Lablab and Tephrosia are almost universally unpopular and have a low probability of being accepted in any village, while Crotalaria, Canavalia and Tithonia are moderately popular with little to distinguish between them. This analysis has been confirmed using a logic regression analysis (Nyende and Delve 2002). Discussions with farmers during the group assessments and ranking exercises, as well as open and probing questions, gave insights into the constraints to farmer adoption. Fallowing the land is not possible where small land sizes or high population densities exist and where seed supply for these legume cover crops is not good. In eastern Uganda, where the population pressure is much lower and where natural fallowing is still part of the farming system, the opportunities for improved fallowing or biomass transfer is much larger. Even so, farmers commonly cite difficulties in finding the labour required for collecting or incorporating biomass. Also, many farmers are very reluctant to use land and effort without producing a crop, even if future benefit justifies the investment. This is because most farmers' main priority is food production, and they are very risk adverse. As an adaptive research farmer commented, 'Its better to have even one gorogoro tin of maize [from a depleted field that was planted with maize] than to be guaranteed no maize at all this season by planting a cover crop we can't eat' (Ramisch, pers. Comm.).The next stage in this adaptive research process involved the systematisation of information from the M&E, detection of knowledge gaps, and the identification of potential research questions during followup community meetings attended by the farmers, extension agents, NGO and CIAT staff. During these meetings the results of the participatory evaluation were discussed and this led to the identification of new research questions that needed to be addressed. For example, Lablab was identified as a very promising multi-purpose legume but the variety the community had was not producing seed. As a result new photoperiod insensitive and early flowering germplasm from Australia and Africa is now under-going onstation evaluation.After identifying new research questions the different partners then agreed on how to address the issues. They did this by: • Identifying key farmers to conduct adaptive research on behalf of the community. These farmers will establish a range of experiments, and will be responsible for monitoring the experiments and reporting back to the whole community on the results. • Applied research questions to be addressed by National agricultural research partners, through an array of methods from on-station research to on-farm research.• Strategic research questions to be addressed by CIAT, TSBF, and other partner international research institutes through an array of methods from, strategic on-station research to on-farm research.The most important outputs of the M&E process was the identification of the criteria used for species selection and the farmers' innovations. Both provided essential feedback to the participatory action research approach as they reflect the opportunities and constraints of the production systems of the farmers and raise many new areas of research, opportunities of evaluation of new technologies and species, and the better targeting of existing information. The M&E has shown that farmers adapted technologies introduced primarily for soil fertility replenishment in an attempt to fulfil a much wider range of production objectives, leading to the conclusion that a single-use technology had little chance of large-scale adoption. This has resulted in a major rethink by researchers and partners of the methodology and approach taken and the types of research conducted in the project.Striga hermonthica is a parasitic weed that attaches itself to the roots of cereals (e.g. maize, sorghum, millet and rice), diverting essential nutrients and leaving the host stunted and yielding little or no grain. The weed is the severest biological constraint to cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa, infesting almost 21 million hectares of land causing millions of dollars of damage (Sauerborn, 1991). Farmers world-wide call it 'witch' weed, because it does most of its damage before it emerges from the soil.Research at IITA and elsewhere is showing that Striga control is possible using an integrated approach that attacks Striga from several sides at the same time. A key component of this Integrated Striga Control (ISC) approach is the use of a legume crop (e.g., soybean, cowpea, groundnut) that induces a high proportion of Striga seeds to germinate, which then die because they cannot parasitize legumes. This is called 'trap cropping'. To be effective, legume trap crops must be planted much more closely than farmers usually plant their legumes, and should be used together with Striga-resistant cereals, seed cleaning to remove Striga seed, crop rotation, weeding of the Striga plants before they set seed, and improved soil fertility.Since 1999, a research project at IITA has been working in four villages in Northern Nigeria using participatory research approaches to develop locally-adapted integrated Striga control (ISC). The villages where chosen on the basis of having severe Striga problems. Two group meetings were held, first to carry out a problem consensus to rank Striga in relation to other problems, and then to design experiments to evaluate the options for Striga control. The R&D team has provided training to improve farmers' understanding of Striga. The work began with 19 participating farmers (Schulz et al. in press).M&E has been built into the project from early on, based on the project impact pathway shown in Figure 3. The impact pathway describes how the project expects the output-validation and adaptation of ISC options in farmers' fields-might lead ultimately to the project goal of improved livelihoods for the 100 million people in Africa that are affected by Striga. The shaded boxes are the intermediate outcomes that the project is monitoring. The unshaded boxes will be evaluated in the ex post impact assessment some time after the end of the project.The project is using two published approaches to monitor and evaluate the delivery of the intermediate outcomes shown in Figure 3. The first is the 'Follow the Technology' (FTT) approach (Douthwaite et al. 2001;Douthwaite 2002) that sees technological change in general, and early adoption in particular, as an evolutionary process in which stakeholders generate novelties (i.e., make modifications; innovate), select those that appear to work and promulgate the results. The Follow the Technology approach involves, as the name suggests, following new technologies and knowledge as they are adopted. The FTT approach focuses on identifying modifications, selection decisions (i.e., whether farmers decide to adopt a modification), and promulgation processes. Key to the direction and nature of an evolutionary process is the environment, hence the FTT approach pays particular attention to seeking explanations for novelties generated, selection decisions made and the nature of promulgation paths to understand the socioeconomic and cultural factors affecting farmers' learning and decision making processes. By paying particular attention to who is, and is not, modifying and adopting, as well as identifying conflicts arising from adoption, the FTT approach is able to identify negative as well as positive consequences.The project will use the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLA) (Scoones, 1998), summarised in Figure 4, to guide an evaluation of whether adoption of ISC is having any impact on peoples' livelihoods. This will be done by constructing case studies of individual households, purposively selected to be representative of poor, medium and rich households in the four villages.  From October 2001 to January 2002 a survey was carried out to identify farmers who had adopted at least one component of ISC from the participating farmers. A total of 245 expansion farmers were identified in this way. The positions of the 44 participating farmers' experimental plots and the subsequent 'expansion' plots were then marked using a hand-held GPS and plotted using the geographic information systems (GIS) program ArcView (ESRI, 1999). A data sheet was completed to record what was planted in the fields, and modifications made to the recommended package shown in Figure 3. From February to June 2002 an in-depth survey was then carried out of a random sample of 149 of the participating and expansion farmers. The survey sought explanations for farmers' adoption and modification decisions, his or her understanding of ISC, and to find out where the farmer received the technologies from, and who he or she has passed them on to. The questionnaire specifically asked whether farmers passed on any of the agronomic recommendations, e.g., close legume spacing, in addition to distributing seed. In this way the FTT approach monitors and evaluates changes to five of the boxes shown in Figure 3, that is, changes in farmer knowledge and perceptions; modifications; adoption; and the spread from the pilot villages elsewhere (scaling-out). Table 10 shows that over half of the farmers had made at least one modification to researcherrecommended management when they adopted aspects of ISC. Most of these were to reject the researcher-recommended sole-cropping and closer plant spacing, in particular for soybean. The latter was largely because recommended soybean row spacing was 35cm, while in most farmers' fields row spacing was fixed by the local animal-driven plough at 70cm. One farmer, however, came up with the innovative approach of planting two rows per ridge, shown in . It shows that the farmer has understood the principle of suicidal germination and the need for higher soybean root density. The project has subsequently adopted this practice because it reduces the cost of establishing legume trap crops. Farmers' rejection of sole cropping has negative implications for Striga control because mixed cropping with cereals (gicci, strip, intercropping and relay) is a concern to the project because it means that Striga will grow and flower each year in the field thus replenishing the seed bank. The reasons farmers gave for continuing with mixed cropping is that it reduces risk, and gives a higher overall yield. Both reasons are valid, although the second is only true with low fertilizer use that necessitates wide cereal plant spacing, leaving room for a legume in-between. However, researcher-managed trials have shown that a sole-crop legume followed in rotation with close-spaced sole-crop maize with moderate fertiliser application rates gives better Striga control and much higher yields than farmers' practice, and is more profitable (Schulz et al. In press). In an effort to bring farmers' and researchers' perceptions and understanding closer together the project is planning to carry out a participatory budgeting exercise at the end of the 2002cropping season to help farmers more clearly see the economic benefits of sole-cropping and legumecereal rotations, and for researchers to better understand the benefits of mixed cropping. This would not have happened without the data from the monitoring and evaluation. In Kaya village, for example, adoption is clustered around the participating farmers and their fields, while in Mahuta, aspects of ISC have moved up to 40km. The project is now planning to develop a ISC extension approach built on fostering these indigenous scaling-out mechanisms. Again, without M&E the project would not be following this path. M&E has helped give the ISC project a much clearer impact focus through the process of defining the project's impact pathway. The M&E findings have redirected research efforts in a number of ways, including through the incorporation of farmer innovations in the recommended basket of options; the decision to carry out a partial budgeting exercise to bring farmers' and researchers' perceptions of the pros and cons of mixed versus sole cropping closer together; and by providing the understanding of adoption processes necessary to develop an effective ISC dissemination approach.In 1998, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and its partners in Malawi and Zimbabwe began a comparison of different Farmer Participatory Research (FPR) approaches being used by various organizations in Malawi and Zimbabwe. A key objective was to compare the effectiveness of different methodologies in the development and testing of soil management technologies for resource-poor farmers, particularly women farmers. A second objective was to investigate the contribution that crop systems simulation modelling could make to FPR. To accomplish the objectives the project tested FPR methods at each of six case study sites, three each in Malawi and Zimbabwe. The various methods involved varying degrees of farmer participation: traditional researchled, researcher-led with farmer input, and farmer-led with research input.The project tested four hypotheses:• The provision of a broad range of soil water and nutrient management options is better than blanket fertiliser recommendations currently offered by government extension services, which are 3 to 8 times higher than the rates that farmers usually apply; • Recommending less inorganic fertilizer and more manure and legumes to women farmers would increase their adoption rates, and thus improve productivity and food security.• Uptake of technologies would vary with the wealth of the household and gender of the household head.• Adoption would follow a cycle starting with a low rate of inorganic fertilizers and manure and increase through learning-by-doing and learning-by-using.At start-up the project invested heavily in training activities with research and development staff from the different partner institutions to introduce the various concepts of the participatory research process and simulation modelling. However, the short duration of the project meant that much of the problem identification and selection of best bets occurred prior to the training. The 'best bet' technology options were selected in part through an exercise in systems analysis conducted in September, 1999, based on crop simulation modelling and resource-constrained scenarios that incorporated realistic levels of farmer resources. Socio-economic data and the judgement of agronomists and economists were used to devise resource-constrained scenarios (e.g., trade-offs for allocation of labour and resources among different farm management components: timely planting and weeding, fertilizer and manure). Simulation was then used to evaluate different scenarios, with the goal of maximizing return from the whole farm while limiting risk. The best bet options chosen included a range of legume intensified systems (Chamango, 2002;Twomlow et al., 2002), moderate inorganic fertilizer use alone or in combination with extra weeding (Dimes et al., 2002), and manure (Murwira and Kudya, In press).Throughout the projects life various formal and informal workshops were held in both Malawi and Zimbabwe to introduce various concepts of the participatory research process and simulation modelling to researchers, extensionists and farmers. On-farm experimentation with the best bet options was then conducted over the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 growing season at the six case study sites. Each case study village had a research-led, farmer-input trial and either a farmer-led, research-input and/or a research-led, traditional trial. The choice and implementation of the best bet options and the FPR approaches varied depending on the experiences of the local team. To fully understand the household labour implications and farmer perceptions of the different technologies being tested at the six field sites field days were held on a seasonal basis and farmers perceptions of each technology were solicited using a range of participatory tools, such as matrix ranking. These field days were followed up by a series of focus group discussions between March and May 2001, with participating farmer groups in both countries (Rusike and Twomlow, unpublished field notes; Ncube and Twomlow, 2001). At each of these meetings the farmers were asked to describe their cropping calendar in relation to local soil taxonomies, the labour resources used for each task, and local input and output prices, the technologies they had been evaluating, and what, if anything they had adopted or adapted (see ). This information was then used to construct a final adoption survey from which partial budgets for each technology were determined, from which net benefit curves and a marginal rates of return analyses were calculated to identify what financial benefits might accrue for a rural household and the potential risks of the different technologies. Based on this information a whole farm mathematical programming model was constructed to determine profitability of the improved soil water and fertility management options relative to other investment options given the household resource constraints and preferences for risk, and thus identify constraints to adoption. The model was set up to maximize net revenue of the whole farm subject to resource constraints. The model captured risk as the minimum quantity of staple food grain (1 ton of maize, sorghum or millet grain per 6 family members) that the household needs to produce to meet its food requirements for the year. The model was then run for different resource categories of farmers using the gender of household head as the proxy indicator. The FPR trials indicated significant yield increases result from use of best-bet options compared to farmers' practice, including small quantities of fertilizers linked to weeding, legume rotations and intercrops and anaerobically-composted manure.Marginal rate of returns analysis showed that best bet technologies offered significant benefits to farmers and had returns which exceeded 100%, which is usually assumed to be the minimum required for smallholders to widely adopt this type of agricultural technology (see Table 11 and  Table 12 for example marginal rate of return analyses for legume best bet trials in Malawi and Nitrogen by Weeding Trials in Zimbabwe). However, farmers' evaluation of technologies, using matrix ranking exercise during field days, showed that they may still not adopt the technologies despite their competitive marginal rates of returns shown in Table 11 because of resource constraints, access to input and output markets, risk and food security (Table 14). Nevertheless, the 2000/2001 end-of-season survey of farmers who hosted trials and non-host farmers in neighbouring villages showed that farmers are adapting and adopting some technologies from the trial plots to their main fields (Table 14). The crop management practices being adopted/adapted by farmers in both Malawi and Zimbabwe are summarised in Table 11.  The adoption of maize-legume systems by households in both countries is influenced by access to input markets for seed and output markets to earn cash through commercial grain sale. In both countries the use of inorganic fertilizer is constrained by a combination of high fertilizer prices, and blanket recommendations that do not take account of households perceptions of risk and liquidity, as few households earn enough income from their crop sales to enable them to invest such large cash inputs. The small doses of fertilizer, 10 to 20 kg of N ha -1 that the project tested with farmers appears to be at an investment level that households are willing and able to risk. However, information is lacking on fertilizer application rates that farmers currently use, how they can best use the small quantities of fertilizer they have, and on manure-fertilizer combinations, and integrating inorganic and organic fertility amendments.Table 15 shows that in both Malawi and Zimbabwe the most popular technologies were improved germplasm with accompanying management practices. However, the table also shows that farmers in Zimbabwe were much more willing to expand investments in a range of improved soil, water and nutrient management practices than in Malawi, where pre-plant ridges are the norm, rather than the exception.Other findings from the research showed, however, that adoption of soil, water and nutrient management practices should be accompanied by improvements in basic crop management practices such as variety selection, tillage, planting method, spacing, timing of planting and weeding in order for the investment in improved soil fertility management to provide acceptable payoffs.In Malawi, it would appear from our survey data that proportionately more female-headed households have changed their crop management practices as a result of the projects activities. Female-headed households are adopting new maize varieties; groundnut, soybeans and Tephrosia intercrops; and modifying their plant populations to reflect those used in the trials (Table 10). In contrast, male-headed households were emphasising pigeon pea and Mucuna rotations, incorporation of plant residues, kraal and compost manures, and early planting and small quantities of fertilizer. These difference have been attributed to the fact that female-headed households tend to have greater land, labour and cash constraints, and as a consequence are more food deficit than male-headed households (Freeman, 2002).  , 2001) showed that farmers' perceptions of soil fertility management vary widely, depending on the resources available to the individual household. In Zimbabwe, de facto female-headed households with access to cash appeared to be adopting new cereal varieties, seed priming, pit-composted manure and small quantities of inorganic fertilizer, manure and weeding combinations (Table 11). In contrast, the poorer resourced de jure female-headed households were adopting heap-covered composted manure, dead level contours, modified-tied ridges and reduced tillage because they have more severe capital and labour constraints. Male-headed households with access to labour and draught animals but not cash favoured legume rotations, small doses of fertilizer and water harvesting, especially infiltration pits that are labour-intensive. Solutions from the whole farm mathematical programming model suggest that for male, de facto and de jure headed households that the most attractive technologies are: Legume-rotations and treated manures for male-headed households with access to draft animals, labour and land; Small quantities of inorganic fertilizer, treated manure and manure-fertilizer technologies for de facto female-head households with an off-farm cash income; Legume intercrops in the female-headed households, typically de jure, who have the most severe resource constraints.The model outputs disagreed with the working hypotheses based on expert opinion, and show that the wealthiest households, irrespective of gender, with lowest opportunity cost of working capital, will allocate more land and money to inorganic fertilizers than the more marginalised groups. These marginalised groups typically have less working capital and a higher opportunity cost. Therefore, betterresourced households will invest in high input technologies such as small quantities of fertilizer and treated manure. In contrast, the poorer resourced households will invest in low input technologies such as legume-cereal intercrops, as their opportunity cost of labour is very high and they are better off selling labour to wealthier households.Overall, three major lessons have been learned about the differential adoption and targeting of alternative soil water and nutrient management to differently resourced households: 1. Small quantities of fertilizer and manure-fertilizer combinations have a high payoff and supplying inorganic fertilizers in small packs reduces the liquidity constraint and enhances returns to investment in chemical fertilizers. 2. Input and output markets drive legume intensification. 3. Legume intensification needs to target poor households for food for home consumption and wealthier households for cash income through producing marketable surpluses.Another conclusion is that a pure farmer-led approach may not always be appropriate where researchers have spent time understanding the farming system and the externalities that impact upon it, simulation playing an important part in this understanding. A major advantage of linking FPR and simulation modeling was the co-learning that took place between the researchers and the farmers about the impacts of climatic risk and resource endowments, and how they influence household's investment choices. In fact, if Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) research is about better communication and more effective interaction on the part of researchers with managers (about system management), then linking simulation modeling and participatory research should be viewed as an integral part of applied INRM in smallholder farming systems. The results also indicated that when there are no clear procedures to directly target women farmers, and gender issues are not sufficiently integrated into the research process they tend to be under-represented.The case studies show clearly that rural technology change, brought about by the generation and diffusion of new technologies, is an evolutionary and highly complex process. An evolutionary process is one in which novelties are generated, selections of beneficial novelties are made and these improvements are retained and promulgated (Douthwaite et al. 2002). The Uganda and Nigeria case studies show that farmers were actively modifying the technologies in ways that improved their 'fitness' or adoptability. In Uganda farmers sought alternative uses for the LCC and BT technologies that would increase the return on their investment in labour and land. In Nigeria, farmers sought to find compromises between the 'best bet' agronomic practice and what fitted their own systems. Some of these innovations have been incorporated in the recommended package for Integrated Striga Control. The Zimbabwe and Malawi case study showed how important these compromises are because farmers do not select technologies purely on agronomic or economic performance, which is often the basis by which researchers select their 'best-bets' for their trials (see Figure 1). Instead farmers chose to adopt based on a number of factors that is dependent on the resources available to that household, perceptions of risk and the gender of the household head. The Uganda case study showed that preferences for technologies changes from location to location. Hence, identifying farmer adaptations through M&E is an important source of incremental improvements to a technology and future research areas, as well as providing good insights into farmers' perceptions and motivations.The case studies show that M&E also has a crucial role to play in identifying differences in perceptions between researchers and farmers, and between individual farmers in their responses to new ideas and technologies. In all three case studies it was impossible for researchers to know beforehand how different farmers would react to the new technologies. However, the M&E carried out gave this information and has allowed the projects to adjust accordingly, thus making widespread adoption and impact more likely. For example, the M&E exercise helped ICRISAT and its partners to see that de jure women-headed households can generally only adopt the lowest input technology, which was the legumecereal intercrops because they did not have the cash to buy inorganic fertilizer, or the labour to make and spread compost. In Nigeria, M&E findings showed that many farmers were adopting improved germplasm but not the concepts of sole cropping and crop rotation, preferring instead to continue with their own mixed cropping practices. In response the project will carry out participatory partial budgeting to examine together with farmer the advantages and disadvantages of sole versus mixed cropping.The three case studies largely confirm the conceptual map of the development and adoption process adopted in the case studies shown in Figure 1. All the case studies found that there is a role for researchers to take the lead in introducing 'best bets'. Those 'best-bets' are more likely to adopted and adapted by farmers when researchers have spent time understanding local farming systems, and, in the case of Zimbabwe and Malawi used simulation modelling to evaluate different options with farmers. Purely farmer-led participatory technology development is less likely to bring new ideas into to community because researchers have a deeper knowledge and understanding of new technical options, while farmers are concerned with their current problems and have little human and financial resources to search for and adapt novel solutions. However, whatever the source of innovation, once adoption begins, M&E has a role to play in facilitating the close interaction between farmers and researchers required to co-develop new technologies to make them more widely adoptable.The Zimbabwe/Malawi and Nigerian case studies looked at farmer to farmer spread of new technologies and ideas, in other words the selection and promulgation functions of the evolutionary innovation process. Whether farmers recommend a new technology to others, and who they recommend to, are the most important indicators of whether a technology is likely to scale-out, where it will go, and how fast. The Nigerian case study is using a GIS-based approach to map the adoption/adaptation, selection and promulgation process and is developing an extension approach that complements existing promulgation channels.Thomas Kuby has developed an impact model, shown in Figure 8, based on experience at GTZ (Kuby, 2000). The model shows projects carrying out their own M&E, similar to ways in which M&E has been carried out in the three case studies, to the point of assessing whether the project has delivered intended benefits, or unintended benefits and negative consequences. Assigning this role to the project comes from years of project experience that has shown that: \"as a rule, self-evaluation is more critical and better value for money than external monitoring -and that it makes a much greater contribution to learning, both in the projects and in the whole organisation\" 6 (Kuby, 2000 p. 4). This learning helps make impact more likely, as well as contributing to priority setting in the organisation.Formal and static routines are not adequate for research priority setting due to the essential unpredictability of complex systems. Since many outcomes cannot be forecast, expected impacts cannot guide priority setting. Even though particular outcomes cannot be predicted, it is possible to identify factors that will, with high probability, affect the chances of success or failure. More flexible approaches (such as adaptive management) require strong M&E to identify as early as possible unintended (both positive and negative) consequences so that appropriate responses can be implemented. M&E also has a role to play to ensure that all stakeholders understand the processes that generated the outcomes.In addition to contributing to organisational learning, M&E can help all partners, from farmers to donors, to learn from the research to adoption process. The three case studies presented here showed that farmer adoption and subsequent innovation and adaptation are invaluable indicators of the likely adoptability of the introduced options. Early identification of farmer adoption / non adoption and modification allows the research process to be adapted and allows the setting of new priority areas for research. Without this flexibility in the approach, 'best bet' options demonstrated on-farm are unlikely to undergo the necessary co-development necessary to be more widely adopted.The Kuby model shows an attribution gap between a project's direct benefits and wider, more highly aggregated impacts, for example poverty alleviation, that might result from these benefits. Hence the model agrees with our earlier discussion of why attribution of impact is nearly always impossible because of the interconnected nature of causes and effects.The causes and effects that lead from a project's direct benefits to broader impacts result from two linked processes that are known as scaling-out and scaling-up. Scaling-out is a horizontal spread of an innovation from farmer to farmer, community to community, within the same stakeholder groups. Scaling-up is an institutional expansion from grassroots organizations to policy makers, donors, development institutions, and other stakeholders key to building an enabling environment for change. Both are linked because as a change spreads further geographically the greater the chances of influencing those at higher levels, and likewise, as one goes to higher institutional levels then the greater the chances for horizontal spread.The Nigerian case study shows how M&E based on an impact pathway can form the foundation of a plausible ex post impact assessment by making explicit the source of impact (the project's direct outputs), the impact model, the impact pathway and the impact hypotheses. The impact pathway evolves during the duration of the project as M&E identifies incipient scaling out and up processes including processes of knowledge generation and diffusion, the emergence and evolution of innovation networks, and the creation of organisational capabilities. Hence, the description of the impact pathway at the end of the project would be an invaluable starting point to ex-post impact assessment some years after. Indeed, without process M&E, plausible ex-post IA of INRM projects, based as it needs to be on a convincing explanation of process, will be extremely difficult.The M&E approaches described in the three case studies are relatively new and are not yet well institutionalised in their respective CGIAR Centres. Whether they are or not will depend on three factors:• Being able to demonstrate to fellow researchers that the benefits of M&E are worth the cost;• Having the capacity to carry out effective M&E;• Support for M&E from senior management.Of course, all three are linked. If CGIAR scientists can come to see M&E as something useful and not threatening then support from senior management is likely to follow, together with additional capacity to carry out the work. Experience shows that self-monitoring is less threatening and more useful than external M&E, which suggests that individual projects within Centres should be responsible for M&E, but with backstopping from an M&E unit.For ages, agricultural production depended on organic resources for soil fertility replenishment, either by including long-term fallow periods, as was, e.g., the case in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), or by application of vast amounts of manures or other organic resources, e.g. sods of peat in northern Belgium (Dudal, 2001). The use of fertilizers started in western Europe only at the end of the 19 th century in response to a higher demand for food. Other continents followed at a later stage, but even up to the mid-1960s, fertilizer use in SSA was restricted to export crops such as groundnut, cotton, coffee, tobacco, or oil palm (Dudal, 2001). During the 'Green Revolution' in the 1960s in Asia and Latin America organic resources were not considered essential in boosting agricultural production. In this context, Sanchez (1976) stated that when mechanization is feasible and fertilizers are available at reasonable cost, there is no reason to consider the maintenance of soil organic matter (SOM) as a major management goal. However, application of the 'Green Revolution' strategy in SSA resulted only in minor achievements because of a variety of reasons (IITA, 1992). This, together with environmental degradation resulting from the massive applications of fertilizers and pesticides and the abolition of the fertilizer subsidies in SSA, imposed by structural adjustment programs led to a renewed interest in organic resources in the early 1980s (Table 1). This interest has only grown stronger in recent years driven by the development of an Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) strategy for soil fertility replenishment of which the combined application of organic resources and mineral inputs forms the technical backbone. In this context, Sanchez (1994) revised his earlier statement by formulating the Second Paradigm for tropical soil fertility research: 'Rely more on biological processes by adapting germplasm to adverse soil conditions, enhancing soil biological activity and optimizing nutrient cycling to minimize external inputs and maximize the efficiency of their use'.Since the early 1980s, progress in developing organic resource management related knowledge has been substantial, driven by the hypotheses formulated by Swift et al. (1979) and Swift (1984Swift ( , 1985Swift ( , 1986)), culminating in an International Symposium in 1995 (Table 1). As a result of the Symposium, efforts were made to consolidate information on residue quality -N dynamics relationships resulting in an Organic Resource Database (ORD). The ORD contains information on organic resource quality parameters and N mineralization dynamics from almost 300 species found in tropical agroecosystems (Palm et al., 2001). A careful analysis of the information in the ORD has led to the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for organic matter (OM) management (Fig. 1) (Palm et al., 2001). The DSS makes recommendations for appropriate use of organic materials, based on their N, polyphenol, and lignin contents resulting in four classes of organic resources (Palm et al., 2001). For instance, high quality organic resources with a N content > 2.5%, a lignin content of < 15% and a polyphenol content of < 4% are recommended to be applied directly to the soil as these are expected to release a substantial part of their N in the short term (Fig. 1). Medium quality organic residues having < 2.5% N and < 15% lignin, or > 2.5%N and a polyphenol content > 4%, on the other hand, are recommended to be applied together with fertilizer N or high quality organic resources. Lastly, low quality organic resources with a low N and high lignin content are recommended to be surface applied as such residues would result in the most substantial mulch effects. The combined application of organic resources and mineral N is hypothesized to yield added benefits in terms of extra yield or improved soil fertility compared with the sum of the responses in the treatments with sole application of organic resources and mineral N. A Direct and Indirect Hypothesis which could form the basis for the occurrence of such benefits has been formulated by Vanlauwe et al. (2001). The Direct Hypothesis was formulated as: Temporary immobilization of applied fertilizer N may improve the synchrony between the supply of and demand for N and reduce losses to the environment. The Indirect Hypothesis was formulated for N supplied as fertilizer as: Any organic matter-related improvement in soil conditions affecting plant growth (except N) may lead to better plant growth and consequently enhanced efficiency of the applied N. Both hypotheses, when proven, lead to an enhancement in N use efficiency, processes following the Direct Hypothesis through improvement of the N supply and processes following the Indirect Hypothesis through an increase in the demand for N. Obviously, mechanisms supporting both hypotheses may occur simultaneously. The objectives of the current paper are (i) to validate the concepts proposed in the DSS with field data, including plant materials and animal manure as organic resources; (ii) to explore the occurrence of added benefits when applying organic resources in combination with mineral N, and (iii) to reflect on the activities required to develop the DSS into a practical recommendation tool.A greenhouse trial was carried out in Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria, aiming at quantifying immediate and residual relationships between organic resource quality and maize N uptake (Vanlauwe et al., unpublished data). A range of organic materials containing between 0.14 and 3.53% N was applied in pots with a Nitisol from Southern Benin Republic at an equivalent rate of 90 kg N ha -1 and maize was grown for 7 weeks. After harvesting the first crop, a second crop was grown for another 7 weeks without fresh residue application. Total N uptake by the maize in the shoots and roots was measured at each harvest. In East and southern Africa, a set of field experiments was set up to determine the fertilizer equivalency values of organic resources (Murwira et al., 2001). Each trial contained a set of locally available sources of plant materials or cattle manure. The organic resources were applied on the field in a randomised complete block design which included a number of plots aimed at determining the response to fertilizer N using maize as a test crop. Based on the response curve and the yield increases in the organic resource treatments, fertilizer equivalency values were calculated and converted to percentage fertilizer equivalency values (%FE) taking into account the N application rates of the organic materials.In West Africa, a multilocational set of field experiments also using maize as a test crop was established using various inputs of plant materials -and cattle manure in a single case -and the %FE was calculated using the similar approach as indicated above (Vanlauwe et al., 2002). In both sets of trials, P and K were applied in non-limiting quantities to ensure that N was the sole nutrient limiting maize production.Several trials were established in the various sub-regions aiming at quantifying potential added benefits in treatments with combined applications of organic resources and mineral N (Table 2). All cropping systems considered were organic resource transfer or biomass transfer systems using maize as a test crop. Added benefits were mathematically evaluated using the equation:where AB signifies Added Benefits and Y con , Y fert , Y OM , and Y comb mean grain yields in the control treatment, in the treatments with sole application of fertilizer and organic matter, and in the treatment receiving both inputs, respectively (Vanlauwe et al., 2001). In equation 1, the yields are adjusted for similar amounts of organic resources and mineral N applied in the combined as in the sole treatments, following information obtained through the N response curve or if the latter is absent assuming linear responses to applied organic and mineral N.The greenhouse trial data clearly show a significant positive relationship between the organic resource N content and the total maize N uptake of the first crop (Fig. 2). Low quality materials such as maize stover or sawdust immobilized N resulting in less N uptake compared to the unamended control. For the second crop, however, the relationship was negative, indicating that the medium to low quality materials provide more N to a second growing maize crop compared to the high quality materials (Fig. 2). Even in the treatment with maize stover, no further immobilization of N was observed. Only the sawdust treatment kept the N immobilized beyond the second crop. These data show that while organic resources with a high amount of available N can immediately stimulate crop growth, while for medium to low quality materials, residual N supplies are greater. More cropping cycles would be needed to judge whether the cumulative yields are similar for the high and low N organic resources. Cadisch et al. (1998), on the other hand, observed no compensation in initial N release from low quality, high polyphenol containing prunings at later harvests compared to high quality materials and attributed this to the stability of polyphenol-N complexes. The data also indicate that for materials with a N content below 1%, additional N should be applied either as fertilizer or as high quality organic matter to overcome the negative impacts caused by N immobilization. Data from the field experiments in West, East and southern Africa show that the percentage fertilizer equivalencies (%FE) values for organic materials with a low polyphenol content (< 4%) and a N content > 2.3% were positively related to their N content (Fig. 3). The critical level of N for increasing crop yield was 2.3%, confirming the initial value hypothesized by Palm et al. (2001). Organic matter with a high polyphenol content (> 4%) still led to positive %FE values, but the increase with increased N content was less and the N content needed to improve maize yield was 2.8 rather than 2.3% (Fig. 3). Polyphenol -N interactions seem to delay the immediate availability of N as concluded by others from data obtained under controlled laboratory or greenhouse conditions (Palm andSanchez, 1991, Oglesby andFownes, 1992). Data obtained with Calliandra calothyrsus residues did not show a consistent trend. While in all cases their polyphenol content was high, data from certain sites did not show any reduction in %FE. This may be related to the specific rainfall patterns, as high rainfall immediately after applying the Calliandra residues may remove a substantial part of the polyphenols through leaching. While from the current data polyphenols appeared to be under certain conditions important modifiers guiding initial N release from organic materials, the lignin content was not observed to improve on the derived equations. This does, however, not exclude their importance in medium to long term N dynamics, as shown in the greenhouse experiment (Fig. 1) and discussed below.Some organic resources led to N fertilizer equivalency values exceeding 100%, especially in the case of Tithonia diversifolia (Fig. 3). This is likely caused by a better synchrony between the supply of and demand for N derived from Tithonia residues than for immediately available fertilizer-derived N. Mineral N inputs are readily available and as such prone to leaching and/or gaseous losses, even if split applied.Manure does not show a consistent trend across sites (Fig. 3). Very low N containing cattle manure was observed to decrease crop yield but fertilizer equivalency values of manure containing between 0.7 and 2.4% N were almost similar and equal to about 35%. N content alone could not satisfactorily explain the observed responses to manure application indicating that other indicators are necessary for quantitative evaluation of manure. This may be related to changes in quality and partial stabilization of the organic resources while passing through the rumen or while storing pending application on the field. Nzuma and Murwira (2000) showed considerable differences in manure quality when stored in a pit or heap. Manure may require other indicators for assessing its quality, likely based on nutrient and biochemical components the soluble fraction rather than on the overall material.Organic resources with a N content below 2.5% would need to be applied in combination with additional mineral N to substantially increase crop yields (Fig. 3). Significant added benefits in treatments with combined application of organic resources and mineral N do occur in various experiments although the mechanisms governing these benefits are not always clearly understood. In the experiment in Zimbabwe with various mixtures of cattle manure and ammonium nitrate, added benefits ranging between 663 and 1188 kg maize grains ha -1 were observed by Nhamo (2001), as calculated using equation 1 (Fig. 4). The author related this to the supply of cations, contained in the manure, which may have alleviated constraints to crop growth caused by the low cation content (CEC varied between 1.2 and 2.5 cmol c kg -1 with an average of 1.7 cmol c kg -1 ) of the very sandy sites (clay content varied between 2 and 10% with an average of 4%). Although temporary immobilization of fertilizer N by decomposing manure can not be excluded, this may be less likely as the C/N content of the used manure was below 10, assuming that this would be a suitable indicator for assessing N dynamics of manure. In a trial in central Kenya, Okalebo et al. (2002) similary observed added benefits of 684 kg grains ha -1 in 1998 when mixing low quality wheat straw and soybean trash with urea for an acidic Ferralsol (pH-water of 4.9) (Fig. 5). After application of the organic residues, the pH-water increased to 5.4, on average, while pH in the control soils remained unchanged. Rainfall in 1997 was low and not well distributed leading to absence of major responses to applied N. Mucheru et al. (2002) observed added benefits ranging from -250 to + 550 kg maize grains ha -1 during the short rainy season of 2000 (Fig. 6). Values for the long rainy season, which experienced lack of rainfall after germination, were not different from 0. These benefits varied substantially for the different organic resources used. The high amount of K in the Tithonia residues may have caused the substantial added benefits in the combined Tithonia-N fertilizer treatment, as earlier observed by Sanchez and Jama (2001). Besides supplying K, Tithonia residues have been shown to ameliorate soil aggregation, reduce P sorption sites, reduce P-metal complexes and Al-toxicity (Cong, 2000). Causes for the added benefits created in the cattle manure treatment are not clear.While in the above experiments, added benefits were observed only for certain organic resources, in the Sekou experiment, in which organic resources with a N content varying between 2.4 and 4.7% were used, similar added benefits were observed for all organic resources (Fig. 7). As the site experienced drought stress during maize grain filling, Vanlauwe et al. (2002) attributed the added benefits to improved soil water conditions in the mixed treatments, caused by the surface or sub-surface placement of the organic resources, compared to the treatment with sole application of fertilizer. Alleviation of moisture stress may have improved the N use efficiency of the applied fertilizer. In formerly discussed trials with organic resources, no alleviation of moisture stress was observed (Figs. 5 and 6) but in these trials, organic resources were incorporated. During seasons with shortage of rain, this residue management practice has been shown not to substantially alter soil moisture conditions vis-à-vis surface or subsurface placement (Minhas andGill, 1985, Sembiring et al., 1995). No soil water data were taken, so the above would need to be evidenced.The final product of all above work should be a tool to assist farmers on how to optimally manage their scarcely available organic resources and costly mineral fertilizers, preferably adapted to their biophysical environment and targeted yields for specific crops. Although this seems like an impossible task, generation of the following information would signify substantial progress: (i) generation of a more detailed understanding of the mechanisms creating added benefits, (ii) assessment of the influence of intrinsic soil properties (e.g., texture and clay mineralogy, water holding capacity), and climate conditions (e.g., risk of rain shortage) on the latter, (iii) quantification of the residual effects of organic resources of varying quality, applied sole or in combination with fertilizer, on crop yield, and (iv) evaluation of the immediate and residual responses of other crops besides maize to applied organic resources and fertilizer.The mechanistic basis for added benefits created through positive interactions between OM and mineral N is broad and has not been clearly understood yet. Although in the above case studies, likely reasons behind the added benefits could be put forward, little or no evidence was gathered to substantiate these. Trials which explicitly quantify some of the changes in soil properties as affected by OM application are needed. Such trials would also include treatments in which the hypothesized constraint to crop growth is alleviated using external inputs containing only the agent addressing this constraint. Although it may be an illusion to aim at understanding all interactions between organic resources and fertilizer under all conditions, under certain specific conditions, clear organic resource-related improvements in soil fertility status could be identified. For instance, the use of high P containing manure or compost on low P soil could lead to an improved use efficiency of N fertilizer and consequently added benefits. When looking at legume-cereal rotations, the mechanisms potentially creating added benefits may even be more diverse relative to the ones discussed in biomass transfer systems in this paper. Many rotational effects are often explained in terms of changes in pest and disease spectra during legume growth (Akhtar, 2000) or in terms of legume rhizosphere processes (Vanlauwe et al., 2000).Organic resources are known to show some residual effects. Optimal nutrient management strategies need to take into account these effects. In the long term, an improved soil organic matter status may equally lead to enhance N fertilizer use efficiencies, although quantifying the latter may prove very difficult. Vanlauwe et al. (unpublished data), e.g., showed a negative relationship between the proportion of maize N derived from urea and the soil total N content, presumably caused by a higher supply of native soil N in soils with a higher total N content.Most of the data presented in this paper, and similarly in other work dealing with soil fertility management, were obtained in maize-based cropping systems. It is likely, however, that farmers would prefer to use their often scarcely available organic resources on crops which yield more income. In this context, it has been observed that farmers in western Kenya would rather apply high quality Tithonia residues to kale (Brassica oleracea) rather than maize (Jama, personal communication). This would not necessitate to initiate a vast amount of trials using other crops than maize, but to consider the nutrient uptake patterns of those other crops and use the information obtained for maize to test specific hypotheses related to the potential effects of organic resources and fertilizer on other crops.After having obtained relevant information as described above, two extra steps may be required to complete the development of a user-friendly decision aid: (i) all above information needs to be synthesized in a quantitative framework and (ii) that framework needs to be translated in a format accessible to the end-users. The quantitative framework could look as presented in Fig. 8 for a situation where all interactions between organic matter and fertilizer happen through N immobilization reactions, thus supporting the Direct Hypothesis. Temporary immobilization of fertilizer N by medium to low quality resources may reduce the potential for losses of fertilizer N materials and consequently less fertilizer N may be required to reach the same amount of available N (the 'added benefits' situation in Fig. 8). If the immobilization lasts beyond a growing season, on the other hand, additional fertilizer N may be required to reach the same amount of available N (the 'immobilization' situation in Fig. 8). The current concept may be adapted to initial soil fertility status by including a background soil N supply and to different crops. In case the mechanisms creating added benefits following the Indirect Hypothesis are known, the concept could also be adapted to these conditions. The final format of the decision aid should take into account the realities on the field. Some of these realities, among others, are: (i) large scale soil analyses are not feasible, so local soil quality indicators need to be included in decision aids as farmers use those to appreciate existing soil fertility gradients within a farm; (ii) conditions within farms vary as does the availability of organic resources and fertilizer, therefore rules of thumb rather than detailed quantitative recommendations would be more useful to convey the message to farmers; (iii) farmers decision making processes involve more than just soil and crop management; and (iv) access to computers, software and even electricity is limited necessitating hard copy-based products.Although the data obtained largely support the concepts outlined in the DSS for organic N management, the reality on the field is such that the availability of high quality, fertilizer-like organic materials is very limited. Therefore, the arms dealing with medium to low quality organic resources are likely to be most relevant for real cropping systems. Such organic resources are recommended to be applied in combination with mineral fertilizer, and when doing so, added benefits do occur, although their mechanistic basis if most of the time not clearly understood. The relevance of such potential added benefits needs to be assessed for various biophysical environments and crops. In conditions where it is difficult to assess these potential benefits, assuming additive effects is usually good enough as a first approach as negative interactions are not commonly observed. Finally, generation of the needed knowledge will by itself not change the way farmers are managing their organic and mineral resources. This knowledge needs to be condensed in tools adapted to the clients targeted.Vanlauwe B., Aihou K., Aman S., Iwuafor E.N.O., Tossah B.K., Diels J., Sanginga N., Lyasse O., Merckx R. and Deckers J., Maize yield as affected by organic inputs and urea in the West-African moist savanna, Agronomy Journal (2002) In press.       Much work has been done on understanding the effects of manure on crop response, and on manure quality and how quality can be improved by better methods of composting and beneficiation with inorganic fertilizers especially rock P (Mugwira and Murwira, 1997). Several workers have reported the beneficial effects of combining manure with inorganic fertilizers (Murwira, 1993;Mubonderi, 1999;Nhamo et. al., 2001, Munguri ,1996 ). Use of combinations can help synchronise nutrient supply and crop uptake, improve on-farm nutrient cycling, reduce environmental pollution (N and P) and be used to manage mineralisation-immobilisation processes. Placement studies have also shown that broadcasting manure was less effective than banding and station placement (Munguri, 1996).Recommendations on rates of manure application for field crops are varied but difficult to compare across sites because nutrient content data is often not cited (Mugwira and Murwira, 1997). It is however difficult to come up with prescriptive guidelines on use of manure as the quality varies considerably from farmer to farmer because of they way it is managed and stored prior to application in the fields (Murwira et al, 2001). Our challenge is to translate the scientific understanding we have into farm practice taking into consideration quality and quantity of manure available, short-and long-term effects, economic factors, environmental factors, farmer perceptions and limiting nutrients. This requires sharing with farmers the scientific principles of using manure and the development of communication strategies that could bring about a positive change in the way farmers manage resources available to them. Understanding farmer decision making is a key to this process and we advocated in this study an approach that entails the development and use of decision guides to bridge the gap between researchers and farmers.It has been argued that farmers make decisions on fertilizer and organic resource use in a decomposed fashion using relative comparisons of singular alternatives rather than holistic assessments of utility (Schoemaker, 1982). In other words the decision to use a specific type of input, its utility, is based on asking oneself a series of questions that lead a choice. The decision making process can thus be described as a decision tree which is a sequence of discreet decision criteria, all of which have to be passed along a path to a particular outcome or choice (Gladwin, 1989). The biggest assumption behind the use of decision guides is that the decision-makers themselves are the experts on how they make the decisions they take. Therefore it is crucial to elicit from the decision-makers themselves their decision criteria which can then be presented in the form of a decision tree.Early decision trees attempted to use socio-economic variables such as labour availability, cash income, livestock ownership etc to arrive at 'recommended actions' for different socio-economic scenarios. Using a reductionist logic based on binary oppositions (e.g. livestock owners Vs non-livestock owners, female headed Vs male headed households, labour-rich Vs labor-poor farmers etc), it was assumed that an analyst could determine the series of decisions which farmers should make when choosing between technological options. The main criticism is that such decision trees can never sufficiently mimic the much more diverse and dynamic realities under which different individual farmers operate. For example, it is not always possible to conclude that a livestock owner should behave differently from a non-livestock owner because the latter may use a number of local arrangements and networks to gain access to cattle or cattle resources. Similarly a 'resource poor' farmer may suddenly find himself or herself with sufficient inorganic fertilisers accruing from different possible sources. In such situations, individuals do not stop and say, 'since I am classified as a resource-poor farmer in a decision tree, I will manage my fertiliser in this way'. The bottom-line is that the binary permutations constructed by analysts in the form of decision trees cannot capture the flow and flux of everyday life, which determine farmer decision making and choices. Also it is necessary to make a distinction between describing what farmers do and offering them options e.g. what can you do if you have livestock or if you have livestock you can do the following.Other types of decision trees have binary categories that are constructed on the basis of relatively stable bio-physical variables such as N content, lignin content etc (Palm et. al, 1997). These variables are not amenable to direct manipulation by individual farmers, nor are they subject to sudden socio-economic upheavals such as credit availability, access to markets and so on. Having said so, it is important to recognize that farmers' decisions are based on a judgement between options that relate to the whole range of economic, cultural and biological parameters (Swift et. al, 1994). Categories are also less fixed than may be apparent (Palm et. al., 2001) because of modifiers which for example, polyphenols, may affect nutrient release.Given the apparent weakness in the two approaches discussed above, there exists a strong argument for the integration of socio-economic variables in natural resource management decision trees. In this case, the challenges are there but not insurmountable. The first challenge is that these decision trees should not be seen as recipes for action but as sets of options which farmers can validate and 'ground truth' to suit their own individual circumstances. This requires a joint learning process between researchers and farmers. The immediate challenge is to determine the most suitable ways in which this joint learning can take place in terms of what tools and platforms to use. There is an urgent need to test a range of practical tools to communicate scientific principles to farmers through use of 'farmer friendly decision trees'. This study is an attempt to derive decision guides for manure use. The objective of formulating the decision guides were two fold:1.to document how farmers use the available manure and, 2.to use the decision guide as a tool to identify opportunities in manure management and enhancement of soil fertility.The study was an attempt to come up with a framework for developing manure decision guides based on both research and farmer perceptions and understanding. The starting point for the study pivoted around the key question of what type of guide should be developed and the target clientele. Would there be separate guides for research and extension and one for farmers? For which nutrients and for what crops? An even more important question was how do we integrate what farmers are doing into research recommendations? Are research recommendations and farmer perception compatible? In this regard it was important to establish farmers' characterization of quality-especially the range of manure qualities found.A draft guide was synthesized from available research information by the authors to design a single framework representing the essential elements required in providing researchers and extension with a tool for manure management. The framework was further distilled through peer review after which it was field-tested with a group of 50 farmers in Mfiri village, Shurugwi District, Zimbabwe. Testing of the decision guide was carried out to identify gaps and weaknesses in its thought flow (presentation) and content. The decision guide was presented to farmers and the field testing of the guide took three forms: 1.eliciting information to improve the guide in group discussions, 2.eliciting information on decision criteria used by farmers when using manure (focus group discussions to develop a farmer guide), and, 3.Personal interviews to get information on specific household management practices. In order to incorporate farmer perceptions into the design of the guide, focus discussions to find out current manure use practices were held with discussions centered on manure quantities available, quality, curing methods, methods of application and supplementation. Household interviews were conducted with four farm families that were randomly picked from the large group of almost 50 farmers. The sample size was small, but nevertheless targeted at bringing out the diversity in individual practice and the elements that farmers consider being important for inclusion in a decision guide. These personal interviews provided an opportunity to explore further the issues that came up from the large group discussions.After the meetings with farmers, the results of the field testing of the guide were evaluated and changes incorporated into the research and extension guide. A second framework was developed based on the discussions held with farmers. A spidogram or web analysis was used as a tool for eliciting and summarizing information on the management framework used by farmers. The web analysis allowed participants to draw out the complex, inter-linked relationships among effects, causes or factors during decision making.The challenge in developing research and extension guides is making sure that they are technically precise. Scientific insights into mineral release and fertilizer equivalence require that for such a guide to be useful, it must differentiate the use of different quality manures and the conditions that lead to those differences in quality. It came out clearly in the study that other useful categorizations in the research guide could be based on socio-economic variables such as livestock ownership (numbers owned and access to manure) as well as biophysical factors like use and type of residues in kraals, type of feed, quantity, storage and chemical characteristics which influences manure quality. An interesting result of the survey was farmers have their own indicators of quality and these include presence of moulds, colour, compactness, lumpiness, and texture. These indicators are qualitative but are useful to incorporate in a technical guide.Rates of application of manure are very variable even for the same farmer. There are seasonal variations of rate based on previous crop performance, quantities of manure available and manure rotations/cycles within a field. The frequency of manure application ranged from two to four years depending on the number of livestock hence quantity of manure a farmer had, and the residual effects of previously applied manure (Table 1). An interesting point that came from the discussions with farmers was that all available manure was used irrespective of quality but that use practice could be dependent on quality. From the personal interviews it was clear from some farmers that poor quality manure was most often broadcast whereas high quality manure was banded. Fields considered as breadbaskets are targeted for manure application. Some farmers use high rates of application if quality was poor and where fertilizer is available they supplement with large rates of nitrogenous fertilizer. Rate of fertilizer supplementation depends on crop performance and available income to purchase inorganic fertilizer.Using the above information from farmers and from secondary data combined with scientific understanding of nutrient management, a research and extension guide was developed (Fig. 1). The guide has two major components; the first (in the upper box) focussing on manure production and storage and their impact on quality, and the second emphasizing management of different quality manure. The guide is not crop specific but there is implicit recognition that farmers in Zimbabwe where the guide is initially targeted give priority to maize and vegetables. The management systems that the guide attempts to address are complex and depend on individual decision making and the soil type at any particular location and other household labor limitations.The results presented in this section were from discussions with a focus group involved in analyzing decision criteria. Decision-making by the farmers was analyzed through a spidogram approach culminating in the development of a farmer derived decision framework (Fig. 2). One farmer presented the guide to the larger group of farmers after which it was further refined. The salient features of the farmer decision guide were that: 1.Farmers have a range of options that they use for soil fertility improvement as shown in the upper sections (A) of the diagram in Fig 2 . 2.Farmers value quantity as being more important than quality of manure. This could be an indication that farmers are primarily more interested in the amount of resources they have and the extent to which they can be spread around over the farm. This seems rational as the larger the quantity, albeit of poor quality manure, the more nutrients they will be adding to the soil. There are also other secondary benefits of organic matter addition such as increase in water holding capacity, increased nutrient use efficiencies etc. As a result, farmers have developed several strategies to improve the quantity of manure obtained from their kraals (Fig. 2, B). These include adding anthill soil, crop residues, leaf litter etc. From the discussions there appeared to be a strong realization by farmers that management affects quality. Farmers however do not deliberately manage or manipulate quality of manure to target it to a specific crop even though they might have preferences of which crop to apply higher quality manure (Fig 2,C and D). Residues are added primarily to increase quantity though they may have a secondary effect on manure quality. There is a limit to which residues can be added to the kraal, however. 3.Farmers are vague on rates, which maybe a reflection of a lack of consensus within a large group but also of wide differences between households. However they have guides on how to target manure application. 4. The quantity of manure that is pit stored is likely to remain small as some farmers feel that they have limited labor available.The farmer framework is much more comprehensive than the research and extension guide and probably fits more within their environment. Concerns were raised that the farmer guide is more likely to vary from area to area. A useful decision guide should be generic allowing for modifications to be made as circumstance change. The farmer guide was useful as a training tool to let farmers be more aware of the need to manage quality as well rather than quantity of manure alone. There was broad consensus that the research extension guide should be technically precise.There is a big gap that needs to be filled on farmer quality characterization. It will be necessary to more thoroughly ascertain the range of manure qualities that are identifiable by farmers, and how the identifiable indicators differ with region, and whether those indicators are socially differentiated. A pertinent question for research is whether there is a clear color pattern associated with stage of decomposition? If so then this opens up the potential to use color charts as indicators of quality and hence of how a particular manure could be managed. There is need to look at farmer indicators and how they relate to laboratory indices. Farmer quality indices might need to be considered in combination and not individually.The farmer-developed manure guide still looks complex despite the fact that it was presented by a farmer to a larger audience of farmers. Opportunities for the further simplifying it should be identified. There is no doubt that farmers were excited by the manure decision guide hence it would be worthwhile to expand the range of decision guides that could be developed for the many options that farmers have for soil fertility improvement (Fig. 2). Whilst a singular decision tree for a particular option forms the best way of exploring the way it is managed and how its management can be improved, farmers are most often managing combinations of different resources. The challenge therefore remains of how to integrate use of different decision trees for optimal management of multiple resources. For example, how do legumes fit within intervening years of the manure cycle etc. Similarly, a range of platforms and learning spaces suitable for different categories of farmers should also be identified and tested (these could range from nutrient test strips to village labs and pot experiments).A lot of issues have been raised above. Critical among those issues is to continue testing the decision guides and ensure that they are robust and applicable (but not necessarily) to a wide range of environments without losing the context of farmer circumstances. The question of validation should be left to farmers while the main role of the scientist should be that of facilitating this process of validation. Validating decision trees should not be viewed more in terms of going out in the field to prove a scientific point, but rather in terms of enabling farmers to test our scientific models.In order for farmers to validate decision trees, they must understand the basic scientific principles from which scientists derived them, and this can only be done through a process of researcher farmer dialogue and mutual learning. By the same token the joint learning process should also enable scientists to refine and adjust their scientific models by closely observing how and why different farmers are making their choices.  Soil organic matter (SOM) plays an important role in determining the fertility and productivity of soils and hence the need to understand more clearly the factors that control SOM dynamics as affected by land use management practices. The association of organic matter with particular constituents of the mineral soil may be important in regulating the mineralization and storage of SOM. Pools of organic matter with different stabilities provide a spectrum of nutrient availability that have different rates of release and are susceptible to different kinds of disturbance (Woomer et al., 1994). The ability to quantitatively estimate SOM fractions is important for understanding SOM dynamics in agricultural systems.Several chemical and physical methods have been developed to separate SOM fractions. Chemical separation methods yield fractions that are not closely related to functions of SOM (Blair et al., 1997) to soil processes such as aggregation and organic matter mineralization (Stevenson and Elliot, 1989;Feller and Beare, 1997). These methods give information on the kind of organic matter present that may vary in age and N content (Duxbury et al., 1989). Chemical fractions (humic and fulvic acids) generally have a low turnover rate and are therefore not necessarily implicated in the short-term processes commonly studied in cultivated soils (Feller and Beare, 1997). Physical fractionation yields functional SOM pools which differ in composition and biological function as they give information on where the organic matter is located (Elliot and Cambardella, 1991).The effectiveness of soil dispersion with minimum alteration of associated organic matter, is crucial for physical fractionation. Limited dispersion of soil may result in the recovery of the most easily dispersed part of the fraction, or the recovered fraction may consist of an unknown mixture of primary particles and microaggregates of the same size but belonging to different size classes (Sanchez et al. 1989). Soil disruption is more rapid and complete with sandy soils than with heavy textured soils (Stevenson and Elliot, 1989). Soil dispersion can be achieved by sonication or shaking. Sonication can achieve high dispersion but it results in the breakdown of organic matter into finer particles (Feller and Beare, 1997) and produces heat, which might alter organic matter composition (Stevenson and Elliot, 1989). Shaking reduces organic matter redistribution. It can be done in water with or without glass beads, or after chemical pre-treatment of soil with sodium saturated chemicals.The work reported in this paper is part of a broader study to determine the effects of tillage on SOM dynamics in a long-term experiment. The experiment was carried out at two sites in Zimbabwe, on a sandy soil (Udic Kandiustalf-USDA) at Domboshawa and on a red clayey soil (Rhodic Paleustalf-USDA) at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering (IAE) in Hatcliffe Harare. Before following the dynamics of SOM in these soils initial studies were conducted to test and establish methods for the fractionation of SOM. The methods tested are based on similar principles (physical-particle size separations) but use different dispersing agents. The degree of dispersion of aggregates was used as the criterion for choosing one method.The objectives of this experiment were to assess the effectiveness of soil dispersion for two soil types (a sand and a red clay soil) under different tillage treatments by a) using sodium resin bags and sodium hexametaphosphate, b) two concentrations of sodium hexametaphosphate (HMP) 0.5 % and 2%, and c) pre-soaking the soil before shaking. It was hypothesized that a) higher dispersion would be achieved with the use of sodium resin bags than with sodium hexametaphosphate, b) increasing the concentration of sodium hexametaphoshate would increase the degree of dispersion, and c) pre-soaking the soil before shaking would increase soil dispersion.The tillage experiments that were established in 1988/89 season at Domboshawa and Institute of Agricultural Engineering (IAE), Harare were used for this study. There were five tillage treatments, mulch ripping, conventional tillage, tied ridging and clean ripping. Soil samples were collected in October 1998 and passed through a 2 mm sieve.Soil dispersion was done in sodium hexametaphosphate at two concentrations, 0.5% and 2%, and sodium resin bags, which were regenerated in 3M trisodium citrate. For soil dispersed in 2% sodium hexametaphosphate one set of samples was soaked in water overnight before shaking while for the other set there was no soaking. Fractionation was carried out by sieving the soil through two sieves to get the following size fractions, size fractions 212-2000 μm, 53-212 μm and 0-53 μm. The 53-212 μm size fraction of soil shaken in sodium resin bags was shaken for 1hr in resin beads to allow for further disruption of aggregates. The fractions were viewed under a binocular microscope to check for purity of the fractions and degree of dispersion of aggregates.The 212-2000 μm and 53-212 μm organic matter fractions were analysed for organic carbon using a Leco Carbon Analyser. Organic C in the 0-53 μm fraction was not analysed for organic C.T-tests for paired observations using Genstat 5 Release 4.1 were done to test for differences in using the different dispersing agents.For the red clayey soil none of the dispersing treatments achieved complete dispersion. This was observed under a binocular microscope, by the presence of micro-aggregates in the mineral fractions and mineral particles coating the organic matter fractions. For the sandy soil, however, complete dispersion of aggregates was achieved with all the dispersing agents used. The mineral fractions did not show the presence of micro-aggregates while the organic matter fractions were not coated with mineral fractions.Sodium resin bags and sodium hexametaphosphate were effective in achieving complete soil dispersion in the sandy soil. There were no significant differences in the amount of fractions separated using the different dispersing agents except for the coarse organic matter fractions separated using the resin bags. There was a reduction in the amount of coarse sand organic matter fraction separated using resin bags compared with sodium hexametaphosphate (Table 1).For the clayey soil none of the dispersing treatments used achieved complete dispersion. The use of resin bags increased dispersion of aggregates but reduced the amount of coarse organic matter recovered compared to sodium hexametaphosphate (Table 1). There was a slight but not significant decrease in the coarse mineral fraction and an increase in the intermediate mineral and mixed fractions obtained with the resin bags compared with sodium hexametaphosphate. There were significant differences in amounts of fractions dispersed in 2% hexametaphosphate and resin bags. Sodium hexametaphosphate gave higher amounts of the coarser fractions than resin bags (Table 1).Increasing the concentration of sodium hexametaphosphate from 0.5 to 2% did not result in an increase in soil dispersion for the red clayey soil. There were no significant differences in the mass of the organic matter and mineral fractions obtained using the two concentrations.The reduced amount of organic matter after using resin bags might have been a result of purer fractions being obtained. To see if the reduction in the amount of organic matter was a result of an increase in purity of the organic matter fractions, the fractions were analysed for organic C. The use of resin bags resulted in the reduced amount of organic C in the coarse organic matter fractions than sodium hexametaphospahte (Table 2).For the red clay soil pre-soaking gave lower amounts of the mineral fraction with fewer aggregates than without soaking for separations done in 2% sodium hexametaphosphate (Table 3). Soaking did not however result in differences in the coarse organic matter fractions. Soaking did not result in differences in the masses of fractions obtained for the sandy soil.The effectiveness of aggregate dispersion was not affected by the different tillage treatments. The response of the different tillage treatments was the same across all the dispersing agents used.For the red clay soil conventional tillage and clean ripping had similar amounts of coarse and medium sand organic matter fractions although clean ripping had higher amounts of total organic C than conventional tillage (Table 4). In the fine sand fraction clean ripping had higher amounts of organic matter than conventional tillage. Mulch ripping had higher total organic C, coarse and medium sand fraction organic matter contents than clean ripping (Table 4). Tied ridging had the highest total organic C (20.4 mg C g -1 soil) and sand fractions organic matter contents in the red clay soil (Table 4).Bare fallow showed the highest decline in soil organic matter content as indicated by the lowest total organic C content (2.2 mg C g -1 soil) and smaller amounts of organic matter in all the organic matter fractions separated (Table 5). Conventional tillage had low total organic C content and low amounts of organic matter sand size fractions. Mulch ripping had higher total organic C amounts of sand size fractions than clean ripping (Table 5). Tied ridging had similar total organic C and amounts of organic matter in the sand fractions with clean ripping (Table 5). Hand hoeing had lower total organic C content and organic matter in the sand fractions than mulch ripping except for the fine sand fraction where there were no treatment differences (Table 5).There was no complete dispersion for the red clayey soil probably due to the high clay content (>40%) which results in the formation of strong bonds between mineral and organic particles to form micro-and macro-aggregates. Clay particles have high surface area and tend to form strong mineral-mineral and ogano-mineral interactions that require high force to disrupt. In the sandy soil there was complete dispersion due to the presence of weak aggregates that require minimal force to disrupt. Elliot and Stevenson (1989) also found that disruption was more rapid and complete with sandy soils than with heavy textured ones. Sandy soils tend to have weak structure due to high sand content, which has low surface area, no charge and no hydrogen bonding for formation of aggregates (REF).Resin bags and sodium hexametaphosphate were effective in dispersing the sandy soil as complete dispersion was achieved. Both dispersing agents were however not effective in dispersing the red clayey soil. This was probably due to the strong interactions in the micro-aggregates such that there might be need for stronger forces to break down the aggregates.Although the use of resin bags led to an increase in the dispersion of aggregates, it also led to a significant decrease in the amount of organic matter recovered. The use of resin bags could have caused further breakdown of the coarse organic matter or solubilisation of the organic matter. The material used to make the resin bags has a mesh size of about 150 μm such that some material may have been entrapped inside the bags and was difficult to wash out resulting in erroneous results and reducing the effectiveness of the regeneration of the resin bags.There was no increase in dispersion caused by increasing the concentration of the hexametaphosphate from 0.5 to 2%. More effective dispersion might be achieved at higher concentrations of the salt, but hexametaphophate does not readily dissolve making it difficult to make higher concentrations. Sodium hexametaphosphate is likely to result in salt interacts with the fractions during mineralization making it unsuitable to use if incubation studies are to follow.The use of resin bags resulted in smaller amount of organic C in the coarse organic matter fractions and redistribution into finer fractions. The redistribution of organic matter among size fractions complicates efforts to selectively isolate organic matter fractions from specific sources in the soil confusing interpretation of results. The finer fractions were not analyzed in this preliminary test. Complete dispersion was not achieved for the clay soil such that the mineral fraction contained some micro-aggregates and a significant amount of organic C is found within micro-aggregates (Stevenson and Elliot, 1989).Soaking the soil before shaking led to an increase in the dispersion of aggregates (Table 2). Soaking did not affect the coarse organic matter fraction as it is not found in close association with the soil and hence is easy to disperse. There was a decrease in the amount of the coarse mineral fraction after soaking the soil as more aggregates were disrupted and the bonds in the aggregates weakened. The larger amounts of the mineral fractions in dispersion without soaking was due to the inclusion of aggregates, many aggregate classes have the same size range as sand (0.05-2mm). Increased dispersion after soaking led to an increase in the amount of the fraction less than 53um as the finer fractions that make up the aggregates were dispersed.The lack of differences in the sand size fractions organic matter contents between conventional tillage and clean ripping (Table 4) for the red clay soil could have been because no organic residues were added to the soil for both treatments. Clean ripping had higher organic matter contents in the finer fractions than conventional tillage probably due to aggregate disruption that occurs under conventional tillage causing higher organic matter decomposition. Mulch ripping had higher organic matter contents in the coarse and medium sand fractions than clean ripping because of organic residues that are added to the soil. Tied ridging had the highest amounts of organic matter probably because there was minimum tillage involved. The ridges were established at the onset of the experiment in 1988/89 season with opening of holes for planting such that there was minimum disruption of aggregates.For the sandy soil bare fallow had lowest amounts of organic matter most probably because there were no organic residues added to the soil. The treatment involved annual ploughing without planting anything to the soil causing soil organic matter loss through runoff and erosion. Mulch ripping had the highest amounts of organic matter unlike the red clay where tied ridging had the highest amounts of organic matter. This was probably because of additions of organic residues under mulch ripping. The clay content of the sand was very low (<6%) such that there was no organic matter stabilisation between and within soil aggregates and the finer soil particles.Of the methods tested using 0.5% sodium hexametaphosphate after soaking the soil would be the most suitable dispersing agent to use for getting high dispersion without altering organic matter distribution in the various size fractions for the red clayey soil and the sandy soil. This was so because increasing the concentration of sodium hexametaphosphate did not increase soil dispersion for the red clayey soil. Soaking the soil on the other hand resulted in an increase in disruption of aggregates by decreasing the mass of the mineral fraction by about 30%. Using resin bags resulted in low recoveries of the amount of organic C and mass of organic matter fractions compared with sodium hexametaphosphate and hence its selection.  Different storage conditions influence both carbon and nitrogen turnover of the manures after application to soil. During aerobic composting organic materials of high stability are formed and the inorganic N can be low. Anaerobic decomposition can lead to the production of low-molecular compounds such as volatile fatty acids and high ammonium-N contents have been reported (Thomsen, 2000). The addition of anaerobically decomposed manure to soil has been found to immobilise N due to the presence of easily decomposable C sources as observed in the work of Bernal and Kirchmann, (1992), Flowers and Arnold (1983)  and Sims, (1986), with pig slurry and Murwira, (1993) with cattle manure. The dynamics of C or N mineralisation of organic manures in soils have been described by first-order reaction kinetics (Chae and Tabatabai, 1986 or a set of first-order reactions (Gale and Gilmour, (1986).In the present paper, we report the results of a study on N release patterns from aerobic and anaerobic manures treated in April and July with or without straw after application to a sandy soil The aim of the investigation was to establish possible differences in short-term N turnover rates in aerobic and anaerobic manures applied to soil and implications to the cropping system..Manures used in the study were obtained from four storage treatments namely pit manure (anaerobically decomposed) with or without straw; heap manure (aerobically composted) with or without straw. The manures had been composted in April 1999 and replicated in July 1999. Samples of manure were collected in October1999 and air dried then ground to pass a 2-mm sieve, analysed for organic C (Nelson and Sommers, 1982) total N using the Kjeldahl procedure (Bremner and Mulvaney, 1982).The chemical composition of these manures is presented in Table 1.The experimental soil was collected from a site in Murewa. The soil was a deeply weathered and leached loamy sand with 4% clay, 4% silt, 92% sand and a pH of 4.5 (CaCl 2 ) classified as a Haplic Lixisol (FAO), Nyamapfene, (1991). The soil was air dried and allowed to pass through a 2mm sieve and analysed for organic C using the Walkely and Black Method (Nelson and Sommers, 1992) and total N using the Kjeldahl procedure (Bremner and Mulvaney, 1982).The aerobic leaching tube mineralisation method (modified from Stanford and Smith, 1972) was used in this study. This method was employed to reduce the number of tubes that would be required if the static method was to be used. An added advantage of the leaching tube method is that it mimics the field situation where N is constantly removed from the soil crop system through crop uptake and leaching. The tubes can also be used over a long period without experiencing problems of accumulation of N and other toxic products of decomposition (Bremner, 1965;Stanford and Smith, 1972). One disadvantage of the leaching tube is that, it removes the soluble carbon, which drives the mineralisation process.The leaching tubes consisted of a plastic transparent cylinder (200ml by volume) with a hole (0.5mm diameter) at the bottom. A narrow glass tubing (10cm long) was inserted at the base through the hole to allow drainage and secured with plasticine at the base. A glass wool 3cm thick was placed at the base of the tube to prevent movement of soil-manure particles from draining out of the tube.Ten grams of acid washed sand was added on top of the glass wool before adding soil-manure mixture to ensure even distribution of suction. A further 10g of acid washed sand was added at the top of the soil-manure mixture to avoid movement of particles upon pouring leaching solution.To reduce moisture loss, a pierced aluminum foil was placed on top of the tube covering it loosely. A mass of 100g of soil was placed in each glass jar. This was mixed homogeneously with 8 different manures applied at quantities equivalent to 60 kg N/ha and transferred into leaching tubes. A set of control tubes with 100g of soil only was added. All treatments were replicated 4 times. Moisture content was adjusted to 70% of water holding capacity (WHC) and the tubes were incubated in a constant temperature room at 25 o C.The tubes were leached at day 0 to remove background mineral N. They were then leached on day 3, 7 and every week thereafter for a period of 11 weeks. The tubes were leached with 100ml of a leaching solution in two 50ml aliquots and the leachates collected in conical flasks. The leaching solution contained 1mM CaCl 2 , 1mM MgSO 4 , 0.1 mM KH 2 PO 4 and 0.9 mM KCI. At each leaching date, moisture content was adjusted to 70% of WHC.Concentrations of mineral N (NH 4 -N plus NO 3 -N) in the leachates were measured immediately after sampling using micro Kjedhal N method. The mineralisation of manure nitrogen was determined by subtraction of the amount of inorganic nitrogen mineralized in the soil (control) from total inorganic N amounts mineralized in the soil-manure mixture.Cumulative data on N mineralisation were fitted to a first order kinetic function using Genstat 5 procedures. Analysis of variance procedure using Mstat 1988 was used to measure the significance of net mineralisation during the incubation period.The chemical composition of manures is presented in Tables 1. Anaerobic manures were always high in total N concentrations. A greater proportion of the total N in these manures was present as inorganic N in the form of NH 4 -N. Highest concentrations were observed for JP-manures. The C/N ratio for anaerobic manures was high, between 14 and 19 compared with 8 -13 for aerobic manures.Net N mineralisation from manures (without soil) Fig. The course of mineralisation/immobilisation significantly differed (P<0.05) according to the different storage treatments applied to the manure samples prior to incubation. In general, there was also a significant month * straw interaction and straw * storage method interaction (P<0.05). Straw effect was significant (P<0.05) and amplified in anaerobic manures in July.Anaerobic manures resulted in shorter periods of rapid initial immobilisation phase lasting between 4 and 5weeks Fig . 1. In general, the immobilisation period was increased in manures with straw. Aerobically treated manures resulted in immobilisation, which lasted 7 weeks after incubation for manures with and without straw (Fig 1).In terms of net N mineralisation, anaerobic manures had significantly higher net N mineralisation at 11 weeks after incubation than aerobic manures (P<0.05). July anaerobic manures were found to have significantly higher net N mineralisation than April manures. A release of 48 and 58 ugN -1 g soil of mineralisable N was observed from anaerobic manures with and without straw in July at 11 weeks. April anaerobic manures with and without straw released 25 and 30ug N g -1 soil of mineralisable N at 11 weeks. Anaerobic manures achieved a net N mineralisation of less than 20ug N g -1 soil for manures from this farm (Fig 1).The cumulative N curves of aerobic and anaerobic manures were fitted to a first-order kinetic function with the rate constants describing the release of mineral N (Fig 2). Mineralisation was expressed as a percentage of the amount of total manure-N added. After 77 days of incubation, N mineralised showed the following pattern: JP-(30.65%) > JP+ (25.59%) > AP-(22.75%) > AP+ (22. 60%) > JH-= JH+ =AH-= AH+ (0.00%). The order of percentages of total N that was mineralised over 77 days of incubation followed that of the rate constants for the slow re-mineralisation phase High coefficients of determination were found (R2 = 0.939 -0.990). (Table 2).In general, all aerobic manures followed a linear course for either nitrogen immobilisation or mineralisation which, lasted over the whole experimental period of 77 days. The rate constants were low for aerobic manures as shown in Table 2. The decomposition of anaerobic manures was characterised by two different phases, a rapid exponential initial immobilisation phase followed by a slow linear remineralisation phase.The rate constants for the slow re-mineralisation phase exhibited the following pattern: JP-(0.068 N day -1 ) > JP+ (0.058 N day -1 ) > AP-= AP+ (0.05 N day -1 ) > JH-(0.038 N day -1 ) > JH+ (0.028 N day -1 ) > AH-= AH+ >0.00 N day -1 ).Initial immobilisation effects by anaerobic pretreated manures were observed in this study. The reason appeared to be three-fold; the high C/N ratio greater than 15 found in anaerobic manures which was similar to that reported by Bernal and Kirchmann, (1992) and Castellanos and Pratt, (1981). Secondly, high microbial activity, which causes a shift in microbial population from predominantly anaerobic bacteria resulting in a flush of readily available carbon and consequently more C utilisation for microbial proliferation (Thomsen and OsIen, 2000). Thirdly, the presence of energy-rich easily degradable C compounds by microorganisms such as volatile fatty acids (Spoelstra, 1979) (though not measured in this study), when a shift into aerobic conditions occurred. The work of Paul and Beauchamp, (1989) showed that volatile fatty acids in slurry can be oxidized within 4 days after amending soil with anaerobic manure together with a parallel immobilisation of NH 4 -N. Earlier findings reported by Sims (1986) and Flowers and Arnold, (1983) found that up to 40% of NH 4 -N in anaerobic manures can be immobilised.The present data on prolonged periods of N immobilisation in soil with aerobic manures can be attributed to the stability of the organic materials in these manures. This is because easily decomposable organic compounds are respired during aerobic composting phase (Sana and Soliva, 1987). For example, water soluble and easily hydrolysable sugars are reduced during composting. Immobilisation of N was also possible with aerobic manures because a greater proportion of N was organically bound These results imply that the application of aerobic manures to soil could induce N deficiency during rapid crop growth leading to depressed yields (Murwira and Kirchmann, 1993;Nyamangara et al., 1999;Paul and Beauchamp, 1994). These workers found N release from aerobic manures to be asynchronous with maize crop N requirements. The results from this study have also been demonstrated in the work of Thomsen, (2000), Hadas and Portnoy, (1994) and Hadas et al., (1996). Their findings showed low N mineralisation rates for composted manures as reported in this study.In spite of the initial immobilistion, which occurred in soil with anaerobic manures, re-mineralisation of the inorganic N, occurred with these manures achieving highest rate constants with July stored manures and subsequently more inorganic N was released than similar manures stored in April. These differences can be attributed to a decrease in mineralisation rates with length of storage as shown by Bernal et al., (1998) and more readily decomposable organic forms were converted to stable forms with prolonged duration of storage (Castellanos and Pratt, 1981;Chaney, Drinkwater and Pettygrove, 1992;Kirchmann, 1985). The re-mineralisation of N that occurred with anaerobic manures during the fifth and sixth weeks after incubation is in agreement with the work reported by Murwira and Kirchmann, (1993).The results in this study contradict findings reported by Thomsen and Oslen, (2000) in which soils with anaerobic manures showed net immobilisation only after 266 days of incubation. Because of high microbial proliferation that occurs after application of anaerobic manures, these workers suggested that it might be more difficult to synchronise N release from anaerobic manures with crop N demand. However, in the present study, re-mineralisation of the inorganic N occurred close to the rapid crop growth stage between the fourth and sixth weeks after incubation. This implies that the release of N from these manures can be synchronised with crop N requirements.Because of slow mineralisation rates found in soil after application of aerobic manures, crop yield potentials in the short term can be adversely affected. This might imply that aerobic manures are only beneficial to the crop in the subsequent years after application. (Tanner and Mugwira, 1984;Paul and Beauchamp, 1994).Results showed significant variations in the decomposition of manures from different storage conditions. Differences in the rate constants between the manures reflected initial short term variations in the inorganic-N content of the readily decomposable fractions. Anaerobic manures with their high initial NH 4 -N contents were found to have highest rate constants than aerobic manures.The decomposition of anaerobic manures in soil almost always resulted in temporal initial immobilization. The immobilisation period was lengthened in manures with straw and by the age of manure owing to duration of storage. In spite of the initial immobilisation of the inorganic N that occurred in soil with these manures, re-mineralisation occurred close to the rapid crop growth stage reflecting that these manures may be synchronised with crop N requirements in the short term.Little or no N was mineralised from aerobic manures. The implications are that these manures could be an inefficient source of fertiliser N for the crop. Though N released by these manures may be asynchronous with maize crop N requirements in the short term, the proportion of the N that still remains in organic bound form could be available for transformation in the residual years.  T im e (D a y s )Cumulative N (ugN g -1 soil)J H -J H + J P -The objective of this study was to assess tillage effects on SOM content and SOM fractions on two different soil textures. It was hypothesised that minimum tillage practices would promote SOM buildup, especially the physically protected organic matter, compared with conventional tillage systems.This experiment was done on the tillage experiments that were established in the 1988/89 season at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering (IAE) in Harare (17 o 45' S; 31 o 10'E) and Domboshawa Training Centre (DTC) (17 o 35' S; 31 o 10'E) approximately 40 km NE of Harare. The IAE site is on red clay soil derived from gabbro parent material and is classified as Rhodic Paleustalf (USDA), Chromic Luvisol (FAO) and Harare 5E.2 (Zimbabwe). The DTC site is on a sandy soil derived from granitic parent material classified as Udic Kandiustalf (USDA), Areni-Gleyic Luvisol (FAO) and Harare 6G.3 (Zimbabwe). The clay mineralogy for both locations is predominantly kaolinite. Both sites are found in Natural Region II (annual rainfall 800-1000 mm) with most of the rain falling between November and March.The tillage treatments at the sites were as follows: 1. Mulch Rippingrip-between-row into residues (tine into residues) 2. Clean Rippingrip-between-row without residues (tine into bare soil) 3. Conventional tillageannual ox ploughing (single furrow mouldboard plough and spike harrow) 4. No-till tied ridgingpermanent crop ridges at 1 in 100 grades 5. Hand hoeingdigging out plant holes with a hand hoe without residues 6. Bare fallowannual tractor disc plough and disc harrow, no crops are grown At these sites there were annual fertiliser additions of 350 kg compound D (8% N, 14% P 2 O 5 , 7% K) and 250 kg ammonium nitrate (34.5% N) per hectare. The total amounts of nutrients added were 114 kg N, 50 kg P 2 O 5 (22 kg P) and 25 kg K per hectare. Maize was planted as the test crop.Soil samples were collected in October 1998 and passed through a 2 mm sieve. Fifty grams soil was shaken overnight in 200 ml of 2% sodium hexametaphosphate after soaking the soil overnight for 16 hours. Soil was wet sieved through a series of sieves to separate 212-2000 μm, 53-212 μm, 20-53 μm fractions followed by separation of organic and mineral fractions in each size fraction by swirling and floating of the organic matter in water. The 0-5 and 5-20 μm fractions were separated by the sedimentation method but were not separated for organic and mineral fractions. Carbon in the organic matter fractions and the mixed fractions was analysed using a Leco Carbon Analyser.Statistical analysis was done using GENSTAT 5 for analysis of variance (ANOVA).When comparing within tillage treatments, total organic C contents were higher in the red clay than the sandy soil (Tables 1 and 2). Total organic C was almost three times higher for the red clayey soil than the sandy soil for all the treatments. The weedy fallow had the highest total organic C contents for both the red clay and the sandy soil with the red clay soil having higher C contents (27.9 mg C g -1 soil) than the sandy soil (11.3 mg C g -1 soil) (Tables 1 and 2). Of the tillage treatments, tied ridging had the highest total organic C content with 20.4 mg C g -1 soil for the red clayey soil while for the sandy soil mulch ripping had the highest organic C content of 6.8 mg C g -1 soil. For both soils organic C content was lowest in the conventional tillage treatment with the red clay having 14.9 mg C g -1 soil and 4.2 mg C g -1 soil for the sandy soil.Coarse sand organic matter content (212-2000 μm) was higher in the red clayey soil than the sandy soil for the conventional and tied ridging treatments where organic matter content was almost twice as high in the former than in the latter (Tables 1 and 2). Coarse organic matter content was similar in the red clay and the sandy soil for the other treatments. Organic matter content for the medium sand (53-212 μm) fraction was almost twice as high in the red clay soil than in the sandy soil except in the tied ridging treatment where organic matter was more than seven times as high in the clay soil than in the sandy soil. For the fine sand (20-53 μm) fraction, organic matter content was almost three times as high for the red clay soil than for the sandy soil. As the fraction size decreased the difference between the amount of organic matter in the sand and the clay soil increased with more organic matter being found in the clay soil.Most of the organic matter was associated with the finer fractions for the red clay whilst for the sandy soil the greater proportion of the organic matter was associated with the coarse mineral (sand) particles. As the particle size decreased there was an increase in the amount of organic matter in the red clay soil whereas there was no difference in the amount of organic matter in the particle size fractions for the sandy soil (Tables 1 and 2).For the red clayey soil clean ripping and conventional tillage had similar amounts of coarse and medium sand organic matter fractions although clean ripping had higher organic C content than conventional tillage (Table 1). In the fine sand fraction clean ripping had higher amounts of organic matter (10.1 mg g -1 soil) than conventional tillage (8.0 mg g -1 soil). Mulch ripping had higher total C, coarse and medium organic matter contents than clean ripping (Table 1). The fine sand associated organic matter content of conventional tillage was not significantly less than that of clean ripping. Of the tillage treatments, tied ridging had the highest organic C content and amount of sand organic matter fractions in the red clayey soil (Table 1).Bare fallow resulted in the highest decline in soil organic matter content as indicated by the lowest total organic C content (2.2 mg C g -1 soil) and smaller amounts of organic matter in each of the size fractions (Table 2). Conventional tillage had low total organic C contents and low amounts of organic matter in the size fractions in the sandy soil. Mulch ripping had higher total organic C content and amounts of organic matter in the coarse-and medium-sand fractions than clean ripping (Table 2). However the amount of organic matter in the fine sand fraction was not significantly larger for the mulch ripping treatment compared with the clean ripping treatment. Total organic C and amounts of organic matter in the sand fractions for tied ridging were not significantly different from the clean ripping treatment except for the medium sand fraction where clean ripping (2.2 mg g -1 soil) had higher amounts of organic matter than tied ridging (1.5 mg g -1 soil) (Table 2). Hand hoeing had lower total organic C content and organic matter in the sand fractions than mulch ripping except for the fine sand fraction where there were no significant differences (Table 2).For both soils the highest decline in organic matter under the different tillage treatments was in the coarse sand organic matter fraction when compared with the weedy fallow (Tables 1 and 2). With decrease in the organic matter size fraction there was a decrease in the magnitude of the difference in the amounts of the organic matter fractions under different tillage treatments when compared with the weedy fallow.Cultivation of soil at the IAE site led to a decrease in total organic C and organic C in the organic matter size fractions. All tillage treatments led to a decrease in organic C distributed in the size fractions when compared with the reference point, the weedy fallow. The coarse sand organic matter fraction (212-2000 μm) showed the highest decline in organic C after cultivation from 4.47 mg g -1 soil for the weedy fallow to as low as 0.97 mg C g -1 soil for conventional tillage (Table 3). The 0-5 μm fraction showed the lowest decline in organic C under all the tillage treatments. This was shown by the small margin of difference of organic C in the 0-5 μm size fractions under the tillage treatments compared with the weedy fallow. The smallest decline in organic C was under tied ridging in the 0-5 μm organic matter size fraction where there was no significant difference between organic C in the weedy fallow (23.5 mg C g -1 soil) and tied ridging (18.8 mg C g -1 soil).Conventional tillage showed the highest decline in organic C in all the size fractions compared with the other tillage treatments and the weedy fallow. Tied ridging showed the least decline in organic C in all the organic matter size fractions (Table 3) as indicated by the high organic C in the organic matter size fractions compared with the other tillage treatments. Clean ripping had higher organic C contents in the organic matter size fractions except for the coarse sand organic matter fraction compared with conventional tillage but less than mulch ripping (Table 3).At the Domboshawa site the bare fallow showed the highest decline in organic C in all the organic matter size fractions. This was more pronounced in the sand organic matter fractions where bare fallow had 0.05 mg C g -1 soil compared with 2.85 mg C g -1 soil for the weedy fallow (Table 4). In the clay size fraction bare fallow had 1.64 mg C g -1 soil while the weedy fallow had 4.37 mg C g -1 soil. Mulch ripping treatment had higher organic C contents in the organic matter size fractions than tied ridging. Mulch ripping had higher organic C (0.92 mg C g -1 soil) than hand hoeing (0.63 mg C g -1 soil) in the sand fractions (20-2000 μm) but had lower organic C contents in the finer fractions.There was a differential treatment effect on total soil organic C and organic C in the organic matter size fractions caused by tillage for the two soils. Tied ridging had the highest organic C and C in the size fractions for the red clay soil (Table 3) and mulch ripping had the highest total organic C and C in the size fractions for the sandy soil (Table 4).When organic C in the organic matter size fractions for both soils was totalled, recoveries of total organic C were not 100%. Higher organic C recoveries were obtained for the sandy soil than for the red clay soil. Organic C recoveries averaged 85% for the red clay soil (Table 3) and 95% for the sandy soil (Table 4).Effects of texture on organic matter content and distribution in size fractions Total organic C was higher in the clay soil than in the sandy soil most likely due to lack of physical protection of organic matter from microbial attack in the sandy than in the clay soil, as well as larger residue inputs from roots due to greater productivity (Hassink, 1995;Hassink, 1996). The high clay content (~60% in the plough layer) in the clayey soil promotes formation of micro-and macro-aggregates which might physically protect soil organic matter from microbial decomposition and hence promote organic matter accumulation. This is unlike the sandy soil which has a low clay content (~5% in the plough layer) such that there is minimum aggregation and hence little organic matter accumulation. Hassink et al. (1997) observed a close relationship between silt and clay content, and organic C content of soil, with sandy soils having lower organic C in whole soil and fractions than clay soils.The difference of organic matter contents of the coarse sand fractions for the red clay and the sandy soil was small but the differences increased as the fraction size decreased. Organic matter in the finer fractions is protected from microbial decomposition and hence the increase in the margin of the difference in organic matter content as the fraction size decreases for the red clay soil compared with the sandy soil, mainly due to the higher proportion of finer fractions in the clay soil. As a result of this much of the organic matter in the clayey soil tends to be associated with the finer particles.Bare fallow involves ploughing of plots every year without planting anything and this enhances soil erosion resulting in soil organic matter loss. Ploughing the soil enhances organic matter decomposition by disrupting aggregate protected organic matter. This could have resulted in lower soil organic C and N when compared with the other tillage treatments. This supports the findings of Cambardella and Elliot (1994) who found that bare fallow soil had significantly less total organic C and N than mulch tillage and no-till soils. Cambardella and Elliot (1992) demonstrated that loss of coarse organic matter under a bare fallow treatment amounted to 70% of that of native grass over a period of twenty years.For the red clayey soil clean ripping and conventional tillage had similar organic matter contents in the coarse and medium sand fractions probably because no residues were added to the soil in both treatments and hence they received similar and small amounts of organic inputs. In the fine sand, however, clean ripping had higher organic matter contents than conventional tillage probably due to reduced tillage for the clean ripping treatment such that there was reduced disruption of the soil resulting in reduced organic matter decline compared with conventional tillage. The higher coarse sand organic matter content in the mulch ripping treatment (34.8 mg g -1 soil) compared with 26.8 mg g -1 soil in the clean ripping treatment was probably because of organic residues that are added on the surface for the mulch treatment (Table 1). Total soil organic C and organic matter in the finer fractions was not significantly different for the two treatments probably because both treatments involve minimum tillage such that organic matter in the finer fractions is not affected by tillage. The two treatments are similar in terms of tillage intensity hence organic matter in the finer fractions was similar. Since much of the organic matter for the clay soil is associated with the finer fractions the difference in total organic C content of the two treatments was not significantly different. Tied ridging involves planting of maize on permanent ridges where tillage is reduced to opening of planting holes such that there is minimum soil disruption and hence greater organic matter accumulation.Conventional tillage had low total organic C contents and organic C in the SOM fractions than conservation tillage practices mainly because of the high tillage intensity which enhance organic matter loss from the soil (Hassink, 1995) and small organic matter additions to the soil (Yang and Wander, 1999). Dalal et al. (1991) observed that in the top soil layers the interactive effects of zero tillage and returning of residues resulted in high organic C contents when compared with conventional tillage and zero tillage with residue burning. Work done by Arshad et al. (1990) showed that organic C and total N were 26% greater following 10 years of zero tillage compared with conventional tillage in the upper 7.5 cm of a silt loamy soil.Lower organic matter contents for conventional tillage when compared with the conservation tillage treatments were most likely a result of aggregate formation and turnover processes. Conservation tillage practices allow for slow macroaggregate turnover resulting in the formation of fine particulate organic matter and the subsequent encapsulation of the fine particulate organic matter by mineral particle and microbial by-products to form stable microaggregates (Six et al., 2000). In contrast the turnover of macroaggregates in conventional tillage is fast, providing less opportunity for the formation of crop derived fine particulate organic matter and stable microaggregates (Six et al., 2000).Mulch ripping had higher total organic C content (6.8 mg C g -1 soil) and organic matter in the coarse-(46.8 mg g -1 soil) and medium (42.6 mg g -1 soil) sand fractions than clean ripping for the sandy soil (Table 2). This was possibly due to the addition of organic residues under the mulch ripping treatment, which resulted in higher organic matter in the coarse-and medium sand fractions than clean ripping. This could have resulted in higher total organic matter under mulch ripping than clean ripping because much of the organic matter in the sandy soil is associated with sand particles and hence the larger sand size fraction organic matter with mulch ripping resulted in higher total organic matter content. Hand hoeing involves reduced tillage and hence had high organic matter contents although it was lower than mulch ripping.There was a decrease in organic C in the organic matter fractions and total soil organic C for all the tillage treatments on the two soils compared with the weedy fallow (Tables 3 and 4). This was maybe because cultivation disrupts aggregate protected organic matter and enhances its decomposition. The largest decline of organic C in the organic matter fractions was in the sand fractions under conventional tillage, 4.47 mg C g -1 soil for the weedy fallow compared with 0.97 mg C g -1 soil for conventional tillage on the red clay soil (Table 3) and 2.85 mg C g -1 soil for the weedy fallow compared with 0.05 mg C g -1 soil for conventional tillage on the sandy soil (Table 4). This was probably because of the absence of the annual litter additions under conventional tillage compared with the weedy fallow. Conventional tillage also involves intensive cultivation of the soil promoting soil organic matter decomposition and subsequent loss from the system. For all the tillage treatments, however, the largest organic C decline occurred in the coarse organic matter fractions probably as a result of physical disintegration of soil aggregates associated with SOM decomposition and mineralization (Tiessen and Stewart, 1983). Tied ridging showed the least decline in organic C in the 0-5 μm fraction probably due to minimum tillage practised under tied ridging resulting in minimal disruption of aggregates.These results confirm the findings of Cadisch et al. (1996) and Barrios, Buresh and Sprent (1996b), that coarse organic matter (light fraction) is an early indicator of changes in soil fertility and is the fraction most affected by cropping systems. Chan (1997); Hassink et al. (1997) also observed that the light fraction is lost more rapidly than other fractions. Under forest conditions, the light fraction was shown to be a strong short-term sink of N incorporating more than 50% of added N while the heavy (fine) fraction incorporated less than 5% after an 18 hour incubation (Compton and Boone, 2002). Work done by Lehmann et al. (1998), however, showed that short-term addition of Senna and Gliricidia leaves resulted in an increase in C and N in the silt and clay fractions.Bare fallow involves annual ploughing without planting anything without any input additions. This induces soil erosion which is associated with soil organic matter loss showing a large decline in organic C in all the organic matter fractions in the bare fallow treatment compared with the weedy fallow and other treatments (Table 4). Unlike for the red clayey soil, mulch ripping had higher organic C in all the organic matter fractions than tied ridging probably due to low clay content such that there is little physical protection of organic matter for the sandy soil.Results from this study indicate that there were higher soil organic matter losses under conventional tillage when compared with the other tillage treatments for both soils. This was maybe caused by the differing degrees of disruption of soil aggregates under the different management practices. Beare et al. (1994a) showed that after 13 years of conventional and no-tillage management resulted in 18% greater standing stock of soil organic C in the plough layer of no-tillage soil than conventional tillage soil. Beare et al. (1994b) also showed that the largest water stable aggregates were more abundant in the surface samples of no-till soil and that these aggregates were more stable and contained higher concentrations of C and N than did water stable aggregates under conventional tillage.Soil organic matter results were supported by maize yields and runoff loss results that were observed in the same experiment. Conservation tillage practices had higher maize yields and lower runoff losses than conventional tillage although there were seasonal variations. The variations were mainly a result of differences in the rainy seasons with some seasons being wet while some seasons were dry (Figs 1 and 2).In most seasons tied ridging gave higher grain yields for both soils because of the moisture benefits associated with tied ridging (Nehanda, 2000). The improvement in water use efficiency caused by tied ridging, which also had high organic matter contents could have possibly resulted in an increase in nutrient use efficiency resulting in higher yields. The higher maize yields under tied ridging were most likely associated with high root biomass additions to the soil and hence the high soil organic matter contents. In drier years conventional tillage gave higher yields because of less vigorous growth associated with crops under conventional tillage such that their moisture demands were lower. When however averaged across season, conventional tillage had the lowest maize yields. These results imply that conventional tillage causes faster soil degradation with increased soil organic matter decline, nutrient loss and susceptibility of soil to erosion, faster soil fertility decline and lower crop yields in the long run (Doran et al., 1987;Franzlubbers and Arshad, 1996;Feller and Beare, 1997). Higher grain yields were obtained for the red clay soil than the sandy soil due to the high water and nutrient holding capacity of the clay soil.Conventional tillage resulted in higher surface runoff for both soils because tillage loosens soil making it prone to rain drop impact and detachment (Figs 3 and 4).Conventional tillage had double surface runoff compared with the other tillage treatments while the other treatments had minimum surface runoff. The bare fallow treatment for sandy soil had the highest surface runoff losses because of the lack of a crop to cover the soil and protect the soil from being washed away from the soil surface. Surface runoff for the two soils was not different perhaps because the two sites receive similar rainfall. These results are similar to total C and organic C in the SOM fractions, where low organic C contents were observed under the bare fallow treatment and with high runoff losses, some of the organic could have been lost through erosion.At the IAE site conventional tillage led to a high decline in total organic C content (14.9 mg C g -1 soil) and organic C in the organic matter fractions compared with tied ridging (27.9 mg C g -1 soil) that promoted organic matter accumulation. For the sandy soil there was higher total organic C and organic C in the organic matter fractions under the mulch ripping treatment while conventional tillage led to higher organic C degradation. This means that tied ridging conserves organic C for the red clayey soil while mulch ripping conserves organic C in the sandy soil compared with the other tillage treatments tested. Higher organic matter loss was observed for the sandy soil with up to 61% organic C decline following conversion from the weedy fallow to conventional tillage. This was much higher compared with 47% organic C decline under the same conversion for the clayey soil. This means that sandy soils degrade faster than clayey soils under the same management practices because they have lower capacity to protect soil organic matter. Higher crop yields on the red clay soil also resulted in higher organic matter additions to the soil through root biomass compared with the sandy soil.Cultivation when compared to the weedy fallow results in the faster turnover and decline of organic matter especially in the coarse fractions. Conventional tillage resulted in faster losses of coarse organic matter than conservation tillage practices as there are no organic inputs and in the finer fractions because it does not allow for the formation of stable microaggregates.  Land resource degradation is one of the major threats to food security and natural resource base in Ethiopia. Hundreds of years of exploitve traditional land use, aggravated by high human and livestock population density have led to the extraction of the natural capital, which caused the farming of uncultivable sloppy lands and overexploitation of slowly renewable resources. The outcome is that half of the highlands are eroded, of which 15% are so seriously degraded that it will be difficult to reverse them to be agriculturally productive in the near future. In the mountainous highlands, there is a direct link between land-based resources and rural livelihoods. Decline in soil fertility as a result of land degradation decreases crop/livestock productivity and hence household income. Depleted soils commonly reduce payoffs to agricultural investments, as they rarely respond to external inputs, such as mineral fertilizers, and hence reduce the efficiency and return of fertilizer use. Degraded soils have also very poor water holding capacity partly because of low soil organic matter content that in turn reduce the fertilizer use efficiency. There have been various attempts to reduce land degradation in Ethiopia since the 1970s, through national campaigns on construction of terraces, project afforstation programmes and policy interventions. The objective of this paper is to review the various research/development experiences on integrated soil fertility management and synthesize the positive experiences augumented by the experiences of the African highlands initiative on integrated land management in Ethiopian Highlands. The paper will also suggest an outline that could be used by farmers, researchers and policy makers to reverse the alarming trend of land degradation in the mountainous highlands. This work has consulted the available literature on land degradation and soil fertility management in Ethiopian highlands. While TSBF-CIAT/AHI has been working closely with the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organisation (EARO) and the Buro of Agriculture, and conducting participatory research in two benchmark sites of the Ethiopian highlands on INRM issues, it became apparent that land degradation is the most fundamental threat for the Ethiopian Agriculture. Based on the systems intensification work that we have been conducting in the two benchmark sites of African highlands initiative, Areka and Ginchi, augmented by secondary data on relevant themes, the following approach was suggested to address land degradation in the country.There are multiple factors that cause land degradation at short and long terms in the region. In Sub Saharan Africa, the major bio-physical agents of land degradation are water erosion, wind erosion and chemical degradation that affected soil loss by 47, 36 and 12%, respectively. Given the mountainous and sloppy landscapes, the major environmental factor that causes considerable soil and nutrient loss within a short period of time is water erosion followed by wind erosion. Most of the Wollo and Shewa highlands became erosion-prone due to high rainfall intensity accompanied by very steeply farmlands. Recent surveys showed that erosion effect is severe in high rainfall areas predominantly covered by nitisols and vertisols. In about 40% of the highlands, the erosion effect was so severe that active erosion was transformed to passive erosion, and hence there are rarely visible signs of sheet or rill erosion, but gullies and land slides. The hazards of erosion in the region was accelerated by socio-economic factors, namely absence of land ownership rights that discourage long term investments, population pressure, lack of alternative income generating options, and weak social capital that failed to protect communal grazing lands, up-slope forest covers and water resources.Although the degree of soil erosion is highly related to the interaction of Wischmeier factors, the type of land use and management may have played an important role in the Ethiopian highlands. The contribution of different management factors towards land degradation in Africa is estimated to be 49%, 24%, 14%, 13% and 2% for overgrazing, agricultural activities, deforestation, overexploitation and industrial activities (Vanlauwe et al, 2002). The livestock sector is a very important component of the system both as an economic buffer in times of crop failure and economic crisis and as a supportive enterprise for crop production. There is a considerable concern, however, that the number of animals per household in Ethiopian highlands is much higher than the carrying capacity of land resources.Overgrazing due to very high livestock population density in the Amhara region is expected to contribute most to land degradation. For instance, the total annual feed available in the highlands is estimated to be about 9.1 million tones of biomass while the demand is about 21 million tones, double that of the carrying capacity of the land (Betru, 2002). Another very important factor that aggravated land degradation in the Ethiopian highlands is deforestation. The forest cover went down from 40% at the beginning of this century to less than 3% at present, due to ever-growing demand for wood products and very low commitment in planting trees mainly because of the prevailing nationalization of private woodlots in the 1970s and 1980s. Besides, a very high consumption of wood for fuel and housing, wood products, mainly charcoal, became a major cash generating activities in the country in recent years. Deforestation and overgrazing accelerated land degradation in many ways. Firstly a land without vegetative cover is easily susceptible to erosion, both wind and water, and hence causes a considerable nutrient movement. Secondly, a large amount of litter that could have contributed for maintaining soil organic matter and nutrient status is considerably reduced. Thirdly deforestation in the highlands caused lack of fuel wood, and hence farmers use manure and crop residue as cooking fuel, which otherwise could have been used for soil fertility replenishment. Over-mining of land resources with out returning the basic nutrients to the soil is also an important factor that contributed most for soil fertility decline in the region. For instance, barley is the single dominant crop in the upper highlands of Wollo. The system has very low crop diversity with legume component of less than 3%. The system receives external inputs very rarely with a fertilizer rate of less than 5 kg/ha (Quinones et al., 1997), and the practice of applying this limited amount of mineral fertilizer is a recent practice. Data from the region on the amount of nutrients returned to the soil in comparison to the nutrients lost through removal of crop harvest showed that only 18, 60 and 7 % of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is returned to the soil, respectively (Sanchez et al., 1997). Hence there is an over mining of nutrients from the same rhizosphere for years and years.Another cause of land degradation is lack of early awareness about land degradation by farmers, which is partly associated with the rural poverty. McDonagh, et al., (2001) reported that when farmers were asked to describe their indicators of soil erosion they stated gully/rill formation, exposed underground rocks, land slides, wash away of crops, shallowing of soils and siltation of the soil. Similarly farmers indicators of soil fertility decline include stunted crops, yellowing of crops, weed infestation, and change of soil color to red or grey. These are soil traits that appear in a much later stage of soil degradation, after the soil organic matter and nutrients of the soil are removed. If farmers respond to soil erosion at this stage, the probability of reversing the fertility status to its earlier value would be difficult.Application of small amounts of mineral fertilizer alone, as it has been practiced on the 0.5 ha demonstration plots by FAO and the ministry of Agriculture for years, did not improve crop productivity much. The failure of this mono-technology approach calls for an integrated nutrient management that suits local biophysical, social and economic realities. Integrated nutrient management technologies can be nutrient saving, such as in controlling erosion and recycling of crop residues, manure and other biomass, or nutrient adding, such as in applying mineral fertilizers and importing feed stuffs for livestock (Smaling and Braun, 1996).The traditional field operation in the Ethiopian highlands, which could be characterized by multiple tillage, cereal-dominated cropping and very few perennial components in the system, is very erosive for soils and nutrients. Continual farming in the high lands with out considering conservation measures caused severe land degradation. FAO study in Zimbabwe showed that each hectare of wellmanaged maize growing land lost 10 tones of soil. Depleted soils commonly reduce payoffs to agricultural investments for various reasons. Degraded soils rarely respond to external inputs, such as mineral fertilizers, and hence reduce the efficiency and return of fertilizer use. Degraded soils have also very poor water holding capacity partly because of low soil organic matter content that in turn reduce the fertilizer use efficiency. Results from the dry regions of Niger, Sadore, showed that application of fertilizer increased the millet yield by 71% and also improved the water use efficiency by 70% (Bationo et al., 1993). Hence improved soil fertility enhances the water use efficiency of crops in drought prone areas. Low soil organic matter accompanied by low soil water content may also reduce the bio-chemical activity of the soil that may affect the above and below ground biodiversity of the system. Degraded soils have also low vegetative cover that may accelerate further soil loss and runoff.The effect of soil fertility decline goes beyond nutrient and water losses. There are conviencing results showing that the incidence of some pests and disease is strongly associated with decline in soil fertility. Results from the Amhara and Tigrai region showed that the effect of the notorious parasitic weed, striga, on maize and sorghum was severe in nutrient depleted soil (Esilaba, et al, 2001). It was possible to decrease the population & the incidence of striga significantly by improving the fertility status of the soil through application of organic fertilizers. Similarly the incidence of root rots in beans, stem maggots in beans, take all in barely and wheat is associated with decline in soil fertility (Marschner, 1995). The positive effect of application of organic and inorganic fertilizer on the resistance of the host crop is mainly through improving the vigorosity of the plant at the early phonological stages. Amede et al., (2001) outlined the need for a combination of measures to reverse the trend of soil fertility decline in the African highlands as presented in the following section.There are about 40 different types of indigenous soil and water conservation practices in different parts of the Ethiopian highlands, ranging from narrow ditches on slopping fields in Wollo highlands to the most advanced & integrated conservation measures in Konso, Southern Ethiopia. However, those indigenous practices are location specific and variable in their effectiveness, and call for closer understanding before any attempt is done for scaling-up. However, there is a consensus among actors that any attempt to protect land resources and improve productivity in the sloppy highlands should integrate systemcompatible soil conservation measures. Research conducted in Andit tid and Gununo showed that increasing the vegetation cover of the soil could decreases soil loss and runoff significantly (SCRP, 1996). In Andit tid, the amount of soil loss due to water erosion was 230 t/ha/year under hacked plots. However, it was possible to reduce the soil loss to 30 t/ha or less under crop covers or fallow grasslands (SCRP, 1996). When a cropland covered by crops or grasslands is compared to a frequently hacked farmland, run-off was reduced by about 90 and 100 % and soil loss by 68%, respectively. Hence soil nutrient loss and runoff could be minimized through increasing the frequency of crop cover, especially by those crops with mulching habits and higher leaf area indexs. Moreover, results from SCRP showed that perennial crops like enset and fruit trees or annuals with mulching and runner habits could reduce erosion effects significantly. Recent simulation modules in Northern Ethiopia showed that crop lands allocated for cereal crops like teff were very prone to erosion (Woldu, 2002), and the authors proposed that growing small seeded cereals, like teff, in sloppy farmlands should be discouraged.There has been an attempt to control soil erosion and rehabilitate degraded lands through construction of farmland terraces in the Ethiopian Highlands starting from the early 1970s. The program was facilitated through the food-for-work scheme of the World Food Program, as a response to the frequent droughts of the 70s and 80s in Ethiopia. The program attempted to construct terraces on about 4 millions of hectares of farm land. In early 1990s, the annual physical construction of farmland terraces reached over 220,000 ha (Lakew, et al, 2000). However, as the campaign was trying to address the problem with out the full participation of the rural community, except selling labor, the farmers considered the activity as an external imposition and hence failed to develop sense of ownership. The consequence being that farmers failed to maintain the terraces and, in some case, farmers have destroyed the terraces for getting another round of payment. When farmers were asked to list the reasons for rejecting soil and water conservation technologies they listed five major driving forces (Amede, 2002, unpublished) namely high labor cost, decreased farm size due to terraces, its inconvenience during farm operations especially for U-turn of oxen plough, and inefficiency of the terraces to stop erosion as they were only physical structures without any biological component and technical follow-ups. By considering those farmers criteria and by adopting participatory planning and implementation approaches farmers have adopted and disseminated soil conservation technologies in one the African Highlands Initiative benchmark sites, Areka (Amede et al, 2001). The major driving force for the adoption of the technology was its integration with high value crops (e.g. bananas, hops) and fast growing drought resistant feeds (e.g. Elephant grass, pigeon pea) grown on the soil bunds. The sustainable integration soil & water conservation technologies also depend heavily on the effectiveness of by-laws that limit free grazing and free movement of animals especially during the dry spells. This requires the empowerment of the local and regional policies so as to facilitate the integration of natural resource management technologies to practices of local communities. Moreover, effective landscape management, in terms of controlling soil erosion, is possible only when there is a community collective action. Unless the landscape is treated as a single unit and involves all potential stakeholders, any individual intervention could provoke social conflicts. For instance, construction of soil conservation bunds and deforestation of forests at the upper slope of the Lushoto highlands, Tanzania, decreased the amount of water flew to the valley bottoms, and affected the vegetable production and income of other farmers.Building the organic matter of the soil and the nutrient stock in short period of time requires a systems approach. These include the combination of judicious use of mineral fertilizers, improved integration of crops and livestock, improved organic residue management through composting and application of farmyard manure, deliberate crop rotations, short term fallowing, cereal-legume intercropping and integration of green manures. Because of the inconsistent use of mineral fertilizers and the very limited returns of crop residues to the soil, most of the internal N cycling in small holder systems results from mineralization of soil organic N. Such process may contribute most of the N for the annual crops until the labile soil organic fraction (N-capital) are depleted (Sanchez et al., 1997).Apart from the occasional application of small amounts of mineral fertilisers, all other organic resources form the principal means of increasing soil nutrient stocks and hence soil fertility restorers in small-scale farms. If these approaches are used in combination and appropriately, they could reverse the trend and consequently increase crop yields and, thereby alleviate food insecurity. However, the continued low yields are an indication of insufficient inputs and/or inappropriate use of these technologies. The majority of the small-scale farmers are still aggravating the soil/plant nutrient deficit through improper land management and over-mining of the nutrient pool. However, there is still an opportunity to replenish the soil nutrient pool using integrated approaches depending on the degree of soil degradation, the production system and the type of nutrient in deficit.One potential source of organic fertilizer is farmyard manure. There is a large number of livestock in the Amhara region that could produce a considerable amount of manure to be used for soil fertility replenishment. However, there is a strong competition for manure use between soil fertility and its use as a cooking fuel. Recent survey in the upper central highlands of Ethiopia showed that more than 80% of the manure is used as a source of fuel. Only farmers with access to fuel wood could apply manure in their home steads. Experiences from Zimbabwe showed that most manures had very low nutrient content, N fertlizer equivalency values of less than 30%, sometimes with high initial quality that did not explain the quality of the manure at times of use (Murwira et al., 2002). This could be explained by the fact that most manures were not composed of pure dung but rather a mixture of dung and crop residues from the stall. Besides the quality the quantity of manure produced on-farm is limited. Sandford (1989) indicated that to produce sufficient manure for sustainable production of 1-3 tonnes/ha of maize it requires 10-40 ha of dry season grazing land and 3 to 10 of wet season Range land, which is beyond the capacity of Ethiopian farmers. Moreover, the potential of manure to sustain soil fertility status and productivity of crops is affected by the number and composition of animals, size and quality of the feed resources and manure management. Wet season manure has a higher nutrient content than dry season manure, and pit manure has a better quality than pilled manure. Similarly, Powell (1986) indicated that dry season manure had N-content of 6 g/kg compared with 18.9 g/kg for early rainy season manure when the feed quality is high.Another potential organic source is crop residue. Returning crop residue to the soil, especially of legume origin, could replenish soil nutrients, like nitrogen. However, there is strong tradeoff for use of crop residue between soil fertility, animal feed and cooking fuel. In the upper Ethiopian highlands crop residues are used as a major source for dry season feed and supplementary for wet season feed. Hence little is remaining as a crop aftermath to the soil. Although legumes are known to add nitrogen & improve soil fertility, the frequency of legumes in the crop sequence in the upper highlands is less than 10%, which implies that the probability of growing legume on the same land is only once in ten years. The most reliable option to replenish soil fertility is, therefore, promoting integration of multipurpose legumes into the farming systems. Those legumes, especially those refereed as legume cover crops, could produce up to 10 ton/ha dry matter within four months, and are also fixing up to 120 kg N per season (Giller, 2002). Those high quality legumes adapted to the Ethiopian highlands include tephrosia, mucuna, crotalaria, canavalia, and vetch (Amede & Kirkby, 2002). However, despite a significant after effect of LCCs on the preceeding maize yield (up to 500% yield gain over the local management) farmers were reluctant to adopt the legume technology because of trade-off effects for food, feed and soil fertility purposes (Amede, unpublished data, 2002). In an attempt to understand factors affecting integration of soil improving legumes in to the farming systems of southern Ethiopia, Amede & Kirkby (2002) identified the most important socio-economic criteria of farmers namely, land productivity, farm size, land ownership, access to market and need for livestock feed. By considering the decision-making criteria of farmers on which legumes to integrate into their temporal & spatial niches of the system, it was possible to integrate the technology to about 10% of the partner farmers in southern Ethiopia.Organic resources may provide multiple benefits through improving the structure of the soil, soil water holding capacity, biological activity of the soil and extended nutrient release, but it could be unwise to expect the organics to fulfil the plant demand for all basic nutrients. Most organic fertilizers contain very small quantities of some nutrients (e.g. P and Zn) to cover the full demand of the crop, and hence mineral fertiliser should supplement it. Combined application of organic fertilizers with small amount of mineral fertilizers was found to be promising route to improve the efficiency of mineral fertilizers in small holder farms. For instance, Nziguheba et al., (2002) indicated that organic resources enhanced the availability of P by a variety of mechanisms, including blocking of P-sorption sites and prevention of P fixation by stimulation of the microbial P uptake. Long term trials conducted in Kenya on organic and mineral fertiliser interaction also showed that maize grain yield was consistently higher for 20 years in plots fertilised with mineral NP combined with farmyard manure than plots with sole mineral NP or farmyard manure (S.M Nandwa, KARI, unpublished data 1997). Although most farmers are convinced of using farm-based organic fertilisers, they are challenged by questions like which organic residue is good for soil fertility, how to identify the quality of organic resource, how much to apply, when to apply, and what should be the ratio of organics to mineral fertilisers. This calls for development of decision support guides to support farmers' decision on resource allocation and management. Scientists from Tropical Soils Biology and Fertility Institute of CIAT developed decision guide to identify the quality of organic fertilisers based on the polyphenol, lignin and nutrient content as potential indicators (Palm et al., 1997). As those parameters demand laboratory facilities and intensive knowledge, Giller (2000) simplified the guide by translating it to local knowledge as highly astrigent test (high polyphenol content), fibrous leaves and stems (high lignin content) and green leaf colour (high N content) to make the guides usable to farmers.In general, there is an increasing trend of mineral fertilizer use in the Ethiopian highlands over the past decades, and fertilizer imports into the country have increased from 47000 tonnes N & P in 1993 to 137 000 tones in 1996 (Quinones et al., 1997). It was mainly as a result of a strong campaign of Sasakawa-Global 2000 in collaboration with the Buro of Agriculture. However, there is a declining trend in fertilisers use in 2001/2002 due to increasing cost of fertilizers, lack of credit opportunities to resource poor farmers and low income return due to market problems.Sustainable rural development and natural resource management in the region demands an investment in and improvement of the natural capital, human capital and social capital. As the natural capital in the region had multiple problems that needs multiple solutions, there is a strong need for holistic approach to deliver options for clients of various socio-economic categories.Given the complexity of the problem of land degradation, and its link to social, economical and policy dimensions, it requires a comprehensive approach that combines local and scientific knowledge through community participation, capacity building of the local actors through farmers participatory research and enhanced farmer innovation. This approach requires the full involvement of stakeholder at different levels to facilitate and integrate social, biophysical and policy components towards an improved natural resource management and sustainable livelihoods (Stroud, 2001). Watershed management as a unit of planning and change imposes the need for increased attention to issues of resource conservation and collective action by the community. The issues of land degradation may include afforstation of hillsides, water rehabilitation and/or harvesting and soil stabilization, soil fertility amendment through organic and mineral fertilizers and increasing vegetation cover by systematic use of the existing land and water resources. This could be achieved by working closely with communities and policy implementers in identifying and implementing possible solutions to address land degradation and other common landscape problems, like grazing land improvement, gully stabilization and by monitoring and documenting the processes for wider dissemination and coverage. Some of the watershed conservation related solutions should be tried and implemented on specific test locations using farmers' own contribution and the INRM team's technical supervision. However, a wider application of these solutions to larger areas may require attracting additional funding investments from the district, donors or other NGOs in the area. The local village communities may also effect changes in the norms and rules governing the use of natural resources in their vicinity. Traditional rules and local by-laws (e.g. written and unwritten and called \"afarsata\" or awatcheyache) regarding the use and sharing of resources exist in most villages and these need to be identified and studied with a view to effect reform or renew their emphasis in the community. Integration of Agroforestry technologies in the farming systems of the Ethiopian highlands failed because of absence of national and/or local policies /by-laws that prohibit free grazing and movement of animals in the dry season. Experiences from the 1980s campaign of 'Green Campaign' in Ethiopia also showed that it is almost impossible to address the issue of land degradation without the full involvement and commitment of the local community. The local by-laws in resource arrangement and use should be facilitated and supported, as the rules and regulations at the local level could be implemented effectively through elders and respected members of the community with tolerance and respect. There may be a church and/or witchcraft dimensions to these, and there may be changes over time that might help to understand why people are doing what they are doing. In addition, the influence of national and regional policies on local resource management should be understood. These will form an important subject of community wide discussion and deliberation (Stroud, 2001). The current undertaking of soil and water conservation practices through voluntary participation campaign of the community in the northern Ethiopian Highlands is one positive step forward for initiating collective action.The Sudano-Sahelian zone of West Africa (SSZWA) is the home of the world poorest people, 90% of whom live in villages and gain their livelihood from subsistence agriculture. Per capita food production has declined significantly over the past three decades. According to FAO, total food production in Sahelian countries grew by an impressive 70% from 1961 to 1996, but it lagged behind the population which doubled, causing food production per capita to decline approximately by 30% over the same period (Bationo, 1996).Low, erratic rainfall and high soil temperature, soil of poor native fertility, surface crusting and low water and nutrient holding capacity, and recurrent droughts are the main abiotic constraints to crop production in this environment.The table on economic and human development characteristics of West African countries indicate that except for Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritania and Ghana where the percentage of undernourished people is less than 19%, most countries have between 20 to 34% of undernourished people and countries like Niger have more than 35% of their population undernourished. Sahelian countries produce 80% of their total cereal production under very difficult conditions. The ability to obtain the remaining 20 percent of required food is limited by low income and underdeveloped marketing channels. Gross domestic product per capita, for example, ranged from US$177 in Chad to US$575 in Senegal and have stagnated in real terms over the past decade. From the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development index, which ranks countries in terms of life expectancy, education and income, Sahelian countries fall in the bottom 15 percent of the 174 countries ranked, the lowest being Niger.In extensive agricultural systems, when crop yields decline to unacceptable levels, the land is left fallow to build up soil fertility, and new areas are then cultivated. Increasing population pressure has decreased the availability of land and resulted in reduced duration of fallow and increased the duration of cropping periods. Shifting cultivation is losing effectiveness and soil fertility is globally declining in many areas. The present farming systems are therefore unsustainable, low in productivity and destructive to the environment. Plant nutrient balances are negative (Stoorvogel and Smaling, 1990). The increasing need for cropland has prompted farmers to cultivate more and more marginal lands which are prone to erosion.Agricultural output should expand by at least 4% annually by the year 2000 in order to ensure food security. Previous studies have clearly shown that the expansion of new farms cannot increase output by over 1% without accelerating environment degradation. Consequently, productivity of land currently under cultivation should increase by at least 3% per annum. Presently, over a quarter of West African sub-region's population of two hundred million inhabitants is threatened by food insecurity. Any program aimed at reverting the declining trend in agricultural productivity and preserving the environment for present and future generations in West Africa must begin with soil fertility restoration and maintenance (Bationo et al., 1996).In this chapter, after a brief presentation of the crop production environment, we will present the state of the art of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter management for sustainable land use in the Sudano-Sahelian zone. Before presenting the new opportunities for future research for soil fertility restoration in this zone, we will discuss the effect of different cropping systems on soil fertility and also the main research achievements of the on-farm evaluation of soil fertility restoration technologies.The rainfall in West Africa shows a significant north-south gradient because of the inter-seasonal movement of the intertropical convergence zone, north and south of the equator. The rainfall is low, variable and undependable. The north-south rainfall gradient is very steep. The further one goes from the Sahara margins, the greater is the rainfall by approximately 1 mm km -1 . The isohyets run parallel (Toupet 1965). Sivakumar (1986) proposed a soil climatic zonation scheme for West Africa that is calculated from rainfall and potential evapo-transpiration. In this scheme a growing period of 60-100 days was used for defining the Sahelian zone. The geographical extent of the Sudanian zone has an average growing period of 100-150 days. The extent of the Sudano-Sahelian zone of West Africa (SSZWA) is represented by the Semi-Arid zone in Figure 1. The average annual rainfall of the cultivated zones varies from 300 to 900 mm and the ratio of annual rainfall to annual potential evapo-transpiration from 0.20 to 0.65. High soil temperature, sometimes exceeding 40 o C, can prevent crop establishment. Sand blasting and burial of the seedlings caused by wind erosion adds to this problem.Time dependent variations in rainfall are quite common in the region with coefficient of variation of annual rainfall ranges between 15-30%, and rainfall in some years can be 50% below or above the long-term average. In instance, Nicholson (1981) showed that in 1950 rainfall all over West Africa was above normal, at some location even 250% above normal. However, in 1970 rainfall was below normal throughout the region.It is well documented that precipitation determines the potential distribution of terrestrial vegetation and extended drought have initiated or exacerbated desertification. In the past 25 years, the SSZWA has experienced the most substantial decline in rainfall (Hulme and Kelly 1997;Hulme 1992;Nicholson and Palao 1993) and the downward trend is persistent since 1951 with more areas experiencing more higher rainfall variability. As a result of the decrease in rainfall there will be a decrease in the vegetation cover of the land and a reduction in the vegetation cover logically leads to reduce precipitation (Charney 1975;Cunnington and Rowntree 1986;Xue et al. 1990). The other non-climatic forces of desertification includes unsustainable agricultural practices, overgrazing and deforestation.With the reduction of the vegetation cover, the soil is left bare and therefore directly exposed to wind and water vegetation. The effect of these changes on wind and water erosion are aggravated by the sandy nature of the soils of SSZWA, which are frequently poorly aggregated, offering little resistance to the erosive forces. The Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (GLASOD) project estimates that 65% of the African agricultural land 31% of permanent pasture land, and 19% of forest and woodland has already been degraded. Three hundred and thirty two million hectares of African drylands are subjected to soil degradation. This represents one third of the entire area of dryland soil degradation in the world.Land degradation is one of the most serious threats to food production and soil lost through erosion is about 10 times greater than the rate of natural soil formation while deforestation is 30 times greater than of planned reforestation. Buerkert et al. (1996a) measured absolute soil lost of 190 t ha -1 in one year on bare plots, as opposed to soil deposition of 270 t ha -1 on plot with 2 t ha -1 millet stover mulch. Sterk et al. (1996) reported a total loss of 45.9 t ha -1 of soil during four consecutive storms. Buerkert et al. (1996b) reported that in unprotected plot up to 7 kg of available P and 180 kg ha -1 of organic carbon are lost from the soil profile within one year. Wind erosion will decrease also the exchangeable base and increase soil acidification. Wind erosion constitutes one of the major causes of land degradation. This results from the low vegetation cover at the time when the most erosive winds are blowing in combination with sandy, easy erodable soils. Wind erosion induced damage includes direct damage to crops through sand blasting, burial of seedling under sand deposits, and loss of top soils (Fryar 1971, Ambust 1984, Fryar 1990. The loss of the top soil which can contain 10 times more nutrients than the sub-soil is particularly worrying, since it potentially affects crop productivity on the long-term by removing the soil that is inherently rich in organic matter. b) Soils Entisols and Alfisols occupy most of the landscape in the SSZWA. Entisols are mainly composed of quartz sand, with low water and nutrient holding capacity. Alfisols have a clay accumulation horizon and a high base saturation because of lower rainfall and leaching but they have poor structural stability, poor water and nutrient holding capacity and lower organic matter than the ultisols and oxisols in the subhumid areas.The data in Table 1 shows physical and chemical properties of soils in the SSZWA. Most of the soils are sandy. One striking feature of these soils is their inherent low fertility which, is expressed in low levels of organic carbon (generally less than 0.3%), low total and available phosphorus and nitrogen and low effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC). The ECEC is attributed to low clay content and the kaolinitic mineralogy of the soils. Bationo and Mokwunye (1991) found that the ECEC is more related to the organic matter than to the clay content, indicating that a decrease in organic matter will decrease the ECEC and then the nutrient holding capacities of those soils. De Ridder and Van Keulen (1990) reported that a difference of 0.1% in organic carbon content results in a difference of 4.3 Cmol kg -1 in ECEC.Soil nutrient depletion is a major bottleneck to increased land productivity in the region and has largely contributed to poverty and food insecurity. Soil nutrient depletion occurs when nutrient inflows are less than outflows. Nutrient balances are negative for many cropping systems indicating that farmers are mining their soils. Table 2 shows the aggregated nutrient budgets for some West African countries. In Burkina Faso, current estimates indicate that in 1983, for a total of 6.7 million hectares of land cultivated, soil nutrient mining amounted to a total loss of 95000 tons of N, 28000 tons of P 2 O 5 and 79000 tons of K 2 O, equivalent to US$159 million of N, P and K fertilizers. In Mali, Van der Pol and Van der Geest (1993) reported that farmers extract, on average, 40% of their agricultural revenue from the soil mining. The significance of these figures is alarming when it is realized that productivity of these soils in their native state is already low because of low inherent levels of plant nutrients. The countries of the SSZWA consume less than 5 kg.ha -1 of plant nutrients and in addition there is intense pressure on the governments to remove subsidies on fertilizers without alternative policies to sustain even the current low levels of use of plant nutrients.The data in Table 3 indicates that continuous cultivation of the weakly buffered soils of northern Nigeria will result in a rapid decline of exchangeable cations and soil acidification in the Sudanian zone of Northern Nigeria. Soil calcium will decrease by 21% and pH by 4% after 50 years of continuous cultivation in farmers' fields.Rains in West Africa frequently occurs in short and intense storms and pose special problems in term of soil conservation (Kowal and Kassam 1978). Charreau (1974) reported on rainfall intensities between 27 to 62 mm h -1 . In Northern Nigeria, Kowal (1970) reported rainfall intensities over 250 mm h -1 for a short period. Hoogmoed reported a pick intensity of 300 mm hin Niono, Mali and a pick of 386 mm h -1 for Niamey, Niger (Hoomoed 1986). Land degradation due to water erosion is more severe in the Sudanian zone than in the Sahelian zone. On the bare, weakly crusted surface of the sandy Sahelian soil, infiltration rate of up to 100 mm h -1 have been reported (ICRISAT 1985). For the Alfisols with indurate crust, infiltration rates of 10.8 mm h -1 in Central Burkina Faso have been reported. As a result of the high rainfall intensities and low infiltration rates, runoff and soil loss are common in the region. The data in Table 5 indicate runoff and soil loss will depend on soil types and erodibility, land form and management system (Lal 1980). Whereas Sefa in Senegal with a slope of 1.2% on a bare soil a total runoff of 39.5% was recorded resulting in soil loss of 21 t ha -1 Yr -1 , in Burkina Faso with a slope of 1.20% only 7.5% of runoff was recorded with soil loss of 6.4 t yr -1 on pearl millet field.A) Nitrogen a) Introduction For many years, several scientists in the Sudano-Sahelian zones initiated research to 1) assess the performance of the different sources of N fertilizers 2) to assess the efficiency of different methods of N placement 3) to calculate 15 N balances in order to determine N uptake and losses and 4) to determine efficiency of N under different management systems and the effect of the different soil and agro climatic factors on the performance of N fertilizers (Mughogho et al. (1986), Bationo et al. (1989), Christianson and Vlek (1991), Ganry et al. (1973), Gigou et al. (1984)).Soil nitrogen is derived from air and dust, biological nitrogen fixation, organic sources, and fertilizers. About 98% of the soil nitrogen is stabilized in the organic matter. Thus the total nitrogen in the soil and the amount of nitrogen released for plant nutrients uptake will depend on organic matter content. b) Efficiency of N fertilizers as affected by N sources, methods of placement and time of application Christianson and Vlek (1991) used data from long-term experiment from the Sudano-Sahelian Zone to develop response function to N by pearl millet and sorghum and found that the optimum rate is 50 kg N/ha for sorghum and 30 kg N/ha for pearl millet. At these N rates the returns were 20 kg grain per kg N for sorghum and 9 kg grain per kg N for pearl millet.The use of 15 N in order to calculate N balances and to determine fertilizers N uptake and losses provide an important tool for nitrogen management. Results with 15 N research in early years are reported in Mughogho et al. from which the following conclusion can be made. 1) Apparent uptake of fertilizer N exceeds measured uptake using 15 N. 2) Uptake of 15 N labelled fertilizer and apparent recovery of unlabelled N decreases with increasing rates of application. 3) Loss of 15 N labelled fertilizer to the atmosphere and recovery of 15 N in the soil increases with increasing rates of fertilizer application. 4) Estimated losses of N are high regardless of N sources.The urea and calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) are the most common sources of nitrogen in the region. Trials were undertaken to evaluate these two sources of nitrogen with basal or split application, banded, broadcast or applied point placed as urea supergranule (USG) or CAN point placed. 15 N was applied in microplot in order to construct N balances and to determine N uptake and losses from the different sources of N, methods of application and timing of application.From the data in table 5,6 and 7 the following conclusion can be made: 1) Fertilizer N recovery by plant was very low, averaging 25 -30% over all years. 2) There is a higher loss of N with the point placement of urea (USG) (> 50%) and the mechanism of N loss is believed to have been ammonia volatilization. 3) For all years losses of N from CAN were less than from urea because one-half of the N in CAN is in the non-volatile nitrate form. 4) Although CAN has a lower N content than urea, it is attractive as an N source because of its low potential for N loss via volatilization, and its point placement will improve its spatial availability. The data in Figure 2 clearly indicates that CAN point placed outperformed urea point placed or broadcast and 15 N similar trials indicate that 15 N uptake by plants was almost three times higher from CAN than that of urea applied in the same manner (Table 7). c) Efficiency of N fertilizers as affected by soil and crop management and rainfall Mughogho et al. (1986) found significant relationships between crop yields and N recovery. N losses averaged 20% in the humid and sub-humid zones with maize and were significantly less than the average loss of 40% found over all treatments in the Sudano-Sahelian zone.In the Sahelian zone, Bationo and Vlek (1998) reported nitrogen use efficiencies of 14% in plots without lime and phosphorus whereas this amount increased to 28% when P and lime were applied.Rotation of cereals with legumes could be a way to increase N use efficiency. Bationo and Vlek 1998 reported a nitrogen use efficiency of 20% in the continuous cultivation of pearl millet but its value increased to 28% when pearl millet was rotated with cowpea. Bationo et al. (1989) found a strong effect between planting density and response to N fertilizer. Christianson et al. (1990) developed a model on the effect of rainfall on N for pearl millet production in the Sahel and found that the response to N was affected by rainfall over a 45 days yield-sensitive period which coincides with the culms elongation and anthesis growth stages for millet (Figure 3).(2) Phosphorus sources and management a) Introduction Among soil fertility factors, phosphorus deficiency is a major constraint to crop production in the Sudano-Sahelian zone. For many years, research has been undertaken to assess the extent of soil phosphorus deficiency, to estimate phosphorus requirement of major crops, and to evaluate the agronomic potential of various phosphate rock (PR) from local deposits (Goldsworthy, 1967;Pichot and Roche, 1972;Thibout et al. 1980;Bationo et al. 1987;Bationo et al. 1990;Hauck, 1966;Jones, 1973;Juo and Fox, 1977;Kang and Osiname, 1979;Boyer, 1954;Nalos et al. 1974;Juo and Kang, 1978;Mokwunye, 1979;Truong et al. 1978) About 80% of the soils in sub-Saharan Africa are short of this critical nutrient element and without the use of phosphorus, other inputs and technologies are not effective. However, sub-Sahara Africa use 1.6 kg P/ha -1 of cultivated land as compared to 7.9 and 14.9 respectively for Latin America and Asia. It is now accepted that the replenishment of soil capital phosphorus is not only a crop production issue, but an environmental issue and P application is essential for the conservation of the natural resource base.Availability and total P levels of soil are very low in the SSZWA as compared to the other soils in West Africa (Bache and Rogers, 1970;Mokwunye, 1974;Jones and Wild, 1975;Juo and Fox, 1977). For the sandy Sahelian soils total P values can be as low as 40 mg P kg -1 and the value of available P less than 2 mg P kg -1 . In a study of the fertility status of selected pearl millet producing soils of West Africa, Manu et al. 1991 found that the amount of total P in these soils ranged from 25 to 340% mg kg -1 with a mean of 109% mg kg -1 . The low content of both total and available P parameters may be related to several factors including 1) Parent materials, which are mainly composed of eolian sands, contain low mineral reserves and lack primary minerals necessary for nutrient recharge. 2) A high proportion of total P in these soils is often in occluded form and is not available to crop (Charreau, 1974). 3) Low level of organic matter and the removal of crop residue from fields. Organic matter has a favourable effect on P dynamics of the soil; in addition to P release by mineralization, the competition of organic ligands for Fe and Al oxides surface can result in a decrease of P fixation of applied and native P.The P sorption characteristics of different soil types has been investigated and as compared to the soils of the more humid regions, the soils of the SSZWA have very low capacity to fix P (Sanchez and Uehara, 1980;Udo and Ogunwale, 1972;Fox and Kamprah, 1970;Juo and Fox, 1977;Syers et al. 1971). For pearl millet producing soils, Manu et al. 1991 fitted the sorption data to Langmuir equation (Langmuir 1918) and P sorption maximum was determined using the method of Fox and Kamprath, 1970. From these representative sites in the Sudano-Sahelian zone the values of maximum P sorbed ranged from 27 mg kg -1 to 253 mg kg-1 with a mean of 94 mg kg -1 .Phosphorus deficiency is a major constraint to crop production and response to nitrogen is substantial only when both moisture and phosphorus are not limiting. Field trials were established to determine the relative importance of N, P and K fertilizers. The data in Table 8 indicates that from 1982 to 1986 the average control plot was 190 kg grain ha -1 . The sole addition of 30 kg P2O5/ha without N fertilizers increased the average yield to 714 kg ha -1 . The addition of only 60 kg N/ha did not increase the yield significantly over the control and the average grain yield obtained was 283 kg ha -1 . Those data clearly indicate that P is the most limiting factor in those sandy Sahelian soils and there is no significant response to N without correcting first for P deficiency. When P is applied the response to N can be substantial and with the application of 120 kg N ha-1 a pearly millet grain yield of 1173 kg ha-1 was obtained as compared to 714 kg ha-1 when only P fertilizers were applied. For all the years the addition of potassium did not increase significantly the yield of both grain and total dry matter of pearl millet.b) The use of alternative locally available phosphate rock Despite the fact that deficiency of P is acute on the soils of West Africa, very little P fertilizers is used by local farmers, partially because of the high cost of the imported fertilizers. The use of locally available phosphate rock indigenous in the region could be an alternative to use of high cost imported P fertilizers. The effectiveness of phosphate rock (PR) depends on its chemical and mineralogical composition (Khasawneh and Doll (1978), Lehr and McClellan (1972), Chien and Hammond (1978). The most important feature of the empirical formula of francolite is the ability of carbonate ions to substitute for phosphate in the apatite latice. Smith and Lehr (1966) concluded from their studies that the level of isomorphic substitution of carbonate for phosphate within the latice of the apatite crystal influences the solubility of the apatite in the rock and therefore controls the amount of phosphorus that is released when PR is applied to soil. The most reactive PR are those having a molar PO 4 /CO 3 ratio less than 5. West African PR's are not very reactive. Chien (1977) found that the solubility of PR in neutral ammonium citrate (NAC) was directly related to the level of carbonate substitution. Diamond (1979) proposed a classification of phosphate rock for direct application based on citrate solubility as >5.4% high; 3.2-4.5% medium and <2.7% low. Based on this classification only Tilemsi PR has a medium reactivity.Environmental conditions, crop types, and management practices control the P supply and hence the effectiveness of a given PR in a given crop management environment, (Mokwunye, 1995). The ability of the soil to provide H+, soil with low P and Ca, soil moisture, the acidification of the rhizosphere, plants with high root density and high Ca uptake play an important role in P availability from PR (Kasawneh and Doll, 1978;Chien, 1977;Mokwunye, 1995;Hammond et al. 1986;Kirk and Nye, 1986;Hedley et al. 1982;Sale and Mokwunye, 1993;Föhse et al. 1988;Barrow, 1990;Hammond et al. 1989). Bationo et al. (1987) have shown that direct application of PR indigenous to the region may be an economical alternative to the use of more expensive imported water-soluble P fertilizers for certain crops and soils. Bationo et al. 1987 while evaluating Parc-W and Tahoua PR indigenous to Niger found that PR is only 48% as effective as single superphosphate (SSP), whereas the effectiveness of the more reactive Tahoua rock was as high as 76% of SSP. Further studies by Bationo et al. (1990) showed that Tahoua PR is suitable for direct application, but Parc-W has less potential for direct application. The data from a long-term benchmark experiment show that SSP outperformed the other sources and its superiority to sulphur-free Triple Superphosphate (TSP) indicates that with continuous cultivation, sulphur deficiency develops. For both pearl millet grain and total dry matter yields, the relative agronomic effectiveness was almost similar for TSP as compared to the partially acidulated Parc W phosphate rock (PAPR) with 50% acidulation (PAPR50) indicating that partial acidification of Parc-W PR can significantly increase its effectiveness (Bationo et al 1996).In trials conducted in the different agro-ecological zones of Niger it was found that Tahoua PR outperformed Kodjari PR (from Burkina Faso) (Figure 4). The results are in agreement with the fact that the molar PO 4 /CO 3 ratio is 23 for Kodjari PR and 4.9 for Tahoua PR, and Tahoua PR has also a higher solubility in NAC. Bationo et al. (1997) found that Tilemsi PR can result in net returns and value/cost ratios similar to recommended cotton or cereal complex imported fertilizers.There is ample evidence that indicates that market differences exist between species and genotype for P uptake (Föhse et al. 1988;Caradus, 1980;Nielsen and Schjorring, 1983;Spencer et al. 1980). Bationo et al. 2001 found that the PUE among nine pearl millet varieties varied from 25 kg grain/kg P for variety ICMVIS 85333 to 77 kg grain/kg P for Haini-Kirei cultivar.The data on Table 9 clearly shows that hill placement of small qualities of P fertilizers will have a higher phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) as compared to the broadcasting of 13 kg P/ha as recommended by the extension services. Whereas in 1995 the PUE was 47 with the broadcasting of 13 kg/P ha, a value of 111 was obtained with the hill placement of 3 kg P/ha with the seed at sowing time. In on-farm researchers managed trials in the Sahelian zone, it was found that the efficiency of PR from Kodjari or Tahoua can be improved with the hill placement of 4 kg P/ha. Whereas the PUE of Kodjari PR applied alone was 14 it increased to 31 when additional P was hill placed at seedling time as 15-15-15 for pearl millet grain yield (Bationo, unpublished data).In long-term soil management trials, application of nitrogen, crop residue and ridging and rotation of pearl millet with cowpea were evaluated to determine their effect on PUE. The results show that soil productivity of the sandy soils can dramatically increase with the adoption of improved crop and soil management technologies, whereas the absolute control recorded 33 kg ha -1 of pearl millet grains, 1829 kg ha -1 was obtained when phosphorus nitrogen and crop residue was applied to the ridged and fallowed leguminous cowpea upon the previous season. Results indicate for the grain yield that PUE increases from 46 with only P application to 133 when P is applied in combination with nitrogen, crop residue and the crop is planted on ridge in a rotation system (Table 10). D. Organic matter management a) Introduction Maintaining soil organic matter is a key to sustainable land use management. Organic matter acts as source and sink for plant nutrients. Other important benefits resulting from the maintenance of organic matter is low-input agro-systems include retention and storage of nutrients, increasing buffering capacity in low activity clay soils, and increasing water holding capacity. Nye and Greenland (1960) estimated that the annual increase in nitrogen under forest fallow was 30 kg N ha -1 in the soil and 60 kg N ha -1 in the vegetation. For the savanna ecosystems, the annual increase was 10 kg N ha -1 in the soil and 25 kg N ha -1 in leaves and vegetation. Bationo et al. 1995 reported that continuous cultivation in the Sahelian zone has led to drastic reduction in organic matter and a subsequent soil acidification. Bationo and Mokwunye (1991) reported that in the Sudano-Sahelian zone, the effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) is more related to organic matter than to clay, indicating that a decrease in organic matter will decrease the ECEC and subsequently the nutrient holding capacity of these soils. In a study to quantify the effects of changes in organic carbon on cation exchange capacity (CEC) De Ridder and Van Keulen (1990) found that a difference of 1 g kg-1 in organic carbon results in a difference of 4.3 mol kg -1 . In many cropping systems few if any agricultural residues are returned to the soil. This leads to decline soil organic matter, which frequently results in lower crop yields or soil productivity.The concentration of organic carbon in the top soil is reported to average 12 mg kg -1 for the forest zone, 7 mg kg -1 for the Guinean zone, 4 mg kg-1 in the Sudanian zone and 2 mg kg -1 for the Sahelian zone (Windmeijer and Andriesse (1993). The soils of the Sudano-Sahelian zone are inherently low in organic carbon. This is due to the low root growth of crops and natural vegetation but also the rapid turnover rates of organic materials with high soil temperature and microfauna, particularly termites. In a survey of millet producing soils, Manu et al. (1991) found an average soil Corg content of 7.6 g kg -1 with a range from 0.8 to 29.4 g kg -1 . The data also showed that these Corg contents were highly correlated with total N (R = 0.97) which indicates that in the predominant agro-pastoral systems without the application of mineral N fertilizers, N nutrition of crops largely depend on the maintenance of soil Corg levels.The importance of soil textural (clay and silt) properties for the Corg content of soil was stressed repeatedly as clay is an important component in the stabilization of organic molecules and minoorganisms (Amato and Ladd, 1992;Greenland and Nye, 1959;Feller et al. 1992). Thus Feller et al. (1992) reported that independently of climatic variations such as precipitation, temperature, and duration of the dry seasons Corg increased between 600 and 3000 mm annual rainfall with the clay and silt contents of low activity clay soils. Therefore small variations in topsoil texture at the field or watershed level could have large effects on Corg. b) Effect of soil management practices on organic carbon contents There is much evidence for rapid decline of Corg levels with continuous cultivation of crops in the SSZWA (Bationo et al. 1995). For the sandy soils, average annual losses in Corg often expressed by the K value (calculated as the percentage of organic carbon loss per year), may be as higher as 4.7%, whereas for the sandy loam soils, reported losses seem much lower, with an average of 2% (Pieri, 1989, Table 11). The data in Table 11 also clearly indicated that soil erosion can increase Corg losses from 2% to 6.3% and management practices such as crop rotation, following soil tillage, application of mineral fertilizers and mulching will have a significant effect on annual losses of Corg. The K-value in cotton cereal rotations were 2.8%, lower than the 2.8%, lower than the 2.8% in continuous cotton system. At Nioro-du-Rip in Senegal, soil tillage increased annual Corg losses from 3.8% to 5.2% and annual Corg losses declined from 5.2% without NPK to 3.9% with NPK application. c) Effects of crop residues and manure on soil productivityThe Sahelian zone In long-term crop residue and management trials, Bationo and Buerkert 2001 reported for the Sahelian zone a very significant effect between crop residue and mineral fertilizer (Figure 5). From this experiment started since 1984 Bationo et al. (1993) reported that the grain yield declined to 160 kg ha -1 in unmulched and unfertilized plots. However, grain yield could be increased to 770 kg ha -1 with a mulch of 2 t crop residue per hectare and 1030 kg ha -1 with 13 kg P plus 30 kg N ha -1 . The combination of crop residue and mineral fertilizers resulted in grain yield of 1940 kg ha -1 . The application of 4 t of crop residue per hectare maintained soil organic carbon at the same level that in an adjacent fallow field in the top soil but continuous cultivation without mulching results in drastic reduction of Corg (Figure 6). In the Sudanian zone, all available reports show a much smaller or even negative effect of crop residue use as soil amendment (Bationo et al. 1995;Sedogo, 1993). In the Sahelian zone the application of crop residue increased soil pH, and exchangeable bases and decrease the capacity of the soil to fix phosphorus.On the nutrient poor West African soil, manure, the second farm-available soil amendment can substantially enhance crop yields. For Niger, McIntire et al. (1992) reported grain yield increase between 15 and 86 kg for millet and between 14 and 27 kg for groundnut per ton of applied manure. Similar manure effects have been reported from other Sahelian countries. However, given the large variation in the nutrient concentration of the manure types applied comparisons between results from different experiments should be made with precaution. Powell et al. (1998) a very significant effect of manure and urine application on pearl millet in the Sahelian zone.In the SSZWA crop residues use as surface mulch can plan an important role in the maintenance of Corg levels and productivity of the prevailing acid soils through the recycling of mineral nutrients, increased in fertilizer use efficiency and a decrease in soil erosion effect. However, organic material available for surface mulching are scarce given the low overall production levels of biomass and their multiple competitive use as fodder, construction material and cooking fuel (Lamers and Feil, 1993). The crop residue quantities found on-farm at the beginning of the rainy season ranged from 0 to 500 kg ha -1 . McIntire and Fussel (1986) reported that on farmers' fields in the Sahel average grain yields were 236 kg ha -1 and mean crop residue yields barely reached 1300 kg ha -1 . Baidu-Forson (1995) reported on availability of 250 kg ha -1 of crop residue at the onset of the rains. Powell et al. (1987) showed that 50% of the disappearance rates of millet stover could be attributed to livestock grazing.Animal manure has a similar role as residue mulching for the maintenance of soil productivity but depending on rangeland productivity, it will require between 10 to 40 ha of dry season grazing land and 3 to 10 ha of rangeland of wet season grazing to maintain yields one one hectare of cropland (Fernandez-Rivera et al. 1995). The potential of manure to maintain soil Corg and sustain crop production is thus limited by the number of animals available and the size and quality of the rangeland.At the farm level, the maintenance of Corg levels in the soils of the region will largely depend on an increase in C fixation by plants. Given the strong limitation of plant growth by the low availability of mineral nutrients, a yield-effective application of mineral fertilizers is crucial. It would not only allow large increase in crop production and the amount of by-products but also to improve soil coverage by forage grass and weeds. D) Relationships between cropping systems and fertility management a) Introduction The most common cropping system involves growing several crops in association as mixtures or intercrop. This practice provides the farmers with several options for returns from land and labor, often increases efficiency with scarce resources, and reduces dependence upon a single crop that is susceptible to environment and economic fluctuations. Steiner (1984) reported that traditional intercropping systems cover 75% of the cultivated land in the SSZWA. The principal reasons for farmers to intercrop are flexibility, profit and resource maximization, risk minimization, soil conservation and maintenance, weed control and nutritional advantages (Norman, 1974;Swinton et al. 1974;Fusel and Serafini, 1985).Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) and groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) are two of the predominant grain legumes in the SSZWA. Groundnut occupies 2.7 million hectares of arable land and cowpea 6 million hectares. The two legumes are important components of the mixed cropping systems of the resource-poor farmers. The most important cereals are sorghum and pearl millet and the two legumes are often intercropped with these cereals. While considerable information is available on fertilizer requirements for sole cropping of various crops, little is known on fertilizer requirement in intercropping.In the mixed cropping systems, legume yields are very low due to low soil fertility, low planting densities and pest and decrease (Ntare,1989;Reddy et al. 1992). The yield of cowpea grain varies between 50 and 300 kg ha -1 in farmers fields in marked contrast to yield over 2000 kg ha -1 obtainable on research station and by large scale commercial enterprises in pure cropping. Rotation of cereals with legumes has been extensively studied in recent years. The use of rotational systems involving legumes for harvesting nitrogen fixation is gaining importance throughout the region because of economic and sustainability considerations. The beneficial effect of legumes on succeeding crops is normally exclusively attributed to the increased soil N fertility as a result of N-fixation. The amount of N2 fixed by leguminous crops can be quite high but some workers have demonstrated also that legumes can deplete soil nitrogen (Rupela and Saxena, 1987;Blumenthal et al. 1982;Tanaka et al. 1983). Most data reported on the quantity of N fixed by the legume crops in the SSZWA concerned the above ground part of the legume and very little is known on the nitrogen fixed by roots where much of the legume bio-mass is returned to the soil as green manure a positive N balance is to be expected. However, this may not be true for grain legumes and fodder. Where the bulk of above legume material is removed from the system. Nevertheless, many other positive effects of grain legumes such as the improvement of soil biological and physical properties and the ability of some legumes bounded phosphorus by roots exudates (Gardner et al. 1991;Arihara and Okwaki, 1989).Other advantages of crop rotations include soil conservation (Stoop and Staveren, 1981) organic matter restoration (Spurgeon and Grimson, 1965) and pest and disease control (Sunnadurai, 1973).In the mixed crop-livestock systems of the SSZWA, increasing legume component in the farming systems is important in order to increase the availability of fodder as source of livestock feed while increasing soil fertility. b) Intercropping Fussel and Serafini (1985) reported yield advantages from 10-100% in millet cowpea systems.Yield stability has been proposed as a major advantage of intercropping (Wiley, 1979a(Wiley, , 1979b;;Willey et al. 1985;Steiner, 1984) as farmers want to rely on management practices that increase yields, when this is possible, while improving the stability of the production in both good and poor rainfall years. Baker (1980) has compared relative stability of intercropping and cropping using stability analysis of Finlay and Wilkinson (1963) and found that in the groundnut/cereal systems in northern Nigeria, intercropping systems were found to be more stable. Ntare (1989) reported yield advantages of 20-70% depending on the different combinations of pearl millet and cowpea cultivars. Although traditional intercropping cover over 75% of the cultivated area in the SSZWA, there is a scarcity of information on the efficiency of fertilizers under these systems. The number of days before planting the second crop will depend on the importance of the next rains after the first cereal crops have been planted. With a basal application of P fertilizers the cereal growth is rapid and can suppress completely the second crop if its planting occurs after three weeks after the cereal crops have been sown. In contrast if the legume crops is planted early it will compete more with the cereal crop for light, water and nutrients and can significantly reduce the yield of the cereal crop. c) Relay and sequential cropping In the Sudanian zone with longer growing season and higher rainfall there is greater opportunity than in the Sahelian zone to manipulate the systems with appropriate genotypes and management systems. Field trials have been conducted to examine the performance of the cultivars under relay and sequential systems and revealed the potential of these alternative systems over traditional sole or mixed cropping (ICRISAT, 1984 and1987).In Mali, by introducing short season sorghum cultivars in relay cropping with other short duration cowpea and groundnut cultivars, substantial yields of legumes and sorghum were obtained as compared to traditional systems (IER, 1990;Sogodogo and Shetty, 1991).In the Sahelian zone (Sivakumar, 1986) analysed the data of the onset and ending of the rains and the length of the growing period. He found that an early onset of the rains offers the probability of a longer growing period while delayed onset results in a considerable short term growing season. The above analysis suggests that even for the Sahelian zone, cropping management factors using relay cropping can increase soil productivity with an early onset of the rains. d) Crop rotation Despite the recognised need to apply chemical fertilizers for high yields, the use of fertilizers in West Africa is limited by lack of capital, inefficient distribution systems, poor enabling policies and other socio-economic factors. Cheaper means of improving soil fertility and productivity are therefore necessary.Cereals and legumes rotation effects on cereals yields have been reported by several scientists (Bationo et al. 1998;Klaij and Ntare, 1985;Stoop and Van Staven, 1981). Bationo and Ntare, 2000 data at Tara in the Sudanian zone clearly indicates that at all levels of nitrogen application the yield of pearl millet after cowpea outperformed the yield of millet in the continuous millet cultivation.N has been used to quantify the amounts of nitrogen fixed by cowpea and groundnut under different soil fertility levels. The nitrogen derived from the air (NDFA) varies from 65 to 88% for cowpea whereas the values varied from 20 to 75% for groundnut. In the complete treatment where all nutrients were applied cowpea stover fixed up to 89 kg N ha -1 whereas for same treatment groundnut fixed only 40 kg N ha -1 in this Sahelian environment (Bationo and Vlek 1990). In order to determine 15 N recovery from different cropping systems, labelled nitrogen fertilizers were applied to microplots of pearl millet grown continuously, in rotation with cowpea, in rotation with groundnut, intercropped with cowpea, and intercropped with groundnut. The data indicates that nitrogen use efficiency increased from 20% in continuous pearl millet cultivation to 28% when pearl millet was rotated with cowpea (Bationo and Vlek, 1998). The same authors reported that in the Sudanian zone nitrogen derived from the soil increased from 39 kg N ha-1 in continuous pearl millet cultivation to 62 kg N/ha when pearl millet is rotated with groundnut. Those data clearly indicate that although all the above ground biomass of the legume will be used to feed livestock and not returned to the soil, rotation will increase not only the yields of succeeding cereal crop but also its nitrogen use efficiency. Bayayoko et al. (2000) in studies of cereals legumes effects on cereal growth in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of West Africa reported that the rotation effect although significant in most of the cases varied with sites and years. At Sadore as an example, the millet rotated with cowpea yielded 1904 kg/ha whereas the continuous millet cultivation yielded 1557 kg ha-1. Bayoyoko et al. 2000 reported higher levels of mineral N and native arbuscular mychorrhizae infection in the rotation systems as compared to the continuous cereal cultivation.The different cropping systems have a significant effect on the soil organic carbon. The soil organic carbon levels was 0.22% in the continuous systems whereas it is increased to 0.27% in the rotation systems. As a result of this soil pH was higher in the rotation systems as compared to the continuous monoculture (Bationo, unpublished data).A review of the state of the art of the agronomic research in soil fertility management showed that onstation research has developed a considerable amount of promising results but very few of these technologies have reached the small farmers. It is recognized that most of these technologies developed on-station are not always built on indigenous practices, local socio-economic realities, farmers priorities and perceptions. Most often no account has been taken of enabling policy environment and indigenous knowledge. Therefore on-farm research should involve farmers, researchers, extension agents, nongovernmental agencies at the design, implementation and evaluation stages. In this way, the technologies generated have a better chance of adoption by the land users. Promising technologies were identified to be tested on-farm under farmers managed trials knowing that a particular farm management practice is often less effective in the hand of the farmer, than it is on-station. There is need for experimental farm input packages to be tested under farmer's conditions to allow the scientists to observe the transfer of technologies to the farmers field and to determine associated management practices to be adopted by farmers in order to ensure good economic returns.The objectives of on-farm research activities is: 1) to assess farmers' perception of the different technologies proposed 2) to identify the farmers' management practices affecting the good performance of the different technologies 3) to evaluate the profitability of the different technologies tested 4) to identify the constraints to technology adoption and means to alleviate them and 5) to assess the impact of technology adoption. b) Effects of soil fertility restoration technologies on land productivity from farmers managed trials in the SSZWA In the Sahelian zone of Gobery in Western Niger, 20 farmers evaluated phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers including partially acidulated phosphate rock (PAPR) from parc-W. The data in Table 12 indicate a strongly response to P with yield increase of 181% over control with the application of N and P. No significant difference was found between PAPR and SSP, nor was difference between broadcasting and hill placement of nitrogen. However, crop response to fertilizer use was strongly affected by the cropping density chosen by individual farmers (Bationo et al. 1992). Averaged over all fertilized treatments and all years, when farmers planted at less than 3500 pockets per hectare, yield was very low and no response was found to fertilizer use. However, each 1500 pocket/ha increases about 200 kg grain/ha. Bationo and Baidu-Forson (1998) reported the agro-economic evaluation of farmers managed trials on the evaluation of water soluble fertilizers, phosphate rock and rotation of cereals with legumes. The net grains, over three years, resulting from partial budgeting analysis show that farmers could make net financial gains with only the application of P fertilizer. The use of N in addition to P significantly improved net grains. Water soluble single superphosphate generated higher net gains than Tahoua phosphate rock. As a result of the higher cowpea price and is beneficial effect on the improvement of soil fertility, the rotation systems involving cowpea were more profitable than continuous pearl millet cultivation. Bationo et al. 1997 reported the economic evaluation data of Tilemsi phosphate rock by farmers in three agro-ecological zones of Mali. The agro-ecological zones were Tafla with an average rainfall of 600 mm, Sougoumba with 800 mm rainfall and Tinfounga with 1200 mm rainfall. The cropping systems used were rotation of pearl millet with groundnut in Tafla, sorghum with cotton in Sougoumba and maize with cotton in Tinfounga. The data indicate that the different sources of fertilizers have a significant effect on crop yields and there was no difference between Tilemsi phosphate rock and the recommended imported water soluble fertilizers. However, the economic analysis of the data indicate that at some sites the imported recommended water soluble P fertilizers are more profitable than the use of Tilemsi phosphate rock. Bationo et al. 1998 undertook an agro-economic evaluation of a set of soil fertility restoration technologies and concluded that hill placement of small quantities of P fertilizers at planting time had higher returns than broadcasting 13 kg P/ha.From 1988 to 2000 farmers-managed trials in the Sahelian zone at Karabedji (~550 mm of rainfall per year) and in the Sudanian zone at Gaya (~800 mm of rainfall per year), over an average of about 2800 field plots showed the agronomic potential of fertilizers (Table 13). The hill placement of 4 kg P/ha almost doubled crop yield. Integrated use of hill placement of water soluble fertilizers in addition to Tahoua phosphate rock broadcast and soil amendment with crop residue application as mulch gave the highest crop yield (Figure 7). The returns over variable cost of fertilizers presented clearly demonstrate the economic importance of soil fertility restoration in the SSZWA.a) New strategies for integrated nutrient management In the past, integrated nutrient management concentrated mainly on the utilization of available organic and inorganic sources of plant nutrients in a judicious and efficient way. Integrated nutrient management is recently perceived much more broadly as the judicious manipulation of all soil nutrient inputs and outputs and internal flows.Future research needs to adopt this new holistic approach to integrated nutrient management. For a given cropping system or watershed, this will require the establishment of the nutrient balances. Interventions to limit nutrient losses through erosion can be in some cases as important as research on increasing the efficiency of organic and inorganic plant nutrients for a sustainable land use. This new approach will enhance more carbon sequestration and increase more bio-mass production on the farms for domestic use and there will be more bio-man available for livestock feeds and for soil mulching. b) Integration of socio-economic and policy research with the technical solution In the past several technical solutions to the problem of land degradation in the SSZWA have been researched and tested, and may have shown the potential for addressing the problem in some places. Unfortunately a review of the state of the art indicated that very few of these technologies have been adopted by the resource poor farmers. Therefore future research should focus more on problems driven by socio-economic factors and enabling policy environment in order to enhance farmers' capacity to invest in soil fertility restoration. The adoption of the participatory approach will be essential. In this way, the technologies generated have a better chance of adoption by land users. c) Combining rain water and nutrient management strategies to increase crop production and prevent land degradation In the SSZWA high inter-annual variability and erratic rainfall distribution in space and time result in water-limiting conditions during the cropping season. In areas with inadequate rainfall or in runoff-susceptible land, water conservation techniques and water harvesting techniques offer the potential to secure agricultural production and reduce the financial risks associated with the use of purchased fertilizers. Under the conditions of adequate water supply, the addition of organic and inorganic amendments is the single most effective means of increasing water use efficiency. Future research needs to focus on enhancing rainwater and nutrient use efficiencies and on capitalizing on their synergies for increasing crop production and preventing soil degradation. d) Increasing the legume component for a better integration of crop-livestock production systems The rotations of cereals with legumes have led to increased cereals yield at many locations in the SSZWA. Factors such as mineral nitrogen increase, enhancement of Vesicular-Azbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) for better P nutrition and a decrease in parasitic nematodes have been identified as mechanisms accelerating the enhanced yield of cereals in rotation with legumes. Most of the research quantify has focused on the quantification of the above-ground N fixed by different legumes cultivars, but very little is known on the below-ground N fixed.There is need to increase the legume component in the mixed cropping systems for a better integration of crop-livestock. The increase of legume component in the present cropping system will not only improve the soil conditions for the succeeding cereal crop, but will provide good quality livestock feed, and the manure produced will be of better quality for soil amendment. e) Exploiting genetic variation for nutrient use efficiency Phosphorus is the most limiting plant nutrient for crop production in the SSZWA and there is ample evidence that indicates marked differences between crop genotypes for P uptake. A better understanding of the factors affecting P uptake such as the ability of plants to i) solubilize soil P through acidification of the rhizosphere and the release of chelating agents and phosphate enzymes ii) explore a large volume of soil and iii) absorb P from low P solution would help screening for the genotypes the best appropriate for nutrient use efficiency.Another important future research opportunity is the selection of genotypes that can efficiently associate with Vesicular-Azbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) for better utilization of P applied as indigenous phosphate rock. f) Use of decision support systems modelling, and GIS for the extrapolation of research findings Farmers production systems vary with respect to rainfall, soil types and socio-economic circumstances and therefore they are complex. Dealing with such complexity only by empirical research will be expensive and inefficient. Use of models and GIS will facilitate the transfer of workable technologies to similar agro-ecological zones. The use of DSSAT, APSIM and GIS will facilitate extrapolation of findings to other agro-ecozones similar of the benchmark sites chosen for testing technologies and will be cost effective.   agricultural productivity and preserving the environment for present and future generations in West Africa must begin with soil fertility restoration and maintenance. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) and groundnut (Arachis Hypogea L.) are two of the predominant grain legumes in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa. Groundnut occupies 2.7 million hectares of arable land and cowpea 6 million hectares. The two legumes are important components of the mixed cropping systems of resource poor farmers. The most important cereals are sorghum and pearl millet and legumes are often intercropped with these cereals (Steiner 1984).The common cropping system involves growing several crops in association as mixtures or intercrop. This practices provide the farmers with several options for returns from land and labor, often increase efficiency with which scarce resources are used, and reduce dependence upon crop that is susceptible to environmental and economic fluctuations. While considerable information is available on fertilizer requirements for sole cropping of various crops, little is known on fertilizer requirement for inter-cropping. Steiner (1984) reported that traditional intercropping systems cover 75% of the cultivated area in the WASAT. The principal reason for farmers to intercrop are flexibility, profit resource maximization, risk minimization, soil conservation and maintenance, weed control and nutritional advantages (Norman 1974;Swinton et al. 1974;Shetty et al. 1995;Fussel and Serafini 1985).Rotation of cereals with legumes has been extensively studied in recent years. Use of rotational systems involving legumes for harvesting nitrogen fixation is gaining importance throughout the region because of economic and sustainability considerations. The beneficial effect of legumes on succeeding crops is normally exclusively attributed to the increased soil N fertility as a result of N 2 -fixation. The amount of N 2 fixed by leguminous crops can be quite high but some workers has demonstrated also that legumes can deplete soil nitrogen (Rupela and Saxena 1987;Blumenthal et al. 1982;Tanaka et al. 1983;Yoshida 1982;Ozaki 1969).Most of the data reported on the quantity of N fixed by the legume crops in the WASAT concerned the above ground part of the legume and very little is known on the nitrogen fixed by the roots. Where much of the legume biomass is returned to the soil as green manure, a positive N balance is to be expected. However this may not be true for grain legumes and fodder crops, where the bulk of above legume material is removed from the systems. Nevertheless, many other positive effects of grain legumes such as the improvement of soil biological and physical properties (Hoshikawa 1990) and the ability of some legumes to solubilize occluded P and highly insoluble calcium bounded phosphorus by roots exudates (Gardner et al. 1991, Arihara andOhwaki 1989). Other advantages of crop rotations include soil conservation (Stoop and Staveren 1981) organic matter restoration (Spurgeon and Grimson 1965) and pest and disease control (Curl 1963;Sunnadurai 1973).Cowpea is often the only crop that survives severe drought in the WASAT. Cowpea grain contain about 22% protein, constitutes a major source of protein for resource poor people. It is estimated that cowpea supplies about 40% of the daily requirements to most of Nigeria population (Muleba et al. 1997).In the mixed cropping systems, legumes yields are very low due to low soil fertility, low planting densities and pest and diseases (Ntare 1989;Reddy et al. 1992). The yield of cowpea grain varies between 50 kg ha -1 and 300 kg ha -1 in farmers fields in marked contrast to yield over 2000 kg ha -1 obtainable on research stations and by large scale commercial enterprise in pure cropping. In the mixed farming systems of the WASAT, increasing legume component in the farming systems is important in order to increase the availability of fodder as source of livestock feed while increasing soil fertility.In this paper, after a brief presentation of the cowpea production environment, we will discuss the effect of plant nutrient on cowpea production before reviewing the effect of cowpea cultivation on soil fertility maintenance and presenting the new opportunities for future research on soil fertility and cowpea production.a) Climate Sivakumar (1986) proposed a soil climatic zonation scheme for West Africa that is calculated from rainfall and potential evapotranspiration. In this scheme, a growing period of 60 -100 days was used for defining the Sahelian zone. The geographical extent of the Sudanian zone has an average growing period of 100 -150 days (Figure 1).The rainfall in West Africa shows a significant north-south gradient because of the inter-seasonal movement of the intertropical convergence zone, north and south of the equator. The rainfall is low, variable and undependable. The rainfall gradient is very steep. The further one goes from the Sahara margin, the greater is the rainfall, approximately 1 mm km -1 . The isohyets run nearly parallel (Toupet 1965). Time dependent variations in rainfall are quite common in the region with coefficient of variation of annual rainfall ranges between 15-30%. The data in Figure 2 clearly show the instability of the traditional mean figures for crop production as rainfall in some years can be 50% below or above the long-term average. Nicholson (1981) showed that in 1950, rainfall all over West Africa was above normal, at some location even 250% above normal. However, in 1970 rainfall was below normal throughout the region. As a result of rainfall variability, average yields of sorghum and pearl millet are unstable over years (Figure 3). The data in Figure 4 give the annual rainfall values for a period of 40 years in the Douentza region of northwest Mali. From 1950 to 1990 median rainfall figures dropped from 650 mm/year to 350 mm/year.It is well documented that precipitation determines the potential distribution of terrestrial vegetation and extended drought have initiated or exacerbated desertification. In the past 25 years, the WASAT has experienced the most substantial decline in rainfall (Hulme and Kelly 1997;Hulme 1992;Nicholson and Palao 1993) and the downward trend is persistent since 1951 with more areas experiencing more rainfall variability. As a result of the decrease in rainfall there will be a decrease in the vegetation cover of the land. Because evapotranspiration constitutes the only local input to the hydraulic cycle in the WASAT where there is no significant surface water, a reduction in the vegetation cover logically leads to reduce precipitation (Charney 1975). The reduction of vegetative cover will increase the albedo, which in turn, will lower surface temperature, decrease convection, cloud formation and precipitation. A further decrease in the rainfall will further decrease the vegetative cover (Cunnington and Rowntree 1986;Xue et al. 1990). However, Jackson and Idso 1974 disputed the importance of albedo. The non-climatic anthropogenic forces of desertification includes unsustainable agricultural practices, overgrazing and deforestation.As already indicated, one important consequence in the reduction in rainfall is the reduction of vegetation cover. Consequently, the area of soil left bare and therefore directly exposed to wind and water erosion has considerably increased. The effect of these changes on wind and water erosion are aggravated by the sandy nature of the WASAT soils, which are frequently poorly aggregated, offering little resistance to the erosive forces. Buerkert et al. (1996a) measured absolute soil loss of 190 t ha -1 in one year on bare plots, as opposed to soil deposition of 270 t ha -1 on plot with 2 t ha -1 millet stover mulch (Figure 5). Sterk et al. (1996) reported a total loss of 45.9 t ha -1 of soil during four consecutive storms. Buerkert et al. (1996b) reported that in unprotected plots up to 7 kg of available p and 180 kg ha -1 of organic carbon are lost from the soil profile within one year. Wind erosion will also decrease the exchangeable bases and increase soil acidification (Table 1).Soils Entisols and Alfisols occupy most of the landscape for rainfed cropping in the WASAT. Entisols are mainly composed of quartz sand, with low water and nutrient holding capacity. The Alfisols have a clay accumulation horizon a high base saturation because of lower rainfall and leaching but they have poor structural stability, poor water and nutrient holding capacity and lower organic matter than the Utisols and Oxisols of the humid areas of the rainforest.The data in Table 2 show physical and chemical properties of soils from the WASAT. The soils have low organic carbon and total nitrogen content because of the low biomass production and a high rate of decomposition. One striking feature of these soils is their inherent low fertility which expressed in low level of organic carbon (generally less than 0.3%) total and available phosphorus and nitrogen and effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC). About 98% of the soil nitrogen is stabilized in organic matter. Thus the total nitrogen in the soil and the amount of nitrogen released for plant nutrients uptake will depend on the organic matter level of the soil. Soil total organic carbon is highly correlated with the clay content of soil and as a result of the sandy nature of the soils in the WASAT, total nitrogen remain very low in most of the soils in the region. The importance of soil textural (clay and silt) properties for the organic carbon content was stressed repeatedly as clays are important component in the direct stabilization of organic molecules and micro-organisms (Amato and Ladd 1992;Greenland and Nye 1959;Feller et al., 1992). Thus Feller et al. (1992) reported that independently of climatic variations such as precipitation, temperature and duration of the dry season organic carbon content increased between 600 and 3000 mm annual rainfall soil organic carbon will increase with the clay and silt content of low activity clay soils. This is much evidence for a rapid decline of organic carbon levels with continuous cultivation in the sandy WASAT (Bationo et al. 1995). For the sandy soils, average annual losses in organic carbon expressed by K-value (calculated as the percentage of organic carbon per year), may be as high as 4.7%, whereas for sandy loam soils reported losses much lower, with average of 2% (Pieri 1989).The low ECEC is attributed to low clay content and the kaolinitic mineralogy of the soils. Bationo and Mokwunye (1991) found that the ECEC is more related to the organic matter than the clay content, indicating that a decrease in organic matter will decrease the ECEC and then the nutrient holding capacities of those soils. De Ridder and Van Keulen (1990) reported that a difference of 1 g kg -1 in organic carbon results in a difference of 4.3 mmol kg -1 in ECEC.Both total and available P levels are very low and P deficiency is the most limiting soil fertility factor for cowpea production. Apart from low P stocks, the low-activity nature of these soils results in a relatively low capacity to fix added P (Bationo et al. 1995). Phosphorus sorption maxima of the WASAT soil ranged from 27 to 405 mg P kg -1 with a mean of 109 mg P kg -1 . The data in Figure 6 indicate that low quantities of P are needed to be added in the soil to maintain 0.2 ppm P in the soil solution. For example, the sandy loam soil of Gaya with relatively high level of sesquioxydes 35 mg P/kg soil are needed to be added to the soil to maintain 0.2 ppm P in the soil whereas for the sandy Sahelian soil at Sadore only 10 mg P/kg soil is needed. Compared with the Utisols and Oxisols found in the humid tropical regions these soils can be considered to have relatively low P-fixing capacities, hence small additions of P fertilizers will increase available P in the soil and will give significant crop response.At present, most cultivated land in the region losses more N, P and K that it gain and in that zone, continuous cultivation has lead to nutrient mining and loss of topsoil by wind and/or water erosion (Table 3).Although organic amendments such as crop residue, manure or compost are essential in the sustainability of the cropping systems, they cannot prevent nutrient mining. The addition of organic amendments corresponds in most cases to a recycling process which cannot compensate for nutrient exported through crop products. As a result, the use of external input such as inorganic plant nutrient or local sources of P such as phosphate rock is an essential requirement if soil productivity is to be maintained. Thus increase in water use efficiency (WUE) and alleviation of nutrient mining and increase is paramount.Many research results in the region have shown the importance of the improvement of soil fertility for crop production (Mokwunye and Vlek 1986;Pieri 1989;Van Reuler and Jansen 1984;Vander Heide 1989;Bationo and Mokwunye 1991;Sedogo 1993;Delvaux et al. 1993). In the Sahelian zone, the various research work concluded that soil fertility is more limiting to crop and fodder production than rainfall (Penning de Vries and Djiteye1991; Breman and de Wit 1983). The data in Table 4 clearly indicate that the use of mineral fertilizers will significantly increase water use efficiency. The data in Table 5 clearly indicate a significant effect of N on cowpea and groundnut fodder production in different agro-ecological zones of the WASAT. These significant responses for legumes N to indicate that the predominantly sandy soils of the WASAT may be deficient in molybdenum required for efficient symbiotic fixation (Hafner et al. 1992). On the sandy acid soil at Bengou in the Sudanian zone at Gaya, significant molybdenum response was obtained at different level of soil fertility management for cowpea (Figure 7). Mühlig-Versen (personal communication) on a study on the effect of molybdenum and P effect on groundnut and cowpea found that for cowpea found that for cowpea, application of P doubled the above ground biomass compared to the control. Application of molybdenum to the soil was less effective (+29%). The combination of both increased biomass up to 152% over the control. Groundnut responded only marginally to P or molybdenum, but the combination of both increased the biomass by 53% (Synergetic effect) (Figure 8).Legumes such as cowpea have a high P requirement. P is reported to stimulate root and plant growth, initiate nodule formation as well as influence the efficiency of the rhizobium-legume symbiosis (Robinson et al. 1981). It is also involved in reactions with energy transfer, more specifically ATP in nitrogenase activity (Israel 1987). The data in Figure 9 clearly indicate a strong response to P by cowpea cultivars at Ikeme in the humid zone and Kamboinse in the Sudanian zone of West Africa, but there are large differences between cultivars for their response to P. The local Kamboinse variety is a fodder type and the application of P resulted in higher fodder production but lower grain production. As reported by several scientists such as Dwivedi et al. (1975); Khan and Zende (1977); Stukenholtz et al. (1966); Takkar et al. (1976) andYoungdhal et al. (1977) the application of P resulted in significant decrease of Zinc concentration in the cowpea grain (Figure 10) and this can affect the nutritional quality of cowpea (Buerkert et al. 1998).Despite the importance of P in these soils, the use of commercial P fertilizers in the WASAT is limited due to the high cost of imported fertilizers. Several countries in the region however, are known to have phosphate deposits. Direct application of indigenous phosphate rocks (PR) can be an alternative to the use of more expensive water-soluble P fertilizers. This practice would also promote savings in scarce foreign exchange. The effectiveness of PR depends on its chemical and mineralogical composition, soil factors, and the crops to be grown (Khasawneth and Doll 1978;Lehr and McClellan 1972;Chien and Hammond 1978). The data in Table 6 give the relative agronomic effectiveness of Tahoua PR and Kodjari PR in different agro-ecological zone of the WASAT. The data indicate that Tahoua PR agronomic effectiveness outperformed Kodjari PR. These results are in agreement with the chemical composition of the two rocks where the molar PO 4 /CO 4 ratio is 25 for Kodjari PR and 4.88 for Tahoua PR. As soils in Gaya and Gobery are more acidic and receive more rainfall than the Sadore site, the agronomic effectiveness is higher at those sites. The agronomic effectiveness of the leguminous cowpea is not better than that of the cereal pearl millet crop. This is in contradiction to other reports where legumes have highest strategy to solubilize PR than cereals by rhizosphere acidulation (Aguilar and Van Diest 1981;Kirk and Nye 1986;Hedley et al. 1982) and exudation of organic acids (Ohwaki and Hirata 1992).The data in Figures 11 and 12 give the response of cowpea grain and stover to different sources of P fertilizers. The application of P fertilizers can triple cowpea stover production but the higher stover production resulted in lower grain yield. The relative agronomic effectiveness data in Table 7 indicate that Parc-W PR indigenous to Niger agronomic effectiveness varied from 42% to 54% as compared to the water soluble SSP but the acidulation of PR at 50% (PAPR50) with sulfuric acid can increase the relative agronomic effectiveness to 96% for cowpea stover production. For fodder production TSP relative agronomic effectiveness varied from 77 to 91% indicating that sulfur application is needed for a better growth of cowpea.Over the past years, research at ICRISAT-Niger has focussed on the placement of small quantities of P fertilizers at planting stage in order to develop optimum farmer-affordable P application recommendation. For cowpea stover production phosphorus use efficiency increased from 44 kg/kg P with the addition of Kodjari PR to 99 when Kodjari PR is broadcast with hill placement of 4 kg P/ha as 15-15-15 (Table 8) Long-term experiments are practical means to address the difficult issues associated with quantitative assessment of sustainability in agriculture. In summarizing the results of long-term soil fertility management in Africa, Pieri (1986) concluded that soil fertility in intensive arable farming in the WASAT can only be maintained through efficient cycling of organic materials in combination with mineral fertilizers and with rotation with leguminous N 2 -fixing species. The data in Figure 13 clearly indicate that the application of small quantities of fertilizers and the application of crop residue resulted in an increase of cowpea fodder yield to 5300 kg/ha. In researcher on-farm management trials, it was found that pocket application of small quantities of manure (3 t/ha) plus 4 kg/ha of P at seedling time will increase cowpea yield from …….. in the control plot to …… (Figure 14).Despite the recognized need to apply chemical fertilizers for high yields, the use of mineral fertilizers in West Africa is limited by lack of capital, inefficient distribution systems, poor enabling policies and other socio-economic factors. Cheaper means of improving soil fertility and productivity is therefore necessary. Cereal/legume rotation effects on cereal yields have been reported for the WASAT (Bakayoko et al. 1996;Bakayoko et al. 2000;Bationo et al. 1998;Klaij and Ntare 1995;Nicou 1977;Stoop and Staveren 1981;Bationo and Ntare 2000).Isotopic dilution method with 15 N was used to determine the nitrogen fixed by cowpea using pearl millet as non-fixing crop. The data in Table 9 indicate that nitrogen derived from the atmosphere by cowpea varied from 65 to 88% and the total nitrogen fixed by cowpea depends of the level of soil fertility improvement. The quantity of nitrogen fixed by cowpea varied from 27 kg/ha in the control plot to 87 kg/ha in the treatment where the soils were amended with mineral and agronomic plant nutrients.In order to determine 15 N recovery from different cropping systems, labeled nitrogen fertilizers were applied to microplot where pearl millet was grown continuously (M -M) in rotation with cowpea (C -M), in rotation with groundnut (G -M), intercropped with cowpea (C/M -C/M) and intercropped with groundnut (G/M -G/M). The data in Table 10 indicate that at Sadore in 1990, nitrogen use efficiency increased from 20% in continuous pearl millet cultivation to 28% when pearl millet was rotated with cowpea. For both Bengou and Sadore, nitrogen derived from the soil was better used in rotation systems than with continuous millet cultivation. Bationo and Ntare (2000) carried long-term experiments to investigate the effect of continuous monoculture as compared to crop rotation. At all the three sites in the WASAT, rotation of pearl millet with groundnut and cowpea resulted in higher significant pearl millet yields than in monoculture cropping of pearl millet over the 4-year period (Figures 15 and 16). Legumes also gave significant responses to rotations (Figures 17) and this suggest that factors other than N alone contributed in the yield increases in the cereal-legume rotations. Bagayoko et al. (2000) in studies of cereal legumes effects on cereal growth in the WASAT reported that the rotation effect although significant in most of the cases varied with sites and years. At Sadore as an example, whereas grain yield of pearl millet in 1998 was 1557 kg/ha in the continuous millet production, the millet rotated with cowpea yielded 1905 kg/ha and in Gaya for the same year, sorghum grain yield increased by 50% due to rotation with groundnut in the Sudanian zone (Table 11). The data in Tables 12 and 13 show higher level of mineral N and native arbuscular mychorrhizae in the rotation system as compared to the continuous cultivation of cereals. In sorghum-groundnut system in the Sudanian zone, nematode densities were consistently lower in rotation system compared to continuous sorghum cultivation (Figure 18). Bationo et al. (2000) studied nitrogen dynamics in different cropping systems. In order to determine N availability, the soil were incubated and mineral nitrogen determined at 7, 21, and 35 days(Keeny 1982). Crop rotation significantly affected mineral nitrogen (Figure 19). The fallow millet rotation supplied more nitrogen than the cowpea-millet rotation, but the latter was more productive for millet production. These results suggest that other factors in addition to biological nitrogen fixation may be involved in the positive effect of legume cereal rotation (Crookston et al. 1988). Crop rotation is known to substantially increase soil microbial activity and this may lead to an increase in nutrient availability.In the long-term field trials carried out on the sandy Sahelian soil of the Sahel to study the effect of N and P in different cropping systems, the data show that P application has a very significant effect on yield of cowpea and pearl millet and rotation performed better than continuous cultivation of both crop (Figure 20). The data in Table 14 indicated that the land equivalent ratio varied from 24% to 200% showing that even with the use of external input, intercropping is better than pure cropping. In this long-term cropping system experiment, it was found higher level of organic carbon in the rotation systems as compared to the continuous cropping systems due in part of the fall of cowpea leaves (Figure 21).In another long-term soil management trials, application of phosphorus nitrogen, crop residue, and ridging and rotation of pearl millet with cowpea were evaluated to determine the P use efficiency. The results show that soil productivity of the sandy Sahelian soils can very significantly increased with the adoption of improved crop and soil management technologies. Whereas the absolute control recorded 33 kg ha -1 of grain yield, 1829 kg was obtained when phosphorus, nitrogen and crop residue were applied to plots that were ridged and followed leguminous cowpea. The plots without rotation yielded 1146 kg ha -1 without rotations. Results indicated that for grain yield, P use efficiency will increase from 46 with only P application, to 133 kg/kg P when P is combined with nitrogen and crop residue application and the crop is planted on ridges (Table 15).In the mixed traditional cropping systems cowpea is grown between cereals at very low density as the farmers primary goal is to produce cereal for their family subsistence, and consider the additional cowpea as an additional benefit. This means that farmers need to be assured of sufficient cereal harvest to feed their families before integrating more cowpea in the cropping systems. The yield of cowpea grain in the mixed systems is very low, varying between 50 kg and 300 kg ha -1 in marked contrast to over 2000 kg ha -1 realized at research station and by large scale commercial enterprise in sole cropping. In addition to the low planting densities, pests and disease control, the inherent low fertility of the soil in the WASAT (particularly P) is one of the major constraint to cowpea production in the region and soil fertility replenishment should be an integral part of any program aimed at reverting trend in cowpea production and the conservation of the environment.Phosphorus is the most limiting plant nutrient for cowpea production in the WASAT and there is ample evidence that indicates marked differences between cowpea genotypes for P uptake. Understanding the factors affecting P uptake such as the ability of plants to (i) solubilize soil P through acidification of the rhizosphere and the release of chelating agents and phosphate enzymes (ii) explore a large soil volume and (iii) absorb P from low P solution would help increase cowpea production and yield in the semi-arid tropics.The available and total P values are very low in the region. With these extreme low values of total P, selecting cultivars adapted to low P condition would not be feasible as one cannot mine what is not there. Direct application of indigenous PR can be an economic alternative to the use of more expensive imported water-soluble P fertilizers. The effectiveness of mycorrhizal in utilizing soil P has been well documented (Silberbush and Barber 1983;Lee and Wani 1991;Daft 1991). An important future research opportunity is the selection of cowpea genotypes that can efficiency associate with vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) for better utilization of P applied PR.Cereal/cowpea rotations have led to increased cereal yields at many locations in the WASAT. Factors such as mineral nitrogen, (VAM) for P nutrition improvement and plant parasitic nematodes have been identified as mechanisms accelarating the enhanced yield of cereals in rotation with cowpea. Most of the research quantified the above-ground N fixed by different cowpea cultivars, but very little is known on the below-ground N fixed by cowpea. In the WASAT, most of the above-ground cowpea biomass are used for animal feed and not used as green manure. Future research need to focus more on the on-farm quantification of the below-ground N fixed by cowpea in order to identify the best cultivar for soil N. The identification and alleviation of technical and socio-economic constraints in order to increase cowpea component in the present cropping systems needs attention in future. As cash crop, farmer will increase their credit access to external inputs such as fertilizers. The enhancement of cowpea component in the present cropping system will not only improve the soil conditions for the succeeding cereal crop, but will provide good quality livestock feed, and the manure produced will be of better quality for soil the fertility amendment.Relative losses of a bare compared to a protected (plastic mulch) soil at two depths --------------------------------------[kg ha -1 g -1 ]- ----------------------------------    Figure 21: Effect of phosphorus and cropping system on soil organic carbon, Sadore, Niger 1995 perceived as the most efficient and sustainable means of food production. The evolution process often include paddocking of livestock on cropland in high potential areas; shift to the system of collection, processing, storage and application of animal dung and urine; shift from field grazing of crop residues and pastures to confined livestock feeding; replacement of hand labor with animal traction and mechanization; and intensification through growing of multipurpose legumes and forages. This calls for new research approach that allows replacement or refinement of old paradigms with new principles notably identification of \"best-bet options\" and strategies using \"whole farm\" or holistic approach to working with farmers. Such an approach has resulted in new lessons and insights in management and augmentation of nutrients through crop residue and manure management including livestock-mediated nutrient cycling, crop combination and crop geometry, livestock feeding studies, effect of livestock component on the soil fertility (chemical, physical and biological properties), and also gender, policy and institutional issues.The major challenge facing researchers attempts to contribute towards sustainable intensification of the crop-livestock systems in SSA, is that of soil degradation whereby poor quality and low inputs of crop residues and boma manure leads to soils of low productivity. Inorganic inputs are often too expensive for the low-resource endowed farmers. In such systems, the demand for organic inputs e.g. manure is likely to increase in response to system intensification. The contribution of manure management to enhance soil productivity is unquestionable (Murwira et al., 1995;Pankhurst, 1990). However, there is need for such research to be viewed realistically, especially in the context of the evolving farming systems in the arid and semi-arid lands, notably integrated systems in terms of crops and livestock units which may hinder or compliment each other. There is a growing recognition of the need to develop technologies and policies which ensure optimization enterprises. Implicit in this strategy is the maximization of the contribution of the livestock unit to soil fertility improvement while addressing challenges of increasing intensity of crop-livestock systems.In this paper we will first discuss the effect of manure on soil productivity and ecosystems services. This is followed by highlighting the management practices to increase manure use efficiency before elaborating on the emerging new research opportunities in soil fertility management to enhance the crop-livestock integration.In the mixed farming systems that characterizes the semi-arid zone of Africa, low rural incomes, high cost of fertilizer, inappropriate public policies and infrastructural constraints prevent the widespread use of inorganic fertilizers. Under this situation and as population pressures increases and fallow cycles are shortened, organic sources of plant nutrients such as manure, crop residue and compost remain the principal sources of nutrients for soil fertility maintenance and crop production (William et al., 1985). Estimates of the nitrogen contribution from manure to the total N input budget suggest that up to 80% of N applied to crops is derived from manure in both extensive and intensive grazing systems in East and Southern Africa.Several scientists have reported the effect of manure on crop yield increases in Western and Eastern Africa (Bationo and Mokwunye, 1991;Bationo et al., 1998;Mokwunye, 1980;Pichot et al., 1981;Padwick, 1983;Pieri, 1986;de Ridder and van Keulen, 1990;Abdulahi and Lombin, 1978;Powell, 1986;Murwira et al., 1995;Pankhurst, 1990;Kihanda, 1996;Kihanda and Gichuru, 2000;Lekasi et al., 1998;Probert et al., 1995;Kanyanjua and Obanyi, 1999;Gibberd, 1995;Kihanda and Warren, 1998. Most of the studies in the literature have focussed on the responses of crops to farmyard manure (FYM) applications. One of the earliest reported increases to FYM application in subsaharan Africa was by Hartley (1937) in the Nigerian Savannah. It was observed that application of 2 t ha -1 FYM increased seed cotton yield by 100%, equivalent to fertilizers applied at the rate of 60 kg N and 20 kg ha -1 . In Embu, Kenya, FYM significantly increased maize and potato yields in a long-term trial (Gatheca, 1970). The data in Table 1 summarizes the results of a number of trials on manure conducted in research stations in West Africa. The data shows that manure collected from stables and applied alone produces about 20 to 60 kg N/ha in cereal grain and 70 to 178 N kg/ha in stover per tonne of manure.In Kenya, Kanyanjua and Obanyi (1999) observed that within the Fetilizer Use Recommendation Project (FURP) sites (averaged over several sites and seasons) the response to manure application was in the order cabbages>potatoes>maize>cowpea and nitisols gave a higher response than acrisols (Table 2). Kihanda et al. (1988) while evaluating the effects of inorganic fertilizers, lime, FYM and crop residues on the yield of maize in acidic andosol of Central Kenya found that FYM increased maize biomass by 210%, while lime and P increased yields by 115 and 57%, respectively. They concluded that the large response to FYM application might have been due to a reduction in exchangeable aluminium and manganese allowing the plant to establish better rooting system in addition to providing nutrients, particularly potassium.In the Sahelian zone of West Africa, Bationo and Mokwunye, 1991, found no difference between applying 5 t ha -1 of FYM as compared to the application of 8.7 kg P ha -1 as Single Superphosphate and a further application of FYM at 20 t ha -1 only doubled pearl millet grain a compared to the application of 5 t ha -1 (Table 3). Gatheca, 1970 reported that an annual application of 5 to 6 t ha -1 of manure gave higher yields of maize in Kenya than heavy applications of 20 to 30 t ha -1 applied at intervals of four to five years. In the acidic soils of Central Kenya, Mugambi (1978Mugambi ( , 1979) ) noted that application of FYM at 5 t ha -1 increased the potato tuber yield by more than 50% above the control. A combination of the same rate of FYM and P at 100 kg P ha -1 increased potato yield by more than 100% above the control, an indication that P was also limiting in that soil. The data in Table 4 indicates that the application of 3 t ha -1 of manure plus urine produced grain and total bio-mass that were higher as compared to when only manure was applied and crop response to sheep dung was greater than to cattle dung. Research studies indicate that approximately 80-95% of the N and P consumed by livestock is excreted. Whereas N is voided in both urine and faeces, most P is voided in faeces (ARC, 1980;Termouth, 1989). Dar et al., 2001 clearly indicated that in the P deficient soils of sandy sahelian soils, the addition of P fertilizer will increase the efficiency of FYM and hill placement of both FYM and P fertilizer was better than broadcasting (Fig. 1).The data in Tables 5 and 6 respectively from eastern and Western Africa give the variation in the nutrient concentration of manure samples from different sites, indicating that even on the same soil type and rainfall, the response to manure application will greatly depend on the source of manure. Pieri (1986Pieri ( , 1989) ) and Sedogo (1993) summarized the results of the long-term soil fertility experiments initiated since the 1960's. One important conclusion that emerged from the experiments is that application of mineral fertilizers is an effective technique for increasing crop yields in the Sudanian zone of West Africa. However, in the long-run the use of mineral fertilizers alone will decrease crop yields but sustainable and higher production is obtained when inorganic fertilizers are combined with manure (Fig. 2).At Kabete in Kenya, Nandwa (1997), obtained higher yields of maize in a long-term soil fertility management experiments when mineral fertilizers are combined with crop residue and FYM (Fig. 3).For a modest yield of 2 t/ha of maize the application of 5 t ha -1 of high quality manure can meet the N requirement but this cannot meet the P requirements in areas where P is deficient (Palm, 1995). Organic inputs such as manure are often proposed as alternatives to mineral fertilizers, however, it is important to recognize that in most cases the use of manure is part of an internal flow of nutrients within the farm and does not add nutrient from outside the farm and also quantities available is inadequate to meet nutrient demand over large areas because of the limited quantities, the low nutrient content, and the high labour demands for processing and application. The availability of manure for sustainable crop production has been addressed by several scientists. De Leeuw et al. (1995) reported that with the present livestock systems in West Africa the potential annual transfer of nutrient from manure will be 2.5 kg N and 0.6 kg P per hectare of cropland. Although the manure rates are between 5 to 20 t/ha in most of the on-station experiments, quantities used by farmers are very low and ranged from 1300 to 3800 kg ha -1 (Williams et al., 1995). Hiyami and Ruttan (1985) reported that exclusive use of inorganic fertilizers in Africa will increase food production at best by 2% yr 1 , well below the population growth rate, and not even close to 5 to 6% required to reduce poverty and secure food security. Organic sources of nutrients, however, will be complementary to the use of mineral fertilizers (Quinones et al. 1997). Despite its vital role the quantities of manure are not available on-farm for a number of factors. There are simply insufficient number of animals to provide the manure needed. This problem becomes more pronounced especially in post drought years (Williams et al. 1995). The amount of livestock feed and land resources available are also limited. Depending on rangeland productivity, it will require between 10-40 hectares of dry season grazing land and 3-10 hectares of rangeland of wet season grazing to maintain yields on one hectare of cropland using animal maure (Fernandez et al. 1995).Manure production by zero-grazing cattle in Kenya has been estimated as 1 to 1.5 t animal -1 yr -1 (Strobel, 1987). Two animals will be needed to supply a 2 t ha -1 of crop, if the manure were of high quality, but eight animals are required if the quality is low.Ecosystem services are broadly defined to include nutrient cycles, water movement and storage, soil erodibility, pest control and chemical detoxification. These services are key determinants of agricultural productivity and sustainability. Therefore the application of manure and increase in system carbon can be considered to be a major component of sustaining the crop-livestock production systems. Recognition of this fact has led to investment in research on carbon sequestration in tropical agricultural landscapes.The data in Table 7 in the Sahelian zone of Niger clearly indicates that manure application will not only improve the organic carbon of the soil but by complexing iron and aluminium it will also increase P availability. In the long-term soil fertility management trials, although soil organic carbon decrease in all treatments overtime, the organic carbon value was higher in the treatment where crop residue and manure was applied (Fig. 4).Past and on-going research has been focussed on the assessment of the relationship between land management practices and carbon storage. Our current understanding is that the carbon sequestration potential of different organic inputs is an analogous index to that of fertilizer equivalency. Further studies are directed at the assessment of the trade-offs between the use of soil carbon for agricultural productivity and its value for carbon sequestration potential and environmental conservation. This is a relatively new area of research especially on assessing the effect of quantity and quality of organics on soil organic matter fractions and crop yields.Expected benefits from manure application in the context of ecosystem functions include non-nutritional effect on soil physical properties that in turn influence nutrient acquisition and plant growth. The resource, through interactions with the mineral soil in completing toxic cations helps to reduce the phosphorus (P) sorption capacity of the soil.Manure quality varies widely and clear indices of quality determination are sometimes difficult to apply widely. Past research has been focussed on evaluating different ways of managing manure to improve its quality. Preliminary studies suggest that feeding of concentrates; zero-grazing rather than traditional boma; manure stored under cover instead of in the open, concrete floor rather than soil floor results in higher quality of manure (Lekasi et al., 1998).The quality of manure has been observed to vary with types of animals and feeds, collection and storage methods (Mueller-Saemann and Kotschi, 1994;Mugwira, 1984;Ikombo, 1984;Probert et al., 1995;Kihanda, 1996). A study in Ethiopia showed that the quality of manure declined in the order of chicken > sheep/goat > horse/donkey > cattle manure with respect to % N (1.5, 0.7, 0.5 and 0.4), % P (0.4, 0.4, 0.3 and 0.2) % K (0.8, 0.3, 0.3 and 0.2) and % organic matter (29, 31, 22 and 16), respectively. In a related study conducted in Kenya, Lekasi et al. (1998) observed that the nutrient contents (especially N and P) of manure decreased in the order of chicken, pig, rabbit, goat and cattle, with manure mixed with urine having a higher quality than dung alone. Nevertheless, current characterization studies indicate that manure quality is very variable e.g. % N 0.23-1.76; % P 0.08-1.0; % K 0.2-1.46; % Ca 0.2-1.3 and % Mg 0.1-0.5. High quality manure has been defined as that with % N>1.6 or C:N ratios of <10; while low quality manure has <0.6% and C:N ratios of >17. Recent studies have shown poor correlation between manure quality and lignin, polyphenols and soluble fractions of carbon (Kihanda and Gichuru, 2000). Fig. 5 shows the effect of C:N ratio on N mineralization of manures. Fig. 6 shows that the N fertilizer equivalency increases with high N content.Besides animal type, quality of manure can be enhanced through feed manipulation which is more favourable in intensive grazing systems (eg. stall or zero-grazing units) rather than extensive grazing systems (eg. communal or range etc.). In a study carried out in East Africa, it was reported that manure N concentration increased by more than two fold when the basal diet of barley straw animal feed was supplemented with poultry waste and high quality forage shrubs, Calliandra and Macrotylama (Delve, 1998). In another study, manure from animals that received P supplements of Busumbu (0.70% P) and Minjingu rock phosphate (0.45% P) increased by two to four-fold above the basal diet of napier (0.24% P), bone meal (0.50% P). However, feeding animals with \"unga\" commecial feed resulted in much higher values of P in manure (0.95% P).(b) Composting techniques and materials While the quality of materials used to make compost manures determines its quality, composting techniques are equally important. High quality manures is often obtained from covered shed composting compared to open-shed composts; and similarly from pit composts compared to heap or surface composting. Furthermore crop residue incorporation has been found to minimize nutrient losses through aerobic volatilisation or anaerobic dentrification. For example, in a study in Kenya it was reported that composting low quality manure with different proportions of either tithonia or lantana, the N content of manure was increased by between 10 and 40 per cent depending on the treatment but no changes in P concentration was found (Kihanda and Gichuru, 2000).In a study conducted in Zimbabwe, investigating manure nitrogen changes during storage, Nzuma and Murwira (1998) showed that total N measured in anaerobic manure composts at the end of storage was significantly higher than in aerobic manure composts. This aerobic manure compost incorporated with maize straw was 0.9 and 0.6% N for April and July samples respectively, while the values in the absence of straw incorporation were 1.4 and 1.2% N (due to lack of N immobilization). The results also showed that the pH in anaerobic manure compost system ranged from 6.5 to 6.9 while the anaerobic manure composts were more alkaline with pH range of 8.2 to 8.6 (Fig. 7).The effect of composting on the phosphate rock (PR) dissolution has been study by Bado (1985) and Lompo (1984) in Burkina Faso. The local phosphate rock of Kodjari alone or combined with urea was incorporated in two low quality organic materials for composting during 6 months. The RP and the urea were incorporated in the organic materials at the rates of 4kg of PR (25% P2O5) for 100kg and 12 kg of urea for 1000 kg dry organic matter according to the recommended rates (Lompo, 1984). The organic material was a mixture of 75% of sorghum straws and 25% of cattle manure (using as an inoculums). The effect of composting on the watersoluble phosphorous (WSP) balance before and after composting was evaluated.The results (Table 8) indicated that the composting of the organic materials with PR involved an enhancement of the total WSP balance. The total WSP was positive for all treatments. A positive balance of 67% to 796% of the total WSP was observed after 6 months of composting. The augmentation of the total WSP may be explained by an increase of the soluble phosphorous from organic matter. It may also due to a probable dissolution of the P of the PR by the organic acids during the composting. May be the two process took place during the composting time.(c) Handling and storage techniques Besides heaps and pits, manure may be collected and stored in cattle kraals, bomas, open areas etc. Recent research shows that quality of manure may be affected depending on prevailing conditions. Murwira (1993) reported that under aerobic and high pH conditions in the Kraal, volatilisation of ammonia may occur while the wet soggy anaerobic conditions may lead to dentrification and leaching losses. Such losses are minimized under intensive grazing system such as zero-grazing units with concrete floor and covered roof. In such systems provision of low quality organics as bedding helps to trap the nutrients from the urine. Lekasi et al. (1998) reported that manure removed from grazing units with a soil floor had a much lower N and P and higher ash content than manure removed from grazing units with a concrete floor. Factors responsible for enhanced gaseous N loss in composting include increased total N of the material; high temperatures, low pH and frequent turning (Dewes and Hunsche, 1998). On the other hand high dentrification loss are often associated with increased pH and not increase of insoluble carbon compounds as opposed to reducing sugars under anaerobic conditions. Run-off and nitrate leaching losses can also be substantial.The beneficial effects of combined manure and inorganic nutrients on soil fertility have been repeatedly shown, yet there is need for more research on the establishment of the fertilizer equivalency of the manures and also determining the optimum combination of these two plant nutrients (INM) taking into account the high variability in the quality. Such information is useful in formulating decision support systems and establishing simple guidelines for management and utilization of the resources. Studies investigating the benefits of sole versus combined application of manures and inorganic fertilizers have given variable and sometimes inconsistent results. At Chisunga N in 100% inorganic and 100% organic have yield of maize lower than combining the two plant nutrient. For example, the application of 100 kg N/ha in the inorganic farms have maize yields of about 3.2 t ha -1 but the application of the same quantity with half inorganic form and the other half in inorganic form gave maize yield close to 6 t ha-1. In Manjoro there was no advantage to combine organic and inorganic plant nutrients (Fig. 8). For example, studies in Tanzania indicated that there was no significant difference in maize yields between sole and combined application of 5 t ha -1 of manure and 60 kg N ha -1 of mineral fertilizer (Richard, 1967). But at a different site in the same country, combination of manure at 5 t ha -1 with 40 kg N ha -1 mineral fertilizer gave similar maize yield with either manure at 10 t ha -1 or mineral fertilizer at 80 kg N ha -1 (Kalumuna et al., 1999). Disparities in such responses are partly due to addition of different rates and quality of nutrients through compared treatments; and also due to differences in the limiting nutrients and soil moisture at the test sites. For example, in Madagascar, Rabeson (1992) observed that supplementing manure with inorganic N fertilizer, the rice yield increased by more than 100% but supplementing with P did not improve the crop yield, suggesting that N was the most limiting nutrient in that soil. Another cause of inconsistent results may be due to depressing or antagonistic effects of the nutrient source combinations. For example, a study in Zimbabwe showed that while increasing rates of manure, lime and NPK mineral fertilizers increased growth of pearl millet, however, lime had a depressing effect on the effectiveness of manure while the NPK fertilizers increased the effectiveness of manure (Mugwira, 1985). Also, short-term trials do not give a true picture of the long-term effects of the treatments. Additionally, higher fertilizer equivalencies have been observed in less moist and less fertile soils e.g. sandier and drier soils (Kimani et al., 2001). Using data collected in different sites, Mutuo et al., 2001 found a linear relationship between the percent fertilizer equivalency and the N content. This linear function indicates that increase of 0.1% N in the tissue of organic amendment, there is a 6% increase in the fertilizer equivalency value and the critical level of N content of organic material for net immobilization or mineralization was found to be 2.2%. This is an agreement with the one of the 2.2% suggested by Palm et al. (1995) and Palm et al. (1997) in the decision tree for the selection of organic materials (Fig. 9).(e) Time frequency and method of application Low quality manure is often observed to depress crop yields. This deleterious effect can be overcome through application of manure ahead of planting time to overcome this effect. In some cases, surface application has resulted in better results than incorporation. In many cases, this depends on the quantity of manure applied. Some studies have investigated the potential to overcome this problem through megadose application instead of annual applications. But such studies from Zimbabwe suggest that there are no differences in crop yields between the two application regimes eg. 7 t ha -1 annual application, 14 t ha -1 applied every second year and 28 t ha -1 applied every fourth year (Mugwira and Murwira, 1997).(f) Fortification and pelleting The bulky nature of manures and low quality constraint its transportation and returns to application. To make manure as a biofertilizer easily handleable (less bulky) and applicable, some studies have shown granule pelleting to be a farmer user-friendly packaging system. Other studies have demonstrated that the quality and return to such biofertilizers can be improved through fortification with the addition of inorganic nutrient sources; composting under cover to minimize leaching and loss of nutrients via gases; and the use of high quality biofertilizers on high value crops solely or in combination with inorganic fertilizers.In high external input systems, large quantities of maize stover or wheat straw can be generated (8-10 t ha -1 ), and this is either burnt or partly grazed, resulting in large nutrient offtakes unless the manure is recycled. To overcome this constraint, fortification trials have been conducted. Okalebo et al. (2000) found that combined application of composts of 2 t ha -1 of wheat straw or soybean trash with 80 kg N ha -1 of mineral fertilizer resulted in higher maize yields (grain and stover) than from application of 80 kg N ha -1 of mineral fertilizer alone. Sole application of residue depressed yields. In related studies Muasya et al. (2000) found that wheat straw composted with inorganic fertilizer (80 t ha -1 compost) resulted in slightly higher wheat yields (3.6 t ha -1 ) than with the same rate of normal compost (3.0 t ha -1 ).In both regions, manure is produced abundantly under extensive systems eg. in pastoralists and transhumant systems. As these systems decrease, settled arable agriculture increases. In the latter systems farmers own cattle either under confinement or paddocking systems. Lots of manure is accumulated in cattle boma in the East African region. In West Africa, kraaling eg. keeping of livestock on selected areas over a given period of time, helps increase and accumulate manure through urine and dung voided in the field. Recent studies have shown that two nights kraaling results in between higher yields than in unkraaled fields (Powell et al., 1998).Past reviews of research on the use of organics (with or without mineral fertilizers) for soil fertility management in tropical agroecosystems (CABI, 1994;Padwick, 1993;Nandwa and Bekunda, 1998;Palm et al., 1997;Palm et al., 2001) have shown widespread non-adoption or low adoption of emerging technologies. It has been reported that often the use of organic materials is based on trial and error (Palm et al., 2001). At the research and development level, presently and in future, there is a need for priority setting (Kilambya et al., 1999) and targeting of a potential \"best-bet\" technology for smallholder farmers in the form of an agronomic superiority, economic viability, environmentally friendly and culturally acceptable options.Wider adoption of soil productivity technologies requires that their profitability for smallholder farmers be carefully evaluated. The imperative for future manure research is to adopt a holistic framework for closer interaction between soil productivity subject matter specialists, economists, environmentalists, extensionists and policy makers. There is a need for more horizontal and, above all, vertical networking to create momentum and synergy in soil productivity management research. Lack of multidisciplinary research has been reported to lead to inadequate discounting of soil quality by economists in the context of a \"future generations sustainability quest\" (Young, 1998). Furthermore, other workers have reported a poor relationship between farm product price and nutrient withdrawal (mining) in the context of nutrient replacement cost. Recent work in Kenya showed that 32% of the average net farm income amounted to the replacement of mined nutrients of many farms and farmers, 54% of whom are estimated to live below the poverty line, i.e. on one US dollar per day (de Jager et al., 1998). The proposed new approach should provide synergies between applied or strategic research to adaptive research, and also between farmers' indigenous technical knowledge and their main scientific knowledge, and therefore result in higher rates of technology adoption. Future multidisciplinary research should also investigate yield depression attributed to phytotoxicity associated with manure management (Elliott et al., 1978), plant diseases (Cook et al., 1978) and pests (Musiek and Beasley, 1978).There is a need for a shift from a top-down to bottom-up research approach because the use of the former approach in soil productivity management consultative/collegial research in the past has proved retrogressive, especially for heterogeneous, risk-averse farm households. Future manure and other nutrient input management research should use participatory research approaches eg. farmer's field school, participatory learning action research (Defoer et al., 1998), in the context of the target farming systems, integrating different disciplines and with participation of farmers (Martin and Sherington, 1997;Haverkort et al., 1991).A majority of manure are often characterized as intermediate-low-quality resources and hence are prescribed to be used in a mixture with mineral fertilizer (Palm et al., 2001). Future research is required to identify the \"best-bet\" low-quality manure that can be mixed with high-quality organic resources to satisfy the short-term goal of nutrient availability and the long-term goal of building SOM. Such research should come up with cases for proper discounting of resource conservation estimates (Smaling et al. 1997).The benefits of manures, like other organics, over mineral fertilizers is both the short-term effects and residual or long-term effects. Future research opportunities include the development of guidelines that link quality of manure to their short-term fertilizer equivalency value and longer-term residual effects through SOM turnover and formation.6. Future research opportunities exist on building on past Organic Resource Database (ORD) to develop Decision Support System (DSS) guides and simple tools, based on both scientists and farmer perspectives to guide the choice and utilization of manure depending on their varied quality and quantities. This will require research that correlates scientific indicators (chemical content and nutrient release) with farmers indicators of manure quality (texture, colour, smell, white fungi/sand, homogeneity and longerity of composts).7. Research opportunities exist on the establishment of the relationship between manure quality and a number of variables that influence quality eg. feeds manipulation, composting techniques, manure handling and storage method. These type of research should include determination of strategies that minimize nutrient losses and leaching, erosion, volatilisation and dentrification.8. Future research opportunities include the development of a systematic framework for investigating integrated nutrient management based on fertilizer equivalence values and pertinent ecosystem services and functions. This research should conduct the determination of economic and social trade-offs of improved soil fertility management alternatives to manures eg. legumes, high quality organics, green manures, forage legumes in traditional mixed farming systems. 9. There are future research opportunities on the determination of the biophysical and socioeconomic boundary conditions for the adoption of manure management-based techniques.There is considerable information on manure management in Western and Southern Africa. The results of the comparative analysis from the regions suggest that different lessons can be learned from each stakeholder. As an example, it is clear that scientists in West Africa can benefit by learning more of the technologies developed in West Africa where compost with manure is fortified with phosphate rock and scientists in West Africa can also learn on the work done in East Africa on the assessment of manure fertilizer equivalency, the technologies based on the identification of the best combination ratios of organics and inorganics and the systematics characterization of manure for its nutrient contents and lignins and polyphenols in order to apply the organic matter decision tree.Crop response to manure or in combination with inorganic fertilizers is variable and site specific. The difference in response may be due to several factors eg. soil fertility status quality of manure and environmental factors. This means that modelling and decision support systems will have an important role in future research. Other new research opportunities include topics such as the crop livestock trade-off by developing new strategies that minimize competition between crops and livestock such as conflicting demands of crop residue for feed and soil cpnservation, the legume for soil fertility management per se of feed for livestock the increase of inorganic fertilizer use efficiency, due to better management of manure, the relationships between manure quality and build-up of soil organic matter, the other benefits of manure use and the socio-economic and policy implications.  Kanyanjua and Obanyi (1999).  (Hemingway, 1961) 1.76 0.24 1.29 0.74 0.34 Kenya (Ikombo, 1994) 1.62 0.50 1.34 0.26 Nd* Kenya (Kihanda, 1996) 1.19 0.24 1.46 0.97 0.26 Zimbabwe (Mugwira, 1984) 0  Primary forest conversion for subsistence agriculture, industrial logging and pasture establishment continues to be the predominant cause of tropical deforestation (Laurance, 1999). These activities have left a large portion of the tropical biome disturbed and in various states of natural regeneration (Brown and Lugo, 1990), stagnation (Fearnside and Guimaraes, 1996;Sarmiento, 1997;Silver et al., 2000), or managed recovery (Fernandes and Matos, 1995;Parrotta et al., 1997). Of the estimated 58.8 million ha of forest cleared in Brazilian Amazônia over the past three decades (INPE, 2002), approximately 24 million ha were converted to pastures (Serrão et al., 1995). Depending on management (replacement of exported or lost nutrients, stocking rates, burning frequency, etc.), region, and soil type, pasture productivity may decline after 7 to 10 years and may be recleared or abandoned to recolonizing secondary vegetation; approximately 50% of the first-cycle pastures have reached this advanced stage of degradation (Serrao et al., 1993). Based on an analysis of 1990 land use data in the Amazon, Fearnside (1996) calculated an equilibrium will be reached where ~47% of all deforested land would be regenerating forest on degraded or abandoned pastures.Although highly altered, these lands are valuable for human use (Brown and Lugo, 1990), and provide important ecosystem services such as watershed protection, sources and havens of biodiversity, erosion prevention, soil fertility recovery by improved fallows (Szott et al., 1991), and atmospheric C sinks (Fearnside andGuimaraes, 1996, Silver et al., 2000). However, the potential of the abandoned land to recover and maintain these roles is dependant on the intensity of previous land use (Uhl et al., 1988;Nepstad et al., 1990;Aide et al., 1995;Alves et al., 1997), soil nutrient limitations (Cochrane and Sánchez, 1982;Smyth and Cravo, 1992;Laurance et al., 1999), and seed inputs and seedling establishment (Nepstad et al., 1996). These impediments to vegetation regrowth may be more extreme in abandoned pastures compared to agricultural land, resulting in lower aboveground productivity (Fearnside and Guimaraes, 1996;Silver et al., 2000), and longer regeneration times.Pasture productivity declines rapidly with decreasing soil P availability, facilitating invasion by secondary forest (SF) species better adapted to infertile soil (Toledo and Navas, 1986); yet, soil fertility and biomass recovery is variable and dependant upon several factors. Degraded pastures are characterized by depleted soil nutrient stocks, low vegetation biomass, low primary forest seed inputs, high seed predation, depleted seed bank of forest species and low stump sprouting (Nepstad et al., 1990), as well as soil surface sealing and compaction (Eden et al., 1991). Consequently, predicting the long-term growth rate of secondary vegetation on degraded pastures and the return of primary forest characteristics becomes a complex task.New attention has focused on fast-growing SF due to their potential to sequester large quantities of C in short time-periods. For example, worldwide tropical forests store approximately 206 Pg C in the soil (Eswaran et al., 1993), and tropical SF of less than 20 years have the potential to accrue soil C at a rate of 1.3 Mg ha -1 yr -1 (Silver et al. 2000). The growth rate of young SF is expected to increase with rising atmospheric CO 2 levels (DeLucia et al., 1999); however, high C allocation to short-lived tissues such as leaves and faster turnover of litter C may limit the potential C sink (Schlesinger and Lichter, 2001). Furthermore, soil nutrient limitations may constrain primary productivity under CO 2 enrichment (Oren et al., 2001).Soil nutrient impediments to productivity under native vegetation are substantial in the Brazilian Amazon. Cochrane and Sánchez (1982) estimated that only 7% of the land area is free from major plant growth limitations; soil P deficiencies (<7 mg/kg) constrain productivity in 90% (436 million ha), and Al toxicity (Al saturation of ≥ 60%) occurs over 73% of the Brazilian Amazon. Low soil Ca (Smyth and Cravo, 1992) restrains productivity, P deficiencies (Gehring et al., 1999) limit SF growth, and the vegetation is unable to effectively capture leaching soil N (Schroth et al., 1999). Mismanagement may compound these deficiencies since pasture use-intensity appears to negatively influence regenerating vegetation biomass (Uhl et al., 1988) and nutrient stocks (Buschbacher et al., 1988). Because SF recovery is variable and dependent on previous land-use and soil fertility, the magnitude and rate of the above-and below-ground C accumulation in these regenerating SF is still relatively unknown.Determining nutrient constraints to regrowth and the status of secondary vegetation is an important step in managing and/or enhancing abandoned site rehabilitation. We examined the dual roles of SF to rehabilitate site productivity and to increase C sinks and investigated potential soil nutrient limitations to these two processes. We examined aboveground and soil C accrual and nutrient stocks in degraded pastures that had been abandoned for a varying number of years. Our objective was to study the influence of regenerating vegetation on C and nutrient budgets following pasture abandonment. We hypothesized that C and N pools would recover with time following post-burn volatilization, while other nutrients would be redistributed from below-to above-ground pools resulting in reduced soil pools.The study areas are located in Amazonas, Brazil, in the central Amazon Basin, north of the city of Manaus along the road BR-174. The study area spans approximately 26 km (2° 34' S, 60° 02' W and 2° 20' S, 60° 04' W). The terrain is undulating with an elevation of 50-150 m. The plateau soil is classified as dystrophic, isohyperthermic, clayey kaolinitic, Hapludox with approximately 80-85% clay (latossolo amarelo according to the Brazilian classification system). Slope soils are composed of Ultisols and valley bottoms by Spodosols. The plateau soils have a low cation exchange capacity and are infertile but are strongly aggregated and well drained (Van Wambeke,1992).The regional climate is tropical humid and the mean temperature is 26.7°C. Mean annual rainfall in Manaus is 2.2 m, with March and April as the wettest months with over 300 mm of precipitation. A mild dry season occurs from August through October, with mean monthly precipitation falling below 100 mm, and in some El Niño years to as little as 50 mm (Lovejoy and Bierregaard, 1990).The native vegetation of this region is closed-canopy, dense, evergreen terra firme forest (Veloso et al., 1991). Species recovery with SF development is significantly different in areas used as pasture compared to areas cut but not managed (Mesquita et al., 2001). Old growth, native vegetation remains the dominant cover in this area. The establishment of new pastures is now rare, and active pastures are a diminishing, short-lived feature of the landscape north of Manaus. However, SF are increasingly found along the primary roads where efforts to raise cattle on large ranches failed some 10 to 20 years ago.A majority of the pastures were mechanically cleared in the early 1980's, commercial timber may or may not have been removed, the slash burned in place or mechanically piled in windrows, and the area planted with exotic African grasses such as Brachiaria brizantha or B. humidicola (Rendle). Standard pasture management for the region includes at least one application of 50 kg P/ha. The animal stocking rate and number of years that the pastures were grazed were variable. Overgrazing and annual burning to increase economic returns in the short-term accelerated pasture degradation through increased nutrient loss and soil compaction. However, even in the absence of overgrazing (1-2 animal/ha) increases in bulk density occur (0.4 g/cm 3 increase from forest values after 12 years as pasture), leading to reduced infiltration, sheetwash, and pasture decline (Eden et al., 1991). Declining pasture productivity is characterized by a reduction in the forage to weed ratio as bare ground develops and herbaceous and woody plants begin to invade. When unpalatable plants begin to dominate, livestock productivity drops, animal mortality increases and the pasture is eventually abandoned. Fire and/or labor intensive hand weeding of seedlings and roots may lengthen pasture life by reducing woody biomass while encouraging grass growth; however, species of Vismia, a fast-growing early successional tree, resprout rapidly after burning and dominate abandoned pastures.Ten SF were selected within three fazendas (cattle ranches) now in various stages of grazing, pasture abandonment or pasture reclamation: Fazenda Rodão (km 46), the Brazilian Agency for Agricultural Research (Embrapa Amazônia Ocidental) Agricultural District of SUFRAMA (DAS) pasture research site (km 53), and Fazenda Dimona (km 72), all along the road BR-174. Within each forest located on plateau Oxisols, we established four plots of 100 m 2 to 400 m 2 , each with three subplots ranging in size from 35 to 225 m 2 depending on forest age. Forests ranged from 0 to 2 yrs to 12 to 14 yrs since pasture abandonment. Secondary forest selection was based on forest age and independence from adjacent plots within the same ranch. We selected a range of forests spanning the age of available SF in the area; however, all SF age classes do not occur at all farms. We conducted farmer interviews to determine site histories and when grazing was abandoned. The date at which the pastures were abandoned is not definitive, as cattle may infrequently graze the area until all palatable forage is replaced by woody successional vegetation. The regenerating forests within the ranches are biologically and physically distinct, each with a unique management history and vegetation cover.Within each subplot, we measured diameter at breast height (DBH at 1.3 m above ground level; Cecropia were measured above prop-roots) for all live tree stems ≥1cm, tagged the stems, and recorded all species. Using two sets of allometric equations, Nelson et al. (1999) for stem >5 cm DBH and Mesquita (in preparation) for those 1 to 5 cm DBH, we calculated dry biomass for each tree and converted the estimates to Mg/ha. The two sets of equations were developed either on the EMBRAPA research site (Nelson et al., 1999) or within the same region (Mesquita, pers. comm). They provide a better estimate of SF biomass than previous equations (Saldarriaga et al., 1988;Uhl et al., 1988;Brown et al., 1989;Overman et al., 1994) developed in the Amazon Basin (Nelson et al., 1999). The Nelson equations provide valid biomass estimates from 1 to 30 cm DBH. However, since these SF have more stems in the smaller diameter range of the Mesquita equations (1 to 5 cm DBH), by using the two sets of equations rather than one, we improve biomass estimates.We used species-specific equations for the dominant tree species Vismia cayennensis (Jacq.) Pers., V. japurensis Reich. (Clusiaceae); Cecropia (Moraceae; mainly C. sciadophylla Mart. and C. purpurascens C.C. Berg); Bellucia (Melastomataceae); Goupia glabra Aubl. (Celastraceae); Laetia procera (Poepp) Eichl. (Flacourtiaceae), and a mixed-species equation for all others. The pioneer Cecropia, uncommon on these sites, occurs less frequently in areas where grazing continues during secondary vegetation establishment (Mesquita et al. 2001).To produce an aboveground forest estimate of nutrient concentrations (and nutrient stocks on a per hectare basis) within each forest, we randomly selected 15 trees ≥1 cm DBH and collected mature, upper canopy sun leaves using a telescoping tree pruner or climbing the boles. From the same trees, we drew two wood core samples (wood and bark) at 1.3 m height on opposite sides of the bole. Foliage and wood samples were pooled into three sample composites of five trees, oven dried at 70ºC, ground and homogenized, and analyzed for C, N, P, K, Ca, and Mg using standard EMBRAPA laboratory operating procedures (Silva, 1999).We developed a foliage:wood ratio (Mesquita, in prep.) for partitioning biomass into wood and foliar components. We then estimated aboveground carbon and nutrient stocks in each forest by multiplying mean nutrient concentrations for foliage and wood samples by the allometric estimates of each biomass component as partitioned by the foliage to wood ratio for individual trees. Our estimates of nutrient pools do not include aboveground biomass <1cm DBH, forest litter, or root biomass.We sampled soil to 45 cm in three depth classes (0-15, 15-30, 30-45 cm) within each of four plots per forest. The four soil samples per depth in each forest (120 soil samples) represent a composite of four to six sub-samples per sample. Soil composites were combined in the field, air dried in solar dryers, charcoal and roots removed, hand milled with a roller, sieved to 2 mm, and analyzed for C, N, P, K, Ca, and Mg. Charcoal is common in local surface soils and is present at times to 45 cm depths in both pasture and forest soils. As charcoal is heterogeneously distributed in the soil, charcoal contamination poses an important impediment to resolution in reporting soil C concentrations. We estimate that carbon concentrations in this study, as with other studies within the Amazon basin, may generally overestimate total soil carbon stocks as a result of charcoal contamination (M.A. Rondón, unpublished data). To reduce the charcoal contribution to soil C estimates, large pieces were removed while the samples were wet and again with a forceps after drying before grinding; however, the small fragment size makes total removal difficult.Extractable soil P and K were analyzed using a double acid extraction (0.05 M hydrochloric acid and 0.0125 M sulfuric acid) and exchangeable Ca and Mg with 1 M potassium chloride. Total soil N was determined by the Kjeldahl technique and soil C (%) by wet digestion (Silva, 1999). Soil nutrient pools (kg/ha) of C, N, P, K, Mg, and Ca were calculated using mean soil bulk density data measured to 45 cm depth from abandoned pastures and SF in the same area (T.R. Feldpausch; S.A. Welch, unpublished data).Nutrient concentrations were multiplied by bulk densities for each depth class to provide soil nutrient stocks on a per hectare basis.Statistical analyses were performed using Minitab 12.1 (Minitab Inc.). Statistical comparisons for C and nutrient concentrations and stocks were conducted separately for the different vegetation tissue types and soil depths using linear and log-linear regression and a p<0.05 significance level. Soil and vegetation concentrations, and soil stocks values were log transformed. Pooling the data for age classes and using regression analysis, we tested for trends in C and nutrients within aboveground and soil pools, as partitioned by depth, foliage or wood, versus time (years after pasture abandonment).A total of 1901 stems were measured in 2320 m 2 , of which 138 standing dead and 177 lianas were excluded from biomass calculations due to allometric equation limitations in computing such components. Of those stems considered in biomass estimations, 68% were less than 5 cm DBH, while no stems were greater than 30 cm DBH. The two recently abandoned pastures of 0-2 years had no stems ≥1cm DBH, the minimum diameter used for the allometric equations.Wood N and P concentrations declined with SF age (r 2 = 0.85, 0.75; p<0.001), with an average reduction of 50 and 60% in wood N and P from the youngest to the oldest forests. Foliage N and P concentrations tended to decline with forest age, although non-significantly. Compared to wood, foliage contained an average of 5.7 times more N and 3.7 times more P (Table 1).Foliar and wood Ca concentrations did not show a trend with age, but the concentrations were high relative to other nutrients. Calcium concentrations in wood were comparable and at times higher than wood N values. n the foliage, Ca concentrations represented an average of 43% of N values. Foliage contained an average of 2.5 times more Ca than wood. Potassium and Mg foliar and wood concentrations showed no trends with forest age.Although woody biomass accumulated more quickly than foliage, nutrient stocks for all nutrients accumulated more quickly in foliage (Figure 1). Foliar N stocks (42.6 kg ha -1 yr -1 ; r 2 =0.94; p<0.001) increased much more rapidly than woody stocks (15.5 kg ha -1 yr -1 ; r 2 =0.91; p<0.01) with time after abandonment. Phosphorus stocks in foliage accrued twice as fast as wood P stocks. However, foliar Ca stocks (22.3 kg ha -1 yr -1 ; r 2 =0.92; p<0.001) accrued at a similar rate to wood stocks (20.6 kg ha -1 yr -1 ; r 2 =0.90; p<0.001) (Table 2).Within each forest, soil carbon and nutrient concentrations generally decreased with depth (Table 3). Total soil N concentrations generally decreased with depth; however, deeper soil profile (30-45 cm depth) N concentrations increased with time after pasture abandonment (r 2 = 0.57; p<0.001), while the shallower depths showed a weaker soil N trend with time. Soil extractable P concentrations tended to decrease at all soil depths over time, with significant reductions in surface layers (0-15 cm depth) with increasing time since abandonment (r 2 = 0.46; p<0.05). Near surface Ca levels (0-15 cm depth) ranged from 0.13 to 0.33 c.mol (+) /kg. Calcium concentrations were low below 15 cm depth, with overall means of 0.07 c.mol (+) /kg at 15-30 cm and 0.07 c.mol (+) /kg at 30-45 cm depths.    ------------------------------------------kg ha -1 yr -1 ------------------------------------------   Soil extractable nutrient stocks were generally lower in deeper soil pools. Within the oldest forests, soil C, N, and Mg nutrient stocks were greater than aboveground nutrient stocks while the other nutrients resided predominantly within forest vegetation (Figure 1).Soil N stocks, relative to aboveground stocks, were high, and increased with forest age at a rate of 117.8 kg ha -1 yr -1 (r 2 = 0.44; p<0.05). Pastures abandoned for twelve or more years stored 1.5 Mg/ha more total N to 45 cm depth than areas abandoned for two or fewer years (5.4 and 3.9 Mg N/ha). In all forests, surface nitrogen stocks (0-15 cm) represented approximately 40 to 45% of the total soil nitrogen to 45 cm depth (total 45 cm range: 3.3 to 5.5 Mg N/ha) (Figure 1).Extractable soil P stocks to 45 cm tended to decline with increasing forest age (-0.66 kg ha -1 yr -1 ), a trend most pronounced within the upper 0-15 cm. This surface layer represented 46 to 70% of total soil P stocks to 45 cm depth, with the younger areas, on average, storing 4.2 kg/ha more P in the first 15 cm than the oldest areas. Considering the entire measured soil profile (0-45 cm depth) higher extractable soil P stocks were observed in stands of 0 to 6 years (11.5 ± 4.6 kg/ha) compared to stands of 6-14 years (5.1 ± 2.1 kg/ha). Soil P in the 0-15 cm class was more variable than in deeper layers. Potassium, Ca, and Mg stocks remained constant with time after abandonment (Table 2).There was a significant net gain in combined vegetation and soil nutrient stocks for all nutrients (Table 2). The total system P accumulation rate was slow and reflective of the counteracting decrease in soil P stocks with increasing forest age. Total system N stocks increased most rapidly followed by Ca. While total (biomass plus soil) nutrient stocks for all nutrients increased over time, in soils, only N increased significantly.Standing biomass. Foliar dry biomass in the ten forests grouped according to age after pasture abandonment (0-2, 2-4, 4-6, 6-8, 12-14 years) was 0.0, 0.02, 3.47, 13.10, 32.15 Mg/ha (Figure 1). Average biomass accrual for all SF through the first 12-14 years after pasture abandonment was 11.0 Mg ha -1 yr -1 (r 2 =0.95, p<0.001), or 5.6 Mg C ha -1 yr -1 (r 2 =0.94, p<0.001). As expected, carbon stocks in wood (4.2 Mg C ha -1 yr -1 ) accrued more quickly than foliage C (1.4 Mg C ha -1 yr -1 ) as forests matured (Table 4).Table 4: Relationship between years after pasture abandonment (X) and the accumulation of aboveground biomass and carbon, and soil carbon (Mg ha -1 yr -1 ) in ten secondary forests regenerating from degraded pastures in central Amazônia, Brazil. The greatest total biomass (128.1 Mg/ha) was measured in a SF with 12-14 years since abandonment; the areas abandoned 6-8 years had an average biomass of 54.4 Mg/ha, while the areas abandoned 4-6 years an average of 16.4 Mg/ha (Figure 1). Woody biomass in the ten SF by years after pasture abandonment was 0.0, 0. 05, 12.92, 41.25, 92.24 Mg/ha in the 0-2, 2-4, 4-6, 6-8, and 12-14 yearold forests.Soil Carbon. Soil carbon storage (excluding roots) tended to increase with forest age, with the oldest forests storing an average of 25 Mg/ha (65%) more total soil C to 45 cm depth than the youngest forests. Surface layers (0-15 cm) stored significantly more C (28.4 ± 2.4 Mg/ha) than deeper layers (18.3 ± 1.5 Mg/ha), from 24 to 50% of the total soil carbon to 45 cm depth in all forests (p<0.001). However, the oldest forests, 12-14 yr-old, stored as much carbon in the 30-45 cm layer as in the 0-15 cm surface layer. Additionally, the deeper soil profile (30-45 cm) was the only depth showing significantly increasing C stocks with time after abandonment (r 2 =0.21; p<0.001). Considering all forests, total soil C to 45 cm depth increased non-significantly at a rate of 1.49 Mg ha -1 yr -1 during the first 12-14 yrs of succession (Table 4).Total C accrual. In vegetation and soil (excluding roots), the ten SF accrued a total of 7.04 Mg C ha -1 yr -1 during the first 12-14 years after abandonment (r 2 =0.85; p<0.001) (Table 4).The vegetation withdraws large quantities of exchangeable Ca from low exchangeable soil reserves. After N, vegetation Ca stocks were accumulating most quickly with forest age. Wood and foliage N:Ca ratios were low, ranging from 0.7 to 1.4 for wood and 1.9 to 3.0 for foliage. In contrast, primary forest vegetation reported N:Ca ratios were 3.1 for trunks, branches and coarse roots, and 4.4 for leaves (Fernandes et al., 1997).The high rate of Ca immobilization in vegetation but lack of reduced soil exchangeable Ca over time in our study indicates, (1) soils adequately replenish immobilized Ca from unavailable forms (Table 2); and/or (2) the vegetation is withdrawing Ca from deeper than 45 cm depth. A similar trend of a high percentage of total system Ca content in vegetation and high Ca uptake from low soil reserves of exchangeable Ca has been reported for temperate forests (Johnson and Henderson). The highly weathered Oxisols of our study provide negligible Ca from parent materials; however, atmospheric deposition may replenish depleted soil reserves by adding 0.8-12 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Vitousek and Sanford Jr., 1986;Schroth et al., 2001). For young tropical fallow vegetation, low root length density and low nutrient demand make Ca and nitrate ions susceptible to downward movement (Szott et al., 1999), which may be retrieved with increased rooting depth in later successional stages. Trees have been reported to increase soil nutrient availability over time (Sanchez et al., 1985) and net increases in total system stocks of N and Ca have been observed in older fallows, probably as a result of atmospheric deposition, N 2 fixation and uptake from subsoil (Szott et al., 1991). However, pasture soils were found to have higher exchangeable soil Ca concentrations than plantations, secondary and primary forests (McGrath et al., 2001), indicating that after the initial increase of soil Ca from cutting and burning, colonizing trees act as sinks, reducing soil Ca. Although soil Ca stocks are currently maintained in these SF, the high rate of Ca relocation from soil to vegetation, large vegetation Ca stocks, and high concentrations relative to N indicate extreme Ca demands for biomass production, which may create a soil Ca deficit and limit future vegetation growth.The rapid total soil N stock and N concentration increase below 30 cm depth with forest age can be only partially explained by external inputs (Figure 1, Table 3). Nitrogen fixing plants may contribute 10-150 kg ha -1 yr -1 to soils (Fernandes et al., 1997;Szott et al., 1999) and atmospheric deposition may add 5.5-11.5 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Jordan et al., 1982;Vitousek and Sanford Jr., 1986;Schroth et al., 2001), explaining a fraction of the increasing total soil N. The remaining contribution to the high soil N accumulation rates could be subsoil mining of leached nitrate. Increasing extractable soil N with depth below topsoil have been measured in young SF (J. Lehmann, pers comm.); high deep soil N concentrations may be attributable to leaching from surface layers after slash-and-burning and cropping, followed by a reduced nutrient capture potential of shallow rooted colonizing secondary vegetation. Primary forest also loses nitrate to the subsoil (Schroth et al., 1999). These large N pools were deep (1-2 m) and considered at the lower limit of uptake by young SF. Leaching of surface N can be rapid in Oxisols because of the high macroporosity and hydraulic conductivity, but leaching below 0.6 m is delayed, apparently because of NO 3 adsorption to the net positively charged subsoil (Melgar et al., 1992). Deep nutrient pools may provide a source of N as forests mature and root systems develop. Leaching of surface N (0-15 cm) to deeper layers could also explain the increase in N concentrations (r 2 = 0.75; p<0.001) we observed below 30 cm depth with forest maturation. Unless deep N mining occurs with root development, N losses to subsoil due to leaching may negatively affect surface soil fertility.Compared to primary forest nutrient storage in soil (of the total aboveground and soil stocks), the SF stored comparable amounts of N, less P, but more Ca. Soil storage of exchangeable Ca and total N in the oldest SF accounted for an average of 26 and 89% of total nutrient storage, respectively, but just under 14% of extractable P (Figure 1). This contrasts with compartmentalization within primary vegetation, where soil storage of exchangeable Ca and total N may account for <1 and 73% of total nutrient storage, and extractable P in soil accounts for 69% of the total storage (Sanchez, 1987).Increases in soil nutrient concentrations are followed by greater vegetation tissue concentrations in successional vegetation. Secondary forest vegetation growing on nutrient poor soil produced wood with three times less P and leaves with 50% less P than vegetation where soil P limitations were removed through P fertilizer additions (Gehring et al., 1999). The reduction in foliar P concentrations with increasing forest age observed in our study (Table 1) may indicate that this nutrient is becoming limiting as soil P levels decline (Figure 1).Total aboveground and soil nutrient stocks increased as forests matured; yet, for P, uptake and soil P supply indicates a potential growth limitation. Concomitant decrease in extractable soil P and increase in biomass over time may be attributable to relocation from below-to above-ground pools. Plants appear to be taking up more soil P than is available (Table 2). This suggests a rapid transfer of soil P from plant unavailable to available forms or deep soil mining as the available pool is depleted with plant growth. However, subsoil P retrieval probably contributes <1 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Szott et al., 1999). The net reduction in soil P stocks from the soil (0.66 kg P ha -1 yr -1 ) with increasing forest age, indicates inadequate replacement of available soil P with plant P uptake, a trend also observed elsewhere (Johnson et al., 2001). Should this trend continue, P may become limiting to growth unless other factors (1) reduce P uptake by plants, (2) increase P uptake from subsoil, (3) increase the rate at which unavailable forms of soil P shift to plant available P forms to replenish immobilized plant available soil P.Pools of plant available (extractable) nutrients are significantly lower than the total in soils (Brown and Lugo, 1990), and the plant availability of the soil P depends on the extent of fixation or immobilization. Phosphorus fixation for Oxisols is lower in the central Amazon Basin than Oxisols in other regions of the Amazon; however, levels of plant available P in the soils are similar (Lehmann et al., 2001a). Total soil P in primary forest can be lower than under the SF replacing the vegetation (Lehmann et al., 2001b), indicating storage in biomass can significantly reduce soil extractable P stocks. Pastures grasses such as Brachiaria spp. may increase P availability by exuding acid phosphatase into the rhizosphere and hydrolyzing plant unavailable forms of organic phosphates (Dias-Filho et al., 2001), a benefit lost as secondary vegetation replaces the pasture grasses. Root associations with both VAmycorrhizae and ectomycorrhizae may help the colonizing vegetation access P even at low soil P concentrations; and, in the case of ectomycorrhizae, to access P from poorly accessible pools (Boot et al., 1994). Since these colonizing species have the ability to take up P in excess of immediate growth requirements (Boot et al., 1994), P uptake by maturing trees may decline before plant levels become limiting to biomass accumulation. Fallow vegetation increased mineralizable N and available P compared to continuous cropping, probably as a result of deeper rooting (Tian et al., 2001).Further research is needed to develop and evaluate management strategies that promote soil P acquisition, such as increasing rooting depth of regenerating vegetation.Aboveground. Rapid biomass accrual in the SF, 11.0 Mg ha -1 yr -1 , was similar to other Amazonian findings (Uhl et al., 1988;Brown and Lugo, 1990;Alves et al., 1997), lower (Hartemink, 2001), and higher than a 20 year mean annual rate (6.17 Mg ha -1 yr -1 ) in a review of tropical SF succession (Silver et al., 2000). The high C accumulation storage in the 12-14 yr-old areas represents 25-50% of equivalent primary forest biomass (230 -500 Mg/ha) in Amazonia (Alves et al., 1997;Fujisaka et al., 1998;Laurance et al., 1999).Aboveground carbon accrual slows with age as colonizing trees mature, die, and are replaced by slower growing species. Secondary forests in the Bragantina region of the Amazon basin were accruing biomass more rapidly in 10 yr-old (5.5 Mg ha -1 yr -1 ) than in the 20-40 yr-old SF (3.3 Mg ha -1 yr -1 ) (Johnson et al., 2001). And a review of 44 secondary tropical forests showed wet forests accumulating biomass significantly faster during the first 20 of 80 years of regrowth (Silver et al., 2000). Their rates through the first 10 and 20 years are still less than the rate we report through the first 12-14 years (Table 4).Belowground. Our study indicates a trend of increasing soil C storage through the first 12-14 years (Figure 1); however, the soils are storing comparable to less C than other SF of similar or greater age (Silver et al., 2000); (Johnson et al., 2001). Although our forests only showed a weak C storage gain, other studies indicated that soil C storage (excluding roots) increases significantly with SF age, and can approach mature forests levels after 80 years regrowth (Silver et al., 2000).Contrary to aboveground biomass accumulation rates, which proceed faster in SF following agriculture (Fearnside and Guimaraes, 1996), soils accumulate C almost twice as fast when regeneration follows pasture rather than agriculture, although this effect is only distinguishable after 20 years of recovery (Silver et al., 2000). Delays in aboveground C accrual with forest growth in early years following pasture abandonment may be offset, to a certain degree, by enhanced soil C accumulation.Compared with soil C storage in pasture (49.5 Mg/ha; 0-30 cm depth) (Moraes et al., 1996), tropical plantation (90 Mg C/ha) and SF (61 Mg C/ha) (0-25 cm depth) (Silver et al., 2000), the SF soils in this study were storing 47.9 Mg C/ha to 30 cm and 66.1 Mg C/ha to 45 cm depth. Since aboveground C accrual appears higher than other sites, and soil C lower than other SF sites, high litter turnover and soil respiration rates at our sites may be reducing soil C residence time in this high rainfall area.These factors pose important management implications to carbon sequestration. By choosing to maintain areas as pasture, directing SF colonization and succession after abandonment, or establishing plantations or agroforestry systems, land managers can influence the distribution of aboveground and soil C storage and the rate at which carbon accumulates within those pools. Maintaining the land cover as forest for longer time-periods rather than as degraded pasture is a more favorable practice to increase C storage.The ≥1 cm DBH limitation imposed by the allometric equations may significantly underestimate biomass and nutrient stocks in the absence of root and biomass measurements of young SF vegetation <1cm DBH. Grasses tend to allocate a significant portion of total plant biomass within root structures (Nepstad et al., 1994) and necromass, shrubs and herbaceous vegetation dominating early pasture succession and SF understories contribute considerable quantities to C and nutrient stocks, especially P (McKerrow, 1992). Wood core measurements may overestimate nutrient concentrations in young stands since a greater portion of the sample core is nutrient rich bark. An underestimate of biomass as a result of DBH allometric limitations is inversely related to forest age. As stand dominance shifts from small-to large-stem diameter plants with understory shading and self-thinning, a greater percentage of the total stems are measured and contribute to biomass and nutrient calculations. Also, although we located our abandoned pasture study sites on plateaus, the pastures span the rolling topography. Nutrient limitations may be more severe on hillsides where erosion is more pronounced and forest recovery slower than the rates we predict.After two and a half decades of neotropical studies of SF regeneration, we still lack the ability to make strong predictions about nutrient storage and successional shifts in forest development, and regeneration times for abandoned pastureland to attain primary forest equivalent biomass. This is largely due to an historic research focus on forest succession following agriculture rather than pasture. Since biomass recovery is significantly slower following pasture than agriculture (Fearnside and Guimaraes, 1996;Steininger, 2000), it is important to increase our understanding of pasture succession and determine potential nutrient limitations.The paucity of forest recovery studies on abandoned pastureland and lack of detailed soil C and nutrient data make predicting forest regeneration on highly altered lands difficult. In a review of SF biomass accumulation (Silver et al., 2000), only 13% of the SF (18 of 134) were previously pastures. Additional data from SF regenerating from pasture are needed to determine long-term C accumulation rates, potential nutrient limitations to regeneration, and the time needed to attain both structural and functional properties of mature forests. This is especially relevant since primary forest biomass is positively associated with soil nutrient levels, suggesting that soil nutrient loss through pasture installation may result in lower mature regenerated forest biomass than the original forest (Laurance et al., 1999). Although studies such as ours help to fill this void, there is a need for long-term rather than chronosequential studies of forest recovery following pasture abandonment.In this study, we show that during early successional years, biomass accumulation in light to moderately used pastures is rapid after abandonment and that soil C storage is higher in older forests. However, a slower soil C accrual rate than regenerating SF in other regions, may negatively offset total long-term C gains. The higher proportion of soil C storage compared to aboveground pools will be an important consideration of future 'carbon credit' management, as this pool is more recalcitrant to perturbations. Aboveground C re-accumulation from post-burn values is high, yet represents a finite pool which is rapidly attained in a relatively short time-period. Managing forest regeneration to maximize soil C storage, rather than aboveground pools, may prove to be more useful or meaningful when attempting to increase SF C sequestration.Furthermore, the colonizing vegetation can extract large nutrient quantities from the soil, even when in low supply. There was not only a shift of nutrients from soil to aboveground pools, but total system nutrient stocks were increasing over time. Most of the C, N, and Mg were stored within soils, while P, K, and Ca resided within vegetation. This has important consequences to total forest nutrient stocks, in the event of removal of aboveground vegetation. In the absence of nutrient additions, removal of the vegetation a second time (pasture re-clearing or logging) could compromise the SF potential to regenerate as a result of nutrient limitations. Even after P fertilization when the areas were pasture, soil P stocks remained low. The vegetation was withdrawing more soil P than can be replenished, creating a soil P deficit which may limit system productivity. Low exchangeable soil Ca stocks seemed to be adequately replaced, apparently from atmospheric inputs and depths below 45 cm, as growing vegetation took up large nutrient quantities. Nevertheless, as vegetation Ca demands were high and soil stocks low, lack of Ca may limit future productivity.These results demonstrate the regenerative capacity of tropical SFs to sequester C and to rebuild the nutrient capital following pasture abandonment. Aboveground carbon accrual is rapid but belowground gains represent the largest potential area for continued accumulation and management. Relocation of some nutrients from deeper soil layers may represent a substantial source of nutrients for plant growth and may be vital to sustaining long-term productivity and biomass accumulation. We recommend additional studies to explore P and Ca nutrient limitations to forest productivity and longterm measurements of soil nutrient fluxes and forest growth. Understanding nutrient limitations to resource capture will provide new options to manage forest regeneration and increase C accumulation on these globally important nutrient-limited soils.Upland soils in the humid tropics such as in the central Amazon are highly weathered and therefore possess low plant available nutrient contents (Cravo and Smyth, 1997). This is a result of both high rainfall and low nutrient retention capacity. Applied nutrients are rapidly leached below the root zone of annual crops (Melgar et al., 1992;Cahn et al., 1993). Two basic approaches can be used to reduce nutrient leaching, first to apply slow-releasing nutrient forms such as organic fertilizers or secondly to increase adsorption sites and thereby retain applied inorganic nutrients.Slash-and-burn is one of the main land use system in the Amazon. Secondary or primary forest is cut and burned to clear the field but also to release plant-available nutrients from slashed plant biomass. The ash from the burned biomass increases soil pH and supplies nutrients to crops which show elevated nutritient levels and yields (Sanchez et al., 1983). This effect of the ash accumulation is, however, rather short-lived. Already after a few cropping seasons the soil nutrient availability decreases and field crops have to be fertilized for optimum production (Sanchez et al., 1983) or the fields have to abandoned and new forests have to be slashed and burned. Although adequate applications of mineral fertilizers were shown to sustain yields in the Amazon (Smyth and Cassel, 1995), our efforts are intended to improve the use of biomass and nutrients contained in the plant biomass as well as that of applied fertilizer nutrients, since fertilization is expensive and crop production often has to rely on soil nutrients alone.It is well known that about 50% of the carbon in the above ground biomass of forests can be lost upon burning (Kauffman et al., 1995). Sixty and 43% of the biomass N and S and 18, 7 and 7% of the P, Ca, and K were lost from the site (Kauffman et al., 1995). A large portion may be deposited or absorbed in surrounding ecosystems but does not contribute to the fertility of the cropped soil. The first approach should therefore aim at improving the efficiency of land clearing to preserve C and nutrients. Slash-andmulch was successfully tested in Eastern Amazonia when fertilizer was applied (Kato et al., 1999) and has a long history in the per-humid tropics (Thurston, 1997). We are seeking an alternative technique that can be applied to the existing slash-and-burn system with minimal changes and that has the potential of being used in tree cultures as well.Instead of burning the above ground biomass to clear the agricultural field, the biomass may be charred to produce charcoal and added to soil. Testing the application of charred organic matter was stimulated by the fact that anthropogenic dark earths in Central Amazonia (so-called \"Terra Preta do Indio\") with high soil organic matter contents contain large amounts of pyrogenic carbon (Glaser et al., 2001). These soils also show high cation exchange capacity, nutrient availability and organic matter (Sombroek, 1966;Kern and Kämpf, 1989). The origin of the dark earths is not entirely clear, and several conflicting theories were discussed in the past. Currently the most convincing theory states that these soils were not only used by the local population but a product of indigenous soil management as proposed by Gourou (1949).Soil fertility increases have been observed on remnants of charcoal hearths in the Appalachian Mountains (Young et al., 1996). Tryon (1948) showed higher nutrient availability in clayey to sandy soils from the Western United States after additions of charcoal produced from conifer and hardwood. Coal from geological deposits were successfully tested for the improvement of soil physical properties (Piccolo et al., 1996). No information, however, is available about the effects of charcoal applications on nutrient availability of highly weathered soils in the humid tropics such as the central Amazon. It is also unclear whether the cation exchange capacity can be improved thereby leading to higher nutrient retention and to lower nutrient losses by leaching.A slash-and-char technique does not advocate the destruction of existing primary forests. It should be a carbon-and nutrient-conserving alternative to existing slash-and-burn techniques. In this way, carbon will rather be retained in the system compared to slash-and-burn, since only the biomass from the same cropping area will be used for producing the charcoal.Pot experiment. A greenhouse study was carried out at the Embrapa Amazonia Ocidental near Manaus, Brazil. The mean temperature in the greenhouse was between 28-32ºC. We used two different soils for our experiments: (1) a Xanthic Ferralsol taken from a secondary forest (approximately 15 years old) with high clay contents (65%), medium organic C (39 g kg -1 ) and N contents (31.7 g kg -1 ); (2) a Fimic Anthrosol obtained from a farmers field under fallow with low clay (5%) and high sand contents (85%), high organic C (84.7 g kg -1 ), available P (318 mg kg -1 ) and Ca contents (656 mg kg -1 ), but low to medium total N (49.6 g kg -1 ), available K (4.0 mg kg -1 ) and Mg contents (57 mg kg -1 ). Both soils have not been fertilized prior to the experiment.Free-draining lysimeters were constructed with a diameter of 0.2m and a height of 0.1 m which were filled with either 3 kg of the Ferralsol or the Anthrosol. The effect of soil type, mineral fertilizer and charcoal on growth, nutrient uptake and leaching was tested using rice (Oryza sativa L.) as a test plant.Charcoal was applied at 20% weight which was produced by local farmers originating from secondary forests. The charcoal was ground by hand to a grain size of about 1 mm. Fertilizer was applied at 30, 21.8, and 49.8 kg ha -1 for N, P, and K using ammonium sulfate, TSP, and KCl, respectively. Lime was applied at 2.1 Mg ha -1 [all recommendations for rice from Araujo et al. (1984) Circular Técnica 18, Embrapa, unpublished].After the soil was filled into the lysimeters, water was gently poured onto the soil at a daily rate of 6.85 mm (2500 mm y -1 ). After four days the electrolyte content in the leachate had stabilized and fertilizer was added and rice was planted (five stands per pot with three plants per stand). Water was applied and drained daily, but only selected samples were analyzed. Nutrient contents were determined daily for the first week, twice a week for three weeks and after 5 and 10 days. The sampling was stopped when the rice was cut at 37 days after planting. The amount of leachate was determined by weight and a subsample was retained for further analyses and frozen. Cumulative leaching for the entire experimental period was calculated from the measured leachates and amounts were interpolated linearly. Plant samples were dried at 70ºC for 48 hours and weighed.In a second pot experiment, seedlings of Inga edulis were planted in pots with 26 cm diameter and 10 dm 3 soil (Xanthic Ferralsol) in four replicates. Charcoal was added at 0, 1, 5, 10, and 20% weight corresponding to 0, 13.3, 66.7, 133.4, and 266.7 Mg C ha -1 (C concentration of charcoal 70.8%). Fertilizer was applied at 100 kg N ha -1 , 50 kg P ha -1 , and 60 kg K ha -1 as urea, triple super phosphate and KCl, respectively. Additionally, 2 Mg ha -1 lime were added. Stem diameter was determined at 5-cm above soil level, and tree height was measured including the length of the uppermost leaf at 80 day after planting.Adsorption experiment. In a laboratory experiment, we studied the adsorption of different nutrients by charcoal. The charcoal was made from the wood of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). Cubes of dried wood with 10 g were isothermically combusted in closed metal containers at 350ºC for 40 minutes (65 replicates). Wood and charcoal were weighed with an accuracy of 0.1%. The charcoal was ground coarsely with mortar and pestle to pass a 2 mm sieve. One gram of charcoal was added to 10 mL of solution containing 0, 20, 50, 100, 200 mg L -1 using 20-mL PE bottles. In a preliminary experiment, the adsorption dynamics were determined for 10, 30 minutes, 1 and 6 hours, 1 and 3 days and 1 week using a horizontal shaker. Adsorption changed until one day, but did not differ thereafter. Therefore, adsorption experiments were done with a shaking time of one day. The effect of coating with dissolved organic matter (DOC) was tested with a manure extract. Ten grams cow manure were shaken with 20 mL deionized water and filtered. The filtrate was diluted 50 times and 10 mL of the solution was shaken with 1 g of charcoal for 24 hours. Afterwards the same adsorption experiment with different concentrations only of NH 4 + was performed as described above with and without additions of 10% azide to inhibit microbial activity.Chemical analyses. The aboveground biomass of rice was ground with a ball mill and analyzed for nutrients and organic carbon. C and N analyses were performed with an automatic CN analyzer (Elementar, Hanau, Germany). The K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu contents in the plant biomass were determined after wet digestion with sulfuric acid using atomic absorption spectrometry (AA-400, Varian Associates, Inc., Palo Alto, CA). The P contents were measured photometrically in the same extract with the molybdenum blue method.The K, Ca, and Mg contents in the leachate and adsorption solution were measured using atomic absorption spectrometry, nitrate (NO 3 -) and ammonium (NH 4 + ) concentrations were determined photometrically with a continuous flow analyzer (RFA-300, Alpkem Corp., Clackamas, OR and Scan Plus analyzer, Skalar Analytical B.V., Breda, The Netherlands) after reduction with Cd and reaction with salicylate, respectively.Statistics. Treatment effects of the bioassay were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a randomized complete block design. Mean separation was done using the least significant difference test (LSD).Charcoal additions increased biomass production of a rice crop by 17% in comparison to a control on a Xanthic Ferralsol (Figure 1). This increase was largely an effect of improved P, K, and possibly Cu nutrition. Nitrogen and Mg uptake decreased in charcoal amended soils which resembled the uptake pattern of rice grown on an Amazonian dark earth (Fimic Anthrosol; Figure 1). Charcoal additions had no significant effects on S, Ca, Fe, Zn, and Mn uptake (P>0.05). In addition to charcoal, fertilization was necessary with N, S, Ca, and Mg for optimizing rice growth. The soil fertility improvement of the dark earth was largely an effect of enhanced P, Ca, and micronutrient availability such as Mn and Cu. Crop nutrition of S and K was not better and that of N and Mg was even lower in rice grown on a dark earth in comparison to the Ferralsol. Fertilization was necessary for those elements and was effective in increasing total nutrient uptake (Figure 1).Figure 1: Biomass production and nutrient uptake by rice (Oryza sativa) after additions of charcoal and fertilizer to a Xanthic Ferralsol or a Fimic Anthrosol after 37 days (means and standard errors; N=4). Therefore, charcoal directly amended the soil with plant-available nutrients such as P, K, and Cu. If fertilizer was applied together with the charcoal some nutrients showed a higher uptake efficiency than the added effects of fertilization and charcoal amendment would suggest. This was the case for N, Ca, and Mg. In the following we discuss the reasons for a higher efficiency of a combined application.Under the high leaching conditions in upland soils of the central Amazon, reduction of nutrient losses by leaching is an important aim in order to improve nutrient availability for plants. Immediately after fertilizer application, nutrient contents significantly increased as shown for ammonium (Figure 2) and leveled off to background levels only 21 days after fertilization. This was also the case with K, Ca, and Mg (data not shown). Leaching from the unfertilized Ferralsol was reduced when charcoal was applied and resembled the low values found in the Anthrosol (Figure 2). Ammonium concentrations in the leachate were also significantly lower in the fertilized Ferralsol after charcoal applications. These results indicate that ammonium was adsorbed by the charcoal and elevated N uptake by rice after the combined application of charcoal and fertilizer (Figure 1) was an effect of ammonium retention. This retention could not be found for other cations or anions, because K, Ca, and Mg were in higher supply with charcoal additions. After several cropping cycles, the nutrients in the charcoal may be depleted and results may differ from those shown here. Since N was applied as ammonium, nitrate contents in the leachate were controlled by biological transformation rather than physical adsorption. In accordance with the leaching results, only ammonium was adsorbed by charcoal (Fig. 3) whereas all other nutrients (P as PO 4 2-, Ca, Mg, K) showed higher concentrations in the equilibrium solution than added (data not shown). The process of adsorption is largely a co-adsorption with soluble organic matter, as an addition of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from a manure extract increased ammonium adsorption. A microbial immobilization or nitrification during shaking can be excluded, since the adsorption was similar when microbial activity was suppressed by additions of azide (Fig. 3). If a slash-and-char technique was to be successful, (i) the quantity of applied charcoal must be produced from the same area of land that is cropped, and (ii) the periods of charcoal production must at least correspond to those of land clearing practiced so far. In other words, the slash-and-char technique must work with the same resources as conventional methods and be an alternative to slash-and-burn or slash-and-mulch. The amount of charcoal which can be produced from different forest vegetation primarily depends on the woody biomass available, and additionally on the production procedure such as charring environment (e.g., oxygen), temperature and time (e.g., Glaser et al., 2002). The average recovery of charcoal mass from woody biomass is 31% according to the published data compiled in Table 1. The effect of different charcoal production methods on its recovery in agricultural fields is not well known and the charring environment such as temperature and charring time is usually poorly documented. The carbon contents of charcoal do not vary much and lie around 63-83% with a mean of 76% (Table 1). The carbon recovery from charred woody biomass is relatively high with 54% (Table 1) due to the high carbon contents of charcoal.Several published values of above ground biomass from secondary and primary forests in the central Amazon show a high proportion of woody biomass (Table 2). Biomass of secondary forests increase with age but depend largely on site conditions and previous land use. Larger amounts of charcoal can be produced from primary (57-66 Mg C ha -1 ) than secondary forests calculated with the average conversion from Table 1. But also secondary forests may produce charcoal equivalents of up to 32 Mg C ha -1 after only 4 years (Table 2). The pot experiment shown in Figures 1 and 2 was conducted with a charcoal amount of 135 Mg C ha -1 (20% weight in 10 cm depth), but also 67 Mg C ha -1 (10%) were shown to significantly improve biomass production of cowpea (Lehmann et al., unpublished). In a pot experiment with Inga edulis, tree height and stem diameter significantly increased through the addition of charcoal (Figure 4; ANOVA P=0.041 and 0.007, respectively). Already at the lowest application rate (13.3 Mg C ha -1 ), charcoal additions were equivalent to fertilizer applications. Therefore, the charcoal amounts produced from the same area of land which is used for cropping during one charring event are sufficient for improving crop performance and for reducing nutrient leaching. Lower amounts of 7.9 Mg C ha -1 were shown to have only minor effects on rice yield in the first cropping season under field conditions (Steiner and Nehls, unpublished data) but more information is needed from field experiments. With increasing charcoal additions, growth of Inga decreased when no fertilizer was applied but increased with fertilizer applications. Charred organic matter from leaves was not accounted for in the calculation and the conversion to charcoal is currently not known. The contribution of leaves to charred organic matter from secondary or primary forests may be small, however, since the proportion of leaves in these forests usually lies below 10% (Table 2). Nevertheless the contribution to total nutrient input may be significant and has to be considered in nutrient budgets Charcoal applications directly increased nutrient availability such as P and K and additionally increased nutrient retention for ammonium. Whether a net nutrient retention of other cations occurs after excess nutrients have been leached or taken up by plants remains to be shown. In this respect the longterm dynamics of soil fertility with charcoal applications are very interesting in comparison to burning or mulching. It may be assumed that nutrients bound to charcoal are more persistent than those in ash or mulch but direct evidence needs to be gathered.The Eastern plains (Llanos) of Colombia cover an area of 26 million ha and are the only land in Colombia available for agricultural expansion. The climate is sub-tropical with distinct wet and dry seasons. The natural landscape is a mosaic of grass covered, rolling savanna dissected by numerous rivers and streams that are bordered by evergreen gallery forest. Small termite mounds are abundant in the grasslands. The gallery forest accounts for nearly 10% of the total area (Rippstein and Girard, 1995). Low soil fertility and frequent natural or induced fire prevent forest from re-colonizing the land (Rippstein et al., 2001). Over the past two centuries the native grassland has been grazed by low productivity livestock and currently supports 3 million cattle (Rivas, 2000).The soils of the Llanos are very acid (pH <4.3) Oxisols (Typic Haplustox), low in nutrients and very high in aluminum saturation (>80%). There are two contrasting textural groups; approximately 90% of the soils are clay-loams and 10% are sandy-loams. The soils are generally poorly drained and prone to compaction that can be induced by tillage or by cattle trampling (Amézquita, 1998). Despite these limitations, agricultural activities have intensified in the region during the last decade. Oil palm, rice, maize, soybeans, sorghum and improved pastures are now appearing, especially in the vicinity of the main cities and connecting roads. Intensification will be accelerated in the coming decades and various crops and management strategies have been developed to allow sustainable use of the Llanos (Friesen et al., 1997). The most promising among these are improved pastures with mixtures of grasses (e.g, Brachiaria sp.) and forage legumes (e.g. Desmodium ovalifolium, Arachis pintoi, Centrosema acutifolium), and rotations of cowpea or soybeans as green manures with varieties of upland rice or acid tolerant maize (Friesen et al., 1997b).The Llanos is a complex ecosystem from the perspective of exchange of greenhouse gases between the land and the atmosphere, and agricultural intensification can be expected to have a large impact on these exchanges. In the natural system, fire and termites cause emissions of CO 2 , CO, CH 4 , NO, N 2 O and volatile organic compounds to the atmosphere (Delmas, 1997;). Cattle are important sources of CH 4 and forage quality has a large impact on the amount of CH 4 emitted per unit of live weight gain or milk production. Soils are sources or sinks for carbon, N 2 O and CH 4 . Improved pastures have shown major increases in carbon stocks in soils of the Llanos (Fisher et al., 1994). Several studies in temperate ecosystems have found that the conversion of natural lands to agriculture may reduce oxidation rates of CH 4 and/or increase emissions of N 2 O by soils (Sitaula et al., 1995;Mosier et al., 1991;Davidson et al., 1995, Willison et al., 1995). High doses of N-fertilizers stimulate N 2 O emission but can reduce CH 4 oxidation (Bronson and Mosier, 1994). Less information is available for soils of the tropics; Nobre (1995) found that the conversion of native Cerrados in Brazil to high input agriculture increased N 2 O emissions by a factor of ten relative to natural environments. On the other hand, Lauren et al. (1995) found little impact of land conversion to pasture or cropland on CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes from a soil near Brasilia. Soils at this site were net sinks for atmospheric CH 4 throughout the year and oxidized from three to six times more CH 4 than similar land uses in temperate regions. Emission rates of N 2 O were very low compared to temperate system counterparts. Venezuelan savannas are believed to be small net sources of CH 4 , although only short-term measurements have been reported (Sanhueza et al., 1995).Changing land use in the Llanos will influence more that one of the factors responsible for exchange of greenhouse gases with the atmosphere. Conversion of savannas to pastures or cropland eliminates fire and reduces the population of termites, thereby reducing emissions of CO 2 , CO, CH 4 , NO, N 2 O and volatile organic compounds. Improved pastures will enhance carbon sequestration in soils and the higher quality forage will reduce emissions of CH 4 per unit of production. However, improved pastures also allow higher stocking rates, leading to increases in CH 4 emission by cattle per unit area of land. Conversion of land to cropland is expected to reduce the soil CH 4 sink strength and increase N 2 O emissions. The objectives of this study were to assess annual fluxes of N 2 O and CH 4 for the main land uses found in the Llanos, to use this and other data to make estimations of the radiative forcing potential (Global Warming Potential (GWP)) of this ecosystem under current conditions and to predict the effect of expected changes in land use over the next two decades on regional GWP. Results can be used to inform policy makers on decisions affecting the future development of the region.Field research was conducted at the Corpoica-CIAT Carimagua station, in the middle of the Colombian Llanos (4° 37' N latitude; 71° 19' longitude). The altitude is 175 masl, and annual rainfall and mean temperature were 2498 mm and 28°C respectively for the period of the study (Nov 1997to Dec 1998). Oxisols of two contrasting textures, a clay-loam (18% sand, 47% silt, 35% clay) and a sandy-loam (64% sand, 17% silt, 19% clay), typical of the Llanos were used in this study.Six study sites representing native and agricultural systems were chosen. Four sites were selected from treatments in a long-term agro-pastoral/crop rotation experiment that was established on a clay loam soil in 1992 to evaluate the sustainability of several cropping and management systems in the Llanos. Details of the experiment are presented elsewhere (Friesen, 1996). The systems used were: native savanna, legume-grass pasture (B. dictyoneura + A. pintoi), upland rice as a monocrop and upland rice in a rotation with cowpea as green manure. Experimental plots were strips 20-m wide by 200-m long. A native savanna site on a sandy-loam soil (30-km southwest of the main site) and gallery forest site (9 km to the north of the main site) on a clay loam soil were also studied.A detailed characterization of soil physical and chemical parameters to a depth of 30 cm was performed in May 1998. Bulk density was measured by the sand replacement method and resistance to penetration by a cone penetrometer. Both parameters were measured using procedures described by Smith and Mullins (1991). Four replicate undisturbed core samples were taken at 5-cm depth increments for determination of air permeability following the method of Koorevaar (1983). Samples were collected in metal cylinders (5-cm diameter, 5-cm height) that were capped immediately after collection. Saturated hydraulic conductivity, particle size distribution, soil porosity and pore size distribution were measured as described by Smith and Mullins (1991) and susceptibility to uniaxial soil compaction as described by Culley (1993). Chemical parameters measured were pH (water 1:1), soil organic matter (wet combustion), N content (micro Kjeldahl), and available P (Bray II). Chemical analyses followed the procedures of Hendershot et al. (1991). In April and October 1998, levels of nitrate and ammonium were determined in samples collected down to 1-m depth.The vented closed chamber technique (Conen and Smith, 1998;IAEA, 1992) was used to monitor fluxes of CH 4 and N 2 O between the soil and the atmosphere. Four replicate PVC rings (10-cm high by 30cm diameter) per treatment were permanently inserted 7-cm into the soil. White polyethylene vented chambers (10 cm high and 30 cm diameter) were attached to the rings just prior to each 1-hour measurement period. A 5 cm wide rubber band cut from a tire innertube was used to seal the joint between the chamber and the ring. The top of a chamber was fitted with a septum to facilitate extraction of gas samples, a hole for insertion of a digital thermometer, and a venting glass tube to prevent pressure differentials between the chamber and the atmosphere. The dimensions of the venting tube (0.5 cm diameter, 8 cm high) were selected as described by Hutchinson and Mosier (1981), and the tube was inserted 5 cm inside the chamber.To reduce temperature increases within chambers, a reflecting white cover was placed over the chamber during the period of sampling. Gas samples were collected in 20 mL teflon-valved glass syringes at 0, 20, 40 and 60 minutes after installing the chamber. Immediately after collection, 15 mL of gas were transferred to high vacuum pre-evacuated glass containers (10 mL in volume). The glass containers were pre-evacuated to 2-3x10 -6 mbar, using a freeze dryer that also allowed capping of the evacuated vials with butyl rubber caps, which are impermeable to CH 4 and N 2 O (IAEA, 1992). An aluminum over-cap was crimped over the rubber cap to effectively seal the flask and avoid accidental opening. Preservation of samples in these containers was found to be longer than 6 months, however analysis of samples was always completed within four weeks of collection.At the time of gas sampling, composite soil samples (0-10 cm) were collected from around each chamber for determination of moisture content. Soil temperature was measured within the area of the chamber just before and after the sampling period. Air temperature inside the chamber was recorded at every sampling interval to later account for the change in the density of the air inside the chamber as a function of temperature. Gas flux measurements were initiated on November 1997. Sampling frequency was at three-week intervals, except for the first month when three samplings were made. The order and time of sampling was standardized; sampling was started at 8 am, 9:30 am, 11 am and 2:00 pm for the sites under clay-loam savanna, rice, rice-cowpea and pasture respectively. Samples from the sandy-loam savanna and the gallery forest were collected the next day beginning at 10 am and 3 pm respectively.A Shimadzu model 14A gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with FID and ECD detectors was set up to simultaneously analyze CH 4 , N 2 O and CO 2 in the same sample, while venting N 2 , O 2 and H 2 O (Rondón, 2000). A 14 port, two-position valve (Valco Instruments) was used to inject samples via a 2-mL gas loop and to re-direct the stream of gas to the ECD detector just after the CH 4 peak was obtained with the FID detector. The system used a pre-column (1-m) and a main column (3-m), both were 1/8 inch stainless steel tubing filled with Porapaq Q (80-100 mesh), and a carrier gas (N 2 ) flow rate of 25 mL min -1 . An electrically operated pneumatic actuator was used to precisely time the switching of the valve. CLASS VP software (Shimadzu) was used to control the actuator as well as the GC. The GC temperatures were 24°C at injection port, 60°C for the columns and 320°C for the ECD detector. For each gas sample, a 3 mL sub-sample was withdrawn from the glass vials using a 5 mL glass syringe fitted with a Teflon valve and injected into the GC via the sample loop. The existence of positive pressure inside the vials was checked at the time of sample withdrawal. Analysis time per sample was 5.5 minutes. Gas retention times were 2.1 minutes for CH 4 , 3.8 min for CO 2 and 4.8 minutes for N 2 O. Class VP software was used to calculate the concentrations (ppm) of the gases relative to the standards. Compressed air and Scotty prepared mixtures containing 1 and 3 ppm CH 4 and 0.9 and 5 ppm N 2 O were the most commonly used standards. For samples high in CH 4 or N 2 O, other standards were used (i.e. 10, 100 ppm CH 4 and 10, 100 ppm N 2 O) as appropriate.Differences in gas concentrations over time were used to calculate gas flux to/from soil for each chamber using the condition of a linear increase for at least three points to accept a flux measurement. When the linearity condition did not occur, the four samples were reanalyzed and the chamber was not considered in the calculations of flux averages if the problem persisted. For CH 4 , fluxes are shown as net oxidation rates (net CH 4 consumption by the soil) with emissions from soil shown as negative values. For N 2 O, positive fluxes represent emissions from soil. Annual fluxes were estimated by integrating the net area under the curve for the plot of gas flux over time. The method was applied to each of the four chambers in every land use, in order to calculate the reported average value. Annual fluxes represent the balance between periods of net emission and net consumption.Comparisons of annual flux averages between land-uses were made by one-way analysis of variance using SYSTAT version 8 software. Comparison of means was done using Tukey's HSD method. A level of significance of ≤5% was used.Weekly rainfall and minimum, maximum and average temperatures for the period of measurement are shown in Figure 1. Annual rainfall in the study year (2323 mm) was slightly higher than the 20-year average for the station (2150 mm). March was also wetter than usual while September was drier than usual. In general, the Llanos has a dry season from November to April and a wet season from May to October. A clear alternation of dry and wet days is common in the rainy season, which helps to prevent the soil from becoming waterlogged for long periods of time. The number of days without rainfall (222) exceeded that of rainy days (142) during the year. Towards the end of the dry season, strong solar radiation and frequent winds dried grassy vegetation. Deep rooted shrubs and the gallery forest, with the ability to extract water from deep in the soil, remained green throughout the year. Temperatures are fairly constant through the year with a maximum daily variation of 10°C. For most of the day, temperature remains in a narrow band from 26-29°C. No significant correlation was observed between air temperature and gas fluxes. With the exception of the gallery forest soil, saturated hydraulic conductivity was generally low in the clay loam savanna soils, which explains the characteristic wetness of this environment. Poor drainage was exacerbated by conversion of savanna to pasture. Reduced water conductivity in the pasture (Figure 3C) is attributed to sub-surface soil compaction as can be seen from the increased resistance to penetration in the 5-10 cm depth (Figure 3J), probably as a result of cattle trampling. In fact, susceptibility to compaction (Figure 3F) is higher for the whole profile in the pasture compared to the corresponding savanna. Lower susceptibility values for the 5 to 10 cm and 20 to 25 cm layers of the pasture indicate that these layers are already compacted. Other researchers (Mosier and Delgado, 1997;Keller et al., 1993) have also reported subsurface compaction and increased water retention in pastures. As expected, hydraulic conductivity (Figure 3C) is higher in the sandy soils than in the clay-loam soils, demonstrating the influence of soil texture. The greatest hydraulic conductivity was found in the gallery forest soils, probably as a result of improved aggregation due to higher SOM contents, coupled with increased presence of root channels and faunal activity which, in turn, results in low soil bulk density values.Methane oxidation rates from November 1997 to December 1998 for soils under native vegetation and agricultural use are shown if Figures 4A and B, respectively. The temporal variation in CH 4 oxidation rate is high, with average values ranging from +120 µg CH 4 m -2 h -1 for the forest in December to -320 µg CH 4 m -2 h -1 (net emission) for pastures, in August. Spatial variability within a land use was also high, with RSD values ranging from 10% to 400%. However, for most of the sampling dates, RSD was in the range 60 to 120%, which is comparable to other studies on similar soils in the tropics (Poth et al., 1995;Cofman et al., 1998;Scharfe et al., 1990;Keller, 1994). The highest spatial variability was found with soils under rice, while forest and sandy savanna soils showed consistently lower variability.Methane fluxes followed distinct patterns according to rainfall and soil moisture regimes. During the dry season (November to April), soils under all land uses were net sinks for atmospheric CH 4 . Oxidation of CH 4 was progressively reduced as the soils became wetter in the rainy season (May to October). Soils of the clay loam savanna and the pasture eventually became a source of CH 4 during the period of peak rainfall (Figure 1) when soils were at their wettest (Figure 2).The gallery forest soil consistently had higher CH 4 oxidation rates than the other ecosystems and none of the four sampling areas were ever a source of CH 4 . Low bulk density (Figure 3A), high water infiltration rates (Figure 3C), high air permeabilities (Figure 3I) and low resistance to penetration (Figure 3J) are physical attributes of soil in the gallery forest that explain these results. In contrast, all other land uses on the clay loam soil have lower values than the gallery forest soil for air permeability and hydraulic conductivity through the 30 cm sampling depth. The clay loam savanna and pasture soils showed the most physical constraints to drainage and gas transport in the top 10cm of soil, consistent with these two systems becoming a source of CH 4 during the wet season. The pasture soil had the highest water filled pore space (Figure 2B) and the highest CH 4 emissions of all systems during the month of July. Converting the clay loam savanna into cropland, reduced CH 4 oxidation rates during the dry season (Figure 4A and  B), probably as a result of reduced availability of water. On the other hand, tillage improved drainage and aeration, reducing the length of time that agricultural soils become anaerobic, which results in only small emissions from these soils in the wet season.Soil texture was an important factor affecting CH 4 fluxes in the two savanna sites. Methane oxidation rate in the sandy savanna soil was lower than that in the clay loam savanna during the dry season, probably because low water retention (Figure 2) reduced the population and/or activity of CH 4oxidizing bacteria (Boekx et al., 1997;Bottner 1985) relative to the clay loam savanna soil. The greater total porosity, and especially macro-porosity (Figure 3F  Estimates of annual CH 4 fluxes are presented in Figure 5A. The gallery forest soil, with a sink strength of 3.05 kg CH 4 ha -1 y -1 , constituted the highest sink for CH 4 . The CH 4 sink strength in the gallery forest is similar to values reported for a wet forest in Puerto Rico (Steudler et al., 1991), and other types of tropical forest in Central and South America (Keller, 1994;Keller and Reiners, 1994;Keller and Wofsy, 1986). The annual CH 4 sink strengths in the sandy and clay loam savanna soils were only about one-third and one-twelth of that of the gallery forest soil, respectively. Methane sink strength in the Llanos clayloam savanna soil (0.26 kg CH 4 ha -1 y -1 ) is similar to values reported for grasslands on Oxisols of Puerto Rico (Mosier and Delgado, 1997), and higher than values reported by Sanhueza et al. (1995) for comparable savannas in Venezuela, which were found to be a minor source of CH 4 . However, methane sink strength on well aerated, high clay Oxisols of the Brazilian savanna (Cerrados) was 1 to 2 times higher than that of the Llanos savannas (Lauren et al., 1995). y -1 for rice mono-cropping and by 4x to y kg CH 4 ha -1 y -1 for the rice-cowpea rotation These results contrast with several reports (Sitaula et al., 1995;Mosier et al., 1991, Bronson andMosier, 1994) showing a decrease in methane consumption rate when soils were fertilized with ammonium fertilizer sources. (However, information to specifically address effects of N status/source (fertilizer or green manure) on CH 4 oxidation capacity was not collected in the present study. Presumably, removal of physical constraints to gas exchange counteracted any negative effect of fertilizer on CH 4 oxidation rate.Conversion of clay loam savanna to pasture changed the soil from a net sink to a net source (1.92 kg CH 4 ha -1 y -1 ) of CH 4 . A similar result was found for conversion of tropical forest in Costa Rica to pasture (Keller, 1983). Several other pastures sites in temperate (Van der Pohl, 1999) and tropical regions (Mosier and Delgado, 1997) have been found to be net sources of atmospheric CH 4 . Keller and Reiners (1994) found that the condition of pastures greatly affected CH 4 emissions, with emissions from abandoned, degraded pastures being nearly five times higher than from pastures in good condition. The pasture plots used in the present study were 7-years old, originally planted with B. dictyoneura and A. pintoi, and supporting a stocking rate of 3 head/ha. Signs of pasture degradation were evident at time of sampling: low persistence of the legume, increased bulk density, subsurface compaction, reduced air permeability, occurrence of isolated termite mounds etc. Options are available to improve the management of these pastures in ways that reduce soil compaction and prevent or slow pasture degradation (Amezquita, 1998).Fluxes of N 2 O from soils of the native and agricultural systems over the one-year study period are shown in Figures 6a and 6b, respectively. Spatial variability in N 2 O emissions was higher than that for CH 4 , with RSD values mostly in the range of 100 to 200%, although values as high as 400% were sometimes found. This level of variability is similar to that found in other studies (Williams et al., 1999;Ruser et al., 1998;Veldkamp et al., 1998;Keller and Reiners, 1994). Soils of all land-uses were net sources of N 2 O for most of the year, although small sink strengths occurred in the sandy soil savanna at the end of the dry season and in the pasture soil at the end of the rains. Emission rates from natural ecosystem soils were generally low, with the gallery forest the main contributor. A peak of emissions was approximately coincident with the peak of the rainy season in the gallery forest. No consistent difference was found between the savannas on soils of contrasting texture. Observed low emission rates in native land uses may be partially the result of the small amount of nitrogen that is cycled in these nutrient-limited soils (Figure 7) and low soil pH, which reduces both nitrification and denitrification rates (Broadbent et al., 1965;Jackson, 1967). Emission rates for the savannas are similar to those reported for the Brazilian Cerrados (Nobre, 1995;Lauren et al., 1995) and for native grassland bordering the Guyana rain forest in Venezuela (Sanhueza et al., 1990), but were higher than those reported for the more comparable savannas of Venezuela (Hao et al., 1988).Conversion of clay loam savanna to a grass-legume pasture did not significantly increase N 2 O emissions although legumes are known to do this (Galbally et al., 1992;Duxbury et al., 1982). A possible reason is the relatively low proportion of legume in the pasture studied. The annual emission value of 1.27 kg is lower than values for temperate grasslands (Williams, 1999;Ball et al., 1997a;Van den Pohl, 1999) or from fertilized pastures in Costa Rica (Veldkamp et al., 1997), but falls within the range found for degraded pastures in Costa Rica (Keller and Reiners, 1994), and Puerto Rico (Mosier and Delgado, 1997).Annual emissions of N 2 O were significantly increased (p<0.01) by slightly more than three-fold when clay loam savanna was converted to cropland. There was no difference in emissions between the two rice systems (Figure 8), where N is supplied predominantly through inorganic fertilizer in the monocrop and via organic sources in the rotation. This result does not support the suggestion (Freney, 1997), that more N 2 O is emitted from organic than inorganic N sources. The observed emission rates in the rice systems of 2.8-3.0 kg N 2 O ha -1 y -1 correspond to 1.8% of external nitrogen inputs after removing the contribution of the background flux from the savanna soil. This proportion is higher than the value of 1.25% x fertilizer-N which has been frequently used as an average for fertilized fields (Mosier et al., 1995), but lower than the more recently suggested proportion of 1.25% x fertilizer-N + 1 (Hopkins et al., 1997). The data is similar to other studies on tropical acid Oxisols (Mosier et al., 1998), where the conversion of the native ecosystem to agriculture, with additions of 100kg N as fertilizer, resulted in a five-fold increase in N 2 O emissions from soil.The role of the soil Table 1 shows figures for the area of the various land uses found in the Llanos, as well as their estimated contribution to annual net fluxes of methane and nitrous oxide. Data for coverage area corresponds to the nearly 14 Mha of the so called well-drained savanna which is more suitable for intensification of agriculture or pastures (Rivas, 2000).By contributing about half of the total methane sink, soil in the gallery forest plays a key role in the net balances of this trace gas in soils of the Llanos. Given the relatively small area covered with forest, any disruption could have an important impact on regional soil methane sink strength. To illustrate this, if current forest area were reduced by 50%, the net methane sink by soils from the Llanos would be also reduced by 50%. Crops included in this study are not the only ones currently used or likely to be used in the future, and therefore a degree of uncertainty arises in regional gas budgets when it is assumed (as in Table 1) that rice as a monocrop and in rotation with green manure are representative of the effect of cropland in the region. However, given that the area under crops is still small, their potential contribution to changes in balances of methane in the Llanos is probably not too high, even under the scenario of a two fold increase in cropland expected for the next two decades (Smith at al., 1997). The annual sink strength of methane in soils from the Llanos (0.0078 Tg/y) represents around 0.02% of the estimated 40 Tg/y global soil sink strength (Minami, 1997).Total N 2 O emissions are greatly controlled by the native land uses (savannas and gallery forest), due to their high area coverage. Crops and pastures contribute currently in similar proportions to the overall budget of this gas in the Llanos. The global annual emission is low (0.1%) with respect to the estimated global planetary emissions of 13Tg/y (Bowman, 1994). At least two types of termites are found in soils of the Llanos: subterranean soil-feeding termites and mound building termites (Decaëns, 1995). In a study conducted simultaneously with this, Rondón (2000) has shown that essentially all methane generated by subterranean termites is oxidized by soils before escaping into the atmosphere. The only contribution to net emissions of this gas is made by species of mound building termites of the genus Spinitermes. Annual estimated fluxes due to termites were reported as 6.7 and 7.2 g CH 4 /ha for pastures of B. humidicola and native savanna respectively (Rondón, 2000). These values are fairly low compared to net soil sinks in the region, and consequently methane emissions by termites does not constitute an important component in the budgets of this gas in the Llanos. Soils under other land uses did not have termite mounds. To extrapolate annual fluxes of methane from termite mounds to the overall area of the Llanos covered with native savanna (in clay and sandy soils) and with pastures, it has been assumed that the density of 36 active mounds per hectare reported by Rondón (2000), for native savannas and 26 for pastures, applies throughout the Llanos. The integrated annual methane flux coming from termite mounds in the Llanos is 76 Mg CH 4 /year. This value is only about 0.0004% of the total global emissions of 19.7 Tg CH 4 attributed to termites (Sanderson, 1996).Towards the end of the dry season, vegetation in the savanna becomes too dry to be of value for cattle. To favor the re-growth of higher quality grasses, ranchers frequently burn their savannas. This, in addition to common natural fires results in a complete burning of the savannas at least every two years. Burning affects fluxes of GHG by two mechanisms: direct emission to the atmosphere in the form of the products of combustion, and indirect effects created by disturbances of the normal fluxes of gases from the soils. In a parallel study, Rondón (2000) measured both direct emissions of methane and nitrous oxide and long-term effects of burning on soil-atmosphere exchange. Extrapolating annual emissions to the area of the Llanos which is susceptible to burning (9.96 million hectares), direct emissions of methane due to burning were estimated to be 67,728 Mg CH 4 /y, while indirect effects represent a reduction in 723 ton CH 4 /y in the soil sink capacity (Rondón, 2000). The net annual release of methane by burning is then 68451 Mg per year, which is nearly 11 times higher than total methane oxidation by soils. Burning consequently has a major role in the annual budget of methane in the Llanos. The combined release of nitrous oxide in the region due to burning is 6928 Mg N 2 O/year, which is about 37% of the total emissions of this gas by soils in the region. Its contribution is then also important though not dominant in the regional balance of nitrous oxide.Methane emission by cattle is a well-documented process, believed to be responsible for annual emissions on the order of 90 Tg (Johnson, 1996) or approximately half of total agricultural sources (Cole et al., 1997). Unfortunately there is a complete lack of data regarding methane emission by cattle grazing native savanna vegetation or improved pastures in the Llanos. Cattle population in the well drained Llanos is estimated to be around 2.5 million animals (Fedegan, 2000). Kurihara et al., (1999) reported methane emissions by cattle fed on tropical grasses of the order of 113g CH 4 /cow-day. Though grasses are different, assuming the same methane production rate for cattle in the Llanos, the estimated production of methane by cattle in the region would be approximately 103,000 ton/year. This is about 16 times higher than the net sink by soils. This demonstrates the key role of cattle in controlling the budget of methane in the Llanos.The total number of cattle in the Llanos is not expected to increase significantly in the near future due to market and demand constraints. What is expected with the introduction of improved pastures, is that cattle will move from native savannas frequently in remote locations, to improved pastures near to the roads and infrastructure. There are probably good opportunities to improve balances of methane in the region by offering better quality forage for the cattle. Future research in the Llanos should in consequence, try to account for the effect of improved diets on local methane budgets.In Table 2 results from the contribution of the major components of gaseous exchange are presented, and extrapolated to the respective area of influence to generate total annual fluxes for the Llanos. Data in Table 2 indicates that all together, the savanna ecosystem constitutes a net source of atmospheric methane, being largely controlled by direct emissions generated by burning and by the unfortunate 'bad breath\" of cattle. The Llanos emits only about 0.03% of the total estimated global annual emissions of methane (535Tg, IPCC, 1997), and about 0.1% of total annual emissions of nitrous oxide. Covering an area of approximately 0.094% of the planetary land area, the region shows emissions of N 2 O similar to planetary averages, while emission of CH 4 is only around one third of average global emissions. The Llanos can consequently be labeled as an environmentally friendly ecosystem. Despite that, there are opportunities to further reduce emissions of GHG's in the region.  1). (♣) An average stocking rate of 0.6 heads/ha was assumed for the Llanos (Rivas, 2000) (^)Termite mounds were considered for the soils under savannas and pastures.Data in Table 2 indicates that mitigation strategies should be directed towards reducing the frequency of fires and reducing emissions by ruminants. Probably there is a little opportunity to favorably alter emission factors by burning at other times during the dry season, this impact has to be evaluated. Burning is however very important for maintaining the productivity and functioning of the ecosystem and also to permit the current economic exploitation of the savannas.Therefore, unless more profitable management options are offered to farmers, there is little opportunity to reduce the scope of fires in the savannas. Pastures could play a role here, as they are economically feasible options for the development of the region (Vera, 1997). As was mentioned before, improved pastures with mixtures of high productivity grasses and forage legumes could also play a role in reducing emissions of methane by animals in the region.In Table 3, the combined effect of all components on the balances of methane and nitrous oxide has been integrated to provide annual emissions per unit area in each land use. Though pasture soils were found to be a net source of methane, the fact that burning is eliminated in well managed pastures counteracts emissions by soil. However, given that stocking rate is increased six fold when converting a unit area of savannas into pastures, there is a 4.6 fold increase in the net release of methane to the atmosphere per unit area due to the cattle. Taking all the factors into consideration, conversion of savannas to cropland is the only alternative identified in this study, which can convert the savanna ecosystem into a net sink of methane, by eliminating the sources (burning and termites) and enhancing the soil sink. This option would however increase net emissions of nitrous oxide and consequently a \"compromise solution\" should be adopted when trying to include the environmental perspective within the development programs for the Llanos. It is clear however, that under the low fertilizer application rates expected to be used in the Llanos, crops will provide a good alternative to the development of the region in an \"environmentally friendly way\".Clearly, regenerating forest on deforested land will provide the best alternative to mitigate emission of greenhouse gases in the Llanos. Unfortunately this is not an option easy to implement, because fire normally prevents the advance of forest into the savanna. This implies that measures to prevent the fire from reaching the borders of the forest should be reinforced, but that normally involves high cost in building roads which the farmers will not be able to afford if they are only for the sake of the environmental benefit. One possibility to cope with this problem would be to foster the use of areas near the borders of the forest as pastures or croplands. It is however reasonably to expect that governmental subsidies should be employed to make this option feasible. Perhaps there is an opportunity to recruit some funds by selling the equivalent GHG offset resulting from recovering forest (Moffat, 1997). Soil carbon, a solid component in the greenhouse gas analysis Soils of the Llanos have been found to be able to sequester important amounts of atmospheric carbon when deep rooted grasses are introduced in these lands. Net C sequestration by pastures of Brachiaria humidicola in the top 1m deep soil was reported as 25.9 ton C in a ten year period, while grass-legume pastures of B. humidicola and the forage legume Arachis pintoi increased such amounts to 70.4 ton/10 years (Fisher et al., 1994). Though in this study fluxes of CO 2 were not considered, It is clear that the extent of the reported carbon accumulation in soils under pastures plays a main role in configuring the complete scenario of GHG's in the Llanos. Consequently, an analysis will be attempted here to include this component.As a mechanism for integrating the combined effect of all greenhouse gases involved in the Llanos, the CO 2 -equivalent global warming potential (E-GWP) of CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O has been calculated for two time horizon scenarios (20 and 100 years), for every land use in the Llanos. In a 20-year time scenario, CH 4 has a GWP equivalent to 62 times that of CO 2 , while that of N 2 O is 275 times compared to CO 2 . In the 100 years time horizon, the corresponding GWP values for CH 4 and N 2 O are respectively 23 and 296 times that of CO 2 (IPCC, 2001). The calculation of integrated E-GWP expressed as equivalent kg of CO 2 , was done by multiplying the per hectare annual emission of CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O from each contributing factor, by the land area associated with that factor and then by the relative GWP of each gas. Adding together the values obtained for each factor gives the overall equivalent E-GWP for the Llanos, expressed as equivalent units of CO 2 . For the calculation, it was assumed that burning does not make a net contribution to emissions of CO 2, because the CO2 released by fire is reabsorbed from atmosphere during vegetation regrowth. Stocking rate of cattle was assumed as 0.5 head/ha in clay and sandy savannas and 3 head/ha in pastures. The same CH 4 emission factor for cattle was used for improved pastures and for native savannas. Soil emissions of CH 4 and N 2 O were assumed to be the same in grass alone and in grasslegume pastures. Figure 9 shows calculated E-GWP values (for one year total emissions of all GHG's) on a hectare basis for the various land uses and has been calculated for two time horizons, 20 and 100 years of influence. Figure 9 includes the reported (Fisher et al., 1994) values for carbon sequestration in pastures of grass-legume (0.1Mha) with a high rate of carbon sequestration (70.4 ton C/ha in a 10-year period), as well as pastures of grass alone (0.5Mha) with lower rate of carbon accumulation (25.6 ton C/ha in a 10year period). Annual carbon sequestration by pastures was calculated assuming the same rate of accumulation for each year, and then converting it into CO 2.All natural land uses (savannas and forests) show positive equivalent E-GWP values, indicating that they are contributing to the radiative forcing of the atmosphere. The gallery forest is clearly the best natural land use from the perspective of the heating effect on the atmosphere. Its equivalent E-GWP is very low in both time scenarios. At the 20-year horizon, the warming contribution from the gases emitted during one year by one hectare of forest is equivalent to that of the CO 2 emitted by the combustion of 35 gallons of gasoline (fuel for 8 hours trip of a small car!). Including all the sources and sinks, the radiative power of savannas is low and decreases when the 100 year time scenario is used, because most of the contribution is in the form of CH 4 , which is a short lived gas in the atmosphere. Crops have integrated E-GWP lower than that of the savannas in the 20 year scenario and approximately the same as the savannas in the 100 year scenario. The conversion of savanna land into cropland does not have a detrimental effect on the E-GWP. The inclusion of pastures in the Llanos plays a much more important role in affecting the overall E-GWP. Due to the modest emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from pastures and the very high sequestration of atmospheric CO 2 as soil organic carbon, pastures can convert the system from a modest source into an important net sink of radiatively important species. The rate and persistence of C accumulation plays a major role in the strength of the sink, especially in the 20-year horizon. Even with rates of C accumulation in soil of around half of the reported value for grass alone pastures in Carimagua, the equivalent E-GWP of annual emissions from one hectare of pastures would be zero.Land use patterns in the Llanos are expected to change in the next two decades. Studies suggest (Smith et al., 1997;Rivas, 1999), that the area of crops could increase up to two times the current values while the area under pastures will also double in the same period. The area under grass-legume pastures is expected to grow from 0.1 to 0.3 Mha, while the area under grass alone pasture will continue to dominate and will increase from 0.5 to 0.9 Mha. This expansion will be at the expenses of the clay-loam savanna, which has slightly better levels of soil nutrients than the sandy savanna. The area under gallery forest will probably decrease by 10% in the next 20 years assuming the same rate of current intervention. Annual rate of C-sequestration by pastures in soil was assumed as reported for grass alone and grass-legume pastures at Carimagua (Fisher et al., 1994).Table 4 shows results of a calculation of the integrated E-GWP for the Llanos at present and in the year 2020 for a 20-year time horizon. Under current land use distribution, the Llanos as a whole plays a minor role in the radiative forcing in the earth's atmosphere. Its integrated E-GWP of 9.6 Tg of CO 2 equivalents is only about 0.004% of estimated global planetary radiative contribution of about 242,000 Tg of CO 2 equivalents (IPCC, 2001). In Figure 10, in addition to the 20-year time horizon a longer term 100-year time horizon has been used to calculate effects of present and expected land use distribution in the Llanos. The development of the Llanos will have small net benefits to the environment by reducing the radiative force of the atmosphere. This benefit will be accentuated in the longer term scenario. Once more the minor role of the Llanos in the context of warming of the planet is emphasized. This study presents the first data set on fluxes of methane and nitrous oxide for the Colombian Llanos. Results indicate that gallery forest is an important sink for atmospheric methane, while savannas are a minor sink. Therefore, preservation of the gallery forest should be of priority concern as this environment also provides a home for a large biodiversity of endemic plants and animals.Conversion of soils into cropland does not reduce their methane oxidizing capacity and some of the management practices could even increase their sink strength. This may be the result of eliminating some of the physical constraints that limit the gas exchange between soil and the atmosphere (soil compaction, surface sealing etc.). On the other hand it also increases emissions of nitrous oxide and is equally expected to increase losses of soil carbon as a result of tillage. Despite this, given that the main contributing factors (burning and cattle) are excluded in cropland, it can be anticipated that agriculture will be a better option than savanna for reducing the radiative forcing of the Llanos.Emission of methane by biomass burning is a key factor in the balance of this gas in the Llanos. Any action that can reduce the area submitted to burning and or the frequency of burning events, will improve the radiative balance in the region. In this respect, conversion of savanna into croplands or pastures is clearly an advantage because burning is eliminated in such land uses. Promoting the recolonization of the land by gallery forests constitute a win-win situation as it will not only eliminate the burning, but also will increase the methane soil sink strength.Fire plays a key role in maintaining the biodiversity in the savanna, in addition to other important though not fully understood ecological roles. Consequently, complete suppression of the burning is not a desirable option. Appropriate corridors to maintain the continuity of the savanna ecosystem should always be considered.Cattle-associated emissions of methane dominate methane budgets in the Llanos. Improving estimates of their actual contribution as well as exploring promising opportunities to reduce their impact by offering forages of higher nutritional value, are important topics for research in the near future.Natural ecosystems as well as converted lands constitute small net sinks for N 2 O in the Llanos. Emission rates are related with the amounts of nitrogen cycled in the soil; nitrogen inputs in the form of fertilizer or green manure cause enhanced emissions. Strategies to manage these inputs in order to minimize nutrient losses and reduce environmental impact require further attention.In general fluxes of methane and nitrous oxide from soils in the Llanos can be considered low, but fall within the range reported for similar environments in Africa (Seiler et al., 1984), Central America (Mosier et al., 1998), Brazil (Lauren et al., 1995) and Venezuela (Scharffe et al., 1980), and even for tall grass prairies in temperate regions (Tate and Striegl, 1993).Though pastures will increase methane emissions from cattle due to the increase in the stocking rate as compared to savanna, by avoiding the fire and by sequestering atmospheric CO 2 in the form of soil organic carbon, pasture is the only land use option identified in this study, that can shift the land from a net source into a net sink of atmospheric GHG's.This study has shown that the Llanos are only a very minor contributor to the warming of the atmosphere and that expected intensification of agriculture and cattle production in the coming two decades would not have negative effects on the radiative forcing potential of the region. Despite this, there are other well identified constraints for the sustainability of the natural resource base, whose impact should never be forgotten. Pasture degradation is major cause of pasture abandonment specially in the Brazilian Cerrados and the Amazon. Degradation could result not only in reduced C sequestration in soils but even turn them into net sources of Carbon (Da Silva et al., 2000). Though current pasture degradation is not too severe in the Llanos, unless appropriate management practices were adopted, this could become a critical problem in the region, whose environmental consequences are still to be evaluated.In the jargon of optometrics, 20-20 means perfect vision. We hope that appropriate vision will be used by policy makers in the design of development plans for the Llanos which allows the region to continue being an environmentally friendly ecosystem in the year 2020.The vicious cycle of deforestation: Vast areas of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared in the last decades to be converted into pastures. After few years of use, the land is degraded as a result of nutrient depletion, soil compaction and surface sealing. Productivity declines severely and pastures become abandoned, giving place for a succession to secondary forest. A new forest area is then usually cleared to start the process again. Abandoned lands are characterized by very low storage of nutrients and reduced stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC). Some alternatives do exist to recuperate degraded land including the establishment of agroforestry systems. These options are expected to help in restoring soil nutrients and allow C sequestration in both biomass and soils. This poster presents information on C storage in soils under 10 year old agroforestry systems and secondary vegetation, as well as on primary forest for an area in the Central Amazon.The Charcoal contribution. Natural and anthropogenic fires are frequent in the Amazon forest. Combustion of plant material is never complete specially for roots, and this result in variable amounts of residual charcoal being added to the soils. Charcoal is ubiquitous in Amazonian soils and is present in a range of size particles: from coarse (>2 mm diameter) usually found mostly at the soil top layers, to very fine particles (<50 µm) distributed along the soil profile.Charcoal is mainly carbon in an extremely inert form but until now not much effort has being devoted to define this as a separate C pool in soils. Given its inherently heterogeneous distribution, charcoal presence creates problems when trying to assess the effect of a given land management option on C sequestration by soils. Changes of SOC are normally small for short to medium terms and could be masked by the \"noise signal\" created by the charcoal. This noise also confounds interpretation of the dynamics of SOC when the 13 C technique is used (Desjardins et al., 1996). To be able to separate any difference in SOC resulting from different land use, charcoal contribution to total soil C has to be assessed. In this study we evaluated the contribution of different charcoal size classes to total soil C.The project is being conducted at EMBRAPA-CPAA research station at km 54 north of Manaus, Brazil. In a long-term experiment, four alternatives to recover degraded land in the Central Amazon have been studied: establishment of two silvopastoral (SPS) and two agroforestry (AFS) systems: SPS included ASP1 (medium fertilizer inputs) combining Brachiaria brizantha, Desmodium ovalifolium and mahogany (Sweithenia macrophyla) and low input ASP2 in which B. Brizantha has been replaced by B. humidicola. AFS were: AS1 based on palm species(Bactris gasipaes and Euterpe olearaceae) and also includes Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum and Colubrina acreanaea ). AS2 is based in native and exotic fruit trees (6 species) and also includes Mahogany and Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa). Secondary vegetation of similar age to the AFS and primary forest soils have been used as controls. Three repetitions of every system and control were evaluated. The area has a mean annual rainfall of 2250 mm and average temperature of 28°C. Soils are high clay Oxisols, very low in fertility.Given the complexity of the AFS studied, to obtain a representative sample of soil from a given systems is a complex task. Soil sampling was based on a species-interaction strategy. In each plot (3000 m 2 ), a composite soil sample of five sites was taken from each of the main plant-plant interaction found in the plot. Samples were separated at 0-5, 5-15, 15-30, 30-60 and 60-100 cm depth. Soil was air dried and gently dissagretated to <4mm diameter. A type Jones sample divider was used to separate soil in three size classes: 2-4 mm, 0,5-2mm and less than 0,5 mm diameter. Charcoal was separated by hand in a subsample of the 2-4 mm (G) and 0.5-2mm (M) size. Then, the original sample (free from medium to large size charcoal) was reconstituted to be analyzed for total C and nutrients. In a subset of samples, the fine fraction was used to determine black carbon content using the methodology of Kuhlbusch (1995). Finely ground soil (<53 um) was oxidized with repeated doses of NaOH (four times), HCl, HNO 3 , H 2 O 2 , H 2 O and finally thermally oxidized in a Oxygen-rich environment at 350C for 3 hours. C content in the original sample and the final residue were determined in a dry combustion CHN analyzer. C content in the residual soil after the chemical and thermal oxidation is defined as black carbon, and in addition to charcoal it includes the most highly resistant components of SOM.Charcoal. Figure 1 shows the relative contribution from charcoal in each size class to total charcoal for the case of the ASP1 system. Charcoal in medium and large sizes is more abundant in the surface and subsurface layers and decays strongly as soil gets deeper. It is worth nothing however, that medium size particles are found even at 1m depth suggesting or localized burning of deep roots or migration of charcoal from the surface probably through root or soil fauna channels. Variability in charcoal content in the M and G size classes was high indicating non-homogeneous distribution of charcoal in soils. The contribution of the fine fraction is much more homogeneously distributed through the soil profile.  Soil C stocks. There were found significant differences among C stocks in most soil layers except in the surface layer where variability was the highest. Figure 3 shows the C stocks stored in the 60-100 cm depth soil layer. Carbon storage at that layer was higher in the primary forest soil as compared to other systems, being followed by the fruit based system (which includes some large trees), suggesting an important contribution from deep roots to C buildup. The ASP2 low input system presented the lowest C storage at such depth. This is in agreement with lower aerial biomass estimates for such system reported by McCaffery (Poster in this meeting). In Figure 4, total C storage in the soil profile is presented for all systems (data correspond to C content after removing the coarse and medium size charcoal fragments). Significant differences were found between systems. When the charcoal contribution is taken into account, such differences become hidden. Forest soils store the highest amount of C (121 Mg.ha -1 ), followed by the AS2 system with 116 Mg.ha -1 . On the other extreme, soils under secondary vegetation and ASP2 system presented the lowest stock (106 Mg.ha -1 ). Results in this study indicate that agroforestry systems permit a moderate recovery of soil C stock relative to the control under secondary vegetation. Rates of C accrual are in the order of 1.8 Mg.ha -1 .y -1 . This contrasts with much higher rates reported for temperate and tropical regions (Bruce et al., 1999). It is worth mentioning however, that the initial soils were highly degraded after supporting cattle grazing for more that 12 years. Application of fertilizer was also very low to the systems. This suggests that there is space for increasing C accumulation rates through the practice of agroforestry. Charcoal is an ubiquitous constituent of the soils in the Central Amazon and appreciable amounts can be found even at 1 m depth. Coarse fragments are located preferentially at the surface layers showing high heterogeneity in its spatial distribution. Fine particles distribute rather homogeneously through the soil profile. Charcoal derived-C can account for as much as 15% of total soil C. Separation of coarse and medium size charcoal fragments is very important to allow appropriate comparison between SOC in different land use systems in areas where fire is a factor in the natural or human influenced management of the forest. Although charcoal separation and the assessment of black carbon is a time consuming process, given that charcoal is a remarkably stable pool, once a baseline has been established for a certain site, the same information could be used in future studies.Though various studies have shown that soils under pastures enable high rates of C sequestration (Fisher et al., 1994) in our sites, the lack of fertilizer inputs and the high initial degradation of the land prevented a significant accrual of SOC as compared to soils under secondary vegetation.Even under unfavorable initial conditions, agroforestry systems allow net C accumulation in soils, permitting the soils to move in a 10 years time period, from 87% to 95% of the total C stocks in the primary forest. The assumed relationship between biodiversity or local richness and the persistence of 'ecosystem services' (such as sustained productivity and regulation of water flow and storage) in agricultural landscapes has generated considerable interest and a range of experimental approaches, but the abstraction level aimed for may be too high to yield meaningful results. Many of the experiments on which evidence in favour or otherwise are based are artificial and do not support the bold generalizations to other spatial and temporal scales that are often made. Future investigations should utilise co-evolved communities, be structured to investigate the distinct roles of clearly defined functional groups, separate the effects of between-and within-group diversity and be conducted over a range of stress and disturbance situations. An integral part of agricultural intensification at the plot level is the deliberate reduction of diversity. This does not necessarily result in impairment of ecosystem services of direct relevance to the land user unless the hypothesised diversity-function threshold is breached by elimination of a key functional group or species. Key functions may also be substituted with petro-chemical energy in order to achieve perceived efficiencies in the production of specific goods. This can result in the maintenance of ecosystem services of importance to agricultural production at levels of biodiversity below the assumed 'functional threshold'. However it can also result in impairment of other services and under some conditions the delinking of the diversity-function relationship. Avoidance of these effects or attempts to restore nonessential ecosystem services are only likely to be made by land-users at the plot scale if direct economic benefit can be thereby achieved. At the plot and farm scales biodiversity is unlikely to be maintained for purposes other than those of direct use or 'utilitarian' benefits and often at levels lower than those necessary for maintenance of many ecosystem services. The exceptions may be traditional systems where intrinsic or 'non-use' values continue to provide reasons for diversity maintenance. High levels of biodiversity in managed landscapes are more likely to be maintained for reasons of intrinsic ('non-use'), serependic or 'option' values or utilitarian (direct use') than for functional or 'indirect use' values. The major opportunity for both maintaining ecosystem services and biodiversity outside conservation areas lies in promoting diversity of land use in ways that meet these requirements at the landscape scale. This requires however an economic and policy climate that favours diversification in land-use products and diversity among land users.The role of biological diversity in the provision of ecosystem goods and services and the way this role can be valued and managed during agricultural intensification is much debated but still poorly understood. A key problem in all debates on biological diversity is that the abstraction 'diversity' has often not been distinguished from the specific attributes of the community of organisms that is under study in any particular location or system For instance if the interest lies in the functional roles of the community these may depend on the 'structure' of the vegetation and the relationships between different 'functional groups', rather than on diversity as such. Experiments based on random species assemblages may be appropriate tests for hypotheses about 'diversity' per se, but tell us very little about the largely selfselected assemblages that make up natural ecosystems. In the case of agro-ecosystems, whilst the dominant crops or livestock are artificial, by far the majority of the species are self-selected. So, are we asking the right question? Does the loss of diversity at plot-to-global scales imply a threat to critical ecosystem functions? Can we identify thresholds in such a process? Global diversity derives from the lack of overlap in species, genetic or agro-ecosystem composition between geographic or temporal domains as embodied in the niche concept. While 'agricultural development' affects local (ie. plot level) diversity, it probably has even stronger effects by homogenizing at higher scales, facilitating the movement of 'invasive species' and the introduction and spread of 'superior' germplasm of desirable species. Scale is thus of overriding importance in our analysis and we may well find that answers may appear contradictory between different ways of defining temporal and spatial boundaries to the system under consideration. In this review we will first consider the concepts of 'biodiversity' and 'ecosystem functions', and then the evidence that links relevant aspects of the two, before we embark on an exploration of how this relationship depends on scale and can be 'managed'.Humans have evolved as part of the world's ecosystems, depending on them for food and other products and for a range of functions that support our existence. Natural ecosystems, as well as those modified by humans, provide many services and goods that are essential for humankind (Matson et al., 1997). Efforts and interventions to manipulate (agro)ecosystems to meet specific production functions, represent costs to the rest of the ecosystem in terms of energy, matter and biological diversity, and often negatively affects goods and services that so far were considered to be free and abundant. These are anthropocentrically regarded as services because they provide the biophysical necessities for human life or otherwise contribute to human welfare (UNEP, 1995;Costanza et al., 1997). Most if not all of these services are based on a 'lateral flow', or movement across the landscape of biomass (such as food, fibre and medicinal products derived from the sea, inland waters or lands outside of the domesticated 'agricultural' domain), living organisms and their genes, or earth (nutrients), water, fire or air elements. Examples of ecosystem services particularly important for agroecosystems and agricultural landscapes are: maintenance of the genetic diversity essential for successful crop and animal breeding; nutrient cycles; biological control of pests and diseases; erosion control and sediment retention; and water regulation. At a global scale other services become important such as the regulation of the gaseous composition of the atmosphere and thence of the climate. A list of such services is given in the first column of Table 1 of the Appendix, and their connection to lateral flows is discussed by Van Noordwijk et al (Table x, this volume).These ecosystem goods and services are biologically generated. The community of living organisms within any given ecosystem carries out a very diverse range of biochemical and biophysical processes that can also affect neighbouring systems. These can be described at scales ranging from the subcellular through the whole organism and species populations to the aggregative effect of these at the level of the ecosystem (Mooney and Schultze 1993). All ecosystems have permeable boundaries with respect to material exchanges but the within-system flows usually dominate those between systems, such as between land-use or land-cover types within a landscape. For purpose of this paper we define ecosystem functions as the minimum aggregated set of processes (including biochemical, biophysical and biological ones) that ensure the biological productivity, organisational integrity and perpetuation of the ecosystem. There are no agreed criteria for defining a minimum set of such functions but for the purposes of this paper the second column of Table 1 lists ecosystem functions alongside the ecosystem services they provide. Further explanation of these relationships is given below but it is useful to note that these functions can be pictured as having a hierarchical relationship. The energy captured in primary production is utilised in the herbivore and decomposer food chains. Interactions between these three subsystems occur through nutrient exchanges and a variety of biotic regulatory mechanisms as well as by energy flow. In particular the balance between the constituent processes of primary production and those of decomposition determines the amount of energy and carbon maintained within the system and is the major natural regulator of the gaseous composition of the atmosphere at a global scale (see Swift 1999).Most discussions and empirical studies on biodiversity have focused on issues of a relatively small range of organisms. In contrast, the Convention on Biological Diversity defines its area of concern as: \" …the variability among living organisms from all sources, including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems\" (Heywood and Bates, 1995). Diversity within each one of these three fundamental and hierarchically related levels of biological organisation can be further elaborated as follows: genetic diversity is the variation within and between species populations; species diversity refers to species richness, that is, the number of species in a site, habitat, ecological zone or at global scale; ecosystem diversity means the diversity of assemblages (and their environments) over a defined landscape, ecological zone or at global scale.Biodiversity in this paper refers to the totality of the species (including the genetic variation represented in the species populations) across the full range of terrestrial organisms i.e. invertebrate animals, protists, bacteria and fungi, above-and below-ground, as well as the vertebrates and plants which often constitute the main concerns of biodiversity conservation. With a definition as broad and inclusive as this, it is highly unlikely that any clear and precise statements about relationships between 'biodiversity' and functions can be formulated and tested that can be helpful in guiding human activity. Similar to the situation with 'watershed functions' we may find that discussions on components of the overall biodiversity concept in relation to land use are more productive and open to progress than those that stay at the aggregate level. In the section immediately following we shall refer to the diversity within ecosystems (often termed alpha diversity) and in later sections to that at the broader scale of the landscape (which embraces concepts of both beta and gamma diversity).The analysis of biodiversity and its management is highly influenced by the perspective used. In particular different sectors of society attribute different values to biodiversity. Broadly speaking four different types of value can be usefully recognised, although different terminology is often used..First is the intrinsic or 'non-use' value of diversity to humans, which comprises its cultural, social, aesthetic, and ethical benefits. Some groups in society attribute high social and religious values to individual species or communities of organisms; others derive value from the simple fact of high diversity per se in such systems as tropical rainforests or coral reefs. Second is the utilitarian or direct use value of components of biodiversity, i.e. the subsistence, financial and monetary benefits of species or their genes derived by one or other sectors in society. The direct use value may be private and accrue to the land managers (farmers, local community, government). This is most obvious with respect to high value agricultural crops but also applies to the other types of good listed in Table 1. For instance, the pharmaceutical industry values the tropical forest tree Prunus africana very highly because its bark contains chemicals used for manufacturing a drug. Another example is that in Africa, many farmers living near natural (and protected) forests withdraw substantial monetary benefits from their hunting and from collecting plants and tree products in these forests (Pottinger and Burley, 1992).Thirdly, biodiversity can be said to have serependic or 'option' value. This is the belief in future but yet unknown value of biodiversity to future generations, for example the presence of a microorganism with an as-yet undiscovered genetic potential for industrial products. These three types of value of biodiversity are ethnocentric and depend very much upon the cultural values and preferences of different sectors of society. This is why some authors, interested in such values, stress that 'the conservation of biological diversity depends as much on society's ethical views as on facts' (Barrett 1993).Finally, biodiversity and the integrity of processes that maintain and generate diversity have functional significance. This may be the 'indirect use ' value of Kerry Turner (1999). Part of this functional significance may be of direct utilitarian value for Homo sapiens in the production of goods and services that can be priced. Beyond this lie a range of ecosystem services that are of acknowledged benefit to humans but which generally lie outside the boundaries of recognised utilitarian benefit. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the functional values of biodiversity with particualr reference to the diversity in agricultural landscapes but it also has a more general significance for life over and beyond this single species. This non-human significance, however, can only be translated into a 'value' that can play a role in human decisions via human 'champions' and thus cannot in practice be separated from the intrinsic value.Biologists have for many decades speculated on the question of why there are so many species of living organism. As explored in the theory of island biogeography, the diversity within any ecosystem at any point in time is the result of a 'self selection' process, that involves co-evolution of the species comprising the biological community within a given ecosystem by interactions among them and with the abiotic environment through time. This is not an isolated process. New species may enter an ecosystem from neighbouring areas, some establishing themselves and others failing to do so. Partly as a result of successful newcomers or new adaptations emerging in existing ones (be they competitors, predators, pests or diseases), and partly as a result of fluctuations in abiotic environmental conditions, some of the existing species may become (locally) extinct over any period of time. The species richness of any given ecosystem or land unit is therefore a dynamic property. In agro-ecosystems farmers take a dominant role in this dynamic by the selection of which organisms are present, by modifying the abiotic environment and by interventions aimed at regulating the populations of specific organisms ('weeds', 'pests', 'diseases' and their vectors and alternate hosts). The dynamic nature of the (local, patch level) diversity of any system, whether natural or agricultural, is often underrated, as is the importance of the selection pressure and process. The diversity of any system is not adequately represented simply by the number of species (or genotypes) present, but by the relationships between them in space and time. Attempts to assemble combinations of the same number of species under slightly different conditions and in particular without the history of interaction often fail (Ewel et al 1991). But what makes any existing species combination into a 'system' is still largely elusive. Some insights obtained in analysing food webs may help. For example Neutel (2001) showed that the majority of belowground food webs constructed from random combinations of organisms did not meet dynamic stability criteria, even though all parameters such as abundance of groups and dynamic properties were chosen in a 'normal' range when considered one-byone. Yet, systems with the actual parameter combinations that are attained in the field do [DID?] meet stability criteria, suggesting that partly uncovered rules about the proportionalities and co-variance within the normal range are crucial.Debate on the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem function has a long history which has taken on new vigour (and sometimes even rancour) since the advent of the Convention on Biological Diversity (see Woodwell and Smith 1969 for the older literature and Schulze and Mooney 1993, Mooney et al 1995, 1996, and many of the citations below for more recent discussion). Vitousek and Hooper (1993) contributed a major focus to this debate through hypothesising three different possible relationships between plant diversity and broad-based ecosystem functions such as the rate of primary production (Figure 1). Their analysis of current evidence led them to propose that the asymptotic relationship shown as Curve 2 in Figure 1 was the correct one. This suggests that whilst the essential functions of an ecosystem, such as primary production, require a minimal level of diversity to maximise efficiency this effect is saturated at a relatively low number. Swift and Anderson (1993) proposed that this relationship could also apply to the decomposer system. Examples of essential functions in this case are the basic suite of catabolic enzymes (e.g. for cellulolysis, lignin degradation etc), the facilitation role that invertebrates play by reducing particle size by their feeding activity, and biophysical processes of pore formation and particle aggregation. It is interesting to note however that the communiies of organisms contributing to the ecosystem function of decomposition are taxonomically much more diverse than those of primary production.Over recent years a number of authors have reported on experiments investigating the links between diversity and specific functions (e.g. see Ewel et al 1991, Naeem et al 1994, Naeem and Li 1997;Tilman and Downing 1994;Tilman et al 1996Tilman et al ,1997;;Hooper and Vitousek 1997) that appear to broadly corroborate the predictions of the Vitousek-Hooper hypothesis for primary production. This has however generated an equal amount of discussion in refutation and the issue remains significantly a matter of interpretation and opinion (see Grime 1997;Hodgson et al 1998;Lawton et al 1998;Wardle 2000;Naeem 2000). There is no space here to review these studies in detail. Each one of the experiments quoted can be criticised in one way or another. The strictest interpretation of many of the experiments would be that the conclusions apply only to the specific combinations of organisms used in the tests, and in most cases these are assemblages constructed for experimental purposes rather than naturally co-evolved communities. At a fundamental level such experiments suffer from a basic methodological paradox -in order to describe and understand diversity and complexity we need to simplify it, and take away the self-selection that governs real-world diversity. Dealing with the totality is impossible. For instance there is no single (or combination of) methods that would allow for the total inventory of the species richness of even a small volume of soil. It is thus difficult to draw general conclusions about 'diversity' as such and in particular with respect to naturally co-evolved communities. The results of such 'un-natural' experiments may however be more applicable to agricultural systems that in one sense can be said to have been assembled in a similar way.The minimum diversity required within a functional group One potentially valuable interpretation of the Vitousek-Hooper relationship has been that the minimal level of diversity required to maximise the production function consists of representatives of an essential set of 'functional groups' of plants. A functional group may be defined ' a set of species that have similar effects on a specific ecosystem-level biogeochemical process'. As Vitousek and Hooper put it the 'essential' plant species are those that contribute in different ways to the key ecosystem functions -in the case of primary production by exploiting different components of the available resources by differences in canopy structure to maximise light capture or symbionts and root architecture to optimise capture of water and nutrients. Drawing together the threads of this discussion we [hypothesise that?] suggest that 'the minimum diversity essential to maintain any given ecosystem function can be represented by one or a few functionally distinct species i.e. one or a few representatives of a small range of functional groups' is a useful null-hypothesis to guide investigations of the functional significance of biological diversity in agricultural systems. It may need further operationalization for specific ecosystem contexts, however. The total diversity required then depends on the number of functions that are recognized and to the degree of overlap in 'functional groups' between these different functions.The functional group concept is briefly discussed in the Appendix to this paper and Table 1 lists a minimal set that we propose are needed to provide the ecosystem goods and services we have been addressing.The classification of plants into functional groups has drawn a great deal of recent attention because of the recognition of the pressure being exerted on terrestrial ecosystems by global climate change (Smith et al 2000) The primary producers (together with the vertebrate herbivores) are our major source of food and are also the source of fibre and other useful materials such as latex. Molecules with antibiotic, therapeutic, pesticidal or similar biological activities utilised by humans are however synthesised by many groups of organisms (e.g. bacteria and fungi) and are often very specific in origin. Diversity is therefore an essential pre-requisite for maintenance of supply, particularly of new products, although the capacity to biologically generate or synthesise new compounds under laboratory conditions has been greatly increased by the advent of genetic engineering.Decomposition and mineralisation of organic matter of plant and animal origin and synthesis and decomposition of soil organic matter are carried out by a very diverse community of invertebrates, protists, bacteria and fungi. Other elemental transformations often are carried out by a diverse set of functional groups with very specific biochemical capacities, for example certain of the bacteria of the nitrogen cycle. Diversity within these groups varies from very low to high, but it can be experimentally demonstrated that a single species per function may be sufficient under a given set of environmental conditions.The dominant biological properties regulating water flow and storage in the soil are the plant cover, the soil organic matter content and soil biological activity. Macrofauna such as earthworms, termites and It is valuable to note that these are not necessarily mutually exclusive hypotheses, as they may refer to different space and/or time aspects of the system and the function of specific concern. We need to clearly separate the question of how the current diversity came into being (the 'self organization' of the system, based on the success in the evolutionary history of all component species) from the human or teleological perspective of the relevance of this diversity. Just as we have to distinguish between 'diversity per se' and 'diversity of actual systems', we have also to recognize that not all components of a system have the same probability of being lost as a result of simplification of agro-ecosystems and some functions may therefore be more resilient than others. Differences in life histories of the key groups of organisms confer different temporal and spatial contexts to their role in the ecosystem and their responsiveness to its self-organising properties.The third of Vandermeer et al's (1998) hypotheses is extremely pertinent to the question of how much of this diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem goods and services in the face of agricultural intensification and other aspects of ongoing 'global change'. There is certainly substantial experimental evidence that the many key functions can be maintained by only small numbers of species within a particular functional group. For example monotypic cover by perennial plants can be as effective as a diverse community in controlling erosion. Although the decomposer community of a particular soil may be very diverse only a minority of the hundreds of species of fungi, bacteria or invertebrates participate in the decomposition process at a given time and place. The extent of redundancy implied by this can be demonstrated under laboratory conditions where decomposition can be fully mediated by single species cultures of enzymatically-diverse organisms such as white-rot basidiomycete fungi whilst in nature the same process may be carried out by several species of fungi, bacteria and animals (Swift 1976, Giller et al 1997).The third hypothesis raises questions whether key functions can be maintained by one (and the same) species under all circumstances. This addresses the issue of the capacity of ecosystems to adapt to changing circumstances that result from elements of stress and disturbance. The capacity of a system to respond to and recover from disturbance is termed its resilience. This property has been attributed to the degree of connectivity within an ecosystem, a feature that depends at least in part on the composition and diversity (Holling 1973(Holling , 1986;;Allen and Starr 1982). Diversity within functional groups may provide an important means for increasing the probability that ecosystem performance can be maintained or regained in the face of changing conditions. For the below-ground community for instance there is evidence that the same enzymatic function is carried out by different species of bacteria or fungi from the same soil under different, and even fluctuating, conditions of moisture stress or pH (see Griffin 1972 for discussion of this). In the case of plants different species may play a similar functional role in different seasons, under varying conditions of climatic or edaphic stress and in different stages of patch-level succession.Functional diversity thresholds are thus likely to be higher in the real world than in the relatively controlled situations under which most of the experiments on diversity-function relationships have been conducted. Recognition of the importance of diversity to the property of resilience suggests furthermore that the implication of equilibrium in the way that Figure 1 is drawn (see also figures 2 and 3) may be misleading. The shifts between different states of functional efficiency with changes in diversity are more likely to be rather abrupt. Perhaps a case could be made recognising resilience as an ecosystem service rather than a property. An alternative view, however, is to see resilience as a property which varies among functions rather than a unitary ecosystem property. The decomposition function for example, may be substantially more resilient than that of the regulation of specific pest populations.Resilience is a concept that requires consideration of different spatial scales. The resilience of any local system after shocks that lead to local loss of diversity depends strongly on the ability of organisms to recolonize from the neighbourhood, and thus on the distance to the nearest suitable habitat and the dispersal of the organisms in question.What is the impact of agricultural intensification on biodiversity and ecosystem functions? Our main concern in this paper is with biodiversity issues in agricultural landscapes i.e. landscapes containing agroecosystems. Agroecosystems can be defined as (natural) ecosystems that have been deliberately simplified by people for purpose of the production of specific goods of value to humans. The simplification down to one or a few productive plant or animal species is implemented for greater ease of management and specialisation of product to suit market demands, especially in highly mechanized forms of agriculture. In an ecological sense the system may be seen as one which is maintained by a high frequency of disturbance, in an early successional stage (Conway, 1993). In such systems a distinction has been made between 'planned' and 'associated' diversity (Swift et al 1996;GCTE 1997). The planned diversity is the suite of plants and livestock deliberately retained, imported and managed by the farmer. The composition and diversity of this component strongly influences the nature of the associated biotaplant, animal and microbial. The issue is more complex than the single issue of the extent of planned biodiversity that is maintained however. Agroecosystems are managed by substitution and supplementation of many of the natural ecosystem functions by human labour and/or by petro-chemical energy or its products. In addition to their direct effects on production these interventions provide the means to reduce the risk associated with reliance on ecosystem services, although it can be argued that this is serving to substitute one set of risks for another -that of dependence on the market. Furthermore whilst substitutions may buffer some of the functions they also run the risk of further damaging others. For instance the addition of pesticides may control diseases of immediate negative impact but also kill nontarget organisms with other functions such as pollination or soil fertility enhancement.During agricultural intensification the diversity of crops and livestock is reduced to one or a very few species of usually genetically homogenous species. The varieties are selected or bred for yield (e.g. high plant harvest index), taste and nutritional quality. Plant arrangement is commonly in rows, fallow periods are bare, sequences may be monospecific (varietal) or of two or rarely more species. This is in contrast to natural ecosystems where the genetic diversity of plants (both within and among functional groups) is high but varies in relation to environment. The effects of land use change and agricultural intensification on biodiversity and associated functions are still poorly understood but conversion to agriculture almost always results in fewer species of both planned and associated biota with lower genetic variation and representing less functional groups. Nonetheless the extent of diversity in even so-called monocultures may be underestimated by plot-level assessment of diversity at any point in time. A rapid interannual turnover of the germplasm is often employed to stay ahead of the evolutionary race with pests and diseases, adding a time dimension to diversity that may exceed evolution in natural systems, albeit with respect to a narrow genetic base. This varietal turnover depends however on 'externalized' functions of maintaining genetic diversity in gene banks, and on the mechanisms of rapid multiplication and transfer of such germplasm. This situation contrasts with that of extensive agricultural systems where diversity is deliberately maintained within the system with or without external exchange. Here a plot-level assessment may have more relevant boundaries of measurement, although lateral flows of organisms exist here as well. Production systems based on perennial crops and trees provide less opportunity for rapid turnover of varieties for obvious reasons, and there clearly is a much stronger need here for maintaining plot-level diversity as a risk management strategy (Van Noordwijk and Ong, 1999).Whilst many recent experiments have tended to confirm that community primary production may be maximised by a low-number diversity of functional types (see above) there is also abundant evidence that mono-typic stands can reach the same levels of production within relatively narrow environmental conditions. Biomass production is however not the only function or service performed by plants in ecosystems. The secondary functions related to ecosystem services may be more biodiversity-sensitive than that of food production. 'Intensive' production systems for specific high-value products (e.g. spices) can however be very diverse. Another exception may be in relation to pharmaceutical and agro-chemical goods. Most products of these types are initially gathered from natural or secondary vegetation or derived from microbial cultures obtained from soil. Once the markets for such products are established, however, the required control over the concentrations of biologically active substances, and the opportunities for monopolization tend to favour more technically advanced modes of production. Maintaining global diversity is thus essential for both present and future needs although the synthetic capacity brought by the molecular biological revolution is fast rendering this less so. Herbivore diversity is highest in heterogeneous systems with high plant and resource diversity but monotypic vertebrate herds can reach equivalent levels of production in simplified grazing systems. Pest epidemics tend to occur in circumstances of low genetic diversity of the host plants or livestock.Nutrient cycles become more open in agricultural systems with losses of nutrient through offtake in harvest, run-off from compact surfaces, increased volatilisation through a changed surface environment and increased leaching associated with decreased soil organic matter content. These losses can be substituted by inorganic inputs but the efficiency of return to the plant is often low and fertilisation is usually required at levels far in excess of direct crop demand, which further exacerbates the losses and can leads to pollution of groundwater etc. There is substantial evidence demonstrating gains in crop productivity from nutrient additions through mixtures of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients compared with either alone (e.g. Swift et al 1994). Maintenance of organic inputs to the soil is thus an important management strategy for efficient use of external inputs. Advantages in utilising a variety of such inputs have also been demonstrated because of the strong influence of input chemistry (''resource quality') on patterns of mineralisation. The diversity of organisms involved in nutrient cycling may be substantially reduced under agricultural intensification but there is little evidence of significant effects on decomposition and mineralisation processes which has been attributed to a high level of functional redundancy among decomposer fungi, bacteria and microregulators such as nematodes or collembola (e.g. see Beare et al 1997, Giller et al 1997). The significance of this loss of diversity should not however be assumed to be inconsequential. In particular it is unclear how the resilience of the system under conditions of change is influenced by such loss. Organisms with very specific functions, such as those exhibited by some bacteria of the nitrogen cycle, often show specialisation to particular soil conditions such as pH and specific genotypes may be lost as a result of soil degradation. Specific strains of dinitrogen-fixing bacteria may also be lost a result of agricultural intensification resulting in the need for subsequent inoculation (Kahindi et al 1997).Soil organic matter (SOM) is a keystone component of the ecosystem in the sense that its impact on overall system performance exceeds its relative share in the energy flow through the system. Soil organic matter (SOM) stores and buffers nutrient concentrations, influences water storage in the soil and is a major factor in determining soil structure and thence erosivity. Above all it is a store of energy in the soil that drives many of the soil-based processes. SOM synthesis and decomposition is brought about by much the same community of organisms as those involved in decomposition of plant litter. A well-charted phenomenon is the decline in SOM as a result of conversion of natural ecosystems to agriculture. Farmers utilize the nutrients mineralised as part of this decline of the SOM capital to support high initial levels of crop production after clearance. Soil tillage is also an effective additional way of stimulating the breakdown of SOM and plays a key role in promoting crop yields after land conversion to agriculture, until a new and lower equilibrium between breakdown and formation of SOM is reached. The level of the new SOM equilibrium, with its consequent impact on nutrient cycling, soil water regimes and erosivity, is related to the quantity of plant litter input, which is almost invariably lower than that of natural systems. Crops in intensive systems are usually selected for high harvest indices, and there may be uses for crop residues other than soil fertility maintenance (e.g. fodder or fuel). The SOM content is thus related to the quantity, diversity and mode of management of organic input to soil. A key feature of agroecosystem management is thus the trade-off between the gains in production from 'mining' the SOM versus the potential negative impact on its other ecosystem services and in particular on system resilience. This 'trade-off' between the different values of SOM has been rarely recognised but become a matter of greater interest as society has begun to realize the potential value of sequestering carbon in soil as a means to slow down the rate of global climate change. A research question of continuing interest is whether the functional properties of SOM are in any way influenced by the diversity of organic materials from which it is synthesised.The most important factors regulating water infiltration and retention are the extent of ground cover by plants and/or plant litter. The reduction in these, including interposing of periods when ground is bare, leads to greater run-off and diminished infiltration as well as increasing the risk of erosion. Substitution by mechanical tillage can ameliorate as well as aggravate these effects. Monospecific cover can be just as effective as a divers one with respect to limiting run-off and erosion, trapping sediment and promoting infiltration, but to be effective it has to be present year round. Diversity of organic inputs is likely to have a positive effect by widening the probability of differences in timing of litterfall and rates of disappearance from the soil surface. As soil protection on slopes depends more on partially decomposed litter with good ground contact than on fresh leaves that can be easily washed away, the role of plant diversity on slopes is likely to be greater than on flat lands. The macrofauna moving between litter layer and soil strongly influence partitioning of water between surface runoff and infiltration as well as modifying water movement within soil. Interesting examples of the influence of these 'ecosystem engineers' show how circumstance specific diversity effects may be. Soil engineers making macropores in the soil are not welcome in all circumstances. In bunded rice fields, farmers make an effort to destroy soil structure by puddling to reduce the porosity of the soil and building dykes to contain the water. These earthworks may be destroyed by the actions of earthworms and surveys by Joshi et al. (1999) in the Ifugao Rice Terraces (IRT), in the Philippines showed that 125 out of 150 farmers interviewed ranked earthworms as the most destructive pest of terraced rice fields. In a second example the conversion of Amazonian rainforest to pastures has been shown to lead to extinction of the natural earthworm community, which have been replaced in some circumstances by a single exotic species, Pontoscolex corethrurus. This has a negative effect on pasture productivity because the introduced worms compact the soil, whereas the native species improve soil structure (Chauvel et al 1999). Inoculation with species from the forest might reverse this effect, but remains to be tested.As already indicated the decreased genetic diversity of plant cover increases the risk of pest attack. Simplification of the ecosystem and in particular the use of broad-spectrum pesticides also decreases the diversity of natural enemies and increase risks of pest attack (Lawton and Brown 1993). Pesticides also have negative effects on non-target beneficial organisms including pollinators and beneficial soil biota.Land-use change alters the balance of gas emissions and thence influences global climates. There are very large increases in the CO 2 output during clearing from natural vegetation and break down of soil organic matter reserves that are rarely if ever balanced by regrowth. The output of methane may be significantly increased in systems such as paddy rice and intensive cattle production and of nitrous oxides by Nfertilisation. These changes are linked to alterations in soil structure that dominate changes in the activity of a variety of soil organisms (e.g. methanogenic and methanotrophic bacteria) but we are not aware of any documented case where such effects are linked to the absence of functional groups or to biodiversity change per se.There are a few general conclusions that may be drawn from this brief review of the impacts of agricultural intensification on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services. First that whilst there are a number of clear examples where changes in diversity have threatened the provision of ecosystem services, especially relating to the regulation of pests and diseases, there are also others where the changes in biodiversity seem to be functionally neutral, at least within relatively stable environmental conditions. Second there may be some functional groups, particularly micro-organisms such as the decomposers, where the degree of functional redundancy is such that the resilience of the function is very high. These two observations may be generalised by stating that there are no rules to be derived for agricultural systems concerning the importance of biodiversity with respect to the maintenance of ecosystem services that apply across all functional groups and environmental circumstances. Both the concept of 'diversity' and that of 'ecosystem function' are too broad to make generalizations at this level testable. There is a need and potential however to investigate the issues of thresholds of diversity-function relationship within specific functional groups and under circumstances of change in stress and/or disturbance.Finally we should re-emphasise the importance of the hierarchical control exerted by the plants over the other functional groups (Figure 4,Appendix). This is a particularly important feature when determining management options, not only at the field and farm scale but also at that of the landscape. The plant, decomposer and herbivore subsystems of the biological community interact in a variety of ways but the productivity, mass, chemical diversity (resource quality) and physical complexity of the plant component exerts the strongest influence and is the single most important determinant of both the diversity and the functional efficiency of the other two subsystems. Wardle et (1999a and b) and Yeates et al 1999 showed for example that arthropod and microbial communities were not adversely affected by agricultural intensification provided the type of management (eg. mulching) provided for increases in the quantity and quality of the organic inputs. The maintenance of total system diversity and of the major part of the ecosystem services is thus predominantly determined by the nature of the plant community. This is also of course the main point at which humans intervene in the agroecosystem -to decide the species richness, the genetic variability and the organisation in space and time of the planned biota in the vegetation subsystem.A substantial research investment has been made into agricultural systems that fall short of the full extent of genetic homogenisation and petro-chemical substitution. Examples are agroforestry and other intercrops, rotations, mulch-based, minimum tillage and integrated livestock-arable systems. All these systems are characterised by maintenance of diversity of plant functional groups above the level of monocropping. The scientific justification for such approaches has generally been made on grounds of greater functional sustainability and the wider spread of risk associated with more diverse products as well as on the recognition that it is line with the management choices of the majority of the rural poor in the tropics. For farmers labour saving and low investment and risk may be the preferred attributes of these systems.The simplicity of monocultures at field level is only possible as long as farms are part of a germplasm delivery system with rapid access to externalised gene banks and have access to risk buffering mechanisms such as insurance schemes or agricultural subsidies. Large parts of tropical agriculture still operate in a range where such 'externalized' risk management options do not exist and where thus a choice for monocultures carries unaffordable risks. At the farm level ecosystem resilience can be extended beyond resources maintained on farm or in the accessible neighbourhood by being part of a larger agricultural production and germplasm delivery system Ewel (1986) and Moreno and Hart (1979) are among those who have advocated using plant functional groups as a basis for the (plot level) design of multi-plant agroecosystems. These designs also rely, explicitly or implicitly, on the impact that the effect of increasing the diversity of the vegetation system will have in enhancing the associated biodiversity both above-and below-ground and thence the probability of maintaining ecosystem services over a wider range of stress and disturbance. The evidence comparing such systems is almost entirely however based on assessments of yield, Vandermeer et al (1998) reviewed the literature on inter-cropping of all types and concluded that yield gains in comparison with mono-crops depends on the specific complementarities in resource use and seasonal development of the components. As risks for the farmer depend on farm level diversity of potentially productive resources rather than on plot-level diversity, the focus of much agroecological research may have been too narrow.Another key aspect that needs to be changed is the continuing separation of different aspects of management interventions on the base of disciplinary experience, such as soil or nutrient management from pest management. Interventions to ameliorate the impacts on any one of the different ecosystem services (as well as on productivity) are likely to influence others. Practices targeted at productivity but well documented in terms of their supportive, ameliorative or regenerative effect on other ecosystem services should be a top priority.Almost all the evidence that exists for the relationship between diversity and function is for the plot (and often the micro-plot or laboratory chamber) scale. But in order to provide policy makers with appropriate advice on the functional value of diversity it is necessary to consider the ways in which the three factors we have been considering -biodiversity, agricultural productivity and profitability, and ecosystem services -intersect at the landscape scale. Whilst the inter-relationships that we have described at the plot (patch) scale may help in understanding what happens at the landscape scale there is also the possibility that the rules change as one shifts across the scales. The productivity of any land-use system can be expressed on an area basis and the aggregate productivity across a landscape on the basis of the fractions occupied by different land uses. Biodiversity however has more complex scaling relationships and cannot simply be aggregated in this way. Nor can many of the functions that have been discussed here.Much of the diversity in a landscape may exist at scales beyond the farm (between farm variability being larger than within-farm diversity), and the dynamics of diversity thus depend on the degree to which different farms remain (or become more) different. As agricultural research and extension have been based on the economies of scale that are perceived as attainable by homogenisation of farms with similar demands for inputs and services and similar outputs for markets, the trend in agricultural intensification has often resulted in the reduction of inter-farm diversity. This process is generally supported by policy interventions which tend to promote homogeneity in farmer goals, practice and behaviour, at least of over the short term. The agents of change in biodiversity beyond farm level are essentially different from those on farm.In Figure 2 we hypothesise that the relationship between species richness and specific ecosystem services at the landscape scale may follow a relationship analogous with that of the Vitousek-Hooper model -together of course with all the attendant qualifications. That is to say that ecosystem services at the landscape scale are optimised by a diversity of land-uses, but the number that are required for optimisation is relatively small. If the hypothesis is correct then it would suggest that the presence of a relatively small number of different land-use types should be sufficient to satisfy the functional needs of the majority of ecosystem services. This generality needs however to be detailed for any given landscape into specifics with respect to not only the types but also their sizes, shapes, patterns on the landscape and practices of management.It can be further hypothesised that at the higher scales of landscape and region the frequency and intensity of disturbance and stress (both natural and anthropogenic) is greater than those at the plot or farm scale and increasingly beyond the control of the land users. Prevention of decreases in the stability of agroecosystems and management of restoration become more difficult and costly and eventually become impossible from both biological and economic perspectives because connectivity is too high and disturbances too large. . The ecosystem services that enhance the resilience and adaptation of systems, such as biodiversity, thus become more and more important a feature of sustainable management as the scale of operation widens.Figure 3 hypothesises a number of relationships implied in the above discussion. We have argued that at the plot and farm scales individual land managers and farmers manage biodiversity largely through simplification (i.e., by decreasing connectivity and maintaining agroecosystems at a stage of early succession) and substitution. Decreases in connectivity may, under specific conditions reach a threshold level of irreversibility, in which case the agroecosystem loses its resilience. However, the individual land user can in most cases manage and control agroecosystem disturbances and stresses, such as pest outbreaks or sudden changes in relative prices, by making adjustments in the management of resources (land, water, germplasm, knowledge, labour, capital) at the farm scale. This is pictured as the shift from Curve 1 to Curve 2 in Figure 3, which hypothesises some of the scalar implications of the diversityfunction relationship. We know, as shown for small-scale farms in Kenya by Osgood (1998), that many farmers do value genetic and species diversity on their farms, as they are aware that it minimises economic risk by enhancing on-farm diversification of plant and animal production. The history of agriculture provides many examples of how even extreme reductions in biodiversity can be managed, through periods of disturbance, by individual land users by substitution (e.g. chemicals, labour). Therefore, even though biodiversity has important ecological functions at the farm scale, it is nevertheless possible to decrease biodiversity levels very substantially at that scale while maintaining the productivity and resilience of agroecosystems. We postulate however that at higher scales the control and management of disturbances and stresses becomes more and more problematic and costly and the resilience function of biodiversity thus becomes an increasingly important issue in management.We have already emphasised the over-arching influence of the plant cover and diversity on the associated functional diversity and thence on the properties of resilience. The simplest rule for managing landscapes is thus to say that if the vegetation is diverse then the associated diversity and functions will be taken care of. The immediate implication of this is that monotypic landscapes -vast areas of the same crop or livestock system -are likely to be the most vulnerable to the same dangers to ecosystem services pictured earlier for the farm or plot scale. Examples of these effects are the pollution of ground water by nitrates and pesticides in large-scale chemical-based agriculture and the difficulty of controlling epidemics in genetically homogeneous stands of vast area. These however seem simply to be the same issues as those at the plot scale only writ larger. The mechanisms for correction are also the same -diversifying the type of land-use system in space and time.The majority of agricultural landscapes in the tropics, in contrast with most of the northern temperate zones, are indeed mosaics of different land uses. The most sensitive of the ecosystem services at the plot scale is probably the biological pest control system. The management opportunities for this increase with widening scale as greater opportunity for diversity in both genetic signals and physical structure of the vegetation permit a wider diversity and larger reservoir of control organisms. Many of the endangered invertebrates and microorganisms of the soil community are mobile, or may be carried by vectors, and can thus recolonise degraded areas from within mosaics that provide suitable reservoirs. Others (e.g. earthworms) are less so however and re-inoculations may be necessary. In each of these cases the size, pattern of arrangement and rotation in time of land-uses on the landscape will have significant effect on the efficiency of ecosystem service provision. Management at the landscape scale offers greater opportunity than at the plot and farm for varying land-use over time. Izac and Swift (1994) argued that sustainable land management could most easily be achieved at this scale by means of balance between aggrading and degrading areas i.e. between patches of high exploitation and those of fallow or rest. Soil organic matter change is a specific and far-reaching example. In areas of intensive production and harvest the soil carbon content may decrease but under fallow or tree-based production it can be re-built. The balance between these two options affect nutrient cycling, soil structure, water regimes and the emission of greenhouse gases. The policy requirements for such integrated management of landscape mosaics are however very different to the production-related approaches that currently prevail in favour of landscape homgenisation.The third hypothesis of Vandermeer et al (1998) predicts that a higher diversity of species will be required to provide a buffer against stress and disturbance at the landscape scale than will be the case for any single patch within it (i.e. gamma diversity will be higher than the sum of alpha diversity). This is pictured in Figure 3 by the difference between curves 1 and 3. Humans can intervene relatively easily (although not necessarily cost-effectively) at the plot scale to substitute for diversity loss -as represented by the difference between curves 1 and 2. At the landscape scale however intervention by humans, including these substitutive actions, will tend to widen the range of stress and increase the frequency of disturbance and further extend the diversity-function relationship (Curve 4 in Figure 3). Substitutive management for purposes of restoring ecosystem services (analogous to the Curve 1 to 2 relationship in Figure 3) is likely to be prohibitively expensive at this scale and may suffer from a 'free rider' problem where it is difficult to get all beneficiaries to share the costs. We contend therefore that the implication of this hypothesis is of very high risk associated with ignoring landscape scale management and focussing only on policies that promote plot scale interventions. Plot scale activities are more likely to exacerbate landscape scale problems than repair them. On the other hand landscape scale interventions offer great opportunity for improvements at the plot scale by increasing overall integration and resilience. There is thus more functional justification for arguing in favour of maintaining or enhancing biological diversity at the landscape scale than there is at the scale of the plot.This model is of course simplistic and does not provide any guide to other features such as the size, shape and position (pattern) of patches on the landscape or on the temporal relationships between them. The hierarchical relationship between ecosystem services should assist in developing rules for these aspects. The regulation of erosion and water flows operates at a higher level in the hierarchy of controls than do aspects of nutrient cycling, soil structure and gas emissions or pest controls. Van Noordwijk et al (this volume) discuss these higher-level aspects of landscape management under the title of 'watershed services'. The lower level services such as nutrient cycles and biological control activities may then be built in through focus on aspects such as the degree of connection between the patches and the location, direction and intensity of the flows between them. It may be useful to classify land-use types into 'functional groups' in a manner analogous with that for species in order to develop more meaningful relationships between diversity and function at the landscape scale.The changes associated with agricultural intensification, including the attendant processes of diversity reduction and substitution of function, are made in response to food need, market opportunity, and perceptions of increased management efficiency associated with mechanisation. These factors remain a dominant reality within market-orientated agriculture where a small number of specific products have high value and specialisation thus becomes a desirable target. Van Noordwijk and Ong (1999) discussed the paradox that urban consumers have access to an increasingly diverse array of food resources that are produced on specialized farms of greatly reduced internal diversity. Observed changes in diversity at a one scale may thus not represent changes at higher systems levels. The risks to agroecosystem services of simplifying ecosystems and substituting biodiversity by labour and chemicals (e.g., in pest control) are those of losing some keystone functions including the ability of an agroecosystem to adapt to change without further substitutive interventions. The evidence, as briefly described above, that ecosystem services might be significantly impaired in agroecosystems as intensification increases is substantial although the role of biodiversity is far from clearly understood. The farmer may not perceive these effects to be serious if the economic environment enables continuing profit based on subsidies related to the substitution process. This has been the basis of agricultural development in Europe and North America for many decades. It thus appears that to attain the essential goal of profitability, even without petro-chemical substitution, agroecosystem diversity is likely to be kept low and that associated with this low diversity there is a risk of crossing threshold levels for the maintenance of ecosystem services the restoration of which is likely to be extremely costly, let alone feasible. Decisions about the management of agroecosystems in market economies do not normally take into consideration the costs of interfering with ecosystem services, including those in which biodiversity plays a strong influence. But when agroecosystems are driven across thresholds from a desired to an undesirable state, the costs to society of being in this new undesirable state, or of restoration of a more desirable one if it is feasible, can be extremely high. Therein lies the risk of simplifying ecosystems. Holling (1986) provided a seminal analysis of the consequences of a number of such irreversibilities. Policies for sustainable agriculture, i.e. to promote integrative practices that focus on the conservation of resources (including genetic diversity) as well as productivity, have proved elusive. If the policy needs are extended to include the management of biodiversity at the landscape scale in order to protect and enhance a wide range of ecosystem services, the problem becomes more acute. There are two particular reasons why the problem is exacerbated at higher scales. First, population pressure and globalisation of trade and the concomitant land use changes (expansion of cities into agricultural lands and of agriculture into marginal areas) result in increased frequency and intensity of disturbances and stresses by comparison with those at the farm scale. The capacity to correct these effects also diminishes because the sensitivity of the systems increases in concert with their connectivity as one moves up the hierarchy of scales (Holling, 1986).Second, the higher the scale under consideration, the more difficult it is for the increased numbers of individual land users to develop an effective management strategy for agroecosystem disturbances, that takes ecological interactions and connectivity into consideration. Even at the scale of small watersheds, it is not often the case that land users have been successful in developing collective and effective means of control and management of disturbances. Furthermore, even if these land users have full knowledge of the relevant level of connectivity necessary to ensure resilience at the watershed scale, different sectors of society place differing levels of importance on ecosystem services and diversity. Farmers in tropical countries are unlikely to place as high a value on these functions of landscape diversity as does the community at large or the national society. They are furthermore highly unlikely to value the serependic (i.e. future) value of diversity, which is much more likely to be valued by national and global communities.In economic terms, farmers value some of the on-farm benefits of diversity and very few of the off-farm benefits, for the usual reasons that costs and benefits outside of the managers' domain (i.e. externalities) are generally not taken into account by individual decision-makers. The argument is however not simply about off-farm effects of biodiversity being ignored. Farmer knowledge varies greatly. There may be for many a number of on-farm ecosystem services that farmers may be unaware of (e.g., the role of micro-organisms), and thus cannot value, as well as services they may be aware of but will not consider important (e.g., reduction of greenhouse gas emissions). The same services may be valued by other groups in society, with a different perspective and set of interests. What is a beneficial service for one group may also be a cost for another (e.g. the perception of earthworms as 'pests' for paddy rice farmers, the trade-off between carbon sequestration and SOM mining). For these reasons, management of ecosystem services, and of biodiversity at the landscape scale, as well as management of disturbances in agroecosystems in land use mosaics, is unlikely to be optimal, from either an ecological or an economic perspective, in the absence of specific policy or institutional interventions. Lack of knowledge of threshold levels in connectivity at different scales, different perspectives on the value of biodiversity, externalities and difficulties in large groups of land users coming together in developing effective means of controlling disturbances at the landscape scale thus result in biodiversity being managed by individual farmers in a sub-optimal manner.We therefore conclude, on the basis of the relationships we have hypothesised earlier, that it will prove very costly to manage ecosystem services at the watershed, landscape and higher scales unless the functional value of biodiversity for productivity at the plot and farm scale and its interaction with 'externalities' beyond are perceived and valued. Furthermore, unless in particular the role of biodiversity in enhancing resilience is understood and factored into effective policy or institutional interventions, ecosystem diversity is unlikely to be maintained at the landscape scale without deliberate policy interventions at national and sub-national levels which take into account the real value of maintaining ecosystem services, given the externalities they generate and given their contribution to resilience. The biggest challenge is in the realization that most of diversity as well as much of its positive role in resilience probably exists beyond the farm scale, and that thus diversity of management decisions by farmers rather than any specific management system is key to its maintenance in the landscape. These policy implications and the need for diversity enhancing communal action remain largely unexplored territory.There are two final comments that can be made to close this discussion. First that the absence of clear evidence should not be taken as evidence for the absence of effects and thus as a reason for doing nothing. Some economists have proposed that, in view of our relatively poor understanding of the exact roles of biodiversity in ecosystems on the one hand and of the potentially devastating effects of biodiversity loss on the other hand, a precautionary principle should be used in managing diversity. This principle acknowledges that while we may not be able to justify what some see as redundant species, there may be an extinction threshold that would result in an unacceptable level of ecosystem failure. Consequently, extreme care and precaution must be taken, and it is preferable to err on the conservative side (Perrings, 1991). The precautionary principle introduces an important concept, namely that of the risk of managing agroecosystems in such a way that threshold levels of biodiversity loss in relation to ecosystem services are ignored. The 'risk premium' that the precautionary principle suggests is hard to quantify as yet. Second that even if the evidence that high levels of biodiversity are not important for maintenance of ecosystem functions or services holds, that does not contradict the valuation of biodiversity for other reasons.In the above discussion we have quoted or proposed a range of hypotheses concering the relationships between biological diversity and ecosystem functions, and their implications for the management of agriultural landscapes. The general relationships that have been proposed may have to be replaced by more specific hypotheses of the relation between components of overall biodiversity and specific environmental functions, bounded in space ant time. Sweeping generalizations from experiments that are necessarily restricted in space and time, and for example do not include major parts of the diversitygenerating processes (including 'lateral flows' of dispersal and migration for re-establishment), are unlikely to be helpful in guiding the development of agro-ecosystems that have to provide for short, medium and long term service functions. Future investigations should utilise co-evolved communities, be structured to investigate the distinct roles of clearly defined functional groups, separate the effects of between-and within-group diversity and be conducted over a range of stress and disturbance. This might include: testing the basic functional-biodiversity rule by experimentally determining the minimal level of diversity between and within functional groups that is necessary to maintain productivity, integrity and perpetuation of ecosystems; characterising the functional groups of organisms necessary to maintain specific ecosystem services; determining the ecosystem function and service effects that ensue from elimination or substitution of key functional groups, including particular investigation of controls over below-ground diversity and function exerted by particular plant functional groups and other keystone organisms; and determining (and developing indicators for) the biodiversity thresholds for different ecosystem services. An interesting extension of the latter study might be to investigate whether similar thresholds exist for the intrinsic, utilitarian and serependic values of biodiversity.Society as a whole has an interest in ecosystem services that are manifested substantially at scales above that of the field plot or farm. At the scale of the watershed or landscapes there is, in comparison with any single patch, a greater range of environmental stress and higher frequency of disturbance, including of extreme events. The maintenance of ecosystem services at these scales thus requires either a higher diversity of species within functional groups or a greater investment in substitutive management to maintain ecosystem services. These increments in diversity and/or investment are unlikely to be simply additive in view of the significant shifts in complexity that occur with shifts across scale. Optimal maintenance of ecosystem services at the landscape scale may be most readily achieved by a mosaic of a relatively few land-use types. This model is however likely to be overly simple because of: (a) differences in functional impact of different land-use types; and (b) the importance of organisation at the landscape scale in terms of the size, shape and location pattern of the constituent land-uses.In developing appropriate land-use scenarios landscapes should be compared with respect to the aggregate values of their component land-uses for intrinsic, utilitarian and functional (ecosystem service) values of biodiversity. This would be assisted by establishing a typology of land-uses in terms of their efficiency in maintaining ecosystem service and in the trade-offs between this and profitability. The results of the ASB project provide a model for this approach with respect to the interactions between carbon sequestration potential and profitability. The relative costs and benefits of segregating the intrinsic, utilitarian and functional uses of biodiversity between different land-use or landscape units compared with integrating them within such units is another parameter that should be of significant value for policy development.This review confirms two unsurprising but crucial elements for policy development: first that whilst a number of important analogies can be drawn across scales with respect to the management of the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services, there are also emergent properties that necessitate different approaches; second that the value placed on the relationship between biodiversity and function (ecosystem services) by individual land-users is markedly different than those perceived by the community at different levels of society. We have indicated a number of biological and socio-economic issues that need to be clarified in order to provide more explicit advice to policy makers. No single optimal value can be placed on the biodiversity within a landscape. Land-use decisions are likely to be optimised if decision makers can be provided with scenarios showing how various land-use combinations result in different levels of diversity and the efficiency of different ecosystem services. In so-doing it will be important to include aspects of temporal change as well as pattern on the landscape as both these factors influence the resilience of the landscapes which should be regarded as a factor of over-riding importance. These scenarios can then be used to identify policy interventions and institutional arrangements necessary to achieve the desired objective, whether it is one dominated by agricultural productivity targets or the maintenance of ecosystem services or the conservation of biodiversity, or a combination of all three. Notes to Table 1.In some ecosystems photosynthetic micro-organisms may constitute as significant group eg. rice ecosystems). Here we deal only with plants.Plants. There is a long history of classification of plants into functional groups. The groupings have been based on a variety of reproductive, architectural and physiological criteria. For the purposes of this paper the efficiency of resource capture is suggested as the main criterion. This will be determined by features of both architecture (eg. position and shape of the canopy and depth and pattern of the rooting system) and physiological efficiency. A very simple classification could for instance distinguish the roles trees, shrubs, vines and cover plants etc. and then subdivisions within each of these groups. Much more detailed consideration of these aspects is given by Smith et al (1997).Primary Regulation (Note 1). These are a set of functional groups which have a significant regulatory effect on primary production and therefore influence the goods and services provided by the plants.Herbivores: A great variety of organisms feed directly on primary producers. Vertebrate grazers and browsers are readily distinguished from invertebrate pests although their impacts on the plants may have similar functional significance at the ecosystem level. Each of these major groups are sub-divisible in terms of, for instance, feeding habits. The balance between different types of browser for instance can influence the structure of the canopy.Parasites: Microbial infections of plants may limit primary production in analogous manner to herbivory. Parasitic associations can also influence the growth pattern of the plants and thence their architecture and physiological efficency.Micro-symbionts: There is a wide range of microbial infections that are beneficial rather than destructive of which the most familiar are di-nitrogen fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi.Service Provision.The functional groups within this category also strongly influence primary production but not in the directly destructive or stimulatory way of the primary regulators. They also provide a set of ecosystem services distinct to those deriving mainly from the primary producers.Decomposers: This is group of great diversity which can be sub-divided taxonomically (bacteria, fungi, invertebrates etc) and in relation to size both of which correlate somewhat with functional roles in the breakdown (eg. detritivorous invertebrates) and mineralisation (fungi and bacteria) of organic materials of plant or animal origin (Swift et al 1979, Lavelle andSpain 2001).Ecosystem Engineers: These are organisms that change the structure of soil by burrowing, transport of soil particles and formation of aggregate structures. The term is often confined to the macrofauna such as earthworms and termites but fungi and bacteria also play a key role in the binding of soil aggregates. Many of these organisms also contribute to the processes of decomposition.A considerable proportion of soil degradation induced by human-related activities is a result of deforestation, overgrazing and improper agricultural practices. Eighty five percent (85%) of agricultural land is estimated to be degraded to some extent (Oldeman and van Lynden, 1997). The mounting evidence of land degradation induced by agriculture is resulting in a gradual shift from a high input agriculture paradigm, based on overcoming soil constraints to fit plant requirements by amending soils with fertilizers, lime, biocides and tillage, to a paradigm with more reliance on biological processes (Sanchez, 1994). This paradigm invokes a more ecological approach based on the adaptation of germplasm to adverse conditions, the enhancement of biological activity of the soil and the optimization of nutrient cycling to minimize external inputs and maximize the efficiency of their use. This new paradigm focuses on the need to improve agricultural production in more benign ways compared with traditional agricultural improvement that is based on high inputs with subsequent detrimental environmental impacts that result in soil degradation. Nevertheless, while this paradigm shift is a good sign its beneficial impact, in terms of improved soil management options for healthier landscapes, will be limited if there is little adoption by local land managers.The limited adoption of new technology and new cropping systems has been often attributed to local inertia rather than the failure to take into account the local experience and needs (Warren, 1991). According to Walker et al. (1995), increased application of indigenous knowledge to rural research and development can be attributed to the need to improve the targeting of research to address client needs and thus increase adoption of technological recommendations derived from research. The complementary role that indigenous knowledge plays to scientific knowledge in agriculture has been increasingly acknowledged (Sandor and Furbee, 1996). Experimental research is an important way to improve the information upon which farmers make decisions. It is questionable, however, if relying on experimental scientific methodology alone is the most efficient way to fill gaps in current understanding about the sustainable management of agroecosystems. There has been limited success of imported concepts and scientific interpretation of tropical soils in bringing desired changes in tropical agriculture. This has led an increasing recognition that local soil knowledge can offer many insights about managing tropical soils sustainably (Hecht, 1990).Local knowledge related to agriculture can be defined as the indigenous skills, knowledge and technology accumulated by local people derived from their direct interaction with the environment (Altieri, 1990).Transfer of information from generation to generation undergoes successive refinement leading to a system of understanding of natural resources and relevant ecological processes (Pawluk et al., 1992). Nevertheless, although benefits of local knowledge include high local relevance and potential sensitivity to complex environmental interactions, without scientific input local definitions can sometimes be inaccurate and unable to cope with environmental change. It is thus argued that research efforts should further explore a suitable balance between scientific precision and local relevance resulting in an improved knowledge base as indicated by Barrios and Trejo (2001). Furthermore, this approach would overcome the limitations of site specificity and the empirical nature of local knowledge and would allow knowledge extrapolation through space and time as suggested by Cook et al. (1998).A common language is required to link local and technical knowledge about soils and their management so that acceptable, cost-effective strategies for improved soil management can be developed. For this purpose a methodological guide has been developed and used in Latin America and the Caribbean (Trejo et al., 1999) and Africa (Barrios et al., 2001) in order to help stakeholders identify and classify local indicators of soil quality (ISQ) related to permanent and modifiable soil properties as this is the first step in the development of local soil quality monitoring systems (Fig. 1).Selecting a suitable set of ISQ, and developing its use as a monitoring system (Soil Quality Monitoring System, SQMS), can be captured in the following figure (modified from Beare et al., 1997):Suitable ISQ are identified from the local and technical knowledge base and critical levels defined. This phase is followed by the definition of guidelines to establish a Soil Quality Monitoring System (SQMS) along with interpretation information as well as reaching an agreement about the suitable ISQ for the relevant conditions. User feedback is very important at this stage as it will provide the grounds for acceptance of the SQMS for soil quality diagnosis and monitoring. Once the SQMS is fully accepted by users it becomes part of the Decision Support System for Natural Resource Management This methodological guide is mainly focused on the first phase of this process; i.e.: identifying soil quality indicators that can be used by farmers, extension officers, NGO's, technicians, researchers and educators. The ISQ will help in identifying the main soil biophysical limitations of the agricultural system under study. The most sensitive and robust ISQs selected for the soil constraints identified can then be incorporated into a Soil Quality Monitoring System (SQMS), and should include basic parameters such as bulk density, pH, effective rooting depth, water content, soil temperature, total C and electrical conductivity (Doran and Parkin, 1994). Since our objective is to develop a SQMS for the land users, local indicators of soil quality must be included in the monitoring system. The mix of native and scientific parameters varies according to the monitoring objectives; e.g.: if they are farmers, extension agents or policies makers. It is likely that integrative ISQ might be more useful to land users, than a measurement, for example, soil available P, since many indicators used by the farmers are also of the integrative type; for instance, soil color, soil structure, crop yield, presence of specific weed species. Attention should be paid to the inclusion of indicators that can be used while progressively increasing the scale at which results are applied (e.g. from plot to field and farm level, up to watershed, region and nation level). Some examples of such indicators might be crop yield and yield trends, land cover, land use intensity and nutrient balances (Pieri et al., 1995). More recently, Defoer and Budelman (2000) have proposed the use of resource and nutrient flows at farm scale to assess land use sustainability and local variation usually missed in studies at higher levels of aggregation (i.e. region, country). The methodological approach proposed by Trejo et al. (1999) and Barrios et al. (2001) rests on the belief that in order for sustainable management of the soil resource to take place, it has to be a result of improved capacities of the local communities to better understand agroecosystem functioning. Improved capacities by technical officers (extension agents, NGO's, researchers) to understand the importance of local knowledge is also part of the methodology. Therefore, after identifying if there is poor or a lack of adequate communication between the technical officers and the local farm community as a major constraint to capacity building, the methodology proposed deals with ways of jointly generating a common knowledge that is well understood by both interest groups. The structure of the guide is shown in Fig. 2 shows the different sections of the methodological guide for Africa.This methodological guide is made up of six sections: Section 1 provides a general introduction about the management of the soil resource in the African context and the ISQ. Section 2 presents a technical conception of the soil through a Simplified Model of Soil Formation (SMSF) based on Jenny's seminal work (Jenny, 1941;1980) in order to bring participants to a common starting point. order to carry out several ranking exercises for the same information and thus obtain a more representative mean value. All results obtained from each group conducting the ranking exercise are put together in a ranking matrix where rows represent all local indicators identified during brainstorming and the columns represent the ranking assigned by different small groups of farmers.Results to date indicate that biological indicators like native flora and soil macrofauna are important components of local indicators of soil quality. This is not surprising as biological indicators have the potential to capture subtle changes in soil quality because of their integrative nature. They simultaneously reflect changes in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. There is considerable scope, therefore, to further explore the use of local knowledge about biological indicators of soil quality and as a tool guiding soil management decisions.Section 4 provides a methodology to construct an effective channel of communication by finding correspondence between TISQ and LISQ which permit a better Extension/NGO officier, NGO -farmer communication. This is carried out in a plennary session exercise of integration where the most important local indicators of soil quality are analyzed in the context of technical knowledge and are classified into indicators of permanent or modifiable soil properties (Table 2). The classification of local indicators into permanent and modifiable factors provides a useful division that helps to focus on those where improved management could have the greatest impact. This strategy is particularly sound when there is considerable need to produce tangible results in a relatively short time in order to maintain farmer interest as well as to develop the credibility and trust needed for wider adoption of alternative soil management practices.Although some local indicators can be rather general like fertility, slope, productivity and age under fallow, other local indicators are more specific. For instance, plant species growing in fallows, soil depth, color, water holding capacity and predominant soil particle sizes provide indicators that can be easily integrated with technical indicators of soil quality.Section 5 is concerned with management principles behind potential strategies to address constraints modifiable in the short (< 2 yrs), medium (2-6 yrs) and long (> 6 yrs) term (Fig. 3).Modifiable constraints are those that can be overcome through management. Examples include low nutrient and water availability, low and high pH, soil compaction and low soil organic matter content. The discrimination between short, medium and long term is necessary to enable ranking of management strategies, which is mainly dictated by resource endowment.Section 6 is devoted to the Soils Fair which is designed to help farmers develop skills to characterize relevant physical, chemical and biological properties of their soils through simple methods that can then be related to their local knowledge about soil management. Here farmers and scientists communicate through a commonly developed language and simple demonstrations on how to measure soil quality in situ to solve local soil management and land degradation problems.The result of this two-way exchange process is that it has a positive impact on the technical knowledge by nurturing it with local perceptions and demands. Positive impacts are also envisioned on the local knowledge base as it provides with a way for this tacit knowledge to be widely understood, assessed and utilized. Besides, local communities will be empowered by the joint ownership of the technical-local soil knowledge base constructed during this process.The two-way improvement of communication channels will likely improve the communication of farmer's perceptions to extension agents and researchers as well as make recommendations by extension agents and NGOs better understood by the farmer community. Better communication opens opportunities for established and/or emerging local organizations to use this methodological approach for consensus building that precede collective actions resulting in the adoption of improved soil management strategies at the landscape scale.This methodological guide aims to empower local communities to better manage their soil resource through better decision making and local monitoring of their environment. It is also designed to steer management towards solutions to the soil constrains identified as well as to monitor the impact of management strategies implemented to address such constraints.The approach summarized in the preceeding sections provides the tools to conduct a technicallocal classification of the soil, based on modifiable and permanent soil properties, which has the flexibility to work in the spatial scale continuum plot/farm/landscape (watershed) while also having the potential to take the stakeholder groups and gender issues dimensions into consideration. This guide then provides a valuable tool to evaluate the impact of the land use change across various spatial scales and social actors.Finally, participants in the training event associated with the guide are encouraged to develop \"action plans\". These action plans show the institutional commitment made by participants to apply the guide and gained insights in their own work plans and environments. To date more than 23 action plans have been initiated in Latin America and Africa. Follow up of these action plans in the coming years will provide a measure of the impact of this participatory approach in better natural resource management through improved soil management strategies.Current estimates of degradation of the soil resource indicate that we cannot afford to adopt a grow-now and-clean-up-later approach to development. Farmers need early warning signals and monitoring tools to help them assess the status of their soils, since by the time degradation is visible Constraints identification Classify modifiable constraints (short, medium and long term)Design soil management strategies for short, medium and long term modifiable constraints NGOs, Extension agents Search for specific locally available options 632 because of unsuitable management, it is either too late of too expensive to revert it. The costs of preventing soil degradation are several times less than costs of remedial actions. More often than not technical solutions to soil degradation abound but are often left on the scientist shelves because they are developed without the participation of the land user or do not build on local knowledge of soil management. Participatory approaches involving group dynamics and consensus building are likely to be key to adoption of improved soil management strategies beyond the farm-plot scale to the landscape scale through the required collective action process. Action plans developed by local actors as a result of consensus building and new insights derived from the training exercise become a vehicle by which profitable and resource conserving land management is locally promoted and widely adopted. Taking adavantage of the complementary nature of local and scientific knowledge is highlighted as an overall strategy for sustainable soil management.The development of this methodological guide has been a good example of 'South -South' cooperation where experiences from Latin America were brought and adapted to the African context, and feedback from Africa has helped further improvement of the Latin American guide.Long-term management of phosphorus, nitrogen, crop residue, soil tillage and crop rotation in the Sahel Since 1986 a long-term soil fertility management was established by ICRISAT Sahelian Center to study the sustainability of pearl millet based cropping systems in relation to management of N, P, and crop residue, rotation of cereal with cowpea and soil tillage. The traditional farmers' practices yields 146 kg/ha of pearl millet grain whereas with application of 13 kg P/ha, 30 kg N/ha and crop residue in pearl millet following cowpea yielded 1866 kg/ha of pearl millet grain. These results clearly indicate the high potential to increase the staple pearl millet yields in the very poor Sahelian soils.The Kabete long-term trial was started by KARI at the National Agricultural Laboratories site, on a humic Nitisol in 1976. The objective of the trial was to find appropriate methods for maintaining and improving the productivity of soil through the use of inorganic N and P fertilizers, farmyard manures and crop residues under maize-bean rotation practices that are common to small-scale farmers. In 2001, samples were collected from key treatments to study P dynamics and to examine the effects of the different treatments on P pools and P availability. The results will be given in the next progress report.Long-term management of manure, crop residues and fertilizers in different cropping systems Since 1993 a factorial experiment was initiated at the research station of ICRISAT Sahelian Center at Sadore, Niger. The first factor was three levels of fertilizers (0, 4.4 kg P + 15 kg N/ha, 13kg P + 45 kg N/ha), the second factor was crop residue applied at (300, 900 and 2700 kg/ha) and the third factor was manure applied at (300, 900 and 2700 kg/ha). The cropping systems are continuous pearl millet, pearl millet in rotation with cowpea and pearl millet in association with cowpea. The analysis of variance data indicate that fertilizer; crop residue and manure application resulted in a highly significant effect of both pearl millet grain and total dry matter yields. Fertilizer alone account for 34% in the total variation of the dry matter whereas manure account for 18%. Although some interactions are significant they account for les than 3% in the total variation.For pearl millet grain, the application fertilizer, manure, crop residue and cropping systems alone account for 66% of the total variation. The farmer's practices yield 236 kg/ha; the application of 13 kg P and 45 kg N/ha yielded 800 kg/ha but when these mineral fertilizers are combined with 2.7 t/ha of manure or crop residue in rotation with cowpea, yield of 1500 kg/ha can be achieved.The N and P fertilizer value of manure and crop residue is 27 and 13 respectively and the N and P equivalency of manure is 113% and 153% for crop residue. The high values of fertilizers equivalency of manure and crop residue over 100% suggest that the organic amendment have beneficial roles other than the addition of plant nutrient such as addition of micronutrients and better water holding capacity. In addition, the release of nutrient with mineralization over time can match more the plant demand and this will result in higher nutrient use efficiency from the organic amendments. It is also well established that the application of organic amendments can reduce the capacity of the soil to fix P and then increase P availability to plant.Although the combined application of organic resources and mineral inputs forms the technical backbone of the Integrated Soil Fertility Management approach, procuring a sufficient amount of organic matter of a desired quality is very often a problem farmers are facing. While high quality organic resources (high %N, low %lignin and polyphenols) are known to behave as fertilizers through fast mineralization of their tissue N, lower quality organic resources are often more abundant on farmers' fields. Examples of such lower quality resources are crop residues or farmyard manure.Sole application of low quality organic resources may lead to N immobilization and reduced crop growth. Consequently, mineral N is required to overcome the demand for N by the microbial decomposer community and to supply N to the crop. While preliminary evidence shows that high quality resources rarely cause immobilization of mineral N, low quality organic resources may lead to immobilization of fertilizer N. Depending on whether this immobilization phase lasts or not, decreased or enhanced crop yields may be the result. In the case of long-term immobilization, residual effects may be more relevant rather than immediate N supply to the crop.In 2002, network experiments were conducted at 7 benchmark locations across 7 countries to investigate the nitrogen and phosphorus contribution of different low quality organic materials that are available for direct use by farmers.Soils in the Sahel are acidic and inherently low in nutrients with ECEC of less than 1 cmol/kg for all the sites except Gaya where the organic carbon is slightly higher and an ECEC of 1.3 cmol/kg. The data on phosphorus sorption isotherm clearly indicated that most of the soils have very low capacity to fix P due to their sandy nature.As manure was used in most of the trials in combination with mineral fertilizer, a systematic chemical characterization of the manure used at the different sites was undertaken. These analysis will be used to determine the fertilizer equivalencies of different manure sources for nitrogen and phosphorus. The nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the manure were very low and varied from 0.47% to 0.71% and the P levels varied from 0.08% to 0.38%.Interaction of N, P and manure. A factorial experiment of manure (0, 2 and 4 t/ha), nitrogen (0, 30 and 60 kg N/ha) and phosphorus (0, 6.5 and 13 kg P/ha) was established in Banizoumbou to assess the fertilizer equivalency of manure for N and P. The data show a very significant effect of N, P and manure on pearl millet yield. Whereas P alone accounted for 60% of the total variation, nitrogen accounted for less than 5% in the total variation indicating that P is the most limiting factors at this site. Manure account for 8% in the total variation.15N dilution technique was used to quantify the biological nitrogen fixation of three cowpea varieties (local, TN5-78 and Dan illa) under different soil fertility conditions. A non-fixing (NF) cowpea variety was used as non-fixing crop. The samples have been sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria for mass spectrophotometer analysis of 15N in order to assess the biological nitrogen fixation.The data clearly indicate the comparative advantage to combine organic and inorganic plant nutrients for the low suffering soils in the Sahel. The use of only organic P sources yield 5000 t/ha of cowpea fodder whereas the application in the organic farm gave 5718 t/ha. Site 2: Maseno, Western Kenya. An integrated nutrient management experiment at maseno was established in the highlands of Western Kenya on a nitisol at an elevation of 1420 m ASL and receiving an annual rainfall of about 1800mm distributed over two growing seasons. Farmyard manure (quality parameters) was used as the low quality organic resource and was integrated with 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg N ha -1 . Since this was a poor season, the overall grain yield and subsequent response to N was poor. However at 0-30 N levels, treatments integrated with organics consistently yielded higher than urea-N. These differences declined beyond 30N. In contrast, these manures appeared to be effective in overcoming P deficiency that is widespread on farms in Western Kenya.The experiment was conducted in collaboration with the Institut d' Economic Rurale (IER), Mali at the research station in Niono. The site was located at Kogoni in the rice-growing region. Low quality manures derived from livestock fed predominantly rice residues were used in combination with urea-N at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120kg ha-1. The data show rice yield response to N in the presence or absence these manures. Application of 90-120 kg N gave the highest paddy yield (approx 7.5 t ha -1 ) thereby doubling yield over the control. Integration with manure did not significantly increase the rice yields at any N levels; rather there was a slight additive effect of applying the low quality material.Site 4: Farakou Ba, Kou Valley, Burkina Faso In Burkina Faso, trials were conducted at the Kou valley research station in collaboration with the INERA. The low quality organic input was manure (<1.0%N). The test crop was irrigated rice. The manure applied at 1, 2, 3 and 4 tons dry matter per hectare was combined with urea-N at 0, 40, 80 and 120 Kg N ha -1 . The data show rice yield response to urea-N alone or in combination with organic matter at 4 levels. Applications of N alone doubled rice grain yield over the unfertilized control. There was an additive increase when organic matter was integrated with inorganic-N at all manure levels, however this increase was not significant.The experiments at Zaria are conducted in collaboration with Ahmadou Bello University. The site is located adjacent to the Danayamaka village to the North of Zaria within the Guinean zone. Low quality manure that is typical of farmer organic resource input was used. The manure applied at 1, 2, 3 and 4 t dm ha-1 was combined with 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg N ha-1 in a split plot design arrangement where the main plots were treated with N at 4 levels and the sub-plots received manure inputs at 4 levels. The data show the yield obtained with sole applications of urea-N (response curve) or urea-N in combination with organic manure inputs. At this site, additive effects of manure and fertilizer combinations were not significant indicating that these manures contributed little to the N demand for the maize crop. In addition, the data show that these low quality manures can contribute significantly to overcome P deficiency to maize crop.The Soils And Fertilizer Research Institute was the implementing partner for the network experiments in Ghana. The benchmark site was located within the humid forest zone north of Kumasi. The trial was arranged as a randomized block design on a uniform site that was recently cleared. Low quality maize stover and giant panicum grass were tested as possible organic resources that can be combined with mineral fertilizers for soil fertility improvements. However, the giant panicum treatments did not have sufficient replication to warrant being included in this report. In conclusion, the results for this site are not yet available.The site in Togo is located at Davie within the derived savannah zone. Partners from ITRA, Togo implemented the network experiments. For INM1, local organic resources used consisted of rice residues, which were obtained from an adjacent rice scheme. In order to achieve the required weight in dry matter equivalent for the materials added, not all residues could be incorporated and some of it remained as surface mulch for prolonged periods of time during the growing season. The response of maize to the application of rice residues. There was little or no response to N at this site, probably due to moisture stress resulting from drought during the first season Site 8: Kabete, Kenya In addition to the long-term trial that was earlier reported an adjacent experiment was established to investigate the optimum combination of organic and inorganic N sources. Three different materials of differing quality were applied at 60 kg N/ha equivalent. At this N rate, the fertilizer equivalency value of tithonia was 100% while for senna and calliandra it was 43% and 38% respectively. This indicated that tithonia was as good as urea in supplying N to maize crop.Experiments were established at Maseno in Western Kenya, Zaria in Nigeria, Kumasi in Ghana and Davie in TogoThese experiments were to investigate Optimum N and P management in legume-cereal rotations. Although the combined application of organic resources and mineral inputs forms the technical backbone of the Integrated Soil Fertility Management approach, procuring a sufficient amount of organic matter of a desired quality is very often a problem farmers are facing. In-situ production of organic matter is an attractive alternative to technologies harvesting the organic resources from other sites within or outside the farm. Opting for legumes during the organic resource production phase has the potential to enrich the soil with N through biological N 2 fixation.Herbaceous or green manure legumes usually leave substantial amounts of N in the soil although when left to grow to maturity, harvesting the seeds may substantially reduce the net N input into the soil. 'Traditional' grain legume germplasm has a large N harvest index indicating that although a significant part of the N taken up by the legume was certainly fixed from the atmosphere, more N was taken away during grain harvest resulting in a negative net N input. However, dual-purpose germplasm is now available for, e.g., cowpea and soybean, which produces substantial amounts of haulms besides grains and has a relatively low N harvest index. As such, a net N input into the soil can be expected. Besides fixing N, certain legumes are also known to access less available P pools, alter the soil pest spectrum or improve soil biological properties. These benefits are often summarized as non-N benefits. The effect of a legume on a following cereal crop is often expressed as its N equivalent. One needs to take into account that the processes mentioned above might also lead to a better utilization of legume or fertilizer N although the improved yields are not necessarily an improvement of N supply.The current experiments aim at quantifying the contribution of herbaceous and grain legumes to N supply and, where relevant, at quantifying the impact of targeting P to certain phases of the rotation on the overall yield. No data is available for this report yet as we will be able to monitor the rotation effect only during the next cropping season.Single Superphosphate (SSP), Tahoua Phosphate Rock (TPR) and Kodjari Phosphate Rock (PRK) were broadcast (bc) and/or hill placed (HP). For pearl millet grain P use efficiency for broadcasting SSP at 13 kg P/ha was 18 kg/kg but hill placement of SSP at 4 kg P/ha gave a PUE of 83 kg/kg P. Whereas the PUE of TPR broadcast was 16 kg grain/kg P, the value increased to 34 kg/kg P when additional SSP was applied as hill placed at 4 kg P/ha. For cowpea fodder PUE for SSP broadcast was 96 kg/kg P but the hill placement of 4 kg P/ha gave a PUE of 461 kg/kg P. Those data clearly indicate that P placement can drastically increase P use efficiency and the placement of small quantities of water-soluble P fertilizers can also improve the effectiveness of phosphate rock .A complete factorial experiment was carried out with three levels of manure (0, 3, 6t/ha) three level of P (0, 6.5 and 13 kg/P ha) using two methods of application (broadcast and hill placement).The response of millet to P and manure for the two methods of application. For pearl millet grain the hill placement of manure performed better than broadcasting and with no application of P fertilizer, broadcasting 3 t/ha of manure resulted on pearl millet grain field of 700 kg/ha whereas the point placement of the same quantity of manure gave about 1000 kg/ha. Cowpea are showing also the same effect as for pearl millet.A complete factorial experiment of three level of P (0, 13 and 26 kg P/ha), three levels of N (0, 30 and 60 kg N/ha), and three levels of manure (0, 2, 4 t/ha) was carried out. For pearl millet grain, the optimum combination of organic and inorganic soil amendment gave yield of about 2 t/ha whereas the control yield was 450 kg/ha. The P and N fertilizer equivalency of manure range from 291 to 397%.Past research results indicated a very attractive technology consisting of hill placement of small quantities of P fertilizers. With DAP containing 46% P2O5 and a compound NPK fertilizer (15-15-15) containing only 15% P2O5, fields trials were carried out by farmers on 56 plot per treatment to compare the economic advantage of the two sources of P for millet production. As hill placement can result in soil P mining another treatment was added consisting of application of phosphate rock at 13 kg P/ha plus hill placement of 4 kg P/ha as NPK compound fertilizers.The data clearly shows that there was no difference between hill placement of DAP and 15-15-15 indicating that with the low cost per unit of P associated with DAP, this source of fertilizer should be recommended to farmers. The basal application of Tahoua Phosphate rock gave about additional 300 kg/ha of pearl millet grain. The combination of hill placement of water-soluble P fertilizer with phosphate rock seems a very attractive option for the resource poor farmers in this region. The data clearly show that the application of Tahoua PR with hill placement of water soluble P outperformed the other treatments in most instances.Low, medium and high inputs of mineral fertilizers evaluation Farmers' practices were compared to a low input system consistency on increasing crop planting density at recommended level, a medium input where Tahoua Phosphate rock was applied at 13 kg P/ha and SSP hill placed at 4 kg P/ha and high input as recommended by the extension services where SSP is broadcast at 13 kg P/ha with nitrogen applied at 30 kg N/ha as urea.The data indicates that grain yield can be increased three fold with the medium input and higher economic returns can be anticipated with this treatment. The data show how the yield of the technologies evaluated fluctuated as compared to the farmers' practices with the high input systems dominating the other systems in most instances.As for Karabedji, DAP, NPK and SSP were compared and there was any significant effect between the three sources and yield can be increased for more than two fold with this low input technology.","tokenCount":"202088"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dc941c40c0c119abe224fa6acb8d0dc6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c5e99784-f806-4f79-be0f-e7df275a1de8/retrieve","id":"1187391601"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"56381c5b-d422-43e0-baab-31e248c34c55","pagecount":"5","content":"Food Systems Actors engaged in the cocreation of agroecological innovations -Results of Year 2 engagement Simone Staiger-Rivas, Guillermo Orjuela Alliance Bioversity -CIATThe CGIAR initiative on Agroecology is actively engaging with food system actors (FSA) in eight countries (Burkina Faso, India, Kenya, Lao PDR, Peru, Senegal, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe), particularly to codesign, test, and adapt agroecological innovations, both technological and institutional, from food production to consumption. At the core is the necessity to generate scientific evidence that shows how agroecological principles applied in different socio-ecological systems are better able to provide equity, productivity, economic and environmental benefits than alternatives, including the status quo.The engagement takes place in Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALLs) that are formed in selected territories of each country with diverse stakeholders, including farmer associations or communities, researchers from multiple disciplines, extensionists, private companies, international and national nongovernmental organizations as well as local, regional, and national policymakers. The establishment of ALLs does not follow a standard methodology: Each country's context leads to a different agroecological transition pathway(s) and multi stakeholder approaches.The engagement of food system actors is addressed in the monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact assessment (MELIA) component of the initiative. Country teams collect and report data quarterly based on the following definitions: FSA are defined as private sector agents, policymakers, and female and male smallscale farmers, researchers, communities, investors. They engage with the initiative when they participate in meetings and activities that aim at assessing, co-designing and testing agroecological innovations at farm, market and policy levels. The co-creation process consists in FSA working together and having an equal voice in the activities that aim at developing culturally relevant innovations. Agroecological innovations in turn are of technological and institutional nature and concern the broad range of Agroecological principles (HLPE, 2019). This summary analyzes the data from 2022, and data collected from January to October 2023. It includes seven countries, the data from Senegal missing as it is the latest country to join the Initiative. A report covering all eight countries and the entire two-year span will be published early 2024.Technical ReportTo date, a total of 4,398 FSA has been engaged.Most Initiative outcome targets are already achieved or close to be achieved. The proposed target statement intends 225 national and international researchers to collaborate with FSAs -at least 5,500 farmers, 54 policymakers, 25 private-sector companies-in the co-design and testing of context-specific agroecological innovations (Figure 1). The initiative is effectively engaging the private sector and policymakers and will most probably surpass its targets. The gender balance is almost equal with 49.7% female versus 50.27% male FSA engaged, although with variability between countries. Zimbabwe has engaged the highest number of FSA, followed by Tunisia, India, and Kenya. With respect to gender, India, Kenya and Zimbabwe have engaged more female FSA than male.In total, 42% of the FSA engaged are female, 58% are male (Figure 2). Engaging men and women in the development of innovations enables to address the limitations of the adoption of innovations according to gender, as well as to adapt technologies to different users. Farmers have been engaged in all work packages: To no surprise farmers have been massively engaged in the formation of the ALLs and the decision on the agroecological innovations to be tested (WP1), but they have also been part not only on technical solutions but also on the socio-political dimensions beyond the farm level that are needed to positively affect food systems. of agroecological assessments (WP2), the analysis of value chains (WP3), the discussions on suitable policy and institutional arrangements for AE transitions (WP4) and they participated in exercises to understand the behavioral change contexts.Further analysis of FSA typology with WP and country leads will inform strategies to achieve WP outcomes.A closer look at the country data will help to analyze which FSA are or could be critical to make AE transitions a reality. While the Initiative has targets related to the number of FSA engaged, the intensity of engagement (in several WPs, and in several stages of co-creation) will be further analyzed. Key Takeaways Engagement of food system actors has a key element in the effective pursuit of results and the success of the Agroecology initiative. FSA engaged have been a constant pursuit that reflects the motivational environment during the implementation phase and has been manifested through various affective and social processes through the different work packages of the initiative. The initiative has successfully improved engagement among stakeholders at the farmer, producer organization, and policy levels. This aligns with the recommendations from agroecology research, which underscores the importance of fostering links between actors at various levels for the success of agroecology as a science and a practice.The varied contexts of this initiative's implementation demonstrate that agroecology does not have a singular point of entry. In some countries, the focus has been primarily on collaborating with policymakers, whereas in others, it has been on working with producer organizations. Identifying key players within a community also enables the leveraging of its social capital for the expansion of agroecology. ","tokenCount":"830"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"09882e3f6769773a059a7ed7ab8a389f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/28cf4cf8-de70-4f08-acdd-e201e71d9682/retrieve","id":"938632941"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0b97dd12-6f40-4568-851d-df61063cd5fb","pagecount":"1","content":"• Selection of the field with careful study on cropping / disease history. • Avoid maize planting, where neighbor field is with older maize crop with suspected MLN symptomatic plants. 2 Preparation of Field 3 Use of Certified -MLN disease free seeds 4 Use of Clean / disinfected farm tools and equipments 5 Scouting, rouging, and clean crop cultivation 6 Managing insect vectors 7 Rouging and incinerating infected plant parts 8 Crop rotation and Host free period• Use only certified seeds produced in MLN free areas for each growing season • Avoid using grain as seeds, and seeds from previous infected maize plants or fields.• Clean farm equipment/tools using disinfectants before and after use to eliminate MLN virus contamination.• Monitor the field every week for presence of insect vector population. A high insect vector population increases chances of MLN infection. • Maintain a clean farm by removing grasses, weeds and other alternative hosts from fields.• Scout weekly for MLN viral symptoms for early detection and control of insect vectors. Uproot MLN symptomatic plants and destroy them through burning. • Do not feed MLN-infected plants to livestock, such as cattle.• Control of insect vectors can be done using recommended insecticides (once every 1-2 weeks). • Spray insecticides either in the morning or evening but not in hot and windy period. Before roguing plants, spray systemic insecticides.• Practice crop rotation for at least one season by growing noncereal crops preferably legumes (beans, soybean and peas). The CGIAR Plant Health Initiative will continue to focus on mitigating the threat of MLN in sub-Saharan Africa through partnerships with national and regional partners on:1. Monitoring and surveillance of MLN by the NPPOs. 2. Implementing an integrated disease management strategy, including MLN-free commercial seed production and deployment, and promoting awareness of farming communities on MLN and its management. ","tokenCount":"302"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"900d23b4aec712c95b6f0d9210334eb1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a8a2d9d-95c7-45a7-bc1e-0a1bc34f323b/retrieve","id":"1231618023"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4b465fa0-8a1a-4fb8-9219-0cf9dcdde4fc","pagecount":"36","content":"Climatic changes linked to global warming are already having a devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of farmers and rural communities across the ACP regions. Current climate projections suggest this impact will worsen. Reducing agriculture's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, while also increasing productivity in a sustainable way is the challenge that lies ahead.World religious and political leaders -from Pope Francis to President Barack Obama -are calling for action against climate change to avoid catastrophic consequences, particularly for the poor. How these calls will result in a comprehensive climate deal in December 2015 in Paris remains to be seen. Smallholder farmers in developing countries are likely to be hardest hit by climate change due to agriculture's vulnerability to extreme weather patterns and the low level of resilience of farming to climate variability and change.The good news is that innovative approaches are being developed to meet this challenge. One of these approaches, climatesmart agriculture (CSA), aims to increase farm productivity and incomes in a sustainable manner, enable farmers to adapt and build resilience to climate change and, where possible, reduce greenhouse gas emissions.To make CSA work, farmers and government decision-makers need support. First, they need reliable information to identify proven solutions to climate change and make informed decisions. Secondly, cooperation among institutions is essential to develop and disseminate best practices and promote conducive policies for CSA.CTA has been playing an active role in a number of partnerships and alliances to support farmers and policymakers. It is an active member of the Global Alliance for CSA, which seeks to enable 500 million farmers to practise CSA by 2030. CTA also facilitates the identification of solutions and sharing of knowledge among farmers and other key players by helping them to document proven practices, tools or policies that promote resilience to climate change. For example, through the use of participatory 3-D mapping, CTA and its partners have assisted local communities to identify their vulnerabilities to climate change and develop solutions to address them.As the climate changes, agriculture needs to transform so that it becomes more profitable, sustainable and resilient. The smallholder farmers and producers who face the hard realities of the impacts of climate change on their livelihoods want practical solutions that work for them and their families. The agriculture and climate communities should not fail them.hilst the climate has changed over the millennia mankind has been on the earth, there is increasing evidence that the world is experiencing climate change on a scale never previously known in human history. Whilst not all climate change impacts are projected to be negative and there will be some regions where beneficial impacts are projected -for many regions, global warming will bring about a decrease in annual and seasonal rainfall, more erratic weather patterns and more intense and frequent extreme weather events, including heatwaves, droughts, storms and floods. Lower relative humidity due to decreased rainfall will favour increased insect vectors and viruses, whilst higher relative humidity due to increased rainfall will favour increased bacterial and fungal infection. Human migration due to environmental pressures is also likely to accelerate.In the oceans, increasing temperatures, acidification and changing currents will impact on fisheries (see p 8, Changing the climate of fisheries in the Pacific); rising sea levels are already leading to salt water intrusion and loss of available land in small islands (see p 23, Responding to climate change), and many other coastal areas. Climate change will also impact on livestock production through heat-induced stress and reduced water availability, as well as changes in availability, quality and prices of fodder (see p 10, Building resilience in Caribbean livestock farming).To meet the needs of the world's expanding population, which is projected to be 9 billion by 2050, farmers will have to produce more; this task will be made all the more difficult by climate change. Even a 2°C rise -which is the median projection (see p 7 -Table 1) will lead to dramatic changes in agricultural productivity and water availability. The added challenge is to produce more but in ways that will protect the environment, especially soil and water, whilst minimising agriculture's contribution to climate change. Indeed, whilst many still regard agriculture as a 'victim' of climate change, the impact of agriculture itself on global warming cannot be overlooked.Around 14% of human-generated greenhouse gases are estimated to come directly from agriculture; for example, almost half of all methane and nearly 60% of nitrous oxide emissions are generated by agricultural activities, including livestock production, and fertiliser and pesticide applications. A further 18% of greenhouse gases come from land use changes (e.g. clearance of forests for crops and pasture), soil erosion or machineintensive farming methods, which also contribute to increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Reducing agriculture's carbon footprint is therefore an important consideration to limiting climate change. And to help ensure food security, farmers across the globe will probably need to switch to more climate-hardy crop varieties or even change the crops they grow, as well as their farming practices.Action that helps offset the effects of climate change. For example, the construction of barriers to protect against rising sea levels, or conversion to crops or crop varieties capable of surviving high temperatures and drought.Climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity as opposed to natural processes.Scenario used for projections of future emissions assuming no action, or no new action, is taken to mitigate the problem.Occurs naturally and is also a by-product of human activities such as burning fossil fuels. It is the principal greenhouse gas produced by human activity.The process of converting CO 2 gas into a solid form, for example when trees convert CO 2 into biomass (wood, leaves, roots etc.).The steady rise in global average surface atmospheric temperatures, which experts believe is linked to greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity.Natural and industrial gases that trap heat from the Earth, warming the surface. The Kyoto Protocol restricts emissions of six GHGs: natural (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) and industrial (perfluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, and sulphur hexafluoride).The insulating effect of certain gases in the atmosphere, which allow solar radiation to warm the Earth and then prevent some of the heat from escaping. The second most important GHG. Sources include the natural world (wetlands, termites, wildfires) and human activity (crop production, livestock rearing, waste dumps, leaks from coal mining).Action that will reduce human contributions to climate change, including action to reduce GHG emissions and levels of GHGs in the atmosphere.An important GHG. About 80% of the global emissions of nitrous oxide come from the agricultural sector, largely from soils which have been ameliorated with organic and inorganic nitrogen fertiliser.When CO 2 dissolves in seawater, carbonic acid is formed. Carbon emissions in the industrial era have already lowered the pH of seawater by 0.1. Ocean acidification decreases the ability of marine organisms to build their shells and skeletal structures and kills off coral reefs.Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, a concept that provides developing countries with a financial incentive to preserve forests.Is a threshold for change, which, when reached, results in a process that is difficult to reverse. Scientists say it is urgent that policymakers halve global CO 2 emissions over the next 50 years or risk triggering climatic changes that could be irreversible.The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to prevent \"dangerous\" human interference with the climate system. It entered into force on 21 March 1994 and has been ratified by 192 countries.OCTOBER 2015 | SPORE SPECIAL ISSUE |However, climate change does not occur in the same way and with the same impact across ACP regions and the adaptation and mitigation responses required will also be different. For example, about 90% of the sub-Saharan African population depends on rainfed agriculture for food production and, according to the latest IPCC report, could result in decreased crop yields of 18% for southern Africa to 22% across sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, Africa's population continues to grow; annual growth is estimated at 2.4% and the population is predicted to double to 1.8 billion by 2050. According to the FAO, to feed the projected population, crop production will need to increase by 260% by 2050, yet crop models, used by the International Food Policy Research Institute indicate that by 2050, if current low input crop management practices were maintained, average rice, wheat, and maize yields in sub-Saharan Africa will decline by up to 14%, 22%, and 5%, respectively, as a result of climate change (see p 9, Cocoa trees love the shade).In the Pacific, a region where half the population of 10 million people live within 1.5 km of the sea, few will be untouched by the consequences of climate change, including ocean warming, sea level rise, more frequent tropical storms, flash floods and droughts. Despite contributing a negligible 0.03% to global greenhouse gas emissions, the 5th assessment report of the IPCC identifies the 22 Pacific small island developing states as being the most vulnerable countries in the world to the adverse impacts of climate change. For example, Kiribati, comprising 33 low-lying atolls with a population of just over 108,000, could witness a maximum sea level rise of 0.6 m and an increase in surface air temperature of 2.9°C by 2090, according to the Pacific Climate Change Science Program. The country is experiencing higher tides every year, but can ill afford shoreline erosion, with a population density of 15,000 people per km 2 in some areas.Across the region, the Asian Development Bank estimates that the impacts of climate change could cost up to 12.7% of annual GDP by the end of the 21st century and are already causing dramatic revenue loss in agriculture, water resources, forestry, tourism and other related sectors. In 2012, Cyclone Evan was estimated to have caused damage equal to approximately 30% of Samoa's GDP; Cyclone Pam, in March 2015, is estimated to have displaced around 70% of Vanuatu's population, and is expected to have caused even greater economic damage.Higher temperatures, rises in sea level, and increased hurricane intensity also threaten the lives, property and livelihoods of 40 million people throughout the Caribbean region as a result of global warming. For example, rainfall records averaged across the Caribbean region for 100 years  show a consistent reduction in rainfall according to the latest IPCC report, a trend that is projected to continue, signalling a significant threat to agriculture and water availability. In addition, the abundance of coral species is in rapid decline and has decreased by over 80% on many Caribbean reefs. Studies show that the projected costs to the region due to increased hurricane damage, loss of revenue to the tourism sector and damage to infrastructure as a result of climate change could be €7.96 billion by 2025, and €17.5 billion by 2050, according to the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. Such losses could cause an irreversible economic recession in each of the Caribbean Community member states. So where do we go from here? How are ACP countries doing business in a time of a changing climate and how will they continue to react and adapt in the decades to come as the impacts of global warming increase? In particular, how do small Pacific and Caribbean islands cope with the phenomena that threaten, in some cases, their very survival? And beyond the threats, are there also opportunities related to climate change for smallholder farmers and fishers? Some responses are provided in the case studies in Chapter 2, Fighting back: case studies from ACP regions.Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) -defined as 'agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, resilience (adaptation), reduces/removes GHGs (mitigation), and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals -represents a significant approach to achieving short-and-long-term agricultural development priorities in the face of climate change and serves as a bridge to meeting other development priorities. Launched in 2015, the Global Alliance for CSA will help support countries and other actors in securing the necessary policy, technical and financial conditions to enable the triple win (food security, adaptation and mitigation) that can be achieved through CSA approaches. Examples of making agriculture climate-smart are presented in Chapter 3, Making agriculture climate-smart.In 2015, governments will aim to agree on a new sustainable development framework that includes a set of longer-term Sustainable Development Goals, a future climate change agreement under the UNFCCC, and a post-2015 framework to address disaster risks. Collectively, these processes will provide a unique opportunity to fundamentally shift course towards global and national climate-resilient development pathways. However, whether these actions promote food and nutrition security in the face of climate change will be one of the key benchmarks in assessing success; six issues will be critical to this. These including mobilising financial support needed to scale up proven action and practice; ensuring equitable outcomes for women; giving decision-making power to farmers; enhancing nutrition security, not just food security; making mitigation an opportunity for, rather than a threat to food security; and supporting markets and value chains for low income producers and consumers. One of the greatest challenges, for example, will be how to ensure increased investment in sustainable, productive, equitable and resilient agriculture, through climate and agriculture finance. Further steps for the future are outlined in Chapter 4, What's next?Uncertainty in climate projections occurs from three principal sources:• Natural internal variability of the climate system -These are the natural internal and ongoing processes within the climate system and are largely independent of climate change processes.• Model uncertainty -IPCC uses a range of different General Circulation Models (GCM's) to project plausible future climate scenarios. However, there are still limitations in our knowledge of the process that govern the climate system coupled with limited computing resources. As a result, the models are imperfect and climate change projections vary, depending on which model is used.• Emission scenario uncertainty -climate projections derived from GCM's are based on greenhouse gas emission scenarios called Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP). These are created based on assumptions on how future GHG emissions will evolve. As there is considerable uncertainty associated with these assumptions, there is also uncertainty over which RCP is most likely to correctly representthefuture. As a result of these factors, there is associated uncertainty in projected temperature and rainfall changes (see Table I). Nevertheless, warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased (see IPCC 2013: summary for policymakers http://tinyurl.com/l8w5g5l).How important are fisheries in terms of livelihoods and economic security in the Pacific?Fisheries are not just important for families who rely on the reef; they also provide vital foreign exchange from tuna fishing in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), where islands have jurisdiction over their resources. Kiribati and Tuvalu are the most fishery-dependent nations in the region, with fisheries contributing the majority of their government revenue and livelihoods. Fisheries also provide resilience against natural disasters and climatic events. Provided they remain productive, they are a reliable source of food when crops are wiped out. After a cyclone, island people go fishing.The greatest challenges are from coastal overfishing and the impact of urbanisation and agriculture on coastal habitats, which are very significant in some places. In terms of climate change, we have not yet experienced economic impacts from latitudinal shifts in species, but the main concern is about habitat decline caused by coral death. Reef fish populations do not migrate easily from island to island. Each island is effectively a mountain-top so reef fish cannot move to higher latitudes like continental shelf or pelagic (ocean surface) fish can.In oceanic tuna fisheries, we do not yet see notable challenges as a direct result of climate change because pelagic fisheries are already greatly affected by natural climatic cycles. People are accustomed to skipjack tuna becoming more available in the east of the region during El Niño years, for example.If the centre of abundance of skipjack tuna stock moves with the western tropical Pacific \"warm pool\" to the east over the course of the century, as the models suggest, there will be obvious winners in the east and losers in the west. However, if there are catastrophic reversals in major oceanic currents, rather than incremental change, then all bets will be off. Imagine what would happen to north-western Europe if the Gulf Stream suddenly shut down.My view is that unless Pacific Islanders are able to effectively deal with threats from coastal overfishing and land-based impacts, for example by promoting community controls with strong government backup, there probably won't be any reef fishing businesses left for climate change to affect. Diversification to small-pond aquaculture and to pelagic fisheries beyond the reef can help maintain fish-based livelihoods if reef fisheries decline. But, as they decline, the market price of reef fish will increase. So, for many reef fishers, there will be no economic reason to shift their business activities towards lower-priced aquaculture or oceanic fish until the reef fishery completely collapses. This presents a dilemma for policymakers.So what policy approaches are having an impact to help reduce the threat of climate change on this vital sector?For highly migratory stocks, one approach is for Pacific Island administrations to establish collaborative, rights-based management systems over the tuna fisheries in their own combined EEZs -systems that allow them to trade fishing opportunities among themselves, and so buffer the economic impacts of climatic changes. For example, under the Vessel Days Scheme, Kiribati can sell fishing days to Pacific Island states further west during La Niña events to maintain a more stable economy. This scheme has also enabled Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to properly value their tuna fisheries and obtain a much better return from the same level of fishing effort. Flag States (where vessels are registered) have traditionally held the balance of power in tuna fisheries, and establishing the rights of Pacific SIDS to govern tuna fishing in their own EEZs has taken many years. Even now, some distant-water fishing nations question these collaborative, zone-based management systems.Fishing is the mainstay of life on smaller, low-lying atolls of the Pacific, which are more dependent on fisheries than the larger, higher islands, where agriculture is possible. So what impacts will climate change have on this vital resource and the livelihoods that depend on it? Tim Adams has spent all his working life in Pacific Island fisheries and is currently director of fisheries management at the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency. His goal in life is to see Pacific Islanders obtaining maximum benefit from the control of well-managed sustainable fisheries in their own waters, whether at the national level in tuna fisheries or at the village level in reef fisheries.\"We sense the onset of climate change, especially in terms of rainfall, not the winds. We can't talk about drought per se, but rainfall is now irregular and, especially, it's unpredictable,\" said a woman cocoa farmer at the last Agriculture and Animal Resources Fair held in mid-April in Abidjan. \"We used to be able to predict volumes of inputs we would require and draw up a timetable for applying them because we knew the rains would begin in June and last until August or September. But this is no longer the case and now we can't make forecasts.\"This woman, member of a cocoa growers' group, cultivates cocoa trees around Soubré, capital of Nawa region in southwestern Côte d'Ivoire. As the world's leading cocoa producer, this country alone supplies 40% of the cocoa beans marketed worldwide. Côte d'Ivoire therefore has a key role in this sector, especially since the global demand for chocolate is steadily growing and there are fears that cocoa supplies will not be sufficient to meet this demand.The research findings are indeed alarming. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the area devoted to cocoa production worldwide could shrink by 20% by 2050. In Côte d'Ivoire, a temperature increase of 2.3°C in key cocoa growing regions such as Moyen-Comé, Sud-Comoé and Agneby would have a major impact on productivity, according to a study by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. Cocoa trees are more susceptible to the climatic drying trend than to the rise in temperature because dryness leads to increased evapotranspiration due to the rising temperatures, but this moisture loss is not offset by higher annual rainfall, which is actually decreasing slightly, reports the French agricultural research centre CIRAD.One solution lies in agroforestry. Cocoa trees grown in an agroforestry environment can, according to CIRAD, produce up to 1,100 kg/ha of cocoa beans, with the cocoa tree longevity sometimes exceeding 50 years, as compared to 300-400 kg/ha and 20-30 years for monocropped cocoa trees in West Africa.\"We're working with different partners, such as the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), to overcome this problem via forest tree replanting. This initiative provides shade in the plantations and helps generate rainfall. The CCC advises us to plant these trees because cocoa requires water and shade,\" explains the woman coffee grower. This is a major shift in strategy since cocoa and coffee cropping are known to be responsible for the loss of some 30 million ha of primary and secondary forests worldwide, while also generating greenhouse gas emissions. But this negative trend could be reversed by planting trees on the 20 million ha currently cropped with cocoa and coffee.There has also been a major turnaround in individual grower's practices -farmers have been clearing land to plant cocoa trees for decades in Côte d'Ivoire, so the positive relationship between forest trees and cocoa trees has not always been evident to them. But now these farmers are increasingly aware of the positive benefits of shading their cocoa trees during drought periods, which also improves soil fertility. The Forest Development Corporation in Côte d'Ivoire offers growers access to forest tree seedlings. Cocoa growers are also often eager to grow fruit trees (orange, bush plum, avocado and cola) as cover and as a source of food and income.Implementing this agroforestry plan is often complicated and the results could be better. According to François Ruf at CIRAD, \"one environmental recommendation is to keep 12 native forest species per hectare of cocoa, while ensuring that on this area 18-25 trees are providing sufficient cover above the cocoa tree canopy so that 30-40% of the plantation is under shade. But nobody really complies with this recommendation even though some growers do claim that climate change has prompted them to maintain at least partial shading in their plantations. In fact these growers generally only have around two forest trees per hectare that provide cover above the cocoa tree canopy.\"Nothing is perfect, but it is now certain that cocoa is a shade-loving tree.Cocoa growers in Côte d'Ivoire are aware of the highly positive impact of growing cocoa under shade to cope with climate change. Trees are consequently being replanted where at one time farmers cleared the land to plant precious beans.In Côte d'Ivoire, a temperature increase of 2.3°C in key cocoa growing regions will have a major impact on productivityThe most significant consequences are happening as a result of rising temperatures, with the greatest effects seen in the poultry, dairy and pig industries and to a lesser extent with small ruminants. In relation to the poultry sector, adverse effects include higher mortality and reduced productivity. In the dairy sector, effects include poorer feed conversion and reduced milk production.A number of short-term measures are being employed by farmers. Tunnel house ventilation, which assists in managing heat stress, is becoming mandatory in order for broiler enterprises to be successful. Similarly, dairy farmers have been managing heat stress by keeping animals under shade at all times during the day. As a result, cut and carry methods of bringing feed to the animal, or even allowing them to feed at night, are now common practice.Meanwhile, scientists are examining breeds that are adaptable to the changing climate, particularly with ruminant livestock. The aim is to exploit local indigenous breeds such as the Blackbelly sheep, given the fact that we, as a region, have a history of importing exotic breeds that are not adaptable. Currently, imported breeds such as Dorper and Katahdin sheep have shown significant signs of heat stress. How are regional organisations getting involved to help livestock businesses cope with the impacts of climate change?The Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute is at the forefront of efforts in relation to climate and agriculture. With livestock feed, the Institute is researching cultivars and forages that farmers can use to combat the problem. It also has a limited involvement in poultry and pig research, although generally these industries are supported by industry stakeholders, such as the Caribbean Poultry Association. Livestock scientists at The University of the West Indies are undertaking research, especially in relation to poultry production and small ruminants. This is particularly focused on what measures and best practices can be used to manage heat stress.What still needs to be done with research or support for farmers to help livestock businesses?Long-term solutions are important and the best bet is to improve resilience in livestock breeds. We should definitely not be importing exotic breeds to upgrade our animals. Prioritisation of genetics to develop breeds that are more resilient to climate change is paramount. According to our prediction models, the Caribbean region will have longer droughts and more intense storms and we must therefore ensure that local animals are able to withstand these types of stress. There is also a need for improved housing to protect livestock from heavy trade winds and solar radiation, as well as to ensure adequate space for each animal. Lastly, we must continuously assess and ensure that we have sufficient feed resources for our livestock during times of further climatic change.How do you feel about the future of livestock businesses in the Caribbean and other small island developing states in the years to come?While some areas are much more vulnerable than others, a major cyclone like the recent one in the Pacific can completely devastate a livestock industry. Some livestock businesses, such as poultry, can be restarted fairly quickly; others, such as the Caribbean's indigenous sheep and goats, will be quite difficult to restart if lost. For the future of the livestock industry, yes, there are risks that we need to manage.Rising temperatures and more intense storms pose a significant threat to livestock health and productivity. Using genetics to improve indigenous livestock breeds, adopting practical strategies to manage heat stress, and developing climate resistant forages are some of the strategies that will be needed to build climate resilience in the sector.Norman Gibson is a livestock scientist and commodity leader for small ruminants at the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute in Trinidad and Tobago.Whilst farmers across ACP regions are undoubtedly being impacted by global warming and climatic changes, there are a notable number of positive initiatives where individuals and groups are working hard to overcome the challenges they face.Climate change has had an impact near Kumbo in northwestern Cameroon for several years. Although in many cases the communities affected are only aware of climate change because of media coverage.\"The rains didn't start when expected. This year we got heavy rain for a week and then not a drop for the next 3 weeks. Traditional annual crops like beans, maize and Irish potatoes are feeling the strain as they are very susceptible to excessive rain and sunshine,\" says Gilbert Njodzeka, coordinator of the NGO, Green Care.The responsibilities of fetching water, tilling the ground and sowing crops mostly fall to women, who are often the most affected by changing climate conditions. Women produce up to 80% of the food used for household consumption and sold in local markets in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank. Over the last 10 years, Njodzeka has therefore looked to women to initiate new projects and grow different crops near Kumbo. \"It is women who make the difference,\" he says. Since 2004, women in the region have been planting trees rather than cutting them down, in particular the adapted native species such as acacia, calliandra, croton, and Polyscias fulva. Plants are provided free of charge from nurseries set up by Green Care. Tree planting is a festive occasion where women can prepare meals, sing and dance, which \"is a way to get them engaged,\" says Njodzeka.Once the trees start growing, women are quickly aware of the benefits of agroforestry and request more plants. \"Our part of the work is then complete,\" Njodzeka says. This has also prompted the growing of trees for hedges. \"The shade from trees allows for green pastures during dry spells, while the branches can be broken and fed to poultry and small livestock, such as rabbits. The trees nourish the soil, livestock and provide shade.\"Beekeeping was once an overlooked traditional activity, in particular due to the lack of special protective clothing required. However, in recent years beekeeping has been revived among women in northwestern Cameroon.Green Care has provided equipment and training for women to plant trees that attract bees, which has increased productivity, the quality of honey produced, and as a result their incomes. This is a win-win solution from both an environmental and economic standpoint. Bees are essential in the pollination process -a prerequisite for flower, fruit and vegetable cultivation. A share of the honey produced is currently sold on regional markets and women have been asking Green Care to help expand to other remunerative markets.In an ongoing effort to find crops that are less susceptible and more resistant to climate change, while generating income, Green Care, with the support of the US Peace Corps, has identified soybean's potential. \"Soybean is not a traditional crop in our region, but it has been introduced and is thriving. Women are aware that this crop requires little water and has proven qualities as a source of protein. Soybean also adds value because it can be processed into flour, oil or oil cake for livestock feed. Farmers can rely on this crop, where other less resistant crops often suffer,\" specifies Njodzeka.Mushrooms are also a climate changeresilient option. Water-efficient as they are easy to harvest, prepare and offer substantial additional income for women, who dry the mushrooms before selling them on the market.Women in northern Cameroon are growing new crops using innovative cultivation practices to manage changing climate conditions. This pilot project was designed to cover the entire value chain to effectively address the issues from all angles. Three 'dialogue theatres' on climate risk were conducted at the production, processing and marketing levels, which involved role playing games to raise everyone's awareness on the functions of the other participants and their climate change coping strategies.Most stakeholders are already taking action, i.e. intercropping, agroforestry, irrigation and debt rescheduling; but almost all of these initiatives are uncoordinated. So everyone passes the buck when coffee prices drop -the farmer blames the input supplier, who then underlines the grower's inability to properly negotiate with the intermediary, who in turn contends that the grower is trading coffee of degraded quality, while the exporter claims that the low prices are due to the lack of rigour along the value chain.This absence of communication and confidence undermines collective attempts to adapt to adverse environmental conditions. However, coffee growers are more vulnerable than any other stakeholder since they have few alternatives to growing coffee and limited organisational capacities, they are therefore hard hit by sliding coffee prices. The pilot project revealed that it is essential to reduce the number of intermediaries (exporters purchase 70% of their coffee from traders) in order to enhance communication between stakeholders, develop contract farming and strengthen growers' associations so that members will have more bargaining power when climate hazards occur.Improved networking between stakeholders and the development of interpersonal dynamics have raised the awareness of public authorities. \"Under the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) programme, the government distributed drought-resistant coffee plants and funded simple irrigation schemes especially. These initiatives are ongoing under the government's Wealth Creation Programme -a follow up to NAADS,\" says Norman Ojamuge, a ministry representative.Money is the lifeblood that is lacking. Investment is necessary throughout the value chain, which implies incorporating climate risk in funding mechanisms, while developing warehouse receipts and climate-indexed insurance. The Centenary Rural Development Bank manages a credit project based on warehouse receipts and offers credit in the form of inputs rather than money, with growers in 10 coffee producing regions already benefitting.Following this project, improvements in transport, irrigation and warehouse infrastructures were identified as a priority in the Uganda Coffee Sector National Export Strategy 2012-2017 Update.Climate change has a broad range of impacts on different stakeholders throughout the value chain; everyone must find a suitable coping strategy. The extent of resilience to climate change is dependent on responses to these impacts, from the production stage to the final product.Dialogue theatres help to raise awareness on the roles of other stakeholders and their climate change coping strategies © IISD In Ghana, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent, leading to loss of crops and falling income levels for many households. This is placing farmers, especially small-scale farmers, in a precarious position, with those living in the three northern regions particularly vulnerable. In this challenging context, the use of interactive radio has been helping to create links between farmers and markets, and is providing farmers with much needed information about climate and local weather, and ways of strengthening their farming systems to cope with the effects of climate change.A small number of organisations are using ICTs in Ghana to provide climate or marketing advisory services to farmers. These include Esoko, the International Institute for Communication and Development and Grameen. Farm Radio International (FRI), for example, in collaboration with two of its radio broadcasting partners (Akeaa FM and Obouba FM), supported production of an 8 month interactive radio series. This was aimed at helping small-scale farmers in the Ashanti Region to produce sufficient quality and quantity of maize and cowpea for home consumption and sale to potential buyers, including premium markets like the World Food Programme's (WFP) Purchase 4 Progress (P4P) initiative. The radio series reinforced training workshops delivered by WFP on good agronomic and postharvest practices and quality standards. Programming on climate change has also been delivered in recent years by the Dr. Adaptation radio shows, where farmers are given advice on how to avoid damage to their farms from severe weather. Both radio series have introduced a number of ICT tools in order to facilitate farmers' participation and engagement, both with the radio broadcasters and each other.One key participatory technology is an interactive voice response system. This system allows farmers to access important messages and alerts, to listen again to radio programme segments, and to record and share messages with radio stations, such as lessons they have learned in the field from implementing new methods. FRI provides training and mobile phones to selected farmers' organisations, enabling their members to access spoken information, including market prices, weather information and agricultural tips. The content is provided by the Ghana Meteorological Agency, a market information agency and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture; it is then recorded by FRI and sent to the radio stations. Other ICTs introduced by FRI include a 'Beep2Vote' system, which allows listeners to vote either yes or no on a chosen issue, using a text number. Answers are tallied through a 'Telerivet' system, presenting the results to the broadcaster in graphic form and allowing him or her to comment on them within the programme. SMS updates are used to inform listener group leaders about the time and topics of weekly programmes.Mr Abdul Raman Yangah, a member of the Nkwariedee Farmers' Association, emphasises the value of the radio programmes to his business: \"The radio programme teaches us the best way to harvest and store our produce. One thing that we are happy about... is receiving weather updates -this has helped us to know when to spray our farms so we don't run at a loss.\" Information delivered by radio and mobile phone services has helped farmers to understand and prepare for climate change on their farms. The P4P initiative is also providing valuable food reserves for distribution in times of need, a support system which will become increasingly important as some regions experience severe or prolonged drought due to changing climatic conditions. Hundreds of thousands of farmers in Ghana are now improving their resilience to climate change, through listening to the radio and using their mobile phones to access the information they need, when they need it. Whilst the death toll was mercifully low, for the young people of Vanuatu the cyclone's impact will not be easily forgotten, with most homes and infrastructure also destroyed.The impacts of a changing climate in the Pacific will not always be as severe as witnessed in Vanuatu. However, for many islanders, soil erosion of foreshore areas, regular flooding, and saltwater intrusion are evidence of a significant threat. For the Pacific youth who are growing up experiencing these changes and their impact on food security, understanding the challenges related to global warming is an increasingly important priority. At the 3rd International Conference of Small Island Developing States in September 2014, 29 young people representing Pacific youth from 11 island nations stated: \"We would like to see environmental issues brought to the fore in the school system to increase awareness of their effects and the role young people can play. We are committed to taking a more active role in the provision of community outreach programmes.\" To provide platforms for children and young people's voices to be heard in environmental decisionmaking processes, Project Survival Pacific -Fiji's youth climate movement -has been working with young people from across the Pacific since its launch in 2008. The Youth Climate Ambassador Program is a key activity, training young people aged 18-30 to become Fiji's youth climate change representatives to international forums, where they work alongside Fiji's national leaders in steering the direction for international policies. For example, environmental sciences graduate Devika Raj was the Youth Climate Change Ambassador to the COP18 climate change negotiations in Doha in 2012. \"I believe climate change is about more than environmental effects; it is a threat to human rights, particularly for us in the Pacific who contribute little to global emissions, yet are feeling its consequences first and hardest,\" states Raj. She continues to be an active spokesperson, writing in local newspapers, talking to young people, and getting involved in climate policy work.Executive director of Project Survival Pacific, Krishneil Narayan, is committed to passing on skills to young people so that, \"they are better equipped to innovate and adapt to the changes they are seeing.\" During 2015, climate change will be integrated into Fiji's school curriculum for primary and secondary levels. As part of his organisation's efforts to support this, he has been visiting rural high schools in Fiji to conduct 'Climate change: Fitting the pieces together' introduction sessions. \"No-one is too young to voice their concerns on what is happening to our environment,\" says the project's community outreach coordinator, Sula Muletanavanua. \"Fijian youths should stand up and take action on climate change because what we do today will be our future.\"However, the effective inclusion of climate change in the curriculum is not possible unless teachers are also trained and have the available resources. In Samoa, climate change materials have been recently introduced by GIZ, the German development organisation, in collaboration with regional partners, to support teachers in integrating climate change into social studies and science curricula for 12-13 year olds. Training workshops for teachers, held in late 2014/ early 2015, revealed that there was a basic lack of climate science knowledge amongst many of the teaching staff. Since the training, Ruta Seumanutafa of Falealili College has been teaching her Year 9 social studies students about conserving water: \"The training resources will help my students learn to save water at school and at home. And, as a pastor's wife, I'll be able to pass this information on to my church.\"Enabling youth in the Pacific to be influential, motivated and engaged in solutions to climate change is the mission of Fiji's youth climate movement, Project Survival Pacific. This aims to ensure that young Pacific islanders can have an active voice in decisions that will impact on their future survival.Project Survival Pacific -Fiji's youth climate movement -works with school children and young people from across the Pacific More than 90% of Guyana's population lives and works today on the low-lying coastal zone, making their daily life vulnerable to rising sea level due to global warming. The sea level is projected to rise by 1 cm per year or 40 to 60 cm by the end of the century, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. People still recall 2005, when most of Georgetown and several outlying areas were flooded due to unusually high rainfall: 132cm of rain fell in 2 days, the highest level since 1888! Guyana is confronting these climate change challenges with massive programmes aimed at strengthening its sea defense, creating a reliable internal drainage system and relocating its food production to higher lands. Permanent secretary in the agriculture ministry George Jervis says the country has an ambitious plan: \"We estimate about €135 million is required to provide better infrastructure on the coast.It includes keeping those drainage channels (to the Atlantic Ocean) clean, adding pumping capacity, pumps and pump stations, shoring up the dams of the East Demerara Water Conservancy, maintaining and cleaning its holding capacity as well as putting another outlet to discharge excess water from the conservancy.\"In In 2014, €1.7 billion of Guyana's national budget was allocated to ensure the further strengthening of the sea and river defense infrastructure. The EU is the only external agency that directly helped Guyana with €14.8 million from the 10th European Development Fund allocated towards sea and river defense rehabilitative works and capacity building in Guyana. These funds, amongst other projects, allowed the Mangrove Restoration Project which aimed to use a natural sea barrier to protect the country's coast. In 2014, more than 50,000 seedlings were planted.The country is affected by floods but also by droughts. In the Rupununi in the south of Guyana, one small ranch is experimenting with water harvesting. \"The Rupununi is usually affected by extreme floods or extreme droughts but J and R Ranch is experimenting with a system to trap water over a six month period for agricultural purposes\", Jervis said. He explained that the government wants to promote this model and is seeking funding to do so.Guyana is also experimenting with the relocation of its agricultural production away from the flood prone coastal zone. The targeted areas are located in the Intermediate Savannahs, 95km from the Berbice River, the country's second largest river, the Soesdyke/Linden Highway and the Rupununi Savannahs, close to its border with Brazil.Several companies are assessing the suitability of the soil in the Intermediate Savannahs for growing soya, corn and sugar cane. But George Jervis explains that currently, poor infrastructure, such as access to inputs and markets may be discouraging local farmers from securing land in that location.Root vegetables and fruits are being grown by private farms located on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway. It is where, following the 2005 floods, some farmers wanted to move; they could have secured land through leases. However, as Jervis explains, while not many farmers have relocated, many new farmers are now occupying land on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.\"The highway has become a central area for root vegetables, especially the highly nutritious eddoes. In the past such root vegetables came from riverain communities but those communities have become prone to flooding because of climate change.\"In rice producing areas close to the sea, experts are developing salt tolerant varieties.\"Because we expect sea level rise, the plant breeders are developing varieties that are able to tolerate salt water and survive for longer periods when flooded, so we are working on that\", George Jervis said.Guyana's dramatic floods in 2005 highlighted changing climatic conditions and increased the pressure on the government to take steps, with the help of donors, to protect its coastal zone and agricultural areas.The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA) -open to a broad range of stakeholders -was launched in September 2014 at the UN Climate Summit in New York to strengthen food and nutritional security during climate change. The first meeting was held on 17-18 December 2014 in Rome. GACSA governance includes a top level annual forum, a strategic committee overseen by two co-chairs (currently the New Partnership for Africa's Development and Norway), a facilitation unit hosted by FAO, and action groups (knowledge sharing, access to funding, creation of a conducive environment). In early 2015, GACSA had 75 members from various backgrounds (including CGIAR, Danone, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Niger Government and the World Bank). Civil society has levelled three main criticisms against this alliance, challenging its governance mechanisms, transparency and accountability. Coordination SUD's Agriculture and Food Committee expressed its concerns via Patrice Burger of the French NGO, CARI, who fears that in the currently uncertain setting (\"a yet to be formed global coalition under a yet to be defined concept\"), some parties may try to turn the situation to their advantage, particularly by promoting biotechnology. Meanwhile Patrick Caron of the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), a GACSA member, believes in this tool. To those fearing a shift towards promotion of industrial production systems that are detrimental to family farming and the environment, he responds, \"CSA does not intend to work on promoting a model, but instead offers a forum for debate that was previously lacking. It is a mainstay in the preparation of the agreement to be signed at the Paris climate conference in 2015.\"H ighly vulnerable farmers in ACP countries are currently frontline victims of the climate change process. This is sadly illustrated by the recent human and natural devastation wrought in the wake of Cyclone Pam, which tracked through Vanuatu on 18 March 2015. Farmers have to deal with major challenges in their livelihoods, producing more for an ever growing number of people, adapting to climate change and reducing their climate footprint by curbing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Agriculture is responsible for 24% of global emissions. CSA shoulders the expectations of many farmers wishing to change their practices to address these challenges. The concept has taken tangible shape over the last 5 years but there are still many unknowns. Major changes will be necessary in production systems, as well as in consumption habits in both developed and developing countries. Some stakeholders still question the motives and practices that have raised CSA hopes; a few consider it as just a way to rehash old methods, while for others it is a genuine revolution. But despite the CSA successes noted here and there, the change of scale remains a major challenge. Political authorities, researchers, funding agencies and farmers are addressing the issue.CSA advocates changes in agricultural practices as well as the adoption of radically innovative technologies. This includes soil conservation techniques and land management strategies to enhance productivity, resilience and the carbon balance of agricultural systems in both developing and developed countries. CSA is devoted to updating, requalifying and promoting practices that have been used for generations, especially by family farmers, but which were pilloried during the Green Revolution. Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) was introduced in Niger in the 1980s and has become a typical example of the potential offered by CSA. In the last 30 years, over 5 million ha of land has been restored, with more than 200 million trees rejuvenated or planted. This has improved food security for around 2.5 million people, while strengthening the resilience of agricultural systems to extreme climatic events, diversifying farmers' sources of food and income and protecting land and water resources. ANR has also contributed to climate change mitigation through the sequestration of large quantities of carbon in soil, tree branches and roots.In the Solomon Islands, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme promotes the use of environment-friendly agricultural production practices, such as improved pesticide and input use and the adoption of ecosystem protection and restoration practices and techniques. Soil protection can boost the organic matter content of soils and thus their carbon sequestration capacity and fertility. Ecosystem-based adaptation should be a key element of future climate change approaches in the Pacific region.Besides these representative examples, agroecology is now considered as a key element of CSA, as clearly outlined in the final declaration of the CSA 2015 conference held in Montpellier, France. Ecological concepts and principles are thus applied to design sustainable agroecosystems. In practice, agroecologyfriendly farmers strive to imitate nature in their fields, taking advantage of complementarities between different plants and animals. For instance, a Kenyan smallholder increased his milk production threefold, to l/day, by feeding his seven goats Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and tick clover (Desmodium sp.). Moreover, it was found that intercropping maize with tick clover, which fixes nitrogen and repels stemborers, boosted maize yields from 1 to 3.5 t/ha.Research is being mobilised to develop new plant varieties that will help farmers maintain their crop yields despite climate change.Production of maize, a staple food for over 300 million Africans, could drop by 30% as a result of security, mitigation and adaptation). He feels that this new 'cornerstone' could reposition agriculturean important dimension that was overlooked by the UNFCCC -at the centre of negotiations on climate change, while providing access to specific funding.Specific policies accompanied by targeted funding are essential to uplift CSA from a few scattered projects to a fully-fledged global movement. In addition to the Green Climate Fund (€9 billion earmarked for addressing climate change, as announced by Ban Ki-Moon at the climate change conference in Lima (COP 20) in Lima, out of the annual budget of €91 billion promised at the Copenhagen Conference in 2009 to be allocated as of 2020), other funding arrangements are available; including payments for environmental services and carbon credits. Among these, the World Bank BioCarbon Fund is focused on land use and promoting landscape transformation to benefit poor farmers. This tool is used in the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project supported by the Swedish NGO Vi Agroforestry, which helps farmers adopt sustainable agriculture management practices. So far some 15,000 farmers have adopted these practices, which are being applied on around 12,000 ha of degraded land. It is estimated that this will ensure an annual reduction in GHG emissions of 60,000 t of carbon dioxide equivalents, while restoring degraded land, enhancing yields and reducing farmers' vulnerability to climate change.Index-based insurance can also help farmers mitigate climate-related risks. In 2011-2012, through the adoption of such insurance systems, 29 million farmers in India were compensated for crop losses due to bad weather. This undeniable success story from India is often showcased, but keep in mind that it was set up with substantial political support (two-thirds of the project funding was provided by the government).Finally Jacob Owuor Onyango, a 30-year-old farmer from Lower Kamula CSV, has seen the impact of climate change. His farm is located by the Asao River, which once flowed continuously but now flows only during the long rains. Owuor used to grow irrigated tomatoes, but as rainfall and river levels became less certain his yields became increasingly unpredictable. Now, Owuor has developed a 'smart farm' on 0.1 ha of land, where a greenhouse, drip irrigation system and two water pans have been constructed. Owuor also chairs a youth group, teaching climate-smart practices with his farm as a village field school. Beginning with tomatoes, the group diversified into leafy vegetables, which they sell locally. Then, with the increased profits, they further diversified to rear rabbits and improved indigenous chickens. They have also changed their beekeeping practices, introducing Langstroth hives and doubling their honey harvest to 10 kg a year.Climate change has also affected livestock rearing in Nyando. Karen Onyango has, in recent years, found her goats and sheep performed poorly in drought periods and had low disease resilience. In 2012, the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute introduced Galla goats and red Maasai sheep, both adapted to arid conditions, for cross-breeding with local animals. The female Galla has a long productive life and can breed for up to 10 years. Galla goats also mature 6 months earlier than local breeds and fetch €50 to €60 more in local markets.Besides livestock income, Onyango has also diversified to growing fast maturing indigenous vegetables, which earn her around €10 (Ksh 1000) per week during the rainy seasons. At planting time, Onyango relies on climate data sent to her cell phone by Maseno University and the Kenya Meteorological Service.\"They have trained us to make sense of weather information and know which crop varieties to grow according to the rainfall,\" she says. Onyango has also learned to intercrop her legumes and maize with agroforestry trees, which provide livestock fodder. And, since her farm is prone to soil erosion, Onyango also plants the soil-binding vetiver grass, provided by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation.In 2011, 81% of households surveyed in Nyando experienced 1 to 2 months of hunger each year, with most surviving on one meal a day; only 1% of those surveyed were food secure throughout the year. Since the introduction of CSVs, 3% of the targeted population are now food secure for the whole year. And, with the CSVs' success, nearby farmers come to observe and learn, and are regularly gifted a plump, healthy goat or improved crop seeds so the benefits continue to spread. The Pacific island nation of Palau is witnessing the impact of climate change on a number of fronts. Increasing sea surface temperatures are causing changes in fish migration patterns, for example, leading to a fall in catch. Typhoons have also become more frequent, including typhoon Bopha in 2012 and typhoon Haiyan in 2013; changing climatic patterns have seemingly put the islands in the path of cyclones, where previously they had been spared. A third significant impact has been the saltwater inundation of Palau's taro plots, caused by sea level rise and extreme high tides.Taro is the most important crop in Palau's diet, and takes a central role in traditional events such as funerals and first birth ceremonies. The island has a wealth of taro varieties, but in recent years, saltwater intrusion has killed taro crops in nearly every state. Some farmers have been able to move their crops to higher ground, but most have nowhere else to cultivate and they have had to abandon farming this vital staple.In 2011, a pilot project was set up to evaluate tolerance and susceptibility of different taro varieties to saltwater intrusion. Sixteen local varieties of taro were tested on a small site in Ngimis, Ngatpang State, with the research finding three outstanding varieties that survived saltwater inundation and had an acceptable taste among people in the local community. The research was undertaken by a partnership between the Palau Community College Cooperative Research and Extension Department (PCC/ CRE), Palau Community Action Agency (PCAA) and representatives of a women's group and traditional leaders. According to Dr Aurora Rosario of the PCC/CRE, the saltwater resilient taros are now being tested in other states. \"We are hoping that as soon as we identify the taro varieties that are saltwater resilient, we can distribute and propagate them to farmers and make their abandoned areas productive again,\" Rosario says.Traditionally, many farmers in Palau have avoided upland cultivation, on account of the clay soils found there being unsuitable for crops. However, with the increasing danger of saltwater flooding in the lowlands, a second project has launched an upland agroforestry trial on an 11,721 m 2 area, also in Ngatpang State. In 2012, with the help of youth from Ngatpang village, fruit and timber tree species, including coconuts, mahogany, soursop, rambutan, avocado, tropical almond and banana were planted on the site, together with erosion-controlling lemongrass. Small quantities of NPK fertiliser were used to help establish the plants.The project was led by Leonardo Basilius, food production officer of the PCAA, who has been pleased to report that the lemongrass has grown vigorously. Calophyllum and mahogany trees planted in 2012 have also grown faster than expected. However, some areas of the site are showing signs of nutrient deficiency, and Basilius has recommended the planting of legumes to improve soil fertility and provide shade for some of the other species in their early stages of growth. As the pilot project came to an end early in 2015, the land has officially been handed back to Ngatpang State. However, Basilius plans to request the authorities allow him to use the site to train other farmers who are interested in going into upland cultivation.A third initiative has focused on mangrove crabs, a traditional part of the Palauan diet, which are also in high demand in hotels and restaurants. Crab populations have been falling in recent years, due to unsustainable harvesting and rising sea temperatures. In response, the Palau Community College Aquaculture Centre initiated a project in 2013 to supply small crabs to farmers and support them in rearing the crabs to a marketable size in submerged cages. In the same year, the hatchery also released nearly 400,000 crablets into the ocean at two conservation sites, in an attempt to boost mangrove crab populations.Community organisations are undertaking a number of initiatives in Palau to help local farmers and fisherfolk cope with the impacts of climate change. One project has identified saltwater-tolerant varieties of taro. A second project is experimenting with upland agroforestry, while a third is helping to boost populations of mangrove crabs hit by rising sea temperatures and overharvesting.To boost mangrove crab populations, the PCC Aquaculture Centre is supplying crablets for farmers to raise in cages in existing fishpondsWhat do you consider as the key ingredients to CSA today?CSA is broadly defined and covers a wide range of potential farming innovations spanning improved crop, soil, water, pasture, tree and livestock management initiatives. But to be termed as CSA, all must be related in one way or another to climate-induced risk or climate change. In other words, the key ingredients of CSA innovations include either one or a combination of the following: (i) climate-induced risk management and or reduction, (ii) advanced preparation for future climate and (iii) mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration into soils and vegetation. Also where possible, reduced emission of greenhouses gases such as nitrous oxide and methane. And of course, such innovations also need to contribute to achieving of national food security and development goals.For small-scale farmers, given the urgency of climate change, should the priority be given to coping or adaptation strategies? Or both?Priority needs to be given to both, but in different contexts and different timescales. There is clear evidence, on a global scale, that surface temperatures are increasing and emerging evidence that rainfall amounts and distribution patterns are beginning to change. However, as yet, the impacts of these changes are still relatively slight. In the shorter term therefore, priority must continue to be given to helping farmers improve the productivity and sustainability of their traditional coping strategies, which have evolved over generations through their experiences of natural day-to-day and season-to-season weather variability. However, by 2050 the next generation of farmers will likely be experiencing substantive temperature increases as well as important changes in rainfall characteristics. Priority should therefore also be given to the development and rigorous testing of strategies to help farmers adapt to these new climatic condition; conditions that they will not have experienced before.As you say, a huge amount of valuable research has been undertaken in ACP countries over the last four to five decades which has targeted improved agricultural production and livelihoods of farming communities. Yet widespread adoption remains stubbornly low. Current efforts to enhance the adoption of such farming practices must be radically reinforced if the world is to meet the increased food demands resulting from human population increases. It's no use just assuming that the world will always be able to feed itself; it has to be made to happen and that must therefore remain the current development priority. An added benefit is that not only will such efforts help farmers now, but in many instances will continue to provide added value to future generations, even under changing climates. But we also need research that is forward looking and targeted towards limiting the negative impact that changing climates will have on agriculture in many ACP regions. Of course, there are recognised uncertainties associated with climate change projections, especially in rainfall amounts. This adds complexity to adaptation research. However, all the used models agree that the Earth's surface will continue to warm up beyond 2050. In that respect, I believe that crop and livestock breeding for higher temperature tolerance has a vital role to play. It is also projected with a high degree of confidence that extreme weather events will increase in frequency and severity. Research that generates improved forecasting and allows better preparedness for such events is vital. So is research that identifies the most appropriate weather-based insurance schemes for crops and livestock; this will help farming families survive when extreme events and seasons occur. I would also like to see greater use of crop growth simulation models in ACP countries. Such models are becoming increasingly accurate and, when used with appropriate weather generators, can provide realistic ex ante simulations of the performance of a wide range of soil, water and crop management practices under future climates. Such research does not, of course, replace field-based research, but is invaluable in helping to refine research priorities and field testing targets.\"There is a twin urgency associated with Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA)\" says Peter Cooper. \"The urgency to develop and disseminate CSA to help this generation of farmers cope better with current climate variability, but also the urgency of preparing for climate change with new CSA innovations that will allow future generations to adapt their farming practices.\" Adaptation to climate imbalances or mitigation via carbon sequestration -agriculture is currently viewed as both a solution and a problem. African governments, the scientific community, development agencies, civil society and private enterprises are rallying to the cause, but a lot more remains to be done.The Pacific Islands have prioritised the development of small-scale renewable energy production, initially to complement and eventually to replace existing sources. Tokelau is a tiny island nation with a population of 1,500, spread across three coral atolls. Before 2012, the islands' electricity was supplied by three small power stations, fuelled by 200 l of diesel per day, imported from New Zealand. This was sufficient for 15-18 hours of electricity supply each day, at a cost of €750,000 per year. However, at COP 17 in Durban, Foua Toloa, the former head of government of Tokelau, said the islands would be using 100% renewable energy by 2012 and, in October that year, Tokelau achieved its goal, becoming the first country to produce almost all its electricity from solar power; in overcast weather, the generators run on local coconut oil, providing power while recharging the battery bank.A ccording to Africa's Adaptation Gap 2, the UNEP's latest technical report published in 2015, if the global temperature rise remains below 2°C, annual adaptation costs for Africa could reach €45 billion by 2050, but this figure could double if there is a 4°C climb. Crop yields on the continent could also decline by 17% for wheat, 15% for sorghum and 10% for millet within the same timeframe, with an even more significant impact in Sahelian countries.At the 3rd Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture held in Montpellier, France in March 2015, 700 researchers and development experts from 75 countries highlighted the need to set up earlywarning systems, develop agro-ecology research, promote family farming and local agricultural research, and to bridge gaps between disciplines.\"The physiological conditions for production that will prevail in Africa over the next decades -temperature levels, atmospheric carbon concentrations, humidity or soil minerals -are still completely unknown. Sound research will therefore be required to gain insight into how climate change will affect plants and animals. Powerful action and development mechanisms will also have to be planned and set up,\" points out Patrick Caron, chief operating officer for research and strategy at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD). Global research -a further challenge -should also be combined with local research to take specific local context into consideration.Researchers are upgrading and adapting agricultural techniques to be able to maintain and increase production in a changing environment. Agriculture is also expected to provide ecosystem services, reduce the impact of greenhouse gases, enhance biodiversity, maintain water quality, and regenerate soil fertility. \"Agriculture, underpinned by chemistrybased techniques, has undergone a remarkable boom. Now ecological intensification is being reinvented. We depend on making effective use of ecological cycles which enable us to produce more and better while considering crops in environmental terms,\" says Caron. Biodiversity and agroforestry techniques have thus been rediscovered and implemented to take advantage of the complementarity of relatively deep root systems, reduce the impact of diseases and maximise the growth of one species via another -ancestral knowledge put to effective use through modern techniques.Half-moons, stone bunds and zai... \"Farmers have cleverly managed to save useful species and continue to cultivate them.\" Practices used to ensure flood protection and water retention in many Sahelian countries include half-moons, permeable dikes and stone bunds. The traditional zai technique is now widely used in Burkina Faso. \"Species that efficiently fix nitrogen, regenerate soils quicker and preserve soil moisture are now favoured along with crop rotations. These are practices that African farmers have used in the past. Let's continue to conduct research to address current challenges while focusing on the dissemination of practices, training and technology transfer,\" says Traoré.Private companies and NGOs are involved in projects geared towards developing so-called 'intelligent' agriculture, according to the concept outlined by FAO and backed by the founding of the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture in 2014. Since 2013, the charitable Howard G. Buffet Foundation has been working with DuPont, the large American chemical company, and John Deere, the farming machinery manufacturer, to disseminate agricultural carbon sequestration techniques to smallholders in Ghana. DuPont has thus identified locally-adapted maize seed that can be associated with cover crops such as cowpea to increase productivity, curb erosion and enhance soil fertility. Meanwhile, John Deere is testing no-till cropping techniques in collaboration with farmers.Research is currently focused on varieties resistant to extreme climatic conditions, on those with shorter cropping cycles and on controlling adapted pest insects, using biotechnology, traditional know-how (endogenous solutions) and modern techniques. The aim is also to foster the production and management of regional and national data on the climate and harvests, or access to satellite databases, which requires data acquisition and sharing regulations. Other promoted solutions include renewable energy use and the development of irrigation techniques to cope with drought (remote and drip irrigation). Morocco thus issued a funding request in early 2015 to the Union for the Mediterranean for an agricultural solar pumping project. This project is to include about a million Moroccan farmers with smallholdings of less than 5 ha, according to Hakima El Haite, the Moroccan Environment Minister.Research is well under way, but in the field there is a pressing need to include climate issues in national agricultural policies, build new development trajectories and coordinate regional policies. Land reforms are also called for. These needs are obvious in West Africa, for example, where Fulani herders traditionally wander with their livestock herds through the region during their seasonal © CCAFS/K Trautman Planning a sustainable irrigation system to maintain and increase production in a changing environment transhumance movements. Experts are approaching this highly controversial subject with caution. \"There is an urgent need for arable land as a result of the different drought cycles and population pressure. Areas earmarked for nomadic herders are no longer sufficient, which has led to border conflicts, as seen in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Togo. African states no longer have a choice; they are forced to draw up land legislation, which will challenge transhumance and the transboundary livestock herding concept. More herders will have to settle, but this represents a huge cultural change. Fulani life combines pastoralism, a traditional livelihood, culture and knowledge transfer. We must tread carefully with regard to this issue, starting from the ground and moving towards drawing up a policy,\" says Traoré.2015 is a busy year, and a turning point, with a meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice in Bonn in June, and the United Nations COP21 in Paris in December.Advances have already been achieved as the negotiating text makes several references to agriculture; and ACP countries can take advantage of this, which will avoid them having to bring the issues to the forefront on their own. But ACP countries are on tenterhooks as these major international conferences approach.In the Lifou Declaration, following the Oceania 21 Summit meeting held on 1 May 2015, Pacific Island countries underlined it is crucial that, \"our worries, sufferings, hopes and concrete proposals are heard by the negotiators.\" We are the living victims of the negative impacts of climate change. We are small, so we must speak with one voice,\" declared Fonotoe Pierre Lauofo, Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa.The Moroccan minister El Haite is worried about the post-2015 period.\"It is fine to design sound 'smart' carbon models, but we must have the capacity to set up and implement them and ensure their sustainability.\" This is a broad-ranging programme and hopes will be high in the months leading up to CoP21, but especially regarding the future.A Sahelian farmer using the traditional zai technique which is now widely used in Burkina FasoIn regions worldwide, millions of people depend on the media for its role in communicating information. This is true in the Pacific where island states are increasingly at risk from extreme weather events. With populations dispersed across scattered atolls, making contact with the rest of the world is challenging, especially during times of emergency. However, despite being classified as one of the most vulnerable global regions to climate change, Pacific countries are successfully building their resilience.Most Pacific island countries are developing Joint National Action Plans bridging climate change and disaster risk management, which includes approaches to support communities adapt to and reduce the impacts of climate change, while also addressing disaster risk reduction. A key element of disaster risk reduction is to ensure that information is continually available during times of emergencies and disasters. As a leading climate change adaptation organisation, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, has been focusing on strengthening national broadcasters' capacity to provide accurate and consistent information to island communities.One such initiative is the National Broadcast and Climate Disaster Resilience Plans (BCDRPs) involving broadcasters from eight Pacific countries (the Cook Islands, Palau and the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu), selected and funded by the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme. Launched in 2012, the project's aim has been to support development of the BCDRPs as well as train broadcasters, help develop standard operating procedures, and provide capacity building to news teams for enhanced reporting on natural disasters and climate change.The most recent BCDRP training was held with the Tonga Broadcast Commission (TBC) in August 2015; as the government broadcaster, TBC -via Radio Tonga -is the only radio station which reaches all Tonga's islands. To help better understand terminology used in weather warnings and bulletins, TBC staff worked with the National Emergency Management Office and the Tongan Meteorological Service. As a result of the training, TBC was able to complete their BCDR plan, identify the resources needed in order to better respond to disasters, and keep the community informed. \"This is a very detailed plan, a first for TBC, which will help keep our people better educated during emergencies to ultimately save lives and properties,\" said Nanise Fiftia, TBC manager. Following completion of Samoa's national BCDRP in November 2014, a mock 'disaster' was simulated to test the plan's effectiveness and the roles of national media during an emergency. The event -an earthquake leading to a tsunami in Samoa -allowed broadcasters to practise who would give directions, what actions should be taken and how these would be done, as well as determine how vital broadcast equipment would be maintained during a disaster to keep information flowing to Samoan communities. Similar training and mock events have been held across the eight project countries and national BCDRPs are all in place. \"We are really pleased with the project outcomes on many levels,\" says Nanette Woonton, SPREP media and public relations officer. \"As of last year eight more Pacific island broadcasters across the region now have resilience plans, as a vital component of sharing information with the public in times of disasters, this is extremely important. Through this training we have also seen Pacific reporters come to understand technical meteorological and climate information and report with greater accuracy. We are now looking forward to continuing this work with media across more Pacific island states.\"The media is vital for raising awareness of climate change issues and sharing timely updates during emergencies, particularly for remote communities. An initiative is the Pacific is supporting broadcasters to provide accurate reporting prior to and during natural disaster events. With their small size, open economies, and reliance on natural resources, Caribbean states are particularly vulnerable to a changing and variable climate. In response, the region implemented two consecutive adaptation to climate change projects from 1997 until 2014, and following the success of these regional initiatives, Caribbean Heads of State called for a specific agency to coordinate subsequent activities. As a result, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) was established as a centre of excellence in 2005 and is the world's only regional climate change centre.In its first decade, the centre has continued to pilot adaptation programmes, including climate data collection, climate projections, capacity building, and inclusion of climate change in national development processes. \"These actions have only been effective because the work has been grounded in firm regional commitment, policy and strategy,\" emphasises Dr Kenrick Leslie, CCCCC executive director.The work on regional climate change projections, for example, has been particularly vital for improved risk management. Through improved regional data collection and modelling, specific projections for areas as small as 8 km 2 are now available, compared with 300 km 2 previously provided by general circulation models. This has been achieved through extensive computer analysis conducted by a network of institutions and coordinated by the CCCCC.However, climate change projections alone are not sufficient and regional governments realised that building climate resilient economies would require transformational change at the institutional level. This challenge was recognised in the Liliendaal Declaration by Heads of State in 2009, in a regional framework to provide a roadmap for action from 2009 until 2015, and an implementation plan was further developed to deliver the framework's strategic elements.But, with member states and regional organisations already over-tasked and under-resourced, delivering such change requires an approach that recognises these constraints. To provide a solution, a sustainable resource mobilisation plan known as the 'Three Ones' principle, which was successfully used for a regional HIV/AIDS programme, was adopted. This is based on having one plan, one coordinating mechanism and one monitoring and evaluation framework, and works with a network of relevant organisations to utilise resources more effectively.Coordination, collaboration and partnerships have been key to the success of the CCCCC, and provide the foundations for the 'Three Ones' principle, helping to ensure a coordinated approach to climate change responses across Caribbean governments. Guided by this regional vision, the CCCCC has successfully executed a range of climate change-related programmes over the last 5 years, worth approximately €47 million. One of the tools developedThe Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre uses an innovative model to achieve the change required to respond to climate change and its impacts on development. Known as the 'Three Ones' principle, this involves one plan, one coordinating mechanism and one monitoring and evaluation framework for mobilising limited resources, policy setting and decision-making and monitoring.is the Caribbean Climate Online Risk and Adaptation Tool (CCORAL), which helps users to apply a risk management approach in decision-making and to prioritise their efforts given limited time and resources. The CCCCC and its partners are currently involved in extensive training and rollout of CCORAL across the Caribbean. \"Apart from some revisions, CCORAL has been widely accepted so far,\" says Keith Nichols, CCCCC project development specialist. \"We have seen some very useful applications in Grenada, including in agriculture, and interest has been high. We have not yet started full scale implementation but, to date, some national developmental activities have been revised to take into consideration climate risks. Rolling out has just started and the results are beginning to come in.\"\"Partnership is the way to success and without all our partners, we would not be in a position to do all the things we want to do,\" emphasises Kenrick Leslie. \"Through working together, climate change is now more widely covered in the region. Financing remains a challenge but for the future we have set up a trust fund to provide support in situations where external funds are not readily available.\"The CCCC work on climate change projections aims to help local governments to develop new climate adaptation policiesAlthough climate change affects everyone, young and old people, youth seem especially vulnerable because they will live longer and face the challenges throughout their lifetime. With reference to Africa, the situation is especially grim because Africa has the youngest population and agriculture is the sector that seems to offer the most opportunities for these millions of youth as they enter their working life. They do not see agriculture as a glamorous career option because they have seen how climate change disrupts agriculture. It makes it harder to make a case for youth to engage in agriculture. The youth see that agriculture is not profitable because it cannot guarantee an end return because of the varying weather patterns.How can climate change issues be tackled in a different way for the youth?Agricultural practices need to change. climate-smart agriculture, which looks at new and improved ways of producing food sustainably without damaging the environment and making sure crops that are being grown are resilient to the effect of climate change, is probably the answer for young people who want to engage in agriculture.What have been some key achievements with regard to youth to deal with the effects of climate change?FANRPAN mostly focuses on achievements in the policy arena, looking at how young people are now getting more involved in the climate change processes and how their voices are heard. The formal recognition of young people in the UNFCC process under the Youth NGOs constituency has been a major achievement.Young people can now make official statements and provide technical and policy input in climate change negotiations; they are now able to engage with policymakers through high-level meetings, seminars and thematic discussions. They have been involved in the process since 2009 and have made some progress. In terms of progress in Africa, the African Climate-Smart Agriculture Youth Group was formed in September 2014 during the Climate Summit in New York. This fairly new group wants to raise awareness, sensitise young people and build their capacity to implement climate-smart agriculture projects. And I think this is just the beginning.Considering the role played by women in gathering water and considering that by 2020, in some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by 50%, what action needs to be taken towards young girls?There needs to be an increase in access to high quality education for girls, as much as for boys, as a start to addressing gender inequality issues. As long as young girls are not the priority in terms of schooling and education, we will still face the problem of them remaining at home to do chores, carry water and fetch wood. In addition, mainstreaming gender in climate change discussions is still finding its ground, a lot of work still needs to be done.What financing and policies will be required to enhance the youth's work on climate-related agricultural issues? Africa as a whole is still not getting enough money for climate financing, let alone the youth. The African Development Bank says Africa receives about €115 million compared to the €35 billion required.In terms of policies, we need clear guidelines and monitoring systems for climate change financing. And it will be important for African governments, once they get the money, to have structured climate-smart finance knowledge management systems where young people can have access to critical information. Also, sometimes information is just too complicated. This is another challenge, there is a need to simplify information and procedures around climate financing.The difficulty of engaging youth in agriculture Agriculture is not always very appealing to the youth and the impacts of climate change are making agriculture even less appealing as a livelihood. But by promoting new innovative practices and by giving youth a say in climate related matters, agriculture can be an attractive option.Sithembile Ndema Mwamakamba coordinates the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis (FANRPAN) youth and gender programme, aimed at developing a holistic agriculture policy framework in Africa to support youth and women.Have you noticed a change in the behaviour of farmers who have taken out index-based climate insurance?In terms of behaviour, the GIIF programme has undoubtedly introduced the insurance culture, consequently changing smallholders' view of insurance. For instance, tea growers in southcentral Sri Lanka who have taken out index-based weather insurance now readily discuss getting coverage for other non-climate risks such as snake bites, accidents, fire, and so on. People are now aware that these risks can be covered.In Kenya, initial studies showed that index-based natural risk insurance users had increased their investments in production tools, fertiliser and other inputs by 19% in comparison to nonusers. A 16% increase in their savings relative to others was also noted. These findings reflect a change in behaviour.Local insurers with a national operating licence are required for the development of index-based insurance. It is therefore essential that we develop their capacity to innovate, negotiate with international and regional reinsurers, and create a desire amongst producers for these new products.Forces that drive innovation come from both private and public sectors. Clearly public-private partnerships will be required in the medium-term to develop these markets and enable them to grow to a critical size through management and quality control of data and regulation. It is also essential to have a government that facilitates access to insurance by subsidising premiums and supporting education, especially under responsible insurance schemes. Governments have a key role to play at the outset, but also during the market growth phase.NGOs that serve as go-betweens with farmers?Yes. The entire ecosystem that develops around index-based insurance, especially weather-oriented insurance, includes governments, local insurers, reinsurers, distributors, NGOs and foundations. In Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, we are working with Planet Guarantee to develop farmers' interest in these products and to anchor indexbased insurance (especially climate insurance) in their communities. NGOs working in the microfinance sector play a major role because access to insurance is often linked with access to funding. These insurance schemes have often been set up with financial and technical assistance from donors and governments. Will they be commercially viable in the long run?We might have to introduce the 'subsidy' parameter in the viability concept. In India, 32 million farmers already use index-based insurance (based both on weather and yield). This would not have been possible without significant government support. Agricultural insurance schemes in developed countries also require subsidisation to progress, but that does not mean the system is unsustainable or non-viable. Setting a purely financial sustainability goal at the outset seems unrealistic. Ultimately, access to cheaper information, the development of a broader market, and the coverage of diversified risks at regional and global level will also enable reinsurance to be cheaper. This could ensure financial viability, which is what we are working towards.More than 800,000 crop and livestock farmers and microentrepreneurs have taken out index-based natural risk insurance through the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), managed by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group. GIIF was launched in 2009 to promote access to innovative insurance products in developing countries. Gilles Galludec feels that index-based insurance is the way forward.Gilles Galludec is the GIIF Programme manager with over 25 years' management experience in the banking, microfinance and insurance sectors, mainly in developing countries.In the context of climate change, the need to enhance food production while maintaining natural resources and the resilience of agro-ecosystems is increasingly important. Already, a number of land use and agricultural production practices exist that offer opportunities to both produce food and provide environmental services. However, adoption by farmers has generally been limited, not least because some of these practices only become profitable after 2-3 years or more. Thus, land users may have to absorb losses for several years before they can profit from their investment and for many, this is unaffordable. Payments for environmental (or ecosystem) services (PES) can offer a solution to this problem.PES are payments made to producers and landowners to reward them for managing their land in such a way that ecosystem services are generated, to the benefit of wider society. Such schemes aim at encouraging positive behavioural change of individuals and groups towards good environmental stewardship. They must, however, be very carefully designed and implemented to ensure they meet their objectives for the environment, provide appropriate economic incentives for farmers and land users and do not compromise food security. For example, farmers should not become exclusively 'carbon growers' as a result of a PES scheme.One significant challenge in implementing PES is choosing who to target. To be effective and affordable, PES needs to be carefully targeted and time bound, not a blanket incentive scheme for all land users. But the process of choosing who benefits must be transparent and fair, to minimise the risk of favouritism and tension within and between communities. A second issue concerns how much to pay. If too much is paid, the scheme will be too costly and not sustainable, whereas the risk of paying too little is that the scheme becomes exploitative and beneficiaries will drop out over time.In attempting to find the right level of payment, an approach using a \"reverse auction\" to reward on-farm tree planting has been implemented in Malawi and Indonesia. The approach offers an efficient way of designing appropriate rewards systems and helping to improve the overall cost-effectiveness of a PES scheme. Details of the approach have been documented in the World Development Journal (Ajayi et al. 2012).There is a need now to look beyond the narrow scope of cash payments, and consider other options, such as in-kind payments and other forms of targeted incentive. Such incentives could include offering conditional access to rural credit, or to niche markets that provide premium prices. Farmers could be offered access to subsidised farm inputs during the first few years of implementation, on the condition that they have adopted ecofriendly land use practices in their field.Beyond that, there is a need to identify and document the most promising land use practices, gathering clear, robust evidence on how they contribute to food production and address climate change, and how they can be potentially scaled up to more land users through various efforts, including PES, where necessary.A final point is that land users' decisions are strongly influenced by the policy and institutional context within which they operate. Appropriate policies at all levels are required to align smallholder farmers' incentives with the needs of society as a whole, and to encourage them to consider the environmental implications when making land use decisions. In this context, there is undoubtedly a need to appraise existing national and sub-regional policies to assess if and how they have inadvertently created incentives or disincentives to good land use practices.","tokenCount":"14634"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"71b39e9e32d09a3316a57cd091b79e86","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4e273929-b9b0-4d6e-b727-b1f8a17b4c17/retrieve","id":"240116939"},"keywords":["~~ k A¡\"","ü\"t:f•~.-\" T' ...... ~ ~;~ 4/'","1","l'•"],"sieverID":"93814cb9-3352-46b5-a035-1ff6788ede46","pagecount":"7","content":"MONOOMO (Cauca)\" \" , , \" l. Aspectos gene~a1es del departamentd.\"El departamento del Cauca se encuentra localizado en la región Sur-Occidental del País y su tel'ri\"torio\" estil atravesado por las Cordilleras Central y Occidental de 10s.Andes .. Cartográficamente se halla entre los 00°57' y 03\"20,'.' de Latitud Norte y entre los 75\"48' y 77° 57' de Longitud Oeste. Limita por el Norte con el Departamento del Valle del Cauca; por el Oriente con los departamentos de Nariño y la intendencia del Putumayo y por el Occidente con el departamento de Nariño y el Oc~ano Pacífico.El departamento tiene una extensión superficial de 30.495 Km 2 • de los cuales por la influencia orográfica un 34.5t aproximadamente pertenecen a un clima cálido, un 35.6% a un clima medio, un 19.7% a un clima frio y un 10.2% aun clima de páramo\" (1). Según un informe de OPSA. para el 'afio de 1977, en el país existían 218.330 Ha. en yuca de las '\" ~uales 17.000_(7.8%) se encontraban en el departamento del Cauea, con uñ reñdimiento promedio de 5.200 Kg/Hi. El pr~;;¡o-a ~i~~l na~ional ~~ -----es de 9.03~_~g¿Ha.Según esta misma fuente la producción de yuca es hecha en forma tradicional. en su totalidad y en forma de monocultivo.El censo Agropecuario realizado por el OANE en 1970-71 mostró que del total de las fincas visitadas en Santander de Quiliehao el 43.2% reportaban a la yuca como el cultivo principal.2. Características de los suelos de Mondomo .\".\"Originalmente esta unidad fué recubierta por una capa de ceniza volcánica de poco espesor y en la actualidad presenta como característica principal un avanzado estado de erosión, debido al cultivo en forma indiscriminada de la yuca, además de la presencia de vientos c&lidos que ascienden del .Río Cauca por las boyas de los FC~.La...J.e:L4.s-!Jl!U!!l!l!~~ y r~ondomo. AunqUE:! la precipitación es baja, cual ocasiona erosión severa. -2 -En general se presenta una topografía muy accidentada con pendientes. superiores al 40% y longitudes medias, aunque también hay pequeñas zonas de topografla más ondLiladas que corresponden a aquellas donde se ha conservado el recubrimiento de ceniza volcánica.En términos generales se observa. que son suelos de muy baja fertilidad natural. con alta presencia de aluminio, que sumado a las condiciones climáticas adversas son suelos de muy baja produ~tividad\" (1)  1.05 48.9 3. Características de la producci6n de yuca en Mondcimo gr. de suelo ppm = mg/kg de suelo ~egan los resultados del Censo agropecuario de las 504 explotaciones que reportan a la yuca como cultivo principal en .el municipio de Santander, el 54.9% tienen un tamaño inferior a 5 hectáreas de exten-si5n¡ el 21.2% se encuentran entre 5 y menos de 10 Ha. y el resto o sea el 23.9% son superiores a 10 hectáreas.En el mes de Marzo del presente año se aplicó una encuesta a 21 agricultores escogidos• al azar localizados en las veredas de El Turco. Mondomito. Nueva Colombia, todas pertenecientes al corregimiento de Mondomo.El tamaño promedio de las fincas fué de .11.7 Ha. Del total de agricultores entrevistados, el 95.2% tenían cultivos de yuca, con una -extensión promedio de 1.75 Ha; la altura promedio es de 1508 metros --s.n.m. el 95% eran propietarios y el resto arrendatarios.De la superficie total de las fincas encuestadas el 41.1% se destina--ba a agricultura; el 36.9% a 'cultivos permanentes y el resto o sea ,e~_~~.l% estaba,en cultivos transitorios. Un alto porcentaje de la 'tierra (54:6%) se encuentra en rastrojo o descanso; esto se explica a' la baja fertilidad del suelo y que los agricultores utilizan un sis-~tema rudimentario de control a la erosión: originada por el cultivo de -la yuca; es común sembrar 'en 'un lote 2,3 Y hasta 4 veces yuca para luego dejarlo en descanso durante 3-4 años; otros según la disponibilidad de tierra. 10 dejan hasta 10 años, por 10 tanto el agricultor se ve en'la obligación de tener gran parte dé la finca en uso improductivo.Solamente el 4.3% del área se encuentra en pastos. , 3.1. Utilización Agrícola del suelo .' .La' encuesta aplicada en la zona permitió conocer~l uso agrícola y los distintos cultivos que existen. Se describen én el cuadro siguiente: Cuadro 2. Uso Agrícola del suelo en la regi'on, de Mondomo (Cauca) (\"; .\" __ ... ,_. __ 0_.. .-~ -.,--' -~ .. _- De este cuadro se desprende que el 36.1% del área destinada a agricultura se encuentró, en el cultivo de yuca y que este cultivo cubre el 57.3% del área destinada a cultivos transitorios. La yuca presenta para el agricultor de la zona el 39.2% del valor total de la producci6n agrícola., \\ El cultivo de la yuca en la zona No existe una época determinada de siembra, la mayoría de los agricultores siembran en cualquier época del a~o; el cultivo se hace solo sin ningún otro cultivo i~tercalado. La preparación del suelo el 52% 10 hace con yunta de bueyes, el resto o sea el 48% hoyan el suelo manualmente; las variedades que existen en la región son = Algodona, Barranque~a. Americana y Vál1una. El períodovegetativo dfr las variedades Algodona, Barranque~a y American, es de 15 meses y para la Val luna es de 11 a 12 meses. Generalmente realizan tres desyerbas al cultivo: la primera a los 3 meses de sembrada, la segunda a 105 5 meses y la tercera a los 6 meses . Produce; ón de A lmi dón en 1 a zona Existen en ola zona 'de Mondomo aproximadamente 25 ra11andérías que fun--¿Tonan eñ-formao!leFrnaile,n'te durante todo el año, con algunas interrup-crones especialmente en las pequerias, las cuales tienen limitaciones -en el agua y la'cantidad de yuca a rallar. parece que las grandes no _ 1ienen problemas y pueden funcionar continuamente.A principios de este a~o CARE, SENA e lCA realizaron una encuesta a 14 ' o ,ralJa!lderías, localizadas en los municipios de Santander y Caldono.. ,-.~w. __ . ~~M\"_ ~.Los aspectos más importantes de esta encuesta se pr'esentan a continuación:2.Tas-raHan'dería's' compra-n 'yuca no solamente de la región, sino también en otros departamentos distantes tales como Huila y Putumayo. Los compradores de almidón de yuca localizados en Santander de Quilichao otorgan crédito a las rallanderías para que estos compren yuca a los cultivadores, asegurando de esta manera la compra de almidón • \" .. .:.~ ..-6cuente encontrar que estas rallanderfas compran yuca proveniente de otros departamentos.Extracción de almidón según variedades: Las R~llanderías por su experiencia alcanzada en muchos años de tra-'bajo, tienen su conocimiento sobre el contenido de almidón de las dls-,tintas variedades.La variedad que mejor precio tiene es la Barranqueña ($3.4 el kilo).. \"La algodona y AmericaQa tienen un precio de $2.85 el kilo. el almidón es comprado en Santander por los ~ntermediarios ti lo.Actualmente a $21.20 el En términos generales 175 kilos de yuca producen 12.5 kilos de afrecho y 525 kilos de yuca producen 12.5 kilos de mancha. Si la yuca es más añej a 1 a producci ón de mancha será mayo'r, yucas frescas producen me,nos mancha.La calidad del almidón está determinada por la cantidad de tiempo que se deje en el tanque asriador; en su totalidad el almidón que se produce en la zona es agrio.Generalmente el comprador de yuca puede guardar hasta 5 días el producto sin que se descomponga. Antes de ser rallado, sin cáscara solamente dura de 2 a 3 días. después se pudre.Organización y funcionamiento del Mercado del Almidón en la Zona , En el mercadeo del almidón se dan algunas características especiales qúe a continuación se describen:'En Santander de Quilichao se encuentran localizados cinco compradores de almidón (interme,diarios), los cuales funcionan como grupo oHgopólico al fijar semanalmente el precio del almidón que se va a comprar en la siguiente semana. Estos son los que distribuyen el almidón a las distintas industrias y panaderías que demandan el producto. En Mondomo existen 7 compradores de almidón, los cuales la mayor parte de almidón' la venden a los compradores de Santander de Quilichao. Algunos dueños de rallanderías para asegurar el suministro de yuca anticipan a los . \"• f ; ~ -7agricultores pequeñas cantidades de dinero ($500 -$1.000), dinero que ha sido prestado por los compradores de almid6n localizados en Santander, El preci o del a lmi d6n en Santander fl uctúa según 1 a cantidad de queso y el precio que éste tenga. Las panaderías son las principales consumidoras del almid6n y de queso. Al presentarse en época de verano una escasez de, leche y un aumento en l,os precios del queso, 1 a 'demanda por a lmi d6n di smi nuye. Las panaderías generalmente ,compran el almidón a un menor precio y lo almacenan hasta la aparición nuevamente de queso. 'El funcionamiento del mercado del almid6n de'yuca requiere un análisis más objetivo y profundo que será realizado en base a,esta primera aproximación ~l,conocimiento empírico y sus' particularidades que requieren ser conocidas con el fin de determinar el futuro que tiene el almid6n de yuca en el mercado nacional.(1) FEDERACION NACIONAL DE CAFETEROS DE COLOMBIA Estudio de zonificación y uso Potencial del suelo en la zona Cafetera del Departamento del Cauca. 1978 .","tokenCount":"1501"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"afc59fe6be68df5243c5e0b5a149070a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d571437c-1fd8-4f98-b877-15aae4533d8e/retrieve","id":"-2094961048"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3891c536-04e4-462e-945e-6528e4c6859f","pagecount":"11","content":"Food systems (FSs) emit ~ 20 GtCO 2 e/y (~ 35% of global greenhouse gas emissions). This level tends to raise given the expected increases in food demands, which may threaten global climate targets. Through a rapid assessment, evaluating 60+ scenarios based on existing low-emission and carbon sequestration practices, we estimate that intensifying FSs could reduce its emissions from 21.4 to − 2.0 GtCO 2 e/y and address increasing food demands without relying on carbon offsets (e.g., related to afforestation and reforestation programs). However, given historical trends and regional contexts, a more diverse portfolio of practices, including diet shifts and new-horizon technologies, will be needed to increase the feasibility of achieving net-zero FSs. One likely pathway consists of implementing practices that shift food production to the 30th-percentile of least emission-intensive FSs (~ 45% emissions reduction), sequester carbon at 50% of its potential (~ 5 GtCO 2 e/y) and adopt diet shifts and new-horizon technologies (~ 6 GtCO 2 e/y). For a successful transition to happen, the global FSs would, in the next decade (2020s), need to implement cost-effective mitigation practices and technologies, supported by improvements in countries' governance and technical assistance, innovative financial mechanisms and research focused on making affordable technologies in the following two decades (2030-2050). This work provides options and a vision to guide global FSs to achieving net-zero by 2050.The Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the increase in global temperature to 1.5° above pre-industrial levels requires rapid and ambitious reductions in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This can only be achieved by drastic emissions reductions across the energy; industry; transport; buildings; and agriculture, and forestry sectors 1,2 .Even if fossil fuel emissions stopped now, current trends in global food systems (FSs) would prevent the achievement of the 1.5 °C target and threaten the achievement of the 2 °C target by the end of the century 3 . However, carbon budgets or net-zero emissions are often only discussed for CO 2 emissions and not for non-CO 2 emissions, such as CH 4 and N 2 O, in which FSs, especially agriculture production, are the main source [3][4][5] .Today, FSs GHG emissions contribute to roughly a third of global emissions. In 2019, FSs emitted 16.5 (95%; CI range: 11-22) GtCO 2 e globally, the largest contributors were agriculture, land use, land-use change activities (~ 70%) and the remaining emissions coming from other downstream and upstream activities (i.e., retail, transport, consumption, fuel production, waste management, industrial processes and packaging) 6 . Since global food production is estimated to increase by 15% in coming decades 7 , FSs emissions might increase by up to 80% from 2010 to 2050 3,6,[8][9][10][11] . In addition, there are still almost 700 million people undernourished and living under severe food insecurity 12 who must be considered in FS planning. Therefore, the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals can only be achieved with significant contributions from FS, including supply-side measures in agriculture production and demand-side measures related to diet changes and reduced food waste 5,13 , while strengthening food security and safety 14 .Substantial GHG emissions reductions in FSs are attainable by implementing low-emission interventions to improve efficiency and nature-based carbon sequestration 3,5,15 . Low-emission interventions could result in ~ 40-70% less GHG intensive production systems compared to today's average levels 16 . Additionally, a carbonwww.nature.com/scientificreports/ sequestration potential, of approximately 10 GtCO 2 y -1 , is associated with FSs production under the expansion of agroforestry systems, improved pasture and crop management and application of biochar to soils 5 .Nevertheless, the mitigation benefits of improved systems could be offset under food production's current growth trajectory, especially for livestock production 10 . Even with higher efficiency, greater production needed to meet growing demand might increase net GHG emissions. This condition suggests that dietary changes, including a reduction in consumption of livestock products and replacement by plant-based foods, is also important to help transition to low-carbon and net-zero food systems 5,8,13,15 . Furthermore, several technologies developed or under development might help further reduce emissions in the medium and long run, such as feed additives for livestock, novel perennials, soil additives, nanoproducts and intelligent food packaging 17 .Therefore, a combination of actions (e.g., implementation of low-emissions interventions for improving production systems efficiency, promotion of carbon sequestration; reduction in livestock-based protein consumption and deployment of new-horizon technologies) is likely necessary to reduce net GHG emissions of FSs aligned with net-zero emissions strategies 10,15 .Although the impressive commitment to the net-zero agenda of countries and the world's biggest food companies, guidance offering multiple options for achieving net-zero emissions in global FSs and informing the effectiveness of pledges and catalyze meaningful climate action is still needed. To date, most studies have focused on estimating global food systems emissions 6,18 and evaluating potential mitigation through a few and aggregated pathways using complex models 3,10 and none has proposed a roadmap towards net-zero food systems, which has lately been highly demanded by several food systems actors 19 .Through a rapid assessment using three datasets, the FAO forecast on global food production by 2050 7 and food value-chain emissions intensities 16 and carbon sequestration potentials 5 , we built 60+ pathways towards 2050 by analyzing global food demands with the implementation of four major interventions in FSs: (1) implementing low-emission practices to reduce emissions through increased production efficiency (10th, 20th, 30th, 40th pctl of least emission-intensive systems and average); (2) sequestering carbon in croplands and grasslands; (3)  shifting diets to reduce global production of livestock-based protein; and (4) adopting new-horizon technologies across food value-chains. In calculating these contributions, we also provide a vision, with examples, to downscale global sectoral goals to the regional level, highlighting areas where improvements are needed. It is important to note that since our analysis is limited to a global overview, the implications of FSs intensification may have different consequences at regional scales. Further analysis is needed to shed more light on the possibility to mix different intensification strategies to optimally meet socio-economic and environmental targets. However, as countries and companies begin implementing their pledges and establish sectoral targets, our analysis provides a transparent, scientific basis for gauging the ambition of these contributions to global net-zero food systems.Food system emissions snapshot. We estimate that global FSs emitted 18.7-21.4 Gt CO 2 e/y from 2010 to 2020 (Fig. 1). This estimate is consistent with the emissions range of recent estimates covering the same period (9-22 GtCO 2 e/y) 3,6,16,18,[20][21][22] . Four value-chains-beef, milk, rice and maize-are responsible for nearly 65% (13.9 GtCO 2 e) of total FS emissions, and seven value-chains (+ wheat, pig and poultry) are responsible for almost 80% of emissions (17.2 GtCO 2 e). Livestock production (meat and milk) alone accounts for 60% of total FSs emissions (12.6 GtCO 2 e) (Fig. 1). Close to 70% of FS emissions come from land-use change and farming activities 6,16 .The production of major grains, meat and milk is projected to increase 29-81% by 2050 compared to today's levels 7 . Under current average production practices, meeting the 2050 projected food production 7 would increase FS emissions by 38% (~ 8 GtCO 2 e/y) compared to 2020, respectively (Fig. 1). These findings are consistent with recent analyses that have suggested that global FS emissions might increase 30-50% by 2050 11 .We find that the adoption of low-emission practices could shift global FSs production from the average to the 40th, 30th, 20th and 10th-percentile (pctl) of least emission-intensive systems 16 and could reduce the emission of 9.1-13.2 GtCO 2 e/y in 2050 compared to the 2020 base year level (21.4 GtCO 2 e) (Fig. 2). Major contributions would come from livestock and rice value-chains (Fig. 2).Although these FS value-chains are the most emission-intensive ones, they also have the largest mitigation potential across FSs (Fig. 2). For example, improving production practices with existing technologies could reduce emissions by 40%-70% compared to average values: beef from 7.3 to ~ 2.5 GtCO 2 e/y and rice and milk from 2.4 to ~ 1.0 GtCO 2 e/y (Fig. 2). Most of this mitigation potential is related to reductions in land-use change (e.g., deforestation for agricultural land expansion), improvements in animal feeding and breeding and manure management, nutrient management (with focus on nitrogen fertilizers), water management in rice paddies and energy efficiency (e.g., renewables) across the value-chain as well as measures to reduce food loss and waste (i.e., improved packaging and storage) 5,16,17,23,24 . Also, using a global warming potential accounting for short-lived GHGs (GWP*), like CH 4 , means that relatively small annual reductions in CH 4 emissions (~ 0.3%) could eliminate global warming caused by the emissions of CH 4 from biogenic sources in 20 years [25][26][27] .Harnessing the carbon sequestration potential associated with low-emissions agricultural practices could contribute to an additional emission abatement of 10.5 GtCO 2 e/y 5 . Most of this potential is related to the belowand above-ground carbon accumulation with the expansion of agroforestry systems (5.6 GtCO 2 e/y) and soil carbon sequestration with improvements of pasture and crop management (2.5 GtCO 2 e/y), such as the adoption of reduced and no-tillage and grass-legume mixtures in pastures, and the application of biochar to soils (2.4 GtCO 2 e/y) 5 . Furthermore, it is worth noting that these mitigation actions also have synergies with food productivity, climate adaptation, and other environmental aspects (e.g., water and soil conservation) 17,28,29 .www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Reduction in livestock-based protein consumption. Reducing livestock-based protein consumption is often pointed out as another option to reduce GHG emissions from food systems 3,8 . Nevertheless, under current average livestock production practices, a reduction of livestock-based protein consumption would only decrease livestock emissions in 2050, compared to the 2020 levels, if projected production is cut over 25% (Table 1). At or below this level, livestock emissions would rise or be kept constant considering today's average production system emissions and projected increases in meat (+ 37%) and milk (+ 29%) productions by 2050 7 (Table 2). On the other hand, if accompanied by the implementation of low emission practices, reducing the consumption of livestock-based protein by 10% and 25%, for example, could promote emission reductions of 0.5-2.5 GtCO 2 e/y by 2050 (Table 1). Therefore, scaling the implementation of low-emissions practices to improve livestock production is a precondition to drive significant changes in emissions towards net-zero FSs.New-horizon technologies. New technologies to reduce GHG emissions from FSs include those that are still costly (Roe et al. 5 ) and primarily not yet present in food value-chains but could increase mitigation from GHG-efficient food production practices, land-use change, and carbon sinks 30 . This diverse pipeline, including consumer-ready artificial meat, methane inhibitors, intelligent packaging, vertical agriculture, nano-drones and 3-D printing, presents real opportunities for systemic change 17 . Also, if these technologies are developed to reduce costs of existing agricultural-related practices that are not cost-effective today (e.g., > 100 USD/tCO 2 e), it could unlock emissions reductions and carbon sequestration of approximately 8. 5   to 40% of today's FSs emissions and 50% of agricultural-related mitigation potential 5 . For example, the implementation of agroforestry has the technical potential to sequester approximately 11.2 GtCO2e/y, but only 20% of this potential is considered cost-effective today 5 .Food system mitigation potential. By randomly combining the implementation of major FS mitigation actions to target net-zero emissions by 2050 in 64 scenarios, we found that only eight would lead to net-zero FSs through the implementation of existing low emission and carbon sequestration production practices (Fig. 3), another eight scenarios would need to further rely on diets shifts and the remaining 48 would need additional emission reduction with the implementation of new-horizon technologies reducing up to 5 GtCO 2 e/y (Fig. 3). Through the implementation of existing low-emission and carbon sequestration practices only (i.e., excluding the reduction in livestock-based protein consumption and new-horizon technologies), we estimate that FSs emissions could shift from 21.4 to ~ − 2.0 GtCO 2 e/y by 2050 (i.e., 110% reduction compared to 2020 level by moving FS to the 10th pctl of least emission-intensive practices and harnessing 100% of the carbon sequestration potential) (Fig. 3).The higher the implementation of low-emissions practices (i.e., towards the 10th pctl of leasts emissionintensive systems), the lower the dependance on carbon sequestration, reduction of livestock-based protein consumption and new-horizon technologies. Therefore, scaling low-emissions practices to improve FSs production is fundamental to feasibly driving significant changes in emissions towards net-zero FSs (Fig. 3).  The conditions for harnessing the full FSs mitigation potential in the next three decades are ambitious given the cost-effectiveness of practices, differences in regional contexts (e.g., cost of implementation, institutional and technical capacity, and food access and demands), historical trends and uncertainties related to carbon sequestration 5,11,13,31,32 . For example, over the last 30 years (1988-2017), global productivity of cereals, rice, beef and dairy increased 9-40% while emission intensity (at farm level-major emission source; Fig. 2) was reduced by 7-40%, respectively (FAO-Stat, 2021). These numbers are far behind the emission reduction potential of ~ 65% (i.e., 10th pctl least emission-intensive systems) and more compatible with the 40th pctl least emission-intensive systems (Fig. 2). Only about 50% of the technical mitigation potential of existing agricultural-related practices and technologies are cost-effective today (e.g., up to 100 USD/tCO 2 e), and close to 75% of that is in developing (~ 65%) and least developed (~ 10%) countries (Roe et al. 5 ). This may add extra financial, technical and policy constraints for implementing FSs net-zero emissions plans, as developing and least developed nations likely have lower institutional capacity for implementing more effective climate policies 33 .There are still concerns regarding carbon sequestration permanence, which encompasses issues related to the time and vulnerability of the carbon sequestered in soils and biomass, such as (i) differential sequestration rates over time and long run decline to a near-zero rate, and (ii) release of sequestered carbon back into the atmosphere after discontinued carbon sequestering practices 31,32,34 . These aspects suggest that bolder actions to mitigate GHG from FSs are necessary to increase chances to achieve net-zero FSs emissions by 2050; according to the strategies and assumptions evaluated in this work, there is no silver bullet, and a combination of actions should therefore be targeted to increase the feasibility of achieving net-zero emission FSs by 2050 (Fig. 3).The roadmap for net-zero food systems. Without relying on carbon offsets (e.g., related to afforestation and reforestation), FSs have the potential to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 (Fig. 3), but countries' contextual constraints are likely to limit the potential reach of implementation. However, recent engagement of global FSs actors, along with advances in the plant-based protein industry and disruptive technologies 17,35,36 , has created momentum for action that may speed the implementation of low-emission and carbon sequestration practices, as well as the dissemination of diet shifts, to move FS emissions away from current trends. In this context, a vision for a net-zero FSs encompasses:• Large-scale adoption of low-emission practices to shift the production to the 30th pctl of least emissionintensive systems (~ 45% emissions reduction across FSs), which could mitigate 10.6 GtCO 2 e/y, or ~ 50% of the mitigation needed by 2050 compared to the 2020 base year. • Realizing 50% of the carbon sequestration potential associated with low-emission practices (i.e., soil carbon, agroforestry and biochar) could contribute another ~ 24% (5.2 GtCO 2 e/y) emission reduction. • Reducing the remaining FS emissions (5.6 GtCO 2 e/y) by decreasing 2050 projected livestock production, especially in high-and middle-income countries, in 25% (1.2GtCO 2 e/y) and by deploying new-horizon technologies (4.4 GtCO 2 e/y) (Fig. 3).Major actions to implement this vision over the next three decades could be summarized as follows:• By 2030, implement cost-effective actions to reduce CO 2 emissions from land-use change (e.g., deforestation and other land conversion) for food production along with using existing technologies to improve (i) beef, milk and rice production and (ii) nutrient management (focusing on nitrogen fertilizer) across major grain production systems (e.g., maize and wheat). By 2040, low-emissions agricultural practices should be implemented to harness the remaining cost-effective mitigation potential. Of this mitigation potential, 55% to 87% could be achieved with practices costing up to 100 US$/tCO 2 (Fig. 4; Table 2). • Implement cost-effective technologies and practices to sequester 1.7, 3.5 and 5.2 GtCO 2 annually by 2030, 2040 and 2050, respectively. This can be achieved by adopting agroforestry, applying biochar to soils and improving crop (e.g., tillage and cover crops) and pasture management (e.g., rotational grazing and fertilization) practices. Close to 45% of the carbon sequestration potential (4.8 GtCO 2 y −1 ) would cost up to 100 US$/ tCO 2 (Fig. 4; Table 2). • By 2040, scale the use of renewable energy (e.g., wind and solar), enhance fuel efficiency, expand the electric transportation fleet, improve fertilizer production, expand the circular economy and peri-urban agriculture, and promote diet shifts in high-and middle-income countries (Fig. 4; Table 2). • From 2040 to 2050, develop and produce affordable new-horizon technologies for negative emissions, with focus on livestock production systems (e.g., methane capture, feed additives and new breeds), novel plants and perennials for carbon sequestration and enhanced energy efficiency for storing, processing, transporting, packaging and retailing. Approximately 5.6 GtCO 2 e/y (2.6 and 5.7 GtCO 2 e emissions reduction and carbon sequestration, respectively)-or ~ 25% of the mitigation needed for net-zero FS-could be unleashed with the reduction of implementation costs (today above 100 US$/tCO 2 ) (Fig. 4; Table 2).Making net-zero food systems realistic. Our results show that the implementation of major mitigation actions for intensifying FSs based on existing low emission and carbon sequestration practices have the potential to reduce FSs emissions beyond net-zero by 2050 while increasing food production. Our analysis also demonstrates that an intensification strategy with a more diverse portfolio of practices, most notably diet shifts and new-horizon technologies, will be more effective for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 without relying on carbon offsets (e.g., related to afforestation and reforestation).Even so, this scenario may not be realistic under today's trends considering that net-zero FSs require reducing emissions by 3.3% or ~ 700 MtCO 2 e annually between 2020 and 2050. In 2020, global fossil fuel emissions dropped 5.4% as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is an unprecedented emissions reduction (at least since 1970) 37 . However, as the global economy is rebuilt, a rebound of 4.8% is expected in 2021 37 , leaving a net emissions reduction of just 0.6%. These numbers illustrate how difficult and massive the challenge to change current production patterns and reduce emissions is. This scenario could be different for FSs given the recent engagement of global FSs actors with the climate agenda and climate commitments (e.g., UNFSSS, Global Methane Pledge, and SBTi) 38 . Along with significant advances in the plant-based protein industry and disruptive technologies, this engagement has created a momentum for action that may speed up the implementation of steps to move FSs emissions away from business-asusual trends.Against this backdrop, implementing cost-effective measures and making affordable practices and new-horizon technologies in the coming decades seems to be a reasonable mitigation pathway for increasing the chances of food systems achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. To make net-zero FSs realistic it is essential to overcoming barriers, for example, related to regional contexts (e.g., cost of implementation, institutional and technical capacity, and food access and demands), historical trends, and uncertainties related to carbon sequestration 5,11,13,31,32 . Furthermore, to realize ambitious emissions reductions, FSs actors must coordinate and promote improvements on several other fronts, including institutional capacity (i.e., governance), finance, research, and technical assistance, especially in developing and least developed countries, and plan major emission reductions in the short run using current cost-effective practices. This would improve the feasibility of net-zero commitments and make FSs less dependent on the success and affordability of new-horizon technologies for large-scale negative emissions (which are uncertain at the moment) and cause carbon-intensive industries to stop growth and move to less intensive options.The mitigation potential of FSs interventions must also be validated against efficacy and cost-effectiveness across regions to avoid unintended consequences and minimize trade-offs 39,40 , which safeguards the effectiveness of practices in reducing emissions and enhancing food production and security. To support this process, research could be directed to tailor practices for different contexts, while making affordable new-horizon technologies in the medium-and long-term. This process must be done in close coordination with technical assistance for effective adaptation and implementation of mitigation and carbon sequestration practices on the ground along with farmers, in conjunction with assistance to meet monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of emissions requirements 41 . Science-based targets (FLAG) could be a reference as well as carbon market standards (e.g., VERRA and Gold Standard). Global benchmarks 11 must also be kept up to date to track the implementation of food system actions and commitments.Critically, the reorientation of both public and private sector sources of capital is needed to achieve net-zero emissions in global food systems by 2050. Firstly, financial mechanisms supporting the adoption of practices to realizing net-zero could be created by orienting traditional bank loans for positive climate impact, and scaling other approaches, such as blended finance and carbon markets 42,43 . Traditional bank loans offer a pathway to scale validated cost-effective technologies given the position of the lender to incentivize technology adoption. However, following the experience in the sector of renewable energy and energy efficiency, this requires access to patient capital and technical assistance for building the capacity of financial intermediaries, especially in developing and least developed countries, to construct loan portfolios and design incentive mechanisms that are explicitly linked to climate outcomes (e.g., Global Climate Partnership Fund-GCPF). The public sector can support in developing institutional frameworks such as cost-effective assessment and monitoring frameworks to enable the growth of such portfolios.Secondly, inovative financial mechanisms are needed to demonstrate the viability of investments in the adoption of low-emission interventions and carbon sequestration practices in developing and least developed countries, as well as absorb some of the early risk and up-front cost associated with a shift away from business as usual. Strategically allocating public sector capital to de-risk some of the private sector challenges (i.e. blended finance mechanisms etc.) and incentivizing the private sector to create new investment opportunities (i.e. carbon markets etc.,) are critical transition tools to build a diversified portfolio of cost-effective technologies. Furthermore, overlaying and co-designing such mechanisms with large corporations through, for example, implementing customized and collaborative corporate insetting programs within shared supply chains can ensure buy-in while contributing to the net-zero transition.Lastly, new funding models are required to sustain inflows of high-risk capital to incubate and accelerate new horizon technologies, especially to move technologies from the investment readiness phase to the implementation phase. Public sector can support in creating an enabling environment for such programs, especially in developing and least developing countries where models are less developed.Evidence shows that countries with better governance have more effective climate policies and could help maintain the integrity of the net-zero target while avoiding unintended consequences due to policy changes 44,45 . Investing in education, especially in regard to gender, is a key predictor of higher levels of governance. Increasing societal awareness of the need to support changes in food systems and consumption patterns is also fundamental for driving transformational change 14 .To foster this scenario at a global level, FSs net-zero plans could put more emphasis in the short run on a strong coalition of developing and developed nations, which are likely to have a higher capacity, while build capacity in developing and least developed countries, where international cooperation may also help.Since our analysis is limited to a global overview, the implications of FSs intensification may have different consequences at regional and country scales. Therefore, it is important that further analysis shed more light on the possibility to mix different intensification strategies to optimally meet socio-economic and environmental targets. Furthermore, data validation (e.g., emission factors and food production) is key for refining findings as well as recommendations for food systems stakeholders. This is especially applied to the levels of emission and emissions reductions while enhancing food production efficiency 16 , as well as carbon sequestration in agriculturebased systems 5 .Although net-zero FSs are achievable, bolder implementation of more efficient production practices is fundamental to feasibly meet both global food production and climate goals. This work provides an overview of this challenge along with a vision that could guide FSs actors towards these objectives.To estimate current and future FSs emissions and design strategies to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, we evaluated emissions from 19 major crop and livestock (food) value chains by multiplying their respective global domestic production projections under business-as-usual 7 by a range of value-chain emissions intensities (10th, 20th, 30th, 40th pctl of least emission-intensive systems and average) 16 (SM). This approach permits to estimate total food value-chain emissions at different emission intensities (percentiles) that can be further used to evaluate potential changes in emissions by shifting production system efficiency. Although there has been a business-as-usual increase in food production efficiency, this rapid assessment assumed that the business-asusual FS GHG emissions per unit of food produced remain constant at current levels-although we further discuss business-as-usual trends in the main text. For livestock value-chain emissions, we deducted emissions from feed production 16 to avoid double-counting the emissions from the production of feed ingredients (e.g., grains). Emissions intensities 16 encompass the emissions of major GHGs released through FS operations from \"farm to fork\": carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), and methane (CH 4 ).We estimated changes in FS emissions starting in 2020 through 2050 for multiple scenarios:• Implementation of low-emissions interventions to shift production to the 40th, 30th, 20th and 10th pctl of least emission-intensive systems 16 . Lower percentiles are associated with no or reduced land-use change and food loss and waste 15 . • We considered that this shift would promote carbon sequestration in cropland and grassland soils (through best management practices), above and below-ground agroforestry systems and the application of biochar to soils 5 . We tested the realization of those potentials at 50, 75 and 100% 5 . We did not consider the carbon sequestration potential from afforestation and reforestation (A/R) and other natural ecosystem restoration (e.g., mangroves and peatlands) to FS 5 . We also assumed the eventual spared area used for feed production would be directed to expansion of other crops for human consumption. • Reduce global production, driven by lower consumption, of livestock-based protein (meat and milk) by 10, 25 and 50%, calculated using the 2050-projected levels as reference 7 . We assumed that reducing consumption of livestock products lowers milk and meat production. This process should slow demand growth, and eventually reduce the number of livestock heads-the major GHG source in the agricultural sector.• Adoption of new-horizon technologies across the food value-chains. These technologies include those that are not yet present on farms but could increase mitigation from GHG-efficient food production practices, land-use change, and carbon sinks 30 , as well as make current cost-ineffective practices and technologies affordable 5 .We built a pathway towards 2050 by assuming these strategies would be implemented at a rate of 20, 50 and 100% by 2030, 2040 and 2050, respectively. For livestock and rice production, we adjusted 16 data to reflect the contribution of CH 4 emissions to warming potential using the GWP* concept [25][26][27] . Under GWP*, stable CH 4 emission rates contribute a relatively small CO 2 e emission. Increasing CH 4 emission rates are reflected as a large CO 2 e emission and can exceed the GWP -100 of CH 4 if rates increase at more than approximately 1% per year. Declining CH 4 emission rates are reported as a negative CO 2 e emission and can reach zero CO 2 e if emission rates decline by 0.35% per year over 20 years. For that, we consider 2020 as the base year where the GWP* concept was applied. We must also consider that approximately 70% of the emissions from livestock and rice production are in the form of CH 4 11 and that approximately 70% of these emissions come from farm level 16 . Despite providing 60+ pathways for achieving net-zero FS using a transparent and accessible methodology and framework, certain limitations and gaps remain, especially on data sources related to the FS emissions factors and carbon sequestration potentials used in this work. For example, the development of FS emission factors percentiles relied on several studies evaluating emissions across a number of food value-chains 16 . As some of those studies reported group farms into a single observation and/or provided an impact average and its associated standard deviation, to include intrinsic sources of variance across parts of the value-chain and across observations (e.g., emissions factors, processing, packaging, retail, and transport impacts; processing conversions; and other conversions), the authors re-specified all values associated with variance as normally distributed variables. As pointed out by the authors, this approach may have limitations if studies are not reporting standard deviations or if they are remodeling from inventory data were used to fill different emissions gaps for each study. Nevertheless, the approach was likely one of the best way to incorporate multiple sources of variance found across studies to develop emissions percentiles. Similar limitations may also apply to the carbon sequestration dataset used in this work 5 , it also relies primarily on several previous research to derive carbon sequestration potentials. However, by updating global and regional mitigation potentials using both sectoral and integrated assessment model (IAM) approaches and comparing the results of both approaches, this study significantly improved the estimation of land-based mitigation potentials. Additional research is however needed for validating key datasets for estimating emissions and removals in FS across difference geographies and contexts and, ultimately, refining recommendations for FS stakeholders. This is especially applied to the attainable levels of emission and emissions reductions while enhancing food production efficiency 16 , as well as carbon sequestration in agriculture-based systems 5 (Supplementary Information).","tokenCount":"4984"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5857a86d809d50e771973634bf46e73","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2a0df74e-dcc2-4c42-b7af-ebd7a729b126/retrieve","id":"-70940363"},"keywords":["Cassava","Stictococcus vayssierei","altitude","screening","tolerance Manioc","S. vayssierei","altitude","criblage","tolérance Variétés (Noms et/ou Code) Couleur et goût de Pulpe Maturité Comportement face aux maladies et ravageurs Rendement (T/Ha) Origine Butamu/Mv99/0395 Jaune","doux (Sucré) 12 mois Résistance à : Mosaïque","Bactériose","Acarien vert 20-25 INERA Disanka/I96/0211 Blanche (Amer) 12 mois Résistance à : Mosaïque","Bactériose","Acarien vert 30-35 Mvuazi/I95/0528 Blanche","doux (Sucré) 12 mois Résistance à : Mosaïque","Bactériose","Tolérance à : Acarien vert 35-40 Nsansi/I95/0160 Blanche","doux (Sucré) 12 mois Résistance à : Mosaïque","Bactériose","Susceptible à : Acarien vert 35-40 IITA-IBADAN Sawasawa/MM96/3920 Blanche","doux (Sucré) 12 mois Résistance à : Mosaïque","Bactériose","Tolérance à : Acarien vert"],"sieverID":"26a96794-78dc-4b93-8ba1-1f41b4db89e3","pagecount":"17","content":"Cassava is, economically, one of the most important root and tuber crops in Africa. However, its production is compromised by a large number of diseases and pests among which the african root and tuber scale (Stictococcus vayssierei  Richard). This insect causes damage that can result in a low yield and non tuber formation of cassava in case of serious infestation. It is in this context that a study on screening cassava (Manihot esculenta CRANTZ) genotypes was carried out for resistance to African root and tuber scale in different agro ecological areas of Beni (North Kivu province, in East of the Democratic Republic of Congo). The objective of the study is to assess resistance to African root and tuber scale of 40 varieties of cassava supplied by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the National Institut of Research Agriculture whose five local are found on the spot after survey. To reach this goal, we verified the hypothesis that stipulates that the introduction of new varieties of cassava in the country is a strategy to fight African root and tuber scale. All varieties were placed in four sites under mild altitudes (1000-1200 m) and high altitudes (1200-1400 m). The populations of African root and tuber scale in various stages of life and the tuberous root production of each variety were assessed every three months for two years in a randomized block experimental with four repetitions. The screening ANOVA findings showed significant effects, S. vayssierei infested the majority of tested varieties. Nevertheless, principal components analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis identified a reconciliation of tolerance vis-à-vis African root and scale in some improved varieties while released viz, Liyayi (MM96/0287), Obama (TME 419), Mvuazi (I95/528), Dinsaka (I96/0211) and while developing such as 20BI, 20B2, 20B4, 20B16, 20B27, 20B28, 20B29, 81, MM96/0105, MM96/4653, MM96/5272, MM96/5475, MM97/2206 as well as on some local varieties such as MUKAKASA, MBAYILO in different agro ecological areas of Beni Territory in view of the marketable tuberous root production at the end of screening. All the above-mentioned varieties gave a yielded ranging from 20, 3 T/ha to 74, 96 T/ha, included or over the interval acceptable by officially released varieties in DRC. The results indicated that the introduction of improved cassava varieties could be one of the alternatives for African root and tuber scale integrated management. Also, they show the importance of local varieties research for the development of cassava subsector.Le potentiel productif du manioc en Afrique est gravement compromis par la cochenille africaine de racines et tubercules (Stictococcus vayssierei Richard). En effet, en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) le manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) est la principale culture vivrière et occupe 50% des superficies de toutes les étendues sous cultures vivrières [1].Les cochenilles extraient la sève des plantes, endommagent les tissus végétaux et injectent des toxines ou des virus chez nombreuses plantes d'importance économique [2]. De plus, les trous laissés sur les tissus végétaux constituent une porte d'entrée pour de nombreux pathogènes. C'est le cas de Stictococcus vayssierei Richard [3], [4], [5] ou la cochenille africaine de racines et tubercules (CART). Sa présence a été signalée pour la première fois en RDC dans le District du Bas-Fleuve, province du Bas-Congo au cours des années 1970 [6].C'est vers la fin de l'année 1980 que cette cochenille est devenue un ravageur nuisible majeur dans les champs de manioc dans certains pays tel que le Cameroun [7]. Le statut de ravageur de cette cochenille serait tributaire de l'intensification de la culture du manioc qui a entraîné le changement dans les pratiques culturales du milieu [8]  [9]. La CART infeste les parties souterraines du manioc sur lesquelles elle se nourrit pendant tout son cycle de vie [10]. Les dégâts de cette cochenille sur le manioc entraînent le manque de la tubérisation ou le faible rendement en cas d'infestation sévère [11]. À cause de l'importance alimentaire et économique du manioc, il nous semble plus raisonnable de penser à augmenter le rendement tout en réduisant les pertes par des moyens qui n'entraînent que peu ou pas d'effets indésirables sur l'environnement.Face à la résistance des cochenilles aux produits chimiques [12] et à la dégradation de l'environnement par ces derniers, la lutte intégrée passe actuellement comme la meilleure alternative. Cette lutte nécessite entre autre la maîtrise de l'écologie du ravageur et du potentiel génétique du matériel végétal, notamment la résistance aux maladies et ravageurs dans les agrosystèmes [13]. La rareté des données se référant à la résistance de variétés de manioc aux infestations de la cochenille S. vayssierei mérite une attention particulière. Au stade actuel aucune recherche n'a été menée à l'Est de la RDC, particulièrement dans le Territoire de Beni où des infestations énormes des cochenilles radicoles sont observées même en haute altitude non forestière alors que selon [3], les cochenilles ont été décrites comme étant endémiques dans les zones forestières humides de basses altitudes. Le choix de ce sujet se justifie par le fait que le manioc en Afrique joue deux rôles majeurs pour les populations : celui de culture de sécurité et celui de production de base pour le développement économique des régions pauvres [14]. Ses racines tubéreuses sont des matières premières des industries d'amidonneries et ses feuilles sont riches en vitamines et sels minéraux et constituent le principal légume et même le principal complément alimentaire de base de nombreux Congolais [15]. L'examen de la relation causale entre les effets dévastateurs de la cochenille africaine de racines et tubercules et la productivité du manioc nous a inspiré deux idées fortes en guise d'hypothèses :• Dans le germoplasme actuellement disponible en RDC, il y a des variétés de manioc résistantes à la CART.• Le test du germoplasme constitué de plusieurs génotypes permet l'identification des sources de résistance de manioc à la cochenille africaine de racines et tubercules.L'objectif global de l'étude est d'identifier parmi les 40 génotypes de manioc du germoplasme, ceux qui sont résistants aux infestations de la CART, en vue de proposer les stratégies de protection intégrée à développer dans la culture de manioc.Les essais ont été conduits en milieu paysan dans le Territoire de Beni, Province du Nord Kivu en RDC sous deux types d'altitudes (800 m à 1200 m) et (1200 m à 1400 m). Les sites d'étude et les coordonnées géographiques sont consignés au tableau 1 et à la la photo 4. Le Territoire de Beni étant situé à cheval sur l'Equateur, une grande partie bénéficie du climat équatorial de type Af, de la classification de Koppen, caractérisée par une pluviométrie mensuelle du mois le plus sec supérieur à 60 mm [16].Les conditions climatiques ayant prévalu pendant la période expérimentale en première année (2009) et en deuxième année (2010) sont résumées sur les Fig. 1, Fig. 2 et Fig. 3.   L'approche scientifique utilisée dans cette étude est l'expérimentation au champ dans le milieu paysan. Les variétés de manioc ont été plantées en bloc complètement randomisé. Le bloc avait une dimension de 21 m X 13 m. Dans chaque ligne dans le sens de la largeur six plants d'une variété de manioc étaient plantés aux écartements de 1m x 1m suivis sur la même ligne par six autres plants d'une autre variété.La méthode d'infestation était naturelle et s'opérait par les évaluations. Les observations sur la population des cochenilles africaine des racines et tubercules (CART) de manioc se faisaient à un rythme trimestriel sur le manioc âgé de 3 mois après plantation (3MAP), 6 mois après plantation (6MAP), 9 mois après plantation (9MAP) à la première année et jusqu'à 12 mois après plantation (12MAP) à la deuxième année de criblage pour l'évaluation de la production en racines Pour évaluer la population de CART, nous avons procédé au dénombrement des individus à tous les stades de vie (larves 1, larves 2, adultes, individus morts) sur les boutures mères, les racines tubéreuses et nourricières. La technique de comptage a consisté d'abord à séparer à l'aide des machettes et sécateurs les tiges sur les souches, les racines tubéreuses des autres non tubérisées sur les plants à évaluer et ensuite le comptage de CART. Au total, nous avons dénombré les populations de CART sur 80 plants par bloc aussi bien au premier criblage qu'au deuxième criblage pour tout le matériel végétal à chaque évaluation. Pendant le dénombrement nous avons utilisé les loupes entomologiques à agrandissement type Optivisor (optical Glasbinocular magnifier) pour dénombrer les larves 1 et larves 2 de la CART de petites dimensions. Nous avons recouru aux compteurs manuels rapides pour dénombrer les jeunes larves, les adultes et les individus morts. Pour indiquer la tolérance de certaines variétés à la CART, le nombre des racines commercialisables obtenu par chacune d'elles à chacune des évaluations a été pesé et extrapolé en Tonnes par hectare. Une racine est dite commercialisable lorsqu'elle est grosse avec un bon calibre, sans trous laissés par la CART et peut être vendue pour la consommation.Les analyses statistiques ont été faites à l'aide des logiciels JMP, SAS Institute pour l'analyse de la variance et XLSTAT 2015 pour l'analyse en composantes principales (ACP) et pour la classification ascendante hiérarchisée (CAH). Les données de comptage de la CART ont été transformées par la fonction logarithmique.Les résultats de comptage CART ont été exprimés en nombre d'individus par plant. Les populations de CART sur chacune des variétés sous moyenne et haute altitude pendant les échéances d'évaluation en première et deuxième année de criblage sont consignées aux tableaux 3 et 4. Les rendements en racines tubéreuses et les populations CART à la fin du criblage sont résumé au tableau 5. La figure 5 représente la structuration des quatre variables liées à la population CART et à la production en racines tubéreuses en analyse en composante principale (ACP). La figure 5 représente le dendrogramme de rapprochement entre les génotypes de manioc améliorés et locales sous criblage en moyenne et haute altitude sur base d'infestation de CART et rendement en racines tubéreuses en classification ascendante hiérarchisée.Le tableau 3 donne le nombre moyen de cochenilles radicoles par plant sur chaque variété de manioc à 3MAP, 6MAP et 9MAP dans le Territoire de Beni en moyenne et haute altitude en première année de criblage. Les clones de manioc MM96/0105, MM97/2206 et 20B28 paraissent les plus colonisées à presque toutes les échéances d'évaluation, pourtant leur productivité est bonne au vu des nombres des racines commercialisables observés (Tableau 4). L'exploitation de ces derniers génotypes de manioc dans le Territoire de Beni peut être comme une stratégie de lutte contre la CART. Globalement, les variétés et clones de manioc tels que Liyayi, 20B29, 20B1, Mbayilo, Mukalasa, 20B27, MM96/0105, MM97/2206, 81, Butamu et MM96/5272 ont été identifiés comme tolérants à la CART dans les zones agroécologiques situées en moyennes altitude de Beni à cause de leur productivité en racines tubéreuses (Tableaux 5).Le tableau 3 donne également les résultats de l'évaluation de la population CART à l'altitude de 1200 m à 1400 m en première année. Il se dégage de ces résultats que toutes les variétés ou clones criblés en haute altitude ont été faiblement colonisés par la CART à toutes les périodes d'évaluation (3MAP, 6MAP, 9MAP). Toutefois, à 6MAP nous avons observé une population plus élevée de CART, soit une moyenne équivaut à 38 CART par plant par rapport à 3MAP et 9MAP. La moyenne de la population cochenille a été de 31 CART par plant à l'échéance de 9MAP et de 24 à celle de 3MAP prouvant en suffisance que sous haute altitude l'infestation de clones ou variétés de manioc par la CART a été très faible.Aux regards de ces résultats, certaines variétés de manioc qui ont été sensibles à la CART sur les zones des moyennes altitudes ont présenté une bonne production en racines tubéreuses commercialisables et peuvent faire l'objet d'exploitation sur les zones de hautes altitudes (1200 m à 1400 m) du Territoire de Beni. L'amélioration de la productivité de ces génotypes sous hautes altitudes peut être attribuable au fait qu'il n'y a pas jusqu'ici une grande population de CART qui peut causer des dégâts entraînant la réduction du rendement en racines tubéreuses. La population de CART observée sous ces zones reste encore en équilibre avec les pratiques culturales utilisées. D'une manière générale les clones et variétés de manioc ci-après : 20B1, 20B2, 20B4, 20B16, 20B27, 20B28, 81, MM96/4653, MM96/5475, MM96/2100, MM97/2206 et Mvuazi, Dinsaka, Liyayi, Mukalasa, Mbayilo et Balulu ont été identifiés comme tolérants à la CART sur les zones de hautes altitudes du territoire de Beni. Parmi ces derniers génotypes de manioc cinq ont été précédemment identifiés comme tolérants aux dégâts de CART en moyenne altitude.Il s'agit de 20B1, 20B27, 2028, 81 et la variété locale Mbayilo. Ces cinq variétés peuvent être recommandées aussi bien en moyenne qu'en haute altitude dans le territoire de Beni à cause de leur production en racines tubéreuses.Les résultats sur l'évaluation de la population CART à l'altitude de 1000 m à 1200 m et de 1200 m à 1400 m en deuxième année se trouvent au tableau 4.Il ressort de ces résultats qu'à 6MAP, 12 variétés sur 40 de manioc en moyenne altitude ont hébergé une population CART élevée par rapport à 3MAP et 9MAP. La population moyenne de CART par plant à 6MAP a été de 38,9 individus. Egalement à 9MAP il apparaît huit sur 40 variétés de manioc avec une population élevée de CART par rapport à 3MAP. La moyenne de cochenille par plant à 9MAP a été de 36 individus. La population moyenne générale a été de 28,3 CART par plant pour toutes les échéances d'évaluation.La variété locale Kinyoka et la variété améliorée Nsansi ainsi que le clone 20B17 ont été faiblement colonisés par les cochenilles radicoles à toutes les échéances sur les toutes les zones agroécologiques du Territoire de Beni en premier et en deuxième criblage. Malheureusement ces variétés ont accusé de faibles productions par rapport à celles fortement infestées. Les moyennes des populations des individus hébergés par ces trois génotypes de manioc variaient entre 5 à 28 CART. Les variétés améliorées et locales telles que Liyayi, Butamu, 20B27, 81, MM96/0105, MM96/5272, MM97/2206 et Mbayilo ainsi que Mukalasa ont été plus colonisées par la CART. Par contre elles ont présenté une résistance dite « tolérance » à la CART au vu de leur productivité en racines tubéreuses (tableau 5) et pourront valablement servir dans les éventuels programme de création ou d'amélioration variétale. Les résultats sur l'évaluation de la population CART à l'altitude de 1200 m à 1400 m en deuxième année se trouvent également au Tableau 4. Il ressort de ces résultats que la population CART en haute altitude en deuxième année a été très faible pour toutes les échéances d'évaluation (3MAP, 6MAP et 9MAP) par rapport à la première année de criblage. Toutefois, à 9MAP il apparaît un grand nombre de variétés avec une population un peu élevé de cochenilles radicoles par rapport à 3MAP et 6MAP. Il y a eu moins d'individus à 3MAP et à 6MAP avec les moyennes d'infestation respectives de 7,6 et 9,5 CART par plant. Globalement 20 sur 40 des génotypes de manioc criblés sous les zones agroécologiques de hautes altitudes du Territoire de Beni ont présenté une tolérance à la CART, car leur production en racines tubéreuses a été acceptable et comprise dans l'intervalle des rendements des variétés en diffusion en RDC (Tableaux 1 et 5). Ainsi, quatre sur cinq variétés locales ont donné une bonne production en racines tubéreuses à la fin du criblage (12MAP) ; il s'agit des variétés Mukalasa, Mbayilo, Balulu et Kimbambu. Egalement, trois sur sept variétés améliorées en diffusion ont produit une grande quantité des racines tubéreuses de manioc à 12MAP, en l'occurrence des variétés Mvuazi, Dinsaka et Liyayi. Les rendements extrapolés à l'hectare des ces dernières variétés ont été respectivement de 63,8T/ha, 36,4T/ha et de 24,4T/ha. Nous avons aussi observé que 13 sur 28 variétés améliorées en développement ont produit plus des racines commercialisables dans l'intervalle des rendements des variétés en large diffusion en RDC. Ces variétés en développement étaient entre autre 20B1, 20B2, 20B4, 20B16, 20B27, 20B28, 20B29, MM96/4553, MM96/0105, MM96/2100 et MM97/2206. Les rendements extrapolés de ces clones ont varié de 24T/ha (pour MM96/2100) à 75T/ha (pour 20B1).Globalement, pour toutes les zones agroécologiques du Territoire de Beni, les variétés locales de manioc Mbayilo, Mukalasa, Balulu et Kimbambu ainsi que les variétés améliorées en diffusion et en développement telles que Liyayi, Mvuazi, Butamu et 20B1, 20B2, 20B4, 20B16, 20B27, 20B28, 20B29, MM96/4653, MM96/0105, MM96/4653, MM96/2100, MM96/5475 et MM97/2206 ont été à toutes les périodes d'évaluation moins ou fortement infestés par rapport aux autres variétés. Ces derniers génotypes de manioc ont présenté une tolérance à la CART à cause de leur production en racines tubéreuses à l'unité expérimentale. Ils peuvent être considérées comme une stratégie de lutte contre les cochenilles radicoles et révèlent une importance majeure en amont de la filière de mise au point des variétés résistantes à S. vayssierei par les généticiens.Le tableau 5 donne les rendements moyens des différentes variétés de manioc à la deuxième année de criblage (12MAP) sous différentes altitudes du territoire de BENI. Il ressort de ce tableau que les rendements en racines tubéreuses commercialisables les plus élevés a été observés sous hautes altitudes sur les variétés améliorées 20B1, Mvuazi et 20B16, soit respectivement 74,96 T/ha, 63,78 T/ha et 62,94 T/ha. Sous les moyennes altitudes les variétés améliorées Liyayi et 20B29 ont produit 53, 78 T/ha et 30,4 T/ha. Il se dégage de ces résultats que les variétés de manioc criblées dans le territoire de Beni ont été plus productives sous haute altitude que sous moyenne altitude. Cela se justifie par la présence de la cochenille Africaine de racines et tubercule du manioc et ses dégâts qui ont été élevés sous moyenne altitude. Toutefois, certains génotypes améliorés et locales de manioc ont toléré les infestations de la CART en moyenne altitude en produisant des rendements en racines tubéreuses variant entre 20 T/ha et 22,5 T/ha. Il s'agit des clones 20B27, MM96/5272, MM96/2206, MM96/0105 et les variétés locales Mbayilo et Mukalasa.L'ACP construite sur les quatre variables relative à la population de CART et au rendement en racines tubéreuses (3MAP, 6MAP, 9MAP et 12MAP) indique une bonne représentation des variables à travers le cercle de corrélation (figure 5) ; un bon taux de restitution de l'information sur la variabilité totale sur le plan F1, F2 (62,13%) et un étalement presque égale des individus le long des axes F1 qui contient 31,92 % d'information relative à la productivité des 40 variétés de manioc et F2 30,21% d'information sur la population des cochenilles. Variété La cochenille africaine des racines et tubercules (CART) cause des dégâts aussi bien dans les zones de savanes de haute altitude que dans celles de moyennes et de basses altitudes forestières contrairement à ce que rapportait [3] qu'elle était endémique dans les zones forestières humides de basses altitudes. Peut être que chez [3] les études ont été menées uniquement sur les zones forestières. Les rendements en racines tubéreuses des certaines variétés améliorées en diffusion de manioc sous criblage dans les moyennes et hautes altitudes ont été faibles par rapport leur productivité qui varie de 20 T/ha à 40 T/ha dans les zones qui ne connaissent pas les dégâts de cochenilles. Par exemple les variétés en diffusion de manioc telles que Obama, Nsansi, et Sawasawa ont produit moins de 20 T/ha par rapport à leur potentialité productive dans les moyennes et hautes altitudes du Territoire de Beni à cause des dégâts causés par les cochenilles radicoles. Certaines variétés locales et améliorées de manioc ont toléré les dégâts de la CART sous moyenne altitude malgré les fortes infestations de CART. Les variétés locales telles que Mukalasa et Mbayilo ont produit respectivement 22,43 T/ha et 22,53 T/ha sous moyenne altitude. La variété améliorée Liyayi a donné aussi 53,78 T/ha sous moyenne altitude. Ces résultats corroborent à ceux obtenus par [17] sur les effets des infestations de CART sur l'âge des variétés améliorées et locales du manioc en basse altitude à Tshela dans la province du Bas Congo.La classification ascendante hiérarchique des génotypes de manioc criblés en moyenne altitude montre qu'il y a eu des fortes infestations, par voie de conséquence réduction des rendements en racines tubéreuses. Par contre les faibles infestations ont été observées en haute altitude, partant augmentation des rendements de génotypes de manioc. Ceci semble concorder aux travaux antérieurs de [3] où il décrit les basses altitudes comme habitats de ces homoptères.Par ailleurs, il est bien établi que les interactions plantes-insectes depuis plusieurs centaines de million d'années, ont conduit à un processus de coévolution. Ce processus évolutif a permis aux plantes de synthétiser des métabolites secondaires bioactifs vis-à-vis des insectes. Plusieurs voies métaboliques telles que les cascades de réactions de phosphorylation et la voie de jasmonates parmi tant d'autres, ont à cet effet été rapporté dans la littérature comme responsables de la production des composés biocides par les plantes infectées [18]. Il faut en outre noter que l'expression des gènes qui contrôlent la biosynthèse de ces métabolites secondaires serait modulée par des facteurs environnementaux tels que le climat, la nature géologique du site, l'altitude, etc. [19,20]. Si cette affirmation n'est pas correcte, alors, on devrait s'attendre à ce qu'une variété améliorée de manioc testée résiste de la même façon à la cochenille Africaine de racines et tubercules (Stictococcus vayssierei Richard) sur tous les sites testés. Hors, nous avons observé dans la présente étude que le manioc résisterait mieux en altitude. Il pourrait s'agir dans ce cas d'une modulation épi-génétique et donc le(s) gène(s) de résistance à la cochenille seraient inductibles.Eu égards à ce qui précède le changement de certains facteurs climatiques entre autres la pluviosité serait la cause de cette différence de résistance. Toutefois, les études sur l'indicibilité des gènes de résistance de manioc combinées aux facteurs climatiques et écologiques de la CART s'avéreraient indispensable afin d'identifier les facteurs qui seraient à la base de différence de résistance dans différents sites du territoire de Beni.","tokenCount":"3638"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3f48eebcc3fe75e1848f1c7750bbf9b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/376d31a3-01b1-44b4-bc0f-8ce953f7e50e/retrieve","id":"916691679"},"keywords":["Distance-based learning","radio","climate change","Philippines","adaptation DWDA Station Manager","and Mrs. Catherine Jimenez, Communication Specialist, for their coordination, facilitation and secretarial support"," The Station Managers of the DA-RFO2: Engr. Fidelino R. Cabantac (Quirino"],"sieverID":"b7ae31fa-cf1b-4d2c-a6e9-717d2d5317ee","pagecount":"66","content":"This work was implemented as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which is carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. For details please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. The views expressed in this document cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of these organisations.. Farmer listeners' intent to participate in other school-on-the-air program .. Table 15. Farmer-listener graduates' suggestions on future SOA program features ...One global issue threatening many country's efforts towards sustainable development is climate change. An unprecedented increase in greenhouse emissions has led to increased climate change impacts. It poses great challenges for the rural poor in developing countries that tend to rely on natural resources for their livelihoods and have limited capacity to adapt to climate change (Smit and Piliphosova 2001;UNFCCC 2007). Globally, climate change is attributed mostly to the changes in temperature, changes in precipitation, sea level rise and the melting of ice and snow in the Northern hemisphere (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2009).Long-term changes in climate variability and extreme weather-related events are already evident in many parts of the world. It has become increasingly clear that even serious efforts to mitigate climate change will be inadequate to prevent its devastating impacts that can reverse many of the economic gains made in the developing world in recent decades.In the Philippines, the climate change phenomenon is often associated with extreme weather disturbances such as typhoons and floods, which, in turn, affect many other sectors of the economy. With 50.3% of its total area and 81.3% of the population vulnerable to natural disasters, the Philippines is considered a natural disaster hotspot. About 85.2% of its USD 86 billion annual gross domestic product is endangered, as it is located in areas of risk (World Bank 2008). Since 2000, about three million people have been affected by various disasters annually. The vulnerability of the Philippine agriculture sector to climate change has been acknowledged to be substantial as it is the most vulnerable among Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam when it comes to floods and storms (ADB, 2012).In a study, Vista (2014) reported that climate-induced impacts will result in a net loss to the Philippine economy and its key agricultural sectors in the short run. Since production would be greatly affected and would have ripple and multiplier effects in the economy, it is imperative for Filipino farmers to employ adaptation measures to lessen the impacts of climate change.There is increasing urgency for a stronger focus on adapting agriculture to future changes in the climate. There are many potential adaptation options available at the management level, often variations of existing climate risk management. The management-level adaptation options are largely extensions or intensifications of existing climate risk management or production enhancement activities in response to a potential change in the climate risk profile.One of these include the cropping systems. There are many potential ways to alter management to deal with projected climatic and atmospheric changes. Citing several experts, Howden et al. (2007) enumerated varied adaptations to include: Altering inputs such as varieties/species to those with more appropriate thermal time and requirements and/or with increased resistance to heat shock and drought, altering fertilizer rates to maintain grain or fruit quality consistent with the prevailing climate, altering amounts and timing of irrigation and other water management. Wider use of technologies to \"harvest\" water, conserve soil moisture (e.g., crop residue retention), and use and transport water more effectively where rainfall decreases. Managing water to prevent water logging, erosion, and nutrient leaching where rainfall increases. Altering the timing or location of cropping activities. Diversifying income through integration with other farming activities such as livestock raising. Improving the effectiveness of pest, disease, and weed management practices through wider use of integrated pest and pathogen management, development, and use of varieties and species resistant to pests and diseases and maintaining or improving quarantine capabilities and monitoring programs.  Using climate forecasting to reduce production risk.However, there are yet relatively few studies that assess both the likely effectiveness and adoption rates of possible response strategies. Against the backdrop of rapidly changing weather conditions and the severity of the impact on poor subsistence farmers, it is urgent that the different options available to farmers to cope are documented. A good understanding of how they can be widely adopted is critical. This understanding includes the adaptation options that farmers may have access to, their perception towards them, and the determinants to adopting them.One development strategy thought of by the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) to inform the rice farmers about the effects of climate change and how to control its impact to rice farming is the use of the radio. As argued in a manual co-developed by DA Regional Field Office 02 (DA RFO2), despite the prevalence of high-speed Internet and television in today's world, radio is still a critical and relevant medium especially in developing nations (DA RFO2, 2018). Citing the data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, more than 95% of the world's population uses radio, as compared to roughly one-third of the global population with Internet access.Philippine data shows that radio reaches 85% to 90 % of the population, while TV reaches less than 60%. For this reason, radio is considered the most reliable medium for sharing news in the countryside. The document further argues that radio transcends literacy and geographical barriers and being in audio mode, elicits strong emotional impact among listeners. Along with this, the \"Kaalamang Pagsasaka sa Himpapawid,\" a school-on-the-air Consortium, and other national and regional agencies in the region.The SOA-CSA program contained 68 modules broadcasted in 14 radio stations within the Cagayan Valley Region. About 10,000 rice farmers enrolled in the program, but only around 5,000 graduated. How the graduates used their knowledge on CSA, which they acquired from the radio program is the intent of this study.The study assessed the intermediate outcomes of the SOA-CSA program on farmer-learners in Cagayan Valley in the adoption of climate-smart rice technologies. Specifically, it was intended to accomplish the following objectives: The study is anchored on the theory that radio influences the rice farmers' knowledge and adoption of CSA technologies (Fig. 1). It is viewed that if the delivery of the program was effective, it could be evident in the awareness and knowledge of the causes and effects of climate change and the level of knowledge and adoption practices of the rice farmers taught in the radio program. It is assumed that the rice farmers who intently listened to the program and completed all episodes have higher level of awareness and knowledge of the climate-smart technologies.Consequently, these rice farmers are likely to adopt these technologies in the rice production practices that address climate change concerns. Adoption of climate-smart technologies is considered as a factor to the yield and income differences among farmers. The study used mixed research methods, i.e., the use of both quantitative and qualitative research strategies to gather the needed data to achieve the research objectives. The quantitative component of the study involved the collection of data through a structured questionnaire adopted from different sources. The qualitative aspect of the study involved the conduct of focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviewing of selected groups and partner agencies.The study was conducted in four provinces (Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino) in the Cagayan Valley Region, particularly in municipalities within the broadcast reach of the 14 radio stations that aired the SOA-CSA materials. The population of the study was composed of all the graduates of the SOA -CSA program.Out of this population, an initial sample of 376 graduates was stratified across the provinces, with the most number coming from provinces that had the biggest number of graduates. The criteria for being selected in the study include: regular listeners; model farm participant; and resident of the area with good reception of the radio station broadcasting the SOA-CSA.Using the Slovin's formula to determine sample size and the proportional allocation technique, the samples of the study were distributed in the provinces shown in the table below. In the actual data gathering in the sampled towns, the list of graduates was inadvertently misplaced at the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO). Thus, the sampling technique was altered. The research team used snowball sampling method to reach the other graduates in the sampled barangay. After locating and interviewing the first sample with a graduation certificate, names of other graduates from the barangay were identified. In several sampled barangays, the number of samples was not met owing to their ineligibility based on the inclusion criteria, or eligible respondents were out of town during the visit; no call back was made due to time and financial constraints. For this reason, the actual samples were 352.On the other hand, a total of 24 farmer leaders participated in the FGDs held separately in the four provinces. Some of the invited farmer leaders, who also hold positions in their communities, failed to come because of varied reasons. Nevertheless, the participants actively joined the discussion on the issues and concerns raised during the FGDs, which lasted for about one hour and thirty minutes.Two research instruments were used to gather the needed data. Afterwards, for the level of awareness, farmers were asked if they were aware or not of the causes and effects of climate change, and then were asked on the level of knowledge they have about each of the causes and effects, using a three-point Likert scale: Little, Much, Very The second instrument is the Focus Group Session Guide, the tool to guide in the discussion with farmer leaders (Annex B). The questions elicited from the FGD members their attitude, opinions, and ideas on the circumstances of their involvement in the SOA and future SOA programs, their knowledge and utilization (including sharing) of the climate-smart technologies, the problems related to their adoption, and the SOA program content and features they preferred.The October 2019. The composition of the FGD was from four to six. Using the FGD SessionGuide, the questions elicited responses on the members' attitude, opinions, and suggestions on the SOA learnings and utilization, as well as their preferences on future SOA programs and their features. The lead researcher facilitated all FGD sessions in the provinces.Data were encoded in EXCEL file to have ease in data encoding, cleaning, and manipulation.After data cleaning, the file was imported into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software.To categorize and describe the group, frequency count, mean, and standard deviation were computed. General responses in variables measured by Likert scales was interpreted by computing the weighted mean per statement. The arbitrary scale points to interpret the weighted means are the following:For Level of Knowledge:Level of Knowledge Farmer-listener graduates (FLGs) are predominantly males (69.9%); the rest (39.1%) are females. This trend characteristically describes the Filipino farmer in terms of gender, where there are more males (89%) than females (Census on Agriculture and Fisheries, 2002). In 2015, the proportion of females in the agricultural work force was 25.7%. It indicates that in the region, more females are joining the agriculture workforce.In terms of age, FLGs are in their adult stage, as shown in the mean age of 52.4 with a standard deviation of 10.4. The youngest is 24 while the oldest is 80. Moreover, the fact that there are farmers who listened to the radio affirms the value of lifelong learning to a farmer interested to improve his or her farming practices.This group of FLGs is younger than the national average age of Filipino farmers at 57, according to Director Asterio Saliot of the DA-Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) (The New Humanitarian, 2013). However, the 2017 survey of DA revealed that the farmers' average age is 60. Such trend is worrisome to the Department as this implies that young Filipinos are no longer interested to take on farming as an industry (Inso, 2018). More than three-fourths (86.1%) of the FLGs are married. This fact gives them more motivation to improve their rice production to meet the needs of the family members. In the FGD with farmer leaders, they claimed that this expectation was anticipated in the learning acquired from listening to the SOA-CSA program. They want new technologies that can increase their rice yield.In terms of educational background, the majority (54.6%) of the FLGs has reached elementary and high school levels of education. It means that they are capable of processing information heard over the radio. This educational trend among the famer-listener graduates in the region is far better than the reported national figure of one-third of agriculture workers who did not finish primary school (Briones, 2017).The reported income of the farmer-listener graduates ranges from a minimum of PHP 50,000(among the small landed farmers) to the maximum of PHP 1,500,000 (among owners of big farms). The median income is PHP 80,000, which is way below the average income of farmers (farm, off-farm, and non-farm) that is around PHP 100,000. Comparing it to the 2015 poverty line of PHP 108,800 set by the National Economic and Development Authority, most of the farmers could hardly make both ends meet. Nevertheless, the farmer leaders explained during the FGD session that they can cope with their financial needs by engaging in subsidiary livelihood activities. As they are dependent on farming, whatever problems encountered in their production activities impact on their financial capability to survive.Table 2 shows the biophysical characteristics of FLGs. Farm ownership for rice ranges from one-fourth of a hectare to 13 hectares. On the average, they till about 1.97 hectares (SD = 1.66). On the other hand, the area farmed for other crops ranges from one-fourth to five hectares; the mean is recorded at 1.57 (SD = 0.13).As indicated, some farmers own a small farm while others own large farm areas. In a report, Koirala, et al. (2014)  However, the figures are below other farmers' use of more advanced hybrid varieties (e.g., SL-H8) that yield from 160 to 245 cavans per hectare of irrigated land (Gomez, 2019).In the FGD sessions, farmers attributed their rice yield to the practice of recommended technologies, especially seed selection. However, the variations in the farmers' reported rice yield is attributed by experts to different factors such as genetics, agronomy, and climate variability brought by climate change (Lesk et al., 2016;Battiste & Naylor, 2009;Urban et al. 2015). Farmers also cited that even if they use high-yielding varieties, the expected economic benefit is negated by natural calamities such as typhoons, flooding, and market circumstances. The topics most FLGs listened to are along cultural management practices of rice, namely: variety and seed selection (96%); land preparation and water management (94.6%); nutrient practices and pests and diseases management (93.2%); postharvest operations (92.9%); harvest management (92.3%; crop establishment (90.9%); and impact of climate change on agriculture and food security. Most topics listened to by the FLGs were on the cultural management aspects. Evidently, they are interested to learn about the rice technologies that are critical in the growth of the plant to ensure better yield.In the FGD sessions, farmer leaders considered the information they acquired from the SOA-CSA program important to them as these influence the yield of their rice crop. Their realization of the impacts of climate change on their farming and the availability of food for them and the community added more reason for them to learn climate-smart technologies. In addition, they conveyed that their motivation to listen was for them to upgrade their adoption of technology that could give them more economic benefits. They answered affirmatively when asked if their expectations in listening were met.As evidenced by the data, not all FLGs were able to listen to all the topics. Only 169 or 48% of them listened to all the 24 topics; others missed a few of the topics owing to various reasons. Farmer leaders pointed out several factors for their inability to miss the broadcast: they were out of town;  the radio signal was poor, sometimes interrupted by intrusion of foreign language radio programs; and  they moved to the farm before the program was aired.However, those missing the broadcast inquired from their fellow farmer listeners what the topic was and what significant information was discussed. Others with cellphones asked a member of the family to record the program for them to listen to it later. Other listeners volunteered to share the information to those who missed the program, as well as on other farmers of the community who were not regular listeners. To some with cell phones, they visited the DWDA Facebook page to listen to the uploaded episodes they missed. Nearly all (92%) of the FLGs listened to the SOA-CSA program through their own radio sets.Those without radio sets (4.5%) listened to the program through the neighbor's transistor radio set, while an identical 1.7% of them with cellular phones either listened through the radio applications of their unit or listened through live streaming of the program on Facebook.They listened mostly at home (93.8%), while 3.4% brought to the farm their radio set and listened to the program as they undertook their farm chores. Others (2.9%) listened to the program with their neighbor's and through their cellphone unit where they were at the time of the broadcast. The use of these strategies attests to the FLGs' desire to learn CSA for rice. In some instances, listening to the radio program was a family affair. If the farmer is out, the wife or a child was requested to listen and share the information to the farmer later. This      On the level of knowledge on the effects of climate change, the trend shows much knowledge, with an overall weighted mean of 2.02. FLGs benefitted from their listening to the SOA-CSA program. In the FGD sessions with the farmer leaders, whatever little knowledge they have before listening to the program was increased by the information they heard. They have now a better appreciation of stopping their traditional practices (like burning of rice straw in the farm) that they realize contribute to the problem of climate change. If they persisted with these practices, they explained they would be disadvantaged with continued episodes of getting lower farm yield.FLGs were asked about their level of knowledge of the CSA technologies for rice, as well as their level of adoption. Consistently, these same technologies are the ones adopted almost always by them, except for the use of farm machinery that is used always.In the FGD sessions, farmer leaders pointed out that they adopted semi-farm mechanization or partial adoption. Farm machines are used during land preparation and harvesting while manual labor is used in pulling seedlings, transplanting, and harvesting palay that lodged heavily during windy heavy downpour. They explained the non-use of seedling transplanter because of they are not commonly used by them.On applying the 3 Rs of solid waste management, farmer leaders related how the golden snails collected from the rice farm are used in vermicomposting. They used vermicompost as basal fertilizer. They have learned not to burn the rice straw; rather, they spread them on the farm. They explained that if properly decomposed the farm is supplied with 5% of free urea already.They also explained the advantage of synchronous planting in reducing pest occurrence.Moreover, they shared the indigenous technology of laying madre de cacao (Gliricidia sepium) leaves on the farm for a while then draining the farm to drive away insects and corn plant hopper. Cutting branches of the tree and setting them in strategic areas of the farm also attains the same purpose. This practice manifests farmers' ability to blend tradition and science. On integrated pest management, farmer leaders shared their practice of observing the presence of insects in the farm. Farmer leaders attested that maintaining the paddies clean is effective in keeping insects and rodents away. If there are only two or three insects in a one square meter area, they believe that there is no need to spray pesticides. Instead, they prepare a concoction of pepper-Antibac fabric softening liquid-kerosene gas for the spot spraying to get rid of them.Encouraging information that arose from the discussions is the radiation or diffusion effect of farmers' adoption of recommended technologies. Farmer leaders confirmed the \"wait and see\" approach of some farmers; if they do not see the benefits of a technology, they are hard to convince to adopt it. Cited as example is the non-burning of the rice straw after the harvest.Setting them on the rice farm and plowing them over during land preparation makes the soil more fertile.As the non-adopting farmers realize its benefits, they begin inquiring from the farm leaders who are willing to share their learning. Likewise, farmer leaders narrated how they convinced other farmers of the advantage of transplanting one seedling per hill against the traditional practice. They claimed that they were able to convince non-listener farmers who found that there is less need of seeds when using hybrid seeds (15kg/ha) versus the inbred seeds (40 kg/ha.). In a research by Wanda ( 2016), agricultural radio programs in Africa have influenced farming activities and through the adoption of new ideas, farmers become economically empowered.The technologies sometimes adopted by the FLGs are along income diversification (2.46), crop diversification (2.42), using different cropping systems (2.28), and mixed cropping. The finding reflects the intent of the FLGs to have multiple sources of income that are not totally dependent on rice production. In the FGD sessions, they expressed the desire to learn farm diversification, including the acquisition of value-adding skills for their main product.The primary problems related to the adoption of climate-smart rice technologies are natural calamities (68.8%), lack of financial resources (67.3%), and lack of support from agencies (51.4%). Whatever inputs they invest to get more yields from the farm is dependent on the weather conditions. Farmer leaders, in the FGD sessions, revealed that at times their yield is reduced when drought and typhoons hit their area. At the flowering stage of the rice plants, rain showers between 9AM and 1PM are mentioned by the farmers to be detrimental to their rice plants. Strong winds at this stage, they claimed, are also unfavorable because pollens in the spikelets are blown away. On the other hand, typhoons during the maturity stage of the rice plants are disadvantageous for farmers to gain more profits. They alleged that when rice plants lodged due to flooding, the combined harvester could not be used. Under such situation, grains are submerged under water, resulting to the blackening of the grains and at worse, their germination. Consequently, when it is sold, it is cheaply priced.In terms of financial resources, farmer leaders narrated the red tape involved in securing loans, like the many documents to prepare and the certifications to secure. For instance, in the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund loan offered by Landbank, loan applicants are required to submit documents, namely: MAO certification, Farm Plan, Notarized Statement that they do not have current loans, and Tax Information Number from the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Seemingly, the farmers do not appreciate the concern of the lending institutions to assure them of their ability to repay loans. On the farm mechanization loaning program, on the other hand, they claimed that it is only through a cooperative that it could be availed. The documentary requirements to be submitted are discouraging the farmer groups to secure this type of loan program.Clarifying their problem on lack of support from government agencies, some farmer leaders related that at times, the distribution of certified seeds and fertilizer is delayed. Related to this problem, farmers commented on the practice of government technicians in asking what rice variety they want, not based on the characteristics of the rice farm.Likewise, they are allegedly asked to subject the farm for soil analysis, but results are not delivered on time, keeping the farmers from following the recommended fertilizer needs. At times, though, the reason for the delay is their last-minute submission of the soil prior to land preparation. In addition, some farmer leaders explained their difficulty of managing farm weeds because irrigation water is not available at times. Those situations force them to apply weedicides.In the FGD sessions, some farmers suggested that the provision of support to the farmer listeners should not end with the graduation; there must be a follow-up to determine the technology application of the graduates. They should not be left to fend for themselves.Another suggestion is the need to time the airing of the SOA program before the onset of their Two government agencies are identified by the FLGs to be providers of support in their adoption of recommended rice technologies; these are the MLGU through the MAO (82.7%) and DA RFO 2 (76.7%). Nearly half of the farmer-listener graduates also mentioned the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), (49.4%), ATI (46.6%), and Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) (44.9%) that are supportive of them. The continuing program of the municipalities to provide seed and fertilizer subsidies has made the FLGs aware of the LGU support to them. Moreover, during the farm visits, the municipal agriculture extensionists provide farmers with technical assistance in their farming activities. Although the MLGUs are just conduits of the DARFO 2 in implementing agricultural productivity programs, farmers are unaware of the fact that it is the regional office as the main provider of the free inputs and technology disseminated to them by the MLGU.FLGs also recognize the free irrigation water provided by NIA in their respective areas.Similarly, they are aware of the crop insurance they benefit from through the PCIC.On the other hand, more than one-fourth of the farmer-listener graduates took cognizance of the support given by the PLGU (39.8%), Philippine Rice Research Institute (28.7), and Radyo ng Bayan -DWPE (28.4%). Because of their non-proximity to the farmers, the other agencies have no opportunity to be accessed by the farmer-listener graduates. State universities in the area, through their extension program, also extend support to the farmers in various ways.As for the other agencies cited by farmers, they could be referring to their involvement in the SOA-CSA. During the orientation, farmers were informed of the many agencies collaborating in the program.The study wanted to identify the various sources of information from which the FLGs derive their knowledge. Table 10 shows that DA RFO2 remains to be the main source of knowledge of the farmers through various modes. The SOA-CSA program (70.7%) was identified because of its recency in implementation. In the FGD sessions, farmer leaders estimated that their knowledge on CSA for rice technologies due to the SOA would border from 70 to 80%.This finding proves the effectiveness of the SOA as a mode of informing farmers of any agricultural development beneficial to them, especially on CSA, as the topics were devoted on it. The power of the radio as vehicle for agricultural development is asserted by Myers (2008) in his research that pointed out that unlike television and newspapers, radio is still the most popular and widely used medium of communication. The radio has also helped bridge the digital divide by providing an opportunity for sharing information limitlessly. The regular modes of information dissemination of DA RFO2 are also identified. These include flyers and pamphlets from DA and other agencies (58.8%); seminar-workshops (72.4%); meetings/fora (54.4%); and field days (54%). As part of the network of service providers, the involvement of the ATI with its season-long farm school was acknowledged by the FGD participants. This means that DA remains as the primary source of information of the farmers.As a partner agency in agricultural development, the extension workers from MAOs (71%) are cited as the major sources of what they know about climate-smart rice technologies.Considering that most agricultural development programs implemented by DA RFO2 are downloaded to the local government units, the farmers took cognizance of the important role of the MAO as an information provider.Majority (58.8%) of the farmer-listener graduates pointed out the assistance also provided by the Local Farm Technicians (LFTs). In the FGD sessions, nearly all the LFTs in their area share the information they learned to their fellow farmers. This finding attests to the advantage of deputizing and empowering LFTs because they are the most accessible technicians in their own communities. The monetary monthly incentive of PHP 3,000 for the eligible LFTs who complete requirements is mentioned as additional motivation for them to sustain their efforts as farm technicians.Inquired about the usefulness of the information learned from the SOA-CSA, the trend shows that they were useful to the farmer-listeners. Majority (55.7%) considered the learning useful, while 36.9% believed it was very useful. About 7% thought it was somewhat useful.Participants to the FGD sessions related the importance of knowing the causes and effects of climate change, especially the ways to reduce the risks in their rice production activities. They mentioned that their learning has made them cope with the uncertainties of farm production owing to unpredictable climatic conditions in their area. They explained that the usual cropping pattern has changed, pushing them to learn alternative options.Among those who found their learning useful, 53.4% were moderately influenced while 28.9% were fully influenced. Only 16.8% were slightly influenced. FGD participants mentioned that they have been convinced that adopting climate-smart rice technologies is indeed beneficial to them. From their initial use of the technologies they heard in the SOA-CSA program, they had observed their effects to their crops and consequently their yield.With the initial observations, they claimed that such technologies are relevant to them. Economic Benefits of Farmers' Listening to the SOA-CSAIn terms of economic benefits, about 96% declared that there was an observed increase in farm yield (Table 12). About 43% indicated they had much increase in their yield while 17% considered the increase just enough. The rest noted a little increase. Indeed, the SOA-CSA initially contributed to approximately 19-cavani increases per hectare in rice production by farmers who adopted the recommended technology.Moreover, the yield is higher among the FLGs who adopt more technologies, particularly the use of high-yielding hybrid varieties (e.g., SL8, Bigante, Pioneer) resistant to drought and flood, integrated pest management, organic farming, and efficient use of irrigation water. It means that adopting more recommended rice technologies would result to higher yield.Among those who reported lower yield were those using inbred varieties, like RC222, PSB, and RC82. To this variation, it was reported that adopting technologies for sustainable farming systems involves uncertainty and trade-offs. Technologies that can contribute to an economically efficient farm sector and the financial viability for farmers can motivate farmers to adopt them in their farms. Farmers will invest in and implement sustainable technologies and farm practices if they expect the investment will be profitable (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2001) In the FGD sessions, farmers indicated that the use of hybrid rice requires 15 kg of seeds only, as compared to the 40 kg required in using inbred varieties. The big reduction of input cost is the new practice of setting only one seedling per hill. Furthermore, nutrient competition is minimized, resulting to more grains and consequently higher yield.Because of the preceding circumstances, 96% of the farmer-listener graduates observed an increase in their farm income after the initial use of the recommended technology heard from the SOA-CSA program. The increase was generally much as about 58% of them clustered in the \"much\" and \"very much\" response categories. The mean income increase is PHP 18,345 (SD = P14,319). The finding reveals that the farmers' initial adoption of the recommended CSA technology has benefitted them financially. Other preferred commodities are livestock (54.5%), poultry (46%), and corn (41.8%). In the FGD sessions, the majority of the farmer leaders identified corn as their preferred commodity.In the discussion, however, they conveyed another threat on the profitability of corn production: the market price could be low because high-yielding corn varieties is inputintensive. To have more enrollees in future SOA programs, several considerations should be considered as suggested from the FLGs' experiences. Table 14 indicates that the most preferred time slot by 67.9% of farmers is 5 AM to 6 AM. In the FGD sessions, farmer leaders pointed out that at 5 AM, they are still at home and have time to listen. The Nueva Vizcaya group, however, mentioned that the feasible time for them is 4:00AM as they could listen to the program while they prepare their morning meal. As the sign-in time of most radio stations is 5 AM, they mentioned that 12 noon to 1 PM could be a good alternative. Airing the SOA outside those time slots would reduce listenership as most of them are already in the farm, except those who bring with them their transistor radio. The radio stations with the best reception within their area were suggested by the farmerlisteners. In the FGD sessions, the radio stations with good reception in the Isabela and Quirino provinces, and partly in Nueva Vizcaya, are DWSI (24.6%) and DZNC (2.9%). In addition to DWSI, DZRV (18.6%) in Nueva Vizcaya was suggested by the farmers. In Cagayan, DWPE was suggested by 27.2% of the farmers, while 8.6% identified DWDA. All community radio stations near their areas, although limited in signal coverage, were identified by other farmers.For the farmer leaders, choosing the radio station with the best signal is a major factor for the farmers to listen and to truly benefit from the program. When there are interferences from other radio stations and when the signal is fluctuating, farmers could not pick up the salient information that they need to know. Likewise, they will not be able to retrieve an information easily because a SOA episode cannot be replayed right away. Those with access to social media can review the broadcast they missed.In terms of announcers, the majority (59.6%) suggested a male and female tandem, while approximately 26% favored that both announcers be male. In the FGD sessions, the farmer leaders mentioned that they will listen to any tandem of announcers as long as they can present information clearly. Additionally, they suggested that the program hosts need to have a sense of humor to maintain the listeners' attention. They also desired that they talk slowly and clearly for them to catch up and take down notes.The 30-minute duration of the program is favorable for them. Likewise, they recommended that summary notes of each episode should be distributed to them during the graduation for them to review the lessons and revisit the episodes they missed.As Ilocano is the lingua franca in the Cagayan Valley region, it is identified as the preferred language during the program. Farmer leaders in the FGD sessions mentioned that technical terms in English without Ilocano equivalent was explained by the program hosts during the first SOA-CSA program. This strategy, they said, could still be adopted by the next batch of hosts.Farmer-listener graduates are predominantly married middle-aged men with a high school level of education. They have a median income of PHP 80,000 sourced mainly from farming activities. They till about two hectares of rice land and have more than a hectare for other e. After three years, an impact evaluation of the SOA-CSA should be conducted to assess the long-term impact of the program. In doing so, gender and age segregation of impact could be assessed.f. RAFIS, particularly DWDA and regional office website administrators, to sustain in the archives feature of the regional website or in the Facebook account all episodes of the SOA-CSA program for the FLGs to review and other interested farmers to listen.  ","tokenCount":"5887"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c0d930e462163445321ed335ea8c07b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6575414e-25d4-4de8-a7cf-242b462a4c42/retrieve","id":"-887379187"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bd18507b-bf26-4c4c-90ca-adb9eda4802f","pagecount":"19","content":"Cattle production in Colombia has an important social and economic role but causes considerable environmental impacts, such as deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions by ruminants, particularly methane. Thus, technological innovations aimed at reducing these impacts must focus on both economic and environmental sustainability. Silvo-pastoral systems (SPS) offer productivity increases while generating environmental benefits and ecosystem services and are therefore at the center of debate around sustainable production alternatives. The objective of this article is to evaluate the economic-environmental performance of two proposed SPS for a cattle fattening system for the Colombian context: (i) Urochloa brizantha cv. Toledo and (ii) Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman, both in association with Leucaena leucocephala trees for browsing and shade provision. They are compared with the respective base scenarios of only using the grasses in monocultures. The study consists of a financial analysis, which estimates potential profitability increases in beef production in the SPS, and an environmental evaluation, which estimates the monetary values of microclimatic regulation and reduction of methane emissions. The value of methane emission reductions is then integrated into a combined economic-environmental evaluation. Results show that both SPS improve the profitability indicators of the production system and reduce the probability of economic loss. Likewise, the reduction of methane emissions in the SPS is estimated at US$6.12 per cattle, and the economic value of microclimatic regulation at US $2,026 per hectare.Cattle farming is among the most important activities within the agricultural sector in Colombia. According to Fedegan [1], it contributes to about 1.4% of the national, 21.8% of the agricultural, and 48.7% of the livestock gross domestic product of the country. The cattle sector generates employment for more than one million Colombians, mainly in fattening (131,899 jobs), breeding (267, 581), dual-purpose cattle farming (530,739), and dairy farming (138,542). About 23 million hectares of land are used for pastures and forage production and the transformation of native landscapes and forests into pastures generates impacts on the different ecosystems of the country. Over the last decades and in the face of growing international concerns on climate change, environmental degradation, and the role cattle farming holds in that regard [2], the sector has been pushed into the center of debate on environmental impacts in Colombia, particularly on those related to deforestation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and loss of biodiversity [3].the economic profitability and impacts of cattle production systems has been traditionally focused on the evaluation of implementing improved forages, mostly as monocultures [56,57,68,69,80,90,91], or grass-legume associations [55,92]. Likewise, only few recent studies have focused on providing estimates of the economic-environmental benefits of implementing SPS [93,94].Among the studies that approach SPS from an economic-environmental perspective, Bussoni et al. [93] present a comprehensive analysis that combines the economic benefits of SPS with environmental objectives in Uruguay through three hierarchical models. Model 1 focused on optimizing the combined Net Present Value (NPV) for cattle production (US$302,935) and forestry (eucalyptus timber) (US$556,578). Model 2 focused on prioritizing the cattle NPV (US$317,307) at the expense of a negative balance of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2eq. ) emissions (− 20,160 tons). Model 3 focused on minimizing the CO 2eq. emissions (+6,788 tons) in a scenario where environmental aims are pursued at the expense of a difference in the cattle NPV of US$-24,609 compared to Model 2. They conclude that both productive and environmental goals can be integrated, and the environmental goal can be achieved if prioritization happens at a higher hierarchical level. For the State of Sinaloa in Mexico, Cuevas-Reyes et al. [94] found that an intensive SPS with Leucaena leucocephala and Cynodon dactylon is financially viable and that viability significantly increases when the carbon capture potential is considered and monetized (i.e., NPV, IRR, and B/C increase by 15%, 9%, and 2.5%, respectively).Regarding the financial viability of SPS, Carriazo et al. [95], through choice experiments, studied the effect of technical assistance on the adoption of SPS in Colombia and found that ranchers value SPS with technical assistance for cattle production with US$290 per ha/year while the value for improved forages as a monoculture with technical assistance is significantly lower (US$128 per ha/year). Also for Colombia, Enciso et al. [57] estimated the economic benefits of integrating Leucaena diversifolia trees with the grass Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman in a SPS. Compared to the evaluated monoculture with Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman, the SPS showed strongly improved profitability indicators, such as for (i) the NPV, which depending on the scenario was up to four times higher in the SPS, (ii) the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), which improved from 11 to 22%, (iii) the Benefit-Cost ratio (B/C), which was positive in all scenarios, (iv) the payback period, which was reduced from six to four years, and (v) the minimum area required for obtaining two Colombian minimum salaries, which was reduced from 6.5 to 3.8 ha. Likewise, the probability of obtaining economic loss was lower in the SPS. Other profitability analyses conducted for SPS with Leucaena leucocephala in Costa Rica [96], the Caribbean region of Colombia [97], and the state of Michoacán in Mexico [98] report significantly higher IRR for the evaluated SPS, oscillating around 33%. In a review of different intensive SPS arrangements in Latin America, mainly with the species Leucaena leucocephala and Tithonia diversifolia, Chará et al. [99] highlight the positive impacts the establishment of these systems have on edible dry matter production, meat and milk production, the reduction of chemical fertilizer needs and feed concentrates, and thus, farm profitability. Braun et al. [64], in a summary on SPS for South America, conclude that SPS are economically attractive alternatives, which allow for deriving different products (e.g., timber, beef, milk, fruits) at different times, and that the inclusion of trees results in a more secure long-term income while the beef component is more oriented towards short-term incomes. Other authors, such as da Silva Santos and Grzebieluckas [100] for Matto Grosso in Brazil, Quaresma Maneschy et al. [101] for Pará in Brazil, Alonzo [102] for Belize, Boscana et al. [103] for Uruguay, Rade et al. [104] for Ecuador, Ramírez-Martínez and Salas-Razo [105] for Michoacan in Mexico, and Bernardy et al. [106] for Brazil, have also provided insights into the financial viability of different SPS setups in Latin America, evidencing positive results in most cases.Moving away from Latin America, other studies can be found for Australia, and particularly Queensland, where Leucaena leucocephala was identified as the most profitable legume for SPS, capable of doubling per hectare gross margins when integrated with perennial grasses [107], and if adopted at the regional level, could lead to economic benefits of US$ 69 million per year [108]. Francis et al. [109], in a study on the financial performance of SPS in Queensland, Australia, also found that the implementation of SPS is financially attractive, i.e., when timber production is incorporated.Although an increasing number of studies has evaluated the financial viability of SPS, only two partially quantify some of the ecosystem services offered by them [93,94], disclosing an important research gap around two topics, namely (i) further evaluating the financial viability of SPS in different contexts and (ii) integrating the monetary values of the offered ecosystem services and environmental benefits in comprehensive economic-environmental evaluations. This, however, raises questions on (i) the type of ecosystem services and environmental benefits SPS can offer, and (ii) the availability of technical data on those ecosystem services that allow for including them into the economic evaluation of SPS.SPS are conceived as multifunctional and dynamic socio-ecological systems, which result from a historical coevolution, i.e., of relationships, feedback, and dependencies, between local communities and their environment. SPS contribute to shaping a diversified landscape structure and configuration that fosters the provision of ecosystem services and environmental benefits to society and the planet [49].In addition to providing environmental benefits, such as the mitigation of GHG emissions [110][111][112][113][114], SPS provide numerous ecosystem services. Several studies [48][49][50][51]115] have documented evidence on the provision of ecosystem services by SPS, such as microclimatic regulation, carbon storage and sequestration, soil conservation, and the creation of habitats for biodiversity. These environmental advantages of SPS have allowed linking incentive programs such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) that seek to promote the conservation of water sources and ecosystems through sustainable production schemes [61,75,[116][117][118][119][120][121] and become a financial option for producers to partially monetize the environmental value of implementing SPS on their farms.In Colombia, Vallejo et al. [122] have studied the benefits SPS have on soil quality and nutrient recovery, and found them to be viable alternatives to improve soil quality and metabolic function, which is reflected in the significant increase in microbial biomass, biomarkers, and enzymes. For their part, Polanía-Hincapié et al. [123] carried out a field study that aimed at evaluating changes in the physical quality of the soil that comes along with the subsequent transition from traditional cattle management to SPS in the Colombian Caquetá department. Their results indicate that the implementation of SPS is an efficient strategy to restore the physical quality of the soil in degraded pastures, and contributes to increasing pasture productivity, while indirectly decreasing the pressure of deforestation in the Amazon basin. Martínez et al. [124] have studied the impacts of SPS on soil quality parameters in degraded soils in the Colombian Sinú river valley, showing that SPS helped in increasing soil pH and nutrient availability. Rivera et al. [51], on the other hand, explored the potential benefits that SPS have on the conservation and biodiversity of ecosystems. They conducted a study on the ant fauna in cattle farms in the La Vieja river basin in Colombia, analyzing the relationships between tree cover and the diversity and composition of ant species in different cattle systems. They found that treeless pastures had less than half the number of ant species than pastures that integrated for example Leucaena leucocephala trees. Mosquera et al. [125] evaluated the effects of land use changes on soil organic carbon, carbon content, and primary forest stocks, by comparing degraded pastures with improved pasture systems and SPS in the Colombian Amazon. Their results indicate that both the introduction of improved pastures and the implementation of SPS in degraded pastures are feasible alternatives for carbon sequestration. Prior to this, Ibrahim et al. [126], in a study in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, have documented the carbon storage potential of SPS in soil and biomass in rangelands.This study assesses the economic-environmental benefits of implementing two different SPS in Colombia, namely (i) Urochloa brizantha cv. Toledo + Leucaena leucocephala trees (SPS Toledo) and (ii) Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman + Leucaena leucocephala trees (SPS Cayman). These SPS are contrasted with the establishment of two monoculture grass systems commonly present in the country, namely (iii) Urochloa brizantha cv. Toledo (M Toledo) and (iv) Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman (M Cayman).Leucaena leucocephala is a shrub legume species that attains a height of 7-18 m as it matures. It possesses a remarkable ability to regenerate vigorously after browsing or substantial pruning. Its branches display a notable degree of flexibility without succumbing to tearing. Additionally, it is highly palatable, and its capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen is beneficial for the growth of associated grasses. This species thrives across a wide range of elevations, from sea level up to 1,600 m above sea level. It flourishes in areas with annual precipitation ranging between 500 and 3,000 mm, distributed either in a unimodal or bimodal pattern. Furthermore, it can withstand temperatures spanning from 25 to 30 • C. While it exhibits considerable drought tolerance, Leucaena leucocephala does not fare well in shaded environments. Adequate sunlight, ranging from 800 to 1,500 h per year, is essential for its optimal growth. The species is adaptable to neutral or alkaline soils and can thrive in stony terrains. However, it does not tolerate waterlogged conditions, acidic soils with high aluminum ion saturation, or intense and prolonged frosts below − 4 • C [127,128].Urochloa brizantha cv. Toledo stands as a perennial grass, originating directly from the Urochloa brizantha CIAT 26110 accession. It showcases adaptability across a broad range of climates, thriving in sub-humid tropical conditions with dry intervals lasting 5-6 months and an average annual rainfall of 1,600 mm. Similarly, it flourishes in humid tropical environments receiving rainfall exceeding 3,500 mm/year. While it can adjust to acidic soils of limited fertility, its optimal growth occurs in soils of moderate to high fertility. This grass is susceptible to infestations by cercopids and spittlebugs within pastures. Establishing it can be accomplished through either seeding or vegetative propagation. Depending on the chosen method (broadcast or furrow) and seed quality, a sowing density of 3-4 kg/ha is recommended. During rainy periods, this grass can sustain a variable animal stocking rate ranging from 2.5 to 3 Tropical Livestock Units (TLU) per hectare. Its growth potential is also applicable to cut-and-carry systems, as it can reach a height of 1.60 m. Dry matter (DM) production averages fluctuate, measuring 25.2 t/ha in the dry season and 33.2 t/ha during the rainy season. It is feasible to conduct cutting every 8 weeks [129].Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman emerged as an interspecific hybrid originating from collaborative efforts between the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (breeding), the Centro de Investigación de Pastos Tropicales (CIPAT) (evaluation and selection), Grupo Papalotla (introduction, commercialization). This grass variety exhibits a remarkable ability to thrive in moist environments and displays a notable adaptability to soils predisposed to waterlogging. Its growth pattern is characterized by a decumbent form, generating an abundance of runners. Particularly noteworthy is its responsiveness to humidity, which triggers a transformation in growth behavior. In its early stages, Cayman develops decumbent stems, fostering the emergence of shoots and roots at the nodes. This unique adaptation enhances nutrient absorption and oxygen production, particularly beneficial in poorly drained conditions. Beyond its waterlogging resistance, this hybrid boasts drought tolerance, marked palatability, stoloniferous growth, and an innate resilience against pests and diseases. Moreover, it facilitates the sustenance of higher animal stocking rates, making it an asset for cattle management [130].The data used for the financial analysis were obtained from a field trial established at the CIAT campus in Palmira, Colombia. According to Holdridge [131] the study area can be classified as pre-montane wet forest (bh-P), which is located at an elevation of approximately 1,000 m.a.s.l. The annual precipitation is 1,045 mm and the rainfall regime is bimodal (March to April, October to November). The average temperature is 23.8 • C and the relative humidity 75%. The trial was established on a fertile, clayey Mollisol (40-60% clay content) [132] with a pH of 7.54, CEC of 16.4 cmol/kg, good drainage, and P, Ca, Mg, and K concentrations of 25 ppm, 7.87, 6.17, and 0.82 cmol/kg, respectively.Four treatments were established, namely (i) SPS Toledo, (ii) SPS Cayman, (iii) M Toledo, and (iv) M Cayman. Measurements were made for one year, between April 20, 2021 and April 20, 2022, to cover all four seasons occurring at the location (two rainy and two dry seasons). The overall aim of the trial was the evaluation of animal liveweight gains in two different scenarios, SPS and grass monocultures. Each of the four treatments was carried out in an area of 1 ha, which were divided into 3 plots (0.33 ha each) for rotational grazing. In the two SPS treatments, the proportion between the respective grass and the Leucaena leucocephala trees was 70/ 30, and the tree density 2,000 trees per ha (25% for shade, 75% for browsing). A total of 14 Brangus cattle were utilized for grazing, evenly distributed across the two scenarios (SPS and M) in a 50% ratio. The average age upon entry of the animals was 18.6 months, with a mean of 19.1 months for the M treatment and 18.1 months for the SPS treatment. At the commencement of the trial, the typical weight of the animals in the M treatment stood at 349 kg, while in the SPS treatment, it was 345 kg. The grazing and rest intervals were maintained at 12 and 45 days, respectively. In terms of stocking rate, the M treatment accommodated 3 animals per hectare, whereas the SPS treatment hosted 4 animals per hectare.Regarding the environmental evaluation, following a comprehensive review of available information and data, one notable environmental benefit and a single ecosystem service were considered, namely (i) the mitigation of CH 4 emissions and (ii) microclimatic regulation. For the analysis of CH 4 emissions reductions, the study by Gaviria-Uribe et al. [133] was considered. Their research provided estimates of CH 4 emissions within this experiment across various diets in both M and SPS scenarios. As for microclimatic regulation, an assessment was conducted by measuring the extent of shaded areas within the SPS treatments on September 1, 2022, utilizing the Fields Area Measure application.In this study, a discounted cash flow model was employed to estimate profitability indicators, facilitating a comparative analysis of various investment options (SPS, M). The assessed indicators encompass NPV, IRR, and B/C, following the guiding principles outlined by Park [134]. These indicators are derived by adopting the most probable values within distinct specified models, aligning with the benefits and costs associated with each investment alternative. The assessment is constructed through a juxtaposition of the calculated profitability indicators for the different treatment scenarios. Costs incurred were categorized into four main areas: (i) establishment and maintenance costs, (ii) opportunity costs, (iii) operational expenses linked to animal health and supplementation, and (iv) labor costs. Conversely, benefits stem from the cattle's commercialization, with their profitability parameters contingent upon the liveweight gain observed in each of the evaluated treatments.For the elaboration of the cash flows, the following technical and economic assumptions were made: Technical Assumptions: All cattle engaged in the treatments were exclusively of the Brangus breed. To formulate the cash flows, stocking rates of 3.0 and 4.0 animals per hectare were adopted for the M and SPS treatments, respectively. These rates remained consistent throughout the analysis period. Liveweight gain was meticulously assessed for all treatments at both the commencement and conclusion of the experiment (Table 1). The feeding duration for the animals was standardized at 365 days across all treatments.Evaluation horizon: The evaluation horizon was determined based on the typical lifespan of the grass technologies, which is commonly recognized as 10 years [135], spanning from 2020 to 2029. It is worth noting, however, that both evaluated grass varieties can potentially remain productive for a considerably longer duration with proper management practices such as grazing and fertilization. Additionally, the assessed Leucaena leucocephala trees generally exhibit lifespans extending beyond 10 years. It is also important to acknowledge that in practical scenarios, farmers frequently exhibit reluctance to renew pastures, resulting in the continued utilization of established technologies for over 10 years. Nonetheless, this often leads to a decline in pasture productivity due to the scarcity of adequate pasture management practices. Nevertheless, to promote the effective adoption and utilization of such technologies, the present article adopts a 10-year timeframe as the technology lifespan.Discount rates: The determination of financing costs was based on the established credit lines for cattle production systems, including those incorporating silvo-pastoral settings, as defined by Finagro, the Colombian Fund for Financing the Agricultural Sector [136]. This discount rate is commonly employed as the representative opportunity cost for capital investments and is closely tied to the risk factors inherent in agricultural endeavors. To encompass the potential impact of variations in discount rates on system profitability, multiple scenarios were explored using DTF (fixed-term deposit rate) + 3%, 5%, and 8%, respectively. The projections for the discount rate were derived from two primary sources: (i) the Bancolombia Annual Report of Economic Projections for Colombia in 2020 [137], and (ii) the macroeconomic projections report for 2020 from the Banco de la República of Colombia, which collates insights from both local and foreign analysts [138].Permanent labor: Following the labor weighting factors outlined by Fedegan [139], a cattle fattening-oriented system requires approximately 2.3 permanent positions for every 100 animals. The salary estimate is calculated based on the prevailing monthly legal minimum wage (MW) for the year 2019, encompassing transportation assistance, social security contributions, and associated benefits, totaling around US$400 per month. To forecast the evolution of the minimum wage throughout the analysis period, it was assumed that the variation would mirror the anticipated inflation rate for each year, coupled with a labor productivity adjustment set at 1%, in accordance with historical data from national statistics [140]. The labor remuneration used in this analysis aligns with Colombia's salary dynamics, which are anchored by the MW. As reported by DANE [141], approximately 32.2% of the employed population in Colombia received a salary near 0.9 MW in 2020, while 17.8% fell within the range of 0.9-1.1 MW. This nuanced distribution provides insight into how rural area wages correspond to national average wage trends. Considering its proximity to the national average, with minor regional variations, the adopted MW serves as a suitable proxy.Inflation: Incorporating the impact of inflation, the analysis encompassed the estimation of revenues and costs over the evaluation period. Projections for income were based on the Consumer Price Index (IPC) data published by the Banco de la República of Colombia [142]. In parallel, the Producer Price Index (IPP), as calculated by the National Administrative Statistics Department of Colombia (DANE) [143], was employed to gauge production costs.Cattle price: In the context of local weather events and the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Colombian cattle sector experienced inflationary and external influences, leading to a notable rise in cattle prices [1,42]. Given the exceptional nature of these price fluctuations, the study referred to prices from 2019 for the purposes of analysis.Risk is defined as the potential that the actual investment return will fall short of the expected investment return [134]. Consequently, profitability is intertwined with the volatility of income and cost streams, hinging on the unpredictability of key variables within the investment project, such as yields and market prices. Rural investment endeavors are particularly exposed to unique risks, their outcomes being contingent upon a broad array of variables, many of which lie beyond the investor/producer's control, such as climatic factors. In this context, it becomes imperative to integrate risk considerations into the assessment of profitability indicators for each evaluated investment. To this end, a Monte Carlo simulation model was employed. Monte Carlo simulation involves generating a sample of outcomes based on specified probability distributions [134]. This approach empowers decision-makers to explore potential outcomes and gauge the influence of risk on investment project profitability indicators. Executing the simulation necessitates the identification of random input variables, those capable of adopting multiple feasible values, and defining the plausible range for each. Probability distributions are then assigned to these variables, followed by the computation of projected indicator profitability. In the present study, the Monte Carlo simulation was executed using the @Risk software package (Palisade Corporation), involving 5,000 iterations and a confidence level of 95% across all treatments.The decision criteria are rooted in the average values of the profitability indicators NPV and IRR, alongside the Benefit-Cost Ratio (B/C), which stem from the simulations conducted for both the M and SPS treatments.Net Present Value: This indicator represents the present value of the cash flow stream, calculated as the aggregate of discounted benefits subtracted from discounted costs [144].Internal Rate of Return: As outlined by Gittinger [144], an alternative approach to assess the value of a project using the revised cash flow involves identifying the discount rate that renders the net value of the cash flow equivalent to zero. This discount rate is referred to as the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), which, in essence, signifies the average return on the investment expenditure throughout the entirety of the project's lifespan. The equations for the NPV (Equation ( 1)) and IRR (Equation ( 2)) are as follows:(1)where E(FC t ) is the expected value of the net profit flow for period t, Var(FC t ) is the net profit flow variance for period t, r the real discount rate, r* the internal rate of return, and t the evaluation horizon of the project.Cost-benefit analysis: Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a structured economic evaluation tool that involves a comparison between the costs and benefits of a given project. Functioning as a comprehensive analytical framework, CBA serves as a means to assess and appraise both public and private ventures [145]. Economically speaking, the Benefit-Cost Ratio (B/C) applies a discount mechanism to both the influx of benefits and the outflow of costs, utilizing a rate that approximates the opportunity cost of capital. This approach establishes a quantifiable linkage between the discounted value of project benefits and the corresponding value of the discounted costs associated with it. The equation for the B/C (Equation ( 3)) is as follows:where Bn are the benefits in period t, Cn the costs in period t, r the real discount rate, and t the evaluation horizon of the project. The Benefit-Cost Ratio (B/C) provides a rough indication of the effectiveness of funds allocated to an investment, offering a transparent gauge of the viability and allure of an investment project. The decision criteria can be summarized as follows:• B/C > 1: This suggests that the revenue generated by the investment will surpass all associated expenditures, indicating project profitability. • B/C = 1: This signifies that both the generated revenue and expenses of the investment will be equivalent. The decision to proceed with the investment remains neutral. • B/C < 1: This implies that the generated revenue from the investment will fall short of covering all incurred expenses, indicating project unprofitability.The environmental evaluation encompasses the economic appraisal of environmental advantages and ecosystem services arising from the SPS as opposed to the M treatments. In terms of environmental benefits, the replacement of traditional M systems with SPS leads to a reduction in CH 4 emissions. In the realm of ecosystem services, three prominent aspects have been identified: (i) microclimatic regulation achieved through the shading effect of trees, (ii) carbon storage and sequestration within tree biomass, and (iii) soil nitrogen fixation. However, for the scope of this study, the focus is on valuing the environmental benefit of CH 4 emission reduction and the ecosystem service of microclimatic regulation. This decision is due to the absence of available technical ecological measurements for the assessment of carbon storage and capture, as well as soil nitrogen fixation.To assess the value of CH 4 emission reduction, the market price method [146] was implemented, leveraging data from major global Tradable Emission Permit Systems and economic mechanisms like CO 2 taxes. The market price method establishes the economic worth of CO 2eq. (v) by multiplying the volume of avoided CO 2eq. emissions (q) with the average market price for emissions and/or CO 2 taxes as sourced for the analysis year (p) (as represented in Equation ( 4)). In order to ascertain q, this study draws upon findings from Gaviria-Uribe et al. [133], who indicated that for every gram of animal liveweight gain, emissions of 0.36 and 0.33 g of CH 4 occur in the M Toledo and SPS Cayman treatments, respectively.To appraise the reduction in CH 4 emissions, certain assumptions were made regarding the initial (220 kg) and slaughter weight (450 kg) of the cattle. These assumptions enabled the utilization of daily liveweight gain data from different treatments and the CH 4 emissions factor per gram of liveweight gain. This information was employed to estimate emissions generated up until the point of the animal's sale. Since Gaviria-Uribe et al. [133] exclusively provide data for M Toledo and SPS Cayman, it was deduced that CH 4 emissions for SPS Toledo would be akin to those of SPS Cayman. Consequently, identical values as those for SPS Cayman were employed for assessing the monetary worth of CH 4 emissions reduction in SPS Toledo.To assess the monetary value of the microclimatic regulation ecosystem service, the method of avoided costs [146] was employed. This approach involves estimating the expenses associated with the establishment and upkeeping of a gray infrastructure that mirrors the shade coverage provided by the trees within the SPS. The chosen gray infrastructure for comparison is a shade mesh, as it is the prevalent choice for cattle systems in Colombia. In this context, the monetary value of the microclimatic regulation ecosystem service (v) is determined by multiplying the area encompassed by the shade (q) with the average costs associated with installing and maintaining the selected gray infrastructure (c), as illustrated in Equation (5).(5)It is essential to acknowledge several limitations that should be taken into account when interpreting the findings presented in this financial analysis.Firstly, due to the age of the cattle upon entering the SPS treatments, it was not feasible to measure initial-stage liveweight gain, a crucial component of the productivity curves associated with grazing. While the outcomes for the SPS treatments were more favorable compared to the M treatments, the exclusion of initial-stage liveweight gain measurements could potentially impact the results of the SPS treatments.Secondly, both input and labor costs used in modeling the cash flows for cost, benefit, and other indicator measurements were influenced by external factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic [42,147]. The pandemic led to disruptions in agro-industrial input supply chains and local price inflation, directly affecting the implementation costs of the studied treatments. Consequently, the results of this study are significantly shaped by the global and local macroeconomic context that unfolded since 2020. This economic environment also impacted on the projections incorporated into the cash flow analysis. Considering the economic uncertainty at both national and international levels, inflation, wage, and producer price index forecasts used to project benefits and costs demonstrated higher-than-expected increases. Despite consulting multiple sources to compare forecasts from both public and private institutions, the prevailing trend was towards upward adjustments due to the economic uncertainty of 2020. To mitigate these extraordinary effects in the analysis, 2019 prices were adopted as the foundation for this study.Furthermore, it is important to recognize that this analysis was conducted on an experimental research scale within CIAT's campus.Consequently, the estimated productivity and costs may deviate from scenarios on farmers' fields under commercial conditions. In the realm of environmental evaluation, it is important to highlight that SPS generate various other environmental benefits and ecosystem services that were not quantified in this study. These include carbon storage and sequestration in tree biomass, soil nitrogen fixation, fertilization of soil through animal excrement, and the creation of habitats for various species. These services were not valued due to the lack of ecological estimates of physical units for each service specific to the SPS setups of interest. Furthermore, a social valuation exercise was not undertaken as it would have necessitated an additional experimental design involving participation from producers to ascertain values based on their perceptions. Additionally, the avoided cost method used reference prices from the Colombian Cauca Valley department, where the trial was located, which may yield different outcomes if applied to other regions within Colombia.One of the most important basic aspects for the financial analysis of SPS and M is the cost structure associated with the setup and management of the technologies, given that these largely define the investment decision producers need to make when adopting and implementing a new feed production system. As can be observed in Table 1, higher costs occur for the establishment of SPS, particularly they increase by 26% and 3% for SPS Cayman and SPS Toledo, respectively, when compared with the M alternatives. Regarding the maintenance and renovation costs, they tend to be slightly lower for the SPS, since less area is sown with the more labor and fertilizer intensive grasses which also need partial renovation after around five years to maintain pasture productivity stable. Regarding the benefits, due to the increased amount and quality of available feed, the animal stocking rates are 33% higher in SPS than in M, which translates into higher daily liveweight gains (+51%), annual per hectare animal productivity (+49%), and annual income from the sale of meat (+34%) in SPS.Table 2 presents the results for the financial indicators for the M and SPS treatments. A negative NPV was obtained for the two M treatments, precisely of US$-268 and US$-527 for M Toledo and M Cayman, respectively. Both treatments also show a negative IRR, although for M Cayman it is close to zero, and a high risk of obtaining economic loss, 67% and 81% for M Toledo and M Cayman, respectively. The two SPS treatments, on the other hand, show disparate results. As for the NPV, SPS Toledo presents a positive value of US$35, whereas it is negative for SPS Cayman (US$-218), which is related to the significant difference in establishment (+69%), maintenance (+30%), and renovation (+30) costs of the pasture in SPS Cayman compared to SPS Toledo. Likewise, the IRR is positive for SPS Toledo but negative for SPS Cayman, and the risk of obtaining economic loss is high for both. The B/C ratio is slightly positive for the SPS treatments. Despite these rather discouraging numbers, the data show that significant improvements occur in all indicators when implementing SPS instead of M.Figs. 1 and 2 show the results of the Monte Carlo simulation risk analysis for the M and SPS treatments. It can be observed that despite the still high risk of obtaining economic loss (NPV<0) in the SPS treatments (in 49% and 59% of the scenarios generated for SPS Toledo and SPS Cayman, respectively), it is significantly lower than in the M treatments (67.5% and 80.8% for M Toledo and M Cayman, respectively).Based on the results of Gaviria-Uribe et al. [133] it is found that the SPS Cayman treatment achieves a CH 4 emissions reduction of 0.03 g per gram of animal liveweight gain, which is equivalent to a reduction of 0.63 g of CO 2eq. compared to the M Toledo treatment. If this diet was replicated in a larger SPS, for example with 1,000 cattle, a reduction of 145 tons CO 2eq. could be achieved. Table 3 presents an overview of the data presented by Gaviria-Uribe et al. [133]. The economic value of the reduction of avoided CH 4 emissions corresponds to a potential income that a producer can access by implementing good environmental practices. This reduction contributes to the objective of climate neutrality in livestock farming, which is encouraged in Colombia by a program for payments for environmental services (PES). The PES program has a special emphasis on supporting livestock producers who implement silvo-pastoral systems and demonstrate environmental benefits such as the CH 4 emissions reduction presented in this article [119,148].When consulting the most important global carbon markets [149], the carbon tax in Colombia [150], the minimum price recommendation for carbon credits of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [151], and the general equilibrium model with the Tradable Emission Permit System in Colombia of the National Planning Department (DNP) [152], an average price per ton of CO 2eq. of US$45.25 per ton can be defined for the period between January and August 2022 (Table 4).According to this average price, the monetary value for the environmental benefit of CH 4 emissions reduction in SPS Cayman can be estimated at US$6.12 per cattle. Considering the stocking rate of the experimental setup of four cattle per hectare, a total monetary value of US$24.49 per hectare can be observed, which is equivalent to an annual value of US$28.83. A replication of SPS Cayman at larger scales, for example in a cattle fattening system with 1,000 animals, could thus generate a monetary value for CH 4 emissions reductions of US$6,122 (Table 5).Concerning the microclimatic regulation ecosystem service, the SPS treatments encompass an area of 12,082 m 2 under shade, as  determined through field measurements, translating to a shade coverage of 60.4%. Engaging with ten shadow mesh providers in the Cauca Valley Department, the average prices for shadow mesh (per m 2 ), poles (per pole), and labor (per day) were ascertained to be US $0.78, US$5.49, and US$9.24 respectively. The anticipated lifespan of the infrastructure is three years. Thus, should the tree shade coverage within the SPS treatments be replaced by shadow mesh, the total cost over three years would amount to US$12,158, equivalent to US$4,053 annually and US$2,026 per hectare per year. When extrapolated to a larger scale, such as a 1,000-ha cattle fattening system, the monetary value of microclimatic regulation could potentially reach US$2,016,414 per year (as indicated in Table 6).In the last step of analysis, the monetary value of the environmental benefit of CH 4 emissions reduction provided by the SPS was integrated into the financial analysis. Table 7 shows how the financial indicators change under this scenario compared to the Base Scenario presented in Table 2.As the data for Scenario 1 shows, when the environmental benefit of CH 4 reduction is included in the economic evaluation, all economic indicators improve for the SPS treatments. Particularly, the NPV for SPS Toledo increases by 741% compared to the SPS Toledo without CH 4 reduction, and for SPS Cayman, it turns positive for the first time. Likewise, for SPS Toledo, the IRR increases by 517% and further improves for SPS Cayman. The B/C, however, only slightly increases when including CH 4 reduction. Regarding the risk of obtaining economic loss (NPV<0), further improvements can be observed for both SPS when CH 4 reduction is considered (Fig. 3). Nevertheless, the risk of obtaining economic loss remains high for both SPS Toledo (39.2%) and SPS Cayman (50.2%). This study evaluated the viability of integrating the tree legume species Leucaena leucocephala in two different grass monoculture cattle feeding systems, namely Urochloa brizantha cv. Toledo and Urochloa hybrid cv. Cayman, under two SPS arrangements. Particularly, financial viability of this endeavor was evaluated in two scenarios, namely (i) a base scenario, which only considered the productive parameters, and (ii) a scenario which considered productive parameters and the environmental benefit of CH 4 emissions reductions in the SPS.The findings of the study reveal that the introduction of SPS in the base scenario yields noticeable enhancements in profitability indicators, such as NPV, IRR, B/C, and NPV <0, regardless of the chosen grass technology. However, despite these improvements, only   the SPS Toledo arrangement displays a positive NPV and IRR. It is worth noting that even this most favorable option does not exhibit strong attractiveness due to the relatively modest values of these indicators. These results exhibit some alignment with existing literature, as many studies exploring the economic viability of SPS similarly report significant enhancements, akin to the current study. Nonetheless, in most cases, these enhancements typically translate into highly positive economic indicators and overall viability [57,[96][97][98][99]95]. The unfavorable indicators observed for SPS Cayman can be primarily attributed to its comparatively higher establishment costs in contrast to SPS Toledo. Both cases, however, may also be influenced by relatively low daily liveweight gains observed in the trial that underpins this evaluation. These observed gains average less than 240 g in both SPS, which contrasts with similar SPS setups where gains typically range between 600 and 700 g [57]. These differences could contribute to the relatively discouraging results observed in this particular study. This rather unfavorable investment panorama, however, further changes when the monetary value of the environmental benefit of CH 4 emissions reductions is integrated into the profitability analysis. By integrating the value of CH 4 emissions reductions, which was estimated at > US$6, >US$24, and >US$28 per cattle, hectare, and year, respectively, the NPV of SPS Toledo increases by >700% and the one of SPS Cayman turns positive. Likewise, the other indicators further improve for both SPS. Nevertheless, this benefit alone still is not enough to make both SPS an attractive investment alternative as the relatively low IRR shows. The estimated savings in CO 2eq. emissions of 9% in the SPS, however, are attractive when it comes to climate change mitigation. Particularly, a SPS Toledo or SPS Cayman system of 1,000 animals (which would translate into an area of 250 ha considering the stocking rate of four animals per hectare) can save 145 tons of CO 2eq. compared with the grass monocultures, which are rather common in the Colombian cattle landscape [55,153]. This coincides with the study of Cuevas-Reyes et al. [94] who found that the profitability indicators of a SPS with Leucaena leucocephala and Cynodon dactylon significantly improve when their carbon capture potential is considered and monetized. Likewise, it coincides with Bussoni et al. [93], whose findings suggest that the reduction of CO 2eq. emissions can be combined with the productive goals of cattle farming under SPS.The ecosystem service of microclimatic regulation has been estimated to hold an economic value of $2,026 per hectare per year. It is important to note, however, that this value is not factored into the financial analysis. The internalization of the shade effect from trees serves as an intermediate component that does not impact the discounted NPV of SPS. This shade effect is utilized for the cattle's own intermediate consumption within the SPS. The establishment of the evaluated SPS, which yields approximately 60% shade coverage, brings about notable benefits. These advantages contribute significantly to various aspects, including (i) animal welfare improvement: SPS mitigate heat stress and reduce the presence of hematophagous flies, enhancing the well-being of the cattle [154][155][156][157][158], (ii) environmental enhancement: The shade cover of SPS reduces water consumption by the animals and promotes biodiversity [159][160][161], and (iii) productivity and quality enhancement: SPS positively influence productivity and quality indicators [154,159,162]. This multi-faceted impact highlights SPS's potential to contribute to climate change mitigation by curbing CH 4 emissions [110][111][112][113]. Additionally, SPS aid in climate adaptation by providing thermal comfort to animals amidst rising temperatures and bolstering feed availability during critical periods [158,159,163,164]. While not directly incorporated into the financial analysis, these ecosystem services reinforce the overall value and resilience of SPS systems.To fully unlock the comprehensive environmental, economic, and productive benefits of SPS, a conducive environment for adoption must be fostered. This involves tailoring strategies to account for the distinct characteristics and disparities among adopting farmers in various regions, as well as acknowledging their unique needs, experiences, and local expertise. However, creating such an adoption-friendly environment proves to be a formidable challenge, particularly in countries like Colombia where SPS adoption rates remain generally low [39,57,65,66]. The adoption process itself encounters numerous barriers that necessitate diligent efforts to overcome, as evidenced by research findings. These barriers encompass a spectrum of challenges, ranging from financial hurdles (lack of access to credit, extended payback periods) to knowledge gaps (limited access to information, technical guidance, and extension services; intricacies of SPS practices) [65,66,73,[165][166][167]. Socio-cultural factors also play a role, as traditional norms often associate pastures with tree-free landscapes [65]. Labor considerations add another layer of complexity, with SPS demanding higher labor input and facing competition from other (sometimes illegal) sectors [168]. Land tenure issues can further hinder adoption [72,73], while environmental concerns (perceived or actual) and the adaptation of species to specific environments pose additional challenges [169]. Market dynamics, legislative constraints, and a general farmer aversion to risk contribute to the array of barriers [39,65]. Addressing these multifaceted barriers requires a holistic and nuanced approach that combines targeted interventions, robust policies, and comprehensive support mechanisms. By strategically navigating these challenges, countries can effectively elevate SPS adoption rates, harness the array of benefits they offer, and ultimately establish a more sustainable and resilient agricultural landscape.To promote the widespread adoption of SPS, a variety of instruments and incentives have been proposed and implemented through research and policy initiatives. Among these, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) have emerged as a notable strategy, offering strong incentives for adoption, particularly when farmers are actively engaged in their design [53,165,168,169]. Additional incentives encompass credits aimed at establishing SPS, tax benefits, commercial incentives such as price premiums, development of effective extension systems and technical support, removal of regulatory hurdles, and subsidies for trees, seeds, inputs, and equipment [39,165,170]. Research has also highlighted the importance of bolstering social networks and social capital, indicating their significant role in driving SPS adoption [66,72]. In instances where rural extension services are limited, complementary support from research initiatives can play a pivotal role in boosting adoption rates [166]. Over the past decade, Colombia has made considerable strides in scaling up SPS adoption, particularly by generating incentives to foster widespread implementation. Notably, the Sustainable Colombian Cattle Project (2010-2019) has facilitated the adoption of approximately 5,000 ha of SPS across the country [42]. The establishment of the Sustainable Cattle Roundtable in 2014 further supports the development of public policies and capacity-building efforts in sustainable cattle farming, with a particular emphasis on SPS [43,171]. This collective effort has culminated in the release of Colombia's first national-level public policy on sustainable cattle in 2022 [172]. Other significant policy advancements include the establishment of Zero-Deforestation Agreements for Beef and Dairy in 2018 [173], the development of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions for cattle since 2014 [174], and the enactment of the SNIA law reforming the national agricultural innovation system in 2017 [175]. In terms of financing, a groundbreaking credit line dedicated to SPS was introduced in 2020, aimed at supporting the acquisition of planting materials [176]. Furthermore, the private sector is actively contributing to incentives, such as product differentiation and price premiums (e.g., Sustainable Cattle Initiative GANSO, AngusAzul's sustainability program), and offering technical assistance for SPS establishment (e.g., GANSO, Alquería's Heirs of Tradition program) [40,42,177,19].While the benefits of scaling SPS are substantial, it's crucial to also acknowledge the potential unintended consequences of widespread adoption. Parodi et al. [178], for instance, advocate for implementing SPS primarily in areas unfit for crop production to mitigate unwanted competition with other agricultural systems. However, this approach may introduce negative outcomes, as evidenced by increasing deforestation trends observed when cattle intensification takes place on marginal lands [179,180], particularly when land tenure is unclear [181]. Castro-Nuñez et al. [8] highlight another potential concern, noting that the establishment of SPS can have adverse effects on forest cover in Colombia. This is attributed to improved cattle birth rates within SPS, which in turn lead to surplus calves often being sold to unsustainable fattening farms situated at the deforestation frontier. Notably, cattle farming expansion ranks among the primary drivers of deforestation in Colombia and Latin America [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Moreover, the productivity gains yielded by SPS could inadvertently encourage cattle farmers to further expand their operations at the expense of forests and other vital ecosystems [68], a phenomenon referred to as the Jevons paradox [182,183]. To counteract such negative and undesired consequences and to uphold the principles of sustainability in cattle farming via SPS, a strategic combination of the aforementioned incentives and robust monitoring and control mechanisms becomes imperative [68,[184][185][186]. These mechanisms may include deforestation monitoring, traceability systems, and taxes targeting conventional pasture usage, among others. By implementing such measures, the potential adverse effects of SPS expansion can be mitigated, ensuring that the promise of sustainability in cattle farming is upheld.Silvo-pastoral systems are considered a sustainable production alternative for cattle systems in the global tropics and especially in Latin America. However, little is known yet about the financial viability of establishing such systems in different contexts and the added economic value of the environmental benefits and ecosystem services they provide. The present study aimed at contributing to closing this research gap by providing an economic-environmental analysis of two SPS for the Colombian context, considering the environmental benefit of methane emissions reductions and the ecosystem service of microclimatic regulation.The study shows that when the analyzed traditional grass monocultures are transformed into the proposed SPS, the profitability indicators get significantly better, yet no outstanding financial viability was observed in this case. This, however, changes once the monetary value of CH 4 emissions reductions is considered in the financial analysis, converting the proposed SPS into more attractive investment options. A widespread adoption of these SPS can create important socio-environmental benefits, such as the reduction of 145 tons of CO 2eq. for every 1,000 cattle fed in these systems, valued at US$6,121 -roughly what 32 typical passenger vehicles emit per year [187]. Likewise, the suggested tree cover in the SPS generates 60% tree shade, which, per 1,000 ha creates a value of US $>2million and adds to the numerous other ecosystem services SPS provide.However, for the scaling of SPS, numerous adoption barriers must be overcome, for which in Colombia, several public and private initiatives and programs were already established. In this regard, it is important that these endeavors consider the particularities and differences among the adopting farmers in different regions, as well as their needs, experiences, and local knowledge. It is also essential to integrate the monetary values of the environmental benefits and ecosystem services into the financial analysis of SPS, so that the stakeholders involved in the adoption process can make more informed decisions. This is, however, not always possible since technical data is not available for all environmental benefits and ecosystem services SPS offer for which it is recommended to include this in future research. To avoid unintended negative consequences in the adoption of SPS, such as deforestation, incentives (e.g., PES, credits, price premiums) need to be coupled with monitoring and control mechanisms (e.g., traceability, zero-deforestation). Only then, the sustainability claims of SPS can be upheld. Likewise, the knowledge component of SPS is very complex, and much of the adoption depends on the available knowledge, extension, and technical assistance, as well as farmer networks. A strengthening of these elements and better coordination among the actors involved is thus recommended. funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.","tokenCount":"8222"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cfe9159b17d6372e042f6295488771c7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d26d2420-1110-4fba-9ef9-931fbb22a834/retrieve","id":"-1358454903"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"187c1d01-2407-481a-b3a5-167bd88fb08b","pagecount":"8","content":"What is seed treatment? Benefits of Seed Treatment:S eeds saved by farmers may be infected with microbes that can induce diseases on the seedling and the crop. This can affect seed germination and may be transmitted from seed to seedling to plant.Seed treatment prevents and controls seed-, soil-, and air-borne diseases. It improves germination, vigor, and productivity.Seed treatment or dressing refers to the application of biological, physical, and chemical agents and techniques to seed to provide protection and improve the establishment of healthy crops.Seed treatment may involve use of fungicide, insecticide, or a combination of both, applied to the seeds to disinfect them from seed-borne or soil-borne pathogenic organisms and storage insects.Seed treatment is like immunization -it provides a good insurance and protection of your seed and crop against diseases, seed-borne or soil-borne pathogenic organisms and storage insects. This involves application of a chemical (fungicide/insecticide) to seed prior to planting to provide effective protection against many seed and soil-borne plant pathogens. The chemical treatment guards against the various seed rots and seedling blights that occur during storage or after planting. Always wear protective equipment and follow appropriate safety procedures when using chemical seed treatment products.Stem-feeders (Aphids)How to do seed treatment Procedure for chemical seed treatment Seed treatment materials are usually applied to seed in various forms: dust; slurry (a mixture of wettable powder in water) and liquids. Slurry application is the most common method especially for smallholder farmers. Read and follow instruction for the specific application procedure for each seed treatment product.Always wear protective equipment and follow appropriate safety procedures during seed treatment.Biological seed treatment consists of active ingredients that can include microbes such as fungi and bacteria, as well as plant extracts and algae extracts. The biological agents improve health of the root zone by competing with pathogens that may colonise seeds and newly emerged roots thus protecting the germinating seed and seedling from infection. The microbes stimulate rapid root development and nutrient uptake by the growing crop. Some of the biological agents for seed dressing include Trichoderma spp., Rhizobium spp., Bacillus subtilis, Psedomonas flourescens, Azospirillum spp., Neem and sea weed extracts Examples of biological seed dressing products in Kenya include: TriCoat, Mazao Flourish, Trianum, Biofix and LEGUMEFiX.Biological seed treatment products are environmentally friendly and easy to apply. These however required proper storage to keep viability of the biological agents.Plan to treat your seeds at the start of the rains when soil is moist and ready to plant. Measure the desired amount of seed using a tin (gorogoro), bucket or a weighing balance. You can treat both own saved seed or certified seed.Dissolve recommended amount of fungicide/insecticide per kg seed in water inside a plastic bag or bucket to make a slurry.Weka dawa kwenye ndoo kisha ongeze maji kidogo. Changaya dawa na maji ili iwe chepechepe.Put the seed in a bucket or a plastic bag. Do not use anything used for cooking or etching water.Weka mbegu kwenye ndoo au karatais ya plastiki. Usitumie chombo cha kupikia au kuteka maji.Stir and mix well with a stick or hand protected by the glove. Alternatively seal the bucket and shake vigorously to coat seed uniformly with fungicide slurry.Pour out the seed on a sack under a shade for product to stick on seed. Keep the sack away from rain or direct sunlight Mwaga mbegu juu ya gunia chini ya kivuli ili dawa ikaukie kwenye mbegu. Weka mbali na mvua au jua kali.","tokenCount":"570"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"50e2f2493f288c357af9e2a9e944948f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b12eacf0-57ed-4ba1-8515-b5c121c8d23c/retrieve","id":"-2087490110"},"keywords":["P740 -Product Line 5.1.2: Fit-for-purpose national and meso-level strategies for livestock investment and policy Geographic scope:","National Country(ies):","Tanzania, United Republic"],"sieverID":"b43343c6-a506-47c9-804f-d17a3beee321","pagecount":"1","content":"Upgrading the smallholder dairy value chain: A system dynamics ex-ante impact assessment in Kilosa District, Tanzania Commissioning Study: ILRI Part II: CGIAR system level reporting Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs: • Increased livelihood opportunities Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: No Description of activity / study: The assessment looked at the ex-ante impacts of two policy interventions that improve productivity of local-breed cows, artificial insemination (AI) and producers' access to distant markets through a dairy market hub. The policy interventions were introduced under the CRP Livestock and Fish.","tokenCount":"93"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"df5d23f1ea991943730493ad046c8352","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f61708be-d44f-44c6-a7cc-84f9582f9cf5/retrieve","id":"1869637284"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"afe90c00-893c-4212-860f-312ebcdc09c7","pagecount":"16","content":"Essential oils Distilling knowledge, re)discovering plants Field report from Haiti FOCUs ,11 Breadfruit Nutritious and healthy, but badly under-utilised viEwpOiNT ,16 An agricultural renaissance By Arlington Chesney iN BRiEF ,3 pUBLiCATiONs ,12 BETwEEN Us ,15 Family farming The future of the world After a long period of neglect and impoverishment caused by economic changes, small-scale farmers are at last back at the heart of the development debate. improving their livelihoods and their conditions for production is essential for countries in the south.It is an oft forgotten fact: 2.5 billion men and women -almost 40% of the world population -depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. In order to feed themselves and earn a living, they rely on the land, the sky and…the considerations accorded to them by governments and the international community. Sidelined in recent decades in favour of the agribusiness sector, these small-scale farmers are sinking deeper and deeper into poverty, especially in sub-Saharan Africa: they now account for three-quarters of the world's poor. \"Will the African farmer be simply wiped off the map?\" ponders SOS Faim in its 2007 campaign.Militants are not the only ones sounding the alarm. \"Only small-scale farmers can put an end to famine in Africa,\" declares the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The World Bank shares the same view. In its World Development Report 2008, which focuses on agriculture for the first time since 1982, it maintains that promoting the growth of this sector is the most effective way to fight poverty.The future of family farming is well and truly back on centre stage. A common feature of these ventures is that they are family-runand managed, with production mainly aimed at satisfying the needs of the household and ensuring the sustainability of the farm. Crops, generally diversified so as to limit risks, are mostly sold at local markets, though in certain cases, some may go for export. Family farms are often labelled as 'traditional', or even 'archaic', decried for being unable to increase productivity or to modernise. But such stereotypical descriptions fail to take into account the diversity of the farmers and their ability to adapt.The bulk of agricultural export commodities such as coffee, cocoa and cotton are produced by family farming systems. The expansion of rice, horticultural and fruit production shows that small-scale producers are perfectly capable of innovating and increasing output if they are given the means. In all ACP countries, family farms play a vital role in producing food and supplying the towns. They continue to be an important source of support for urban families facing difficulties. But in spite of this, donors and governments have in the past few decades remained steadfast in their belief that large-scale agro export farms, deemed to be 'dynamic' and 'competitive', represent the only real hope for modernising agriculture.In developing countries, the withdrawal of the State from agricultural training and support, coupled with the structural adjustments of the 1990s and the opening up of markets have combined to erode conditions for family farm production and have led to a deterioration in rural living condit ions. Compounding the problem is trade liberalisation, which puts farmers from very different production backgrounds in competition with each other: intensive mechanised farming is 1,000 times more productive than manual rain-fed agriculture. The concentration of various food chains in the hands of major agrifood enterprises and changes in retail distribution systems (the proliferation of supermarkets, see Spore 110) are gradually chipping away at the position of small-scale farmers who, unlike other producers, receive no support from their governments. The population growth has led to a parallel expansion in land under cultivation, sometimes on marginal soils, and a reduction of the acreage available for each farmer. In Côte d'Ivoire, for example, the proportion of land farmed rose from 8.5% to 23.5% of the total territory between 1961 and 1999.The priority given to ever growing numbers of urban consumers and the subsequent reliance on subsidised imported products have caused agricultural prices to tumble. As a result, farmers in many regions can no longer make a decent living and in certain areas cannot even produce enough food for their own households (Spore 128).In Africa, population growth, which has hovered close to 3% a year since 1960, is higher than that of agricultural output, which has remained at 2% throughout the same period. Rates of output per capita have fallen, exacerbating food insecurity and encouraging young people to join the exodus to the towns or to leave their country altogether. In southern Africa, AIDS is devastating rural labour forces and intensifying the decline.In spite of this trend, the proportion of persons who depend on agriculture or related activities for their living remains extremely high and this sector plays a major role in the labour market. That is the conclusion of RuralStruc, a World Bank research programme on the consequences of liberalisation for rural development. In Senegal, for example, a highly urbanised country, of the 11 million inhabitants, 7 million -only a fraction lower than the number in 1960 -still rely mainly on rural activities for their livelihoods, in the absence of enough jobs in the towns. Each year, 120,000 young rural dwellers enter the labour market. If agriculture cannot offer them adequate revenues, they will join the ranks of the unemployed in Dakar or try at all costs to emigrate to Europe. \"Restoring, consolidating and developing the labour reservoir that constitutes African agriculture is one of the imperatives of the next decade\", comments Bruno Losch of RuralStruc.There is thus also a social dimension to the challenge of maintaining and improving family farm output. Abandoning this sector could lead to \"a massive and premature exodus of small farms that could overwhelm the capacities of many countries to cope\", warned Peter Hazell, of London's Imperial College, in Spore 125. A final consideration is that these farmers are the only ones able to safeguard their countries' natural resources, which are vital for everyone. They could turn this role to good advantage in the future, by using cultivation methods that preserve the environment and reduce CO 2 emissions (Spore 130).Modernising family farms and increasing productivity so as to make them competitive, while at the same time employing a substantial workforce for production, marketing and processing -that is the most pressing challenge. It can only be met by a radical change in policy. Decisionmakers need to wake up to the fact that family farming can be an engine of growth and that supporting this sector is a crucial first step. They need to offer assistance to the vast numbers of small-scale farmers so they can increase production and have better access to markets. It is vital that they revive agricultural research and extension, after a decade of neglect, that they encourage the development of irrigation, make it easier to access inputs and credit, improve the road network, electrify villages and help rural communities to emerge from their isolation through the use of ICTs.Making local markets more accessible by improving transport for products and access to price information can quickly lead to an increase of income for producers. Another approach worth exploring is the development of high value-added niche products, which can have valuable regional outlets or be used to make biofuels.To achieve these results, ACP countries must be allowed to equip themselves with appropriate agricultural policies that are adapted to their context, and protect their agriculture from competition. That is the verdict of small-scale farmers' organisations such as the Windward Islands Farmers' Association (WINFA) or the Network of Farmers' Organizations and Agricultural Producers in West Africa (ROPPA), which have put family farming at the top of their list of demands. These organisations deserve to be well supported and widely consulted, as they are the best placed to ensure that their members' needs and objectives are pushed to the fore once again, that they benefit from shared experiences and from the useful information they can make available. It is also important to give more space to women, whose dominant role in family farming is often overlooked, and to the young, who hold our future in their hands. n Spore 131 / October 2007 iN BRiEFIn South Africa, a pilot project is using enzymes to extract pectin from lemons and their zest. Pectin is a natural gelling agent used to reduce the quantity of sugar needed to make jam. The aim is to create an outlet for the tonnes of citrus fruit deemed unsuitable for export due to sub-standard quality -40% of the citrus harvest on the Eastern Cape. At a later stage, the public-private consortium behind the initiative is planning to develop powdered pectin for the export market.The Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) is a new initiative aimed at responding to the urgent need to address serious livestock diseases affecting the poor. The alliance, based in Edinburgh, UK, brings together researchers, research institutions, universities and pharmaceutical companies to produce new diagnostic tests, vaccines and pharmaceutical products, as well as improving ones already on the market. Two of the first GALVmed projects are being launched in Kenya. One hopes to develop a vaccine for Newcastle disease that is stable at high temperatures and available to small-scale backyard poultry farmers. The other aims to prevent East Coast Fever, which kills more than one million cattle a year, causing losses of over US$200 million (€148 million) in eastern and southern Africa.Pentlands Science Park Bush Loan, Penicuik Edinburgh EH26 0PZ Scotland, UK Fax: +44 (0)131 445 6222 info@galvmed.org www.galvmed.org A weed that was once deemed to be of no use to farmers is transforming the lives of producers in Kenya's Western region. Farmers are using the tree marigold, Tithonia diversifolia, known to locals as Maua Maruru, to boost soil fertility. The prolific weed, which is rich in nitrogen and phosphorous, serves as a highly effective alternative to expensive artificial fertilisers. The concept was introduced to farmers by researchers from the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). Staff who studied the farms are showing producers how to cut the weed and leave it to rot on the soil. According to Julias Adiwo, an ICRAF senior research assistant, the quality of soils in most parts of the western region has long been affected by over-exploitation. Most farmers own very little land and cannot afford to buy fertilisers. Although the weed grows naturally in most areas of the country, very few farmers had noticed the important role it plays in enriching their soils, he added.Elizabeth Ondiga, who has begun using the technique on her 0.8 ha plot, says she can now harvest enough maize and beans to feed her family until the following season. \"Prices of fertilisers are shooting up by the day,\" she said. \"The weed has proved a far better way to rejuvenate my farm.\"The red goat of Maradi, in southern Niger, is making a new home for itself in the centre of Burkina Faso. When the Bazega rural development project first introduced this typically Sahelian animal, many livestock keepers were sceptical that it would be able to tolerate the humid climate and survive diseases such as pasteurellosis and trypanosomiasis. But the hardy red goat has settled in well, amply justifying the decision to introduce it into the area in a bid to improve the incomes of women and young people.The goat's fertility and ability to reproduce at an early age have surprised livestock keepers. Females as young as 10 to 12 months can produce offspring and regularly produce two or three kids. Even when a mother is suckling her young, a herder can still collect close to a litre of milk each day, compared with a scant quarter of a litre in the case of the local 'mossi' goat. At 3 months, the red goat is worth FCFA17,500 (€27), double the price of an 8-month-old local breed. The red goat's soft fine coat is much sought after in the luxury leather goods sector to make shoes, bags and clothes.However, wider-scale development of this breed is held back by the fact that few herders in this area milk their goats thoroughly, since the milk is only really consumed by children. If the udder is not entirely emptied of its milk, mastitis (inflamation of the mammary glands) can ensue. Project managers have started to train farmers in good milking practices. This will lead to more healthy goats, producing high quality milk that can be made into cheese, yoghurt and other products. The tree marigold boosts soil fertility in Kenya.The red goat of Maradi (Niger) has surprised livestock keepers in Burkina Faso.weeds to the rescue Two of the young men, Joeli Raviakara, 24, and Sanaila Tukutukuivalu, 35, have now won a scholarship for a year's further training in Indonesia. On their return, the pair will lead the Bitukao Enterprise production team. The furniture products will initially be aimed at local and tourist markets. When more young people have completed training, there are plans to investigate the export market, said Mr Korodrau.In Benin, nearly 400 pupils from eight schools in the municipalities of Dassa-Zoumé and Glazoué recently took part in the second final of an unusual inter-school competition. Organised by CPN-les Papillons, a local environmental NGO, and supported by CTA, the contest encouraged children to \"plead for the protection of the environment\" before an audience of around one thousand people.Helped by their teachers, the youngsters had earlier produced manuals on biodiversity, natural ecosystems, environmental degradation and ways of protecting the planet. A jury examined the manuals and listened to the young advocates, who were each given a maximum of 20 min to present their case. There was warm praise for all the entries and each school received hoes, watering cans, refuse bins or other useful prizes. The youngest contestants also received plants.On two Wednesdays each month, as part of the same project, students from three institutes present a radio broadcast called 'Nature and Us'. Translated into local languages Idaasha and Maxi, the programme reaches several hundred thousand list eners, say organisers. It deals with various topics including bush fires, desertification, recycling of plastic bags, compost making, deforestation and reforestation, ecotourism and the environment.Camaté-Shakaloké BP 16 , Sokponta, Benin cpnlespapillons@yahoo.fr www.oduland.com/cpn.htmIn the town of Dondo, in Mozambique's Sofala Province, members of a small wood-turners' cooperative have learned to turn a precious local resource into a high-fashion product. With support from the International Trade Centre (ITC) and ideas from designer and social entrepreneur Allan Schwarz, they craft high-quality bracelets that are making a splash at the high end of the fashion accessories market. Their design shows bold architectural forms that are selling well, featuring on catwalks and in glossy magazines. The move marks a turnaround for this poor rural community. Many were deskilled by years of civil war and previously trying with little success to earn a living making low-quality wood products for a tourism market that no longer existed.Founded by Schwarz, the Sofala Initiative, an alliance between a private company based at the Mezimbite Forest Centre, the Dondo woodcraft cooperative and the n'Hatanga community, has shown the forest community how to make the most of its wide variety of tropical trees, whose timber is durable and decorative, with rich colours ranging from deep burgundy to ebony. A replanting programme ensures that the wooden jewellery trade will be helping forest communities for generations to come. In Kenya, the Shompole Community Trust has won a top prize for conserving vast grasslands and savannah as part of a profitmaking ecotourism venture for the local Masai people. The trust was one of five community groups from tropical regions to win the UN-backed Equator Prize for their initiatives to alleviate poverty and conserve local biodiversity. Also named in the awards was the village of Andavadoaka in Madagascar, honoured for managing an octopus fishery so that it can provide sustainable longterm benefits. Each winning group will receive US$30,000 (€21,750).East Africa leads the continent in exports of certified organic products. The sector has received a further boost with the development of an East African Organic Standard (EAOS), launched in April 2007. EAOS is expected to enable economies of scale in training materials and certification, and create a unified negotiating position that should help organic farmers win access to export markets. But the potential of the new body to spur African organic exports could be seriously compromised by a move from the UK's largest organic licensing body. The Soil Association, which certifies more than 70% of retail organic produce in the UK, is considering withdrawing its endorsement of products imported by plane. It argues that air freight is responsible for 11% of carbon emissions and therefore at odds with organic principles. A decision is expected in November.Beekeeping is booming in Zambia. The Zambia Agribusiness Technical Assistance Centre (ZATAC) recently trained honey farmers in Mwinilunga District to produce certified organic honey for export to the international market. Meanwhile, in Solwezi, Kansanshi Mining Limited has brought in experts to train rural dwellers in beekeeping. One of the initiatives to emerge is Mutanda Honey, which buys comb honey from local farmers before processing and selling it to retail outlets. About 10,000 beekeepers in North-Western Province currently have 500,000 hives producing up to 1,000 t of honey and 100 t of beeswax annually, according to the Centre for International Forestry Research.The Coffee Research Institute (CORI) in Uganda has developed coffee trees that are resistant to the coffee wilt disease. \"The institute is trying out a wiltresistant Arabica coffee popularly known as Tuza. It is already doing very well in Bushenyi, Rukungiri and Ibanda Districts,\" said a CORI official. He explained that samples from the seeds have been tested and the results are promising. \"Plans are under way to take it to other districts, but it has to be done systematically to avoid mixing it with Robusta.\" A project to rehabilitate rice production has transformed Madagascar's Mandrare Basin from one of the country's poorest regions, where famine was rife, into a rice exporting area. The Mandrare project, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), restored irrigation systems, roads and other infrastructures and introduced more intensive farming methods. It also set up a network of microcredit institutions. The area now exports up to 25,000 t of rice per year. A second phase has helped farmers to produce an annual 200 t of cabbage, tomatoes, onions, garlic and carrots, as well as 4.5 t of corn and cassava seeds and more than 8 t of rice seeds. The initiative has encouraged local farmers to form producers' associations to market their crops.Over the past 5 years, the cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) has spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The virus destroys the root while the leaves appear to be healthy, so farmers do not realise that their crop has been ruined until harvest time. Scientists from the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Tanzania suspect the virus is spread by people carrying infected cassava cuttings across Africa. They have now developed new varieties of cassava through cross-breeding, and trials have shown that these can successfully tolerate the virus. To speed up the spread of these varieties, the IITA is training farmers in a new method to increase the number of cuttings obtained from each plant.IITA-Tanzania ARI-Mikocheni (MARI), Plot 24B Sam Nujoma Road PO Box 6226 Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania Fax: +255 22 2775021 e.kanju@cgiar.orgIn ACP countries, older women are generally respected and listened to by their families and communities. However, until now, development officials have tended to focus on younger women to be partners in their projects. This approach is starting to change. A recent FAO seminar highlighted the key role played by grandmothers, dynamic women who in many countries of the South are often barely in their forties.An international NGO, 'The Grandmother Project', is working together with a number of community organisations in West Africa. In Senegal, the older women discuss female genital mutilation with the younger ones. In Mauritania, they are promoting good nutritional practices in the shanty towns. By combining traditional knowledge with an open approach to more modern ideas, these young grandmothers can contribute significantly to the success of projects for maternal and child health.Our elders, a resource for the future? In Spore 102, we observed that \"in most ACP countries the proportion of old people will grow for decades yet, despite HIV/AIDS and other ills.\" But much remains to be done, especially in agriculture, to ensure that they have access to adequate services for credit, training and obtaining equipment.The Grandmother Project (GMP) Via Aventina 30 00153 Rome Italy grandmotherproject@hotmail.com www.grandmotherproject.org/index. htmlThe most feared enemy of groundnut producers in tropical regions is aflatoxin, a substance produced by the Aspergillus flavus fungus. It poses a serious threat to consumer health as well as to the revenues of farmers, who cannot sell their produce on international markets if the groundnuts are infected. In order to obtain highquality groundnuts, farmers need to take precautions against contamination both in the field and at every stage of production -tracking aflatoxin \"from the farm to the fork\".The European New tools for groundnut aflatoxin control in Sahel Africa project has revealed that water stress occurring towards the end of the crop cycle encourages the development of aflatoxins. It therefore advises producers to use short-cycle varieties that produce small seeds, which have been shown to have greater resistance. After harvest, granaries and warehouses must also be treated to limit the spread of infection.Varieties with resistance to aflatoxin are currently being made available in West Africa. In Senegal, CIRAD and the main Senegalese producers' organisation ASPRODEB are seeking to build a quality groundnut sector by linking producer associations with private sector organisations.daniele.clavel@cirad.fr alain.mayeux@cirad.fr Unité de recherche « Agrobiodiversité des plantes de savane » CIRAD Avenue Agropolis -TA 70 / 01 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5 FranceSome 5,000 professional fishers from Mauritius (2,000 in Mauritius and 3,000 in Rodrigues) have all received 300 free shares worth 10 rupees (€0.23) each from the Fishermen Investment Trust (FIT). Created to help poor coastal fisher folk, the FIT has a capital of nearly €1.5 million made available by the government of Mauritius. Its activi-ties include fishing, the processing of fisheries products, the purchase of fishing boats and equipment, the provision of loans to fishers, job creation and a range of other benefits for fisher folk. Part of the capital is also used to fund training at the Mauritius fisheries school.The FIT is modelled on the Sugar Investment Trust which will also be investing in profitable fisheries activities and marine farming projects. The profits will be reinvested in aquaculture and in the harvesting and processing of sea cucumbers.Thanks to the FIT, fisher folk have priority in enlisting in these new projects. For a profession whose members are used to relying on no one but themselves and the sea for a living, that is quite a revolution. In arid regions of Africa, the production of gum arabic from the Acacia senegal is an important source of revenue, but output varies widely from one year to another depending on rainfall.In field trials on adult trees in Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal, researchers have shown that productivity of the acacias increases by 25% if they are injected with rhizobia at the onset of the rainy season. These soil bacteria stimulate the growth of trees, strengthen their resistance to variations in rainfall and improve gum production. Scientists have identified the genes that affect flavour in coffee beans, paving the way for higher quality coffee and potentially widening the added value sector of the coffee market. The team, from CIRAD in France and Brazil's Agricultural Institute of Paraná, says it has pinpointed the genes responsible for sucrose accumulation in coffee beans. Sucrose is thought to play a vital role in the taste of coffee by releasing flavour and aroma during roasting. The next challenge is to find ways of improving sucrose content in beans to ensure better quality and higher earnings for producers.Howtopedia is a collaborative library for practical knowledge and simple technologies. Developed along the lines of Wikipedia, it enables visitors to exchange links and tips in a range of fields, including agriculture and energy. With just a few clicks, you can find out more about uses of shea butter and how to grow mushrooms on water hyacinths. Still in its infancy, the on-line library awaits your comments and suggestions.www.howtopedia.org/intro.php?L=enThe WAHID Interface provides access to all data held within the new World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) launched by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Here you will find information on veterinary staff, laboratories and vaccines, as well as reports and maps presenting the animal health situation, livestock diseases and unusual epidemiological outbreaks in member countries. You can search by country, by group of countries or by disease, as well as find out about efforts to tackle disease and compare the animal health situation of two countries.Rabbit rearing has the potential to improve the diets and income of many African households as well as soil fertility. Rabbits mature quickly and reproduce rapidly. In good conditions, a single doe can produce 60 kittens in a year. They can be fed garden and kitchen waste, take up little space and are quiet, making them suitable for urban and suburban environments. They produce high-quality meat and useful manure.In the Caribbean, a number of initiatives have aimed to promote rabbit production among smallholders.The USAID Farmer to Farmer Program sent volunteers to Haiti to teach local producers how to raise rabbits. Production has reportedly increased in Cap Haitien and Portau-Prince due to demand from tourist restaurants. In April 2007, FAO supported a 4-H project in Rose Hill, Jamaica. In Barbados, the Small Grants Programme of the Global Environment Facility (GEF-SGP) launched a Sustainable Organic Farming and Rabbit Rearing Project in July with a gift of rabbits to a primary school. In Trinidad, efforts are under way to establish contacts between retailers and suppliers, and to set up a rabbit meat processing plant.One factor holding back further expansion is the so-called Easter Bunny syndrome. \"Some people think of rabbits more as pets, too cute to eat, like the Easter Bunny. Even some of the farmers who raise them can't bear to slaughter them,\" said Ansari Hosein, at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, which recently carried out a study on rabbit production.In Weight gain was poor when rabbits were fed on green leaf material alone. The animals thrived when fed with a low-cost supplement of cassava, banana, sweet potato, sugarcane or coconut. warm welcome for solar invention Kenyan John Maina, inventor of a solar dryer for fruits and vegetables, has been awarded the Energy Globe Award for the 'earth' category. More than 700 projects from 96 countries competed with proposals for clean and sustainable energy uses. Prizes, which were awarded in April, were given for each of five categories: earth, air, water, fire and youth.Since 2002, 30 of these dryers have been used to add value to harvests, increasing the revenues of nearly a thousand farmers linked to the Sustainable Community Development Services (SCODE), where John Maina is the coordinator. Some 30 craftsmen have learned how to build the dryers using wood and simple sheets of plastic. The invention is proving particularly useful in Kenya, where 30 to 40% of fruits and vegetables are lost for lack of affordable postharvest conservation techniques. Solar energy, which is free and widely available, saves using fuel wood, which is increasingly hard to find in the Rift Valley region.Meanwhile, Congolese inventor Mr Tsengue-Tsengue, head of Challenge Futura, a company that makes agrifood equipment, has developed a solar dryer which he says gives constant power and can be regulated. When there is no sun, the drier can use hot water to power it instead. A partnership has been signed with French company Atlas which is studying \"a simplified version so that even illiterate people can use it easily,\" explains the inventor.The device won the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPPO) prize as well as an award from the Swiss solar energy association SWISSOLAR. Both prizes were presented at the 35th International Exhibition of Inventions, New Techniques and Products, held in Geneva in April 2007. Teak is a timber much in vogue, and as a result the demand for high quality plants is high. To meet the challenge, CIRAD has developed a system for industrially cloning teak plants, which overcomes two major stumbling blocks: the low rate of seed germination in plantations and the high level of heterogeneity of trees that grow from them. Several million plants grown in vitro have already been produced at very low cost.Contacts: olivier.monteuuis@cirad.fr jean-michel.sers@cirad.frSmall-scale fishers in Senegal have received their first ecolabel from the Swiss association Fair Fish. This certification sets fair conditions and a fixed minimum price for fishers and their families while at the same time seeking to conserve fish stocks. The label guarantees that fisheries enterprises respect traceability standards and use capture methods which minimise suffering to fish. At present, the fish is sold exclusively in Switzerland.Cité Sonees, Villa n° 1 Guédiawaye Dakar Senegal Fax: +221 871 47 55 marmindiaye2005@yahoo.fr www.fair-fish.ch/englishResearchers from the EU-funded Pumpsea project have launched a water purification system in a tourist area of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which uses mangroves to treat effluents from a hotel. The technique cuts faecal coliform bacteria in the water by almost 90%. Certain types of mangrove can filter nutrients, poisons and other contaminants found in wastewater, and could become valuable allies in the fight against pollution in subtropical coastal waters. The researchers have mapped most of the mangrove zones of Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania, and identified areas where this inexpensive and completely natural technique could be applied.www.pumpsea.icat.fc.ul.pt/main.phpTen of the world's most important natural history museum and botanical libraries have joined forces to launch an ambitious project: digitalising all the publications and documents on biodiversity in their possession with a view to making them accessible to all on the Web. Nearly 1.5 million pages are already available for consultation on the website of the Biodiversity Heritage Library. It will take about 10 years to create the 300 million digital pages planned for the site, which will also offer videos, photographs and maps.www.biodiversitylibrary.org/About. aspxSmall-scale fishermen in Senegal are using mobile phones to market their products and to log their departures and estimated times of return, so that rescue services can be alerted if there is a problem. The Innovative Internet and Wireless E-services for Strengthening the Livelihoods of Senegalese Fishermen project is run by MANOBI, a private telecommunications company, in partnership with three local fishing unions, several other companies and international organisations. The scheme uses short messaging system (SMS) and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technologies. Fishers can also use their cell phones to access up-todate weather reports and market price information.The project has already produced good results. Fishers report increased incomes as a result of access to market data. One fishing union was able to send help to rescue an eight-man crew that had failed to return on time. The service also enables fishers to improve the quality of their products. By alerting potential buyers as soon as they land their catch, they can sell their fish while it is still very fresh. Typically, up to 30% of the catch of small-scale fishers is wasted while they wait to find a buyer.Whether they are shopping or eating out at a restaurant, environmentally aware South Africans can quickly find out if the fish offered to them comes from a threatened species. By keying in the name of the fish via SMS to a mobile phone number, they receive a colourcoded response from the FishMS service. Green means you can buy the fish; orange means the fish is legal, but stocks are threatened; red means selling the fish is illegal in South Africa. The service is offered by the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative with the support of the South African government and the Green Trust.www.manobi.net www.panda.org.za/article.php?id=498Photo: © Syfia InternationalThe Ndiyo system enables several people to use the same computer at once.A simple new process for preserving coconut water could enable ACP small-scale entrepreneurs to tap into the growing market for this time-honoured tropical drink. The cold preservation technique was developed and evaluated in Jamaica by scientists from the University of the West Indies, the Coconut Industries Board and the Jamaican Scientific Research Council, with support from FAO. FAO has now published a free training guide, which clearly explains the process.Once exposed to air and warm temperatures, the quality of coconut water quickly deteriorates.\"The cold preservation process requires little investment and skills, and it offers small entrepreneurs a chance to enter the market of bottling coconut water of good quality,\" said Rosa Rolle of FAO's Rural Infrastructure and Agro-industries Division.The commercial production of canned coconut water involves sterilising the product using high temperature and short-time pasteurisation, a process that destroys some of the nutrients in coconut water and almost all its delicate flavour. The new process, which involves filtration, bottling and rigorous temperature control, protects the natural flavour of coconut water. It allows farmers to produce bottled coconut water that stays fresh from 10 days to 3 weeks. The cold preservation technology is not protected by patent and can be used by anybody.Good Practice for the Small-Scale Production of Bottled Coconut Water AGS Registry FAO Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00153-Rome, Italy Fax: +39 (0)6 5705 4960 AGS-Registry@fao.org Detergent infused with citrus essence, citronella candles that repel mosquitoes, eucalyptus-based treatments to alleviate respiratory problems and -wait for it -socks impregnated with essential oils. Nature is a strong selling point right now and the agrifood, chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries are constantly on the lookout for natural substances that are just as effective as synthetic products but are also beneficial to health and the environment. The trend helps explain the massive upsurge in interest in essential oils (EOs), volatile fragrant substances produced by wild or cultivated plants. The most common method of extraction is steam distillation (see box) or, in the case of citrus fruits, cold pressing of the zest. EOs are not to be confused with the fatty oils extracted from oleaginous plants such as shea or jojoba.The price of these precious oils depends on the parts and quantities of plants used, as well as on the difficulty of harvesting them, a process mainly done by hand. One of the most costly EOs is Neroli oil, extracted from the blossoms of the bitter orange tree (Citrus aurantium), grown in many ACP countries. A tiny 2 ml bottle sells for around €13 on the Internet while the essence extracted from the skin of the fruits is between 10 and 15 times less expensive.According to the report Indian Oil Industry 2005, global output of EOs and citrus essences hovers between 100,000 and 110,000 t. Some 55% of production is accounted for by the South, led by Brazil, China, India and Indonesia, which are also major consumers. The international aroma and perfume market (worth US$6.3 billion in 2006, according to BCC Research) is expected to grow by an annual 4.5% in the coming years. The EU, Japan and USA are traditionally the biggest importers of EOs, but demand from Asian countries, especially South Korea and China, is growing rapidly. The boom in aromatherapy, a treatment involving the absorption, massage or inhalation of often organic EOs, is helping to create niche markets for high value-added products.ACP countries are well placed to profit from these trends. Their climate, the richness of their flora and plentiful supply of labour are clear advantages when it comes to growing and harvesting aromatic plants. Some countries have a virtual monopoly on plants with unique properties: Amyris balsamifera or West Indian sandalwood in Haiti, muhuhu (Brachylaena hutchinsii) in Kenya and Tanzania, buchu (Agathosma betulina) in South Africa, to mention those that are most widely marketed.The Caribbean has a long tradition of EO production. Despite strong competition, Grenada remains the world's second largest exporter ofSome 4,000 plant species contain aromatic essences, but only a few hundred of them have sufficient concentrations to allow extraction of essential oils. Steam distillation in a still is the most common extraction method. The parts of the plant -flowers, leaves, fruit peel or roots -are placed in a tank through which steam is passed. This causes the aromatic cells to rupture, releasing the molecules of essential oils. The blend of steam and oil then passes through a condenser -a coil that has been cooled down in a vat of cold water. When the liquid (hydrolat) emerges, the oil floats to the surface and can be harvested. The final quantity and quality of the product depend on careful monitoring of the temperature and pressure inside the still, and to an even greater extent on the quality of the plants used, which must be picked at the right moment. The quantity of EO harvested varies significantly from one plant to another, and this affects price. To obtain 1 kg of pure essence, you need to distil 1,000 kg of orange blossom and 600 kg of rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens), but only 6 to 7 kg of cloves (Syzygium aromaticum). A more delicate process, extraction by solvent involves chemicals and is mainly used to capture the perfume of the most fragile flowers such as jasmine.Cold pressing is exclusively used to extract essences from the zest of citrus fruit (orange, lemon, bergamot or other). The equipment needed is inexpensive. You simply peel the fruit before pressing and centrifuging the skin to harvest the essence. The zest of 100 kg of citrus fruit produces between 500 and 850 g of essence.nutmeg oil (Myristica fragrans) after Indonesia. Haiti is the world's leading producer of amyris oil (Amyris balsamifera) and the second biggest producer of vetiver -see our field report -and produces citrus essences for liqueurs. Jamaica is known for its EO made from the leaves and berries of the pimento (Pimenta dioica and P. racemosa), while Dominica produces significant quantities of bay essence (Laurus nobilis). The search for new aromatic plants to develop in the region may help in the push for agricultural diversification and job creation.In the Pacific region, the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE) is encouraging farmers to start producing EOs to help them penetrate the world market by offering quality products which, it says, are in growing demand. Two species of sandalwood have traditionally been an important source of revenue for the region: Santalum austrocaledonicum in Vanuatu and S. yasi in Fiji and Tonga. Three medicinal plants have been identified as holding out significant promise for the local EO industry: a variety of basil (Ocimum gratissimum), a type of mint (Plectranthus amboinicus) and a tree (Pandanus tectorius).Despite the rich diversity of its flora, sub-Saharan Africa still only plays a marginal role in the EO market. Notable exceptions are South Africa, which has a sizeable output of different oils (eucalyptus, geranium, camomile, lavender), Côte d'Ivoire (citrus essence) and Madagascar, a major producer of EOs extracted from ylangylang and cloves. Other countries, including Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria, have recently joined their ranks.In 2004, PAHE, the pan-African network for aromatic plants and essential oils, launched a campaign to encourage African countries to draw up SME development strategies for the production of essential and edible oils. The initiative was aimed at creating jobs and increasing earnings from traditional knowledge and non-timber forest products. South Africa has successfully created various support programmes for small-scale farmers producing EOs. In the Northern Cape, the country's Department of Science and Technology is encouraging the cultivation and distillation of geranium as a way of creating jobs and reducing poverty.EOs belong to a group of products which, according to the CDE, have the advantage of requiring little investment and simple, tested technologies that are easy to use and install in rural settings. They can make a significant contribution to boosting revenues for rural communities, take up little space and can easily be despatched by plane at reasonable cost. Production methods have to meet exacting quality standards to ensure that plants have adequate levels of active ingredients. Those that fail to do so command lower prices. Since EOs are complex substances, they require regular laboratory testing if they are to qualify for export. One important step is to determine their chemotype (see box) -their precise biochemical structure, which is strongly influenced by the ecological area in which a plant is harvested.As Spore observed back in 2000 (Spore 86), \"It is a rewarding, but exacting market to conquer, and one where quality counts.\" The EU imposes rigorous standards. The REACH system, which since 2006 has ensured control of 30,000 chemical substances, also applies to essential oils. It requires manufacturers to demonstrate that their products are not harmful in any way, a process that is beyond the means of most ACP SMEs, unless they have assistance.Adding to their difficulties is the fact that small-scale producers must also take account of specific market constraints, which may change dramatically from one year to the next due to competition. Producers need to be well informed of market trends, build up contacts with potential clients and make sure they hold onto those clients by supplying adequate quantities of EOs regularly. Even though producers in the South now have more direct access to the markets of industrialised countries -mainly due to the Internet -these markets remain distant, sporadic and exclusively based on raw materials. It is hard to find export markets for plant-based products, unless they are part of a long tradition such as Bay Rum in the Caribbean, a blend of EOs, including one extracted from Pimenta racemosa. This has long been used in Europe as an eau de Cologne or hair lotion.Most recent studies on EOs focus on the commercial opportunities that local and regional markets offer ACP countries. One example is a small-scale enterprise in Ghana which is seeking to tap the markets of neighbouring countries with an anti-mosquito lotion based on citronella EO (Cymbopogon nardus).EOs can be extremely useful in their country of origin where their antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties may help protect humans, livestock, crops and harvests. In Papua New Guinea, pharmacies sell waria waria oil distilled from Asteromyrtus symphyocarpa, whose antiseptic properties are similar to those of tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia).A number of research initiatives are under way in ACP countries to study the properties of EOs extracted from local flora, based on Tropical essential oils are selling well in European pharmacies.An essential oil can contain dozens or even hundreds of components, which lend it its particular taste or fragrance. A gas chromatography laboratory test is needed to determine the percentage of each constituent. Two EOs extracted from plants belonging to the same botanical species can have the same components, but in very different proportions, depending on the place where the plant was harvested. The amount of sun and the type of soil on which the plant grew both play an important role. That explains differences in price and the fact that plants from some regions are more sought after than those from others.The active ingredients and their concentration vary widely between varieties. For example, there are several hundred varieties of eucalyptus, but only a dozen of them produce an EO, obtained by distillation of the leaves. The oil from E. globulus, cultivated in Malawi and South Africa amongst other places, is rich in eucalyptol.It is prized for its beneficial effect on the respiratory tract. Essence of E. citriodora or lemon eucalyptus, which grows mainly in Madagascar, has a calming effect due to its high content of citronellal, and is also used in the perfume trade.Photo: © Syfia International DOssiER traditional knowledge. In South Africa, branches of Lippia javanica have long been used to repel insects. The EO from this shrub has been found to be effective in warding off Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are vectors of yellow fever. When added to candles, the EO repels 98% of these mosquitoes, compared with 40% using citronella. In Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo and Kenya, tests are being conducted to establish the capacity of various plants to repel malaria-carrying mosquitoes.In Cameroon, several universities are working together to study the efficacy of EOs extracted from local plants to act as biopesticides. Some are looking at the potential of EOs to combat weevils and lesser grain borers, pests which cause serious damage to maize stocks. Others are comparing the ability of various citrus essences to fight Phaeoramularia angolensis, a fungal pathogen that causes spotting on citrus fruit and leaves, and hampers cultivation in many parts of Central Africa. At the heart of the network, the University of Ngaoundéré is focusing on the domestication of plants as sources of EOs and the dissemination of this information further afield.In Burkina Faso, a team from the agricultural research institute INERA has demonstrated the efficacy of EOs extracted from Cymbopogon citratus, C. giganteus, Lippia multiflora and Ocimum basilicum against rice seed fungi. In Madagascar, the antibiotic properties of EO of Cinnamosma fragrans, one of the country's many traditional medicinal plants, have caught the attention of researchers from the national rural development research institute FOFIFA and CIRAD, who see it as a potential substitute to the antibiotics used on shrimp farms.The success currently being enjoyed by EOs is fuelling a constant search for new plants with potentially beneficial ingredients.This can sometimes lead to over-harvesting of wild plant populations, especially in forests. Cultivation is the best option, as a way of avoiding serious damage to biodiversity while encouraging the creation of jobs and income for small-scale producers and distillers.Photographic credits: © C Jewell, © R Bosch, © F and K Starr, © www.geranium-bourbon.com, © Syfia International Pierre Léger has forged a cast iron reputation in his field. Frager/Agri Supply, the factory he owns in southern Haiti's Plaine des Cayes, supplies almost 70% of the world market in vetiver essential oil. \"I export more than 80 t per year\", says the 59-year-old agronomist, as he points to an array of samples on display in a corner of his sizeable office in Port-au-Prince. Becoming and remaining the world leader in the vetiver market is no mean feat, especially in a country as volatile as Haiti. The secret of Mr Léger's success can be summed up in a few words: always provide clients -mainly drawn from the European perfume industry -with top quality products, and always respect delivery deadlines.This businessman from the Caribbean's poorest country readily acknowledges that the 25,000 or so farmers who supply the vetiver roots are the real pillar of the industry. \"Frager/Agri Supply belongs to the community of the South,\" he asserts. \"The farmers play a direct role in its management; they monitor performance and sometimes tell me which decisions I should take.\" For Mr Léger, the country's glaring lack of infrastructure remains the main obstacle to the development of the essential oils industry in Haiti. \"The appalling state of the roads, combined with draconian electricity rationing and a lack of ports and airports have led a number of producers to abandon this sector,\" he laments.The head of the world's biggest vetiver factory is actively involved in community activities. Translating that commitment into training for the young, he offers study grants at Haitian and foreign universities. He recently donated 25 ha of land to the government for the construction of a university campus in the region.Since 2000, this towering entrepreneur -he is almost 2 m tall -has broadened his horizons: he regularly travels the world to share his expertise and help countries beset by poverty like his own native Haiti to set up essential oil production facilities. It all began when the International Trade Centre (ITC) sent him on a mission in Africa's Great Lakes region to evaluate the potential of these countries to produce EOs. \"At the time, essential oils were little known in Rwanda and Burundi,\" recalls Mr. Léger, who is firmly convinced that South-South cooperation is the most effective way of fighting poverty. Now both Burundi and Rwanda are on the point of becoming producers of quality essential oils, he says. \"Plantations of patchouli have been introduced there,\" he says. \"They have carried out trials and obtained the best quality patchouli oil in the world.\"Since then, his advice has been sought from all corners of the globe -from Asia, South America and Africa. But his responsibilities as company director in Haiti do not allow him to satisfy all the requests. He did, however, launch a partnership with Brazil last year.After 34 years in essential oil production, Mr. Léger believes the time has come to hand over the reins to the next generation. \"My father introduced me to this sector when I was very young and I have done the same with my son and daughter. The world perfumery industry has shown no hesitation in accepting them,\" says the agronomist. He himself took over the business from his father Frank in 1984, after studying in The Netherlands. The essence of the art, so to say.Jean Among the cargo of Captain William Bligh's Bounty, during its ill-fated voyage from Tahiti in 1787, was a consignment of 1,015 potted breadfruit plants. Though most of the breadfruit was lost in the mutiny that followed, subsequent trips by the infamous captain delivered plants to the Caribbean.Breadfruit was domesticated in the Pacific long before Captain Bligh ever sailed there, and has nourished islanders for more than 3,000 years. Aside from the Pacific and the Caribbean, the breadfruit tree also grows in some coastal regions of Africa, especially Mozambique and Guinea. But this species, Artocarpus altilis Fosb, is not to be confused with African breadfruit (Treculia africana) -a totally different plant -or jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) which looks similar. A multipurpose tree, breadfruit provides food, timber, medicine and natural insecticides, and is an integral part of home gardens for many ACP communities.Though grown in almost 90 countries, breadfruit is still an under-utilised crop, with often untapped potential for improving nutrition and increasing incomes. There is also considerable scope to improve the quality of the cultivated varieties and to develop processing to make more value-added products. At the CTA-supported First International Symposium on Breadfruit Research and Development, in April 2007, Aleki Sisifa, Director of the Land Resources Division at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, observed that breadfruit is underutilised because it is given low priority by governments and research institutes.The symposium, held in Nadi, Fiji, explored progress in breadfruit research, conservation of genetic resources and food product development. A number of speakers stressed the importance of this crop as a healthy local food source, especially in the Pacific, where a growing tendency to consume imported processed foods is having an impact on health as well as the economy. Breadfruit is rich in energy, vitamins A, B (thiamine, riboflavin and niacin) and C, phosphorus and iron. It can be used to prepare a vast array of dishes, including appetisers, salads, soups, stews, casseroles, breads and desserts. Like banana and plantain, it may be eaten ripe as a fruit or under-ripe as a vegetable.Nutritionists and researchers interested in extending the reach of breadfruit say there is good potential for developing innovative food processing techniques, using traditional methods as a springboard. Fermentation offers one interesting possibility, adapting techniques used to make dishes such as masi ulu -fermented breadfruit biscuits from Samoa. On a recent visit to Pohnpei, food scientist Dr Richard Beyer demonstrated how breadfruit can be ground, extruded and dropped in hot oil to puff up like 'cheese balls', making a tasty local snack. Breadfruit chips -slices fried in oil -are made commercially in Trinidad and Barbados. Still in Barbados, flour made from the dried fruit is sometimes partly substituted for wheat flour in bread-making. Breadfruit flour is much richer than wheat flour in lysine and other essential amino acids. In Jamaica, the flour is boiled, sweetened, and eaten as porridge for breakfast.Surplus or damaged breadfruit can be used as livestock feed. In the Pacific, efforts are under way to encourage smallholders to use the fruit as the basis for a balanced swine feed. Tons of breadfruit unfit for human consumption go to waste each year while pig feed is imported.In some ACP countries, notably Fiji and Samoa, breadfruit is becoming an export commodity. Sangeeta Prasad, from Food Processors (Fiji) Ltd, says the company can barely keep pace with the growing demand from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In Dominica and Trinidad, breadfruit is canned for shipment to London, New York and New Zealand. Other techniques developed to improve conservation methods for export include freezing and vacuum-sealing. Some Jamaican exporters partly roast the whole fruits to coagulate the latex, let them cool, and then ship them by sea to New York and Europe.According to Fiji Breadfruit Industry Development Project Coordinator Andrew McGregor, breadfruit has a large market potential with communities of Pacific islanders living in New Zealand, but better post-harvesting and presentation are needed. Breadfruit continues to respire even after harvesting, causing packing cartons to soften and collapse. Importers also require fruit to be graded by size and better packaged. Other efforts are focusing on improving the quality of the fruit itself. At Fiji's Ministry of Agriculture, the Research Division is developing ways of raising seedlings through different propagation techniques like marcotting (air layering), root cuttings and root suckers. Officers from the ministry are working closely with exporters to control pests. Meanwhile, on the Pacific island of Niutao, work is under way to make a soughtafter dwarf variety available to growers in other parts of the region. Negotiations with the islanders has resulted in an agreement to mass produce the tree -popular because of the ease with which it can be managed and harvestedfor distribution to smallholders on other islands.In Vanuatu, breadfruit is eaten roasted over the embers. This documentary looks at the potential offered by biofuels to sugar producers in Brazil, France and Mauritius. In this latter country, sugarcane is threatened by the end of the EU Sugar Protocol, which is expected to lead to a drop in prices of around 40%. Producing ethanol is one way of protecting the sugarcane sector and the jobs of the people who work in it, while at the same time reducing energy costs. The 52-minute film explains how and why large agricultural enterprises such as those in Brazil are entering this new market.The second part of the documentary looks at the likely impact on the planet of the biofuels expected to at least partially replace petroleum. It raises the issue of the potential damage caused by their production, if this is done at the expense of food crops, especially in developing countries. Hence the recommendation by many experts to wait for the second generation of biofuels based on forestry or agricultural waste such as straw. Researchers interviewed on the film warn that it is an illusion to think that the Earth can feed its 9 billion inhabitants and also supply them with energy. Cutting consumption of petroleum remains the number one priority. Published in 12 languages, this CD ROM offers a selection of articles presented at the conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2005 on Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS). These techniques enable marginalised communities to plot their territory on maps, ranging from simple sketches to 3D models. Traditional knowledge mapped in this way is a useful decisionmaking tool and facilitates communication between groups and with governments.The CD ROM presents a range of experiences from various locations. It shows how a community in Fiji has used PGIS to safeguard its cultural heritage, while in Ghana it has helped solve land rights problems. In Namibia, meanwhile, people have used the technology to promote community management of natural resources. Wherever it is used, PGIS can help local communities to establish their rights and make sure they are acknowledged by third parties. The CD ROM also contains numerous references as well as some short video clips demonstrating practical exercises. This unusual atlas makes a link between regional ecosystems and poverty in Kenya. Nature's Benefits in Kenya overlays georeferenced statistical information on population and household expenditures with spatial data on ecosystems and their services, such as water availability, wood supply and wildlife populations to yield a picture of how land, people, and prosperity are related in Kenya. With improved management in poultry keeping, the survival rates of chicks can be increased from three out of ten to eight. Any sweet potato variety can be dried to make chips, which can then be made into flour. Five new titles from CTA's Practical Guides series aimed at small-scale producers in eastern Africa, offer a host of such useful nuggets of information. All of the 8-page leaflets are clearly illustrated and simple to follow, with a good set of addresses for further information. Global Environmental Governance is an interesting read and a useful tool for anyone involved in this important but increasingly complex sector. The introductory essay explores the reasons why the international community is having problems in making headway on global environmental issues. The dictionary explains some of the terms that can act as a stumbling block during negotiations. One of the difficulties, it emerges, is that not everyone speaks the same language. Or rather, not everyone involved in preparing and reporting on some of the many conferences on the subject uses the same definition for terms that are widely employed.Jargon and acronyms abound in the field of Global Environmental Governance (itself an acronym, GEG). As the authors point out: With explanations for more than 5,000 terms, acronyms and organisations, this book should unlock the often impenetrable terminology and prove helpful to anyone interested in environmental or sustainability issues. Each year, almost 7 million t of fish bycatch -the part of a catch that inadvertently ends up in the nets -are taken by fishing vessels. Most of it is either discarded at sea or used for human or animal consumption. Shrimp trawling is generally regarded as one of the least selective fishing methods, and has a serious impact on populations of sea turtles, sharks, coral and other marine species.A number of ACP countries are working towards the development of bycatch reduction mechanisms. In Nigeria, a device called the fisheye has been effective in reducing catches of juvenile fish, while Mozambique recently made trawl efficiency devices mandatory on shrimp trawlers. Research is continuing in other countries, including Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago.This guide is the product of a worldwide FAO project to minimise wastage and damage to species taken indiscriminately. It offers technical information and construction details for many devices that have been proved to reduce bycatch in tropical shrimp-trawl fisheries. Full of clear illustrations, it explains how to select, install and maintain the devices.The Convention on Biological Diversity recognises \"the vital importance that women play in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.\" This book explores how women can make a particular contribution. The authors examine the issue from a general standpoint -acknowledging that both women and men have roles, rights and responsibilities in ensuring the sustainable use of biodiversity resources. They also provide plenty of examples to support their argument. There are chapters on a number of ACP experiences, including biodiversity management in the wetlands of Kampala in Uganda, the role of women and biodiversity in fostering sustainable development in Cameroon, and strategies and constraints in the Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Using case studies from 18 countries taking part in the DFID Regoverning Markets programme, this book looks at some of the challenges facing farmers struggling to keep up with the wave of new demands made by food manufacturers and retailers. Among ACP countries featured in the study are Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.The book explores the impact of the modernisation of food supply chains on the people whose livelihood depends on food production. It offers some solutions to living with this inexorable process, showing small-scale farmers that there is strength in numbers if they can group together. It also provides advice on best practices for small-scale producers seeking to be part of supermarket supply chains, and identifies some of the main obstacles which need to be removed. Floriculture is a growing sector for small-scale producers in Fiji and this useful manual will help readers find out more about its potential and how to get started. Packed with information and illustrations, the guide offers clear concrete advice on growing anthuriums, orchids, gingers and heliconias, from selecting a site right through to post-harvest handling.A Pictorial Handbook South Sea Orchids, 2007. 38 pp. South Sea Orchids Ltd (SSO) PO Box 570, Lautoka, Fiji Fax: +679 662 2283 sso@is.com.fjThe increasingly important field of biotechnology is not always easy to understand for those outside the sector. The FAO glossary of terms and acronyms commonly used in biotechnology for food and agriculture is now available on CD-ROM (Arabic, English, French and Spanish). A user-friendly search facility allows easy cross reference between the four languages. CrossRef, a non-profit organisation seeking to improve access to published scholarship through collaborative technologies, is extending its reach to include hundreds of journals from Africa. The organisation, whose linking service enables researchers to click on a reference in a journal and access the cited article, has reached agreement with the National Inquiry Services Centre (NISC) and African Journals OnLine (AJOL). NISC is registering its entire list of South Africanbased academic journals and bibliographic databases. AJOL, a fast-growing, independent journal aggregator, will contribute links to articles from more than 260 multi-disciplinary journals from 21 African countries.Publishers International Linking Association 40 Salem Street Lynnfield, MA 01940, USA Fax: +1 781 295 0077 info@crossref.org. www.crossref.orgThough gaining wider recognition as a major global problem, illegal logging remains poorly researched and understood. There are still few reliable figures on the extent of this phenomenon and many regard the issue as a simple problem of law enforcement. This book sets out to explore the many aspects of illegal logging, including its causes and implications for rural livelihoods. It also makes policy recommendations in the hope of reaching solutions to combat this widespread but complex scourge.  Oum ar Sow is an advi ser on lives tock reari ng for a susta inab le rura l deve lopm ent prog ramm e run by an Aust rian NGO (EWA /PAD ER) in Loug a, nort hern Sene gal. The artic le on scho ol farm s (Spo re 127) brou ght back mem ories for him of his early year s at prim ary scho ol. \"At the time I was learn ing the first lette rs of the Fren ch alph abet and I used to watc h the olde r pupi ls, after their even ing lesso ns, rush out behi nd the class room s to wate r their carro ts, cabb ages , turn ips and aube rgine s... We liked goin g with them beca use they som etim es let us taste the vege table s they had grow n, whic h were delic ious . We used to go and get ferti liser (stric tly orga nic) for them , fetch ing man ure in whe elba rrow s and sack s from our fami lies' field s and barn s.\" \"In this way, the auth oritie s soug ht to use the educ ation syste m to mak e a link betw een scho ol and later life,\" cont inue s Oum ar Sow . \"The fact that I am now a vet and invo lved in rura l deve lopm en t is partl y due to the stron g impr essio n that this train ing mad e on me. I wou ld have liked to see this syste m beco me more wide spre ad, for deve lopm ent is first and forem ost abou t prod ucin g food so as to be self-suffi cient .\"Many of you already share information gleaned from Spore and pass your copies on to other readers -at work, in the village, in reading groups or within organisations. We are delighted to hear it, but we want to go one step further. With your help, we want to ensure that Spore is read by anyone who is likely to find it useful.For this reason, you will find two questionnaires inside this issue. We are asking you to renew your subscription and update your contact details. And we are also offering you the chance to help someone else take out a subscription.The orange form is for those of you who are already subscribed to Spore. Please complete it, taking great care to follow the instructions at the top of the page. This will help us to update your details and to better tailor our services to your needs. Do you know anyone who has never read Spore? If so, you can offer the green form to an organisation or individual in an ACP country working in the field of agricultural and rural development -whether it be in research, the agro-food sector, trade, knowledge sharing or agricultural training.We will give priority to organisations -including women's and youth groups -as well as to agricultural training centres and the libraries of teaching institutes.please note: as we have a limited budget we CANNOT accept individual subscription requests from students or farmers.Use the envelope supplied to return the form by post, and don't forget to add a stamp! If you have access to the Internet, there is no need to post the form. Simply go to http://spore-subs. cta.int, type in the access code on the back of the orange form and fill out the form, submitting it online only. In early June 2008, we will draw three requests at random from the on-line forms. The winners will be able to participate in a conference of their choice, on an agricultural or rural development topic, with expenses paid by CTA.So get to work! Thank you for your cooperation. The best way to understand the term 'New Agriculture' is to take a closer look at 'Old Agriculture'. Until very recently, agriculture was seen as a farm activity, based on primary commodities for both local and export markets. 'Old Agriculture' was dominated by the traditional export commodities sugar, bananas and rice, which enjoyed preferential treatment in the EU for access and price. After the Uruguay Round negotiations, it became clear that these preferences would eventually disappear. The result has been the partial or total demise of such industries, with substantial loss of jobs at farm and -in the case of rice and sugar -factory levels in the Caribbean region. It was apparent that Old Agriculture was dying. However, it still impacted significantly on the social structure of countries and the preservation of their fragile ecosystems, critical for maintaining the pristine environment necessary for tourism, a most important activity especially in the island countries.A different approach was needed if agriculture in the Caribbean was to be revitalised. This new concept soon became known as 'New Agriculture'. Given the dynamism of the international environment, it will continue to evolve. But for the time being, New Agriculture has certain key characteristics. It encompasses the entire agro-product chain, from the production of inputs, including machinery, to the sale of final products, whether fresh or processed. It also places emphasis on niche markets and value added products and is responsive to changing dietary practices for safe, nutritious and easily utilisable foods. New Agriculture includes nonfood items, such as nutraceuticals, biofuels, herbal products and handicrafts. It is driven by technology, especially biotechnology and informatics, and is a business and hence market-driven sector rather than one that is led by production. It requires a different set of extension, educational and research skills and programmes and is organically linked to other economic sectors, including tourism, education, health, transport, trade and finances.The success of New Agriculture will partly depend on government responsibility and responsiveness. Most importantly there must be total involvement of all stakeholders. For example, in St Lucia, where a hotel chain was looking for supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables, representatives from the hotel, the Ministry of Agriculture, local farmers, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) met and developed a programme of activities and targets. As a result, the hotel received a reliable and timely supply of products and the farmers earned increased income. There have been similar experiences in Jamaica and Nevis, and IICA is planning to introduce programmes in at least two other Caribbean countries.There are plenty of other examples of New Agriculture in action. One is the introduction of greenhouse technology to produce quality vegetables for national markets. Another is Haiti's Prohuerta programme, inspired by Argentina, producing commodities to improve diets. In Guyana, the Trilakes Community is producing organic pineapples for processing and export to the European market.Of course, there are hurdles. People have to be convinced of the need to dialogue with each other and agree on common objectives. All partners must have a long-term commitment and be determined to weather any storms that arise. At first, it may not be easy to convince small-scale farmers to try the new approach. But with the right encouragement and assurance that the inputs, technical support and markets are available, they will soon start participating, and once they are successful, we will see a multiplier effect. If farmers do not try New Agriculture, they are unlikely to be able to make a living from farming. At that point, they will have to move to other productive sectors, either in the rural or urban areas. If they shift to the latter, the result will be an added burden for national authorities seeking to provide appropriate social, civil and perhaps even penal facilities. n arlington.chesney@iica.int It was apparent that 'Old Agriculture' was dying.","tokenCount":"11595"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac32c8cf541d60a5c226ecfc8b356baa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c2667699-3d68-4846-8b7c-85ad9802776a/retrieve","id":"-1467812248"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d8232293-da42-4e9f-9a6a-6efdcd17cdfe","pagecount":"65","content":"the specific crop programs revolve around breeding. ~le breeding itself is a numbers game with the following procedures:A. A world wide collection of germplasm is obtained so that there is sufficient genetic variability that sorne interesting characteristics can be comhined from different parental sources.The identification of the desired characters to over come specific constraints to yield increase is made.The \"relevant cionstraints\" on the production side are sorne combination of disease and insect pests, soil anel Hater conditions, and plant characteristics 2 .2/For example, rice breeding at IRRI was principally con--cerned with building sho~ter, sturdier varieties to respond to higher fertilizer levels without lodging with complete water control through irrigation. Breeding research was also directed at four diseases and threepests.Finally, non-photoperiod sensitivity was desired; however, this is a different type of characteristic sought principally by International Centers in order to give wider adaptability for the new material.See P.R. Jennings, \"The Amplification of Agricultural Production\", Scientific American 235(3) (Sept.1976), p.186; and p.R. Jennings, \"Plant Type as a Rice Breeding Objective\", erop Science 4 (,lan-Feb 1964), pp.13-l5.• .c.The \"re1evant constraints\" can be imposed by consumer 3 condi tions, such as taste preferences , as \\-1e11 as production factors.The germp1asm is screened for the characteristics identified in B. The best potential parents are identified 4 .D. These selections are then crossed and recrossed unti1 varieties emerge ,~ith the maximum of the desired characteristics.E. The varieties (or segregantsl are released to National Institutions for either dissemination, trials in different agro-climatic conditions, or further crossing for desired region specific charac-3/Consumers may not eat or may offer a lower price for a -bean of a specific color, size, or textura.In the cas~-of cassava consumers would be expected to prefer lower HCN content and a longer shelflife. 4/At this stage the selection process (before the initiation of the breeding program) may identify cultivars with a sufficient number of ¿haracteristics to be released into evaluation trials.Where there is high yielding ability but insufficíent resistances to disease and soil factors, these cultivars can he tíed to cultural practices and released as \"improved varieties\".In a horizontal resistance breeding strategy, the screeningis not so much for \"best\" parents as concerns resistance to pathogens but for wide genetic diversity without strong vertical resistance genes.It is thís stage that separates a horizontal resistance breeding strategy from this \"normal\" breeding strategy (see Appendix for discussion of horizontal resistanceJ. The International Canters are increasingly utilized for traioing younger scientists from variaus national organizations in developing countries. This proceso facilitates tha contacts for the successful operation of E above, 6!Part of the comparative advantage is physical.A larger breeding team can'specialize more and thereby produce a much larger number of crosses.Slmilarly, the interaction between agricultural disciplines should be useful for problem deflnition and solving.However, the most important advantage of International Centers may result from the \"mínimum critical investment\".Breeding requires highly trained personnel, spacialization in a specific crop, is expensive, and is a long term investment.National governments in developing countries generally havefew trained agricul tural scientists and have to be eoneerned with many crops.Moreover, research ls generally given a low priority in publie expenditures and decision makers in developing countries tend to prefer investments with a short payoff periodoThe advantages of the Intarnatíonal Centars are team size, specialization, large scale funding and continuity.This combination is considered by international donora to have a higher probability of reaching the \"mínimum critical investment\" for breakthroughs in new varieties than similar funding of most national systems.. '• 5 ternational Centers in relation to National Institutions is in their ability to diagnose desired new variety characteristics for a series of specific regions in a large number of developing coun-7 triesThe crucial decisions are in the definitions of the \"relevant constraints\". The rest is a more mechanical process of collecting germplasm (A), screening and crossing IC and D), and disseminating (E).International Centers are continually in a process of gathering, refining and digesting this information about the \"relevant constraints\" for the critical breeding decisions.This information gathering can be divided into three stages:7/0ne dilemma of International Centers is the development of a -methodology for obtaining more systematic definition of the \"relevant constraints\" from National 1nstitutions before the new material is released. The present tactic is to begin re leasing something aS soon as possible such as the better se~ ~ections (under C) or nintermediate technology\".The final product of 1nternational Centers is new varieties. However, in the process of mounting a breeding program, the other agricultural sciences generally identify a series of practices, which increase yields under experiment station conditions.Examples of these~intermediate technologies~are clean seed production, fertilizer response and spacing alternatives, andherbicide recommendations for different soil types.By identifying something profitable at the farm level the 1nternational Centers can build up better institutional ties with National Institutions and encourage mOre of their input into research design in the early stages of the process.Unfortunately, experiment station technology is not always relevant to farm level conditions.The technology may not be profitable, it may not fit into the existing farming systems, or it may increase risks much more than farmers are willing to accept.Hence, farm level testing is critical to evaluate whether the \"intermediate technology\" is relevant. are continually in a process af gathering, refining and diges! ing this informatian about the \"relevant constraints\" for the critical breeding decisians.'Ehis infonnation gathering can be divided into threc, stages: The objective oi this paper is to provide case histories of tha role of these three types of information on the r~search design of beal1s 2\"nd ca5sava In CIl\\.T. Obviou51y, this process is continu~ 1ly e'101'1ing so that the paper I5 only our snapshot oi the\" Dr~,sent si tuation.The available macro data is sketehy. Production data is unreliable when home consumption is important or there are many retail outlets. Area i5 rarely exactly measured and these erops are often produced in multiple cropping systems.Information on agricultural systems i5 rarely produced. Nevertheless, the macro data is \"useful to indica te trends and to make some inferences about stiategy.    For all tlle Latin American countries including Mexico and Colombia mean yields show extreme fluctuation (see Figures 2-5).This extreme annual variability is the principal characteristic of Latin American bean production.Any research strategy for bean production in Latin America has to concentrate on Brazil and Mexico.The extreme yield variala tion indicates the riskiness of bean production.The next step in 9/J. H. Sanders y Camilo Alvarez P., \"Tendencias de la Produc ción de Fríjol en América Latina -11\", mimeo, CIAT, Cali, Colombia, Julio 1977, pp. 4, 18, 26. 10/Bean area but not yields would be sensitive to changes in ~ national policy or economic conditions. Substantial between year fluctuation in bean yields vould not be expected in res ponse to changes in relative or absoluta profitability.    cassava, so that prices tend to be low and consumption concentrated in lów-income groups or on-farm subsistence. 80th factors then lead to the generalization that cassava ls primarily a subsistence crop grown under small farm conditions. Such generalizations, however, should be supported if used as the basis for a breeding strategy.The following section shall deal with whether the macro data support these assumptions about the location of cassava and the predominance of small farmers.  age-icultural ilTeas 2nd \"S vell exhibits striking yield stability.Sli~ltly !ligher yields are noted outside the North anc1 Northeast.In the Northeast, small farms (less than 10 hectares in size) account for over 70 percent of the cassava area harvested.In the primary agricultural areas of Brazil, the South and Southeast, modal farm size for cassava producers is somewhat larger, being between 11 20 and 50 hectares . Cassava in this latter area is produced under a wide range of technologíes from small scale hand cultivation to Tab1e 2. Brazi1 - industrial utilization.The Center West and to a les ser extent the North rep-resent the frontier expansion areas in Brazilian agriculture.The principal activity of these areas is livestock production.Here cassava is primarily produce for subsistence, given the lack of infrastructure and the long distances to markets.Parms on which cassava is cultivated tend to be larger due to the large pasture component, but cassava plots themselves tend to be small.,Brazil except the Southea~t during the last decade (Table 2)In the llortheast cassova production has increased slightly faster than lhe population growth rateo In this small farm area cassa\\¡a Serves as a major subsistence food crop and demand (and therefore supply) expansion is principally a function of population growth. This subsistence role of cassava is highlighted in a 1960 household budget survey of Brazil (see Table 3). Consumption in the rural areas is three times that in the urban areas and per capita consumption in the rural areas of the Northeast is almost three times the level of the rural areas in the South andSoutheast. Since the cassavaproduction system in the Northeast is based• u.pon small farm production, a large part of the cassava produced is consumed, if not on the farm, w.ithin the local rural market area.In areas where cassava production takes place on large farms, per capita consumption falls, implying more is marketedTable 3.Ilrazil -Cassava Per Capita Consumption by Area in 1960.Total on a Fresh Basis -------kg.jcapita per year ----------- The East contains two states of the Northeast (Bahia and Sergipe) and the rest of the states of the Southeast, except Sao Paulo.The North and Centar Wast were not included. Bo\"h systems of production \\vould indicate that demand factors will be í'\",por t.ant in determining the adoption of ne\", varíeties particu-1ar1y as tl,e desired plant characteristics tor human consumption, animal feed, starch,and alcohol production are different 13Before re turning to demapd in thc j.nferences section the nex t S0Ctioll \\;tIl examine the a\"l:a on farm level constraints to proclnct:ion increase.Farm level constraints to the introduction of ne'\" technology have been measured in two ways, the Benchmark and the Gap approaches.In the Benchmark approach variation in yields on farmers' fie1ds with present cropping systems and varieties is 14 ana1yzedThe Gap approach attempts to explain the differences l3iror human consumption reduction of HCN and improved storeability are the critical characteristics.Whereas for the other uses, higher starch content is the critical desired characteristic.l~/This technique estimates the effect on yields of various con s traints with present varieties and systems. These estimates are expected to understate the yieId losses of new, higher yieIding varieties unIess the new variety were more resistant or tolerant to the spepific constraint.•1 ~/Elsewbere the single cropping and multiple cropping systems were compared. Qne explanation for a multiple cropping system or at least for diversification\" is as a risk avoidance mechanism.. Large farmers due to greater wealth can take more risks.They utilize rn~re inputs and specialize.See Camilo Alvarez P., \"Análisis Econ6mico de Algunos Sistemas de Producción de Fríjol en Cólombia, 1974-1975\", CIAT, Cali, Colombia, Marzci 1977, mimeo, 17 p5ginas., for a desc~iption of the two syst~ms.The risk avdidance hypothesis was tested with two years of experimental data from CIAr from 20 experiments. It was found that at the Colombian prices single cropped beans were more profitable and riskier than the beans-corn erap combinat.ion.See C.A.---rrancis and-J.H. Sanders, ' \"Economic An~lysis of•~ean and Maize Systems: Monoculture Versus Associated Cropping,\" CIAT, Cali, COlombia, Ju1y 1977, mimeo, 29 pages,.Risk avoidance, improved absorption of family labor and nutrition are a11 p~tential explanations for diversification rather than multiple cropping.The principal explanation f.or• rnultiple cropping is sorne type of cornplemen-~arity.CIAT experimental results comparing associated cropf1ing of 'c•orn and ~ea.ns with the mono-culture systems show less ihsect proble~s in both crops, les s ladging of corn and more nitro gen fixation by beans in associat~d cropping.Also planting beans beneath the corn should protect the soil better than corn alone especially on sloping and high or intense rainfall areas.See Further research in these areas of complementarity esp€cial1y in entomology.and micro-biology is continuing at elAT.There is also work on the physiology of the interaction of various systerns.The bencfits of these complementary effects hdve to be compa~ed with the costs of the effects from 1ight, water and nutrient competition.  . ' < This is the total area available to the farmer . Nith more than one system of beans, perecntages refer to the number of farmers in Bean equivalents are caleulated by utilizing priees af ather commodities relative to beans as follows: Yield(beans) + Price (eorn_)_Yield(maize) \" Yield(bean equív.) Price (bean) The bean cpop in the Valle reglon ean be g~own in 3.5 months and followed by another c'rop.Refers to the second intarcropping combination cf beans/maize/potatoes, beans/maíze! \"at\"racacha lt and others.CIAr, Annual Report 1976, Cali, Colombia, p.A-74.-The constraints limiting bean yields in the two types of systems were evaluated utilizing production function analysis (Figures 7 and 8). Assuming that the samples were representative of the regions the economic losses associated with the disease and insect pests in one production season in these regions were substantial (Table S). There are series of disease and insect , 18pests attacking beans wi th dif ferences between the 'two reglonsThere appears to be a very high payoff to obtaining resistance tb any one or a f ' 19 combination o the above constralnts .Approximately, 95 percent oE the beans produeed were soldame consump~lon ,eSB t an one pereent o pro uctlon i:110 lügh bean pricgs Ln Colombj,a and the risk from storage :insecto; t]¡e félrmer did not obtain tile nutritional benefits of inCrOQ3ed bean consumption.ln Colombia, beans were elearly a eash erop ,in this semester.l~These differences in disease ineidenee between regions have been prineipally attributed to the altitude differenees. We are indebted to various other members of the Bean Team for this observation.Outside of the larger farms in the Valle bean producers did not recognize the existence of disease and insect problems. Low yields were generally attributed to soil fertility or 'weather in spite of the supermarket of pests encountered in farmers' fields.Unpublished data from these field interviews \" in Huila and Narino.19/5ince these results are time and location specific, this type of snapshot of yieldconstraints would be much more useful if it could be obtained for a series of regions over a longer time periodo However, these field surveys are expensive. Each of the 177 farms was interviewed three or four times by agronomists trained to identify the insect, disease, and weed problems of beans.  .. .not appear to be a constraint to expanding cassava cultivation.1 ! \"The largest cost component in the cassava production system 20 is labor . Weeding, is the principal labor activity and the most costly operation. Fifty-six percent of the labor utilized in cassava production is devoted to weeding as compared with 21 percent for land preparation and planting and 8 percent for harvesting. Given the adequate available land in most regions, seasonal labor for weeding may be a constraint to cassava output expansiono lIowever, only three percent of the farmers utilized as expected herbicide an~hese were larger farms.The study supported the generalization that cassava is usually grown on poor soils (see Table A-12 in the Appendix) .Most of the soi1s were low in phosphorus (except in zones 11 and V), 10w in potassium (except in zone 11), and moderate to high1y acidic (except in zones 11 and V). As soils in zone Vare typi-20/This level of labor utilization is similar to that of the Northeast of Br~zil. • .)\"lt An important finding of the study sample ,vas that 99 pe.!::. cent of the cassava was marketed (see Table A-16 in the Appendix) .In the small farm areas of zone 111 where subsistence consumption would be expected to be high, farmers retained only 6 percent of their production for use on the farm.Horeover, in all other zones the percentage retained \\4\"-\" negligible. Cassava has a long storage life in theground b~t minimal post-harvest durability, a maximurn of 48 hours for most varieties.Hence, the farmer apparently waits until he ha\" a market ana su F-f icient labor to harvestthe crop. Th,?importancR of marketing land prices) and labor availability in ca SSél Vil. productton systern.s J. s very clear.In summary, weea control appears tobe a critical con-Cassava is predominantly produced by small farmers on infertile soils with minimal purchased inputs. Under these circumstances a new cassava technology based on high input utilization would have little chane e of adoption and in turn minimal impact on national yield levels 24 , Hore information is necessary on the 23/The impact of weed competition on yields of cassava ha ve --be en experimentally tested at CIAT. (see CIAT, Annual Report 1973, Cali, Colombia, 1974, pp.104-l05).24/Cassava production on the large commercial farms in --zone II is an exception to this.The factors contributing to cassava production in this area and the other regions in Colombia will be discussed in the following section.economic lossesthroughout the target are a resulting from the three diseases mentioned 25 .In the next section the sources of yield variation will be more systematically analyzed.25/Experimental research on the impact of Thrips attaek --on susceptible eassava varieties in the Cauea Valley showed that Cassava yields declined by'only 8-15 percent under attaek.Based on this researeh it was eoneluded that \"breeding for yield potential had priority over breeding for thrips resistance\". See A.v. Schoonhoven and J.E. Peña, \"Estimatíon of Yield Losses in Cassava Following Attack from Thrips\", Journal of Eeon. Entomology, 69(~), p,S16 .. ..The sample survey confirmed the low productivity of cassava production in Colombia. Average yield levels were 6.2 tons per hectare (fresh weightlas compared Hith consistent yielc1s of.over 20 tons per hectare of selected CIAT varieties in the Colombian .1 . 1 26 rC~lona trla s . The variation around this mean \\-las large, a standard deviation of 6.5 ton s , \\-lhich reflectec1 principally the yield rJifferences bet\\-leen producing regions (see Table 8). An un-c1c,,:standing of tlle f-a.ctors that contribute to the overall Using multiple regression analysis, the limiting factors on yields of cassava were delineated. The \"relevant. constraints\"were soil factors and diseases (see Table9). Purchased inputs, plant population, and weed control were not significant, which would.indicate that yield limiting factors were regional in their impacto Inter-regional differences in soil and clima.te appeared . .• . ' .'  Where the principIe cassava diseases were found, there was a large reduetion in yield, contradicting the usual finding that cassava ia highly resistant to diseases and pests, Control of either Superelongation or Phoma Leaf Spot would resul t in an increase of almost 3, S, tons per hectare on affeeted farros as compared to an average yield of 6.2 tons per hectare.Control of Cassava Bacterial Blight would have added a further 0,75 tons to yields on affected farms.However, in this production sea son the area affeeted by these diseases was relatively minoro non,\" of these diseases affected more than fiv\" percent of the caSS2V'1 area, Thus, based on this samFle control of these discases would inerease average yields in the eountry by no more U\\C'n S percent nr e, 3 tons per heetare (see Figure 9). However, for individual farmers in areas where these diseases are prevalent, disease control would have a signifieant impaet on yield.Intercropping also resulted in a yield reduction of 1.8 tons per hectare.As only 31 percent of the eassava area was 28/Experimental trials at CIAT ha ve shown that cultural practices such as plant population, weed control, and use of fertilizer do have a significant impact on yield. These findings would not contradict the conclusions h~re as variation in cultural practices would be expected to have,an impact on yield level, of the high-yielding varieties used at CIAT, Within the farm sample the low-yielding varieties and the impact of other factors override the impact of cultural practices.This would imply that cultural practices may become a much more important factor with the release of new high-yielding varieties. , .. However, profitability and labor eonstraint eonsiderations enter into whether sueh a reeomrnendation should be made.If eassava and maize (the major form of erop association) intercrop yields are expressed in terms of cassava eguivalents, differences in yields between monoculture and intercropping were insignifieant 29As Figure 8 illustrates differenees in soil faetors aeeounted .ror much of the difference between elltrent average y1elds and potential yields based upon eurrent varieties and syst0ms oi prodLlction. J!jgh soil aeidity, low levels of phos-P lorus, éln I eavy soi. tGxtnre a contribute to ower yle .. ( s !Yom 60 to 70 p~rcent of tho eassava in tl1e sample was grOl-iD llnc1er tllese conditiolls. 1'he pl: illC ipal a r:é;a where these poor soil conditions were not found was in zone 11. These findings suggest that most cassava is grown on either highly acidic or low fertility status soils or both. Cassava does perform relatively well compared to most other crops under such.adverse conditions, giving yields in the three to six ton range. This partially supports the contention that cassava is grown primarily 29/Camilo Alvarez P., \"Anál'isis Comparativo de Tres Sistemas de Producción• de Yuca,;'. R.O, Díaz y P. Pinstrup-Andersen (editores), Descripción Agro-Económica del Proceso de pioduce ión de Yuca en Colombia. CIAT, Cali, Colombia, Junio, 1977, pp.L-1-2 1 ¡.2Q/In the regression all three factors entered as dummy variables. Phosphorus was stratified above and below 15 ppm, soil acidity aboye and below a soil pH of 5.0, and soil texture between the predominance of light or heavy texture soils. percei ved uneconorni.c response or higher profi tanili ty from lalld rotation than from increasec1 input use.Recognizing that there are constraints on input supply markets, the capacity of output markets, anc1 extension and technical services, especially to smallholc1er producers, as well as capital and risk constraints at farm level, the probability of success of a high input technology for cassava was consic1ered low. Rather, wic1espreadincreases in farm-level productivity were consic1ered to be likely to be obtained by developing new high-yielrling genotypes, resistant to high soil acidity anc1 ac1aptedto minimum levels of purchased inputs 31 Horeover, as the above micro data suggest the development of such varieties do es not preclude a yield response to higher fertility levels or pesticide application, should the price incentives for fertilizer and pesticide use become sufficient1y great.The C~~t~eat Inne~enee Stage 'The availab1e rlaero and Hiero data indieate some cwnc>ra1 direetions i.Tl both programs but still leave gaps in the defini.tion of the \"yelevant constraints\". These gaps have to he bridged by inferences élbout Latin American pro(lt¡c-t.i.on of these t\\IJO cOll}lT1odities. These inferences come frolTj members of the te.am and cthers 'dith experience in Latin America. Obviously, it is important to verify or reject these inferences with the col1ection of better field data in the future.Finally, the definition of a \"relevant constraint\" is not sufficient for it to be included in research designo The other necessary compo~ent is the subjective decision of the breeder that the desired characteristics to overcome the \"relevant constraint\" can be successfully incorporated into   The major insect ~/This extremely useful division was made by Douglas Laing, Physiologist of the CIAT Bean Programo For further detail see CIAT, Annual Report 1976, Ca1i, Colombia, 1977, pp.A-57, 68. 3~/Under experimental conditions climbing beans have demonitrat--ed the potential to fix nitro gen to equivalent levels of ~1 kg/ha. of nitrogen.Since beans are predominantly found on small farms where few input s are purchased, this 1s a potentially very important resulto See CIAT, Annual Report 1975, Cali,Colombia, 1977 p.A-22. ~JThese inferences in r. were based upon the 1dent1fication by the scientists working in bean production in Latin America of the diseases and insects in their respective countries (see Tables 10 and 11l.After this survey was taken Golden Mosaic becam~ an important problem in the principal bean production regions of Brazil and Central Amcrica.    Table 11.Majar insect peses of Seans (Phaseolus vulgarisl and their importan ce j)y' COllntry in Latin America.   The crucial operating decisions of the Bean Program were then that beans of many colors and plant types would be sought.Secondly, high input packages would not be relevant unless beans were able to move into the better soil areas of Latin l;merica vThere large farmers predominated. Since beans had not been able to capture these areas previously and high value export crops with a long tradition of research and developed infrastructure for marketing would have to be displaced, the potc~n f:.{al for beans to enter these areas on anything more than n. short t8ym b;)sis Has considered to be a \"long shot 1l36 . Assuming away the resouree eonstraints of this group makes re-.search design easier and experimental yields higher. However, it increases the probability that the technology will not be relevant to farm level conditions in Latín America.Present constraints on bean production are a series of disease and insect pests, laek of water control (irrigation), and use of few eash inputs. Henee, the stress of the Bean Program has been on breeding for resistance to the majar diseases, tolerance to Empoasca, and breed1ng for high nitrogen fixing ability rather than assumine that farmers will be willing to purchase large amounts of chemicals for disease and insect control and fertilizers...n' me\"Ol?2 : -571\" 7 7 paZ? 7=\"-'170:7 7't mzerrM\"W• -e !trw'ttWiWtKr&H >0-' • . . . •fXj '~Wi'*t!'%tM >j\"\"tif'W7ifffl.;,i¡fMt-.Given the riskiness of bean production and the prevalence and seriousness of a series of diseases anJ one insect, the principal objective of the research strategy would be to achieve resistance to a multiplicity of diseases in beans of various color s and ideotypes.This focus on resistance was based on selection and breeding to the major diseases.Both vertical and horizontal resis-37 tances were sought depending upon the particular pest The use of sorne vertical resistances in beans can be justified for the following reasans:(1) the di.scontinuous nature of bean production and the mul Ur1.icit'f oE ü;JeotypelS should provide sufficient epidemic cOntrol should a particular vertical resistance break down, and(2) there are a number of methodological problems with beans in breeding for horizontal resistance.The first point stresses the fact that the spread of bean disases is limited because beans in Latin America, unlike grains, are produced in widely separated pockets. Also, it is unlikely that any one bean variety will become widely distributed due to preferences for different colors and ideotypes. Thus, any breakdown of vertical resistance will tend to be localized Even if a vertical resistance breaks down, the benefits of a few years of successful protection are often much greater than the costs of the resistance breeding.In 1) Area planted to cassava in Zone 11 makes up only B percent of the total Cassava area in Colombia.2) After Veoez~ela, Colombia has the highest price for cassava of aoy country in South America (see Table A-13 in the Appendix). Farmers.in Zone 11 receive the highest prices for cassava of any area in Colombia.Furthermore, caSSava prices in the seventies in Colompia have been at their highest level since 1955.See R.O. Díaz and Per Pinstrup-Andersen (eds.) (1977), op.cit., p.A-14.3) Yield levels in Zone 11 are already relatively high.In the. study samp'le large farm yields in this zone averaged 14.2 ton s per hectare and ranged as high as 52.0 tons per hectare.Thus, farmers in this arca are already exploiting a high yield advantage under high prices 1evels. This conclusion is supported by the information available on nat income par hectare for various crops (see Tahle A-14 in the Appendix). Currently, in Zone 11 cassava would displace most other crops except rresh vegetables, plaintains, and•coffee.However, prices are at the extremely high leve~ of U3$100 per ton.If prices dropped merely to the current price level in Zone V, net income would be almost zero.In Zone V as a comparison, cassava has on1y some advantage over maize and sorghum ano even then on1y at the high price leve15 (US$S5 per ton).In that zone ~assava is usually grown on poorer 50ils.As new high-yielding varie~ies ar~ introduced, cassava príces would be expected to fallo In thi5 circumstances 'demand considerations (particularly the price elasticity of demand) becomes the relevant determinant of whether _.~assava with higher yielding ability would break into commercial large farm a~eas.As the price elasticity of demand is low, this would be considered unlikely pnd, a cassava technology oriented initially toward current prbducers, would have the greater impact on raising production levels.  vegetatively propagated {a clone) and is not season bound, there is both spatial and sequential continuity of identical hest tissue. If resistance were vertical and broke down there would have been no evolutionary survival value, thus the necessity fer horizontal resistance in its evolution.This factor provides support for the usual generalization that cassava is highly resistant to diseases and pests, though as CIAT trials have shown this may not be so for any one particular cultivar against all pathogens.. '\" . \",-,~ {","tokenCount":"4737"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"030b5fd0d74197abf1e5a879936591ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/512a3530-af7c-4943-9238-1a6238f0e801/content","id":"-511936337"},"keywords":["molecular markers","pathotypes","resistance","stem rust","wheat"],"sieverID":"99558e15-0b9b-45ca-8f6b-537e8cc4e2cd","pagecount":"9","content":"In Central Asia, stem rust (Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici) causes considerable damage, especially during growing seasons with high rainfall. Ug99 is a race of stem rust that is virulent to the majority of wheat varieties. To develop disease-free germplasm, wheat material was screened using the predominant stem rust races of Kazakhstan and tested in two nurseries; CIMMYT-Turkey and the Plant Breeding Station at Njoro, Kenya. A total of 11 pathotypes of P. graminis f.sp. tritici were identified in Kazakhstan from the stem rust samples collected in 2008-2009. In particular, pathotypes TDT/H, TPS/H, TTH/K, TKH/R, TKT/C and TFK/R were highly virulent. Of the 170 advanced lines of wheat, 21 CIMMYT lines resistant to 5 aggressive Kazakhstani pathotypes of P. graminis were identified. A high level of resistance was observed in 11 wheat cultivarsThe region of Central Asia is one of the most important wheat growing areas in the world. Wheat is grown on 15 mil ha, including 5 mil ha of winter or facultative wheat, and 10 mil ha of spring wheat. Kazakhstan is one of the largest wheat producers in Central Asia. Wheat rusts are an important problem in Kazakhstan and are one of the major factors reducing the productivity of wheat. Stem rust (Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici) causes considerable damage, especially during growing seasons with higher rainfall. The stem rust fungus attacks the aboveground parts of the plant. In turn, infected plants produce fewer tillers and set fewer seed. In cases of extremely bad infection the plant may die. Currently, more than 60 numbered or temporarily designated stem rust (Sr) genes for resistance to stem rust have been listed in the Komugi Wheat Genetics Resource Database (http:// www.shigen. nig.ac.jp, accessed 26 June 2011). Utilization of many of these genes in breeding programmes has S147 resulted in the effective control of stem rust in most countries (Visser et al. 2011). Ug99, which has the designation of TTKSK, is a race of stem rust that is virulent to the majority of wheat varieties. Unlike other rusts, which only partially affect crop yields, stem rust can cause 100% crop loss. Up to 80% of all Asian and African wheat varieties are susceptible to the fungus and according to the FAO, major wheat-producing nations east of Iran -such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan -should be on high alert (http://www.agro-delo. ru/news/5572.html, accessed 5 March 2008). To combat the menace of rust, screening of various nurseries from national and international breeding programmes was initiated. The aim of this work was to find sources of stem rust resistance and to develop disease-resistant germplasm.Wheat genotypes used in this study included a set of 16 isogenic lines and differentials for Sr genes, 44 wheat commercial cultivars and breeding lines from national breeding programmes of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Azerbijan and Russia, and 170 advanced lines from International Trials Nurseries, CIMMYT.Experimental materials were grown in 2008-2010 in two locations of Central Asia which differed in soil conditions, temperature and moisture. The experimental station in Almalybak, Almaty region, located at the foothill zone is a relatively well irrigated location. Wheat plants were irrigated three times during their development at a rate 600 m 3 /ha. At this location altitude above sea level is 785 m and during the three years of this study annual rainfall ranged from 332 to 644 mm. Nitrogen fertilizer was applied at a rate of 60 kg/ha and phosphate fertilizer at a rate 30 kg/ha. The other location is an irrigated location in Gvardeysky, Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems (RIBSP), situated in the Zhambyl region, Kazakhstan in the desert-steppe zone, and therefore, the climate is extremely dry with great variation. The crop growth season is characterized by drought and dry winds, especially as the crop reaches maturity. The total rainfall is 200-220 mm. Plants were irrigated 3-4 times at a rate 650 m 3 /ha. The soils in both testing locations are light, ranging from sandy losses to brown semi-desert soils to light silt loams. Each experiment consisted of three randomized replications.Field trials were conducted by sowing seed of the entries during autumn (20-25 September) of 2008-2010. The plots were inoculated in the spring at the tillering stage with a mixture of identified isolates representing the most prevailing races of the pathogen from Central Asia.Seedlings of winter wheat cultivars and advanced breeding lines from Kazakhstan and CIMMYT were tested under the controlled greenhouse conditions at RIBSP. The structure of the stem rust population was determined according to the identification system of Roelfs and Martens (1988) based on inoculation of isogenic Sr-lines with P. graminis spores that had been modified. According to this system, the plant reaction is determined on 16 lines divided into 4 groups of 4 lines. The first group included near-isogenic lines for Sr5, Sr21, Sr9e, Sr7b; the second -Sr11, Sr6, Sr8a, Sr9g; the third group -Sr36, Sr9b, Sr30, Sr17. The fourth was the set of near-isogenic lines for Sr24, Sr25, Sr27, Sr32 (Kazakhstani additional set). According to combination of responses of resistant (R) and susceptible (S) plants, each rust isolate was coded in letters. As a result, each pathotype has a code including 4 consonants of English alphabet from B through T. Virulence of the pathotypes was also studied using a set of Sr isogenic lines (Green et al. 1960). Stem rust pathotypes with virulence to 8-13 Sr-genes were used in the greenhouse for wheat seedling test (Table 1). For each plant, infection type (IT), based on a 0-4 scale, was recorded 20 days after inoculation. The IT data of seedling reactions were analyzed using the methods described by Stakman and Levine (1922). Disease severity was recorded following Peterson et al. (1948). Sampling of the spores, their storage, examination, reproduction and use were carried out according to methods described by Kiraly et al. (1970), Konovalova et al. (1977) and Roelfs et al. (1992).The experimental material was screened with the predominant races in the region of Central Asia. Cultivars Bogarnaya 56 and Steklovidnaya 24 were used as susceptible checks, which were used for multiplication of the pathogen spores in the greenhouse and as spreaders in the field tests. Advanced lines of wheat were also tested in the nurseries of CIMMYT-Turkey and at the Plant Breeding Station, Njoro, Kenya.Total genomic DNA was extracted from leaves following the protocol described by Riede and Anderson (1996). PCR was performed as described by Chen et al. (1998). DNA samples from the parents and breeding lines were screened using STS marker Sr24#12, which co-segregates with the Sr24/Lr24 locus (Mago et al. 2005) and is used for identification of wheat lines in breeding populations with resistance to stem rust. PCR products were resolved on 8% polyacrilamide gels stained with ethidium bromide.A total of 11 pathotypes of P. graminis f.sp. tritici were identified from the stem rust samples col-lected in 2008-2009 in Kazakhstan. The study of virulent pathotypes using differentials for Sr-genes indicated that the pathotypes PCP/C and PCR/Q were virulent only to 8 out of 16 Sr-genes studied (Table 2). Isolates of the pathogen studied in 2008-2009 were highly virulent. Isogenic lines of Sr5, Sr11, and Sr25 in 2009 became susceptible to pathotypes TPS/H, TTH/K, TMR/H and TKH/R. Results presented in Table 2 indicate that 6 pathotypes (TDT/H, TPS/H, TTH/K, TKH/R, TKT/C and TFK/R) were highly virulent (part of virulent Sr-lines was 75% and more). They were selected from durum wheat cultivars (Bezenchukskaya 139, Damsinskaya 90 and Navryz 2).The presence of highly virulent pathotypes in the population of stem rust represents a great threat to commercial varieties of wheat in Kazakhstan. The results of tests of wheat cultivars to four pathotypes show that the tested cultivars differ in their resist-  Sr5,21,9e,7b,8a,9g,36,9b,30,17,25,32  Sr5,21,9e,7b,11,6,8a,9g,9b,17,25,27,32 TCK/H North of Kazakhstan Sr5,21,9e,7b,9g,9b,30,17,25,32 TFK/R North of Kazakhstan Sr5,21,9e,7b,8a,9g,9b,30,17,24,25,32  Sr5,9e,7b,9g,36,17,24, 25 Sr5,21,9e,7b,11,8a,9g,9b,17,24,25,32   Sr5,21,9e,7b,8a,9g,36,9b,30,17,25,32/Sr11,6,24,27 75.0 Bogarnaya 56 TPS/H Sr5, 21,9e,7b,11,8a,9g,36,9b,30,25,32/Sr6,17,24,27 75.0 Damsinskaya 90 TTH/K Sr5, 21,9e,7b,11,6,8a,9g,9b,17,25,27,32/Sr36,30,24 81.2 Sr5,21,9e,7b,9g,36,30,17,25,32/Sr11,6,8a,9b,24,27 62.5 Sr5,9e,7b,9g,36,30,17,32/Sr21,11,6,8a,9b,24,25,27 50.0 Sr5,9e,7b,9g,36,17,24,25/Sr21,11,6,8a,9b,30,27,32  Sr5, 21, 9e, 7b, 9g, 9b, 30, 17, 25, 32/Sr11, 6, 8a, 36, 24, 27 62.5 К-84482, 18297 TMR/H Sr5, 21, 9e, 7b, 11, 9g, 36, 9b, 17, 25, 32/Sr6, 8a, 30, 24, 27 68.7 Omskaya 19 TKH/R Sr5, 21,9e,7b,11,8a,9g,9b,17,24,25,32/Sr6,36,30,27 75.0 Saratovskaya 29 TKT/C Sr5, 21,9e,7b,6,8a,9g,36,9b,30,17,32/Sr11,24,25,27 75.0 Sr5,21,9e,7b,8a,9g,9b,30,17,24,25,32/Sr11,6,36,27 75.0 ance to disease (Table 3). For example, cultivars Almaly and Tungush were susceptible to all four pathotypes (IT 3, 4, 4+ and Umanka (Russia). The use of these cultivars and advanced lines in the breeding process will allow the development of new wheat cultivars resistant to stem rust.Within greenhouse conditions, 170 F 3 lines carrying Sr-genes were tested for resistance to five races of P. graminis (TDT/H, PCR/Q, TKH/R, TTH/K and TFK/R) that are currently prevalent in Kazakhstan. As a result, 21 CIMMYT lines resistant or moderately resistant to all 5 aggressive pathotypes were identified (Table 4). When testing the resistance of wheat lines to the field collection of P. graminis, lines that were immune or had moderately resistant reactions were identified. Nine wheat lines, which showed '0' infection type (Table 4) in the field, were found to be most resistant to this pathogen. All of the selected lines were highly or moderately resistant to all five pathotypes. A consistent resistant reaction both in the field and in the greenhouse to five specific races was observed in 11 of the F 3 lines.  Some of the wheat entries were resistant in the field (IT 0), but were susceptible to individual pathotypes in the greenhouse. However, we also identified a number of lines combining resistance in the field and race-specific resistance to stem rust (T-2003//TREGO/JGR8W/4/ AGRI/NAC//KAUZ/3/1D13.1/MLT, PASTOR/ MILAN/3/F10S-1//STOZHER/KARL, EMB16/ CBRD//CBRD/5/TX69A509-2//BBY2/FOX/3/ PKL70/LIRA/4/YMH/TOB//MCD/3/LIRA and TREGO/BTY SIB//ZARGANA-3/3/TAM200/ KAUZ).Because Ug99 is virulent to the majority of wheat varieties, we tested promising material at the Plant Breeding Station, Njoro, Kenya, 2009. Experimental material tested in Kenya was developed using local spring commercial varieties and wild relatives of wheat. Table 5 presents the resistance of 13 winter wheats to stem and yellow rust. Screening of winter wheat germplasm allowed selection of 6 from these 13 breeding lines which were resistant to both stem and yellow rust: KSI3/97Sr25, 95SR/Progress, 186Al/159 Arthur, Progress/94SR36, 241F4/Tr. monococum CP-1223 and 242T/Tr. timopheevii. Ten of the thirteen lines demonstrated high or moderate levels of resistance to stem rust, among them entries #2070, 2071, 2075, 2080, 2081, 2084, 2085, 2089, 2090 and 2095. At the same time nine of the entries (#2080, 2081, 2084, 2085, 2089, 2090, 2093, 2096 and 2097) showed an immune reaction to yellow rust. Thus, all 13 wheat lines tested at Plant Breeding Station, Njoro are valuable for breeding for both stem and yellow rust resistance.The aim of this part of the study was to screen elite advanced wheat lines from Kazakhstan and CIMMYT with molecular markers linked to stem rust gene Sr24/Lr24. The genotypes analyzed in this study are presented in Table 6. It is known that gene Sr24 is located on the Agropyron elongatum tranlocation on chromosome 3DL where leaf rust resistance gene Lr24 is present (McIntosh et al. 1977). Sequence tagged site (STS) marker Sr24#12 is closely linked to Sr24. This dominant marker typically amplifies only one band, this was used to screen for Sr24/Lr24 genes. The expected size of this marker is 500bp. Resistant germplasm source of Sr24, LcSr24Ag, was positive for the marker (Figure 1). Seven out of twenty five genotypes (#2 Progress/94-W2691SrTt-1-Sr36, BAYRAKTAR and #25 TREGO/BTYSIB//ZAR-GANA-3/3/TAM200/KAUZ) were positive for the Sr24#12 marker and displayed the DNA-fragment associated with Sr24/Lr24 resistance genes. These seven breeding lines are likely to possess Sr24/Lr24 resistance. They also demonstrated immunity or moderate resistance level in the field, except the line #14 with the rating 10MS (Table 5).The screening of winter wheat germplasm from different nurseries in the field and greenhouse allowed the evaluation of resistance to stem rust. From the results obtained in our studies, it can be concluded that the populations of stem rust in Kazakhstan include highly virulent pathotypes. A total of 11 pathotypes of P. graminis f.sp. tritici were identified from the stem rust samples collected in 2008-2009. The pathotypes TDT/H, TPS/H, TTH/K, TKH/R, TKT/C and TFK/R were highly virulent (75% and more). The use of these pathotypes for evaluating wheat germplasm for resistance could help to improve breeding for stem rust resistance.A high level of resistance to all four aggressive pathotypes was observed in wheat cultivars and advanced lines Taza, E-19, E-99, E-102, E-572, E-796, E-809 (Kazakhstan), Ekinchi (Azerbaijan), Dostlik and Ulugbek 600 (Uzbekistan) and Umanka (Russia).Of the 170 advanced lines, 21 CIMMYT lines resistant to 5 aggressive Kazakhstani pathotypes of P. graminis were identified. A consistent resistant reaction to the field collection of rust and to five specific races was identified in eleven advanced lines of wheat. These entries can be used as donors in the breeding programmes aimed at stem rust improvement.Based on the data obtained from Turkey-CIM-MYT and the Plant Breeding Station Njoro, Kenya, out of the 13 tested entries, 6 valuable winter wheat breeding lines resistant to both stem and yellow rust and 10 wheat lines, showing high or moderate levels of resistance to Ug99 were selected.Using the STS molecular marker Sr24#12, associated with Sr24/Lr24, seven carriers of wheat stem rust resistance genes were identified. These results will assist breeders in choosing parents for crossing in developing varieties with desirable levels of stem rust resistance in Kazakhstan and will facilitate the stacking of resistance genes into advanced breeding lines.Thus, this genetic study of stem rust resistance allowed the identification of disease-resistant germplasm of wheat. A number of advanced lines showed a high level of yield potential combined with resistance to the Ug99 stem rust race and to other races which are predominant in the region of Central Asia.   500 bp","tokenCount":"2267"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b6cfb254f96a5bc609cef4b231462cd2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/71c7f7fb-0377-4996-832b-52d086097ab7/retrieve","id":"1062239457"},"keywords":["Phaseolu","s vulgatis","2","Research networks","3","High-yielding varieties","4","Seed production","5","Soclo-economic development","6","Participatory research","7","Agroindustr:ial complexes","8","Andean Region","l","Voysest","Oswaldo","II","Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation","N","Title"],"sieverID":"9ad5c130-4cad-4675-a29f-b998252ded9d","pagecount":"73","content":"To increase bean productivíty in the Andean Regían. the Regional Bean Project for the Andean Zone (PROFRIZA. its Spanish acronym) was created through an agreement made between the Government of Switzerland, represented by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation {SDC}. and the Intemational Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). From its beginnings in 1988, PROFRIZA operated as a regional project of CIAT's Bean Program until June 1998, when the SDC began managing PROFRIZA In December 1999. PROFRIZA ceased operating as a regional network. As of 2000, a new strategy will be followed: the SDC's regional offices in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru will draw up bilateral agreements with national programs in these countries to carry out activities that will lead to the fulflllment of the project's original mission. CIAT will provide technical assistance.When a mission has the ambitious goal of contributing to the economic, social, and ecological development ojbean-growing areas ojthe Andean Regían, it seems presumptuous to announce that the goal has been accomplíshed: more so when even the most untrained field observer can perceive how backward and deplorable living conditions still are in most rural areas of the Amelicas.We should not forget. however, that the inevitable tasks that we committed ourselves to fulfill had to be accomplished within fixed periods. In the last resort, fulfilling our mission consisted in making contlibutions, fruit of those tasks that we ourselves proposed to carry out within the time peliods agreed upon. The obvious dissatisfaction about how much was not accomplished and the new circumstances that could have arisen in that attempt are the new challenges that will have to be faced under new time periods, and with new strategies and actors.To ensure that the poor find the path to well-being is the work ofmany, each doing his or her part. This report outlines PROFRIZA's participation in that effort. and the catalytic effect its contributions had. The project's most direct contlibution was the development. identification, and dissemination ofimproved germplasmnew varieties that are more efficient in severa! ways. This new technology prometed changes in several areas. even outside the field of production, beca use of the commitment of those institutions leading the bean project in severa! countries.These ins titutions not only achieved in commítting other institutions of diverse interests to participate to va.rying degrees in the projec t. but also s u cceed ed in turning PROFRIZA into a broad~sp ectrum regional network. CIAT's technicaJ assistance and the SDC's financial support were decisive in helping a n ative crop, eaten and valued by the poor. to receive the attention it deserved. but was often denied on behalf of-paradox:ically-demand.The present report outlines PROFRIZA's achievements during 12 years ofwork. years that were decisive for the bean crop's modernization. In the late 1980s, any reference to bean in the Andean Region was commonplace. always alluding to its importance as a \"poor man's food\" and as the exclusive resource of small farmers .Bean is still what was then, an inexpensive protein. a \"meat of the poor~, and the object of many other unsavory expressions. But today it is also a crop that is seeking its own niche in the modero world. The bean enters the new century with a new image in the Andean Regían: as a competitor wíth other products for new openíngs in national and international markets. Bean farmers also have a new mentality; they no longer want to simply grow beans. but they also want to link themselves, somehow, to the commodity market.How did this happen? In this report, we will illustrate PROFRIZA's participation in this process. You will read about how a cardboard box containing lO kg ofb eans and arriving in Bolivia in 1978 from Colombia, could, 20 years later, tum into thousands of tons shipped from Bolivia in metallic contaíners to five different countries. You wíll read how Peru, against all statistical trends at the end of 1980s. converted forecasted deficits into impressive surpluses during the l990s and is today an exporter. You will also find out how Ecuador changed the panora ma for beans in the highlands by introducing bush varleties; and how Colombia compensated its loss in productivity, for explicable reasons, by increasing the area planted. You wíll see how, during this d ecade, societies, fa.nner associations. and new bean programs arase. And, when you finally read how the poor of the Andean Region now no longer suffer from a lack of beans and, moreover. benefit from surpluses, then you will understand why PROFRIZA can say M Mission accornplished!\" Oswaldo Voysest VoysestThe annual growth rate ofproduction dming the 12 years ofthe PROFRIZA project ranged from 2.7% and 4.3%, depending on the country. In the Andean Region overall (i.e. , Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru). this rate reached 15%. Impressive production levels were reached during 1994 to 1996-16.9% for Bolivia, 14.9% for Peru, and 8 . 7% for Colombia, contrasting with the negative val u es for Latin Ame1ica as a whole (-4.5%: Appendix B. Table 27).The growth rate ofbean production during 1988-1999 was higher than that of the population during the same period. In three countries it was even higher than population growth rates during 1964-1975 (compareTables 27, Áppendix B andTable 28, Appendix C).Bolivia is a unique case. Bean production has increased impressively since the 1980s, when the a.rea planted to bean was an insignificant 670 ha, to 1999, when 20.000 ha were planted (Table 6).Because bean ts used as a rotation crop, the increase in area planted to beans is a very important criterion when measuring research advances. Increased area is used as an index of the efficiency of released varieties or of an attractive rnarket.All countries recorded significant increases in the area planted to beans, especially Peru andBolivia durtng 1997-1999 (Appendix B, Table 24). Figures agree with the high growth rates (12.8% and 21.2%, respectively) shown by both countries in the previous 3 years (Appendix B, Table 27).Bolivia hadan important take-offbetween 1994 and 1999 (Table 6); Colombia rnaintained a steady increasing rate throughout the period (Table 18); and Ecuador and Peru maintained relatively stable figures throughout the period (Appendix B, Table 25).When specific regtons are considered, significant increases in productlvity can be observed. For example, in the Peruvian coastal regions, yields of more than 1000 kg/ha were easily recorded (Appendix B, Table 26).Productlvity levels increased by 15% between 1997 and 1999 in the productlon areas of Chuquisaca and Coch~barnba in Bolivia, and, in Santa Cruz, productivity increased by 8% as a result of the use of new bean varieties.New varietles account for most of the progress made. Between 1988 and 1999, countries released 50 new varieties that were disease resistant and had other agronomic advantages such as early maturity, erect growth habit, commercial grain types, and, in the case of climbing beans, less aggressive growth.Bolivia released 8 varietles (Table 10). Colombia 12 (Table 20). Ecuador 14 (Table 17), and Peru 17 (Tables 12 and 13). Between 1996 and 1999 Peru identlfied 12 varietles with export-type grain that were released to farmers (Table 14).Bolivia About 80% offarmers use improved varieties. Durtng 1994-1996, 72% ofbean farmers stopped planting 'SEL 1' in favor of the improved variety Carioca Mairana.Of the area planted to beans in the Santa Cruz Plains, the Chaco Plains, and the northem valleys ofBolivia, 95%, that is, 18,000 ha, are sown with irnproved varieties.Colombia has been characterized as a technology exporting country: 11 varietles, first developed in Colombia, are now planted in 20 countries of Latin Arnerica, North Arnerica, Asia, and Mrica (Table 19).Of the area planted to beans in the Department of Santander, the fourth largest bean-growing region ofthe country, 70%, that is, 5000 ha, are planted to improved, anthracnose-resistant varieties.Of the area planted to bush bean in the northern and southern highlands, 70% (i.e. , 11,000 ha) and 80% (i.e., 1500 ha). respectively, are planted to improved varieties.Once the most serious production problems of coastal areas-rust, viruses, and nematodes-were solved, the dissemination of Peruvian varieties was quick and extensive.In Chincha, the most important bean-growing area of the Peruvian coast, 80% of the area planted to canario-type bean and 100% of the area planted to navy bean are now sown with improved varieties.Along the northern coast, the varieties most used are also improved varieties developed by the project.The varieties developed at the main research sites have been disseminated to neighboring departments (Appendix B. Table 26).In Cusco, 94% of farmers of flve provinces now use new varteties. Production in creases and partlcipation of varieties in this effort are lúgh.In Cusco, new varieties have had a \"colonizing\" effect, spreading to different valleys and neighboring departments (Table 11).In Bolivia, not only 80% of farmers use improved varieties, but 50% of them also use certlfied seed.In Bolivia, 14 farmers have established a small seed company (APROSFYM, its Spanish acronym) that produces certlfied seed, using artisanal methods.In Peru, between 1991 and 1998, a group offarmers, althougll not formally consolidated as an enterprise, produced seed that was used to establish about 5000 ha.In Ecuador, although two groups of seed producers were consolidated in 1994-1996, neither has shown growth durtng the 3 years.Final Report PROFRIZA 1988PROFRIZA -1999 To improve the marketing ofbeans to • Diversify local consumption of bean, favortng the consumer's access to both traditional and other market classes.• Promote the different forros of natural bean consumption (dry and fresh grain, toasted grain, and green pods) and processed (packaged, canned, and frozen).• Convert beans into an export product.During the last decade, annual consumption per capita increased in Colombia, remained stable in Peru, and decreased slightly in Ecuador (Appendix D, Table 29).Both urban and rural consumption figures for Santa Cruz, East Bolivia (Appendix D, Table 31). are impressive, having surpassed even those for Brazil.In Cusca, Peru, the popping bean variety Q'osqo Poroto INIA helped disseminate new ways of ~onsuming this type of bean. In Chincha, Peru, where 90% of the beans consumed bdong to the canario type, navy bean began to be consumed on a mass scaJe, thanks to the dissemination ofthe improved, nematode-resistant 'Larán Mejorado INIA' among farmers.Bean consumption in the Andean Region has become notably diversified (Appendix D, Table 30). representing an important advance because predilectlon for specific and traditional market classes has always been an obstacle for developing the bean trade in the Region.In 1998, Bolivia exported 20,000 tons ofbeans, mainly to Brazil, Japan, and Colombia, for more than 8 million U.S. dollars. Bean has accounted for more than US$36 rnillion in foreign exchange for Bolivia since this crop was introduced into the plains (Table 8). ASOPROF, a small farmers' associatlon, has turned out to be the drtving force behind bean production and export in Bolivia (Table 5).Between 1994 and 1998, Peru exported pulses (cowpea, broad bean, beans, and lima bean, in that arder) for a value totalling more than US$46 million (Appendix E). The evolution of ASOPROF, an orgarúzation created in 1990 with the participation of 11 grassroot organizations, should be highlighted. This asstJciation began with 470 small farmers who planted beans during winter. In 1999. ASOPROF grouped 23 organizations, representing 2000 farmers, and selling beans to Japan. Colombia, Brazil, ltaly, and Spain (Tables 1-5).All national institutions supported by PROFRIZA have received contributions from foreign institutions and, in sorne cases, national institutions. indicating the level of credibillty PROFRIZA has attained and its strength. Especially important is the PROSEM agreement in Peru through which private enterprises (through IPEL members) and the SDC (through PROFRIZA) contributed US$30,000 and US$3,000, respectively, to finance a bean seed production project to be executed by PROMPEX through PROMENESTRAS.The regional exchange of experiences was encouraged between representatives of the most important associations of the Andean Reglan. PROFRIZA extended invitations and sponsored the visits of:The president of IPEL (Peru) to Bolivia on two occasionsThe manager of ASOPROF (Bolivia) to ColombiaThe President and Manager of ASOPROF (Bolivia) to PeruThe Manager of Crop Diversification of FENALCE (Colombia) to BoliviaThe integration so far achieved through the regional network is seen as the first step toward fonning strong national programs.Until 1980, production statistics for the Department of Santa Cruz, East Bolivia, did not include figures for common bean (Phaseolus vulga.ris L.). Twenty years la ter. bean production in the area is sometimes from as muchas 20.000 ha, a stríking fact in a country where bean consumption was traditionally rninimal. Although this number seems insignificant when compared with those of other bean-growing countrtes of Latín America, they are extraordinary when placed in the social context of East Bolivia. The Bolivian case has no parallel in Latin America; the social impact of incorporating beans into the traditional production system is an example of what can be done by a people who want to get ahead with something in which it believes. lt also shows the role that can be played (so that the people may achieve) by agrtcultural research and international cooperation in a special union of interinstitutional efforts led by the local university.In August 1933, thanks toan earthern road that had recently been constructed, the first motorized vehicle entered Santa Cruz from westem Bolivia. Yet. its momentous arrival gave little hint of the great significance that the Cochabamba-santa Cruz Highway, asphalted in 1956, would have in the future of many Bolivians. Foreign missions. arriving in 1942 and 1951, recommended that plantations be modemized and programs of agricultura! settlernent be carried out to relieve pressure in Bolivia's overpopulated interior. In 1953, settlement and exploitation of new areas began. us hering in an era of drama tic changes for the once-desolate vast plains and su b -Andean mountains of East Bolivia.Without analyzing the advantages or disadvantages of this migra tion for the region's economic developrnent versus its ecological balance. the fact is that, b y the beginning of the 1980s, large-scale agriculture had developed in the northern, northeastem. eastem, and southeastem sectors of the Santa Cruz Departrnent, in an approxirnate radius of 160 km from the Santa Cruz City. These areas. where Iand use comprised extensive cultivation of soybean. sugarcane, rnaize, and rice. and livestock raising. are known as ~integrated\". and were joined with other areas expanding under similar progressive technology. While th ese areas grew, areas of settlement (organized and voluntary) expanded. oc:cu pied by migrants from the country's interior (Departments of Cochabamba. Sucre. Potosi. and La Paz). The migrants were attracted by organized plans for settJement or by possibilities of manual labor that th e rice, sugarcane, and cotton farrns offered.The Universidad Autónoma MGabriel René Moreno\" (UAGRM) began work in beans by circumstance. In 1977, the Agricultural Experimental Center (CEA) of the UAGRM's Faculty of Agricultura! Sciences was created, starting up agricultura! research in that center of learning. In 1978, one of its staff, Francisco Kempff, attended the frrst course on beans given by ClAT at its headquarters in Cali, Colombia. In 1979, the CEA became the Institute for Research in Agriculture and Renewable Resources (IlARNR) and, in 1980, the IlARNR's Bean Program was created at Kempffs initiative after his experience in Colombia. The first research activities-of the brand-new Bean Program were to evaluate bean lines from CIAT's international bean yield trial nurseries. Not even the most fertile mind had imagined, when Bolivia received the first cardboard box containing 10 kg ofbean seed from Colombia in October 1978, that, 20 years later, Colombia would be receiving container loads of tons of red beans produced in the plains and valleys of East Bolivia.Bean lines ofblack-seed and Brazilian types , sent by CIAT to the UAGRM, were evaluated during thesis work and in trials in coordination with the MAbapó lzozog\" Project. Other than studying, through thesis work. the most appropriate times for planting and weed control, the Program established, at the opportune moment, demonstration plots in two settlement centers, San Julián and Comando, to help farmers become familiar with the new crop. Kempff had the vision to r ealize the possibilities of beans as a winter crop and, because bean consum ption in Santa Cruz was almost unknown, of selling them to Brazil. Although the small-farming settlers accepted beans, the large-scale farmers in the zones of integration and expansion did not, being reluctant to deal with a new crop and its insecure markets, and the abundant labor required for manually harvesting and threshing the crop. The University and settlers decided to gamble on the new crop. thus beginning their adventure with beans in East Bolivia.The proposal to plant beans as a winter crop, at first sight. seemed simple, so much so that it may even have had occurred to other people who knew the area. The difference, however, was that the UAGRM could effectively implement two basíc measures:• To malee decisions based on research. That is, through research, to determine the answers to questions such as which varieties would be the most efficient, when and where they should be planted, and how to salve the problem of seed supply.• To use a particípatory strategy. Results of agronomic research included the identification of:• 1\\vo recommended sowing dates for beans in the Department of Santa Cruz: winter months in the plains (400-600 m), and summer months in temperate valleys (1600-2000 m).• The best two varleties ofthe black-seeded type-ICA Pijao and BAT 76, which were were used to initiate commercial production-and the best varieties of a differently colored seed for the Brazilian market, particularly 'Carioca' that, since 1983, was called 'SEL 1' and had markedly changed the export panorama.The UAGRM remaíned in charge of the winter production of basíc seed in the plaíns. Certified seed was produced in the temperate valleys, ídentified as the most promising area for seed production beca use of possible planting in the austral summer. Here, the UAGRM directly controlled 40 ha of seedbeds and n umerous small farmers (even as many as 100). who each sowed l to 2 ha. The commercial production ofbeans was. by commission of the CAO, in the hands of the PROMASOR Farmers Association. which negotiated, in 1981, with CORDECRUZ for credit to produce seed and promote the crop. The bean adventure in East Bolivia, thus, hada participatory fo cus from its initial phases.[14Final Report PROFRJZA 1 988-1999Artisanal seed production was begun in the valleys under the responsibility of small farmers. Land was worked with oxen, weeds controlled manually, diseases and pests controlled with manually operated backpack sprayers, and harvesting was manual (by pulling off pods). Threshing was done with chapapas, an artifact similar to a marimba, on which dried plants were placed and gently stru.ck with a flat piece of wood. Seed with a low percentage of broken grains and impurities was thus obtained. Basic seed for planting seedbeds was proportioned out by the UAGRM, once the Regional Seed Certification Office qualified the seed. At harvest, the farmer should have received double the quantity he or she origínally received or, in its absence, the cash equivalent at liquidation. Seed lots were selected by previous agreement among farmers and the Bean Program, and the selection confirmed by the Seed Certification Office. Pesticides were delivered by the UAGRM, at cost, which was charged against the harvest. Duríng the growíng season, the Program gave the certified-seed producers technícal assistance.The mínimum requírements for producing seed encompass a guarantee of the genetic identity of the variety under multiplication, and the compliance with certaín standards of germination and health to guarantee the product's quality.In summary, the bean-seed production system established in Santa Cruz fulfliled the following minimum requirements: •• Planting for seed production occurred ata different season to that for commercial production;• The production was from basic seed; and• The control and supervisory agencies were involved in the process.Only one small detail differentiated the artisanal system from a more elaborate and formal system of seed production: the producers were small farmers who used artisanal practices for bean production and sale. The Bolivian experience was, from the beginning, an authentic process of artisanal seed production, almost without parallel in Latín Ameiica.The Achilles' heel of this excellent planning was in marketing, because production, for lack of domestic markets, was almost exclusively destined for unstable export markets. su eh as those of Brazil, whích were accessed on an informal basis. Usually, black beans were sold or exchanged in Brazil for equipment, machinery, or inputs. Business, however. was not always successful. For example, in Montero, northern Santa Cruz, all the 1500 farmers, who formed part of the Integrated Services Cooperative \"Santa Cruz Norte\" Ltd. (CISSCN). planted black b eans for sale in Brazil. but, on severa] occasions were notable to sell or exchange even one bag. Yet. bean production in East Bolivia grew from almost zero to about 2.000 ha.  (IIA-El Vallecito). as the IIARNR carne to be called. Under his direction the Program perhaps made its most important achievements. In 1987, 'SEL 1' ('Carioca'} had already replaced the black-bean type and plans to encourage local consumption were being considered. The CISSCN had ap proved a project financed by USAID to plant 500 ha to cartoca-type beans for export to Brazil and to promote consumption among the 11,000 people who fonned the base of this cooperative of 1500 fanners .Other organizations also developed activ:ities to promote export and consumption of beans. These organízations included an institution whose efforts, together with those of the UAGRM, were key to the development of beans in East BoliVia: the Mennonite Association for Economic Development (MEDA). This NGO was established in the mid-1980s, beginning by entertng the field of promoting the bean crop, giv:ing technical assistance to the fanners of Colonia Berlín and helping to export their black beans to Brazil. In 1987, Colonia Berlín made its flrst legal export of 100 tons to that country with MEDA's assistance. particularly that ofits then Executive Director, Calv:in Miller, who, with Ortubé. was the motor in consolidating bean production in Santa Cruz. The funds that the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) made available through PROFRIZA to the UAGRM's Bean Program in 1989 were decisive in launch.ing the bean crop in Santa Cruz. The UAGRM could also install demonstration plots precisely where MEDA was organ.izing small farmers and thus con tribute to consolidating the efforts of MEDA's leader Calv:in Miller and lea ders of other groups in organiZing the fanners .Various events highlight PROFRIZA's participation:ASOPROF was created.The area planted to beans gradually grew.A seed production system was consolidated.Both exports and domestic consumption grew.~u -~:} ___ .::=:::..::::::.:...----The \"crisis of fallow la nd\" (described on page 23) was mitigated .Employrn ent was gener ated a nd fa mily welfare improved.The crop expanded t o other areas of the cou n t ry.Useful germplasm was gen erated and dis seminated.Flr\\al Report PROFRJ.ZA 1988-1999 Below we shall see how an activity that began asan adventure becarne reality~ how the bean crop had come to stay in East Bolivia!MEDA's efforts to organize small fanners were rewarded on 16 March 1990. when the National Association of Bean Fanners (ASOPROF) was bom, based on ll grassroot organizations, made up of 470 small fanners who had been planting beans as a winter crop for about 7 or 8 years. The Association currently integrates 22 associations, bringing together 2000 small farmers {Table l). ASOPROF was bom wíth the mission to promote the cultivation and consumption of beans in Bolivia through productlve units based on the small fann. It aims to increase fanner income and improve fanning families' diet. To do so, it prometes the development of the bean crop in new areas where beans can provide an economically profitable altemative for small farmers and be sustainable within their production system. ASOPROF's principal activities are as follows:• Producing and marketing certified bean seed.• Providing technical assistance wíth production and postharvest handling.• Marketing beans on domestic and export markets.• Promoting bean consumption at rural and urban levels .ASOPROF has legal status. Since its foundation, ASOPROF has focused its activities in the Department of Santa Cruz. But, in 1992, its focus widened to include other departmen ts: Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, and Tarija (Table 3). where it operates through the collaboration of other institutions: CEDEAGRO (Cochabamba). FEDEAGRO (Chuquisaca). and ACLO (Tarija).The social unit of ASOPROF is the s mali fanner: almost 65% of the 3500 fanners making up ASOPROF plantan average of 5 hato beans (Table 4).Sorne indicators show the role played by ASOPROF in seed production and marketing and the economic benefits that these have represented for the Association's smali-farmer members (Table 5).  So far we ha ve desclibed the bean crop's development in Bolivia since the beginning of the 1980s, but we have not discussed any growth figures . The reader shou ld understand the bean's populality in East Bolivia so that h e or s h e can appreciate the d evelopment of other important acUviUes related to the crop tha t were taking place simultaneously with the crop's development. The fluctuations in the area planted observed between 1983 and 1987 reflect the uncertainty of the Brazilian market. The unexpected growth of area planted in 1991 is the result of the exaggerated expectations of large-scale fanners who, enticed by the Brazilian market prices of the year befare. began producing beans . The sudden. severe shrinking of area planted the next year reflects the deception felt with the same market.The true average of yields was 1000 kg/ha . Yields of 1200 kg/ ha were obtained when the planting areas were relatively small. When more lands were incorporated , particularly of less favorable regions. su eh as the plains. the average yield dropped.Flrlal Report PROFRIZA 1 988•1999 Yields ofless than 1000 kg/ha can be attributed partly to \"bad years\" , affected by climatic variations.At the beginning of the 1980s. once the varieties were identified and basic knowledge of the crop was developed, the UAGRM, under the leadership of Marco Koriyama. began a program for seed production near Mairana (at 1600 m). About 180 small farmers from 20 communities planted about 300 hato beans durtng the austral summer (December-January). This crop was to produce seed for farrners to plant beans as a winter crop (April-May) in the plains (at 400 m).By the begínning of the 1990s. the farmers of Mairana already had a small seed company. Its equipment had been donated by the CIAT Seed Unit, foundation seed by the IIA-El Vallecito, technical assistance by the University and the Regional Seed Certification Office, and administrative and marketing support by ASOPROF. The company was called APROSFYM, and was organized with the participation of 14 farmers. Thanks to the talent of one its members, Tito Orquera. who designed a stationary thresher, APROSFYM succeeded in interesting the FAO-Postharvest Project to help enhance the thresher's model and thus begin producing and selling the machine in series.At the decade's end, the original seed production model is still beíng followed and encompasses not only Mairana and the plains but also otber localities. Research: UAGRM Variety record:Regional Seed Office Producti.on of basic and foundation seed:UAGRM or autborized companies Quality control:Regional Seed Certification Service Thanks to its organized system of seed production, Bolivia can, unlike other countries with older traditions of bean production, exhibit adequate levels of certified-seed production (Table 7).Until 1989, MEDA and CISSCN coordinated the entire chain of activities (distribution of seed, credit, and marketing) ortented toward bean export. From 1990 onward, when ASOPROF was created, the Association assumed these same responsibilities for the small farmers. while PROMASOR & C. A. and two prívate enterplises (DITEX and Cordillera) were in charge of marketing for large-scale To enter the export market and compete with other companies, ASOPROF became partners with MEDA in an export company, ASOMEX. ASOMEX's members include the farmers, MEDA, and representatives of 20 communities. Bolivia currently exports beans to Brazil, Colombia, Japan, ltaly, and Spain. Most of this production comes from small farmers who, 20 years ago. had scarcely heard of beans. The biggest export market is Brazil, which had been accessed on an informal basis since 1980, a little after the bean adventure in Santa Cruz began. In 1986, export to this country was formalized on the signing of the Paz-Sarney bilateral agreement, which ensured a channel for free export for 70,000 t/year. The market begun to grow from lOO met.ric tons in 1987, through 300 in 1988 and 700 in 1989, to 2878 in 1990. The exported beans were mostly carioca type, but other types have also been exported: sorne preto (black) andjalinho (butter). Because of the high number of nisei Brazilans (J apanese descendants) living in J a pan, Bolivia has recently begun exporting carioca-type beans to that country. Through research carried out in recent years by the UAGRM's Bean Program. new bean types have been adapted to East Bolivia, opening up new export m arkets in Colombia (Table 8) and Spain.Pirtal Report PROFRIZA 1988-1999  A 1994 1 study found that ín urban Santa Cruz, 60% of the population consumed camba beans (Vigna unguiculata, or cowpea) at an annual rate af 2.2 kg per ca pita. On introducíng the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris}. the offer of beans became more diverse. resulting in the new grain becoming incorporated l. Maruique 8, R. 1994. Estudio de consumo y mercado de frejol PhCLSeolu.s uulga.Ii.s L. en el departamento de Santa Cruz [Bolivia). S.S. thesís. University Autonóma \"Gabriel René Moreno\". Santa Cruz. Bolivia.into tbe díet of 53% of consumers, so much so tbat the annual average of consumption rose to 3.9 kg per capita. The introduction of common beans affected tbe consumption of traditional camba beans in that the number of their consumers dropped to 49% of tbe original number and the quantity consumed was reduced by 16%. However, the net balance of consumption of these two grains (Vigna unguiculata and Phaseolus vulgari.s) in crea sed to 160% as the per ca pita bean consumption rose from 2.2 to 5. 7 kg/person.In the rural sector, befare beans were introduced, 37% of tbe rural population consumed cowpea atan annual average rate of 4 kg/person. Now, 70% of tbe population consume botb Vigna and Phaseolus beans. Unlike in the urban sector where consumption dropped, Vigna bean consumption went up by 29%. Total annual consumption of Vigna and Phaseolus beans rose from 4 to 11 kg/person, tbat is, by an increase of 168%.Up-to-date figures from a 1998 study by Norha Ruiz de Londoño, of CIAT, showed impressive bean consumption rates in the vartous social strata of the urban and rural sectors of Santa Cruz:• In the study area, 75% of rural familles, and 50% of urban familles, consumed beans. Consumption rates in low-strata farnilies reached 84%.• Consumption per capita estimated for the rural population surpassed the average for Brazil. In Santa Cruz, annual consumption is 23.5 kg/person (in Brazil, it is 18). In the urban sector, overall consumption is 6 kg, but the population's lower strata annually consume 12 kg/person.• Ifwe consider the average amounts consumed by bean eaters only, then figures are about 31 and 12 kg per capita/year in the rural and urban sectors, respective! y.• Beans contríbute one-third of a rural person's daily protein requírements and 17% of those of an urban dweller's.In Santa Cruz, land grants to settlers varíed from 1 O to 50 ha. Smaller grants were considered as undesirable beca use settlers with only 1 O or 20 ha were found to rapidly exhaust virgin bush and to become caught in the trap of the so-called ~crisis of fallow land\". This crisis sets in when secondary vegetation invades the land left under fallow and settlers find it impossible to combat it. They then have only two options: to use machinery or to raise cattle to take advantage of tbe grass that eventually invades everything. Because both options represent heavy investments, the small farmer must abandon his land and look for more virgin forest. In many cases, receiving more land only meant postponing the crisis that inevitably carne. Fallowing. a widespread in subsistence agricuJture, is nota practice opposed to modern agricultural systems; it can b e improved with the inclusion of crop rotation. alley cropping, plant cover. or a groforestal.[34Final Report PROF'RIZA 1988-1999 For the Santa Cruz settlers, the lack of a sllitable winter crop motivated most to migra te in search of temporary jobs. The introduction of beans into the region allowed settlers to farm their fields in winter and to introduce highly recommended practices such as rotating cereals (maize in summer) with legumes (beans in winter). Beans also enabled fanners to develop capital that would one day allow them to mechanize their property, buy livestock, or do a combination ofboth.Although introducing beans reduced the problems of the so-called \"crisis of fallow Iand\" for farmers, it probably also induced them to incorporate more land under agriculture-beans being profitable and solving a series of daily problems. often far removed from production, but intensely united to their well-being. For example:• In winter, 86o/o of the are a cultivated is under beans. Befare the crop was introduced, only 9% of the arable land was exploited in winter.• Beans ensure better land use: cereal rotation with legumes.• By hampering weed invasion during winter. beans are estimated to reduce production costs of summer crops by as much as US$1.5 million.• Beans elimina te farmers' need to migrate to other regions to find winter work by generating a source of work for the farmers and their families. Almost half of the workdays expended on bean cultivation are contributed by the family. representing about 222,500 workdays for the season. Table 9 shows the growing social impact that beans have on the region as an employment generator.In Santa Cruz, in the areas of integration and expansion where modero agriculture is carrted out. the felling of trees has been pitiless and irrational. In the land settlement areas. increased number of trees were felled in favor of a profitable crop that solved many of the farmers' problems. including those unrelated to production. Farmers of the land settlement areas are part of a tragic scenario: they come from the high plateau, fleeing from misery and desperation, to \"invade\" a piece oftheir own country, covered by jungle. They discover the land and cultivate it, thus offering their children food, stability, farnily identity, and improved well-being. To their country, and to the world in general, they show that poverty such as that which they suffered in the Platea u can be surpassed, that they can always help themselves, provided they have the resources and can be supported when these faíl.The impact of farmers' actions in this case should also include improved living conditions that give their lives more dignity. Hence, when judging the role beans play in East Bolivia, environmentallosses should be balanced against the gains of these human nuclei in terms of growth as people. Man is part of the environment and his well-being is the best example of sustainability-what better example than precisely this one of the human condition!As we have already shown, beans initiated their pílgrimage to Bolivia in 1982, being frrst planted in the Department of Santa Cruz in the plains (at <500 m) as a winter crop and in the mesothennic valleys (1500-2000 m) as a summer crop. Between 1990 and 1998, beans became consolidated in localities other than Santa Cruz: Muyupampa (province ofLuis Calvo) and Monteagudo (province ofHemando Siles) in the Department of Chuquisaca, and the area of Mizque (province of Mizque) in the Department of Cochabamba. In 1999, the bean began entertng the valleys of the Departments ofTarija and Potosí. What a settlerlThose lines and varieties that CIAT introduced to Bolivia in 1979 began to yield between 1982 and 1985 with the fust commercial planting ofblack-seeded varieties: BAT 76, a line from ClAT, and ICA Pijao, a Colombian variety. Varteties of other seed colors then followed, such as the Brazilian Cartoca, Cartoca 80. Catu, Aroana, Ayso, and Rosinha. Ofthese, the most outstandingwas 'Carioca•, which had started, in 1983, with the name \"SEL 1\" and began to predorninate. 'SEL 1' had the virtue of encouraging bean consumption in East Bolivia where black beans had been rejected. In 1990. when Bolivia became a member of PROFRIZA, the flow of improved gennplasm became more intense. The UAGRM's Bean Program strengthened its genetic improvement team, and new market classes of beans Qalinho, calima, cranberry, navy) were incorporated into the Program's work portfolio and new cultivars were launched (Table lO).As a result of the development and dissemination of improved germplasm by the UAGRM, beans not only settled in Santa Cruz, solving the problems that small farmers had with winter. but were also disseminated to other regions of Bolivia to which they brought important changes. These changes functioned (without indulging in hyperbole) as a springboard for small fanners to modem agriculture, as• shown by the farmers having:Pina1 Report PROFRJZA 1988PROFRJZA -1999  • Made changes in the structure of their production system by introducing a new ero p.• Adopted new technology, which had required training.• Developed a capacíty for management and thus could enter export markets.• Achieved access to resources, including credit for working capital, machinery. and other equípment.Although the bean adventure in East Bolivia has many participants, we must recognize that, without the UAGRM's cooperation and guidance, the adventure would not have begun when it did, nor would it have arrived so far. The creative and bold step that the University took beyond the academic and scientific to push ahead a socioeconomic project based on an unknown crop, ridiculed as a food for the poor, is worth pointing out. Local institutions also deserve credit for their altruistic response to the UAGRM's call to support a project aimed at society's general well-being. All benefited from those who dared to dream, and CIAT and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation in Development did well to have believed in them for over 20 years. The bean adventure in Bolivia is an example of collaborative spirit and steadfastness.Working Together.The Hazards of Forecasting ln late 1989, outstanding CIAT professionals made an in-depth analysis of important FAO data and reached the following conclusions regarding the panorama of beans in Latín America for year 2000: y Although the projectiDn of current aggregate productiDn and consumptiDn trends do not poin.t toward a deficit in the supply of beans for year 2000, the level of aggregation conceals the fact that projectiDns for Brazil and the Andean Region establish annual de.ficits of 351 and 107 thousand tons, respective/y. The estimated dejicitfor the Andean Region amounts to 34% of the productiDn, and is mainly concentrated in Peru and Ecuador. •'2 FAO statistics for 1988FAO statistics for -1999 indicate that annual growth rates of bean production, area harvested, and yield in Peru were 4.3%. 2.2%, and 2.0%, respectively (AppendiX B.'Table 27). thus reversing the pessimistic forecasts. Peru is currently self-sufficient in bean production and even exports beans . How did this happen? All can be attributed to govemmental support. a dynamic and motivated prívate sector formed by intrepid entrepreneurs. and small and medium-scale fanners who were confident about the future.In Peru, 97% of alllandowners are small fanners. Here, as in the rest of the Andean Region, bean is not only a crop for low-income fanners, but it is also planted in small areas scattered throughout the country. This crop is planted in a diversity of environments, found in highlands and coasts, ranging from sea level to 3400 m , and under different production systems. In both regions. beans are not only an important component of the local diet, but also an important source of in come for the rural population. But. beca use the conditions of production differ markedly between the two regions, their strategies for tackling bean problems also differ significantly.Peru has about 80,000 ha planted to beans. About 48% of this area is in the highlands (700-3200 m above sea level) . accounting for 45% of the national Pilla! Report PROFRlZA 1988PROFRlZA -1999 production. In this regían, climbing bean, planted in association with maize, predomina tes; 90% of the area is planted under dryland conditions and yield averages are less than 600 kg/ha.Fanners search for climbing-bean varieties with nonaggressive growth, so they can be grown in association with maize in production systems where marketing the ear of tender maize (choclo) is the main objective. The release in 1989 of 'Kori Inti', an early maturing variety that develops in the lower two-thirds of the maiZe crop -a characteristic that prevents lodging-fulfilled this objective. 'Kori Inti' has successfully spread throughout Valle Sagrado in Cusca. and is planted in association with the economically important, Iarge-grained, white Urubamba maiZe.Farmers need disease-resistant, climbing-bean varieties to reduce pesticide use and to express genotypic yield potentiaJ. Examples of the advances PROFRIZA has made toward fulfilling this need are the varteties INIAA Cajabamba, a white bean resistant to rust and anthracnose, and Gloriabamba, a rnesoamerican type resistant to anthracnose-both for the northern highlands . Another variety. Q'osqo Poroto INIA a type of popping bean resistant to anthracnose, was developed for the southem highlands.Farmers also need bush bean varieties with different planting times to expand the crop's cultivation frontier. Examples of such varieties are Jacinto INIA, a bush varlety resistant to three diseases. including anthracnose and adapted to a broad range of altitudes (1600-3000 m.a.s.l.). and INIA 17, another bush variety that is broadly adapted (Table 12)This region accounts for 16% of the country's bean-growing area and 23% of production. Along the coast, all cultivated areas, regardless of crop, are under regulated irrigation. Average bean productiVity ranges from 850 to 1200 kg/ha.  13).Ex:port-type varieties aJso need to be identified that can be successfully planted on the coast. Twelve varieties of the following market classes were selected and disseminated: caballero, Great Northem, navy, alubia, white kidney, dark red kidney, light red kidney, red marrow, pinto, carioca, and black turtle (Table 14).In Peru, to talk about Andean crops is to taJk about patato, an endless number of tubers. quinoa. kiwicha, maize. wheat. barley. maca. and. if need be. broad bean and lentil. but cert.ainly not beans. The paradigm changed slightly as the century drew to an end. and bean became categortzed as an Andean crop beca use of the advances this crop has made, especially in the southem highlands. Among the achievements are the following:Better Companions for Maize 'Q'ello Poroto', a climbing bean with yellow, giant-sized grains. is the most popular variety in the southem highlands . Although farmers plant it in association with maize, its growth habit is characterized by copious vegetative production and a long growing period from planting to maturity. These characteristics can make the bean a difficult companion for certain types of maize, íncluding the very popular starchy varieties Blanco Urubamba, grown for its high market value worldwide in the Valle Sagrado de los Incas (Cusca}. and 'Amarillo Oro'.'Koii Inti', an early maturtng climbing bean with a well-balanced growth habit. can be grown in association with maize without sígnificantly decreasing its yields. Its development has allowed bean production to increase by about 5000 tons of d.ry grain in the inter-Andean valleys of the southem highlands. such as the Valle Sagrado de los Incas, where maize is traditionally monocropped. This bean vartety has spread to Limatambo. Mollepata. Paruro, and Acomayo in the Department of Cusco, and to Curahuasí, Abancay, and Andahuaylas in the Department of Apurimac, al1 in the southern highlands.Another good companion for maize was identified within the class of popping beans, a traditional crop found in the inter-Andean valleys of the Departments of Cajamarca and Cusco. In Cusco. popping beans are grown in association with the maiZe varieties Blanco Urubamba and Amarillo Oro, among others. as a production altemative in whích cultural practices are performed for the main crop (maize). 'Q'osqo Poroto INIA' is a popping bean of nonleafy growth habit and resistant to the main races of anthracnose (Conetotrichwn lindemuthianum) and to halo blight (Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola). With its release, the cultivation of maize and poppíng beans in association h as íncreased signíficantly in many Cusco valleys situated between 2600 and 2900 m.a.s.l.Popping beans, also called toasting beans. are known in Peru as poroto. ñuña. apa, nwnia, among other denominations. and in Bolivia as k'opuro. These beans constitute a unique genetic resource of the Andean Region, distributed between Cajamarca ln the northem highlands of Peru and the Department of Chuquisaca in Bolivia. In Cusca, popping beans are mainly planted in the hígh valleys of the Urubamba River at sites su ch as Ollantayt.ambo, Pachar, and Urubamba. at altitudes varyi.ng from 2800 to 2900 m.a.s.l.The grains of this type of bean pop when beated in oil or placed in a bot frying pan. These beans presenta broad variability not only in grain color but also in their capacity to pop. Tender, floury t:ypes With high popping capacity are the most ¡]4Flnal Report PROFRIZA 1 988 • J 999 preferred. With low fat and high protein contents, the beans are also used to make a very nourtshing \"ñuña milk\" in sorne parts of Peru.Popping beans not only representan important source of protein for the rural population of the highlands of Peru and Bolivia, but they also ha ve possibilities as a cash crop. Their potential in the urban market is as great as that of peanuts, popcom, and toasted broad beans, all significant snack foods. The popping bean could therefore represent an important source of income for one of the most marginalized sectors of Latin Ame rica: the lndian populations of the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia. Furthermore, popping beans require less fuel for cooking, and, as a result. the consumption of these beans may represent an economic and environmental component in regions where fuel is limited. In addition to its nutritive and fuel-saving attributes, popping beans have a potential for biological N fixation and can adapt to associations with other crops, su eh as maize, making it an efficient food crop. Des pite all these advantages. the popping bean is little known outside its traditional production areas and its cultivation has never reached a Iarge enough scale to plan large-scale marketing because:• Although certain types (e.g., Chec'che, Angel Poroto. and Pava} are preferred, none have been disseminated on a large scale beca use of the wide diversity of consumer preferences.• Most types of popping bean have a leafy foliage that makes them unattractive for planting in association with maíZe varteties of high market value.• Most varteties are susceptible to diseases, especially anthracnose. Ascochyta, and halo blight.• The best known types of popping bean have a varying capacity to pop that seldom reaches 100%, thereby hindeiing marketing.• Most urban consumers have not even heard of popping beans. whereas t-road beans and peanuts are well-known snack foods .An individual selection conducted by Vidal Ortiz in 1991 in a collection from Limatambo, Anta Province. Cusca. was the origin ofwhat later would be known as the vartety Q'osqo Poroto INlA, the first officially released vartety of popping bean. Mirihan Gamarra, who participated in the selection of this vartety, and her team conducted a widespread campaign to disseminate the new variety, showing those majar characteristics that differentiated it from other known types of popping bean:• Nonleafy foliage that allows it to grown in association with rnaize without affecting yields.• Resistance to anthracnose and halo blight. two major diseases.• High market value: lOOo/o popping capacity: the grains, when toasted, do not form rosettes: grains weigh less after toasting than do local ecotypes.'Q'osqo Poroto INJA' is widespread in Cusca. The support of the Peruv:lan Government in setting good prices for popping bean and its inclusion in the National Food Program (PRONAA. its Spanish acronym) were decisive in encouraging plantings of 'Q'osqo Poroto INJA' on a commercial scale in Cusca. Many plantings used the trellis system that allowed yields to reach almost 3000 kg/ha. Although popping beans have not yet entered urban and intemational markets, the availability of a vartety such as 'Q'osqo Poroto INIA' opens up endless possibilities for this ancestral crop. one of the many valuable legacies left by the Incas.Bush beans introduced to Cusca in the 1960s represented an interesting option for farmers because their early maturity meant they could be planted as many as 4 months after the last planting date for climbing beans. This flexibility of planting time allowed farrners to have food practically at any time. Despite these obvious advantages. the area planted to bush beans did not increase substantially and was restricted to a few valleys in Cusca. mainly because the introduced varieties Red Kidney, Puka, and Rojo Mollepata began to show. with time. susceptibility to the main bean diseases occurring in the highlands. Also, the red grain color was not partlcularly popular in the area.In 1980, CIAT supplied a red bean that, despite its color, began to spread throughout the region. In 1995, this bean was released as INIA 17, becoming very popular in the Department of Madre de Dios. deep in the jungle, possibly beca use of its hardiness. The new vartety showed resistance to halo blight and interrnediate resistance to rust, anthracnose, and web blight. In 1994, bean variety Jacinto INIA was released; its golden yellow color was similar to that of the most popular variety. known as Yellow Giant' or 'Q'ello Poroto'. lt rapidly gained popularity among fanners because of its commercially acceptable color, agronomic characteristics. early maturity, and disease resistance.In the southem highlands, new bush bean varieties have hada colonizing effect, spreading throughout several valleys in Cusca, although they are still to achieve large-s cale production in the areas where they are established.In the northern and central highlands. bush beans have also assumed a ucolonizing\" role. Varieties such as Huerequeque INIA, Larán Mejorado INIAA. and Canario 2000 INIAA, d eveloped for coas tal areas. are being cultivated in the secluded inter-Andean valleys (between 800 and 1300 m. a.s .l.) of the Departments of Cajamarca. Ancas h, and Lima.Examples of innovative germplasm for an ancient region-the so-called In ca Region integra ted by the depa rtme nts ofCusco and Apurimac-are new climbing-bean varieties wh ose less aggressive growth h ave made it possible to penetra te areas planted to monocrop ped m aize ; a truly spectac ular popping bean vartety; a nd early ma turing bus h bean varieties that h a ve opened new fron tiers for bean cu ltiva tion .Final Report PROFRJZA 1988•1999 The advantages that this technology has brought to this area is reflected partly in fue progressive increase in the area planted to beans in this regían, being sometimes, as in Cusca, eight times more than the plantings of the early l980s (Table 11).AJthough the germplasm supplied by INIA, through its association witb CIAT Via PROFRJZA. has had a less dramatic impact, it has also brought benefits to the northem highlands, specifically in Cajamarca. 'INIA Puebla'. an early maturtng var.iety resistant to anthracnose, was widely disseminated among fanners of the bean-growing areas of fue Department of Cajarrnarca, and can be found, even today, in marketplaces, together with 'Glortabamba', anofuer widely accepted vartety that was distributed by CIAT in 1985. An adoption study conducted by CIAT in 1990 in bean-growing areas of Cajamarca determined fuat, 3 years after release, 65% of farmers were growing the vartety Glortabamba. About 35% of the bean-growing area showed a 90% increase in productivity, compared with areas growing local varteties. The adoption of 'Gloiiabamba' mean t. in 1988, a 27% increase in production for fue study areas Chota, Santa, and Cajabamba, and a 22% increase for the entire bepartment of Cajamarca. The additional production was estimated at 3038 tons at a value ofUS$1,519,000. The rate ofretum on the research was estimated at 29%, With a cost-benefit ratio of 3.17.Table 12 shows the vaiieties released by INIA for fue highlands overall during the period of PROFRlZA's intemational cooperation actiVities.We could say that by fue end of 1995. fue nomenclature of beans along fue PeruVian coast was limited to such terms as ~canario\", \"bayo\", \"panamito\", \"caballero\" when referring to the most popular beans in the region. In 1999, bean-related vocabulary had expanded to \"cranberry\", \"pinto\", \"caiioca\", \"alubia\", \"navy\", \"calima\", \"red kidney\", \"caraota\", and others that identify intemationally recognized market classes of bean. This enrichment in the vocabulary of farrners and entrepreneurs. and even con sumers. can be attrtbuted to changes in the production s tructure. technology, management. and access to resources. These changes have occurred as a result of a new economic model now being applied in Peru and which opens new opportunities for small farrners to compete in a market economy. Thanks to the technologies developed. beans have b ecome a competitive crop in both domestic and foreign markets.The climate prevailing in the Peruvian coastal region favor s bean cultivation aJI year and is restricted only by water availability for irrigation. La.nd and water are both scarce and expensive; farmers therefore prefer highly profitable crops . However. bean has aJways been an ideal rotational crop in this artd region beca use of its low production costs. rapid economic retums. and high domestic demand. So that the bean can fulfill íts role efficie ntly. ít must not only be resistant to rust. common mosaic. root r ot. and nematodes. but also be early maturtng to cover the temporary spaces left by crops for the international market. A major INIA achievement was the release to farmers of varteties. resista.nt to rust and common mosaic. of alllocaJly consumed m arket classes (Table 13). These varíeties were developed by Angel Valladolid. and are the mos t preferred by farmers . Estimates indicate that they occupy no less than 50% of the area planted to beans along the Peruvian coast. Fína1 Report PROF'RIZA 1988-1999  under the sponsorship of the private sector. PRO MENESTRAS, headed by Valladolid and with CIAT's assistance, initially identified export-type bean varieties that best adapt to coastaJ conditions. Priva te enterprise, through the Association of Exporters (ADEX. its Spanish acronym). also implemented a proposal of productive alliances. through which agroindustries contracted small fanners to plant legumes, guaranteeing their purchase while providing technical assistance, seed, and direct credit. The program's success can be attributed to the crop's short vegetative period (from 90 to 120 days) and the low investments required (US$500-600/ha) . By late 1999, not only had efficient bean varieties of severa! intemational market classes been identified (Table 14), but Peru had succeeded in exporting beans to at least 15 countries ata value of more than US$45 million, during the last 5 years (Table 15). Although this figure may not seem spectacular. it is significant ifwe consider that, only a few years ago, economists had predicted a dire panorama for bean production in this country.Beans is basically a small-farmer crop. The average fann size ranges from 3 to 5 ha in the highlands and from 3 to 1 O ha on the coast. The are a under bean cultivation is estimated to be less than 30% of the fann area. If 73,000 ha are planted to bean in Peru, then 19.000 farmers or rural families produce beans. ofwhich 5000 were in PROFRlZA's area of influence. On the average, l ha of beans requires 60 working days from planting to harvest. most of which involve family labor. The use of improved varieties has increased fanners' income b y more than 30% because of their greater yield potential and lower production costs resulting from reduced use of pesticides. Improved varieties have also helped protect the environment by reducing the need for potentially polluting agrochemicals.In the past. the bean offer showed strong seasonality, adversely affecting prices because of simultaneous harvests in highland and coastal regions. By planting improved varieties with broader adaptation and thu s extending harvest time, seasonality of the bean offer is n o longer so marked. and prices are more stable, thus benefiting farmers . Increased production and productivity have generated new and majar sources of employment throughout the production and marketing chain.Beans as a Small Farmer' s Crop Of all the legumes cultivated in Ecuador, beans are the most widely grown and consumed. Dry grain consumption is as important as that of fresh grain: the national demand for dry grain in 1999 was estimated at 21,670 tons and that for fresh grain at 27,798 tons. The consumption of snap beans (green pods) is also ímportant, although volumes are unknown. Table 16 presents several characteristics of bean cultivation in Ecuador.In Ecuador. 90% of the area planted to beans is located in those altitudes where most Peruvians live and where most of the nation's crops are grown. maínly by small farmers. More than 40% of the bean-growing area is planted to climbing bean in association with maize, a production system that is used almost exclusively by small farmers. Areas producing bush beans are mostly located in highland valleys (1000 tq 2500 m .a.s.l.} or in the foothills of the western cordillera (800 to 1200 m.a.s.l.}. This panorama shows that beans is a small-farmer crop, planted in a region where farmer-market linkages are precarious and where agroindustries do not provide support or advisory services for bean farmers. Most of the produce is destined for household consurnption or the local market. except for beans produced in Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, and Chimborazo, departments that, each year. informally export to Colombia the product from about 29,000 ha planted to red beans. (]6Final Report PROFRIZA 1988PROFRIZA -1999 with evident advantages over traditional ecotypes planted by farmers_ As a result, INIAP 403-Bolón Bayo (1988) andINIAP 416-Canario (1994) were released_Select early maturing types. Climbing bean is planted in association with maize, but in traditional sweet-maize-growing areas or where prices for sweet maize justify cultivation. These early matuiing climbing beans must have a harvest time that coincides with the Iipeníng of the comcob. As a result. the early maturing varieties INIAP 400 (1988) andINIAP 421-Bolívar (1999) were developed.Select export-type varieties_ While farmers of the northem highlands. who have access to calima-type (red mottled) varteties, can export their product to Colombia, farmers planting climbing beans could not export their produce. Now, thanks to variety INIAP 412-TOA (1993), they can do so.Conduct improvement by gamete selection, using molecular markers (1998). INIAP undertook the genetic improvement of the two rnost popular traditional bean varieties 'Canario' and 'Bolón Bajo', using modem breeding techniques. INlAP personnel were traíned for this work, and additional resources and technical assistance were obtaíned frorn PROFRlZA and CIAT, respectively.In Ecuador. bean cultivation generates employrnent for both rnen and women. For each hectare planted to beans, about 50 casual working days are needed. Women participate in probably 50% of the tasks for production (weeding and hilling) and postharvest handling (grain dryíng and classification) _ Bush beans are the most important option in production systems of the Ecuadorean highlands beca use of their short growth cycle, ease of plantíng, market demand, and prices. About 50,000 farnilies produce bush beans. As a result of INIAP's patient work during 25 years, Ecuador is now self-sufficient in beans and even exports_ Thanks to the red-grained varieties that INIAP has released to farmers. about 8500 farnilies of the northem provinces of Carchi and Imbabura export from 15.000 to 20,000 tons ofbeans per year to Colombia, representing a foreign exchange of between 10 and 15 million u :s. dollars for the country.In the southem highlands, most of the beans produced are consumed fresh (fre sh grain or green pods). The dissemination of disease-resistant varieties a nd their broad range of adaption can be considered as significant contributions from INIAP, considering that the use of chemical products to control diseases in crops consumed fresh represents a high risk for human health. M u eh remains to be done in the Ecuadorean bean sector. The future will hopefully increase the number of actors. A work team at INIAP is proactive in the search for solutions to problems that are likely to artse in the future so that beans will continue to be served on the tables of Ecuador's new generations. INIAP's work over 2 decades has also included other crops such as peas. bread bean, lentils. and Jupine , and has assigned them priortty (ata level not seen elsewhere) so Ecuadoreans can ha ve access to cheap sources of protein. Based on these results. INIAP can be seen asan effkient custodian of Ecuador's food secmity.In Colo1nbia Sharing is a Two-Way RoadStatistics show that Colombia is a large producer and consumer of beans. However, this production is not enough, and Colombia has to import beans. Another aspect that statistics show is a sustained growth in production and productivity in the country, which reflects. in part, the contribution of technology. However, the reduction in area planted durtng the last 3 years is cause for concem and reflects the overall detertoration observed lately in Colombian fields because of the evident lack of incentives to plant traditional crops (Table 18).Colombia has a longstanding tradition ofbean production and consumption and a potential capacity to absorb greater amounts of beans than it now produces. Bolivia and Ecuador share part of their bean production with Colombia, a current importer. But sharing is a two-way road and what statistics do not show is the enormous contrtbution that Colombia has made to the bean crop, not only in Andean countrtes but also worldwide. Table 19 shows the different places in the world where Colombian varieties, developed by CORPOICA, are grown.Other than having contrtbuted 11 of its varieties so that 20 other countrtes could have improved germplasm for irnmediate use. Colombia has also contributed improved genetic m aterials so plant breeders around the world could use them in their own breeding programs. \"La Selva\" Research Center (2200 m.a.s.l.}, Department of Antioquia, developed, with support from PROFRlZA, populations dertved from interspecific hybrtdization between cornmon bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and so-called petaco bean (Phaseolus polyanthus L.) . Petaca bean is resistant to the fungus Phoma exigua var. diversispora. a characteristic that was transmitted to common bean in a congruent backcrossing program. The matertals generated by this program were made available to the national prograrns in the region. This contrtbution is importan t. given the lack of high levels of resistance to Phoma in common bean.  In addition. the Obonuco Research Center (2710 m.a.s.l.) distributed 68 climbing-bean populations that had showed resistance to rust and anthracnose and high yield under Colombian conditions to national programs of the Andean Region. This way CORPOlCA has remained faithful to its tradition of being not only an important center for generating valuable gennplasm, but also a generous donor of its resources .For more than 40 years, CORPOICA during its vartous stages (as DIA. ICA. and now as CORPOICA) has always fulfilled its rnission of mak.ing new varteties available to farmers according to the existing demand. The years during which PROFRJZA operated were no exception. As indicated in Table 20, between 1988 and 1999, Colombian agiiculture continued to benefit from the contribution of improved germplasm generated through the CORPOICA-CIAT agreernent.The greatest virtue of this new germplasrn has been its efficiency, that is, its capacity to be used under the different circumstances of a given production system. Beans have as many as eight different growth habits, they can m ature in periods ranging from 75 to almost 300 days , and, in Colombia, grow at altitudes ranging from 800 to almost 3000 m .a.s.l. Plant breeders in Colombia have had to develop genotypes for the different environments and situations in which beans are cultivated, a task at which they have certainly succeeded. []4Final Report PROFRIZA 1988-J 999Associating with High~Value Crops: The Case of Coffee in CaldasCoffee. a crop that is key to the Colombían economy, is highly technified. The coffee-growing area covers 8,500,000 ha, ofwhich 1,010,000 are located on the slopes ofColombia's three majar mountajn ranges, with an annual precipitation of 1000-3000 mm (rajns falling 350-750 times ayear}. Most of the coffee is planted on lands with a 20% to 90% gradient.In coffee-growing areas. beans are socioeconomically significant, constituting not only an important source of proteins for local consumers but also a source of income for small farrners. Of the total domestic production, 80% is consumed in coffee-growing areas, which, however, produce only 15%. An altemative to increase the area planted to beans would be to intercrop with coffee. Todo so, however, requires bean varieties that are not only preferred by consumers, b ut also have growth habits that do not interfere with the rnajn crop--coffee-in any way. These beans should also be disease resistant because coffee crop management in Colombia dispenses with the use of pesticides. Moreover, the bean's vegetative period should be such that harvesting does not interfere with cultural practices íor the coffee crop. In brtef, the coffee-growing regían needs efficient bean varteties.CORPOICA accordíngly developed, with the collaboration of CIAT and under the auspices of PROFRIZA, the bean varteties ICA Cafetero, ICA Caucayá. and ICA Quimba ya. The release of these varteties has increased the area of beans intercropped with coffee in the Department of Viejo Caldas (now the Departments of Caldas. Risaralda, and Quindío}. The new varteties are now being planted in zocas (cleared squares of coffee land) and on land where traditional coffee is being renewed with the new variety Colombia. As a result, the income of coffee growers is diversified , a staple foodstuff is provided for the large floating population that appears during coffee harvest. and farmers can reduce costs by not having to weed between coffee rows.The Department of Santander accounts for 10% of the country's bean production, surpassed only by the Departments of Antioquia (22%). Nariño (14%). and Huila (11 %}. accordíng to 1987-1997 statistics. Within Santander, the provinces of Guanentá and Comuneros account for 50.2% of the Departrnent's bean-growing area, with 7580 ha planted to the crop; 79.6% of Santander's bean production is located in the municipalities of Villanueva. San Gü, Bartchara, and Curiti.Bean is a relatively new crop in Santander. In the early l980s, it emerged asan economic altemative for local families during the crisis suffered with traditional crops such as tobacco, maize, millet, and pita fiber. Cultivation began with radicaltype red-grained variety. Between 1982 and 1992, anthracnose became the most serious factor limiting bean production in Santander. CIAT lines began to be evaluated in 1987 and. in 1994. the first calima-type anthracnose-resistant variety (lCA Guanentá) and in 1997 another radical-type variety. also resistant to anthracnose. was released (CORPOICA Froilán}. Although not officially released, Colombia.s[] 'AFR 166', an experimental CIAT line with radical-type grain that is also resistant to anthracnose, became widely adopted by fanners by 1995, thanks to the efforts of Adrian Maitre.According to impact assessment studies conducted by CORPOICN. 49.4% of fanners adopted vartety ICA Guanentá and 79% the vartety CORPOICA Froilán. Factors contributing to the success of the newly released varieties included participatory research, a technological offer tailored to farmers' needs and expectations, a stable market demand. and the tobacco crisis. This last factor was especially important beca use the economic altemative of planting beans particularly benefited small fanners. who were mostly sharecroppers. The impact assessment study established that profits from the new varieties were highly attractlve to farmers. The monthly profits from varieties Guanentá and Froilán was 8.9% and 12%, respectively, much higher than the opportunity cost for capital in the area. Moreover, the interna! rate of social retum ofbean research in the area was 64%. By year 2000, these new varieties are estimated to genera te clase to 3000 permanentjobs. ofwhich around 600 would be incremental. Final RepoTt PROFR12A 1988-1999 Appendix BBased on FAO data, statistics corresponding to the 12 years ofthe PROFRIZA project (1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999) are compared with those corresponding to the 12 years befare the date on which CIATbegan clistrtbuting improved germplasm (1964)(1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975).Table 23. Bean production in the Andean Region, 1964to 1999. Country 1964-19661973-19751994-19961997  Country   1964-1966 .  1973-1975  1994-1996  1997-1999  (10 9  ","tokenCount":"11214"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e49332f1f7ed69e6600083cedb01416d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1d55bc91-1e6a-4a76-b6ce-68d63a6f13ab/retrieve","id":"1688399751"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"44560043-a138-42d6-b96a-506ef21b374d","pagecount":"4","content":"Los recursos genéticos constituyen la base biológica para la seguridad alimentaria mundial y están conformados por la diversidad del material genético que contienen las variedades tradicionales y los cultivares modernos, así como las plantas silvestres afines a las cultivadas. Estos recursos son la materia prima más importantes de los fitomejoradores y el mayor aporte para la producción y diversidad genética que utilizan los agricultores. Constituyen también un depósito de adaptabilidad genética que sirve como garantía ante el peligro representado por los cambios medioambientales y económicos (1).Se estima que de las 250.000 a 300.000 especies de plantas existentes en el mundo, cerca del 10 a 20% están amenazadas (2). Con los recursos y condiciones actuales, la conservación in situ no permite proteger a todas las especies en peligro de extinción. En todos los países las áreas protegidas abarcan sólo una fracción de los habitats de especies amenazadas, por ello el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB), suscrito en 1992 por 157 países, reconoce la necesidad de complementar la conservación in situ con medidas de conservación ex situ. En el caso de las especies en alto riesgo de erosión genética o en extinción, la conservación ex situ puede ser la única forma de conservarlas. Para otras especies, la conservación ex situ sirve como una medida complementaria a los métodos de conservación in situ.La conservación ex situ de especies vegetales adquiere cada día más relevancia como parte de una estrategia para conservar la diversidad biológica existente en el mundo. Las actividades agrícola y forestal, así como las ciudades y complejos turísticos están expandiendo aceleradamente sus fronteras, generando degradación de ecosistemas naturales, pérdida de habitats y, como consecuencia, la extinción local de especies. Esto sin contar con otros factores, como la constante degradación por pastoreo y desertificación.Muchos esfuerzos se han concentrado en la conservación ex situ, particularmente los bancos de germoplasma. En 1963, en la Duodécima Sesión de la Conferencia de FAO se promovió fuertemente la conservación ex situ y se marcaron las pautas para la colección, conservación e intercambio de los recursos genéticos. Hoy, como resultado, hay un total de 1300 bancos de germoplasma alrededor del mundo totalizando aproximadamente 6 millones de muestras (3). De ese total alrededor de 600,000 accesiones se mantienen en el sistema del Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAR) y el resto permanecen conservados en los bancos de germoplasma nacionales.Los bancos de germoplasma constituyen una de las estrategias más comunes para conservar la diversidad biológica vegetal ex situ, permitiendo conservar por mucho tiempo y en un espacio reducido muestras representativas de diversidad genética de una gran cantidad de especies de plantas (4).Nuevos acuerdos han sido firmados con el Órgano Rector del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Filogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura, en donde las instituciones se comprometen a proteger las colecciones y hacer que los materiales y su información sea disponible a los usuarios El elemento central del Tratado es el Sistema Multilateral, creado para facilitar el acceso y distribución de beneficios para los 35 cultivos y 29 géneros de forrajes especificados en el anexo 1 del Acuerdo. El acceso facilitado se concede solo para fines de investigación, mejoramiento y capacitación al servicio de la alimentación y la agricultura, los recursos genéticos de estos cultivos son disponibles a través de un Acuerdo normalizado de transferencia de material (SMTA) (5).En 1994, los once centros del CGIAR firmaron un acuerdo con FAO colocando sus recursos genéticos '' en fideicomiso ''. Este acuerdo fue reemplazado por el nuevo acuerdo celebrado el 16 de Octubre de 2006 en donde los Centros Internacionales firmaron un acuerdo de asociación con el Tratado Internacional, mediante el cual colocan sus colecciones dentro del Sistema Multilateral tal como viene indicado en el artículo 15 del tratado (6).A partir de los 70's el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) aceptó el mandato mundial para el germoplasma de fríjol, yuca y forrajes. A partir del 1 ro de Enero de 2007 entró en vigencia para el CIAT, al igual que los otros centros del CGIAR, el SMTA. En el período 1994-1996 se utilizó un ATM CIAT (Acuerdo de Transferencia de Material) y en 1997-2006, se usó un ATM aprobado por la FAO. El CIAT mantiene las colecciones de fríjol y forrajes en banco de semillas y la colección de yuca es mantenida en forma de in vitro. Dentro de los objetivos institucionales del CIAT se encuentran la caracterización, evaluación, documentación, conservación, multiplicación y distribución de los cultivos de su mandato.Estado del germoplasma registrado en el Sistema Multilateral del Tratado Internacional Un total de 64,870 accesiones de fríjol, forrajes y yuca han sido registradas en el Sistema Multilateral del Tratado Internacional. Las accesiones de fríjol conservadas en el CIAT está representada por un total de 35,231, la mayor parte de ellas corresponden a P. vulgaris y el resto a P. lunatus, P. coccineus, P.dumosus y P. acutifolius. La colección de yuca conservada en forma in vitro comprende un total de 6,499 accesiones, un 85,6% corresponde a M. esculenta y el resto a 33 especies del género Manihot. El germoplasma de forrajes está representado por un total de 23,140 accesiones y comprende 150 géneros con más de 730 especies silvestres (7).Los principios y procedimientos en las que se han enfocado las acciones de la Unidad de Recursos Genéticos (URG) del CIAT son las siguientes:1. Suscribiendo el acuerdo con el Tratado Internacional el 16 de Octubre de 2006, el CIAT se compromete a colocar sus colecciones en fideicomiso dentro del Sistema Multilateral de Acceso facilitado y Distribución de Beneficios. Según los artículos de la parte IV y 15.1 del Tratado, el CIAT se compromete a distribuir materiales en conformidad con las disposiciones del Tratado y mantener éste servicio (Art. 12.3) (6).2. El germoplasma disponible para la distribución, está viable, sano y con características conocidas.3. Copias de seguridad son enviadas a otras instituciones mediante Acuerdos entre las instituciones. 4. Repatriación del germoplasma al país de origen cuando es requerido. 5. investigación enfocada en precisar mejor el objeto de la conservación y en mejorar la eficiencia y confiabilidad de los métodos de conservación.6. Formación de recursos humanos especializados en métodos de conservación.Los recursos genéticos son conservados con el propósito de que puedan ser utilizados en cualquier momento. Muchas de las muestras distribuidas cada año son usadas por el mismo centro, mientras que otro grupo de muestras son distribuidas a instituciones externas.Monitoreos periódicos de viabilidad y sanidad aseguran el mantenimiento de las colecciones en un alto grado de calidad permitiendo por lo tanto una distribución segura. La Unidad de Recursos Genéticos del CIAT ha distribuido en un periodo de 25 años un total de 399,570 muestras de fríjol a 98 países, 83,098 muestras de forrajes a 104 países y 28,590 muestras de yuca a 67 países. De los usuarios son los programas nacionales (NARS) y Universidades los que han recibido un mayor porcentaje las accesiones distribuidas, las estadísticas reflejan que la distribución de estos cultivos es relativamente alta.Un total de 20.000 accesiones de yuca y sus especies silvestres son conservadas ex situ en CIAT, IITA, y programas nacionales en más de 45 países (8). El cultivo de yuca es un buen modelo de estrategias complemen-tarias de conservación y varias opciones de métodos ex situ como colecciones en campo, conservación de semillas, conservación in vitro y crioconservación son disponibles para la conservación de éste recurso genético.El germoplasma de yuca puede ser mantenido en el campo, éste método tiene una ventaja porque permite que los materiales puedan ser evaluados y caracterizados. Una de las desventajas es el espacio que puede ocupar y la presión constante a plagas y enfermedades lo que dificulta por lo tanto la distribución de un material sano.La conservación de semilla sexual puede ofrecer un alto grado de acceso y seguridad a corto y largo plazo. Sin embargo, no es siempre disponible porque muchos genotipos son estériles, esta metodología es recomendada para las especies silvestres porque puede asegurar el mantenimiento de la diversidad genética que se encuentra en ellas, lo que permitiría en el futuro atender la demanda de los mejoradores a fin de obtener variedades con mejores características La conservación in vitro en yuca está bien desarrollada y ha sido aplicada en muchos bancos de germoplasma. La colección de yuca constituida por 6,499 accesiones, procedente de 23 países, es mantenida bajo condiciones de crecimiento lento con una frecuencia de subcultivo de una vez cada 12 meses, éste procedimiento permite una rápida multiplicación para la distribución de germoplasma (9). Nuevas metodologías han sido establecidas para lograr un crecimiento mínimo utilizando inhibidores de etileno lo que ha permitido extender el tiempo de conservación (10). Esta metodología ha servido para tener el duplicado de seguridad en otra institución, permitiendo que la reposición de la misma se realice en un período más largo. La conservación in vitro ha sido establecida a partir de plantas libres de enfermedades producidas a partir de termoterapia y cultivo de meristemas y evaluadas para los diferentes virus de la yuca de importancia cuarentenaria como son el Mosaico Común de la Yuca (CCMV), Virus X de la Yuca (CsXV) y Cuero de Sapo (FSD) (11). Estos procedimientos de limpieza y certificación de la colección han facilitado la distribución de germoplasma hacia otras instituciones, tener un duplicado de seguridad en otra institución y repatriar colecciones a países que han perdido sus materiales por diversos motivos, entre ellos desastres naturales, como ocurrió con materiales de Cuba, Perú, Ecuador y Paraguay.De 1979 al 2006 la Unidad de Recursos Genéticos ha distribuido un total de 28,590 muestras de yuca (5,795 accesiones diferentes). La alta demanda nos indica que éste recurso es de interés para los mejoradores y científicos de 67 países. El principal usuario de éste germoplasma han sido los diferentes proyectos de CIAT quienes han recibido un 64% (18,373 muestras) y las instituciones externas han recibido el 36% (10,217 muestras). Estos resultados sugieren que la demanda por el germoplasma de yuca es sustancial y proviene de un rango amplio de usuarios externos y utilizados para diferentes propósitos. Son los Institutos nacionales y Universidades los que solicitan en una mayor proporción materiales de yuca, siendo agronomía, investigación básica y mejoramiento los propósitos más comunes (Figura 1).Otra de las alternativas para la conservación del germoplasma de yuca es la crioconservación, la cual permite el almacenamiento a largo plazo. La metodología desarrollada consiste en la encapsulación-deshidratación de ápices y posterior inmersión en nitrógeno líquido (12). La técnica permite que la yuca sea conservada por muchos años sin necesidad de un mantenimiento periódico. Esta técnica requiere menos espacio y permite duplicar la colección en otro sitio, en el momento la técnica está siendo evaluada en el 10% de la colección de yuca.Una serie de estudios han sido realizados para analizar el costo de conservar el germoplasma de yuca en campo, in vitro y crioconservado. El costo promedio anual varía considerablemente de acuerdo al método de conservación utilizado (Cuadro 1). Estos costos de conservación son insignificantes comparado con el beneficio potencial que se genera a partir del acceso y del uso continuo de éste germoplasma (13). ","tokenCount":"1838"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0532838cc3081f8f8d2a882944423009","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9b06f6b2-5dbe-4ba8-97e9-75a4bb75858f/retrieve","id":"1914642645"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3c399170-bb0b-4e96-a557-f1ff02dfcbd3","pagecount":"4","content":"La importancia de la agrobiodiversidad y la consideración de su valor económico total La biodiversidad agrícola es la base para la supervivencia y bienestar del ser humano. Sin embargo, a pesar de su importancia, la biodiversidad agrícola a nivel de ecosistemas, especies y genética continúa perdiéndose a un ritmo acelerado. Entre los factores causantes se encuentran la sustitución y cambios indiscriminados en los sistemas de producción, cambios en las preferencias de los consumidores, el crecimiento económico y la globalización de los mercados, estrategias desacertadas de marcos regulatorios (incluyendo los subsidios), epidemias, desastres naturales y conflictos civiles.Un limitante crítico en la implementación de estrategias de conservación es que a pesar de que cada vez se reconocen más los beneficios de la biodiversidad agrícola, su valor total a menudo no es considerado completamente por parte de los individuos y la sociedad en general. Esto se debe a que numerosos componentes de la biodiversidad agrícola proporcionan una combinación de beneficios al agricultor (como beneficios privados, por ejemplo, relacionados con la producción de alimentos y fibras) y beneficios a la sociedad en general (como beneficios públicos, por ejemplo, relacionados con la resiliencia del agroecosistema y el mantenimiento de los procesos evolutivos y opciones futuras). Los mercados capturan solamente una parte de este valor económico total, subestimando así el verdadero valor de estos recursos. De esta forma se crean sesgos en contra de las actividades compatibles con la conservación y el uso sostenible de los recursos naturales. Dado que los costos de conservación tienden a ser locales (a nivel de agricultor), mientras que los beneficios tienden a ser regionales, nacionales o incluso mundiales, no se puede esperar que los agricultores de escasos recursos puedan asumir los costos de conservación de los recursos genéticos vegetales y animales (RGVA) meramente para el beneficio de la sociedad en general sin contar con los incentivos adecuados para tal fin. Las gráficas y explicaciones ofrecidas a continuación nos ayudan a comprender el origen de esta situación.Se puede percibir la erosión de la agrobiodiversidad en la sustitución del variado acervo existente de RGVA por un rango más reducido de recursos genéticos especializados mejorados. Esta sustitución se presenta como parte de un proceso de desarrollo agrícola enfocado en la intensificación, es decir, la manipulación de los insumos y los productos generados con miras a incrementar el crecimiento agrícola a corto plazo.Puede esperarse que los RGVA locales muestren un mejor rendimiento que los RGVA mejorados en entornos marginales de producción, y que han sido modificados ligeramente por insumos externos. Con la intensificación agrícola, los RGVA mejorados (desarrollados para lograr rasgos productivos bajo entornos modificados) se hacen más productivos debido a su mayor capacidad de respuesta ante insumos externos, especialmente en áreas favorables en términos de potencial agronómico y acceso al mercado.Como se puede apreciar en la Figura 1, los RGVA locales sobrepasarían el rendimiento de los RGVA mejorados en términos de los ingresos que generan para los agricultores a un nivel determinado de intensidad 1 del sistema de producción , I*(0). Tras alcanzar el nivel I*(0), los agricultores encuentran cada vez más atractivo reemplazar los RGVA locales por los mejorados, ya que la curva de los RGVA Mejorados se encuentra en este momento por encima de la curva de los RGVA Locales. Para convencer a los agricultores de mantener los RGVA locales más allá de este punto, sería necesario un incentivo o pago adecuado para compensar al agricultor por la pérdida asociada a la variedad mejorada que deja de sembrar. Se puede determinar la proporción del incentivo requerido teniendo en cuenta la diferencia observada entre las dos curvas después del punto I* (0).Via dei Tre Denari 472a 00057 Maccarese Roma, Italia Contacto: Adam Drucker a.drucker@cgiar.org ¿Pero qué justificaría la creación de tales incentivos? Acaso estas estrategias de conservación no interferirían con el proceso de crecimiento agrícola y la generación de ingresos? De hecho, existen una serie de razones que sugieren que la sustitución de RGVA locales por RGVA mejorados se está presentando bastante prematuramente. Tal sustitución solamente debería presentarse en niveles superiores de intensificación de las fincas, como lo muestra el punto I*' en la Figura 2. Entre estas razones se encuentran las siguientes:1) Se ignoran los valores asociados con la conservación, no asociados al mercado y/o bienes públicos. Es altamente probable que esto tenga particular relevancia en el caso de la agrobiodiversidad. Las características de los bienes públicos no solamente se limitan a los valores de uso directo asociados con la producción de alimentos y fibras, sino que también incluyen los beneficios privados asociados con el uso de la agrobiodiversidad para minimizar riesgos relacionados con impactos externos, como eventos climáticos extremos, plagas y enfermedades. Sin embargo, a escalas geográficas más extensas, el uso de la agrobiodiversidad también cumple un rol de bien público al apoyar la resiliencia de los agroecosistemas, el mantenimiento de las tradiciones socioculturales, identidades locales y conocimientos tradicionales, al igual que el mantenimiento de los procesos evolutivos, el flujo genético y los valores de opción globales.2) Se puede haber sobreestimado el rendimiento de los RGVA mejorados, por ejemplo, en caso de haber obtenido menos producción en fincas de lo esperado en comparación con los resultados en las estaciones experimentales y la existencia de impactos ambientales no previstos.3) La existencia de subsidios para el uso de RGVA mejorados los hace más atractivos a primera vista. Estos subsidios pueden darse de muchas formas, entre ellas, el libre acceso a semillas mejoradas, subsidios en capital para insumos como fertilizantes o pesticidas, servicios de apoyo gratis o subsidiados, precios de mercado subsidiados.Como resultado los agricultores probablemente se enfrenten a incentivos financieros (es decir, privados) que no corresponden con los valores económicos reales o totales (es decir, los valores públicos que incluyen beneficios y costos no asociados al mercado), de modo que lo que sería el punto de sustitución óptimo a nivel social bien podría estar a la derecha del punto I*. Esto significa que la sustitución actual de RGVA por variedades mejoradas trae como resultado el mantenimiento de una cantidad de agrobiodiversidad inferior a la socialmente óptima. Aunque la distancia precisa entre I* y I*' se podría teóricamente determinar conociendo las elasticidades relativas (inclinaciones) de las curvas de los RGVA locales y mejorados, es posible extraer algunas conclusiones generales prácticas de este sencillo modelo analítico.a. Hacia la izquierda de I* se puede pensar que los agricultores tienen incentivos financieros para no reemplazar los RGVA locales, conservando así aquello que provee altos valores económicos.b. Solamente más allá de I*' , la sustitución de los RGVA locales por RGVA mejorados estaría justificada financiera y económicamente (aunque esto no puede usarse para justificar la sustitución al punto de extinción de RGVA).c. Una sustitución que se presenta entre I* y I*' se asocia con una pérdida sub-óptima de RGVA locales, aunque la sustitución parece financieramente deseable desde la perspectiva privada/del agricultor, no puede estar justificada económicamente desde un punto de vista social. Esto se debe a que la pérdida adicional de los valores no asociados al mercado supera los beneficios de la sustitución.Como se aprecia en la Figura 2, las estrategias de conservación en marcos regulatorios para alcanzar el punto de sustitución óptimo, y por ende el nivel óptimo de servicios de conservación de la agrobiodiversidad, incluirían: (a) la consideración de externalidades negativas y eliminación de subsidios (con el fin de abordar los puntos [2] y [3] anteriores), lo cual movería la curva para los RGVA mejorados abajo hacia la derecha (hasta MEJORADOS'); y (b) en donde existen valores de no mercado y valores públicos significativos de RGVA locales (de acuerdo al punto [1] anterior), se requiere implementar unos mecanismos adicionales para permitir la 'captura' de los valores económicos totales asociados con los RGVA locales de modo que la curva para los RGVA locales se mueva arriba hacia la izquierda (hasta LOCALES').• Desarrollo de mercados de nicho para productos asociados con los RGVA locales • Recompensas tipo PSA (pagos por servicios ambientales) para la utilización en finca de los RGVA, denominados PACS (pagos por servicios de conservación de la agrobiodiversidad).Este último además podría aplicarse para alcanzar I*' aun cuando no se corrijan los puntos (2) y (3), o para motivar a los agricultores a conservar los RGVA locales en posiciones a la derecha de I*' -es decir, con el propósito de evitar pérdidas irreversibles estableciendo Figura 1: Sustitución de la agrobiodiversidad desde el punto de vista de la economía (Perspectiva Financiera/Privada) a otros RGVA amenazados (conocido como efecto de \"fuga\").En este contexto, los esquemas PACS podrían proporcionar unas bases más sólidas y flexibles para las actividades de conservación, y pueden ser más adecuados para asegurar la conservación in situ de poblaciones de RGVA.La relación entre el desarrollo de mercados de nicho y los PACS puede entonces verse como una relación complementaria. De hecho, una estrategia de conservación amplia podría incorporar una combinación de instrumentos para incentivos, y como tal podría combinar el desarrollo de mercados de nicho con esquemas PACS.Se necesita valorar debidamente la biodiversidad agrícola e implementar mecanismos que permitan la \"captura\" de aquellos valores por parte de los agricultores que incurren en los costos de conservación, proporcionándoles un incentivo para conservar aquello que beneficia a la sociedad en general. Esto requiere el desarrollo de métodos económicos adecuados, herramientas de apoyo para la toma de decisiones y estrategias adecuadas de intervención política.Aunque un instrumento potencial para la conservación de la biodiversidad nodomesticada -como \"los PSA\"-ha sido aclamado por algunos observadores como \"tal vez la innovación más promisoria en conservación desde Río 1992\", los esquemas PSA no han abordado hasta la fecha la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad. Al contrario, han mostrado una tendencia a enfocarse en el secuestro y almacenamiento de carbono; protección de la biodiversidad no-domesticada, protección de líneas divisorias de aguas y protección de la estética paisajística.La capacidad de los PSA relacionados con la agrobiodiversidad, denominados esquemas de \"pagos por servicios de conservación de la agrobiodiversidad\" (PACS), para permitir la \"captura\" de los valores públicos de su conservación a nivel del agricultor, creando así incentivos para la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad y apoyando el alivio de la pobreza rural, parece ser por tanto algo que vale la pena explorar.un limitante de sostenibilidad--, en tanto compensen a los agricultores al menos por sus costos de oportunidad 2 de utilizar los RGVA locales.El desarrollo de mercados de productos nicho para productos relacionados con la agrobiodiversidad se promueve cada vez con mayor fuerza como un medio para lograr de manera sostenible la conservación a través de la utilización directa de los recursos a conservar. Estos \"enfoques de conservación a través del desarrollo\" son potencialmente sostenibles, ya que parten de los canales de mercados agrícolas ya existentes, y de esta manera se pueden emplear para generar una fuente sostenible de financiamiento.Sin embargo, cabe recordar que depender exclusivamente del desarrollo de mercados puede ser una estrategia arriesgada para la conservación de un acervo variado de recursos genéticos, especialmente considerando que las condiciones del mercado pueden variar con rapidez y generalmente los consumidores y el agro-negocio tienden a favorecer un grupo reducido de especies/variedades de cultivos o razas animales.Los enfoques basados en cadenas de mercado también pueden requerir unas inversiones iniciales relativamente altas para generar volúmenes apropiados de producto, estando estos volúmenes bastante por encima de los requeridos para lograr unas metas modestas de conservación, y en donde el tener demasiado éxito puede incluso desplazar 2 En este contexto, los costos de oportunidad son los beneficios que se prevén de cultivar RGVA locales en lugar de los RGVA mejorados más atractivos a nivel financiero.Figura 2: Sustitución de la agrobiodiversidad desde el punto de vista de la economía (Perspectiva Económica/Social) ","tokenCount":"1928"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"26d5d40d7187a9cfb727ac694f9aadca","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5ecaa316-9660-4763-a42f-d93177f9a2dd/retrieve","id":"263330625"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f865ac86-945e-42d8-b785-65335a7be204","pagecount":"2","content":"Since 1998, Vietnam has adopted a series of laws designed to promote a basin--based integrated approach to water management. In 2001, eight \"River Basin Planning Management Boards (RBPMBs)\" have been established in eight basins. The RBPMBs act as coordinating bodies under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD). However, as it turns out their roles and mandates and their positions in the administrative system of water sector remain ill--defined and their contribution to the improvement of water resources management in the basin practically nil. In December 2008, a new decree on River Basin Management was approved by the Government of Vietnam, including the management of river basins to protect the environment as well as the regulationInternational Forum on Water and Food and distribution of water resources. At present, there are changes underway in the RBO arrangement which would operationalize IWRM in river basin in a more meaningful and practical way. But so far no new RBO arrangement has been executed under this new decree for two major reasons: (1) establishment of new RBOs has run up against the existing administrative system of WRM that resists sharing traditional bureaucratic power; and, (2) the linkage between the model and the existing institutions remains unclear. This case examines the challenges of introducing effective and operational RBOs as innovative institutions in the context of a long existing power distribution in the water bureaucracy that does not yield easily to changes.","tokenCount":"240"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b07601ace81ee832da11bd16c4e558d5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0016e9ef-1ead-4bad-b8a4-543153ee51d3/retrieve","id":"-1065797170"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3457460d-04a9-49a9-895e-2aa7d34f2a94","pagecount":"2","content":"Conducting a survey to assess knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) in all CRP Livestock study sites in Ethiopia. • Training on rational use of drugs for farmers, extension agents, community animal health workers, veterinarians, and drug providers (prescribers and dispensers) • Determine antimicrobial residue level in milk and meat using validated antibiotic residue test kits and compare with the established tolerance (safe) levels of antibiotic residues for consumers. • Test milk samples for antimicrobial resistanceImproved understanding of use of veterinary drugs in small ruminant production and how producers perceive treatment with antimicrobials • The use of drugs in food-producing animals in Ethiopia has been increasing with improved access to veterinary drug stores. • However, knowledge on how these drugs work and how they should be used to achieve the intended impact is often not passed on to livestock keepers. Wrong use of antimicrobials and other veterinary drugs and non-enforcement of withdrawal periods contribute to the risk of emergence of resistances and may result in residues in food items. Resistances are not only a public health concern, but also contribute to treatment failure in livestock, thus threatening livelihoods. • As the major causes of morbidity and mortality of small ruminants in project sites in Ethiopia are respiratory diseases, use of antimicrobial drugs for treatment is inevitable.SmaRT Ethiopia intervention factsheet 22, May 2017Resource requirements (low to high) Land Water Labour Cash Access to inputs Knowledge and skillsBiruk Alemu, ILRI, b.a.gemeda@cgiar.org; Hiwot Desta, ILRI, h.desta@cgiar.org , Gezahegn Alemayehu, ILRI, gezahegn.alemayehu@cgiar.org Barbara Wieland, ILRI, b.wieland@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"251"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/0368965797.json b/data/part_6/0368965797.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..59c27f0bd449ed2759844f409c53b56594244746
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e022f615312fe92ea958db8e9da795b8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ceff0306-1d4e-49fd-a9d7-4ec0a75da6d8/retrieve","id":"-967671916"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"296bcae9-4a0c-4553-bf55-7ec457945f07","pagecount":"8","content":"The IPMS steering committee discussed the draft program of work for the period of April 2008 to March 2009, in a meeting held on March 25 at the recently established Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Technology Institute (EMDTI). The proposed program of work and budget was approved during IPMS Board meeting on May 8 th , 2008. Following the requests from Zones and Woredas adjacent to the project's Pilot Learning Woredas (PLW), specific attention was given to the role of IPMS in facilitating the scaling out of approaches and technologies through capacity development, knowledge management and promotional activities. On April 2 nd -4 th , 2008, IPMS participated in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) Millennium Celebration Exhibition held in Addis Ababa. The project used the opportunity to showcase highlights of the various project components to exhibition visitors including H.E Ato Addisu Legesse, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development and Dr. Aberra Deressa, State Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development.Honey production is a major source of income for many farmers in Alaba. In the past few years the Woreda Office of Agriculture and Rural Development (WoARD) and its partners have taken considerable measures to introduce modern beehives in the area.IPMS started working on apiculture development in Alaba's Galato and Wanja Peasant Associations (PAs) in 2004. The objective was to increase the effectiveness of ongoing apiculture development efforts. A rapid assessment of apiculture development in the Woreda revealed lack of appropriate knowledge and skills as major constraints inhibiting use of improved beehives. To address these capacity gaps, the following series of interventions were undertaken using a value chain development approach, benefiting thirty farmers organized in six groups. and Beza-Mar Honey Processing Factory in Nazareth to increase their knowledge of modern honey production and processing.Sugarcane is cultivated in different parts of Ethiopia by sugar processing factories and small-scale farmers. Bure Pilot Learning Woreda (PLW) is one of the major sugarcane growing woredas in the northwestern part of Ethiopia.Even though studies have shown the profitability of small scale sugarcane processing and marketing, not much has been done in Bure to develop the sugarcane business. Most sugarcane produced is sold at the local market.The typical consumption of sugarcane involves chewing the stalks to extract the juice.The IPMS project in collaboration with BahirDar Farm Mechanization Research Center introduced a simple hand-operated tool that can be used to extract sugarcane juice. This manual cane crusher (juice maker) was more appropriate considering the electricity scarcity in the Woreda.This simple technology increased the value of sugarcane from 1.50 birr per cane, when sold for chewing, to 8.00 birr when processed and sold as juice.The machine can extract four glasses of juice from an average cane and a glass of cane juice is sold for 2 birr. In addition, this processing has increased the number of sugarcane consumers since it broadened the age groups that can consume sugarcane juice -including older men who previously had trouble chewing the cane to extract the juice. The juice can be served with lemon to add flavor or as jelatin-candy prepared by freezing the juice. Another benefit of this technology is the use of sugarcane processing by-product or bagasse for animal feed and fuel wood.Even though, sugarcane processing is new in Bure, its profitability is likely to encourage other sugarcane growers in the country to adopt this technology. Currently, the project is exploring possibilities of other processed products such as jaggery (brown sugar). IPMS facilitated a credit fund of 51,000 birr to help the farmers establish apiary sites in their backyards. An additional 32,475.00 birr was provided to produce bee colonies. The credit fund was channeled through Menchonone Alaba Farmers Union.In 2007, the number of modern beehives per household among trained farmers ranged from four to ten with an estimated annual income of 900 to 3000 per household. Today almost all members produce bee-forage in their backyard, and informal bee forage seed market has developed among farmers. Their income is expected to increase as the number of beehives and bee forage increases coupled with improved apiculture skill and knowledge gained through the trainings.Future IPMS efforts in these area will focus on production of local exotic forage and bee wax. In 2008, two additional PAs will be targeted to scale out the positive outcome of this intervention. The bee-hive producers will also be supported in improved marketing.Innovative Livestock Development...In the past few months poultry development has received a lot of attention in Dale Pilot Learning Woreda. IPMS in collaboration with the Woreda Office of Agriculture and Rural Development (WoARD) has been actively working to increase production and marketing of poultry in the area.Until recently a government-run poultry farm was the major source of supply for commercial pullets (egg-type chickens) and broilers (meattype chickens). However, since demand was outstripping supply, the Woreda Office of Agriculture & Rural Development (WoOARD) and IPMS introduced a community-based commercial pullet supply system.The program started with training sessions (conducted by WoARD experts) introducing modern poultry technology and poultry vaccination for village-based poultry production. Over 80 women organized in five groups attended the training sessions. These women were trained on chicken rearing, management of the hay brooder, preparation of chicken feed from local resources, and vaccination of chickens. Methods, approaches and technology used to raise day-old chicks to the age of three months when they will be ready to be sold directly to rural and urban egg producers were demonstrated.At the end of the training, each woman was provided with chicken hay brooder, a runner prepared by the local carpenters and 50 day-old pullets with sufficient feed and vaccine against New Castle Disease (NCD). The commercial pullets are known for their high egg production, 260 eggs per year compared to local chicken of 60 eggs per year. IPMS facilitated in input supply credit fund of 136,000 birr which was channelled through SNNPR's Rural Finance Service Administration Office.Currently, the 80 women in five clusters in five kebeles (Soyama, Debub Mesenkela, Weynenata, Debub Mesenkela and Ajawa) are rearing 4,000 chickens with 1% mortality rate at the time of reporting. The breed introduced in the first round were preferred as egg layers. The same system can be used to introduce other breeds such as meat & egg types as the need arises. This intervention helped to create an alternative input supply and in the process practically demonstrated that a market-oriented chicken rearing and egg production business can be a major source of income and empowerment for small-holder women farmers.Vaccine for new pullets Knowledge Dissemination... The IPMS working paper series has been established to share lessons-learned and knowledge gained in the implementation of the project with members of research and development community in Ethiopia and beyond. The following three working papers are the latest additions. Please contact IPMS for copies of these publications. IPMS' intervention in facilitating small ruminant fattening in Goma Pilot Learning Woreda is only a few months old. Even so, 120 farmers (57 of whom were women) have already benefited from this activity. In March 2008, IPMS channeled a credit fund of 233,000 birr through Oromia Credit & Savings Share Company (OCSSCo) to be used by farmers for purchases of sheep for fattening. A loan amount enough to purchase five sheep was given to selected farmers. The project used the following two new approaches to ensure the success of this intervention. Cotton seed meal from an oil factory in the Woreda was introduced as supplementary feed. Previously the seed meal was sold to other distant Woredas since intensive fattening was not practiced in Goma. IPMS, the Woreda Office of Agriculture and Rural Development (WoARD) and OCSSCo made the necessary arrangements to buy and transport 170 quintal of cotton seed meal, enough to fatten 600 sheep over a threemonth period. Target farmers were mobilized to form a community based safety-net (insurance) scheme. The farmers contributed 10 birr per sheep as a group self-insurance fund to cover for accidental animal loss and deposited the money in a joint bank account opened in the credit institute. A committee was formed to administer the 6,000 birr insurance fund and community-based insurance bylaws (in Amharic, English and Oromifa (local language) was endorsed and distributed to the committee members.Innovative Livestock Development... Today, farmers in the area plant cowpea, lablab, and pigeon pea intercropped with sorghum and maize. They retain their own forage seed for planting the following year and FTCs have continued supplying forage seeds to interested farmers. More and more farmers are intercropping forage with sorghum and maizeencouraged by the successful experiences of their colleagues. The economic benefits of legume -cereal intercropping and the relationship between improved forage production and improved milk yield is now well understood by many farmers in the Woreda.Ocssco handing over a bank account book to community farmers insurance committeeLately, more and more farmers in Bure and Alamata Woredas have started short-term fattening of small and large ruminants. This new interest was a result of efforts extended by Woreda Offices of Agriculture and Rural Development (WoARD) and IPMS staff to build fattening knowledge and skills among farmers in selected villages.What is most interesting is that while in most villages farmers organize themselves for collective supply of inputs and output marketing, farmers in one village in Bure district and another one in Alamata district have organized themselves for collective production. This is an interesting positive deviation from the \"traditional wisdom\" which no longer promotes cooperative forms of production. Some probing questions revealed the reasons behind these \"new' cooperatives.A major reason for forming these groups was to share knowledge and skill among themselves. Locating and managing the animals in one place allows them to learn together and share skills and knowledge. They can also arrange for input supply and marketing collectively to reduce transaction costs. This is very much in line with the much quoted farmer field school model, except that those are usually initiated by \"outsiders\" with infusion of high external resources.Another reason mentioned was economies of scale of labor. At this early stage of development, the number of animals per farmer is rather low, while management is relatively labor intensive. By organizing themselves into pairs, and arranging for each pair to take turns in looking after the \"group\" stall fed animals, they reduced their labor input compared to fattening the animals individually. This is an interesting farmer innovation in meeting production challenges and acquiring knowledge and skills for development. How such groups will evolve over time as the number of animals increases remains to be seen.Capacity Building... Thirty experts from Woreda, Zonal and Regional Office/Bureau of Agriculture, Regional Bureau of Finance and Economic Development (BoFED) and Amhara Regional Agriculture Research Institute (ARARI) attended the workshop. More than half of these participants are currently engaged in M&E work in their organizations, and they will be involved in the upcoming IPMS M&E activities. Similar trainings will be conducted in Tigray, Oromia and SNNPR in the coming months of 2008.IPMS conducted an introductory GIS training in Awassa town from May 19 th to 24 th , 2008. The objective of the training was to strengthen the capacity of regional stakeholders in collecting, managing, and outputting spatial data. Similar training workshops were previously conducted in Oromia, Amhara and Tigray Regions. Study tours are effective means of knowledge sharing. Two such tours were recently organized in Fogera Pilot Learning Woreda (PLW). The study tours enabled the participants to witness experiences of other farmers in addressing issues around communal grazing areas infested by Hygrophila (Amicala); horticulture/vegetable storage technique; and proper management of credit funds. The tours were organized for the Woreda Office of Agriculture (WoARD) experts, Woreda and Regional Advisory and Learning Committee (WALC & RALC) members and the woreda farmers.The first study tour was a follow-up to last year's Amicala eradication campaign that resulted in the clearing of 268.5 ha of grazing land in 6 highly infested kebeles within one week. Sixteen farmers, four Development Agents (DAs), and three WoARD experts (livestock, horticulture and land administration) participated in the tour. The group visited an enclosed communal grazing site in Atsbi, onion and potato storage technologies in Alamata and protected hillside in Mersa Woreda Tigray and North Wollo. The participants of the tour learned the benefits of enclosed communal grazing areas and the relevance of regional laws and community collaboration in conserving natural resources.Following the study tour, the participants presented feedback reports to the Woreda officials including the Woreda Justice Office representative, and the Woreda and Kebele Administration delegates. At the end of the workshop Kebele level participatory action plans were prepared and approved.As a result of these efforts and continuous community discussions two Kebeles demarcated their communal grazing areas and prepared management plan and internal bylaws -Shina Kebele 10 ha and Kuhar Michael 5 ha. In support of these Kebeles, the WoARD provided more than 500 kilos of forage seeds to be sown in the enclosed areas.The second study tour was organized for ten RALC and WALC members to share experiences with members of the Ada Union about credit fund management and to explore the possibility of using Geneses Farm as a source for germplasm.Livestock health problem coupled with inefficient veterinary service is a major issue for Mieso Pilot Learning Woreda pastoralists. Until recently this issue was mostly addressed through traditional medicines and in severe cases untrained pastoralists provided veterinary services which usually resulted in unwanted side effects. Livestock disease and subsequent attrition is a major livestock development constraint in the Woreda.To meet this challenge the Woreda Office of Pastoralists and Rural Development (WoPRD) and IPMS engaged in strategic capacity enhancement of the pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in a value chain based livestock development approach by establishing decentralized veterinary service provision schemes and training community based animal health workers or paravets. The main focus of the training was to enhance the capacity of traditional livestock healers in primary animal health care procedures, identifying common diseases and using appropriate treatments. Eighteen traditional livestock healers drawn from nine Peasant Associations were given fifteen days of training from March 24 th to April 7 th , 2008 in Bordode zone. The paravets were linked to drug suppliers in Nazareth and Addis Ababa. As of June 16t h , 2008 the eighteen paravets have officially graduated and started their operation using their own finance as initial investment.This inexpensive and reliable form of veterinary service is already benefiting the remote and widely mobile pastoralists in the area. For example, the paravets conducted CCPP (Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia) outbreak assessment from April 7 th to 13 th 2008 and reported their findings to the WoPRD, Hirna Disease Investigation Laboratory, and the Woreda Administration Office. This effort immediately resulted in a vaccination program that involved the WoPRD vet staff and ten of the trained paravets. From May 17 th to 20 th , 6300 heads of cattle in 6 PA's were given CCPP vaccination. ","tokenCount":"2473"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"90de0cb83ca6cc46f3b7e9a188923105","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6287b22f-44b7-4318-9b38-d927ad2615ff/retrieve","id":"1974247640"},"keywords":["Conservation agriculture","conventional tillage","grain yield","soil moisture content"],"sieverID":"ee4e7790-2b02-4301-a4ff-0d4906456b3d","pagecount":"6","content":"This article focuses on the results from trials developed to monitor the short-term effects of conventionally tilled systems versus CA on soil quality and crop productivity under conditions of the major cropping systems in central, north-central and north-eastern regions of Namibia. Conventional tillage (CT), Minimum tillage (MT), Minimum tillage, mulch (MT-M), Minimum tillage, rotation (MT-R) and Minimum tillage, mulch and rotation (MT-MR) were the primary treatments tested. Significant differences (p≤0.000) among the treatments were observed in the 0-60 cm soil profiles where MT-M plots had the highest soil moisture content (39.8 mm, Standard Error of Mean 0.2815) over the study period. A significant difference (p=0.0206) in grain yield was observed in the second season with CT plots yielding the highest grain yield (3852.3 kg ha -1 , standard error of mean 240.35). Results suggest that CA has the potential to increase water conservation and contribute to reduction of the risk of crop failure. Climate change driven degradation under conventional tillage necessitate alternative sustainable tillage methods. Conservation tillage methods and conservation agricultural practices that minimize soil disturbance while maintaining soil cover need to be adopted more locally as viable alternatives to conventional tillage.It is reported that in eastern and southern Africa, between 10 to 25% of rainwater is lost to runoff, and another 30 to 50% is lost through evaporation from unprotected soil surfaces (Rockström et al., 2001). Purcell et al. (2007) highlighted that soil moisture stress resulting from drought, dry spells and high moisture loss through *Corresponding author. E-mail: Kladialaus@gmail.com.Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Elevatio (m asl): 964Climate: Hot, semi-arid Annual mean temperature: 21.3°CAnnual mean rainfall: 600-700 mm Soil texture class: Loamy sand to sand Source: L.P Kudumo (2019); After CYMMIT (2016) evaporation is one of the primary limiting factors in crop production as it affects many plant biochemical and physiological processes. Due to climate change, mitigation has become more of a need in agriculture as erratic weather patterns are projected to become increasingly worse (Rowswell and Fairhurst, 2011). Tillage is the preparation of the soil for the production of crops for human consumption, animal feed and/or for the improvement of the soil. It is known to influence soil physical properties such as soil hydraulic properties, change flow path, rate of water infiltration and percolation and the stability of the biotic factors (Dexter, 1988). Tillage methods (Fuentes et al., 2003) and climatic factors, especially rainfall distribution and reliability (Fowler and Rockstrom, 2001) influence available soil moisture which is key for plant growth, development and soil physical properties. Conventional tillage (CT) is the most common practice used among small holder farmers and has been practiced for a long time (Chen et al., 2011). However, CT is reported to be unsustainable over the long term in more intensive production setup as it contributes to inefficient natural resource use, poor soil water retention, soil degradation and global warming (Ferna´ndez et al., 2009). Conservation agriculture (CA), on the other hand is a crop management system based on three principles of minimal soil disturbance, crop rotation or intercropping and permanent soil cover with crop residues or growing plants (Friedrich et al. 2012). CA is a less energy intensive system as compared to CT and can improve crop yields while conserving water/moisture, eliminate organic matter loss, and reduce erosion among others (Dumanski et al., 2006). For sustainable and increased agricultural crop productivity, it is critical that good maintenance and improvement of soil quality is undertaken (Fourie et al., 2007) and thus the conservation of natural resources in recent decades has developed into a key global objective and a major national aim for Namibia as well. The objective of the study was to document and compare the effects of different tillage systems (CT and CA) and the influence of the individual CA principles on soil moisture and crop yield. The hypotheses tested were that (a) CA treatments have significant higher water infiltration and soil moisture content (b) the CA principles (minimum tillage, soil cover and crop rotation or intercropping) have significant influence on soil moisture content eventually leading to greater crop productivity.Liselo Research Station (17.524745°S; 24.238707°E) located in the Zambezi Region of Namibia was the site of the experiment. The station is situated 7 km west of Katima Mulilo, 964m above mean sea level in a hot, sub-humid region with mean annual temperature of 21.3°C and mean annual rainfall of 600-700 mm. The site predominantly has loamy sand to sand with pH of 5.3 (Table 1).The experiment consisted of eight treatments in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) set-up with four replications on a 2016 m 2 trial plot (50.4m x 48m). Treatments tested were; Conventional tillage only (CP), Convectional Tillage with Mulch (CP-M), Conventional Tillage with Rotation (CP-R), Conventional Tillage with mulch and Rotation (CP-MR), Minimum tillage (MT), Minimum tillage, mulch (MT-M), Minimum tillage, rotation (MT-R) and Minimum tillage, mulch and rotation (MT-MR). Each plot was composed of 7 rows (90 cm row spacing and 35 cm within row) by 12 m and plots with rotation were split into subplots each with 7 rows by 6 m. CT plots were tilled with an animal drawn mouldboard plough, while CA/minimum-tillage plots were tilled with an animal drawn Magoye ripper, opening narrow furrows about 5-10 cm deep.Soil samples were taken at the onset of the study and tested the levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, Organic C, estimated SOM and pH for comparison against suggested nutrient ranges suitable for grains. Soil samples were tested using spectral analysis by a mobile Soil Lab stationed at the Directorate of Agricultural Production, Extension and Engineering Services (DAPEES) office Of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform (MAWLR) of the Republic of Namibia in the town of Rundu in the Kavango East region.Maize (Zea mays, Commercial hybrid maize variety Zamseed 606) was the principal crop and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) an important secondary crop used in rotation with maize. The maize and cowpea crop varieties were manually seeded in November during both cropping seasons. Maize was seeded in rows spaced 90 cm apart with inter row spacing of 35 cm using two seeds per planting station, later thinned to 1 plant (31,746 plants/ha target Treatments with cowpea rotation were mulched with 2.5-3 t/ha of grass at the onset and all crop residues retained on the soil surface in the subsequent seasons after harvesting. Weed control was achieved by disturbing only the top soil using a hoe at 30 day intervals and when necessary. At harvest, cobs were removed from the plots and crop residues (Stover) was retained on the respective CA and CT treatments.Access tubes were installed in all plots for the purpose of soil moisture data collection, one tube installed per plot and readings taken using a capacitance probe (PR-2 probes, Delta-T Devices Ltd., UK) to the depth of 1 m. Soil moisture measurements were taken once a week during the dry season (May -October) and twice per week during the rainy season (November -April) and calculated as mean soil moisture content in millimeters (mm). Data from the 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40 and 40-60 cm horizons were recorded over the study period, calculated and presented as mean soil moisture content (mm) in the 0-30cm and 0-60 cm soil depths.Maize was harvested at physiological maturity and total aboveground biomass and grain yield determined on each plot. Subsamples of 20 cobs per plot were taken as samples and used to determine maize grain moisture.Linear model, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Statistical analysis software 'Statistix 9' for personal computers was used to test for normality and test for any significant difference in moisture content and grain yield. Probability levels of 0.05 were used to determine the level of significance among the means. LSD All-Pair wise Comparisons Test was used to compare soil moisture and grain yield for treatment effect. The next section presents the results.Soil testing results showed low levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, organic carbon, and estimated SOM, readings far below the suggested range for grains. Only potassium and Soil pH fell within the suggested range for grains (Table 2).Rainfall in the 2016/17 cropping season was erratic with a short rainy season with the site receiving a total of 499.9 mm/a. A two week and six day dry spell was experienced during the first season between February 2nd and 22nd, 2017.In the subsequent season (2017/18), a higher total rainfall of 521 mm/ was recorded although the rainfall events during the season were similarly erratic with especially low rain incidences at the onset of the season (Figure 1). Over the study period, MT-M continuously had the highest soil moisture content, particularly in March (69.0 mm), while MT-MR was almost consistently the least soil water storing treatment over both the rainy and the dry seasons in the two years (Figure 1). Conservation agriculture is reported to be most effective when all its three operational principles are put into practice accompanied by good timing of all operations (ZCATF, 2009). Although all CA principles were applied in MT-MR, the results in terms of soil moisture conservation are at variance with expected impact of this treatment. CA is taken to be a long term intervention, as most benefits especially improvement of the soil's physical properties are though only enjoyed in the longer term (Derpsch, 1999), 4-5 years after application of such soil tillage system (Thierfelder et al., 2015). It is probable that the two years implementation of CA treatments was insufficient to reverse effects of many years of conventional tillage on the land. The fact that MT-MR showed differences from other CA plots could possibly be due to a reduction in soil water holding capacity of nontilled plots induced by openings in the soil left by decaying roots of crops and weeds or the effective extraction, use and evaporation of water by crops in the MT-MR plots.Significant differences (p=0.000) were observed between combinations of tillage systems and CA principles in relation to soil moisture content, in agreement with findings by Fuentes et al. (2003) and Gicheru et al. (2004). Mean soil moisture content ranged from 34.1 to 39.9 mm, with minimum tilled plots higher in moisture content than CT plots. The observed differences may be attributed to the water saving techniques incorporated in the treatments particularly in MT-M (39.8mm) and MT (37.7mm) plots while CT only plots were on the lower end as the second least water conserving treatment (36.1mm). A CA treatment with all principles incorporated, MT-MR, was the least water storing treatment of all plots (Table 1). McVay et al. (2006) and Thierfelder and Wall (2010) reported that conservation agriculture plots generally have greater water content in years with low precipitation, as was recorded in this study carried out in years in which rainfall below the annual mean was recorded. In years of high precipitation, no greater differences are found between CA and CT plots (Thierfelder and Wall, 2010). While it's unexpected, plots where all CA principles are incorporated are sometimes found to retain lower soil moisture content than a field ploughed, not mulched and with no crop rotation. No-till treatments may reduce water-holding capacity leading to reduced moisture (Liu et al., 2013).Maize grain yield in the first season was not significantly affected (p=0.0884) by tillage systems and CA principles, however significant difference (p=0.0206) was recorded in the subsequent season (Table 3). CT-MR plots recorded the highest grain yield with MT being the least productive. Minimum tillage with selective incorporation of CA principles increased maize grain yields. It appeared that incorporation of mulch or rotation to minimum tillage leads to increased maize yields as observed MT to MT-M and MT to MT-R, respectively (Table 3). It was also observed that incorporation of both mulch and rotation led to the highest increase in yield from MT to MT-MR. Maize grain yields were found to follow no particular order over the two seasons. Minimum tillage treatments averaged less than 1500 kg ha -1 maize grain yield in the first season and more than 2500 kg ha -1 in the second season (Figure 2).Although no significant difference (p=0.0884) was observed in the first season, conventional tillage treatments were found to have yielded more maize grain than minimum tillage treatments, indicating the benefit of CT in the first season.Maize grain yield followed the order CT-MR > MT-MR >CT-M > MT-R >CT-R > MT-M >CT>MT in the second season during which soil moisture was not very different between treatments (Figures 1 and 2). Higher soil moisture due to mulch appears to have positively influenced maize grain yield, as seen in the second season, where MT-MR delivered the highest maize grain yield of all the CA treatments and second highest overall in contrast, to the first season. MT-M and MT in that order had higher soil moisture content than conventional tillage treatments, but their maize grain yields were generally lower than that of CT (Figures 1 and 2). Mulched plots, CT-MR, MT-MR, CT-M and MT-M generally had higher maize grain yields than plots not mulched. Thus, whereas MT-MR may have recorded lower soil moisture content relative to all other treatments, this did not translate into lowered maize grain yield. This may point to effective and efficient use of soil moisture by maize under MT-MR where the crop extracted more soil water and converted it into higher yield.The results indicated that minimum tillage systems conserve more soil moisture in the 0-60 cm deep soil profile and can improve maize grain yield as compared to traditional tillage. Even where soil moisture may have not been conserved in CA plots, the grain yield was superior.Generally, CA (Minimum tillage) treatments had higher mean soil moisture as compared to CT (conventional tillage) treatments throughout the study period, especially over dry season.Application of mulch and crop rotation appeared to positively influence both mean soil moisture and maize grain yield over the study period compared to no mulching and, not practicing rotation.Yields followed the order CT-MR > MT-MR >CT-M > MT-M >CT>CT-R >MT-R >MT clearly showing mulch's influence on crop yield. This study has in part shown that reduced soil disturbance and residue mulch application can conserve soil moisture, and when implemented together with crop rotation practices enhance crop performance and improve maize production in the northeastern regions of Namibia.","tokenCount":"2378"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dcd0bebb5dc074e5c4828adb33a49983","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/13658b28-1469-446e-8a5a-d19984d067fb/retrieve","id":"-1817460536"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"156677d0-c5d8-4799-b858-2d74cb0bdf86","pagecount":"18","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.This activity was conducted to determine climate-smart agricultural practices' biophysical and socioeconomic impacts over the last 12 months, using the Doyogena (Southern Ethiopia) and Basona (North Ethiopia) climate-smart landscapes as a case study. More specifically, this activity addressed if CSA practices (i) guarantee farmers resilience to climate change; (ii) increase food productivity and household income; and (iii) prevent gender-related bias (i.e., improving women's participation in decisions, access/control over resources). From each site, 200 adopters (i.e., farmers who practicing the abovementioned practices) and 200 non-adopters (i.e., farmers` as usual practices) were selected randomly. Hence, 800 households were surveyed from six villages from Doyogena and 25 villages from Basona sites. The activity was conducted between 21 December 2020 to 05 January 2021 at Doyogena and between February 01 -16, 2021 at Basona climate-smart landscapes. Twelve enumerators for Doyogena and fifteen for Basona sites were selected, trained for three days, and performed pre-testing with 8 -10 farmers before data collection. At Doyogena, a portfolio of eleven promising CSA options was evaluated, namely, (i) terraces coupled with Desho grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum); (ii) controlled grazing; (iii) improved wheat seeds (high yielding, disease-resistant & early maturing); (iv) improved bean seeds (high yielding); (v) improved potato seeds (high yielding, bigger tuber size); (vi) cereal/potatolegume crop rotation (N fixing & non-N fixing); (vii) residue incorporation of wheat or barley; (viii) green manure: vetch and/or lupin during the off-season (N fixing in time); (ix) improved breeds for small ruminants; (x) agroforestry (woody perennials and crops); and (xi) cut and carry for animal feed. At Basona, on the other hand, the impact of seven CSA options was evaluated, namely, (i) terrace (soil bunds); (ii) terraces coupled with phalaris and tree lucerne); (iii) trenches; (iv) enclosure; (v) percolation pits; (vi) check-dams; and (vii) gully rehabilitation.Abebe Nigussie is an assistant professor at Jimma University and a part-time consultant. His research focuses on the biogeochemical cycle of carbon and nutrients from agricultural soils and developing interventions to reduce soil greenhouse gas emissions. Scientific studies have shown that the agricultural sector is being affected by extreme weather events such as droughts, heavy rainfalls and high temperatures (Lesk et al., 2016). The negative impact of climate change is expected to be more severe in developing countries -where food production depends entirely on rainfall (Recha et al., 2017). In Africa, for instance, the yields of maize (Zea mays), sorghum (Sorghum bicolour), and millet (Panicum miliaceum) are expected to reduce by 5%, 14.5% and 9.6%, respectively, due to climate change at the end of 21st century (Knox et al., 2012). Therefore, it is crucial to develop technologies to curb the adverse impact of climate change on food production and realize sustainable development goals aimed to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2030 (Ambaw et al., 2020).Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices have been promoted as a prominent strategy to improve farmers resilience to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Evidence also suggested a significant role of CSA practices to ensure food security under a changing climate. With this premises, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) implemented integrated CSA practices in highly degraded landscapes across different developing countries, including at Doyogena (Southern Ethiopia) and Basona (Central Ethiopia). The integrated CSA practices at Doyogena and Basona include soil and water conservation measures, grazing management, crop rotation, incorporation of crop residues and perennial-crop based agroforestry systems. These CSA portfolios are implemented to rehabilitate degraded lands and improve resource-poor farmer resilience to climate change. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the perceived effects of CSA practices on biophysical resources, food security, crop and livestock productivity, income and adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers for climate shocks. In addition, this study will examine gender-disaggregated effects of CSA practices on farmers' livelihood and key gender dimensions (i.e., decision making, access over resources). This activity will identify the main climate shocks over the last 12 months and monitor the contribution of CSA options to aid farmers resilience to these climate shocks.   A total of 400 farmers from Doyogena and 400 farmers from Basona were selected randomly. In each site, 200 households -who have practised CSA practices (i.e., treatment group) and 200 households -who have not received CSA interventions were used in this study. The control groups are those who live in the nearby climate-smart landscapes. This study approach helps monitor the impacts of CSA options by comparing the treatment groups with the control in terms of livelihood/welfare indicators (i.e., food security, productivity, income and resilience of farmers for climate shocks). Training workshop for data enumerators at DoyogenaPrior to data collection, eleven enumerators for Doyogena and 15 enumerators for Basona were selected.These enumerators are working at the regional agricultural research centre, university and central Accordingly, nine household heads -that were not part of the main survey -were used for pre-testing.On average, enumerators in both districts used to fill in three survey questions per day, resulting in 399 and 396 completed questionnaires from Doyogena and Basona Worena districts, respectively.Some responders were unwilling to give information for some questions, particularly on the household income, production (i.e., yield), the number of livestock owned and land size. In addition, few respondents were unwilling to make themselves available for the interview; in such cases, we replaced them with other household heads with similar household characteristics. Sometimes, the Geofarm tool was not working at all and/or was very slow. Data synchronization takes a very long time, and on average, it took about 15-30 minutes to synchronize the data. At Basona, it wasn't easy to get female respondents.The questions on income and production should be designed so that farmers can respond to the questions honestly. The Geofarm tool needs to be improved for (i) efficient and quick off-line data collection; and(ii) fast data synchronization.This activity report aims to present the steps followed in the data collection process, which will monitor the uptake of CSA practices in the climate-smart villages in the Doyogena and Basona Worena districts.Based on the data collected, the following steps will be:▪ characterization of rural farming systems and livelihoods to determine household incomes, productivity and food availability, indicators of food security and poverty, and farm and household characteristics;▪ Examine the perceived effects of CSA options on farmers' livelihood (agricultural production, income, food security, food diversity and adaptive capacity) and key gender dimensions (participation in decision-making);▪ Provide recommendations that can help donors and policymakers to justify funding and guide priorities in scaling up the adoption of CSA technologies and practices;▪ Produce CCAFS Working paper and info notes; and▪ Produce manuscript and submit to a peer-reviewed journal.","tokenCount":"1116"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d9087ba6d95b61952572a845d9004255","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8ca99c27-9916-4346-8f4c-d9cfff0052d1/retrieve","id":"-312581172"},"keywords":["TAAT Clearinghouse. 2022. Small-scale Farm Mechanization Catalogue. Clearinghouse Technical Report Series 015","Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation","Clearinghouse Office","IITA","Cotonou","Benin. 24 pp Small-scale Farm Mechanization Catalogue"],"sieverID":"4d7593fa-89c5-4469-9d4f-7b6777f6eaad","pagecount":"28","content":"Front cover photographic credits: A hand tractor converted into a trailer (Ikonic Farm Machinery (K), safe and effective threshing operations (Sasakawa Africa), a woman learns how to operate a hand tractor (Ikonic Farm Machinery) and the impressive reach of a water gun.The TAAT Top 100 Technologies. The Clearinghouse developed a database of the Top 100 Technologies that are transforming African agriculture. It is based upon the approaches of the TAAT Commodity Compacts but also includes those from the CGIAR Collaborative Research Programs that are recently described as ready for next user. These technologies are divided between those involving improved genetics and plant and animal breeding (23%), those based upon the distribution of digital information (3%), production input products of proven efficacy (21%), crop and animal management technologies of utility within agricultural extension messaging and campaigns (27%) and the availability of appropriately designed labor-saving equipment (26%). These technologies have a direct role towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in relation to farm productivity, food security and hunger reduction, responsible food consumption, improved household nutrition and diets, economic growth, climate-smart innovation, partnerships for the goals, and improved human equity and empowerment.The Top 8 Mechanization Technologies. This catalogue presents eight technologies that serve to mechanize and automate small-scale farming. These technologies include: 1) Hand tractors for land preparation, 2) Mechanized weeding operations, 3) Power sprayers for agrochemical delivery, 4) Land augers as an innovative labor-saving tool, 5) Drip irrigation for efficient water use, 6) Water guns for cost-effective irrigation, 7) Multi-threshers for efficient post-harvest processing, and 8) Forage choppers in livestock feed systems. Details on each of these eight technologies are included in the catalogue. Also included is information on the safe handling and maintenance of these equipment.Background. A power hand tractor is a small two-wheel device powered by a small petrol or diesel engine ranging in power from 5-18 horsepower. These machines are most often attached to a rotavator that allows for land tillage, but other attachments are available, including those that create furrows. These tractors are guided by handlebars that provide control over their direction and downward force and accompanying throttle to guide engine speed and a release to disengage the engine from the rotovator. The most powerful hand tractors can break new ground and dry heavy soils, while the least powerful ones are best suited to preparing previously cultivated soils. These machines are different that riding tractors with two axils that are generally 50 hp or greater. There are many brands of these two-wheel tractors and reference to them includes terms such as \"rototiller, walking tractor, mechanical ox, and single-axle tractor\".Hand tractors reduce the drudgery of hand tillage, a practice closely associated with the drudgery of small-scale farming. Because of their smaller size and tight turning area, hand tractors till areas that cannot be accessed by larger tractors, including lands with steeper and irregular slopes. Hand tractors are powered by a single axil (gear only), so there are no additional belts or chains, improving their reliability and reducing maintenance requirements. It is unlikely that a farmer managing only one hectare or so can afford a riding tractor, hand tractors available for US $700 to $3,000 are much more within reach. A single operator can prepare a hectare of land in a single day using this machine. Many models have attachable tines that allow for adjustment in cultivation width, allowing for use as a weeder at wider crop spacing. Some tillers can be used in flooded paddy soils as well, allowing for the incorporation of residues and inputs.Maintenance is fairly easy, unlike larger tractors that require skilled mechanics. One must regularly check oil and fuel levels and ensure that dirt does not accumulate on the engine during use. The depth of tillage is less than a riding tractor and these machines may form or prove unable to break through hard pans that form in clayey soils. The times of tillers may become clogged by rocks or soil clods, forcing temporary shut down during safe removal.A 12 hp diesel-powered tiller with adjustable tine attachmentOptions and Specifications. Hand tractors are available with either petrol or diesel engines ranging in size for 5 to 18 hp, with more powerful units offering greater capacity. The machines allow for a range of operations including seasonal ploughing, harrowing, and forming beds, and later in the season for weeding between crop rows and in orchards. In addition, hand tractors may be attached to trailers to transport goods and people. Clearly, opportunity exists to engage in the trade, sales, and servicing of hand tractors as their popularity and accessibility grows. Companies specializing in the wholesale importation of these machines and their attachments are needed to meet growing demand, and the competition between such companies will bring prices down. Opportunity exists to design attachments that better meet small-scale farming needs, and for decent employment through the assembly and maintenance of these machines. Ideally, agrodealers will begin to market these machines within their shops as well. Finally, land preparation using hand tractors will be offered as contract services by local operators to reduce drudgery among a growing number of small-scale farmers. A hand hoe consisting of an iron blade and short wooden handle is the most common weeding tool, and it is closely associated with the drudgery and continued poverty of small-scale farming.A power weeder is an alternative approach to weed management through secondary tillage that greatly relieves drudgery associated with hand weeding. Two basic types of power weeders are available; ones that are worn on the operators back where weeds are cut and buried to shallow depths through arm movement (power backpack weeders) and others that resemble small walking cultivators that pass between crop rows chopping weeds and burying them to adjustable depths (mini-cultivators). The machines require skillful use and maintenance to ensure that crop plants are not injured in the process of weed removal and that the machinery remains in good working order.Advantages. The advantage of mechanized weeding is that the control of unwanted plants is achieved without heavy field labor. This control is best achieved within a wider strategy of integrated weed management, particularly through the judicious use of pre-emergent and selective herbicides. Using mechanized weeders, it is possible for a single operator to greatly reduce weeds from 0.5 to 1.0 ha per day, particularly for field crops with widely spaced rows and in orchards with open space between perennial plants. An advantage of mechanical weeding is that operators need not wear heavy protective gear other than boots and in some cases dust masks. One disadvantage to mechanized tillage is when rocks or soil clods clog the rotating blades, causing the machine to be temporarily shut down for the blockage to be cleared. Another difficulty is the cost and the inability of poorer households to afford them.Options and Specifications. As stated above there are two basic types of power weeders; backpack weeders and mini-cultivators. A typical backpack weeder consists of a petrol engine and small fuel tank mounted onto a padded backpack frame connected to a flexible power hose leading to a handle ending in different replicable power heads bearing either rotating or circular blades. The handle is controlled with grips that also allow access to an on/off switch.The small petrol-powered engine (e.g., 35 to 50 cc) is air cooled and intended to operate at a continuous speed without overheating. These machines weigh between 6 and 9 kg and allow operators to weed up to 1 ha in a day using only 2 liters of fuel. Because the rotary blade sits upon and digs into the soil there is little arm fatigue during its use. Use of this machine is 10fold more labor efficient compared to hand weeding with a hoe. An advantage to this machine is the wide range of different heads that can be affixed to it that may be used for cutting brush, levelling tilled fields, harvesting field crops, and even powering small water pumps. These units are available at a cost of US $240 to $380 each, depending on the size of the engine and the number of different heads included with the purchase.Mini-cultivators are fundamentally different machines that serve a similar purpose in terms of weeding, but lack the wider utility of the other backpack attachment heads. A small petrol or diesel engine (e.g., 2 to 3 hp) is mounted onto a wheeled frame that leads to handlebars at one end and rotating tines at the other. In general, these blades are 17 to 25 cm in width, incorporate materials to a depth of only 2 or 3 cm and weigh about 20 kg. While most of these machines are intended for single, well-spaced rows, modified versions allow for 2 or three closely spaced rows of vegetable to be weeded as well. Note that smaller hand tractors with adjustable tines may be used for this purpose but generally clean wider paths and dig to deeper depths. Either wheels or the rotating tines may serve as traction to pull the cultivator forward along a course determined by the operator's use of the handlebars. Some models include tail \"anchors\" that affect the depth of soil disturbance. Note that the tines must be set between rows with sufficient space away from plant stems to avoid any damage to plants.In general, these machines are available at a cost of US $200 to $300 each. to swing the nozzle in a steady, sweeping motion to minimize this effect. The greatest advantage is that the application of sprays is directed by a human who is in a better position to exercise caution when applying potentially dangerous materials to agricultural crops and cultivated lands.Options and Specifications. As stated earlier, there are two basic types of power sprayers: backpack and trolley. A backpack sprayer typically has a 16 to 25 m tank containing spraying solution, a 33 to 50 cc petrol engine and 0.5-to-1.0-liter fuel tank, and a short hose ending with adjustable wands or spray guns. In general, this machine weighs 10 kg and can deliver sprays about 5-times more rapidly than pump action backpack sprayers, covering about 0.5 ha per hour. A trolley sprayer is mounted on a wheeled frame consisting of the 50-to-200liter tank, 3 to 6 hp pump, a fuel tank and up to 50 m or so hose, usually mounted on a reel. The trolley remains stationary while the operator deploys the hose, delivering up to 25 liters of stray per minute. One disadvantage is that operator movements with the trolley hose are more limited, and care must be made not to injure plants as the hose is deployed and moved.An advantage of trolleys is that they may be fabricated using local materials and customized to specific needs. Both types of strayers require calibration to be used properly.There is a three-step method to calibrate these sprayers.Step 1 measures and marks off an area equal to 500 square meters (such as 20 x 25 m).Step 2 adds a measured amount of water to the tank, sprays the area and then measures the amount of water remaining in the tank. The difference between the amount in the tank before and after spraying is the amount used per 500 square feet (= 0.05 ha).Step 3 compares the measured application rate with the recommendation on the pesticide label. If the difference between the recommended rate and the measured rate is greater than 5% of the recommended rate, adjustments are made to reduce the application error. Note that operators must wear proper safety equipment including gloves, boots, eye protection, water resistant jackets and hoods and masks.Availability and Commercial Opportunity. Judicious use of agrochemicals is fundamental to Africa's agricultural transformation and use of power sprayers provides a means to this end.Their use allows farmers the ability to intelligently alter application practices as conditions warrant. Compared to pump action sprayers, this equipment is not yet widely available, and this may be corrected by agricultural product suppliers stocking them side-by-side. In addition, availability of power strayers provides greater opportunity for contract service provision to farmers as a rural enterprise that in turn leads to more effective control of pests.Recent biological invasions by Fall Armyworm and the Yellow Desert Locust were met by these actors but there is scope for greater linkage to farmers. It is important that wherever these sprayers are marketed, so too is necessary personal protective gear. Agricultural extension advisers must be aware of this agrodealer linkage and ensure that precautionary messages on pesticide safety are available through it. That trolley type sprayers can be fabricated locally is also an important consideration as it may contribute to growing agro-industry, and the comparative advantages of backpack versus trolley approaches must be considered.Technology 4. Earth Augers as a Labor-Saving ToolBackground. An earth auger, also called a post-hole digger, is a machine used for drilling holes into the ground. It consists of an engine powering a vertical shaft that rotates screw blades that rotate to displace soil, resulting in a cylindrical hole. It is used to efficiently dig uniform fence post holes and planting holes.Holes results from a rotating helical screw blade winding around lower part of the shaft. The lower face of the screw blade progressively displaces soil from the bottom of the hole, and the remaining screw blade serves as a conveyor to lift the loose soil upward to the soil surface. When the hole achieves a desired depth and the tool is withdrawn, the blade removes any remaining soil. The rod often ends in a sharp point that keeps the auger along a straight path. The screws are available in various sized that control the width of the hole, and there are extension bits that allow for steeper penetration. A skilled operator can prepare a 40 cm deep hole 25 to 30 cm wide in less than a minute.Advantages. The main advantage of an earth auger compared to a manual post hole digger or shovel is savings in terms of the time and effort required, and the uniformity of the resulting holes. The precise width of the holes is determined by the diameter of the screw blade and the depth may be controlled using extensions. Manually digging a series of holes results in fatigue that leads to less uniform holes with irregular shape, including sloped walls. More precise holes allow for more reliable preparation or backfill materials, whether they be cement and gravel for fence posts or enticed soil for planting holes.A representative, commercially available earth auger includes a 64 cc, single cylinder, two-stroke petrol engine with a 1.3-liter fuel tank containing a fuel to oil ratio of 25:1. It sells for about US $230. The engine is mounted onto a metal frame with handles that allow control by the operator and ready access to its throttle. that Its drill bit length is 0.8 m but with available extension bit lengths of 0.35, 0.5 and 0.8 m, allowing for drilling depths of 1.6 m. Different drill diameters may be attached available in diameters of 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 cm. A more powerful auger with a 2 hp, four-stroke engine costs US $450, including an assortment of screw blades (15, 20 and 25 cm bits). Individual replacement blades cost between US $30 and $50 depending upon their width, and extension bits are US $25 to $30 depending upon their length.Availability and Commercial Opportunity. Use of land augers is far more common in the construction industry than among farmers, particularly smaller-scale ones. A quick survey of earth auger suppliers discovered numerous suppliers in Kenya, locally marketing several different single operator petrol powered models as both agricultural and construction equipment. In addition, other options included two-operator models with wider and deeper blades and much larger augers attached to external power sources. Local suppliers were also readily identified in Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia, although queries for other countries suggested that local suppliers act as importers on demand. Most of these imported models were linked to manufacturers in China. A quick search of suppliers in China discovered over 15 manufactures, revealed over 25 single-operator, petrol-engine models, some as powerful as 80 cc, others available for as little as US $50 each with no minimum order, and yet others supported by a wheeled frame that guides the auger as it drills. Clearly, many options and price ranges are available to those seeking to import and distribute this equipment. Also, a 4-stroke, 196 cc, 6.5 hp two-operator model with a bit size 70 cm in diameter is sold for less than US $200 each.An important emerging use of earth augers equipped with wider screw bits is the rapid scaping of soil pits as a water harvesting practice. \"Zaï\" pits are a dryland farming approach developed in the Sahel. These pits are formed by digging shallow basins of 20 to 30 cm diameter and 10 to 15 cm deep into croplands, allowing the pit to collect water, wind-driven soil particles and plant debris. Early evidence suggests that forming these pits using an earth auger rather than hand tools is at least five time faster. On sloped lands, the soil excavated from the pit is placed downslope to better permit water catchment, a step that requires use of hand tools. Note that this same technique is also used to rehabilitate crusted and degraded lands. Greater availability of earth augers used for this purpose will likely increase this practice in dryland agriculture and allow greater expression of its climate-smart features.Background. Drip irrigation is a system that slowly delivers water onto the roots of plants in a way that strategically places moisture and minimizes evaporation. It is the most efficient method of irrigating with over 90% of its water utilized by crops. It is relatively easy to install and reduces disease problems associated with wet leaves. Drip irrigation systems distribute water through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters that operate at a relatively low water pressure. Components used in drip irrigation include a pump or pressurized water source, a water filter and particle separator, a backflow check valve and simple pressure regulator, a distribution mainline, control valves, smaller diameter laterals (or sub-mains), and emitters that deliver water at slow rates. While complicated in design and somewhat expensive to install, the savings in water and yield improvement is substantial.Advantages and Disadvantages. The advantages of drip irrigation include high water use efficiency with minimal leaching of fertilizers, ability to irrigate unleveled and irregularly shaped fields, and greatly reduced weed growth and soil erosion. Drip irrigation delivers its water to the crop root zone rather than the field at large. Soluble fertilizers are readily injected through water delivery. Drip irrigation does not wet foliage, reducing the risk of disease. In addition, drip systems operate at lower pressure than others, reducing their energy cost. The disadvantages of drip irrigation include its high initial cost, sensitivity of tubing to UV light, clogging of the emitters by sediment, and additional \"cleanup\" costs after harvest as the tubing must be rewound and stored for use. In sandy soils, drip systems may be unable to wet the soil surface for uniform germination. Most drip systems result in little or no leaching, causing salts to accumulate. Finally, pipes may suffer from rodent or insect damage, requiring replacement and increasing expenses. Because of the way the water is applied in a drip system, traditional surface applications of fertilizer are sometimes ineffective, so drip systems often mix liquid fertilizer with the irrigation water, a practice referred to as \"fertigation\" and resulting in substantial fertilizer savings.Options and Specifications. A typical drip irrigation system consists of a pump unit; a control head; mainlines and sub-mainlines; lateral lines; and emitters or drippers. The system may include additional features such as reservoir tanks and fertigation injectors. The pump unit takes water from the source and provides the correct pressure for delivery into the pipe system. The control head consists of valves to control water pressure and filters to clean the water. Mainlines, sub-mainlines and lateral lines supply water from the control head to the fields and are usually made of PVC or polyethylene hose. These water delivery lines are often buried. There are two types of drip irrigation: sub-surface drip irrigation where water is applied below the soil surface, or the much more common surface drip irrigation where water is applied directly to the soil surface. Sub-surface irrigation employs narrow plastic tubes buried in the soil at a depth between 20 and 50 cm. The tubes are either porous throughout or are fitted with regularly spaced emitters. Major difficulties with this approach are the narrow orifices of the emitters that may become clogged by roots, soil particles and precipitating salts; and that tillage practices become complicated. As this approach is not very common it is not considered further.Surface drip irrigation is much more common and uses a variety of drip emitter devices. Lateral lines fitted with emitters are placed on the soil surface along crop rows. Pressure is low so the water emerges as drops rather than as spray. Emitters control the discharge of water from the lateral lines to the plants, with one line used to irrigate one or two rows of crops, depending upon their spacing. Emitters are placed off the soil surface to prevent clogging and are calibrated to release between 2 to 16 liters per hour. The ends of the lateral lines are periodically flushed to discharge particulates. Drip irrigation emitters are \"pressure compensating\", meaning that they can discharge water at a very uniform rate under varying water conditions. This trait allows for more constant flow under fluctuating input pressure and different slopes. Some drip irrigation emitters are built with a self-flushing mechanism reducing the risk of clogging, others are flushed by opening the end of each line.Availability and Commercial Opportunity. One acre (0.4 ha) of land may be placed into surface drip irrigation for about US $1120 with costs as follows: drip lines (US $770), pump and filter ($166), poly main and sub-mains ($100), and valves and fittings ($88). Drip irrigation is closely associated with greenhouse horticulture and higher value crops. A quick internet search of drip irrigation suppliers in Kenya revealed over 20 suppliers of drip irrigation materials, including many suppliers outside of Nairobi. Some suppliers provide complete \"kits\" for 1/8 and 1/4 acre. In many cases, suppliers will assist in the design of these systems as they sell the materials required for it. Another search revealed 14 suppliers in Lagos, Nigeria but fewer suppliers away from the city. Opportunity exists to develop agribusinesses around the design of drip irrigation systems and the sales and installation of its materials, but several African countries still do not have ready access to this technology.A small greenhouse equipped with drip irrigationBackground. A rain gun is an irrigation device that supports high water flows and an extended radius of \"water throw\" through its sprinkler. They allow relatively few stations to cover large areas of field, and at the same time are portable, allowing a gun and its stand to be moved to different field locations according to needs and schedules. These guns require high water pressure and flow and can project water for up to 60 m in distance that covers a circular area of 1.1 ha. This coverage allows these systems to be installed quickly and cost-effectively assuming the conditions for their reliable operation are met. At the same time, adjustable jets allow control of the throw, droplet size and impact to suit the irrigation needs of more delicate crops.Advantages and Disadvantages. Rain guns offer major advantages to farmers seeking to place substantial areas of land into irrigation is a simple way but also require that precise conditions in terms of water quality, flow and pressure be met. Each water gun is mounted upon a stand that raises it off the ground so that its throw does not disturb adjacent plants. The base of the stand is connected to a water source, in most cases a flexible hose like that used by firefighters. This allows the rain gun and stand to be moved to different stations so that only one gun covers large areas of field (e.g., 4 to 6 ha) depending upon water requirements and irrigation schedule. The coverage is adjustable in terms of distance, droplet size and completeness of circular angle, with 360 o projection most common. Claims exist that the force of rain gun water is sufficient to disrupt the activities of some pests. At the same time there are disadvantages, even beyond the exacting requirement for water. The rain gun operates from a central pivot position that is not suited to smaller or irregularly shaped fields. Because it operates at such high pressure, the rain gun must be handled with caution and its parts must be well maintained and regularly inspected to ensure against wear. Each rain gun requires substantial investment and is usually serviced by a single high pressurehigh volume water pump that must also be purchased and maintained. Strong winds adversely affect water coverage. Rain guns allow farmers that have relied upon rainfed production of field crops in the past to adopt irrigation as a practice, reducing risks of climate change Options and Specifications. Rain gun technology is designed for a variety of uses and applications where relatively high flows and extended radius of the water throw are required.These sprinklers operate at pressures of 2.5 to 7.5 kg/cm 2 and flows of 5 to 30 liters per second. Below these thresholds, the gun does not function in a uniform and reliable manner.The nozzle diameter is in many cases interchangeable, 10 -30 mm, resulting in wetting radius of 25 to 60 meters. At highest flow rates, one position can deliver sufficient water for crop irrigation in as little as 2 or 3 hours, allowing for repositioning several times a day.Availability and Commercial Opportunity. Rain gun and their accompanying materials are not widely available in many African countries, but it is important that they become so. A quick search in Kenya discovered over 10 suppliers in Kenya, including those away from Nairobi, as well as importers from China and India. They were readily available in Uganda as well, although some only throw water 30 m. Similar findings were obtained for Nigeria although there was not a clear distinction between rain guns and more conventional sprinkler apparatus. The advertisements in Zambia were mostly posted by importers rather than local suppliers but electronic discussion on rain gun technology is ongoing. Many other countries lack suppliers, and this provides commercial opportunity.A complete rain gun irrigation system was recently purchased in Nairobi for US $669 after comparative shopping.The components and costs were rain gun head (US $140), tripod stand ($90), 90 m hose ($110), 2\" high pressure 7.5 HP water pump ($290) and 6 m suction hose ($39). These systems are affordable to farmers conducting small-scale commercial enterprise and must become more available across Africa!The stand of a rain gun; note that water enters from the base through a threaded fitting and is delivered to the rain gun mounted at its topBackground. Threshers are power equipment that separate crop residues from seed and grain in a time-efficient manner. These machines are powered by small petrol engines and consist of a feed chute that leads to a threshing chamber where crop residues are separated from seeds in a rotating drum, and then a blower removes lighter residues. Operators put in dried harvest materials through a feed chute, pushing materials into an internal spinning drum where seeds are physically separated from crop residues and then fall through a screen. Whole shoots may be passed through the machine rather than pods and heads alone. Remaining crop residues are then expelled through an exit chute. These chopped materials have further use as organic resources. The seed is passed across a blower that removes finer materials (e.g., dust) that winnows (cleans) the seed, passing through a collection chute that allows the seed to be bagged. Different types of crops may be processed based upon the screen mesh. Threshers are available to process crops such as maize, rice, common bean, wheat, sorghum, millet, sunflower, and pigeon pea.Advantages. Typically, women are assigned the task of manually threshing crops by hitting piled harvest with sticks until the grain falls loose, a task that requires about one hour of work to recover 25 kg of seed. Small-scale mechanical threshers can process seeds and grain many times more rapidly than traditional threshing and winnowing operations. Mechanized threshing is very labor efficient, allowing for the processing of between 150 to 500 kg of saleable product per hour, depending upon the crop and machine. The smaller the seed, the more rapid the processing time. Not only is processing more rapid but also more thorough because the in-built blower cleans grain more completely than traditional winnowing. Mechanized threshers cause less breakage to grain and seed than manual beating which gives farmers a quality and market price advantage.Mechanized threshers separate and clean grain and seed in one single operation, making produce ready for sales on local markets or trading without need of further processing.Power thresher processing sorghum grain Options and Specifications. Different types of power threshers are available which are distinguished according to the type of crops they process (e.g., single crop or multiple crops), according to their mode of operation (e.g., batch drum or axial flow), and the type of threshing cylinder (e.g., syndicator, beater, spike tooth and rasp bar). The smallest threshers weigh as little as 100 kg and may be mounted on motorcycles for on-farm use. Portable threshers are positioned next to piles of harvest on a level surface. Larger machines may be transported by small trucks and established within communities for collective use by farmer groups. Threshers have a modular design, and their basic components include a feeding chute, threshing cylinder, aspirator blower, chaff outlet, straw outlet, hopper, and cam for oscillating sieves, oscillating sieves, transport wheel, frame, and main pulley. Small engines (5 to 8 HP) that consume only 1 to 2 liters of fuel per hour typically operate these threshers. These threshers are often mounted on wheels and have handles that permit their movement. A tarp is set below the collection shoot to keep the seeds clean and to facilitate bagging. Residues must be periodically raked away as they are ejected from the exit chute. It is extremely important that operators of these machines must be trained in the maintenance, minor repair, and safe use of this equipment and that they be operated without distraction (see section \"Safety First!\").Availability and Commercial Opportunity. Some threshers are produced in Africa, and a large number are available for import. A quick internet search gives 110 thresher models offered by suppliers from India and 52 from China, although some were intended for use on only one crop or for small grains only. There is scope for commercial provision of threshing services that make better quality grain available to households sooner after harvest. This post-harvest service may be provided by independent business interests or as a means of assuring grain quality to produce buyers. Marketing threshers is a different matter and involves either distributing fabricated equipment or importing it. Large discounts are available to those importing equipment in larger quantities. Multi Background. Residues and stover from crops offer an important source of livestock feed but owing to their bulk their preparation using manual labor is extremely time consuming. When animals are herded over croplands after harvest, only 20-30% of stover is eaten since they prefer the sweeter parts that are easier to digest. Access to quality feed is the most important factor in successful livestock rearing. Many farmers feed whole stover to their animals which slows down their digestion and causes sub-optimal growth. Motorized residue processing is ideal for mixed crop-livestock farming, particularly where underutilized crop residues are plentiful, and costs of animal feed are prohibitively high. Small-scale motorized cutters facilitate collection of stover from the field, allowing residue recovery from several hectares in a day. Use of motorized choppers and crushers make it possible to provide suitable feed and mulch for soil cover while saving time and effort. Depending on the chopper model, throughput capacities range from 1 to 1.5 ton of stover per hour.Advantages. It takes a lot of time from farmers to manually collect crop residues from the field and chop these into small pieces by hand so it can be consumed by cattle. The manual process limits the amount of stem residues that farmers utilize for livestock. Motorized cutters and choppers address this constraint and improve organic resource management within the farm. The machines are self-powered, easy to operate, low-cost, easily transported between fields, and allow large amounts of crop residues to be processed from fields by only two workers. These machines are suitable for a wide range of fresh and dried materials available throughout the year Mechanized residue processing benefits storage and preservation of feed products by making it possible to compact the material in bags that can tightly packed instead of loosely piling whole stover into a shed. Packing enhances flavor andUse of motorized stover cutter (left) and mobile chopper (right)nutritive value as well. Increased availability of chopped and shredded residues from crops is fundamental to local production of well-balanced feed rations. Chopped and crushed stover from cereal and legume crops is also suited to produce silage. Through mechanized residue processing, farmers can earn additional income, rear larger numbers of animals, increase milk and meat yield, and avoid feed shortages during dry seasons or prolonged drought. The technology serves both animal and crop production since residues fed to livestock produce manure which in turn improves soil fertility when returned to the field.Options and Specifications. Motorized chopper machines can be used for either fresh and dry plant materials from a wide range of cereal crops like maize, sorghum, and millet, as well as legumes such as soybean, groundnut, and cowpea. Chopping works best for green stover before fibers harden, while crushing is mostly done after residues have dried. Chopper machines have four main parts; a pair of horizontal rollers that moves stover forward, a hexagonal shear cutter with knifes, a hammer for crushing the chopped stover, and a 7 to 13 horsepower engine running on petrol or diesel. Choppers and hammers work at the same rate as the roller to ensure uniform sized feed material. Material is further ground through the beating action of the hammers until it passes through holes in an adjustable screen. Crushed material is pushed forward by the motion inside the chamber. Residue processing machines are easily transported between fields and farms using a donkey cart of motorbike. Most residue choppers are fitted with wheels.Motorized cutters and mobile choppers are commercially available in many mixed crop-livestock farming communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. Demand for the technology is rapidly growing thanks to its many advantages and dissemination by national agricultural development agencies. Motorized cutters that can handle all types of cereals cost about US $1,000 to $1,500 on international markets. Local sales prices for new stover choppers with in-built engine ranges from $1,250 to $1,700 depending on the size, the manufacturer, the country of origin. Imported models are usually more expensive than locally fabricated ones. This small-scale equipment may be offered as a package to individual farmers, their associations, other service providers or feed producers. Processing stover from cereal and legume residues offers an attractive business opportunity since added value is created and market demand exists. Return on investment depends on the cost of whole stover, labor, fuel and maintenance, cost conditions that vary between locations and times of year. Machines provided to farmer associations led the production and sales of more than 100 tons of stover worth US $22,000 in less than six months. On animal feed markets in many African drylands, one ton of crushed stover sells for US $330 to $500 depending on the quality and time of year. Starting a forage chopping business may indeed be a timely investment!It is extremely important that the smallscale machines featured in this catalogue be handled in a safe and responsible manner, and in accordance with manufacturer's instructions. Some guidance in these safe operations follows.Hand tractors. The danger from hand tractors (Technology 1) is damaging feet and lower legs by the rotating tines and operators must remember to wear protective footwear and keep feet well back from power train. Another danger exists when roots and rocks bind the tines, and operators must turn off the power before disengaging them. Operating hand tractors on steep slopes is inherently dangerous. Even when turned off, the times may recoil so tools, not hands, should be used when cleaning these machines after each use. Children should not operate hand tractors despite their enthusiasm to do so! Mechanized weeding operations. Mechanized weeders pose the same dangers to users as hand tractors, particularly the mini-cultivators (see Technology 2). Because they are lighter in weight, the tendency is to swing them around quickly to avoid contact with crops. Again, tines may become bound by roots, rocks and clods, and operators must turn off the equipment and rely upon tools before disengaging them because the tines may recoil once freed. Particular care must be taken when using the circular rotating blades of backpack weeders to trim woody vegetation because they tend to be swung in a sidewise motion away from the ground and they may recoil causing loss of control of this devise, even posing a danger to others.Power sprayers. Operators must always be aware that power sprayers (Technology 3) can discharge large amounts of harmful substances and wear protective gear. This gear includes respirators, eye shields, gloves, water resistant clothing and boots. Spraying and wash up must be performed in an environmentally responsible manner and according to product specifications. Many locations have specific regulations on the safe disposal of pesticides and their wash water and special care must be taken not to contaminate waters and farm animals.Land augers. The greatest danger from augers (Technology 4) is injuring the operator's feet or legs with the rotating screw. When encountering rock or roots, the device may recoil out of control and operators must be solidly positioned against this. If the bit jams, one must turn Despite the excitement, operators must have sufficient strength to handle power equipment Operators of sprayers must always wear protective gear (right, never left) off the auger before dislodging it and always keep hands away from rotating screws. Operators must always wear protective boots and resist the temptation of rushing from one hole to the next with the machine engaged.Rain guns. The safety precautions taken during installation, use and dismantling of a rain gun (Technology 6) include ensuring that the gun is securely fixed to its stand, avoiding the fast reverse rotation of the gun as it operates, and ensuring that \"quick couplings do not slip and discharge uncontrolled. Adjustments to the gun's diffuser screw should not be made as it operates and once in operation, one should remain at least one meter away.Power threshers greatly reduce labor requirements, but their operations are inherently dangerous unless the machinery is operated as intended (Technology 7).Threshers require that crops be fed manually through a feeding chute into a spike-tooth cylinder and chaff-cutter that can seriously injure hands. Human factors such as inattentiveness, overwork, wearing of loose clothing, failure to remove wristwatches and bracelets, and use of intoxicants greatly increase this risk. Threshing accidents can be minimized through the following measures: 1) Threshers must be fitted with a safe feeding chute at least 90 cm in length with half of that covered, 2) Only skilled and trained workers should operate a thresher who avoid talking and unnecessary distractions while performing their duties, 3) Extra care must be taken when feeding crops lacking stalks into the thresher as this requires closer proximity of hands to moving parts of the machine, 4) Ensure proper lighting if the machine is to be operated at night and the area surroundings the thresher must be kept free of obstructions, and 5) Do not smoke or light a fire near the threshing yard as the dust and residues from the thresher are extremely flammable. The thresher workstation should include a first aid kit.Forage choppers. Safety must be practiced when using forage choppers (Technology 8) because of their several moving parts resulting in cutting action. Operators are expected to push fresh or dried plant materials into a chute so that it is cut into various sizes, and then collect and remove chopped material as it accumulates. Equipment must be carefully inspected, and users must understand the importance of protective shields as they operate the machinery. Care must be taken not to feed the chopper woody material or rocks that can damage the blades. Forage crops are often grown on rough and steep land, and the choppers are portable, but operators must not set the chopper on land that is not entirely stable. Otherwise, the same safety precautions apply to both threshers and forage choppers. This section serves only to highlight the extreme importance of safety in the operations of small-scale farming equipment as these machines are intended to reduce human drudgery and not cause injury. Most accidents result when operators become rushed or overconfident.The aversion to careers in agriculture among young people results from the perception of necessary drudgery and poor returns to effort. Wider reliance upon small-scale farming equipment serves to counteract this misconception. One important mechanism to promote this equipment is through the activities of youth groups, allowing for skills development in the use, maintenance, and safe handling of these machines. This route is particularly relevant when youth undertake agribusiness incubation leading to their development of innovative agribusinesses and modernization of their home farms, affirming that they are no longer bound to practice agriculture in ways overly reliant upon manual operations. In this way, mindset change results from exposure and hands-on learning, allowing youth to embrace agriculture as a mechanized and profitable pursuit, and to find commercial opportunity in advancing mechanization as a growing trend across the small-scale farming sector. Agricultural mechanization and modernization equipment allow young producers to optimize their time and reduce production costs. Furthermore, larger farming communities demand for mechanization services from youth create opportunity for further income generating option. Several examples of this trend follow.In Zambia, the use of a hand-held tractor for land preparation and furrow making is less costly and more labor efficient, increasing crop yield and profit for young rural entrepreneurs. A variety of attachments is available to not only rotovate the soil but to also establish raised beds, irrigation furrows and erosion control structures. Similar youth enterprises in Uganda and Kenya also provide mechanized weeding services to farmers.Youth are actively engaged in the control of Fall Armyworm and the Yellow Desert Locust, two insect invasions with dire consequences to African farmers. Reliance upon a power sprayer and alliance with agrodealers networks increased the efficiency of this service provision. At the same time, youth were well positioned to access control information via electronic media and to comply with health and safety requirements. Farmers discovering widespread invasion of maize fields were particularly motivated to see contractors provide rapid services that saved their crop. Reliance upon power sprayers allowed operators to treat fields five times more rapidly than others using pump action backpack sprayers, and to offer better coverage of leave undersides and inside whorls at the same time. Youth-led Rapid Response units operating from agrodealer shops developed toolkits consisting of a customized cargo tuk-tuk, power sprayers, safety equipment, commercially recommended pesticides, farmer information materials and communication tools. One group in West Kenya serviced 227 clients, treating an average of 0.20 ha per client at a cost of US $5.68 each, equivalent to only US $28 per ha. Subscription to this service resulted in a return to investment of 4.1:1 in terms of rescued maize. Similarly, youth offering spraying services to farmers earned approximately US $2000 a month in Uganda.A team of youth in Uganda founded a business called \"Mr.Clean\" that weeds and plows land for a fee. Over time, their services included contracts with the Uganda National Roads Authority to control unwanted vegetation along roadsides. Now they offer assistance to other youth-led startups unable to afford their own machines.Youth have capacity to operate at the cutting edge of technology. Some developed expertise in the installation of pond aerators enhancing the levels of oxygen in fishponds and greatly improving water quality and fish health. Others developed expertise in the operations of drones used for small-scale aerial spraying of crops. Youth in Kenya adapted land augers to quickly prepare water-harvesting features for dryland agriculture, mechanizing the establishment of a climate-smart cropping practice and reducing its labor requirement four-fold.These opportunities have an institutional dimension as well. The ENABLE-TAAT Compact works in partnership with the Government of Benin to introduce small-scale mechanized farming to the country's youth. The greatest opportunity, however, resides with the private sector. Once skills in the management of small-scale farming equipment is obtained, it is possible to grow an importation and retail business around this expertise. The price difference between these different equipment sold in quantity and the local sales prices in Africa are quite large, allowing for reasonable profits to be made from modest turnover of stock. These machines once sold serve as the focus for additional youth-led businesses that offer contract services to farmers, reducing the drudgery associated with agriculture in an incrementally improved manner.Youth preparing a sprayer drone for flightTAAT offers its services toward the advancement of modernized agriculture. It brokers a wide range of needed technologies and bundles them through a process of co-design into winning solutions. It recognizes that modernized agriculture must serve as the main engine for economic growth in Africa and operates accordingly. Change is intended to achieve not only food and nutritional security but also to meet obligations under climate agreements allowing collaborative efforts to better combine global, national, and community-level interests. TAAT operates from this unique perspective to mobilize innovative solutions through better partnering that includes honest technology brokerage and effective, scalable skills development through five key mechanisms. Unique understanding. Expertise is offered in the areas of site characterization and problem identification. Innovative solutions. Leadership is provided in technology brokerage and solution bundling based upon a dynamic portfolio of candidate technologies. Better partnering. Assistance is offered in the better co-design and management of projects prompting agricultural transformation. Honest brokerage. A robust capacity for impact assessment and constructive learning is achieved through standardized monitoring and evaluation.This catalogue describes the role of small-scale farm machines within Africa's agricultural transformation and several of that equipment that are most important to that process. Small-scale farming is widely associated with lives of poverty resulting from subsistence agriculture and drudgerous manual labor. This perception must be changed if commercialized agriculture is to drive rural economic development, particularly among talented youth that will provide farming's future generations. Too often, these youth are seeking ways to escapeUser queries directed to the ProPAS website offering information on agricultural technologies agriculture as a career path rather than committing their lives to exciting new enterprise opportunities. Mechanization is key to this commitment, both in terms of greatly reducing manual labor associated with core farm tasks, but also in designing livelihoods around the innovative services that support mechanization. The growing importance placed upon mechanization by the agricultural community is reinforced by recent findings of the ProPAS internet site where more queries were directed toward mechanization technologies than any other category.Contract services offering use of these equipment are particularly important. Reliance upon hand tillage often results in portions of fields remaining idle because there was insufficient time and labor to prepare them for planting. Cultivated farmer fields often become weedy for the same reason. Insect invasions go unchecked because their swarms overwhelm available control options. Droughts destroy crops in places where irrigation water is only slightly out of reach. The market value of grains is reduced because manual threshing results in excessive damage to processed harvests. All of these constrains are readily met with technologies presented in this catalogue!The advantages of power tillers, weeders and sprayers are obvious to anyone who has undertaken their laborious manual alternative, but challenges must be met to make this machinery available and to keep them functioning. Equipment suppliers must extend their sales further into rural areas, and agrodealers must be willing to invest in and market this equipment. Farmers must join together to purchase and share these machines. Extension agents must promote mechanization and mechanics must develop the skill sets needed to maintain and repair the equipment or else it risks falling into disuse. Development specialists must recognize the extreme importance of small-scale mechanization to Africa's agricultural future and accommodate this need within the formulation of rural development projects through the design of public-private partnerships. It seems the smaller the equipment, the more relevant it becomes to poorer farmers, and incentives must be offered to these labor-saving machines within their reach, and to create jobs for their families as service providers of these equipment into the future.The development objective of TAAT is to rapidly expand access of smallholder farmers to high yielding agricultural technologies that improve their food production, assure food security, and raise rural incomes. This goal is achieved by delivering regional public goods for rapidly scaling up agricultural technologies across similar agro-ecological zones. This result is achieved through three principal mechanisms; 1) creating an enabling environment for technology adoption by farmers, 2) facilitating effective delivery of these technologies to farmers through a structured Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure and 3) raising agricultural production and productivity through strategic interventions that include improved crop varieties and animal breeds, accompanying good management practices and vigorous farmer outreach campaigns at the Regional Member Country level. The important roles of sound policies, empowering women and youth, strengthening extension systems and engaging with the private sector is implicit within this strategy. The Clearinghouse is the body within TAAT that decides which technologies should be disseminated. Moreover, it is tasked with the responsibility to guide the deployment of proven agricultural technologies to scale in a commercially sustainable fashion through the establishment of partnerships that provide access to expertise required to design, implement, and monitor the progress of technology dissemination campaigns. In this way, the Clearinghouse is essentially an agricultural transformation incubation platform, aimed at facilitating partnerships and strengthening national agricultural development programs to reach millions of farmers with appropriate agricultural technologies.Back cover photographic credit: Correct (left) and unsafe (right) personal protection while spraying pesticides.","tokenCount":"8410"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e0a51cbeaf48a8ebfe40e9db85ef6933","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f36e9e48-fc38-4ab4-b880-f8dff77b4513/retrieve","id":"1102606769"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ffe2c34d-06b9-4104-9011-0ca11ef58758","pagecount":"2","content":"The ILRI forage germplasm information system was developed to share information about the germplasm held by ILRI as a global public good under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.The web site includes information on the collection sites of material held in the ILRI genebank, as well as summary characterization data and an image collection of some of these materials. It also has factsheets on the management of some common forage species.GENESYS is a rich source of information on plant genetic resources diversity of seeds conserved in genebanks worldwide. GENESYS is a gateway from which germplasm accessions from genebanks around the world can be easily found and ordered. GENESYS is the result of collaboration between Bioversity International (www.bioversityinternational.org/) on behalf of the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP), the Global Crop Diversity Trust (www.croptrust.org/) and the secretariat of the international Treaty on the Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (www.planttreaty.org/). GENESYS helps to secure the long-term conservation of plant genetic resources.The Forage Register is another initiative of the SGRP. It contains passport data for forage accessions conserved in a number of major collections of plant genetic resources.  ","tokenCount":"192"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0729a159608c58489d1fa07de7ba0308","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7f950fff-a47f-4e5d-aa14-2b84603f438b/retrieve","id":"1234197505"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bcd202e5-45ed-4f1d-959a-58c2897a5979","pagecount":"23","content":"Lack of rapidly available, site-and system-specific knowledge about such solutions and their potential environmental impacts What is CLEANED? The CLEANED tool lets users explore multiple impacts of developing livestock value chains in explicit ways.These indicators fully align with the environmental dimensions of concern, as prioritised by the global experts.The Architecture  • Rapid results: flagging potential environmental issues associated with planned livestock development strategies→So that environmental results can be considered when designing livestock development/investment programs and policies →Promotion of sustainable livestock production practices →Users acknowledge (i) increased recognition of environmental issues, (ii) guidance on policy and investment decisionsAn example from Northern Tanzania's dairy VC Focus = intensifying dairy systemsIn 3 distinct sites with 3 typical systemsIntervention package -changes in inputs and parameters• Clear environmental co-benefits• Overall improved efficiency• More absolute emissions with increase in land requirements in Muheza highland and Hai.• Potential reduction in total GHG emissions in Muheza lowland driven by improved feed efficiency and lower animal numbers • More land required in Muheza highland and Hai but less in Muheza lowland, driven by high yield of improved forages and reduced animal numbers as compared to baseline","tokenCount":"187"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e1df8c1431e5208feb1c79744e27618","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.resakss.org/sites/default/files/Biennial%20Review%20Brief_Eswatini.pdf","id":"-391217267"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4a224ed5-2efa-4bac-a72f-4ca5fb9b2b0b","pagecount":"8","content":"Established in 2006 under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) supports efforts to promote evidence-and outcome-based policy planning and implementation. In particular, ReSAKSS provides data and related analytical and knowledge products to facilitate CAADP benchmarking, review, and mutual learning processes. AKADEMIYA2063 leads the work of ReSAKSS in partnership with the African Union Commission, the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), and leading regional economic communities (RECs).1  Introduction T he 2014 Malabo Declaration outlines Africa's vision for accelerating agricultural growth and transformation on the African continent through seven broad commitments from 2015 to 2025. The commitments include: (1) upholding the principles and values of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), (2) enhancing investment finance in agriculture, (3) ending hunger in Africa by 2025, (4) reducing poverty by half by 2025 through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation, (5) boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services, (6) enhancing the resilience of livelihoods and production systems to climate variability and other related risks, and (7) ensuring mutual accountability to actions and results by conducting a continent-wide biennial review (BR) to monitor progress in achieving the seven commitments. As part of fulfilling commitment 7 (mutual accountability), the second (2019) BR report and Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard (AATS) were launched at the 33rd African Union (AU) Summit in February 2020. This brief highlights Eswatini's performance in the second BR and assesses challenges faced and lessons learned by the country during the review process. The brief also reviews policy and programmatic changes in Eswatini that can be attributed to the first (2017) and second BRs. It concludes by highlighting required policy actions for Eswatini to implement to meet the Malabo Commitments by 2025.For the second BR, the benchmark (minimum score for a country to be on track in implementing the Malabo Declaration commitments) was 6.66 out of 10 (AUC, 2020). Even though Eswatini did not meet the benchmark, the overall score indicates an increase of 5 percent in the country's performance compared to the first BR. As shown in Table 1, Eswatini performed well below the benchmark and the poor performance is attributed to the country's poor performance in all the thematic areas. On the other hand, the country performed better than Southern African Development Community (SADC) middle-income countries as well as SADC countries as a whole, on average, in 3 thematic areas (themes 3, 4, and 7) (Table 1). For theme 5, however, Eswatini performed below SADC low-income countries, on average. The areas of very weak performance included the commitment on agriculture finance (score of 3.27 compared to the minimum score of 10) and a commitment on boosting intra-Africa trade and services (score of 1.39 compared to the minimum score of 3). In comparison to the first BR, the country also regressed in themes with already weak performanceby 59 percent on theme 2 and 10 percent on theme 5 (Table 2). Conversely, Eswatini saw notable improvements on 5 of the 7 commitments compared to the first BR, namely: recommitment to the CAADP process; ending hunger by 2025; halving poverty through agriculture; enhancing resilience to climate change, and commitment to mutual accountability for action and results as depicted in Table 2. While Eswatini reported on most of the BR indicators, some data gaps remain which the country needs to address in future BRs. Data quantity and quality challenges continued to affect the BR process, including in this round which was engulfed by several data gaps due to incorrectly compiled or uncompiled data. Data for the reported commodities were obtained through special studies conducted by consultants who were engaged by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Availability of data on post-harvest losses and climate change resilience remained a challenge. Furthermore, given that Eswatini is still in the process of developing a trade-in service strategy, data on trade-in services could not be obtained for reporting purposes.The following actions taken by Eswatini contributed to the country's success during the second BR: Participation at regional BR training workshop and dissemination of BR report within the country. Stakeholders also reported on and reviewed the (National Agriculture Investment Plan) NAIP annually.An independent technical review report was submitted to the Ministry evaluating the implementation of NAIP.The projects related to NAIP were funded and the funds allocated were reflected in the national budget. These helped to ease the implementation of projects, particularly regarding accountability and transparency and enhanced reporting to the portfolio committee.Public expenditures to agriculture increased as compared to the reported figures in the first BR and more resources were made available for emergency relief activities, including for drought.The ministry of agriculture began to pilot the commercialization of Swazi Nation Land Bill to enable households to secure their land rights.Overall, the second BR report shows that Eswatini is not on track to achieving the Malabo commitments by 2025. This is a setback for the country because in the first BR, the country's overall score was above the minimum benchmark, indicating that the country was on track to achieving the Malabo targets. Moreover, the country is still quite a long way regarding putting in place policies to attract its youth into agricultural value chains and increasing spending for agriculture research and development as a share of GDP. Eswatini needs to implement recommendations emanating from the second BR to ensure there is progress on the commitment areas for which it did not do well, while still focusing on areas where the performance was satisfactory.The following recommendations are important for Eswatini to improve implementation of the Malabo commitments and to get back on track for the next BR:There is a need to develop or update the national plan for implementing the Malabo declaration using the CAADP implementation approach, including an inclusive and participatory approach to facilitate the Eswatini CAADP Process. Eswatini needs to expedite the process of developing a NAIP that is compliant with the Malabo Declaration commitments and also prepare a NAIP implementation progress report. The second generation of NAIPs (NAIP 2.0) is quite imperative for Eswatini to attain the Malabo Declaration targets. Continuous Stakeholder engagement is also necessary to maintain the CAADP momentum.Eswatini should focus on increasing the proportion of men and women engaged in agriculture with access to financial services.There is a need to increase total agricultural research spending as a share of agricultural GDP.This will offer useful insights into relative levels of agricultural research and development investment needed in Eswatini.Eswatini is known to have weak land tenure security and obtained poor scores on this indicator. Therefore, the country needs to invest more in strengthening the land tenure rights of land users or owners to increase the proportion of farm households with ownership or secure land rights.There is also a need to improve and develop efficient monitoring and evaluation and data management systems in Eswatini as well as harmonise all the BR data into the Central Statistics Office. The country needs to align its indicators and targets with those of the BR process to avoid duplication and to minimise discrepancies.In-order to foster the principles of ownership and mutual accountability in the agriculture sector, there is an urgent need to improve the coordination of Eswatini's BR report validation processes. Presenting the country BR report to parliament-the agriculture portfolio committee-and to the cabinet can help to generate buy-in and ownership of the process at the highest level of political leadership.Lastly, Eswatini should ratify the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to enhance and strengthen bilateral agricultural trade. ","tokenCount":"1247"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/0492760927.json b/data/part_6/0492760927.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..58b00c5ec463d97423b88a8fcf9eb1086d3a0170
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"69aedef24ca8f2dc5ecbdc831e566af9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/27efea15-e577-4cd5-8424-4cc346911079/retrieve","id":"-1744816883"},"keywords":["climate change","adaptation","agriculture practices"],"sieverID":"dd51599b-4538-4744-a8d0-fa5f6138b670","pagecount":"49","content":"e Segurança Alimentar (CCAFS). Maputo, Moçambique. Disponível on-line no site: www.ccafs.cgiar.org. Publicado pelo Programa de Pesquisa de CGIAR sobre Mudanças Climáticas, Agricultura e Segurança Alimentar (CCAFS). Os relatórios de CCAFS tem como objetivo difundir os trabalhos de pesquisa e práticas sobre mudanças climáticas, agricultura e segurança alimentar e estimular o feedback da comunidade científica. O Programa de Pesquisa de CGIAR sobre Mudanças Climáticas, Agricultura e Segurança Alimentar (CCAFS) é uma parceria estratégica de CGIAR e o Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). Este programa é realizado com os fundos dos doadores do CGIAR, a Agência Dinamarquesa de Desenvolvimento Internacional (DANIDA), Agência Australiana para o Desenvolvimento Internacional (AusAID), ajuda Irlandeza, Fundos do Ambiete de Canada, Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros dos Países Baixos, Agência Suíça para o Desenvolvimento e Cooperação (SDC), Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical (IICT), Ajuda da Inglaterra, Governo da Rússia, a União Europeia (UE), Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros e do Comércio da Nova Zelândia, com o apoio técnico do Fundo Internacional para o Desenvolvimento Agrícola (FIDA).Moçambique é tido como um dos países que vai sofrer mais os efeitos negativos das mudanças climáticas, através de uma maior intensificação dos fenómenos de secas, cheias e ciclones. O distrito de Xai-Xai devido à sua localização geográfica no litoral e na foz de um dos grandes rios de Moçambique e da África Austral, o rio Limpopo, irá sofrer frequentes ciclones e cheias. Mas também há população que pratica agricultura na zona alta, no sistema de sequeiro, que poderá sofrer das irregularidades das chuvas. Estes eventos climáticos poderão prejudicar a maioria da população do distrito pelo facto de depender de actividades vulneráveis às mudanças climáticas, nomeadamente agricultura, pecuária e exploração de recursos florestais. Por outro lado, a maioria dos produtores tem um fraco acesso à informação e infraestruturas básicas para o desenvolvimento de actividades de adaptação às mudanças climáticas.Como forma de apoiar esta população nos seus esforços de adaptação aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas, o Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM) e o Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), no âmbito do Programa CCAFS (Mudanças Climáticas, Agricultura e Segurança Alimentar), desenharam um projecto designado \"Gerindo o risco climático para melhorar o modo de vida e a capacidade de adaptação das famílias rurais nos ecossistemas agrários no sul de Moçambique\", para os distritos de Xai-Xai e Chicualacuala, província de Gaza.Este diagnóstico surge no âmbito deste projecto e visa analisar os problemas, os conhecimentos e as necessidades dos produtores potenciais beneficiários na área de adaptabilidade aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas de modo a desenhar intervenções que respondam às suas necessidades. A recolha de dados da pesquisa baseou-se em três diferentes abordagens, nomeadamente: (i) o questionário dirigido aos agregados familiares (AFs); (ii) a discussão com grupos focais constituído por membros das associações de produtores e; (ii) entrevistas semi-estruturadas dirigidas aos líderes comunitários, lideres das associações de produtores e agentes de extensão agrária baseados nos povoados estudados. No total foram inquiridos 166 agregados familiares, quatro grupos de discussão constituídos por quatro a 12 pessoas e, entrevistados 10 informantes chave.Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que a população dos quatro povoados do distrito de Xai-Xai pesquisados tem muitas lacunas na aplicação das práticas agrícolas com destaque para o controle de pragas e doenças no milho, mandioca, feijão nhemba, hortícolas, citrinos, cajueiros e mangueiras; melhoramento da fertilidade de solo e conservação da humidade de solo; cultivo de variedades melhoradas tolerantes à seca; compassos culturais e épocas de sementeiras recomendadas. No que concerne às actividades de pecuárias, os AFs têm fraco domínio das práticas de maneio alimentar e sanitário nas principais espécies existentes. No maneio dos recursos florestais, há um fraco domínio de todas as práticas que visam o melhoramento, conservação e aproveitamento dos recursos florestais. Os AFs também têm poucos conhecimentos das matérias de processamento de produtos agrários e conservação de milho, feijão nhemba e batata-reno. Os produtores têm igualmente constrangimentos de natureza financeira para o acesso e utilização das novas tecnologias agrárias.As estratégias identificadas para uma maior capacidade adaptativa aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas incluem a organização de treinamentos e demonstrações das melhores práticas agrárias com desataque para as práticas que demandam pouco investimento financeiros para o seu acesso e utilização. Similarmente, vai-se apostar na produção de informação radiofónica sobre os conhecimentos agrários para sua vinculação na rádio comunitária, com o objectivo de sensibilizar os produtores a adoptar práticas que contribuem para uma melhor adaptação e resiliência do modo de vida perante os efeitos das mudanças climáticas.      Moçambique, devido a sua localização geográfica, é apontado como um dos países que vai sofrer mais os efeitos negativos das mudanças climáticas, nomeadamente secas, cheias e ciclones (Mosquito et al., 2009;MICOA, 2005). Os impactos das mudanças climáticas serão agravados devido à limitada capacidade humana, institucional e financeira que Moçambique tem para antecipar e responder directa ou indirectamente os seus efeitos (MICOA, 2005).As regiões Sul e Centro de Moçambique são apontadas como sendo as que sofrerão mais os efeitos negativos das secas, cheias e ciclones (MICOA, 2006)  , 2005). Estes eventos climáticos poderão prejudicar a maioria da população do distrito pelo facto de esta população depender de actividades que são muito vulneráveis aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas, tais como agricultura, pesca e exploração de recursos florestais. Estes efeitos serão ainda mais agravados devido ao fraco acesso à informação e infraestruturas básicas para o desenvolvimento da capacidade adaptativa da população aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas (Matavel, 2012).Para minimizar os impactos das mudanças climáticas previstos no distrito de Xai-Xai, o projecto de investigação sobre adaptação às mudanças climáticas implementado pelo IIAM em colaboração com CIAT, pretende realizar acções de pesquisa e disseminação de tecnologias assim como práticas de produção agrária que melhor se adaptem às mudanças climáticas e às condições de produção locais. De acordo com Swanson (1991) e Boydell & Leary (2003) as acções de transferência de tecnologias, incluindo as de pesquisa para transferência de tecnologias poderão ser eficazes caso sejam antecedidas por um diagnóstico dos problemas, e das necessidades dos produtores alvos da intervenção.Este diagnóstico conduzido em quatro povoados do distrito de Xai-Xai surge como meio para assegurar que: (i) os conhecimentos e a informação a oferecer aos produtores respondam às preocupações e limitações dos beneficiários (Boydell e Leary, 2003); (ii) a interacção entre a investigação, extensão e produtores, que é fundamental para adopção das tecnologias, seja boa (Swanson, 1991); (iii) não haja sobreposição das acções; (iv) o corrente projecto aprenda das lições de projectos anteriores do mesmo âmbito implementados no distrito de Xai-Xai.O presente relatório de pesquisa apresenta a descrição das práticas agrárias, de maneio dos recursos florestais, de processamento de frutas, assim como descreve as tecnologias disseminadas e as potenciais barreiras de adopção das tecnologias. O relatório também apresenta as principais áreas de necessidades de formação e informação para os potenciais beneficiários do projecto no distrito do Xai-Xai. Analisar os problemas, os conhecimentos e as necessidades dos potenciais produtores beneficiários da intervenção na área de adaptabilidade às condições de mudanças climáticas de modo a desenhar intervenções que respondam às suas reais necessidades.1) Identificar as lacunas existentes em termos de informação, conhecimentos e tecnologias agrárias (agricultura, pecuária e recursos florestais) nas comunidades do distrito de Xai-Xai para melhor responder aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas. 2) Descrever as potenciais barreiras que podem interferir na participação dos beneficiários nas intervenções de disseminação das tecnologias e no acesso e utilização dos conhecimentos a serem disseminados. 3) Identificar as estratégias de intervenção para responder às lacunas identificadas;O trabalho de recolha de dados para este diagnóstico privilegiou a combinação dos métodos quantitativos e qualitativos. A combinação dos dois métodos visa fundamentalmente suprir as fraquezas e/ou aproveitar as forças de cada método (Denscombe, 2007). Para os métodos quantitativos usou-se o questionário administrado aos agregados familiares (AFs) e nos métodos qualitativos recorreu-se às entrevistas semiestruturadas com os informantes chaves e discussão com grupos focais. As técnicas usadas neste diagnóstico são também sugeridas pelo Swanson (1991), como sendo as recomendáveis para a fase de diagnóstico dos problemas, necessidades e sistemas de produção locais dos produtores.Com o questionário recolheu-se a informação sobre as características dos potenciais beneficiários das formações, práticas agropecuárias, o nível de domínio dos conhecimentos relevantes para a mitigação dos riscos das mudanças climáticas, e o interesse em aprender essas práticas por parte dos potenciais beneficiários. As entrevistas semiestruturadas e as discussões com grupos focais foram usadas para recolher informação geral sobre: as características dos sistemas de produção locais, as principais fruteiras e as práticas usadas para o processamento e conservação das frutas; os principais constrangimentos nas actividades agrárias; as estratégias a adoptar para a disseminação das tecnologias agrárias e; os factores que poderão influenciar as actividades de transferência e divulgação de tecnologias agrárias.Este diagnóstico foi conduzido em quatro povoados pertencentes a três postos administrativos do distrito de Xai-Xai. O distrito encontra-se no extremo sul da província de Gaza e é limitado ao Sul pelo Oceano Índico, a Norte pelos distritos de Chibuto e Chókwé, a Este pelo distrito de Bilene e a Oeste pelo distrito de Mandlakazi (Ministério de Administração Estatal, 2005; UNEP/FAO/PAP/MICOA, 1998). O distrito possui uma população recenseada em 2007 de 212.459 habitantes. Estes eventos climáticos poderão prejudicar as actividades agropecuárias do distrito principalmente por que a maior parte dos produtores desenvolvem as suas actividades ao longo do vale do rio Limpopo.O diagnóstico foi conduzido em quatro povoados selecionados para a implementação do projecto no distrito de Xai-Xai. Os quatro povoados possuem 19 bairros e um total de 5.576 agregados familiares (Tabela 1).Para a recolha de dados quantitativos optou-se pela estratégia de amostragem probabilística estratificada por área geográfica, nomeadamente povoado e bairro. Esta estratégia visava fundamentalmente garantir que seja recolhida informação de todos os povoados beneficiários desta intervenção. Em cada povoado, foram seleccionados de forma aleatória, dois a quatro bairros, em função do número de agregados a inquirir. Dentro dos bairros foram selecionadas aleatoriamente os quarterões e nos quarterões os agregados familiares à inquirir.O tamanho de amostra para o inquérito foi de 166 agregados familiares. Este tamanho de amostra foi calculado com base na fórmula recomendada para casos em que a variável mais importante de estudo é nominal ou ordinal e a população de estudo é finita 1 . Foi considerado para o cálculo da amostra, o nível de confiança de 95% e margem de erro de 5%.O inquérito conseguiu cobrir em 100% o número de amostra planificado. A maioria dos inquiridos é de Posto Administrativo de Chicumbane (49%) seguido de Chongoene (36%). Os inquiridos do posto administrativo de Zonguene representam 15% do total do universo da amostra do estudo (Tabela 1). Em termos de sexo dos inquiridos, a tabela 2 mostra que a maioria dos inquiridos é de sexo feminino (78%). Quanto à idade dos inquiridos, esta varia de 18 a 83 anos, com uma média de 43 anos e a mediana é de 40 anos. Para as entrevistas com os grupos focais, foi organizado um grupo focal em cada povoado. Portanto, foram organizados quatro grupos focais compostos por 4 a 14 produtores membros de associações de produtores. A maioria dos participantes dos grupos focais era de sexo feminino (Tabela 3). A tabela 5 mostra o número e percentagem dos agregados familiares que praticam actividades agropecuárias, com ênfase para as áreas de intervenção do corrente projecto no distrito de Xai-Xai.Quase todos AFs dedicam-se à agricultura (99,4%) e cerca de 63% tem a pecuária como uma das suas actividades principais. Em relação às actividades florestais, menos 6% dos AFs fazem corte e venda de lenha e estacas. Apenas 0.6% dos AFs estão envolvidos na produção e venda de carvão. A maior percentagem dos AFs envolvida na exploração dos recursos florestais é constituída por aqueles que fazem a recolha e venda de frutas silvestres e outros produtos não madeireiros (13%). O resultado da localização das machambas pode-nos ajudar a perceber que a questão das inundações das áreas de produção no vale do Limpopo afectará a maioria da população, cerca de 80% da população, dos quais 20% tem machamba apenas na zona baixa e os restantes têm em ambas as zonas.Mas também em casos de fraca precipitação, as áreas de produção da zona alta, onde cerca de 79% dos AFs produz, poderão também sofrer. Portanto, nas estratégias de alívio aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas no distrito de Xai-Xai devem-se direcionar as suas acções tanto para as questões de inundações e cheias, como para casos de secas.A tabela 7 apresenta o número de AFs membros e não membros de alguma organização de produtores e a localização das suas parcelas de produção, se estão apenas na zona baixa ou apenas na zona alta e se têm machambas em ambas as zonas. Os resultados mostram que dos 166 AFs inquiridos nos povoados do distrito de Xai-Xai, apenas 15% são membros de alguma organização de produtores. A maioria dos produtores associados assim como não-associados têm pelo menos uma parcela na zona baixa. Esta maioria representa 88% dos associados (16% têm parcelas apenas na zona baixa e 72% em ambas as zonas) e aproximadamente 80% dos não associados (21% têm machambas apenas na zona baixa e 59% têm machambas em ambas as zonas). Estes resultados de associativismo deixam claro que a maioria dos produtores de Xai-Xai não faz parte de associações. Mas por outro lado, os resultados nos dizem que não existem grandes diferenças entre os associados e não associados em termos da localização das suas machambas. Isto implica que nas intervenções, tanto da zona baixa assim como da zona alta, deve envolver os dois grupos de produtores.A figura 1 mostra a preferência por culturas dos AFs dos povoados estudados no distrito de Xai-Xai (percentagem dos AFs que pratica as principais culturas). A cultura mais praticada é o milho (98%), seguida da mandioca (90%), batata-doce (78%), feijão nhemba (83%), amendoim (80%) e hortícolas (57%). Um segundo grupo de culturas praticadas é constituído por abóbora (43%) e o feijão jugo (41,0%). As culturas cultivadas por menos de 15% de AFs são a batata-reno, o arroz e a melancia. A mapira e mexoeira não são cultivadas no distrito de Xai-Xai. As seguintes culturas, milho, batata-doce e hortícola são mais praticadas na zona baixa, ao longo do vale do rio Limpopo (Figura 2), e o arroz só se cultiva na zona baixa. A mandioca, o feijão nhemba e amendoim são maioritariamente cultivadas na zona alta, no sistema de sequeiro.Figura 2: Culturas praticadas na zona baixa, vale do LimpopoA Tabela 8 apresenta as principais práticas culturais que são utilizadas nas diversas culturas, nomeadamente a preparação da terra, sementeira, sacha e colheita e o período do ano em que acontecem. Duma forma geral, o distrito de Xai-Xai tem duas épocas agrícolas que correspondem às sementeiras de inverno e verão. A maioria das sementeiras ocorre entre Setembro e Dezembro, onde são semeadas seis das nove principais culturas praticadas nomeadamente, milho, mandioca, batatadoce, hortícolas, feijão nhemba e feijão jugo. O outro período pico das sementeiras é de Abril a Junho, com a sementeira de cinco das nove culturas, nomeadamente milho, batata-doce, amendoim, batata reno e hortícolas.As hortícolas são as únicas que são feitas durante todo o ano, no sistema de regadio. O milho e a batatadoce são cultivados nas duas épocas agrícolas.Em relação às sachas, os períodos de maior actividade correspondem aos meses de Outubro a Fevereiro e de Maio a Junho. As colheitas ocorrem ao longo de todo o ano (Tabela 8). As culturas praticadas durante todo ano e as que são semeadas nas duas épocas agrícolas, são fundamentais na estabilidade alimentar por providenciar produtos em mais do que um período do ano. Para as outras culturas que são praticadas em apenas uma época agrícola, devem ser adoptadas estratégias de armazenamento ao nível do AF, de modo a assegurar a sua disponibilidade para a família ao longo do ano. O sistema de cultivo mais usado pelos produtores locais é o de consociação de culturas, com excepção de batata-doce, que tem sido cultivada no sistema de cultivo puro. Mas há casos em que a batata-doce é cultivada nas bordaduras do campo. As consociações mais frequentes são: mandioca com amendoim; mandioca com feijão jugo e milho; milho com feijão nhemba.Para avaliarmos a aplicação das práticas de cultivo que podem ajudar a reduzir a vulnerabilidade das comunidades aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas, os inquiridos foram questionados sobre 16 práticas ligadas ao melhoramento da fertilidade de solo, controlo de pragas e doenças, conservação da humidade de solo, uso de variedades melhoradas e uso de compasso e densidade adequados para cada tipo de cultura e condições de cultivo.A tabela 8 apresenta o número de AFs que usaram ou não, nos últimos três anos, cada uma das 16 práticas agrícolas. A maioria das práticas agrícolas apresentadas não foi aplicada pelos AFs dos povoados inquiridos no distrito de Xai-Xai. Menos de um quarto dos inquiridos respondeu que tinha usado as seguintes práticas: aplicação de adubos; preparação e aplicação de composto; aplicação de pesticidas sintéticos; preparação e aplicação de pesticidas naturais; lavoura mínima; uso de variedades melhoradas tolerantes à salinidade, e pousio melhorado. Entre 25% a 49% dos inquiridos responderam que tinham usado as seguintes práticas: aplicação de estrume para melhorar a fertilidade do solo; culturas de cobertura, variedades melhoradas tolerantes à seca e consociação de árvores/arbustos com culturas anuais (Tabela 9). Uso de prática de preparação da terra para o cultivo através do sistema de corte e queima 48 28,9% Cultivo em linha usando os compassos e densidade recomendada para cada tipo de cultura 99 59,6%Fonte: Dados do inquérito aos AFs colectados pelos autores Contudo, mesmo para as práticas em que mais da metade dos inquiridos responderam que tinham aplicado nos últimos três anos, nem todas foram realmente aplicadas. Isto porque na triangulação com informação das entrevistas semiestruturadas e nos trabalhos com grupos focais percebeu-se que: (i) as pessoas que responderam que fazem cobertura morta na verdade se referem à incorporação dos restos de colheita e capim na altura de lavoura; (ii) o cultivo em linhas usando os compassos e densidade recomendada, é feito principalmente nas hortícolas. No milho também é feito, mas só quando a lavoura é feita com recurso à tracção animal e/ou com tractor, meios esses aos quais a maioria da população não tem acesso.Questionados sobre porque não faziam a cobertura morta, os entrevistados de Poiombo e Aldeia 3 de Fevereiro afirmaram que esta actividade demanda muito tempo adicional dos produtores, que podia ser usado para fazer outras actividades. Em relação ao cultivo em linha, não se conseguiu a explicação.Com base no trabalho com os grupos focais e entrevistas semiestruturadas com os informantes chave, foram apurados os principais constrangimentos que os agricultores encaram nas actividades agrícolas.Os constrangimentos encontrados estão relacionados com o fraco acesso e domínio de informação e conhecimentos agrícolas pelos produtores. A seguir apresentam-se os principais constrangimentos por povoado do distrito de Xai-Xai: Perda da produção na zona alta devido à escassez e irregularidade das chuvas;  Deficiente conhecimento das técnicas de conservação de produtos agrícolas pós-colheita (batata reno e hortícolas);  Fraco conhecimento das práticas de controlo de pragas e doenças nas hortícolas principalmente o controle da lagarta na couve e repolho;  Limitado uso de sementes melhoradas;  Fraco domínio e aplicação da densidade e compassos recomendados para cada cultura. Perda de produção devido a ocorrência frequente de défices hídricos na zona alta e inundações na zona baixa;  Incerteza das épocas de sementeira devido à variabilidade climática (épocas das chuvas) trazendo como consequência a fraca produção na zona alta;  Assoreamento da vala principal de drenagem e consequentes inundações dos campos;  Deficiente conhecimento das técnicas de rega e drenagem, causando inundações em áreas reservadas para produção agrícola;  Deficiente e fraco uso de adubos orgânicos e inorgânicos;  Fraco domínio das dosagens de pesticidas;  Redução do rendimento nas culturas de: (i) milho, devido ao escaravelho preto e gafanhotos;(ii) arroz e feijão nhemba, por causa da praga de escaravelho preto.  Pragas e doenças nas hortícolas principalmente no tomate e couve (principalmente afídios);  Perdas pós-colheita no milho e feijão nhemba devido à ocorrência de pragas de armazém como o gorgulho, e fraco domínio das práticas do seu controlo;  Erosão das encostas devido à remoção da cobertura vegetal para a prática da agricultura pela população; Baixos preços de venda no mercado devido à fraca capacidade de negociação;  Saturação do mercado de hortícolas no período fresco. Secas cíclicas e inundações frequentes dos campos de produção (zona baixa), que contribuem para a perda da produção;  Incidência de diversas pragas de campo nos tubérculos e no milho;  Incidência de pragas e doenças nas hortícolas particularmente na couve, alface e repolho;  Perdas de produção pós-colheita devido a pragas de armazém, principalmente o gorgulho nos cereais;  Assoreamento das valas de drenagem. Assoreamento das valas de drenagem, dificultando o movimento das águas e provocando inundações;  Cheias e secas cíclicas prejudicando as culturas;  Perdas de rendimento das culturas de: (i) milho, devido à lagarta invasora, broca do colmo, escaravelho preto, gafanhoto elegante, míldio e listrado; (ii) couve e repolho, devido a lagartas das folhas; (iii) tomate e batata reno, por causa de murcha bacteriana; (iv) alho, por causa de ferrugem, e; (v) mandioca, devido ao gafanhoto elegante.  Perdas da produção de milho no armazém devido, principalmente, ao ataque de gorgulho.Os constrangimentos aqui apresentados mostram-nos que a produção agrícola é afectada principalmente por questões relacionadas com a variabilidade da precipitação, pragas e doenças nas principais culturas praticadas, uso de semente não melhorada, baixa fertilidade de solo, compasso e densidade de plantação inadequados e inundação dos campos de produção (zona baixa).As principais espécies de animais criadas no distrito de Xai-Xai são os bovinos, caprinos, suínos e aves (galinhas e patos).A Figura 3 apresenta a proporção dos AFs nos povoados inquiridos, que possuem cada uma das principais espécies de animais. Neste gráfico, pode-se ver que as aves e os caprinos são as espécies mais comuns nos AFs de Xai-Xai, sendo criadas por 67% e 47% dos AFs, respectivamente. Os bovinos e os suínos existem em 25% e 24% dos agregados familiares inquiridos, respectivamente. Quanto aos suínos, provavelmente existiam muito mais criadores antes da peste suína africana que assolou o distrito de Xai-Xai meses antes desta pesquisa. Para perceber quais as estratégias de maneio pecuário usadas pelos AFs nos últimos três anos para fazer face à variabilidade climática, foram sugeridas no questionário nove práticas de maneio, descritas na Tabela 10. Duma forma geral, há um fraco uso destas práticas de maneio pela maioria dos AFs de Xai-Xai. Apenas em uma das nove práticas (identificação de doenças mais frequentes nos animais), houve mais de metade dos inquiridos que aplicaram nos últimos três anos. O isolamento dos animais doentes do resto da manada (aplicada por 44% dos AFs) e o tratamento de doenças mais frequentes nos animais (aplicada por 33% dos AFs), constituem as práticas mais aplicadas pelos criadores inquiridos nos povoados deste distrito. As restantes práticas foram aplicadas por menos de 25% dos AFs inquiridos (Tabela 10).  Em Chicumbane, os constrangimentos identificados são similares aos levantados nos povoados de Nhocuene e Poiombo com a excepção dos abcessos que ocorrem nas cobaias (cavia porcellus). A carência do pasto, que afecta os bovinos e caprinos num total de cerca de cinco meses ocorre nos períodos de Janeiro a Fevereiro, devido à inundação da zona baixa onde a maioria dos criadores pasta os seus animais; e de Agosto a Outubro, devido à seca que reduz a disponibilidade e qualidade de pasto nesse período (Tabela 12). Para além das duas razões acima apresentadas relacionadas ao período do ano, a escassez de pasto é também apresentada como sendo causada pela redução das áreas de pastagens devido ao aumento de número de criadores na zona, expansão da área residencial e das actividades agrícolas do projecto Uambau.A diarreia nos caprinos ocorre nos meses de Junho e Julho. A doença de sarna nos bovinos, caprinos e coelhos, tem-se registado no período de Junho a Agosto. A peste suína africana, que tem causado mortes massivas de animais ocorre com maior frequência nos meses de Abril e Dezembro. As doenças de newcastle, nas galinhas, e hepatite vírica, nos patos, apresentam uma maior prevalência nos meses de Junho, Julho e Dezembro. As cobaias sofrem de abcessos principalmente de Agosto a Outubro (Tabela 12). A maioria das frutas é colhida no período entre Dezembro a Fevereiro, ondem amadurecem pelo menos cinco das nove fruteiras existentes nos povoados estudados. O período mais pobre em frutas é correspondente aos meses de Agosto a Novembro. Nestes meses só se colhe entre um a dois tipos de frutas das fruteiras mencionadas. Isto nos sugere a seguinte pergunta: será que nos períodos de maior abundância da fruta ela é totalmente aproveitada? Será que as comunidades têm algumas estratégias de processamento e conservação da fruta para permitir o seu consumo diversificado e em períodos de escassez?Nas entrevistas com os informantes chave e nos trabalhos com grupos focais, constatou-se que estas frutas alistadas na tabela 14 são maioritariamente consumidas sem nenhum processamento e também não existe uma estratégia para a sua conservação. A excepção vai para o caju que é usado para a preparação de sumo de caju e bebidas alcoólicas.As razões apresentadas de não processamento e conservação das frutas exóticas estão ligadas ao não domínio dessas práticas pela comunidade dos povoados estudados. Encontramos apenas um caso dos membros da Associação Ntlawa Wa Djondzo Yaku Vikela Ndala, baseada na Aldeia a Voz da Frelimo, na localidade de Zonguene, que aprendeu a fazer sumos e jams a partir de frutas. Alguns membros têm preparado estes subprodutos da fruta de uma forma regular.As frutas nativas mais comuns no distrito de Xai-Xai são o canhu, mapfilwa, tindziva, nheva, nula, ata silvestre, massala e tâmaras. O canhu, mapfiwa, tindziva e a massala existem em todos os povoados estudados. As outras frutas são comuns em apenas um dos povoados. Nula (em Poiombo); Tamara (em A Voz da Frelimo) ou em dois povoados; nheva (em Nhocuene e Poiombo); e ata silvestre (em Chicumbane-sede e Aldeia a Voz da Frelimo) (Tabela 15).A maioria das frutas amadurece no período entre Novembro e Abril. Neste período amadurece três a quatro espécies de frutas. Os meses de Junho e Julho, não se colhe nenhuma fruta nativa e no período de Agosto a Outubro pode-se comer apenas a massala (Tabela 16). Fonte: Dados da discussão com grupos focais, colectados pelos autores Duma forma geral, o período entre Dezembro e Fevereiro é a época de maior abundância de fruta nestas comunidades. Isto pelo facto de das 17 frutas exóticas e nativas mais comuns nas quatro comunidades estudadas, colher-se entre nove a 11. Entre os meses de Julho e Outubro há grande escassez de fruta, tanto das fruteiras nativas assim como das fruteiras exóticas.Tal como registado nas frutas exóticas, as nativas também são consumidas maioritariamente em fresco, sem processamento e conservação, com excepção de canhú [Sclerocarya birrea (A. Rich) Hochst.Sbsp. Caffra] e massala (Strychnos spinosa Lam.) que também são usadas para a preparação de bebidas alcoólicas.A seguir são apresentados, por povoado beneficiário do projecto no distrito de Xai-Xai, os principais constrangimentos encarados pelos AFs na produção e processamento das frutas nativas e exóticas. Os constrangimentos identificados dizem respeito ao acesso e domínio da informação e conhecimentos ligados ao maneio de fruteiras e processamento das frutas. Em todos os povoados apenas foram apesentados problemas ligados as frutas exóticas, provavelmente devido à limitada disponibilidade de florestas para se explorar as espécies nativas. Ataques severos de afídios nos citrinos;  Baixa produtividade dos cajueiros, devido ao problema de oídio;  Declínio do rendimento das mangueiras e citrinos devido ao apodrecimento das suas frutas antes de amadurecimento.Povoado de Chicumbane-sede  Incidência de pragas e doenças nos citrinos e cajueiros;  Perda de muita fruta no pico de amadurecimento por falta de mercado para a venda da fruta fresca e fraco domínio das técnicas para o seu processamento e conservação. Incidência de pragas e doenças nas laranjeiras (cochonilha e mosca da fruta) e nos cajueiros (oídio);  Perda de grandes quantidades de manga no pico de amadurecimento por falta de mercado para a venda da fruta fresca e fraco domínio das técnicas para o seu processamento e conservação.A incidência de pragas e doenças nas fruteiras e o fraco domínio das práticas de processamento são os dois problemas que afectam as três comunidades entrevistadas. Como vimos anteriormente, a maioria das fruteiras atingem a maturação no período de Dezembro e Fevereiro, o que pode significar excedente de fruta nesta época. Ai que surge a necessidade de processamento e conservação de fruta neste período, não só como uma estratégia de diversificação das formas de consumo mas, principalmente, como um meio de aproveitamento da fruta, de acréscimo de valor e de contribuição para a renda familiar.Foi inquirido aos AFs sobre qual o seu nível de domínio sobre as 15 práticas de produção agrícola, apresentadas no questionário, que podem minimizar os efeitos do risco climático (Tabela 17). Os resultados mostram que mais de 50% dos inquiridos responderam que não tinham domínio em 11 das 15 práticas apresentadas.As práticas com mais agregados familiares (mais de 80%) que não dominam (nenhum ou fraco domínio) são as seguintes: aplicação de adubos e pesticidas sintéticos; preparação e aplicação de pesticidas naturais; preparação e aplicação de pesticidas naturais; e captação e conservação de água das chuvas na machamba (ex. sulcos espaçados, micro-bacias, sulcos fechados, etc.). Na segunda posição, em termos de número de pessoas que não dominam, (entre 60% a 80%) encontramos: preparação e aplicação de composto orgânico; lavoura mínima; uso de variedades melhoradas tolerantes à seca; pousio melhorado usando espécies de rápido crescimento e tolerante à seca (ex. feijão bóer variedade gigante, leucaena, etc.). E na terceira posição temos consociação de árvores/arbustos de crescimento rápido com culturas anuais, com 51% de AFs que não dominam (Tabela 17). Em três práticas de produção agrícola, a maioria dos inquiridos respondeu que tinha bom a muito bom domínio. Essas práticas são as seguintes: (i) uso de cobertura morta, (57%); (ii) cultivo em linha usando os compassos e densidade recomendada para cada cultura (62.6%) e; (iii) rotação de culturas (68%). Em uma prática, uso de culturas de cobertura, metade dos inquiridos disseram que não tinham domínio e outra metade disse que dominava.Cruzando os resultados de aplicação das práticas agrícolas (Tabela 9) e o domínio dessas práticas pelos produtores de Xai-Xai (Tabela 17), pode se ver que os produtores aplicavam o que responderam que dominavam. Portanto, há constrangimentos apontados que podem ser resolvidos por algumas das práticas aqui indicadas, mas que eles não aplicam por razões provavelmente relacionadas com o fraco domínio tecnológico das mesmas. Contudo, não se pode ignorar a provável existência de outros factores que possam influenciar a não aplicação de certas práticas e que não tenham sido apurados neste estudo.A Tabela 18 apresenta o nível de domínio pelos AFs, das nove práticas de maneio pecuário indicadas no questionário deste estudo. Em todas as práticas de maneio pecuário, registou-se mais de 50% dos inquiridos que responderam que não tinham domínio (nenhum ou pouco domínio).As práticas de maneio pecuário em que mais AFs (mais de 80%) responderam que não dominam são: conservação de forragem em feno; conservação e tratamento de resíduos agrícolas da machamba para alimentação do gado na época de escassez de pasto; uso de blocos multinutritivos e suplementação de ruminantes na época seca; cultivo de árvores forrageiras resistentes à seca; retenção/colheita e conservação de água da chuva para o abeberamento do gado; e construção de currais melhorados (p. ex. curais elevados para cabritos, ovelhas). A prática de isolamento dos animais doentes do resto da manada (principalmente com brucelose e tuberculose), com 61% dos inquiridos que não dominam, está na segunda posição. O terceiro grupo é constituído pela prática de identificação das doenças mais frequentes nos animais, em que 53% dos AFs responderam que não tinham domínio (Tabela 18). Aqui vamos apresentar o nível de domínio das práticas de maneio de recursos florestais pelos AFs de Xai-Xai. Das seis práticas de maneio de recursos florestais inquiridas, constatou-se que a maioria dos AFs não tem domínio (nenhum e pouco domínio). Para todas as práticas de maneio florestal, mais de 80% dos inquiridos responderam que não tinham domínio (Tabela 19). Para avaliação do domínio das práticas de processamento de produtos agrárias pelos agregados familiares foram usados nove tipos de agroprocessamento, ilustrados na Tabela 20. Duma forma geral há um fraco domínio das práticas de processamento pela maioria dos AFs. A percentagem dos AFs que respondeu que tinha bom a muito bom domínio de cada prática, não ultrapassa os 21%, com excepção da produção de farinha de mandioca em que cerca de 69% dos inquiridos respondeu que tinha bom a muito bom domínio. Das oito práticas que a maioria dos inquiridos respondeu que não tinha domínio, podemos subdividir em dois grupos. O primeiro grupo é constituído por sete práticas, em que mais de 80% dos inquiridos disseram que não tinham domínio. As sete práticas que constituem o grupo das que mais pessoas não sabem como processar são: processamento de frutas em sumos, jam e conservante a seco; preparação de manteiga a partir da amêndoa de canhú; processamento de batata-doce (em sumos, jam, bolos, biscoitos, etc.); preparação de sumos, bolos, biscoitos e conservante seco a partir de hortícolas; e processamento de caju em melaço. O segundo grupo é constituído pelo processamento de leite de vaca/cabrito em iogurte, em que 75% dos AFs alegam não terem domínio (Tabela 20). Estes resultados reforçam as constatações registadas na descrição dos constrangimentos do maneio de fruteiras em que as comunidades indicaram que perdiam muita produção no pico da maturação de muitas frutas devido ao fraco domínio das práticas de processamento da fruta para o aproveitamento daquela fruta que não é consumida e/ou não encontra o mercado.Neste capítulo pretendemos identificar as áreas em que os AFs estão interessados em receber alguma informação e conhecimento. As áreas usadas para esta avaliação são as mesmas anteriormente analisadas no capítulo de avaliação do nível domínio e de aplicação das práticas agrícolas, pecuárias, florestais e de agroprocessamento e conservação de produtos agrários.A Tabela 21 descreve o nível de interesse dos AFs, em aprender as práticas agrícolas. Das 15 práticas alistadas na tabela 21, a maioria dos AFs dos quatro povoados do distrito de Xai-Xai envolvidos no estudo, mostrou muito interesse em aprender todas as práticas com excepção do uso de variedades melhoradas tolerantes à salinidade, onde 47% de AFs responderam que tinham muito interesse. Para as restantes práticas, entre 55% a 90% dos AFs, responderam que tinham muito interesse em aprender. As práticas que registaram percentagens mais altas, mais de 80% dos AFs com muito interesse de aprender, são as seguintes: aplicação de adubos e pesticidas sintéticos; aplicação de estrumes de animais; preparação e aplicação de composto orgânico e de pesticidas naturais, uso de variedades melhoradas tolerantes à seca e pousio melhorado usando espécies de rápido crescimento e tolerantes à seca (ex. feijão bóer, variedade gigante; leucaena, etc.). O segundo grupo de práticas com maior aceitação para sua implementação, entre 60 -80% dos AFs muito interessados, é constituído pelos seguintes conhecimentos: rotação de culturas, consociação de árvores/arbustos de crescimento rápido com culturas anuais e lavoura mínima. A prática de captação e conservação de água das chuvas na machamba (ex. sulcos espaçados, micro-bacias, sulcos fechados, etc.) está no terceiro grupo, com 55% dos AFs.Estes resultados de interesse conjugados com os de domínio e aplicação das práticas agrícolas pelos agregados familiares dizem-nos que há necessidade e interesse em disseminar todas as práticas de produção agrícolas sugeridas para adaptação às alterações climáticas no Xai-Xai, com excepção da prática de uso de variedades melhoradas tolerantes a salinidade. Nesta prática a maioria dos inquiridos não tem nenhum domínio mas também não está interessada em aprender. Isto pode significar que o problema de salinidade ainda não constitui uma grande preocupação na maioria das zonas do distrito de Xai-Xai, com excepção de Zonguene onde aparentemente o problema é mais sério.Com base nas entrevistas e discussão em grupos focais, os produtores acresceram e/ou reforçaram a lista das áreas em que estão interessados em receber treinamentos. As áreas ou os tópicos que os produtores disseram que têm interesse em aprender são os seguintes: Compassos e densidades culturais no milho e hortícolas diversas.  Uso de herbicidas com ênfase nas dosagens;  Épocas ideais actualizadas para a sementeira de diversas culturas, tendo em conta as mudanças ocorridas com as alterações climáticas;  Práticas de conservação da humidade de solo;  Técnicas e estratégias de melhoramento da fertilidade de solo;  Controle de pragas nas culturas de milho, hortícolas e mandioca.A tabela 22 apresenta o nível de interesse dos AFs em aprender as práticas de maneio pecuário. Em sete das nove práticas de maneio pecuário alistados na tabela, a maioria dos AFs (52% a 95%) respondeu estar muito interessado em receber os conhecimentos sobre as respectivas práticas.As práticas como identificação de doenças mais importantes e isolamento de animais doentes do resto da manada são as que mais de 80% dos AFs mostraram ter muito interesse em aprender. A construção de curais melhoradas está no segundo lugar em termos de número de AFs interessados, com 72% de AFs. O terceiro grupo de práticas que teve muitos AFs interessados (entre 50% -59%) é constituído pelos seguintes conhecimentos: conservação de forragem em feno; conservação e tratamento de resíduos agrícolas na machamba para alimentação do gado na época de escassez de pasto; uso de blocos multinutritivos e suplementação de ruminantes na época seca; e cultivo de árvores forrageiras resistentes a seca (Tabela 22). O fraco interesse em aprender as práticas de retenção e conservação da água deve-se ao facto de o distrito possuir recursos hídrios permanentes e semipermanentes. Em relação ao fraco interesse em aprender as práticas de tratamento das doenças, o mais provável é que este trabalho é feito pelos promotores. E os produtores acham que quem deveria aprender é este grupo que assiste os criadores.Duma forma geral, os AFs demonstraram interesse em aprender todas as práticas que anteriormente responderam que não tinham aplicado e não dominavam as formas de sua aplicação. Para além das áreas descritas na tabela 21 acima, os produtores disseram-nos que estavam interessadas em receber os conhecimentos sobre a desparasitação dos caprinos e bovino.Em cinco das seis práticas usadas para avaliar o nível de interesse dos AFs de Xai-Xai em aprender as práticas de maneio de recursos florestais a maioria dos inquiridos disse estar muito interessada em aprender os seus conhecimentos (Tabela 23).A prática com mais AFs interessados em aprender é a de cultivo de plantas medicinais, com 92%. Em segundo lugar estão as práticas sobre colecção e tratamento ou pré-tratamento da semente de árvores florestais de espécies nativas e apicultura, com percentagens de 64% e 60% respectivamente. As práticas sobre estabelecimento e gestão de viveiros florestais de espécies nativas e implantação e maneio de florestas com espécies nativas estão no terceiro grupo dos conhecimentos que a maioria dos AFs está muito interessado em aprender. A percentagem dos inquiridos com muito interesse é de 57% para os viveiros e 55% para a implantação e gestão de florestas (Tabela 23).A única prática que teve menos de metade dos inquiridos interessados em aprender é o cultivo de pasto e forragem na floresta, que registou 49% de agregados familiares dos povoados inquiridos, no distrito de Xai-Xai (Tabela 23). A intervenção no âmbito de transmissão dos conhecimentos sobre colecção e tratamento da semente, assim como estabelecimento e maneio de viveiros florestais pode impulsionar os trabalhos de produção de mudas de espécies florestais para o cumprimento da decisão presidencial \"um líder uma floresta\". Isto porque por exemplo, o líder comunitário de Chicumbane disse que para responder a decisão de criação de florestas comunitárias, as comunidades dependem das plantas disponibilizadas pela Direcção Provincial da Agricultura, que não são suficientes para responder às necessidades.A tabela 24 abaixo apresenta o resumo das respostas dos AFs de Xai-Xai em relação ao seu nível de interesse em aprender cada uma das nove práticas de processamento sugeridas no corrente diagnóstico. Em todas as práticas, a maioria dos AFs respondeu estar muito interessado em aprender.As práticas com maior número de inquiridos interessados (mais de 80%) são: processamento de frutas em sumos, jam e em conservante a seco; preparação de manteiga a partir da amêndoa de canhú; processamento de batata-doce (em sumos, jam, bolos, biscoitos, etc.); preparação de sumos, bolos, biscoitos de hortícolas; processamento de hortícolas em conservante seco; e processamento de caju em melaço. O segundo grupo é composto por duas práticas nomeadamente: processamento de leite de vaca/cabrito em iogurte (73%) e produção de farinha mandioca (65%) (Tabela 24). Nas entrevistas com informantes chave e nas discussões nos grupos focais, os produtores também manifestaram interesse de aprender as práticas de conservação pós-colheita de milho e feijão nhemba, principalmente para evitar o gorgulho e rato que casam grandes perdas da produção destas duas culturas.A Tabela 25 mostra as tecnologias agrárias disseminadas nos postos administrativos de Chonguene, Chicumbane e Zonguene nos últimos três anos. A introdução de muitas tecnologias agrárias indicadas teve em conta a necessidade de se fazer face aos efeitos da seca e cheias (ou ambos). Outras tecnologias foram focalizadas ao aumento da renda e segurança alimentar e nutricional das famílias.Tendo em vista a redução do impacto da seca foram introduzidas as práticas de produção de ananás, mandioca e batata-doce, e as hortas caseiras em Nhocuene e Poiombo. Em Poiombo também foi introduzido o cultivo da variedade de tomate HTX14 que é relativamente mais tolerante à seca. Em Poiombo foi ainda introduzida a prática da agricultura de conservação, uma prática que também foi experimentada no povoado da Voz da Frelimo. Destas práticas apenas a agricultura de conservação é que não está a ser aplicada por razões que não conseguimos apurar.Em Poiombo e Nhocuene a Visão Mundial também focalizou as suas acções na disseminação de práticas de gestão integrada das pragas e doenças, tanto na zona baixa como na zona alta. Em Zonguene a Visão Mundial também introduziu novas culturas de cenoura, pimento e beringela, enquanto em Poiombo introduziu o cultivo de batata reno. Estas práticas e culturas continuam sendo aplicadas, contudo as pragas e doenças continuam a ser preocupação dos produtores. Isto porque, nestas comunidades, há ainda um fraco domínio dos princípios básicos de seu controlo.Visando melhorar a actuação dos produtores, a Visão Mundial capacitou os produtores de Poiombo e Nhocuene na gestão de produção e preparação dos planos de negócio. Alguns dos informantes chave destes povoados referiram que esta capacitação melhorou a actividade agrária dos produtores.Em Poiombo, os Serviços Distritais das Actividades Económicas (SDAEs) introduziram a piscicultura como uma actividade alternativa às actividades agrárias tradicionais. Nhocuene, Poiombo e Chjicumban e-Sede Tecnologia de processamento de arroz e uso de multi-cultivadoras especialmente na produção do arroz.Projecto de reabilitação da Barragem de Massingir Poiombo Fonte: Dados dos grupos focais e entrevistas semiestruturadas aos informantes chaves, colectado pelos autores Para reduzir o impacto da erosão hidrica que muitas vezes ocorre durante o tempo chuvoso e a erosão eólica causada pelos ventos fortes que ocorrem com alguma frequencia na zona de Chicumbane, foi introduzida a prática de plantação de mudas de eucalipto e casuarinas. Esta actividade de plantação de árvores aconteceu apenas com apoio das instituições públicas locais. A liderança da comunidade local mesmo sabendo da importância desta acção, diz que não tem como reagir porque não tem mudas e nem tem pessoas, no povoado, preparadas para fazer os viveiros.A visão Mundial e os Serviços Distritais das Actividades Económicas (SDAEs) desenvolveram acções de consciencialização das famílias sobre a necessidade de praticar actividades agrárias tanto na zona baixa como na zona alta como forma de assegurar que a falha de produção na zona baixa devido às inundações poderia ser compensada pela produção na zona alta e vice-versa.Na perspectiva de assegurar maior e melhor aproveitamento dos produtos agrícolas, a Save the Children, em coordenação com os Serviços Distritais das Actividades Económicas introduziram o processamento da batata-doce de polpa alaranjada e mandioca aos membros da associação de produtores do posto administrativo de Zonguene. A Visão Mundial também capacitou os produtores de Poiombo e Nhocuene em processamento de batata-doce de polpa alaranjada. Mas de uma forma geral há fraca aplicação destas práticas de processamento introduzidas. As pessoas destas comunidades alegam as dificuldades financeiras para a compra dos ingredientes necessários e a falta de mercado para a comercialização dos produtos processados como as principais razões da fraca aplicação.A extensão agrária e o IIAM introduziram a estratégia de melhoramento e maneio da fertilidade de solo através da preparação e aplicação de composto nos povoados de Poimbo e a Voz da Frelimo. Esta prática não foi adoptada pelo facto de requerer tempo adicional dos produtores.Em relação às estratégias de disseminação das tecnologias a Tabela 25 mostra que a maioria das tecnologias e práticas agrícolas foram apresentadas aos produtores em secções de treinamento intensivos de curta duração, um a cinco dias, e através de demonstração baseadas nas técnicas de escola na machamba do camponês e campo de demonstração de resultados. Segundo as organizações intervenientes no processo de disseminação, estes métodos foram mais preferidos porque usam os princípios que ajudam a ter maior motivação e participação dos produtores no processo de aprendizagem.Foram identificadas algumas barreiras que podem interferir na participação dos beneficiários nos eventos de capacitação e no acesso e utilização dos conhecimentos disseminados. As referidas barreiras incluem aspectos sociais e culturais, disponibilidade de tempo e recursos necessários para o acesso e utilização das novas tecnologias agrárias, entre outros aspectos.No distrito de Xai-Xai foi indicado que os horários para a participação em potenciais eventos de capacitação dos produtores devem ser seleccionados de forma cautelosa uma vez que regra geral os produtores estão nos campos de produção, individuais ou da associação, até cerca das 13 horas, embora em alguns casos continuem as suas actividades até ao final da tarde.Algumas práticas agropecuárias têm baixa probabilidade de serem adoptadas. Este é o caso das práticas de pousio e rotação de culturas que embora sejam até certo ponto conhecidas e reconhecido o seu benefício, não são realizadas porque alguns produtores só tem uma machamba, o que não facilita a sua execução; Esta situação é mais acentuada em Nhocuene e Poiombo onde uma grande parte das áreas da zona alta que eram destinadas à prática das actividades agropecuárias foi destinada à habitação como consequência das inundações que geralmente ocorrem no distrito de Xai-Xai, especialmente na zona baixa, reduzindo drasticamente as áreas de produção e limitando a possibilidade de realizar o pousio e a rotação de culturas. Em Chicumbane-Sede, os produtores perderam grande parte dos seus campos, na zona baixa, a favor da Empresa Chinesa Uambau que explora uma grande área do Vale do Limpopo.Práticas que impõem um esforço físico adicional ao produtor ou práticas em que se exigem a sua comparticipação financeira têm menos probabilidade de serem adoptadas. Este é o caso de por exemplo, das pulverizações contra o oídio, dos banhos carracicidas e dos diversos insumos agrícolas. Os banhos carracicidas tendem a ser cada vez menos regulares porque os criadores de gado devem comprar os produtos necessários. Para os insumos agrícolas tais como a semente melhorada, adubos e pesticidas, os produtores não têm usado na maioria dos casos devido aos preços de compra que são altos. As poucas vezes que eles usam é nas hortícolas ou quando estes são disponibilizados a custo zero.No povoado de Poiombo foi apresentado uma limitação relacionado especificamente à limitação da área de produção de arroz devido à limitada capacidade de aquisição de equipamento para fazer as sachas e mondas. Esta questão está relacionada com a disponibilidade local destes equipamentos.O Quadro 8 apresenta as organizações locais envolvidas na disseminação de informação e conhecimentos agrários, no distrito de Xai-Xai. Fazem parte desta lista, os Serviços Distritais das Actividades Económicas de Xai-Xai, as casas agrárias de Nhocuene e Poimbo, Visão Mundial, associações de produtores, Empresa do Regadio de Baixo Limpopo, Rádio Comunitária de Xai-Xai, Empresa Chinesa Uambau e Centro de Formação da Associação WutomiAgri.Os SDAEs de Xai-Xai é uma instituição do Estado que coordena as actividades económicas no distrito, incluindo actividades agropecuárias. Os SDAEs estão baseados no posto administrativo de Chonguene e tem extensionistas nos quatro povoados onde este projecto das mudanças climáticas está em implementação.As casas agrárias de Nhocuene e Poimbo localizadas nos bairros que ostentam os mesmos nomes são outras organizações de grande interesse no processo de disseminação de informação e conhecimentos agrários. As casas agrárias permitem a articulação entre os SDAEs, através dos extensionistas, e os produtores. É nas casas agrárias onde se vendem insumos diversos (fertilizantes, sementes, pesticidas, etc.), equipamentos e instrumentos de produção. As casas agrárias também possuem condições para organização de eventos de formação tais como salas de aulas e campos para as aulas práticas e demonstrações diversas (Figura 4). Em Chonguene funciona a organização não-governamental Visão Mundial, que através do seu Projecto de Segurança Alimentar dá assistência técnica agrária aos produtores locais através de treinamentos, demonstrações e disponibilização de insumos agrários, e dinamiza esquemas de poupança comunitária.No distrito de Xai-Xai existe uma empresa designada por Empresa do Regadio de Baixo Limpopo, que funciona em coordenação com os SDAEs, prestando apoio na abertura e limpeza das valas de drenagem. Esta empresa também esteve envolvida na capacitação dos extensionistas e das casas agrárias. Portanto, os trabalhos de capacitação comunitária nas áreas ligadas ao maneio de água de rega deveriam ser feitos com envolvimento desta empresa.Os produtores para além de estarem organizados em casas agrárias também estão em associações de produtores. As associações de produtores são organizações locais de produtores envolvidos em actividades agropecuárias. Estas organizações permitem o apoio interno entre os seus membros e facilitam a assistência técnica providenciada pela extensão agrária. As associações de produtores funcionam como meio de disseminação de informação e tecnologias agrárias aos produtores não associados, desempenhando assim uma função social muito importante. Na área de implementação do projecto foram identificados três associações, sendo duas em Chicumbane e uma em Zonguene.A outra organização local relevante na disseminação de informação e práticas agrícolas é a rádio. A rádio é um dos meios de comunicação de massa encontrado no distrito de Xai-Xai. No distrito de Xai-Xai funciona a rádio local designada rádio comunitária de Xai-Xai mas a população de distrito também tem acesso a outras rádios com destaque para a antena nacional da Rádio Moçambique. A rádio comunitária de Xai-Xai é um órgão de comunicação muito importante na actividade agropecuária. A rádio comunitária é muito utilizada pelo sector da Agricultura local para a veiculação de informação relacionada com a campanha agrícola, aparecimento de surtos, vacinação de gado e situações de cheias e secas. A rádio comunitária constitui um espaço para a difusão de informação e tecnologias agrárias mesmo em locais onde a extensão agrária não tem alcance directo.Na baixa de Chicumbane existe a empresa Chinesa Uambau, uma organização nova que desenvolve actividades agrárias no distrito de Xai-Xai. No âmbito da responsabilidade social, espera-se que esta empresa venha capacitar as comunidades de Chicumbane, que perderam as suas parcelas de produção, em matérias de produção agrícola, com destaque para a produção de pasto e fenação.Ainda no povoado de Chicumbane, existe uma instituição consagrada a formação agrária designada por Centro de Formação da Associação WutomiAgri. Esta é uma organização que se dedica à formação de jovens na área de produção agrária e empreendedorismo. Tem condições para acolher as formações e outros eventos de transferência de tecnologias nomeadamente salas de aulas, alojamento, campos para as práticas e técnicos/professores efectivos. As informações são transmitidas às populações durante as reuniões. Estes eventos têm sido momentos para diálogo entre as lideranças locais e a população e têm sido aproveitados para debater diversos aspectos da vida comunitária.A rádio é outro recurso muito privilegiado na disseminação de informação e interacção a nível local dado que muita população possui aparelhos de rádio (receptores). A disseminação de informação é feita através da Rádio Comunitária de Xai-Xai, sediada na cidade de Xai-Xai. A Rádio Moçambique (RM) é igualmente muito utilizada na disseminação de informação.O uso da rádio para a veiculação de informações carece de pagamento e os horários e língua de veiculação são acordados entre os organismos interessados e a rádio. A produção de programas de rádio pode ser feita em conjunto com os técnicos da rádio, em estúdio ou fora dele, observados os aspectos logísticos. A rádio também pode veicular spots produzidos por outras instituições. O Sector da Agricultura tem-se socorrido das duas instituições (Rádio Comunitária de Xai-Xai e RM delegação de Gaza) para difundir diversas informações, especialmente sobre vacinações de animais, ocorrência de surtos, entre outras. As instituições de gestão de calamidades também são um exemplo de organismos que usam a rádio comunitária para difundir informações de interesse das populações locais especialmente no âmbito de cheias e secas.A televisão é um outro recurso usado para a veiculação de informação usado por diversos organismos, contudo, de importância relativamente menor comparativamente com a rádio uma vez que um limitado número de famílias possui aparelhos de televisão. Alguns bairros, como é o caso de Piombo, não possuem energia eléctrica. Mesmo nos bairros com a rede eléctrica, o acesso a energia eléctrica para algumas famílias é limitado.O uso de material escrito como cartazes, folhetos, brochuras, manuais, etc., é muito limitado dado que poucos produtores são capazes de ler e escrever. A produção ou reprodução de materiais impressos podem ser feitas na cidade de Xai-Xai onde são prestados diversos serviços, incluindo serviços de internet.A região de Xai-Xai tem acesso a rede de telefonia móvel (Vodacom, mCel e Movitel). Os telemóveis duma forma geral, ainda não são aproveitados para a disseminação de informação agrária. Mas é uma oportunidade que devia ser considerada.No plano de acção resultante desta pesquisa, foram considerados os instrumentos já usados no distrito para a disseminação de informação de práticas agrícolas, principalmente as que achamos que podem ser efectivos nas acções propostas (anexo 1).5.1 Quais são as principais fontes de renda e subsistência dos agregados familiares e até que ponto essas actividades são vulneráveis as alterações climáticas?Quase todos agregados familiares dos quatro povoados de Xai-Xai diagnosticados dedicam-se a agricultura e mais de metade estão envolvidos na criação de animais e cerca de 13% estão envolvidos na exploração de recursos florestais. Segundo Plano Estratégico de Desenvolvimento do Distrito de Xai-Xai (2010), as actividades agro-pecuárias e a pesca de pequena escala constituem as principais fontes de rendimento e subsistência das famílias principalmente camponeses do distrito de Xai-Xai. Em relação aos recursos florestais, há poucas famílias que exploram devido, fundamentalmente, a escassez de florestas próximo das comunidades. A exploração dos recursos florestais se concentra na recolha de frutas silvestres e outros recursos não madeireiros, como a lenha para servir de combustível e estacas para a construção. A escassez de recursos florestais poderá minar as actividades da maioria dos agregados familiares pois a lenha e o carvão vegetal são os principais combustíveis domésticos no distrito de Xai-Xai (Ministério Administração Estatal, 2005).Como se pode ver pelos dados acima, a população de Xai-Xai depende principalmente de actividades sensíveis às mudanças climáticas nomeadamente a agricultura, a pecuária, a pesca e a extracção de recursos florestais. Segundo os modelos de previsão de vulnerabilidade social, quanto maior for a população dependente dos recursos naturais, maior é o risco de vulnerabilidade as alterações climáticas (Matavel, 2012). Portanto, a população de Xai-Xai, dependendo da estratégia de adaptação que ela está a adoptar, poderá estar vulnerável às alterações climáticas porque as principais actividades de subsistência e renda são intimamente ligadas aos recursos naturais.Em termos de culturas, as mais praticadas são milho, mandioca, feijão nhemba, amendoim e batatadoce. Os animais domésticos mais importantes nos AFs dos povoados onde o projecto está em implementação são as aves, os caprinos, os bovinos e os suínos. Estas culturas e espécies de animais mais importantes são também descritas como as mais importantes para os AFs do distrito, no perfil do distrito, editado em 2005. As espécies comuns nos quatro povoados e que são importantes no fornecimento da fruta nativa são as seguintes: Canhú [sclerocarya birrea (A. Rich) Hochst. Sbsp. Caffra], Mapfilwa (Vangueria infausta Burch.), Tidziva (Dialium schlechteri Harms), Nheva (Manilkara discolor (Sond.) J.H. Hemsl.), Nula, Ata silvestre (Annona senegalensis Pers.), Massala (Strychnos spinosa Lam.), Tâmaras (Phoenix reclinata Jacq.).Apesar de em média os AFs terem três machambas, eles praticam o cultivo da maioria das culturas em sistema de consociação. Uma parte das principais culturas nomeadamente o milho e a batata-doce é semeada nas duas épocas agrícolas e as hortícolas são cultivadas durante todo o ano, aproveitando-se das condições de água existentes no vale do rio Limpopo.Nos povoados diagnosticados, a maioria dos produtores tem áreas de produção nas zonas altas e baixas, provavelmente para minimizar os efeitos tanto das inundações na zona baixa, que são muito frequentes nos últimos anos, como ilustram alguns relatórios (Asante, 2009; Ministério para a Coordenação da Acção Ambiental, 2006; Ministério para a Coordenação da Acção Ambiental, 2007), e a seca na zona alta que as populações também reportam como sendo um fenómeno importante nos últimos anos.Os agricultores das zonas inquiridas praticam agricultura nos moldes tradicionais, com fraca aplicação das práticas de controlo de pragas e doenças nas culturas, de práticas de melhoramento da fertilidade de solos e de conservação da humidade de solos. Há Também um fraco uso das variedades melhoradas que podem responder melhor a certas alterações climáticas. A fraca aplicação das práticas melhoradas deve-se a combinação de factores, nomeadamente: desconhecimento e/ou fraco domínio desses conhecimentos, nível de demanda de tempo adicional e recursos financeiros.Começando das pragas, vimos que os produtores têm tido perdas de produção no campo, principalmente nas culturas de milho, mandioca, feijão nhemba, hortícolas, citrinos, cajueiros e mangueiras e perdas pós-colheita, isto é, no armazém, devido a pragas e doenças. Isto pode estar associado a combinação de dois factores: o fraco domínio, uma vez que maioria dos inquiridos respondeu que não tinha conhecimentos sobre as praticas de controlo de pragas e doenças; a fraca capacidade de compra dos pesticidas, já que em alguns locais os produtores afirmaram que não aplicam práticas que demandam recursos financeiros adicionais. A questão de pragas vem reflectida também como preocupação dos produtores de Xai-Xai no perfil do distrito e na pesquisa conduzida pelo Marques et al. (2006). A incidência de pragas e doenças nas machambas localizadas no vale limpopo, segundo Marques et al. (2006), resulta de cultivo intensivo sem rotação de culturas. Com as mudanças climáticas este problema poderá ser mais frequente (MICOA, 2007;Cruz et al., n.d) e poderá contribuir para fracos rendimentos agrícolas.Há casos também de produtores que não aplicam algumas práticas agrícolas devido a importância que dão a cultura. Por exemplo, as poucas famílias que fazem alguma aplicação de adubos e fertilizantes nas suas machambas são as que se dedicam ao cultivo de hortícolas, provavelmente devido ao facto desta cultura ser de rendimento.Os produtores da zona alta não aplicam as práticas de conservação da humidade de solo como a cobertura morta, apesar de reclamarem de perdas de produção devido a seca porque alguns não dominam esta prática mas outros acham esta prática demanda mão-de-obra adicional, como foi referido pelos produtores de Poiombo e Chicumbane. E, os produtores das zonas baixas queixam-se das inundações frequentes das áreas de produção devido provavelmente ao fraco funcionamento das infraestruturas instaladas. Os modelos de circulação geral da atmosfera e, respectivas probabilidades associadas indicam uma previsão do aumento em mais de 25% o caudal do rio Limpopo e aumento da probabilidade de maiores picos de cheias neste rio nos próximos anos (Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades, 2009) e consequentemente no vale do Limpopo, onde se localiza as áreas de produção da maioria da população dos povoados estudados. A questão de estabilidade institucional e de infraestruturas públicas é um dos indicadores mais importantes de vulnerabilidade social (INGC, 2009, citado por Matavel, 2012) Há também um fraco uso de sementes melhoradas que poderão estar adaptadas as condições actuais resultantes do impacto das mudanças climáticas tais como a seca. Isto deve-se fundamentalmente ao facto de demandarem custos financeiros adicionais para os produtores.Na pecuária também há uma fraca aplicação das práticas de maneio alimentar e sanitárias, que ajudam na adaptação aos efeitos das mudanças climáticas. Por exemplo, os produtores apesar da redução da área de pastagem e a escassez do pasto devido a expansão da área residencial e as inundações e secas respectivamente, não aplicam as práticas de conservação de pasto e nem de aproveitamentos de resíduos agrícolas para alimentação do gado. Os produtores também não têm a hábito de fazer o tratamento das doenças nos seus animais apesar destes animais constituírem fonte de subsistência e em casos de renda do agregado familiar.Para a alimentação, há registos de carência de pasto principalmente na época seca (Julho a Setembro) em todos os povoados. Isto deve-se a seca e a redução da área de pastagem com o aumento da área residencial e conflito das áreas de pastagem com actividades agrícolas. Há também escassez de pasto na época chuvosa no povoado de Chicumbane devido a inundação da área de pastagem, uma vez que os animais são pastados maioritariamente no vale do rio Limpopo. Mas em contrapartida, a população deste distrito não está a usar as práticas de conservação de forragem em feno, e de resíduos agrícolas devido ao fraco domínio dos procedimentos para a preparação destas e de outras alternativas alimentares. Com a previsão do aumento da frequência das cheias (Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades, 2009), associada a expansão da área residencial e agrícola, tornará a actividade pecuária nas comunidades de Xai-Xai mais vulnerável as alterações climáticas. Portanto, é importante a adopção de alternativas alimentares de gado bovino e caprino no período de escassez do pasto.No que concerne as doenças, quase todos animais são frequentemente assolados por doenças típicas de cada espécie de animal. As doenças mais comuns nos quatro povoados estudados são: as diarreias, as sarnas, as diversas pestes, ferimentos nos cascos, abcessos e parasitas. Duma forma geral os criadores não têm dado cuidado sanitário aos seus animais. Segundo os extensioinitas, o maneio sanitário tem sido sempre relegado como da responsabilidade do governo e das ONGs, através dos promotores comunitários, que têm providenciado assistência a custo zero. Portanto, muitos criadores não estão dispostos a sustentar as despesas de tratamento dos seus animais. Mas por outro lado, os criadores não têm domínio das práticas de prevenção e controle das doenças dos principais animais criados nos povoados em pesquisa.Para os recursos florestais para além de serem escassos devido ao crescimento da área populacional, também não se registam iniciativas da própria população para o seu maneio sustentável. Olhando para aquilo que é a importância destes recursos uma vez que a lenha e o carvão são os principais combustíveis domésticos para a maioria da população do distrito de Xai-Xai, esperava-se uma maior reacção por parte dos agregados familiares para responder a esta problemática da redução das áreas florestais. Algumas iniciativas existentes são promovidas pelas ONGs e pelas instituições Governamentais e têm como foco a promoção das actividades de reflorestamento através de fornecimento de plantas e capacitação das comunidades no estabelecimento de viveiros comunitários de diversas espécies, com destaque para o mangal, casuarinas, eucaliptos e algumas fruteiras (Matavel, 2012).Outro elemento importante na adaptação as mudanças climáticas é a questão de aproveitamento da produção existente através do processamento, conservação e consumo. Duma forma geral, há um baixo nível de processamento dos produtos agrários. O fraco processamento tem causado perdas principalmente nas hortícolas, quando não se consegue vender toda a produção devido a saturação do mercado; na batata-doce, quando os produtores são forçadas a colher devido as inundações; nas frutas da época (nativas e exóticas), durante o pico da maturação, porque as famílias não conseguem consumir toda a produção. Por exemplo, todas as famílias têm mangueiras e quando é pico de maturação, ninguém consegue comer e nem vender, localmente, toda a sua produção. Nos produtos pecuários constatamos que, por exemplo, não há hábito de produzir iogurte com leite de vaca ou de cabrito.As principais razões de não processamento são o fraco domínio das técnicas de processamento e conservação dos produtos processados, a fraca capacidade financeira, para aquisição dos insumos necessários para o processamento e a alegada falta de mercado para a comercialização dos produtos processados. Este último factor é discutível porque os produtores não deram evidências de alguma tentativa de pesquisa de mercado.Das práticas que podem contribuir para adaptação aos impactos das alterações climáticas e que os produtores disseram que não tinham domínio, algumas eles estão interessados em aprender mas em outras não.Para a produção agrícola, os produtores estão interessados a aprender: (i) as diversas práticas de maneio de pragas e doenças nas culturas de milho, mandioca, feijão nhemba, hortícolas, citrinos, cajueiros e mangueiras; (ii) o melhoramento da fertilidade de solos com diversas práticas como a aplicação de adubos químicos, estrumes, preparação e aplicação de composto orgânico, pousio melhorado, consorciação de culturas com espécies arbóreas; (iii) uso de variedades melhoradas e tolerantes à seca, para os produtores da zona alta. Mas não estão interessados a aprender a usar variedades melhoradas tolerantes a salinidade. Isto pode ser um sinal de que este problema, com excepção de Zonguene onde já há evidência de existir solos com altos índices de salinidade, (Matavel, 2012) ainda não constitui uma grande preocupação.No que concerne a área pecuária, os criadores estão interessados em apresentar as práticas de maneio alimentar nomeadamente a conservação de forragem em feno, conservação e tratamento de resíduos agrícolas, uso de blocos multinutritivos e cultivo de árvores forrageiras. Mas este último tema, apesar de haver interesse poderá não ser muito prático para estes povoados devido a tendência de urbanização da maioria dos bairros. Em relação a componente sanitária, os produtores estão interessados em aprender a identificar as principais doenças e a aplicar a estratégia de isolamento dos animais doentes do resto dos animais. Mas eles acham que não precisam de aprender a tratar os animais, provavelmente porque eles assumirem que esta tarefa é da responsabilidade dos promotores sanitários.Para a área florestal, os agregados familiares estão interessados em aprender as práticas de maneio dos recursos florestais, provavelmente porque em alguns povoados já ressentem as dificuldades de acesso ao material para construção das suas casas, o combustível lenhoso e fruta nativa.Os produtores estão interessados também em aprender o processamento e conservação de todas as principais frutas (nativas e exóticas) e de todas as culturas, incluindo aquelas que não indicaram ter perdas de produção devido a lacuna de conhecimento do seu processamento. Os agregados familiares também estão interessados em conhecer as técnicas de produção de leite em iogurte.Cerca de metade dos inquiridos não sabe ler nem escrever na língua portuguesa e nem fala a língua portuguesa. Este dado pode constituir uma barreira para o acesso de informação quando esta é providenciada de forma escrita e também quando os meios de divulgação usam a língua portuguesa.A questão dos horários em que se organiza os eventos de disseminação dos conhecimentos, para casos de disseminação cara-a-cara, foi apresentado como sendo um aspecto importante a considerar, pelo facto de, regra geral, os produtores estarem ocupados nas suas machambas quase todos os dias, principalmente no período de manhã. Este facto acontece em maioria das famílias uma vez que elas têm em média três machambas e a maioria das actividades é feita manualmente. Portanto, é crucial negociar-se o período de encontros para a disseminação dos conhecimentos e o local para que os produtores tenham espaço para continuarem a exercer as suas actividades agrícolas.Quanto às práticas agrárias também foram identificadas algumas barreiras que podem interferir no acesso e adopção dos conhecimentos e tecnologias que podem melhor responder a adaptação as mudanças climáticas. Essas barreiras incluem as financeiras, tipo de tecnologia (se demanda trabalho adicional) e do acesso ao mercado para a comercialização da produção.Muitas práticas que demandam recursos financeiros adicionais para a sua aplicação, tais como, a compra de semente melhorada, o uso de pesticidas para o controle de pragas e doenças, os adubos químicos para a melhoria da fertilidade dos solos e o tratamento das doenças dos animais domésticos, poderão não ser facilmente acessíveis e usados pelos produtores de Xai-Xai. Esta afirmação é baseada no facto de as famílias não estarem por exemplo, a fazer a pulverização dos cajueiros contra oídio e a não levar o seu gado bovino para os banhos carracicida, mesmo sabendo a sua importância, apenas pelo facto de estes serviços implicarem o desembolso de valores monetários. Excepção vai para algumas actividades de rendimento, como é o caso de produção de hortícolas, onde há maior probabilidade de serem aplicadas as práticas que envolvem custo financeiros baseando no facto de as poucas pessoas que disseram que aplicavam pesticidas na sua machamba serem os produtores de hortícolas. E também pelo facto de durante a recolha de dados termos presenciado a compra de semente de hortícolas na casa agrária de Nhocuene.As práticas que demandam um esforço físico e tempo adicional para a sua aplicação também poderão não serem facilmente aceites pelos agricultores de Xai-Xai. Este é o caso de cobertura morta, conservação de forragem em feno e a conservação e tratamento de resíduos agrícolas para alimentação do gado. Isto porque, por exemplo, os produtores de Poiombo e Chicumbane terem afirmado que conhecem a prática de cobertura morta mas não aplicavam porque rouba muito tempo deles que poderia ser usado para outras actividades. Esta justificação de não se aceitar as práticas que adicionam tempo de trabalho das suas actividades pode vir pelo facto de eles terem já muito trabalho, uma vez que em médias cada AF tem três áreas de produção e a maioria das actividades agrícolas são feitas manualmente.As estratégias de processamento e conservação dos produtos agrários poderão não seradoptadas em grande medida se a sua disseminação não estar associada a análise e discussão sobre a cadeia de valor dos produtos eleitos. Isto porque os poucos produtores treinados em processamento de frutas diversas e batata-doce de polpa alaranjada têm apresentado a limitação de mercado e custo dos insumos para o processamento como um dos factores que os impede a aplicar os conhecimentos adquiridos. Se fizermos paralelismo com a experiência de compra de insumos para as hortícolas, pelo facto de ser uma cultura que tem o mercado e eles vêem os retornos do seu investimento, é possível também, para este caso, adquirir-se os insumos para o processamento.Considerações finais e recomendações 6.1 Considerações finais  A maioria dos agregados familiares são vulneráveis as mudanças climáticas em curso e/ou das previstas para o distrito de Xai-Xai, pelo facto de terem como fonte de subsistência e renda a agricultura, pecuária, pesca e exploração dos recursos florestais, actividades sensíveis aos fenómenos climáticos tais como secas e inundações. Este factor é agravado pelo fraco domínio, pelos produtores, dos conhecimentos de certas práticas que podem ajudar a adaptabilidade da comunidade produtiva aos novos cenários climáticos, associado ao fraco poder financeiro para aceder a algumas tecnologias e/ou a indisponibilidade de tempo e de recursos humanos para aplicar as práticas que demandam tempo adicional do produtor. As potenciais barreiras que podem interferir na participação dos beneficiários nas intervenções de disseminação das tecnologias e no acesso e utilização dos conhecimentos a serem disseminados são nomeadamente: o nível de escolaridade dos produtores, principalmente, o facto de a maioria não saber ler, escrever e falar a língua portuguesa, o que pode constituir uma barreira para o acesso de informação quando esta é providenciada de forma escrita e através de meios de comunicação que usam a língua portuguesa; os horários em que se organiza os eventos de disseminação dos conhecimentos, para casos de disseminação cara-a-cara, que devem ser compatíveis com as actividades diárias dos produtores; o tipo de tecnologia em termos se ela demanda custos financeiros adicionais para o seu acesso ou utilização, necessita de um esforço físico e tempo adicional significativo para a sua utilização. Em todos os povoados beneficiários do projecto, existem organizações de produtores que têm sido envolvidas em actividades de transferência de tecnologias. Portanto, estas organizações podem constituir potenciais parceiros locais na implementação de acções de divulgação e transferência de tecnologias agrárias. Para além destas organizações de produtores, podemos contar com o SDAE, a rádio comunitária de Xai-Xai e a Rádio Moçambique delegação de Gaza. Existem também ONGs que operam, nestes povoados, e que podem ser envolvidos no processo de transferência de tecnologias agrárias. Considerando as barreiras que os produtores têm para o acesso e utilização das tecnologias agrárias aconselháveis para melhor adaptação aos impactos climáticos esperados no distrito de Xai-Xai, recomendamos a sua capacitação em práticas culturais, incluindo práticas de baixo custo de maneio de pragas e doenças; uso de semente melhorada tolerante a seca; práticas de armazenamento de cereais e feijões de baixo custo; estratégias de maneio da fertilidade de solos com base nas práticas culturais e outras práticas que usam recursos localmente disponíveis. Recomendamos também a capacitação dos produtores em práticas de conservação de pasto e de aproveitamentos de resíduos agrícolas para alimentação do gado bovino e caprino na época seca; práticas de identificação das principais doenças e a aplicar as estratégias de isolamento dos animais doentes do resto dos animais para evitar a sua propagação. No processamento e conservação de produtos agrários, recomendamos a capacitação dos produtores em práticas de processamento e conservação de frutas (nativas e exóticas) e culturas diversas. Para o alcance de mais pessoas principalmente pessoas de baixo nível de escolaridade, recomendamos a produção de informação radiofónica sobre os conhecimentos agrários para sua vinculação na rádio comunitária, com o objectivo de sensibilizar os produtores a adoptar práticas que contribuem para uma melhor adaptação e resiliência do modo de vida perante os efeitos das mudanças climáticas. Recomendamos também a capacitação dos produtores e criadores em recursos financeiros, por via de crédito, para elevar a sua capacidade de acesso de outras práticas eficientes no que concerne ao acesso e utilização agrícola.","tokenCount":"12229"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d98d13462dd4fa0d07ebf04cde18ae15","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dcd67843-95e0-4073-a5f0-225c85629381/retrieve","id":"-1363748383"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fb477d12-18ae-4839-bc10-6e7d148962f9","pagecount":"64","content":"CIAT encourages wide dissemination of its printed and electronic publications for maximum public benefit. Thus, in most cases, colleagues working in research and development should feel free to use CIAT materials for noncommercial purposes. However, the Center prohibits modification of these materials, and we expect to receive due credit. Though CIAT prepares its publications with considerable care, the Center does not guarantee their accuracy and completeness.Land degradation is a consistent loss of ecosystem functionality due to human and natural processes (Lal et al. 2012), or as defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) a \"reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rain fed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes arising from human activities\" (UNCCD 2015c). Historically, it is a well-documented issue (Grove 1996, Beach et al. 2006, Ellis et al. 2013) and the degree of degradation has forced civilisations to adapt land management practises to the state of the environment, or abandon the landscape altogether (Costanza et al. 2007). Over the last four decades there has been an increase in human-induced land degradation and it is estimated to affect one third of global arable land (UNCCD 2015a, Vlek 2005) and to cost between USD 6.3-10.6 trillion annually or 10-17% of the world's gross domestic product (ELD 2015).Land degradation affects livelihoods, biodiversity and ecosystem services while it exacerbates climate change and ultimately impacts the well-being of 1.5 billion people globally (Lal et al. 2012, ELD 2015). The impacts are not evenly distributed across the globe, as approximately 40% of all land degradation occurs in the poorest countries, the least capable of mitigating and adapting to the impacts (UNCCD 2015b). Furthermore, as the impacts of land degradation have direct effects on both climate change and biodiversity loss (Lal et al. 2012) Acknowledging that land degradation is a global challenge and building on the international momentum to restore degraded lands (see for example Initiative 20×20 in Latin America and AFR100 in Africa), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) identified Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) as an important component. While SDG 15 calls for the protection of terrestrial ecosystems and the fight against land degradation in general terms, target 15.3 explicitly formulates the vision of a \"land degradation neutral world\".  After the political establishment of LDN in the context of the SDGs and the UNCCD, the challenge now becomes one of operationalization. First efforts to implement LDN at country level have been initialized already. In 2015, the UNCCD ran a LDN pilot project together with 14 countries 1 , which is now being followed by the LDN Target Setting Program (TSP) implemented by the UNCCD´s Global Mechanism. Following the invitation by the UNCCD COP to set voluntary LDN targets, so far more than 100 countries officially expressed their interest to participate in the TSP. The TSP aims at supporting countries in setting LDN targets, identifying strategies and measures to achieve these targets and establishing a corresponding monitoring scheme. It is expected that countries wishing to engage in the LDN process present their targets at COP 13 in late 2017.LDN target setting is a complex process that includes numerous political and technical aspects. The UNCCD´s LDN Technical Guide proposes a step-wise approach to define LDN targets and identify measures to achieve them (UNCCD 2016a). An integral part of any LDN target setting process is the assessment of a baseline, that means taking stock of the current land status. The LDN baseline is the basis for informed target setting and functions as a reference state for future monitoring. First attempts to develop national LDN baselines were undertaken during the LDN pilot phase in 2015.The objective of this report is to identify entry points and challenges for subnational LDN baselines in order to inform subnational planning processes as potential vehicle for the implementation of LDN targets on the ground. For this purpose two focus regions were chosen within two of the countries -namely Namibia and Costa Rica -that participated in the first LDN pilot phase. The focus areas in Namibia and Costa Rica are the regions of Otjozondjupa and Rio Jesus Maria watershed respectively. Both Namibia and Costa Rica provide interesting case studies given the differences in types of land degradation, national capacities, and land resources.The selection of methods for baseline assessement will have to take the subsequent monitoring of changes over time and space into consideration, as this is key for the detection of land degradation. Much care must be taken in choosing a methodology that ensure scientific rigor and quality of the assessment. It must quantify the impacts of human activities on the environment, as well as ensure better informed decision making through clear and concise communication of the current state of the land. Box 1 shows a checklist of important criteria for selection of land degradation assessment methodologies (UNCCD 2016a, UBA 2015, LDN Methodological Note [LDN-MN] 2015). These criteria will be explored in the following chapters in an analysis of available methods and data for sub-national baseline assessment.Box 1: Checklist of criteria for selection of baseline assessment methodologies.  The indicator 'Land cover' is indicative of socio-ecological dynamics of management. Furthermore, this indicator is capable of identifying vulnerable transitions between natural and human-managed land cover classes. The indicators 'Land productivity' and 'Carbon stocks'2 Different technological aspects of LDN baseline mapping and monitoring are progressing at a relatively fast pace which resulted in some challenges during the writing of this report. For example, while the methods chapter (2) was completed by February 2016, changes were made in naming of the indicators (e.g. Land Cover / Land Use is now Land Cover) and general framework (e.g. the meaning of \"tier\" has changed). The authors have attempted to stay abreast of the changes in LDN vocabulary and recommendations regarding new datasets. However, some aspects of this report may become outdated as new datasets are published and improved satellite products become available to the wider public. This progress is a positive sign of the global commitment towards achieving a world that is land degradation neutral.measure the biophysical state, above ground NPP and below ground organic carbon content, of the different types of land cover. Both land productivity and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks are directly affected by land management and are vulnerable to land degradation (LDN-MN 2015). 3The drivers of land degradation are highly complex socio-ecological processes working on multiple scales both in space and time and there has been debate about the appropriateness of the proposed indicators. Scientific literature supports this, as e.g. Geist and Lambin (2004), Wantzen andMol (2013), andSommer et al. (2011) all argue, a single set of cross-scale indicators are highly unlikely to accurately identify land degradation in different locations around the world (see also Box 2). Consequently, given the complexity of land degradation and as well as the range of capacities countries have, the TSP allows for local adaptations of these indicators and encourages the use of additional indicators that are relevant in the specific context (Buenemann et al. 2011, Sommer et al. 2011, LDN-MN 2015). The Technical Guide (UNCCD, 2016) also recommends different tiered datasets for developing LDN baselines and monitoring:• Tier 1: includes global and regional data (i.e. from earth observation systems)• Tier 2: refers to data from national statistics or national earth observation systems • Tier 3: are primary data from field surveys and ground measurements With regard to tier 1, UNCCD (2016a) has defined default global data sources with the aim to provide participating countries with globally available data for their validation and/or use in the absence of national data. These default data sources are included within the following review (chapter 2).As the word 'trend' implies land degradation monitoring is an analysis of changes over time. It is important to emphasize that in a baseline assessment, no time-series analysis is required as the assessment deals with the current natural resource stocks and state of the land.The following chapter focuses on available methods and data for assessing LDN baselines at the sub-national scale in Otjozondjupa Region in Namibia and Rio Jesús Maria watershed in Costa Rica, using available Tier 1 data. Chapter 3 will examine what Tier 2 and 3 data are available in the respective sub-national regions, as well as what alternative indicators might apply. It also covers the process of multi-criteria decision making process which was used in stakeholder workshops in both locations, to ensure. Lastly, we present the conclusions in chapter 4.This chapter gives an overview of remote sensing data sources and examines existing methodologies and datasets that can be used for developing baselines for LDN at subregional level using Tier 1 global datasets selected in accordance with the abovementioned checklist in Box 1.Land degradation assessments generally have been completed using several approaches, or combination of approaches (Sommer et al. 2010, Reed et al. 2011) The terms local, national, regional, and global scales are used throughout this report. The different scales refer to the management/institutional unit or the ecological scale it captures. There is no clear definition of the extent of the different scales, as it is highly contextual. For instance farm sizes vary from thousands of ha in Western Australia (can be captured by coarse scale data) to less than 0.5 ha subsistence farms in Tanzania (needs to be fine scale data to capture changes). The same is evident of municipal and country sizes around the world as well as ecosystem sizes and boundaries. Therefore, the appropriate scale of data reflect the scale of land management and the boundary of the underlying ecosystem (Willemen et al., 2009).radar waves are not restricted and they provide additional valuable information like surface roughness. However, few baselines exist, there is less expertise available in the land cover community, and passive optical systems are still the most widely used.The increased quality and availability of remote sensing data, including free satellite imagery such as MODIS and Landsat (e.g. the archives of the University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility), and more recently Sentinel-2 of ESA's Copernicus program have opened a range of new possibilities for the application of remote sensing in the operational assessment of land degradation processes. The most commonly used free remote sensing sensors are listed below The explanatory value of remote sensing data can be increased by different modelling techniques. Modelling involves mathematical changes to values of the original data in order to capture features that are not directly measured by the data available, e.g. turning the points of soil samples into a continuous map, or when various remote sensing data layers are comprised into one map with multiple features.It might be necessary, for instance, to combine remote sensing data with field observations, or to improve on spatial and temporal resolution with ancillary remote sensing images (Congalton et al. 2014). MODIS of NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, for example, produces a number of bands of different wavelengths that can detect multiple changes in the landscape with a high temporal resolution (see Table 2.1). However, many of these derived products are still only available at a coarse scale (500m and 1km), which challenges the assessment of land degradation because it often takes place at a finer scale.It is likewise possible to combine multiple remote sensing data into one analysis. For example, MODIS can provide a high temporal resolution, time series, allowing for analysis of seasonal patterns and phenology, while Landsat can provide better granularity to identify what processes and land uses underlie the situation. Remote sensing has been applied for the assessment of land degradation in several different contexts, most commonly for analysis of land cover and productivity, but also for assessing SOC and soil erosion prevalence in landscapes (see e.g. Eva et al., 2012;Vågen et al., 2013). 3) agricultural land (and artificial surfaces) change to natural and semi-natural land cover type.It is important to establish a solid baseline for these changes, as again, the context is central.There may be cases where highly degraded mining or agricultural lands are abandoned and the subsequent succession growth would be classified as semi-natural land cover. While these areas are still degraded when compared to the original land use, they may be classified as nondegraded when compared to the previous land use. This can be found in e.g. tropical rain forests, where cleared areas show quick succession after they are abandoned.A combination of approaches might be needed for detailed assessments of land cover baselines at a fine scale, as discussed above. It is advised (UNCCD 2015c(UNCCD , 2016a) that data used to establish a baseline should preferably be an average of a period of 10-15 years, and therefore, should be available from at least the year 2000 and onwards. The measurement unit should be in hectares, and the classification be based on Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Land Cover Meta Language (LCML) is recommended to ensure global comparison is possible (UNCCD 2016a).The European Space Agency's (ESA) Climate Change Initiative Land Cover dataset (CCI-LC) (www.esa-landcover-cci.org) is the default tier 1 option for land cover set by UNCCD (UNCCD 2016a). This dataset is based on modeling of multiple remote sensing products (SAR, Landsat, MERIS, MODIS), has a 300m resolution, is publicly available, and is produced every five years since 1998, with the last updates in January of 2016. It classifies 22 different land cover categories. The spatial resolution can miss some of the detail important for sub-national assessments of land use changes (Ban et al., 2015), as for instance in small scale heterogeneous landscape, as shown in Figure 2.1. However, ESA's CCI-LC datasets were shown to be quite accurate at a global scale (74% accuracy) (Bontemps et al., 2015). Furthermore, it is still in production so will be available for future monitoring and evaluation (M&E) procedures, as well as be comparable between regions. This initiative was launched by China in 2010 with the aim to develop a set of land cover mapping products globally. The approach is a model that combines imagery from the 30m resolution Landsat, MODIS imagery, and SRTM digital elevation data (www.globeland30.org). Maps were produced for 2000 and 2010 (Error! Reference source not found.2.2) and thus have the recommended 10 year coverage for land cover baseline assessments. It is however, no longer updated and therefore will not be sufficient for future change detection. The GL30 is a publicly available at globallandcover.com.The land cover classes can be quite coarse for baseline studies at sub-national levels. GL30 is included in this review because it has a finer spatial resolution and better accuracy than ESA CCI-LC (300 m), and might be able to better capture the changes in small scale landscape mosaics. Figure 2.2 shows a 30m resolution land cover map for Namibia. Furthermore, GL30 is produced from a combination of multiple imagery and is an example of how additional spatial data can improve the final product, if spatial resolution is too coarse (Congalton et al. 2014), as discussed above 4 . The This spatial segmentation is then used to calculate on what type of land cover change has occurred. The final step in the JRC Trees-3 framework includes a visual validation process by experts, and therefore has an integrated validation program for processing. This is shown to be up to 90% accurate. The Trees-3 is also equipped to scale up the sub-national baselines in a consistent manner, and thus would contribute towards a transparent and internationally comparable baseline methodology. It does however, only cover tropical (humid) areas and within these, only forest land cover. Thus, it lacks a continuous cover for overall terrestrial land degradation.Another promising JRC land cover dataset is a phenology 5 -based land cover classification that can use multiple remote sensing products, including Landsat 8 (30m), MODIS (250m) and5 Phenology is the study of periodic changes, in this case in vegetation, influenced by e.g. climatic cycles and interannual changes of for instance leaves on trees. This can differ much between seasons and in some cases cause wrongful classification of the land cover (http://forobs.jrc.ec.europa.eu/products/software/).now also Sentinel 2 imagery (10m resolution) (http://forobs.jrc.ec.europa.eu/trees3/). This method has the same geographical structure and validation process as TREES-3 and exhibits equally high accuracy in tested areas (between 82% and 90%). It offers a few more land categories than TREES-3, shrub, grassland and sparse vegetation, but no land uses (e.g. cropland). The idea behind the phenology based land cover mapping is to capture differences in vegetation over the seasonal changes that might occur, and thus give a more accurate picture of the vegetation, than one time imagery. This method has been applied to Landsat 8 imagery and thus, only provides data going back to 2013, but is compatible with older products from Landsat imagery for backdating (Simonetti et al. 2013). The product is still being developed and tested and only a few areas have been mapped to date. Furthermore, the script is available for Google Earth Engine (a data archive and cloud computing platform), which is free but has a selective membership process through application.Terra-I is a fully automated near-real time observation system for monitoring deforestation activities, developed primarily for the humid tropics (www.terra-i.org/). Terra-I has finer spatial resolution than ESA CCI-LC, at 250 m at 16 day intervals, as well as the ability to discern between natural and human induced land degradation, which could prove important in determining land degradation drivers 6 . The model consists of a forecasting model that predicts future normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values 7 , based on historic greenness (MODIS NDVI time-series), and observed or estimated meteorological and climate fluctuations and thus estimates the probability of change attributed to human disturbances (Reymondin et al. 2013). This method has not been applied for assessment of land degradation as such, other than deforestation, and is as such not equipped to detect degradation in non-forested systems such as grassland or agricultural fields.The LandPKS currently consists of two smartphone apps -LandInfo and LandCover -for data collection (http://landpotential.org/index.html). The main aim of LandPKS is to use mobile technologies and cloud computing to crowd-source knowledge and information, expanding the concept of Ecological Knowledge (Herrick et al., 2013). The LandPKS has been applied for assessing soil texture and land cover, with case studies in Namibia (not in Otjozondjupa), Kenya, and Ethiopia. The method has not yet been applied to assess land degradation and is still under development. Thus, this system would have to be developed further, and may in the future offer a low-cost rapid assessment of LUC in LDN assessments.The LDSF (Vågen et al., 2013a) was designed for landscape-level assessments of land degradation (http://landscapeportal.org). It includes soil carbon dynamics and stocks, land cover change (vegetation cover and floristic composition), land use, soil health, hydrological properties, biodiversity, soil erosion and compaction. It uses \"sentinel sites\" designed to provide accurate baseline data and monitoring of land health. By combining field measurement protocols that are systematic with remote sensing data from a range of different platforms (e.g. MODIS, Landsat, RapidEye and Sentinel-2), the LDSF is being used for identification of land degradation hotspots and soil mapping at both regional and local scales.The LDSF has been applied in more than 35 countries in the tropics for baseline assessments of land degradation at multiple spatial scales, as well as for local assessments of soil health and land degradation with spatial resolutions ranging from 5 m to 30 m (Vågen et al., 2013b;Winowiecki et al., 2015) and at continental scale with a spatial resolution of 500 m (Vågen et al. 2016). The methodology has four main components: 1) A spatially stratified, hierarchical, field sampling design using 10x10 km sentinel sites; 2) Use of soil infrared (IR) spectroscopy for prediction of soil properties (for Indicator 3) 3) Use of remote sensing and ensemble learning methods for mapping of land degradation and land health; 4) Remote sensing for mapping of land cover and land use change. LDSF uses a combination of Landsat and MODIS derived data to determine the land cover, and thus has the same time series as these products.The following table includes a brief overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each method as mentioned in section 2,2 Land productivity is a measure of above ground net primary productivity (NPP), and is defined as the difference between the total photosynthesis and the total plant respiration in an ecosystem, or as the total new organic matter produced during a specified interval (Clark et al. 2001). It is reported in tons of dry matter per hectare per year (tDM/ha/year).Primary productivity of plants shows distinct dynamics over different temporal scales; daily variability due to the position of the sun, intra-annual variability due to seasonal effects and inter-annual variability due to changes in climate, or changes in management and land use. In order to detect degradation from temporal series of NPP, it is therefore important to filter out the effects of the vegetation's natural dynamics, that is specific for the type of ecosystem in question (Dutrieux et al., 2016;Jacquin et al., 2010).The LDN TSP (UNCCD 2016a) guides land productivity to be disaggregated by type of land cover it occurs in and productivity is therefore a proxy for management, land use intensity, and potentially degradation. If organic matter is extracted faster than it is produced NPP will decrease and is an indication that the ecosystem is being degraded (Haberl et al. 2001).Proxies for NPP, such as the much used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (Rouse et al., 1974) from MODIS, basically account for the quantity of the standing biomass at a given time. Although biomass and productivity are closely related in some systems (Lohbeck et al., 2015), they can differ widely when looking across land uses and ecosystem types. For instance, a challenge with NDVI, specific to rangelands with bush encroachment, is that productivity will likely increase.In such a scenario, an increase in NDVI means that land degradation is occurring, where normally an increase of productivity would indicate the opposite. Similarly, intensive monocropping systems with fertilizer application could also produce a false positive, i.e. an increase in productivity that is not associated with a decrease of land degradation. In this case, fertilizer-use can mask the real state of the land under production (UNCCD 2015c). These scenarios need to be evaluated in the context of the region of the LDN baseline assessment (UNCCD 2016a). Also, there are discussions about whether NDVI tends to saturate when applied over densely vegetated areas (Huete et al., 1999), which is a concern when using NDVI to estimate NPP in forested regions, or when applying it to forest degradation (Kennedy et al. 2010).NDVI has also been suggested as a simple proxy for overall land degradation in areas where precipitation is not the main driver of vegetation dynamics, e.g. in humid tropics (Yengoh et al., 2014). However, the relationship of NDVI and -for example -soil erosion, which is a major land degradation process, is very weak (figure 2.3).Given some of the challenges with NDVI-derived products mentioned above, there are some commonly used vegetation indices that can be used as an alternative or an addition to traditional NDVI products. In the following section, firstly the JRC Land Productivity Dynamics (LPD) -default Tier 1 option for Land productivity as defined by UNCCD -is presented, and then three commonly used derivative products are discussed for their added value at national and/or subregional level: Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Soil-Adjusted Total Vegetation Index (SATVI), and The Normalized Cumulative RUE Differences (CRD) index. These could potentially improve the existing NDVI based productivity estimates in certain contexts, either by themselves or as in complementation to NDVI.The JRC Land Productivity Dynamics (LPD) data has been proposed as a default dataset by UNCCD (2016a) when countries do not have better alternatives available. This dataset is based on a 15-year time-series of NDVI observations, and as such already includes the trends. It is produced at a spatial resolution of 1 km and data are classified into five productivity classes depending on the state of the system (see Table 2.3). The NDVI is adjusted for seasonality and phenology, as mentioned above, in an analysis of long-term changes (29 years, using NOAA GIMMS 3G) and current (5 year SPOT VEGETATION) efficiency levels of vegetative above ground biomass was combined into land productivity dynamics (Cherlet et al. 2013). A global map of LPD was furthermore derived by using 15 year SPOT VEGETATION 1999-2013. Increasing productivity IncreaseThe JRC dataset's 1 km resolution is unlikely to be of appropriate scale to reflect human activities at a sub-national scale (Ban et al., 2015), especially in small scale landscape mosaics. UNCCD (2016a) suggests using the above classification to determine the degree of degradation.The method relies on remote sensing measures of productivity trends of above ground biomass, such as NDVI, for different land uses, e.g. forest or agriculture.The Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) was proposed by the MODIS Land Discipline Group (Huete et al., 1999) as an improvement over NDVI, as it takes more information into account about vegetation and canopy structure, and is more reliable in areas that has a high biomass, where NDVI has been shown to saturate. EVI uses the same satellite imagery as MODIS NDVI and is thus also available at 250m resolution. It includes coefficients to reduce the influences of soil (i.e. light reflectance under the plants) and atmospheric conditions (i.e. light reflectance above the plants, e.g. cloud cover) on the VI 9 : The Soil-Adjusted Total Vegetation Index (SATVI) from Landsat 5 TM 10 was developed to specifically measure above ground biomass in arid vegetation, by including both green and senescent -dry -vegetation for rangeland monitoring (Marsett et al. 2006). Thus, the SATVI is more sensitive to dryland vegetation that has a weak signal of chlorophyll compared to other VI indices, as e.g. NDVI (Qi et al. 2002, Marsett et al. 2006) 11 :10 Bands 3, 5, and 711 Where ρ is the reflectance values of the different bands of the sensor: band 5 (short-wave infrared), 3 (red) and 7 (mid-infrared band).However, SATVI has been shown to falsely suggest vegetation in barren and rocky areas and such areas should be masked out before processing. Furthermore, it is limited to satellites using short-wave sensors, such as Landsat, which gives a minimum resolution of 30m (Marsett et al. 2006).The Normalized Cumulative RUE Differences (CRD) index uses Rain-Use Efficiency (RUE; Le Houerou 1984) to normalize MODIS NDVI and decouple the rainfall variability from productivity (Landmann and Dubovyk 2014). This separates human-induced productivity changes from climatic variations. CRD is thought to be an indicator for productivity decline in dryland areas, where vegetation dynamics are strongly linked to precipitation (Yengoh et al. 2014). However, there have been quite a few reported inaccuracies with this method, especially when modelling over short time series in high intensity agriculture systems, which challenge the use of CRD as a stand-alone indicator (ibid). Nevertheless, CRD has been shown to have an accuracy of 68% or higher in detecting changes in vegetation productivity depending on land cover type in drylands (Landmann and Dubovyk 2014).The following table includes a brief overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each method or datasets as mentioned in section 2.3. Soils that are losing organic carbon are experiencing degradation and SOC is thereby a key indicator of soil health. The organic carbon also plays an important role in the biogeochemical cycles that can restore soil health. Soil carbon sequestration is therefore recognized as an important strategy for both, climate change mitigation as well as adaptation.Indicator 3 reports on organic carbon stock above (biomass and leaf litter) and below ground (soil), however since above ground organic carbon is already to some extent reported through the UNFCCC, and there is no operational total terrestrial carbon estimation methodology to date, this baseline assessment will concentrate on Soil Organic Carbon (SOC). Furthermore, SOC has so far mostly relied on modeled trends based on LUCs (LDN- MN 2015, IPCC 2006). SOC is to be reported as tons of carbon per hectare (t/ha C). In the following sections, we review some of the existing methods that are available for a specific country or context to report and monitor SOC stocks, and we outline important considerations when assessing SOC.There are a number of existing methodologies and datasets available to measure soil organic carbon (Aynekulu et al., 2011;Ellis and Larsen, 2008;McBratney et al., 2006;Stockmann et al., 2013 among others). They differ in the sampling framework used, field sampling methods and observations, laboratory analytical methods, uncertainty and change detection, and costs. Most important, however, is making sure the sampling framework and associated measurements comply with the objectives of the study at the appropriate scale. Furthermore, one should carefully match the type of analysis with the appropriate sampling strategy. In fact this is a continually debated subject in the soil science community (Brus and de Gruijter, 1997;Heuvelink and Webster, 2001).Two widely used analytical methods to measure soil carbon concentration are the Walkley-Black (wet chemical oxidation) procedure (Walkley and Black, 1934) and dry combustion. Dry combustion is generally the recommended reference test for soil carbon as the Walkley-Black procedure only recovers about 75% of the SOC in the soil sample (Bhattacharyya et al., 2015). The latter method is, however, recommended when working in low SOC soils (less than 2%) (Rowell and Coetzee 2003).Soil infrared spectroscopy (IR) is another (emerging) technology that makes large area sampling and analysis of SOC feasible (Brown, 2007;Brown et al., 2006;Shepherd and Walsh, 2002;Vågen et al., 2006). The use of IR, and in particular mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, produces consistent (and reproducible) predictions of SOC and allows for increased sample densities in order to capture the high spatial variability of SOC across landscapes (Terhoeven-Urselmans et al., 2010;Vågen et al., 2016). Recent reviews show a strong increase in the use of both NIR and MIR spectroscopy for soil analysis (Bellon-Maurel and McBratney, 2011;Stenberg et al., 2010;Viscarra Rossel et al., 2011). The use of IR data can be integrated with geospatial statistics and remote sensing for estimation of SOC concentrations and stocks at scales that range from local (within farm) predictions to continental assessments (Vågen et al., 2012, 2013b, 2016, Winowiecki et al., 2015, 2016). Another major advantage of IR for soil analysis is the capacity to predict many soil properties simultaneously from a single spectrum (Stenberg et al., 2010), which further reduces the total analytical costs of soil analyses. When combined with the high throughput achievable when using IR for soil analysis, inventories of SOC stocks at project level or larger geographical extents become feasible.Methods for mapping of SOC concentrations and stocks at different spatial scales are under rapid development, with significant progress being made based on the systematic collection of data on SOC stocks, combined with remote sensing and novel approaches for statistical modeling, such as machine learning algorithms. Previous estimates of the spatial distribution of SOC were generally based on available soil maps, such as the Digital Soil Map of the World (DSMW) and later the HWSD (Batjes, 1996(Batjes, , 2004;;Henry et al., 2009). These maps were produced at a very coarse spatial resolution, with large uncertainties, and were at best able to give rough estimates SOC stocks at continental scales. More recently, SOC has been mapped based on remote sensing, including air-borne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) (Asner et al., 2012), and space-borne Landsat (Vågen et al., 2013b), Quickbird (Vågen et al., 2012) and MODIS (Hengl et al., 2014;Vågen et al., 2016). Combining the use of cumulative soil mass to calculate SOC stocks with IR and remote sensing has been shown to have potential for assessing the spatial distribution of SOC stocks in landscapes (Winowiecki et al., 2016) by being both cost-effective, logistically efficient, and yielding high levels of accuracy.The default option set by UNCCD (2016a) to measure soil organic carbon is the SoilGrids database from the International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC) (http://soilgrids.org). In terms of the indicators relevant to LDN processes, the SoilGrids database provides predictions on soil properties and classes at a resolution of 250m (see figure 2.5). The SoilGrids system is freely available and can be used by countries that don't have more accurate national or sub-national data available. ISRICs main objective is to provide the international community with information on global soil resources, focusing on soil data and soil mapping, as well as the application of soil data.This means that the soil maps are based on the best global fit and might need field verification on a national or subnational scale to increase accuracy. However, SoilGrids is based on a continuously increasing number of soil profile descriptions (currently around 150.000) and covariates so that accuracy is increasing rapidly. Besides providing baseline maps of soil organic carbon, the mapping framework is built to accommodate shared soil data from different sources. Existing and newly gathered soil data (including soil spectroscopy data) for an area of interest can be uploaded -e.g. through the SoilInfo App (http://soilinfo.isric.org)to improve the accuracy of predictions.Soil organic carbon is predicted for six different depths, allowing for the calculation of carbon stocks, which can be used as approximations for baseline values for carbon monitoring. These baseline maps can also be used for optimization of sampling strategies for future carbon monitoring.For Africa, the 250 m soil property maps used a combination of legacy soil data from the Africa Soil Profiles databases and soil data collected as part of the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) project. The SoilGrids framework can also be used as a tool for monitoring and evaluation. The combination of a) an automated mapping system and b) a mechanism for crowdsourcing makes SoilGrids a tool for monitoring changes in soil organic carbon. Regular model runs will use the new sets of observations or measurements contributed, and automatically produce new maps for the area of interest.The following table includes a brief overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each method or datasets as mentioned in section 2,4. This chapter focuses on the process of evaluating the methods that have been presented in chapter 2, plus any additional methods as well as tier 2 and 3 data available or being developed in Namibia and Costa Rica and identified during local workshops. Furthermore it describes the evaluation of additional indicators beyond the UNCCD indicators Land cover, NPP, and SOC. The overall evaluation process consisted in selecting and weighting different criteria, ranking the available methods, and developing a plan for the implementation of baseline production.Multiple sources of combined data are likely to be most precise, as was the conclusion from earlier land degradation assessments (LADA/GLADIS 2009, Sommer et al. 2010, Reed et al. 2011). This is especially relevant if assessments must capture changes over time in at fine scale with heterogeneous land uses, compared to changes at large spatial scales.While general criteria for LDN methods are presented in Box 1 above, national partners in Namibia and Costa Rica stressed that the following three criteria, in particular, were crucial for a baseline assessment. The selected method(s) must be:1. cost-effective, 2. appropriate for the available national capacity and be repeatable independently by local partners, and 3. have value for other regional and national projects. This specific emphasis does not necessarily imply that partners are less interested in methods that offer the highest resolution or accuracy. However, final decisions on the methodologies selected depend to a great extent on data requirements for local initiatives and capacities to implement the methods independently.For instance, in Namibia, the pilot area is much larger and local capacities are being developed, partners are less interested in the latest techniques, if this means that the method is not costeffective or that the methods have to be implemented by non-Namibian organizations. Contrarily, in Costa Rica the area is much smaller and there is a need for high resolution data. Here national institutions and universities have varying capacities, and thus partners were more interested in robust methodologies, that generate highly detailed information needed for local planning and local/national implementation.Many countries have other commitments to the different UN conventions. It is therefore not desirable to increase the burden on national governments for reporting. One way to lessen the burden and be more cost-effective is to share datasets and monitoring tasks, for example on land cover and land use change. It is also increasingly more important that methods meet the available capacity and can be built to implement the methods and monitoring system independently.Partners in Namibia and Costa Rica also emphasized that the LDN baselines needed to support ongoing development and sustainable land management plans. Where methods can support such plans, they will find greater buy-in and political support. This is especially important when the baseline is complete and targets are set for reaching land degradation neutrality. For example, degraded agricultural lands may already have targets related to NPP and SOC and the LDN targets should not conflict existing targets. Similarly, areas may already have land cover and land use change targets such as reforestation of areas that were previously deforested. Therefore, selecting a baseline method needs to be informed by ongoing national and regional (planning) processes and sustainable development plans.One of the difficult tasks with multi-criteria tradeoff analyses is setting weights for different criteria. For example, it is not a trivial task to compare cost-effectiveness and national capacity. Perhaps one method provides an opportunity to train national staff in a desired methodology but it does not provide the proper time-frame (10 years) to establish a trend for LDN. Weighing or ranking different criteria with a large group of workshop participants who have different perspectives can become problematic. Even the process of who is invited to the workshop and gets to decide, influences the process. Another challenge is that facilitators and decision makers often have to work with incomplete information. For example, not all the cost of implementing different methods were available at the time of the workshops, which was a challenge given that cost-effectiveness was one of the most important criteria.During the workshops, it was therefore important to have a transparent process and recognize the limitations of selecting methods with incomplete information. There was deliberately extra time built-in for debate and discussion, and time was taken during each step of the process to make sure issues were clearly disseminated and understood, and thus that there was consensus to move forward. Overall, the selection process followed a three-step approach:1. Overview of available information on methods, including national approaches, and reaching agreement on additional indicators where necessary 2. Weighting of selection criteria by LDN indicator 3. Completion of selection matrix to select one method for each indicator During each workshop, presentations were given by experts on the different methods for each indicator (see chapter 2). Workshop participants were given ample time to ask detailed questions to make sure there is clear understanding of the pros and cons of the different methods. Local experts were also invited to give presentations on approaches used at the national level. The tables presented in chapter 2 at the end of each section were very useful to stimulate discussion. Two approaches were used for weighting and scoring (1 to 5, with 1 being unsuitable and 5 being highly suitable) the different options. In Namibia, participants were divided in groups and each group discussed how the criteria should be weighted, and what score should be given for all three LDN indicators. The scores were then combined to determine the approach for each indicator. In Costa Rica, the workshop participant group was larger and there was more expertise in specific topics so that the groups were divided according to the LDN indicators. In each sub group, participants were asked to weigh the criteria and then assign scores to the different methods. In both cases, the groups had to agree to give one score collectively. This requires that everyone is engaged and this approach promotes discussion. Having a facilitator in each group helped to guide the discussion and allow all members of the group to be heard. Alternatively, we could have asked each participant to give a score which allows all participants to participate fully and does not allow a single person to dominate the discussion.The final step could not always be completed given the lack of critical information as described above. In both Costa Rica and Namibia, additional information was collected after the workshops ended. In Costa Rica, participants selected four methods for the three LDN indicators plus erosion risk. They also expressed a desire for more training to understand some of the methods better and be able to make more informed decisions at a later stage. In Namibia, participants narrowed it down to two approaches and requested that the budgets were worked out first so that the final decision could be taken by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, which is responsible for executing the LDN agenda in Namibia. Before we present the final selections, an overview of each region is given below.The Otjozondjupa Region (figure 3.1) is situated northeast of the capital of Windhoek and spans 105,460 km 2 and a low population of approximately 144.000 people (0.73 persons/km 2 ) (Namibia Statistics Agency 2011). The region is predominately characterized by grassland and sparsely vegetated shrubland, and scattered small areas of closed canopy forest. The land tenure is predominantly privatized, except for the community lands in northeast districts. Land use is mostly rangeland cattle farming, much of it being intensive commercial cattle farming, grain production, and a large proportion of smallholder subsistence agriculture mainly in the communal lands (King et al. 2011, Gilolmo andLobo 2016). Namibia is naturally the most arid country in sub-Saharan Africa, and prolonged droughts are well-known occurrences, which is projected to increase and become more unpredictable in the future (Ziedler 2010).Bush encroachment represents a great threat to the livelihoods of the (e.g. pastoralist) communities living in dryland ecosystems (e.g. Angassa and Oba, 2008). It is described as the increase in biomass and abundance of woody species and the suppression of perennial grasses and herbs (Ward, 2005) leading to dense thickets often composed of thorny and/or unpalatable bushes. It often occurs as a result of land degradation in African drylands, for example due to overgrazing or changes in fire regimes (Zimmermann et al., 2008). Once established, invasive woody species can also be a major driver of land degradation due to the suppression of perennial grasses and reduced ground cover as a result (Joubert et al., 2008) and soil nutrient depletion (Klintenberg and Seely, 2004;Moleele and Perkins, 1998;Oldeland et al., 2010;Rocha et al., 2015).In Africa, certain species of the genus Acacia are known encroachers. In Namibia, grasslands are often encroached by Acacia mellifera and Acacia reficiens, often occurring together  (Joubert et al., 2008;Zimmermann et al., 2008). While these are native, encroaching species invade land by being very efficient in utilizing available resources (nutrients, water, light, energy), and have traits that allow them to quickly take up these resources making them unavailable for other plants (Funk and Vitousek, 2007).The negative consequences of bush encroachment are widespread and include: adverse effects on native species (Meik et al., 2002;Spottiswoode, 2009), diminishing agricultural production, rangeland degradation (Angassa, 2005), watershed quality (Huxman et al., 2005), increasing erosion (Grover and Musick, 1990;Vågen and Winowiecki, 2014) and loss of ecosystem carbon (Jackson et al., 2002) and loss of aboveground biodiversity. (Jackson et al., 2002) reported higher SOC in encroached areas in dry areas and a decrease in SOC in wetter regions.The deeper and more expansive root systems of many woody vegetation types, compared to herbaceous plants, means that they have access to soil water from deeper soil layers, which in turn means that they tend to have longer seasonal periods of water extraction and can thereby reduce soil water content consistently throughout the year (Kemp, 1983). In addition, their greater leaf area will increase water loss by transpiration and increase soil evaporation through the exposure of the soil (Huxman et al., 2005). As a consequence, encroachment has been shown to directly decrease streamflow in some cases (Cleverly et al., 1997).While there are limited data available on degradation currently, Namibia is concluding a number of action-plans to combat environmental degradation and integrate management of all the regions as well as land tenure reforms, and thus centralizing national data might become a priority in the near future (King et al. 2011). Globally available datasets show an increase of NDVI in grassland regions which is most likely due to bush encroachment (LDN Country Report 2015, Gilolmo and Lobo 2016). Bush encroachment is not always a direct consequence of land use change however. Drivers of bush encroachment are much debated (Ward, 2005) and likely include a combination of different factors including grazing intensity, fire management, and climate change. Unless extremely severe, it is unlikely that the three standard LDN indicators recommended by UNCCD can detect bush encroachment.To our best knowledge there are no existing tier 2 or 3 land cover maps for Otjozondjupa Region that could improve on the default ESA CCI land cover maps. However, Namibia is currently developing the Integrated Regional Land Use Plan (IRLUP) based on participatory land use planning which is scheduled to be completed in 2016. The plan will include georeferenced land use maps for each region for both present and future land uses.Changes in productivity presume that healthy land exhibits a high productivity while degradation reduces the net primary productivity, but that is a matter of context as outlined above. For Namibia, bush encroaching vegetation increases (aboveground) biomass and productivity compared to the grassland it encroaches. Therefore, applying straight forward Tier 1 productivity maps as an indicator, may erroneously classify degrading encroached areas as areas under recovery. Bush encroachment in drylands can be difficult to detect with some of the most commonly used VIs, such as NDVI and CRD, since many of the new species found in these areas have a relatively weak signal in terms of chlorophyll. Other types of VIs have been explored as alternatives, including the EVI and SATVI (Marsett et al., 2006;Qi et al., 2002) as they tend to be more sensitive to canopy structure and dryland vegetation cover (i.e. senescent vegetation).There is an existing program in Namibia that monitors land productivity trends based on MODIS data. The Rangeland Monitoring Project (http://www.namibiarangelands.com/) publishes mean monthly NDVI, precipitation, and vegetation condition maps on their website. The project is also developing new methods to map bush encroachment that will become available in 2017.In addition to Figure 2.5 above (SoilGrids250), Figure3.2 shows a soil carbon stock map based on the LDSF framework. Existing studies of SOC for Otjozondjupa and surrounding areas have reported values ranging from about 6.2 g C kg -1 to 11.5 g kg -1 in the topsoil (0-20 cm depth) in rangeland soils. Somewhat higher SOC concentrations can be expected in dense bushlands or dry forests. based on the LDSF (see Vågen et al., 2016) As described in chapter 2, the methodologies that were used to make these maps are based on soil profile data collected in sites across the world (so called sentinel sites), and thus have a global best fit, not a national or regional best fit. There are no tier 2 or 3 data available in Namibia to test the in situ accuracy of either map, although these methodologies have a published accuracy based on studies done elsewhere. One way forward would be to improve on these two methods by collecting local data to validate the models.Biodiversity and functional properties (e.g. time of leaf emergence) of the vegetation are important indicators of land degradation, and using these as additional indicators will be helpful especially for detecting bush encroachment as this may prove to be challenging using the current tier 1 indicator. Remote sensing has been used for mapping of woody species diversity (Innes and Koch, 1998;Rocchini et al., 2015) and can be applied in the assessment of land degradation. Such additional indicator may help in the detection of bush encroachment as species composition and biodiversity change in bush encroached areas. Some remote sensing techniques can also distinguish between the leaf phenology of the two types of Acacia prevalent in bush encroachment areas in Namibia (Oldeland et al., 2010): A. mellifera, which has leaf flushing in September and A. reficiens, which has leaf flushing in December. The JRC Phenology land cover data could potentially detect the differences in phenology and thus bush encroachment at 30 m resolution. Furthermore, dryland grasses have different metabolic pathways in the photosynthesis than bushes and trees, called the C4-pathway. Recent techniques can detect this and use C3/C4 carbon isotope ratio in soil carbon and map this using remote sensing. This can be used to assess bush encroachment, because the relative abundance of C3 carbon will be higher in soils under woody vegetation, as compared to soils under tropical grasses that have a C4 photosynthetic pathway.The Rio Jesus Maria watershed (352 km 2 ) in Costa Rica is very different from the Otjozondjupa region in Namibia and thus other issues arise when developing a baseline. Rio Jesus Maria watershed is situated along Costa Rica's Pacific coast (Figure 3.3) and has lost most of its natural vegetation cover due to deforestation and agricultural expansion. Currently the majority of the watershed consists of grasslands for extensive cattle ranching and secondary forests (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), 2011). Reduced vegetation cover, poor infrastructure, and extensive cattle ranching have led to wide scale soil degradation and erosion and the concomitant widespread loss and redistribution of soil and nutrients in the watershed, degradation of soil structure, water pollution and downstream floods.Studies show that local communities, especially the ones living downstream, are affected by lack of fresh water supply, failing crop yields during floods, ultimately increasing food insecurity and poverty in the region (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), 2011). Floods sometimes also inundate populated areas resulting in damage to infrastructure and properties.The complex topography of the Rio Jesus Maria watershed, and its relatively small size, means that assessments of land degradation need to be made at fine spatial resolution to capture the level of degradation properly. This will present a challenge for most tier 1 remote sensing products publicly available, as their spatial resolution is most often too coarse to capture smallscale dynamics. Furthermore, the use of remote sensing products can be challenging as there is often extensive cloud cover in the area. However, Costa Rica has a suite of tier 2 data developed and available.Land cover is important for detecting deforestation which is the primary cause of land degradation in Rio Jesús Maria watershed. However, the resolution of land cover change detection plays an extremely important role in being able to detect land degradation. In addition to changes in land cover from forest to non-forest, combinations of land use with soil type, topography, and management (practices / intensity) also drive land degradation in this geographical context (Hoyos, 2005). As a result, the direct relationship between land cover change and watershed degradation may not always be accurate (Ponette-González et al., 2015).The coarse resolution of a tier 1 dataset describing forest loss/gain, does not match the trends estimated by national institutions as part of the national programs for monitoring forest cover (MINAE 2015). As the national initiatives' tier 2 datasets use finer resolution and are linked to the national programs for payment for ecosystem services and REDD, existing data such as those produced as part of various initiatives to map forest cover in Costa Rica may be very useful for assessing land cover.Costa Rica developed various policy reforms and incentives in the 1990s to stop deforestation and forest degradation, and favor reforestation in areas where forest cover was lost. The main national mechanisms for support of reforestation are the national forestry development plan and the national program for payment of ecosystem services managed by the National Fund for Forest Financing (FONAFIFO) of Costa Rica. In order to track progress linked to these national policies and incentives, FONAFIFO and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) have worked to develop forest cover maps for 2000, 2005, 2010 with a resolution of 30 x 30 m. These maps were derived from Landsat and SPOT images and focus only on two types of land cover: forest and non-forest.In 2013 SINAC updated the national forest cover map using RapidEye Images (from December 2011 until July 2012) to generate the first forest cover map at resolution of 5m. This map identifies eight categories of forest, from pristine mature forest, secondary forest, deciduous forest, palm forest, silvopastures, forestry plantations, mangroves and paramo. Other lands uses such as annual and perennial crops, wetlands, water bodies, bare soil, sand and urban infrastructure are grouped in one category of \"non-forest\". This detailed forest map was the basis for the stratification and location of sample plots for the 2013 National Forest Inventory (SINAC 2015) (see Figure 3.4).In order to cover a multitude of reporting methodologies, Costa Rica is developing a national system for monitoring land use change dynamics. This system should provide information on land cover, land use change for forest and other important ecosystems, and will be the cornerstone for reporting on national targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (linked to REDD and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions [NAMA]). A group of experts is currently working on the development of this system, particularly in the development of a unique land classification system for the country. The monitoring methodologies have not been defined yet and could therefore be streamlined with LDN reporting needs. Costa Rica is also in the final period of consultation of its National REDD+ Strategy, and has submitted its proposed national Forest Reference Emission Level and Forest Reference Level (FREL/FRL) to the UNFCCC for a technical assessment. Although Costa Rica included all REDD+ activities in its national REDD+ strategy, only emission reductions from deforestation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks have been included in the FREL/FRL. FREL results are based on a temporal analysis of land use change for the period 1986-2013, using Landsat images. The classes recognized in these maps are: forest, annual crops, permanent crops, grasslands, settlements, wetlands, paramos and natural and artificial base soil (MINAE 2016).The land productivity indicator involved vivid debates during the workshop. This was due to several factors. First, it was acknowledged that many different institutions had satellite data from different sources with different resolutions, and without a clear overview of the content and availability of the national repositories, it was difficult to make this decision. During the post-workshop period, it was proposed that this would be a separate consultancy, to do a complete review of data and capacities within Costa Rican institutions and to produce a land productivity baseline, which would be appropriate for both the small watershed as well as the national scales.Since there is a strong emphasis on monitoring forest cover and deforestation, and given the relationship between forest cover and land productivity, efforts to produce these indicator baselines may be combined. For example, there is a possibility to use the newly developed FREL/FRL for reporting to the UNFCCC, to establish forest change, as an indicator for land productivity. In combination with other data, or as a stand-alone, these data might hold potential for improving spatial resolution, have long time series, and thus improve the indicator for trends in land productivity.One other possibility that takes advantage of the relationship between land productivity and deforestation is the Terra-I framework which was reviewed in section 2.2.5. Terra-I monitors deforestation in near real-time, based on changes in productivity, and is freely available. While it has better spatial resolution (250m) than JRC LPD (1km), the workshop participants regarded this as too coarse. We mention it here to highlight potential ways to combine future efforts in Costa Rica in completing the baselines for both land cover and NPP.Currently there are no completed maps of soil organic carbon for Costa Rica available from national initiatives. Various institutions are working on digital soil mapping as well as on collection and systematization of nationally available soil data. For example, the University of Costa Rica and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) have been working with the Soil Information System for Latin America (SISLAC). SISLAC is a collaboration between FAO -Global Soil Partnership, CIAT, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), EMBRAPA (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), and national institutions from 19 countries in Latin America. As part of SISLAC, Costa Rica received training in digital soil mapping and has started to produce draft SOC maps. At the time of the workshop, 500 soil profiles were available which has now tripled to 1500 soil profiles, mainly available for coastal areas which had been prioritized. In addition, the National Forest Inventory collected 280 soil samples from 1,000 m 2 in 2013, covering six different forest land uses (Figure 3.5) across the whole country. Some readily available SOC maps could be used as a SOC baseline map. For example, LDSF has a 500 m resolution map of SOC for Jesus Maria watershed (Figure 3.6). However, this resolution was considered too coarse by the national stakeholders who participated in the workshop. Others are also working on making global SOC maps available at finer resolution. ISRIC, for example, has made available a 250 m resolution product recently. In order to make meaningful assessments of SOC status and trends we suggest that these will need to be made at 30 m or finer resolution for this watershed.The currently available data may not be sufficient to produce a reliable estimate of SOC in the Rio Jesus Maria watershed because of scattered sampling plots that only cover forest land covers; with only few data points available in Jesus Maria. Therefore there is a need to increase the number of soil measurements to be able to develop digital soil maps for Jesus Maria. Also, while digital soil mapping training has started through the SISLAC collaboration, there is still an expressed need to further strengthen this through capacity building.  (Vågen et al., 2016).A critical factor determining SOC trends in the Jesus Maria watershed is likely to be soil erosion, particularly along waterways and on steep slopes, as highlighted in the Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative 13 (COMDEKS). It is recommended as an indicator that should be considered, in addition to the three core indicators, when assessing land degradation in the watershed.National efforts to assess soil erosion in Costa Rica, currently focus on assessing the vulnerability of soil to be eroded using the PAP/RAC methodology. During a presentation by INTA at the workshop in San José, it was explained that this method does not quantify the amount of soil lost due to water or wind erosion, but it gives an index defining the grade of erosion risk/potential (Priority Actions Programme Regional Activity Centre -Split 1997). Soil vulnerability to erosion is based mostly on soil physical properties and land cover. INTA and the University of Costa Rica are tailoring the methodology to conditions in Costa Rica and are updating the soil map of Costa Rica to have a better application of PAP/RAC methods in areas where soil information is not complete. Part of these efforts include plans to develop a detailed soil sampling to characterize soil profiles and soil properties in particular areas of the country.The soil sampling methodologies used by INTA could also complement the efforts to collect new soil samples in Jesus Maria in relation to soil organic carbon.The Namibia workshop was conducted from February 9 to 11, 2016, in Windhoek. The workshop was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET). One factor that was important in Namibia was the fact that very little data already existed for Otjozondjupa region. While the basic data to determine land productivity through net primary production is available at national level, there are no national baselines for bush encroachment or SOC (other than the ISRIC and LDSF datasets that are based on modeling techniques and do not yet include ground truth data). National land cover data are very coarse, and thus not of much relevance for Otjozondjupa. Furthermore, the severity of bush encroachment in Otjozondjupa and other areas of northern Namibia was critical during the methods selection process. It became obvious that extensive new field data had to be collected to map areas under bush encroachment and accurately map bush densities as well. The requirement to do extensive fieldwork influenced the selection of a methodology for the three remaining LDN indicators.Given that extensive areas will have to be surveyed to collect data on bush encroachment, it was a logical next step that other land cover data would be collected at the same time in order to be cost-effective and complete the land cover and SOC baseline maps. During method selection, the emphasis was thus placed on optimal and efficient field sampling design for collecting data for three indicators: land cover, soil organic carbon and bush encroachment. Another factor that influenced the selection of a method for SOC measurement was the desire to execute the different components of the work locally, for as much as feasible, and therefore give preference to techniques that are locally and nationally used already. While the LDSF method was desirable because it presented a complete package for different indicators, the methodology relies on the use of soil infrared spectroscopy which is currently not available in Namibia so it was not the preferred option by the participants.The final selected methods were thus:• Indicator 1 -Land Cover: ground truth data collection for a supervised classification of Landsat data at 30m resolution. • Indicator 2 -NPP: collaboration with local partners to produce a NDVI-derived baseline using the same Landsat data. • Indicator 3 -SOC: field data collection of soil profile data, analyzed locally at the Ministry of Forestry, and baseline produced using the ISRIC methodology.• Bush Encroachment: field data collection to produce a baseline with different gradients of bush encroachment (density) based on the methodology for Land Cover.Appendix A provides a summary of the activities and expected cost for implementing this approach.The Integrated Regional Land Use Plan (IRLUP) is an important way forward to address land degradation in Otjozondjupa. Any targets for achieving land degradation neutrality should be integrated into general land use planning. Another project of interest for the LDN study in Otjozondjupa Region is the GIZ De-Bushing Project (DBP). This project aims to quantify the extent of existing bush encroached area and determine its spatial distribution, as well as the possible economic utility of the encroaching biomass (e.g. for charcoal production). Furthermore, a proposal to establish a GIS database of the dynamics of bush encroachment (the BIS-GIS database) is pending a second round of feedback from the Namibian Statistics Agency (NSA). The outcome of this project could offer valuable information on methodology and extent of bush encroachment in the Otjozondjupa region for the LDN baseline procedures.The review of the BIS-GIS has shed light on a few considerations expressed by National Statistics Agency (NSA), which are of relevance to the LDN methodology. Firstly, it is important that a baseline assessment relies on quantitative and ground-truthed data, and that the methodology requires validity testing to determine the level of accuracy of the products. It is also important to use existing technology and infrastructure made available by various ministries (e.g. Department of Surveys and Mapping, DSM), to reduce uncertainties and replication of already derived information and adhere to existing policies and quality standards. Secondly, spatial, temporal, and methodological consistency of available remote sensing and vector data are an expressed concern of the NSA, as not all regions of Namibia are equally well-covered. This will most likely not affect the pilot area of Otjozondjupa much as there is consistent remote sensing data coverage in this area, but might be of concern to other regions of Namibia in a national baseline assessment framework. Given the strong capacity in Costa Rica, most of the selected methods were methods that are currently used nationally and that national experts are already familiar with. The final method selections were:• Indicator 1 -Land cover: Use the same methodology that is used to produce land cover maps for Costa Rica's REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) commitments to the UNFCCC. • Indicator 2-NPP: The approach is to first investigate which data are nationally available from different government offices. Then it will be necessary to agree on which of the indexes will be used for the baseline analysis of NPP and decide whether the national organizations or an external consultant will carry out analysis to complete the baseline. In Costa Rica, there are several planning processes on sub-national level that are important to address land degradation in general and for specific pilot areas, for example, municipal regulation plans, territorial rural development plans, management plan for protected areas, management or strategic plans for biological corridors, beside others.The following considerations expressed by different stakeholders in Costa Rica are of relevance to the national LDN process:First, a baseline assessment for LDN should rely on quantitative and ground-truthed data, be as accurate as possible using the existing data bases, technology and infrastructure available in the country to reduce uncertainties and replication of already derived information.Secondly, a baseline assessment for the proposed, relatively small, pilot area should be applicable on national level for a national baseline assessment.Thirdly, there are several ongoing projects of interest for the LDN process in Costa Rica.-The Sixth Operational Phase of the GEF Small Grants Programme in Costa Rica (2016-2018) aims at enabling community organizations to enhance livelihoods by restoring degraded forest and production landscapes for socio-ecological resilience in the watersheds Jesús Maria and Barranca. It supports, among other, adaptive landscape management plans and policies, reforestation and restoration campaigns. -The GIZ-Project \"Implementation of the National Biocorridor Programme (PNCB) within the context of Costa Rica's National Biodiversity Strategy\" (2014-2020) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). This project supports, among other, the establishment of a baseline and monitoring system for biological corridors including in parts the same or similar indicators as proposed for LDN. Furthermore, the project facilitates planning processes for sustainable land management in biological corridors. In addition, advice for the establishment of financial mechanisms generates funding for implementing relevant SLM measures. -The \"NAMA support project: Low-carbon coffee Costa Rica\" (2016-2019), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). This project supports the voluntary action geared to climate change mitigation, including efficient application of fertilisers, the use of shade trees and measuring, reporting and verification of CO2 reductions.The LDN Target Setting Programme of the UNCCD focuses preliminary on the national scale for land degradation assessments and LDN target setting. In order to support the implementation of a LDN approach, national assessments need to be complemented with more detailed sub-national baseline assessments. This report provides a review of the available data and methods for the three LDN indicators in the context of two pilot areas. These areas -Otjozondjupa region in Namibia and Rio Jesús Maria in Costa Rica -were identified with the respective partners participating in the national LDN processes, because both have degradation challenges that are relevant for many regions around the world. These challenges are important to address and strengthen national capacities and readiness to engage in mitigating land degradation.There are a number of existing and free global datasets that could offer information to the land degradation assessments at sub-national scale. For Indicator 1 Land Cover Change there are multiple land cover maps available, e.g. GL30, JRC Trees-3, Terra-I, and LDSF, which are viable options to complement the default option, the ESA CCI-LC dataset. These datasets and methods can be used as stand-alone or as supplements to national data. Indicator 2 Land Productivity data are also available at the global level, which serve to derive more accurate data (e.g. using EVI, SATVI or RUE). It is suggested to use NDVI derived products that are more sensitive to senescent vegetation in dryland areas, soil conditions, and that have atmospheric adjustments in areas with extensive cloud cover. Moreover the resolution of the freely available data is not suitable for supporting local planning in countries such as Costa Rica where there is great variability in biophysical conditions over small areas.The negative impacts of bush encroachment are widespread and include: diminishing agricultural production and rangeland degradation, decreasing watershed quality, and loss of aboveground biodiversity. While bush encroachment is considered the most severe form of land degradation in Namibia, it has confounding challenges for all three LDN indicators. This is because bush encroached lands usually show positive trends in net primary productivity and soil organic carbon, and they will reflect a land cover change from grassland and shrubland to bushland and forest, which is considered a positive change from the LDN perspective.Workshops were held in both Namibia and Costa Rica to discuss the process with local stakeholders. For LDN methods national partners stressed that the following three criteria were important to take into account. The selected methods should be:1. Cost-effective 2. Appropriate for the available national capacity and be repeatable independently by local partners 3. Have value for other regional and national projects Both focus areas have a number of ongoing projects and processes that can be used to share either reporting obligations or primary data collection, and building on these commonalities can offer a reduction in costs to the LDN baseline assessment and future monitoring efforts.In Otjozondjupa, Namibia, the main problem associated with land degradation in dry grassland is bush encroachment. There is no existing data on bush encroachment available, and therefore other options were explored further. Namibia is furthermore experiencing a lack of both existing national data, as well as a centralized data repository, and data that is available is not readily accessible. Namibia chose to opt for classification and ground-truthing of finer spatial resolution from globally available Landsat imagery and SoilGrids methodology, and extensive data collection to map distribution and densities of bush encroachment. The final selection was as follows:• Indicator 1 -Land cover: ground truth data collection for a supervised classification of Landsat data. • Indicator 2 -NPP: collaboration with local partners to produce a NDVI-derived baseline using the same Landsat data. • Indicator 3 -SOC: field data collection of soil profile data, analyzed locally at the Ministry of Forestry, and baseline produced using the ISRIC SoilGrids methodology. • Indicator 4 -Bush Encroachment: field data collection to produce a baseline with different gradients of bush encroachment (density) based on the methodology for Land Cover mapping.In Rio Jesús Maria watershed, Costa Rica, deforestation and subsequent watershed degradation has led to severe soil erosion. Costa Rica has a large collection of national data, and local experts therefore opted to expand on existing national data for the three indicators, as well as increase national capacity on soil mapping and erosion modeling. The final selection was as follows:• Indicator 1 -Land cover: Use the same methodology as used to produce land cover maps for Costa Rica's REDD+ commitments to the UNFCCC. • Indicator 2 -NPP: The approach taken is to first investigate which data are nationally available from different government offices and task one with producing an NDVI change analysis to complete this baseline. • Indicator 3 -SOC: Costa Rica has started work on SOC mapping under the SISLAC framework and decided to complete this work. In addition, workshop participants requested additional training in other Digital Soil Mapping techniques in order to do a more robust evaluation of all available techniques at a later time. • Indicator 4 -Erosion (existing erosion and erosion risk): Participants selected training in the RUSLE-3D technique to produce a map of current erosion to complement their modified PAP/CAR approach.Both countries have existing processes in place or starting up, which might be helpful to the LDN baseline assessments and reduce cost of primary data collection. In Namibia this is namely the IRLUP process, but also the GIZ De-Bushing Project and The Rangeland Monitoring Project, can assist in addressing the gaps in national data. For Costa Rica there are a number of ongoing national processes that will enable more extensive national data on land degradation, most importantly improvements of their reporting mechanisms to the UNFCCC and the engagement with SISLAC.While the pilot phase provided a national baseline based on globally available datasets, this review of other datasets and methods points to a need for higher resolution (primary) data in order to develop baselines for the two sub-national regions in Namibia and Costa Rica. Moreover, subnational baseline assessments may require additional field data collection depending on the characteristics of degradation occurring locally. In certain contexts, additional indicators beyond Land Cover, Land Productivity and Soil Organic Carbon, may be required to adequately assess land degradation at a subnational level.","tokenCount":"12080"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"00861aa59fe78778a854503be9a528ba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b95cf107-2938-4a8b-abac-a1eb48ff8547/content","id":"-1372835823"},"keywords":["AFLP, DNA fingerprinting, genetic diversity, synthetic wheat AFLP, amplified fragment length polymorphism","CIMMYT, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center","DNA, deoxyribonucleic Acid","PCA, principal component analysis","PIC, polymorphic information content","RFLP, restriction fragment length polymorphism","SSR, simple sequence repeat","UPGMA, unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages"],"sieverID":"27673e98-46d8-4dfa-8b71-75e52eb34504","pagecount":"12","content":"Genetic diversity among 14 drought tolerance (drought accessions) and 27 salinity tolerance (salinity accessions) related conventional and synthetic wheat (Triticum sp.) accessions containing different sources of the D genome was assessed using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). The wheat accessions were analyzed with 20 EcoRI/MseI primer combinations. Among 918 fragments scored, 368 were polymorphic across all 41 wheat accessions, 348 were polymorphic among the drought accessions and 310 were polymorphic among the salinity accessions. Similarity coefficients among all accessions based on Jaccard's coefficient ranged from 0.18 to 0.92 with an average of 0.53 ± 0.01; among drought accessions, from 0.16 to 0.79 with an average of 0.43 ± 0.02; and among salinity accessions, from 0.16 to 0.92 with an average of 0.57 ± 0.01. Polymorphic information content (PIC) among all accessions ranged from 0.05 to 0.50 with an average PIC of 0.30 ± 0.01; among drought accessions, from 0.13 to 0.50 with an average PIC of 0.37 ± 0.01; and among salinity accessions, from 0.07 to 0.50 with an average PIC of 0.29 ± 0.01. Cluster and principal component analysis showed distinct groups of accessions both within drought and salinity entries. These accessions possess a substantial amount of genetic diversity and would be very valuable materials for breeding wheat with drought and salinity tolerance.Das, M. K., Bai, H-H. et Mujeeb-Kazi, A. 2007. Diversité génétique des variétés classiques et synthétiques de blé tolérant la sécheresse et la salinité selon la technique AFLP. Can. J. Plant Sci. 87: 691-702. Les auteurs ont évalué la diversité génétique d'obtentions de blé (Triticum sp.) classiques et synthétiques tolérant la sécheresse (n = 14) ou la salinité (n = 27) et renfermant différentes sources du génome D par la technique du polymorphisme amplifié de la longueur des fragments (AFLP). Les obtentions de blé ont été analysées grâce aux combinaisons d'amorces 20 EcoRI/MseI. Sur les 918 fragments évalués, 368 étaient polymorphes chez les 41 obtentions, 348 étaient polymorphes chez les obtentions tolérant la sécheresse et 310 étaient polymorphes chez celles tolérant la salinité. Le coefficient de similarité reposant sur le coefficient de Jaccard variait de 0,18 à 0,92 avec une moyenne de 0,53 ± 0,01 pour l'ensemble des obtentions, de 0,16 à 0,79 avec une moyenne de 0,43 ± 0,02 pour celles tolérant la sécheresse, et de 0,16 à 0,92 avec une moyenne de 0,57 ± 0,01 pour celles tolérant la salinité. Le contenu de matériel polymorphe variait de 0,05 à 0,50 avec une moyenne de 0,30 ± 0,01 pour l'ensemble des obtentions, de 0,13 à 0,50 avec une moyenne de 0,37 ± 0,01 pour celles tolérant la sécheresse, et de 0,07 à 0,50 avec une moyenne de 0,29 ± 0,01 pour celles tolérant la salinité. L'analyse des grappes et des composantes principales révèle l'existence de groupes distincts parmi les obtentions tolérant la sécheresse et celles tolérant la salinité. Ces obtentions présentent une importante diversité génétique et constitueraient du matériel d'une grande utilité pour la sélection de variétés de blé tolérant à la fois la sécheresse et la salinité.Mots clés: AFLP, identification par le code génétique, diversité génétique, blé synthétique Abiotic stresses such as drought and salinity are major global constraints to wheat production. Approximately 32% of the wheat-growing regions in developing countries go through some drought stress during the growing season (Morris et al. 1992). In total, around 45 million ha of wheat-producing land are characterized by periodic drought stress (Byerlee and Moya 1993). Soil salinity causes significant reductions in plant productivity, and consequent economic losses associated with reduced grain quality and yield of agricultural crops (Pitman and Lauchli 2002).Genetic diversity is the foundation for genetic improvement of various crops. Genetic diversity of germplasm including those naturally occurring or synthesized can be assessed through pedigree analysis (Cox et al. 1985;Martin et al. 1991) and DNA markers (Autrique et al. 1996;Karp et al. 1997; Barrett and Kidwell 1998;Davila et al. 1998;Soleimani et al. 2002;Sasanuma et al. 2002). DNA markers, however, provide a direct measurement of genetic relationships among samples analyzed based on their genome composition. Also, an unlimited number of markers is available for such analyses. Therefore, DNA markers are a necessary complement to pedigree analysis.Based on restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) in 113 improved cultivars and landraces of durum wheat (T. turgidum L.), Autrique et al. (1996) reported a mean genetic distance of 0.21 and 0.31 within the improved lines and landraces, respectively. Using AFLP markers Barrett and Kidwell (1998) studied genetic diversity among wheat (T. aestivum L.) cultivars from the US Pacific Northwest, and reported mean genetic diversity estimates ranging from 0.49 to 0.58 for within spring and winter types and between spring vs. winter types. Manifesto et al. (2001) used AFLP and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and quantified the genetic diversity among 105 modern and older bread wheat cultivars from Argentina concluding that Argentinian bread wheat germplasm had maintained a relatively constant level of genetic diversity during the last half century. Soleimani et al. (2002) detected a substantial amount of genetic variation between and within cultivars in 13 registered modern Canadian durum wheat cultivars based upon AFLP markers, reporting a mean pair-wise genetic distance of 0.40. Sasanuma et al. (2002) studied genetic diversity of wheat wild relatives from the Near East using AFLP, and reported the existence of potential genetic diversity among the wild relatives in natural populations. Lage et al. (2003) reported genetic diversity using AFLP and agronomic traits among 54 synthetic hexaploid wheats derived from crosses between emmer wheat (T. dicoccum L.) and goat grass (Aegilops tauschii Coss.). Based on AFLP, they observed clear grouping according to geographical origin for the T. dicoccum parents, but no clear groups for the Ae. tauschii parents. The hexaploid synthetics also revealed similar clustering as the T. dicoccum parent. Based on percentage polymorphic markers, the synthetic hexaploid wheats showed a considerably higher level of AFLP diversity (39%) than normally observed in cultivated wheat (12 to 21%).Reports on molecular marker studies of genetic diversity among wheat germplasm with drought tolerance are limited. Moghaddam et al. (2005) studied genetic diversity in bread wheat genotypes for tolerance to drought using AFLPs and agronomic traits such as plant height, days to flowering, days to maturity, grain yield and harvest index. Their study included 14 wheat genotypes from Iran and 14 wheat genotypes developed by or obtained by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). They reported that the genetic basis of drought tolerance of these accessions was different, particularly when comparing Iranian and CIMMYT accessions. No report was available on mol-ecular marker studies of genetic diversity among salinitytolerant wheat germplasm. However, Lindsay et al. (2004) reported an SSR marker closely linked to Nax1, a locus for sodium exclusion that gives salt tolerance in durum wheat, mapped on chromosome 2AL.Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) markers are the most suitable means for genetic diversity estimation (O'Donoughue et al. 1994;Plaschke et al. 1995;Kim and Ward 1997). However, the extent of their utility may depend on the type of the DNA markers, level of polymorphisms they reveal, and their genome coverage. Markers that can detect higher levels of polymorphism between wheat varieties can be utilized more efficiently to estimate genetic diversity. AFLP is such a marker class that can generate high levels of polymorphisms even in low polymorphic species like wheat (Bai et al. 1999). It is a multiplex marker system in which several polymorphic bands can be produced per assay (Vos et al. 1995). In addition, AFLP analysis is highly reproducible making it a suitable marker system for genetic diversity analysis and high-resolution mapping (Zabeau 1993).Since genetic diversity for traits such as drought and salinity tolerance is limited in conventional wheat, introgression of genes from wild relatives into elite cultivars has been a major wheat-breeding program objective within CIMMYT. Aegilops tauschii Coss. (2n = 2x = 14, DD), a diploid wheat relative, is a rich source of resistance genes to many biotic and abiotic stresses (Mujeeb-Kazi and Rajaram 2002). Synthetic hexaploid wheats (2n = 6x = 42, AABB-DD), which are generated by crossing tetraploid durum wheat (2n = 4x = 28, AABB) to various Ae. tauschii accessions, are an important bridging material for introgression of desirable genes from Ae. tauschii into bread wheat. CIM-MYT has developed numerous synthetic hexaploid wheats using diverse durum cultivars and Ae. tauschii accessions. These synthetic wheats possess many other important biotic stress traits that can be utilized for wheat improvement (Mujeeb-Kazi 2003a), such as resistance to Fusarium head blight (Fusarium graminearum Schw.), leaf rust (Puccinia triticina Eriks.), Septoria tritici blotch (Septoria tritici Roberge in Desmaz.) (Mujeeb-Kazi et al. 2000), Karnal bunt (Tilletia indica Mitra) (Mujeeb-Kazi et al. 2001a)  (Cox 1998;Xu et al. 2004). A set of germplasm with high levels of tolerance to drought and saline environments has also been identified (Reynolds et al. 2005). The objectives of the present study were (i) to evaluate genetic diversity of the selected germplasm sets that contain different D genome accessional sources conferring tolerance to drought and salinity based on AFLP and (ii) to identify parents for developing doubledhaploid-based mapping populations (Mujeeb-Kazi 2003b).Wheat accessions in this study include 14 accessions (drought accessions) with different levels of drought toler-ance and 27 accessions (salinity accessions) with different levels of salinity tolerance. The drought accessions consisted of five conventional wheat cultivars, five synthetic hexaploid wheats, and four durum wheat cultivars that were parents of the respective synthetics (Table 1). Entries D1 to D5 are the synthetics with superior drought tolerance and are currently being used for drought tolerance wheat breeding in CIMMYT. Their advanced derivatives after crosses with bread wheat cultivars have also performed well under reduced irrigation. Among the five conventional wheat cultivars, cv. Opata is a susceptible check and an ideal drought sensitive parent for developing mapping populations. The salinity accessions consisted of 19 conventional wheat cultivars, seven synthetic hexaploid wheats and one durum wheat cultivar (Table 2). The durum wheat (PDW 34) and wheat cultivars Oasis, PBW 343, Galvez S87 and Yecora F70 are salinity-susceptible, while the rest of the accessions are salinity tolerant. The salinity-tolerant accessions have been selected based on potassium: sodium (K:Na) discrimination levels in hydroponics using protocols of Gorham et al. (1987) and Shah et al. (1987). All salinity-tolerant accessions had K:Na ratios over 2.5, where a ratio of close to 1.0 indicates salt sensitivity. Entry S5 (PDW 34), the durum susceptible check had a K:Na value close to 1.0. The synthetic wheats differed not only in sources of D genome, but also in their A and B genome compositions. The latter durum parent in every case was salt susceptible (Pritchard et al. 2002).Genomic DNA was isolated from bulked wheat leaves of two to three seedlings (approximately 10 d old) using the CTAB procedure (Saghai-Maroof et al. 1984). AFLP analysis was performed using protocols described by Zabeau (1993) and Vos et al. (1995). Laboratory optimization and minor modifications for AFLP analysis were made according to Bai et al. (1999). Genomic DNA (300 ng) from each of the wheat entries was double digested with EcoRI and MseI restriction enzymes. Following restriction digestion, EcoRI and MseI adapters were ligated to the digested DNA fragments. Ligated DNA was diluted 10-fold for pre-amplification. Forty micro-liters of PCR reaction mixture contained 10 µL of the diluted DNA, 4 µL of 10X PCR buffer, 4 µL MgCl 2 (25 mM), 1.6 µL dNTPs (5 mM), 0.75 µL EcoRI pre-amplification primer (100 ng µL -1 ), 0.75 µL MseI pre-amplification primer (100 ng µL -1 ), 0.15 µL Taq polymerase and 18.75 µL of deionized water. Pre-amplification PCR was done in a MJ thermocycler (MJ Research Inc., Waltham, MA) with the following thermal profile: 94°C for 1 min followed by 30 cycles at 94°C for 30 s, 56°C for 60 s and 72°C for 60 s. The PCR product was then analyzed on 1.5% agarose gel to confirm pre-amplification.The pre-amplified DNA was diluted 10-fold. The PCR reaction mixture for selective amplification included 2 µL of the diluted DNA, 1 µL of 10X PCR buffer, 1 µL of 25 mM MgCl 2 , 0.4 µL of 5 mM dNTPs, 0.35 µL of MseI selective primer (50 ng µL -1 ), 0.4 µL fluorescence-labeled EcoRI selective primer (1 ρmol µL -1 ) from LI-COR (LI-COR Inc, Lincoln, NE), 0.04 µL Taq polymerase, and 4.8 µL deionized water. The PCR thermal cycles were as follows: 2 min at 94°C followed by 13 cycles at 94°C for 30 s, 65°C for 30 s, 72°C for 60 s with the annealing temperature lowered by 0.7 °C after each cycle; then followed by 23 cycles at 94°C for 30 s, 56°C for 30 s, 72°C for 60 s. A final extension was conducted for 5 min at 72°C. Twenty AFLP selective primer combinations were used for selective amplification (Table 3).The PCR products from the selective amplification were mixed with 5 µL of loading buffer and denatured for 5 min at 95°C before 1 µL of this product from each sample was loaded on each well of a 6.5% denaturing Gel Matrix gel (Li-Cor Inc., Lincoln, NE). The gel was ran in 1X TBE buffer at 1500 V and 40W for 3.5 h in a Li-Cor automated DNA sequencer (Li-Cor Inc., Lincoln, NE). DNA size standard from Li-Cor was used as a reference to calculate molecular size of each AFLP fragment.AFLP bands ranging from 70 to 350 base pairs were scored as present (1) or absent (0). Unambiguous fragments were entered as 0.5 in the data matrix. In order to ensure accurate scoring, all markers were scored at least twice. Polymorphism rates were estimated for all possible pairs of lines by dividing the number of polymorphic bands by the total number of bands. Polymorphic information content (PIC) was estimated using the formula used by Anderson et al. (1993):where p i is the frequency of the ith allele. Each polymorphic fragment was scored as a locus with two allelic classes. The maximum PIC value of an AFLP locus was 0.5. Cluster analysis and principal components analysis was conducted using the procedures in the NTSYS-pc software (Rohlf 2000). Genetic similarity between entries was estimated using the similarity coefficients of Jaccard (1908), Rogers and Tanimoto (1960) and Nei and Li (1979). The resulting distance matrices were used for cluster analysis by the UPGMA [unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (Sneath and Sokal 1973)] method. The goodness of fit of the clustering to the data matrix was assessed by cophenetic correlation using the NTSYS-pc software (Rohlf 2000).Analyses of 41 wheat entries (14 for drought and 27 for salinity) with 20 AFLP primer combinations produced a total of 918 scorable AFLP fragments (Table 3). A partial AFLP image generated from Li-Cor 4200 DNA analyzer showing typical AFLP variation when a single pair of AFLP primers was used for selective amplification is shown in Fig. 1. Of the 918 markers, 368 were polymorphic among all 41 wheat entries (drought and salinity entries combined) studied, 348 were polymorphic among the drought entries, while 310 were polymorphic among the salinity entries. For all 41 entries, the number of polymorphic bands per primer combination ranged from 8 to 33 with an average of 18.4 ± 1.5 (Table 3). For the drought germplasm, the number of poly-morphic bands per primer combination ranged from 8 to 30 with an average of 17.4 ± 1.4, while for the salinity entries, the number of polymorphic bands ranged from 6 to 26 with an average of 15.5 ± 1.4 per primer combination. Polymorphism rates were estimated at 40, 38, and 34% for all 41 entries, drought entries, and salinity entries, respectively.Pair-wise comparisons were conducted between the genotypes based on the AFLP data. Jaccard's similarity coefficient was used to evaluate the genetic diversity among the accessions. Within all 41 entries, the highest similarity coefficient (0.92) was between synthetics S22 and S25 and the lowest similarity coefficient (0.18) was between the drought entry D7 and the salinity entry S5 (the salinity-susceptible durum wheat check). The average similarity coefficient for all 41 entries was 0.53 ± 0.01. The result from pair-wise comparisons indicated that about 37% of the entry pairs had similarity coefficients of 0.50 or less (Fig. 2). Within the drought entries, the highest similarity coefficient (0.79) was between synthetics D2 and D4 although they were unrelated based on their pedigree information. The lowest similarity coefficient (0.16) was between entry DP2 (a durum wheat) and D7 (a conventional wheat). The average similarity coefficient for drought entries was 0.43 ± 0.02. Pair-wise comparisons indicated that more than half of the entry pairs had similarity coefficients of 0.50 or less (Fig. 3). Within the salinity entries, the highest similarity coefficient (0.92) was between synthetics S22 and S25 and the lowest similarity coefficient (0.16) was between the entry S5 (the salinitysusceptible durum wheat check) and S6 (a conventional wheat cultivar), with an average similarity coefficient of 0.57 ± 0.01. About 31% of the pair-wise comparisons had similarity coefficients of 0.50 or less (Fig. 4).For all 41 entries, PIC ranged from 0.05 to 0.50 with an average PIC of 0.30 ± 0.01 (Fig. 5). For the drought entries, PIC ranged from 0.13 to 0.50 with an average PIC of 0.37 ± 0.01 (Fig. 6), while for the salinity entries, PIC ranged from 0.07 to 0.50 with an average PIC of 0.29 ± 0.01 (Fig. 7). PIC of AFLP in drought entries was high and mainly appeared between 0.40 and 0.50 (Fig. 6), while PIC of AFLP in salinity entries was relatively lower with two peaks appearing in both distribution extremes (Fig. 7).In general, high cophenetic correlations ranging from 0.873 to 0.944 were obtained (Table 4) where r > 0.9 indicates a very good fit; 0.8 < r < 0.9 indicates a good fit; r < 0.8 indicates a poor fit (Capo-chichi et al. 2001). All three methods used in these analyses gave a good fit with the best cophenetic correlation from the Jaccard coefficient (Table 4). No major variations were observed in the dendrogram patterns obtained by the three similarity coefficients; therefore, only the dendrogram obtained based on the Jaccard coefficients is presented. The dendrogram involving all 41 wheat accessions grouped the accessions into three main clusters (Fig. 8). Cluster one consisted of all five durum entries used in this study [one from the salinity entries (S5) and four from the drought entries (DP1 to DP4)]. The second cluster consisted of all conventional wheat entries (D6 to D10) from the drought entries and 15 of the 19 conventional wheat entries and one synthetic wheat entry from the salinity entries. The third cluster had all the five synthetic wheat entries (D1 to D5) from the drought entries and five of the six synthetic wheat entries from the salinity entries. This cluster also contained four conventional wheat entries from the salinity entries. The similarity matrix based on the Jaccard's coefficient was also used as input for principal component analyses (PCA). A plot of the first three principal components for all 41 accessions is presented in Fig. 9. The results from PCA are similar to those obtained by UPGMA clustering (Fig. 8). The five durum entries separated from wheat at the first principal component (PC1), and the second principal component (PC2) contained the cluster consisting mainly of the conventional wheat entries. The third principal component (PC3) contained the cluster consisting mainly of the synthetic wheat entries. The genetic constitution of the synthetics was different from the conventional wheat cultivars studied, thus suggesting that synthetics would add diversity to the drought-and salinity-tolerant germplasm.The dendrogram for the drought accessions grouped the accessions into two main clusters (Fig. 10). Cluster one consisted of the four durum parents (DP1 to DP4). Cluster two consisted of all five synthetics and five conventional wheat lines. The second cluster formed two sub-clusters that were separated at the 46.5% similarity level with one sub-cluster consisting of the five conventional wheat lines and the other consisting of the five synthetics. Durum parents were distant from both the synthetics and the conventional wheat lines. The plot of the first three principal components for the drought accessions is presented in Fig. 11. The results from PCA are similar to those obtained by UPGMA clustering (Fig. 10). The four durum entries separated from conventional and synthetic wheat entries at the first principal component (PC1), and conventional wheat entries separated from synthetics at the second principal component (PC2). The third principal component (PC3) separated individual accessions within each major cluster. The clustering of the drought entries also indicated that genetic constitution of synthetics was different from the conventional wheat cultivars studied and thus the synthetics would add more diversity to the drought-tolerant germplasm.The dendrogram for the salinity accessions (Fig. 12) shows that this clustering method grouped 26 of the 27 entries into two major clusters while entry 27 (S5, the salinity-susceptible durum wheat check) remained by itself. The two major clusters merged into one cluster at the similarity level of 50.4% and the susceptible durum check (S5) merged with this cluster at the similarity level of 28%. The durum check lacks the D genome; therefore, it is genetically distant from the synthetics and conventional wheat cultivars. Of the two major clusters, one cluster consisted of six of the seven synthetics and four conventional wheat lines. Another cluster consisted of one synthetic and the remaining conventional wheat lines. The PCA results (Fig. 13) also support the results obtained by UPGMA cluster analysis (Fig. 12). PC1 separated two major distinct groups of wheat, while PC2 clearly separated the durum check (S5) from the two wheat groups. PC3 separated individual accessions within each major group consisting of both conventional wheat cultivars and synthetics.Synthetic wheat lines developed at CIMMYT have many valuable traits including drought and salinity tolerance that can be used for genetic improvement of wheat. The present study was aimed at measuring genetic diversity among several drought-and salinity-tolerant synthetic and conventional wheat lines using AFLP markers and to identify parents    for developing doubled-haploid-based mapping populations (Mujeeb-Kazi 2003b). Twenty primer combinations used in this study revealed substantial genetic diversity among the drought-tolerant and salinity-tolerant wheat germplasm.When all 41 wheat accessions were analyzed together, the average similarity coefficient was 0.53 with the lowest similarity coefficient being 0.18. Within the drought entries, the average similarity coefficient was 0.43 with the lowest similarity coefficient being 0.16. The lowest similarity coefficient for the salinity entries was the same as that for drought entries, but the average was higher (0.57). These results and the distribution of the similarity coefficients indicated substantial amounts of genetic diversity among the drought and salinity entries. Based on 117 polymorphic AFLP markers, Bohn et al. (1999) reported genetic similarity among 11 wheat lines ranging from 0.40 to 0.83 with an average similarity of 0.61. Using AFLP markers Barrett and Kidwell (1998) reported mean genetic diversity estimates of 0.58 for pair-wise comparison of spring vs. winter wheat, 0.53 for within winter wheats and 0.49 for within spring wheats. Soleimani et al. (2002) using AFLP markers reported a mean pair-wise genetic distance of 0.40 for several Canadian durum wheat cultivars.Our results of the average PIC (0.30 ± 0.01 for all 41 entries, 0.37 ± 0.01 for drought and 0.29 ± 0.01 for salinity entries) were similar to that of Manifesto et al. (2001) who reported an average PIC value of 0.30 ± 0.15 in wheat for AFLP markers. However, the range of PIC values (0.26 to 0.38) reported by Manifesto et al. (2001) were smaller than the ranges of PIC values (0.05 to 0.50 for all 41 entries, 0.13    to 0.50 for drought entries and 0.07 to 0.50 for salinity entries obtained in our study. PIC is a quantification of the number of alleles or bands that a marker has and the frequency of each of the alleles or bands in the entries under study. Since a marker with fewer bands has less power to distinguish between entries and alleles present at low frequency also have less power to be distinguished, a higher PIC was assigned to a marker with many alleles and with alleles present at roughly equal proportions in the entries under study. Thus, PIC can be looked as the measurement of usefulness of each marker in distinguishing one individual from another. For AFLP, each polymorphic fragment was scored as a locus with two allelic classes and the maximum PIC of an AFLP locus is 0.5. Therefore, the PIC values in our study indicated that the AFLP markers were reasonably powerful in distinguishing one individual from another. This was in congruence with Manifesto et al. (2001).Dendrograms (Figs. 8, 10, and 12) obtained by cluster analysis using UPGMA and Jaccard's similarity coefficient show that there was substantial diversity at the DNA level among the drought-tolerant and salinity-tolerant germplasm. When all the 41 entries were used in the cluster analysis, the five durum entries were grouped together as expected. One cluster contained all conventional wheat and only one synthetic wheat line and the other cluster contained mainly synthetics but some conventional wheat entries. This indicated that most of the synthetics were distant from the conventional wheats. These two later clusters contained both salinity and drought entries. This indicated that these drought and salinity entries had enough genetic similarity to cluster together.  For the drought entries, the four parents were grouped together in both PCA and cluster analysis, that was expected because they were all durum entries with AABB genomes. It was interesting to note that four of the synthetics developed from these four parents by crossing each to a different Ae. tauschii accession were closer to each other, suggesting that genetic constitution of different Ae. tauschii accessions involved in these crosses could be similar to each other. The two sub-clusters of the drought accessions merged at the 46.5% similarity level indicating that they    were distantly related at the genetic level. It was interesting to note that one of these two sub-clusters contained the five conventional wheat lines and the other contained the five synthetics. Although both the conventional wheat lines and the synthetics have the same genome, AABBDD, they exhibited differences due to their earlier conventional and recent synthetic origin. This also indicated that AFLP markers were powerful enough to reveal such genetic distinction. It would be possible to select appropriate drought-tolerant parents from both groups for a breeding program to enhance genetic diversity for drought tolerance. Our results are in congruence with those of Moghaddam et al. (2005) who reported existence of genetic diversity among drought-tolerant wheat entries from CIMMYT and Iran.The salinity entries formed two major clusters that merged at the similarity level of 50.4%. These two groups were clearly separated by the second principal component. The result indicated a high level of genetic diversity among these entries. Using these entries to breed for salinity tolerance would enhance genetic diversity of salinity-tolerant cultivars. As expected, accession S5, the salinity susceptible durum wheat check stood alone in both the dendrogram and the PCA plot and merged with the other accessions at the similarity level of 28%. This result again indicated that AFLP fingerprinting provided a very accurate measurement of genetic relationship among diverse entries. Both synthetics and conventional wheat entries in each of two sub-clusters indicated substantial genetic diversity within the salinity-tolerant wheat and synthetic accessions.The synthetic and conventional wheat entries used in this study have shown different degrees of tolerance to drought and salinity. Genetic diversity assessment using AFLP has clearly indicated that there exists ample diversity among these entries at the DNA level and therefore some entries would be very valuable when breeding objectives target drought and salinity tolerance. Some of the entries would be valuable for using as parents for developing doubledhaploid-based mapping populations.","tokenCount":"4596"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3ee54352e75dff628c1a1a58c334d36a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/883451e0-8fbe-4a87-8550-e9e691bb0f97/retrieve","id":"1116396963"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"519f43ea-1e61-4e99-97a6-d11b7e2a33eb","pagecount":"9","content":"Sterility and low seed set in bananas is the main challenge to their conventional genetic improvement. The first step to seed set in a banana breeding program depends on pollination at the right time to ensure effective fertilization. This study aimed at determining bract opening time (BOT) to enhance efficient pollination and seed set in bananas. A Nikon D810 digital camera was set-up to take pictures of growing banana inflorescences at five-minute intervals and time-lapse movies were developed at a speed of 30 frames per second to allow real-time monitoring of BOT. Genotypes studied included wild banana (1), Mchare (2), Matooke (4), Matooke hybrid (1), and plantain (1). Events of bract opening initiated by bract lift for female flowers (P < 0.01) started at 16:32 h and at 18:54 h for male flowers. Start of bract rolling was at 18:51 h among female flowers (P < 0.001) and 20:48 h for male flowers. Bracts ended rolling at 02:33 h and 01:16 h for female and flowers respectively (P < 0.05).Total time of bract opening (from lift to end of rolling) for female flowers was significantly longer than that of male flowers (P < 0.001). On average, the number of bracts subtending female flowers opening increased from one on the first day, to between one and four on the fourth day. The number regressed to one bract on day eight before start of opening of bracts subtending male flowers. There was a longer opening interval between bracts subtending female and male flowers constituting spatial and temporal separation. Bract rolling increased from partial to complete rolling from proximal to the distal end of the inflorescence among female flower. On the other hand, bracts subtending male flowers completely rolled. Differences in BOT of genotypes with the same reference time of assessment may be partly responsible for variable fertility. Hand pollination time between 07:00 and 10:00 h is slightly late thus an early feasible time should be tried.Banana (Musa spp.) plants are monoecious where male and female flowers are primarily unisexual and separated on the same inflorescence 1 . They have a year-round flowering habit implying that pollinations can be made all year 2 . The inflorescence develops in the pseudostem after which leaves are replaced by bracts. The first three or four bracts are the largest and typically do not bear flowers. After emergence, the inflorescence takes on a horizontal or pendent position for edible bananas. Female flowers emerge before male flowers and are usually separated by neutral flowers 3 . This implies that there is no self-pollination within an inflorescence except in some genotypes with hermaphrodite flowers 4 . Geitonomous pollination can occur between flowers in different generations on the same mat.Each bract bears two rows of flowers in a cluster, one above the other. Similar to most monoecious plants, bananas produce more male than female flowers. The flowers are irregular with a compound tepal, androecium and gynaecium as the three main parts. These flower parts are all joined at the point of connection of the style with the ovary thus form an inferior ovary 5 . Depending on genotype, soil fertility, and environmental conditions, the inflorescence usually bears between 1 to 30 female flower clusters, followed by 0 to 4 neutral flower clusters and up to 300 male flower clusters 1 .Rapid conventional improvement of bananas is hindered by a complex array of factors that result in male and female sterility 6 . Among factors that influence seed set especially for controlled pollination is pollinating at the right time of the day to ensure maximum seed set 7 . Flowers must be pollinated soon after opening as ovules start to disintegrate 24 h after anthesis 1 . On the other hand, pollen viability is highest at 08:00 h and lowest at 16:00 h 8 . Shepherd 7 obtained the highest seed set in pollinations made at 07:00 h and the lowest after pollinating at 16:00 h. A thorough understanding of banana floral biology could therefore contribute toward solving the poor seed set problem in edible banana. Increase in seed set per cross made would create a wider progeny base for breeders to make meaningful selections and consequently efficient breeding pipelines 6 .Flower opening time is a tightly regulated trait in plants, and this determines when and which pollinators are involved in the pollination process. This in turn determines the fitness of a plant species to survive. Banana is a facultative day long plant with long photoperiods leading to early inflorescence initiation 9 . Bract opening at night implies that bats participate in pollination, although diurnal insects have also been reported to visit flowers 10 . The exact start of bract opening time (BOT) is unclear in banana, as opposed to crops such as rice, where flower opening time is between 09:00 and 14:00 h 11 . A case study by Amah et al. 6 found that bract lift in Mchare bananas in Arusha Tanzania started late afternoon but appearance of flowers was after night fall. The study also found that there is maximum flower visitation frequency at dawn which is believed to be the period of maximum stigma receptivity.Maximum seed set was obtained after controlled pollination of 'Gros Michel' between 07:00 and 10:00 h 7 and this has been widely adopted 6,7 . In rice, flower opening time is known to be controlled genetically by about three genes, but weather conditions have also been observed to have an influence 11 . Weather is likely to trigger flower opening so that pollination happens under favourable night conditions. Since the widely adopted pollination time range is between 07:00 to 10:00 h, the assumption would be no differences in BOT among banana genotypes. Also, female and male flowers are separate in banana and there is no information on whether opening is synchronized on separate plants. The aim of this study was therefore to determine BOT in banana under field conditions and how BOT is influenced by weather conditions.Field site and banana genotypes used. The experiment was conducted at two sites in Uganda; the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL) in Kawanda and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Sendusu station, Namulonge. Kawanda is located at 0° 25′ N and 32° 32′ E at an elevation of 1177 m, while Namulonge is located 0° 31′ N and 32° 36′ E at an elevation of 1160 m. Banana genotypes used included Musa (AAA-EA group Matooke subgroup) 'Enzirabahima' , 'Nakitembe' , 'Enyeru' , 'Kabucuragye' 12 , and 'NARITA 17' (AAA) which is a Matooke hybrid from collaborative breeding efforts between NARL and IITA 13 . Also used were Musa (AA group subgroup Mchare) 'Mlelembo' and 'Kamunyilya' and Musa (AAB group subgroup Plantain) 'Gonja' for a B-genome representation. Letters \"A\" and \"B\" in groupings denote contributions from progenitors Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana respectively. Wild banana M. acuminata spp. burmannicoides 'Calcutta 4' was also included.At NARL, 'Enzirabahima' , 'Nakitembe' , 'Mlelembo' , 'Kamunyilya' , and 'Calcutta 4' were studied between July 25 and September 27, 2016 whereas 'Enyeru' , 'Kabucuragye' , 'NARITA 17' , and 'Gonja' were studied at IITA between September 20 and November 11, 2018. Observations were made on already established plants in pollination blocks planted at a spacing of 3 × 2 m. For each genotype, a single inflorescence was studied. Cultivars in the Matooke and Mchare subgroups were treated as replicates since variability within these subgroups are said to have arisen from somatic variation 14,15 . The subgroups studied were therefore; Mchare (2), Matooke (4), Matooke hybrid (1), plantain (1), and wild banana (1).Because banana plants usually grow to a height of more than 3.0 m, a table of 1.0 m was used to supplement the camera tripod stand which could go up to a 2.0 m height. The tripod stand was firmly bound on the table surface to avoid movement and shaking of the camera. A Nikon D810 camera (Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) was used to take photographs of the growing banana inflorescences at an interval of 5 min. The camera flash was set to manual mode with highest power and fastest sync speed; it was left on throughout the study period. The period of flower study started when the inflorescence was in the erect position and pictures were taken continuously until opening of a few bracts subtending male flowers. With MatLab Version 9.4 (R2018a) software developed by MathWorks (https:// www. mathw orks. com/), timelapse videos were made at a speed of 30 frames per second (fps). The videos were played using Kinovea Version 0.8.15.0 software (https:// www. kinov ea. org/) developed by Joan Charmant and time for bract opening events were recorded. Bract opening events included time of bract lift, time of start and time of end of bract rolling. Bract lift implied the loosening of the bract due for opening on the tightly packed flower bud while start of bract roll time was when the tip of bract started rolling backwards. Bract roll rate was determined by subtracting time of end of bract rolling from time of start of bract rolling. Total time of bract opening events was calculated by subtracting time of end of bract rolling from bract lift time. Events time for each bract were converted to fractions (hours) and averaged separately for bracts subtending male and female flowers for each inflorescence. Data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance without blocking with subgroups as treatments; data for bracts subtending female and male flowers were analysed separately. Total time of bract opening events for bracts subtending female and male flowers was also compared in a paired t-test with genotypes constituting pairs. Analysis of variance and the t-test were run using Genstat for Windows 19th edition (http:// www. genst at. co. uk) developed by VSN International (VSNi).Irrespective of when the bract started to open, time-lapse videos were paused at 08:00 h for each bract to measure the angle of bract lift with reference to the rachis for both female and male flowers. Bract roll was scored on the scale of 1 for minimal roll to 5 for complete bract roll. Bracts events that could not be observed for partially or fully obscured bracts were recorded as missing data. Time duration between bracts subtending female and male flower opening was calculated as time of lift of first bract subtending male flowers minus bract roll end-time of last bract subtending the female or transition flower cluster. Average bract roll scores and lift angles per cluster position were plotted against bract position number. For genotypes whose single bract events happened before and after 00:00 h, total hours from 00:00 h of the previous day were counted and averaged.Weather data were obtained from the NARL and the Namulonge agro-metrological stations. The Namulonge agro-metrological station is 1.5 km from the IITA -Sendusu station thus data were used for the latter station because of their proximity. From the NARL station, we obtained temperature (°C) data recorded at 15:00 h whereas from the Namulonge station, we obtained average daily temperature (°C) and light intensity (lux). During the study period, temperature at 15:00 h at NARL ranged from 23.5 to 32.0 and averaged 29.0 °C. On the other hand, daily temperature at Namulonge was in the range of 20.5 and 24.6 with an average of 22.8 °C while light intensity ranged between 1167.7 and 3316.2 with an average of 2263.1 lux. Correlation analysis was performed between bract opening events time and weather data. The analysis was performed with Genstat for Windows 19th edition (http:// www. genst at. co. uk) software developed by VSNi.The authors confirm that the banana genotypes used in this present study was in accordance to international, national and/or institutional guidelines.Bract opening events. Banana bract opening events were generally initiated by bract lifting followed by bract rolling (Table 1). In some cases, bract lifting and bract rolling were simultaneous events, especially for the first three female clusters and particularly for 'Mlelembo' . In observed subgroups, Matooke had the earliest lift and start of rolling of bracts while wild banana 'Calcutta 4' lifted and started rolling its bracts last (Table 1). Bract lift and start of rolling was statistically significant for bracts subtending female flowers but not for those of male flowers. And end of bract rolling happened first in Matooke and last in Plantain; this was statistically significant for both bracts subtending female and male flowers.On average, lift and start of rolling events for bracts subtending female flowers happened before events for bracts subtending male flowers, the exception was end of bract rolling. Bract rolling rates among female flowers were not statistically significant, results for male flowers were not analysed as there were many data missing. Total duration of bract opening was not significant among female flowers but was significant among male flowers. Total duration of bract opening events of female flowers was more than that of male flowers (paired T-test prob. > 0.001, 6 d.f.).With the exception of 'Gonja' , all observed inflorescences exhibited a tendency of partial rolling of bracts subtending female flowers a day or two before actual lift and roll (Fig. 1a,b). This happened to a varying degree from proximal to distal end of the inflorescence in different genotypes, especially in the first three to four bracts. On the other hand, bracts subtending male flowers did not exhibit partial rolling of bract tips before fully lifting and rolling in subsequent days (Fig. 1c,d). It was observed that bracts that had not completed rolling and curling of fingers backwards were halted when day broke. The process continued on subsequent days simultaneously with lifting and rolling of fresh bracts. By the time female and male flowers were visible, the compound and free tepals had already opened to expose female and male flower parts in all genotypes studied. In some genotypes especially 'Enyeru' and 'Kabucuragye' , inflorescences moved from the horizontal-pendent position towards the horizontal position at dusk and fell towards the pendent position by mid-morning. This was a repetitive process during bract opening period of female flowers.On average, more bracts subtending female flowers opened per day in the mid-section of the inflorescence compared to proximal and distal ends (Fig. 2). One bract subtending female flowers opened on the first day with maximum number of bracts opening on day four. This gradually reduced up to one bract opening on day eight which was the last day of bract opening for female flower clusters. All bracts subtending female flowers opened in a period of three to eight days (Table 1). In the event of multiple bracts opening on the same day, former clusters had flowers with brownish stigmas while latter clusters had flowers with creamy stigmas. And for multiple bracts opening on the same day, opening events were simultaneous or were separated by up to four and a half hours with former bracts opening first. After opening of bracts subtending female and transitional clusters, there was on average a longer lapse before the onset of opening of bracts subtending male flowers. The longest lapse period was in 'Mlelembo' while 'Kamunyilya' , 'Enzirabahima' , and, 'NARITA 17' had lapses of less than a day (Table 2). Lapse duration of less than a day between male and female flowers was the same as the opening interval of bracts subtending female flowers.Bracts subtending female flowers at the proximal end of the inflorescence partially rolled, the degree of rolling gradually increased towards the distal end (Figs. 1a,  3). Bracts subtending female flowers at the distal end completely rolled, which was comparable to bracts subtending male flowers. On the other hand, bracts subtending male flowers had a relatively similar appearance after rolling irrespective of the bract position (Fig. 3). The angle of bract lift at 08:00 h was also small in proximal clusters but gradually increased towards the distal end of the inflorescence (Fig. 4). This was generally exhibited by all observed inflorescences. On average, bracts subtending female flowers in position one lifted to about 25° while bracts in position eight lifted to more than 60° by 08:00 h. Male flowers were observed to have more insect visitors compared to female flowers especially between dawn and about 08:00 h.Influence of weather on bract opening. Average daily temperature had no significant relationship with time of bract opening events for both female and male flowers at the IITA-Sendusu station (Table 3). There was also no relationship between temperature recorded at 15:00 h and bract opening events time at NARL station (data not presented). High light intensity led to late bract lift, start of rolling and end of rolling among bracts subtending female flowers (Table 3). High light intensity also led to a faster rate of rolling for bracts subtending female flowers, there was no relationship with total events time. On the other hands, high light intensity led to an early lift of bracts subtending male flowers.In banana, bract opening behavior depends on the time of the day, the position of the bract, and sex of the flowers enclosed by the bract. Bract opening is a continuous process especially in the first bracts subtending female flowers of some genotypes; it starts in the evening and continues through the night (Table 1). In cases where bracts did not fully open, the process was halted early morning and resumed in the evening. It is therefore not obvious to judge whether such bracts have opened or not. However, opening is permanent as opposed to some plant species which open and close their flowers at specific times. Ssebuliba et al. 16 considered East African Highland bananas ready for pollination when bracts were half way open with stigmas having a creamy white appearance. According to observations made in the current study, it can be said that bract lifting is indicative of flower opening thus pollination can start.    Bract lift and bract roll seemed to be a response of a certain light quality 6 , the response time and speed are genotype dependent. Finger curling also seems to be triggered by the same factors that lead to bract opening. Bract opening and finger curling are likely to be a response of changes in turgor pressures in cells that lead to tissues being pushed in a given direction 17 . This was evident with upward movement of the inflorescence from the horizontal-pendent toward the horizontal position in the evening and downward movement towards the pendent position by mid-morning. These movements were genotype dependent and small, maximum oscillation was about 10˚. A similar pattern was observed for leaf folding to influence relative canopy cover 18 .Generally, bracts subtending female flower lifted and started rolling earlier than those subtending male flowers. However, male flowers ended opening before female flowers, resulting in faster bract opening for male flowers (Table 1 and t-test). This might be due to the smaller bract size of male flowers (Fig. 1) or an adaption for female flowers to find male flowers open with ready pollen. Consequently, the strategy ensures maximum pollination success and survival of the Musa spp. Studies have revealed that pollen viability reduces with time after flower opening 1 . This is in agreement that controlled pollination should be done between 07:00 and 10:00 h 7 . In comparison to lilies, some flowers were observed also to open starting at 17:00 h while others open during day. Both nocturnal and diurnal pollinators were found to be active flower visitors 19 . This implies that pollination in banana can start in the evening as long as bracts for parents in the cross of interest lift in time.In Musa itinerans, two nectar production peaks were found, that is between 08:00 to 12:00 h and 20:00 to 24:00 h 20 . This maybe a close depiction of what happens in edible bananas thus emphasizing the potential importance of diurnal and nocturnal pollinators. Bats, bees, and birds were found to be among the most important pollinators of bananas at Onne, Nigeria 10 . However, natural pollinators were not the main focus of the study though they are good indicators of when stigmas might be highly receptive. Since nectar quality and quantity varies between different agro-ecologies and seasons 21 , flower visitations and seed set are also expected to vary accordingly. Different agro-ecologies are also expected to experience variable BOTs due to variable solar radiation. Likewise the different growing seasons (rainy and dry) might also affect BOTs and therefore seed set 22 . However, a comparison of time from sunrise to beginning of bract lift of Musa AAA Cavendish cultivars in a glasshouse and M. basjoo in the garden in Belgium revealed no significant difference 6 . But comparison of bract curling time in Mchare in Arusha with short days and Cavendish cultivars in a glasshouse in Belgium with long days in summer, there was early curling in the glasshouse. However, bract lift time may be a better event to use for comparison than bract curling or rolling time.Bracts of both female and male flowers of different genotypes completed opening at different times and this may be partly the reason for variable pollen viability and stigma receptivity (Table 1). Female flowers that finish opening much earlier may set less seed compared to those that finish opening closer to the routine time of hand pollination between 07:00 and 10:00 h. Conversely, male flowers that are ready shortly before the time of hand pollination are expected to have higher pollen viability. This probably explains the high fertility of 'Calcutta 4' as it finished opening at 06:30 h. Some male flowers like those of Matooke finished opening as early as 21:54 h (Table 1) and are expected to have pollen with low viability at the time it is measured the next day.All observed inflorescences opened one female bract on the first day, increasing to multiple bracts opening on subsequent days (Fig. 2). One to three bracts subtending female flowers were observed to open per day from the second bract position of the inflorescence. The pattern of opening took on a hyperbolic shape with up to four bracts opening on the fourth day in the midsection of the inflorescence. For hand pollination, more clusters are therefore expected to be pollinated per day during bract opening in the mid-section of the inflorescence. The different clusters of female flowers that open on the same day are likely to have stigmas with varying receptivity. The darker appearance of stigmas of former clusters compared to creamy stigmas in latter clusters reflects higher receptivity in the latter 2 . This may explain why some clusters set more seed especially in the mid-section of a seemingly fertile inflorescence.Upon complete opening of female and transitional bracts, inflorescences went into a pause period before male flowers opened (Table 2). In additional to spatial separation of flowers, this is temporal separation to promote cross pollination in banana. However, temporal separation of male and female flowers is not very effective for genotypes that had less than 24 h of separation. With aid of crawling insects, self-pollination may happen between the last female cluster and the first male cluster as stigmas are likely to be receptive for more than one day. Once male flowers started opening, one bract opened per day and occasionally two bracts were observed to open on the same day. For highly fertile genotypes like 'Calcutta 4' , ample pollen is produced to pollinate many female flowers. Male flowers are also produced throughout the inflorescence growth period which ensures constant supply of pollen especially for controlled hand pollination. Averages of bracts subtending male flowers opening per day could not be calculated as there were two to three observed bracts subtending male flowers for most genotypes. It appears that proximal bracts subtending female flowers are less stimulated to lift and roll compared to distal bracts subtending female flowers and all bracts subtending male flowers. This was revealed by low vigour of bract lift and the small angle of lift at 08:00 h especially in the first female flower cluster (Figs. 2, 3). The bract angle of lift increases from proximal to distal end and this has been linked to reduced fertility in proximal clusters 2 . But it may not be the case since highly female (in all clusters) and male fertile 'Calcutta 4' showed the same pattern as edible bananas. The high R 2 for female bract roll scores compared to bracts subtending male flowers was a result of more bracts used to calculate averages for bracts subtending female flowers compared to bracts subtending male flowers (Fig. 3). For bracts subtending male flowers, two to three bracts were observed for most genotypes thus the first three data points were close to the trend line. Since the number of female clusters varies, reducing number of data points were used to calculate average bract lift angles in the distal end or larger inflorescences. Besides, bract lift angles of some clusters could not be measured because of obscurity or being in awkward positions. This led to the last two points being far off the trend line for angle of lift and hence a low R 2 .Flower opening time is said to be genetically and environmentally controlled, results from this study are in agreement since light had considerable influence on bract opening events (Tables 1, 3). Significant effects of temperature, solar radiation, and vapor pressure deficit on flower opening time have been observed in rice 11 . For Musa spp., only light has a significant relationship with BOT. However, there was early curling under long summer days in the glasshouse in Belgium compared to short days in Arusha field conditions 6 . This suggested a particular light signal for BOT in Musa spp. It is unclear why high light intensity led to early lift of bracts subtending male flowers and this calls for farther investigation. Since bracts subtending male flowers instinctively open later than bracts subtending female flowers, light intensity had less effect on the former bracts. The small sample size could have also had an impact on the results in the study, the light flush from the camera could have also affected the results. The extent of weather effects on BOT in banana need to be studied in field conditions of locations with significantly different day length for a more reliable conclusion.Hand pollinations in banana have to be done at the right time for maximum seed set which is critical for their improvement. This study assessed BOT to determine when flowers are likely to be most receptive. Banana bracts subtending female flowers start lifting late afternoon and complete opening mostly after midnight. This implies that current controlled pollination at 07:00 to 10:00 h might perhaps be too late. But it would make sense to try and pollinate as early as possible especially as soon as bracts subtending male flowers open. The aim should also be to pollinate when pollen viability is highest just after bract opening considering the fact that opening events time for bracts subtending female and male flowers may be different. Since bananas open bracts partly during day and partly at night, nocturnal and diurnal pollinators have a role to play as natural pollinators. Bract rolling and lift angles seem not to be linked to fertility as the highly fertile wild banana 'Calcutta 4' behaved just like the sterile edible bananas. For some genotypes like 'Gonja' , there is a considerable time lapse between female and male flower opening thus self-pollination is not a concern with aid of pollinators.","tokenCount":"4565"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4b5d8ccf828db1cfaa44b051502741bc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2fb697a8-0da5-468b-9e0d-29db8d586f4a/retrieve","id":"-173280691"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8e27ea9c-f1b4-407c-89ce-3c0a8a89874d","pagecount":"2","content":"resilience of local farming systems through sustainable land-use, and livestock, soil and natural resource management; boosting yields through continued genetic improvement, better agronomy, and pest and disease management; and increasing incomes by engaging smallholders more effectively with markets.By considering interactions of many different elements within and across the farm, landscape, value chain, and food systems levels, CIAT, in Asia, undertakes scientific research addressing questions and issues along the entire agricultural path, FROM SOIL TO PLATE.With more than 60 percent of Asian population either directly or indirectly relying on agriculture for livelihood, agriculture remains key to uplifting lives of many people in the region, as well as to providing sufficient and nutritious food for all.In Asia, CIAT undertakes scientific research enabling smallholder farmers, agri-food businesses, and national governments to use smart technologies and innovations and make evidence-based decisions, towards achieving profitability, environmental sustainability and resiliency in agriculture.Over decades, CIAT's research has directly contributed towards increasing competitiveness, efficiency and Planting highly productive, nutritious forages on small areas of the farm can allow farmers to increase livestock productivity without relying on increasingly scarce natural resources. CIAT's research aims to support farmers by making available forage options that meet quantity and quality requirements for profitable animal raising, while improving productivity through gains in overall efficiency and access to livelihoodenhancing ecosystem services.• Improved forage options for more productive and sustainable livestock production CIAT's research focuses on dynamic interaction between farms and landscapes, mobilizing climate science to facilitate informed decision-making on adapting to and mitigating climate change, including by protecting ecosystem services. Through the Climate Policy Hub, a portfolio of tools help guide land management planning and policy formulation by a whole range of stakeholders, from farmers to businesses to development organizations and governments. Some of these toolsclimate scenarios, impact modeling and assessments, vulnerability assessments, prioritization processes, policy analyses -also help identify, test and scale climatesmart agriculture technologies, while othersFor more information, get in touch with Dr. Peter Laderach at (p.laderach@cgiar.org).-climate advisory services, early warning systems, monitoring-reporting-verification (MRV) systems -aid implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.To help smallholder farmers tap into the abundant opportunities offered by cassava, CIAT continues to develop improved varieties and works to effect stable and sustainable yields through enhanced pest-disease, soil and seed system management. In order to enhance overall competitiveness of value chains, the team in Asia implements a mix of innovations, which includes investigating innovative options for adding value to cassava industrial waste, among others; using spatial analyses and geo-referencing techniques to track cassava demand and identify bottlenecks; investigating cassava seed systems, including policy and procedures for moving plant material; and analyzing regional policy, infrastructure and logistical regulations to evaluate supportive networks and value chainwide services which foster smallholder development.• Integrated, inclusive cassava value chains for diverse uses and markets• Stable and sustainable yields through enhanced pest-disease, soil and seed management system• Novel varieties for value addition and efficiency gainsResearch countries: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam For more information, get in touch with Dr. Dindo Campilan (d.campilan@cgiar.org).CIAT strengthens capacity of a wide range of agricultural value chain actors to engage with one another in a more inclusive and sustainable manner. Across Asia, CIAT supports Heifer International towards effectively including smallholder farmers and cooperatives into animal product value chains following the LINK methodology. Also being investigated is the effectiveness of Farmer Business Schools in Vietnam to enhance the capacity of vegetable farmers to engage effectively with markets.• More strategic public-private investment priorities in high-value agricultural commodities• Inclusive businesses through greater market participation of small-scale producers• Sustainable food systems for safe food and improved diet along the ruralurban transectFor more information, get in touch with Dr. Stef de Haan (s.dehaan@cgiar.org).By coordinating activities in Vietnam related to the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, CIAT contributes to the goal of achieving healthier diets for poor and vulnerable populations through a better understanding of food system-diet dynamics, and through identifying and enabling innovations in value chains and policies. CIAT's work on food systems responds to concerns about diet trends, i.e. transitions, and demands, with a view to developing systemic solutions that address problems such as malnutrition and food insecurity. ","tokenCount":"694"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"84eeed06ba027609e9ac79190fc1e246","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b6761730-60e6-4576-befa-160562e96594/retrieve","id":"422242046"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b459840a-02d5-42d5-a435-7133b213df2b","pagecount":"89","content":"Con estos apuntes se pretende dar una visión general sobre la estadística y el uso de los Diseños experimentales en el cultivo de arroz.Inicialmente se da algunos elementos de esta-d~stica descriptiva y estad!stica inferencial y por última se describen COn ejemplos los diseños completamente al azar, bloques al azar, con un solo factor y verios factores y final.en_ te el diseño en parcelas divididas.Este pequeño manua: se pudo reali~ar por la colaboración btindada por los miembros de la Unidad de Servicios de Datos d_l • CIAT, por el Programa de Arroz, y las enseñanzas del ~Iofe~Qr 1 Jorge A. Escobar. ( por ej.: el número de macollas por sitio puede ser 15, 20, o el número de plantas de arroz por parcela puede ser 150, 160, etc. Otra clasificación de las variables es: Variables . , dependientes y variables independientes; estas últimas toman uno u otro valor dependiendo de los valores que tome la variable independiente, así por ejemplo. La producción de arroz (variable dependiente) depende de la cantidad de nitrógeno que se haya aplicado al suelo. 1. 3. Población física: Conjunto de individuos con características comunes, r' por ej.: Las plantas de arroz de la variedad CICA6., 1. 4. Población estadística: Conjunto de observaciones o mediciones de una población física, por ej.: Las alturas de las plantas de arroz. De una población física se pueden generar varias poblaciones estadísticas, así de las plantas de arroz, se pueden tener además de las alturas, los rendimientos de grano, las áreas foliares y otras. Huestra: Parte de una población física o estadística. Razones ~ las cuales ~ forman muestras. a) Porque es impos.ible o resulta antieconomico tomar a toda la población 1. 6.Para una mejor comprensi6n de los temas que se desarrollaran, se darán algunos conceptos básicos:1.1. Estadística:\"Es una ciencia pura y aplicada, que crea, desarrolla y aplica técnicas, que permitan colectar, analizar, interpretar datos, y tomar decisiones en casos de incertidumbre \". La estadística descriptiva, cama su nombre lo indica, solo sirve para describir poblaciones o muestras y la estadística inferencial permite tomar decisiones en casos de incertidumbre con una probabilidad de error.1 .2. Variable:Es una característica que varia, por ej .. CIERTO PARA LAS CIENCIAS AGRICOLAS y BIOLOGICAS\"-Ante la variabilidad de los fenómenos, la estadística proporciona herramientas ~ útiles, para poder tomar decisiones con niveles altos de confiabilidad, po r ej.: Se puede llegar a decidir si un sistema de siembra (transp~ante) en arroz, supera o no a los sistemas tradicionales, con un margen de probabilidad dado.Cuando se obtienen datos de una muestra o de una población física, es muy díficil sacar conclusiones, si el número de observaciones es muy grande, pudiéndose aplicar en 8Ste caso la frase \"Los arboles no dejan apreciar el bosque\", , .. \"-5-Tablas de frecuencia:Permiten agrupar las N observaciones de una muestra de acuerdo a su magnitud, en varias clases o grupos.Los pasos a seguir en la construcción de una tabla de frecuencia son:l.Seleccionar el número de clases (K); para esto puede utilizarse una regla práctica: . ' uso del criterio práctico se tomaron 12 clases (ver tabla 1). Nótese que la diferencia entre , t los limites de clase es igual para todas las clases 0.899 Ton/ha, lo cual es deseable cuando se construye una tabla de frecuencia.La Marca de Clase (MCi) se obtiene al promediar los l!mites de clase, y su funció~ es: Representar a todas las observaciones que caen dentro de una clawe i. l TABLA 1: Tabla de frecuencia, de la producción en toneladas por hectarea del \"Vivero internacional de rendimiento de arroz para AmericaLatina\" -Variedades Tempranas.  La media ponderada X p es:Siendo fi, el factor de ponderacion, en este caso el número de Has. o sea:En las tablas de frecuencias, se halla la media, ponderando las marcas de clase por la frecuencia absoluta.Por ej.: para hallar el promedio de las producciones del VIRAL-Tempranas (ver tabla 1) se procede así:.07 ton/ha.Las medidas más conocidas son:-Rango (R)Desviación están--Coeficiente de Variación (CV)El Rango (R) es la diferencia entre el mayor y el menor valor de un conjunto de datos, así el Rango de las observaciones de la Pago 10 es: 7.0-1.0=6.este caso Ton/ha.La Varianza (S2) se halla así: x 100Este parámetro no tiene unidades y permite:Comparar la variabilidad ue características igua-les en poblaciones diferentes. Por ej,: Rendimiento de grano de arroz vs. rendimiento de grano de fríjol.Comparar la variabilidad de características diferentes en poblaciones iguales, asi por ej.: el rendimiento de grano en arroz vs. altura de plantaso En las tablas de frecuencia se puede calcular la va- que provienen de muestras con diferente n6mer6 d~ observaciones.La fórmula es:Siendo S2. = Varianza de la muestra i1.GLi = Grados de libertad asociados a la varianza i (ni-1)En el siguiente ejemplo, en el cual se tienen las varianzas de la producción de una variedad en (ton/ ha)2, provenientes de experimentos con diferente n6- Al probar este tipo de hipótesis de nulidad pueden En la Tabla 1 • se calcula:-Qu~ % de los Rendimientos fueron menores de 7 • 2 ton/ha -Qu~ % de los Rendimientos fueron mayores de 9 .9 ton/ha. (,CORRELACION y REGRESION:*En esta parte se pretende dar una idea general sobre la correlación y la regresión, sin entrar a detalles matematicos; este tema sería tratado con mayor profundidad al.final de este curso.Es el grado de asociación que existe entre dos variables.Existe correlación positiva cuando al incrementarse la magnitud de un« variable, la otra también se i ,crementa, así por ejemplo al incrementarse hasta cierto límite la cantidad de Nitrógeno, la producción de arroz aumenta, o al aumentarse el número de desyerbas la producción aumenta.Existe correlación negativa, cuando al aumentarse la magnitud de una variable, la magnitud de la otra disminuye, as! por ejemplo, al aumentar el peso de malezas por unidad de area, disminuye el rendimiento de grano.Cuando se asocian dos variables, generalmente a una se le denomina variable independiente y a la otra variable dependiente; los valores que toma esta última dependen de los valores que ha tomado la variable dependiente, así por ejemplo, la producción de Capítulo tomado de MuRoz, J.E. \"Curso de Arroz para profesionales de America Latina\"~ Primer curso de 1979.producción depende de la cantidad de malezas presentes.Como cuantificar el grado de asociación:Al realizar un diagrama de dispersión, en el cual se ubica en el eje X la variable independiente y en el eje Y la variable dependiente, y localizar los respectivos pares de datos. se puede apreciar si existe o no correlación 7 si esta es positiva o negativa; pero no se puede determinar ningun valor.( Para cuantificar el grado de asociación se usa el coeficiente de correlación = r, cuyos valores están entre menos uno y más uno así:En la medida en que el coeficiente de correlación se acerque a uno, en valor absoluto, la asociación tiende a ser perfecta, cuando el y es positivo hay correlación positiva y cuando r es negativo hay correlación negativa.La fórmula para calcular res:• ..  .1. Tabla 2:\"Efecto de la competencia de malezas en arroz\".Rendimientos de arroz en Kg/parcela y peso de malezas en Aleatorización o asignación al azar de los tratamientos.Control del error experimental.La aleatorización evita la introducción de errores sistematicos en los experimentos, es decir evita que unos tratamientas se vean mas favorecidos que otros. Así,si una variedad de arroz se siembra en un terreno fertil y la otra en un terreno con problemas de fertilidad, no puede concluirse que una variedad produce mas que otra, porque no se puede saber, si la producción se debe a la variedad en si misma o a la fertilidad del suelo.La repetición es el número de veces que un tratamiento se repite en un experimen~o, es deseable que el número de repeticiones sea igual para todos los tratamientos para compararlos con el mismo nivel de precisi6n.El error experimental se puede minimizar controlando las Es muy importante seleccionar con anticipación las variables de respuesta que van a ser cuantificadas.Asi en ensayos de rendimiento, se mide la producción;en ensayos para control de malezas, ademas de la producción de arroz, debe tomarse una medida sobre el grado de control de malezas por ejemplo: ?eso seco de malezas.(DISENo COMPLETAMENTE AL AZAR:6.1.Características Generales:Es el diseño más simple, y se usa cuando las unidades experimentales son homogéneas.Se puede comparar cualquier numero de tratamientos.Los tratamientos se aplican a las unidades experimentales al azar.Cualquier numero de repeticiones por tratamiento es posible, es decir los tratamientos pueden tener diferente número de repeticiones.Proporciona más grado de libertad al error que cualquier otro diseño, con el mismo número de tratamientos y repeticiones.Dada la restricción de que las unidades experimentales deben ser homogéneas, se usa muy poco en el campo, pero es de mucha utilidad en experimentos de laboratorio o de invernadero, donde se pueden uniformizar las unidades experimentales, por ejemplo en invernadero el suelo se puede homogenizar, y en el laboratorio se puede preparar un medio de cultivo homogeneo.Modelo Estad!stico:Este diseño experimental está asociado al siguiente modelo estadístico:Error experimental en la repetición j'esima del tratamiento i'esimoEfecto de la media general Variable de respuesta ¿el tratamiento i'esimo, en la repetición j'esima.Con los siguientes supuestos: -47pletamente al azar, como se observa en el siguiente esquema: .SCT = i=l Se halla la suma de Cuadrados Total (SCT) Sehabia lanzado la hipótesis nula de no hay efecto de trata--50-La regla de decisión para probar la hipótesis es:Acepto H : Si Fe < F t F t se busca en la tabla de F. con un nivel de significancia dado, en nuestro casO 5%, con los grados de libertad de tratamientos y del error así:-51-7.-52-DISENo EN~BLOQUES COMPLETOS AL AZAR:  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Porque de esta manera habra mas homogeneidad dentro del bloque, y más diferencia entre bloques. En este caso el largo de las parcelas debe ser paralelo al gradiente de fertilidad.Otro caso en el que se puedan usar bloques rectan-gulares, ocurre cuando existe alguna pendiente en el terreno, ya que en la parte \"baja\" del lote habrá mayor deposición de materiales provenientes de la parte alta y por esta razón el suelo puede ser -55-Cuando se quiere por ejemplo, probar el efecto dé algunOS tratamientos sobre el control de las malezas, se pueden detectar por reconocimiento del terreno zonas de alta, mediante y baja infestación de malezss, al \"bloque\" con forma geometrica definida deja ~e ser útil y se convierte en un conjunto de parcelas que tienen como característica común el grado de infestación de malezas así:1;;; ::;..:;-.-,././v ,yrr\"'\"\". \" -,..., , i) Sea:Media del bloque J Entonces:'V -' . 'Jo. es un estimador de j.l , Yi' es un estimador de II + ' j Y.j es un es.timador de j.l + 8 j Ro: Sj = O para todo j (no hay diferencia entre bloques).Las reglas de decisión para las 2 anteriores hipótesis son similares a las reglas de decicion para el diseño completamente al azar.La construccion de la tabla de análisis de varianza, se puede resumir asr:( ..7.5. Ejemplo numérico de un diseño en bloques al azar:\" \" Titulo: \"Ensayo de rendimiento para cuatro lineas de arroz y una variedad testigo\".En la tabla siguiente se presentan los rendimientos por parcela. expresados en tone lad as por hectárea.  En base a los grados de libertad y a la 'suma de cuadrados se obtiene la tabla de análisis de varianza de:    Como se observa en la tabla de análisis de varianza, se puede dividir la suma de cuadrados de tratamientos, y se prueban aisladamente cada uno de los efectos, encontrándose que rechazó la hipótesis nula Realmente no es un dise60 experimental, sino un \"arreglo de tratamientos\".9.1. Características:Las características principales son:Se usa solamente para experimentos factoriales, generalmente cuando se estudian dos factores.Se utilizan dos tamaños de parcela, la de tamaño mayor se denomina parcela principal y la parcela de tamaño menor subparcela.La aleatorización se cumple en dos etapas, en la prim~ra se asignan al azar las parcelas princi-, .pales y en la segunda se asignan al azar las subparcelas en las parcelas principales.Se compara con mayor precisión el factor que se asigna en las subparcelas.Es ventajoso cuando por alguna razón práctica, un factor debe tener parcelas grandes, o cuando se desea comparar con mayor precisión un factor que otro.En la mayoría de los casos, este arreglo, se realiza bajo un dise60 en bloques al azar, razón por la cual, en la aleatorización y en el modelo estadístico se tendri en cuenta el efecto de \"Bloque\".('\" ","tokenCount":"2055"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"36d9f65e3e895ba82416afafe6dccfd8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f4df7fc7-2eae-4e0f-9a77-edddb6388ca0/retrieve","id":"-63315342"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"687fdd64-c121-4cb8-abda-661ad6282445","pagecount":"121","content":"The crop Cassava (Manihot escuienta Crantz) is a starchy root crop that has been cultivated in tropical America for more than 5,000 years. It was introduced to Africa and Asia by Portuguese explorers and traders during the 16 century. Cassava represents the alimentary basis for over 500 million people in the tropics, and it is grown in over 90 countries. Most of the crop is produced by small-scale poor farmers in marginal regions using traditional farming methods. The crop is used both as food and feed, and it represents one of the few linkages for farmers in those regions to dynamic markets.Cassava is grown over 16 million hectares, with 50% in Africa; 30% in Asia and 20% in Latín America. Total root production is over 150 million; the five major producing coumries being: Brazil (24 million tons, Mt), Nigeria (21 Mt), Zaire (20 Mt), Thailand ( 19 Mt) and Indonesia (15 Mt). The greatest consumption of cassava is in Africa, with an average 88 kg per capita (highest in Zaire with 387 kg per capita). Ofthe total world production, 80% is used domestically (61% food; 26% feed ; 2% industrial uses and 11% waste). Cassava for feed is exported as chips, pellets or starch to developed countries. Cassava is mainly processed on a small scale in rural areas, generating considerable employment, and improving the economic status of socially depressed areas in the tropics.The cassava root contains between 30 and 40% dry matter (mostly carbohydrates); it is rich in vitamin C, Ca and K, and poor in proteins. In contrast, the leaves contain high levels ofprotein (8%-l O% of fresh weight). Cassava roots are eaten in different ways: boi led, baked, fried, as meal, flour, etc. Starch produced from cassava roots is al so used to make a variety of sweet and savory foods such as crackers, tapioca pearls, noodles, or cheese breads. In sorne parts of the world, cassava leaves are consumed as a vegetable.Cassava is known to produce well despite marginal conditions of soil and climate, dueto its extensive fibrous root system, the sensitivity of stomata to drier climates, its association with so il mychorrhizae and the capacity to recover foliage once it is lost. Cassava can be grown in environmems that receíve less than 600 mm to more than 3,000 mm/year of rain . Although cassava is typically a tropical lowland crop, it can be found up to 2000 masl. It does not tolerate frost or flooding well. The crop can be harvested from 7 months to 2 years after planting. It stores relatively well underground, and once it is harvested it has a very short shelf-life (3-7 days), and must be consumed or processed immediately.Cassava is vegetatively propagated through stem cuttings; which allows to fix any gene combination that suits the farmer or the breeder. The most important source of genetic variability is through sexual recombination. Male and female flower s are separated in the same inflorescence (monoic), being a protogenic species. Each pollinated flower has the potential to produce 3 mature seeds. Natural pollination is done by bees.. .Although most ofthe genetic variability used in breeding prograrns comes from the cultivated cassava, there are more than 100 species within the genus Manihot, that can cross to cassava with different degrees of difficulties and contri bu te genes of interest to breeders.CIAT has a collection of close to 6000 cassava accessions formed by landraces from Latin America and Asia, elite clones selected by CIAT and liTA, and 29 wild Manihot species. This collection is maintained in the field and in vitro, and has been characterized using morphological, bíochemical and molecular descriptors.Sources of resistance or tolerance to majar pests, di se ases and abiotic stresses:• Genotypes combining high levels of resistance to bacterial blight and super elongation disease, with good agronomic performance selected in Eastem Colombia. • Complementary sources of resistance to different bacteria! blight pathotypes selected.• Genotypes with high levels of resistance to different pathogens causing root rots ha ve been selected, and are being used in crosses to pyramid those genes and for molecular mapping. • Highly heritable resistance to whiteflies has been detected and is being combined with desirable agronomic traits. • Reduced levels of whitefly oviposition is one of the resistance components consistently transferred to the progenies.• A RAP.O marker has been associated to whitefly resistance, and will aid in future breeding.• Sources of resistance to green mites, which are stable across evaluation sites ha ve been found .• Cassava roots and lea ves ha ve been characterized as sources of micro-nutrients for marginal regions of the tropics. There is good potential for vitamins A and C in the roots and minerals in the leaves. • Genotypes with prolongued storability have been incorporated in crosses for future breeding and molecular mapping. • Cassava starch can be used in processes that require resistance to acid media and freezing.Cassava starch can compete well with maize starch in food and industrial processes.Gene poo/s for lowland semi-arid, sub-hum id, hum id, mid-a/titude, high/and tropics and subtropics:• Between 1996-98 a total of458,027 recombinant seeds were produced; 253,148 were distributed to National Programs in Latín America and Asia and IIT A, the rest was used in our breeding process, or kept in storage. • An average superiority of 68 % of the best selected parents over check varieties was achieved across ecosystems during the last 3 years. Largest improvement obtained for the highland tropics ecosystem, followed by mid-altitude tropics and the acid soil savannas. • The significan! genetic improvement in cassava yielding ability at Rayong FCRC (Thailand) is due firstly to the enhanced biomass and secondly to the improved harvest index.lmproved breeding methodologies, includingfarmer participatory approaches:• Gene ta ing to facilitate future cassava breeding is on its way for the following traits: ~hitefly C!_nE roo~ rot r~sist~~ce, and reduced post harvest deterioration, using the molecular map developed at CIAT.--•---• Farmer participatory evaluation of advanced selection is an integral part of the cassava germplasm development schemes implemented in Northem Colombia and North-East Brazil. • 60 technicians in Brazil and Colombia have been trained in participatory breeding.• A software for the analysis of farmer participatory breeding data has been developed and made available to National Programs.Networks and trained national personnelfor effective dissemination of gene tic material:• Latin American and Asian networks of scientists ha ve been supported through the organization ofworkshops, local training and supply of improved germplasm. • 14 new var ieties released within the Latín American and Asían network, during 1995-98.• Improved varieties developed from CIAT's germplasm cover about 1,000,000 has in Latin America and Asia. • Benefits derived from improved CIAT's germplasm have accumulated to U$ 800 millions across continents, since the inception of our breeding program.The major goal of our project is to contribute in increasing and stabilizing cassava production in diverse environments and for different markets, by developing improved gene pools in cooperation with national programs. The purpose of our project is to generate basic understanding, tools and improved cassava germplasm for sustainable enhancement of cassava production and the diversification of end-uses in relevant ecosystems. The most important ecosystems are: the semi-arid (below 800 mm/year, unimodal); the sub-humid (800-1500 mm /year, bimodal rainfall distribution), the acid soil savannas ( 1500 -3000 mm/year, short dry period, low pH). The humid tropical lowlands; the mid-altitude tropics; the high-altitude tropics and the subtropics represent ecosystems of secondary importance in terms of area and total production. The main selection acti vity is conducted in sites selected to represent the conditions of the target ecosystem. F or each of the zones we conduct a recurrent selection program, with a progressive set of stages as described in Figure l .As the breeding stages progress, we give emphasis to traits of lower heritability, because we have more planting material for each genotype, and the evaluation can be conducted in bigger plots with replications. Certain selection criteria are of general importance across ecosystem (i.e. yield potential, d tt. er content), while others are specific for each ecosystem (i.e. pest and ats\"eáses . E 1te genotypes are used as parents to obtain recombinant seed that is used to initiate a new selection cycle, and also transferred to National Programs for their adaptive selection programs. Besides the selection of superior genotypes a major research priority is the development and use of research tools that will shorten the breeding cycle and increase its efficiency, such as molecular marker _assis~ec!_ selecti.Qn, and farmer participatory evaluation at early stages of the breeding cycle. New sources of resistan ce to major biótic a nd abioiic constraints, and favorable alleles for root quality traits are constantly being incorporated through recombi nation and selection. Basic cassava breeding scheme applied for each of the priority ecosystems. Collaboration with Nationai Programs: CIAT has been actively involved with CORPOICA and CNPMF/EMBRAP A in the development and implementation of methodologies for the evaluation and selection of cassava germplasm with the participation of end-users. Also with CNPMFIEMBRAP A, a program has been developed for the development of cassava germplasm with adaptation to semi-arid conditions, and potential to be transferred to homologous conditions in Africa and Asia. In Thailand, CIA T works with FCRI, on the development and diffusion of improved cultivars that have imp~ed and diversified-the genetic base for cassava production in the region. This work has had a tremendous impact on cassava production in Asia with wide dissemination of improved varieties. CIAT and liT A ha ve active! y collaborated in the development and introduction of germplasm into Africa, combining elite Latín American genotypes with sources ofresistance to African Cassava Mosaic Disease. Recently, in Latín America, an active interaction with the prívate sector involved in starch and feed production has been initiated, to -learn more about their demands and tap new sources of financia! support.In Asia and Latín America and the Caribbean, there are relatively few strong cassava breeding programs. Among them are El\\IIBRAP A/CNPMF (Brazil), INIVIT (Cuba), CORPOICA (Colombia), FCRI (Thailand), and lAS (Vietnam).Our project has centered its activities around the consecution of the following three outputs:l . Genetic base of cassava and Manihot species evaluated and available for genetic improvement. 2. Genetic stocks and improved gene pools developed and transferred to National Programs and liTA. 3. National Programs in tropical and sub-tropical Latín America and Asia supported in adaptive selection and deployment of improved cassava varieties.The main activities developed during the last 3 years, along with the main results are:l . Genetic base of cassava and Manihot species evaluated and available for genetic improvement.l. l. Germplasm characterized for reaction to cassava bacteria! blight (CBB); super-elongation disease (SED) and stem and root rot diseases (RR), resistance under field and reenhouse conditions • Evaluate cassava genotypes for CBB and 1254 genotypes evaluated for CBB and SED reaction. 526 in SED reaction in Villavicencio and Matazul Carimagua, 483 in Villavicencio and 245 in both sites. 62 clones found tolerant in Villavicencio and 7 1 in Carimagua: 3 7 clones were tolerant in both si tes, 5 of with 5 cycles of evaluation.• Evaluate cassava genotypes for RR reaction in the greenhouse • Evaluate 60 genotypes with different pathotypes of CBB causal agent.• Develop an efficient inoculation method to select fo r res1stance to RR Phytophthora spp.• On-farm evaluation of prornising genotypes in regions of Colombia where RR are endemic (Mitú. Santander de Quilichao)• Evaluate parental material. segregating and mapping progenies fro m contrasting genotypes under greenhouse conditions.16 out of 430 genotypes selected as resistant to Phytophthora drechsleri by stem inoculation of young plantlets in the greenhouse. Ten of them also have resistance to Phytophthora parasítica and Phytophthora cryptogea. 30 genotypes resistant to P. drechslerí by evaluation of roots fro m a group of 150 .103 genotypes evaluated. lO had intermedia te reaction to 10-1 2 strains of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis.Two root and stem inoculation techniques under greenhouse conditions for severa! Phytophthora species were developed and with hi gh correlation with field resistance of cultivars.Mitú: 9 promising root rot resistant genotypes with different cyanide content were planted in 3 indigenous communities. to be compared with local varieties. lO varieties wcre planted in two govemmemal farms at Mitú. Santander de Quilichao: 16 promising genotypes with resistance to RR planted in a naturally infested field with high incidence of Phytophthora . Local varieties were included as control.Prcliminary results indicate h..ighly significant differences between TSM 30572 (MNGA 2) and CM 2 177-2 by inoculation of the stems of young plantlets in the greenhouse with P. drechs/eri . Participatory farmer evaluation of advanced genotypes as a routine procedure within the breeding scheme. A group of varieties preferred by farmers is Wlder multiplication and proposed for formal release. Germplasm transferred to Sub-Sahelian Africa.Genotypes selected with a 34% higher dry matter production potential than check varieties. A network of representative si tes fo r tesung genotypes in Northen Colombia has been established.Pote ntial of cassava to compete with more industrial crops has been determined. Thirteen genotypes have been selected as the basis for next-year on-farm trials.Integrated research and developmcnt proposals developed a nd submitted to donors. Clase interaction with the National Programs established.A network of companics involved in feed a nd food industry devcloped for testing and multiplication of cassava germplasm.Contact made with institutions from the prívate sector (related to cassava processing). The idea is supportcd by public programs.A de-ccntralized seed multiplication program established in Northe m Colombia. 1:800:000 high quali ty stakes produced fo r regional and experimental genotypes. Techmcians involved with multiplication plans were trained.Summary of resu lts 3.3 Develo ment andada tation of end-user • Support fanner participatory germplasm evaluation in NE and Southern Brazil.A network of ~O extension agents and scientist has been t:rained in the methodology and are active! y working. Manuals have been developed.• Work together with NGO's in Northem Cauca for the evaluation of improved cassava germplasm with farmers and processors • Start project on fanner participatory evaluation of early breeding cycles in Northem Colombia• Publish Cassava Participatory Breeding manual en English.The way ahead A group of 18 technicians from the public sector and NGO's trained on farmer participatory evaluation.Financia! support approved to stan working in October 1998.Multiplication of genotypes to incorporare in early on-farm evaluation.Translation in process. Data analysis package has been produced (diskette and manual are available).2 papers have been published in Brazil. and 2 more are in preparation for pÜblicatlon in inremarionaJ joumals.We will continue with the stream-line approach of: screening the available genetic base for useful genetic information, combine complementary sources into improved gene pools, and transfer those gene pools for adaptive selection with National Programs. We foresee a greater use oftools that will help us improved the efficiency of cassava germplasm development.Finalize the molecular map: The actual molecular map of cassava was developed on a progeny of 90 individuals, work is o n-going to complement the map through the extension to 150 recombinant progenies, necessary for studying quantitative traits. Back cross progenies from selected individuals in the mapping populations will be u sed to developed a B 1 C 1 map by transfer of framework. The project is active\\ y involved together with CIA T' s project SB-2 in activities aimed at obtaining a highly saturated map, that will serve as the basis for tagging genes responsible fo r important processes, and implementing MM assisted selection.Development and application of advanced tools for molecular characterization : An effective implementation of MMAS and gene tagging will depend o n our ability to adapt and implement the most effective tools for molecular characterization, as well as probes related to biochemical process of prime importance in cassava. The major activities in the near future will be the selection and implementation of multi lex mi~ro satellüe analy?is _é!nd the acquisition and preparation of genes for important metabolic processes (i .e post harvest deterioration). lt is planned to develop additional micro satellites and DNA markers for cassava germplasm characterization, including probes from genes involved in important metabolic processes.Implement molecular marker assisted selection: One of the majar objectives of adjusting molecular characterization techniques will be to incorporate them as one of the breeders' tools for more effective genetic enhancement. The obvious traits for which MMAS will be applied at the beginning are those for which we do not ha ve the proper screening environment (i. e. ACMV resistance), and those for which there is a screening procedure, but it is subjected to environmental influences and variable pressure from biotic sources (i.e. whitefly resistance, root rot), or it is too costly and restricted to a small number of genotypes at a time (i.e. starch amylose/amylopectin).Once MMAS is preved effective within the developed genetic stocks and the proper parental material is identified, it should be incorporated into the progenies that are the basis for the recurrent selection program, and fully implement MMAS as a breeder tool.Identify and study sources and mechanisms of useful genetic variability in cassava and Manihot species: Priority will be given to screening the core collection, and wild species collection as sources of useful genetic diversity. Once desirable traits are identified, mechanisms and processes responsible for the higher levels of expression of those traits will be studied in order to comprehend and manipulate them in a more effective way. The active input from Pathologists andEntomologists is expected to continue. The main gaps to fill will be in the areas ofPhysiology and Root Quality. There will be a need to search for altemative ways of keeping competence in these are as.Agronomic evaluation of mapping populations and genetic stocks: Interaction with other scientists will be crucial to set priority traits for gene tagging molecular assisted selection. A meaningful agronornic evaluation depends on the sites we can use for that purpose. The 3 main sites used for the recurrent selection program, may not be able to suit all the evaluation purposes in the best way. Field evaluation in additional sites is an expensive endeavor, therefore we should príoritize these activities in order to come up with the most effective way for testing. Molecular and phenotypic information will be integrated using the genetic map to localize important genes for each trait in • preparation for MMAS.Development and maintenance of genetic stocks: Populations are developed by the recombination of contrasting genotypes for a particular trait (i.e. whytefly resistance) or sets of traits (physiological traits). The majar purpose of these stocks is to provide the basic material for heritability studies, gene tagging and studying of mechanisms of resistanceltolerance, efficiency, etc.Incorporation of wild germplasm into cassava: Although we have limited information on the potential of Manihot species as contributors of valuable genetic information, there are already a few well documented cases that will deserve our attention in terms of inter-specific crosses, and making that genetic information available to the breeding programs; escaping drought (Manihot spp, \"manicobas\"); leaf anatomical structure (Manihot rubricau/is); and waxy starch (Manihot crassisepala). Once we know more about the potential contribution of wild species for quantitative traits, a QTL breeding program can be initiated using a very broad base population.Development of parental populations: The recombination of selected genotypes from the recurrent selection scheme, will not only provided initial material for the following selection cycle, but it will generate the populations that will be supplied to NARs. The recombination work should be expanded to incorporate a larger proportion of crosses between CIA T' s selected genotypes and genotypes of interest to NARs (i.e. landraces from Asia, ACMV resistant genotypes from liT A, etc.).Implementation of a recurrent selection program across ecosystems:Improved germplasm continuous to be the core of the project activity, and the most important link to National Programs. Presently, improved gene pools are developed for 6 of the 7 previously defined ecosystems where cassava bears importance: Sub-humid lowland tropics, Semi-arid lowland tropics, Acid soil savannas, Mid-altitude and Highland tropics and Sub-tropics. In the 1998-200 l MTP reduced emphasis was assigned to breeding activities, with higher emphasis given to pre-breeding work. For this reason we propose to concentrate on the development of a low-land tropics improved populations through a recurrent selection process involving 3 sites: Santo Tomás (Sub-humid), Santander de Quilichao (Mid-altitude and acid soils); and Palmira (more fertile soils). The proposed scheme is based on a more systematic evaluation of a much reduced number of initial segregating progenies. Selected genotypes will be used to generate recombinant progenies to re-start the selection cycle, and they will al so be crossed to sources of local adaptation (i.e. Asian landraces, ACMV resistan! lines from IlT A, etc.) to generate at least 50,000 seeds/year intended for distribution to liTA and NARs. A similar scheme will be put in place for the midaltitude and highland tropics ecosystems combined. Germplasm development for the semi-arid is also considered in the special project financed by IF AD until 1998.Distribution of improved populations and/or genetic stocks to NARs and AROs: This constitutes the nexus of our institution to other programs in the developing world . Currently we are producing more than l 00,000. seéds/year for distribution. It is foreseen that the number will shrink to 50,000 in the future due to a reduction in our breeding activities. Population development and seed distribution will be rationalized, given the enhanced capacity of sorne National Programs to produce their own segregating material.Relationship with National Programs in Latin America: This is the only outreach activity for Latin America, and it is based on a 3 -year special project financed by IF AD . This project is conducted in close collaboration with our Brazilian counterparts. and includes germplasm evaluation, selection and recombination, as well as farmer participatory evaluation of advanced selections; and supply of segregating progenies to other programs in homologous environments (i .e. liT A for semi-arid Africa). There is considerable interest from the prívate sector (mainly processors) to support cassava research (particularly the development and diffusion of new varieties). CIA T is working to build a Latin American consortium for cassava research . This will not only contribute research funds, but also bring new opportunities for the participation of end users in designing and executing research.The majar goal of our project is to contri bu te in increasing and stabilizing cassava production in diverse environments and for different markets, by developing improved gene pools in cooperation with national programs. The purpose of our project is to generate basic understanding, tools and irnproved cassava germplasm for sustainable enhancement of cassava production and the diversification of end-uses in relevant ecosystems. The most important ecosystems are: the semi-arid (below 800 mrnlyear, unimodal); the sub-humid (800-1500 mm /year, birnodal rainfall distribution), the acid soil savannas (1500-3000 mrnlyear, short dry period. low pH). The humid tropicallowlands; the mid-altitude tropics; the high-altitude tropics and the subtropics represent ecosystems of secondary importance in terms of area and total production. The main selection activity is conducted in sites selected to represent the co nditions of the target ecosystem. For each of the zones we conducta recurrent selection program. with a progressive set of stages.As the breeding stages progress. we give emphasis to traits of lower heritability, because we ha ve more planting material for each genotype. and the evaluation can be conducted in bigger plots with replications. Certain selection criteria are of general importance across ecosystem (i.e. yie ld potencial. dry matter content). while others are specific fo r each ecosystem (i.e. pest and diseases). Elite genotypes are used as parents to obtain recombinant seed that is used to initiate a new se lection cyc le. and also transferred to National Programs for their adaptive selection programs. Besides the selection of superior genotypes a majar research priority is the development and use of researc h tools that will s horten the breeding cycle and increase its efficiency. such as mo lecular marker assisted selection, and farmer participatory evaluatio n at early stages of the breeding cycle. New sources of resistance to majar biotic and abiotic constraints. and favorab le alleles for root quality traits are constantly being incorporated through recombination and se lection.CIAT has been actively involved with CORPOICA and CNPMF/EMBRAPA in the development and implementation of methodologies for the evaluation and selection of cassava germp lasm with the participation of end-users. Also with CNPMF/EMBRAP A. a project has been implemented for the development of cassava germplasm with adaptation to semi-arid conditions. In Thailand. CIAT works with FCRI. on the development and diffusion of improved cu ltivars that have diversified the genetic base for cassava production in the region. This work has had a tremendous impact on cassava production in Asia. CIAT and liTA have active ly collaborated in the development and introduction of germplasm into Africa. combining elite Latin American genotypes with sources of resistance to African Cassava Mosaic Disease. Recentl y. in Latín America. an active interaction with the privare sector involved in starch and feed production has been initiated. In Asia and Latín America and the Caribbean. there are relatively few stro ng cassava breeding programs. Among them are EMBRAPA/CNPMF (Brazil). INIVIT (Cuba). CORPOICA (Co lombia). FCRI (Thailand). and lAS (Vietnam).This repott summarizes activities and resu lts obtained during the last 3 years. with greater emphasis nn the activities deve lo ped during the period 1997-98.     • Rapid multiplic< ttion of promising genotypes for future ex perimems• Develop an eflicient inoculation method to selecl tor resist< mce to Plrywplalwm spp.• On-lann evt.~luation of promising genolypes in regions of Colomhia where RR < Ue endemic (Swuander de Quilíchao, Mitü)• Evaluate parental material <md segregatíng progenies from contrasting genotypes under grcenhousc conJitions, induding mapping progenies• Estahlish segregating progenies for lield evaluation 1.2. Charactcrizatlun of cassava germplasm l'or resistanceltolerance tu AB 50% major pests• Evaluation 1600 dones Tolima < Uld CIAT for whitdly rcsistwH.:e• Regional yídd trials, whitcll y rcsist<Ull dones ;uld hybrids. Huila ami Tolima (witJl CORPOICA)• Yicld d cprc~~i on prom.i~in g dones for whi tell y resistance. Tolima• Evaluation of cassava gcnn plasm accessions, brceding lines and progeny for mitcs, stcmhorcrs (C/Jilomima c/arkei ), whitellics tuld other al Meta (Villavicencio), Costa (Pivijay), Tolirna and CIAT (witll Breeding progrwn )• Evaluation of selcctctl gcrmplasm (525 dones) for resistance to mi tes (Pi vi,ia y)• Evaluation of selectcd gerrnplasrn li>r resistw1ce to sternhorer C. c/arkei• Pl;ulling of :.clected germplasm for pest resist<mce; in crease materials • Resistance mechwlisms in selecteJ cassava germplasm evaluated for mi tes m1d whitellies • Selected crosses between whitell y (MEcu 72 m1d mite (M Ven 125)   resistan! dones 1.3 Gt!rmplasm t!valuatlon for root ctuality tralts CI 5%• Evaluation of genetic diversity <UHJ heritahility for vit<Unins and mineral content in cassava roots and foliage• Screening of elite gcnotypes for ph ysiological post-harvest detcrioration• Evaluation of starch content ;md grwmle morpholog y < unong elite germplasm ;mtl core collec.:tion en tries.   • Sclel.:tion of parental material hascd on prcvious cydc rcsulls, and the -information ohtained from the previous outpul (rcsist< ulcc/tolerance, quali ty traits.• Establishment of crossing hlocks <Uld production of rewmhinillll seed from prcviously estahlished hlocks• Generation (in Thailand) illld distrihutinn of advw1ced hreeding materials for Asiwl national prmmuns 2.2. Sclectiun of recomhlnant progenies for hroad and spcdfic adaptation within major agro-ccosystcms (suh-humid; scml-arid; hl~hland and acid sull savanna).• Evaluation ;md sclcction of hrccding matcrials at dilfcrcnt stages • Multiplication of selected elite gennplasm .   • Scarch for lin¡mcial support for integratcd prqjects in Paraguay < Uld Cuba, where improved germplasm plays a central role• lntegration of private sector in cassava gennplasm dcvclopment project• Look for support to tl1e Latin American Cassava Research Program• Part icipatc in tlle Jevelopment of a cassava multiplication schemc in Nonhen Colomhia• Participate in t11e release of 3 new cassava varieties • Breeding for maximum proJucti vity and adaptation under semi-arid < md sub-humid conditions in ThailanJ• Upgrading yield potcntial w1d adaptat ion of hreeding populations togcther with NARs in Asia• Multipli~:<tlion ; rdcasc anJ Jiffusion of improvcd variclics• Adoption of cassava varicties anJ impacl sl utlies in selected couJHii cs .• Localtraining of Asían cassava hreedcrs  • Work togcLher with NGO's in Northem Cauca for the evalualion of improvcd cassava gennplasm with f¡mners anJ processors• Start projcct on lill'mer participalory evaluation of early brceding cycles in Northern Colomhia• Puhlish Cassava Participalory Brceding mwwal en English .• Prepared m.ulllscripts lor publication in joumals• Eighty one cultivars of cassava identified as resistant to rnites (Mononychellus tanajoa) in two ecological zones. • Six additional cultivars identified as resistant to whiteflies (Aleurotrachelus socialis).• For cassava, new sources of resistance to cassava bacteria! blight, superelongation disease, and Phytophthora root rots (RR) have been identified in the greenhouse and field. Field evaluation of cassava varieties for resistance to root and stem rots is costly, and a high. uniform, inoculum pressure difficu1t to maintain. Young cassava sprouts were therefore grown in the greenhouse and inoculated by wounding. The p1ants were then incubated at high relative humidity to stimulate symptom development and evaluated 7, 14, 2 l. and 28 days after inocu1ation.Disease progress for each variety was recorded by means of graphs and values obtained by estimating the areas be1ow the curves. We carried out several experiments, using this technique.We selected 420 genotypes and characterized them for their reaction to a highly pathogenic isolate (Pl2) obtained from Brazil. In contrast to most inoculated varieties, 59 genotypes had mínima! lesion development and were thus considered to1erant (Table 1.1.1.2).  - . .   (1), or susceptible (S). e. Perce ntage of resi.stant (R) and intermedia te (1) cassava genotype.s.We obtained a correlation of +0.17 between the reaction obtained by inoculating with the three iso lates frorn Villavicencio in the greenhouse and the results of an evaluation of 14 varieties under natural disease pressure in the field, also at Villavicencio in 1997-1998. The correlation between the same isolates with 30 varieties at Carimagua was -0.01. The correlation between the isolate Villlavicencio 32 in the greenhouse and the results in the field in 1997 and 1998 was +0.44. Analysis of data frorn 1996-1997 showed similar results. Observed disease severity in the greenhouse was always greater than in the field, which conflfDlS the hypothesis of isolate escapes in the tield during different crop cycles. Controlling the uniformity of disease pressure and the high variability ofthe pathogen's virulence is difficult in the field.  In co llaboration with EMBRAPA (Cruz das Almas, Bahia. Brazil), 1 O cassava genotypes were evaluated for resistance to root ro ts at severa! field locations in Brazil: Saco de Arei.ra and Cachoeira de Potes. Aquidabá: and Bom Sucesso and Simón Díaz (Sergipe). Of these varieties. in no s ite did root rots aftect 'Cedinha ' . In contrast. ' Pretinha' was the most susceptible. From infected plants. severa! Phyrophthora spp. and Fusarium spp. isolates were obtained. Pathogenicity was confirmed for Phytophthora i.solates. but not for Fusarium isolates.Twenty-eight local varieties from Vaupés (Colombia) were introduced to CIAT, and inoculated with five Phytophthora spp. and two Fusarium spp. isolates under greenhouse conditions (Tables 1. 1.5.2 and 1.1.5.3). Disease reaction was not high in the susceptible variety M T AI l. Stakes were scarce, and we could not inoculate all the varieties with all the isolates. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the eftect of low and high tertility soils on the severity of symptoms arising from two Phytophthora isolates. Soil samples were taken from Mitú (low fenility) and the CIAT greenhouse mixture (high tertility). lsolates Pl2 and 66 were inoculated onto cassava varieties M BRA 383. M CR 81, and HMC 1. which. according to previous resu lts. are tolerant. intermediare. and susceptible. respectively. No significant difterences were found betwee n disease progress in the plants with these so il types. Tn study the ge netic stmcture of cassava varieties that to lerare root rots. inoculations were co nducted in the gree nhouse (plantlets) and laboratory (fragments of swo llen root<;). The two pa.rents. CM 2 177-2 and M NGA 2. the progeny of which is mapped by mo lecular markers. were evaluated after inocu lating yo ung plantlets with the fo Uowing fungi: Ph_ vrophrhora spp .. Fusarium spp .. and Diplodia manihotis. Whe n the two parental genotypes were inocu lated with P. drechsleri. signiticant differences in reaction were observed (T able l.\\.6.1 ). Fusarium oxysporum (iso lates Fl. F7. F8. Fl 2. F\\4. and F22). Fu.mrium spp. (F34. F52. F56. and F5 8). and Diplodia manihoris (D l. 0 8. 045. 0 52. and 056) did not cause signiticant symptoms.A selettion of the pro gen y of the cross CM 2177-2 x M NGA 2 showed differences in resistance to Phytophthora isolates P12 and 43 (Table 1. 1.6.2).We also evaluated in the greenbouse, 31 genotypes for their reaction to five isolates of Phytophthora spp. Varieties M USA 2, M BRA 1045, CM 3372-4, and M COL 2025 proved tolerant of Pl2 and will be used to develop F1 populations.As soon as planting material becomes available, we will inoculate Phytophthora isolates onto progenies of crosses between contrasting varieties (M C R 81 x M BRA 1045 and CM 9600 x CM 95820), using about 40 individuals each pro gen y.We evaluated 52 RAPD primers for DNA polymorphisms in two DNA bulks.  • The polymorphisms tound could lead to the identification of markers associated with resistance to root rots caused by Ph. vtophthora spp.Evaluation of more primers is ongoing.Gómez R: Angel F; Bonierbalc M: Rodríguez F: Tohme J; Roca W. 1996. lnheritancc of r..Uldom <unplitied pol:.m orphic DNA markers in cassava (Manilwt esculenta Cran tz). Genome 39: 1039-1043.   a. Reaction to the disease: T = to 1erant; MT = moderately to lerant: I = intermediate: S= susceptible; HS = highly susceptible. Iso lates: P1 2 = Brazil; P4 =Colombia: 27 and 44 = Quindío (Colombia); 66 and 69 =Valle (Colombia).Papers Submitted to Refereed Journals (in alphabetical arder of author)Alvarez E: Cadena SF; Llano G. Evaluación de genotipos de yuca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) por su resistencia a diferentes cepas de Xantomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis. Fitopatología Brasilera.Alvarez E; Iglesias C: Barragán MI. Avances en la identificación de fuentes de resistencia a la pudrición radical causada por Phytophthora spp. en yuca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Fitopatología Brasileira.BaiTagán MI; Alvarez E. Evaluación de la tolerancia a la pudrición radical causada por Phytophthora spp. en variedades de yuca (Manihot esculenta Crantz). bajo co ndiciones de invernadero. ASCOLFI Informa.Ba.ITagán MI: Alvarez E. Identiticación de fuentes de resistencia a la pudrición radical de yuca (Manihot esculenta Crantz). ASCOLFI Informa. In traditional production systems, few options are available to resource-limited farmers for controlling pests. The CIAT cassava germplasm bank is nearly 6000 accessions and locally selected cu ltivars (land races) co llected primarily in the neotropics. These traditional cultivars represent centuries of cassava cultivation in di verse habitats. having been selected by farmers o ver a long period in the presence of a high diversity of herbivores. These land races often possess traits that coníer low to moderate levels of resistance to multiple pests. This germplasm bank is constantly being evaluated for resistance to severa! arthropod pests that can cause yield losses in cassava. Evaluations are often done in more than one ecosystem. More recently _3.!}1PJmsis is being given to whitet1ies. mites and stemborers.-----.Activitv ! .2. !. Whiteflies: Germp/asm Evaluation ar CIAT-HQ and CORPOICA, Nataima.Cassava clones were evaluated at CIAT and Nataima. Tolima for resistance to the whitetly Aleurothrachellus socialis. Whitet1y populations at CIAT were moderate to high for the fourth co nsecutive year. Evaluations at CIAT during 1998 concentrated on cultivars that had bee n selected as promising for resistance during previous years at ICNNataima. Thlity two clones sown in 50 plant plots were evaluated using a 1 (low damage or low whitetly population leve l) to 6 (severe damage and high whitetly population) scale. Whitet1y population scales are based on counts of eggs. pupae and adults. The 32 clones evaluated consisted of !andrace varieties. hybrids and backcrosses and had previously shown good levels of resistance in screening trials in Tolima. Also included were tive regional or farmer varieties from the Tnlima area.Results show that 9 cultivars or 26.5% presented very low damage leve ls (l. Oto l.5) and 3 cultivars had damage levels between l. 6 to 2.5. The remaining 22 cultivars had damage leve ls between 2.6 and 5. The regional cu ltivars ti•om Tolima. Azucena. Ceiba Blanca. Almidona. Llanera Precoz. and Cuero de Marrano had damage and population ratings between 4 and 4.5. indicating that farmer varieties in the regions are susceptible to whitetlies and probably experienc ing significant yield losses.Tbe nine best cultivars were MEcu 64, MPer 335, MEcu 72 (alllandrace varieties), CM . All had damage ratings of 1.0, except MPer 415 and CG 489-34 with ratings of 1.5. MEcu 72 and CG 489-34 have consistently, over several years, maintained low damage ratings. The varieties MEcu 64 and MPer 335 ha ve excellent growth habits as well as low damage ratings and low whitefly populations. These two varieties will continue to be evaluated at CIAT and Tolima and should ínter into breeding sc hemes for improve whitefly resistant clones.From 1994 through 1996 whitefly (A. socialis) populations at Nataima, Tolima were lower than normal. Low whitetly populations provide inadequate selection pressure to insure reliable resistance evaluation. All evaluations done at Nataima are with natural tield populations of whitet1ies.During 1997-1998. whitetly populations ha ve increased signiticantly allowing for more accurate germplasm evaluation. During the past year 1651 cassava clones. in observational tields. were planted and 1418 were evaluated. These clones were the Fl pro gen y frorn crosses of cassava clones prevíously selected for their resistance to whitet1ies. with clones with desirable agronomic characteristics. These crosses resulted in 17 families (Table 1.2.1.1). Four field evaluations were done over a period of severa! months, usíng a whitetly damage and populations scale. as prevíously descríbed.Results indicare that whitetly populations were high and there was good selectio n pressure . Of the 1418 clones evaluated. 938 ( 66.1%) had damage ratings abo ve 3. 6 and were eliminated as susceptible (Figure 1.2.1.1); 308 (22%) clones hadan intermediare damage evaluation (2.6 to 3.5). The remaining 172 ( 12. 1%) clones had damage ratings below 2.6 and are considered as promising for resistance. 56 (3.9%) clones had damage ratings of 1 to 1.5. indicating possible high le veis of resistance. However one cycle (year) of field evaluation is not adequate to contidently ídentify resistance and these c lones will continue to be evaluated for at least 3 cycles (years). A 1.0 to 1.5 ratting signifies no damage symptoms and low whitetly population le ve ls. The Familíes that most ti•eque ntly occurred in chis group was CM 8984 with 9 se lections. and CM 8893 with 6 se lections. In both of these families the resistant parent was CG 489-34. indicating that this clone may good heritable resistant traits.   Tolima ( 1997Tolima ( -1998)).Activity 1.2.2. Evaluation of selected genotypes at regional triallevel in CORPOICA, Nataima.Prior research has established that the cassava clones MEcu 72 is highly resistant to the whitefly, A. socialis, and the clone MBra 12 is \"field resistant\" or tolerant. Four progeny from a cross between these two clones were selected for resistance to whiteflies and good agronomic/cul.inary characteristics. CORPOICNNatima is presently evaluating tbese clones in a series of regional trials. This trial consists of 8 clones, the two parents MEcu 72 and MBra 12, four progeny CG 489-34, CG 489-31. CG 489-23 and GC 489-4, the regional farmers cultivar (Aroma) and CMC-40. a susceptible check. The trial was planted with two treatments. with and without pesticide (Dimethorate. 2-3cc/Lt. water), and 3 replications per treatment of each cultivar. This is the first of a series of trials ami was harvested during 1998.The results fi•om this triaL presented in Table 2, indicare that all of the whitetly res istant cultivars will yie ld greater than the farmers regional variety. Aroma. It can also be observed that the treated plots did not outyield the non-treated plots. with the exception of the regional variety. To a certain degree this was expected: previous trials with the resistant cultivars have given similar results. Resistance to whitetlies in these clones is high and whitetly po pulations se ldom reach a high enough leve! to cause yield reduction. In this trial. on on-treated plots. whitetly populations for MEcu 72 remained below 1.8. CG 489-34 = < 2.7, CG 489-31 = < 1.8. CG 489-4 = < 2.6 and CG 489-23 = < 2. 7: for CMC-40 populations rose to 4.5 and the regional cultivar, Aroma. These data indicare that whitetly populations and damage leve ls during the tria! were high eno ugh to cause yield reduction. The fact that no yield losses occurred on MEcu 72. CG . can be explained by the high leve ls of whitetly resistance in these clones. MBra 12 is a c lone with good agronomic qualities and to lerance to severa! arthropod pests (whitetlies. mites. thrips) : it can usually yield well in-spite o f high pest pnpulations. CMC-40 is a whitetly susceptible clone. that in previous trials has often suffered considerable yie ld reduction. However. it is also a very vigorous cultivar that will yield well under fa vo rable environmenta l condition. especially if there is ample rainfall. lt was expected that CMC-40 would suffer greater yie ld losses in this tria!. As can be seen from the results the regional. farmers cultivar. Aroma. yie lded lowest of all the cultivars evaluated. ind icating that it is susceptib le to whitetly attack and will suffer yie ld losses.Dry matter content of the cultivars was not aftected by whitetly feedi.ng. although. in general. dry matter was low (Table 1.2.2.1). Whitetly populations in the treated plots were higher than expected. and in so rne cases as high or hig her than the non-treated plots. Nine eva1uations of whitet1y populations were made by CORPOICA throughout the course of the tria! and the average whitetly population on the treated plots was 2.0 and on the non-treated plots it was 2.03. This can he lp explain w hy there were not sig nificant differences between the treated and non-treated plots. Possible explanation fo r high populations in the treated plots may be dueto whitetly resistance to the pesticide or migration nf white tlies from ne ighboring tie ld where no co ntrol was exercised.Activity 1.2.3. / dent(fica tion Of Genomic Regions Responsible For The Determination Of  Whitefl.v Resisrance In Cassava.   Whitetly (Aieurorrachelus socialis) is one of the most damaging pest and vector that atfects the agricultura! production in the world. There are almost 1200 species with a wide range of hostages like legumes. fruit crees and ornamentals where this insect causes big economic losses.In cassava (Manihor esc:ulenra Crantz). the principal sympto ms in the plantare: total chlorosis. the apical leaves turn curly. the basalleaves turn ye llow and dry. and it stops the developing nf the plant. The adule insects are fo und preferentially in the apical zo nes of the plant. where the y extracting large quant ities the sap nf the co nductive vesse ls. causing a co nsiderable damage by loss of vigour. with low yíeld in the production. The honeydew which excrete. as a result of the copious sap intake. serves as a substrate for sooty mo ld fungui. which can also damage hosts by blocking photosynthesis.One of the strategies implemented to control this pest. in addition to bio logical co ntrol and che mical control is the searching of genetic resistance. Thus. studies ha ve been done to detect resistant and susceptible plants to whiteflie's attack whit the final goal to designa breeding program.lt has been reported (CIAT, 1995)  We selected the more contrasting individuals (resistant and susceptible ones) in the field for each family. DNA was extracted fro m the different individuals and each group with the parental was mixed in a bulk.We are us ing mo lecular screening (RFLPs and RAPOs) intended_ to find markers associated to resistance and later we intended ro isolate the responsible genes.We ~tend to screen the parentallines and the bulk with AFLP markers.Parentals from each family were evaluated with RFLP markers from the cassava map (Fregene et aL 1997). Seventy rwo polymorphic probes were obtained.----------Sixty two_RAPps markers ha ve been screened wirh the bulks of the same tamilies. rhe primer OP.P3 showed a clear polymorphism betwee n the suscepti ble and resisrant group. This marker is being evaluared wirh the who le population of eac h cross. ro confirm its associarion with rhe resistance.We pretend ro isolare and sequence the polymorphic bands and generare a Scar. It co uld be used to make diagnosis of resistant materials to discriminare rhe mosr promising ones to rhe breeding programs and the farmers.With the sequence of the genes of resistance we co uld establish homologies wirh the repo ned ones to other crops. ro understand its expression patterns.The RFLP. RAPO. Microsarellires and AFLP markers will be used to generare a framework map and for rhe QTL analysis.Activity 1.2.4. Whitefly Feeding Behavior.Cassava genotypes with resistance to whitetlies have been identified at CIAT. Resistant clone MEcu 72 shows high rnortality for both adult and immature whitet1ies, which may suggest less feeding on this genotype under natural conditions. It is necessary to identify whitetly feeding behavior on susceptible genotypes and to make cornparisons with MEcu 72 in order to better understand the rnechanisms of resistance.Electronic monitoring of insect feeding (EMIF) is a techníque that permits the identification and quantifi.cation of the teeding behaviors of hemipteran insects. By passing an electrical signa! toa test plant. and tethering an insect with atine gold wire. modifi.cations caused by stylet movements and teeding behaviors can be observed as waveforms. EMIF has extensive ly been used for the study of mechanisms of plant resistance to insects. CIAT presently owns two AC-Electronic feeding monitors. and has access toa OC version of the system (EPG). The AC systems have been used with leatho ppers (E. kraemeri) on beans, and the DC systems with cassava mealybugs. Preliminary observations with both systems suggested that an easy protoco l could be deve lo ped for monitoring the whitet1y. In addition. CIAT technicians needed to be traíned in wiring techniques, operation of the system. computer display and data acquisition.Electronic Monitoring Methodology. The methodology devised for electro nic monitoring of whitetl y teeding behavior inc ludes two maja r steps: a wiring technique to attach the thin wire to the mesonotum of an adult whitet1y. and the proper settings (ground voltages, signa! frequency) of the electronic monitoring system.The \" normal\" gold wire used with leatho ppers (12.7 um) is too thick and stiff for the s mall whitet1y adults. A thinner wire needed to be obtained. Since purchase of a thinner wire was very difficult in the short period of time allowed for this project. thinning of the existing gold wire was necessary. Todo this a 10-20 cm piece of the thick wire is placed for 45 minina so lution of 3 mol Nitric acid and 9 mo l Chlorhydric acid. This is a potent oxidizer that dissolves away part of the gold leaving a thinner wire while conserving its electricity co nducting propetties. Pieces of this thin gold wire are attached with silver paint to a copper stub.Female whitetlies from a greenhouse colony are placed by mouth aspirator o n a vacuum stand and held in place by a very gentle vacuum. Several individuals can be placed simultaneously.With the help nf the copper stub. the thin gold wire is placed on the mesonotum of a temale. aml a very small drop of clectrically conducting silver paint is used to attach the wire to the insect. Ca re needs to be taken for not getting sil ver paint on the whitetly' s eyes or wings. This aftects their be haviors eve n more than the tethered co ndition. New insecrs need to be used s hou ld s ilver paint get o n their wings or eyes.Tethered whitetlies can be acclimated to the wire by placing them on a cassava leaf for 1 h. Before the electronic monitoring session begins. whitetlies are starved for 30 min. The copper stub holding the tethered whitetly is attached to the alligator clip on one of the input e lectrodes of the e lectronic monitor.A constant signa!, 250 m V at 250 Hz was established as the best setting for Aleurotrachellus socialis. This signa! is transmitted via an electro de inserted in the substrate of a potted plant ( 4-8 weeks old). Detached lea ves placed on a container ftlled with water and sealed with the output electro de of the electronic monitor also worked and showed better conductivity than the potted plants. However, the effects of detached lea ves vs. whole plants on whitetly feeding behavior needs to be evaluated further.Feeding Behavior. During probing stylet movements and other feeding behaviors induce changes to the constant signal. These modifi.cations, known as waveforms, are captured in a computer using an analog to digital converter board, displayed on the screen on a time scale. and stored for post-acquisition measurement and analysis. Once waveforms ha ve been correlated with specific be ha viors, quantification can be made on the frequency and duration of these behaviors.Waveforms produced by probing A. socialis on CMC-40 are shown in Figure 1.2.4.1. Due to time limitations it is impossible to correlate waveforms with specific behaviors for this whitetly species. However. Walker (1998) reports that several species of whitetlies share very much stereotypical styles of teeding and that waveforms pattems are very similar amo ng them. Since waveforms shown are similar in appearance to the waveforms reported in the literature. we will describe these. All probes observed started with salivation waveforms corresponding to the intercellular path that the sty lets follow in their way to the phloem. These waveforms are shown in figs la and le as \"intercellular stylet path\". They have also been correlated with the deposition of a salivary sheath. In sorne instances the stylets co me across treachery eleme nts in the xyle m and the whitetly ingests ti•om them (Fig. 1.2.4.1c). This particular waveform has not been completely correlated with. but there is evidence of ingestion. After reaching the phloe m. normally whitet1ies go into continued ingestion. producing a tlat waveform whose beginning is illustrated toward the end of the trace in Figs. 1.2.4.1 b and 1.2.4. 1 c.A new waveform that has not previo usly been identified or associated with any behavior is shown in tig. 1 d. It would be expected that as mo re electronic monito ring of whitetly teeding more patterns would be identified and more corre lational work would be needed. Now that a methodo logy exists for the study of whitetly teeding behavior at CIAT. comparisons can be made among resistant and susceptible genotypes.Training. Two research assistants spent about lO h per week training in electronic monito ring nf insect teeding . They deve loped skills for whitetly wiring and for data display and acquisition.They a lso received extensive lecturing in the principies and applicatio ns of the techn ique. and in the basics of homo pteran feeding behavior.   More than 5000 c lo nes trom the CIAT cassava germplas m bank ha ve been evaluated for resistance to mites. especiall y the cassava green mite (CGM) Mononychellus ranajoa. In recent years evaluations are being do ne both at CIAT and Pivijay. where mite populations are usually high due to the lo ng dry season and poo r soils.During 199R. fifty two new hybrids were introduced into the CIAT germp lasm bank and these were evaluated for mite damage. Most clones displayed very hig h damage leve ls and only th.ree had low to moderate mite attacks (2.0 to 3.0 on a 1 to 6 damage scale). The 3 clones SM 616-22. S M 11 X 1-3 and CM 6173-8 will be evaluated in another cyc le.More than 600 clones that have been se lected as promising for resistance in past evaluations were evaluated at both Pivijay and CIA T. 388 of these maintained a damage leve! between 2.0 and 3.0. This represents about 7.8% nf the germplasm e valuared. These 38X clo nes were also evaluated during the past year at Pivijay and 8 1 o r 1.6% maintained moderare le veis o f resistam:e at both CIAT and Pivijay (Table 1.2.5.1 ). All 8 1 have damage ratings between 2.0 and 3.0 at both evaluatio n sites and at least two evaluatio ns at each site. These c lo nes will be further evaluated in another cycle. Results:B-carotene. Although there is a clase relationship between the quantitative leve ls of carotene and the co lor of root parenchyma. the variability observed among genotypes with similar parenchymal color resulted in an overlap between white and cream roo ts. and between crearn and ye llow roots. Table 1.3. 1.1 presents the mean values and standard deviations fo r groups of accessio ns classified according to root parenchymal co lor. Even those deep-yellow and orange roots showed a broad range of concentrarions. ti•om 0.6 ro 2.4 mg carotenes/ 100 g fresh roo t. Although it seems teasible to improve ~-carote ne leve ls tlu•ough visual selection tor root color. there is a need tn rely on quantitative screening in order to increase the efficiency of the process.Average carmene concentralion in cassa,•a roots dassi tied accordi ng to root color. g. In relation tn the nutritional value of processed ca')sava fonds. it is also imponant to study how much caJ•otene left after processing is available to the human body. once the ca')sava product is cnnsumed.With regard ro srabil ity in ditkrent e nvironmenrs. there were sign iticant difterences (Pdl.OO 1) among e\\•a tuatiun sites. Average carotene concentratio n foral\\ the evaluated genntypes in the s ubhumid ecosystem was doub le ( 1.63 mg/I OOg of roots) the nne nbserved in the more tenile midaltitude sire ((UQ mg/IOOg): wit h the acid-soil savanna ecnsystem falling in-betwee n ( 1.35 mg/1 OOgL Althnugh there were sign ificant interactions with the site nf evaluatiun. testing in the sire with the greatest expressin n for the trait (sub-humid ecosystem) will result in a more precise screening. a broader expressinn range anda higher l1erirability than in the other e nvironments. Subllllm id tropics is the nmst impunant ecusystem t<1r cassava productiun in Africa and Latin-Ame rica.B-carotene cu ncentratiuns in leaf tissue ranged from as lnw as 15 mg/ 100 gr to a'> high as 105 mg/ 100 gr. In userage. cassava lea ves can ha ve 30 times the carntene cnncentratinn fo und in the roots of yellow cassava. Se lecting the genotypes with the highest cnncentratiun of carotenes in the lea ves will allow to suppl y the daily requirements (between 3 and 4 mg) of vitamin A for an average person. with just 5 grams of fresh lea ves or 2 grams of dry leaf t1our. Results showeú that experimental erTor• can be reduced to reason<1ble levels (F fin ponleú samples acrnss plants and reps. still significant) by sampling 2 plant'i per replication and pooling at least 2 rnots per plant (previously washed and peeled) and 10 developed leaves from the upper third of the plant. This stud y also showed a high positive cotTelation between mineral co ncentration in roots and leaves nf the same genntype.s for Zn and Mn: w hile for Ca the cotTelatinn was highly negati,•e. For other minerals. variability in concentration was independent in rnnts and lea ves.Applying the previously llescribed samp ling pmcedure. a set nf 20 genotypes planted in -f. reps was sampled at 6 momh after planting ro e,•aluate the co ncentration of minerals in both leaves and roots (Data not shownl. The coetlicient of variation (CY9'c) was high fm the cnncen[ The shnn posr-harvest storage life of cassava roots is an intrins ic charucte ristic that affects the marketability of the product. Ronts ha ve to be co nsumed nr processed slmrtly a.fter har\\'est. Post-harvest physio log ical deterioration (PPO) beg ins as earl y as 24 huurs nf han•est. resulti ng in ront prod uction and 4uality losses. high marketing margins and risks. and restricted manage me nt tlex ibility for farmers. traders and processors.A limited amount nf genetic variability fo r PPD is available in cassava germplasm. providing 4uantitati\\'e ge notypic ditlerences in the shel f-life nf cassava betwee n very few days to one nr possibly two weeks. Hmveve r. selectinn fm reduced PPD from ex isting ge netic variants in breeu ing prngrams is se rio usly hampered by e nvironmental effects and the complex inherita nce nf se,•e ral tra its unc.J er s imu ltaneous impmve ment. Ü)mmon ly cul ti vatec.J cassava varieties ha ve shelf li,•es nf nnl y a few c. Jays. Although res ults fro m early research showed a e lose positive aSS\\lciatin n be t\\veen PPD and rno t dry matter come nt. recent results fro m studies o n a wic.Je r ,gene tic range. failec.J to finc.J a significant assoc iation betwee n those traits.The process nf PP D in cassava rese mbles wounc.J-healing responses found in other plant systems. Such t.lefensive responses are eventua ll y inhibitec.J by successful wounll repair in the majority of the syste ms stud ied. However. this repair process is not successful in the harvested cassa va storage root (except under certain storage conditions as described be low). leading to the hypo rhes is rhar um•estrained cascades of wo und responses ultimate ly result in root deterioration.The objective of the present work is to associate PPD resistance/susce ptib ility reactions to other root tra.its of accumulation of metabo lites in the roots. in order to fac ilitare germp lasm scree ning. gene ide ntiíication and tagging. as we ll as increasing the effic iency of the breeding wo rk.The wo rk was deve loped at CIAT (Palmira) during the period September 1995 -March 1 9n. Two screening trials were established with 16 and 63 e lite ge notypes with 3 replicat io ns in plots of 25 pla nts. A random sample of 5 roots fro m each geno type was harvested and eva luated accn rd ing to the procedure described by Wheatley ( 1982). Distal and proximal extre mes nf each root were cut in order to obtain a 15-cm piece. The distal pan of the roo t was cnvered with a plastic fi lm and secured with a rubber band. Ronts we re sto red in a coo l shatled place and were evaluated at 5. 1 O and 15 days after harvest. Each roo t was cut into se ve n 2-cm ,;! ices . and eac h si ice was scored for PPD. Re lated root traits such as dry matter content (9é ) and cyanide were reco rded in both trials. and starch and sugar co ntent was measured in the first tria !.In the screen ing of 1 ó ge notypes run during the crop cycles 1995-96. PP D at 1 O and 15 days was co rrelated with starc h cooking fac ility (FCC). starch instability (INE) and the ratio nf total sugars ( AZ) to starch conce ntration (AL) (Table 1.3.2.1 ). Pri ncipal component analysis cn nsitlering those traits as intlepentlent variables revealetl that the ratio A7J AL had the largest pnsiti ve re latinnship with PPD. The second largest co mpo nent. but having a negat ive etf ect nn PPD was starch coo king fac ility. whic h represents an intrinsic c haracteristic nf cassava starch. T he evaluatio n of the same genotypes during the cro p cycle !996-97 resulred in a sig ni ficant difference amo ng ge notypes at 5 and 10 DAH. but no differe nce was observed at 15 DAH. Fm m this tria!. 3 ge notypes with less than 20% PPD at 15 tlays were selected tn be used in crosses for builtl ing up Ta ble 1.3.2. 1. PPD reacti on nf elite germpla.sm and re late<. ! roo t and starch charac teristics.  We. ha\\•~ recently started a joim research prnject with the Universiry uf Bath which has the following 3 componenrs: 1) cONA c lones for a range uf genes known tn be invulved in wound-respons~s in other plant syste ms wil l be iso lated fro m cassava. based un DNA homology amung functionall y co nse rveu ge nes. These. genes will then be assayed for their expression in cnntrasting cassa,•a genutypes anu co ntrnlled envirn nments affecting PPD. Simultaneously. the cD •A clunes wi!! be includeu in the genetic map nf cassava and monitnred as cand idate genes aff~cting PPD. th mugl1 quantitative trait ana lysis un der representative tie iJ conditions.Genotypes with more than 10 day she lf-life selecreuThe ratio of total sugars to starch co ncentration was positively coiTelated with the le ve! of post-harvest deterioraría n.No correlation was found with dry matter content as previously reported.Wheatley Rationale: eassava represe nts an excellent so urce of starch in the trop ics. dueto its producrion efficie ncy. and the intrinsic characteristics nf the starch produced. e iAT has given emp hasis to the se lel:t ion for higher starch content within cassava gene pools during the last 15 years. As a result of that. a series of e lite ge notypes with hig h co ncentration of starch are currenrly avai lab le at Nacional Prog ram leve !. Not so muc h e mphas is has bee n given to study and deve lop alternative so urces for starch quality. which l:é:tn open new ave nues to bonst the demand fo r cassava. and creare new markets fo r fanners growing the l:ro p in margin al regions. During tlle last 3 years we ha ve ce ntered our eftó rts in 3 areas: a) increasing starch cn ntent: b) characterizi ng starch qual it y within the existing range nf gene tic dive rsity fo r cassava: ande) creare new variants thro ugh genetic transformatio n. We will be reponi ng on the analysis nf starch resistance to di ffere nt treatments in a range nf ge notypes. and the variability in starch granu le structure fnund in the cassava germplasm cu llectio n.:vtethtH.ls: o) Resisrance ro ocitf 111edia and.fi•ee::.ing. Srarch ti•o m 9 genotypes was useu in this :-.tuúy. Thnse genotyp~s were se lected out nf a larger gro up. based nn the range of amylns~ cn nt~nt rWheatley ~tal.( 1992). T he ge notypes were: :VICOL lóX-+: C:'v! J31ló--+: :VIB RA ó2: \\1ME X 5lJ: eG lJ 15-1: :VIVEN 77: MPER 19ó: \\!!YEN 25 : and eG 1 ó5-7. Starch was extrac teJ ma nually. Gcls we re pr~pareu as starch suspensio ns cnntaining 5lfé starch we re prepareu in uisti lleJ water. with th~ aduition of souium be nznate at 0. 11/' c. The suspe nsions were prepared in a Brabe nue r viscnamylog rap h statting at 2 5C anu enúing at ( O C. with an incremenc in tempe rature tlf 1.5 C/minu te.In order tn c\\•aluate res istance to acidity: unce gels reac hed ambient temperatu re. rhey were aciúifíeu at pH 2.-+ with the aúd itio n nf chlor hydric ac id 0.5 0/. and 35 mi of the ge l were stored in 50 mi centrifuge tubes. capped. anu at-+ e during 2. 4. 5 and ó weeks prinr to eva luation. Res istanl:e to freezi ng was ~v alu ated in 50 mi ce ntri fuge tubes. 40 mi of ge !s were sto reú. cappeu. at -20 e uuring l. 2.-+ and 6 weeks. prior to eva lu atinn.Syneresis was measured in lO mi ce ntrifuge tubes. where 5 g of gel from each treatment were weighted. Syneresis was measured by the weight of liquid separated fro m the ge l after centrifuging at 1000 g during 15 minutes at 20 C. and it was expressed as percentage of the total weight. Prior to evaluare viscosity. gel samp les fro m the acidity tria! were left at ambient temperature. while those from the freezing study were left fo r l hour in a hot bath (30°C). Yiscosity was measured in a Brookfield visco meter. with a speed of 10 rpm at 25''C. The Brabender vi.scoamylograph was useli to evaluate reo1ogica1 pro perties of the ge ls. Amylose was evaluated with the cholo rirnetric method 6647 of l. S. O ( 1987).h) Swrch ¡.:ranule shape. A total of 4420 geno types from the global cassava germplasm collection were screened under microscope. after staining with a 0.:2 ~ solution of lugo l (IC I). Those genotypes presenting abnormal granule structure o r associatio ns amo ng granules. were separated for further studies.  In acid medium starches sho uld preserve its physical appearance. structure and viscosity during processing and storage. like in the case of thickening agems for sauces. Results from this study showed that cassava starches presented an increase in viscosity after the second week of storage. with the tendenc y to stabilize after that. with the exception of starch from MMEX 59 and MCOL 1684 (Figu re 1.3.3.1). Gels did not show changes in their structure. and no liquid was released (syneresis) during the different petiods of storage.30 t--------.\"\"' •:-:: . .,-::-_ _ __ _ _ _ ----:7'_ .. :::.:. Cassava starch ge l viscosity during storage in acid medium.In Figure 1.3.3.2. changes in viscosity during sro rage of gels at -20 C can be observed. During the ti rst week of storage. al samples s howed a reductio n in viscosity. w ith MYEN 77 and C G 165-7 presenring the greatest reduction ( 11 .7 cp and 10 cp respecti ve ly) . and s howing syne res is at wceks 4 and ó. After 4 weeks in storage syneresis for MYEN 77 and CG 1 65-7 was 4 .4 % and 13.7 c'c-. while after 6 weeks. it was 4.3% and 22.8lk. respective /y. Results demonstrated a re latinnship between amylose co nte nt and the retrogradatio n process (syneresis). Starch prmluced from MPER 19ó and MYEN 25 prese nted the greatest stability during sto rage time . This abnormality can result from different causes: among them mutations in the ratio of amylose/amylopectin. differential regrowth dueto defoliation or lodging. etc. The genotypes will be multiplied this year for fmther studies o f starch functional and chemical properties.e) Srarch phosphorilation. Root and tubers usually ha ve higher Ievels of starch phosphorilation than cereals. The range found in cassava (0.61 to 3.60 nmol Glc6P/mg starch) is very interesting to stan an improve ment process through se lection and recombination (Figure 1 .3.3.3). However. it is considerably lower than the range a!Jeady reponed fo r potato starch (5.0 to 30.0 nmol GlcóP/ mg starch). lt is interesting to notice that the 2 genotypes with the highest Pi le vel (SM X53-7 and CM 743X-I) are ti•om the highlands. Starch synthesized in the high land ecosyste m has particular quality traits dueto the lower average temperature under which it is accumu lated. We are going to use these 2 genotypes as parent lines ro generare reco mbinant progenies and seek for transgressive segregation to r Pi-starch concentration. KVL has deve loped a screening methodology fo r breeders to incorporare Pi-swrch as a selection criteria.  A chieve mems:Gcno types with enhanced resistance to acid media and fre ezing conditions have been se lected. C a.ssava germp lasm base has been screened fo r starch granule abnormalities. Genotypes w ith abno rmal shapes and conglomerated structure w ill be studied in detail. Parental material was selected ro develop reco mbinant proge nies fo r the se lection of high Pi-star ch concentratio n in cassava.OUTPUT T lle se /ection o f pare nrs w build po puhnions fo r future breed ing work represents the core nf nur imp rovement ctf orts. since it will determine the genetic progress we w ill ac hieve in the fu ture. T he re are two types of populations deve loped: open pnllinated and contro l crosses. We usua ll y used open po llin ation (po lycrosses) ro deve lop po pu latio ns for target ecosystems. \\Ve ha ve cn nsistentl y deve loped po lycrosses for the sub-humid tropics. acid so il savannas. semi-arid tropics. mid-a lti tude and highland trop ics. and sub-tro pics. I n the case o f co ntrolled crnsses. we used the m to deve lop progenies for specific traits. special studies nr the co mbinatinn nf elite experimental material with loca l landraces that need to be improved.Ge notypes that have bee n selected nve r 2 cn nsec uti ,•e years in ad vanced yiel d trials are nnly ~elected to panicipate as parents fo r the fo llow ing gene ration. A mong those genotypes. we o...elect thuse w ith outstanding per fo rmance fnr the mnst impnrtant agronnmic traits .. -\\fter the analysis of variance is comlucted wirh data across 2 years. tlmse genotypes e.xceeding at leJst une standard deviation from the nveru fl mean are considered as parents t(l r rhe ne.xt gener~Hion. Su meti mes we also include landraces or already re leased culti vars that can co ntribute specia l feaw res tu the proge nies ge nerated.The infonnat inn pn n •ided by Patho log ists. Entomu logists and Qu ality Specialists in re lat ion tu spu rce~ nf re~ista nce or specia l rrai ts is used to se lect genntypes for control crusses. These unmul cro. '>Sc.\\ are dcvelopcd upnn srec ific re4uests frn m ational Programs that want thei r main landrace 1lr released variety crnssed to ge nntypes wi th spec ific traits: or re4 uests frnm C IA.T s scientists that wanr tu pyramid ge nes. m deve lnp segregating pmge nies fnr gene taggi ng.Results: Tub le 2.1.1.1. prese nts the most impo n ant parents se lecte d for the deve lnpment of gene pon ls rargeted ro specific ecosystems. and their performance in relatinn to chec k lnca l nr released \\'arieties. That d i tle r~nce mu ltiplied by the heritabil it y of the traits represe nts the genetic prngre. o...s for next generation. W_ e ca n5~e that we ha,•e been very successfu l in selecting   --MCOI:. 146$?: ' : : ::-. ::., , . : : =: : Zli5.J:::::: . .:=:u:::Hi¡.:hla nd tropics .-=::t íñt$ii®t:::::::::::::::::,;,,:,.::,::: 1$~4:t;:::,_::. ,:;~::=::::=::=::' r®.~!~tn::-::,_ :: • : :=:,:::=m::::s~$::1:':'=:::::::: . . , In re latinn to the selection llf parenrs for spec ific traits. ouring the last 3 years we ha,•e incmporatetl ge nnrypes that excel fm the ir: res istance to gree n mires. bacteria! blight. white t1y ano ront rots. ll igll co ncenrration of carotenes antl root ory matter. low co ncenrration o f cyani tle. sllon statu re . excellent cooki ng qua lity. ano broao aoaptation. A total of 3..¡.3 ge notypes se lecteu for their performance in specífic traits ha ve taken pan of our control crosses during the last 3 years. This group represent a broad and se lected genetic base to re-stan our selection process for spec ific traits. incorporare genes fo r specific traits into popular varieties in different countries.and diversify the genetic base for resistance and other traits.Achievements: An average 68% genetic advantage of the best selected parents over check varieties.A gro up of 257 genotypes selected to participare in the generation of reco mbinant progenies that will serve as the basis for future se lection cycles at CIAT and National Program leve !. Snurces of resistance to pest and diseases as well as specific traits selected for the development of contro l crosses.Acrivir v \"•l.\"• Esrablishmenr q{ cmssin;; blocks ami pmducrion t4' recombinanr seed.fimn ¡Jre\\•iouslY eswhlished hlocks.Pnpulations deve lnped fnr specific ecosystems represe nt the basis fnr n ur conperation with :--.Tational Programs and IIT A. T he development of genetic stocks is gaining imponance through the years. Genetic stocks are produced based on the recombination of a set of genotypes that excel for a panicular trait. and we would like to upgrade that trait beyond its natural range of variatinn (i.e. look for transgress ive segregation in broader adaptation ). Stocks developed for inheritance studies nr to suppon mo lecu lar mapping nf specific trairs are cu nstructed by the recombinatio n of co ntrasting genotypes ( i.e. cyanide inheritance). Often times our aim is ro pyramid genes responsible for different sources nf resistance ( i.e. bacteria! blighn. As we shift our emphasis frnm applied breeding to more basic research supponing breeding ( i.e. mnkcular marker assisted selec tion) genetic stocks wi ll beco me e ven more imponant. Parental population develo pment in the tüture will concentrare mnre in targering specific crnsses betwee n genotypes selected by NARS ami comp lementary so urces of genetic infnrmatinn from o ur genetic enhancement prog ram nr our global germplasm collection.F11r pol ycrosses we use the uesign developeu by Wright 1 ~ó5 fnr polycrosses in túrage species. Fnr rhis rype nf design there is a need tll ha\\•e a number of clones equal toa prime number minu s une (i.e. 12. 16. 1 X. ere.). The design allows fur each genotype to ha\\•e the same probab ility u f be ing su rruunded by any other genotype uf the se lected group. Knnwledge nn tlovv~ring capac it y is impmtam in ort.ler tu se lecta group uf mate rials wit h synchronized nmv~ring. When rhere are um-;it.lerable ditlerences we ha ve ro implement delayeJ planting and/ur pruning 11f the mnst earlier tlmve ring genotype-'>. At harvest the seed from different plants nf the same genotype are combineJ together anJ named as a half-sib famil y (S i\\tl ).Fm Cll!Hrol crosses. we plant 1 O tll 20 plants depenJing nn the tlowering capac ity uf the ge nutype in question. Each tlower has the potential to produce J seeds. but in average we nbtain no mme than 1 seeJ per cross. Jue ro the sensitivit y nf the stig ma rn the manipu lation during po llin atio n. SeeJs from the same crnss are mi xeJ togerher anJ name as a full -si b famil y (C :VI)A total of 458.027 recombinant seeds were produced during the period 1999-98 (Table 2.1.2.1). Parental populations aimed at specific ecosystems of co ntinents represented 77% of the total seed produced. Genetic stocks are being built for traits of high priority in our project. In the case of Africa and ACMV resistance. we are developing \" backcross•• populations between Fl crosses (African x Latin American). anda different African parent. The strategy is to ha ve progenies with 75% African background. Stocks for root quality traits represem a large proponion of our efforts. In the case of cooking quality. phosphorilated starch and carotene cnntent. we ha ve crossed genotypes with the highest performance. with the purpose of selecting transgressive segregants within the progenies. For cyanide. white tlies. post harvest deterioration ano bacteria! blight we have crossed genotypes representing the extremes in performance in order to map ano tag the genetic facto rs responsible for the inheritance of those traits. In the case nf dwarf genotypes we are developing a population with combining genetic facto rs deterrnining sho rt plant type. in order to stan breeding for other agro nomic traits with that population.Ac hieveme nts: Co nsiderable amount of recombinant seeds produced. Large proponion of our work shifted to specific traits. through the deve!opmenr of genetic swcks. and pre-breeding pnpulations.More targeted crosses with landraces bui!d duri ng this period. upon request from National Programs.Acti\\•itv..,. 1.3. Cenerarion (in Thai/and) ami disrriburion of\" admn ced hreeding marerials fo r Asian Narional Programs.Breeding for Asia has mainl y ce ntered aro und the issue uf increased producti\\•ity nf dry matter per hectare. Yield and ront dry matter concentration ha ve been the primary traits for se!ectio n. with almost none emphasis give n to pests and diseases. nr cooking quality. The work developed in Asia for 15 years. has revealed the possibility to select fo r broader adaptatinn nf genotypes. We ha ve the case of Rayo ng 60 and Kasetsart 50 with good perfo rmance in a range of Asían co untries. [n nrder to exp loit those two facts plus the need to explore those genotypes in the pipe-line of the Thai breeding program. a considerable imporrance has been given to the production of recnmbinant seed in Thailand. and the transfer of recombinant fam ilies to otl1er co untries in Asia.The sa me approaches as the unes implemented at C lr\\T-HQ (pnlycrosses and contrnlkd crosse.-.) llave been implemented in Thailand. but a greater propnninn nf segregating progenies from cn ntrolled crosses is usua ll y produced.Cluse to 1 ()().()()() were produced duQ.og the last 3 years nf activities. Thirty pe rcent nf that seed was transferred ro -+ Natinna l Programs in the region and ro CIA T/ HQ iTa hle 2. 1.3. 1 ). The retirement uf lHir cassava breeder statinned in Thailand. may resr rict in the futu re. tl1is type nf cn llabo ratinn. from the Thai program. Althnugh it will take longer fnr nther :--.lational Programs ro recei\\•e material.-; fmm Thai land. in the futu re we fmesee tllat the tlux of impn)\\•eu germplasm between CIAT-HQ and the Thai breeding program wi ll continue. and ir \\vil! be through us that uther 1 atiunal Programs will receive progenies invol\\•i ng the latest selections in Thailand.L\"nrestricted suppun and co llabmation from the Thai breeding program. Use uf the most elite ge nntypes in crosses Distribution of seg regating progenies of lligh value for Asian Nationa l Programs. Our strategy fo r cassava germp lasm develop ment is centered on the de ve lopment of improved gene pools for specific edapho-climatic zones with imponance for cassava production. as detined in Table 2.2.1.1. The mosr relevant ecosystems are the semi-arid and sub-humid tropics. fnr which we tlevote the majo rity of our efforts. The main se lection activity is co nducted in sites se lected to rep rese nt the cond itions of the target ecosystem. For every genotype that is tested in those sites we keep a copy at CIAT. CIAT-HQ is conside re<..! to be free of bacteria! blight and some important viruses. and we want to maintain that conditiun. In case we do nnt keep a copy of ~ac h genotype. we would ha veto pass each nf them through quarantine. which usua lly takes mu re than ayear.For each nf the zones we cn nduct a recu rrent selection program. with a progressi\\•e set of stages as described in Figure 2.2.1.1.. As the st:.1ges prngress. we give more emphasis tn traits of lower he ritabil ity. because we ha ve mnre planting material fnr each genntype. and the eva luat ion can be cnnducted in bigger plots witll rep licatinns. Cenain selection criteria are uf gene ral impurtance across ecosystem (i.e. yield potentia l. dry matter content l. while others are specific for each ecosystem ( i.e. pest and diseases).Prng~nies ge nerated fro m the crossi ng blncks (F I) are plante<..! in screen ho uses and transp lanted tn the field afte r 2 months at CIAT. Ató months atter planting. 2 stakes are harvested from eac h plant and given a consecurive number ;,¡ccording ro the plant. One of rhe sta.kes is planteo at CIA T. the ut her nne is p lanted at the m a in se lection si te ( F 1 C 1 ). Selection is conducred at han•est nn individ ual plan ts ar tht:! main se lection site. Planti ng material taken from the se lecred genntypes. at CIA T. is used m estab lis h a 1 w n repl icated ó-plant plot both at CIAT and at the main selectiun site (C ional evaluation stage). E\\'aluation is done using the central .3 plants.Selections are transferred to the fo llowing stage (preliminary yield trial) and planted in non replicated 20-plant plots. Evaluation is done in the central 6 plants. and selections are passed to the advanced yie ld trials at 1 or 2 sites. with 3 replications of 25-p lant plots. Genotypes selected over 2 co nsecutive years at the advanced yield tria! leve! are co nsider as \"elite genotypes\" and incorporated in the germplasm co llection and the crossing blocks. Since each year we initiate a new breeding cycle. we have all the stages simultaneously being conducted in each site. In order tn summarize res ults from the last 3 years nf work. we present the 5 best selectin ns from rile clona! eva luation. preliminary and advanced yie ld trials. fnr the cycle 1997-<JX: the tri al mean. mea n uf the check varieties and mean of all se lectinns. for each uf the ecosystems that we wnrk in Cnlombia rTahles 2.2.1.2. 2.2.1.3. 2.2.1.4). Mnre than 100 breeding trials \\\\•ere conducted during the 3 crop cycles fmm 1995 until <JX. Cumparing among breeding stages. we can nbserve that for the must importunE targeULajUd.ry.matter.x~ld). the genetic progress (ditlerence between mean nf se lections and tria! mean) is greater as we advance in the Basic cassava breeding scheme applied for each of the priority ecosystems.Crossing of selected parental genotypes breed ing cyc le. Dry matte r yield is the resultant from a relati ve ly low heritabi lity trait (root yield) andan intermediare to high lleritability trait (ront dry matter o/ c ). The more we advance in tlle breedi ng cyck we ha\\'e bigge r plots. more repe titions w ithin sites. and more sites uf eval uation : therefnre it is expected tl1at the experimental error wi ll be reduced. and the genetic progress enhanced.Tlle largest impro ve ment in relation to tlle loca l check variety can be observed fnr tlle highland tropics ecusystem. fo llmved by mid-altitulle trnpics and the acid so il savannas. Tlle mid-altiwde site represents better soi l cnnditions compared to the others. tllat is retlec ted in a higher ave rage performance for most nf the breeding stages reponed. On the other hand the respo nse to selection depe nds more on the available genetic dive rsit y and the pnssibi lity to combine trai ts thar resu lt in higher yield potential.  The demand for elite germp lasm is always high becau.se it repre.sents the basis fo r research in other t.liscip lines. on-farm testing and regional trials in Colombia. Asit.le from maintaining aU elite genotypes in the germplasm collection. a group nf high priority genotypes is kept in plots nf at least 50 plants. The ones with the highest t.lemand are mu ltiplied more e:xtensive ly. reaching plor.s of up to 1 ha. Our project has been able to supply cuttings tn other scientists at CJAT. and to insritutions throughout Colombia.Table_. Multiplication plots are established as blocks of 50 or more plams. They are given the best possible management in terms of ero p. pest and disease management. The objective is to obtain planting material of prime quality. There are 2 ways to deliver the planting material: one is as 1 m pieces. which gives more security in case there is a dry perio d ahead and the material needs to be stored: and :20 cm pieces. ready to plant. We recover the productio n and shipment cost through a basic price.In Table 2.2.2.1 we ha ve a detail of the genotypes with the greatest vo lume produce and shipped to associated scientists and partner institutions during the later year. Tl1e most imponant purpose for the seed supplied has bee n to establish basic multiplication seed lots. fo llowed by the establishment of regional trials and basic research experime nts. Although we do not run this acti vity as a co mmercial one. it generares co nsiderable reso urces both from the sel ling of planring material as we ll as fro m the se lling uf roots: aUowi ng LISto supporr pan of the perso nne l we emp loy in research. This multip lication act ivity is essential for the diffus inn of OLir best ge notypes.An area of abou t 80 has ha ve been dedicat~d ro multiplication during the latest 3 cro p cycles.Co ntinuo Lis supply of prime quality planting mate rial ro deve lop ment projects throughout the co unrry.Sub-output 2.3.Generation of fund s that he lp LIS SL1ppott research.Distribution of improved germplasm to partners in Latín America. Asia and to liT A.This const itutes the main linkage ro breeders in National Programs. Thro Ligh the seed or in-vin•o material we transfer the genetic progress nbtained from OLir main breedin g ac tiv ity. As we wi ll see later. there have bee n severa! new cassava varieties se lected out M germplasm distributed by CIAT. In the case of Asia and Africa. cassava originated from a very restricted genet ic base. originally introducet.l from Latín America. Ou r main purpose fo r the transferem;e nf imprnveu germplasm is not only to enhance the prot.luctiv iry but also ro inc re;.¡se the ge netic t.l ive rsity at the fielt.l leve!. in orde r ro pre,•e nr major disasters assoc iated ro narrmv genet ic bases.ÜLir seet.l sh ipments are sent Llpun req uest. Previn Lisly. public insti nnions were the major recipient uf uur reco mbinant seet.ls. DLiring the later ye:1rs. req uests fro m privare secto r ha ve increase cunsit.lerab ly. as we ll as req Liest fro m at.lvancet.l research nrgan izat ions work ing on cassa,•a biotechnulugy in Eurnpe or Nonh Ame rica.The shipments are preparet.l acco rt.ling to the req uest ant.l the infrastructure of the institu tiu ns recei,•i ng the seet.l. Mnst nf the seet.l s hi pme nts are betwee n 1.500 ant.l 3.000 see us. a ltlmugh prog rams .SLICh as the Brazi lian and T ha i. usual ly receivet.l between 5.000 ant.l 10.000. \\Vhile liT A. recei,•es abll\\'e ~).000 seet.ls. In the case uf in-vitro shipments. we sent.l 5 tube. ' > pcr gennrype. ant.l thc number nf genntypes almost neve r exceed :25. We .se nd information abo ut the families or genotypes that have been prepa.red: and req uest to have fee-back data on the pertormance of the germplasm introduced in order to plan better future shipments.A total of 253.148 seeds correspo nding to 2115 fami1ies and 580 genotypes invi tro were Jistributed during the period 1995-98 from CIAT-HQ to our partners in Latín America. Asia. IIT A and advanced research o r~an izatio ns (Table 2.3.1.1.). The salient feature 'of the shipments has bee n the massive introduction of germp lasm to Africa (TITA). representing 50.-l-% of the total shipme nrs. Previo usly we used to send F1 crosses between Latin American germplasm and elite ge notypes ti•om IITA se lected mainl y to r their resisrance to Ati•ican Cassava Mosaic Virus (ACMV). The frequency of se lections for resistant progenies was considerably lnw in the Fl's. although it was higher than the freque ncy of se lections within proge nies of pure Latín American origin. rn 1995. after ajoint CIAT-IITA meeting. it was decided that in order to increase the frequency nf resistant genotypes within segregating progenies. BC 1 fam ilies. instead nf Fl 's should be introduced. Our interest in increasing the frequency of resistant genotypes is ro allow a more proper selection for other imponant traits that the Latín American germplasm can cn ntribute to Africa (i.e. low cyanide. high dry matter content. good conking qual ity. etc. ). Susceptibility to AC IV has covered up all the potential genetic contribution nf Latín American germplasm in the past. Ta ble 2.3. 1.1. Germplasm distributed ro different resean.:h programs in the world (September 1995 -Sepc 1997). Cnnsiderable i mp nm~d genetic di\"ersity transferred tn Nationa l Prng rams and nther institutions work ing nn cassa,•a. l ncre:.~sed etfic iency of Latín American ge rmpl asm introduction to Africa. thru ugh the de\\'elop ment and shipmem nf back cross seed.Propagation of mapping progenies, inter-specific hybrids and gene tic stocks.Rationale: Given the experience our group has in the managernent of seed ling nurseries and multiplicatio n of genotypes. we provide service to other projects in related to the development and use of the molecular map. gene tagging and introgression of wild gerrnplasrn. By doing so. we promote the integration of advanced tools into our breeding efforts.After obtaining the recombinant seeds. we grow the F 1 nursery for l year. in arder to obtain well de ve loped plants that can produce lO shon cuttings. Depend ing on the project we proceed to multiply each genotype in the progeny using all the cuttings. or we handle half of the cuttings to the scientist interested in evaluating the progeny. and maintain the other half for multiplication. After the tírst mu ltip licatio n we usually give all the resulting material to the interested scientist.The molecular map was originally developed on a pro gen y of 90 genotypes fro m the family CM 7857 . resulting from a cross between MNGA :2 (TMS 300572) and C:'vl 2177-2 (ICA-Cebucán). This cross was designed within our project. taking into consideration the genetic distance berween the parents. and the fact that both parents complernented each nther for traits nf irnportance ( i.e. resistance to ACMV. bacteria! bught. and majar pests. cooking t.¡uality. etc. ). The progeny was later on extended to 150 ind ividuals in order to get a greater nrder nf saturation in the map. The whole family is being multíp lied and evaluated at CIAT. Santander de Quilichao and Villavicencio. Some of the traits for which we are evaluating the progeny include: reaction to bacteria! blight. super-elongation. thrips. root ro ts. post harvest deterioration. root dry matter content. cooking quality. root yield. cyanide. We hope that for some of those traits we can detect specific regions of the genome in between molecular markers with a large effect upon the trait (QTL\"s). which can then be used within our breedi ng sc heme to follo w tlmse genes. Some of the genetic stocks we are rnultiplying at the moment include populations fnr: wh ite tl y: root rot and bacteria! blight resistance. cnoki ng qua lity. post-harvest de terioration. cyanide cnntent and carotene content. All tllose genetic stocks were developed with the aim to tag specific regions of the genome directly in volved in the genetic determination of those traits.With respect to wild Manihot -cassava crosses. we are develop ing fam ilies with parental material selected tHit llf a recent genetic dive rsity stud y using AFLP\"s and micro-satellites. Genotypes from the species M. carrhu;.:t'nl!nsis. M. hruchy/oba. and M. aescu/~f\"olia are being crossed to se lectetl cassa\\•a genotypes. The purpose nf these crosses is tn identify regions of the genome from wild spec ies that can contribute to enhance root yieltl potential ano quality. We are aiming at exp lllring the cn ncept that wiltl species can comribute positive QTL\"s for traits that can not be assessed directly in the wiltl species per se.Genntypes with in target families multiplietJ for basic research projects.Integratio n with projects in the area of biotechnology.OUTPUT 3: National Programs in tropical and sub-tropical La tin America and Asia supported in adaptive selection and deployment of improved cassava varieties.Sub-output 3.1.Activitv 3. l. l.Work together with Nationa l Progra ms in La tin America for the selection, multiplication and dissemina tion of elite cassava germplasmRatin nale: Cassava production is one of the few alternatives to sustain the living of small farmers in sem i-arid regions. That is a result of the capacit y of the crop to survive and produce re latively well under severe water stress conditions. when other crops fail. Ouring pro longed periods of drought in NE Brazil. cassava has been the only source of carbo hydrates and proteins bnth for human and animal consumptio n. Sources of cassava germplasm with improved tolerance to drought. representa ver y va lu ab le resource for homolngous regions in the world where hu man popu lation is expanding into marginal areas to r ag riculture . particular/y in semiarid Sub-sa haran ureas.Within the :--JE-region o f Brazil. a very broad genetic base for adaptation to sem i-arid co nd itions was detected among cassava germplasm accessions. T he explo itation of such wide genetic diversity for the deve lopment of improved genotypes for production under homologous co nditinns represe nts an attractive approach to increase productivity and amel iorate quality nf cassava in the region. because of its low adoption cost and low impact to the environment.Cassava germp lasm evaluation conducted during rhe period 1991-97 in four sites within the se mi-arid ecosystem in NE Brazil. has resulted in the se lection of genotypes w ith improved water use efficiency. That improvement is a co nsequence o f a greater capacity to extraer water stored in the soil. and the possibility of producing large r amounts nf dr y matter per unit of extracted water. Resistance ro mites. alsn constituted a major selection criteria. given the imponance M such biological co nstraint to cassava productio n. As a result of those act ivities. a genetic base for tüture improvement of the cro p in se mi-arid reg ions was estab li shed. At the same time. those genotypes combini ng all desirable agrnnomic traits ha ve the potential to be used by farmers in the target region in the near futu re.Staning in 1997. a second phase fnr the project was financed by lFAD . The main objecri,•es nf the pmject are: to maximize tlle prnductinn pntential o f selected genotypes tl1rnugh the nptimizatin n n f cu ltural practices: w intensi fy the adnptio n and ditlusinn nf imprn ved genntypes wirh rhe act ive participatio n nf farmers: and to generare new genotypes thrnugh the pmcess o f recnmbinati on amn ng cn rnp lementary parents and se lectinn in segregaring progenies.The initial 5year phase nf rhis prnject was sta1ted in 1990 as apure breeding pmject. and ir has evnh•ed thro ugh the years to becnme a more integrated. on-farm. pwticipatory project t(Jr the Ue\\•elopment of the cmp in semi-arid reg inns.Methods: The original work started with the evaluation of 1008 accessions from the cassava germplasm collection held at CNPMF (Bahía-Brazil). Genotypes selected for their broad and specitic adaptation took pan of the on-farm evaluation. An average test will include 9 introduced genotypes anda local check variety. Also, selections from the original evaluated germplasm co nstituted the basis for recombination and generation of segregating progenies that served as the basis to build a breeding scheme for the semi-arid ecosystem.Re.sult.s: In 3 years ( 1994-97). participatory farmer evaluation became the core of the project. with experi mental station breeding activities feeding into it. Alter analyzing informatio n ti•om 2-3 cycles nf panicipatory evaluation there is a list of general fa.rmer selection criteria (Table 3.1.1.1.). which may ha ve sorne resemblance to what we breeders usual! y look in experimental station uials (i.e. productivity. although expressed in different tetms). but refers more to specific concerns from the farmers. Complementary criteria. indude sorne that are location specific. like white roots for Araripina farmers: or good fo liage productio n for fatmers in Quixadá. who use it to teed animals during the dry .season. Now that we ha ve a pretty consistent li.st. we will concentrare in those criteria and .simplify the field book. in order ro make the process of pat1icipatory evaluation a more etfic ient one. One of the teatures that our methodo logy l1as distinguisheú it.self from others in the w•ea of panicipatory research. is the capacity w analyze the informatíon anú proviúe teeúback ro the breeders in terms that are simi lar to the unes they use. T he cumulatíve probability of having a 5<) patticular genotype in a given frumer preference arder (Figure 3.1.1.1.), is a practica! way of visualizing how the mateiials are pertorming in a given ru•ea. Thi.s year we explored a new avenue fo r farmer panicipatory evaluation. We invited a group of expen farmer.s to the experimental .site in Quixadá. for them to se lect. from un intermed iare .stage tria!. those genotype.s that wi ll be evaluated on their farms the t(lllowing crop cycle. They consistentl y .selected genorypes with good prnduction potential at 1 ó-mo harve.st (Table 3 Sorne of them were selected for having good dry matter content according to their testing methodology (chewing: nail: cracking the roots. etc.). Our objective is to pettect this methodology in order to gain efticiency in our breeding efforts for the semi-arid.The project trained 24 extension agents and tield technicians within the PROSERT AO project in Sergipe. That personnel is in charge of evaluating sources of res istance to root rots in conjunction with desi.rability for farmers. We have also trained 5 CNPMFs .scientists in data analysis and interpretation from participatory evaluation trials. Through the teedback information each scientist can take decisions on which technology component should be substituted and which introduced.Our close interaction with other IFAD-funded project (PROSERT ÁO) is based on farmer participatory evaluation of genetic materials generated within our project. and alternative crop management techno log ies generated at CNPMF. Pannerships such as this one. will broaden the scope of our project. and ensure that both the ge netic material and the methodolngy ge nerated with in the project wi ll diffuse and have the expected eco nomic impact.Breeding activities have bee n re-structured. Previous ly al! breedi ng stages were conducted in the 4 experimental sites Otaberaba. Araripina. Petrolina and Quixadá). Since I<J<J7. early generations (Fl C 1) are on ly evaluated in Quixadá and Ararip in a: intermediare generations (clona! and preliminary yie ld trials). are evaluated in those two sites plus Itaberaba: and at final evaluation stages Petrolina is also co nsidered. Most advanced trials are harvested at 16 to 1 Rmo: whi le early and intermediare stages are harvest at 12-mo. In the case of Araripina. greate r imponance has been given to the eva luatin n and se lectinn of white-root genotypes with better plant type and root dry matter cnntent than the local check rTrouxinha ). Improvement in roor yield at Araripina. for examp le. ranged fi•om 25 Ck to 1 OOik depending on rile ye ar. when all se lections are considered: although the top S white-root se lections ranged from 44<fé in preliminary yield tria l to 158% in clona! evaluatio n trial. One of the main objectives tilr the t()llow ing year is to stud y the homology of rhose regions with others in NE Brazil with the use 11f GIS tec hnology. in nrder ro k.now the possibi lities for funher diffusion ofrhose genotypes. (Probab ly good if we include scheme. plus a summary of results).The transkr nf e lose ro 70.000 rewmbina nt progenies represent the main linkage with Africa. Thanks to the IFAD-financed projec t. the ge neric base fo r the genetic imprm•e ment of cassa \\ ' U in A frica has been co nsiderabl y expamled.Genotypes se k cted by farmers :.1re alre:.td y under acti\\•e multipl icHiun by farmers and by Srate institutio ns ( like EPACE in Ceará). Tlwse mate rials wi ll be utficially recnmmended :.tnLI release d in 1 9<J~.Plaming material multiplicatinn is ha ving a central role ro play in the Lliffusion and auoprion of varieties se lected by far mers. The project is :Jcti\\•ely seeki ng partners hip wi th other projects and institutional dfnrts to ensure that the se lected materia! is rapidl y propagareu. Some 11f the genutypes under cu nsideratio n llave bee n selected under extrernel y dry co nditions. and can ha\\•e a tremendnus cuntribut ions for reg iuns rhat are periouicLJ.IIy affected by weather phenornena such as ••El :\"-Jiñu••.Panicipatory farmer evaluation of advanced genotypes as a routine procedure within the breeding scheme. Knowledge on selection criteria used by farmers to accept or reject new varieties. Improved knowledge on cassava production and processing systems in the semi-w•id. A group of scientists trained in panicipatory methodo logies. A group of vw-ieties prefeiTed by fw-mers and under multiplication. An dfective interaction wirh other projecrs in the region (like PROSERT ÁO). Germplasm transfen•ed to Sub-sahelian Africa.Acti,•irv 3.1.2. Joinr emluarion qf\"cassam ;:ermplasm wirh CORPOICA in Norrhem Colombia.Rationale: The objective ofrhis projecr was to evaluare. select and diffuse cassava genotypes for industrial uses (starch or dry cassava production). wirh high dry maner yield potential under an opt imized crop managemenr.Methods: For rwo cnnsecuti ve crop cyc les we evaluated 20 genorypes ( 16 expe rimental clones and 4 of the besr check varieties) in 4 sites in the Nonhern pan uf Colombia: Media Luna and Caracnlí (ponr. sandy soils): Repe lt>n Ch igh terrility: clay/loam soils. with irrigation): and Betulia (intermediare ferti liry. sandy/lnam soils). The majoriry nfexperimental clones included in this study had high cyan ide amllnr wh ite ronts. characterisrics that made them unsuitable for the fresh market. and more favorab le for industri al production.Results: In spite nf the difterence in snil fertilit y and availability nf water for the differem sites. there was a considerable similarity in terms nf production potentii.ll among sites (6.39 to 7. 7-+ t/ha nf dry maner). Four nf the 1 ()expe rime ntal clo nes were independentl y selected in all sites acruss the 2 ye:.1rs: while 5 clones were se lecred in 3 of the-+ sites (Tahle 3.1.2.1.). Those 9 genotypes are the unes being actively multiplied for furthe r field testing. and eva luation of t!nd-product 4uality (starch nr chips! with rile industry sector. On average a genetic gain n f 35 e;~ \\vas nbsen•ed when t.:n mparing rhe 9 selected genotypes wit h the check varieties inc luded in the c\\•a luation. lmpnl\\'ement in rnot yie ld Wi.lS the main respnnsib le fnr that generic gain. since Jry maner concentratinn re maineJ simi lar to the check varieties. Ac h ie ,.e me nts:Genntypes selected with a 3-+ck highe r dry llli.ltter productio n potential than check vari eties. A netwmk of representative sites for testing genot) pes anoss ~onhern Colombia hüs been established. :VIost llf ou r ctfmts in relation to cassava germplasm development have been concentrated on marginal ecosystems (i. e. semi-arid: low-tert il it y so i ls. etc.). Although cassava is considered i.l resilient crop in terms nf adaptability tn those marginal conditions. it is a species with an acellent capacit y to respond tn added inputs (water. tertilizer. etc.). In fact. under the most favorab le condi tions. cassava is only out-pe rfo rmed by sugar cane in tenns of prnductinn of mega-Gtlories per unit of area (ref.). Although we do not target our breedi ng to the favorable corHJitions in Palmira. all genotypes that are evaluated in sites representing tlle target ecosystems are mai ntained at CIA T. and get to be eva luated. the mid-altitude evaluation we included 4 genotypes that ha ve been declared elite for the region. based on severa! years of experimental evaluation. A total of 17 on-farm evaluation trials ha ve been established. with non replicated 50-plam plots. The on-farm trials are still to be harvested. In order to select genotypes for future on-farm trials. an advanced yield tria! was established in the region. including 29 of the most elite genotypes.Results: a) As a result of that evatuation 9 genotypes were selected (Table 3.1.3.1.) and 7 were substituted for the t997-9R evatuation. The average yield of the 9 se lected genotypes across years was 10.64 t/ha of dry manee. which represe nts a 46.2 % greater production potential than the best se1ections in the Nonhern part of the country (see Section 3.1.2.). We concluded rhat it was possible to select cassava ge notypes with production potential greater than 12 t/ha of dry matter. which represe nt aro und 13.5 t/ha of grains in one year. Unde r this condit ions cassava can ha ve a cn mpetitive margin with higher va1ue cro ps such as sugar cane. partic ularly for the starch 33.93.9 2.X activity is provided by the Ministry of Agriculture of Colombia. Our main partner is FIDAR. a we ll recognize NGO in the highland region. The evaluation included genotypes selected for their resistance to bacteria! blight. and production potential under highland environme nt; along with the local check varieties. We ha ve only harvested l experimental and one on-farm tria! at the moment. since the crop cycle exceeds 12 months. Results from tbis evaluation wil l allow to co llect info rmation on farmer selection criteria in the region. main crop management practices. and to determine the range of adaptatio n of the pre-selected genotypes. We are also multiplying those genotypes in a rder to have enough planting material fo r further diffusion. once final se lection by farmers is made.Ylost of the genotypes evalu ated at the experime ntal station leve!. coincided with those that too k pan on the se lection trials for yie ld potential in high fertility so ils. The soils in the experimental station were aci d (pH 3.7) but with high concentration of organic matter (9.2%). Seven ofthe 13 selected genotypes coincided with se lections made in the more tertile so ils (Table 3 During the co urse uf 1997-98 projects in vo lving cassava activities llave been developed with Paraguay and Cuba. The projects are titled: l.Sustainable deve lnpment and va lorization of cassava in Parag uay: Integration of usernriented crop produ ction. plant pro tectin n and post harvest processing. Eco logic:.llly sustainable plant protectin n and post harvest processing of cassava in Cuba.Bnth projects \\ve re initiateu and re4 uested by nur (CIAT) co llabo rators in eac h of the two cn untries. As can be nnted frnm rhe tit les both projects inc lude a production and post harvest cumponent. In the production co mponent. emphasis is given to germplasm se lection. crop manage ment and integrated pest manage ment. In addit io n bo th projects incl ude train ing ami the use nf fa rmer part icipatory methods. institutional strengthe ning. and ide ntification and imp lementatinn of cassava value -aduing inrerventions.The Paraguay prnject has been se nt co IFAD for funding consideration: the Cuba project has been sent ro IF:-\\D and IDRC. Bot ll funui ng nrga ni zatinns have inúicateu their interest in the projects.óó Activity 3. 1.5. lntegration of privare sector in cassava germplasm development projects.Rationale: A greater pro ponía n of o ur time is being invested in building linkages with the prívate secto r involveti in processing and co mrnercializatio n of cassava. Our aim is to develop cassava germplasm that can better link small poo r farrners to markets in expans io n. When we talk about panicipatory research. we usually refer to the involvement of farmers in the researc h process. It is also important to get other users involved in the process of selection and final evaluatio n (starch processo rs. feeti industry, toa d industry. etc.). A good pro po nio n of the work repo rteo for improving protiuction potential in Northem Colombia and Valle de l Cauca has been co ntiucted in association with starch processors. In the case of the teeti industry. Colo mbia is imp01ting mo re than 90% of the energy co mpo nent that goes into animal teed. Cassava has an exce llent po tential to substitute a great pan of it. The same s ituation can be founti in o ther tropical co untries. Theretore. o ur work has centereti o n improving the competitive capacity of tiry cassava in animal teeti. thro ugh the deve lo pment anti tiiffusio n of imp roveti germplasm anti the o ptimization of protiuction practices.In relation to the tooti market: cassava is being useti as the raw material for a variety of processeti footis (frozen. croquettes. etc.). We ha ve staned a collaboration with a majo r company in that area. fo r the evalu ation anti selection of cassava genotypes with improveti anti stable productivity and quality. We inte nti to draw lesso ns fro m those projects that can be applied to o ther regio ns in the tropics: both fo r the interaction with the privare sector as well as fo r the germplasm tieve lo ped.Methods: One of o ur assistants has been hired untier a commo n funti co ntributed by FENAVI (National Chicken Growers Federation). ACOPOR (Co lombian Po rk Growers Associatio n) and CONGELAG RO (frozen foods). Elite germplasm is being testeo in sites that have bee n prin ritized by the chicken and po rk industry (Valle del Cauca. T o lima. Cund inamarca. Meta. Santander) and the food industry (Quindío). Small multiplicatio n lo ts with genotypes already se lected as e lite materials in previo us years have been estab lished as bas ic seed lo ts. O ur assista nt also provides tec hnical suppon to all the partners invo lved in this project.Results: The project staned in January 19lJX. A total of 95 has ha ve bee n estab lis hed as multiplication. The interaction has invol ved X compan ies re lated to teed prntiuction. anda compa ny involved in food processing. Our goal is to root the idea nf a Latín American cassava fund and research program within the most imponam countries and institutio ns: so they become the main driving fo rce behind the definition nf the research agenda. its financing and execution. There is a need to work with the must imporrant institutions within eac h co untry in arder to define a mechanism of rep resentation to the fund. and for the detinition of research priorities. In the case of germplasm development and diffusinn there will be a need to identify an institution with in-vitrn culture facilities and with certain research infrastructure ro mount an evaluation program. from which the materials can tlow ro lHher institutions in the country. All that work is planed for the year ahead.Achievements: First contact made with institutions from the prívate secto r (mainly relared to processing of cassava). Suppon to the idea of a Latin American fund. expressed by public programs. Ratio na le:The a\\•ailability and LJUality uf planting material will determine the rate of diffusinn and the production potential of improved cassava germplasm. When we talk about LJUality of planting material in cassava. we refer to two aspects: phytosanitary and physiolngical LJUality. Therefme. the productio n of planting materials in areas that are free from the most imponant pests and diseases. as well as the management of the tield lots in terms of the contml uf the biotic constraints and the impro ve ment in so il tertility. play a very impoltant ro le in óX assuring an effective irnpact from our projects in cassava germplasm development. That is the reason why CIAT got invo lved in a project ro build a de-centralized multiplication scheme for cassava. aiming at learning the most and developing methodologies that can be adapted and applied in other tropical countries. The main o bjectives of this project financed by the Ministry of Agriculture of Colombia were: a) to select appropriate cassava varieties ro include in the multiplication scheme: b) to select proper multiplication sites and partner institutions: e) to organize the establishment of multiplication tields. their management. harvesting and distribution system for the planting material: and d) to train farmers and technicians in the management of seed lots.The proposed se heme to be established is presented in Figure 3.1. 7.1. In order to build it from existing material we establ ished certitied seed lots with 3 released varieties: 2 regional varieties and 1 pre-release genotype. with planting material originating in selected tields (free from majar pests and diseases. and with good production potential). Regis ter seed lots were establis hed with 16 elite experimental clones. so rne of which ha ve been selected under onfarm evaluation trials. These two stages we re conducted in 7 sites in Notthern Co lombia. covering an area of 22 has. Basic seed lots were established with planting material from the 3 released and 2 reg ional varieties at CIAT derived from indexed in-vitro plants: to ensure the supply of clean material into future generatio ns. Also at C IAT. we established plots o f elite with planting material derived from plants in exce llent phytosanitary and physiological status.  Changes in the mean of the clonal population being evaluated at the advanced stage of regional trials appears to be the best indicator of our selection progress as a who le. This is primarily beca use at this stage a good number of the most advanced materials are evaluated in a multilocation scheme and the clona! enuies represent not only the leve! of selection accomplishment at the moment. but also the possible change that can take place in near future once these entries are released. Genotypes being evaluated at this stage are usually included a<; parentallines. representing the leve! nf breeding materials (hybrid seeds) our CIAT/Thai program offers to other national programs. We can reaso nable assume that the mean of this population represe ms the leve ! of breeding population in eac h year.A.n at.lditional at.l vantage nf ta.king population means rather than the yielt.l data of the best pettormer is ro minimize the error factor. The very high yield of a top pettormer cou ld not be usually repeatet.l. because the major pottion of phenotypic value WJS of non-genetic nature.There is a highl y visible improvement in the actual dry ront yield of the breeding population in rhe past 15 years (Figure 3. 2.1.1.). This significant yield increase (by more than ISO 'k ) must ha ve been attaineó not only by the genetic effects but also by the impmvemem in field management of the yield trials during the same period. Therefore. the comparison of the pnpulatin n mean with the mean of the control (Rayong l) tives a more accurate picture. From th is comparison we can clearly see that there has been a highly convincing genetic improvement in the dry root yie ld leve! of breeding populations (Figure 3     Change in relative mean root dry matter content (<k of common contro l cultivar. Rayong 1) of all clona! entries in regional tria ls in all locations (evaluation stage V) during 1982 -1996 in Thai land.   Broad-sense heritability and phenotypic con•e lations obtained at a given se lection stage may lead ro eiTOneous se lection schemes.Regression across evaluarían srages gives the most useful informarían.In early evaluarían stages. eliminating inferior phenotypes is more beneticial rhan se lecring superior phenorypes.Selection for roor dry matter co nrent can be co nducted without serious effects on other yie ld componenrs. 5.Harvesr index has consisrently high heritabiliry ar each evaluation stage. w hile bio mass and yie ld have low herirability. 6.Genotype by eva luation stage interacrion for root yield is greatesr between single-row tria! anú plot trial. while that of harvest inúex L-; much smaller. Se lecrion at single-row trial. usual! y the seco nd stage uf evaluation. is mo st crucial to the final success uf selection fo r higher yielú.lndi.rect select ion for yield thruugh harvest index is more etfective than direct selection by yield itse l f. especiall y in rhe early evaluatiun stages. All the se varietal dissemination follow the scheme of small farmers producing cassava to be processed for starc h or animal seeds by medium to large scale factories. One notable exception is the varieta1 disse mination to a mass of small farmers in North Vietnam. where the planted area is expressed in m2 rather than hectares. and the yield advantage of new cultivars is used for increasing the number of pigs and poultry in each famil y.As a conseq ue nce of these. we can now clearly see a significant increase of mean cassava yield at the country (Thailand. Fig.     Area plantad ('1 ooo ha) 1 Mean freah root yleld (tlhl!l)Freah root productfon (1 000 t) xn commercial operatio ns, net protit rather than the value of sales may be more critical. However. in the national development context, value of sales may be more important indicator of the socioeco nomic benefits. as it represents employment. purchasing power and the availability of useful products.To concentrare in most direct monetary effects and avoid possible duplicares. we used only two measures for the eco nomic gain. additional (or reduced) tield production of fresh cassava roots dueto the higher (or lower) yield of new cultivars and additional factory starch (or chips) production due to the higher starch (o r dry matter) content of new cultivars co mpared with the traditional cu ltivars. The addit ional factory protit generated by the gross additional availability of raw materials is not accounted fo r. Jet alone the additional production of numerous secondary products. This. the real gross additional economic effects are much more than the ones described in these simple analyses.Fo r the yield and starch content advantage (o r disadvantage) conten•ed by the adoption of new cu ltivars. we used the means of many on-farm trials. The abso lute yield figures represent what average farmers would be able to obtain in their fields and the yield differe nce from the traditio nal culti var. which actually matters more. would represent what they could benetit from planting new cultivars in a wide range nf farming conditions. For on-f<u•m price of fresh cassava rnots and factory starch price. we u sed the low price in Thailand fo r 1996/97.Cassava market for starch process ing is rapid ly expanding in Asia. It must be reasonably safe to assume that the additional prnductions herein rep011ed led to the additinnal cash incomes in their near entirety and the adoption of new high yielding cultivars is an indirect proof for this. The subseq uent analyses prove that cassava is clearly an attractive means for small farmers to improve their cash income.In Thailand. where the varietal adnption staned with Rayong 3 (higher starch content. but lower fresh yield). the farmers ha ve bee n actually losing money by the sa les of fres h roots until recently when new cu lti vars with bnth high fresh yield and starch content stane u to replace Rayong 3 (Figure 3.2.2.4. ). The additiona l eco no m ic effects caused by the higher starch cnntent has been highly significant. Until recently. virtually all the eco nomic benefits have been due to the higher starch cn ntent of new cultivars. The additional value due to the adoption of new cultivars is est imated to be -l-2.-J. million US uollars in fresh ront production and X7.6 mil lion in starch production for the 1996/97 season in Thailand (Table 3 .2.2.1.. Figure 3.2.2.4).In Indonesia. the advantage of new cultivars is clearly in both fresh yield and starch content: rhus. the additinnal fresh root yielus in the fields anu the additional starch prnduction in the factories. bot h induced substantial economic gains. 32.6 and -l-4.7 million US Jollars. respecti,•ely (Table 3 .2.2.2 .. Figure 3.2.2.5.).In Vie tnam. more mnney has been made by the sa les of planting sta.kes of new cultivars than fresh root han•ests and higher starch cnntent. in the previous years. Howeve r. the benefits causeu by the auuitinnal fresh ront production and the additional st:.trch prnduction will soon nutstrip the stake sale from the llJlJ6/97 season (Figure 3.2.2.6. ). Throughout all these processes. the advantage of higher starch content was highly significant. It is the higher starch co ntent rather than the higher fresh yield of new cultivars that accelerated the adoption of new cultivars. The total economic effects due to the superior yield and quality of new cultivars accumulated in the past 10 years is estimated to be 693 rnillion US dollars in Asia (Figure 3.2.2.7.). Annua.l econom lc effects ca.u s ed by a.doptlon o., new . . . . 9 V\\ttv ;ars _ . ~~:;::: 7 .:::::::...:._:.....:.....:.....:._:_~_;... In this repo n. we primarily analyze the ecnnomic effects caused by the add itional yield leve! and add itinnal starch co ntent nf the CIAT-re lated new culi vars. Yet. when we consider all the hisrnry of cassava processing industry in Asia. the establishment and development l)f large cassava product market by the Thai entrepreneurs and the se lection of cultivar Raynng l. whic h has bee n the back bo ne ofThai cassava production. are the most significa nt fac tors. The monetary co ntri butio ns of these must be in the bil lio ns of US do ll ars. The greatnes.s nf Rayong l is not limited tn rhe imme nse ly successful fie ld productio n in the past 2 nr 3 decades. but also extended tn the rnle nf effecti ve cmss parents as it produced Rayong óO and Kasetsart 50 among others thmug l1 hybridizi ng with the introduced pare nts fro m CIA T. Colo mbia. The co ntributi on of Thai farmers who se lec red Rayong 1 should be reme mbered.Virtually a ll the cassava production takes place in sma ll farmer.s• field s and all the harvests are so Id ro the pmcessors in Thai land. 1 n Vietnam a !so. all the cassa va is produced by small fa rmers. and in So uth Viet nam those advanced cas.sava farme rs who llave adopted the new culti vars sell ,-inuall y all the han •ests to the processors. fn Indonesia and Philippines. so rne fie ld productions are hand led by large plantations: ye t. the majority of production takes place in small farmer's XY fields. Thus. we can assume that virrually aJl the additional eco nomic effects generated by the higher fresh root yield of new cultivars are entering directly to the pockets of smaU tarmers.On the other hand. how much of the additional protit generated by the higher starch content of new cultivars is shared by the farmers depends on what differential prices starch factories (or chipping plants) pay to the farmers. If the factory pays the same price for roots of different starch conte nt (in other words. does not honor or recognize the breeders • and farmers' effons to produce higher quality products) al! the additional protit would be absorbed by the tactory.A recent price se heme ata sta.rch factory in Rayong. Thailand. indicares that more than a half of the cost of starch is the cost of ti•es h cassava e ven with cassava roots of high starch content. suggesting that in general a fair price is paid to the producers. More interesting is what pro poninn nf additional starch amount produced by the higher starch content is compensated back ro the farmers. Since the factory can benefit from the increased amount nf final product. its business can still be viable even if the factory fully ( IOO<k ) co mpensares farmers for the higher starch cnntenr. Most large factories are returning 55 to 100% of the va lue of additional starch productio n caused by higher starch cnntent of the raw material to the tarmers. All in al!. th~ scheme is not out rightly unfair to the farmers. We can safely assume that a substantial pnnion. more than half. of the 693 million US dollars so far generated by the adoption of new cultivars has entered the householú income of sma ll farmers.The recent varieta! úissemination in Nonh Vietnam revealed that thousands of small farmers are adopting new cassava cultivars in their small plots (360-5000 m2 ). Virtual! y al! of them use the add itional cassava yield fo r pig feeding which results in 50-600 kg additional sale (U$ -+5--+54)per f'álnily per year ro the market. The whole scheme is notas spectac ular as the rapid varietal úisseminatinn in South Vietnam or 1Hher countries. Yet. here is a scheme where a new tec lmology is spreaúing thin and wide very democratical!y. creating economic opponunities for bette ring their farm li ves. This is in sharp contrast to the accustnmed sc hemes where powett\"ul ones (starch factory owners or smart organizers of stake rnultiplication of production ) take the best share of the profit. Here appe~rs to be a mnst equitable contribution nf crop breeding.:\\cti,•itY 3 .\"~. 5. Local rraining f~{ Asian cassm•a hret:ders.l\"ntil llJlJ() the main strategy for training Asían scientists working on c~ssava was through ~ onemonth cnurse held at CI:\\T-C1llombia. As available funds gnt reLiuceú. the strategy sw itch to nn-_ -;ite training. CIAT's bree der gnt tngether wit h National Program breeúers at harvesting time tu e,•<. duate anlimake selectinns together. Frnm this process a set of selection cri teria anú st rategies fur rhe diffusion of im prnveú variet ies ha ve been estab lisheú tür each un the main regions. The imeraction has ~lso prm•iueú oppmtun ities f()r training in specific aspects for which the :--Jational Programs ~ppeareú weak.In llJ9 5. we hada un ique opponunity to gather al! Asian cassava breede rs and accompany tl1e harvest 11f all breed ing stages in Thailand. The workshnp was organized u pon request fmm Asían cassava breeúers that \\vanred to wi tness well nrganizec..l and executeú breeding and disseminarinn prngrams. :\\ mral of -U partic ipants from 7 countries joineú the event. The l)() workshop provided good methodological learning, set goals and strategies to achieve those goals in a given time. This kind of activity was only possíble thanks to the hospitality of the Food Crops Research Institute of Thailand. They openly shared their results. allowed participants to tu.ke active pan of the selection process. and gave representatives from each of the institutions a set of recombinant progenies from the most elite genotypes in the program. to tu.ke home and initiate an adaptive selection process.Activitv 3.2.6. Facilitare communication within the Asian cassava breeders network.Within the informal network of Asían cassava scientists. breeders represent the majority of active participants. In November 1996. the V Asían Cassava Research Workshop was held in the Chinese Academy ofTropical Agricultura! Sciences (Hainan). The workshop was attended 58 cassava scie ntists from Asia and CIAT-Colombia. There has been a co ns istent improvement from previous workshops. Presentatio ns were better prepared and the leve! of participation in the discussio n from the tloor was much mo re active than previously. Many more national program participants could tind their own source for tinancing the trips to attend the Workshop.There was a unanimo us feeling that this network meeting every 3 years is a highly worthwhilt! undertu.king. The continuation and invitation to new members are very desirable.In varieta l improveme nt. most national institutions reponed on their favorable progress in selection and dissemination of elite genotypes. Both at Rayong and Kasetsart cassava breeding programs in Thailand. further se lect ion for yet higher physiological yie ld leve! is promising.Other national programs are yet ro se lect their own superior materials wh ile the further disseminatio n of presently available materials. mostly se lected from CIAT introductions. can bring about sig nificant co ntributions to the farm ers. Al! these developments offer ample opportunities tor further socio-ecnnomic analyses. In general. the teeling of having cometo the best period of development and \"let go on with the present momentum•• was stro ng. Everyone was convinced that the network was functioning we 11 and producing actual results.T\\lgether \\.vith members of the netwo rk we ha ve analyzed the present s ituation in germp lasm development and disseminat ion (Table 3.2.6.1. ). The situation is a retlection more of the cu rrent institucio nal and socio-eco nomic t.lifficulties rather than the leve! of personal competence and commitment. There are seve ra! cnuntries with stro ng programs in germplasm selection and t.lissemination. Fnr some of the countries there is variabil ity in terms of the capacity of ditlerent institutions tn progress in each of the stages that lead to the disse mination nf successfu l cassa\\•a varie ties (i.e. China and Indonesia)Amnng the pnsitiYe aspect nf a netwnrk nf institutions in Asia. has been the capitalizatinn on tht! strength of institutions like FCRI (Thailand) and others for the suppon of thnse weu.ker programs. and the t.levelopment of synerg istic interactinns. !)2t.","tokenCount":"21376"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9a5f1b71440ef9b080c1eaa6a6c3bc7a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0f3a95a3-4070-44cc-90b0-7185d763ea11/retrieve","id":"-999496156"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c0816f04-06b9-4617-92ba-4a0105cc9b56","pagecount":"20","content":"CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.orgWe would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.An animal identification and traceability system (AITS) is a necessary component in livestock development to help in identifying and tracing animals. The identification of animals enables selection of those with superior performance, monitoring of their health status, managing and monitoring productivity in herds and tracking the movement and trade of animals and animal products. As part of the interventions in the dairy sector of Nepal under the CGIAR Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihood, Nutrition and Gender (SAPLING), the Africa Asia Dairy Genetic Gain Program (AADGG) approached the Nepal Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) and offered support in developing an AITS. In line with relevant protocols and agreement with the MoALD, an AITS was developed in consultation with key stakeholders in the country and submitted to the government for approval.The AITS protocol (Annex 1) was approved by the Ministry (Annex 2), and the requisite ID generation system has been deployed in the sub-domain (https://ainms.moald.gov.np/) under the domain (https://moald.gov.np/) of MoALD in the server provided by National Information Technology Center (NITC) of Government of Nepal. An initial set of Animal IDs has been generated using the tools developed and equipment purchased through the AADGG program for the tagging of more than 500 buffaloes in the AADGG/SAPLING project areas. The identification of animals is initially being rolled out for all buffaloes registered under the AADGG/SAPLING program. It will be expanded to other regions of the country where performance recording is being implemented through the government.The partners in Nepal include the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), the National Livestock Breeding Office (NLBO), and the National Animal Breeding and Genetics Research Centre (NABGRC). The National Information Technology Center (NITC) under the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) supports the hosting of the national database.Any improvements and changes in the livestock sector are hinged on the availability of information and data on animal characteristics and their performance within different production environments. From the collation of onfarm records, national animal databases are built and maintained for ready access to information on existing Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) in a country. This information is critical for strategic planning, cost-effective development of livestock improvement programs and conservation of threatened AnGR. Livestock recording systems thus provide a multipurpose lead technological tool for transforming livestock production, notably in developing countries (Hoffmann et al. 2011). The adoption of animal identification and traceability within a country is an initial critical step towards implementing a breeding program for improving animal productivity under the existing production systems.In Nepal, the AITS provides an opportunity for the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) which is responsible for monitoring livestock productivity and the disease status of the population to track information electronically across different regions of the country. The system developed provides a platform for Dairy farmers, and in the long-term farmers keep different species of animals to identify, monitor and track their animals and products for better returns. The AITS additionally provides a boost for the Nepal Livestock Insurance Program that seeks to mitigate the risks for farmers yet has no uniform system for identifying the animals. The ability of the new AITS system to provide unique identification for each animal across the different regions of the county provides an opportunity for the insurance companies to provide better targeted and more realistic insurance products for the different types of animals.A fully functional, comprehensive, integrated, and centralized web-based software application developed by ILRI will be used by the Department of Livestock Services to run the Unique Identification Number (UIN) generation, distribution, and management. The entire web-based system is deployed/hosted in the data center provided by the NITC under the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) under the Ministry of Communication, Information, and Technology (MoCIT). It can be accessed through the link https://ainms.moald.gov.np/ by the authorized agency (DLS) under MoALD.The UIN consists of 12 digits starting with animal species* (one digit), province code (one digit), auto-incrementing index for each animal (nine digits), and a single check digit. The generated 12 digits including the last check digit will be printed in the animal ear tag and displayed.*Species is indexed as follows:1 -Cattle, 2 -Buffalo, 3 -Goat, 4 -Sheep, 5 -Pig, 5 -Dog, and so on.Currently, access is given to the NLBO Pokhra, which is the agency designated by MoALD to generate UIN. As the program expands, the NLBO Pokhra station will be able to provide user credentials to other provincial directorates or any other designated office to enable them to generate unique numbers that are in line with the system requirements. In line with the mandate provided through MoALD, any individual, development partner, or institution that needs to tag or identify animals will be required to NLBO Pokhra to provide the IDs as per the protocols determined. Costs for printing and applying the tags on the animals will be met by the concerned requisitioner.The types of tags recommended for use in large ruminants will be 50 x 55 mm on which the 12-digit animal ID will be printed in two rows with six (6) digits in each row.The animal UIN generation and management system will be run under the sub-domain (https://ainms.moald.gov.np/) of the main domain (https://moald.gov.np/) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD).The fully functional animal identification system is in place in the government domain. ICT personnel have been trained to generate the Unique Identification Numbers (UIN) and a tag printer is in place at the NLBO station in Pokhra. An initial 7,000 buffalo will be tagged under the AADGG/SAPLING program in Koshi and Madhesh Provinces. The AITS will be publicized and rolled out across other regions of the country through the Nepal government institutions. Identification and traceability of farm animals are critical components of the transformation of livestock production systems in middle-and low-income countries. The identification of animals enables monitoring and evaluation of their performance and productivity across systems, networking and building trust among actors in value chains for different products from livestock, and tracking the movement and trade in animals and animal products. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO 1 ), and the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR 2 ) have developed guidelines and standards for animal identification recording and Traceability to be adopted by their member states and other interested countries. Additionally, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) promotes the identification and traceability of animals as a pillar to improve animal health and welfare across the globe. Countries however require legislative frameworks to enable the adoption of animal identification and traceability across different farming systems.Over the years, different methods and protocols have been adopted by stakeholders and service providers in Nepal to identify and trace animals. A pedigree and performance recording scheme The overall objective of the AITS is to establish and support a robust animal identification and traceability system in Nepal that supports decision-making in the livestock sector. The specific objectives are:o to establish an ICT-based system for generating unique identification numbers (UIN) for each animal across the different livestock species o to facilitate collaboration among the public, cooperative and private sector actors in improving the production and productivity of different livestock species o to facilitate tracing of animals and animal products for food safety and animal disease controlThis protocol includes:This protocol is prepared to register farms (herd /farmers) and animals with a unique number, that will be registered onto a national database. At the time of animal registration, the animal ID, date of birth, dam ID, Sire ID and Breed are recorded using ICT tools. The registration tools have modules to enable the capture of information on the movement of animals off the farms for different purposes. In addition, the owner of the animal will receive a unique number with their address, farm name, and other relevant information for traceability. Please see Appendix 1 on the generation of a 12-digit Unique Identification Number (UIN) for each animal.This system was established to trace animals from where they were produced and maintained throughout their lives. The information for an animal registered on the system is updated to reflect any new location of the animal if the animal is moved from one farm to another. Finally, dates and details on the slaughter or death of an animal are recorded. The data recorder or service provider authorized to use the AADGG application shall make entries in the application when they realize that the particular animal has moved from another location.Linking the National Animal Health Information System to the AITS to identify the outbreak of any diseases and monitor the movement of diseases from one place to another place. Certification on health status will be required for animals whenever there are changes in their ownership, or when they are moved to different locations of the country.The Pedigree Performance Recording System (PPRS) used for the genetic evaluation of animals will be linked to AITS. The system will be expanded to collate data from smallholder farms alongside medium and large-scale operations.The benefits of the AITS include:1. National animal identification protocols facilitating animal performance recording and genetic evaluation for improving productivity across different farming systems.2. Enhanced food safety and control of the quality of products from livestock 3. Opportunity for Export of animal products 4. Enhanced monitoring and tracing of diseases across the livestock population.5. Platform available to support the adoption of animal insurance across livestock systems 4. Implementation of unique identification number (UIN) for farm animals a) The AITS will initially be available for all interested farmers through the NLBO station at Pokhra. In the long term, Animal identification will become mandatory to enable farmers to receive government incentives and/or participate in governmental programs.b) At registration, each animal will be assigned a 12-digit Unique Identification Number (UIN) with the last digit as a check digit for its identification (Please see Appendix 1). Through the system, poultry will be identified as a flock.c) Government, non-government organizations, and third-party agencies that work in livestock development and animal identification are encouraged to use and follow this AITS protocol.d) Organizations requiring a UIN to tag their animals shall request the authorized central agency NLBO, Pokhra, to generate a UIN using software developed in collaboration with ILRI as part of the AADGG-SAPLING Nepal program. The generation of UINs can later be expanded to Provincial Directorates.e) Once the UIN is received, the requisitioner is responsible for purchasing and printing tags and applying them to their animals at their own cost.f) A unique flock identity number will be used to identify poultry.District-level offices called VHLSECs /Municipal LSs determine the required number of tags and submit their request via email/web-based system to the Provincial Ministry or Directorate of Livestock and Fisheries Development (DoLFD). This shall be verified by the relevant DoLFD or provincial ministries and forwarded to NLBO Pokhra for UIN generation.Agencies including development partners, investors and insurance companies can directly approach NLBO Pokhra for UIN. As adoption of the system expands, Provincial Directorates will be given the responsibility to generate UIN for their regions in line with set protocols.The requisitioner shall collect the UIN from the authorized agency (currently NLBO Pokhra) and print tags they purchased at their cost.o A Plastic, Barcoded RFID can be used with the standard number to print UIN.o The quality, material, size, and other standard specifications of ear tags should be followed as per this AITS protocol (Appendix 1).o A 50 x 55mm tag for large ruminants in which a 12-digit animal ID will be printed in two rows by six (6) digits in each row as illustrated in Figure 1. o The distribution of ear tags at each stage will be documented through a digital database.It is mandatory for animals tagged with the UIN to be registered using the Africa-Asia-Dairy-Genetic Gains (AADGG) mobile application at the time of applying the tags.Data entered at registration will be synchronized to a centralized national server.It is noted that over time, animals have been identified and tagged using different identification systems by both governmental and non-governmental organizations.To minimize the challenges of multiple identification numbers for an individual animal (or a flock of poultry), we propose that a new UIN be assigned to each animal to replace the existing Ear Tag. Registration information on these animals via the AADGG App will require documentation of both the previous Tag ID and the new UIN 6. The animal Identification number management systemThe UIN generation system has been deployed in the sub-domain (https://ainms.moald.gov.np/) under the domain (https://moald.gov.np/) of MoALD in the server provided by National Information Technology Center (NITC) of the Government of Nepal.The integrated, centralized web-based data management system designed, developed, and deployed for the animal UIN for AITS will be routinely managed and further upgraded by MoALD. The web-based platform allows for the configuration of required parameters, cross-validation checks, detail reporting, summary reporting, and infographics dashboard, which are needed to optimize quality assurance and data management activities. The web-based platform also has a facility to communicate with other platforms via API to share and validate data. Access to relevant data will be authorized and granted as per MoALD's set priority and permission procedures.Any authorized organization may request API-based accessibility to get the required data/information integrated with their system, and the MoALD will hold the authority to make the decision. Different actors from different sectors will be able to get access to the data, information, system, report, and many more as needed. Only authorized users from any of the organizations will be able to access the system and data. The basic type of analysis and generation of standard reports will be automated in the system and will be accessible to higher-level offices. Further, any organization requiring access to the data to conduct any research or analysis shall submit their application to MoALD, and MoALD will provide access to applicants. For instance, VHLSEC or local level Livestock Section (LS) will get access to verify the information of identified/registered animals as per the AITS Protocol if they get some claim on the insurance. Users from VHLSEC or the local level Livestock Section (LS) will be able to see the data of the registered animal in their particular location. They also will be able to monitor the progress made by field workers and many more. Other institutions and third-party agencies/organizations will get an API-based connection to the data if they want to communicate for a particular access. They will not be able to push any data but will be able to pull animal information. The security protocol of information technology will be used at most. The DoIT will oversee the security of data and the system.While the general public can access limited information about registered /tagged animals (owner name, location, species, breed, sex, date of birth, etc.) through the web URL (https://ainms.moald.gov.np) or AADGG App (using tag number), an authorized person can access the AADGG Platform (web, mobile app) using a given credential for all types of animal performance details.At the inception of the system, UIN numbers were generated, printed on tags, and applied to more than 7,000 buffaloes in the Koshi and Madhesh Provinces through the dairy Buffalo improvement program supported by the AADGG-SAPLING program implemented by ILRI.","tokenCount":"2594"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cdad9aaa072772684b932b03954a5fef","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a7edf74f-e25e-4b6f-9847-d9a8e304efc1/retrieve","id":"-1814457317"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e9622069-abc1-468d-881c-0bbb3b62690f","pagecount":"17","content":"Participatory Mapping or mapping with professional knowledge, experience and actual knowledge of the community has been mentioned since 1970s (IFAD, 2009) and it appreciates local people's contribution in decision making. The Participatory Mapping is broadly applied not only in natural source management but also in many other fields (Chambers, 2006)  such as developing of hunger elimination and poverty reduction, education, husbandry, and security maps, etc.The Participatory Mapping method was also applied by Vietnam's Department of Crop Production and the CCAFS SEA in designing the approach for Climate-risk mapping and adaptation planning -CSMAP (Yên et al., 2019). Maps were developed for climate risk scenarios in normal and extreme years, using available database on terrain, climate, hydrology, infrastructure and practical experience of farmers, scientists and local officers.Local knowledge is very important in identifying affected area, the level of climate risks and adaptation measures taking into account local contexts (natural resources, infrastructure and production activities). In CSMAP, spatial and temporal factors are used in analysis following a 5-step process as specified in Figure 1. The process of developing CSMAP is perform collectively by agriculture, land use planning, hydrology, natural resources and environment officials, GIS experts, private sector partners and local people (i.e. agricultural extension officers, commune and/or village leaders, farmers, etc.) who have experience in agricultural production.To develop maps for a province, detailed information needs to be updated from district level. Invite 2-3 representatives from each district (following criteria above) to participate in a provincial workshop/meeting. Note:• To take best advantage of indigenous knowledge, participation of a wide range of stakeholders from related agencies is recommended. • The maps developed following steps below require frequent update by local stakeholders due to changes in biophysical conditions or agricultural development plans.Step 1: Define Climate-risksThe extent to which Climate-risks affect crops depends on intensity and time of occurrence of the risks, and other factors such as crop variety and growth stage, crop management practices, infrastructure readiness, and local resilience capacity. For example, salinity intrusion causes less damage to crop at tillering stage than flowering stage. Therefore, climate-risks and their potential damage levels diverse among different areas within the same region under similar climate conditions. However, there are various understanding about the definition of climate-risks and their potential damage levels. Therefore, it is important to achieve common understanding among stakeholders through participatory mapping method.Purpose: to develop criteria to determine Climate-risks.-List of Climate-risks (i.e., drought, flood, …)-Potential damage levels of those risks to crops (i.e., high, medium, low)Refer to secondary data on Climate-risks, hydrometeorology, climate-responsive infrastructure and recent agricultural production in the targeted region.Focus Group Discussion -FGD (Appendix 1): Organize thematic FGDs with 10-15 participants. This method encourages participants to share their opinions. During FGDs, the facilitator should respect all individual opinions, record the number of votes for and against each point. The ranking or scoring methods can be adopted to support decision making (Appendix 4).Key Informant Panels -KIP (Appendix 2): KIP with scientists in the fields of agriculture, irrigation, hydrometeorology, land use planning, natural disaster prevention, and people who have experience in local agricultural production, community development, and local authorities.However, the quality of information from KIP is subject to the personal view and their expertise, and can be strongly influenced by their biases.Materials and equipment required: A0 sheets, markers and colored papers.The facilitator lists Climate-risks in the targeted region and relevant causes (Appendix 3) on an A0 sheet (841 x 1189 mm) for all participants to view and discuss, and request participants to supplement the list if necessary (Table 1).It should be noted that one type of risk to production can be caused by a variety of climaterelated events, such as flooding can be caused by upstream flows or by local heavy rains. One Climate-risk can also cause different subsequent risks. For example, drought can cause a shortage of necessary irrigation water and can induce salinity intrusion, which results in water becoming unusable for agricultural production. In case of multiple Climate-risks, the Pairwise Ranking Method (Appendix 4) can be used to select the Climate-risks to be prioritized. The facilitator asks participants to name the identified risks and how to evaluate their levels of potential damage in the targeted region. S/he takes notes on an A0 sheet for participants to view, discuss, and agree on the local names of the identified risks and criteria to evaluate their potential damage levels. It should be noted that potential of historical and future damages may be different due to the potential changes in infrastructure and other responsive measures.Example: For the case of the Mekong River Delta (MRD) in Vietnam, the timing, frequency and intensity of the risk, and readiness capacity of a specific area are combined by participants to define 4 potential damage levels associated with proportion of potential yield loss: (1) High: more than 70%; (2) Moderate: 30%-70%; (3) Low: less than 30%; and (4) No affected: no significant effect on yield.Potential damage levels of a Climate-risk are subject to timing, location and intensity of the risk, and land use type and readiness of preventive structures. Thus, it is needed to prepare different responsive scenarios. For instant, moderate vs severe drought events or regular vs intensive operations of irrigation systems…To develop risk scenarios, the facilitator guide participants to list normal and extreme years of an identified climate disaster together with clear definition of the 'normal' and the 'extreme' events. Facilitators can use the same method being described in S1.1 and S1.2.Step 2: Participatory mappingPurpose:This step is for participants to get familiar with the base map, and check the place names and ground objects on the map. This step also allows updating the base map with recent changes.Participants are able to recognize the directions, land marks and locations on the base map.The main method of this step is FGD (Appendix 1). In implementing the CSMAP method, through FGD, participants help each other get familiar with the maps.The paper base map for hand-drawing, scale from 1:50,000 to 1:100,000 for province level, from 1:10,000 to 1:50,000 for the district level, from 1:5,000 to 1:10,000 for the commune level, and from 1:2,000 to 1:5,000 for the village level. The base map should include the following layers: topography, land use/land cover, land marks and administration. The base map should be printed in color on a A0 paper.The facilitator asks participants to place the map following the correct direction and check the place names and ground objects on the map.A Climate-risk often occurs in a specific period of time. For example, floods caused by surplus flows and heavy rain often occur during the rainy season, while droughts occur during the dry season. Clear definition of temporal boundary will help participants to link the risk with the targeted agricultural product better.Spatial boundary of the risk is often defined by physical land conditions such as terrain, relative elevation, soil type, and available of preventive structures (e.g. drainage canal, dyke, pump station, sluice gate, etc.) and development stage of the crop. Spatial boundary on the map can be determined by participants based on pre-prepared information of topography, administration, land use pattern and land marks of the target area.Note: both temporal and spatial boundaries of a climate risk are relative and need to be defined for each scenario.To define the temporal and spatial boundaries of the climate risk for each of agricultural products by pre-defined scenario (S1.3).-A map for each Climate-risk in a scenario for a particular product by season.-The potential damage levels of the risk in S1.1 are defined for every land management unit (such as plot, field or sub-region depending on the required details) on the map.The main method to define the potential damage levels of Climate-risks is FGD (Appendix 1) which may be combined with modeling method.The modeling method requires expertise in hydrometeorology and agricultural system. It is usually performed by research institutions because it requires a large number of input parameters and includes a complicated process of calibration and validation. Then, the simulation results will be validated by local stakeholders through FGD.In implementing the CSMAP method, FGD enables sharing experience about the historical Climate-risks among stakeholders.-The paper base map for hand-drawing, scale from 1:50,000 to 1:100,000 for province level, from 1:10,000 to 1:50,000 for the district level, from 1:5,000 to 1:10,000 for the commune level, and from 1:2,000 to 1:5,000 for the village level. The base map should include the following layers: topography, land use/land cover, land marks and administration. The base map should be printed in color on a A0 paper.-A transparent film of A0 size is placed on top of the map to allow participants to outline the spatial boundaries of the Climate-risk.-It is advised to use erasable markers so that the film can be reused for multiple tasks.The markers should come in different colors for different types of information.Implementation process:The facilitator guides participants to define the temporal boundary (a particular season or time period) and the relevant Climate-risks (outcome of S1.1). For example, floods usually occur in rainy seasons while droughts happen in dry seasons.The determination of spatial boundaries of the climate risk on the map is carried out in various tasks for different products, planting seasons, scenarios and risks. Therefore, it is necessary to define clear tasks to carry of the delineation of spatial boundaries. The process is recorded in the Table 2 below: Note: The process from now until the end of Step 3 is carried out for each task (as defined in Table 2).The facilitator instructs participants to:-Fix the transparent films on the base map.-Draw the boundaries of the areas that will potentially be damaged by the climate risk.-Write the potential damage levels in the middle of the map polygons using different codes to distinguish the levels. Other remarks can be noted at the margins of the map.-Place the map with the film on a flat surface and take photos perpendicularly for saving and storing information. It is recommended to use natural light to prevent reflections on the film.The output of this step is fed into Step 3 to propose adaptation plans.Example 2. For rice production in the MRD of Vietnam, there are two Climate-risks: drought-salinity intrusion (from January to March) and floods (from August to November). There are two scenarios of potential damage of these risks: (a) the moderate-damage year and (b) the extreme-damage year.Step 3: Propose adaptation plans Adaptation plans for a particular risk need to be developed for specific sites based on natural characteristics, products, infrastructure readiness and the risks map (output of Step 2).Propose adaptation plans for each task in Step 2.1 (Table 2).Output:A map of adaptation plans for each task (Table 2).To carry out this step, the main method is FGD (Appendix 1) which may be combined with the modeling method.The base map (Step 2.1), the transparent film with risk boundaries and potential damage levels, and erasable colored pens.Implementation process:The facilitator guides participants to review the climate risk, its potential damages across the region and causes of the risk. This helps the participants build an overall picture of the region and synthesize information up to this step. Table 3 demonstrates a template that can be used to facilitate this process, and an example of the output. Adaptation plans need to be relevant to local characteristics, the risk and its potential damages.In general, there are two types of adaptation actions: construction and non-construction.In this document, a construction action is understood as using artificial works to overcome and mitigate damages caused by climate-related hazards, such as building a dike system to limit inundation due to floods, building pumping stations and canal systems to tackle water shortage in dry seasons, building culverts to prevent saltwater intrusion to the fields, etc. A construction action is often highly efficient with measurable effects. However, it takes large investments and a long time for design and construction. It is, therefore, suitable for medium-and long-term adaptation plans and is a challenge for localities with limited financial resources.A non-construction action for adaptive agriculture is understood as adjusting production activities according to the laws of nature towards ecosystem restoration and development, for examples: changing cropping structure, using climate-resilient varieties, adjusting cropping calendar, capacity building, etc. A non-construction action is relatively easily and quickly operated and highly relevant to local conditions. Therefore, this document encourages use of non-construction actions in developing adaptation plans for Climate-risks.In this step, the facilitator supports participants to discuss adaptation actions for each specific area on the map listed in Table 3. The adaptation actions should be practical, and require minimum investments and time for deployment. -Participants note the current farming practices and seasons for each specific area on the risk map (S2.2) using markers, abbreviations and acronyms can be used if applicable. For example: use a red market to note \"WS Rice (Nov.-Mar.)\" to refer to Winter-Spring rice season from November to March of the following year as a current cropping practice.-Use markers of a different colour to note the adaptation plans on the same map. For example: use a blue marker to note \"WS Rice (Oct.-Feb.)\" to refer to adjusting the Winter-Spring season to October -February as an adaptation action. Actions can be coded in Table 3 and noted using the same codes on the map.-Place the map with the film on a flat surface and take photos perpendicularly for saving and storing information. Them, the film can be cleared for reuse afterwards.Step 2.2.3 and Step 3 for all tasks defined in Table 2. Because rice lands in the Northern part (codes II and III) are lowly prone to the risks, the triple rice pattern can be maintained but the planting month of Winter-Spring season is recommended to be shifted from December to November to avoid impact of the risks at the end of the season.Step 4: Revise climate-smart maps and adaptation plansRevising the initial maps of climate-risk and adaptation plans with a wider range of stakeholders is necessary to obtain a most feasible outputs.Revise maps of climate-risks and adaptation plans with participation of larger group of local stakeholders.Information on maps of climate-risks and adaptation plans are evaluated and finalized.FGD and (Appendix 1) and/or KIP (Appendix 2). In this step, it is recommended that FGD is likely more efficient than KIP because it allows to get common understanding and agreement among stakeholders.Before organizing FGD or KIP, initial maps with full descriptions should be digitalized and layout. The maps' layouts can be shown to stakeholders during discussion either in digital (i.e. Jpg, PDF or GIS layers) or in printed format.-In case of using printed maps, the transparent film can be used to draw recommended changes. Other necessary materials are color markers and notes. -In case of using digital maps, projector or large screen is necessary to present thematic maps.Depending on number of participants, heterogeneity of the study area, participants can be split in smaller groups of 3-5 persons. Each group is assigned to discuss on climaterisks and associated adaptation plans for a particular area. For example, revising maps for a province can be done by sub-groups focusing on individual districts.Due to a large variation of stakeholders, briefing development process and initial maps to participants are definitely required. In this step, the facilitator briefly introduces the objectives, methods and obtained outputs of previous steps, and then guide participants to get familiar with the map as shown in Step 2.During the discussion, the pre-prepared map layouts are presented to participants for their comments and suggestions for improvements. The facilitator can use supporting equipment to note recommended changes.Map refining process can be done in following order:-Evaluate the extent and level of climate-risks shown on the map.-Refine climate-risk maps by season and scenario.-Evaluate adaptation plans shown on the maps.-Refine adaptation plans by season and scenario.Changes can be updated directly on digital maps or documented or noted on paper maps for GIS processing.Step 5: Regional integration of mapsRefining maps separately by sub-groups (Step 4) may result in conflicts over identified options among regions of the study area. For example, over storing water of the upstream provinces may lead to water shortage of the downstream provinces; or operation scheme of irrigation structures (i.e. dam, sluice gate) developed by a district may conflict with planting plan of the others, which use the same irrigation system. Therefore, the local adaptation plan needs to be integrated in the ecological and regional context. Management and sharing schemes of common resources (e.g. water, infrastructure) need to be discussed in this step.Integrate the adaptation plans at local scale into ecological region scale.Regional maps of climate-risks and adaptation plans integrated and agreed by stakeholders.FGD (Appendix 1) or KIP (Appendix 2) can be used. The maps obtained from Step 4 can be shown to stakeholders during discussion either in digital (i.e. Jpg, PDF or GIS layers) or in printed format.-In case of using printed maps, the transparent film can be used to draw recommended changes. Other necessary materials are color markers and notes. -In case of using digital maps, projector or large screen is necessary to present thematic maps.First, the local maps refined in Step 4 are presented to all stakeholders. Then, the facilitator guide stakeholders to match local maps into the ecological map. Mismatches can be discussed among stakeholders to make necessary adjustments based on stakeholders' agreement. To adjust the map, follow instructions in S4.3. The final maps are standardized using the same projection, scale and base-map.","tokenCount":"2873"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8d3d6a7f6f04eae6ebac563f20d96434","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8c853eb1-31d5-414a-8b6b-3512aba1bf25/retrieve","id":"-985912618"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"de8d1a8d-0a84-49cd-80a2-4c860a8bc3c1","pagecount":"2","content":"P1327 -Building foresight portfolio for WHEAT AFS, including synthesis, gap analysis and new studies, as input in conducting priority setting for WHEAT AFS Description of the innovation: Peer-reviewed journal article with highlights: Major cereals will remain a critical feature of the agri-food system for the foreseeable future. The cereal-based agri-food system is strictly dependent on the supply capacity of rural areas. Rural areas are transforming in fundamental ways and will bring change in the major cereal-based agri-food systems. Rural transformation is key to understanding the future of cereal-based systems. Understanding rural transformation is needed to prioritize research for development strategies and investments.","tokenCount":"102"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a67e0f815cf841038135b069bb8687fd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7e2c649a-7526-4635-a955-ce8fe5a269cd/retrieve","id":"214513115"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"308de707-dd07-46dc-9554-b0b60fad1192","pagecount":"4","content":"Sequencing swine leucocyte alleles for vaccine development Why is this work important?Swine leucocyte antigen (SLA) genes are among the most important determinants of swine immune responses to disease and vaccines. Accurate and comprehensive SLA genotyping methods are required to understand how SLA gene polymorphisms affect immunity, especially in pigs with diverse genetic backgrounds. The work outlined in this brief contributes to advances in knowledge required for generation of efficient vaccines against swine pathogens and diseases, such as African swine fever.African swine fever (ASF) is a haemorrhagic fever affecting pigs. If introduced into a farm, it can kill all the animals within a few days. The disease is caused by a large DNA virus and the only member of Asfaviridae family, but has similarities with the pox viruses, such as chicken pox and goat pox, among others. The virus is initially found in cells of the macrophage type; but in the later phases of the disease, it also infects other cell types such as epithelial cells. Distinct clinical symptoms are high fever, redness (hemorrhage) of the ears and on other patches of the skin, and death. Unfortunately, there are no available commercial vaccines or treatment to control or prevent ASF virus infection. The only method of preventing ASF is by using strict biosecurity methods, e.g. fencing of animals, avoiding contact with wild pigs, washing of boots before entering pig enclosures, use of quarantine pens for new animals, etc. Compartmentalization and zoning of pig herds can be used to keep areas ASF-free; however, this approach can be difficult to introduce and maintain on a large-scale in Africa as pigs often roam freely in rural and peri-urban systems. Moreover, poor African pig producers are less likely to implement control strategies or report disease outbreaks because of a lack of knowledge and incentives to do so. Therefore, this disease poses serious socio-economic consequences in affected and nearby countries and highlights the urgency of developing efficient countermeasures against ASF.With an estimated 34 million pigs in sub-Saharan Africa, an ASF vaccine could benefit from 6-17 million smallholder farmers, providing protection in cases of generalized outbreaks and preventing outbreaks in nearby areas. As the pig population in Africa rises, disease spread could be increasingly problematic (Steinaa et al. 2016).In What are Swine leukocyte antigens?SLAs are tissue type antigens in pigs, also more commonly known known as major histocompatibility complex molecules (MHC). These antigens are very diverse and vary among individual pigs. The diversity among the different molecules are clustered in a certain region of the molecules. This region is responsible for binding of short peptide fragments from pathogens, which they present to cells from the immune system. This can then trigger the immune system to react to the pathogen to clear it from the body.SLA class I molecules are encoded by three regions in the pig genome, SLA-1, SLA-2 and SLA-3 (Lunney et al. 2009;Renard et al. 2006). SLAs from European pigs are characterized far better than their African counterparts. Currently, 85 SLA-1, 85 SLA-2 and 36 SLA-3 gene sequences, coding for MHC class I molecules, have been published in the Immuno Polymorphism Database , but very few, if any, originate from African pigs. The origin of African pigs is not completely clear, and there is phylogenetic divergence between pigs from West and East Africa. Pigs from East Africa have high frequencies of genes from pigs in the Far East, consistent with data found from African chickens, which confirms that livestock were transported from Far East over the Indian Ocean thousands of years ago. Later, with successive European colonizations, other pig breeds were introduced and were mixed with the original pigs, further adding to the gene pool (Amills et al. 2013).Why are SLA sequences interesting?Each SLA type binds pathogen peptides with a particular peptide motif, e.g. the amino acid arginine at position 2 and lysine at position 9. Different SLA types exhibit a preference for different peptides. Hence, the SLA molecules 'fit' with certain peptides in the pathogen, also called epitopes. This is important knowledge for the development of subunit vaccines. In the process of selecting antigens/ epitopes, for them to be included in a subunit vaccine, consideration must be given to the SLAs in the target pig population. Knowledge of peptide motifs can also be used for prediction of epitopes using neural network algorithms such as NetMHCpan (Hoof et al. 2009), developed by Danish Technical University (Stryhn et al. 1996).ILRI has sequenced the expressed swine leucocyte antigens from 34 Kenyan pigs. Messenger RNA, which represents expressed genes, was copied to DNA (cDNA) and parts of the SLA genes were amplified and sequenced using Illumina MiSeq. Many novel sequences were identified.Three African SLAs have been expressed as protein and positional scanning combinatorial peptide library analyses have been performed by our Danish collaborators, Soren Buus and Anette Stryhn (University of Copenhagen). This has generated peptide binding motifs for these three SLA molecules (Morten Nielsen, Danish Technical University).  ","tokenCount":"819"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e90e3b67918700c7b924373a8e5ab1a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/055a9de2-8d96-4f40-b844-135f2731591a/retrieve","id":"217933853"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2a58b0ea-f4da-418e-acd0-7b0ba4dae095","pagecount":"62","content":"The HEALTHY FUTURES project evaluates the effects of environment and climate change effects on selected vector borne diseases (Rift Valley fever, malaria and schistosomiasis) in East Africa. The project will use both empirical and simulated data to develop prediction models and information systems that can support the management of these diseases. Empirical data will be collected in three pre-determined case study sites including Ijara district in Kenya (Rift Valley fever and malaria study site), Lake Albert in Uganda (schistosomiasis study site) and northern and southern Rwanda (a second malaria study site).Ijara is one of the six districts in Garissa County, north-eastern Kenya. It falls in V-VI agroecological zones (semi-arid and very arid respectively) with the south-eastern part neighbouring the coastal strip falling in zone IV (semi-humid to semi-arid zone).Temperatures range between 15 and 38 0 C though they tend to remain high throughout the year except in April -August due to the low altitude and semi-arid conditions. Rainfall is low and bimodal, with its density ranging between 200 mm to 1000 mm per annum. The district is inhabited by the Somali pastoralists who live in small families commonly in trading centres or watering points. The average population density is 7 people per square kilometre. The district was selected for this work because it is a hotspot for RVF and it has also been used previously by research projects such as Arbovirus Incidence and Diversity (AVID) project for similar activities; it will be possible, therefore, to obtain secondary data for some of the analyses. In addition, the district has high levels of poverty, malnutrition, and morbidity rates especially among children and women.Since 1961, Ijara has had at least 4 RVF outbreaks -these occurred in the years : 1961, 1962, 1997-98 and 2006-07. These outbreaks produce devastating effects on both public health and animal production given that the native pastoral communities rely heavily on livestock for their livelihoods. Preliminary results obtained from an analysis of historical data indicate that RVF outbreaks are associated with excessive and persistent rainfall that lasts for a period of at least 3 months. Participatory studies have shown that outbreaks cause tremendous losses through livestock mortalities, abortions and trade embargoes. An individual-based model developed as part of the HEALTHY FUTURES project's activities track RVF virus transmission dynamics between vectors and hosts and demonstrate that hosts' herd immunity play a critical role in moderating the frequency of epidemics. The model also provides a framework for testing alternative scenarios, for example, the effects of varying relative proportions of livestock and other potential hosts on RVFV transmission. This is critical for the evaluation of land use and biodiversity changes on the disease incidence and hence the effectiveness of control measures.xiThe level of malaria transmission in the district is low and unstable because of the harsh climatic conditions. The area is semi-arid with low rainfall density ranging between 200 to 1000 mm per year. Multiple intervention programs have also been implemented in the district over the last 5 -10 years. These interventions have had a substantial impact on the risk of the disease. However, the disease still poses a risk to the local communities particularly during the wet seasons. Long periods of underexposure, frequent droughts, cross-border migrations that are common in the area, and use of counterfeit drugs, among other factors are likely to increase the local community's vulnerability to the disease particularly if the on-going intervention programs are temporary halted or discontinued. An analysis of hospital records obtained from the local health centres did not find any association between climate variables -precipitation and temperature -probably because of the effects of the on-going interventions.More work is being done to generate decision support tools and risk maps for managing these diseases. This report is intended to give initial findings. It is structured into four chapters: Chapter 1 describes the location of the district and its physical features; Chapter 2 presents preliminary findings on RVF analyses; Chapter 3 presents results of a statistical analysis of hospital records on malaria and Chapter 4 outlines some of the work that will be done in the coming months.1 Ijara district -location and physical featuresIjara is one of the six districts in Garissa County, north-eastern Kenya. The district lies between 1 0 7`S and 2 0 3`S and 40 0 4`E and 41 0 32`E and borders Fafi district to the north, Lamu to the south, Tana Delta to the southwest, Tana River to the west and Republic of Somalia to the east. It covers an area of 9,642 km 2 (GoK, 2009). Figure 2.1 shows the location of the district in Kenya. The district is subdivided into six administrative divisions namely: Masalani, Ijara, Sangailu, Kotile, Korisa and Bodhai. The district has one constituency (i.e., Ijara), 11 electoral wards and one local authority, Ijara County Council (GoK, 2009).The district falls in V-VI agro-ecological zones (semi-arid and very arid respectively) with the south-eastern part neighbouring the coastal strip falling in zone IV (semi-humid to semi-arid zone). Approximately one quarter of the district on the eastern part is covered by the Boni Forest. The forest is indigenous and constitutes the northern strip of the Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic. Areas adjacent to the forest fall under the agricultural Zone IV, which gradually changes to V and VI as one moves westwards. The forest is an important resource for the local pastoralists since it is used as a dry season grazing site. The vegetation in the other parts of the district comprises acacia shrubs, star and elephant grasses, etc. (GoK, 2009).The district generally has a flat topography interspersed with undulating plains. Its altitude ranges between 0 and 90 meters above sea level. Most of the district has black cotton and alluvial soils with small patches of sandy soils towards the coastal border. An analysis conducted by the GIS Unit, ILRI, indicates that 56% of the district has haplic solonertz soil type, while 23% and 18% has eutric planosols and eutric vertisols, respectively. These soils have poor drainage properties and they form deep cracks when dry -they are, therefore, not suitable for rain-fed agriculture. The Tana River that runs along the western boundary of the district has a tremendous influence over the climate, settlement patterns, and economic potential within the district for it forms the single most important source of water. Seasonal rivers (laghas) that are found in most parts of the district provide water for both human and livestock consumption during the wet season.Temperatures range between 15 and 38 0 C though they tend to remain high throughout the year except in April -August due to the low altitude and semi-arid conditions. Rainfall is low and bimodal and its density ranges between 200 mm to 1000 mm per annum. The two wet periods in the year occur between March to May and October to December, with the second period having higher rainfall densities than the former. Rainfall and temperature patterns for the year 2011 measured at Garissa meteorological station, which represent most of the north-eastern Kenya including Ijara district, are pre presented in Figure 2.2.   32,890 29,743 62,633 37,136 33,582 70,718 37,980 34,346 72,326 38,737 35,030 73,767 Source: National Coordination Agency for Population and Development, Ministry of Planning and National Development, (2005).The projected population figures given in Table 2.1 indicate an increasing trend over the period. The number of males marginally exceeds the number of females. Ijara division has the highest population, accounting for 32% of the total. Masalani division, in which the district headquarters is located, has the second highest population and accounts for 25%.The district has a population growth rate of 3.5% which is higher than the national average of 2.9%. Similarly, the district's mean fertility rate is 7 births per woman while the national average is 4.9 (Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Ministry of Health (MOH), and ORC Macro, 2004). The district's life expectancy for men is 60 years while that for women is 57 years. The national average (for both men and women) is 46 years. Current estimate for the crude death rate is 10 deaths per 1,000. Infant mortality rate averages 91 per 1,000 live births while that for children under five years of age is 163 per 1,000 births.Based on these statistics, it was predicted that the population of the district would increase from 70,718 (level projected for 2008) to 73,767 by 2012. Given that 59% of the district's population living in absolute poverty, such an increase in population has negative impacts on food security, water availability, provision of public health and other social services. Most of the people depend on livestock. Agriculture (crop production) is another major economic activity and is largely limited to the Tana basin and Bodhai division.Overtime, the district has received local immigrants mainly from the Kamba community who travel in search for blue-collar jobs in the district. It is also probable that citizens of the Somali Republic who have relatives in the district could have immigrated to the district when that country was being ruled by insurgents.Ijara district has 100,000 ha of arable land of which only 1% is currently under crop production. Over 90% of land is either trust land or government land that is used by the local communities for pastoralism. The carrying capacity of the land is 15.5 total livestock units/ha and the proportion of the population working in the livestock sector is 95%. However, the potential for crop production is immerse with some isolated farms producing for the export market.  (Daubney et al. 1931). Humans become infected after either a bite of an infected mosquito or by intensive contact with acutely infected animals or by handling infected tissues. In man, the disease manifests either as a mild influenza-like syndrome in a majority of cases (> 80 per cent) or as a severe disease with haemorrhagic fever, encephalitis, or retinitis (Soumare et al., 2012). In Kenya, RVF outbreaks have previously occurred in 1931, 1951/53, 1961/63, 1967/68, 1977/79, and  In Ijara, an extensive serological survey showed that buffaloes, warthogs and waterbucks had RVFV-neutralizing antibodies, suggesting that these animals were exposed to the virus during the outbreak (Evans et al., 2008). The district also had RVF outbreaks in 1961/1962and 1997/1998(Woods et al., 2002;Murithi et al., 2011).A number of analytical studies have been implemented in the district to identify risk factors for the disease. LaBeaud et al., (2008)  A more recent analysis of historical data on RVF epizootics corroborate these findings and shows that high and persistent precipitation over a period of 3 months and low altitude is associated with the incidence of the disease while the presence of soil sub-types solonetz and luvisols in an area leads to persistence of outbreaks for a period of at least 3 months (Bett et al., 2012).Following the 2006/2007 outbreak, ILRI in partnership with the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) implemented studies in Garissa and Ijara districts to assess the impact of the outbreak and identify ways of improving the prediction, detection, and response to RVF (ILRI, 2007). The study found out that the severity of the epidemic particularly in the northeastern Kenya was exasperated by delays in recognizing risk factors and in taking decisions to prevent and control the disease. The study found out that epidemics of RVF can most effectively be prevented and controlled through the active monitoring of key risk factors leading to timely decision making and the targeting of prevention and control resources.The new transmission studies being done under the HEALTHY FUTURES project build on the work that has been done to further investigate the disease transmission dynamics. They utilize a mechanistic model that simulates the disease transmission dynamics as an analytical framework which specifies the type of data or information required for a holistic assessment of the disease system.RVFV transmission mechanisms are poorly understood partly they involve complex interactions between multiple agents (a wide range of vector and host species) and drivers that operate at local (e.g. socio-economic practices and land use) and regional levels (including climate change). In the Horn of Africa, RVF epidemics occur periodically following periods of prolonged heavy rainfall. It is believed that the virus persists during the interepidemic periods in drought resistant floodwater Aedes eggs. It is also thought that riverine vegetation, moist bushed and wooded grasslands and forests can support endemic transmission of the virus probably because these areas always have high population densities of mosquito vectors and potential reservoir hosts.This study utilizes an individual based RVF model (IBM) as a framework for studying these transmission dynamics. The study area, as described above, is inhabited by transhumant pastoralists whose movements (to and from wet and dry grazing areas) could be important for RVFV maintenance and transmission. Individual based models (IBMs) are suitable for studying such complex non-linear systems where space is crucial and agents' positions are not fixed. They are also useful for simulating agents' behaviours especially if they are expected to change over time as they adapt based on acquired knowledge or in response to new challenges.The model is currently being used to determine types of studies that should be implemented to obtain input parameters. Scenario analyses are also being implemented to generate hypotheses on RVFV transmission mechanisms. The structure of the model is described below.The key components of the model include: (i) the environment or landscape, (ii) agents, and (iii) processes describing interactions in time and space.The model simulates livestock and vector population dynamics and RVF transmission in a spatially-explicit environment that is subdivided into 100 x 100 grids of square cells measuring 500 x 500 m. This framework allows for the incorporation of spatial heterogeneities in the model such as the locations of the grazing sites by season and vector breeding sites. A reliable estimate of the carrying capacity of the area has not been obtained. For the purposes of this analysis, it is assumed that the current cattle and sheep populations of 300,000 and 600,000, respectively, (Department of Veterinary Services, unpublished data) represent equilibrium populations of these livestock species. Sensitivity analyses are, however, being conducted to determine the effects of varying the equilibrium population sizes on epidemic patterns.Vector breeding sites (dambos) are randomly distributed within the grid. The number used at the model initialization stage is given in Table 3.1.Two host species, namely cattle and sheep are used as agents in the model. Their attributes include species (cattle or sheep), age (neonate, weaner, yearling or adult), sex (male or female), infection status (susceptible, exposed, infectious or removed/resistant), time since infection and physical location. Animals are also aggregated to form herds or flocks. The numbers of herds, flocks and individuals generated at the model initialization stage are given in Table 3.1.Dynamic processes that drive the model operations are classified into three, these are: i. Mosquito population dynamics, ii. Host population and movement dynamics, and iii. RVFV transmission dynamics.All of these processes are updated on daily basis. The model considers two RVFV vectors, namely Aedes mcintoshi (indicated throughout this report as Aedes spp.), as the primary vector, and Culex spp., to represent all the possible secondary vectors. Their population dynamics are simulated using a stage-structured transition matrix model described by Yussof et al. (2012) based on the parameters used are presented in Table 3.2. This model illustrated in Figure 3.1. Each vector has four life stages, i.e., eggs, larvae, pupae and adult. Each stage has corresponding probability of surviving and staying in stage i, denoted by i P , and the probability of surviving and growing from stage i to stage i+1, denoted by i G .A list of these development and survival probabilities constitute a transition matrix A and the population of a given stage at time t, X(t), is obtained by multiplying the transition matrix with X(t-1), the population of each life stage at time t-1.i P and i G were computed as described by Yussof et al. ( 2012) based on i S , the survival rate for stage i, and i d the duration in that stage i, as follows:andClimate variables: temperature, precipitation and humidity influence the development rates of most vectors including mosquitoes. At the moment though, only daily rainfall densities obtained from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) are used to estimate the development and survival probabilities. Work is underway to include temperature estimates to these functions.For Aedes spp., simulation starts with the hatching of eggs in inundated soils. During dry periods, eggs of Aedes spp that are dormant in dried up soils are assumed to suffer a low baseline mortality rate of μ Ae. When conditions that favour hatching are provided (i.e., flooding that persists for at least 2-3 days), hatching occurs at the rate, H A . Hatching rate is made to depend on the amount of flooding, therefore extensive floods leads to the hatching of a higher proportion of dormant eggs.Larvae develop into pupae after P A days while pupae emerge as adults after E A days. Larvae, pupae and adults have baseline mortality rates of μ Al, μ Ap and μ Aa, respectively. Females seek a blood meal every G A days. Following a successful feeding, these mosquitoes lay eggs on moist soil at the edge of the flooded areas. Aedes spp are assumed to lay S A eggs per batch; all the eggs laid by infected Aedes spp are assumed infected trans-ovarially. RVFV is thought to be transmitted transovarially by floodwater Aedes mosquitoes (EFSA, 2005). Mosquitoes that emerge from the infected eggs develop into infectious vectors. It is assumed the development rates of the immatures, and feeding frequencies and baseline mortality rates for the mature stages are not influenced by RVFV infection. In addition, the model does not as yet allow for the variation in the duration of the gonotrophic cycle, or the number of eggs laid per batch, with an increase in the age of the vector.Culex spp lay eggs on fresh or existing pools of water; these eggs cannot withstand desiccation, therefore they don't remain dormant in the soils like those of the Aedes mcinthoshi. The development processes from eggs to adults are similar to those described for Aedes spp. There is however no transovarial transmission of RVFV in Culex spp or in any other secondary vectors.Persistent rainfall and flooding provide extensive breeding surfaces especially for Culex mosquitoes. Linthicum et al. (1983) indicates that flooding that persist for at least 4-6 weeks allows for the development of massive swarms of secondary mosquitoes which amplify the transmission of RVF when cattle, goats and sheep are present. Similarly, a participatory survey that was carried out in Ijara in following the 2006-2007 RVF outbreak established that the mean interval in days between the start of heavy rains and appearance of mosquito swarms was 23.6 days (Jost et al., 2010). To mimic these dynamics, the number of Culex mosquitoes obtained from the matrix model is amplified based on a by 23-day cumulative rainfall. The cumulative rainfall is also used to control the hatching of infected Aedes spp. eggs that remained dormant in the soils during the dry and low rainfall periods.Model runs generated for this analysis focussed on the period January 1, 2005 to July 23, 2010 so as to capture the recent RVF outbreak that occurred in the district between October 2006 and February 2007. The number of herds and flocks used to initialize the model are given in Table 3.1. These populations represent 1% of the assumed equilibrium population of cattle and goats in the area.A new host is allowed to enter the system through births or purchase while exits occur through mortality, RVFV-associated mortality (case fatality) or through sale; the parameters used to run these simulations are given in Table 3 After parturition, cattle and sheep will undergo a waiting period of 180 and 60 days respectively before it can start breeding again.Hosts move between wet and dry grazing sites depending on season. In the current model, host movements are driven by cumulative daily rainfall. Livestock are confined to the wet season grazing areas when the cumulative (TRMM) rainfall over a period of 21 days is >100 mm/month. Below this threshold, livestock are transferred to a dry season grazing area. Movement ranges within each site are outlined in Table 3.3.The probability that a given host gets exposed to RVFV depends on its level of interaction with infectious vectors present in the area. Given that a host can get infection either from either of the vectors used in the model (Aedes spp and/or Culex spp), the model simulates infection processes for each vector independently and then aggregates them to obtain a composite transmission coefficient, hi  for each host. Parameters that are multiplied to obtain the transmission coefficient for a given vector include:(i) The ratio of the population of the vector species to that of a specified host species, (ii) The vector's biting rate, (iii) The probability that the vector feeds on the host depending on the blood meal index, (iv) The probability that the host gets infected following a bite by an infectious mosquito;(v) The prevalence of RVFV infection in the vector,The composite transmission coefficient ( hi  ) is transformed into host's infection probability ( hi p ) using the formula: A compartmental SIR model is used to simulate RVFV infections in mosquitoes. Susceptible vectors can pick RVFV infection either from infectious cattle or sheep. The transmission coefficient for vector i is estimated by first simulating the interactions between that vector and host species i, followed by aggregating the estimates for all the species that each vector would feed on. Parameters used to estimate this coefficient include: i. vector biting rates ii. blood meal index (indicating the proportion of meals obtained by vector i on host j.iii. the probability that the vector will get infected from an infected blood meal iv. the prevalence of RVFV infection in host i.Following exposure, susceptible mosquitoes will join exposed category for L Ae days (Aedes spp) or L Cu days (Culex sp). They will become infectious at the end of that period. It is assumed that an infectious vector remains at this state for its remaining lifetime. Most of the input parameters for this work have been obtained from the literature.  Given the multiple and complex interactions that the model is structured to simulate; it will not be possible to use traditional methods of validation, e.g. fitting the model empirical data. In addition, there is scanty data on temporal-spatial distribution of RVF incidencemost of the available records have been collected during epidemics. Attempts have been made, therefore, to test the model using pattern oriented modelling approaches. This is an attempt to establish whether the model mimics RVF occurrences at different scales and ecologies other than that used to build the model. In this analysis, Arusha region of Tanzania that officially reported the 2007 RVF outbreak in February 12, 2007 was used. Daily TRMM rainfall data for the area were obtained and used to drive the model. Temporal patterns of the RVF outbreak were then analysed against those observed in Ijara.In future, model validation will include testing various parameterizations of the input parameter values to determine how well they simulate observed patterns.Three main studies have been done to generate additional information for RVFV modelling; these include:1. Statistical analyses of historical data on RVF outbreaks in Ijara district to determine the correlation between climate variables (temperature and rainfall) and the outbreaks, 2. Participatory epidemiological surveys to determine types of livestock species kept and their proportions, livestock demographic parameters, and movement patterns, 3. Entomological and epidemiological surveys to determine the risk of RVFV infection in livestockAnnual records on RVF epizootics in Kenya dating back to 1979 were obtained from CDC Kenya. RVF epizootics included outbreaks associated with stormy abortions in livestock especially small ruminants and hemorrhagic syndrome that occurred after prolonged periods of heavy rainfall, and were confirmed using laboratory tests [ELISA] or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction [PCR]). Outbreaks were recorded by year, province, district and area. For the purpose of this analysis, the data were restructured by: (i) classifying the areas affected by divisions defined during the 1999 human population census (n = 505), and (ii) refining the time component of the outbreaks from an annual to monthly time scale. The refinements were made with reference to records kept at the Department of Veterinary Services.Gridded climate data comprising monthly mean precipitation, maximum and minimum temperatures for the period January 1979 to December 2010 were obtained from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The data merged with the disease data and kept in a database designed using MS Access database. They were subsequently exported to STATA/SE 11.1 for statistical analysis. A division was used as the unit of analysis. The outcome ( ij y ) represented the infection status (Yes/No) of a division in a given month, therefore it was analyzed as a dichotomous outcome with a binomial distribution, i.e., ) , 1 (Univariate logistic regression models were used to assess the association between the climate variables: precipitation and temperature and RVF outbreaks. Alternative forms of the climate variables were tested; precipitation, for instance, had 7 alternative formulations including:monthly values, -lagged values by 1 and 2 months, -running cumulative values for the recent 2 and 3 months, -running mean values for the recent 2 and 3 months. Maximum and minimum temperatures and NDVI values were used in the analyses as well and competing models compared based on the log likelihood values.The choice of the variables and the lags tested was based on the studies that have been done by Anyamba et al. (2009) which indicates that rainfall, NDVI, sea surface temperatures and outgoing long wave radiation are good predictors for RVF, with NDVI representing ecological variables. Anyamba et al. (2012) also suggested that cumulative rainfall anomaly for 3-4 months immediately preceding an outbreak is critical for RVF outbreaks in East Africa. Temperature does not change much in the area, so lagging was not considered for this variable.Random effects logistic regression models were also fitted to the data to account for clustering of observations in time (due to repeated observations by division). One model had precipitation (3-month aggregate) and minimum temperature as predictors while the other had precipitation as the only predictor. In both models, division was treated as a random effects variable and the correlation structure (for observations within a division) were assumed to be unstructured. The structure of the model used was as follows:Given that the analyses presented in this report were limited to the data from Ijara district, it was not possible to include the other potential predictor variables such as elevation, soil types, land use given that most of their values would be similar.Identification and mapping of the survey sites Participatory surveys were held between August and November 2012 to collect information on livestock demographics and movement patterns. A sub-location, the smallest administrative area with a human population of 4,000 -5,000 was used as the sampling unit. A total of 27 units were selected using stratified random sampling technique from a sampling frame that comprised 40 sub-locations. A division was used as a stratifying variable; the total number of sub-locations per division and the number that were selected are outlined in Table 3.5. One site within a sub-location was purposefully selected for an interview. A site was selected if it had a majority of the families clustered in a small area. Each meeting comprised at least 10 participants and it involved the local pastoralists and community leaders. These meetings were convened with the help of the community animal health workers and the local administrator, which in most cases was the Chief of the area. The meeting sites were geo-referenced after the interview using the Arc 1960 Geographic Coordinate System. Figure 3.3 shows the distribution of these sites within the district.Semi-structured interviews were carried out using the local Somali language with the help of a translator --each session took about 1 hour. The interviews were guided by a checklist of open-ended questions. Probing was also done to investigate other relevant issues that emerged from these discussions. The main items that the checklist covered include:1  Participatory epidemiological (PE) techniques used in the surveys include semi-structured interviews, proportional piling and participatory mapping. These techniques have been described by Cleaveland et al. (2001), Catley and Mariner (2002) and used in several studies including Bedelian et al. (2007) and Bett et al. (2009). Table 3.6 outlines the specific information gathered using each of these methods. Proportional piling is a scoring technique used to determine perceptions on the relative importance, abundance or frequency of a list of items. It uses a set of counters (e.g. beans, pebbles, etc.) that are piled against a given item and then counted to determine relative percentages or proportions. This survey used a total of 100 beans for all the exercises conducted.To determine the relative proportions of livestock species kept, participants were first asked to list the type of livestock species commonly kept in their area. The responses given (e.g., cattle, sheep, goats, chickens) were listed on a flip chart. The participants were then given 100 beans to distribute to the listed items (species) based on the relative abundance of the livestock species assuming that 100 beans represented the population of livestock in the area. Circles were often drawn besides each item to guide the participants on where to place a pile of counters for a species. Livestock species that had the highest population got a bigger pile of beans and vice versa. The piles were counted when all the participants had settled on the distribution provided. They were also asked to give reasons that supported the results observed -e.g. why a particular species was perceived as having the highest/lowest population sizes.The same approach was used for the other proportional piling exercises. For example, on the proportion of abortions/pregnancies carried to term, participants were given 100 beans to represent animals that were pregnant. They were asked to divide the beans into two: the number of animals that was expected to carry their pregnancies to term verses the number that would abort. The exercise was completed for a peacetime period (no major disease outbreaks) and for periods with RVF epidemics. Other exercises involved determining the relative population sizes of age cohorts of cattle, sheep and goats (neonates, weaners, yearlings and adults) identified by the participants, and the relative proportion of animals lost through mortality, sold, or purchased by season.Data obtained from these exercises were entered into a database designed using MS Excel and analysed in SATA 11 using non-parametric statistical tests. Medians and their respective 10 th and 90 th percentile ranges were estimated from the proportional piling scores.Participants were guided to develop maps of their areas indicating human settlements, grazing sites, watering points, roads and service centres e.g. towns. These maps were used to facilitate discussions on a variety of socio-economic activities including livestock grazing patterns. Timelines were used together with the maps to identify locations where livestock were, on a monthly basis, over the period July 2011 to July 2012. Timelines on livestock movements/locations were developed in a reverse order starting with identification of the sites where livestock were in July 2012, and the earliest time (month) when these animals were taken there. This approach was repeated until the full period specified above was covered. Mapping of the livestock movement patterns was done by species (specifically cattle, sheep and goats).Data on livestock movement patterns obtained from the participatory mapping exercises were entered into a database designed using MS Excel. The data variables that could be formulated include: sub-location, GPS coordinates of the interview sites and other locations that had been used for grazing over the year, livestock species, month/year, and an indicator variable which when used together with the month/year specifies whether a given livestock species was just arriving at a given grazing site, had been there for some time or was being moved out to other sites with more pasture/water. Monthly mean NDVI data for all the geo-referenced sites for the study period were obtained from SPOT VEGETATION, filtered and merged with the movement data obtained from the map. Statistical analyses were done to determine mean NDVI values for periods when livestock were being moved out of their recent grazing sites. Up to 1000 bootstrap samples were generated from the sample and used to estimate 95% confidence intervals for the mean NDVI values for each site at the time when animals were being moved out from these areas. These analyses were done in STATA 11 and the results represented thresholds for livestock movement from specific sites. Movement patterns for sheep and goats were combined since these livestock species were often moved to similar locations.Cross sectional surveys were implemented in the district between October and November 2012 at a time when the government had issued a warning on the likelihood of an RVF outbreak. The Meteorological Department had predicted higher than normal amounts of rainfall for the period. Flooding was expected to occur and contingency measures for RVF were being put in place.Eleven sites (10 sites in homesteads area and 1 site in the Boni forest) were selected and used for the survey based on historical information suggesting that these areas had been involved in the 2006/2007 outbreak. In the homesteads, vectors were sampled using CDC miniature light traps placed in the livestock night sheds. This trapping targeted night-time host-seeking mosquitoes. Three traps were set each evening (6 pm) and left overnight and gathered the following morning. Trapping in the Boni forest targeted day-time host-seeking mosquitoes (Plate 3.1). The forest is considered to be a good breeding site for mosquitoes due to high humidity, dense vegetation, presence of hosts for blood meal and presence of water bodies. Samples were barcoded (by trap) and transported alive to a field laboratory where they were sorted, identified to genus level and frozen for storage and transportation.Pooling was done by genus, traps and trapping sites and transported to ILRI Nairobi where they will be subjected to further laboratory analyses to identify blood meal sources, infection status and species diversity.In the same sites, 300 blood samples were collected from cattle and sheep. Herds/flocks sampled included: (i) animals that had just been brought back from the Boni forest (given that the short rainy season was commencing and the pastoralists were bringing their animals back home), and (ii) herds/flocks had not been vaccinated. The sample size (n = 300) used represented minimum number of livestock that would be needed to detect RVFV infection. This number was distributed It was estimated using the formula:where N -the population size (900,000); α -1 -confidence level (0.05); d -the estimated minimum number of diseased animals in the district (population size × the minimum expected prevalence (1%)). This estimation mainly targeted small ruminants (sheep and goats in equal proportions) because they are not usually vaccinated against RVF compared to cattle and the commonly used serological tests do not have the capacity to differentiate infection from vaccination. Cattle, however, can act as good sentinels for RVFV infection because they travel much further than the small ruminants and so they were likely to get greater exposure to mosquito-borne viruses. Limited attention was focussed on cattle in this study because there was no assurance that the project team will get unvaccinated herds.Community animal health workers were used to identify appropriate herds/flocks to sample. For each animal recruited, 20 ml venous blood was drawn from the jugular vein using heparinized vacutainer tubes and transported to the field laboratory where each sample was aliquoted into 5 ml barcoded vials. The samples were then frozen and transported to ILRI Nairobi for further laboratory analyses.District.Ijara district, like those affected by RVF outbreaks in the north-eastern Kenya, has recorded at least 4 outbreaks since 1961 (Table 3.7). Before then, outbreaks were confined to a few districts in the Rift Valley. The data given in the table suggest that all the districts reported outbreaks at the same time.Table 3.8 gives results of univariate analyses that were done to evaluate unconditional association between RVF outbreaks and precipitation, temperature and NDVI. These results demonstrate that RVF outbreaks in Ijara are significantly associated with precipitation and NDVI, which represents ecological changes that promote RVF occurrence, e.g. the development of vector breeding sites. Based on the log likelihood estimates, cumulative rainfall for a recent period of 3 months was strongly associated with RVF outbreaks than the other forms of rainfall variable used in the analysis. In all the sites visited, participants listed cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys and chickens as the common livestock species kept. Cattle, goats and sheep, in that order, are the most abundant and highly valued species compared to the donkeys and chickens (Table 3.10). Participants indicated that they don't keep camels because they are very susceptible to trypanosomosis, the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the area. Wild animals that were identified as being common include buffaloes, warthogs, leopards, cheetahs and a variety of gazelles.Field exercises used to collate data on livestock age structures and their respective risks of mortality required a lot of time to complete. This activity therefore involved a smaller number of villages and focused only on cattle, sheep and goats. Most participants identified at least 4 livestock age categories for each species; these included:cattle: Dalan (0-3 months), Ashirow (4-6 months), Sarar (7-36 months) and Hauwechi (37 months and older); -goats: Dalan (0-3 months), Sarar (4-5 months), Asan (6-12 months) and Riya (13 months and older), and, -sheep: Maqal (0-1 month), Saben (2-3 months), Laah (5-6 months) and Hauwechi (7 months and older). Minimum and maximum ages for each category, relative population sizes, and age categoryspecific risk of mortality were also determined. Younger animals, in general, are perceived to have a higher risk of mortality than older ones. The participants further indicated that mortality levels were higher during the dry than the wet season. Goats are perceived to have a lower risk of mortality compared to cattle and sheep (Table 3.11). Sheep and goats are more likely to be sold (to raise funds that can be used to meet some of the domestic needs e.g. school fees, purchase of grains, settlement of debts and fines etc.) or slaughtered compared to cattle (Table 3.12). Most of the sales occur during the dry than the wet season, with sheep being sold more often than goats. In general, the proportion of animals slaughtered is higher during the wet than the dry season.Findings on a range of reproductive indices such as the duration that young animals take to mature, interval between parturition and subsequent heat, proportion of animals that require repeated services to conceive, twining and proportion of abortions expected during the wet and the dry season are outlined in Table 3.13. Participants, as expected, indicated that females mature earlier compared to males and that dry weather conditions delay both the age at first breeding and the interval between parturition and subsequent heat.In addition, it is perceived that goats have higher proportions of repeat services and higher twinning frequencies compared to the other livestock species. Goats are also perceived to have higher baseline abortion risk relative to cattle and sheep. In all the species, the risk of abortion is higher during the dry than the wet season.Plate 3.2 outlines movement patterns of livestock in Hara sub-location, Ijara district. Similar maps were developed for all the sub-locations visited. General observations made from the mapping exercise are:-Boni forest (located along the Kenya Somalia border), the Tana delta and the banks of River Tana are used as dry season grazing areas. However, Boni forest is heavily infested with tsetse flies, therefore pastoralists move to this site when there are no alternative grazing grounds. Animals are also grazed in conservancies such as the Ishaqbini during the dry season.-Because of the high tsetse challenge in the Boni forest, small ruminants (sheep and goats) are seldom taken there. These animals are often grazed in the peripheries of the forest or in the Tana Delta. In particular, goats are perceived to be more susceptible to trypanosomosis and they are less responsive to medication.-The respondents said that cattle are usually moved out of the wet season grazing sites much earlier than the small ruminants because they are more sensitive to lack of pasture than goats and sheep.-A small herd mainly comprising lactating cows is often left behind in the homesteads when livestock are moved to the dry season grazing sites. These herds provide milk for children, women and the elderly people who remain behind in the homesteads, -Movement between sites could take a short (about 2 days) or a long period (up to 15 days) depending on whether animals can get water and pasture along the migratory routes,To better understand climate thresholds for movement, monthly mean NDVI estimates for the areas where livestock were grazed in during the period considered for these analyses (July 2011 and July 2012) were obtained; these are summarised in Tables 3.14 and 3.15. The overall NDVI mean for the study period was 0.42 (95% CI: 0.38 -0.46).At the time when sheep/goats and cattle were being moved out of a grazing site, mean NDVI values were estimated to be 0.15 (0.08 -0.22) and 0.27 (0.14 -0.40), respectively. These values support observations made by participants that sheep and goats have lower thresholds for movement compared to cattle. A total of 300 blood samples were collected from livestock that were being moved out of the dry season grazing areas towards the end of 2012. Forty nine per cent of these samples were obtained from goats, 35.7% from sheep and 15 % were obtained from cattle that had not been vaccinated. At the same time, vectors sampled (using CDC miniature light traps baited with carbon dioxide) included 2,513 Culex, 33 Anopheles, 9 Mansonia and 7 Aedes mosquitoes.These samples are being analysed in the molecular laboratory at ILRI for RVFV infection. In addition, blood meal sources for mosquitoes are also being investigated using PCR tests.Predicted population dynamics for Aedes app and Culex spp driven by daily TRMM rainfall are given in Figure 3.4.These populations are used to estimate the force of infection, and hence the probability of a host getting infected with RVF virus. Predicted RVF virus infection incidences in cattle and sheep that follow the upsurge in the number of mosquitoes are presented in Figure 3.5.The inset graph in Figure 3.5 demonstrates that RVF epidemics tail off slowly depending on the rate of disappearance of the flood waters. The main graph also indicates that there are periodic occurrences of RVFV related with The model has also been used to conduct a number of scenario analyses. Results of an analysis assessing the effect of varying the area under floods (5 -50%) are presented in Figure 3.7.Predictions given in Figures 3.4 and 3.5 suggest that even though there was heavy precipitation, followed by an upsurge in the number of Aedes and Culex mosquitoes between days 865 to 921, an insignificant outbreak of the disease occurred in livestock at the time. Predictions given in Figure 3.6 suggest that naturally acquired immunity could have played a role in limiting the likelihood of a full-blown epidemic. During this period, peak incidence of the disease in cattle is predicted to have been below 5% since over 60% of the animals were immune. This immunity declined over time such that by day 2000, 40% of the animals were immune. Immunity can therefore play a big role in dampening RVF outbreaks as well as in determining their frequency of occurrence. These analyses are being refined so as to help in determining the duration of herd immunity acquired following RVFV outbreaks. Increasing the number of the mosquito breeding sites increases the populations of vectors, hence the force of RVFV infection, and the probability of an animal encountering at least once mosquito breeding site as it moves around while grazing. Predictions given in Figure 3.7 demonstrate that higher numbers of mosquito breeding sites produces higher incidence of RVFV in cattle that also develops much faster than lower number of breeding sites. The model simulates interactions between the various components of the disease system including vectors, hosts, and the environment and its processes are driven by climatic and socio-economic variables. This approach therefore represents an initial attempt to study how climate drivers interact with local/socio-economic processes such as livestock movements, off-take rates and herd immunity changes to influence the incidence of RVF.The analysis of historical data shows that RVF outbreaks are associated with excessive and persistent rainfall that lasts for a period of at least 3 months. It also reveals that temperature variability is not a significant predictor although these findings will be verified as the statistical model is refined, for example, through the inclusion of other districts and key predictors that could not be used. Nonetheless, similar results have been reported by Anyamba et al. (2012) and they are consistent with observations made by Logan et al. (1991) and Linthicum et al. (1983) that flooding for 10-15 days is necessary for the emergence of RVFV infected Aedes floodwater breeding mosquitoes and that the persistence of floodwaters for a further 4-6 weeks and their colonization by secondary mosquito vectors allows for the amplification of the virus to epidemic proportions. Anyamba et al. (2009) also indicates that RVF outbreaks occur after excessive rainfall and flooding, often associated with El Nino weather phenomenon in the Horn of Africa. El Nino weather patterns follow an anomalous warming of the sea surface temperatures (SSTs) by >1 ⁰C in the eastern-central pacific region and concurrent anomalous warming of SSTs (>0.5 ⁰C) in the western equatorial Indian Ocean leading to increased precipitation (Anyamba et al., 2009). They indicate that in 2006/2007, cases of RVF occurred after 3-4 months of sustained above normal rainfall and associated green-up in vegetation. These observations have been used in setting thresholds for the RVFV transmission model though more work is needed to refine hydrological dynamics that lead to flooding. Analyses on historical data have utilised animal and not human outbreak data although both human and livestock cases were reported in the district during the 1997-98 and 2006-07 outbreaks. Attempts are being made to collate human cases and identify risk factors involved in anima-human transmission so as to estimate the expected impacts of the disease (on both human and livestock health and livestock trade).Animal movements contribute immensely to the transmission and maintenance of infectious diseases. For the purposes of this work, animal movements are classified into three levels depending on the range of distances covered; these are: This report focuses on the second and third levels of movement since these could be relevant for RVFV transmission in Ijara. The local Somali community practice transhumant pastoralism (involving seasonal migration patterns) as the key socio-economic activity to cope or manage the effects of adverse climate. Animals are moved from inhabited areas with diminishing pasture and water to areas where these resources can still be found. Participatory survey established that the number of movements undertaken in a year depends on environmental conditions and the type of animals kept. An analysis of these movements against NDVI estimates as a proxy for climate variability indicates that there is a pattern of increased movement during periods of low NDVI. Small ruminants have a higher NDVI threshold for movement than cattle since they browse on a variety of shrubs that can withstand drought conditions for a slightly longer time than the normal pasture. Similar analyses have been used previously by Worden (2007) to analyse livestock movement dynamics in the greater Amboselli ecosystem in Kenya. Low NDVI estimates, however, might not always imply increased livestock movement because they measure the amount of greenness or green forage that is present in an area rather than pasture availability. In fact drought mitigation strategies focus more on accessing standing dry biomass rather than green forage. Nevertheless, these estimates can be valuable for guiding livestock movement dynamics in the model. It can also be correlated with rainfall density, as it has been done in agronomy, to allow for predictions of future movement patterns assuming that there are minimal changes in land use patterns.Efforts are underway to determine whether seasonal/transhumant migrations influence RVF transmission/persistence. Areas used as dry season grazing sites e.g. the Boni forest and riverine vegetation along River Tana have the potential to sustain an endemic transmission of the virus since they have a rich diversity and density of animals and vectors. Observations made by Shope et al. (1982) indicating that the virus can exists in endemic cycle in forests or in humid and shrubby grasslands are very relevant in this case. Analysis of the biological samples collected from animals that were being brought back from these areas would therefore be invaluable for this assessment. If it is established that these areas have some RVFV activity, then it is likely that exposures that occur while livestock are being grazed there help in sustaining naturally acquired immunity. These hypotheses are consistent with unproven opinions suggesting that major RVF outbreaks occur after prolonged periods of drought when a large proportion of otherwise immune animals are lost, and so they get replaced with naive populations.It has been shown that local livestock movements amplify the rate transmission of an infectious disease especially if movements occur in the course of an outbreak. Anyamba et al. (2010) observe that movement of vireamic animals to other ecological zones in the course of RVF outbreaks amplifies outbreaks especially if these areas have large populations of Culex mosquitoes that play a role in creating secondary RVF transmission foci. Scenario analyses conducted using the RVFV model (not shown) suggest that the range of distances covered per day correlate positively with size (incidence and duration) of an epidemic. This is due to the fact that there is an increased chance of an animal getting into a vector breeding zone the further it moves away from its base.Outputs from the transmission model suggest that herd/flock immunity against RVF can influence the size and intervals of the outbreaks. This appears to be more important in cattle, given their lower turn-over rates, than sheep. It is currently thought that an animal that recovers from natural infection remains immune for the rest of its life. This implies that livestock offtake rates (sales, slaughters and mortalities) are very important in determining the longevity of acquired herd-level immunity by influencing the rates at which immunized animals are removed from the herds/flocks. Preliminary findings show that small ruminants have high turn-over rates compared to cattle. During the dry season for instance, 19% of sheep and 15% of goats are sold to meet some of the household needs. The high offtake rates negatively affect the persistence of herd immunity. The data collected from these surveys will be analysed further and used for the prediction of immunity dynamics over time.There are many other factors that can influence RVFV transmission dynamics which cannot be exhaustively addressed by this report. One of this is the type of hosts that are present in an area (a measure of biodiversity). Participatory surveys identified types of livestock species being kept in the area, their relative population sizes as well as wildlife species that are common in the district. This information is being used to determine types of hosts that should be considered when developing a multi-host model. It is known however that there is a huge variability in the susceptibility of the various animal species to RVFV infection. Domestic animals, for instance, have been listed in a decreasing order of susceptibility as: sheep, goats, cattle, camels and water buffaloes (FAO, 2003). Similarly, antelopes, cape buffaloes, monkeys, cats, dogs and rodents are known to be susceptible while birds, reptiles and amphibians are refractory to RVFV infection. The presence of such a big diversity of hosts in an area can either promote the transmission of the disease (e.g. by providing a larger potential source of blood meal for the vectors or harbouring the virus, etc ) or reduce further pathogen transmission especially is some of them act as dead-end hosts. This is one of the interesting aspect of the topics that would be addressed as the model is expanded and refined.Malaria is a major public health problem in Kenya and it accounts for 30% of outpatient consultations, 15% hospital admissions, and 3-5% inpatient deaths (Njuguna et al., 2012). In arid and semi-arid areas (e.g. Ijara district), malaria transmission is extremely seasonal since the vectors that are involved (mainly Anopheles arabiensis and An. gambiensis) are sensitive to climate variability. These vectors are confronted with highly variable and challenging climatic conditions, particularly during the dry seasons, which cause drastic shrinking or complete disappearance of larval habitats, a decline in the vector population and hence a reduction in the incidence of the disease. Build-up of a new population of vectors in subsequent wet seasons arise either from new populations of immigrants from the neighbouring areas or an expansion of the small local populations that survive the dry period (Mala et al., 2011). Given that Anopheles eggs have low tolerance to desiccation, adults have to survive the dry spell in order for the species to survive by hiding in barrows, abandoned houses, etc.Malaria cases often cluster by geographic/ecological, socio-economic, or demographic factors. In Arid and semi-arid areas, closeness to a river, watering points or irrigated areas has been associated with an increased prevalence of the disease (Oesterholt et al, 2006). Other risk factors that have been reported include living in grass-thatched houses (preferred by mosquitoes), engaging in outdoor occupations such as herding cattle, low altitude, and dense vegetation cover (Mala et al., 2011;Noor et al., 2009). These relationships are, however, not linear; Ijumba and Lindsay (2001) indicate that the use of vector control measures such as bed nets or improved access to medical services masks the expected effects of these risk factors. In fact recent observations indicate that malaria caused by P. falciparum is declining in sub-Saharan Africa due to large-scale bed net programmes and improved case management. Malaria risk mapping work done by Noor et al. (2009) also shows that a large proportion of Kenya (94%) has low intensity transmission which can be difficult or costly to quantify empirically.The intensity of malaria transmission is often measured using: (i) the entomological inoculation rate (EIR), which represents the average number of infective bites per person per unit time, and (ii) Ro, the average number of secondary infections in a non-immune population resulting from a single new infection. However, both of these indices are difficult to measure directly. EIR, for instance, is estimated as the product between the proportion of mosquitoes carrying sporozoites in their salivary glands (sporozoite-rate) and the mosquitohuman biting rate. In semi-arid areas (like Ijara district), sporozoite rate is usually very low and seasonal. Mosquito-human biting rate is also influenced by many factors such as the density of the mosquitoes, relative locations of mosquito breeding sites and areas of human aggregation. Alternative measures for P. falciparum risk have been developed and used since the 1950s, e.g. parasite rate (PfRT), which represents a proportion of a random sample of population with malaria parasites in their peripheral blood, spleen rates, etc. PfRT has been used to map malaria risk in Africa. This is a preliminary analysis that uses hospital records obtained from health facilities in Ijara district to determine whether the number of cases reported in the district can be associated with climate variables -precipitation and temperature. The data represents the number of outpatient malaria cases recorded over a 5 year period and the proportion of the cases that are found to be positive for malaria following laboratory investigation. This analysis is however prejudiced by the fact that hospital records do not necessarily represent the background incidence of a disease. In this case, more work will be done to estimate EIRs and repeat the analysis in order to generate more solid evidence on the linkages between climate and malaria transmission.Hospital records on malaria cases in Ijara district for the period 2006 to 2011 were obtained from the District Health Records and Information Office. The data comprise monthly records of inpatient and outpatient cases; mortalities from the inpatient cases; the number of cases tested versus those that turned positive for malaria following laboratory investigation; and annual quantities of insecticide-treated nets and long lasting insecticide treated nets, artemisinin-combination therapy distributed to people and the number of houses covered with indoor residual spraying.Descriptive analyses were done to explore trends in malaria incidence based on the number of outpatient cases and the proportion that turned positive on laboratory investigation. Subsequently, simple statistical analyses using Generalised Linear Model (GLM) were done to assess the correlation between these outcomes (total number of outpatient cases and proportion of the cases that turned positive) and climate variables: mean precipitation, mean minimum and maximum temperature estimates for the district obtained from ECMWF. Both current and lagged (1 and 2 months) rainfall and temperature estimates were used in the analysis. The dependent variables i y were assumed to have a normal distribution with mean i  and variance 2  represented as:, and the general structure of the model:The two climate variables (precipitation and temperature) were used in the analysis because they have been shown to influence the incidence of malaria. Precipitation influences humidity and causes the development of mosquito larva habitats. Changes in temperatureOutputs from the statistical analyses conducted using the GLM model show that both the number of reported malaria cases and the proportion of positive cases obtained from laboratory investigation are not correlated with either precipitation or temperature (Table 4.2). This analysis explores unconditional relationship between the incidence of malaria and climate (rainfall and temperature) in Ijara district based on cases obtained from the health facilities in the district. This is a simple analysis which is done while recognising the fact that other biological and non-climatic factors are equally important in the disease epidemiology. The records used in the analysis are aggregated by facility/month; this might help to reduce noise in the data. The catchment areas for the health facilities are also quite large relative to population densities. The district has a total of 11 heath facilities comprising one district hospital that serves a population of 100,000 people, one sub-district hospital and three health centres, each serving a population of 30,000 people and six dispensaries, each serving a population of 10,000 people (Njuguna et al., 2012). The representativeness of the data can also be questioned considering the fact that a large proportion of the target population seek medical services from private clinics, pharmacies and traditional healers, etc. which are not captured by the public health surveillance. Nevertheless, the quality of surveillance for infectious diseases has been improving in the country following the introduction of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) program by WHO and CDC.Most studies have demonstrated that climate factors are important drivers for malaria transmission, affecting both the development rates of the malaria parasites and vectors. This topic has generated a lot of interest because of the expected impacts of climate change on human health. A rise in temperature is expected to increase the transmission and prevalence of malaria by increasing the vector feeding rate and by shortening the incubation period of the parasite in the vector. Precipitation, on the other hand, provides a medium for the development of the aquatic stages of the vector and increases humidity, which enhances the longevity of the vector (Alemu et al., 2011). A recent analysis by Akinbobola and Omotosho et al. (2012), for instance, reported that rainfall (with a lag of one month) and maximum temperature are positively correlated with malaria incidence in Nigeria.Contrary to the expectations expressed above, this study did not find any correlation between climate variables and incidence of malaria in Ijara district. This can be attributed to increased uptake of malaria prevention and control measures such as IRS, ACTs and LLINs. Njuguna et al. (2012) reports that a majority (76.5%) of the cases reported in these facilities are diagnosed using clinical examinations and no laboratory confirmations are done. In fact the degree of positivity that is obtained following laboratory diagnosis rarely goes beyond 40%. This trend is thought to cause an over-representation of malaria incidence and hence an over-treatment. In fact it has been demonstrated that spleen and parasite prevalence in communities that live in villages with health facilities are significantly lower than those communities that live in villages without these facilities (Mboera et al., 2008).There is a need for more studies on the relationship between climate variability and malaria transmission dynamics, and how it is influenced by anthropogenic drivers, including the application of large scale intervention measures. It has been reported that the endemicity and geographical extent of the disease is declining globally, and yet there are predictions that suggest an increased burden of the disease as a result of the global climate change (Gething et al., 2010). This paper also observes that non-climatic factors such as disease control, indirect effects of urbanization and economic development have had greater influence on the geographic extent and intensity of malaria worldwide than have climatic factors.More work is being done to refine the RVFV model particularly on developing an appropriate module to simulate flooding dynamics. This needs to be driven by topography, soil types, precipitation and temperature. There is also a need to develop a way of incorporating wild life, for example having a group of hosts that have variable contribution to the RVFV transmission. In addition, the model does not explicitly include people yet it would be necessary to determine the impact of the disease on humans. This has not been one because it is believed that infections that have substantial impacts are acquired through contact with tissues and (or) fluids of infected animals. This will not be possible to model dynamically. However, a parallel survey is being conducted to identify the proportion of people that engage in risk practices such as slaughtering animals, consumption of uncooked meat etc. to be used for the development of a statistical model that estimates the risk of the disease in humans when there are outbreaks in animals.Biological samples that have been collected so far are inadequate. More sampling will be done particularly in the dry season grazing areas to determine whether they support an endemic transmission of RVF.Finally, RVF is a zoonotic disease and there is a need to collect socio-economic data that can be used to assess factors that promote exposure to humans. This work will be done in collaboration with the University of Nairobi.","tokenCount":"10381"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b0bcf26780f041cf52764dd6b54f828c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/35caf4c8-235d-4394-8a1c-d02e41255491/retrieve","id":"896384695"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"482d2649-f6de-48bd-a066-246ae5d2df23","pagecount":"92","content":"Integrated crop management strategies for plantain production and control of black Sigatoka in DRC The spread of black Sigatoka throughout Venezuela, 1997-2000 Frequency of Paracercospora fijiensis and Pseudocercospora musae in Dominico hartón plantain Effects of the natural fungicide F20 on black Sigatoka disease on plantain and banana Seasonal fluctuations of R. similis and P. coffeae in certain cultivars of banana Host plant response of Pisang Jari Buaya and Mysore bananas to R. similis Effect of three arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on root-knot nematode infection of Musa Endophytic fungal species associated with root necrosis of banana in Cuba Effects of mycorrhization on micropropagated banana Arachis pintoi: a cover crop for bananas? Dynamics of boron in a soil cultivated with plantain in Colombia Evaluation of the agronomic characteristics of plantain hybrids Options for in vitro propagation of the banana hybrid FHIA-20 Multiplication rate and regeneration potential of somatic embryos from a cell suspension of banana (Musa AAA) Introduction, multiplication and distribution of improved bananas and plantains in Nicaragua Using RAPD technique for identifying and classifying some banana cultivars in Vietnam Consumption and expenditure patterns of banana and plantain consumers in Nigeria Thesis MusaNews MusaForum INIBAP News Books etc. Announcements INFOMUSA Vol. 11, N°1 CONTENTS Integrated crop management strategies for plantain production and control of black leaf streak (black Sigatoka) disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo .The mission of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain is to sustainably increase the productivity of banana and plantain grown on smallholdings for domestic consumption and for local and export markets. The Programme has four specific objectives: • To organize and coordinate a global research effort on banana and plantain, aimed at the development, evaluation and dissemination of improved cultivars and at the conservation and use of Musa diversity • To promote and strengthen collaboration and partnerships in banana-related research activities at the national, regional and global levels • To strengthen the ability of NARS to conduct research and development activities on bananas and plantains • To coordinate, facilitate and support the production, collection and exchange of P. Mobambo Kitume Ngongo P lantain (Musa spp., AAB group) is an important staple food in many countries of the humid tropics. It is among the most important carbohydrate sources in the diet of people in these regions. Its low labour requirement and relatively high-energy output make plantain a suitable staple for areas where labour shortage is usually the main constraint to production. The crop is mainly grown by small-scale farmers and it is an integral component of most farming systems in West and Central Africa, where about 50% of the world's plantain is produced (Wilson 1987, FAO 1990).In spite of its importance to local people, plantain has long been ignored by agricultural researchers in the region, since it had no major disease problems until the 1970s and was therefore regarded as a disease-free crop in Africa (Wilson 1987). Twenty-five years ago, however, the crop was threatened by black leaf streak (black Sigatoka), an air-borne leaf spot disease caused by the fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis Morelet. The disease spread rapidly into all plantain-producing regions of Africa. Black Sigatoka is the most destructive leaf disease of plantain, as it is spreading inexorably to all major lowland plantaingrowing regions as the dominant leaf spot (Meredith and Lawrence 1970). Plantain yield loss of 76% due to black Sigatoka has been reported during the second cropping cycle, while the whole complex of disease, pests and soil fertility decline together reduced yield by 93% (Mobambo et al. 1996a). As a perennial starchy crop, plantain requires a considerable time to mature, resulting in longer exposure to diseases, pests and in depletion of soil nutrients.The soil-disease-pest complex can be controlled by the combination of inorganic fertilizers, fungicides and insecticides/nematicides. In Africa however, chemical control strategies are socioeconomically and environmentally unsound in the framework of the resource-poor smallholders growing plantain. Chemicals are very expensive and their applications may be hazardous to health in the village homesteads where the bulk of plantain is grown. Therefore, proper soil management using several crop residues mulches to improve the organic matter and nutrient content of the soil could reduce the soildisease-pest complex effects on plantain with low inputs.The objectives of the research reported here were to compare field performance and yield of plantain under different practices of soil fertility management and disease control.Investigations were carried out at Kinshasa (4°22'S, 15°21'E, western Congo), which is at 390 m above sea level (Anonymous 1985). The soil of the experimental site is a latosol derived from deposited sands, well drained, but poor in nutrients and highly acidic. Annual rainfall averages 1800 mm and average temperature is 24.5°C.Musa AAB cv. 'Yumba', locally widespread, was used in this experiment. Planting materials still constitute a constraint for plantain production in rural areas. As it is impossible to get many and uniform plantain suckers at once, the investigation started by vegetative multiplication of planting materials (technique described by Auboiron 1997) in order to obtain 625 plants for the experiment: 5 treatments x 5 replications x 25 plants per treatment.Plantain corm stumps were split into sets of 50 g each and treated with wood ashes. They were air-dried for 24 hours before being planted in 15 cm-diameter plastic bags almost filled with forest topsoil. New sprouts emerged after 4 weeks from the date of planting and up to 20 new plants were obtained from a corm.Plants were grown in half-shade conditions and watered regularly. They were transplanted in the field 3 months later, when they had 3-4 true leaves Four different treatments to prevent infection by microorganisms, based on cultural practices, were compared: crop residues mulches (wood sawdust or rice husk), cover crop (Vigna unguiculata) and fertilizers (NPK). Non-treated plants were used as control.The experimental design was a randomized complete block with five plottreatments and five replications. The plot size was 15 m x 10 m with 25 plants spaced by 3 x 2 m, resulting in a plant density of 1667 per ha. Data were recorded only on the nine central competitive plants.Every 3 months, crop residues mulches were applied to the soil around the stem in mulched plots using one head-pan (10 kg). In fertilized plots, 300 kg N, 60 kg P 2 O and 550 kg K 2 O per ha per year were split into six applications during the rainy season: urea at a rate of 65 g per plant per application, phosphorus at a rate of 20 g per plant per application, and muriate of potash at a rate of 89 g per plant per application.For each treatment, soil samples were taken at about 50% flowering stage using a soil hand auger up to 20 cm depth, where plantain has the majority of its roots (Swennen 1984, Purseglove 1988). These samples were air-dried in the laboratory, crushed, passed through 0.5 and 2 mm sieves and analyzed.The disease development was evaluated every week using the \"symptom evolution time\", which is the number of days between the appearance of symptoms of stage 1 of the disease development (Fouré 1982) assimilated to stage b of the cigar (Brun 1963) and the appearance of spots with dry centres (stage 6 of the disease, Fouré 1982Fouré , 1987)). The \"youngest leaf spotted\" which is the leaf with 10 or more discrete necrotic lesions with dry centres (Meredith and Lawrence 1970, Fouré 1982, 1987) and the \"life time of the leaf\", which is the number of days between the cigar-stage b of the leaf and leaf death (100% leaf area necrotic), either due to senescence or black Sigatoka (Mobambo et al. 1994) were also recorded.Disease severity was evaluated every two weeks, from two months after planting until flowering. The percentage of leaf area with symptoms was recorded using the modified scale of Stover and Dickson (1970) as described at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (Mobambo et al. 1993a).Growth parameters evaluated include height of pseudostem, girth of pseudostem, number of leaves emerged and height of the tallest sucker. They were recorded on each plant from 2 months after planting until flowering as described by Swennen and De Langhe (1985).Yield parameters evaluated were number of hands per bunch, number of fruits per bunch and bunch weight.Data collected were analyzed using the ANOVA procedures of Statistical Analysis System (SAS 1988) for randomized complete block design. The Duncan Multiple Range (DMR) test at the 0.05 significance level was used to compare treatment means for each parameter.Soil analysis results presented in Table 1 showed significant differences in the amounts of nutrients between crop residues mulches (wood sawdust and rice husk) and other management practices, such as cover crop (Vigna unguiculata) and mineral fertilizer (NPK). Meanwhile, statistical differences were found between rice husk and wood sawdust, with rice husk as the best improving soil fertility level. According to the scales of Black (1965) and Brady (1984), in plots mulched with crop residues the soil was in general moderately acidic with very high organic carbon, high total nitrogen, moderate calcium, moderate magnesium and high potassium. In the non-mulched plantain plots however, the soil was extremely acidic with low organic carbon, moderately low total nitrogen, low calcium, very low magnesium and very low potassium.These results indicate that the amounts of soil nutrients are higher in the mulched plots than in the nonmulched plots. Crop residues mulches constitute better sources of nutrients and act therefore as a fertilizer. As pointed out by Lal and Kang (1982), organic matter constitutes a key component of soil fertility, as a reservoir of nutrients, as a main source of cation exchange capacity and as major promoter of aggregate structural stability.Significant differences were found between plantain mulched with crop residues (wood sawdust and rice husk) and the non-mulched plantain (control, cover crop and fertilizer) regarding symptom evolution time, youngest leaf spotted, percentage of leaf area with symptoms and life time of leaf (Table 2). The severity of black Sigatoka on plantain was much lower in the mulched plantain than in the non-mulched plantain. Among crop residues mulches, however, rice husk was statistically the best for slowing disease development.Black Sigatoka symptom development in the mulched plantain was slower than in the non-mulched plantain. In the plantain mulched with crop residues, the disease needed almost one month more to develop the last symptom stage compared to the control. For the fertilized and cover-cropped plantain, symptom evolution time values were respectively 40 and 36 days, i.e. 2-3 weeks less than for the mulched plantain.With respect to the youngest leaf spotted (YLS), results show the same trend as for the symptom evolution time (Table 2). There were significant differences between the plantain mulched with crop residues and the non-mulched plantain. On mulched plantain, YLS was 11 for rice husk and 9 for wood sawdust, whereas on both the fertilizer-treated plantain and on the cover-cropped plantain the YLS was 8. The non-treated plantain (control) had the lowest YLS value, 6.These results indicate that when using the rice husk mulch the plant gains three healthy leaves comparing with the fertilizers or cover crop treatments, and five healthy leaves against the control. Therefore, with a leaf emergence time of about one per week for plantain in general, the soil fertility (Table 1) due to rice husk mulch slowed the symptom evolution by 3 and 5 weeks compared respectively to that of the fertilized and covercropped plots and the control.Pronounced differences were also obtained between mulched and nonmulched plants regarding the percentage of leaf area with symptoms (Table 2). While in cover-cropped and fertilized plots, plantain presented respectively 10.3% and 6.9% of leaf area infected by black Sigatoka, in plots mulched with crop residues it lost only 3.8% to 4.2% of its leaf area. The slower spread of the disease in mulched plots is facilitated by an increased functional leaf area compared to that of non-mulched plots.INFOMUSA -Vol 11, N°1  Regarding leaf life time, significant differences were also found between plants mulched with crop residues and those that were not mulched (Table 2). Slower disease development on mulched plantain prolonged the lifetime of leaves. In plantain treated with rice husk and wood sawdust, black Sigatoka needed almost 9, 7 and 4 weeks longer to destroy the leaves as compared respectively to the control, the cover-cropped and the fertilized plantain. The control plantain was the most affected by the disease. As already reported, all plantain cultivars (Musa spp., AAB group) over the world are susceptible to black Sigatoka (Fouré 1987, Mobambo et al. 1996b).The difference in the host response to black Sigatoka between the plantain mulched with crop residues and nonmulched plantain is mainly attributed to the difference in soil fertility. The higher the soil fertility level, the lower the black Sigatoka severity. On better soils this is expressed in a slower symptom development, older leaves bearing dry spots, less leaf area with black Sigatoka symptoms and longer life time of leaves (Mobambo et al. 1994).Results presented in Table 3 show significant differences for all the parameters studied: plant height (PH), plant girth (PG), number of emerged leaves (NEL), days to flowering (DF), days for fruit filling (DFF), days to harvest (DH) and height of the tallest sucker (HTS).For all treatments (crop residues mulches, fertilizer or cover crop) the plants had a similar height, whereas they were shorter than the control. However, regarding plant girth and number of emerged leaves, the plantain mulched with crop residues performed better than the non-mulched plantain. Bigger plant girth and lower number of leaves were obtained on plants treated with rice husk and wood sawdust than on the non-mulched plants. Plants mulched with rice husk flowered significantly earlier and had a longer fruit-filling period than those under other treatments. They flowered 5 months earlier than the control and about 1 to 2 months earlier than the fertilized and covercropped plantains. The combined effect resulted in a shorter production cycle for the plantain mulched with rice husk, whose bunches were harvested 104 and 28 days earlier than in the control and fertilized plantain respectively. Plantain mulched with rice husk was harvested 16 days earlier than that mulched with wood sawdust. It also showed better suckering, the tallest sucker, i.e. the sucker that will continue as the next production cycle, being significantly taller than for other treatments. This should normally result in a shorter ratoon cycle for the plantain treated with rice husk as compared to other treatments.The yield components evaluated were the number of hands per bunch, number of fruits per bunch and bunch weight (Table 4).There were significant differences between the plantain mulched with crop residues (wood sawdust and rice husk) and the non-mulched plantain (control, cover crop and fertilizer) regarding the number of hands per bunch and number of fruits per bunch (Table 4). The mulched plantain had a higher number of hands and fruits per bunch than the nonmulched.Yield per hectare was calculated from the average bunch weight multiplied by plant density. Yield was significantly different between the plantain mulched with rice husk and other treatments. The yield of the best-performing plantain treated with rice husk was 46%, 37% and 26% higher than those of control, covercropped and fertilized plantain, respectively. The yield of plantain mulched with rice husk was 14% higher than that obtained with wood sawdust.These results indicate that crop residues mulches confer important advantages to plantain cultivation: higher yield, earlier maturity or shorter production cycle and bigger girth allowing reduction of losses from wind-damage, another important constraint to plantain production (Mobambo et al. 1996a).The research reported here compares different management practices of plantain production. The effects of the crop residues mulches (wood sawdust and rice husk) were compared to those of fertilizer application and cover crop for soil fertility, black Sigatoka severity, growth and yield parameters of plantain.For all parameters evaluated, the plantain mulched with crop residues performed better than the non-mulched plantain. Soil fertility is the critical factor responsible for the difference between crop residues mulches, cover crop and fertilizer. Because of the high level of fertility due to the application of crop residues mulches, plantain was less affected by black Sigatoka and consequently better growing than when receiving no mulch. Among crop residues mulches, rice husk was statistically better than wood sawdust.  Therefore, proper management of organic matter is essential for the sustainable productivity of plantain, by minimizing the black Sigatoka severity with low inputs. Since plantain is grown mainly by small-scale farmers in Africa, chemical fertilizers are not readily and economically available. Thus, the potential of traditional organic fertilizers such as compost, farmyard manure and crop residues mulches need to be better exploited. A study integrating organic resources and soil fauna may help to understand the mechanisms regulating the biological processes for the improvement of soil fertility in relation with the sustainability of plantain production, disease and pest severity. S ince the first report of black Sigatoka (Mycosphaerella fijiensis Morelet) in Venezuela, great uncertainty has existed as to the future of banana and plantain production there. The complex nature of the pathogen gives it considerable potential for adaptation to new climatic conditions, fungicides and host genotypes (Ploetz 2000). This is clearly demonstrated by the loss in efficacy of certain products used for chemical control such as the benzimidazoles and triazoles (Douglas and Ching 1992, Estévez 1992, Stover 1993, Guzman et al. 2000, Romero 2000).This situation makes clear the extent of the problem posed by this disease and necessitates the introduction of integrated control measures using resistant clones with a high yield potential (Rowe and Rosales 1993). The existence of a close relationship between certain climatic factors (relative humidity, temperature and rainfall) and the pathogen influences the incidence and severity of the disease (Fouré 1994, Gauhl 1994). It is this which has enabled us to map the spread of the disease across the country and also to take steps against its mediumterm incidence in zones where its presence has yet to be recorded, such as wasThe spread of black Sigatoka throughout Venezuela, 1997-2000Distribution of black Sigatoka done in 1997 and 1998 (Martínez 1997, Martínez et al. 1998).The work presented here aims to describe the current situation of black Sigatoka in Venezuela, the course of its spread, its relationships with various climatic factors which determine its aggressiveness and measures taken for its control. For this purpose, an expedition was made into different areas in the southeast of Venezuela, collecting samples showing typical symptoms of the disease for identification, questioning growers and analyzing weather data (relative humidity, rainfall and temperature).Black Sigatoka was detected for the first time in Venezuela in 1991 in the state of Zulia in the western region (Haddad et al. 1992, Escobar andRamirez 1995), and then it spread into various zones and states (Martínez 1997, Martínez et al. 1998). Mention is made in this report of its arrival in the state of Bolivar and, between 1999 and2000, in the states of Delta Amacuro and Amazonas, in the extreme east and south of the country, respectively. On the basis of their rainfall and relative humidity (Martínez 1997, Martínez et al. 1998), these regions were declared to be at high risk of potential infection in the short term (Figure 1).They are characterized by rainfall in excess of 1500 mm/yr, a relative humidity above 79% and a mean temperature between 25 and 28ºC (Figures 2 and 3), which is significant in view of the relationship established between climate and the incidence and development of the disease (Fouré 1994, Gauhl 1994, Mobambo 1995). They are very different from the Maracay region where the mean rainfall is 922 mm/yr with a 6-month dry season. This situation has enabled the establishment of a model for comparing two totally different agro-ecological states with which are correlated critical levels of the severity reached by the disease. This model serves as a reference for introducing control measures on the basis of climatic conditions and to prevent possible spread into zones possessing similar characteristics (Martínez et al. 2000). Fouré (1994) mentions relationships existing between climatic parameters and the spread of the disease which permit a better understanding of the dynamics of the epidemic in production zones and of its potential for initiating future infection. The liberation of ascospores is rapid during rain because of the presence of a film of residual water on the upper surface of the leaves, whose lower surface exhibits more lesions. Dead leaves which remain attached to the plant therefore represent an excellent source of inoculum (Gauhl 1994). As to the temperature, it is estimated that the ascospores of Mycosphaerella fijiensis germinate between 10 and 38ºC, with an optimum at 27ºC, and noting that the relative growth rate of the germination tubes (hyphae) falls rapidly at temperatures below 20ºC (Pérez and Mauri, cited by Pérez 1996). Concerning the effect of wind, it has been shown that the concentration of conidia in plantations is higher in the lowest air layers than on the leaves whereas the concentration of ascospores in the air is the same: this confirms the importance of the ascospores in the life cycle of the disease (Stover 1984, Gauhl 1994).It remains to emphasize the presence of topographic accidents in well-defined geographical areas which is apparently correlated with the variation in climatic factors mentioned above. These topographic accidents therefore also affect the development and severity of the disease. The first report of the disease AMAZONAS 1991 -1994 1994 -1996 1996 -1998 1998  occurred in the Lake Maracaibo area, where the high relative humidity may be due to the proximity of the lake and to the topography of the landscape of the region. These conditions are similar to those around Lake Valencia (the point of entry of the disease into the state of Aragua) and in the sectors close to the Caroni river, Hato Gil (Bolivar state). In the same way, the presence of the Andes cordillera and the interior mountain chain, which constitute a natural barrier to the passage of the fungal spores to adjacent regions, ought to have prevented the spread of the disease into these zones. However this has happened, and its appearance in these regions can only be due to the transport of infected material.Farm surveys and visits to different areas of the country have shown us that the biggest losses have occurred in fields where there was no control of weeds, nematodes or insects. Hanging, dried-up leaves were not removed and no fertilizer was used. There were also problems of irrigation and drainage and an unsatisfactory spacing of plants in the field. The growers are not in the habit of removing side shoots, nor of using chemicals to control diseases. They lack technical support and resources to buy agrochemicals and equipment. Finally, there are no pro-ducers' organizations. With a low yield which is all consumed by the family, the alternatives for the small producer are to sell his plantation, change the crop or simply to abandon the farm completely (Martínez et al. 2000).Medium-sized producers tend to adjust the area of their plantation if production costs increase, allowing them to obtain yields which are dependent on the amount of investment. Large producers succeed in living with the disease, as can be seen to the south of Lake Maracaibo, where there are associations of producers and firms which improve the quality of the product in the plantations where it is destined for the international market. That which is rejected for export is sold on the national or local market where there is no quality control (Martínez et al. 2000).The presence of black Sigatoka in the country has resulted in radical changes in the way bananas are grown. The traditional approach, which is to manage the plantations as perennial crops, tends to have been gradually replaced by semiperennial, and in some cases annual management of the crop, with high planting densities possibly in association with other short-term crops, giving an increase both in yield and in the diversity of the products obtained. This has been introduced thanks to research work carried out by INIA, and also to the growing importance of the organization among the producers.In the course of all the field experiments the accent has been placed on efficient application of basic cultural practices, such as removal of hanging dead leaves and the use of fertilizer, practices which are not being applied at present even though it has been demonstrated that they help to reduce the amount of inoculum of the pathogen in the plantation and that they render the plant less vulnerable to fungal attack (Gauhl 1994).Quite clearly one should try to reduce the use of chemicals and aim for the best possible way of living with the pathogen. An alternative solution which may be adopted is the use of resistant clones which can either be grown in commercial plantations in rows between the clones traditionally grown in the country (so as to reduce the quantity of inoculum available), or else as an entirely separate plantation, as is seen in the Ocumare region of Costa, in Aragua state. There they have chosen to grow plantain FHIA-21, whose fruit has a softer texture than that of 'Hartón gigante' and can be used for making \"tostones\", or chips, of excellent quality, much appreciated by the consumers, which has facilitated its introduction to the market. Likewise it should be noted that there are other possibilities for production such as the use of the hybrids FHIA-01, FHIA-02 and FHIA-03 which yield well and a have a very good response to the disease.1. The speed of spread of the pathogen through the country has increased rapidly: its passage from the western zone to the central zone took five years while the spread from the central zone to the eastern zone and the south needed only one. It seems clear that this development has been encouraged by man. Causing an increase of 40-45% in the costs of production, the disease has particularly affected small producers and cast doubt over the survival of their holdings. The advance of the disease through the national territory continued into the states of Bolivar, Delta Amacuro and Amazonas between 1997 and 2000. 2. The case of the state of Amazonas, on the frontier with Brazil, is particular. The banana and the plantain, grown by the indigenous communities, are major elements of their diet. The ecosystem of the region is fragile and there is com-   Barinas, Maracay, El Vigia, San Felipe and Bolivar (Source: FAV.MARNR, DANAC). Barinas, Maracay, El Vigia and San Felipe (Source: FAV.MARNR, DANAC).plex genetic and biological diversity. For this reason it is undesirable to use chemical control products and preferable to recommend introducing resistant clones which do not need the application of fungicides, even if the cultivars are not fully acceptable to the native consumers. 3. Today it is evident that the presence of black Sigatoka in the country has brought about radical changes in the agronomic management of plantations.The effective use of basic cultural practices, within the framework of integrated control, makes it possible to live with the pathogen, as has been shown by numerous research studies carried out by INIA.C. Lorena Cardona-Sanchez and J. Castaño-Zapata P lantain (Musa sp.) is a subsistence crop and in many areas is the staple food for the population especially in rural areas, with an estimated national per capita consumption of 68.5 kg/annum. Production is mostly with minimal cultivation and as a result yellow Sigatoka and black Sigatoka have increased in severity and dissemination (Merchán 1998), reducing production by 50% (Burt et al. 1997).Nationally 384 957 ha are cultivated, 75% with plantain Hartón and Dominico hartón, the latter cultivar increasingly cultivated in plantain plantations throughout the country, the high com-mercial acceptance being due to their flavour and other qualities and size; it is highly susceptible to black and yellow Sigatokas in the marginal coffee-growing zone (Merchán 1992).Today, these diseases are found competing at altitudes greater than 1000 m above seal level. According to some reports, black Sigatoka, caused by Mycosphaerella fijiensis Morelet, is found attacking plantain Dominico hartón in the district of Victoria (Caldas) 100 m above sea level, and is more aggressive than yellow Sigatoka, caused by Mycosphaerella musicola Leach, a disease which was displaced in less than six months (Merchán 1992). A similar behaviour was observed in the district of Pueblo Rico (Risaralda) 1560 m above sea level (Merchán 1992). According to the latest reports, black Sigatoka can affect plantain from sea level up to an altitude of 1940 m (Belacázar et al. 1994).The Sigatokas are difficult to differentiate from their external symptoms in the field, and hence it is not possible to establish clearly which of the two diseases is more frequent when they occur together (Aguirre et al. 1998b). Microscopically, M. fijiensis and M. musicola are distinguished mainly by the morphological differences of the anamorphs, in particular the conidiophores and conidia characteristics, especially by the presence of scars present on conidiophores and conidia of Paracercospora fijiensis but absent from Pseudocercospora musae (Aguirre et al. 1998b).Management of these diseases may be with chemical products, a practice which is not really applicable to the traditional system of crop production. In order to solve this problem more economical alternatives have been sought, such as host resistance to both diseases which results in a reduced sporulation of the causal organisms.The study was carried out with the objective of determining the frequency of P. fijiensis and P. musae spores in plantain Dominico hartón which is susceptible to black and yellow Sigatoka diseases.The investigation was carried out in the Tolima department, 7 km from the District of Fresno, on the road from Manizales (Caldas) to Mariquita (Tolima) in the village of La Ceiba, Campoalegre estate, located at an altitude of 1250 masl and a temperature range of 18-25 o C, a relative humidity of 65-100% and a rainfall of 1800 mm/annum.First, 1600 plants of the clone Dominico hartón, produced in vitro and multiplied in the tissue culture laboratory, Departamento de Fitotecnía de la Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuaria de la Universidad de Caldas, were transplanted then acclimatized at the Montelindo farm of the University.Evaluations were carried out weekly on 53 clones selected at random. Records were taken starting 13 September 1998, the time of flower initiation, until harvest on 13 March 1999. Impressions were taken weekly from leaves attacked by the Sigatokas with the aim of quantifying spore populations of the anamorph state of M. fijiensis (Figure 1) and M. musicola (Figure 2).Leaf impressions were made with syringes of solidified agar in the form of a dispenser, which was prepared from a 5 ml disposable syringe from which the far end was removed forming a cylinder 1.26 cm diameter. The dispenser was filled with crystal violet agar, prepared by mixing 1 g bacteriological agar with15 ml of a 1% solution of crystal violet in distilled water and 100 ml water. The mixture was autoclaved at 121 o C for 15 min., after which 1 mg benomyl and two sensitivity discs of streptomycin (10 µg) were added (Aguirre et al. 1998b).Conidial populations were quantified weekly by making impressions of each material evaluated, the conidia being removed by pressing the agar surface against the lesion at leaf stage 4-5 of the youngest leaf spotted. The cylinder of crystal violet agar and conidia was placed on a slide and transferred to a tray lined with a paper towel moistened with sterile water. The trays were covered with plastic bags and transferred to a hermetic polystyrene container (icopor).Both fungi were identified and the conidia/cm 2 counted by means of a compound microscope (Olympus) with a 40 x objective.The variables analyzed were the numbers of conidia/cm 2 of P. fijiensis and P. musae, temperature (maxima, means and minima), relative humidity and rainfall.Each variable was subjected to analysis of variance, descriptive procedures for maximum, minimum and mean values, regression, Pearson's correlation and Chi-square test using the SAS (Statistical  Analysis System) statistical programme (SAS Institute 1980). Conidial numbers were transformed with Lnx+1, which best fits the behaviour of the data, where x is the number of conidia/cm 2 .Analysis of variance of P. fijiensis and P. musae counts suggested highly significant differences for clones and dates of evaluation. The interactions between the two factors were significant for P. fijiensis and highly significant for P. musae, indicating that a high or low inoculum production depends on the planting material and the effects of environmental conditions on the development of each material (Table 1).The processes of infection and inoculum production were favoured by rainy periods, and as rainfall increased so did the numbers of conidia shown by P. fijiensis and P. musae with two periods of maximum conidial production at 334 and 424 days after planting (dap). These coincided with the maximum rainfall recorded during the study, with an accumulated rainfall of 211.8 mm and 296.2 mm respectively (Figure 3A), which was in agreement with the studies of Aguirre et al. (1998a). The authors observed that accumulated rainfall was inversely related to the incubation period and development of black and yellow Sigatokas, and directly related to sporulation. This suggests that as weekly accumulated volume of rainfall increases, the incubation period and development of both Sigatokas declines and results in an increased disease severity and hence greater inoculum production of the causal fungi. From 424 dap the relationship between conidial number and rainfall started to decline, being particularly evident at 473 dap when, although there was an increased rainfall (192.5 mm), conidial production was very low because foliage was severely necrotic, and no healthy tissue remained available for infection.Temperature and relative humidity remained fairly constant with an average of 21.5 o C (Figure 3B) and 81% (figure 3C), conditions that are optimum for conidial production. In agreement with Mouliom Pefoura and Mourichon (1990) andTapia (1993), cited by Porras and Pérez (1997), temperatures higher than 20 o C favour conidial development in P. fijiensis. According to Stover (1965), temperatures higher than 22 o C favour conidial production in P. fijiensis, with a temperature of 26°C being optimum (Stover * : Denotes significant differences, p = 5% ** : Denotes highly significant differences, p = 1% Note: Data transformed as square root number of conidia. 1965). A relative humidity of about 100% favours production and viability of spores, particularly when a water film is present on the leaf surface (Jacome and Schuh 1992). Conidial populations of P. fijiensis were always greater than those of P. musae in a ratio of 2.3:1 (Table 2) hence confirming that black Sigatoka tends to displace yellow Sigatoka because of its greater aggressiveness; this is in agreement with the studies in the same region by Aguirre et al. (1998a) who demonstrated that black Sigatoka was more aggressive, occurring at times of the year when yellow Sigatoka disappeared, tending to be displaced by black Sigatoka. In general there was a marked direct correlation between conidial numbers of P. fijiensis and P. musae and rainfall, which is also in agreement with the studies of Aguirre et al. (1998a) who observed that fluctuations in the numbers of conidia trapped each week is highly correlated with rainfall.At the time of flowering, which coincided with the start of the study, the standard deviation remained high up to 452 dap, when buds had emerged from most plants; the high standard deviation was due mainly to the effects of rainfall on conidial production as mentioned for the results where P. fijiensis had a higher frequency than P. musae (Table 2).From 319 to 347 dap the accumulated rainfall was 242.5 mm, with a high frequency of conidia of both fungi. However, between 361and 404 dap, the accumulated rainfall of 378.6 mm was excessive, reducing the conidial populations of both pathogens. It is noteworthy that at 438 dap the highest correlation (r = 0.8575) occurred between conidial populations and rainfall (Table 2).Between 411 and 452 dap the majority of leaf tissue started to become necrotic. During this period rainfall was 232 mm and conidial populations an average of 14 conidia/cm 2 /clone for P. fijiensis and 4 conidia/cm 2 /clone for P. musae.From 466 dap onwards, when the cultivation cycle was complete, the standard deviations were low because the majority of clones were severely infected and no more leaf tissue was available for infection, conidial populations of both fungi were low, resulting in a low standard deviation. At harvest, there were an average of 4 and 2 P. fijiensis and P. musae conidia/cm 2 /clone respectively.The conidial populations of P. fijiensis were always higher than those of P. musae, but populations of both fungi declined due to a lack of healthy susceptible tissue (Figure 4).Finally, the relationship observed between the two pathogens followed a regression between the numbers of conidia/cm 2 of P. fijiensis and P. musae in all clones evaluated. The correlation coefficient was very low (r = 0.40656) (Figure 5), suggesting that the number of conidia/cm 2 of P. musae did not depend on the behaviour of P. fijiensis and vice versa, and that conidial production in each of the clones depended on the susceptibility of the material and environmental conditions, particularly rainfall. In spite of the higher numbers of P. musae conidia, the numbers not always increasing or decreasing, the conidia of P. musae followed the same pattern, but there was no direct or strong relationship between inoculum production of the two pathogens.In general, the clones evaluated produced higher total numbers of conidia of P. fijiensis, confirming that black Sigatoka tends to displace yellow Sigatoka (Table 3). ■   he presence of black Sigatoka disease (Mycosphaerella fijiensis) in Cuba since 1990 has resulted in increased costs of production in plantations of plantain and banana because of the increased frequency of aerial and ground-based sprays to control the causal organism. Thus, there is an urgent need to find alternatives with nationally produced products in order to reduce the costs of disease control.The indiscriminate use of chemical products has resulted in side effects including, inter alia, the appearance of fungicide resistance in the causal organism, the formation of strains more virulent than indigenous strains and environmental contamination (Rodríguez and Jiménez 1985, Fullerton and Olsen 1991, Mouliom Pefoura 1999).The use of natural products obtained from microorganisms presents considerable advantages in comparison with commercial products, since their production is much less damaging to the ecosystem and their in situ biodegradability results in compounds that are not toxic to the indigenous microflora. The search for new and different products of natural origin that do not contaminate the environment, for the control of pests and diseases, is an important alternative for sustainable agriculture.Product F20 comprises two antibiotics: the streptothricins B and F. These antibiotics are produced mainly by microorganisms of the genus Streptomyces. The structure has an aminosugar (glucosamine) joined to a ß-lysine peptide chain. Streptothricins F to A differ in the numbers of ß-lysine residues in the peptide chain, from 1-ß-lysine in streptothricin F to 6-ß-lysine in streptothricin A.The physicochemical properties of streptothricins, their spectrum of antimicrobial activity and toxicity are well known (Wienstein and Wagmans 1978).There appear to be no publications on the use of streptothricins for the control of plant pathogens; specifically there have been no reports up to the present on the use of any antibiotic produced by microorganisms against diseases of banana and plantain.In this work we demonstrate the possible use of streptothricins for the control of black Sigatoka disease in clones of plantain (Musa AAB) cv. 'CEMSA 3 / 4 ' and of banana (Musa AAA) cv. 'Parecido al Rey'.The study was carried out at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Viandas Tropicales (INIVIT). Product F20, whose main active ingredients are the streptothricins B and F, was obtained from the Centro de Química Farmacéutica (CQF) in collaboration with the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma, Canto Blanco, Madrid, Spain, by fermentation of strains of Streptomyces lavendofoliae var. 383 (which produces streptothricin B) and Streptomyces rochei var. f20 (which produces streptothricin F), isolated from Cuban soils. The fermentation broth was centrifuged, the supernatant submitted to chromatography on ion exchange resin IRC-50, finally giving a solution saturated with sodium acetate after elutriation with acetic acid.The product was applied after the saturated sodium acetate solution containing the antibiotics was dissolved in an aqueous solution of 0.2 g/L commercial detergent as emulsifier and 60 ml/L mineral oil, to give a final concentration of 5-13 g streptothricin/L, corresponding to a dose of 80-200 g streptothricin/ha. Application was with a knapsack sprayer, with the spray lance modified to simulate an aerial spray of 12 L/h. The product was applied in weeks 8, 13, 17 and 22 to banana, and in weeks 5, 11 and 16 to plantain. Infected leaves were removed at 2 week-intervals for all treatments and mineral oil with 0.2 g/L commercial detergent, as emulsifier, applied to the control treatment in order to ensure their maintenance for the whole of the biological cycle.Each clone separately, plantain 'CEMSA 3 / 4 ' and banana 'Parecido al Rey', were arranged in an experimental design of randomized blocks with six plants per plot, and four replications.The effect of F20 on black Sigatoka was compared with the effect without phytosanitary treatment and with plots treated chemically with propiconazole (Tilt 250 EC) at 400 ml/ha. F20 was applied at a similar dose to propiconazole.The effect of the fungicides was determined weekly by recording the development stage (DS) of the disease, the youngest leaf with symptoms or streaking (YLSS), and the youngest leaf spotted (YLS) (Fouré 1982, Pérez 1996, Orjeda 1998).Sprays with F20 and propiconazole (Tilt) with mineral oil, resulted in a reduction in the disease index DS in comparison with untreated plots (UT) in clones 'Parecido al Rey' and 'CEMSA 3 / 4 '.Figure 1 shows the results of phytosanitary applications in both clones. Graphs A and B show the similar behaviour of F20 and Tilt with DS values not significantly different (P>0.05), and a significant difference (P<0.01) of both applications in comparison with the control treatment.The effects of disease control of the products were also evident in the graphs as a reduction in the numbers of oscillations in DS values and by the amplitude of their fluctuations in both clones. For example, when treated in week 5, DS values declined steadily from weeks 5 and 10, from about DS = 3000 to about DS = 50 in clone 'CEMSA 3 / 4 '; the rate of disease development declined, whereas for control plants, DS values varied between 1500 and 2500.Analysis of the variable YLSS (Figure 2) showed no significant differences (P>0.05) between treatments with F20 or Tilt. However, with clone 'Parecido al Rey' and F20, minor disease symptoms, stage 1, were evident on leaf 9 (Pérez 1996).Figure 3 showed that YLS could reach a value equal or greater than 9 beforeControl of black Sigatoka flower initiation, thus confirming that there were no effects on weight or premature fruit maturity in either clone; in Cuba a strong negative correlation between the leaf area affected and the YLS has been observed (Pérez et al. 1993, Pérez 1996).All the data analyzed above suggest the use of F20, produced from natural origins and mixed with mineral oil and commer-cial detergent as an emulsion, for the control of black Sigatoka disease in banana and plantain crops. F20 is superior to synthetic chemicals in terms of environmental effects. Attention is  drawn to the difference in behaviour between the two clones, with 'CEMSA 3 / 4 ' having the higher infection. However, in order to avoid the possibility of fungal resistance, it is important that this product should form part of an integrated control programme in combination with other antifungal products (Pérez 1996, Romero 1997).• Product F20 showed no significant differences in comparison with the commercial product Tilt in its effectiveness to control black Sigatoka. • Maximum effectiveness of F20 was obtained with an emulsion of mineral oil and commercial detergent, and the effect was maintained for 3 or 4 weeks from the time of application. T he lesion-producing nematodes such as Radopholus similis and Pratylenchus coffeae are considered to be the economically important nematode pests of banana and are widely distributed in South India (Koshy et al. 1978, Rajendran et al. 1979). The burrowing nematode, Radopholus similis enjoys wide geographical distribution in the tropical and subtropical banana-growing regions of the world. In India, the first occurrence of the nematode was reported on banana from Palghat District of Kerala (Nair et al. 1966), causing up to 41% yield losses. Subsequently this nematode was reported from banana in South India (Koshy et al. 1978), Gujarat (Sethi et al. 1981), Maharashtra (Darekar et al. 1981), Madhya Pradesh (Tiwari et al. 2000), Goa (Koshy and Sosamma 1988), Lakshadweep Islands (Sundararaju 1990), Manipur (Anandi and Dhanchand 1992), Orissa (Mohanty et al. 1992), Tripura (Mukherjee et al. 1994) and Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland (Khan 1999).The root-lesion nematode, Pratylenchus coffeae is reported to have spread to different banana-growing regions through the infested corm. In India, the nematode is known to occur on plantain (AAB) in South India, Gujarat, Orissa, Bihar and Assam (Sundararaju 1996). P. thornei, the other important species was found to infest banana plants from Assam only (Choudhury and Phukan 1990).Crop losses caused by nematodes to bananas are very high, with average annual yield losses estimated at about 20% worldwide (Sasser and Freckman 1987). Soil temperature at a depth of 30 cm did not influence population size (Jimenez 1972). The populations were found to fluctuate between samples, trees, months and years. However, there were definite periods for occurrence of maximum and minimum populations within a year. An extensive survey carried out by Sundararaju (1996) from different banana-growing regions in the country indicated the presence of 17 genera of plant parasitic nematodes. Among them, the lesion nematodes, Radopholus similis and Pratylenchus coffeae are the predominant species found to occur in different cultivars of banana in various intensities. The burrowing nematodeinfested field exhibited severe root rotting, resulting in serious economic losses. Yield was reduced up to 25-35% in the burrowing nematode-infested field compared to nematode-free plantations. Crop losses due to the root-lesion nematode, Pratylenchus coffeae in banana cv. Nendran were reported to be 25.4% (Sundararaju et al. 1999). Therefore, studies were initiated to determine the seasonal fluctuations of these nematode populations in different cultivars of banana roots by periodic sampling of nematode-infested banana plants at the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) Farm. The main objective of the study was to find out the activity peaks, in terms of highest and lowest populations of these nematode parasites, in the rhizosphere so that while devising the management schedules, the findings of the work could be considered.In order to study the population fluctuation of lesion nematodes, the three banana cultivars Kalyan bale (AB), Alukkal (ABB) and Kalibow (AAB), which are highly susceptible to R. similis, and a variety Nendran (ABB), which is highly susceptible to P. coffeae, were selected at NRCB Farm, Podhavur, Trichy, Tamil Nadu. The nematode-infested field was selected for this study and the tested banana cultivars were grown in the field and alluvial soil condition. Samples of both soil (250 cc) and root (10 g) were collected from the base of the mother plants at monthly interval from the 5 th month up to harvesting stage during 1997-98. Tender, main feeder roots of white to creamy-white colour, with reddish-brown cortical lesions, were collected from the base of the plants. Care was also taken to collect only the abovementioned type of roots known to harbour the maximum number of lesion nematodes. Root samples washed thoroughly and cut into 2-2.5 cm pieces and later sliced into 8 longitudinal pieces were left in 15 cm-Petri dishes containing 150 ml of tap water for 72 hrs at 10-14°C in a refrigerator for nematode extraction (Koshy et al. 1975). Soil samples were processed as per Cobb's sieving method followed by the modified Baermann's funnel method for estimation of nematode populations. Soil temperature at 15 cm depth was recorded from the fields daily at 7 am. The mean temperature, soil moisture and data on cumulative rainfall were correlated with the nematode population density in the sample.It is seen from Figure 1 that a drastic increase of R. similis population was noticed in all three cultivars during the months of November to April; it later decreased to a negligible level from May to October which was in agreement with Shafice and Mendez (1975). It is interesting to observe that the maximum nematode population was recorded in April from all the cultivars: Kalayan bale (86/g root), Alukkal (78/g root) and Kalibow (68/g root), and the minimum in July in cv. Kalyan bale (20/g root). Analysis of the soil samples also revealed the same trend as in the case of root samples with maximum population occuring during the month of November to April with maximum rainfall and soil moisture during the period. In the case of P. coffeae on variety Nendran the maximum population was recorded from    October to December and the minimum population from May to August (Figure 2). Regarding the average population for a month, it is seen that a maximum of 92 per gram root was recorded in December, whereas it was only 23 per gram in June. The root-lesion nematode population from soil samples also showed the same trend as in the case of root samples with maximum population during the months October-December and minimum population during the months May-August. Peak rainfall occurred during the Northeast monsoon (September to December) with an average rainfall of 140 mm. The soil temperature at 15 cm depth recorded from fields varied from 18-37.5°C. Analysis of the moisture content revealed that it was maximal in those months where maximum nematode populations were recorded (Figure 3). Rainfall also influences the growth of roots. Thus, with the increase in the availability of root system, there was an increase in the activity of R. similis during November to April and of P. coffeae during October to December.Fluctuations in the populations of Pratylenchus spp. were correlated with rainfall (Cooke and Draycott 1971). The behaviour of P. coffeae in relation to soil temperature and rainfall was similar to that of P. crenatus and P. penetrans in corn (Miller et al. 1972). Lack of moisture coupled with high summer temperature during April to August was found to be unfavourable for the prevalence of P. coffeae in oil palm (Sundararaju and Ratnakaran, in press). The present investigation is in agreement with Kumar (1984) who reported that higher population of P. coffeae was recorded during the month of October to December which is the period of high rainfall and increased root activity in coffee plants.Similar observations were reported in the burrowing nematode R. similis on citrus (DuCharme and Suit 1967), banana (Vilardebo 1976), coconut and arecanut (Koshy and Sosamma 1978).Figure 1 indicates that the R. similis population fluctuates between the months. A steady increase of R. similis population was recorded during the months of November-January and gradual decrease was recorded in February and March, whereas a drastic increase of nematode population was recorded in April in cv. Kalyan bale (Figure 1). A similar trend was noticed in cvs. Alukkal and Kalibow (Figure 1).In the case of P. coffeae a steady increase of nematode population was recorded from September to December and gradually decreased from January to June (Figure 2).This clearly shows that the population build-up of R. similis and P. coffeae would greatly vary depending upon the season and other ecological conditions such as rainfall, soil temperature, soil moisture and availability of susceptible roots which play their own roles in the population build-up.Duong Thi Minh Nguyet, A. Elsen, Nguyen Thi Tuyet and D. De Waele P lant parasitic nematodes are a major constraint of banana production worldwide (Gowen and Quénéhervé 1990). Nematode infection can interfere with nutrient and water uptake and transportation, resulting in slow growth, reduced fruit filling and sensitivity to wind lodging. Among the nematodes attacking banana, Radopholus similis (Cobb) Thorne is considered the most destructive species (Sarah et al. 1996).The possibilities of controlling nematodes in bananas are limited because bananas are usually grown as a permanent crop by small-scale farmers and sources of resistance have proved hard to find. Resistance to R. similis has been reported in 'Pisang Jari Buaya' (Musa AA-Pisang Jari Buaya group) and 'Yangambi Km5' (Musa AAA-Ibota group) (Pinochet 1988, Viaene et al. 1998, Fogain and Gowen 1998, Stoffelen 2000). The clone 'SH-3142' derived from a genotype belonging to the Pisang Jari Buaya group and 'SH-1734' was found to be highly resistant to R. similis (Pinochet andRowe 1979, Pinochet 1988). Moreover, some 'Pisang Jari Buaya' expressed favourable agronomic features similar to those of commercial banana.The Mysore banana (Musa AAB) is a very popular and delicious dessert. Information on resistance and/or tolerance to R. similis of Mysore bananas is scarce. When testing 17 AAB Musa genotypes, Fogain (1996) reported that none of the plants were immune, including 'Pisang Ceylan', the only cultivar belonging to the Mysore group. The objective of our study was to further investigate the host plant response of Musa genotypes from the Pisang Jari Buaya and Mysore groups to a R. similis population from Costa Rica, to find additional sources of resistance to the burrowing nematode.Throughout the study, the terminology of Bos and Parlevliet (1995) concerning resistance and susceptibility of host plants to pathogens and the methodology for nematode resistance screening in Musa as described by Speijer and De Waele (1997) were used.Thirteen diploid (AA) banana genotypes belonging to the Pisang Jari Buaya group (Experiments 1 and 2, see Tables 1 and  Table 2) and five triploid (AAB) banana genotypes from the Mysore group (Experiment 3, see Table 3) were included in the study. Two triploid (Musa AAA) bananas, 'Grande Naine' and 'Yangambi Km5', were included as reference genotypes because of their high susceptibility and resistance to R. similis, respectively. The Musa genotypes used in the experiments were provided by the INIBAP Transit Centre (ITC) at the Catholic University of Leuven. After proliferation, regeneration and rooting (Banerjee and De Langhe 1985), each in vitro propagated banana plantlet with 3-4 leaves and 5-6 roots was transplanted in a 1-litre (12 cm-diameter) plastic pot containing about 1000 cm 3 autoclaved substrate of peat and quarts (2:1). To keep a high humidity, the pots were placed under a plastic cover, which was slightly opened after 2 weeks and removed after 4 weeks. The greenhouse conditions were maintained at 25-30°C and 70-80% relative humidity with a 12-hour photoperiod. The pots were irrigated as needed and fertilized with a hydroponics solution (Swennen et al. 1986) every 3 weeks after nematode inoculation. The plants were inoculated with nematodes either 4 weeks after planting for the Pisang Jari Buaya group, or 8 weeks after planting for the Mysore group, since the number of nematodes was too low in the experiment with Mysore genotypes.The R. similis population used in the experiments was obtained from infected banana roots of 'Valery' (Musa AAA) at Talamanca in Costa Rica. The population was reared monoxenically on carrot discs and incubated at 28°C in the dark for several generations (Moody et al. 1973, Pinochet et al. 1995). The carrot discs were blended twice for 10 s (with 5 s interval) and poured through 106 and 25 µm pore sieves. Carrot tissue collected on the 106 µm pore sieve was discarded, while the nematodes were collected from the 25 µm pore sieve.A suspension of 1000 living vermiform nematodes was poured in three holes made in the substrate around the base of each plant. After inoculation, the holes were covered.Eight weeks after inoculation, the plants were harvested to observe the response of the different banana genotypes to R. similis. The following data were recorded:The procedure followed was that described by Speijer and De Waele (1997). Five 10 cm-pieces of functional primary roots were collected and sliced longitudinally. The percentage of root cortex showing necrosis was scored for a half of each root. The maximum root necrosis per root half is 20%, giving a maximum root necrosis of 100% for the five root-halves together.The entire root system, including the 5 roots segments observed for necrosis, was weighed and cut into 2 cm-pieces. Fifteen grams of fresh roots were taken randomly and macerated three times for 10 s with 5 s intervals. The mixture was poured through a series of 250-106-40 µm pore sieves and the sieves were rinsed with tap water. Nematodes remaining on the 40 µm pore sieve were collected in a beaker with distilled water. Nematodes were counted in 6 ml aliquots of each sample using a binocular microscope.Three experiments were conducted, based on a completely randomized design, with either eight replicates for each genotype (Pisang Jari Buaya group, Experiment 1, Table 1; Mysore group, Experiment 3, Table 3) or nine replicates (Pisang Jari Buaya group, Experiment 2, Table 2). Prior to statistical analysis, the percentage of root necrosis was transformed to arcsinNematode resistance (x/100) and the nematode numbers were converted to log 10 (x+1). All data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and means of the parameters were compared using the Tukey HSD test at P ≤ 0.05.The results obtained from the Pisang Jari Buaya group are presented in Tables 1   and 2. In Table 1, no significant differences were observed in nematode numbers per root system or per 1 g fresh roots and root necrosis percentage between the Pisang Jari Buaya genotypes and 'Grande Naine'. Among the Pisang Jari Buaya genotypes, root necrosis percentage was significantly higher in 'Morong Princessa' compared with 'Pisang Tunjiuk' and 'Saing Todloh'. In These results show that all Pisang Jari Buaya genotypes tested are as susceptible to R. similis as 'Grande Naine'. They confirm a previous report (Wehunt et al. 1978) that 'Pisang Jari Buaya', 'Gabah Gabah', 'Pisang Sipulu' and 'Pisang Gigi Buaya' are significantly less sensitive to root damage (expressed as root necrosis percentage) compared with 'Grande Naine'. Surprisingly, 'Pisang Jari Buaya', which has previously been confirmed resistant to R. similis (Pinochet 1988, Viaene et al. 1998, Fogain and Gowen 1998, Stoffelen 2000), did not appear to be so in our study. Also, 'Pisang Sipulu', considered a promising banana genotype because less susceptible to R. similis (Wehunt et al. 1978, Binks andGowen 1996), did not show resistance either to R. similis in our study.The results obtained from the Mysore group are presented in Table 3. The nematode numbers per root system and per 1 g fresh roots of 'Gorolo' and 'Lady Finger' (South Johnstone) were significantly lower compared with 'Grande Naine', while those recovered from the other Mysore genotypes were not significantly different compared with the reference genotype. The root necrosis percentage observed in 'Thap Maeo' and 'Gorolo' was significantly lower compared with 'Grande Naine'. In contrast, the root necrosis percentages of 'Pisang Ceylan', 'Lady Finger' (South Johnstone) and 'Lady Finger' (Nelson) did not differ significantly from those in 'Grande Naine'.According to Price (1994) and Price and McLaren (1995), AAB Musa genotypes are susceptible to R. similis when examined in field trials. Unfortunately, genotypes of the Mysore group were not included in their trials. Our study confirms previous reports (Stanton 1994, Fogain et al. 1996) that 'Lady Finger'   water and mineral nutrients from the soil. AM fungi also may protect plants against soil-borne plant pathogens, including nematodes. Several studies have addressed the associations between AM fungi and root-knot nematodes, which are considered the most important nematodes in the western hemisphere on temperate agricultural crops. Many mycorrhizal associations are reported to have a suppressive effect over sedentary endoparasitic nematodes. In some crops this effect is significant enough to consider mycorrhizal infection as a more or less effective means of biological control (Pinochet et al. 1996).In bananas, only a few studies were carried out on the effects of AM fungi on nematode development. Radopholus similis populations in the roots as well as in the soil were suppressed in mycorrhizal plants compared to non-mycorrhizal plants (Umesh et al. 1988). Under in vitro conditions, using Ri T-DNA transformed Daucus carota roots, a R. similis population was suppressed with 50% in the presence of AMF (Elsen et al. 2001). Pinochet et al. (1997) reported that mycorrhizal colonization did not effect nematode build-up in the roots, although plants infected with both Meloidogyne javanica and Glomus intraradices were more galled.In this experiment, three Glomus species (G. mosseae, G. macrocarpum and G. caledonium) were tested on the Musa cultivar Williams (ITC0570) for their effect on Meloidogyne javanica, a root-knot nematode population isolated from banana in Morocco. Tissue-culture derived plantlets were acclimatized in 1-litre pots filled with sterilized soil in the greenhouse. During transplant the plantlets of the mycorrhizal treatment were mycorrhized with soil inoculum, consisting of ± 1850 spores and 0.25 g mycorrhized roots from Allium porrum. After one month, the plants were inoculated with a mixture of 5000 M. javanica juveniles and eggs. The experiment was planned as a 4 x 2 randomly factorial design with 8 replicates per treatment: AM fungi (-AM, G. mosseae, G. macrocarpum and G. caledonium) x M. javanica (+ M. javanica, -M javanica). Three months after planting, the 'Williams' plants were harvested and assessed for mycorrhizal colonization and nematode damage/development. A sub-sample of the roots was stained with 0.05% trypan blue in lactic acid (Koske and Gemma 1989), in order to determine the mycorrhizal colonization. The galls on the roots were counted in a 5 g sub-sample after staining with phloxine B (Hadisoeganda and Sasser 1982).The AM fungi had no effect on the plant growth since shoot weight, shoot diameter, plant height and root weight did not differ among the treatments (data not shown). In general, mycorrhization of banana plants resulted in a better plant growth compared to non-mycorrhizal plants (Declerck et al. 1994(Declerck et al. , 1995)). Although, in some cases, it has been observed that the establishment of the symbiosis resulted in a negative or neu-tral effect on plant growth as long as the mycorrhizal colonization was not well developed (Jakobsen 1998). Therefore at the time of harvest, the root colonization by the three Glomus strains tested was relatively low. This may partly explain why in this experiment no effect on plant growth was observed. In addition, it is important to note the differences in colonization among the Glomus species in the plants without nematodes. Higher colonization was observed with G. mosseae as compared to G. caledonium and G. macrocarpum. Such differences were also reported in literature (Declerck et al. 1994(Declerck et al. , 1995)). Glomus mosseae was shown the more infective on 'Williams' and other cultivars, as compared to G. macrocarpum (Declerck et al. 1995).Glomus caledonium and G. macrocarpum significantly reduced galling in the roots, while for G. mosseae this reducing effect was not significant (Table 1). In literature, results are contradictory: according to Pinochet et al. (1997), Glomus intraradices did not reduce nematode build-up of M. javanica and resulted in more galled roots compared to non-mycorrhized roots. In contrast, G. mosseae suppressed root galling and nematode build up of Meloidogyne incognita (Jaizme-Vega et al. 1997).Meloidogyne javanica significantly decreased the intraradical development of G. mosseae. For G. macrocarpum and G. caledonium no such effect was observed: the presence or absence of the root-knot nematode had no effect on internal root colonization. In similar experiments, root-knot nematodes had no effect on the percentage root colonization in mycorrhizal plants (Pinochet et al. 1997, Jaizme-Vega et al. 1997).The results of this experiment suggest a suppressive effect of the three Glomus strains studied over the rook-not nematode M. javanica. Mechanisms involved in nematode suppression are still a matter of speculation. However some major factors are likely to be involved: enhanced nutrient status of the plant, biochemical changes in plant tissue (increase in chitinase, amino acids, peroxidase and phytoalexins), anatomical changes (increased lignification), stress alleviation, microbial changes in the rhizosphere and induced changes to root morphology (increased branching, larger proportion of higher order roots) (Hooker et al. 1994). Further study is needed to confirm the suppressive effect of the AM fungi over the root-knot nematodes and to reveal the mechanisms involved. ■ A. Battle-Viera and L. Pérez-Vicente I n Cuba a total of 108 700 ha are cultivated with Musaceae, 32 800 ha with cultivars of banana subgroup Cavendish (AAA), 13 800 ha with plantain (AAB) and 62 000 ha with varieties of type Burro/Bluggoe (ABB). Of the 32 800 ha of banana plantations, 13 800 ha are cultivated with localized microjet irrigation systems, and they must therefore remain in place for the next five years. However there is interest in replanting these areas with tetraploid hybrids developed by the Fondación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA), and which are resistant to pests and diseases.The nematode species most commonly found in our plantations are Radopholus similis, Pratylenchus coffeae, Helycotylenchus multicinctus, Meloidogyne spp. and Rotylenchulus reniformis, the first three being the most important in Cuba (Pérez et al. 1984). The pathogenicity of nematodes has usually been established as the population density found in the roots. However, evidence on the relationship of population density of nematodes to damage in the crop is contradictory. Over the last years plant lodging and root necrosis in Cuba have been recorded where low populations of nematodes were very low.Interactions at the root level between R. similis and species of fungi belonging to the genera Cylindrocladium and Acremonium, which contribute to or increase damage by the nematode, are well documented (Booth and Stover 1981, Loridat 1989, Sarah 1990). Such associations have been found in the majority of soils infested with nematodes in some of the Antilles islands. In Cuba there have been no studies to investigate and quantify such relationships at the level of the root. However the relationship between nematode populations, root damage and plant development is not strong.The purpose of the present study was to identify the species of fungi associated with root necrosis of different clones of banana and plantain in plantations in Cuba.Samples were taken from banana plantations located in the provinces of Pinar del Río, La Habana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Ciego de Avila, Camagüey, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo.Samples were taken from necrotic roots of plants of Gran enano (AAA), Gros Michel (AAA), CEMSA 3 /4 (AAB) and Burro CEMSA/ Bluggoe (ABB), some of them associated with plants that had fallen over (lodged) apparently as a result of nematode attack. From each field 10 plants were selected at random, holes 20 x 20 x 20 cm excavated 10 cm from the pseudostem and five affected roots removed.The roots were washed and necrotic fragments, typical of R. similis attack, disinfected in 1% hypochlorite for two minutes and cultured on water-agar supplemented with 50 µg/ml streptomycin. Blocks of agar and fungal growth were transferred to tubes of PDA, and incubated when the fungal species were ready for identification. Fusarium species were identified according to the key of Booth (1981). Cylindrocarpon species were identified according to the keys of the CMI edited by CAB.The relative frequency of each species present at each site was determined in relation to the total numbers of isolates obtained from the different sites.A total of 59 isolates of endophytic fungi were obtained from the tissue of roots apparently necrotic as a result of R. similis. The species are described in Table 1.Species of Cylindrocarpon musae and Fusarium oxysporum Schlect. were isolated from almost all samples from all the sites. F. oxysporum was the most frequently isolated species (45.6% total isolates), followed by C. musae (19.2% total isolates). F. equiseti (Corda) Sacc. was also isolated but with less frequency. The results were similar to those of Pocasangre (2000) who found that Fusarium species were predominant in soils from Cuba, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras. Booth and Stover (1871) reported the presence of C. musae associated with root necrosis in banana in Costa Rica, however the fungus did not have the parasitic capacity to cause lesions on healthy roots. Other species of Cylindrocarpon are important pathogens of plants. For example C. destructans causes root necrosis and death in pine (Pinus sp.) (Chakravarty and Unestam 1987).Recently there have been bioassays of artificial inoculation of C. musae alone or of C. musae in co-inoculation with R. similis. The studies provided important information on the effects of the pathogenicity of these species on root necrosis in the crop.None of the sites yielded species of Cylindrocladium or Zythia as reported by Loridat (1989), Mourichon (1993) and Risède (1994). These species have been associated with necrosis of banana in Martinique and Guadeloupe, and latterly in Cameroon (Abadie 1998, pers. comm.) and Côte d'Ivoire (Kobenan 1991).    Cylindrocladium and Zythia spp., reported in other countries to be associated with root necrosis, were never found.Effets of micorrhizae M.C. Jaizme-Vega, M. Esquivel Delamo, P. Tenoury Domínguez and A.S. Rodríguez Romero T he likelihood of using arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) in crop production systems is increasingly more realistic and studies have increased considerably in the last few years.Banana (Musa AAA) in its early stages of development is readily colonized by mycorrhiza and is moderately (40-50%) dependent on them (Jaizme-Vega et al. 1998). Mycorrhization in vivo has resulted in large increases in the growth and nutrition of this species (Lin and Chang 1987, Rizzardi 1990, Declerk et al. 1995, Jaizme-Vega and Azcón 1995) including in the presence of standard fertilization regimes in commercial nurseries (Tenoury 1996, Sosa Hernández 1997), with favourable effects on plant behaviour when confronted with various soil-borne pathogens such as Meloidogyne incognita (Jaizme-Vega et al. 1997), Pratylenchus goodeyi (Jaizme-Vega and Pinochet 1997) and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Jaizme-Vega et al. 1998). These results demonstrate the advantages of applying inoculum of fungal AMs during root production and acclimatization of micropropagated banana plants, which gives rise to plants that are well developed and have an increased tolerance to attack by soilborne pathogens. However, at present there is no information on the effects of such symbiotic fungi on the banana plant during the later stages of development and with fertilizer regimes similar to those practised in commercial crops.Therefore, the sequential effects of early mycorrhization on the growth of micropropagated banana plants were studied from the earliest stages of development until nine months after transplanting to the field in microplots.Micropropagated material of the two most widespread commercial cultivars of banana Musa acuminata Colla AAA, cvs. 'Grande naine' and 'Gruesa' (a local selection of 'Dwarf Cavendish') was used.Mycorrhization was done during hardening off. Inoculum comprised a homogeneous mixture of rhizosphere soil, spores and rootlets of the host plant.Each cultivar was inoculated with one of two AM fungi, each with 1500 g inoculum per tray (capacity of tray 24 kg) with the following isolates: At inoculation, plants were 10 cm ± 2 cm and had approximately three developed leaves. Inoculation was in polyethylene (PE) trays (40 x 60 cm, H x L), each tray containing one cultivar/fungus combination with an additional two control trays with non-inoculated plants, one tray per cultivar. Thus there was a total of six trays each with 35 plants.The substrate comprised a steam-sterilized mixture of dark-coloured volcanic soil and amended peat (TKS1®, Instant, Floragard, GmbH) in a proportion of 5:2:1. This phase lasted six weeks in a glasshouse and under a tunnel of black mesh for acclimatization. Irrigation was with distilled water according to the needs of the plants.At the end of root production and before transplanting to individual containers, 10 plants of each treatment/cultivar combination were selected and the effects evaluated of inoculation with mycorrhiza on plant development, the mycorrhizal dependency under the fixed conditions of fertilizer inputs, and the extent of colonization by the AM fungi.Parameters relevant to the growth of the plant in general were evaluated at each stage of the investigation as follows: fresh weight (g) of roots and aerial parts, dry weight (g) of aerial parts, length and diameter (cm) of pseudostem, leaf numbers and area (cm 2 ). Leaf area was calculated with an area meter Li-COR, inc. Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, model Li-3100.The relative mycorrhizal dependency (RMD), defined by Gerdeman (1975) as the degree of mycorrhization needed by plants to produce the maximum growth or yield depending on fertility of the soil, was calculated according to the formula proposed by Plenchette et al. (1983) as the numerical expression of this concept: Infection by the mycorrhiza was confirmed by observation with a light microscope. Root samples were bleached with 10% KOH and then stained with 0.05% trypan blue in lactic acid as described by Phillips and Hayman (1970) and modified by Koske and Gemma (1989). Percentage root colonization was determined on 20 1-cm sections of stained root, mounted on slides and examined with a light microscope as described by Brundett et al. (1985).Once the determinations were complete 20 plants of each treatment were transferred to 2 L PE bags containing a substrate comprising equal volumes (1:1:1) of steam sterilized soil ('picón') and enriched peat (TKS1®). This phase took 14 weeks in glasshouse conditions at temperatures of 27-32 °C, and a relative humidity of 70-80%.Fertilization was according to the fertilizer regime of a commercial banana nursery. Plants were fertilized twice weekly (100 cc/plant) on alternate days. One of the fertilizer applications was with (NO 3 ) 2 Ca (3 g/L) and NO 3 H (0.4 cc/L), and the other application was with SO 4 K 2 (3 g/L) and PO 4 H 3 (0.2 cc/L). The days on which fertilizer was not applied alternated with irrigation with running water according to the needs of the crop. Plants received a weekly foliar application of micronutrients consisting of 3% Wuxal® Super AA 8-8-6 (Argos Shering, Agrevo, S.A., Valencia, Spain).After growth for 3.5 months, plants were transferred to larger containers, and buried in a plot within the boundaries of the ICIA estate situated 300 masl. The site was chosen on the basis of aspect, climatic conditions and as an area marginal for this crop. Prior to this, and as with the first transplanting, 10 plants per cultivar and treatment were evaluated for the effects of the AM fungi, that is the extent of root infection by mycorrhiza and mycorrhizal dependency.For this last phase of the trial, PE pots 35 cm diameter and 50 L volume were selected and filled with non-sterilized medium of the same materials and in the same proportions as described for the previous transplanting (1:1:1), and amended with 1.5 g/L of slow release fertilizer (Osmocote 17:10:10, Scotts, O.M. Tarragona). Once in position in their new pots (10 per cultivar and treatment), the plants were placed amongst other similarly sized pots previously buried up to the upper edge of pot, in the trial plot. Plants were fertilized weekly (1 L/plant), via the localized irrigation system, with the two combinations of fertilizer treatment described previously for banana plants after the first transplanting. Foliar fertilizers were applied fortnightly. The days on which fertilizers were not applied, plants were irrigated according to the needs of the plants.Plants remained in position for nine months. The trial was then terminated and the effects of symbiosis on development of the banana plants evaluated.The following experimental variables were studied: fresh weight of roots and aerial parts, numbers of suckers, numbers of leaves, leaf area, N, P and K content, and dependency for mycorrhiza.On completion of the foliar analyses, the samples were transferred to a heater for 24 hours at 70°C after which nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium contents were determined. For N determination, the sample was mineralized \"via humid process\", P was determined colourimetrically and K by spectrophotometry of atomic absorption.Data were analyzed by means of ANOVA (Systat). Means were compared by Fisher's test of least significant differences (LSD) using the statistical package Systat version 5.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA).By completion of the rooting stage, both cultivars showed a positive response to the two AM fungi used for inoculation (Tables 1a and 2a). In this phase, the relative mycorrhizal dependency (RMD) of both cultivars to Glomus manihotis and Glomus intraradices were the highest throughout the trial and were 35% and 50% respectively. In this first phase the percentage colonization by the two inoculated AM fungi was similar for the two cultivars. Following transplanting, the positive effect of the AM fungi on plant development was maintained for 3.5 months after mycorrhization. For inoculated plants of both cultivars, the majority of experimental variables were significantly different for both cultivars in comparison with the controls (Tables 1b and  2b). The development of RMD was similar for both cultivars completing this phase of the trial with averages of 40% for both AM fungi on 'Grande naine', and 30% and 20% respectively for Glomus manihotis and Glomus intraradices on Gruesa (Tables 1b and 2b).Root colonization of banana plants by mycorrhizae tended to differ depending on the cultivar. Thus, roots of 'Grande naine' inoculated with G. manihotis had twice the mycorrhiza infection in comparison with the beginning of the study, similar results being maintained on roots colonized by G. intraradices. However with plants of cv. 'Gruesa' no changes in root colonization were observed in comparison to the first transplanting. During the trial, from 14 weeks onwards 15% root infection by contaminant AM fungi was noted in control plants of both cultivars (Tables 1b and 2b) but without signifi-cant effects on plant development. These endophytes are able to disperse in irrigation water or by uncontrolled contamination in the nursery containing the plants.These data confirm those already published on the benefits of early mycorrhization of plants in the first phases of development of this crop (Declerck et al. 1995, Tenoury 1996, Sosa-Hernández 1997, Jaizme-Vega et al. 1997, 1998).The results of the second phase of the trial in which the effects of the AM fungi on mycorrhiza-treated plants in the in vivo phase for three months and transplanted to non-sterile medium, showed that after nine months in microplot conditions and a standard fertilizer regime, banana plants inoculated with G. intraradices usually, particularly with cv. 'Gruesa', showed a beneficial effect of Table 1. Effect of Glomus manihotis and G. intraradices on the development, colonization and mycorrhizal dependency of micropropagated banana cv. 'Grande naine' at a) 6 weeks after inoculation, b) 14 weeks after inoculation and c) 9 months after transplanting to microplots.  1c and  2c); moreover there was an increase in the other experimental variables. However, data on macronutrients (N, P and K) although noticeably higher, did not differ statistically (Tables 1c and 2c). This lack of response in nutrient content of aerial parts can be interpreted as typical for a mycorrhiza-treated plant receiving soluble fertilizer. Plants of cultivar 'Grande naine' showed a smaller response to the AM fungi after the microplot phase, plants inoculated with G. manihotis showing a development and nutritional state equal or slightly less than control plants.At the end of this phase, root colonization by both Glomus species was relatively important in both cultivars (greater than 79%). Attention is drawn to the high level of colonization of roots of control plants. This part of the trial used nonsterilized substrate which, together with other conditions in the trial, explained the data.In conclusion, in general and particularly in the last phase of the trial, we can confirm that, at the later stages of the crop, this biotechnological resource showed promise for the improvement of production. T he legume Arachis pintoi L. (the perennial, wild or pinto peanut) has been used for many years as a cover crop in many tropical countries, notably Central America (Kerridge 1993). Its response to nematodes is still barely documented. Possible resistance of cv. Amarillo to Meloidogyne spp. in Australia has been mentioned (Cook et al. 1990). In Mexico a noticeable reduc-tion in Meloidogyne attacks on tomatoes was observed in an intercropping experiment (Marban Mendoza et al. 1992). In Costa Rica, a field experiment showed that Arachis pintoi is a good host for Radopholus similis (Cobb 1893, Thorne 1949) with a concomitant mean infection rate of about 30 individuals per g of root (Araya 1996). Also in Costa Rica, trials carried out with bananas and plantains have shown a beneficial effect of wild peanut used as a cover crop in reducing the density of Radopholus similis on neighbouring banana plants (Vargas 1998). Lastly, in 1999, Jonathan et al.showed from an artificial inoculation experiment that the legume Arachis pintoi is not a host for certain species of Meloidogyne Goeldi 1892 (M. incognita, M. arenaria, M. javanica) nor for Rotylenchus reniformis Lindford & Oliveira 1940.Before experimenting with, and perhaps recommending the use of Arachis pintoi as a possible cover crop for bananas, we wanted to check its behaviour towards nematodes of banana in Martinique. A controlled inoculation trial using the main species present (Radopholus similis, Pratylenchus coffeae, Hoplolaimus seinhorsti, Meloidogyne incognita) together with Meloidogyne mayaguensis, a species which is very pathogenic in Martinique although not yet observed on bananas, was therefore carried out in a controlled environment chamber at the IRD Nematology laboratory before attempting any field experiments.Seeds of Arachis pintoi cv. Amarillo from Costa Rica were inoculated by coating at the moment of sowing with their symbiotic bacterium Rhizobium sp. These seeds were then grown in 237 cm 3 PVC culture tubes filled with sterile soil (steam sterilization for 1 h at 100ºC). The substrate was a volcanic andosol of pH 6.2, with 7.3% organic matter and a cation exchange capacity of 10.3 meq per 100g soil. The experiment was carried out in a controlled environment chamber with eight replicates, using a 14-h photoperiod and a temperature in the light of 27±1ºC, and in the dark of 22±1ºC, daily watering and weekly application of a Hoagland nutrient solution. Four weeks after sowing and development of the peanut, the five nematode species, meanwhile grown in the laboratory (Radopholus similis, Pratylenchus coffeae, Hoplolaimus seinhorsti, Meloidogyne incognita and Meloidogyne mayaguensis) were individually inoculated at a rate of 400 individuals per plant. The infestation of the root system was checked 45 days later after extraction of the nematodes from the roots by spraying (Seinhorst 1950). The nematode densities were then expressed as numbers of nematodes per root system and per g of dry root (after oven-drying at 60ºC for 24h).The results of this experiment (Table 1) show that at 45 days only three species of nematode are supported: R. similis, H. seinhorsti and P. coffeae. The inoculation of the different species of nematode has had no effect on the growth either of shoots or roots of the peanut, which therefore appears, over this short period of time, to be tolerant of attack by these nematodes.Arachis pintoi was unable to maintain or permit the multiplication of the two species of Meloidogyne, M. incognita and M. mayaguensis. This result confirms and completes for M. mayaguensis earlier results on the inability of this peanut to act as host to the main species of root-knot nematodes, with the exception of M. hapla (Jonathan et al. 1999).Arachis pintoi does however act as host to three other species, and according to the criteria applied to banana weeds (Quénéhervé et al. 2002), one might say that it is a bad host for R. similis but a very good host for H. seinhorsti and P. coffeae. The hosting capacity of Arachis pintoi to R. similis already observed (Araya 1996) is thus confirmed, but also (which is new) its great susceptibility to P. coffeae and H. seinhorsti, two species of nematodes whose pathogenicity to bananas was demonstrated for one (P. coffeae) and seems very likely for the other.These results may be compared with others from the field under conditions of natural infestation. In fact, root produc-tion in Arachis pintoi is extremely slow, with a shoot/root ratio of about 7.5 in our experiment, and it would be interesting to quantify the real \"reservoir\" capacity of this plant for nematodes in the field as was done by Araya in 1996. However one can already regard it as a \"non-host\" for Meloidogyne spp., and especially M. mayaguensis, and reconsider this crop as a \"cleaning fallow crop\" (for rehabilitation) which provides protection against nematodes before a susceptible annual or perennial crop.For many years agronomists have sought plants useful as fallows of short, medium or long term, or as cover crops which can, inter alia, reduce parasitic pressure (for example by nematodes) and also reduce the effects of weeds, improve soil fertility and limit erosion (Terisien and Melin 1989). In the Caribbean zone, two species have been used for their activity against nematodes, with both advantages and disadvantages: the forage grass Digitaria decumbens and the forage legume Mucuna pruriens cv. utilis, of African origin.Each of these plants has its value according to the cropping system being considered. Digitaria decumbens fits into long-term rotations combining livestock and field vegetable growing, as practised on the vertisols in the south of Martinique. Mucuna pruriens, widely grown in the southeastern United States and in Africa, can also find a place in Martinique as a short-term intercrop or in certain intensive vegetable systems to control nematodes, particularly Meloidogyne spp. (Quénéhervé et al. 1998).This third plant, Arachis pintoi, recently introduced by CIRAD-FLHOR into Martinique, seems to offer certain advantages, but also possesses disadvantages:• advantages: commercially available seed, propagation by seed, or vegetative; \"non-host\" plant to several nematode species including Meloidogyne spp.; suitable as a cover crop; supplies nitrogen (about 60 kg/ha/year).  • disadvantages: plants are host to serious migratory endoparasites, including R. similis and P. coffeae; slow to establish; requires inoculation with a specific associated bacterium.The introduction and use of Arachis pintoi as a cover crop for bananas could therefore take place under certain conditions:• in the absence of the nematodes R. similis and P. coffeae, which would limit its use immediately after banana or another crop infested by P. coffeae, such as yam or dasheen; • after crop rotation but in the presence of Meloidogyne spp. so as to reduce the infestation potential of these root-knot nematodes before replanting with tissue-cultured banana plants. This plant could also find a place in Martinique and elsewhere in the West Indies in various other ecosystems, which remain to be experimented with:• in orchards such as citrus and especially guavas which suffer serious attacks from M. mayaguensis in the West Indies (Quénéhervé et al. 2001); • as a fallow crop or intercropped cover crop for vegetables. ■Agronomy Micronutrient studiesB oron (B) is the only non-metallic element of the six essential micronutrients; it has a constant valence of +3, and has the smallest ionic radius. It is found mainly in sedimentary rocks. Of the igneous rocks it is most abundant in granites, in the form of borosilicates, with tourmaline (3-4% boron) the most common of the minerals. It is found in soil in four states: a) forming part of the crystalline structure of minerals; b) adsorbed or bound by soil colloids; c) as an anion in the soil solution and d) associated with soil organic matter (Bonilla et al. 1994).The total content of boron in soils varies from 2 to 200 ppm most of which is not taken up by plants. Compared with other micronutrients, boron has several special features, thus in soil solution it is always found in combination with oxygen, behaving as an anion (borate) in all reactions. The borate anion is highly mobile and hence is easily lost by leaching. The available boron in soil can be considered as belonging to a cycle where a small amount originates from tourmaline and a large part from soil organic matter.Organic material is decomposed by microorganisms which liberate available boron to the soil solution, from whence it is taken up by plants; part can be washed out by percolating water, and a small part is fixed or bound by clays (Berger and Pratt, cited by Bonilla et al. 1994).The multiple functions involving boron in plant metabolism include the following: it affects, inter alia, the processes of flowering and fruiting, germination of pollen grains, cell division, cell wall synthesis and the metabolism of nitrogen, carbohydrates and pectic substances. These substances are reported to increase in plants that are deficient in boron (Rajaratnam and Lowry 1974).Another function of boron is the absorption of water by protoplasm and the absorption of mineral salts. The main function of boron is reported to facilitate the transport of highly polar sugar molecules across the cell wall. Boron is a constituent of cell membranes and is immobile in the plant; therefore any boron deficiency is immediately reflected in a change in the metabolism of carbohydrates (which accumulate in leaves). This condition could be the cause of almost all the remaining functions attributed to boron (Gómez and Leguizamón 1975). In spite of the important advances in mineral nutrition, the role of boron in plant metabolism still raises many questions.At present, in the coffee production area of central Colombia, many plantain crops show symptoms associated with boron deficiency. According to León et al. (1985) ten examples of boron deficiency were reported in the country. In the present study we tried to obtain a sound foundation in order to deal more clearly with the problems above. The objective was to determine the importance of boron in the cultivation of plantain (Musa AAB cv. Dominico hartón) in the Quindío, and to study the dynamics over a period of ten years, in a soil fertilized with the major elements.The study plot was located at the Experimental station El Agrado, District of Montenegro, Department of Quindío, Colombia. The station was 1320 m above sea level, with an average rainfall of 2000 mm/annum, a mean annual temperature of 22 o C and a relative humidity of 76%.According to the classification of Holdridge, the ecosystem corresponds to premontane humid woodland. The soils are derived from volcanic ash (andisols) and have an average natural fertility, a medium to heavy texture, a low moisture retention capacity, and are leached and susceptible to erosion.For the study the soils were taken for analysis from 2 May 1990 until 2 March 2000. Soil samples, replicated five times, were taken every two years. Rainfall data was analyzed for the same period.Samples were analyzed for pH, organic matter content, exchangeable calcium, phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K) and boron (B). The analytical methods are described in Table 1. The data were analyzed to determine the correlation between: boron-weight of bunch (for each production cycle), boron-potassium, boron-calcium, boron-percentage soil organic matter, and boron-pH. The relationships between Ca/Mg, Mg/K, Ca/K and (Ca+Mg)/K were also analyzed.The data obtained from soil analyses, averaged over the five replicates, changed over the years as shown in Table 2.As can be seen from the chemical analyses during the 10 years of the study, boron content declined considerably from levels sufficient for cultivation of plantain, according to Buriticá (1985) from 0.4 ppm to 0.01 ppm boron, a value which gave rise to deficiencies. However, one must consider the edaphic cycle of boron which determines its concentration in soil solution and hence the availability for uptake by plants (Mengel 1980).As can be seen from Table 3, boron showed a direct and close correlation with pH, hence this is in a range optimum for absorption of boron; fixation of this microelement to hydroxides of Fe and Al, as is with clays, increases with pH being a maximum between pH 8 and 9 and a minimum at about pH 5 (Lora 1994). According to Domínguez (1988) the increase in pH reduces the availability of boron but this does not become evident until more than pH 6 which did not occur after the start of the experiment.According to Marschner (1986) the availability of boron to plants decreases with increased soil pH, as happens in calcareous soils or in soils with high clay content, presumably as a result of the formation and absorption of B(OH) 4 .In agreement with the soil chemical analyses, the pH value (5.1-6.08) fluctuated in the range sufficient for the micronutrient to be available. This explains why symptoms of boron deficiency only became evident in the last years. The explanation for the correlation between boron content and pH, are based on the following: • Profoundly influences many biological processes in soil, • Affects the availability of micronutrients, • Alters the absorption of an element and its effect on microbial activity, • Results in changes in the ability of roots to absorb or transport ions once they have been taken up, • Causes variations in the stability of soluble and insoluble organic complexes, • Changes the solubility of antagonistic ions and changes conditions in the rhizosphere.The results also show a close inverse correlation between K and boron (Table 3) explicable because the K content over the years had reached levels greater than 0.3 meq/100 g soil, which, according to Gómez and Leguizamón (1975) can induce boron deficiency.The potassium-boron interaction does not appear to follow a particular pattern. Revé and Shive (1944) cited by Domínguez (1988), demonstrated that in a boron-rich medium, absorption of boron increased as the soil became enriched with K but, in contrast, when boron levels in the medium are low, boron deficiency becomes worse as K increases. The direction of the interaction between K and boron appears to depend on the amount of boron in soil solution. The trend in this study showed that increasing applica-   (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000). When boron interacts with other elements, it is necessary to consider the possibility of nutritional imbalances in soil, given that this implies an antagonism that affects the plant directly, as one or other elements would not then be available. Such is the situation with potassium that is absorbed in smaller amounts when boron content is very low.As regards calcium, the levels increase when boron is deficient. In the soil under study, where we did not find a high availability of Ca, this could favour boron uptake. However, the interaction calcium-boron has been studied with rather high concentrations, and with the relationship of Ca/boron in the plant. Revé and Shive (1944) cited by Domínguez (1988), indicated that high concentrations of calcium exacerbate symptoms of boron deficiency in tomato. The toxicity of boron, in a medium with too much of the element, can on the other hand have a reduced increase in the amount of calcium in the medium. It is possible that with all the preceding, boron deficiencies in the cultivation of plantain studied, only became apparent in the last years (1999)(2000) even when the low levels of this element were present from 1993.Table 3 shows an inverse correlation of P to boron. According to studies by Robertson and Loughman (1974), it was evident that there was a clear reduction in the uptake of phosphorus in borondeficient plants. This idea is based on the role of boron as a stimulant of the utilisation of glucose1-phosphate. This suggests that when boron is low, the P found in soil will be taken up very slowly, leading to a steady accumulation of P in soil.According to the relationships obtained between the different cations (Table 4) and later comparisons with the critical levels, K was never seen to be deficient, which is explained by the large quantities of potassium containing fertilizers that were applied over the years, as well as by the recycling that occurs with this element in residues from the harvest of the plantain. According to Belalcázar (1991), cultivation of plantain removes a large percentage of elements such as potassium (76.02%) and calcium (13.62%), followed by nitrogen, magnesium and phosphorus. Those with the higher percentage that are removed are nitrogen (25.55%) followed by magnesium (20.09%) and phosphorus (19.80%), whilst those that are reincorporated or recycled in higher amounts are calcium (94.47%) and potassium (89.77%).With reference to magnesium, amongst the factors that gave rise to the deficiency in this macronutrient, were unsuitable relationships with the other bases in the soil, mainly potassium (Table 4).The relationship Mg/K appeared to be unbalanced, explaining a deficiency of Mg. Therefore, the high levels of K function in a manner antagonistic to Mg, implying a low absorption for this element. The losses of magnesium in soil are greater when added with potassium fertilizers. Many authors consider that a soil to be low in magnesium when it has less than 1.0 meq/100 g is present, whilst others classify soils as poor in magnesium when there is less than 1.5 or even 2.0 meq /100 g (Suárez and Carrillo 1984).Intensive and continual fertilisation with K, as employed in this zone, possibly contributes to Mg deficiency, resulting in an imbalance in the relationship Mg/K and as a result an inhibition of Mg uptake. It should be noted that in the zone where this study took place, it is common to come across crops with symptoms of magnesium deficiency. In accordance with Fried and Dean (1952) nutritional deficiencies resulting from an imbalance can be corrected by a programme of balanced fertilisation.In accordance with the results of this study there was no correlation between organic matter and boron, however, it should be noted that various authors (Gómez and Leguizamón 1975) claim that in mineral soils rich in organic matter, boron deficiency is rarely seen because soil organic matter is a major source of boron. Similarly, Berger and Truog (1945) cited by Domínguez (1988), obtained a positive relationship between assimilable boron (water soluble boron) and the organic matter content of soil. More recently, Olsen and Berger (1946) cited by Domínguez (1988), demonstrated that mineralization of organic material leads to a release of assimilable boron.On the other hand, boron absorbed on organic and inorganic soil colloids constitutes a reserve that maintains the concentration of boron in solution; this helps to replenish the demand by crops and reduces losses by washing. Furthermore, soils with higher organic matter content   have higher concentrations of boron, since an important fraction of soil boron comes from soil organic matter.There was a close and direct correlation between yield and boron (Table 3). This is explicable as a result of the chemical degradation of the soil, as shown in Table 2. The gradual loss of the micronutrient boron, drastically affects the filling of the fruit (Figure 1) to the point where the young fruits become deformed, mature prematurely and size is reduced, hence yield declines and they are difficult to market. Clearly productive capacity of plantain is harmed. The reduction in yield can also be associated with the regulation of uptake and translocation of boron by the plants, which is more limited in comparison with other minerals. At the same time, the low quantity and quality of production could be caused by an early boron deficiency, which checks growth of the apices and restricts cell elongation (Lovatt et al. 1981, Robertson andLoughman, 1974b) and cell division (Cohen and Lepper 1977).According to Leguizamón (1975) in many situations the affected developing bunches do not produce a yield and in this situation, bunches are small and deformed.From the above it can be concluded that boron is a nutrient fundamental to good production as well as fruit quality and in quantity.Boron content tends to decline as a result of the high rainfall which occurs in the area of the study as shown in Figure 2; this, linked to the sandy loam type texture, and the definite mobility of the boron anion, gave rise to an increased rate in leaching of boron. Thus, the nutrient should be applied in a more finely divided form.This result was in agreement with Marschner (1986) who suggested that under conditions of high rainfall boron is washed out as B(OH) 3 .A general aspect of boron deficiency is the poor development of meristematic tissues, as found at the tips of young roots and in the buds. With boron deficiency, irregularities in development are the first symptoms (Domínguez 1988). This check to the growth of the root tips possibly contributes to one of the main problems of the cultivation of plantain, which harms the plant. Primavessi (2000) confirmed that the addition of boron aids root growth, and that if this continues in the coat with organic matter and roots do not want to penetrate the soil, there may not be sufficient boron.Boron deficiency in plants is not easily identified except by leaf or soil analysis. This is important in the cultivation of plantain because the micronutrient plays a key role in the transport of sugars, as a result of the transformation of boronsugar complexes (Marschner 1986) and therefore affects the filling of the fruits; in such situations, a deficiency directly and adversely affects the quality and quantity of the plantain harvest.• Boron is crucial for optimal yields of plantain, as well as for the quality and quantity of fruit. This was confirmed by the correlation between bunch weight and boron. • The availability of boron in soil solution is closely linked to rainfall and the loose sandy loam texture of the soil and the definite mobility of the borate anion. • In the experimental soil, from 1990 to 2000, as soil potassium content increased so boron content declined, and as a result yields of the experimental crop of plantain declined. This could be associated with the repeated application of potassium fertilizer to the soil.Further investigations are needed to improve accuracy of the recommendation for fertilization with boron in systems of plantain cultivation, in relation to boron content of leaves and based on different critical levels of extraction of the borate anion.P. Orellana Pérez, I. Bermúdez Caraballoso, L. García Rodríguez and N. Veitía Rodríguez P lantains are an important food source for the populations of Latin America and certain African countries. Plantains of the 'Horn' type, traditionally the most commonly grown, are seriously affected by black leaf streak (Mycosphaerella fijiensis Morelet), which has greatly reduced the supply of this product both in local markets and for export. This is the main disease which threatens the production of this source of both food and income (Jacome 1998). The fact that plantains are usually grown on smallholdings, sometimes in mountainous areas and very often interplanted with other crops, makes chemical control of the disease difficult. The consequence, not only on volume of production but also on the quality of the product, is that current levels of production fail to meet the growing demand of certain local and export markets.In the 1990s, the first plantain hybrids resistant to black leaf streak and destined for commercial use, developed by the Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA), offered the possibility of introducing new clones into commercial production and of restoring adequate production levels at lower cost.However, because of their genetic constitution, which includes a contribution from clones of the tall 'French' type, the new hybrids must be characterized morphologically and studied agronomically before being exploited commercially.The work presented here shows the results of evaluation of various agronomic characters of the FHIA hybrids in the central region of Cuba.The studies were made on tissue-cultured plants produced by micropropagation using the method proposed by Orellana (1994), planted out on the multi-crop farm \"La Cuba\", situated in the province of Ciego de Avila.Fifty plants of each hybrid were planted 3 metres apart, in two furrows also situated 3 m apart. On 20 plants of each hybrid, starting at the beginning of flowering, the following characters were recorded: Using the results of counts of the number of functional leaves showing typical black leaf streak lesions, two formulae were devised to serve as indicators of the reduction in functional leaf area: the Functional Leaf Reduction Index (FLRI) and Relative Infection Index (RII), reflecting the damage caused by the disease. The latter index depends on the number of functional leaves showing typical lesions at the start of flowering and when the bunch is harvested.Formulae:As there is only one production cycle in Cuban plantains, the counts all apply to the mother plant.The results show that with the exception of FHIA-19, which has the lightest bunches, the hybrids did not differ in their bunch weight. For all the hybrids, the majority of the weight of the bunch is concentrated in the first four hands (59.71% of the total weight). FHIA-19 had the highest proportion in these hands (71%), which is confirmed by the observation of the length and breadth of the fingers of the first hand (Table 1). The concentration of the majority of the weight in the first hands is a characteristic of the plantain. It justifies the removal of the terminal hands of hybrids that have developed more than eight hands per bunch in order to encourage greater development of the fingers in terms of length and diameter. This latter aspect is very important if the hybrids are to claim to rival the 'Horn' type plantains. No differences were observed between the hybrids as regards other bunch characteristics. Arcila et al. (2000) recommended leaving five hands and removing the rest 20 days after the start of flowering.It is important to emphasize that the hybrids with the longest interval between harvest and ripening under natural conditions (11 days) are FHIA-20 and FHIA-22; for FHIA-21 it is only 8 days. This shows that the first two have advantages for local sale and for export over short distances.As for response to black leaf streak, the FLRI shows that FHIA-04, which has only 1.3 functional leaves at harvest (FLRI = 9.31) is the hybrid whose leaf area was most reduced during the filling process of the fingers, resulting in insufficient filling of these fingers. The other hybrids had lower values of this index and similar for them all (Table 2). For these hybrids, the number of functional leaves at harvest was not less than four, allowing filling of the fingers.The results indicate that hybrid FHIA-04 is also the most affected by black leaf streak, with an RII of 9.31 due to the fact that all its functional leaves bore typical lesions of the disease, which developed rapidly after flowering. At the time of harvest, FHIA-20 and FHIA-22, with more than two functional leaves unaffected by the pathogen, had the lowest values of RII: 1.38 and 1.40 respectively. FHIA-05, FHIA-19 and FHIA-21, although having higher values, responded well to the disease itself even though all their functional leaves at the time of harvest bore typical lesions. The results confirm that the time needed for the development of the disease on FHIA-04 was very much less than on the other hybrids, as already reported by Jones (1994).The results suggest the possibility of using FLRI as an expression of the reduction of leaf area during the process of fill-Performance of plantain hybrids ing of the fingers, and RII as an expression of the time needed for the development of the disease as a function of the leaf area affected, given by the number of functional leaves and that of leaves which are necrotic at harvest time, a relationship which has always been difficult to quantify numerically.According to Ortiz and Vuylsteke (1994), cited by Craenen (1998), it requires at least eight functional leaves during the whole growth period and a similar number of healthy leaves before flowering to guarantee a good yield.From this point of view, FHIA-20 has the shortest growth period from planting to harvest, at 481 days, whereas for the other hybrids this period varies from 493 to 518 days.   (Vasil 1994). This tech-nique is the basis of mass propagation of bananas and plantains with the aim, for many countries at the present time, of large-scale commercial distribution of completely disease-free plants (Afza et al. 1996).Genotype is known to have an influence on the efficacy of in vitro propagation and so, when new varieties or hybrid clones are introduced into production programmes, it is necessary to modify the micropropagation techniques used. Banerjee et al. (1986) (cited by Afza et al. 1996) found considerable differences between clones in shoot formation. This seems to be correlated with the presence of one or two B genomes.In vitro propagation of the hybrid FHIA-20 (AAAB) has proved difficult. Conversion of apices into plants has been observed during the initiation phase, as well as buds growing out in the form of rosettes and presenting white bulbous structures during the multiplication phase, resulting in a reduction of the multiplication coefficient. In view of these problems and the need to multiply the hybrid FHIA-20 efficiently in vitro, the development of alternative protocols for the manipulation of apices during the initiation phase, and of axillary buds during the multiplication phase, appear necessary.For the study, young plants with a mean height of 25.6 cm, grown in the greenhouse, were selected (Figure 1). The process of introduction into the laboratory, including manipulation of the plants, disinfection of the corms, culture media for initiation and multiplication, together with the culture conditions, were as described by Orellana (1994).The plants were cultivated in chambers under natural light conditions at a temperature of 27 ± 2ºC. In every case, the base of the apex or bud was placed downwards on the culture medium.This study was made in order to establish the conditions for manipulation and growth of the apex during the initiation phase. For this purpose, the following treatments were studied (Figure 2): 1. 0.5 cm 2 apex cultured in liquid medium (control) 2. 0.5 cm 2 apex cultured in a semi-solid medium 3. 1.0 cm 2 apex cut in halves and cultured in liquid medium 4. 1.0 cm 2 apex cut in halves and cultured in semi-solid medium At the end of 20 days' culture, the following variables were recorded:There were 20 replicates and the statistical method used to compare percent-ages was the comparison of proportions -ANOVA. The analysis of the variable \"number of buds per apex\" was a simple analysis of variance and the comparison of means was made using Tukey's test at P < 0.05%.14.5 x 2.0 cm test tubes were used containing 10 ml of culture medium. For liquid culture media, a paper filter support was used, forming a bridge on which the apices were placed. In the case of semisolid media, 2 mg.L -1 of the gelling agent Gellan gum (Spectrum) was added.The plants obtained during the initiation phase were transferred, after separation and decapitation, onto multiplication culture media. It was observed that the growth of the buds continued throughout this phase as small rosettes and presented white bulbous structures. This behaviour of the buds of FHIA-20 during the multiplication phase resulted in a reduction in the multiplication coefficients (buds obtained/buds initiated).With the aim of resolving problems encountered during the growth of buds in the multiplication phase, the effect of a dose of 2 mg.L -1 of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) was studied, the rate of 4 mg.L -1 , proposed by Orellana (1994) serving as control. Each dose was combined with two manipulation protocols.Protocol 1. The buds were separated, decapitated 0.5 cm from the top and cut in two.Protocol 2. Buds which had not reached 1 cm length were left in groups of two or were not separated from the mother plant, and there was no decapitation. Buds of more than 1 cm were separated, decapitated at this height and cut into two when the pseudostem was composed of more than three leaves.Four treatments were thus obtained: 1. Multiplication medium with 4 mg.L -1 BAP combined with protocol 1 (control). 2. Multiplication medium with 4 mg.L -1 BAP combined with protocol 2. 3. Multiplication medium with 2 mg.L -1  BAP combined with protocol 1. 4. Multiplication medium with 4 mg.L -1 BAP combined with protocol 2. The variables recorded were the number of buds per initial explant and the percentage of buds growing as rosettes. The counts were made after three subcultures carried out every 21 days (culture in growth chambers with natural light and a temperature of 27 ± 2ºC).Five explants were inoculated in 250 ml flasks containing 30 ml of semi-solid culture medium (2 mg.L-1 of Gellan gum (Spectrum). There were 10 replicates. The data were analyzed by multifactorial variance and the means compared with Tukey's test. Results in percentages were analyzed as in the previous experiment.Influence of the size of the apex and the physical state of the culture medium during the initiation phaseThe use during the initiation phase of apices of 1 cm 2 , cut in halves and placed on a semi-solid culture medium, gave 85% regeneration after 20 days of in vitro culture. On each section of the apex axillary buds were noted, guaranteeing a larger number of future explants at the multiplication phase, significantly different from that obtained with the other treatments (Table 1).The technique of decapitating the apical dome proved necessary to induce the formation of new buds from the axillary buds, normally inhibited by apical dominance (Ma and Shi (1972) and Swami et al. (1983) (cited by Afza et al. (1996)). Pérez et al. (1998) emphasized the importance of increasing the multiplication coefficient during in vitro propagation of plantains, because each increase of this indicator by one unit corresponds to a cost reduction of about 10%.In this study, mortality occurred only in apices cut and grown in liquid medium, possibly because the cutting procedure produced pieces which were too small to be grown in a liquid medium (Table 1). According to Orellana (1998), there are differences in tissue growth depending on the physical state of the culture medium: it proceeds differently according to whether the medium is solid or liquid.The incidence of infection during this phase did not differ significantly with the treatment. However, various authors mention the influence of the size of the initial explant on the incidence of infection and have noticed that the smaller the explant, and the closer it is located to the apical meristem, the more the populations of micro-organisms fall (Garcia and Noa 1998, Leifert et al. 1994).By reducing the dose of cytokinin in the multiplication medium, the differentiation of buds into plantlets could be stimulated whilst little by little the growth of rosettes disappeared (inasmuch as the three subcultures were made with the 2 mg.L -1 dose of BAP). The manipulations or cuts made during this phase, combined with the reduction in the dose of cytokinin encouraged the biological response of the plants and caused the appearance of a larger number of buds per initial explant when using protocol 2 (Table 2). These buds, once transferred onto rooting media, had no difficulty in continuing their growth and reached the height, girth, and number of leaves needed to allow their transfer to the acclimatization phase.On the other hand, for the treatments receiving the 4 mg.L -1 dose of BAP, we continued to note the appearance of rosette growth for both protocols, although the highest percentage of this type of growth occurred with the normal protocol (i.e. separation, decapitation at 0.5 cm and cutting buds into two). It seems that this treatment accentuates the presence of this particular growth in the clone FHIA-20: in fact, the presence of rosettes tended to diminish when protocol 2 was used (Table 2).The development of cultures in vitro requires an adequate ratio between auxins and cytokinins in the culture medium. One must also consider the endogenous concentrations of these hormones in the different types of explants or species (Jiménez 1998). Certain species are cultivated without the addition of any external regulator, probably because there is enough endogenous hormone present.The results obtained from this work make it possible to propagate the hybrid FHIA-20 in vitro with a distinct improvement in the efficiency of the process of propagation by organogenesis by virtue of an increase in the number of buds. During the initiation phase it is necessary to culture apices of 1 cm 2 , cut into two, on a semi-solid medium. In this way, 85% of them regenerate plants by the end of 20 days' culture. During the multiplication phase, the cytokinin dose should be reduced to 2 mg. L-1 in the culture medium and the explants separated into welldefined buds which are not less than 1 cm tall (those which are should be kept as pairs or should remain on the mother plant). Buds of 1.5-3.0 cm having more than three leaves can be decapitated at a height of 1.0 cm and cut in half. This way rosette growth is reduced by 2% and on average 4.7 buds per explant are obtained in the multiplication phase. ■   2. 0.5 cm 2 apex cultured in semi-solid medium.3. 1.0 cm 2 apex cut in two and cultured in liquid medium.4. 1.0 cm 2 apex cut in two and cultured in semi-solid medium. T he production of bananas and plantains is widely distributed in tropical and sub-tropical regions. The area cultivated, estimated to be around 10 million hectares, gives an annual yield in the order of 88 million tonnes. This crop, whose fruit forms part of the diet of more than 400 million people, ranks fourth in the world in the category of staple food products, after rice, wheat and milk (FAO 1999).In view of the interest in banana growing, considerable research effort has been devoted to the improvement and control of its mass propagation by means of biotechnological techniques such as somatic embryogenesis, for which three protocols have been described using vegetative tissue such as fragments of the corm and leaf bases (Novak et al. 1989, Ganapathi et al. 1999), cultures of proliferating meristems (Dhed'a et al. 1991, Dhed'a 1992, Schoofs 1997, Schoofs et al. 1998), and immature male or female flowers (Escalant et al. 1994, Grapin et al. 1996).The use of cell suspensions in somatic embryogenesis and the discovery of the factors involved in the metabolic synchronization of cell suspensions and its timing constitute two fundamental aspects either of the procedures for applying methods of temporary immersion for mass micropropagation of economically important plant material (Escalant et al. 1994, Gómez-Kosky et al. 2000), or of their use in genetic improvement programmes by the induction of mutations, the study of selections in vitro (by means of fungal toxins or plant extracts) and genetic transformation by particle bombardment. Despite all the research carried out internationally in various laboratories, it is still difficult to maintain cell suspensions effectively. The setting up of banana cell cultures free from bacterial contamination, changes due to oxidation or possible fungal attacks requires a lot of time, and their maintenance therefore proves to be difficult (Schoofs et al. 1999). The aim of the work presented here was to determine, by using sources of carbon and growth regulators, the optimum experimental conditions for the setup and multiplication of a cell suspension on the one hand, and for the regeneration of the somatic embryos on the other.The plant material used to initiate the cell suspensions consisted of immature male flowers of Musa AAA cv \"Grande naine\" which had been placed on M1 induction medium [Murashige & Skoog (1962) salts -MS, 1 mg/L biotin, ANA and AIA, 4 mg/L 2,4-D, 6 g/L agarose, 30 g/L saccharose, pH 5.71] proposed by Grapin et al. (1998) for forming calluses. The friable embryogenic tissue obtained was transferred into M2 cell suspension medium [MS salts, 100 mg/L glutamine and malt extract, 1 mg/L 2,4-D, 45 g/L saccharose, pH 5.3] until its establishment. This technique for somatic embryogenesis was originally developed by Escalant et al. (1994) and it is currently applied in the biotechnology laboratory of CORBANA on this same clone (Acuña and Sandoval 2000).From this initial suspension, new cultures were started during the phase of maintenance in M2 medium onto a medium made up of 35 ml of fresh M2 medium and 13 ml of the previous M2 medium (in which the suspension had been maintained during the preceding cycle), a mixture into which were introduced 2 ml of cells made up to a total volume of 50 ml per erlenmeyer flask. These suspensions were subjected to four treatments: T0 = 45 g saccharose; T1 = 45 g saccharose + 100 mg/L myoinositol; T2 = 30 g saccharose + 100 mg/L myoinositol; T3 = 15 g saccharose + 100 mg/L myoinositol. There were 10 replicates (Figure 1).Four subcultures were made which were each incubated for 14 days as proposed by Escalant et al. (1994). The number of cells and the percentage viability of the suspensions were recorded on the 1 st , 7 th , and 14 th days of the culture using a haemocytometer. There were three replicates and 5 counts for each, making a total of 15 readings per treatment. Also, every 15 days, the increase in cell volume was measured by the sedimentation method (SCV) proposed by Schoof (1997) and the packed cell volume (PCV) as used by Reinert and Yeoman (1982). Four extra replicates were also made for monitoring the pH (2 in the inoculated medium and 2 in the non-inoculated medium), the measurements being made at the beginning and end of each subculture.In order to evaluate the effect of the growth regulators on the quality of the cell suspension in the M2 medium, the treatment was selected which showed the highest multiplication rate and cell viability during the first four subcultures of the maintenance phase. For this study, we added to the selected M2 medium: A1 = 0.5 mg/L 2,4-D, A2 = 1 mg/L 2,4-D and A3 = 2 mg/L 2,4-D. The material was handled the same way as the treatments involving different saccharose concentrations. For evaluation, the same parameters were used as in the maintenance phase of the cell suspensions (mentioned above). The cell morphology was also noted, as clusters or solid masses, and photographs were taken using both optical and electron microscopes.The viability of the process was evaluated by observing the embryos obtained on the culture medium of Schenk and Hildebrandt (1972), called modified M3 [10 mg/L biotin, 100 mg/L of glutamine and malt extract, 230 mg/L proline, 1 mg/L ANA, zeatin and 2-IP, 10 g/L lactose, 45 g/L saccharose and a pH of 5.3]. The M3 medium was put into Petri dishes and sterile filter papers were placed on the surface on which were inoculated aliquots of 1 ml of the cells of treatments corresponding to the different growth regulator concentrations. The type of material regenerated was evaluated by making three evaluations per Petri dish from the zones where the distribution of the suspension was most homogeneous. All the cultures were maintained under conditions of controlled temperature (27ºC), relative humidity (80%) and photoperiod (12 hours).The results obtained for the phase of maintenance of cell suspensions and homogenization of cultures for variation in pH, cell volume, number of cells and percentage viability, were analyzed by a linear modelling scheme and subjected to analysis of variance using the SAS programme (1990). Results showing heterogeneity of variance were adjusted to homogeneity by using a square root transformation.The results for the increase in numbers of cells, presented in Figure 2, indicate that the dose of 30 g of saccharose provides enough carbon for the suspension, as its behaviour differed little from that of the suspension maintained with 45 g of saccharose. In general, the addition of myoinositol (T1-T2) did not alter the behaviour of the cells and a tendency was noted to stabilization in subculture 4 (relation of T1 and T2 with T10).There were no significant differences between the percentages of viability of the treatments with and without myoinositol (T1 and T0 respectively). No differences were noted between the observations at different times (7 or 14 days) nor any interactions between the subcultures and time of observation (P = 0.1574).On the other hand, as for the behaviour of this same percentage viability for treatments with myoinositol associated with different saccharose concentrations (T1 and T2), it was found that the differences for the four subcultures depended on the treatment (P = 0.0040). This difference in behaviour of distinct cell lines of a single clone may be an intrinsic characteristic of the material (Schoofs et al. 1999), which would indicate the need to redouble efforts towards improving these methods.Treatment T3 (15 g saccharose + myoinositol) was eliminated because it showed progressive diminution of 5.18, 4.20 and 2.06 ml in subcultures 1,2 and 3 respectively. This low success rate of cell proliferation may be attributable to the low availability of sugars in the medium compared with the demand of the cells in phase G1 of the cell cycle or to the osmotic shock due to the medium. Whichever it is, it is well known that saccharose as a source of carbon is a stabilizer of culture media (Takeuchi and Komamine 1982, Vardi et al. 1982, Smith et al. 1984).The differences in cell volume found between treatments T0, T1 and T2 (P = 0.02602) were much reduced in subcultures 1 and 2 (Figure 3a and b) but were accentuated in subcultures 3 and 4 (Figure 3c and d) for which the difference between treatments T0 and T1 can be attributed to the action of myoinositol. Subcultures 2, 3 and 4 of T1 (with myoinositol) produced a mean cell volume 0.67 ml greater (P = 0.0188) than that reached in the T0 subculture homologues. These results agree with those from other research on banana and other crops: for example Cronauer and Krikorian (1983) and Aftab et al. (1999) confirm the stimulatory action of myoinositol on mitosis and morphogenesis of plant cells. The difference between the four subcultures was on average 0.23 ml in favour of treatment 1. The treatment which responded best was that containing 45 g saccharose and 100 mg/L myoinositol. It was also noted that the cell volume of subculture 1 was 5.95 ml and that of subculture 4 was 7.59 ml, representing a mean increase of 0.65 ml for each. There is a positive correlation (Figure 3e) between the number of subcultures and the cell volume, since this latter increases with the number of subcultures, finally to stabilize at the fourth subculture.After mixing, the 35 ml of fresh medium and the 13 ml of old medium had a pH of 4.74. During the 14 days of culture, the non-inoculated media remained between pH 4.1 and 4.2 and the inoculated media between 4.4 and 4.6 (unpublished results). In the cell suspensions, the pH varied with time, treatment and their interaction (P = 0.0001): similar behaviour was observed by Skirvin et al. (1986). These same authors suggested that acidification of the medium could be due to ionic exchange between the cell and the culture medium, leading to an optimum pH for the normal functioning of the cell wall.Analysis of the results obtained for the variables \"number of cells\" and \"percentage viability\" on media containing different concentrations of 2,4-D did not show any marked differences in their behaviour. Treatments A1, A2 and A3 of the four subcultures had mean numbers of cells of 7.9, 6.0 and 7.0 and percentage viabilities of 59, 62 and 59 respectively.When one studies the cell volume obtained with varying concentrations of 2,4-D (Figure 4) it is seen that treatment A1 (1 mg/L of 2,4-D) is that which maintains the best cell suspension with a mean volume of 7.6 ml and a maximum of 8.8 ml in subculture 3. The 2 mg/L dose of 2,4-D was the best for standardizing the cell volume of several subcultures, which is a useful parameter for carrying out studies of the cell cycle or cell metabolism and other phenomena connected with synchronized cell populations.The final results from subculture 4 measured by the PCV method show that all the treatments have progressively increased the cell volume without large fluctuations during the 14 days of incubation and that this volume doubled on the sixth day, when the cells begin a phase of active division (Figure 5). These results agree with those obtained by Bieberach (1995) for various Musa clones.As to the use of 2,4-D and appropriate doses, the results given here supplement the information about the action of this growth regulator on the embryogenic process and the doses required by different plant species. Lazzeri et al. (1987) emphasize the importance of auxins in the regulation of the somatic embryogenesis of soyabean and show that there is better somatic embryo production when 2,4-D is used alone than in combination with acetic a-naphthalene.The morphology of cells in suspension was observed by optical microscopy at magnifications of 20x and 40x. The preparations showed cell clusters and  isolated cells (Figures 6a and 6b), which conforms with descriptions by Grapin (1996) who reported that in suspensions of 'French Sombre' clusters were seen which could reach 70 to 80% of the volume of the suspension very similar to what we observed in the course of this work. The clusters are formed by preembryogenic cells (Figure 6c) possessing partitions or cellular plates typical of the last stage of mitosis and of cells which are empty or in the course of differentiation.The isolated cells are round, with a dense cytoplasm and a well-defined nucleus: one may regard them as proto- Treatments A1, A2 and A3 plasts, initial cells with a primary cell wall that is characteristic of undifferentiated cells and with an active cell cycle. These observations are shared both by Bieberach (1995) who noted the presence of cells with identical morphological characteristics in cell suspensions of the cultivars \"Dominico\", \"Grande naine\"and \"Gros Michel\" and also by Sannasgala (1989) who described pre-embryos made up of protein bodies and starch. The characters described above are a factor indicating the embryogenic condition of the cell suspension (Williams and Maheswaren 1986). Certain isolated cells with elongated cytoplasm containing lacunae are non-viable cells in a suspension because they have already formed their secondary cell wall.Under the scanning electron microscope, round cells were seen of 50-80µm diameter, with rough walls with irregular ornamentations surrounded by a polysaccharide mucus (Figures 7a and 7b).Mixtures of cell samples treated with growth regulators were inoculated and maintained for 55 days on the semi-solid M3 medium to develop embryos. By the end of 22 days their growth began to be apparent, without traces of oxidation. The presence was detected of small clusters of 1 cm 2 containing globular embryos in the shape of a heart or torpedo. The embryos were sorted with a view to later regeneration of the plants (Figure 8a). A total of 200 \"torpedo-type\" embryos were transferred into eight Petri dishes at the rate of 25 embryos per dish. At the end of 20 days there was 63% germination, and after 41 days the plants possessed normal morphological characteristics. Until then the percentage germination for somatic embryos of the genus Musa oscillated between 45% and 80% according to the genotype and culture medium (Bieberach 1995, Escalant et al. 1995, Côte et al. 1996, Schoof 1997, Grapin et al. 1998). Figure 8b shows the potential regeneration of somatic embryos from cell suspensions. Escalant et al. (1994) have obtained the highest germination percentages, achieved by using temporary immersion systems with other banana cultivars.These experiments have enabled us to standardize a protocol for obtaining embryos of Musa AAA cv. \"Grande naine\" from cell suspensions and by using growth regulators. The initial cell suspension was maintained with 45 g saccharose + 100 mg/L myoinositol. An initial pH of 4.74 and four subcultures of 14 days each guaranteed a sufficient cell volume and embryos with a good percentage viability.The optimal dose of growth regulator for the efficacy of the process is 1 mg/L of 2,4-D applied as an exogenous hormone.The morphological observations reveal that the protocol has allowed the development of viable cells which are easily transformed into embryos. The germination of embryos has validated the entire method and the doses used.  Unlike most other Central-American countries, the production of banana and plantain in Nicaragua is low (Table 1). The major production zones of bananas and plantains are located in the coastal area near the Pacific Ocean. In the Chinandega region (North-West) an estimated area of 2000 ha Cavendish (Musa cv. AAA) is grown for export, while in the Rivas region (South of Managua) 13 000 ha plantain are cultivated for local consumption. For many small-and medium-scale farmers in Rivas, plantain is the most important crop. Gros Michel (Musa cv. AAA), Bluggoe (Musa cv. ABB) and Silk (Musa cv. AAB) bananas are cultivated all over the country, mainly by small-scale farmers in backyards. In the higher regions of Central Nicaragua, with altitudes up to 1300 masl, bananas are grown in combination with coffee or cacao. Bananas and plantains are also important for the people at the Atlantic Coast. Pelipita (Musa cv. ABB) and Red (Musa cv. AAA) bananas are found in some regions of Nicaragua. Plantain (Musa cv. AAB) is most preferred because it is an attractive cash crop. The most common landraces are False horn plantain with an average of only 25 fingers. The price of plantain on the local market is much higher than the price of the other bananas (Gros Michel, Bluggoe, Silk) because of its much larger finger size and longer green life. Cavendish only enters the local market as after being rejected on the export plantations. Its price is even lower than that of Gros Michel. Over the last five years prices of plantain have continued to increase, which reflects the high demand and insufficient supply of bananas and plantains caused by poor cultivation practices, drought and pests and diseases.Diseases and pests are the main problems; black Sigatoka (Mourichon et al. 1997) and plant material contaminated by weevils (Gold and Messiaen 2000) are the major constraints affecting the small-scale plantain producer. Another important problem, especially in the Leon-Chinandega region, is the uneven distribution of annual rainfall. Without irrigation banana and plantain yields are reduced due to the long dry season.The objective of the intervention is to contribute to food security and food quality of resource-poor farmers by giv-  were built with about 20 national and international organizations operating in Nicaragua (Table 3), to accelerate the distribution of improved plants and technologies, and to obtain a maximum feedback from the farmers.The project started in mid-1996. Rooted plantlets were sent by KULeuven for weaning in the small nursery of the UNAN farm in Leon, located a few kilometres from Leon City centre. These plants were used for the first test plots at the University farm.The tissue culture laboratory of UNAN was built in 1997. Tissue culture techniques were transferred from KULeuven to UNAN that produced plantlets to extend the test fields at the University farm. In cooperation with the Centro de Enseñanza Técnica Agropecuaria (CETA), workshops were organized in six communities in Chinandega.In 1998, five extension brochures in cartoon style were developed for distribution to participating farmers (Figure 2). At the test farm of UNAN, a field collection was established containing both the introduced and the locally grown varieties (40 in total), and 2 plots of 36 plants of each variety were evaluated (Table 2).In 1999, two trained Nicaraguan technicians of the tissue culture laboratory produced 6500 plants. One hundred and forty new test plots were planted in the northwestern region of Nicaragua, mostly in Chinandega because of the cooperation with CETA and the larger agriculture activity of that region.In 2000, 20 000 plants have been distributed to 370 new farmers, comprising farmers of the Leon region as well (Figure 1). Ten thousands plantlets were imported from KULeuven to accelerate the distribution of the new varieties. Oxfam-Belgium contracted the UNAN to distribute 25 000 plants of superior varieties to nearly 1000 families that were relocated after the hurricane Mitch in October 1998 and urgently needed new plant material. Therefore the shade house was extended to 700 m 2 .In 2001, a few test fields were also planted in the Rivas, central Nicaragua and Atlantic coast regions, where a selection of farmers received in vitro banana and plantain plants.The number of plants produced and distributed by UNAN's tissue culture laboratory increased from 2000 in 1998 to 15 000 in 2001. The number of farmers participating also increased considerably -from 40 at the start of the project in 1998, to a total of 820 having received A total of 2757 farmers were trained in different workshops and 1500 brochures dealing with field selection and preparation and plant material were distributed. Workshops for farmers were organized in collaboration with local NGOs, governmental and international organizations, which drastically increased the contact with farmers (Table 3). The project also participated in the organization of regional and national workshops for extension workers. Six new brochures were developed about diseases and pest control. A catalogue of the new accessions following the format of Musalogue (Daniells et al. 2001) was made available.Close contact is being maintained with the farmers who are growing the new varieties (Figure 3) to assess their reaction and improve the efficiency of the intervention. Interviews are conducted to determine the acceptance rate of the new varieties and to identify the underlying reasons, e.g. appearance, taste, cultivation as a cash crop and/or food crop, etc. (Table 4). The most popular variety so far is FHIA-03, because of its drought resistance and large bunches that are comparable to the local Bluggoe cooking banana. Tasting sessions are organized on a regular basis and the new varieties are prepared according to prevailing Nicaraguan customs i.e. fried, green and ripe plantains, plantain chips, cooked green and ripe plantain, and banana as a dessert. People are asked to compare the new fruits with the local fruits (False horn plantain, Bluggoe or Silk). First results confirm the acceptability of most varieties but also show that palatability tests are absolutely necessary since visual aspects can determine consumers (Table 5).Currently the laboratory has the capacity to produce 50 000 in vitro plants per annum. Plans are being made to further upscale the production capacity to ensure the sustainability of the tissue culture laboratory by selling the plant material. Small-scale farmers will receive plant material at subsidized prices while commercial growers will have to pay a higher price.The best accepted banana varieties will be produced in large amounts as well as other food crops for which a demand exists in Nicaragua.  Distribution and extension work will be increasingly coordinated by local organizations and NGOs. To facilitate this, the UNAN/VVOB staff participated in 2001 in the foundation of a national Musa network, MUSANIC.A baseline study about the socioeconomic situation of the collaborating farmers has been carried out to be able to measure the project-impact within a few years.     (Simmonds and Weatherup 1990). Therefore, a wide variety of classification and identification systems exists for banana. Up to now, the traditional classification and identification have been based only on morphology and quantitative traits. Recently, molecular markers have been used to study diversity on plants, animals and microorganisms.The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique, which utilizes polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification with single primers of arbitrary nucleotide sequence, has been developed by Williams et al. (1990) and Welsh and McClelland (1990) to produce molecular markers for genetic analysis. RAPDs have been shown to be useful in genetic fingerprinting (Yang and Quiros 1993, Orozco-Castillo et al. 1994, Lanham et al. 1995). In this study, we have used RAPDs for identifying and classifying some banana cultivars.In this study, six indigenous banana cultivars of Vietnam (Table 1), which were obtained from the Institute of Agricultural Genetics (Vietnam) were screened for RAPD markers.DNA was isolated from banana leaves using the method of Murray and Thompson (1980) with some modifications. Four grams of fresh leaf material were grounded in liquid nitrogen in presence of glass-sand. The powdered leaf tissue was stored at -20 °C for two hours. Ten milliliters of extraction buffer [1,5% cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB); 100 mM Tris-HCl) (pH 8); 20mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) (pH 8); 1.4 mM NaCl; 0.2% mercaptoethanol] heated to 65 °C was added, and the mixture was then incubated at 65 °C for 30 min. The mixture was shaken lightly with 1.5 volume of chloroform: isoamyl (24:1) for 20 min at room temperature. The sediment was removed by centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 20 min. The DNA was precipitated by the addition of 0.8 volume of freezing propanol (or 1.5 volume of 96% ethanol). The pellet was washed 2-3 times in 70% ethanol. At the end, DNA was redissolved in a minimum volume of TE (about 200 ml).Twelve primers from Operon Technologies, each ten bases in length, were used to amplify the DNA (Table 2). PCR was carried out in 25 ml reactions containing 20 ng of template (genome DNA), 200 mM of each dNTP, 2.5 units of Taq-polymerase, 15 ng of primers, 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.3), 50 mM KCl, 1.5mM MgCl 2 , 0.001% (w/v) gelatine and 20 ml of mineral oil overlay. Forty-five amplification cycles were performed, each consisting of 94 °C for 30 s, 36°C for 1 min, 72°C for 2 min. Products were analyzed by electrophoresis in 1.1% agarose gels at 100 V for 3 h, stained with 0.01% ethidium bromide and photographed under UV light.• Coefficients of similarity among cultivars were calculated by using the formula of Nei and Li (1979):N i + N j where: N ij = number of bands in common between cultivars i and j, and N i and N j = number of bands for cultivars i and j, respectively.• The dendogram of cultivars studied was produced using the NTsyspc 2.0 computer programme.Twelve primers were used to amplify the banana genome DNA. Nine of them amplified to give multiple PCR amplification products (Figure 1: example with primer H08), and three primers (G6, Y14, Y15) did not. There were two kinds of bands: monomorphic bands which were present in all cultivars and polymorphic bands which were asynchronously present or absent in all cultivars. Nine primers were amplified into 79 bands, of which 67 bands (84.81%) were polymorphic and 12 bands (15.19%) monomorphic. The high proportion of polymorphic bands was due to the very different origin of the cultivars studied. Two primers (D07, G14) amplified 5 bands only, while H07 amplified 17 bands. The size of the bands ranged from 360 Kb to 3200 Kb.The Nei and Li formula allowed to calculate coefficients of similarity among cultivars based on RAPD data. Similarity coefficients reflected the relationship between cultivars. Similarity coefficients between the original cultivars from M. acuminata ranged between 0.764-0.826, while those between the original cultivars from M. balbisiana ranged between 0.696-0.835 (Table 3). Cultivars belonging to the two groups had low similarity coefficients, ranging between 0.317 and 0.461.Specific RAPD markers are bands that are present only in one cultivar. In this study, we found 12 specific markers for 4 cultivars (Table 4). These results suggest that RAPDs can be used for the selection of banana breeds in agriculture. Using RAPD technique for identifying and classifying some banana cultivars in VietnamBased on RAPD data, a phylogenetic tree of banana cultivars was constructed using the NTsyspc 2.0 program. The phylogenetic tree had two branches: the cultivars originating from M. acuminata were on one branch, and the cultivars originating from M. balbisiana were on the other branch (Figure 2). These results are in agreement with the cytological analysis of these banana cultivars.     n Nigeria, banana and plantain have always been very important traditional staple foods for both rural and urban population. They serve as a source of revenue for smallholders who produce them at the compound farms, mixedcropping farms and small-scale sole cropping farms (Baiyeri 1996, Ajayi andBaiyeri 1999).Nsukka Urban is heavily populated. It has a large market centre, operated on a daily basis. Men, women and the youths within Nsukka Urban and neighbouring communities converge at the market centre to buy and sell. Agricultural products such as banana, plantain, vegetables, pepper, mangoes, palm oil, other fruits, honey, yam, livestock, etc., are sold. In the area, banana and plantain are found in compound farms and they are mixed with other crops. Each of the banana and/or plantain growers in the area has less than 50 stands and a greater proportion of them grow more banana than plantain (Baiyeri and Ajayi 2000). However, banana and plantain marketing is most prominent among women, especially within Nsukka Urban, University campus and the neighbouring communities. The sale of banana and plantain provides means of livelihood for many households in the area.In view of the significant contributions of banana and plantain to the economic, health and nutritional well-being of both rural and urban households in Nigeria, it is very important that efforts should be made continually to improved their marketing and consumption patterns. In planning such a national banana and plantain marketing and consumption improvement programme, data based on the consumption and expenditure patterns of their consumers in both rural and urban areas would be necessary. The role of Agricultural Extension (AE) in the gathering of data, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of such a programme cannot be overemphasized. AE is a primary process through which the households can learn the reasons for change, the value of change, the results that can be achieved, the process through which change is achieved, and the uncertainties inherent in change (Williams 1978).Expenditure patterns of households in Nigeria vary from place to place. Apart from the income of the households, factors such as preference of a particular product by a member of the household, quality and quantity of the product sold, environment under which the product was processed and sold, and the relative price of the products, also influence the expenditure patterns of the households (Anyanwu 1985).Food consumption pattern, in a broad sense, means not only what the people eat or consume, but also the quantities as well as the forms in which these foods are consumed (Dury et al. 1999). According to Olagoke (1989), food consumption patterns vary from one place to another due to factors such as household size, educational levels of members of the household, relative prices of the food items, environment in which the consumers are living, social values attached to some food items, nutritive values of the food items, type or status of job performed by members of the household, household's tastes and preferences, season/period of the year, and culture/religion of the household members.The study was designed to assess the consumption and expenditure patterns of banana and plantain consumers in Nsukka Urban in Enugu State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study was designed to: Out of the above-listed 11 clusters, five were selected through simple random sampling. From each of the five clusters, 12 households were selected, using clustering and simple random sampling techniques. In all, a total of 60 households were involved in the study, and the head of each of the households was interviewed. A structured questionnaire schedule was developed and used in obtaining relevant information from the consumers of bananas and plantains. The data collected were analysed through the use of percentage distribution and bar charts.Consumption and expenditure patterns of banana and plantain among households in Nsukka Urban are presented in the following figures and tables:Figure 1 shows that the consumption rate of bananas is higher than the consumption of plantains.Most of the consumers depend on the market for their banana and plantain supply. A very small proportion of consumers produce their fruits regularly (Figure 2).It clearly appears in Figure 3 that people prefer to eat plantain (consumed boiled, roasted or fried) in the morning and at night, and banana as a 'snack' in the afternoon.Respondents preferred fried plantain for breakfast. For lunch, pounded and roasted plantains are the most eaten. For dinner, plantain accompanied with rice, beans or yams is preferred (Table1).It is to be noted that plantains are more expensive than bananas (N12 1 or N15 per plantain finger and N5 per banana finger). This could explain why the majority of consumers surveyed buy banana more regularly than plantain (Figure 4).Most of the respondents (Figure 5) spend only 1% of their income on bananas and plantains. The main factors that determine the percentage of their monthly income spent on the purchase of bananas and plantains are the availability of money, closely followed by the family interest, and then the price of the fruits (Figure 6 -NB: more than one factor was given).Bananas are mostly purchased ripe, whereas the respondents prefer to buy unripe plantains (Figure 7).Table 2 shows that most of the respondents do not change their habits in buying bananas when the price increases, but they buy more if the price decreases. In the case of plantain, more than half of the respondents would buy   fewer plantains in case of increased price and 75% would buy more in case of decreased price.According to Table 3, wives play the most important decision-making role in banana and plantain purchasing and consumption process. On the other hand, the husband plays the major role in the utilization of the peels, while children play the greatest role in determining the purchasing interval and storage period.Three major problems militating against the effective consumption of banana and plantain fruits were identified by the respondents (Figure 8). These included storage problems such as pest (house rats and insects) attacks, over-ripening and mould formation due to sustained bruises; processing problems such as lack    The analysis of these results leads to the following conclusions: 1. the consumption rate of bananas was higher than that of plantain; 2. a greater proportion of the respondents depended on the market for their supply of bananas and plantains; 3. bananas were consumed mostly in the afternoon, while plantains were mostly consumed in the morning; 4. plantain meals were prepared and consumed in various forms; 5. plantains were more expensive than bananas; 6. the major factors that determined the proportion (%) of the monthly income spent on bananas and plantains included availability of physical cash, family interest, price, quality and availability of fruits; 7. bananas were mostly purchased in a ripe form, while plantains were mostly purchased unripe; 8. households responded accordingly to change in banana and plantain prices; 9. wives played the greatest decisionmaking role in banana and plantain purchasing and consumption processes than their husbands and children; and 10.the major problems militating against effective consumption of bananas and plantains in the area included storage, processing and transportation problems.1. Since fluctuation in the market price of bananas and plantains affected the consumption patterns of the households, there is a need for the establishment of a consumer cooperative organization for bulk purchase and retail sale of the fruits. Capable extension agents should be attached to each of the so formed organizations for the purpose of monitoring and evaluating the activities of members and giving relevant pieces of information if and when necessary. Iris Engelborghs B anana plants are the most important world fruit crop and show a large diversity in shapes and sizes, of which one is the dwarf type. Unlike the normal type, the dwarf variant has a shorter pseudostem and wider leafs. Because these plants have the same number of leaves as the normal variant, their photosynthetic ability is not reduced and therefore the bunch size almost identical. In addition, its reduced height prevents it from toppling during tropical storms. These characteristics make the dwarf variant a valuable plant for the tropical banana farmer. Different naturally occurring dwarf varieties exist which have a normal variant, but this phenotype is often obtained by in vitro culture too, e.g. in an in vitro germplasm collection or during rapid in vitro multiplication.This DNA fingerprinting technique is based on the selective PCR amplification of restriction fragments from a total digest of genomic DNA and involves three steps: (i) restriction of the DNA and ligation of oligonucleotide adapters, (ii) selective amplification of sets of restriction fragments, and (iii) gel analysis of the amplified fragments. With this method, sets of restriction fragments are visualized by PCR without knowledge of nucleotide sequence. The power of this DNA fingerprinting technique was assessed on a few world species, but not on Musa spp. Therefore, it was here first optimized for banana. In addition, the technique was adapted for non-radioactive detection of the AFLP patterns using a more recent detection method. Fluorescein labelled primers were used in the PCR reactions which allow the computer based separation and detection on a sequencing gel.The assessment of the power of the AFLP technique and its variants threeendonuclease-(TE)-AFLP, cDNA-AFLP and the methylation sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) technique for the characterization and the early detection of the dwarf type was performed in this study on a range of dwarf-normal banana pairs. The dwarf 'Curare enano' and its in vitro generated normal-sized off-type were first used for the optimization of the AFLP technique. Later, the analysis was extended to three naturally occurring dwarf varieties 'Cachaco enano', 'Figue rose naine' and 'Prata ana', which have a normal variant called 'Cachaco', 'Figue rose' and 'Prata', respectively. In addition, the extra dwarf 'Dwarf parfitt', the normal 'Cavendish' and the giant 'Giant cavendish' were analyzed.Differential AFLP, TE-AFLP, cDNA-AFLP, cDNA-TE-AFLP and MSAP patterns were obtained and different levels of polymorphisms were observed between the dwarf and normal type depending on the technique, the primer combination and the variety. For each variety, a distinction could be made between the dwarf and the normal type. However, no dwarf specific fragment was found to be common for all dwarf varieties, which is an indication that (i) either the observed polymorphisms are not related to the phenotype, (ii) or the different varieties originated in a different way, (iii) or that several genes are involved in the process. Differential fragments were cloned and sequenced. Primers were designed on the obtained sequences and used with genomic DNA of the respective variety to confirm the differential and unique nature of the fragments. However, specificity was lost.Besides the above-described analyses at the DNA level, some physiological assays were performed on the dwarf-normal banana pairs. The relation between dwarfism and gibberellic acid (GA) is described for several mutant dwarf species, e.g. rice and wheat, as well as some Musa spp. Two categories of dwarf types are described, i.e. a GA-(in)sensitive group and a GA-deficient group. The influence of GA was tested in this study on the in vitro growth of the dwarf-normal banana pairs. The (in)sensitivity appeared to be variety dependent, suggesting that the different dwarf varieties originated in a different manner and that other mechanisms may be involved than the GA pathway alone. When grown on ancymidol (a GA-synthesis inhibitor) in vitro growth of all the tested dwarf varieties was inhibited, which indicates that these plants are not GA-deficient, and the signal transduction after the synthesis must be impaired.From these results we can conclude that the AFLP technique allows a fast and early fingerprinting of these particular dwarf banana types, that the mechanism behind dwarfism is complex and seems to involve gibberellic acid, (de)methyla-tion… and that the dwarf varieties here analyzed probably originated via different mechanisms. ■ Annemie Elsen D iseases and pests are the major constraints to the productivity of bananas and plantains. Nematodes cause important yield losses in Latin America, West and East Africa and Asia. Usually, banana nematodes are controlled by nematicides. These are not only very expensive but also extremely toxic for non-target organisms, including the user, and they pollute the environment. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are obligate symbionts that biotrophically colonize the root cortex and develop an extramatrical mycelium which helps the plant to acquire water and mineral nutrients from the soil, in exchange for carbon as an energy source. In addition, AMF increase the ability of the plant to control the spread of soil-borne pathogens. In Musa the association occurs naturally when plants are transplanted into the field. The association of AMF with plant-parasitic nematodes and the beneficial effect of the mycorrhizal symbiosis on plant growth and nematode resistance/tolerance led to investigations into the potential of AMF to limit yield losses due to nematodes.In the first part of our study, the relative mycorrhizal dependency (RMD) and the AMF-nematode interaction were studied in four Musa genotypes, selected for their known host plant response to nematodes (i.e. 'Grande naine', 'Gros Michel', 'Pisang jari buaya' and 'Yangambi km5'). Mycorrhization with Glomus mosseae (AMF) resulted in a significant better plant growth, even in the presence of Radopholus similis and Pratylenchus coffeae. No differences in RMD were observed among the four genotypes. Glomus mosseae could protect 'Grande naine' and 'Pisang jari buaya' against R. similis and P. coffeae, since the nematode reproduction was suppressed. Only in the case of R. similis (Indonesian population with low pathogenicity) in 'Pisang jari buaya', no suppression was observed. However, when reproduction is already very low (due to low reproductive fitness of the nematode population and/or the resistant host plant response of the tested genotype), the presence of the AMF has no effect on the nematode reproduction. The AMF reduced the root necrosis, caused by P. coffeae. For R. similis, no reduction was observed. The nematodes reduced the frequency of mycorrhization, without reducing the intensity of the mycorrhizal association.In the second part, the RMD and the AMF-nematode interaction were studied in Musa genotypes differing in root morphology. The influence of the AMF on the root system and the influence of the altered root system on the nematode reproduction were examined. Mycorrhization with G. mosseae resulted in a significant better plant growth, even in the presence of P. coffeae. The effect of AMF on the root system was related to the RMD of the genotype. Musa genotypes with a low RMD will not experience changes in the branching of their root system in response to mycorrhization. But in genotypes with a high RMD, the root system will be more branched. We showed that P. coffeae also affects the root system, by reducing the branching. The effect of AMF on the nematode reproduction was not very clear. The nematode population density tended to be reduced, but was not significant in the experiment with 'Obino l'ewai'. In the root system, it appeared that the decreased branching caused by the nematodes was counterbalanced by the increased branching caused by the AMF. Therefore application of AMF could be used as a strategy to decrease susceptibility to nematodes.In the third part of our study, AMFnematode interactions were studied under in vitro conditions. Firstly, aseptic nematode cultures were established using alfalfa callus as a host tissue. Until now the lack of completely sterile culture systems limited in vitro nematode-host studies and AMF-nematode interaction studies. Secondly, three model systems were developed: Ri T-DNA transformed Daucus carota roots, in vitro Musa plants and in vitro Arabidopsis thaliana plants.Finally, the transformed D. carota roots were used to study the AMF-nematode interaction under sterile conditions. The results reported in this study confirmed the suppressive effect of AMF on nematode reproduction. Glomus intraradices could suppress the R. similis, P. coffeae and to a lesser extent M. javanica population in the roots. The internal and external developments of the AMF were not affected by the presence of these plant-parasitic nematodes.Although this in vitro system has several limitations, there are still many legitimate reasons to use this system to study the AMF-nematode interaction. The AMF develops appressoria, arbuscules and vesicules in the root cortex, produces profuse extraradical mycelium and spores and is completing its life cycle in vitro. The early colonization occurs in a similar way as under in vivo conditions. The nematodes, R. similis and P. coffeae, can infect and reproduce in the roots, and cause similar damage in the in vitro roots as in in vivo roots. In addition, the effects of the interaction reflect those observed in vivo. Although the dixenic system used is artificial, it may represent a valuable tool for studying the AMF-nematode interaction, complementary to classical experimental approaches. ■ The project will be implemented in two phases. The first phase includes the multiplication of planting material of at least ten improved Musa varieties in each country and the distribution of these plants to farmers for on-farm evaluation. At least 150 farmers per country participate in the trials. The second phase will consist of funding support in the form of loans to small-scale farmers to enable them to purchase planting material and essential inputs for the more wide scale production of improved hybrids. The project will also include market studies on the improved hybrids and the training of farmers in improved production techniques, focusing on the integrated management of pests and diseases. The main result from the project will be the increased production of improved Musa hybrids by small-scale farmers. These varieties will produce higher yields and will not require chemicals for pest and disease control. In addition, farmers and entrepreneurs will be assisted to set up banana-related businesses (the production of planting material for sale etc.), thus contributing to increased income generation for rural communities. The major beneficiaries will be small-scale banana farmers.For more information on the project, please contact Suzanne Sharrock, project coordinator, at INIBAP Headquarters.The 3rd International bacterial wilt symposium was attended by 110 scientists from all over the world who presented more than 100 papers either orally or as posters. Aspects discussed were: epidemiology, disease management, breeding and deployment for disease resistance, host response and disease development, pathogen genetics, diversity and diagnosis.Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is reported to be one of the major constraints for many important crops such as potato, tomato, groundnut, banana, tobacco and ginger. In many cases, the disease causes very significant yield losses.There is still a big gap in the research progress between developed and developing countries. In developed countries, scientists are generally more interested in the molecular aspects of the pathogen such as pathogen genetics, diversity and diagnosis. Except for diagnostics, other aspects under study are not directly related to control of the disease. Therefore, research being carried out on disease control by scientists in developing countries, where the disease is more serious and widespread, needs to be strengthened. Some work on breeding and deployment for disease resistance has been carried out and good results have been obtained for groundnut and potato. However, very little has so far been done for many other important crops such as banana and ginger.Significant progress has been made in studies of the genome of R. solanacearum. The pathogen has a 3,716,413 base pair (bp) chromosome and a 2,094,509 bp megaplasmid, which taken together encode over 5000 proteins. The chromosome harbours all essential genes, whereas the megaplasmid is involved in the biosynthesis of various amino acids, cofactors, and fitness to environments. There are about 200 candidate genes for pathogenicity distributed both in the chromosome and megaplasmid. This information is essential in understanding the biodiversity in R. solanacearum in relation to host specificity. Traditionally, R. solanacearum strains are grouped into five races, based on host range, and five biovars based on the oxidation on certain carbon sources.A new classification scheme has been proposed based on the molecular analyses of R. solanacearum. Strains of R. solanacearum are classified into four phylotypes such as Phylotype I 'Asia' (include biovars 3 and 4, race 1, 4 and 5), phylotype II 'America' (biovar 1 and 2, race 1, 2,and 3), phylotype III 'Africa' (biovar 1, 2), and phylotype IV 'Indonesia' (biovar 1, 2, Pseudomonas syzygii, and blood disease bacterium -BDB). This shows that strains of Indonesia, including P. syzygii which causes Sumatra disease of clove, and the BDB on banana, are separated from other strains.Various diagnostic kits have been developed, especially for quarantine purposes and for monitoring the pathogen in symptomatic and latently infected plant materials, surface water, soil, vegetable washings, and processing waste. Methods used are selective isolation and enrichment, bioassay, immunofluorescence, serology, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). For use in developing countries, serology methods such as ELISA are more appropriate as they are cheaper.The 4 th Symposium will be held in 2007, possibly in the UK.The American Plant Pathology Society will publish the papers presented in the Symposium.Further information about the symposium is available from Dr Supriadi, Research Institute for Spice and Medicinal Crops, Jalan Tentara Pelajar No. 3, Bogor 16111, Indonesia. Fax: (0251) 327010.A preliminary report on the status of Musa acuminata in Northern Borneo has recently been prepared by Markku Häkkinen and Edmond De Langhe. This report is based on a survey of Musa in Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei carried out by the first author in August 2001. Although the main focus of the survey was the section Callimusa, a large number of photographs of Musa acuminata were also taken. With the expertise of Edmond de Langhe, a tentative taxonomic identification of the plants has been made.The photographs showed that all the plants exhibited the basic characteristics of M. acuminata, with the typical top-like male bud, the horizontal-to-oblique inflorescence and bunch, and rather slender fingers. The flowers appeared to be white-to-creamy, but the details were not visible in the photos.The specimens in question were found to fall into four main categories: • M. acuminata ssp. microcarpa or truncata • M. acuminata of uncertain status • Edible AA diploids • Unclassified accessions.The most important result of the Häkkinen visit to Northern Borneo, an area previously little explored for wild bananas, is the domination of a wild M. acuminata population with a combination of characteristics typical of the subspecies microcarpa and truncata. The occurrence of yellow-green male bud types is the first time this character has been recorded for these subspecies. It is possible that the two supposed subspecies may actually form one large and compound population, and further studies on this material in a field genebank are required to confirm the status of the accessions in this group.A number of accessions were characterized by a moderately to strongly imbricated male bud and a trend for the bract colour to be pink/red/purple. Male buds with visibly imbricate bracts are characteristic for the subspecies siamea and burmannica, but are not expected for the acuminata's in Borneo or the Indonesian islands, with the exception of Java. Further studies are required to confirm if these are edible diploids or indeed truly wild plants.A number of plants are recorded as edible AA diploids. Amongst these are plants that were found to be populating large areas along the sides of roads, as truly wild populations do. Since there were no villages in the proximity, these may be the remnants of human population from remote time.The findings presented in this report are clearly of a preliminary and tentative nature, as they are based on studies of photographs only. However, it does provide a basis for further studies, which the authors hope will be stimulated by this report.Copies of the report, including colour photographs of all the accessions, are available in PDF format from the INIBAP web site (http://www.inibap.org/publications/borneo.pdf) or in printed form from INIBAP Headquarters, Montpellier.Inge Van  The general infrastructure of the laboratories was improved and various items of equipment were bought. An e-mail/internet connection was established in order to improve the communication between the different project partners and with other nematologists in the world, and to have access to information from the worldwide web.During the time of the project, two staff members of the Agrobiotechnology Department of VASI followed the postgraduate international nematology course in Belgium. In this respect:Duong Thi Minh Nguyet defended her MSc thesis entitled: «In vivo and in vitro studies of Radopholus similis and Pratylenchus coffeae associated with banana» in 1999 (Promotor: Prof. D. De Waele).Nguyen Thi Tuyet defended her MSc thesis entitled: « In vitro and in vivo screening for Radopholus similis resistance in Musa» in 2000 (Promotor: Prof. D. De Waele).species in natural habitats in North Vietnam Three survey trips were undertaken in natural habitats in North Vietnam and root samples from three species of wild bananas were taken. With the exception of R. similis, the most important Musa nematode species, i.e. Meloidogyne spp., P. coffeae and Helicotylenchus multicinctus, were found. This indicates that the natural soils in Vietnam are infested with these nematode species and that the three wild banana species are susceptible to these species.Five survey trips were undertaken in six provinces in North and Central Vietnam and root samples of three commonly cultivated banana genotypes were taken. Again, Meloidogyne spp., P. coffeae and H. multicinctus were found, but not R. similis. Damage parameters showed a clear relation with the presence of certain nematode species in the roots. For example, root-knot galling was positively correlated with the number of Meloidogyne spp. in the roots, while root necrosis was positively correlated with the number of P. coffeae found in the roots.population and Meloidogyne spp. on plant growth and yield of banana A field was planted with over 150 banana plants, of which one third was inoculated with P. coffeae, one third with Meloidogyne spp. and one third was kept nematode-free (control plants). The preliminary results showed that infection with P. coffeae and Meloidogyne spp. can reduce the plant height and the number of standing leaves in comparison with the uninfected control plants.The reproduction of P. coffeae on carrot discs under in vitro conditions could be described by the Gompertz equation: log (nem + 1) = 0.725 + 2.561 exp [-exp (1.742 (5.044 -time))].From a greenhouse experiment that was repeated monthly over a period of one year, it could be seen that temperature has a strong effect on the reproduction rate of P. coffeae on bananas. During the winter months, the reproduction was very low, while during the summer months, the population increased significantly. The extent of root-necrosis followed more or less the same pattern.A greenhouse experiment was set up to assess the influence of irrigation on the reproduction of P. coffeae. A shortage of water had a very strong negative effect on the plant growth, while the nematodes could still reproduce well. A very high application of water reduced the general plant growth slightly, but the nematodes could barely reproduce. An intermediate water volume was best for the growth of the plants, but also favourable for the nematode reproduction.The reproduction of a P. coffeae population on banana plants in the field was followed for more than one year. From preliminary results, it can be seen that temperature and rainfall have an effect on the reproduction rate of the nematodes.germplasm for resistance to a Pratylenchus coffeae population in the greenhouse Twenty-four Vietnamese banana genotypes were screened for resistance to P. coffeae in the greenhouse. The most promising genotypes are 'Tieu xanh', 'Tieu mien nam', 'Com chua', 'Com lua', 'Man' and 'Ngu thoc'.germplasm for resistance to Meloidogyne spp. in the greenhouse Twenty-two Vietnamese banana genotypes were screened for resistance to Meloidogyne spp. in the greenhouse. No sources of resistance were found.germplasm for resistance to Meloidogyne spp. in the field Eight Vietnamese banana genotypes, 'FHIA-01', 'FHIA-02' and 'Yangambi km 5' were evaluated for their host plant response to Meloidogyne spp. under field conditions. 'FHIA-01', 'Ngu thoc', 'Tay' and 'Com lua' were found to be less susceptible to Meloidogyne spp. 'FHIA-01', 'Ben tre' and 'Bom' were less sensitive to the knot-forming activity of Meloidogyne spp. The number of juveniles recovered from the roots was strongly influenced by the weather. During the cold and dry season, the numbers dropped very significantly. The number of egg-laying females in the roots (ELF) was much less influenced by the environmental conditions: there was a stagnation during the cold and dry season but no decline. Meloidogyne spp. seem to overwinter as eggs in egg-masses. Root-knot galling and ELF can be used as easy parameters to estimate the infection of Musa with Meloidogyne spp. No effects of the nematodes on plant growth were found. The number of nematodes in the roots seems to be related to the physiological stage of the plants. The highest nematode numbers were found during flowering.Duong Thi Minh Nguyet started a research programme on the occurrence of Radopholus similis in Vietnam and its morphological and biological aspects. Two surveys were carried out in Tay Nguyen (Western Highlands) to assess the occurrence of R. similis on coffee, durian, bananas, etc. One R. similis population was collected from durian roots and is being maintained on carrot discs under in vitro conditions. Since R. similis is still a quarantine pathogen in Vietnam, Duong Thi Minh Nguyet went to Belgium for a period of three months to study the collected population. She determined that the optimal temperature for reproduction of R. similis from Vietnam on carrot discs was 25°C. She also compared the reproduction of the Vietnamese population with populations from Indonesia and Uganda.Nguyen Thi Tuyet is studying the biodiversity of Pratylenchus coffeae in Vietnam. She is collecting P. coffeae populations from various crops and places in Vietnam to study the morphological, biological and genetic diversity between the different populations.Banana wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense is one of the serious threats to banana cultivation in Kerala. The acidic soils of the state and the susceptibility of the major commercial varieties offer an easy spread of the disease throughout the region, causing a yield loss of 10-15%.The symptoms of the disease appear with the yellowing of older leaves which extends rapidly from the margin towards the midrib. These leaves hang withered around the pseudostem and the infection spreads to all leaves except the top, which hang down. The heartleaf also withers after 3-4 weeks. The plant exhibits longitudinal splitting with bulging and elongation of the pseudostem. When the rhizome is cut open, the discolouration of the vascular bundles can be seen and the cut stem smells of rotten fish.A survey conducted by Estelitta et al. revealed that the disease was prevalent in all the districts in Kerala causing serious damage to the crop. It was also noticed that 'Nendran', the most important commercial variety in the State was susceptible to Panama wilt while Cavendish group, 'Palayankodan', 'Karpooravally' and cooking varieties such as 'Monthan', 'Kanchikela', etc. were not seen to be affected by the disease.Several studies were conducted at the Banana Research Station, Kannara under Kerala Agricultural University on integrated management practices for Panama wilt disease. The pathogen was found to be soil borne and its entry to the host plant was through roots. Since the conidia can survive in the soil for as long as seven years, a package of agronomic practices are recommended based on the findings of the studies.Field preparation should be carried out in a systematic way. In disease affected locations, weathering the pits for a week or more and burning the soil with dry leaves is recommended. Field sanitation, especially removal of grass weeds is necessary as they become critical alternate hosts.Cultivation of tolerant varieties is suggested for disease prone areas. In other cases, suckers should be selected from disease free areas. Dipping pared suckers in 0.2% solution of carbendazim was also found to be an effective prophylactic measure.It was also found that the application of lime at 1 kg per plant as a soil amendment at the onset of the monsoon and good drainage were helpful in checking the disease.The studies further indicated that use of organic manures in banana cultivation could give a better stand of the crop against the disease, probably due to improved soil structure with more aeration.In the case of disease occurrence, removal and destruction of the diseased plants is recommended to check its further spread. Application of lime at 0.5-1 kg in the diseased plant pits and in the basins of surrounding plants also gave encouraging results in checking the further spread of the pathogen.From experiments carried out on different chemicals to control Panama wilt, it was found that corm injections with 2% solution of carbendazim at 3ml/corm during the 5 th , 7 th and 9 th month after planting could help to control the disease. Drenching the soil with 0.2% carbendazim was also found to be effective.Since the commercial banana varieties in Kerala are often cultivated in extensive wetlands, studies indicated that crop rotation, intermittent fallowing or flooding followed by fallowing are also effective ways of reducing the spread of the disease.Further information is available from S. Estelitta, Associate Professor, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy, Thrissur, Kerala, S. India.Before initiating a hybridization programme in banana breeding, cross-compatibility between desirable parents has to be assessed. Such work is presently ongoing at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) in India. Seventeen varieties, including commercial triploids, diploids and TNAU-bred synthetic hybrids were included in the study (see Table 1). Anthers were collected from the male parents just prior to dehiscence and the pollen grains were extracted and smeared on the stigma of the female flowers of female parents on the day of opening in the early morning between 6.00 to 9.00 a.m., when the receptivity of stigma was good and ensured by stickiness by touch. After pollination, the flowers were covered with perforated paper bags. Once ripe, the fingers were longitudinally cut and the seeds, if present, were extracted carefully.Among the 74 cross combinations tested, compatibility was found only in eight combinations (Table 2), thus indicating the existence of compatibility between clones. The successful crosses were between diploid x diploid and triploid x diploid. Out of the 10 male parents tested, 'Pisang lilin' and 'Anaikomban' were compatible with all female parents. 'Nendran' which was earlier reported as female sterile (Alexander 1970) was confirmed as female sterile in this investigation. The study indicated that with the exception of 'Karpooravalli', the clones of commercial importance have a very low percentage of female fertility, and diploids provide the best female fertile clones. Seed set was however good in the triploid x triploid cross of Karpooravalli x Robusta, which indicates the possibility of new line in banana breeding, bringing the 'Cavendish' genome into new hybrids. H-201 (Pedigree: Bareli chinia x Pisang lilin x Robusta) is a good female parent and has hybridized with diploid as well as triploid parents (viz. Robusta). Sathiamoorthy and Balamohan (1993) reported that H-201 was a potential female parent par-ticularly in the synthesis of triploids of bispecific origin. Seed production was maximum in H-201 x Pisang lilin followed by H-201 x Anaikomban and Karpooravalli x Robusta. In other successful combinations, seed production was very low despite the crosses being compatible.More information about this work is available from: V. Krishnamoorthy, Dept of Fruit Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Coimbatore-641003, Tamil Nadu, India. The northeastern states of India, namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Megalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur are a rich source of natural diversity in Musa. Since 1998, INIBAP has been supporting a series of Musa collecting missions in this region. These have been conducted by the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB), Trichy. Specimens of the wild species Ensete glaucum, Musa balbisiana, M. acuminata, M. ornata and other Rhodochlamys species have been collected, together with a range of cultivated varieties. All the collected material has been established in the NRCB genebank for formal identification and characterization.In Arunchal Pradesh, it was noted that where Eumusa and Rhodochlamys bananas grew together, the Rhodochlamys had a closer eco-compatibility with M. acuminata than M. balbisiana, although M. acuminata was clearly dominant over the Rhodochlamys species. In Assam, Bhimkol, a seeded balbisiana clone is widely grown in backyards for its medicinal qualities. Although seeded, the seeds are soft enough that the fruit can be consumed along with the seeds. Throughout the region, the unusual practice of selling male buds was noticed. The immature male buds of wild bananas are harvested even before shooting and are used for the preparation of special dishes. A summary of the wild species collected during the missions is provided in Table 3.Hélène Laurence, an intern funded by the Ministère des Relations internationales du Québec joined INIBAP as a Research Assistant in January 2002. She is based at the Regional Office of INIBAP in Kampala and will begin work on a 3-year study of the impact of improved banana varieties (Musa) on the livelihoods of households in Eastern Africa. She will work closely with INIBAP scientists and regional NARS partners. Hélène has a BSc in geography and a MSc in Agrometeorology.Olivier Guinard, also funded by the Ministère des Relations internationales du Québec, joined the INIBAP programme in Montpellier as an intern in April 2002. During his 6-month internship he will be working on a project using the MGIS database (Musa Germplasm Information System) to carry out a series of tracer studies on important germplasm accessions as well as visualizing geographical assignments for the different accessions. Olivier comes from Québec where he studied for his BSc in Biology, specializing in molecular biology/biotechnology at the University of Quebec in Montréal and has just completed his MSc.A training course on the use of the Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS) for the management of information related to genetic resources of bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) was held recently for Musa germplasm curators from Africa. The objective of this training course was to provide these curators with the expertise and tools to better manage information related to the accession in their collections. The use of MGIS will also allow them to exchange genetic resource information with other researchers and curators throughout the world. This training course was held thanks to funding support provided by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).The training course gathered 23 participants from West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa (see list below). The course was held in French and English, with translation ensured by the trainers. All documents and training materials were provided in both languages.The course included both field and computer-based training. Exercises on the taxonomical and botanical identification of varieties were held in the field using the list of descriptors published by IPGRI, INIBAP and CIRAD. The large germplasm collection maintained by CARBAP provided an excellent resource for the field exercises. This collection consists of over 400 accessions, representing a very large range of African varieties, especially plantains, but also including some East African highland varieties.With regard to the computer-based training, participants learnt how to install the MGIS software on their computers, how to create users accounts, enter new records, and carry out information searches in the global database. They were also trained in the procedures for data exchange through the global database.Musaid.win, a software developed by CIRAD to assist in the identification of unknown varieties, was also explained by Xavier Perrier from the Biometry Unit of CIRAD. This software is provided to all participants in MGIS.Participants agreed that the training provided a useful tool for the management of genetic resource information and highlighted the importance of collecting and managing this information using a standard format. The workshop also provided a valuable opportunity for curators to make contact with their colleagues from the region as a whole, and also to identify resource people who can help them in their future work.Following the MGIS training course, a workshop on the \"Names and synonyms of plantains\" was held with the participants from West and Central Africa. More information about the DIVA software is available from the CIP website (http://www.cipotato.org/diva/). The software is freely available and can be downloaded, along with the user's manual, from the website.Fifth meeting of the regional steering committee of MUSACO From 11 to 12 February 2002, the regional steering committee of the banana and plantain research network for west and central Africa, MUSACO, met in Cotonou, Benin for its annual meeting. In attendance were representatives from Benin, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, and Sierra Leone as were those of CARBAP (formerly CRBP) IITA and INIBAP. Togo was admitted as the 13 th member of the network at this meeting.In a speech to officially open the meeting, Dr David Arodokoun, Scientific Director of the Institut national des recherches agricoles du Bénin acting on behalf of his Director General stressed that banana and plantain are crops that could contribute to food and nutritional security, alleviation of poverty, and the creation of employment in Benin. Banana and plantain are two of the crops that Benin is now promoting to diversify the food crop base. He reported that 33% of households in Benin regularly consume plantains and Musa production in Benin has increased from 22 000 tonnes in 1998 to 45 000 in 2001. He hoped that the research carried out in the network will help find solutions to constraints facing farmers in Benin such as lack of clean planting materials, pests and diseases and post-harvest transformation of the fruit.The first order of business was the adoption of the minutes of the last regional steering committee meeting held in Accra in April 2001. Before members would do that, they wanted to know if the recommendations of that meeting had been implemented. The President and secretary provided the following information on the various recommendations that were made in Accra: Each country representative gave a brief report on new activities that are taking place in their countries. To popularize banana and plantain production in Sierra Leone, nurseries and demonstration plots have been established in four districts. These will be extended to four more districts. Also, local varieties have been collected and planted for characterization purposes.As in Sierra Leone, to re-launch plantain and banana production in Littoral and in the Forest regions of Guinea (Conakry), nurseries have been established to produce clean planting materials that will be distributed to farmers. Among the varieties to be given to farmers are hybrids of IITA and CARBAP Studies are being planned in Côte d'Ivoire to attempt to explain the observation that Pratylenchus spp. seems to be replacing Radopholus similis as the main nematode on Musa. IITA is interested in the issue of changes in species composition and will consider offering a doctoral fellowship for work on this in collaboration with KULeuven. It was recommended that a nematological survey be conducted in all member countries to determine if the nematode diversity and the relative abundance of the species remain the same as before.The other new activity in Côte d'Ivoire was the high planting density technology that Ivorian scientists are testing on-station. The high planting density trials being conducted in Côte d'Ivoire and also in Cameroon are the follow-up of a visit made by ten scientists, farmers and extension agents from West and Central Africa to the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica to study the high density plantain plantation production technologies being used there. The delegation was impressed by the up to 60% yield increases that have been obtained in the Latin America and Caribbean region from managing 'False horn' plantain as an annual crop at densities from 2500 to 5000 plants per hectare.Ghana's new representative on the steering committee, Dr Anno-Nyako informed the meeting that Musa breeding has started in Ghana. A plant biology laboratory with a tissue culture unit has been established in Gabon.Being the first time to participate in the meeting, the Togolese representative, Dr S. Dogbe, gave an overview of the research on banana and plantain in his country. Bananas and plantains are cultivated in the cocoa/coffee zone as a shade for the cash crops. The programme has a field genebank consisting of 32 accessions many of which originate from Ghana. A major problem confronting the production of the crops in Togo is the lack of good quality planting materials.Members reported on the two regional projects, Musa germplasm evaluation and periurban Musa production.Germplasm evaluation trials have been established in almost all the network countries but it is only in Côte d'Ivoire that the first crop has been harvested. It was reported that 'FHIA-23' is the most productive among the bananas ('FHIA-01', 'FHIA-18' and 'SH-3460') that are being evaluated in Côte d'Ivoire, but it also has the longest crop cycle. The inoculum pressure of black leaf streak disease (BLSD) was so high that at harvest, 'Orishele', the susceptible plantain variety had virtually no functional leaves. Consequently, bunch weights of 'Orishele' were low compared to the resistant hybrid, 'CRBP-39', which maintained six green leaves to harvest. Tests to determine consumer acceptance of the fruits are being conducted but the results are not yet available.The periurban Musa production project is making good progress in Benin with the vitroplantlets provided by CARBAP. Among the hybrids established in Benin are . Survival of plants in the field was very high so is the enthusiasm of the 40 farmer participants. The visit to some of the farms generated a lot of interest as the plants were doing very well. The researchers and farmers exchanged views on farmer participatory research approaches. These discussions continued when the scientists returned to the meeting place the next day. A survey on periurban Musa production conducted in Benin revealed that 56% of Musa farmers cultivate plantain on an average plot size of 0.8 ha. In Benin also, inadequate supply of planting materials is cited a bottleneck to expanded productionThe periurban project has not really taken off in Ghana as the national institution that was supposed to supply the planting materials failed to do so. Materials imported from South Africa have been weaned and will be supplied to farmers at the beginning of the rainy season.CARBAP and IITA each sent a delegation of several scientists to present the different areas of Musa research at their centres. Dr Lutaladio representing FAO talked about collaboration with the network.CARBAP presented the advances of their programmes regarding plantain breeding, agronomy and integrated systems, plant pathology and pest control with an integrated pest management approach (leaf spot diseases, nematodes and weevil), post-harvest technologies and socio-economics. Achievements of the centre include the development and transfer of in vivo multiplication techniques to produce large numbers of clean planting materials, and 'CRBP-39', a plantain-like hybrid that has been released and distributed within the MUSACO network and to more than 40 countries around the world in the framework of the 3 rd International Musa Testing Programme coordinated by INIBAP. Secondary triploids with resistance to diseases have been created by different breeding schemes and short and early yielding plantain hybrids are also under evaluation. Banana and plantain-based snack foods, infant formulas and flour have been developed.Presentations from IITA were on participatory research, integrated pest management, Musa breeding and agronomy. In farmer participatory evaluations conducted in eastern Nigeria, farmers preferred 'PITA-14' one of IITA's plantaintype hybrids over 'Agbagba', the local variety. 'PITA-14' gave higher financial returns as well. The meeting was informed of a pilot project supported by USAID in which hybrids developed at CARBAP, IITA and FHIA are being evaluated in farmers' fields in Nigeria. It is hoped that after the pilot phase, the project will be expanded to other countries in the West and Central Africa. IITA continues to develop plantains hybrids with superior resistance or tolerance to diseases, including a practical physiologicalgenetic and biotechnological approach to control banana streak virus, and good agronomic characteristics such as earliness, short stature, and good rooting. Integrated pest management research has included developing and testing methods such as using hot or boiling water to clean suckers contaminated with pests. There are also studies to determine the efficacy of nematicidal plants such as Flemingia interplanted in plantain fields.The four projects of INIBAP, namely germplasm management, germplasm improvement, information and communications and regional networks were briefly described and activities in Africa under each were mentioned. The objectives and modus operandi of PROMUSA, the global programme for Musa improvement, coordinated from INIBAP headquarters were also described.The FAO representative at the meeting, Dr Lutaladio, traced the history of the collaboration between his department and INIBAP. In 1999 AGPC/FAO and INI-BAP discussed collaboration on the gathering and exchange of information and the transfer of technology. A young professional officer (YPO) was recruited and posted to the INIBAP/MUSACO secretariat to develop instruments for the collection and compilation of baseline information and to incorporate collected information into HORTIVAR, a database on performances of horticulture cultivars in relation to environmental conditions and cultivation practices. In addition, the YPO was to provide inputs in the urban and periurban horticulture programme in relation to food security and was to assist in project proposal development. Dr Lutaladio informed the meeting that the YPO has prepared preliminary reports on the different tasks he was given at the beginning of his assignment.In the immediate future the FAO will assist at least two MUSACO member countries in designing projects for improvement of banana and plantain production for small-scale growers through the setting up of efficient and cost-effective multiplication systems for production of disease-free planting materials. The FAO will collaborate with MUSACO, CARBAP and IITA to collect and characterize Musa germplasm in the Congo basin, to upgrade tissue culture and nursery facilities in certain countries, and to train researchers in handling tissue culture plantlets, virus indexing, and rapid production of planting materials. Finally, the FAO will assist in the development of a protocol for mass propagation and distribution of quality planting materials.The delegates discussed ways to improve the operation of the network. For a start, it was agreed that working groups based on identified research priorities should be set up. These will meet as often as necessary depending on available resources. Working groups are to be formed immediately on (1) rapid multiplication of clean planting materials; (2) profitable plantain production systems and ( 3) farmer participatory research. The secretary of the network was asked to identify leaders for each of the three working groups. Activities proposed by the working groups will be approved and their implementation monitored by the regional steering committee. The current unsatisfactory communication links among members and between members and the secretariat was attributed to the lack of information technology equipment in many of the research stations where the Musa programmes are based.The assembly passed the following recommendations: Coming 13 years after the last international meeting on this topic, it provided a timely opportunity to analyse the current situation regarding Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases at the global level. The meeting also allowed new lines of investigation to be suggested and facilitated the re-orientation of breeding programmes and biotechnology strategies for the genetic improvement of bananas and plantains.More than 60 scientists attended the workshop from both the private and public sectors, representing more than 16 different countries from Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, including Australia.In order to maximize the outputs of the meeting and to guarantee the development of new strategies in the control of the different Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases, participation in this workshop was by invitation only. The results of the meeting will however be widely disseminated through the publication of the proceedings.The meeting was inaugurated by Dr Jorge Sauma, Director of CORBANA. Dr Emile Frison, Director of INIBAP, welcomed all the participants and paid tribute to Ramiro Jaramillo Celis, former INIBAP regional coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, in recognition of his invaluable contribution and tireless efforts to the development of the regional Musa research network. The official opening was made by Dr Salvador Monge, Executive Director of the Secretary of sector-based planning of the Ministry of Agriculture of Costa Rica.The workshop was organized around five main topics: 1) Impact of Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases of bananas; 2) Population biology and epidemiology; 3) Host-pathogen interactions; 4) Genetic improvement for a management of durable resistance and 5) Integrated disease management.During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to learn about the distribution and impact of the different Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases in several countries around the world. Discussions were held at the end of the each session to allow research priorities and corresponding activities required at the global level to be identified or refined, in order to significantly reduce the impact of these diseases and thus make Musa a more sustainably productive crop.Introductory papers presented information on the global spread, current distribution and impact of the three Mycosphaerella leaf spot pathogens -M. musicola, M. fijiensis and M. eumusae. Other papers described techniques developed in Australia for the rapid diagnosis of M. musicola and M. fijiensis, the effects of M. musicola and M. eumusae on banana cultivation in South Africa and the impact of M. fijiensis in Cuba, Brazil and tropical Asia. The latest taxonomic work undertaken on the anamorph of M. eumusae and on other Mycosphaerella species was also described. M. fijiensis continues to spread to new areas. From 2000 to 2002, the pathogen was identified for the first time in Madagascar, the Bahamas, and the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador and in the north Queensland banana growing area where eradication is being attempted. M. eumusae leaf spot has also been observed on 'Mysore' (AAB) in Sri Lanka. As this clone has strong resistance to M. musicola and M. fijiensis, this is the cause of some concern.It was agreed that more taxonomic information about Mycosphaerella spp. is needed, as well as information on other related genera that either form or occur in banana leaf lesions. A greater knowledge of Mycosphaerella pathogens /saprophytes and those in related genera is a prerequisite to the development of rapid diagnostic tests to distinguish leaf spot pathogens. The exact distribution of M. eumusae also needs to be investi-gated. Further surveys in South and Southeast Asia to determine where M. musicola, M. fijiensis and M. eumusae occur are necessary. More information on the effect of M. eumusae on the growth and yield of banana clones is needed. Information suggests that Cavendish and Plantain cultivars are very susceptible.Pathogenicity and distribution variability, sources of resistance, epidemiology and population structure of the main species (M. fijiensis, M. musicola and M. eumusae) at the national, regional and international levels were defined as fundamental information for the continued success of banana production. Such studies are particularly necessary in Asia, which is the centre of diversity of the three pathogens and where little research has so far been conducted. A study of the evolution of host-pathogen relationships for the three pathogens, particularly involving resistant cultivars, is of a special concern, in order to identify pathogen populations that could break down plant resistance and to evaluate selection pressure. Molecular tools such as microsatellites have been recommended to monitor the genetic variability of the pathogen populations and pathogenicity should be evaluated concurrently. Epidemiological studies, including disease dispersal, are needed to better understand the distribution and the spread of the pathogen and will complement, together with the studies on pathogenicity and genetic variability, all the information required to anticipate the evolution of pathogen populations and to define resistance management strategies.Several cases of an unexpected level of susceptibility to black leaf streak disease (BLSD) have been reported. Although different reasons have been offered to explain the phenomenon (poor nutrition, environmental stress), the problem of the erosion of resistance cannot be ignored and requires a precise characterization of the pathogen population. A greater understanding of the mechanisms involved in plant-pathogen interactions continues to be needed to ensure the long term success of breeding programmes. Further studies are also needed to compare the effect of infection by each of the three pathogens (M. fijiensis, M. musicola and M. eumusae) on the host plants.Other pathosystems (such as Magnaporthe grisea) have shown the powerful nature of the genetic approach to identify without any a priori the pathogenicity factors. These approaches include the study of gene expression during production of pathogenicity mutants, comparative genomic and gene function validation techniques. Consequently, the development of genetic and molecular biology tools for M. fijiensis in collaboration with M. graminicola groups and the launching of a genomic initiative to access genomic tools and set up a genomic-wide comparison of M. fijiensis with M. graminicola have been recommended.It is also recommended that the different mechanisms of resistance (partial or vertical) should be studied.During this session, progress that has been made towards the creation of new varieties resistant to BLSD, either through conventional and/or modern technologies, was presented. New tetraploids hybrids resistant to BLSD are already available and some of these are widely grown around the world. However, because of the lack of new sources of resistance and due to the presence of the activable form of the banana streak virus (BSV) in interspecific hybrids (A x B), the production of a new generation of triploid hybrids is seriously jeopardized. Good progress has been reported in the development of a molecular toolbox for bananas and plantains in the area of the genetic transformation, allowing the production of transgenic banana plants.The study of the diversity of the Musa balbisiana genome, using both morphological and molecular characterization was the first recommendation from this session. It was also recommended, that in anticipation of the needs of genetic improvement programmes, the T and S genomes, Musa textilis and Musa schizocarpa respectively, should also be screened.Mutation induction techniques should no longer be seen as an independent genetic improvement strategy but more as a tool that can contribute to crossbreeding programmes by increasing genetic diversity of parental lines. Mutants could also help in understanding the mechanisms of resistance (functional genomics).Yellow and black Sigatoka control strategies on banana can, according to the country and the scale of production, include not only chemical and cultural practices but also the use of mixed crops or resistant clones. The important inhibitory effect of some natural substances derived from microorganisms antagonistic to fungi, have also been reported as effective in reducing the development of M. fijiensis in vitro.The integration of various or specialists from different disciplines has been recommended to facilitate the development of an achievable integrated pest management (IPM) approach for banana leaf spot diseases. The participants in the workshop also recommended to investigate the potential of natural or synthetic substances able to promote or activate systemic acquired resistance in its broadest sense.The proceedings of the workshop will be published shortly by INIBAP. This publication will include the full papers of all presentations and a summary of the discussions and recommendations. It is expected that the proceedings will become a reference document of Mycosphaerella diseases for the next ten years.Report of a meeting held in Arlington, USA, 17-20 July 2001 ISBN: 2-910810-48-08 The Global Musa Genomics Consortium was launched at a meeting held in Arlington, Virginia, which was critical for laying a solid foundation for future collaboration in Musa genomics and allowed the first important steps to be taken towards the development of a coherent strategy for Musa genomics.This document provides further background information about the establishment of the Consortium and its aims and objectives. It also provides a review of the current status of Musa genomics research and provides details of the nature and scale of the work to be carried out by the Consortium members. Information is provided on an incremental strategy developed by the Consortium to achieve its goals and the proposed modus operandi, as agreed during the Arlington meeting. Further details are provided in the Annexes.Copies are available from INIBAP Headquarters.To complete the revised version of the 'Descriptors for Banana, Musa spp.' and responding to demand from East Africa, additional characters specific to the East African Highland bananas were incorporated as an addendum in 2001. The descriptors for Musa are unique in including a colour chart. This helps to remove the subjective nature of colour recording, and leads to a common understanding of such characters.Copies of the descriptors and their addendum are available from INIBAP Headquarters.Edited by D.G. Cayón and F. Salazar Alonso ISBN: 958-96885-1-9 CORPOICA could certainly be proud for the effort they made recently to identify, analyse and compile the existing information on plantain research and technology transfer in Colombia under the title 'Resúmenes Analíticos de la Investigación sobre Plátano en Colombia'. This information product is a unique inventory of the major part of the scientific literature published on this topic including grey literature. It includes 792 abstracts and authors-and thematic indexes which make the search easier for the reader.This important document in Spanish is available in both electronic (database on CD-Rom) and printed (400 pages) formats and will certainly be highly appreciated by all those working on plantain at international level.The document is available on request at CORPOICA, Apartado Aéreo No 1087, Av Bolivar Sector Regivit 28 Norte, Armenia, Quindío, Colombia -Fax: ( 57 Information series Q101013 ISBN 0727-6273 During the period 1987-1996, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (QDPI) was the lead agency of the ACIAR project 'Banana improvement in the South Pacific'. In the course of the project, banana varieties were collected from all around the world. One hundred and six varieties are reported in this publication which represent significant cross-section of those available for evaluation. They include some hybrids from conventional breeding programmes, selections originating as offtypes from tissue culture propagation, existing cultivars and wild species.The report put together the agronomic information collected along with colour photographs of bunches which permit a good appreciation of each variety. Many readers will also find these photographs useful for identification purposes.Clean & green bananas -Where to from here?Information series Q101014 ISBN 0727-6273 Current sales for clean & green/organic bananas are very limited in Australia. Organic export is risky and uncertain. However, the market is shifting in this direction and in the longer term, the organic niche will probably eventually grow to 10-15% of the market. Major sales of both products will be facilitated by supermarket participation and the current price of the existing organic product will need to come down. Efficiencies of production must be improved by specific research on limiting factors such as soil fertility management, leaf disease control and greater development/extension/adoption of existing technology. Good progress has been made by the banana industry to reduce pesticides use but it is now necessary to pull together the body of knowledge and develop an ECO-OK type system implemented on commercial farms which complies to auditable standards and market development so that producers are rewarded for their efforts.The two publications mentioned above are available on request at Department of Primary Industries, GPO Box 46, Brisbane QLD 2001, Australia. text, followed by the acronym in parenthesis.• References: All literature references made in the text should be referred to by author(s) and year of publication (e.g.: Sarah et al. 1992, Rowe 1995)  : These should be numbered consecutively and referred to by these num-ber in the text. Each table should include a title. Illustrations: These should be numbered consecutively and referred to by these numbers in the text. Each illustration should include a clear and simple caption. Graphs: provide the corresponding raw data with the graphs. Drawings: provide originals if this is possible. Black and white photographs: provide them on bright paper and with good contrast. Colour photographs: provide good quality proofs and films or original slides. Note: When plant material used for the experiments reported originates or is registered in the INIBAP genebank, its accession number (ITC code) should be indicated within the text or in a tabular form.these instructions This will facilitate and accelerate the editing work.The meeting started with a brief presentation by each participant of their research capacity, in terms of human resources, research facilities, and future and ongoing projects related to Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases. Participants also commented on their participation in PROMUSA, defining their areas of interest where they would like to develop partnerships with other participants. The participants identified various research priorities and defined the main activities that should be carried out.The survey of the distribution of the different species requires wide sampling at the national level of the different agroecological areas where Musa is found, and the morphological characterization of the species through the observation of the anamorph stage (conidia), including molecular characterization using PCR diagnostics.The PROMUSA Sigatoka working group ratified the recommendation made during the \"2 nd International workshop on Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases of bananas\" held from 20 to 23 May 2002 in San Jose, Costa Rica: 'The exact distribution of M. eumusae needs to be known. Further surveys in south and southeast Asia to determine where M. musicola, M. fijiensis and M. eumusae occur are necessary. The name of the banana clone affected, an indicator of the severity of the leaf spot and local environmental data would be useful as this may help explain distribution. IMTP trials are seen as ideal locations for assessing the reaction of different clones to the different leaf spot pathogens. The collection and diagnosis of specimens of leaf spot from IMTP trials sites needs to be continued. The cooperation and collaboration of scientists in south and southeast Asia is viewed as essential. Identification tools should be provided to enable diagnoses to be undertaken locally '.The PROMUSA Sigatoka working group ratified the recommendation made during the \"2 nd International workshop on Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases of bananas\": A reliable, rapid test to distinguish M. musicola, M. fijiensis, M. eumusae and possible other Mycosphaerella pathogens/saprophytes needs to be developed to aid identification. Information on how to distinguish the 3 pathogens on morphological characteristics also needs to be produced and circulated to banana scientists. INIBAP was asked to address this need\".The creation of a national collection of different strains from different Mycosphaerella leaf spot pathogens on Musa is of special relevance in the understanding of the population structure. The collection must be based on single-ascospore cultures with an in vitro characterization of the anamorph stage (in vitro sporulation of conidia). The Global Programme for Musa Improvement (PROMUSA) is a broad-based programme which aims at involving all the major players in Musa improvement. It was developed as a means to link the work carried out towards addressing the problems of export banana producers, with those initiatives directed towards improving banana and plantain production at the subsistence and smallholder level. The global programme builds upon existing achievements and is based upon ongoing research initiatives. PROMUSA is therefore a mechanism to further maximize the outputs and accelerate the impact of the overall Musa improvement effort. The programme is an innovative mechanism to bring together research carried out both within and outside the CGIAR, creating new partnerships between National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and research institutes in both developing and developed countries. The formation of such partnerships will also contribute to strengthening the capacity of NARS to conduct Musa-related research. The major thrust of PROMUSA is to develop a wide range of improved banana varieties from which growers worldwide can select those most suited to their needs. The programme brings together conventional breeding based on hybridization techniques with genetic engineering and biotechnological breeding approaches. This broad-based genetic improvement effort is supported by research being carried out on specific pests and diseases within the various PROMUSA working groups. An efficient mechanism for evaluating new varieties produced within the framework of PROMUSA is also an essential component of the programme. been recommended to provide the participants with a protocol to sample, establish and maintain the collection. INIBAP was mandated to collaborate with CIRAD in the development and distribution of the technical information required. The establishment of a national collection should be promoted and facilitated through the organization of a training course; especially for those countries that develop breeding programmes, but also where disease resistant hybrids of banana are used on an industrial scale, and where the high diversity of Musa would have originated similar diversity in the pathogens.The study of the genetic population structures of Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases is already on going at national, regional and international levels. However, the group recommends increasing the number of countries involved at the national level, which will allow refinement of both regional and international studies. Both biological (morphological) and molecular determinations have been recommended to improve the understanding of the different population structures. The sampling protocol and methodology should be standardized and the recognition of the different species facilitated through the development of a technical factsheet to be widely distributed. INIBAP and CIRAD agreed to work together in the preparation of this information which should include several detailed illustrations of the different pathogens and their anamorph stages. This information will also become part of the IMTP guidelines. The development of more molecular markers as SSR and CAPS should allow the study of the different populations to be refined. The recommendation to include partners from south and southeast Asia made during the last global meeting of PROMUSA in Bangkok was reiterated by the participants who strongly suggested that the INIBAP regional office for Asia and Pacific strengthen and facilitate any exchange between Asian partners and the rest of the PROMUSA community.The pathogenicity of the different strains should be approached using either the in vitro or in vivo inoculation systems. However, it is recommended that the different methodologies that currently exist be standardized. The methodology for the in vitro inoculation on leaf fragments developed at CIRAD should be distributed, together with the methodology used to isolate, cultivate and produce the inoculum of the different pathogens. INIBAP and CIRAD have been requested to compile, in a single technical document, all the different informa-tion already published on these different methods.The need of new sources of resistance to Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases has been identified several times in the past. Collecting missions in Indonesia, north India and Vietnam have already taken place but information has only been provided on the characterization of the resistance of the different materials collected. The PROMUSA working group recommended that INIBAP help to gather any information already available. The group also recommended to stimulate the characterization of existing collections where M. eumusae has already been reported together with other Mycosphaerella spp. e.g. MARDI, in Malaysia. In order to facilitate the screening, the group suggested using the 'severity index' as the unique parameter to detect any source of resistance. This information should allow the definition of the different reference clones needed to evaluate the resistance to Eumusae leaf spot disease.The 'severity index' will also be used to evaluate the PROMUSA segregating populations hosted at CORBANA.Several leaf fungal diseases have been reported on Musa and other related species. The group recommended the development of specific diagnostic tools according to the three main species of Mycosphaerella pathogen on Musa: M. fijiensis, M. musicola and M. eumusae. The achievement of these diagnostic tools will remain within the development of a worldwide collection of Mycosphaerella isolates; the morphological description of all the different Mycosphaerella subspecies associated with banana leaves and the development of primers species-specific as microsatellites and ITS-sequences and their test on the worldwide collection of Mycosphaerella isolates.It is therefore suggested: • to develop diagnostic tools to distinguish the main pathogens and assess currently available molecular methods for specificity, • to develop a manual with descriptions of symptoms and morphological characters, • to develop protocols for collection and analysis of samples, • to transfer to and train PROMUSA participants on the different technologies required (collection and sampling, monoascosoporing cultures and molecular markers).Significant changes in the levels of resistance to Sigatoka and black Sigatoka diseases have been reported in Australia, India and Cuba. However these may exist just because of high inoculum loads. Thus, changes in pathogen populations should be distinguished from particular epidemiological effects. Therefore, the group recommended studying the changes in pathogen populations in response to selection pressure from new banana genotypes resistant to Sigatoka diseases. It is essential to monitor changes in pathogen populations in areas where new resistant hybrids are being grown on a large scale. A special recommendation towards the development of specific trials in Cuba has been made. Two different aspects of the durability of the resistance need to be addressed: the genetic drift of the pathogen resistance and the selection effect within the pathogen population. Participants in PRO-MUSA Sigatoka working group recommended:• the selection of areas where resistant hybrids have been grown for a long time (e.g. Cuba) and to follow the evolution of the pathogen populations, isolating Mycosphaerella strains on resistant and susceptible cultivars or hybrids, • the development of molecular markers linked to the pathogenicity of the fungal strains (molecular markers will inform on the genetic drift when pathogenic evaluation will be related to the selection effect), • the quantification of the selection pressure over the time, and • the study the breakdown of resistance by in vitro testing.M. eumusae is currently limited in extent throughout most of Asia, although there is some evidence that the pathogen may have reached Africa. The dynamics of the disease are not fully understood. Some projections indicate that this disease will become more important than black Sigatoka. In order to prepare adequate disease control strategies, a detailed knowledge of the epidemiology of this pathogen is urgently required. To address the epidemiology of the different Mycosphaerella spp. pathogens on Musa, the group recommended:• the collection of disease incidence data from the field and literature,• the development of methodologies to understand the mechanisms of spore release and spore survival in the air at laboratory level, and • the clarification of laboratory data at plantation level and to assess the potential for windborne dispersal (as opposed to further spread of the disease by the transfer of inoculum).The genetic approach has been shown to be extremely powerful when studying hostpathogen interactions in some pathosystems (such as Magnaporthe grisea). This approach does not require the identification of pathogenicity factors a priori and includes the study of gene expression during infection (differential display, DNA chip, SSH, etc.), production of pathogenicity mutants, comparative genomic and gene function validation techniques.Here again, the PROMUSA Sigatoka working group ratified the recommendation made in the framework of the \"2 nd International workshop on Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases of bananas\" to study: \"the development of genetic and molecular biology tools for M. fijiensis in collaboration with M. graminicola groups as well as to launch a genomic initiative to access to genomic tools (EST collection, physical map, genome sequence) and set up a genomic-wide comparison of M. fijiensis to M. graminicola\".The group recommended to develop an international core collection of M. fijiensis, M. musicola and M. eumusae. The different strains should be conserved as fungal mycelia and DNA. CIRAD was suggested to The working group in collaboration with INIBAP, through PROMUSA, looks for funds for the operation of the core group. Usually, PROMUSA working group meetings are held back-to-back with other international meetings, a cost-effective way of organizing meetings.• Identify sources of resistance, • Develop screening methods and protocols, • Agree on references/checks. The following suggestions were made:• To compile and exchange information on methods and checks. Standardizing sampling methods is a prerequisite for developing screening methods, • To have standard protocols for screening germplasm and for identifying sources of resistance, • To compile information on mechanisms of resistance, • To assess the possibility of site specific differences regarding resistance, • To develop research priorities that address the compatibility of genetic improvement with other management practices. • To consider developing IPM research priorities that contribute to the genetic improvement of the banana, Certain institutions whose research interests go beyond genetic amelioration, raised the possibility of establishing the working group as a separate entity from PROMUSA for fear of being restricted by the latter's mission. In the end, everybody agreed there would be a core working group on activities related to genetic improvement, but that the general membership would include policy makers and all those working on banana weevil (including its biology and status as a pest, control methods and technology transfer). It was also suggested to create a list-server to facilitate information exchange on all aspects of banana weevil research.The fact that PROMUSA focuses on genetic improvement does not mean that other crop protection research activities, e.g. pheromones and entomopathogens, are less important. These should be addressed more efficiently as researchers benefit from the multidisciplinary dynamics created by PROMUSA.Formation of the core group -This group should include scientists who actively contribute to genetic improvement, e.g. breeders and scientists working on host plant resistance, mechanisms of resistance, hybrids resistant to weevil, sources of resistance, relevant genetic studies, conventional breeding, biotechnological methods and screening methods.It was not felt necessary to split this group into scientists working on plantains, bananas or other banana types. For the time being, the group can include anyone working on any aspect of crop improvement of all bananas and plantains.It was suggested that the group adopt the same procedures for forming this group as those used by other working groups. It was agreed that: • Members who were present at this meeting form the working group, • A convenor should be elected to take charge of the working group, • The convenor should organize a meeting within the coming year to work out the way forward. In Cameroon, bananas and plantains are a major staple food for a large proportion of the population. A total of 1.7 million tonnes are produced annually. These crops are threatened by a wide range of pests and diseases among which the banana borer weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus) is the major insect pest. For more than six decades, investigations have been carried out on this pest but emphasis was given to testing insecticides that satisfy the needs of large-scale commercial banana plantations. It is only recently that studies on integrated control options were initiated in order to develop control strategies that could also be used by resource limited farmers. This report presents the activities carried out in Cameroon over the past ten years on the banana borer weevil.Four weevil species are found in the banana and plantain producing areas of Cameroon:Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar), Polytus mellerborgi (Boheman), Metamasius hemipterus sericeus (Olivier) and M. hemipterus (L.). C. sordidus seems to be the only weevil of economic importance in banana and plantain plantations (Fogain 1994, Ysenbrandt et al. 2000). The insect is found in all banana and plantain producing areas in Cameroon (Fogain 2001). A survey carried out in all the banana and plantain producing areas showed that the percentage of occurrence of C. sordidus in Cameroon varies between 50 and 90%, and that 82.5% of the farmers are aware of the problem and capable of recognizing weevil damage (Ngamo and Fogain 1998). Research on the population dynamics of the weevil in two of the most important production zones indicates that higher populations are observed beween August and September. However, this result need confirmation.In commercial banana plantations, chemical control, the use of clean planting material, and weevil habitat management are the most common methods for controlling weevil populations. Development of alternative control measures and of an integrated pest management strategy are highly recommended for resource limited small-scale farmers, the major producers of plantain.At the beginning of the 70s, weevil populations were efficiently controlled with Kepone (Chlordecone) in Cameroon's commercial banana farms. Between 1975 and 1983, the withdrawal of the product from the market caused a significant increase in weevil populations because of its replacement with HCH and other less effective insecticides, like Dursban (chloropyrifos-ethyl) and Primicide (pyrimiphos-ethyl) (Kehe 1985). The rapid decline of banana production was halted by the arrival on the market of Curlone (Chlordecone) in the early 90s. With one or two applications per year, weevil populations where effectively controlled. But the product was soon withdrawn from the market because of its limited degradability. Regent (fipronil) later came on the market, allowing efficient control of weevil populations with two or three applications per year. In Cameroon, this prod-uct is still the only efficient insecticide used in commercial banana farms. However, its continuous application will probably produce resistant weevil populations in the near future. Therefore, it is recommended to use it alternately with nematicides, like Counter (terbuphos) and Furadan (carbofuran), that have insecticidal activity and can be used when populations are relatively low. In the Moungo department, the threshold for treatment in industrial banana plantations is when 5% of the 20 sampled mats per hectare are attacked, based on the method proposed by Vilardebo (1973). Other insecticides with interesting properties are: tebupyrimphos, athiamethoxam, cartap and imidacloprid. Timely chemical control is an efficient way of knocking down adult weevil populations in commercial farms, but is too expensive for the majority of resource limited farmers and has unfavourable side effects on beneficial nontarget organisms. According to a survey conducted in southwest Cameroon, 57% of smallholder farmers said they did not use pesticides (Chantelot 1993). Forty-three percent, mostly in mixed plantain-cocoa plantations, treated suckers before planting and 87% used insecticides generally referred to as 'gabaline', insecticides used against timber or cocoa pests and which include lindane (HCH), Dursban (chloropyrifos-ethyl) and methylparathion. Three percent of the farmers who treat suckers before planting use a nematicide with insecticidal activity, such as Mocap (Ethoprophos), and 10% use other products (Chantelot 1993). Another survey in west, southwest, central and south Cameroon revealed that only 11% of smallholders use pesticides, 57% do not use anything and more than 32% use ashes because they believe it controls weevils (Ngamo and Fogain 1998).It is important to plant an uninfested field with clean planting material which can be obtainedCIRAD, Guadeloupe, expressed the desire to participate in agronomy and biotechnology related activities and to coordinate activities in Guadeloupe and Montpellier. Spanish organizations will also provide support to the working group.CORPOICA, Colombia, will contribute to the screening of cultivars for resistance to banana weevil and nematode. CORPOICA will provide support for screening methods and could also provide a weevil biotechnology specialist (Consuelo Castrillon).CORBANA, Costa Rica, will provide support for screening methods and evaluation of germplasm.EMBRAPA, Brazil, was not represented but may be interested in conventional breeding, biotechnology and screening for local stress. Needs to be contacted.FHIA, Honduras and EMBRAPA will be contacted to find out their interests (Marline Fancelli).ITSC, South Africa, proposed to screen new banana varieties, especially 'Cavendish' (Schalk Schoeman). The University of Pretoria will supervise students conducting research in banana biotechnology.CARBAP will screen for resistance to weevils, nematodes and black Sigatoka (Roger Fogain).IITA has a breeding programme on highland bananas and plantains. IITA works very closely with NARO and banana networks in East and West Africa. IITA is interested in mechanisms of resistance, as well as conventional and biotechnological methods for developing resistance (Cliff Gold).It was proposed that Dr Cliff Gold of IITA be selected as convenor. He has worked extensively on banana weevil, speaks both English and Spanish and has access to communication facilities. He can easily coordinate the preliminary activities. Therefore Dr Cliff Gold was nominated and unanimously approved.from weevil-free plantations or tissue culture facilities. Ninety-five percent of smallholders practice paring of suckers before planting (Chantelot 1993), but since the availability of good planting material is a major limitation in Cameroon, infested suckers of minor quality are often planted. Residual corms in the soil should be destroyed and post harvest residues slashed in order to prevent the multiplication of weevils. Weeding should be done regularly in order to avoid development of a favourable humid weevil habitat. In smallholder farms, habitat management is neglected because labour is limited or rented labour is not productive enough. Weeding is minimal (two to three times a year) and herbicide application is rare. A minority of farmers prop with bamboo even though the practice can give good results with minimal investments. In a survey carried out between February 1997 and March 1998 of 240 plantain plants in eight smallholder farms, plant losses due to nematodes, weevils, and water and nutrient stress represented 60% of the losses, of which 37% were due to toppling or falldown (mainly at the beginning of the rainy season, due to violent winds) and 29% were due to breakage of the pseudostem (mainly at the end of the dry season due to water stress) (Anonymous 1998). More than 30 % of smallholder farmers use household ashes at planting because they believe it reduces damage to the corm (Ngamo and Fogain 1998). It is not clear whether ashes have an insecticide or merely a fertilizer effect. Under laboratory conditions, ashes have a repellent effect on adult C. sordidus, but the toxicity to adults is quite low (Messiaen 1999). Commercial banana plantations are renewed every five to six years. During the fallow period, residual corms are usually destroyed by local women who use the fallow field for food crop production. Tissue cultured plants are treated with Regent5G (fipronil) or Counter10G (terbufos) at planting and two or three times a year. Crop hygiene (weeding, herbicide application, slashing of residual pseudostems and toppled mats) as well as propping and guying are commonly practised.At CARBAP, research on biological control using the entomophagous fungus Beauveria bassiana started in 1994 with the discovery of local strains in Cameroon (Fogain 1994). Since then, studies have been carried out under controlled conditions to test the efficiency of the strains and the possibility of mass production for field trials. Three strains of Beauveria bassiana, isolated from infected weevils caused 92% mortality after nine days under laboratory conditions. Research is presently carried out on the maintenance of viability with regards to delivery systems and the feasibility of mass production for farmers or economic agents in Cameroon. Entomopathogenous nematodes have been isolated from soil samples collected in Cameroon using C. sordidus larvae.Dipping suckers in a 20% neem (Azadirachta indica) seed solution at planting protects the young suckers from weevil attack for several months, but a crown application three times a year is not effective in reducing damage (Fogain and Ysenbrandt, 1998). It achieves this result by reducing oviposition, through its repellent effect on adult weevils, and by blocking egg hatching (Messiaen 1999).Trapping using pseudostem traps does not always reduce weevil populations, depending on the cropping system, the level of weevil immigration from neighbouring infested plots, the number of traps placed and the initial population. In Cameroon, trapping does not seem to be a viable control option in smallholder farms because of the unrealistic amount of pseudostem and labour needed, and because of weevil immigration from adjacent plots. Testing of a mass trapping system using ramp traps baited with sordidin, an aggregation pheromone, indicated that the traps were not attractive enough to constitute a viable control option in industrial banana plantations, but additional research is needed to assess whether the attractiveness can be improved with another type of trap and kairomones. In smallholder farms, pheromone mass trapping does not seem to be a viable option for controlling weevil populations because of problems of storage and costs (Messiaen 2000a).Screening for resistance to the banana borer weevil at CARBAP stated in the 1994 with the discovery of the field resistant 'Yangambi km5' and of the highly susceptible clones of the plantain subgroup (Musa AAB) compared to the 'Cavendish' (Musa AAA) (Fogain and Price 1994). Since then, techniques for early screening in the field and under controlled conditions have been refined. In a recent screening, more than 80 varieties were tested. Several varieties, including CARBAP hybrids, have been selected for enhanced screening in the field. Results of preliminary screening show a large variety of responses to weevil attack between and within genomic subgroups (Messiaen 2000b). No genotypes are more susceptible to weevil attack than the ones in the plantain subgroup. Preliminary results point to differences in larval development. If the results are confirmed in the field, it will be possible in the short or medium term to develop hybrids partially resistant to C. sordidus.Significant information has been gathered over the past ten years on the distribution and population dynamics of the weevil. Despite gains in knowledge on the dynamics of C. sordidus in the Fako and Mungo divisions (littoral and southwest Cameroon), investigations are needed for other provinces, such as the major plantain producing areas of the centre and south (Anonymous 2000). The insect was found to be present everywhere in the country where bananas and plantains are produced. A larger spectrum of insecticides is available, but mainly to commercial growers. Several insecticides from different chemical groups are now available and can therefore be used in rotation to avoid the development of resistance to C. sordidus. As for botanical and biological control agents, neem (A. indica) and the entomopathogenic fungus B. bassiana show great potential for weevil control. But field trials are needed to confirm greenhouse results. Sources of resistance to the weevil have been identified and breeding programmes can now use them to develop genotypes resistant to the insect. Research on other non-chemical control methods, such as cultural control and the use of pheromones, continues.The biology and management of the banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus in South Africa P. Govender 1 and A. Viljoen 2 The banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus, introduced in South Africa about 30 years ago, is the most important insect pest of banana, causing economic losses in the Mpumalanga and the south coast of Kwazulu-Natal regions. Collectively this area represents about 78% of the total 12 078 hectares under commercial banana production in the subtropical pockets of South Africa. The weevil has a limited potential to migrate from its current distribution area unless it is transferred with infected planting material. Information on the life cycle appears to be consistent with published literature; the total developmental period being about 33 days. Adults emerge during spring and late summer, and their nocturnal activity increases during or after rainfall. Females generally lay one egg per week from late August to February but this number can increase during optimal environmental conditions and low pest densities. Adults have a life span of about two years. Although weevil numbers are low in the winter months (May to July), they increase rapidly in spring and early summer (August to November). Weevils are monitored using pseudostem traps at a density of 50 traps/ha. Economic threshold values are 1-2 adults/trap/week and 10 or more larval tunnels/corm. Weevils are strongly attracted to the 'Williams' and 'Chinese Cavendish' cultivars. A tentative recommendation algorithm was developed for the management of C. sordidus in South Africa. It integrates standard cultural control, trapping, biocontrol and chemical control. Two local entomopathogenic fungi (Aspergillus flavus and Beauveria bassiana) have been isolated and tested in South Africa but their host specificity and pathogenicity requires further investigation. Various nematicides with insecticidal properties have been tested in limited field trials and currently only aldicarb 15% GR, at a rate of 2.03 to 3.00 g a.i./planting station, is registered for use against the banana weevil. The banana weevil is an important constraint on the production of East African highland bananas and plantains. The larvae attack the corm, reducing nutrient uptake and weakening the stability of the plant. Attack in newly planted banana stands can lead to crop failure. In established fields, weevil damage can result in reduced bunch weight, plant loss, mat die-out and shortened stand life. In Uganda and Tanzania, it has been implicated as a primary factor in the decline and disappearance of cooking bananas in traditional growing areas. Uganda has ranked banana weevil as the most important biotic constraint on highland banana production. Salient features of the weevil's biology are restricted host range (Musa and Ensete), long life span (up to 4 years), low fecundity (1-3 eggs/week), 1:1 sex ratio, nocturnal activity, uncommon flight and limited dispersal capability. The weevil most commonly enters new fields through infested planting material. Because of populations building up over time, pest problems are more pronounced in older plantations. In one trial in Uganda, yield loss increased from 5% in the plant crop to 47% in the third ratoon. This loss was attributed equally to plant loss and bunch weight reductions. By the 7 th cycle of the second trial, 35% of the mats had died out in weevil-infested plots compared to 2% in controls. Overall yield losses were 50% for the trial. Although pesticides can be an effective control method, in Uganda the weevil has developed resistance to one chemical. IITA and the Ugandan National Banana Research Programme work closely together on cultural and biological controls, and on host plant resistance. Clean planting material is an important means of keeping weevils out of new plantations, but the effect normally disappears within a few crop cycles. A one-year trapping study showed some positive effects on population reduction but this control is beyond the resources of most Ugandan growers. Current emphasis are on the use of neem, endemic ants, microbial control (i.e. Beauveria bassiana and endophytes) and host plant resistance. Available data indicate that all highland banana clones are susceptible to weevil. However screening trials suggest that many resistant Musa clones do exist and that antibiosis is the predominant means of resistance in these clones.Luís Nuno and V. P. Ribeiro Direcção Regional de Agricultura da Regional Autónoma da Madeira -Portugal Direcção de Serviços de Produção Agrícola/Divisão de Bananicultura, Centro de Bananicultura -Lugar de Portugal Located between 32°38' north and 16°54' west, the island of Madeira lies about 800 km from the coast of Morocco. Banana plantations occupy nearly 850 hectares of the island and are exposed to a subtropical climate. In Madeira, the culture of banana started in the 18 th century. The most widely grown variety on the island is the 'Pequeña enana', introduced in 1842.Although its presence has been known for some time, the banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus, is not a major source of problems. The first identification dates back to the 19 th century. In 1992, started the installation of spot irrigation systems and the use of varieties produced in vitro. In both instances, this has been accompanied by outbreaks of C. sordidus. In one case (spot irrigation), outbreaks increased because farmers stopped doing certain things like burying plant residues, a practice which helped control the pest. In the other case, available data suggest that C. sordidus prefers plants produced in vitro. Even though they occur in all plantations, these problems are more frequent in the above-mentioned situations. For some years, banana growers applied to the base of the pseudostem an insecticide (Baytion) which has foxime as an active ingredient. They also used a pirimifos-ethyl based product (Bullit) but stopped when these insecticides were banned. They currently apply etoprofos (Mocap 10G) directly on the soil. A recent innovation is the use of pheromone traps, produced by N.P.P. Calliope (France), to fight C. sordidus. The first results are promising.Ruth Torres del Castillo and Clemente Méndez Hernández ICIA, Tenerife, Canary Islands, SpainThe agricultural service of the government of Tenerife Island (Cabildo) did a series of surveys to determine the extent and severity of damages caused by Cosmopolites sordidus Germar. Carried out between 1996 and 2001, the surveys were repeated every three years, depending on the study area. Peeled off pseudostem double-disc traps and those with a horizontal section of the corm were highly correlated (R2=0.93). The distribution of C. sordidus in relation to the type of irrigation, the altitude of the plantation and the variety used ('Pequeña enana' or 'Gran enana') was also studied. Time trends were done to see the evolution in the distribution of this pest and the damages it causes.Sección de Fitopatología y Entomología, Dirección de Investigaciones de CORBANA S.A., Costa Rica Chemical control and cultural practices are the base for the management of banana weevil in plantain and banana plantations in Costa Rica. Usually the damage of the pest is more important in plantains (Musa AAB) than in bananas (Musa AAA), due to differences in varietal susceptibility and in crop management. We are carrying out studies on the ecology and biology of the pest, and on methods for chemical, biological, ethological and cultural control. The combination of some of these methods could be the best alternative for the management of the pest. Collaborative research is being conducted in Uganda to assess the microbial control potential of Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin (Hyphomycetes) for the banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar), (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Since the early 1990s, isolation, characterization and pathogenicity studies have come up with a selection of indigenous isolates of B. bassiana that have good growth and production traits, causing 50-100% weevil mortality within 10-21 days after inoculation, depending on the isolate. In small-scale field trials conducted at Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute, one B. bassiana isolate (code G41), which showed high pathogenicity to C. sordidus as well as superior growth and sporulation compared to other isolates, was tested. Three methods of delivering B. bassiana, namely (i) application of the fungus on topsoil around the base of the banana mat (ii) application of the fungus with pseudostem and disc-on stump traps and (iii) application of the fungus to banana planting suckers, were evaluated. Treating banana suckers with a B. bassiana dry maize culture formulation and a soil-maize based formulation (2.3 x 10 12 conidia/planting hole), reduced weevil damage by 20-30% within a period of eight weeks after planting in holes dug in a 2 to 3-year-old banana field of local EAAH cooking cultivar. Dead C. sordidus adults and larvae with B. bassiana fungal growth were observed in the treated suckers indicating immature stage infection. When the maize and soil-based formulations of B. bassiana were applied beneath the pseudostem and disc-on stump traps, it was observed that the moist conditions under the traps, in addition to attracting weevils, also provided a favourable environment for extra sporulation of B. bassiana and this enabled the fungus to remain potentially infective. B. bassiana cultures collected from the field traps in the first five weeks after application were highly infective causing 60-100% weevil mortality in 14 days, but the infectivity of the fungus was significantly reduced in the wet season; likely due to contamination by other soil micro-organisms. The maize culture formulation (2 x 10 15 conidial/ha) and maize-soil based formulation (2 x10 14 conidia/ha) applied at the base of the mats reduced the adult banana weevil populations by 30-50% and kept them at lower levels than in the untreated plots. The treated plant also showed reduced weevil damage and up to 16% B. bassiana disease infection was observed in dead weevils in the field. Previous studies have demonstrated that good potential exists for the use of B. bassiana for microbial control of the banana weevil. The collaborative team, composed of scientists from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the National Banana Research Programme of the Uganda National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), CABI Biosciences UK and University of Reading is undertaking further research into the mass production and formulation of B. bassiana and exploring other delivery systems of B. bassiana for integration with other control measures under farmers' conditions. Research is geared to developing economically viable mass production, formulation and delivery systems that will overcome the problems associated with field fungal efficiency, persistence and transmission. Further research on the ecological relationships between banana weevils and entomopathogens will also be undertaken to understand the conditions under which B. bassiana is likely to be most effective in controlling this pest. This include studies on the behaviour of the weevil, which might influence the likelihood of the insect contacting the pathogen; the biotypes in the Cosmopolites sordidus species, which might exhibit different susceptible levels to the pathogen; and pathogen viability and virulence under aerobic (ordinarly pseudostem traps) and anaerobic conditions such as in the semio-chemical-based trapping systems. We acknowledge funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, DFID and BMZ in support of this work.Universidad Autónoma, Barcelona, Spain Entomopathogenic nematodes (Heterorhabditis spp. and Steinernema spp.) are used in biocontrol against different insect pests in soil and cryptic habitats. They are symbiotically associated with bacteria of the genera Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus, respectively. Nematode dauer juveniles, harbouring cells of their specific bacteria in their intestine, search for insects in the soil. After penetration in the host insect, they release their symbionts. The bacteria multiply and produce suitable conditions for nematode reproduction in the dead insect. After about two weeks, dauer juveniles emigrate from the cadaver and search for a new host. The use of entomopathogenic nematodes for the control of Cosmopolites sordidus should now be economically feasible. Production and formulation techniques have been improved to provide these nematodes to growers at a cost equivalent to or lower than the one of chemical insecticides. Application of entomopathogenic nematodes requires less labour than insecticides, avoids the problems of insecticide resistance and has little or no adverse effects on the environment. However, for reliable results, it is necessary to improve the application technique, and to select the appropriate species and strains of entomopathogenic nematodes. Finally, various strategies for the control off Cosmopolites sordidus using entomopathogenic nematodes are discussed.Dennis Alpízar M.Estación Experimental Los Diamantes. Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería. Guápiles, Limón, Costa Rica In Costa Rica, insecticide-nematicides are commonly used to control Cosmopolites sordidus. Pseudostem or corm traps are also used while the utilisation of the aggregation pheromone Cosmolure®, introduced at the end of the 90s to control the banana weevil, is still a new agricultural practice in the country's banana and plantain plantations. The objective of this study is to compare the effect of using or not using, under the same conditions over two years, two insecticidenematicides: terbufos (four applications) and etoprofos (one application). After two years the results show, using the Fisher t-test (0.05), that the 'weight of the bunch' was slightly but significantly higher in the non-treated plots while the 'number of nematodes (Radopholus similis) in the functional root of the sucker' was slightly lower in the treated plots. The other variables were not statistically different.The cost of applying the insecticide-nematicide was $US 1200 per hectare for the twoyear duration of the study.A. Padilla Cubas, F. García del Pino, L.V. López Llorca and A. Carnero Hernández ICIA,Apartado aéreo 60,38080 La Laguna,Tenerife,Islas Canarias,Espaa In the Canary Islands, Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar) is the most important pest in plantations of banana plantain. Given the results of chemical treatments, alternatives are sought to control the weevil. We therefore sampled soils, cultivated and not cultivated, in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife looking for parasitized organisms. Using 'Galleria mellonella' traps, we especially searched for entomophagous nematodes and fungi. Entomophagous nematodes were found in two sampling points from which we isolated Heterothabditis spp. and Steinernema spp. As for entomophagous fungi, we isolated Aspergillus flavus, Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and Paecilomyces spp. Verticillium lecanii was isolated form white flies collected in different localities. We characterized the morphology of the fungi and studied their germination and sporulation capacity, their production of biomass and their behaviour under various naturally occurring conditions of humidity, temperature and pH. We also studied their enzymatic activity: quitino, amylo, proteo, lipo and pectinolytic. We also conducted biological assays using 'Galleria mellonella' and, based on the results, we inoculated C. sordidus using two methods. Finally, we evaluated the interactions between these isolates and Fusarium oxysporum, the main pest of banana. We studied the use of ornamental plant vegetal residues from nurseries to produce inocula of antagonistic fungi, including entomophagous fungi. Seeds of Phoenix dactylifera turned out to be excellent for the production of Beauveria bassiana. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a very porous substrate, a feature which facilitates fungal development and sporulation. A soil-based formulation of B. bassiana can sporulate and overcome fungistasis. Thanks to this type of seed, the fungus can survive and maintain itself in the soil during at least three months. During bioessays, the mixture infected a pest of palm trees (Carpophilus dimidiatus) similar to the weevil. Moreover, B. bassiana can colonize the petioles of P. dactylifera. We think that such endophytic behaviour is useful in controlling pests like the weevil. The research focuses on integrated pest management along the same lines as CARBAP. The results presented focus on the combination of two types of synthetic pheromones; the use of antomopathogenous bacteria and nematodes; and the efficiency and limits of chemical insecticides. Under laboratory conditions the development of the insect and its non-preference for feeding and oviposition will be studied for the same genotypes in order to identify the types of resistance involved in the interaction between the weevil and the banana plant. The duration and viability of the larval and pupa phases, the weight of the pupa after 24 hours and the number of adults with defects, will be noted. Tests for attractiveness and consumption will be carried out. Analyzes will be done to identify the presence of attractive/repellent substances, as well as phago stimulants and/or phago deterrents. Rhizome hardness will be evaluated using a penetrometer. The banana weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus Germar) is probably the most important pest affecting the production of banana and plantain. Attack by the weevil results in severe crop losses from plant toppling, snapping, death and reduced bunch weights (INIBAP 1986). Pesticides are effective, but uneconomical for small-scale subsistence farmers.In addition, the weevil is resistant to a wide range of insecticides and although cultural controls may help, labour and material requirements often limit their adoption (Gold 1998).Host plant resistance shows potential for the long-term control of the banana weevil on small-scale farms, within an integrated pest management perspective (Seshu-Reddy and Lubega 1993). However, the development of weevil resistance in banana is still in its infancy and breeding programmes have only recently included weevil resistance as a criteria for introgression into cultivated Musa. The cumbersome nature of resistance screening methods has made work on weevil difficult, slow and at times expensive. Lack of understanding of resistance mechanisms and their associated genes, coupled with long generation times, triploid sterility of most edible cultivars and poor seed set due to incompatibility, have limited conventional breeding efforts on Musa.The literature on weevil resistance in Musa reviewed by Pavis and Lemaire (1997), Kiggundu et al. (1999) and Kiggundu (2000) suggests that antibiosis is the key resistance mechanism. Sources of resistance have also been found in the Musa germplasm tested by Fogain andPrice 1994, Lemaire 1996, andKiggundu et al. (in press).From a screening trial conducted over four crop cycles at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture-East and Southern Regional Center (IITA-ESARC), in Uganda, we found that East African highland bananas (EAHB) (AAA-EA) and plantains (AAB) were the most susceptible. The beauty of genetic engineering is that genes from several sources can be exploited and that these can be transformed using a gene pyramiding strategy. However, a great deal of information about the complex nature of weevil resistance is missing and molecular marker analysis can assist in genetic analysis and mapping. Opportunities also exist for quickly developing weevil resistance through genetic transformation.The The objectives of the project are: 1) to optimize the use of pheromone to control the weevil; 2) to evaluate the relation between the extent of the damages caused by the weevil and yield losses;3) to determine weevil inter and intra-population variability in relation to biological control; 4) to identify and study the behaviour of the entomophagous organisms attacking the weevil. Our participation in this project consists in determining weevil inter and intra-population variability among the populations affecting the banana plantations of Tenerife, Gomera and La Palma, in order to provide information which could help in controlling this pest, such as the origin and the dispersal patterns of these weevils.Detecting DNA polymorphism will be done using the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA technique, following the methodology used to study the population genetic of another species of Curculionidae, a pest of sugarbeet in Andalusia (Taberner et al. 1997, J. Mol. Evol. 45:24-31).We also plan to identify and characterize the digestive enzymes of the weevil, and to conduct bioassays with protease inhibitors in order to determine their effect on the survival and development of this pest. This information is necessary for the eventual production of transgenic banana plants expressing defence proteins, a possibility which would offer new means of controlling the weevil. Preliminary studies suggest that larvae and adults possess a complex proteolytic system which includes aspartyl, cysteine and serine endoproteases as well as amino and carboxypeptidases. Once the characterization of digestive proteases is finished, we will study their interactions with specific inhibitors in order to determine which inhibitors, or combination of inhibitors, could be incorporated by genetic manipulation in potentially resistant banana plants.XV ation of chimerism and developing flow cytometry protocol.Several young students benefited from this CRP in completing their master and PhD programmes in Israel, Czech Republic, and Belgium. Some of the participants presented their results in international conferences. A total of 51 research papers have been published in conference proceedings and international refereed journals.Many international trainees received training on several aspects of banana tissue culture, molecular cytogenetics and molecular markers at KULeuven and Faculté universitaire des sciences agronomiques, Gembloux (FUSAGx), Belgium; Institute of Experimental Botany (IEB); and University of Frankfurt, Germany. The trainees came from China, Cuba, Egypt, Mexico, and Rwanda. The outcome of these trainings was very successful. For example, a Cuban trainee was successful in establishing new somatic embryogenic banana cell suspensions from Cuban plant material. In addition, he successfully irradiated plant material in Cuba. In Sri Lanka, 20 persons from countryside were given training in tissue culture technology for mass production of banana. Post-graduate training on indexing of banana viruses was organized.Flow cytometry facilities were established at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA, Nigeria) and The Malaysian Institute for Nuclear Technology MINT, Malaysia). The transfer involved staff training in the Institute of Experimental Botany (IEB, Czech Republic) and expert visit.1. Detection of DNA methylation polymorphism in banana micropropagated plants with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). 2. Somatic embryogenic cell suspension cultures (ECS) were developed for several banana cultivars including plantains (AAB). Three cryopreservation techniques were developed for long-term conservation of meristems. An INIBAP technical guideline for cryopreservation of banana was published in English, French and Spanish. 3. Induced mutations generated a series of improved clones that were screened for different traits such as early flowering, reduced height, large fruit size, and tolerance to Fusarium. 4. Both Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and particle bombardment methods were used for banana transformation, and transformation rate was cultivar dependent. 5. Virus indexing procedures were transferred to Sri Lanka for indexing local banana virus strains. 6. An early screening technique was developed for Fusarium wilt using tissue culturederived plants in a double-tray system. 7. A selection system was developed against black Sigatoka disease by using Mycosphaerella fijiensis crude extract, the semi-purified, and one purified fraction (juglone). 8. Screening techniques for nematode resistance were developed in Musa under shade-house and field conditions. Aseptic cultures of Radopholus similis and Pratylenchus coffeae were established using alfalfa calli, and their pathogenicity was confirmed after greenhouse tests. 9. DNA flow cytometry was used for detection of polyploidy, monitoring of cytochimera dissociation, and analysis of karyological stability of ECS. 10. Transposon mutagenesis was explored for gene tagging, using maize Ac element, in banana genome. A substantial number of distinct mutants were generated and characterized. 11. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) protocol was developed for Musa for detailed studying of karyotypes, providing distinct chromosome landmarks, gene localization, analysis of long-range chromosome structure, and linking to physical and genetic maps. 12. A total of 28 allele-specific simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were generated for Musa and used to detect: polymorphisms between the A and B genomes, identify hybrids, and trace back the B genome in hybrids. These markers are now used within the CRP and worldwide. A total of 24 locus-specific, highly polymorphic SSR markers were also produced for Mycosphaerella fijiensis to discriminate them from other species.A. James, S. Peraza-Echeverria, V. Herrera-Valencia and L. Peraza-Echeverria Unidad de Biotecnología, Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.The extent of DNA methylation polymorphisms was evaluated in leaf tissue of micropropagated banana (Musa AAA cv. 'Grande naine') derived either from the vegetative apex of the sucker or the floral apex of the male inflorescence using the methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) technique, which utilizes the restriction isoschizomer pair Msp I and Hpa Il, whose ability to cleave at the sequence 5'-CCGG-3' is affected by the methylation state of the cytosines. In all, 465 fragments, each representing a recognition site cleaved by either or both of the isoschizomers were amplified using eight combinations of primers. A total of 107 sites (23%) were found to be methylated at cytosine in the genome of micropropagated plants. The highest number of DNA methylation polymorphisms was detected in plants micropropagated from the male inflorescence with 14 (3%) and the lowest in plants micropropagated from the sucker with 8 (1.7%). These differences were not statistically significant. In leaf tissue of conventionally propagated plants DNA methylation polymorphisms were not detected. Micropropagated plants were relatively hypermethylated in comparison to conventionally propagated plants, with some bands being methylated in all micropropagated plants but non-methylated in all conventionally propagated plants. These results demonstrated the usefulness of MSAP to detect DNA methylation events in micropropagated banana plants and indicate that DNA methylation changes are associated with micropropagation.different banana biotechnologists. Disease resistance and improvement of fruit quality have been the focal points of most Musa breeders. However, despite growing interest in banana biotechnology, the pool of Musa genes in public databases is relatively small (of the approximately 300 accessions placed in the NCBI database less than 25% are annotated cDNA's). Our laboratory is currently employing several approaches for the identification of functional genes in the Musa genome. These include transposon tagging, 'high throughput' random mutation by ribozyme cleavage of mRNA, suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) and bioinformatic annotation of clustered EST's. We have introduced the maize Ac transposable element into the Musa genome and followed excision and insertion of the element in numerous transgenic lines. The goal was to investigate the frequency of transposition and distribution of insertions along chromosomes. The constructs we have used include an Ac element fused to GUS reporter under the 35S promoter. PCR analysis of a variety of mutants revealed that most carried a chimeric pattern with regard to expression of the foreign genes. Consequently, only a few transgenic lines (tissue cultured siblings) showed detectable differences in the banding pattern on Southern hybridization blots. Attempts were made to stabilize the Ac element following a limited number of transpositions, by silencing the gene encoding the transposase enzyme after excision. Differentially expressed genes, which are activated in the post climacteric phase of fruit development, were analyzed in the peel and pulp of banana fruit. Using suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) we have isolated over 200 partial cDNA's encoding genes which are expressed during the final stages of fruit development (senescence). High throughput screening by membrane hybridization was employed for preliminary selection of candidate genes involved in regulation of the onset of senescence. Sequence analysis and blasts against GeneBank databases revealed approximately eighty non-redundant clones, which were up regulated in the post-climacteric phase. Most, but not all of these genes were up regulated, after exposure of green fruit to 1000 ppm ethylene for 24 hours. The sequenced pool of up-regulated cDNA's fall into one of three major categories: Genes involved in metabolic processes, mainly carbohydrates and lipid components. Genes involved in cellular regulation (protein kinases, transcription factors etc.). Genes involved in protection from pathogens and environmental stress conditions -metallothionein like protein, super oxide dismutase, osmotin-like protein, pathogen related proteins etc. A significant number of sequences showed no substantial homology to functional genes in the GeneBank. This project focuses on the analysis of Musa genome at nuclear and chromosomal level with the aim to understand long-range organization of Musa chromosomes and to characterize changes of chromosome structure during speciation and evolution of cultivated clones.We have used flow cytometry to determine ploidy levels of Musa accessions held at the INIBAP Transit Center (KULeuven). Flow cytometric ploidy assay involved preparation of suspensions of intact nuclei from small amounts of leaf tissue and the analysis of fluorescence intensity after staining with DAPI. Chicken red blood cell (CRBC) nuclei were included in every sample as an internal reference standard (Figure 1). From the 890 accessions analysed so far, 8.4% were classified for the first time, and 7.6% accessions exhibited other ploidy then reported previously. In 2% of the accessions, plants of mixed ploidy were detected. A reliable and highthroughput system for ploidy screening in Musa is an important outcome of the study. The use of CRBC nuclei, allowed high-resolution analysis, and the results obtained so far indicated suitability of this system for rapid detection of aneuploidy. As the materials for analysis were sent by express mail, this work demonstrates that it is possible to perform flow cytometric ploidy analysis in distant laboratories. In attempt to characterize DNA sequences contributing to structure and evolution of Musa chromosomes, we have constructed partial genomic DNA libraries in M. acuminata and M. balbisiana and screened them for clones carrying highly repeated sequences, and sequences carrying rDNA. Isolated clones were characterised in terms of copy number, genomic distribution in M. acuminata and M. balbisiana, and sequence similarity to known DNA sequences (Table 1). In contrast to many plant species where mobile elements and their remnants contribute most of the nucleotide content, our observations indicate that these elements do not represent a major fraction of the Musa genome. All repetitive sequences were more abundant in M. acuminata. As the genome of M. acuminata is larger compared to M. balbisiana, the present results demonstrate that the increase in genome size of M. acuminata was due to multiplication of some repetitive sequences. The findings of this study improve the knowledge of long-range organization of chromosomes in Musa. The availability of homologous probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) will allow more specific mapping of rDNA sequences. A novel protocol for isolation of high-molecular-weight DNA in Musa has been developed and the work is in progress to construct bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library for the B genome of Musa. Availability of the BAC library will permit isolation of clones containing low proportion of repetitive DNA. Such clones will be localized using FISH and will be used to increase the number of already existing chromosome landmarks. Furthermore, BAC library will be screened for clones, which con-  tain molecular markers and/or genes of interest. This strategy should result in effective integration of genetic and physical maps. Once developed, physically mapped molecular markers will facilitate map-based cloning of genes of interest including those induced by irradiation and chemical mutagenesis. Ploidy screening of Musa germplasm was supported in part by INIBAP. Banana (Musa acuminata) and abaca (M. textilis Nee) are two of the most economically important Musa species cultivated in the Philippines for fruit and fibre, respectively. These crops are both difficult to breed by conventional means and they share a number of common diseases. This report summarizes our efforts during the past five years to generate useful induced mutants of Philippine banana cultivars and to evaluate the usefulness of DNA markers in characterizing genomic alterations in the advanced generations of induced mutants. Furthermore, this report highlights the valuable contribution made by this CRP project in analyzing genetic variation in the related Musa species, M. textilis, by utilizing some of the results of the DNA marker techniques generated for banana. The highlights of our accomplishments are: • Advanced generations of induced mutants of two Philippine banana cultivars 'Lakatan' (AAA) and 'Latundan' (AAB) with promising traits were obtained from irradiation using 40Gy gamma ray and 3Gy fast neutron and subsequent in vitro culture manipulation and field evaluation. • DNA marker techniques such as RAPD, SSR and AFLP were successfully used to characterize genomic differences between the two banana cultivars used. However, only RAPD and AFLP techniques were able to detect genomic alterations between nonirradiated and induced mutants in the two cultivars. Due to better reproducibility and higher multiplex ratio, AFLP technique is preferred over RAPD technique. Hence, this technique was used to detect polymorphism between the original mutated clones and derived suckers. Silver staining procedure for SSR and AFLP analyses were routinely used.• RAPD, SSR and AFLP techniques developed for banana through this CRP project were found to be highly applicable to abaca.A number of SSR primers developed for banana gave amplification products using abaca DNA. With complimentary funds provided by a grant from the Philippine government, RAPD, SSR and AFLP analyses were successfully conducted to evaluate the genetic variation in the abaca germplasm collection of the Philippines. Comparison between morphological and molecular analyses was also conducted.N. Roux 1 , A. Toloza 1 , J. Dolezel 2 , R. Swennen  Banana is the most widely consumed fruit in Sri Lanka, and is an attractive perennial fruit crop for small-scale farmers. This is due to its high economic value throughout the year. Thus, lowland rice fields in some areas are being converted for banana cultivation. Among the local cultivars, 'Embul' (Mysore, AAB) has the highest demand for cultivation. The annual production of banana is around 450 000 metric tonnes. Until recently, banana cultivation was limited to small plots, but large fields are now being established. More and more rice farmers are changing over to banana cultivation as the net profit is about four times higher than for rice, and less labour and other inputs are required. During the last six years, 2500 ha have been converted to banana cultivation (Anon. 2001(Anon. , 2002)). In addition, it was noted that the nutritional level in farmers' families has improved due to the habit of consuming more fruit. Usually, farmers do not use pesticides for banana cultivation and this has benefits for human health and the environment.Since 1990, research on banana micropropagation through shoot-tip culture, induced mutation through gamma irradiation, cell suspension cultures and somatic embryogenesis, and ploidy analysis for variation detection has been conducted by the University of Colombo. From 1995, both 'Embul' and 'Cavendish' cultivars were included in the mutation breeding programme. After irradiation of in vitro shoot tips with 45 Gy, two selections were made with shorter height and early fruiting, six PROMUSA XIX month after planting (Hirimburegama et al. 1997). Micropropagated plants of these selections were tested for stability of the characters until the second generation. The technology was perfected and is being transferred to the farmers (Laksiri and Hirimburegama 1999).Early fruiting and harvesting of micropropagated banana plants saves at least one month in comparison to traditionally grown plants that usually need eight months to flower. Thus, the number of ratoons in two years becomes three instead of the usual two, thereby increasing the income of farmers with 25% (equivalent to about US$350 per ha per year). Mass production of plants is in progress. Thus, indexing/testing of plants for viruses, i.e. banana bract mosaic (BBrMV) and banana streak virus (BSV) has become essential, since virus-free, indexed mother stocks are required for micropropagation. The causative agent of the banana bract mosaic disease was confirmed in the widely cultivated local variety 'Embul' from Sri Lanka by Thomas et al. (1996Thomas et al. ( , 1997)). This disease is more prevalent in cultivations, which are not properly managed, but the impact on the yield appears to be significant.All the currently reported disease symptoms were observed in infected plants in the field but in varying degrees. Spindle shaped purple or dark red coloured streak patterns on the pseudostem in addition to dark spindle shaped streaks on bracts were the most common symptoms of infection. Mature plants with inflorescence having black or reddish brown streaks on the outer surface of the open bracts also had streaks on the pseudostem. The splitting of the base of young suckers could also be due to other banana virus diseases.A study was done with the objective of developing a low-cost DAS-ELISA detection kit. Anti-serum for BBrMV (of Queensland Department of Primary Industries -QDPI, Australia) was tested as the coating antibody to replace the relevant component of the Agdia commercial kit. Results showed a relatively high efficiency with the QDPI antibody.Work is also in progress to make the alkaline phosphatase enzyme conjugated antibody to substitute the one of the test kit. Once the local antiserum is produced, it is expected that an effective and low cost local diagnostic kit will be developed for the routine indexing of banana plants for BBrMV. Purification of the virus extract (Thomas et al. 1997) is a limiting factor for obtaining the antigen for the antibody production process.Jorge López Torres Oxygen uptake was measured by Warburg's manometers. Based on our results, a short stature mutant ('Parecido al Rey' 6.44) was obtained. Few more mutants were selected, which were tolerant to black Sigatoka with increased yield, in some cases ('Parecido al Rey' 6.32 and 'Gran Enano' 6.44 mutants and III-2). However, these characters were unstable, probably affected by the environment, or in vitro culture conditions. Therefore, we looked for other alternative approaches for improving induced mutation rates, e.g. somatic cell suspension cultures and later mass of somatic embryogenic cells were established.From each batch of somatic embryogenic cell suspension mass cultures, 3250 to 6625 somatic embryos were obtained with 20.7% germination and 95% plant survival in ex vitro conditions. Their genetic stability is presently being tested in field conditions. The action of M. fijiensis extract on cell suspension culture resulted in large number of oxidized cells at higher extract concentrations. Damaged cells were characterized by a compact cytoplasmic content with a dark colour in its centre and leaving an empty space between it and the cellular wall. Forty-five days after incubation, more than 60% cells were found in the previous described conditions due to toxin diffusion from discs. Oxygen uptake valves had decreased normally in non treated control of all IMTP cultivars, and the maximum decrease observed in treated plants in comparison with non-treated plants was: 'Yangambi km5' (38.7%); 'Calcutta 4' (27.0%); 'Pisang berlin' (13.4%); 'Pisang lilin' (20.9%) while oxygen uptake was increased by 70% in 'CEMSA ?' clone. The cultivars with higher resistance to black Sigatoka showed a tendency to decreased oxygen uptake; this is probably due to the damaged tissues, instead of a toxicity effect of toxin treatment. At present, the first somatic embryos obtained from irradiated cellular suspensions are in the germination phase and somatic embryogenesis in genotypes from the IMTP is being developed. The introduction of foreign genes into the plant genome is a basic technique to study gene expression and physiological processes in plants and for breeding programmes.Improving the agronomic value of major crops is likely to involve the introduction of multiple genes, many of which will not provide directly screenable phenotypes among the initial products of transformation. Major restrictions of current transformation techniques are that only a few genes can be transferred at the same time and that selectable marker genes have to be used, which frequently results in transgenic plants containing undesirable antibiotic resistance genes.The objective of the present study is to determine the efficiency of cotransformation with visually scorable marker genes using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and banana (Musa spp.). Cell suspension culture of four cultivars were infected with two different A. tumefaciens strains each carrying a distinct disarmed T-DNA containing one of three reporter genes [Luciferase (LUC), ß-Glucuronidase (GUS) or Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)] as well as the neo selectable marker gene. Multicellular structures expressing multiple genes were recovered, and cotransformation frequencies were measured. The cotransformation frequency was less than the sum of the frequency of each single transformation. Negative correlation was found between the transient expression of two visual marker genes introduced together for cotransformation. Significant differences in (co-)transformation frequency were detected between the banana cultivars tested. We anticipate that the simultaneous use of multiple reporter genes will provide a convenient method for the accurate determination of cotransformation and will contribute to a strategy for multigene transformation.A. Elsen and D. De Waele Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement, KULeuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 13, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium Among nematodes parasitizing bananas throughout the world, Radopholus similis and Pratylenchus coffeae are important migratory nematodes, causing severe yield losses in commercial and local consumption cultivars. Chemical control is currently the most used method to manage the nematodes although nematicides are dangerous, toxic, and expensive. Therefore, nematode control through genetic improvement of banana is widely encouraged. Many Musa cultivars have been screened to find resistance against these root pathogens. Screening research is time consuming because it most be carried out both under field and greenhouse conditions. In vitro screening could facilitate and hasten incorporation of genetic nematode control into bananas. However, an in vitro screening method requires aseptic nematode cultures.In this paper, the development of aseptic cultures of R. similis and P. coffeae and an in vitro screening method are discussed. Alfalfa callus on modified White's medium has proved to be a good aseptic culture system for both R. similis and P. coffeae. Although the reproduction is significantly lower compared to carrot disc cultures, this system has many advantages. The nematodes are not only cultured under complete aseptic conditions but this system is also less labour intensive and offers a more continuous inoculum production.In addition, culturing on alfalfa callus did not alter the pathogenicity of R. similis and P. coffeae. Both R. similis and P. coffeae could infect and reproduce on the roots of in vitro grown 'Grande naine' plants. For both nematodes necrotic lesions were observed in the roots within 2-3 weeks after inoculation. In a last experiment, the reproduction of R. similis was tested in vitro on six different Musa cultivars with a known host response to R. similis. Except for 'Yangambi km5', their host response under in vitro conditions corresponded to their host response under greenhouse or field conditions. The susceptible status of 'Grande naine', 'Gros Michel' and 'Cachaco' was confirmed as well as the resistant status of 'Pisang jari buaya' and 'SH-3142'. The effect of lectins on the plant parasitic nematode Radopholus similis was studied in a series of experiments. FITC-or colloidal goldlabelled lectins of Canavalia ensiformis (ConA), wheat (WGA) and Helix pomatia (UPA) were found to bind the nematode in the head region, at the excretion pore, the pores of the reproduction system and those of the phasmids. The viability and the chemotactic response towards plant roots, after treatment of nematodes with lectins, were examined in vitro by analyzing movement tracks left on agar plates. The assay included six plant lectins of five different classes and the banana thaumatin-like protein. A 1% concentration of Phaseolus vulgaris agglutinin (PHA) had a toxic effect on R. similis females: 68% showed no or very little movement after inoculation compared to an average of 30% for other lectins and 5% for the control treatment. A 0.05% concentration of PHA still reduced the viability of R. similis females by 75%. ConA and WGA did not alter the chemotactic response towards plant roots, despite of the demonstrated binding of both lectins to R. similis. In contrast, Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA) reduced orientated movement of R.similis females towards plant roots. Finally, the secretions of R. similis were stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R. These secretions appear at the amphids, the excretion pore, the vulva, the spicules and the phasmids. Moreover, nematodes treated with GNA produced less abundant secretions. Differential AFLP patterns were obtained and up to 25% polymorphism was observed depending on the primer combination and the cultivar. TE-AFLP analysis generated shorter and a lower number of fragments resulting in only relatively few polymorphisms between the dwarf and normal-sized cultivars. The somaclonal variants obtained in vitro from the dwarf 'Curare enano' might have been caused by methylation induced by in vitro conditions. MSAP analysis, based on the methylation (in)sensitivity of a pair of isoschisomeric restriction enzymes, appeared to be a valuable tool in revealing differential cytosine methylation. Cloning and sequencing differential fragments did not reveal significantly homologous matches in public databases. cDNA-AFLP analysis between the dwarf and normal 'Curare enano', revealed a normal-specific fragment, while cDNA-TE-AFLP analysis resulted in a dwarf-specific fragment. AFLP and the variant techniques have shown the potential to differentiate between closely related genotypes. More primer combinations and/or alteration of restric-tion enzymes will increase the chance of finding more dwarf-related sequences. Banana (Musa spp.) is an important and major fruit crop in India, which is the largest producer of bananas in the world. However, diseases and pests such as black Sigatoka and Panama disease, bunchy top virus and nematodes remain as major threats to production. Genetic modification using embryogenic cell suspensions (ECS) appears to be a suitable approach for integrated genetic improvement. Progress has been made in the development of protocols for the establishment of ECS, and immature male flowers as well as proliferating in vitro cultures have mainly been used.Especially in vitro proliferating meristems ('scalps') are an ideal starting material, because they can be generated all round the year from most cultivars. The method includes a preculture of the proliferating meristems on high cytokinin medium which provides embryogenic competence. Several important Indian cultivars [('Robusta' (AAA), 'Basrai' (AAA), 'Shrimanthi' (AAA), 'Karpoora valli' (ABB)] have been employed in this study for the induction of good quality scalps and embryogenic callus. Of these, 'Robusta' have shown the formation of embryogenic callus, which subsequently has been used for the establishment of ECS. In addition, the effect of alternative cytokinins such as meta-topoline (MT, thidiazuron (TDZ) and N-chloro-4-pyridyl-N'-phenylurea (CPPU) has been studied on isolated meristems of 'Cachaco' (ABB), 'Williams' (AAA) as well as on scalps of 'Robusta'. On isolated meristems ('Williams', 'Cachaco'), CPPU has only resulted in the development of single shoots and roots, whereas MT resulted in the formation of watery callus and proliferation. TDZ mainly induced swelling of the explants. TDZ proved to be better cytokinin over MT in the induction and maintenance of good quality scalps. These are currently under evaluation for embryogenic induction. The established ECS will be characterized and used in cryopreservation and genetic transformation experiments.Philippine banana cultivars This report summarizes the results of our efforts to evaluate the usefulness of DNA marker techniques, such as random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), microsatellites or simple sequence repeat (SSR) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), to characterize the genomic alterations in induced mutants of the two Philippine banana cultivars. Mutants were induced in the two most popular Philippine edible banana cultivars by gamma and fast neutron irradiation from in vitro shoot-tip cultures. Promising clones were selected and evaluated further using molecular markers. In banana, several DNA marker techniques were used to investigate genetic relationships between Musa accessions and to determine differences in somaclonal variants and radiation induced mutants. In this study, RAPD, SSR, and AFLP techniques were successfully used under local conditions and found useful in characterizing irradiated and non-irradiated banana clones. RAPD, SSR and AFLP markers also showed sufficient polymorphism to differentiate between the two cultivars used. However, SSR and AFLP markers were found to be more highly reproducible. One of the most significant accomplishments of this CRP project is the development of a high quality, nonradioactive, silver-staining technique for AFLP analysis, which can be easily adopted under laboratory conditions in developing countries. AFLP markers showed both high reproducibility and discriminating capacity. Polymorphic AFLP markers were identified (Table 2) and found useful in fingerprinting bananas and other Musa species. AFLP was the only marker technique tested, which was able to detect variation in DNA profiles of induced mutant clones, their first cycle suckers and non-irradiated control clones (Figure 2), which  ELISA assays on extracts from lyophilized banana pulp showed that the concentration of the Ace-AMP1 peptide reached up to 0.0316% of the total amount of soluble proteins or six times above the background signal measured in non-transformed banana pulp. We tested whether this expression level had an effect on rats fed on a diet containing transgenic banana pulp. While energetic content was comparable in transgenic and control pulp, dry matter and protein content were lower and higher in transgenic pulp than in control pulp respectively. Twenty per cent of lyophilized meal from control or transgenic bananas were incorporated in regular rodent food and supplied to male and female Wistar rats. Feeding of the transgenic meal during six weeks did not cause any difference in food intake, growth rate and weight of internal organs in comparison to feeding on control diet. Also, a complex blood analysis did not show any effect in rats consuming the transgenic banana meal. Then, the putative virus-free material was tested again after greenhouse acclimatization. The virus eradication rates after cryopreservation for CMV and BSV reached 30% and 90% respectively. In comparison, the frequency of virus-free plants regenerated directly from highly proliferating meristems, which reflects spontaneous eradication, reached 0% and 52% for CMV and BSV respectively. The conventional meristem culture resulted in 0% CMV-free plants and 76% BSV-free plants.In conclusion, cryopreservation seems to be a very promising technique for virus eradication from Musa germplasm enabling to faster distribute germplasm of interest.  The most sensitive reporter system, bioluminescent luciferase (LUC) is used in T-DNA mediated promoter tagging. Since integration of the promoterless luc gene is random, the level of LUC expression is suboptimal in most transformants to be screened requiring a highly sensitive detection. Preliminary results on in vivo screening of LUC expression in hundreds of putative promoter tagged cell cultures will be presented. Chemiluminescence has been for several years the method of choice in our laboratory for non-radioactive hybridization analysis.Although exposure to and development of an X-ray film is a sensitive technique, it is time consuming and costly because multiple exposures are needed for the evaluation of results.In addition to increased flexibility and higher sensitivity of detection, signals can be captured faster with the CCD camera than with film. Good results can be obtained with a single exposure by adjusting the gray scale of the captured image as will be demonstrated.In addition to luminescence the camera can also detect fluorescent signals, which is demonstrated by the ability to monitor green fluorescent protein expression in transgenic banana cultures. Quantification of light intensity by software analysis will be demonstrated. Genetic transformation of banana (Musa spp.) by particle bombardment and Agrobacterium is established only in a few laboratories worldwide. In general, transformation frequencies are reported to be cultivar dependent. Thus, there is a need to optimize established transformation protocols for any particular type of banana. In this study, the two transformation methods were compared and the effect of physical parameters on transformation frequency was investigated in four banana cultivars: 'Grande naine' (AAA), 'Obino l'ewai' (AAB), 'Orishele' (AAB), and 'Three hand planty' (AAB). DNA transfer frequency was measured by monitoring expression of the b?glucuronidase and the green fluorescent protein gene. The results indicate major differences between the two transformation systems. Significantly higher transient and stable gene expression, in all banana cultivars, were obtained with the Agrobacteriumbased method. The effects of age and volume of cell suspensions as well as the length of infection were optimized. The cultivars were categorized on the basis of their competence for transformation and their capacity for regen-eration. Molecular and biochemical analysis will be performed to confirm integration and expression of the transgenes in the different cultivars. The initiation of embryogenic cell suspension cultures of banana is still difficult and timeconsuming, irrespective of the starting material used (immature male flowers, immature zygotic embryos or proliferating in vitro meristems). The embryogenic response is very low and slow. Indeed for most cultivars less than 1% of initial explants give rise to an embryogenic callus suitable for cell suspension initiation and 9-26 months are needed before such embryogenic cell suspension is established. Moreover, once established, these cell suspensions are subject to somaclonal variation and microbial contamination and a prolonged culture period may result in a lower and eventually a total loss of morphogenic capacity.Up to now, transformation protocols of banana rely on embryogenic cell suspensions. Particle bombardment as well as Agrobactenum-based protocols resulted in transgenic banana plants. Somatic hybridization and protoplast electroporation are also both depending on the isolation of regenerable protoplasts from embryogenic cell suspensions. Finally, embryogenic cell suspensions can be used for mass propagation as an alternative to shoot-tip cultures.The safe preservation of this valuable suspensions through cryopreservation is thus of outermost importance. A cryopreservation technique was developed which involves cryoprotection with 7.5% DMSO (dimethyl sulphoxide) and 180 g/L sucrose, followed by slow freezing at 1°C/min to -40°C and plunging into liquid nitrogen. Currently, 651 cryotubes containing embryogenic cell suspensions belonging to 48 independent cell lines and 14 different cultivars are safely stored in liquid nitrogen for the long term. Recently, banana cell suspensions were recovered after five years storage in liquid nitrogen. The ability to produce somatic embryos remained intact. Also their competence towards Agrobacterium-mediated transformation was screened and compared to a noncryopreserved cell suspension of the same cell line. The transient expression of the introduced marker gene as well as the regeneration efficiency of transgenic plantlets was comparable. The mechanisms of action of M. fijiensis toxins in black leaf streak (BLS) disease were studied. The ethyl acetate crude extract (EaCE) from the pathogen culture filtrates and juglone (5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone), which is a purified metabolite from EaCE, were injected in the leaves of two banana cultivars. The cultivars 'Grande naine' and 'Fougamou' served as a susceptible reference and partially resistant reference respectively. These bioassays induced necrosis and showed decrease of the vitality index determined according to chlorophyll fluorescence data (Lichtenthaler et al. 1986). The 'Grande naine' cultivar was more sensitive than Fougamou whatever the bioassay (induction of necrosis or chlorophyll fluorescence) taken into account. The lightdependence of the toxicity revealed by these tests, the early effect on chlorophyll fluorescence (Harelimana et al. 1997) and the swelling of 'Grande naine' chloroplasts after injection with EaCE, are indicative that chloroplasts could be a potential target site for M. fijiensis toxins.A mechanical protocol (Leegood and Malkin 1986) to isolate physiologically intact chloroplasts from banana leaves was developed. A new bioassay based on the addition of juglone to banana chloroplast suspensions was used to analyse the impact of M. fijiensis metabolites. By performing the Hill reaction (Allen and Holmes 1986) with the so treated suspension to measure the ability of chloroplasts to transfer electrons, a direct inhibiting effect of juglone on this physiological activity was clearly demonstrated. Moreover, this effect was again higher with 'Grande naine' chloroplasts than with those of 'Fougamou'. Since chloroplasts constitute one of the sites of active oxygen species production in plants (Sutherland 1991, Foyer et al. 1997), their direct interactions with juglone in bananas led to a new hypothesis. Hence, oxidative events were suspected to be at the origin of the physiological damages in the isolated chloroplasts.In fact, involvement of fungal naphthoquinone metabolites in oxidative process in not uncom-mon (Medentsev and Akimento 1998). Their auto-oxidative property responsible of the oxidation of NADH and NADPH leads to the removal of these molecules from the oxidative phosphorylation system as potential sources of reduction equivalents for the respiratory chain.In the case of BLS disease, assessment of this hypothesis was performed by considering possible interactions between juglone and banana antioxidant systems. We observed that juglone causes an in vitro oxidation of ascorbic acid, the most abundant antioxidant in plants (Smirnoff 2000). The occurrence of oxidative phenomena induced by this metabolite in bananas was also assessed by analysing the superoxide dismutases (SOD) patterns at several intervals of time following juglone injection into leaves of the two reference cultivars. In fact, superoxide dismutases are assumed to play a central role in the defence against oxidative stress (Beyer et al. 1991, Scandalias 1993). Our preliminary observations showed that there was a repressive effect on one SOD isoform in 'Grande naine' while a stimulating effect on another SOD isoform in 'Fougamou' seemed to occur. On the base of the results obtained with the two antioxidant systems analysed previously, juglone could be supposed to deprive bananas partly of their antioxidant capacity.Further investigations have to be done in this area in order to determine exactly all the mechanisms affected by the pathogen metabolites during BLS development.Finally, a first in vitro selection assay for BLS resistance was also performed. Therefore, different juglone concentrations were mixed with embryogenic cell suspensions of two lines of THP ('Three hand planty' cultivar) as well as with suspensions containing somatic embryos of the same cell lines. After an overnight incubation, the material was transferred onto juglone-free fresh media. In general, both plant materials necrosed and did not show any weight increase during the period of incubation following the treatment. However, from somatic embryos of one treated line, some plants were obtained from tissues that did not become necrotic with 50 ppm of juglone. These regenerated plants are going to be evaluated for their eventual BLS resistance with the abovementioned bioassays as well as by artificial inoculation of the pathogen. These plant regenerates will constitute a precious material to further analyse the role played by M. fijiensis toxins in development of BLS disease.","tokenCount":"47643"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"62f033f4c6d7c51e6d731f23c9520984","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c196e2ef-5583-4297-8ae3-6465c05b8a18/retrieve","id":"-1751694123"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"41330420-96f2-4f02-a154-7ff780669482","pagecount":"11","content":"This study applied logit and transformed logit regression to examine factors affecting the adoption of orange flesh sweet potatoes, and intensity of such adoption, by a representative sample of 340 farmers in the Busia and Rachuonyo (OFSP) districts of Kenya in 2009. A double-censored Tobit model was also used to study factors affecting intensity of adoption. The study also investigated whether participation in a value chain extension intervention programme increased farmers' likelihood of adopting OFSP. The participation variable was first tested for endogeneity and \"purified\" before using it as a \"proxy\" in the adoption regression. The results suggest that the district where the farmer comes from, knowledge on value addition and nutritional benefits, and availability of vines were the key factors for adoption. The results also suggest that participation in a value chain extension programme enhanced the probability of adoption. Factors affecting intensity of adoption were site, value addition, vines availability, level of commercialization and having a child of up to five years.Sweet potato (Ipomea batata L.) is an important traditional crop that is grown customarily by small-scale farmers in many developing countries mainly for household consumption. It is traditionally regarded as a \"poor man\"s\" crop as it is typically grown and consumed by resource poor households, and mainly by women, and it gives satisfactory yields under adverse climatic and soil conditions, as well as under low or non-use of external inputs (Carey et al., 1999;Kung\"u, 1999;Ndolo et al., 2001;Githunguri and Migwa, 2004).As a food security crop, it can be harvested piecemeal as needed, thus offering a flexible source of food and income to rural households that are mostly vulnerable to crop failure and consequently fluctuating cash income. In addition to being drought tolerant and having a wide ecological adaptation, it has a short maturity period of three to five months. It is also an excellent source of vitamin A, especially the orange fleshed varieties (Ndolo et al., 2001). The orange fleshed varieties are also tasty and have attractive color to children (Kaguongo et al., 2008a) hence have high potential to address caloric and vitamin A deficiency problems of children among the poorest communities (Stathers et al., 2005;van Jaarsveld et al., 2006;Low et al., 2007). However, most varieties in sub-Saharan Africa are white-fleshed, low yielding and lacking beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A (Stathers et al., 2005).Sweet potato is produced in most parts of Kenya, being concentrated in districts of Nyanza and Western provinces. About 60% of the households in these two provinces live below the poverty line (Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), 2003), an indication of a potentially high proportion of the population without adequate quantity and quality of food intake. The potential of sweet potato\"s contribution to food security, increased incomes and reduction of nutritional deficit is, therefore, considerable and is yet to be fully exploited in developing countries (Woolfe, 1992).Although commercialization of sweet potato is still low in most parts of Nyanza and Western provinces, its gross margin of USD 238 to 362 ha -1 is highly competitive when compared with that of maize (USD 55 to 244 ha -1) and cassava (USD 97 to 171 ha -1) which are the other important crops commonly grown in these regions (Nyoro, 2002;Stathers et al., 2005;Kaguongo et al., 2008b;Fermont et al., 2010). However, the area allocated to sweet potato is often a small fraction of area allocated to maize or cassava because sweet potato is often grown as a subsistent crop (Gakonyo, 1993;Kaguongo et al., 2008b;Fermont et al., 2010).The Traditional Food Project was a programme in Kenya and Tanzania jointly implemented between April 2007 and September 2009 by the International Potato Center (CIP), Farm Concern International (FCI), Urban Harvest (UH), and World Vegetable Center (AVDRC-Asian Vegetable Development Center). Its aim was to increase productivity, utilization and marketing of Traditional African Vegetables (TAVs) and sweet potatoes, specifically orange flesh sweet potatoes (OFSP). The project aimed to achieve this through the delivery of improved extension services to the farmers participating in the programme. The three OFSP varieties promoted in Busia and Rachuonyo districts in Kenya were Ejumula, Vindolotamu and Vitamu-A.To promote increased adoption, commercialization and marketing of improved varieties of the targeted crops by the programme farmers, the project used a \"Commercial Villages\" (CV) approach. The approach uses a collective approach in interventions aimed at increasing adoption, productivity and commercialization by the rural poor. In the scheme, farmer groups are clustered together to form one large group called a \"commercial village\" that aims to benefit from economies of scale in extension work, input sourcing, production and marketing activities.To evaluate the impact of interventions from this programme, the researchers plan to conduct impact analyses using baseline and adoption data generated from participants (members of the programme) and nonparticipants (non-members of the programme). However, before undertaking any impact assessment, it is imperative to establish whether the programme participation by farmers was instrumental in the adoption of improved technologies and innovations and control for confounding factors that affect the adoption and impacts measured in terms of any outcome variable. The objective of this study is, therefore, to analyze the adoption of OFSP among sample farmers in two provinces of Kenya by identifying key determinants of adoption and intensity of adoption of OFSP, and establishing whether programme participation enhances adoption and intensity of adoption. The review of adoption studies by Feder et al. (1985) indicated, inter alia, that adoption decisions are influenced by a number of socioeconomic, demographic, ecological and institutional factors and are dependent on the nature of the technology. Studies of the key determinants of technology adoption by farmers growing upland rice and soybeans in Central-West Brazil (Strauss et al., 1991) and to evaluate the role of human capital and other factors in adoption of reduced tillage technology in corn production (Rahm and Huffman, 1984) found that farmers\" education and experience play a crucial role in facilitating technology adoption. Doss (2003) reported that the major reasons for not adopting farm-level technology in East Africa were: (1) farmers\" lack of awareness of the improved technologies or a lack of information regarding potential benefits accruing from them; (2) the unavailability of improved technologies; and(3) unprofitable technologies, given the farmer\"s agroecological conditions and the complex set of constraints faced by farmers in allocating land and labor resources across farm and off-farm activities. The mismatch between technology characteristics and farmers\" technology preferences has also been identified as the most important factor for the low level of technology adoption in Ethiopia (Wale and Yallew, 2007).Other studies have revealed that off-farm incomes and availability of information influence technology adoption decisions through affecting risk aversion levels of smallholder farmers. Risk aversion level is likely to be negatively associated with adoption as farmers are less certain about the profitability (productivity) of new technologies when they use them for the first time. Farmers level of risk aversion (which is a function of their poverty level, lack of information on the productivity of the technology, and non-stability of the impact of the technology) is also an important factor in the adoption decision (Feder and Slade, 1984;Feder et al., 1985;Kristjanson, 1987;Kaguongo et al., 1997).To improve availability of relevant information for increasing adoption, many development agents have devised several approaches and innovations. When the innovation system is linked to farmers to promote effective communication, problem identification, problem solving and personal interactions of a formal or informal nature, higher adoption of technology is likely (Steffey, 1995). Putler and Zilberman (1988) revealed the importance of physical capital endowment in the adoption process. Physical capital commonly associated with adoption of technologies has been identified as farm size or cultivated land, livestock and farm implements owned (Feder and O\"Mara, 1981;Rahm and Huffman, 1984;Shapiro, 1990;Nkonya et al., 1997). Financial capital and credit access have also been shown to affect adoption of agricultural technologies and innovations especially when such adoption does not involve increasing diversification, which is viewed as a reducing measure (Feder and Umali, 1993;Cornejo and McBride, 2002;Simtowe and Manfred, 2006).A Kenyan study, which evaluated the effect of women farmers\" adoption of OFSP in raising Vitamin A intake, found that women farmers were likely to adopt the OFSP if the clones were sufficiently high in starch (high dry matter), low in fibre, and if they were introduced through community-level education programmes that focused on the health of young children (Hagenimana and Oyunga, 1999). A study in Mozambique revealed that some of the key factors affecting adoption of OFSP included availability of vines, intensity of extension service and number of times the respondent received vines (Mazuze, 2005). A number of studies have also revealed that most of the factors affecting adoption also affect the intensity of adoption (Alene et al., 2000;Kaliba et al., 2000).The study was conducted in Rachuonyo (Nyanza province) and Busia (Western province) districts of Kenya. The Rachuonyo site comprised of the most commercialized sweet potato area in the country. Nyathiodiewo, a local variety which is yellow fleshed, is the most commonly grown variety accounting for over 90% of total production in the area. Traders from major towns of the country (Nairobi, Kisumu, and Nakuru) bought sweet potatoes from the district and transported them using large trucks. Sweet potato is also regarded as a food security crop in the area and is particularly important when there is an undersupply of maize. The site is located in the lower midland tea zone (LM2), with elevation ranging from 1,300 to 1,700 m and mean annual precipitation of 1,300 to 1,700 mm. The long rains occur from February to June while short rains occur from August to November.The Busia site comprised of an area where sweet potato is less commercialized although sweet potato is important as a food security crop and farmers produce it on a small scale mainly for home use and only sell when there is an excess or when there is a pressing demand for cash. The area falls within the marginal sugarcane zone (LM1), with elevation ranging from 1,200 to 1,300 m and annual precipitation of 1,400 to 1,550 mm. The mean annual temperature ranges from 20.4 to 22.3°C. Sweet potato is planted in the months of April through June during the long rains and September through mid-November during the short rains. Sweet potato varieties grown are mainly white fleshed such as Bungoma and Kampala, and none is predominant in the area.Farmers were grouped into participants if they participated in the Kaguongo et al. 495 traditional Food Program and non-participants if they did not.Baseline and adoption survey data were collected for the purpose of undertaking impact assessments by comparing both participant and non-participant farmers before and after the programme implementation. The baseline survey was conducted in September to October 2007 while the adoption survey was conducted in November to December 2009. The two surveys used structured questionnaires to gather information on socio-economic characteristics, cultivation, consumption and marketing of sweet potatoes by the households. Each site had four CVs comprising of about seven farmer groups each and with an average of 18 participants per group. Representatives of participant farmers (beneficiaries) and nonparticipant farmers (non-beneficiaries) were interviewed during the baseline and adoption surveys. During the baseline survey four farmers were randomly sampled per group per CV. The same farmers in the baseline survey were targeted during the adoption survey, but due to high attrition additional participants were sampled for the adoption survey. The non-participant farmers who acted as the \"control\" for the study were sampled from villages with similar characteristics as those from which participant farmers in CVs originated. Twenty non-participant farmers were randomly sampled to act as control for each CV. A total of 340 farmers were interviewed during the adoption survey, of which 205 were participants and 135 were non-participants. Due to the nature of the programme interventions, the sample selection criteria included two priorities: the first priority was targeting farmers who were members of farmer groups and the second priority involved targeting farmers with children of up to five years during the onset of programme implementation (2007). However, lack of foreseeable benefits by would-be \"control\" farmers resulted in non-willingness to participate in the study, hence the priority one was relaxed for \"control\" farmers. Relaxation of priority one and retaining priority two resulted in more \"control\" farmers having children of up to five years and fewer of them belonging to farmers groups compared to nonparticipant farmers.Data collected were entered and \"cleaned\" using CSPro. The SPSS software package (Norušis, 2005) was used for data processing while the STATA package (StataCorp, 2008) was used for econometric analysis.Modeling farmers\" decision making about whether to adopt or not to adopt a technology constitutes a discrete (whether or not to take up the technology) and continuous (the intensity of use of the technology) decision (Wale and Yallew, 2007). Most adoption models are based on the assumption that farmers are faced with a choice between two alternatives and the choices they make depend on identifiable characteristics of the technologies (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 1997).In a logit model, the parameter estimates are linear and, assuming a normally distributed disturbance term (μ), the logit maximum likelihood (LML) estimation procedure is used to identify explanatory variables affecting the adoption of OFSPs.According to the logit model, the likelihood of an individual farmer adopting a new technology t2, given a well-defined set of socioeconomic and physical characteristics (X), is represented as:(1)Where: Pi = is likelihood of the i th farmer adopting a technology, labeled as Adoptioni; Xi = exogenous variables; â = the coefficients. The adoption logit model was specified as:Table 1. Summary description of the variables used in modeling adoption and intensity of adoption. The wealth index (WID) was calculated from cultivated area of land, total livestock units and number of equipment items and tools owned by the farmer using principal component analysis (PCA). Attempts to use individual assets in regression models result in an unnecessarily high number of explanatory variables and create multicollinearity. Use of PCA is convenient since it solves the problem of aggregating assets of different units and controls multicollinearity which is likely to occur when many types of asset variables are included in the regression equation (Nieuwoudt, 1977;Filmer and Pritchett, 2001;McKenzie, 2003;Vyas and Kumaranayake, 2006). Table 1 shows summary details of variables in the econometric models used in this study.Since participation in extension programme was one of the factors evaluated for its influence on the adoption of OFSP, there was a need to test for endogeneity. Selection bias occurs because participation is rarely random and this is often correlated with the outcome variable of interest (Heckman, 1979;Goodfellow et al., 1988;York, 1998;Cuddeback et al., 2004). A Hausman specification test (Hausman, 1976) was performed to evaluate if the participation variable (Pi) was endogenous.The exogeneity of Pi was tested using the estimated residual ( i) from the reduced form equation (participation regressed on its instruments) as explanatory variables in the structural equations (with adoption as the dependent variable).(2)Where Yi is a vector of variables postulated to affect participation and Wi is a vector of exogenous variables postulated to affect adoption of OFSP.If the residual variable of the reduced form Equation ( 2) is correlated with the dependent variable in the structural Equation (3) of adoption, then it means the participation variable is endogenous (Gujarati and Sangeetha, 2009). To get rid of the correlation between the Pi and a Heckman\"s two-stage regression approach was used where the participation variable (Pi) was first regressed on all the predetermined variables in the whole system, involving participation Equation ( 2) and adoption Equation (3) (Zuehlke and Zeman, 1991;Arendt and Holm, 2006;Kacagil and Demir, 2006).The predicted i estimated from the instrumental equation, which is free from influence of the stochastic disturbance ì, is used in the second stage regression replacing Pi.The intensity of adoption in this paper is defined as the proportion of area under OFSP and is estimated as a fraction of total area under sweet potatoes. The larger the proportion the more intensive is the adoption of OFSP. Wale (2010) used logit transformation regression to explain land share allocated to local coffee varieties in Ethiopia which was the response variable. In the present study, the  (4)For proportion data with 0, 1 extremes and continuous values inbetween, use of OLS regression is inappropriate because predictions are likely to go beyond the 0 to 1 range. Papke and Woodridge (1996) indicate that the drawbacks of linear models for fractional data are analogous to the drawbacks of the linear probability model for binary data. Logit transformation is performed on the dependent variable as shown in Equation 5 (Birkhaeuser et al., 1991;Grigoriou et al., 2005;Wale, 2010):However, this procedure cannot be applied directly if the dependent variable takes the extreme values of 0 and 1, that is, the transformed variable cannot be evaluated. Hence, to deal with this problem the extreme values (0 and 1) are substituted with close approximations (Birkhaeuser et al., 1991;Grigoriou et al., 2005;Pryce and Mason, 2006;Wale, 2010).There were 263 (77.4%) zeros and 8 (20.4%) ones which were replaced with 0.000001 and 0.999999, respectively. After this OLS regression is conducted on the transformed dependent variable (Equation 6): In all sites, 38.2% of respondents had adopted growing of OFSP, with 66.1% of 168 households and 11.0% of 172 households adopting in Busia and Rachuonyo districts, respectively. The mean age of household head was 47.3 years and 34.1% of household heads were female. There was no statistically significant difference between adopters and non-adopters by age or gender. Households with off-farm income were also not statistically different between adopters (63.8%) and nonadopters (69.0%). More adopters (33.1%) than nonadopters (10.0%) were doing value addition of sweet potato and also more adopters (48.5%) than nonadopters (19.5%) knew that OFSP contain vitamin A (beta carotene).The number of years of formal education for adopters (7.6 years) was significantly higher than that of nonadopters (6.7 years) indicating possible positive association between education and adoption of OFSP.Testing of endogeneity started with a search for instrumental variables that influenced participation in the programme but with no direct effect on adoption of OFSP. This evaluation indicated that gender of the household head, belonging to a farmer group, total area allocated to all types of sweet potatoes, number of children of up to five years of age and area under cassava were good proxies for participation. Table 2 shows the details of the instrumental variables used to predict participation in the extension programme.The programme targeted farmer groups as a way of increasing effectiveness of extension and ensuring collective action was easily achieved, and this may explain why belonging to a farmer group highly increased the odds of participating in the programme. The coefficient for gender of the household head was also significant (p < 0.05) indicating that female headed households were more likely to participate in the programme than male headed households (Table 2).Having children of up to five years had a negative and statistically significant coefficient. The results indicate that households with more children were less likely to participate in the intervention programme possibly because child care and attending programme trainings were competing for the available time. Although area allocated to sweet potato and cassava positively affected participation in the programme as expected and improved the model fit, their coefficients were not statistically significant at the 5% level of significance. The endogeneity test using residuals from the participation instrumental equation yielded a p-value of 0.064 indicating that the Null hypothesis of exogeneity would be rejected at the 10% level of significance but accepted at the 5% level of significance. Hence, to yield efficient and consistent estimates we treated farmers\" decisions to participate in the programme as endogenous in adoption decision and followed a two-stage procedure to solve the endogeneity problem. The predicted participation variable (PRE_2) obtained from the first stage regression using all predetermined variables in all the systems was used in the adoption equation as a \"proxy\" for participation.The value from the Hosmer and Lemeshow Chi-square test was non-significant (0.108), which indicates that the binary logit model adequately fitted the data while Omnibus tests of model coefficients indicated that all predictors jointly predicted the dependent variable well at the 5% level of significance. The classification table also showed good prediction performance of 85.1% (90.5% of ones and 78.2% of zeros correctly predicted), which compared well with the Count R 2 of 89.5%. Some variables hypothesized earlier to explain adoption of OFSP were dropped from the model either because including them in the regression analysis reduced the goodness of fit of the model and their estimated coefficients were not statistically significant at the 5% level, or they were correlated with some of the factors that improved the goodness of fit. The variables dropped were such as the number of children in the household, number of years of formal education of the head, number of days in a week the household consumed sweet potatoes, and selling any type of sweet potato. Table 3 presents the estimated logit regression model results.The results indicated that site, participation in the programme, skills of value addition, knowledge about vitamin A and availability of vines were crucial factors determining adoption of OFSP. The results also suggested that age of the household head and asset ownership influenced adoption although their coefficients were only significant at the 15% level of significance. However, labor availability did not affect adoption possibly because there was no difference in labor requirement between OFSP and other varieties grown by the sample farmers.Some of the identified variables mirrored the findings from Mazuze (2005), who observed that adoption of OFSP varieties is affected by the district where the respondent resides, quality of extension and availability of vines to farmers. The study further observed that to spur adoption of OFSP, it was important to identify market opportunities for processed products and link farmers to potential processors and market outlets.According to the results, being in Busia district increased the odds of adopting OFSP than being in Rachuonyo. A farmer in Busia is 54 times more likely to adopt. This could be due to several underlying factors, which included the fact that sweet potato was more commercialized in Rachuonyo District than in Busia District and the yields of the local varieties grown in Rachuonyo were comparable to the yields of OFSP varieties being introduced. More importantly, the short time of programme implementation might not have had sufficient effect on traders\" preferences that might not have been willing to trade in the less familiar OFSP in Rachuonyo Districts. Increasing promotion campaigns targeting traders and consumers might have increased the probability of farmers in Rachuonyo adopting OFSP.The estimated coefficient for the participation variable was statistically significant at the 5% level and had a positive sign (in reference to participants), as hypothesized. The odds for the farmers who were in the programme adopting OFSP were three times higher than those who were not. This was according to the expectation of the programme implementers and researchers, who postulated that collective action resulting from aggregating farmers in commercial villages, would make it easy and cost effective for farmers to access extension services and planting materials. Although the programme was implemented for about 2.5 years, it means that farmers participating in the programme had a higher probability of adopting OFSP. This result offered justification for impact analysis, that is, researchers could conduct a more robust econometric analysis to evaluate the intensity and impact of adoption using differences in differences (DD) as earlier planned.As hypothesized, farmers who had the know-how of processing sweet potatoes were about four times more likely to adopt OFSP than those who did not have the know-how. Some farmers processed sweet potatoes into dried chips for long storage or made sweet potato flour and mixed this with sorghum or millet flour to make porridge, or mixed sweet potato flour with wheat flour for making baked products such as cakes, bread, scones and buns. Although a few farmers sold these products in the markets and institutions such as schools the majority used them at home to improve the nutritional value and reduce the costs of making the products. The products made using OFSP varieties are tastier, nutritious and appealing to farmers and hence farmers were more likely to prefer OFSP for further value addition. This means if dissemination of value addition techniques was included in intervention programmes, the adoption rate would have even been better.The regression results suggested that farmers who had knowledge about the nutritional content of OFSP were about three times more likely to adopt OFSP than those who did not have this knowledge. This was in conformity with a priori expectation as knowledge of the nutritional value of OFSP was likely to motivate adoption of OFSP, especially for home consumption. This means any Kaguongo et al. 499 programme that includes effective training on the nutritional value of OFSP is likely to enhance its adoption.As hypothesized, the results suggest a negative impact of constraint of vines, i.e. farmers who have limitations in accessing vines are less likely to adopt OFSP. However, the odds of not adopting due to constraints of vines were not high (0.104). This could be because most farmers who were not able to preserve planting materials or get them from neighbors were linked to the seed multipliers by the programme, and this reduced the odds of not adopting.The age of the household head had a negative sign as expected. According to the results, if age of the household head increases by one year, the odds in favor of not adopting increase by 2.0%. The main reasons given for older people being less likely to adopt new technologies was that they were said to be less receptive to new ideas and were less willing to take risks. This means there may be a need to review methods of technology dissemination used in the intervention programme to ensure that they are attractive to both young and old farmers.Testing the results of the OLS regression of the transformed dependent variable for heteroscedasticity using the Breusch-Pagan-Godfrey test rejected the OLS model with homoscedasticity ( 2 tabulated = 14.07 and  2 calculated = 88.99). To remedy the heteroscedasticity, a weighted least squares regression was run using White\"s heteroscedasticity-corrected variances (Robust standard errors) using Stata (Gujarati and Sangeetha, 2009).The HC3 estimator was used for heteroscedasticity correction following the suggestion that it is the best estimator, especially in small samples (Long and Ervin, 2000).Results of the transformed logit model revealed that participating in the programme and nutritional knowledge of OFSP did not influence the intensity of adoption of OFSP. However, in addition to site, value addition and constraints of vines, having a child of up to five years and selling any type of sweet potato also significantly influenced the intensity of adoption (Table 4). Having a child of up to five years positively affects intensity of adoption at the 10% level of significance. However, this variable was not significant in the double-censored Tobit model. The results of the double-censored model were similar to those in the logit transformation regression for other variables (Table 5).Site had a positive and statistically significant coefficient in the logit transformation regression results,  indicating that being in Busia had a positive effect on the intensity of adoption. The same site specific reasons affecting adoption were expected to affect intensity of adoption. However, the results indicated that participation did not influence the intensity of adoption. This means once the programme influenced farmers to adopt new varieties, other non-programme factors were more important in determining the proportion of land allocated to OFSP. Similarly, although nutritional knowledge had a positive effect in intensification, it was not statistically significant.Results suggested that having know-how of value addition had a significant positive effect on intensity of adoption. Farmers who had processing techniques were able to earn extra cash from OFSP products (chips, flour and mandazi), and hence they were willing to put a greater proportion of land under OFSP. This suggests that market access was crucial to adoption intensification as suggested by the coefficient of marketing variable which was positive and statistically significant. This means that once programme participation and other factors influenced farmers to grow OFSP, possibly for home consumption, the possibility of marketing the OFSP alongside other varieties increased the likelihood of intensifying adoption. Since OFSP was promoted for both home consumption and marketing, it emerged that those farmers who commercialized any type of sweet potato were more likely to increase the proportion of land under OFSP than those who were not.Logit transformation results also indicated that constraints of vines (planting material) affect intensity of OFSP adoption negatively and significantly. The results from the two regressions (binary logit and logit transformation) mean an intervention programme that includes training farmers on how to preserve their vines and how to source vines is more likely to increase both adoption and intensity of adoption.Although having a child of up to five years of age did not seem to affect adoption of OFSP, its estimated coefficient in the logit transformation regression was positive and statistically significant. This suggests that once the farmer has made decision to adopt OFSP (for other reasons reported in Table 4) having a child of up to five years of age affects the rate of intensification positively. This could mean that the observation by farmers of how their children devoured the OFSP after harvest and the awareness that children benefited the most from consumption of OFSP, which was one of the messages delivered by the programme, probably affected intensification positively.This study evaluated the factors affecting adoption and intensity of adoption of OFSP in Busia and Rachuonyo Districts in Kenya using adoption data collected from 340 farmers in 2009. The main objective was to determine the adoption rate of OFSP, the key factors determining adoption of OFSP and intensity of adoption, and to investigate whether participation in an extension intervention programme significantly increased the probability of adopting OFSP.The empirical results revealed four factors that are important in influencing both adoption of OFSP and the intensity of adoption. These factors include (1) district where the farmer resides, (2) know-how on value addition, (3) knowledge on nutritional value, and (4) availability of vines.The study suggests that to enhance technology adoption and its intensity, the attribute preferences of farmers and site specific factors (such as annual precipitation, soil fertility and performance of local varieties) will have to be integrated into the development of improved varieties and the extension approaches should be packaged so as to build on the value systems and preferences of both experienced and young farmers.The results suggest that yield performance of OFSP in Rachuonyo district is one of the possible areas that need to be addressed to promote adoption at the site. There is a need for intervention packages to address competitiveness of new varieties against local varieties and create awareness of the potential benefits of OFSP among the value chain players. The results also suggest that farmers who had processing (value addition) techniques and those who were linked to a OFSP processor were able to earn extra cash income; hence, had a bigger proportion of land under OFSP. This demonstrates the importance of linking agricultural technology adoption with value addition and marketing. The results underpin the importance of using a value chain intervention and a collective action approach in the framework of a commercial village, where production and marketing innovations are sought, to ensure that the adoption programme succeeds. Knowledge about the desirable features of OFSP varieties and farmers\" participation in the intervention programme also boosted adoption, confirming that adoption interventions need to create awareness, train beneficiaries and engage farmers in the implementation of a programme such as the Traditional Food programme.Availability of vines also affected both adoption and intensity of adoption of OFSP; hence an extension programme should ensure adequate access to vines either through conservation in wetland or irrigated areas or through establishment of a sustainable network of vine multipliers.The age of the household head only affected adoption of OFSP and had no effect on intensity of adoption. The negative effect of age means the promotion campaigns and extension approach should be appropriate for both the young and the aged, and the attributes of the Kaguongo et al. 501 technology need to be adapted to all ages of farmers. Two factors, (1) selling sweet-potato and (2) having a child, affected intensity of adoption and not adoption of OFSP. This implies that market access is very important if an adoption programme has to push adoption of any improved varieties to a higher level. Although adoption of improved varieties may be boosted by the knowledge of nutritional benefits of home consumption, commercialization of the varieties is important for intensification. Targeting households with young children, especially when the main concern is increased consumption of OFSP, is also likely to increase the intensity of use. This also implies that intervention programmes that create awareness of the nutritional benefits of improved varieties to children are more likely to increase adoption intensity.The programme also underscores the importance of creating awareness of nutritional value and commercialization in enhancing adoption of traditional crops commonly viewed as inferior food crops. Finally, it is recommended that the benefits and costs of the programme should be comprehensively studied, considering financial, environmental, poverty and food security dimensions, and the cost effectiveness of using a commercial village approach.","tokenCount":"5530"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"97b6aed1759b3f6e210431b058f8b0e3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c5983634-101f-4a8b-a132-cb826a079286/retrieve","id":"1866692180"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8665447c-b337-4798-8f38-d7f2b99e4469","pagecount":"16","content":"This publication has been prepared as an output of the CGIAR Research Initiative on AgriLAC Resiliente. Any views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily representative of or endorsed by the CGIAR System Organization.Na�onal and local mul�-stakeholder pla�orms are strengthened to become func�onal and sustainable in addressing development tradeoffs and genera�ng strategies for effec�ve food, land, and water transforma�on.CGIAR partners develop and scale innova�ons that contribute to the empowerment of women, youth, and other social groups in food, land, and water systems.Interna�onal NGOs and na�onal farmers/ trade associa�ons scale agrifood system innova�ons with the poten�al to increase the net farm income of smallholders and pastoralists in targeted areas.Producer associa�ons, AgriTech companies, government agencies, NGOs, and public extension services in two LAC countries are empowered by a digitally-enabled ecosystem to offer agro-advisory services to at least 180,000 farmers and other value chain actors to manage climate risk (CRM) more effec�vely and sustainably intensify (SI) produc�on and value chains.Na�onal and local governments in two LAC countries integrate low-emission strategies with development objec�ves at the agro-ecosystem or value chain level, with an expected impact of ~150,000 ha (2022 -2024).Public-private sector, Na�onal Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), and civil society actors across subna�onal agricultural innova�on systems in three LAC countries use InnovaHub learning, knowledge management, and evidence to understand how to accelerate on-farm uptake of socio-ecological-technological (SET) innova�ons by making them more gender-responsive, produc�on-friendly, and context-specific reaching, at least 15,000 people (2022)(2023)(2024).Public and private ins�tu�ons in three LAC countries use CGIAR science, evidence, and tools to inform and shape to Agrifood Systems (AFS) related policies, incen�ves, and ini�a�ves that are more transforma�ve, sustainable, mi�ga�on-comprehensive, and climate adapta�on-friendly (2024 -2030).End hunger for all and enable affordable healthy diets for the 3 billion people who do not currently have access to safe and nutri�ous food.Reduce by at least half the propor�on of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to na�onal defini�ons.Offer rewardable opportuni�es to 267 million young people who are not in employment, educa�on, or training.Implement all Na�onal adapta�on Plans (NAP) and Na�onally Determined Contribu�ons (NDC) to the Paris Agreement.Stay within planetary and regional environmental boundaries: consump�ve water use in food produc�on of less than 2500 km3 per year (with a focus on the most stressed basins), zero net deforesta�on, nitrogen applica�on of 90 Tg per year (with redistribu�on towards low-input farming systems) and increased use efficiency; and phosphorus applica�on of 10 Tg per year.Shaping nutri�on-sensi�ve socioecologicaltechnological (SET) 'best bets' to opera�onalize local AFS transi�on to climate-resilient nutri�on pathways.Inclusive digitally-enabled agro-advisories for risk management.AFS development that meets both mi�ga�on and sustainable development objec�ves.InnovaHub networks for agrifood innova�on and scaling.Science-informed policies, investments and ins�tu�ons.Section 2: Progress on science and towardsThis is a simple, linear, and static representation of a complex, nonlinear, and dynamic reality. Feedback loops and connections between this Initiative and other Initiatives' theories of change are excluded for clarity.End of Initiative outcome AA Action Area IA Impact Area SDG Sustainable Development Goal Note: A summary of Work Package progress ratings is provided in Section 3.The CGIAR Research Initiative on AgriLAC Resiliente has laid the groundwork for achieving its EOIOs in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Peru through agricultural innovation system networks operating at local to regional scales. AgriLAC Resiliente connects with a variety of networks through the Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (MTA in Spanish) placed at the subnational scale, which brings together local, national, and regional actors. The Initiative's InnovaHubs increased the number of actors involved in strengthening climate resilience and ecosystem services, in addition to boosting farm productivity, from 68 to 131. The Initiative generated 122 knowledge products in 2023, 23 of them in collaboration with five CGIAR Initiatives: Digital Innovation, Climate Resilience, National Policies and Strategies, Low-Emission Food Systems, and Livestock and Climate. In 2023, these contributions resulted in publication of one book and three peer-reviewed articles: (i) A review of agronomic research on the milpa, the traditional polyculture system of Mesoamerica (EOIO 1), associated with SET innovations to enhance farmers' livelihoods; (ii) The development of a farmer decision-making mind map to inform climate services in Central America (EOIO 2), enhancing climate information services for more informed decision-making; and (iii) Examination of cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for women's participation in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala (EOIO 5), which will support policy makers in developing tailored interventions using science-based recommendations.AgriLAC Resiliente is making significant progress toward achieving EOIO 1 across Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. This Initiative is enhancing farmers' access to climate-resilient and nutrition-sensitive technologies and validating improved varieties of maize, beans, and rice customized to local conditions for over 2,200 households and close to 8,800 people. Through collaboration, the Initiative established 17 research platforms across Guatemala (2), Honduras (2), and Mexico (13) to validate climate-resilient and nutrition-sensitive technologies. Moreover, two biodiverse plots, one involving an indigenous community, were established in northern Colombia to compare agroecological practices with conventional methods. Insights gained from both the research platforms and the biodiverse plots will better inform producers' decision-making processes and help to refine and develop more tailored technological menus, as well as the MTAs to improve recommendations' technical aspects in local agroclimatic bulletins.Capacity sharing in 1,584 individuals was increased to enhance knowledge on agricultural topics, including postharvest practices to minimize grain loss and food preparation practices to preserve the nutritional value of food prepared by local communities. Two innovations were developed in 2023 aligned with EOIO 1: a user interface of e-Agrology directed to farmers as a one-stop shop where farmers can consult localized decision support for field management and Protocols for developing Food Products from Biofortified Rice. Workshops on marketing strategies resulted in development of prototype products using cocoa and biofortified rice, while knowledge exchanged during the Latin American Agronomic Research Network symposium facilitated collaboration among researchers from the region. These efforts culminated in joint publications, including a review of agronomic research in Mesoamerica and initiatives promoting resilient agricultural practices in Mexico. Toward scaling nutrition-sensitive innovations (EOIO1), significant evidence has been generated regarding the co-innovation and scaling processes of biofortified crops. Through a comprehensive case study, relevant lessons from CGIAR's Harvest Plus program have been compiled to provide insights into the enabling factors and leverage points that drove the scaling of this innovation in a regional context.The progress towards EOIO 2 underscores AgriLAC Resiliente's commitment to empowering organizations in the region to provide digitally enabled agroadvisory services. This benefits smallscale farmers and other stakeholders in managing climate risks and promoting sustainable intensification. Notably, substantial headway has been made in enhancing ETL data processes, particularly in collaboration with pivotal partner organizations such as the Meteorological Services of Guatemala and Honduras. Our collaboration with the Digital Inclusion Initiative led to the development of an e-Agrology innovation, a tailored agronomic data collection and monitoring system for Central America. In 2023, continued training and data analysis, implemented in collaboration with Work Package 4, has proven crucial for improving and effectively using e-Agrology to generate recommendations for small-scale Guatemalan farmers.AgriLAC Resiliente is enhancing information services to support farmers, with significant strides seen in Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico (EOIO 2). In Guatemala and Honduras, scientific advances have enabled mapping information needs and implementing usercentered design. These initiatives improve the usability of local agroclimatic bulletins and drive the design of better information products for small-scale producers in both countries. In Mexico, the Initiative conducted an outcome-harvesting study demonstrating the diverse transformations achieved through MTA. Scaling MTAs to 12 states in Mexico provided approximately 100,000 farmers with essential climate information. Furthermore, empirical evidence has been gathered concerning the facilitating factors and leverage points within the co-innovation and scaling processes of the MTA's network in LAC. This evidence is synthesized in a robust case study, offering vital insights to inform future scaling strategies aimed at further extending the reach of MTA's network (EOIO 2).Progress towards EOIO 3 focused on work with stakeholders in agrifood systems to integrate climate change mitigation within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Colombia and Peru. Opportunities were identified for formulating public policies and supporting territorial peacebuilding, mitigating the effects of climate change, and improving living conditions in conflict-affected areas. Work has highlighted the primary causes of forest loss in Peru, including access to forests and demographic changes. The Initiative also characterized greenhouse gas emissions from cocoa and livestock value chains in Colombia's Caquetá Department. Strategies for improving cocoa chains in Colombia and the Guinean pig value chain in Junín, Peru, will be scaled up and validated at governmental levels. Innovative initiatives such as the Sustainable Cocoa Innovation Challenge in Colombia, the Perumin Inspira Challenge in Peru, and the \"EncontrAR\" knowledge platform have enhanced collaboration and skills among sector entrepreneurs, promoting climate action. An analysis of the relationship between child nutritional problems in Colombia and livestock revealed significant connections, offering opportunities to design strategies that both mitigate climate change and strengthen food security, particularly in high deforestation areas in Colombia and Peru.AgriLAC Resiliente InnovaHubs link various approaches and scales, developed over years with innovation system actors, to address sustainability and climate resilience in addition to productivity issues. In Guatemala and Honduras, InnovaHubs have enhanced farmer and local organization knowledge on topics such as agroclimatic data and soil conservation (EOIO 4). Drawing on past CGIAR successes in the region, including MTAs and climatesmart villages, and using a multisectoral hub approach, similar to one implemented in Mexico, AgriLAC Resiliente aims to adapt and bundle innovations to improve climate resilience, ecosystem services, and nutrition. Annual InnovaHub meetings in both countries foster innovation through collaborative learning and knowledge sharing, with 25 institutions in Guatemala and 14 in Honduras participating in 2023.In line with AgriLAC Resiliente´s commitment to bolstering local capacities and fostering innovation, a comprehensive training strategy has been implemented to empower stakeholders through the InnovaHubs framework (EOIO 4). Emphasizing practical application and knowledge exchange, this strategy ensures that local actors are equipped with the skills necessary to drive agricultural advances effectively. A significant initiative in Guatemala involved establishing a Digital Agricultural plot, supported by the Digital Innovation Initiative and the Centro Universitario de Oriente. Serving as a testing ground for advanced agricultural technologies (EOIO 4), this initiative directly benefits small-scale farmers in the dry corridor of Guatemala, providing them with access to cutting-edge tools and practices aimed at improving productivity and sustainability in their operations.In 2023, the Initiative spearheaded a series of studies in Guatemala aimed at unraveling insights into climate resilience, migration dynamics, and gender roles. These efforts included creating tools to support informed decision making. The public policy mapping helped identify opportunities and feasible applications of an Integrated Agrifood System Initiative (IASI) methodology, resulting in tailored public policy recommendations. This mapping underwent validation with stakeholders and significantly influenced deliberations at the Second National Forum on Migration and Climate Change, in Guatemala. The subnational mapping of key programs and interventions in food security and nutrition, along with studies on women's participation in agricultural activities and climate-induced emigration, reflects a strategic effort toward informed policy formulation and resource optimization in Guatemala.To engage in the policy science interface, we have supported the CAC in activating the Technical Group of Innovation, which gathers the NARS of eight countries. Together they have developed an innovation agenda that AgriLAC will support by enhancing their capacity to develop and scale agricultural innovations in the context of climate change. These initiatives signify progress towards EOIO 5. We also developed a case study about the co-innovation and scaling processes of climate-smart agriculture country profiles, aiming to inform the scaling of socio-institutional innovations and sciencepolicy engagement processes (EOIO 5).The MELIA team is assessing EOIO progress by conducting studies on AgriLAC Resiliente's impact. In Guatemala, they've worked with Work Package 5 to publish research on rural women's challenges and prospects in agriculture. They're measuring the Initiative's effects at three levels: 1) at the farmer level in Guatemala, where they've gathered initial data for future analysis due to budget limits, 2) at the stakeholder level, collecting baseline data from partners for a future social network impact evaluation in 2024, and 3) for meso-and macro-level outcomes, they have devised a qualitative evaluation and plan fieldwork in 2024. AgriLAC reached 2,207 farming households, benefiting some 8,800 people with more nutritious and climate-resilient biofortified seeds in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras.A menu of technologies was adapted to local conditions for maize, rice, and beans and validated in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras.A diagnostic study was made on establishing a rice processing plant to enhance productivity and quality for better access to markets-a prototype product was made with cocoa and a protocol for a prototype of food products was made with biofortified rice.EOIO 2: 180,000 farmers and agrifood system actors in two LAC countries are empowered by a digitally-enabled ecosystem to manage climate risk more effectively.AgriLAC Resiliente scaled information services in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, reaching more than 100,000 farmers.ETL processes -to change how partners manage data -are in place for partners in Guatemala and Honduras.Well-established partnerships, including i.e. deploying weather stations with some partners to target blind spots for meteorological monitoring. Building from the bottom up, many technologies and capacities will underpin the Data Hub.Data analysis with an innovative Explainable Machine Learning analytics workflow enabled the generation of the first set of recommendations for small-scale Guatemalan farmers, which will be disseminated through established delivery channels and as part of the technological menu of the Innova-Hub (with Work Packages 1 and 4).AgriLAC Resiliente developed approaches to integrate climate change mitigation efforts and those aimed at delivering SDGs in Colombia and Peru.In Peru and Colombia, we identified potential to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from the production stage.In Colombia, sustainability strategies for cacao chains were scaled up to governmental levels and have been validated in two departments, while a roadmap for the Guinean pig value chain will be validated in Peru.AgriLAC Resiliente innovated mechanisms to share knowledge among stakeholders through a Sustainable Cocoa Innovation Challenge in Colombia and Perumin Inspira Challenge in Peru and established a knowledge platform (\"EncontrAR\").Analysis of the relationship between child nutritional problems in Colombia and livestock, to open opportunities to design strategies that simultaneously address objectives of climate-change effects mitigation and strengthened food and nutrition security, especially in areas with high deforestation rates in Colombia and Peru.Dedicated efforts fostered collaboration and innovation among stakeholders at the subnational level in Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.Characterization studies implemented in Guatemala and Mexico to map nutrition, market access, and technical information dissemination offered insights into Innova-Hub's impact and challenges regionally. Dedicated efforts were made to disseminate agroclimatic information through MTAs in Guatemala and Mexico and to enhance the reach and usefulness of agroclimatic bulletins.Annual Innova-Hub meetings were conducted to facilitate learnings among agrifood actors in Guatemala and Honduras.EOIO 5: Three LAC countries use CGIAR science to inform and shape agrifood system-related policies, incentives, and initiatives.Newly implemented or continued studies in Guatemala produced insights into climate resilience, migration, and the dynamics of gender roles, and also generated new tools.Public policy mapping in Guatemala on food security, climate change, and migration was finalized and validated with stakeholders and informed discussions at a national forum.Subnational mapping of key programs and interventions in food security and nutrition to identify areas with possible investment gaps and saturation of interventions in Guatemala caught the attention of a group of donors; development of an interactive platform is in process.Two quantitative studies in Guatemala (one with MELIA) led to identifying and designing additional studies for Guatemala and Peru. Set of tools and methods for exploring demand condi�ons (and associated marke�ng opportuni�es) local and regional food systems informing targe�ng and scaling strategies to be used by governments, ins�tu�ons, producer organiza�ons, NGOs, and agri-sector companies.Nutri�on-sensi�ve socioecological-technological (SET) climate-smart innova�ons adapted and co-designed with Agrifood Systems (AFS) actors (farmers, processors, small-medium enterprises (SMEs)), Na�onal Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) enable local AFS in four LAC countries to effec�vely align the technical aspects of transi�on processes with the socio-ecological needs of at least 50,000 beneficiaries (2022)(2023)(2024).Nutri�on-sensi�ve socio-ecologicaltechnological (SET) climate-smart innova�ons adapted and co-designed with Agrifood Systems (AFS) actors, (farmers, processors, small-medium enterprises (SMEs)), Na�onal Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) enable local AFS in four LAC countries to effec�vely align the technical aspects of transi�on processes with the socio-ecological needs of at least 50,000 beneficiaries (2022-2024).In 2023, to facilitate farmers' access to climate-resilient and nutrition-sensitive technologies, locally adapted crop varieties such as maize, rice, and beans were validated with 2,207 households in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras. Seventeen research platforms (1 per Innova-Hub in Guatemala and Honduras, 5 in Chiapas, 5 in Oaxaca, and 3 in the North Pacific hub of Mexico) were implemented with local research partners to validate sustainable production technologies (output 1.1.1). Information on available climate-resilient, nutrition-sensitive technologies was summarized in technological menus for Oaxaca and Sonora and training material produced on good postharvest practices to minimize grain loss. Two biodiverse plots (one of them involving an indigenous community), were implemented in northern Colombia to compare agroecological practices to conventional methods. The results will contribute to decision-making by producers and to the technological menus (Output 1.1.1).Moreover, 1,584 people participated in AgriLAC Resiliente capacity building on topics including seed systems, agricultural practices, postharvest food processing (four training sessions), and markets (Output 1.1.2). A diagnostic study was carried out for establishing a rice processing plant, aiming to enhance productivity and quality for better access to markets. Additionally, 11 workshops were conducted to strengthen marketing strategies as part of the scaling pathway. The Work Package also developed a prototype product made with cocoa and a protocol for a biofortified rice food product prototype (Output 1.1.3). Producer associa�ons, AgriTech companies, government agencies, NGOs, and public extension services in two LAC countries are empowered by a digitally-enabled ecosystem to offer agro-advisory services to at least 180,000 farmers and other value chain actors to manage climate risk (CRM) more effec�vely and sustainably intensity (SI) produc�on and value chains.Work Package 2 progress against the theory of change AgriLAC Resiliente's Work Package 2 is driving a major digital transformation in agro-climate information service delivery and scaling in Latin America. Work Package 2 made substantial progress in all outputs, intermediary outcomes, and research questions. Related to output 2.1.1, ETL processes to fundamentally change how data are managed by Work Package 2 partners are in place for the Meteorological Service of Guatemala (INSIVUMEH), Institute for Climate Change (ICC), the Meteorological Service of Honduras (CENAOS-COPECO), and the Asociación de Organizaciones de Los Chuchumatanes (ASOCUCH). Well-established partnerships (output 2.1.2) underpin the progress. Substantial progress was also made with the World Food Program network of \"climate monitors\" and rain gauges. Notably, in the case of CENAOS-COPECO, the ETL effort has been implemented together with deploying 10 weather stations specifically targeting \"blind spots\" for meteorological monitoring. These processes have helped build, from the bottom up, many of the technologies and capacities that will underpin the Data Hub. Alongside the ETL and data management transformation efforts, a technological and partner scoping of the Data Hub has begun, delivering a clear roadmap for implementation, with initial focus in Guatemala. The roadmap includes both the technological (output 2.1.1) and the partnership (output 2.1.2) aspects to implement, deploy, and sustain the Data Hub. Continued training in collaboration with Work Package 4 has been critical for the continued improvement and use of e-Agrology. Data analysis of legacy data with an innovative Explainable Machine Learning analytics workflow has generated the first set of recommendations for small-scale Guatemalan farmers. These will be included as part of the MTAs' regional network and climate information delivery and scaling channels (bulletins, WhatsApp, AClimate) and as part of the technological menu of the Innova-Hub (in collaboration with Work Packages 1 and 4). These tools and approaches are all new additions to an already rich digital ecosystem fostered and enhanced by Work Package 2 (output 2.1.3). Lastly, information services (output 2.1.4) are being delivered at scale in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. In Mexico, a recent outcome harvesting study documents the various transformations produced by AgriLAC Resiliente. For Guatemala and Honduras, scientific progress has allowed a comprehensive mapping of information needs, as well as implementation of user research in both Honduras and Guatemala. These efforts are already improving the usability of agro-climate bulletins and helping to drive the design of improved information products for small-scale producers across both countries (see for example: Agroclimatic bulletins for farmers, Radio spots, and Agroclimatic bulletins). All Work Package 2 theory of change assumptions hold thus far. Na�onal and local governments in two LAC countries integrate low-emission strategies with development objec�ves at the agro-ecosystem or value chain level, with an expected impact of ~150,000 ha (2022-2024).Na�onal and local governments in two LAC countries integrate low-omission strategies with development objec�ves at the agro-ecosystem or value chain level with an expected impact of ~150,000 ha (2022)(2023)(2024).Public-private sector, Na�onal Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), and civil society actors across subna�onal agricultural innova�on systems in three LAC countries use InnovaHub learning, knowledge management, and evidence to understand how to accelerate on-farm uptake of socio-ecologicaltechnological (SET) innova�ons by making them more gender-responsive, produc�on-friendly, and context-specific reaching, at least 15,000 people (2022-2024).During 2023, we combined our efforts with agrifood system stakeholders to develop approaches that integrate climate-change mitigation efforts with those aimed at achieving relevant SDGs in Colombia and Peru. The Work Package also generated data, knowledge, and innovations to address the challenges posed by climate change in territories affected by armed conflict. This was achieved by identifying opportunities that could be enhanced through public policy formulation and implementing actions specifically aimed at contributing to territorial peacebuilding, climate-change mitigation, and improved living conditions.In Peru, access to forests, when coupled with demographic changes and the expansion of agricultural infrastructure, significantly contributes to forest loss. Enhanced accessibility to forests can expedite deforestation by amplifying human activities that directly or indirectly result in depletion of forest resources. In Colombia, we worked in the Caquetá department, where GHG emissions from cocoa and livestock value chains were characterized. In both countries, we identified the potential to reduce emissions from the value-chain production stage. This could become a reality with the help of sustainability strategies for Colombian cocoa chains, which were scaled up to governmental levels and have been validated in Caquetá and Cesar, while Guinean pig value chain was chosen for validation in Junín.We also innovated the way knowledge is transmitted among stakeholders through a Sustainable Cocoa Innovation Challenge in Colombia, Perumin Inspira Challenge in Peru, and the establishment of a knowledge platform named \"EncontrAR,\" which promotes learning and growth among sector entrepreneurs and fosters climate action. This is achieved through collaboration and the contribution of individuals with diverse skills and profiles, providing them with opportunities to improve their technical and business management skills, evaluating potential markets, analyzing financial instruments, and designing a roadmap for accessing sources of funding.Lastly, we have analyzed the relationship between child nutrition problems in Colombia and livestock, finding a significant connection for integrating climate-change mitigation objectives and SDGs. This generates big opportunities for designing effective strategies that simultaneously address climate change mitigation and food and nutrition security objectives, especially in areas in Colombia and Peru with high deforestation rates. Public-private sector, Na�onal Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), and civil society actors across subna�onal agricultural innova�on systems in three LAC countries use InnovaHub learning, knowledge management, and evidence to understand how to accelerate on-farm uptake of socio-ecological-technological (SET) innova�ons by making them more gender-responsive, produc�on-friendly, and context-specific reaching, at least 15,000 people (2022-2024).Producer associa�ons, AgriTech companies, government agencies, NGOs, and public extension services in two LAC countries are empowered by a digitally-enabled ecosystem to offer agro-advisory services to at least 180,000 farmers and other value chain actors to manage climate risk (CRM) more effec�vely and sustainably intensity (SI) produc�on and value chains.Public and private ins�tu�ons in three LAC countries use CGIAR science, evidence, and tools to inform and shape to Agrifood Systems (AFS) related policies, incen�ves, and ini�a�ves that are more transforma�ve, sustainable, mi�ga�oncomprehensive, and climate adapta�on-friendly (2024-2030).Work Package 4's annual report on InnovaHubs documents collaborations and innovations in Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, with intensified characterization studies in Central America. In Guatemala, emphasis is on nutrition and market access, while in Mexico, an infographic guide details InnovaHubs' regional impact. Communication and outreach are critical for scaling innovations and fostering stakeholder engagement through in-field achievements (output 4.1.1).A targeted training strategy bolsters local stakeholder capacities within InnovaHubs, fostering communities of practice among professionals, extensionists, farmers, and scientists to exchange knowledge and best practices (output 4.1.2). The dissemination of agroclimatic information via the MTAs' network in Guatemala and Mexico aims to improve accessibility and comprehension among farmers, aiming to enhance the reach and usefulness of agroclimatic bulletins.Local partners in InnovaHubs provide technical support for farmers through co-learning spaces and extension areas, facilitating the adoption of field recommendations for improved agriculture practices. Furthermore, in Oaxaca, Mexico, the agriculture ministry aligns interventions with InnovaHubs, resulting in over 20,000 registered farmers' fields with researcher support (Output 4.1.3 and Output 4.1.4). A Digital Agricultural plot was established in Guatemala in partnership with the Digital Innovation Initiative, serving as a testing ground for advanced agricultural technologies, benefiting small-scale farmers in the dry corridor (Output 4.1.4).Annual InnovaHub meetings in Guatemala and Honduras facilitated knowledge exchange among agrifood actors, fostering innovation through collaborative learning and adaptation to local contexts. In November 2023, the second round of these meetings occurred in diverse locations across Guatemala and Honduras, gathering 25 and 14 institutions respectively. These gatherings identified local needs and research priorities, strengthening positive impacts, and advancing innovation network management. Agrifood actors collaborate to support capacity development in each InnovaHub's operational space, promoting regional agricultural advancement (Output 4.1.5).Engagement strategy with strategic Na�onal and Regional partners and stakeholders to support AgriLAC's outcomes achievement including scaling and impact-oriented efforts.Comprehensive assessment of migra�on drivers, including socioeconomic, environmental, security, and cultural factors that force or push people to relocate. Integrated Agrifood System Ini�a�ve (IASI) strategies plan to recommend strategies, ac�ons, and quan�ta�ve, SDG-aligned targets with high likelihood of suppor�ve public and private investment.Assessments of Women and youth agricultural prac�ces and adop�on of new technologies given their specific constraints and informa�onal needs while considering their skills, knowledge and aspira�ons.Monitoring and targe�ng tool mapping key interven�ons and actors combined with a comprehensive profile at the subna�onal level to iden�ty opportuni�es to improve investments in agrifood systems.Public and private ins�tu�ons in three LAC countries, use CGIAR science, evidence, and tools to inform and shape to Agrifood Systems (AFS)-related policies, incen�ves, and ini�a�ves that are more transforma�ve, sustainable, mi�ga�on-comprehensive, and climate adapta�on-friendly (2024)(2025)(2026)(2027)(2028)(2029)(2030).Public and private ins�tu�ons in three LAC countries use CGIAR science, evidence, and tools to inform and shape to Agrifood Systems (AFS) related policies, incen�ves, and ini�a�ves that are more transforma�ve, sustainable, mi�ga�on-comprehensive, and climate adapta�on-friendly (2024-2030).In 2023, the Work Package 5 conducted and continued several studies in Guatemala focused on producing insights into climate resilience, migration, and the dynamics of gender roles, and creating tools.Work Package 5 finalized the public policy mapping in Guatemala on food security, climate change, and migration. This identified opportunities and the most feasible applications of the IASI methodology that should lead to customized public policy recommendations. This document underwent a validation process with stakeholders and informed the discussions at the Second National Forum on Migration and Climate Change in Guatemala (output 5.1.4).In addition, Work Package 5 achieved its goal of engaging with AgriLAC Resiliente partners by facilitating consultations at InnovaHubs' annual meetings in Guatemala and Honduras organized by Work Package 4. The consultations aimed to align the Initiative's objectives with partners' needs using a bottom-up approach. (output 5.1.4).The subnational mapping of key programs and interventions in food security and nutrition to identify areas with possible investment gaps and saturation of interventions caught the attention of a group of 13 donors in Guatemala and a related exercise is being performed with them, including developing an interactive platform. This will help to better coordinate and complement efforts between stakeholders and streamline effective use of resources for implementating food security and nutrition actions and programs across the country (output 5.1.3).Two quantitative studies were finalized in Guatemala: i) Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural and livestock activities (a collaboration with MELIA published in a special issue and presented at various forums, The team optimized available (reduced) resources to collaboratively deliver a streamlined research approach that developed nutrition-sensitive and climate-smart technologies. This was done with local agrifood system actors in four countries. Working together in a research network is enhancing local capacities from production to market access. It is forming the base of innovation and adaptation in the InnovaHubs (Work Package 4).Progress was made according to plans, with all theory of change assumptions still holding. All four major Work Package 2 outputs are on track, namely, Data Hubs and data architecture modernization, new partnerships and partnership models, a climate risk management toolkit, and improved information services for farmers and small-and mediumsized agricultural enterprises (Ag. SMEs). In particular, we highlight the data management and analysis transformation in INSIVUMEH, ICC, and CENAOS-COPECO, as well as several farmer organizations, and the continued delivery of agroadvisories that stem from MTAs and are scaled through digital channels.The annual progress in Peru and Colombia is largely aligned with the Plan of Results and Budget and the theory of change of Work Package 3. This is evidenced by the development of low-emission sustainable development strategies that integrate the SDGs and help foster the participation of local stakeholders. Progress has also been made in developing instruments to promote markets for investments in climate change mitigation at the value chain level. Planned outputs have been developed, such as those associated with the methodological framework, digital innovations, and science-and market-based solutions.InnovaHubs in Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico have been consolidated and established. They form the operational base for the subnational actors, including farmers and their associations, local governments, and civil society to operate around a common goal, which includes establishing field infrastructures. Here, technicians and farmers work together to implement and validate best-bet recommendations related to agronomy and climate advisory and digital extension services, as well as local action towards social inclusion. Capacity development schemes are being implemented around this infrastructure and integrate the MTAs' experiences but at a local agroecology scale. Within these, local actors connect and exchange experiences to establish collaborative plans and priorities.Work Package 5 successfully met its objectives for 2023, completing all the planned studies on climate change, migration, and gender, as well as conducting a comprehensive national mapping of public policies in Guatemala. Additionally, Work Package 5 effectively engaged with InnovaHub partners, providing valuable information to support decision-making processes following a bottom-up approach. The subnational mapping exercise of interventions has garnered interest from key stakeholders in the country, significantly contributing to the achievement of the Initiative's outcomes. Overall, the Work Package is on track and all major theory of change assumptions remain valid.  37), as outlined in Figure 1 above. Notably, within the outputs category, there was a significant uptick in the production of knowledge products (125 more than in 2022) and in capacity sharing for development (145 more than in 2022). Moreover, 5 additional innovations were developed in 2023. In the outcomes category, 21 more CGIAR innovations were used in 2023 than in 2022 and 5 new policy changes were documented.Not targeted: The result did not target any of the Impact Area objec�ves.The result has made a significant contribu�on to any of the Impact Area objec�ves, even though the objec�ve(s) is not the principal focus of the result.The result is principally about mee�ng any of the Impact Area objec�ves, and this is fundamental in its design and expected results. The result would not have been undertaken without this objec�ve. The chart above reflects how results of AgriLAC Resiliente reported in 2022 and 2023 have significantly contributed to the five CGIAR impact areas, primarily in Climate change adaptation and mitigation (155), Nutrition, health and food security (36), Gender equality, youth, and social inclusion (25), Environmental health and biodiversity ( 16), and Poverty reduction, livelihoods, and jobs (5).Keywords within the Initiative's knowledge products c l i m a t e c h a n g e AgriLAC's results notably contribute to SDGs, particularly in addressing No Poverty (SDG1), Climate Action (SDG13), and Gender Equality (SDG5), with over 300 contributions each, while also aligning with broader aims to combat hunger, promote sustainable land use, and foster inclusive economic growth. Over the past two years, AgriLAC Resiliente has produced a diverse range of knowledge products, including 70 reports, 11 briefs, 9 journal articles, 6 manuals, 5 working papers, 5 case studies, 3 posters, 2 books, and 1 dataset. These resources serve as valuable repositories of insights into agricultural resilience. Moreover, it has also developed 37 dissemination products, such as presentations, blog posts, videos, audio recordings, brochures, press items, infographics, and newsletters.The innova�on is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under uncontrolled condi�onsThe innova�on is tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under uncontrolled condi�onsThe innova�on is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under semi-controlled condi�onsThe innova�on is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under semi-controlled condi�onsThe innova�on is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under fully-controlled condi�onsThe innova�on is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under fully-controlled condi�onsThe innova�on's key concepts have been validated for their ability to achieve a specific impact F���������� The innova�on's key concepts are being formulated or designedThe innova�on's basic principles are being researched for their ability to achieve a specific impactThe innova�on is at idea stage AgriLAC has developed 14 innovations, comprising 7 technological, 6 capacity development, and 1 policy, organizational, or institutional innovation. These innovations span incremental (10), disruptive (3), and radical (1) categories. Incremental innovations denote existing innovations undergoing constant progress and improvement, built upon previous CGIAR work in the region. Disruptive innovations introduce new concepts necessitating significant reconfiguration of farming, market, and policy/business models. Radical innovations introduce entirely new products, systems, or services without necessitating major reconfiguration of existing models. Data here represents an overview of reported results in 2022 and 2023. One result can impact multiple countries and can therefore be represented multiple times.AgriLAC Resiliente strengthened the agricultural, climate resilience and market capacities of 4,833 individuals across Latin America and the Caribbean, collaborating with 64 partners (Figure 6 The AgriLAC Resiliente external partner network responds to the systemic and on-demand approach of the Initiative. This network of partners has strong experience and capacities at different levels throughout the Latin America and the Caribbean agrifood system. AgriLAC Resiliente's external partners have been selected based on their previous and current successful collaborations and partnerships with CGIAR as well as their expertise and skills, farmer outreach and delivery capabilities, and capacity to influence public policy.The extensive external partner network boasts an impressive array of over 150 organizations strategically distributed throughout the region. AgriLAC Resiliente has collaborated with government institutions to strengthen their institutional capacities and respond to the demands of public policy with science-driven initiatives (EOIO 2, EOIO 3, EOIO 5). Key collaborations include the ministries of agriculture in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, as well as the meteorological services in Guatemala and Honduras. These partnerships are essential to ensure that agricultural policies and strategies are backed by robust scientific evidence and implemented effectively to promote sustainable development in the region. Less resultsConnections are sized by the number of reported results. Collaborations where only one result was reported with a linkage between two Initiatives are excluded.Source: Data extracted from the CGIAR Results Dashboard on 7 March 2024.Portfolio linkages and AgriLAC Resiliente's impact pathways With Climate Resilience, we generated knowledge products related to agroclimatic information through the work of the MTAs, together with the Livestock and Climate Initiative. The information generated by the MTAs increasingly allows more people (especially farmers) access to agroclimatic data, enabling them to make informed and timely field decisions. This information has been disseminated through different mechanisms, such as radio adverts, characterized by their reach to remote rural areas with easily understandable messages, thanks to the comprehensive approach inherent in the human-centered design methodology, WhatsApp, and technicians using this information when supporting farmers.From our collaboration with the Low-Emission Food Systems and National Policies and Strategies Initiatives, we generated knowledge product tools addressing deforestation. This has been through assessing and designing instruments that enabled the construction of two strategies for the sustainability of the cocoa value chain in Cesar and Caquetá in Colombia. These were complemented by a financial analysis of the potential of carbon markets for cocoa production systems, leading to the design of a mixed financial mechanism and evaluation of its potential.These partnerships have been key to promoting the use of innovations, which include biofortified seeds and climate information services among other innovations. Some of the innovations we generated, together with the Digital Innovation Initiative, include the in situ monitoring system in the dry corridor of Guatemala, which provides precise information about climate and soil to enable producers to overcome their unique challenges.Several results were achieved through the contribution from non-pooled projects. With the Fortalecimiento de Resiliencia de la Producción de Maíz en Guatemala project (International Cooperation and Development Fund), we were able to develop an R package to provide users with convenient access to a wide range of agroclimatic forecasts offered in the AClimate platform. With the ProResiliencia project (European Union funder), we continued the use of Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA). This is a knowledge product that proposes an approach of agricultural extension and climate services. This product helps farmers to formulate plans and decisions adapted to individual farmer contexts according to their production system. This highlights the importance of collaborating with other components of CGIAR portfolio, to increase our reach and impact.Section 7: Adaptive managementModify EOIO 2 by increasing the number of countries from two to three.EOIO 2: Producer associations, AgriTech companies, government agencies, NGOs, and public extension services in three LAC countries are empowered by a digitally enabled ecosystem to offer agro-advisory services to at least 180.000 farmers and other value chain actors to manage climate risk more effectively and sustainably intensify production and value chains.The adjustments stem from the scaling efforts undertaken by the Agriculture Secretariat (SADER) in Mexico. These efforts have enabled Work Package 2 to leverage the MTAs and the InnovaHub network of agroclimatic information services, thereby gaining deeper insights into the network and collaborating with partners to improve the delivery of agroclimatic services. Furthermore, the adjustments align with a more precise identification of the capacities of organizations capable of participating in digital agriculture initiatives.Modify EOIO 3 by adjusting the narrative to incorporate two strategies instead of two countries.Two national or local governments or key stakeholders in LAC countries integrate low-emission strategies with development objectives at the agro-ecosystem or value chain level, with an expected impact of around 150,000 ha.We are giving more emphasis to the number of strategies than the number of countries. These changes are proposed in the context of budgetary changes, and our capacity to align bilateral funding toward accomplishing the outcome.Modify EOIO 5 by decreasing the number of countries from three to two.Public and private institutions in two LAC countries use CGIAR science, evidence, and tools to inform and shape agrifood system-related policies, incentives, and initiatives that are more transformative, sustainable, mitigation-comprehensive, and climate adaptation-friendly (2024-2030).The adjustment in the EOIO stems from budget reallocations, which necessitated prioritizing specific activities within certain countries, and the time needed to produce essential outputs such as knowledge products, instruments, and tools. These outputs play a crucial role in informing local stakeholders and have the potential to shape initiatives and policies in the designated countries.Cacao training on harvest and post-harvest processes, San Vicente Chucurí, Colombia. Credit: Juan Pablo Marín.Section 8: Key result story  For many years, the states of Cesar and Caquetá in Colombia have suffered severely from armed violence. This has led to forced displacement and a slowdown in various economic activities, with coordination between public and private entities and farmers' associations to implement effective development plans in the cocoa value chain hindered.A sustainable land use system (SLUS) project and CGIAR's AgriLAC Resiliente and Low-Emission Food Systems Initiatives have worked together to i) consolidate and empower communities through cocoa committees; ii) coordinate interinstitutional interactions, and iii) formalize processes to position cocoa cultivation as an alternative way to reforest and restore degraded landscapes. These activities have supported land restitution and formalization, forest conservation, and the development of sustainable business models based on cocoa cultivation to increase carbon storage and improve rural livelihoods.Establishing close coordination between the key local and national actors in Colombia's cocoa sector was an imperative. The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Environment, the Departmental Secretariats, the National Cocoa Council, the cocoa industry, research institutions, marketers and producers continue to work together to further scale and improve the value chain with a clear and sustainable strategic plan. In it, work continues to expand training in low-emissions practices, with a focus on sustainable land use systems such as cocoa agroforestry and silvopastoral production-systems that can enhance people's livelihoods while protecting their environments.This process aims to reconcile climate-change mitigation objectives with development objectives, integrating i) the territorial approach, focused on local decisions on land use, and ii) the market approach, which considers the dynamics of the value chain and consumer decisions in sustainable food systems. This approach will continue to add the participation of more actors with compatible business models. In turn this will overcome identified farm-and value-chainlevel barriers, in addition to measuring the contribution to climatechange mitigation and peacebuilding in the country.Promoting sustainable cocoa involves increasing its production and ensuring that it is done efficiently and sustainably. This includes expanding distribution channels for certified plant material, which guarantees not only crop quality but also its long-term sustainability. Furthermore, the exchange of technical knowledge and institutional strengthening is crucial for identifying and prioritizing needs and establishing specific actions that contribute to the sustainable development of the region, thus fostering local economic growth and improving the livelihoods of cocoa farmers. By strengthening the coordination among actors in the production chain, a solid foundation is created that facilitates continuous strengthening and effective management. This strategic collaboration not only benefits farmers by improving their practices and increasing their productivity but also promotes sustainable practices and more responsible management of natural resources.Thus, the sustainable development of crops and rural communities depends to a large extent on the promotion of economic activities such as cocoa cultivation carried out in productive and environmentally friendly ways. This requires not only efficient crop management but also institutional measures that strengthen infrastructure and generate equitable opportunities for all involved. By prioritizing sustainability and equity in rural development, we can build a more prosperous and harmonious future for communities, where agriculture and environmental conservation go hand in hand.Cocoa has become an opportunity to generate income, to put down roots, and to start over-with more knowledge, more care for the environment, more sense of belonging and more trust in farmers, including those who were displaced by violence. ","tokenCount":"7163"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1e0eaba600627fae94135c73ef9e2cb5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fc621161-b58f-41cc-8375-02cdc68db2fd/retrieve","id":"-1279977896"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0539e3d7-8764-4709-9013-46be1e99ae82","pagecount":"32","content":"6. The Casamance is characterized by forests and savannah with trees (CIRAD, 2015). Its agricultural production includes mainly rain-fed rice along with diverse other crops. With a total surface area of 28,324 km2, it is divided into three zones-lower, middle, and upper. The region faces challenges such as lowland soil acidification, water erosion, a loss of forest diversity, increased soil salinization, iron toxicity, and acute mangrove degradation (Alessandro et al., 2015).FIGURE 1: Agro-ecological zones of Senegal (left), cropped areas (center), and areas with pastures (right). Data for the left panel were adapted from the Directorate of Water, Forests and Hunting Conservation, and the center and right panels were taken from Ramankutty et al., 2008. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FIGURE 2: Current crop suitability in Senegal - --------------------------------------------------------------------FIGURE 3: Changes in suitability for selected value chains by the 2050s for RCP 4.5. 1.0 denotes increasing suitability and -1.0 a loss in suitability. ---------------------------------------------FIGURE 4: Spatial distribution of natural hazards across Senegal - ---------------------------------------  -----------------------FIGURE 8: Vulnerability difference between RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 for 2050s --------------------------FIGURE 9: Contribution of different agricultural value chains to overall climate change vulnerability by the 2050s for RCP 4.5. Supplementary Figure S4 in the Annex show results for RCP 8.5 by the 2050s.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FIGURE S1. Crop suitability of the nine value chains by the 2050s for RCP 4.5 -----------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TABLES TABLE 1: Key natural hazards in Senegal - --------------------------------------------------------------------------TABLE 2: Adaptive capacity variables used in the vulnerability assessment for Senegal --------viiThe Adaptation and Valorization of Entrepreneurship in Irrigated Agriculture (AVENIR) project aims to improve the socioeconomic well-being and resilience of farming households in the regions of Sedhiou and Tambacounda, Senegal. The project focuses on smallholder-irrigated systems through promotion of climate-adapted irrigation and agricultural practices, particularly for women and young people. AVENIR seeks to promote crop diversification through the integration of rice, agroforestry, and horticulture. In Goudiry and Tambacounda Departments within Tambacounda Region, the project focuses on rice, baobab and horticulture value chains. In Bounkiling and Goudomp departments within Sédhiou Region, the project focuses on rice, mango, cashew, and horticulture value chains. Among the important associated crops prioritized in the two regions are ditakh (Detarium senegalense), madd (Saba senegalensis), onion, okra, and pepper.The vulnerability assessment for the selected crops in Senegal is based on the interaction of sensitivity to change, exposure, and adaptive capacity. We use the conceptual framework of climate-related risk from the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II (WGII) to examine the impacts that climate change is likely to have on agriculture and food security. The ultimate purpose of this study is to assess if the future climate has a neutral (no change), negative (decreasing), or positive (increasing) impact on crop productivity, and to identify regions of concern and opportunities for climate change adaptation. We used the Maxent ecological models under intermediate and high-emission climate scenarios -Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5, respectively -to assess the sensitivity of nine crops to climate change: rice, baobab, cashew, mango, okra, onion, pepper, madd and ditakh. To produce a crop-specific vulnerability index and a final accumulative score, we combined the components of vulnerability using equal weighting. We have also mapped the hotspots of climate change vulnerability and identified the underlying driving indicators. For example, we found that the south, east, and southeastern regions are most vulnerable, especially Tambacounda, Kaffrine, Sedhiou, Kolda, and Kedougou regions. There is a high vulnerability for baobab trees and cashew to the north, as well as cashews, ditakh, okra, onions, and rice to the northeast. This study highlights how the adaptive capacity of the farming population can be enhanced by augmenting access to education and health services, improving nutrition, and developing infrastructure for marketing, transportation, and irrigation.Senegal is in western Africa on the Atlantic Coast between the latitudes of 12°30° and 16°30°N and the longitudes of 11°30° and 17°30°W. The southern region of Senegal has a sub-tropical climate, while the northern region lies in a sub-tropical, semi-arid belt called the Sahel (Mcsweeney et al., 2008). Rainfall is mainly controlled by the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) (Lucio, 2012). The movement of the ITCZ determines the onset and duration of the rainy season (Salack et al., 2011). For example, the south has more rainy days and a longer rainy season than the drier north.Temperatures in Senegal exhibit an east-to-west gradient, such that inland temperatures are normally higher than along the coastline, with the highest temperatures occurring in the northeastern parts of the country (Fall et al., 2006). Matam region located in the northeast, for instance, experiences a maximum temperature of above 40°C in the hottest month of May. The coastal regions, on the other hand, experience cooler temperatures between 25°C to 28°C (Mcsweeney et al., 2008). In the cooler seasons, average temperatures can fall below 25°C at the coast but still climb to 30°C in the east (Fall et al., 2006).Rainfall begins in the southeast around May or June, and spreads northwest throughout the summer months through September (Marteau et al., 2009). August accumulates the highest amount of rainfall (Camberlin and Diop, 2003). The dry season, on the other hand, lasts for about six months in the south and eight months in the north. The highest seasonal rainfall is received in the southern parts of the country, measuring approximately 1000 mm, while the northern parts receive less than 400 mm (USAID, 2017(USAID, , 2015)). The rainy season ceases with the migration of the ITCZ to the south around October (Nicholson, 2018).The agricultural sector of Senegal contributes about 17% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), employing more than 70% of the workforce (World Bank, 2018). Senegal is one of the most stable and promising countries in West Africa with great potential to increase its agriculture-led economic growth (USAID, 2015). However, a large portion of Senegal's landmass lies within the Sahel, which is arid and highly prone to droughts (Mcsweeney et al., 2008). This location makes rain-fed agricultural production highly variable, a situation that climate change is exacerbating (D ' Alessandro et al., 2015).Senegal is divided into six agro-ecological zones (Figure 1) based on biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics (Alessandro et al., 2015;CIRAD, 2015). Moving from north to south, these are the following:1. The Senegal River Valley characterized by alluvial plains and sandy uplands with irrigated rice production; it covers a surface area of 9,658 km 2 . Most agricultural production occurs with irrigation (Alessandro et al., 2015). Although salinity is a problem in some areas, much of the land has high fertility levels because of regular flooding and siltation.2. The Niayes on the Atlantic coast features a temperate climate and produces fruits and vegetables (CIRAD, 2015). This 100km -280km strip occupies 2,759 km 2 . Niayes is a densely populated area and faces challenges including soil and water salinity and coastal erosion (Alessandro et al., 2015).3. The sylvo-pastoral zone of north-central Senegal supports extensive livestock production and covers 55,561 km 2 (CIRAD, 2015).4. The Groundnut Basin of south-central Senegal is a zone of savannah dominated by groundnut and millet production (CIRAD, 2015). It covers an area of 46,367 km 2 and is densely populated. Ecosystem degradation and depletion of land resources, mainly soil fertility and timber resources, affect the area (Alessandro et al., 2015). Because of upland soil acidification and lowland salinity, soil regeneration has declined.5. Eastern Senegal is characterized by savannah with trees. Its agricultural production involves primarily cotton and livestock. It covers an area of 56 529km 2 (Tappan et al., 2004) and is subject to rampant rural poverty because of extreme population pressure on natural resources, despite its robust agropastoral potential (Alessandro et al., 2015).La Casamance est caractérisée par des forêts et des savanes arborées (CIRAD, 2015). Sa production agricole comprend principalement le riz pluvial ainsi que diverses autres cultures. Avec une superficie totale de 28 324 km2, elle est divisée en trois zones -basse, moyenne et haute. La région est confrontée à des défis tels que l'acidification des sols au niveau des zones basses, l'érosion de l'eau, la perte de la diversité forestière, la salinisation accrue des sols, la toxicité ferreuse et la dégradation aiguë des mangroves (Alessandro et al., 2015). The topography of Senegal is generally flat with rolling sandy plains but rises to hills in the southeast.Most areas have elevations of less than 100 m above sea level. Senegal encompasses over 19 million ha of land, of which only about 20% or 3.9 million ha are suitable for arable crops. The rest comprises undeveloped bush and arid areas used for livestock grazing (Alessandro et al., 2015). Around 40% of the arable land is constantly cultivated, although 10% receives less than 500 mm of rainfall per year, which limits crop production. Only 10% of the cultivated land is under irrigation, mainly along the Senegal River and in the Casamance (Peterson et al., 2006). This challenge aligns with the goal of the AVENIR project, which aims to improve access for irrigation technologies and improve the governance and management of water resources, working with government, civic groups, and market actors in Sédhiou and Tambacounda regions.Population increases have led to land pressure (Place and Otsuka, 2000), which in turn has brought about soil degradation and declining soil fertility due to many years of unsuitable agricultural practices such as tillage practices, mono-cropping, and incorrect use of chemical inputs (Doso Jnr, 2014;Sow et al., 2015). Soils in most areas have low percentages of clay and organic matter and therefore low cation exchange capacities, resulting in increased vulnerability to nutrient depletion (Mahé et al., 2002;Matlon, 1987).Millet, rice, maize, and sorghum are the major food crops grown in Senegal. Other crops such as groundnuts, sugarcane and cotton are important cash crops. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables are grown for local and export markets. Cowpeas and cotton are also cultivated. Because food production does not meet domestic demand, the country imports rice and wheat (Diagne et al., 2013). Senegal exports cotton, groundnuts, and horticultural products, mainly green beans, tomatoes, cashew and mangoes (D 'Alessandro et al., 2015).Crop production in Senegal falls into several categories: subsistence smallholders, commercial smallholders, and pure commercial producers (D' Alessandro et al., 2015). Subsistence smallholders produce food mainly for consumption with occasional surplus for sale, while commercial smallholders produce cash crops for sale and some food crops for their own consumption. About 90% of the rural population of Senegal are involved in livestock production, which accounts for 30% of the country's GDP (Diagne et al., 2013). Livestock includes cattle, goats, sheep, and poultry farming. The cattle provide plowing power which is used in cropped lands (D' Alessandro et al., 2015).Senegal is highly vulnerable to risks associated with climate change (USAID, 2017). Years of erratic rainfall patterns and rising sea level has led to increased soil erosion, agricultural soil salinization, and the destruction of infrastructure. Droughts and floods associated with climate change have increased the country's vulnerability to food security (Fall, 2020). In the Senegal River Valley, the Niayes, and the Casamance, agriculture and fisheries are some of the main economic activities, and they are highly vulnerable to reductions in rainfall, coastal erosion, salt water intrusion, and flooding (Fall, 2020).The methodology used to prepare this report hinges on the conceptual framework of climate-related risk from the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II to explore the potential consequences of climate change for agriculture and food security (Adger, 2006;O'brien et al., 2007;Sharma and Ravindranath, 2019). The IPCC defines vulnerability as \"the extent to which a natural or social system is susceptible to sustaining damage from climate change impacts, and is a function of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity\". The impact of climate change on agriculture and livelihoods therefore can be conceptualized as the aggregation of these components (Foden et al., 2013).Exposure refers to the amount of climate variation to which a system could be subjected by hazards. Sensitivity, meanwhile, is the degree to which the system could be affected by that exposure. Finally, adaptive capacity is the ability to adjust, cope with, or benefit from expected climate variations. The analysis was implemented by obtaining indicators relevant to Senegal for each dimension of vulnerability. These indicators were then aggregated as shown in equation 1 below to compute the vulnerability of each crop and administrative unit or arrondissement.In the vulnerability framework we use here, the vulnerability of each crop is calculated using crop-specific sensitivities, exposure to natural hazards, and a series of indicators of adaptive capacity (equation 1), and the results are then summed up to obtain overall vulnerability (Parker et al. 2019). Where i denotes each crop; Growing area refers to the extent of suitable area for the crop i; Total area pertains to all crops; S i is the sensitivity of the value chain i; Ei represents the exposure of each crop; and AC is the adaptive capacity.Sensitivity index, Si, was determined by computing the difference between the future and current crop suitability followed by normalizing the values to a scale ranging from -1 and 1. Exposure indices, Ei was determined by obtaining the variables representing the value chains exposure such as aridity, flood etc. and extracting the values for each arrondissement. The resulting values were then normalized to a scale ranging from 0 and 1. Adaptive capacity, AC on the other hand was determined by obtaining the variables that enhance the adaptive capacity of Senegal such as literacy rate, health, poverty etc. and extracting the values for each arrondissement. The resulting values were also normalized to a scale ranging from 0 and 1. Crop suitability was modelled for nine selected crops: baobab, cashew, ditakh, madd, mango, onion, okra, pepper, and rice, using the Maxent suitability model package in R Statistical software (Figure 2). These crops were selected from a value chain study conducted for the AVENIR project in February to March 2020, which identified these as the most promising crops for socio-economic progress in the regions of Tambacounda and Sedhiou. To obtain one index for each variable in the equation e.g., one index for AC in calculating total vulnerability for a specific crop, all indices were added and normalized to a scale between 0 and 1.Crop suitability determines the effectiveness of a specific area for the production of a particular crop within a defined system of agricultural production based on agro-climatic conditions related to temperature and moisture, and on agro-edaphic conditions pertaining to soils and landforms (Kassam et al., 2012;Nisar Ahamed et al., 2000).We carry out a Maxent suitability model using available crop presence data and gridded climate data for current and future scenarios pertaining to the 2050s, and for two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs): RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5. The RCPs describe various climate futures whose likelihood of occurring depends upon the volume of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted over the years. RCP 4.5 is an intermediate scenario premised on the employment of a range of technologies and strategies for reducing GHG emissions. RCP 8.5 is a high-end scenario characterized by increasing GHG emissions over time. Our value chain presence data were derived from two sources; the Global Biodiversity Information Facility public database (http://www.gbif.org) as well as on farm observations of value chain presence obtained from local extension officers. The variables we use include climate data with bio-climatic variables relating to temperature in addition to slope, soil texture, soil pH, and waterlogging. We obtained current climate data from WorldClim 2.0 (Fick and Hijmans, 2017), whereas we downloaded future climate data from CCAFS-Climate (Navarro-Racines et al., 2020). We calculated slope data from a digital elevation model obtained from the United States Geological Survey's Earth Explorer and determined soil texture and pH from the International Soil Reference and Information Centre World Soil Information database. Finally, information on waterlogging is obtained from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (Fischer et al., 2008).We present this information in two ways: (1) the current (baseline) magnitude of suitability; (2) the magnitude of change under future climate projections. The magnitude of change reflects whether crop suitability will increase or decrease relative to the baseline period. In the following section, we show agreement maps that rank the current suitability from zero, meaning areas are projected to be climatically unsuitable for production of the crop, to one, where the area presents greatest climatic conditions suitable for crop production.The current suitability of the selected crops in the project areas, show that, cashew, ditakh, madd, mango, and rice have overall high suitability under current climate in Sedhiou, while pepper will have moderate to high suitability. In Tambacounda, pepper has moderate suitability. Baobab, onion and rice show high suitability to the northeastern areas bordering Mali, and low suitability in other areas of the region. Madd shows high suitability in the southern part. Rice in Tambacounda is suitable along the Senegal River to the east as well as to the south near Kolda region. Okra shows low suitability in both regions. Baobab and onion show very low suitability in Sédhiou while ditakh and cashew show low suitability in Tambacounda. Sensitivity expresses the relationship between human-induced emissions and the temperature changes that will result from these emissions. It is the amount of warming caused by increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) (Hawkins and Forster, 2019). Frequently, sensitivity is defined as the change in temperature resulting from a doubling of the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In this case, we calculated sensitivity using crop suitability such that we understood sensitivity as the change in suitability. Therefore, we computed the difference between the future and current crop suitability.We analyzed the sensitivity of all crops under future climate projections for 2050s under RCP 4.5 (Figure 3). All the selected crops experience some degree of sensitivity, either an increase or decrease. Increasing sensitivity infers that climate change will affect productivity patterns for the crop. The change in suitability maps range from -1 meaning areas with 100 percent crop suitability loss, to +1 representing areas where there are 100% suitability increases. By the 2050s under RCP 4.5, cashew, pepper, and rice are the most sensitive crops, while baobab, mango, okra and onion are least sensitive. In this scenario, increasing suitability is strongly exhibited by baobab and okra in most areas of Senegal, cashew and ditakh towards central Senegal and madd to the southeast and central Senegal. The suitability of onion along the Senegal river valley and in the Casamance especially Kolda region is seen to increase with the suitability decreasing to the west of the country. Decreasing suitability is likely for rice along the Senegal River valley as well as in Sédhiou with increase in suitability in the Casamance areas shifting to Kolda region to the east of Sédhiou. There is a decreasing suitability for pepper in the Casamance, Tambacounda, Kedougou and the western part of the country with an increasing suitability in the central areas.Changes in suitability for selected value chains by the 2050s for RCP 4.5. 1.0 denotes increasing suitability and -1.0 a loss in suitability.For the AVENIR project areas, there is a likelihood for a decreasing suitability in rice, pepper, madd, cashew and ditakh in Sédhiou with an increasing suitability for mango to the north and okra. Pockets of increasing suitability for Cashew and ditakh are seen across the region. Although baobab is not currently suitable in this region, further reduction in suitability is exhibited in this scenario. In Tambacounda, there is a likelihood for an increase in suitability in okra, baobab to the east, cashew and ditakh to the west and east and mango and onion to the east which could lead to an increase in production by 2050 for RCP 4.5. Cashew and ditakh however, show decreasing suitability in central Tambacounda while madd, pepper and rice show a high decrease in suitability by 2050 for RCP4.5.Results for RCP 8.5 for 2050s are shown in the supplementary figures in the Annex. The results show an increasing suitability for baobab and okra with increases in the suitability of cashew, ditakh, and madd towards the east. The suitability of mango, okra and onion shifts towards the north of Senegal, while pepper suitability increases towards central, east and south eastern parts of the country. The suitability of rice on the other hand, decreases along the Senegal river valley but increases towards the central parts of the country and in the Casamance and more so in Sédhiou. This shows a high probability of these value chains shifting form the current production areas which might lead to a decrease in production in the areas currently under production and consequently food insecurity. This calls for production consideration of these new areas.Senegal remains vulnerable to climatic shocks including natural hazards that are predicted to increase in magnitude and extent because of climate variability (Simonet and Jobbins, 2016).These hazards include droughts and floods, which recur seasonally, affecting livelihoods. Increasing precipitation and rising sea level pose a great risk to people living in coastal, urban areas, who account for approximately 67% of Senegal's population (Croitoru et al., 2019;USAID, 2011). Variation in the start of the growing season, meanwhile, increases the vulnerability of farmers who lack access to irrigation because they are unable to schedule the timing of cropping activities such as planting and harvesting. In assessing vulnerability, we mapped natural hazards as shown in Table 1 below.Droughts experienced in the 1970s and 1980s contributed to food insecurity in Senegal and the Sahel in general (USAID, 2017). Recent drought events in 2000 led to a 74% decline in groundnut revenues and diminished revenues for millet and sorghum by 60% (World Bank, 2011). More droughts occurred in 2002, affecting 284,000 people;in 2006/2007;and2011, affecting 806,000 people (WFP, 2013). Droughts in 2014, 2017, and in 2018 impacted 245,000 people (Bhaga et al., 2020).Floods, on the other hand, have become frequent due to increasing heavy rainfall events (USAID, 2017). Between 2000 and 2012, damages resulting from floods occurred in at least 8 years. In 2002, 179,000 people were affected;in 2008, 250,000 people;andin 2009, 360,000 people (WFP, 2013). The 2012 floods along the Senegal River and in low-lying areas of Greater Dakar affected over 265,000 people, exacerbating the flood-induced food security crisis of 2011/2012 (WFP, 2012). More recently, 2020 received higher-than-normal rainfall that led to flooding (ReliefWeb, 2020). In the absence of mitigation practices, consecutive floods and droughts can cause severe land degradation, worsening the crisis of food insecurity. Land degradation in Senegal is linked to the salinization of agricultural land, especially of rice paddies; water erosion that causes stripping and gullying; and to wind erosion that removes the surface layer of soils and destroys its potential for production (Sow et al., 2016).We extracted the data in raster format as an average for each arrondissement of Senegal and then normalized to a scale from 0 to 1. Senegal is subdivided into regions, which are further subdivided into departments and arrondissements. For each arrondissement, this data was later used to calculate vulnerability by applying equation 1. Figure 4 shows the spatial distribution of the six natural hazards considered: aridity, erosion, fire, flood, salinization, and waterlogging. Aridity affects the northern areas of Senegal, fire the southeastern areas, and erosion the central areas. Flooding and salinization are particularly impactful in the southwestern areas of Ziguinchor and Sedhiou and in areas close to the coast. Waterlogging is mostly experienced in the southern areas of Senegal, such as the Casamance, which also receives high levels of rainfall. Exposure to arid conditions is particularly acute in the north and less severe in the south.We calculated changes in temperature for the four scenarios to show the rate at which temperatures in Senegal are projected to increase (Figure 5). By the 2050s for RCP 4.5, temperatures are projected to increase slightly in eastern and southeastern Senegal, with the highest increase in Tambacounda Region. In some parts of Thiès and Louga Regions, temperatures will remain similar to the present conditions. Even greater temperature changes are projected under RCP 8.5 for the 2050s, particularly for the east, south, and southeastern areas of Senegal. Some arrondissements in Tambacounda Region will experience the greatest increases in temperature. Changes in temperature signify heat stress, which negatively impacts agriculture, particularly for livestock. Adaptive capacity refers to the ability of a system to prepare for climate stresses and changes in advance (Smit et al., 2003) or the ability to adjust and respond to the effects caused by climate change (IPCC, 2014). Increased adaptive capacity means better opportunities for systems to manage climate impacts of varying magnitudes (IPCC, 2012). For this vulnerability analysis, we gathered geospatial data on the variables that enhance adaptive capacity in Senegal (Table 2). We then normalized these variables so that 0 indicates lack of adaptive capacity and 1 corresponds to absolute adaptive capacity. For example, poverty was reciprocated so that a higher value shows low adaptive capacity.Variable DescriptionObtained by counting the total number of crops that are growing in each arrondissement. Crop distribution areas were taken from MapSPAM (You et al., 2017).The percentage of the population in each age group that can read and write. The adult literacy rate was obtained from the proportion of adults who had accessed primary education.The ratio of the number of children aged 0-14 years and older persons aged 65 years or above, to the working-age population between 15 and 64 years old (UN, 2006).Access to health care Distance to health care facilities (Maina et al., 2019).The institutional capital index relates to the \"governance index\", \"conflictuality index\", and \"environmental management index\" of an institution (ClimAfrica, 2014).Travel time to major cities is used as a measure of the accessibility to markets.The proportion of the population living in households below the international poverty line, where the average daily consumption or income per person is less than $1.25 a day measured at 2005 international prices adjusted for purchasing power parity.The percentage of children under 5 years old whose standard score (z-score) falls below -2 standard deviations from the median height-for-age according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards.The percentage of children under 5 years old whose standard score (z-score) falls below -2 standard deviations from the median weight-for-height according to the WHO Child Growth Standards.The percentage of children under 5 years old whose standard score (z-score) falls above +2 standard deviations from the median weight-for-age according to the WHO Child Growth Standards.Technological capacity A combination of two underlying indexes: the \"household technology index\" and the \"infrastructure index\". Technological capacity is linked with the diffusion of basic life technology and infrastructure, is linked to transportation networks.Distance to the nearest water body. This variable represents access to irrigation and water for household consumption.Under-5 mortality Refers to the probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.Percentage of the population living with HIV per 1000 people.People experiencing insufficient food consumption. This variable is expressed as poor or borderline food consumption, according to the Food Consumption Score.Areas considered to have high potential for irrigation by their closeness to water sources, and areas with soils containing more clay are also more suitable for irrigation because clay improves soil's water holding capacity.Under-5 mortality from malaria infections.Access to electrical energy (Falchetta et al., 2019).Residual water irrigation potential Areas where water is predicted to remain on the soil longer after rainfall. This variable is estimated using data such as slope and soil's water-holding capacity, clay, and organic carbon content.Soil fertility Soil fertility index (Lu et al., 2002).Phone access Number of households owning a mobile phone.The indicators of adaptive capacity represented here varied greatly across Senegal's various regions and arrondissements. For instance, some arrondissements had very low adaptive capacity associated with poverty, but high adaptive capacity associated with crop diversification and access to hospitals, markets, and irrigable areas. Rates of stunting, underweight children, wasting, malaria, and poverty are generally high in the western parts of the country. In addition, access to health care, water, markets, and soil fertility are low in western areas. These variables improve in the east and toward Dakar. Regions around Dakar and Ziguinchor have lower rates of stunting, underweight children, and wasting, and better access to health care, water, and markets. These regions are also characterized by low poverty rates and higher levels of soil fertility. In comparison to western Senegal, eastern regions face high rates of HIV prevalence and low access to electricity (Figures 6a and 6b). By applying equation 1 using all the indicators for sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity, we computed the vulnerability of the Senegalese agricultural sector to climate change. Our analysis focused on the future climate for RCP 4.5, an intermediate scenario that assumes partial implementation of the Paris Agreement, and RCP 8.5, the business-as-usual scenario, for the 2050s.Overall crop vulnerability in the 2050s under RCP 4.5 is greatest in the regions of Kaffrine, Tambacounda, Sedhiou, Kolda, and Kedougou, which are mainly in the central, southern, and southeastern parts of Senegal. There are also other specific arrondissements with high vulnerability elsewhere across the country (Figure 7a). On the other hand, vulnerability is lowest in areas near Dakar and Thiès. Some areas in the north, especially in the regions of Thiès and Louga, have lower vulnerability to climate change, probably because of the ease of access to markets, high technological and institutional capacity.For RCP 8.5 in the 2050s, vulnerability to climate change increases as compared to RCP 4.5 (Figure 7b) but remains higher in the regions of Kaffrine, Tambacounda, Sedhiou, Kolda, and Kedougou. Under RCP 8.5 for the 2050s, climate change will lead to increased vulnerability especially in the northeastern areas of Senegal on top of the areas that already have high vulnerability (Figure 7b). Vulnerability comparison between RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 show an increase in vulnerability for all regions of Senegal for RCP8.5 compared to RCP4.5 (Figure 8). This shows that in the RCP 8.5, which is an unlikely high-risk future, Senegal regions will be more vulnerable to the effects of climate change compared to RCP 4.5, which gives a more optimistic future. The highest increase in vulnerability is exhibited in the arrondissements of Sédhiou except one to the north while the lowest is seen in most arrondissements of Kedougou and Tambacounda. Other regions with lower increase in vulnerability include Zinguinchor, Kaolack, Fatick and Thiés.FIGURE 8: Vulnerability difference between RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 for 2050sIn the areas of greatest vulnerability, that is, the central, southern, and southeastern parts of Senegal, most of the crops under analysis faced a significant reduction in suitability. These areas also experience heightened poverty rates, limited access to health facilities, high rates of stunted, wasted, and underweight children, and elevated malaria mortality. In additions, these areas have limited access to markets, depressed literacy rates, significant food insecurity, and low technological capacity. However, these areas also promise the greatest opportunity for farming using irrigation and residual soil moisture.All nine crops under analysis are most vulnerable towards southeastern Senegal, in the regions of Tambacounda, Kaffrine, Sedhiou, Kolda, and Kedougou but with madd exhibiting a lower value of vulnerability compared to other value chains. In the north, baobab trees are slightly vulnerable. Okra is slightly vulnerable to the northwest; onion to the northeast and rice to the northeast along the Senegal river valley. Mangoes, madd and pepper are the least vulnerable crops in Senegal (Figure 9). This situation is attributed to heightened climatic variations in the east and south of Senegal that leads to overall declines in crop suitability. More than 70% of Senegal's population depend on agriculture, especially in the rural areas. With increasing youth populations, it is essential to empower young people with technical skills for profitable entrepreneurship and employment opportunities in agricultural value chains. The lack of economic opportunities is a key driver for outmigration in Senegal. Despite having about 1.5 million hectares of cultivated land and the potential to irrigate up to 240,000 hectares, at present the country irrigates only 10 percent of the cultivated area.The vulnerability assessment for the selected crops in Senegal is based on their sensitivity to climate change, exposure, and adaptive capacities. We identified drought, soil erosion, flooding, fires, salinization and waterlogging as the main natural hazards representing exposure to climate change in Senegal.The adaptive capacity of the farming population can be enhanced by boosting literacy rates; increasing access to educational institutions and health facilities; improving nutrition outcomes to reduce the rates of stunted, wasted, and underweight children; and developing marketing, transportation, and irrigation infrastructure. Priority areas for ameliorating crop vulnerability include the eastern, southern, and southeastern areas of Senegal, which encompass Kaffrine, Tambacounda, Sedhiou, Zinguinchor, Diourbel, Fatick, Kolda, and Kedougou Regions.Under climate change, there will be a decline in crop suitability for all the nine value chains especially in the regions to the south and the southeast of Senegal. There is also a notable shift in suitability for cashews, ditakh and madd towards the east and okra and onions towards the north. Various climate smart interventions will therefore be of most importance to reduce the effects of climate change on the selected value chains. Adoption of practices such as reforestation as well as technologies that increase crop cover and reduces erosion could enhance soil water retention. Other opportunities include irrigation and the harvesting of flood waters for cultivation.Agricultural interventions for improved nutrition including diversifying crops for healthier diets, increasing production for food and nutrition security and communication strategies to promote positive changes in knowledge, attitudes, norms, beliefs and behaviors will enhance the ability to adjust, cope or benefit from the expected climate variations across the country. ","tokenCount":"5569"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"534803905f29e75cd82ac0c9ecdb8f3e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/2fd4b539-8fb3-437d-91ff-93ebd9c81567/content","id":"497519225"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d7ce8cea-82ea-4b5c-8127-f7efc160b3e4","pagecount":"15","content":"Genomic prediction models have been commonly used in plant breeding but only in reduced datasets comprising a few hundred genotyped individuals. However, pedigree information for an entire breeding population is frequently available, as are historical data on the performance of a large number of selection candidates. The single-step method extends the genomic relationship information from genotyped individuals to pedigree information from a larger number of phenotyped individuals in order to combine relationship information on all members of the breeding population. Furthermore, genomic prediction models that incorporate genotype ´ environment interactions (G ´ E) have produced substantial increases in prediction accuracy compared with single-environment genomic prediction models. Our main objective was to show how to use single-step genomic and pedigree models to assess the prediction accuracy of 58,798 CIMMYT wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) lines evaluated in several simulated environments in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, and to predict the grain yield performance of some of them in several sites in South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) using a reaction norm model that incorporated G ´ E. Another objective was to describe the statistical and computational challenges encountered when developing the pedigree and single-step models in such large datasets. Results indicate that the genomic prediction accuracy achieved by models using pedigree only, markers only, or both pedigree and markers to predict various environments in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh is higher (0.25-0.38) than prediction accuracy of models that use only phenotypic prediction (0.20) or do not include the G ´ E term.G lobal wheat production is increasing by less than 1% annually and recently, wheat yields have stagnated in many regions of South Asia (Ray et al., 2012). In South Asia, the wheat crop is already being grown under high temperature conditions; however, because of climate change, temperatures could increase well beyond the optimal for growing wheat, which would further reducegrain yield. As a result, South Asian countries may not be able to meet the region's already growing demand for wheat grain.Well-managed crop improvement programs are necessary to increase food production in different parts of the world. Several molecular marker methods have proven their relevance in different cereal crops. Genomic selection (GS) is becoming a standard approach to achieving genetic progress in plants because it reduces the generation interval by reducing the need to have progeny field-tested every cycle. Breeding values can be predicted as the sum of the effects of all markers by regressing the values of the phenotypes on all markers (Meuwissen et al., 2001). Several authors have successfully implemented GS in plant breeding with intermediate to high density marker coverage for traits such as grain yield, biomass yield, resistance to several diseases, and flowering evaluated under different environmental conditions. Studies have demonstrated that some of the factors determining prediction accuracy in GS are the heritability of the trait, the number of markers, the size of the training population, the relationship between the training and the testing sets, and G ´ E (de los Campos et al., 2009;Crossa et al., 2010Crossa et al., , 2011;;Pérez-Rodríguez et al., 2012;Burgueño et al., 2012;Hickey et al., 2012;González-Camacho et al., 2012;Riedelsheimer et al., 2012;Weber et al., 2012). Furthermore, including highdensity marker platforms with G ´ E interactions adds power to GS models (Burgueño et al., 2012;Jarquín et al., 2014;López-Cruz et al., 2015;Heslot et al., 2012).Recently, genomic predictions have been extensively studied in bread wheat using elite germplasm sets (de los Campos et al., 2009Campos et al., , 2010;;Crossa et al., 2010;González-Camacho et al., 2012;Heslot et al., 2012;Pérez-Rodríguez et al., 2012;López-Cruz et al., 2015). The results have proven that the use of dense molecular markers coupled with pedigree information increases the prediction accuracy of unobserved phenotypes. One of the problems usually encountered by GS in animal and plant breeding is that the number of evaluated lines exceeds the number of genotyped lines, because of the genotypic costs. Nejati-Javaremi et al. (1997) were the first to propose incorporating genotypic information for predicting the breeding values of animals in a similar manner to the way pedigree information is used in the best linear unbiased predictor method. When the pedigrees of all phenotyped individuals were available but only some were genotyped, dairy cattle researchers (Misztal et al., 2009;Legarra et al., 2009;Aguilar et al., 2010Aguilar et al., , 2011;;Christensen et al., 2012) derived a unified (single-step) computation approach for Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (ssGBLUP) for combining phenotypic, pedigree, and genomic information based on Henderson's (1975Henderson's ( , 1976) ) standard mixed model equations. These authors augmented a pedigree-based relationship matrix (Matrix A) with contributions from a genomic relationship matrix (Matrix G) of the genotyped individuals. They showed how to modify the original Matrix A to obtain Matrix H, which includes not only the pedigreebased relationship matrix but also a matrix that contains the differences between genomic-based and pedigreebased matrices. These authors also developed efficient computer algorithms for inverting Matrix H computed from large numbers (millions) of animals in the data.Although augmenting Matrix A by using only a fraction of the individuals that were genotyped would reduce genotyping costs, the ssGBLUP method has not been extensively applied in plant breeding. Just recently, Ashraf et al. (2016) were the first to investigate the impact on prediction accuracy when some wheat lines were not genotyped and only pedigree and phenotype information was available; the authors concluded that the ssGBLUP method for deriving Matrix H can provide higher prediction accuracy than either genomic or pedigree-based prediction. In plants, the ssGBLUP approach proposed by Ashraf et al. (2016) has been used with a limited number of lines. The approach has not been tested on large datasets [e.g., CIMMYT's Global Wheat Program (GWP), which generates thousands of new breeding lines that are candidates for field evaluation every cropping cycle]. Applying GS in the GWP is economically feasible (i) when advancing breeding lines in the first preliminary yield trials to predict the performance of the selected lines in multienvironment trials or (ii) for predicting a selected set of lines in different international target environments using the parents evaluated in Mexico and the progeny to be predicted in international environments such as those in South Asia as a training set.In recent years, the GWP aimed to form a large reference dataset comprising 58,798 breeding lines, including the lines' phenotypic and pedigree data from the last seven cropping cycles in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, and South Asia. This large reference set contains complete phenotypic data and pedigree information; however, only 29,484 of the lines have been genotyped. Therefore, an H matrix that combines wheat lines that have molecular markers only with those that have pedigree and phenotype must be generated.The main objectives of this study were (i) to use the large reference set for predicting the performance of wheat lines in several environments in South Asia; and (ii) to perform predictions using phenotypic, pedigree, and genomic information to evaluate the wheat lines genetically using a single-step model that combines pedigree and marker information into a unified H matrix. Here, we used information for genotyped and nongenotyped individuals combined by applying the method proposed by Legarra et al. (2009) and Aguilar et al. (2010). Prediction accuracy was studied using a G ´ E interaction multiplicative model (the reaction norm model of Jarquín et al., 2014) with pedigree information (Matrix A), genomic information (Matrix G), or both (Matrix H) and comparing its prediction accuracy results with those of a genomic model that does not include the G ´ E interaction. This reaction norm model uses highly random dimensional matrices for the genomic and pedigree matrices. We also describe the statistical and computational challenges encountered when developing the pedigree and single-step models in such large datasets.The dataset included a total of 58,798 wheat lines that were evaluated at the Norman E. Borlaug Experiment Research Station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, under various field management conditions (optimal, drought, late heat, severe drought, and early heat) during seven cycles (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). Some of the lines were also evaluated under the same conditions in South Asia (Jalbapur, Ludhiana, and Pusa in India; Faisalabad in Pakistan; and Jamalpur in Bangladesh) during 2013 to 2016. The original data from each year comprise a large number of trials, each established using an a-lattice design with three replicates. The field management conditions under which each trial was established in each year are described in Table 1. The condition-location combinations will be referred to as environments. Table 2 shows the number of lines evaluated in each environment.The basic model fitted to each of the 12 environments described in Table 2 comprises the random effects of the trials, the random effects of the replicates within trials, the random effects of the incomplete blocks within trials and replicates, and the random effects of the breeding lines.A pedigree relationship matrix (A) for the 58,798 individuals was computed using a modified version of the software 'pedigreemm' (Bates and Vazquez, 2009) that accounts for self-pollination; the latest version of the routines can be found at https://github.com/Rpedigree/ pedigreeR (accessed 5 Apr. 2017). Given the dimensions of A, it is difficult to hold it in random access memory (RAM) and compute it. Appendix A shows the small R script (R Core Team, 2016) that was used to obtain and store the relationship matrix. It uses results from partitioned matrices to obtain the results and speed up the computations; R was recompiled from the source and linked with OpenBLAS [http://www.openblas.net (accessed 5 Apr. 2017)]. For further details on the computations, see Appendix A. In total, 29,484 individuals were genotyped using genotyping-by-sequencing (e.g., Elshire et al., 2011). We kept all the single nucleotide polymorphism markers and imputed the missing values using observed data. Markers with a minor allele frequency of less than 0.05 were removed; after this process, 9045 markers were available for prediction.Recently, Jarquín et al. (2014) and López-Cruz et al. (2015) proposed statistical models for performing genomic predictions taking G ´ E into account. The models were originally developed to incorporate genetic information from molecular markers and, in the case of Jarquín's model, it is also possible to incorporate environmental covariates. Jarquín's model has also shown to be useful when the genetic information is obtained from a pedigree (Pérez-Rodríguez et al., 2015). Here, we describe Jarquín's model based on genomic and pedigree information. To speed up the computations and make them feasible, we reparametrized the original model by using very well-known results from Cholesky decomposition and mixed models (e.g., Henderson, 1976;Harville and Callanan, 1989).The parametric G ´ E interaction model takes the main effect of environments (E), the main effect of genotypes and the interaction between genotypes and the environment into account. In matrix notation, the model can be written as: ~( , ( )#( )) MN u 0 Z GZ Z Z , where # denotes the Hadamard product (cell by cell) of the two matrices in parentheses (see Jarquín et al., 2014;Pérez-Rodríguez et al., 2015). Finally, we assume that the residuals are distributed as follows:e MN e 0 I , where e is the residual error; MN is the multivariate normal, and I is the identity matrix.Since A is positive definite and symmetric, it can be factored asA LL by using Cholesky decomposition where Matrix L is a lower triangular matrix with positive diagonal entries and is usually named the Cholesky factor. Therefore, from Eq. [1]:where s * 2 1 u ~( , ) MN u 0 I . Furthermore, it is not necessary to calculate the Z g L product because for each row of the resulting matrix, we just need to copy the k th row of L, where k is the column in the i th row of Z g that is different from zero (i.e., Z g (i, k) = 1). The matrixZ Z is a block diagonal; blocks different from zero correspond to matrices with ones:) is a square matrix with ones whose dimensions correspond to the number of genotypes evaluated in environment j. Since# Z AZ Z Z , we just need to compute the corresponding block elements in the diagonal ofThe block diagonal elements of  A can be computed as follows:where , jj A corresponds to the relationship matrix for individuals evaluated in environment j. From Eq. [3] and Eq. [5] and by using Cholesky decomposition, the term# Z AZ Z Z can be obtained as follows:( ))whereTherefore, from Eq. [6], we obtain: Therefore, using the results from Eq. [2] and Eq. [7], Model 1 can be written as:Equation [1] and Eq. [8] are equivalent, but Eq. [8] has at least two advantages over Eq. [1]: (i) it avoids many matrix products and (ii) it can be implemented relatively easily using the well-known Gibbs sampler (Geman and Geman, 1984) in the Bayesian framework.Let W be a ǵ p matrix of standardized markers, where g is the number of genotyped individuals and p is the number of markers; letbe the genomic relationship matrix (López-Cruz et al., 2015). A model similar to Eq. [8] can be obtained by replacing A with G.Model 3: G ´ E Interaction Using Molecular Markers and Pedigree (Single-Step Approach)In this model, the information for genotyped and nongenotyped individuals is combined using the approach proposed by Legarra et al. (2009) and Aguilar et al. (2010). A relationship matrix that includes full pedigree and genomic information is given as:where the matrix is divided according to whether the individuals have been genotyped or not. Submatrices gg nn , A A , and gn A are submatrices of A containing the relationships among genotyped individuals, among nongenotyped individuals and between genotyped and nongenotyped individuals, respectively (Legarra et al., 2009;Christensen et al., 2012). G a is an adjusted relationship matrix obtained from the genomic relationship matrix given by López-where b and a are obtained by solving the following system of equations:where G a is a rescaled matrix such that: (i) the average of the diagonal elements is equal to the average of the diagonal elements of A gg , and (ii) the average of all the elements is equal to the average elements of A gg . See Christensen et al. (2012) for further details. Note that in this formulation based on H (and not its inverse), H does not need to be full rank.The Appendix shows the R code that allowed us to build Matrix H. A parametric G ´ E interaction model takes the effect of the environments, the main effect of genotypes and the G ´ E interaction into account. A model that uses information obtained from markers and pedigree can be obtained by replacing the A matrix in Model 1 with the Matrix H described above (Eq. [8]).Note that models that do not include the G ´ E term can be derived from Model 1 to Model 3 just by removing the corresponding random G ´ E term. For example, by removing the term u 2 representing the effect of G ´ E from Model 1 (Eq. [8]), it becomesIn this case, the resulting models are equivalent to the cross-environment genomic best linear unbiased predictor model of López-Cruz et al. (2015). We include models without the G ´ E term to compare the prediction accuracy of models with and without G ´ E interactions. The singleenvironment model was not included because all the wheat lines included in the prediction of South Asian environments had complete pedigree and markers, and thus developing Matrix H for the single-step model did not make sense.The main interest of breeders is to predict the performance of nonevaluated lines in South Asian sites (Jalbapur, Ludhiana, and Pusa in India; Faisalabad in Pakistan; and Jamalpur in Bangladesh). To mimic that situation, we designed a cross-validation scheme where we fitted the G ´ E models (Models 1-3) as well as models without G ´ E using all available records under drought, late heat, optimal, and severe drought conditions obtained in Ciudad Obregon (Mexico), and 20% of available records in each of the South Asian sites assigned at random as the training set. In the prediction process, 80% of lines in the corresponding sites in the South Asian countries (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) were predicted using the rest of the records. A total of 20 random partitions (such as the ones described above) were generated.The models' predictive abilities were compared by using Pearson's correlation coefficient. The models that used the A and H matrices included the phenotypic information of the 58,798 wheat lines, whereas the model that was based on markers only included information for 29,484 wheat lines that correspond to the individuals that were genotyped. The genotyped individuals were a subset of the individuals with pedigree information; therefore, lines in the testing set had pedigree and marker information. The numbers of individuals in the testing sets in South Asian sites were shown in Table 3, so in each random partition, the same individuals are predicted with three different models based on the A, G, and H matrices.The models described above were fitted using a modified version of the BGLR package (de los Campos and Pérez-Rodríguez, 2015). The package was modified to accept big.matrix objects created using the bigmemory package as input (Kane et al., 2013). The bigmemory package was used to handle the huge matrices that had to be used during the analysis and also to take advantage of what in computer science is known as \"shared memory\". Once loaded into RAM memory, the data can be accessed from several processors, making it possible to perform a crossvalidation relatively easily.Figure 1 shows a boxplot of grain yield per location and median yield per location. From the plot, it can be seen that the optimal conditions had the highest grain yield, whereas the late heat and severe drought conditions had the worst grain yield. Yields in South Asian environments, especially in Pakistan and Bangladesh, were usually lower than those in Mexican environments. Table 4 shows the number of lines evaluated in each environment and the number of lines in common between pairs of environments. It also shows sample correlations for grain yield for each pair of environments. The number of lines evaluated in common between pairs of environments ranged from 537 to 4735. The phenotypic sample correlation ranged from -0.05 to 0.53, which suggests large G ´ E effects.Figure 2 displays the distribution of the diagonal entries for Matrices A, H, and G. Note that in the A matrix, the diagonal entries are around ~1.5; in this case, ( ), where i F is the inbreeding coefficient of the i th individual. The diagonal entries of Matrix G are around 1.0, reflecting the fact that the markers were centered and standardized. The diagonal entries of Matrix H are around 1.5, which stems from standarding G to be on the same scale as A.Table 4 shows the phenotypic correlations between pairs of environments. For example, the phenotypic correlation of the 4062 wheat lines in common between the environment with the bed planting with five irrigations at Obregon and the bed planting with two irrigations at Obregon is 0.156, whereas the phenotypic correlation of the 1537 wheat lines in common between the bed planting with five irrigations at Obregon and standard management conditions at Pusa, India, is 0.210. In general, the phenotypic correlations were not high, ranging from -0.051 to 0.481.  Table 5 shows the average Pearson's correlations between observed and predicted phenotypes and their corresponding SD for the model without G ´ E. The average correlations come from 20 random partitions with all the data records available in Mexico and 20% of the data available in South Asia. Note that these are the predictions for 80% of the entries included in the six South Asian environments. The prediction accuracies are relatively low, with those based on pedigree being slightly higher than those based on markers or on both pedigree and markers.Table 6 shows the average Pearson's correlations between the observed and predicted phenotypes and the corresponding standard obtained using the same cross-validation scheme described above but including the G ´ E Table 5. Correlations (plus SD in parentheses) between predicted and observed values obtained by using the cross-validation where all the wheat lines from Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, plus 20% of the wheat lines in each of the environments in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were used in the training set to predict 80% of the lines in the corresponding environments in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh for models without genotype ´ environment effects (G ´ E).  term. The predictive ability of models based on pedigree, markers, and pedigree + markers is about the same, with pedigree prediction accuracy being higher than genomic and pedigree + genomic prediction accuracy in four environments (delayed planting at Faisalabad, standard management at Faisalabad, standard management at Jamalpur, and standard conditions at Pusa). Ludhiana and Faisalabad under standard management conditions (0.3785, 0.2455, respectively) were the best predictive models for the genomic and pedigree + genomic model, respectively.Figure 3a-c shows scatterplots of the predictive correlations for each of the 20 cross-validations across the six environments in South Asia. Figure 3a depicts the correlations between predicted values based on markers (Matrix G) versus those based on Matrix H and shows that the prediction accuracy based on Matrix G was superior to that obtained based on H. Figure 3b displays the correlation based on markers (Matrix G) versus that obtained based on pedigree (Matrix A), where the prediction based on pedigree seems slightly better than that based on Matrix H (Fig. 3c).Table 7 shows the percentage of change in the prediction accuracy of models with and without G ´ E. The percentage of change was calculated as:where G×E r is the Pearson's correlation for a model with the G ´ E term and no G×E r is the Pearson's correlation for a model without the G ´ E term. From the results in Table 7, it is clear that models that include the G ´ E term predict better than those that do not include G ´ E. For example, the G ´ E model using Matrix H gave a 66% increase in prediction accuracy compared with the model using Matrix H but without G ´ E.Figure 4 presents a bar plot of correlations for each predicted environment in South Asia using the H matrix. Black bars represent the mean of the weighted phenotypic correlation of a given environment and the rest of the environments in Table 4. The phenotypic correlation for environment j in South Asia can be obtained as follows:where = ¼ 1, ,6 j (environments in South Asia) andrepresents the set of environments in South Asia and Mexico excluding environment j, n jk corresponds to the number of lines in common between environments j and k, = å j jk k n n , and r jk is the phenotypic correlation between environments j and k. As an example, Table 8 presents the information needed to compute the weighted correlation for the environment with delayed planting at Faisalabad; the columns present the information needed to compute the weighted correlation (note that this information was obtained from Table 4). The rest of the correlations were obtained by using the approach described above. The gray bars represent the means of the correlations between the observed and predicted values obtained from cross-validations. Note that in general, the G ´ E models gave good predictions, usually better than those from the phenotypic correlations.Although we predicted 80% of the records in each of the South Asian environments, the correlations are higher than the phenotypical correlations between a given environment and the rest of the environments.In wheat breeding, the cost of genotyping thousands of plants in segregating populations or in advanced generations makes the application of GS unfeasible. One possibility for solving this problem would be to augment the numerical relationship Matrix (A) of all individuals with the genomic relationship matrix (G) of the genotyped individuals and to perform predictions based on the resulting complete Matrix H, which would allow us to predict nongenotyped individuals in the testing set. Augmenting Matrix A by using only a fraction of the genotyped individuals would reduce genotyping costs. Furthermore, as described by Christensen et al. (2012), the single-step method allows the genomic relationship matrix of genotyped individuals to be extended using pedigree information to a combined relationship Matrix H of all individual plants or lines. This allows one to use all phenotypic data and not merely data from phenotypes that have pedigree and marker information; this extra phenotypic information should also enhance prediction Table 7. Comparison of the predictive ability of models with and without genotype ´ environment effects (G ´ E).-----------% change † -------   6 using Matrix H. Black bars represent the weighted mean of the phenotypic correlation of a given environment and the rest of environments in Table 4; for example, for DPL_FAS, the weighted correlation can be obtained by using the data shown in Table 8. FAS, Faisalabad, Pakistan; JAM, Jamalpur, Bangladesh; JBL, Jabalpur, India; LDH, Ludhiana, India; OBR, Obregon, Mexico; PUS, Pusa, India; STN, standard management conditions; DLP, delayed planting conditions.accuracy. This makes the models and methods developed by Misztal et al. (2009), Legarra et al. (2009) and Aguilar et al. (2010;2011) very attractive for predicting unobserved and nongenotyped plants.In a recent article, Fernando et al. (2014) proposed a single-step Bayesian regression strategy that allows the use of all genotyped and nongenotyped individuals by means of imputed marker covariates for nongenotyped individuals. The advantage of the Bayesian approach over the single-step best linear unbiased predictor is that it does not require one to compute the inverse of G. However, this model has not yet been applied to realistic datasets.The single-step approach of Misztal et al. (2009), Legarra et al. (2009) and Aguilar et al. (2010;2011) was used in dairy cattle studies and first applied to plant breeding data by Ashraf et al. (2016) in a set of 1176 genotyped CIMMYT wheat lines and 11,131 nongenotyped wheat lines tested in five environments in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, during the 2012-2013 cycle. We developed optimized weighting factors for Matrix H and applied a multivariate method for assessing G ´ E and found that the prediction accuracy of the single-step H matrix was higher than the accuracies achieved using the A and G matrices. The present study used seven selection cycles of CIMMYT wheat breeding with a total of 58,798 wheat lines evaluated in Ciudad Obregon and predicted several wheat lines in South Asian environments (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh).From the results in Table 5 to Table 7, it is clear that models that include the G ´ E term predict the environments in South Asia better than models that do not include the G ´ E term. The gain in the prediction accuracy of models that include G ´ E ranges from 16 to 90% with an average of 40%. However, models that do not incorporate G ´ E but use pedigree or high-density molecular markers, or both are still superior in terms of prediction accuracy than those that use phenotypic data only.In this study, we assessed the prediction accuracy of a large number of wheat lines evaluated in several environments and years in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, and predicted lines in several South Asian environments. For Ludhiana, Pusa, and Jabalpur, about 1227 wheat lines were predicted on the basis of the performance of these lines in six environments in Ciudad Obregon plus the performance of about 57,000 wheat lines related to those to be predicted (1227) and evaluated in previous years in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico.Prediction accuracy was the correlation between the predicted values of the lines in Ciudad Obregon plus a low proportion of them (20%) in six environments in South Asia using three G ´ E models (those using Matrices A, G, and H) with the observed values of 80% of the lines in the six environments in South Asia (which were not phenotyped). The correlations for all the environments were around 0.25 to 0.27, except for Ludhiana in India, which showed higher prediction accuracy (0.36-0.37). These genomic prediction accuracies were higher than the prediction accuracies computed from the common phenotypic correlations between all pairs of environments. These results indicated that the prediction accuracy with which breeders make selections in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, is lower than the accuracy they could obtain by performing genomic selection and prediction. Although wheat breeders expect that lines selected in Ciudad Obregon will perform well in South Asian environments, the results of this study should prompt them to increase research on genomic selection in Ciudad Obregon (a very stable site with high radiation) of candidates for selection that will perform well in several environments in different South Asian countries (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh).The prediction accuracy of models with Matrices A, G, and H for models with or without G ´ E did not change much. This is an important result that allows, through the use of Matrix H, one to use all phenotypic data to predict the genetic values of the unobserved wheat lines, thereby avoiding having to use only a subset of the phenotypes of lines with pedigree data n 1 = 15,448 r 1 = 0.18 † k = 1,…,11 represents the environments, r 1 represents the weighted phenotypic correlation for Environment 1 in South Asia (i.e. Faisalabad), and n 1 is the total of the column labeled as n jk . ‡ FAS, Faisalabad, Pakistan; JAM, Jamalpur, Bangladesh; JBL, Jabalpur, India; LDH, Ludhiana, India; PUS, Pusa, India; STN, standard management conditions; DLP, delayed planting; B5I, bed planting and five irrigations; B2I, bed planting and two irrigations; MEL, Melgas flat planting; DRB, bed planting and drip irrigation; EHT, early heat; LHT, late heat and another subset of phenotype data from lines with marker data only. The single-step method for computing Matrix H allows the inclusion of both components of the breeding value to be predicted: the parental average or between-family variability captured by the pedigree and the Mendelian sample component (or with family variability) accounted for the by markers.Big Data Used to Derive Pedigree and Combine it with Markers into the Single-Step Prediction Method with a G ´ E Model So far, no studies using plant breeding data on more than 50,000 lines have been reported in the GS literature. This is the first study to show that large training populations can provide genomic predictions that are more precise than phenotypic predictions. This is the first time that the theory used to develop and implement the pedigree system for such a large number of lines has been reported in plant breeding. Although the models used for prediction are now well known, from the computational and statistical points of view, it is necessary to develop algorithms and data structures that allow researchers to handle the data and fit the models efficiently.In this study, we used the G ´ E reaction norm model on a large dataset in conjunction with pedigree, markers, or both, in GS and prediction. We compared models including and excluding G ´ E. In the genomic prediction literature, there are plenty of examples where including those interactions significantly improved the prediction accuracy of untested individuals. The single-step method that combines the use of pedigree and markers through Matrix H allows the use of all the available information. Also, the reaction norm G ´ E model allows us to swap information among positively correlated environments, although the predictive power of the model was similar to that of the model that included markers only. Ashraf et al. (2016) used the single-step H approach on a set of 11,131 nongenotyped and 1176 genotyped wheat lines.Animal breeders make extensive use of the fact that the relationship Matrix A has a very sparse inverse that can be computed directly from the pedigree, if all individuals (including those with no phenotype) are included (Henderson, 1976(Henderson, , 1977)). This results in a sparse -1 H structure as well (Aguilar et al., 2010;Christensen and Lund, 2010), with a storage cost that is quadratic in the number of genotyped individuals but is only linear in the number of nongenotyped individuals. These sparse inverses exist for any level of autopolyploid species (Kerr et al., 2012) and could potentially be used for prediction with large data sets. However, this would preclude the use of Cholesky decomposition as used in Eq. [8].This study shows how to solve statistical and computational challenges when incorporating and combining high-dimensional pedigree and genomic matrices into a single-step model for predicting unobserved individuals in other environments. We found that the genomic prediction of genotyped and nongenotyped wheat lines produces higher prediction accuracy than that of lines predicted from phenotypic data. The results provide evidence that the single-step approach that combines pedigree and marker information is useful for reducing genotyping costs while maintaining the prediction accuracy of unobserved individuals at relatively intermediate levels. The incorporation of G ´ E models using a combination of pedigree and genomic information is another way of increasing the prediction accuracy of unobserved candidates for selection and offers plant breeders an important alternative for predicting germplasm evaluated under different environmental conditions.This script computes relationship Matrix A. Inputs:(1) A text file with pedigree information for the individuals that we are interested in. The file should have three columns separated by tabs, ID (the identification number of the individual), Sire (male parent), and Dam (female parent).(2) A text file with the individuals that we are interested in.Output: The relationship matrix.To speed up the computations, we used dense partitioned matrixes and linked R with OpenBLAS (http://www. openblas.net, accessed 5 Apr. 2017). At the end of the process, the relationship matrix was also stored as a partitioned matrix on hard disk in binary R format (RData). Below, we detail the steps used to build the matrix.Step colnames(a)=c(\"Mparent\",\"FParent\",\"ID\") a=a[!duplicated(a),] cat(\"nrow=\",nrow(a),\"\\n\") cat(\"selfing=\",sum(a[,1]==a[,2]),\"\\n\") #Read the ids of individuals with phenotypic records ids=scan(\"GIDsForUSAIDprediction_20160406.csv\") ids=as.character(ids) pede=editPed(sire=a$MParent,dam=a$FParent,label=a$I D,verbose=TRUE) ped=with(pede, pedigree(label=label, sire=sire, dam=dam))Now use the relfactor function for the pedigree, that is:where X full is an upper triangular, sparse (right) Cholesky factor of the relationship matrix. In this case, X full is a matrix with n = 177,376 rows and the same number of columns. The code for obtaining the relfactor is given below.Xfull=relfactor(ped)We do not need A full ; we just need a subset of this matrix with the 58,798 individuals so we can take a subset of 58,798 columns from X full . The columns correspond to the individuals that we are interested in. Let X be the resulting matrix; we then have = A X'X , where X has n = 177,376 rows and p = 58,798 columns. The R code for obtaining this matrix is shown below.Step 2: Partition the Relationship Factor Since X is a huge matrix, it is very difficult to obtain A directly; furthermore, since X is sparse, the product cannot be parallelized easily. We then partitioned X into several submatrices and saved the submatrices as binary files that can later be retrieved in order to obtain the product. For example: where X ij is a submatrix obtained from X.The R code below was used to partition matrix X into five submatrices and save the results to binary files. ) cat(\"Submatrix: \",i,\" \",j,\"\\n\"); cat(\"from_row: \",from_row,\"\\n\"); cat(\"to_row: \",to_row,\"\\n\"); cat(\"from_column: \",from_column,\"\\n\"); #Conventional matrix object so that we can use #optimized dense matrix products Xij=as.matrix(X[from_row:to_row,from_column:to_ column]) save(Xij,file=paste(\"X_\",i,j,\".RData\",sep=\"\")) } }Step 3: Compute the Relationship Matrix using the Partitioned Matrices from Step 2 Given the partition of the relationship factor, we can compute the Matrix A as follows:where: A X X X X X X X X X X ,[A4]Note that now we need to calculate several products of matrices. There are optimized libraries that can be used for this task. For example, in R, we can recompile the program so that we can use OpenBLAS. Details are given at http://www.openblas.net/ (accessed 5 Apr. 2017) and http://www.rochester.edu/college/psc/thestarlab/help/ moreclus/BLAS.pdf (accessed 5 Apr. 2017). We recompiled R version 3.2.3 (R Core Team, 2016) in order to use OpenBLAS so it can perform matrix operations in parallel. The next fragment of code obtains Matrix A 11 using the partitioned matrices. rm(list=ls()) n_submatrix=5 A11=matrix(0,nrow=25000,ncol=25000) for(i in 1:n_submatrix) { cat(\"i=\",i,\"\\n\") load(paste(\"X_\",i,\"1.RData\",sep=\"\")) A11=A11+crossprod(Xij); } save(A11,file=\"A11.RData\")The rest of the matrices can be obtained similarly. With this approach and by using eight cores for the matrix product, we obtained the 58,798 ´ 58,798 Matrix A in less than 3 hr in the CIMMYT-BSU server, which has 12 Intel Xeon Cores (Intel, Santa Clara, CA) @ 3.47 GHz and ~ 48 Gb of RAM.The script presented below computes the relationship Matrix H that includes full pedigree and genomic information (see equation 4 in Legarra et al., 2009). It adjusts the elements of genomic relationship Matrix G, so that the entries of the relationship Matrix A share the same scale (Christensen et al., 2012). Inputs: 1) Matrices A and G. The row and column names of both matrices include the identification numbers of the individuals.Output:1) Matrix H. ","tokenCount":"6130"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2db2ec55b3cc37325e299c721533098a","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://ciat-library.ciat.cgiar.org/Articulos_ciat/ipm/pdfs/phytoplasmas_oil_palm_alvarez.pdf","id":"-1166366490"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a470f21e-498f-4f4d-b9b3-1b62a5827409","pagecount":"1","content":"The specific primers R16mF2/R16mR1 and R16F2n/R16R2 were successfully used in a nested-PCR assay (Figure 2) to detect and confirm that phytoplasmas were associated with 'marchitez letal'.Phytoplasmas were detected in 'marchitez letal' infected oil palm meristems, inflorescences and leaf bases.Staining methods. The presence of phytoplasmas in meristem, inflorescence, and leaf tissue was confirmed by DAPI and Dienes' stain (Figures 3 and 4). 'Marchitez letal', caused by an unidentified microorganism, is a major disease affecting oil palm and has been observed with increasing frequency in Colombia. Incidences of up to 30% have been recorded in several commercial fields in production areas of Villanueva and Casanare. Its symptoms are similar to those caused by infection with phytoplasma and include leaf discoloration, lower leaves will turn brown and hang downwards like a collapsed umbrella (Figure 1).PCR is a very sensitive method for phytoplasma detection, identification and classification.On the basis of DNA sequences, the oil palm phytoplasma was classified as a member of the 16 SrI in the aster yellows group. This is the first report of a phytoplasma in oil palm in Colombia.Insects associated with 'marchitez letal' were identified as Cicadellidae and Membrasidae.Transmission from diseased oil palm to either healthy oil palm or Catharanthus roseus was achieved by grafting.. Plant tissue. Leaf bases, inflorescences, and meristem tissue from infected and healthy oil palm plants were used in this study. Insect survey. Leafhoppers were collected from the leaves of palms affected by 'marchitez letal'. The presence of the phytoplasma was verified by nested PCR. Staining methods. Two staining methods were used as follows: DAPI, which stains the phloem (Sinclair et al., 1989), and Dienes' stain, which metabolizes and produces a blue color (Deeley et al.,  1979). DNA extraction. Total DNA was extracted as described by Gilbertson and Dellaporta (1983). Nested PCR analysis. The primer pairs P1/P7 or R16mF2/R16mR1 were used for the first amplification, with an annealing temperature of 55°C. For the nested PCR, diluted PCR products were used for amplification, with the primer pair R16F2n/R16R2, at an annealing temperature of 50°C. PCR products were analyzed by electrophoresis on 1.2% agarose gel.  The occurrence of what seems to be a phytoplasma different from that occurring in coconut and other palm species has been recorded in an oil palm plantation in the West New Britain area of Papua New Guinea (1) , where electron microscopy has played an important role in detecting phytoplasmas in infected tissue (Figure 1b), and in Kerala, India (2) .1. Jones, P. and Turner, P.D. 1979. The occurrence of mycoplasma-like organisms in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). West New Britain (Papua New Guinea). 2. Babu and Nair. 1993. Distribution of spear rot disease of oil palm and its possible association with MLO disease of palms in Kerala, India. RFLP analyses. The amplified PCR products were digested with the restriction endonucleases MseI and AluI. The restriction products were analysed by electrophoresis on 5% polyacrylamide gel.Cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA and tRNA genes. The amplified fragment was cloned and sequenced with primer T7 and Sp6.Transmission. Transmission was performed by grafting.Control treatment. Oxytetracycline antibiotic was applied to oil palm by liquid injection into the trunk (5.0 g per palm) over a 4month period.Insects found associated with oil palm in Colombia, in areas where 'marchitez letal' was present.: Grafting RFLP analysis. Restriction digestion with MseI and AluI. of the amplified product showed similar restriction patterns. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA genes revealed that the oil palm phytoplasma was similar to the aster yellows group, with a sequence homology of 99% regarding phytoplasma from oil rape seed (GenBank accession no. U89378). ","tokenCount":"595"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"887dfb94b2fd87834d5733380e1084c5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_2352.pdf","id":"1921072333"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"19c78806-680a-47b6-9a41-948abbcc7cbc","pagecount":"26","content":"Agronomic p r a c t i c e s f o r i r r i g a t e d d i v e r s i f i e d c r o p s . T i m i n g o f c u l t i v a t i o n f o r d i v e r s i f i e d c r o p s i s p a r t i c u l a r l y i m p o r t a n t . I n a r e a s where t h e r e i s d r y s e a s o n r a i n f a l l , most d i v e r s i f i e d c r o p s c a n b e g r o w n i n e x p e n s i v e l y w i t h o u t i r r i g a t i o n . Two m a j o r p r o b l e m s r e m a i n unanswered: how t o i r r i g a t e w i t h o u t s a t u r a t i n g t h e s o i l a r o u n d t h e c r o p s , a n d how b e s t t o c o n v e r t t h e s o i l f r o m p u d d l e d c o n d i t i o n i n t h e w e t s e a s o n when r i c e i s g r o w n , t o a w e l l -s t r u c t u r e d a n d a e r a t e d c t , n d i t i o n f o r d i v e r s i f i e d c r o p s i n t h e d r y s e a s o n , and v i c e v e r s a . 9 . Economic a n d i n s t i t u t i o n a l a s p e c t s o f i r r i g a t i n g d i v e r s i f i e d c r o p s . U n s t a b l e p r i c e s a n d h i g h i n p u t c o s t s o f n o n -r i c e c r o p s d i s c o u r a g e f a r m e r s f r o m a d o p t i n g i r r i g a t e d d i v e r s i f i e c . c r o p p i n g . E x p e c t a t i o n s o f p r o f i t a b i l i t y is one o f t h e f o r e m o s t c o n s i d e r a t i c , n s o f f a r m e r s i n m a k i n g t h e i r c r o p p i n g d e c i s i o n s .The IRRI-IFPRI Studylon f,od demand and supply for Developing Member Countries, using the Philippines a s a case study, concluded that the Philippines has comparative advantiige in producing both irrigated rice and irrigated diversified (non-rice) cr'ops. A second phase of the study i s now underway t o further refine strateg:.es for agricultural development for the Philippines and to assist in the formulation of plans to attain optimum productivity in rice, corn and othor crops in the different regions of the country. The analysis will includf! the development of regional agricultural development strategies, estimating levels of investment for alternative irrigation options, assessing the possibilities for crop diversification, and recommending appropriate agricultural and irrlgatlon policies for the country.1 The International Rice Resetrch Institute (IRRI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFI'RI) jointly conducted a regional survey o f 20 developing member countries. Tile survey, financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), was entitled \"Study on Food Demand and Supply and Related Strategies for DMCs: Regi')nal Technical Assistance No. 5116, Phase I -2 -2 .A n important aspect of tho second IFPRI-IRRI study i s to assess the technical and socio-economic constraints to irrigated crop diversification. A Technical Assistance ( T A 654-PHI:t was granted by the Asian Development Bank (ADE) to the Government of the Repiiblic of the Philippines for this purpose.This TR entitled \"Study on 1rrigat:on Hanagement for Crop Diversification\" is being implemented by the International Irrigation Hanagement Institute (IIHI) since February 1985. The IIHI study is designed t o provide detailed information about the prospects of diversified cropping under irrigated conditions.The IINI study (hereafter referred to as the Phase I Study) examined: (1) constraints to crop diversification, with special attention t o the irrigation constraint; ( 2 ) way!; in which the management of irrigation systems, particularly their operat:.on and maintenance ( O h H ) , can overcome these constraints and thereby promote crop diversification; ( 3 ) preliminary agronomic and economic comparisons of different irrigation management alternatives with various crops; ( 4 ) assessment of ObH institution-building requirements resulting from crop d:.versification, and ( 5 ) required follow-up actions. The results from the Second Phase IFPRI-IRRI s';udy are not yet available in published form, but the preliminary findings have not supported the earlier conclusions which strongly supported irrigated crop diversification in the Philippines.In short, the prospects for efficient and profitable production of irrigated crops other than rice remains highly questionable in the Philippines. Technical (in respec': of both agricultural and irrigation technologies), economic, and insti'xtional factors affecting the performance of irrigated non-rice crops are no'; yet adequately understood to permit definitive assessment of future cropping trends. The Phase I Study utilized field studies to examine the more important of these issues i n depth.Results and Assessments o f the 11\" Phase I Study 6.Irrigation water manageme&.The study showed that to effectively irrigate diversified crops, large 'canal capacities a r e needed, particularly in areas of sandy soils. Existing rice gravity systems designed for rice can accommodate these large and intermittent demands by extending the duration of water delivery periods, but only if appropriate control of water deliveries i s maintained.On-farm irrigation facilities built for rice require modifications to provide the proper water regime for diversified crops. Continuous flows of irrigation, the norm for rice, result In water-logged conditions which harm the prospects of non-rice cro3s. Irrigation of diversified crops require scheduled water deliveries on an intermittent basis and an intensive system of field channels and drains. On-farm irrigation methods involve basin flooding in some cases and furrow irrigation in others.e n s u r e t h a t t h e s t u d y c o n t r i b u t e t c t h e l a r g e r g o a l s o f a g r i c u l t u r a l p r o d u c t i v i t y i n i r r i g a t e d a r e a s o f t h e P h i l i p p i n e s , t h e Committee recommended t h a t p r i o r i t y b e g i v e n t o t h e e x t e r s i o n o f s t u d i e s o n (1) managing t h e m a i n and d i s t r i b u t i o n n e t w o r k o f i r r i g a t i o n s y s t e m s , ( 2 ) o n -f a r m i r r i g a t i o n methods and f a c i l i t i e s , ( 3 ) a g r o n o f l i c p r a c t i o e s , a n d ( 4 ) e c o n o m i c a n d i n s t i t u t i o n a l a s p e c t s o f i r r i g a t e d c r o p d i v e r s i f i c a t i o n .  D u r i n g t h e p a s t t w e n t y y e A r s t e c h n o l o g i c a l change has r e s u l t e d i n a g r a d u a l i n c r e a s e i n t h e v a l u e of i r r i g a t i o n i n t h e d r y s e a s o n . The m a i n r e a s o n f o r t h i s s h i f t i s t h e s d o p t i o n o f modern r i c e v a r i e t i e s whose y i e l d p o t e n t i a l i s much h i g h e r i n t h e dr.1 s e a s o n t h a n i n t h e w e t .The eCOnOmiC v i a b i l i t y o f f a r m i n g and o f i n v e s t m e n t s i n i r r i g a t i o n s y s t e m s 1 s i n C r 0 a S l n g l y d e p e n d e n t upon d r y -s e a s o n c u l t i v a t i o n .-5 -2 0 .C o m p e t i t i o n f o r the l i m i t o d s u p p l y o f d r y -s e a s o n w a t e r has i n c r e a s e d g r e a t l y a s a r e s u l t . Because i t t i i k e s a l m o s t t w i c e a s much w a t e r p e r ha t o grow r i c e i n t h e d r y s e a s o n a s i n t h e w e t , t h e s y s t e m s do n o t have a d e q u a t e c a n a l c a p a c i t i e s t o d e l i v e r t h e f u l l d r y -s e a s o n w a t e r r e q u i r e m e n t f o r r i c e e v e n t o t h e l i m i t e d a r e a s p l a n t e d i n t h e d r y season.Head-end f a r m e r s t a k e w h a t e v e r measures t h e y c a n t o a p p r c s p r i a t e inore w a t e r t o t h e i r f i e l d s .T h i s s y s t e m o f i r r i g a t i o n i s c h a r a c t e r i ~e d b y d i s o r d e r , i n e f f i c i e n c y a n d i n e q u i t y . o n c e n t r a t e d . The r e s u l t i s t h a t f a r m e r s a t t e m p t t o grow r i c e on t h e a r e a s l e a s t w e l l s u i t e d f o r t h a t c r o p . l h e s e a r e a s r e q u i r e much l a r g e r r a t e s o f w a t e r s u p p l y t h a n t h e s y s t e m i s deriigned t o c a r r y b e c a u s e o f t h e h i g h seepage l o s s e s f r o m s u c h l i g h t s o i l s .I t tlas been e s t i m a t e d t h a t some i r r i g a t i o n s y s t e m s s u p p l y c v e r 60 p e r c e n t o f t h e i r t o t a l w a t e r t o o n l y 1 5 p e r c e n t o f t h e i r commands f o r t h i s r e a s o n .   Develop on-farm irrigatior methods for at least one upland crop;( 5 )Design and field-test operating procedures for publicly-managedRecommend those policies likely to support more profitable farming practices and more profitable investment in irrigation development as related to diversified crops.It is important to be clear what the study does not propose to do. It is not proposed to undertake varietal or agronomic trials o f crops, nor to compare different diversified crop: with the objective of finding optimum crops or cultivation practices. It is not proposed to undertake macroeconomic analyses of market prospects for any crops. The study is not designed to carry out research on irrigation structures at either the system or on-farm levels. It i s the objective of the proposal to develop and fieldtest practices which will make divfrsified cropping with irrigation more profitable, but it is Government's prerogative if it uishes, not IIMI's objective, to press rice-growing farmers to adopt them. On Mindanao Island:( 1 )Allah River Irrigation Prcject (CIRIP),( 2 )Eanga River Irrigation Syztem ( E A R I S ) , and( 3 )Mani River Communal Irrigrtion System (MCIS);On Luzon Island:(1). Bustos-Pandi Pump Irrigation System (BPIS) or a similar pump system in Bulacan,( 2 ) .Laoag-Vintar River Irrigabion System (LVRIS),(3).Upper Talavera River Irri(1ation System (Upper TRIS), and( 4 ) .2 1 .These systems provide a r;.nge of climatic and soil conditions representative of the two most inporti.nt irrigated regions o f the Philippines. Their selection was based on many factors including the availability of N I A field and counterpart staff who will assist i n carrying out the studies. (1).Determine f o r one system 1.n Mindanao and one i n Luzon t h o s e limited a r e a s f o r which s e l e c t e d t l i v e r s i f i e d c r o p s a r e p a r t i c u l a r l y well s u i t e d , t a k i n g i n t o accouiit t h e n a t u r e of t h e s o i l s , t o p o g r a p h y , d i s t r i b u t i o n system, r a i n \" a l 1 , and o t h e r r e l e v a n t f a c t o r s . From t h i s i n f o r m a t i o n a more generalized methodology f o r i d e n t i f y i n g such a r e a s will be developed and f i e l d t e s t e d on one o r more a d d i t i o n a l s y s t e m s ; For two o f t h e systems, the r e s u l t s will be f u r t h e r a n a l y z e d a c c o r d i n g t o d i f f e r e n t a s n u a p t i o n s o r d a t a on t h e management of i r r i g a t i o n s u p p l i e s ;( 3 ) .t h e i r l a n d t o p r e p a r e f o r wet s e a s o n r i c e a g a i n , g i v i n g s p e c i a l a t t e n t i o n t o l a b o r and poi,rer r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r t i l l a g e , t i m e l i n e s s , m o i s t u r e r e g i m e s , p r o v i s i o n f o r f i e l d c h a n n e l s , and o t h e r r e l e v a n t f a c t o r s ;( 4 ) .[ A ] . Determine and f i e l d -t e s t a p p r o p r i a t e c o s t -e f f e c t i v e i r r i g a t i o n methods a t b o t h t h e f i e l d l e v e l and system l e v e l i n one system i n Nindanao and one i n Luzon, t o f i n d p r a c t i c a l v a l u e s f o r recommended ( a ) i n t e r v a l s between, ( b ) d u r a t i o n , and ( c ) s t r e a m s i z e o f i r r i g a t i o n s . The f i e l d -h v e l s t u d i e s will g i v e s p e c i a l a t t e n t i o n t o r e l a t e between t h e on-far'n and main-system p r a c t i c e s . The s y s t e m sl e v e l s t u d i e s will g i v e s ' i e c i a l a t t e n t i o n t o c o s t -e f f e c t i v e and manageable means of p r o v i j i n g i r r i g a t i o n on an i n t e r m i t t e n t b a s i s , keeping i n m i n d t h e need t o i r r i g a t e both r i c e and d i v e r s i f i e d c r o p s from t h e same s y s t e m ; -8 -[ B ] . Document and a n a l y z e c u r r e n t methods i n u s e d u r i n g t h e d r y s e a s o n f o r i r r i g a t i n g divv!rsified c r o p s i n t h e f i v e o t h e r sample systems, a n d a n a l y z e them f o r more g e n e r a l a p p l i c a b i l i t y ; and( 5 ) .Recommend a p p r o p r i a t e i r r : . g a t i o n management p r a c t i c e s from t h e a b o v e , g i v i n g s p e c i a l a t t o n t i o n t o a s s o c i a t e d i n s t i t u t i o n a l and management a r r a n g e m e n t s i n c l u d i n g ( a ) s t r u c t u r e of i r r i g a t i o n s e r v i c e f e e c h a r g e s , ( b ) !;ystem s t a f f i n g p l a n a n d staff t r a i n i n g , ( c ) i r r i g a t i o n a s s o c i a t i o n s and t h e i r r e l a t i o n t o publicly-managed 3 0 .NIA will be t h e l e a d agency f o r t h e two i r r i g a t i o n p r o j e c t s and o t h e r i r r i g a t i o n systems i n which ':he s t u d y s i t e s will b e l o c a t e d . NIA will a l s o be t h e e x e c u t i n g agency f o r a g r i c u l t u r a l development i n ARIP, w h i l e f o r t h e o t h e r s t h e NIA i r r i g a t i o n systms o f f i c e s will be t h e c o o p e r a t i n g a g e n c i e s . MAF will a l s o be a coopi!rating agency i n r e s p e c t of t r i a l s w i t h v e g e t a b l e s .   IIMI H e a d q u a r t e r s o r H e a d q u a r t e r s -c o n t r a c t e d S t a f f i n c l u d e a l l i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y -r e c r u i t e d S t a f f as!;igned t o P r o j e c t w o r k .They w i l l i n c l u d e e n g i n e e r s , e c o n o m i s t s , a g r i c u l t u r a : , s c i e n t i s t s , management s t a f f a n d s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s t o t a l l i n g e i g h t m o n t h s o f t i m e .      Research E q u i p m e n t .  3.6.7. There are existing irrigation systems in the Philippines that irrigate diversified crops, particularly in the dry season. Nain system and farm level practices have evolved throush ad hoc procedures undertaken to cope with limited water supply in the dry season. Corresponding agronomic practices for growing non-rice crors have been developed to the extent that production of these crops hase beceme profitable for the farmers.The sources of moisture for ttlese diversified crops are derived from rainfall, diverted river flows for irrigation, and groundwater. Information on crop-water use and production tclchnology for diversified crops is available. However, there is very little information and few guidelines on effective irrigation management for diversified crops in large systems i n the dry season. There i s a clear need to examine the constraints and to identify critical factors for promoting irrigated crop diversification.IIMI is concerned with irrigal.ion management practices that will alleviate the irrigation and assoc:ated factors that inhibit the profitability of irrigated diversified cropping in the service areas of systems with suitable soils during the dry season. One of the objectives of the study is to develop a suitable technology for managing irrigation at the m a i n and distribution systems leve!.~, as well as at the farm level.  w a t e r u s e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . M o i s t u r e s e n s i t i v e s t a g e s o f c r o p g r o w t h were i d e n t i f l e d . F o r c o r n , optimum w a t e r u s e was shown t o b e e f f e c t i v e f o r g r a i n y i e l d whfin i r r i g a t e d a t t h e t a s s e l i n g and g r a i n f o r m a t i o n s t a g e s i n a r e a s w i t h s h a l l o w w a t e r t a b l e .2 5 . There i s widespread u n f a m i l i a l ~i t y w i t h n o n -r i c e c r o p p r o d u c t i o n under i r r i g a t e d c o n d i t i o n s . At t h e A l l a h V a l l e y , oorn i s grown under r a i n f e d c o n i t i o n s o r through s e e p a g e from a d j a c e n t r i c e f i e l d s . I n d r i e r a r e a s , t h e r e is some a c c e p t a n c e of i r r i g a t e d c r o p d i v e r s i f i c a t i o n , b u t i n a r e a s w i t h s i g n i f i c a n t dry season r a i n f a l l , t h e b e n e f i t s of i r r i g a t e d n r c e p d u c t i o n must be d e m o n s t r a t e d . l'iming of d i v e r s i f i e d crop c u l t i v a t i o n i s i m p o r t a n t because t h e f a c t o r s of temperature, i n c i d e n c e of pests and d i s e a s e s , a n d r i s k of w a t e r l o g g i n g t h r o u g h heavy r a i n f a l l a r e c r i t i c a l . T h e r e s u l t s from C a v i t e show t h a t agroriomic c o n s t r a i n t s can be m i t i g a t e d w i t h a p p r o p r i a t e e x t e n s i o n e f f o r t s .    Page 1 production is the foremost consideration of farmers in irrigated agriculture. Where market prices are assured and have comparable stability to rice prices, there is clear evidence that crop diversification can be achieved. In order to alleviate the marketing problem!; for non-rice crops, it is recommended that investigations on the market !itructure and post-harvest facilitiss be undertaken. Other indirect incentives such as reduction o r removal of irrigation fees should be further !studied.36. Better communication between farmers and systems operators should be established. This will reduce the uncertainty over water delivery schedules for irrigating diversified crops need large and intermittent volumes of water. Studies on the joint managsment of systems between the irrigators associations and N I A should be undertaken to fully utilize the capabilities those of organizations in providing effective irrigation service to the farmers.Proposed Phase I 1 Study on Irrigation Nanagement for Crop Diversification 3 1 . Rationale. The results o f tht! initial study showed that there are inportant technical and socio-economic aspects to irrigation management for diversified cropping that should be, addressed. Several constraints were identified, together with suggestetl strategies for promoting irrigated crop diversification. However, these rf:sults must be considered preliminary due to the limited study period ( 2 2 morlths and only one dry season) during which the study was conducted. T o arrive: at more definitive conclusions, further and more detailed study is needed.38. The Study Rdvisory Committee its 13 August 1986 meeting, strongly endorsed the extension or second phase of the study to fully capitalize on the indicative results obtained thus far. Continuation o f the studies on (1) the management o f t t l e main and distributions network of systems, ( 2 ) on-farm irrigation methods and facilities, (3) agronomic practices and ( 4 ) economic and institutional dspects of irrigated crop diversification is envisaged i n thf second-phase study to contribute t o the larger goals o f agricultural productivity in irrigated areas in the Philippines. Proposal focusses primarily on irrigation system management for crop diversification, with a view to asriessing the technical and socio-economic feasibility of several crops grown in limited parts of irrigation systems during the dry season. The Phase 1 1 Proposal will examine (1) the factors that constrain irrigated crop diversification with special attention to the irrigatlon constraints, ( 2 ) ways irl which irrigation practices at the farm and system levels can overcome the5.e constraints ( 3 ) agronomic aspects particularly identifying and testirlg practices for converting puddled t o comparing irrigated rice with rainled nOn-riCe crops, (5) OLN institutionbuilding requirements necessary for. developing and managing irrigated crop upland soil, ( 4 ) the economics o f irrigated non-rice crop production in  ","tokenCount":"5828"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"88b67ad5990571c60c58e3308ca5913b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a969af50-7767-446e-a49e-b8f9274b742c/content","id":"-1216103883"},"keywords":["durum wheat","genome wide association study","GWAS water use","agronomic traits","MTAs","candidate genes","TKW","sedimentation volume","SDS","YR"],"sieverID":"32b199b3-1608-4869-a99f-5f51e597cb51","pagecount":"23","content":"Final grain production and quality in durum wheat are affected by biotic and abiotic stresses. The association mapping (AM) approach is useful for dissecting the genetic control of quantitative traits, with the aim of increasing final wheat production under stress conditions. In this study, we used AM analyses to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying agronomic and quality traits in a collection of 294 elite durum wheat lines from CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), grown under different water regimes over four growing seasons. Thirty-seven significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) were detected for sedimentation volume (SV) and thousand kernel weight (TKW), located on chromosomes 1B and 2A, respectively. The QTL loci found were then confirmed with several AM analyses, which revealed 12 sedimentation index (SDS) MTAs and two additional loci for SV (4A) and yellow rust (1B). A candidate gene analysis of the identified genomic regions detected a cluster of 25 genes encoding blue copper proteins in chromosome 1B, with homoeologs in the two durum wheat subgenomes, and an ubiquinone biosynthesis O-methyltransferase gene. On chromosome 2A, several genes related to photosynthetic processes and metabolic pathways were found in proximity to the markers associated with TKW. These results are of potential use for subsequent application in marker-assisted durum wheat-breeding programs.Wheat is one of the most widely grown crops worldwide (FAO, 2015), and is essential for the human diet [1]. Its importance and worldwide dominance are due, in part, to its agronomic adaptability. Durum wheat (Triticum durum) is a tetraploid wheat species (AABB genomes) mainly grown in the Mediterranean basin, in the Northern Plains (between the USA and Canada), in the arid areas of South Western USA and in Northern Mexico [2]. Durum wheat is well-adapted to a broad range of climatic conditions (including dry environments) and marginal soils, and has low water requirements [3,4]. Climatic conditions, as temperature and water availability, together with biotic stresses, can strongly affect durum wheat development and production [3][4][5][6]. Crop adaptation is a central objective for breeding progress, driving improvement in final production, quantity and quality [7,8]. For over two decades, CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) has had an intensive breeding and improvement programme focused on the acceleration of durum productivity in developing countries.Grain quality is an important breeding aim determining product end-use linked to financial returns. It is influenced by both genetic and environmental conditions [9], and biotic and abiotic stresses during growth and at key development stages [10]. Temperature, water availability and soil properties, especially nitrogen content, influence the final quality and protein content of wheat and its end-products [11][12][13].There is a growing need to increase wheat yield without losing grain quality [14,15]. Key end-use grain quality traits include grain protein content (GPC), gluten strength, kernel size and vitreousness [7,16] and are all influenced by climatic conditions [17]. A number of agronomic components influence final productivity, including phenology (maturity) and plant architecture (plant height and lodging resistance). The majority of important agronomic traits, including yield, are controlled or influenced by multiple genes and are quantitatively inherited [18]. In addition, most are influenced by the environment and interactions between environmental and genetic (GxE) effects [19][20][21][22][23]. One of the most common methods currently used for dissection of quantitative agronomic and quality traits is the association mapping (AM) approach [24].AM, originating in human genetics, was initially combined with linkage disequilibrium (LD) to identify the role of genes and linked markers for the determination of disease loci [25]. It is now widely used in plant and crop genetics. Some of the first studies based on LD mapping applied in plants were done in maize [26], rice [27] and oat [28]. AM has the main objective of determining, based on LD, correlations between genotypes and phenotypes in a panel of selected individuals [29]. It can support the development of new genetic markers for use in marker-assisted plant breeding [30]. It also facilitates the analysis of genetic variation underlying traits for further characterisation of the loci of interest [31].Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers are commonly used in quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping experiments [32,33] and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for the detection of marker-traits associations (MTAs) in wheat [34][35][36][37][38]. DArTseq, a variant of the microarray-based DArT technology, has also been widely used in QTL mapping [39][40][41]. It reduces the complexity of the genome, using combinations of restriction enzymes [42] and next-generation sequencing. Several studies have assessed MTAs in durum wheat. The analyzed traits include grain yield, yield and yield components [6,37,43,44], heading date [6], and grain quality traits (thousand kernel weight, vitreousness, protein content, sedimentation index [17,[45][46][47], yellow colour [48,49]).In this study, three panels of elite durum wheat lines from CIMMYT were assessed in field trials conducted over multiple seasons and with differing water regimes. The AM approach was used to detect SNP and DArT markers associated with heterogeneous agronomic and quality trait data in order to test the approach as a tool for marker discovery within a live and ongoing breeding programme.Panels of elite durum lines from CIMMYT wheat preliminary yield trials (PYT), comprising a total of 294 accessions (Supplementary Materials Table S1) were used for agronomic and quality assessment. PYT trials consisted of the best advanced breeding lines which were promoted to unreplicated trials, including one or two repeated checks. The trials were sown, assessed and analysed according to their specific statistical designs [50] and consisted of two blocks with different water treatments, one with full irrigation (FI) and the other with reduced irrigation (RI). In the FI treatment four to five irrigations were applied during the field season to maintain the optimal soil moisture conditions, whilst in the RI block a single irrigation was applied at planting, in order to ensure establishment. In both water treatments the irrigation was applied by gravity in furrows. The rainfall data (https://www.meteoblue. com/en/weather/historyclimate/weatherarchive/ciudad-obreg%c3%b3n_mexico_4013704) for the four field seasons is included in Supplementary Materials Figure S1. The agronomic and quality assessment of the panels over seasons is summarised in Table 1. Wheat panels 2 and 3 were phenotypically assessed across years, while panel 1 was only grown in 2012. The experimental plots (1.6 × 3 m) were sown in November/December of each year and harvested in May of the following year. Data for yellow rust were assessed in semi-controlled conditions at CIMMYT's experimental station in Toluca (Mexico).Plant material for genetic analysis was harvested for each line at the 4th leaf stage (growth stage 14 on the Zadoks scale [51]) and immediately frozen in dry-ice. Samples were stored at −80 • C until DNA extraction. Approximately 100 mg of frozen tissue was used for DNA isolation with a DNeasy Plant Mini Kit from Qiagen, following the manufacturer's protocol. DNA sample quality and concentration were assessed using electrophoresis on a 0.8% agarose gel and the restriction enzyme Tru1I (ThermoFisher) was used to check for the absence of nucleases in DNA prior to genotyping.Samples were genotyped by Diversity Arrays Technology Pty Ltd. (Montana St, University of Camberra, Bruce ACT 2617, Australia) (DArT) using DartSeq TM . A total of 35,509 polymorphic dominant DArT markers and 9142 biallelic SNP markers were generated. Both datasets were thinned by removing one marker from each pair with a correlation coefficient of >0.95. The final dataset consisted on 14,588 DArT markers (of which 8411 were mapped) and 5716 SNP markers (4142 mapped markers). DartSeq TM genotyping and mapping of the corresponding markers to the wheat reference genome sequence RefSeq v1 from the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC, http://www.wheatgenome.org/) was performed by DArT (diversityarrays.com), as described by Sukumaran et al. [43]. The distribution of markers across the A and B subgenomes is given in Table 2. Ten agronomic and quality traits were assessed for three durum wheat elite line panels: days to heading (days, DTH); plant height (cm, PH); lodging (%, LOD); yellow rust (%, YR); yellow colour (YC); sedimentation index (cm 3 , SDS); sedimentation volume (cm 3 , SV); grain protein content (%, GPC); thousand kernel weight (g, TKW); and grain yield (Kg/ha, GY). Agronomic traits (DTH, PH, LOD, YR, TKW and GY) were assessed under both water treatments (FI and RI), and quality traits (YC, SV, SDS and GPC) were only evaluated under FI conditions. Visual disease evaluation and phenology assessments were made in the field, while quality parameters were evaluated on grain samples post-harvest. DTH, PH and LOD and YR were visually assessed at the field trials in Yaqui, while YR was assessed at Toluca. To assess DTH, heading date was recorded as the time when 50% of the spikes have emerged from the flag leaf sheath (stage 59 in Zadoks scale [51]); PH was recorded by measuring the distance between the stem's base and the top of the spike (awns not included); LOD was assessed as the percentage of lodging plot; and YR was assessed as the percentage of leaves with rust pustules. YC was assessed by a rapid colorimetric method with a Minolta color meter following CEN/TS 15,465:2008 [52][53][54]; SDS was evaluated following UNE 34,903:2014 [55,56]; SV and GPC were assessed by Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRs) [57]; TKW was measured by weighing 2 samples of 100 entire kernels randomly chosen previously dried at 70 • C for 48 h.The correlation between the assessed traits was analysed using the 'cor' function in R [58][59][60]. Then, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was undertaken, using the 'aov' function in R [61], to obtain the descriptive statistics for each trait.Traits were analysed using a Q + K linear mixed-model [62,63] which follows the model equation:where y is a vector of observed phenotypes; X, S and Z are matrices related to β, α and µ, respectively; β is a vector of fixed effects; α is a vector of marker effects; Qv is a vector of population effect; µ is a vector of polygenic effects (with covariance proportional to a kindship or relationship matrix); and ε is a vector of residuals. These analyses were carried out using GenStat (14th Edition) to generate the best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) of variety performance in different ways: (i) across years and blocks; (ii) across years for each block (FI and RI); (iii) across a reduced dataset (years 2013 and 2014) and blocks; and (iv) across the reduced dataset for each block. The resulting datasets (available in Supplementary Material Table S2) were then used in different association mapping analyses.Population structure was assessed using principal component analysis (PCA) based on the combined DArT and SNP genotyping datasets. Euclidean distances were calculated using the R package 'ggfortify' [64] and the PCA was visualised with 'ggplot2' [65].The pattern of linkage disequilibrium (LD) was assessed between each pair of SNP markers on the same chromosome across the two constitutive genomes with the allele frequency correlation (r 2 ) using the 'popgen' package in R [66]. A heatmap was obtained with the D' and r 2 values for each chromosome and a scatterplot to determine LD decay (genetic distance in cM).The AM analyses were performed on the BLUEs obtained above using an additive model with 'rrBLUP' [67] and 'GWASpoly' [68] packages in R in different ways. Two marker-based kinship matrices (k-matrix), created from a subset of 14,588 DArT and 5716 SNP markers, respectively, were used for the adjustment based on relatedness of individuals (Supplementary Materials Tables S3 and S4). A minor allele frequency (maf) threshold of 0.05 was used. To establish a p-value detection threshold for statistical significance of associations, the Bonferroni correction, which employs a threshold of α/m to ensure the genome-wide type error I of 0.05, was applied with a total of 1000 permutations.Associated DartSeq TM and SNP markers were blasted against the wheat reference assembly RefSeqv1 [69] with no indels or mismatches allowed, using an ad hoc Java program, to confirm their physical mapping location on the A or B genomes. The molecular markers were also mapped against the durum wheat genome (https://www.interomics.eu/durum-wheat-genome) to confirm their physical positions. In addition, to identify candidate genes, results were filtered, selecting the hits with best e-value for each molecular marker, and candidate genes were manually selected based on their annotations.Results from the ANOVA for all the traits across years and water treatments are shown in Table 3. The mean phenotypic values across years were calculated for each block and panel to evaluate the influence of water conditions on the assessed traits (Table 3). Days to heading during the field seasons assessed ranged from 63 to 94 days. In plots with lower water availability (RI block), the spike emergence from the flag leaf took place approximately 11 days earlier than in FI plots. Plant height ranged from 39 to 110 cm showing differences between water regimes, with a decrease of 25-30 cm under RI conditions. Likewise, and as result of the RI treatment, GY (ranging from 1.35 to 10.63 ton/ha) and TKW (from 29.6 to 63.2 g) also varied, being reduced by 4-5 tons/ha and 7-10 g, respectively, in the low water availability RI treatment. This strong RI treatment resulted in very low heritability values for DTH, PH and LOD.Several significant phenotypic correlations were observed between the analysed traits (Figure 1 and Supplementary Materials Table S5). The most correlated traits were PH and GY (r = 0.    The PCA used a total of 14,588 DArT and 5716 SNP markers. The first and second principal components explained 3.91% of the genetic variation (Figure 2). No underlying genetic structure was detected within or between the panels assessed. LD was estimated using the mapped SNP markers dataset. LD decay was determined within 20-30 cM for all the chromosomes (Figure 3). Using the classification defined by Maccaferri et al. [70], the markers presented loose linkage (Class 2), showing a distance value between 21 to 50 cM.Agronomy 2020, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 8 of 27The PCA used a total of 14,588 DArT and 5716 SNP markers. The first and second principal components explained 3.91% of the genetic variation (Figure 2). No underlying genetic structure was detected within or between the panels assessed. LD was estimated using the mapped SNP markers dataset. LD decay was determined within 20-30 cM for all the chromosomes (Figure 3). Using the classification defined by Maccaferri et al. [70], the markers presented loose linkage (Class 2), showing a distance value between 21 to 50 cM.    Thirty-seven significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) were detected for TKW and SV across all years and water treatments with most of the significant markers located on chromosome 2A (Table 4). Twenty DArT and seven SNP markers were found in association with TKW on chromosome 2A (with additive effects ranging from −3.41 to 3.46). In addition, eight unmapped DArT and one SNP marker were also associated with TKW (additive effects ranged from −3.39 to 3.46 g). Most of these MTAs showed a negative additive effect, reducing the final weight value (ranging from −2.84 to −3.19 g), and only two MTAs were found to increase TKW (values of 2.97 and 3.09 g). Finally, a single SNP associated with SV was located on chromosome 1B (showing a positive effect increasing the final value by 1.26 mL). The resulting Manhattan and QQ-plots from this AM analysis are included in Supplementary Materials Figures S2-S5.The AM analyses on partitioned subsets of the data consistently detected the QTLs for TKW and SV. Nevertheless, the individual assessment of the water treatments significantly reduced the number of MTAs found, due in part to less available data for the RI block (Supplementary Material Table S6). The initial dataset of 294 durum wheat elite lines was reduced to 200 lines (assessed during the 2013 and 2014 seasons) to give a dataset balanced across assessment years. Using this reduced dataset for AM analysis, the results confirmed the QTLs previously found for the full dataset (Supplementary Materials Table S6). The analysis also detected an additional locus for SV on chromosome 4A, and a locus for YR on chromosome 1B (with additive effects of −0.84 and 2.79, respectively). The marker SNP620, located on chromosome 1B and detected in association with SV, was found included into a cluster of 12 genes encoding blue copper proteins (BCP), with homoeologs in the two durum wheat subgenomes (Figure 4, Table 5 and Supplementary Material Figure S6). In the hexaploid wheat genome, this set of genes form a cluster of homeolog triads [72] with a total of 31 genes (Supplementary Materials Table S7 and Figure S7). Additionally, another interesting gene (TraesCS1B01G568400LC.1) was found closer this marker, coding for the ubiquinone biosynthesis O-methyltransferase.There were several markers located in chromosome 2A, in close proximity to some interesting genes. Markers SNP1183, SNP1184 and DArT3165 were found next to several genes encoding reductase-1 (Figure 4 and Table 5). In addition, the marker SNP8395, also located on the same chromosome, was found in proximity to the gene TraesCS2A01G309700.1, which encodes a type A response regulator 1 (Figure 4 and Table 5).Significant MTAs from the partitioned analysis also allowed the identification of potentially interesting genes. On chromosome 1B, marker DArT1744, previously described by Mérida-García et al. [73] related to high molecular-weight glutenin subunits, was found in proximity to genes encoding isocitrate dehydrogenase kinase/phosphatase G and leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein kinase family protein. These genes participate in the carbohydrate metabolism during the Krebs cycle and play a crucial role in plant development and stress responses, respectively [74,75]. On this chromosome, another marker (SNP809) was found in proximity to some interesting genes encoding sugar transporter proteins. Additionally, some markers located on chromosome 2A were found in proximity to Acyl-CoA N-acyltransferase genes (SNP1206, SNP8395 and DArT3180) and chloroplastic zeaxanthin epoxidase (SNP1189) (Supplementary Materials Table S8).Agronomy 2020, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 13 of 27The marker SNP620, located on chromosome 1B and detected in association with SV, was found included into a cluster of 12 genes encoding blue copper proteins (BCP), with homoeologs in the two durum wheat subgenomes (Figure 4, Table 5 and Supplementary Material Figure S6). In the hexaploid wheat genome, this set of genes form a cluster of homeolog triads [72] with a total of 31 genes (Supplementary Materials Table S7 and Figure S7). Additionally, another interesting gene (TraesCS1B01G568400LC.1) was found closer this marker, coding for the ubiquinone biosynthesis Omethyltransferase.There were several markers located in chromosome 2A, in close proximity to some interesting genes. Markers SNP1183, SNP1184 and DArT3165 were found next to several genes encoding reductase-1 (Figure 4 and Table 5). In addition, the marker SNP8395, also located on the same chromosome, was found in proximity to the gene TraesCS2A01G309700.1, which encodes a type A response regulator 1 (Figure 4 and Table 5). Significant MTAs from the partitioned analysis also allowed the identification of potentially interesting genes. On chromosome 1B, marker DArT1744, previously described by Mérida-García et al. [73] related to high molecular-weight glutenin subunits, was found in proximity to genes encoding isocitrate dehydrogenase kinase/phosphatase G and leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein kinase family protein. These genes participate in the carbohydrate metabolism during the Krebs cycle and play a crucial role in plant development and stress responses, respectively [74,75]. On this chromosome, another marker (SNP809) was found in proximity to some interesting genes encoding sugar transporter proteins. Additionally, some markers located on chromosome 2A were found in proximity to Acyl-CoA N-acyltransferase genes (SNP1206, SNP8395 and DArT3180) and Table 5. Candidate genes for markers with significant marker-traits associations. Genes located in proximity of markers found in association with TKW and SV across years and water treatments (within a ±50 kb window). Values for physical position and distance are indicated in base pairs (bp). Chr: chromosome position. Blue copper proteins are shown in blue colour; ubiquinone biosynthesis O-methyltransferase in purple colour; the regulator response gene in brown colour; and for reductase 1 genes in green colour. Physical positions and gene annotations are based on the wheat reference assembly RefSeqv1 [69].   The maintenance of crop production is a current and pressing need given growing populations and reduced availability of arable land [76]. There is an increasing need for breeding programs to improve yield potential and the adaptation of new varieties to different biotic and abiotic stresses [77]. Abiotic stresses, including drought and heat, are impacting productivity on the million hectares of wheat grown worldwide each year [78]. Detailed molecular and phenotypic characterization are valuable tools in the dissection of complex traits [79], and especially those that are influenced by water availability [14].The improvement of key traits is essential for better end-use production quantity and quality in wheat [80]. In this study, we analysed a set of 10 agronomic and quality traits under full irrigation conditions (FI), with an additional six traits also assessed under low water availability (RI) in order to understand trait variation under contrasting water regimes in the CIMMYT durum wheat breeding programme. Irrigation conditions influenced some important yield and yield-related traits such as GY and TKW, as well as adaptive traits including DTH and PH (Table 3). The RI treatments had decreased final yields in line with previous observations [6,81]. Previous reports have also shown TKW to be reduced by high temperatures [17], most likely related to water availability. Groos et al. [82] assessed the genetic basis of grain yield and protein content in a segregating population of wheat RILs grown at six locations and also identified effects from GxE interactions involving protein content and yield. Our mean trait values corroborated this, with the highest values for GY recorded for FI blocks across panels (see Table 3). A similar trend was shown for DTH, PH and TKW, which decreased under low-water regimes.Correlations between the assessed traits showed that GY was positively correlated with two different phenology traits (PH and DTH). This is in agreement with Maccaferri et al. [6], who showed important positive and negative correlations for GY and DTH, and also positive correlations for GY and PH in several environments with different water regimes. DTH and PH were also positively correlated (Supplementary Materials Table S5), with taller plants having a longer time period to the emergence of the tip of the spike stage.Wheat TKW is an important yield component with a direct effect on grain yield [83,84]. In line with this, our results showed a significant and positive correlation between TKW and GY. However, the previously reported negative correlation between TKW and DTH [6] was not observed, potentially as result of temperatures and water availability from emergence to heading, and also from heading to harvest. Rharrabti et al. [17] previously highlighted a positive correlation between protein content and TKW, which is in agreement with the results obtained in the present study. They highlighted that warm temperatures during grain filling could negatively affect this correlation.Significant associations between endosperm proteins (gliadin and glutenin subunits) and SV have been previously highlighted [85,86]. Here we found a positive correlation (r = 0.15) between SV and GPC. This correlation is thought to be the result of grain protein content influencing the sedimentation volume value [87], which depends on the degree of protein hydration and oxidation [88]. Finally, for sedimentation index (SDS) analysis, we observed a negative correlation with protein content, in agreement with results presented by Rharrabti et al. [17,45]. This is also in agreement with Oelofse et al. [89] who highlighted the significant influence of protein content on the SDS sedimentation test [90][91][92].The SNP and DArT markers used to analyze patterns of genetic structure (Figure 2) and LD (Figure 3) for the durum wheat lines revealed no detectable genetic structure and consistent patterns of LD across chromosomes (LD was estimated to extend ~20 cM). These results support the suitability of durum elite line sets currently in use in breeding programmes for the practical application of GWAs analysis. The rate of unmapped markers was lower for SNP than for DArT markers (27.5% vs. 42.0%, Table 2), indicating higher precision in genetically mapping SNP markers, probably as a result of co-dominance.In the assessment of MTAs for quality and yield-related traits, different AM analyses were performed on subsets of the dataset. Several MTAs for SV and TKW were detected across years and water regimes, located on chromosomes 1B and 2A, respectively. All GWAS analyses corroborated the major QTLs previously detected, and reported two new QTLs, one for YR in chromosome 1B, and another for SV in chromosome 4A.Associations on chromosome 1B were significant for wheat quality. There are known loci including Gli-B1/Glu-B3 on this chromosome, which are of great importance for some gliadin and glutenin subunits [93]. In fact, the candidate gene analysis reported the presence of a high molecular-weight glutenin subunit (HMW-GS) gene in the proximity of marker DArT1744 (found to be significantly associated with SV and SDS), which was previously described by Mérida-García et al. [73] in association with specific weight. In line with this, Pogna et al. [93] highlighted the importance of Glu-B3 for determining protein quality with these endosperm proteins showing significant effects on SV, which also showed a high and positive correlation with SDS in our study (Figure 1 and Supplementary Materials Table S5). Likewise, Blanco et al. [86] reported three QTLs on chromosomes 1B, 6A and 7B (based on the analysis of 259 polymorphic markers) associated with SDS and SV in a recombinant inbred line population. In the present study, we found a SNP marker (SNP620) associated with SV, showing a positive additive effect of 1.26 (see Table 4) and also with SDS (marker effect of 0.11) (Supplementary Materials Table S6). This marker was previously placed on chromosome 1B, in the same location as MTAs for gluten index and sedimentation index [73]. Other previous studies, such as Reif et al. [94] and Fiedler et al. [95], also reported markers associated with SV on chromosome 1B, but with differing genetic positions. The additional locus for SV found on chromosome 4A (marker DArT9459) has not been previously reported.Marker SNP620, significantly associated with SV, is located within a cluster of homoeolog gene triads coding for blue copper proteins (Table 5 and Supplementary Materials Figure S6). These proteins have been described containing a copper atom, and participate in redox processes [96], with a crucial role in the electron shuttle in plants [97]. In addition, Yao et al. [98] described the blue copper protein genes as the targets of miR408 in wheat, which is involved in the regulation of gene transcription required for heading time [99]. In our study SNP620 was also found in proximity to a gene coding for an ubiquinone biosynthesis O-methyltransferase. Liu et al. [100] highlighted its crucial role as an electron transporter in the electron transport chain of the aerobic respiratory chain. This ubiquinone gene is involved in plant growth and development, is implied in chemical compounds biosynthesis and metabolism which are involved in plant responses to stress, and also participates in gene expression regulation and cell signal transduction [100].On chromosome 1B we also found a significant MTA for yellow rust, in agreement with previous studies in durum and bread wheat, which placed different markers significantly associated with this trait, but in differing genetic positions [101][102][103][104]. The candidate gene analysis revealed the proximity of this marker (SNP809) to sugar transporter protein genes. Sugars are formed during the photosynthetic process and are essential for plant nutrition. The sucrose transport has been considered of great importance for plant productivity [105]. In line with this, the sucrose is involved in the gene expression regulation of the supposedly sugar-sensing pathway [106,107].The majority of MTAs for TKW were located on chromosome 2A, showing both positive and negative effects. Previous studies have reported different markers in association with this quality trait, including a number mapped on chromosome 2A [38,[108][109][110]. One of the markers found by Yao et al. [38] (SSR marker gwm445 on chromosome 2A (68.2 cM), belongs to the same QTL found in this study for the marker SNP1153 (chromosome 2A, 68.6 cM), and also found by Juliana et al. [111] in bread wheat lines from CIMMYT's first year-yield trials. Sukumaran et al. [43] analysed a durum wheat panel of 208 lines under yield potential, heat and drought stress conditions, and identified markers on chromosome 2A with a similar position to those detected in this study (4 markers at 70 cM and 6 markers at 69 cM) under heat stress conditions. They highlighted that several SNP markers were related to transmembranes or were uncharacterized proteins. We found several candidate genes for this important TKW QTL (Table 5) among which the most striking feature is the presence of four reductase 1 genes (NADPH-dependent 6 -deoxychalcone synthase) and a type A response regulator 1 (Figure 4). These genes are both related with photosynthesis. Hu et al. [112] highlighted that NADPH plays a crucial role in biological processes in plants, such as the regulation of the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) for the stress tolerance [113,114]. Additional GWAS analyses using reduced datasets revealed other interesting genes for this QTL (chromosome 2A, Supplementary Materials Table S8), encoding for the Acyl-CoA N-acyltransferase and the chloroplastic zeaxanthin epoxidase. The first gene has several functions in signaling and metabolic pathways [115]. The zeaxanthin epoxidase plays an important role in the xanthophyll cycle and abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis. The xanthophyll cycle has a main function in the dissipation of light energy excess and also increasing the photosynthetic system stability [116].The proposed approach has successfully detected genetic markers with significant associations with TKW, SV, SDS and YR. These are of potential use in durum wheat breeding programs, and can be further interrogated to the candidate gene level using the RefSeqv1 bread wheat genome reference [69] and the durum wheat genome reference [71].The following are available online at http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/1/144/s1: Figure S1: Rainfall data for Ciudad Obregon (Mexico) for the growing seasons 2012-2015; Figure S2: Manhattan plots for durum wheat mapped DArT markers. DTH: days to heading; PH: plant height; GY: grain yield; TKW: thousand kernel weight; YC: yellow color; SV: sedimentation volume; SDS: sedimentation index; and GPC: grain protein content; Figure S3: Manhattan plots for durum wheat mapped SNP markers. DTH: days to heading; PH: plant height; GY: grain yield; TKW: thousand kernel weight; YC: yellow color; SV: sedimentation volume; SDS: sedimentation index; and GPC: grain protein content; Figure S4: Quantile quantile-plots from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analysis for durum wheat DArT markers (mapped and unmapped). DTH: days to heading; PH: plant height; LOD: lodging; GY: grain yield; TKW: thousand kernel weight; YC: yellow color; SV: sedimentation volume; SDS: sedimentation index; and GPC: grain protein content; Figure S5: Quantile quantile-plots from GWAS analysis for durum wheat SNP markers (mapped and unmapped). DTH: days to heading; PH: plant height; LOD: lodging; GY: grain yield; TKW: thousand kernel weight; YC: yellow color; SV: sedimentation volume; SDS: sedimentation index; and GPC: grain protein content; Figure S6: Blue copper protein gene cluster on durum wheat chromosome 1B. High confidence genes are shown in green colour, low confidence genes are shown in yellow; Figure S7: Cluster tree of blue copper protein gene homoeologs in bread wheat (RefSeqv1 [69]). For chromosome 1A, high confidence (HC) and low confidence (LC) genes are shown in brown and orange colour, respectively; for chromosome 1B, HC and LC genes are shown in dark and light green colour, respectively; for chromosome 1D, HC and LC genes are shown in dark and light blue colour, respectively; Table S1: Durum wheat elite lines assessed; Table S2: Best Linear Unbiased Estimates (BLUEs) outputs for all assessed traits and the association mapping analyses performed in durum wheat: [i] across years and blocks;[ii] across years for each block (FI and RI); [iii] across years and blocks for a reduced dataset (years 2013 and 2014); and [iv] across the reduced dataset for each block. DTH: days to heading; GPC: grain protein content; GY: grain yield; PH: plant height; SDS: sedimentation index; SV: sedimentation volume; TKW: thousand kernel weight; and YC: yellow colour; YR: yellow rust; LOD: lodging; Table S3: Kinship matrix for durum wheat DArT markers; Table S4: Kinship matrix for durum wheat SNP markers; Table S5: Phenotypic correlations between the assessed traits in durum wheat and their corresponding p values. YR: yellow rust; DTH: days to heading; PH: plant height; LOD: lodging; GY: grain yield; TKW: thousand kernel weight; YC: yellow color; SV: sedimentation volume; SDS: sedimentation index; and GPC: grain protein content; Table S6: Marker-trait associations found for the association mapping analyses performed in durum wheat: [i] across years and blocks; [ii] across years for each block (FI and RI); [iii] across years and blocks for a reduced dataset (years 2013 and 2014); and [iv] across the reduced dataset for each block. SV: sedimentation volume; TKW: thousand kernel weight; SDS: sedimentation index; YR: yellow rust; \"-\": unmapped marker; Table S7: Homoeolog triads for blue copper protein genes mapped in the wheat reference assembly RefSeqv1 [69]; Table S8: Candidate genes for GWAS analyses performed in durum wheat: [i] across years for each block (FI and RI); [ii] across years and blocks for a reduced dataset (years 2013 and 2014); and [iii] across the reduced dataset for each block. Molecular markers mapping positions are shown both in the durum wheat genome [71] and the wheat reference assembly RefSeqv1 [69]; Supplementary Material S1. R script used to perform the GWAS analysis; Supplementary Material S2. R script used to perform the LD analysis. Funding: This research was funded by project P12-AGR-0482 from Junta de Andalucía (Andalusian Regional Government), Spain (Co-funded by FEDER). ARB is supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 'Designing Future Wheat' cross-institute strategic programme","tokenCount":"5536"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3bae0275af90830c70db88a1867abd2b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/0ab982c8-6e87-4ad5-9c9f-35f60ca32b1e/content","id":"-723637332"},"keywords":["Maize","Zea mays","Hybrids","Plant breeding","Seed production","Seed industry","Public sector","Private sector","Germplasm","Development projects","On farm research","East Africa","Southern Africa AGRIS Category Codes: E14 Development Economics and Policies F30 Plant Genetics and Breeding Dewey Decimal Classification: 338.1968"],"sieverID":"3d738949-ec54-483c-967d-1f512a98899e","pagecount":"43","content":"CIMMYT® (www.cimmyt.org) is an internationally funded, nonprofit, scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, CIMMYT works with agricultural research institutions worldwide to improve the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of maize and wheat systems for poor farmers in developing countries. It is one of 16 food and environmental organizations known as the Future Harvest Centers. Located around the world, the Future Harvest Centers conduct research in partnership with farmers, scientists, and policymakers to help alleviate poverty and increase food security while protecting natural resources. The centers are supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org), whose members includes nearly 60 countries, private foundations, and regional and international organizations. Financial support for CIMMYT's research agenda also comes from many other sources, including foundations, development banks, and public and private agencies.Future Harvest® builds awareness and support for food and environmental research for a world with less poverty, a healthier human family, well-nourished children, and a better environment. It supports research, promotes partnerships, and sponsors projects that bring the results of research to rural communities, farmers, and families in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (www.futureharvest.org).Tables Table 1. Coverage  In 1997, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) launched a major study designed to document the impacts of international maize breeding research in developing countries. The study was intended to update and extend the findings of CIMMYT's first global research impacts study, which had been published three years earlier in a report entitled Impacts of International Maize Breeding Research in the Developing World, 1966-90 (López-Pereira andMorris 1994). Given the enormity of the data collection task, the follow-up study was divided into three regional studies-one each for Latin America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. The sub-Saharan Africa study focused specifically on eastern and southern Africa; a separate impacts study for western and central Africa was conducted by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), which holds the mandate for maize germplasm improvement work in that region. This report presents the results of the eastern and southern Africa study.The results presented in this report are based on information collected during 1998 and 1999 through a comprehensive survey of public and private maize breeding organizations and seed production agencies in 12 countries of eastern and southern Africa. The survey collected information on many aspects of maize research, seed production, and seed distribution (e.g., maize breeding activities, products of breeding programs, maize seed production and sales operations, seed industry regulations and policies). The countries covered by the survey accounted for more than 95% of all maize produced in the region in 1998/99. The organizations contacted as part of the survey currently control about 97% of the total maize seed market in the 12 countries.Major findings of the study are summarized below.In many countries of eastern and southern Africa, policy reforms introduced during the 1980s and 1990s have succeeded in liberalizing national maize seed industries by opening up maize seed markets to increased private sector participation. This represents a major change from earlier years, when maize seed industries in most countries throughout the two regions were dominated by public agencies. Major policy reforms have included the lifting of outright bans on private seed companies, removal of restrictions on importation of commercial maize seed, and elimination of direct seed price controls. In a number of countries, however, implicit restrictions in the form of strict seed certification requirements and lengthy varietal registration procedures continue to limit the participation of private firms, both local companies and multinationals. Moreover, governments in some countries still are trying to influence maize seed prices indirectly by subsidizing maize seed production, especially where public agencies continue to operate and control large shares in the seed market.Throughout eastern and southern Africa, privatesector investment in maize breeding research has been growing rapidly. In eastern Africa, public-sectorDuring the 1990s, the private sector effectively took over the seed supply function throughout most of eastern and southern Africa. In 1996, the most recent year for which complete data are available, private seed companies controlled more than 97% of all commercial maize seed sales in the region. Efforts to privatize maize seed markets were thus largely successful. It is important to note, however, that in a number of major maize producing countries (e.g., Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe), the leading private seed company is simply a transformed version of a previously public or parastatal seed agency that had long monopolized the local seed market. In several instances, these privatized parastatals continue to control more than 80% of the national seed market.With privatization, the maize seed industry is becoming more concentrated as a relatively small number of large multinationals acquire, merge with, or buy large shares in local seed companies. While consolidation could lead to scale economies, reduced competition is a concern to farmers, who worry that they may eventually face restricted choices and have to pay higher prices. The fact that seed prices in many countries have not risen significantly may reflect continued attempts by governments to keep maize seed prices affordable by subsidizing public seed production agencies.With the emergence of a flourishing private seed industry, the share of hybrids in varietal releases and seed sales has risen steadily. Coupled with the fact that public breeding programs are also concentrating increasingly on hybrids, this has led to a situation in which varietal releases and seed sales are now completely dominated by hybrids. This could have negative impacts on small-scale subsistence-oriented farmers, many of whom may lack the resources needed to buy fresh seed every season. To date, little empirical evidence has emerged to indicate that small-scale farmers have been adversely affected by the shift to hybrids, but the matter will require careful attention, because supplying seed to smallholders may not be of interest to profit-motivated private firms.Commercial maize seed sales data support estimates made by researchers and seed industry insiders that adoption of improved varieties increased steadily during the 1990s in eastern and southern Africa. However, adoption patterns have differed between countries and regions. Total sales of improved maize seed have fluctuated around 20,000 tons per year in eastern Africa, whereas in southern Africa total seed sales grew steadily in the early 1990s, peaking in 1992 at just under 100,000 tons before declining. Within individual countries, the percentage area planted to improved maize seed varies from less than 10% to nearly 100% in several major maize producing countries. The variability between countries in adoption rates can be attributed to differences in economic, institutional, and policy factors that affect the availability and affordability of improved seed.CIMMYT's maize breeding program has had significant impacts in eastern and southern Africa, especially in recent years. Of all maize varieties released by public and private breeding programs since 1966, about 24% (35% if South Africa is excluded) were developed using CIMMYT source materials. Use of CIMMYT germplasm showed a strong positive growth over time; of the varieties released since 1990, over 31% (55% if South Africa is excluded) were developed using CIMMYT source materials. In 1996, more than 1.6 million ha in eastern and southern Africa were planted to varieties that had been developed using CIMMYT germplasm, representing over 20% of the area planted to modern varieties. Excluding South Africa, where farmers grow mainly temperate materials not targeted by CIMMYT's breeding program, nearly 37% of the area planted to modern varieties in eastern and southern Africa was planted to varieties containing CIMMYT germplasm. Taken together, the varietal release data and the adoption data indicate growing demand for CIMMYT source materials on the part of public and private breeding programs, as well as growing acceptance by farmers of varieties developed using those materials. The observed growth in demand for and use of CIMMYT germplasm in eastern and southern Africa over recent years validates the decision by the CIMMYT Maize Program to establish regional maize breeding programs in eastern and southern Africa and to allocate increased resources to local adaptive breeding.The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) holds a global mandate to increase maize production and boost the productivity of maize-based cropping systems in developing countries. In pursuing this mandate, CIMMYT collaborates with many public, private, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in technology development and diffusion activities. A crucial component of CIMMYT's strategy is to develop and distribute improved maize germplasm through an international network of maize breeding and seed production organizations.During the early 1990s, CIMMYT carried out a study designed to document the impacts of international maize breeding research in developing countries, the results of which were published in 1994 in a report entitled Impacts of International Maize Breeding Research in the Developing World, 1966-90 (López-Pereira andMorris 1994). The objectives of the study were to document-for CIMMYT, its collaborators, and the donor community-the impacts of international maize breeding efforts in developing countries. The study generated a wealth of useful information about levels of investment in maize breeding research, the spread of modern varieties throughout the developing world, and farm-level impacts of varietal adoption. 1   In subsequent years, CIMMYT's maize research impacts database served as an important source of information for organizations involved in maize research and development activities. Based on the continuing strong demand for this information, the decision was taken to update and expand the database periodically. Accordingly, a follow-up study was launched in 1997. An additional factor motivating the follow-up study was the need to include more and better data from the private sector, given that limited effort was made during the first study to comprehensively survey private seed companies.Given the enormity of the data collection task, the follow-up study was divided into three regional studies-one each for Latin America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. The sub-Saharan Africa study focused specifically on eastern and southern Africa; a separate study focusing on western and central Africa was conducted by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), which holds the mandate for maize improvement work in that region. This report presents the results of the eastern and southern Africa study.The objectives of the eastern and southern Africa regional impacts study resembled those of the Latin American and Asian regional impacts studies:• to estimate the level of public and private sector investment in maize breeding research; • to document the germplasm outputs of public and private maize breeding programs; • to document the use of CIMMYT source materials by public and private maize breeding programs; and • to estimate the rate of farm level adoption of improved maize germplasm.The information and analysis presented in this report are based on data collected in 1998 and 1999 through a comprehensive survey of research organizations and seed production agencies located throughout eastern and southern Africa. A structured questionnaire was used to gather information about each organization's maize research activities, maize seed production activities, and/or maize seed distribution activities. Secondary sources also were tapped for additional information about seed regulations and seed policies.The survey covered 12 countries (Table 1). Collectively, these countries include more than 90% of the total area planted to maize in eastern and southern Africa and account for more than 95% of all maize produced in the region. All major public organizations that engage in maize improvement research and/or seed production were contacted, as were 31 private seed companies (including all of the industry leaders). Between them, these organizations controlled 97% of the total maize seed market in 1996. The survey could not be administered in a few countries due to civil strife, but given that these countries account for a negligible proportion of total regional maize area and production, the omissions are of minimal significance.Data collection proceeded in stages. First, copies of the questionnaire were mailed to directors of national maize research programs and to senior researchers (mainly plant breeders) in public seed agencies and private seed companies. After the respondents had been given time to review the questionnaire and assemble information, they were personally interviewed, in most cases by one or more of the study authors, and in a few cases by experienced non-CIMMYT researchers. Following the interviews, data recorded in the questionnaires were extensively cross-checked for accuracy and consistency. During this process, staff of the CIMMYT Maize Program helped to resolve numerous questions related to the genetic backgrounds of commercial varieties. In a number of cases, the original respondents were contacted a second time to clear up inconsistencies.Maize dominates the food economy of eastern and southern Africa, where it is by far the dominant staple crop grown by the vast majority of rural households.Maize in sub-Saharan Africa is produced in a wide range of production environments. Based on agro-climatic factors and grain maturity characteristics, the CIMMYT Maize Program has identified eight distinct maize production environments, known as mega-environments: Maize production statistics for sub-Saharan Africa show pronounced variability through time, reflecting the vulnerability of Africa's mostly rainfed maize production systems to extremely unpredictable weather patterns (Table 2). Disregarding short-term variability, over the longer term the area planted to maize has been expanding in eastern and southern Africa, growing at an annual average rate of 1.8% from 1961-70 before accelerating to 2.5% during the 1991-97 period. In contrast, no clear long-term pattern has been discernible in western and central Africa; during the past four decades, the area planted to maize in this region alternately expanded and contracted.Maize yield growth has been similarly variable (Table 2). Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, annual growth in maize yields fluctuated around 1% during the 1960s and 1970s before accelerating noticeably during the 1980s and 1990s. In eastern and southern Africa, particularly large yield increases were realized during the mid-and late 1990s as maize production recovered from the devastating drought that affected southern Africa in 1991/92. During the latter part of the 1990s, El Niño-related weather phenomena again disrupted maize production in a number of countries, especially in southern Africa, but on the whole the effects were less devastating than expected.Maize production trends reflect combined effects of area and yield variability (Table 2). In eastern and southern Africa, periods of unfavorable weather have often been followed by periods of favorable weather, which has served to reduce the variability in production growth over the longer term. For eastern and southern Africa as a whole, maize production growth averaged about 2.2% throughout most of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s before accelerating sharply during the 1990s. Production growth has been much more variable in western and central Africa and actually fell to negative levels during the 1970s as a result of the Sahelian drought.Consumption of maize is high throughout most of the region, reflecting its role as the primary food staple (Table 3). Maize accounts for over 50% of total calories consumed in eastern Africa and 30% of total calories consumed in southern Africa. In southern Africa, per capita annual consumption of maize averages more than 100 kg in several countries, including Lesotho (149 kg), Malawi (181 kg), South Africa (195 kg), Swaziland (138 kg), Zambia (168 kg), and Zimbabwe (153 kg) (CIMMYT 1999). In eastern Africa, per capita annual consumption is somewhat lower, ranging from a low of 40 kg in Burundi to a high of 105 kg in Kenya. In eastern and southern Africa, as in other developing regions, seed of modern maize varieties reaches farmers through the efforts of many different organizations, including public national research institutes, public and parastatal seed production agencies, private multinational and national seed companies, public international agricultural research centers, NGOs, and farmer cooperatives. Over the years as the institutional and policy environment has evolved, some division of labor has emerged, and many of these organizations have become quite specialized.During the 1980s and 1990s, many countries in eastern and southern Africa made significant progress in liberalizing and restructuring their maize sectors. Policy and institutional reforms targeted both output markets (markets for maize grain) as well as input markets (markets for maize seed). Reform of maize grain markets started earlier, however, and therefore has gone on longer.The distinction between output and input markets is important, because reforms needed to restructure grain markets often differ from those required to induce desired changes in seed markets. In attempting to reform output markets, policy makers are interested mainly in the welfare of consumers, given the importance of maize as the major food staple for the vast majority of the population. In the case of input markets, policy makers are interested mainly in the welfare of producers, since improved maize seed is a key component of maize production technology. The distinction is to some extent arbitrary, however, because output and input markets are linked, directly and indirectly. For instance, efforts to help consumers by imposing a ceiling on grain prices represent a disincentive to maize farmers; if price controls reduce the profitability of maize production, farmers may respond by reducing the area planted, which in turn will depress the demand for seed and reduce availability of maize grain to consumers. Similarly, improved seed is an important input in maize production, the price of which directly influences production costs and hence farmers' income. Thus the availability and price of maize seed influence farmers' production decisions, which in turn affect the total supply of grain maize and determine its price and availability to consumers.Given the importance of seed as a key technology component, the maize seed industry often receives special attention from policy makers (Tripp 1998, Pray andTripp 1998). In eastern and southern Africa, as in many regions of the world, targeted institutional and policy provisions are in place to ensure that national seed industries perform well. For example, varietal registration and seed certification are mandatory in most countries, ostensibly to control the genetic and physical purity of commercial seed sold to farmers. Moreover, policies related to restricting or increasing participation in the seed industry, foreign investment and trade in commercial seed, price controls and intellectual property rights for protection of germplasm ownership are the norm. How have national maize seed industries in eastern and southern Africa been affected by recent changes in the prevailing policy environment? Private seed companies are currently operating in all of the surveyed countries. The presence of an active private seed industry reflects a fundamental shift in policy, as private-sector participation was legally proscribed in most countries until recently. However, implicit restrictions limiting the participation of private seed companies are still in place in most countries. Barriers to entry faced by private firms include lengthy varietal registration procedures and mandatory seed certification requirements (Table 4).One important policy change affecting national maize seed industries in all of the surveyed countries has been the lifting of restrictions on the importation of commercial maize seed. This change promises to be particularly beneficial for small countries in which the limited size of the seed market makes establishment of local seed production capacity uneconomic. It may also benefit countries in which multinational firms have refrained from selling their best hybrids for fear of losing the valuable inbred lines to competitors. In several countries, however, commercial seed imports are still subject to import duties; if these duties are passed along in the form of higher prices, imported seed may be unaffordable for many farmers. While direct controls on maize seed prices have significantly diminished, governments in some countries continue to attempt to influence seed prices indirectly, for example by subsidizing the price of seed produced by public agencies.The recent policy reforms are encouraging, but one area in which significant progress has yet to be made is in the area of intellectual property rights. As of 1998, no country in eastern and southern Africa was a signatory to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties (UPOV) agreement, although several countries had enacted plant varietal protection laws or had extended patent protection statutes to plant varieties and/or plant genetic materials (Table 4). Yet even if intellectual property regimes relating to plant germplasm are still relatively undeveloped, some organizations are successfully using legal measures to appropriate benefits from investments in breeding research. For example, in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and Tanzania, public research institutes collect royalties from private companies on the use of public varieties. Following widespread efforts to liberalize national seed industries, today there are only four public maize seed organizations operating in eastern and southern Africa, compared to 47 private seed companies (Table 5). Between 1992 and 1998, the number of public maize seed organizations decreased by nearly half, whereas the number of private maize seed companies more than doubled.Changes in the relative numbers of public and private seed companies were reflected in a shift in the composition of seed sales. At the beginning of the 1990s, public and parastatal seed agencies accounted for most of the commercial maize seed sold in eastern and southern Africa, but by the latter half of the decade, private companies were supplying about 95% of the total amount sold (just over 90,000 tons were sold in 1996).In the four countries that still have public seed organizations, only in Tanzania has the importance of the public seed industry declined in the face of growing competition from the private sector. In Angola, Ethiopia, and Uganda, public seed organizations continue to hold sizeable market shares, and private seed companies have made few inroads. The factors that have contributed to the continuing dominance of the public seed industry in these three countries are unique to each country. In Angola, the political atmosphere is not yet ripe for private seed companies to start doing business, mainly due to continuing civil strife. (The eight \"private companies\" listed for Angola in Table 5 are all NGOs, some of which distribute seed at no cost.) In Ethiopia, policy makers have been unusually reluctant to encourage the emergence of a private maize seed industry. In Uganda, commercial incentives needed to attract private-sector investment have been lacking, and the only maize seed company currently in operation is a public seed production project based at Kwanda Agricultural Research Centre.The data presented in Table 5 clearly show that except for the four countries mentioned earlier, during the 1990s the private sector assumed control of national maize seed industries throughout most of eastern and southern Africa. It is important to note however, that in several countries (e.g., Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia), the leading private seed company is merely a transformed version of what was previously a public or parastatal agency. Since often these public or parastatal agencies had enjoyed monopoly status, their privatization has left the national maize seed market heavily dominated by a single firm. Although the entry of additional private companies is expected to improve industry competitiveness in the future, currently the transformed parastatals remain in control of more than 80% of the national maize seed market in several countries.The ability of the transformed state and parastatal seed agencies to maintain their dominant position can be explained by a number of factors. At the time of their privatization, these companies inherited well-established networks of seed growers, conditioning and storage facilities, distribution depots, and wholesale and retail distribution networks. Furthermore, these companies enjoyed (and in many cases continue to enjoy) a privileged relationship with the public research systems that have been the source of most of the popular commercial hybrids grown in the region. 2   The situation is hardly static, however, and indeed the structure of many national maize seed industries continues to change. Since the initial wave of privatization, additional concentration has taken 2 For a more detailed review of the evolution of maize seed production and marketing in eastern and southern Africa, see Rusike and Smale (1998), Rusike (1998)  Howard and Mungoma (1997), Smale and Heisey (1997), Hassan and Karanja (1997), Rusike and Eicher (1997) and Eicher and Kupfuma (1997).Many countries in eastern and southern Africa feature very strong public maize breeding programs. Historically, these public breeding programs have played a crucial role in transforming local maize production practices. For example in Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, public maize breeding efforts began more than 50 years ago, and public breeding programs in these countries continue to be the main source of improved germplasm (see van Rensburg 1994, Byerlee and Jewell 1997, Eicher and Kupfuma 1997, Hassan et al. 1998). Until quite place in several countries as a result of mergers and acquisitions among private companies. Although industrial concentration could be beneficial if it allows seed companies to capture scale economies and to pass the resulting cost savings along to farmers in the form of lower seed prices, industrial concentration could also be harmful if it leads to reduced competition in the seed industry. Reduced competition could allow companies to engage in monopolistic pricing practices, which might threaten the affordability of improved maize seed for the small-scale, subsistence-oriented farmer. recently, in almost all of the countries covered by the CIMMYT survey, public breeding programs were the only source of improved maize germplasm adapted to local conditions.Traditionally, public breeding programs in eastern and southern Africa did not engage directly in seed production. Improved varieties released by public breeding programs were usually handed over to public or parastatal seed agencies, which multiplied seed for sale to farmers. The public and parastatal seed agencies often enjoyed a de facto legal monopoly; regulations restricting the participation of private companies in the maize seed industry were common in almost all countries (López-Pereira and Morris 1994).Except for Lesotho and Swaziland, 3 all of the countries covered by the CIMMYT survey currently feature public maize breeding programs that engage in varietal development activities (Table 6). Public and parastatal seed organizations no longer engage in varietal improvement research; the four public seed companies still in operation (in Angola, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda) have eliminated their research divisions and now serve exclusively as the seed multiplication arm of the national breeding program. Half of the private seed companies surveyed (14 out of 28) maintain inhouse breeding programs and produce improved germplasm. The rest of the private companies that operate in the region either import seed from foreign affiliates or restrict themselves to multiplying seed of varieties developed by another branch of their company located elsewhere in the region.Two international agricultural research centers that are members of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) provide support to national maize research programs in Africa: CIMMYT and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). These two centers, whose mandate is to strengthen and support maize research capacity in developing countries, have developed strong linkages with national maize research programs.Since IITA focuses mainly on western and central Africa, CIMMYT has by far the stronger presence in eastern and southern Africa. Through offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, CIMMYT provides direct and indirect support to national maize programs throughout the two regions. CIMMYT does not provide finished varieties intended for release directly to farmers. Instead, CIMMYT develops and distributes intermediate germplasm products that are designed to be used as inputs into public and private breeding programs.During the 1960s and 1970s, much of the maize germplasm provided by CIMMYT to national breeding programs in eastern and southern Africa originated from CIMMYT's breeding program in Mexico. After it became evident that materials developed in Mexico required substantial additional selection in order to become adapted to African production environments, in 1985 CIMMYT established a major regional research station in Zimbabwe to strengthen its maize breeding efforts in eastern and southern Africa. The function of the regional breeding program in Zimbabwe is to develop stress-tolerant, high-yielding maize germplasm adapted to the mid-altitude environments of eastern and southern Africa. Germplasm products of the CIMMYT regional breeding program include sources of resistance to prevalent biotic and abiotic constraints, open pollinated varieties, and inbred lines for use in hybrid formation.Currently more than 100 seed shipments are distributed each year from the CIMMYT Harare program to breeding programs located throughout eastern and southern Africa. These shipments include more than 200 yield trials (each consisting of a set of elite varieties) and several hundred experimental lines. In accordance with standard CIMMYT policy, germplasm developed by CIMMYT is available free of charge to researchers in public and private breeding programs, both within the region as well as elsewhere throughout the world.Managers of public and private maize breeding programs contacted for the CIMMYT impacts survey were asked to provide information about human and financial investments in maize breeding research. In eastern Africa, the number of maize scientists employed in the public sector far exceeds the number employed in the private sector (Tables 7 and 8). In southern Africa, by contrast, the number of scientists employed in the two sectors is very similar. These numbers suggest that maize breeding in eastern Africa remains largely concentrated within the public sector, unlike in southern Africa, where private breeding programs have made considerable advances.With regards to the intensity of research investment (measured here as the number of research scientists employed per million hectares of maize area planted), significant differences are evident by sector and region. Public research organizations in eastern Africa employ more than twice as many maize scientists per million hectares of maize area planted as public research organizations in southern Africa. This pattern is reversed in the private sector: private breeding programs have concentrated their investments in southern Africa, while largely ignoring eastern Africa.What can be said about the productivity of maize scientists employed in the public and private sectors? Based on the average number of varieties released, scientists employed in the private sector have been twice as productive as scientists employed in the public sector, both in eastern and southern Africa. 4  The figures can be expected to change, however, as the private seed industry matures. Since private seed 4The figures in Tables 7 and 8 may understate the relative productivity of scientists working in the private sector, because the productivity measure for private-sector scientists takes into account only varieties being sold in 1998. By contrast, the productivity measure for public-sector scientists takes into account all varieties released between 1966 and 1998, a much longer period. companies are still relatively new in most countries of eastern and southern Africa, they have been releasing varieties at an unusually high rate in an effort to win a greater share of markets that have long been dominated by public agencies.Investment indicators and productivity indices based on numbers of scientists can be misleading if they conceal significant differences in levels of financial support received by each scientist. Table 9 summarizes data on the cost of supporting senior maize scientists in the public and private sectors (salary and benefits, operating budgets). In both eastern and southern Africa, maize scientists employed in the private sector receive nearly twice as much financial support as maize scientists employed in the public sector. These data may explain the productivity difference between the public and private sectors; private-sector scientists produce twice as many varieties as public-sector scientists, but they do so with double the financial resources.In interpreting the data relating to research investment and research productivity, it is important to remember that the average number of varieties released per scientist is not an ideal measure of research productivity, because all scientists may not have the same objectives. For example, scientists working in public breeding programs typically place greater emphasis on \"upstream\" research activities, such as population improvement, development of special trait materials, and other forms of \"prebreeding\" work, whereas scientists working for private seed companies typically place greater emphasis on development of finished varieties. Furthermore, scientists working in the private sector are usually supported by well-established testing, production, and marketing systems, whose goal is to increase seed sales and maximize profits. By contrast, scientists working in the public sector normally face less pressure to increase sales and profits; instead, they are often encouraged to focus on activities that are expected to generate important social benefits.The impacts of maize breeding research ultimately are felt when modern varieties are adopted and grown in farmers' fields. Farm-level technology adoption decisions are affected by many factors that cannot be controlled directly by breeders, however, so varietal adoption rates provide an imperfect measure of breeding productivity. Widespread adoption of modern varieties indicates that breeding efforts have been productive, but lack of adoption does not necessarily mean that breeding efforts have been unproductive. In many instances breeding programs have developed excellent varieties, only to see adoption stymied by Numbers and types of varietal releases therefore provide useful intermediate indicators for judging the productivity of breeding programs. One objective of the 1998/99 survey was to update CIMMYT's varietal releases database for eastern and southern Africa. Compared to the original 1992 survey, the 1998/99 survey went to much greater lengths to collect data from the private sector. Based on the information provided by many private seed companies, the varietal releases database was updated and considerably expanded.Varietal release data are analyzed in this section of the report. In comparing the results of the 1998/ 99 survey with the results of the earlier 1992 survey, minor differences can be observed in varietal release data. Most of these differences arose because a number of research organizations that were formerly public or parastatal had been privatized since the original impacts report was published; varieties released by these organizations were reclassified as private-sector releases. In addition, two adjustments were made to avoid multiple counting of individual varieties. In cases where two or more organizations were found to be selling the same variety in a given country, the variety was listed only once in the varietal releases database. Similarly, in cases where the same variety was being sold in two or more countries, it was listed only once.Last but not least, it is important to keep in mind that the temporal coverage of the public-and private-sector varietal releases databases is not the same. The public-sector varietal releases database includes information about all public varieties released from 1966 through 1998. Since the data form a complete time series, they provide insights into changes through time in the numbers and types of varieties developed by public breeding programs. In contrast, the more limited private-sector varietal releases database includes information only about private-sector varieties that were being sold in the late 1990s; it does not include information about private-sector varieties that may have been sold in the past but that had been discontinued by the late 1990s. The private-sector varietal releases database thus provides a detailed snapshot of the varieties available in the market in the late 1990s, but it does not provide a complete picture of changes that have occurred through time in the numbers and types of varieties developed by private seed companies.Summary information about the maize varieties released by public breeding programs in eastern and southern Africa between 1966 and 1998 appears in Table 10. Of 133 total releases, one-quarter (35) were varieties developed in eastern Africa, and threequarters (98) were varieties developed in southern Africa. While the absolute number of releases was much greater in southern Africa, since the area planted to maize is also much greater in southern Africa, the number of releases per million hectares of maize was similar across the two regions.Regional differences are evident in the types of materials developed by public breeding programs. In eastern Africa, public-sector releases have been evenly divided between OPVs and hybrids, while in southern Africa hybrids have dominated. Summing across both regions, hybrids have constituted a 30% greater share in the overall number of releases. Interestingly, the composition of public-sector varietal releases has not changed appreciably in recent years. The share of hybrids increased during the 1960s and 1970s before stabilizing in the 1980s at about 55% (Figure 1).Regional differences also are evident in the types of hybrids that have been released. Almost all the hybrids released in eastern Africa have been doublecross hybrids, top-cross hybrids, or varietal hybrids. In contrast, breeding programs in southern Africa seem to have emphasized \"large hybrid vigor,\" as more than 70% of the hybrids released in southern Africa have been single-cross hybrids or three-way-cross hybrids. Single-cross and three-way-cross hybrids are generally very uniform and tend to perform especially well under high levels of management, making them suitable for large-scale commercial farmers. These advantages come at a price, however: single-cross hybrids and three-waycross hybrids are time-consuming and difficult to develop, and because they are characterized by low seed yields, seed is more expensive to produce (Pandey, 1998). Double-cross hybrids, top-cross hybrids, and varietal hybrids are less uniform and generally do not yield as well, but their seed is less costly to produce, and their performance is not as severely affected by seed recycling. For these reasons, they are more suitable for small-scale, subsistence-oriented farmers, who are not always able to provide high levels of management, and who are more likely to recycle seed. These differences in the types of hybrids being released suggest that public breeding programs in each region have targeted different groups of farmers. Public breeding programs in eastern Africa  evidently have focused on providing for the needs of the small-scale, subsistence-oriented farmer, whereas in southern Africa the main target has been commercial producers. This difference could be linked to the timing of political independence in the two regions: many countries in eastern Africa achieved independence earlier and therefore were quicker to shift the focus of breeding away from large-scale commercial production systems (which had been favored under colonial rule) to smallholder farming systems (which had traditionally been neglected).Summary information about the maize varieties being sold during the late 1990s by private seed companies in eastern and southern Africa appears in Table 11. Compared to public breeding programs, private seed companies have placed much greater emphasis on hybrids. Out of 137 total private-sector releases, only six were OPVs; the remaining 131 (or 95%) were hybrids. Private-sector varietal releases have originated mainly from southern Africa, reflecting the much greater amount of private-sector activity in that region. Only six varieties have been released by private seed companies in eastern Africa; the remaining 131 have been released by seed companies operating in southern Africa (mainly in Malawi, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). Similar to public-sector varietal releases, the composition of private-sector varietal releases has not changed appreciably in recent years. Summarizing across the two regions, the share of hybrids increased during the 1960s and 1970s before stabilizing in the 1980s at about 95% (Figure 2). In terms of the types of hybrids that have been released by private seed companies, regional differences are evident. In eastern Africa, the number of \"high vigor\" hybrids (single crosses, three-way crosses) has been half as large as the number of \"low vigor\" hybrids (double crosses, top crosses, varietal hybrids). By contrast, in southern Africa \"high vigor\" hybrids have clearly dominated.Taking into account both public-sector and private-sector releases, and adjusting for differences in the area planted to maize in each region, relatively more varieties have been developed for southern Africa (21.6 varieties per million ha maize area) than for eastern Africa (11.0 varieties per million ha maize area). This could be due to the greater diversity of maize production environments found in southern Africa, to the higher level of competition prevailing in the private seed industry in southern Africa, or both.In attempting to discern trends through time in patterns of varietal releases, it is important to remember that the temporal coverage of the publicsector varietal releases database is much more complete than that of the private-sector varietal releases database. Despite the lack of information about private-sector releases in earlier years, however, there has clearly been significant growth through time in the proportion of releases coming from the private sector. Of all new varieties released since 1995, close to 100% have come from private seed companies (Figure 3a). Not surprisingly, given the commercial orientation of private seed companies, nearly 95% of these releases consisted of hybrids (Figure 3b).The ecological adaptation of maize varieties released by public breeding programs and private seed companies in eastern and southern Africa reflects the characteristics of local production environments (Tables 12 and 13). About two-thirds (66%) of all released varieties have been adapted to subtropical environments, which is roughly congruent with the share of subtropical environments in the region. Another 13% of all released varieties have been adapted to lowland tropical environments, and an additional 10% have been adapted to mid-altitude environments. Just under 6% of all released varieties have been adapted to highland environments; these highland varieties    The predominant grain color of maize varieties released in eastern and southern Africa has differed by region and by type of breeding program. Among varieties released by public breeding programs, 100% of those released in eastern Africa and 88% of those released in southern Africa have been whitegrained (Table 14). Since white maize is the dominant food staple in both regions, this indicates the strong influence of consumer preferences on public breeding strategies. Among the varieties released by private seed companies, 100% of those released in eastern Africa but only 56% of those released in southern Africa have been white-grained (Table 15). Yellow-grained varieties have been released in South Africa and Zimbabwe, where they are in demand for use as animal feed (mainly in Angola, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).Variability by region and by type of breeding program has also been evident in the predominant grain texture of maize varietal releases. In both eastern and southern Africa, public-sector releases have included roughly equal numbers of hard (flint) and soft (dent) grain types (Table 14). However, the predominant grain type has differed between countries. Soft-grained varieties have been relatively uncommon in Malawi (11%) and Tanzania (21%), whereas they have dominated in most other countries (including Zimbabwe, where 100% of all public-sector releases have been softgrained). These differences reflect differences in consumer preferences. In Malawi, for example, most consumers strongly prefer flinty grain types, which has influenced the national breeding program to concentrate on hard-grained materials (Ellis 1959, Heisey and Smale 1995, Rusike and Smale 1998). In Tanzania, farmers similarly prefer flinty grain types, which not only lend themselves more easily to traditional processing methods (hand pounding) but also store better. With regard to grain texture, private seed companies also have demonstrated sensitivity to consumer preferences, although in this case the consumers being targeted are often different. Soft-textured grain types have dominated among private-sector varietal releases, accounting for 100% of all releases in eastern Africa and 84% of all releases in southern Africa (Table 15). Soft-grained dent maize has superior industrial processing qualities that millers prefer and hence is preferred by many commercial farmers.Most of the maize varieties released by public breeding programs since 1966 have been intermediate or late maturing (Table 16). In eastern Africa, 20% of all public-sector releases have been intermediate maturing, and 66% have been late maturing. In southern Africa, 26% of all publicsector releases have been intermediate maturing, and 64% have been late maturing. In contrast, a larger proportion of the varieties released by private seed companies have been early maturing. Of all private-sector releases, 43% of those released in eastern Africa and 18% of those released in southern Africa have been early maturing (Table 17). Breeders in the private sector evidently have placed more emphasis on developing short-duration materials that are less vulnerable to drought occurring late in the growing season.Since many maize-growing environments in eastern and southern Africa are susceptible to drought, especially in areas populated mainly by small-scale, subsistence-oriented farmers, the relatively small proportion of short-duration varieties among all releases suggests that the supply of germplasm suited to these environments is quite limited. In an effort to expand the range of technology choices available to farmers, CIMMYT recently initiated a major breeding project in southern Africa, the Southern Africa Drought and Low Fertility Project. The objective of the project, which is being carried out in collaboration with public NARSs and private seed companies, is to develop materials showing increased drought tolerance and enhanced nitrogen use efficiency. Early results appear extremely promising, and improved germplasm developed through the project is rapidly making its way into breeding programs throughout the region. The CIMMYT Maize Program, working out of its headquarters in Mexico and out of regional offices located in Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, produces improved germplasm that is distributed to public and private breeding programs around the world for use in developing finished varieties. Since CIMMYT does not release finished varieties, the impacts of CIMMYT's maize breeding efforts are best estimated by investigating the extent to which CIMMYT germplasm has been used by public and private breeding programs. This is not an easy task. Tracking the use of CIMMYT germplasm is difficult for several reasons. To begin with, modern maize breeding is an extremely complex undertaking. The development of OPVs and hybrids normally involves repeated cycles of crossing involving a wide range of source materials; consequently, it is often very difficult to trace the complete genetic history of individual varieties. Documenting the origins of individual varieties is greatly complicated by the fact that the pedigrees (genetic background and crossing history) of most commercial hybrids are confidential, since most private breeding programs and even some public ones are reluctant to disclose pedigree information for fear of providing information that might be useful to potential competitors. Despite these difficulties, for this study an attempt was made to compile information on the use of CIMMYT-derived germplasm by public and private maize breeding programs in eastern and southern Africa. Although it was not possible to obtain complete pedigree information for most varieties, especially commercial hybrids developed by private seed companies, the survey respondents were asked the following three questions about each cultivar that had been developed by their breeding program:1. Does the cultivar contain CIMMYT germplasm? 2. If it does contain CIMMYT germplasm, which CIMMYT population(s), pool(s), and/or inbred line(s) were used in developing the cultivar?3. How were the CIMMYT population(s), pool(s), and/or inbred line(s) used? 5In the analysis that follows, data for southern Africa are often reported in two ways: (a) including South Africa, and (b) excluding South Africa. South Africa is sometimes excluded from the analysis because commercial maize hybrids cultivated in South Africa contain mainly temperate germplasm, most of which comes from the US and Europe. CIMMYT maize breeders do not work with temperate germplasm, so most of South Africa's maize-growing area falls outside the area targeted by the CIMMYT Maize Program. In assessing the impacts of CIMMYT's breeding efforts, it is therefore often appropriate to exclude South Africa.Of all maize varieties released by public and private breeding programs since 1966 and whose parentage is known, 24% were developed using CIMMYT source materials (35% if South Africa is excluded).Use of CIMMYT germplasm has varied by region and by type of breeding program (Table 18). Among public breeding programs, use of CIMMYT germplasm has been more extensive in southern Africa (35% of all public-sector releases for which the CIMMYT germplasm content is known contain CIMMYT germplasm) than in eastern Africa (22% of all releases for which the CIMMYT germplasm content is known contain CIMMYT germplasm). Among private breeding programs, the pattern is reversed; use of CIMMYT germplasm has been more extensive in eastern Africa (67% of all private-sector releases for which the CIMMYT germplasm content is known contain CIMMYT germplasm) than in southern Africa (15% of all releases for which the CIMMYT germplasm content is known contain CIMMYT germplasm; 44% if South Africa is excluded). In interpreting these percentage figures, it is important to remember that the total number of private-sector releases is approximately 10 times higher than the number of public-sector releases.Aggregating across both regions (eastern and southern Africa) and both types of breeding programs (public and private), CIMMYT germplasm shows up much more frequently in OPVs than in hybrids (Table 18).How has the use of CIMMYT germplasm changed through time? Trends in the use of CIMMYT germplasm are shown in Table 19 and Figure 4. In both regions, use of CIMMYT germplasm has increased steadily among public and  How has use of CIMMYT germplasm varied across ecological zones? In both regions, public and private breeding programs have used CIMMYT germplasm most frequently in developing varieties targeted for tropical lowland and mid-altitude tropical environments (Table 20). Use of CIMMYT germplasm in developing highland materials has been more variable; none of the highland varieties released in eastern Africa contained CIMMYT material, compared to 40% of the highland varieties released in southern Africa. One interesting finding is that public and private breeding programs have made use of CIMMYT germplasm in developing varieties targeted for temperate production environments; 40% of the temperate varieties developed by Kenyan breeding programs and 14.3% of the temperate varieties developed by South African breeding programs have contained CIMMYT germplasm.Simply knowing whether or not a variety was developed using CIMMYT germplasm provides a useful measure of the impact of CIMMYT's maize breeding program. Even more useful would be quantitative information about the importance of CIMMYT germplasm in the genetic makeup of each cultivar (i.e., the percentage share of CIMMYT germplasm). In the absence of complete pedigree information, unfortunately it was not possible to calculate such a measure.Survey respondents were generally reluctant to provide details about the use of particular CIMMYT population(s), pool(s), and/or inbred line(s), so this information was obtained for relatively few varieties. Within the limited sample for which data were available, Population 21 (Tuxpeño) was the most popular CIMMYT source material, followed by Population 22 (Mezcla Tropical Blanco) and Population 32 (ETO Blanco). All three of these populations are adapted to lowland topical environments.Public and private breeding programs in eastern and southern Africa have tended to use CIMMYT germplasm in different ways (Table 21). Public breeding programs have made extensive use of CIMMYT populations, pools and experimental varieties; most of the time, the CIMMYT source materials have been used directly, with little or no additional selection. In contrast, private seed companies have used mainly CIMMYT inbred lines; in most cases, the CIMMYT lines were subjected to further selection before being used.Aggregating across public and private breeding programs, among all varieties that were developed using CIMMYT germplasm, in 43% of cases CIMMYT source materials were incorporated with little or no additional improvement at the hands of local breeders. Conversely, in 57% of cases CIMMYT source materials were further improved before being used. This suggests that although many national breeding programs have developed the capacity to do their own improvement work, a considerable number of breeding programs-especially public breeding programs-continue to make direct use of CIMMYT germplasm. maize germplasm. Through the questionnaire, individuals with knowledge of the maize sector (e.g., scientists working in public research organizations, representatives of private seed companies) were asked to estimate (a) the total area planted to maize in 1996, and (b) the proportions within that total area planted to local varieties, improved OPVs, and hybrids. In addition, data were collected on commercial seed sales by public seed agencies and private companies in 1996. Based on the seed sales data, and using knowledge of average planting rates in each country, it was possible to estimate the area theoretically planted to commercial seed. These area estimates were then compared with direct area estimates to provide a consistency check.Table 22 shows the estimates made by the survey respondents of the total area planted to maize in each country in 1996, along with the 1996 maize area reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). With the exception of Angola 6 and Lesotho, where the FAO figures were about 22% lower than the survey respondents' estimates, in all countries the estimates made by the survey respondents closely matched the FAO data (difference of less than 10%). Aggregating to the regional level, the divergence between two estimates was negligible (1.2% difference in eastern Africa and 2.4% difference in southern Africa).Table 23 shows the estimates of the percentage area in each country planted to improved OPVs and hybrids. According to the national program respondents, in 1996, more than one-half of the maize area in eastern and southern Africa was planted to modern varieties. Adoption rates varied, between individual countries, however. Adoption of modern varieties was highest in South Africa (98%), Zimbabwe (95%), Swaziland (75%), Lesotho (75%), and Kenya (72%). Adoption was lowest in Ethiopia (6%), Mozambique (8%), Tanzania (10%), and Malawi (11%). The pronounced inter-country variability in adoption rates presumably reflects differences between countries in terms of institutional and policy factors, including seed delivery infrastructure, economic incentives to adopt modern varieties, and the strength of the local extension service. These factors may be more important than agroclimatic suitability for the successful diffusion of modern varieties.  The varietal adoption estimates reveal interesting patterns in the types of modern varieties being grown in eastern and southern Africa. Generally speaking, use of hybrids was much more extensive than use of improved OPVs. According to the national program respondents, in 1996, hybrids occupied approximately 46% of the maize area planted, compared to only 7% occupied by OPVs. The greater use of hybrids reflects the increasing dominance of the private seed industry.Seed sales data for 1996 collected from public and private companies were used to derive an alternative set of estimates of the area planted to commercial maize seed in eastern and southern Africa. This was done by dividing total commercial seed sales in each country by the average planting rate for that country. In eastern and southern Africa, recommended planting rates for maize generally range from 20-25 kg/ha, although they are lower in some countries, including South Africa (10kg/ha), Lesotho (10 kg/ ha), Uganda (16 kg/ha), and Swaziland (16 kg/ha). Many of the survey respondents indicated that farmers often plant at rates lower than the recommended rate, however, so the recommended planting rates were adjusted downward. Accordingly, an average planting rate of 17.5 kg/ha was used for all countries except South Africa and Lesotho, where an average rate of 12.5 kg/ha was used. These planting rates implicitly accommodate a certain amount of wastage, since the seed sales data were not adjusted to allow for the fact that in most years a certain amount of seed remains unplanted, some farmers replant the same field several times in order to establish a satisfactory stand, some of the area planted to commercial seed is never harvested, etc. Generally speaking, the seed sales-based estimates of the area planted to improved germplasm were consistent with the direct estimates made by the survey respondents (Table 23). In many countries, the estimates based on seed sales data were lower than the direct estimates, but this is expected, since the seed sales-based estimates include only area planted to newly purchased seed, whereas the direct estimates additionally include area planted to recycled seed. Countries in which the direct estimates significantly exceeded the seed-sales based estimates tended to be those in which a large amount of seed recycling is known to occur (e.g., Angola, Tanzania, Uganda).  5a and 5b show recent trends in commercial maize seed sales in eastern and southern Africa. 7 After increasing sharply during the early 1990s, maize seed sales leveled off around 120,000 tons for several years before dropping by more than 25% between 1994 and 1996. The decline in commercial maize seed sales during the mid-1990s can be attributed to several factors. In a number of countries (e.g., Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe), economic reforms resulted in the removal of input subsidies and elimination of exchange rate distortions, which had the effect of significantly increasing the price of maize seed. Unfavorable weather conditions also played a role, as a prolonged drought caused the area planted to maize to drop significantly in several major maize producing countries (e.g., South Africa).The commercial seed sales data confirm that the maize seed market in eastern and southern Africa is now almost entirely privatized. By 1996, the most recent year for which data are available, private seed companies controlled more than 90% of the total market (Table 24). The domination of the private sector was pronounced not only in southern Africa, where private seed companies are relatively numerous, but also in eastern Africa, where private seed companies are still relatively scarce. 7 Since it was not possible to obtain complete historical seed sales data for Angola, Angola was excluded from the analysis of trends in seed sales. In terms of market size, southern Africa is a much more important market for private seed companies than eastern Africa; the volume of private-sector seed sales in southern Africa is more than three times larger than the volume of seed sales in eastern Africa (Table 24). For public seed companies, the reverse is true; public seed companies continue to sell more maize seed in eastern Africa than they do in southern Africa (Table 24).Aggregating across the two regions, sales of hybrid seed have grown as a proportion of total seed sales. By 1996, hybrid seed accounted for more than 92% of total seed sales (Table 24 and Figure 6). The only significant exception to the trend toward greater emphasis on hybrids has occurred in southern Africa, where public-sector seed sales have become increasingly dominated by OPVs. This finding can be attributed to the fact that with Angola excluded from the analysis, the only public seed company still operating in southern Africa is in Tanzania, where public seed agencies have made a conscious decision to concentrate on OPVs. Given the current environment, most smallholders in Tanzania cannot afford to purchase hybrid seed and other inputs such as chemical fertilizer.The rise of the private maize seed industry and the related increase in the production of hybrid seed raises difficult questions for policy makers. In particular, it is justifiable to ask whether current trends will lead eventually to further marginalization of small-scale, subsistence-oriented farmers, many of whom are likely to find it difficult to buy fresh hybrid seed every year. To date, no definitive answer has emerged to this important question. Despite the widespread belief that hybrid technology is inappropriate for smallholders, evidence from a number of countries in the region suggests that hybrids can be adopted successfully by small-scale producers. In Kenya (Hassan et al. 1998b), Zimbabwe (Eicher andKupfuma 1997, Eicher 1995), Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa, smallholders have achieved rates of adoption of hybrid maize that are comparable to those achieved by large commercial farmers.How extensive is the area planted in eastern and southern Africa to maize varieties that were developed using CIMMYT germplasm? In the absence of detailed information about the area planted to individual varieties, the area planted to varieties containing CIMMYT germplasm had to be calculated indirectly based on (1) estimates of the area planted to all modern varieties, (2) quantitative data on the use of CIMMYT germplasm in all varietal releases, and (3) qualitative information provided by public-and private-sector breeders. For most countries, it was assumed that of the total area planted to modern varieties, the proportion planted to varieties containing CIMMYT germplasm was identical to the proportion of all varietal releases that have contained CIMMYT germplasm. Implicit in this approach is the assumption that on average, varieties developed using CIMMYT germplasm have been adopted at the same rate as varieties developed without the use of CIMMYT germplasm. For five countries in which only limited information was available about the CIMMYT germplasm content of varietal releases (Angola, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda), the proportion of modern varieties containing CIMMYT germplasm was subjectively estimated based on information provided by breeders in the public and private sectors about the use of CIMMYT source materials in their breeding programs.Based on these estimates, it is estimated that in 1996 over 1.6 million hectares in eastern and southern Africa were planted to varieties containing CIMMYT germplasm (Table 25). Of this amount, 0.32 million ha were located in eastern Africa (representing 8% of the total maize area in that region, and 21% of the area planted to modern varieties) and 1.31 million ha were located in southern Africa (representing 12% of the total maize area in that region, and 21% of the area planted to modern varieties). Excluding South Africa, where maize is grown mainly in temperate production environments that are not directly targeted by CIMMYT's breeding program, 16% of the total maize area in southern Africa was planted to CIMMYT derived varieties, representing 47% of the area planted to modern varieties. In 1997, CIMMYT launched a major study designed to document the impacts of international maize breeding research in developing countries. The study was intended to update and extend the findings of CIMMYT's first global research impacts study, which had been published three years earlier in a report entitled Impacts of International Maize Breeding Research in the Developing World, 1966-90 (López-Pereira andMorris 1994). Due to the enormity of the data collection task, the follow-up study was divided into three regional impacts studies. This report has presented the results of the regional impacts study carried out for eastern and southern Africa.The results presented in this report are based on information collected during 1998 and 1999 through a comprehensive survey of public and private maize breeding organizations and seed production agencies in 12 countries of eastern and southern Africa. The survey generated information on many aspects of maize research, seed production, and seed distribution (e.g., maize breeding activities, products of breeding programs, maize seed production and sales operations, seed industry regulations and policies). The countries covered by the survey accounted for more than 95% of all maize produced in the region. The organizations contacted as part of the survey currently control about 97% of the total maize seed market in the 12 countries.Major findings of the study are summarized below.During the past decade, national maize seed industries in eastern and southern Africa have undergone major structural changes. In most countries, policy reforms introduced in an effort to scale back the role of the state have paved the way for increased private sector participation in seed research, seed production, and seed distribution activities. These policy reforms have induced marked changes in the organization and performance of national maize seed industries.The most obvious change has been the emergence of a flourishing private maize seed sector. Private maize seed companies currently operate in every country in the region. This represents a major difference compared to earlier years, when maize research and maize seed production were largely restricted to monopolistic government agencies and parastatals. Major reforms that were instrumental in bringing about this change included the lifting of prohibitions on private seed companies, removal of restrictions on importation of commercial maize seed, and elimination of direct seed price controls.Despite the recent liberalization measures, however, in many countries the participation of private seed companies continues to be constrained by implicit restrictions in the form of cumbersome seed certification requirements and lengthy varietal registration procedures. Moreover, a number of governments are still trying to influence maize seed prices indirectly, for example by subsidizing maize seed production. This practice is especially prevalent in countries in which public agencies continue to operate and control large shares in the seed market.Interestingly, the rise of the private seed industry appears to have happened in the absence of welldefined intellectual property regimes. In most countries of eastern and southern Africa, little progress has been achieved in establishing intellectual property rights and implementing plant varietal protection legislation. Private seed companies apparently are relying mainly on trade secrets approaches to keep their most valuable germplasm out of the hands of potential competitors, thereby protecting the investments they have made in maize breeding research.The recent policy reforms have had a pronounced effect on research investment patterns. Although data on research investment are difficult to come by, private investment in maize breeding research clearly has increased as a share of total research investment in many countries. In eastern Africa, public-sector maize breeders still outnumber privatesector breeders, but in southern Africa the number of breeders is now roughly the same. Numbers of scientists provide an imperfect measure of total research investment, however, since they reveal very little about the cost of supporting each researcher. In eastern and southern Africa, as elsewhere in the developing and developed world, the cost of supporting a senior scientist (salary and benefits plus operating funds) tends to be considerably higher in the private sector. Adjusting for the difference in support costs, total research investment by the private sector probably exceeds total research investment by the public sector, certainly in southern Africa and probably for both regions.The productivity of investments in breeding research can be judged by examining the rate at which breeding programs release new varieties. In both eastern and southern Africa, maize breeders employed by private seed companies have on average released more varieties than maize breeders working in public research organizations. This difference in varietal release rates can be attributed to differences in the quantity and quality of investment, as well as to the commercial orientation of private seed companies compared to public breeding programs, which focus more on noncommercial breeding objectives.The composition of varietal releases reflects steady growth in the role of the private sector. By the late 1990s, all maize varieties released in eastern and southern Africa were originating from private companies. The recent decline in public-sector varietal releases no doubt also reflects reductions in public funding for agricultural research that have occurred in many countries in the region.Seed industry liberalization has led to a significant decline in the role of public seed agencies throughout eastern and southern Africa. Seed sales data make clear that the private sector has effectively taken over the maize seed market in many countries. In 1996, the most recent year for which seed sales data are available, more than 90% of total commercial seed sales were made by private companies. It is important to note, however, that in a number of major maize producing countries (e.g., Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe), the leading private seed company is simply a transformed version of a previously public or parastatal seed agency that had long monopolized the local seed market. In several instances, these privatized parastatals continue to control more than 80% of the national seed market. At the time of their creation, these companies already had an edge over potential competitors because they inherited well established networks of seed production facilities, conditioning plants, and distribution depots.With privatization, the maize seed industry is becoming more concentrated as a relatively small number of large multinationals acquire, merge with, or buy large shares in local seed companies. While consolidation could lead to scale economies, reduced competition is a concern to farmers, who worry that they may eventually face restricted choices and have to pay higher prices. The fact that seed prices in many countries have not risen significantly may reflect continued attempts by governments to keep maize seed prices low through the supply of subsidized public maize seed.Since private seed companies have strong commercial incentives to concentrate on hybrids, it is not surprising that the emergence of a flourishing private seed industry has been accompanied by a rising share of hybrids in new varietal releases and seed sales. Because many public breeding programs are now also concentrating on hybrids (because of their superior performance), this has led to a situation in which varietal releases and seed sales are now completely dominated by hybrids. Some observers have raised questions about the increasing popularity of hybrids, pointing out that hybrid technologies may not be suitable for smallscale, subsistence-oriented farmers, many of whom lack the resources needed to buy fresh seed every season. Little empirical evidence has emerged to indicate that small-scale farmers have been adversely affected by the shift to hybrids, but the matter will require careful attention, because supplying seed to smallholders may not be of interest to profit-motivated private firms.Commercial maize seed sales data support estimates made by researchers and seed industry insiders that adoption of improved varieties increased during the 1990s in most countries of eastern and southern Africa. However, significant differences in adoption patterns are evident between countries and regions. Total sales of improved maize seed have fluctuated around a modest 20,000 tons per year in eastern Africa, whereas in southern Africa total maize seed sales grew during the early 1990s to peak at just over 100,000 tons in 1992 before declining. Within individual countries, the area planted to modern varieties varies from less than 10% to nearly 100%. The large differences between countries in adoption rates can be attributed partly to differences in economic, institutional, and policy factors that affect the availability and affordability of improved seed.CIMMYT's maize breeding program has had significant impacts in eastern and southern Africa. Of all maize varieties released by public and private breeding programs since 1966 and whose parentage is known, 24% were developed using CIMMYT source materials (35% if South Africa is excluded). Use of CIMMYT germplasm increased steadily over time; of the varieties released since 1990 and whose parentage is known, over 31% were developed using CIMMYT source materials (55% if South Africa is excluded). In 1996, approximately 1.6 million ha in eastern and southern Africa were planted to varieties that had been developed using CIMMYT germplasm, representing nearly 21% of the area planted to all modern varieties. Excluding South Africa, where farmers grow mainly temperate materials not targeted by CIMMYT's breeding program, nearly 37% of the area planted to modern varieties in eastern and southern Africa was planted to varieties containing CIMMYT germplasm. Taken together, the varietal release data and the adoption data indicate growing demand for CIMMYT source materials on the part of public and private breeding programs, as well as growing acceptance by farmers of varieties developed using those materials. The observed growth in demand for and use of CIMMYT germplasm in eastern and southern Africa over recent years validates the decision by the CIMMYT Maize Program to establish regional maize breeding programs in eastern and southern Africa and to allocate increased resources to local adaptive breeding.","tokenCount":"11567"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dba6245ea2b80d25ef808474fd18a364","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fa664cea-50dc-4d1d-aa3b-815f6fbeee9d/retrieve","id":"-772398633"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"848aaa9a-431b-4009-a0f5-8a34cb101031","pagecount":"4","content":"Tackling gender inequalities is becoming increasingly important for voluntary sustainability systems to address. More and more, sustainability systems are looking to integrate gender into their standards and the management of their organisations. Sustainability systems that are not gender-responsive can result in unnecessary health and safety risks for women and girls, and lead to unequal impacts and unintended consequences. This briefing note provides a collection of good practices to support sustainability systems, including ISEAL Community Members, to get started and progress on gender issues.A CGIAR-ISEAL scoping study on the state of gender integration among ISEAL Community Members in the agri-food sector highlighted three steps to approaching gender equality in sustainability systems: minimum prevention of harm within standards, proactively supporting gender equality within standards, and promoting gender equality and women's rights beyond the standard. This briefing primarily focuses on the first and second steps that address gender equality within standards and draws examples of good practice from ISEAL Community Members.At the bare minimum, standards should have basic requirements to protect women from harm. Key areas include:• anti-discrimination and equality of treatment • zero tolerance for harassment or violence • accountability requirements • gender-specific fair working conditions Below are some examples of how these have been incorporated into standards.    • policy/strategy requirements for members and producer organisations • representation (from ground-level committees through to organisational governance and internal processes)• enabling environments and systems changeA significant step that standards can take to proactively support gender equality is to require their members to have their own gender policies and strategies in place.For Fairtrade International requires smallscale producer organisations to develop and implement a gender policy, ensure members are aware of this policy and its contents, and involve women in the development and implementation of the policy.Examples of topics that can be included in a gender policy, from the Fairtrade Standard for Small-scale Producer Organizations 4.3.1 are:• promoting the participation of women in boards, leadership positions and other structures within the organisation • measures against sexual harassment • a grievance mechanism • collection and use of gender-disaggregated data • investing in projects and programmes focusing on women's needs.Standards can support gender equality by requiring women's improved representation at various levels. At the ground level, this can include ensuring that committees include representation of diverse groups, that grievance committees are gender-sensitive and that there is a specific gender committee. At an organisational level, gender equality can be promoted through employment practices. ","tokenCount":"404"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c43bd562cf4794036c0a22a457b8dd7b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dda61fd7-f6ee-4447-b9df-81c4464f95fe/retrieve","id":"-1088660241"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cd66f055-95f1-40a2-a678-d896b1e9d2f9","pagecount":"8","content":"Comparative genomics is the analysis of genomic relationships among different species and serves as a significant base for evolutionary and functional genomic studies. GreenPhylDB (https://www. greenphyl.org) is a database designed to facilitate the exploration of gene families and homologous relationships among plant genomes, including staple crops critically important for global food security. GreenPhylDB is available since 2007, after the release of the Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa genomes and has undergone multiple releases. With the number of plant genomes currently available, it becomes challenging to select a single reference for comparative genomics studies but there is still a lack of databases taking advantage several genomes by species for orthology detection. GreenPhylDBv5 introduces the concept of comparative pangenomics by harnessing multiple genome sequences by species. We created 19 pangenes and processed them with other species still relying on one genome. In total, 46 plant species were considered to build gene families and predict their homologous relationships through phylogenetic-based analyses. In addition, since the previous publication, we rejuvenated the website and included a new set of original tools including protein-domain combination, tree topologies searches and a section for users to store their own results in order to support community curation efforts.Plant comparative genomics resources usually compare reference genomes to compute homology sequences and en-able functional annotation transfer (1,2,3,4,5). However, with the growing number of whole genome sequences available within the same species, it has been shown than a single reference is not enough to capture its total genetic diversity (6). A pangenome, usually defined as the full gene repertoire within a species, can be partitioned into core genes that are shared by all individuals and dispensable genes that are present only in a subset of individuals (6,7,8). Characterizing them can have a great potential in plants for crop improvement (7,9,10) as candidate genes can potentially be missing in the genotype used to set up a reference genome. Pangenomic studies have recently been conducted in several crops, revealing significant differences with presence absence variations (PAVs) and/or copy number variations across genotypes (11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18). It became obvious that distinguishing core from dispensable genes is important as dispensable genes can be associated with useful trait diversity (10). Finally, PAVs can have an influence on orthology detection as specific genotype gene losses can lead to false negative results in interspecific comparisons or to pseudo-orthology (19).Until now, comparative genomics databases have not fully taken advantage of these new datasets. Here, we present an updated version of the GreenPhylDB, a database that features multiple genomes for 19 species (e.g. rice, maize, banana, grape and cacao) as well as 27 other species with single reference genomes, for a total of 46 genomes. Publicly available genomes were processed to generate representative pangenes (i.e. a set of representative or consensus sequences) for species that were used in multi-species sequence clustering. Resulting gene families were functionally annotated and analysed with orthology detection methods.We retrieved 132 publicly available datasets (coding DNA sequence and protein-coding genes) for 46 (Supplementary Table S1) and assessed their gene annotation predictions using BUSCO Plants v3.0.2 (embryophita odb10) (20). We checked that the number of CDS was consistent with the number of proteins and that they shared the same locus tag name. When protein-coding genes were missing, we generated the sequences from GFF files originating from data providers. Finally, alternate splices were filtered, and the longest sequence was conserved.Out of the full dataset, 105 genomes were considered to produce 19 pangenes computed with the get homologues-est software v20092018 (21) (Table 1), based on NCBI Blast-v2.2 and using the following program options (-M -F -t 0 -m cluster) as previously applied to the Brachypodium distachyon dataset (13). We processed each cluster the following way : i. For single-gene copy clusters (a single sequence per genome), protein sequences were aligned using MAFFT v7.313 (22) (parameters adjusted according to the number of sequences) and an automatic procedure to generate a consensus sequence was applied (Figure 1A). For each position of the alignment, we kept the most frequent amino acid. In case of a tie, the amino acid of the genome with the highest BUSCO scores ('complete' then 'fragmented' and finally lowest 'missing' scores) was selected. Finally, if more gaps than amino acids were present, this position was removed from the sequence. ii. For multi-copy clusters (multiple sequences per genome), we applied the same procedure as for singlegene copy clusters but added a preliminary step to select a representative sequence by cluster. Multiple sequence alignments were used to generate a distance matrix using distmat (Jukes-Cantor correction method) from EMBOSS v6.6 (Figure 1B). The matrix was required to define the distance for each sequence of all other genomes and the sequences with the smallest sum of distance was selected as representative of the considered genome (Figure 1C). Then, the consensus step was applied. It is worth mentioning that get homologs-est generated sequence clusters of not too distantly related sequences. Large gene families can include several multi-copy clusters being grouped together at the sequence clustering step. iii. For genotype-specific clusters (paralogs in a single genome), we generated a distance matrix between all sequences and the sequence with the lowest average distance (min(d/sum(d))) of all sequences was putatively considered as the most representative sequence. Those sequences were added to the pangene. iv. Finally, singletons (cluster of one sequence) were searched for similarity using DIAMOND (23) with a default e-value on the protein-coding genes of all other species genomes to predict their putative prediction accuracy. Sequences with a minimum of one hit in at least two species were added to the pangene; otherwise sequences were excluded.As a unique identifier was required for each pangene, we defined a nomenclature with a prefix composed of the [5-letter UniProt taxonomy database code] pan, followed by p (for protein) and an auto-increment of 6-digits (e.g. musac pan p029014 for Musa acuminata).Pangenes and protein-coding genes of reference genomes (without pangenes) were searched all against all using DI-AMOND. We then performed a clustering using Tribe-MCL (24) (M = 1.2, 2, 3 and 5), defining 4 levels of stringency (from 1 to 4) to take into account potential subclassification and we obtained 9419, 18 805, 23 409 and 29 345 clusters, respectively.We then scanned all sequences for protein domain signatures using InterProscan (25,26) and also crossed linked matches with UniProtKB-SwissProt entries (27). Cluster names resulting from curation from previous GreenPhylDB versions (2,28) were transferred when at least 51% of sequences were found clustered together as before (based on species in common between releases). In addition, for this release, we implemented an automatic method to name clusters based on the name of InterPro domains (family type only) that were found specific to clusters. In other words, when detected in at least 51% of the sequences composing an unannotated cluster, the name of the InterPro signature was assigned to it. In total, GreenPhylDB comprises 3538 clusters functionally characterized across the four levels.The previous phylogenetic-based methodology that we applied in the previous version has been conserved but uses a larger set of genomes to update our automated pipeline. The pipeline uses MAFFT for the multiple alignment step. FastTree 2 (v2.1.11) (29) was preferred over PhyML (30) due to the size of the clusters. Gene rooting and orthologous scoring was computed with Rap-Green (31) using the viridiplantae species tree extracted from NCBI taxonomy and converted into PhyloXML (2). We successfully produced gene trees at level 1 for more than 99.8% of the clusters (n = 9413) which enabled us to predict ∼17.8 million of orthologs and ∼1.8 million of in-paralogs (or ultraparalogs) relationships. The pipeline was complemented by a Reciprocal Best Hits (RBH) method--computed between all pairs of genomes--that resulted in more than ∼12.1 million orthologous relationships.With this updated version, the website has received a facelift. It now takes advantage of the bootstrap and D3.js frameworks to improve the user experience and to be more responsive. Alternatively, it can also be accessed programmatically using Resource Description Framework (RDF) as implemented in AgroLD, a knowledge-based system relying on semantic web technologies (32).All cluster (or gene family) pages present the same type of information divided into several tabs :1. Gene family composition: a bar chart allows users to visualize at a glance the composition of the gene family by species (Figure 2A). Species are ordered taxonomically to easily detect possible variations between phyla. Each bar is clickable and produces a ta-ble with the list of sequences and associated crossreferences (i.e. InterPro, UniProt). Sequences can be exported in multiple formats and/or stored in a user list. 2. Gene family structure: sequences are clustered at four levels of clustering, from less stringent to more stringent, in most cases narrowing the number of sequences (Figure 2B). 3. Protein domains: here, InterProscan was used to assess the domain conservation consistency and the specificity of the sequence clusters (Figure 2C). For each cluster, we performed statistical analyses to determine whether InterPro signatures were specific and therefore not found in any other sequences of clusters of the same level. 4. Phylogenomic analyses: this section includes multiple sequence alignments that can be downloaded and visualised using MSAviewer (33) and gene trees can be explored with InTreeGreat (https://www.southgreen.fr/ content/intreegreat-tool) and PhyD3 (34) (Figure 2D). Some gene trees can be very large, and the interface proposes an option to prune automatically the tree based on user choice for a range of species. 5. Homologous predictions: the interface enables users to display and refine all the homologies detected by the phylogenetic-based approach and Reciprocal Best Hits (RBH). It is possible to filter and select only a subset of species of interest.The new page type for pangene sequences is a central and unique concept in this version as they were used for the clustering and homology predictions instead of all individual sequences that compose it. When browsing these pages, users can quickly see which genes are present or missing by looking at the status: core or dispensable compartments.Then, information related to the sequence composition is reported. Users can access information about pangene classification, the consensus sequence (except for singletons) with the multiple sequence alignments used to create it as well as related homology predictions (Figure 3). In the case of multi-copy clusters, it is possible to see which sequence was selected as representative (.rep) or participant (.p) and also why they were selected by browsing the distance matrix.The database can still be searched via keyword searches or by entering a query sequence for similarity search using DI-AMOND (which replaces BLAST for faster processing), enhanced by new tools to further explore those datasets.Quick search. A new interface has been designed to retrieve in a comprehensive and concise way all the information associated with gene family names, sequence annotation and annotations from InterPro and UniProt mappings.  ularly helpful when searching for transcription factors for which sequences must contain some domains but not others as the Markov Cluster Algorithm (MCL) may fail grouping them accurately. The interface allows the use of various operators (e.g. AND, OR, NOT, ONLY) to filter a set of sequences for all genomes. Results can be compared with the MCL automatic clustering to check consistencies or differences.TreePattern --Tree topology search. A tree search can be done by filtering on gene tree topologies (31). Users can draw the topology with species or taxonomic groups as leaves or nodes of the tree and apply constraints such presence or absence of duplications. Resulting trees can be accessed individually (or exported in bulk results as CSV file) and defined patterns are highlighted. This feature is useful for identifying gene families with an expected evolutionary scenario due to gene duplications.While automatic clustering is a relevant and efficient starting point, sometimes limitations (e.g. missing sequences, er-rors in gene annotations) are present and prevent access to ready-to-use datasets, justifying a deeper characterization that will eventually lead to a refinement of the automatic clustering. As a result, knowledge generated on individual gene families is often available only in publications and their supplementary information as PDFs. To encourage knowledge capture, we developed a section for advanced users to create and share their own gene families. Two methods are possible: users can either start from scratch and upload their data or use existing clusters and take advantage of multiples operations implemented in the 'MyList' features: such feature was indeed developed to facilitate intersecting, combining clusters. This new tool can be valuable during the review process by providing a unique identifier to referees--and eventually to users--to explore the structure and composition of the submitted gene family.In this section, we describe three possible uses that are enabled by this new GreenPhylDB version. Concrete examples related to each of them are further documented in Supplementary Data. This new version of GreenPhylDB provides a unique way to scale up plant comparative genomics studies across multiple plants species by leveraging pangenomic datasets. This release paves the way to the transition from reference-based genomics to pangenome-based systems and tools. In this context, the website includes new powerful search interfaces to explore the content of the gene family collection. Advanced users can also deposit the results of their expert gene family curation for further use and reference. GreenPhylDB is an important resource to understand the genetic basis of genome diversity among plant species and has the potential to accelerate gene discovery to support crop improvement.","tokenCount":"2207"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b73445c34e3c06e7acd000882dd1338d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b0de483f-34d1-4bbd-af2d-99bcd3c005c0/content","id":"946609345"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"72b07aed-ec03-47ae-be4f-a495d45ab15e","pagecount":"6","content":"This report describes the process carried out for the development of a component in the e-Agrology mobile application, which allows the farmer to accept informed consent, thus authorizing the sharing of data on their agricultural production.Development of a component for the acceptance of informed consent to share production data.As part of the activities of the digital initiative, the need to generate a methodology to obtain the consent of the farmer so that he/she authorizes the sharing of his/her production data with third parties was raised, to start the automation of the consent the initial approach was to develop a module within the mobile application of the e-Agrology system, for which we worked together with Digital Green, a global development organization whose objective is to empower small farmers to get out of poverty by harnessing the collective power of technology.The need for this development arose after more than 3 years of collecting agronomic data from projects in Mexico where it was necessary to collect the consent of the farmer, in each of the cycles the collection of consent has been done in a traditional way through the signature of the consent on a sheet of paper, then the sheet was scanned and sent by email with all the compiled forms. Subsequently, a manual cross-referencing of the consents with the e-Agrology system database was performed.The proposal generated by Digital Green consisted on the following: Yellow Component:1. Consent is obtained through the e-Agrology mobile application, this would be done by adding a module in which the farmer views a video and through a question authorizes or declines to share the data, these records would feed the main database of e-Agrology. 2. Cleaning of the agronomic database through an ETL process, generating at the end a database with the transformed data.Green Component:1. Copy of the clean database which in turn feeds a third database that combines the agronomic data with the authorizations to be shared. 2. FS Connector: Development of Digital Green that allows the extraction of data to certain users who have been previously authorized to do so, the user logs into the application and it performs a filter to the information allowing the extraction of an excel which is sent to the end user's email.During the first half of 2023, work was done in together with Digital Green on the implementation of this solution and some testing of the Farmstack Connector was conducted.Image 2. Farmstack connector login page in operation.where the consent clause is read. The acceptance of the farmer's consent is done by saving his fingerprint, in this step it is necessary that the technician performs a validation by means of his previously saved fingerprint.In case the registration is done online the approved consent is sent to the server at that moment, otherwise it is stored only on the phone until it is connected to the network.Once the data is saved, the database is cleaned by means of an ETL tool, and a database with clean information is generated. Finally, with the Farmstack Connector component developed by Digital Green, it is possible to perform queries to this database and process the information outputs according to the user's authorization.Currently completed in the mobile version of e-Agrology is the development of the consent component that allows to save the fingerprints of the farmer and the technician, the next step to complete the development is the connection of the Farmstack Connector of Digital Green with the clean database.","tokenCount":"574"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a4f36a1163990b7f73abd8082c3f5a20","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/abd08311-1a17-4073-88af-268cf7843b96/retrieve","id":"-1520990606"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c91c1d25-c128-4709-80ac-d7489a5c0b25","pagecount":"14","content":"Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is an infectious disease in poultry and can result in high mortality in domestic poultry. Infections in poultry occur as a result of direct contact with infected birds. These could be prevented by good husbandry, nutrition and vaccination. The government has put in place measures to improve poultry farming such as training farmers on biosecurity measures, improving quarantines and live bird markets, vaccination and provision of compensation to affected farmers.The study was carried out Nigeria with an aim of assessing the effectiveness of biosecurity training among the poultry farmers. A total of eight states were included in the study. These were later grouped into four clusters where each cluster comprised of a high risk state paired with a low risk state so that we had: With the aid of secondary data farmers that were trained on biosecurity practices were identified. The households were further classified into four categories:From the four categories, three farmers were singled out in each state to hive an overall sample size of 96 farms. A total of 82 poultry farmers participated in the survey. The data was originally in access then imported into STATA 11.1 for analysis. The data contained three categories of variables; those that described the farm and respondent characteristics, the independent variables and the outcome variables (biosecurity related variables).All the variable names were not clear hence renamed.Those that were missing labels were labelled for comprehensibility. Variables like city, town and village had to be dropped because they had very few records thus did not give sufficient information. Location was then used in place of these variables as it had more records and also covered a lot of information about the above stated dropped variables.Individual responses especially string entries in the open ended questions were verified with invalid ones being dropped and others summarised to make sense. In cases where the respondent was allowed to give more responses outside the list of those provided, such entries too were verified where most of them that had close meaning to those in the choices were fitted into the most likely option.The data was also checked to identify irrelevant entries for instance where a farmer gave a negative answer to a question then further gives a positive answer to a question related to that which he had earlier on responded to negatively, entries of this sort were dropped.Ambiguous entries were deleted these included cases where counts for animals or workers were given as decimal numbers take for instance the number of poultry attendants on a farm.Other procedures involved in cleaning the data included combining multiple response variables and generating new ones for example the variable on farmers' sources of veterinary services was recorded as a set of indicator variables, one for each possible response, these variables were combined and a new one generated so that we had 4 sets of variables representing the sources of veterinary services The data cleaning process further involved procedures such as encoding string variables to numeric as STATA does not recognize string variables.Scores used ranged from 0 (worst biosecurity practice) to 4 (best biosecurity practice). A new variable containing the sum of the scores of the biosecurity related variables was generated.Principle component analysis was used to get a small set of variables which were uncorrelated with each other hence avoid the problem of multicolinearity. Normally, when using principle component analysis, cases that have a missing record are automatically deleted, to avoid such loss of data, all the missing entries in the biosecurity related variables were recoded to zero after which principle components were derived. Normally, the first principle component explains the most variation in the data so using the factor scores from the first principal component analysis as weights; a dependent variable was constructed for each farm. The indices derived were relative measures of the implementation of the biosecurity measures, the higher the index the higher the implementation of the biosecurity measures. This variable was used as the dependent variable in the regression model. To test whether training had an influence on the biosecurity practices mixed models were used having biosecurity index, training, gender age, distance of closest poultry farms and number of chicken kept as the fixed effects and state as the random effect.To validate the model, residuals were first obtained and the check for normality performed on the model's residuals using the command knorm. The results obtained showed indications of normality.The pnorm command was also used and the result obtained also indicated that the model's residuals had a normal distribution. Majority of the respondents (62% n=49) were males. Of the farmers interviewed the most dominant were those aged 31 years and above and only 5(6%) below 30 years. The number of birds kept were categorised into 4 groups (Table 3). Only 20(24.39%) farmers kept less than 20 chickens while majority kept more than 320, indicating that large scale poultry farming is a common practice among the farmers. Most farmers (82% n=63) cited eggs as their main chicken production type. Of those interviewed Fifty seven per cent (n=45) of the respondents' poultry had not been infected with HPAI in the past while thirty eight per cent (n=30) had been infected.it was also noted that a further 87 %( n=68) of the respondents had never vaccinated their poultry against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. On the contrary, a greater number (94% n=75) said they had used vaccines to control Fowl cholera and Gumboro diseases.Majority of the farmers (68% n=48) had registered their farms, they went on and suggested that they had registered their farms as the government required them to do so. It was also noted that most of these farm registrations took place in years 2006 and 2007. When further asked if the indicated biosecurity measures they had implemented on the farms were still in place, majority of the farmers had the above measures still in place. Only 8 out 51 (15%) farmers had not been able to train someone else using the knowledge they had obtained from these courses.Thirty eight per cent (n=31) of the farmers interviewed cited they had had a HPAI outbreak or suspected HPAI infections on their farms in 2006(n=14 48%) and 2007(n=15 52%).A higher proportion of trained farmers (n=17 74%) reported the outbreaks/suspicions to the authorities. Eighty eight per cent (n=30) of all the farmers that had outbreaks on their farms said that the HPAI team made a follow-up on the outbreak/suspicion after reporting. Both trained and untrained farmers had the carcasses sampled. Of the infected farms, thirty two per cent (n=9) indicated that the carcasses were sampled by NAICP desk officers, response team (32% n=9), state/private veterinarians (18% n=5), NVRI (14% N=4) and other (4% n=1). The types of samples collected as indicated by the farmers in decreasing order include:  Carcasses(54% n=14)  Blood and carcasses(19% n=5)  Carcasses, swabs and blood(8% n=2)  Carcasses, blood and serum(4% n=1)Out of 35 farms,28(80%) were disinfected by the field team during the first outbreak, PPE equipment was used in 30 farms(86%) and culls were conducted in the surrounding area in 21 farms(60%) *There was a significant association between training and the mode of selling eggs, a larger proportion of trained farmers (24% n=10) sold and delivered their eggs to traders while none of the untrained farmers practised that.There was evidence that training (p=0.038) was significant. Farmers who had been trained on the biosecurity measures were better than the untrained ones. Those aged between 41 and 50 years were noted to be better enactors of the practices. However the gender of the farmers was not significant. Both female and male farmers had similar practices. Proximity of the other farms did not influence the implementation of the biosecurity measures taught. The variables used to generate the indices had quite a number of missing entries.  Poor variable names which were difficult to comprehend hence had to rename all the variables.  Poor coding -some variables were not properly coded where codes were assigned to non-existent groups and even missing values were coded. As a result some codes had to be replaced for accuracy.","tokenCount":"1349"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/1117663117.json b/data/part_6/1117663117.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7d8a4b975e61a1951ea2270fc9b4052e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/599a024d-ef97-40ef-a7f2-3e4a81d66577/retrieve","id":"-787943044"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6dc20cec-374f-4efe-a748-803fa1b606a9","pagecount":"140","content":"Kay ñankamuka wiñachishkami yanapak mashikuna papa lancha jawa allpapi llankakkunata jawalla yachachi tukuchun. Pishka yachana kamupimi chawpishka kay ñankamuka. Tukuy yachana kamukunami allpapi llankakkuna papa lancha jawa yachakchayachuntak rurashka kan. Kay yachaykunata tukuchishka washaka yachakuk mashikunaka kashnami llukshinkakuna:Riksinkami imashina unkuy rikurik kashkata shinallatak imami chay unkuyta rurakta (Yachana Kamu 1). Riksinkami imashina chay unkuy kawsayta charikta (Yachana Kamu 2). Riksinkami imalla papakunatak lanchapak sinchi mana sinchikunapish (Yachana Kamu 3). Fungicidakunawan papa jampi tukunkami lanchamanta jarkarinkapak (Yachana Kamu 4). Tarpushka papa chakrata rikurayashpa lancha unkuywan mana unkuchun sakinkachu, utkashpami jampikunata churay tukunka.Kashna shina ushaykunataka 2006 kallari watapimi kay Ecuador mamallaktapi allpapi llankakkuna, yanapakkuna, extesionistakuna shinallatak fitopatólogokunapish tantanakushpa yuyarishkakuna. Kipata, ñawpaman rurashka kamukunata japishpami kay ñankamutaka rurashka kan, chay ñawpaman rurashka kamukunaka kay mamallaktapimi rurashka Bolivia 1 , Ecuador 2 , 3 , Perú 4 shinallatak Salvador 5 . Kipataka kay ñankamukunataka alli mana alli kaktapish yanapak mashikunata shinallatak Escuela de de Campo de Agricultorespipish (ECAs) yachaykuna kushpami rikushka kan. Kay yachaykunataka 2006 kallari watapi rurarirka kay Ecuador mamallaktapi. Shinallatak Yachana Kamukunataka 2007 watapi, Perú mamallakta, Cajamarca villapi      * Ni tukurinmi sinchi jarkarik muyuka mana shuktak tukuchu tarpushka pachakunapi.PaPa lanchata jarKanata YachanKaPaK ñanKamuPhytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary manta shamushka lanchaka tukuy pachapimi papata unkuchishpa llakichikun. Ecuador mamallaktapika kay papa unkuytaka lancha shutiwanmi riksinchik chay unkuymi tarpushka papakunata chinkachishpa allpapi tarpuk mashikunamanka mana imata pukushpa llakichin. Centro Internacional de la papa (CIP), División de Manejo Integrado de Cultivos shinallatak Proyecto papa Andinawan tantarishpa; Instituto Nacional Autónomo de Investigaciones Agropecuarias del Ecuador (INIAP), Programa Nacional de Raíces y Tubérculos-rubro Papawan tantarishpa; shinallatak Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología del Ecuador (SENACYT), ayllullaktakunapi llakikunata rikushpa shinallatak imata ruranatapish mashkashpami kay yachana panka ñankamuta allichishkakuna: \"Papa lanchata jarkanata yachankapak ñankamu\" Kay ñankamuta rikukkunaka (paykunami punllanta rikukkuna kan) allpapi llankak mashikunata yachachikkunami kan, paykunamanka yanapak shutiwan riksinchik. Ashka kutinpi, yanapakkunaka allpapi llankak mashikuna kan paykunapak makikunawantak rurashpa yachashkakuna. Shinapish, kay ñankamuwanka técnico extensionista mashikunapish yachay tukunkuna ashtawankarin agropecuariomanta yachaya kuk jatun wasipi yachachikkunapish. Kay ñankamumanta yachakrikkunaka (paykunami kay ñankamupi tiyashka yachaykunataka japinkakuna) papata ashalla pukuchikkunami kanka. Shinapish, wakin yachaykunataka agronomía jawa yachakrikkunapish japi tukunkunami.Kay ñankamutaka rurashkami kan allpapi llankak mashikuna lanchamanta imashina jamutak mana jamuktakta rikushpa. Allpapi llankakkunaka papa lanchata jarkakkuna kachun shuyashpami kay ñankamuka rurashka kan. Jamuktak mana jamuktakta rikushpami yachana kamukunataka allichishka kan, yuyaypipish jawalla japinkapak, ruranapakpish jawalla kachun shinallatak tukuy yachaypi jawalla kachun. Chay tukuyta rikushpami paktaykunata churarkanchik imalla yachanamanta rikunkapak, imalla ruraykunata churankapak shinallatak yachashkata rikunkapakpish. Allpapi llankak mashikunapak yachay kashkamantami yanapak mashikunaka sumakta yachachina kan tarpushkakunapi llakikuna tiyakta mishachunkuna.Shuyanchikmi kay ñankamu maypipish minishtirik kachun shinallatak tukuy pachapi tiyak Centro Internacional de la Papaman kayshuk mashikunapakpish yanapay kashka kachun. shuk yachay tantanakuyta rurashpapish yanapak mashikunawan rikushkami kan. paktachiska kay Sierra Central del Ecuadorpi 2006 watapi. Yachanakunaka shinallatak japikatishkami kan yanapakkuna shuk yachana rurashkapi Cajamarca, Perú 2007 watapi. Shinallatak, ashtawan allichishka yachana kamukunataka inglés shimimanpish yallichishkanchik científico mashikunawan alli kakta mana alli kaktapish rikunkapak, kay yachay tantatankuyka Pyongyang (República Popular Democrática de Corea) pimi rurarirka.Kay ñankamupika achka yuyaykunami tiyan manarak yachay kallarikpimi rikush ka kana kan: Yachanapak rurashka. Kay ñankamutaka shuktak shuktak yachaykunapi yachashka kay tukun punllanta yachaykuna imapi, ashtawankarin ECAspi shinallatak ashalla yachaykunapipish. Ashka rikuchikkunatami charin yachaykunata yanapankapak (rikuchishpa, rikushpa, yuyarikuna, ruraykuna, rimanakuykuna, rurash yuyayta japikuna shinallatak kashka shina rurashpapish) shinallatak ñawpakman churan allpapi llankakkunapak yachashkakunata chaywan yachaykunata sinchiyachinkapak, chashna yachanakushpami papa lancha jarkarinamanta ashtawan yachashpa llukshishun. Chaymantami, yanapak mashika chashna yachaykunata ñawpakman churakmi kana kan mana paylla yachashka shinachu kana kan. Allita rikuchin. Kay ñankamuka lancha ima kakta mana yalliktakka rimakunchu ashawan yachashun nishpaka shuktak killkakunapi shinallatak kamukunapimi shinallatak killkashka uchilla pankakunapipish 6 rikuy tukunchik. Kay ñankamuka lancha papata ama japichun minishtirishka yachaykunallatami rikuchikun. Shimikuna. Kay ñankamuta yachankapak ama skinchi shimikuna churankapakka wakin rimaykunataka jamutanalla shimikunapimi killkashka kan. Churashunlla Phytohthora infestans shimita killkakunkapak rantika Fitóftora shutiwan churashka kan killka katinapak shinallatak rimaypakpish jawalla kachun. Shinallatakmi micelio shimipak rantika pelusilla shutita churashkanchik chay lancha wiñarichun yanapakkunataka. Chayshinallatak P. infestans omomiceto nishkataka hongo shutita churashkanchik hongoman rikchak kashkamanta. Imalla ministirin kay ñankamukata yachankapak. Kay ñankamuta yachachikkunaka killkana shinallatak ñawirinatapish yachakmi kan kan. Ashtawanka, papata tarpuk mashikuna kana kan shinallatak yachaykunapipish tantanakushpa yachana munayta charikkuna. Yachakukkunaka killkana ñawirinatapish mana yachakkunapish kay tukunmi.     6. Pérez W. shinallatak Forbes, G 2007. Lanchata jarkankapak chikan chikan llankaykuna. Willaykunata yallichik uchilla pankakuna 1 manta 6 kama: 1. ¿Imatak kan lancha?; 2. ¿Imatak kan lanchata jarkankapak chikan chikan llankaykuna?; 3.¿Imatak kan sinchikay rikchayachiy?; 4. ¿Imatak kan plaguicidakuna?; 5. ¿Imatak kan fungicida?; 6. ¿Imapak bomba de mochilata yaku pakta yallichun allichinarak kan? Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP). Lima -Perú.Kay ñankamuta yachachikrikkuna. Kay ñankamumanta yachachikrikkunaka kamupi nikushkata manarak yachachi kallarikpi paykunarak yachayta chaskina kan. Kay yachaykunaka ishkay mana kashpaka kimsa punllakunatami ruray tukunkuna lancha unkuy ama japichun jarkarikunamanta yachak mashikunawan shinallatak imashina kay kamu rurarishkata yachak mashiwanpish. Maypi yachachina. Kay ñankamutaka rikushka shinallatak yachashka kana kan maypi kawsakta rikushpa shinallatak imami tarpukkunata rikushpapish, ashtawankarin Ecuador mamallaktamanta kanllaman yachachishun nishpa. Churashunlla Tantachiska 2 fungicidakunapak shutikuna jawa, mana kashpaka shuyukuna, rimaykuna shinallatak rikuchikakunapish rikushkami kana kan kay shukktak mamallaktakunapi kay ñankamumanta yachachinkapakka.Llika. Tukuy yachana kamukunapi kashna churashka kan: Kay ñankamutaka papa lanchata imashina jarkanamanta yachaykunallapimi rikushka kana kan. Asha yachaykuna tiyanmi shuktak murukunapi lanchamanta jarkanapak, tomatemanta rimashpa. Shinapish, chashna ima kashpapish ministirishkashina churashkami kana kan. Yachana Kamu 1 manta 5 kamaka washanmi yachashka kanata charin. ECA yachaykunapika imashinami tarpushkakuna wiñarimukpi yachana kamukunataka yachashpa katinata charinkuna. Mana sinchi muyukunata tarpushka kakpi shinallatak ashka tamya kay pachakuna imapika utkami fungicidakunata churashka kana kan manarak Yachana Kamu 4pi yachachikushkata rikushparak. Shina kakpika, yachakukkunamanka ninami tukun fungicidakunamantaka kipatami allita riksishun shinapish kay jampikunata churaykunaka ministirinmi lanchata jarkankapak. Yachana 3 pi sinchi muyukunata churanamanta yachachikun chay yachaytaka shuk kutinwan tarpushun nishpaka tikra yachana kan. Pachakuna Kay yachanaka ishkaypimi chawpirin, kallarik tantanakuyka kimsa pachakuna shinallami kan, katik tantanakuyka kanchis punllakunata rurana, kimsa chunka tatakikuna yachaykunata rurana.Kallari rimay Lanchataka shuktak papa unkuykunami yuyashpa mana utka rikunchiklla chaymantami minishtirin alli riksina imashina chay lancha japik kashkata shinallatak yachana chayka fitóftora nishka hongomanta japik kashkata. Chay hongoka papa yurakunapimi rikurinlla kutakunata churashka laya chaymi ashka llakichik uchilla kurukunaka waranka waranka tukun.Paktaykuna Kay yachay pankata tukuchishka kipaka yachakukkunaka kaykunatami ña ruray tukunkuna: Tantanakushka mashikunapak ñawpakpi shayarishpa imashina lancha japik kashkata rikuchinata ushankami chashnallatak shuk rikuchinatapish ninkallami runamanta unkuymanta. Imashina papa pankakunapi, yuyukunapi, papa muyukunapipish chay lancha unkuykuna japik kashkata shinallatak sapikunapi kayshuk unkuykunami yuyashpa mana pantarinkachu. Shuyushpa rikuchinatapish ushankaami lancha ima kashkata shinallatak chayka ima rurak kashkatapish rimankallami.Tantarishka mashikunaman papa pankakunapi chay kuta churashka shina rikurik kurukuna ima nisha nishkata shinallatak imata rurak kashkatapish riksichi tukunkunami 1.3.Allimanta kay killkata rikuna kan. 1, 2, 3 yachayruraypi nishka shina imakunata mashkana kan. Killkashka pankakunapak rikchata llukchina kan, chay rikchakunataka tullpuwan llukchina kay pankakunamanta 20, 21 shinallatak 27 (tukuy yachakukkunami rikcha pankakunata charina kan). Killkashka pankakunapak yurak yanapi llukchishka rikchata charina kan kay pankakunamanta 33, 34 shinallatak 36 (Tukuy yachakukkunami rikcha pankakunata charina kan). Rurasha nishpalla kaytaka rurana. Yachashkata rikuna minishtirishpaka manarak yachaykuna kallarikpi shinallatak yachay tukuchipi yachashkata rikunapak pankakunata allichinami (panka 39 shinallatak tantachishka 1). Rurashpatak yachankapakka pakalla pushtutami mashkana kan (shuyukunata rurankapak, microscopiowan rikunkapak, shutuklla cajakunata rurankapak imapish) shinallatak papata lanchata katichishpa yachay tukun.1.5.Yachana Kamu 1: Papata imashina lancha japik kashkata shinallatak hongo Fitóftora imashina rikurik kashkatapish riksishunchik Yachana Kamu 1 Kunan yachaypika yachakukkunawanka kay llankaykunatami rurana kan Tantanakuy 1Kay yachay rikuytaka ruranatakmi. Yachakukkunamanka kay tapuykunata rurana kan kay rimaykunata kushilla kallarinkapak, paykuna yachashkata japinkapak shinallatak chayta rurashpaka mashna yachakkuna kashkata yachankapak. ¿Kikinkunamantaka pitatak uju japishka? ¿Imatak kan unkuy? ¿Imatak kan unkuy rikuri? ¿Mashnakunatatak papata lancha japishpa llakichishka? ¿Pantarishkankichikchu shuktak unkuymi nishpa? ¿Imallatak rikurin pankakunapi, yuyupi, papa muyupi? ¿Kankunaka imata yuyankichik imamantatak lancha japinka? ¿Imatak kutakunata shina papa pankapi rikurishpa? ¿Chayka imatatak ruran? Rayawan kak tapuykunata kutichishkakunaka shuk jatun pankapi killkashka kana kan. Kay yachana kamupi yuyaykunata killkashka shina (37 pankapi rikuy) chimpapurashpa rikuna kan yachakukkunapak yachashkakunawanpish chaypimi rikurinka wakin yachaykunaka riksishka shinapish shuk yachaykunaka mushuk kashkata rikuchinami. Rurasha nishpallami kay yachay rikuchitaka rurana kan. Yachakukkuna mashna yachashkataka yachankapanka 39 pankapi killkashkata kutichishpami yachana kan chayllatatakmi yachay kamuta ña tukuchishpapish rurana kan. Imashina ruranamantaka tantachishkata 1pi rikuna kan. Yachakukkuna kay kamumanta imata shuyankunata yachankapakka tapuykunatami rurana kan, churashunlla kay tapuyta ruray tukunkichik ¿kunan punllaka imapak tantanakushkanchik? Kipami yachakuk mashikunaka kay kamupi imata kachakrishkataka yachak chayana kan, jatun pankakunapi killkashpa rikuchi tukunkichik.1 shinallatak 2 tantanakuyta rurankapakka mashna pachakuna minishtirishkatarak rikuna kan. Chashnallatak achiktami sakina kan ima jawa mana rimakrishkata, churashunlla:Papapak shuktak unkuykuna. Papaman ama lancha japichun jarkaykuna.Yachana Kamu 1 Yachayruray 1. Papata pankakunapi, yurapi shinallatak muyupipish lanchata japik kashkata yachashun Paktaykuna Kay rurayta rurashka washa yachakuk mashikunaka kayta rurankapak yachashka sakirinkakuna: Tantanakushka mashikunapak ñawpakpi shayarishpa imashina lancha japik kashkata rikuchinata ushankami chashnallatak shuk rikuchinatapish ninkallami runapak unkuymanta. Imashina papa pankakunapi, yuyukunapi, papa muyukunapipish chay lancha unkuykuna japik kashkata shinallatak sapikunapi kayshuk unkuykunami yuyashpa mana pantarinkachu.1.Minishtirinmi Kunanlla papata lancha japikukta shinallatak papa shuktak unkuywan kaktapish charina (Mirachishka yuyay 1). Charishpaka sapan yachakukkunami lupata charina kan. Shuyunkapak imakuna: killkana pankakuna shinallatak shuyuna killkana kaspikuna. Shuyushpa mishanakuypak kunpitaytapish charinami.Imamanta kay rurayta rurakrishkata yachakukkunaman willanami. Chusku mana kakpika pichka mashikuna pura tantachinami. Yachakuk mashikunaman muestrakunata, lupa shinallatak imalla minishtirishkata kunami. Yachakuk mashikunata mañanami muestrakuna akllachun papa ima unkuywan kakta rikushpa amamanta chashna akllashkata willana kan. Minishtirishpatakkarin amamanta chashna unkuy japik kashkata willanata charinkuna. Yachakukkuna papa lanchata shinallatak yurak kutakunata shina papa pankakunapi kak kurukunata rikuy tukuchun yanapanami.1.3.Tukuykuna tantanakushpa parlanakuna kan imatak kan unkuy rikuri, imamantatak papaman lancha japin pankakunapi, yuyupi shinallatak muyupipish. Yachakuk mashikunaman mañanami papa lancha imashina rikurikta shuyuchun, kunpitay tiyanmi nishpa willana kan kay yachay 2 rurashkamanta. 6.20, 21 pankakunapi killkashkakunapak rikchata 8. llukchishpa yachakuk mashikunamanka kuna chay killkakunata kipa punllakunapi ñawirishpa ashitawan achiklla yachaykuna kachun.Papa tarpushkata mana charishpa imaka maypi papa chakra tiyashkapii rikunaman rina kan yachakukkuna papa lanchakunata tantashpa apamuchunkuna. Manatak chakra tiyakpika yanapakmi maymanta kakpipish rukuchita apamuna kan llankayta rurankapak. Chay rikuchitaka tutamantakunatami tantana kan sumak waylla pankakuna kachun. Ama chakirichunka refrigeradorapimi plastiku fundakunapi churashpa wakichina kan.Yachana Kamu 1Tizón tardíoka papata japik shuk unkuymi kan chay unkuyka shuk uchilla kurukuna shina pankakunata, yuyuta shinallatak papapak muyutapish llakichinmi, chay unkuytaka papa lancha shutiwanmi tukuykuna riksinchik.Uchilla kurukuna Uchilla kurukunaka kawsayta charikkuna kan shinapish mana jawalla rikuypak (Mirachishka yuyay 2 rikuy). Wakin kurukunaka runaman yanapakkuna tiyan. Churashunlla allpapi kawsak kurukunaka wanuta ismuchinkuna. Shinallatak tiyanmi uchilla kurukuna unkuykunata kuk kurukuna. Churashunlla papa lancha, runaman gripeta kuk kurukuna, mana kashpaka warmi wakrapa ñuñupi japik mastitis nishkata kuk kurukuna imapish.Unkuy Runata kashpa, wiwata kashpa, ima shuktak kawsayta charikta kashpa imapish unkuykunaka chayanmi shuk uchilla mana rikiuypak kurukunawan shinallatak shuktak shinapish japi tukunmi: Uchilla kurukunawan japishka unkuykunaka kanmi papa lancha, runaman gripeta kuk kurukuna, mana kashpaka warmi wakrapa ñuñupi japik mastitis nishka imapish. Shutak shina japik unkuykuna kanmi papapi papapi nitrógeno illaymanta, mana alli mikuyta runa mikukpi wiksa kachari, wiwakunapi millma urmay minerales illaymanta.Unkuyta rikuchik Kawsayta charikkunaka ima nanaytapish rikuchin. Papa yuramanta rimakpika yanayashpa rikurin lancha japishka kakpika, runamanka gripe charishpaka umata nanan, warmi wakrakunapikka ñuñumanta razutiklla shukllin ñuñu unkushka kashpaka.Kay yuyachi alli Kankan karka unkuy ima kashkata ashtawan riksichinkapak shinapish mana yalli minishtirishkachu kan unkuyman ashtawan yachana.¿Imatak unkuy rikuchika? Kawsayta charikkunaka unkuywan kashpaka imalayapish rikuchinmi. Nishunlla papa yuraka yana manchata rikuchin lancha japishka kashpaka.Kay pankataka yachakukkunaman kuna kan manchakuna shina muyurishka rikurin. Wakinpika chay yanayashpaka muyuntikpika asha killuwan wayllawan rikurin.Yurapi unkuy rikuri: yana shinaman chakishka manchakuna rikurin. Yuraka chay yanayashkapi uturi tukunmi.Muyupi unkuy rikuri: Papa muyupi yana shinaman manchakuna rikurin, ismukuk shina kan. Papata chawpishpa rikukpika chakishka manchakuna shina yanalla rikurin. Papa muyu lanchawan kakpika mana imata ashnachinchu.Papa chakra lanchawan kashpaka ismuska pankaman ashnachin.Yachana Kamu 1Papa lanchawan kashpa ama shukta unkuykunawan pantarishunPapata kasa japishka kashpaka pankakunaka asha yanayashka chakishka shinallatak pakirikuk rikurin ashtawan yallika jawaman kak pankakunapi.Papa lanchaka muyurishkapi yanawan killuwan rikurin. Chay unkuywan kak pankaka killuyari tukunmi.Fomosis nishka unkuyka rikuchinmi uchilla manchakunata shinami paykunapura tantari tukunmi pankata ashawan yanayachinkapak.Septoriosis nishkaka uchilla manchakuna ashawan uchilla yana puntukunata rikuchin. Chay manchakunapak muyuntikpika killuyashka rikuri tuyunmi.Foto: CIPYachayruray 2. Papa lanchata kuk hongo kuruta riksishun Paktaykuna Kay yachayta tukuchishpaka yachakuk mashikunaka ruray tukunkakunami: Shuyushpa rikuchinkakunami imami papaman lanchata kuk kashkata shinallatak willankami imashina papa lanchawan kakta yachanamantapish. Fitóftora uchilla kurukuna ima kashkata shinallatak imata rurakkuna kashkatapish willay tukunkakunallami tantarishka mashikunapak ñawpakpi.1.Shuklla microscopio imapish (Mirachishka yuyaykuna 3). Microscopiopa vidriomanta placakuna (shuk placa sapan microscopiopa minishtirinmi). Cinta adhesiva transparente. Yaku. Algodón, goma shinallatak kutatapish minishtinchikmi espora fitóftorakunata rikuchinkpak.Yachakuk mashikunaman willana kay ruraywan imatami shuyanchik. Ñawpa punllakunapi tantarik mashikunallatak tantarinata charinkuna paykunaman imalla minishtirishkata kuna kan. Esporas ima kashkata yachankapak shuk rikuchita rurana kan kashna rurashpa: Vidrio placa jawapi shuk gota yakuta churana.1.3.Asha cinta adhesivata pitina shinallatak allimantalla papa pankapi kutakuna shina tiyakuk jawapi cinta adhesivawan chay kutakuna shinata citapi pigachina.Vidriopi shuk gota yaku churashka jawapi cintata churana. Mana yalli aysana.Yalli yaku kakpika papel higiénicowan chakichina.  Kay rimaywanka microbio uchilla kurukuna tarpushkakunata llakichik kurukunata riksinchik. Kay kurukunataka mana jawalla rikuy tukunchikchu shinapish waranka waranka tantarishka kashpaka rikuy tukunchikllami (Mirachishka yuyay 4).Yurak kutawan shinallatak pushkawan shina pankakunapi muyurishka rikurin shinallatak tamyalla tuta mana yalli chiri pakarikpika yurakunapipish rikuri tukunmi. Chay kuruka waranka waranka esporakunawan pushkakunapi pillurishka shina kan. Yurak kuta pushkawan shina pelusilla kakpika papa lancha kanka chashnami shuktak unkuykunawan mana pantari tukunchik. Fitóftorakunamanta esporakunaka limónkuna shina kan.. Signo rimayka wakin yachakuk mashikunaka pantari tukunmi chaypak rantika \"pelusilla'','' algondocilla'', ''lanilla'' shutiwan yachachi tukunchik.  Yachakuk mashikunaman willana kay ruraywan imatami shuyanchik. Shutuk caja ima kashkata shinallatak imapak kashkatapish willana. Kay ruraytaka shuk shuk runana kan. Minishtirishkakunatapish tukuykunaman kuna kan.1.2.Panka 33 ta rikcha llukchishpa tukuy yachakukkunaman kuna. Shutuk cajata imashina ruranata rikuchina. Sapan yachakukkunaman mañana ishki shutuk cajakunata rurachun. Sapan shutuk cajapi kimsa mana kashpaka chusku alli papa pankata uri sinkaman churana.Punta rurashka shutuk cajapika tawka gota yakuta uri singa churashka panka jawapi churana, chayta rurana kanchik mondadienteswan.4.6.Cajata tapashpa killkana kanchik \"Yaku\" killkata. 7. Shuk rikuchita rurana kanchik pelusillata mayllankapak, mayllashka washaka esporakuna tukuchun: 10 mana kashpaka 15 lanchawan kak pankakunata japishpa pitina kanchik pelusillawan kakta. Chay pitishka pankakunatami plástico vasopi churana ashalla yakuwan churashka pankakunata tapachunllami yakutaka churana. 8. Paktaykunaman chayankapakka tantanakuy 1 tukuchishpa kay kamupi imalla yachashkakunata tikra yuyarishun, kay yachaykunami karka: Imashina unkuy rikurik kashkamanta. Papa lancha imashina rikurik kashka. Imamantatak lancha japik kashka shinallatak imashina chay unkuyta riksi tukunchik shuk papa yurapi. Fitóftora ima kashka shinallatak imata rurak kashkatapish.Kayta rurankapakka yachakukkunaman rikchata llukchishka kushka pankakunawan rimay tukunchik. Kay pachapika rikuna kanchik kay yachay kamuta manarak yachay kallarishpa imatami yachakuk mashikunaka wakin tapuykunata kutichishkakuna, chimpapurashpa rikunkapak kay kamuta ña tukuchikukpi ashawan yachashka mana yachashkata rikunkapak. Shinallatak rikuy tukunchik yanapak mashi killkashkakuna tantanakuykunapi rimarishkakunatapish.Tantanakuy 2 tukuchishka washa tikra yuyari tukunchik imalla yachashkakunata shutuk cajakunata rurashka washa. Yachakukkunaka achik sakirina kan Fitóftoramanta esporakunawan papa lancha japik kashkata yachaspa. Kay yachayta rikuytaka ruranatakmi: Yachaykuna paktashkatak rikunapakka chay pacha tawka yachakukkunata kay llankaykunata rurachun mañana kanchik: Tukuykunapak ñawpakpi síntoma ima kashkata rimachun shinallatak shuk rikuchita churachun runapak unkuy síntoma jawa. Papa lancha imashina rikurin pankakunapi, yuyupi, muyupipish shinallatak imashina mana shuktak unkuykunawan pantarinamantapish rimachun. Shuyushpa rikuchina imashina lancha rikurik kashkata, pitik unkuchik kashkata shinallatak imashina papa yurapi riksi tukunchik jawa rimachun.1.3.Tukuykunapak ñawpakpi fitóftoramanta esporakuna ima kashkata shinallatak imata rurak kashkatapish willachun mañanami.Rurasha nishpallami kay yachayta rikuchitaka rurana. Yachashkata ashtawan rikusha nishpami kay tapuykunata kutichichun mañana kanchik, kay tapuykunaka Panka 39pi killkashka tiyakun, imashina ruranataka Tantachishka 1pimi willakun. Chay tapuykunata kutichishka pachallatakmi alli kutichishkata rikunachina kan shinallatak yachakukkunawan parlanakuyta rurana 4.Kay yachay kamu imashina rikurishka jawa yachakukkunata kay tapuykunata rurana kanchik: ¿Papa lancha imashina rikurik kashkata yachankapakka minishtirirkachun shuyushpa rikuchina? ¿Lupakuna shinallatak microscopio yanaparkachu yachaykunapi? ¿Fitóftoramanta esporakuna papata lancha japik kashkata yachankapak allichu karka shutuk cajakunata rurana? ¿Ima llakikunatatak charirkanchik? ¿ Yachankapak rurankapakpish pachakunata paktachu karka? Kallari rimay Papata ama lancha japichunka imashina lancha rikurik kashkata, maymanta lancha shamuk kashkata yachana kanchik shinallatak chay kurukuna maypi wiñak kashkata yachana kanchik. Kay yachaykunamantami kay kamupika rimashun.Ruray 1: Imashina lancha rikurik kashka maymanta lancha shamuk kashka shinallatak chay kurukuna maypi wiñak kashkatapish rurashun.Paktaykuna Kay kamuta tukuchishka washaka yachakukkunaka shuyushpa rikuchi tukunkakuna imashina lancha rikurik kashkata, maymanta lancha shamuk kashkata shinallatak chay kurukuna maypi wiñak kashkatapish.Allimanta kay killkata rikuna kan. Yachayruray 1pi willakushka shina imalla minishtirishkata charina kanchik. Panka 53 rikchata llukchina kan (tukuy yachakukkunami rikcha pankakunata charina kan). Rurasha nishpalla kaytaka rurana. Yachashkata rikuna minishtirishpaka manarak yachaykuna kallarikpi shinallatak yachay tukuchipi yachashkata rikunapak pankakunata allichinami (panka 55 shinallatak Tantachishka 1). Yachayruray 1 pi imashina rurashkata tikra rikuna. Imashina lancha rikurik kashkata, maymanta lancha shamuk kashkata shinallatak chay kurukuna maypi wiñak kashkamantapish alli yachana kanchik. Rurashpatak yachankapakka pakalla pushtutami mashkana kan (imashina lancha rikurik kashkata shuyunkapak) shinallatak ushashpa imakarin papa chakra lanchawan kakta charina kanchik.1. 2.4.6.Yachana Kamu 2Kay rimanakuypakka Yachana kamuu 1 kay yachaykuna jawa killkakunamanta rikchata kushka killkata rikuy tukunchik. Kay yachayta rikuytaka ruranatakmi. Yachakukkunamanka kay tapuykunami rurana kan kay rimaykunata kushilla kallarinkapak, paykuna yachashkata japinkapak shinallatak chayta rurashpaka mashna yachak kashkata yachankapak. ¿Fitóftora maypi kawsan? ¿Imashinatak mirankuna? ¿Lanchaka imashinatak wiñan? (Mirachishka yuyay 1). ¿Fitóftoraka maypitak kawsanata munan? (Mirachishka yuyay 2). ¿Tamya shinallatak kunuk pachaka imashinatak yanapankuna lancha wiñachunka?Kay tapuykunata kutichishkakunaka shuk jatun pankapimi killkashka kana kan. Kay yachana kamupi yuyaykunata killkashka shina (54 pankapi rikuy) chimpapurashpa rikuna kan yachakukkunapak yachashkakunawanpish chaypimi rikurinka wakin yachaykunaka riksishka shinapish shuk yachaykunaka mushuk kashkata rikurinka chay yachaykuna mushuk kashkata yachakuk mashikunata rikuchina kanchik. Rurasha nishpallami kay yachayta rikuchitaka rurana. Yachakukkuna mashna yachashkataka yachankapakka 55 pankapi killkashkata kutichishpami yachana kan chayllatatakmi yachay kamuta ña tukuchishpapish rurana kan. Imashina ruranamantaka tantachishkata 1pi rikuna kan.Yachakukkuna kay kamumanta imata shuyankunata yachankapakka tapuykunatami rurana kan, churashunlla kay tapuyta ruray tukunkichik ¿kunan punllaka imapak tantanakushkanchik?kipami yachakuk mashikunaka kay kamupi imata kachakrishkataka yachak chayana kan, jatun pankakunapi killkashpa rikuchi tukunkichik mana kashpaka tarjetakunapipish killkay tukunchik.Manarak yachay kallarikpi mashna pachakuna minishtishkata rikuna kan, ashtawanpish wakin rimaykuna jawa mana yacharishkatapish achikta willana kan, churashunlla:Shuktak unkuykuna imashina wiñak kashka jawa. Lancha ama japichun jarkaykunamanta.Lanchapak ciclota alli jamutachinkapakka kayta rimay tukunchik: mashi Juanka kashnami: taytamamaka yunka llaktamantami shamushkakuna kan, paykunaka 25 watakunata charishpa sawarirkakuna chay washami Juantaka kay pachaman apamushkakuna. Juanka Guaranda villapi wacharishka wiñashkapi, 30 watapimi sawarishka kunanka ishki wawakunatami charin.Kay Ecuador mama llaktapi papata tarpukkunaka tizón tardíotaka lancha shimiwan riksinkuna chaymanta yachakukkunaman lancha shimiwan rimashpa yachachina tukunchikllami.Mirachishka yuyay 1 Kay yachay kamu imashina rikurishka jawa yachakukkunata kay tapuykunata rurana kanchik: ¿Imapaktak lancha imashina kallari-tukrinta yachana alli kashka? ¿Ima llakikuna tiyashka? ¿Rurankapakka pachakuna paktachu karka? Manarak tantanakuyta kallarishpa yanapak allichirinapakYachana 1ta shinallatak Yachana 2tapish riksina kanchi.Pachakuna Ishkay pachakunata minishtinchik shuk tantanakuyta rurankapak.Kallari rimay Lanchata jarkanata yuyashpaka alli sinchi papakunata tarpushpallami jarkay tukunchik. Kay yuyay, shinallatak shuktakkunata ñawpakman yachashpami, ashka alli kan ima papakunata tarpunata yuyarina pachakunapi. Kay yachana kamupika shuk ruranapishpimi tiyan yachakukkuna papakuna lanchamanta jarkarinamanta shuktak yuyaykunata riksishun munashpaka ruray tukunllami.Paktaykuna Yachakukka kay yachanata tukuchispaka ushankami: Shuyukunapi sinchi muyuna shinallatak mana sinchi muyukuna ima kashkata rikuchinata ushankami, willay tukunkunapish imashina kimsa shuktak shina kakta shinallatak imamanta sinchi muyukunata charinata.Llaktapi tiyak papakunapak shutikuna killkashpa rikuna kanchik mayjanlla papakunata lancha japik kakta mana japik kaktapish. Rurasha nishpaka kayta ruray. Tantanakushkapak ñawpakpi rikuchina imamantatak sinchi lanchamanta jarkari muyukuna kakta, shinallatak imamanta kipataka mana sinchi kay tukun, ruranapi rikushpa ruray tukunkillami.1.3.Allimanta kay killkata rikuna kan. Kay yachana kamupi yuyaykunata killkashka shina (77 pankapi rikuy) chimpapurashpa rikuna kan yachakukkunapak yachashkakunawanpish chaypimi rikurinka wakin yachaykunaka riksishka shinapish shuk yachaykunaka mushuk kashkata rikurinka chay yachaykuna mushuk kashkata yachakuk mashikunata rikuchina kanchik.Yachakukkuna yachashkataka japitukunchikmi panka 79 manta tapuykunawan, chayllatatakmi yachanata tukuchiska kipaka tapuna. Rikuchik allichishakaka Tantachishka 1 pi churashka.Yachakukkuna imata kay yachanamanta shuyashkata yachankapakka kay tapuykunata churay tukun: ¿imapakmi kunan punllaka tantanakunchik? Kipami yachakuk mashikunaka kay kamupi imata kachakrishkataka yachak chayana kan, jatun pankakunapi killkashpa rikuchi tukunkichik mana kashpaka tarjetakunapipish killkay tukunchik.Minishtirintakmi kay yachanapi mana rimanakunataka mana rikushunchu nishpa, churashunlla:Químicowan imashina lanchata karkanata.Ninkunami shuk muyuka \"yaykushka kanmi\" shuk Centro de Investigación mana kashpaka shuktak institucionkuna tarpukunapak makipi churakpi, mana kashpaka chayshuk tarpushkakunamanta apamushka kashpapish.Yachana Kamu 3 Mirachishka yuyay 1. Yachashun imatak kan sinchi muyukuna shinallatak mana sinchikunapish Paktaykuna Kay rurayta tukuchishka kipaka yachakukkunaka ushankakunami shuk shuyupi rikuchinata ima sinchi muyuna kashkata shinallatak mana sinchi muyukuna kaktapish, kimsa shina chikanyachikkunatapish rikuchishpa shinallatak ama lancha japichun mayjanlla papa muyukunata tarpunamantapish riksichi tukunkakunami.Fitóftoramanta pelusillata rikuchinkapakka algodón shinallatak gomata minishtinchik. Uchilla yurak papel muyuchishkakuna mana kashpaka espuma sintética lancha pillurishka kakta rikchinkapak. Puka marcadorkuna.3 jatun cartulinakuna (70 x 50 cm) shuktak shuktak colorkuna (2 wayllakuna shinallatak shuk ankas). Kaykunatami shuyuna: 2 papa yurakunata 2 waylla cartulinakunapi. Tamyataka ankas cartulinapi.Imashina rurana Kay ruraytaka ruray tukurinmi lancha japishka papa tarpushkapi shinallatak rikushkami imashina lancha kallarin shinallatak imashina lancha tukurin (Yachana kamu 2). Imamanta kay rurayta rurakrishkata yachakuk mashikunaman willanami. Chusku mashikunata akllana paykunaka lancha tukuchun, shukka papa yura kachun shuk alli muyumanta wiñashka, shuktak yuraka mana sinchi papamanta wiñashka shinallatak shukka tamya. Lanchata rikuchikuk mashiman kuna yurak papel pilluchiskakunata mana kashpaka espuma sintéticatapish (rikuchinkami lanchata apakta) shinallatak algodónka (unkuyta wiñachikta).1. Papa yurakunata shinallatak tamyata rikuchik mashikunamanka cartulinakunata papata shinallatak tamyata shuyushka cartulinata kuna kan.  4. Tantanakushpa yachakukkunawan rimanakuna imalla rimaykunata rikushkata paykunallawantak nina imatak sinchi muyuna kashkata shinallatak mana sinchi muyukuna kaktapish, kimsa shina chikanyachikkunatapish rikuchishpa shinallatak ama lancha japichun mayjanlla papa muyukunata tarpunamantapish. 5. Shuk rikchata kuna panka 66 tukuy yachakukkunaman ima kashkata achikyachinkapak shinallatak ima kashkakunatapish ama kunkarichunkuna.Yachashun imatak sinchi muyukuna shinallatak mana sinchikunapishTamyakuy pachakunapi ashallata unkuk muyukunami, shinaka pukunatami charin.Tamyakuy pachakunapi ashkata unkukkunami shinaka papaka mana ashka pukuy tukunmi.Ashalla lancha yuraman yaykurin Ashka lancha yuraman yaykurin Allimanta manchakunaka wiñan Manchakuna utkami wiñarin Ashalla pelusilla tukun papa yurapi Ashka unkuyta wiñachikkuna tiyarin ¿Ima allikunatak tiyanka shinallatak ima mana allikuna? Mana ashka fungicidata minishtin Ashalla kullkiwan ashalla pachakunapi fukuy tukun. Wayratapish ashallata mapayachin. Kausayta ashallata wakllichin. arpushkaka tamya wata kakpipish mana chinkarinkach.    Yachana Kamu 3Paktashpaka kay llankayta rurana Yachayruray 3. Yachashun imanishpatak mayjan muyukunaka lancha japishka kakpipish mana unkurin, kipataka jawalla unkuriklla kashkamanta Paktay Kay rurayta tukuchiska washaka yachakukkunaka ushankakunami tantanakushkakunapak ñawpakpi rikchinata ima muyu jarkarik kashkata shinallatak imamantatak kutin kipataka ña mana jarkari tukun, ruranapi rikuchishkakunata katishpa.Shuk plancha de espuma sintética. 5 yurak aujakuna shinallatak 5 puka aujakuna. Shuk candado paypak llavewan shinallatak 4 shuktak llavekunatik. 20 uchilla waylla cartulina tarjetakuna (2 x 2 cm). Shuk papa yurata shuyuna chay tarjetakunapi.Ima yuyaywan kay rurayta rurakushkata yachakkukunaman willana.3 mana kashpaka 4 papa yurakuna tarjetakunapi shuyushkata plancha de espuma sintéticapi jawapi churana. Kay muyukuna rikuchinmi kunanlla apamushka papakunata chaymantami ashalla tiyan manarak achka muyukuna tiyachu nishpa yachakukkunaman willana. Yachakukunaman kuna yurak aujakunata chaymantaka nina rikuchinmi lanchata apakta, mana ñukanchik muyukunawan tarpushkata llakichinka. Yuyarina chay lanchata apakka shukta papa yurakunamantami shamun, shuktak yuritakunamanta shinallatak chay unkuywan unkushka sachakunamantapish.Yachakukkunata mañana yura pankakunapi shitachun chay aujakunata. Chay auja mana pankaman chayashka kashpaka rikuchinmi lanchata apakka pampaman urmashpa wañushkata.1.3.Shuktak auja pankata japikpika ninami kay yuraka mana lanchawan unkunkachualli sinchi jarkarik muyumanta wiñashka kashpa. Rikuchina chay jarkariklla muyuka imamantatak mana unkun, mañana shuk mashita chay yurata rikuchik kachun shinallatak shuk wishkashka candadota kuna. Mayjanmi chay aujawan shitakmanka kuna shuk mana alli llaveta chaymantaka paskay nina. Muyuka sinchi jarkariklla kashkamantaka, candadoka (yurakunapak jarkarikta rikuchik) mana alli llavewanka mana paskarik tukun (chayka rikuchinmi lanchaka mana jarkashkakuna mishashpa yaykuy tukuk kashkata). Chay muyupi lancha kawsankapak imashinapish tukunami kan. Chayta rurankapakka yurak aujatami puka aujawan cambiana tukun. Puka aujakunaka rikuchinmi jarkarishka yurakunata mishay tukushkata, chaymanta paskashpa yaykuri tukun unkuykunantik. Llutana 5 mana kashpaka 6 mushuk yurakunata chay espuma sintética jawapi shinallatak nina yurakunaka mirarishkami tarpukkuna munashpa tarpushkamanta, shinallatak ashka allpapi tarpushkakuna. Kutinllatak yanapakkunata mañana aujakunata shitachun. Puka aujakunata charikuk mashi aujawan pankapi shitashpa paktapika ninami chay yuraka lanchawan unkunmi. Rikuchina kanchik shuklla aujawan ashalla pankakuna tiyakpi mana jawallachu, achka pankakuna tiyakllapimi jawalla unkuchinka puka aujakunaka. Imamanta chay yura unkuk kashkata rikuchinkapak, wishkashka candadota kuna yurata rikuchikman. Mayjanmi puka aujawan paktarka pay mashiman kuna chay candadopak llaveta jawalla paskay tukuchun.7.8.10.12.Nina tukun lanchata apakkunaka puka aujakuna shinami kanka paykunallami kawsay tukunka. Yura aujakunapak rantika puka aujakunatami churana. Llutana 5 mana kashpaka 6 mushuk yurakunata espuma sintética jawapi shinallaak nina yurakunaka mirarishpami katin tarpukkuna munashpa chay sinchi muyuta tarpushkamanta. Kutinllatak yachakkunata mañana kutin aujakunata shinatachunkuna. Nina shinallatak ashka yurakunami jawalla rikushka kay tukun chay jutkukkunawan. Rikuchina shinallatak ña chay muyukunaka mana sinchi jarkari tukuk kashkata. Tantakushpa rimanakuna imalla rimashkakunamanta shinallatak ninakuna imata jarkarik muyu kashkata shinallatak imamanta ña mana sinchi kay tukun. Rikchakunata kuna panka 76 tukuy yachakukkunaman shinallatak yachashkata tikra rikushpa ama kunkarichunkuna.13.14.16. 17.Kaytaka rurasha nishpalla rurana ¿Imatak sinchi muyu?Mana jawalla lanchawan unkurin. Lancha japikpika, lanchata apakkuna mana yuraman yaykuy tukunkuna shinallatak manchakunapish mana wiñarin, lanchata wiñachikpish mana wiñarin. Chay muyukunaka mana fungicidakunata minishtinchu, ama kipata japichun nishpaka churanallami. Chaymanta jamutankapakka yuyarina tukumun chay muyuka candadowan wishkashka shina kakta shinapish lanchata apakkunaka mana llaveta pasknakapak charinkunachu. Chaymantami, lanchata apakkunaka mana manchata wiñachi tukunkuna, ni papa yura washakunapi mana tiyarinchu lanchata wiñachinkapak shinallatak wañushpami tukurin. .Chay sinchi muyutaka mana candadota paskay tukunkakunachu. Lanchachaka waranka warankami wiñarin shinaka ima pachapish shuktak shina muyukunata wiñachishpaka unkuchita ushankakunami. Sinchi muyukuna kachunka fungicidakunata churana. Ashka watakuna washami sinchi muyukunaka mana sinchi kay tukuns. Muyu kunanlla yaykushka kashpaka mana ashka muyukuna tiyanchu chaymantami ashalla tarpushkakuna tiyan. Chaymantaka, tukuy unkuyta apamukkunami chayashpa wañunllakuna.2. Muyutaka tarpukkuna purakunarakmi fukuchita kallarinkuna chaypimi punta yurakuna unkushka rikurin.Chay muyukuna alli fukushka kakpika ashtawanmi tarpuyta kallarinkuna. Ashalla espora kakpipish kunanka jawalla unkuchi tukunllami ashka yurakunapika. Shinashpaka rikuri kallarinmi tarpushka ukupi ashka unkushka yurakuna.Chay yurakunamanta manchakunaka kunanka wiñachi esporakunata wiñachi tukunmi shuktak alli yurakunata unkuchinkapak.Tarpushkakuna mirarishka, shinaka kunanka tukuy lanchata apakkunami unkuchi tukunkuna chay yuritakunata. Chaymanta, sinchi muyuka ña mana sinchi kanchu.Mana sinchi yurakuna kay tukun lancha ashtawan mirarishkamanta. Papa yuraka mana cambiarin, ashtawan panakakuna mirarishkallami.Muyukuna ña sinchi kanata sakishpaka kipataka tukuy tukunmi kutinllatak sinchi muyu mana kashpaka mana sinchi muyu. Inmunes ninkuna unkuymanta jarkariklla muyukunata ¿Imamanta mana unkurin jarkariklla sinchi muyu? Yurakunapak jarkarinaka shuk candado shinami lanchata apakkunaka lleve shinami kan shinapish mana jawalla pashakanchu. Lanchata apakkuna mana alli llaveta charishpaka mana paskanchu, chaymantami mana unkun. ¿Kutin imamanta shuk pachakuna washka jawalla unkunkuna? Chayta alli jamutankapakkarikushun katik killkashkata.shinaka sinchimi kan. Ashka lanchata apakkunami mana unkuchi tukunkuna mana alli llavekunata charishkamanta.Chay unkuchi tukuypak lanchata apakkunaka jawalla yurakunapi urmashpa manchakunata shinallatak wiñachikkunata churay tukunllami. Shuk mancha wiñarikpika tukuy lanchata apakkunami alli sinchi muyukunata unkuchi tukunkuna.shinallatak ña ama sinchiyashpa katinchu. Ashka lanchata apakkunami unkuchi tukunkuna alli sinchi muyukunata.Shuk lanchata apakka alli llaveta chari tukun candadota paskankapak, ashalla yurakuna tiyashkamantaka, pampaman urmashpa wañunllakunami.Lanchata apakkunaka mana wiñachi tukunchu manchakuna ni lancha wiñachikkunatapish. .Lanchata apakkunaka manchakunata shinallatak wiñachikkuna ruray tukunmi.Tukuchinkapak ruraykuna Yachanata ashallayachishka Kay rimashkakunamantami yachana yuyaykunata sinchiyachinkapak ashallayachishun:Imatak kan sinchi muyu shinallatak mana sinchi muyu.Imashinatak shuktakyachin sinchi muyumanta mana sinchi muyumantapish. Imalla allikuna tiyashka sinchi muyukunata charikpika lanchamanta jarkankapak.(Paktashpa) Imatak sinchi jarkariklla muyu, imamantatak mana sinchi muyu tukuy tukun. Kaypakka kushka rikcha pankakunata rikunallami. Chay pachallatami rikuna kutichishkakunatapish imatami killkashkakakunata rikunkapak kunanlla yachashkawanpish.Kay yachay rikuytaka ruranatakmi.Yachana yuyaykuna paktashkata yachakapakka yachakkunamanmi mañana uraman rikuchishka ruranakunata rurachunkuna: Shuk shuyushkapi ima sinchi shinallatak mana sinchi muyukuna kashkatapish rikuchina, kimsa imashina kakta rikuchishpa shinallatak alli sinchi muyukunaka imashina yanapan lanchamanta jarkarinapak. Lanchamanta rikushpa rikuchina shuk tablapi imashinalla kakta shinallatak llaktapi tiyak muyukunaka mashna alli kashkatapish. Paktashpa. Tantarishkapak ñawpakpi rikuchina imatak kan sinchi muyu shinallatak imamanta mana sinchi tukushpa unkuri tukun, ruranapi rikuchishkata katishpa chaytaka rurana kanchik.Minishtirikpika yachakkunata mashnata yachashkata rikuna tukun chaypakka japitukunmi panka 79 manta tapuykunata. Chay washallatakmi alli kutichishkakunata willana kan chaymanta yachakukkunawan rimanakuna, 1.2.Ay yachanamanta yachakukkuna imatami yuyanta tapuna. Kipataka kay tapuykunata rurana Minishtirinchu yachana sinchi muyumanta shinallatak mana sinchi muyumantapish ¿Imapak?: ¿Ima llakikunatatak tarirkankichik? ¿Pachakunaka paktachu karka? ¿Rurankapakka pachakuna paktachu karka? Tantanakuyta manarak kallarishpa yanapak allichirinapakKay yachaykunaman yaykunapakka yachana kamu 1, 2 shinallatak 3 tami yachana kanchik.Pachakuna Kay tantanakuypakka chusku pachakunata minishtinchik. Kallari rimay Lancha japita fungicidakunata churashpa jarkana ashka allimi, chaypakka minishtirinmi yachana ima chakrushka fungicidakuna kakta, randinapak fungicidapak shutita, imashina jampin shinallatak imashina churanapish. Shinallatak riksinami randina wasikunapi tiyak jampikunata. Yachanapishmi mashna alli fungicida kakta, unkuymanta jarkanata shinallatak datos del campotapish, kaykunata: mashna lanchakuna rikurikta tarpushka ukupi shinallatak papa tarpushka kanllamanpish, lancha japina pachakunata, sinchi u mana sinchi muyu kakta, jampishkamanta pacha imashina wiñakta. Kay yuyaykunami ashka alli kan ima fungicidata churanata yuyarinkapak shinallatakmi mashna kutin jampinamanta rimashun kay yachanapika.Paktaykuna Kay yachanata tukuchishka kipaka yachakukkunaka kaykunatami ruray ushankakuna: Shuk rikuchita rikuchishpa, nina ima fungicida kashkata.Rikuna imashina chakrushka jampikunata, rantina shuti, imashina jampin (karkak mana kashpaka kampik fungicida kashkata) shinallatak imashina churanata ishki fungicidakunawan, ima kashkata rikuchishpa. Kay yachanapi kushka fungicidakunamanta rikuchik pankapi rikuna imashina chakrushka kakta, rantina shutikuna, imashina unkuyta jampik kashkata, shinallatak jampinapak imashina chakruna kashkata. Tantanakushka ñawpakpi rikuchina ima yuyaykunata charinata manarak jampikunata churashpa: mashna alli kakta, lanchata jarkakta shinallatak datos del campomantapish (mashna lancha tarpushka 1.3.ukuman shinallatak kanllaman tiyan, ima pachakunapi mirarin, ima papakunatak jarkarin, imashina wiñan jampishkamanta pacha). Ima jampiwan jampinata yuyarina shinallatak mashna kutin churanamantapish, kay yachanapi rikuchishka yuyaykunawan rikuchi tukunkallami.5.. Allimanta kay killkata rikuna kan Yachayruray 1, 2 shinallatak 3 pi nikuk minishtirishkakunata mashkana. Rikcha killkakunata japina kay pankakunamanta 90, 93, 95, 98, 106, 107 shinallatak 137manta 142kama (Tantachishka 2) (chay rikcha pankakunaka tukuypak kana kan). Paktashpaka. Minishtirikpika yachakukkuna yachashkata rikuchi tukunmi chaypakka allichinami shuktaka yachayta kallarinapak shinallatak shuktaktaka tukuchinkapak (panka 113manta, 114kama shinallatak Tantachishka 1). Wayrakun pambata mashkashpa tantanakuna Yachayruray 1ta rurankapak mana kashpaka wichkashka ukupimi rurana kanchik 2 -3 Yachayruray rikuchikushkata.1. 2.  Kay ruraytaka ashka wayra tiyanpimi rurana wasikunamanta karuyachishpa. Mana tiyachinakuna jawapi ruranachu ashatawankarin pampapimi rurana. Yachakukkunawan ima yuyaywan kay rurayta rurakushkamanta willana. Kimsa u pishka uchilla tantanakuykunapi fungicidakunata kuna (Mirachishka yuyay 1). Chay uchilla tantanakushkakunapika shukllapish killkana ñawirinata yachakmi tiyana kan. Chay tantanakuykunamanka panka 90 manta llukchishka rikcha pankakunata kuna kan.1.3.Yachana Kamu 4Chay jampi wakichinataka chushaklla kakpipash mana kipataka imapak minishtirinchu, mayllakpipish chay fungicidaka sakirinkallami chaymanta kikinta wakllichi tukunmi, ñatak wakichishpa kutin imapak japikunkichikman. Chay jampi apamuk fundaka alli wichkashka kana. Ama jicharichunka shuk achiklla plástico fundapimi churana. Guantesta churana. Mana imata mikuna fungicidakunawan yachay pachakunapi Mana wawakuna kuchuyayta sakikunachu shinallatak wasi ukupi kausak wiwakunatapish. Rurayta tukuchishpaka makikunata allita mayllana. Hongokunamanta wacharishka unkuykunata jampik wañuchik jayak jampikunami kan.Rantina shuti Katunapak churashka shuti.Wañuchik jayak jampipak shutimi kan.Shuktak shukta shutiwan jampikunapish tiyanmi, chay jampika chayllatakmi kan. Mayjan jampika ishki shina jampikunawan chakrushkami. Kayshukkunaka ishki mana kashpaka ashtawan jampikunawan chakrushkakunami tiyan. Yakumanta ishki shina rikuchita rikuchina: razuta shinallatak yaku (razu -yaku). Yachakukkunaman tapuna razuwan yakuwan chikan kashkata.Chaykunatami chimpapurashpa rikuchina chay fungicidakunapish kuta kay tukun mana kashpaka yaku shina chuyapish kay tukunllami. Yachakukkunaman mañana shuktak chay shina rikuchikunata churachun (Mirachishka yuyay 2). Tantanakushpa rimanakuna imatak kan fungicidakunata chakruy. Yachakukunawan rimanakuna ima allikuna tiyan shinallatak imalla mana allikuna tiyan chay ishki shina chakuykunamanta. Yachakukkunaman kushka fungicidakuna imalla jampikunawan chakrushka kashkata rikushpa panka 90pi killkachunkuna mañan kanchik. Yachakukkunaman rikcha pankakunata kuna (panka 95) fungicidakuna chakuy ima nisha nishkata shinallatak ima kashkatapish achikyachunkuna.Yachana Kamu 4Yachashun imatak jampikunata chakrunaImashinami fungicidakuna tiyan: Shukka kankunami jarkaka mana kashpaka jampik (jarkak -jampi).Chay kuta fungicidakunaka ashka llakichikmi kan. Chakrukushpaka ashnayta wayrapi aysay tukunchikmi shinallatak ama tanquepi sakirichunka ashkatamami kuyuchina kan. Shinapish, kuta fungicidakunatami ashalla chanipi ranti tukunchik yaku fungicidakunaka ashawan kullki chanimi kan.  Kuta fungicida Yaku fungicida Kuska 4 Yachashun fungicidakuna ima rurakta.Kayta rurankapakka kimsa mashikunapak yanapayta mañana: Mama Esperanzaka ishki wawakunatami charin, Lucho shinallatak José wawakunata. Luchoka lluki chaki waktarishkami shinallatak Josétaka ujumi japishka. Esperanzaka yuyarinmi Luchotaka wirawan kampinata shinallatak Josétaka pastillakunawan jampinata. Wirata churakukpika Luchoka ninmi shuyay rikusha, mamaka ninmi kayka aycha jawallatami jampin. Luchoman pastillata kushpaka ninmi kayka aycha ukutami jampin. 2. Tantanakushpa rimanakuna fungicida ima rurakta yuyayta llukchina. 3. Rikuchina imami karka jarkak fungicida shinallatak jampik fungicidapish cartulinawan rurashka papa pankapi, chay panka celofánwan, chay yurak pilluchishka uchilla papelkunawan mana kashpaka espuma sintéticawan, shinallatak algodónwan, kayta rurankapak kashna ruray: Chay puka panka celofánwanka pilluchina cartulinawan rurashka pankata kayka jarkak fungicidawanmi nishpa. Uchilla pilluchishka pankakunawan mana kashpaka espumawanka rikcuhinami lanchata apamuk kashkata. Lanchata apak chay fungicida churashkapi chayashpaka wañunllami nishpa rikuchina. Chay panka ukupi algodónta churashpaka ninami lanchata wiñachikmi papa yuraman yaykushka. Chay jawapika puka panka celofánta pilluchina chaymantaka ninami kay jarkak fungicidaka mana imata ruran yurapi ña lancha wiñakukpika. Jarkak fungicidakunataka kay pachakunapimi churana nishpa ashka yuyaypi kana.Mana ashka tamyakuy punllakunapi. Manarak manchakuna yurapi rikurikpita. 9. Kuska 5Yachakukkunaman kuna fungicidakunata imashina apanata rikuchik rikcha pankakunata (Tantachishka 2), chay pankawanka jampikunata rantinaman rinkapakpish yanapankami nishpa willana kanchik (Mirachishka yuyay 3). Yachakkunata amañachina fungicidakunata imashina apana fankata juntachinata yachachunkuna shinatallatak chay pachallatak mañana chay pankata juntachichunkuna katunapak shuti, chakrushka jampi, imata rurak shinallatak mashnata churana lancha unkuymanta jarkankapak.1.Killkana ñawirinata mana yachak mashikuna fungicidakunata rantishun nikpika ñawirinata killkanata yachak mashiwan ushashpaka rina kan fungicida jampikunata rantinapi yanapachun.Paktaykuna Kay yachayta tukuchishka washaka yachakukka tantanakushkapak ñawpakpi rikuchi tukunkami kay yuyaykunata charinata manarak fungicidakunata churashpa: mashna alli kashkata, imashina lancha ama papakunata japichun jarkanata shinallatak datos de campo japinamantapish (tarpushkapak muyuntikpi shinallatak tarpushka ukupipish mashna lancha tiyakta, punllakuna imashina kakta, sinchi -mana sinchi papakuna, yurakuna imashina wiñakukta shinallatak fungicida churashka punllamanta mashna punllakuna yallishkatapish).Jatun pankakuna shinallatak jatun killkana kaspi marcadorkuna.Imamanta kay rurayta rurakushkamanta yachakukkunaman willana kanchik. Jatun pankata charina chaypika killkashpa katinalla imallata rimashkakunata. Kay rimanakuykunata rukuchishka washaka Panka 106, 107 pi rikuchishka shina shuk cuadrota rurashpami tukuchina kanchik. Yachakukkunawan shuyuna imashina lancha wiñarik kashkata (Yachana 2 panka 53 rikuna). Kay shuyushkataka minishtishunmi shamuk rimaykunapakpish.Yuyarishun fungicidakuna mashna alli kashkata Yachayruray 1, Kuska 4-ta yuyarina. Shuyushpa ashata rimanakuna jarkak shinallatak jampik fungicidakuna yurapi churashka washa ima tukukta. Kaytaka imanakuytaka chimpapurashpa rikuna lancha imashina wiñarikta:Jarkak fungicidakunaka kutakunata shina pankakunapi tiyarishkakunallatami wañuchin mana manchakunataka jarkanchu. Jampik fungicidakunaka yuraman yaykurishka hongokunata wañuchinmi. Wiñarikuk manachakunata wañuchinmi.2. Tantanakushpa rimanakuna mayjan fungicidatak ashtawan alli kanka nishpa. Manarak fungicidakunata churashpa yuyarinami kanchik mayjan fungicidatak pakta kashkata nishpa willana kanchik.Riksishun imamantatak yurakunata lancha ama japichun jarkana allí kakta Rikuchina shuk metal jawapi óxido ima tukukta shinallatak shuyuna pintura imata ruraktapish. Yachakukkunawan rimanakuna imapak shuk metalta pintanaka minishtirin ama oxidachun. Wawakunatapish uchillarak kashpa vacunanchikmi paykunata ama unkuy japichun nina. Chay shina rikuchikunata churachun yachakukkunamanpish mañana. Imashina chay lancha unkuy wiñarik kashkata rikuchihspa allita yuyachina chay jarkak fungicidakunami pankakunaman ama lancha chayachun jarkak kashkata.Tantanakushpa rimanakakuna imamantatak yurakunata ama lancha japichun jarkana alli kashkamanta.Riksichun mayjanlla dato de campota charina kanchik manarak fungicidakunata churashpa.Kay datoskunatami yachakukkunawan rimanakuna kan: » »Tarpushkapak muyuntikpi shinallatak tarpushka ukupipish mashna lancha tiyakta Punllakuna imashina kakta Sinchi -mana sinchi muyukuna Yurakuna imashina wiñakun Fungicida churashka punllamanta mashna punllakuna yallishkata.Tarpushkapak muyuntikpi shinallatak tarpushkapak ukupipish mashna lancha tiyakta Shuk jatun panakta chawpina. Chay chawpishka pankakunapika cuadrokunata shuyuna papa tarpushkakunata rikuchishpa shinallatak chay cuadrokunapak chawpipika shuk llaktatapish shuyuna. Ishki shuyushka llaktakunataka shutikunata churachun nishpa yachakukkunaman mañana. Allpapi llankak (Juan) mashi chay ishki llaktakunapi papa tarpushkata charin nishpa rikuchina. Chay ishki tarpushkakunaka kaykunami nishpa shuyuta rikuchina. Mashi Juanpak kuchilla tarpushkakunapi shinallatak Juanpak tarpushkapipish lancha ña japikushka manchakunata shuyuna. Shuk niki llaktapika ashalla manchakunata shuyuna, ishki niki llaktapimi ashka manchakunata shuyuna. Yachakukunawan rikuna Juanka mayjan llaktapitak ashtawan fungicidakunata churana kan. Lancha wiñarikukta rikuchishpa allita yuyachina wayrapi esporakuna tiyakpi fungicidata churana kashkata. Kay lanchaka tiyay tukunmi kuchulla tarpushkakunapi, mayjan yurakunapi, sacha yurakunapi shinallatak tarpushka ukumantatak unkushka yurakunapi. b. Punllakuna imashina kakta (tamya shinallatak asha junuklla chirilla punllakuna) Lancha wiñarikukta rikushpami yuyarina imatami tamya shinallatak asha chirilla junuklla pacha kashpapish rurak kashkata. Shuk unkushka yuramanta kayshuk alli yuraman apan tamyawan salarishpa Jampishka fungicidata panka jawamanta mayllan. Chirilla kunuklla kay pachakunaka yanapanmi manchakuna wiñarichun, Ashtawan junuklla kapika ashtawan utka manchakunaka wiñarin. Yachakukkunawan rimanakuna tamyakuy pachakunapi shinallatak kunuklla kay pachakunapimi ashtawan fungicidata churanamanta, chakishka shinallatak chiri punllakunata yalli.Jatun pankapi shuyuna ishki papa pankakunata, shukpika sinchi muyupak pankata shuktakpikka mana sinchi muyupak pankata. Yachakukkunawan tikra rikuna kimsa yuyaykunata imamantatak sinchi muyukuna shinallatak mana sinchikuna kaktapish (Yachana 3, Panka 66 rikuy). Tantanakushpa rimanakuna imamantak mana sinchi muyuka ashka fungicidata minishtin sinchi muyutapish yalli. Yuyarina ashalla fungicidata churashpaka fukuchinkapak mana ashka kullki minishtirin shinallatak mana pachamamatapish llakichinchik. Fungicidakunawan lanchata jarkanapakka kaykunatami yachana: Mashna alli fungicida kakta. Imamanta lanchamanta jarkarinamanta. Datos del campotapish yachanam.1. Fungicida mashna alli kan 1.Jampik fungicidakunami ashawan alli jampikuna kan chayshuk jarkak fungicidakunatapish yalli shinapish rantinapakka yalli chanimi shinallatak mana alli fungicidapish kay tukun.Chay lanchaka utkashpa llakichik shuk unkuymi: japikpika shuk kanchisripi ñami tarpushkata chinkachinllami. Chaymanta lanchata wiñachi tukuypak pachakuna kakpika utkashpami fungicidakunata churana kanchik manarak manchakuna yurakunapi rikurikpi. Yachana minishtirinmi mashna punllakunatak fungicida churashkamantaka yallishka shinallatak chay punllakunaka imashina karka, tamyaka fungicidata mayllanllami. Asha punllakuna ñawpaman fungicidata churashka kakpi kipa punllakuna usya kashka kakpika pankakunapi fungicida tiyakunkarakmi. Shinaka mana jampina minishtirinchu.Ñawpalla punllakuna fungicidata churashka kakpi chay kipaka tamya urmashpalla katishka kakpika pankakunata mayllashkankami, chaypika minishtirinmi kutinwan jampina. Tantanakushkapak ñawpakpi rikuchina imamantatak manarak jampikunata churashpa fungicidakunatarak riksina: alli kakta, lanchata jarkakta, datos del campo nishkamanta (tarpuska kanllaman shinallatak ukumanpish mashna lanchakuna tiyan, ima pachakuna mirarin, ima muyuwan tarpushka kakta, fungicidata churashkamanta wichimanka imashina wiñashpa katin).1.3.Ima fungicidata churana shinalaltak mashna kutin, imalla pachakunapi, kay yachana kamupi rikuchikuk yuyaykunawan).Kay yachay rikuytaka rurasha nishpalla ruray. Yachashkata ashtawan rikusha nishpami kay tapuykunata kutichichun mañana kanchik, kay tapuykunaka Panka 113, 114 pi killkashka tiyakun, imashina ruranataka Tantachishka 1pimi willakun. Chay tapuykunata kutichishka pachallatakmi alli kutichishkata rikunachina kan shinallatak yachakukkunawan parlanakuyta rurana.Imata yuyashkata tapuna kay yachaymanta. Chay kipaka kay tapuykunatami churay tukunchik: ¿Rurashkakuna achikchu karka? ¿Imashinatak sinchiyachi tukurin? ¿Ima llakikunatak tiyarka? ¿Yachaykunata chaskinapakka pachakunaka paktachu karka? Pacha Shuk pachata tantanakuna.Kallari rimaykuna Kay yachana kamuka kayshuk yachanakunamanta rikukpika ashallami kan, shinallatak ruranami papa tapushkakunata rikunaman rishka pachakunapi. Papa unkuyka utka mirariklla unkuymi, chaymantami kanchisripi shuk kutinllapish rikushka kana kan. Chay rikuykunaka yanapanmi lancha unkuykuna japikushkata yachankapak, chayta rikushpa imashina jarkana mana kashpaka mishanata yuyarinapak. Kay yachanaka rikushkami kay tukun análisis del agro-ecosistemawan metodología del Escuela de Campo de Agricultoresta rurashkawan (ECA).Paktaykuna Yachakukkunaka kay yachaykunata tukuchiska kipaka ushankami: Tantanakushkapak ñawpakpi rikuchinata lancha unkuyta jarkankapak imapak katirayashpa tarpushkata rikurana alli kashkata. Imalla ruranakunamantapish lancha japichun jarkankapak tarpushkata rikushka yuyaykunawan, ima jampi churana, imashina jarkana, ukuman-kanllamanpish mashna yurakuna unkushkata, ima pachakuna, jarkarik sinchi papakuna shinallatak jampishkamanta pacha wichimanka imashina tiyakukta rikuchinata ushankami.1.Allimanta kay killkata rikuna kan. Yachayruray 1 shinallatak 2 pi rikuchikuk minishtirikunata charina. Rikcha pankakuna 123manta, 127 kama charina (Tukuy pankakunami yachakukkunapak tiyana kan).1. 2. Shuk allpapi tarpukka papa tarpushkatami charin Loma Grande nishka llaktapi. Chay mashikuna kawsana llaktaka 2.900 metros mama kucha jawamanmi sakirin Kulla killa 2 punllapimi tarpushka karka. INIAP-Gabriela nishka muyutami tarpurka, chayka lanchata jawalla japina muyumi. Mashna yupay shinallatak yuyaykunata rikuchik tablapi rikukpika, sinchi muyuta rikuchikpika kimsa casilleropimi yaykun. Chay mashna yupayka tukuy tarpunka kamami sakirin. Papata tarpukka febrero pishka punllapi tarpushkata alli mana alli kaktapish rikurka.Chay pachakunaka ashka tamya pachakunami karka. Yuyaykunata shinallatak mashna yupaykuna rikuna tablapi rikukpi, casillero 2 pimi kana kan 'ima pachakunata rikukpika'. Tarpushkaka alli wiñakuy pachapimi karka. Chaymantami, 2 niki yupayka maypimi kana casilleropimi yaykun. Tarpushka kanllaman shinallatak ukumanpish ashka lanchami tiyarka, Chaymanta, 3 niki yupay chaypi kana kan. Panchi killa 5 punllakamaka mana ima fungicidata churanachu. Chaymantami, \"punllakuna ima pachamantami fungicida churashkamanta\" casillataka yurakpimi sakina.Tarpukkunaka ñawpaman mashna yupaykunata mirachishpa chunkamanmi chayankuna, \"Ima ruranata rikuchik\", chaypika jampik fungicidatami churana nikurka. Chay pachallatak yuyarirka lanchata jarkana ashka alli kashkata. Chay datoskunawanmi yuyarirka nishkakunata chaskinata shinallatak jampik fungicida churanata. Kanchis punllakuna washa (panchi killa 12 punlla) tarpukka kutinllatakmi imashina tarpushka tiyakukta rikurka. Chay pachakunaka ashka chakishkami karka. Yuyaykunata rikuchik shinallatak mashna yupaykuna rikuna tablapika 1 niki yupaymi chaypakka. Tarpuyka wiñakuy pachapimi katirkalla. Chaymantami, 2 yupaypak kan. Tarpushka kanllaman shinallatak ukumanpish mana ashka lancha tiyanchu. Chaymantami, chaypakka 2 yupay kan. 7 punllakunami fungicidata churashkamanta pachaka. Chaymantami , shuk niki chayñiman rina kan. Tarpukka ñawpakunamanta tukuy tantachishpaka 9 tami japirka. 'Ima rurana rikuchik\" tablapi rikuchikpika, jarkak fungicidata churana nishka karka. Shinapish, anki uyaripi uyarkami sinchi tamyata chay llaktapak chaymantami mana llakikunata charinkapakka shuk jampik fungicidata churanatami yuyarirka. Tantanakuyta manarak kallarishpa yanapak allichirinapak Kallarichi rimay Kay yachashkata rikunkapak nishkataka prueba de caja, prueba de campo mana kashpaka prueba de chakra shutiwanpish riksishkami kan. Kayka shuk yachayñanmi kan Escuelas de Campo de Agricultores (ECAs)pika kaywanmi llankankuna. Kay ECA nishkata kallarishpaka kay tapuykunaka yachakkuna yachashkata rikunapakmi kan, ima illakpika chaytapish yachaypak allichinkapak. ECA ta tukuchishka kipa tantanakuykunapi yachashkakunatami kay yachayñanwanka rikuchinka. Kay yachayñan yachashkatak rikunkapak killkawanka kallarinkapak shinallatak Yachana kamuta tukuchishpapish minishtirishka kana kan chashnallami yachakukkuna mashna yachakushka mana yachakushkatapish riksishun.Ñawpak allichirina Shuk mana kashpaka iski punlla ñawpaman.  Abreviaturas: cc = centímetro cúbico, g = gramo, kg = kilogramo, ha = hectárea Equivalencias: 1 litro = 1.000 cc, 1 kg = 1.000 g, 1 ha = 10.000 m 2","tokenCount":"6524"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c0587aac35f7eafe17a017aaef560c5d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1c846b59-3c78-4fbc-972b-d7a2cc49c5d8/retrieve","id":"-270233058"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dd091471-6f67-42a4-b204-0e87cb72ec7a","pagecount":"13","content":"desarrolló un taller para trabajar con familias rurales en el fortalecimiento y comprensión de conceptos sobre cambio climático, vulnerabilidad y adaptación al cambio climático. Al mismo tiempo se pretendía sensibilizar a los agricultores para asumir un rol más activo frente al cambio climático en su territorio.Durante la sesión se preparó un plan de trabajo de acuerdo a los avances y las lecciones aprendidas, en el que los agricultores definieron de manera participativa los temas y actividades para para el manejo y la implementación de prácticas agricultura climáticamente inteligente (ACI) que demanden los sistemas productivos.Con este taller continuo la preparación de los hogares rurales para usar información climática que les conduzca a implementar mejores prácticas de adaptación en sus sistemas de producción.América Central y Nicaragua por su geografía son zonas de alta vulnerabilidad, caracterizadas por ser parte de los territorios más susceptibles del mundo a sufrir los efectos adversos del cambio climático global y de la variabilidad climática, debido al nivel de exposición de vastas zonas a las diferentes amenazas e impactos de los eventos vinculados al cambio global y a la variabilidad, unido al predominio de ecosistemas frágiles, altos índices de pobreza y un uso inadecuado de la tierra (Milán 2009).La agricultura familiar, representa sin lugar a duda, para muchas familias de la región centroamericana una de las principales actividades económica generadora de ingreso y que dan soporte a la seguridad alimentaria nutricional, sin embargo, los sistemas de producción han sido afectados de forma recurrentes por los efectos del cambio climático y la variabilidad climática.La situación, en vez de mejorar, empeora, ya que este sector se caracteriza por un acceso limitado a bienes de capital, infraestructura, asistencia técnica, recursos humanos e institucionales, información, recursos tecnológicos y financieros, que explican su baja capacidad de adaptación y respuesta (CEPAL et al. 2015).A diferencia de otras actividades económicas, la agricultura se caracteriza porque la producción es una variable aleatoria, influenciada principalmente por el clima y sus efectos, además de que la demanda y la oferta son inelásticas, lo cual ocasiona que los precios e ingresos sean altamente volátiles (CEPAL et al. 2015).En esta sesión se pretende introducir y reflexionar con familias integrantes de ECAs multirubro y multitemáticas, elementos conceptuales relevantes para trabajar sobre el tema de cambio climático, vulnerabilidad y adaptación al cambio climático. También se espera reconstruir el proceso de aprendizaje usando el enfoque de ECAs implementados por el CATIE a través de su programa MAP entre 2013-2016 y preparar un plan de trabajo para el segundo semestre del 2017 de forma participativa que rescate los avances, las lecciones aprendidas y continuar con el fortalecimiento de hogares rurales de forma que estén mejor preparados para usar información climática que les conduzca a implementar mejores prácticas de adaptación en su sistemas de producción, asentados en el TeSAC el Tuma -La Dalia.Las personas participantes:• Reflexionan sobre los resultados alcanzados a través de las ECAs desarrolladas con proyecto MAPNoruega y los retos inmediatos y futuros para mejorar su capacidad de adaptación. • Fortalecen sus conocimientos respectos a los conceptos de vulnerabilidad y cambio climático.• Discuten y definen de forma consensuada un plan de trabajo a desarrollarse durante el periodo de julio-diciembre 2017.Productos tangibles al finalizar la sesión.• Las personas participantes, tienen un entendimiento práctico sobre los conceptos de vulnerabilidad y cambio climático. • Un plan de trabajo consensuado, que delimita las acciones a desarrollan con las familias entre julio y diciembre del 2017, con una mirada prospectiva hacia el ciclo agrícola 2017-2018.Aspectos técnicos que requiere la persona facilitadora para hacer estas actividades con familias ECAs.• Recorrido de campo por las fincas de las familias que participaron o participan de las ECAs, para conocer los avances del plan de patio y finca realizado en años anteriores y las acciones prioritarias de cara a los próximos 6 meses del presente año (julio-diciembre 2017). • Tener documentado (resumen), de las acciones que las familias han priorizado para los próximos 6 meses, según sistemas productivos priorizados en sus fincas (café, pasturas, granos básico y producción de patio). • Considerar los aspectos de logística, en este caso, definir el sitio más adecuado para hacer la sesión (considerar un punto céntrico en la comunidad), hacer la convocatoria al menos con una semana de anticipación para garantizar la participación de las familias (dos personas por familia, un hombre y una mujer), garantizar los materiales y la alimentación requerida para participantesHabilidades metodológicas que requiere la persona facilitadora:-Conocimiento y manejo de herramientas de capacitación participativa (uso apropiado de preguntas para explorar, promover el análisis, el razonamiento agroecológico y climático. -Dominio del contexto en función de aspectos clave relacionado con clima Tiempo aproximado para la sesión (tres horas y media).-Bienvenida, presentación, objetivos y metodología de la sesión (30 min).-Hilo conductor de proceso ECA MM y su evolución hacia una ECA+++ (30 min) -Plan de trabajo conjunto con la comunidad junio-diciembre 2017 (60 min).-Homologación de lenguaje relacionado con el tema de CC y vulnerabilidad climática. (60 min). -Acuerdos y evaluación de la sesión (15 min)-Papelones (20 unidades), marcadores de 4 colores (una caja), cinta adhesiva (dos rollos) -Dos cuerdas -Un porta rotafolios -Tarjetas de diferentes colores (30 unidades)Desarrollo del evento Paso 1. Bienvenida, presentación, objetivos y metodología de la sesión.La sesión inicia con una breve introducción, en este caso estará a cargo del personal facilitador de NITLAPAN, acá se destacan temas como la relación de CATIE-NITLAPAN-CCAFS y sus contendidos de trabajo en el TeSAC, hacer referencia particularmente al trabajo previsto con las familias a través de las ECAs y los impactos esperados de estas acciones.Después de la breve introducción se hace la presentación de participantes, a través de la \"Dinámica de Telaraña\".Se pide al grupo que formen un circulo. Ideal si se hace en un espacio abierto fuera del salón. La persona que facilita se ubica en el círculo, sosteniendo una madeja de hilo o cuerda. Se explica la dinámica, la cual consiste en lanzar la madeja a cualquier persona escogida al azar.La persona que recibe la madeja, debe decir en voz fuerte su nombre, lugar de procedencia y si posee algún cargo en la comunidad, o si pertenece a alguna organización asociativa. Sin soltar la cuerda este lanza nuevamente la madeja, a otro asistente al azar, el cual procederá de la misma forma hasta haber incluido con todos/as y formado la red.La persona que facilita explica entonces que la RED construida, es un ejemplo de lo que se quiere hacer con la metodología \"Construir conocimientos con la participación de todos/as y una red de trabajo en torno a la adaptación al cambio climático\".Luego se presentan los objetivos, los contenidos y la metodología del taller, explicando brevemente cada uno de estos tópicos, y se pregunta al grupo, si desean agregar o quitar algún aspecto en la agenda propuesta para la sesión de trabajo del día.Paso 2: Hilo conductor de proceso ECA MM y su evolución hacia una ECA++.La persona que facilita pide a los y las participantes que en forma de lluvia de ideas, recuerden que fue lo que paso con el proceso de aprendizaje realizado a través de la ECAs que desarrollaron entre 2013-2016 con el CATIE y la UCA o La COMULACS (según sea el caso para NicaCentral), para este ejercicio se sugiere usar las siguientes preguntas:-¿En qué periodo se desarrolló la ECA con la UCA o la COMULACS? -¿Qué actividades se hicieron en la ECA? -¿Cuáles fueron los temas de capacitación? -¿Cuáles fueron los temas de asistencia técnica? -¿Cómo podemos valorar el cumplimiento de las acciones que de definieron para el patio y la finca?-¿Que continuamos haciendo después de finalizadas las ECAs con la (UCA o la COMULACS) en nuestras fincas y patios?Las respuestas se van anotando en tarjetas o bien en un papelografo. Al final, la persona que facilita presenta a través de carteles previamente elaborado un resumen del proceso desarrollados en las ECAs MM. Paso 3. Homologación de lenguaje relacionado con el tema de CC y vulnerabilidad climática.Con frecuencia se reconoce que el tema de cambio climático aun es un tema muy académico y que un mejor entendimiento por parte de las familias rurales es un paso importante hacia su sensibilización como actor y receptor activo de este hecho en el mundo que habitamos. En esta sesión de trabajo se pretende mejorar el conocimiento y la comprensión de los conceptos de variabilidad, CC y vulnerabilidad climática, para ello se invita a los participantes a que nos ayuden a desarrollar el siguiente el ejercicio \"Hablemos el mismo lenguaje\" 1 a. Explicar a los participantes, en un lenguaje coloquial.La persona facilitadora del taller, explicará cada uno de los conceptos presentados en esta sesión (ver material de consulta en anexo 1), incluyendo ejemplos de la vida cotidiana, que permitan una asimilación rápida por parte de los asistentes. Las siguientes preguntas guías pueden ser utilizadas para conducir la reflexión.b. Construir con los participantes las definiciones.1 Adaptado de Ortega, L.A.; Paz, L.P. 2014. Manual para la formulación de planes prediales de adaptación a la variabilidad climática.Página 7 de 13De los conceptos básicos en su lenguaje: la persona facilitadora invita al grupo a construir sus conceptos a partir de la exposición realizada por la persona facilitadora.Se forman grupos de 4-5 personas, cada grupo trabajará un concepto; se les entrega tarjetas para que puedan ir definiendo los conceptos o la diferencia entre concepto según corresponda, a partir del entendimiento local y con base a un ejemplo. Los grupos se pueden organizar se acuerdo a los siguientes conceptos:Grupo 1: clima y tiempo Grupo 2: variabilidad climática y cambio climático Grupo 3: efecto invernadero y calentamiento global Grupo 4: fenómenos extremos Grupo 5: adaptación Grupo 6: concepto fenómenos del niño y la niña c. Socialización de los resultados por grupo de trabajo:Cada grupo elige a una persona que los representa para exponer sus definiciones, las cuales son pegadas de forma visibles para todos/as. Una vez finalizada la socialización de los grupos, la persona facilitadora debe hacer un resumen de los resultados.Paso 4. Plan de trabajo conjunto con la comunidad junio-diciembre 2017.Con el objetivo de concertar un plan de trabajo y acordar compromisos con las familias; la persona facilitadora elabora una propuesta de plan de actividades para el periodo (en este caso es de julio -diciembre 2017). Esta propuesta se elabora una vez que el facilitador haya visitado todas las familias participantes de la ECA, ya que el contenido del mismo se fundamenta en las actividades prioritarias que las familias mencionen en la visita de asistencia técnica realizada por el facilitador previo a esta actividad.Las sesiones de escuela de campo, los contenidos de asistencia técnica u otras acciones que queden propuestas en el plan de trabajo, además de abordar la herramienta PICSA, dará repuestas a las demandas de conocimientos y habilidades técnicas que hayan sido identificadas y/o demandadas por las personas involucradas en la implementación de la ECAS+++ (familias productoras, personas facilitadoras y especialistas), para el manejo y la implementación de prácticas ACI que demanden los sistemas productivos priorizados (café, cacao, granos básicos, ganadería y el patio).En este caso se presentará una propuesta consolidada que retoma contenidos propuestos por las 30 familias integrantes de los dos grupos ECAS+++ representantes de 2 de las 7 comunidades que conforman el TeSAC \"El Tuma -La Dalia\". En este ejercicio las personas participantes pueden avalar, modificar y/o añadir actividades a fin de que se puede tener un plan de trabajo consensuado y de interés para todos/as. El resultado del ejercicio regirá los contenidos a abordar en el resto del periodo del año en curso y será una herramienta de guía en el proceso de fortalecimiento de capacidades en las ECAs+++.Paso 5. Acuerdos y evaluación de la sesión.En un cartel o papelón visible para todo el grupo, se van anotando los acuerdo y próximos pasos a seguir en la escuela de campo.Antes de finalizar la sesión se realiza la evaluación del día, para este ejercicio se utilizará la dinámica, del estado del tiempo (soleado, nublado y tormenta), colocada en un cartel o papelón donde cada participante marcara con una \"x\" cómo valora \"el tiempo\" que se vivió en la sesión. Por ello, el estudio del tiempo está a cargo de la meteorología, mientras que el clima está a cargo de la climatología. Como se puede observar entonces, el tiempo es una característica de un momento o un día, mientras que el clima, hace relación a la colecta de datos diarios durante meses, años o cientos de estos, que permiten hacer análisis estadísticos y definir cómo se comporta una variable (temperatura, precipitación) en un lugar determinado.Así existen fenómenos meteorológicos como las granizadas, el arcoíris, los truenos, los relámpagos y la misma lluvia, mientras que fenómenos climáticos son el fenómeno de El Niño o La Niña.El cambio climático hace referencia a cualquier cambio en el clima, que se manifiestan en cientos o miles de años, ya sea debido a su variabilidad natural o como resultado de la actividad humana. Un ejemplo de ello: Hasta hace 35.000 años la Laguna de la Tota (Boyaca), estaba cubierta de hielo y la temperatura promedio era de aproximadamente 5°C. En la actualidad los hielos han desaparecido, los casquetes más cercanos que aún quedan están a 115 Km de distancia en la Sierra Nevada del Cocuy. El clima actual en la región de La Tota, es frio con una temperatura promedio de 12°C. Se puede apreciar entonces, que ha habido un cambio del clima para esta localidad.Por su parte, la variabilidad del clima, según el Centro Internacional para la Investigación del Fenómeno del Niño (CIFEN), es una medida del rango en que los elementos climáticos, como temperatura o lluvia, varían de un año a otro. Incluso, puede incluir las variaciones en la actividad de condiciones extremas, como el número de aguaceros de un verano a otro. La variabilidad climática es mayor a nivel regional o local que al nivel hemisférico o global.En la siguiente figura, se puede apreciar un ejemplo de variabilidad climática. Durante el periodo 1990 a 2008, los meses de abril, mayo y junio fueron los más lluviosos y diciembreenero los más secos, pero en el año 1991, abril fue casi tres veces más lluvioso que el promedio, mientras que el mes de mayo fue mucho más seco de lo normal. En el caso del año 2002, abril y mayo fueron meses menos lluviosos que el promedio y diciembre un mes mucho más lluvioso.Es común escuchar hoy en día, estos dos términos y asociarlos como si uno fuese consecuencia del otro. A pesar de ello, se debe resaltar que el efecto invernadero es un fenómeno por el cual, gases existentes naturalmente en la atmosfera como el dióxido de carbono, el vapor de agua, el metano, el óxido nitroso y el ozono, retienen la energía que el planeta libera después de haber sido calentado por la radiación solar, lo que permite mantener la temperatura y facilitar el desarrollo de la vida, por lo cual no debe relacionarse necesariamente con algo perjudicial.Este efecto, es aprovechado comúnmente en las zonas rurales, por ejemplo, en el cultivo de tomate. Dicho cultivo, no resiste las heladas, entonces los agricultores los siembran en \"camas\" y los protegen con plástico, estructura conocida como invernadero. Lo que hace el plástico, además de proteger las plántulas de tomates de las lluvias, es aumentar la temperatura y brindarles un ambiente más cálido, que el existente en el exterior, es decir, que el plástico hace las veces de los gases efecto invernadero.El calentamiento global, por su parte, es el incremento en la temperatura promedio de la atmosfera terrestre y de los océanos, generado, principalmente, por las emisiones de gases efecto invernadero (dióxido de carbono, el óxido nitroso, el metano y halocarbonos) derivados de las actividades del ser humano. Así lo confirma el quinto reporte del IPCC, en donde se afirma que la temperatura media superficial global incremento 0,85˚C durante el periodo 1880-2012 y se estima que a corto plazo (2016-2035) incrementara 0,9-1,3˚C y a largo plazo (2081-2100) incrementara 0,9-2,3˚C. Estos valores, determinan, por ejemplo, que el nivel de los mares aumente y ponga en riesgo a las poblaciones que habitan en sus orillas.Entre las actividades humanas que conducen al calentamiento global, se encuentra la emisión de dióxido de carbono por tala de árboles, por utilización del petróleo, el gas o el carbón como combustible, la producción de cal para fabricar cemento. Entre las actividades humanas que generan metano, se encuentran los procesos digestivos del ganado vacuno o equino, al igual que todo aquello que implique la descomposición de la materia orgánica (cultivo de arroz en humedales, vertederos o rellenos sanitarios).Se llama evento extremo a un evento que es raro en un determinado lugar y estación. Los extremos varían de un lugar a otro. Un extremo en un área especifica puede ser común en otra. Los eventos extremos no pueden ser atribuidos al cambio climático, ya que estos se pueden dar de manera natural, sin embargo, se espera que el cambio climático pueda incrementar la ocurrencia de eventos extremos. Ejemplos incluyen: inundaciones, sequias, tormentas tropicales y olas de calor. Nicaragua es el cuarto país en el mundo que ha sido más afectado por los eventos climáticos extremos entre 1994 y 2013, de acuerdo con el Índice de Riesgo Climático Global 2015, publicado por la organización medioambiental alemana German Watch.Es la propensión o predisposición de un sistema a verse afectado negativamente. Implica una variedad de conceptos incluyendo sensibilidad o susceptibilidad al daño y la capacidad de enfrentar y adaptarse a efectos adversos del cambio climático, incluida la variabilidad climática y los fenómenos extremos. Puede ser vulnerabilidad de ecosistemas, económica, en la salud de las personas, del recurso hídrico, entre otros.Un ejemplo de vulnerabilidad económica es, el caso del evento extremo ocurrido en Piendamo (Cauca), los campesinos cultivadores de café son altamente vulnerables al vendaval y la granizada, dado que no tienen el dinero suficiente para recuperar sus cultivos y mantener sus ingresos después de ocurrido el fenómeno extremo.Adaptación, es el proceso de ajuste al clima actual o esperado y a sus efectos. En sistemas humanos, parece estar moderada por el daño o por el aprovechamiento de oportunidades benéficas, buscando reducir la vulnerabilidad. En sistemas naturales, la intervención humana puede facilitar el ajuste al clima esperado y a sus efectos.Un ejemplo de adaptación al clima actual de paramo por parte de los frailejones (plantas) es la disposición de sus hojas en roseta, abundante pubescencia (similar a vellos) en las hojas, mantener las hojas muertas en su tronco, entre otras, que le permiten superar el frio. Por su parte, el ser humano que vive a orillas del mar, lagunas o ríos, construye su casa como palafito, es decir, apoyada sobre pilares que les permite protegerse de las variaciones en el nivel del agua.La capacidad de adaptación, es la capacidad de sistemas, institucionales, humanos y otros organismos para ajustarse al cambio climático (incluida la variabilidad climática y los cambios extremos), a fin de moderar los danos potenciales, aprovechar las consecuencias positivas o soportar las consecuencias negativas. Un ejemplo de ello, es la capacidad que tenga un agricultor para enfrentar la escasez de agua, en donde tendrá mayor capacidad, aquel que haya diseñado en su vivienda un sistema de recolección y almacenamiento de aguas lluvias. Por su parte, los animales y las plantas que tienen amplio rango de distribución tendrán mayor capacidad de adaptación que aquellas restringidas a hábitats específicos, teniendo en cuenta que la adaptación de la fauna y la flora responde a procesos evolutivos que, generalmente, incluyen largos periodos de tiempo.Una medida de adaptación, es la práctica de identificar opciones para adaptarse al cambio climático y evaluar tales opciones en función de criterios como disponibilidad, beneficios, costos, efectividad, eficiencia y factibilidad. Como ejemplo, se encuentra la implementación de prácticas de conservación de suelos en terrenos susceptibles a la erosión, diversificación de cultivos, implementación de sistemas agrosilvopastoriles, entre otras. Para especies de flora y fauna nativa, se incluye la protección de continuidades o conectividades de hábitat, la restauración ecológica y la conservación de bancos de germoplasma.Anticipada (proactiva, planeada, preventiva): es la que se produce antes de que puedan observarse los impactos del cambio climático.Reactiva: Adaptación que se produce después de haberse observado los impactos del cambio climático.Autónoma: esta adaptación no es una respuesta consciente a los estímulos climáticos, sino que es provocada por cambios ecológicos en los sistemas naturales, cambios en el mercado o en el bienestar de los sistemas humanos. También se denomina adaptación espontanea.Planificada: resulta de una decisión política deliberada, basada en la comprensión de que las condiciones han cambiado o están por cambiar y que se requieren medidas para volver a un estado deseado.Privada: Adaptación iniciada y ejecutada por personas, familias o empresas privadas. La adaptación privada suele responder a un interés fundado de quienes la realizan.Pública: Adaptación iniciada y ejecutada por cualquier nivel de gobierno. La adaptación publica suele orientarse a necesidades colectivas finalmente, el manejo adaptativo, es un proceso continuo de planificación, implementación y modificación de estrategias para el manejo de los recursos buscando enfrentar la incertidumbre y el cambio, implica ajustar enfoques en respuesta a observaciones de sus efectos y cambios en el sistema generando efectos de retroalimentación y otras variables.Es el nivel en que un sistema o especie resulta afectado, ya sea negativa o positivamente, por estímulos relacionados con la variabilidad o el cambio climático. El efecto puede ser directo (p.e. cambio en los rendimientos de los cultivos por cambio de la temperatura media) o indirecto (p.e. cambios en la disponibilidad del forraje que afectan la producción ganadera). Un ejemplo de ello, son los glaciares, altamente sensibles al incremento de la temperatura que determina la fusión del hielo como efecto adverso.Es la presencia de personas, medios de vida, especies o ecosistemas, servicios y recursos ambientales, infraestructura o bienes económicos, sociales o culturales, en lugares que pueden verse afectados negativamente, es decir, por su ubicación en una zona geográfica que puede sufrir impactos determinados por la variabilidad o el cambio climático. Un ejemplo de ello, es la exposición a inundaciones de los habitantes de la ciudad Rama-RAAS, en Nicaragua.El fenómeno de El Nino -Oscilación Sur (ENOS) es un patrón climático recurrente que implica cambios en la temperatura de las aguas en la parte central y oriental del Pacifico tropical. En periodos que van de tres a siete años, las aguas superficiales de una gran franja del Océano Pacifico tropical, frente a las costas del norte de Perú, Ecuador y sur de Colombia, se calientan o enfrían entre 1° C y 3° C, en comparación a la temperatura normal. Este calentamiento oscilante y el patrón de enfriamiento, es conocido como el ciclo ENOS (ENSO por sus siglas en Ingles), afectando directamente a la distribución de las precipitaciones en las zonas tropicales y puede tener una fuerte influencia sobre el clima en los otras partes del mundo. El Nino y La Nina son las fases extremas del ciclo ENOS; entre estas dos fases existe una tercera fase llamada Neutral. El nombre de El Nino (refiriéndose al niño Jesus) fue dado por los pescadores peruanos a una corriente cálida que aparece cada año alrededor de Navidad. Lo que ahora llamamos El Niño les pareció como un evento más fuerte de la misma, y el uso del término se modificó para hacer referencia solo a los hechos irregularmente fuertes (INTA, consulta 2014).Como ejemplo se puede citar lo publicado por FIDA 2010: \"En Nicaragua el cambio climático está incidiendo en los sistemas de producción agrícola, pecuaria, en los ecosistemas y sobre la población del país. La información disponible refiere que la temperatura ha variado de 0.2 a 0.9 grados centígrados en los últimos 30 años. Los aumentos de temperatura van desde 24.5 0C (década 1961-1970) hasta 25.9 0C (década 2001-2011) ","tokenCount":"3934"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4d49607e2989440fbfb82c82860463bc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5c435f76-893f-45a1-b4a5-6da2e7a2f0eb/retrieve","id":"-332812862"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b137acab-be28-4ee2-b935-4ac196016b20","pagecount":"17","content":"Heans are produced prlmarlly by small scale farmers in Uganda (Bank of uganda, 1966). The productlon systems are dlverse and often complexo Uganda's favorable climatlc and edaphlc condltlons allow for a wide range of crops to be grown and beans are found grown In pure stand and in assoclatlon with various cereals, root crops, vegetable crops, tobacco and bananas.These assoclatlons are most often intercropping systems, but also relay lntercropplng and rotatlons are found.The unreliability of input and output markets necessitates flexibility in the production systems. The farmers' bean production objectives are several and vary in relative importance, from farm to farm, district to district and year to year. Resources aval1able to sroall farmers are often few and diverse and these must be allocated between different production activlties to obtaln sufflclent but stable productlon. These characterlstlcs of sroall scale bean production systems lend to their complexlty and dlverslty and underly the need for worklng closely with farmers to understand their decision making envlronment, to ldentlfy feasible technologlcal alternatives, and to evaluate these alternatives.The complexlty and dlversity of bean production systems in Uganda underlies the need for farmer participation In research.Farmers can provide local knowledge of their objectlves and produqtion systems and can contrlbute to the evaluation of technologles in 11ght of their objectlves and constraints.Through on-farro experlmentatlon, technologies can be evaluated undel:: falmer:5' envlronmental .'1I1,j ma.nager 1,'11 condl t lon:5. Farmer:5, in any case, make the final declalon on the worth of a technology and the aooner they can be involved in the evaluation of alternative technologles, the more efficlent the research process la l1kely to be. In response to the fal1ure of upland farmers to adopt lmproved cropplng patterns, farmers were 1nvolved in the ldentlfying, analyzlng and solv1ng of systems product1on problems in the Phllippines (Lightfoot et al, 1967 andLightfoot et al, 1988), but rather than addresslng the crop components of the system, they dealt with soil fertillty and the invasion of rotatlonal fallow by Imperata cylindrlca. In India, researchers collaborated with farmers to establlsh criteria for screening upland rlce varletal material (Maurya et al, 1988) select on the conduct of the trials and to evaluate the results of the trials (Norman et al, 1988). In Colombia, Ashby (1966)   In each of the dlstrtcts, three or four villages were selected for a dlagnostlc survey to be eonducted by researchers, together wlth selected extenslonlsts. A one-day tralning course on lnterviewing techniques was held, and a questionalre was elther formulated or revised on that day. lnterviews were held wlth 27 to 40 farmers per dlstrlet, over a perlod of 2-4 days.The interviewers dlscussed thelr ftndlnga at the end of each day.After the surveys, the information collected was analyzed and interpreted.Constralnts were listed and prioritized, posslble solutlons were identified.On-station and on-farro experlments problems.were designed whlch focused on the important More recently, surveys have been eonducted which were dlrected to speciflc aspects of bean produetlon. ","tokenCount":"481"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c9b98390d01905b91490c7bec0a655fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H041933.pdf","id":"845644868"},"keywords":["проф. В.А. Духовного","д-ра В.И. Соколова","д-ра Х. Мантритилаке от теории к реальной практике. Опыт Центральной Азии. Под ред. проф В.А. Духовного","д-ра. В.И. Соколова","д-ра. Х. Мантритилаке -Ташкент: НИЦ МКВК","2008. -364 с Духовный В.А.","Соколов В.И.","Мантритилаке Х.","Казбеков Ж.","Анарбеков О.","Мирзаев Н.Н.","Пинхасов М.А.","Алимджанов А.","Мухамеджанов Ш.Ш.","Нерозин С.А.","Галустян А.Г.","Хорст М.Г.","Стулина Г.В.","Зиганшина Д.Р.","Масумов Р.","Кадыров А.А.","Умаров П.Д.","Бегимов И.","Хегай В.В.","Тучин А.И.","Жерельева С.Г.","Рощенко Е.М. и др. ISBN 9965-32-627-4 ББК 26.22"],"sieverID":"7f193069-58be-4340-b12a-36dc49112a13","pagecount":"14","content":"Настоящая публикация предназначена для широкого круга специалистовводников, включая лиц, определяющих водную политику и принимающих решения, которые формируют ход и содержание современных реформ в сфере руководства и управления водой.Публикация также предназначена для широкого круга представителей гражданского общества -заинтересованных сторон в надлежащей реализации водохозяйственных реформ. Содержание книги позволит читателям проникнуться пониманием, что человечество и природа практически повсеместно на Земле столкнулись с серьезными проблемами вокруг воды. Эти проблемы сегодня невозможно эффективно решать с использованием привычных, сложившихся в последние десятилетия традиций, структур руководства и методов управления водой. Интегрированное управление водными ресурсами (ИУВР) рассматривается здесь как новый и потенциальный подход решения указанных проблем. Настоящая книга обобщает первые опыты внедрения этого нового подхода в Центральной Азии.• организация учета оросительной воды на границе фермерских хозяйств;• технологии использования оросительной воды;• повышение эффективности и продуктивности воды и земли;• виды и нормы внесения удобрений;• борьба с вредителями;• оптимальные сроки и виды агротехнических мероприятий;• повышение урожайности сельхозкультур.Кроме того, консультативной службой проводится оценка обеспеченности и стабильности водоподачи по различным уровням каналов и ассоциаций водопользователей. Развитие опытнодемонстрационных участков для изучения и отработки методических подходов для решения прочих -не рассмотренных ранее проблем, имеющим место в фермерских хозяйствах.Социальная мобилизация -это процесс, посредством которого все заинтересованные стороны привлекаются к участию в управлении водными ресурсами, принятии ключевых решений по руководству и обеспечении надлежащего состояния инфраструктуры [7]. Социальная мобилизация организуется как консультативный процесс, где все заинтересованные стороны вырабатывают общее понимание проблем и потребностей в сфере управления водными ресурсами и ведут постоянный широкий диалог по согласованию коллективных действий, направленных на решение, этих проблем через создание общественных органов управления водными ресурсамитаких как АВП, СВК и совместных государственно-общественных партнерств как ВКК.Социальная мобилизация является непрерывным процессом, когда специалисты по социальной мобилизации встречаются с общественностью, фермерами, представителями водохозяйственных организаций, руководителями местных администрации и т.д. Специалисты объясняют организационную структуру, необходимую для ИУВР, шаги усовершенствования организационной структуры управления, процедуры создания того или иного общественного органа, которые в дальнейшем будут участвовать в руководстве системой или АВП. Разъясняется суть передачи части полномочий от государства в руки самих водопользоваталей, роль государства в управлении водными ресурсами. Социальная мобилизация также является процессом, где учитываются мнения всех заинтересованных сторон. Это -так называемый двусторонний диалог, где рассматриваются и учитываются новые идеи заинтересованных сторон, дается возможность подумать и представить свои идеи, которые фиксируются в отчетах и в дальнейшем служат основой для уточнения стратегии общественного участия.В этом разделе излагается опыт СМИР 6 по третьей фазе проекта «ИУВР-Фергана». Если на начальных этапах проекта работы по СМИР были направлены на создание единичных общественных организаций -пилотных АВП, Управлений каналов и комитетов водопользователей, то в третьей фазе задачи и стратегия СМИР носили более интенсивный и расширенный характер. В частности, мероприятия по СМИР были направлены на укрепление ранее созданных органов по управлению водой и распространению опыта пилотных объектов на большую территорию с конечной целью обеспечения устойчивости создаваемых организаций.Организационная структура полевых работ по мобилизации приведена на рисунке 4. 26. Для обеспечения эффективности работ было решено увеличить число полевых консультантовмобилизаторов под руководством единого координатора. В задачи последнего кроме органи-зационных работ входила выработка единого подхода и координация действий со всеми ключевыми лицами и заинтересованными сторонами.В начале каждого года, работники проекта выезжали и консультировались с заинтересованными сторонами по вопросам правильной, эффективной и интенсивной организации СМИР на каждом пилотном канале. Все рекомендации и предложения записывались. На основе анализа поступивших предложений по улучшению работ и задач проекта разрабатывалась стратегия осуществления работ по СМИР применительно к каждому каналу. По результатам разработки в каждой стране с командой по СМИР проводился рабочий семинар, где каждый консультант имел возможность выступать и высказывать мнения по поводу предлагаемой стратегии, т.к. полевой и практический опыт мобилизаторов был всегда полезен в выработке планов работ. На основе уточненных и скорректированных в результате обсуждений генерального плана, каждый член команда СМИР разрабатывал индивидуальный план работ, который в течения года служил инструментом для мониторинга и оценки продвижения работ и деятельности команды.Содержание СМИР по странам может различаться в связи с местными особенностями, водохозяйственными и социо-экономическими условиями, но строится вокруг следующей целостной структуры:• Встречи с представителями ВХО, местных властей и водопользователей для общего представления и выявление зоны деятельности;• Обход обозначенной территории для выявления проблемных участков и встречи непосредственно с местными ВХО, властями, первичными водопользователями, существующими АВП и вторичными водопользователями; СМИР через сотрудничество с местными учебными заведениями. Для обеспечения долгосрочной устойчивости результатов проекта «ИУВР-Фергана» было решено передать накопленный положительный опыт и материалы проекта в местные учебные заведения, специализирующиеся в подготовке специалистов водного хозяйства среднего и высшего звена. Для достижения этой цели были установлены рабочие отношения и подписаны соответствующие меморандумы о взаимопонимании с высшими и средне-техническими учебными заведениями (Мархаматский гидромелиорационный колледж, Ошский сельскохозяйственный институт, Ходжентский филиал Таджикского технического университета). Были организованы семинары по обмену опытом, поездки на пилотные объекты, переданы все технические материалы и наработки, созданы рабочие группы из педагогического состава учреждений для дальнейшей адаптации опыта в учебные пособия и внедрения их в учебный процесс.В 2007 году вышеперечисленные учебные заведения ввели в учебный процесс дополнительные занятия по ИУВР (50 академических часов -20 часов теоретических и 30 часов практических занятий). В 2007 году 50 студентов 2 и 3-го курсов проходили производственную практику на пилотных каналах, помогали мобилизаторам, АВП и гидротехникам. Были также установлены рабочие отношения с Бишкекским и Душанбинским аграрными университетами. Подписаны соответствующие меморандумы по сотрудничеству, также переданы материалы проекта.С 2007 года были начаты мобилизационные работы по распространению опыта на Правобережный канал в Кыргызстане. Идет работа по гидрографическому анализу водохозяйственной обстановки зоны канала. Начаты работы по мобилизации среди руководящих работников по созданию единого управления систем канала. Ведется разъяснительная компания среди ключевых субъектов по подготовке водопользователей для создания СВК.Положительный опыт социальной мобилизации, приобретенный на пилотных объектах через совместные семинары и тренинги передаются к зонам 2-х пилотных трансграничных малых реках (ТМР) -Шахимардансай и Ходжабакиргансай. Распространение принципов ИУВР будет организовано по аналогии с проектными мероприятиями на каналах; и стратегия социальной мобилизации будет реализована на следующих уровнях: Система (ТМР и ирригационная система), АВП (и местные сообщества), и ниже уровня АВП (распространение методики проекта через местных консультантов).Развитие АВП через социальную мобилизацию. Если задача социальной мобилизации на 2-ой фазе была направлена на создание единичных, т.е. пилотных АВП, то на 3-ей фазе она фокусировалась на всеобъемлющее и экстенсивное распространение опыта пилотных проектов на всю территории пилотных каналов, тогда, как все новые АВП создавались преимущественно административным методом. Поэтому все мобилизационные работы направлены на повсеместное развитие АВП вдоль пилотных каналов аналогично пилотным АВП. Для этих целей были подобраны полевые команды по СМИР, обученные новой стратегии развития АВП. Стратегия по странам отличалась в связи с местными особенностями, водохозяйственными и социально-экономическими условиями. Мобилизационные мероприятия включали в себя такие работы как создание гидрографических АВП, реорганизация административных АВП в гидрографические, укрепление созданных АВП, обучение персонала (организационные вопросы, управление водными ресурсами в АВП, бизнес план), активизация советов АВП и их участие в работе полевых подразделений или в самих СВК, создание эффективных ГВП. В создании и реорганизации АВП участвовали члены СВК, БУИС, БУВХ, специалисты районных хокимиятов, хукуматов, местных администраций, председатели махаллинских комитетов сельских населенных пунктов, сельских управ, руководители АВП, МТП, специалисты гидроучастков канала, и сами водопользователи -фермеры. Все мероприятия координировались и осуществлялись совместно с областными исполнителями и полевыми консультантами НИЦ (см. табл.  ","tokenCount":"1135"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0084acec99aea6afb1ad8e7dabb1897b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6afb6394-0f72-41d6-9e41-ab51c0cca28b/retrieve","id":"1122239142"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"181b7029-1bdf-4082-86c3-9e4723c8b6f1","pagecount":"65","content":"ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used Acknowledgements: The authors thank Rosekellen Njiru and for Itseng Malao for their contributions to organizing this meeting.In November 2023, the wider COHESA project convened in Pretoria for the project's first biennial conference. Tasked to review progress, share lessons, insights and innovations and to formulate priority actions for the coming two years, eighty-five people participated from all 12 project countries.The first day zoomed in on activities in the four work packages -looking first, package by package and then country by country. These collective exercises revealed project-wide strengths across the countries, such as the collaborative networked approach, capacities developed, inclusion of diverse institutes and issues, the Netmapping of actors and interests, the emerging evidence base, experimental approaches like sandpits to identify solutions, work on One Health platforms and outreach to schools, and the flexible funding approach. The country team interactions revealed a wealth of activity as well as some important challenges and lessons encountered. Beyond general issues around lack of One Health awareness, participants pointed to the dangers of institutional and sectoral silo's, One Health funding challenges at country level, and, sometimes, missing key groupssuch as from environmental and ecohealth.Thematically, the second and third days focused on One Health governance (and platforms) and on One Health outreach to schools. For both topics, country cases were presented as starting points to identify opportunities and priorities for further work. Success in the governance space was frequently framed around strategy and policy development, advocacy to policy communities, effective coordination and leadership and financing for One Health. Pathways towards such successes were identified as critical success factors (collaboration, inclusion, ownership …), and what to avoid (duplication, fragmentation, silo's …). For the schools agenda, integrating One Health through interaction with teachers and educational curriculum and content design was highlighted; a key priority is to work with Ministries of Education as well as other groups with strong interests in early childhood education. The question as to when such efforts can best deployed -the target age groups -was discussed by not fully answered.The event timing half-way through the project offered a good opportunity to look to the coming years, accelerating activities and results and also identifying critical elements of 'exit strategies' at country level. Beyond fundraising for continuation or complementary projects, participants emphasized in-country advocacy and alliance/network building as important to sustain momentum post-COHESA. They also identified a number of 'products' that need to be in place to ensure that key evidence, messages and collaborations continue to have outcomes beyond the project end.Finally, a reflection team gave daily feedback and, in the final session, shared their perspectives on COHESA strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. They observed strengths around the network itself, the commitment and engagement of participants and the diversity represented. Weaknesses highlighted included the visibility of the project as well as concerns around sustainability, and monitoring and evaluation. Opportunities mentioned included the potential for some elements to be replicated and scaled elsewhere, donor interest in these issues, and an urgency to build on and really exploit the power of the network. Threats identified included, particularly, the resistance of many actors to change that calls for innovative approaches from the project. Around these discussions, participatory sessions were organized to facilitate exchange of ideas and innovations across the network. Three sessions provided opportunities for participants to hear inspirational presentations on wider topics.As we increasingly recognize the inter-connecting factors that influence the health of people, animals and the environment, 'One Health' -defined as an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems -is seen as a very promising way to frame and take action at different levels -international, regional, national and local.Essentially, the argument for One Health says that successfully reducing future health risks and impacts for people and livelihoods, as well as for animals and ecosystems, is most likely to come when we apply diverse expertise across public, veterinary and environmental health.The importance of adopting the One Health approach has been reinforced by lessons from recent disease outbreaks including COVID-19, Ebola and avian influenza. In addition, One Health thinking is embedded in current efforts to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistant pathogens, to ensure food safety, reduce water and waste-borne contamination, manage human and livestock interactions with wildlife, and reduce aflatoxin contamination in crops and livestock products, to name only a few examples. It can also be seen in structural efforts to establish 'One Health' collaborative, cross-departmental organizational structures. To succeed, all require a triple 'input' of public, veterinary and environmental health expertise together with an understanding of the wider systems involved.While the overall approach has been around for some time, implementation of genuine One Health faces several challenges, key being the many sectoral, domain, disciplinary, academic, organizational and investment silo's that limit necessary cross-communication and integration of efforts and which ultimately segregate people and ideas, restricting the development of integrated, comprehensive solutions.With financial support from the EU, funded through the OACPS Research and Innovation Programme, the 'Capacitating One Health in East and Southern Africa' (COHESA) project is tackling key One Health capacity gaps in the region. It is implemented through enhancing the knowledge base for research and policy-making, strengthening national and subregional cross-sectoral collaboration, building academic and research capacities and One Health education, and growing the abilities of actors to deliver One Health solutions.COHESA is led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD -Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement) and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).Convened by ILRI and hosted by the University of Pretoria, this first biennial conference brought together project partners and 'multipliers' (local project implementors) to take stock of progress and set priorities for the coming years. Over the three days, 85 people (41% women; 59% men) from 13 countries participated in reviewing progress and activities, discussed experiences around OH governance and in schools, shared innovations and identified activities for the coming years.Participants were welcomed by Hung Nguyen-Viet, Program Leader at ILRI. Additional remarks were provided by Margaret Karembu, ISAAA-Africenter; Alexandre Caron, CIRAD; and Gerard den Ouden, OACPS Research and Innovation Programme.Theo Knight-Jones, ILRI Principal Scientist and COHESA lead introduced the objectives and structure of the COHESA project with its four work packages:1. OH Knowledge sharing: Increased relevance of One Health research and policies in Eastern and Southern Africa. 2. OH Governance: Enhanced national and subregional cross-sectoral collaboration between government entities with OH mandates and OH stakeholders across society. 3. OH Education and research: Educational and research institutes equipped to train the next generation workforce in tackling OH issues. 4. OH Delivery: Increased capacity of government and non-governmental stakeholders to identify and deliver OH solutions to final beneficiaries.After an introductions exercise, the facilitator introduced the overall agenda of the three days in relation to the formal objectives of the workshop:• Progress and Planning: Participants will gain insights into the progress achieved, highlighting successes, challenges, and plans for further development.• Knowledge Sharing: Participants will exchange perspectives, share experiences, and explore innovations aimed at addressing complex health challenges across human, animal, and environmental spheres. • Synergy and Collaboration: Participants will discuss shared goals and challenges, leading to synergies and collaborative opportunities identified and future initiatives inspired.In terms of process, the facilitator emphasized the participatory nature of the event with group interaction and just a few presentations. Throughout the process, key points would be captured on notes and flip charts, interactive sessions would be followed by quick sense-making by two participants -Carol Mufana and Clovice Kankya; while a reflection team comprising Adana Mahase-Gibson, Lucinda de Araújo, Brian Perry and Gerard den Ouden provided regular daily inputs as well as a closing synthesis.The core activities of the project are delivered axcross the countries through four work packages. After a short introduction by Theo Knight-Jones (ILRI), each package was briefly introduced covering: ambitions and outcomes; progress, results, plans; insights, lessons, challenges; and a call to action. After all the presentations -designed to refresh all participants, the table groups carried out a SOAR exercise to reflect on project overall and specific work package progress.Ambitions and outcomes• Determine the OH status in research and innovation, governance, education, and implementation • Where are strengths and gaps? -how can gaps be filled • Determine where gaps align with project objectives • Determine where COHESA can align with ongoing OH projects/initiatives Progress, results, plans• 11 baseline assessments complete inclusive of reports• Somalia about to start as they recently joined the project • Netmapping completed in 9 countries (original plan for 4)• ISAAA supported this with train the trainer events (2) and assisting all countries to implement and report on findings   Ambitions and outcomes• COHESA is a project about OH institutionalization (= setting up the framework from national to local level for OH to be operationalized) Following the presentations, participants reflected on the project's perceived strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results. These are presented in the tables below. The afternoon of the first day was organized around the experiences of the countries. For this exercise, participants formed country teams. Members prepared summary information on each work package -highlights plus 3 to 5 activities, lessons, challenges -in advance of the conference that could be shared as insights with other countries in a peer to peer learning process.During the exercise, some team members remained at the table to share insights with people from other countries, while other team members visited other country teams seeking insights to include in their own plans. Through this exercise, team members from all countries engaged with all other country teams.The images below show the framework that each country populated. This is followed by the summary material compiled by each country -the detail as well as the summarty 'slides' used for the exercise. Annex 5 presents all the individual highlights, activities, challenges and lessons by work package..   Learnt that there is still a big gap among \"OH-sectors\", despite acknowledgement of the existence of the OH platform. Learnt that a District that adopted and actualised OH early was able to effectively respond and handle the Anthrax situation better.  Wrapping up discussions on work packages and country lessons and insights, participants formed small groups to identify: 1) powerful ideas or lessons learned during the day and 2) important actions to take.Important actions The morning of the second day focused on lessons and experiences with 'One Health governance'.The main components were:1. A presentation of Netmapping findings by Bibiana Iraki (ISAAA-Africenter) 2. Short country cases from Gabriel Shirima (Tanzania), Namibia: Simon Angombe (Namibia)and Joshua Onono (Kenya) 3. A talk show/panel of regional actors moderated by Kristina Roesel (ILRI) in conversation with: Musonsa Ngulube (UNEP), Gerald Mucheru (FAO), Hardwick Tchale (World Bank), Gaolathe Thobokwe (SADC) and Fahari Gilbert Marwa (EAC). 4. An exercise by participants in country groups exploring 1) success for OH governance in their countries and 2) Critical Success Factors to to achieve this (do's and don'ts)Bibiana Iraki (ISAAA-AfriCenter) shared findings from COHESA Netmapping exercises.She explained why COHESA uses it -to understand stakeholder relationships and connections, emphasizing its purpose as a participatory, reflective tool for advanced problem solving and stakeholder engagement; its importance contributing to effectiveness in complex multidisciplinary networks such as OH and its credibility.For COHESA, it helped to identify three emerging scenarios:• Working towards operationalisation of OH • Institutionalization of a national OH entity • Working towards integration of OH issue-based TWGs; national OH entity; Institutionalized Findings from across the countries revealed some commonalities:• Institutionalization key to fully operationalize OH. Ensures effective coordination and accountability at national level • Limited advocacy happening with key actors needed to institutionalize OH entities i.e. Prime Ministers Office, Office of the President, Legislators and Ministry of Finance • Collaboration extensive between key-line ministries and technical actors. However, they tackle specific OH issues or happen unconsiously -except for MoH and MoA • MoE and wildlife ministries PLUS some key regulatory agencies not as active • Limited collaboration with key drivers needed to deliver and adopt OH solutions e.g. grassroots groups, local governments, private sector • Funding is available but for sectoral OH issues -contributing to poor integration. • OH agenda is largely donor driven -yet limited engagment with Ministries of Finance. Grants go through development partners and not directly to line ministries. • OH approach is an abstract concept that is practised in ivory towers -experts speaking among themselves • Advocacy is absent/limited among key actors. Key for increasing importance/value of OH and achieveing goal but identified as an area of weakness • Lack of integration not just within government but also across OH initiatives She also highlighted som critical success factors for effective operationalization of OH governance: Effective communication skills, conflict resolution, negotation skills, financial accountability and knowledge sharing.The three presenters were asked to give updates on the current OH governance platforms in their countries, covering: current status, prospects and plans, lessons and insights, as well as a critical success factor.Current status • Kenya's OH office formed between line ministries of human and animal health This session was introduced by Florence Mutua (ILRI) and followed by 4 short country cases and an interactive session in which participants were asked to reflect and identify priority actions in this area.Mutua first introduced this area of work as looking towards a future with professionals who are better prepared to tackle OH issues and exposed 'early.' Some of the questions are around this notion of earliness: How early is early and which level/ grade do we focus on? Further, are there models we can tap into, who else is working on this space, what content is appropriate (for primary, secondary schools, others), which approaches suit different ages and contexts and where should the focus be -extra-curricular, in the curriculum, via teacher education, etc.?The four cases introduced different approaches and experiences, setting out for each: the ambitions and outcomes; the actors and their roles; progress, results and plans; insights, lessons and challenges; and a call to action.Shauna Richards introduced a case where primary and secondary schools engaged with One Health through learning about safety around animals. The project trained primary (2022) and secondary ( 2023) school teachers in one sub-county, covering:• learning about One Health, with examples relevant to the sub-county/student education level, and how to integrate One Health into the secondary school curriculum; and • understanding how safety around animals is related to One Health, with examples of prevention of zoonoses (with rabies as a specific example), prevention of injury from animals and improving animal welfare and the health of people and animals while considering environment health.Teachers were trained on technical materials and provided with lesson plans and teaching materials covering 1 : • Ideally continue at a few diverse sites in Kenya to ensure material is appropriate • Bring M&E + report to Ministry of Education to consider about fully integrating into curriculum in future • Trainers can be students from Higher Education Institutions for in service teachers; new teachers to learn in their program.Catherine Wood reported on a collaboration between the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and a local NGO -Ladder to Learning -to extend One Health in Primary Education in Malawi. The project worked through existing literacy hubs, learning spaces and libraries, mentoring programs and digital skills training, involving the LUANAR veterinary students association in content development, delivering and mentoring for the children.Xavier Edziwa explained how the University of Zimbabwe is infusing the One Health concept in preservice teacher education.As part of the assignment of the UZ Faculty of Education to lead a Review of Teacher Education Curriculum, this provided an opportunity to introduce OH in the curriculum, aiming to:• Conduct a needs assessment at five teacher training colleges to establish the level of preparedness for the adoption of OH as part of the school curriculum. • Devise strategies to infuse One Health into the school curriculum, particularly through teacher development programmes that are currently under review (Teacher Education Curriculum Transformation).The assessment revealed that the current teacher education curriculum has some OH themes already, though lacking an interdisciplinary approach and not strongly visible.The next steps are for the implementing institutions to develop specific learning outcomes and instructional strategies that incorporate OH principles across identified subjects.The main challenge is that the pace of implementation will be determined by the rolling out of the teacher education curriculum transformation.The Faculty of Education has started engaging with participating colleges to start making OH more visible and it will run capacity building workshops on identified OH knowledge and skills gaps for teacher education college lecturers.Paul Buyugu introduced the work of 'One Health Lessons', an global initiative to inspire children and adults around the world to value One Health. Focusing on its Train-the-Trainer Program that certifies lesson leaders to provide training for adults, communication skills and age-appropriate lessons from age 6 and upwards 2 .Following the presentations, participants identified some priority actions in this area for COHESA to take forward (see box below).• Advocacy for the infusion/integration of OH at the highest level of institution with this mandate On day 3, to facilitate discussions and collaboration among participants, an open space session was held where individuals shared ideas where they wished to collaborate with colleagues. The champions and topics in this session were:Noting that the project is already half through its cycle, participants brainstormed actions that can be planned and implemented now to ensure effective 'exits' for COHESA activities. Recognizing also that the legacy and products of COHESA will continue after the end of the project, and indeed that we want them to have impacts, the groups also identified some attributes of products that will make them 'future-ready' -for a post-COHESA phase.Advocate for multipliers to be included on the national OH platforms or OH advisory committee Advocate to increase government budgets for OH -cost benefit analysis, demonstrated public good Align COHESA OH activities to government objectives Build co-ownership of all activities Create another project to sustain existing networks and collaborations and benchmarking/best practices Develop new collaborations / partnerships Develop sustainable cross sectoral collaborations using the existing OH platforms at local and regional levels Disseminate products through media cafes, ministerial websites, co-authored/ownership Document and begin implementing the exit strategy now Engagement (PPP) and advocacy Establish legal framework for OH -link it with budget framework Explore alternate funding mechanisms Facilitate national OH platforms and incorporate other stakeholders Find mechanism to ensure continued stakeholder engagement Hold Conference/Seminar/Symposium in individual countries annually Identify and establish partnerships with other OH related entities Identify parliamentarian to be a OH champion Increase iInvolvement and commitment of government, private sector and community in OH activities Institutionalise OH across borders Integrate OH into government programs and plans Leverage the strengths of the existing network Mobilize additional funding for continuity of specific activities Optimise search for funding opportunities Organise an evaluation of the project implementation Organise an exit conference with the relevant stakeholders Package the products such as policy briefs, white papers, strategies to get buy in Project documentation tell the COHESA story Publicise OH benchmarks and encourage HEIs to utilise them with curricular development Raise country and government commitment to institutionalise OH activities Reach long term impact at community level by integration/transfer of OH principles at community levels Resource mobilisation for post-COHESA Run webinars Secure extra funding -Funding collaborative, Grant applications. Science Foundation Africa Strengthen existing OH platforms and initiate OH platforms where they don't exist Support government structures to secure internal/domestic funding Sustain relationships between academia and government agencies for evidence based policies eg updating future OH strategic plans Use COHESA as a benchmark /model for future OH projects Use network to fund future collaborative project Validate strategic plans and assign roles and responsibilities for uptake of activities by network partners Before the closing, the reflection team members shared their observations and recommendations in the form of a SWOT. ","tokenCount":"3310"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9928c4eacb1061a06127e91f34dd4802","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/343d8354-e35c-4cce-b49f-328dc4639479/retrieve","id":"-2069341305"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7b13fedc-f1a0-4e8d-a1a0-a5854e506eca","pagecount":"36","content":"This report is based on a scoping study carried out on behalf of the Ethiopian Forage Seed Consortium from September 2022 to February 2023. Its purpose was to gain a better understanding of the way in which the forage seed system works, as a basis to make recommendations for improvement, or to suggest targeted interventions. About thirty stakeholders from the public and private sectors, and regulatory authorities, were consulted through a mix of structured interviews and informal discussions.The context of the study is that wider use of cultivated forages has been strongly advocated for many years, both to improve livestock productivity and to reduce the degradation of natural pastures by overgrazing. The poor availability and quality of forage seeds is routinely cited as a major reason why there has been poor adoption of cultivated forages and all concerned parties would like to remedy this situation.A previous study conducted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in 2019 confirmed that there is no official certification of forage seeds due to the limited resources of regional quality control agencies and the priority given to maize and wheat seed, although regulations do exist for forage seed certification. This has prompted an interest in the use of quality declared seed (QDS) as an alternative system and a draft QDS scheme has been prepared as an activity of the Ethiopian Forage Seed Consortium for consideration by the regulatory authorities. This topic is addressed in Section 5 of the report and will be elaborated in a separate document.In the absence of a controlled seed multiplication system, there is a particular weakness in the transfer of early generation material from breeding stations to producers. As a result, variety identity is lost and most seed is grown and sold under the species name only. This raises concerns about the value of breeders' work and the variety testing/ registration system. It would benefit all parties if there were a greater awareness about varieties and more information available on this topic.Most seed production is undertaken by private companies who use their own land or contract growers and they monitor the seed crop fields. Some also use 'collectors' who are in direct contact with farmers in different parts of the country but this system is relatively unsupervised and may lead to confusion about the quality of seed, or malpractice. Regional bureaus of agriculture (BoA) also undertake some seed production as part of their extension work but this is not on a commercial basis. Substantial amounts of seed are produced through these various channels and primary production does not appear to be a constraint.Transactions are mostly conducted through public tenders announced by the various development actors and for which the producers submit competitive bids. Although this is a standard mechanism for government purchases, it has intrinsic risks for seeds because it may place undue emphasis on a low price at the expense of quality. This risk is increased by the lack of properly equipped laboratories for testing the quality of forage seeds within the official system or among other buyers. In practice, producers use informal testing arrangements to comply with tender specifications when they submit bids.Tenders announced by government agencies often have substantial financial contributions from official development agencies, who thus subsidize the seed supply system. Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use the same approach for their own projects. The additional funding available from these external sources masks the true market price of seeds based on production costs and margins; it may also raise concerns about the transparency of the bidding process. The tender system restricts the development of direct market linkages so it is more difficult for producers to establish a reputation for product quality and to benefit from that. To summarize, the use of tenders for bulk seed purchase introduces many complications into the market and in fact there is no true 'market' for these seeds, apart from limited local retail sales by producers.Free distribution of forage seeds to farmers has been practiced for many years as an activity of projects supported by the government, by official development agencies and by NGOs. As a result, farmers are reluctant to purchase seed at a market price. However, the study has revealed examples of more direct connections between seed producers and forage users, which could provide alternative mechanisms of seed supply and help to establish a viable seed market.Farmers who grow forage crops find it difficult to make the direct domestic benefit/cost calculation unless they are connected to a dairy unit where increases in milk production can be measured. However, there are many urban and peri-urban small dairy units, which should sustain a market for fresh forage production as a cash crop if seed were readily available in appropriate pack sizes.Issues raised by this study have policy implications that should be addressed at a high level to resolve longstanding problems in the seed supply system. The challenge is to develop a sustainable market for forage seeds that will benefit producers and provide a regular supply of good quality seed to users, bringing benefits both to livestock keepers and to the environment.We believe our study and this report provide a good understanding of how the forage seed system operates and will serve as a baseline for any further work on this important topic. With this in mind, Annex 5 gives a summary of information gaps and suggests further actions.The problem of forage seed supply in Ethiopia has been recognized for many years and is well-understood by scientists and development professionals. There is a strong case for increasing the use of cultivated forages both to improve livestock feeding and to reduce pressure on the environment caused by overgrazing of natural pastures. The lack of good-quality seed is frequently cited as a constraint to increasing the use of cultivated forages by livestock keepers and by farmers who could grow these as cash crops.In 2019 ILRI carried out a study for the ACDI-VOCA Feed Enhancement for Ethiopian Development (FEED) III project to develop a certification scheme for forage seeds. The clear conclusion from this was that all the necessary regulations for such a scheme are already in place but they are not being used. Reasons for this include the complexity of the current seed standards and limited capacity of the regional certification authorities, particularly for seed sampling and testing. In practice, the certification of cereal crops, especially maize and wheat, is the priority and more specialized crops such as forages are overlooked. In this connection, the use of QDS was suggested and discussed in the final report 1 and in a policy brief 2 . Stakeholder workshops held at the end of the study confirmed these constraints and the need to find more pragmatic approaches to quality assurance 3 .Another positive initiative of the FEED III project was to assist the establishment of a Forage Seed Production and Marketing Association (FSPMA) which would bring together the key actors as a more organized group to promote their common interests and strengthen linkages in the marketing chain. It took some time to complete the official registration but the inaugural meeting of the association was held in August 2021 with a total of 10 members and it is hoped that others will join. FEED III closed in 2020 and there was no follow-on project. To maintain the momentum and interest that had been generated by the study, ILRI established a Forage Seed Consortium to facilitate communication and coordination between the various concerned parties. This coincided with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic so all meetings of the consortium were held virtually for two years. However, membership gradually increased during that time and the key purpose of information exchange was achieved in these meetings. One important feature of the consortium is that it provides a forum for representatives of the public and private sectors with both crop and livestock expertise.The first physical meeting of the consortium was hosted by ILRI on 5 September 2022 with 18 members in attendance and two main items on the agenda. First, to introduce a scoping study of the forage seed supply system to be carried out for ILRI by a local consultant, Alemu Ejeta, with support from an international consultant, Michael Turner. Second, to present an overview of QDS, which has been much discussed as an alternative quality assurance mechanism for forages, given the recognized constraints of full certification, as noted previously. Another meeting of the consortium was held in ILRI on 2 February 2023 at which preliminary results of the scoping study were presented and the status of the QDS dialogue was updated. This report deals mostly with the forage seed supply 4 system (or trade) following collection of new data through a series of interviews with key informants. Section 2 provides background information on the seed system in Ethiopia and Section 3 then deals specifically with forage seed supply. Section 4 presents a discussion of the many issues affecting the forage seed system based on information collected in the survey. The development of a QDS scheme will proceed based on an analysis of existing documents and a needs assessment for the various actors. The background and current status of this work is covered in Section 5 and the key output will be a draft scheme submitted to the regulatory authority for consideration. Finally, Section 6 presents key conclusions and recommendations.4. The study and this report only address forage crops that are grown from true seeds; two important grass species, Pennisetum glaucifoliun (Desho) and Pennisetum purpureum (Napier) are vegetatively propagated and their supply to farmers (as cuttings or splits) were handled in different ways. The same applies to the Brachiaria hybrid 'Mulato' bred by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).2 The seed system in EthiopiaEthiopia has a rich experience of studies and investment in the seed sector dating back to a World Bank project in the early 1980s, which established the parastatal Ethiopian Seed Corporation. Even before that, there was Swedish support to a large integrated rural development project in the Arsi region (ARDU) that had a strong seed component. Over the past 40 years there have been many institutional changes and strategic initiatives aimed at strengthening the seed sector but the focus remains on the key grain crops with little attention to forages. This contrasts remarkably with other official reports e.g., the 'national livestock plans', which have stressed the importance of livestock in the economy at every level, and the need to improve productivity. This may in part reflect the separation of crops and livestock within the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the research system. However, it is more challenging to make strategic interventions in livestock management, which is more socially complex than the crop sector. During the past four decades of seed sector development, there have also been political changes resulting from the federal structure of governance. These have affected the organization of the public seed enterprises and the provision of regulatory services, which are both now regional government responsibilities.In common with 'national seed projects' of the time, the World Bank project put in place the key components of a formal (organized) seed industry, similar to those found in countries with a more developed agricultural sector. These included planned production of seed with generation control starting from the breeder, and industrial-scale processing plants and comprehensive quality assurance through a certification scheme, with final marketing in sealed, labelled sacks. There was an expectation that this model would gradually expand to provide an increasing proportion of the total seed supply in the country 5 . Subsequent experience in many countries has shown that this expansion occurs in a highly selective way in those locations and crops where a financially viable business can be made. This depends on several factors including the availability of hybrid varieties, good transport networks and relatively favourable production environments.In Ethiopia there was a substantial change in 1991 when Pioneer entered into a joint venture with the Seed Corporation to multiply their hybrid maize varieties before the company separated from the corporation to become an independent subsidiary of Pioneer International. With continuing political changes, other private companies have over the years entered the market and the Ethiopian Seed Association now has 38 active members including four public seed enterprises. However, the formal seed system still accounts for only about 20% of the total seed requirement, with marked differences between crops and regions, as expected. Maize and 5. In practice the Seed Corporation mostly supplied the state farms that were prevalent at the time, rather than the smallholder sector.wheat comprise most of this seed supply with only a small amount being for teff and pulse crops. It is reported that the official system is stretched to provide full certification services and that the internal company inspections of crops are more rigorous, particularly for hybrid maize production that requires intensive supervision to ensure genetic purity.In locations where favourable conditions do not prevail, traditional arrangements such as farm-saved seed, community exchange and local markets continue as the main source of seed. These mechanisms became collectively known as the 'informal sector' because they are endogenous and unregulated but they may still meet farmers' requirements at minimum cost and with low risk, except in times of drought or conflict. For the majority of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia and many similar countries, the informal system is still the default source of seed and it is a mistake to assume it is intrinsically weak or inferior in quality.With the recognition of these parallel formal and informal channels, there came a more holistic view of seed supply on a crop-wise or national basis that is referred to as the 'seed system'. This opened an immense area of socio-economic analysis and practical research in topics such as local/community-based production, seed banks, farmer seed groups, small enterprise development and integrated approaches that link the formal and informal systems in a complementary way. Related topics such as variety evaluation and participatory breeding may also come into play if they can be accommodated within these more devolved approaches to seed production and delivery.The overall goal of all these initiatives is to improve the supply of good-quality seed in ways that are sustainable and do not depend on costly external resources. However, in all seed systems, quality assurance is a critical issue because farmers must have confidence in the purchases they make. An official label may provide that but only if the supervision of crops is done correctly. Likewise providing some level of quality assurance in a local system can be challenging. Farmers who save their own seed commonly use a high sowing rate as an insurance against uncertain germination. They may also give extra attention to a small part of the crop which they harvest and store separately for use as seed. These are all part of traditional coping mechanisms, often linked to social networks within the community or at local markets. In practice there is a continuum of seed system structures from entirely formal (e.g., for hybrid crops in developed markets) through semi-formal arrangements involving local traders, to completely informal seed-saving by farmers. In most crops and locations, there is a partition of the total seed requirement between these alternative channels that exist in parallel.The way in which seed systems work is strongly influenced by some biological and agronomic characteristics of the crop, for example whether it is self-or cross-pollinating, the types of varieties available and the seed size/ sowing rate. The value of the harvested crop in relation to seed sown is also an important factor; for example, hybrid vegetable seeds are expensive but the end products often have a high market value and farmers can make a direct calculation of the benefit they obtain from seed purchase. The analysis of seed systems is still mostly applied to cereal and legume crops in which there is a substantial annual demand, while more specialized crops such as forages are given less consideration. The 'Strategy for Seed Sector Development 2013-2018' 6 , mentioned forages only twice in its 142 pages, and then only in a general way. Likewise the document 'Transforming the Ethiopian Seed Sector -Issues and Strategies' published by MoA in 2019 made only one passing reference to forage crops in 44 pages. We may conclude that forages are still not mainstreamed in seed sector discussions, despite the importance of livestock in Ethiopia's economy.6. http://www.ata.gov.et/download/seed-system-development 3 The forage seed system in EthiopiaThe local consultant began work in mid-September 2022 and his program of visits and meetings is shown in Annex 1. The international consultant made two visits to Ethiopia in October 2022 and early February 2023, on both occasions participating in visits and meetings, with particular reference to quality assurance. In practice, most meetings provided information on both the seed supply system and quality assurance because these topics are closely interwoven.The survey was conducted in accordance with ILRI guidelines and with appropriate safeguards. It used a formal questionnaire (key informant interviews [KII]) with a standard interview guide followed by informal discussion. In addition to targeting known actors in the forage seed sector, a snowball approach was used to expand the survey. Thirty interviews were conducted across four regions (Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region [SNNPR] and Sidama) and comprising seed producers and sellers (private companies), buyers (MoA, regional BoAs, NGOs and development projects) and research centres. It was necessary to be discreet with the commercial information gathered and it was often difficult to capture company people for a private discussion. However, we believe that the survey has provided a good understanding of how the forage seed system works and it has raised many issues that are discussed later in this report. Against the background presented in Section 2 and information collected from the survey, this section describes the current status of the forage seed system in Ethiopia. Although many seed crops were observed, the survey did not attempt to investigate production techniques, only the downstream channels of seed movement.There is very little (if any) formal certification of forage seeds and there is a very clear separation of formal and informal sectors by the Ministry (explained in Section 5.3) so by definition, all forage seed production is 'informal'. However, this is a simplification because there is planned and managed production of many crops in substantial quantities by several private entities, moreover the system is organized, not casual or opportunistic. Field inspection is done by the companies and they also arrange seed sampling and testing, for example by research stations such as Holetta or the University of Hawassa. Based on the test results, labels are attached to sacks stating purity and germination. These are not 'official labels' but they do provide the essential information required by buyers. This may be regarded as a semi-formal system, even if it is not officially recognized as such. Some companies like Eden Field have simple laboratory facilities to test germination and purity and others are in the process of establishing such facilities. Key players in this trade include companies like Anatoli, Eden Field and Simeon Sitotaw that are members of the Seed Producers Association (see Annex 2), while others are not in the association, for example Bridge (Hawassa) and Esuyawkal (Bahir Dar). In addition to a local trading license, some companies have an importing license, which would be required for seeds of vegetables and alfalfa, and for some other specialized inputs. Registered seed companies are required to hold a Certificate of Competence issued by the relevant authority, federal or regional. The companies have field staff who monitor the crops, often in collaboration with local development agents (DAs), so this is effectively a contract growing system although the exact relationship between company and grower may vary. Parent seed is supplied by the company free of charge and they may obtain that from a research station or by maintaining a stock themselves in subsequent multiplications.Another element of the production system involves the use of 'collectors' who know farmers that grow specific crops for seed in different regions. They act as agents for companies, arranging to collect and consolidate seed and then supply to the company. This system was not investigated in detail and the level of supervision will surely vary. In principle, it enables farmers in favourable locations and with the necessary expertise to engage in seed production, which is a normal and positive feature of commercial contracts. However, it is a less controlled system and if seeds from different collections and locations are bulked, then traceability is lost and there is scope for malpractice. This system is also used for tree crops where growers may have natural stands or plantations from which they regularly harvest seed. Some forage seed producers are also in the tree seed business and it may be that the same approach has been carried over.The regional bureaus of agriculture also undertake some production by providing seed (through DAs) to farmers who grow a crop, harvest the seed, retain part for themselves and return part to the bureau, who repeat the process with other farmers in the following year. As a bonus, the farmers also retain the dried forage material after harvest for their own use. This can therefore be regarded as a rolling program of production combined with extension but there is no commercial transaction involved because the bureaus are not mandated to do that. In Amhara, this work is handled by a Livestock and Fishery Development Agency but the mode of operation is similar in other regions. The extent of quality assurance in this system will depend on the diligence of the DAs in the field and the technical resources of bureaus, which we believe are limited.This is the most problematic part of the seed chain because there is no conventional market-driven system involving wholesalers and retailers. There are several reasons for this; one is the long history of free seed distribution by the bureaus and projects, which has suppressed the emergence of a real market. Another is the highly administered (and deeply embedded) delivery system in which demand is collected by woreda DAs and seed is then allocated according to need. This may be appropriate for the main cereal crops to ensure equity in distribution but it is too unresponsive to enable small quantities of specific forage seeds to be delivered to widely scattered users 7 . So even if farmers were prepared to buy seed at a market price, there is little opportunity to find the preferred crop/variety on sale in a small package at a local sales outlet. ('Availability creates Demand' was a founding principle of the Kenya Seed Company when it began trading over 50 years ago!). Equally, suppliers of agro-inputs (agro-dealers) will be reluctant to stock a perishable product like seed with uncertain demand. This is a fundamental conundrum of the supply chain that must be addressed if a commercial market for forage seeds is to emerge.7. It is interesting to note that a 'Direct Seed Marketing' initiative was promoted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to address this bureaucratic impediment to seed delivery. In most countries, this would be the normal situation, not an innovation.There is a widespread belief that commercial dairy production will be the main driver for growing cultivated forages and thus for seed demand. There are many commercial dairy units in urban and peri-urban areas and they have a consistent requirement for high-quality feed to maintain milk productivity. The SNV Building Rural Income through inclusive Dairy Business Growth in Ethiopia (BRIDGE) project has been involved in this sector for some years and it has clear evidence of the milk gains that can be achieved from stall-fed crossbred cows fed with high-quality forage. The project has therefore promoted forage seed sales using a voucher system that reduces the purchase price by 50% to stimulate the development of a commercial market. The seed is obtained from known producers who package it into smaller units and then distribute to agro-dealers in target woredas where the project operates in Amhara, Oromia and Sidama regions. These dealers sell at half of the commercial price (including their own operating costs) and recoup the other half from SNV through the voucher. This is a serious effort to promote milk production and forage cultivation but at present it does still require significant support from the project to maintain the system, although the value of the voucher will be reduced progressively. Beef-fattening units are not major users of fresh forage because that is a highly seasonal business linked to public holidays and it relies more on concentrate feeds that deliver more protein.Finally, we may consider how the production companies actually sell their seed. Apart from the special case of SNV BRIDGE, most of the seed is offered in bulk in response to tenders issued by regional BoAs or development agencies/projects. NGOs may follow the same procedure or they may offer a direct purchase contract to a trusted producer. The bidder is required to provide a declaration of seed quality from an independent source, such a research station or a university, as noted in Section 4.3.The precise details of the tender process may vary between the different agencies but we understand that after accepting a bid from a company, the buyer normally sends a 'task force' to check that the offered quantity of seed is available and take a sample for testing to confirm the quality standard stated in the bid. This is exactly the procedure that would be expected but it still raises the question of where reliable test results can be obtained, considering the lack of dedicated facilities and technical skills for this task.It may be noted that regional BoAs are major buyers of seed while a separate department of the bureau has the regulatory responsibility for enforcing seed quality standards. Despite this, they still expect an independent statement of seed quality. This is hard to understand; either they have no in-house testing capability, or they do not have confidence in the results.We have not obtained estimates of the total volume of seed of the main crops or of the exact routes to users but clearly it is almost all sold in bulk through tender or purchase to a limited number of institutional players who pass it on to client farmers free of charge or at highly subsidized prices. We understand that projects of the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are engaged in this form of distribution, besides many NGOs. Apart from SNV, other NGOs mentioned in discussions include Plan International and World Vision but we may assume that most have been involved in forage seed supply at different times, depending on their project activities and available funds. Moreover, most of this seed finally reaches farmers through the BoAs and their DAs as part of their extension activities.To summarize the key elements of this system:• primary production is by companies using contract growers and by farmers who supply local collectors; some producers also use their own land,• production companies 'sell' most of their seed by bidding for public tenders,• buyers who invite tenders are mostly financed by external agencies, and• end users (farmers) receive seed free of charge from projects or bureaus through local DAs, or directly through NGOs.4 Discussion of issues affecting the forage seed systemIt is a fundamental principle of plant breeding that breeders are responsible for maintaining their varieties in the original state and making elite seed available for multiplication. In some situations, this responsibility may be transferred or delegated to another party, but this should still be under the breeder's oversight. In practice the details of these arrangements vary but there must still be a defined point of reference for the variety, and ideally a detailed description, so that it does not deviate genetically from the original.Certification schemes are based on a supply of genetically pure 'breeder seed' that is multiplied through named generations for as long as the variety is in demand from farmers. This is an essential element of the formal seed system. The final generation sold to farmers as certified seed is not used for further multiplication, although farmers may do this themselves and varieties may then circulate within the informal seed system. The supply of early-generation seed (EGS) has become a major issue of concern in many national seed programs/systems in recent years. This reflects the intrinsic weakness of variety maintenance and seed production in public sector breeding programs that have limited resources and do not depend on revenue from downstream sales. This is in marked contrast to private sector breeding where market share is the critical measure of success and the source of income from sales that in turn support the breeding program.The only sources of elite forage material are the research stations of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and regional bureaus. The 'Technical Multiplication Department' in EIAR headquarters is responsible for this work at headquarters but it is not known to what extent they engage with, or actively supervise, the regional research stations where most of the work is done. Discussions with seed producers during the study suggest that these key linkages are weak and certainly not systematic. Seed producers report that they received an original stock from research stations but generally do subsequent maintenance themselves so there is no official control of varietal purity in subsequent generations. This procedure is not necessarily faulty but it does mean that the system is uncontrolled and varieties may become contaminated. Much will depend on the level of management by producers, particularly through inspection of their seed crops. Procedures for maintaining the 'nucleus stock' of varieties at research stations and releasing elite material, were not investigated but this is a critical link in the seed chain and should be done in the best possible way.This is closely linked to the issue of maintenance and multiplication already discussed but it has additional implications for marketing. The key reference point is the 'crop variety register' published annually by the MoA (now by the Agricultural Authority) based on recommendations of the independent National Variety Release Committee. The most recent edition of the Register (#25) was published in June 2022 and is based on results from the cropping year 2020/21 8 . This is a substantial document of over 400 pages and in each edition, new varieties are added. Currently there are 82 varieties of 26 species in the section on forage and pasture crops, mostly coming from EIAR or regional research stations. When first added to the register, agronomic information about the variety is included while in subsequent years, only the year of introduction and the breeder/maintainer are noted. The summary list of species and varieties is attached as Annex 4. We understand that some of the varieties listed in the register are now obsolete and no longer available.The conventional requirements for registration are that the variety is Distinct, Uniform and Stable (DUS) and has Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU), i.e. superior in some way to other registered varieties. VCU assessment is inherently more complex for forages than for cereal/grain crops because of the different means of harvest and utilization of the harvested material. We do not know if these criteria are applied by the Variety Release Committee in Ethiopia or how accurate the system is in practice. It is possible that registration is largely based on information submitted by the breeder and evaluated by the committee, rather than by independent trials, which would be very costly. There is a network of 13 variety testing stations at which agronomic trials can be carried out, although these will handle the whole range of crops listed in the register.The definition of each variety through a DUS examination is of special importance when there are intensive breeding programs and many similar varieties, as in some cereal crops; this detailed description is also the basis for plant variety protection (breeders rights). While the forage seed sector is not at this stage of development, having a good morphological description with key identifying characters is necessary for the inspection of seed crops to ensure their identity and purity during subsequent multiplication. This would assist companies to do crop inspections and stimulate greater awareness of the varieties that are in circulation.Discussions with producers and users indicate that there is little awareness of varieties within the multiplication and marketing system; crops growing and seeds supplied are normally identified only by species. This confirms the results of a survey of user preferences carried out by the Forage Seed Consortium in 2020 and it has serious implications. Not only is variety identity soon lost once in the multiplication system but (more serious) the genetic improvements made by breeders are not delivered securely to benefit the end users. This calls into question the value of the variety testing and release system for forages. In cereal crops the varieties are more clearly identified during multiplication, especially if certification is done correctly. Cereal farmers may recognize the varieties in common use and may have their preferences based on experience or local information. This knowledge and understanding is absent for forage varieties so farmers may not exploit the full potential of the material they receive.Given the diverse agro-ecology of Ethiopia, it may be that varieties are mostly released into the localities for which they are best adapted but this may not be maintained during subsequent multiplications in the hands of producers. Likewise, it is possible that breeders only multiply and release their most recent variety, which should gradually replace any predecessors, although in a random way. These are all potential weaknesses in the forage seed system and they should be addressed.Because the multiplication system is informal, there are no official tests of quality and no official labelling of containers. The capacity of the official seed testing stations in forage seeds is doubtful because the certification procedures have not been implemented, although in principle a system exists for all forage crops. No visits 8. This edition is attributed to the new Ethiopian Agricultural Authority and specifically to the Plant Variety Release, Protection and Seed Quality Control Directorate; these functions previously belonged to a Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.were made to the seed testing facilities of regional bureaus; we were told there are 45 in total and they are responsible for both crop inspections and seed testing under the certification scheme 9 . However, both producers and buyers do need to know the purity and germination of their material so they arrange for these tests to be carried out in whatever way is convenient; Holetta and Debrezeyit Agricultural Research Institute-EIAR stations and Hawassa University were specifically mentioned as providers of this service. We understand that this testing service is free of charge despite the limited resources of the research stations. It is an informal arrangement between the parties.These testing facilities have been improvised to assist producers rather than by having a properly equipped seed testing laboratory. Moreover, some forage species (notably the perennial grasses) are more demanding in their test procedures than grain crops so staff would need training to do this work properly and in accordance with the 'rules' published by the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA). The ILRI germplasm unit has this expertise and facilities and has provided such training as part of courses on forage seed production. We understand that there is no functioning 'central seed testing laboratory' at present within the Federal Agricultural Authority that can provide a benchmark for quality assessment and, if this is the case, it is a weakness in the system.It would seem that there is virtually no official regulation of the forage seed sector at present, neither in production nor marketing. There are some peripheral elements in the overall framework but they do not affect the routine trade, for example;• The crop variety register lists the varieties that can be marketed, but this information is not reflected in the labelling of seed containers.• Companies operating in the trade are required to have a 'Certificate of Competence' issued by the bureau or MoA on the basis of an inspection visit but this may be more a general assessment of their facilities than of detailed management procedures.It is frequently asserted that the distribution of free seed to farmers has hampered the emergence of a true pricebased market. This is a logical conclusion but it is only correct if the seed distributions occur in locations and to farmers who are producing cut forage to meet a regular demand from dairy units, thus in competition with the 'BRIDGE project strategy' for developing the market. An alternative proposition is that seed is distributed to selected farmers in the target areas of projects as a justifiable and beneficial intervention but without any specific expectation of follow up or impact. Beneficiaries would obviously use the harvested crop, they might save or share some seed and neighbours might observe the benefits -thus it is a low-level extension activity but not necessarily undermining a sustained forage demand from dairy units. It would be interesting to know the justification and expected benefits of free seed distribution in the project documents of donors who provide funds for this activity.We do not know the extent to which existing dairy units buy cut forage from farmers in the vicinity or whether farmers who grow forages are able to sell their crop to dairy units, as in a 'hay market'? There is probably a limited local trade in cut green forage but this was not investigated. The availability of teff straw with a reasonable feed value may have some negative impact on the development of a fresh forage market in teff-growing areas.It would also be interesting to know whether there is support or encouragement from projects or DAs for beneficiary farmers to maintain/distribute seed after the initial allocation they receive. If so, one might expect these forage crops to be more widely known by now and with a significant level of availability and adoption through informal channels, as happens in cereal crops. It would seem that farm-saved seed and community exchange are still very limited in forage crops, with the possible exception of oats. In cereal crops these informal mechanisms provide most of the seed used by farmers.The technical challenges of forage seed production vary widely across the range of crops. Oats is the easiest to produce, being a conventional erect cereal that can be mechanically harvested and threshed, so any company handling wheat could also offer oats in its portfolio, but the profitability is low. Legumes such as lablab and vetch require more care because of their less manageable growth habit and sequential seed ripening while perennial grasses with small seeds need more experience to determine the optimum harvest time, but they can be mechanically harvested with the right equipment. These factors all affect the scope for recruiting new producers and increasing the total seed supply. Teff is the 'benchmark crop' for good farmers because it commands a high market price but it also needs more intensive land preparation. Teff straw also has a significant cash value and this may further complicate comparison with the profitability of cultivated forage crops.Discussions during our visits indicate that vetch seed production on contract could rival teff but only if the farmer receives good advice or has gained experience from successive seasons, as for all specialized seed crops. Conversely, farmers who receive free or subsidized seed will derive initial benefit from the crop but they may not have the confidence or motivation to continue with informal production or local sales in subsequent years. Moreover, they may need assurance that a market for forage exists before they decide to switch from a more conventional crop. To summarize, forage/seed production is not a game-changer for the average farmer, it is more likely to be an interesting addition for some innovative farmers.One positive aspect of perennial forage crops is that the harvested material can provide both useable hay as well as seed and this is a justification for integrating seed production with a livestock operation. These are opportunities that alert business people can exploit to their advantage, but each case is different 10 . If the demand were to increase, then mechanization of harvesting could have a substantial impact on the cost of seed. A large crop of Rhodes grass seen near Hawassa was being mechanically harvested and this would give the grower a significant cost saving/price advantage. Likewise, the very large stock of Panicum observed in a store in Hawassa must surely have been mechanically harvested. Since forage seed distribution/extension has been practiced by different agencies and projects for many years, and perhaps also by ILRI at times, there has been considerable exposure of these crops to farming communities. If the financial benefits of seed or fresh forage production were clear, one would expect a wider adoption by now.Discussions about increasing the use of cultivated forages routinely cite complaints about the availability and quality of seed. Weaknesses in quality assurance are clear because of the lack of adequate seed testing facilities and limited traceability of seed lots in the production system, especially that which comes from 10. In many countries, it is common practice for forage seed producers to graze or cut the crop for part of the season before harvesting the seed and this is factored into the overall budget for the crop.collectors. However, the question of quantity is less clear. There has been ample research on seed production methodology by ILRI and EIAR extending over many years and a conference on this topic was held in 2011, from which substantial proceedings were published 11 . Given that several large-scale producers have entered the market and are investing in facilities, we conclude that primary production is not a constraint and if demand is there, seed will be produced. In fact, demand is there from the tendering system but it creates an artificial market because the tenders depend on external funding that varies from year to year, making planning difficult for producers.Forage seed moves widely within the country because locations of production and utilization may be far apart and some areas may be especially suited to producing particular crops. This may also encourage farmers to develop and share expertise, leading to pockets of production in favourable locations. This is a normal feature of the seed trade and in vegetable crops it operates at a global level with some remarkable concentrations of production in a few locations. Ethiopia is characterized by its very diverse agro-ecologies and this presents opportunities where seed production of specific forage crops could become concentrated to the benefit of farmers in those areas, but there should be a means of supervision and inspection to maintain standards. There are no regulatory barriers to this movement at present, and the same should apply in any future system that is developed.One potential risk in this system is that 'collectors' in distant locations may acquire seed of a particular species and send it to companies who consolidate into bulk lots for the tendering process but without sufficient knowledge of its genetic origin or adaptation. This may then be distributed under the species name to locations for which the material is quite unsuitable, for example moving between lowland and highland areas. There are reports that this does happen so that tender bids can be fulfilled and it emphasizes again the importance of more accurate labelling of seed lots in the supply chain.We believe weak market linkages are a major problem because at present there is little direct connection between the producers and end users. Consequently, it is difficult for users to access the seed they need in a reliable way and producers are less confident because they do not experience a consistent market demand. The tendering system is a major complication because it creates a barrier between producers and users, although it does provide a convenient outlet for bulk seed. In the short-term, producers do not object to free seed distribution because they have a convenient outlet for their seed, but in the long-term they would benefit from better market linkages. Some have taken steps to achieve this and NGOs would be natural partners in this endeavour, rather than large agencies or government projects.The BRIDGE project is making a serious attempt to overcome these obstacles but it still provides coordination and finance support to maintain the system for its client agro-dealers and dairy units. The medium-term plan is to gradually reduce the voucher contribution so that buyers pay a larger share of the sale price but their efforts are still challenged if there is parallel free seed distribution by development agencies within the same area. We hope this does not happen in practice. The size of seed packages is a key factor for marketing because farmers must be able to purchase a quantity that corresponds with their sowing requirement. Moreover, the pricing of such packages might be problematic -what is the market price in the absence of a real market? The price used by BRIDGE as a basis for their voucher system would be one starting point but even that is based on a price offered by the producers for a bulk order, rather than from a competitive market.Another factor relevant to marketing is the relative weakness of the private sector in Ethiopia. This is an endemic problem reflecting a long history of government intervention and bureaucratic management that has discouraged entrepreneurism. Even in recent times the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), established as a policy think tank, has become an input supply organization with retail outlets. The National Seed Association has over 30 members, (including four public enterprises) but they focus mostly on a few profitable crops, especially hybrids and vegetables, and none engage with forage seeds to a significant extent.It would be interesting to try some test marketing of small packages through other outlets, for example the ATI 'one-stop shops', in areas where there is a concentration of dairy cattle. This would need to be coordinated with the BRIDGE project to avoid local conflict and perhaps with external support for 'de-risking' those involved. BRIDGE reported that some farmers who are not within their voucher scheme have made full price purchases from local agro-dealers who have stocks available. This would indicate that there is latent demand, at least in the more productive areas.The announcement of open tenders is a standard mechanism used by governments to procure goods. The purpose is to secure the best value and to promote competition between bidders but in practice this can be compromised if confidentiality is not maintained between the various parties to the process. Purchasing seeds by tender has particular risks because of the key aspect of quality, which can vary between every batch that is offered. It should be supported by a reliable system of quality testing. In the case of forage seeds in Ethiopia, tendering is convenient for producers but it has negative impacts on the way the market works, and these may be summarized as follows:• There is no direct connection between producers and users that would allow normal trading linkages to evolve; likewise producers cannot easily develop a reputation for quality or service because the identity of their products is lost in the administered distribution system through which seed reaches farmers.• There is no real market price based on actual production costs and demand; the prices offered by bidders are by definition, confidential, unless they collaborate unofficially prior to submitting bids,• Because the funding for most purchases comes through donors to regional bureaus or directly within NGOs, there is a risk of price inflation to artificial levels, making the seed appear expensive, if it were to be sold at that price.• Unpredictable funding by donors means that the annual requirement for seed in tenders varies; this makes planning difficult for producers and increases the risk of them holding carry-over stocks, with possible loss of quality in storage.• Buyers tend to accept the lowest tender price in order to purchase as much seed as possible with the funds available, thus making quality a lower priority; this effect may be compounded if the buyers are not technically aware of quality issues or if facilities for testing are limited.• From a trade perspective, the tendering system is intrinsically divisive because it makes the bidders into 'blind competitors', although in practice there is surely some conversation between them. This oligopoly market, with only a few traders involved, can lead to reduced competition and increases in price.Seed importation is a separate issue but it deserves mention because we got some information about it from the study. The only forage seed that is normally imported is alfalfa -mostly from Italy, but it could surely come from other countries. It is fully EU-certified seed that has been treated or coated so is very expensive and beyond the reach of ordinary farmers but apparently supplied to some NGOs, raising concerns about sustainability. The price was said to be 10 times that of 'local alfalfa', which is in fact Melilotus albus (officinalis?), an annual crop of much lower nutritional value. We understand that this species was promoted by some projects in the past and this caused confusion in the market because the seed is very similar to true alfalfa in appearance, although it does have value as a honey plant for bees.Eden Field is working with the Feed the Future Resilience in Pastoral Areas (RIPA) project in the SNNPR in collaboration with GOAL, an international NGO. The target of the project is mainly lowland areas where commercial seed availability is low but ample land is available and also irrigation water from rivers. Primary and secondary out-growers are producing forage seed through pre-financing arrangements and the provision of initial seed from Eden Field. Finally, the company buys seed from these growers and they use the forage material for their livestock.5 Options for quality assurance of forage seedsThis is the standard approach to seed quality assurance in the formal system; it is a comprehensive process which involves monitoring every stage of the crop from field selection through crop inspection to laboratory testing and the official labelling of seed containers prior to sale. Besides the technical operations, there must be a parallel system of record-keeping that provides traceability based on reference numbers that extend through (typically) 3-5 named generations. Thus, in principle, any certified seed that is sold in a labelled container can be traced back to a small batch of elite seed released by the breeder. Although widely adopted in countries with a highly developed agriculture sector, certification is demanding in terms of resources and it has limitations in countries with a more traditional agriculture. Even when certification is implemented in principle, there are often deficiencies in practice. Certification is compulsory for field crops in the EU but the work is usually devolved by government to an agency and payments are made at each stage of the process so the costs are recovered and ultimately passed on to farmers in the seed price. For information, a summary of certification procedures is shown in Annex 3.Certification standards have been prepared by the Ethiopian Standards Institute for a very wide range of crops; they are remarkably comprehensive, particularly with regard to seed health requirements, and they are probably based on a synthesis from other countries. In practice, these standards cannot be implemented by the seed testing laboratories and are therefore not enforced for the majority of crops grown in Ethiopia, and certainly not for minor crops like forages. This was the conclusion of the study carried out by ILRI in 2019 and it prompted the discussion about QDS as a simpler alternative.Recognizing the problems outlined above, FAO prepared QDS as a lighter-quality assurance system in which most of the technical work is transferred to the producer, but with monitoring by the official system to maintain standards. The quality standards for QDS may be the same as for certification but in practice countries can interpret this system according to their needs and resources. The key quality attributes that buyers need to know when they purchase are germination and physical purity, and even the latter is not so critical provided it is reasonably high. Moisture content may also be a concern but this varies according to relative humidity in the atmosphere so is not a stable quality attribute, unless sealed containers are used. If moisture content is high during storage, then germination will decline rapidly and producers would normally avoid that situation by drying seed thoroughly after harvest and maintaining good store management.The other important attribute of seed is the variety, both its identity and its purity. This cannot be easily assessed in a laboratory and physical 'grow-out tests' are required; these are a standard (but costly) feature of certification schemes. One of the pillars of the FAO QDS scheme is that the variety is known and registered in a 'national list'.In the case of Ethiopia, this is the crop variety register, already described in Section 4.2.Some years ago, there was an initiative by the MoA to promote farmer-based seed production for the major grain crops in woredas where the formal system was not working well. To provide a minimum level of quality assurance, a task force was set up to prepare a quality declared seed scheme and this was published as Directive No 1 in 2015.It envisaged a clear and separate role for QDS with production mostly linked to cooperatives and supplying only within the selected woredas, all overseen by a technical committee of the regional bureau. We understand that QDS has been adopted (for cereals) in Amhara and SNNPR but not in Oromia. A key concern of the ministry was that there should be no overlap or confusion between certified seed and QDS, hence its movement is normally restricted to individual woredas. It is essentially a local system, with production usually being done by designated cooperatives, although movement between woredas can be authorized if necessary.The practical details of QDS implementation, and the extent of its use, have not been investigated but key issues of interest would include:• the ability of producers to carry out their own quality assurance tests,• the information available to producers for carrying out crop inspections,• the level of monitoring by official staff (recommended to 10%,), and• who produces and allocates the labels that are attached to sacks? A distinct QDS label is specified in the directive.These tasks might all be challenging if the official system is under pressure to maintain its routine commitments to certification of cereals in the more accessible woredas.The question of how QDS might be adapted to meet the needs of forage seed producers in Ethiopia and thus improve supply, is central to this study. The current scheme as set out in the Directive No 1 is not fit for that purpose because it was conceived with a different objective. For reasons already explained in Section 4.8, it is essential that forage seeds moves freely within and between regions so that locations of optimal production and widely distributed users can be easily connected through a functioning marketing chain. Another major obstacle is that registered seed companies (i.e. the formal sector) are not allowed to engage in QDS, whereas FSPMA members and other major producers would certainly require this flexibility to develop their market.There has been much discussion about policy and regulatory arrangements for seeds, both within the ministry and among outsiders who wish to assist. We understand that a new seed policy has been sent to the minister and endorsed in principle, but is not formally approved by the Parliament. More important, there is a new Seed Proclamation (1288/2023). This has been under discussion for several years and was approved by the Parliament in May, thus becoming law. However, it cannot be implemented until the subsidiary regulations have been prepared, scrutinized by the Ministry of Justice and approved by the Council of Ministers. This is now in progress but it may take some time to complete. The new proclamation includes some fundamental changes, for example by allowing companies to self-certify their crops. This is a positive step in principle (being closer to the concept of QDS and it would also reduce pressure on the official system. We assume that the provision for QDS will continue as in the current directive or until a new directive is issued.Another major change in the regulatory arrangements was the establishment of the Ethiopian Agricultural Authority (EAA) in 2022 under Regulation 509/22. This has transferred responsibility for regulatory matters in all agricultural sectors out of the ministry, which now handles operational matters such as extension services provision. Consequently, any proposal for a QDS scheme for forage seeds would have to be discussed with and reviewed by the EAA in consultation with the ministry. Since this would have the status of a directive, we understand that it can be approved at the ministry level.6 Conclusions and recommendations 6.1 Overview of the forage seed supply systemThis study has provided many insights into how the forage seed system in Ethiopia is organized and in particular the key role of institutional buyers such as the regional bureaus, NGOs and other projects. These largely replace the conventional wholesale and retail players in a seed supply chain. This gap may be attributed in part to the long history of government involvement in cereal seed supply/allocation and it was the motivation for the 'Direct Seed Marketing' initiative supported by IFPRI. However, it is more challenging to market small units of a specialized product like forages directly to users.Weak market linkages remain a serious problem and primary producers cannot be expected to carry their goods through to the point of retail sale. We need to identify some more players who can fill this space and make the marketing chain work in a more efficient and connected way. We also need to know the real pricing structure along this chain that rewards each player according to the work they do. This is essential knowledge for staple commercial crops like cereals but it is more difficult to determine for forages where there is no grain price for comparison, except in oats.There is little direct sale by producers to farmers, except on a local basis from retail shops where sacks of the products are available, and probably some advice as well. However, there are examples of direct linkages between seed producers and forage users linked to NGO projects.Recommendation: Alternative models of seed supply that link seed producers directly to forage users at reduced cost should be documented and replicated if possible. It would also be helpful to know more about the production costs of forage seed and existing price reference points as a basis for a market-based pricing system so that farmers would know the real cost and value of these seeds.In the absence of a certification scheme, there is no formal channel through which breeders can release their varieties for further multiplication. There is a weakness at the point of transition from research to the seed system and breeders may have regarded extension/demonstration plots as the best alternative. However, there are now several companies taking seed from research stations and doing organized seed production. The introduction of a QDS scheme would fill this gap in the supply chain without imposing the demands of full certification.A further consequence of this disconnection is that the identity and purity of varieties within the production system is uncertain and difficult to monitor. As a result, genetic improvements made by breeders are not delivered to users in a secure way. The current QDS directive designed for cereals assumes that certified seed is the starting point for multiplication but this does not work for forage crops, where no certified seed is available at present.Recommendations: This is a weak link in the seed chain and a concerted effort should be made to formalize and strengthen the transfer of pure seed stocks from the breeders to companies and crucially with a variety name that should be retained during subsequent multiplication. This process could be prescribed in a protocol or a standard operating procedure agreed by all parties.To increase variety awareness, it would also be helpful to have a convenient source of information in the local languages about the main forage varieties that are in circulation. This could be based initially on the information published in the crop variety register at the time of first release and enhanced with subsequent experience from users. This would make the register accessible to a wider community. It would also be useful to carry out a definitive trial of all registered varieties in the main forage crops, some of which may now be obsolete and no longer available.We still do not know the quality of seed in the system or the reliability of the tests that are carried out, even though these are the basis for substantial transactions. In fact, the forage seed currently available is 'quality-declared' but without routine verification or monitoring by an independent agency.Recommendation: A small number of seed testing laboratories should have the essential equipment and trained staff to do routine testing of the main forage species. In addition, samples should be taken by an independent person rather than being submitted by the owner of the seed. Improving seed testing facilities would require capital investment and that would have to come from a donor. This should be a high priority for any major investment project in the agriculture sector.We do not know the criteria for free seed distribution or its intended objectives from the perspective of the DAs, bureaus and projects, beyond being considered as a convenient way to help farmers and to use available donor funds! Seed distribution done as an extension activity by regional bureaus is probably one of the main conduits through which seed moves from research to farmers; it could lead to informal diffusion but not to systematic multiplication. However, it is less certain if the distribution of free seed is the main cause of weak demand. More likely that for most farmers, the direct monetary benefits of seed purchase are not clear, despite the environmental justifications. For traditional farmers who keep one or two cattle for diverse reasons, the benefits (for the household or the environment) cannot be monetized sufficiently to justify seed purchase. The same applies to tree planting, which is easily justifiable on environmental grounds and as a community benefit but would rarely be done at scale by individual farmers.Recommendation: It would be useful to engage with these projects and to learn more about their motivation, although there may be sensitivities about external scrutiny of their activities. There could be greater effort to ensure that seed distributed in the name of promotion/extension is multiplied and diffused more widely by the informal sector. This should improve livestock nutrition but would not strengthen the formal seed sector.Establishing a real demand-driven market for forage seed is still a challenge and would seem to depend largely on the development of dairy units where improved feeding can be directly related to increases in milk production.The SNV BRIDGE project is actively involved in this sector and is committed to developing a more commercial seed market. It is possible that availability is a constraint and that there is a latent demand from farmers who are willing to purchase seed but cannot easily do so. However, smallholder farmers will always make the food vs feed comparison and are unlikely to use their scarce resources to purchase forage seeds.Recommendation: A test marketing of small seed packages should be organized in selected areas that have a significant number of dairy units but are not within the scope of the SNV BRIDGE project. These packages should carry essential agronomic information to guide users.The use of tenders for official procurement is normal practice but it has serious disadvantages for seeds because of the critical importance of quality standards. Bidding for tenders provides a convenient channel for producers to sell their seed and for donors to allocate funds but it has prevented the establishment of a stable transparent market, based on real costs and demand. We believe that this mechanism of transaction is an equal impediment to the development of a real transparent market on the production side, just as the actual distribution of free seed to farmers is on the demand side.Recommendation: Serious consideration should be given to alternative mechanisms of procurement that would give producers a fair price and reduce the cost of seed to farmers through more direct market linkages.In discussions with the ministry staff, there was a recognition that the current QDS scheme does not work well for forage seed and they are open to proposals from the Ethiopia Forage Seed Consortium on how to address this need. Given the incompatibilities noted in Section 5.3, it will be difficult to adjust the present directive and we believe it is necessary to prepare a customized scheme for forage crops. This should have the same format as the present QDS guide including a justification as well as the technical procedures and standards for implementation. Some of the recommendations proposed in this section can be accommodated within a QDS scheme. The Ethiopian Standards Institute can support this process by preparing QDS standards for all forage crops and with achievable standards for the key quality attributes, namely physical purity and germination.It is essential that any proposed scheme facilitates seed movement throughout the country. This would become even more critical if the current trend for regional autonomy continues. For the same reason, it is essential that seed standards, as set out in the regulations, remain a federal issue and without any divergence. We understand that the EAA already has an arrangement in place to ensure the smooth movement of seed between regions, since this is essential for hybrid maize, for example.Recommendation: A draft QDS scheme for forage seeds will be prepared as an activity of the Forage Seed Consortium and all interested parties will be consulted to ensure that it meets their requirements and can be implemented. The Producers Association should play a key role in this and should be encouraged to use the scheme.The challenge of increasing the use of cultivated forage seed has been recognized for many years but has proved very difficult to overcome despite its importance. Several of the issues raised by this study have policy implications and we believe they should be discussed in a high-level meeting between stakeholders and policymakers from both the crop and livestock sectors. This was a key recommendation of the consortium meeting in February 2023 but it was also noted that there must be good preparation for such a meeting to facilitate a constructive discussion and favourable outcome. The opinions of some local seed experts were also obtained from informal discussions. Two meetings of the Forage Seed Consortium (September 2022 and February 2023) provided many further insights from stakeholders; summary reports were prepared for both meetings.Annex 3: Key elements of a seed certification scheme (and suggested importance or relevance to forage seed crops in Ethiopia) This must be checked/confirmed by the grower but it is less demanding than for cereals because of the small number of varieties in production Seed crop is inspected in the field and a report prepared; number of inspections may be specified, according to the crop This must be done by the company or its representative to confirm the identity and uniformity (purity) of the variety; a lower standard of purity may be accepted in forage cropsSample is taken from the seed lot after cleaning using approved sampling procedures Essential -correct sampling procedure must be followed to obtain a valid test result Sample is analyzed in a laboratory and report is prepared Essential -but only purity and germination are required for foragesIf test results meet minimum standards for the crop, seed lot is 'certified' and given a reference number Essential -to give the seed lot identity and reference number is shown on labels to maintain traceability All seed containers are sealed and carry an official label with required quality information and the reference number (label issue and printing should be regulated)Essential -but label must not have too much information so it can be easily printed Grow-out plot may be grown to confirm varietal purity of the seed lot This is costly and less important than for cereals crops because of the small number of varieties in use NB: All key stages must be recorded in an administrative system to provide traceability through the reference numbers given to seed crops and lots.A Quality Declared Scheme has the same elements but with simpler quality standards and with many of the practical tasks devolved to producers. QDS producers must maintain good records of crops and seed lots for inspection and monitoring purposes.Annex 4: Extract from the crop variety register, Issue No 25 (June 2022)","tokenCount":"11466"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"39ce4f9e262a787456489e8a5ef530b5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c6694ffc-c10a-45d7-9e9e-7f4c8d9ceca9/retrieve","id":"-765599693"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8891b782-7123-489d-a495-fea75d2cb8cf","pagecount":"10","content":"o Carlos Lascano y Luis E. Tergas* Dos importantes decisiones que deben tomarse en una explotación ganade 6 ra con base en pasturas, es la de sistema de pastoreo y carga animal a 7 emplear. Básicamente las alternativas de sistemas de pastoreo giran alrede-S dor de un sistema continuo o alguna forma de rotación de potreros. 9Grandes discusiones se han formado en torno a los sister.1as de pastoreo como consecuencia de resultados experimentales divergentes. Es as! como 11 algunos informes señalan que el sistema de pastoreo rotacional es mejor que el continuo y otros muestran lo contrario. No es el objetivo de este trabajo dilucidar esta controversia, sino más bien hacer un análisis de algunos factores que se consideran importantes en la utilización de mezclas' gramíneas y leguminosas en el trópico, particularmente en áreas de suelos 161 ácidos e infértiles, en donde el valor de la tierra es relativamente bajo y el énfasis es el de aumentar producción por animal. Con tal fin se citan 18 y discuten algunos trabajos de la literatura en donde específicamente se h 1 . medido producción por animal y persistencia de las mezclas en términos de sistemas de pastoreo y carga animaLconsideran tres tipos de pasturas: (1) nativa ('2¡) gramíneas puras intro-2 ,ducidas y (3) gramíneas en asociación con leguminosas. Tanto en pasturas S nativas como de gramíneas puras, los sistemas de pastoreo en rotación 4 estudiados no ofrecieron ventajas sobre sistemas continuos en términos de 5 producción por animal. A igual conclusión llegaron Paladines y Leal (197B) 6 quienes reportaron que en Carimagua, Llanos de Colombia, un sistema de rotación de 4 potreros en sabana nativa produjo menores ganancias de peso 7 8 por animal que pastoreo continuo. 9La falta de respuesta en produéción por animal con sistemas de pasto-10 reo rotacional aplicados a pasturas con base de gramíneas parece deberse 11 a la eliminación en gran parte de la posibilidad de selección del animal, 12 que se ve forzado a consumir una dieta de menos calidad nutritiva '13 (Humphreys, 1967). Esto es particularmente ~ierto en el caso de gramíneas tropicales en las cuales la éalidad nutritiva cámbia considerablemente con edad y entre partes de la planta (í.e. hoja y tallo). (Lareqo y .ünson,   1973; Lascano, 1979; CIAT, 19BO).Por otro lado, la evidencia experimental en cuanto a efecto de siste-18 ma de pastoreo en asociaciones gramíneas-leguminosas es limitada e incons-  4 135 kg/an/afio) más producción por animal en el sistema alterno. Contraria-5 mente, Stobbs (1969b) encontró que un 5.7% de mayor aumento en el ciclo de 6 pastoreo de 35 días en relación a 17.5 días no fue signiricativo. En el 7 segundo trabajo de Stobbs (1969c) el pastoreo continuo y rotación en 3 po-8 treros produjo ganancias de peso similares (99 y 95 kg/an/año) pero mayores 9 que las ganancias obtenidas en la rotación de 6 potreros (84 kg/an/año). En 10 base a los resultados de los tres trabajos es difícil poder sacar una con-11 clusión general sobre el erecto de sistema de pastoreo en producción por 12 animal en asociaciones gramíneas-leguminosas. Además, es impqrtante tener 13 en cuenta que el sistema de pastoreo a emplear en una asociación gramínea-14 Leguminosa no debe estar únicamente basado en resultados de producción por 15 animal a corto plazo, sino que además debe considerarse el erecto del sis-, tema en la persistencia de las especies asociadas, lo cual está ligado con productividad de la pastura a largo plazo. Este concepto desde luego tarobién se aplicaría en el caso de pasturas a base de gramíneas en áreas donde existen problemas de malezas ( i.e. suelos fértiles y alta precipitación ).En el trabajo de Stobbs (1969c) se estudió el efecto de sistema de pastoreo 21 en la composición botánica de la pastura. Se encontré que después de 3 años de pastoreo había menos proporción (P<.05) de Panicum maximum en el trata-23 miento de pastoreo continuo que en cualquiera de los dos sistemas de rotacíán estudiados. Además se\"observó que el pastoreo continuo estuvo asociado con mayor invasión de malezas. El autor discute estos resultados en términ 26 de que en el pastoreo continuo hubo mayor posibilidad de selección que en :.:... '-.';: . , .~. 1. Irrigación y conservación de forrajes. La rotación facilitaría estas prácticas.2. Salud anim&l o animales con requerimientos especiales. Una rotació púede ayudar sn el control de parásitos internos o externos y simplificar el uso estratégico de pasturas en base a condición fisiológica de animales (i.e. vacas lactantes, secas, etc).3. Persistencia de especies más seleccionadas por el animal.El tercer punto expuesto por Humphreys (1976) es indudablemente de gran relevancia en el manejo de pasturas a base de gramíneas en áreas con problemas de maleza y en el manejo de asociaciones gramínea-leguminosa, en las que se sabe existen grandes variaciones durante el ano en la selección del animal de los componentes de la mezcla, tanto en zonas subtropica les como tropicales. Stobbs (1977) encontró que en una pastura de Setaria anceps cv. Nandi + Macroptilium at~opurpureum cv. Siratro, la selección hacia la leguminosa cambió con época del ano y con el consiguiente efecto aumentó la proporción de leguminosa de 6-9% a 37~~9%. Otros resultados ¡ 2 (Jones, 1979) muestran que una mezcla de Setaria anceps con Macroptilium 3 atropurpureum, bajo diferentes cargas y frecuencias de pastoreo, la legumi nosa disminuyó a medida que se aumentó la carga de 0,8 a 2.8 an/ha, par-5 ticularmente en la frecuencia de 3 Semanas, Sin embargo, la disminución de 6 leguminosas debido a carga fue menor en el pastoreo con frecuencia de 9 se 7 manas.Basados en la evidencia experimental revisada es difícil decidir so- nes bajo pastoreo podrta estar afectada por:1. Agresividad inherente de las especies, muy ligada al hábito de crecimiento.2. Pastoreo selectivo de las especies en función de palatabilidad relativa y época del afio.3. Manejo del pastoreo en términos tanto de sistema como ca~ga animal.El Programa de Pastos Tropicales del CIAT, a través de la Sección Productividad y ~anejo de Praderas ha diseñado una serie de ensayos de pastoreo en la estación de Carimagua, Llanos de Colombia con el objetivo de estudiar el efecto de sistema de pestoreo y carga animal en la producti vidad de asociaciones gramíneas-leguminosas contrastantes. Es así como en 1982 se iniciará el pastoreo experimental en mezclas de:1. Brachiaria decumbens -1' Desmodium ovalifolium CIAT 350 bajo pastoreo continuo y alterno cada uno con tres cargas (1.2, 1.8 Y 2.~ an/ha).2. Andropogon gayanus cv. Carimagua 1 en asociación con Desmodium ovalifolium CIAT 350 y con Pueraria phaseoloi~ en pastoreo alterno y con I 'i .i . Es bastante evidente que no existen marcados beneficios en producción 7 por animal con el uso de sistemas rotácionales de pastoreo en pasturas 8 nativas o de gramíneas puras introducidas. Es menos claro, sin embargo,.   '.-10- ","tokenCount":"1129"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"afab41deec2f120b042ebc6404aeb7f9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/75a36edb-2abd-4591-8164-3c1781611c14/retrieve","id":"549988402"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"575efe3c-7784-4e35-937b-ca2b67294291","pagecount":"66","content":"Thr。υgh the cooperation of the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuari 。 (ICA). loundations were laid lor work on beel proouction systems . Gr.z ing trials were started on the north coa5t , at the Carimagua Research Center in the eastern plains (105 Ll anos) and at CIAT headquarters. ' 6 and IR22 are cJ ear when millecl and cook dry and Iluffy , demonstrating grain quality desired by Latin American consumers Despite lhe nutritional edvantages 01 high -Iy別 ne maize, problems of prcducer and consumer acceptance have been encountered. As most 01 these problcms relate to the Ilc-ury, soft cndosperm 01 the opaque-2 maize, ellorts to develop a Ilint-type maize which retains the high-Iysine characterist:c were accelerated , and preliminary results are enc。 υragmgThe cassava germ plasm collection , begun in 1969, was expanded t。 inc1 ude a total 01 2, 193 cult 川a 門， these coming from Colombia , Ecuad。人 Pυerto Rico, Panama and Peru. This col!ec'ticn , now being cfassified, will ba the basic material for the cassava production systems program , which is directed tcward an increase in the production and utilizaL(ion of improved quality cassava in the lowland tropìcsThe swine production program developed a I 刊e-cyc1e leeding system which replaces 'traditicnal commercial protein supplements wilh high-Iysine opaque.2 maize. Oepending on prevalent local mark_ et prices of these commercial pro(ein supplements, the possibility of substan'~ial savings, especia ll y for small farmers , appears feasible Individu 訓， program , and commodity work at CIAT is directed toward the development of integrated production 5γstems. Specific inputs pres. ently being developecl will eventually lorm a part 01 total larm production systems appropriate 10 the varying conditions of the lowland tropics Through sυch an orien'tation, CIAT hopes to help incorporate areas of low production within the lowland trop自 cs 川 to the mainstream of the national econom 悶 5 of l.atin America 、 'JThe year 1970 was one of basic organizational activity and imple_ mentation of research and trainir、9 projects. Seven senior staff members joined CIAT dυring the year, increasing the total number of continuing .nd term .ppointments to twenty-six. In April , CIAT he.dqu.rters w.s moved from Cali to \"EI Porvenir\" farm , where s'taff offices and housing facilities for some trainees have been temporarily located in the renovated larm buildings , pending completion 01 the perm.nent inst.11 剖 ions. Work began in June on the Lonstrυction of the fjrst permane叫t building, St.tion Operations Two organizatiuns joir、 ed thc Rockeleller, Ford and W. K. Kellogg Foundations in the oper.tion.1 lunding 01 CIAT programs during 1970 The Agency lor Internation.1 Development (USAID) contributed $ 275,000 to help finance research and training activi'ties in plant proteins and cass.va. The Interameric.n Development 8ank (81D) now helps to support CIAT training with a $ 300,000 contr.ct which provides lor 50 man-years 。 f crop and livestock production speciallst training ln Oecember, eleven graduates in animal sciences and veterinary med icine completed the 訂 rst ccurse of the livestock production specialist training project , which attempted to solidify and complement university training with direct on-the-job experience in the so)ution OT specific livestock production problems. This group 01 young men , alter completing an intensive three-month training period at CIAT headquarters, spent eight months on cattle ranches on the north coast of Colombia Results 01 breeding effor'ts with rice led to the joint decision 01 CIAT and ICA 10 n.me IR930-31 -1-18 as the variety CICA 4 lor release in early 197 1. This dwarf variety has yielded 70 per cent more th.n Bluebonnet 50, a variety popular with farmers and consumers , in trials in Colombi. . Along with CICA 4, CIAT and ICA will release seed 01 IR22. developed and named bγthe Internation.1 Rice Research Institlite (IRRI) in late 1969. While this variety was being multiplied and .dopted by tarmers in Southeast Asia , CIAT and ICA found , in accelerated tests in typic.1 lowland rice lields in Latin America , 'that I R22 yielded about 60 per cen'l more than Bluebonnet 50. The long, slender grains 01 CICA 4Several factors have influenced the development 01 a large beel industry in the tropics. There are extensive pasture lands and generally abundant leed reSQurces . Internal and external demands for beef are 5tron9. Beef cattle have Ht well in the evolυtionary develcpment of new lands and the exploitation of marginal Jands not suited for crop prodυction CIAT's Beel Production Systems pro gram is directed toward development 。f an adequate technological base and the training of action-minded produc tion personnel to support an efficient beel cattle indυstry in the tropicsWork in pastυres and forages con centrates on 'two ecological environments representative of the humid , semi humid lowland tropics of Latin America alluvial 50il grassland regions and latosclic grassland areas Alluvial 5 。自 1.Pasture vegetation in more alluvial soll areas includes introduced grass species (generally Irom Alrica) sυch as Guinea grass (Panicum maximum), Pυn1tero (Hyparrhenia rufa) , Para grass (8rachiaria m 叫 ica) and Molassses grass íM叫 inis minutiflora). Beef production in these pastures is commonly 70 to 80 kg(ha , while the potential productivity is more than 300 kgj ha . Prodυct 川 ty of the5e pastures decreases rap idly wi'th depletion 01 soil nitrogen . 圳的 the decrease in nîtrogen fertilîty , overgrazmg r-e sυIts as the grass specles lose their vigor, and the effective grazing area 1s continually decreased through weed invasion Farmers control weeds principally by hand , although in some instances they use organic weed killers which also kill the na'tive nitrogen-fixing leguminous specres Activitles in this ar~a ， therefore, focus on improvement of so1l fertility though application of -àppropriate man agement in terms of stocking rate, grazing systems, and increasing soil ni trogen levels. Establishment of mixed grass-Iegume pastures and 川 troduction cl legυmes int。凹 1St 川9 grass pastures receive attention as nitrogen fertilizer app/ication on pastures used for cowcalf systems does not appear economi cal at present Coa s'tal alluvial plains such as the northern coast of C%mbia often con tain two distinct zones: (1) fertib val Icys (such as tho Sinu Valley) with a high watertable, and a dominance 01 Para grass and (2) rolling hill regions with poor quality soil5, ano a do minance 。 f Puntero grass, 5uch as in the De partme巾。 f Bolivar, where cow-::alf 。 perations predominate In cocperation with ICA, CIAT wi Jl establish a grazing tr1al at the Turipana Research Center in the S 川 u Valley to determine lhe effects of management 。 n the prcdυ c'tivitγ 。f Para grass pas-tures lor beel fattening. Three grazing systems will be used -con'tÎnu。υ5 ， alternate (two-paddock rotation) , and rotati。他 1 (six-paddock rotation) . Each 01 the systems is 'to be tested under three stockìng rates Prelim 川 ary arrangements have been made to set Up trials on the ir、 trodυp tion and establ 時 hment 01 tr。戶 cal legumes in Bolivar in 1971. Grazing trials using grass-Iegume mixtures willl als。 be es'tablished in connection w 川、 CIAT' s Li vestock Prodυction Specialist Tr剖 n ing Program Fertile, high-valuo land noor population centers Near large pcpυlation centars , livε stock production is often a secondJry 。 ccupation. 8ut local demand for animal products is high , so poorer lands tend to be used lor livestock production. The Cauca Valley in Colombia , the Guayas rive'f basin in Ecuador, and 50me 01 the land surrounding Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela are examples of this type 01 enterprise 8eef production becomes more intensive through competition with other tγpes 01 larming. 1 npυts jncreδ5e to improve total animal outpu't per unit area, and nitrogen fertilization and irri gation take priority. This type 01 en terprise is directed toward growinglinishing ra'ther than bre.eding opera tions A study 01 beel production costs υnder an intensive management of Pangola (Digi 恤 ria decumbens) pastures with nitrogen fertilization and irriga tion is underway at CIAT's farm. Nitro gen levels used are 200, 4日口 ， 600 and 800 kgj ha/ year_ Three stocking ra'tes are superimposed on the nitrogen treat ments in a 4 x 3 factorial des 呵n. AII treatments are irrigated according to needs Para grass (Brachiaria mutÎca) dominates ín the humid vallevs of Colombia and is widely used for finishing beef cattle. A similar trial to determine becf 8 prodυction ccsts using Para grass under intensive management with nitrogen fertilizatíon is also planned. Three levels 01 nitrogen -200, 40日， and 600 kg 'haj year -will be used. A single stocking rate will be adjusled to the product 的n 01 lorage in we't and dry seasons A trial ínìtiated in Oecember, 1969, was designed to measυre t he effect of castra'tìon, stilbestrol implantation (DES) , and inj 配叫。 n of vitamin A on lhe growth 01 grade bulls and steers A gr。υp of 284 animals was separat~d into bull and 舟er groups. Treatment in eilch group included the 101l0winQ control , 30 mg DES implantation , 400 IU vitamin A injecticn , and 30 mg DES implantation plus 400 IU vitamin A injection Partial results of this experiment are shcwn in Table 1. In general , weight gains showed an inverse relationship to ~he amount of rainfall , i.e, when rain inc:reased, iive weight gain decreased. This is possibly associated with a markocl decrease in forage intake during the rainγseascn ， which in turn may be caused by the increase in moisture content of the pasture (Iow concentration 01 digestible energy and digestible pr。 tein ), as well as by the s'tress of the wet weather on the animals Over the entire perioc DES implantation markedly increased weight gains in steers but not in bulls. However, r~ sponse to DES in steers was obs. uved only during the mon'ths 01 high weight gain. DES seemed to have a negative effect in both steers and bulls dυrlng the low weight gain months. N 。悶， sponse was obtained from vitamin A injection. The experiment will continue during 1971Beel production levels are low on exis'ting native grass pastures due t。 inherent low nutritive valυe 01 these grasses and lurther accentuated by extensive systems of exploitation resulting in undergrazing , which , ln turn , !eads to grazing overly-mature pastures of low nul 鬥 tive value. Consequently, study of improved management systems for native pastures seems advisable Since grazìng ìntensjf;ca~jon Is usual-Iy associated with a change in th. z: b。 tanical composition of native pastures , low nutritive value species presently dominan't in the savannah (as a sub. climax of fire, poor soil fertility , and υndergrazing) cculd be replaced by species of higher feeding value under more intensive grazíng systems One experíment ;n Carimagua uses two grazing systems and three intens:ties of grazing to determine the effect 。f pasture rota'tion and stockìng rates 。 n the productivity of the native pastυre. Changes w hich take place in botanical composition as a result of pasture ro tation and stocking rate are observed. Continu。υ5 grazing and fourpaddock rotational grazing treatments each have stocking rates of 0.2, 0.35 , and 0 .50 animals per hectare Preliminary observations at the Carlmagυa Research Center and on private ranches in the Ll anos indicate that improv.ed grasses suc h as molasses grass (Melinis minuliflora) and puntero (Hyparrhenia rufa) can be satisfactorily established. Although establishment costs are high , particularly where fertilizer is applied , this initial investment in improved pasture can probably be quickly recovered if these pastures are used for weaners, during breeding sea son and for fattening st自 rs ， and all periods during which adequate nutrient intake is highly critica l.At Carimagua a study is underway t。 determine the productivity and the economíc feasibility of growing and fjnish ing cattle on molasses grass pastures , with and without phosphate and potash fertilization and using varying grazing intensities. Fertilizer treatments used w hen establishing 'the pasture plots were: no ferti lizer; 500 kg, ha of bas 比 slag (75 kg of P, O,); and 500 kg!ha of basic slag plus 100 kg of mυriate of potash (50 kg of K). Three grazing intensities are used. The fertilizer effect has been apparent in that fertilized plots were ready for grazing 100 days after seeding, while the unfertilized plots were not ready after 300 days 抖。duction Systems Beef cattle production leveis are notorioυsly low in the Colombian Ll anos using traditional management practices Preliminary evidence indicates (h at productivity and profitabilitγcould be sυbstantiaJly increased using sound pasture management , feeding, breeding and herd health practic間， combined with some improved pasturas A series of beef catt le production herds using grade Zebus native to the area are being set up 'to test this hypothesi s. Comparisons include 1 ) traditionn l ve rsus improved cattle and pasture man agement systems, 2) na'tive grass versus native plus some improved grass Particular attention will be given t。 providing adequate nutrient intake dur ing the dry season. Primary consid. eration is identifying graSS ' 2S and gras:: legume mixtures that providc an ade quate diet through the dry season However, where available forage does not provicle aclequate nutrien't intake, attention will be given to prote 巾 ， and perhaps energy supplementation Many soils 01 the lowland tropics are 01 low lertility, resulting in pa s tυre for agc deficier、 in certaln mlnera 峙，的， pecially phosphorus. Delinitive studies are needed to characterize mineraJ comØ positicn of these grasses, and consequently yearøround supplemen tal m 川 eral nee:Js In Palmi 悶 ， attention will be given t 。 by-products and crop residue utiliza tion, and the USe o f cυJ'tivated forages for dry season feeding 10 ANIMAL HEALTH Tox. ic plant studies A syndrome referred to as \" vacas ca idas\" (Iallen cattle) by ranchers 01 the Icwland tropics has long been roc-O!:il nized . This disease at~acks all ages 01 cattle, bυt is more prevalent in young calves. Lack of muscular coordination .s usυa l1 y accompanied by a wheezing laryngeal sound , and when anlmals are moved any dis'tance they collapse from exhaustion . In an initial survey of the cattle-raîsíng areas of Colombia this sy ndrome was cbserved throυghout the ncrth coast area , thc Magdalcna vallev , and the Valledupar region. Insecticide into x ic剖 j o n ， parasitism, vitamin E-seJe nium deficier、 cy ， and various plants were mentioned as possible etiologic lactors . Common in all these areas was the pr.esence of two weeds, cansaviejo (Mascagnia concinna) and anamu (Petiveria alliacea)_ Detailed investlgatlons are being car. ried out in the new ICA-CIAT veteri. nary research laboratories in Turipana A condition similar to that observed in the lield has been produced by leeding cattle Iresh anamu at a rate 01 2 gm / kg live weigh t. In addition !to producing Disking native range jn preparation for seeding into Melinis minutiflora. a muscular dystrophy, the plant als。 appears to be toxic for the kidne' γs Studies in progress include pathogenesis of the disease syndrome, soil and plant analysis, and description 01 the disease in the field Anamu is aromatic and palatable, and grows in Ithe shade of fence rows. Animal s in the experiment appeared to ha ve a stro ng predilection for or ad-dic t ion to the plan t. This suggests that animals grazing on weedy pastures consume anamu thrcughout the year Another imp。內 ant disease 5γndrome in Colombia is \"piel caida\" (Iallen skin) . or photosensìtization. A great variety of plants produces this disease Studies are underway at Turipana t。 assay var的 us local plants lor their ability to produce this syndrome Melinis minutiflora seedlìngs three months after seeding.Crippled calf grazed on anamu-irúested pasture!: showing clinical 剖 gns of muscular djstrophy 80圳 ne enz:ootic hematuria Bovine enzootic hematuria is a tumor ccndition of the υrinary bladder whic h results in seri 。 υ s economlc losses to the ca ttle industry . In many developing zones it is the major limit. ing factor for efficíent meat and milk producticn A cooperative project has been initiated at \" La Esmeralda\" farm near CIAT headquarters where pastures have been indentified as having high , low, and intermediate incidence of hematυ ria. Plant classification sltudies and soil analyses are in progress . Bracken fern (Pteridium aq 叫 linum) is commonly found in pastures of high-disease inc 卜 clence . This plant is also associated with hematυria in other parts 01 the world Calves have been placed in each 01 the three pastures to ve rify the incìdence of hematuria. Complete urinalysis, hemograms and serum calcium j phcsphorus analyses are being per. formed 01 appr。別 mately 900 randomly selected urinary bladders Irom cattle in the Manizales area , 28 percent had gross lesions and 50 percent had microscopic lesions. Twenty-si x percent of the males and 32 percent 01 the lemales had lesions , 'thus eliminatìng sex of the animal aS . a va riable. Electron microscopy of this material is in progress Anamu (Petiv盯 la alliacia) is associa ted with a muscular distrophy of calves. This plant grows primarily in the shady areas 。( (ence rowsBovine anaplasmos時， babesiosis and t rypan osomi as is cause large production losses and mortality 01 cattle in the lowland tro pical areas of Latin America Since irradiated vaccines have been successful with o ther protozoa and me tozoa , an attempt is being made to adapt 竹、ese methods to bo圳 ne babesiosis caused , in this 臼峙， by 8abesi. bigemi na . Purilied blcod isolates c。仆 taining 1 x 10'0 organisms we re sub jected to 24,000 to 60,000 rad 01 ga mma irradiation and were inocul ated 。 nce into fou r groups of ça lves, eaçh with positive and negative irradiatecl çont rol5 , as well as he 帥 -inaçtivated organ 悶 ms and two lower dilution groups Twenty-eight days lollow ing the inocυ la tion 01 the irradiated bl∞d ， all calves we re challenged with 8 . bigem ina organisms . Sυff峙 ient time has not elapsed to check the exact degree 01 immunity, bυin general immunity increased as radiat ion dosage deçreased . 11 appears, therefore, that there are poss;bilities for future use of a radiation-attenuated vacclne Premunitio n against b。圳 ne babesio-別 s has been studied using Gan aseg and the new 8urroughs-Welcome compound 4A65 . Ganaseg was administered t。 calves at levels from 0.5 to 2.5 mg/ kg e句 ht days alter in配 ulation 01 virulent 8abesia bigemina and 8abesia argentina . Result s showed that 0 .5 mg/ kg was near ly as effective as 2.5 mg/ kg in treating the early inlection . It did not ster ilize the infec'tion, thus giving excellent co-infectious immυn i ty . Compound 4A65 was us ed lor treatment 01 babes 的 S1 S 剖 dosag峙。1 0.3 and 2.0 mg/kg eight days alter inoculation 01 virulent 。 r gani s ms . At 0.3 mg/ kg the comp。 υnd was not effective for control of B. argen t ina , but did control B. bigeminaThe 2.0 mg/ kg dosage sterilized the calves, leaving them fully susceptible to reinfection Premunition against bovine anaplasmdsis wit h oxytetracycl ine and Bur. rough s-Welco me compound 356-C-61 has a lso been studied. The two drugs were υ sed separately at 5 and 12 mg/ kg, respec'livel y, to treat cattle 21 days after exposυre to the disease, with relative-Iy little success . The most successful treatment cons 叫 ed of a combined d缸 ， age 01 12 mg, 'kg 01 oxytetracycline and 5 mg/ kg 0 1 356-C-61 , which was app lied 21 days after exposure to virulent Anaplas ma m argìnale within the bovine host Lesions caused by the growth and development of the protozoa in the tis ' sue5 of the ca'ttle were al50 examined These studies may reveal a weak link in the vertebrate cycle of the protozoa where the organism could be arrested without injury to the host Colonies of non-infected B. microplus ticks are being established in order t。 inlect thεm with A. marginale, B. bigemina, or B. argentina . These infected ticks will be used as a soυrce of inoculum for premun 忱的 n with treatme;1t They will also be used to study the lifecycle of the organisms in the t 時 ksVesicular 訕。 matitis (VSV) affects catt 峙 swine and horses in Latin Ame rica. I t frequently complicates r缸。gnl tion of hool-and-mouth disease (FMD) since the two dis.eases are undistinguishable in 'the fieJd. The source of virυs is still unknown. The natural history of VSV is being studied. During 1970 tw。 。 utbreaks were followed. An investiga tion of the ecology of this virus was started at a farm which usually has this disease. A master's thesis is in progress to study the role of white blood cells during VSV infection in cattle \" Vacas infladas\" \"Vacas infladas\" (inflated cows) is a condition of the pregnant bovine lemal. Th 悶 was lollowed by an eight month rn-servlce 廿 aining period on eleven private ranches in the Bolivar savannahs Following a preliminary survey conducted in December, 1969, an in -depth analysis was made of those ranches which the 間 itial sυr vey showed to have the greatest potential as collaborators with the training project , and as multipliers w 川\"\"1 in the communìty. On the eleven ranches selected a trainee was assigned to each for 30 days to give the program and the rancher opportunitγto evaluate each other, and to provide the pr。 gram with data essential to the devel 。 pment of a specif 悶 production im provement program. Nina ranches with a total area 01 10 ， 5日 o hec'tares and a range in size from 170 to 4,000 hectares were included in the program. These ranches had a total 01 1 口， 500 animal units 01 cattle with a range 01 250 t。 4,000 animal units. Seven of the nine ranches were essentially owner-operated, and the othS! r two were v 時 ited once 。 r twic.e weekly by the owner Provision was made in technical assis tance contracts to pay reasonable fees for services rendered. The production improvement program , as developed in conference w 川、 each rancher, was appended as pa r't 01 the contract, as welJ as some allowance for limited extension efforts 川 the surrounding area , CIAT expects 'that these trainees will di sseminate the prac ti cal orientation t。 problem solving whi ch lormed the basis 01 their training . The multiplier effect that these trainees wil l have on key cducational and agricurturaJ assistance or ganizations within Colombia , and their ability to effect change in the orientation o f naticnal programs and the general phi losophy and app roach 01 decision-makers, will be the ultimate measure of 'the success of thìs projectIn the coming yea r, the project will strive to idenlì fy the training techniques which could lead to less costly (more trainees perυnit cost), more effective programs for tropical reg ions of the Americas To this end, ð ranch enterprise mocle l is being developed which will be used to simulate the overall functional 。peration of collaborating ranches. This wi ll provide the trainee insight and understanding 01 'the total operat ion al and 。 rganizational structure of a particular ranch (01 whlch he 悶怕 identily 18 the productio n-limiting lactors and then program the specific production improvement practices to increase productivity) AGRIC ULTURA L ECONOMICS In view of poor or non-existent statistics on most aspects of the cattle industry in Colombia, a large-sca le, on-thE• larm s'tud y was begun in 1970. The ques'tionnaire to be used has been fieldtested on the north coast. Data on calving rates, mortality rates, and growth rates in different areas 01 the country, as well 前 transport and mark<!ting s抖， tems in each of the regions , will be included The cassava program is directed toward an increase in the produc'tion and utilizatìon of improved quality cassava (Manihot e5culenl.) in the lowland tro pics . Activ 川 es include the develop-rr、ont of 1 . Va rietie.s with higher y 惜地， with emphasis on the selection of va r ie'吐， es with higher nutritive va lue, i .e. I in. crea sed protein content andjo r qυality， and higher starch canten t in the root, depending cn the intended use 2. Marketi 呵 processing ， 的。 rage and utilization systems which permit more constadt supplies for hυman and 1ivestock consumption and for processing plants IV . Ag ri culturaJ economics .V -Swine feedingDuring 1970, additional ma'terial from Colombia and olher Lalin Amer ican countries was added to the collection of cassava cu l'tivars started in 1969 This collection now includes 1884 cultivars from Colombia, 123 from Ecua-d。人 60 from p， υerto Rico, 118 from Panama and 8 from Peru . An additional 33C cultivars collected in Venez uela are in qua rantine in Bogot 晶 Upon certification 。f freedom from diseases this material will be transferred to Cl AT headquarters. Another group of 70 cultivars was collect出 in Mexico and will be transferred to Colombia in the near future Classification and evaluation of the materia l in the collection was started both from an agronomic and nu'tritive quality standpoin t. Root samples 01 approximately 600 Colombian cultivars were analyzed fo r nitrogen content by the Universidad del Va lle Nutrition Laborato ry. Although nitrogen levels ranged from 0.2 percent 10 about 0.5 percent , a few samples we re found with sligh tl y higher percenlages. The varie tγ Ll anera is outstanding ìn thi s sense wi th a nit rogen content of about 0.9 pcrcentThe widely differen t environment co ndrtions and the lack of uniformity as to Ihe numbe r of viable plants obtain ed from the original vegetat ive seed ma terial collected made m ean ingful ∞ m parisons and classifications of plant and root charac\\: eristics impossible. For this reason 700 of the Colo mbian cult 卜 va rs were plan~ed in non-re plicated thr由于 row plot s. Thi s will provide uni-19 心 , form plant mater 崎 I for evaluation of plant characteristics as well as the first screening for yield potential . Harvests will be made at 9 and 14 months with the sυperior lines to be further ' i:ested in replicated yield trials. Additional plantings will be made to evaluate the balance 01 th\" collection 11 -Cullurol pracli 居S Cas.sava fertiliz帥 ion ond plonl popυ-10lion sludy In a preliminary cassava fe r'tilizerplant popυlation 5tυdy ， yield increases were obtaÎned from a fert 刊 izer appl ica tion where plant populations did not in fluence yieldAn expe:-irr祖 nt was established in a clay loam soil wi'th PH 7 、 0 ， a high phosphorus level , and a medium potash conten t. Potassium chlorate and a 14-14 14 fertilizer were míxed to give a 1-1-2 ratio and was broadcast and incorporated ínto the soil prior to forming ridg:3s lor planting the crop. Rate 01 fer. tilization was 0, 60 十 60 + 12口， and 120 斗 120 + 240 kgj ha 01 N ， 同0;; .Ll anera cassava was planted in rows spaced 120 cm apart and at varying distances within 'the row În order t。 test , at the same time, the possible elfect 01 plant population on yields. The 20 cm seed stakes were planted at a 45 degree ang峙。 Roots were harvested at 12 months ma'turity Differences between plant populations were n叫到 gnilicant ; however, the 5 . 6 and 3.8 ton per hectare increase in yie;d from the high f.ertilizer rate over the check and Jow fertilizer rate was signilicant (see Table 1)Results 01 a Cassava Cropping sys-'tem trial are reported in the Agricultural Systems section of this report From left to right susceptible, intermediate and resistant cultivars of cassava to the bacterial disease of cassava, caused by Pseudomonas sp studiesStudies of cassava diseases revealed the presence 01 whìte le.1 spot ( Cercospora cariba.a ), brown le.1 spot ( C hennings ), powdery mìldew (Oidium man ihotis ), stem and root rots ( Rh izoclonia sp. .nd Roseilinia sp. ), .nd • dis-..se not prevìously reported ìn the lìter.ture c.used by • sp配 ìes 01 Phoma However, the most important disease, economica ll y, seems to be caused by • b.cterìum .tt.ckìng the lolì.ge, stem , .nd roots 01 'the pl.n t. Physìo-10gìc.1 and morphologìc.1 studìes ìdentìfied the bacterium as a Pseudomonas sp. The dìse.se spre.ds quìte r.pìd ly, which suggests a vector as the main agent of dissemination. Screening te<: h. nìqυes to search fo r re剖 stance wer.z deveioped .nd, 01 450 Colombì.n collections tested, five were resistan t. A hot~water treatment of plant material .t 52'C lor 30 mìnutes effectìvely controlled the dìse.se This project is being carried out in cooper.tìon wìth ICA .nd th~ Department 01 PI.nt P.thology of the Unìversìty of WisconsinVarious mcthods are used in handling 'the seed material in the ~erm plasm collections made with in Colombia which are pl.nted di rectly ìn the lields at p. lmi ra. Collections made in 。 t her countries are h。卜water treated lor control 01 diseases and pests .nd then pl.nted ìn a greanhouse at ICA's Tibait.t. Center . When certified fr峙。f disease, this material is brought to CIAT headqu.rters .nd planted in the field for the initial increase to provide additional planting m 剖 erialStudies were made of systems to prevent the int roduction of potential p lant pests. A h。卜water treatm ent of 52~C for 30 minutes w.s fou nd to be the most effective in controlling viru ses, mycoplasma, and bacterial diseases as weJl as nematodes and inse尤 ts Foliage symptoms produced in c C:l.!S ~ava Dy a b3cterium of the genus Pse udomon苟A compendium 01 world data on Ca>sava producti叭 ， yìeid , and cultìvated area fo r all producing countrÎf.'s has been prep.red .t CIAT from second.ry data, partlcularly FAO publications . Production par c.pita has also been calculated lo r each country for the I.st 10 years World production 01 c.ss.v. h.s been increasing in the last fjve years. South America and Africa eac h account fo r .pproxim.tely 37 percen t of world c.ssava production , As Îa abo ut 25 percent , and Centra l America an d Oce.nia the remainder. On a per capita basis there has been a slight decre.se in worid cassava productionOther studies in progress include wholesale and retail cassava prices in 14 Colombìan cìtìes over the p.st 10 years ， ∞ nsumer demand for cassava , cass.v. flour and st.rch in the Ur川ed 5tates durin日 the I.st 14 ye.rs; a descnpt 的n and analys 悶。f cassava starchproducing f.cilities in Colomb咱; the marl吋ting of cassava and cassava starch ìn Colombia; and an analysis of eco. nomic factors related to low yields in Colombia V -Cassava utl llzation through swine feeding CIAT's swine program contributes t。 'the increase of pork production in the lowland tropics through collaboration with national agencies in the development of production systems based On utilization principally of non-gra 川 leed stuffs available in the tropics, and throυgh trainin9 swine production and research specìalists for national institu tions.The use of opaque.2 maize to replace normal maize greatly reduces the quan tity 01 supplemental protein tha't is r-oquired for swine production. Research completed during 1970 demonstrated that a 12 percent protein diet based on 。 paqu e-2 maize plus a protein s upple卜 ment can replace a 16 percent protein diet based on normal maize plus a protein supplemen't lor 仰伊 during the growing period Irom 10 to 50 kilograms weigh t. During the finishing period (5日 t。中 o kilos). supplemental protein can be completely eliminated when opaque-2 maize ís used to replace a 12 percen't proteín normal maize-protein supplement diet A variety of supplements can provide the additional protein in opaque-2 maize diets for growing pigs . Optimal results have been ob'tained wi th soy bean meal , fish meal , and meat meal , 。 r combinations of fish and meat meal with cottonseed mea l. Less favorable results have been ob tained when cot tonseed meal or a combínation of cot tonseed and soybean meal ís used , demonstrating that 'the level 01 Iys ine in cottonseed meal 悶悶 t adequate t。叫 p. plement propèrly the opaque-2 maize when used in diets w川、 suboptimal levels 01 protein Diets similar 凹的。 se led growing pigs have also been led lactating sows Equa l numbers 01 equal-weight pigs can be produced Irom diets composed solely 01 opaqu• 2 maize plus a proper vi'tamín and míneral supplement. This 。 paque-2 diet replaced the recommended 16 percent crude protein diet based on feeding normal maize and soybean meal A lile .cycle swine product 的n system based on opaque-2 maize was develope::i :m the basis of these resul'ts and additional data from Purdue Uni versity relating to gestating sows. A grε ， )hic representation of this system is presented in Figure 1 A substantial saving 01 protein 5upplement can be achieved with this system For examp 悟， per sow per breeding sea-50n , 214.5 kilos 01 protein 5upplem~nt con'taíning 50 percent protein can be replaced by 256.2 kilos 01 opaque-2 maize. Small and family farmers can use such a system for efficient production without bυying protein supplementThe overa ll economics of the system can be determined by consìdering exísting prices within specific areas. If the price of maíze ís high in relatíon to proteín supplements, 'there will be little if any economic advantage in using an opaque-2 maize system; conversely, if The system developed for swine may have greater sîgnîficance for human nutrition . If opaque-2 maize could be successfυ lI y introduced, the added pro le 川 requirements of pregnant and nursing mothers could be totally supplied by opaqυe-2 maize. Infant protein malnutrition could also be substantially lessened by introducîng opaque-2 maize into infant diets Despite the nu'tritional advantages of 。paque-2 maíze, its acceptance has been hampered by ils s。代， floury endosperm (See Maize Production Systems). Samples from a commercial harvest of tw。 Colombian cpaque-2 hybrids, ICA H-208 and ICA H-255 , were observed to be stîll segregatir可 9 with some crystalline kernels appearing among the predom• nantly soft , opaque grains. These crysta 川 ne kernels and completely opaque kernels were selected and analyzed for prote;n , Iysine, and tryptophane content Results are presented in Table 1 The crystalline samples tended to ha ve higher leve ls of protein than the' opaque kernels. The Iysine and tryptoph<Í ne levels of the opaque and crystalline H-208 samples were similar to those of the opaque H-255 samples, although the crystalline H-255 contained significantly lower levels of both amino acids Rat growth studies to evaluate biologically the various selections of opaque, semi-crystalline and crystalline kernels demonstrated tha't the nutritive val ues of the opaque H-208, crystalline H-208, and opaque H-255 were similar. The cryst.lline H-255 , .1 阱。υgh superior to normal maize, was inferior to the dthers in biological value Semi-crystalline H-255 kernels tested followed the amino acid analysis in supporting growth and proteìn effìcier、 cy ratios approximately m 地-way b令 tween the opaque and crystalline H-255 extremes Floury-2 maize Samples 01 double cross hybrids containing floury-2 genes and produced bγ ICA's maize program have been used in nutritional stud阻 s with swine, rats, and poultry. In all trials to date, floury-2 maize has not equalled locally available opaqυe-2 varieties ín growth support Or efficiency of protein utilization The amino acids Iysine, tryptophane, isoleucine, and threonine have been limiting in these floury samples 心 There are indications that some of the floury-2 genes associated with the modifica' Üon in pro tein quality may have been lost in the development 01 the dd uble cross material C\"\".V'I It has been demo nstrated that cassa-Vð can be used as the major SQurCe of energy during t he entire swine life-cycl e Production systems based on either fresh , chopped CaSSaVil ar dried cassavn mea l have been developedWhen dried cassava meal , prepare:l from \"the variety LJanera , was used as the major SOurce of energγlor growing pigs, a small but signi/icant growt h . rate depression cccurred . Thi s growth depression might be related to various lactors such as digestibili ty and energy utilization , hydrocyanic acid toxicity, poorυtiliza'tion of the protein fraction , amir、。 ðcid deficiencies, and possibly to del 時 ient o r marginal leve ls of fatty acids present in diets containing high levels of ca ssava meal Research with growing pigs and chicks has been directed to the identifi cation of the factor c r fac to rs respo n sible for \"t his depression. Swine meta bolism studies demon strated that the dry matter and energy Iraction 01 the cassava meal was di gested at a level 到 mi lar to that 01 commonly used leed ingredients such as maize and soybean meal . Despite this , however, growth depression occur red For swine grow th stud 阻 s ， all diets were calcuJated to contair、 16 percent crude protein , of which 8.8 percent cam':! from 'cassava meal , and the balance of protein and energy from .a combination of soybean meal and maize These d 間 ts were 5υpp l e men'ted w川、 methionine, molasses, and beel lallow Data in this experi men t indicate ~hat ， in the absence 01 beel tallow (Iat ), meth 悶、 ine supplemen 削。n In crea 叫 Qain s, as did a 10 percent increase ot fat alone to 'the d叫 H oweve r ， when both fat and methionine were present , a depression in gains was recorded 26 Consequent旬， w hen soybean meal is us' ed to supplement diets containing cassava meal , methicnine appears to bε a limiting amino ac 肘 thus ， correction 。1 th is de/iciency overc omes 'the growth depressioh, . However, i t i s not yet known whether the same response when 10 percent lat is added to the diet is related to a change in the amin 。 acid balance 01 the diet (as the amount 。f soybean meal is increased to main-taÎn a 16 percent protein dÎet) o r t。 an effect 01 lat por so (as lat supplies both concent rated energγand latty acids)Supporting studies with chicks pro. vided additional evidence that w hen cassava meal replaces m 刮目 in a diet supplemented with soybean meal , sesa me meal and fish meal , methionine be comes a limiting ami no acid . As with the above studies, the add ition 01 lat alon9 with methionine into L the diet re su lts in a growth depre ss 咱們。In studi es with pigs and chicks, ad dition 01 molasses sim ilarly lai led 怕 improve gains as when fa't was added, t hυs suppor ting the theory that lat per .0 supplies some fact o r (energy or latty acids) deficier、 in cassava diets Chemical an alysis 01 the nitr。同en fraction o f caSSðva pulp indicates that approximately 50 percent 0/ the nitrogen is not t r.ue protein but 問 present as non-prdtein nitrogen . Although the tot al nit rogen level 01 the peeling is higher than that 01 the pu1p, approximately 70 percent 01 the ni'trogen is non.proteín ni't rogen and therefcre of Ii t tle if any va lue to monogastric animals Preliminary data Irom chick growth studies in progress support the indications that the biological value 01 the nitrogen fraction ava ilable in cassava is poorIn many area s 01 Central and South Ame ri ca, Jarge quantities of bananas and plantains un fi't lor local or export market consυmption are available for Lactating sows nυrsing litters are, however, unabJe to consume ade呵 uate quantities of ripe bananas to me.:~t their daily energy requirements. In addition , consumption of more than 13-15 kilograms per day brinqs about di 月 estfve problems in the sow leading to diarrhea which , in turn , crea 、 es sanitation problems În the farrowing crates T 0 overcome I咐 i s problem and to extend the area of usefulness of reject bananas, s tudies ha ve been carried out to evaluate green banana meal as a possible replacement for ripe bananas. This qreen banana meal , in contrast to fresh bananas, can be stored for lonq periods of time after drying, and can be transported economically to areas of demand far removed from the banana zone Research results obtained in collaboration with INIAP demonstrated that dry green banana meal can replace maize as an adequate energy source for lactating sows , supplying up to 53 percent cf the lactating ration wi'thout reducinq the number of pigs weaned or weaning weights This dry 日 reen banana meal can als。 be used in the diets of growing-finishing pigs. Levels of up to 75 percent 01 the diet have been tes'ted with only small losses in daily gains. Each 25 percent increase in the level of green banana Efficient economical use of fresh or dried bananas instead of maize as the principal energy source for swine production depends upon Iccal prices of prctein supplements and of swine, as well as price per kilo of banana meal , w hich should be approximately 50 percent of that of maize, according to the studies in Ecuador R-ice Increasing rice production in Latin America points t。廿1e possibilitγof its future use as a replacement for maize and other grains in swine diets. In view of this , the swi ne program at CIAT ha s studied the biological value of rice and its by-products in relation to that of 。Þ!ther feeds Results of biological evaluations of w hite rice, brown rice, and rice polish ings, as compared with normal and opaque-2 maize, are shown in Table 3 Both white and brown rice supported gains and demonstrated a feed conver sion efficiency 2.5 times that of normal maize in rat qrowth studies at CIAT. However, nei'ther of these tw。 kinds 01 ri ce equalled the perfomance levels of opaqυ0-2 m 刮目， whic h supported Qains 47 percent higher than those obtained with either white or brown rice Efficiency 01 leed υtilization was similar lor aíl tre.tmen'ts except ground paddy rice, which required larger quantities 01 leed per kilo 01 g. 川， as the indigestible rice hull s were no t removed. from the ration Rice and rice by-products can , there fo re, be used efficiently to replace normal maize in swine diets during the period from weaning 怕 market ， il the price of r;ce 悶 below that 01 maize Sugar Refined sug ar has been shown to be an excellent source of carbohyd rates fo r swine. Research has demonstrated that increasing the amolmt of refined sugar in the diet, up to a level 01 45 percent , resul'ts in a cor respondinq improvement in pig perfo rmance and leed efficiency However, as suga r is an export crop needed to balance the dollar drain in most of the producing countries in Latin America , there 時 little possibility th.t it will become available for national swi ne production Reports Ircm Enq land and 'the United States have ind;cated th at sucrose 28 may play an important r。他們 prod u cing high blood cholesterol leve ls and arteriosclerosis in swine, In feeding tri.ls carried Out at CIAT, where high sucrcse (refined sugar) levels were υ揖d ， blood samples were taken Irom the pigs and cholesterol levels determined. At sl.ughter, the heart and aort. we re collected from each píg and examined lor lesions 01 latty dεgenerat10n Results 01 these analγses indicate that there were no íncreases in aor'ta lesions .ssociated with this tre.tment , although blood cholesterol levels were somewhat higher than those of control animal s fed diets containing no sucrose A second study comp.red a control die't of normal maize and s。γbean meal with diets containing 10 percent ani ~ mal lat, 60 percent suc 的時. or a combin.tion 01 these two ingredients. The animals remained on these diets for 182 days to allow adequate time lor lesion development. Blood samples taken near the end 01 the study demonstrated that diets containing animal lat signilicantly increased the cholesterol level , whereas the sucrose diet did no t prcduce an increase. No aorta lesions were 刮目ciated with the diets employed in this study .The difference between these results and those repor ted 川 t he previous study may be related to differences in diet . composition, as the first s tudy used purilied diets, while the second used natural ingredients Cowpeas Such protein supplements as soybean meal , fish meal , meat meal , cottonseed meaJ , and sesame meal often prove eCQnomically inefficient in swine diets be cause of limited supply, scarcity, or high cos't CIAT is evaluating other protein SQurces, particularly those that Cðn be grown and used in thc farm with mini-maJ processing. Initial work has been wj'th cowpeas (Vigna sinensis) because of their wide range of adaptability and ease of production. Initital tests with P句 s demonstrated that cowpeas , as 。 ther grain legumes, contained grow 怖， inhibiting factors which limited their usefulness. Results of rat studies indícated that germination , as well as heat treatment , destroys or reduces these in. hibitory factors. When supplemented with low levels of methionine, germinated cowpeas supported results equal to those obtained with a control di e!t of soybean meal Animal Health Swine research in animal heaJth has focused on two principal infectious dis. eases, mycoplasmosis and hoof-and. mouth dis~ase， as well as protein defi.Sarcoptìc mange. a com mon skin problem in protein-deficient swine cíencíes. Although these studies are con'tinuing, some preliminary conclu. sions may be drawn MycopJasmosis results in arthr i't 時 ， pericarditis , and pleuritis in young swine. Initial research in this area has been started in collaboration with th~ ICA Graduate Shool at Tibaitata. A segment of the swine population is being sampled for prímary ísolation , and a serologic survey is underway. T。 date, M. hyorhinis has been isolated from swinù having excessive pericardial fluid Hoof-and-mouth disease of swine and lack of an effective vaccine continue t。 result in ser;ous economic losses. A pro. ject to stυdy the pa'thogenesis of this disease, fíeld cutbreaks , the role of trauma in transmission , and production 。f the clinical disease, will terminate in 1972A study made to determine organ regeneration in swine following protein deple!tion was completed in 1970. After an initial period of depletion using a diet of common maize alone, th-ree groups of pigs were fed separate diets containing common maize, opaque-2 maize, and casein as the only protein sources. Following the regeneration period, histological evaluatíon of the di-. .Characteristic lesions of foot-and-mouth di sease in swine gestive tract , liver, and bone from lhe animals in each group was made. Results indicated that opaque-2 maize was particularly effective in supporting regeneration. However, the diet based on protein from casein proved to be Înadequate for liver regeneration , which may possibly be associa1 ted with a significant deficiency of methionine in the casem It had been observed at the Univer s idad del Valle Hospital that epithelial regeneration was initiated when intestinal flora were controlled in proteindeficient pa'tients. In collaboration with the Uni versidad del Valle, CIAT mea sured the effect of antibiotics in t he regeneration of the intestinal epithelium 。f swine dυring protein depletion and repletion. Three basic diets with and wi'thout antibiotics were used. Preliminary results indicate that antibiot 自 cs have a detrimental effect at a low protein level , whereas a beneficial effect is 。bserved with nutritionally adequate CIAT' s rice program 咕。 riented t。 一 ward the solυtion 01 problems limiting rlce y 阻 Ids in Latin America. Although many lactors affect yields thrbugh。叫t the hemisphere, the need lor research is particularly critica l in three areas prodυction 01 h 旬 h-yielding dwarf vari• ties having superior cooking and milling quality; incorporation of stable resistance to the rice bJast disease; and develcpment of cultural practices for respcn 剖 ve varieties grown under both irrj. gated and upland condi tions During 1970 the effects 01 the green revolution started to be felt in Latin America through increases in rice p 巾， duction because 01 the use 01 high-yielding varieties, especially IR8. The Uni-'ted States Department 01 Agriculture estimates that 91 percent 01 Cuba's 叩門 ng c rop (105,000 hectares) was pJanted with this variety. The same Vðriety was planted on about 20,000 hectares ' 2ach in Colombia and Venezuela and on appr。削 mately 5,000 hectares in Ecuado r IR8 and IR5 occupied 12 .5 percent 。 f Peru's rice area and, for 'the first tìme in years, Peru is nearing self-sufficie r: cy 附 rice produc tion . It is likcly that Co:onlbia would have had to Import rice if It were not for the excep . tional yields 01 IR8. It is questionable, however, whethe r IR8 wi ll continue t。 íncrease markedly. As c。υntries achieve sel! -sullicier、 cy Or have small 的。 cks lor exp。門， the price lor IR8 will decline rapidly because of its inferior grain quality RICE BREEDINGFollowing the specilic breeding objecti ves detailed in the 1969 report , a total 0189 crosses was made in 1970.01 these, 36 were single crosses of dwarfs using various selections o1 1R579, IR6óS, IR841 .nd IR930 亡。 lombia 1, a line highl y resis tant to the blast disease in Colombia and .t the Intern.tional Rice Research Institυte (1 RRI) in the Philippines, was used as a parent in 42 single and line X F, crosses. The highly blast. resistant varieties Tetep, Marr、。 riaka ， 。旭日 H.til, and C46-15 were used as parents in 11 crosses wi 't h selections of 1 R665 and 1 R841 Nurseries Six plantings 01 segregating material were m.de during 1970 a't the ICA experiment station at Palmira (January, March , May, July, October, .nd Novemb.r). These included 13,462 pedigree rows that were evaluated for vigor, earlinesses , plant type, cooking quality, grain appearance, and resistance to 50gatodes, hoja blanca, and blast. AII material in the program is now dwarf, and the majority has acceptable grain char acteristics . Fixed lines (F 7 ) from the lirst crosses made in 1967 will be advanced to preliminary yield trials in 1971 Additionally, 80 F, bulks 01 4,000 t。 6,000 plants each were grown and Solected. Those bulks having a blast-re-剖 stant ， tall.statured parent were thor-oughly rogued 01 all tall plan'ts after flo we ring to allow survival and sel 配 tion of tne d warf segregates. Failure t。 cut out the 'tall segregates in directly sown bυIks would result in the loss 01 the desirable dwarf plants through competition for light F。υr international blast nurseries with 356 varieties each , and four 01 blast modera'tely resistant varieties with 212 each , from IRRI , were planted for evaluation at ICA's La libertad 5tation Some of these varieties we re already present in the CIAT nursery and, thus, ù ccmbined nursery was formed which will be distributed to Latin Arnerica in 1971 Yield trials A 'total of 289 va rieties and lines was grown in unreplicated observa tional yíeJd trial s. The majority were introduced from Brazil , the Philippines (IRRI) , Mexico, and the United 5tates Department of Agriculture. The USDA mate rial , compri 引 ng ncw promising U5A lines , was received specifically to test its resistance to blast , hoja blanca , and Sogat 吋剖. AII of the Brazil and the U5DA material was discarded because of low tillering and tallness. The Mexico and IRRI lines yielded well , nearly all being dwarf, but most were eliminated because of lateness and p∞ r grain tra i'ts One hundred forty replicated y 陪 Id trial entries were evaluated . Outstanding material included s, electìons from the following crosses: I R8x (Petaj5 x Belle Patna ), (Petaj3 x TNI) x Kha。 Dawk Mali , ond IR8 x IR12.17日 -2-3Fifteen se!ections of the most promisi ng long-groin dwarfs selected during the oast three years were grown    2 and 3, respectivelyThe upland results in Table 3 are part 肥ulariy noteworthy. The test 川 Paη-ama included 84 lines, 01 which IR930-31-1-1B gave the third highest yield Five 01 the 10 most productive lines were selections 01 IR930 . The 10 lowest yielders were all selections 01 IR665 Additional evidence that IR930 is adapt. ed to upland culture is the high yield 。 1 IR930-31-1-1B in Costa Rica. In a preliminary test at Tumaco, CoJombia, the same line yielded 4.9 ton j ha. This was 2.2 tonj ha greater than that 01 any 。 ther entryRepeated inspection of the trials reported in Table 3 and elsewhere led CIAT and ICA to jointly name and re. lea 阻 1 R930-31-1-1 B as the variety CICA 4 to be released next year . This variety was obtained by three cycles 01 selection of segregating ma'terial received from IRRI in 1968.ICA has about 45 tons 01 seed 01 CICA 4 01 which the major portion will be multiplied by registered seed producers in Colombia. The remainder will be distributed by ICA to small , marginal upland rice farmers About hall 01 the 10 tons 01 breeders' seed 01 CICA 4 produced by CIAT will be distributed outside 01 Colombia. The remainder is being planted in one hectare regional trials in Colombia In nearly 011 te5t5 01 irrigoted rice in Colombio and Ecuodor, the line IR665-23-1-1 B ha5 yielded more 'Ihan other se-lection5 (Toble5 1 ond 3). 1I will not be released , however, becau s-e its production of unbroken grains during mil. ling i5 rel 的 ively low (Toble 2) A5 individuol plant5 appeared to dilfer in milling quality, several hundred plants were selected and evaluated individually. Ab。 υt one hundred 01 these will be multiplied ond reevaluoted for milling quolity in 1971The tWQ lines in multiplication , 1 R665-33-5-8-1 B ond 1 R665-33-1-3-1 B CIC~ 4 rice grown under upland cullure in Ecuador (Photo court臼y of INIAPl.(Tables 1, 2, 3) were discarded as being inferior to CICA 4 and IR22A number of crosses involving CICA 4 and related IR930 select 的ns are beíng screened to identify lines that have earlier maturity, leaves that remain green until harvest , tighter threshing , anâ slightly less amylose in the endo sperm have kept their resistance 'through 14 plantings from April, 1969, through De cember, 1970, in the Ll anos and the northern coast of Colombía. 'However, a test carried out in the jungle of Peru showed that aboul half of these varieties were susceptible. This points to the need for further testing of these varieUes un der conditions favorable to the develop. ment of the disease Preliminary results of a .tudy of the nature of a horizontal resistance of rice to p ，。吋Z鷗 indi cate that susceptible varieties have more type 4 lesions, and in general more lesions than moderately resÎstant varÎeties. The averag~ size of the lesion in millimeters for Fanny (susceptible) was 29.1; Bluebonnet 50 (susceptible) , 11.0; Perola (moder-.telγ 闊別 stant) ， 4.2; and Colombia 1 ( res 時 tant) ， 1.9. Sporulation started ear lier and lasted longer in the susceptible va rieties ðS compared to 'the , res.is tan. t ones, and the number of spores produced wa5 significantly lower in those moderately resistan t. Fewer les;ons per leaf area, longer time to start sporulating and fewer spores produced ' by a lesion dυring its lifetime are three common features of va rieties having hor卜 z。nta|reslstance \"New fυngicides a~d methods of application for controlling rice blast were 36 U also studied. Direct applications to the s。刊。 r to the ìrrigation water, as well as combinations of s時d ， 50il , and foliage ap闕 ications， were 峙的 ed ， Five fungicides widely used in temperate zones to control this disease are being tested in the field in plots of 5 X 3 m到ers An experiment is also underway to test 40 fυngicides in screening plots of 1 m'. Re5ults will be reported in 1971In a preliminary experime巾， the 5yStemic fungicide Benomyl applied at 40 。 r more kg/ ha pr叫配 ted the rice plant from infectionυP to 300 days under continuous cropping , Thi5 wettable powder, or other systemic fungicides , applied in a granular form to the soil or to the irriga'tion water appears to offer an efficient and relatively low C05t control when combined with • parti.lly resistant varietyA previously developed method of isoJation and purification of this virus was improved. An antiserum was obtained which will ba used internation-.lIy to search for possible strains . 01 the virus. Electron microscope studi肘 。f the nature of the transov.ri.1 passage of ' the virus through several gen. erations of the vector Soqalodes ory. .;col. are being carried out in collabo. r.'tion with the University of Hokkaido, J.pan Information exchange on resistance to rice blast has been started with IRRIRice agronomic research at CIAT was expanded in mid:1970 with the addition of a rice agronomist to the staff. Research ;n rice agronomy has . been con. centrated on ob'taining information about cultur.1 practices appropriate t。 the new varieties produced, before releasing them to farm~s under Breeding ，的 e five most promi 別 ng I i nes were compared to tWQ widely grown varieties, IR8 and ICA 10, under uniform cultural practicesResυIts show that two of these new lines, CICA 4 and IR665.23.3 斗 pro.duced higher yields than IR8, while the other three produced Irom 80 to 86 percent 01 the IR8 yield. The yield 01 ICA 10 was also higher 'than IR8. 0η commercial farms , however, yields of this variety are generalJy much lower because of its sυsceptibility 10 rice blas t.Five different levels 01 nitrogen (0 , 25, 50, 75 and 100 kg j ha) and tw。 levels 01 P,O. (0 and 50 kg j ha) were applied to CICA 4. One-half 01 Ihe nitrogen and all 01 the P,O, were applied 33 days after seeding, and 'the remainder 01 the N was applied 52 days after seeding. Two additíonal treatments were included in which all 01 Ihe ferlilizer was applied 33 days after planling.Allhough there were some differences in height and maturlty because 'of the hlgher ra'tes of nitrogen , there was 。 nly a slight response to nitrogen at the 50 kgj ha rale and no response 1。 phosphorus. Yields were depres叫 W the higher rales 01 nilrogen. There did ndt appear to be any advantage 10 mak. ing more than one fertillzer applicalion 10 CICA 4 on Ihis lertile soil Rales 01 seeding Opinions differ greatly as to the correct amount 01 seed to use lor direct seeding 01 rice. It is generally believed that värieties which-do not produce a large number 01 tillers should be plant ed at a higher rate. To gain informa-'tion on this matter, two different types 01 rice (IR665-23-3-1-1B and ICA 10) were grown at widely differing rates 01 seeding Yields of both varieties were slightly lower at the 25 and 50 kgj ha s肥d ing rates. There was practically no difference in yields between the two types 01 rice at the higher seeding ratesAlth。υgh the resul'ts Iror甘 this ex periment show that it is possible to obtain high yields w 內 h much lower seeding rates than are commonly used, it appears desirable to use from 100 t。 Under the Crop Production training pro~ gram, students obtain practical experience and knowledge from CIAT's technical staff 38 125 kgjha on commercial plantings because 01 increased weed competition at lower seeding ra'tes. Rates higher than 150 kgjha seem to be unn缸essary and increase production costsIt is a general practice in Colombia to make three to lour applications of nitrogen to direct-seeded rice crops. An experirl!ent was designed to de'termine the most effective times lor applying nitrogen 10 one 01 the new lines, IR665-33-5-8-1 B. The applications were timed to coi ncide appr。別 mately with the 101lowing growth stages 01 this variety: Tillering Panicle initiation Booting Heading 25 days after seed 川9 60 days after seeding 67 days after seeding 77 days after seeding Results indicate Ihat no benelit was derived from incorporating the nitrogen in 'the soil prior to planting. As there were no significant differences between this tre的 ment and the unfertilized plot, it appears that the nitrogen was lost before the rice plants were sufficien'tly develop叫怕 use rtThe most effective treatments were th。但 in which 50 kg j ha of nitrogen were applied 25 days aft.r seeding , during the tillering stage. There was no benelit Irom the application of additional nitrogen during the panicle initiation , b∞ ting or heading stages Effecl \"l oil molsture 0\" nitrogen response Low availability of nitrogen is one of the principal lactors limiting rice yields in many parts of the world. _ With transplanted rice it has been lound most effective 10 incorporate the nitrogen in the soil just prior to transplan'ting. However, such applicati<:>~s with direct-seeded rice are not possible without damaging the rice planls. The two common methods of application are to incorporate it in the soil prior to planting or to broadcas't it in the growing rice as a top-dressing In an experimen't designed to com pare the effectiveness of these tw。 methods on the soil of the CIAT farm using 1 R665-23-1 -1 日 and a nitrOQen rate of 100 kg/ha , it was f。 υnd tha't the application on dry soil produced the highest yield. The lowest yield oc curred on the plots in which nitrogen was incorporated before planting. Yields 。btained from the applications on wet soil and in 'the water were 87 and 70 percent of that obtained from the application on dry soil. To equal the yield produced by the dry soil application , 140 kg/ha would have to be applied in the irrigation waterExperiments are continuing at the Carimagua station , where flooded rice has been successfully grown for two semesters , with yields of more than six ton/ha in the second semester. A num ber of managemen't problems have been solved, including soil puddling, pr• plant flooding , and water seeding. Considerable progress has been made in describing the chemistry of flooded oxisols. Iron toxicitγ ， which appears t。 be a limiting factor for flooded rice, may require pre-plant flooding for satisfactory results The primary objectives of the maize program at CIAT are to increase production and to improve the nutritional quality of maize throughout the lowland tropics , with emphasis in Latin America Maize is an important ingredient in the diet of Latin Americð. For exam. p 峙. estimates of maize consumpt 叩n from Central America indicate that 60 percent of 'the calories and 50 percent 01 the prote川 come from maize In Colombia , maize supplies approximately 30 percent 01 the to'[al caloric intake. Maize production is increasing, partly because of an increase in land area dedicated to the crop, and partly because 01 higher yields per hectare Average produc'ti。代 however ， remains between one and two ton5 per hectare Mor閻明 r I many farmers operate at the subsistence level. More than half of the farms engaged in maize prodυction have less than five hectares, and more than 80 percent cultivate less than 20 hectares . In most cases the crop is Çj rown and consumed on tho farm , and only about 20 percent of the crop enters commercial char、 nels Migration to urban centers accentuates problems of lood supply and nutrit 的n . Preferences for maize and maize products, as well as particular tastes for certain types of m訓 ze， are 臼 rried from the rural areas into the city. New maize varieties or hybrids with greater productivity and improved quality must incorporate grain characteristics which 40 are known and accepted by 'the intend ed customerDuring 1970, a concerted effort was made to bring in commercial hybrids, open-pollinated varieties, and variable popul 剖 ions from maize programs in Asia and the Americas in order to test these materials in the Andean zone and make them available to nalional p 巾， grams. Composite populations among these introductions include material from 叫 idely diverse commercial s。 υrc肘， as well as maize from the germ plasm banks. These mÎxtures and new 。 nes will hopefully contain a potential for wide adaptation and a relatively wide resistance 'to disease and insects AII these maize introductions will be grown in observation plots dυring the next year, and promising indivíduals and selections will be combined lor further observation and testing Early progeny testing and recombination of lines in improved maize popula'tions led to success in Kenya and appear to promise substantial improvement in CIMMYT's international program . CIAT wilJ begin with several basic populations (including opaque, brachytic, Andean-zone low altitude, Andean-zone high altitude, and the world composite ), and test early selec'tions Irom the目 populations in a number 01 locations in collaboration with ICA, INIAP, and other n.tion.1 progr.ms. These locations will include ð minimum 。f three low-elevation and one intermediate e'levation sta't ions. Evaluation at high elevation stations will be accomplished by national programs in the zone 州的 t recombinatÎ on wi ll be done in the intermeciate altitude of CIAT headquarters in Palmira (1 ,000 meters) , and further selections tested in the several regional stat 巾的In addition to the concentra ted effort in maize, a small nursery for sorghum introductìons was planted in 1970. Germ plasm collections, promisîng vari肘 îes ， and commercial hybrids have been requested from programs ín several continents. These geno'types wi lJ be planted in 1971 , observed in the nursery, and selected lor desirable plant type and early maturity. Prom 山 ng selections wi ll be available at any stage 。 1 development to national 阱。gram s and commercìal companies in the trop-Wider adaptation of varieties or hy_ brids can lead to greater use of improved maize types by bringing these t。 a wider / range of micro-climates. T 卡 IS will also redυce 'the number of commercial materials and minimize complicated and expensìve seed production procedures , Factors which inlluence adapta-'t ion include photoperiod and temperature sensitivity, wide-based resistance t 。 insects and pathogens, and a mínimum susceptibility to drouth or high water leve 峙， strong winds, and other adverse climatic conditions Work on pho'toperiod insensitivity contin lJed during 1970, and several relatively insensitive lines were identified in the lield , The photoperiod sensitive reaction in maize appears to have tw。 critical light intensity levels . There is a marked delay in different 叫 ion and flowering when sensi'tive genotypes are exposed to intensities greater than five to seven 1。咽 tcandles ， and the same materials are delayed s lightly at intensities between one to live loo'tcandles. In these stuclies , lower ìntensities had no ap pa ren t effect Preliminary results indkate a critical day length 01 14 Y, to 15 hours lor maize. Quantitative interactions between day length and light intensity have not been s'tudied , There is no apparent elfect 01 day length on gro\"';th rate as long as the temperature~is constanl for contrasting day length conditionl_ A c~~pe ~~~i.~~. .pro ject is being planned with CIMMYT to study a uñiform se't 。t materials at three altltudes in C。 lombia and three altitudes in Mexic。 怕 explo:e .the interactions of temperature and photoperiod sensiJtivity Excessive plant height and resultant lOdg~n~ sever~.?' limfts yield in many coastal areas (Photo taken. at Pichi1íngue, Ecuador)Efficient energy conversion into plant dry matter and grain are crucial to in~ creased productivity per hectare. 1 n the tropics, where a year~round growing potential must be utilized, yield evalua tion should include production per hectare per day, per unit leaf area , and per unit 01 Iigh't intercepted. Recent advances in the measurement of light , leal area, and physiological maturity have made it possible to measure more of these efficiency parameters at a low er cos t. A trial to evaluate the effect 01 luradan , a systemic insecticide effective in roo'tworm control (Oiabrotica sp.) , was made to determine whether this chemical would also offer residual in secticidal properties against the lall army worm . (Laphygma sp. ) attacking the whorl 01 the plan t. Evaluation 01 army worm damage in the early growth stages shows that luradan, applied in granular lorm to 'the whorl 01 the plant or as a foliar spray, was more effective than the conventional granular chemicals applied \\0 the plant whorl. Furadan applied to the soil was not effective. Às the plant developed, the residual effect 01 luradan did not prevent army worm damage to the new leaves Insee:t damage at this stage 01 growth may not appreciably affect yields Typical maize culture in the small farms of -the Andean zone. Maize is often combined with other crops (in this case with beans, in the highIands of Ecuador)CIAT must work with national agencies m order to reach the marginal farmers with improved varieties and practical production systems adapted to their conditions Furadan applied to the loliage was 刮目 effectiye in preventing leaf damage to young plants by the adult rootworm beetle. Ordinarily，的 is damage does not merit control measures In this test , severe lodging occυrred in the lield after tasseling due to heavy winds and rains. There was sìgnifican't-Iy less IOOging in the luradan-treated plots 'than in the non-treated ones Yields were higher in plots treated with higher rates 01 luradar、 bυt the overa 11 yield level was so low that the prolit ability of such a treatment is quest 的 n ableA multidisciplinary analysis of the factors associated with low maize yields in Colombia i5 in progress. The objec. tives 01 the study are 1 ) to identily important factors associated with low maize yields among small farmers in certain selected reg昀肘。1 Colombia, 2) 'to determine the interrelationships among these lactors, 3) to suggest avenues 01 approach to the problem 01 increasing yields, and 4) to develop a methodological Iramework which may be applied in similar studies in other reglons Information has been obtained from t h ree sou rces ﹒ 的 small larmers, b) input suppliers, and c) local agricultural extension and lending agencies. Personal ínterviews, field observa1 tions, and soil tests were used as means for obtaining the inlormation. Analyses 01 these re> sults will be completed in 1971 and the study will be extended to other c。υn tries in the Andean zone. The objectives of the study were t。 identify the main obstacles 'co a $uccessful expansion of the production. 'marketing. and human consumption of 。paque-2 maize. and to sυggest ways by which these obstacles may be overcome Basic datð were obtained from interviews with produce 悶 marketing a.gencies, apä ' consumers It was found thàt a rapid expansion of the product 叩n . ànd 祖SOJJS.u. 111ption of 。 paque-2 T maize was limíted by: 1) low consumer acceptance, 2) wholesale 悶， lack of interest in handling the product.3) low relative farm yields in comparison with high-yielding hybrids. 4) low producer acceptance among small farmers. and 5) storage prob lems . These items directly relate to the flou 吋 a-nd soft endosperm of opaqυe-2 ma ize, as compared to the commonly grown .flint-. type maize. The softness of opaque-2 results in low resístance to insect atlacks, low kernel densi'ty, and undesirable appearance and cooking characterislics Results suggest that sυccess in In tro . ducing and expanding commercial production for human consumption of the present vari.Hies of opaque.2 would ck.pend on a considerable governmer甘 sub. sidy to farmers in conjυoct10n with prom 叫的nal campaigns among producers. marke't ing agencies, and consυmers However. if a flint type high.lysine maize with a high.yielding capacity could be developed. government support cou ld be reduced or even eliminated Although home consυmption of the present fl。υry opaque-2 maize among low income farmers could be prom叫 ed al a somewhat lower government c。肘. such a program would demand a concentrated extension effort, and provision should be made to help the farm. er expand his production of ordinary maize or some other casn crop to cover the cost of opaque-2 seed and other additional inputs.• .,.Improved protein quality in opaque-2 maize will be of little advantage if peop~e do not accept the floury-type endosperm (below): the kernel on top has been selected to combine a flint endosperm with high quality in the grain.MAIZE PROTEIN QUALl TY 1 . Procluctlon of f1i nt.type opaqu...2 maize.The nutritional advantage of opaque-2 maize gives this product high priority in CIA T's genetic improvement pro.gram. 1I the genes which modily endosperm type can be identilied and concentrated in maize without losing the protein qυality advantage 01 the opaqu,• 2 major gene, many 01 the prodυction ， storage, and acceptability prob lems associate d with present varieties can be elimina'ted. As a first step toward 。btaining a more desirable type 01 opaque-2 maize, Ilint and semi-Ilint grains from commercial harvest of the 。paqu令2 have been selected and also from lines , single crosses, and other backgrounds wi'th the opaque-2 gene Preliminary results from laboratory and biological stυdies are presented under Swine Prodυction Systems 2. Yields 叫。 poq ue-2 maize A lield program was launche d in 1969-1 中 70 to eva1uate the production 。f opaqυe-2 commercial hybrids on the farm. Traditional cultural methods were compared with improved technology, ïncJuding use of fertilizèrs , weed control , In sect contr訓， and irrigatiòn where possible. Thi s study compared the new 。paque-2 hybrids with regional varieties, and with the recommended hybrid for each zone. Six Colombian aoron。 mists assisted farmers in planting 110 trials in two seasons in 14 different departmen'ts of the country In the trials harvested, opaque hybrids were the highest yielding in 15 locations. Over all locations, the recommended normal hybrids yielded 14 percent more than the opaques. More significantly, the opaque-2 hybrids yielded more than 40 percent over the re-9ional varieties, e 川 her under . improved or tradìtional cul'tural methods . From these results, it was apparen~ that replacement of traditional variefies by an 。 paque.2 hybrid would siqnilicantly increase both the yield and the quality 。 f a small farmer's maize crop .3. Effects of altitude, temperalure, and 個 1.. 側ergy On qual1lyA cooperative study has been initia't-ed with Purdue University and CIMMYT to evaluate the effects 01 altitude, temperaturej and solar energy on p巾， tein content and qual i'ty. This is a liveyear study 01 adaptation which als。 can lead to a better understanding 01 plant growth and efficiency 4. N叫 rilion work wilh opaque-2 malz.Sludies con'tinued duri ng 1970 on the r目 uperation of undernourished chil _ dren. This work is carried 0'ut by the Department 01 Pediatrics 01 the University 01 Valle and the Metabolic Unit 01 the Departmental Hospital 01 Va l]e. This labora'tory has continued to co1laborate with b0'th ICA and CIAT in the analysis of protein and Iysine in maize samples. Research on several manufactured loods has continued with the co-。 perati 0' n 01 private industry. Duryea, a baby lood made by Fruco-Maize悶， S. A., uses opaque-2 n、 aize as a source 。f protein . Further results in the use of 。paque-2 maize in swine nu'trition are presentedυnder Swine Production Systems PROMOTION OF OPAQUE-2 MAIZE Although there are field production and marketing problems with the present II。υry-e ndosperm opaque-2 hybrids ，的 eir tremendous biological value suggest s an immediate rural extension effort to begin to alleviate rural nutrition deficiencies A cooperat 叫 e ICA-CIAT project was planned t0' promote the adoption 01 the present commercial . opaque-2 ' hybrids among small farme[主 i.n Golombia , and to stimulate its indÙstrial ' utilization in an effort 'to improve nutritional levels among urban populations . To attain these objeçtives, the project w刊 l 剖e tempt:1 ) To achieve in s'titutíonal coordination and integration of 'the various agencies working in the agricultural sector 01 Colombia; To examine strategies for the promotion of opaque-2 maize, a meeting was held with CIMMYT specialists in Mexi 司 co. CIAT staff members also met with 。 fficials 01 'the Ministry 01 Agriculture 。1 Panama, along with representatives Irom o~her agricultural organizations, 怕 discuss seed production and emph.size the nutrition.1 advantages 01 。 paque-2 maize. During the past year, samples 01 the two opaque hybrids have been sent t。鉤。 ut 35 ∞ untries in Latin America and thr。υgh。υt the world.Training in maize production and im. provement continues to carry a high priority. The six Colombian agronomists who conducted regional testing 01 。paque-2 hybrids completed their training in 1970. One agronomist worked as a trainee in the maizE卜breeding program lor lour months belore joining the CIAT st.ff as a rese.rch assistant. A scientist from Haiti will soon finish his master's degree in Mexico and join CIAT's m.ize program as • rese.rch lellow. An Ecuadorian agronomist will join the group 01 research lellows in 1971. In .ddition, training in the .gronomic aspects of maize produc'tion is an integral part 01 the crop production specialist training project reported un der the section of Trainìng and Communicatlon Research results in maize production systems are an in legral part of CIAT's training program.Much 01 the work at CIAT is directcd toward developing, 'testing, and establ ishing viable production systems for specific commoclities -beef, swine, rice, m 刮目， food legumes, and CðSSaVa Practical considerations dictate specific attention , as well , to the diverse multi-commodity production opera'tions already to be lound in the lowland trop ics or which are likely to be acceptable, economically sound , and viable in certain tropical environments Consequently, the CIAT s'taff considers such significant issues as these: a) rota'tions between and among crops; b) ∞ mplementary animal-crop system s; c) mυIti-c ropping and inter-tillin 日 and d) the complementary and competitive aspects of various commodities with respect to allocati。的。1 land, lab。人 credit , machin ery, power , wa'ter, and 。 th er resou rçes. Other con 剖 derations must include domestic and export rnarkets, the local marketing and processing potentials , and overall , the relative benefjts of various systems to individuals and society. As a consequence, the ra :1 ge 。 issu. es wi th which CIAT must contend, ei'ther directly or thr。υgh national , regi ona l, and other ín'cernational agencl 間 is broad and complexVarious maizc and soybean intercropping schemes w ith Ll anera cassava were planted to test 'their possible advantages under tropical conditions S叫 t reatment s were set up, three using the cassava planted into already Production Systems cxisting stands 01 ICA Pelican soybeans, 51 days after the latter was planted; two involving simultaneous plantings of cassava with either soybeans or H-253 maize; and a control plot of cassðva planted alone Cassava cuttings, 20 cm in length , were planted at a 45 degree angle, 180In the tropical lowlands the multiple cropring system offers many advantages to the small (armer (left). A ñame plant (cenler ) grows in a field cultivated with maiz.e and cassava  cm between rows , and 110 cm between plan 峙， for all trea't mentsResults are presented in Table 1, Cas sava γields were lowered by the competition for light , water and nutrients from the companion crop; however , t。而 I gross return was quite similar for all cropping systems. If cos'ts of pro duction are considered for the double cropping systems , the dìfference in net return between the various systems would be very slight Production of cassava planted in exis-'t ing stands of s 。γbeans was apparently related to the amount of space available for plant growlh. Yields were highest when cassava replaced soybeans in the row (Treatment 3 ), and lowest when cassava was plan'ted 叭怕 the soybean rQw (Treatment 5). The cassava was more competítive than the soybeans when both were planted at the same time, and tended to crowd the soybeansThe maize companion crop grew con siderably taller and faster than the cas sava. Maize competed for a longer time than the soybeans planted carlier than the cassava Sorghum manag . .， ment 叮 stemsTwo varietíes of sorghum , P-25 and ICA-Pal-l , were planted in a lield tr 崎 l to evaluate length of sorghum survival through regrowth under different levels of managemen t. Plo'ts wíth and without irrigation were planted for both varie ties. ICA-Pal-l lailed to give sufficient regrowth after the first harvest for further harvests. Various treatments w. ~re applied to the remaining írrígated and non-irrigated plots 01 P-25, as lollows 、 1) fertilization and fìeld cu,ltivation; 2) fertilization alone; and 3) neither fertilization nor field cultivation. Yields in 'this experiment are presented in Table 2.Higher yields 01 'the non-irrigated treatments of the regrowth can be ex.plained by the lact that the treatment under-irrigation matured ccnsiderably earlier, resulting in an estimated 20 per cent loss of seed because of bird dam. age. The non-irrigated plots did not sυffer as much bìrd damage because seed was produced at a time when 。 ther fields were maturing, providing larger areas for the feeding birds 80th for the irrigated and non.irriga ted regrowth pl 。峙 I field cultivÐtion ap pears to have resulted in lower yields when compared to the plots that were lert 山 zed only. This may be explained in terms 01 root pruning by the lield cultivator. Differences were qui'te small Additional field observations wÎthin 咐 is experiment point to the fact that ncrmal combine harvesting results in a considerable 105s of seed , which then germina'tes and produces harvesting problems 01 the regrowth because 01 a w ide variation in maturity Grain and forage residue production In another experiment designed to evalυ 剖 e sorghum grain and forùge res idue production iJ t djfferent leve!s of matυrity ， it was found 'that some varie ties are well-suited for early grain har. vest with a 25-3 日 percent moisture con tent. A system should then be used lor recovering the stalk and grain residues from t he comb川e . In 'th 時 manner ， so;-ghum regrowth would permit a 5econd No visible improvement was observed in the borax treatments. However , yields were slightly higher when compared with the urea treatment s. There were no apparent cumulative effects when boron and nitrogen were applied togetherMaize is much more severely affected by boron delicier可 cies than adapted sorghυm varie ties such as P-25. An application of borax was made on part 。1 a production lield with little or n。 apparent effect on the first maize crop S自由 d aher application. Oifferences between no boron treatments were drama'tic in the second crop of maize. The lack 01 response by the lirst crop is ndt enti rely understood but was probably associated with inadequateηcor poration in the soi l. Boron has been known to be limiting lor allalla and citrus on many Cauca Valley soi ls for a number of years but had not been 50 reported as limi'ting for either maize or sorghum Soybean management systems Irrigat-ion and soil variabilíty Two recently-Ieveled lields were planted to ICA.Li li and ICA-Pelican sovbeans to observe soil variability 1011。心 ing leveling and to evaluate the effects of irrigat 叩門。 n soybean produc'tion Soybeans ;n the irriga 臼d treatments were planted on rai sed 50il beds sh aped with a bedder lo llow ing the lo rmation of ridges with a lister-type cultivator. Two rows, 70 cm apart , were plan!ted on each bed . On e furrow irrigation was made at flowering The effects of irrigation were shown in both va rieties by a considerable yield increase. I n one of the two fields occυ pied by the experiment, however, soy-bean5 we re poorly developed and d 悶 played symptom5 01 physiological stress These symptoms were similar 怕的。5e observed in plants inlected with 50ybean m。呵呵。r damaged by 2, 4-0, and 。 ccurred in rather large patches in the lield . Cau5e 01 thi5 phenomenon has not ðS yet b曲 n identilied , although as the same symptoms appeared in the same areas upon replanting, this would seem to rule out the possibiJ ity of an infect 悶 us disease unless it were a soilborne o rgani s 們nThe chemical DRC-736* showed prom. ising results last year for controlling bird damage caused by lhe eared dovo (Zenaida auriculata) to emerging soybean seedlings. Trials this year provided more evidence of its effectiveness In previous trials , 't he chemical was mixed with a s't icker.spreader substance (Roplex AC33) to provide better ad卅日。 n 01 the chemical to the seed The wettìng actlon of this substance caused some damage to the seed coat Consequent 旬， carn oi I was s'tudied as a substitute lor Roplex AC33 . The com. bination corn oil . Phosphorus levels are low 1n the so1ls at Carin、 agua (3 ppm wrth Braγ11 extractant). A few species of forage crops can be establishcd without added phos. phorus from fertilízer; but establishment is usually slow , and excessive seeding rates are required to get good lirst season stands. Applications 01 75 kg/ha 01 P,O, resul'ted in rapid s自dling establishmer、 t and development 01 mo~ lasses grass (Melinis minutiflora) using 12.5 kg 01 s開d/ 怕， about hall the rate locally recommended. Large plots (176 ha to'tal) for a grazing tríal were established with three fertilizer treatments 1) nc lertilizer; 2) phosphorus; and 3) phosphorus plus potassium. Fer. tilized plots were ready for grazing three to 10υr months after seed ing , whereas non .fertiljzed grass normally reqυires a lull year belore grazìng Three experiments were condυcted using herbicides to control native sod , and then introduced species were surface-seeded with no mechanical seed bed preparatìon. De lapon was 'the on ly herbìcide tested whìch ∞r、 sistently gave good control of the native grass composed prìmarìly 01 Tr.chypogon vestitus and Axonopu5 purpurei i. . Where control was adequate, satisfactorv stands of molasses 9日 5S were obtain2d, and, in some cases, seeding of Stylosanthes guyanensis was successfulThe estab l 時 hment of grasses in this manner is of interest from several standpoints: 1 ) erosìon hazard would be much less on rollìng land su rfaces than with mechanìcal seedbed preparalicn; 2) machinery investment could be kept to a rninimum, wi'lh herbicide being custom-app lìed eìther bγδirplane 。 r ground equipment Or with s mδ I! er ， non-motorized equipment; 3) rnuch less time wou ld be required than with mechanical secdbed preparation; 4) reduc. tion of the overaH cost of seedling e-s tab lìshment mìght be possìble by sυbtit 叫 in9 chemical for mechanical control Es'tablìshment 01 the lorage crops was slow even on plots where excellent vegetation control was achieved , probùbly because of poor seed-soil contact Fυrther trials are projected in which a rolling rìpple-blade coulter will be used to prepare a narrow strip of soil where seed and lertìlìzer wìll be band 甜In another experiment , a number of legume and grass species were seeded alone and in limited mixtures at three fertility levels , with conventional seedbed preparation. Preliminary observations indicate that several spec 惜 s were easily established, even with no fertilizer or with phosphorus only . The most prom 自 sìng legumes ìnclude Stylosanthe5 guyanensis, Caliilpogonium muconoides, 52 Desmodium in!ortum , and Puer.ria phue叫。ides . The grasses whìch show most promise for this ar目 are Melinis minutifl。間， Hyperrhenìa rufa , and Bra . chiaria decumbens.Two major problems have been encountered in growing rice on ox 悶。 Is The first is one of reducing permea. bìlìty, often as hìgh as 1,000 mm / dav ìn Ireshly plowed L1 anos soìls . Permeabil. ity must be greatly reduced to grow flooded rice s uccess fυIly . The hìghly aggregated soil at Carimagua was puddled with a mounted rotary tìller working in wa'ter, and infiltration was sub. stant 開lI y reduced . The lìrst crop was grown from March to Jυne ， and, after the raìn s started, the pump was requ ìred on ly once for 45 minutes to maintain a constan t depth 01 water ìn the lìeld.The dther problem ìs a physìologìcal disease known as \"anaranjam iento\" or \"orange leal\". Gr但 nhouse and labora. tory research result s obtaìned ìn 1970 support the view that iron 。別 city 悶 in part re sponsible for this disease. Extreme phosphorus defìcìency also appears to be involved. Preplant Iloodìng for three weeks allevìated 'thìs problem to some exten t. Floodìng and subsequent reduction normally bring about many changes in the 50ìl , inciudìng a rapid increase in pH , decrease in Eh (redox potential), and an initial increase in iron concen1 tration in the soil sol. ution. After an ini1ti 訓， and sometimes sharp and rapid increase, iron concentration usually decreases to a level intermediate between the initial level and the h 旬 h reached in most inorganic soil5 W 自 thìn tw。怕 three weeks.A series of greenhouse experiments on Eh, pH , electrìcal conductìvìty, and soil solution concentrations of iron , manganese, and phosphorus ì n I1∞ded 。xisols indicate that the soils at Carimagua are quite low in fertility and thatυpon llooding reductìon proc揖ds very slowly untìl lertìlìzers are added Negative Eh va lues were never mea-sυred withcut the addi~' ion of fresh organic materi 剖， even after 18 weeks of f100dingIt is believed essential not to drain the soils at Carimagua once they are flocded and puddled , as draining would interrupt the reduction process and might 內心It in critical post-plant levels of soil-solution iron . Drainag.! would also result in soìl cracking and a partial 1055 of the effect of puddling Rice, therefore, should be seeded ;nt。 water , Pregerminated seed has been successfully seeded into 5-7 cm of water, and stands have generally been good Yields in a farm-size paddy of IR 8 grown during the second semester of 1970 ranged from 4,500 to 6,300 kgjha dry paddyThe Inter-American Center for Photointerpre'tation (CIAF) has provided a complete photo-mosaic and a ten'日 tiV2 soils map based on photo-jnterpretation of the 20,000-hectare Carimagua Center , The soils map will serve as the basis for locating a livestock management un 間 ìn a long-range research pro . Germin剖 ion was between 60 and 100 percent for all entries, bυt only 760 varieti es produced seed . The remaining 240 varieties produced some flowers but did not set seedThe following agronomic traits were scored for each entry: days to germination , days to f1o wering, days 10 matu-rI句， habit of growth and disea se reaction (rust , common b1i ght , mosaic , and powdery mildew). Disease reaction was scored from 0 to 5, where 0 was the absence of disease sym阱。 ms ， and 5 was ccmplete susceptibility. Mosaic score was made without identifying the type of virus causing it. Habit of growth was classified as bush , v;ny or sem i-v iny 州。 re than 80 percent of the entries exhibited a disease reac'tion greater than 3, which means that more than 800 varieties showed susceptibilitγto one or more diseases.If the range of 0 to 1.5 is regarded as the range of res istance, the percent-aQe of disease resistance was as follows ru st, 17 percent; common bligh't, 10 percent; mosaic, 12 percent; and powdery mildew, 18 percentTraining and communic 剖昀n 咕。ne of the prolessiona 1 gr。υps 0 1 CIAT and consists of the following acti vities: Training, Informat ion Se rv ic肘， Field Proiects and Demo nstrations , Li brary, 5ta-:tistics , and Hou sing and F。咽d Services The Train1n9 and Co mmuni ca tion Program enCCm pÐSSeS acti v山出 dcsigned to achieve th;-ee primary 90315 considered instru menta l to the develop ment process \" To mobilize -the identilying 01 institution s and individuals whose roles in the various countrìes involved are highly re levant to thc development pro::ess 2 , To energize -the bringing t。 gether of these institut 的 ns and individuals 川 meaningful waγ5 and w ith a catalytic-type action. Th 問 川cludes information di ssemination , as well as conferenc肘， symposi a and other exchange activi'Ues 3. To qualify -the traíning 01 individuals so that they can eHec tively 1υnctíon in their own in sU tutions and thus enable th ose 。 rganizations to contribute sig nifi 臼 n'tly to the developm,nt processThese activities invol\\le a ba 剖 c philos 。phy 0 1 development which underlies CIAT' s edυcat ional programso It is con sidered that the central element 01 the development proc, ess is man him self , and therefore 'the behavio ral changes Ih 剖 cðn be effe~ted in order to improve the decîsio n-making abilities of individυals wi l1 bear upon the 叩開d with w hich the development process takes p lace 州。 re specifica l1 y ，的 is 'ta sk involves \" Helping people to know and un 回 derstond the 01個rnatives for ac t ion when f aced w 川、 a probl,m;2. Helping people 10 develop criteria for choos ing among a1ternate cou rses of action; and 3. Helping peo ple to acq山 re the capacity to anticipote the probable con 揖quences of the vari。υs alternati \\l es, and to u間 them as criteria for evaluating the appropri aO te ness of the ac tion take n in sol \\l 川 9 a particular problem In addition , a prime consider 肘 lon In all 01 CIAT' s trair、 ing activities is to inculcate in participating individuals a se nse of urgency and dedication t。 wo r k for the devel o pment of 'their count riesThe training programs begin with a d~ar definitic n of objecti\\les in behav . 咕咕 I change and level 01 performance The type 01 prolessional CIAT aims t。 produce is one wi ~h five major competencieso In addition to acquiring practical exper ience and applied training in farming w 川 hin the con'text 01 the hυ mid tropics ecology, this profess ional should also obt ain Irom CIAT's program a familiarity with and ability t。 handle the econom ic, scientific, tech-nìcaJ, and communication aspects of modern agricultural production and dif.  Beginning in June, 1970, seven trùinees were selected from various universities in Colombia to p, articipate in a crop production specialist training course. After 15 days of intensive training in in'terviewing techniques and diagnosis of maize production problems , theγpartic ipated in a study to identily some of the factors associated with low ma 阻 e yi elds cbserved among small farmers in CoJombia. These traine2:s learned 'to ioteract effectively with the small farmer as they interviewed somc 3 日 o maize producers , both on the 39ro nomic as well as the socio-economic 笛一 pects of their operations. The training prog月 m for these crop production specialists is continuing through June, 1971 , with instruction in the production techniques of other crops grown under tropical conditions InvoJvement of these production specialists (whose oùckground is mainly of a techni日 I nature) in socio-economic research , as in the case of 'the study mentioned above, has proven to be an efficient mechanÎ5m both for instruc. t 的 n and for motivation of the trainee He becomes , thr。υgh this type 01 。仆 the-job training, directly involved w 川 h farmers and learns to analyze their problems from more than j ust a technical standpoint . The trainee thus ac. quires an understanding of the social context wi\"t hin which these problems 。ccur and comes in contact wi th the complexity involved În f 附ding appro. priate solυtlonsIn-service training is predicated on direct supervision by one or more staff members. Areas of sludy covered in 1 中 70 included a broad range 01 special. izations. Beef prodυctlon ， swine production , and animal health were grouped under animal sôence ; and crop produc tion , lood legumes , plant pathology , opaque-2 maiz-e production , rice product 的 n and cassava production within plant science. The 25 trainees within this category were distributed as fo! lows: animal science, 5; plant science , 15; agricultural 缸酬。 mics ， 3; and agricultural engineering, 2 Conferences and symp伯伯 help CIAT to establish closer contaCts with key institutions and pers。肘 ， and 'co disseminate inform 叫咱 n and influence policy decision5 regarding important agricultural issues for the tropical countries Through it5 rice produc'tion program , CIAT has produced improved varieties with a higher-yielding capacity. These varieties are now ready to be released to rice-producing countries, and, as a related activity, a seminar on rice in Latìn America is scheduled for October [10][11][12][13][14]1971 Simultane。 υs translation equipment has been purchased for immediate use this year in CIAT's present lacilities and lor luture permanent installation in th含 projected Continυing Education Center bυildings In addi'tion to international activities regarding conferences and symposia , an internal seminar series WðS begun at CIAT headquarters in September, 1970, lor staff members and trainees . These seminars focus on agronomic and related 缸。 nomic problems within th3 low. iand tropics and present staff rr.embers and trainees with the opportunity to exchange ideas on research problems and their possible solutìons lated statements of 1ncome and expenses and of changes ln ~ld balances for the year. Our examinatlon was made 1n accordance wlth general1y accepted aud1t1ng standards and accord1ng1y 1nc1uded such 乞 ests of the accountlng records and such other audltlng prooedures as we cons1dered necessary 1n the clrcumstanoes. 1n our oplnlon , except for the understa 包 ement of 乞 he excess of expenses. over income described 1n the followl.ns paragraph J 乞 he acoompany1ng f1nanc1al statements exam1ned by us present fa1rly the f1nanc1a1 pos1t1on of Centr。工 nternac1ona1 de Agr1cu1tura Trop1cal (CIAT) 的 December 抖 ， 1970 and the resu1ts of 1ts operatlons for the year J 1n conformlty wlth generally accepted account-1ng pr1nc1p1es.We stated 1n our opinion da 巳 ed May 自 ， 1970 that_we regard the 1nclus1on 1n the f1nanc1a1 statem~nts for the year 1969 of cer-ta1n comm1tments for future expenses (ma1n1y materla1s .and\"supp11es) as not be1n在 10 accordance w1th generally accepted account1ng pr1nciples. These expenses were incuηed 1n 1970 and as a resu1t CIAT operates under an agreement signed with the Colombian govemment, the most Important stipulations of which are as follows 1. The agreement is for ten years but rnay be extended iC so desired by the partles thereto 2 CIAT is of a permanent nature and terminatìon of the agreement would not imply cessation of CIAT's e世 stence 3. I! CIAT ceases to exist. all of its assets wìll bc transferred to a Colombian edu. cational or other instiluUon considered approprlate by the parties to the agreement 4. CIAT is exempt from all taxes 5. CIAT is permitted 10 import. free of customs duties and other taxes. a>1 the eQuipment and materlaJs requlred for ils programs 6 . The government provides land for CIAT's purposes under a. rent9.1 contra.ct for ten years, aL a nominal rent τ\"tl is contract may be extended by mutual agreement NOTE 3In conformiLy with generally aC且 pted accOlUlting principles applicable to nonprofit organiz.ations. CIAT does noL record depreciation of its property and equipment NOTE' Granls are generally designated as to purpose (acquisition o( capital assets or payme叫 。 C expenses ). When no such specification is made the part of the funds received which Is used to purchase capital as扭扭 is included in the c8pital 8sset fund and the remainder in income of the operating fund","tokenCount":"16533"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3b4baa11e37de276b1852891bfef5be6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3da80000-0848-4c3e-b995-9c9291e5087a/retrieve","id":"-1463773288"},"keywords":["Climate change adaptation","breeding","crop modelling","environmental characterisation"],"sieverID":"d2c1de5d-a7b0-44a2-bed6-1803ccec8503","pagecount":"28","content":"Environmental characterisation to guide breeding decisions in a changing climate. CCAFS Working Paper no. 144. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Copenhagen, Denmark.Julian Ramirez-Villegas works as a researcher on climate impacts at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK, and is affiliated with the Climate-Smart Agriculture Flagship of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Julian can be contacted by email at: j.r.villegas@cgiar.org or J.Ramirez-Villegas@leeds.ac.uk.Alexandre B. Heinemann works as a researcher in ecophysiology at the Rice and Beans unit, at the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (Embrapa), Brazil, where he leads research on physiology of rice and common beans.!Alexandre can be contacted by email at: alexandre.heinemann@embrapa.br.Agriculture faces and will continue to face multiple challenges. Most notably, the need to meet food demand for a rapidly growing and urbanising population under increasingly variable and warmer climates (Wheeler and von Braun 2013;Tilman and Clark 2014).Substantial evidence now exists suggesting that agricultural yields will have to increase significantly in order to meet food needs during the 21 st century (Ray et al. 2013;van Oort et al. 2015). One such way of increasing yields is to develop high yielding cultivars through crop improvement (Chapman et al. 2012;Dingkuhn et al. 2015). Additionally, the development of novel, climate-adapted varieties that ably tolerate stresses will be key in order to respond to regional climatic changes (Asseng et al. 2014;Ramirez-Villegas et al. 2015), particularly if no mitigation policies are enforced (Müller et al. 2015).The development of high yielding and climate-adapted crop varieties, however, requires an understanding of how crops respond to spatio-temporal variations in soil, climate and management, as well as an assessment of the main factors limiting yields. This is because genotype-by-environment interactions sometimes prevent plant breeding progress for broad adaptation and/or for adaptation to specific conditions within a region (Chenu et al. 2011).Therefore, understanding yield constraints and their spatio-temporal variations will ultimately lead to improved priority setting and more rapid progress in breeding programs. This Working Paper summarises the results of a CCAFS project named Target Population of Environments (TPE). The project aimed at providing actionable information to crop breeders and, therefore, inform breeding decisions. Our method focuses on classifying growing environments and stress patterns, using a combination of controlled field trials and crop simulation models driven by observed soil, climate and management data (Sect. 2). We also present the application of the method on two crops in Brazil (Sect. 3), as well as a web-based tool for visualisation of results (Sect. 4). We conclude by setting out potential avenues for future research (Sect. 5).As stated earlier, our method combines field experiments, observations of environment (climate, soils) and management, and crop simulation models to develop a classification of environments and stress patterns. These classifications are then quantitatively assessed against the current breeding pipelines for the regions under study in order to assess the potential impact of stress-tailored breeding strategies. Fig. 1 presents an overview of the process. The methodology consists of seven steps, as follows:1.! The first step is to define the study region and crop under study and the crop model to be used, and to collate experimental data for model calibration and evaluation.Because breeding is a highly crop-and region-specific discipline, the area and crop under study are straightforward choices in most cases. The crop model, however, needs to be defined with care. Particular attention has to be paid to whether a wellestablished model has already been calibrated and evaluated for the study region [e.g. Lobell et al. (2015)], or whether the model of choice is suitable for the conditions in the study region. The selected crop model needs to be able to simulate processes that are relevant to the region. In some cases, it may be desirable to use more than one crop model in order to assess crop model uncertainty (Asseng et al. 2013). Gathering experimental data is also key to the success of this approach. Trial data should include relevant varieties in the region, should ideally be multi-location and/or multi-year, and should include both potential yield and stress-induced yield trials. Field data should be as detailed as possible, including time-varying measures of multiple plant attributes (e.g. leaf area index, organ-specific biomass), as well as weather, soils and management inputs.2.! Once the crop model has been defined and the experimental data has been collected the next step is to calibrate the crop model using a set of field experiments. To this aim, the experimental data should first be thoroughly checked for possible errors and then split into a `calibration` set and an `evaluation` set. The objective of model calibration is to adjust influential model parameters within their reasonable ranges so that modelling results are comparable to observed data (Wallach et al. 2014). Multiple methods exist to derive model parameter values for crop models (Angulo et al. 2013;Wallach et al. 2014;Alderman et al. 2015), and some of these are already built-in and well-tested for certain crop models. However, regardless of the method, it is key to ensure that the parameter values fall within plausible ranges and represent the morpho-physiological attributes of the varieties being parameterised. 3.! Simulations are then run per crop variety and assessed against the evaluation data.The primary aim of this step is to ensure that the model is capable of reproducing an independent set of observations. The result should be a parameter set (per variety) that can later be used to run spatially-explicit and time-varying simulations for the study region. Evaluation metrics often used in crop modelling to measure the distance between measured and simulated values include the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), the RMSE relative to the mean or the standard deviation (RRMSE), the mean absolute error (MAE), the correlation coefficient (R), and the Wilmott d-statistic (Willmott et al. 2012). Model performance can also be assessed both numerically and visually through the Taylor diagram (Taylor 2001).4.! The fourth step in this process is to run spatially explicit crop model simulations for the study area (across k sites), for a representative period of n years and for a number of management scenarios (m). For this, either high-resolution gridded daily weather or daily weather station records of a representative number of weather stations are needed. Weather variables needed for crop simulation are: minimum and maximum temperatures, downwards shortwave solar radiation, and precipitation. Soil profile data (i.e. lower, upper and saturation moisture contents) for all locations where the crop model is to be run are also needed. Management scenarios are constructed as a combination of planting dates, planting densities, and/or fertiliser application regimes (Heinemann et al. 2015a;Lobell et al. 2015). Model runs are finally performed for each of the site*year*management situations. 5.! Once simulations are completed, environmental groups (EGs) need to be determined.To this aim, statistical clustering is performed on the simulated crop yields of all the site*year*management scenarios. Clustering by yield helps separate situations of low and high yields, without necessarily assessing their causes -which will be assessed in step 6. Various clustering methods exist, including the hierarchical clustering used by Heinemann et al. (2015a) in Brazil, the k-means clustering used by Harrison et al. (2014), or more complex neural-network-based methods (Reymondin et al. 2012).Clustering efficiency and stability indicators are then used to determine the optimal number of EGs for the study region. However, it is also important to take into account the expert knowledge of regional breeders and/or agronomists to define the number of EGs. Using the results of this first clustering, maps of EG distribution and frequency can be produced.6.! With an understanding of which site*year*management combinations belong to the different EGs, the next step is to determine the main stresses for each group, i.e. stress profiles. Because this step requires statistical clustering of stress-related modelled variables (i.e. stress index), an a-priori idea of stresses in the region should inform this step. For example, the ratio of actual to potential evapotranspiration is usually a good indicator of water stress (Heinemann et al. 2015a). Similarly, the fractional reduction in grain-set from high temperature can help differentiate heat stressed and non-heat stressed situations (Lobell et al. 2015). For nitrogen or phosphorous stress, the ratio of uptake-to-required nutrients could be used. Clustering is performed individually per EG using the seasonal variation of the relevant modelled stress index.Step 5, a number of clustering algorithms can be used to perform this classification.7.! The final step is to use the environmental groupings and the stress profiles to calculate how much additional area in the study region can be covered if the breeding strategy is extended to include stresses that are not currently considered. This step is expected to make a clear case for, for example, the inclusion of additional sites for germplasm selection under specific conditions.Having described our methodology, we now present two case studies: one for upland rice in central Brazil (states of Goiás, Tocantins, Mato Grosso and Rondônia) and another for common beans in the state of Goiás in Brazil. We provide a summary of key results and conclusions. For more detailed descriptions the reader is referred to Heinemann et al. (2015a) for upland rice and Heinemann et al. (2015b) for common beans.Upland rice (UR) is a key part of the central and northern Brazilian diet, and is the main source of income for many smallholders in the savannah region. The current UR growing area is, however, half of what it was 10 years ago. To an unknown but likely significant extent, these reductions in UR growing area in central Brazil are a product of the UR breeding program strategy, whereby direct grain yield selection is performed primarily under optimal growing conditions. Recent evidence, however, suggests that drought stress conditions are prevalent across central Brazil (Heinemann and Sentelhas 2011), and hence limit the efficiency of the UR breeding program. Here, we hypothesise that the impact of the UR breeding program can be enhanced by better accounting for drought conditions across the UR growing region.The analysis region comprises the states of Goiás, Tocantins, Mato Grosso and Rondônia (Fig. 2). We gathered data from 17 different experiments conducted at the Embrapa Rice & Beans experimental station in Santo Antonio de Goiás (GO). Six of these experiments were used for calibrating phenology and growth parameters, and the remaining 11 were used for model evaluation. Model calibration experiments included measurements of dates of emergence, flowering, and physiological maturity, as well as of leaf area index and stem, leaf and panicle biomass. Evaluation experiments included only dates of flowering and maturity, and crop yield. We used the crop model Oryza2000 as it has proven to simulate rice yields accurately across a wide range of environmental and management conditions (Bouman and van Laar 2006;Li et al. 2013). Calibration of the model was performed using the built-in genetic algorithm of the Oryza2000 model for the cultivar BRS Primavera -a representative check cultivar for the four states under analysis. For model evaluation, we computed the  Spatially-explicit simulations were conducted for 51 weather station zones (defined using Thiessen polygons), 7 soil types (defined based on texture), 8 sowing dates (defined at 10-day intervals from 1 st Nov. to 10 th Jan.), and 33 years , for cv. BRS Primavera. We then classified the simulated yields using a hierarchical clustering method (Ward 1963), and determined the optimal number of groups using the inertia gain, the within-groups sum of squares, and expert knowledge. Results indicate the existence of three EGs: a highly favourable environment (HFE), a favourable environment (FE), and a least favourable environment (LFE) (Fig. 2). The HFE showed mean yields of 3,168 kg ha -1 , and represented 19 % of the production region; the FE presented a mean yield of 2,610 kg ha -1 and represented 44 % of the simulated scenarios; and, finally, the LFE showed the lowest yield (1,661 kg ha -1 ) and represented 37 % of the seasons. The occurrence of HFE was associated with clay soils and early planting dates, whereas the occurrence of LFE was often associated with sandy loam and sandy soils and late planting dates.Based on our knowledge of the study region, we defined the stress index as the ratio between actual to potential evapotranspiration. In the Oryza2000 model, this factor is used to reduce photosynthesis, and hence is a suitable indicator of drought effects on biomass accumulation and growth dynamics. For each EG we clustered weekly variations in the stress index using the same hierarchical clustering method as that used for determining the EGs. Results indicate the existence of 2 stress patterns for HFE, and 3 stress patterns for both FE and LFE (Fig. 3).For HFE, the two stress patterns correspond to stress-free conditions (69 % occurrence in this EG, profile 1 in Fig. 3) and to terminal drought stress (31 % occurrence in this EG, profile 2 in Fig. 3). For FE, the stress profiles are: [1] reproductive stress (41 % occurrence in this EG);  •! In the best environment (HFE, 19 % occurrence), the current strategy is likely to perform well. In Santo Antônio de Goiás (GO) (red flagged point in Fig. 2), where early generation yield testing is performed, HFE shows 62.5% probability of occurrence, suggesting that this site is suitable for selecting for potential yield. Sowing should be undertaken at the beginning of November and in clay soil. Irrigation, however, may be needed in order to avoid stress in certain years.•! In the favourable environment (FE, 44 % occurrence), two distinct stress patterns occur roughly four in every five cropping seasons. One option is to perform selection for wide adaptation to drought, as suggested by Chenu et al. (2011). Another option is to weight the performance of genotypes according to the representativeness of the growing environments where they are tested (i.e. weighted selection).•! For the least favourable environment (LFE, 37 % occurrence), we suggest selection to be specific to high yield under reproductive stress, which is the most likely stress profile in this environment (68 %).Based on our analyses, we estimate that an additional 42% of coverage (from total) would be possible if breeders were to broaden their selection strategy to select for reproductive stress (which corresponds to 41 and 68% within LFE and FE,respectively). This amounts to a fourfold increase in the coverage of the UR breeding program, which we argue is likely to be cost effective. Realising this potential, however, will ultimately depend on the existence and efficiency of seed systems, and on the adoption barriers to new germplasm.Brazil is the largest producer and consumer of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) (FAO 2014). In the state of Goiás (a large bean producer in Brazil), crop production occurs in three growing seasons or `safras`. A first season (wet season), for which sowing occurs between 1 st Nov. and 31 st Dec.; a second season (dry season), for which sowing occurs between 1 st Jan. and 28 th Feb.; and a third season (winter season) for which sowing occurs from 1 st May to 30 th Jun. Both the dry and wet seasons are rainfed, whereas the winter season is irrigated. The difference in planting times and yields between seasons implies the occurrence of different types of stress across time and space. Major limitations in the wet and dry seasons are low soil fertility, drought, nitrogen deficiency due to poor nitrogen fixation, as well as several bacterial, fungal and viral diseases (Beebe et al. 2011;Souza et al. 2013;Araújo et al. 2015).The Brazilian common bean breeding program, led by Embrapa's Rice and Beans unit, focuses on developing germplasm with broad adaptation for all Brazilian bean production regions. In their scheme, the early generation screening yield trials (nursery) are always performed in the winter season under well-watered conditions (i.e. fully irrigated). Although this is a cost-effective strategy, the main caveat is that it increases the risk of developing genotypes that do not respond well under stress. We analyse drought stress patterns in the rainfed (wet and dry) seasons in order to determine the extent to which the current strategy of the common bean breeding program needs to be adjusted to include drought stress conditions.As stated above, we concentrate on the state of Goiás (Fig. 4), for both wet and dry seasons.We assembled a large database of field experiments (41 in total) for two cultivars: cv. Pérola for Agrotechnology Transfer version 4.5 (Jones et al. 2003). Model calibration was performed following Alderman et al. (2015), who adopt a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach and the Metropolis Hastings algorithm for parameter estimation. The CSM-CROPGRO-DRYBEAN model showed acceptable performance for both cultivars in simulating end of season yield and phenology, with most simulated quantities within a 95 % confidence interval derived from observations. The model also captured well the seasonal variations in dry matter dynamics, leaf area index and soil moisture under moderate drought, but was unable to adequately simulate severe drought conditions. To our knowledge, however, severe drought only rarely occurs in the wet and dry seasons. Multi-environment simulations also showed good agreement with observations, with RMSE (MAE) values for Radiante and Pérola being 404 (328) and 322 (319) kg ha -1 , respectively.Simulations were conducted for the period 1980-2013 for 26 weather station regions (defined using Thiessen polygons), for 3 soil types (oxisol, ultisol, inceptisol), and for a total of 13 sowing dates (defined at 10-d intervals from 1 st Nov to 30 th Dec for the wet season, and from 10 th Jan to 28 th Feb for the dry season) for the two cultivars (Pérola and BRS Radiante).Clustering of yields and determination of the number of EGs was undertaken as it was for upland rice. Fig. 4 shows the EGs for both seasons.For the wet season, results indicate the existence of two markedly different EGs: a highly favourable environment (HFEw, 44 % occurrence) and a favourable environment (FEw, 56 % occurrence) (Fig. 4, top maps). The HFEw has an average simulated yield of 3,655 kg ha -1 , whereas the FEw has an average simulated yield of 2,870 kg ha -1 . For the dry season (Fig. 4, bottom maps), we also find two EGs: highly favourable environment (HFEd, 58 % occurrence) and favourable environment (FEd, 42 % occurrence). Yields in HFEd were  For the wet season, two stress profiles exist for the highly favourable environment (HFEw).Namely, stress-free (pattern 1 in top panel of Fig. 5, 86-88 % occurrence depending onWe developed a web application to visualise the results of the application of this approach to different crops and regions: http://www.ccafs-tpe.org (Fig. 6). The tool consists of three main components:•! A map application to visualise spatially explicit environmental groups, to query daily weather data and soil data, as well as to visualise dynamic graphs of yield variation and of stress profiles.•! Case studies and applications providing summaries and key findings of the analyses we have conducted so far. These include: upland rice in Brazil, dry bean in central Brazil, and irrigated rice in Colombia. Additionally, we blog about papers that use methods akin to ours.•! Documentation and data downloads: we provide detailed information on our methodology and results of our case studies, including free versions of published journal articles, reports and tutorials. We also allow users to download our project input and output data. As part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), we implemented a project named Target Population of Environments (TPE). We developed a methodology to classify environments and to determine stress profiles within these environments. Our results for upland rice in central Brazil suggest that breeding should be adjusted to include selection under drought conditions. On the other hand, results for common bean in the state of Goiás (Brazil) suggest that drought stress does not occur with enough frequency so as to warrant selection under drought conditions. However, for beans, we note that differences in observed farmer yields between seasons (wet, dry and winter)suggest that there may be other stresses acting to reduce yields. Future work should focus on identifying and characterising such stresses.The priorities identified by our analyses correspond to current climates, and, while they serve to identify clear priorities where breeding gains are necessary presently, climate change may imply shifts in some of these priorities [e.g. Lobell et al. (2015)]. As an obvious next step in this project, we are conducting analyses for upland rice and common beans in Brazil where we quantify changes in stress patterns under future climates. We are also extending the analyses to rice in sub-Saharan Africa, and flooded rice in southern Brazil.Finally, we wish to remark that other methods exist that classify environments for breeding.Many of these have been successful to orient crop improvement strategies in the last two or three decades (Hodson et al. 2002;Ortiz et al. 2008;Cairns et al. 2013). Future work should also focus on identifying how different approaches to environmental grouping can be used together to improve breeding practice.","tokenCount":"3480"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7ce15634f947b22de1d3f3e65c91f4d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0d4c4965-89c4-439a-a46f-d8412b675993/retrieve","id":"1324284486"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f377b237-4cc1-4425-b3ae-0675a4793b22","pagecount":"45","content":"En los últimos años se ha llegado a un consenso mundial acerca de la necesidad de un desarrollo sostenible. Además de un cambio de perspectiva acerca del desarrollo, el concepto del desarrollo sostenible implica nuevas demandas. Una de éstas es la producción de información, la cual debe jugar un papel critico, puesto que ella puede proveer de bases firmes al proceso de toma de decisiones y al seguimiento del desarrollo. Para responder a estas demandas, en 1995, el CIA T y el PNUMA iniciaron un acuerdo de cooperación con el fin de elaborar indicadores para el monitoreo del desarrollo y el medio ambiente en América Latina y el Caribe como herramienta de apoyo a la toma de decisiones y a la planificación. Como resultado de dicha cooperación se inicio el proyecto de Indicadores Ambientales y de Sustentabilidad: Una Visión para América Latina y el Caribe, con el objetivo de elaborar un producto, en forma de Disco Compacto, que permita:El Atlas CD contiene los siguientes directorios: X:\\ X: \\data \\docu X: \\data \\imgdata X: \\data \\mapas X : \\data \\mode~o X: \\data\\ tab~es X: \\program este directorio contiene setup. exe este directorio contiene toda la documentación este directorio contiene las imágenes este directorio (y los subdirectorios) contiene datos sobre vectores este directorio contiene el modelo de uso de la tierra este directorio (y los subdirectorios) contiene cuadros.dbf este directorio (y los subdirectorios) contiene el programa ArcView Data Publisher donde X es la letra del dispositivo para el CD-ROM.Para instalar el Atlas CD, ejecute setup. exe desde el directorio raíz del CD-ROM. Esta operación iniciará el proceso de instalación. El programa preguntará el lugar del disco duro en que usted quiere instalar el Atlas CD. Usted podrá elegir también entre instalar la base de datos (DATA) en su computadora o dejarla en el CD-ROM.Nota: El Atlas CD está disel'iado para tener acceso a toda la información desde el disco compacto. Sin embargo, usted puede trasladar los datos a un lugar más conveniente, especialmente si hay usuarios que no tienen acceso a una lectora de disco compacto. Si Usted escoge instalar la base de datos en su computadora es necesario disponer de 500 megabytes libres en su disco duro.Instalación del modelo de simulación de uso de la tierra Ejecute el archivo X : \\data \\mode~o \\insta~~ \\setup. exe.Este paso inicializa el programa de instalación del modelo. Se le solicita luego escoger un directorio en el cual instalar el programa Escoja el directorio por defecto. La rutina de instalación copiará entonces Landuse . exe en el directorio especificado; también copiará cierto número de archivos en su directorio de WINOOWS\\SYSTEM. Estos archivos permiten ejecutar el modelo.Este proceso debe repetirse en cada computadora en que se ejecutará el Atlas CD.Hay varias formas de iniciar el Atlas CD: Cuando usted instale el Atlas CD, se creará un grupo de programas y un ítem en Windows en su computadora personal. Dar doble click en el icono Atlas CD para iniciar la aplicación.Una forma alterna es, situándose en el Manejador de Archivos, dar doble click en el icono unepcia t. ex e del directorio X : \\ATLASCD\\bin.Nota: Atlas CD puede no funcionar correctamente si Usted tiene instalado Are view 3.0. Si Usted encuentra algún problema por favor visite nuestra pagina en Internet o contáctenos (ver pagina 40)Al abrir el proyecto, se le solicitará indicar la unidad de disco en la cual se almacenarán los datos. Toda la información debe encontrarse en una Alias de md1CaDores amb1entales y de suste ntab1hdad misma unidad de disco y debe mantenerse la estructura del directorio original; de otro modo, los nombres de las vlas de acceso serán incorrectos y los mapas no se cargarán en forma apropiada.¿fn cuál unidad de disco almacena los datos ? (On which drive are the data stored ?):le lí!1Atlas de md1CaDores ambientales y de sustentabrhdad También se le soliE:itará indicar el tamafto de la pantalla del monitor en que usted está visualizando los datos. Esta información es necesaria para que aparezca la escala correcta del mapa en la pantalla. Se le ofrecerán luego cinco opciones, que varlan desde una computadora portátil hasta una pantalla grande. Si usted no está seguro del tamafto de su Elige la dimensión de la pantalla (Choose your screen size}:Grande [large 20 inch)Scripts pantalla, o si ninguna de las opciones es apropiada, entonces haga clic en 'Otro'. Se le pedirá, entonces, que indique la anchura y la altura de la pantalla, en ese orden.El proyecto se carga ahora y aparece en pantalla la ventana del proyecto unepciat.apr. Esta ventana le mostrará las vistas que presenta el proyecto.Hay sólo una vista llamada ' Atlas CD' , que se abre automáticamente cuando usted accesa el proyecto.Cuando usted abre la vista, notará que cambian los menúes y aparecen más iconos en la barra de herramientas.Los seis primeros menúes son los convencionales de ArcView.Los siguientes siete menúes se relacionan únicamente con el Atlas CD.Estos menúes son: Estos serán, probablemente, los iconos más usados:Este icono elimina de la vista todos los temas activos.Este icono muestra la fuente, la fecha y el tipo de información de todos los temas activos.Este icono amplia hasta donde se extiendan todos los temas.Este icono amplia hasta donde se extiendan todos los temas activos.Este icono amplia hasta donde se extiendan cualquier característica elegida.Este icono activa la caja de diálogo de construcción de una consulta.Los ' temas activos' son aquellos indicadores que se eligen (es decir, aparecen resaltados) en la tabla de contenido de la vista.Estas serán, probablemente, las herramientas más usadas:Haga clic en este icono cuando qu iera identificar una característica en cualquiera de los temas activos. Esta herramienta modifica el cursor y le permite escoger una característica. Cuando usted haga clic en una característica, los atributos aparecerán en un cuadro.Haga clic en este icono cuando desee seleccionar características en los temas activos. Esta herramienta modifica el cursor y le permite a usted hacer clic en la característica o crear una caja de selección, haciendo clic sostenido y arrastrándola con el ratón. Cuando haya seleccionado las caracterlsticas del mapa, éstas se tomarán amarillas.Haga clic en este icono cuando desea un acercamiento del área de la vista en pantalla. Usted puede hacer clic una vez en el mapa para ir acercando (por un factor de 2), o hacer clic sostenido y arrastrar con el ratón para crear una nueva extensión.Haga clic en este icono cuando desee un alejamiento (visualización más distante) del área de la vista. Usted puede hacer clic una vez para ir alejando (por un factor de 2), o hacer clic sostenido y arrastrar con el ratón.Haga clic en este icono cuando desee desplazarse por el mapa cuando éste es demasiado ancho y no se ajusta por completo a la pantalla. Esta herramienta modifica el cursor y le permite a usted mover el mapa en la dirección del cursor. Si hace clic sostenido en el cursor y arrastra con el ratón, verá que el mapa se mueve con el cursor.Haga clic en este icono cuando quiera mirar las gráficas relacionadas con algunos indicadores. Esta es la herramienta de enlace; al hacer clic en el símbolo apropiado del mapa, usted puede ver la gráfica.Haga clic en este icono cuando quiera seleccionar formas o gráficos. Esta herramienta modifica el cursor y le permite elegir una forma. Sin embargo, no puede usted seleccionar las características de cualquiera de los indicadores, sino sólo las formas que usted ha dibujado.Haga clic en Guia de Uso. Aparecerá un menú desplegable. Este menú desplegable presenta dos opciones:Haga clic en la opción Programa para abrir la guía que está leyendo ahora.Haga clic en la opción Indicadores para abrir la gufa que contiene información sobre indicadores ambientales y de sostenibilidad.Introducción Esta sección contiene varios temas relacionados con los antecedentes del proyecto, donde encontrara el propósito y la definición del marco conceptual de referencia.Esta sección contiene análisis, cuadros y figuras para todas las variables de los indicadores en los menúes desplegables. Cada sección destaca los indicadores más importantes y debería ser una gufa útil para quienes diseñan la política. La sección contiene también notas técnicas que explican la forma en que se han creado Jos diversos mapas.El glosario defme muchos de los términos que se usan en el texto o que describen los indicadores.Cada sección contiene muchos enlaces de hipertexto. Los enlaces en verde lo llevan a otro tema de ayuda. Los que están en azul abren figuras relevantes y los de' color dorado abren cuadros. Hay también enlaces resaltados en rojo. Basta con hacer clic en el hipertexto, y se cargará un mapa en la ventana de visualización del At las CD. Usted puede regresar al Atlas CD en cualquier momento. Basta con cerrar la gula o dejarla abierto haciendo clic en la vt:ntana Atlas CD.Haga clic en Datos Básicos, en la parte superior de la pantalla. Aparecerá un menú desplegable. Este menú desplegable presenta JI opciones. Para visualizar cualquiera de estos temas, haga clic en el nombre respectivo de la tabla a la derecha. El mapa correspondiente al tema aparece al lado derecho de la vista, y la leyenda respectiva aparece a la izquierda en la tabla de contenido. El orden en que los mapas se exhiben en la sección de visualización de la vista está determinado por la lista de temas que aparece en la sección de la tabla de contenido de esa vista. Los temas que aparecen al fm de la lista se dibujan primero, y los que están en la parte superior aparecen de último.Para alterar el orden de los mapas, seleccione el tema o los temas que desea usted cambiar haciendo clic en la tabla de contenido. Haga un clic sostenido sobre el título del tema (o de los temas) y llévelo, arrastrando el ratón, hasta una nueva posición en la tabla de contenido. Los mapas aparecerán automáticamente según la nueva orden.Las imágenes se usan profusamente en todo el Atlas CD, pero hay varias cosas que usted debe tener presentes cuando las utilice.No es posible ver a través de una imagen. Por lo tanto, una imagen debe usarse principalmente como fondo. Es posible hacer que algunas partes de la imagen sean transparentes, pero los colores mismos siempre son sólidos. Por regla general, la mayoría de las imágenes se hicieron tan transparentes como fue posible para ev itar estos inconvenientes.Cuando se cargan, las imágenes se trasladan (por defecto) hacia el fin de la tabla de contenido. Esto significa que la imagen aparecerá primero y luego vendrán otros indicadores.Normalmente, no hay leyendas asociadas con las imágenes, a diferencia d. e los temas de tipo vector. Sin embargo, todos los indicadores que se visualicen mediante imágenes tienen también otro tema de ' leyenda' que se carga al mismo tiempo. Este tema de ' leyenda' aparecerá debajo de la imagen misma en La tabla de contenido.Una de las funciones más útiles que cumplirá el paquete es la superposición de diversos mapas. Este proceso es muy engorroso si se hace manualmente, pero es increfblemente sencillo cuando se usa el SIG. Los usuarios cargan sencillamente un tema después del otro y luego eligen el que debe aparecer encima de los otros. La superposición de mapas permite que los usuarios realicen análisis visuales sencillos. El análisis puede mejorarse mediante el acercamiento o visualización más cercana del área de interés.Si usted desea ver infonnación más explicita acerca de una característica especlfiéa del mapa (punto, linea o área), debe activar primero el tema del mapa haciendo clic en el nombre respectivo en la tabla de contenido.Después debe hacer clic en la herramienta Info 1 OJ de la barra de herramientas, y luego clic en la característica del mapa. De esta manera, traerá la entrada correspondiente a esa característica al cuadro de atributos asociados (ver el tema de ayuda en Hnea de ArcView 'ldentifying features on a view' [Identificando características de una vista] para detalles adicionales).Hay varias maneras de seleccionar características de una vista. Usted puede elegirlas según su ubicación o sus valores de atributo, o seleccionando sus registros en un cuadro. Usted puede seleccionar características de un tema o de varios. Para poder seleccionar las características de un tema, usted debe hacer clic en el tema en la tabla de contenido para activarlo.Las características se toman amarillas en la vista en pantalla cuando se seleccionan y permanecen resaltadas hasta que se hace una elección diferente o se cancela la elección original.Utilice la herramienta 'select Feature' l~bJ para elegir características en el mapa.Selección de una característica utilizando la herramienta 'Find' 'Find' (encuentre) es una forma rápida de seleccionar una característica específica de interés. Por ejemplo, si usted está trabajando con un indicador de ciudades grandes y quiere seleccionar ' Buenos Aires', sencillamente haga clic en el icono 'Find' 1\" 1 y escriba ese nombre en la caja de diálogo. El programa buscará los atributos de todas las ciudades para ver si el nombre aparece. La primera caracterfstica que lleve ese nombre será seleccionada y la visualización en pantalla se centrará en la localidad que tenga esa característica. Si esta no es la característica correcta, repita la secuencia y el programa encontrará la próxima característica que lleve ese nombre .Use la opción de consulta (ver pagina 16) cuando usted quiera seleccionar caracterlsticas según sus valores de atributo. Por ejemplo, usted puede hacer una consulta seleccionando todos los estados de Brasil cuya población sea mayor que 1 O millones de habitantes.La mayorla de los indicadores del paquete tienen un cuadro de atributos relacionado con el mapa. El valor de los atributos defme el color y la textura del mapa. Usted puede seleccionar caracterlsticas en el mapa abriendo el cuadro de atributos y seleccionando los registros. Cuando han sido seleccionados, los registros del cuadro se tornan amarillos y las características del mapa también se tornan amarillas. Para abrir el cuadro, debe asegurarse primero de que el indicador está activado en la tabla de contenido. Después debe hacer clic en el icono 'Tables' (cuadros)~-Verá entonces el cuadro de atributos del indicador.Cuando usted hace clic para seleccionar un registro del cuadro, el regisiueda resaltado; si usted regresa a la vista del mapa y hace clic en el icono 'Zoom to Selected Features' ~ , el mapa presentará un acercamiento hasta el nivel de cualquier característica que usted acabe de seleccionar. (Para más detalles, consulte el tópico de ayuda en línea de ArcView 'selecting features on a view' [Selección de características de una vista]).El Atlas CD permite a los usuarios hacer consultas más avanzadas a la información que posee si se hacen interactuar los diferentes indicadores de diversa manera.E\\ ejemplo que se presenta a continuación le indicará la forma en que usted puede seleccionar todos los centros de producción de frijol que queden a 5 Km de determinados caminos en una red vial.Cargue primero el indicador red vial y el indicador centros de producción de frijoles:     Visualización de la fuente de información ' \"\\.. . \\,.. , Casi todos los indicadores tienen infonnación sobre la fuente. Esta infonnación incluye el nombre de la fuente, la fecha de la fuente y el tipo de datos.Para visualizar la infonnación sobre la fuente:Active primero el tema del mapa haciendo clic en ese nombre en la tabla de contenido .Luego hará clic en el icono 'Examine'(~ r situado en la barra de herramientas .Esta operación hace aparecer una caja de diálogo de infonnación que contiene la fuente, la fecha y el tipo de datos del indicador.Haga clic en OK para avanzar al siguiente tema (si usted ha activado más de un tema) o finalice .Acceso al modeloHaga clic en el menú titulado Modelo de Simulación .Aparecerá un menú desp legable. Este menú desplegable sólo presenta una opción: Modelo de Simulación del Uso de Tierras.La primera ventana que se abre da una breve introducción sobre los modelos de uso de la tierra.En la parte inferior de la ventana se le pide escoger un escenario.Se escoge un escenario haciendo clic en el botón contiguo al nombre. Hay dos posibilidades, Convencional (CDS) o Sostenible (SOS).Después de haber escogido un escenario, usted puede mirar las hipótesis en que se apoya ese escenario.Haga clic en el botón Mira Hipótesis. Se abre entonces otra ventana que detalla la hipótesis.Para regresar a la ventana de introducción, haga clic en el botón Regresa.Para abrir la siguiente ventana, haga clic en Próxima Etapa .La siguiente ventana se titula Zonas de Vida. Aqul es donde usted escoge la 'zona de vida' en que aplicará el modelo.Hay 18 opciones de zona de vida: • Para escoger una zona de vida, basta con hacer clic en el icono radiado a la izquierda del código de la zona de vida.Al escoger la zona de vida, se ejecuta el modelo. Se puede entonces visualizar los gráficos del uso proyectado de la tierra, leer el análisis de los cambios proyectados, regresar para cambiar el escenario o cerrar el programa.Visualización de los gráficos [ \"\"':..,M\"\"'\"''\"\"' 1 • Cambios en Uso de Tierra • Deforestación • Tierra Agrícola per capitaSi usted escoge Deforestación o Tierra Agrícola per capita, el gráfico se presentará inmediatamente en la pantalla. Sin embargo, si usted escoge Cambios en Uso de Tierra, tendrá que escoger, además, los tipos de uso de la tierra que quiera visualizar en el gráfico. Estos tipos de uso de la tierra pueden escogerse de la caja titulada Uso de Tierra situada en la esquina superior derecha de la ventana. Hay siete tipos de uso de la tierra:Haga clic en el icono situado a la izquierda de cualquiera de los tipos de uso de la tierra que desee visualizar.Luego haga clic en el botón Dibuja .Los cambios proyectados de uso de la tierra aparecerán en el gráfico.En la caja de Estado, aparecen:• Superficie en Uso • Superficie de Bosques Para usar el indicador Superficie en Uso -tal como se hizo en Cambios en Uso de Tierradeben escogerse los tipos de uso de la tierra que quiera visualizar en el gráfico.En la caja de Impacto/Efecto, aparece:• Tierra Alterada l .. \"\":'•\" ~rr::OOCUMEt\\ 1 ~~ IUH En la caja de Respuesta, aparecen:Los gráficos proporcionan un análisis visual muy bueno de las proyecciones de los modelos. Si usted desea mayores detalles o una interpretación de los resultados, puede abrir la ventana de Análisis.Para abrir esta ventana, haga clic en el botón Análisis de la ventana del gráfico o de la ventana de la zona de vida.La ventana de Análisis se divide en dos: un conjunto de cuadros y un texto. Los cuadros resumen los indicadores presentados en los gráficos. Hay también una interpretación de ambos escenarios, que destaca los resultados más importantes. Query Builder (constructor de consultas) está también disponible en la caja de diálogo de Theme Properties (propiedades del tema), donde se usa para definir la selección de una caracterlstica para un tema.Para construir una consulta, elija un Field (campo), luego un Operator (operador) y luego un Value (valor). Se formula una consulta al hacer doble clic sobre estas opciones con el ratón o al escribirla directamente en la caja de texto de la consulta. Por defecto, la consulta se enmarca entre paréntesis, aunque es posible, según la complejidad de su consulta, que no se requieran los paréntesis. Si la opción de Update Values (actualizar valores) está activada, haga un clic en un nombre del campo para que los valores de éste aparezcan en la lista de valores. Los nombres de campo se encierran siempre en corchetes cuadrados ([ ]). Si el valor que usted quiere emplear en la consulta no se encuentra en la lista de valores, escribalo en la caja de texto de la consulta.Por ejemplo, para seleccionar todas las casas de más de JO millones de habitantes, la consulta seria:Las cadenas, por ejemplo los nombres, se escriben siempre entre comillas en las consultas. Las cadenas no son sensibles a la caja, de manera que se puede seleccionar Brasil asl:Utilice • como comodín de caracteres múltiples. Por ejemplo, para seleccionar 'Nicaragua' podría hacerse la consulta: ([nombre_pais] = \"nica *\")Utilice? en una cadena como comodín de carácter único. Por ejemplo, para encontrar Catherine Smith y Katherine Smith, utilice:([nombre]= \"?atherine smith\")Para seleccionar todas las ciudades cuyos nombres comiencen con letras de la M a la Z, podría usar la consulta:Los campos de fecha se tratan como objetos de fecha. Para seleccionar todas las fechas anteriores al día de hoy, puede usar la consulta:Para seleccionar todas las fechas anteriores a una fecha específica, usaría la consulta:([fecha] < Date.Make(\"03/15/ 1971 \", \" MM/dd/yyyy\")) Para obtener más información, consulte la sección correspondiente a ejecución de operaciones en los campos de fecha.Se pueden formular consultas complejas combinando expresiones con los operadores \" and\" y \"or\". Por ejemplo, para seleccionar todas las casas que tienen más de 500 metros cuadrados y un garaje, haga la siguiente consulta:([area) > 500) and ([garaje]= \"S\") Utilice el operador \" not\" para excluir. Por ejemplo, para seleccionar todos los departamentos de Colombia excepto Narifio, haga esta consulta:([nombre_pais] =\"Colombia\") and (not ([nombre_dept] =\" Nariño \"))Una consulta puede comparar los valores de dos campos. Por ejemplo, para encontrar todos los condados cuya población esté descendiendo, baga esta consulta:Es posible incluir cálculos en las consultas. Por ejemplo, para encontrar los condados cuya densidad de población sea menor que 25 personas por kilometro cuadrado o igual a ese valor, se haría la consulta siguiente:([pob 1990]/area <=25)Generalmente ArcView evalúa una consulta de izquierda a derecha, pero las expresiones encerradas entre paréntesis se evalúan primero. Por ejemplo, la consulta:se evaluará de manera diferente a la siguiente:Opciones de la caja de diálogo Fields (campos). Esta opción presenta una lista de campos en el tema o cuadro que usted esté consultando. Si está activada la opción Update Values (actualizar valores), haga clic una vez en un campo para que todos sus valores aparezcan en la lista de Values (valores). Haga doble clic en un campo para colocarlo en la caja de texto de la consulta. Si usted escribe el nombre del campo en vez de hacer clic en esta lista, los nombres de campo no son sensibles a la caja, de manera que se permite escribir \"Area\", \"area\" o \"AREA\".Los campos que han sido ocultados no aparecen en la lista de Fields (campos). Si se han definido equivalentes de los nombres de campo, éstos aparecen en la lista de Fields (campos).Operators (operadores Los operadores matemáticos\"+,-,*, f' y algunas expresiones arbitrarias de \"Avenue\" también pueden usarse en las consultas.Para encerrar una expresión entre paréntesis, selecciónela en la caja de texto de la consulta haciendo un clic sostenido sobre ella y arrastrándola con el ratón; luego haga un clic en el operador ( ). La parte seleccionada de la consulta quedará encerrada entre paréntesis.Values (valores). Esta función presenta una lista de valores del campo escogido. Solamente aparecen los valores exclusivos. Por tanto, si cinco características o registros del tema o cuadro que usted está consultando tienen el mismo valor para el campo elegido, este valor sólo aparece una vez en la lista de valores. Haga doble clic en un valor para ubicarlo en la caja de texto de la consulta. Si el valor que usted quiere emplear no está en la lista, escrlbalo en la caja de texto de la consulta. No se pueden visualizar valores de cuadros que contengan más de 30,000 registros.Update Values (actualizar valores). Por defecto, la lista de valores se actualiza cada vez que usted elige un campo. Si hay muchos valores, su actualización puede requerir un poco más de tiempo. Desactive esta opción con un clic si no desea actualizar los valores. Esta función es muy útil cuando la consulta compara un campo con otro y no es necesario ver los valores, o cuando se desea escribir valores especlficos en la caja de texto de la consulta en vez de escoger valores en la lista de Values.Query Text Box (caja de texto de la consulta). En esta caja aparece la consulta a medida que ésta se elabora.Si usted emplea Query Builder (constructor de consultas) para seleccionar ya sea características en una vista o registros en un cuadro, dispone de las siguientes opciones para formular su consulta:New Set (conjunto nuevo). Hace un nuevo conjunto de selección que contiene las características o los registros elegidos en su consulta. Las características o los registros que no estén en este conjunto serán eliminados.Add to Set (adicionar al conjunto). Af'iade las características o los registros que se hayan seleccionado en su consulta al conjunto de selección ya existente. Si no existe un conjunto de selección, las características o los registros especificados en la consulta se convierten en un nuevo conjunto. Elija esta opción para ampliar la selección.Select from Set (seleccionar del conjunto). Selecciona las características o los registros de su consulta a partir del conj unto de selección existente. Solamente las características o los registros de este conjunto existente que se seleccionen en su consulta permanecerán en el conjunto de selección. Elija esta opción para reducir su selección.Consultas para definir una selección de características para un temaSi usted emplea Query Builder (constructor de consultas) en la caja de diálogo de Theme Propertíes (propiedades de l tema) para definir una selección de características para un tema, verá los iconos OK y Cancel en vez de New Set (conj unto nuevo), Add to Set (adicionar al conj unto) y Select from Set (seleccionar del conjunto).OK (aceptable). Selecciona las características de su consulta y hace que esta consulta sea la defmición de la selección de características para el tema. Solamente las características que cumplan con esta definición serán representadas en el tema. La consulta se aí'lade a la caja de diálogo de Theme Properties (propiedades del tema).Cancel (cancelar). Cierra Query Builder (constructor de consultas), sin ejecutar la consulta.Usted puede copiar y pegar las consultas. Por ejemplo, usted puede emplear Query Bullder (constructor de consultas) en una vista para hacer una consulta sobre un tema, y luego decidir usar esta consulta como la definición de la selección de características del tema. En este caso, puede copiar la consulta, abrir Query Builder (constructor de consultas) en la caja de diálogo de Theme Properties y pegar la consulta. Para copiar toda la consulta o parte de ella, seleccione lo que usted quiere copiar y luego pulse CTRL+C. Para pegar, pulse CTRL+V. Su plataforma puede tener otras formas de acceso directo a estas operaciones por medio del teclado, por ejemplo, en Windows se puede también copiar con CTRL+INS y pegar con SHIFT+INS.Cuando está haciendo una consulta sobre una vista o un cuadro, puede usar todavía los demás componentes de su proyecto mientras Query Bullder (constructor de consultas) esté abierto. De este modo usted puede encontrar los valores, datos y estadísticas que quiera usar en la consulta. Por ejemplo, si usted quiere seleccionar en una vista todas las regiones de ventas ~ue tengan un ingreso superior al promedio, puede emplear Statlstics (estadísticas) en el campo Revenue (ingresos) en el cuadro de atributos de tema para encontrar el ingreso promedio; luego regresará al Query Builder (constructor de consultas) para introducirlo en su consulta. (Cuando esté usando Query Builder (constructor de consultas) de la caja de diálogo de Theme Properties (propiedades del tema) usted no puede hacer esta operación; debe cerrar Query Builder (constructor de consultas) y la caja de diálogo de Theme Propertles (propiedades del tema) antes de poder usar otros componentes del proyecto).Después de emplear Query Builder (constructor de consultas) para seleccionar características en una vista, utilice Zoom to Selected Features ~(ampliar las características seleccionadas) para visualizar mejor el alcance de las características que usted ha seleccionado.Recuerde que los datos incluidos en el Atlas CD son en su mayoría visuales. Usted necesita entonces tener una pantalla y plaqueta gráfica que le permitan obtener una buena resolución, en caso contrario la visualización será de mala calidad.Recuerde cuando defina el \" tipo de letra\" bajo Windows de chequear si esta es \" letra pequeña\" o \" letra grande\". Si emplea letra pequeña conservara la estructura y diagramación de los recuadros y figuras. Si emplea letra grande Atlas CD puede alterar la diagramación y estructura de los recuadros y figuras.Recuerde que dada la gran cantidad de mapas e imágenes, el Data Publisher puede ser lento al abrir algunas de las aplicaciones. La única solución para mejorar el rendimiento, es cargar todo el Atlas CD en su disco duro. Para esto se necesita de una capacidad de 500 Megabytes (MB) en su disco. SI no tiene la capacidad en su disco duro, por favor tenga paciencia al emplear algunas de las aplicaciones.In recent years a world consensos has been reached on the need for sustainable development. Such a changed perspective on development implies new demands, one ofwhich is the production of information that will play a critica! role in providing a fmn basis for decision making and monitoring development. To respond to this demand, CJAT and UNEP made a collaborative agreement in 1995 to prepare indicators for monitoring development and the environment in Latín America and the Caribbean. These indicators would serve as tools to support decision making and planning. The project Environmental and Sustainability Indicators: Outlook for Latín America and the Caribbean resulted from this collaborative agreement.The project aims to develop products, like this CD-ROM, with which:• Data, statistics, and indicators can be related to management and administrative needs.Sets of data and indicators can be integrated on a geographical basis to support decision making at different \\evels (country, ecoregion) and scales (local, national, regional, worldwide). • lnformation exchange and quality of the information used in decision making and planning can be improved and made easier. • Useful regional, national, and local information can be disseminated for decision making.The production ofthis CD-ROM has been made possible only with the help and cooperation ofvarious individuals and institutions. Without the financia! and institutional support, data and information, as well as the comments, criticism and advice , it would have been impossible to have completed this work.Obviously the fmal responsibility rests with the authors.A special mention to all ofthe institutions that have provided the funds that allowed us to develop this CD-ROM: lntemational Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIA T) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). We are also grateful to the following institutions for providing data and information: Land Management Unit (CIA T), GIS Unit (CIA T) To install the software run setup. exe from the root directory of the CD-ROM. This will initiate the setup process and will ask where you wish to install Atlas CD. You will also be given the choice of installing the data (DATA) on your machine or leaving it on the CD-ROM.Note: Atlas CD is designed so that all the data can be accessed from the CD. However you may wish to move the data toa more convenient location especially ifthere are users who do not have access toa CD reader. lf you choose to install the data base on the computer you will need to have 500Mb free on the hard disk.Run the file X: \\data \\modelo \\install \\setup. exeThis initialises the setup program for the Model.You will be asked to choose a directory into which the program will be installed. Choose the default directory.The setup routine will then copy Landuse. exe to the specified directory and will also copy a number of files to your WINDOWS\\SYSTEMdirectory. These files enable the Model to be run.This process has to repeated on each machine which will run the indicators package.There are a number ofways to start the ArcView project:When you install Atlas CD a program group and item will be created for your windows desktop. Doubleclick on the Atlas CD icon to start the application.Alternatively from File Manager double-click the unepcia t. ex e icon in the X: \\a tlascd\\bin directory.Note: Atlas CD may not function correctly ifyou have ArcView 3.0 already installed. Ifyou discover any problems please visit the project home page or contact us (see page 40)Atlas de mdrCaOores ambrentales y de sustentabrhdad On opening the project you wiU be asked to provide the drive on which the data are stored. All of the data must be on the same drive and the original directory structure must be retained, otherwise the path names will be incorrect and the maps will not load properly.¿En cuál unidad de disco almacena los datos ? (On whlch drive are the data stored ?1:Atlas de indiCaDores ambientales y de sustentabrhdad Y ou will also be asked to en ter the size of the monitor screen on which you are viewing the data. This is in order to display the correct scale of mapping on the screen. You are given five options, ranging from laptop size toa large screen. lfyou are unsure, or non e of the options are appropriate, then click 'Other'. You will then be prompted to enter the width and height ofthe screen respectively7Elige la dimensión de la pantalla (Choose your screen size) :Mediana The project now loads and you will see the 'unepciat.apr' project window . The window will show the views that are in the project.There is only one view. This is named 'Atlas CD'. This is opened automatically when you open the project.When you open the view you will notice that the menus change and more buttons appear on the toolbar.The frrst six menus are conventional ArcView menus.The next seven menus relate onJy to the 'Atlas de indiCaDores ambientales y de sustentabilidad para América Latina y el Caribe' project.These menus are: Click on Guía de Uso A pull down menu appears. There are two options from the pull down menu: Indicadores Programa.Click the Programa option to open the guide you are now reading.There are three sections to the guide:This section contains a number oftopics relating to the background ofthe project, ranging from the state of the environment and region to the conceptual model for the project.This section contains analysis, tables and figures for all ofthe indicator variables in the pull-down menus. Each section highlights the most important indicators and should act as a useful guide for policy-makers. The section also contains technical notes explaining how the various maps have been createdThe glossary provides definitions for many ofthe terms that are used in the text or which describe indicators.Each section contains many hypertext Iinks. Those links in green take you to another help topic. Those in blue open relevant figures and links in gold open tables. There are also links highlighted in red, just click on the hypertext anda map is loaded in the Atlas CD -..iew window.You can retum to Atlas CD at any time. Just close the guide or leave it open and click on the Atlas CD window.Click Datos Basicos at the top of the screen. A pul! down menu appears. There are 11 options from the pull down menu: To display any of these themes click the name in the list. The map ofthe theme appears on the right hand side ofthe view, whilst the legend appears on the left in the One of the most useful functions that the package will perfonn is the overlaying of various maps. This is a very cumbersome process by hand but is incredibly simple using GIS. Users simply load one theme after another, then decide which appears on top ofthe others. Overlaying maps allows users to perfonn simple visual analyses. The analysis can be improved by zooming-in to the area of interest.lfyou wish to see more explicit infonnation about a particular map feature (point, line or area) you should flrst actívate the map theme by clicking the name in the table of contents. Then click the lnfo tooJI.O J on the too) bar and click the feature on the map. This will bring up the entry for that feature in the associated attribute table (see ArcView on-line help topic \" ldentifying features on a view\" for further details).There are severa) ways to select features on a view. You can select them according to their location, according to their attribute values, or by selecting their records from atable. You can select features from one or more themes. Before you can select features from a theme, you have to click on the theme in the Table of Contents to make it active.Features turn yellow on the view when they are selected and remain highlighted until a different selection is made, or until they are deselected.Use the Select Feature toollfml to select features on the map.Find is a quick way to select a particular feature of interest. For example, ifyou are working with an indicator ofthe large cities and you want to select 'Buenos Aires', simply click the Find button icon IAI and type that name into the dialogue box. The program wi ll search the attributes of all the cities to see if the name appears. The first feature to have that name will be selected and the display will centre on the location of the feature. lf th is is not the correct featu re repeat the sequence and the program will flnd the next feature that has that name.Use a query wben you want to select features according to their attribute values. For example, you can build a query (see page 35) to select all the states in the Brazil with populations greater than 1 O million.Most indicators in the package ha ve a table of attributes connected to the map. The val u e of the attributes defines the colour and texture ofthe map. You can select features on the map by opening the attribute table and selecting the records. When they are selected the records in the tab le tum yellow and the features on the map also tum yellow. To open the tablif must flfSt ensure that the indicator is active in the Table of Contents. Then click the table button icon . You will now see the attribute table for the indicator. When you click and selecta record from the table it is h.ighlighted, ifyou retum to the View ofthe map and click the 'Zoom to selected features' ~ button icon the map will zoom to the extent of any fea tu res that you have just selected.(see ArcView on-line help topic \"Selecting features on a view\" for further details).Atlas CD allows users to perform more advanced queries of their data according to how different indicators interact.The example here will show how you can select all ofthose centres ofbean production that lie within 5 km of specific roads in the road network.  Zoom in to the selected features using the ~ button on the toolbar.Nearly all ofthe indicators have source information. This information includes the name ofthe source (Fuente), the date of the so urce {Fecha), and the type of data (Tipo de Datos).To view the source information you should first actívate the map theme by clicking the name in the table of contents.Then click the Examine button ~ on the tool bar .This brings up an information dialogue box containing_ the source, date and type of data for the indicator.Click 'OK' to move to the next theme (ifyou have more than one theme active) or fmish .To cboose a life zone just click the radial button to the left of the life zone code.When you choose the life zone the model is run. Y ou can then view the graphs of projected landuse, read the analysis of the projected changes, retum to change the scenario or close the program.To view the graphs click the Grafica button.This opens up a new window. lnitially there is no graph showing. To see a graph you must first choose an indicator from the Presión (pressure), Estado (state), Impacto/Efecto (impact/effect), or Respuesta (response) boxes.In the Presión box there are:• Cambios en Uso de Tierra (Ch ange in Land Use) C lick the button to the left ofany ofthe land use types that you wish to see displayed. Then click the Dibuja button. The projected land use changes w ill appear in the graph.In the Estado box there are:• Superficie en Uso (Surface in Use)• Superficie de Bosques (Forest surface)For the Superficie en Uso indicator, as with Cambios en Uso de Tierra, you will have to choose which land use types are displayed in the graph. The graphs provide a very good visual analysis of the models' proj ections. To open the Analisis window click the button from either the graph window or the life zone window.The Analisis window is split into a set of tables and text. The tables summarise the indicators shown in the graphs. There is also an interpretation for bolh scenarios, highlighting the most important results.Date fields are treated as date objects. To select all dates before today, you could use:To select all the dates before a particular date, you could use:([date] < Date.Make(\"03/15/1971\", \"MM/dd/yyyy\"))See Perfonning operations on date fields for more infonnation.Complex queries can be built by combining expressions together with the And and Or operators. For example, to select all the houses that ha ve more than 1 ,500 square feet and a garage, use the query:( [area] > 1500) and ([garage]= \"Y\")Use the Not operator to exclude. For example, to select al! the New England states except Maine, use the query:( [sub_region] =\"N Eng\") and (not ([state_name] = \"Maine\"))Queries can compare the values oftwo fields. For example to fmd all the counties with a declining population, use the query:Calculations can be included in queries. For example, to find the counties with a population density of less or equal to 25 people per square mile, you could use the query:( [popl990]/area <= 25)Nonnally ArcView evaluates a query from left to right, but expressions that you enclose in parentheses are evaluated first. For example, the query:will be evaluated differently from: Performing a query on a view or a tableIfyou are using the Query Bullder to select features on a view or records in atable, the following options are available for perfonning your query:New Set Makes a new selected set containing the features or records selected in your query. Features or records not in this set are deselected.Add To Set Adds the features or records selected in your query to the existing selected set. Ifthere is no existing selected set, the features or records specified in the query become a new set. Use this option to widen your selection.Select From Set Selects the features or records in your query from the existing selected set. Only those features or records in this existing set that are selected in your query wiJI remain in the selected set. Use.this option to narrow down your selection.Performing a query to define a feature selection for a themeIfyou are using the Query Builder from the Theme Properties dialog box to define a feature selection for a theme you will see OK and Cancel buttons instead of New Set, Add To Set and Select From Set.OK Selects the features in your query and makes this query the feature selection defmition for the theme.Only those features that meet this defmition will be represented in the theme. The query is added to the Theme Properties dialog box.Cancel Closes the Query Builder without running the query.You can copy and paste queries. For example, you migbt use the Query Builder on a v iew to query a theme then decide to use this query as the theme's feature selection defmition. La conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo (UNCED-92) condujo a un consenso general acerca de la necesidad de un desarrollo sostenible. Además de un cambio de perspectiva acerca del proceso de desarrollo, el concepto del desarrollo sostenible implica nuevas demandas. Una de estas es la producción de información, la cual debe jugar un rol critico, puesto que ella puede proveer de bases firmes al proceso de toma de decisiones y al seguimiento del proceso de desarrollo. Es asf como el capitulo 40 (Información para la Toma de Decisiones) de la Agenda 21 hace un llamado para el desarrollo de indicadores para el desarrollo sostenible. En particular se pide en el nivel nacional, que los paises, y en el niv el internacional, que las agencias internacionales y los organismos no gubernamentales, desarrollen el concepto de indicadores de desarrollo sostenible e identifiquen los indicadores aptos para monitorear el proceso de.desarrollo.Para el proceso de la toma de decisiones y el análisis y seguimiento de las políticas y estrategias de desarrollo existen una serie de datos, estadísticas e indicadores económicos y sociales que son usualmente utilizados en el nivel regional y nacional (UNEP, 1993;UNDP, 1996;World Bank, 1996;WRI, 1996). Sin embargo información ambiental equiv alente no existe o no se encuentra disponible para los usuarios, lo que impide que la toma de decisiones se efectúe tomando en cuenta todos los componentes y características del proceso de desarrollo. No obstante , en los niveles regional y nacional existen en muchos casos suficientes datos y estadísticas ambientales y socioeconómicas que permitirían incrementar el uso de la información dentro del proceso de toma de decisiones. Sin embargo estos datos y estadísticas están muchas v eces subutilizados o comprometidos por la ausencia de marcos metodológicos comunes, aceptados y validados int ernación al, r eg i o n al y naciona lmente.Para mejorar esta situación se requiere la elaboración de información que permita el seguimiento del desarrollo. Esta información debe ser concebida como un conjunto de datos e indicadores ambientales y socioeconómicos relacionados que permitan el monitoreo del proceso de desarrollo a múltiples escalas geográficas. De esta manera se podrá apoyar, mejorar y hacer más eficaz &1 proceso de l a toma de decisiones y la planificación así como incrementar el intercambio, la difusión y la comunicación de la información al nivel de los usuarios. Además se podrá guiar y perfeccionar el proceso de recolección y toma de datos, así como ayudar a identificar áreas y temas en donde la información disponible es inadecuada o inexistente. De esta manera la información producida debe permitir:1) Determinar los cambios y condición del medio ambiente y los recursos naturales en relación con el proceso de desarrollo y la sociedad .2) Dar un diagnóstico sobre las causas y efectos potenciales de los problemas actuales detectados o los cambios en el estado del medio ambiente y la sociedad a fin de elaborar las respuestas y acciones adaptadas .3) Pronosticar y predecir los impactos actuales y futuros de las actividades humanas sobre el medio ambiente para definir las estrategias y políticas alternativas.Par a hacer operativas estas funciones se ha elaborado el presente Disco Compacto que constituye un sistema de infor mación sobre la base a un conjunto de datos básicos e indicadores que permi ten:1) Conectar los datos, estadísticas e información relacionada con las necesidades de manejo y gestión en los niv eles local, nacional y regional.2) Integrar conjuntos toma de decisiones en ecoregión) y escalas 3) Identificar vacíos tareas de recolección de datos en una base geográfica para apoyar el proceso de función de los diferentes niveles (país, ecosistema, (local, nacional, regional, global). o duplicación en la información y hacer más eficaz las de datos en los niveles nacional, regional y global.4) Mejorar y facilitar el intercambio y la calidad de la información utilizada en el proceso de la toma de decisiones y la planificación. S) Comunicar a los diferentes tipos de usuarios información regional, nacional y local útil para la toma de decisiones.El contenido y productos del sistema incluyen varios tipos de información, que va desde un marco conceptual de referencia y la definición de los problemas y áreas prioritarias hasta conjuntos de datos e indicadores georeferenciados, estadísticas y análisis. Además como no todas las instituciones y paises se encuentran en el mismo estado de desarrollo para la adquisición, elaboración y uso de datos e indicadores el sistema puede servir como punto de referencia y de apoyo e intercambio de información y metodologías. Al mismo tiempo el sistema provee de otras herramientas como proyecciones, modelos y escenarios útiles para la definición de objetivos y metas de desarrollo y calidad ambiental.No obstante, cabe anotar que la difusión y uso del conjunto de indicadores para la toma de decisiones está sujeto al desarrollo de un proceso de intercambio entre productores y usuarios de estas herramientas. Esto implica un diálogo práctico y una comunicación continua entre los diferentes actores, para establecer nuevas necesidades y mantener la discusión y análisis para cada etapa del proceso de toma de decisiones para las cuales los indicadores fueron elaborados. Este proceso requiere, además de un intercambio fluido de informa~ión y de un proceso abierto de armonización, de un delicado balance acerca de la validez científica, la aceptabilidad política y la factibilidad económica y técnica para el desarrollo y uso de estas herramientas. Con este fin se ha creado una página en Internet para recibir y conocer sus necesidades, reacciones, comentarios, sugerencias e información, en la siguiente dirección: http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/land/indicators/project.html De esta manera, el producto elaborado y la ventana abierta en Internet, nos dan la seguridad de poder contribuir a que los países, instituciones y personas de América Latina y el Caribe puedan convertir la información en acción para que el transito necesario hacia modelos de desarrollo sostenibles en la región sea una realidad.","tokenCount":"8141"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a74042deb8b8cfa87fda8b2de2ee9af3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4ba52f09-c986-4641-b836-8d073a73d24e/retrieve","id":"1603273682"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"68ff2954-d285-4199-bff2-f9f0c7a8460f","pagecount":"4","content":"In India, the CGIAR Initiative on Nature-Positive Solutions works in remote parts of Western India's Maharashtra State. NATURE+ and its partners selected several sites (called clusters) for their high potential for implementing nature-positive activities to improve nutrition, climate resilience, food security and to conserve nature. People in these tribal areas also have rich traditional knowledge that is key to natural solutions.The CGIAR Initiative on Nature-Positive Solutions aims to re-imagine, collaboratively create and implement nature-positive solutions for agrifood systems that equitably support food and livelihoods and ensure that agriculture is a netpositive contributor to biodiversity and nature.There are several challenges to a nature-positive transition in India. There is limited local-level data on available resources and their utilization for naturepositive land use. There is a general lack of awareness on the efficient use of resources. There is little to no market for sustainable circular economy business models. Financing for nature-based solutions at the individual or farm level remains low.The Initiative works in collaboration with highly capable partner organizations that specialize in activities related to agricultural management and production. In addition, NATURE+ collaborates with relevant on-the-ground stakeholders to assess, develop, implement, and sustain nature-positive solutions in agri-food systems to ensure income generation, improve biodiversity, and deliver a net-positive impact of agriculture on nature. The Initiative creates opportunities to access the broader food basket through more nutrient-rich crop varieties to help develop more resilient and adaptable farming and seed systems.To provide strong institutional support in India for a transition to nature-based solutions, NATURE+ works to enhance income opportunities (particularly for women, youth and indigenous peoples) through value chains related to seeds, crops, fruit trees, waste, payment for ecosystem services, and public procurement. Improved restoration and soil management efforts, as well as improved recycling value chains, will create highly valued carbon sinks and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.In India, the CGIAR Initiative on Nature-Positive Solutions works in two clusters, Akole and Nandurbar, Maharashtra.Outlook 2024 • Collaborative design and implementation of pilot business models based on surveys and data collection, technology identification, and awarenessgeneration workshops for circular bioeconomy activity.NATURE+ completed a community-led planting drive on communal land, which included local species selected by the community. Some 35 hectares and 4,000 saplings were planted. NATURE+ built a priority species list of 237 tree species ideal for restoration and full trait and suitability modeling was completed for 177.The 237 priority tree species will be fully added to the Diversity for Restoration tool, and forest restoration activities will continue in the clusters. NATURE+ and partners will complete a comparative study on biodiversity and ecosystem services under grazed andA circular bio-economy innovation hub was launched with an accompanying website and the first meeting of the hub was conducted with new stakeholders in India.Agricultural and livestock waste was identified in microwatersheds to explore potential for circular bioeconomy activities. The Initiative conducted capacity building on agri-livestock waste management in local languages and farmers; 80 farmers were trained on management strategies.The Initiative will continue the development of the circular bioeconomy innovation hub and develop a technical brief on the hub, along with a training manual for biogas. NATURE+ will continue the identification of potential stakeholders for the hub. In the selected sites, researchers will identify the gaps in the existing bioeconomy interventions and will help address these gaps through appropriate business models.NATURE+ collected cross-cutting data for all work packages and conducted 1,227 quantitative household surveys related to crop area, livestock, income source, food, energy, fuel and waste management, along with 27 community surveys for land use and other services. Furthermore, qualitative data collection were collected using 20 key informant interviews and 20 focus group discussions with men and women farmers and results were reported to the NATURE+ Pause and Reflect meeting at the end of the year. Natural resource mapping for nature-positive solutions was completed.The Initiative will complete a preliminary analysis of the survey data and a technical report on the quantitative results will be prepared. Qualitative results will be reported in a discussion paper and journal article focused on gender and nature-positive solutions. A journal article has been prepared based on mapping above-ground carbon storage and sequestration using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model in a separate watershed that will have implications for the NATURE+ sites.NATURE+ model farms will be created using the integrated farming system approach at selected sites. The Initiative will develop a composite index to study nature-positive indicators for land, soil, water, and agrobiodiversity. Support for an existing seed bank in Akole cluster will continue, and a new seed bank will be developed. The Initiative will support the establishment of an on-farm conservation center for Rabi (or \"winter\" crops, which include wheat). Research trials will assess drought-tolerant microorganisms, biochar, and hydrogel impact on the growth and yield of gram (chickpea) under drought stress on research plots. The Initiative will do measurements of hydro-meteorological parameters and installation of equipment at clusters for climatesmart watershed strategies. Furthermore, 50,000 cactus cladodes (cactus shoots) will be planted. How NATURE+ works in India non-grazed forests. Researchers will assess restoration impacts on ecosystem services and livelihoods. Additionally, the impact of a biogas unit -which supplants tree-based energy -on forest conservation will be assessed and reported. A national restoration workshop will discuss current restoration initiatives and gaps with scientists, practitioners, and stakeholders.","tokenCount":"878"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7406d311a2ea25e04e8dda9e2882e55a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a33c11ba-8a75-46e5-8f3b-55a1519d59ee/retrieve","id":"-1108745195"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"674e7a88-674b-4b2f-a7f3-746265f0e70f","pagecount":"12","content":"Propuesta de un año de referencia para los compromisos voluntarios, para la producción libre de deforestación en la Amazonía peruana POLÍTICAS EN SÍNTESIS No. 76 1 2 3 4La selección de un año de referencia, para la producción libre de deforestación, es fruto del consenso de los actores públicos y privados, en el marco de los compromisos voluntarios, sobre una producción libre de deforestación. Con ello, se busca el beneficio de los agricultores y ganaderos amazónicos, los bosques y la competitividad de la Amazonía peruana.El año de referencia propuesto ha considerado criterios técnicos, entre estos: i) la viabilidad del monitoreo para los compromisos de no deforestación, a escala de finca, en la Amazonía peruana; ii) factibilidad de implementar mecanismos robustos de compensación; iii) las salvaguardas para evitar que sean deslegitimados y iv) las nuevas exigencias de las propuestas de regulaciones internacionales, sobre la deforestación importada, en los mercados de demanda de las principales cadenas de valor amazónicas.En las consultas con actores claves, tanto de los sectores públicos y privado de las cadenas priorizadas, se identificó que el 2020 (31 de diciembre del 2020) es la opción más factible para tomar como año de referencia, con respecto a los compromisos voluntarios para la producción libre de deforestación de las cadenas de valor de cacao, palma aceitera, café y ganadería en la Amazonía peruana.Para el cumplimiento del año de referencia, se necesitan condiciones habilitantes, como un marco legal adecuado, zonificación y ordenamiento forestal y la formalización de la propiedad, entre otros. Además, es recomendable la implementación de incentivos financieros y no-financieros, como el acceso al financiamiento, la asistencia técnica y un mejor precio por los productos de alta calidad.Al considerar que no todos los sectores se encuentran en una misma situación, se requiere una gradualidad estratégica, de modo que se pueda avanzar rápidamente en los escenarios menos complejos y diseñar soluciones para enfrentar los de mayor complejidad.En los últimos años, la comunidad internacional ha estado negociando varias propuestas normativas, con el fin de minimizar el impacto del comercio internacional en los bosques y el cambio climático. La Unión Europea, los Estados Unidos, el Reino Unido y la República Popular de China, entre otros, están debatiendo regulaciones para evitar la importación de productos y materias primas asociados a la deforestación y analizar los requisitos de trazabilidad para los commodities (p. ej. la soya, la carne bovina, el cacao, el café y el aceite de palma aceitera, entre otros) que se comercialicen en sus territorios. Estas propuestas de regulaciones se dan en línea con los compromisos globales, que buscan mitigar el cambio climático, como el Acuerdo de París y la Declaración de Glasgow sobre bosques y uso de la tierra, los cuales ponen sus reflectores sobre la deforestación, especialmente en regiones tropicales.A nivel nacional, el Gobierno peruano ha asumido múltiples compromisos para reducir la deforestación. El país es miembro de la Convención Marco de lasContribuciones Nacionalmente Determinadas (CND), cambio climático, deforestación, cadenas de valor (café, cacao, palma aceitera y ganadería), Amazonía peruana.por una Producción Sostenible (CPS) y del Acuerdo Cacao, Bosque y Diversidad, proponen un año de referencia para los compromisos voluntarios de producción libre de deforestación, producto de un proceso transparente y participativo, acotados en una primera etapa al cacao, la palma aceitera, el café y la ganadería, que promueve e identifica las condiciones apropiadas para implementarlos en la Amazonía peruana.La presente propuesta está basada en una revisión extensa de fuentes bibliográficas y entrevistas estructuradas, como parte de un estudio sobre el año de referencia para los compromisos sobre la producción libre de deforestación en la Amazonía peruana 3 . Posteriormente, la información ha sido validada a través de dos talleres de consulta con actores clave, donde se incluyen los tomadores de decisión del sector público, del sector privado y de los gremios representativos de las cadenas de cacao, la palma aceitera y el café; así como los actores de la sociedad civil 4 . Asimismo, esta propuesta es aplicable también a la ganadería u otras cadenas agropecuarias amazónicas.El Perú es uno de los diez países del mundo con mayor superficie de bosques, el segundo con mayor extensión de bosques amazónicos y el cuarto en bosques tropicales del mundo (FAO, 2020). Estos bosques se concentran en siete departamentos (Amazonas, Cusco, Huánuco, Loreto, Madre de Dios, San Martín y Ucayali), los cuales abarcan más del 92% del total nacional (MINAM, 2020). Además de ser una importante reserva de carbono, los bosques peruanos albergan una gran diversidad biológica y proveen bienes y servicios fundamentales, para el desarrollo del país y el bienestar de sus habitantes, en particular, de los pueblos indígenas u originarios.Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC) y ha endosado el Acuerdo de París, a través del cual, se ha comprometido a reducir sus emisiones de GEI en un 40% para el año 2030, respecto al 2015. Para ello, se han definido medidas para alcanzar la Contribuciones Nacionalmente Determinadas -CND, con la finalidad de alcanzar esta meta y luego de aprobarse la Ley Marco sobre Cambio Climático -Ley n.º 30754, la Estrategia Nacional ante el Cambio Climático (ENCC), la Estrategia Nacional sobre Bosques y Cambio Climático (ENBCC) y la Estrategia Nacional sobre Diversidad Biológica (ENDB), las cuales proponen líneas y acciones estratégicas para conservar los bosques, y reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI), en el aprovechamiento del territorio y los sectores del cambio del uso de la tierra y la silvicultura (UTCUTS). Además, el país ha firmado la Declaración Conjunta de Intención (DCI) es un acuerdo voluntario de cooperación firmado por los Gobiernos de Perú, Noruega y Alemania para lograr la reducción de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero producidas por la deforestación y degradación de los bosques en el Perú (ver Cuadro 1: Marco legal peruano vinculado a bosques, propiedad rural y cambio climático). A nivel regional, los gobiernos regionales amazónicos han suscrito la Declaración de Río Branco 1 , que busca reducir la deforestación en cada jurisdicción en un 80%, y han aprobado las Estrategias Nacionales de Desarrollo Rural Bajo en Emisiones (ERDRBE) 2 y los planes de competitividad libre de deforestación y bajo de emisiones GEI, para las cadenas de valor de palma aceitera, de cacao y chocolate. Lo anterior define una ruta estratégica para reducir la deforestación, incrementar la competitividad y sostenibilidad de la producción regional, y mejorar el bienestar de los ciudadanos amazónicos, al considerar la inclusión de las mujeres, los pueblos indígenas y los jóvenes.En este contexto, la Alianza de Bioversity International y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), en el marco del proyecto Sustainable Amazon Businesses (SAB) para abordar las causas de la deforestación financiado por IKI e implementado en coordinación con MINAM y MIDAGRI, la Coalición De acuerdo con la ENBCC, no es posible atribuir la pérdida de bosques húmedos tropicales de la Amazonía peruana a una única causa, directa o indirecta, u observar un único cambio de uso de la tierra; no obstante, es posible identificar las causas con mayor influencia en los mecanismos causales de deforestación y cambios de uso. La pérdida observada es el resultado de los mecanismos causales de deforestación, los cuales varían local y departamentalmente, y son dinámicos a lo largo del tiempo. En cuanto a las causas, las más frecuentes son las siguientes: la expansión agropecuaria, la apertura de vías y caminos, el narcotráfico, el acceso limitado al crédito, el aumento de la migración, la baja asociatividad, la implementación de políticas inadecuadas de titulación y de saneamiento físico legal de la propiedad agraria, el avance escaso en el ordenamiento forestal, la articulación intersectorial limitada y entre los niveles de gobierno, y las condiciones agroclimáticas adecuadas que incentiven el desarrollo de cultivos agropecuarios. Es prioritario implementar medidas para una producción sostenible con los pequeños agricultores, que poseen cultivos instalados en superficies menores a 5 hectáreas y cuya producción está destinada al mercado local o internacional; asimismo, con los medianos productores, quienes poseen extensiones de cultivos en áreas entre 5 y 20 hectáreas. Dado que la mayor pérdida de cobertura de bosques húmedos tropicales ocurre en áreas menores a 5 hectáreas (cerca del 70%), mientras que el 91% de la pérdida absoluta de cobertura ocurre en tierras sin categoría legal asignada, tierras de comunidades nativas, bosques de producción permanente, predios rurales y concesiones forestales maderables (MINAM, 2020).Los compromisos voluntarios son acciones conjuntas e individuales, las cuales contribuyen a la conservación de los bosques, y a evitar que la expansión de las áreas de producción agropecuaria sea un factor de deforestación. Estos tienen un enfoque de acción colectiva; es decir, firmados por empresas, organizaciones de productores, gobierno y sociedad civil, quienes se comprometen a eliminar la huella de deforestación en sus cadenas de valor. En este sentido, es relevante identificar y promover los diferentes incentivos que, más allá de la responsabilidad, permitan avanzar hacia la transformación productiva esperada, e involucrar a los actores de múltiples niveles y a los sectores en estos compromisos. La mayoría de los entrevistados para esta propuesta manifestó la importancia de los incentivos, sobre todo los financieros, para poder garantizar el éxito de los compromisos voluntarios de producción libre de deforestación. Ello debido a que, más allá de la buena voluntad y conocimiento de la importancia de mitigar el cambio climático, son conscientes de los esfuerzos necesarios para adoptar un modelo de producción libre de deforestación.De igual modo, es necesario reconocer que, para conseguir una producción libre de deforestación, se requiere que diferentes actores privados realicen cambios en sus procesos de toma de decisiones y en su modelo de negocio, de un business as usual, a un modelo de negocio libre de deforestación y bajo de emisiones GEI. Para el desarrollo de un modelo de negocio orientado a la conservación de los bosques, es necesario lograr una visión común de los actores vinculados a la cadena de valor del producto, desde el productor hasta el consumidor final, y al pasar por los proveedores e inversionistas. De esta forma, las decisiones de estos actores contribuirían al objetivo común de frenar la deforestación y conservar los bosques. Esta visión común debe ser asistida con la información, incentivos y herramientas necesarias, para que la producción y el consumo de productos cultivados en la Amazonía no generen deforestación de los bosques. Otro aspecto fundamental, para desarrollar un modelo de negocio libre de deforestación, es contar con un sistema de monitoreo y trazabilidad del producto que, por una parte, permita verificar que los cultivos no originan deforestación. 5 (ver Cuadro 3: Resumen de las principales opciones de incentivos y propuestos por los entrevistados, para catalizar los compromisos de deforestación voluntarios y buscados por la Coalición por una Producción Sostenible-CPS).5 Ver para palma: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/109750 y para cacao: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/109751Elaboración propia con base en el informe \"Alianza Colombia TFA (2021) Cero deforestación en Colombia: ABC de las cadenas cero deforestación de palma, cacao, carne y leche en Colombia.Mecanismo de control legal sobre empresas y asociaciones agropecuarias.Una propuesta para una regulación nacional o regional.Un esquema de certificación.Un sello sostenible que certifica que la cadena es cero desforestación.Un año de referencia para compromisos voluntarios de acción colectiva.Manifestación voluntaria de empresas, asociaciones, autoridades gubemamentales (nacionales, regionales y locales) hacia la cero deforestación.Compromiso gradual para acelerar la transformación del sector agropecuario amazónico hacia la cero de deforestación.Iniciativa de referencia (lecciones aprendidas y casos de éxito) para escalar incentivos positivos.Para qué es Qué no es• 2014: año de referencia para la Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), la cual es el estándar global para palma aceitera sostenible. Este año también enfrenta el reto de contar con información espacial de alta resolución; además, no permite abarcar a una mayor cantidad de productores.• 2017: año de referencia por la creación de la Coalición por una Producción Sostenible.• 2018: año de referencia por la disponibilidad de imágenes satelitales de alta resolución e, incluso, de acceso gratuito.• 2020: año de referencia que se alinea a las exigencias del mercado (p. ej. Unión Europea); además, cuenta con mayor disponibilidad de información espacial de alta resolución, y permite a las empresas y productores vinculados a un modelo de negocio cero deforestación concentrarse en las acciones que aseguren no deforestación asociada a sus cultivos, pensando en el futuro, en vez de centrar esfuerzos en documentar deforestación histórica que es costosa y con grado de incertidumbre dada las pocas imágenes de alta resolución de años atrás.A continuación, se presentan los cinco escenarios de los años de referencia (ver a continuación Cuadro 4) propuestos por los actores consultados:• 2011: año de referencia consistente con el utilizado para el otorgamiento de los Contratos de Cesión en Uso para Sistemas Agroforestales (CCUSAF), en el marco de la Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre, y la referencia para el reconocimiento de la producción agropecuaria sostenible familiar, como una actividad elegible como REDD+. Es importante precisar que el año de referencia, para el otorgamiento de los CCUSAF, tiene por objetivo definir una línea base para otorgar un título habilitante forestal; por lo tanto, no adecuado para áreas fuera de los CUSAF, como los predios privados con bosques remanentes. La ventaja de usar el año de referencia del 2011 es que es consistente con el marco legal REDD+ y el forestal peruano, pero excluye a una gran área con bosques remanentes, que pueden ser conservados, y a la gran mayoría de productores agropecuarios amazónicos. De igual modo, es importante señalar que seleccionar este año de referencia trae consigo la complejidad y altos costos para conseguir imágenes satelitales de alta resolución, a escala de una parcela agraria o finca. Bosques: son tierras que se extienden por más de 0,5 hectáreas; están dotadas de árboles de una altura superior a los 5 metros y de una cubierta de dosel superior al 10 por ciento, o de árboles capaces de alcanzar esta altura in situ. No incluye la tierra sometida a un uso predominantemente agrícola o urbano. Justificación: es la definición bajo la cual se mide la cobertura de bosques tropicales en el Perú y se reporta a la Convención Marco de Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC), y la definición internacional que será utilizada por las regulaciones internacionales de deforestación importada. 2Bosques regenerados (segundo crecimiento): que se vieron sujetos a impactos significativos en el pasado (por ejemplo, por agricultura, crianza de ganado, plantaciones de árboles o tala intensa), pero donde las principales causas del impacto han cesado o se han reducido de forma significativa. En estos, el ecosistema ha logrado recuperar mucha de la composición, estructura y función ecológica del mismo, anteriormente, o de otros ecosistemas naturales contemporáneos. 3Deforestación: eliminación de la cobertura forestal de un bosque natural ocasionada por el ser humano o la naturaleza. Justificación: definición utilizada por la LFFS (Ley forestal y de Fauna Silvestre) que es equivalente a las definiciones utilizadas en las propuestas de regulaciones internacionales. Nota: aquí es relevante precisar que el término bosque natural excluye a las plantaciones, pero incluye a los bosques primarios, bosques secundarios y purmas; por tanto, es importante contar con una buena línea base y una zonificación, con fin de no considerar como una buena práctica agrícolas a la deforestación.Cadenas productivas libres de deforestación: se refiere a la responsabilidad continua, debido al riesgo y el impacto negativo causado por una serie de acciones del productor al consumidor, en la cadena de suministro. Los esfuerzos de sostenibilidad también están orientados a mejorar la imparcialidad y los beneficios positivos para los proveedores (productores), trabajadores, clientes, usuarios finales y cualquier otra parte interesada. La sostenibilidad ofrece a las empresas la oportunidad de forjar nuevas relaciones comerciales y desarrollar competencias básicas más sólidas. • Consistente con el año propuesto en los contratos de cesión en uso, para sistemas agroforestales en LFFS• Utilizado como referencia por algunos productores de palma aceitera en la Amazonía peruana• Consistencia con objetivos de la Coalición por una Producción Sostenible (CPS)• Mayor disponibilidad de información satelital que facilita el monitoreo de los compromisos de producción, libre de deforestación, a un menor costo y mayor velocidad• Consistente con propuesta de la Organización Internacional del Cacao (ICCO, por sus siglas en inglés)• Mayor disponibilidad de información satelital que facilita el monitoreo de los compromisos de producción, libre de deforestación, a un menor costo y mayor velocidad• Aceptado por la comunidad internacional para fines comerciales• Posibilidad de incluir mayor cantidad de productores y productoras y, por lo tanto, conseguir mayores compromisos para la conservación de bosques• Por la antigüedad de los cultivos (palma aceitera, 3 años; cacao, 3-4 años y café, 3-4 años) incluye a todas las áreas actuales bajo producción• Excluye a productores que no puedan demostrar que sus parcelas fueron instaladas antes del 2011• Alto costo y un largo proceso para determinar que productores podrían cumplir con este año, ante la falta de imágenes satélite de alta resolución a la escala necesaria.• Al excluir a la gran mayoría de productores, los compromisos se convertirían en pilotos más que catalizadores para un cambio transformacional a gran escala• Excluye a productores que no puedan demostrar que sus parcelas fueron instaladas antes del 2014• Alto costo y largo proceso para determinar qué productores podrían cumplir con este año, ante la falta de imágenes satélite de alta resolución a la escala necesaria• Al excluir a la gran mayoría de productores, los compromisos se convertirían en pilotos, más que en catalizadores para un cambio transformacional• Referencia sólo conocida por algunos productores de palma. Año de referencia para RSPO para Perú en negociación• Excluye a productores que no puedan demostrar que sus parcelas fueron instaladas antes del 2017• Alto costo y largo proceso para determinar que productores podrían cumplir con este año, ante la falta de imágenes satélite de alta resolución a la escala necesaria• Al excluir a la gran mayoría de productores, los compromisos se convertirían en pilotos, más que catalizadores para un cambio transformacional a gran escala • Información general del productor o productora, del cultivo (nombre científico y nombre común), volumen de producción, coordenadas georreferenciadas de la parcela,• Propiedad o cesión en uso formalizada (en propiedad, con contrato de cesión en uso o constancia de posesión) con perímetro y zonificación interna georreferenciada• Información general• Para el caso de empresas: trazabilidad y registro de productores y productoras, que incluyan el área total cultivada y especificaciones técnicas del cultivo. Esto puede ser a través de padrones de cooperativas y asociaciones agrarias, el padrón agrario de MIDAGRI o mecanismos privados implementados por empresas u organizaciones de soporte• Que no se encuentre en áreas superpuestas para solicitud de titulación de comunidades nativas. Estas podrán ser incluidas, una vez se resuelvan los conflictos• Que los interesados no cuenten con denuncias penales o procesos administrativos por deforestación, cambio de uso de la tierra, tenencia ilegal de la tierra, corrupción, presentación de información falsa o similares• Universo potencial: 223.738 productores de café, 89.789 productores de cacao, 3.185 productores de palma aceitera y un número desconocido de productores de ganadería bovina• Monitoreo de los compromisos de cafetaleros, cuyas áreas de producción bajo sombra se confunden con bosques, aun con imágenes de alta resolución. Estas requieren complementarse con imágenes de radar o validación en campo• Para poder monitorear los compromisos de producción libre de deforestación se requiere contar con el perímetro total de las parcelas (tituladas o no) georreferenciadas y realizar una zonificación interna, que defina el área de bosques a conservar. Se recomienda además realizar un análisis de riesgos de posibles causas externas de deforestación (p.ej. invasiones, presencia de economías ilegales, entre otras)• Se requiere un registro de todos los productores y productoras, al igual que lo que se desea incluir. Similar a esto está la propuesta del padrón agrario promovido por MIDAGRI (en la actualidad, lleva registrado más de 100.000 productores), los padrones de las cooperativas y asociaciones agrarias amazónicas, asimismo, los registros de las empresas que implementan proyectos en asociación con pequeños productores• Gran porcentaje de los productores no están asociados y no cuentan con propiedad titulada (alrededor del 70 u 80%, a excepción en la cadena de palma aceitera, donde la formalización es mayor), por lo que conseguir la información georreferenciada implica un esfuerzo adicional• Es necesario definir los incentivos para conservación de los bosques remanentes o colindantes a conservar. Por sí solo, el reconocimiento no será suficiente• Riesgo reputacional y falsa percepción de \"green wash\"• Ampliar año de referencia de agricultura libre de deforestación como actividad elegible REDD+, según las salvaguardas abajo descritas• Actualizar el año de referencia para los Contratos de Cesión en Uso para Sistemas Agroforestales (CCUSAF)• Excluir a personas naturales y jurídicas que cuenten con procesos administrativos o penales en curso o con sentencia firme por deforestación, cambio de uso de la tierra, presentación de información falsa, corrupción de funcionarios similares• Incluir compromisos voluntarios de respeto a los derechos colectivos de los pueblos indígenas y para la implementación de buenas prácticas de transparencia y anticorrupción• En el caso de deforestación legal considerar criterios de compensación• Tener en cuenta la gradualidad y la mejora progresiva con diferentes niveles de compromiso (por ejemplo, el sistema de estrellas de la huella de carbono)La propuesta año de referencia debe permitir la incorporación a una mayor cantidad de productores y, por lo tanto, a los bosques remanentes en sus parcelas y áreas no categorizadas colindantes, bajo compromisos de conservación de bosques. Por ello, una propuesta de 2020 que es la más factible, desde el punto de vista de la capacidad técnica, y es consistente con las propuestas de regulaciones internacionales sobre deforestación importada, debe observarse como una mirada realista y una oportunidad para conservar los 771.854,49 hectáreas de bosques tropicales amazónicos en predios privados, y reducir la probabilidad de deforestación en 13.488.061,05 hectáreas de bosques tropicales, en tierras sin categoría legal asignada. a generar condiciones habilitantes (sistemas de monitoreo, promoción de la trazabilidad, pilotos de plataformas de servicios y diseño de incentivos, entre otros), para escalar este modelo de negocio libre de deforestación, de acuerdo con las demandas futuras del mercado internacional y al aportar al cumplimiento de los compromisos internacionales que se tienen como país.• La Alianza en el marco del proyecto SAB, como parte de la CPS, ha facilitado el proceso de definición de año de referencia, donde el 31 de diciembre de 2020 es el año preferido por los actores consultados. Los principales argumentos para esta selección son los siguientes: a) cuenta con mayor disponibilidad de información satelital, lo cual facilita el monitoreo de los compromisos de producción libre de deforestación, a escala de parcelas a un menor costo y mayor eficiencia; b) es aceptado por la comunidad internacional para fines comerciales y no es incompatible con los compromisos internacionales asumidos por el Gobierno peruano, en materia de bosques y cambio climático; c) brinda la posibilidad de incluir mayor cantidad de productores y productoras y, por lo tanto, conseguir mayores compromisos para la conservación de los bosques y la producción libre de deforestación; por último, d) por la antigüedad de los cultivos (palma aceitera, 3 años; cacao, 3-4 años y café, 3-4 años), incluye a todas las áreas actuales bajo producción.• La aprobación de las regulaciones internacionales de deforestación importada generará un riesgo destacado en el acceso al mercado de las principales cadenas productivas (café, cacao, palma aceitera y ganadería) de la Amazonía peruana, toda vez que estas cadenas -y las jurisdicciones asociadas -no cuentan con incentivos para promover la transición hacia la sostenibilidad y producción sin deforestación. Así mismo, todavía no se han construido mecanismos y herramientas de monitoreo y trazabilidad, que permitan demostrar que la producción no está asociada a la deforestación. Además, este nuevo requerimiento puede convertirse en una oportunidad para diferenciarse en los mercados internacionales.• Sobre la base del Sistema Integrado de Estadísticas Agrarias del MIDAGRI, un análisis especializado estima que el impacto de estas regulaciones podrá afectar a más de 223.738 productores de café, 89.789 productores de cacao, 3.185 productores de palma aceitera y un número desconocido de productores de ganadería bovina. Del mismo modo, puede tener un impacto económico anual de al menos USD 925,8 millones (USD 646 millones de exportación de café en 2020 y USD 279,8 millones de exportación de cacao en 2020).• En ese sentido, los compromisos voluntarios de producción libre deforestación para las cadenas de cacao, café, palma aceitera y ganadería -que promueve la CPS y proyectos que contribuyen a esta como el proyecto IKI SAB -pueden ayudarPróximos pasos• Si bien existe una base importante y representativa de actores que estaría de acuerdo con el 31 de diciembre del 2020 como año de referencia, se requiere continuar con los diálogos para fortalecer el consenso generado. En particular, esto es relevante a nivel subnacional y local, donde es necesario informar y retroalimentar la propuesta del año de referencia.• Aunque el año de referencia está vinculado a compromisos voluntarios, se debe armonizar con las regulaciones nacionales en los ámbitos que corresponda o aplique.• Es necesario involucrar a nuevos actores nacionales, como el Ministerio de Comercio Exterior y Turismo, al igual que al Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, para promover y articular los compromisos por la libre deforestación de la estrategia exportadora y la competitividad de mercado de las exportaciones de agricultura tropical en el Perú.• Al igual que con el Acuerdo Cacao, Bosques y Diversidad, procesos similares deben desarrollarse con la palma, el café y la ganadería. De este modo, se establecerán las acciones y los mecanismos para eliminar la deforestación, con base en el año de referencia propuesto. La CPS puede ser la plataforma sobre la cual se anidan y se diseñan estos compromisos.• Es necesario seguir avanzando sobre esquemas de monitoreo para productos agropecuarios libres de deforestación. El proyecto SAB avanzó con un prototipo aplicado a dos modelos de negocios en cacao y palma. Este prototipo puede ser validado con otros actores de la CPS y aplicado a nuevos modelos de negocios.• Las lecciones aprendidas en el desarrollo de los pilotos de modelos de negocios cero deforestación del proyecto SAB deben traducirse en acciones que permitan el desarrollo de nuevos modelos en el marco de la CPS.","tokenCount":"4318"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b03ff8853755ff7ace465aeb90b9a275","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8f204910-4e4d-42c6-9f4e-6f9ed4b90286/retrieve","id":"-1937877478"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"860f25ad-a39c-41b3-8948-30e0aacdce91","pagecount":"1","content":"Providing a variety of fodder options improves the nutritional content of feed, promoting healthier livestock and reducing the need for supplemental inputs. ▪ Key message 2. Climate Resilience: Planting diverse forages contribute to climate resilience by sequestering carbon, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and providing buffers against extreme weather events.▪ Key message 3. Community Engagement: Cultivating fodder diversity fosters community involvement in sustainable land management practices, promoting local knowledge sharing, and fostering a sense of stewardship over natural resources.In western region, conventional farming practices have led to monocultures, habitat destruction, soil degradation, and loss of biodiversity. These practices not only compromise the longterm health of ecosystems but also jeopardize the livelihoods of farmers and the resilience of food systems. In response to these challenges, there's a growing recognition of the importance of transitioning towards nature-positive approaches in agriculture. This approach aims to restore and enhance the health of ecosystems while simultaneously supporting human well-being. Diversifying fodder cultivation fits within this framework as it offers a multifaceted solution.Agroforestry Systems: Integrating fodder trees within agroforestry systems offers multiple benefits, such as enhancing biodiversity, improving soil health, and providing additional income streams for farmers. Fodder Crop Diversification: Promoting the cultivation of diverse forages species, including grasses, legumes, and fodder trees, enhances ecosystem resilience, supports pollinators and beneficial insects, and improves livestock nutrition. Community-Based Fodder seed Banks: Establishing community-managed fodder banks enables farmers to access a diverse range of fodder species, seeds, and planting materials, thereby promoting fodder diversity and resilience at the local level. ","tokenCount":"250"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"82c0192fc277ee4412dc77a08ab0680b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c317d4e6-37ea-41e5-99db-30c873338161/retrieve","id":"1742308087"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ab812a70-c568-4ca1-9fc3-5a7338aaeb49","pagecount":"13","content":"Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) demeure toujours l'une des principales causes de mortalité élevée du bétail en région sahélienne, avec pour conséquence des risques de fragilisation des systèmes pastoraux, baisse de revenu des éleveurs, insécurité alimentaire des ménages et les questions de santé publique. Présente dans plus de 70 pays et endémique particulièrement en Afrique de l'Ouest, la PPR est une maladie virale, à transmission directe, affectant majoritairement les caprins et les ovins. La PPR peut infecter jusqu'à 90% d'un troupeau et en tuer entre 30% et 90% des animaux infectés, avec des retombées importantes sur le revenu des éleveurs et l'économie nationale. Depuis 2015, la PPR fait l'objet d'une campagne mondiale d'éradication à l'horizon 2030 (OIE and FAO 2015).Le projet Epidémiologie et Contrôle de la Peste des Petits Ruminants (ECo-PPR) financé par l'International Fund For Agricultural Develpment (IFAD) et mise en application par l'International Livestock Research Insitute (ILRI) s'est donné pour objective d'informer et de soutenir les efforts en cours aux niveaux national, régional et mondial pour le contrôle et l'éradication de la PPR en générant les preuves nécessaires pour soutenir son dialogue politique (ILRI 2019). Spécifiquement, le projet ECo-PPR vise à combler les lacunes existantes en épidémiologie et mieux estimer l'impact socio-économique de la maladie. Ce dernier est mis en place dans six pays différents, dont trois en Afrique de l'Est (Tanzanie, Kenya, Éthiopie) et également trois en Afrique de l'Ouest (Sénégal, Mali, Burkina Faso).Dans ce contexte, une équipe de chercheurs de l'ILRI basée à Dakar, Sénégal organise une série d'ateliers de modélisation participatives avec diffèrent groupe d'acteurs intervenant dans la chaine de valeur des petits ruminants au Sénégal. L'objectif de ces ateliers participatifs est de rassembler les acteurs clés (hommes et femmes) comme éleveurs, commerçants, agents vétérinaires, les responsables administratifs locaux intervenant dans la vaccination et la santé animale pour mieux comprendre comment les pratiques courantes d'élevage influencent la propagation de la PPR. La finalité de ces ateliers est de concevoir ensemble des stratégies de contrôle de la PPR adaptées aux réalités locales ; et d'évaluer l'impact économique de la PPR.Pour atteindre lesdits objectifs, l'equipe de l'ILRI utilise la méthode dénommée Spatial Group Model Building (SGMB) qui a termes, conduira à l'élaboration d'un modèle de système dynamique quantitatif relativement complexe permettant d'évaluer l'impact socioéconomique de la PPR. Ces activités de modélisation participative se déroulent sur deux sites avec chacun un système agricoles distinct. Il s'agit des départements de Linguère au nord du Sénégal, dans la zone semi-aride où l'élevage extensif est prédominant ; et Koungheul dans la zone centrale qui est essentiellement agropastorale.Pour la mise en oeuvre de ces ateliers SGMB, les chercheurs de l'ILRI ont mis en place au niveau de chaque site d'étude d'une équipe de facilitatation localement recruté pour assister ces derniers sur le terrain.La formation de l'équipe de faciliation sur l'approche SGMB a pour objectif de doter les participants des connaissances et compétences nécessaires à la construction des modèles de groupe spatiaux avec les acteurs clés des chaines de valeur, et leur applications dans divers domaines, notamment dans celui de l'élevage des petits ruminants. Cette formation leurs a aussi permis aussi d'avoir une meilleure compréhension de l'approche systémique en général.Le renforcement des capacités du personnel de terrain est un catalyseur essentiel à la réalisation des résultats de recherche et des impacts du développement. Il est aussi intégré dans la stratégie CRP de l'élevage, mais également au niveau des théories du changement et des cannaux d'impacts indiquer par l'ILRI (Dror et al. 2019).La formation a durée cinq jours et est administré selon le programme présenté en Annexe. La plupart des materiels utlisés pour cette dernière sont accessible en ligne et présenté avec different focus, l'un sur l'approche systémique et l'autre sur la modelisation participative spatiale or SGMB (Rich 2020).Le premier jour, cette dernière a débuté par une séance de présentation des formateurs et des participants pour permettre aux uns et aux autres de mieux se connaitre. Ensuite, les formateurs ont procédé à une introduction à l'approche systémique et l'importance de l'utilisation de celle participative. Ainsi, de manière très détaillé le principal vocabulaire 1 de la méthode SGMB a été abordé avec plusieurs exemples illustratifs permettant aux participants de mieux les comprendre.Le deuxième jour, les principes de construction de modèle de groupe (GMB) et ceux de construction de modèle de groupe spatial (SGMB), ont été abordés. Cette session a permis aux participants d'avoir une meilleure compréhension du processus de construction de modèle de groupe spatial et les contextes dans lesquels ils peuvent être utiliser. En plus, une étude de cas pratique à travers l'article de Mumba et al. ( 2017) qui traite de la Fièvre de la Côte Est en Zambie en utlisant la méthode SGMB, a été effectuée.Le troisième jour, chacun des participants a fait une présentation à la fois descriptive et critique de l'étude de cas de la Zambie, suivi de l'appréciation de la formatrice qui a jugé nécessaire de reconduire l'exercice pour une journée additionnelle incitant les participants à mieux approfondir leurs connaissances des divers outils appris. Néanmoins, la deuxième partie des principes de construction de modèle de groupe spatial a été abordé. Après cela, il s'en est suivi la partie basée sur les planifications des sessions SGMB et de leurs agendas.• Planification : different scripts et leur processus de mise en oeuvre 1 Stock, flux, convertisseur, feedback etc.• Agendas : une suite d'activité pré-etablit qui décrit de manière détaillé les sessions de SGMB afin qu'elles soient méticuleusement préparées. Le cinquième et dernier jour de la formation était consacré à la phase de simulation et de terrain. Ce dernier a eu lieu au niveau de la commune de Sangalkam avec différents acteurs de la chaine de valeur des petits ruminants, c'est-à-dire, producteur, transformateur, commerçant et vétérinaire. La simulation s'est déroulée dans la salle de réunion de l'Unité de Production des Plants Fruitiers de l'ISRA basée à Sangalkam, entre neuf heures et midi. Après une séance de présentation des différents participants, le script 0 a été réalisé, à savoir la présentation du projet ECo-PPR, la présentation de l'activité de modélisation participative et des résultats attendus. Après cela, le script 1 a été réalisé, notamment en ce qui concerne l'explication du vocabulaire de la méthode SGMB, l'identification et la hiérarchisation des problèmes liés à la PPR dans la zone et l'identification des causes et des conséquences. Enfin, le script 3 a été aussi réalisé concernant l'utilisation de la carte (Layerstack) pour localiser les principales infrastructures pastorales de la zone telles que les points d'eau, les marchés à bétail, les zones de pâturage et les postes vétérinaires publiques et privées sur la carte de la zone. Malheureusement, le temps imparti n'a pas été assez suffisant pour permettre de procéder à la mise en relation des causes et des conséquences à savoir les feedbacks.A la fin de la simulation, une séance de débriefing a été effectuée sur place pour l'évaluation du test. L'importance de cette séance de débriefing est capitale car les points positifs et négatifs relevés à travers ce exercice vont guider et améliorer les compétences prochaines de l'ensemble de l'equipe pour les étapes futures de la modélisation participative.Les participants ont tous montré leur engouement à prendre part à la simulation et ont essayé d'apporter les meilleures réponses possibles. Chacun d'eux a essayé d'apporter des réponses par rapport au maillon de la chaine de valeur dans laquelle il se situe. Ainsi, les trois scripts testés de la méthode SGMB ont été exécutés tant bien que mal.Une pause-café a été observée pour permettre aux participants de souffler un peu et prendre plus de force pour la suite. En rapport à la situation du Covid 19, les mesures de protection individuelles et collectives ont tous été respectées. A la fin du test, les participants ont bénéficié d'un remboursement de transport à hauteur de 2500 FCFA par personne et ont été chaleureusement remerciés par l'équipe de recherche.Durant la simulation, certains téléphones portables ont plusieurs fois sonné, perturbant ainsi la séance. Au début du test, certains participants ont soutenu que la PPR n'était pas un problème majeur dans leur zone. Ce qui laisse penser que cette zone ne constitue pas le meilleur choix pour faire cette simulation. Toutefois, lorsque quelques participants ont commencé à donner des exemples de petits ruminants atteints par la PPR et les désastreuses conséquences que cela entraine dans leurs troupeaux, les autres ont reconnu le problème et ont commencé à participer au débat.Au début, les questions étaient trop générales et semblaient sortir du contexte de la PPR en ce sens que les participants ont surtout exposé des problèmes liés à l'élevage en général tels que l'accès à l'aliment de bétail, aux pâturages, à l'eau et au problème lié au vol de bétail. Cela est surtout dû à la manière dont la première question relative au probleme principal auxquels les participants sont confrontes a été posée. En effet, cette dernière n'était pas spécifiquement relative à la PPR ce qui causa une distraction passagere des participants. Heureusement le débat a été recentré sur la PPR et les causes et conséquences de celle-ci ont été largement abordées.Il est préférable de procéder d'abord à une présentation PowerPoint des concepts et vocabulaires de la méthode SGMB pour permettre aux participants de mieux comprendre et saisir plus facilement la différence entre les concepts.Concernant la cartographie de la zone, il serait bien de dresser des symboles pour chacune des infrastructures pastorales. Ainsi, ces symboles seront adoptés lors des prochaines séances afin de faciliter la représentation des infrastructures pastorales sur la carte. Cela évitera de représenter une même infrastructure pastorale de plusieurs manières dans différentes cartes.Les deux facilitateurs ou participants de la formation sur l'approche systémique et la modelisation participative, SGMB, se sont montrés très engagés à apprendre et dévoués à leurs diverses tâches respectives. Les séances de formation théorique sur le SGMB au siège de l'ILRI et celle pratique à Sangalkam ont permis d'identifier aussi bien leurs points positifs que ceux qui nécessiteraient davantage d'améliorations avant les sessions de modélisations participatives de Linguère, Sénégal.Sur le terrain, les facilitateurs ont mis un peu de temps à se mettre dans le vif du sujet et à prendre des initiatives personnelles allant dans leur tâches respectives. Mais après quelque temps, ils ont tous retrouvé leurs marques et étaient très operationels. Néanmoins, leurs aptitudes à diriger des sessions de SGMB demeurent assez limitées. En tant que formatrice et investigatrice principale de cette activité de modélisation participative, j'approuve aussi leur suggestion de faire une ou deux autres tests de simulations pour leur permettre ainsi qu'à nous, équipe de recherche, de développer de meilleures aptitudes pratiques de terrain ainsi qu'une synergie de groupe nécessaire pour la bonne marche des ateliers de SGMB à Linguère.Néanmoins, des séances d'apprentissage en ligne sont prévues toujours dans le but d'approfondir et de mieux capitaliser les connaissances et aptitudes tirées lors de la formation de même que les enseignements tirés de la simulation de terrain.Je remercie une fois encore chacun des deux facilitateurs pour leurs dévouements et espère qu'ils vont continuer à s'améliorer. J'espere les revoir très bientôt pour une autre phase de simulation de terrain. ","tokenCount":"1843"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a8f4bfbeb7113653e539e9ec21c68bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02784fa0-02a9-4b0d-9ea7-84e2e3f67531/retrieve","id":"-332204302"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a404b260-fda7-4b03-b913-41c31ebd9ed7","pagecount":"57","content":"The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) was founded in 1967 as an international agricultural research institute with a mandate for improving food production in the humid tropics and to develop sustainable production systems. It became the first African link in the worldwide network of agricultural research centers known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), formed in 1971. IITA is governed by an international board of trustees and is staffed by approximately 80 scientists and other professionals from over 30 countries, and approximately 1,300 support staff. Staff are located at the Ibadan campus, and also at stations in other parts of Nigeria, and in Benin, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Uganda. Others are located at work sites in several countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa.Financial support for the research agenda of IITA is provided by the Governments of Austria,Agricultural Development, Rockefeller Foundation, Sasakawa Africa Association, United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and others.IITA's mission is to enhance the food security, income and well-being of resource-poor people primarily in the humid and subhumid zones of sub-Saharan Africa by conducting research and related activities to increase agricultural production, improve food systems, and sustainably manage natural resources, in partnership with national and international stakeholders. To this end, IITA conducts research, germplasm conservation, training and information exchange activities in partnership with regional bodies and national programs including universities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector. The research agenda addresses crop improvement, plant health, and resource and crop management within a food systems framework and is targeted at the identified needs of three major agro-ecological zones: the savannahs, the humid forests, and the mid-altitudes.Research focuses on smallholder cropping and post-harvest systems and on the following food crops: cassava, cowpea, maize, plantain and banana, soybean and yam. In addition to collecting and preserving the germplasm of these crops, IITA has also collected germplasm of bambara groundnut and now has about 2000 accessions of this species in its genebank. This collection has been partially characterized and documented and the germplasm is available to researchers worldwide.The International Bambara Groundnut Network (BAMNET) was founded as a result of an International Bambara Groundnut Workshop, held [14][15][16] November 1995 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Bambara groundnut is indigenous to Africa. It is an under-utilized crop and neglected by research. The genetic resources of this crop face a serious threat of genetic erosion in farmers' fields. The objectives of BAMNET are to increase the importance of bambara groundnut by improving its productivity, production, marketing and consumption. BAMNET has more than 120 members from about 28 countries (18 African, 8 European, Israel, USA), FAO and IPGRI. Activities of BAMNET encompass aspects such as agronomy, germplasm conservation and management, breeding, utilization, information, documentation, economics and sociology. However, at present, the activities of BAMNET will focus on crop improvement and breeding; processing and marketing; and information and communication.Citation IPGRI, IITA, BAMNET. 2000. Descriptors for bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea). International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy; International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria; The International Bambara Groundnut Network, Germany.  IPGRI encourages the use of material from this publication for educational or other noncommercial purposes without prior permission from the copyright holder. Acknowledgement of IPGRI's material is required. This publication is available to download in portable document format from URL: <http://www.ipgri. Passport descriptors: These provide the basic information used for the general management of the accession (including the registration at the genebank and other identification information) and describe parameters that should be observed when the accession is originally collected.Management descriptors: These provide the basis for the management of accessions in the genebank and assist with their multiplication and regeneration.Environment and site descriptors: These describe the environmental and site-specific parameters that are important when characterization and evaluation trials are held. They can be important for the interpretation of the results of those trials. Site descriptors for germplasm collecting are also included here.These enable an easy and quick discrimination between phenotypes. They are generally highly heritable, can be easily seen by the eye and are equally expressed in all environments. In addition, these may include a limited number of additional traits thought desirable by a consensus of users of the particular crop.The expression of many of the descriptors in this category will depend on the environment and, consequently, special environmental designs and techniques are needed to assess them. Their assessment may also require complex biochemical or molecular characterization methods. This type of descriptors includes characters such as yield, agronomic performance, stress susceptibilities and biochemical and cytological traits. They are generally the most interesting traits in crop improvement.Characterization will normally be the responsibility of genebank curators, while evaluation will typically be carried out elsewhere (possibly by a multidisciplinary team of scientists). The evaluation data should be fed back to the genebank which will maintain a data file.Highly discriminating descriptors are marked as highlighted text.The following internationally accepted norms for the scoring, coding and recording of descriptor states should be followed: (e) many quantitative characters, which are continuously variable, are recorded on a 1-9 scale, where: is the expression of a character. The authors of this list have sometimes described only a selection of the states, e.g. 3, 5 and 7, for such descriptors. Where this has occurred, the full range of codes is available for use by extension of the codes given or by interpolation between them, e.g. in Section 10 (Biotic stress susceptibility), 1 = very low susceptibility and 9 = very high susceptibility;(f) when a descriptor is scored using a 1-9 scale, such as in (e), '0' would be scored when (i) the character is not expressed, and (ii) a descriptor is inapplicable. In the following example, '0' will be recorded if an accession does not have a central leaf lobe: (i) for accessions that are not generally uniform for a descriptor (e.g. mixed collection, genetic segregation), the mean and standard deviation could be reported where the descriptor is continuous. Where the descriptor is discontinuous, several codes in the order of frequency could be recorded, or other publicized methods can be utilized, such as Rana et al. (1991), or van Hintum (1993), that clearly state a method for scoring heterogeneous accessions;(j) dates should be expressed numerically in the format YYYYMMDD, where YYYY -digits to represent the year MM -digits to represent the month DD -digits to represent the day.Definitions and use of the descriptors 3 PASSPORT1.1 Accession number (1.1) [MCPD] This number serves as a unique identifier for accessions and is assigned when an accession is entered into the collection. Once assigned this number should never be reassigned to another accession in the collection. Even if an accession is lost, its assigned number should never be re-used. Letters should be used before the number to identify the genebank or national system (e.g. IDG indicates an accession that comes from the genebank at Bari, Italy; CGN indicates an accession from the genebank at Wageningen, The Netherlands; PI indicates an accession within the USA system). Either a registered or other formal designation given to the accessionInclude here any previous identification other than the current name. Collecting number or newly assigned station names are frequently used as identifiers.(1.7) Date on which the accession entered the collection 1.9Accession size (1.9) Approximate number or weight of seeds, budwoods or plants of an accession in the genebank 1.10 Notes Any additional information may be specified hereCollecting institute(s) (2.2) Name and address of the institute(s) and individuals collecting/sponsoring the collection of the sample(s)Site number Number assigned to the physical site by the collectorCollecting number (2.1) [MCPD] Original number assigned by the collector(s) of the sample, normally composed of the name or initials of the collector(s) followed by a number. This item is essential for identifying duplicates held in different collections. It should be unique and always accompany subsamples wherever they are sent.Collecting Latitude of collecting site (2.7) [MCPD] Degrees and minutes followed by N (North) or S (South) (e.g. 1030S). Missing data (minutes) should be indicated with hyphen (e.g. 10-S).(2.8) [MCPD] Degrees and minutes followed by E (East) or W (West) (e.g. 07625W). Missing data (minutes) should be indicated with hyphen (e.g. 076-W).(2.9) [MCPD]2.12 Collecting source (2.10) [MCPD] The coding scheme proposed can be used at two different levels of detail: either by using the global codes such as 1, 2, 3, 4, or by using the more detailed coding such as 1. Degrees and minutes followed by N (North) or S (South) (e.g. 1030S). Missing data (minutes) should be indicated with hyphen (e.g. 10-S).Degrees and minutes followed by E (East) or W (West) (e.g. 07625 W). Missing data (minutes) should be indicated with hyphen (e.g. 076-W).Name and address of farm or instituteEvaluator's name and address (3.3)  Estimated slope of the siteThe direction that the slope on which the accession was collected faces. Describe the direction with symbols N, S, E, W (e.g. a slope that faces a south-western direction has an aspect of SW)  As detailed a classification as possible should be given. This may be taken from a soil survey map. State class (e.g. Alfisols, Spodosols, Vertisols, etc.).Water availability This group of testa colour is described in combination of the testa background colour (as in 7.4.2.1) and eye patterns (see Fig. This group of testa colour/pattern is described in combination of testa background colour (as in 7.4.2.1), eye pattern (see Fig. 5) and testa pattern (see Fig. 6). Recorded within two months 1 Black small dotted spots on brown background without eye 2 Dark brown small dotted spots on cream background without eye 3 Black and grey mottles on cream background without eye 4 Black and brown mottles on cream background with grey butterfly-like eye 5 Black marbled spots on cream background with grey butterfly-like eye 6 Dark brown marbled spots on cream background with grey butterfly-like eye 7 Black rhomboid spots on cream background on the micropylar end with grey butterfly-like eye 8 Dark brown rhomboid spots on cream background on the micropylar end with grey butterfly-like eye 9 Black rhomboid spots on cream background on both micropylar and non-micropylar ends with grey butterfly-like eye 10 Dark brown rhomboid spots on cream background on both micropylar and non-micropylar ends with grey butterfly-like eye 11 Black stripes on cream background with black butterflylike eye 12 Black stripes on cream background with black irregular eye 13 Brown stripes on cream background with brown butterfly-like eye 14 Brown stripes on cream background with grey butterflylike eye 15 Brown stripes on cream background with brown irregular eye 16 Cream rhomboid on black background on both sides of the hilum with grey triangular eye 17 Cream rhomboid on dark brown background on both sides of the hilum with grey triangular eye 18 Black Holstein on cream background 19 Dark brown Holstein on cream background 99 Other (specify in the descriptor 7.5 Notes) 30 Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) Recorded 10 weeks after planting; average width of three leaves at the fourth node of five healthy plants Notes Specify here any additional informationScored under artificial and/or natural conditions, which should be clearly specified. These are coded on a susceptibility scale from 1 to 9, viz.:1 Very low or no visible sign of susceptibility In each case, it is important to state the origin of the infestation or infection, i.e. natural, field inoculation, laboratory. Record such information in descriptor 10.5 Notes. These are coded on a susceptibility scale from 1 to 9, viz.:1 Very low or no visible sign of susceptibility Describe any specific discriminating or useful trait for this accession. Report probe-enzyme combination analysed. Below are listed some of the basic methods most commonly usedReport probe/enzyme combination (approach can be used for nuclear, chloroplast or mitochondria genomes) 12.2 Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) Report primer pair combinations and accurate molecular size of products (used for nuclear genomes) 12.3 DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF); random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD); AP-PCR Accurately report experimental conditions and molecular size of products (used for nuclear genomes)Report primer sequences, and accurate product sizes (can be used for nuclear or chloroplast genomes)Report PCR primer sequences, and derived nucleotide sequence (can be used for single copy nuclear, chloroplast or mitochondrial genomes)This list of multicrop passport descriptors has been developed jointly by IPGRI and FAO to provide consistent coding schemes for common passport descriptors across crops. These descriptors aim to be compatible with future IPGRI crop descriptor lists and with the descriptors to be used for the FAO World Information and Early Warning System (WIEWS) on plant genetic resources.The list should NOT be regarded as a minimum descriptor list, since many additional passport descriptors are essential for the description of crops and need to be recorded. This document lists an initial set of common passport descriptors at the multicrop level. At a later stage the list could be expanded with additional multicrop descriptors. For example, descriptors dealing with the use of germplasm are currently not included, but their suitability for inclusion at the multicrop level will be investigated. Future expansion could even result in the development of more specialized lists of common descriptors at the crop group level.Printed here is the latest version of the list (1997) which contains two sections. The second section (FAO WIEWS Descriptors) lists a number of optional descriptors used in the FAO WIEWS. The list provides descriptions of content and coding schemes, and also provides suggested fieldnames (in parentheses) that can assist in the computerized exchange of this type of data. Institute code (INSTCODE) Code of the institute where the accession is maintained. The codes consist of the 3-letter ISO 3166 country code of the country where the institute is located plus number or an acronym as specified in the Institute database that will be made available by FAO. Preliminary codes (i.e. codes not yet incorporated in the FAO Institute database) start with an asterisk followed by a 3-letter ISO 3166 country code and an acronym.Accession number (ACCENUMB) This number serves as a unique identifier for accessions and is assigned when an accession is entered into the collection. Once assigned this number should never be reassigned to another accession in the collection. Even if an accession is lost, its assigned number should never be reused. Letters should be used before the number to identify the genebank or national system (e.g. IDG indicates an accession that comes from the genebank at Bari, Italy; CGN indicates an accession from the genebank at Wageningen, The Netherlands; PI indicates an accession within the USA system).Collecting number (COLLNUMB) Original number assigned by the collector(s) of the sample, normally composed of the name or initials of the collector(s) followed by a number. This item is essential for identify-ing duplicates held in different collections. It should be unique and always accompany subsamples wherever they are sent.Genus (GENUS) Genus name for taxon. Initial uppercase letter required.Species (SPECIES) Specific epithet portion of the scientific name in lowercase letters plus authority 1 . Following abbreviation is allowed: \"sp.\" 6. Subtaxa (SUBTAXA) Subtaxa can be used to store any additional taxonomic identifier plus authority 1 . Following abbreviations are allowed: \"ssp.\" (for subspecies); \"var.\" (for variety); \"convar.\" (for convariety); \"f.\" (for form).Accession name (ACCNAME) Either a registered or other formal designation given to the accession. First letter uppercase. Multiple names separated with semicolon.Country of origin (ORIGCTY) Name of the country in which the sample was originally collected or derived. Use the ISO 3166 extended codes, (i.e. current and old 3 letter ISO 3166 country codes) 9.Location of collecting site (COLLSITE) Location information below the country level that describes where the accession was collected starting with the most detailed information. Might include the distance in kilometers and direction from the nearest town, village or map grid reference point, (e.g. CURITIBA 7S, PARANA means 7 km south of Curitiba in the state of Parana) 10. Latitude of collecting site (LATITUDE) Degrees and minutes followed by N (North) or S (South) (e.g. 1030S). Missing data (minutes) should be indicated with hyphen (e.g. 10-S). (DONORCODE) Code for the donor institute. The codes consist of the 3-letter ISO 3166 country code of the country where the institute is located plus number or an acronym as specified in the Institute database that will be made available by FAO. Preliminary codes (i.e. codes not yet incorporated in the FAO Institute database) start with an asterisk followed by a 3-letter ISO 3166 country code and an acronym. 17. Donor number (DONORNUMB) Number assigned to an accession by the donor. Letters should be used before the number to identify the genebank or national system (e.g. IDG indicates an accession that comes from the genebank at Bari, Italy; CGN indicates an accession from the genebank at Wageningen, The Netherlands; PI indicates an accession within the USA system) 18. Other number(s) associated with the accession (OTHERNUMB) Any other identification number known to exist in other collections for this accession. Letters should be used before the number to identify the genebank or national system (e.g. IDG indicates an accession that comes from the genebank at Bari, Italy; CGN indicates an accession from the genebank at Wageningen, The Netherlands; PI indicates an accession within the USA system). Multiple numbers can be added and should be separated with a semicolon 19. Remarks (REMARKS) The remarks field is used to add notes or to elaborate on descriptors with value \"99\" (=Other). Prefix remarks with the field name they refer to and a colon (e.g. COLLSRC: roadside). Separate remarks referring to different fields are separated by semicolons. Location of safety duplicates (DUPLSITE) Code of the institute where a safety duplicate of the accession is maintained. The codes consist of 3-letter ISO 3166 country code of the country where the institute is located plus number or an acronym as specified in the Institute database that will be made available by FAO. Preliminary codes (i.e. codes not yet incorporated in the FAO Institute database) start with an asterisk followed by a 3-letter ISO 3166 country code and an acronym. Multiple numbers can be added and should be separated with a semicolon.Availability ","tokenCount":"2988"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d7b13082992f9beb944149fe2941855b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cf72b053-02ff-4fdd-83b2-0029be9921d3/retrieve","id":"178572248"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2fb5e78d-4cc8-4116-9225-4ad41b300b5e","pagecount":"6","content":"GRiSP, Global Rice Science Partnership [30 September 2010] What follows is the iISPC's commentary on the revised GRiSP proposal submitted to the Fund Council on 17th September 2010. The iISPC provided the FC with initial comments on a version of 9th July, 2010. Subsequently the proposal was substantially revised.The iISPC strongly supports funding of the GRiSP as a CGIAR Research Program (CRP).GRiSP presents a comprehensive program bringing together three CGIAR Centers and three other main partners that contribute significantly to rice research, including CIRAD (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement), IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) and JIRCAS (Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Science). GRiSP represents a highly commendable effort to coordinate the previously disparate efforts across the CGIAR and its partners that address global rice productivity and sustainable rice-based farming systems. Through reaching out to partnerships beyond the CGIAR, GRiSP provides enhanced possibilities through the emerging collaboration to bring the best efforts to bear on problems of rice research globally.The GRiSP proposal has been developed without the finalization of an overarching CGIAR strategy for prioritizing research that would include budget envelopes for each CRP agreed by the Donor Fund (as also emphasized by the Consortium). This matter seriously affects development of CRPs in general. In the absence of the Strategy and Results Framework (SRF), the assessment of GRiSP as a CRP contributing to a portfolio of CGIAR programs is difficult. It is particularly difficult to assess the inter-linkages of GRiSP with other programs (such as those on other cereal systems, climate change and integrated agricultural systems) and the relative prioritization among them. Thus GRiSP has been assessed as a stand-alone program with several observations on how GRiSP would need to adjust its content when the SRF has been finalised and evolve its linkages with other emerging CRPs.The GRiSP proposal makes a very compelling case for addressing the CGIAR's objectives as defined in the draft SRF through a program on rice and rice systems. Rice is the world's most important food staple of the poor. Enhancing food security in many developing countries through yield increases and more sustainable rice supplies and systems for the poor is central to the CGIAR portfolio.Nevertheless, the iISPC believes that the separation (and separate genesis) of the three main cereal system programs (rice, wheat and maize systems) misses an opportunity to capitalise on parallel advances in modern plant breeding and biological sciences. The opportunities to increase efficacy across crops and component activities are clearly evident -from the molecular research and bioinformatics systems, to the application of new tools, to the systems in which the crops are grown, and to the seed systems which are often the major local bottle neck for the dissemination of all crops. The iISPC envisages the CGIAR as an enterprise where some components of the business would be undertaken by the most efficient provider (including, for instance, regional hubs). The iISPC therefore urges that close integration be developed between the three cereal components of the CGIAR research Theme 3 taking account of the Generation Challenge Program (GCP) and the Genomics and Integrated Breeding Services (GIBS-see below). This evolution needs to be closely monitored for greater coherence, synergy and complementary.The iISPC is cognizant of the lack of flexibility for GRISP to reallocate funds in the short term, due to the high level of restricted funding (about 80%) supporting current work. Building on the current comprehensive exercise in ex ante strategic assessment, the GRiSP should identify, more explicitly than does the current proposal, that GRiSP aims to develop a long-term strategy for the program beyond current funding commitments, and this may result in significant shifts in priorities. Given major uncertainties about many features of future global supply and demand (e.g., climate change, consumption trends, etc.), the strategic assessment should include development of multiple scenarios to guide rice research planning. It should also recognize the rapidly changing context for rice research, such as rapid urbanization and declining poverty in much of Asia. Finally it will need to include a strategic analysis of the institutional landscape in order to strengthen existing partnerships, or form new ones, to serve the Program's needs and devolve work where appropriate.The proposal identifies the need for capacity strengthening (mainly as a component of the research activities) in order to enhance outcomes. Yet the funding requested for a major effort in capacity strengthening is inadequate. If human and institutional capacity are the major constraints in some of the partner countries to the ultimate achievement of outcomes and impact (and the iISPC believes that this is the case; see below) then there is a need for realigning funding so as to alleviate these constraints to achieving the expected outcomes of the program.Overall, the iISPC considers that it is highly desirable to fund GRiSP fully (scenario 3) through the Fund. The current committed restricted funds that account for about 80% of the immediate research to be done in GRiSP should be subsumed in the Fund. A continuing dichotomy between Fund-dependent research and research dependent on restricted grants would endanger the objectives of the CGIAR change. It is essential that the Fund eventually will be able to cover a large majority of the portfolio that is judged most relevant for implementation of the final, agreed SRF.The comments below are intended to highlight areas, judged against the common assessment criteria 1 , where the Council considers GRiSP should evolve.GRiSP is compelling in terms of the global research context. It addresses a high priority strategic research area and provides convincing evidence of the global importance of rice, with clear developmental benefits deriving from rice research. Overall, the proposal explicitly links rice research to the CGIAR's objectives in the draft SRF of poverty, hunger and sustainability specifically through the entry point of increasing productivity. The underlying modelling effort is commendable and the overall results -such as an expected 0.35% productivity growth rate -are consistent with the results in the draft SRF. However, all model assumptions should be made available to both donors and other CRPs through a web-based background paper.The revisions in the proposal 2 show intention towards greater focus and synergy through reduction of Product Lines from 32 to 26 (compared with the initial proposal). Nevertheless, GRiSP presents a compilation of the ongoing programs of the three CGIAR Centers and therehas not yet been a rationalisation and prioritisation among the main ecosystems and regions. The results from a major priority setting activity taking place in parallel are not yet available for prioritization within GRiSP. The completion of the current comprehensive priority setting exercise will be critical to guide the relative prioritization and amalgamation at regional and ecosystem level. This exercise provides an important opportunity to analyze strategic questions; such as the role of global productivity growth in reducing poverty and hunger through lower consumer prices versus the specific targeting of major ecosystems where poor rice farmers are concentrated. This would also provide the analytical basis for setting research priorities and budgetary allocations to those ecosystems deriving from such prioritization. Such an exercise will also need to recognize different ways of achieving resilience and ecological sustainability through the different avenues of breeding, systems management, capacity building and institutions.In general, iISPC agrees that the great bulk of the GRiSP relates to areas where the CGIAR and its partners have a comparative advantage. However, further rigorous screening against explicit comparative advantage criteria and potential alternative suppliers would likely eliminate some product lines. For example, product line 5.3 to develop a real time rice monitoring and forecasting system seems hard to justify given the knowledge, skills and mandate of the CGIAR, and a number of alternative suppliers that should pick up this activity.The proposal has a strong analytical base in terms of ex ante analysis that feeds into a results framework with specific quantified indicators. Specific impact targets are projected and details for these claims are provided. Impact pathways are described in satisfactory detail and examples also include Africa.The research outputs are targeted at the main problems limiting rice production, especially amongst poor farmers, in each of the main rice production zones. The expected outcomes from current projects will need to be mapped and subsequently evaluated. As noted above, the Program should be very transparent about the potential tradeoffs between addressing poor consumers and improving the livelihoods and production environments of poor producers. Systems analysis approaches are encouraged to help identify any potentially negative impacts of the program strategy on groups of producers or environmental sustainability.The proposal does not adequately address capacity building as a strategic issue which will affect the success of the program in maximising the intended outcomes. The program will develop new, sophisticated products (genes, markers, germplasm, crop management tools and approaches for plant and system health) and its impact depends on incorporation of these products into breeding programs for adaptation and introduction into the local cultivars and cropping systems. To do so will need facilities, reorganization at regional level (regional hubs) and enhanced plant breeding and agronomy capacity at the national level capable of modern marker based breeding and use of informatics and systems analysis tools. GRiSP contains a program of capacity building for breeders, agronomists and extension specialists, but its effects are likely to be slow. A more comprehensive and integrated approach through professional and network capacity building is needed. Similarly, strategic activities for capacity building should have high priority in GRiSP's funding allocation plan.A good formal gender analysis is lacking but the proposal recognises that greater emphasis is to be given to this in the future. However, already in this proposal it would have been useful to see an attempt to relate gender considerations to specific technologies and the research directions that are discussed for the themes. It is recommended that the ongoing strategic assessment will fully integrate gender elements.Overall the quality of the proposed biophysical science appears excellent and the research approaches are solid. The molecular science is cutting edge; the research is state of the art in key areas such as genomics, system resilience to pests, yield gap analysis, adaptation to climate variation, and strategic assessment and impact analysis. The program is capable of producing significant breakthroughs in overcoming a number of environmental constraints to rice production, particularly drought, flooding and salinity. It would be wise to put more emphasis also on the relatively routine technique of anther culture to speed up the breeding process. Defining responses to issues such as the allocation of resources across product lines, the likely barriers to uptake, the potential negative impact of various interventions, and the elaboration of targeting environmental and social impacts through research -given the entry point on increasing productivity -will require the strong integration of analytical capabilities in the social and environmental sciences.One of the main recommendations from the last EPMRs of IRRI and Africa Rice was the need to strengthen the quantitative analysis of genotype x environment and to incorporate early multi-site testing in the breeding programs to capture favourable GXE effects. This is particularly important for the variable rainfed systems but increasingly important for the irrigated systems as they too become variable in water supply. The proposal has addressed these recommendations, although a more vigorous, multi-site testing network for analysis of segregating material for the irrigated environment would be desirable. The new area of research on labour-saving technologies in Africa is urgently needed.The research component on C 4 -rice, building on IRRI's current work, is commendable. GRiSP is in a unique position to facilitate the work of basic research laboratories in this exploratory research on rice, which can potentially have very high impacts on other crops as well as rice. Among others, the work in this area -with potential synergies from research and application to other crops -is an example of potential gains that could be achieved from combining research on the major cereals. The proposal presents some \"new frontiers\" research which will depend on the availability of funds. The iISPC encourages the Fund to provide the flexibility to explore these new areas of research with high potential impacts in the longer term.The quality of the GRiSP research partners in advanced institutes is outstanding and the three research partners in GRiSP (CIRAD, IRD and JIRCAS) complement and strengthen the program. GRiSP also has a strong suite of development partners in Asia and among the BRIC countries. The role of other ARI partners could be increased. The description and justification of partners in the institutional sense should be strengthened. Nearly 900 partners have been identified though mapping all existing partnerships and these have been categorised as partners in research and in development, the latter representing mainly the complementary activities required for impacts to accrue. Strategic selection and management of partnerships clearly needs to evolve as the prioritization and consolidation progresses. GRiSP also needs to provide greater clarity regarding the balance of GRiSP funds flowing to the partners and to distinguish this from the co-investment to the Program from partners.As other CRPs expected to contribute to the portfolio are still at various stages of development, GRiSP understandably does not provide details of links with them. However, the GRiSP leadership and the System should be cognizant of the risk of losing potential synergies among CRPs and maintain flexibility concerning the ultimate location for components of research that are jointly undertaken or overlap between CRPs. This is essential for GRiSP to avoid becoming diffuse. The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia is an important follow-up to an earlier initiative and has been included under GRiSP. This is a high priority activity that merits inclusion in the overall SRF portfolio. Including it in GRiSP is one solution, although aspects could also have been included under other embryonic CRPs. Until such programmatic and management arrangements are sorted out, similar work in other CRPs should be included as part of those other relevant proposals, irrespective of the ultimate programmatic locus for the work.The iISPC considers that maintaining and building on the systemwide activity on genomics, and the development of molecular breeding approaches and partnership established in the GCP, are very important. As emphasised above, greater integration of cereal system research is essential across the new CGIAR. GRiSP participation in and linkages to other commodity CRPs through cross-cutting GIBS is commended.The newly added management structures reinforce the observation above that the program proposal at times seems to be a compilation of all existing activities of the three Centres. It is not designed to streamline decision-making at the CGIAR system level. It is essential, as is indicated in the proposal, that the participating Centers will change their research management structures to be fully aligned with GRiSP. The roles and responsibilities of the Program Management Unit in relation to and the administrative and management systems of the participating Centers -and the evolution of this arrangement -all need to be clarified. There are well-developed strategies for intellectual property management and embryonic strategies for communication and risk management. Capacity building is handled well through research but less well at the level of national institutional capacity across the rice sector.In the iISPC's view the governance of CGIAR Research Programs is an unresolved issue which needs to be addressed at the System level. In the GRiSP case, the lead Center approach may be justifiable, but this should not be seen as a precedent for other CRPs. With GRiSP it is important that IRRI and Africa Rice will revisit the size and composition of their Boards, as indicated in the proposal.","tokenCount":"2571"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7ccae835eaa6e2d1bfc84dba2036832d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9891ff1e-0949-4c09-8fbc-9b560fe6365c/retrieve","id":"-1913600905"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fdad3884-ade9-4a45-b1a0-a71d58f53302","pagecount":"12","content":"CIAT scientists have compiled an impressive record of achievements. In the interests of accountability to donors and other stakeholders, and to help lead the Center's strategic research investments, they have also devoted considerable effort to measure the economic impact of their work. This document reports some of the main impacts of CIAT's collaborative research, highlights key initiatives whose impacts have yet to be assessed, and describes several new studies and other efforts aimed to strengthen capacity for economic analysis. Every US$1 invested has generatedThe adoption of CIAT-related varieties has generated economic benefits estimated at:Nearly 4.9 million hectares planted to CIAT varieties in LAC and SSA By 1999, CIAT-improved bean varieties were being planted to about 50% of the total bean area in LAC and almost 15% in SSA (Johnson et al., 2003a). By 2010, the adoption level had remained the same in LAC but had reached 45% in SSA. This means that, by 2014, there were around 4.9 million hectares planted to CIAT-related varieties (Muthoni and Andrade, 2015;Reyes, 2012).The first 10 years of collaborative work between CIAT and several African bean programs led to significant yield gains of CIAT bean varieties over local varieties of around 400 kg per hectare. The resulting cumulative gross value of increased production was estimated at US$116 million (Johnson et al., 2003a).In 2011, CIAT-improved bean varieties released in Rwanda and Uganda showed yield gains of between 43 and 82% compared to local landraces, which translated into 90 thousand people lifted out of poverty and more than 182 thousand people less food insecure during that year (Larochelle et al., 2015).Access to off-farm income, use of animal traction, larger farm size, and access to extension services and credit are among the drivers for the adoption of improved bean varieties (Hamzakaza et al., 2014;Letaa et al., 2015;Lopes, 2010).Less conventional drivers such as owing a cell phone, access to agricultural subsidy programs, and a perception of negative climate shocks (drought, flooding, and unusual rain patterns) also positively influence adoption (Katungi et al., 2017;Larochelle et al., 2014).Low soil fertility, larger household size, and male-headed households, on the contrary, tend to discourage farmers' decision to adopt improved varieties (Larochelle et al., 2014;Letaa et al., 2015).Almost 350 thousand Rwandan households growing high-iron beansThe collaboration of CIAT with the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) and HarvestPlus resulted in the release of 10 high-iron bean varieties in Rwanda by 2012. Four years later, it was estimated that around 350 thousand Rwandan households were growing these biofortified varieties. Consequently, when productivity reaches sufficient levels, 1.75 million people will be able to consume these more nutritious beans (Asare-Marfo et al., 2016).  Two-thirds of the total cassava area is planted to CIAT-related varieties in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines By 1998, CIAT-related varieties were planted in 57% of Thailand's 1.2 million hectares sown to cassava, and in 23.4% of the total cassava area of Thailand, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines (Johnson et al., 2003b). As CIAT-related varieties continued to spread, 2.33 million ha of cassava were under CIAT varieties by 2014, representing an adoption rate of 66.6% in these five countries (Labarta et al., 2017a).The gross economic value generated by improved cassava was estimated at almost US$440 million by 1998, with an internal rate of return in the range of 9 to 22% (Johnson et al., 2003b).Kasetsart 50 or KU50, a cassava variety bred in Thailand through a collaboration between Kasetsart University and CIAT's Cassava Program, has been identified as the most used cassava variety in Asia. It is estimated that there are around 1.3 million hectares sown to this variety in Thailand.The economic impact of this variety only in Thailand and Vietnam between 1992 and 2010 is estimated at US$393.5 million (Robinson and Srinivasan, 2013).In Latin America, larger farms have been the main adopters of CIAT-related cassava varieties, while in Southeast Asia adopters tend to be more educated farmers who use a larger number of varieties and apply fertilizer.In Colombia, farmers who own their cassava plots tend not to adopt improved varieties. In Vietnam, farmers with higher numbers of cassava plots and larger family size show the same tendency (Floro et al., 2018;Le et al., 2017). Using DNA fingerprinting as a novel method to identify cassava varieties in farmers' fields has demonstrated a fast uptake of a new CIAT variety released in 2013 in Vietnam. This variety, called KM140, has become the dominant variety among cassava growers, covering 38.7 percent of the total cassava area in the country (Le et al., 2017).CIAT Brachiaria grasses found on 3.76 million hectares in Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and PeruIn Latin America, superior Brachiaria grasses, many of them introduced and promoted by CIAT, have been widely adopted in tropical areas of the continent. In Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Peru, they are estimated to cover an area of 3.76 million hectares, which represents 28.3 percent of the total tropical forages area in these countries (Labarta et al., 2017b).In Southeast Asia, improved tropical forages have been widely adopted since the start of their promotion in 1995. Although adoption is difficult to measure with precision, it is estimated that more than 15 thousand smallholders have adopted various forage species in CIAT project areas (Martin, 2010;Stür et al., 2005).CIAT In Colombia, the adoption of Brachiaria grasses promoted by CIAT is more common among specialized livestock producers. Ranchers with more assets, intense labor use, and better access to credit are also more likely to adopt Brachiaria grasses.In Colombia, larger farms show low adoption of these forages. Female-headed households and farms with higher labor wages also show the same tendency (Labarta et al., 2017b).Note: All figures are in 2011 US dollars.By 2003, CIAT and the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR) had participated in the release of 299 rice varieties through 23 national programs in Latin America (Hossain et al., 2003). By 2012, nearly 60% of all of the improved rice varieties released in LAC were believed to contain germplasm developed by CIAT (Yamano et al., 2016).CIAT rice research in Colombia in collaboration with the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) started in 1970 and produced very quick impacts in the rice sector. After 5 years of collaboration, 27% of the total rice area was already under new CIAT varieties, and yields increased from 2.2 to 4.4 t/ha (Scobie and Posada, 1978).According to studies conducted in the late 1990s, CIAT-related rice varieties had generated aggregated benefits worth US$860 million for the period 1967-1995. Rice consumers are the main beneficiaries, receiving almost 60% of all the gains generated thanks to lower prices (Sanint and Wood, 1998). Uptake of CIAT-related varieties in Latin America has been associated with several factors, including larger farm size, higher level of education of household head, market-oriented production, and household membership to producer associations.Rice varietal traits such as early maturity and high input requirements have limited adoption (Marín et al., 2017;Martínez, 2015).Note: All figures are in 2011 US dollars.Between 1993 and 2003, CIAT led the dissemination of crop management and soil conservation practices in cassavabased systems in Southeast Asia. The participatory research approach implemented resulted in a significant increase in the use of hedgerows, counter ridges, farmyard manure, and inorganic fertilizer (between 53 and 91%). This initiative not only contributed to mitigating the environmental impacts of the expansion of cassava farming into hillier areas, it also boosted cassava yields and therefore farm income (Dalton et al., 2011).During the early 2000s, CIAT developed an innovative technology to build up arable layers on the infertile acid soils of the Eastern Plains (Llanos) of Colombia. Research has demonstrated that using this practice could increase soy and maize yields between 38 and 59 percent. Most notably, this initiative made it possible to grow 2,000 hectares of maize, a crop new to this area (Rivas et al., 2004).The Borderlands project implemented by CIAT and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Colombia and Ecuador in 2012-2016 used CIAT's LINK methodology to support the renewal and certification of coffee plantations. In Colombia's Nariño Department, this intervention enabled farmers to earn substantial price premiums and increase the coffee production area and yields, resulting in an increase of coffee growers' annual income of US$2,220 per household (Vellema et al., 2005).CIAT and CRS worked together in 2013-2016 to increase Nicaraguan livestock producers' access to productive assets and services (including forages and management practices) and new markets by bringing their products up to the required standards. This intervention resulted in an increase of milk productivity of around 0.9 liters of milk per cow per day, a 28% increase (Pinillos et al., 2017).  (Reyes, 2012;Wettasinha et al., 2014).CIAT researchers working with Latin American partners found that participatory plant breeding increases crop diversity and breeding knowledge, as well as empowers farmers. This, in turn, leads to a faster uptake of improved crop varieties and increases participation of women in farmers' groups. Notably, Honduran CIALs had generated 23 new bean varieties by 2016 using advanced CIAT lines, and women represented 42% of the CIALs membership (Humphries, 2016).CIAT participatory research approach was crucial to facilitate the involvement of the Cabuyal watershed community in Colombia to influence the change of a national environmental policy. By improving farmers' capacity to identify problems, set priorities, and negotiate solutions, the watershed community participated in policy making aimed at maintaining forested buffer zones around water springs and courses. This initiative also resulted in 150 thousand trees planted on 35 hectares in the watershed (Ravnborg and Ashby, 1996).Gender analysis is an important component of CIAT's social science research, and the Center has been an undisputable leader in promoting the approach in the CGIAR System. Gender analysis shows evidence that female participation in varietal selection significantly increases the adoption of modern rice varieties in Ecuador. Female participation in strategic decisions related to the adoption of novel technologies has also been shown to benefit the household wellbeing (Orrego et al., 2016;Twyman et al., 2015).CIAT has contributed importantly to increasing the knowledge pool and strengthening the capacity of its many research partners. More than 13,000 professionals from Latin America, Africa, and Asia have benefited from training offered by the Center (CIAT, 2011). About half of these people have participated in specialized courses or workshops, while about 35% have received individual training. The remainder did thesis research at CIAT for postgraduate degrees.CIAT's genebank safeguards the world's largest and most diverse collections of beans, cassava, and tropical forages, with a total of 67,700 accessions. This material has contributed importantly to crop breeding at CIAT and has been shared with national research programs, universities, partners, and farmers in more than 160 countries. Measuring the economic returns of conserving and sharing crop genetic resources is a challenging task. Traditionally, returns have been measured based on the adoption of specific improved varieties. But today, CIAT is collaborating with the University of Minnesota in a novel initiative aimed at assessing the impacts of adopting crosses bred using CIAT genetic material. This initiative uses diverse datasets to help guide and provide insights to effective breeding strategies, cope with climate change, and better understand the drivers behind technology adoption.CIAT research revealed severe negative effects of climate change on coffee suitability in Nicaragua by 2050. This research informed the design of the 2013 National Adaptation Plan for Agriculture (NAPA) on potential adaptation strategies in the coffee sector, helping mobilize US$24 million from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to support Nicaragua's climate adaptation efforts. This is a significant outcome for CIAT. However, studies suggest that coffee growers in Nicaragua are not yet implementing the recommendations framed in the NAPA, which suggests that they may not have access to this information (Zuluaga et al., 2015). With more time, CIAT expects to be able to reach farmers and agricultural practitioners and ensure that its recommendations are put in place.CIAT and the Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School in Honduras developed an automated tool called AGRI (AGua para RIego [water for irrigation]) to analyze the availability of water sources for small-scale irrigation projects, potential water intake points, and sites for rainwater harvesting, as well as identify viable route options to carry water by gravity (without the use of fossil fuels) from the source to farmers' fields. This tool has raised the interest of high-level decision makers and could benefit farmers facing severe water constraints, especially in the Dry Corridor of Central America. With a growing demand from development and public organizations in Central America to design and During the last decades, CIAT has developed diverse methodologies to establish inclusive commercial relationships and link farmers to markets. Research evidence shows that farmers in Nicaragua who belong to inclusive value chains could increase their sales volume by 27 percent. Furthermore, it is estimated that bean and tomato wholesalers who promote inclusive practices could save at least 7.5 and 5.8 thousand metric tons, respectively, or US$8.55 million in averted loss (Reyes et al., 2016). CIAT is currently promoting interventions designed to develop more inclusive business models in informal and formal markets for different food products in Central America and Southeast Asia, and aims to keep track of the impacts in the whole food system.CIAT crop protection team belongs to the global research network on integrated monitoring and management of cassava pests and diseases in Latin America and Southeast Asia. In particular, the network shares alerts and diagnostic tools, and convenes emergency meetings with national plant protection authorities in countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and representatives from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and ministries of agriculture and the environment -to join efforts to better understand the threat posed by the cassava mosaic disease in the region, and explore potential control measures.CIAT is currently involved in seven initiatives in Southeast Asia, supported by FAO, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and the Philippine Department of Agriculture. Monitoring tools, such as PestDisPlace (http://pdp.ciat.cgiar.org/), have been developed to keep track of pests and diseases in collaboration with national plant protection organizations for timely warnings on biological threats. Early detection of newly introduced biological threats has also been used to implement preventive breeding in Andean beans and in rice.CIAT has played a leading role in promoting pest and disease monitoring -not limited to its mandate crops -and the related technology and tools along with expert networks are expected to bring significant benefits to Southeast Asia.The integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) approach has been extensively studied and validated in many regions across the world. It seeks to sustainably intensify crop production through a combination of improved crop varieties and the application of both mineral fertilizers and organic inputs. In spite of its potential to combat soil fertility depletion in vast areas -a problem that threatens global food security -the adoption of ISFM has been very low.ISFM is another example of technology that requires an extended period of time for farmers to realize its benefits. ISFM is being increasingly mainstreamed into national policies, but the results will take time to materialize. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Its research is carried out by 15 CGIAR centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners.","tokenCount":"2516"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fb22c0fb12ef2ef4ddb481a06a41aeec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/48ac3106-1e02-4d3c-8dc1-5b8f50b102cb/retrieve","id":"-980344833"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eafec2c0-bcd2-49b8-a393-f085bfbebdc5","pagecount":"45","content":"Bridging the gaps between demand and supplyglobal level• 60% more food than is produced now will be needed • 75% of this must come from producing more food from the same amount of land • The higher production must be achieved while reducing poverty and addressing environmental, social and health concerns • This greater production will have to be achieved with temperatures that may be 2−4 degrees warmer than today'sEast Africa -gaps in food demand and supply Agriculture -source of food and income for up to 90% of the population in the region• Human population projected to increase by 2.55% per year [2007 -2017] • Projections to 2030: demand for meat will increase by 3.7% and milk -2.7%  Big productivity gaps -largely due to poor animal health, inadequate feed and low genetic potential Some developing country regions have gaps of up to 430% in milk Major benefits seen GHG per kg of animal protein producedImproving production-not always rocket science• Training in Assam, Northeast India, hygiene measures to make milk less contaminated• Trained farmers reported less diseases and higher milk production (p<0.001)• No difference in Brucella prevalence Infectious diseases ","tokenCount":"188"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d10560d014cc4090463b7d61271282b2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e0837aa5-ff2c-4ccc-bfb5-debdbb764b09/retrieve","id":"1102366939"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ae480c66-8e38-4203-a9ca-0677177101bd","pagecount":"18","content":"The Amazon basin is the world's largest rainforest and the most biologically diverse place on Earth. Despite the critical importance of this region, Amazon forests continue inexorably to be degraded and deforested for various reasons, mainly a consequence of agricultural expansion. The development of novel policy strategies that provide balanced solutions, associating economic growth with environmental protection, is still challenging, largely because the perspective of those most affected -local stakeholders -is often ignored. Participatory fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) was implemented to examine stakeholder perceptions towards the sustainable development of two agricultural-forest frontier areas in the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon. A series of development scenarios were explored and applied to stakeholder-derived FCM, with climate change also analysed. Stakeholders in both regions perceived landscapes of socio-economic impoverishment and environmental degradation driven by governmental and institutional deficiencies. Under such abject conditions, governance and wellintegrated social and technological strategies offered socioeconomic development, environmental conservation, and re-silience to climatic changes. The results suggest there are benefits of a new type of thinking for development strategies in the Amazon basin and that continued application of traditional development policies reduces the resilience of the Amazon to climate change, whilst limiting socio-economic development and environmental conservation.The Amazon basin is the world's richest biological reservoir and a globally significant carbon sink (Foley et al., 2007;Guimberteau et al., 2017). Since the 1960s, deforestation and forest degradation have weakened the basin's natural function, causing a substantial loss of biodiversity, provision of ecosystem services, and changes in local and global weather patterns (Harris et al., 2012;Haddad et al., 2015;Zemp et al., 2017). Weak governments and political instability in Amazonian countries have reduced capacity to halt deforestation and related expansion of illegal activities (Celentano et al., 2012;Rodrigues-Filho et al., 2015). Recent increases in de-Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. I. Blanco-Gutiérrez et al.: Examining the sustainability challenge in the Amazon Basin forestation and megafire clearances reinforce the continued threatened state of the basin (Global Forest Watch, 2019). Moreover, future scenarios depict a reduction in tree coverage and increased drought in Amazonia (e.g. Malhi et al., 2008;Tejada et al., 2016;Guimberteau et al., 2017), with Lenton (2011) proposing that ecological tipping points could be reached.Agricultural and extraction activities are cited as major drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon basin (Hosonuma et al., 2012;García et al., 2019). These activities have, in many cases, been supported by policies to encourage rural development whose lasting benefits are unclear (Rodrigues et al., 2009;Celentano et al., 2012;Oliviera et al., 2013;Weinhold et al., 2015). Policies concentrating upon agricultural intensification and resource extraction may provide economic gains (Le Tourneau et al., 2013;Ioris, 2016), but they may also have negative long-term social and environmental impacts (Weinhold et al., 2015). Conversely, conservation policies aimed at preserving and restoring forest ecosystems have been implicated as drivers of negative socio-economic changes (Chomitz, 2007;Carr, 2009;Guedes et al., 2014). These findings point toward the tradeoffs in rural development objectives (McNeil et al., 2012), which increasingly focus on socio-economic development through extraction activities, or environmental conservation that excludes them. This dichotomy has dominated the political and developmental discourse of the Amazon for decades, with Nobre et al. (2016) suggesting it represent the basin's established development model.The state and outlook of the Amazon basin, along with the limitations of the entrenched development policies, beg the question as to whether other options exist to transition the basin towards a sustainable, less conflict-ridden state. Nobre et al. (2016) promote a \"third way\", driven by investment in technical and social capital, catalysing a localised industrial revolution. The benefits derived from a technology-led transformational change have been highlighted by Guedes et al. (2014), who reveal that increased access to technical assistance may permit communities to develop more sustainable livelihoods, converting natural capital to social capital. Also, Lapola et al. (2014) infer that technological improvements along with sustainable land management could drive sustainable land use shifts. Other studies emphasise the importance of investing in social capital. Weinhold et al. (2015) and Caviglia-Harris et al. (2016) suggest that socio-economic development in forest frontier regions of Brazil has uncoupled from environmental exploitation and degradation, due to policy development and implementation. Tritsch and Arvor (2016) propose that recent improved governance structures have begun to address competing rural development goals. Godfray et al. (2011) and Newton et al. (2013) advocate that governance and institutional improvements could provide a balance between conservation, development, and climate change mitigation. The implementation of such reforms or similar strategies could offer an interesting discus-sion point to reassess the emphasis of rural development policies. However, consideration of novel strategies would be reliant upon modelling and testing, offering scope for scenario development and application. The development of such scenarios could aid in quantifying the impacts of potential strategies on improving factors within the three main rural development dimensions, social, economic, and environmental, whilst simultaneously mitigating climate change.Engaging stakeholders in scenario development offers a wide range of potential benefits. It is argued that participatory scenario development can provide new interpretations of previously studied problems, improve the understanding of complex situations, reduce unforeseen consequences of policy implementation, and empower local communities (Folhes et al., 2015;Olazabal and Pascual, 2016). A number of methods are available to incorporate stakeholder perspectives into such analyses (e.g. Verburg et al., 2014), including fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM). FCM involves the development of a visual representation (map) of perceptions of a given system (Kok, 2009) and permits the application of scenarios to these maps (Vasslides and Jensen, 2016).In analysing the Amazon basin, most scenario discussions have been limited to the study of current and future deforestation trends ignoring the perspective of those most likely to be affected: local stakeholders (Folhes et al., 2015). Using stakeholder-derived information collected from workshops performed in forest frontier communities of the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon (the province of Guarayos in Bolivia and the Tapajós National Forest in Brazil), this paper aims to identify how such communities perceive the state of their region using FCM. In general, deforestation and the expansion of the agricultural frontier in Bolivia have been less well studied than in Brazil, probably due to Bolivia's relatively recent development (Pacheco, 2006;Killeen et al., 2008). However, increasing efforts are being made to study both parts of the Amazon basin. Further, this analysis will apply development scenarios (including climate change) to these FCMs, analysing how each region reacts to the sustainability and development challenge and changing socioeconomic, political, and climatic conditions.Given the size of the Amazon basin, two study sites with similar problems were selected within the framework of the ROBIN 1 project. Firstly, the province of Guarayos (20 029 km 2 ), in the northwest corner of the department 1 The research project ROBIN (The Role of Biodiversity in Climate change Mitigation) (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015), funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no. 283093, aims at quantifying interactions between terrestrial biodiversity, land use, and climate change potential in tropical Latin America. More information can be found at https://cordis.europa. eu/project/rcn/100815/reporting/ (last access: 1 May 2019). of Santa Cruz in lowland Bolivia, was selected. Secondly, the Tapajós National Forest (5449 km 2 ) in the western part of the state of Pará (municipalities of Belterra, Placas, Rurópolis, and Aveiro) in northern Brazil, was selected (Fig. 1).The province of Guarayos (henceforth Guarayos) is located in the transition zone between the humid Amazon forest and the dry Chiquitano forest. It has a tropical climate and hosts important protected forest areas, such as the \"Reserva Nacional de Vida Silvestre Ríos Blanco y Negro\" (dating from 1990). In the vicinity of these protected areas lives the Guarayos indigenous community (a branch of the Guaraní), whose livelihoods depend on fishing, hunting, and gathering fruit, as well as the cultivation of rice, pineapples, bananas, manioc, and other crops. The extraction of wood is limited, with only informal timber networks in place (Albornoz et al., 2008). Since 1996, land has been collectively owned and managed by the Guarayos through a \"community land of origin\", which has contributed to the sustainable conservation and utilisation of forests. However, legal uncertainty surrounding the system of land tenure in Bolivia coupled with increasingly frequent arrivals of large-scale farm operators in the area have resulted in highly conflicted situations, with illegal appropriation of common lands and en-vironmental degradation (Killeen et al., 2008;Stavenhagen, 2009). Agriculture is the main employer for the Guarayos and is the major source of income for households in this region of elevated poverty. Soya dominates both winter and summer cultivation, followed by sunflowers, maize, rice, and sorghum (INE, 2015).The Tapajós National Forest (henceforth Tapajós) is located at the heart of the Amazonian rainforest in Brazil. The climate is humid tropical, and the natural vegetation is dense terra firme (upland) tropical moist forest (Dubois, 1976). Tapajós has been protected since 1974(decree no. 73.684, 19 February 1974) ) and is classed as an IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) category VI protected area (IBAMA, 2004). Most of the population live along the Tapajós River, in well-organised communities of ribeirinhos (or Caboclos, which derived from the intermingling between the first European colonialists and the Amerindian populations). These communities have historically been very active in governance processes. During a 30-year period , they led an important resistance movement to avoid eviction and gain land tenure and resource rights. This movement was pioneering in Brazil and led to a commercial community forest management system that has attracted both national and international attention (Bicalho and Hoefle, 2015). Despite this, the ribeirinhos face difficult living conditions, with poor access to social services. Logging is the main economic source for the population, who subsist on very low incomes subsidised by small-scale farming activities (manioc, beans, and corn), fishing, hunting, and non-logging activities (ecotourism and the sale of wood-latex-leather handicrafts). Most residents are dependent on government transfer payments (Hoefle, 2016). The environment and the protected areas inhabited by the ribeirinhos are increasingly threatened by the expansion of intensive agriculture and cattle grazing areas coming mainly from the neighbouring Cerrado and the development of infrastructure (highways and dams) for the acceleration of growth (Fearnside, 2007(Fearnside, , 2015;;Verburg et al., 2014;Gibbs et al., 2015).The FCM concept is attributed to Kosko (1986), who provided the fuzziness to earlier cognitive mapping techniques (Tolman, 1948;Axelrod, 1976). Maps developed from FCM visualise components and their causal relationships within a system (Kok, 2009) as perceived by an individual, or group. This mapping can be developed through participatory interviews or workshops, where components (called nodes, concepts, or vertices) representing features of the system are identified, and causal relationships (links, connections, or arcs) between them are defined through weighted and meaningful directed linkages (Gray et al., 2015). The weight of these relationships ranges from −1 to +1 (Özesmi and Özesmi, 2004) and defines the scale of influence (positive or negative) that one component has upon another.The causal networks developed from FCM have considerable flexibility for analysis in a range of fields (e.g. Papageorgiou et al., 2013) and support scenario development (e.g. Kok, 2009). The methodology can incorporate multiple stakeholders' perspectives and knowledge through combination of multiple maps into one \"community\" map (Fairweather, 2010) or development of a single map by a group of stakeholders, incorporating distinct perspectives of different groups into a single vision (Varela-Ortega et al., 2013). Participatory development of FCMs can improve communication through the development of an open, neutral, and informal forum for participants to give their opinions. FCM can provide useful output for data-scarce problems or in areas where data are difficult to obtain and can be complementary to quantitative models (Olazabal and Pascual, 2016). In this study, we use FCMs to visualise the perceptions of local stakeholders concerning the direct or indirect interactions of variables that influence the state of the local environments in both Guarayos and Tapajós. The steps implemented as part of the methodology are illustrated in Fig. 2.In each of the case studies, two stakeholder workshops were held within the framework of the ROBIN project. In the first, and following the author's previous experience from a large EU project (SCENES) (Kok and van Vliet, 2011), we facilitated two focus groups of 12 to 15 persons each to ease the process of producing FCM. As much as possible, the two focus groups were equally balanced in terms of gender, age, and stakeholder group representation. Each stakeholder group included representatives from the policy and private sectors, non-governmental organisations, and scientists, thus covering a broad range of expertise on agroforestry issues (Table 1).Each focus group developed its own FCM. Thus, the FCM developed represented stakeholder group knowledge (Ösezmi and Ösezmi, 2004). Participants were invited to of-fer their perspectives on the present state of the environment in the region and what they considered to be the key features and processes inherent to it. First, every participant was asked to write up to three factors that they considered to contribute most to the present situation and explained their choices with the rest of the group. Following discussion, similar factors were clustered and new factors were identified and added to the original selection. After a final selection of factors was chosen, participants established links (arrows) among them and identified the sign of the links: positive (+) when an increase in one factor causes an increase in the other and negative (−) when an increase in one factor causes a decrease in the other. Finally, they assigned values to these links indicating how strong they were using a scale within the range 0 (very weak) to ±1 (very strong).After the first stakeholder workshop and following Ösezmi and Ösezmi ( 2004), the two group maps from each case study were combined into one \"case study FCM\". As part of the combination process, components identified as representing similar features were merged, where possible. However, in combining components, conflicting connections were identified, normally involving the wording \"lack of\". In these cases, and following Vasslides and Jensen (2016), wording of the more prevalent component was kept, and connection weights were inverted appropriately.The combined FCM was presented in the second workshop for enrichment, validation, and interpretation. Once the case study FCM was agreed upon, a discussion on possible futures and sustainable strategies was held, serving as input for scenario development and simulation. To ensure continuity, care was taken that similar stakeholders (or stakeholder groups) were present in the second workshop.The two case study FCMs were analysed following Reckien (2014) and Olazabal and Pascual (2016) considering their structure and dynamics and the impacts of scenarios on their dynamics.As FCMs are considered complex networks, the structural metrics here used to analyse them are complex network parameters commonly applied in the literature (see Table S1 in the Supplement). Further, we also include two novel metrics for the measurement of centrality in FCM analysis: PageRank (PR) and betweenness (Bw). Centrality is used to determine the importance or influence of a given node in the network. This concept was first introduced in sociology to quantify the influence of an individual in the whole social network (Freeman, 1978). In the two networks analysed (FCM of Guarayos and Tapajós) the ties among nodes have weights assigned to them; therefore the FCMs are considered weighted networks and the centrality measures are weighted as well. Bw was first introduced by Freeman (1977) to quantify the control that an individual can achieve on the communication between other humans in a social network. PR was named after Larry Page (Page et al., 1999) and is used by Google to rank websites in their search results. While Bw measures the influence of a node within a network by calculating the number of times a node acts as an intermediary along the shortest path between two other nodes, PR calculates the probability of visiting each node if we were randomly \"surfing\" the net.Besides the structural metrics of Table S1, the dynamic behaviour of the maps was also analysed to gain an insight into how components interact with each other, over multiple iterations (Gray et al., 2015). This analysis permitted comparison between the steady-state values (Kosko, 1994) for each component and the simulation of scenarios.To calculate the steady-state values and perform the dynamic analysis, each case study FCM was converted into an adjacency matrix (Tables S2 and S3), which was then multiplied by a state vector A (Eq. 1) over various iterations (k). According to Kok (2009), this calculation results in four potential dynamic outcomes: components return to zero, components continuously increase or decrease, components continuously cycle, and components stabilise at a fixed value.is the value of the component C j at iteration k, and w ij is the weight of the connection between components C i and C j .The state vector A initially sets values for all components to 1 (Olazabal and Pascual, 2016), assuming all components are equally important, and is multiplied against the adjacency matrix. The resultant vector is transformed to a logistic expression f , binding values between 0 and 1 (Kosko, 1986). This output vector is once again multiplied against the adjacency matrix, producing bound results between 0 and 1. This process is repeated until the dynamic outcome becomes evident, usually after 20-30 iterations (Kok, 2009).Output (steady-state) values close to 0 are representative of a strong decrease in the component, whereas values closer to 1 represent a strong increase (Reckien, 2014). The steadystate values were interpreted as the current state of each component within the system (map) and were used as a baseline for interpreting the impacts of the scenarios.Development of scenarios can provide a useful mechanism to evaluate the localised impacts of potential policy implementation. In the present study, scenarios that mimic traditional rural development policies are compared with novel policy strategies, to analyse the system impacts on Guarayos and Tapajós. We designed and implemented four scenarios (Table 2). Two were implemented to replicate the binary development strategies traditionally applied in the region: agricultural development (Scenario 3) and environmental conservation (Scenario 4). A further two scenarios were developed: techno-social reforms (Scenario 1) to replicate the third way of Nobre et al. (2016) for rural development and governance reforms (Scenario 2) cited by stakeholders to be fundamental for sustainable futures in the region (Varela-Ortega et al., 2013). We also analysed the cumulative effects of climate change on each of the scenarios.Following Reckien (2014) and based on discussions with stakeholders, we translated each scenario into the analysis through the manipulation of individual component state vector values (A of Eq. 1: Sect. 2.3.2) (Table 2). For each scenario, different components were identified as being directly affected by the scenario implementation. For these selected components, their values were fixed between 0 and 1, depending upon the scale of the scenario's impact. A strong increase in the selected component was translated by a state vector value of 1, whilst a strong decrease was set to 0. Intermediate values represent less intense increases or decreases. All other components had their values set to 0.The output values for components under each scenario were then compared to their baseline values, with differences suggesting the relative impacts of each scenario. Further, the effects of the four development scenarios were also tested under the conditions of climate change, where the climate change component was fixed to 1.To determine the wider impacts of the scenarios on the system, cumulative impacts for each scenario were analysed. To do so, components were categorised as positive, negative, or neutral (Reckien, 2014;Olazabal and Pascual, 2016) (Table S4). Categorisation of components was based upon the perception of the role that each component would have in developing more sustainable regions. Components were categorised to recognise the equal importance of a reduction in a negative component as an increase in a positive one, when considering the cumulative impacts of the scenarios. As with Reckien (2014), an aggregated impact value was calculated as the sum of increases in positive components and decreases in negative components (from baseline to scenario).It should be noted that the output results of FCMs are semi-quantitative. As such, outcomes can only be used to determine impacts on components, relative to other components, rather than absolute changes (Özesmi and Özesmi, 2004;Kok, 2009). Impact comparisons can only be made within the system and cannot be compared with absolute indicator values (Reckien, 2014;Devisscher et al., 2016).Analysis of the two Case-Study FCMs demonstrated structurally similar systems (Table 3), with divergent contents (Figs. 3, 4, and 5).  The two maps have comparable component numbers and similar densities of 0.052 (Guarayos) and 0.048 (Tapajós). The Tapajós map has a greater number of causal relationships per component (1.56) than the Guarayos map (1.52), which explains its lower density value and a higher readiness to elicit change. The complexity of the Guarayos map (0.57) is almost double that of Tapajós (0.33), due to its lower number of transmitting components and higher number of receivers (Table 3). As a consequence, the Tapajós map shows a more hierarchical system, dominated by political and institutional concepts (Fig. 5), whilst the Guarayos map (Fig. 4) appears more heterogeneous.A first look at the results obtained in Bw and PR (Table 3) shows that the maximum Bw value in Guarayos is double that in Tapajós, 0.21 and 0.09 respectively, as we observed with complexity. In both cases the highest Bw corresponds to deforestation. Meanwhile PR maximum values are more similar in both case studies but are higher in Tapajós than in Guarayos. Studying the value distribution for both metrics (Bw and PR) in percentage of components, it is possible to compare both cases. With respect to Bw (Fig. 3a), the highest six values are quite differentiated from the rest, ranging from 0.05 to 0.21 in Guarayos. These correspond with ordinary components: agricultural expansion, climate change, illegal logging, lower crop yields, and deforestation. In the case of Tapajós, there is only one differentiated value corresponding to deforestation. With respect to PR (Fig. 3b), both cases present several differentiated values that are visualised in the network (Figs. 3 and 4) for a deeper analysis.Stakeholders perceived both systems as dominated by environmental problems, with deforestation and biodiversity loss having the highest PageRank value in Guarayos and Tapajós. It is also important to note the importance of poverty and low crop yields in Guarayos and forest product value and population purchasing power in Tapajós. For stakeholder in Guarayos, deforestation is the most influential component (highest outdegree; see Table S5) driving climate change, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss (Fig. 4), whereas in Tapajós deforestation was perceived as the most influenced component (highest indegree; see Table S6) affected by, amongst others, infrastructure projects, lack of public policy, and agricultural expansion (Fig. 5). In Tapajós, stakeholders depicted a lack of efficiency in policies for subsistence farmers as the factor with the greatest influence (highest outdegree; see Ta-ble S6), causing incomplete production chains, lack of technical capacity, and lack of access to viable economic activities (Fig. 5). Components including contamination and biodiversity loss were found in both maps to have high indegrees (see Tables S5 and S6), suggesting their sensitivity to other components.In Guarayos and Tapajós the aggregated PageRank of the component groups was dominated by the environmental and economic groups, followed by political, social, and technical groups. In both maps, the environmental grouping is the most heavily influenced and sensitive group with the highest group indegree values. The components identified as transmitters (square components) were largely political and economic, mostly defined as ineffective or with negative connotations, with the use of words such as \"lack of\" or \"poor\". The influence of these components on the situation in both regions (Figs. 4 and 5) is supported by their outdegree values (Tables S5 and S6). The sensitivity of environmental components was once again demonstrated by the majority of receiver components (diamonds) being environmental.Despite the differences in components within each map, there was still overlap between them, with 15 of the 61 total components representing similar concepts (environmental degradation, worsening socio-economic situations, and poor governance). This suggests that despite the maps being developed in distinct regions and with unique stakeholders, there is some continuity in the problems that afflict both regions and potentially the basin as a whole.Dynamic analysis of the aggregated maps (Figs. 6 and 7) demonstrates significant overlap, despite the ∼ 2000 km that separate the case studies. Both regions (Guarayos and Tapajós) are characterised by worsening environmental degradation and apparently bleak socio-economic opportunities for local communities, coupled with low institutional safeguards.Figure 6 characterises Guarayos as a region where environmental degradation is high, facilitated by low (and declining) application of the forest law and poor (and worsening) compliance with land zoning, coupled with low socioeconomic opportunities. The system is dominated by increasing contamination, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, fires, poverty, and agricultural expansion.The situation in Tapajós (Fig. 7) depicts a similarly degraded system, where environmental conditions are deteriorating, facilitated by limited economic opportunities and poor environmental monitoring. Tapajós is dominated by loss of environmental services and biodiversity and increasing contamination, deforestation, infrastructure projects, and agricultural expansion. Along with this, socio-economic opportunities for locals are apparently diminishing with reducing value of forest products and limited access to viable economic activities. Further, monitoring of environmental degradation is inhibited by limited environmental monitoring.Figure 8 establishes the aggregate effects of the four development strategies on the mapped system. The values for the components fixed within each scenario have not been included, to highlight the subsequent systemic impacts of changes to components fixed within each strategy.The governance strategy was responsible for the greatest \"desired\" change in both Guarayos and Tapajós, with the agricultural development strategy causing the biggest \"undesired\" change. The techno-social and conservation strategies also resulted in desirable changes.A more detailed description of the individual impacts of the scenarios on components in both systems is given below, with the extent of component changes shown in Figs. S1 and  S2. In general, implementation of these strategies results in greater changes to individual components in Guarayos than in Tapajós, which may be attributable to the higher density of the Guarayos map.The governance strategy results in the greatest systemic relative changes and some of the greatest changes to individual components. This may demonstrate the integrated nature of governance components and their connectivity within both systems. The strategy encourages reductions in environmental degradation across the two systems including deforestation, logging, and forest fires. It also drives socio-economic improvements, reducing poverty, increasing access to financial aid and viable economic alternatives, improving population purchasing power in Tapajós, and reducing the inequality of benefits in Guarayos. In Tapajós, it also elicits considerable improvements in the technical capacity of the region.The techno-social strategy encourages a suite of positive changes to both systems, reducing environmentally degrading activities, whilst providing simultaneous economic development. In Guarayos poverty is reduced, along with reductions in contamination, deforestation, illegal hunting, and logging. The strategy provides similar reductions in environmental degradation in Tapajós, with large reductions in deforestation and fires, whilst increasing population purchasing power and improving the value of forest products. Further, it also encourages greater social organisation and political participation, demonstrating a potentially beneficial unforeseen knock-on effect of such reforms.The conservation strategy has limited impacts across the two systems, catalysing change only in environmental components. In Guarayos it reduces deforestation, whilst in Tapajós it reduces deforestation as well as other environmental degrading activities including forest fires, logging, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.The agricultural development strategy encourages substantial differences in the responses of the two systems. In Guarayos, crop yields improve with the expansion in both agriculture and grazing expansion and result in reductions in poverty. Further, it also encourages positive environmental change with reduced illegal logging, hunting, and fishing. However, in general environmental conditions worsen greatly with, for example, increasing deforestation, along with contamination, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and destruction of pampas. In Tapajós, the rural development strategy results in no socio-economic benefits but encourages considerable environmental degradation, with deforestation, forest fires, loss of environmental services, and biodiversity and contamination all increasing.Figure 9 demonstrates the sensitivity of the systems under each scenario, whilst experiencing continued climate change, with some scenarios demonstrating greater resilience than others.Figure 9 reveals that the governance reforms (and to a lesser extent techno-social reforms) may provide the most effective and resilient means of instigating regional improvements, even under climate change. Guarayos is more heavily influenced by climate change than Tapajós, which, considering the PageRank of climate change in both systems (Figs. 4 and 5), may have been expected. In Guarayos, the effect of climate change was so great that despite the conservation strategy the overall state worsened, compared with the baseline. In Tapajós, the impacts of climate change were still notable but not to such an extreme extent as to further worsen the situation of the region. In both Guarayos and Tapajós, the agricultural development strategy offered the least resilient development strategy. FCM afforded the combination of knowledge from regional experts and local community members, offering the opportunity to improve and enrich the understanding of these regions, whilst providing a low-resolution demonstration of their present state.Despite the two maps reflecting systems on opposite sides of the Amazon, they yielded strikingly similar results on the present state of the basin. Stakeholders in both Bolivia and Brazil mapped systems plagued by environmental degradation, with weak social and governance support structures, inhibiting local community benefits. The perceived lack of effective governance is apparently incongruent with the contemporary literature, which suggests recent improvements in the governance model (World Bank, 2016). The presence of inequality, poverty, and deforestation is consistent with the paradox of poverty in resource-rich systems (Ioris, 2016), with stakeholders appearing to characterise the same \"...landscapes of impoverishment...\" as Ioris (2016, p. 187). Stakeholders in both Bolivia and Brazil identified similar barriers to development, with poor governance and conflicting policy measures inhibiting widespread socio-economic development and hindering environmental conservation, supporting previous findings (Simmons et al., 2007). Further, the inconsequential nature of climate change for stakeholders in both cases was unexpected, considering its already noted impacts (and potential future impacts; e.g. Malhi et al., 2008;Spracklen and Garcia-Carreras, 2015). This unanticipated outcome may support the findings of Brondizio and Moran (2008), who suggest that the memory of climatic changes is short-lived. This finding may also reflect the distinct cultural and linguistic meaning or representations of climate changes (e.g drought, flooding) across the two sites. In particular in Tapajós, climate change impacts are associated with an increase in extreme weather events (heatwaves, droughts) and soil dryness, which are considered a main cause of the wildfire occurrence in the region. Varela-Ortega et al. (2013) found that stakeholders perceived climate change to be a fundamental component in the future of both regions and in Tapajós at present.Implementation of the suite of scenarios affected substantial and variable changes. Governance and institutional reforms appear to offer the most effective means of transitioning Amazonian regions towards more sustainable desirable states, even under the conditions of climate change. The positive effects of governance and institutional reforms are unsurprising considering the constraining effect (McNeil et al., 2012) that poor governance can have by inhibiting sustainable development, with its effects well documented in the Amazon (e.g. Rodrigues-Filho et al., 2015). The results evidence the liberating effect that improving institutional capacity can have by instigating desirable social, economic, and environmental change. These multidimensional benefits apparently confirm the transversal nature of institutions and governance in the context of sustainable development (Mc-Neil et al., 2012). The positive impacts of governance have precedence in the Amazon, where institutional and governance improvements have encouraged environmental conservation (Nepstad et al., 2014;Tritsch and Arvor, 2016) and socio-economic development (Caviglia-Harris et al., 2016). Further, the literature widely supports the need for strong governance and institutions, with Müller et al. (2014), Ver-burg et al. (2014), and Høiby and Zenteno-Hopp (2014) contending that the likelihood for long-term environmental conservation is slim under poor governance conditions. Lapola et al. (2014) promote the need for policy enforcement and institutional support to encourage sustainable development, whilst Guedes et al. (2014) propose that pathways towards future environmental conservation can be founded upon investments in local institutions.Techno-social reforms also represent an alternative strategy, driving environmental protection, economic development, and social improvements. In Brazil, the difference in desired change between this strategy and governance reforms was minimal, suggesting its considerable potential. These results support the vision of Nobre et al. (2016), where rural development is encouraged through social and technological reforms, with both environmental and social components improving. The implementation of this scenario suggests that investments in building technical capacity and social reforms may reverse the poverty traps (Reardon and Vosti, 1995) in which stakeholders in both mapped regions appear to be locked. Investments in social and technical reforms may have wider unforeseen benefits, improving societal attitudes towards natural capital conservation (Salahodjaev, 2016), aiding in flattening environmental Kuznets curves (Tritsch and Arvor, 2016), and driving positive changes in agricultural methods (Assunção et al., 2013). Many of these points are suggested in the results of this analysis. However, this strategy was admittedly found to be susceptible to climate change, more so than the institutional reforms.Traditional developmental strategies relying upon conservation or extractionist policy implementation have driven trade-offs across the Amazon (Le Tourneau et al., 2013). The impacts of these binary choices can be stark, with decision makers having to make substantial compromises between environmental conservation and agricultural development (e.g. Manners and Varela-Ortega, 2018). The application of the conservation strategy had limited system-wide impacts, resulting in environmental improvements but offering little opportunity for socio-economic development, potentially confining local communities to conditions of poverty and limited development. Further, implementation of such a narrow strategy was found to be particularly susceptible to climate change. The application of this strategy, or one similar, may have little chance of providing sustainable rural development without concomitant offering of economic alternatives for locals, or the need for systems like Payments for Ecosystem Services to potentially alleviate poverty and encourage conservation (Pinho et al., 2014). Tejada et al. (2016) found that limiting future environmental degradation, specifically deforestation, in the Bolivian lowlands without offering new economic alternatives is unlikely.The results also outline the negative effects of a strategy solely focussing upon agricultural development, with the long-term benefits limited, especially under climate change. This strategy improved social factors like poverty and in-equality (in Bolivia), but at a cost to local ecosystems in both Bolivia and Brazil. The outcomes of this scenario appear consistent with the literature, suggesting that purely agriculturally orientated strategies without supporting policies may result in limited economic benefits for locals (Rodrigues et al., 2009;Ioris, 2016) and some environmental costs (Weinhold et al., 2015). Further, these results appear not to demonstrate the uncoupling of agricultural development from environmental degradation as identified in Brazil (Caviglia- Harris et al., 2016). However, focussing solely upon the local-scale economic and social benefits of such extractive strategies, as touched upon by Celentano et al. (2012), may ignore their wider national developmental benefits.In summary, application of the two traditional scenarios for rural development (agricultural development and environmental conservation) demonstrate the trade-offs in their application and their ability to improve regional economic, social, and environmental conditions. Development of new strategies concentrating upon governance and techno-social reforms could instigate positive shifts in the trajectory of these regions, even under the effects of climate change. However, moving from the modelled world to the real world, where implementation of such strategies requires consideration of social acceptability, likelihood of implementation, willingness of politicians and institutions to reform, coherence with current policy landscapes, and funding availability, may result in complications. Despite improvements in governance across many Amazonian countries in recent decades (World Bank, 2016), implementation of the governance reform may be challenging, especially under increasingly turbulent political landscapes, exemplified by Brazil. Further, potentially intangible (in the short term) and time-consuming governance and institutional reforms may be unpalatable for voter-conscious and electioneering administrations. Governments wanting to appear proactive in terms of rural development may consider other more palpable options. The benefits of institutional reforms may only be reaped in the long term, by which time governments may have changed and the benefits of change would be lost for the implementing administration. This may highlight the space for market-based interventions to encourage more sustainable development (e.g Nepstad et al., 2014;Gibbs et al., 2015). Beyond this, strategies aimed at techno-social reforms may garner fewer positive systemic changes but offer more tangible actions for voters and governments alike, whilst catalysing positive change, even under worsening climatic conditions. However, the financial implications of such reforms must be considered, with them likely requiring significant and long-term public or private investments (Ferraro and Pattanayak, 2006). Our results show that some techno-social measures, such as improving environmental awareness, may be effective to promote sustainability, while they do not necessarily require a large amount of public financial investment. Actions of social responsibility can contribute to financing investments in education and new technologies. Also, governance measures (e.g. better coordination of laws and institutions) can facilitate the adoption of more ambitious techno-social measures (e.g. better training and assistance, protection of traditional communities) at lower cost. Thus, further analysis should be performed on synergies between governance and technosocial measures, as well as on collective work between the public and the private sectors to better organise and prioritise investments and actions.The use of FCM to visualise the perceptions of stakeholders across the Amazon basin has shown that on both sides of the basin landscapes of socio-economic impoverishment and environmental degradation are present, driven to varying degrees by governmental and institutional deficiencies. Even under such abject conditions, these processes have been modelled to be theoretically reversible through application of governance and well-integrated technical and social reform strategies. These strategies were found to encourage positive regional changes even under the pressure of climatic change. However, what is apparent in both regions is that a continuation of the current rural development programmes cannot continue, with these results showing that concentration on only conservation or agricultural development policies would reduce the resilience of both regions to climate change, whilst also providing limited socio-economic development and continued environmental degradation.Data availability. Data are freely available upon request by contacting the corresponding author by email.Supplement. The supplement related to this article is available online at: https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-797-2020-supplement.Author contributions. The conceptualisation and methodology design were performed by CVO (PI of Spain's research team in the ROBIN project) and IBG. The development and implementation of the stakeholder workshops were carried out by IBG, CVO, LGM, and MT. AT carried out the mathematical analysis of FCM. RM performed the simulations and supported the scenario development and processing of results. IBG and RM prepared the manuscript with contributions from all co-authors.Competing interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Special issue statement. This article is part of the special issue \"Remote sensing, modelling-based hazard and risk assessment, and management of agro-forested ecosystems\". It is not associated with a conference.Acknowledgements. The authors are indebted to the numerous stakeholders that have taken part in this research and to Paloma Esteve for their valuable comments throughout the development of the research.Financial support. This research has been supported by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (project \"Role Of Biodiversity In climate change MitigatioN (ROBIN)\" (grant no. 283093)), the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid through their Latin American Cooperation Programmes (project \"Biodiversidad y bienestar humano ante el cambio global en áreas tropicales protegidas de América Latina\" (grant no. AL13-PID-18)), and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid through their Latin American Cooperation Programmes (project \"Biodiversidad y cambio climático en la Amazonía: Perspectivas socio-económicas y ambientales\" (grant no. AL14-PID-12)).Review statement. This paper was edited by Wenwu Zhao and reviewed by Pei-Lin Yu and two anonymous referees.","tokenCount":"6567"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"857534790c22ba41607db1031e61b257","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3f2d3369-ae89-4920-b43f-b9e1bf501a04/retrieve","id":"-1582663256"},"keywords":["CCAFS Report No","10 CCAFS Report No","10 CCAFS Report No","10"],"sieverID":"083ab7b1-d93f-4c31-9a93-d105d8cd3bde","pagecount":"40","content":"would also like to express its appreciation to those individuals active in in-country data and information collection. This process facilitated the drafting of the country reviews on which sections of this report are based. This includes: Hamissou Samari (Harvard Kennedy School), Jean Lee (University of Vermont), Charles Domozoro (CSIR-Animal Research Institute, Ghana) and Oumar Samaké (AMEDD, Mali). Finally, the authors acknowledge all country institutions and individuals who provided information during stakeholder engagement workshops.Though identified as an urgent need by many countries, the economic impacts of climate risks are not commonly assessed, although some have made projections. In addition, many future climate change scenarios do not account for the changing socioeconomic status of populations in emerging economies, increased urbanization, and other factors that are too complex to project and model 20-100 years into the future, but which will affect climate impact projections.Most countries reviewed appear to apply more than one method to determine priority adaptation activities, but are not consistently transparent in detailing how these decisions are made. Those countries that include this level of detail (such as in NatComms or national climate change plans) appear to most commonly apply multi-criteria analysis, nominal group methods, criteria weighing and cost-benefit analysis, often in multi-step prioritization processes. While cross-or multisectoral analyses to prioritize adaptation actions can be useful, many countries reviewed have difficulties performing such strategic studies.Countries reviewed prioritized the following most frequently: 1) protecting the most vulnerable and poor (rural) populations, 2) cost-effectiveness (or overall cost), 3) promoting sustainable development and/or natural resource use, 4) improving livelihoods (or avoiding losses), and 5) promoting adaptive capacity. More can be done to assess socioeconomic impacts of adaptation options.Once adaptation activities are prioritized, countries must evaluate institutional structures for implementation, particularly as adaptation activities are often cross-sectoral. Some national governments are creating new institutional structures to promote cross-sectoral cooperation. However, many countries reviewed still lack an institutional framework to effectively coordinate and implement adaptation activities. It is also noted that key institutions in most countries reviewed suffer from a shortage of technically well-qualified staff. Further, the private sector-sometimes critical to support implementation-is often noticeably absent from strategic planning, and therefore de-emphasized as an implementation partner.Countries should assess how to strategically place adaptation priorities within broader national policy frameworks, including national development policies and agricultural sectoral plans. This allows for policies with precedence (such as development and fiscal policies) to guide decision-making and create necessary linkages. Aligning and mainstreaming activities into national development or sector plans can also enable funding for implementation through government budgetary allocations. However, for the majority of countries reviewed, this remains a challenge, sometimes attributed to structural and institutional issues. Countries with multiple adaptation policies and guidance documents often lack clear coordination and linkage between them. Integrated adaptation assessments and action plans can help overcome the barrier of cross-sectoral coordination.Almost all countries reviewed are in the early stages of planning and implementation. Therefore, detailed plans of action, including assignment of responsibilities and timelines for implementation, including intention to review the effectiveness of implementation and revise plans, have not yet been developed. Assessment of conflicts and synergies with national development or sectoral plans should be a focus during plan design and implementation, and iteratively assessed. Monitoring and evaluation systems can initially focus on process elements rather than outcomes, and similarly employ an iterative approach to support continuous improvement, particularly as new information becomes available.Funding for national adaptation planning remains a challenge. Most countries are frustrated by the low level of financing for implementation of NAPA and adaptation projects. Country studies commissioned by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) indicate adaptation and food security programs currently being implemented are not well integrated into a broader national strategy, but appear to be driven by bilateral and/or multilateral funding sources. NAPs hold great potential to reverse this trend, although consideration should be given to how to target and facilitate alternative funding sources, particularly from domestic revenues. This is important if NAPs are to gain more traction and show greater implementation success than NAPAs. Of the countries reviewed for this report, those dedicating domestic fiscal instruments and budgets to NAP development appear to show higher potential for successful implementation. As financing is needed for implementation, adaptation plans should consider how sufficient finance can be mobilized, particularly at local levels where adaptation response measures are most crucial.Stakeholder engagement and collaboration throughout the entire process of an adaptation strategyincluding assessing risk, designing measures, implementation, identification of needs, and improving over time-is critical. CCAFS workshops in the three priority regions, in addition to the CCAFS East Africa regional synthesis report, identified the following challenges with stakeholder engagement: low access to information, low coordination, particularly at regional/local levels, low participation of farmers, low participation of the private sector and media, lack of awareness outside the immediate climate change policy circles in government (in East Africa and West Africa), and the need to build capacity of stakeholders to address adaptation issues.Meta-synthesis of national adaptation plans in West and East Africa and South AsiaCapacity constraints are noted across all countries reviewed. The most common include lack of capacity in climate observation systems, technical and institutional capacity, and limited finance. The complexity of adaptation assessment and planning needs, plus the challenges of linking this information into policy making creates a unique capacity challenge, which countries should address at all NAP stages. Capacity building must look beyond government, and include the full suite of actors and interests in adaptation, including local communities and the private sector.Assessing the twelve countries against the analytic framework provided insights into where countries might take further steps to strengthen their national adaption process, as well as identification of common needs across the countries reviewed. Recommendations for national policy makers, agriculture sector practitioners seeking to shape national adaptation planning processes, CCAFS and research organizations, and the donor community include:1. Strengthen capacity to project climate risks, rank such risks, and prioritize response activities.The limitations of current information systems points to many countries needing better information on regional variations and future projections of vulnerability and risk. Further, improving the understanding of the economic impacts of climate risks is critical and currently lacking.2. Given the multiple scales, diversity and complexity in governance, finance, and range of actors involved in defining adaptation solutions, attention to downward accountability and adaptive institutions will be critical.Ongoing assessment of institutional frameworks for adaptation planning and implementation that can effectively coordinate and implement a holistic national adaptation plan will be critical at all levels.3. It's important to define long-term solutions for adaptation planning and implementation funding that is sufficient and geared towards building strong institutions and capacity. Funding for the formulation of NAPs should be additional, specific and separate to funding for implementation.4. Linking adaptation assessments into policy development creates a unique capacity challenge, which countries should address at all NAP stages. In particular, it is critical to strengthen analytic capacity for integrated approaches to adaptation planning that a) considers combinations of crop, livestock, rangeland, forestry, fishery and agroforestry activities, as well as aquatic and ecosystem function needs and b) helps define adaptation and mitigation synergies, which countries often cite interest to identify, but are more challenged to define.5. Focus policy analysis and action towards integrating adaptation strategies into development objectives and existing sectoral policies. Enable funding for implementation partially through national budgetary allocations, which can decrease dependence on unpredictable donor finance, while securing stronger political support for, and success in, implementation.6. Consider objective methods to assess quality of stakeholder engagement in assessment, design and implementation of adaptation plans.Climate change will have far-reaching consequences for agriculture and food security globally, and its impacts are predicted to disproportionately affect the poor and most vulnerable who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.  A variety of funding instruments have been created, including under the UNFCCC, to support adaptation activities. These include: Established to address the special needs of LDCs and has identified adaptation as the top priority. The Global Environment Facility is its operating entity and takes guidance from the COP. Its mandate includes assistance to LDCs with the preparation of national adaptation plans, and to finance the preparation and implementation of NAPAs.Established in 2001 to finance, among others, projects related to adaptation activities. The COP has urged developed countries to mobilize financial support for the NAP process for non-LDC developing country Parties through bilateral and multilateral channels, including through the SCCF. 3  Financed through a 2% share of the proceeds from Certified Emission Reductions issued for projects under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Its mandate is to fund concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries.A targeted programme of the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) under the Climate Investment Funds framework, a trust fund of the World Bank. It aims to pilot and demonstrate ways in which climate risk and resilience may be integrated into core development planning and implementation.Designated as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC, its objective is to support developing countries in their efforts \"to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change, taking into account the needs of those developing countries, particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.\" 4 The UNFCCC agreed in the Cancún decisions 5 that \"a significant share of new multilateral funding for adaptation should flow through the Green Climate Fund.\"The UNFCCC Secretariat presented a report to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) in Doha in late 2012, providing insight on common criteria and indicators used in national-level adaptation planning and covered case studies from eight countries. 6 The report identified common approaches as well as differences, and provided a synthesis of relevant examples of adaptation planning and practices occurring under the auspices of the Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. Lessons and insights from the case studies informed the development of the analytical framework applied in this report (see Section 1.2, as well as criteria to rank climate risk, in Section 2.1)To structure this report and provide a coherent basis for analysis of adaptation processes across multiple countries and the relationships between national policies and plans and strategies for adapting to climate challenges, an analytical framework was developed (see Figure 1). The design of this framework is intended to allow a 'dashboard' view of country progress on process and key NAP policy elements (e.g. integration into existing policies) and, ideally, to provide a framework that can continue to be useful as countries develop and refine their adaptation approaches over time.The analytic framework was informed by the experiences to date of the 12 countries reviewed as well as the 8 case studies in the UNFCCC report, Compilation of case studies on national adaptation planning processes: Note by the secretariat (UNFCCC 2012a), which provided insight on common criteria and indicators used in national-level adaptation planning. Drawing from these experiences the framework highlights common approaches, while recognizing that the high complexity and cross-sectoral nature of adaptation processes will result in nationally-defined programmes that will exhibit unique qualities and differences due to the variety of vulnerabilities and social, economic and ecological systems.Planning climate adaptation in agriculture Most countries start with evaluating climate risks, based on impacts and vulnerabilities of affected systems. Assessment needs, such as downscaling of climate models, vary by country. Risk assessment also benefits from a comprehensive and coordinated approach that applies the same methodology across regions and sectors, which allows for comparison and a subsequent ranking of risks and prioritization of adaptation activities. The robustness of adaptation risk assessments is often dependent on the technical capacity of the country, and whether climate scenarios and modelling have been conducted by external agents. Countries lacking technical capacity to assess risks through modelling and scenario analyses often rely on expertqualitative judgment to identify and rank major risks. The process and final outputs are sometimes validated through a participatory approach at country level. For the CCAFS priority countries, risk assessments range from the use of simple projections, application of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global precipitation and surface temperature models to very complex region-specific models with multiple scenarios.Once risks have been identified, a ranking is usually undertaken in order to direct limited resources to addressing those risks that are considered most urgent or that could result in unmanageable consequences in the future. Such a ranking might be undertaken for different time periods (e.g. short-, medium-, and long-term impacts). A range of tools and methods may be applied to determine the ranking, such as economic evaluation and cost-benefit analysis, multicriteria or multisectoral integrated assessments, and comparative local and regional analysis. To varying degrees, countries reviewed have performed ranking and prioritization using a range of tools or criteria, and we explore this is greater detail in section 2.1.2.Once the most important risks have been identified, usually the first step is development of a strategy or action plan that prioritizes actions and outcomes. This should also identify (existing or new) institutional structures that are needed to coordinate and/or implement the strategy. A prioritization of measures will also be needed to optimize efficacy, as well as to determine the availability of financial, technical and human resources. This process should be shaped by national goals and integrated into development objectives and existing policies, institutions and frameworks to increase effectiveness. Finally, capacity building, institutional, financial, legislative, and research/ technical needs should be identified and prioritized.Collaboration between governments and research institutions helps bridge gaps between policy and research, and facilitates better integration of science-and evidence-based risk adaptation planning and implementation. CCAFS seeks to establish regional and national platforms for exchange between researchers and policy makers in each CCAFS pilot country, which can help address this current weakness.A broad structure for the NAP implementation process will be important for countries reviewed as they proceed to develop NAPs, including, at different levels of complexity, the development of a detailed and concrete plan, assignment of responsibilities, alignment with other national plans and strategies, and a timeline. Part of implementation of adaptation activities is the assessment of potential conflicts or synergies of the planned activities with other plans or strategies. In addition, a monitoring and evaluation system should be developed and accompany the implementation process so that corrective measures can be undertaken as required. Monitoring and evaluation should apply at the national policy and project levels, to enable adaptive management and to guide adjustments necessary during implementation. This is particularly important as new information on climate change impacts becomes available in the future.Like stakeholder engagement, funding and capacity building should occur at all levels of NAP preparation and implementation. Sources of financial support, including both domestic and international sources, typically need to be identified for countries reviewed and this is one of the most challenging aspects of implementing adaptation strategies and programmes. In addition, most have capacity-building needs that cut across all steps in the adaptation process. Linking adaptation strategies to planned projects or other non-adaptation efforts can result in significant cost savings. Priority should be placed on exploring low-cost and 'no regret' adaptation strategies.Most countries reviewed have initiated the design of national adaptation plans and strategies with the aim of moving from individual activities (e.g. NAPAs) to a more coherent and long-term approach to addressing potential climate impacts. However, even the best plans fall short of reaching intended outcomes if the political economy is not conducive to effective, accountable and responsible planning and policy making.Climate change impacts are often local and contextual, with the bulk of responsibility falling on local and national governments. While decentralization places greater responsibility on local and regional level authorities, their capacity to plan and implement adaptation measures may be limited, thus reinforcing the importance of downward accountability in adaptation (Agrawal et al. 2009). Promoting local capacity for planning and implementation, and improving the relationships between local and national level adaptation planning processes are critical in NAP processes, as are adequate mechanisms for information sharing, identification of research priorities and outcomes.Adaptation is best managed through policy coherence and through coordination and cooperation among governments, civil society, and the private sector (Commission on Climate Change and Development 2009). Participatory decisionmaking, functioning governance and institutions, and transparency are necessary at all levels, but achieving that will require adaptive institutions. However, a general lack of research on institutions and climate change adaptation practices exists (Agrawal et al. 2009), and this warrants further investigation beyond what is achieved in this assessment. Given the multiple scales, diversity and complexity in governance, finance, and range of actors involved in defining adaptation solutions, it may be impossible to devise apolitical adaptation solutions. Rather, a political economy approach can guide an understanding of what may be politically feasible, given the interplay between ideas, power and resources, and where further attention will be required. This is particularly relevant when transferring or translating international initiatives to national and subnational policy contexts (Tanner and Allouche 2011). Ongoing assessment should be made (by all parties involved, at all scales) of downward accountability and adaptive institutions that are responsive to change.Box 1. Collaboration, stakeholder engagement and shared information Robust and effective participation of relevant stakeholders should occur when assessing and ranking risks, as well as when designing and prioritizing adaptation measures. Engagement and collaboration among stakeholders, including local communities, civil society, non-governmental organizations and the private sector-in addition to relevant government ministries and agencies-facilitates and strengthens national adaptation planning and implementation.Collaboration between governments and research institutions helps bridge gaps between policy and research, and facilitates better integration of scienceand evidence-based risk adaptation planning and implementation.Governments should find a balance between acting on their own and providing the right conditions and incentives for other stakeholders to act. Distributing responsibilities and allocating accountability for delivering, monitoring and reporting on activities is encouraged.Finally, improving access to information for practitioners and policymakers using regional and scientific networks and organizations can play an important role, building capacity for vulnerability and impact assessment, and also for planning and implementation of adaptation measures.This section provides an analysis of the countries reviewed, following the analytic framework elaborated in Section 1.2. It explores the process used by countries for vulnerability and risk assessment, including ranking of risks; processes for designing and prioritizing adaptation response strategies; status of implementation; challenges related to funding; stakeholder engagement; and capacity building.The countries reviewed are in various stages of developing national strategies to address climate change adaptation (Table 2). All countries reviewed are LDCs, with the exception of Kenya, Ghana and India. All LDCs reviewed have submitted NAPAs as per the decision of the UNFCCC COP at its seventh session in 2001. While NAPAs have been identified to be predominantly project and sector focused, rather than addressing the thematic and transformative approaches required for more effective adaptation planning and implementation (Global Environment Facility 2009), this assessment does not evaluate country progress in implementing NAPAs, but rather assumes that NAPAs will be incorporated to varying degrees into NAPs, depending on country short-, medium and long-term adaptation needs. For LDCs, NAPAs are an essential step in the development of adaptation capacity, methods and tools in order to present and negotiate a country-driven action programme (Osman-Elasha and Downing 2007). Countries reviewed have carried out national adaptation planning elements to varying degrees as part of NatComms. India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya and Niger have national climate change plans that include adaptation or national adaptation strategies or plans.For some countries, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) may be more of a change in reporting processes than comprising new research and policies. While Kenya's NAP is still under development, broad adaptation issues are already captured in the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) that was launched in early 2013 (Orindi and King'uyu 2013; Government of Kenya 2013). Ghana's National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, developed in 2010 and intended to be in place for ten years, provides a solid foundation. Senegal is in the process of completing national climate change plans and policies. All the countries have prepared either initial and/or second NatComms, detailing climate change vulnerabilities and risks and proposed strategies to address them. Relevant development and sectoral plans are present, which range from those that reflect adaptation priorities or intend to do so in the future, to those that contain no current or planned link to national adaptation priorities and objectives.Countries have pursued a range of climate change vulnerability and risk assessments, either specifically for their NatComms and NAPA submissions, or for their own adaptation strategies and policies. Many countries reviewed are already experiencing climate change impacts, particularly countries noticing an increased frequency and intensity of extreme storm events, floods and drought. Nearly a third of Bangladesh is susceptible to tidal inundation and 60% of deaths caused by cyclones worldwide in the last 20 years occurred in Bangladesh. Thus, Bangladesh's BCCSAP draws upon considerable research and experience to project how the country can pursue a resilient and low-carbon development path, while reducing or eliminating risks to the most vulnerable, including the projected 20 million people displaced due to climate change impacts in the future. In Niger, declines in rainfall over the last 30 years have impacted millet, sorghum and cowpea yields, shifting the country from self-sufficiency in food production to increasing reliance on imports. With the population expected to double by 2025, Niger is concerned the currently observed socioeconomic impact of yield reductions and climate impacts on agriculture will lead to permanent food insecurity, land conflicts, and a rural exodus increasing already high rates of poverty.Most countries build on observed trends in temperature and rainfall patterns, applying models to predict how climate change will affect temperature and rainfall patterns in the future. Table 3 summarizes information on country vulnerability and risk assessments, across all countries reviewed. Most countries (and external experts) chose the most country-appropriate scenario(s) from the Special Report on Emission Scenario (SRES) models of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. All countries reviewed have looked at national level trends and projections. Historical baselines for precipitation and temperature are often determined using an average over a specified amount of time (30 years or more), in order to predict future baseline scenarios. Processes that countries reviewed use to assess climate change vulnerability and risk include regional workshops, national workshops, research and background papers, external research and analysis and expert judgment. West Africa appears to have the least technical capacity to assess risks through modelling and scenario projections, and thus has relied to a greater degree than other regions on expert-qualitative judgment to identify vulnerabilities and risks.  After assessing vulnerabilities and risk, countries assess impacts on eco-regional, region-specific, socioeconomic or sector-specific elements. Burkina Faso's NAPA provides brief assessment of potential impacts on water, agriculture, livestock and forestry sectors. India's \"4x4 Assessment,\" completed after its second NatComm to the UNFCCC, is a sectoral and regional analysis, providing an assessment of the impacts of climate change up to the 2030s on four key sectors of the economy that are climate dependentagriculture, water, natural ecosystems and biodiversity, and human health-in the four major climate-sensitive regions, including the Himalayas, the northeastern region, the Western Ghats, and the coastal regions. Further, countries such as Bangladesh, Ghana and Burkina Faso consider impacts on populations, particularly those portions of the population highly vulnerable to climatic change, such as the rural poor. Countries have also considered impacts on healthparticularly Bangladesh, Senegal and Niger-projecting changes in malarial areas due to temperature and precipitation changes or impacts on availability of drinking water and waterborne disease.For most countries reviewed, impact assessments are entirely sector based, after first identifying general trends in vulnerability. For example, Nepal's NAPA assessed the climate change vulnerabilities by priority sectors including agriculture and food security, water resources and energy, climate-induced disasters, forests and biodiversity, public health, urban settlements and infrastructure and cross-cutting sectors (gender, industry and transport, tourism).For many countries, the vulnerability and impact assessments identify most at-risk sectors and socioeconomic groups. For instance, Burkina Faso's vulnerability assessment identified the four most vulnerable sectors as agriculture, water resources, animal resources, forestry/ biodiversity, and the most vulnerable groups being the rural poor, including women, youth, and small-scale farmers. approach to generally assess impacts. Burkina Faso's approach includes poverty rates and socio-cultural considerations.it did apply socioeconomic indicators in order to guide the development of proposed strategies.on water use, particularly Dakar's municipal supply needs and agricultural demands.Assessing climate change vulnerability and risk can be a dynamic process, changing as new information becomes available or as future projections and modelling capabilities improve. Ghana's vulnerability assessment formed the basis of evaluating impacts of climate scenarios on agriculture, water and coastal resources in its 1 st NatComm, which was further expanded in its 2 nd NatComm to include vulnerable economic sectors including fish production, landuse management, linkages with poverty and livelihoods, root crop and cocoa production (Government of Ghana 2011).offer a means of assessing adaptive capacity, which can be spatially-or qualitatively-based. Nepal's experience with spatial outputs is based on their climate change vulnerability assessments conducted at district levels to identify the most climate vulnerable districts, which produced climate risk/ exposure maps, sensitivity maps and adaptive capacity maps. Qualitative assessments of adaptive capacity are more common. For instance, many coastal countries reviewed already have experience with flood forecasting systems, and use this experience as a basis for evaluating adaptive capacity in response to future climate change impacts. One example is Bangladesh's well developed flood forecasting system and water and disaster management plans. However, these are designed to provide temporary arrangements to prevent losses due to climate change, and therefore may not help directly support adaptive capacity development in the agriculture sector (Joshi et al. 2013).Vulnerability and risk assessments benefit from a comprehensive and coordinated approach that applies the same methodology across regions and sectors, which allows for comparison and a subsequent ranking of risks and prioritization of adaptation activities (UNFCCC 2012a). However, in practice, many countries reviewed do not achieve such consistency and comprehensiveness in vulnerability and risk assessments.Once the vulnerability and impact assessment is completed, countries can apply methods to rank climate risk in order to direct limited resources to addressing risks that are considered most urgent, and/or identify the most vulnerable sectors, populations or geographies. Such a ranking might be undertaken for different time periods (e.g. short-, medium-, and long-term impacts).Many countries reviewed have followed the UNFCCC prototype guide to assist non-Annex I Parties prepare the vulnerability and adaptation section of their NatComms which focuses on assessment of four sectors. Section V on selected tools and methods focuses attention on assessments in four key areas likely to be impacted by climate change: coastal resources, water resources, agriculture and human health. Perhaps due to the predominant use of this resource for guidance, most countries reviewed are not explicit about the criteria or processes used to rank climate risk. Rather, it appears that most countries follow the guidance of the UNFCCC prototype guide and assess vulnerability and adaptation risk based on the four key areas, as well as others identified as important given national circumstances (e.g. forests, biodiversity).risk rather than focus on specific sectors, though this is rarely done consistently in countries reviewed. Evaluating the magnitude of risk can be measured quantitatively, such as judging the order of change from a baseline range (# of 100-year storm events, metres of sea level rise, number of people impacted), or qualitatively.Probability, likelihood and level of confidence Climate change models projecting future events inherently involve a degree of uncertainty. Thus, assessments must consider the probability of a risk occurring, the likelihood of the risk resulting in a certain impact and the level of confidence in those estimations. This is an important element in ranking risks.Irreversible impacts are ranked higher than reversible ones. This may also depend on assessment of technological and practical solutions to addressing impacts.Risks with high immediate damage potential or irreversible and high-damage consequences in the longer term, are ranked higher. , have useful information and data that countries could use to strengthen their vulnerability assessment databases and improve in the understanding of future risks (Orindi and King'uyu 2013). However, many future climate change scenarios do not account for the changing socioeconomic status of populations in emerging economies, increased urbanization, and other factors that are complex to project and model 20-100 years into the future, but which will affect impact projections.Finally, it is important to note that criteria used to rank climate risk is a process step that should precede development of criteria to prioritize and rank adaptation activities, which is covered in the following section.Once the most important climate change vulnerabilities, impacts and risks are identified and ranked, adaptation activities can be designed and prioritized according to a second set of criteria. The criteria are most often developed in countries reviewed through expert opinion, stakeholder consultation, and through adaptation working groups which often reflect the sectors involved. Criteria are developed with national objectives in mind, as well as the availability of financial, technical and human resources.Adaptation planning entails defining response measures in the face of varying degrees of uncertainty of future impacts. While both impact-based and capacity-based approaches have timeframe-dependent risks and benefits in adaptation planning, decision makers are encouraged to find solutions to provide robust policy responses (benefitting multiple actors, across various spatial and temporal scales) in the face of uncertainty (Vermeulen et al. 2013).Once priority adaptation activities have been identified, further consideration should be given to evaluating institutional structures for implementation, particularly as adaptation activities are often cross-sectoral. Furthermore, steps should be taken to integrate climate change adaptation priorities into national development policies and agricultural sectoral plans. This section explores how countries reviewed have approached these climate change adaptation planning and implementation elements so far.Countries can apply a combination of methods to prioritize and rank adaptation activities (as summarized by the Least Developed Countries Expert Group ( 2012)), including:questionnaire methods, with results being scored or ranked. assigns the responsibility to prioritize adaptation options to a small expert group. assigns a priority ranking to measures based on how they score against a set of criteria. More appropriately used for prioritizing adaptation activities than vulnerabilities or risks. determines the weights (percentages or fractions) to be assigned to each criterion. assessing the cost of an intervention against the benefit gained from implementing it, expressed in monetary terms. The benefit is that it compares diverse impacts using a single metric. The limitation is the need to express costs and benefits in monetary terms, which can be difficult with climate change impacts.involves costing different options that achieve the same objective, in order to find the least costly option. Limitations are that cost-effectiveness may not be the most appropriate tool to discern benefits, particularly when evaluating climate impacts.ranking adaptation options against a number of criteria.Most countries reviewed appear to apply more than one method to determine priorities and ranking, however this process information is often not shared consistently in NAPAs, climate change and sectoral policy documents and UNFCCC national communications. Based on those countries that did include this level of detail, it appears multicriteria analysis, nominal group methods, criteria weighing and cost-benefit analysis are most commonly used, and often in multistep prioritization processes. Ethiopia applied the weights and indicators method, assigning weights to each criterion. Once Bangladesh fixed the general and specific goals for an adaptation measure, the NAPA recommends considering different options to meet them, staying attuned to the potential appropriateness of multicriteria analysis, rather than costbenefit or cost-effectiveness analysis, due to lack of concrete and quantifiable data in some places.A cross-or multisectoral analysis to prioritize adaptation actions is critical, but many countries have difficulties performing such strategic studies. A prioritization of measures is needed to optimize efficacy, as well as to determine the availability of financial, technical and human resources. Depending on the country, prioritization may be based on a range of risk factors, country-specific criteria, or multicriteria analyses. For many countries analysing the many interactions between each sector, their individual priorities and set of activities, and integrating them into a coherent plan can be daunting. Below are two examples of countries that have engaged in relatively complex processes for performing such analyses:Groups\" for its NAPA completion, led by different line ministries. These included: Agriculture and Food Security, Forests and Biodiversity, Water Resources and Energy, Climate Induced Disasters, Public Health, and Urban Settlements and Infrastructure. Each working group was composed of government, NGOs, academic institutions, and UN agencies. Besides applying aggregated criteria to develop high priority adaptation options, the thematic working groups also agreed to combine priority activities and develop combined project profiles.a method for analysis that results in a cross-sectoral project plan. In this approach, a logical framework analysis is used to identify problems and policy solutions. Then a multicriteria analysis is performed to identify overall preferences among alternative options, i.e. to identify and rank the relative importance of activities. Out of the analysis, 10 adaptation projects (of which several, including improved land-use management and agricultural diversification, were directly related to agriculture and food security) were identified and packaged into programmatic adaptation plan, which fed into Ghana's national adaptation strategy.Meta-synthesis of national adaptation plans in West and East Africa and South Asia Countries have also derived priorities and ranking through expert consultations or a participatory decision-making change, and then classified and prioritized activities based on field missions conducted among vulnerable populations.Consideration was also given to potential socioeconomic consequences deduced from a very general, non-spatial assessment of future vulnerabilities of agriculture, livestock, forestry, health, and water. The drafting process then identified sectors, areas and communities most vulnerable, and developed 14 adaptation options.priority projects on successful past and current practices.For example, some of the adaptation solutions proposed in the area of land-use management are those already being widely practised due to their positive impact on agriculture yields, e.g. use of appropriate crop varieties.additional geographic assessments to inform the national adaptation planning. As stated in Nepal's NAPA, \"in countries with diverse ecosystems, microclimates, cultures, and socioeconomic circumstances, any national scale adaptation plan programme would have to be complemented by a series of Local Adaptation Programme of Action (LAPAs)\" (Government of Nepal 2010). India has also used geographic transects for its \"4x4 Assessment\" which analyses four sectoral areas (agriculture, water, natural ecosystems and biodiversity) against four regions (the Himalayas, northeastern region, Western Ghats and the coastal region). This '4x4 Assessment' occurred after India's 2 nd NatComm in 2012, demonstrating the role of continuous improvement and refinement of prioritization and sectoral assessment in adaptation planning.Consistency and transparency in the application of criteria across multiple policy and planning frameworks, for prioritization and ranking purposes, is important. While the criteria applied to prioritize and rank activities in Bangladesh's NAPA is clear, Bangladesh's Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) is not explicit in what criteria were used to develop the six pillars, which form the basis of its action plan. However, it is clear in the BCCSAP that Bangladesh wishes to build upon its history of climate proofing activities, to ensure an integrated approach linking sectors and Ministries and to respond to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable groups. To compare options, scales of ranking were standardized, and then criteria were weighed and a sensitivity analysis of options applied. This was completed through a participatory approach including all regions and circles. Local NGOs organized consultations.A multistep prioritization process: Involved a series of expert teams and wider reference groups. These groups derived thematic criteria and elements (multicriteria analysis), applied a sector-specific lens, and this was tested and affirmed by the multistakeholder thematic working groups. Primary criteria: Niger (NAPA and 2 nd NatComm)Multicriteria analysis, based on results of field missions conducted among vulnerable populations. NAPA following criteria:Three years after the NAPA, the 2 nd NatComm built on the NAPA and also deduction of the consequences on some socioeconomic indicators (not mentioned in draft) of the results of climate change projections made during the study on future vulnerability.(2 nd NatComm and NAPA)While specific criteria for prioritization and ranking is not explicit, it appears decisions were guided by: specifically: (i) protect populations against the consequences of climate change, especially vulnerable groups, (ii) develop the capacities of socioeconomic actors in society to adapt to climate risks and (iii) promote the rational management of natural resources.transfer of adapted technologies (ii) strengthening the prevention and fight against climate shocks and (iii) promoting sustainable management of natural resources.Tanzania (Orindi and King'uyu 2013 on NAPA)Sectors were ranked: agriculture ranked first, then water and energy second, followed by forestry, health, wildlife and tourism industry coastal and marine resources, human settlements, and wetlands. The NAPA criteria to select priority project activities included: Uganda (Orindi and King'uyu 2013)Three tiers of criteria were developed: equity and gender issues, taking into consideration disadvantaged groups. These were largely used to establish the relevance of an intervention area.acceptance.Meta-synthesis of national adaptation plans in West and East Africa and South Asia  (Mungai et al. 2012).Key institutions in most countries suffer from a shortage of technically well-qualified staff. For example, it was noted that in Burkina Faso, one of the major capacity-building needs is in the area of human development and training, and all agencies suffer from a shortage of technically well-qualified staff and lack of good local and regional educational and training institutions (Zougmoré and Samari 2011b). Orindi and King'uyu (2013) note that Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have limited assessments of potential future impacts from climate change in current research and planning documents, which can be attributed to limited analytical capacity and poor coordination among institutions that are supposed to carry out these assessments. Several reports also suggest that dependence on donor funding can hinder the development of institutions.The private sector-also needed to support implementation-is often noticeably absent from strategic planning. Very few adaptation plans highlighted a role for the private sector; however, a few exceptions exist. For example, Kenya has paid greater attention to the role of the private sector in adaptation-in terms of resource mobilization, development and transfer of appropriate technologies, and the need to climate-proof their business operations. Kenya's private sector was represented at all the levels of the Action Planning process, including representation in the coordinating national taskforce and in several thematic working groups (Orindi and King'uyu 2013). Similarly, the Tanzanian process also included representatives of the private sector during preparation of the NAPA. Ethiopia did not include the private sector in NAPA preparation, but did include private sector and other actors in the proposed institutional framework for implementing the priority actions (ibid). India and Bangladesh include representation of the business and private sector on their national climate change committees, to obtain input and seek partnerships for implementation.Planning climate adaptation in agricultureThe integration or mainstreaming of adaptation goals and strategies into development and sectoral (particularly agriculture) policies and priorities is critical to NAP success. Early experience in Germany with adaptation strategy implementation identifies mainstreaming as the most effective approach to adaptation, and emphasis has been placed on looking for existing gaps and weaknesses in systems (UNFCCC 2012a). Further, adaptation assessment and response measures must integrate in all levels of planning, from local to national and across all relevant sectors. Parties acknowledge that mainstreaming the NAP process into existing and planned adaptation and development planning is important and that the NAP process should build upon existing/planned adaptation and development plans/strategies, and should avoid the fragmentation and duplication of activities (UNFCCC 2012b). However, achieving such integration will require innovative and new inter-ministerial and cross-sectoral commitments, which may require new political and institutional mechanisms.Integrating adaptation strategies into development objectives and existing policies remains a challenge for most developing countries. The process of designing and prioritizing adaptation actions should be shaped not only by consideration of adaptation needs, but also through consideration of national goals in order to increase effectiveness. Integrating climate change adaptation strategies into development processes is a continuous process. In some cases, countries are making good efforts to integrate adaptation priorities with development and poverty reduction frameworks, but for many this remains a challenge. Burkina Faso st NatComm is from 2001, so very limited. The 2 nd NatComm is expected to be submitted in the near future.implementation is very limited. This is further aggravated by the lack of any common vision for all interventions or actions (World Bank 2011). change adaptation and mitigation, and disaster risk reduction and management separately. However, there is no functional relationship between the two entities and lack of communication.The Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy integrates economic growth, mitigation and adaptation concerns into a government wide development strategy under the leadership of the Prime Minister's Office.Ghana carbon growth are referenced in the natural resource section.Strong policy integration linking priorities in the National Action Plan on Climate Change to the 12th Five Year Plan and sectoral plans, which also provides the basis for State Plans.Aligns adaptation actions with sectoral plans that are integrated into five-year Medium Term Plans for the implementation of Vision 2030 (e.g. 2013-2017) -an approach that recognizes that adaptation actions should address socioeconomic development deficits as well as climate impacts.Limited integration of climate change considerations into current development activities needs to be addressed by strengthening coordination among the country's relevant institutions (GFDRR 2013b).The government's current five-year plan, as well as the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (sectoral budgetary allocation), focus on poverty reduction but lack explicit consideration of climate change risks and suggestions for possible responses. Mainstreaming climate variability and change into national policy and planning processes not yet achieved (GFDRR 2013c).Niger nd NatComm does not provide guidance on this linkage. One source notes a lack of mainstreaming of climate risk into development strategies (De Vit, Parry 2011). Review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PDES) (2012-2015 version) indicates that while there is brief mention of the need to consider climate change impacts and adaptation, the policy does not reference the NAPA or 2 nd NatComm, or mirror the adaptation priorities identified in national CC adaptation documents.nd NatComm suggests a need for climate change adaptation to be integrated into the national development strategy.The Vice President's Office released (in 2012), \"Guidelines for Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into National Sectoral Policies, Plans and Programmes of Tanzania\".Uganda change as an enabling sector, the chapter on agriculture largely misses climate change issues entirely (except for brief mention of need for better metrological info on rainfall patterns.equity and combating major diseases.Table 7. Adaptation plan objectives/goals linked to key sectoral and development plans 7 Our desk assessment did not include assessing Tanzanian sector plans to identify whether guidelines are being adopted.Countries with multiple adaptation policies and guidance documents lack clear coordination and linkage between them. Some examples: between India's NAPCC (Government of India 2008), the refinement of the agriculture component of the NAPCC via the NMSA (Government of India 2010), and 2 nd NatComm (Government of India 2012). Adaptation strategies for agriculture are proposed in the 2 nd NatComm. This document predates the 12th Five Year Plan by one year, but comes after the NMSA. However, adaptation strategies proposed do not seem entirely congruent with the NMSA, nor is the NMSA directly referenced (however, the NAPCC is referenced briefly in Chapter 4 of the 2 nd NatComm, entirely separate from the vulnerability and adaptation section (Chapter 3) which covers agricultural adaptation).nd NatComm reinforces commitment to its 2006 NAPA, but reflects on the isolation of proposed projects in administrative regions and options, resulting in a lack of synergy between actions. Further, the strategic axes identified have not sufficiently taken into account the development and strengthening of knowledge in climate change, even as research and mobilization of additional funding has occurred. However, Senegal is now developing regional plans of action for climate change adaptation, in order to decentralize national plans.The lack of integration of adaptation priorities and strategies can sometimes be attributed to structural and institutional issues. For instance, at present climate is not addressed in any of Ghana's six policy objectives of the Agricultural policy of the country (FASDEPII). While a coordinating body has been appointed at the centre (NCCC), there is no corresponding body at the regional/local level, raising questions about extent to which environment related activities percolate down to the district level and are incorporated by the district director of food and agriculture department (Zougmoré and Narasimhan 2012).Integrated adaptation assessments and integrated action plans can help overcome the common barrier of lack of cross-sectoral coordination. India's 2 nd NatComm portends more robust and integrated assessments to come, noting \"integrated assessments are essential for facilitating the optimal development of institutional and research linkages, projects, and policy recommendations as they enable the best available synthesis of current scientific, technical, economic, and socio-political knowledge\" (Government of India 2012). The NatComm states that India has initiated modest steps in this direction, but strengthening is required on all fronts. Ghana also notes the challenge to combine individual sector plans into a coherent integrated plan, finding there are complementary strengths as well as conflicts.Countries should assess how to strategically place adaptation priorities within the broader national policy framework, so that policies with precedence over others (such as development and fiscal policies) guide decisionmaking and the necessary linkages. Ethiopia's low carbon development plan may provide a means to accomplish this, however adaptation priorities are largely absent from this key policy. Senegal's 2 nd NatComm seeks to provide a roadmap to enhance strategic decisions for better climate change adaptation, and notes the need for this strategy to be later integrated into the national strategy of development. Nepal's 2 nd NatComm contains a forward by the Prime Minister, noting the next step for the Climate Change Council after submission of the NAPA (in 2010) was to integrate adaptation aspects into national development processes (Government of Nepal 2010). One model for how to promote better linkage and integration is the 2012 \"Guidelines for Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into National Sectoral Policies, Plans and Programmes of Tanzania\" issued by the Tanzanian Vice President's Office.Aligning and mainstreaming activities into national development or sector plans can enable funding for implementation through government budgetary allocations. Countries that build plans wholly dependent on external sources for financing may be disappointed, as already experienced by many countries in their NAPA processes. Kenya has learned from LDC experiences with NAPAs, and now aims to also mobilize resources internally (from public and private sources) to implement priority adaptation actions (Orindi and King'uyu 2013).Current climate change experience and information systems should increase the likelihood of countries effectively translating vulnerability and risk into adaptation policies and practice, but this is not always the case. Burkina Faso has experience in assessing, detecting, and monitoring risks related to droughts and food insecurity. However, there is no harmonized mechanism to unite available information on climate change and disaster risk, and assessment of hydro-meteorological risks and disaster prevention is carried out only selectively and solely through projects (Zougmoré and Samari 2011b). As mentioned earlier, Bangladesh has established mechanisms for flood forecasting and to address temporary arrangements to protect losses due to climate change under its Comprehensive Disaster Management Plan. Its National Water Management Plan seeks to address water-induced disasters, such as flooding, erosion and drought, however these provide temporary arrangements to protect losses due to climate change, and do not directly support adaptive capacity development in the agriculture sector. It is unclear how the BCCSAP will respond to this need.Meta-synthesis of national adaptation plans in West and East Africa and South AsiaAlmost all countries reviewed are in the early stages of planning and implementation and have not yet created a detailed, concrete plan consistent with an overall adaptation strategy. For most countries reviewed, adaptation plan elements are still under development and therefore a more detailed plan of action, including assignment of responsibilities, has not yet been developed. National adaptation plans should also include a timeline for implementation of activities, including intention to review the effectiveness of implementation and revise the plan as needed. Furthermore, assessment of conflicts and synergies with national development or sectoral plans should be part of an ongoing process, and a crucial focus for plan implementation (as mentioned in Section 2.2.3). Limited financial resources, technical capacity, and institutional mechanisms are additional reasons for limited implementation to date.However, countries are sharing information on experiences thus far, such as Tanzania's identification of elements and steps, including methodological issues to resolve, submitted in response to SBI's call for submissions by 13 February 2013 on application of the guidelines for the national adaptation plan process for LDCs (UNFCCC 2013), as outlined in Box 3.A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system should also be developed and accompany the implementation process so that corrective measures can be undertaken as required. Experiences from the IDRC/DFID Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) programme show that it is more beneficial to have M&E components built in from the beginning rather than later, particularly given the iterative and evolving nature of adaptation planning and response measures (Orindi and King'uyu 2013).M&E systems can initially focus on process elements rather than outcomes. Given the early stages of many OECD country adaptation processes, most countries are monitoring processes (e.g. the number of government departments that have assessed their exposure to climate risks) rather than outcomes (e.g. reductions in vulnerability to climate change) (Mullan et al. 2013). Challenges involved in conducting M&E assessments include generating baselines for use in assessing progress, attributing causality of outcomes to actions, the high costs of data gathering, and the long time horizons of climate change. Thus, Mullan et al. note that countries with more developed M&E frameworks-including Finland, France, Germany and the UK-are more focused on creating the right enabling environment for adaptation at the outset. M&E frameworks should be designed to ensure results from assessments feed into the development and evolution of national adaptation programmes. This iterative approach is critical to support continuous improvement, particularly as new information becomes available. Further, consideration of how to monitor and evaluate mainstreaming of adaptation into development plans and policies must be identified at the outset. Relevant country experiences include: sectors should develop internal mechanisms for monitoring progress and the continuous evaluation of impacts. In addition, an ad hoc committee is to be set up to assess overall progress, consisting of sectoral technical experts Box 3. Tanzania's tasks to formulate the NAP After laying the groundwork, addressing key gaps and engaging preparatory elements, Tanzania intends to undertake the following tasks in the formulation of its NAP:1 Those countries that are dedicating domestic fiscal instruments and budgets to NAP development and implementation may have more success overall. In its NAP design, Kenya sought to decrease dependence on foreign or external assistance to fund adaptation activities, which it believed could lead to a lack of sustainability of actions taken. Thus, Kenya seeks to influence the allocation of some funding from domestic sources by integrating the priority adaptation actions in national planning through mainstreaming of the adaptation and mitigation actions proposed in the NCCAP in the Medium Term Plan (MTP 2013(MTP -2017)). As India is committed to aligning sustainable development and climate change concerns, it appears a significant portion of its adaptation planning efforts have been domestically funded, though India makes clear it seeks international support for implementation (Government of India 2012). Though not part of this review, Nigeria intends to develop a detailed funding plan by the ministries, departments and agencies of the government, which will incorporate domestic as well as international funding sources (UNFCCC 2012a). OECD statistics point to a general decline in developed country funding for climate change adaptation over the last few years, which may be partly attributed to the recession and Eurozone crisis. 11, and this existing financial and technical support is undertaken through a variety of channels (including bilateral and multilateral channels), from a variety of sources (inside and outside the UNFCCC), and in different sectors (UNFCCC 2012b). NAPs are expected to benefit from multiple funding streams such as the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, regional funding mechanisms, bilateral and multilateral funding arrangements. are participating in the Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience (SPCR) as a part of the PPCR with support from the Climate Investment Fund are engaged in developing climate adaptation planning as a long-term effort for making development and infrastructures climate resilient (UNFCCC 2012b).Funding for the formulation of NAPs should be additional, specific and separate to funding for implementation. It is important that this distinction be made to ensure countries can be clear that funds for planning activities are not being diverted from sources for implementation. Some Parties to the UNFCCC have noted funding for NAP development should be purely grants-based, from public funds and not made through concessional lending, and funding for NAP implementation should be made separate (UNFCCC 2012b).As sufficient financing should be available during implementation, adaptation plans should seek to describe how their implementation will be financed. However, in practice, this is often not the case. Many OECD countries do not specify how their adaptation programmes will be funded, or the scale of resources required for implementation (Mullan et al. 2013). Mullan et al. speculate there are a number of reasons for this, including postponing financing decisions until after policy objectives and adaptation plans have been agreed to, as explicit mention of costs can create barriers to the discussion. Countries reviewed that are farther along in the adaptation planning process are identifying levels of funding needed, and sources of funds. The Kenyan National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) has provisional budgets assigned to priority actions that have been refined further in the NCCAP 2013-2017. Bangladesh has developed estimates of the cost of implementation of the BCCSAP, but notes a distinction is made between activities that are part of the regular national development programme and the incremental work to be financed under the BCCSAP (Bangladesh MoEF 2009).the entire process of an adaptation strategy-including assessing risk, designing measures, implementation, identification of needs, and improving over time-is critical. All countries reviewed identify stakeholder involvement at some stage in adaptation planning (see Table 9 for examples). However, it is inherently difficult to judge whether there has been robust engagement of multiple parties through a desk study, which requires reliance on documentation, often by Governments with vested interests in demonstrating that a broad consultative process has occurred.Planning climate adaptation in agriculture CCAFS Report No. 10 policy circles in government (in East Africa and West Africa). adaptation issues (this can also include compensation for stakeholders to be involved in dialogue and decisionmaking). change issues (in Mali).The CCAFS East Africa regional synthesis notes that private sector and media involvement are critical in supporting adaptation, yet are often forgotten (Orindi and King'uyu 2013). It suggests that the private sector is needed to identify opportunities and the link between adaptation and their investments, and media for increased and effective awareness creation.The SBSTA Secretariat, in its review of adaptation planning processes, notes: institutions helps in bridging gaps between policy and research, and facilitates better integration of scienceor evidence-based risk adaptation planning and implementation. required to catalyse the inclusion of local needs, including the needs of vulnerable groups, into national plans and policies.find the most effective balance between acting on their own and providing the right conditions and incentives for other stakeholders to act.emphasizes the importance of allocating accountability for delivering, monitoring and reporting on activities, such as according to sectors of expertise and responsibility (UNFCCC 2012a).As outlined in the analytical framework (Section 1.2), capacity building cuts across all steps in the adaptation planning and implementation process. Capacity building for climate change adaptation also occurs across a range of scales, actors and institutions. This section focuses on those capacitybuilding elements most important in NAP development (versus the range of capacity-building needs that come into play in the implementation phase) as most countries are currently engaged in NAP development and in early stages of implementation. However, countries are encouraged to plan for implementation capacity requirements at the outset, particularly involving subregional and local governments, civil society, researchers and the private sector, and to draw those actors into decision-making at all levels.Capacity constraints are noted across all countries reviewed (see Table 10). The most commonly occurring ones include lack of capacity in climate observation systems, technical and institutional capacity, and limited finance.major challenges to implementation of priority actions ineffective coordination and institutional arrangements. The limited analytical capacity is prioritized as an urgent need. Current efforts in the region are focused on strengthening national meteorological and hydrological service capacities. However, more attention must be focused on strengthening the capacity of other institutions especially vulnerable sectors (e.g. agriculture, water, infrastructure) and coordinating agencies (like Finance and Planning ministries) as climate change is more than an environmental problem and requires active participation of all sectors and actors (Orindi and King'uyu 2013).to specifically address identified barriers including issues of technology, finance, capacity building and knowledge management; and measuring, reporting and verification (MRV), in order to increase success in NAP implementation (Orindi and King'uyu 2013).donor agencies and NGOs indicates that 62% of institutions faced technical capacity challenges in implementing adaptation projects (Nzuma 2012).The complexity of adaptation assessment and planning needs, plus the challenges of linking this information into policy making creates a unique capacity challenge, which countries should address at all NAP stages. For example, India's top capacity-building need is to integrate diverse scientific assessments and link them with policy making. The development of integrated assessments by interdisciplinary teams, that can interpret complex information across both multiple risks and multiple scales (national, state, local) is needed to provide the type of comprehensive analysis that policy-makers need to develop appropriate responses. Thus, the capacity-building needs in this area are two-fold-first, to provide the robust scientific foundation necessary for policy making, and second, to provide the right policy orientation to the scientific assessments (Government of India 2012). Chapter 7 of India's 2 nd NatComm contains perhaps the most detailed assessment of capacity constraints and capacity-building needs among those reviewed. India's NMSA (which further defines and implements the national climate change plan) is noteworthy as it allocates 5% of budget to capacity building (Government of India 2012).  reinforced in its 6th Five Year Plan, Bangladesh is investing in enhancing the capacity of government ministries and agencies, civil society and the private sector together to meet the challenge of climate change and mainstream approaches as part of development actions (Bangladesh Planning Commission 2011(a,b).must be broadened to include the private sector (to identify opportunities and the link between adaptation and their investments) and media (for increased and effective awareness creation)-two groups often forgotten, and yet critical in supporting adaptation (Orindi and King'uyu 2013).The LDC Expert Group stresses that an important early step in the NAP process is stocktaking to assess current capacity and capacity constraints and institutional strengths and weaknesses that should be addressed to enable effective engagement in the NAP process. Specifically, the LEG:Outlines several processes within and outside of the UNFCCC exist that can support Parties in assessing and establishing capacity that will be useful for the NAP process.gap analysis of the national adaptation structures and systems, and to set up a strategy to address shortcomings, as an important step in addressing adaptation at the national level.Institute to the NAP process, as it provides a systematic approach for assessing institutional strengths and weaknesses that may help or hinder adaptation. It provides questions that can assess institutional capacity at the national level for performing the core set of functions critical for adaptation.Advocates developing an M&E system for capacity, and provides sample indicators for monitoring adaptation capacity at national levels (Least Developed Countries Expert Group 2012).Investments in climate projections and impact assessments are necessary, but not sufficient for building capacity for adaptation among the public and private sectors. Capacity development and the provision of climate change information are central in establishing enabling environments for adaptation, and are therefore a particular focus of adaptation strategies, based on experience in OECD countries. However, adaptation planning also needs to include capacity building, both to support general actions and because plans give rise to additional, more targeted needs (such as sectoral or geographically localized climate impacts data, and capacity development for specific adaptation tools). Part of the challenge are the demands for both more sophisticated climate change projections and data, and that they be made easier for end users to apply (which has seen less progress) (Mullan et al. 2013).This report created and applied an analytic framework of the key policy elements and steps a country might take to develop and implement a robust adaptation programme. The opportunity to assess 12 countries against this single analytical framework provided insights into where countries might take further steps to strengthen their national adaption process, as well as a sense of where there are common needs across the target countries. These recommendations are summarized below, including areas that require further study and analysis to better understand the state-of-play and key needs in areas where a desk study is inadequate.risks, and prioritize response activities. Most countries have been able to perform vulnerability assessments, but could improve their abilities to rank and prioritize the expected impacts, which is critical to direct limited resources to addressing risks that are most urgent or affect the most vulnerable sectors, populations, or geographies.To accomplish this, the following is recommended:risk assessments, including at different scales, to support NAP development. The limitations of current information systems points to many countries reviewed needing better information on regional variations within countries, and future projections of vulnerability and risk.Improvement in the understanding of the economic impacts of climate risks; few countries have been able to perform such analyses.response activities, which can be particularly challenging, as it requires consistency in the application of criteria used to prioritize actions across multiple policy and planning frameworks. Similar to the point above, this also requires an understanding of the socioeconomic impacts of various adaptation options.2. Given the multiple scales, diversity and complexity in governance, finance, and range of actors involved in defining adaptation solutions, attention to downward accountability and adaptive institutions will be critical. New institutional structures have been created to address climate change and promote cross-sectoral cooperation, but are often lodged in institutions that are not responsible for implementation (such as agencies that serve as the climate change focal point for the country, not the development or finance ministries). There are notable gaps in institutional coordination in many countries that hinder necessary cooperation across ministries and between different levels of government. Closing the gaps will require much more than just technical solutions, and depends on understanding the interplay between ideas, power and resources, in order to forge new governance pathways. While NAPs are national processes, all relevant levels of government should have a role, particularly as many adaptation needs and responses are localized.Similarly, climate adaptation knowledge and information systems must span from local and national to regional and international scales. Key institutions in most countries reviewed suffer from a shortage of technically qualified staff, which further hinders development of an effective institutional structure.3. Define long-term solutions for adaptation planning and implementation funding that are sufficient and geared towards building strong institutions and capacity.Funding remains a challenge for development of NAPs, as well as implementation of projects and activities. Currently what is funded tends to be ad hoc projects, primarily by donors or multilateral institutions. Funding for the adaptation process, (including the steps outlined in the analytic framework presented in this paper) and not just projects is critical to success. Movement away from donor dependency for funding is also important, in order to build local institutional strength.4. Linking adaptation assessments into policy development creates a unique capacity challenge, which countries should address at all NAP stages. Integrated, scientific assessments of impacts and vulnerabilities can be complex technical information that is difficult to integrate and translate into policy making.There is a unique capacity-building need in this regard, both to provide a robust scientific foundation in ways that are digestible for policymakers, and also to provide the right policy orientation to the scientific assessments (Government of India 2012).capacity for integrated approaches to adaptation planning that a) considers combinations of crop, livestock, rangeland, forestry, fishery and agroforestry activities, as well as aquatic and ecosystem function needs and b) helps define adaptation and mitigation synergies, which countries often cite interest to identify, but are more challenged to define.CCAFS Report No. 10 5. Focus policy analysis and action towards integrating adaptation strategies into development objectives and existing sectoral policies. This is crucial, yet remains a challenge for most countries reviewed, partly due to the capacity and institutional challenges noted above. However, robust integration should be a priority and can enable funding for implementation partially through national budgetary allocations (less fickle than donor finance) and ensure stronger linkages to development priorities, which in turn can help to secure higher level political support for and success in implementation.6. Consider objective methods to assess quality of stakeholder engagement in assessment, design and implementation of adaptation plans. This would require more direct inquiry with a range of stakeholders in countries, similar to the survey done for the CCAFS East African adaptation synthesis report, as it is inadequate to assess such engagement via a desk study. Most countries reviewed documented a variety of efforts related to engaging stakeholders from multiple government agencies and sectors, from civil society and research institutes, and at different levels of government (from national to local). However, whether groups felt they had full and effective participation is unknown (with the exception of the East Africa survey). The private sector, farmers, and the media were groups that were mentioned in several cases as not being adequately engaged. NAPs are likely to have a higher chance of being implemented and mainstreamed if diverse interest groups are represented and the result is broader ownership of the contents of in the final NAP (Orindi and King'uyu 2013).Finally, a review of country progress in NAP processes through communication with national focal points on adaptation could be useful to analysing further needs. Such a dialogue and/or study could identify critical needs and challenges unique to each country. While government documents, recent NatComms, and CCAFS reports informed this desk review, a more targeted assessment of needs focused solely on NAPs would be useful, and could also accurately, and in a timely manner, identify research needs and potential partnership needs for CCAFS to support NAP efforts. This is particularly important, as most countries have not created detailed, concrete plans that clarify responsibilities and include a timeline, monitoring and evaluation system, and a budget for implementation. This is due, in part, to the fact that most countries are in early stages of planning and implementation, while at the same time engaged in a national process to create a high-level policy document on adaptation.The NAP plan and process elements should guide the development of more detailed implementation plans.Planning climate adaptation in agriculture","tokenCount":"11070"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"356c992f1e4863c7e3effb64848c156e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ef412044-9489-4766-bbd5-eefdd571cf55/retrieve","id":"-471926335"},"keywords":["wheat blast","GWAS","2NS translocation","resistance breeding"],"sieverID":"9cc0cd52-ffbb-4260-a9e1-b308181f4185","pagecount":"16","content":"Wheat blast (WB) is a devastating fungal disease that has recently spread to Bangladesh and poses a threat to the wheat production in India, which is the second-largest wheat producing country in the world. In this study, 350 Indian wheat genotypes were evaluated for WB resistance in 12 field experiments in three different locations, namely Jashore in Bangladesh and Quirusillas and Okinawa in Bolivia. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the genome were obtained using DArTseq ® technology, and 7554 filtered SNP markers were selected for a genome-wide association study (GWAS). All the three GWAS approaches used identified the 2NS translocation as the only major source of resistance, explaining up to 32% of the phenotypic variation. Additional marker-trait associations were located on chromosomes 2B, 3B, 4D, 5A and 7A, and the combined effect of three SNPs (2B_180938790, 7A_752501634 and 5A_618682953) showed better resistance, indicating their additive effects on WB resistance. Among the 298 bread wheat genotypes, 89 (29.9%) carried the 2NS translocation, the majority of which (60 genotypes) were CIMMYT introductions, and 29 were from India. The 2NS carriers with a grand mean WB index of 6.6 showed higher blast resistance compared to the non-2NS genotypes with a mean index of 46.5. Of the 52 durum wheats, only one genotype, HI 8819, had the 2NS translocation and was the most resistant, with a grand mean WB index of 0.93. Our study suggests that the 2NS translocation is the only major resistance source in the Indian wheat panel analysed and emphasizes the urgent need to identify novel non-2NS resistance sources and genomic regions.Wheat is the most important cereal crop in the world, with a total acreage of 217 million hectares globally, and acts as a major source of nutrition and caloric intake [1]. According to an estimate by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the world will require an extra 100 million tons of wheat (~840 million tons) by the year 2050, under the challenges Genes 2022, 13, 596 2 of 16 of biotic and abiotic stresses due to climate change [2]. At present, global wheat production will need to increase up to 60% in order to meet increasing demand [3]. Among the biotic stresses, wheat production is mainly affected by several fungal pathogen species causing frequent disease outbreaks globally. One such example is wheat blast (WB) caused by the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (abbreviated as MoT) (anamorph Pyricularia oryzae pathotype Triticum) [4,5], affecting the major wheat growing areas in South America and recently South Asia, with a potential to also spread to other wheat production regions.WB was first reported in Brazil in 1985, and subsequently spread to neighbouring countries, including eastern Bolivia, eastern Paraguay, and northern Argentina [6]. Under favourable weather conditions, up to 100% yield losses may occur [7,8]. Due to frequent WB epidemics, the wheat cropping area in the Cerrado region of Brazil dropped by 95% from 1987 to 2016 [9]. In 2016, an explosive WB outbreak occurred in Bangladesh for the first time outside South America, leading to dramatic yield losses in eight districts of Bangladesh [10,11]. In 2018, WB spread to Africa, with its first occurrence reported in Zambia, marking its expansion in the African continent [12]. The intercontinental spread of WB aroused serious concerns for the international wheat trade [6,8,9]. The occurrence of WB in Bangladesh poses a significant threat to the neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan, where WB vulnerable areas amounting to 7 million ha have been identified, with an estimated potential annual loss of 0.87-1.17 million tons [13]. These vulnerable areas include the densely populated and intensively cultivated Indo-Gangetic plains of Eastern India [14], which is one of the major wheat producing areas of India. Wheat varieties grown in India and other South Asian countries not only lack complete or durable resistance against WB, but also the known resistance sources are limited, which together make the wheat production system highly vulnerable to WB [5,15].Breeding for WB-resistant genotypes is considered a sustainable and practical approach to control the disease. However, at present limited genetic studies have been conducted, and most of them are limited to seedling resistance in greenhouse as compared to field resistance, where host-pathogen interactions follow the gene-for-gene model [16]. Among the known MoT-specific resistance genes, Rmg 2 and Rmg 3 are temperature sensitive and specific to seedling resistance [17], whereas Rmg 7 is effective at both seedling and adult plant stages but becomes ineffective at high temperatures [18]. Other genes like Rmg1, Rmg 4, Rmg 5 and Rmg 6 are resistant against non-MoT strains of M. oryzae [19][20][21]. The gene Rmg 8 in combination with Rmg GR119 confers good resistance to MoT isolates from Brazil and Bangladesh at the heading stage primarily in controlled environments, implying their promising utilization in breeding programs [16,[22][23][24]. Apart from the Rmg genes, QTL mapping and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have also identified numerous QTLs and marker trait associations (MTAs) on various wheat chromosomes. Goddard et al. [25] identified QTLs for seedling WB resistance on chromosomes 4A, 5A, and 2B from the Brazilian variety BR 18-Terena, explaining 17.8 to 19.6% of phenotypic variation. He et al. [26] identified the major role of the 2NS translocation on field WB resistance and additional minor QTLs on six chromosomes (1AS, 2BL, 3AL, 4BS, 4DL and 7BS). A similar study on two more bi-parental populations have recently been reported by the same authors, reporting the major effects of 2NS translocation along with several minor QTLs [27]. A GWAS using 184 South Asian wheat genotypes identified the major and stable effects of 2NS translocation on field WB resistance together with a few MTAs on chromosomes 1BS, 2AS, 6BS and 7BL [27]. Another GWAS study using 187 South Asian wheat germplasm revealed 40 significant markers associated with WB resistance, of which 33 (82.5%) were in the 2NS chromosome segment and one each on seven chromosomes (3B, 3D, 4A, 5A, 5D, 6A and 6B) [28]. The major effect of 2NS translocation region on field WB resistance was also reported by Juliana et al. [29] through GWAS analysis using 1106 lines from CIMMYT breeding nurseries, with additional MTAs identified on chromosomes 3BL, 4AL and 7BL. Likewise, Wu et al. [30] again confirmed the major role of 2NS translocation where 58 significant SNPs clustered in a 28.9-Mb interval, explaining phenotypic variation from 9.4 to 28.5%. Studies also reported host genes that recognize specific pathogen genes and provide resistance against WB. Rwt3 and Rwt4 are such non-host resistant genes in wheat that recognize pathogen genes PWT3 and PWT4, respectively, resulting in an incompatibility (resistant) reaction [31,32]. Similarly, a hypothesis involving such interaction was proposed for the origin of WB in Brazil, which was due to large-scale cultivation of a variety lacking Rwt3 that led to the susceptible reaction of majority wheat varieties to a mutated Lolium-like pathotype of M. oryzae, later known as MoT [33]. Even though 2NS translocation has consistently shown major effects on WB resistance, dependence on this single source of resistance is not suggested considering the breakdown of the 2NS-based resistance, which has already been witnessed in South America [5]. Hence the identification of novel sources of resistance is imperative. For a country like India, which neighbours Bangladesh where WB is expanding despite unfavourable weather conditions [4] and the disease being both air-and seed-borne, WB could easily move to India. Therefore, it is vital to screen Indian advanced breeding lines along with popular released cultivars for WB resistance to promote their cultivation and use in breeding programs as resistant donors. Hence the objectives of this study include (1) phenotyping Indian advanced breeding lines and released cultivars for adult plant WB resistance, and (2) identifying significant MTAs for WB resistance using GWAS.A panel of 350 wheat genotypes was used in this study, which includes 298 bread wheat and 52 durum wheat accessions selected from released varieties and advanced breeding lines developed mainly during the last five years from 25 research centres throughout India. In addition to this, two checks, BARI Gom 33 (WB resistant) and BARI Gom 26 (WB susceptible), were included in the experiments in Bangladesh, and another set of checks, Urubo (WB resistant) and Atlax (WB susceptible), was used in Bolivia. The genotypes were evaluated for field resistance to WB in three different locations including Quirusillas and Okinawa in the department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and Jashore in Bangladesh. Quirusillas is located at high altitude of 1496 m above sea level (masl) with wheat cropping cycles from December to April, Okinawa is at a low altitude of 267 masl with cropping cycles ranging from May to August and Jashore is located in the southwestern region of Bangladesh at an altitude of 7 masl, with cropping cycles from December to April. The trials were performed in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 cropping seasons in Quirusillas, the 2020 cropping season in Okinawa and the 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 cropping seasons in Jashore. The GWAS panel was evaluated in two sowing dates in each season approximately 14 days apart, resulting in 12 experiments in total, which were named based on location, cropping cycle/year and sowing dates, where \"Oki\" stands for Okinawa, \"Quir\" stands for Quirusillas, \"Jash\" for Jashore, \"19\" for the 2018-2019 cycle, \"20\" for the 2019-2020 or 2020 cycle, \"21\" for the 2020-2021 cycle, and \"a\" and \"b\" for the first and second sowing, respectively. For example, \"Jash19a\" represents the first sown experiment in 2018-2019 at the Jashore location.Each genotype was sown in 1-m long double rows, each with a 20-cm row-to-row spacing. The inoculum used was a mixture of local MoT isolates with high aggressiveness including OKI1503, OKI1704, QUI1505, QUI1601, QUI1612 in Bolivia and BHO17001, MEH17003, GOP17001.2, RAJ17001, CHU16001.3, JES16001 in Bangladesh. These isolates were grown on oatmeal agar medium following the protocol by He et al. [26]. The inoculum was applied at the concentration of 80,000 spores mL −1 at anthesis and two days after anthesis, with a backpack sprayer. A misting system was equipped to keep a humid microenvironment which is favourable for WB development, working from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Bolivia and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Bangladesh, with 10 min of spraying hourly. WB evaluations were performed at 14 or 21 days after the first inoculation, when the total and infected spikelets on 10 spikes tagged at anthesis were recorded. The WB index was calculated with the formula WB index = incidence × severity. In addition to the WB index, days to heading (DH) and plant height (PH) were recorded in all the experiments. The mean WB index was calculated using data across all the environments. ANOVA was performed with the PROC GLM module in SAS ver 9.2, and heritability estimates were calculated using the formula H 2 = σ 2 g/(σ 2 g + σ 2 g * y/y + σ 2 g * s/s + σ 2 e/sy) for experiments in Quirusillas and Jashore and H 2 = σ 2 g/(σ 2 g + σ 2 e/s) for experiments in Okinawa, where σ 2 g represents genetic variance, σ 2 g * y genotype-by-year interaction, σ 2 g * s genotype-by-sowing interaction, σ 2 e error variance, y the number of years, and s the number of sowings. We also obtained Pearson correlation coefficients for WB indices among the 12 experiments, and those between WB indices and phenological traits DH and PH, using GenStat software, 17th edition (VSN, International, Hemel Hempstead, UK). The phenotypic-data-based principal component analysis (PCA) was calculated with PAST software ver. 3.01 [34].The panel of 350 wheat accessions was genotyped with the DArTseq ® technology at the Genetic Analysis Service for Agriculture (SAGA) at CIMMYT, Mexico, and DNA extraction and DArT sequencing was done as per the protocol used in Li et al. [35]. Markers with minor allele frequency less than 10% (2804 markers) and more than 30% missing datapoints (96 markers) were excluded from further analysis. The SNP markers were named by chromosome location and their physical location in the Chinese Spring reference genome Refseq v1.0, e.g., 2B_180938790 indicates a marker on chromosome 2B at 180938790 bp. Four STS markers in the 2NS translocation region were also used to evaluate their association with WB resistance and suitability for marker-assisted selection (MAS), including Ventriup-LN2 reported by Helguera et al. [36], WGGB156 and WGGB159 by Wang et al. [24] and cslVrgal3 from a follow-up study of Seah et al. [37] (E. Lagudah, pers. comm.).For the 298 bread wheat genotypes in the panel, linkage disequilibrium (LD) parameters R 2 among the SNP markers were calculated using TASSEL 5 (http://www. maizegenetics.net, accessed on 25 March 2022), and the LD estimates as the allele frequency correlation (R 2 ) among SNP markers were plotted against the physical distances in mega base pairs (Mb) across the chromosomes. A kinship matrix and clusters among individual genotypes were calculated using all SNP markers, and a heat map was generated using the classical equation from Van Randen (2008) in the program R. For population structure analysis, the numeric transformation of genotypic data was performed using XLSTAT (2010) as per the required format of the Structure 2.3.4 software [38]. The admixture model was adjusted with a burn-in period length of 100,000 followed by 500,000 marker chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) replications. The subpopulation test range was kept from K1 to K5, each with five interactions (runs). The ∆K approach was used to access the actual subpopulations (Earl, 2012). ∆K was confirmed by the method detailed in [39] using the STRUCTUREHARVERSTER program [40]. The average logarithm of the probability of the observed likelihood [LnP(D)] was calculated along with the standard deviation from the output summary. LnP(D) for each step of the MCMC was calculated for each class (K = 1 to 5) by computing the log likelihood for the data.GWAS was conducted for the 298 bread wheat genotypes using 7554 SNP markers using an MLM (mixed linear model) in TASSEL 5 [41]. The Q + K model that considers both Kinship (K matrix) and population structure was adopted. In addition, the multilocus mixed model (MLMM) and fixed and random model circulating probability unification (FarmCPU) model were also analysed using the R software package GAPIT v 3.5 [42]. The p-value, additive effect and percentage variation explained by each marker were obtained and Manhattan plots with the −log10 p-values of the markers were plotted using the 'R' package CMplot [43]. GWAS was conducted individually for the 12 experiments and the pooled data, and the markers were declared to be significant using Bonferroni correction with significant cut-off at an α level of 0.20 (p-values 2.64 × 10 −5 ); additionally, putative MTAs were reported at an increased p value of 0.001.Among the 12 experiments, the highest mean WB index was observed in the Jash19a experiment (62.70) followed by Quir21b (58.34), and the lowest in Jash20a (13.02). Almost all experiments showed the bimodal distribution of genotypes except Jash20a and Jash21a, where the WB indices were low (Figure 1). In all the experiments, the second sowing showed higher WB infection compared to the first, except for Jash19a and Jash19b, where a reverse trend was observed. The distribution of WB indices indicated that Jash21a has the most genotypes (50%) with a blast index of 0, while Jash19a and Jash19b had the least number of such genotypes (13.9%). Overall, across all the experiments, 21.3% of genotypes had an average WB index less than 10 and were classified as highly resistant (Supplementary Table S1a,b). ANOVA indicated that variance due to the genotypes (σ 2 g ) was highly significant in all three locations, besides the years (σ 2 y ) in Jashore and Quirusillas, and sowing (σ 2 s ) in Jashore and Okinawa. The genotype × year interaction (σ 2 g * y ) was significant in Jashore and non-significant in Quirusillas, while genotype × sowing interaction (σ 2 g * s ) was non-significant in both Jashore and Quirusillas (Table 1). As per broad-sense heritability [44], WB resistance was highly heritable in Jashore (0.78) and Quirusillas (0.72) but was moderately heritable in Okinawa (0.52).    The phenotypic correlations for WB indices among the 12 experiments were all significant at p ≤ 0.01 (Table 2) except among the Jash20a and Quir20b. The highest correlation (r = 0.78) was observed between Quir21a and Quir21b and the lowest (r = 0.08) was between Jash20a and Quir20b. Among all the experiments, Jash20a and Jash21a with low disease pressure showed lower correlations with other experiments, while others such as Jash19a, Jash19b, Quir20b, Quir21a and Quir21b exhibited better correlations among one another. However, based on PCA analysis at the first two PCs, Quir20b showed the least association with the remaining experiments (Figure 2). The first PC indicated the presence of two major groups, a small group with 2NS carriers and a major group carrying mostly non-2NS genotypes (Figure 2). As for the phenological traits, a significant negative correlation was observed between WB and days to heading (DH) in five experiments (Jash19a, Jash19b, Quir20b, Oki20b and Jash21b) with r values ranging from −0.17 to −0.28 and significant positive correlation in Jash20a (r = 0.27), whereas nonsignificant correlation was observed in other six experiments (Quir20a, Jash20b, Oki20a, Jash21a, Quir21a and Quir21b). As for plant height (PH), significant negative correlation was observed with WB in three experiments (Quir20, Oki20b and Jash21a) with moderate r value around −0.40, whereas nonsignificant correlations were found in other experiments (Supplementary Table S2). All correlations are significant at p ≤ 0.01, except for that between Jash20a and Quir20b All correlations are significant at p ≤ 0.01, except for that between Jash20a and Quir20bAmong 7554 SNP markers selected for GWAS in the 298 bread wheat genotypes, 31.25% were from the A genome, 37.86% from the B genome, 11.04% from the D genome and 19.20% from unknown chromosomes. The highest number of markers were located on chromosome 2B (557 markers) followed by 7B (504 markers), and the lowest were on chromosome 4D (45 markers). Population structure analysis based on the K mean cluster approach divided the bread wheat population into two major groups, designated as WBpop-1 and WBpop-2 (Supplementary Table S1 and Figure 3). The WBpop-1 accommodated 73 genotypes, of which 40 were CIMMYT-derived and 33 were from Indian breeding programs. WBpop-2 had 225 genotypes, including 105 CIMMYT-derived and 120 Indian genotypes. WBpop-1 had 17.8% 2NS genotypes compared to 33.2% in WBpop-2. The grouping of genotypes was mostly based on pedigree, e.g., the most frequent parent for WBpop-1 accessions was \"Sokoll\", while for WBpop-2 were \"Kauz\", \"Kachu\" and \"Milan\". It is noteworthy that the parents PBW550, Francolin, Trap and Brambling were exclusively observed in the pedigree of WBpop-2 accessions. Genotypes with identical or close pedigrees showed maximum similarity and formed compact clusters, such as HD3321 vs. PBW804 in WBpop-1 and HD3232 vs. K1315 in WBpop-2. Kinship analysis (Supplementary Figure S2) also indicated two main groups; one small group carrying 23 genotypes, most of them having 2NS translocation, and one large group of 275 genotypes with and without 2NS translocation. The large group was further divided into seven subgroups, each having accessions with common ancestries. The average extent of LD, considered as physical distance taken for the decay of R 2 to reach a critical value of 0.10 across the genome, was approximately 10 Mb (Supplementary Figure S3).genotypes, most of them having 2NS translocation, and one large group of 275 genotypes with and without 2NS translocation. The large group was further divided into seven subgroups, each having accessions with common ancestries. The average extent of LD, considered as physical distance taken for the decay of R 2 to reach a critical value of 0.10 across the genome, was approximately 10 Mb (Supplementary Figure S3). With the MLM model at p = 2.64 × 10 −5 (Bonferroni cut-off), a large number of SNP markers were significant on the 2NS translocation region, including most significant markers like 2A_21273469, 2A_4322177, 2A_16016690, 2A_24002746 and 2A_13917177, while only SNP UN_494 (unknown chromosome) and SNP 5A_721998977 (5AL chromosome) were not in the 2NS translocation (Figure 4a,b). However, this model was ineffective in identifying significant MTAs in Quir20b, and it could identify only one significant MTA each for Jash20a and Jash21a that was not located in the 2NS translocation. However, at p = 0.001, significant MTAs on 2NS were identified in all 12 individual experiments and several markers outside the 2NS translocation were also identified. However, none of them was repeatedly detected across the experiments (Supplementary Table S3). At p value 0.001, the highest number of significant MTAs were identified in experiment b a With the MLM model at p = 2.64 × 10 −5 (Bonferroni cut-off), a large number of SNP markers were significant on the 2NS translocation region, including most significant markers like 2A_21273469, 2A_4322177, 2A_16016690, 2A_24002746 and 2A_13917177, while only SNP UN_494 (unknown chromosome) and SNP 5A_721998977 (5AL chromosome) were not in the 2NS translocation (Figure 4a,b). However, this model was ineffective in identifying significant MTAs in Quir20b, and it could identify only one significant MTA each for Jash20a and Jash21a that was not located in the 2NS translocation. However, at p = 0.001, significant MTAs on 2NS were identified in all 12 individual experiments and several markers outside the 2NS translocation were also identified. However, none of them was repeatedly detected across the experiments (Supplementary Table S3). At p value 0.001, the highest number of significant MTAs were identified in experiment Jash21b (64 MTAs), followed by Jash19b and Oki20a (57 MTAs) and the lowest number of MTAs were identified in experiment Quir20b (10 MTAs). With the MLMM model, 14 MTAs were identified at the threshold p = 2.64 × 10 −5 , among which 12 MTAs were on the 2NS translocation while other two MTAs (5A_721998977 and UN_716) were located on chromosome 5AL and an unknown chromosome, respectively. When the p-value cut-off was 0.001, 112 significant MTAs were detected in total, from which 15 MTAs were from the 2NS translocation and those remaining were from other chromosomes. It is noteworthy that one MTA 7A_750227572 on chromosome 7AL was repeatedly detected in two individual experiments and in the pooled dataset. The GWAS analysis with the FarmCPU model could identify 62 significant MTAs in the 12 individual experiments at a p-value cut-off of 2.64 × 10 −5 , which were located on the 2NS translocation and 15 other chromosomes. Of the non-2NS MTAs, six were repeatedly identified in two or more experiments (Table 3). In addition, the combination of favourable alleles for three SNPs, namely 2B_180938790 on chromosome 2BS, 7A_752501634 on 7AL and 5A_618682953 on 5AL showed better resistance, as 14 bread wheat genotypes (Table 4) in total carrying such alleles showed a WB index of less than 30%.model could identify 62 significant MTAs in the 12 individual experiments at a p-value cut-off of 2.64 × 10 −5 , which were located on the 2NS translocation and 15 other chromosomes. Of the non-2NS MTAs, six were repeatedly identified in two or more experiments (Table 3). In addition, the combination of favourable alleles for three SNPs, namely 2B_180938790 on chromosome 2BS, 7A_752501634 on 7AL and 5A_618682953 on 5AL showed better resistance, as 14 bread wheat genotypes (Table 4) in total carrying such alleles showed a WB index of less than 30%.    GWAS was also separately conducted in the panel with the 209 non-2NS genotypes. The MLM model identified 64 MTAs at a p value cut-off of 0.001 on chromosomes 1B, 2B, 2D, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 4D, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 6D, 7A, 7B and an unknown chromosome (Supplementary Table S4). The maximum number of MTAs were located on chromosome 5A (15 MTAs), followed by those on unknown chromosomes (14 MTAs) and chromosome 7A (7 MTAs). Among these MTAs, only four on 5AL were repeatedly detected in two or more experiments, and two of them, 5A_721998977 and 5A_618682953, were significant at a p value cut-off of 2.64 × 10 −5 .Among the studied 298 bread wheat genotypes, 89 (29.9%) genotypes showed the presence of 2NS translocation and majority of them (60 genotypes) were CIMMYT introductions, and 29 were from India (Table S1). These genotypes include several released cultivars in India, i.e., DBW 88, DBW 168, DBW 173, DBW 187, DBW 222, DBW 252, DBW 303, DPW621/50, HD 2967, HD 3043, HD 3059, HD 3171, HD 3249, HD 3293, HI 1605, HI 1620, MACS 6478, PBW 752, WH1105 and WH 1270. A grand mean WB index of 6.6 was recorded for the 2NS genotypes, in comparison to 46.5 for the 2AS genotypes (Figure 5). In the case of 2NS genotypes, we observed that eight accessions had a grand mean WB index of zero, 66 were between zero and 10, and 12 between 10 and 30. However, three 2NS genotypes showed a higher WB index of 38.50 (DBW 283), 42.13 (MP3516) and 46.23 (NW 7049). In the case of 2AS genotypes, we observed that no genotype showed resistance based on an arbitrary threshold of 15%. The most resistant 2AS genotype was MACS 6736 having a mean WB index of 17.79. Most likely its resistance was due to desirable alleles at three significant SNPs, i.e., 2B_180938790 on chromosome 2BL, 5A_618682953 on chromosome 5AL and 7A_752501634 on chromosome 7AL. Among the 52 durum wheat genotypes, genotype HI 8819 carrying 2NS was observed as the most resistant with a grand mean WB index of 0.93. This genotype showed zero infection in 11 out of the 12 experiments, whereas no genotype among the remaining 51 (all non-2NS genotypes) showed resistance based on an arbitrary threshold of 15%. The pedigree details of HI 8819 (Supplementary Figure S4) reveal it has combination of diverse rust resistance lines, including Altar 84 and Flamingo \"s\" form CIMMYT breeding program, Bijaga Yellow and Bijaga Red form Indian breeding program, a Canadian durum wheat cultivar Hercules having resistance to races of leaf and stem rust and loose smut, and the popular middle eastern durum line Gaza carrying the adult plant resistant (APR) gene for leaf rust. However, it is not confirmed which parent is contributing to the WB resistance in HI 8819 as they are yet to be screened for WB reaction.cultivars in India, i.e., DBW 88, DBW 168, DBW 173, DBW 187, DBW 222, DBW 252, DBW 303, DPW621/50, HD 2967, HD 3043, HD 3059, HD 3171, HD 3249, HD 3293, HI 1605, HI 1620, MACS 6478, PBW 752, WH1105 and WH 1270. A grand mean WB index of 6.6 was recorded for the 2NS genotypes, in comparison to 46.5 for the 2AS genotypes (Figure 5). In the case of 2NS genotypes, we observed that eight accessions had a grand mean WB index of zero, 66 were between zero and 10, and 12 between 10 and 30. However, three 2NS genotypes showed a higher WB index of 38.50 (DBW 283), 42.13 (MP3516) and 46.23 (NW 7049). In the case of 2AS genotypes, we observed that no genotype showed resistance based on an arbitrary threshold of 15%. The most resistant 2AS genotype was MACS 6736 having a mean WB index of 17.79. Most likely its resistance was due to desirable alleles at three significant SNPs, i.e., 2B_180938790 on chromosome 2BL, 5A_618682953 on chromosome 5AL and 7A_752501634 on chromosome 7AL. Among the 52 durum wheat genotypes, genotype HI 8819 carrying 2NS was observed as the most resistant with a grand mean WB index of 0.93. This genotype showed zero infection in 11 out of the 12 experiments, whereas no genotype among the remaining 51 (all non-2NS genotypes) showed resistance based on an arbitrary threshold of 15%. The pedigree details of HI 8819 (Supplementary Figure S4) reveal it has combination of diverse rust resistance lines, including Altar 84 and Flamingo \"s\" form CIMMYT breeding program, Bijaga Yellow and Bijaga Red form Indian breeding program, a Canadian durum wheat cultivar Hercules having resistance to races of leaf and stem rust and loose smut, and the popular middle eastern durum line Gaza carrying the adult plant resistant (APR) gene for leaf rust. However, it is not confirmed which parent is contributing to the WB resistance in HI 8819 as they are yet to be screened for WB reaction. The recent outbreak of WB in Asia is a threat to global food security [45]. WB can easily spread through infected seed and airborne spores indicating high chances of introduction in India through the 4096 km international border between India and Bangladesh. The most sustainable and effective way to tackle this issue is through identification and development of wheat blast resistant cultivars. The 350 genotypes evaluated for their resistance to WB showed significant differences in all three locations, indicating an ample The recent outbreak of WB in Asia is a threat to global food security [45]. WB can easily spread through infected seed and airborne spores indicating high chances of introduction in India through the 4096 km international border between India and Bangladesh. The most sustainable and effective way to tackle this issue is through identification and development of wheat blast resistant cultivars. The 350 genotypes evaluated for their resistance to WB showed significant differences in all three locations, indicating an ample variation for resistance. The phenotypic correlation for WB indices among the 12 experiments varied from low to high, and generally high correlation values were observed among experiments with sufficient WB disease pressure. The good correlation between experiments in Bangladesh and Bolivia such as between Jash19a and Quir21b (r = 0.68, p ≤ 0.01) and between Jash19a and Oki20b (r = 0.63, p ≤ 0.01) indicates similar WB disease pressure in the two countries, just as earlier reported by Juliana et al. [29]. Both the highest and the lowest mean WB indexes were observed in the Jashore location of Bangladesh, indicating the role of environment in WB infection. Whenever there is rainy and warm weather conditions during the heading stage of a wheat crop, the occurrence and development of WB is enhanced and vice versa [46]. It is often recommended that a population used for genetic studies on disease resistance should have low variation in phenological traits like DH and PH, knowing their influence on disease infection in field conditions, as reported earlier for Fusarium head blight [47] and spot blotch [48]. However, this was not observed in the present study on WB resistance, owing to the low variation in the panel in the two traits, as earlier reported by He et al. [27] in different panels of CIMMYT and South Asian wheat genotypes.Multi-environment GWAS analysis in the 298 bread wheat genotypes provided valuable insight into the genomic regions associated with WB resistance in Indian wheat genotypes. Many markers showing significant association with WB resistance in multiple environments were in the 2NS translocation, exhibiting strong phenotypic effects on WB resistance. These results align with previous reports documenting wheat lines with the 2NS chromosomal segment from Aegilops ventricose [7], and the large difference in WB indices between 2NS and non-2NS genotypes [26,29]. Among the 2NS carriers, the frequency of CIMMYT lines (76%) was much higher than that of Indian lines (24%), which agrees with the fact that the 2NS translocation has been widely utilized in the CIMMYT breeding program over past years [29]. The CIMMYT 2NS genotypes often have parents like MILAN, KAUZ and KACHU in their pedigree. MILAN is a well-known donor for WB resistance and has been widely used for the development of WB-resistant cultivars in South America [49]. Milan was the original source of 2NS translocation in the CIM-MYT breeding program and was used in the development of Kachu (KAUZ//ALTAR 84/AOS/3/MILAN/KAUZ/4/VEE/KOEL), which was also widely used as a parent in the CIMMYT breeding program [29]. It is worth noting that the WB index of the 2NS genotypes varied from 0 to 46.23, indicating the background-dependence nature of 2NS translocation, which is in consistent with the reports of Cruz et al. [7]. In the case of 2NS linked STS markers used in this study, all four STS markers were significant at a p value of 2.64 × 10 −5 ; however, we observed that the STS markers Ventriup-LN2 and cslVrgal3 were more efficient in diagnosing 2NS compared to WGGB156 and WGGB159 in the 298 bread wheat, as well as in 52 durum genotypes. A similar observation in Indian germplasm was earlier reported by He et al. [27]. It is remarkable that among the resistant genotypes identified in this study, several accessions like DBW 187, DBW 252, HD 3171 and HD 3293 were recently released in the north-eastern plain zone of India (NEPZ) [50-52], which can be recommended for cultivation in the state of West Bengal, which borders Bangladesh and has high risk of WB epidemics. In the case of durum wheat, HI 8819 was the only 2NS-carrying genotype that showed excellent WB resistance, which could be used as a 2NS donor in durum breeding programs in India.Besides 2NS translocation, we identified six markers that were significant in more than one experiment. They are located on chromosomes 2BS, 3BL, 4DS, 5AL, 6AS and 7AL, but had much lower phenotypic effects in comparison to 2NS translocation. However, the non-2NS genotypes having a combination of favourable alleles for MTAs on 2BS (2B_180938790), 5AL (5A_618682953) and 7AL (7A_752501634) and showing a low WB index clearly indicates the additive effects of these alleles on WB resistance, similar to that reported by He et al. [26,53]. Of the three SNPs, only 5A_618682953 at 618.6 Mb on 5AL is close to previously reported SNPs by Roy et al. [28] at 582.8 Mb and by Juliana et al. [29] at 665.8 Mb, whereas the other two on 2BS and 7AL appear to be new. To investigate minor MTAs that might have been masked by the 2NS translocation, a GWAS was conducted only for the 2AS genotypes, which led to multiple MTAs outside the 2NS region, especially on chromosome 5AL. These MTAs could be deployed in the breeding program once validated in other studies, to alleviate the strong selection pressure on 2NS, considering the emergence of 2NS-virulent isolates in South America [6,54].From this study it is obvious that 2NS is the only major source of WB resistance in Indian wheat germplasm, and a few 2NS genotypes have already been released for cultivation in the north-eastern plain zone of India. However, since depending on only one resistance source with strong phenotypic effect may lead to the breakdown of WB resistance [6,55], more attention should be given to the identification and utilization of non-2NS loci. The strategy of using minor genes after the breakdown of major genes was successfully used in wheat rust [56]. In this regard, the non-2NS MTAs identified on chromosomes 7AL (7A_781518015, 7A_752501634 and 7A_750227572) and 5AL (5A_618682953 and 5A_721998977) need to be further validated for their potential use in breeding. So far, genetic studies on WB resistance have been mostly limited to elite germplasm, hence there is a need to investigate landraces, synthetic wheat and wild relatives for novel sources/genes for WB resistance. A good example is the landrace GR119 [23] which is a novel resistance source against WB and carries two genes Rmg 8 and Rmg GR119 for WB resistance. Identifying novel MTAs using non-2NS genotypes is suggested for future GWAS studies to avoid their effects being masked by 2NS translocation. Since non-MoT M. oryzae pathotypes Oryza for rice blast and Lolium for grey leaf spot in ryegrass have shown a potential threat to wheat [57], non-host resistance genes against these pathotypes must also be surveyed and utilized if they are of low frequencies. This is especially relevant to India, where rice, which suffers greatly from blast disease, is grown in rotation with wheat over a huge area.The present study concludes that in the Indian wheat germplasms screened, 2NS is the only major source of resistance to WB. The minor MTAs identified outside 2NS translocation showing additive effects could be used together through MAS considering their low phenotypic effects. The WB-resistant genotypes carrying 2NS translocation should be recommended for cultivation for the effective management of the WB disease. Furthermore, there is an urgent need for the identification of non-2NS resistant sources with major phenotypic effects.","tokenCount":"5992"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e254c3a889c822664f6643f9debbe6a7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/890cd5fd-81ef-4c81-9c8d-91e7d29e3e97/retrieve","id":"1291423440"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a73bebbb-5fa6-474d-8daa-397716a00d03","pagecount":"30","content":"The purpose of this module is to highlight the roles and objectives of higher education, and to discuss aspects of teaching and learning. It provides examples of teaching and examination methods, as well as discussions on research supervision, science communication, evaluation of courses and curricula, and how to promote educational development. The module addresses university/college teachers and scientists teaching animal breeding in developing countries, but large parts of the contents are general and useful also for others teaching in higher education institutions. There are links [blue] and references to various parts of the Training Resource, such as exercises, case studies, discussion questions, module texts, software, CD-ROMs and websites, that may be useful in teaching animal breeding. There are also links [burgundy]  to the internet. How to promote teaching skills and educational development 23 10 Communicating science 25 11 Writing a research proposal 25 12 Acknowledgements 27 13 Literature for further reading 28 14 Websites 28 Module 5 Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM) Version 1 (2003) ILRI-SLU Research institutes Continuing education Society Research Experiments Field data T e a c h i n gThe world is presently going through a period of rapid changes among which the increasing globalisation, the high pace of knowledge creation and the use of new information technologies are the most apparent ones. This offers great opportunities, but may also result in an increasing gap between developed and developing countries, unless capacity building at all levels and access to the global knowledge are successfully addressed. Higher education and the teachers/researchers involved are facing great challenges that require vision and initiative, and also support at governmental and institutional levels.Higher Education, including research, has fundamental importance for capacity building and development, not least in developing countries. A report, 'Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise' was pub lished in March 2000 by the World Bank (for website see [Section 14.1 of this Module]). The report highlights the role of higher education in supporting and enhancing the process of economic and social development. Higher education promotes income growth and poverty alleviation; it contributes to labour productivity and entrepreneurial energy; it strengthens civil society, and it promotes democratic governance. Increasing globalisation, information revolution and rapid expansion of new knowledge further emp hasise the importance of effective higher education.The World Bank report emphasises that, in spite of their role, the higher education institutions in many developing countries are chronically under-funded, and must still meet the needs of increasing numbers of students. Faculty may lack motivation as they are usually poorly rewarded. Absence of a vision about the nature and magnitude of the potential of higher education to development is one major obstacle. Other obstacles are lack of political and financial commitment, as well as low critical mass of teachers and scholars, and losses of highly demanded faculty and bright scholars to rich countries. Higher education institutions in many developing countries are also experiencing the impacts of HIV/AIDS. See for example, 'Challenging the Challenger' (Kelly 2001), for website see [Section 14.1 of this Module].Recommendations to overcome the obstacles in developing countries focus on the needs both for increased resources in higher education and for more effective use of existing resources, such as physical and human capital. It is urgent to:• satisfy the need for good quality higher education• improve management of higher education• improve educational infrastructure, including access to new information technologies• implement new curricula and academic programmes, and improve the teaching methods • recruit, retain, motivate and offer long-term development of well trained faculty• conduct more and better science education and research, both basic and applied.Conservation and sustainable use of animal genetic resources in developing countries is an example of an area where teaching and research is given too little emphasis worldwide, or is even neglected. This results in low awareness of the needs to develop animal breeding programmes for various conditions and environments in order to reduce losses of animal genetic diversity, and of the need to improve production per animal to meet the increasing demands for food from livestock and poultry. Animal genetics, with special emphasis on breeding programmes and animal genetic resources, needs to be given increased attention in university curricula and in research. Moreover, the teaching methods need attention; animal genetics is a topic that students quite often experience as theoretical and difficult to understand. It is a challenging task to find the best approaches to facilitate students understanding of the topic.Ideally, teaching and research should always be linked to each other in higher education. This is often the case, but there are also many universities, especially in developing countries, where teachers have limited opportunities for research as the research is usually done at research institutes, where the scientists might not be involved in teaching.Insufficient links between teaching and research may not only reduce the level and quality of higher education, but may also hamper recruitment of new scientists and reduce the understanding and support for research and capacity building in society. It is, therefore, important to provide opportunities for university/college teachers to be active both in teaching and in research, and to involve scientists at research institutes in teaching and supervision of students.The ideal process of capacity building, with links between universities and research institutes, and with the agricultural sector is shown in Figure 1. Universities are national engines for capacity building. Their output is people trained for qualified jobs, as well as research results for application. The latter is the role also of research institutes, but their contribution is enhanced when their scientists participate in university teaching. For best use of existing resources, universities should also be significant partners in national research programmes, especially when financial resources and access to qualified teachers and scientists is highly limited. That would also benefit quality of higher education, and make good use of students as a resource in research through BSc, MSc and PhD thesis and dissertation works.For research results to be implemented, it is necessary for researchers to have good communication with those who can make use of the results. Such communication will also help focus research on essential problems; it facilitates use of field data in research (such as data from livestock recording), and it may give opportunities for students to get a better understanding of how they can contribute to agricultural development in their country.University education is directed by distinct objectives. Students in science, for example, should acquire:• knowledge and skills based on the forefront of science in the subject areas of their studies• capability to identify, formulate and handle scientifically complex problems, as well as to critically evaluate information and to formulate possible solutions • skills to search for, explore and evaluate, and communicate knowledge at theoretical as well as applied scientific levels and • ability to co-operate and to develop management/professional skills.Fulfilling these objectives in university education is a great challenge and imposes specific demands, not only on scientific content but also on teachers and teaching methods. Teaching must stimulate students to learn, to seek information and to critically synthesise information and knowledge and also offer possibilities for applying their acquired skills. This means that a variety of teaching methods will need to be applied.Defining objectives for the whole educational programme and for each individual course is essential and the objectives given should be used actively by teachers, as well as by students. The objectives should not only focus on subject knowledge, but also on the skills to be acquired. Students must become aware of what they need to learn to succeed, and teachers should reflect upon what and how to teach to best stimulate the learning process, and how to evaluate it. It is essential to evaluate how well the objectives have been fulfilled.When discussing objectives in university education, it is necessary to keep in mind the rapid growth of new knowledge (see Figure 2). A student completing a university degree within a subject area will have gained a certain amount of knowledge, but this will only be a fraction of the total knowledge available at that time. Quite soon the former student will start forgetting parts of the knowledge acquired, and at the same time new knowledge will become available. A knowledge gap arises, a gap that will increase rapidly if not counteracted.The knowledge mass in science and technology is doubled every 10 years! All individuals with a degree from higher education will need to keep their knowledge up-to-date. This will, to a large extent, be through self-learning. University curricula, therefore, must be designed to provide students with tools for life-long learning, i.e. learn how to learn and g ather knowledge. Training in using information and communication technologies is essential. Moreover, higher education institutions need to offer opportunities for continuing education. Such education will often need to be given as distance education, where new technology-based tools will play an important role. Teaching is not effective unless it results in learning. As teachers, we must always think of what our students need to learn, and what changes in their understanding we hope will occur. Some basics in teaching for learning are illustrated in Figure 3.First of all a safe learning climate is needed. Students must feel comfortable, and so must the teachers. Both parties must also feel motivated -students to learn, and teachers to facilitate student learning. Clear objectives are also important.Quite often, teaching consists of answering questions that students have never raised, not even in their thoughts. Doing it the other way around will be more effective; making students curious and stimulated to think about what they want to get an answer to will motivate them to search and receive information. Information, however, will not necessarily result in student knowledge. For that to happen, students need to reflect upon and process the new information, as well as to integrate it with their previous knowledge and frames of reference. They also need to put it into a larger context, see how it fits into the whole. It's like doing a puzzle; having seen a snapshot of the whole facilitates putting the pieces in place and stimulates the search for additional pieces to insert. Thus, in teaching, it is important to place a new subject matter in a holistic perspective before splitting the content into pieces, and to relate the subject matter to the students' background and experience.In teaching animal breeding, for example, it seems wise to start with the importance of livestock and animal genetic diversity, and the need for sustainable breeding programmes for livestock improvement. Thereafter, the main components of a sustainable breeding programme could be discussed before going in detail into the basics, such as various types of inheritance, genetic relationships, heritability, methods for genetic evaluation, selection principles, models for cross-breeding etc. When dealing with these basics, it is also important to connect to the breeding programmes, and later, when the details are in place, to discuss alternative breeding programmes in more detail, as well as their impact in short-and long-term perspectives.As a teacher, do your best to find out what your students know about a topic before starting to teach it, and remember that discussions with students and diagnostic tests might be helpful. Also make sure to arrange situations in teaching where students discuss, process and apply the information provided. The case studies, discussion questions and exercises available in the Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM) can be useful for this purpose. It is important that theory and application are closely linked, also in time.Educational research has shown that a good university teacher has:• subject knowledge and enthusiasm to share it• ability to structure the topic and relate it to students' background and experience• commitment and ability to stimulate student learning and development of skills• social competence and good contact with students and• a personal philosophy on learning and teaching.Teachers who regularly check student understanding and improvements and also give frequent positive feedback have the best impact on student learning. For the objectives of higher education to be fulfilled, it is important to put emphasis not only on scientific content but also on the teaching methods (Figure 4). E mployers of university graduates do not ask just for subject knowledge; they also ask for ability to search for information, to critically analyse and make syntheses, to deal with new situations, to manage projects and problem solving, to co-operate, to communicate information and knowledge, and to have a global perspective.There is a pool of teaching methods and activities to choose from, such as: lectures, exercises/labs, assignments, computer labs and use of information technology, group work, cross-group discussions, practice and study visits, role play, seminars and tutorials, problem-based learning, case-studies, projects, research supervision, as well as individual study. Training in writing and presentation is also an essential part of university education. Furthermore, various examination forms, which influence student learning, can be used.Using a variety of teaching methods in university programmes and courses is often a good way to encourage students to seek and gain knowledge and skills, and to deal with the fact that different students have different learning styles. The focus should be on student learning, understanding and development of skills. Overloading students with information, leaving them no time to think about, integrate and work with the content, is not an effective way of teaching.It is essential to use teaching methods that stimulate student activity and participation and make them feel responsible! Methods that involve students in actively finding knowledge, and in interpreting and communicating results must be included. Students should also be regarded as a resource in teaching and research. In the following sub-sections some teaching methods will be discussed briefly.The lecture is one of the oldest and, maybe still, the most widely used teaching method. A committed, inspirational lecture can be effective for structuring, linking and transferring information, and for generating interest in a topic. However, lecturing should not be the only teaching method used in a course. Lectures seldom leave enough opportunities for students to digest, integrate and deal with the information provided. Sometimes, a lecture is merely a process where the lecturer's notes become the notes of the student. If so, it might be more effective for the teacher to just provide the written notes, or leave students with a textbook if that is available! Give man a fish -and he/she will be fed for a day Teach man to fish -and he/she will be fed for lifeThe teaching methods are importantGiving a good lecture is an intellectual and emotional challenge that should be worth real effort. Some essentials of a good lecture, and the tools to achieve them are illustrated in Figure 5.Do your best to make the topic understandable and alive for students and keep in mind that your main task is not just to give information, but also to motivate and facilitate their learning. Make sure that wha t you say is heard and what you project on the screen can be seen from the last row of seats in the lecture room. If you are not certain of the font size needed in visuals, make a few test examples and go to the lecture room and have a look at them from the last row.A general recommendation is to use a minimum font size of 22-24 points, but preferably larger.The benefit of a lecture is enhanced if the students are involved during the lecture. Leaving time for questions and discussion is one way to achieve this. One method to stimulate activity is using buzz-group discussions. You make a short break in your lecturing and ask the students to take a few minutes to discuss or analyse an issue using the content of the lecture, or ask them to compare their notes. The students may do this two by two, where they are seated in the lecture room. This usually causes intense student activity and should improve their understanding of the topic. A buzz-group discussion is usually followed by a short class discussion. Several buzz-group discussions can be included in a lecture. Another option to stimulate questions and discussion is to start a lecture by giving a short summary of the previous lecture in the same area, and then give the students an opportunity to ask questions on things they have not understood.Note taking during a lecture is another form of student activity that should be encouraged. It increases students' attention, and gives them something to go back to afterwards. As a lecturer, think of how you can facilitate for students to make good notes. Start your lecture by giving the skeletal outline and some signposts for the content, make clear transitions and links as you move along in the lecture, make frequent summaries and highlights of essentials, and give students some possibility to reflect upon the information given. Visuals are useful in a lecture, but presenting lots of information through transparencies, slide or electronic presentations at Part 1 (~1 hour)1 \"question\"/group -in total 6 \"questions\"Tutor high pace will make it impossible for students to take effective notes; it may just cause frustration. If you choose to build your lecture on visuals, it will be more effective to provide paper copies of those to the students. This will then form a \"skeletal\" handout in which students can make additional notes. Comp uter programs for production of visuals, PowerPoint, for example, offer opportunities to print several visuals in each page; if you know that you will talk a lot in connection with one visual, you can add a blank \"visual\" to give more space for students to make notes.Group work, which can be applied in many different situations in teaching, is useful for developing the students':• communication and discussion skills• co-operative ability• self-confidence• responsibility for learning.Within a small group, students are more likely to direct questions on things they have not understood to other students rather than asking the teacher. This means that students working in a group need to explain things and teach each other. This is an important aspect of group work; teaching and explaining to others are often considered to be the best methods for learning. The teacher has the role of a supervisor or tutor; a person who encourages and supports students and the group process, and provides he lp when needed. It is important that the tutor does not dominate the discussions. Students often learn more from each other than they do directly from the teacher! A group activity that is very useful for checking and improving learning and understanding is the cross-group discussion. For example, this can be used to summarise a section that has been taught recently in the course, and for other purposes too. The principle behind this teaching method is illustrated in Figure 5.Students sit down group-wise (in one or, if possible, several rooms) and are provided with a set of questions, each one fairly extensive. Every group discusses one of the questions (group1-question1, group2-question 2 etc) and all students in the group take part jointly in the discussion and make notes of the answers. Tutor(s) circulate to give supervision. They also do a brief check of the answers of each group by reading the notes; this is important to do before the groups are split.After about one hour, groups are split and cross-groups are formed. This is done in such a way that the full set of questions will be covered in each cross-group.Students now start teaching one another and the tutor(s) help to clarify issues, but only when needed.Cross-group discussion is an activity that can be done at low cost and that is also highly valued by students. It is an efficient exercise; every single student needs to be active. Some examples of [questions for cross-group discussions] used in an animal breeding course are presented in the Exercises resource.Buzz-group discussions as a tool to activate students during a lecture were mentioned in the previous section. Another form of discussion that can be beneficial to include in a course is plenary or class discussions. Such discussions can be either student or teacher led. They can also include external participants, such as collaborating researchers, teacher colleagues, extension specialists, farmers, representatives from NGOs or industry, as well as consumers; whose contributions can add to broadened perspectives. Students might need some stimulation to take part actively in plenary discussions; the teacher might, for example, ask them in advance to prepare questions for the discussion. Seating is also important; sitting in uform or in a half-circle is usually beneficial. Furthermore, it is essential that the main issues of the plenary discussion are structured and summarised by the chairperson, and that the discussion climate is open and friendly, making students feel confident to take an active part in the discussion.Practical work has a critical role in science education. Different types of exercises and assignments can be used to help students get a better understanding of concepts and methods covered in a course. Exercises/assignments can be scheduled and supervised, or given as homework, or even be optional. The type of exercises needed varies, of course, with the topics taught. Being a teacher in animal breeding, you might find it useful to use numerical examples dealing with estimation of gene frequencies, heritability, breeding values and genetic progress. Some [Manual Exercises] for use in animal breeding courses are available in \"Exercises\" in the Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM).Laboratory teaching is valuable for training manual and observational skills in subjects like chemistry, physiology and molecular genetics. It can also be helpful for developing understanding, assuming the lab practicals are not just carried out according to a \"cook book\" recipe. Lab work can be time consuming and expensive, so it is important to get the most out of it. Written instructions must contain the objectives of the experiment, clear instructions for the lab work, as well as some questions on the experiment or its implications.Computers, software and other information technologies provide powerful teaching and learning tools in higher education and are efficient in activating students. The computer technologies are also important in providing students with tools for life-long learning.Limited access to computers, software and the Internet can be a constraint in using a full range of computer labs at present, but teachers should use such tools when possible. Building infrastructure to improve access to the Internet will probably be given high priority in many countries, so the situation may change in the near future. Important information and databases can also be made available in CD-ROM. The Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM), where you found this text, is an example of such a computerised tool! Computer software and of use CD-ROM require access to computers, but does not rely on Internet access. Computer software can be used in teaching and research for a large number of purposes, such as handling of large amounts of data, calculations, statistical analyses, as well as simulations. Other valuable tools are software for word-processing and presentation.CD-ROM and Internet are computerised tools that can be very beneficial in higher education. Through these media students can get access to huge amounts of information, and also quite a lot of free software. The options for quick and easy information searching stimulate student activity and curiosity. When a university has access to computers and the Internet, teachers and students might communicate through electronic mail, course home pages and virtual discussion groups. The Internet and CD-ROM are also effective tools in distance education.Information on a specific topic can be searched on the Internet by using some of the search engines available, such as Yahoo, AltaVista, Google, HotBot, Infoseek, or by using a search tool that combines a number of search engines, e.g. Ixquick (for web-addresses, see [Section 14.3] of this Module). A search on the words animal+breeding+software, for example, results in a number of hits.The use of information technology in higher education might influence teachers' role. Students can find information themselves to a larger extent than before, but need the teacher as a supervisor and coach in this learning process. The major part of the information found in the Internet has not been peer reviewed before entry; it is, therefore, important in teaching to discuss quality and validation of such info rmation.-for web-addresses, see [Section 14.1] of this module.There are software packages for use in teaching animal breeding that can be downloaded free from the Internet. One example is GENUP (by B. Kinghorn) designed to help students master concepts in quantitative genetics and its application in animal breeding. The approach is largely algorithm-based, meaning that students are given opportunities to play with the properties of the subject. Other examples are PEDIGREE VIEWER (by B. & S. Kinghorn) to display pedigree structures and calculate inbreeding coefficients, and SIMUL8 (by J. Felsenstein et al.) to demonstrate evolutionary forces and changes in gene frequencies.Software useful for statistical and/or genetic analyses in various types of research projects can also be downloaded free of charge from the Internet. Some examples are: • R Statistical package written in S-language-can be used for many purposes, also for mixed models and estimation of variance components and up-dated continuously from the Internet. • DFREML (by K. Meyer)-used for estimation of breeding values and variance/covariance components.• VCE and PEST (by E. Groeneveld)-used for estimation of variance/covariance components and breeding values. • CBE (by J. Wolf)-used for estimation of crossbreeding effects in a variety of data structures.Useful interactive computer-assisted learning (CAL) programs are available on CD-ROM for purchase. One example is a tutorial in animal breeding (Roden et al. 2001) that is marketed by CLUES (Centre for Computer-Based Animal Breeding Learning in Land Use and Environmental Sciences). This tutorial includes modules on inbreeding, heritability and selection. By using such a package students can explore a topic at their own pace. The package helps students to get an introduction to basic concepts and their meaning, and there are a large number of interactive exercises, as well as self-tests, included. The modules also contain links to GENUP.Programs such as Microsoft Excel can be used in various types of calculations and for production of graphs. Excel can also handle matrix operations in small data sets and can therefore be helpful in numerical exercises dealing with matrices. A brief [instruction for using Excel] is provided under \"Other resources\" in the Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM).Two examples of using Excel in computer exercises, in animal breeding courses are available under \"Exercises\" in the Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM):• [Prediction of breeding values]. In this exercise students are presented some situations for prediction of breeding values; they are asked to set up the BLUP equations in matrix form and to solve those by using Excel. • [Optimisation of breeding plans]. This is an exercise where Excel has been used to preproduce a sheet where different parameters and other numerical information can be entered in order to calculate the genetic gain achieved for a given situation in dairy cattle breeding. Students can, for example, study what the effect on the expected genetic gain will be if they change population size, heritability, percent selected animals, testing method and amount of information in breeding value estimation etc.-for web-addresses, see [Section 14.2] of this module.There are several databases in the Internet that can be useful in teaching animal breeding (those available also in CD-ROM are indicated by *). Some examples are given below:• FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)*.From this website, lots of information can be retrieved, such as Statistical databases with agriculture data (including livestock data), software, publications and various types of news and links within the area of agriculture. • OMIA (Inherited disorders in animals)• OMIM (Inherited disorders in man)• OCOA (Cytogenetics of animals)• Informatics (Mammalian homologies and comparative maps)• ArkDB (Animal genome database).• Anubis (Animal ge nome maps). Using problems or cases from real life in your teaching can be very effective in motivating students and in enhancing their learning and development of skills. Problem Based Learning (PBL) and the Case Method (CM) are two methods used quite frequently, but also other alternatives of problem-oriented teaching exist. In this type of teaching, students are usually presented a situation, a case or a problem as a starting point. From that they search for the information and knowledge needed to explain background and context, or to identify and analyse factors and causes of importance, and to suggest solutions when applicable. The [Case Studies] available in the Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM) can be useful in CM.CM is used both in small and large groups of students, while PBL is generally not used in groups with more than 7-10 students. In CM a teacher usually facilitates the discussions, whereas students take the lead in PBL meetings, and the teacher acts as a tutor to support the group process.PBL is based on a series of steps that each group of students follows (Figure 7). The first step is for the students to do brainstorming and thereafter decide what they need to learn to deal with a situa tion/problem and to fulfil, that part of the course objectives. The next step is to search for the needed information from different sources, such as the Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM), the library, reference people, lectures, exercises, and study visits and, where possible, from the Internet. Each group of students summarises its findings and conclusions. The way of reporting can vary. Reports might be done in writing, orally (e.g. in crossgroups) or as posters.The subject knowledge gained b y students is considered to be about the same for PBL/CM as for traditional teaching methods, but it seems that critical and creative thinking and skills in problem solving are better developed when PBL/CM are used. Students learn how to use and integrate knowledge from different sources, and they \"learn how to learn\" effectively. Furthermore, they practice working with others. The outcome of these teaching methods, however, largely depends on the suitability of the problems and cases presented.Contacts with farmers, extension specialists and industry will add much to the relevance of an education programme. Students need to get professional identity, and it is essential that they experience and become familiar with problems and conditions in practice. That will help to put theories into a context, to see practical application of knowledge, and to integrate knowledge from different disciplines; this increases student understanding and motivation.Field experience gives students frames of reference, and will awaken questions in their minds that promote active learning; it also helps them to become acquainted with, and to appreciate, indigenous knowledge.Field experiences can be achieved in different ways, through study visits and excursions, field projects or through an internship period. Students in animal science/animal breeding can learn a lot from visits/projects/internship at various types of livestock farms, national parks, AI stations, livestock and breeding organisations, education and research institutions, feed industries, abattoirs, dairy plants, extension services etc. Livestock experimental herds may also offer good opportunities for practical exercises, for projects, and for MSc thesis research. Funding might be a major constraint, especially for study visits, which usually require travel. Considering the value of field experiences, it is worth trying hard to make these visits possible. When it comes to projects and internships it is important to emphasise that here university students can be a resource to people in the livestock industry.It is important to set clear goals to maximise the outcomes from field experiences. Students should always be informed or asked to reflect upon what they should observe, analyse, document and learn from these activities; and also to produce some kind of report.Training students in performing projects, literature reviews and research tasks is vital; such activities are our best tools to help fulfil, the objectives of higher education! They give students supervised experience of how to:• formulate and analyse problems, explore an area deeply, and draw conclusions• apply and integrate knowledge acquired during the education, and search and evaluate any further information needed • do research in the form of experiments, field studies etc (e.g. for the BSc and MSc degree projects)• train scientific and popular science writing, as well as oral and poster presentations• get contacts with scientists and/or representatives from the farming community, extension service or the industry and • raise curiosity, get motivation and develop ability for life-long learning.Projects, literature reviews and research tasks can be performed in groups or individually. In both cases, it should be under supervision. The BSc/MSc degree projects give students a real opportunity to go in-depth into an area of their own interest, and to apply and display their knowledge and skills. These projects usually include a research task to be performed and reported individually by the student. The supervisor plays an important role in giving guidance, but without telling too much what to do. Examples of free software for statistical and genetic analyses of research data were given in [sub-section 5.4.1] of this module.Minor projects and literature reviews should be included as parts of most courses. These projects can be performed in small groups so that students train to co-operate in solving a task. Specific literature reviews, on the other hand, might be better to do individually, thereby making it possible for a student to select a topic of own interest and to train in writing and presenting.A minor project in animal breeding could be, for example, to let students (in groups) work with the various components of a breeding programme continuously during a course. They can be given a data set with phenotypic and pedigree information from a model population of animals and, thereafter, use computers to estimate genetic parameters, economic weights of different traits, breeding values and their accuracy, genetic progress, farm revenue and profits etc. Doing each step in direct connection with the teaching provided gives the students motivation to learn and adds to their understanding of the subject. Such a project can be done at hardly any additional cost, assuming computers are available.To link together different parts of an Animal Science education, a project task could be to make a plan for a village of smallholder farmers to produce milk, meat, eggs and other commodities, both for own consumption and sale at the farm gate, as well as to dairy cooperatives, butcheries etc. Students should consider, from the farmers´ point of view, all important aspects of the chosen production, such as species and breeds to use, herd size, climate of seasons, available farm labour, management systems, feed stuffs, feed production, manure handling, breeding programmes, recruitment of breeding stock, production and health control programmes etc. Simple calculations of economic revenues can also be included. The production system should be sustainable and include considerations for environmental health. Different groups of students might focus on different types of production, and each may group present its results both in writing and orally, or as a poster. The value of the project will be enhanced if some representatives from the livestock industry or extension service are present at the oral/poster presentations.] available in the Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM) identify knowledge gaps. Such gaps could be used as starting points for various projects in teaching.Literature searches for literature reviews can be done manually in libraries, or more efficiently, by use of computers. The latter requires access to bibliographic databases. These are available in many libraries, but not everywhere. Some bibliographic databases that provide free literature searching, e.g. Ingenta, AGRICOLA and AGRIS (for web-addresses, see [Section 14.2] of this module) are also available on the Internet.References for literature reviews can be found in the [Library] of the Animal Genetics Training Resource (CD-ROM), where some full papers are included.Reading textbooks, compendia, scientific papers, reports and other types of literature is important in the learning process. Unfortunately, lack of literature is a constraint in many universities; not only because modern textbooks are often not available in the libraries, but also because students cannot afford to buy them. A full set of animal breeding course notes in French is provided free of charge on the website of the network GENET [http://www.univ-tours.fr/GENET/genet01.htm]. This literature can be downloaded for printing.Examination is an important part of higher education. The examination methods and questions have a large impact on how and when students study and what they learn. Examination should not only be used as a control that a student is qualified, but also as an educational tool to influence the learning process (Figure 8). If the assessment is mainly for factual knowledge, the students will primarily learn, memorise and recall facts and details. Such tests may have a high reliability, i.e. are easy to grade, but the validity might be low. For measuring that the aims and objectives of higher education have been fulfilled, assessments need to also cover tests of understanding (such as ability to interpret, exemplify, summarise, compare and explain), as well as ability to apply, analyse, evaluate and synthesise. Assessment of skills, such as ability to communicate, should also be included. Knowing that all these will be examined, student s will extend their learning and gain useful and enduring knowledge and skills.Students should be given the opportunity to learn from the examination, and realise what an answer should have covered. Furthermore, the students' answers are of value for the teacher to reveal what has been difficult for students to understand or to apply, and thus identify modifications needed in the teaching.Various forms of examination and assessment including the following can be used:• Written exams, including short-answer and essay questions Short-answer questions are usually easy to judge and grade, but mainly test how students recall specific facts. In subjects involving quantitative manipulations, it is suggested to include numeric tasks for the students to elaborate on, as well as some questions on explaining the meaning of concepts and the results in words. It is also recommended to include essay questions in the written examination; those will give a better assessment of how students have understood a subject and their ability to apply their knowledge and do analysis, comparison, evaluation and synthesis. The grading of the essay questions could also include how students outline and express their answers in writing.In order to make students learn from the assessment, one option can be to give them 10 exam questions, for example, and ask them to answer 7 of those during the examination (different students can make different choices). Each student is also asked to deliver answers to the 3 questions omitted, but then as a take-home exam.In an open-book exam, students are allowed to use their textbooks and possibly also other materials during the examination session (commonly used in Biometry). In a take-home  exam, the tasks or questions might be distributed to students in the morning, and at the end of the following day, they deliver a written short report that should be judged and commented upon by the teacher(s). These two forms of examination are usually highly appreciated by the students, and can be helpful to test student understanding and ability to apply knowledge, as well as to select and synthesise relevant information.In multiple-choice tests, the students select the answer from several alternative answers (usually 4-5) for each question. These types of tests mainly focus on detailed knowledge and are not very effective at measuring and stimulating learning for understanding, analysis, synthesis and application of knowledge. The tests are easy to judge and grade, but to construct good multiple-choice questions with realistic alternatives is difficult and time-consuming. Multiple-choice tests might be found useful for examination in very large groups of students, or as a guiding quiz in continuous assessment. They should, however, always be combined with other examination methods.Multiple-choice tests could be used early in a course if, for example, the students are asked to read some simple texts to get an overview of the subject area before going into the individual parts. Knowing that there will be a test might motivate them to read, and the teacher can quickly check their answers.Computer tests can be based on multiple-choice questions, but might also involve more interactive events where students are presented a case or a problem to elaborate on at the screen. An advantage of computer tests is that students get an immediate feedback on their answers; the tests can also be used for continuous self-assessment.This method is based on a traditional written examination, but with the specific purpose to make students reflect upon and learn from the examination. The teacher collects the students' answers and makes a copy of it all. The copies of the answers are given to the students and they are also provided with a coloured pencil. The teacher and the full group of students discuss each question and the possible answer(s), and also how those should be graded. The students are asked to use the colour pencil to correct and add to their own answers, as well as to grade those. The teacher thereafter collects the exams to check and adjust the grading. An alternative to discussing the exam in class can be to let the students take the copies of their answers and find out themselves what the correct answer should be, and then make the coloured corrections.Another option could be to do traditional written examination and collect the students' answers as usual, and then make a second assessment on the same content a few days later, using more comprehensive questions. In this second examination, the students can be formed into groups of about 3 students per group, and each group is asked to discuss the questions and to deliver answers in written. By doing the second assessment, the students' knowledge will be better retained. If detailed grading is required, this could be based on the individual examination; participating in the group assessment can still be compulsory. Another option could be to do the group assessment first, and do the individual, graded assessment some days later. Including a cross-group discussion in close connection with the written individual examination is yet another option.Oral examination can be very useful to test the students' knowledge and understanding of a topic as well as their ability for application, analysis, integration and synthesis. The direct feedback in oral examination provides good opportunities for students to learn from the examination, and for the teacher to realise what problems students are facing in grasping the topic. It is also a good training for students to express themselves orally, without extended time to think about the answer. Such situations will often be common later in their professional careers.Oral examinations can be done in groups and still grade each student individually. Performing an oral examination in a group of 3-4 students (during 1-1.5 hours) can have several advantages; it is less time-consuming than examining all students one by one, and the discussion within the group can be very fruitful to reduce anxiety. It might be wise to have two teachers per group of students in these examinations, especially if many groups are examined in a day. A comprehensive question/problem/case might be used as a starting point.When examination is done in groups, it is recommended that teachers do not direct their questions to a specific student; directing the questions will hamper the discussion and increase anxiety. It is better to tell the students that they must all take an active part in answering and discussing to pass the examination, and only to direct questions if a student is too quiet. An experienced teacher can quite easily grade the students into the categories fail and pass, and usually also pass with distinction; it might be difficult, though, to do a very detailed grading.Parts, or all of the assessment of students might consist of reporting of projects, practicals (field and lab), literature studies or problems/cases dealt with during a course. Training and examining students on their ability to perform tasks and apply knowledge to unfamiliar situations, as well as to write and present the outcomes is important, and will also test their capacity for application, analysis, synthesis etc. Projects are often performed as group work and, therefore, also a test of students' ability to co-operate, although some individual testing might be needed in addition to the examination.Students can be asked to continuously document (e.g. weekly) what new things they have learnt, as well as thoughts they might have concerning these issues, and how their new knowledge can be applied. This makes students reflect upon their new knowledge, and to find out what they have not fully understood. The new knowledge will then also be better retained. The procedure might best fit MSc students.So, what examination methods should we choose? The best answer is probably: use a variety of assessment methods, if possible within each course, but at least within the education programme! Diversifying the assessment is usually beneficial, both to offer the students opportunities to display their full knowledge and skills in the area(s) studied, to extend their learning and to prepare them for their professional careers. Testing students for detailed, factual knowledge alone will not achieve this. Remember that the assessment methods should be related to the aims and objectives of the course and of the education programme.As examination has such an impact on student learning, it will be essential to do continuous assessment during a course. If examination is only at the end of the course, most students will postpone their studying until the end. This is not good. Knowledge obtained in a short period is usually not well retained; furthermore, it will not be applied during the course! Continuous assessment can be done through the types of examination discussed above, but also by including compulsory activities that require studying throughout the course; for example, assignments, cross-group discussions, case studies and problem-based learning activities, or study questions covering a wide range of the course content. Such activities are vital to help students check on their understanding and to identify their knowledge gaps. When grading is required, the results from formal continuous assessment should count in the final exam, either fully or with a weight of 25-50%, for example. When parts of the course content are examined continuously, it is important to include some main issues from these parts also in the final examination so that students get a holistic view.Whatever type of assessment is used, the teacher must give feedback to students on their progress in studies, and on what would have been a correct approach or answer to an examination task or question, as well as how a written report could be improved etc. Remember that criticism should always be constructive and strive to give praise as well. Students learn from their mistakes and a student who fails in an examination should be given another chance within a reasonable time.The systems for grading examination results vary. Some universities/colleges apply only pass or fail; some use also passes with distinction, while others do the grading on a more detailed scale. Having a detailed grading system has advantages, as well as disadvantages. Students feel that they get credits for good results and it might help them to get a job. However, a detailed grading might make teachers use examination methods and questions that are easy to grade, i.e. written exa ms with questions on facts and details, which, as discussed earlier, can have a negative impact on student learning and the fulfilment of the objectives of higher education. Detailed grading might also increase competition between students, make them less willing to co-operate with each other, and possibly promote cheating. When detailed grading is practised more than one grader should be used for each examination.Cheating can sometimes be a problem in written examinations and other written tasks. To avoid cheating totally is difficult, but the risk for it to happen can be reduced. Close watching of students during examinations and not letting them bring anything except allowed materials in examination rooms are common practices. In addition, students can be seated randomly in the room; one way to do this is to label the seats to be used in consecutive order, and also write these numbers in a list, but now in random order. When the students enter the room, they write their name on the list, starting from the top line, and go to the seat assigned through the list. This prevents students from choosing where they want to sit and next to whom, and the teacher decides exactly which seats are to be used. The teacher will know (from the consecutive numbers) which students' have been sitting next to each other, and can check for similarities in answers in case cheating is suspected.The risk for cheating is smaller when essay type questions are used in written examinations. It might happen, though, that a student claims to have been given too little credit for an answer. When feasible, it can be wise to keep a photocopy of the students' answers, at least for those who failed the examination; it can then be checked if anything has been added afterwards. Other forms of cheating, such as copying text from other sources in report and thesis writing etc. can be difficult to spot, and information easily available in the Internet increases the problem. One way to reduce this type of cheating is to make sure that students truly understand the seriousness of infringing copyrights. Also, one should not forget the value of oral examination in checking a student's \"own\" knowledge in all types of assessment.Making good examinations is a challenging task, and teachers in higher education should take the opportunity to get ideas from each other. The system with external examiners that is used in many universities may contribute to such exchange, in addition to having an impact on the quality of examination.In successful post-graduate training the aim should be to prepare the students for careers in basic and applied research and extension, for teaching and administrative duties at universities/research institutes, and for careers in the business world, as well as in the public sector. This is valid for PhD training, and to a large extent also for MSc training. To widen job opportunities, students need training not only in their own specific research area; they also need training to obtain a broad base of general competence and skills (Figure 9). To achieve the required knowledge and skills in a limited time, every PhD/MSc project needs to have a clearly defined research task, as well as a time plan and a plan for the financing of the studies. An [individual study plan] is a valuable tool for the research project. Such a plan should be prepared by the student together with the supervisor(s) and, where appropriate, with the student's employer. It is essential to discuss the respective expectations and roles, and that all parties involved agree on the content and time schedule. The study plan should be revised regularly, e.g. on a quarterly or at least a yearly basis.Quite often, MSc and PhD students do their research work at national or international research institutes, away from the university where they are registered. It is then essential that the university supervisor visits them regularly and that the work is jointly discussed with the host institute supervisor and the student. Being the university supervisor you will then better understand what your student is doing and why he or she maybe cannot do everything that you considered important. It may also help the supervisor contribute to, and maybe come to the defence of the student in the final research project examination.To obtain the maximum benefit from supervisory meetings with your research students, the meetings need to be well planned and structured. Each tutorial requires that you are actively listening, questioning, responding, explaining, providing feedback, and summarising. It is often a good idea to ask the student to write minutes of every meeting. Furthermore, the students should make regular written reports on their work. Such reporting benefits both supervisors and students; it sets out progress, identifies problems and forms a basis for work plans for the next period. Students should also be required to present regular seminars.Research supervision is a complex form of teaching. The academic experiences and skills, both of the supervisor and of the students, are the major factors affecting the research training.For supervising research students, however, it is not enough to be an effective researcher. You also need to be an effective supervisor. As a supervisor, you can adopt a range of possible roles, e.g. director, facilitator, advisor, criticiser, supporter, friend and examiner. The roles you take have implications for the roles of the research student and should be influenced by the needs of each student; for example, if you act like a guru, your student will act like a disciple, whereas acting like a guide and friend will make the student an explorer. As in all teaching, a safe learning climate is very important in the supervisory process. Research students usually characterise the \"ideal\" supervisor as being knowledgeable, available, helpful and stimulating.Higher education needs to be under continuous revision and improvement not only to satisfy the needs of a changing society, but also to attract students. Regular evaluation of study programmes, the individual courses and the teaching is therefore crucial. Evaluation can be done in different ways, e.g. by students, former students, employers, experts from other universities, as well as through self-assessment by the education institution itself.Students are the 'consumers' of higher education and are thus in a good position to tell if the teaching is good or not. The aim of teaching is to promote effective student learning, and students usually give positive evaluation if they have learnt from the course, and the teaching has facilitated their learning.Student course evaluations sho uld be done in every course included in the education programme, always at the end of the course, but preferably also as a mid-course evaluation, giving students the possibility to have an impact on the course they are taking. It is important that the issue of course evaluation is discussed with course faculty, departmental head and students so that everyone understands and agrees upon the purpose, process and outcomesotherwise such evaluations might be seen as a threat.Course evaluation can be done through questionnaires to be filled by each student (or by groups of students), and it can be done through oral discussions. Course evaluation questionnaires often focus on assessment of an individual teacher as a basis for decisions about promotion and salary increases. Such evaluation might be needed, but should not be the main purpose of student course evaluations; these should, first of all, aim at improving the courses and the teaching! The students' ratings and comments will help to identify what could be changed in a course, e.g. in content, methods for teaching and examination, teaching materials, as well as in course organisation and administration.The issue whether written course evaluations should be anonymous or not is important, and the answer is both yes and no. By making them anonymously, students feel at less risk of being \"punished\" if they are critical. However, if these evaluations will influence a teacher's possibility for promotion or salary increase, it seems fair that the forms are signed by the students; but that requires that someone not involved in assessing and grading the students administers and transcribes the course evaluations. An option could be to let students do evaluation in groups; the extremes are then usually balanced out.Some questions in a course evaluation questionnaire could be Rating scale the following (leave space for comments under each question):ranging between: § What is your overall impression of the course?(very bad -very good) § Do you find the course objectives relevant and meaningful?(not at all -fully) § Were the objectives of the course fulfilled?(not at all -fully) § Questions specific to various parts of the course.(very bad -very good) § What do you think of the teaching methods used (very bad -very good) § How were connections between theory and application?(very bad -very good) § Opportunities to reflect upon and process the topics?(very bad -very good) § What do you think of the examination?(very bad -very good) § Did you do your best to learn from the course?(not at all -very much) § How was the workload in relation to the course credits?(too low -too heavy) § How was the course organisation?(very bad -very good) § What do you think of the course literature?(very bad -very good) § How do yo u feel that your understanding of the subject:-was before the course?(very bad -very good)-is now, after the course? (very bad -very good) § What was the best with the course? (comments only) § What would be the most important improvements to make? (comments only)The rating scale might, for example, range from 1-5 or from 1-9. Choosing the latter scale means that one can easily group the ratings into three groups if desired (1-3, 4-6, 7-9) when data are compiled. It is important that students are told also to comment upon what was good or bad, and why, as well as how it could have been done better.Evaluation results should be compiled. Excel, for example, can be programmed to [summarise ratings], while comments are usually summarised manually. The results should be distributed to the teachers involved in the course and to the departmental chair/director of studies. Nasty comments about an individual teacher might be better to give just to the person concerned, and possibly also to the department head /director of studies. Most people getting an unfavourable evaluation will not become better teachers if this is not handled with care; it might rather have a negative impact on their teaching. One should also keep in mind that there is no reason to worry too much about negative evaluation results unless they are repeated in several years. Students should also be notified of the importance of giving constructive criticism.Student course evaluation results should not only be compiled but also be interpreted. One should analyse why students reacted negatively on specific parts, and discuss whether and what, actions are required. It can be useful to write a [course report] (1-2 pages) giving some background information about the course, plus summarising the students' evaluations and the teachers' experiences of the course, as well as providing suggestions for improvements. The report can be distributed to students, to teachers, to department head/director of studies, and to the teaching committee for the education programme (if there is such a committee). The report will be useful when planning the next year's course, and it also demonstrates to students that their evaluations are considered. Teachers could also do a self-evaluation of their teaching and compare that with the results from the student evaluations.It is important to evaluate not only individual courses, but also the education programme as a whole. This is necessary in order to see that the education objectives are fulfilled, that the individual parts fit together, that important parts are not missing and that the programme is in phase with changing demands in society, nationally and internationally. Programme evaluation can be done at different levels: by students, former students, teachers and employers, by peer-reviews and at ministry or other authority levels. The individual university teachers are usually involved in parts of this evaluation, and should also actively consider the results.Evaluation of the education programme can be done continuously through the students completing their BSc or MSc degree, for example. Such an evaluation might contain a large number of questions to be graded and commented on by students, who can also be asked to give suggestions on how the study programme can be further improved. The only cost for such evaluation will be the labour required to [summarise ratings] and comments regularly.Some issues to include in student evaluation of education programmes could be:• fulfilment of the objectives of the education programme It could also be worthwhile to do follow-up evaluations of the study programme, i.e. evaluations by former students who have been working for 1 or 2 years after completing their degree. They are then in a good position to tell what knowledge and skills gained through their education were the most useful in their jobs, and also what they have been lacking.In addition to continuous evaluations by students, more thorough evaluation of an education programme is needed at regular intervals, e.g. every 5-10 years. The decision to do such evaluation is often taken at ministry level, and it might include a self-evaluation performed by the education institution (involving both students, teachers and employers), as well as national and international peer-reviews. Important areas to cover might include the following: • Background information, e.g. i) objectives, formal contents and organisation of the education programme, ii) numbers of student applicants per seat and their age, sex, social and ethnic background, as well as fulfilment of prerequisites, iii) access of teachers, their qualifications and possibilities/incentives for developing those, iv) facilities and financing.• Implementation of the education programme: such as i) contents and their academic and professional quality, ii) teaching methods, iii) examination methods, iv) links with research, v) national and international co-operation with other academic institutions and with industry, vi) physical and social working environment as experienced by students and teachers and vii) study counselling, viii) student influence, responsibility and systems for student evaluations. • Results, e.g. i) fulfilment of objectives, ii) examination results, iii) results from students' evaluations, iv) percent students completing t he degree in the time allocated, v) internationalisation achieved, vi) percent students getting a relevant job, vii) employer satisfaction and viii) tools for life-long learning.An evaluation of the education programme can preferably include analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). It is also important to discuss the relevance of the education objectives and the tools to reach them, as well as the efforts for continuous quality improvement of the education programme. The evaluation should give suggestions for improvements. It is essential, though, that these suggestions are discussed with faculty, students and stakeholders before the final evaluation document is produced.Effective higher education is crucial for development in a country. All university/college teachers/scientists are, however, not automatically skilled in teaching or active in educational development, especially if efforts in research do not give more credits. Educational efforts and skills need to be stimulated, both through requirements and through incentives. This can, for example, be achieved if governments and higher education institutions: • Set aside money to fund research related to the teaching and learning process in a specific subject area (e.g. animal breeding) to be performed and published by the university/college teachers. Money from the fund could also be used to test new teaching methods and related activities.• Stimulate activities where teachers from the same or different departments come together periodically to discuss specific educational topics. • Establish a distinguished award for educational skills.• Provide the physical facilities needed for efficient teaching.• Value and give credits to teachers showing educational skills, i.e. let this give merits for promotion and salary increases, just like research efforts do.Being a university/college teacher, you need to document your educational efforts and skills. This can be done in a teaching dossier, often called Teaching Portfolio. Keeping records continuously of your educational achievements is not only useful for promotion and salary discussions, or when applying for a new position, it also helps you to reflect upon and to improve your teaching. The portfolio should contain information both on your teaching activities and their effectiveness. A teaching portfolio should not be too long; a length of maximum 8-10 pages is sometimes recommended (remember to include a content list). Some appendix materials might be attached, but don't overload the portfolio.The section, that is yet to be written, will include the following:• A research proposal is written with the purpose of convincing a sponsor or donor that you have come up with an interesting idea, and that it is worthwhile to finance your research project. You thus need to make a real effort in making a good research proposal and to clearly convey the message why the research is important. A research grant proposal should be accurate, brief and clear; it should tell why the planned research is needed, and it should give evidence that you and your possible collaborators have the competence to do the job. Your proposal should also match the purpose and goals of the funding organisation.Most granting sponsors have guidelines telling what should be included in a research proposal, as well as formal requirements such as maximum number of pages with a specified font size, line spacing, number of copies to be submitted etc. Make sure to follow these guidelines in every detail! You will not be happy if your project is not even considered for further evaluation because some formalities were not fulfilled in your application.Your research proposal will usually be reviewed and graded by a number of referees, where some of the people might be specialists in your particular research area, but several of them may not be very familiar with the area. This further emphasises the need for your application to be accurate, brief and clear and emphasise essentials. You cannot expect the graders to realise that your project is important unless you manage to convince them that it is!Writing a research proposal is partly similar to writing a scientific paper; you need to tell what the problem are, the objectives, what is known and what is not known about the problem, as well as give your research plan. Instead of presenting results, you describe the expected outcomes. You also give a time plan with short milestones and present a budget for the project. Your (and your collaborators') qualifications are verified in a \"Curriculum Vitae\". Make sure you make a structured and logical proposal with suitable headings and an appealing layout.When writing a research proposal, it is also wise to check the criteria that will be used for grading the applications. Such criteria might be relevance, scientific quality, qualifications of applicant(s), research collaboration, plan for dissemination of results, and budget in relation to project plan and funds available. Some essentials to include in a research proposal are summarised in the box and briefly discussed below. For more detailed information on writing a proposal see e.g. a handbook by Read (2000) available in the Internet (for web-address, see [Section 14.1 of this module]) Abstract (or Summary). The abstract is very important; it is the part that is usually read the most, and it gives reviewers a first impression of your research proposal. The allowed length is often stated in the sponsor guidelines. The abstract should summarise the key information of your proposal; it should tell what problem you wish to address, and also give the objectives, the significance and the potential contribution of your proposed research, and a very brief description of the methods to be used. The abstract might also include a few words on your and your organisation's ability to carry out the research, as well as the resource needs of the project.Justification, background, objectives and expected output. Define the problem and emphasise the importance and relevance of your proposed research project, and tell what is unique in your approach. Present a brief literature review (and a coherent Reference list) to show what is done already, and also identify information gaps. The objectives might be split into major and specific objectives, and also be put in a broad framework. Specify the expected outcomes and possible applications of your research.Research plan (including equipment), time schedule and milestones. Describe the research methods and materials to be used, including methods to analyse the materials or data collected (e.g. laboratory or statistical analyses). State the facilities and equipment needed, which of these your organisation can provide, and what requires funding within the research proposal. Describe the research methods so that the scientific quality of the proposal can be evaluated, but avoid describing the methods in too much detail. Relate the experiment/study to the objectives. Present a time schedule for the activities to be performed and milestones to be achieved, e.g. as a time-delivery flow chart of achievements and outputs. Note that an ethical approval might be needed for animal experiments.Dissemination of results. Scientific results must be communicated to relevant audiences. Obviously, scientists aim for publication in scientific journals, and at international and national conferences. In applied areas of research it is as important that the results are also, but not only, communicated to the industry and various authorities outside the scientific community. Such publications must be kept in a popularised form. Many funding organisations require a good plan for publicatio n and information of results to approve an application.Budget. Many sponsors provide a specific budget format that you must follow, but there might be the possibility to add more details elsewhere. The budget should be credible and realistic, and clearly reflect your research plan. Some items might need specific justification. Indicate whether your organisation, or maybe other donors, will cover part of the research costs. If that will be the case, your chances for a research grant might be improved; cost-sharing/matching funds are sometimes a precondition.Collaborating institutions. Performing the research in collaboration with other institutions might strengthen your proposal, and also indicate a multi-disciplinary approach. Acrosscountry collaboration is sometimes a requirement. Costs for the collaborating institutions may need to be considered in the budget. Evidence of collaboration, i.e. letters of support from collaborating institutions, should be included as an appendix.Curriculum Vitae (CV). It is common to add a CV as an appendix to the research proposal. Alternatively, if kept short, it may be incorporated at the end of the application. The main purpose of the CV is to provide the reviewers with such information that they can form an opinion whether the applicant(s) have the competence required to carry out the research described in a proposal. The qualifications and abilities of the principal investigator(s) are most important to describe, although CVs may also be required for the collaborating scientists. A CV must be kept brief and clear; include essentials of relevance for the application! Organise the information into categories, such as personal facts, academic education, relevant positions, main research topics, relevant publications, awards or honours received and other skills or experiences that might be of relevance for carrying out the research project. Scientists sometimes overdo the CV and harm themselves by writing a longer CV than the research proposal itself! A CV is also required in many other situations, e.g. in applications for academic positions. The focus on research, teaching and administration or leadership merits may vary depending on the type of position and the tasks to be performed. Instructions and examples for writing a CV and related letters are easily found on the Internet.Before delivering a research proposal, also let someone who is not in your area of discipline read it and give you her/his comments. And, remember to make a final check that all requirements set by the sponsor organisation are fulfilled (including signatures required)!Several ideas presented on teaching, learning and examination have been introduced to the author in courses and other educational activities provided by Nils Trowald and Bengt Ekman, educational experts at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Their contribution in this respect is highly acknowledged.","tokenCount":"11816"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b23a0aaa49bb8db7a5dba669401e85c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9507c873-24ce-4f5e-8a99-7892b0e5f503/retrieve","id":"-1147983860"},"keywords":["smallholder farmers","sustainable intensification","project promoted innovations","hierarchical cluster analysis","positive deviants"],"sieverID":"e75bbde4-79f8-4e62-bf27-41b9921f9442","pagecount":"58","content":"Smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are characterized by low inputs and consequently low productivity. They are mostly self-sufficient but struggle to meet their own nutritional demand. With a fast-growing population there are even more mouths to feed, but agricultural production is threatened by the consequences of climate change. Sustainable intensification is considered a solution for this complex situation, and the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation is one of several projects promoting sustainable intensification. This thesis provides a holistic assessment of the project in Tanzania, based on a household survey which included 579 households in Babati, Kilolo, Kongwa and Mbozi districts. The aim was to identify whether farms with a better sustainable intensification performance had more innovations implemented and which combinations of innovations could contribute to this performance. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis was used to identify combinations of innovations, and based on the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework several indicators were used to assess performances per cluster. Positive Deviant analysis, based on Pareto-optimality and above average performances for selected indicators, was used to identify farms that performed extraordinarily better. Ten innovation clusters were identified, and the farms in five clusters that used more innovations also had a better performance. A large majority of farms in the better performing clusters made more use of fertilizers, compared with lower performing clusters. There were 52 farms identified as Positive Deviants, and these farms made more use of innovations which were not widely represented in the innovation clusters. The majority of the farms was found in well performing clusters, however the most of these well performing farms and the Positive Deviant farms still used considerable amounts of pesticides, which conflicts with sustainable intensification and thus requires attention for future improvements.African agriculture is dominated by small-scale farmers, with average farm sizes less than three hectares (Sarris, Savastano, & Christiaensen, 2006). These farmers play a vital role in the food provisioning but paradoxically, they are often struggle to meet their own nutritional demand (IFAD & UNEP, 2013). The farming systems of these smallholder farmers are characterized by low input and low outputs or productivity. Over eighty percent of these farmers produce at subsistence level and amongst these farmers the poverty rates are high (Kamara, Conteh, Rhodes, & Cooke, 2019). These farming households are however highly heterogeneous, as they differ on their access to and use of resources, production levels, risk management and aspirations for the future (Tittonell, 2008). Africa has a fast-growing population, causing an additional increase in demand for food and feed (IITA, ILRI, & IFPRI, 2012). Fulfilling this demand is however complicated by climate change, which causes more weather extremes that have a negative impact on staple crop productivity (Girvetz et al., 2019;Ogada, Radeny, Recha, & Solomon, 2020).Agricultural intensification is considered to be a solution for this complex situation, but is also associated with negative environmental impacts by the increased use of fertilizers and pesticides (Koch, Schaldach, & Göpel, 2019;Rietveld, Groot, & Van der Burg, 2021). According to Tilahun et al. (2015), approximately two thirds of African land is already degraded. Therefore, the focus shifted towards sustainable agricultural intensification in order to feed the increasing population. Initially, it aimed to reduce environmental degradation, but over time human health and social dimensions were added to this concept (Rietveld et al., 2021). Sustainable intensification (SI) can be defined as \" […] the efficient use of resources to increase output levels from the same area of land while also reducing the adverse environmental or human condition or social impacts of agricultural production\" (Ochieng et al., 2021, p. 1). According to Ochieng et al. (2021) there is no debate about whether African agriculture needs intensification, but rather about how this should be done sustainably.Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) is the overarching name of three SI projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and aims to \"provide pathways out of hunger and poverty for smallholder families through sustainably intensified farming systems that sufficiently improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base\" (IFPRI, IITA, & ILRI, 2016, p. 1). The Theory of Change forms the basis of this program, as there is supposed to be a connection between the program activities and the achieved result (Hillbur, 2013). This is done by a demand-driven approach and extensive stakeholder engagement, to ensure the beneficial outcomes for the livelihoods of these smallholder farmers (IFPRI et al., 2016). The SI innovations in the Africa RISING program include: improved crop varieties, post-harvest storage improvements (Timler et al., 2014), climate-smart land management practices and improved animal husbandry practices (Africa RISING, 2018b). To ensure holistic SI and to monitor progress, the program follows the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework (SIAF). This framework defines five sustainability domains: (1) productivity, (2) economic, (3) environment, (4) human condition, and (5) social. Per domain, indicators and metrics have been determined at field, farm, household and landscape level (Musumba, Grabowski, Palm, & Snapp, 2017).There is a large database with previous Africa RISING evaluations (Africa RISING, 2018a) and the program has proven itself to contribute to improved nutrition, increased income, more resistant crops, larger adoption of sustainable land management practices and increased capacity development of farmers (Muthoni et al., 2020). These evaluations however remain mainly focussed on the productivity, economic and environmental domains. The human condition and social domain turn out to be hard to assess due to a lack of data (Claessens, 2019). Researches focus on their discipline approaches and might lack knowledge or interest to gather data beyond their disciplines (Claessens, 2019). As one of the core ideals of the program is to holistically improve livelihoods for these smallholder farmers, it is important to focus more on the integration of the human condition and social domain in these assessments.Therefore, this research aimed to provide a holistic SI assessment of farming households in Tanzania. A postharvest household survey conducted by Africa RISING in 2020 was used as data source for this study. Inspired by the study of Jambo, Groot, Descheemaeker, Bekunda, and Tittonell (2019) which focussed on the motivations of farmers to implement SI innovations, the main research question of this study was whether there is a correlation between extraordinarily better performing farms in terms of SI and the combination (cluster) of SI innovations these farms have implemented. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis was used to identify clusters of innovations that were used by these farming households. Based on the SIAF, for each domain three or four indicators were selected to assess the SI performance per cluster of innovations. The identification of farms that perform extraordinarily better in terms of SI was done by a positive deviant analysis, a relatively new method to analyse farm performances (Banson et al., 2018;Modernel et al., 2018;Toorop et al., 2020;Wardropper et al., 2016). Positive deviants are defined as \" […] individuals that achieve better outcomes than their peers despite having the same resources and constraints\" (Toorop et al., 2020, p. 1). These individuals, or in this case farmers, could be considered \"innovators\" which practices can help to optimize local potentials (Padmaningrum, Hariadi, & Hariyadi, 2019). The methodology of this analysis was based on the study by Toorop et al. (2020), which was also based on multiple indicator maximization and Pareto-optimality. Three farms that have been part of the Africa RISING program for several years (so called \"selected farms\") were also part of the post-harvest study, and were the lead throughout this research. Three sub research questions were set to answer the main research question: (1) How do the selected farms perform at the five sustainability domains in comparison with similar farms with fewer or no innovations?, (2) Which clusters of farmers implementing particular combinations of innovations can be identified, and how do these clusters perform at SI and household characteristics?, and (3) Which farms are Positive Deviants in terms of SI indicators and what are specific household characteristics? The hypothesis is that farms with more innovations perform better at SI indicators, and farms with fewer innovations have a lower SI performance. The selected farms that have been part of Africa RISING for multiple years are expected to have many SI innovations implemented are thus also anticipated to belong to a cluster with many innovations and to perform well in terms of SI indicators.The dataset used for this research was derived from a post-harvest household survey which took place from the 30 th of June to the 30 th of July 2020, in Babati, Kilolo, Kongwa and Mbozi districts in Tanzania. Respective extension officers created lists of all the households within their villages, of which interviewees were randomly selected by a cluster sampling. In total 579 households were included and their distribution can be found in Fig. 1. (Personal communication dr. J. Manda, 15-04-2021).Following the five sustainability domains of the SIAF in Tanzania, agricultural productivity (1) is generally low. The main staple crop is maize (Zea mays), and yields are significantly lower than global averages (Msuya, Hisano, & Nariu, 2008). This is partially due to moderately acidic soils (pH 5-6) in for example Kilolo and Mbozi districts, while the optimum pH for maize cultivation is 6-7.2 (Muthoni et al., 2020). Due to climate change, these crop yields are expected to decrease with approximately 25-50% (Lamanna et al., 2016;Manda, Notenbaert, & Groot, 2019). Half of Tanzanian households keep indigenous Tanzania Shorthorn Zebo cattle and most of the milk (93%) and meat (99%) is produced in this traditional production system (Paul et al., 2020;The Vice President's Office, 2012). Cattle densities are high in Mbozi and Babati districts, and moderately high in Kongwa district. Despite the importance of livestock, productivity remains low due a lack of adequate inputs (Africa RISING, 2018b). Again, this production is threatened by the consequences of climate change (Simpkin, Cramer, Ericksen, & Thornton, 2020). Generally, crop and livestock practices are poorly integrated by the farmers which prohibits an optimal farming system (Africa RISING, 2018b).Agriculture is important for Tanzania's economy (2): the majority of the population is working in agriculture, and it accounts for almost two-thirds of the countries' GDP (FAO, 2021). Over the decades, poverty rates have decreased. However, in absolute numbers still half of the population has less than $1.90 dollar per day to spend (World Bank, 2021). Access to markets is an important incentive for agricultural investment, as markets provide inputs and tools, and an exchange of food. Travel times to markets is relatively high in Tanzania, prohibiting this incentive (Muthoni et al., 2020).In terms of environment (3), Tanzania's biodiversity is threatened by the population growth, environmental mismanagement, the expansion of commercial agriculture and climate change (The Vice President's Office, 2012). This is not only problematic at environmental level, but also directly affects the Tanzanians as nature and natural resources have a central role in many of their livelihood strategies (The Vice President's Office, 2012). Pesticides are used regularly, but the involved practices often lack safety measures and thus cause health issues (Lekei, Ngowi, & London, 2014). Steep slopes can be found especially in Kilolo, Mbozi and Babati districts, which makes the soil vulnerable for erosion (Muthoni et al., 2020).The human condition (4) domain covers mostly nutritional indicators focussing on women and children, as the most vulnerable groups in society (Musumba et al., 2017). The absolute numbers of children stunted or wasted are still high in the country, and in some areas even increasing (Inter-Agency Regional Analysts Network, 2017). Despite decreasing malnutrition percentages, at national level an estimated 450,000 children are still suffering from malnutrition. This is high compared with other East African countries and problematic for the development of this generation. (Inter-Agency Regional Analysts Network, 2017). Hidden hunger appears as most diets of rural farming families are mainly consisting of basic staple foods like maize, rice, millet, and sorghum, and especially (pregnant) women and children younger than two years old have chronic micronutrient deficiencies. Micronutrients usually lacking are vitamin A, iron and zinc. (Okello, Sindi, Shikuku, McEwan, & Low, 2017). Since there is a high population of children under five years old in Babati and Mbozi districts, these are interesting program target districts (Muthoni et al., 2020). Education has proven to lower these rates, which makes awareness and education about nutrition in all its aspects a very important means (Musumba et al., 2017). Training is also health related in terms of information spreading information about safe use of means such as pesticides (Muthoni et al., 2020).The social domain ( 5) covers (gender) equity, social cohesion, and collective action. Generally, subsistence farmers are most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. Women are especially vulnerable, since they are often more poor and have lower literacy rates than men, which makes it more difficult for these women to adapt their farming practices (McOmber, Riley, McKune, & Russo, 2015). Men tend to migrate to urban areas to find other sources of income, but is less of an option for women as they face more gender inequalities. Consequently, agriculture is becoming more feminized, and the improvement of their access to and control over resources would increase their empowerment and less vulnerable to the consequences of climate change (McOmber et al., 2015).The methodological approach of this research can be divided into four steps, shown in Fig. 2. The results from the first step form the basis for the following steps. The following paragraphs elaborate on these steps.Based on supplementary data by Jambo et al. (2019) and contact with IITA experts dr. ir. L. Claessens (Annex 1) and dr. J. Manda (personal communication 24-02-2021), several SI innovations were identified in the survey. Information about these innovations can be found in Annex 2. This information was transformed to a binary dataset, which provides per household all the innovations implemented. This dataset was the basis for Step 3: Innovation clusters.In order to find suitable SI indicators, the survey was compared with the Sustainable Assessment Framework (SIAF) by Musumba et al. (2017). The SIAF provides indicators at field, farm, household and landscape level. Smallholder farms in this study are highly dependent on family labour and the producers of the food are also the consumers of the produce, thus the farms are highly connected with the household (Ditzler et al., 2019). Therefore, indicators at both farm and household level were used. Variables collected in the survey were mapped to SIAF indicators (Annex 3) and a subset was selected for quantification. Several indicators were not directly available in the survey, but could be derived from farm modelling. Therefore, all farms were modelled in FarmDESIGN, a widely used model to address trade-offs and synergies at farm-level. The FarmDESIGN model is a static model that quantifies and evaluates productive, economic and environmental farm performances on annual basis. This makes it a suitable model to identify several indicator related cycles in the farming system, such as nutrient flows, productivity and profitability. (Groot, Oomen, & Rossing, 2012). The model can be used for scenario analysis, but in this case the model was used to analyse current farm performances. The model was parameterised for each farm based on the data derived from the household survey (Annex 4). The environmental parameters (soil pH, soil organic carbon, bulk density and temperature) were derived from the study of Muthoni et al. (2017).The selected set of household-level SI indicators were verified with experts on the ground, to ensure their relevance and validation.  meals together at least one season per year), off-farm income (% of total household income), crop sales (Tsh/year), animal (product) sales (Tsh/year), money spent on fertilizers (Tsh/year for mineral and organic fertilizers, both top and basal), money spent on pesticides (Tsh/year), food purchase (Tsh/week), area owned by household (ha), area farmed by household (ha under crops), TLU according to Rothman-Ostrow, Gilbert, and Rushton (2020) (number), and the number of SI innovations. Most of the households (95%) grow maize as one of their main crops on their fields. The main crop yields are divided by the area under this main maize crop. 3 Nitrogen efficiency % Tanzania has a two-sided nitrogen problem: on the one hand there is not enough soil nitrogen to produce enough food, but on the other hand causes an excess of nitrogen severe ecological and human health problems (Hutton et al., 2017;Schut & Giller, 2020). The nitrogen efficiency is modelled in FarmDESIGN. Economic 1 Farm Gross Margin Tsh Farm gross margin is the gross income minus variable costs. Fixed cost are not addressed in the survey, which prohibits calculating operational profit. Modelled in FarmDESIGN.No.A diversification of practices to earn income can help the household to spread risks and would improve dietary diversification (Timler et al., 2014). This value is the total number of household income sources. 3 Household leisure timeIndicates the workload of the farm on the household. More leisure time gives the opportunity to do additional or other tasks that could contribute to a better sustainability performance. Assumed is a work day of 7 hours, and the supply of family labour or availability to work is specified for each household member dependent on their age. Modelled in FarmDESIGN.No.The number of different crops grown on the farm (including intercrops) plus the number of farm animals. Increasing farm diversity contributes to the preservation of biodiversity and the enhancement of ecosystem services in agricultural sites (Beillouin, Ben-Ari, Malezieux, Seufert, & Makowski, 2021). Besides, smallholders that keep multiple types of animals and grow a wider variety of crops spread the risks of being food insecure when a crop fails (Timler et al., 2014) The years the household head followed education. Knowledge allows to make better-informed decisions, which is important for farmers as a means to improve their livelihoods (Timler et al., 2014). 4 Protein productivity (kg/ha) Protein production per farm is modelled in FarmDESIGN, divided by the farm area. Protein shortage is a common cause of malnutrition. It is important for growth and muscle mass, and therefore especially important for women in reproductive at age and children (Henley, Taylor, & Obukosia, 2010). Social 1 Farming decision making indexThe farm related decisions cover 5 topics: soil and water conservation, the sale and related income of maize, beans and pigeon peas, the sale and related income of animal products, the sale and related income of livestock, and the grading of cereals. In case the man is responsible value = 0, together = 0.5 and for a woman = 1. As every topics counts equally, a value is calculated for each of the value.Then it is summed and divided by 5. Proxy for gender equality, as it measures the involvement of women in decision making about farm-related topics. Based on the decision-making-index by IndiKit (2021). 2 Asset ownership distribution (0-1) All assets have a value: in case the asset is owned by a man = 0, together = 0.5, woman = 1. This is summed for all the assets and divided by the number of assets in total. 3 Collective action (0/1) Anyone in the household has been a member in a formal or informal group or institution in the last 3 years. Groups or institutions: input supply group or farmer cooperative, crop marketing group, Church/mosque association/congregation, savings and credit association, women's association/group, youth association. 0 = no, 1 = yes.The Africa RISING program was interested in an assessment of three selected farms that have been working with the program for several years (Farm S1, Farm S2, Farm S3) and were assumed to have many innovations implemented. Their performance was compared with the performance of farms that had similar household characteristics, but had fewer innovations implemented. Criteria for selection of the comparison farms C1, C2 and C3 were 1) the farms were located in the same district, 2) recommendation domain (Muthoni et al., 2017) and 3) the household heads have the same gender. Then the selection was based on 4) the closest number of household members and 5) farming area. Farm S2 had only five innovations implemented, which is relatively few compared with Farm S1 and S3. In order to compare farms with relatively more and fewer innovations, Comparable farm C2 was selected also based on relatively more innovations implemented. All features of the farms are shown in Table 2.The SI indicators in Table 1 formed the basis for this analysis. In order to visualise the differences in performance, the numbers of the farm and comparable farm, and the dataset modus and mean were transformed in numbers in a range from 0-1, and then visualised in spiderwebs. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) was used to identify which combinations of innovations were commonly implemented by farmers. The binary dataset with innovations per household was used for this analysis. The Euclidian distances between farms were calculated and the Ward algorithm was used in the HCA. The resulting innovation clusters were compared for their farm and household characteristics and their performance of SI indicators.This methodology consisted of several steps, based on Toorop et al. (2020). Firstly, for each SI domain one indicator was selected for further analysis. This selection was based on low mutual correlations with indicators in other domains to avoid double weighting of the same indicator. These indicators were dietary energy productivity (maximized), farm gross margin (maximized), pesticide AI (minimized), HDDS (maximized), and asset ownership distribution (maximized). Farms with missing values for one of these variables were removed for further analysis. Secondly, the mean value for each of the indicators was calculated. Farms with a performance better than dataset mean were ranked with value 1, lower with value 0. For all farms the resulting values for the five indicators were summed. Farms that performed better than dataset mean for at least four indicators were selected for further analysis. Thirdly, all farms in the dataset were Pareto ranked. In the FarmDESIGN model, multi-objective optimization in the exploration process allows the generation of Pareto-optimal farm configurations (Groot et al., 2012). Pareto ranking was used to identify farms that perform better than other farms for the five selected indicators, without being outperformed by any of the other indicators. Formulated differently, it means that the performance of the five indicators is optimal, and this cannot improve without diminishing the optimality of one of the other four indicators. It is a method to combine multiple indicators without giving them subjective weights. (Modernel et al., 2018). Farms with Pareto ranking 1 were selected for further analysis. Fourthly and finally, the farms with a performance better than dataset mean for at least four out of five indicators were selected based on their Pareto raking 1. The resulting farms were determined as PD farms, and for these was analysed whether they were a selected or comparable farm, in which innovation cluster they fit, the number of innovations they implemented, and their household characteristics.In order to identify differences between clusters and (non-) PD farms, several statistical tests were ran in RStudio. The ggplot2 package was used to perform the regression analysis which shows whether farms with more innovations were more intensive. In order to identify differences between innovation clusters for both SI and household indicators, ideally an One-Way ANOVA was performed. However, none of the SI or household indicators met the tests' assumptions (tested with a Shapiro-Wilk and Levine's test). Therefore, the differences between medians for het indicators per innovation cluster were tested with the Kruskal Wallis test. To specify between which clusters the differences occurred, the Pairwise Wilcox test was added (α < 0.05). The SI indicator 'collective action' has to be interpreted with caution, as there were many missing values. The household head gender is a binary variable and differences were therefore tested with a Pearson's Chi-squared test.To verify whether there was a significant representation of PD farms in a specific innovation cluster, a Pearson's Chi-squared test with Yates' continuity correction was used. This test was also used to verify whether PD farms significantly used more innovations. To identify differences in household characteristics, the Wilcoxon rank sum test with continuity correction was used. For household head gender a Pearson's Chi-squared test was used.Significant representations of clusters of innovations and PD farms in the districts were also tested with a Pearson's Chi-squared test with Yates' continuity correction.Fig. 3 provides the identified SI innovations in the survey, and their frequency of implementation at the farms. Most frequently implemented were durable-and non-durable post-harvest facilities and rip tillage. Only three farms grow their own vegetables. Fig. 4 shows how many innovations the farms implemented. A relatively large share of the farms implemented almost half of the identified SI innovations. There were very few farms that have implemented less than four innovations (7%) or more than 10 (5%).  The correlations between SI indicators and household characteristics can be found in Table 3. There were high correlations between the productivity indicators: dietary energy productivity, maize productivity, and protein productivity. There was a positive correlation between farm gross margin and farm crop and animal diversification (0.31). There was a negative correlation between farm crop and animal diversitynitrogen efficiency (-0.33), and a positive correlation between farm crop and animal diversitynitrogen balance (0.32). The correlation between nitrogen efficiency -nitrogen balance was negative (-0.44). There was a negative correlation between the age of the household head and their years of education (-0.32). Households with more members had more leisure time (0.49) and a higher farm crop and animal diversity (0.34). Higher crop sales correlated with more pesticide AI (0.32). Spending more money on fertilizers correlated with the higher maize productivity (0.33). The larger the farming area, the higher the farm crop and animal diversity (0.33), and the higher pesticide use (0.57). Farms with a higher TLU tended to have a lower nitrogen efficiency (-0.33), but a higher gross margin (0.48). The correlation matrix for the household indicators can be found in Annex 5. Higher crop sales correlate with more money spent on fertilizers (0.50) and more money spent on pesticides (0.43). Farms that spent more money on inputs were more likely to spend more on pesticides (0.44). Larger farms had higher crop sales (0.41) and spent more money on fertilizers (0.42) and pesticides (0.43). Larger farms (ha) have a higher TLU (0.35), and a higher TLU correlates with more animal (product) sales (0.36).To verify whether farms with more innovations were more intensive, a regression analysis was done for the following intensification indicators: farm gross margin, money spent on pesticides, money spent on fertilizers, maize productivity, dietary energy productivity, protein productivity, TLU, and farm crops and animal diversity. Results are shown in Fig. 4. For all these indicators there was a significant increase when more innovations were implemented, meaning that with an increase in innovations implemented the farm was more intensive. Remarkably, it seems that the highest values are achieved with relatively intermediate number of innovations implemented and seems not further increase with additional innovations. The regression is relatively low for the indicators: farm gross margin (R = 0.18, p-value = 8.8e-06), money spent on pesticides (R = 0.18, p-value = 1e-05) and TLU (R = 0.18, p-value = 1.7e-05). Fig. 5 provides the visualizations of farm performances of the three selected farms that have been part of the program for several years (Farm S1, S2 and S3), the comparable farms (Comparable farm C1, C2 and C3), and the dataset mean and modus. Corresponding values can be found in Annex 6. The first farm comparison (Fig. 5.1) shows that Farm S1 performed better for all indicators compared with Comparable farm C1, except farm decision making and nitrogen efficiency. Farm 1 performed above average for most indicators, however productivity was slightly lower than the dataset mean. Comparable farm C1 performed better than the dataset mean for the indicators of household leisure time, erosion, pesticide AI, nitrogen balance, WDDS and farm decision making index. However, most of the indicators were around or below dataset mean performance, especially productivity indicators. The second farm comparison (Fig. 5.2) shows that Farm S2 only obviously performed better than Comparable farm 2 in terms of collective action and education. Comparable farm C2 performed better than Farm S2 in terms of maize productivity and HDDS, but had low performance on protein and dietary energy productivity, nitrogen efficiency, education, collective action, farm decision making index and asset ownership distribution. The nitrogen balance was worse than dataset mean. Erosion is a problem for this farm, however less than dataset mean. The third farm comparison (Fig. 5.3) shows that Farm S3 performs better than Comparable farm C3 for all indicators except the farm decision making index. Productivity of both farms is lower than dataset mean, the farms also deal with mild erosion and have a high nitrogen balance. Compared with dataset mean, farm S3 performed better for all indicators except productivity and nitrogen balance. Women were highly included in farm decision making and asset ownership distribution. Comparable farm S3 performed below or around dataset mean for most indicators.Comparing the three selected farms with the dataset modus (Fig. 5.4) shows that all three farms perform better at all domains, except productivity and nitrogen balance. Especially performance of farm gross margin, HDDS, WDDS and collective actions is far above dataset mean.From the whole dataset, four farms were removed for clustering as there is limited information available about these farms. Annex 7 elaborates on the decision for the number of clusters.Table 4 shows the clusters of innovations that were distinguished. Fig. 3 already showed that the durable and non-durable storage facilities were used most frequently, and cluster 9 was the only one where non-durable storage facilities were not used by >80% of the farmers. Clusters 4 and 8 were the only ones where the durable facilities are not used by >80% of the farmers. Cluster 10 had the lowest number of innovations implemented, and was also the smallest cluster with only 18 farming households. Cluster 5 is the largest cluster, including 120 farming households. The results of SI and household indicators comparisons per innovation cluster can be found in Annex 8 and 9. A summary of significant differences between clusters is provided in Table 5. Innovation clusters 1-5 performed significantly better than clusters 6-10 in terms of productivity, farm gross margin, crops sales and the average number of innovations that was implemented. Generally, it is remarkable that for each domain there are two or more indicators with a significant difference for at least one innovation cluster, except for the social domain. There are no significant differences between the innovation clusters for this domain.  and 9). In order to show the most important differences, the differences are significant for a comparison with at least 5 other innovation clusters. Higher performance is indicated with a +, lower performance with a -. Positive evaluated significant performance is coloured green, negative evaluated significant performance is coloured red. Other observations are coloured yellow. Table 6 shows the general SI performance per innovation cluster. Cluster 1-5 have high dietary energy and maize productivity, clusters 3 and 5 perform even better than the other good performing clusters. Clusters 1-5 have higher pesticide AI. Generally, there were only few occurrences of severe erosion. Cluster 9 had most variation in the years of education followed by the household, and it is the only cluster where 25% of the farm household heads received more than seven years of education. The farm decision making index is more female oriented for only clusters 3 and 9. Remarkable is that only in clusters 1 and 4 male decision making occurs more often. Generally, farm decision making seemed to be more a female oriented and asset ownership distribution seems to be more male oriented. The latter was true for all clusters except 10, with a relative more female orientation.Remarkable household characteristics are the following: In cluster 9 and 10 there were more female headed households, but the majority was still male headed. There were no significant differences between the household head age and household size, and few for off-farm income. Farms in cluster 1-3 and 5 have higher crop sales than farms in clusters 6-10. There are no significant differences in animal (product) sales between the clusters. Clusters 2-5 spent approximately same amount of money on fertilizers, farms in cluster 1, 6-10 spend almost no money on fertilizers. There are relatively few households that spend money on pesticides in cluster 6-8 and 10. Cluster 2 and 4 spend the most on pesticides. There are no significant differences in the farmed area between clusters. Farms in cluster 1 have a higher TLU, which is significant for clusters 3-6 and 8-10.Interestingly, in Kilolo and Mbozi districts were significantly more farms in innovation cluster 1-5 (Kilolo -Utengule, χ² = 8.731, p-value = 0.003; Kilolo -Kitowo , χ² = 4.4812, p-value = 0.034; Mbozi, χ² =120.99, p-value = 2.2e-16) and in Kongwa there were significantly more farms in cluster 6-10 χ² = 280.79, p-value = 2.2e-16).After clustering the farms in the dataset, the selected and comparable farms can be found in a cluster. Table 7 gives these results. After removing farms with missing values for one of the five selected indicators, 558 farms were used for further analysis. Of these were 132 farms with a performance better than dataset mean for at least four of these five indicators. There were 75 farms with a Pareto-ranking 1. Combined, there were 52 farms that performed better than average for at least four out of five indicators compared with the dataset mean and were Pareto-optimal.Farm S1 and Comparable farm C3 were identified as Positive Deviant (PD) farms, and both performed better than dataset mean for four indicators (farm gross margin, pesticide AI, HDDS and asset ownership division). Most PD farms with a better performance than dataset mean for four but not five indicators performed lower for the indicators HDDS (60%) and asset ownership distribution (21%).Fig. 6 shows the number of PD farms per innovation cluster. Pearson's Chi-squared test with Yates' continuity correction shows that cluster 1 not only has the highest percentage of PD farms (20%) but that this is also significant compared with the whole dataset (χ² = 4.8019, p-value = 0.028). Pearson's Chi-squared test with Yates' continuity correction also shows that most Positive deviant farms were significantly more present in clusters 1-5 (χ² = 5.1147, p-value = 0.028), however remarkably none in cluster 4. The PD farms that were in clusters that are generally not performing very well in terms of SI, have relatively more innovations implemented compared to other farms within their cluster.  The results showed some remarkable observations. To start, hardly any SI or household indicator was normally distributed, which means relatively high or low values for these indicators are not equally spread from the dataset mean. There was no clear correlation between the farm gross margin and the money spent on fertilizers. More generally, the correlation between the number of innovations implemented and the farm gross margin was positive, but lower than expected. There was a positive correlation between the TLU and the farm gross margin, but in the clusters there were no clear differences in the animal (product) sales, while animal numbers were low for all innovation clusters. Interestingly, PD farms had high animal (product) sales and a higher TLU than non-PD farms. The better performing innovation clusters and PD farms had high crop sales, but also tend to use more pesticides which does not match SI. Better performing innovation clusters had more innovations implemented and more specifically, they made more use of fertilizers and pesticides, except for cluster 1. PD farms were highly represented in better performing clusters, but interestingly the PD farms make more use of innovations which are not highly represented in these clusters, except for the use of improved crop varieties. Cluster 1 is the only innovation cluster which has significantly more PD farms, which could be explained by the still wide variety of innovations implemented in this cluster. Interestingly, farms in this cluster made relatively less use of fertilizers and pesticides.The first sub-research question addressed the SI performance of the selected farms which have been using SI innovations for years, compared with farms with the same household characteristics but with fewer innovations implemented. The farm comparisons showed that for most indicators, the farms with more innovations performed better, despite some minor differences. More interesting is to look at the innovation clusters and PD analysis for these farms. Two of the six farms were identified as PD farms. The first one is selected Farm S1 (innovation cluster 1). The farm has 10 innovations implemented, of which also three out of four that are used more by PD farms. Unexpectedly, the second PD farm was Comparable farm C3. With five innovations implemented, positioned in cluster 8, and having only one out of four innovations implemented which are used more by PD farms (improved crop variety), this is an unexpected result. Fig. 5 shows that indeed the farm performs better than average for four out of the five PD indicators.The second sub-research question addressed the SI performances and household indicators of innovation clusters. In total, 10 clusters were distinguished and 9 out of 17 innovations had most impact in this clustering. Broadly speaking, a division can be made between clusters 1-5 and clusters 6-10, where the former performed better in terms of SI and had more innovations implemented than the latter. Pesticide AI was however higher in these better performing clusters, which conflicts with SI. Cluster 1 had however relatively low pesticide AI. The main difference between clusters 2-5 and 6-10 was that in clusters 2-5 >80% of the farmers use top and basal fertilizer, which was very low in the latter innovation clusters. In cluster 1 the use of these fertilizers was also very low, but there was much more variation in other innovations implemented. Only four innovations are used by >80% of the farmers, but the average number of innovations for this cluster was 8.2 innovations.In terms of household characteristics, most of the better performing innovation clusters had higher crops sales than the lower performing clusters. There were no significant differences between the clusters for animal (product) sales. The better performing clusters spent more money on fertilizers, except cluster 1 and all better performing clusters spent more money on pesticides. There were significant differences between the area owned by the household, but these cannot be linked to cluster performances.The final sub-research question addressed the identification of extraordinarily better performing farms, of which in total 52 were identified. With an average number of 8 innovations implemented by these PD farms compared with seven innovations implemented by the non-PD farms, PD farms significantly implemented more innovations. PD farms had, compared with the non-PD farms, made more use of the following innovations: improved crop varieties, Fanyajuu, harvesting of crop residues and tied ridging. Remarkable is that these innovations, except improved crop varieties, were not used by >80% of the farmers in any of the clusters.Besides the higher crop and animal (product) sales by PD farms, there were no significant differences in household characteristics compared with the non-PD farms. However, 94% of the PD farms spent more money on pesticides than non-PD farms. The contrasting high pesticide purchase by PD farms can be explained by very high pesticide AI use by some farms in the dataset, which consequently increased the dataset average. The overall pesticide AI of PD farms may thus be lower than dataset average, but ideally this would be further diminished.After modelling in FarmDESIGN, some results are worth an elaboration. The first one relates to the maize productivity. Smallholder farmers are expected not to produce more than 10 Mg per ha, or even 5 (Personal communication dr. J. Manda, 28-07-2021). This is supported by the maize productivities found by Timler et al. (2014) of 2,4 Mg per ha in Babati district and less than 1 Mg per ha in Kongwa district. In this study, the average maize productivity was 2.3 Mg per ha, which matches this expectation. There were however some outliers (40 farms) that produced more than 5 Mg per ha, of which four reported to produce even more than 10 Mg per ha. Interestingly, these farms with unexpected high productivity all fit in innovation clusters 1-6, and none in clusters 7-10. By far most of these outliers (18) fit in cluster 5. Only 12 out of 40 farms with very high maize productivity were PD farms, of which only three were positioned in clusters 3 and 4.For a large share of farms in the dataset, nitrogen efficiencies were high, which conflicts with earlier stated low nutrient efficiencies (Hutton et al., 2017;Schut & Giller, 2020). The NUE's in Sub-Saharan Africa are however known to exceed efficiencies of 100%. The soils are nutrient scarce, and a small addition of nitrogen will thus be used very efficiently. However, due to a lack of added nutrients the soils are often mined (Edmonds et al., 2009). The low nitrogen fertilizer application is caused by the high price of fertilizer and the lack of infrastructure (Edmonds et al., 2009;Holden, 2018). Most better performing clusters used more fertilizers and the importance of good fertilizers is widely shown in previous studies (Rurinda et al., 2020;Schut & Giller, 2020), however Holden (2018) argues that simply increased fertilizer use is not per se a solution.Previous studies in Tanzania reported average nitrogen balances of values between -36.5 and -12.8 kg/ha (Kiboi, Ngetich, & Mugendi, 2019), which does not correspond with the average dataset value of 59 kg/ha (soil losses, accumulation and volatilization). An important explanation is the assumption made in FarmDESIGN that animals are kept in closed barn whole year round. This assumption is not entirely true, as livestock also grazes on communal lands (personal communication dr. J. Manda, 28-07-2021) which happens especially in Mbozi and Babati districts (Muthoni et al., 2020). There was no specific information available about grazing systems in the household survey and since grazing systems possibly also strongly differ as well, the assumption was the same for all farms. This modelling however troubled the nutrient balances in FarmDESIGN, especially for farms with a high TLU. In order to provide sufficient energy for maintenance and production of livestock, large feed imports were assumed, which caused large nitrogen balances and losses. Arguably, the indicator was removed from analysis. However, Yayneshet and Treydte (2015) explain how communal grazing could contribute to environmental degradation. Therefore, it is chosen to keep the indicator as proxy for environmental degradation. Remarkable is that especially in cluster 1 the nitrogen balance is high, which can be explained by the high variability of TLU in this cluster. Timler et al. (2014) argue that income diversification helps the household with the spread of risks and improves dietary diversification. However, the average number of income sources was only two. There was no high correlation observed between the number of income sources and the HDDS (0.21), or any other indicator. The better performing clusters also did not have more income sources. For the PD farms the average number of income sources was slightly higher with an average of three sources.On average, farms had four different crops and animals on their farm. Waha et al. (2018) explain this low farming diversity by climatic conditions. Rainfall (variability) is changing in the future due to climate change, which makes it even harder to diversify in terms of farm crops and animals (Waha et al., 2018).Pesticides are widely used in Tanzania (Lekei et al., 2014), which corresponds with half of the farmers reporting pesticide use. Erosion is reported as a problem in the study area (Muthoni et al., 2020), but only 14 farmers reported a severe erosion problem on their farm. This seems promising, however almost half of the farmers (43%) still reported some problems with erosion. More than half of the farms had no erosion problems (55%).Kissoly, Karki, and Grote (2020) report an average HDDS ranging between 4.2 and 5.3 for their case study in rural districts in Tanzania. With a dataset mean of 6.1 food groups the farms in this dataset seem to perform above average.Women report limited representation in decision making and ownership (Timler et al., 2014), however with a mean of 0.56 in farm decision making and a modus of 0.5, this would suggest that women most of the times are at least equally involved in decision making. The boxplot in Annex 8 shows even a distribution which was quite female oriented for most of the innovation clusters. McOmber et al. (2015) explain the more how come agriculture is (becoming) more female oriented. The asset distribution tended to be more male oriented with a mean value of 0.43, however the modus was still 0.5 suggesting an equal distribution. However, it should be kept in mind that with the measurement of social indicators, it might be easier to answer what would be socially desired or expected answers, instead of reporting how this works in reality.In Kongwa district, there were significantly more farms with fewer innovations. This was also found by Jambo et al. (2019). They explain the low implementation of innovations by not only financial constraints, but also intrinsic motivations. Referring this to the Theory of Change, it would be very interesting to further understand motivations and aspirations of these farmers and to explore how they could improve their future performances.Generally, the findings of this study should be interpreted with a note of caution since there are many more SI innovations (Jambo et al., 2019). This study is based on the dataset resulting from a post-harvest study, which not necessarily focussed on all other or more general SI innovations. For example, most of the farms reported the implementation of durable or non-durable post-harvest facilities. These include many innovations (Fig. 3), and only one of these has to be used to have durable or non-durable post-harvest facilities implemented. This might overstate the implementation of the durable or non-durable post-harvest facilities and troubles the generalization of the findings in this study. Another limitation is the selection of SI innovations, as they could be differently interpreted. For example \"crop residue harvesting\" is identified as an innovation, as an important feed source for livestock (Lukuyu, Ngunga, & Bekunda, 2021). There is however a trade-off between the benefit of harvesting and leaving residues on the field (Wijk, 2010). Leaving crop residues on the field contributes to increased soil organic matter, which is beneficial for crop yields and soil carbon (Musumba et al., 2017;Wijk, 2010). Only 100 farmers reported the harvest of crop residues, and it is not used in any cluster by more than eighty percent of the farms. It is however significantly more used in clusters 1 (44%) and 2 (50%), which are identified as better performing clusters, and by PD farms. The trade-off is likely also present at the farms, as there were only 37 farmers that reported both harvesting crop residues and the application of organic amendments as fertilizer and only 25 farmers reported crop harvesting and mulching. There were more farms that report the application of organic amendments as fertilizer (in total 144).One of the main aims of this study was to ensure the inclusion of the human condition and social domain, as it was reported that in assessment these domains lack behind in documentation (Claessens, 2019). However, especially the social domain turned out to be hard to address due to gaps in documentation and shortcoming in questions in the questionnaire. Several (proxy) indicators were addressed in the survey but were documented differently by the enumerators, which made them unable to use. For example, collective action (number of organizations involved with) was reported with inconsistencies between enumerators, which prohibited the calculation of number of organizations and therefore became a binary variable (being a member of an organization yes or no). Generally accepted indicators to measure the social domain were hardly included in the survey, causing some difficulties to identify indicators and forcing to use own identification and interpretation of social indicators.Another source of uncertainty applies to the productivity domain, as the three indicators (dietary energy productivity, maize productivity and nitrogen efficiencyand protein productivity for the human condition domain) highly correlate. Preferably, the indicators per domain do not correlate to ensure a more solid assessment of a domain. Based on the available data, there are however barely alternative indicators which could be determined based on the survey data or after modelling in FarmDESIGN. Other interesting indicators for the productivity domain could have been the yield gap or animal productivity, but here were too many uncertainties to model these indicators. Besides, ideally, the productivity of cereals as food group was addressed instead of maize solely. A large majority of the farmers reported maize cultivation (547 out of 579) as one of their main crops, while other cereals were reported less: sorghum (73), pearl millet (7), millet (3), barley (0) and wheat (1). These other cereals were cultivated on relatively very small plots with lower productivity. Therefore, it was decided to focus on the main maize crop as indicator for productivity. Additionally, it should be kept in mind that the reported crop yields were given by the farmers themselves, but were not checked by any program official. This possibly caused some deviation from real yields.Ideally, the household survey would have addressed more how livestock and other animals were kept, avoiding questionable assumptions as explained in the section above. Another assumption for FarmDESIGN that affects results is that in case there were few hours family labour available on the farms, this labour demand was filled with hired labour. This had great impact on the farm gross margin of several farms. Another limitation of the survey was that it did not include fixed costs, which prohibits the calculation of the operating profit which would have been more specific than farm gross margin. It would also allow to compare results with other studies, which is now complicated.Even though the farm comparisons show that farms with more innovations perform well and even better for several indicators, these comparisons also should be interpreted with some caution. The first reason concerns the farming area of the farms. As Table 1 shows, the selected farm and comparable farm always share the same district, household head gender and recommendation domain, and close to the same number of household members. Ideally, the farming area would have been more equal too. This especially applies to the comparison between Farm S3 and Comparable farm C3, as Farm S3 is more than double the size of the comparable farm. All six farms in the comparison have a higher farming area compared with the dataset mean (1.8 ha) and modus (0.8 ha). The representability of the comparable farms (C1, C2, C3) of farms with fewer innovations in the dataset, is therefore questionable. The second issue concerns comparison 2, as in order to provide a comparison with Farm S2 which had five innovations implemented, it was chosen to select Comparable farm C2 which had more innovations implemented. Simply, there were no farms that met all the conditions with fewer innovations, which is a good sign. The final issue concerns the visualizations in Fig. 5. To avoid distortion by outliers in the dataset, for each indicator the values of the dataset mean, modus, and the six farms are compared. Fig. 5.4 however reveals that the dataset mean differs from the modus for several indicators, and specifically the productivity indicators which troubles interpretation. Besides, Farm S1 is exceptionally large in terms of ha (4.86) and has an exceptionally high gross margin due to relatively low variable costs and relatively high gross margin per ha. This outlier troubles visualization in Fig. 5.The final remark addresses the PD analysis, as the indicators for the PD analysis were selected specifically on their independence to ensure validity. One big disadvantage of this approach is that the results were hard to extrapolate over the whole domain.For this study, the already existing post-harvest survey dataset was used which limited the availability of suitable indicators. Ideally, indicators would be selected before conducting a survey. Then, the most important or general SI innovations could be identified and specified, rather than with a slight focus on post-harvest technologies. Rather than focussing on possible indicators based on data, it can be chosen to set indicators which have low or no correlations to avoid measuring similarities. Another suggestion is the verification of values for several indicators at fields, for example yields, to avoid unrealistic performances.Generally, future assessments should include the social domain in a more pragmatically, using general tools to measure these indicators. The use of more common tools also improves the contextualization of findings with other studies. A suggestion is the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), which consists of two sub indicators: the degree of empowerment at (1) decisions about agricultural production; (2) access to and decision-making power about productive resources; (3) control over use of income; (4) leadership in the community; and (5) time allocationwhich counts for 90%. The other 10% covers the Gender Parity Index (GPI), which measures gender parity by the percentage of women at achieve at least as much as the men in their households. (Garbero & Perge, 2017). For the environmental domain, it would be interesting to focus more on nutrient balances, soil characteristics and greenhouse gas emissions. Another indicator in FarmDESIGN which could be considered is soil organic matter because it is important for nutrient uptake and water holding capacity of the soil (Holden, 2018;Paul et al., 2020).Multi-objective optimization in the PD methodology does not one give one single outcome, but a range of optimal solutions with trade-offs between these objectives (indicators). Therefore, Toorop et al. (2020) added the determination of an ideal point with the best value for each indicator as final step in their methodology. For this thesis there was no optimal point determined, as the aim of this study was not to find the optimal balance between the selected indicators but rather find optimally performance for the selected indicators in general. The suggestion for future research is to determine the ideal point and the maximum ordination (deviation) from this point, thus to identify the most beneficial trade-offs between indicators. Additionally, the maximum ordination (deviation) from this ideal point should also be determined. Following the Theory of Change and the SI concept in general, this should be done together with involved stakeholders, especially the farmers themselves. Preferably, this is done relatively small-scale for three reasons. The first reason considers the poverty trap, as smallholder farmers are highly dependent from available resources and (non-existing) markets (Holden, 2018), and secondly, therefore the SI concept also can be highly diverse between places, production systems and populations (Bernard & Lux, 2017). The final reason is that smallholder farmers are highly heterogeneous and have their own dreams, ambitions and motivations which should be taken into account (Jambo et al., 2019;Tittonell, 2008). The maximum ordination from the ideal point should therefore be not to small, to avoid only very few farms that have the potential to reach this ideal point (Padmaningrum et al., 2019). The PD analysis in this study provides however already a solid indication of extraordinarily performance, as the farms identified as PD perform better than the dataset mean for at least four out of the five selected indicators.Despite a higher share of PD farms in innovation cluster 1 (which is characterised by a still high diverse combination of innovations), there were no significant representation of PD farms in other innovation clusters. It would be interesting to figure out how the farms which already make use of relatively many innovations and are identified as better performing clusters, can still further improve to reach optimality. Besides, it would be interesting how and if pesticide use could be diminished without significantly affecting farm performances. Finally, future attention should be paid to farms with a lower performance. What are aspirations of these farmers and how could their performance or long-term wellbeing be improved?The main goal of this thesis was to determine whether there is a correlation between outstanding performing farms in terms of SI and the innovations these farms have implemented. Ten innovation clusters were distinguished, based on combinations of innovations they have implemented. The innovations that turned out to be the most important for this clustering were: non-and durable post-harvest facilities, rip tillage, improved crop varieties, application of top and basal fertilizer, crop rotation, minimum tillage and mulching. Most farms in all clusters make use of at least one of the durable and non-durable post-harvest facilities. Rip tillage is another widely used innovation. Broadly, half of the clusters performed well in terms of SI and these have relatively many innovations implemented. The most remarkable difference with clusters that had lower performance, is that most farms in better performing clusters made more use of fertilizers. Other important innovations used by farms in better performing clusters were improved crop varieties, crop rotation, minimum tillage and mulching. More than half of the farms included in the post-harvest study were represented in one of these better performing innovation clusters with many innovations, indicating the relevance of SI innovations. An important side note is however that many of these farms used considerable amounts of pesticides which conflicts with SI.A subset of 52 out of 558 farms were identified as extraordinarily better or Positive Deviant farms, meaning they performed better than average for at least four out of five domains and performed Pareto-optimal. The domains were represented by the following indicators dietary energy productivity (productivity), farm gross margin (economic), pesticide AI (environmental), HDDS (human condition) and asset ownership distribution (social). Four striking results were observed for the PD farms. Firstly, PD farms implemented significantly more innovations than non-PD farms. Secondly, PD farms used more of innovations which were not highly represented in the clusters, which were: Fanyajuu, harvesting crop residues and tied ridging. An exception was the use of improved varieties which is also relatively high represented in the better performing clusters. Thirdly, PD farms were significantly more present in the better performing innovation clusters. The largest share of PD farms was found in the innovation cluster which was characterized by a high number of innovations implemented, but also still the most variation in innovations which were implemented. PD farms were characterized by high crop sales, high TLU and animal (product) sales, and slightly more income sources compared with non-PD farms. Fourthly, even though pesticide AI remains below dataset averages, these farms also used considerable amounts of pesticides, which conflicts SI.The selected farms that have been using SI innovations for several years performed well in terms of SI, however only one of them was identified as PD farm. Surprisingly, one of the Comparable farms with fewer innovations was also identified as PD farm and used only one of the innovations which was distinctively used more by PD farms.Unfortunately, this thesis was limited in the inclusion of the social domain due to a lack of information. Another issue is the limitation of correct nutrient balances in this study. Future holistic impact assessments could focus more on the inclusion of the social and environmental domains.Despite its exploratory nature, this thesis confirms the importance of SI innovations for smallholder farmers in Tanzania. The hypothesis that farms with more innovations would have a better performance compared to farms with fewer innovations was conformed, just as the hypothesis that the farms which have been using innovations for years were found in a well performing innovation cluster. The clustering has shown which innovations seem to contribute to a better performance, and the Positive Deviance analysis has shown that even though some innovations might not be widely used in a specific combination, they could contribute to further improvement of farm performances. The study also shows that even though more than half of the farms included in the study performed relatively well, there remains space for further improvements in the future.Annex 1: Overview Africa RISING technologies Personal communication with Lieven Claessens (25-11-2020) Polypropylene sheets for grain sun-drying, canvas/tarpaulin used for grain sun-drying, sisal bags used for drying, sisal bags used for storage, polypropylene bags for grain storage, hermetic PICS bags used for grain storage. Based on household survey.\"[…] The system involves making furrows at 75 cm spacing using a ripper and leaving the rest undisturbed. Subsoiling is also made in these lines. Finally, planting is carried out in the same furrows. The system has been found effective and is being popularized among smallholder farmers in much of the Southern and Eastern African countries.\" (Temesgen, Hoogmoed, Rockstrom, & Savenije, 2009, p. 187)The durable post-harvest facilities include the metal silo, plastic drum, Kihenge (traditional closed storage facility), basket, large pot, separate structure used for maize storage, room in house used for maize storage, traditional crib (round bottom), traditional granary (cylindrical shape, flat bottom), traditional storage over fire in kitchen, improved granary (wicker wall), improved granary (wooden wall). Based on household survey.\"These are usually hybrid seeds which are produced by cross-pollinated plants. Hybrids are usually preferred to enhance the agronomic properties of the resultant plants, such as better yield, greater uniformity, improved colour, improved nutrition value, disease resistance\" (Jambo et al., 2019, supplementary data).The application of fertilizer after sowing or planting.The application of fertilizer before sowing or planting.\"Crop rotation ensures growing different crops in succession on a farm field to avoid soil exhaustion and control weeds, pests, and diseases, add humus to the soil, soil, fertility and control of erosion.\" (Jambo et al., 2019, supplementary data).\"The goal is to ensure minimum soil disturbances essential for effective crop production. This method of tillage does not turn the soil over.\" (Jambo et al., 2019, supplementary data).\"The application of mulching practices reduces soil evaporation, conserves soil moisture, suppresses weed growth, controls soil structure and temperature, influences soil microorganisms, and is aesthetically pleasing.\" (Kader, Senge, Mojid, & Ito, 2017, p. 1). Plot intercropping \"We argue that intercropping, which is the simultaneous production of multiple crops on the same area of land, could play an essential role in this intensification.\" (Martin-Guay, Paquette, Dupras, & Rivest, 2018, p. 1)These include crop residues , animal manure, compost, green leafy biomass and household refuse/waste. Based on household survey.\"Fanya juu involves making terraces by digging a trench along the contour and the soil is flung uphill to form embankments which can be stabilised with fodder trees or grasses in between cultivated portions. Fanya chini involves excavating a trench along the contour and the soil is placed on the lower side of the contour trench. The method is used to divert water and conserve soil and is applicable on slopes up to 20%.\" (Jambo et al., 2019, supplementary data).\"Crop residues are left overs of harvested crops such as maize, wheat or rice husks, seeds, bagasse, molasses and roots. They can be used as animal fodder and soil amendment, fertilizers and in manufacturing. One goal of SI is to minimize losses. Crop residues provide 24% of total feed energy in developing countries. Moreover, it provide a good source of manure, mulch and livestock fencing etc.\" (Jambo et al., 2019, supplementary data).Boundary trees contribute to food security, help with climate change adaptation and provide environmental and social benefits for smallholders. For example, trees enhance soil fertility, function as windbreaks or shelterbelts and prevent erosion. (Mbow et al., 2014).Other ridges than tied ridges on the plots.The implementation of ridges which are blocked with earth ties with intervals, in order to enhance water conservation, control erosion and prevent soil runoff (Biazin & Stroosnijder, 2012).Vegetables include union, pepper, kale, carrot, tomato and pumpkin. Based on household survey. One type of manure with default parameter values is used, animals are only allocated in \"Stable\" to simplify manure management.The fertilizers listed for the reference farm (see spreadsheet \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\", tab \"FRT\") are inserted for the farm. These are later linked to crops, see below.The pesticides listed for the reference farm (see spreadsheet \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\", tab \"PST\") are inserted for the farm. These are later linked to crops, see below.The presence of animals is extracted from rows with \"Householdassets_ID\" between 40 and 47 belonging to HH_ID from file \"Household_assets.csv\". For animals with \"assets_owned_number\" >0 the parameters for animal type with corresponding AnmID in spreadsheet \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\", tab \"ANM\" are added. Moreover, associated animal products are inserted from the reference farm as in spreadsheet \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\", tab \"APR\". If no animals were added for the farm a dummy is inserted.The energy and protein requirements are calculated for animal maintenance, proportional to the metabolic weight of the animal (=Weight Energy requirement, summed for all animals, is used later for feed balancing, see below.Costs per animal: Animal costs include costs made for young animals, sheds/fencing, medicine/veterinary services, tools, and non-durable tools.Nutritional content animal products is based on U.S. Department of Agriculture (2021).A crop was entered for each of the rows representing a plot belonging to HH_ID from file \"Crop_production.csv\". In FarmDESIGN a crop is the use of a field (plot) within a year, including intercrops, relay cropping or sequentially cultivated crops. Hence, each row representing a plot was included as a crop in FD. The resulting crop products for the cultivated species are listed, and the amount of applied fertilizer and pesticide used can be linked to the crop.The main crop and intercrops (up to 3) specified in a crop production row (\"Main_crop_grown\", \"first_intercrop\", \"Second_interc\", \"third_intercrop\") are combined under one crop entity in FD. The name is a combination of the separate crop names separated by \" -\", for instance \"(1) Maize -(5) Common bean -(4) Pigeon Pea\" where maize is the main crop, common bean the first intercrop and pigeon pea the second intercrop.The data for the crop entity in FD is a combination of the main crop and intercrops as specified in spreadsheet \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\", tab \"CRP\". The values are aggregated proportionally to the percentages of the crop species in the plot, derived from columns \"percarea_maincrp\", \"Perarea_firstintercF\", \"Perarea_secinterc\", \"Pararea_thirdintercr\".Quantities of applied manure and fertilizers were verified based on their unit prices (see tab 'Fertilizer prices' in spreadsheet \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\"). The pesticides listed for the reference farm (see spreadsheet \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\", tab \"PST\") are inserted for the farm. The amount of pesticide is derived from 'pesticide' and herbicide from 'Herbicdes'.After adding the crops cultivated on the farm as specified in the survey, a feed balance calculation is done to estimate the amount of feed that is imported from outside the farm. It is assumed that the energy supply should be sufficient to cover the animal demands. Note that the productivity of the animals has not been specified in detail, and only egg production is assumed in tab \"APR\" of file \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\". The sum of energy derived from crop residues is calculated, assuming that these would be primarily used to feed animals. For each residue p: energy_supply += area * p.FreshYield * p.DMContent / 100 * p.FeedEnergy * (1 -p.FeedLoss / 100);When there is a surplus of energy (energy_supply > animal requirement) then a correction factor is calculated to direct part of the crop residues for use as a soil amendment. correction = FeedRequired / energy_supply;And for each residue p: p.ToAnimals = correction; p.ToSoil = 1D -correction;When there is a shortage of energy (energy_supply < animal requirement) then the amount of required external grass is calculated, see crop 'External' with CrpID=60 in tab \"CRP\" and crop product 'Grass' with PrdID=60 in tab \"PRD\" of file \"Reference_data_FD.xlsx\". The amount needed is calculated as: grass.ToAnimals = (EnergyRequired -energy_supply) / (grass.FeedEnergy * (1 -grass.FeedLoss / 100D)); Nutritional contents based on INRAE CIRAD AFZ & FAO (2020).The areas of the plots (crops in FD) are derived from \"plotsize_farmer_est\" for each of the rows representing a plot belonging to HH_ID from file \"Crop_production.csv\". Areas are listed under a rotation called \"Crop areas\".Parameters entered for economic characteristics are presented below. The hired_labour is derived from crop production only. The costs of hired labour are estimated at 1200 TSH per hour. The interest rate for capital/lending is estimated at 10%, which is applied to capital assets of buildings, machines and livestock.Other animal costs are extracted from file 'Livestock_costs.csv' using items with \"Livestockcosts_ID\" = { 1, 3, 4, 7, 8 } and quantified as \"Total_expenditure\".    ","tokenCount":"11295"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0c87af1d3755c8739a28405bee4ef7dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/47f897be-2dc2-43c2-93d9-bbd67544ca25/retrieve","id":"868100826"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"daf37c89-159c-47df-8fc0-240c75d92b67","pagecount":"48","content":"Innover pour encourager les investissements agricoles INTERVIEW Michael Hailu : \"La digitalisation change la donne pour l'agriculture\" COMMERCE ÉQUITABLE Les productrices bénéficientelles de ces modèles commerciaux ? L'AGRICULTURE PLUTÔT QUE L'ÉMIGRATION J e u n e s & e m p l o i N °1 9 3 | J u i n -A o û t 2 0 1 9 s p o r e . c t a . i n t Le développement agricole et agroalimentaire analysé et déchiffré Sensibiliser la communauté du développement ACP-UE depuis 2007 aux défis agricoles et ruraux d'aujourd'hui www.bruxellesbriefings.net Briefings de Bruxelles sur le développement Les Briefings de Bruxelles sont une initiative du CTA et de ses partenaires : la Commission européenne (DG DEVCO), le Secrétariat ACP, le Comité des Ambassadeurs ACP et la confédération CONCORD. SPORE 193 | 3 Des drones à l'Internet des objets, en passant par la blockchain et l'intelligence artificielle, la prolifération des technologies et innovations numériques abordables et accessibles ouvre la voie à de vastes perspectives permettant de transformer l'agriculture en une industrie rentable, durable et inclusive. L'explosion démographique de la main-d'oeuvre africaine présente elle aussi un fort potentiel de transformation agricole. Cependant, le secteur doit proposer des options d'emploi plus attrayantes pour les jeunes. Il faut renforcer les capacités des jeunes Africains en termes de compétences agricoles, mais aussi de compétences numériques et commerciales. C'est ainsi que l'on stimulera la prospérité agricole et la croissance économique. En 2013, lorsque le CTA a organisé la première conférence internationale ICT4Ag au Rwanda, l'activité du secteur était très restreinte. Depuis, on a observé une nette augmentation des solutions numériques sur le marché. Ces nouvelles technologies ont aussi suscité l'intérêt des bailleurs de fonds et des gouvernements. Pionnier dans ce domaine, le CTA est ravi de voir arriver des acteurs majeurs dans le secteur. Événement clé pour le CTA : la publication d'un rapport en collaboration avec Dalberg Global Development Advisors, en juin 2019, lors de la Conférence ministérielle de la FAO, à Rome. Le rapport dressera un état des lieux des solutions digitales déployées afin d'améliorer la productivité et les revenus des agriculteurs. Ces dernières se révèlent rentables et dotées d'un fort impact potentiel. Nous espérons que ce rapport inspirera et mobilisera les investisseurs.En cartographiant le paysage de la D4Ag et en proposant des projections pour l'Afrique, le rapport est en outre le premier à proposer une telle évaluation. Il pourra servir de base pour suivre l'évolution et les changements opérés à l'avenir. Nous nous réjouissons d'en partager les conclusions à Rome, mais aussi, entre autres, au futur Forum sur la révolution verte en Afrique, qui se tiendra en septembre 2019 à Accra, au Ghana, sur le thème \"Cultiver le numérique : exploiter la transformation digitale en faveur de systèmes alimentaires durables en Afrique\".Partout sur le continent, des agriculteurs adoptent l'agriculture intelligente en utilisant des technologies digitales. L'ère du numérique est source de multiples innovations et progrès qui nous aideront à libérer de manière plus efficace et durable le plein potentiel des petits agriculteurs et des entreprises agroalimentaires. La digitalisation peut changer la donne en transformant l'agriculture, pour peu qu'on lui accorde l'importance qu'elle mérite en termes de politiques et d'investissements.es investissements dans l'agriculture africaine augmentent plus rapidement que jamais. À l'avantgarde : une nouvelle vague de fonds de financement et d'investissement mixtes à impact social. L'impact de ces fonds sur l'existence des petits agriculteurs est de mieux en mieux documenté et indique que l'investissement dans l'agriculture africaine peut être profitable pour les acteurs du secteur privé, à condition que les financements aillent aux bons projets et que les risques soient bien gérés.Les organismes de développement et les investisseurs privés cherchent de plus en plus à combler la faille persistante qui handicape l'agrofinance africaine en s'engageant dans des fonds d'investissement agricoles, dont le nombre et la taille ont rapidement augmenté depuis le début de la décennie, selon un rapport de 2018 de la FAO intitulé Agricultural investment funds for development. Il apparaît que les pénuries alimentaires et la hausse du prix des aliments ont fait remonter le niveau de priorité de l'investissement agricole dans l'agenda des gouvernements et des organismes de développement, rendant le secteur potentiellement plus rentable pour les investisseurs du secteur privé.Les fonds d'investissement à impact social deviennent l'instrument privilégié des gouvernements et bailleurs de fonds pour encourager le secteur privé à investir dans l'agriculture africaine.Helen CastellLes fonds de financement et d'investissement mixtes à impact social associent fonds publics et privés pour obtenir un résultat social ou environnemental spécifique et un rendement financier. Les investisseurs publics assument une plus grande part du risque total de ces fonds, pour des rendements nuls ou faibles, tandis que les investisseurs privés sont encouragés à financer un secteur où une haute prise de risques devrait normalement rapporter des profits élevés. Les fonds peuvent être divisés en deux tranches ou portions, ou davantage. La tranche fondamentale -parfois appelée capital catalytique parce qu'elle sert à attirer d'autres investissements -se compose de sommes données ou investies sous forme d'actions à long terme par des organisations philanthropiques, gouvernements ou banques de développement. Elle sert à absorber les premières pertes, ce qui signifie qu'à la chute éventuelle de la valeur du fonds global ces sommes amortiront une proportion initiale des pertes, avant que les autres investisseurs n'en subissent eux-mêmes. Elle peut aussi servir à financer une assistance technique qui, en agriculture, pourrait consister à former les agriculteurs pour améliorer les rendements, afin de réduire le risque pour les bailleurs de fonds que les bénéficiaires ne remboursent pas leurs dettes ou ne constituent pas un investissement rentable. Les sommes investies par le secteur privé sont généralement placées dans une tranche distincte dont le taux d'intérêt ou le rendement des actions sont plus élevés -bien que ces bénéfices restent inférieurs aux exigences habituelles, la tranche de premières pertes ou d'assistance technique ayant réduit les risques. Elles sont souvent appelées \"capital senior\", ce qui signifie que ces investisseurs sont les premiers à être remboursés en cas de liquidation du fonds.De nombreux fonds utilisent une structure de financement mixte, ce qui pourrait être un élément catalyseur pour encourager davantage d'investissements dans l'agriculture. C'est ce qu'estime Jerry Parkes, gestionnaire d'investissements axés sur l'Afrique, qui en 2009 a créé un fonds d'investissement à capital fixe de 43,8 millions d'euros, Injaro Agricultural Capital Holdings Ltd (IACHL). Celui-ci a pour l'instant déployé 30,4 millions d'euros, fournissant capitaux, conseils commerciaux et développement des capacités à des PME agricoles d'Afrique occidentale.Selon Jerry Parkes, l'expertise de ces fonds d'investissement en matière de ciblage et de mesure de l'impact, par comparaison avec les banques commerciales généralistes habituellement visées par les donateurs, augmente considérablement la probabilité que les capitaux touchent les bénéficiaires ciblés et des chaînes de valeur à plus haut risque. IACHL a pour l'instant bénéficié à 900 000 petits agriculteurs et personnes à faibles revenus, avec un objectif final de 1,125 million d'ici 2023.Les fonds d'Injaro ont aidé la marque ghanéenne d'aliments pour animaux Agricare à mettre en oeuvre en 2016 un programme pilote d'aide aux petits agriculteurs locaux pour augmenter leur fourniture de maïs. À son lancement, 210 fermiers étaient concernés, avec 250 hectares cultivés. Fin 2017, le programme bénéficiait à environ 1 200 petits agriculteurs exploitant plus de 2 580 hectares. Selon Agricare, on devrait porter ces chiffres à 4 000 petits agriculteurs et 6 000 hectares d'ici 2022.Les fonds d'investissement à impact social sont idéaux pour atteindre les agroentreprises intermédiaires -trop importantes pour le microfinancement mais nécessitant des apports de capitaux de 20 000 à 1 million d'euros, selon Florian Kemmerich, directeur associé de Bamboo Capital Partners. Pour obtenir une rentabilité financière de 8 à 12 % visée par les investisseurs du secteur privé, il faudrait des fonds réguliers prêtés à des taux d'intérêt allant jusqu'à 50 %. Toutefois, en protégeant les investissements privés avec l'argent des bailleurs de fonds privilégiant la préservation des capitaux plutôt que les rendements financiers, les acteurs du secteur privé acceptent un rendement financier plus faible en échange d'une réduction des risques.En collaboration avec Injaro, Bamboo gère le fonds ABC ou Fonds d'investissement pour l'entrepreneuriat agricole du FIDA, lancé en février 2019 pour faciliter l'accès aux prêts et éventuellement l'investissement de capitaux des PME rurales, organisations d'agriculteurs, entrepreneurs agricoles et institutions financières rurales du monde entier. Ce fonds à capital variable, également soutenu par l'AGRA, l'UE, le groupe ACP et le gouvernement du Luxembourg, vise à attirer 200 millions d'euros d'investissements sur les dix prochaines années. Il a pour l'instant obtenu des engagements à hauteur de 50 millions d'euros dans la tranche de premières pertes et espère en assurer 50 supplémentaires dans les trois à six prochains mois, avant de se tourner vers des investisseurs privés, selon Florian Kemmerich.L'initiative AgriFI, financée par l'UE, a aussi annoncé en avril 2019 son très attendu premier investissement. Elle doit injecter jusqu'à 5 millions d'euros 6 | SPORE 193 TENDANCES sous forme d'actions à long terme dans le Fonds d'accès au commerce équitable (FAF, Fairtrade Access Fund) d'Incofin Investment Management, qui soutient les petits agriculteurs, PME agricoles et institutions financières axées sur l'agriculture en leur fournissant un appui financier et technique.Depuis sa création en 2012, le FAF a déboursé plus de 164,5 millions d'euros répartis en 196 investissements qui ont eu un impact sur plus de 254 000 petits agriculteurs africains et latino-américains. Le dispositif d'assistance technique du FAF, qui utilise des subventions pour améliorer la productivité, la réduction des maladies et l'accès aux marchés pour les organisations d'agriculteurs, a aussi touché plus de 54 000 petits agriculteurs dans 10 pays.Les fonds d'investissement associant capitaux du secteur privé et fonds publics ou provenant de donateurs doivent évidemment donner des résultats tout en offrant aux investisseurs des rendements financiers attractifs, ce qui s'est avéré difficile. Selon Calvin Miller, ancien responsable de l'agribusiness et du financement à la FAO et coauteur du rapport sur les fonds d'investissement agricoles, des crises comme l'épidémie de rouille du caféier qui sévit en Amérique latine depuis 2011/2012 ont amoindri la performance de certains fonds exposés à ce problème dans la région, ou rappelé aux investisseurs potentiels que l'agriculture africaine est confrontée à des risques équivalents.Le FAF génère aujourd'hui une rentabilité des capitaux propres de 2 à 3 %, ce qui contribue à attirer de nouveaux investisseurs, tel le gestionnaire de patrimoine suisse Lombard Odier en 2018. Les fonds récemment injectés par AgriFI rassurent aussi de nouveaux investisseurs et, selon Loïc De Cannière, plusieurs ont contacté le fonds depuis l'annonce de l'investissement d'AgriFI. Il ajoute que la nature très tangible de l'agriculture intensifie leur engagement envers les objectifs globaux du fonds.En Afrique, les chaînes de valeur locales, où les investisseurs sont exposés au risque de change, restent mal soutenues par les fonds à impact social. Comme de nombreux fonds, le FAF s'intéresse essentiellement aux chaînes de valeur axées sur l'exportation, avec des prix fixés en devises fortes comme le dollar américain ou l'euro.L'investissement intérieur est une source importante de capitaux pour l'agriculture, et les bailleurs de fonds, prêteurs et entreprises africains font circuler les devises africaines tout au long des chaînes de valeur agricoles. Mais l'essentiel des sommes injectées dans ces fonds provient de l'extérieur du continent.La faiblesse de l'inclusion financière signifie qu'une part relativement modeste des sommes circulant dans les économies africaines parvient jusqu'aux banques, remarque Carlijn Nouwen, associée chez Dalberg Global Development Advisors. Les banques sont ainsi sous-capitalisées par rapport aux institutions européennes ou nord-américaines, ce qui diminue les sommes disponibles pour prêter à l'agriculture.Les banques commerciales locales se heurtent aussi à des obstacles externes. Alors que les agriculteurs se plaignent souvent de leurs exigences irréalistes en matière de garanties, Carlijn Nouwen souligne que celles-ci sont imposées aux banques par les régulateurs chargés de maintenir la stabilité des systèmes financiers. Les forts taux d'intérêt appliqués aux prêts agricoles reflètent aussi les coûts de fonctionnement élevés des banques et l'agriculture doit concurrencer des secteurs à plus faible risque et à rendement plus élevé pour obtenir des capitaux. Dans toute l'Afrique, le financement des petites agroentreprises reste donc essentiellement informel.Il y a cependant des signes de progrès. En Ouganda, aBI Finance, un instrument de financement offrant aux prêteurs locaux des garanties fournies par le gouvernement ou les bailleurs de fonds pour 50 % de leur portefeuille agricole, a contribué à encourager les banques et institutions de microfinance (IMF) à prêter davantage au secteur, explique Loïc De Cannière. Les garanties d'aBI ont ainsi aidé la Finance Trust Bank nationale à constituer un portefeuille de crédit comportant presque 30 % de prêts agricoles. Il est financé par près de 35,8 millions d'euros de dépôts d'épargnants locaux ougandais remplaçant ce que la banque aurait auparavant emprunté à l'étranger.Pour amener des fonds africains et étrangers à soutenir l'agriculture, bailleurs de fonds et emprunteurs doivent être \"sur la même longueur d'onde\", avec des intérêts étroitement liés, affirme Carlijn Nouwen. Les fournisseurs d'intrants, par exemple, font de plus en plus crédit aux agriculteurs en n'exigeant le paiement des engrais ou semences qu'après la vente des récoltes. Ce système, bien qu'informel, constitue une source vitale de financement en nature sur laquelle comptent les agriculteurs. Ces fournisseurs d'intrants dépendent de la clientèle que constituent les agriculteurs et n'ont pas d'autre choix que de continuer à leur fournir ce type de crédit, même après des défauts de paiement et des années catastrophiques.De même, le succès de Babban Gona, une entreprise sociale nigériane appartenant à des investisseurs, est inextricablement lié à celui de ses membres. Selon Carlijn Nouwen, Babban Gona travaille en étroite collaboration avec les agriculteurs pour concevoir et mettre en oeuvre un ensemble de formations, d'intrants, d'accords d'écoulement, de services de commercialisation et de mesures d'incitation profitant aux deux parties. \"Il n'y a pas un levier unique à actionner pour changer l'agriculture -c'est tout un éventail de choses sur lesquelles il faut s'appuyer\", précise-t-elle.Les institutions de financement du développement (IFD) étudient aussi de plus près les solutions de financement mixte. Jerry Parkes et Florian Kemmerich espèrent que la BAD, présente au Un signe encourageant montre que les gouvernements africains commencent aussi à voir le potentiel des fonds à impact social : selon Florian Kemmerich, le gouvernement du Togo a décidé en mars 2019 de fournir un financement de démarrage au fonds BLOC de financement mixte de Bamboo, qui investit dans les entreprises utilisant la technologie pour résoudre des problèmes sociaux et environnementaux. Il précise que, à une période où les avancées technologiques comme la blockchain et les énergies renouvelables offrent des opportunités pour que les PME africaines créent des entreprises et se connectent aux marchés, les gouvernements tiennent à jouer un rôle catalyseur dans la réduction de la pauvreté en attirant des capitaux privés vers des secteurs comme l'agriculture.Les fonds à impact social constituent un nouvel élément bienvenu dans le paysage limité des instruments de financement disponibles pour l'agriculture, reconnaît Carlijn Nouwen. Alors que les tranches de premières pertes et les fonds subventionnés ont enregistré de bons résultats pour ce qui est d'attirer les investisseurs du secteur privé et d'encourager les banques locales et les IMF à accorder des prêts, ces bailleurs de fonds se désengagent trop souvent des chaînes de valeur plus risquées une fois les incitations supprimées. Elle fait donc valoir que les donateurs et les gouvernements doivent garder cela à l'esprit lorsqu'ils investissent et conclut que ce n'est qu'en finançant des cultures et projets susceptibles de générer des profits durables pour les acteurs du secteur privé que le \"capital catalytique\" méritera véritablement son nom. ■ Avant de lancer son entreprise, Anastasha Elliot a suivi une formation approfondie en fabrication de produits bio de soin pour les cheveux et la peau, ainsi qu'en cuisine, pour apprendre comment fabriquer des produits alimentaires. La gamme alimentaire de Sugar Town compte désormais 30 produits, dont des confitures, des sauces, des vins et des liqueurs, commercialisés sous la marque \"Flauriel\". Sa gamme de produits cosmétiques \"Yaphene\" propose 63 produits dont des savons, des dentifrices, des lotions après-rasage, des shampoings, des crèmes pour la peau, des soins capillaires et des produits de bien-être. Tous sont fabriqués à partir de fruits et de végétaux biologiques : anis, fenouil, jasmin, orchidée, rose, corossol, estragon… Le prix des produits varie entre 5,50 et 100 dollars est-caribéens (XCD), soit entre 1,8 € et 33,79 €. En 2017 et 2018, la hausse de la demande a fait grimper les ventes de Sugar Town de 150 %. \"De nombreux spas sont à la recherche de produits locaux à offrir à leur clientèle\", explique Anastasha Elliot. Le ministère du Tourisme et des Affaires étrangères, les hôtels Park Hyatt et Marriott, ainsi que des agences locales de produits de courtoisie s'approvisionnent aussi chez Sugar Town en petits cadeaux destinés © TINA PAPIES/SCENEKITTS PHOTOGRAPHY Les entreprises agroalimentaires des Caraïbes tirent profit de la production locale de fruits et végétaux nutritifs pour accéder au marché national des denrées alimentaires, boissons et produits cosmétiques.de plantes, d'herbes et de fruits locaux sont transformés par Sugar Town Organics chaque mois.ENTREPRENEURIAT À Saint-Christophe-et-Niévès, l'entrepreneuse Anastasha Elliot fabrique des produits alimentaires et cosmétiques à base de fruits et végétaux bio cultivés localement.Aimable Twahirwa et Sophie Reeveu Rwanda, 1 500 cultivateurs de piments fournissent leurs invendus à Gashora Farms, une agroentreprise qui les transforme en huile pimentée, ce qui contribue à résoudre le problème des pertes post-récolte. Créée en 2014 par Diego Dieudonné Twahirwa, 30 ans, l'entreprise exporte des piments frais et séchés vers les pays européens et de l'huile pimentée (commercialisée sous la marque Didi's Chilli Oil) vers Genève, le Royaume-Uni et les États-Unis.Diplômé en agronomie, Diego Twahirwa a commencé à travailler pour un producteur de pyrèthre raffiné, avant de se lancer dans l'agriculture. \"J'ai pris la décision de quitter mon emploi parce qu'en travaillant pour cette entreprise j'avais beaucoup appris sur les pratiques agricoles et je m'étais découvert une nouvelle passion : être sur le terrain, dans les exploitations agricoles\", explique-t-il. L'entrepreneur s'est d'abord essayé à la production de tomates, mais a subi d'importantes pertes en raison d'un accès difficile au marché. Lorsqu'il est passé aux piments, il a aussi rencontré des problèmes post-récolte et a donc décidé de sécher ses produits pour augmenter leur durée de vie. \"Encourager les agriculteurs locaux à cultiver du piment, une culture exclusive sur le marché local et mondial, a été essentiel pour améliorer la qualité et augmenter les quantités tout au long de la chaîne de valeur.\" Son entreprise récolte désormais environ 10 tonnes de piments séchés tous les six mois, vendus 1,8 € par kilo. Ce qui génère 18 000 € par hectare.Finaliste du Young Entrepreneur Awards lors du 2018 World Forum for Export Development, Diego Twahirwa veut élargir sa gamme de produits en produisant de la pulpe et de la poudre de piment. \"Je me suis déjà associé à un agronome britannique et j'ai l'intention de lancer sur le marché de nouvelles variétés de piment, modernes et basées sur la recherche scientifique.\" ■ aux touristes. Suivant le moment de l'année et le nombre d'événements, l'entreprise génère des revenus mensuels compris entre 2 670 XCD et 6 700 XCD (880 € et 2 200 €).Chaque mois, l'entreprise achète à une vingtaine d'agriculteurs jusqu'à 90 kg de matières premières qu'elle trasnforme avec de petites machines, comme des déshydrateurs et des mixeurs professionnels. Anastasha Elliot envisage désormais de construire une usine pour augmenter sa production et créer des emplois -elle emploie déjà quatre personnes. D'ici cinq ans, l'entrepreneuse espère être en mesure de vendre ses produits au-delà des Caraïbes, en particulier sur le marché européen.De son côté, Tanisha Thompson a créé en 2015 Natural Fusion Partners (NFP) avec un capital de départ d'environ 32 000 XCD (10 500 €) provenant de ses économies personnelles. Son but : promouvoir en Jamaïque la consommation de boissons saines, pauvres en sucres et en calories. NFP s'approvisionne chez quatre agriculteurs locaux pour fabriquer son thé glacé à la goyave et son eau aromatisée à l'aloe vera.Depuis ses débuts, NFP a vendu plus de 850 000 litres des deux boissons à des pharmacies et supermarchés locaux, ainsi que lors de foires commerciales. Les préparations sont vendues dans des bouteilles de 340 ml, au prix de 2 $ (1,78 €). Chaque année, NFP génère près de 21 000 € de chiffre d'affaires et emploie cinq jeunes de 18 à 30 ans, tous de la région.Tanisha Thompson peine à accéder à de nouveaux marchés. Peu connue, la marque est seulement présente dans deux paroisses civiles de la Jamaïque. La participation à des foires agricoles, l'accréditation du produit par le Bureau de normalisation de la Jamaïque et l'homologation du ministère de la Santé aident à faire connaître l'entreprise et à accroître la confiance des consommateurs dans ses produits. Elle explique : \"L'agripreneuriat peut être complexe en Jamaïque lorsqu'on ne dispose pas de beaucoup de fonds pour financer les différents aspects liés à l'entreprise. Je suis donc devenue plus patiente et persévérante. On m'a souvent dit \"non\" mais j'ai appris que ce n'est pas forcément un non définitif.\" ■ À Abidjan, en Côte d'Ivoire, un \"vélo broyeur\" permet de transformer des fèves de cacao pour produire environ 400 kg de chocolat par mois. Dans l'usine de chocolat cru Mon Choco, des fèves soigneusement triées sont versées dans un entonnoir fixé à un vélo et transformées en pâte à l'aide d'un broyeur actionné par des personnes qui pédalent. Après deux ou trois jours de broyage, on obtient une pâte de chocolat onctueuse, qui est ensuite refroidie dans des moules.Mon Choco produit des barres de chocolat biologiques et écologiques, ce qui est rare en Côte d'Ivoire, où sont fabriqués très peu de produits finis à base de chocolat. \"Nous sommes le premier pays producteur de cacao au monde et, pourtant, nous ne fabriquons pas de chocolat\", regrette Dana Mroueh, propriétaire de la chocolaterie. \"Je voulais que les habitants de Côte d'Ivoire puissent goûter au chocolat de chez nous, avec des produits locaux comme le piment, le gingembre et la noix de cajou. Pour moi, c'était aussi une manière de valoriser le travail des planteurs, qui sont souvent oubliés.\"L'une des spécificités de Mon Choco est de ne pas torréfier les fèves de cacao brutes, ce qui donne au chocolat une saveur plus riche, presque fruitée. \"Nous sommes des chocolatiers artisanaux, ce qui signifie que l'ensemble de notre processus est manuel, de la cabosse à la tablette de chocolat emballée.  Récolter les fruits économiques de la conservationEn Zambie, des petits exploitants ont adopté des pratiques agricoles de conservation, au bénéfice de leur productivité et de la préservation de l'environnement.Doreen Chilumbun Zambie, de petits exploitants reçoivent une formation sur les pratiques et les technologies de production climato-intelligentes permettant d'assurer la sécurité alimentaire et l'accès à des marchés garantis, tout en préservant les ressources naturelles. Grâce au modèle de développement rural des Marchés communautaires au service de la conservation (COMACO), 179 000 agriculteurs de l'Est de la Zambie (dont 52 % sont des femmes) ont eu accès à des intrants agricoles abordables et à une formation à des pratiques agricoles impliquant un travail du sol réduit, ainsi qu'au paillage et au compostage.Le principe à la base des COMACO est qu'avec une formation et des incitations appropriées les petits exploitants adopteront des pratiques agricoles durables plutôt que des méthodes plus néfastes pour l'environnement, telles que la L'adoption de l'apiculture a également dissuadé les agriculteurs de couper leurs arbres. \"Ce fut un travail de longue haleine, mais aujourd'hui des centaines d'agriculteurs prennent conscience de la valeur de l'entretien et de la protection des arbres\", confesse Julius Kamanga, un apiculteur de Mfuwe.Le paillage est également devenu une pratique courante dans la région. Pour l'agricultrice Nelly Zimba, cette technique est un ingrédient nécessaire au succès de l'agriculture, dans la mesure où elle s'avère décisive pour préserver à long terme des sols sains et biologiquement actifs. \"Nous cultivons plus de 35 espèces différentes de fruits et légumes sur environ 2 hectares en production. Nous affectons 4 hectares en tout à la production de légumes, donc les deux autres hectares, en rotation, sont recouverts de paillis.\"En Zambie, la vallée de Luangwa est l'une des régions les plus touchées du pays par les fréquentes inondations et sécheresses. Pour en atténuer les effets, le programme a permis la plantation de plus de 10 millions de boutures de manioc afin de constituer une réserve alimentaire en cas de sécheresse. Les cultures de manioc peuvent aussi contribuer à augmenter le stockage de l'eau dans les sols et à réduire le risque de ruissellement des eaux de pluie. ■ SPORE 193 | 13 A u Burundi, 9 600 ménages cultivent désormais du café d'ombre. Cette méthode intelligente face au climat consiste à cultiver le café avec d'autres plantes et arbres, comme des bananiers, des haricots et du maïs, qui protègent le café des rayons agressifs du soleil ou des vents violents, tout en fournissant des sources de revenus complémentaires. Les haricots fixent l'azote dans le sol et améliorent ainsi la fertilité des sols, tandis que les bananes restent hydratées même en cas de sécheresse, ce qui réduit la compétition pour l'eau lors de tels épisodes.Dans le cadre du projet Sustainable Coffee Landscapes (Gestion durable des paysages de café) financé par le Fonds pour l'environnement mondial et mis en oeuvre par le ministère burundais de l'Environnement, de l'Agriculture et de l'Élevage, des avocatiers, des mandariniers, des orangers et des pruniers japonais ont aussi été plantés, dans les provinces de Bubanza, Bururi et Muyinga. Depuis 2013, plus de 18 700 agriculteurs ont adopté ces pratiques agroforestières, ce qui a amélioré la productivité des 2 millions de caféiers déjà présents sur 4 400 hectares.Au Burundi, l'industrie du café assure la moitié des moyens de subsistance locaux et représente 90 % des entrées de devises étrangères dans le pays. Toutefois, la forte dégradation des sols coûte au pays 4 % de son PIB chaque année.Un manuel et une brochure expliquant comment cultiver du café d'ombre de manière rentable ont été traduits en français et dans la langue locale, le kirundi. Un projet d'agritourisme communautaire dans la réserve forestière de Bururi, au sud du pays, a permis aux populations de la région d'acheter des terres pour la première fois. \"Autrefois, nous étions des ennemis de la réserve forestière de Bururi, mais aujourd'hui nous en sommes les gardiens\", observe Odette Nkurikiye, membre de la communauté Batwa. \"Nous avons des emplois et nous avons même acheté des terres. Nous voulons exploiter les possibilités offertes par nos paysages restaurés afin de ne pas retomber dans la pauvreté.\" Forte de cette réussite, la Banque mondiale a lancé, début 2019, un projet de résilience et de restauration des paysages au Burundi doté de 26,6 millions d'euros, pour restaurer 90 000 hectares de terres supplémentaires en encourageant une gestion durable de la réserve forestière de Bururi et des parcs nationaux de Kibira et de Ruvubu. Ce projet devrait avoir des retombées positives pour 80 000 ménages et accroître la productivité des sols de 20 %. ■Un projet de culture durable du café mené au Burundi a permis l'adoption de pratiques agroforestières sur 4 400 hectares.Secteur agricole crucial du Burundi, la culture du café pâtit du changement climatique. Un projet aide les agriculteurs à restaurer les paysages et à gérer leurs biens durablement. Le CTA est à la pointe des efforts pour rendre la digitalisation plus accessible, en particulier aux petits agriculteurs. L'une de nos interventions consiste à identifier et tester les nouvelles innovations digitales intéressantes, réaliser des essais pilotes et voir comment les intégrer dans les chaînes de valorisation de la petite agriculture. Prenons l'exemple des drones, utilisés depuis peu dans le secteur agricole : nous avons travaillé dans les régions ACP avec des fournisseurs de drones et de jeunes entrepreneurs pour étudier comment cette technologie peut contribuer à fournir des informations en temps réel aux agriculteurs afin d'améliorer leur productivité, tout en créant des opportunités pour les jeunes. Nous avons aussi lancé un projet qui aide de jeunes entrepreneurs à développer l'application de la technologie blockchain pour résoudre des problèmes spécifiques aux chaînes de valeur, comme l'amélioration de la traçabilité des produits agricoles pour permettre aux agriculteurs d'en obtenir un meilleur prix.Nous avons également aidé de jeunes innovateurs prometteurs, que nous avons repérés grâce à nos concours Pitch AgriHack organisés dans tous les pays ACP. Nous touchons un grand nombre de jeunes innovateurs en lançant un appel à propositions, sélectionnons 20 à 25 d'entre eux, les réunissons pour un stage de formation, choisissons les gagnants et les aidons avec un processus d'encadrement, de formation et d'incubation entrepreneuriale. Les gagnants et finalistes ont, pour beaucoup, déjà créé leurs propres start-up, donc nous les aidons à développer davantage leurs entreprises. Quant à ceux qui démarrent, nous leur offrons notre soutien pour conceptualiser leur modèle commercial. Le CTA a ainsi aidé plus de 800 jeunes innovateurs dans toutes les régions ACP, dont beaucoup offrent leurs services à des dizaines de milliers de petits agriculteurs.Je pense que l'aspect le plus intéressant est la vitesse à laquelle la digitalisation de l'agriculture se développe, en particulier en Afrique. En 2013, lorsque le CTA a organisé une grande conférence internationale sur les TIC4Ag au Rwanda, il se passait peu de choses dans ce domaine. Notre rapport sur la digitalisation montre que ces dernières années ont vu une augmentation très importante des nouvelles solutions digitales apparaissant sur le marché. Les principaux bailleurs de fonds et les gouvernements se sont aussi montrés plus résolus à réellement tirer parti de la numérisation pour transformer la petite agriculture. Le CTA est apparu comme un véritable pionnier dans ce domaine et les acteurs majeurs convergent désormais vers son intégration dans le secteur.Bien que le CTA soit une petite structure, il joue en réalité un rôle de catalyseur en tant que pôle de connaissance facilitant l'échange des enseignements et expériences, et rend ainsi ces innovations plus accessibles aux entrepreneurs et agriculteurs. Nous déployons beaucoup d'efforts pour identifier les nouvelles technologies, partager les enseignements et publier des informations sur ces innovations, et nous avons aussi aidé \"La digitalisation change la donne pour l'agriculture\" À l'occasion de la parution d'un rapport majeur sur la digitalisation de l'agriculture en Afrique, le directeur du CTA Michael Hailu espère que l'ouvrage amènera les investisseurs à s'engager dans le secteur.de nombreux jeunes entrepreneurs, tirant ainsi le meilleur parti de notre modeste investissement. Le rôle du CTA a été déterminant dans son appui aux innovations numériques pour la petite agriculture mais, bien sûr, nous avons aussi fait nos propres investissements. Je pense que le rôle du CTA est, avant tout, de créer de la visibilité, de partager les expériences et de suivre l'évolution des choses, ce qu'aucun autre organisme ne fait à l'heure actuelle.Pour la première fois, ce domaine est examiné de près : à quoi ressemble l'écosystème, qui sont les principaux acteurs, quelle est la portée des diverses solutions, combien d'agriculteurs ou de petits exploitants utilisent réellement ce service, quelles sont les perspectives de croissance, etc. ? Personne n'a examiné la situation actuelle ni présenté les recommandations qui en découlent pour les différentes parties prenantes, dont le secteur privé, les gouvernements et les bailleurs de fonds. Ce rapport pourra servir de base pour suivre les futurs développements et évolutions.L'un des principaux résultats est que, dans les cinq cas d'utilisation examinés, presque 33 millions d'agriculteurs se sont inscrits mais seulement 40 % d'entre eux utilisent régulièrement ces services. À l'avenir, nous devons concentrer davantage notre attention sur l'utilisation plutôt que sur le nombre d'inscriptions.L'autre observation, pas surprenante, est que les femmes ne représentent qu'environ 25 % des utilisateurs, et les jeunes 65 %. Nous savons que les femmes n'utilisent pas autant les technologies qu'elles le devraient alors qu'elles constituent environ 45 % de la main-d'oeuvre agricole. Cela confirme que les femmes sont mal représentées dans les utilisations technologiques et que les jeunes trouveront l'agriculture plus attractive avec l'application de ces technologies.Nous constatons aussi que les utilisateurs sont beaucoup plus nombreux en Afrique de l'Est, alors que la plupart des solutions se trouvent en Afrique de l'Ouest. L'Afrique australe et centrale sont plutôt faiblement représentées.Il y a le gros problème des infrastructures numériques dans les zones rurales et de la manière dont ces services pourraient être plus facilement déployés. Il y a aussi la question de l'implication des agriculteurs dans les chaînes de valeur. La plupart des utilisateurs actifs interviennent dans des chaînes de valeur dites resserrées, dans lesquelles une liaison très claire existe entre producteurs et transformateurs, puis avec les marchés. Certains problèmes sont liés à l'instauration de politiques favorables dans divers pays. Au Kenya, par exemple, de nombreuses solutions et activités sont induites par le secteur privé parce que le pays dispose d'un cadre politique plutôt encourageant pour ce type d'investissement.la digitalisation peut réellement changer la donne dans la transformation de l'agriculture à petite échelle en Afrique, mais il faut lui accorder l'importance qu'elle mérite dans les politiques et investissements. Les gouvernements devraient la considérer comme un domaine primordial qui pourrait avoir une forte incidence sur la transformation de l'agriculture, l'amélioration de la productivité, le renforcement de la résilience et la création d'opportunités pour les jeunes et les femmes. Mon message est donc que les gouvernements devraient sérieusement s'intéresser aux bénéfices qu'ils pourraient tirer de la digitalisation dans le cadre de leurs stratégies de transformation de l'agriculture. ■L'agriculture à petite échelle est confrontée à de nombreux défis. Les agriculteurs sont divisés en petites unités, dispersés et déconnectés des systèmes de marché opérationnels. Cette situation résulte en partie de la piètre qualité des infrastructures, mais aussi du faible niveau d'alphabétisation de certains agriculteurs et du fait que les informations, les services et les produits ne parviennent pas aux agriculteurs de manière efficace et en temps utile. Par conséquent, personne n'a une compréhension approfondie de la façon dont les petits producteurs effectuent leurs transactions. Ce manque de transparence dans leurs activités exclut les petits agriculteurs de tous les services et systèmes de marché formels.À la Fondation Gates, nous nous réjouissons des promesses qu'apportent les innovations numériques, avec la baisse des coûts liés aux outils et aux données. Nous oeuvrons à faire émerger des innovations transformatrices dans le domaine des technologies et des infrastructures numériques qui pourront contribuer à connecter les petits agriculteurs à grande échelle, en leur offrant ainsi un accès égal aux informations sur les marchés, aux marchés d'intrants et de produits, et aux services de conseil, qui sont particulièrement nécessaires en cette période de changements climatiques. Les agriculteurs doivent être à la page des innovations climato-intelligentes en matière de semences et de races animales améliorées, et les technologies numériques peuvent les y aider.Il faut avant tout avoir une vision. Une fois cette vision définie, il est nécessaire de disposer d'infrastructures. Nous avons donc besoin de réglementations et de politiques pour encourager les investissements du secteur privé. Le point de départ est un gouvernement qui a défini une vision et qui a conscience du potentiel des innovations numériques pour mettre les petits producteurs en relation avec les marchés d'intrants et de produits, avec les services de conseil, ainsi qu'entre eux pour mener des actions collectives.Le rapport du CTA dressera un état des lieux de la situation actuelle et mettra en valeur les bienfaits de la digitalisation, ce qui nous permettra de mobiliser les gouvernements, le secteur privé et les bailleurs de fonds. Nous espérons que ce rapport analysera plus en détail certains cas illustrant comment les innovations numériques peuvent être déployées. Nous devons sans cesse mettre à l'épreuve la solidité et la résilience des modèles d'activités face aux défis rencontrés dans les pays en développement. Nous devons utiliser des pays et même des régions comme unités de mise à l'échelle, et non une multitude de projets pilotes menés au niveau des villages.Il est bien de susciter de l'enthousiasme et de réaliser que la digitalisation est peutêtre la meilleure solution pour supprimer une grande partie des obstacles. Toutefois, des questions surviennent quant à la sécurité de ces données, à leur propriété et à leur partage. Si les données déjà collectées, standardisées et analysées restent entre les mains et sous le contrôle d'une minorité, cela va à l'encontre de l'objectif même de la digitalisation. Il faut que les données soient largement partagées pour que les nouveaux arrivants ne doivent pas consacrer autant de temps et d'efforts pour recueillir le même type de données. Pour déployer ces technologies à l'échelon national, le gouvernement doit jouer un rôle clé dans le cadre de ce système. Dans la plupart des cas, le gouvernement ne travaille pas souvent en partenariat avec le secteur privé. Nous devons donc trouver de meilleurs mécanismes pour faciliter la collaboration entre ces deux entités. ■Enock Chikava, de la Fondation Bill & Melinda Gates, souligne le rôle central des secteurs public et privé pour la digitalisation agricole.Enock Chikava, de la Fondation Gates, analyse les bénéfices de la digitalisation pour les agriculteurs. Au Mali, des jeunes peu scolarisés ont été formés à la création de micro-entreprises. Financé par l'USAID et le projet Mali Out-of-School Youth Project (OSYP), PAJE-Nièta (Projet d'appui aux jeunes entrepreneurs) a permis à 8 077 jeunes de créer leur propre entreprise, sur les 10 951 qui ont complété une formation technique. C'est le cas d'Amadou Dao, 30 ans, désormais à la tête d'une boulangerie dont l'activité lui permet de nourrir les 20 membres de sa famille, dans le bourg de Yorosso, au sud du Mali. Il a suivi des cours de boulangerie, de langues nationales et de français, et a reçu une pelle, un pétrin et deux tables. \"Aujourd'hui, je gagne entre 300 000 et 350 000 FCFA par mois [460 à 500 euros environ]. Grâce à ma boulangerie, j'ai trois terrains à usage d'habitation, une maison construite et des motos.\" Pour répondre à la forte demande, il utilise chaque jour plus de 50 kg de farine et emploie trois personnes. PAJE-Nièta a formé et engagé 309 volontaires qui sont intervenus dans plus de 220 villages où ils ont encadré plus de 14 000 jeunes et appuyé plus de 220 associations de jeunes ou comités d'association de jeunes à travers des cours d'éducation de base (lecture, écriture et calcul en langue nationale). Les bénéficiaires ont aussi eu droit à des cours de français, ainsi que des formations en entrepreneuriat et à l'établissement de groupes d'épargne et de crédit. Le projet a permis \"à des jeunes d'être économiquement productifs et qu'ils se sentent confiants en leur avenir au sein de leurs communautés\", se félicite Adwoa Atta-Krah, directrice du projet pour l'organisation Education Development Centre. Dans le village de Kinian, à 60 km de Yorosso, Sidi Sanou, un maraîcher de 32 ans, fournit désormais la petite ville en légumes. Ce père de deux enfants a bénéficié de cours sur l'entrepreneuriat et les techniques du maraîchage, en plus de formations sur le maraîchage, l'entretien des boutures et l'utilisation des fertilisants dans un jardin. Sidi Sanou estime son revenu mensuel à au moins 10 000 FCFA (environ 15 €), grâce à la vente de produits comme le gombo, les laitues et les tomates, contre 2 000 ou 3 000 FCFA (3 ou 4 €) par mois avant le projet. Un groupe de jeunes entrepreneurs zambiens a, par exemple, développé une plateforme numérique qui prévoit les conditions météorologiques et la probabilité d'invasions de ravageurs ou d'épidémies. AgriPredict fournit à ses utilisateurs -petits fermiers, agriculteurs commerciaux, fournisseurs de services de vulgarisation, ONG et institutions gouvernementales ou environnementales -l'information nécessaire pour prendre des mesures préventives permettant d'atténuer ces risques. Les agriculteurs n'ont qu'à prendre une photo de leur culture et l'envoyer à AgriPredict, via les médias sociaux ou WhatsApp, et le système fournit immédiatement un diagnostic, des solutions de traitement (au besoin) et des indications sur l'emplacement des agrodistributeurs les plus proches.Au Rwanda, un groupe de jeunes ingénieurs a conçu un système technologique permettant aux agriculteurs de gérer leurs champs à distance. Grâce à des capteurs qui recueillent des données en temps réel, la plateforme web et pour appareils portables de STES Group leur permet de suivre l'évolution des prévisions météorologiques, ainsi que de la fertilité et de l'humidité des sols. Le système automatisé d'irrigation de l'entreprise peut être activé et désactivé par les agriculteurs à l'aide de leurs téléphones portables, en fonction des informations qu'ils reçoivent des capteurs.AgriPredict et STES Group montrent que les jeunes sont capables d'exploiter le potentiel de transformation et les avantages économiques que présente la numérisation de l'agriculture. Ces innovations, en plus de fournir des emplois aux jeunes créateurs de ces entreprises, ont aussi contribué à réduire les risques et améliorer l'efficience de l'agriculture, en faisant ainsi un moyen d'existence plus attractif pour la jeunesse rurale. Toutefois, sans les compétences pour développer, gérer et entretenir de telles technologies, la jeunesse africaine ne pourra pas tirer le meilleur parti des opportunités offertes par la numérisation de l'agriculture.Il est urgent de développer les capacités de la jeunesse rurale africaine, sur le plan des compétences techniques ou numériques, mais aussi en matière de meilleures pratiques agricoles et de savoir-faire commercial, afin de stimuler la croissance économique et promouvoir l'emploi des jeunes. Heureusement, de nombreuses initiatives prometteuses visant à créer des emplois et aider les jeunes entrepreneurs à monter des agroentreprises viables voient le jour dans tout le continent (lire notre reportage au Sénégal, Les bonnes pratiques agricoles permettent de freiner la migration). Au Kenya, l'organisation de développement des capacités USTADI axe ses efforts sur l'amélioration des compétences techniques et des connaissances commerciales des jeunes, afin de promouvoir la création d'entreprises rurales durables.Dans le comté de Busia, au Kenya, USTADI a créé une exploitation avicole de démonstration et dispensé à 22 jeunes agricultrices des formations agricoles pratiques -telles que les meilleures méthodes d'alimentation et de gestion des maladies -et des compétences commerciales. Suite à cela, les éleveurs de volaille locaux ont triplé leur productivité et modifié ainsi la perception que les jeunes avaient de l'agriculture en transformant ce qu'ils estimaient être une activité de subsistance en un secteur offrant des opportunités de création d'entreprises professionnelles et profitables dans leur région. De même, le Centre d'innovations vertes (CIVA), lancé en 2016 par AfricaRice, en partenariat avec les gouvernements allemand et béninois, cible les jeunes ruraux formés en vulgarisation agricole pour créer des emplois et améliorer la productivité et les revenus des exploitations.Le CIVA a élaboré plus de 30 cours en ligne -offerts aux élèves et diplômés de dix collèges agricoles du Bénin -conçus pour préparer les participants à travailler en tant que conseillers en vulgarisation auprès des agriculteurs. Une fois leur formation terminée, les jeunes instructeurs visitent des villages béninois pour promouvoir le Système d'intensification du riz, qui définit un ensemble de principes visant à augmenter durablement les rendements rizicoles, dont la plantation plus espacée dans le temps de jeunes plants (de 8-12 jours). D'ici 2022, le projet vise à créer 1 000 nouveaux emplois pour les jeunes et augmenter de 33 % les revenus de 50 000 petits agriculteurs.Outre la formation des jeunes aux meilleures pratiques agricoles, une série de pépinières d'entreprises a vu le jour pour les aider à transformer leurs idées innovantes en agroentreprises durables. L'initiative Jeunes agripreneurs de l'Institut international d'agriculture tropicale (IITA) a élaboré un programme d'entrepreneuriat sur 18 mois pour des diplômés sans emploi.  Nous collaborons depuis deux ans au développement d'un guide politique pour les jeunes, qui tord le cou au mythe selon lequel la politique est réservée aux représentants gouvernementaux ou aux adultes. Les défis auxquels nous sommes confrontés en Afrique concernent aussi bien les jeunes que les moins jeunes. En travaillant avec la Fondation MasterCard, nous avons constaté que les jeunes ont la volonté de s'impliquer dans la politique agricole, mais ils n'ont pas les compétences nécessaires pour faire passer leurs messages.Personnellement, je suis convaincue que l'implication des jeunes dans les technologies et l'innovation devrait être une priorité pour les gouvernements. Le monde évolue à une vitesse sans précédent. Nous devons intégrer au mieux les technologies et l'innovation dans l'agriculture si nous voulons créer de nouvelles possibilités de développement pour l'Afrique -et les jeunes sont au coeur de cette innovation. Je pense donc qu'il est particulièrement important que nos dirigeants plaident pour une plus grande participation des jeunes à l'espace numérique et pour la création d'un environnement propice en la matière. Je pense que cette opinion est partagée par les leaders africains, car la science, la technologie et l'innovation sont des piliers majeurs de l'Agenda 2063 de l'Union africaine.Je pense que les jeunes apprennent par la pratique, et des opportunités comme le concours Pitch AgriHack les incitent à innover. D'après ce que je comprends, cette compétition s'accompagne de formations et de mentorat, donc les jeunes sont vraiment soutenus tout au long de la création de leur entreprise.Au bout du compte, il s'agit de garantir la pérennité. Il faut donc que les anciens transmettent leurs connaissances aux plus jeunes. L'agriculture intelligente face au climat est défendue par la FAO, le CTA et le FANRPAN, entre autres. Cette approche n'est pas révolutionnaire, dans le sens où elle prône des pratiques telles que l'agriculture de conservation et la culture sans labour, qui sont utilisées depuis longtemps. Mais, à la suite de recherches plus approfondies, elles bénéficient désormais d'une meilleure compréhension et leur valeur est davantage appréciée. Ces connaissances doivent donc être transmises à nos futurs agriculteurs. Le programme télévisuel Shamba Shape Up (SSU) a été créé il y a cinq ans pour changer la manière dont l'agriculture est perçue dans le pays et présenter l'agriculture comme une opportunité commerciale. L'émission vise à donner aux agriculteurs et auditeurs les outils nécessaires pour améliorer leurs fermes (shambas). La série aborde des problématiques comme l'infertilité des sols, les mauvaises récoltes, la santé du bétail et la diversité alimentaire, ainsi que les techniques pour optimiser la valeur nutritionnelle des légumes.Avec neuf séries produites, SSU a touché cinq millions de personnes au Kenya. La diffusion a récemment été élargie à la Tanzanie. L'équipe de SSU, qui comprend des experts comme des vétérinaires et des spécialistes des cultures, visite une exploitation différente chaque semaine. L'équipe de tournage passe généralement quatre jours avec chaque agriculteur, ce qui lui permet de recueillir l'avis d'experts et de mettre en place les nécessaires améliorations.Gabriel Ingubu, un agriculteur de 28 ans du comté de Bungoma, s'est lancé dans l'horticulture après avoir regardé Shamba Shape Up. \"Je ne connaissais rien à la culture de la tomate, mais après avoir regardé comment fonctionne une exploitation -de la sélection des semences à la récolte en passant par la préparation des sols et la lutte contre les maladies -je suis maintenant un fermier expérimenté\", s'enthousiasme-t-il. Sur sa parcelle de 0,2 hectare, Gabriel Ingubu plante des tomates, du chou kale et d'autres légumes-feuilles verts. Cela lui rapporte environ 10 000 KSh (88 €) par semaine, assez pour subvenir aux besoins de sa famille. Il économise aussi pour s'offrir une serre, avec laquelle il augmentera sa production, afin de fournir hôtels et restaurants autour de la ville de Bungoma.Il Pour favoriser davantage l'engagement des jeunes dans des activités agricoles, l'équipe de production de SSU a lancé en mars 2017 une nouvelle émission de téléréalité appelée Don't Lose the Plot (Ne perdez pas vos terres, ou Ne perdez pas les pédales). Financée par le programme Feed the Future de l'USAID, cette émission, conçue en collaboration avec Africa Lead, vise à encourager les jeunes à considérer l'agriculture comme un choix de carrière lucratif, tout en les informant sur la marche à suivre pour démarrer une agroentreprise et partager des informations agronomiques utiles. Dans le cadre du programme, diffusé au Kenya et en Tanzanie entre mai et juillet 2017, des parcelles de 0,4 hectare ont été proposées à quatre jeunes agriculteurs des deux pays, avec l'objectif d'en faire des fermes prospères et profitables en neuf mois. Le gagnant reçoit 8 960 € utilisables sur sa propre exploitation.En Tanzanie, Winrose Kaya a gagné après avoir collaboré avec les experts de l'émission pour diviser sa parcelle en plusieurs parties. Elle a planté des cultures à maturité rapide -oignons, pommes de terre, coriandre, choux et épinards -et élevé 500 poulets. Après le concours, ses parents lui ont offert une parcelle de 0,5 ha, reconnaissant ses compétences agricoles et sa capacité à réaliser des bénéfices. L'émission a été regardée par 4,1 millions de jeunes dans les deux pays.Pendant la diffusion de Don't Lose the Plot, The Mediae Company a créé Budget Mkononi, un outil web interactif aidant les jeunes agriculteurs à calculer les coûts d'intrants pour une culture donnée et les bénéfices réalisables sur une courte période. Près de 25 000 jeunes utilisent actuellement cet outil pour démarrer des projets agricoles et en obtenir des bénéfices maximaux. \"Au début, je n'ai pas réalisé que je pouvais changer les prix pour qu'ils correspondent à ma situation. Je trouve que l'outil est utile et qu'il m'aidera à planifier mes dépenses\", déclare Janet Oloo, l'une des jeunes bénéficiaires kényanes. Gregory Mutisya, lui aussi kényan, estime que le service de gestion budgétaire gratuit l'a beaucoup aidé à prendre des décisions éclairées, et lui a permis d'obtenir les bénéfices envisagés pour sa ferme maraîchère. ■ Des jeunes d'Afrique de l'Est augmentent leur production en regardant des émissions de téléréalité sur l'agriculture.Les bonnes pratiques agricoles permettent de freiner la migrationEn rendant le secteur agricole plus attractif pour les jeunes, un programme de soutien à la production de céréales locales permet d' améliorer les revenus des petits producteurs. Les candidats à l' émigration sont moins nombreux. Pourtant, l'objectif prioritaire du PAFA reste d'aider les agriculteurs sénégalais à atteindre l'autosuffisance alimentaire dans les régions peu fertiles. Pour cela, il s'appuie sur le dynamisme des organisations paysannes locales en formant leurs membres aux bonnes pratiques agricoles et en renforçant leurs capacités organisationnelles. Dans la commune de Niarhar, au coeur du bassin arachidier sénégalais, à 144 km de la capitale Dakar, une association locale est devenue l'exemple de cette politique de transmission. Créée en 1989, l'association sportive et culturelle (ASC) Sur les 1 005 membres de l'association Jamm Bugum, la moitié sont des hommes. Comme souvent dans ces villages pauvres, ce sont eux qui étaient envoyés en ville ou à l'étranger afin d'y trouver une activité plus nourrissante que ces terres peu fertiles. Les candidats à l'exode ou l'émigration sont nombreux. C'était le cas de Cheikh Diouf, 23 ans, cultivateur. \"Avant l'arrivée du PAFA en 2012, j'avais prévu de partir en Espagne pour trouver du travail\", dit-il. \"Je voulais faire comme mes amis et, une fois en Europe, envoyer de l'argent à ma famille pour l'aider lors des périodes sèches. Le FIDA a réussi à me convaincre de rester pour cultiver la terre familiale. On vit bien désormais.\"Certains jeunes ont même décidé de revenir à Niarhar après les études pour convaincre les jeunes de rester. À 28 ans, Pierre Diouf est en master de biologie à Dakar. Il a pu poursuivre ses études grâce aux gains du programme. \"Après mes études, je reviendrai au village pour aider à mon tour d'autres jeunes\", assure-t-il. \"Je prouverai à ceux qui veulent partir en migration qu'ils peuvent gagner plus grâce à l'agriculture locale que par un dangereux voyage vers l'Europe.\"Dans les années 1980-1990 déjà, la majorité des hommes majeurs partaient à Dakar en exode rural saisonnier durant la saison sèche. Jacques Diou a quitté Niarhar à 18 ans. Mais, dans la capitale, il est devenu docker, pauvre. \"En ville, on ne te propose rien que la rue, alors je suis revenu au village.\" En appliquant les bonnes pratiques agricoles enseignées par le PAFA, sa production au champ a augmenté. Avec les revenus supplémentaires, il a pu installer un jardin maraîcher, où il fait pousser des mangues, des corossols, des oranges, des citrons, des dattes et du manioc pour tenir en période de soudure. Il a même une porcherie et un poulailler.\"Au Sénégal, pendant très longtemps, nous avons eu une agriculture de subsistance\", explique Aliou Diouf, enseignant à Niarhar et membre de Jamm Bugum. \"Le PAFA a changé nos mentalités. De la famine menaçante, nous sommes passés au commerce de nos denrées. Les paysans parlent désormais de rendements et cherchent à développer leur business.\" Signe du changement : pour la première fois, l'association ouvrira une boulangerie, en mai prochain. Elle vendra des pains réalisés à base de céréales locales.Cet entrepreneuriat a valu à Jamm Bugum deux \"Épis d'or\", des prix offerts par le FIDA et récompensant l'association pour son innovation dans le domaine agricole. En 2016, Mame Mbaye Niang, le ministre de la Jeunesse, de l'Emploi et de la Construction citoyenne, a cité l'association en exemple : \"Elle est en train de vivre l'émergence\", a-t-il déclaré, en plaçant les réussites de l'association au regard du Plan Sénégal émergent (PSE) du président Macky Sall.Outre Jamm Bugum, le PAFA soutient 44 autres associations de jeunes à travers le pays. Leur bilan global a permis à 82 % des bénéficiaires de ne plus subir les pénuries de la soudure. Quant à la malnutrition des enfants de moins de 5 ans, elle est passée de 30 % à 22 % entre 2011 et 2016. ■En 2014, le Sénégal a engagé un Plan d'action prioritaire dans le cadre du Programme d'accélération de la cadence de l'agriculture sénégalaise (Pracas). Ce volet agricole du Plan Sénégal émergent (PSE) a pour objectif de relancer la croissance de ce secteur indispensable. Il doit devenir un moteur de la transformation économique du pays et réduire ainsi la pauvreté poussant des milliers de jeunes Sénégalais à la migration. En effet, le Sénégal a une production agricole insuffisante, ce qui place les couches les plus vulnérables de la population -47 % des Sénégalais sont pauvres -en situation d'insécurité alimentaire. Le revenu national brut est de 932 € par habitant et par an et l'espérance de vie ne dépasse pas 63 ans. Ces indicateurs placent le Sénégal à la 162 e place sur 187 pays dans le classement 2016 en développement humain du Programme des Nations unies pour le développement. Conséquence de ce sous-développement : selon le Parlement européen, en 2018, le Sénégal était le dixième pays en nombre de migrants illégaux venus en Europe par la mer. Selon une étude de l'African Studies Review, à partir des années 1980, la libéralisation de l'économie fut une raison majeure de la détérioration des conditions de vie des Sénégalais et un vecteur de la migration. La désertion des campagnes a conduit à une déstructuration et un affaiblissement de la filière agricole. Aujourd'hui, le Pracas et le PAFA tentent de remédier à cette situation en modernisant les exploitations agricoles pour atteindre la sécurité nutritionnelle. Un des objectifs est de créer des synergies entre l'agriculture familiale, dominante au Sénégal, et l'agribusiness, tout en préservant l'environnement. Selon une récente étude du Programme sur les migrations entre l'Afrique et l'Europe (MAFE), près de la moitié des Sénégalais migrant en Europe envoient de l'argent à leur famille restée au village. Afin de compenser les revenus insuffisants des familles restées au pays, l'agriculture doit s'organiser en filières commerciales structurées et devenir plus productive. En donnant un emploi dans les exploitations agricoles et des formations techniques et de l'équipement à plus de jeunes et de femmes, le Pracas ambitionne ainsi de remplacer l'envoi de devises depuis l'étranger par le retour à une agriculture locale et rentable.\"Je prouverai à ceux qui veulent partir en migration qu'ils peuvent gagner plus grâce à l'agriculture locale que par un dangereux voyage vers l'Europe.\"Le Zimbabwe commercialise ses plantes autochtonesAu Congo-Brazzaville, des champignons toute l'année À Madagascar, une approche zonale pour stimuler la filière bioCommerce équitable : une bonne affaire pour les agricultrices ? D'après le ministère du Développement et de la Coordination de l'Aide, ce soutien a permis de générer des revenus moyens annuels de 13 000 dollars des Îles Salomon (SBD), soit 1 430 euros, par producteur. Entre 2016 et 2018, la production de miel est passée de presque rien à plus de 1 100 litres, vendus essentiellement dans le pays.Dans les années 2000, les Îles Salomon produisaient suffisamment de miel pour envisager d'exporter une partie de leur production, fruit du travail de 2 000 apiculteurs avec 400 000 ruches. Hélas, l'introduction d'abeilles asiatiques porteuses de la mite varroa avait anéanti le secteur.Près de quinze ans plus tard, l'apiculture redevient un secteur d'avenir pour cet archipel du Pacifique, laissant entrevoir des opportunités commerciales prometteuses.\"La plupart des producteurs vendent leur production à un intermédiaire qui le conditionne et le vend à des grossistes en ville\", explique Rodney Suibaea, membre du SISBEC. Principal intermédiaire du secteur, le SISBEC garantit un débouché aux petits producteurs en leur rachetant leur miel entre 40 et 50 SBD (entre 4,4 et 5,5 €) pour 350 millilitres. \"Pour le moment, la production de miel tourne autour de 4-5 tonnes par an et ne suffit pas pour répondre à la demande locale\", poursuit Rodney Suibaea. Malgré tout, le SISBEC anticipe une production de 10 à 15 tonnes d'ici 2020-2022. \"Le miel pourra alors être exporté. Nous avons fait des tests et il y a un marché en Nouvelle-Zélande pour le miel des Îles Salomon.\" Par ailleurs, ce miel est très apprécié au Japon.\"Le SISBEC va bientôt enregistrer tous les apiculteurs au sein du programme Australia New Zealand Bank GoMoney (une banque en ligne gérée avec une appli), ce qui va lui permettre d'acheter le miel aux producteurs à travers leurs comptes GoMoney. Le SISBEC va aussi mettre en place des lieux d'achat près des producteurs qui n'ont pas accès à des commerçants\", affirme Gabriel Hiele, manager du volet agriculture du RDP.Les progrès les plus spectaculaires ont été réalisés par l'organisation Gizo Women in Business, qui réunit près de 300 agricultrices de l'île Gizo. Parmi elles, Janet Beri gagne désormais entre 42 800 et 48 150 SBD (entre 4 700 et 5 300 €) par an grâce à la vente de son miel. \"Mon mari et moi sommes des villageois qui travaillent leur potager pour survivre\", raconte cette productrice, qui possède 10 ruches. \"Maintenant, nous pouvons vendre du miel et répondre à nos besoins. Nous pouvons aisément payer les frais de scolarité au début de chaque semestre et envoyer notre fils, qui a quitté l'école il y a longtemps, suivre une formation sur le commerce dans un centre de formation professionnelle.\" ■ SPORE 193 | 31 P lus de 4 000 petits agriculteurs des zones arides du Zimbabwe tirent des revenus de la vente de plantes autochtones sous-exploitées. En récoltant, en transformant et en conditionnant 15 espèces végétales comestibles et non comestibles, les agriculteurs locaux -en majorité des femmes -bénéficient d'opportunités d'emploi auprès de Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe (BIZ). Ce centre de recherche à but non lucratif achète leur récolte de plantes sauvages pour les transformer en produits alimentaires et cosmétiques, vendus sur les marchés locaux et internationaux.Le Zimbabwe abrite de nombreuses espèces végétales résistantes à la sécheresse et possédant de grandes capacités d'adaptation. Le baobab, par exemple, est une espèce d'arbre robuste qui pousse dans des régions très arides du pays et qui est utilisé dans plusieurs produits phares de BIZ, tels que la poudre de baobab, la confiture et de l'huile pour les cheveux. \"En 2012, un an après avoir commencé à récolter des baobabs, j'ai pu acheter une pompe à eau, que j'utilise dans mon jardin pour arroser les plants de maïs, de haricots et d'autres légumes que je vends à la communauté\", explique Marcia Matsika, une mère de six enfants originaire de la province du Manicaland. \"Ces cultures maraîchères me permettent de gagner 300 dollars RTGS (50 €) supplémentaires par mois.\"\"Nous transformons entre 12 et 15 espèces différentes\", indique Gus Le Breton, CEO de BIZ. \"À travers notre autre société, B'Ayoba, nous avons dispensé des formations, sous-traité des activités et accordé une certification biologique à 4 500 producteurs de baobab… Si l'on tient compte du fait que le ménage moyen au Zimbabwe se compose de cinq personnes, cela concerne 20 000 personnes, et ce pour une seule variété de plante !\" BIZ transforme également d'autres espèces végétales autochtones, comme les pois bambara, l'arbre marula, les noix mongongo (arbre manketti), la plante de la résurrection, l'oseille de Guinée, l'arbre à saucisses (kigelia), les melons sauvages et le ximenia.Selon Gus Le Breton, les cueilleurs gagnent environ 90 € par saison grâce à la vente des fruits du baobab. \"Ce n'est pas beaucoup d'argent, mais c'est tout de même la plus grande source de revenus dans les zones arides et pauvres, où les opportunités économiques sont rares. Parmi les 4 000 travailleurs qui se chargent de ces récoles, les 150 ouvriers que nous employons dans nos centres de transformation gagnent entre 500 et 1 000 dollars US (soit entre 445 et 890 €) [par saison], ce qui représente des revenus importants.\"BIZ vend la plupart de ses produits sur les marchés américains et européens, où la poudre de baobab coûte 10 € par kilo environ et les huiles de graines hydratantes 25 €/kg, mais les ventes locales peinent à décoller à cause de l'image négative des ressources indigènes. \"Le principal obstacle qui entrave le développement de cette industrie à l'échelle locale est l'absence de marché, mais le marché international va se développer\", estime Gus Le Breton. ■Un organisme de recherche zimbabwéen identifie des espèces végétales locales sous-exploitées pour les transformer en produits alimentaires et cosmétiques.© PHYTOTRADE AFRICA Au Zimbabwe, des espèces végétales locales sous-exploitées, comme le baobab, sont transformées en produits alimentaires et cosmétiques commercialisables.Afin de répondre à la forte demande nationale en champignons, une entreprise d'agribusiness a développé des kits de production faciles d'utilisation et vendus à des prix abordables.Marien Nzikou-Massalan République du Congo, il est désormais possible de cultiver et de consommer ses propres champignons toute l'année. L'entreprise Bio-Tech Congo, fondée en 2015 par l'ingénieur Tsengué-Tsengué, fabrique et commercialise des kits de culture préincubés capables de produire jusqu'à 3 kg de champignons frais pendant trois mois. Communément appelés mayebo en langue lingala et très appréciés des Congolais, ces pleurotes sont désormais disponibles toute l'année.Lancée avec un capital de moins de 500 000 FCFA (environ 763 €), l'entreprise Bio-tech Congo emploie cinq personnes à temps plein pour produire chaque jour près de 30 kits, soit 10 800 kits en 2018. Chaque kit est composé de sacs en mailles légères dans lesquels est placé du compost fait à partir de copeaux de bois récoltés dans les menuiseries de la ville, broyés, puis mélangés avec du son de blé et du maïs broyé. Les sachets de substrat sont pasteurisés, de façon à détruire les micro-organismes qui pourraient entraver la croissance des champignons.Enfin, les sachets sont ensemencés avec des semences produites dans l'usine de l'entreprise, à Brazzaville.\"La production d'un kit nous coûte moins de 5 000 FCFA [7,60 €]\", explique Tsengué-Tsengué. Les champignons produits par Bio-Tech Congo sont vendus aux grandes surfaces et épiceries des grandes villes du Congo -Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, Owando et Makoua -et les particuliers peuvent acheter auprès de l'entreprise des kits préincubés à 9 000 FCFA (13,70 €).La demande est forte, confirme Anna Dyemo, une cliente régulière : \"J'étais surprise de trouver ces champignons dans le supermarché Casino. Comme mon mari en raffole, je me suis rendue au siège de Bio-Tech Congo pour acheter un kit.\" Ensuite, rien de plus simple, expliquet-elle : son kit a été suspendu à l'ombre, afin d'éviter que les champignons et le substrat ne sèchent au soleil. En l'arrosant deux à trois par fois par jour, Anna Dyemo a vite obtenu ses premiers champignons, consommés généralement avec du poisson, de la viande ou de la mouambe, une sauce à base de noix de palme. Anna Dyemo explique ainsi ne plus avoir à se rendre au supermarché et avoir réalisé des économies. Par ailleurs, le pleurote est une très bonne source de vitamines B (notamment les vitamines B1, B2, B3, B6 et B9).Les kits de Bio-Tech Congo font aussi des émules en République démocratique du Congo. L'entreprise exporte chaque mois plus de 500 kits vers la capitale Kinshasa, sur l'autre rive du fleuve Congo. Afin de faciliter l'approvisionnement de cette ville de 12 millions d'habitants, un partenariat a été signé entre Bio-Tech Congo et l'Institut supérieur de techniques appliquées de Kinshasa afin de former des étudiants à la culture des champignons.Tsengué-Tsengué prévoit aussi de pénétrer le marché du voisin gabonais : trois étudiants suivent depuis le mois de mars une formation à distance par vidéoconférence sur la culture des champignons, pour un prix de 300 000 FCFA (458 €). L'objectif est de rendre disponibles à tous les consommateurs ces champignons tant appréciés. ■ © MARIEN NZIKOU-MASSALA 10 800 kits préincubés de champignons ont été produits en 2018.C'est la quantité de pleurotes obtenue avec un kit.Les kits préincubés de Bio-Tech Congo permettent de produire jusqu'à 3 kg de pleurotes pendants trois mois, toute l'année.Madagascar, une cartographie des terres consacrées à l'agriculture biologique permet d'identifier les zones à soutenir en priorité, en offrant des conseils et appuis techniques, un approvisionnement en semences bio et une assistance à la certification bio des agriculteurs. Une zone qualifiée de bio -les producteurs répondent aux exigences de l'Agriculture biologique et des spécificités malgaches -sert de base de départ pour étendre et développer les pratiques agricoles bio. Élaborée par le Syndicat malgache de l'agriculture biologique (Symabio), cette approche est développée par plusieurs exploitants, dont les entreprises de transformation agricole Lecofruit, l'huilerie de palme Melville, Jacarandas (épices et huiles essentielles) ou encore Sahanala (gingembre, vanille, noix de cajou…).Alors que 36 000 hectares étaient consacrés au bio en 2011, la surface dévolue à ce type d'agriculture a atteint les 121 000 hectares en 2018 sur l'île. De plus, en 2012, les exportations de produits issus de l'agriculture bio ont atteint une valeur de 84 millions d'euros en 2018, contre 22 millions d'euros en 2012. L'agriculture biologique est plus rentable pour les petits producteurs, du fait de coûts de production et de distribution moins élevés et de prix de vente plus intéressants que pour l'agriculture conventionnelle. \"Je n'ai plus besoin d'acheter d'intrants et d'engrais chimiques chers, le compost nous suffit. Et le prix d'un produit bio est beaucoup plus élevé que celui du conventionnel\", confirme Tendry Botomazava, un planteur de canne à sucre bio, dans l'est du pays.Selon Gaëtan Etancelin, directeur de l'huilerie Melville qui produit 1 000 tonnes d'huile bio par an, dont 85 % sont exportés, \"il y a moins de risque pour les paysans dans l'exploitation bio. Ils ont un contrat, lequel garantit le débouché et le prix de la vente. À moyen et long terme, comme leur terre n'a subi aucun traitement chimique, ils ne risquent pas de l'appauvrir. Au contraire, le traitement naturel enrichit leur terre\".Parmi les obstacles au développement de l'agriculture bio à Madagascar figure le coût de la certification : au moins 8 millions d'ariarys (2 000 €). Le Symabio essaie donc d'obtenir des certifications au nom de coopératives. Par ailleurs, certains facteurs extérieurs compliquent l'adoption de pratiques agricoles bio, comme l'indispensable utilisation de produits toxiques dans la lutte contre l'invasion de criquets dans le Sud du pays, qui risque de contaminer des millions d'hectares de cultures.Créé en 2011 et composé de 40 membres certifiés bio (entreprises, coopératives agricole, associations pay-sannes…), le Symabio a défini avec le ministère de l'Agriculture le cadre réglementaire national de l'agriculture bio, et travaille avec le gouvernement à l'élaboration d'un Plan national stratégique phytosanitaire intégrant les exigences de l'agriculture biologique. Alors que Madagascar est déjà numéro un mondial dans les filières biologiques de la vanille, de la crevette et de l'huile de palme, un avant-projet de la loi sur l'agriculture bio devrait étendre ces pratiques agricoles au-delà des 35 000 petits producteurs bio de l'île. ■À Madagascar, la surface des terres consacrées à l'agriculture bio a plus que triplé depuis 2011.Le développement de zones destinées uniquement à l'agriculture biologique permet de stimuler la filière et de générer de meilleurs revenus pour les petits agriculteurs.pprovisionnement énergétique coûteux et irrégulier, manque d'installations de stockage, mauvais état des routes et méthodes de transport inadaptées… Pour les petits agriculteurs des zones rurales, acheminer leurs produits alimentaires jusqu'aux marchés et en obtenir un prix équitable est un parcours semé d'embûches. Résultat, leurs denrées périssables perdent de leur valeur avant d'arriver chez les transformateurs ou d'autres acheteurs. De plus, les difficultés pour suivre et enregistrer la position géographique, la qualité, le volume et le prix des produits permettent aux intermédiaires peu scrupuleux d'escroquer les producteurs. De nombreux agriculteurs se trouvent ainsi piégés dans une logique de subsistance, qui sape la confiance des prêteurs dans leur capacité à rembourser leurs emprunts.Même quand les produits parviennent jusqu'aux acheteurs sans encombre, le caractère informel de la plupart des échanges empêche également les agriculteurs de tenir des registres des opérations fiables. Pourtant, ce type de registre leur permettrait de repérer les problèmes ou les possibilités de développement de leurs activités, mais aussi de prouver aux prêteurs qu'ils présentent un risque acceptable.En un an et demi, l'entrepris Savanna Circuit a contribué à supprimer bon nombre de ces obstacles pour plus de 800 petits producteurs laitiers regroupés dans six coopératives laitières au Kenya. Grâce à son application et son système MaziwaPlus de \"refroidissement pendant le transport\" alimenté à l'énergie solaire, ces producteurs ont connu une hausse de leurs profits et peuvent désormais tenir des registres des opérations fiables. Plusieurs producteurs laitiers se sont vus accorder des prêts, qu'ils ont utilisés pour développer leur entreprise ou acheter des intrants, explique Emmastella Gakuo, cofondatrice de Savanna Circuit.Dans le système MaziwaPlus, le lait des petits producteurs est acheminé à moto jusqu'à leur coopérative dans des cuves en aluminium conçues et raccordées à des panneaux solaires. Ces cuves permettent de conserver le lait à une température de 5 °C environ pendant le trajet, avant qu'il soit réfrigéré à 3 °C à la coopérative. Le lait est également pesé et soumis à un test de pH lors de la collecte. Ces données sont automatiquement enregistrées dans l'application MaziwaPlus. Le producteur reçoit ensuite sur son téléphone portable un reçu électronique mentionnant le prix convenu -moins une commission partagée entre le producteur et la coopérative -quand le lait est vendu à un transformateur. Ce système électronique fournit aux producteurs un registre de production et un compte de résultat quotidien. Autant d'informations requises par les prêteurs pour calculer le score de crédit et, dans certains cas, la garantie.Savanna Circuit a également organisé une seconde tournée de collecte du lait en soirée. Combinée à la diminution des pertes dues au déversement ou à l'altération du lait, cette collecte supplémentaire a aidé les agriculteurs à faire passer leurs revenus moyens d'environ 71 € par mois en octobre 2017 à 134 € par mois aujourd'hui.Lancée en 2014, la plateforme logistique business-to-business (B2B) Twiga Foods intensifie ses activités visant à faciliter l'accès au crédit pour les agriculteurs et les vendeurs de denrées alimentaires au Kenya. Cette entreprise met en relation plus de 8 000 agriculteurs avec des vendeurs en facilitant la gestion de la récolte à la livraison finale aux commerçants, en passant par l'entreposage centralisé dans des installations de refroidissement et de mûrissementEn se consacrant à la protection et au suivi des denrées, les entreprises de technologie aident à réduire les risques liés à l'octroi de prêts aux agriculteurs.ultramodernes. Twiga Foods joue le rôle de grossiste et de fournisseur de services logistiques et offre ainsi aux agriculteurs un marché garanti pour leurs produits, ainsi qu'un mécanisme de fixation des prix transparent et des conseils agricoles. Toutes les transactions sont enregistrées par voie électronique, ce qui permet aux prêteurs de se faire une idée de la solvabilité de chaque agriculteur ou vendeur. Twiga Foods propose des prêts sans intérêt pour l'acquisition d'intrants à des exploitations agricoles de taille moyenne et voudrait offrir ce service à plus grande échelle en nouant des partenariats avec des prêteurs qui leur proposeraient des prêts commerciaux à faible taux d'intérêt. L'entreprise collabore avec la Société financière internationale (SFI) et une banque commerciale en vue de lancer des prêts sur 18 mois destinés à couvrir (en partie) les coûts de 45 000 à 62 000 € nécessaires pour établir des exploitations agricoles de taille moyenne -dont Twiga Foods garantirait les ventes. Twiga Foods étant disposée à s'engager par contrat à acheter la production de ces exploitations à prix fixes jusqu'à plusieurs années à l'avance, elle assure une excellente prévisibilité de sa demande quotidienne, ce qui signifie que les prêteurs peuvent être optimistes quant au remboursement de leurs prêts, selon Grant Brooke, cofondateur et directeur exécutif de l'entreprise.Du côté des vendeurs, Twiga Foods s'est associée avec IBM Research en 2018 pour proposer des prêts pour fonds de roulement basés sur la technologie blockchain à 220 propriétaires de kiosques de restauration au Kenya, dans le cadre d'un projet pilote de huit semaines. IBM a utilisé des algorithmes d'apprentissage automatique pour analyser les registres des achats provenant des appareils mobiles des vendeurs et créer ainsi un score de crédit de facto.La technologie blockchain a ensuite été employée pour accélérer la procédure de demande de prêt et de décaissement en toute sécurité. Twiga Foods affirme que les bénéficiaires des prêts sur 4 à 8 jours -surtout des prêts d'un montant de 25 à 30 € environ avec un taux d'intérêt de 1 à 2 %, qui ont servi à acheter du stock -ont pu accroître le volume de leurs commandes de produits de 30 % et leurs profits de 6 % en moyenne. En novembre 2018, Twiga Foods a levé des fonds pour près de 9 millions d'euros auprès d'investisseurs sous la direction de la SFI, et prévoit de s'étendre en Afrique de l'Est. ■ © EATRADEHUBAndrew Mwok, un producteur laitier dans l'ouest du Kenya, a pu obtenir un crédit pour la première fois grâce au registre des opérations de MaziwaPlus. En mars 2018, il a contracté auprès de sa coopérative locale un emprunt d'un montant de 100 000 KSH (887 €) -aujourd'hui remboursé -avec lequel il a acheté quatre vaches laitières, doublant ainsi la taille de son cheptel. Quelques mois plus tard, il a obtenu un autre emprunt de 320 000 KSH (2 837 €), par l'intermédiaire d'un programme subventionné par l'État, avec un taux d'intérêt de 10 % environ. L'éleveur a investi ce deuxième prêt pour créer une unité laitière, en achetant aussi de l'équipement et du fourrage. Il espère pouvoir emprunter cette somme plus importante auprès d'une banque commerciale d'ici mi-2019 pour couvrir ses activités laitières et développer davantage sa production. Andrew Mwok, pour qui la production laitière était une activité de subsistance, explique que ses livraisons quotidiennes de lait sont passées de 50 litres à 170 litres et que sa ferme est désormais gérée comme une entreprise.La technologie blockchain sert à accélérer les demandes de prêts des propriétaires de kiosques de restauration au Kenya.epuis la chute mondiale d'un tiers des prix du cacao en 2016/2017, un cultivateur lambda d'Afrique de l'Ouest ne touche plus que 6 % de la valeur du produit final et doit vivre avec 0,85 € par jour, selon la Fairtrade Foundation. La situation est pire pour les agricultrices, qui assurent la majeure partie du travail mais possèdent rarement la terre qu'elles cultivent, ont moins de droits et reçoivent donc une part encore plus petite des bénéfices.Plus lucratifs, les processus de transformation du café se déroulent aussi en dehors des pays producteurs d'Asie, d'Amérique du Sud et d'Afrique subsaharienne.Certaines multinationales européennes et américaines de l'alimentation touchent 40 % de la valeur de chaque tasse de café, tandis que 25 millions de familles de producteurs se partagent 12 % seulement. Dans ce contexte, comment accroître les revenus des producteurs de cacao et de café, et prendre en compte les droits des agricultrices ?La principale entreprise internationale de chocolat équitable, Divine Chocolate, appartient à 44 % à la coopérative ghanéenne de producteurs de cacao Kuapa Kokoo, dont plus d'un tiers des 85 000 membres sont des femmes. Divine Chocolate consacre 2 % de son chiffre d'affaires à des programmes de microfinance pour renforcer les capacités des agricultrices. Les femmes sont ainsi plus à même de signer des contrats de travail, de négocier les prix et d'enregistrer des transactions. \"Il est particulièrement important que les femmes profitent des avantages de s'organiser en coopérative et puissent suivre des formations pour renforcer leurs compétences, notamment en matière de culture du cacao, afin de gagner un revenu plus élevé et de pouvoir l'économiser et l'utiliser judicieusement\", affirme Fatima Ali, présidente de Kuapa Kokoo.En septembre 2018, Divine Chocolate a lancé, en Scandinavie, une nouvelle gamme de barres de chocolat noir de haute qualité. Celles-ci sont fabriquées à partir de fèves de cacao de São Tomé, où l'entreprise collabore avec la coopérative CECAQ-11, dont les 1 135 membres -393 femmes -touchent la prime Fairtrade de 176 € en plus du prix du marché par tonne. Le nouvel accord \"contribuera à redynamiser l'industrie du cacao grâce à des relations à long terme et un accès au marché pour les cultivateurs de cacao\", veut croire le directeur de CECAQ-11, Adalberto Luis.En Côte d'Ivoire, la coopérative de producteurs de cacao CAYAT -certifiée \"commerce équitable\" -produit plus de 8 000 tonnes de cacao chaque année et en vend une partie à de grandes marques de chocolat équitable, comme KitKat. Sous l'égide de l'agricultrice AwaDans les filières du café et du cacao, de plus en plus d'entreprises adoptent le label \"Fairtrade\" -ou des modèles commerciaux similaires -afin d'améliorer les conditions sociales et les revenus des producteurs. Les agricultrices en profitent-elles ?Bamba et grâce à la prime Fairtrade, de nombreuses femmes ont pu monter leur propre entreprise de culture de fruits ou de légumes et générer ainsi des revenus supplémentaires. Awa Bamba encourage aussi la diversification, à travers l'élevage de volailles et la production d'oeufs. Cela permet aux femmes de gagner en moyenne 25 000 francs CFA (38 €) de plus par mois, compense la volatilité des prix du cacao et garantit un revenu entre les récoltes.Pour assurer des moyens de subsistance durables aux communautés de caféiculteurs du Kenya et de Tanzanie, Vava Angweny a fondé Vava Coffee à Nairobi (Kenya) en 2009. L'entreprise est désormais mondialement reconnue pour ses cafés de qualité supérieure, ainsi que pour son impact social.Vava Coffee rémunère ses fournisseurs de fèves de café -30 000 petits exploitants -davantage que le prix du marché, faisant ainsi passer les revenus qu'ils tirent du café de 222 € à 338 € par an.En associant directement les petits producteurs aux marchés demandeurs de traçabilité et d'éthique, ce modèle offre aux agriculteurs des moyens de subsistance durables. Vava Coffee exporte vers des acheteurs européens et américains, et a récemment développé un service de vente directe aux consommateurs, qui permet de vendre de plus petites quantités. En 2018, Vava Angwenyi a lancé la première gamme de café certifié \"commerce équitable\" de l'entreprise. Ce café est produit par les membres de deux coopératives de caféicultrices à Wangumape Microlot et Geoglad Estate, dans la vallée du Rift.En 2017, Elizabeth Nalugemwa a fondé son entreprise sociale Kyaffe Farmers Coffee dans le district de Mpigi, en Ouganda. \"Nous achetons notre café à 50 coopératives composées de 1 500 agriculteurs de deux régions productrices du pays et leur offrons un prix équi-   Les technologies recèlent un énorme potentiel pour le secteur agricole. Les jeunes peuvent se servir des réseaux sociaux pour, par exemple, commercialiser leurs produits dans le monde entier. D'autres plateformes, telles que celles compatibles avec l'USSD, permettent d'entrer en contact avec des acheteurs autrement qu'avec un smartphone.Les drones rendent ainsi l'épandage d'engrais et de pesticides bien plus rapide et moins coûteux.Les jeunes peuvent donc se servir de la numérisation pour répondre aux enjeux majeurs du secteur agricole, mais ils devraient innover davantage pour créer des solutions plus axées sur les technologies.L'OIT déploie de nombreux efforts pour créer des emplois décents pour les jeunes. Elle a notamment créé la Rural Development Academy en Égypte, afin de rassembler les parties prenantes, les \"Il faut redoubler d'efforts pour lutter contre l'insécurité alimentaire\"Olawale Rotimi Opeyemi est le fondateur et PDG de JR Farms, une agroentreprise dont l'objectif est de transformer l'agriculture africaine à travers la création d'emplois dans le secteur et la valorisation des cultures de base du continent. Le gouvernement rwandais nous fait bénéficier d'une plateforme sur laquelle nous pouvons travailler avec plus de 4 000 caféiculteurs pour torréfier, conditionner et exporter nos produits du Rwanda vers la Côte d'Ivoire, l'Égypte, le Japon, le Nigeria et les États-Unis, entre autres. Nous sommes la première entreprise africaine à avoir développé ce genre de partenariat avec le gouvernement rwandais et avons ainsi réalisé l'une des plus grandes avancées pour le secteur -ce qui nous permet d'avoir une incidence sur les moyens de subsistance des agriculteurs à travers la promotion de produits africains.Au fil des ans, nous nous sommes engagés en faveur des ODD liés à la sécurité alimentaire, la \"faim zéro\" et la création d'emplois décents pour les jeunes sur tout le continent. Le programme Inmates Farming Schemes with Nigeria Prisons, que nous avons développé pour former les détenus aux pratiques agricoles, est l'une des initiatives qui illustrent notre engagement. Ce programme permet aux détenus d'acquérir de nouvelles compétences et de manger des repas sains préparés à partir des aliments qu'ils produisent.En outre, nous produisons au moins 35 tonnes de manioc par mois pour le marché local. Nous soutenons les agriculteurs en achetant leurs produits à de très bons prix, tout en employant des jeunes pour transformer les récoltes en gari. Nous avons développé une initiative similaire au Rwanda, ainsi qu'en Côte d'Ivoire avec du cacao. Nous contribuons donc à la résolution de problèmes tels que les difficultés d'accès aux marchés, les pertes post-récolte et les mauvaises conditions de vie des agriculteurs.J'ai commencé à constater la réalité du changement climatique en 2018, lorsque les pluies se sont arrêtées très tôt au Nigeria. Les précipitations qui sont ensuite tombées étaient imprévisibles et insuffisantes pour assurer la croissance des cultures. L'alimentation, c'est la vie. Nous devons donc impérativement redoubler d'efforts pour lutter contre l'insécurité alimentaire, en particulier en Afrique, où tant de personnes vivent avec moins d'un dollar par jour et ne peuvent se permettre de perdre leurs récoltes.En tant que chefs d'entreprise, nous sommes en mesure de rassembler les gens pour faire pression sur le gouvernement et influencer les politiques, afin de faciliter l'accès à des denrées alimentaires à des prix abordables et de promouvoir plus de  Les crises alimentaires ne sont pas une nouveauté, mais elles continuent à se produire, et ce pour de nombreuses raisons. Un aspect inédit est la complexité des multiples facteurs de fragilité qui contribuent aux crises alimentaires : le changement climatique constitue une cause majeure, mais il y a aussi l'évolution démographique, les conflits, la pauvreté, les inégalités, les pressions migratoires, ainsi que les pressions qui s'exercent aux points de tension entre zones rurales et urbaines. La crise alimentaire ne représente que la partie émergée de l'iceberg et la manifestation extrême de la vulnérabilité des populations résultant de crises complexes et diverses.Il s'agit d'un rapport mondial, fondé sur des éléments factuels et un consensus. Nous voulons véhiculer le message selon lequel la prévention et le traitement des crises alimentaires doivent s'appuyer sur des informations fiables, complètes et disponibles en temps utile et à l'échelle locale. Le but est de mieux collaborer et coordonner les efforts déployés aux échelons mondial, régional, national et local afin de remédier aux causes profondes des crises alimentaires par l'intermédiaire du Réseau mondial contre les crises alimentaires (RMCA). Ce réseau repose sur trois axes : les données, les informations et les analyses fondées sur des éléments de preuve ; une programmation et des investissements stratégiques pour garantir la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle le long du \"lien entre action humanitaire et aide au développement\" ; enfin, le dépassement de la dimension alimentaire des crises via l'adoption d'une approche totalement intégrée, qui inclut notamment des interventions portant sur d'autres facteurs de fragilité, comme la paix et la sécurité.Nous sommes optimistes parce que le monde ne peut pas continuer avec le statu quo. Nous ne devrions pas avoir de problème systémique chaque fois qu'une Nous assistons à des actions conjointes de la part des principaux acteurs des différentes dimensions du lien -c'est-à-dire des acteurs de l'action humanitaire, de l'aide au développement et du maintien de la paix. Ces actions devraient inclure des processus mis en oeuvre à l'échelle locale et par les États, mais aussi assurer une meilleure coordination au sein de la communauté des donateurs. Tout cela nécessite une nouvelle manière de réfléchir, une approche de travail repensée, et je pense qu'il y a un élan dans ce sens parce que nous, en tant qu'Union européenne, avec nos États membres, donnons une orientation importante. Les 2 et 3 avril 2019, nous avons organisé à Bruxelles l'événement \"Alimentation et agriculture en temps de crise\". Nous voulions réunir les acteurs partageant une même vision, qui s'intéressent au RMCA et qui s'y engagent pour exprimer concrètement l'idée suivante : \"Voilà ce que nous avons accompli aujourd'hui, et voici les lacunes qui subsistent. Unissons nos efforts pour combler ces lacunes et éradiquer définitivement les crises alimentaires.\"Les systèmes alimentaires sont soumis à des pressions de plus en plus fortes et de larges couches de la population restent très fragiles. Voilà pourquoi les initiatives nouvelles et innovantes sont essentielles, à l'instar du RMCA, qui encourage une meilleure coordination et une efficacité accrue. Il est impossible de résoudre les crises alimentaires en appliquant une simple approche de type \"silo\" : il faut une approche axée sur les systèmes alimentaires, mais aussi sur les territoires, ce qui signifie que cette approche doit tenir compte des facteurs de fragilité liés et des dynamiques complexes, comme les migrations Sud-Sud, les migrations Sud-Nord, les tensions entre zones rurales et urbaines et les tensions liées aux questions de régime foncier et d'accès aux ressources. Si l'on n'essaye pas d'aborder ces problèmes de façon plus globale sur le plan systémique, il restera toujours des zones sensibles susceptibles de connaître des crises alimentaires à l'avenir.L'UE veut être un leader en matière de changement, d'orientation et d'affectation des ressources et des efforts aux endroits où il convient d'accorder la priorité aux besoins. Nous devons absolument faire des systèmes alimentaires une priorité politique. Nous oublions parfois que l'agriculture et le développement rural ont un rôle central à jouer pour garantir le bien-être et le développement des sociétés, en particulier dans les régions les plus vulnérables du monde, en Afrique, en Asie, en Amérique centrale et, surtout, dans les petits États insulaires. Nous voulons proposer une approche de l'élaboration des politiques qui soit fondée sur les droits humains en autonomisant les femmes et les jeunes et en créant des communautés rurales dynamiques. Ce n'est qu'en combinant des investissements des secteurs public et privé que nous pourrons créer les conditions permettant aux jeunes de développer des moyens de subsistance prospères dans les zones rurales. ■  Le rapport annuel entre dans le détail de projets phares, que ce soit la création d'emplois dans la riziculture en Afrique de l'Ouest, l'émancipation des jeunes, notamment des jeunes femmes, pour transformer l'agriculture au Kenya, l'accroissement des rendements et des bénéfices en Ouganda ou bien encore la dynamisation de l'agriculture insulaire aux Samoa par la sécurisation de débouchés. Concernant le changement climatique, le CTA a promu l'usage de bulletins météo, de la mise en réseau, d'assurances pour le bétail et les cultures, ainsi que l'utilisation de semences résistantes pour améliorer la résilience des exploitations agricoles. Enfin, tirer les leçons des différents projets permet de s'assurer que leurs participants en bénéficient à long terme. Meilleures pratiques après récolte du maïs au Rwanda, amélioration de l'accès au marché des producteurs de fruits et de légumes à Zanzibar ou bien encore promotion de la production de soja en Ouganda sont autant de projets qui ont bénéficié des ateliers de capitalisation de l'expérience, peu coûteux à organiser. ■ Agriculture africaine et investissements étrangers : plus de bénéfices que de risques ?Le secteur agricole est un moteur de croissance économique, de création d'emplois, de réduction de la pauvreté et de sécurité alimentaire en Afrique. La libéralisation du secteur agricole a créé de nouvelles opportunités pour les investisseurs privés. Ces investissements ont donné un coup de pouce à la croissance économique, offrant ainsi de nouvelles chances aux petits agriculteurs du continent.Tous les pays n'ont pas profité de cette évolution favorable et, sur le front des investissements, d'importants défis subsistent. Si le risque de change et le risque de contrepartie sont sans doute les deux principaux facteurs qui freinent les investisseurs potentiels, les \"échecs\" sont généralement à mettre sur le compte d'un manque de préparation.Tout investissement peut avoir un coût de réputation ou de financement considérable si le niveau de diligence raisonnable est insuffisant et que l'investisseur n'est pas prêt à coopérer de manière durable avec les acteurs locaux. Se fier aux assurances données par un gouvernement ne suffit pas : les entreprises doivent étayer leur \"permis social d'exploitation\" en évaluant elles-mêmes les risques avec un tiers réputé, et réaliser par exemple une évaluation de l'impact environnemental et social de leurs activités et de leurs investissements.De leur côté, les agriculteurs se heurtent toujours à l'absence d'infrastructures efficaces et à un accès limité au crédit et aux marchés. Dans la transformation et la distribution, les défis se résument essentiellement au problème de la préservation de la qualité des produits. Des entreprises agroalimentaires comme Olam peuvent investir dans le stockage, mais les problèmes se poseront ensuite pour les ports -très congestionnés et dont les services sont souvent inefficaces et coûteux.Relever ces défis et s'attaquer à ces problèmes pourrait non seulement stimuler les échanges commerciaux mais aussi contribuer à limiter le gaspillage alimentaire, et donc à améliorer la sécurité alimentaire mondiale. Le continent possède un réel potentiel de croissance agricole qui peut être exploité si la priorité est donnée à la gestion durable de ce secteur. Le secteur agroalimentaire pourrait se développer au point de \"peser\" 1 000 milliards de dollars (880 milliards d'euros) d'ici à 2030. En outre, la population de l'Afrique est la plus jeune et la croissance démographique la plus rapide au monde. Le continent peut ainsi bénéficier d'une chance inégalée, à condition que cette jeunesse soit convenablement instruite et formée.Cela fait trente ans qu'Olam poursuit son développement en Afrique et contribue au développement du continent. L'entreprise a investi 2,8 milliards de dollars (2,47 milliards d'euros) dans 25 pays de l'ouest à l'est et au sud. Étant donné la situation spécifique à chaque pays, il y a lieu de consacrer à chacun d'eux le temps et les ressources nécessaires pour s'assurer le développement de l'entreprise et du pays.Pour y parvenir, il faut investir dans les personnes, les infrastructures et le soutien afin de mettre en place un environnement commercial propice au succès des entreprises et des entrepreneurs africains, tout comme leurs homologues internationaux. Olam a développé et diversifié ses activités. Nous pouvons donc affirmer qu'aujourd'hui nos activités commerciales en Afrique bénéficient au continent africain.Sachant que l'agriculture africaine repose en grande partie sur plus de 35 millions de petits exploitants, tout investissement qui ne stimule pas leur productivité ne sera pas durable. Il est donc parfaitement justifié sur le plan économique d'accorder une attention particulière au soutien en faveur des 2,8 millions de petits exploitants agricoles auprès desquels Olam s'approvisionne et encore plus si l'on souhaite les aider à relever les défis auxquels ils sont confrontés. Notre capacité à continuer d'approvisionner nos clients exige que l'on aide ces agriculteurs à sortir de la pauvreté et à faire en sorte qu'ils puissent continuer à produire suffisamment et durablement.Si nos investissements ont eu un tel impact, c'est parce que nous avons collaboré avec des ONG et des institutions de financement du développement. Grâce à ces alliances, nous pouvons sortir ces petits exploitants de l'agriculture de subsistance et changer leur situation sur le terrain. L'avenir laisse entrevoir un énorme potentiel de développement économique en Afrique. ■ Selon la FAO, des investissements supplémentaires de plus de 80 milliards de dollars (71 milliards d'euros) devront être consentis chaque année pour atteindre les objectifs de réduction de la pauvreté et du nombre de personnes dénutries en Afrique. Malgré les objectifs du Programme détaillé de développement de l'agriculture africaine et la Déclaration de Malabo, la majorité des pays africains consacrent à l'agriculture moins de 10 % de leurs dépenses publiques. Dans ce contexte, l'investissement étranger direct (IED) jouera un rôle important en suppléant aux fonds des investissements nationaux, en stimulant la productivité et en canalisant les transferts de connaissances et de technologies vers les économies africaines. L'IED pourrait aussi faire connaître aux pays africains de bonnes pratiques et des technologies de pointe. Au-delà, l'IED permettra certainement l'intégration des entreprises locales dans les chaînes de valeur nationales, régionales et mondiales.Les moteurs de l'augmentation des investissements étrangers dans l'agriculture africaine sont notamment la demande croissante d'aliments dans les grands pays importateurs, le besoin de garantir des approvisionnements alimentaires adéquats à l'échelle internationale, la demande grandissante de matières premières pour les biocombustibles, et les préoccupations sur la vulnérabilité potentielle face à la volatilité des marchés alimentaires mondiaux.Des sceptiques pointent du doigt un phénomène croissant : l'acquisition de vastes étendues de terres par des acteurs étrangers, ce qui défavorise les acteurs et agriculteurs autochtones. Alors que les ","tokenCount":"15448"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"efb4e6b60e9725adb5e9b6dd64c6de52","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ce1e3d7f-a5b5-401a-b5ab-f02e6549e84c/retrieve","id":"-683903627"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"64347d14-a8f7-4b69-8e96-16698f090e97","pagecount":"23","content":"Tables Table 1: Published heritability estimates of the novel indicators of resilience using different types of longitudinal data Table 2: Published genetic correlations of two resilience indicators: log-transformed variance of deviation (LnVar) and autocorrelation of deviation (r auto ) with fertility, health, metabolic, and production traits Dairy production contributes significantly to food and nutritional security and employment in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, production is negatively affected by environmental challenges such as high temperatures and heat stress, diseases and parasites, unreliable rainfall patterns, and shortages of feed crops and forages. Thus, the resilience capacity of dairy animals must be fostered to enable them to withstand climatic adversities without compromising their production levels. This can only be achieved if reliable and practical methods that can quantify and analyse resilience in SSA have been described and tested. By appreciating existing technological innovations and body of knowledge on resilience, this review presents the significance of resilience of dairy animals to environmental perturbations, proposed resilience indicators from the literature, and phenotypic data needed for characterizing resilience of dairy cattle in SSA. Resilience of dairy cattle is important in the fight against poverty and helps to improve animal welfare and prepare them for future unseen consequences of climate change. Indicators of resilience include variance of deviation, root mean square of deviation, autocorrelation of deviation, slope of the reaction norm, and the absolute value of the reaction norm. Genetic variation and favourable correlations with health, fitness and fertility traits have been previously reported for these indicators, however their potential remains to be tested in SSA. Phenotypic data needed for resilience should be labourand cost-effective and easy to collect using available tools. Such phenotypic data include longitudinal data on milk production traits, body fat-related traits and activity patterns. These data are, however, not usually available in volumes that would allow characterization of resilience of dairy animals in SSA using the proposed indicators. The African Dairy Genetic Gains Project of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is collating data from large-and small-scale dairy farms that could be used to test the potential of these indicators in SSA.Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experiences numerous environmental challenges such as severe droughts that are accompanied by high ambient temperatures and heat stress; diseases and parasites, and shortages of feeds and forages, all of which negatively affect dairy production. Therefore, improved management practices as well as improved genetic potential for both production and resilience are needed to cope with the above challenges. Genetic improvement that confers resilience to the physical environmental, disease and parasitic challenges offer more pragmatic and long-term solutions.The environmental disturbance is a change in conditions that negatively affect the normal functioning of a biological system (Capucchio et al. 2019). Disturbances in the environment are classified as either macroenvironmental or microenvironmental (Falconer and Mackay 1996). Macroenvironmental disturbances are characteristics of the environment such as heat stress and disease pressure that affect the whole population. Microenvironment disturbances occur within the macro-environment and affect only a few individuals within that environment (e.g., disease).An animal's degree of resilience to a disturbance is its capacity to be minimally affected by the perturbation or rapidly return to the state pertained before exposure to the disturbance (Berghof, Poppe and Mulder 2019). These disturbances are normally situation-specific, episodic, or sporadic and not permanent attributes of the environment (Colditz and Hine 2016). Degree of resilience therefore compares the differences in the magnitudes of phenotypes associated with resilience among individuals after exposure to the environmental challenges (Rutter 2012) and is a measure of better adaptability or lower sensitivity to a challenging state of affairs. This means that, when exposed to a disturbance, the performance of a resilient animal need not be the same as when it is under no disturbance, but rather, the negative change in its performance would be relatively lower compared to less resilient individuals that are exposed to similar disturbances.Although 80% of cow milk in SSA is produced from smallholder systems (Ojango et al. 2017), the breeding goals are not defined clearly to respond to the prevailing challenges. Even where attempts have been made at defining such goals, resilience components are usually missing.Recent technological advancement has enabled the invention and innovative use of tools and software such as activity meters and thermal imaging cameras to collect data on resilience-related phenotypes in livestock. However, the potential and utility of such innovations is yet to be realized in SSA's dairy industry. Besides, methods of deriving indicators to measure the general resilience of cattle using longitudinal data have been proposed and adopted for high-performing exotic cattle in temperate countries (Poppe et al. 2020;Berghof et al. 2019;Elgersma et al. 2018;Sánchez-Molano et al. 2019). Nonetheless, the potential of using such indicators to quantify general resilience is yet to be fully tested in SSA.The conclusions and recommendations made on livestock resilience from temperate countries might not apply in the SSA case for several reasons. The majority of commercial dairy cattle in SSA are crossbreds of different proportions of zebu and taurine breeds, which are quite different from the cattle breeds in temperate countries in terms of body conformation and size, performance, and feed requirement. Additionally, the environmental perturbations that affect dairy cattle and the level of animal husbandry in SSA are quite different from those in the temperate world. The level of resilience of SSA's livestock should therefore be quantified based on the cattle genotypes as well as the set of disturbances to which they are exposed. This report reviews the significance of the resilience of dairy cattle in SSA, how such resilience can be quantified and the set of phenotypic data that is needed to adequately assess resilience.2 Significance of resilience of dairy cattle in SSABreeding for resilience of cattle genotypes in SSA would help increase production efficiency and profitability of dairy production. Resilient animals are generally healthier, more fertile and have longer productive life. Resilient dairy cattle therefore have lower veterinary and disease management costs, produce more from similar levels of inputs, and give higher total lifetime returns. A less-resilient herd, on the other hand, results in high production losses due to high mortality and morbidity rates and lower than optimal production yields. Extra resources are usually used to care for less resilient cows (Berghof et al. 2019).Improving the resilience of cattle to environmental stressors contributes to better animal welfare. Dairy cattle in good welfare experience less or no disturbance and thus are likely to perform optimally. Besides benefits related to fertility and production, animals in good welfare attract better prices in the market hence fetch more income for the farmer.Degree of intrinsic resilience prepares the animals for the future unseen consequences of climate change and ensure future food security for human beings. Global climatic conditions have been predicted to become warmer with the temperature rising by up to 4.8⁰C by the next century (Pachauri and Meyer 2015). With the world becoming warmer, shortages of water, forage (feed and fodder) available for dairy cattle as well as the emergence of novel diseases and resistant infectious agents are expected to rise. Continuous improvement of the resilience capacity of animals would ensure that animals are able to survive future adversaries and continue to supply dietary needs to the rising human population.3 Indicators of resilienceThese are indicators that capture more of resilience to microenvironmental disturbances than macroenvironmental stressors and are based on fluctuations from the normal performance of the animal. They include variance of deviations, root mean square deviations, lag-1 autocorrelation of deviations and skewness of deviations. These indicators have been shown to contain genetic variation (Table 1) that can be utilized to breed for resilience in livestock. They have been shortly described below.Variance of deviation indicates the impact of the disturbance on the performance of an individual animal. It is sometimes known as inherited variability, uniformity, environmental or residual variance (Berghof et al. 2019). The biological functioning of resilient animals is less affected by the disturbances in the environment. As such, resilient animals have a smaller range of deviation from their expected performance hence a low variance of deviation, while the performance of less resilient animals tends to be variable because they are more affected by the stressors in their environment. They, therefore, have a higher variance of deviation (Berghof et al. 2019). The genetic correlations between variance of deviation (derived from different types of longitudinal data) and fertility and fitness traits are consistently negative but range from weak to moderate (Table 2). This indicates that this indicator could be used to measure general resilience of dairy animals.Just like variance of deviation, root mean square deviation (RMSD), or root mean square error (RSME), indicates the impact of disturbance on the performance of an individual animal. It is a square root of the raw variance of deviation. A larger RMSD value is expected from a less resilient animal and smaller values for resilient animals. Given the mathematical attribute of this indicator, higher number of records are needed in order to avoid erroneous grouping of animals with fewer records as more resilient (Putz et al. 2019). RMSD using feed intake and duration was found to have moderate heritabilities (0.21 and 0.26, respectively) and to be favourably correlated with the number of treatments (0.56 and 0.62) and mortality (0.37 and 0.60) in a health-challenged environment (Putz et al. 2019).This statistic shows the duration of the impact of disturbance or the rate of recovery from the disturbance. The biological sense behind Lag-1 autocorrelation (r auto ) is that a disturbance would mostly cause animals to deviate from their normal performance and animals would recover from the disturbance at different rates depending on their degree of resilience.Resilient animals are expected to recover faster from disturbances thus tend to have shorter and fewer stretches of negative deviations than less resilient animals. As a result, similarity between subsequent deviations is low. The opposite is the case for less resilient animals. An autocorrelation around one indicates that deviations are because of a similar stressor thus an animal is influenced by the disturbance and has a slower rate of recovery from the disturbance. An autocorrelation around -1 indicates that the deviations are opposite; although an animal is affected by the perturbation, it has a quick and overcompensating response to the perturbation. Past studies have reported low but significant heritabilities for Lag-1 autocorrelation (Table 1) denoting that it contains information on genetic variation among the individuals in the population.Weak and negligible genetic correlations between health traits and rauto have been observed in past studies (Table 2).This indicates the direction of the deviation and captures the level of severity of the disturbance experienced by an individual animal. Less resilient animals are more influenced by disturbances and thus have more negative than positive deviations which leads to a negative skewness around -1. Resilient animals have skewness around zero because they have almost equal numbers of negative and positive deviations. An animal that is responding positively to the environmental improvement should show a positive skewness due to positive deviations. Past studies have reported low heritability estimates (Table 1) and unexpected genetic correlations with fitness and health traits for skewness of deviation. Skewness around zero is expected to show good resilience. However, in a study by Poppe et al. (2020) , it was observed that skewness is genetically associated with a shorter productive life span, lower body condition score, and higher ketosis in dairy cattle). Berghof et al. (2019) also could not predict mortality or lesion scores of chickens using estimated breeding values for skewness. For this reason, skewness might not be a promising indicator of resilience. Despite the indicators listed and discussed above having generally low to moderate heritabilities, most of them have moderate genetic correlations reported between them and fitness related traits such as fertility, health, and longevity signifying their importance in dairy production. Direct assessment of fertility, longevity, and health is expensive in terms of time, cost, and labour because it requires more and different datasets to be collected.These empirical indicators can easily be integrated into selection indices for dairy cattle in SSA since they use the same data that are used to assess other performance traits such as growth and production. Nevertheless, routine collection of data is a challenge in livestock production systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Perhaps the resources being allocated to quantify resilience in a trait-by-trait manner could be channeled to the frequent collection of quality longitudinal data such as milk yield, growth traits, and activity patterns. Improved data quality and quantity would not only help to assess resilience but also improve production performance.These indicators capture resilience of animals to macroenvironmental disturbances. Macroenvironmental stressors are the environmental disturbances such as heat stress, inadequate in supply of water and feed, and disease pressure, that affect the whole population. Therefore, these indicators capture severity of macroenvironmental disturbances and are specific to that type of disturbance. They measure how stable the animal performs in different intensity of a disturbance. Some of these indicators include:A reaction norm is the spectrum of phenotypic variation produced when individuals of the same genotype are exposed to varying environmental conditions. The slope of the reaction norm is the number that describes both the direction and the steepness of the reaction norm. It measures the phenotypic change in the performance of an individual animal in response to disturbances in the field (phenotypic plasticity). It indicates the severity of macro-environmental disturbance experienced by an individual animal.Under the assumption that a stressor is reducing the trait values, animals that are not influenced by these disturbances are expected to have a positive slope or a slope of zero whereas those affected by the disturbance should have slopes below zero. The steeper the negative slope, the more the animal is influenced by the respective disturbance, and the more the animal is less resilient (Berghof et al. 2019). The slope of the reaction norm had a weak but significant (p<0.01) positive genetic correlation (0.04 to 0.05) with total lifetime milk yield in goats (Sánchez-Molano et al. 2019). This shows that animals with high milk production potential are more likely to have their production influenced by the changes in their environments.Absolute value of the reaction norm is the distance of the slope of the reaction norm from zero. It indicates the stability or volatility of animal performance in relation to the disturbances in the environment. The closer the absolute value to zero, the more stable and resilient the animal is. Previous studies showed that the absolute value of the reaction norm has a moderate genetic correlation with total lifetime milk yield (0.46) in dairy goats (Sánchez-Molano et al. 2019) and a weak negative correlation (-0.152) with weight gain in sheep (Sánchez-Molano et al. 2020). This implies that resilient animals do not allocate resources to the production of milk at the expense of their health and welfare. Resilient animals (with low absolute value of the reaction norm) have also higher average weight gain than less resilient animals.These are phenotypes that can be utilized to quantify resilience of the animals either directly or by analyzing them using one of the methods named above. The phenotypes to be used to quantify resilience in SSA should be simple and easier, and cost and labour effective to measure. The tools used to collect these phenotypes should be easily available to make their use scalable. Some of the phenotypes that meet such criteria include body energy-related traits, physical activity patterns, and milk production profile. Resilient animals are less affected by the changes in their environment and are expected to have limited deviations from the expected measurement value of the phenotype.These include body weight and related body linear measurements such as heart girth and body condition at a specific stage of life. They can indirectly inform about body fat mobilization, dry matter intake, and feed efficiency.Lactating cows mobilize their body fats to support milk production and other metabolic energy requirement deficiencies. When the energy obtained from dry matter intake is not enough, the animal is likely to catabolize some of its energy reserves to compensate for the deficit. These phenotypes include body weight and body condition score of animals.The weight of the animal assesses the growth rate of the animals and determines the feed requirements, and the response of animals to changes in their environment (Lukuyu et al. 2016). The most globally accepted and accurate method of measuring weight is the use of a calibrated mechanical or electronic scale. However, this method is expensive and not readily available in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in smallholder dairy systems. Estimation of the body weight from the visual assessment is always subjective and is associated with a lot of errors (Machila et al. 2008). Therefore, the use of inexpensive, direct measuring tapes to measure the heart girth and body length for estimation of live weight is currently the most reliable method in SSA. Even though the body weights of animals vary, changes from the ideal weight can be utilized to inform about the resilience of the animals. Previous studies have shown genetic variation in fluctuations of body weight in different livestock species (Sánchez-Molano et al. 2020;Berghof et al. 2019).Body condition score (BCS) is used to estimate the level of mobilization of body fat reserves. Various scoring procedures ranging from a visual and tactile assessment of the fat reserves on the back and pelvic region of the animals to the use of photographic mobile applications are applied. Animals have different levels of body fat mobilization depending on their genetics, health status, climatic condition, lactation stage, and the level of farm management. Therefore, BCS varies with animal and time of assessment. Scoring of body condition can be used to provide information on the well-being, nutrition, production, and reproductive performance, hence robustness of dairy herd (Heinrichs et al. 2016;Kellogg 2010;Bewley and Schutz 2008). Deviations from ideal BCS negatively affects the production, reproduction, and health status of dairy cows (Garnsworthy and Topps 1982).There is no one specific recommended BCS that applies across all stages of lactation as the energy requirement varies with stages of lactation. An ideal BCS at a given stage of lactation is that which optimizes milk production and reproductive performance and minimizes health disorders thereby ensuring optimal profitability (Bayram et al. 2012). Dairy cows maintaining an ideal body condition score curve throughout the lactation, dry, and transition period are likely to have better reproductive performance and lower occurrence of disease (Roche et al. 2009;Gomez et al. 2018). From different recommendations in the literature, an ideal body condition of cows on a scale of 1-5 should range between 2.5 to 3.75 with the lowest point (nadir BCS) witnessed at the early stage of the lactation (Table 3 and Figure 1).  Despite the potential of BCS in assessing robustness of dairy herd, its assessment through visual observation is subjective as it is affected by the training and experience of the evaluator. The score an animal gets would still vary among the experienced evaluators and could be influenced by previously observed cows (Bercovich et al. 2013). Advances in technology have seen smartphone applications with photographic sensors being developed and used in developed countries to score the body condition of animals directly. Nonetheless, care should be taken before using such applications to score animals in sub-Saharan Africa as the body conformation of zebu and their crosses is different from that of taurine cattle and their crosses.The activity patterns of animals differ depending on an individual, management practices, and regional differences (Krawczel 2014;Ito et al. 2014). Changes in activity patterns can help in detecting health and welfare issues of animals (EIP-AGRI 2018). Using activity pattern data, the resilience of animals can be estimated based on the average daily measurement after adjusting for encountered fixed effects. Depending on the required measurement, whether more or less, animals that perform below or above the population average could be more resilient. Another way of quantifying resilience would be based on the fluctuations from their normal activity pattern. Animals adjust their activity patterns such as lying, mobility, and feeding behavior in response to the stressors in their environment. These adjustments can be used to define resilience indicators to estimate their degree of resilience to these disturbances. Resilient animals are expected to have limited deviations from their normal activity patterns. Precision livestock farming (PLF) sensor-based technology has allowed data on the physical activities of the animals to be easily collected using activity meters and analysed. Some of the activity data include but not limited to lying, standing, and stepping behaviours.Lying behaviour includes total lying time and the number of the lying bouts. Generally, cows spend from 4 to 19.5 hours lying with 1 to 28 lying bouts per day (Ito, Weary and von Keyserlingk 2009). Limited lying is associated with low productivity and poor welfare whereas more than usual lying behavior could be an indicator of health issues. Animals stay in standing posture when feeding, drinking water, socializing, being milked, or moving from one point to another.Spending more than 11 hours per day standing could be a sign of heat stress and might increase the risk of lameness and decreased standing time could be an indicator of physical injuries, lameness, and other sicknesses (Temple et al. 2016). Animals move around in search of feed, mate, and resting areas as well as to the milking parlors. The stepping behaviour during grazing could inform about feed efficiency and grazing type (Gregorini et al. 2015). A higher step count confers physical health benefits but is a risk factor for lameness. Lower than usual step count could indicate a health disorder.Mobility scoring is used to assess lameness. Industry-standard four-point mobility scoring on a scale from 0 to 3 is the commonly used scale with 0 signifying sound/good mobility and 3 indicating severely impaired mobility (Whay et al. 2003). Lameness leads to low milk production, poor reproductive performance, compromised animal welfare, and an increased risk of premature culling (Archer, Green and Huxley 2010). It is also associated with physical injury and different kinds of clinical diseases (Murray et al. 1996). The incidence of lameness is influenced by the genetics of the animal (such as temperament and body conformation), management practices, and geographical region. The animals with constant high mobility scores are deemed to be less resilient as their movement in search of feed and water is impaired thus requiring extra labour to feed.These include milk yield, milk chemical composition especially fat and protein content, and somatic cells. Disturbances in the environment such as diseases and harsh climatic conditions are expected to cause a decrease in milk yield. Less resilient animals are highly affected by the perturbations and will deviate greatly from their expected milk production levels. For instance, animals that are greatly affected by heat stress will reduce their feed intake and consequently produce less milk yield and of lower quality than anticipated. Therefore, deviation of milk yield from the expected lactation curve of the animal can inform the resilience of the animals. Indeed, studies have already used the fluctuation in the milk yield to indicate resilience of the animals (Sánchez-Molano et al. 2019;Poppe et al. 2020Poppe et al. , 2021;;Tsartsianidou et al. 2021).Variability of fat and protein content of the milk measured on test-days has also been shown to have genetic variance (Ehsaninia, Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh and Shadparvar 2019). As an example, variations in fat content may indicate resilience to rumen acidosis or ketosis. It would be interesting though, to use more frequent records of fats and protein content to define resilience indicators and estimate genetic correlations with health and fitness traits.Somatic cell count (SCC) is the count of cells in a millilitre (mL) of milk sample. Its log-transformed form is called somatic cell score (SCS). SCC in the milk is used to indicate the status of udder health and mastitis infection. Generally, a healthy cow is expected to have up to 100,000 somatic cells per 1 mL of milk. A somatic cell count above 200,000cells/mL is considered an indicator of mastitis infection (El-Tahawy and El-Far 2010; Cinar et al. 2015).Variations in somatic cell scores could be used as an indication of resilience to mastitis (De Haas et al. 2008;Urioste et al. 2012). Mastitis is one of the most common production-related diseases in cows in SSA especially in small-scale dairy systems that result in huge economic losses following high rates of rejection of milk from the market (Chagunda et al. 2016). A resilient animal is expected to have few incidences and frequencies of mastitis infection or a high recovery rate from the infection.Light and portable milk analyzers are commercially available and can be used to quickly measure milk chemical composition and SCC directly from the field. This reduces the cost, time and labour needed for laboratory analysis.This review presents the need for breeding for resilience as one of the ways of improving dairy productivity in the tropics, and specifically in sub-Saharan Africa. It points to the difficulty associated with quantifying or measuring resilience and describes some of the indicators and phenotypes that can be used to quantify degrees of resilience in sub-Saharan Africa. The indicators are broadly categorized into two; those that capture resilience to microenvironmental disturbances (general resilience) and those that measure resilience to macro-environmental disturbances (specific resilience). Indicators of general resilience include variance of deviation, Root mean square deviation, Lag-1 autocorrelation of deviation, and skewness of deviation. Indicators of specific resilience are slope and the absolute value of the reaction norm. All these indicators have genetic variation and heritabilities that are significant from zero hence can be used to select for resilience. In addition, easier to measure phenotypes that are routinely collected using available tools offer opportunities for characterizing resilience of dairy cattle in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these phenotypes includes energy metabolism traits such as body weight and body condition score, milk production traits such as milk chemical composition and somatic cells count, and activity patterns such as time spent lying or standing and step counts.However, using these indicators and phenotypes to quantify resilience require that large volume of related data be collected on animals and appropriately analysed. African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG), a project led by ILRI and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), which is an integral part of the CGIAR Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender Inclusion (SAPLING) is capturing and managing large volumes of performance data from both small-and large-scale farmers in eastern Africa and are pulling related weather data to derive indicative resilience traits. Future efforts aim to capture resilience indicator data using various sensor-based technologies more directly. Over time, accumulated data can be used in genetic evaluations. Using this data, analyses aimed at testing the potential of applying these indicators to breed for resilience and robustness of dairy cattle in sub-Saharan Africa are underway. Preliminary results obtained so far show that indicators such as variance and autocorrelation of deviations have genetic variability and are reasonably heritable hence can be appropriately combined into a composite resilience measure that can be used to inform selection for resilience in sub-Saharan Africa.","tokenCount":"4487"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"87bc32c561b0d4f7ff63233b187040ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_10582.pdf","id":"471205289"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b6e7f18d-6bdd-402b-88a2-969b05ecde4d","pagecount":"65","content":"Both the Federal Government' and the NWFP government* had requested IIMl's participation in a collaborative effort to determine the most appropriate management system for the new design approaches in the NWFPs Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) and Lower Swat Canal (LSC) projects. The Federal government had expressed its interest in the CRBC and the Provincial government had requested assistance with respect t o the conversion of operations to demand system in the LSC. The former is being developed with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank and the latter with the assistance of the World Bank. During the appraisal of the Stage II of the CRBC in 1987, the Federal Ministry of Water and Poher had also requested the ADB for technical assistance t o carry out an action-oriented study for demand-based irrigation system operations 3 . The TA study program is based on this coalition of interests.The Inception Report describes the background of the study in general and of the specific study locations, its rationale and objectives, and the accomplishment of its inception activities. The Report also refers to several constraints encountered during the preparatory stages of the study and those that may lie ahead, and more importantly to some proposed changes in the study activities and the workplan. These changes are proposed in view of the constraints that were not envisaged a t the proposal stage, and also of some recent policy decisions made on the operation of the LSC necessitating a shift in emphasis of the study a t the LSC location.  Engineering (IPHED), the NWFP Agriculture Department (AD) and the northern division of the Federal Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), as well as with some farmers. Later, discussions were also held with the National Consultative Committee for IIMI-Pakistan. IlMl staff also met with the World Bank consultants and the expert w h o installed an on-demand pilot project in the LSC and visited its 60 acre pilot area.These visits and discussions clearly identified the need for a more careful consideration of design and supply constraints before embarking upon a full-scale on-demand system of irrigation operations, or even any modified demand irrigation schedule in either of the t w o projects.In December 1989, the ADB Fact-Finding Mission which visited the project areas along with IlMl staff, held similx discussions with officials and farmers, and recognized these constraints. They noted ?he confusion resulting from apprehensions of those who tend t o interpret the term \"demand-based irrigation\" t o mean complete freedom for farmers.The actual intent of the design changes appears rather t o have been aimed a t the general purpose of reducing the mismatch between water deliveries and crop water requirements. Discussions w i t h officials of the Federal Ministry of Water and Power, and the Economic Affairs Division, confirmed this position.Accordingly, IlMl developed a proposal for a collaborative action-oriented study program in the CRBC and the LSC, involving in-depth investigation into present system conditions and operations, and identification of the most appropriate management system for irrigation operations based on crop-water requirements under the given and anticipated DeveloDment of the Studv ProDosal project constraints.After further discussions with Government officials and Bank staff 4 , IlMl prepared the proposal document that was submitted for ADB's and GOP's consideration in February 1990. A Bank Fact-Finding Mission visited Pakistan between 2 and 1 0 April To follow up on the Mission in December 1989, t h e Bank fielded a Contact/Consultation Mission in February 1990.Based on these understandings, GOP through its Economic Affairs Division formally requested ADB for technical assistance for this study t o be undertaken by IIMI, and an MOU was signed by GOP, IlMl and ADB on 24 September 1990. After ADB's decision on provision of T A for the proposed study, ADB fielded an inception mission on 16 March 1991 t o discuss with the parties concerned and finalize the terms of reference for the study. As expected a t the inception mission deliberations, IlMl initiated preparatory work for the study in March 1991 with the intention of starting field activities from the beginning of the Kharif season, but administrative delays in signing the T A Agreement tended t o retard the process. Eventually, the TA Agreement between GOP, GONWFP, IlMl and ADB was signed on 25 July 1991.II. STUDY BACKGROUND The present diversion capacity of the canals of Pakistan is 7,318 cumecs. The network of canals of about 64,000 k m in total length, and watercourses totalling'to about another 1.6 million km in length delivers water t o the fields through 89,100 farm outlets. This is supplemented by groundwater from about 12,500 large public tubewells and another 280,000 small private tubewells. Average annual utilization is about 123.4 billion cubic meters out of an average annual flow of 175.2 billion cubic meters of the three western Rivers i.e., Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. These statistics describe one of the world's largest irrigation systems. Pakistan's 4:l ratio of irrigated t o unirrigated crop land is, in fact, the highest in the world. IThe irrigation system of Pakistan was designed as a ruwof-the river system w i t h an objective t o command maximum area with the available supplies in the river, ensuring \"equitable distribution\" between various canals, branches and distributaries and also between individual outlets. The duty of water (or the water allowance) was fixed relatively low in order t o irrigate maximum command; the typical duty being 50 t o 70 literslsec per 1000 hectares [ 3 -4 cusecs per 1000 acres 1. The irrigation intensity was Oriainal Desian for \"Protective\" Irriaation j ,For a more detailed description of the irrigation see Annex 1 .systems in Pakistan, please also designed t o be kept low a t an average of about 75%, with 50% during Kharif and 25% during Rabi.Another design objective was t o keep the administrative and operational requirements as low as possible. The \"equitable distribution\" of water was t o be effected without much interference by the operators. The number of control structures in a canal w a s kept t o a minimum. Cross regulators were installed only where necessary t o control operating levels for the head regulators. The distributary outlets were not gated, but had fixed structures t o provide discharges proportional t o the area t o be irrigated in the watercourse commands.Following the \"Regime Theory\" of Mr. Lacey, an Irrigation Engineer of Punjab Irrigation Department in late 1930s, the canals were designed with slopes, velocities and sections in regime t o minimize silting and scouring. The canals were t o run most of the time at authorized full supply level and be closed when th.e supplies fell short of 75% of the full supply discharge t o avoid silting.The lndus River system carries a large volume of suspended sediment during t h e flood season. This heavy silt load was the main source of the deterioration of the old inundation canals and posed a big challenge t o the engineers in designing the new canals.Efforts were made to prevent the heavy load of silt by construction of silt \"excluders\" as part of the headwork; water was drawn into the canals from the upper layers carrying comparatively less silt load. Any silt, that entered the canals was t o be disposed of w i t h the flow of water through the Moghas for deposition on the irrigated lands. Some of the above mentioned design features, however, appear t o have outlived their usefulness. Increased cropping intensities, changed cropping patterns, and an increasing indiscipline in the system surpassed the original ' design objectives. The idea of \"protective\" irrigation embodied in the early design criteria was no longer compatible with the emerging new conditions.From \"Protective\" t o \"Productive\" Irriqation , With the introduction of Green Revolution technology, irrigated agriculture in Pakistan underwent some rapid changes. Irrigation intensity increased far beyond the design stage expectations, partly aided by the development of groundwater. New and improved crop varieties were introduced t o produce high yields, and most of these varieties acting in combination with a package of inputs on which they were dependent, were highly sensitive t o irrigation water. Cropping patterns changed requiring increased quantity and reliability of farmgate water supply. All these changes converged on the need t o have a greater control over availability of water: in adequate quantity and quality, a t appropriate stages of crop growth, and a t the correct time and place. The yield potential of new crops using the new technology was generally known, and the full realization of this potential was seen as dependent on the application of the complete technology package which included a more intensive water management effort as one of its critical elements.Thus, a departure seemed necessary from the traditional approach of \"protective\" irrigation t o that of \"productive\" irrigation.A mismatch between irrigation supplies and crop water requirements has been seen as a prominent characteristic of canal irrigation systems in Pakistan. According t o the National Commission on Agriculture', the most adverse effects of the seasonal variability of supplies are (i) the chronic inequity which affects the tail-enders, and (ii) the shortages that occur during critical periods of the crop growth cycle. Both these factors contribute t o lower yields in large areas of Pakistan's irrigation systems.These adverse effects are exacerbated by the low water allowances and the limitations of the physical system capacities in the traditional \"protective\" irrigation systems. The concept of \"productive\" irrigation aims t o increase irrigation water availability and t o manage irrigation deliveries t o meet the consumptive water requirements of the crop (crop demand), and thus create the opportunity for improved ,agricultural production.A declining potential for further enhancement of the resdurce base is also another reason for looking towards \"productive\" irrig'ation. Pakistan during its Seventh Five Year Plan period ( 1 988-93) is anticipating a 40% increase in the rate of agricultural production over the rate achieved in the Sixth Five Year Plan period (83-883. This'is t o be achieved in the context of limited scope for expansion in the irrigated area. Water supply increases indicated by annual growth rates in farm gate water availability -of 3.9% for 1960-67, 2.7% for 1968-78 and 1.6% for 1978-86 --do not totally correspond t o an expansion in the irrigated area which has increased only a t the much lower rates of 2.7%, 1.3% andThis trend implies a' policy of shifting t o \"productive\" irrigation.respectively for the same periods 7 .A n instance of official recognition of the perceived inadequacy of Pakistan's traditional \"protective\" irrigation system can be seen in the Report of the National Commission on Agriculture. Here, t w o specific problems relating t o the canal irrigation system have been noted: 1) the persistent tendency of the supply-based system t o spread existing supplies widely and thinly, and 2) the consequent difficulty of varying water supplies t o meet changing crop water requirements. in different canal commands. tubewells and canals t o adequately meet both drainage and crop-water requirements.However, the Commission's explicit caution in this regard reflected a wide-spread concern on the difficulties of adopting full scale demand-based irrigation in Pakistan. The Commission recommended that crop zoning and water scheduling aimed at linking more closely irrigation supplies with crop-water requirements should be first undertaken on a pilot scale before its wider application'.Another instance of national level ,concern in this regard was seen a t the series of deliberations that took place in finalizing the Water Sector Investment Plan (WSIP) of October 1990. In a working paper on policy and management issues by Kirmani', the major factors depressing crop yields were seen as, inequitable distribution of water, and lack of adequate matching of water supplies with crop requirements. The latter problem was linked t o the practice of using historic withdrawals as the, index for water allocation which therefore was not directly related t o crop requirements\".The Commission also recommended ,the operation of Specific mention of demand-based irrigation operations was made by the consultants t o the SCARP Mardan project in the NWFP. A t least'two of the consultant reports\" have suggested the applicatiori of an on-demand management approach for the LSC system, in which farmers have tha opportunity t o request water deliveries through a water-user organization, permitting them t o take most of the decisions pertaining t o the management of their irrigation and agricultural activities. HARZA Engineering.The North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the smallest .of the provinces of Pakistan, has only 5 % of t h e country's irrigated area, but is primarily an agricultural region. The Province's land and water resources are both limiting factors, and therefore is highly dependent on increases in the productivity of its irrigated agriculture. Its present yield in the major crop, wheat, is well below the national average, and yields of other crops are comparable. Thus, it is reasonable t o expect a strong interest in the province for improving the performance of its irrigated agriculture.In an effort t o improve irrigation management, the Province has introduced some changes in the planning of its new irrigation systems, leading t o substantial increase in the water duty (rate of water delivery per unit area). This change represents a shift in the philosophy of designing systems from \"protective\" t o \"productive\" irrigation. The revised water duties for channel and outlet designs attempt t o provide channel capacities that permit more appropriate matching of water deliveries t o crop water needs, as reflected by an anticipated or desired cropping pattern with optimum productivity levels.This shift in design philosophy can be seen in t w o major projects of the NWFP: the Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) offtaking from the lndus and the Lower Swat Canal (LSC) which derives its supplies from the Swat river. The design of CRBC and remodelling of LSC are based on main canal capacities of about 0.60 Ips per hectare and 0.77 Ips per hectare respectively, compared t o the more traditional system capacity of 0.28 Ips per hectare. The main features of these t w o systems are given in Table 1 below, and the characteristics of design changes are further elaborated in Annex 1.In Figure 1, the General Plan of the Chashma Right Bank Canal Irrigation Project is presented. It highlights the three stages into which the system has been divided for construction purposes.Similarly, in Figure 2 the Lower Swat Canal Irrigation System's layout is given. The figure also shows the designed Cultural Command Areas of the watercourses.a   Although the capacity of the CRBC system has been worked out on the basis of the maximum requirements of the CCA, no infra-structure has been provided t o run the system with variable discharges according t o the crop requirements.In the 32.3 km length of canal in Stage -I, there are only t w o cross regulators; one at 11.8 k m and the other a t 19.9 k m downstream of the head regulator. The control structures as provided are insufficient. More control points will be required t o introduce demand-based operations.The CRBC has been designed as a gravity canal t o run at nearly full supply discharge t o maintain its regime and avoid siltation. For demand-based operations CRBC will run only 40% of the time with discharge more than 75% while 60% of the time i t will run w i t h variable low supplies, with 20% of the time less than 50%. This running of variable low flows will have serious repercussion on the regime conditions of the canal.The design of CRBC envisages the conventional system of distribution of supplies from the distributaries t o the outlets i. The CRBC draws its supplies from the lndus River a t Chashma Barrage having a small component of storage. As such there is no problem in feeding the CRBC a t the head.However, the monthly pattern of allocation of water t o be utilized has been fixed due t o the inter-provincial character of the canal and the barrage. Escapes at distributary level have not been provided.The communication system is inadequate. Only a few regulating structures have been provided with telephone connections. Regulation messages are sent through messengers t o other regulation points. An efficient communication system is essential between all regulation points along the main canal as well as along the distributaries for introduction of any type of demand-based operations. Automation or remote control of some key control points may be required for efficient operation. A communication system between the water users and managers of the delivery system for timely intimation of demand and subsequent delivery schedule is a basic need. No such ,system exists at site. The old irrigation system of Paharpur Canal has been remodelled for the increased discharges on the basis of the crop requirements, but,neither the operating staff nor the farmers appear t o be running the system or using the water in the field according t o the requirements of the crops. They seem t o be delivering and using the additional water t o increase the extent of cash croDs. This trend is likely t o continue, t o the limit of available water. The ability t o deliver additional water during peak need periods appears t o be inadequate under conditions of full development with high delta crops. Thus, if this trend were t o continue, the objective of matching deliveries t o crop-based need is unlikely t o be met.The success of the crop-demand based operations ultimately depends upon t h e efficient use of water at the farm level. Water User Associations (WUAs) are an essential part of the operation. There are no WUAs in the area except on f e w watercourses where improvements have been done under the On-farm Water Management (OFWM) program.Even these are only on paper t o fulfill the OFWM program requirements.The LSC System is being remodelled t o meet the crop water requirements of the command area. The capacity of the channels is being increased. The watercourses are being converted into minors due t o increase in discharge. The outlets are being redesigned and provided with g,ates t o deliver varied discharges a t different times as per water requirement of the area. However, the system is not ready t o switch over t o demand-based operations due t o several design management disparities.The system has been redesigned on the assumption that run-of-the-river supplies will be available for most of the year except t w o months (October and November) t o meet the crop water requirements of the area. A gap between available supplies and demand will occur if demand exceeds due t o an increase in intensity or shift in cropping pattern from the design assumptions. With the'increase in water supply on demand at the outlet head, the farmers have a tendency t o .grow high delta cash crops and increase the intensity beyond the design and demand more water which the system will not be able t o deliver.The supplies will fall short for a longer period of time'and thus affect the crop production.The canal system from the headworks up t o the ou'tlet is unlined. This has been designed for maximum discharge on the \"Regime Theory\" concept, and is supposed t o run w i t h near design discharge to maintain their regime. The operation of the system w i t h variable discharges less than 7 5 % during 7 2 % of the time (even less than 2 5 % of discharge 28% of the time), will upset the regime of the canal.No cross regulators have been provided for feeding the offtaking distributaries. It will not be possible t o feed these distributaries without control structure when the canal will be running w i t h low discharges most of the year. The operation of distributaries w i t h partial supplies will be difficult due to provision of gated outlets. .Farmers in head reaches will be tempted t o draw more water. This will encourage inequity in distribution of water.Escapes have been provided only on the main canal. No escapes have been provided on the distributaries and minors t o dispose of surplus water. This may cause flooding of tail reaches in low demand period and damage the crops, unless distributary flows are reduced accordingly.Water User Associations (WUAs) play a key role in crop-based irrigation operations.Distribution of water within a watercourse will be the responsibility of the WUA. No institutional arrangements have been made for the utilization of additional supplies.The mechanism for distribution of water as an alternate to traditional warabandi has not been worked out.Training of t h e farmers t o utilize water and to ascertain the timing and quantity of water t o be given t o the crop has not been planned.The On-farm Water Management and other field staff of Agriculture Department have not been trained t o guide the farmers in the new circumstances of increased canal capacity.3.1 Rationale for the Studv While steps have been taken t o redesign and remodel these irrigation systems and t o provide larger water allocations for more intensive cropping, this effort has not been accompanied by the development of irrigation management procedures t o achieve more appropriate matching of delivery and crop water requirements. The additional w a t e r allocated through the usual timed water-turn (warabandiJ system provides capability: t o increase cropped area, t o produce at a higher level inNthe same cropped area, and t o change the cropping pattern. A combination of all three options appear t o be taking place in the project areas, but it 'is unlikely that performance is a? an optimum, technically, economically or socially. Also, there is a genergl ,recognition that the additional opportunities associated with the greater flexibility in water use may bring with them the danger of increased inetticiency, and that the higher w a t e r allocation through the remodelled system in this context may exacerbate drainage problems.Although substantial improvements in system performance and agricultural production are possible using the \"productive\" concept of irrigation, changes in system management and operation must occur, both in terms of physical control and organizational procedures. However, if the traditional supply-oriented operational practices are allowed t o continue in these systems, inefficiencies in water use will aggravate existing drainage problems, and depress the productivity of water and overall system performance because of the higher water availability. This in turn will have a severe negative impact on benefits from the substantial investments in irrigation infrastructure.These negative trends have been observed in completed areas of CRBC and LSC in NWFP,where irrigation supplies are temporarily increased due t o a lack of control because facilities are not yet fully developed andlor operational in the rest of the system. Farmers (and system operators) in these completed areas are not yet aware of the opportunities and constraints of the \"productive\" concept of irrigation, and are initially inclined t o grow crops w i t h high water requirements, such as rice and sugar-cane. Both wastage of water and the appearance of local waterlogging and salinity problems have been observed.Recognizing these trends, a need can be identified t o formalize policies and procedures for the development and operation of systems with high water allocations.The following specific points form the basis of the rationale for the proposed technical assistance:i) water resources are limitedlconstrained despite increased water availability at the system level;ii)inefficient use of increased water availability may result in waterlogging and deprive downstream areas of adequate access t o required water resources; andiii) agency personnel and farmers are not geared up t o or prepared for effective utilization of the increased water availability., ,The proposed technical assistance will aim t o improve the overall productivity of water\" through improved system hanagement and irrigation operations, in accordance w i t h crop water requirements within the authorized system-level water allocations and subject t o available supplies.Soecificallv, the proposed technical assistance will aim to:i) identify a flexible management approach for irrigation operations that responds t o crop water requirements under prevailing supply constraints;ii) increase understanding of crop-based irrigation operations by agency personnel and farmers, and identify training needs;field-test and refine the management approach identified for cropbased irrigation operations; and evaluate the benefits of crop-based irrigation operations and identify costs and opportunities for implementation on a wider scale.iii) iv)12.Crop yield per unit of water delivered.IV. WORKPLAN Policv Guidelines: As a consequence of undertaking the system-and field-level research activities, issues are expected t o arise that will require resolution at the policy level. ThesG issues will be documented, and the implications for policy changes be evaluated.A detailed workplan for each of the main study categories above can not be fully developed a t this time. In some cases, only after the project has provided some initial ' insights into relevant questions pertaining t o those particular areas of study, will w e be in a position t o frame a more detailed plan of action.This is particularly true in the case of category iii) Irrigation Facilities. It is too early t o be able t o discern a plan of action for that purpose. It should be expected that in forthcoming progress reports this particular topic can be tackled in earnest.The above paragraph notwithstanding, we provide below an initial action plan under each main category for the study.-A key issue in the design of the CRBC irrigation system was the increase in water duty from the traditional value of 0.21 lpslha I 3 c u s e c s l l 0 0 0 acres] t o 0.60 lpslha [ 8.56 cusecs/l000 acres].Consequently, w e will document this change by closely monitoring the water supply in the distributary and the selected watercourses. These figures will be matched to the requirement at different levels of the system t o determine the real impact of the modification.Several parameters can be determined in order t o clarify the water distribution issue: a ) Delivery Performance Ratio (DPR). the relationship, in percentage, between actual and design flows. Daily observations at heads of stage I distributaries, tail of dist. # 3 (where flow is divided between Paharpur Canal and Ketcha Minor ) and selected outlets. This parameter will provide information on IPHED's management at system level. b) Water Losses. T.hese will be measured a t the distributary and water courses level. The magnitude of the main canal precludes measurements at that level since this would require specialized equipment not available t o us. However, because the canal is fairly new and lined, its cross section can not have changed much so design losses can provide a good estimate.The losses will t e measured in blind reaches of the distributary at least three times per season and if possible at different flow stages. Losses at watercourses will be done w i t h the same intensity and a t different locations (both lined and unlined reaches). These measurements will provide information on the importance of this factor in the overall system management. c) Relative Water Supply (RWS). A t distributary and watercourse level. For an initial estimate, the parameter will be defined as follows:For the supply side actual field measurements will be utilized. As t o the rationale for using PET only, as the demand, it can be argued that most crops produce maximum yields when the water available t o them is a t that level. In the case of rice, which during the first season of the study (Rabi 91/92) is not grown, considerations have t o be made for percolation losses under flooded conditions.A maximum value for demand will be obtained for PET values and a minimum demand values will be obtained based on cropping pattern information provided by the \"Patwari\" [Revenue Officiall. It is believe he underestimates the reporting on the more water demanding crops given the differential water rates which drive farmers t o provide incentives for the under-reporting. An intermediate demand value will be obtained from our own cropping pattern inventory. The RWS will be done, a t least, monthly a t both Distributary and Watercourse level. d) Areas and Cropping Pattern: In connection with c) above, w e will monitor the cropping pattern a t distributary and watercourse levels. However, unlike Punjab, where the land has been divided in a square grid fashion, the NWFP presents a very irregular scheme which makes assessing the cropping pattern a rather difficult undertaking.To tackle this particular problem three different approaches will be taken into consideration : i) the cropping pattern reported by the revenue agency, ii) the cropping pattern derived from an intensive field assessment, and iii) t h e cropping pattern derived from a \"transect\" approach, where depending on shape and area of the watercourse, a number of \"runs\" in the field will be made t o determine the crop configuration along tho.se transects. Comparison of the three methods will help decide on the best optio,n for future assessment of the cropping pattern in an area.Simulation of main canal manaoement. In Pakistan's traditional systems the design criteria for a main channel requites that it runs near the design discharge all the time in order t o keep the canal in regime. A value of 75 percent of full supply discharge (FSD) is usually found in the Pakistan irrigation-related literature as 'the lower limit by which design operation conditions would still hold.Since moving towards an increased management'level, t o better match the needs of the agricultural system ( that is, not only the crop requirements per se, but also cultural practices such as land preparation or harvesting etc) may require, at least as an option, that the traditional management of the main canal be modified, it is seen as pertinent that the effects of such potential changes be assessed.If for example, the CRBC is t o be managed strictly as per crop water requirements, (although it should be clear that IlMl is not advocating at this point that such be the case), then the flow in the main canal would be between 75 and 100 percent of the FSD on 3 8 percent of the time.13The implications of running the canal a t FSD all the time is, of course, having t o escape surplus water. If the escaped water can be utilized further downstream this operational mode can be justified. This seems t o be the case a t CRBC now when only stage I is operational. However, as the project progresses, and more area is brought under the command of the system, the FSD operation mode becomes less and less a viable alternative. For example, total project annual water allocation is 0 . g) the designed hydraulic characteristics of the channels need t o be maintained t o ensure the intended .performance of the system, h) \"equity\" of water distribution is the perceived distinct value of the warabandi system.Field observations, made during the study development process, indicate very clearly that these idealized conditions no longer hold true in either CRBC, or LSC.,ln fact it appears that there is already a de-facto move towards an incipient crop-based irrigation scheme.Our initial activities will be geared towards the documentation of how conditions a) t o h) above are being, or rath,er not being, met a t each project'site. As explained earlier, the main focus of this component of the study will take place a t CRBC (both distributary # 3 and Girsal Minor). A t LSC the documentation will take'place only within the context of understanding w h y the process of moving towards a 'crop-based irrigation operation encountered such a strong resistance on the part of the farmers which eventually led t o the suspension of the establishment of a formalized demand-type of irrigation.Water manaaement a t distributary level. To document both IPHED and farmers activities, special observations will be made throughout the season. Under the ideal warabandi conditions discussed earlier in the report, farmers interventions a t this level in the system should be non-existent; this is not however the case as we have observed during previous field trips. The type and reasons for these \"unauthorized\", if you will, interventions will be recorded t o help us better understand the interrelationships between farmers and irrigation agency personnel.Water manaaement in Girsal Minor. Because of the integration of the Paharpur Canal Irrigation System into the CRBC system, Girsal Minor is essentially a continuation of distributary # 3 of the latter. We will monitor the flows a t selected points of the Minor which will essentially reflect the management of the tail-end of the distributary. The intensity of the monitoring, however, will be less since the main objective under this portion of the study is t o gain a broad knowledge on how farmers have reacted t o the new water allowances. How the water is being distributed will be done at a macro level rather than through an intensive intervention.As it was explained earlier above, this is the one main category of our study where w e can not, a t this point in time, be able t o advance a work plan. Before that can be accomplished, it will be necessary that w e gain a better understanding on the present operation of the system.Once physical bottlenecks which may be currently ,affecting water distribution, are identified, they can be first attended t o with suitable' management interventions. It is then that w e will be in a position t o decide whether it is appropriate for IlMl t o evaluate canals and different types of structures, review designs, and eventually go for construction of structures' prototypes which may lead t o improved facilities better tailored t o the concept of crop-based irrigation operations in these systems.In an essentially action-oriented research effort, a new dimension of study responsibility will be t o identify the institutional context and develop adequate collaborative relationships with both the operating agencies and the farmers. This is essential for ensuring sufficient institutional capacity t o undertake the field-testing of identified research recommendations and their subsequent replication on a wider scale.In terms of supply and demand conditions and system operations, the research activities may concentrate on such aspects as, measures of reliability of water supply at the Distributary level and in command areas, duration of canal water turns according t o the warabandi system, and equity in distribution a t varying levels of water supply.As has been already observed in our preliminary investigations, these areas are particularly vulnerable t o increasing drainage problems and a lack of established procedures and practices for optimizing the use of increased capacity of the water delivery system. There is some evidence that the increased system capacity t o deliver peak water requirements of an assumed cropping pattern is already being used by the farmers t o increase the area under high value cash crops that need more water, and this may very soon pose another problem. The main objective of the CBIOP is t o investigate more intimately into these problems as they appear in the study areas, and find management solutions t o them for the purpose of improving the overall productivity of water resources in the t w o systems. For instance, in regard t o the low reliability of the canal water supply, if the findings are that the majority of the farms receive less than 50% of their theoretical share of canal water, the identification of significant causes for this problem and their order of contributing effect would greatly help in developing the possible management solutions t o the problem. It is necessary t o ' k n o w whether the physical features (such as the location of moghas. low supply levels a t the source, seepage or leakage due t o bad maintenance, and changes in the design characteristics in the canal) have contributed more t o this problem, or whether the institutional deficiencies (such as lack of supervision, wrong procedure, inadequate manpower and other resources, stealing of water or any other form of irrigation misconduct by the farmers) should take the greater responsibility for it. What could be judged as the share of contribution by each of the identified causes ?Study activities aimed at the institutional component wlll concenirate on studying three inter-related aspects of itrigation institutions as they correlate t o the study areas:i)Oraanizations -Irrigation Department, Agriculture Department, WAPDA, and other support service agencies, and farmer organizations. This will include their respective work programs, division of responsibility, delegation of authority, supervision and accountability, distribution of staff and their performance assessment methods, and also the intra and inter-agency, and agency-farmer coordination mechanisms. Information exchange and feedback mechanisms also will form an element in this aspect.Formal Rules -Acts, promulgations, subsidiary laws, manuals of procedure, official instructions, constitutions of associations, agreements and tribunal decisions.ii)iii) Informal Rules -Traditional practices such as kachcha warabandi, norms, conventions, and other forms of accepted informal behavior.The Rapid Appraisal in the LSC area (see Annex 4) and the base-line socio-economic survey t o be conducted through contract research in the CRBC (see Annex 3) will provide preliminary observations on some of these aspects. These observations will be used as the basis for questionnaires, interviews and process documentation t o conduct further indeoth studies.The emphasis will be t o find possible correlations between the technical factors and the institutional factors, and t o assess what combinations of these t w o aspects affect performance. The intended research emphasis is indicated in the following illustration.In the t w o systems LSC and CRBC, new design changes have resulted in physical systems that are partly different from the modal type of canal systems elsewhere in Pakistan. While increased system capacity is a new feature common t o both systems, the LSC has an additional new feature of regulation with adjustable gates a t the watercourse heads. Basically both these physical features envisaged in their design a new organizational arrangement for water delivery, a t least t o regulate the flow when water a t the peak requirement level is not needed in the field. Cl,early,'this change in the organization has not occurred, and not even been planned. This is illustrative of the gap between technical and institutional considerations.Rehsons for this gap will be investigated t o form the basis for possible solutions.While these investigations are being carried out,'an effort will be made t o develop close collaborative relationships with operating agencies and with farmers. The intended methodology is t o form several Working Groups t o 'meet and deliberate regularly on the identified issues and t o select components of research findings that would make viable implementation options.IlMl staff will play a prominent role in facilitating and coordinating group discussions, and providing for this. purpose the necessary technical inputs. In the selection of the most appropriate option, the relevant policy level personnel will be involved. The Study Advisory Committee and the Project Coordination Committee will be particularly useful a t this stage.The Working Group processes will be closely documented and used in successive meetings. This information will also be useful in writing research reports specifled in the Project Document.As for measures t o obtain farmer participation, the final product should best be from an evolutionary process. Ar, attempt will be made in collaboration with the IPHED and the AD personnel t o encourage the farmers themselves t o identify the need for organization. Along w i t h this process, necessary assistance will be given t o establish the mechanisms t o meet that need. It is understood that a t this stage the project does not seem t o require formal farmer organizations, but may require initially some mechanism for farmers and agency personnel t o decide on collective seasonal plans for their respective involvements and t o deliberate on some of their operational issues. The main thrust of the action research in this area will be therefore t o promote, a t least initially, some informal farmer organization, and similar inter-agency and agency-farmer coordination in the study areas.The T A arrangement for the study also includes a studv tour for a selected number of operating personnel involved in the action research program. This is t o provide them an opportunity t o see similar management approaches, a t least in one other location, such as Indonesia or Philippines where the institutional implications of irrigation are believed t o have been more intensively analyzed and realized than in Pakistan. During t h e third year of work in the study, a workshoo will be conducted involving senior members of the operating agencies and associated research and training institutes t o discuss and concretize the research findings; particularly in relation t o the institutional and management imperatives of implementing the identified management innovations.Evaluation of benefits of croD-based irriaation oDerations. To identify the benefits and costs derived from the increased management associated w i t h seeking a better fit between the water supply and the agricultural system needs, i t is necessary t o establish a benchmark that would allow future comparisons.T w o situations are useful in this regard : i) the situation prior t o the introduction of the higher water duties, and ii) the current situation, with higher water duties, but w i t h no change in management intensity.For the first one, the Paharpur Canal Irrigation System provides an ideal setting. Through the use of historical records w e will try t o evaluate the changes in the \"before\" and \"after\" situation.For the second one, w e have t w o options: again the Paharpur Canal or b y comparing t w o areas within the new CRBC. This would be a \"with\" and \"without\" situation. W e will start with the study at the Paiiarpur Canal by documenting what is currently taken place; and will conduct a benchmark survey a t Distributary # 4 of CRBC that can be used later on t o compare w i t h the res-Its of introducing management innovations in Distributary # 3.To evaluate the benefits, it will be necessary t o establish some performance indicators that can be used t o define the potential areas of benefit. We intend t o use the following three indicators for this purpose: a) biological efficiency: will be determined by assessing the yield per unit of water.This will be specially valuable in evaluating the impact of operational changes on the efficiency in using the resource. b) technical efficiency: the relationship between OUTPUT (water used by the crops) and INPUT (water supply, including rainfall). This parameter will give a good measure of the substitution of water for management. The physical efficiency can also be assessed by the relationship between the number of hectare-days (theoretical) and hectare-days (actual) that can be covered with t h e actual water supplies. This would provide a t least a rough idea of where on the production function the farmers are operating. c) economic return: rupeeslfarm; rupeedunit water; rupeeslunit land. The first would give information useful for understanding farmer response t o changes, as well as a direct measure of the economic benefit. The second would provide the information on the economic efficiency in using the resource. The last probably is the least useful since it confounds within it the decisions of the farmers on how t o spread the water supply over their area. It may be useful, however, in comparing farm.:r water spreading strategy in different parts of the system.The study covers investigations, deliberations, and analysis a t three different levels: i)Watercourse and farm level where demand conditions involving farming and onfarm irrigation practices, farmer-bureaucracy interface, farmer interaction processes, and farmers' socio-economic environment will be studied, Main and distributary system level where the emphasis will be on the supply side, and Since the study is t o consider new management approaches and related problems, many issues are expected t o arise that will require resolution a t the policy level. The issues will be deliberated, negotiated, and alternative solutions will be identified and tested. The process of these actions will be documented, and the implications for policy changes be evaluated.One of the outputs of the study relating t o the replicability of pilot-scale management solutions t o be identified will be a set of policy guidelines covering these aspects.V. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION IlMl had already taken the initial steps t o recruit the necessary international and local staff, and identify several alternative study sites. On this basis, and anticipating early finalization of the T A Agreement, IlMl proceeded t o recruit and mobilize some of the staff w i t h effect from March 1991. As an initial activity, the literature survey w a s also started.The TA agreement called for the selection of one working site at each of the modernized (higher water duty allocations) irrigation systems, i.e. Lower Swat Canal (LSC) and Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC). Below, a brief description on each project and the options for site selection follows.The LSC was originally completed in 1885 and remodelled in 1935 for an authorized full supply .discharge of 23.49 cumecq with a CCA of 50,040 ha. As part of the SCARP Mardan development work, a project t o provide subsurface drainage and improvement of surface drainage, the LSC system is now being remodelled / , for a diversion capacity of 54.90 cumecs for the same area.The system consists of a contour feeder channel 35.40 .km long, from which ten distributaries totalling 1 12.63 k m in length offtake. It derives its supplies from the Swat River, which carries flows in excess of the projected iirigation requirements during t h e greater part of the year. Thus for a crop-based operation the supply is not likely t o be a constraint.From the early stages of project proposal the LSC was visited by IlMl personnel t o identify a suitable project site for this component of the study.Based on size of the CCA, accessibility t o site, canal length and number of outlets, canal geographical position within system and general farmer's attitude towards the potential project, one distributary and t w o minors were identified as follows:Canal For a further evaluation 3f the new conditions in the LSC, IMll contracted for a Rapid Appraisal Survey t o determine the likelihood for success of any isolated pilot study in the Sheik Yusuf Minor''. While the survey was still under way, preliminary observations suggested that working in S.Y Minor under those circumstances could not be productive.The Rapid Appraisal conducted by a team from EDC (Pvt.) Limited (consisting of a Social Anthropologist, an Agronomist and an Irrigation Engineer) was completed in October 1991, and its report dealt with in detail the perceptions of the farmers and operating staff on the new system installed and,its repercussions. The report also made the following specific recommendation:These evaluations encouraged the shift from a pilot'trial effort in the LSC as originally proposed, t o an intensive study of the circumstances leading up t o t h e installation of the gates and the subsequent decision t o remove them, and of the results of the increased water duties and related management issues.The lessons t o be learned from the LSC experience will be helpful t o frame future activities t o be undertaken a t CRBC. Likewise, what we learn from CRBC can be used t o improve our understanding on how t o proceed a t LSC.The CRBC is a major perennial surface irrigation project designed t o irrigate 230,675 ha with a 271.92 k m long gravity flow main canal carrying a discharge capacity of 138.07 cumecs. The canal feeds a network of subsidiary canals with an aggregate length of 603.37 km. It derives its supplies from the combined river flows of the lndus and Kabul Rivers as regulated b y the Tarbela Dam and again by the Chashma Barrage on the Indus.The project, currently under implementation, has been designed in three stages, for construction purposes. Stage I serving 56,680 ha, a quarter of the total culturable command area (CCA), has been completed. This stage comprises 42,105 ha within the old Paharpur Canal System with the remainder constituting the so called New Area.A Note on the Rapid Appraisal giving some guidelines for the survey is a t Annex 4.Stage II is under executioii and although the work is in full progress it is very much behind schedule. Only three of 13 distributaries, namely #s 5, 5a and 6 have been completed and made operative. The respective command areas, however, are in the initial stages of development. Recent inspection of these areas have led us t o conclude that there is little scope for conducting any project-related activities there within the next couple of years.Stage 111, on the other hand, is in ttie advance planning stage and is not schedule t o be in operation until the latter years of this century.With the above information in mind, it is clear that the,alternatives for selecting a study site in the CRBC system lay in Stage I. Three options 'could be considered : within the new area, within the old Paharpur canal system, or a combination of the above given the events just described for LSC.Both the new and old areas have their pros and cons with respect t o their suitability for selection towards project implementation.For example, the former is much more physiographically representative of the future areas t o be developed in stages I 1 and 111. In addition, the soils are generally heavier, clay t o silty clay, than those encountered in the lndus alluvial plain, sand t o silt loam, typical of the latter area. Girsar Minor, previously took off from RD 1 5 2 of Paharpur Canal, but now it has been made part of distributary # 3 of CRBC off-taking a t RD 237 + 320. Its head discharge is 10.84 cumecs, it is 12,395 m long, and commands an area of 1,808 ha.Four distributaries in Stage 1 were considered. However, it became clear that distributaries # 1 and 2 , because of their small command areas, would not be good choices. That left #s 3 and 4 for consideration. A further decision was taken t o consider fielding a second team a t Girsar Minor. It was understood, however, that this should follow after reasonable progress in the installation of the first team. The recruitment process for this team has already begun. In addition, steps have been taken t o start gathering the basic information for this study site.The rationale behind this second choice was that.Girsar Minor is in fact the \"real\" tail of distributary # 3, and the activities conducted here, albeit a t a less intensive level than those t o be conducted a t the head, will provide valuable information on t h e overall behavior of the integrated (new 'and old area l distributary.A four-person team comprised of one field research professional (FRP) and three field assistants (FA) is to be fielded a t each working site. They will each be supported by a driver and a laborer.One of IIMl's most experienced FRP's was transferred from his Punjab post t o supervise the CRBC field team. An experienced senior FA and one FA were also transferred to conform the teams.IlMl set out t o fill the remaining positions a t a very early stage. Terms of reference for each position already exist as per the institute's hiring policies. Advertisements were placed in the newspaper and more than 180 applications were processed. More than 40 interviews, were held throughout the months of May to September. Surprisingly, the recruitment process turned out to be quite difficult. The professional quality of the potential candidates was disappointing; this coupled with the reluctance to work in an area considered \"harsh\" by the interviewees made it a lengthy affair. Three more FAs have finally been recruited, t w o of them are from the D.I.Khan area and the remaining one comes from the Punjab.The new members of the team were sent for intensive training t o other IlMl field stations. For a period of three weeks they joined the staff in conducting regular field activities, i. e. water measurements at different system levels, monitoring of farmers activities, survey of cropping patterns, waterlogging and salinity related activities , interaction with farmers etc, etc.He is from the NWFP and speaks the local language.A driver and a laborer have also been hired, the former on a project basis and the latter on a daily wage basis.A suitable staff house has been rented a t the outskirts of D.I.Khan city: The possibility of having t w o field teams at this location was kept in mind in the selection of the house. In addition, it will be used for office space as well.The house and office have been furnished, and have been occupied,as of 15 September 1991.This facility will be complemented with one room a t the Girsal Irrigation Guesthouse to be provided by the Irrigation Department. Although we explored the possibility of using this house as our staff house the idea had t o be discarh,ed because of the inaccessibility of the premises t o a nearby market (the nearest facility of this type is 2 5 km away which is highly inconvenient as a permanent living facility for our staff).The Guesthouse, however, being quite close t o the project site will be utilized on a daily basis as both a rest point and for temporary storage of field equipment. The SAC will be responsible for the oveqall orientation of project implementation. It will coordinate,, a t macr,o-level, activities among the various agencies and/or institutions involved, t o assure prompt and effective accomplishment of goals and objectives.The SAC will review periodically, a t least twice a year, results and achievements of project efforts; and will provide support and guidance t o the executing institutions in order t o overcome problems and constraints.ii....iv.The committee shall meet on a semi-annual basis, or more frequently as required. Any member of the committee may call for a meeting, through written request t o the Secretary who will take necessary action in consultation with the Chairman.v.[Others, if applicable]With the recruitment of field personnel and the establishment of the staff house, the project initiated field activities from mid-September.The process of gathering basic information pertaining t o the site was begun somewhat earlier; line agencies involved were contacted and provided with lists of the material needed falling under their purview. Given below are some of the information requested and obtained: A special effort went into the installation of water measuring devices: stage recorders at the head and tail-end of distributary # 3 were placed a t strategic locations. Staff gauges at selected pipe outlets were installed; gauges were placed t o monitor flows at points such as drops and siphons, and a t particular canal reaches t o be utilized for measurements of distributary losses. At watercourse level, places for locating portable flumes to be used for measurements of water losses were identified.Calibration of pipe outlets and development of rating curves has started. In a similar manner, special observations related to unusual happenings a t all levels of the system are now being recorded. Among other things, these observations will provide valuable insight into maintenance-related issues.Contact with farmers was initiated from the very beginning stages of project implementation; listing for each of the watercourses selected are now available and proving useful towards the identification of those willing t o participate in project's activities.In line with the TA agreement, a socio-economic survey is to be conducted at the outset of the project. The activity was to be contracted with either a governmental or private firm on a competitive basis. [The IlMl team prepared guidelines with terms and conditions for the exercise (see Annex 3). Each firm was visited t o discuss their proposals; w e then asked the organizations t o submit their bid accordingly. After careful evaluation of final proposals the team decided t o award the contract t o EDC (Pvt) Limited.The EDC proposal was found t o be more realistic t o project needs and presented a stronger roster of personnel t o be involved with the survey. EDC also had a significant budget advantage over IDS. The survey was schedule t o start in the first week of October. This survey had t o be delayed as a result of the developments occurring in the LSC system which prompted IlMl t o initiate a complementary, but previous, activity described below.Because of the LSC's construction delays and the IPHED's decision t o shift from the proposed gated outlets t o the traditional adjustable proportional modules (APMs), the IlMl team, in consultation with other IIMI-Pakistan colleagues, considered it prudent t o seek additional and prior information regarding the perceptions of both farmers and operating staff towards the pilot project in the LSC under those new circumstances, before pursuing any further activities in this irrigation system.The following concerns prompted the team t o seek a rapid appraisal of the field situation:the novel feature of regulatory gates a t the moghas will be seen only in this rather academic pilot-study area.only the farmers in this particular minor will be subjected t o some kind of intervention and regulation.for these interventions, the operating agency is likely t o be a passive observer, shifting an unexpected field responsibility t o an external group i.e.replicability of any research results would seem t o have only a remote chance.The Rapid Appraisal exercise was also contracted with EDC because of the obvious advantages from a logistical point of view. IIMI, however, worked closely w i t h the contractor t o plan and monitor the' effort. The time allocated for the entire effort from initiation t o submission and discussion of final report was four weeks ending 24 October 1991. The report was received on 22 October. Its main csnclusions are referred t o in Section 5.2.1 (Also, see Annex 4 for the guidelines given t o the Rapid Appraisal survey team).Because IlMl considered procurement of field and support equipment a crucial activity in the implementation of the project, w e started this process well in advance of the signing of the agreement.A small internal procurement cell composed of IIMI-Pakistan Director, General Manager (Admin and Finance) and Project Team Leader was established for this purpose. In addition, contacts were made with Mr T.C. Patterson, Manager ADB t o explore ways by which the procurement process could be expedited. This proved quite helpful and indeed resulted in substantial time savings.Based on the T A agreement's equipment list, a call for bids was sent out t o 15 international and 10 local firms. Nine of the former and all the local ones responded.Although not all the companies bidded on the entire list requested, all the items received With the exception of the vehicles which are scheduled to be delivered in late December or early January 92 we expect to have all equipment by late October 91. At the end of this reporting period, approximately, 71.5 percent of the available budget for equipment has been committed or alrcady expended.Constraints Although the project is in the very early stages of implementation, some constraints that can have a profound impact in its development have already been encountered.Undoubtedly, the decision taken by the Irrigation Department t o move away from the concept of crop-based irrigation t o return t o the traditional proportional water distribution approach, can have a long lasting effect on the implementation of our study. This decision affects both the CRBC and the LSC systems, although in somewhat different ways..In LSC, the irrigation agency is already implementing the change by removing or locking in fixed position the gates which were in place in several of the distributaries, and that constituted the main infrastructural innovation by which crop-based irrigation was going t o be pursued. However, as.a result of implied commitments t o the project of providing one distributary or minor with such devices, a parallel decision was taken t o go ahead and install gates in a minor previously identified by the project as a potential action research site.While the latter decision was clearly well intentioned, and a reflection of the IPHED's willingness t o contribute t o the project's effort, in fact, it has been an unfortunate one since it represents the wurst of both worlds. The decision was t o establish a pilot-project t o pursue an idea which has already been rejected by the IPHED as a failure. High resistance towards implementation activities under this, scenario from the operating staff is a foregone conclusion. Furthermore, the pilot-area as such is no longer representative of a \"live\" system situation, a necessary -but not sufficient-condition if some reasonable chance for success of the proposed interventions is ,expected., It is this unique situation which prompted us t o consider conducting a rapid appraisal in the LSC'area in order t o assess the impact that such decision might have on the likelihood for success of a pilot project. The results of this surv'ey which has just been finalized confirm the position indicated in the foregoing. As explained earlier,in this report, IlMl has asked WAPDA that the installation of gates in S.Y. ,Minor need not be pursued.This situation is likely t o affect the study activities in the CRBC as well. IPHED's decision regarding the gates in the LSC may have some implications on attempts t o find out new management options in the CRBC as the same agencies are involved in design, construction and operation activities in both project areas.In the CRBC system the decision implies going from the present pipe outlets t o APMs; the initial idea of installing some type of control structure has therefore been set aside. Unlike in the LSC, the decision itself has limited repercussions on direct project's implementation activities. But, for the not so distant future, the decision taken diminishes the chances for any kind of follow-up activities related t o the installation of control structures that might be derived from project's results. It is unlikely that the GOP would be prepared t o make yet one more investment in the system within such a relatively short period of time.In a sense, one would argue that going back t o APMs a t this particular point in time has been premature, specially when this initiating project has been design precisely t o assess the feasibility of moving towards a crop-based irrigation operations in the context of Pakistan's present irrigation development.The pattern of departmentalism and isolation that characterize many government organizations in the irrigated agriculture sector will have t o undergo some modification t o fully implement and profit from a crop-based irrigation delivery system. The current separation of view points, and unfortunate friction between WAPDA and t h e IPHED must be overcome for the necessary coordination of activities t o take place. Similarly, there must be much more interaction between the Agriculture Department,the IPHED and WAPDA. There must be closer linkage among the government agencies before there can be effective interaction between the agencies and the ,farmers for the purpose of more closely matching of water needs and supplies. IlMl will strive t o foster these relationships, but the primary responsibility for sustained good relations must rest w i t h the agencies themselves.IlMl wishes t o record its appreciation that all agencies have been extremely helpful in providing available background material when the requests were made. IIMI looks forward t o conducting field work in collaboration with the representatives of these agencies during the coming months. Similarly, participation a t the Study Advisory Committee and the project Coordination Committee, and many useful discussions on study objectives and its progress are enthusiastically anticipated.Literature Review A literature survey was conducted t o understand and document the theoretical aspects of demand based irrigation, the design features of the t w o projects, and the general socioeconomic background of the t w o project areas, CRBC and LSC. The results of this effort, supplemented by primary data t o be collected through the base-line socio-economic surveys, will be presentod later in the form of a project report. Only some salient theoretical aspects arising from the literature survey are extracted below. These would clarify the concepts behind the various irrigation scheduling practices, and help t o see in their perspective the limited potential in applying typical demand-based irrigation in the study areas.The higher water allowance in the t w o systems implies that a primary consideration should be t o avoid over-irrigation or waste of water. Merriam and Burt ( 1 988) point out that social and economic losses associated with over-irrigation can be substantially reduced by improving the water supply schedule and the supply and application systems. The argument here is that the excessive costs involved in the disposal of drainage water can be avoided by reducing the quantity of irrigation water through source control. This requires a system that can supply .water in a flexible manner, and irrigators or farmers w h o are knowledgeable t o control the water a t the point of application as t o the frequency, rate, and duration of flow.The w a y water is delivered in terms of frequency, rate and duration is expressed by the water supply delivery schedules. The American Society of Civil Engineers have described the delivery schedules generally in three main categories: Rotation, Arranoed, and Demand (ASCE, 1984(ASCE, , 1987)). These variations in irrigation schedules depend on 1 ) the degree of flexibility given t o the water user in terms of the flow rates, frequency and duration, and 2) the level within the delivery system at which irrigation delivery decisions are made.The rotation schedules are preset, as in the classical case of Pakistan's canal water warabandi system, and do not permit any irrigator'or user control. The arranged schedules require comriiunication with the supplier to arrange the time and t h e quantity of delivery, whereas the demand schedules provide the irrigator with water as he needs it under his o w n control within the limits of system capacity.Clemmens ( 1 987) provides a detailed description of the basic schedules and their variations. Based on this description, three main categories of irrigation schedules can be placed on a continuum of extreme rigidity t o extreme flexibility.Rotation schedules are the most restrictive of all irrigation schedules, as the rate, frequency and duration are fixed by the central irrigation agency and remain fixed for the entire season. Such systems are common in developing countries. A rotation schedule is considered more fair and equitable than a flexible delivery schedule, where in the former management intensity has t o be kept a t a low level with less administrative control over the operations. Several variations can be seen in pure rotation schedules:Continuous Flow Schedules are a special case of rotation systems, where the duration is the entire season and the frequency is mostly once per year. Continuous flow systems can be used in places where water is plentiful and the growing season is short, and the efficiency of irrigation practices for maximum yield is not considered essential. Here, flow rates can be varied over the season t o better meet crop water needs. In many cases, while a constant rate is delivered t o a farm, the stream is rotated between fields. In the Pakistan context, this type of schedule has little relevance due t o shortage of supplies for most systems except for the f e w non perennial rice commands where the system represents a continuous flow schedule but without any rotation or controlled variation of the rate.Varied-Amount Rotation Schedules are one way of adjusting the volume of water delivered over different parts of the growing season. In general, the frequency remains fixed, while the duration and/or rate are varied t o apply more or less water t o a particular area. Adjustments in rate are fairly easily accomplished; however, adjustments in duration without adjustments in frequency are a little more difficult. One example would be t o supply water half the time t o aiternate rotation areas. A manife$tation of this type of schedule occurs inadvertently in Pakistan at times of water shortage, when the rate is reduced while the frequency remains the same.Varied-Freauencv Rotation Schedules are another way of adjusting for variations in crop water use over the irrigatibn season. Under these schedules, the frec;uency of delivery is varied. Again it is somewhat difficult t o accomplish without rate and duration variations. except in even multiples, for example, twice the irrigation frequency during peak use periods over that in the early and late season. This type of rotation schedule is not quite feasible in Pakistan due t o the design limitations of the irrigation systems.Under arranged schedules, the rate, frequency and duration are arranged between the user (farmer) and the water supply agency. Often, these arrangements are made on a local level, rather than on the project level. This allows for greater flexibility in arrangements, for example last minute changes in arrangement. The advantage of arranged schedules is that while they provide flexibility for farm operations they also allow for simpler delivery system operations than do demand systems. In fact, the delivery system operational capabilities have a very direct impact on how flexible an arranged schedule can be. In essence, there is a continuum of possibilities from a pure demand system t o a very restricted arranged system. The distinction between these schedules and rotation schedules is that in the latter, all decisions are made by a central authority.The timing of arrangements is an important feature of arranged schedules and can have a significant impact on the success or failure of the arranged schedule. The characteristics of the irrigation system would determine whether the lead-time would be short or long. These differences can be significant, particularly for some irrigation scheduling methods. In addition, it may be necessary t o change duration (or even rate) during the course of an irrigation. This is easier t o accomplish when durations are not fixed by the operating agency since it may just mean rearranging the start time for the subsequent user. A number of common arranged schedules are given below.Limited Rate Arranaed Schedules are very flexible in that restrictions are placed only on the flow rate, with frequency and duration arranged : according t o farmer needs. ,These arrangements allow for changes in rate and duration during the irrigation, not under direct farmer control.Restricted Arranaed Schedules are somewhat lessflexible in that once set for an irrigation,, rate and duration are fixed and unchangeable. This precludes any irrigation adjustments for conditions during the irrigation process.Other schedules include the fixed duration arranaed schedule where the irrigation duration is fixed and unchangeable even by arrangement and the fixed rate arranaed schedule, where the flow rate is fixed and nonnegotiable.Demand schedules, being the most flexible of all irrigation schedules, should allow, in their ideal form, an unrestricted amount of water t o be taken from the system a t the user's convenience. Such ideal systems would not only be technically impractical (particularly in Pakistan), but also prohibitively expensive. T w o demand schedules which seem practical are sumrnarized below: Limited Rate Demand Schedules: These allow the user t o determine the rate, frequency and duration, but within a flow rate limited t o a maximum amount, and provide a considerably flexible and a t the same time a feasible system of operations. Very little communication is needed between the operator and the user. A number of such systems for surface irrigation are in use through the use of reservoirs and level top canals, akin t o 'water on tap' in domestic water supply systems.Arranaed Freauencv Demand Schedules: These add a further restriction on water delivery in that the time an irrigation can begin is arranged, but once the irrigation begins, the user is in complete control of the water supply and delivery. Such a scheduling system would be feasible for trickle or sprinkler irrigation.In addition t o the three main categories of scheduling methods, a new method of scheduling irrigation operations was proposed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the 1970's (Clemmens, 1987). The idea behind this method, called Central Svstem Schedulinq, was t o improve the predictive ability of the project in estimating water needs several days ahead of time. This would hopefully reduce errors in diversions of water, while reducing the lead time for ordering water as well. The idea was for the irrigation district t o schedule all irrigations for the farmers on a project wide basis based on forecast of future demand. This could be used t o better match crop water needs within flow rate capacity restrictions of .the delivery system. Early attempts a t scheduling in this way were unsuccessful and ij was found that farmers.were unwilling t o give up the important functions of scheduling to a bureaucratic organization.Merriam has extensively documented his experience in a pilot project on arranged demand schedule, covering 147 one-hectare farms in Area H of the Mahaweli Project in Sri Lanka. (Merriam and Davids, 1986;and Merriam et. al.,l987). A similar attempt was made by him in 1989, in a.pilot area of about 60 acres in the Distributary No.8 in the LSC, NWFP in Pakistan, t o demonstrate a demand system, based on flexible arranged schedule basis. The pilot project w a s t o take supplies from remodelled level top canal facilities t o a distribution box from where an underground concrete pipeline would serve different areas in the watercourse command. The total cost of the pilot project amounted t o about Rs.3,366,000 which was considered by the authorities as excessive.Information gathered during the literature review will help considerably t o proceed with the collaborative work of the study, and will contribute t o a separate report once the more data is obtained through the base-line economic survey and the preliminary field investigations which are under way.  These canals can pass 1 I .69 million cubic feet per year. Average annual utilization is about 1 0 0 M A F out of an average annual flow of 1 4 2 MAF of the three western Rivers i.e., Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.The irrigation system of Pakistan has been designed as a run-of-the river system w i t h an objective t o command maximum area with the available supplies in the river. Due t o insufficiency of water iri rivers during winter, the total area t o be commanded (34.6 million acres) could not be actually commanded. The sole objective, therefore, was \"equitable distribution of available supplies\" not only between various rivers, canals, branches and distributaries but also between individual outlets. The duty of water i.e., water allowance was fixed low in order t o irrigate maximum area. A water allowance of 3 -4.00 c u s e c s l l 0 0 0 acres was fixed for most of the canal systems. This has resulted in relatively low production per unit of land. Above all, irrigation systems were designed t o keep the administrative and operational requirements as low as possible. The systems were intended t o provide \"equitable distribution\" of water without much interference by the canal establishment while operating the system.By design, the number of control structures in a canal was kept t o a minimum. Cross Regulators were installed only where necessary t o control operating levels for the head regulators of \"off-taking'' channels. For example, on the Lower Chenab Main Canal, the first regulation structure is a t 28 miles from headwork and on the Upper Gugera Branch Canal a t 55 miles from its head. The lowest point for regulation is a t the head regulator of distributaries. In practice, the regulating flows in distributaries is not common. The distributaries either run full supply or are shut down completely if the supply falls short of about 7 5 % of the full supply t o avoid disturbance of regime of the channels as well as siltation. From distributaries, water is delivered t o the fields through outlets which vary in discharge from 1.0 t o 3.0 cusecs. Gates are not prgvided a t the outlets but were designed t o pass a specificd quantity of water at authorked full supply level. The outlets (called Moghas) act as proportional flow distributors, each taking proportionatety less when the canal level is lower than the normal, and more when the supply level is higher.The design assumption is that the entire system, from the main canal headworks down t o the last outlet on the last distributaryhninor will draw its designed discharge when the head flow is a t full supply and moghas are in good condition. The tail outlets are normally designed with 1 .O f t head gauge and this gauge is the criteria for the proper functioning of the whole system ensuring equitable distribution of supplies throughout the system.The lndus River system carries a large volume of suspended sediment during the flood season. This heavy silt load was the main source of silting up of the inundation canals and posed a big challenge t o the engineers while designing the canals. Efforts were, thus, made t o dispose of heavy load of silt by construction of silt \"excluders\" as part of the headwork and water was drawn into the canals from the upper layers carrying comparatively lesser silt load. Once, silt entered the canals, all efforts were made t o dispose of the silt load through the Moghas for it to be deposited on the irrigated lands.Different theories were evolved t o perfect the design of canals. The \"Regime Theory\" of Mr. Lacey, an Irrigation Engineer of Punjab Irrigation Department was accepted as a criterion in 1939. The canals were designed with slopes, velocities and sections in regime i.e., non-silting and non-scouring channels. The canals were t o run most of the time w i t h authorized full supply discharge and be closed when the supplies fall short of 75% of the full supply discharge t o avoid silting.Silt accumulation reduces channel cross-sectional area, which means that operating water levels must be raised t o maintain design flows. A higher water level leads t o reduced free-board, more bank over-topping and breaching and generally encourages further silting. It also increases flow through moghas a t upstream locations, depriving farmers in lower portions of the system of their fair share of water and thereby creating a potential for equity problem between the head reach and tail reach users.A study17 of the pattern of the irrigation supplies and the crop water requirements of the existing irrigation systems in Pakistan has revealed that there is a mismatch between t h e t w o and has resulted in:1 .Low productivity as supplies fall short of the crop water requirements during the growing periods or a t critical stage of growth.The inadequacy of supplies a t the time of 'Sowing of crop results in protracting the sowing period beyond the proper time.and thus lower productivity.The design canal capacities of the present system do not permit t o run more supplies t o match the crop requirements even if excess supplies are available in the rivers during summer season.Inadequate supplies available a t the time of sowing season restricts the area under crop although excesssupplies are available later in the season.3.Irrigation supplies in excess of the crop requirements cause drainage problems arld have resulted in waterlogging and salinity. ...Crop Based Irrigation Operations in the NWFP is a government approved research project, t o be implemented by the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) with Technical Assistance from the Asian Development Bank.The need for the base line socio-economic survey may be better explained and understood in the context of the overall research project objectives.The broad objective of the proposed research project is t o improve the overallproductivity of water resources in the two irrigation project areas (Lower Swat Canal and Chashma Right Bank CanalJ through improved irrigation operations in accordance with crop water requirements within the authorized water allocations and subject to available water supplies.To achieve this overall objective, the proposed project will, i) identify a management approach for irrigation operations that responds to crop water requirements under prevailing constraints and identify additional infrastructure improvements that may be necessary for such an approach; ii) increase the understanding of crop-based irrigation operations by agency personnel and farmers, and identify further training needs; iii) field-test and refine the management approach identified for crop-based irrigation operations; and . ' iv) evaluate the benefits of crop-based irrigation Operations and identify costs and opportunities for implementation on a wider scale.Obiective's of the Base Line Socio-Economic SurvevThe main objective of this survey is to obtain an understanding of the present socioeconomic conditions of the farmers in the watercourses selected for the above research project. This understanding would help not only to relate the socio-economic aspects of the farmer sample t o their irrigation behavior and how they cope up with the problems under study, but also to evaluate the impact of any interventions that may be made arising from the study. Tlie base line socio-economic data will also be used later in the research project t o find out the relationship if any between the social and economic factors, and the problems associated with flexible water management and irrigation scheduling methods.Ease line information relating to other aspects, such as, soil and water characteristics, supply and delivery of water, and physical and management conditions of the overall system, will be studied separately through other surveys.The FocusThe focus of the survey should be on the actual farmer of the selected farm holding, and on his household. The person who actually cultivates or operates the farm holding (not as a laborer but as a decision-maker in operations) is defined as the farmerfor the purpose of this survey. When the actual farmer is not the owner of the farm holding, their shared responsibility for farming and irrigation management decisions should be clearly brought out through the survey.If there are 20 or more watercourses in the selected Distributary or Minor, a t least 2 watercourses from each quarter of the Distributary/Minor length should be selected for the survey. If the number of watercourses is less than 20, the sample should be from at least 2 watercourses in each of head, middle and tail areas of the DistributarylMinor.Similarly, if there are more than 30 farmers in the selected watercourse, an appropriate sample of farmers may be, selected depending on the situational factors, such as farm sizes, social differentiation of the farmer population and the distance area involved. If the total number of farmers in the selected watercourse is 30 or less, all of them should be included in the survey. The sample area and the sample size for,the survey should be finalized only after further consultation with IIMI.To facilitate the use of information gathered during the base line survey for subsequent investigation and analysis, it is suggested that data is recorded in English, or if recorded in any other language it is transferred into a computer data base. Either the proposal or the contract should incorporate an understanding that such data base will be made available t o IIMI, including the raw data collected during the survey. Also, the survey instruments will have t o be developed with this requirement in mind.The Main Areas of lnauiry t o be Included in the SurvevGeneral Characteristics of the Farm, Farmer and Farmer Household -This includes the location of the farm in relation t o the Distributary/Minor and the watercourse, land tenure status of the farmer, his educational and family background.Land ownership and land use details of the farm, including the existing cropping pattern.2.Water management practices both on-farm and relating t o the operation and maintenance of the watercourse, including any rotationlwarabandi scheduling practices.4.Practices relating l o the use of other inputs, including their supply sources.Crop production practices, farm power, yields, and cost of production.Credit, and marketing of produce.Farmer awareness on farming and irrigation practices, and on interacting w i t h his social and economic environment.Farmer organization and farmer-agency relations.,Estimated family expenditure and income.The Proposal for the SurveyThe prospective sub-contractor for the socio-economic survey should submit a proposal t o IIMI, based on these guidelines and the details of the Distributary/Minor selected by IlMl for the study. A contract and terms of reference for the survey would be finalized based o n this proposal which should contain among other things, the survey instrument developed for this purpose, methodology to be used, and analyses intended t o be carried out, a budget estimate, manpower deployment pattern and a time table for the various survey activities including the finalization of the survey report.In indicating the analyses t o be carried out, the proposal should particularly mention what kind of correlations are t o he determined among the variables such as, farm size, tenure status, awareness, extension, irrigation practices, yield and income etc.The proposal will be the basis for further negotiation, if necessary, before entering into the contract. As ADB's Terms of Reference t o IlMl specifies a strict time schedule for preliminary study activities including this Base Line Socio-Economic Survey, i t is expected t h a t the proposal would be submitted very soon based on the above details and the initial discussions already held.This title has been selected t o distinguish between \"on-demand'' system operations where individual farmers control when and how much water they receive, and \"crop-based'' system management which aims t o supply water t o the watercourse head and the farms on the basis of crop water requirements, determined from monitored variables such as cropping patterns, planting dates and evapotranspiration rates.The design of the new CRBC project and remodelling of LSC project (and also the Upper Swat Canal project which is still being designed) appear t o be based on the concept of \"productive\" irrigation. Allowances for greater delivery capacity seem t o be a deviation from the traditional \"prote,ctive\" irrigation.The CRBC and LSC systems have main canal capacities determined on the basis of maximum water requirements for the design cropping patterns, but it is recognized that during periods of the year with limited water availability, irrigation deliveries must be adjusted according t o both the consumptive use of the crop and the authorized .water allocations for the system. The main canal capacities of CRBC and LSC are about 8.6 and 1 1 c u s e c s / l 0 0 0 acres (about 0.6 and 0.8 liters/sec/ha), respectively, compared t o the more traditional capacity of about 4 cusecs/lOOO acres (about 0.3 liters/sec/ha) in NWFP.The capacity of the CRBC has been fixed t o meet peak crop water requirements for a projected annual cropping intensity of 150% (90% in Rabi and 60% in Kharif) relating t o an assumed cropping calendar as shown in the Project's PC -I document.The original design of the LSC was based on an annual cropping intensity of 100% 160% in Kharif and 4 0 % in Rabi), with channel capacities of 6 cusecs per 1 0 0 0 acres. Distribution of water t o watercourses was via adjustable proportional modules (APMs), a typically supply-oriented system. As part of the remodelling effort under the Mardan SCARP development work, the LSC is being remodelled for a diversion capacity of 1 9 4 0 cusecs, and the design for remodelling has been not only t o overcome channel capacity constraints for increasing cropping intensity from 100% t o 180%. but also t o replace the APMs w i t h gates, making it possible for discharges t o watercourses adjustable in accordance w i t h the requirements of a modern demand system.In the LSC, many of the components of the remodelled system are still in various stages of development. There is no Distributary or Minor fully developed according t o the remodelling design which includes both increased channel capacity and gated outlets in operational condition. Where the gates have been installed (eg. Disty 3). they have already been damaged, and the farmers appear t o be freely drawing water making use of the increased supply.Even after completion of these items, the newly established systems need t o be tested for sustainable application. Preliminary observations suggest that farmers within these system areas are not yet prepared t o effectively use the increased water allocations.ix They show a preference t o grow crops with higher water requirements, .such as rice and sugar-cane. The agencies do not appear t o be ready t o take over and operate new infrastructure.Recently, the Irrigation Department has urged the construction authority, WAPDA, t o stop installing the gates at the Distributary outlets and t o make the system operations possible through the conventional APMs. Apparently having taken this decision, the authorities have also suggested that one Minor (Sheik Yusuf) be installed with the gates as originally designed for the purpose of experimentation by IIMI.Under these circumstances, it is considered prudent that some prior information is obtained regarding the perceptions of farmers and operating 'staff, before IlMl undertakes further field activities. The following concerns prompt us t o take a rapid appraisal,of the field situation: I 1.The novel feature of regulatory gates a t the moghas will be seen only in this rather academic pilot-study area.'Only the farmers in this particular minor will be subjected t o some kind of intervention and regulation.For these interventions, the operating agency is likely t o be a passive observer, shifting an unexpected field responsibility t o an external group (IIMI).Replicability of any research results seems t o be having only a very remote chance.2.4.Since the socio-economic survey in the LSC, and possibly also in the CRBC, and other related inception activities have all t o await this additional information required, i t is essential that the rapid appraisal is completed in the shortest possible time. Therefore it has t o be necessarily focussed on the main issues and concerns, and has t o be accomplished by appropriately experienced professionals.Field visits w i t h interviews of farmers and local leaders or key informants and meeting w i t h IPHEDIADIWAPDA staff at different levels are suggested as ways t o obtain the information we are looking for.IlMl will work quite closeiy with the contractor t o monitor the whole effort, starting with some brainstorming meetings. The time allocated t o the effort (appraisal + meeting w i t h IlMl staff + time t o write a final report) should not exceed 3-4 weeks.XThe following are some of the items illustrative of our need:1) Perceptions o n the Crop Based Irrigation Operations (philosophy, advantagesldisadvantages, implication on the farming system, relationships between the different actors of the system, sources of information on the new method ... )2) Perceptions o n the LSC project (work done, role of the different actors -IPHED, AD, Farmers, WAPDAbefore and during the project, future of 'the project ...   5.8 . 12.13.14.16. 17.18.  1 Engineer a u t o -l e v e l , e r e c t i m a g e , magnification no less than 26X. horizontal circle a t 1 degree division, reading range a t least 300 meters, complete w i t h case and corresponding heavy duty tripod. Analog EC-Meter, rang 0-1 0,000 S complete with electrode, battery and case.Soil salinity probe, for measuring in situ soil salinity.  ","tokenCount":"15261"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6073ac6d224f8dcc8c94aebd897672ef","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c92b333f-0f79-4e39-b50e-1d313e11e5c4/retrieve","id":"-488869301"},"keywords":["ReJ'earch A","\\'sí","sIQn(~"],"sieverID":"f660c887-6796-43ad-b4e1-26e533bf45a5","pagecount":"63","content":"lA T i~ a nonprofit organilat¡on devofed tú the agricultural and cconomic den'lopment of the lowland 'ropies. The Gmcrnment of Colombia provides support as host countr,\\' for CIAT and fuwishes a 522-heetare farm near Cali for elA T's headquarters. Collaborative work with the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (lCA) is carried out mainl~ at its Experimental Ccntero¡ at Turipaná and Carimagua. CIAr is finallced by a number of donors representerl in the Consultathe Group for International Agricultural Rescarch. Durin~ the ('urrent }ear these dono!'~ are thc L nited States Agcnc~' for International DCHlopmcnt (L'SAID), the Roekefeller Foundation. the Ford FOlllldation. tht, \\\\' .K. Kellogg Foulldation. the Canadiall Internationa! Del:elopment Agene)' «('IDA). the Internatiolla! Bank for Reconstruction and Del'elopment aBRO) through the Internationa! Devclopment Association (lOA\" the Illteramerican Developmellt Bank (180), tlle l'nitcd ,\\' a tions [m . . ironment Progranune, the l\\'1inistr.\" of (h'erseas De\\'t~lopment of the l'nited Kingdom and the go\\'crnments of Australia. Belgium. the Federal Republic of German~', the r\\ethcrlands and Swit\"erland, In addition, special projeet funds are supplied b~ ~'arious of the aforemcntioncd cntities plm the Internationar OeHlopment Research Centre (lDRe) of Canad~. Informatíon and concrusions reportcd herein do not necessarilJ rcnecf the posítion uf ¡in!' of the aforell1entioned agencies. foundations or gOH•rnment~.The data eolleelion and certain parts of the analysis for the agro-eeonomie survey of cassava production in Colombia were eompleted during 1975. Final results are presented for disease and inseet incidence, 80il characteristics, yields and use of modern teehnology in the produetion process, in addition to the principal results and conclusíons froro a comparative economic analysis of selecfed cassava eropping systems.Table 1 shows the presence of diseases on sample farms for eassava erops four to eight months of age. The presenee of sorne diseases was greatly influeneed by erop age; data for crops of otber ages may he obtained direetly from eIA T. While considerable differenees were found among zones, brown leaf spot (Cercospora henningsii), white leaf spot (Cercospora caribaea)and Phoma leafspot (Phomasp.) were present ín many of the cassava 10ts in al\\ lOnes. Superelongation (Sphaceloma) was found on a large number of farms in Zone III, while eassa va hacterial bligbt was important in Zones Ill, IV and V. Another potentially important disease, frog skin root disease, was identified in Zone I.Although this disease was found on a relatively small number of farms, yields wece severely affeeted.Thrips, gall midges (Ceeidomyiidae) and whiteflies (Bemisia sp.) were found on a large propartion of sample farms in all zones (Table 2). Other inseets of local importance include mites and fruit flies (Anastrepba sp.).Results of soil tests taken on sample farms are summarized in Table 3. Considerable differences were found among zones; however, ii appears that cassava is most frequently cultivated on relatively beavy, inorganie, low-fertility soils with a low pH, low organic matter content and low pbosphorus and potassium contents. Zone Il had the highest yields and also (he highest potassium conten! in the soil. Untilfurther analysis has been mado, however, it would be premature to conclude lha! lhe higher potassium content is an important reason for lhe higher yields in other zones as in Zorre II.Although the use of modern technology differs among zanes, regional differences are less marked for cassava than for certaín olher crops such as beans. The mos! advanced cassava production, from a techrrological paint of view, is found in Zone JI; tbe most traditional systems are found in Zones 1, l!l and V (Table 4). Many cassava producers in all zones use insecticides, but the use of chemical fertilizers, fungicides and herbícides ís low. Machínery is used only for land preparation; its use is determined primarily by topography and farm size. Fcr~entage ut' farms Cassava yields were extremely low in Zones J, JIJ and V, Quantitative analysis is presently being carried out to identify the principal factors determining yields, This anaJysis has been completed for an extended sample offarms in Zone Il, where yields ranged fram 0,5 to 43,3 tonsl ha, with an average yield of J2.6 toml ha, Independent of cropping system, rainfall and 50i1 potassium content were identified as Ihe most important factors affecting yield in Zone 1I, Rainfall pattern and quantity during the erop cycle were cJassified for each farm as normal, excessive or deficíent. according to the farmer's perception. Sixty percent of the farmen, reported excessive rainfall while the res! said rainfall had been normal. A simple comparison of yields under these !wo different conditions showed a highly significan! difference of abou! J 2.000 kgl ha. Average yields on excess rainfall lots were 8,238 kgl ha, as compared with 20,509 kgl ha on lots with normal rainfall.On the basis 01' soil tests made on the sample farms, lots were classified into two groups according to their potassium content; the level of30 meqllOO g was used as the minimum acceptable leveL Ahout 45 pereent of the lots contained les, than this level. Average yields on these lots were estimated at 7,388 kgl ha and 19,812 kgl ha for excessive and normal rainfall) respeetively. Yields on lots with 30 meql 100 g or above were 9,259 kgl ha and 20,857 kgl ha for each of the rainfall condítions, respectively. Hence a simple yield comparison indicated that low potassium content reduced yields by I to 2 tonsl ha.A more complete analysis of the impact of rainfall and potassium content on yields, using a production function approach, showed !hat the impact of rainfall was 11,800 kgl ha and tha! of potassium. 1,700 kgl ha, supporting lhe results of the simple compansons, Analyses aimed at identifying lhe principal factors causing low yields in the other zones are yet to be carried out; but it appears that m addition to the aforementioned factors, frog skin root disease in Zone 1, superelongation in Zone 1lI and cassava bacterial blíght in Zones Il!, IV and V may also be causes ofthe low yields.In approKimalely 30 pereenl of lhe afea dedicated to cassava in Colombia, sorne 40 percent of the growers rnix eassava with other crops (1974 Annual Report, p.106). Beca use oftbe importance ofmixed B•ó cropping in cassava production and beca use of lhe laek of information on lhe relative economíc behavior of such systems, an economic analysis of selected cropping systems was carried out in Zone !l. The objectives were (1) to estimate relative yields, labor use, costs and net retums for each of the systems and (2) to identify factors--other than relative net returns-influencíng the farmer 1 s choice of cropping system for cassava in Colombia: cassava alone, cassava and maize, and cassava and beans.Zone Il (Valle and Quindío) was chosen for the analysís because of its importance in cassava production and beca use of the large number of farmers with eaeh of the three cropping syslems within a small regían. Slightly more than one half of the cassava producers in the regíon grew cassava alone. Cassava mixed with maize or beans was found on 34 pereent (17 pereent each) of the farms whíle the rest of the farmers grew cassava mixed with other crops.Farm size, area planted to cassava and use of modem technology on sample farms by cropping system are shown in Table 5. There is a very strong correlation between the leve! of technology and cropping system. The highest level of technology was found among farmers growing cassava alone; monocroppíng was basieally found on the larger. more progressive farros while the small farmer tended to use mixed cropping. The larger producer's preferenee for monocropping is based partly on the expressed beliefthat net returos perunitof land are higher, which in tuen appears to be based more on the influence of the extension agent than actual experience and partly on the fact that credit is easier to obtain for monocropping, Rence, institutions providing credit and technical assistance seem to play an important part in promoting monocropping among the more progressive farmers; i.e., those that need credit and receive technícal assistance. The main reasons far maintaining a mixed cropping system, as expressed by the producers, were (l) to maintain a supply of beans andl or maíze, as well as cassava, for home consumption, (2) to provide for cash incomes during the cassava growing cycle, and (3) to obtain a higher net return per unit nf laud. Many farmers felt that cassava yields would not be greatly affected by the presenee of maize and I or beans, henee the land would be more effieiently exploited by íntercropping. The present economic analysis does not disprove the validity of this; however, it should be noted that bean and maize yields are extremely low. Furthermore, cassava yields are far below those obtained by the best farmers in the region.Survey farmers seemed quite willing to change from one system to another. From 1972 to 1974, more than half ofthem (53.2 pereent) changed from one system lO another. The prímary reasons forchanging from mixed to monoeropping were lhat (l) the previous erap had failedand the farmer was experimenting to identify a better system, (2) the farmer was told thal monoeropping was hetter, and (3) no bean andlor maize seed-or funds to pay for it--were available at planting time. On the A slightly tendency toward increased monocropping was found among the survey farmers during this three~year periodo This trend was not represented by an increase in the number of farmers llsing monocropping exclusivel)', but rather by an inerease in the number of farmers having both cassava alone and intercropped símultaneously and tbe resulting reduction in the number af farmers having only a mixed cropping system. The primary reason for this tendency seems to be Ihe desire lo try monocropping initially on a limiled scale while maintaíning the more tradilional mixed cropping systems.Estimated labor and production costs by erapping system are shown in Tables 6 and  7. A considerable difference in labor requirements was found. The higber total labor requirements for mixed cropping systems are a result of higher requirements for planting, vigilance and harvesting. The differences m labor needs for land preparatíon and input application can be attributed to the differences in the level of Although total variable costs differ among systems j these differences were not statistically significant, basícal1y because the variation was great among farms within each system. Principal cost differences were found in (1) seedbecause of the high cost of bean seed; (2) Cassava yields were equal when cassava was grown alone or with beans (Table 8).When grown with rnaize, yields were lower.Although the yield diffetence was abont 2,000 kgl ha, it was not statistically significant, primarily beca use of a high fahk 7. nand, certain institutional pres.sures favor monocroppmg. The survey farmers seemed quite willing to experiment with cropping systems other than the one they wefe currently using so they wou1d probably shift rapídly toward whiehever system offered re1ative1y higher yíeld potentíals.Efforts to define a plant ideotype for cassava have con1Ínued. Last year the importance of having a leaf area index (LAr) of abou! 3 during the root bulking period, eoup1ed with a long leaf life, \\Vas stressed mainly through a study based on a hypothetical modelo This year the experimental data confirmed this hypothesis more direetly.M Colombia 113 \\Vas planted in a syslematíe density design to give different leaf area indices. Two harvests were taken at a six-week interval, during which time a11 fallen leaves were eolleeted. Leaf life was quite short at about seven weeks (Fig. 1). erop growth rate increased with LA! to about 110 g m-2 wk-1 at LAl 4; above this level it declined rapidly (Fig. 2). The reason for this decline is not apparent but may be due to high respiration rates at higher plant populations or the large proportionofvery young leaves at high populations. In mally crops photosynthesis íncreases with leaf age and then declines slowly; al high populations wilh a leaf life of only 42 days, il is probable lhal average photosynthesis is quite low. Root growth rate showed a marked decline from 45 g m-2 wk-1 al a LAI of 3 lo 3.5 lo less lhan 20 g m-2 wk _1 al a LAI af 4.2 (Fig. 3). These data confirm lhe hYPolhesis lhal lhe optimum LAI for root growth in cassava is 3 to 3.5 during the bulking periodo weTe grown at 1 x 1 m spacing. In the Irealed plols, half the young leaves were removed as they formed al different growlh stages. In M Colombia 22 yields decreased markedly when LAI was reduced at all slages (Fig. 4). As maximum LAI was alwavo less than 2, Ihis result was consistent wit~h the idea of an optimum LA! af 3 to 3,5, In M Colombia! 13 the control pIots had LA!'s beJow lhe optimum at lOO and 300 days but above the optimum at 200 days; plols with lea ves removed at 100 lo 200 days had LArs similar to Ihe control al roo and 300 days hut helow Ihe optimum at 2.1 al 200 days. The trealed plants yielded 97 percenl as much as lhe conlrols; thus it appear, lhat the conlrol plOIS exceeded lhe optimum whereas treated plots were below, once again placing lhe optimum belween 3 to 4 (Fig. 4). In plols clipped alOto 100 day' and al 200 to 300 day', LArs were considerably lower for long periods and yields were subslantially reduced (Fig. 4).individual lea!' size, rate of leaf formalÍon per apex, branching habit and leaf Jife. In CMC-84 plots planted and harvested at different times, there was an increase in leaf size up to Ihree lo four montbs after planting, after which time, it decreased (Fig. 5). Similar dala werefound for CMC-9 grown in enlomology plo!s (Fig. 6). 80lh varieties branch (CMC-9 profusely and --, ----1___ ~I ____ J CMC-84 less profusely), and it was thought that this decrea,e in leaf size might be related to changes in branch number. However, the same trend was noted in M Colombia 1120, a nonbranching variety (Fig. 6); thus leaf size tends to decline with time after about four months although great variablJity exists among varieties.The number of leaves formed per continuous branch was rneasured on spaced plants. The cumulative number formed per apex inereased with time (rom /O to 40 weeks after planting; however, the rate of inerease dec!ined (Fig. 7). There was little difference among varieties~ Le .. about 10 percent. M Colombia 22 and M Colombia 113 were grown at Ixl m spaeing. Once again JiUle difference between the two varieties was found; furthermore the in crease from 10 to 40 weeks was similar to that found in the alber trial. The number of lea ves formed per brandl could be very preciselydescribed by the equation Y = 2.85 tan-I (O.0296t) in the case of M Colombia 113 (Fig. 8). From these data it is concluded that tittle varietal difference exists in the number of lea ves formed per apex.  B-U systemaiic density trial and leaf life was measured. Leaf life decreased in proportion to the LAI at the time the lea ves formed (Fig. 1). These data suggest that it will be difficult to obtain LAI's above 4 as leaf life drops very rapidly above this level. The low efficiency of maintaining high LA!'s for root growth (Fig. 3) is not only explained by mutual shading and redueed crop growth rate but also by the extra energy used for producing a large number of short-lived leaves whose efficiency is low in terms of energy produced per unii of energy expended in formation.Leaf life of spaeed plants was measured for leaves formed 10 to 23 weeks after planting. Leaf life did not apparently ehange with plant age (Fig. 9). Consistent varietal differences were found: The variety CMC-9 (Llanera) had a consistently long leaf life (94-114 days) in comparison to the otherfour varieties (66-98 days). This differenee is not likelydue to shading because the plants were widely spaced (2,500 plantsl ha) and CMC-84 (with a short leaf life) is of about the same vigor as CMC-9. It is therefore concluded that large and useful differences in leaf life exist among varieties.These data suggest that the key to high root yields in cassava is to maintain LAI at the optimum leve! for as long as possihle during the rool bulking phase. There appears to be little genetic variation in rate of leaf formation per apex and lhe tendeney for leaf size to decrease after four months; henee manipulation of these characters to maintain optimum LA! does not appear possible. On the other hand, variation does exist for leaf life and branching habit so these can be manipulated to maintain the optimum LA!. Al present the inleraction between these characters and the environment is not known.The model to describe the existence of an optimum LAI and the overall growth of cassava was based on the fact that top growth takes precedence over root growth and that roots accept the excess carbohydrate produced by the tops. Shading five-month-old plants of M Colombia 22 reduced the number of new 1eaves formed per apex by 15 percent, increased leaf size by 6 percent and reduced stem weight changes by 8 percent. Therefore, the effeets of reduced carbohydrate supply on top growth are mini mal at a level of 50 percent shading. On the other hand, shading reduced root dry weight increase by 35 percent, D-13 confirming that top growth has preference (not complete) over root growth.Many varieties of cassava flower and frui! readily; however, little is known of the effect, of f10wers and frui! production on root yield. Five varieties were grown as spaced plants and flowers were removed as they formed. This was quite easy to do up to about seven months after planting, when it became difficult without damaging plants and several f10wers could not be removed. Ten months after planting, the roots and tops were harvested. There was no relationship between yield and number oC fruits per planl; lheref ore, il was concluded that flowering, at leasl at moderate levels, had no adverse effeel on root yield.Many farmers in Colombia rernove side• or sucker branches. Al CIAT it was found that these suckers generally have long internades and very small lea ves. This suggests that leaf production per unit oC stem weighl is small and that these suckers would be rather inefficienl in producing excess carbohydrate to meet their own needs_ M Colombia 22 and CMC-84, a low-and a medium-vigor variety, were planted in a systematic density designo On treated plants the suckers were removed every month. In CMC-84, treated plants yielded sligbtly more at al! plant populations; the mean increase was approximately 1.5 tons I ha of dry roots (Fig. 10). Theless vigorous M Colombia 22 yielded about 2 tons 1 ha less when suckers were removed at low plant populations but about 3 tonsl ha more at higb plant populations. Maximum yields were about 16.5 tonsl ha with suckers and about 18 tonsl ha without suekers. It appears that suckers are useful only at low populations with low vigor types; otherwise they are inefficient and reduce yields.In the 1973 Annual Repor! a propagation method was described. Small green shoots were rooted in peal pols filled with sterilized soil and placed in a propagation frame; after rooting they were transplanted in the field. This system was eostly beca use of Ihe need to sterilize soil and purehase peat pols.Recently it was found that young grecn shoots rooted in sterile water satisfactorily. Green shoots (8 cm tall) are placed in small flasks contaíning boiled water (Fig. ll). After about one week, a callus forms on the base of the shoots and very shortly afterwards small roots appear. When these roots appear, the plantlets can be transplanted directly to the field if it is well prepared. The plantlets must be planted deep enough (up to the lowest leal) so they do not dry out.During 1975 emphasis was placed on the identification of cultivars and the testing of F 11ines f or resistance to the major diseases of cassava in Amerjca: cassava bacteria1 blight (CBB), Cercospora leaf spots (Cercospora henningsii and C. vicosae), Phoma leaf spot and Ihe superelongation disease. Several etiological aspects of the causal agent ofthe superelongation disease and of an unknawn bacterial disease af cassava (bacterial stem rot) were investigated, as well as methods for screening far resistance to the major cassava diseases. The survival of CBB in plant tissues and exuda tes is being investigated under eontrolled environmental conditions. Assessments for disease losses (sorne of which are still under way) were established by planting in localities where the severity of each particular disease was great.Although screening for resistance under field eonditions has given consistent results, (mal evaluations are possible only after a rainy season, thus requiring extensive time after inoculation to obtain results. A simple method for rapid screening under greenhouse conditions was developed. Six to ten cuttings per hybrid or cultivar are grown in pats inside a greenhouse with about 83 pereent relative humidity (maximum, 99 percent; minimum, 65 pereent) and a temperature of 240C (maximum, 340C; minimum, (Fig. 12),Interactions between bacterial concentrations. serial inocuiations, plant and inoculum ages were also investigated. Best results were obtained when onemonth-old plants were clip inoculated with 36-hour-old cultures at a concentration of I to 3 X lO' cells I mI. A high relative humidily (more than 80 percenl and a modera!e temperature (around 240C) gave best results, Disease evaiuation for resistance An evaluation of g70 F 1 lines obtained from different crosses was made for resistance to CBB under greenhuuse conditions by inoculating six to ten plantslline (Table 9). A highcr percentage of resistant lines appeared when CBBresistant cultivars, which had been identified after screening the enlire germplasm collcctíon, were uscd for controlled hybridizations. This stresses the importance of using CBB-resistant sources and controlled pollinatíons for a high breeding efficiency for resistance to CBB.Simultaneous to the screening of hybrids, several ~;;iell-known cultivars such as Llanera. M Colombia 22. M Colombia 113 and M Colombia 647, were also tested by using the clip inoculation method for CBB reaction. Results were in complete accordance with those o btained In repeated field trials. Cttltivars like M Colombia 22 and M Colombia 113 were very susceptible, hoth in the field and by using the new ínoculaiion rnethod under greenhouse conditions. M Colombia 647, which had always shown resistance to CBB under field conditions, showed high resistance with clip inoculation. These results confinn lhe efficiency of the clip inoculation V~chnique; moreover) a considerably Jarger amount of material can be tested in a short time with this method.Data taken by the cassa va soi! group at Carimagua show that CBB could reduce yields of the tolerant cultivar Llanera from 50 to 90 percent when the disease appeared during the first four months of growth. This obviously suggests that CBB seriously affects yield in cassava plantations in areas where there are prolonged periods of rainfall, such as in the Llanos Orientales of Colombia. When infection occurred immediately after germination, yield was more severely reduced than when it appeared four months after planting. N (as urea) or K (as KCI) applications did not correlate with CBS severity, but Mg applicatioIls (as MgO) in crease its severity and reduced yield.The survival of CSB in soi! was studied during 1974. During 1975, CBB survivalin exuda les and plant tissues was investigatcd. Results up to October, 1975 showed thal CBB may survive for more than four months and at high concentrations (1 X 10 7 cells I mi) in plant exudates stored at room temperature (around 24°C and 70% RH) or in a controlled dry environment by using CaCI2 (24°C and 20% RH). CBB also appears to survive for the same period in plant tissues hut at lower concentrations than in exudates. CBB survival in neerosed stem tissuc is longer than in necrosed petiole and lea1' tissues. These results stress the importance 01' our previous suggestions for a careful elimination of a1l cassava debris and volunteer plants by burning in order to eradicate CBB from infeeted plantations.Cercospora \\eaf spots \\Vork on Cereospora leaí' spots was concentrated on C. henningsii (brown leaf spot) and C. vicosae (blight leaf spot), the most serious and widespread pathogens in cassava plantations located below 1200 m.Cercospora henningsii and C. vicosae are prevalent and endemic at CIA T, possibly beca use of the continuous planting af cassava and the favorable environmental conditions for disease development.Field evaluation was possible throughout the year, giving consistent results when readings were taken on seven-to eight-month-old plants spaced Ixl m aparto Disease rating was evaluated on hybrids and cultivars by calculating the percentage of infection of the leaves for each pathogen. Resistant hybrids or cultivars were those which showed narrower leaf lesions and less than 10 pereent of the totalleaves infected.Checking 454 and 449 lea ves of two susceptible cultivars (M Ecuador 150 and M Panama 64) fram their emergence to leaf drop, it was found that only 13 and II pereent, respectively, of their 1eaves remained healthy. Df 325 lea ves of CMC-g4, a cultivar resistant to C. henningsii but susceptible to C. vicosae, 27 percent were healthy. In contrast, 90 percent of the leaves of M Mexico 59. a cultivar resistant to both Cercospora spp., remained healthy. lt was also found that healthy leaves of the susceptible cultivars (M Ecuador 150 and M Panama 64) fell about 17 pereent later than the diseased ones.It appears that the environmental conditions at CIAT are good for the occurrence of these two diseases; therefore, [ield evaluation [or C. henningsii and C. vicosae resistance could be successfully done in areas located at around 1000 m altitude with stcady rainfall distribution throughout the year. Evaluation must be taken seven months after planting. It appears that high plant density per area increases disease severity and therefore the effieiency o[ screening.The evaluation of resistance to C. henningsii and C. vicosae in eIA T's eassava germplasm is presented in Table 10. Resistance to C. henningsii (58 percent) was higher than to C. vicosae (11 percent). This suggests that resistance to C. henningsii is more cornmonly found and easier to incorpora te.  Many of the cultivars resistant to C. vícosae were also resistant to C. henningsii, but the resistance to these two pathogens does not appear to be Iínked in any way beca use there were cultivars with resistance to either one. A relatívely satisfactory percentage (8 pereent) ofresistanee to both pathogens exists III eIA T's cassava germplasm.The evaluation of resistance to C. henningsii and C. vicosae oí\" F 1 hybrids among cultivars with different degrees of resistance is presented in T ables 11, 12 and 13. As was found in the evaluation of the germplasm (T able 10), resistance to C. henningsii among F 1 hybríds was much more frequent than resistance to C. vicosae (Tables 11 and 12).For both C. henningsii and C. vicosae, higher percentages of resistant lines were obtained when resistant cultivars were u,ed as the cross parent, (Table 13). There seerus to be no apparent barrier to incorporating resistance to the two Cercospora spp. into one genotype; henee the resistance to Cercospora can be incorporated into any favorable genotype by using resistant parents in hybridization programs.The identification of the causal agent of the superelongation disease of cassava was confirmed as a species of the fungal genus Sphacelorna; the pathogen may well be Sphaceloma manihOlicola, which was previously reported causing a somewhat similar disease on l\\1anihot esculenta and M. glaziovii in Brazil in 1950. A host range study of the superelongation pathogen was made, using a number of available Manihot and related species including M. escufenta, Al. glaziovii, /W. carthagenensis, A1. faetida, lIJ.silvestre, Ricinus communis, Jatropha goss}'pifolia and Euphorbia pulcherrima (poinsettia). Only 836 (22 ' -;7[,)  2,749 (72 n \"i.)253 (2!'i~.'{,)   299 (JY;'é) 70 (39(:()  103 (Sí:U,:q 25 (42(,>;.)6 (100'.,:;;)infected by the pathogen, and the pathogen was isolated from naturally infeeted plants belonging to these two species. However, a Sphaceloma sp. previously reported as S. poinsettiae, ísolated from infected poinsettia plants, indueed symptoms on cassava similar to those induced by Sphaceloma sp. on cassava. Until further evidence can prove otherwise, it is suggested that the superelongation pathogen may be the same fungus as reported by Bitaneourt and Jenkins as Sphaceloma manihoticola.The conidia of tbe superelongation causal agen! are produeed on phialides and are smal! (averaging 5.3 x 2.7 ;1), oblong to oblong-elliptical. The eanidia swell greatly pnor to germination. The effeets of temperature, moisture, light, spore concentration and age of colony upon conidial germination were tested. Free moisture was shown to be essential for germination, and optimum germination occurred at approximately 28.5°C. Light and spore concentration had Hule or no effeet upon germination. but the percentage of germination decreased with lncreased colony age.The aforementioned data were necessary to establish a successful .;;ystem for Ta hlc ¡ J. Firld eva luation vf re.,ü<;íance to both Ccrcr)\"j)(VU henning.   14 and 15 and Fig. l3).Disease dissemination and red uction in plant establishment by the use of infected planting material was studied with the susceptible cultivar M Colombia 113. Cuttings (144) taken [ram healthy and diseased plantations were planted in an isolated locality. After 25 days germination  :;:percent of the susceptible euí¡¡vars yielded tess than the regional average. In contrast, 70 and 100 pereent of the tolerant and resistant cultivars, respective1y, produced more than the regional average. By groupíng cultívars in accordance with their disease rating (Figs. 14 and 15), it can be seen that yields increase when resístance to Phorna leaf spot increases. Sorne of the resistant cultivars yielded only as rnuch as the tolerant ones (Fig. 15), which could be related to genetic yield ability per se. t: Popayán afea, nme highly resistant cultivars were planted in El Darién (1430 m), where the disease Occurs with greater severity. In both localities, the susceptible cultivars showed complete defoliation, dieback ando ID many cases. death; consequently, total plant weight was considerably reduced. The resistant cultivars grew normally, producing a higb total weight of fresh matter according to the intrinsic vigor of eacb cultivar (Table 16). It was conc1uded that these highly resistant cultivars could be used successfully in any breeding program for resistance to this disease.A bacterial species pathogenic to cassava was isolated frcm rotted stem  The Mononychellus mite is usually found around the growing points of the plant on buds, young lea ves and 8tems; lower lea ves are less affected. The leaves emerge from the bud marked with yellow SpOls, lose their normal greco color and become deformed. The attacked shoots lose lheir green color, turning rough and brown. The stems and lea ves die progressively from top to bottom (Fig. 18).Damage from the Tetranychus mite first appears on the lower leaves of the planto Damage fírst shows as yellow dots along the main leaf vein and eventually spreads over the whole leaf, which turns reddish brown or rusty in color. Beginning with the basal lea ves, severely infested leaves dry and drop; under severe attack plants may die (Fig. 19).Presence of the Oligonychus mlle is characterized by a small whitish web that the female spreads on the undersides ofthe leaves, cornmonly along the center and lateral leaf veins. Yellow to brown dols forffi on the leaf's upper surface. Damage is more pronounced Oil the lower leaves.A   Yield reductions induced by thrips attack were studied in two trials on the CIAT farm. In the first trial thrips attack was heavy during the dry season, and losses, were up to 15.4 percent in susceptible cultivars and II percent for intermediate resistan! cultivars (Table 18). Yield reduction in thrips-susceptible cultivars was attributed to al! insects attacking cassava; in resistant cultivars it was Tablc 18.Cassava yields of thrips-susceptible (S), intermediate resistant (1) and resistant (R) cultiyars, ten months after planting. with and without insecticida) appUcation.  In lhe second trial, yie1d reduction due to thrips was estimated by the reduction in yields of plolS wilhou! insecticidal protection as compared to protected plots. Yield reduction ranged from 5.6 percent for M. Colombia 1696 lo 28.4 percent for M. Colombia 1767, with an average reduction for aU varieties of 4.1 lons I ha or 17.2 percen! (Table 18).White grubs, lhe larval stage of a beetle (Scarabaeidae) feed on the rools of young plants, causmg considerable damage. Grubs feed on lhe bark and buds of recemly planted cuttings, reducing germination. Attacks are more severe in fields lhat were in pasture priar to the planting of cassava. fwo control methods 01 insecticidal application were studied: Soil applications of a granular or dust insecticide were made at the time of planting, or cuttings were submerged in an insecticidal solution for 20 minutes befare ::-,lanting. Two varieties (CMC-59 and 57) were lreated wilh eight insec1Ícides and Qile herbicide; stake germina tia n was recorded 15, 25 and 35 da)'s after planting. In anolher experiment using the insecticides carbofuran and disulfolon, three methods of application were studied: incorporation in the soi1, placed below the cutting or around lhe cutting.Results in lhe firsl experiment show lhal white grubs can reduce gerrnination markedly unless controlled. Of 160 cuttings planted in the four control replicates, 153 (95.6 percent) did nol germinale due to while grub damage (Table 19). Aldrin and carbofuran (granulaled form only) gave the best control with 80,6 and 73.1 percent germination, respectively. Disulfolon (50.6 r a ble 19. Effects ofthe application ofseveral insecticides on the germination oC cassava cutiings in the presence oC white grubs (Scarabaeidae). --------------------------------- percent germination) gave modera te control, but the remainder of the insecticides gave litlle or no gruh control. Thc dip melhod of applieation was nol effective.lo the second experiment, carbofuran (granular) applied below lhe cutting gave the be sI resulls (Tabie 20). This resulled in onl~l a 7.5 percent reduction in germination as compared to a 27.5 percent reduction in thc control.C'aS5ava ffuit flies have become Dne of the most serious pe~ts of cassava in the coffee-growing region of Colombia. Originally believed lo be only a pest ofthe cassava fruit. t\\vo species of fruit files, A nasuepha pickeli and A.manihori (Tephrilidae) have now been identified as abo attacking the stem. The female prefers to oviposit in the [fuit but frequently oviposits in the soft tissue ofthe stem ofthe yaung cassava planl aboul 10 lo 20 cm below lhe grawing pain!. lhe young larva hatches and bores ¡ts way into the pith region of the stem and tunnels downward. rhi~ tunneling is a point of cntry for a bacterial pathogen that can cause extensÍve rotting of Ihe ,tem (See pathology scction).During their inítial stages, the larvae are white, lurning yeliow laler. The presenee of the larvae within the stem can often be noled by lhe white Iiquid exuda le thal flows from the larval wound down the stem. This extensive rotting often causes dealh of Ihe growing poin! of young planls (Fig. 20). On one field 84 percenl of Ihe planls were abserved with this damage, whiie in anolher field ahaul 75 percenl of lhe planls had eallapsed 20 lo 30 cm below the growing poin!.  Whitellies Whiteflies (AJeyrodidae) are distributed over many ofthe cassava-growing areas of the world. Several species havc been identified as attacking cassava; these inelude Trialeurudes variabilis, Bemisia tahad, B. tuherculata, Aleurotrachelus sp. and Aleurothrixus sp. Although indications are that whiteflies may not cause direet damage due to feeding, they are of particular importance beca use of their ability to transmit mosaic disease in Africa. In addition a sooty mold growing on their excretions may have an adverse effeet on plant photosynthesis.The biology of the whitefly 1. variabilis. cornrnonly found in Colombia. was studied under field conditions in screencd cages (Table 21 uniform, but on1y one evaluaüon was made and thcrefore needs to be repeated.A systcm for biological control ol' the cassava hornworm (f..'rinnyis dio) was described in the 1974 Anl1lml Repor\\. lhe combination of egg parasitism by Trichugramma fasciatwn and larval predatíon by the paper wasp PO/istD' erytrocephalus supressed the hornworm population at CIAT throughout the yeaL There has been no outbreak at Ihe CIAT farm since these biological control agents were introduced in 1973.Hornworm outbreaks were studied Gn two nearby farms. In both case::. an Ínsecücide had been applied to the cassava erop for insect (thrips and fruit Dv) control l\"able 22. E'r'aJuation of 189 cassa\\'<l, cultiyars for resistance 10 the whiten)' Alcurotrachelus sp.Total Damagc rating\"* oo. of An evaluatíon for resistance to the whitefly Aleurotrachelus sp. was made on 189 cassava cultivars during a heavy field infestation. The oblong pupal stage of this whitefly is black with a white waxy exeretion around the outer edge, making it easy to detect on the leaf undersurface. Several varieties were identified with very low levels of infestation (   23. Present status of the ClAT cassa,'a Trichogramma was between 50 and 60 germplasm coHecHon.percent. The PoJistes wasp was introduced into both fields. In the first field there has been no further outbreak for six rnonths; the second field is still being studied.During the past three years a substantial arnount of basic data on germplasm and genetic behavior and selection efficiency of the cassava plant was accumulated. Evaluation of more than 2.000 entries in the germplasm eollection was completed. Hybridization and seedling selection techniques were established. Selection based on harvest index of the plant proved to be efficient. both genetically and physiologically.During the year, approximately 230 cultivars, 3,000 hybrid lines and 8,000 hybrid plants were evaluated and harvested in a replieated yield trial, an observational yield trial and a hybrid selection field, respectively. About 160 hybrids lines, 1,200 hybrid lines and 25,000 hybrid seeds were planted in the replicated yield trial, the observational yield trial and the selection field, respeetively. Approximately 30,000 hybrid seeds were produced from about 250 eross combinations. A major part of these seeds are sown at CIA T within six months of harvest; sorne are sent to breeders in many countries of America, Asia and Africa.A yield of more than 60 tons I ha I year was obtained in a replicated yield tria!. The highest yielding cultivars at CIA Tare outperforming the local cultivars not only at CIAT but al so outside CIA T; thus yield improvement through modifying the cultivars seems a forthcoming reality.The present status of the CIA T germplasm collection is presented in Table   The correlation bctween yield data in the single-row and populatían trials was surprisingly low (Fig, 24), probably beca use of intensive intergenotypic competition. Thc correlation between harvest index In the single-row and population trials (Fig. 25) was high, As a resulto the harvest index in the single-row trial was bighly correlatcd witb the yield in the population trial (Fig, 26); tbis indicates that harvest index as a selection trait is cven better than yield itselfwhen genotypes are tcsted at the observational yield trial leveL  A remarkable varietal variation was observed in initial vegetative vigor. Initíal vigor was highly correlated with leaf and stem weight at han'est and negatively correlated \\vith harvest index; however, it was not significantly related lo yield (Table 25), Under CIA T conditions, which are regarded as nearly ideal for obtaining high yields, the yield of more than 50 tons I ha was obtained with a rather wide range of initial vigor. However, when considering less favorable conditions for cassava growth that are more reprcsentatíve ofvast cassava-growing areas in the tropics, the 7[ 6 1 sr  . ': .. :.:-,: ... ' I . ••c• :.f:: ' oi : . .' .• o\" ,\",'#'1 among 15 best yielders in 300 lines evaluated. This suggests tha! there are high-yield se1ections adapted at least to the altitude range from O m in Caribia to 1,000 m at CIAT.From a total of approximately 8,000 F 1 hybrid plants. about 1,200 were selected on the basis of harvest index and root yield (Table 27). These materials were forwarded to the observarional yield trials. and sorne are aIso being observed in Carimagua and Caribia.Tbe high correlation of yield data-i.e., harvest index, root yield and total pJant weight -between the seedling and the stake-planted generations has been  conllrmed. This high correlatÍon or high efficiency of selection with seedling plants exists as early as seven months after transplanting them (Fig. 27). Even if the seedling plants are kept until 15 months, these correlations do not improve (Fig. 28).Since only a few planting stakes can be obtained with seedling plants less than seven months old, it is unlikely that the breeder will practice selection with seedling plants befare the plants reach this age. The results do, however, suggest that very efficient seedling selection is guaranteed whenever the planting stakes can be cut from the seedling plants as long as theyare widely spaced to avoid intergenetypic competition in a reasonably uniform field.Results of the yield trial were significant, oot only because quite a few cultivars yielded well but also becausemany ofthese high-yielding cultivars had been actively utilized in om hybridization program for  were identified; thus hybrids such as CM 309-41, CM 309-56 and CM 309-206 are actively used in hybridization.Using the data witb seedling plants, a highly significant regression of parental average on F¡ hybrids average in barvest index had already been shown. Tbe same type of analysis was made with both the parents and the F 1 hybrids, using the data of stake-planted plants. By nature, this type of analysis is more accurate and practical than the formeL A highly significant regression was obtained no! only in harvest index but also total plant weight. The regression in root yield itself was not as high as in harvest index and total plan! weight; nevertheless, it was also significant (Figs. 29,30 and 31). This encourages breeders to believe Ihat almosl any character with practical meaníng can be inherited, thereby justifying the faet that a large part of our hybridizations are by controlled pollinizations.The pathology group has shown that there are at least fíve major diseases to be taken inlo account when breeding for resistance. Highly resistant genotypes for cassava bacterial blight and Cercospora leaf spots were identified (See pathology seetion and Table 28). The data suggest that Ihis resistance can be readily incorporated into agronomically desirable types. Highly resistant genotypes for Phoma leaf spol, a disease prevailing in temperate climates, were also identified; but it is not yet known whether this is easily incorporated into high-yielding types at low temperatures. Several moderately resistant types for superelongation disease \"' c::J'• .. ,: . ------- were identified; however, it is not known how effective the resistance of these types will be and how long the resistance willlast. Needless to sayo aH resistant types are actively hybridized with high-yielding types and among themselves..5. 6Average harvest index of parents The observational yield trial at Caribia was infected by CBB. and a elear varietal difference in the reaction to this disease was observed. The observational yield trial at CIAT was free from CBB. The varietal yields of the tWD locations were cDmpared at each level of the CBB altack in Caribia (Table 29). The yield difference of about 3.5 kg between CIAT and Caribia with resistant and tolerant cultivars (CBB • grades I and 2) represents the general yield difference between the two Irials. With highly susceptible cultivars (grade 5). the yield difference was 6.4 kg. ResuIts indicate that even under a moderate level of CBB attack, resistant cultivars are highly desirable, moderately susceptible cultivars give a significant yield reduction, and susceptible cultivars will give disastrous results. Thus. the first cultivar lO be recommended should possess at least a moderate level of CBB resistance, if not a high one, in addition to high yielding ability with wide adaptability.The observational yield trial al Carimagua was heavily infected by CBB and superelongation disease. Practically Since a significant portion of cassava production is expected to go for animal feeding aud slarch extraclion in Ihe fUlure, yield should be expressed in teTms of rool dry malter or slarch yield, as well as root fresh yield, Varietal variation in rool dry tnatter cantent was great, even among the 20 cultivars selected on the basis of fresh weight yield (Table 24), This suggests that Ihe yield ceiling level has uol been reached as regards dry malter yield per area per time.The correlalions belween rool specific gravily and rool dry matler content and belween rool specífic gravity and rool starch content were very high. Conversion diagrams from specific gravily lo dry multer contenl and starch contenl in Ihe peeled rool are presenled (Figs,32 and 33), The proportion of rool peel fresh weighl lo whole rool fresh weighl and the starch cantent of root peel varies according to 8-40 cultivars, Assuming 20 percent as a rough average for both, conversion diagrams from root specific gravity to starch content of (l) the whole rool and (2) of the peeled root over the whole root are al50 presented (Fig, 34), One of the biggest shortcomings of cassava is its extremely rapid root decay after harvest. Sorne genetic difference in 42  root durability after harvest has been observed. Two methods representing two extremes of conditions to which cassava is subjected befare marketing or processing, were devised to evaluate this characteristic.In the field evaluation, 15 randomly selected roots were left in the field for two weeks and then evaluated by chopping them. In the laboratory evaluation, 15 randomly se1ected roots were kept inside a room at a normal temperature of about 240C, After one week, aH the roots were chopped and the degree of streaking on the root was evaluated. In this way, the fitness of stored roots for human consumption, animal feeds and starch extraction can be more objectively evaluated.In the great majority of cultivars, roots simply decayed after three or four days whether they were kept in the field or in the laboratory. However, roots of sorne cultivars of hybrid lines were occasional1y found edible even at two weeks after harvest. There is a large margin of error associated with the two methods. The correlation between the field and the laboratory evaluations was not high but acceptably usefuL After eliminating aH the cultivars or lines which showed unacceptable decay in any evaluation, thefe were still a certain number of cultivars and hybrid Iines that survived aH evaluations. There seems to be no association between roo! durahility and yielding ability. The selected materials are being utilized m the hybridization program, and the genetic behavior of this character is being studied.During 1975,90 percent of the work was done outside CIA T, principally in collaboration with farmers and national agencies such as the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (lCA), the FederaciónNacional de Cafeteros and f( gional departments (secretarías) of agrieulture. Although work was done on e lltural practices, majar emphasis was plal:ed on regional trials.Cassava shows great variabilily. To select a variety based on narked differences in character is easy, bu! t~) select compatible genetic characteristic ¡ that reaet favorably to several envirollments and produce optimal yields under in ensive growing conditions is difficult. F\"r this reasan, yield evaluations in the fiel,i must still be made.From the 14 trials planted in different regions of Colombia (Table 30). nir e have been harvested. Five triaIs were pla Hed in cooperation with ICA, three wi.h the Federación ~acional de Cafeteros alld orre with the Department of Agriculture in Santander del Sur.The rapid propagation metho,j (see section on propagation) was med to multiply 22 prornlSing varieti os in suffieient number to plant 21 regional trials. Asexual \"seeds\" (cuttings) from these varieties were distributed . o the Philippines, Australia. Guyana, Ec lador, Venezuela and Mexico.As Colombia is a relatively small eountry that offers a wide garr ut of climatic and edaphic conditions, it jo; ideal for evaluating promising varieties fcr their produetivity and adaptation. The trials have two main objectives: (1) to m!asure the components that have the most influence on yield under di:ferent environmental conditions in ore er to extrapolate results to other regiom, both within and outside Colombia; and (2) to replace local varieties with imr roved B-42 varieties that not only give higher yields but that are also disease and ¡nseet resistant, tolerate poor soils, are easy to harvest and are of superior quality [or human consumption and industrial uses.The same teehnology was applied to al! . trials: the use of modern, expensive inputs was avoided. Planting was done on ridges when the soil was heavy and on the flat when soils were very permeable or sandy. A randomized block design with four replications was used. The soi1 was analyzed in each replication, and a pluviometer was installed at eaeh site. The regional variety or varieties were used as controls. The harvested area was always surrounded by at least two border rows, either of the same variety or at least one of the harvested variety and others of the neighboring line. Stakes (20 cm) were planted vertically at a population density of 10,000 plants] ha.Cuttings were dipped in a 5 percent arazan solution for five minutes to prevent the rotting of cuttings and the death of seedlings at the time of germination. Toxaphene-DDT 40-20 was applied at a rate of 1 gal] ha to control soil insects that are not specific to cassava but that could hinder normal germination and good plant development during the initia! stage.A mixture of preemergenee herbicides (diuron and alachlor) was applied immediately after planting in variab!e dosages aecording to soil texture (Table 31). Diuron was used to control broadleaf weeds and alachlof, grasses. Weedings were carried out in accordance with the rainfall pattern of each region. Carimagua \\vas the onl)\" site where fertilizers were used. Insects attacking the aerial portion of the plant and diseases were not controlled in order to determine the true poten tia! of thc promising varieties under the conditions found on the majority of cassava-growing [arms.Tab1c30. Sites whece the first ~r()up of promising leAl CIAT varieties were planted and the main soil and dimatic characteristics. The recommendation ofvarietÍes ineach country corresponds tú the respective national agency; however, CIAT and the local ageney conduct a field day al harvesl time to inform farmers about the results and let lhem seleet lhe va~ieties lhat best SU;1 their needs. They then receive seed 10 make their own evaluations. A register 1S kept of the farmers and lhe places where the varieties are to be planted. So far, the criteria for selecting varieties for the second or third year of trial have been flexible, depending mainly upon lhe zone and lhe bebavior of the control. At Rionegro, for example, those varieties that outyíelded the best regional one by 50 percent were seleeted. At Medía Luna, the yearly with new ones being tesled for the fírst time. Tbís is a continuous, dynamic process in which excellence is the criterio n f or selection.Each site was visited eight times to check the development of the trial, colleet data and order the neeessary weedings.As regards dlseases, there was asevere outbreak ofbacteriosis at Carimagua and a modera te outbreak at Media Luna, La Zapata and Nataima. Although e1ean material was taken to al! sites, it is diffieult to prevent contamination where the disease already exists. Superelongation disease was also faund al Carimagua. Phoma leaf spol deeimated the majority of varieties at Darién, which explains the low yields obtained at this site (Table 32). AH three types of Cercospora were found at al! sites, but C, vicosae was    As for Ínsects, La Zapata was severeIy attacked by thrips, whieh were also reported at Caicedonia, although in smalkr num bers.In relatíon to dIy matter, there was a great deaI of variation, as cali be seen in Table 33. Taking into aeeount only the four most outstanding varieties, it can be ~een that as fertility increases so does dry matter content (Table 34). Jt was interesting to find that in areas of low soil fertility such as Media Luna, there were varieties so efficient as CM C-84 (13 percent more dry matter than M Mexico 59). These data are espeeially important for the starch and pelletizing industries and should be taken into aecount in the final evaluation of varieties.The principal characteristies of the outstanding promising varieties are given in Table 32. Data on fresh weight and dry matter content are given in Table 33. The general average yield for the best regional varieties at the nine sites in Colombia was 17.g tonsl ha. In comparison to the estimated national average (8 tons I ha), there is a difference of 9.8 tons I ha. Results from the agro-economic survey carried out on 300 Colombian cassava farms suggest that this difference lS even greater. Therefore, the national average was surpassed 122 pcrcent through such simple agronomic practices as planting clcan, treated seed; incorporating insecticides in the soil at planting; and keeping the crop weed free. The best CIATIICA line ineach region gave an average yield of about 30 tons 1 ha, suggesting the enormous :yield potential through using not only improved, low-input technology but a1so improved varieties.Planting systems A trial to determine the effeet of planting system (on ridges or on the flat) on yield was carríed out in collaboration with cassava growers from the regia n of Caicedonía, \\vhere the majority offarmers plant cassava on ridges, even on the slopes. The farmers do this to reduce root rot, which occurs when the soil is very moist. Since sorne farmers had found that this system produced fewer TootS III comparison to planting on the flat, a trial was designed to determine whether this was true. The local varietv Chiroza was used with a fixed population of 10,000 plants I ha. Weed control was practiced; it was not necessary to applyeitherfertilizers or insecticides.  the danger of rotting. Although yields are lower when cassava is planted on ridges~ harvesting is easier. This is not evident in the case of Caieedonia beca use of the special soil conditions of this region. When planting on ridges, an average of 1,070 kg I man was harvested during a sevenhour day, as eompared to 896 kg for the other system. In a similar trial at CIA T, it was found that planting on ridges required 12.6 tractor hrs I ha, whereas planting on the flat required only 8.4; therefore, the latter system is recornmended on soils where rotting is not a serious risk.In order to determine the optimal plant population for the medium-height variety Chiroza, a trial was designed using low and high populations in eontrast to the 7,000 plants I ha eommonly used in the regioll.Populations ranging from 4,000 to 17,000 plants I ha were used.Between the 7,000 and 17,000 plant population, there was a differenee of 4,790 kg I ha, signifieant at 5 pereent with (he Dunean test (Table 35). Nevertheless, this higher weight is not profitable beca use as the population inereases, the pereentage of cornmercial [oots decreases. Consequently, a population of 7,000 plants I ha is adequate for the eonditions in Caicedonia, where the roots are destined [or fresh consumption.In eassava, optimal plant population depends upon the height ofthe variety. The fart-shaped trials have provided a great deal of inforrnation, but further study is needed in relation to the different plant types.Two short and two tall varieties with different branehing habits were seleeted. Populations ranging from 2,500 to 40,000 plants ¡ha \\verc used. Thc trial \\vas harYl'sted at 367 days.Figure 35 sho\\\\•s the trend for total root production; that is, as plant population ¡nneases. cassa'va production incrcases. This would be the ideal case for countries like Bra7.i1 and Thailand, where cassava is processed befare being marketed. In the 1974 Annual Report (physiology section), population curves tended to descend at 40,000 plants 1 ha. In this case, however, these curVeS do not dcscend at this level hecause weeding was done on1y three times and wecd populations were lower at hígher densities, whereas in the physiology trials, wecding was done throughout the triaI.In areas where cassava is consumed fresh, it is necessary to find an optimal plant population for commercial root production (roots longer than 25 cm and more than 5 cm in diameter). For the short varieties and the taH, nonbranching varietics, this was 10,000 plants 1 ha; whereas for the tal1, branching variety, the optimal population was 5,000 (Fig, 36). Each variety must be analyzed separately and cannot be compared, as each has a different genetic nature that determines lts potential yieId. It was also found that as plant populatlons increase, the number of weeds decreases. Branching varieties let less light through than nonbranching ones, thus cxerclsing better weed control.At the bcginning of 1974 various experiments we-re planted in the acid soils in Carimagua (Llanos Orientales) to study thc response of cassava to fertilization and to determine the best agronomic practices for this type (Jf soi!. Asevere altack of CBB eliminated several experiments and affected plant growth to a lesser extent in others.In Octoher.1974 several cxperiments were repeated in Tranquero, a few kilometers from Carimagua; and tbese remained free of CBB until harvest. The M-50 rcsults of the Tranquero and the least affccted Cal'imagua experiments are reported beto\". Except fOl' the elcmenHs) undel' studv. the trials received a uniform fertilizer application of 112 ton lime 1 ha with a Ca I Mg ratio (Jf 10: 1; I 00 kg N: ha as urea; 100 kg P20sl ha as triple superphosphate; 200 kg K,O¡ ha, half as KCI and halfas K2S04;and IOkgZn¡ haaSLine sulfate. The variety Llanera was used~ an experiments were harvested at 9 112 or 10 months of age.Potassium* 1 n last year's report it \\vas indicated that K 15 the elernent that most limits cassava vields in manv soils. The importancc of K ~vas again de~onstrated in Carimagua and Tranquero, as well as in Jamundí, on an acid, out relatively high base-status soil (1974 Annoal Repor!, TabIe 26, p.91). Studying the effeet of three sourees ol' K(KCI, KCI + S and K2S04) in Tranquero, it was found that plants with the KCI treatments had severe yelIowing of boltom lea ves, indicative oí' S deficiency, at three months ofagewhilethosewith KCl + S and Kz..')04 appllcations remained green and showed better plant growth. Sulfur content of lea ves, a veraged over three levels of application, was 0.29, 0.30 and 0.37 pereent for KCI, KCI + S and K2S04 treatments, respectively. The S contents were above the 0.2-0.25 percent level, given as the criticals content for most crops; but cassava may have an unusually• high S requirement as it was the only crop showing clear S-deficiency symptoms in Carirnagua.Figure 37 shows the yield response to K applications in Jamundí and Tranquero. In Jamundi there was a significant response to the application of 120 kg K 2Ü 1 ha, but no significant differences were observed bctween KCI and K2S041n This <lnd t11e ncxt tv.-ll experimenb weTe part of a PhD thcsj~ projcctK applicatiorl (kg K20 1 ha) Also, the high chloride application reduced the uptake of sulfate by anion competition, intensifying the S deficiency even more. A direct toxicity of the chloride anion (as observed in potatoes) is also a possible explanation since the high KCl treatment had a chloride content of 0.11 percent in the roots as compared to 0.09 percent for KCl + S and 0.06 percent for K2S04 treatments. The lack of significant differences between K sources in Jamundí was mainly due to a lack of S response, which is due to the higher S status of these volcanic-ash influenced soils (7.8 ppm available sulfate S) compared with the Llanos soils (4.0-4.5 ppm). Yields in both trials were high, particularly for the Llanos, where a yield of just under 20 tons I ha was obtained.A complete factorial trial of three levels of N bv three levels of K was established in Tranq;'ero to sludy the interaction of these importan! plant nutríents. There was no response to N in Ihe absence of K, but there was a strong positive response to K in the absence of N (Fig. 38).'Cassava yields with no N and 300 K2Ü were nearly double those obtained with no K and 200.'\\1'. In the presence of K there was a positive response to the application of 100 kg N I ha but a subsequent negative response to 200 kg. In the presence of ?\\I\" there was a strong positive response lo the application of 150 kg K2Ü1 ha (as KCl), but there was no additional yield increase with 300 kg K2Ü1 ha.It appears that K is the main elemen! limiting yields, but once the K requirement is satisfied, plants respond to a moderate 25 but not too high applicatíon of N. Information in literature indicating lhat hígh N applícations increase leaf growth but decrease root growth was not corroborated in this experiment sínce leaf area as well as yield were depressed by high N applícations in the presence of K. Root dry matter productíon was highly correl~ted (r = 0.97) with total dry matter production.Although yields inereased, K fertilization reduced the N content and thus the protein content of roots significantly; nevertheless, protein yield 1 ha was increased. The application of K reduced the Mg content of leaf blades and petioles, possibly inducing Mg deficiency, resulting in a yield reduction with the high K treatments.Carimagua generally have a very low Mg content in the lea ves, a trial was established to determine the significance of Mg fertílization, using two sources and five levels of Mg. Figure 39 shows that cassava yields can be increased by !O tons 1 ha, applying 50 kg 1 ha of Mg as MgS04. Higher Ievels of MgS04 were detrimental, possibly due lO induced Ca deficiency. Ca levels in peliole. at 3 112 months deereased  the faet thal it was aehieved after 9 112 months.During a previous evaluation it was observed thal mosl eassava cultivars produeed highe.t yields with applieatíons of 112 or 2 tons I ha of lime but showed a strong negative response lo higher lime applicatíons. At lhe 6 ton.1 ha lime level, roany varieties showed severe chlorosis and deformalíon of the growing points, whieh was attributed to a possible deficiency of minor elements. Although the problem was thought to be due mainly to Zn defieiency, an experiment was planted to study the interaction of lime with all minor elements exeept Fe, whieh is abundant in these soils. Within main plOIS Wilh applicatíons of O, 112, 2 and 6 tons 1 ha of lime, subplots of minor elements (added individuan)' and in eompletecombination) were established.The effeet of liming on pH and Al has been reported before (1973 Annual Report, p.211). The Chirosa variety used was intermediately affected by CBB; the attack was less severe al high levels of lime application. During Ihe entire growth cycle, plants did not show deficieucy symptoms, and Ihere appeared to be a positive response to the application of 2 and 6 tons I ha of lime.   high Zn content; but without Zn applications its Zn content (38 ppm) was deficient although it was not low enough to produce deficiency symptoms, which generally appear below 20 ppm.  • + . + , ' \" ' \" ' \" '\" ' \" ' \" ' \" \"-\"-\"-\"-\"-\"-c.. positively up to 6 tons lime I ha. This was the onl)' minor element treatment without a yield reduction at the high lime level. Thus, the negative response of cassava to even moderate lime applications, not observed in any other crop studied, is due to índuced Zn deficiency, to which cassava is apparently very susceptible. Figure 42 shows lhe yield response to all minor elements at the 6 ton s I ha lime level, indicating the relative importance of Zn and, 10 a lesser extent, Cu and Mn. At the lower lime levels, the response to minor elements was smaller.Table 36 shows the nutrient contents of leaf blades, petioles and roots at various times during the growth cycle. These nutrient contents correspond to near maximum yields in Carimagua; they give an índication of what may be considered to be .. normal\" nutrient contents although these may vary to some degree according to soils, varieties, climatic conditions and fertilizatioo.N, P and S contents were higher in the leaf blades than in the petioles while levels of K, Ca and Mg were much higher in the petioles. The petioles also showed a wider range for the latter group of elements and thus \\vere more indicative of their nutrient status. Roots had a much lower nutrient cantent than either leaf blades or petioles.vr ost elemental contents decreased slightly during lhe growth cycle wilh the exceptíon of Ca. Ca and Mg contents in Carimagua weTe 10w compared to those on many other soils and may have resulted in relatively high K contents.Without fertilizer application, cassava vields in the Llanos soils are extremelv lo\"W (5-10 tonsl ha). An adequate lev~1 of fertílization would be the application of 500 kgl ha 01 dolomitic lime; lOO kg NI ha as urea, band applied at seeding and 60 days; 100 kg p¡Osl ha, band applied as basic slag at seeding; 200 kg K20, band applicd as KCI; 25 kgl ha of elemental sulfur; and two foliar applications of Zn as 2 percent zinc sulfate.At current fertilizer and transport costs, this amounts 10 about $4,500 in fertilizer and $1,500 in transport costs or a total of 56,000 I ha. At current prices for cassava (53 i kg), the cost offertilization can be paid for by producing an extra 2 tons of cassava I ha. With a potential yield increase (due to fertilization) of al least 15 to 20 tons I ha, the application of fertilizers seems economical1y justified.Comparing vanous methods of application of a complete fertilizer (bwadcoast, band, cirele and spot placed), it was found that broadcast applications were entire1}' ineffective in supplying nutrients to recently planted cassava, inducing excessive weed growth onIy. Among lhe localized placement methods, spot placement either in the stake hole or 15 cm from the stake, as welJ as the singleor double-interrupted band placement, looked most promising at lhe early growth stago. At two months 01 age, plants had heights oi 31 to 36 cm with localized fertilization, as compared with 19 and 20 cm for lhe bwadcast and check plots, respectively _In areas with a pronounced dry season, it is important to determine the bes! time of seeding in relation to the dry season. Monthly seedings were carried out between October and June, when lhe trial had to be terminated beca use of CBB. In .. Best yields were obtained by seedingone (O three monlhs befare lhe onset of the dry season or during the dry season when irrigation \\-vas rossible. L.nwest yic!ds wcre ohtained sceding two io threc months hcfore the wettcst rnonth:s when hjgh rainfall coincides with a period 01\" high plant sllsceptibility to diseases and root formation coincides \\vith a paiod of soil moisturc stress. Seeding on ridges was better during the wet season plantings whereas seeding on the Dat was better during the dry scason plantings (Table 37).WEED CONTROL ln the agro-economic survey conducted last yoar, bracken fem (Pleridium aquilinum) \\vas found to be an important weed ín several cassava-growing regions. None of the herbicides recommended for -cassava give effective control of this rhizomatous weed. As a postemergence herbicide, asulam is reported to control bracken fern; a trja] was conducted ta determine its seleciivítv in two cassava varieties. Applications ~f 2 and 4 kg I ha were made over the top al 45-day-old cassava or to lhe lower half of the plants.The over-the-top application caused severe initial ¡njury io both varieties at the high rate but only lO M Colombia 137 at the low rate (Tab!e 38). There was partia! recovery from the initial effects when the entire plan! was treated. Spraying lhe rabie 3::;. Tolerance oí two cassava varieties to postemergence application~ oí asulam.  lower half caused only slighl injury al eilher rale. Therefore, where bracken fem is a serious problem, directed applications af asulam should be lésled as a possible control measure.As a conclusion to the intensive herbicide screening activities in cassava which began in 1972, a large selectivily lrial was carried ouL The recommended rate and four times this rate were applied preemergence in a medium-textured soil to lhe variely M Colombia 113. Injury observations were taken during the first lhree monlhs, and foliage and rool vields 8-56 were laken len monlhs afler planting. Based on lhese and all previous lrials, a surnmarv of the relative selectivity of herbicid~s in cassava is presented in Table 39.Twenly-lhree compounds were found lo be highly seleclive. These producls applied singly or in combina tia n wouId provide effective treatments for nearlv all weed species cornmonly faund iñ cassavagrowing regions. In addition, the marginally seleclive compounds could also be recommended under mosl conditions if applied correclly.•","tokenCount":"11419"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a7be7c0b5ef85103a0c591f0d120be01","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6c3d21e2-901c-46ae-b672-4550f0b42e6f/content","id":"1617194964"},"keywords":["Greenhouse Gas","Smallholder Production Systems","Agriculture","Climate Change","Modelling"],"sieverID":"6e91df36-69c4-4d2c-bd47-e094afe37049","pagecount":"14","content":"approach.Agricultural sector is one of the major emitters of GHGs accounting for 14% of total anthropogenic emission (Schaffnit-chatterjee, 2011).Developing countries currently account for about three-quarters of direct emissions and are expected to be the most rapidly growing emission sources in the future. Expansion of agricultural land also remains a major contributor of GHGs, with deforestation largely linked to clearing of land for cultivation or pasture, generating 80% of emissions from developing countries (Hosonuma et al., 2012). Unnecessary tillage for land preparation and planting, indiscriminate irrigation and fertilizer application are the main sources of GHG emission from agricultural production systems. Methane and nitrous oxide are the main agricultural GHGsMicrometeorological approaches assume that fluxes are nearly constant with height and that concentrations change vertically not horizontally. The flux at particular height 'z' depends on whether the ground is source or sink.Various micrometeorological methods such as eddy covariance (Burba, Madsen, & Feese, 2013), flux gradient (Glenn et al., 2010;Pattey et al., 2007), eddy accumulation (Desjardins, Buckley, & Amour, 1984) and backward Lagrangian dispersion (Flesch, Wilson, & Yee, 1995) with various degree of complexity have been developed to determine the net exchange of GHGs between landscape and atmosphere. These methods have advantage of providing continual measurement and can take into account temporal and spatial variability of flux. But generally, they require large footprint area of similar landscape and depend on many assumptions, violation of which may result into serious errors in measurement and interpretation. Further, these methods are expensive; require sophisticated instrumentation and high technical capacity all of which may be prohibitive for its adoption in smallholder production system of developing countries.Direct measurement of GHG emissions for all landscape types in smallholder production systems is impractical as it would require many measurements to be made over large areas and for long periods of time. Therefore, development and use of model to predict GHGs emission is imperative. The models not only allows the simulation of agricultural GHGs emission at a range of scales i.e. from field through landscape to national and regional scale, but also the exploration of In order to meet United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) reporting requirement for 37 industrialized countries, IPCC published guidelines for calculating national inventories in 1996 (Houghton et al., 1997). uncertainties can be very high particularly in the mosaic landscape of small-holder production systems. Therefore, the results out of these calculators should also include these uncertainties and interpreted accordingly.Good part of using empirical tools or calculators in smallholder production system is they require less data and almost all data are available at least at farm level. The accuracy level is sometime questionable but active research is ongoing and most developers are frequently updating their calculators. Given the level of information that is available, these calculators can be promising tools for quantification GHG emission under smallholder farming condition of developing countries. Further, almost all the calculators are available on their website or asking the developer free of cost. Many also provide detailed guidelines on how to use them and related assumptions. Although, there is a huge prospect of using GHG calculators in developing countries, most available calculators are developed in economically well-off countries; about 80% of the commonly used calculators are developed in USA and Australia. So, more calculators should be developed taking into account the smallholder production environments of developing countries.One distinction between emission factor-based calculators and process-based models is that the former are stocktaking approaches whereas the latter are based on flows between different compartments of the system. This allows process-based models to simulate emission pathways and make predictions about the future for a variety of cases whereas other instruments often treat the time between two stock-taking exercises as black boxes and can only make predictions that are based on past emission trajectories. Process-based models are dynamics and take into account many management practices such as tillage, fertilizer, irrigation, crop protection etc. as well as their interaction with soil, climate and other management practices. Inclusion of these processes in modelling can enhance extrapolation reliability making it possible to model at ecosystem level.Over the time, a number of process-based models have been developed to quantify GHG emission from agricultural production systems. For example, DAISY (Hansen, Jensen, Nielsen, & Svendsen, 1990) and CENTURY (Parton et al., 1993)  Process-based models have the advantage of describing the underlying dynamics of a system. For example, process-based models use complex functions to describe the temporal dynamics of SOC through different pools and include sub-models of plant productivity, water movement and the turnover of plant nutrients. A major benefit of using processed-based models for scaling purposes is their ability to estimate several measurable variables at the same time The use of process-based ecosystem models linked to GIS for landscape scale GHG assessment involves a certain level of expertise in ecosystem modeling and GIS. This can prohibit the use by farmers' groups or extension workers in developing countries, making many of the calculators, based on simple computational methods, more accessible. Although most models can estimate GHG emission at one site with reasonable accuracy, their potential for simulating emissions at other sites with different management practices remains unknown. This requires large number of validation test across different mosaics of the landscape before such models can be used for landscape level quantification.Environmental analysis of product using life cycle assessment (LCA) takes into account the entire production system. The most specific characteristics of the LCA methodology is the \"life cycle thinking\" i.e. to consider the entire network of main and sub-processes relevant to the production(Brentrup, Küsters, Kuhlmann, & Lammel, 2001). Because of the integrated nature of the agricultural production system, whole farm and life-cycle approach can be used focussing on GHG quantification until farm gate of the production system. Here, emissions from the different components are summed up to total GHG budget. The main phases of LCA are goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory analysis, life cycle impact assessment and life cycle interpretation. Here, carbon footprint of the production system or farm can be calculated on per unit of area as well as per unit of final product. One can define the system boundary of the analysis at the beginning which generally includesproduction of agricultural inputs, field production processes and soil processes leading to change in soil C and N pool (Fig. 1; Brentrup et al., 2001). In this approach, production inputs such as fertilizer, compost, manure, machinery and other chemicals as well as management information such as tillage, cover crops, and residue are obtained from within the pre-defined system boundary. The emission factor associated with these inputs and management practices can be obtained from published literature. Similarly direct and indirect emission of GHGs can be estimated following published literature( e.g. Eggleston et al., 2006). As many agricultural production systems produce more than one product, it is necessary to attribute environmental impact to each product from the system using appropriate allocation approach.Based on the availability of activity data this approach can be applied in smallholder production system with varied degree of detail. Smallholder Agro-Ecosystem: A Comparative Analysis of Methods www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org Quantification of GHGs from mosaic of smallholder production landscape is challenging because of variable conditions and management practices influencing the rate of emission. Selection of the suitable method depends on the type of production system, availability of database, desired precision of estimate and resources available. Unavailability of field-scale data from smallholder production conditions necessitates the use of plot-based measurement techniques (such as chamber) not only to develop emission factor for inventory preparation but also to calibrate and validate suitable models for landscape level quantification. However, field-based measurement of GHGs from heterogeneous landscape in smallholder production systems requires a large financial expenses and this may become cost prohibitive in many developing countries. Therefore, integration of different approaches may provide better, reliable and cost-effective estimates of GHGs emission than by adopting a single approach. An integrated framework coupling modelling with a measurement in key monitoring sitesis a way forward in smallholder quantification of GHG in developing countries(Ogle to GIS may be the future of landscape scale GHG quantification. With the availability of multiple sources of satellite data at low or no cost, integration of remote sensing with modelling efforts could also be low cost quantification approach under smallholder production condition.A multitude of approaches are available for quantification of GHG from agricultural production systems with potential to use under smallholder conditions. A choice of method depends on the objective and desired level of precision, scale of estimation and available resources. Advantages and disadvantages of common method under smallholder crop production systems along with their cost effectiveness and scale of estimation is summarized in table 1. Chamber-based method permits measurement of very small flux, is relatively inexpensive and adapted to wide range of production environment. However, they cover small soil surface area and many chambers are required for a representative emissions estimate. Further, it is not possible to have continuous measurement with chamber based method possibly missing some peaks of episodic emission (e.g. N 2 O) unless automatic chambers are used. IPCC developed guidelines for calculating national GHG inventories in a consistent and standard framework. Although appropriate for national level accounting purposes, Tier 1 and Tier 2 methodologies lack the farm level resolution (Crosson et al., 2011) and use of too generalized emission factor may mask the considerable variability, a typical characteristics of smallholder production systems.Micrometeorological methods offer the possibility of continuous measurement and achieving spatial integration of fluxes, but they are generally expensive and require large footprint area of homogeneous landscape. Therefore, use of micrometeorological approaches has limited scope under smallholder production systems from practical, technological and Low-cost Quantification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 39 Smallholder Agro-Ecosystem: A Comparative Analysis of Methods www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org financial perspective. Life-cycle or whole farm approach of GHG quantification provide the overall footprint of a particular product, production system or whole farm which can be useful not only for understanding the wider consequences but also for raising awareness, demonstration and encouraging adoption. Considering the integrated nature of smallholder production systems, this can be useful tool to take into account various processes within the system boundary.However, the precision of the output from this approach depends on the degree of details of the activity data.Since direct measurement of GHGs for inventory purpose is impractical as it would require many measurements to be made over large areas and for long, use of simulation models become essential component of smallholder quantification. Empirical models and calculators are relatively simple to build and develop and may be considered as decision support tools for farmers and policy makers at field and farm level. Various calculators and tools have been developed with different objectives and assumptions and many of them may be location specific. Therefore, users should choose the appropriate calculators based on objectives and major factors contributing to the emission. Use of empirical model can be a cost-effective approach to estimate GHG emission from smallholder production system where minimum datasets are available to run the model. Process-based models have the advantage of describing the underlying dynamics of a system. They take into account many management practices and their interaction with soil and climate. Inclusion of these processes in modelling can enhance extrapolation reliability making it possible to simulate at ecosystem level. However, they are very complex and require huge amount of data input. Further, the extrapolation reliability and simulation power of these models depend on the mechanistic understanding and sub-modelling of the individual processes and driving variables involved. Therefore, they are more oriented to research and refining emission factors. Remote sensing techniques are increasingly being used to estimate landscape carbon density and carbon stocks. Sampling based carbon inventory may be cost prohibitive in many developing countries. In such context and with the availability of low-cost or free satellite data, use of remote sensing could be a cost effective option to quantify carbon stocks under smallholder production systems.However, the resolution of available satellite imagery (pixel size) may not be sufficient to capture possible variabilities in smallholder production systems. Here, we presented various approaches for quantification of GHG from smallholder production systems along with their comparative analysis of cost effectiveness, scale of estimation and precision. Quantification of GHGs from mosaic of smallholder production landscape is challenging because of variable pedo-climatic conditions and management practices influencing the rate of emission. Use of generalized emission factor for GHG estimation for such production system will mask the variability occurring amongst the farms. Chamber methods are cheap, simple and easy to operate but they fail to take into account spatial and temporal variability of emission and also pose disturbance on the system being measured. Micrometeorological methods offer the possibility of undisturbed and continuous measurement but they are expensive, technologically complex and require large footprint area. Use of models allows simulation of agricultural GHG emission under wide range of conditions and makes it possible to scale up estimation to landscape, national, regional and global level. However, choice of appropriate model and its parameterization as well as validation under different production systems is necessary for the model to adequately simulate GHGs under variable production environment of smallholder systems. With the advancement of technology, linking dynamic ecosystem models to GIS and development of user friendly tools can make quantification of environmental footprint of product and production system cost-effective and reliable. At the moment, two main barriers to extending such tools to smallholder areas in developing countries are: a) a lack of default data with relevance to the land management systems in smallholder areas and b) lack of accessible systems which are comprehensive enough to allow smallholders to input their own data. Therefore, considering the dependence of quantification approaches on data and the current data deficit for smallholder systems, it is clear that in-situ measurement must be the core part of initial and future strategies to improve GHG inventories and develop mitigation measures for","tokenCount":"2305"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"328991ba2f23b047aad931328d850f94","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0bcbf2dc-cd11-4e17-a975-a51f67390366/retrieve","id":"1747502416"},"keywords":["cropping system","mineral fertilizer","N losses","N management","soil depletion"],"sieverID":"5d7bbcc1-4cf7-42e4-90eb-e84a5116256c","pagecount":"14","content":"Too little nitrogen (N) is a threat to crop productivity and soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Nitrogen budgets (NB) and nitrogen use e ciency (NUE) are critical tools for assessing N dynamics in agriculture and have received little or no attention in the region. Data were collected from smallholder farmers clustered into two categories, farmers applying and farmers not applying N fertilizers. NB were calculated using the Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS) model approach for field and farm spatial scales. The results showed spatial variabilities in NB and NUE at the field level (maize and rice) across all the catchments. At the field level, N balances were negative for the two crops in all the catchments. Similarly, at the farm gate, a deficit of − . kg N ha − was observed, an indicator of soil N mining. NUE values at the field scale varied across the catchments for both crops, with values for maize grown without N ranging from . to . %. Even with the application of mineral N at higher levels in rice fields compared to maize fields, NUE values ranged between . and . %. Our study revealed that the Lake Victoria region su ers from ine cient N cycling due to depleted soil N pools and low synchrony between N input and N removal. Therefore, a challenge lies in exploiting more sustainable N sources for farmers in the region for sustainable farming systems. The NB and NUE provide critical information to agriculture stakeholders to develop environmental, agronomic, and economically viable N management solutions.In recent decades, researchers have developed an increasing interest in understanding the role of nitrogen (N) cycling in agricultural systems, which involves mineral N inputs for improved crop production (Atieno et al., 2020). In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), N constitutes 90% of the applied fertilizer (Sutton et al., 2013) and is sometimes accompanied with a little phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) but rarely with secondary or micronutrients (Swarbreck et al., 2019). In SSA, soil fertility is declining due to several years of crop nutrient mining and limited replenishment of nutrients either taken up or lost from the soil (Jones et al., 2013). This imbalance between input and output from the soil system has resulted in extreme nutrient deficits in croplands, threatening agricultural production and associated ecosystem functions (Reynolds et al., 2015). According to Jayne and Sanchez (2021), although the current average use of N fertilizers has increased over the past decades the amount is still very low at 17.9 kg N ha −1 and not enough to compensate the for the harvested/exported nutrients. Therefore, an initial challenge in SSA is to provide more nutrients into their fartms and building the soil health through soil orgnaic matter (Vitousek et al., 2009).Monitoring N fluxes in ecosystems is crucial for improved N management (Nimmo et al., 2013). Quantifying nitrogen budgets (NB) is the first step toward improved N management as it helps identify the significant N sources and sinks and inform sound N management practices and policies (Zhang et al., 2020). It is becoming succinctly clear that assessing the fate of applied N is crucial for effectively constructing partial and complete NB at both field and farm gate scales (Quemada et al., 2020). Further, understanding N balance is crucial for evaluating N performance and developing strategies for reducing its losses to the environment (McLellan et al., 2018).NUE is used as a performance indicator to show the relationship between N inputs and agricultural products obtained from the system. It also indicates potential losses of reactive N (N r ) to the environment as farmers strive to improve crop yields to meet the increasing demand for food, feed, fiber, and fuel (Fixen et al., 2015). The concept of NUE is critical in evaluating crop production systems and is impacted by soil, plant, irrigation, and fertilizer/nutrient management (EUNEP, 2015). Poor N management practices contribute to un-optimal NUE due to poor synchrony between applied N and the crop demand (Sharma and Bali, 2017). According to Ntinyari et al. (2022a), NUE can be used as a reasonable indicator to show the target threshold with good management and close simulation of farmer practices for improved N performance. Presentation of NUE as a percentage or mass fraction of N input, output, surplus, and possible changes in the N stocks in the soil system would provide a specific indicator for improved N management (EUNEP, 2015).In East Africa, N is the most limiting nutrient due to farmers' inability to afford and apply the recommended N fertilizer rates in the cropping systems (Chianu et al., 2012;Masso et al., 2017). The low N fertilizer application to crops in the region, the export of N with harvested crop product, and losses of N through different pathways such as volatilization, runoff, and leaching contribute to soil nutrient depletion and mining of nutrient stock (Zingore et al., 2015;Masso et al., 2017). Maize and rice rank second and third, respectively, following wheat in terms of their contribution to per capita calories consumed, food supply, harvest area, total production, quantity imported, and Africa's share of the global import (Sileshi and Gebeyehu, 2021). Thus, the two crops are critical for meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on food security and poverty reduction in East Africa and across Africa (Majiwa, 2017;Sileshi and Gebeyehu, 2021).Further, management of N input, outputs, and use efficiency in the Lake Victoria basin is crucial because the basin carries more than 20% of East Africa's population, and the Lake Victoria freshwater supports more than 4 million people through annual fishery production of about 1 million tons in East Africa in addition to being a source of river Nile. N loading is associated with declining lake water quality and the growth of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). Improving understanding of N dynamics from the Lake Victoria basin for significant cropping systems would be a crucial step toward reducing N accumulation and loading into Lake Victoria, thus managing potential negative impacts. Therefore, there are profound food security, economic and environmental impacts of improved N management in the Lake Victoria basin, for large populations in East Africa, and other areas where Lake Victoria is used as a source of water for humans, animals, and irrigation.There are concerted efforts by the African governments and development partners to promote the increased use of fertilizers to close the yield gaps of most essential crops like maize and rice (AGRA, 2019). Consequently, fertilizer use has increased from 8 kg nutrient/ha in 2006 to slightly above 20 kg nutrient/ha in 2019 (AFDB, 2020;Ntinyari et al., 2022a). There is an overdue need to understand the sources, fate, and efficiency of N use in densely populated African agricultural regions to support future planning and investments. To our knowledge, there is no current information on NB and NUE for the smallholder, specifically maize and rice in East Africa. Therefore, the findings of this study will provide information to various stakeholders to facilitate the development of nutrient management strategies and policies that increase N management in cropland while reducing N losses to the environment. Based on this background, we hypothesized that estimation of N budgets at field and farm gate would give an explanation and interpretations on N cycling and management, reflecting smallholder farmer's scenarios in the Lake Victoria basin, which could trigger better adoption of measures for sustainable N management at farm level.Data used in this study were obtained from participatory interviews using open-ended semi-structured questionnaires in an open data kit (ODK) as described by Ntinyari et al. (2022b). A total number of 447 observations comprising of 154 farms, 135 rice fields and 158 maize fields were compiled from four catchments of the Lake Victoria basin, namely: Nyando, Sondu, Yala, and Nzoia. Each farm selected represented a farmer per household and the selected sites represented 50 % of the entire mass land area. around the lake region on the Kenyan side. The Lake Victoria basin extends to five Eastern African countries (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania), covering an approximate area of 194,000 km 2 (Kayombo and Jorgensen, 2006). The basin is inhabited by some of the most resource-constrained Eastern African rural populations, with an approximate population of 30 million and a projected annual increase of 6% (Kayombo and Jorgensen, 2006;Zhou et al., 2014). More than 70% of the population in the basin is involved in agricultural production activities. The main staple food crops within the catchment are maize and rice growing in predominant soil types, including Ferralsols, Nitisols, Vertisol, Cambisols, and Acrisols (Nkonya et al., 2015). The climate is equatorial, with temperatures modified by the high elevation of lakes and mountains like Mt. Elgon. However, since the temperatures are lower than the typical tropical conditions, it is classified as humid, with temperatures ranging from 20 • C to over 35 • C. The region experiences bimodal rainfall, with short rains occurring between mid-March and the end of May and long rains occurring from mid-October to the end of December. Annual rainfall quantities range from 1,000 to 1,500 mm in a year and lie at an elevation of 1,500 m (4,921 ft) (Okungu et al., 2005).The farmers interviewed at field level that was defined as a crop, i.e., maize and rice as monocrop was drawn from the population given by the extension officers within the local region. The sample was selected using a purposive sampling technique, a non-probability sampling method that is selective to identify and choose information-rich participants. The puposive sampling procedure was followed by random engagement of the farmers for subsequent in-person interviews.A similar selection approach defined at the field level was used at the farm level. Here a mixed farming system was considered, including all kinds of crops a farmer grows, mostly cereal-legume system and livestock and manure use practices. Data collected from fields and farms were categorized into two: i.e., Farmers applying mineral N fertilizers and farmers not applying mineral N fertilizers in their fields or farms. All collected data for N inputs and outputs at the field and farm level was reported as kg N ha −1 . The collected data included: land size, N inputs from fertilizers, the quantity of planted seeds, crop growth seasons, yield, and various planted crops.At the field level, soil surface N budget (NB) and soil system NB approaches were used to quantify NB for maize and rice, as reported by Oenema et al. (2003). In each category of the N budget, there was the characterization of farmers applying and not applying mineral N. The soil surface NB considers all the significant N fluxes entering the soil via surface and only leaves the soil through crop uptake (Eq. 1). The soil system NB includes all N inflows and outflows, including N uptake, exported N harvested with the crop, and losses within and from the soil surface, as reported by EUNEP (2016) and shown in Eq. 2.Soil surface NB = N inputs (SNF + ADN + NPM) − N outputs (CNR) (1)Soil system NB = N inputs (SNF + ADN + NPM) − N outputsWhere; NB, nitrogen budgets; SNF, synthetic N fertilizer; AND, atmospheric N deposition; NPM, nitrogen in planting materials; CNR, crop N removal; Lch, leached N; RF, runoff; DNT, denitrification.Data collected through field surveys included land size, N inputs as mineral fertilizers, the quantity of planted materials, yield, seasons, legume crops grown, and any other crops grown by the farmers in the fields. The actual rate of N applied from different N fertilizers sources was calculated by dividing the fertilizer application rate per ha by the proportion of N in the fertilizer used. The proportion of N in the fertilizer used is indicated in the local fertilizer grades, as shown in Supplementary Table S1. The N in straw recycling was not considered in this budget because it is common for farmers around the catchment to burn crop residues. The N in irrigation water was not accounted for due to a lack of information on actual or estimated water supplied per hectare per growing rice season. Livestock manure as an N input source was not included in this budget because the majority of the farmers in the catchment area were practicing communal grazing. In many cases, the livestock excreta on overnight grazing are used as fuel, and others burn the droppings. BNF fixation was excluded because leguminous crops were not integrated into the target maize and rice plots as the focus was mainly on maize and rice monocrops.Wet and dry atmospheric deposition of N was obtained from direct measurements from Lake Victoria (Kayombo and Jorgensen, 2006;Bakayoko et al., 2021). To calculate N input in planting material, the actual seeding rate in kg ha −1 was multiplied by the N content for maize and rice seeds, while harvested N was determined by multiplying the respective N content for the specific crop and the amount of yield obtained from the fields as shown in Supplementary Table S2. This was achieved using a tiered approach to estimate various N inputs from the planting materials and harvested products.For soil system budget, N loss in soils from applied mineral N fertilizer through ammonia (NH 3 ) volatilization and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions were calculated using country-specific emission factors according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (FAO, 2001;Bouwman et al., 2002) (Supplementary Table S3). To estimate gaseous emission, net N inputs were multiplied by the emission factors according to Eq. 3 (Eggleston et al., 2006). Soil denitrification was estimated by the N balance method using global estimates for upland and wetland crops (Supplementary Table S4) (Hofstra and Bouwman, 2005), and leaching and runoff losses of applied N were estimated using the IPCC factor of 0.3 kg N ha −1 of mineral N (FAO, 2001;Wang et al., 2019).Where; SNF, synthetic N fertilizer; EF, emission factors.The farm-gate N budget was determined considering all the N sources flowing into the farm-gate as N inputs and leaving the farm-gate as N output (Eq. 4). For farm-gate, all crops grown by the farmer were considered in budgeting. The parameters collected and estimated for this scale included applied mineral N fertilizers, the quantity of planted seeds, seasons for specific crops, the yield for all crops, and the total land under agricultural production. At farm-gate, BNF was determined by multiplying the crop area under legume production by the global mean rate of N 2 fixation for each legume type as described by Smil (1999) (Supplementary Table S5). All N inputs and outputs were converted to kg N ha −1 . In this study, vegetables and fruits were excluded due to a lack of data on actual yield in kgs and analyzed N contents to estimate N removal by crop. N loss via gaseous NH 3 and N 2 O emission was calculated using the same Emission Factors (EF) used for field level and denitrification rates for upland and wetland crops. There was no consideration of imported and exported feeds N because livestock were openly grazed, and feed trade was rare. Where; FNB, Farm N balance.NUE in the field was determined using European Union Nitrogen Expert (EUNEP) methodology. EUNEP denotes that NUE is a ratio between harvested N in crops divided by the total sum of N inputs, including N from fertilizer, atmospheric N deposition, and N in the planted seeds (Eq. 5) (EUNEP, 2016).Where; NUE, nitrogen use efficiency.All statistical analyses were performed with R Software (R Core Team R, 2020). The Least Square Means were computed using \"\"lsmeans\" packages. Means were separated by adjusted\" \"Tukey's method using \"cld\"\" function from \"multicompView'package for N inputs, N outputs, NUE, and N balance (p < 0.001). Mean distribution for N inputs, outputs, NUE, and N surplus/deficit were analyzed using the ggplot command from the ggpubr package. The Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS) model version 1.3 (Gu et al., 2015) for the cropland subsystem was applied to estimate N budgets at different spatial scales. The choice of this model was based on its fundamental principle of mass balance of N fluxes in a whole system and each subsystem. CHANS model also accommodates data fluxes that are missing or could not be estimated, more so in Lake Victoria, where data on N flows is limited. In this study, the CHANS model was divided into two functional groups; N inputs and N outputs in the cropland subsystem.For the soil surface, the maize farmers who do not apply mineral N fertilizers, the atmospheric deposition represented the primary flow with an average N input of 15.0 kg N ha −1 (Table 1). In this type of N budget, farmers without application of mineral N recorded negative balances in Nyando and Sondu with average values of −3.45 and −4.29 kg N ha −1 , respectively.Similarly, farmers applying mineral N recorded negative balances for soil surface N budget in Nyando catchment. Despite the addition of N, the negative N budget in Nyando implies that more N was removed from the system than that added with fertilizers, an indicator of soil N mining. Among farmers who apply N fertilizers, positive balances were reported in three catchments, Nzoia, Yala, and Sondu, with average values of 13.27, 18.04, and 19.84 kg N ha −1 , respectively (Table 1).. /fsufs. . Both farmer categories were associated with negative N balances in soil system NB. In farmers not applying mineral N fertilizers, N balances ranged between −3.43 to −19.29 kg N ha −1 across the four catchments areas, as shown in Table 1. More pronounced N losses were recorded to fertilizers associated outflows n the farmers applying mineral N categories. In Nyando balance of −67.24 kg N ha −1 was recorded, indicating severe soil N depletion and mining in the farms. Soil system had higher N losses to significant outflows from denitrification, leaching, runoff, and N 2 O and NH 3 emissions, pointing to the importance of appropriate soil management.In rice fields, soil surface NB showed variabilities across the catchments (Table 2). N balance was more pronounced in Sondu, with a value of −35 kg N ha −1 , while Nzoia showed a positive balance (+31.94 kg N ha −1 ). The positive N balance in Nzoia could indicate N sufficiency Nyando and Nzoia had the highest mineral N application rates of 102.19 and 77.78 kg N ha −1 , respectively. The N in crop removal formed the largest N outflow across the three catchments in the two budget systems (Table 2). At soil system balance, all catchments recorded negative balances of −148.42, −77.31, and −51.88 kg N ha −1 in Nyando, Nzoia, and Sondu, respectively (Table 2).Farms without mineral N application, had the main N input from atmospheric deposition (15.0 kg N ha −1 ) and biological N fixation with 6.99, 14.76, and 16.7 kg N ha −1 for Nyando, Nzoia, and Sondu, respectively. At soil surface N budget, negative balances were observed in Nzoia for farms with no N fertilizer applications with value of −0.53 kg N ha −1 . In contrast, in Nyando and Sondu, the N budget was +6.35 and +6.63 kg N ha −1 , respectively. Conversely, in farms with mineral N application, positive balances of +26.59 and +41.98 kg N ha −1 were observed with Nzoia and Sondu, respectively. In comparison, Nyando had a negative balance of −12.92 kg N ha −1 (Table 3) due to increased N losses.In Nyando, Nzoia and Sondu for the category of farmer using fertilizers, mineral N fertilizer was the dominant source of N input with 60.34, 46.07, and 49.42 kg N ha −1 , respectively. Farm-gate N balances were characterized by negative budgets for farm categories with and without mineral N fertilizer application. For farms without N fertilizers, the highest N balance was recorded in Nzoia, while the lowest value was Sondu (Table 4).For farms where farmers applied N fertilizers, more losses and the largest negative balances were observed in Nyando with a mean value of −78.37 and the lowest in Yala with a mean value of −13.69 kg N ha −1 . In the two farm categories, the largest N outflow was recorded in crop removal (Table 4).  In maize fields without application of mineral N fertilizer, analysis of variance for the catchments did not show significant effects of non-application of N fertilizers on total N inputs, outputs, and NUE (p < 0.001). Mean N inputs for the catchments ranged between 15.79 and 15.87 kg N ha −1 (Figure 1). Similarly, the mean NUE for maize farms without N fertilizers in Nyando and Sondu exceeded 100% with 132.22 and 140.18%, respectively. In Yala, a lower mean NUE was recorded at 25.76%, while Nzoia had a close to optimal NUE of 69.21%. The NUEs also varied significantly across all the catchments for maize farmers with N fertilizer application. The NUE for N fertilizer applied farms were a lesser variable as they ranged between 34.6 and 76.3 %.Significant differences (p < 0.001) were observed in the data set for total N inputs, outputs, and NUE in fertilized rice fields. The highest mean total N inputs were observed in Nyando at 117.0 kg N ha −1, while the least was in Sondu with 31.53 kg N ha −1 (Figure 3). A similar trend was observed in the total N outputs data set, where Nyando had the highest mean value of 279.2 kg N ha −1, whereas Sondu had the least mean of 120.7 kg N ha −1 .In Nyando and Sondu, the mean NUE exceeded 100%, with Sondu having an extreme value of 224.6% (Figure 3C). Low N inputs could explain the extremely high NUE values in Sondu catchment in rice systems. Severe N deficits were observed in all catchments for rice fields, with Nyando having a twofold highest negative balance of −162.2 kg N ha −1 , relative to Sondu with −89.2 kg N ha −1 and Nzoia with −78 kg N ha −1 (Figure 3D).At the field level, estimated N balances in the two categories of farmers showed variability across the study catchments. The soil surface, that represented sources of N input and consideredcrop removal as the only output, NB ranged from −3.45 and −4.29 kg N ha −1 for maize farmers without mineral N application (Table 1). The negative values from our study are an indication of an insufficient amount of N in the systems contributing to further N depletion (Nkonya et al., 2005). The imbalances across farms can be attributed to poor management practices within the region, low availability, and low potential to purchase adequate N inputs. The maize fields with mineral N fertilizers application had a positive N balance except for Nyando with −7.84 kg N ha −1 . The positive balances are due to more N applications than in Nyando.Extreme Nlosses and variations at soil system NB between maize fields with and without were observed. The fields without mineral N application category had lesser negative ranging from −3.43 to −18.45 kg N ha −1 (Table 1), compared with the fields with mineral N application, more N losses were anticipated due to estimated losses from fertilizer applications (−11.76 to −67.24 kg N ha −1 ). Specifically, in Sondu catchment, the higher crop export from the category of farmers without mineral N could be due to more mining of nutrients from the soil by the crops. Also, there could be more losses of applied N into the cropping system leading to less N available to be utilized by the crop and also depending on the time of application by the farmers as a management practice. Chianu et al. (2012) reported that exporting more nutrients than those applied is one of the most important causes of negative nutrient balances and soil N depletion in African agriculture.In rice systems, the soil surface N budget, there was a positive balance of +13.94 kg N ha −1 (Table 3), in Nzoia catchment. In this site, the average N input from mineral fertilizers was 77.78 kg N ha −1 , this is an indicator that this range could be optimal to correct the negative balances in the soils but has to be coupled with the proper management practices, including the 4 R (right rate, right source, right placement, and right timing) stewardship. The high use of N fertilizer in both Nyando and Nzoia catchments on rice fields is closely associated with the influence of the National Irrigation Board (NIB), which supports farmers with farm inputs on credit and at subsidized rates, compared to Sondu, where rice fields are under individual farmer management.More significant negative balances were observed in the rice soil system N budget (Table 2). The negative balances could result from various mechanisms of N losses: first, as these catchments are characterized by regular cycles of flooding and drying/wetting cycle; the wetness and flooding, cycles could elicit nitrification and denitrification processes due to changing soil gas diffusivity and water-filled pore spaces leading to enhanced losses of N as N 2 O (Tan et al., 2005). High positive balances are not always desirable as they indicate excess N left in the system, susceptible to losses into surface/groundwater as NO 3− , or atmosphere as N 2 O or NOx emission, leading to environmental degradation (Dalgaard et al., 2017). All rice farmers in our case study had access to mineral N fertilizers due to the regulation, and the farmers could access more inputs in a coordinated manner. The regulation of rice farming by the National Irrigation Board (NIB) is one of the strategies that could be embraced in other cropping systems to guide management.Without considering soil N transformations, the soil surface NB at farm scale shows an improved N content in the cropping systems since a positive surplus remains in the soil (Table 3). Considering the soil surface, NB positive balances were recorded at the farm level in farms with and without mineral N application). In farms without mineral N application, the primary source of N inflow was from atmospheric deposition of N estimated to be 15 kg N ha −1 . In addition, BNF estimated was also very low, ranging from 6.99 to 16.7 kg N ha −1 . Therefore, this category of farmers need to explore other sources of the organic source to replenish their fields and increase N availability in the soils for higher crop yield and balanced nutrition because this particular inflow is too low and because of the high cost of fertilizers.The soil system NB for farms recorded a deficit of <50 kg N ha −1 in the category of farmers not applying mineral N, while the farmer using mineral none catchment exceeded a deficit of above −50 kg N ha −1 (Table 4). The negative values indicated the extent of N depletion due to inadequate N supply, while positive values showed a loss of N that was taken up by the intended crop. Low or no N inputs among farmers could be attributed to the lack of policies by national and local governments to enhance affordability, accessibility, and use of mineral fertilizer in various cropping systems (Ciceri and Allanore, 2019).NUE represented the efficiency of N in production process and showed in different categories of fields (maize and rice; either applying or not applying fertilizers) indicated poor efficiency of the available N resource in the cropping systems (Figures 2, 3). NUEs exceeding 100% in Nyando and Sondu for maize farmers (Figure 1C) not applying mineral N represented excessive N mining in the fields.On the contrary, in rice fields where farmers had access to mineral N, there was higher NUE (224.6 %) in Sondu (Figure 3C). The higher NUE value is due to low N input and higher N output in crop harvest.This demonstrates that, despite the addition of mineral N, there must be a balance to match available soil N and crop demand. Higher soil N mining in fertilized rice fields may be due to higher biomass accumulation with more available N in the soil influencing crop N uptake, whereas this is not the case in non-N applied fields.According to EUNEP, a threshold for assessing the efficiency of N in cropping systems is between 50 and 90%, which most scenarios in our studies exceeded, and thus this shows the need for better strategies to optimize the NUE. These findings agree with Edmonds et al. (2009), on, estimated values of NUE are more than 100% in cereal production systems, especially in rice, due to low average application rates of mineral N that leads to a decline in soil fertility. Omara et al. (2019) revealed that high fertilizer applications in cereals result in lower NUE, while low or zero N inputs lead to extremely high depletion of the N pool in the soils. According to Bruulsema et al. (2009), it is also possible to apply sufficient N and boost N use efficiency through split application and adherence to 4R nutrient stewardship, which is crucial for closing the crop yield gaps without significant high losses of N to the environment.Overall, our findings exhibited spatial variability on the indicators based on the four catchments under study. In Nyando, all the cases showed an extreme deficit for NUE in both fields with and without the application of mineral N fertilizers. This could be due to different soil properties in the regions characterized and defined by Ntinyari et al. (2022a). Vertisol in Nyando, Fluvisols in Sondu, humic gleysols in Nzoia, and Ferralsols in Yala. In Nyando, the Vertisol having high N requirements resulting in more N mining in both fields with mineral N and without for both crops. Besides. The soils in Nyando have a higher clay percentage with swelling, shrinking, low soil organic carbon and deep cracking property causing deterioration in soil health; hence, more improved and sustainable practices for improved N cycling within the region. Therefore, these differences in soil properties could contribute to the variabilities in the two indicators assessed for the various catchments.The relevance of NB in assessment of N management at the field and farm level as per the analysis of the current study is to help understand N cycling and assess the efficacy of applied measurements through identifying deficits and surplus in the systems. This is achieved through quantifying the main fluxes in an input-output model as defined by either field or farm boundaries (Cameira et al., 2019). Morever, it provides linkages between agricultural N uses and the losses to the environment. Furthermore, NB provides policymakers with a tool to monitor environmental impacts resulting from agricultural production and make informed choices. On the other hand, NUE, as determined in this study, is useful in evaluating the efficiency of applied N in the systems by defining the regions of soil N mining, N inefficiency, and N neutrality. As revealed from this analysis, NUE represented high values showing inefficiency for both fields with mineral N application and without. More pronounced values above the threshold were evident in rice farmers where mineral N was highly applied.The results of this study show atmospheric deposition as the primary source of N in the Lake Victoria region in the majority of farms and fields where farmers do not use any mineral N. Managing N sources from atmospheric deposition could be challenging since a significant proportion may end up in unintended areas, for instance, water bodies or uncultivated land where runoff is more likely causing more pollution to the environment. Given that the N use of fertilizer in sub-Sahara Africa is low with many cases of no use, these results indicate a need for improved use of fertilizers to change farm N balances to +ve. Across the two cropping systems, the soil system registered higher N losses than the soil surface, implying significant outflows from denitrification, leaching, runoff, and N 2 O and NH 3 emissions and pointing to a need for improved N management. These results affect environmental management, policy-making, and optimal agricultural resource management. These results could potentially be applied in projecting N dynamics for over 3 million hectares where maize and rice are grown in this region.Several cases presented herein have indicated significantly higher negative balances in the N applied farms relative to non-N applied plots. The results indicate significant losses of applied N to the environment with a potential to pollute water bodies and contribute to increased N 2 O emission (Tables 1-3). Furthermore, negative balances imply poor management, which results in the extraction of available N resources. This implies that farmers will require widespread capacity building in order to implement NUE optimizing practices. Furthermore, managing N losses could be accomplished through good agronomic practices such as integrated soil fertility management to improve nutrient balance.An integrated approach is relevant toward reducing N losses in cropping systems to ensure a reduced negative impact on the environment soil degradation. These include promoting balanced nutrient management, the 4R nutrient stewardship, and integrated soil fertility management. As in recent studies by IFDC (2018), over 50% of fertilizers used in East Africa supply only N and P. Such nutrient imbalance alters crop uptake of N, contributing to losses and optimal NUE. A better-balanced application of fertilizers; ensuring availability of all essential nutrients is crucial for optimal N uptake, leading to minimizing losses. Additionally, whereas the majority of farmers apply most N fertilizers at planting, the 4R nutrient stewardship framework recommends splitting N application to 2-or 3-times during crop growth to match N supply with N demand by the crop, thus reducing the accumulation of N in soil and reducing such losses.Our results revealed relatively low to no N use, particularly in maize fields, while in rice fields, most farmers had access to fertilizers. However, both categories did not imply proper management due to higher NUE than optimal values and negative N balance. Therefore, decision support tools that guide farmers on the rate and time of application of nutrients to reduce excess N in the soil and match crop requirements with availed N quantities, thus reducing the outflow of N from the agricultural system, should be given priority in this region. Some of the practical examples of decision support tools like the Nutrient Expert (NE) and Nutrient Manager for Rice (NMR) support the implementation of site-specific fertilizer management, leading to improved NUE (Sharma et al., 2019;Rurinda et al., 2020). Decision support tools make it possible to significantly manage N fertilizer application rates through improved NUE while sustaining or increasing crop yield levels (Wang et al., 2019).Calculating agricultural N budgets include generalizations and assumptions Lassaletta et al. (2014). Particularly in Africa, with limited data on quantification of N flows at field and farm levels due to a lack of specialized systems for monitoring N fluxes. We relied on specific conversion factors to calculate crop N removal and BNF, which could produce some uncertainties due to crop variations and adaptations to local environmental conditions. For instance, BNF is determined based on the crop area of the legume using global N 2 fixation rates. The approach for N budgeting does not also consider the available N in the soil but rather what goes in and comes out of the system. We used the territorial emission factors as proposed by FAO (2001) and Bouwman et al. (2002) for different cropping systems (lowland or upland). In addition we applied, unified coefficient for all regions to estimate losses on leaching and runoff as proposed by IPCC (2006). These N-loss pathways could vary even on the same farm and could produce intermediate values and therefore future studies should avoid this kind of uncertainty Similarly, losses via denitrification were determined on fixed factors based on the amount of N fertilizer application. Similarly, losses in gaseous losses, runoff, and leaching were limited to farms or fields with synthetic N fertilizer application due to the lack of emission factors for other sources of N, including BNF and atmospheric deposition.Livestock manure was excluded from the N budget estimations due to the farmer's practices of burning manure or grazing the animals along the road. Of overnight grazing incidences, farmers use the dropping as a source of fuel/firewood. Due to the very low quality of the feed components, primarily grasses and crop residues, it is assumed that the excreta or the quality of the manure is very low and does not represent a significant N inflow into the farms. Burning and random grazing overall affect N cycling due to the associated losses of NH 3 and N 2 O that could be very high without proper manure management.At the farm level, imported feeds were also omitted from the N budgeting method due to the farmers' economic limitations in buying feeds for their livestock. Also, there is scanty information on the availability of the N co-efficient for manure. More public knowledge and policy advocacy on manure management and its implications for N cycling is crucial. In addition, the role of straw management in N cycling should be emphasized to encourage farmers to leave crop residues in the field other than burning to enhance the sustainability of the system regarding nutrient cycling. N in irrigation water, particularly in rice systems, was omitted due to budgeting lack of data on N contents concentration and the amount of water supplied in the growing season. This could vary due to limitations in irrigation water. Leguminous trees in the farms were also not accounted for in the estimation due to the absence of N fixation rates to make the estimation.The method used to determine field level NUE does not account for indigenous soil N or N mineralization during the cropping season's growth. It was challenging to determine NUE at the farm level due to the complexity in defining the farm boundary and the products needed to adopt the unified methodologies for NUE. At the farm level, there are complexities in nutrient flows. However, future studies should focus on defining the boundaries to enhance a more straightforward determination of N efficiency and overall farm management. Despite these limitations, the current study data provides a comprehensive scenario of the N budgets status at field and farm levels. Future studies on N budgeting within the Lake Victoria basin should focus on establishing long-term experiments at the field and farm level for accurate measurements for the transformation of N in soil gradients under specific rates of N fertilization to reduce existing uncertainties in such studies (Elrys et al., 2019).Our analysis of nitrogen budget and use efficiencies offers a better interepreation and explanation on N management at field and farm levels. We report for the first time N budgets and NUE characterization for smallholder farms within Lake Victoria, highlighting excessive soil N mining and above the safe operating boundary for N in production systems, although with uncertainties due to limited data sources and lack of specialized systems to accurately monitor N flows at smaller spatial scale. The N mining reported is due to low input of N fertilizers and poor management practices in scenarios where farmers apply N in their field. Maize fields have relatively low N input with an average range of 10.42-22.99 kg N ha −1 . The insufficient use of N input also contributes to un-optimal NUE, with values surpassing NUE operational threshold for cropping systems. In rice fields, particularly in Nyando and Nzoia, with a higher rate of N application 102.19 and 77.78 kg N ha −1 , better agronomic practices should be implemented to improve the NUE. The knowledge gap still exists due to difficulty quantifying actual N flows, hence the need for improved and better quantification of N fluxes into the cropping systems. Informing the strategic policy-making process will entail closing all the uncertainties in determining N budgets. In addition, effective policies should target improving the current scenario of low to zero N input through increasing the availability of fertilizers and affordable prices and encouraging the use of organic sources of N to increase sustainability in farms.of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.","tokenCount":"6649"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"14038e510fa6bc66263bfa2c84eed3a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/31b95617-189f-4296-ab5c-622dc7757f65/retrieve","id":"1831478077"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"032df378-5ec1-4644-a9bf-2c2c86c61f49","pagecount":"70","content":"Fotos de Portada: Neil palmer© Derechos de autor © CIAT [2022]. Algunos derechos reservados. La Unión Europea cuenta con licencia en determinadas condiciones.Este estudio se llevó a cabo en el marco del proyecto ClimaLoCa financiado por \"Innovación Inteligente para el Desarrollo a través de la Investigación en Agricultura\" (DeSIRA) de la Comisión Europea. Agradecemos a las instituciones, organizaciones, técnicos, especialistas y demás actores de la cadena de valor del cacao, en las diversas regiones, por la información y apoyo brindado para el desarrollo de los contenidos de esta publicación.Este reporte presenta un análisis de los efectos de la entrada en vigor del reglamento UE No 488/2014, en la cadena de valor de cacao y chocolate en Colombia durante el periodo 2019-2021. El reporte comienza presentando una contextualización de la cadena del cacao y chocolate en el país, así como de la problemática relacionada al cadmio en el cacao, las iniciativas adelantadas a nivel nacional para hacer frente a esta situación y los resultados de una revisión de la literatura disponible relacionada con los impactos del reglamento en la cadena.En la búsqueda de complementar, validar y actualizar la información disponible, este estudio combina un análisis de estadísticas oficiales de las exportaciones colombianas de cacao y derivados cacao, con una serie de entrevistas que buscaban recoger las perspectivas de distintos actores, respecto a la problemática del cadmio, así como los cambios en sus operaciones y medidas de mitigación adoptadas como respuesta (cuando existen). Se entrevistaron 65 actores a nivel nacional y en 6 departamentos preseleccionados como casos de estudio: Antioquia, Arauca, Cesar, Putumayo, Santander y Tolima, los cuales fueron seleccionados debido a su importancia en la producción nacional, reportes de presunta presencia de cadmio en suelos y granos, y por representar distintos contextos socioeconómicos y agroecológicos.El análisis de las estadísticas disponibles revela un cambio en la estructura de las exportaciones a partir del 2018, con una disminución en la participación y volumen de ventas hacia la Unión Europea (UE), y un incremento en las exportaciones hacia México. Los cambios en la estructura de las exportaciones se concentran principalmente en el mercado de grano y, aunque no pueden ser atribuidos únicamente al reglamento, se estima que los ingresos dejados de percibir por cambios de destinos pueden alcanzar cerca de USD 1,6 millones anuales (cerca de un 6 % del valor total de las exportaciones de la cadena). Por otro lado, en los mercados de chocolates y otros derivados de cacao, no se identifican cambios para el mismo periodo que representen algún efecto económico considerable. La magnitud relativamente baja del impacto en la cadena es resultado de una combinación de factores, que incluyen una baja proporción de las exportaciones de grano, frente a la producción total, las estrategias implementadas por los actores de lavi vii cadena en sus procesos de acopio y procesamiento, y la identificación de compradores y mercados alternativos.Con base en las entrevistas, se identificó que la problemática no es de conocimiento generalizado entre los productores y representantes de asociaciones, ya que, a la fecha, no han existido cambios en los precios de compra nacionales, derivado del contenido de cadmio (Cd). No obstante, existen casos aislados de empresas y asociaciones de productores exportadoras que han perdido oportunidades de negocio por niveles altos de Cd en sus granos. En este sentido, se reportan diversos límites máximos permitidos de este metal en grano, requeridos por clientes en UE, Japón y Estados Unidos (EE. UU.), que oscilan entre 0,5 y 1,5 ppm. Las organizaciones identificadas afectadas, con compras en Santander, Arauca y Antioquia, han podido vender el cacao en el mercado nacional; sin embargo, se reportan precios inferiores en un 20 %, o hasta de USD 500 por tonelada, sumado con un incremento en los costos logísticos por las actividades de mapeo de zonas productivas, manejo y clasificación de granos y realización de muestras adicionales.Para mitigar los efectos negativos del reglamento, las principales compañías nacionales también han realizado mapeos de zonas de aprovisionamiento de acuerdo con los niveles de Cd, al ajustar sus mezclas y diferenciar la materia prima utilizada, de acuerdo con los tipos de productos finales y clientes. También se reportan mayores inversiones en investigación y desarrollo; por ejemplo, Casa Luker reporta inversiones de 3 mil millones de pesos en los últimos 6 años para hacer frente a la problemática.Cabe notar que las afectaciones también han tomado otras formas más difíciles de identificar y cuantificar, entre estos: los costos hundidos de fidelización y el desarrollo de proveedores ubicados en zonas con altos niveles de Cd; los ingresos dejados de percibir por productores que podrían integrarse en cadenas de mayor valor; y un menor interés por parte de inversionistas, empresas y proyectos de desarrollo en las áreas afectadas por cadmio, al reducirse así los recursos disponibles para las familias que necesitan apoyo, ya sea para el mejoramiento de sus cultivos, la implementación de estrategias para mitigación de este metal o la transición hacia otros cultivos. El proyecto DeSIRA Clima Loca tiene como objetivo principal fomentar el desarrollo y escalamiento de prácticas e innovaciones productivas que permitan reducir el contenido de cadmio en el grano de cacao y que resulten relevantes para el clima, al adaptarse a los diversos contextos de producción de los pequeños cacaocultores en Colombia, Ecuador y Perú.La iniciativa está compuesta por 15 actividades, organizadas en 4 paquetes de trabajo interdisciplinario, que abarcan aspectos de suelos y clima, genética, socioeconomía y de gestión del conocimiento y apoyo a la toma de decisiones.Este informe hace parte de los productos del componente socioeconómico, el cual busca informar a los socios del proyecto y demás actores del sector, sobre aspectos contextuales relevantes, que faciliten la toma de decisiones, al igual que el desarrollo y diseminación de las tecnologías generadas dentro y fuera del marco del proyecto.El objetivo del informe es ofrecer un panorama, que reúne las perspectivas de múltiples actores, sobre los impactos en la cadena de valor del cacao en Colombia, como consecuencia del Reglamento UE No 488/2014, trasEn la última década, Colombia ha incrementado sustancialmente su producción de cacao, lo que ha permitido el fortalecimiento de la industria nacional y el incremento de los volúmenes exportados de grano y productos procesados. De acuerdo con la Federación Nacional de Cacaoteros (Fedecacao, 2021;Finagro 2020;MADR 2020), en 2020, el país produjo 63 mil toneladas de grano, en más de 189 mil hectáreas, en manos de cerca de 52 mil familias productoras. Se estima que el 82,5 % de la producción se dirigió a la industria nacional, mientras que el resto (11,1 mil toneladas) fue exportado en grano.A diferencia de la mayoría de los países productores de cacao, la cadena colombiana se destaca por un fuerte desarrollo industrial, liderado por dos empresas: la Compañía Nacional de Chocolates y Casa Luker, que acopian cerca del 80 % del grano producido en el país. En consecuencia, la cadena nacional se caracteriza por un fuerte enfoque exportador de productos procesados. En el año 2020, la cadena exportó cerca de 110 millones de dólares, entre cacao en grano y productos derivados (manteca, polvo, pasta y chocolates), de los cuales solo el 26 % del valor exportado correspondió al grano de cacao, en comparación a la exportación de chocolates (44 %), mientras que el 22,4 % estuvo relacionado con la exportación de manteca, y el 7,7 % restante distribuido entre pasta y polvo (Legiscomex, 2021).El cadmio es un metal pesado que puede encontrarse en la atmósfera, el agua y el suelo, y su presencia en el medio ambiente es el resultado de una combinación de procesos naturales y antropogénicos. Los procesos naturales incluyen la meteorización de las rocas, la actividad volcánica, los incendios forestales, la erosión y la deposición en los sedimentos de los ríos, mientras que, entre los procesos antropogénicos, se encuentran las actividades mineras e industriales, así como prácticas agrícolas de riego y fertilización (Meter, Atkinson y Laliberte, 2019).El contenido de cadmio en los alimentos es una problemática que en las últimas décadas ha tomado gran relevancia debido a que los consumidores a nivel mundial son cada vez más conscientes de la importancia de la inocuidad de los alimentos, que estos no representen riesgos para la salud, que sean de calidad y que los procesos por los que pasan a lo largo de la cadena de suministro sean responsables con la sociedad y amigables con el medio ambiente (Agrosavia, 2019).En respuesta a lo anterior, la Unión Europea emitió el reglamento (UE) No 488/2014, el cual entró en vigor a partir del 1º de enero de 2019 y establece los niveles máximos de cadmio permitidos en el chocolate y otros derivados del cacao. Estos límites varían según el producto, los cuales se ubican entre los 0,10 ppm y 0,80 ppm (Chávez, 2019).A pesar de que estos límites no se establecen en el producto crudo, los compradores han establecido límites en el grano de cacao, usualmente entre 0,5 ppm y 1,1 ppm, para facilitar que los niveles de cadmio en sus productos finales se encuentren debajo de los límites permitidos (Meter et al., 2019).El reglamento tiene implicaciones en la cadena mundial de cacao; sin embargo, múltiples estudios realizados en América Latina y el Caribe sugieren que los más afectados serán los pequeños cacaoteros de esta región, puesto que allí se han encontrado concentraciones relativamente altas de cadmio en el suelo y en los granos de cacao (Meter et al., 2019). Algunos actores de las cadenas de estos países consideran que el reglamento afectaría a los productores y exportadores de grano, dado que desencadenaría en un mayor poder de negociación para las empresas importadoras y procesadoras (OMC, 2017).Para explorar las posibles afectaciones, la Organización Internacional del Cacao (ICCO por sus siglas en inglés) presentó, en agosto de 2021, una serie de informes, en donde se analizan los efectos de la regulación de la Unión Europea en los sectores cacaoteros de Ecuador, Perú y Colombia. En ellos, la organización realiza una serie de análisis cuantitativos y evalúa los cambios en los patrones de comercio de estos 3 países con la Unión Europea y otros destinos, a partir de la entrada en vigor de la normativa (ICCO, 2021a;2021b). El informe identifica un cambio en la estructura de las exportaciones de cacao de los tres países, los cuales reducen, de manera agregada, sus volúmenes y porcentaje de cacao exportado hacia la Unión Europea y presentan un incremento de sus exportaciones de grano hacia Indonesia y Malasia. No obstante, el documento concluye que dichos cambios no han sido consecuencia del reglamento, sino que han sido motivados principalmente por el incremento en la molienda en Indonesia y Malasia; a su vez, resalta que este factor explica más de la mitad de la variación en el incremento de las exportaciones de Ecuador y Perú a estos países. Del mismo modo, indican que la dinámica de las exportaciones colombianas en los últimos años sigue un patrón distinto, la cual brinda evidencia en contra de los efectos teorizados de la regulación. Si bien una revisión más desagregada de las dinámicas de exportación de los tres países, sumada a un análisis sistemático de las experiencias y percepciones de sus actores, sugieren que las respuestas, afectaciones y magnitudes de los efectos difieren sustancialmente para cada caso. Este documento incluye dichos hallazgos en capítulos posteriores para el caso de Colombia, mientras que, en el marco de este proyecto, se presentan informes equivalentes con los hallazgos para Perú y Ecuador.Cabe resaltar que el gobierno y actores de la cadena nacional han sido conscientes de esta problemática y, en consecuencia, desarrollaron la \"Estrategia Nacional para la mitigación del Cadmio en el cultivo de Cacao\", que tiene como principal objetivo desarrollar acciones conjuntas para mejorar las condiciones de inocuidad, calidad y posicionamiento del cacao en el mercado internacional, al cumplir con las regulaciones internacionales e incrementar la oferta exportadora del sector cacao/chocolate (Cancillería de Colombia, 2019). Los diversos esfuerzos que se han adelantado en el marco de la estrategia se caracterizan por tener un fuerte componente de investigación. Se estima que en Colombia existen alrededor de 12 proyectos de investigación relacionados en curso, los cuales posicionan al país como uno de los que cuenta con mayor número de iniciativas de dicha índole en Latinoamérica, con relación a otros países que comparten las mismas preocupaciones, como Ecuador y Perú, cada uno con cerca de 6 proyectos (Meter et al., 2019).Las iniciativas nacionales han registrado avances relevantes, en especial en el renglón de producción primaria, respecto a la evaluación de los territorios con mayores concentraciones de cadmio en suelo y en el grano de cacao, la identificación de los genotipos de cacao de baja acumulación y la exploración de alternativas de biorremediación con el uso de microorganismos.Entre dichos estudios está el primer muestreo nacional de cadmio en las fincas cacaoteras colombianas (Bravo et al., 2021), liderado por Agrosavia y Fedecacao. En este estudio, se analizaron 1.837 muestras de fincas a lo largo del país (Figura 1), en las cuales se encontró una alta heterogeneidad de los contenidos de Cd, entre y dentro de los departamentos muestreados, junto a la identificación de zonas de mayor riesgo. 1 Sus resultados sugieren que, en promedio, los suelos nacionales poseen una concentración media de 1,43 ppm, superior a los límites de Cd en suelos agrícolas implementados en Finlandia, Suecia, Bélgica y Austria (1,0 ppm), y superior a lo reportado por estudios desarrollados en Ecuador, Bolivia y Honduras. El 42 % de las muestras presentó niveles por encima de este umbral; sin embargo, la mayor prevalencia de suelos con niveles altos se ubicó en los departamentos de Santander, Boyacá y Arauca. En el caso de Santander, cabe aclarar que, aunque se encontró el mayor número de fincas con niveles altos, también se identificaron fincas con concentraciones menores a 1,0 ppm, a lo largo de todo el departamento, mientras que, en Arauca, las muestras con niveles mayores a 10 ppm se concentraron en la cuenca del rio Arauca, hecho que resalta la alta heterogeneidad de la problemática 1. Los autores informan que los análisis de las muestras de Cd en grano de cacao (cuyos resultados tienen implicaciones comerciales más directas) aún se encuentra en curso, y se espera que los resultados sean publicados en el futuro próximo.Leidi Sierra, CIAT Figura 1. Distribución de Cd pseudototal en los suelos de 1.837 fincas cacaoteras en Colombia.Este estudio pretende complementar y desarrollarse a partir de los hallazgos de las iniciativas e investigaciones precedentes, del mismo modo, brindar información actualizada del impacto de la regulación y sus distintas manifestaciones a lo largo de las diferentes regiones productoras del país; así como las estrategias que los actores han venido llevando a cabo para adaptarse a las nuevas condiciones comerciales. Para el desarrollo de este estudio, se realizó un análisis descriptivo de las principales estadísticas de comercio exterior de cacao y derivados en el país, durante el periodo del 2013 al 2020, en la búsqueda de identificar posibles distorsiones en el mercado, que pudieran estar relacionadas al reglamento de la UE. Adicionalmente, para evaluar las percepciones del impacto y alteraciones en las prácticas y procesos en la cadena derivadas del reglamento, se seleccionaron 6 departamentos como casos de estudio: Antioquia, Arauca, Cesar, Putumayo, Santander y Tolima, con base en los siguientes criterios: a) importancia en la producción nacional; b) contenido de cadmio en suelo y grano reportado previamente por expertos; c) diversidad agroclimática entre las regiones y d) coincidencia con áreas de implementación de los ensayos, definidas por el proyecto. En los departamentos seleccionados, se llevaron a cabo una serie de entrevistas semiestructuradas con informantes clave de los distintos eslabones, según la estructura de la cadena de valor, tales como: productores, representantes de asociaciones de cacaocultores/cooperativas, comercializadores locales e internacionales de grano, procesadores artesanales e industriales, exportadores de chocolate y derivados del cacao, extensionistas, expertos técnicos, instituciones prestadoras de servicios, académicos, entre otros.El análisis de los casos de estudio tuvo como objetivos: 1) alcanzar una mejor comprensión de las dinámicas que tienen lugar a lo largo de la cadena en las diferentes regiones y 2) identificar que tipos de afectaciones o cambios se han manifestado a lo largo de la cadena, como consecuencia del reglamento UE No 488/ 2014. El instrumento empleado hace énfasis en aspectos relacionados al conocimiento y las percepciones en torno al cadmio en el cacao, en los impactos que las medidas mencionadas anteriormente han tenido sobre las operaciones en los diversos eslabones de la cadena, y en las estrategias adoptadas por los actores para hacerle frente a las diversas afectaciones que se reportan.En total, se realizaron 65 entrevistas a representantes de 59 organizaciones, con operaciones de alcance nacional y a nivel regional. Las figuras 2 a la 7 muestran la distribución espacial de los actores entrevistados en cada uno de los departamentos seleccionados.   Durante los últimos años, el subsector cacaotero colombiano ha registrado un crecimiento continuo, gracias a los incrementos en las siembras y a los esfuerzos de los múltiples actores de la cadena. Lo anterior ha permitido el crecimiento de la producción, consumo interno y exportación de grano y derivados, lo cual ha favorecido a miles de personas involucradas en la cadena.Para identificar si han existido distorsiones o cambios relacionados al reglamento UE No 488/2014, tanto en las exportaciones de cacao como en sus derivados, a continuación, se presenta un análisis descriptivo de las dinámicas históricas antes y después de su puesta en marcha. El análisis se centra en los cambios de volúmenes y valores exportados, según los países de destino, y en los precios nacionales y de exportación observados en los últimos años. Los cambios en la estructura y destinos de exportación, observados en los últimos años, pueden obedecer a factores distintos a la entrada en vigor del reglamento, como el incremento en el procesamiento en el Sudeste Asiático, resaltado por el estudio de la ICCO, así como los incrementos en el procesamiento nacional, las estrategias de ventas y posicionamiento de las empresas nacionales y las afectaciones a la producción y comercio internacional, derivado del COVID-19. No obstante, los testimonios de los actores entrevistados coinciden en que, antes del 2019, se habían comenzado a demandar análisis de los contenidos de cadmio en algunos cargamentos dirigidos a la UE, Japón y algunos estados de EE.UU., y que se habían reportado casos de rechazos de lotes cuyas muestras revelaban altos niveles de Cd.Al observar los cambios en la estructura de las importaciones del grano de cacao de la UE (Figura 10), se hace más evidente esta dinámica, la cual difiere entre los países exportadores de Latinoamérica. Por ejemplo, los volúmenes y la participación del cacao, importado por la UE desde Ecuador y República Dominicana, incrementaron, en comparación con los años anteriores, al reglamento; pero se observa una clara dinámica de reducción en volumen y participación de las importaciones desde Perú y Colombia a partir del 2018, a la vez que la participación del grano importado desde África aumenta a partir de este mismo periodo.Figura 9. Participación de los principales países destino en las exportaciones de cacao en grano en Colombia.Fuente: Elaboración propia con datos de Agronet, 2021 La estructura de las importaciones de grano de Indonesia y Malasia revelan otros patrones relevantes del mercado internacional del cacao (Figura 11). Las importaciones de esta región aumentaron exponencialmente en el periodo del 2015 al 2017, al pasar de cerca de 250 mil toneladas, a casi 500 mil, consecuente con su incremento en la capacidad de procesamiento. Aunque África ha sido el principal proveedor de grano de la región, se observa cómo Ecuador incrementa sustancialmente su participación partir del 2017. Perú y Republica Dominicana han sido aliados comerciales pequeños para la región; sin embargo, sus participaciones y volúmenes exportados también han incrementado a partir del 2018, mientras que Colombia (un proveedor menor para estas regiones) incrementa sus exportaciones en 2018 y 2019, pero las reducen sustancialmente en 2020 a menos de 300 toneladas.Figura 11. Cambios en las importaciones de cacao de Indonesia y Malasia desde África, Latinoamérica y Resto del Mundo (valores en miles de toneladas). Aunque las cifras revelan cambios en las estructuras de las exportaciones en Ecuador, Perú y Colombia, cabe resaltar lo siguiente: i) con la información presentada, no es posible atribuir el efecto de estos cambios únicamente al reglamento y ii) los cambios no necesariamente representan un impacto económico para el sector en Colombia, ya que el país ha logrado vender su producto en distintos mercados.Para dimensionar el impacto económico potencial del reglamento en las exportaciones de grano, a continuación, se presentan los diferenciales de precios por países importadores. De igual forma, para identificar si estos han afectado a los productores de manera agregada, se presenta un análisis de las dinámicas de los diferenciales de precios de exportación y precios en finca.Los precios de cacao a nivel nacional son publicados semanalmente en los centros de compra de las principales empresas chocolateras, los cuales se fijan según los precios de la bolsa de Nueva York (NY) y funcionan como referencia para todos los demás compradores. Debido a la considerable demanda de grano de la industria nacional, Colombia se ha destacado por contar con precios de compra internos comparativamente altos, frente a otros países productores (Abbott et al., 2018).Las estadísticas oficiales revelan que no se han experimentado cambios en la dinámica de precios nacionales a partir de la entrada en vigor del reglamento. Como se observa en la Figura 12, el precio de compra nacional sigue de cerca la dinámica del precio en bolsa de NY (r = 0,94), con un diferencial promedio del 15 % en el periodo 2013-2021, al oscilar entre el 1,3 % y el 31 %. Si bien el diferencial de precios incrementa sustancialmente en el año 2021, la diferencia temporal permite asumir que esto responde a factores distintos al reglamento. Figura 12. Precios de cacao en grano en centros de compra nacionales y Bolsa de Nueva York, periodo 2013-2021.Aunque el cacao colombiano este categorizado como Fino y de Aroma, el precio promedio que reciben los exportadores por el grano colombiano (p. ej. precio FOB) se ha encontrado muy cercano al precio internacional (NY Exchange). Al desagregar los precios FOB por país de destino, se observa que, en el periodo del 2015 al 2020, los precios pagados por México y Malasia (que suman el 82 % de las exportaciones en 2020) se encontraron, en promedio, USD 20 por tonelada por debajo del precio internacional (Tabla 1, Figura 13); lo anterior revela que el cacao nacional se comercializa principalmente como corriente. No obstante, los precios por tonelada, pagados por los países de la Unión Europea en este mismo periodo, han sido, en promedio, un 12 % superiores al precio internacional; por ejemplo, las exportaciones hacia Países Bajos, Italia y Bélgica en este periodo han alcanzado precios entre USD 430 y USD 920 por tonelada por encima del precio de bolsa. Tabla 1. Precios promedio de cacao nacional, en la bolsa de Nueva York y promedio exportación FOB (USD/kg).Leidi Sierra, CIAT Figura 13. Precios promedio de exportación de cacao colombiano hacia sus principales destinos (USD FOB /kg) Fuente: elaboración propia con cifras de Legiscomex, 2021. Para el año 2020, nueve empresas en ocho países importaron el 94 % del cacao colombiano. Según la tabla 2, las filiales de las multinacionales ECOM y Nestlé en México son los principales compradores extranjeros de cacao colombiano y pagaron precios, con diferenciales por debajo del precio en bolsa, que oscilaron entre los USD 30 y USD 100 por tonelada, mientras que Colcocoa S.A.R.L, en sus oficinas de Bélgica e Italia, pagaron precios con diferenciales positivos de alrededor de USD 400 /t. Tabla 2. Principales importadores de grano de cacao colombiano.Aunque el siguiente escenario es una sobresimplificación, ofrece un punto de referencia del ingreso, potencialmente dejado de recibir como consecuencia del reglamento: de haberse mantenido la proporción de cacao exportado a la Unión Europea en el año 2020, en los niveles del periodo 2015-2017 (52 %), se hubiesen exportado a estos países cerca de 4.300 toneladas adicionales, por un valor medio de USD 2.850 FOB /t, (USD 380 /t por encima del precio en bolsa en 2020). Lo anterior representaría un ingreso adicional de USD 1,64 millones, o un 6% más sobre el valor exportado en 2020.A diferencia de los principales países productores, la mayor parte del valor agregado de la cadena colombiana de cacao y chocolate se genera dentro del país. En consecuencia, gran parte del cacao nacional es exportado en forma de chocolates y derivados como manteca, pasta y polvo. Durante los últimos cinco años, el valor de las exportaciones colombianas de chocolates (y preparaciones), duplica al de las exportaciones del grano, el cual es equiparable al valor de las exportaciones de polvo y manteca juntas.. Dado que el reglamento UE 488/2014 tiene efecto directo en estos productos, es de especial importancia evaluar si existen cambios en las dinámicas de sus exportaciones.Como se observa en la figura 14, el valor de las exportaciones de chocolates y derivados del cacao registran una tendencia decreciente en los últimos cinco años, al pasar de USD 105 millones en 2016 a USD 81 millones en 2020. La estructura de las exportaciones también presenta variaciones relevantes, pues se reduce el valor de las exportaciones de chocolates y se incrementan las exportaciones de manteca. Las exportaciones de pasta de cacao registran una dinámica decreciente y las de polvo se mantienen relativamente constantes, al representar respectivamente cerca del 6 % y el 4 % del total de las exportaciones de chocolates y derivados del cacao.  Al observar las exportaciones por destinos en los últimos 5 años, se evidencian otras dinámicas de interés. El valor de las exportaciones de chocolates y preparaciones han disminuido, en particular, hacia América Latina y el Caribe, Norteamérica y África, mientras que las exportaciones hacia la Unión Europea alcanzan su mayor valor en 2020. Lo anterior indica que el efecto del reglamento, al menos en este renglón, no ha tenido efectos sustanciales pues, al contrario de lo esperado, se han aumentado las ventas en este mercado después del 2019 (Figura 15).Figura 15. Distribución de las exportaciones de chocolates y preparaciones con cacao por regiones Fuente: elaboración propia con datos de Legiscomex, 2021 Las exportaciones de manteca de cacao a la Unión Europea han alcanzado su mayor nivel en los últimos cinco años (Figura 16) cabiendo anotar que su contenido de cadmio es negligible, por lo que este no representa una barrera para su comercialización. La mayor parte de estas exportaciones se atribuyen a una de las principales compañías del país, la cual ha venido fortaleciendo su posicionamiento en este continente y ha logrado colocar un mayor volumen de sus productos en este mercado.Por otro lado, aunque el polvo no es de relevancia sustancial dentro de las exportaciones, su dinámica es de interés, ya que este producto concentra el cadmio del grano y, por ende, requiere un contenido de cadmio en grano bajo para poder cumplir con los límites permitidos. En ese sentido, es de resaltar que las exportaciones de polvo a la UE, aunque marginales, han venido aumentando y, en 2020, alcanzaron los mayores valores de los últimos 5 años.Finalmente, en cuanto a las exportaciones de pasta, han venido presentando decrecimientos continuos durante los últimos cinco años; todos los mercados, excepto Norteamérica, presentan una tendencia decreciente con valores bajos en 2020.Figura 16. Distribución de las exportaciones de manteca de cacao por regiones. La información anterior sugiere que la contracción de las exportaciones colombianas de derivados del cacao, después del 2019, y los cambios en los destinos de exportación responden más al efecto de eventos externos (como la crisis derivada del COVID-19) o a las estrategias comerciales e industriales de las empresas procesadoras, que a la entrada en vigor del reglamento UE No 488/2014, y que sus posibles impactos en los productos derivados han sido menores o han sido manejados de manera efectiva por las empresas procesadoras.Esta sección pretende describir cómo diversos actores de la industria procesadora nacional y exportadores de cacao y derivados se han visto (o no) afectados por las reglamentaciones internacionales, relacionadas al cadmio. Se presentan también los contenidos máximos permitidos de Cd reportados en sus procesos comerciales y se mencionan algunas de las estrategias adoptadas para hacerle frente a esta problemática. Para esto, se entrevistaron cuatro firmas que representan distintos modelos de negocio dentro de la cadena del cacao, en términos de volúmenes, calidad, mercados objetivo y productos procesados y/o comercializados a nivel nacional e internacional.La Compañía Nacional de Chocolates es la empresa más grande en la industria chocolatera colombiana. Su portafolio de productos incluye golosinas, snacks, chocolates de mesa, coberturas y manteca dirigidos a varios segmentos del mercado, desde consumo masivo a nichos especializados. De acuerdo con la información proporcionada por los representantes entrevistados, sus productos se comercializan en Colombia y en más de 18 países, entre estos están Costa Rica, México, Perú, Estado Unidos, Francia y Alemania. Las exportaciones dirigidas a los dos últimos países se han visto afectadas, a causa de las reglamentaciones relacionadas al contenido de cadmio; sin embargo, la compañía ha implementado varias estrategias que le han permitido cumplir con las exigencias de sus clientes europeos. La empresa ha realizado un mapeo de cadmio a nivel nacional y ha identificado las zonas productoras con mayores riesgos. Esta información les ha permitido desarrollar procesos de selección y mezcla, además de otras estrategias en la etapa de transformación con las que logran cumplir con los requisitos de sus clientes.La compañía compra cacao bajo diversas categorías (corriente, prémium, orgánico, de origen) en los 24 departamentos cacaoteros del país. Sus principales proveedores son las asociaciones de productores e intermediarios, los cuales varían de acuerdo con las condiciones de cada departamento. Por ejemplo, cerca del 80 % del grano que se compra en el Tolima proviene de asociaciones y del 20 % de personas naturales (productores independientes e intermediarios). Mientras que en Antioquia, el 39 % del total de grano proviene de asociaciones y cooperativas, y el restante 61 % de intermediarios.Debido a sus estrategias para controlar el contenido de cadmio en sus productos, la naturaleza de su portafolio y el compromiso con sus proveedores, la empresa no ha establecido límites máximos de Cd para la compra de cacao en el país. En este sentido, no aplican ningún tipo de penalizaciones o condiciones de compra relacionadas al contenido de cadmio del grano, al declarar su intención de no discriminar ni estigmatizar ninguna zona y al reiterar su compromiso de comprar cacao de todas las regiones del país.Luker Chocolate es la segunda empresa chocolatera más grande de Colombia. Ofrece un amplio portafolio de productos como chocolate de mesa y bebidas de chocolate, confitería, ingredientes de chocolate, además de soluciones de marca propia en múltiples productos. La empresa ha enfocado su estrategia en el desarrollo y posicionamiento del cacao fino y de aroma colombiano a través de la promoción y exportación de sus productos procesados en varios mercados internacionales.Conscientes de la normativa de la Unión Europea, la empresa desarrolló un plan estratégico de manejo del cadmio, al adaptar oportunamente su portafolio y procesos antes de su entrada en vigor. Debido a lo anterior, no es posible ofrecer una cuantificación del efecto comercial que el reglamento ha tenido para la empresa; sin embargo, sus representantes reportan que los costos operativos han aumentado considerablemente, ya que tuvieron que adquirir nuevos equipos, analizar exhaustivamente muestras de cacao en todo el territorio nacional, retirar algunos productos del portafolio y cambiar las recetas y mezclas en la mayoría de sus chocolates.Adicionalmente, Luker y otras empresas han recibido una demanda relacionada al contenido de cadmio de un importante cliente en EE. UU., que representa no solo gastos sustanciales en representación legal, sino también un costo reputacional y comercial.Entre los costos más importantes derivados del reglamento para la empresa, se encuentran los de investigación y desarrollo para la prevención y mitigación del cadmio, que les han representado cerca de COP 500 millones anuales durante los últimos seis años. Cabe mencionar que, gracias a su estrategia, la empresa continúa comprando cacao en todo el país y no aplica penalizaciones o restricciones de ningún tipo por contenido de cadmio.Finalmente, los representantes de la empresa señalan que las regulaciones relacionadas al cadmio son relevantes para el sector, debido a que estas se están extendiendo alrededor del mundo. Por esta razón, enfatizan que las nuevas siembras que se realicen en el país solo se deberían llevar a cabo en regiones con pocas probabilidades de presentar problemáticas por contenido de cadmio.Fruandes (Frutos de los Andes S.A.S) es una compañía que procesa frutas deshidratadas y productos semielaborados, dentro de los cuales, se encuentra el cacao y algunos derivados. En el portafolio de sus productos, se encuentran nibs de cacao, coberturas de chocolate, licor de cacao y otros derivados, los cuales están destinados principalmente a la exportación (Estados Unidos, Canadá, Alemania, Francia, Suiza e Italia).Hasta el año 2017, Fruandes producía únicamente nibs de cacao pero, en 2018, iniciaron una ampliación de su proyecto de cacao en la zona de Urabá, donde estimaban que, para el año 2019, sus ventas de cacao a la Unión Europea se encontraron entre las 50 y 100 toneladas. La empresa llevó a cabo un estudio de mercado, que resaltó el riesgo que les representaba para su operación el nuevo reglamento conexo al cadmio por parte de la Unión Europea. Sin embargo, las negociaciones con estos países se mantuvieron, pero se limitaron a la comercialización de grano de cacao, puesto que los niveles de cadmio, en los productos finales, registraron concentraciones de cadmio sustanciales (superiores a los 0,8 ppm). Como consecuencia de esto, la empresa detuvo sus operaciones de exportación e inició un proceso de investigación, con el objetivo de encontrar estrategias que le permitieran hacer frente a esta problemática.Las estrategias adoptadas por la empresa se han desarrollado con un enfoque de cadena de proveeduría. Inicialmente, mediante una alianza con la fundación Bancolombia, realizaron una investigación para entender la problemática del cadmio de manera más amplia, la situación de los suelos de la zona del Urabá y la razón del contenido considerablemente alto de Cd en estos. A su vez, realizaron una caracterización de cada productor y su estrategia se ha enfocado en la clasificación y selección de agricultores para la compra del grano, categorizados con niveles alto, medio y bajo de cadmio. La empresa compra cacao directamente a las asociaciones de productores en los municipios de Mutatá, Turbo, Chigorodó y Apartadó; en estos dos últimos, se presentan las mayores afectaciones a cuenta de la presencia de este metal.De acuerdo con el representante entrevistado, los productos que maneja la compañía son 100 % orgánicos. El cacao que acopia está certificado como orgánico y comercio justo (Fair Trade) y se caracteriza por ser un cacao prémium con niveles de fermentación superior al 70 % y con perfiles organolépticos específicos.Debido a la trayectoria y trabajo que han desarrollado con sus proveedores, para lograr las certificaciones y niveles de calidad necesarios, la empresa declara que cambiar sus proveedores de grano, como consecuencia del nivel de cadmio, no es una opción; al contrario, han considerado fortalecer más a las asociaciones proveedoras, para que entiendan la problemática del Cd y desarrollen estrategias para manejarlo.En cuanto a los niveles admisibles de cadmio en el cacao establecidos por la compañía, lo ideal es que no exceda los 0,6 ppm; no obstante, el valor depende de las exigencias de los mercados destino y del producto que se vaya a producir con ese grano. No existe flexibilidad respecto a estos niveles, pues si un lote supera los límites permitidos, es inmediatamente rechazado. Dado que ya se han caracterizado a los agricultores -se conoce su oferta potencial y riesgo de contenido de Cd-, la asociación se encarga de reunir y clasificar todos los cacaos que cumplan con los requisitos impuestos por la compañía para cada negocio.Cacao Hunters es una empresa comercializadora y transformadora de cacao, destacada a nivel nacional por impulsar el desarrollo sostenible del sector cacao/chocolate y por su constante búsqueda de ampliación de horizontes de mercado. Una parte del cacao acopiado por la firma se utiliza para la producción de licor de cacao y barras de chocolate, que tienen como destino el mercado nacional y los mercados foráneos; la otra parte se exporta en grano como cacao corriente, prémium y orgánico. Entre los principales destinos de estos productos se destacan Japón, Estados Unidos y algunos países de la Unión Europea.El cadmio es un criterio de vital importancia para las operaciones de exportación de la firma. Esta última cuenta con un laboratorio propio en el que se le hacen pruebas sensoriales y se produce licor de cacao, para luego enviar el producto (grano o licor) a laboratorios externos con el objetivo de hacer los respectivos análisis de cadmio. Las concentraciones admisibles de dicho metal en los productos dependen de las exigencias de sus clientes que, en algunos casos, resultan ser más severas que las reglamentaciones nacionales/regionales, como es el caso de los países de la Unión Europea.La mayoría de sus clientes en el mercado internacional exige concentraciones de cadmio en grano inferiores a 0,5 ppm. Uno de los países más exigentes al respecto es Japón, que tiene como contenido máximo admisible de cadmio en grano 0,8 ppm; sin embargo, el entrevistado asegura que, mientras los niveles se mantengan por debajo de este umbral, el cacao puede comercializarse sin dificultad en varios mercados. La empresa declara que \"algunos laboratorios internacionales cuentan con maquinaria de punta para el análisis de muestras microbiológicas, que ofrecen indicadores de hasta 6 y 7 decimales (en Colombia entre 3 y 4)\", lo que eventualmente ha ocasionado rechazos del producto y ha obligado a la empresa a buscar nuevos compradores.El modelo de negocio de la firma consiste en comprar cacao directamente a los productores, que puedan demostrar que su grano tiene concentraciones aceptables de cadmio, además de cumplir con los requisitos sensoriales y fitosanitarios establecidos por la firma. El cacao comprado por Cacao Hunters proviene de regiones como Arauca, Huila, Magdalena (Santa Marta) y Tumaco. En el caso particular de Arauca, la firma solo cuenta con un proveedor, debido a las alertas de cadmio manifestadas en la región. En el Huila, reportan haber detectado problemas relacionados al nivel de Cd, específicamente con productores ubicados en cercanías del desierto de la Tatacoa. Entre las causas de su elevado nivel, los entrevistados señalan el uso de fertilizantes y enmiendas inapropiadas, además del origen del agua que se usa en los cultivos.Se entrevistaron otras empresas exportadoras de grano cuya identidad es reservada. Estas, en general, se enfocan en mercados de cacao fino y de aroma, y trabajan con grupos de productores con los que han establecido relaciones comerciales estrechas. Una de estas empresas indica que, en su región principal de operaciones, se han encontrado contenidos de cadmio que superan los límites exigidos por sus clientes. La empresa ha hecho inversiones considerables en muestreos por lotes, que les han permitido identificar y mapear zonas según el riesgo de Cd. La firma reporta que la variación en su concentración en grano es alta y heterogénea y que se pueden encontrar granos con contenidos de cadmio por debajo y por encima de 1 ppm en municipios contiguos. La firma estima que cerca del 30 % del grano, proveniente de sus zonas de aprovisionamiento, pueden contar con niveles menores a 1 ppm; cerca de un 50 % oscila entre 1 y 2,5 ppm y el restante puede reportar contenidos de 3 a 3,5 ppm.Pese a lo anterior, la firma compra todo el cacao a los productores con los que tiene acuerdos comerciales, sin realizar discriminaciones o penalizaciones a cuenta de los contenidos de cadmio. No obstante, esto ha tenido repercusiones sustanciales en sus costos explícitos -como los relacionados a los análisis frecuentes de cadmio (hasta COP 70 mil por muestra)-y en sus costos implícitos relacionados con la implementación de un sistema riguroso de trazabilidad, auditoría interna y operaciones para el manejo y mezcla de grano, de forma que puedan cumplirse las exigencias de sus clientes. Además, el reglamento ha generado mayores esfuerzos comerciales relacionados con la búsqueda de clientes potenciales y las respectivas negociaciones.De acuerdo con lo reportado, los niveles de cadmio en grano permitidos varían de acuerdo con el cliente/ segmento de mercado. Por ejemplo, para el segmento \"ultra prémium\", el cual es un nicho considerablemente pequeño en el que se manejan perfiles organolépticos especiales -y que puede alcanzar precios de USD 6.000 a USD 8.000 por tonelada-, se exigen contenidos de cadmio en grano inferiores a 0,8 ppm. Otros segmentos de exportación, como los segmentos certificados y prémium, que alcanzan precios de bolsa de NY más primas de entre USD 150 a USD 500 por tonelada, pueden exigir entre 1,0 y 1,5 ppm. Por último, el segmento de grano para manteca o el mercado corriente internacional no presenta exigencias en torno a contenidos de cadmio, pero registra precios de bolsa de NY e incluso precios de bolsa con descuentos.De acuerdo con un entrevistado, las regulaciones en torno al contenido de cadmio, vigentes en países como Europa, Japón, Canadá y algunos estados de EE. UU., han conllevado a la pérdida de importantes oportunidades de mercado para el cacao colombiano. Algunos clientes en los países mencionados han terminado acuerdos comerciales con sus proveedores colombianos y se han cerrado a la posibilidad de nuevos acercamientos y negociaciones.A pesar de las dificultades, todo el cacao producido en las distintas regiones de aprovisionamiento es adquirido por las distintas empresas nacionales. No obstante, uno de los principales detrimentos para los productores, consecuencia del contenido de cadmio a lo largo del país, consiste en que podrían alcanzar mejores precios, si estuvieran vinculados a cadenas de exportación más cortas, como el caso de una de las empresas entrevistadas, que ofrece precios a sus proveedores hasta 30 % por encima de los precios de compra regionales.Finalmente, cabe resaltar que algunas firmas entrevistadas han incursionado con distintas alternativas, para reducir el contenido de cadmio en los cultivos de sus proveedores, a través de dos enfoques: 1) remoción de cadmio en el suelo; p.ej. la introducción de otras plantas que absorban el metal disponible en el suelo y 2) reducción de la absorción de cadmio de la planta de cacao, a través de ensayos que incorporan magnesio y calcio en el suelo durante la etapa de floración. Aún no se han logrado identificar resultados, pero se espera obtenerlos en, al menos, 24 meses.En esta sección, se presentan los principales resultados de las entrevistas realizadas a los representantes regionales de distintos eslabones de la cadena y la revisión de literatura disponible relacionada a los departamentos evaluados, como casos de estudio: Antioquia, Arauca, Cesar, Santander, Tolima y Putumayo (Tabla 3). En el anexo 2, se incluye información más detallada acerca de las características de cada cadena regional, así como de los impactos del cadmio, las percepciones y las estrategias de mitigación que han tenido lugar en las mismas. Los resultados indican que, aunque se han experimentado cambios en la estructura de las exportaciones en el país y la región, el impacto, a la fecha de la entrada en vigor del reglamento UE No 488/2014 en la cadena colombiana, ha sido relativamente bajo, con manifestaciones variadas en los distintos eslabones. Los cambios en la estructura de las exportaciones se concentran principalmente en el mercado de grano y, aunque no pueden ser atribuidos únicamente al reglamento, se estima que los ingresos dejados de percibir por cambios de destinos pueden alcanzar cerca de USD 1,6 millones anuales. En los mercados de chocolates y otros derivados no se identifican efectos considerables. La magnitud, relativamente baja, del impacto es resultado de una combinación de factores, que incluyen una baja proporción de exportaciones de grano frente a la producción total, sumada a las estrategias implementadas por los actores de la cadena, en sus procesos de acopio y procesamiento, así como en la identificación de compradores y mercados alternativos.De acuerdo con las entrevistas, los límites de cadmio en grano, exigidos por los compradores de Europa, Japón y algunos estados de EE. UU., oscilan entre 0,5 y 1,0 ppm. No se reportan reducciones de precios en las negociaciones, sino el rechazo de cargamentos, cuyas muestras no cumplan con dichos límites. Organizaciones de productores y empresas en Antioquia, Santander y Arauca reportan haber perdido negocios, debido a niveles altos de cadmio en algunos de sus lotes, aunque dicho grano se ha podido comercializar sin inconvenientes con la industria nacional a un menor precio.Cabe destacar el rol que han jugado los compradores nacionales en la mitigación de los efectos del reglamento, en particular, aquellos con mercados importantes en la UE, ya que continúan comprando cacao sin discriminar o castigar al productor por el contenido de cadmio; es decir, las compras han continuado sin transmitir las afectaciones a los productores o acopiadores regionales. La estrategia de estas empresas consiste en realizar mapeos de zonas afectadas y en ajustar, internamente, tanto las mezclas, como la segmentación de sus clientes, al evitar así posibles problemáticas. En este sentido, actualmente, los principales costos e impactos derivados del reglamento están siendo asumidos por las empresas, cooperativas y sus donantes públicos y privados en forma de investigaciones y estrategias de mitigación y manejo de cadmio que incrementan los costos operativos y logísticos.Las afectaciones también han tomado otras formas más difíciles de identificar y cuantificar, como son las diferencias en los precios de exportaciones no realizadas y los costos hundidos de fidelización y desarrollo de proveedores, ubicados en zonas con altos niveles de Cd. También se evidencia un menor interés por parte de inversionistas, empresas y proyectos de desarrollo en las áreas afectadas por cadmio, al reducir así los recursos disponibles para las familias que necesitan apoyo, ya sea para el mejoramiento de sus cultivos, la implementación de estrategias para mitigación del Cd o la transición hacia otros cultivos.A nivel de productores y asociaciones, resalta el bajo conocimiento que estos presentan acerca de los metales pesados en el grano y sus implicaciones comerciales o en la salud, lo que no es sorpresa, dada la falta de efectos de la regulación en la comercialización de grano a nivel nacional. Aunque actualmente no se ha materializado un efecto económico en la mayor parte de los productores, el principal impacto para ellos se genera en forma de ingresos dejados de percibir por una menor capacidad para vincularse con compradores y cadenas de mayor valor. En la actualidad, el número de productores, participando en cadenas de alto valor, es marginal; sin embargo, la penetración en mercados de alto valor hace parte de la estrategia de sostenibilidad, diferenciación y posicionamiento del sector cacaotero nacional y, en estos casos, el Cd es un factor decisivo.Debido a la falta de información, es difícil dimensionar el número de familias y la magnitud de la producción y área cacaotera afectada por niveles altos de cadmio. El estudio de Bravo et al. ( 2021) representa un avance y referente clave en este sentido; no obstante, se espera complementar este informe con estimaciones más detalladas, una vez se haya recolectado información adicional, bajo el marco de este proyecto y con el apoyo de los demás actores de la cadena nacional.A pesar de la diversidad de iniciativas en curso a lo largo del país, los actores declaran que existe una falta de articulación y baja difusión e intercambio de información. Como respuesta, representantes del sector informan que es aún necesario complementar la investigación, debido a que los muestreos realizados no permiten la generalización de contenidos de cadmio a nivel regional o municipal, y los resultados pueden generar la estigmatización indebida de algunas zonas, debido a malinterpretaciones o mal manejo de los datos.Neil Palmer, CIATAnexo 1. Organizaciones representadas por los actores entrevistados.Compañía Según las cifras de Fedecacao en 2020, Antioquia se ubicó como el segundo mayor productor de cacao en Colombia, con una participación del 9,4 % en la producción nacional y 5.974 t. El incremento de la producción del departamento ha sido el resultado tanto del aumento del área cultivada, como de los rendimientos; no obstante, se resalta que la fertilización no es una práctica común entre los productores. Según el informe de la Cámara y Comercio de Medellín (2020), solo en los años 2018 y 2019, se han sembrado 7 mil hectáreas. Si bien en todas las subregiones del departamento se produce cacao, el 80 % se concentra en Urabá, Bajo Cauca, Magdalena Medio y Nordeste. En la región, también se han adelantado importantes esfuerzos en materia de renovación de cultivos y, aunque aún se pueden encontrar cultivos de 40 años o más de establecidos, la proporción de cultivos envejecidos es baja. Respecto a las edades de las plantaciones, los entrevistados afirmaron que en las plantaciones activas tienen en promedio entre 8 y 10 años.De acuerdo con las entrevistas realizadas, la mayor parte de los productores del departamento cuentan con entre una y dos hectáreas de cacao, con muy pocas familias que superan las tres hectáreas. Aunque existen áreas envejecidas con \"híbridos\" de más de 20 años, la mayor parte de las plantaciones se han realizado con clones como el CCN 51, ICS 95, ICS 39, ICS 60, e ICS 1. Luego de estas siembras, se comenzaron a promover otros clones desarrollados en el país, entre los cuales se destacan el FEC 2, FEAR 5, FSA 13, FSV 41, LUKER 40 y el FCHI 1. Con respecto a la variedad más común en la región, uno de los expertos mencionó que es la CCN 51, la cual puede encontrarse en cerca del 70 % de las plantaciones.No hubo consenso entre los entrevistados respecto a los sistemas productivos prevalentes en la región. Uno de los conocedores con mayor experticia afirma que el 80 % de los cultivos corresponden a sistemas agroforestales (SAF), con maderables y plátano y un 20 % a monocultivos; mientras que otro conocedor afirma que un 50 % de las plantaciones corresponde a monocultivos, un 30 % a cultivos asociados -mayoritariamente con plátano-y un 20 % a cultivos agroforestales bien estructurados, donde relacionan el cultivo de cacao con otros cultivos agrícolas y maderables.Los entrevistados estiman que entre el 40 % y el 80 % de la producción del departamento se comercializa a través de asociaciones; el restante, a través de intermediarios. En la región, se identificaron 17 organizaciones de productores, 2 de las cuales son de segundo nivel: (i) Chocolate Colombia, que reúne organizaciones de Antioquia y Córdoba y (ii) Montebravo, con presencia en Antioquia y Chocó. Las organizaciones identificadas congregan más de 1.700 productores y 3.700 ha sembradas. Los expertos mencionaron que los municipios que registran mayores volúmenes de producción poseen entre dos y tres asociaciones de productores, y los demás cuentan con al menos una.Figura 17. Hectáreas cosechadas de cacao en Antioquia por municipio (2020). Si bien la mayor parte de la producción se dirige a la industria local, algunas entidades y asociaciones realizan procesos de exportación, como Fedecacao, Colcocoa, Chocolate Colombia, la asociación de puerto Valdivia y Acefuver de Chigorodó. Se estima que el 70 % de la producción regional de grano tiene como destino a la industria nacional y el 30 % se exporta.Los expertos reportan que Antioquia produce grandes volúmenes de cacao prémium y se han venido adelantando procesos de certificación a lo largo del departamento. Se estima que cerca del 30 % de la producción departamental corresponde a cacaos diferenciados y se menciona que una gran parte de las plantaciones del Bajo Cauca están certificadas bajo el estándar Fair Trade. Adicionalmente, en la región se ha venido trabajando en proyectos para establecer granjas de cacao con variedades especiales en sabor y aroma, al igual que sistemas de abono orgánico.En cuanto a procesos de transformación local, existen iniciativas artesanales a pequeña escala, emprendimientos familiares y asociaciones que transforman entre una y dos toneladas anuales. Entre sus productos se encuentran el chocolate de mesa y el licor de cacao, los cuales se comercializan, principalmente, en mercados locales. Se destaca, en este aspecto, la asociación Chocolate Colombia, que realiza procesamiento de grano a mediana escala y la iniciativa \"Chocolates la Abuela Mía\" en el municipio de San Gabriel, que transforma alrededor de dos toneladas anuales.por el contrario, sus clientes en Alemania, Holanda y Reino Unido aplican límites de 0,9 ppm. Una organización que exporta cacao orgánico indica que ha perdido oportunidades de negocio por contenidos de Cd; esto les representó entre COP 700 a 1.000 millones que dejaron de percibir en dicho año, a causa de la diferencia de precios entre el mercado nacional (donde vendieron el cacao) y el precio pagado por el importador.En general, los productores del departamento no están familiarizados con las restricciones conexas al cadmio y sus posibles efectos negativos. Sin embargo, se reportaron grupos de productores que han implementado algunas estrategias recomendadas por ingenieros agrónomos y expertos técnicos de la región, como la fertilización orgánica y el uso de algunos minerales, como el ácido húmico y el ácido fúlvico que, según los entrevistados, pueden contribuir a reducir los niveles de cadmio en el suelo.Por último, los entrevistados expresaron desconocer proyectos, programas o iniciativas en la región que estuvieran dirigidas a afrontar la problemática del cadmio en la cadena productiva del cacao; pese a esto, reportan haber participado en discusiones donde la temática central ha sido el cadmio.El cacao se produce en cinco de los siete municipios del departamento. Según los expertos, se pueden ordenar a partir del número de productores de la siguiente forma:1. Arauquita: con alrededor de 2.300 a 2.400 productores 2. Tame: con cerca de 2.000 productores 3. Saravena: con unos 1.200 productores 4. Fortul: con aproximadamente 500 productores 5. Arauca: entre 200 a 300 productores Se estima que, en el departamento, hay cerca de 6.000 productores cacaoteros, con un área cultivada promedio de promedio 3 ha, por lo que se calcula que el territorio alberga entre 18.000 y 20.000 ha dedicadas al cacao.De acuerdo con las cifras oficiales y las estimaciones de actores locales, se calcula que la producción en el departamento se encuentra alrededor de las 5.000 a 10.000 toneladas. Cerca del 70 % de los cultivos de la región han sido renovados, factor que ha dado lugar a una transición hacia clones como el CCN 51 (predominante), TSH 565, Caucasia 5 y los ICS 1, ICS 39 e ICS 60. En los últimos años, se ha promovido la siembra y renovación de cultivos con el \"modelo araucano\", el cual es reconocido por su sabor y aroma fino, y está compuesto por clones regionales como el Federación Arauquita 5 (FEAR 5), Federación Saravena 13 (FSA 13) y Federación Tame 2 (FTA2).Cerca del 80 % de las plantaciones se encuentran bajo SAF; sin embargo, no en todos se han seguido las recomendaciones técnicas (densidades, distancias entre árboles, entre otras). En cuanto a las edades de los cultivos, se estima que el 80 % de las plantaciones de la región tienen entre 0 a 15 años; no obstante, se pueden encontrar plantaciones envejecidas con árboles de hasta 50 años, las cuales pueden sumar entre el 5 % y el 10 % del área total Fuente: Elaboración propia con datos de Argonet.Figura 18. Hectáreas cosechadas de cacao en Arauca por municipio (2020). Pese a que la gran mayoría de cacaocultores hace parte de modelos asociativos y posee una cédula cacaotera de FEDECACAO, se estima que menos de 500 productores participan de manera activa en las asociaciones (p.ej. al pagar una cuota asociativa, al disfrutar de beneficios, entre otros). Los entrevistados mencionaron que en la región hay cerca de cinco asociaciones de productores consolidadas, entre las que destacaron a COOMPROCAR Y COOPCACAO. Los entrevistados estiman que alrededor del 10 % de la producción de la región se comercializa a través de asociaciones y cooperativas, mientras que el 90 % se comercializa a través de intermediarios (comercializadores independientes).Si bien en la región se comercializa especialmente cacao corriente, la venta de cacao prémium también es común, en cuanto al sobreprecio ofrecido por estos granos es considerado bajo para algunos entrevistados (entre 5 % y 10 %). Con respecto a las iniciativas de diferenciación del cacao, en la región se hicieron algunos pilotos encaminados a certificar fincas como productoras de cacao orgánico. Este esfuerzo estuvo liderado por la asociación COOMPROCAR y se lograron certificar ocho fincas; sin embargo, la certificación no se mantuvo debido principalmente a motivos relacionados con las condiciones del mercado y al difícil acceso a los insumos exigidos por las firmas certificadoras.En la esfera asociativa, los actores reconocen ampliamente los estudios liderados por Agrosavia y Fedecacao, que han tenido como objetivo cuantificar las concentraciones de cadmio en los suelos de la región. Además, mencionan que han participado en la socialización de algunos resultados, que dejaron en evidencia niveles relativamente altos de cadmio en los suelos del municipio de Arauquita, en particular. COOPCACAO es una de las asociaciones que se destaca en la región por su número de asociados (165), los volúmenes de cacao acopiados (corriente y prémium) y por sus procesos de transformación (chocolatinas / barras con contenidos de cacao del 50 % y 70 %). Esta asociación adelantó un estudio, de la mano de Fedecacao, para medir las concentraciones de cadmio (en suelo y granos de cacao) con 150 productores asociados.Respecto a las operaciones comerciales de las asociaciones/cooperativas y su relación con el cadmio, se encontró que este último no representa una barrera para la compra y venta de cacao a nivel local. Pese a que no es usual que las asociaciones realicen exportaciones directas, COOPCACAO reportó que, en 2019, exportó cerca de 25 toneladas de grano seco prémium con destino a Malasia y sin ningún tipo de restricción relacionada con cadmio.Cuando se indagó sobre las estrategias y prácticas específicas adoptadas por los productores para mitigar la absorción de cadmio, los representantes de las asociaciones coincidieron en que, pese a que no existe un paquete tecnológico específico para hacerle frente a este hecho, deberían implementarse prácticas que se cree pueden contribuir a disminuir la absorción de cadmio, entre estas: un correcto plan de fertilización, el uso de micorrizas (estudio de la Universidad de la Salle) y, en términos generales, la implementación de buenas prácticas agrícolas.Los expertos técnicos entrevistados tienen conocimiento e incluso han participado en la socialización de las iniciativas lideradas por Fedecacao y algunas asociaciones de productores relacionadas al cadmio. Los expertos mencionan que, en la región, se han reportado concentraciones entre los 0,8 ppm hasta los 1,4 ppm en el grano del cacao, donde uno de los municipios más afectados es Arauquita. Es usual que sean las zonas atravesadas por ríos las más afectadas, como consecuencia de los residuos de enmiendas y agroquímicos usados en las actividades agrícolas diversas llevadas a cabo en terrenos colindantes.Pese a lo anterior, algunos expertos reconocen que, para los productores y comercializadores (regionales/locales) de grano, el Cd no representa un problema, en tanto que no es un criterio de compra adoptado por todos los grandes acopiadores/compradores. Pese a que el cadmio no es una dificultad tangible para algunos actores en la actualidad, algunos entrevistados aseguran que, desde hace varios años, se vienen emitiendo alertas de posibles rechazos del grano proveniente de la región, a cuenta de las altas concentraciones del metal en cuestión.De acuerdo con Fedecacao (2021), el departamento produjo 1.543 t de cacao en 2020. En cuanto a sus zonas de mayor producción cacaotera, están los municipios de Pueblo Bello, Valledupar, Manaure, La Paz, San Diego, El Copey, Pailitas, Pelaya, Aguachica, San Alberto, Río de Oro, San Martín, La Jagua de Ibirico, Codazzi, Curumaní, Chiriguaná y La Paz (Gobernación del Cesar, 2016) y, de acuerdo con la Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Empresarial (2020), el departamento cuenta con 403.121 ha aptas para este cultivo.  Se estima que la región congrega alrededor de tres mil productores, que cuentan en promedio con dos hectáreas de cacao. La mayoría de las plantaciones de cacao albergan árboles maderables o frutales (cerca del 90 %), aunque, según los expertos entrevistados, las plantaciones no fueron establecidas propiamente como SAF. El 10 % de las plantaciones se encuentran a libre exposición.Las variedades y tipos de cacao que se pueden encontrar dentro de la región dependen de cada zona del departamento. Por ejemplo, en la Sierra Nevada es común encontrar cacaos híbridos y criollos. No obstante, en años más recientes, se han introducido materiales de la Compañía Nacional de Chocolates y clones como el CCN 51, ICS 95, ICS 60, ICS 1, TSH 565 y FEAR 5, los cuales se han extendido a lo largo del departamento.De acuerdo con la información obtenida en las entrevistas, cerca de 1.000 productores (30 %) se encuentran suscritos a alguna asociación y, si bien existen alrededor de 30 asociaciones establecidas (entre 1 o 2 en promedio por municipio), es poco común encontrar una asociación bien consolidada. Los productores venden el grano a asociaciones e intermediarios o llevan el grano directamente a Santander, donde el principal comprador de la zona es la Compañía Nacional de Chocolates. Aproximadamente, el 10 % de la producción total se comercializa a través de asociaciones, mientras que el 90 % es comercializado por intermediarios.Entre los principales cuellos de botella de la cadena, se mencionaron los siguientes: los bajos precios del cacao, la falta de infraestructura, tecnología y herramientas que padecen los productores, la mano de obra poco calificada y la falta de conocimiento y cultura en torno al manejo del cultivo. Una proporción relevante de cacaocultores no realiza los procesos de postcosecha de manera idónea; esto se debe, entre otros, a los siguientes aspectos: la falta de interés por parte del productor en hacer una buena selección del grano, a causa de los relativos bajos sobreprecios pagados por aspectos como calidad, la falta de recursos para invertir en el cultivo y la presencia de compradores que ofrecen precios similares por el cacao en baba y por el seco.Según las asociaciones entrevistadas, en cuanto a los precios de compra y venta del grano reportado, se observa lo siguiente: Según la información suministrada por los entrevistados, no se conocen reportes de contenidos altos de cadmio en los suelos del departamento. Uno de los actores entrevistados señaló que Fedecacao ha realizado análisis de suelos en algunas zonas y aún no se ha encontrado el primer caso alarmante. Un actor de Manaure manifesta que, hace dos años, su asociación participó en un diplomado y se realizaron algunos análisis de cadmio en algunas unidades productivas del municipio; en dicha ocasión, los niveles reportados estuvieron en su mayoría por debajo de 0,3 ppm.En la región, no existen barreras relacionadas al cadmio para la comercialización del grano de cacao, ni se ha registrado ninguna afectación en los precios o volúmenes transados. En concordancia, las asociaciones e intermediarios de la zona no consideran el contenido de cadmio como criterio de compra/venta, y no tienen interés en medirlo. A lo anterior se suma el desconocimiento generalizado de la problemática (asociado a su falta de implicaciones en la cadena) y a la falta de equipos y herramientas para realizar las respectivas mediciones.En consecuencia, en la región no se han adoptado estrategias o prácticas en campo para darle manejo a las concentraciones de cadmio. Los actores entrevistados desconocen si existen practicas a nivel de comercialización o procesamiento. Por último, se declara que, en la región, no se hace un seguimiento a las concentraciones de cadmio en el cacao, y no se tiene conocimiento de programas, proyectos o iniciativas regionales que tengan como objetivo afrontar la problemática del cadmio en la cadena productiva del cacao.De acuerdo con Fedecacao, en el departamento se produjeron 1.133 t de cacao en 2020. La producción de cacao se concentra en dos subregiones: Medio y Bajo Putumayo. Los expertos consultados señalan que existen importantes diferencias entre ambas subregiones en materia de prácticas culturales, infraestructura productiva, comercialización, asociatividad, cobertura y calidad de los servicios prestados a la cadena, entre otros. Según lo anterior, en esta sección se presenta una breve descripción de las dinámicas subyacentes a la cadena productiva del cacao para cada subregión en cuestión. Se sugiere al lector remitirse al documento \"Línea base socioeconómica de la cadena de valor del cacao en Putumayo\" 5 , para indagar de modo más detallado acerca de temas específicos.La producción de esta subregión se concentra en los municipios de San Miguel, Valle del Guamuez y Orito. De acuerdo con los especialistas, el costo de la tierra en el Bajo Putumayo es relativamente elevado, factor que hace que las fincas sean de menor tamaño con respecto al Medio Putumayo, con extensiones de entre 5 y 10 ha en su mayoría. Las fincas están explotadas, casi en su totalidad, por lo que no es usual encontrar áreas en rastrojo y es común encontrar cultivos adyacentes como yuca, plátano y maíz.Los productores de la región tienen entre 1 y 8 ha de cacao en sus fincas (en promedio 2,5 ha por productor). Los arreglos más comunes tienen densidades de 3,5 m x 3,5 m y 4 m x 4 m, menores al promedio nacional, debido a las condiciones climáticas del departamento. Se estima que los municipios de San Miguel, Valle del Guamuez, Puerto Asís y Orito albergan, en conjunto, cerca de 1.390 productores de cacao: el primero, con 600; el segundo, con 500; el tercero, con entre 80 y 100 productores y el cuarto, con 200. Los expertos afirman que los rendimientos del cacao en la región son relativamente bajos, debido a la falta de conocimiento, la menor densidad por hectárea y la baja experticia de los productores en torno al cultivo. A lo anterior, se le suma el hecho de que los productores también manejan otros sistemas productivos, en los que el cacao no siempre es el cultivo principal.Debido a que en el pasado los suelos destinados al cacao solían ser utilizados para el cultivo de coca, en muchos casos, estos se encuentran saturados y con altos niveles de acidez. El desconocimiento generalizado en torno al cacao y la escasez de mano de obra disponible, a causa de los bajos precios del jornal (en relación con los ofrecidos en cultivos como la coca), entre otros aspectos, contribuyen a la implementación irregular de prácticas agrícolas, como podas fitosanitarias y de mantenimiento, hecho que tiene incidencia en materia productiva.Las edades promedio de los cultivos en la región oscilan entre los 10 y 20 años; no obstante, más recientemente, se han realizado siembras a menor escala por parte de proyectos e inversiones privadas. La subregión cuenta con cacaos nativos; sin embargo, estos no son explotados comercialmente. Los clones más comunes en la región son el CCN 51 e ICS 95; a su vez, se pueden encontrar árboles que no han sido injertados y que se caracterizan por sus relativos bajos rendimientos. De igual forma, existen plantaciones en las que se ha empleado un clon proveniente del Ecuador, conocido como \"superárbol\", del que se reportan rendimientos sobresalientes.Los expertos señalan que el establecimiento de cacao en la subregión se ha promovido bajo SAF, a través de proyectos que entregaban maderables; sin embargo, estos no fueron sembrados en todos los casos y los sombríos que se establecieron han desaparecido de manera paulatina. Los productores consideran que el cultivo tiene un mejor desempeño a plena exposición, dada la nubosidad y humedad característica del territorio. Pese a lo anterior, cabe destacar que los proyectos de siembra nueva más recientes han hecho especial énfasis en el establecimiento del cacao bajo SAF, para lo que incluso se han establecido viveros de frutales y maderables dirigidos a satisfacer las necesidades de esta índole.En la región, se presentan dos temporadas marcadas para la cosecha de cacao. La principal, entre los meses de febrero y julio, con un mayor pico productivo entre abril y mayo (cerca del 60 % de la producción total anual). La segunda temporada comienza en octubre o noviembre y se extiende hasta enero, con cerca del 30 % de la producción total anual. Las cosechas pueden presentar atrasos, según las prácticas implementadas a nivel finca y también están sujetas al material genético del que se dispone. Los especialistas sugieren que el clon CCN-51 provee la mayoría de su producción en un periodo considerablemente corto, mientras que el ICS 95 tiene un periodo de cosecha más prolongado.La producción de la subregión se concentra en los municipios de Villa Garzón, Mocoa y Puerto Guzmán. Según los expertos, la zona agrupa entre 200 y 250 cacaoteros, los cuales presentan rezagos en materia de prácticas de manejo y tecnología, en relación con los productores del Bajo Putumayo. La subregión alberga un número importante de productores dispersos, muchos de estos tienen sus cultivos descuidados o abandonados. Hace cerca de tres años se han adelantado esfuerzos para rehabilitar algunos de estos cultivos.Las fincas se caracterizan por sus amplias extensiones; por ejemplo, en Puerto Guzmán, las fincas cacaoteras tienen extensiones de hasta 40 hectáreas, aunque el tamaño más común oscila entre 15 y 20 hectáreas. Estas se caracterizan por bosques y rastrojo, con una proporción de área explotada significativamente menor en relación con el Bajo Putumayo. El municipio, en cuestión, cuenta con cerca de 30 cacaocultores, con áreas promedio de cacao que oscilan entre una hectárea y media y dos. Los expertos indican que, en Puerto Guzmán, se dan los mayores rendimientos de la subregión, debido a un mejor manejo del cultivo y mejores condiciones edafoclimáticas.En la subregión, se pueden identificar dos temporadas de cosecha importantes. La temporada principal se concentra entre mayo y agosto y los picos productivos se presentan entre junio y julio. La otra temporada tiene lugar entre noviembre y enero, la cual representa cerca del 30 % de la producción total.Los rendimientos del cacao en el Medio Putumayo varían de acuerdo con los tipos de productores de este modo: alrededor del 50 % de los cacaocultores reportan rendimientos entre los 150 y 200 kg/ha, alrededor del 30 % y 35 % reportan rendimientos de 400 a 600 kg/ha y, en algunos pocos casos, se han registrado rendimientos cercanos a las 1.000 t/ha.En la actualidad, el modelo asociativo impera en el departamento; sin embargo, la gran mayoría de asociaciones requieren adelantar acciones de fortalecimiento en aspectos tanto productivos como organizacionales, para así cumplir sus actividades misionales (beneficio, comercialización, extensión, acceso a financiamiento, ampliar portafolio de servicios, entre otros).Al tomar como referencia las cifras reportadas por Fedecacao, se estima que alrededor del 49 % de la producción total del departamento se comercializa a través de asociaciones, aunque la compra por parte de estas ha venido reduciéndose en los últimos años. El punto de compra del principal aliado comercial de las asociaciones se encuentra en Neiva (Huila). Si bien los precios varían según el origen y distancia, se reporta que transportar cacao hasta Huila, desde San Miguel o Valle del Guamuez, tiene un costo aproximado de COP 130.000/tonelada.La calidad del cacao del departamento es heterogénea; de acuerdo con varios entrevistados, los sobreprecios ofrecidos por calidad son insuficientes y, en muchos casos, no son reconocidos; lo anterior desincentiva a los productores a llevar a cabo esfuerzos por mejorar sus procesos de beneficio del grano. A nivel departamental, desde hace varios años, se habla de la posible presencia de cadmio en los suelos del territorio y en el cacao, pero las iniciativas que han abordado el tema son relativamente incipientes. Agrosavia ha adelantado acciones importantes al respecto, tanto de orden nacional como regional, entre ellas, la toma de muestras para identificar las regiones con suelos más ricos en Cd.En el renglón comercial, la mayoría de los representantes legales de las asociaciones entrevistadas manifestaron conocer qué es el cadmio y cuáles son sus implicaciones en materia comercial y de salubridad. Al respecto, se encontró que algunas asociaciones han hecho parte de iniciativas lideradas por la cooperación internacional y otras entidades, que han realizado muestreos aislados para medir las concentraciones de Cd en los suelos de sus asociados, los cuales se sumaron a la iniciativa nacional liderada por Agrosavia.Los actores entrevistados, que hacen parte del eslabón de la industria procesadora, manifestaron tener indicios de que las concentraciones de cadmio en el grano, proveniente del departamento, son aptas para la elaboración de sus productos; a su vez, la percepción de que los niveles de Cd en la región son relativamente bajos. Debido a lo anterior, el cacao del departamento resulta ser de gran interés para la industria en general. Es relevante mencionar que allí, a la fecha, no existen reportes oficiales públicos representativos con información sobre la concentración de cadmio en las plantas y/o granos de cacao.El cacao es uno de los productos agrícolas insignia del departamento y ha sido reconocido como un cacao fino y especial en diversos escenarios internacionales, por lo que resulta de gran interés para países como Bélgica, Malasia, México, entre otros (Gobernación de Santander, 2020). De acuerdo con Fedecacao, Santander representa el 42 % de la producción nacional con 26.315 toneladas.El departamento reúne cerca de 17.000 familias cacaoteras distribuidas en los 40 municipios, entre los que se destacan San Vicente del Chucurí, El Carmen de Chucurí, Landázuri, Rio Negro y Lebrija. De acuerdo con la Gobernación de Santander, existen alrededor de 70 emprendimientos y asociaciones transformadoras de cacao en el departamento. También existe un clúster cacaotero compuesto por firmas privadas como Chocolates Girones y Mariana Cocoa, instituciones académicas, financieras, la gobernación y las cámaras de comercio de Barrancabermeja y Cundinamarca (Vera C., 2019).Dada la importancia del sector, desde la gobernación se vienen desarrollando proyectos dirigidos a fortalecer las prácticas agrícolas, de bioseguridad y las condiciones de vida de los cacaocultores de la región, que se espera beneficien a cerca de 1.500 familias en 35 municipios. En particular, buscan promover siembras nuevas, apoyar la rehabilitación y renovación de plantaciones y fortalecer el modelo de agronegocio para la comercialización del producto (Gobernación de Santander, 2020). Así mismo, Fedecacao cuenta con una importante presencia en la región y ha liderado múltiples esfuerzos en torno al cultivo. La federación cuenta en el departamento con cinco unidades técnicas y una oficina principal en Bucaramanga, además de la granja Villa Mónica, en San Vicente de Chucurí, que funciona como centro nacional de capacitación del cultivo.En el departamento, se han desarrollado varios genotipos, procedentes de municipios como Lebrija, San Vicente de Chucurí, El Carmen de Chucurí. Algunos de los clones destacados más recientemente, desarrollados por Fedecacao, son los siguientes: FLE 2, FLE 3, FSV 41, FEC 2 y FSV 155. Pese a los diversos perfiles del cacao que se produce en la región, los entrevistados mencionan que una gran proporción del grano es comercializado como corriente.Los actores mencionan que las principales dificultades del sector son el desconocimiento en torno a ciertas prácticas de manejo del cultivo como, por ejemplo, el control fitosanitario (especialmente con la monilia), el déficit de mano de obra calificada y la tenencia de la tierra; con relación a este último aspecto, se tiene que la modalidad más común es el contrato de aparcería, lo que hace necesario que se establezcan acuerdos -entre productores y aparceros-entorno al manejo del cultivo.Figura 21. Hectáreas cosechadas de cacao en Santander por municipio (2020). La mayor parte de los representantes de asociaciones/cooperativas entrevistadas están familiarizados con el término cadmio, pero su conocimiento, respecto a lo que es y al potencial problema que representa para el sector cacao/chocolate, es limitado. Lo anterior se debe a que ellos declaran no estar suficientemente involucrados en las iniciativas de investigación. A su vez, se encontraron casos en los que algunos representantes de asociaciones manifestaron no tener conocimiento alguno en torno a este metal.Los entrevistados coinciden en que los contenidos de cadmio en el grano de cacao no representan una barrera para su comercialización: ni para productores, ni para asociaciones, ni para comercializadores independientes; esto debido a que no hace parte de los criterios de compra de sus principales compradores.Cuando se indagó respecto a las iniciativas regionales que giran en torno al Cd en el cacao, algunos entrevistados destacaron que Santander es una región carbonífera en la que se llevan a cabo otras diversas actividades extractivas, relacionadas con la presencia del metal en el suelo. Esto ha dado lugar al surgimiento de diversas iniciativas y estudios conexos al cadmio que, si bien no son de carácter regional exclusivamente, han hecho énfasis en Santander debido a la importancia de la región en el sector.En este contexto, los entrevistados mencionaron instituciones que lideran dichas iniciativas y estudios como Fedecacao y Agrosavia, además de organizaciones de cooperación internacional como Swisscontact. Se menciona que los proyectos/estudios han estado dirigidos a medir concentraciones de cadmio en suelos y en el grano de cacao. Pese a que varios actores mencionan que no conocen los resultados de estas investigaciones, algunos aseguran que han evidenciado que las concentraciones de Cd, tanto en los suelos como en el cacao, son bajas; en el caso del cacao, las más altas concentraciones se habrían encontrado en la cascarilla. Estos resultados corresponden específicamente a los esfuerzos encabezados por Swisscontact, en alianza con Fedecacao y la universidad Santo Tomás, en el marco del proyecto Hållbar Kakao, en el municipio de Rionegro.Algunos actores hicieron alusión al proyecto CHOCOLATE DE LA MONTAÑA que, si bien es relativamente nuevo, es de interés para el sector cacao/chocolate, pues tiene, como principal objetivo, ampliar los horizontes de mercado del cacao semiprocesado procedente de la región, y tendría como principal mercado destino el europeo.Si bien los encuestados coincidieron en que, en el renglón primario de producción y en la comercialización local, el cadmio no representa un problema tangible, algunos consideran que ciertas actividades podrían contribuir a que los árboles de cacao absorban menos Cd. Algunas de estas prácticas consisten en llevar a cabo un buen manejo postcosecha (buenas prácticas agrícolas), separar granos maduros y pintones, voltear cada determinado tiempo el grano en el proceso de secado y monitorear los niveles de calor.De acuerdo con Fedecacao, el departamento del Tolima fue el cuarto mayor productor de cacao en el año 2020, con una producción total de 4.312 toneladas. Los principales municipios productores de cacao en el departamento son Chaparral, Ataco, Rioblanco, Cunday y Purificación En la región, se pueden encontrar los clones más comúnmente empleados en el país, al igual que plantaciones híbridas que nunca han sido injertadas. Entre las variedades mencionadas por los expertos se encuentran: CCN 51, EET 8, LTH 56, ISC 60, ICS 1, TCS 01, además de distintas variedades de Fedecacao San Vicente (FSV). En el departamento, se produce cacao corriente y prémium y, en menor medida, cacaos certificados. Al respecto, es menester mencionar que se ha venido trabajando en la estandarización de los procesos de fermentación y secado en el norte del Tolima. En la actualidad, los sistemas agroforestales, bajo los que se encuentra el cacao, no se caracterizan por ser arreglos espaciados de manera idónea. Al respecto, Agrosavia ha liderado e impulsado iniciativas, direccionadas a implementar SAF y brindar capacitaciones para su manejo; pero, hasta el momento, no existen arreglos específicos para la región. Uno de los expertos entrevistados señaló que una gran proporción de los cultivos del lugar se encuentran bajo libre exposición (70 %), mientras que cerca del 30 % han sido establecidos bajo sistemas agroforestales y se mantienen como tal.Las edades de los cultivos varían entre los cero y 60 años; los más antiguos tienen una muy baja representatividad y se concentran principalmente en el sur del Tolima. El intervalo de edad promedio de los cultivos en la región va de los 10 a los 50 años.Respecto al número de cacaocultores de la región, los entrevistados mencionaron no tener un estimado oficial o aproximación; no obstante, se estima que, con cerca de 4.000 hectáreas, el departamento concentre más de 1.500 familias productoras. Con base en las entrevistas, se lograron identificar 16 asociaciones que reportan un total de Fuente: Elaboración propia con datos de Agronet.1146 productores asociados. Los entrevistados aseguraron que no todos los productores hacen parte del modelo asociativo, pero que una proporción importante está suscrita a alguna organización. La asociatividad juega un papel fundamental en la estructura productiva de la cadena del cacao en el departamento, pues la mayoría de las familias productoras comercializan el cacao a través de asociaciones que tienen acuerdos comerciales con diversos compradores del país, principalmente, con la Compañía Nacional de Chocolates y, en segundo lugar, con Casa Luker. Uno de los expertos planteó que cerca del 70 % de la producción departamental se comercializa a través de asociaciones y alrededor del 30 % vía intermediarios. Los expertos mencionaron que, en cada una de las regiones (norte, sur y oriente), se pueden encontrar cerca de diez asociaciones de productores.En el eslabón de transformación local, se pueden encontrar iniciativas artesanales a pequeña escala, entre las que se destacan emprendimientos familiares y asociaciones. Además, se han desarrollado proyectos liderados por la cámara de comercio, con participación de Agrosavia, donde se logró estandarizar los procesos de fermentación y secado, además de una central de beneficio y microcentrales en diferentes municipios que contaban con, al menos, una organización de productores de cacao. En la actualidad, se cuenta con una sede en el municipio de Mariquita y San Sebastián, las cuales también producen licor de cacao y pasta de cacao. Adicionalmente, en el departamento también se encuentran otras empresas privadas como Juan Choconat SAS (con sede en Ibagué), un transformador independiente que también realiza exportaciones de productos semielaborados y empresas chocolateras familiares como SUAGÚ.En cuanto a los precios de compra y venta del cacao que manejan las asociaciones entrevistadas, se reportaron los siguientes valores:y Aprocal: comercializa principalmente cacao corriente y muy bajos volúmenes de cacao prémium. El precio de compra, en promedio, es de COP 7.000/kg y el precio de venta a la Compañía Nacional de Chocolates es de COP 7.800/kg.y Asociación productores de cacao de Río Blanco: La asociación comercializa cacao corriente y prémium, con un diferencial de COP 500/kg. El precio de venta ofrecido a su principal aliado comercial (Compañía Nacional de Chocolates) es COP 200 superior al precio de compra a productores, el cual oscila entre COP 7.000/kg y COP 7.200/kg para el cacao corriente.De acuerdo con los actores entrevistados, en la región se han llevado a cabo análisis de cadmio que han evidenciado la presencia del metal en los suelos de algunas zonas (con diversos niveles de concentración). Los análisis se han llevado a cabo en diferentes municipios, pero se ha hecho especial énfasis en Mariquita, Falan y Palo Cabildo, donde se encontraron concentraciones de cacao en el cacao inferiores a 0,9 ppm en varios lotes, pero también concentraciones de hasta las 2,5 ppm.Asoped, una asociación que reúne productores de cacao del municipio de Planadas, realizó pruebas de cadmio en lotes de cacao para exportar y reportó no haber podido realizar dicha actividad, como consecuencia de los niveles de contaminación por cadmio detectados. El cacao provenía de los municipios de Planadas y Ataco; aunque no se sabe de manera exacta la zona de origen, uno de los entrevistados señaló que las zonas más afectadas por el Cd serían el Líbano y el Sur del Tolima, como Chaparral y Planadas. En contraste, análisis realizados en almendras procedentes del municipio de Alvarado, arrojaron contenidos muy bajos.Actualmente, no hay establecidos niveles máximos de contaminación por cadmio permitidos en la esfera comercial en el departamento y, por tanto, no se adelanta ninguna operación conexa a su medición en suelos o grano. Los principales compradores del cacao en la región son la Compañía Nacional de Chocolates y la Casa Luker. Compran todo el cacao a las asociaciones, cooperativas, intermediarios y productores independientes.Hasta el momento, según los actores entrevistados, estos compradores no han establecido ningún tipo de penalización por contaminación por Cd en el grano; las únicas pruebas que se realizan al momento de la compra son las tradicionales pruebas de corte. De igual modo, los expertos entrevistados afirmaron que, aunque en la región no se aplica un máximo admisible de este metal, el panorama es diferente con los exportadores de grano, quienes exigen pruebas de laboratorio para verificar sus contenidos en el producto a comercializar.Los actores reportan que el eslabón de producción no se ha visto afectado hasta el momento, pues los agricultores venden todo el grano que cosechan, sin ningún tipo de problema. En cuanto al eslabón comercial, algunos entrevistados manifestaron que la comercialización no se ha visto afectada. No obstante, los actores que participan en mercados de exportación señalaron que el impacto a causa del cadmio gira entorno a la percepción de menores ingresos, ya que el precio de venta que paga la industria nacional es inferior al precio que pueden llegar a pagar los compradores internacionales.","tokenCount":"14045"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"93714ae420dd149348d60b674d845730","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/66c14fcf-a81d-423e-b556-d9b7cd6d1999/retrieve","id":"2108352649"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8477152d-726c-42a0-b894-20fedff68ed9","pagecount":"65","content":"Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization. We have a vision -that agricultural biodiversity nourishes people and sustains the planet.We deliver scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to attain sustainable global food and nutrition security. We work with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural and tree biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation.Bioversity International is a member of the CGIAR Consortium -a global research partnership for a food-secure future.These guidelines describe technical procedures that minimize the risk of pest introductions due to the movement of germplasm for research, crop improvement, plant breeding, exploration or conservation. It is important to emphasize that these guidelines are not meant for trade and commercial consignments concerning export and import of germplasm.Collection, conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources and their global distribution are essential components of international crop improvement programmes.Inevitably, the movement of germplasm involves a risk of accidentally introducing plant pests along with the host plant. In particular, pathogens that are often symptomless, such as viruses, pose a special risk. To minimize such risks, preventive measures and effective testing procedures are required to ensure that distributed material is free of pests of potential phytosanitary importance. Eradication of pathogens from a region or country is extremely difficult, and even low levels of infection or infestation may result in the establishment of pathogens in new areas.The international, and inter-regional, movement of plant germplasm for research, conservation and basic plant breeding purposes (including plant biotechnology) requires complete and up-to-date information concerning the phytosanitary status of the plant germplasm. In addition, the relevant and current national regulatory information governing the export and importation of plant germplasm in the respective countries is essential.The recommendations made in these guidelines are intended for small, specialized consignments used in research programmes, e.g. for collection, conservation and utilization for breeding of plant genetic resources and crop improvement by conventional and modern technologies. When collecting and transporting germplasm, International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)'s International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC; https://www.ippc.int/coreactivities/standards-setting/ispms) should be considered. This revision of the technical guidelines for banana has been produced by the Conservation Thematic Group of MusaNet, an international network for Musa genetic resources coordinated by Bioversity International (www.musanet.org). These guidelines supersede those published in 1989 (Frison and Putter 1989) and 1996 (Diekmann and Putter 1996). The experts who contributed to the production of these technical guidelines are listed in Section 2 of this publication. They have contributed to the preparation of the technical guidelines in their personal capacity and do not represent or commit the organizations for which they work. The guidelines are intended to provide the best possible phytosanitary information to institutions involved in small-scale plant germplasm exchange for research purposes. Bioversity International and the contributing experts cannot be held responsible for any problems resulting from the use of the information contained in these guidelines.The guidelines cover virus diseases only, as they are the major pathogen contaminants found in in vitro Musa germplasm. Section 3 lists the International Transfer Centre and indexing laboratories, while Section 4 makes general and technical recommendations on safe procedures to move banana germplasm. The largest section, Section 5, covers pests of phytosanitary concern for the international or regional movement of Musa. The information given on a particular pest is not exhaustive but rather concentrates on those aspects that are most relevant to the safe movement of germplasm. No specific information on treatment is given in the pest descriptions. A pest risk analysis (PRA) will produce information on which management options are appropriate for the case in question. General precautions are given in the technical recommendations.These guidelines reflect the consensus and knowledge of the specialists who have contributed to this revision, but it is anticipated that the information will need to be regularly updated as new information becomes available. We ask our readers to kindly bring to our attention any developments that may require a review of the guidelines, such as new records, detection methods or control methods.Correspondence regarding this publication should be addressed to Bioversity International, Parc Scientifique Agropolis II, 34397 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.Germplasm Germplasm is living tissue from which new plants can be grown.It can be a seed or pollen or vegetative material (e.g. a sucker, leaf, piece of stem, corm, meristem or regenerable cells).Any species, strain or biotype of plant, animal, or pathogenic agent, injurious to plants or plant products (FAO 1996). The editorial assistance of Rachel Chase, Bioversity International, Montpellier, France is gratefully acknowledged.The International Transit Centre (ITC) is operated by Bioversity International under the auspices of FAO, and is hosted by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Its role is to facilitate safe exchange of Musa germplasm. With over 1,500 accessions, the ITC contains the largest banana in vitro collection in the world. The following general recommendations apply for all international Musa germplasm exchanges. Germplasm should be obtained from the safest source possible. There is for example a pathogen-tested in vitro Musa germplasm collection available at the ITC, from which safe germplasm can be ordered online (http://www.crop-diversity.org/banana). All germplasm moving from one continent to another should transit through the ITC or, if possible, be obtained from the ITC. Other sources of safe germplasm may be available where indexing laboratories have the capacity and expertise to test for the complete range of viruses. All germplasm should ideally be moved in the form of tissue culture. If this is not possible, full quarantine measures, including containment in secure post-entry quarantine facilities, must be taken until the vegetative material or seed is cultured in vitro. Germplasm should be tested for all viruses known to affect Musa according to the protocols described in these guidelines. However, in some instances tests may be omitted if there is reliable evidence that particular viruses are not present in the country of origin of the germplasm. Indexing procedures and results should be documented, e.g. in a germplasm health statement. A sample copy is included at the end of this publication (Appendix 2). The movement of germplasm should be carefully planned in consultation with quarantine authorities and the relevant indexing laboratory, and should comply with the regulatory requirements of the importing country. The ISPM measures as published by the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) should be followed during movement of germplasm. In accordance with IPPC regulations, any material being transferred internationally must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate.The following protocol should be followed to prepare vegetative material for virus indexing and exchange (distribution) of germplasm. Select a sucker from a plant without symptoms of systemic pathogen infection. Trim the sucker to remove soil, roots and any other extraneous material, leaving part of the central corm containing the meristem and about 10 cm of the pseudostem tissue above it. The overall dimensions of the block of tissue will be about 20 cm high and 10−15 cm in diameter. Air-dry the block for 24 h and wrap in newspaper. Label the material and dispatch in a cardboard box using the fastest transportation method. Plastic should not be used for wrapping. Send the material to the nearest appropriate tissue culture laboratory in the country of origin, or if this is not possible, to a tissue culture laboratory preferably in a non-banana-growing area. The meristem tip should be excised, surface disinfected (Hamill et al. 1993) and cultured aseptically (Strosse et al. 2004;Van den Houwe and Swennen 2000;Vuylsteke 1989;Wong 1986). A single meristem-tip-derived subculture should be further cloned to seven plantlets, of which five should be sent to an indexing facility and two should remain in culture for future multiplication. At the indexing facility, four plants should be established in a potting mix in a vector-free, insect-proof greenhouse under conditions conducive to vigorous plant growth. The fifth plant serves as a back-up. The plants to be indexed should be physically isolated from other bananas so as to minimize the possibility of cross-contamination. After three and six months of growth, tissue samples should be taken from the three youngest expanded leaves and indexed for viruses as described in Appendix 1. In addition, electron microscopic observations should be undertaken at both three and six months to look for the presence of any undescribed viruses. If all tests are negative, the four indexed plants may be released and the cultures derived from the two remaining plants in vitro may be further propagated and distributed in vitro. If found to be infected, the material should be subjected to a virus eradication treatment if available. The plant material must not be released until its virus-free status has been confirmed using the testing procedures described in Appendix 1. For the movement of in vitro material, neither charcoal nor antibiotics should be added to the culture medium, as these may mask contamination in the culture. In vitro cultures should be shipped in transparent tubes, preferably plastic, and visually inspected for bacteria, fungi and arthropods. Contaminated germplasm should be destroyed. Special care should be taken to protect the material from extremes of temperatures (not below 15°C and not above 35°C) during shipment.Some viruses may be transmitted through seeds. The following protocol should be followed before seeds are moved internationally. Collect seeds from plants that are free from pests and disease symptoms. Make sure seeds are free of pulp, and there is no visual evidence of insects, mites or nematodes. Air-dry and, if necessary, fumigate. Banana seeds are sensitive to desiccation and therefore should be moved immediately to an appropriate tissue culture laboratory in the country of origin, or if not possible, to a tissue culture laboratory preferably in a nonbanana-growing area. Seed should be surface-disinfected. The embryos should be isolated and germinated in vitro to establish sterile cultures (Bakry 2008;Pancholi et al. 1995;Uma et al. 2011). Materials derived from embryo culture should be indexed and moved in the same way as material derived from meristem tip culture, as described above.Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) has been consistently associated with the disease. This persistently aphid-transmitted virus is restricted to the phloem tissue, and has 18−20 nm isometric virions (Figure 1) with a coat protein subunit of 20.1 kDa and a multicomponent single-stranded DNA genome. It is a member of the genus Babuvirus (family Nanoviridae). Two geographical groups are described: the South Pacific group (isolates from Australia, Africa, the Pacific islands and the Indian sub-continent) and the Asian group (South-east Asia and China). The most devastating effects of the virus in recent years have been reported in Pakistan (Soomro et al. 1992), Hawaii (Ferreira et al. 1989) and sub-Saharan Africa (Adegbola et al. 2013;Kumar et al. 2011;Lokossou et al. 2012).Several countries (e.g. Australia, Taiwan and the Philippines) have implemented comprehensive roguing/sanitation programmes.Typical severe symptoms include dark green streaks of variable length in the leaf veins, midribs and petioles. These streaks may, however, be rare or absent in some banana cultivars, abaca (Musa textilis) and Ensete spp. Leaves become progressively shorter and develop marginal chlorosis (Figure 2). As the disease progresses, leaves become more upright or 'bunched' at the apex of the plant (Figures 3 and 4).  Plants can be infected at every development stage, but symptoms do not appear until at least two new leaves are produced (Thomas 2008).Depending on when the plant becomes infected, it may produce no fruit or the bunch may not emerge from the pseudostem. When infection takes place very late in the season, there may be no leaf symptoms but dark green streaks may be seen on the tips of the bracts.Plants coming from infected planting material show strong symptoms on all leaves, with leaves remaining bunched at the top of the pseudostem and showing chlorotic edges (Figure 4). Aphid-inoculated plants show symptoms only on leaves formed after infection. All the suckers from an infected plant will be infected.Mild symptoms of vein clearing as well as symptomless infections have been reported from Taiwan (Su et al. 2003) and Vietnam. Attenuation of initial severe symptoms has been reported in the cv. Veimama from Fiji (Magee 1953). All Musa species and cultivars are potential hosts for BBTV. To date, no resistant cultivar has been identified but varietal differences in susceptibility have been reported (Espino et al. 1993;Hooks et al. 2009;Stover 1972;ADW Geering and JE Thomas, unpublished). Cultivars in the Cavendish subgroup are severely affected. Ensete ventricosum has been experimentally infected.Canna indica (Pinili et al. 2013;Su et al. 1993), Hedychium coronarium (Su et al. 1993), Alpinia zerumbat and one selection of Colocasia esculenta (Pinili et al. 2013) have been reported as experimental hosts of BBTV using Asian subgroup isolates of the virus. Attempts to confirm these results have been unsuccessful with South Pacific subgroup isolates (Geering and Thomas 1997;Hu et al. 1996;Manickam et al. 2002). There are no reports of natural infections of hosts outside the Musaceae.The map in Figure 5 highlights the countries affected by BBTV. The affected countries are also listed below. Note: new records which were not in the 1996 Technical Guidelines (Diekmann and Putter 1996) are printed in bold; * unconfirmed (this status conferred by the quoted author).Angola (Kumar et al. 2008) Benin (Lokossou et al. 2012) Burundi (Sebasigari and Stover 1988) Cameroon (Oben et al. 2009) Central African Republic (Foure and Lassoudiere, unpublished)Congo Republic (Wardlaw 1961) Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) (Manser 1982) Egypt (Magee 1953) Equatorial Guinea (Manser 1982) Gabon (Manser 1982) Malawi (Kenyon et al. 1997) Nigeria (Adegbola et al. 2013) Rwanda (Sebasigari and Stover 1988) Zambia (Gondwe et al. 2007) Asia Bangladesh* (Fouré and Manser 1982) China (Thomas and Dietzgen 1991) Hong Kong* (Buddenhagen 1968) Indonesia (Sulyo and Muharam 1985) India (Magee 1953) Iran (Bananej et al. 2007) Japan (Ogasawara-gunto, formerly Bonin Island: Gadd 1926; Okinawa: Kawano and Su 1993) Kampuchea* (Stover 1972) Korea* (Kiritani 1992) Laos (Chittarhat et al., unpublished, 2015) Malaysia (Su et al. 1993) Myanmar (Furuya and Natsuaki 2006) Pakistan (Soomro et al. 1992) Philippines (Castillo and Martinez 1961) Sri Lanka (Magee 1953) Taiwan (Sun 1961)Thailand (Wongsuwan and Chawpongpang 2012) Vietnam (Vakili 1969) Oceania Australia (Magee 1927) Fiji (Magee 1927) Kiribati (formerly Gilbert Islands; Shanmuganathan Wallis Island (Simmonds 1933) Western Samoa (Magee 1927)The virus is transmitted vegetatively, through tissue culture and conventional planting material, and by the aphid vector Pentalonia nigronervosa (banana aphid; Figure 6). The virus does not replicate in the aphid and is not transmitted from an infective adult to the newly hatched nymphs. The virus does not replicate in leaves developed prior to the infection. Aphids are thus only able to acquire the virus from symptomatic leaves formed after infection. Recently, P. caladii was also shown to be a vector (Watanabe et al. 2013). No mechanical transmission has been reported. The virus can be detected by ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) on samples from field plants, tissue culture plants and infective aphids (Thomas and Dietzgen 1991;Thomas et al. 1995). Monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies are commercially available (Dietzgen and Thomas 1991;Wu and Su 1990).Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays are a sensitive alternative for detection (Hu et al. 1996;Mansoor et al. 2005;Sharman et al. 2000b) and DNA probes and primers are available for BBTV DNA components 1 to 6 (Burns et al. 1995;Stainton et al. 2012). The optimal tissue for indexing is the midrib of the youngest leaves, though the virus can also be detected in the leaf lamina, pseudostem, dormant meristems, the bunch stalk, bracts and fruit peel from infected plants. The virus can sometimes be detected in the leaf immediately preceding the youngest symptomatic leaf.Meristem or shoot tip culture (<1 to 2 mm), possibly combined with heat therapy (Helliot et al. 2001;Lassois et al. 2013;Ramos and Zamora 1990;Thomas et al. 1995), has been successful in achieving a proportion of virus-free plantlets. Testing after treatment (ideally after an 8−12 month period in the greenhouse) is essential in case the virus is reduced to undetectable levels, but not eliminated, during tissue culture.Abaca bunchy top virus (ABTV) is a member of the genus Babuvirus (family Nanoviridae) and has a multicomponent single-stranded DNA genome, a predicted coat protein size of ca. 19.5 M r , and is presumed to have ca. 20 nm isometric virions similar to BBTV.There are no reports on the economic effects of abaca bunchy top disease, though the virus is distantly related to and causes similar symptoms to BBTV, and is expected to have a similar impact on production.The symptoms caused by ABTV are indistinguishable from those caused by BBTV. Banana cv. Cavendish displays vein clearing and dark green streaking on the leaf lamina, reduced leaf size, bunching of young leaves and plant stunting (Su et al. 2003). Leaf samples from the only abaca plants confirmed to be infected with ABTV displayed vein clearing flecks (Figure 7) and narrow, brittle leaves with chlorotic, upturned margins consistent with descriptions of abaca bunchy top disease in the early literature (Ocfemia 1930). Abaca (Musa textilis) and banana cv. Cavendish are the only reported hosts.The virus has been reported only from the Philippines and Malaysia (Sarawak). However, some diagnostic ELISA and PCR tests for BBTV will cross-react with ABTV, therefore it is possible that some detections of ABTV may have been mistakenly identified as BBTV.The virus is transmitted vegetatively, through tissue culture and conventional planting material, and by the aphid vector Pentalonia nigronervosa. By analogy to the related BBTV, ABTV is likely to be transmitted in a persistent circulative manner by its aphid vector.The virus can be detected by ELISA in field plants. Some commercially available BBTV monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies (from Agdia, Inc., USA) are known to cross-react with ABTV, albeit with a reduced sensitivity.Specific PCR assays are a sensitive and reliable alternative for detection (Sharman et al. 2008). Some PCR primers for BBTV are known to cross-react with ABTV (Su et al. 2003).ABTV is likely to be phloem limited, and the optimal tissue for indexing is the midrib of the youngest leaves.There are no reports on attempts to eliminate ABTV from infected germplasm, but it is likely that meristem tip culture will be effective, as it is for BBTV (Ramos and Zamora 1990;Thomas et al. 1995;Wu and Su 1991).The disease is caused by the potyvirus Banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV). The virus has flexuous filamentous particles about 700−750 nm in length (Figure 8), with a coat protein of ca 39.3 kDa, and a single stranded RNA genome.Up to 40% yield loss is reported in the Philippines, where comprehensive roguing/sanitation programmes are implemented (Magnaye 1994). Fruits fail to fill on infected plants in India (DR Jones, unpublished). On export bananas, deformations and streaks on the fruit are a cause for rejection.Chlorotic spindle-shaped lesions parallel to the veins may occur on the leaf lamina, especially on younger leaves (Figure 9). Dark coloured broad streaks and mosaic patterns on the bracts of the inflorescence are characteristic of the disease (Figure 10). Chlorotic streaks may occur on the peduncles, and a shortening of bunch internodes is also characteristic. After removal of outer leaf sheaths, the presence of irregular coloured stripes or mosaic patterns is diagnostic of the disease (Figure 11). These markings can be chlorotic, yellow or reddish, depending on the pseudostem colour. Greenish to brownish broad, irregularly scattered spindle streaks develop along the petioles (Figure 12).     BBrMV symptoms may be masked by other virus infections, and the virus has been recovered from plants with a mild Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV)-like mosaic symptom, often co-infected with CMV, and from banana streak virus (BSV)-infected plants with typical BSV symptoms (Rodoni et al. 1997;1999). Symptomless infections have also been reported (Feng 2006).Hosts include Musa species and cultivars (Diekmann and Putter 1996), Alpinia purpurata (Wang et al. 2010) and Elettaria cardamomum (Siljo et al. 2012).BBrMV infects abaca (Musa textilis) causing symptoms similar to those caused by the abaca strain of Sugarcane mosaic virus (Sharman et al. 2000a; see Section 5.4 on abaca mosaic disease).BBrMV has been reported in the Philippines (Magnaye and Espino 1990), India (where the disease is called 'Kokkan') and Sri Lanka (Thomas et al. 1997), Thailand, Western Samoa, Vietnam (Rodoni et al. 1999), Taiwan (Feng 2006) and Hawaii (Wang et al. 2010). Reports from Colombia and Ecuador (Quito-Avila et al. 2013) are yet to be confirmed.No mechanical transmission has been reported in Musa. In addition to transmission through vegetative propagation and tissue culture, transmission by the aphid species Rhopalosiphum maidis, Aphis gossypii and Pentalonia nigronervosa has been reported (Thomas et al. 2000a).Leaf symptoms can be erratic and bract symptoms are evident only during flowering. Dead leaf sheaths must be removed to reveal mosaic and streaking on the pseudostem.The virus can be detected in extracts of leaf lamina, midribs and flower bracts by ELISA using BBrMV-specific polyclonal and/or monoclonal antibodies.The virus can also be detected by RT-PCR (Iskra- Caruana et al. 2008), immunocapture RT-PCR (Sharman et al. 2000b) or LAMP assays (Siljo and Bhat 2014). Multiplex (IC)-PCR assays are available (Sharman et al. 2000b;Liu et al. 2012).Both meristem culture and heat treatment of shoot cultures have resulted in elimination of BBrMV from infected banana cv. Señorita (Ramos and Zamora 1999).Abaca mosaic is caused by a distinct strain of the potyvirus Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV-Aba; Eloja and Tinsley 1963; Gambley et al. 2004). The flexuous filamentous particles measure about 680 nm (Figure 13), have a ca. 35 kDa coat protein, and contain a single-stranded RNA genome. The disease has been a significant constraint to abaca production in the Philippines. The disease affects fibre yield as well as fibre quality.Leaves can show yellowish or light green spindle-shaped streaks (Figures 14  and 17) or a mosaic pattern (Figures 15 and 16). Petioles and midribs are mottled with dark green and yellowish streaks, even when no symptoms appear on the leaves (Figure 16) (Thomas and Magnaye 2000).    Natural hosts include Musa textilis (abaca, Manila hemp), Marantha arundinacea and Canna indica.There are several experimental hosts, including banana and some species in the Poaceae (Eloja and Tinsley 1963).Abaca mosaic disease has been reported only in the Philippines (Eloja and Tinsley 1963).The virus is transmitted by vegetative propagation and tissue culture, as well as by aphids (mainly Rhopalosiphum maidis and Aphis gossypii) in a nonpersistent manner (Gavarra and Eloja 1969;Ocfemia and Celino 1938). It is mechanically transmitted with difficulty (Dante A Benigno and Del Rosario 1965;Eloja et al. 1962).The virus can be detected by ELISA using antibodies prepared against the abaca strain of SCMV (Gambley et al. 2004) No information reported.The disease is caused by Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) belonging to the genus Cucumovirus, family Bromoviridae. CMV has icosahedral particles 28−30 nm in diameter (Figure 18), separately encapsidating the tripartite single-stranded RNA genome components. Subgroup I and II isolates of CMV have both been recorded from banana. Most strains of the virus are so-called 'common' strains, which do not produce severe symptoms or cause significant crop damage (Lockhart and Jones 2000a), though sometimes bunches may be distorted or bear smaller or fewer fruit. However, some severe strains are more damaging, with infection resulting in internal pseudostem necrosis (Figure 19) and even plant death (Niblett et al. 1994). The heart-rot strain found in Morocco is particularly destructive (Bouhida and Lockhart 1990). Plantlets derived from tissues culture are more prone to infection.CMV is known to infect over 800 different plant species, including cultivated crops (e.g. tomato, pepper and cucurbits) and weeds (e.g. Commelina), which serve as reservoirs for infection of banana.CMV has a cosmopolitan distribution, i.e. it is found on all continents and in many countries, but some strains causing severe symptoms, e.g. heart-rot strain, are limited in distribution.Symptoms are very variable, and include foliar mosaic (Figure 20), chlorotic streaking or flecking (Figure 21), and occasional leaf deformation, especially in young suckers developing from infected mother plants (Lockhart 2002).Uneven ripening has been also associated with the virus. Infected plants may show no symptoms, particularly suckers. In some varieties, high temperature may suppress symptoms. Symptoms have often been confused with those of BSV.   CMV is transmitted from plant to plant in a non-persistent manner by many aphid species including Aphis gossypi, Myzus persicae, Rhopalosiphum maidis and R. prunifoliae. These aphids colonize a wide range of plant species and visit but do not colonize banana. As a result, CMV infection of banana occurs almost exclusively by aphid transmission from other plant species rather than from banana to banana (Lockhart 2002). The virus can also be spread over long distances during traditional vegetative propagation using suckers or during in vitro multiplication. Seed transmission has also been reported (Gold 1972).A range of techniques can be used to detect CMV, including observation of symptoms, electron microscopy, the use of indicator plants, nucleic acid hybridization, serology and PCR. The latter two are recommended for reliable and sensitive routine detection of CMV. A number of ELISA kits are commercially available and several PCR assays have been described (e.g. Hu et al. 1995;Sharman et al. 2000b;Wylie et al. 1993), including multiplex assays (Sharman et al. 2000b;Liu et al 2012).Different methods have been developed and tested for CMV eradication, such as thermotherapy, chemotherapy, meristem culture and cryotherapy. A combination of these techniques can improve the eradication rate (Gupta 1986;Helliot et al. 2002;2004). The efficiency of the eradication technique depends on (i) the virus strain characteristics, (ii) the type of tissue treated and (iii) the banana genotype. However, meristem culture from heat-treated in vitro plantlet is recommended for best results. Protocols are available in Lassois et al. (2013).  Few quantitative studies are known. Disease incidence varies between countries and this may be related to species differences, banana genotypes and/or vector activity. There is the potential for serious yield losses with some isolates (Lassoudière 1974). Plant death has been reported in Africa. Studies in Australia with Banana streak Cavendish virus have demonstrated yield losses of 6−11% (Daniells et al. 2001).Symptoms vary with isolates and cultivars. Most isolates produce broken or continuous chlorotic streaks or spindle-shaped patterns which are first chlorotic, then become increasingly dark in colour, and finally result in necrotic streaking in older leaves (Figure 23B and C). A range of other symptoms have been observed including failure of bunch emergence, splitting of the pseudostem (Figure 23A), and a 'traveller's palm' leaf arrangement (Daniells et al. 2001;Lockhart and Jones 2000b). Some isolates of BSV occurring in Africa produce severe necrosis, which begins with the cigar leaf and results in internal pseudostem necrosis and plant death. Other isolates produce very fine, indistinct broken brown interveinal streaks or pinpoints. Bunches may be reduced in size. Symptomless infection occurs frequently. Symptoms can appear sporadically, and may be absent for many months before reappearing. Symptom appearance and severity are associated with temperature changes and physiological age, but the precise correlation has not been experimentally determined. Symptoms are often confused with those caused by CMV.Musa species and cultivars are the natural hosts.Experimental hosts include Ensete spp. and sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum.  Morocco* (Lockhart 1986) Nigeria* (Gauhl et al. 1999;Pasberg-Gauhl et al. 1996) Rwanda* (Sebasigari and Stover 1988) Sierra Leone (Lockhart 1995) South Africa* (Jones and Lockhart 1993) Tanzania* (Sebasigari and Stover 1988) Togo (Lockhart 1995) Uganda* (Dabek and Waller 1990;Geering et al. 2005;Harper et  Tonga* (Thomas et al. 1994) Western Samoa* (Thomas et al. 1994)The virus is transmitted by vegetative propagation to 100% of progeny plants and the use of infected suckers contributes to the spread of the disease.Since the late 1990s, numerous spontaneous outbreaks of banana streak disease have been observed in many banana-producing areas in banana breeding lines and micropropagated interspecific Musa hybrids originating from virus-free parents. The origin of these outbreaks was correlated with the presence of endogenous sequences of banana streak viruses (eBSV) integrated into the Musa balbisiana genome of the hybrids and cultivars. Infectious eBSV contain the complete functional viral genome. Three natural widespread BSV species have so far been identified as infectious integrants arising from the M. balbisiana genome: Banana streak OL virus (BSOLV), Banana streak IM virus (BSIMV) and Banana streak GF virus (BSGFV) (Chabannes et al. 2013;Gayral et al. 2008;Iskra-Caruana et al. 2010). In banana, abiotic stresses such as micropropagation by in vitro culture processes (Côte et al. 2010;Dallot et al. 2001), temperature differences or water stresses and genetic crosses (Lheureux et al. 2003) are known to contribute to triggering the activation of eBSV to form infectious, episomal BSV.The presence of infective eBSV species in most B genomes poses a unique problem for the distribution of germplasm. No methods for inactivating these eBSVs are currently available. Therefore, a strategy has been proposed and accepted by the research community for the distribution of this germplasm from the ITC, which minimizes the risks associated with the distribution of BSV, especially non-eBSVs, to the recipient country. Details of this strategy can be found at www.musanet.org.There is evidence that BSV is seed-transmitted in Musa (Daniells et al. 1995), though this work was conducted before the phenomenon of integration was discovered. This work involved the use of embryo-rescued hybrids of cv. Mysore (AAB) × I.C.1 (AAAA), and the infection of progeny through activation of integrants, rather than through seed transmission, cannot be discounted.The main difficulty in diagnosing BSV is to distinguish active infections (episomal) from integrated viral sequences. Although infectious eBSV are only present in the M. balbisiana genome, all Musa spp. also carry partial or 'dead' integrated BSV sequences in their genomes. Thus PCR tests on any banana DNA can result in BSV-positive reactions. Diagnostic PCRs must be designed to accommodate this problem.Serological detection of BSV is complicated by the wide serological diversity among virus isolates, some of which are serologically unrelated (Lockhart and Olszewski 1993). A polyvalent polyclonal antiserum raised against BSV species and Sugarcane bacilliform virus species (Ndowora 1998) is capable of detecting all known isolates by immunosorbent electron microscopy (ISEM) in partially purified extracts, even in asymptomatic leaf tissue (BEL Lockhart, unpublished).Plants derived from in vitro material should be tested at least 3 months after plantlets have been acclimatised and planted out.Detection of BSV by ELISA ELISA test kits for BSV are commercially available from Agdia and DSMZ companies. Samples of laminar and midrib tissue from the three youngest expanded leaves, or symptomatic tissue if present, should be tested by ELISA.A partial purified extract is used to observe virus particles under the electron microscope (Geering et al. 2000).Detection of BSV by IC-PCR Immunocapture PCR (IC-PCR) to detect specific BSV species has been described (Geering et al. 2000; ADW Geering unpublished -see Appendix 1; Le Provost et al. 2006). Primers for the detection of various BSV species are shown in Appendix 1. Immunocapture conditions were optimized to minimize nonspecific binding of plant genomic DNA to the immunocapture tubes.Alternatively, to avoid contamination by plant genomic DNA, a DNAse I treatment is performed (Appendix 1).Detection of BSV by RCA Rolling circle amplification (RCA) is a technique that selectively amplifies circular DNA (such as encapsidated BSV genomic DNA) resulting in a specific amplification of DNA from episomal forms of BSV only. James et al. (2011) have developed and used RCA with the addition of BSV-specific primers for the detection of episomal BSV, and demonstrated the ability of this method to differentiate between episomal and integrated viral genomic sequences. This method avoids the need for antiserum, but does require knowledge of the virus sequence in the selection of restriction enzymes required for visualization of the virus-specific products. Identification of a particular BSV also requires subsequent PCR or sequencing.Detection of BSV by LAMP Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay is a DNA amplification technique that does not require thermal cycling (Notomi et al. 2000). LAMP products can be detected using conventional agarose gel electrophoresis or using visual observation to estimate turbidity or colour changes (Mori et al. 2001). Peng et al. (2012a) have used the LAMP assay to detect BSV particles in infected banana plants. However this technique cannot differentiate between integrated and episomal forms so false positives could be very frequent. Also, primer design is complicated and is likely to be a constraint with the genetic diversity found in germplasm indexing.Based on the sequences and the structure of the different eBSV described in the seeded diploid (BB) M. balbisiana Pisang Klutuk Wulung (PKW), several PCR markers have been developed in order to genotype those integrations in different banana genotypes (Chabannes et al. 2013;Gayral et al. 2008;2010), including (i) integration markers targeting eBSV insertion sites, (ii) structure markers targeting internally reorganized eBSV structures and (iii) allelic markers which allow the distinction between alleles of the same eBSV species. The targeted eBSV, the type of marker developed, the name and the sequence of the primer as well as the size of the PCR product are described in Chabannes et al. (2013).Cryopreservation followed by apical meristem culture has a high rate of success in eliminating episomal BSV infections in cv. Williams, a banana genotype free of eBSV (Helliot et al. 2002). Two anti-retroviral and antihepadnavirus molecules have also been effective in eradicating the episomal form of BSV from banana plants (Helliot et al. 2003). Methods are described in Lassois et al. (2013).The disease is caused by Banana mild mosaic virus (BanMMV), an unassigned virus in the Betaflexiviridae. The virus has flexuous filamentous particles about 580 nm in length (Figure 25), with a coat protein of ca 26.8 kDa, and a single stranded RNA genome (Gambley and Thomas 2001;Thomas et al. 2000b). The economic impact of this virus has not been quantified, but observations suggest that yield may be affected in both banana and plantain in Latin America (Thomas et al. 2000b).In many cases infected plants are symptomless, and in other cases symptoms are transitory. In cv. Ducasse (syn. Pisang Awak), chlorotic streaks and mosaic (Figure 26) may be present, especially on younger leaves, but these symptoms often disappear as the plant matures. Other cultivars, including Pisang Seribu, show fine silvery streaks on the leaves (Figure 27). Mixed infections with BSV are very common, and in these cases symptoms are dominated by those typical of BSV (JE Thomas and KS Parmenter, unpublished). There was a high correlation between leaf necrosis symptoms and mixed infections of BanMMV and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) in Guadeloupe, compared to mosaic symptoms with CMV infection alone (Caruana and Galzi 1998). BBrMV-infected samples from the Philippines were frequently found to be mixed infections with BanMMV (M-L Caruana, unpublished).  Hosts of BanMMV include Musa species and cultivars (Thomas et al. 2000b).BanMMV is widespread and probably present in most banana-producing countries.BanMMV is transmitted through vegetative propagation and tissue culture. No mechanical transmission has been reported in Musa and no natural vectors have been identified. Attempts to transmit the virus from single infections in cv. Ducasse were unsuccessful with mealybugs (Planococcus citri), aphids (Pentalonia nigronervosa), via soil collected from around infected plants, or by root-to-root contact (M Sharman and JE Thomas, unpublished). However, circumstantial evidence for plant-to-plant spread by an unknown mechanism has been noted in Guadeloupe. Initially virus-free planting material was shown after field planting to be subsequently infected with CMV and BanMMV, implying co-transmission of the viruses in the field (Caruana and Galzi 1998). Also, analysis of 154 partial RdRp sequences of BanMMV from 68 banana accessions supported the possibility of horizontal transfer of the virus between plants. In general the sequences of different isolates displayed a high level of diversity (mean 20.4%), whereas the variability within individual isolates seemed to be only about 2%. Identical sequences were obtained from two independent pairs of plants, and there was a very steep gradient separating plants sharing identical or near identical sequences. About three-quarters of these plants were located 1−5 metres apart (Teycheney et al. 2005a).Polyclonal antisera to BanMMV have been developed (Teycheney et al. 2007;JE Thomas, unpublished), though they are not commercially available. These antisera can be used in immunocapture RT PCR (see below) or in ISEM.BanMMV displays a high degree of genetic diversity making detection by PCR particularly challenging. A set of 154 partial RdRp sequences showed a mean pairwise nucleotide sequence divergence of 20.4% (Teycheney et al. 2005a) and similarly, a set of 14 complete coat protein sequences showed a mean of 20.6% divergence (JE Thomas, unpublished). A group of partial CP sequences, primarily from the Ivory Coast, was particularly variable both compared with all other isolates (mean 35%) and within the group itself (mean 35%).Teycheney et al. ( 2007) have described a nested immunocapture RT PCR assay for the detection of BanMMV, targeting the RdRp region of the flexiviridae genome and based on the primers of Foissac et al. (2005). This assay is not specific for BanMMV, but does not detect Banana virus X (Teycheney et al.Alternative primers, targeting the coat protein gene (upstream primer) and the poly-A tail (downstream primer), have been developed (Gambley et al. 1999;Teycheney et al. 2005a;M Sharman and JE Thomas, unpublished). The published upstream primer sequence of BanCP2 (Teycheney et al. 2005a) contains a probable typographical error and should read 5´-TATGCNGCNTTYGAYTTCTTRGAYG-3´ at positions 7042−7066 on the BanMMV genome. However this primer has from one to three mismatches within the first eight 3´ bases in 23 of 54 available partial CP sequences on GenBank. Upstream primer BanMMV CP2 (3´-TGCCAACTGAYGARGAGCTRAATGC-5´; M Sharman, unpublished; see protocol in Appendix 1) similarly has mismatches in the first seven bases against 12 of 54 sequences. However, there is good correlation between ISEM results and IC RT PCR results when the latter primer has been used for extensive testing of banana germplasm (KS Crew and JE Thomas, unpublished). The latter primer has been modified to eliminate the majority of mismatches in the 3´ end (BanMMV CP8; 5´-TGCCAACTGAYGARGARYTRAAHGC-3´; JE Thomas, unpublished).BanMMV has been eliminated from cvs. Pisang Awak and Pisang Seribu using meristem culture and chemotherapy with a number of chemicals (of which ribavirin was clearly the most effective; Busogoro et al. 2006). Meristem culture alone has inadvertently eliminated BanMMV from selections of cv. Ducasse (syn. Pisang Awak) (SD Hamill, personal communication).The disease is caused by Banana virus X (BVX), an unassigned virus in the Betaflexiviridae (Teycheney et al. 2005b).The economic significance is not known.The only known hosts are Musa spp. (Teycheney et al. 2005b).BVX has been recorded only in Guadeloupe. However, the virus was relatively common in randomly sampled symptomless plants, and was associated with a Musa germplasm collection (Teycheney et al. 2005b). Although no surveys have been reported, it is likely to occur more widely in banana-growing countries.All detections of the virus to date have been in symptomless plants.BVX is not transmitted by sap inoculation to a number of herbaceous test plant species (Teycheney et al. 2005b). No vector has been reported, but the virus is presumably transmitted through vegetative propagation, including tissue culture.A nested RT PCR has been reported for the detection of BVX (Teycheney et al. 2007).None reported.BanMMV IC-PCR protocol (M Sharman, unpublished) ","tokenCount":"6419"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f6bb47f19070811d6564896c95a6007","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H040605.pdf","id":"651250375"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e5646dd8-66d3-41a7-9cba-b259c1b8d987","pagecount":"22","content":"Tanzania is an agrarian country, which ranks 151th out of 173 on the Human Development Index (UNDP, 2002) and 80% of its 34 million inhabitants live in rural areas, where agriculture constitutes their primary economic mainstay. Agriculture contributes 48% to the gross national product (GNP). Physical water resources are relatively abundant in the coastal and highland areas, which receive well over 1000 mm of rainfall/year, but most parts of the drier interior receive less than 600 mm. An estimated 50% of all annual surface runoff flows into the Indian ocean and the large lakes (URT, 2002). However, temporal and spatial variability in rainfall and surface flows is high. Yet, Tanzania's level of infrastructural development to harness water and to mitigate nature's variability is still very low, primarily because of the lack of financial, technical and institutional resources to bridge the infrastructural gap. It is estimated that the naturally available land and water resources are sufficient for 2.3 million, 4.8 million and 22.3 million ha of high-, medium-and low-irrigation potential areas in the country respectively. However, currently, the total area under irri-gation is only 191,900 ha, out of which 122,200 ha (64%) falls under traditional irrigation schemes (JICA/MAFS, 2003). The remaining 36% are medium-sized centrally managed irrigation schemes, owned by public and private institutions, primarily for sugarcane, rice and tea. More than 60% of energy produced in the country is from hydropower plants located in the Rufiji and Pangani basins, downstream of smallholder irrigators. Other economic sectors that utilize the underdeveloped water resources include livestock, forestry, mining, tourism, industry and fisheries (URT, 2002).The priority in Tanzania's National Water Policy of 1991 was to further develop water resources for domestic and productive uses nationwide to boost socio-economic development. However, this changed drastically in the mid-1990s, when the Tanzanian government amended the national water rights system and, anticipating a redrafting of the entire water law, started implementing pilot experiments of this system in the Rufiji and Pangani basins. The amendment increased fees charged for the mere use of water, in addition to the fees users paid for service delivery through public infrastructure construction, operation and maintenance. The twofold aim of this new fee was cost recovery for basin-level water management services and fostering the wise use of what was seen as a scarce 'economic' resource (World Bank, 1996). The new fees system concerns anyone who diverts and abstracts even the smallest quantities of surface and groundwater for productive uses and also includes all water users who invest privately in water infrastructure. In state-supported irrigation schemes, the fee is additional to the partial or full cost recovery of infrastructural construction, operation and maintenance -the latter type of fee is not further addressed in this chapter. Related to this fee payment is that all water users or groups are obliged to register with the Ministry of Water and Livestock Development to obtain a 'water right'. This is a certificate indicating the purpose and an annual volume of water resources to which the right holder is entitled. Water users have to pay an application fee at the moment of registration of the water right equivalent to $40, 1 plus an annual 'economic water user fee', proportionate to the volume allocated and depending upon the purpose of the water use. The minimum flat rate for uses up to 3.7 l/s for the annual economic water fee is $35.In this new policy and law, the government also started advocating stronger user participation in the river basin Water Boards, which were fully governmental up to the mid-1990s. It further strengthened the establishment of Water User Associations (WUAs) at the lowest tiers, which were expected to manage water for multiple uses at village and ward level and were to be represented at higher levels, up to the basin level (World Bank, 1996).With all ingredients present for what was then, at abstract level, seen as the best practice of integrated water resources management, but nowhere in sub-Saharan Africa really implemented as yet, the first results of implementation in the early 2000s appeared disappointing, at least among small-scale informal users, who constitute the large majority of water users in Tanzania. This was apparent in the Upper Ruaha catchment in South West Tanzania, the focus of this chapter. The Upper Ruaha catchment is a sub-basin of the Rufiji basin where, together with the Pangani basin, the amendment was implemented through the River Basin Management (RBM) project, funded by a loan from the World Bank. In the Upper Ruaha catchment, neither of the two goals of cost recovery for water management services by the government nor wiser water use to solve the water-scarcity problem has been achieved, at least among the majority of small-scale users. In contrast, fee payment by the few large users did contribute to achieving the goal of cost recovery for basin management.This chapter analyses the implementation and impacts of the new water rights and fees system in the Upper Ruaha, which encompasses farmer-managed irrigation through river abstractions, the typical mode of irrigation in 64% of Tanzania's irrigated area. The second section analyses how the Tanzanian government, advised by the World Bank, suddenly abandoned its agenda of water development in the early 1990s. Justified by basin-specific, localized conflicts over water in the dry season, a water regulation agenda was introduced that put water scarcity and conservation nationwide at the centre stage. It describes how the new water administration that was put in place to effectuate that regulation agenda was grafted upon the formal legal framework that was inherited from the colonial powers since 1923. These colonial roots explain why water management has ever since been implemented by highly centralized water authorities. However, up till 1994, the administrative system of water rights remained rather dormant, and reached only few formal, large-scale users. The revival of that system, expansion of its implementation nationwide to also include the informal rural majority, and the drastic increase of the fees to obtain water rights were to generate revenue and self-finance government and the expanding basin-management institutions and activities. Payment and valuing water as an economic good were put forward as effective ways to stimulate water conservation and saving.The three subsequent sections evaluate the implementation processes and impacts on the ground in the Upper Ruaha basin, distinguishing the three components of the water rights system: registration, cost recovery and water allocation. The third section discusses the strengths and weaknesses of registration. As elaborated in the fourth section, the weaknesses of the registration render the system a shaky foundation for volume-based cost recovery among many small users. The fifth section highlights how the new water rights and fees system completely failed as a water allocation tool and aggravated upstream-downstream conflicts in the dry period. The sixth section concludes the chapter by identifying the adjustments required in the current water law in order to reach logistically realistic registration, cost recovery that generates net benefits for government, and government intervention in the water allocation issue that effectively support conflict mitigation during the dry season.The Upper Ruaha catchment covers an area of 21,500 km 2 and forms the headwaters of the Great Ruaha river -itself forming a major sub-basin of the Rufiji river (Fig. 6.1). The catchment can be broadly divided into a surrounding high escarpment, the lower slopes and a central plain, named the Usangu plains. The plain receives 600-800 mm of average annual rainfall with a peak of 1500 mm observed on the high escarpment. There are five perennial rivers and a large number of seasonal streams draining from the escarpment. Most of the rain falls in one season from mid-November to May. The dry season is from June to November.The population in the Upper Ruaha catchment which stood at 1.3 million in 1996 in this area has grown extremely rapidly, mainly because of a continuous influx of migrants. By 1990, 55% of the population consisted of migrants from at least 20 different ethnic groups -especially cultivators from the southern highlands. In-migrating livestock herders from central and northern Tanzania constituted 18% of the population, and today they own the majority of herds in the area. They are concentrated in the downstream plains (SMUWC, 2000a(SMUWC, ,b, 2001)).Since the government's gazetting (a notification of its legal status as a game reserve), and closure of the wetland area situated at the lowest point in the plains in 2002, pressure on land and water resources in the other parts of lower plains further increased. While the clans of settler-cultivators located upstream have kept their social structures somewhat intact in spite of Ujamaa villagization and the growing influence of local governments, the social cohesion among dispersed communities in the downstream plains is weaker. Since the early 20th century, the original settler societies and the in-migrating cultivators started taking up irrigated agriculture in both the wet (paddy) and dry seasons (paddy and other crops, albeit in small areas) by abstracting water from the many streams. By blocking these streams with dindilos (seasonal weirs of wood and grasses), water is diverted into earthen diversion canals (Lankford, 2004). In the last two decades, external support was provided to replace some of these seasonal structures with permanent concrete structures. This saved the communities the recurrent efforts of rebuilding the seasonal weirs after the floods had washed them away. Unfortunately, these structures have not been made with a view of providing an easy and transparent way to apportion water between the canal and the river. Sluices are rudimentary and if it is not clear whether the maximum capacity of the intake is related to real needs, it is apparent that they have not been designed based on an analysis of the catchment overall supply and demand (nor on an idea of how to reduce diversions in times of shortage). In total, there are an estimated 120 offtake structures in the catchment, 70 of which are in the Mkoji sub-catchment. More than two-thirds of the intakes were constructed after 1970 (SMUWC, 2000a,b;Sokile and van Koppen, 2004). In the 1970s and 1980s, three stateowned rice schemes were initiated for smallholder cultivation at the lower slopes: Kapunga (3000 ha), Mbarali (3200 ha) and Madibira (3000 ha). In addition, 'valley bottoms' of small streams are cultivated in the high and medium catchment towards the south and west of the area. Recently, favourable markets for irrigated crops further increased demand for irrigated land and water. While prices for the original nonirrigated crops such as coffee and pyrethrum fell, prices and markets for irrigated vegetables and maize improved. Currently, the total wet-season irrigated area ranges from 20,000 to 40,000 ha depending on the annual rainfall. Most irrigated land is farmer-managed.Farmers' own irrigation development has been accompanied by effective customary water management arrangements within and between schemes of a common stream. Community-based user groups govern the construction and maintenance of dindilos and diversion canals, and water distribution within the local schemes. Customary water management principles that contribute to this efficacy include water rights based on labour contributions, rotational water allocation within a scheme and, at times, some forms of rotation among upstream and downstream schemes, consensus building and conflict resolution before escalation, consideration for the weakest community members, and peer control with low transaction costs (Maganga, 1998;Sokile and van Koppen, 2004;Sokile, 2005). In the dry season, rotation between the respective schemes covers villages along long stretches of the common stream (Sokile, 2005). 1  However, customary water-sharing arrangements between upstream and down-1 An example of customary interscheme water rotation (locally known as zamu, or 'turn') is the Mlowo tributary to the Mkoji river. At the beginning of the critical dry period, local leaders and canal committee members from four villages, other formal and informal water right holders, two private farmers, the government-owned Langwira seed farm, the NARCO ranch and representatives of pastoralists from four villages further downstream -Mahongole, Mhwela, Mwatenga and Kilambo -come together to agree on a weekly rotation. On Sundays, water is left to fl ow for domestic uses, including brick-making along the banks, and for the users further downstream that are not part of the zamu. The distance between the upstream and downstream participants is 24 km. stream users came under considerable stress in the last two to three decades and they could not prevent the rapid growth in water abstraction in the upper catchment, and also by the three public schemes, which increasingly deprived the further downstream areas of the dry-season flows they used to have in the past. Some downstream dindilos and schemes have even been abandoned for this reason, while former perennial flows now dry up for some weeks in the dry season. Initially, village elders from the downstream areas organized official delegations to upstream communities and the public schemes, but without much effect (Video, 'Talking about Usangu ', 2001). Some downstream farmers sought individual solutions and started to rentirrigable land in upstream farmer-managed irrigated areas.Further downstream are the Ruaha National Park which requires a minimum flow of water for wildlife and tourists, and the Mtera and Kidatu hydropower plants. The Great Ruaha river fills these two dams with the floods during the rainy season; the contribution of the small dry-season flow is very limited. Hence, the remaining sections exclude the hydropower plants as stakeholders in the upstream-downstream conflicts in the Upper Ruaha catchment.Water legislation in Tanzania up till the 1990sThe system of water rights and fees designed in the 1990s and implemented in the pilot World Bank-funded RBM project builds on three key aspects of the formal water law and institutions introduced to Tanzania by German and British colonial settlers in the early and mid-1900s. First, the ownership claims to water by the state, rooted in the colonial origins of water appropriation, legitimize an even more far-reaching claim stipulated in the new water rights and fees system, which is that the government as owner of the nation's water resources is, therefore, also fully entitled to charge its citizens for the use of the resource. Initially, the settlers developed water rights systems in areas where they intensified their own agricultural water use, for example around Kilimanjaro. This enabled the regulation of their own local water use but, implicitly, this also entailed the exclusion of others without such water rights from formal entitlements. A second aspect of the new water rights and fees system that has its roots in the colonial design of water management is the highly centralized, top-down nature of government institutions for water management. This absolute central state authority is delegated and expanded to lower tiers of regional-and basin-level water management institutions and Water Officers who are only accountable upwards. Since the Water Ordinance of 1959, the Minister has been appointing national Water Officers, vested with the almost absolute authority to make decisions regarding the allocation and changes of water rights. The Water Ordinance of 1959 and the Water Utilization (Control and Regulation) Act of 1974 prescribe regional officers below the national Principal Water Officer, all to be appointed by the Minister. From 1981 onwards, basin boundaries have been introduced to gradually replace the regional boundaries (URT, 1981). In the Pangani basin a Water Office was opened in 1991, supported by NORAD of the Norwegian government. In the Rufiji basin, the Water Office started in 1993 with government funds. These two basins were selected because of their importance for the nation's hydropower generation. Over the years, the central Principal Water Officer and his delegates at regional or basin level had almost absolute powers in carrying out their key tasks of assessing whether new entrants applying for a right could be approved or not, and of issuing these water rights with or without attached conditions. Up till 1997, a Water Officer had only to 'consider', but was 'not bound to follow the advice' 2 of regional-and later basin-level government-appointed (Advisory) Water Boards. From 1997 onwards, the duties of the Water Officer became more specified and uniform (Water Utilization (General) Regulations of 1997). 3 Also since 1997, members of the Central and Basin Water Boards were to be drawn from public, private, NGO and women's organizations, instead of exclusively from governmental bodies. The National Water Policy of 2002 expresses the intention to further devolve authority for water rights allocation to Basin Water Sub-Offices at the 'catchment' level or even to local WUAs (URT, 2002), but this has not been implemented as yet.Third, the core of the administrative water rights system through which government seeks to manage water has hardly changed either since the early 20th century. Registration to obtain a paper water license, permit or right from the recognized water authority of the area was already practised under German law, and then stipulated in the Water Ordinance of 1923 and every revision thereafter. With each legal revision, registered rights under any former Water Ordinance were continued in one form or another. Besides white farmers since the early colonization, other water users seeking registration included large-scale governmental and often foreign private-irrigated farms and forestry estates, and the Tanzanian Electricity Supply Company (TANESCO). Urban water supply was 'protected' under other specific legislation. Thus, 'water rights' strengthened the claims of large-scale rural and urban governmental and private enterprises of a predominantly colonial rural and later urbanizing formal economy, at least on paper.The obligation to register played an important implicit role in the legal recognition, or not, of small-scale rural water uses under customary arrangements by the inhabitants of Tanzania. In the colonial era, the law gave some legal status to these existing uses, albeit a secondary status with specific conditions. Sections 3 and 5 of the Water Ordinance of 1948, Chapter 257, recognize earlier rights including those 'under the 1923 Water Ordinance, lawful mining operations, some claims under the Indian Limitation Act, and native law and custom'. For the latter, however, only the 'duly authorized representative' of natives is recognized (section 13 (9) ). Moreover, under some conditions, natives are only recognized in addition to the District Commissioner (section 33 ( 9) ).This secondary status shifted into 'illegal use' once registration for water rights was made compulsory for all those who 'divert, dam, store, abstract and use' water. In the next Water Ordinance of 1959 (sections 11, 12 and 14) the option of registration was also extended to native water users, leaving the legal status of those who did not register their water use somewhat undetermined. However, the Water Ordinance (Control and Regulation) Act No. 42 of 1974 (section 14) rendered registration obligatory. It stipulated that registration for a right was the only way for any Tanzanian to ensure that his or her water use was considered formally legitimate (Maganga et al., 2003). Hence, any de facto unregistered customary small-scale water use became de jure illegal and susceptible to legal prosecution (Kabudi, 2005). On paper, the formal water law declared the large majority of mostly illiterate rural 'traditional' smallscale water users, who were completely ignorant of the law, as offenders.In practice, though, up till the 1990s, this water rights system remained largely dormant and served primarily as an incomplete register. Even though registration was formally obligatory, there was a silent consensus among water professionals that it was meaningless to impose the bureaucracy of registration designed for a few large-scale users on many small-scale users whose water use was fully legitimized under customary arrangements. For them, registration would hardly serve as a water allocation tool and certainly not as a fee collection tool. There was hardly any link between the registered use of water and actual state intervention for water allocation and conflict management, even for the larger users who did register. The certificate usually only mentioned the purpose of water use and conditions, if any, attached to the right such as water quality or obligatory return flows. The assessment of any volume of water allocated, if stipulated at all, was typically the Water Officer's best subjective guess of an average annual volume as measuring devices were virtually non-existent. Water Officers could regulate new entrants and stipulate conditions to be attached to certain water rights. They also had the formal power to curtail excessive water abstractions by title-holders and manage water-scarcity situations. Evidently, average annual volumes were of no use to regulate the low flows during the dry season, when scarcity problems are most acute. Underdeveloped infrastructure in most areas implied that there were hardly any devices to control water according to any agreement. Hence, Water Officers' intervention in water allocation and conflict resolution itself was subjective and largely based on top-down state authority. There was no formal accountability either, as the water law mentioned that 'nothing in any such water right shall be deemed to imply and guarantee that the quantity of water therein referred to is or will be available' (Water Ordinance, 1959, pp. 16-4;Water Utilization (Control and Regulation) Act 1974, pp. 15-4).Similarly, up till the 1990s the colonial and post-colonial governments had never used the authority ascribed to itself to 'prescribe the fees payable in respect of any application or other proceeding under this Ordinance' since the promulgation of the Water Ordinances Chapter 257 of 1948 (35(d) ). This authority was reproduced in the Water Ordinance of 1959 (38-2b), and the Water Utilization (Control and Regulation) Act of 1974 (38-2) but actual fees for registration were absent or nominal and they were only charged at the moment of registration in order to cover some of the administrative costs. No other fees were applied.In sum, for decades this water rights system had remained a rather dormant administrative measure. The few large-scale rural and urban water users who registered could declare their own existing and expanding water uses as more legitimate than that of all (potential) water users who failed to register: typically the small-scale water users and the original rural inhabitants of Tanzania.In 1994, a Subsidiary Legislation (Government Notice No. 347 of 1994 under section 38 (2) of the Water Utilization (Control and Regulation) Act No. 42 of 1974) was promulgated. This new piece of law not only revived the dormant registration system but also used the formal authority to charge fees and introduced, at once, a fixed once-off payment for registration of $40, plus the 'economic water users fees'. The annual economic water user fee was proportional to annual volumes of water allocated (in absolute volumes [m 3 ] or flows [l/s] ) and depended upon its use. Three years later, in the Water Utilization (General) Regulations of 1997, a Schedule of Fees for much higher amounts was promulgated. The tariffs were slightly revised in the Water Utilization (General) (Amendment) Regulations, 2002 (see Tables 6.1 and 6.2 in the Annex). The main difference with the list of tariffs of 1997 was that for small uses below 3.7 l/s, charges were not volume-based anymore. Instead, a flat rate of $35/year was applied, irrespective of the actual flow or volume used. The motive for this decision was that one uniform legal system for all was pursued, while the majority of water users in Tanzania fell under this category and 'one cannot exempt a majority from cost recovery' (senior water manager, Iringa, 2004, personal communication). Charging a flat rate for those who would otherwise be exempted from any payment would increase tax collected while avoiding the hassle for the Water Officers of setting rates for lower amounts than the minimum flat rate -but at the expense of the small users who now had to pay disproportionate amounts. Besides including these drastic new fees in the national administrative water rights system on paper, implementation of the full-fledged system was effectively taken up in the Pangani and Rufiji basins.This change of a dormant administrative system for a few large-scale water users into a blanket cost recovery system for water management fell in a period in which Tanzania also introduced cost recovery for many other government services, such as domestic water supply, health services and education -radically breaking with the socialist past, in favour of structural adjustment and privatization programmes. Similarly, a much larger portion of operation and maintenance costs of irrigation schemes was transferred to the irrigators, although investments in capital costs are still seen as at least a partial government responsibility. The new water fees were one of the several new financial burdens for Tanzania's citizens. The simultaneous decrease in government's own financial resources increased the attractiveness for the government to explore options for raising money out of 'its' water resources.A driving force behind the transformation in the water sector was the Rapid Water Resources Assessment in 1994/1995 supported by the World Bank and DANIDA (URT, 1995). Findings of this mission were used as inputs into the Staff Appraisal Report (World Bank, 1996) for the formulation of the River Basin Management and Smallholder Irrigation Improvement Project (RBMSIIP) that started in 1996 with a loan from the World Bank. The design and pilot-testing of the legal reform under the RBM component is implemented by the Ministry of Water and Livestock Development. 4 The drafting of the new National Water Policy of 2002 is part of the same project and reflects the same assumptions.The diagnosis in these various documents is that there would be an urgent need, nationwide, to shift away from the water 4 The River Basin Management component 'would fund interventions designed to improve water management both at a national level and in the two target basins. Activities to be funded include: (i) strengthening national water resources management by reforming the regulatory framework to improve stakeholder participation in basin management, strengthen the water rights concepts and management, increasing penalties and raising fees for water use and improving information gathering and analytical capabilities at the national level; (ii) improving both the regulatory capabilities and the information and resource monitoring capabilities at the basin offi ces in Rufi ji and Pangani; and (iii) rehabilitating the hydrometric network in the Rufi ji and Pangani basins' (World Bank, 1996, Section 2.8). The loan disbursed for the River Basin Management and Smallholder Irrigation Improvement Component to the Tanzanian Treasury under the Development Credit Agreement amounts to $18.2 million Special Drawing Rates (equivalent to $26.3 million) to be reimbursed within 30 years after the fi rst payment, due in October 2006. Till 2016, the interest rate is 1% and after that, 2%. The RBM component comprised slightly more than $10 million. The latter was to support the national Water Resource Department and offi ce of the principal Water Offi cer through specialized equipment, vehicles, training and technical assistance. The two basin offi ces were to be provided with equipment, training and technical assistance (Section 2.18). After project closure in 2004, part of these costs is to be borne by the basin inhabitants.resources development agenda of the National Water Policy of 1991, which the Government of Tanzania had just adopted. Instead, a regulatory agenda would be needed, because in two of the nine basins, the Pangani and Rufiji basins, 'there are serious user conflicts, deterioration of resources due to misuse and lack of comprehensive planning and management mechanisms' (URT/MOW, 1995). In the Rufiji, upstream water use was believed to have reduced electricity delivery by the Mtera-Kidatu power plants, which caused electricity rationing in Dar es Salaam in 1993. 5 Hence:[A] framework is needed for preventing and resolving conflicts among competing users and for regulating demand. The conflicts surrounding the inflow and use of water in the Mtera reservoir crystallize the issue. With . . . an emphasis on drainage of wetlands, so land can be used productively and other water development and flood control structures, the 1991 National Water Policy may result in actions which further degrade environmental quality in Tanzania. The Bank and the Government would collaborate on the refinement of the National Water Policy under the project.(World Bank, 1996, section 1.27)'The conflict in the demand for water can only be resolved through more transparent, structured allocation and control mechanisms for basin water resources' (World Bank, 1996, section 2.1). Even though only two of the nine basins are mentioned as having water-scarcity problems, the shift from the water development agenda to the water regulation agenda was seen as a matter of new national policy and a new uniform nationwide framework, without any explanation. 5The solution to this growing competition over water proposed in the RBM project was to further increase the 'economic water users fees' that had been introduced in 1994 and 'which is recommended to be redefined as a tax on water use assessed to cover the costs of operation and maintenance of basin monitoring and regulatory facilities' (World Bank, 1996). According to the Staff Appraisal Report, the key weakness of the existing law had been that neither the economic water users' fees for all productive water uses nor the service charges only for those using public infrastructure cover the true cost of managing the resource. According to the report, this had caused two problems:In both the water supply sector as well as in irrigation, insufficient revenues are generated to cover operation and maintenance costs. The quality of the service and of the water received is undermined. A second problem is that the low tariffs encourage inefficient use of water and waste by industry, consumers and irrigators.(World Bank, 1996, section 1.28)The introduction of economic fees was expected to solve these two problems at the same time. First, such fees would enable self-financing of basin and catchment Water Offices and Water Boards. In other words:With regard to the 'economic water users fees' to be collected by basin Water Officers, it is proposed under this project that these rates be raised to a level which would provide sufficient funds to support the administration of basin Water Offices, including the collection of information on water quality and availability, the enforcement of pollution standards, and the administration and monitoring of water rights.  , 2002, p. 30).The practical implementation of the proposed 'enhancement of water fees and pollution charges as incentive for water conservation and pollution control, and as a source of funds for water regulation activities, catchment conservation, and water resources monitoring' (World Bank, 1996, annex A) would be via the Water Officers.The basin Water Offices will be mandated to collect revenue such as fees and charges and to be used to meet the cost of regulatory functions and financing of water resources assessment services. The Minister of Finance has already authorized the basin Water Officers to collect user fees and operate a bank account for the use of such funds. The basin Water Offices and basin Water Boards will be required to account for the use of these funds, which will also be audited annually by Government auditors as is occurring with other public funds.(World Bank, 1996, annex A) Thus, by 1996, referring to the economic water fees, 'plans were in effect to progressively increase water tariffs throughout Tanzania and to be continued under the present project' (World Bank, 1996, section 1.29), and 'it was agreed that Government will, by December 1996, revise existing regulations so as to increase the water user fee to a level sufficient to cover operating costs of the river basin offices' (World Bank, 1996, section 2.17). These plans led to the abovementioned schedules in the Water Utilization (General) Regulations of 1997 and its amendment of 2002, and were also reflected in the National Water Policy which seeks to 'ensure financial sustainability and autonomy of Basin Water Boards' (URT, 2002, p. 26), especially 'by charging water use for productive purposes' (URT, 2002, p. 50).The existing administrative water rights system was welcomed as a good and readily available basis for fee payment and also actual allocation and regulation. The system was expected to perform well; it just needed to be implemented. The expectations regarding the effectiveness of the existing administrative water rights system as a water allocation and regulation tool were also high:The administrative system, centralizing information for the river basin, should: (i) be in a position to control withdrawals of surface and groundwater by issuing and revoking water rights; and (ii) know at all the times the quantity of water available in the basin, and its use, by monitoring both the sum of water rights granted, and physical availability.(World Bank, 1996, section 2.24)Similar optimism about the existing system as an effective tool to curtail water use was expressed in the National Water Policy of 2002. The key legal instruments to be adopted would 'include restrictions and all prohibitions imposed by the regulatory body and the Government. These are individual licenses for abstractions and their revisions' (URT, 2002, p. 7). Yet, some problems in implementing the new legal framework were anticipated. It was recognized that 'water rights applications required a fairly lengthy procedure' (World Bank, 1996, section 1.24) and that 'data on precipitation, hydrometric data and actual abstractions for irrigation is inaccurate and sketchy' (World Bank, 1996, section 1.25). Six years later, the problem is still serious. 'Currently the data collection networks are in a state of near total collapse due to lack of adequate resources and tools' (URT, 2002, p. 35). Problems in registering, charging fees and managing water allocation among many scattered small-scale water users under customary water management arrangements were also foreseen. Three possible solutions were mentioned. First, long-term government measures would include 'encouraging smallholders to form groups, especially smallholder farmers, which will make it easier to collect the fee from the groups, rather than from individual users' (World Bank, 1996, annex A). Second, a review of the institutional framework was foreseen that would address: the strengthening of the water right concept by: (i) clarifying how the vesting of all water in the State, with the Government sanctioning all uses, affects customary water rights, exercised by riparians or livestock owners or other traditional users, who have not sought, nor been given water rights under the law; (ii) clarifying the cases in which the State is entitled to modify or withdraw this water right (now very broadly defined, and permitted whenever water is required for a public purpose).(World Bank, 1996, section 2.15)A third solution was to introduce fee payment in a phased manner.The actual user fee will be levied first on economic activities such as hydropower production, and large farms, followed by levies on smallholder farmers. The related fees will gradually be built into the management system that touches all users with the ultimate objective of promoting conservation and minimizing abuses.(World Bank, 1996, annex A)The Water Utilization (General) (Amendment) Regulations of 2002 already include all water users as proposed for this last stage. 'At the start, we thought it would be easy', commented a senior Tanzanian staff member of the RBM project in 2003. The findings of the factual implementation of the new water rights and fees system in the Upper Ruaha catchment demonstrate that none of the above-mentioned assumptions are valid with regard to small-scale water users in that area, and most probably elsewhere in Tanzania. However, among the few large-scale water users, the new system appeared to work for fee payment for cost recovery.The Rufiji Basin Water Office in Iringa has started to compile a considerable list of names of water users and the purposes of their water use. By mid-2003 the database contained 990 water rights issued in the entire Rufiji basin, with 40% of the titles held by governmental agencies, 12% by Brooke Bond Tea Company and 8% by various Catholic dioceses. The remaining 40% of registered users include private irrigation schemes, such as those belonging to Baluchistani and other Asian immigrants who were brought by the British colonialists (Sokile, 2005).Of all water rights 14% were issued between 1955 and 1960. The number steadily increased over the years. From 1995 onwards, registration intensified with more than 29% of the rights administered under the new Rufiji Basin Office, though these are largely still in the stage of application or with a provisional status. The right holders utilize water mostly for domestic purposes, followed by irrigation, but often also in combination. Livestock is sometimes explicitly mentioned, and sometimes considered under domestic purposes. Water rights for hydropower constitute 3% of rights, while industrial use constitutes only 2%. The cadastre of the Rufiji basin also stipulates the status of the water right, which includes those who abandoned the use of their water right. As many as 47% of the registered rights are 'not operated' any more. The proportion is highest for the oldest rights, and may be related to the outflow of Germans, Baluchis, Greeks after independence in 1961 and the Arusha Declaration in 1967, which announced further nationalization. However, even in the most recent applications, abandonment of the water right occurs (Sokile, 2005). Probably, other cases of abandonment of water rights, e.g. by people who have died or moved out of the region, have not been notified as yet.In the Upper Ruaha catchment, requests for water rights are first processed in the catchment sub-office, before being brought to Iringa, 300 km away, for final approval by the Basin Water Officer and incorporation in the register. In this catchment, more than 100 water rights have been issued, including water rights for individual farmers and farmers organized in Water User Associations. Slightly more than half (56) of the water rights are in the Mkoji sub-catchment, and are mainly issued for irrigation purposes. Most rights in this sub-catchment, especially those among smallholders, were issued in the late 1990s or recently under the RBM project, especially since the opening of the Rufiji Basin Water sub-office for the Upper Ruaha catchment in Rujewa, Mbarali district, in 2001 (Sokile, 2003).An inventory in the whole Rufiji basin of the 990 names of the individual or collective water users, their main uses and the operational status of the right are an obvious first step for any cadastre. However, many actual water users have not been registered as yet. Recently, an inventory of unregistered water users in the Rufiji basin was conducted, which estimated that the number of unregistered users is 573, so more than half of the registered users (Msuya, 2003).Any information other than names and purposes of water use becomes much more problematic. Information about the sites where water is used is only documented in the register by mentioning names of the larger streams and the nearby villages and wards. There are no detailed maps, coordinates or map references to provide more precise information attached to the cadastre. While water rights would still allow estimating water availability to some degree at aggregate levels, this lack of clarity of the sites of water rights renders formal water rights a meaningless, if not a counterproductive tool, if it is used in localized water disputes. Indeed, in one dispute, the issue at stake was the location of the water right, which, according to the disputant, differed from the site mentioned on the certificate (Maganga et al., 2003).An even weaker part in the registration system concerns the figures for annual volumes of water use. Only 28% of the rights registered have any specified volume at all. However, even for this portion, the variation in annual volumes allocated shows that mistakes have been made, for example, in registering and entering the place of the commas and the number of decimals. As yet, there is hardly any registration of half-yearly average volumes, differentiating the rainy and dry seasons (Sokile, 2005). This lack of reliable and accurate data on volumes of water allocated, let alone volumes of water used, is inevitable. The high seasonal and annual variability of runoff, streams, and water abstracted and the general lack of any measuring devices render any estimate a subjective guess. Even if the few permanently constructed intakes that divert water from the streams were fully operated according to their technical design, which is never the case, fluctuations of abstractions during flooding and dry spells cannot be captured in half-yearly and yearly average abstractions. Moreover, water abstractions vary with the quantities of direct rainfall on farmers' land, evaporation rates, cropping patterns, changes from grazing land to cropland, etc. Return flows are equally variable. In fact, even the most sensitive hydrological models, based on information from ample flow monitoring devices, can only generate rough estimates for aggregated annual uses in major streams, and certainly not for each individual along such streams, especially in the dry weeks. Therefore, there are no grounds at all for the assumption that the administrative system -or even hydrological modelswould 'know at all the times the quantity of water available in the basin, and its use, by monitoring both the sum of water rights granted, and physical availability' (World Bank, 1996). It is only if water resources are fully developed into highly (large-scale) controlled systems that volumes can be sufficiently known and manipulated -a rare situation even in developed countries.While the current computerized spreadsheets of the water register only include names of some of the water users and approximate streams or communities where they are located, the costs of maintaining even this simple system in rural Tanzania are much higher than in most other places in the world. This is due to the generally low levels of literacy among small-scale users, the distance to many scattered hamlets, bad roads especially in the rainy seasons, expensive vehicles and fuel, the lack of affordable telecommunications, no way of writing to water users, and minimal computer and software facilities. The costs of compiling and maintaining an administrative cadastre may be justified when it only concerns a few large users. However, among all water users in a basin, costs of just noting the names of users and updating changes are extremely high. The question is whether the costs of blanket registration are justified in light of the limited benefits of the registration system as a basis for water resources planning, charging fees, and allocating water and water conflicts (see elaborated next).Before the 1990s none of the water lawyers drafting the administrative water rights system had ever thought of using the system for charging volume-based fees. Indeed, insurmountable problems arose as soon as this administrative system became the foundation for volumebased blanket tariff setting and fee collection to finance the government's water management services. First, the lack of objective and transparent proced ures incorporates 'subjectivity by design' into the new system of water rights and fees in at least four ways: in rate setting; enforcement of fee payment; handling of public funds; and in discouraging genuine organization of water users. Second, among small users, the system appeared to drain public funds, instead of generating funds. Third, it met with fierce protest on the ground.Volume-based rate setting may seem objective and fair. However, in the absence of any objective basis to assess the volumes allocated and, thus, to set volume-based rates, Water Officers can only rely on their subjective judgement. Even setting tariffs relatively by ranking structures according to their sizes appeared difficult. In the Mkoji sub-catchment, for example, the volumes and related fees for the larger structure of Inyala A were initially set at lower rates than for a nearby smaller structure of Inyala B. The water users complained. In this case, the Water Officer accepted the complaints and changed the fees the other way around. However, generally there is enormous confusion among smalland medium-scale users in the Upper Ruaha about the amounts to be paid (Sokile, 2003).The recently introduced threshold below which a flat rate has to be paid may mitigate the problem of rate setting along some range of volumes, but it hits the smallest, often poorest, users hardest. Punishing small water users by charging disproportionately high rates because of administrative problems is difficult to justify on social grounds and, once they have paid, would certainly fully justify that they start using as much water as possible. Significantly, among private larger water users, rates were not set on the basis of water volumes used, but rather negotiated with the Water Officers. Payment followed promptly (Sokile, 2003). So willingness and ability to pay seem a sounder basis for rate setting than highly contestable hypothetical water volumes.Significantly, 92% of private companies/ estates, such as Brooke Bond Tea Company Ltd or Tanzania Wattle Company Ltd, appeared to fulfil their duties (Sokile, 2003). In fact, enforcement of payment appeared most difficult vis-àvis other government agencies. Only 38% of the government agencies holding water rights (e.g. local government for domestic supply and state farms) regularly pay fees. In the Mbarali and Kapunga State Farms, in particular, the arrears in payment are among the highest and the cash instalments paid during each trip are typically small. In these schemes, where the Water Officers have control over scheme operational devices to cut water use, enforcement still remains extremely difficult. These and other government agencies use the argument 'why should the government pay the government?' to justify their refusal to pay the water fees, but this jeopardizes the goal of cost recovery for the functioning of the basin offices.The degree of payment varied among smallholders, livestock keepers and other water users. The main threat that the limited staff on the ground can use is intimidation that defaulters will be brought to court, which mainly works in the case of the least powerful. However, in case of reluctance to pay, time and transport costs of repetitive reminders are high, let alone the costs of initiating a court case. The threat to cut access to water in case of non-payment can hardly be implemented because there are hardly any sluices, gates or other water control structures that the Water Officer can operate. And even if he locked any of the few improved intake structures, farmers would break them as soon as he left the village. 6 Obviously, subjectivity by design, combined with strong delegated state power, invites corruption and abuse of power.As already proposed in the RBM project Staff Appraisal Report, the remedy to high costs for individual registration and fee collection was to promote the formation of new WUAs by smallholders who were irrigators. As water rights can be either individual or collective, any number of water users sharing a common water source could apply collectively for one water right, for example, as an existing farmer association or by forming a WUA. The water users would save on individual application fees, while the government would win the most by shifting most transaction costs for fee collection to these local bodies.6 Collecting and transfer of public money is a new task for Water Offi cers. Water Offi cers are accountable by writing receipts for taxes received. Further, when submitting the collected funds from the subcatchment offi ce to the basin offi ce in Iringa, the accountant notes the amounts in the books. A public auditor is supposed to check the various amounts, but, for the moment, the public auditor's key interest is in the publicly allocated funding from the government, and not parallel funds for basin offi ces. This administrative system for fee payments is separate from the computerized spreadsheet of registered water users. An alternative is to include water cost recovery in the mandate and implementation channels of the Tanzania Revenue Authority, which has much more experience in these matters.More than 24 new WUAs have been formed in the Upper Ruaha catchment (Sokile, 2003). Although the WUAs are still too young for impacts to be assessed, the risks are real that the rapid 'organization' into some form of committee revives the same type of rent seeking that existed under governmentimposed villagization and cooperative building, as also prevailed in the Upper Ruaha sub-basin. Committee leaders have more power than government officials to effectively cut water of those who do not pay their share of the government taxes. If seen as powerful, they can more easily interfere in the customary irrigation arrangements or threaten to do so. Thus, the commonly shared water resources risk becoming a source of income for the few more powerful -again hitting the most powerless the hardest. Moreover, the incentive for organization is low indeed if it mainly implies that one has to pay fees.Contrary to expectations, charging fees for cost recovery among small users appears to be a drain of scarce government human and financial resources. Government officials from the lowest to the highest level with whom this issue was discussed admitted that the transaction costs of charging scattered smallholders in farmer-managed irrigation schemes without telephone, e-mail, post office or bank account facilities are considerably higher than any net revenue gained from this category. A simple calculation illustrates this point. For an immediately paying small-scale water user at only 15 km distance from the sub-basin office, the income of $35-40 breaks even with the estimated fuel costs, according to government tariffs, which are 2 × 2 × 10 km × $0.75/km = $45. However, the Water Officer typically needs to make two or three trips to smallholder areas, one for announcement, one for the collection of fees and, often, one trip as a reminder. Moreover, the distances in the Rufiji basin from the Water Office to the water users, even if one can reach various water users within the same trip, are much longer. The average distance from either the Iringa or the Rujewa basin offices is estimated at 87 km (Sokile, 2004). So, the fuel costs for collecting taxes from small-scale water users typically requiring three trips/ year amount, on average, to $392, divided by the number of water users that can be reached during one trip. Evidently, there are many more costs than fuel alone, such as the costs of the four-wheel drive vehicle purchase and maintenance, the salaries and per diems of the Water Officer, driver and assistants, plus all other administrative costs.This stands in sharp contrast with the very minimal transaction costs of taxing large users. For example, TANESCO pays an annual Royalty Fee directly to the Ministry by bank transfer. After billing, large users such as the Brooke Bond Tea Company, Kilombero Sugar Company, Kilombero Valley Teak Company, District Governments and the Dioceses normally pay by cheque or bank transfer. For the rare payments in cash, one trip to such large-scale users is usually sufficient. The Rufiji Water Office estimates the negotiated average fee paid by large-scale users at $100, which is three times the minimum flat rate (Sokile, 2004). This amount is negotiated independently from any water volume allocated or used in reality as those volumes are not given in the registers.Currently, the annual fees for basin management collected in the Rufiji basin amount to $50,000, as estimated by the Basin Office (Sokile, 2004). TANESCO's royalty payment of $165,500 for the hydropower works in both the Rufiji and Pangani basins is not included in this because it remains at national level. Overall expenditures of the Rufiji basin office are estimated at nearly $225,000 (see Table 6.3 in the Annex; Sokile, 2004).In sum, taxing scattered small-scale water users has not contributed to achieving the goal of self-financing of the Rufiji basin office. The huge implementation costs of taxing this majority of water users were insufficiently anticipated during the design of the new water rights and fees system. Promoting WUAs and Water Officers merely as tax collectors is no solution either. However, collecting a net income appeared feasible among large-scale water users. This is also justifiable on the ground that small users are primarily subsistence farmers with limited land, while largescale companies are undertakings with large water abstraction and considerable benefits.The government's new water fees for basin management have met with fierce local opposition among smallholders and livestock keepers in the Upper Ruaha catchment. The well-intended explanations of the Water Officer that money is needed for the vehicles, fuel, construction and office costs of the Rufiji Basin Water Office did not impress the protesters. Their main complaint was that there has been no improvement in services delivered in return for what they perceive as taxation and rent-seeking. Rural water users contest the government's claims of ownership that would also entitle them to charge for water use. According to their customary notion of property claims, water is given by God, and use rights are only established on the basis of their own efforts to build infrastructure. Given this widespread opposition, one could have expected a categorical rejection of the new system. Ironically, the reason for its partial acceptance can be found in the new conflicts and divisions that emerged between upstream and downstream users, where the former use the new system to strengthen their own claims to water at the expense of the latter, as described below.The legitimacy of the new taxation system has also been questioned at national level. In the budget speech of June 2003, the government abandoned the proliferation of rural cost recovery, realizing that the costs for collecting small, rural taxes are often higher than the amount collected; that they tend to discourage economic activity; and that they often meet with widespread resistance, among others by opposition politicians (O-H. Fjeldstad, e-mail, 2004, personal communication). The trend of abolishing existing taxation is diametrically opposite to the efforts of the Ministry of Water and Livestock Development to introduce new rural taxes. Last but not least, charging up to $35 or $40 from individuals or groups of organized poor people earning a dollar or two a day merely aggravates poverty.Imposing a blanket fee payment system on small-scale water users failed to achieve the expected goal of self-financing governmental basin management. Instead, it cost the government its scarce resources. The new system lacks legitimacy at local and national level because there is no improvement in government service delivery and because fee payment for basin management is at odds with both national poverty eradication and rural taxation policy. Government credibility is further weakened by the arbitrariness of the new system. At the same time, the ability and willingness to pay fees for basin management services of large-scale private users who derive considerable benefits from water use appeared effective.The straightforward implication is to continue taxing the large users who make the highest profits from water and can easily be reached logistically. However, for informal, small-scale users the lose-lose scenarios for both water users and government is to be avoided. Taxation of these users should, in any case, be phased according to logistical capabilities -as also proposed by the designers of the RBM project. However, the real challenge for the government is to deliver tangible services in return to the taxes, in order to achieve willingness to pay and reduce transaction costs for fee collection in a sustainable way. As discussed below, the oversimplistic connection between claims to water and payment is certainly to be thoroughly revisited. This is even likely to save water.The expectations of the RBM project and the National Water Policy of 2002 that an administrative water rights and fees system would, by itself, serve as a tool to allocate water and mitigate conflicts and 'be in a position to control withdrawals of surface and groundwater by issuing and revoking water rights' (World Bank, 1996) were high.While the registration and taxation component of the new water rights system worked at best partly, issuing water rights and making people pay for water failed completely as a water allocation tool, and even aggravated downstream water scarcity.The above-mentioned lack of water measuring and control devices that prevented Water Officers from effectively controlling access to water and the lack of implementation capacity to enforce state authority undermined the obligatory registration and fee payment. Moreover, water certificates with, at best, an average annual volume specified appeared to have no meaning at all for the key water problem in the Upper Ruaha, which is the dry season in which fractions to be used are much smaller than any average, certainly for downstream users. These implementation weaknesses are the Achilles heel for any water rights system that solely depends on the government's authoritative and practical ability to curtail water use.Ironically, the newly introduced payment of water 'as an economic good' even exacerbated water scarcity downstream during the dry season. The Water Officer had started issuing water rights to the upstream irrigators. They were somewhat wealthier and already quite well organized. In that area, irrigation expanded rapidly, for example up to 40% as in the Inyala village, where land values doubled as well. This rapid expansion was triggered not only by market and other opportunities but also by the newly constructed intake structure under the RBMSIIP project, which increased water security in the dry season. Reluctantly, these irrigators registered and paid fees. The Water Officer hardly contacted and informed the more distant and largely unorganized livestock keepers and the fragmented inmigrating communities in the plains downstream. Not a single WUA has been established in that area. In the initial days of implementing the water rights system, the promise of the Water Officer that those who registered and paid the new fees would be better supported in water conflicts than those who had not paid as yet helped to convince them and others. It certainly facilitated the Water Officer's job of achieving quick registration and fee payments.As a result, the irrigators in the Inyala village argued that 'since 2000 they had bought water for $100' -in their perception of water as an economic good -to strengthen their claims to exploit this precious resource to the maximum. So contrary to the assumption of the RBM project and the National Water Policy of 2002 that paying for water leads to reduced water use, it increased the water use of upstream users. This was with immediate detriment to the downstream users as registration and tax payment did not generate any extra drop of water in the zero-sum game of dividing a limited pie during the dry season in the Upper Ruaha catchment.Significantly, in 2003 the Water Officer of the Upper Ruaha realized the likely repercussions of 'selling unrealistic expectations', and started emphasizing how the water law itself stipulates that the government does not provide any guarantee that issued water rights, for which taxes are paid, are actually delivered (Msuya, 2003), as mentioned earlier. 7 The Water Officer protected himself by emphasizing the disconnection between fee payments and water allocation. Recently, the Water Officers stopped issuing water rights altogether. They now first finalize the identification and registration of all significant users that should have taken place at the onset. Crude and unmonitored water rights are inadequate tools to regulate upstream-downstream water conflicts in such a context.In order to address water scarcity during the dry season in the Upper Ruaha catchment, the government does not rely anymore 7 As mentioned in Section 2, the Water Ordinance 1959, Part IV 16 (4) and its literal repetition in the Water Utilization (Control and Regulation) Act 1974 Part IV 15 (4) stipulate: 'Nothing in any such water right shall be deemed to imply any guarantee that the quantity of water therein referred to is or will be available.' on paper water rights but catalyses the formation of negotiation fora. The newly established Rujewa Sub-catchment River Basin Water Office, supported by the Sustainable Management of the Usangu Wetlands and Its Catchment (SMUWC) project, brought the managers of the three smallholder irrigation schemes, TANESCO and the Ruaha National Park together into what is now called the Planning Group. In 2003, the River Basin Water Office supported the introduction of a 'River Basin Game', developed by RIPARWIN (Lankford et al., 2004a,b) to foster dialogue between upstream and downstream users, to raise awareness about downstream deprivation during the dry season, and to elicit remedial options, such as the further exploitation of groundwater or construction of small dams to hold storm water and floods during the rainy season for use during the dry weeks. For example, a small dam is proposed in the Ndembera river in the Upper Ruaha catchment, which would provide the minimum flow required for wildlife in the Ruaha National Park during the dry season. Significantly, FAO already proposed this in the 1960s, but the plan was shelved ever since because the discourse shifted away from water development to water regulation for the reasons mentioned in this chapter. Rotations along streams and building upon customary practices are also elaborated. Also, an encompassing legal infrastructural framework for catchment apportionment is proposed. This allows rebuilding the concrete intakes in the upstream part in such a way that, during the dry season, less water is diverted upstream in order to leave more water in the flows for downstream use. Water fees for the respective irrigation schemes would be based on abstractions during the wet season as concretized in the technical design (Lankford and Mwaruvanda, 2006).The foregoing analysis illustrates, above all, how well-intentioned reforms that are governed by ideological principles in vogue (centralized formal water rights and cost recovery for water as an economic good) and an unsound scientific analysis of the complexity of the real world, combined with a lack of meaningful prior consultation with stakeholders, can get it wrong.Grafted upon a dormant colonial system of water rights, Tanzania supported by the World Bank, introduced increased water fees with two objectives: managing water resources and cost recovery for water resources management functions. Relative failure to achieve the first goal of water resources management was primarily due to the heroic assumptions on the regulation capacity of the state. However, in the Upper Ruaha, as in many rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa, the state manages only a few of the structures, reservoirs and large public schemes. It has only direct control over the water regime through the canal regulation programme on two out of more than 150 intakes. This lack of 'reach' was compounded by the hydrological complexity of many catchments, high resource variability and unpredictability, the lack of hydrological knowledge, the multitude of small unorganized users, and the inaccessibility of the dindilos. Moreover, the concrete structures to replace the indigenous dindilos were built without full acceptance of the hydrology and uses, and without a view on how dindilos and dindilo-type structures could practically and technically apportion water. These new structures now hinder watersharing arrangements even more. The cart was put before the horse again by distributing 'rights' before knowing about use, users and resources. So, managing water appeared illusory. However, even if the state had been able to sufficiently control and manage the streams and registers would have been well maintained, water rights based on registered average annual volumes are of little help in sharing and prioritizing water resources during dry-season scarcity. Not only was the goal of improved water management not achieved at all, but new upstreamdownstream conflicts were created. These experiences suggest that it is more reason-able and effective to entrust management of water to sub-catchment decision-making networks, building on already existing customary arrangements. Their tasks would be, first, to regulate allocation in times of low flows, with constraints to ensuring downstream flow determined by the RBO and, second, to find arrangements for the increasing demands by new users. For example, a 'catchment water master' could be appointed and paid by the catchment users. This could also start a mechanism of fee collection with a clear objective and benefit, which can be extended to a wide range of basin and water services once benefits are received from that level. For managing water in a case like the Mkoji sub-catchment and the many similar sub-catchments, formal collective rights rather than individual rights would be most appropriate.The second objective, raising net revenue for the River Basin Water Office, was not achieved in the Mkoji sub-catchment because of the disproportionate costs of registration and cost recovery from many small users compared to the amounts gained. Moreover, users had little incentive to pay from the perspective of water assurance or service in exchange though they had more incentive from the perspective of the illdefined threats of not being legally entitled to the water. In contrast, taxation of the few large users in the Rufiji basin did generate net revenue for the Basin Water Office. From these experiences, it can be concluded that cost recovery should be limited to the users who derive large benefits from high water diversions and allow the government to recover costs. The national government would considerably support the process if government schemes were also forced to pay and if the TANESCO contribution stayed at basin level instead of going to the central government. Given the different state interventions at stake, especially in informal settings with limited physical water control, water allocation and water taxation, a clearer separation of the goals and means to reach the goals of both measures, would contribute to the rationality, transparency and effective implementation of both. Above all, water allocation would recognize and build upon the many strengths of existing customary practices.Last, Tanzania is a country still with a very low per-capita storage capacity. In many instances, the option of year-round storage development for improving the water supplies to all is still open. Instead of suggesting that localized and temporal absolute scarcity issues are the nation's key concern, more resources should be allocated to solve the primary issue: economic water scarcity.  ","tokenCount":"10775"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"407b7b05dfcb65c9cbd6cd4716db2c2f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/163cd71b-b274-42c7-9b9b-4f30e2bf8092/retrieve","id":"357448898"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2574df2f-5ab3-4a9c-a125-6cf2b4bea1fc","pagecount":"3","content":"Published in a bilingual English/Spanish version, the product resulted from a 2-year project carried out jointly by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the World Bank, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Financial support was provided by the governments of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.\"Indicators enable us to communicate complex scientific information in a simple, usable form,\" explains CIAT environmental scientist Manuel Winograd. The indicators tool for Central America includes 11 indices that help analyze development and environmental problems; 68 \"core\" indicators for determining the causes and effects of these problems; and 114 \"complementary\" indicators that help apply the analysis to decision making.\"The real power of this tool lies in its ability to transform information into action,\" says Norberto Fernández, UNEP's regional coordinator for environmental information, assessment, and early warning in Latin America and the Caribbean.\"Decision makers in Central America are already accustomed to using economic and social indicators,\" comments John Dixon, lead environmental economist at the World Bank. \"But the region's economic and social well-being is closely tied to the health of its natural resources. Indicators of rural sustainability will make it possible to integrate vital environmental issues into policy making and planning.\"The indicators tool will enable decision makers not just to analyze past and present problems but to explore future possibilities. With a \"spatial land-use model\" developed at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, users can explore the potential impact of specific policies, strategies, and actions under different scenarios, such as \"business as usual,\" \"natural disasters,\" or \"sustainable rural development.\" \"The lessons learned from this work are highly relevant to other parts of the developing world. That's why we've published a 'lessons-learned' report, as part of an information package, whose centerpiece is the decision-support tool on CD-ROM,\" comments Lisa Segnestam, operations analyst/economist in the World Bank's Environmental Economics and Indicators Unit.Application of the indicators tool in Central America has already produced alarming results. For example, a study on land use --the central determining factor of environmental health and economic development --showed that nearly half of Central America's land surface is being used inappropriately, giving rise to serious problems of soil degradation. Ironically, the 25 percent of the region's land surface that has agricultural potential is being used largely for other purposes, such as secondary forest. Meanwhile, 14 percent of the land area that is currently in agricultural production is better suited for forestry.The study also calls attention to a decline both in traditional mixed cropping systems (based on maize and beans) and in forests. These are being replaced by intensive production of permanent crops (such as coffee, banana, and sugarcane) and improved pastures for livestock. Driven by shortterm factors such as crop prices as well as long-term factors such as access to land, these trends translate into reduced food security, increased rural poverty, and accelerated environmental damage.A companion study on Central America's vulnerability to natural disasters showed that a third of the region is at risk of flooding. A full 60 percent of Honduras's territory is vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Little wonder, then, that this country was hardest hit in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch, the region's worst natural disaster in a century. The vulnerability study also documents the economic, social, and environmental impacts of Mitch and compares different approaches to reconstruction on the basis of their potential for helping the greatest number of poor people.\"The indicators provide a practical way of seeking answers to questions that affect the welfare of millions of people,\" says Winograd. \"Why are some countries more vulnerable to natural disasters than others? Can they be made less vulnerable through road maintenance, reforestation, and soil erosion control? And if so, where should these actions be concentrated?\"In the hope of answering such questions, the Honduran Secretariat of Natural Resources and the Environment plans to use the new indicators tool in a national study of the state of the environment, according to Costa Rican GIS Specialist Adrián G. Rodríguez.The new product for Central America builds on the foundation laid by a previous CIAT/UNEP project, which published Latin America's first computerized environmental indicators atlas in 1998. Like that product, the Central America tool kit draws largely on information already available, though its level of detail and power of analysis are greater.\"The supreme advantage of these tools over other data sources is that they enable users to visualize and analyze data through a user-friendly geographic information system, or GIS, interface,\" explains Andrew Farrow, a GIS specialist at CIAT. This interface provides access to maps, tables, graphs, and animation of the various indices and indicators. By overlaying indicators in map form, users can examine cause-and-effect relationships between such factors as agricultural land use, incidence of fires, and protection of forested land. \"Central American countries spend millions of dollars collecting census and other data. The indicators tool demonstrates how they can get value from that investment by actually using the data in decision making,\" says Farrow.\"Rural Sustainability Indicators for Central America\" was developed through a collaborative process, involving 6 regional and 50 national institutions. All took part in extensive consultations, workshops, and training events. \"We need to organize more such events,\" says Winograd, \"so that decision makers can become truly adept at using the indicators to benefit people throughout the region.\"CIAT is a nonprofit, nongovernment organization that conducts socially and environmentally progressive research aimed at reducing hunger and poverty and preserving natural resources in developing countries. It is one of 16 food and environmental research centers working toward these goals around the world in partnership with farmers, scientists, and policy makers. Known as the Future Harvest centers, they are funded mainly by the 58 countries, private foundations, and international organizations that make up the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).","tokenCount":"951"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"07fadb6d1bc9132fb29c064c5fd04bf7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f0c08449-54eb-4c07-ab7c-96be0baa1868/retrieve","id":"-461214689"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7ebb41ba-b19d-4a81-b154-2e17ab1a6803","pagecount":"8","content":"The pre-proposal for a Phase II for the CRP on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) describes a very ambitious program of work at the nexus of water, ecosystem services and agriculture. Much of the substance of the CRP pre-proposal represents topics that are of central importance to the CGIAR and achieving progress on the System-Level Outcomes, and there are clearly aspects of the CRP that are strong. There is undoubtedly a lot of strong research in this area being carried out in the various CGIAR Centers, under the auspices of WLE, much of which is world-class. However, as currently written and conceptualised, the CRP does not present a coherent program and there is a profound lack of clarity about researchable areas throughout the pre-proposal. The work in Flagship 5 on Sustainability, Ecosystems and Resilience, and the Gender and Inclusive Growth Core Theme in particular seem to be out of step with the rest of the CRP with their perspectives being poorly integrated. More importantly, there is little evidence yet that WLE is playing the role of an integrating CRP across the rest of the CGIAR portfolio. The research and development agenda within WLE is currently insufficiently aligned with the priorities of the agri-food systems CRPs. Some points of interaction are emerging but the process of negotiating priorities with AFS CRPs should be a focus during the process of revising the pre-proposal.The research issues outlined in the pre-proposal Water, Land and Ecoystems clearly meet the criteria for a \"grand challenge\" and represent a high priority of the CGIAR SRF. As an integrative CRP, the potential links to the eight agri-food systems CRPs are clear on a conceptual levelthat WLE will provide the expertise required to manage trade-offs between agricultural production and provision of ecosystem services across the CRP portfolio. WLE has a lot of potential as a CRP and there is a clear need for a strong program of research on these topics within the CGIAR. However, the final proposal will have to be more pragmatic and focussed where it is currently rather overambitious and theoretical. There is little explanation about what the priorities are, and more importantly, how priorities have been identified.The issues identified as flagships are unquestionably important to the global development agenda. What is less clear is the potential for research to contribute significantly to progress on tackling them. Generalised research questions have been formulated, but there is little focus on the specific questions that are paramount for the Flagship Projects and the impact pathways to the IDOs and SLOs. Many research questions are not new, but have been the subject of research for many decades, with a thin record of impact having been documented (Merrey, 2015).There are numerous links out from WLE to other integrating and agri-food system CRPs, however the extent to which WLE is able to partner with these CRPs effectively remains unclear. Certainly there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the Sustainability, Ecosystems and Resilience framework has so far not been successful in influencing the scientific direction of other CRPs. This is surely a critical pathway for impact from WLE and yet there are no references to the influence of this framework in any of the other 12 CRP pre-proposals.Regarding the rigour and credibility of the scientific arguments, the ISPC has concerns about the quality of analysis motivating the Gender and Inclusive Growth Core Theme, and the Sustainability, Ecosystems and Resilience framework (see comments on these flagships in section 6 of this commentary). These are two foundational areas of work for the CRP so weaknesses in these areas could potentially undermine the CRP as a whole.The ISPC welcomes some evidence that the research in the second phase will build on achievements in the first phase. However examples of relevant past projects, and what has been learned from them, have been mentioned only briefly in the pre-proposal. A lesson learned in WLE Phase 1 was the need to reflect gender and youth issues in the problem statement, and now there is a Gender and Inclusive Growth Core Theme. Beyond that, there is little to glean from the findings from Phase 1, except in the most general of terms.Site Integration Plans will be developed during the full proposal stage, in close consultation with national partners, led by a specified Center or CRP in each country or site. The Site Integration Plans are expected to demonstrate that the CRPs will jointly contribute to improved community livelihoods and resilience through locally appropriate farming and food systems. The value of Site Integration Plans is well understood, but to be able to develop these plans in the full proposal stage, coordination with the relevant partners should already be structured in the pre-proposal phase. The way coordination with partners will be structured has received little attention so far in the WLE CRP Pre-proposal.Score: C There is a succinct and laudably clear description of the categories of expected outputs from the CRP, namely: \"(i) diagnostic and monitoring tools... (ii) data generation and analysis for informed decision-making... (iii) business and investment support... and (iv) capacity development of partners\" (p.2). However, it is frustrating that the reader cannot get a better sense of how these outputsall of which are the immediate results of very different kinds of strategies for trying to achieve impactmatch up to the research questions in the pre-proposal.The Theory of Change is linear and generic, with assumptions listed that are far from comprehensive. Lists of outcomes have been prepared, together with targets and contributions. The targets are quite clear but concerning the expected contributions from WLEas in the overall value propositionit is not well defined how the targets (e.g. numbers of hectares of restored land; percentages of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) have been generated.It is not evident how the CRP will go about attempting to measure contributions to development outcomes. The outcomes are difficult to measure, and the question of how such outcomes are to be generated is insufficiently clear from the Theory of Change at CRP level. The impact pathway from research clusters to research outcomes and development outcomes to the contribution to systemwide sub-IDOs, and system level outcomes, has many unstated uncertainties, assumptions, and leaps of logic that are very significant. The Theory of Change and impact pathway sections at Flagship Project level are generally more plausible. The topics covered by the CRP are clearly of vital global significance but in aggregate, the pre-proposal is very ambitious, and the expectations of impacts would seem to be somewhat unrealistic.A change from the extension proposal for WLE is the greater emphasis in this pre-proposal on gender and youth issues. The rationale for the gender and youth components in the Flagship Projects of WLE has been explained. However, the quality of the analysis underlying the choice of activities in this field (for example, in attempting to change attitudes) is somewhat questionable on the basis of what is written in the pre-proposal, and the strategies for bringing about such significant shifts are undefined. In terms of visibility of gender issues, WLE scores very highly. However, gender will be manifest in widely divergent ways in the different geographic regions and a diversity of approaches will be needed. The impression from the pre-proposal is that women are treated as totally disconnected from men the value and roles of family cohesion is not visible in the proposal. Many societies have different models for dealing with gender issues and therefore one cannot assume that the ultimate objective can always be for women and men to have identical roles in society.With regards to youth issues, some of the same positive and negative comments apply as for gender. Youth issues have been placed at the center of the CRP given the emphasis in the cross-cutting flagship on \"inclusive growth\". However, the underlying pre-analytical vision of the CRP has to be questioned with regards to its role in supporting rural young people. Central to the GIG (Gender and Inclusive Growth) flagship is the desire for young people to stay behind and continue to farm. The first overall research question listed is: \"How best to motivate rural youth at the brink of out-migration to invest in sustainable intensification?\" This is surely putting agriculture front and center of the picture rather than the goals and aspirations of young people. There is good evidence from around the world that young people do not want to work in agriculture if they have a better option, and we should assume that this is a rational decision on their part.Capacity development is an important strategy in the WLE CRP. At Flagship Project level the types of training have been indicated. While it is not clear which partner organisations should be trained and which training institutes should be involved, these are topics that can be addressed in the full proposal. Also needing more detail are the questions of how training and other modes of capacitybuilding will, or will not, be a sufficient contribution to bring about changes that can result in development outcomes in the context of the wider enabling environment. Consequently, also at CRP level there are some significant uncertainties.The six-year (2017 -2022) budget for WLE is USD 507.7 million with a spread across flagship projects that appears reasonable even if the prioritization process that led to the relative allocations is not explained. WLE is a very ambitious programme which could easily use at least the funds requested, so relative to the outcomes they hope to achieve, the budget would seem to be appropriate in aggregate. Among Flagship Projects, about 50% is allocated to the Flagships more oriented towards biophysical science (FP1, 2 and 5), and 50% towards the socio-economic and process-focused flagships (FP3, 4 , 6 and GIG). Considering that WLE aims to receive products from the agri-food systems CRPs, this balance is probably appropriate.Score: CAmong the proposed leadership team there is comprehensive expertise and good publications records, including staff from IWMI, WorldFish, CIAT, ICRISAT, ICARDA, IFPRI, ICRAF, CIFOR and Bioversity. There is also membership from universities and advanced research institutes e.g. Stanford, CIRAD and WUR, and international organizations UNESCO and IUCN. This plurality of partners with a leadership stake in WLE places a significant responsibility on the CRP Director to ensure that there is strong coordination and communication. It is something of a concern that the Director's position is currently under recruitment at such a crucial point, but a job description and person specification are included.It is hard to judge the quality of partnerships, but it should be noted that for this CRP particularly, successful working relationships with partner organisations are essential. If the partnerships don't work out as was planned, it will be very difficult to make progress towards development outcomes. Evidence of a clear strategy guiding choice of partners needs to be provided in the full proposal.The lack of detail on the researchable areas within WLE makes it difficult to make an informed judgement on whether the best institutions for making research breakthroughs have been included. But, there are certainly institutions, and individual researchers within them, with great track records in water management (e.g. CSIRO; the Israel Institute for Technology) that hold the comparative advantage for specific topics.For development partners, WLE has tried to get the balance right between, on the one hand, a micro-based strategy for specific watersheds with few prospects for generating international public goods, and on the other hand, a global strategy targeting imperfect, slow-moving multilateral processes that have enormous potential impacts but low probability of success. This has been the focus of two prior ISPC commentaries on previous iterations of WLE. There is some evidence from this pre-proposal that WLE are finding their way in the middle ground, though more could be done to assuage doubts about the prospects for generating international public goods. For a number of Flagship Projects (but particularly 2 and 4) to achieve large-scale impacts, much will depend on the relationships with the multilateral banks. If WLE researchers can show evidence that they are listened to by senior managers at the African Development Bank, then the prospects for the research to influence major investments are greatly enhanced.Core Theme on Gender and Inclusive Growth (GIG) Gender and youth issues in agricultural development are clearly of global significance. While the GIG core theme is relatively modest in budget it is hugely ambitious: impacts from this kind of approach can surely only be long-term and incremental in nature. Perhaps the intent is for these issues to be mainstreamed through the rest of the CRP and for GIG to play an advocacy role? The technical and conceptual framework underpinning the youth work and \"inclusive growth\" is not clear.YPARD (Young Professionals for Agricultural Research for Development), part of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), is the key partner for the GIG core theme. As far as the ISPC understands it, YPARD is not an organisation with a mandate to represent the interests of young people in developing countries. It is a forum focused on agricultural research that brings in the perspectives of young professionals, not disadvantaged youth living in the focal regions. The ISPC is concerned that there is currently not a sufficient level of analysis of the critical issues required to deliver strong support to the WLE research in this area across the CRP.The grand challenge of regenerating degraded agricultural landscapes and the enhancement of their ecosystem services is one that the CGIAR is well-positioned to contribute towards. This flagship project is extremely ambitious. All three activity clusters have no specific geographic focusall are global in scope across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. The plausibility of what is proposed will hinge on whether the leadership have a pragmatic view of how local scientific research will bring about positive change. More evidence of this will be needed in the full proposal. However, the collection of topics described does represent a coherent agenda for research with a good mix of some important innovative new work alongside a continuation of some areas of significant investment by the CGIAR from the past 10 years.The Flagship Theory of Change would benefit from further reflection, particularly as this is an area of research with a long history and a relatively poor record of impact. If the kinds of restorations envisaged could be achieved there would indeed be profound global impacts, but currently the FP description is short on rigorous analysis or pragmatism about what can realistically be achieved. Many academics in environmental economics estimate the economic value of ecosystem services and biodiversity, often in contexts where these attributes have little direct instrumental value for poor people. The establishment of institutions to compensate these \"landscape managers\" for the ecosystem services they provide to humanity is a task that has been tackled from many different angles and with limited successit is very difficult to do properly. Given these concerns, the full proposal will need to more carefully acknowledge the socio-political difficulties associated with the various strategies for ecosystem restoration.The work under this Flagship is organized in two clusters. Activity cluster 1 focused on smallholders, in irrigated and rainfed systems to help identify \"mechanisms of change for uptake of smallholder agricultural water and land management\". Activity cluster 2 focuses on large-scale, typically publically-funded, irrigated systems with the goal of increasing the \"agroecosystem service values obtained from water management services\". In both cases, the major strategy seems to fundamentally be about conducting ex-ante environmental impact assessment for large programs.Activity cluster 1 commits to work with the agri-food system CRPs to assess the impacts of their innovations in terms of \"people, poverty and ecosystems\", and yet the comparative advantage of lead centers IWMI and ICRISAT for doing this, for any area other than the ecosystem services assessment part of this puzzle, is far from clear. The description of the Flagship Project uses phrases like \"business models\",\" investment options\" and \"solutions\" throughout, while at the same time acknowledging elsewhere in the CRP (flagship 4 in particular) that win-win scenarios between competing uses are the exception rather than the rule. Managing trade-offs between economic and ecological values of alternative options would seem to be a more realistic assessment of the problems. This Flagship is very ambitious and is attempting things that have consumed a lot of effort for many years in many locations by many donors. The full proposal should aim to provide a more convincing demonstration of how the outputs from Activity Cluster 1 such as indicator systems, and multi-scale modelling / systems analysis are expected to either influence policy / institutional arrangements in the focal regions, or will translate into changes in the behaviour of smallholders.This Flagship Project is both more practical and more innovative than the other Flagships. Activity cluster 1 starts from an urban consumption entry point to investigate rural-urban food linkages in particular value chains. The rationale is that starting projects from urban areas and working outwards is a good complement to the more rural-focused perspectives of the agri-food systems CRPs. CIAT are the lead Center and have reasonable claim to have comparative advantage on these issues within the CGIAR. Activity cluster 2 looks at the growth of urban water demand and how it interacts with agricultural production and consumption in larger urban watersheds, as well as how peri-urban agriculture and aquaculture can impact on water quality in urban areas. IWMI are leading and have clear comparative advantage to do so. Activity cluster 3 evaluates options for resource recovery and re-use, broadening previous conceptions of \"resource\" to also include energy in the form of dumped waste, through a collaboration with ICRAF. The impact pathways and Theory of Change for this Flagship are more plausible and rooted in reality than the other flagships.In Phase 1 of the CRP (2014 extension proposal), the Flagship was called Recovering and Re-using resources in urbanizing environments. This suggests that there has been a broadening out to include the topics now under activity clusters 1 and 2. The full proposal will have to demonstrate that these additional new topics do not represent a dilution from a core area of tight focus and comparative advantage.This Flagship Project is about finding solutions to water management problemseither through technical management options for specific contexts, or working to find resolutions for cross-border water management issues. Activity Cluster 1 develops management innovations to mitigate droughts and floods, whereas Activity Cluster 2 develops \"policies, institutions and tools to address bilateral and multilateral resources trade-offs\" in specific geopolitical contexts. The links to the agri-food systems CRPs are more evident in FP 4 than in much of the rest of the CRP, though they are not well-developed to date. Linkages to CCAFS and PIM are clear and of potential value to the System.The researchable areas are somewhat unclear, and with outputs that are \"advice...\", \"monitoring systems...\", \"guidance...\", \"analyses...\" the pathway to impact seems to hinge on individual country governments seeking out WLE's contributions to large-scale national programmes. The question is whether this needs to be part of the CGIAR CRP portfolio, or whether this would be better pursued as a series of bilateral projects directly commissioned by countries? The full proposal should aim to build the case for how this FP strengthens the rest of the CRP, and other CRPs in the CGIAR portfolio.While the text on FP5 is undoubtedly interesting, FP5 is insufficiently integrated with the needs of the other FPs and the other CRPs. The SER framework was published very recently, in December 2014, but it is nonetheless surprising that none of the other CRP pre-proposals have cited it. This is particularly unfortunate given the numerous mentions of \"resilience\" throughout the portfolio. The critique is that the content of FP5, and in particular Activity cluster 1 on biodiversity and ecosystem services research and human well-being benefits, is fundamental research and is not clearly linked to generating development outcomes. This is reflected in the poor Theory of Change provided for FP5 which is unconvincing. While links with WLE are certainly mentioned in the preproposals of many other CRPs, the evidence suggests that the SER framework authors have thus far not succeeded in persuading their internal CGIAR audience of the need to adopt the framework as a central part of their work, despite the table of \"interaction points\" outlined in table 2.6.2.Activity cluster 2 proposes using the SER framework as a foundation for a series of impact evaluations on behalf of the agri-food systems CRPs that aim to \"quantify the economic and human well-being values of services provided by AFS interventions as well as the environmental impacts of these interventions at scale\". The task of teasing out causal connections on these topics is very challenging and the studies would need to be explicitly designed within a careful counterfactual framework. While WLE researchers have the relevant expertise for examining a range of biophysical measures, it is not clear that FP5 can effectively integrate these with the economic and social issues, or can examine the negotiation between alternative values attached to ecosystem services. There would also seem to be a degree of overlap here with Activity Cluster 1 of FP 2 which the WLE proponents should reflect on. Will the SER framework, now that it has been written and disseminated, have a greater influence if the content of proposed FP 5 were integrated within the other FPs?FP6: Integrated solutions into policy and practiceFP6 is essential to the functioning of the CRP as a whole. It is, however, hugely ambitious, planning to work with all other WLE Flagships and with all AFS CRPs plus multiple other partners. What is not clear is how the potentially huge workplan will be turned into something manageable. The Flagship is organised under three activity clusters. Activity cluster 1 is on integrated research and impact support, carried out by Coordination and Change teams established in phase 1, and includes an innovation fund that allows for demand-driven research in partnerships in the focal regions. The concept of a competitive fund is welcomed, but on what criteria will the competition be based? Details are not required so much as giving some idea of how the feasibility of turning some research outputs into impact will be aligned with demand? Does the leadership team have experience in running competitive grant schemes? In component 2 the same question can be asked in the other direction how are 'promising solutions' going to be matched with demand? It is not possible to get a sense from the narrative as to how these multiple partners -WLE FPs, AFS CRPs and their individual FPs, regional and national organizations, private sector companies -will be co-ordinated. Some indication of the stepwise progression towards the end-goal is essential. I doubt if many would disagree that research in the regions needs to be: '(i) integrative, scalable, equitable, innovative and demand driven; (ii) co-designed and practical, and work with a range of national and regional partners, the AFS CRPs and the ICRPs; and (iii) incorporate institutional analysis and political economic considerations' but that is the ideal not the reality of what can be achieved. What is written in this one cluster could be the program of a donor agency. This needs to be rewritten in a way which gives confidence that what is promised can be delivered. Activity cluster 2 is led by the Gender and Inclusive Growth team (GIG), and represents a body of place-based research on gender and youth. Comments on the activities are described under the GIG Core theme. Activity cluster 3 is on decision support and analytics, led by ÍCRAF and IWMI and makes more sense. This is a key area for the CRP. It obviously needs to work very closely with development of the proposed platform on Big Data and hence more detail on that linkage would be required at the full proposal stage.With regards to science quality and comparative advantage, the lack of detailed information makes it hard for the ISPC to make a judgment, but certainly IWMI and IFPRI have the track record needed to manage this FP. The budget allocation to this flagship is the highest of all the flagships in the CRP. Yet even with that budget the degree of ambition is excessive. The vision for \"what\" innovations are required is largely sound: the problem is that insufficient information is provided for the reader to understand \"how\" the research will be conducted with the resources requested. Activity cluster 1 needs to be rewritten in a way which illustrates how priorities will be set, how decisions will be taken, how lessons will be learnt at each stage and which gives more confidence that tangible impacts will be delivered. Trying to do too much simultaneously runs a high risk of any impact not being realized.  More detail on how WLE will work with AFS CRPs (and who within those large numbers of scientists will be engaged) and how selection of 'solutions' or 'demand' to take forward will be arrived at collectively is essential.","tokenCount":"4142"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"944d56e6487aeb5c4fc683c0010764f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d3a53fa9-8187-4800-bd91-1b378e1dda95/retrieve","id":"-218395951"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"efbbce48-e76a-42b6-97c1-15cd5873159d","pagecount":"1","content":"The Technical Consortium is developing a pilot spatial tool, as a resilience modeling tool that will assist IGAD member states in the Horn of Africa in identifying geographic areas of high and low resilience to known hazards. This will provide an opportunity for better targeting of investment projects proposed in the drylands investment plans for the respective countries.Drought hotspots (likelihood of occurrence and lack of resilience) is a product of likelihood of drought occuring and susceptibility to drought divided by the inverse of time to revover after a drought.Relative resilience to drought: Drought hotspots in the Horn of Africa The spatial tool analyzes the resilience layers for each of the administration districts that are submitted in the query and produces a summary table containing information on the area's susceptibility, time to recover and overall resilience. The output is then illustrated as a regional map. (See below for more details.)The pilot development of the spatial tool will be trialed with various drought and environmental planning agencies in the IGAD member states to understand its utility in better enabling the targeting of investments and projects for the most impact in building resilience. Ultimately, it will allow governments in the Horn of Africa to host a sector-specifi c investment platform for improved planning and resource allocation.Over a six-month period, a robust scoping for available datasets was undertaken, entailing extensive consultation with agencies, NGOs and governments in the Horn of Africa to collate available information on data sources that best represent resilience in the Horn of Africa. A total of 452 datasets were acquired and standardized so as to be comparable and scalable between values representing highest and lowest resilience. The systems framing these baseline datasets are designated as social, economic and ecological.From the pool of datasets, 165 indicators were selected that best represent resilience in social, ecological and economic systems, based largely on expert opinion and on the following underlying criteria: relevance to the region's resilience; data quality and availability of the data on a regional and national level. The indicators were then divided amongst the three systems: social (51), economic (73) and ecological (41).Careful consideration was given in assigning weights to each indicator in order to compose an overall index of resilience. Each indicator was weighted using an ArcGIS Model Builder, which allows for easy changing of weightings at two classifi cation levels for future sensitivity analysis.The indicators were combined into composite indicators, in order to allow for multiple overlays in line with GIS mapping capability.An ESRI Model Builder was used to assimilate these data into composite indicators for each system, as per the tables below: OVERALL RESILIENCE: calculated by combining susceptibility with measures of recovery time (this is computed as socioeconomic capacity for recovery divided by environmental-sensitivity or susceptibility to the shock). Areas with high capacity for quick recovery and low susceptibility to the shock are accorded highest resilience; while areas poor in capacity for recovery and highly susceptible to the shock are accorded lowest resilience.SPATIAL T OOL OUTPUT 1: SUMMARY www.technicalconsor tium.or g SPATIAL T OOL OUTPUT 2: MAP A regional map is produced showing locations where environmental shocks are expected to have a higher impact and affected communities will take a long time to recover (highlighted in red), and areas where shocks have a lower impact and communities will be quicker to recover (highlighted in blue).The spatial tool analyzes the resilience layers for each of the administration districts that are submitted in the query and produces a summary table containing the following information: ","tokenCount":"584"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"812b273169ef8dc4f1d919d3a1e7237e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c6919290-91a6-4226-a5d1-fd2a8eecd2c0/retrieve","id":"-1294797379"},"keywords":["gender","value chains","seed systems","feminization of agriculture","Vietnam"],"sieverID":"3e9d7c8b-e59e-4af9-99d6-91535877ac67","pagecount":"20","content":"Linking smallholder farmers to markets has been one of the major approaches to improving food security. This approach is often combined with women's empowerment as well by emphasizing women's greater involvement in market-oriented agriculture. However, it implicitly undervalues women's roles in non-market-oriented agriculture and unpaid family labor. This is partly because current mainstream value-chain analyses are premised on a capitalist economy that separates production from the non-capitalist form of all activities. The aim of this study is to gain a more nuanced understanding of non-or less-market oriented agricultural activities led by women farmers and the oft-neglected value of these activities in rural households. The study employs the concept of diverse economies which consider non-market-oriented activities as part of various economic systems, including subsistence farming, exchange of food, and exchange of labor. A case study was conducted in a community in the Ha Tinh province in Vietnam in April 2021, when COVID-19 had little impact on agriculture.Findings show that women manage non-market-oriented sweetpotato production, which is central to maintaining a local seed system, a reciprocal support system, and livestock production. Furthermore, women choose the best varieties of sweetpotato and use their own social networks for obtaining planting materials and distributing the sweetpotato harvest, enabling women to control both agricultural production and the distribution of benefits. In this context, shifting to commercial agriculture is not a desired form of agricultural development for women. Interventions in agricultural value chains require careful considerations of women's aspirations and household strategies embedded in broad production and reproduction within extended and intergenerational family relations.Gender and value chains in agricultural development tend to focus on the issues of women's limited involvement in market-oriented agriculture, as women are often excluded or adversely included in upgraded value chains in the process of commercialization (Coles and Mitchell, 2011). The issues behind male dominance in marketoriented agricultural value chains are complex and context-specific. These issues involve gender norms and power relations that shape gender divisions of labor and unequal access to resources, land, and technologies (Quisumbing et al., 2015). However, when these gender issues in value chains are transferred into development policy and interventions, it is often simplified as if women's greater involvement in market-oriented agriculture is a solution for food security, gender equality, and women's empowerment. Addressing gender inequality through individual women's increased involvement in market-oriented value chains is far too narrow (Gengenbach et al., 2018). In fact, evidence suggests that integrating more women into commercial value chains does not automatically lead to women's empowerment (Quisumbing et al., 2021).Value chain approaches overlook women's agency and aspirations in non-or less-market-oriented agriculture involving unpaid labor input, such as the utilization of agricultural produce for home consumption, gifts, and animal feeding. This is because agricultural value chains are framed within the dominant discourse of capitalism, where non-market-orientated activities are completely separated from economic analyses. To address this issue, Gibson-Graham (2008) proposes the concept of diverse economies as an alternative to research within the capitalist economy that narrowly focuses on economic activities and their value. This allows researchers to accommodate a range of non-capitalist forms of economic activities in market analyses.Diverse economies scholarship (e.g., Fickey, 2011;Gritzas and Kavoulakos, 2016) embraces plurality and diversity in economic activities including informal markets, cooperatives, and gift-giving involving various forms of labor including unpaid and exchanged labor. This approach agrees with feminist critiques of the dichotomies between production and reproduction in capitalism and offers an alternative view on economic systems that are dependent on reproduction and non-market-oriented agricultural activities, in which women play significant roles.This study takes the above feminist critiques of market analyses and explores women's involvement in sweetpotato value chains within diverse economies. The aim of this study is to gain a more nuanced understanding of non-or less-market oriented agricultural activities led by women farmers and the oftneglected value of these activities in rural households. A qualitative case study was conducted in Ha Tinh province in Vietnam in April 2021, when the study site experienced limited influence from COVID-19. It explores the indirect benefits of local sweetpotato production and exchange where women farmers' decisions and negotiations are central.The report structure is as follows: Section 2 presents the research methods. Section 3 briefly describes the research context in Ha Tinh province, on the north-central coast of Vietnam. Section 4 demonstrates the key findings. The discussion section questions the use of a uniformed approach in promoting women's involvement in commercial value chains in international development and highlights the importance of diversifying methodologies and concepts in value chain research to understand women's perspectives and to incorporate women's perspectives into agricultural policy and planning.A qualitative case study was conducted in April 2021 in a village in the Dan Truong commune in the Nghi Xuan district in Ha Tinh province on the north-central coast of Vietnam. Data collection was undertaken through separate focus group discussions of men and women, key informant interviews of formal and informal input suppliers, key seed promoters, and a seed producer, in-depth interviews with five couples to follow up a household survey conducted in 2020, and in-depth interviews with women farmers whose family members are abroad for work.The selection of respondents was led by the village leader, as the Vietnam government does not allow researchers to select respondents on their own. To avoid biases, we provided criteria for the respondents, and the village leader listed a number of potential respondents that was more than double the required number.We randomly selected respondents from the list given by the village leader.The tables below present the characteristics of the respondents for in-depth interviews and key informant interviews. The respondents' names have been changed to protect their privacy. All interviews lasted around one hour. When possible, we visited sweetpotato farms and observed sweetpotato processing, livestock, and home gardens. Interviews were not recorded, but notes were taken after an agreement was made with the respondents, including informed consent.Ha Tinh was ranked 8th in sweetpotato production in Vietnam in 2018, with 3,692 ha of production areas that produce 26,067 tons of sweetpotatoes annually. Although the productivity of this province remains low compared to that of a commercial sweetpotato production area in Vinh Long province at 7 tons/ha compared to 28 tons/ha, this is because the focus of the Ha Tinh province is on producing specific tasty vines for human consumption and roots for livestock. Nghi Xuan district has the largest production area in the Ha Tinh province.In 2020, a household survey of 78 households was conducted in Ha Tinh city and Nghi Xuan and Huong Khe districts. According to this survey, sweetpotatoes for root production are grown mostly in two seasons: from August to December (autumn-winter) or from December to April/May (winter-spring). Some plots are grown year-round for home consumption and animal feeding. Outside these specified seasons, many farmers grow maize or peanuts on the same land used to grow the sweetpotatoes. In many cases, households have a separate field for rice production. Interviews with the village leaders suggested that the production of sweetpotatoes has increased over the past decade in most of the villages.Within the survey samples, the average farm size per household for sweetpotato production is around 700 m 2 with an average income of 125 USD per year mainly from root selling (not including other indirect incomes from livestock via animal feeding). 46% of the households purchase their own planting material, mostly from neighbors and friends. The total investment costs for fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and planting materials per household is around 26 USD, with a cost breakdown of 17 USD for fertilizers, 7.5 USD for planting materials, and 1.5 USD for pesticides and herbicides. The input cost per m 2 for sweetpotatoes is relatively low compared to that of other crops. Unlike the commercial sweetpotato production areas in Vinh Long province, in Ha Tinh, family members are the main source of labor for sweetpotato production, with women making up 64% of this labor source. Only around 10% of the total work on average was conducted by hired labor. With hired labor, women are paid 150,000-200,000 VND/day (equivalent to 8.7 USD /day) for lighter work such as planting, weeding, and harvesting, while men are paid 300,000 VND/day (equivalent to 13 USD/day) for heavy labor such as land preparation and harvesting. According to the village leaders and representatives, the main challenges in sweetpotato production are seed degeneration, lack of access to quality seeds, lack of access to markets with high or stable prices, unfavorable weather conditions such as droughts or floods, and labor shortages.The dominant sweetpotato variety in the Dan Truong commune is the local white sweetpotato (white/beige skin and flesh), sometimes referred to as \"Chiem bong/dau\" variety, which was grown by 92% of the surveyed households and used for livestock, home consumption, and local market selling. The Chiem bong/dau variety has been grown in the study site for a long time, at least since the surveyed households' parents' generation.Other sweetpotato varieties include Khoai đỏ/Ba Tháng (red skin, white flesh), Ruột vàng (red skin, yellow flesh), and Khoai tím (purple skin and flesh).Sweetpotato roots and vines are sold directly to consumers or small buyers. In the survey sample, most of the sweetpotatoes were sold fresh. The market price for sweetpotatoes in Ha Tinh varies according to the varieties and the size, and farmers possess little bargaining power with buyers. The retail price of fresh roots in 2020 was 8,000 VND/kg for Chiem bong/dau and 15,000-18,000 VND/kg for Khoai đỏ/Ba Tháng. The retail price of processed sweetpotatoes ranged from 20,000 -28,000 VND/kg.According to the household survey, on average, the households in Dan Truong commune sold 22% of their root production and used 51% for animal feeding and 23% for home consumption. The remaining 2% was kept as seed for the following season and for other purposes. Almost all the households (96%) used sweetpotato vines and/or small roots as animal feed. However, only 16% of households intentionally grew sweetpotatoes for that purpose.After harvesting, farmers store their roots inside the house or outside under the roof before selling them at local markets. There was no processing factory within the survey areas, so most of the processed products were homemade using simple methods.According to the focus group discussions and the in-depth interviews in this study, most men (of all working-age groups) and young women (both married and unmarried) work outside the village, and this work forms the major household income sources. In the study village alone, 50 men worked abroad, with most in Japan, several in Taiwan, and a few in South Korea. Farms are kept and managed by women farmers above the age of 50. The average age of the respondents in the household survey conducted prior to this study was 60 in Dan Truong, which is 10 years older than Lam Dong province, where agriculture is the main occupation for many of the men.This trend of women's greater involvement in agriculture is called the \"feminization of agriculture\" in the relevant literature, and it brings both opportunities and constraints to women farmers depending on the gender norms and economic conditions where they live (Doss et al., 2021). In some areas, the \"feminization of agriculture\" is considered to be the \"feminization of distress\" (Pattnaik et al., 2018), as women must manage farming with limited labor and financial resources. In other contexts, women take over men's management roles, challenging stereotypical women's secondary roles in farming (e.g., Lukasiewicz, 2011). In the Ha Tinh province, the men's labor migration does not necessarily burden the women's labor, as, in the absence of the men, farms either turn to less labor-intensive crops (such as fruits and timbers) or the women downsize the scale of farming to size within their labor capacity and invest in non-farming activities (Kawarazuka et al., 2020).Given that rural households have off-farm incomes and a problem with labor shortages, many households in the study site were not interested in investing in commercial agriculture. This smallholder strategy of keeping farms in a less profitable manner for household food security is a common trend in rural Vietnam (Nguyen et al. 2020) and in neighboring countries (Bhandari and Mishra 2018;Rigg et al. 2016 and2020).In the study site, men only help with farming when male labor is required. Our in-depth interviews of five couples (representing a typical sweetpotato growing household in this village) showed that men have limited knowledge and labor participation in agriculture, except those for rice production. Young women (both married and unmarried) worked in factories within the district and grew rice but not other crops, as rice is by far the most important crop as a staple food, and its production activities are mostly mechanized. As such, the main sweetpotato growers are women in their 50s and 60s. The vice-chair of the commune farmer union stated that middle aged women do everything from plowing the farmland using buffalo to harvesting and transporting the agricultural produce.According to the focus group discussions and the in-depth interviews of women farmers and their husbands, both women and men see the women as the managers and decision-makers of farming, while the men act as the laborers for their female managers. Women acknowledge their husbands' labor contribution in specific activities such as plowing, ridging, harvesting, and transporting. Those activities are done by both men and women, but male labor is essential for certain labor-intensive activities and husbands with salaried jobs take leaves to participate in those activities. In this respect, the extent of the husbands' support matters in womenled agricultural productivity and production. One respondent, Ms. Lien, stated: \"My husband works very hard.He cannot decide what to do by himself, as he does not know, but he follows my guidance and do what I asked, which I really appreciate because I know, in some households, men are lazy, and their wives have to work very hard in agriculture.\" Our interview with her husband confirmed that he has limited knowledge of agriculture in general and particularly in sweetpotatoes. The interview with Ms. Lien's husband was finished within 30 minutes since he could not speak much about farming.The most time-consuming and labor-intensive activity in sweetpotato production is ridge making, according to all 10 respondents, both men and women. This activity requires male labor, and it takes place twice per cropping season. Mr. Nam, who invests in agricultural machines and leases them to village farmers, is unwilling to invest in sweetpotato machines due to insufficient demand to gain profit (sweetpotatoes are often grown in small spaces where machines cannot fit).In-depth interviews with five couples also confirmed that the household's final decisions on important matters such as building houses and borrowing money from banks are made by men in all households. The only exception was a widow respondent who makes decisions by herself. Despite this, decisions on agriculture are fully made by women, including the choice of crops and crop varieties and the selling of crops. Women also have control over the money from agriculture, including livestock. During the interviews, we measured the subjective notions of power and freedom from the respondents' own perceptions, in which they described the perceived level of power on a scale from 1 (no power) to 5 (full power). All women selected 5 for their position in agriculture and 4 for their husbands' positions in agriculture and sweetpotato decisions. The result was consistent with the men's perceptions. All the men selected 5 for their wives' position in agriculture and 4 for their own position in agriculture. However, it should be noted that the women respondents were relatively old and often lived with daughter-in-law in either the same house or next door. Therefore, their seniority appears to influence their perceived power.The above results on decision-making are consistent with those of the household survey in this commune of 24 households, including 5 widows. The results show that: the wife is in charge of the selection of planting material (all 25 households); the wife makes decisions on the sweetpotato varieties (all 25 households); and the wife makes decisions on expenditures from sweetpotato incomes (24 households).Agricultural value chains in the study site can be categorized into two value-chain systems: state-driven formal value chains and informal value chains formed by individual farmers and traders. In the study site, women dominated the production nodes of all the agricultural value chains. However, men still dominated in the formal value chains.A state-driven system allows registered farmers to obtain seeds and agricultural input with subsidies. The farmers can then sell their produce to the state-supported corporative and/or the state-supported (male) traders. Currently, farmers have this option for rice, maize, and other new crops for trials (e.g., fruits), as they are priority crops for the agricultural departments at the district level and above. In this chain, male farmers are partly involved, as it is the household heads who register their names for purchasing and receiving seeds and agricultural input in the farmer union, which is an organization dominated by men.An informal value-chain system involves individual/private seed producers and agricultural input sellers and traders, although some actors work in the former chains as well. Sweetpotatoes and groundnuts mainly belong to this informal value-chain system. According to key informant interviews and information from the commune officer, there are three individual women who act as input suppliers (seeds, fertilizer) and traders in the Dan Truong commune. Ms. Yen is one of them. She has 70-80 households as regular customers to whom she sells groundnut seeds and fertilizer, and she offers credit to two-thirds of her customers, where they receive their goods first and pay her later after harvesting. Ms. Yen usually purchases 2-4 tons of groundnut seeds from a trader in the neighboring Nghe An province. She then sells the produce of her customers (all women) to the same trader and to others. She buys 17-18 tons of fertilizer from two major companies (one state-owned and one private) and sells this fertilizer to her customers (all women) in the Dan Truong commune. Ms. Yen's house does not have any outside advertisement, but everyone knows her business. She is a farmer and her trust in the quality of seed comes from her own experience as a farmer. The lower stream of this chain within the commune (e.g., producers, input suppliers) is dominated by women.Sweetpotato value chains are much more informal and small-scale compared to the value chains of groundnuts.These value chains are built on women's social relations, rather than business-orientated interactions. For example, a new variety of sweetpotatoes (Khoai đỏ) was introduced in this village in 2016 by one Ms. Thuong's daughters, who works in the Xuan Hong commune (10 km from the study commune). Her daughter found that the taste of the sweetpotato in Xuan Hong was quite delicious, similar to chestnuts but with a cassava-like texture. She bought a bunch of planting material for her mother, who then planted them on the edge of her groundnut farm as a trial. The news of this delicious new variety of sweetpotato immediately spread to the entire village after Ms. Thuong shared her harvested roots with other women farmers. However, the selfmultiplication of this new variety was unsuccessful. Ms. Thuong's daughter therefore identified a female seed seller's phone number in Xuan Hong.Currently, all the women sweetpotato growers in her village buy the planting material for Khoai đỏ from this female seed trader in Xuan Hong. The trader only delivers the material to this village if the amount is 400 kg or above, so the women farmers form a group to purchase collectively. Ms. Mai is one of the representative farmers who coordinates with the other women. She told us that in a peak season, she must wait for 4-5 days to receive the material, but so far, there has been no significant delay in the delivery, and the farmers can plant on time in the right season.We found that the original planting material of Khoai đỏ is produced in Nam Dan, Nghe An province, a hilly area where there is no flooding. From there, the planting material is delivered to Xuan Hong by traders. Mr. Duc, a large-scale farmer in Xuan Hong, purchases G1 (generation one) planting material and multiplies them (G2) for selling. Mr. Duc and his three brothers work together on their 15 ha of agricultural land, half of which is used for sweetpotato seed production and root selling. This shows that the women-dominant informal sweetpotato value chains depend on large-scale male farmers and unknown seed producers in the neighboring province.Some women directly sell Khoai đỏ roots to their friends through the phone. The household survey in Nghi Xuan confirmed that only 4 households out of 25 sell roots to a trader. The rest of the households use these roots for home consumption or gifts, the details of which are discussed in the next section.The value chain of another local variety of sweetpotato, Chiem bong/dau, is very simple. Most Chiem bong/dau are grown for vines, not roots, for home consumption and for feeding cattle. Some people sell dried vines to neighbors who own cattle. The seeds of this local variety can be multiplied by the women farmers, and one Ms.Mau said that she has been using self-multiplied vines as seeds for the past 20 seasons. As mentioned earlier, sweetpotato varieties in the Dan Truong commune are less productive as compared to the hybrid varieties used in the commercial production of sweetpotatoes. Planting materials of the Khoai Đỏ variety are just as expensive as that of groundnuts but less profitable. Despite this, women farmers continue to choose to grow \"less-productive\" and \"low-profit\" sweetpotato varieties. What are the hidden economic benefits that motivate women farmers to grow these specific varieties?First, women farmers give Khoai Đỏ to their extended families and friends, especially their adult sons and daughters who do not engage in agriculture. This gift-giving is called \"quà quê\" in Vietnamese, translating to \"hometown gifts\". Hometown gifts, which are mainly agricultural commodities, are often sent to relatives in urban areas, who go on to distribute these agricultural commodities to their friends, colleagues, and neighbors. Sweetpotatoes as hometown gifts can be sent in return for remittances, which the adult children give to their parents and/or in-laws. For example, one Ms. Van's household harvested 1000 kg of sweetpotato roots, 200 kg of which were for gifts for her married son and her two daughters and their families living in other provinces.Similarly, one Ms. Thanh's household had 750 kg of roots and sent 210 kg of them as gifts to her friends and to her daughter's family. This indicates a hidden economic value of sweetpotato within intergenerational reciprocal support. Women farmers highly value the taste and texture Khoai Đỏ as it can work as a valuable gift.The gift-giving of sweetpotatoes and other agricultural produce plays a significant role in ensuring a safety net among extended families. and their relatives, who live in urban areas. Similarly, Ms. Minh's husband, Sang, works in Japan and his income is also unstable due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Ms. Minh's household, food comes from their own paddy field and the farms of her mother-in-law, who lives next door. These inter-generational exchanges of food and remittances is often overlooked in the household survey, as farmers may not mention it. Thus, this non-marketoriented value chain involves safety nets and food security for not only rural farmers but also for the urban youth and migrant workers within the inter-generational reciprocal support network between adult children and their old parents. This is in contrast to the fragile market-oriented sweetpotato value chains in the time of COVID-19, which resulted in both domestic and export supply chain disruptions in Vietnam (Long, 2021).Second, both the vines and the roots of sweetpotatoes are used to feed cattle. In-depth interviews confirmed that around 50-80% of their cattle feed came from sweetpotato roots and vines. Sliced roots and vines are dried and stored by women farmers. Cattle are a source of manure for farming, labor for plowing, and the calves are an important source of income, all of which are managed by women. This confirms that although rural landscape and labor patterns are rapidly changing, sweetpotato production for animal feeding is still important in rural Vietnam, as shown by past studies in the 2000s and 2010s (Ly et al., 2010;Peters et al., 2005).Third, labor input for sweetpotatoes is smaller for women when compared to the labor input needed for groundnuts, which require much more time for weeding. Manure is not required for sweetpotatoes, which also saves both male and female labor. There is no prominent problem for pests and diseases, making it easier for women to manage sweetpotatoes alone. In this respect, although sweetpotatoes are not as profitable as groundnuts in terms of market prices, women consider their unpaid labor and time as an important criterion for their crop choice.Forth, sweetpotato value chains and seed value chains are fully controlled by women farmers. They make decisions on seed procurement, production, gift-giving and selling, mostly without depending on external market conditions. This is critical for women farmers who oversee household food security and maintain relationships with kin. The Chiem bong/dau variety (used for animal feed) is either multiplied by women farmers, or they can purchase planting material from other women. The planting material of Khoai đỏ is as expensive as groundnut seed. However, its seed system has been developed collectively by women farmers and their trusted traders. It is these women-established and women-oriented seed systems that enable women to maintain their producer bargaining power and independence, as compared to commercial planting material from private seed companies.Figure 2: from left, 1) sun dried chips, 2) small roots for feed, 3) dried sweetpotato vines mixed with maize and other vegetables for feed, 4) many households keep at least one cattle. Photo credit: N.KawarazukaThis study has explored the sweetpotato value-chains from the perspective of diverse economies which consider non-and less-market oriented activities as a core part of economic activities. The findings have revealed that sweetpotato cultivation consists of diverse economies through gift giving, the exchange of planting materials, and animal feeding, all of which economically impacts not only sweetpotato growers' households but also their neighbors, friends, and kin through diverse distribution mechanisms. While women are concentrated in these diverse economies, in contrast to men who engage more in the market economy outside the village, the former activities led by women are as important as the latter led by men in sustaining the overall household economy. At the household level, women control sweetpotato production and distribution, and they also control the incomes from agriculture and livestock, while men work as laborers for their wives. Men's unpaid labor in sweetpotato production is essential in maintaining the sweetpotato value chains (including the non-marketoriented value chains). Men prioritize their responsibility for (unpaid) farming over their paid work during the planting and harvesting seasons. This is important evidence that rural households value small-scale noncommercial farming as part of the household economy. Furthermore, women's social networks enabled the study village to access a new delicious sweetpotato variety, called Khoai Đỏ. Women also act collectively in securing and purchasing planting material. Women, therefore, are key to strengthening the informal seed systems and sustaining agriculture in a way they benefit from the best. Women's management roles and their control of farm resources give a notion of independence and autonomy to middle-aged and elderly women. Women's value in sweetpotato production is not necessarily based on productivity and profit but rather on its multiple benefits, including its role as a valuable gift to strengthen reciprocal support relationships and its low requirements for time, labor, and agricultural input. In this regard, high-market value sweetpotato production with higher investment is not the desired form of production for rural women in this specific age group.Agriculture and off-farm incomes play a supplemental role with each other to strengthen the overall household livelihoods within extended families. The agriculture budget (including agricultural input) does not depend on off-farm incomes. The strength of this less-market orientated farming is that women farmers can sustain their food production regardless of off-farm incomes, which are affected by external economic conditions. While this may be a typical characteristic of women-led agriculture with small investment, it is also a strength, as resilient agriculture in times of crisis, such as COVID-19 pandemic which negatively affected wage work and disrupted agricultural supply chains. Women's roles in farming and their farming management strategies contribute to the livelihoods of not only their husbands, but also their extended families such as their adult sons and daughters.This study also confirms that relationships between production and reproduction, paid and unpaid work, and selling and gift-giving cannot be separated in economic analysis, as their relationships are not dichotomous, but rather interdependent and interwoven with one other. Women's concentration on non-market-oriented activities does not mean that women contribute less to the overall household economy. In this specific context, the commercialization of sweetpotato production is less likely to attract women farmers. Commercialized sweetpotato production would not necessarily bring greater household food security or women's empowerment for these women. Rather, they may lose their control and experience increased dependency on external market conditions and financial resources. The concept of diverse economies thus enriches our understanding of gender and value chains and highlights the importance of appropriately evaluating nonmarket-oriented agricultural activities as part of economic systems. Further research is required to explore women's hidden and/or less-visible roles in the household economy in the context where male-dominant market-oriented agriculture is a major source of household income.","tokenCount":"4889"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"44a3625092f2ca56d82ad89573eb91bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8d2238db-6975-4ef7-9c09-1a323a34870f/retrieve","id":"-1215355153"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e6495f91-7233-41f6-8507-aa65a11ad2f6","pagecount":"1","content":"The state governments of Assam and Nagaland and the World Bank are using ILRI research results to design and implement additional investment projects to increase income-earning by tribal communities from smallholder pig systems in N.E. India.The research leading to this work was first planned in the 2007-2009 MTP and achieved in 2007. The outputs included empirical evidence of the livelihood opportunities available to marginalize rural poor through smallholder pig production and the constraints limited those, and research-based recommendations for immediate pro-poor development investment and to address continued knowledge gaps.ILRI and its partners conducted a Pig Systems Appraisal in Assam and Nagaland in 2007, which examined the entire value chain. The study found that pig production is becoming a new source of income generation in poor communities. Demand for slaughter pigs and fresh pork has increased significantly over the last five years, causing a 20% increase in the price of pork in real terms, and this upward price trend is expected to continue. Small producers attempting to tap into this new demand for pigs and pork face significant constraints in feed production, access to piglets, and access to credit, which can be addressed through targeted interventions.The key to the study leading to positive outcomes for smallholders was to raise awareness about the results of the study with local and regional stakeholders, decision-makers and investors; and to leverage action towards development interventions that would help underprivileged and marginalized producers capture these opportunities. This awareness raising and uptake of the results by government, NGOs and development agencies was achieved by working closely during the design and implementation of the study with local authorities, NGOs and researchers, and supporting local authorities to convene workshops in 2007 involving a range of players.The following outcomes were achieved:• New commitments for funding by the Government of Assam for smallholder pig system development;• The recommendations of the study are being used by Rastriya Gramin Vikash Nidhi (RGVN), a national level NGO, in their pig production programmes, being funded by Govt. of Assam;• The Animal Health & Veterinary Dept, Govt. of Assam is using the study report as the base document for designing a piggery development project under the World Bank sponsored, Assam Agricultural Competitiveness Project;• The study findings in Nagaland has become the guiding document for designing the intervention plan in the pig sub-sector in Mon district of Nagaland in the recently launched National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP) by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Complex for Eastern Region.• Assam & Nagaland governments have agreed to jointly organize a North East India regional workshop on Pigs in April 08 in order to design a regional policy for expanding pig sub sector development.• The study has also attracted the attention of some major funding agencies like World Bank, IFAD and IFC and they have expressed interest to extend financial support for implementation of the recommendations.","tokenCount":"476"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3e81d7de030a76e3d2a0a2dcdf9fb049","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d0f229ff-e76b-4b67-8232-2d68e2406956/retrieve","id":"-1387734361"},"keywords":["Vaselli, A.","Nguyen, T. N.","Savelli, A.","Duong, T.T.","Tuan, P. T. M.","Truong, M. T.","Huynh, T"],"sieverID":"7f9d4434-a3b0-47a6-8b45-1d100905830a","pagecount":"35","content":"This technical report is the result of the partnership between the CGIAR Asian Mega-Deltas (AMD) and Climate Resilience initiatives, and the National Institute of Nutrition of Vietnam (NIN). As part of the CGIAR AMD and Climate Resilience initiatives, The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (The Alliance) has co-led with NIN the development of this report and related activities.The CGIAR Initiative on Asian Mega-Deltas (AMD) 1 aims to create resilient, inclusive, and productive deltas that maintain socio-ecological integrity, adapt to climatic and other stressors and support human prosperity and wellbeing. Active in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar and Vietnam, the Initiative is working to identify, synthesize, evaluate, adapt and scale technical, institutional and policy innovations through a range of activities. These activities include Work Package 2 (AMD-WP2) and Work Package 5 (AMD-WP5), involved in this partnership. AMD-WP2 focuses on providing evidence for promoting nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems, involving institutional stakeholders in the co-design of investment strategies and interventions. Complementarily, WP5 aims at improving the development of climate-resilient and inclusive food systems in Asian megadeltas through evidence-supported policy dialogue and strategic planning, including dual adaptation/mitigation development options in national and sub-national planning for the deltas.The CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience 2 aims to transform the climate adaptation capacity of food and agricultural systems in low-and middle-income countries. Its goal is to tackle vulnerability to climate change at its roots and support countries as they adapt and build equitable and sustainable futures. This partnership involved the initiative's Work Package 2 (WP2) on Climate Security (CS). CS-WP2 entails building productionsystem resilience through recognizing the relationships between climate, agriculture, security and peace.The National Institute of Nutrition of Vietnam (NIN) was established in 1980 by the Vietnam Government Council. NIN is Vietnam's leading institution for scientific research, technical services, training, communication, education, international cooperation and implementation of activities in the field of nutrition, food and food safety. Each year, NIN implements nutrition monitoring and supervision through the National Nutrition Surveillance (NNS) system. As part of the NNS, selected clusters of households across provinces are weighted, measured, and surveyed with a structured questionnaire (NNS survey). Yearly results on the level of malnutrition and food security in the provinces, 1 https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/asian-mega-deltas/ 2 https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/climate-resilience/ collected through the NNS, support an assessment of socio-economic development and inform provincial and municipal-level programs and policies. Based on NNS results, NIN also provides locally specific recommendations for activities that address food and nutrition security issues.The CGIAR AMD (AMD-WP2 and AMD-WP5) and Climate Resilience (CS-WP2) initiatives have partnered with NIN to advance impactful research for food and nutrition security in the Vietnam Mekong Delta (VMD). The collaboration unites CGIAR's research activities on nutrition-sensitive deltaic agri-food systems and climate resilience with NIN's remit to support food and nutrition security throughout Vietnam. Through localized-, demanddriven research, the partnership aims to support the achievement of The National Nutrition Strategy for 2021-2030. In the context of this strategic partnership, The Alliance and NIN have collaborated to integrate relevant human mobility components in the yearly NNS survey. At the core of this project is an acknowledgement of the complex relationship between food and nutrition security (FNS) and mobility outcomes in Vietnam's Mekong Delta (VMD).Human mobility outcomes are related to human security through multiple pathways.Different forms of mobility-including immobility, planned relocation, forced displacement, and agentic migration-can increase or decrease household risks in many ways, including through food security (Adger et al., 2021;FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO., 2023;Ober, 2019;Rigaud et al., 2018;Savelli et al., 2023). Conversely, food insecurity and other human security risks can combine with local demographic, economic, environmental, and social factors to influence mobility decisions (McLeman et al., 2021;Tuholske et al., 2024). In Vietnam, food and nutrition security (FNS) has improved steadily over recent decades (Ministry of Health, 2022). However, in Mekong Delta challenges such as households' food insecurity and children's undernutrition, stunting, and underweight remain, especially among ethnic minorities (Nabuuma et al., 2023;Vuong et al., 2023). Climate change, population growth, and outward migration trends threaten local food production systems in the Delta, and concerns about insufficient food and nutrition security remain a pressing issue (Nabuuma et al., 2023).Existing research on human mobility and FNS in Vietnam, and more specifically in the Mekong Delta, has shown significant challenges and opportunities for sustainable food and nutrition security. As climate change-related slow and fast-onset impacts are challenging agriculture-based livelihoods in the Delta, rural-urban migration represents an opportunity to diversify household income and manage environmental, economic, and food-insecurity risks (Le et al., 2022;L. D. Nguyen et al., 2017;Van Der Geest et al., 2014). However, while migration is often found to positively contribute to food and nutrition security through remittances, results are highly dependent on demographic factors and family arrangements (V. C. Nguyen, 2016;Vo, 2023). For example, parental migration could negatively affect the nutrition of children who remain in the household (V. C. Nguyen, 2016). In addition, in rural contexts where households depend on agriculture, short-and long-term migration patterns produce different impacts both at the household and community levels (L. D. Nguyen et al., 2017). Ultimately, the protracted absence of migrants can push households in origin areas to engage in less labourintensive activities (L. D. Nguyen et al., 2017). While migration-related decision-making processes occur at the household level, they are nevertheless likely to contribute to the reconfiguration of provincial demographics and food production systems.Understanding the opportunities and challenges presented by different human mobility outcomes is critical to achieving sustainable and inclusive FNS in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Every year, the National Institute of Nutrition of Vietnam carries out nutrition monitoring and supervision through the National Nutrition Surveillance (NNS) system. This includes weighing, measuring and surveying members of sampled households in selected provinces and cities. Under the direction of the Ministry of Health and the guidance of NIN, data are collected by provincial health officials and then sent to NIN for processing and calculation of relevant indicators. The NNS results are compared against the nutrition targets of provinces and cities and inform the investment plans of the Provincial and City People's Committee for the following year. To conduct the NNS, in each province or city, NIN selects 30 clusters (commune/ward) by using the probability-proportionate-to-size method (PPS). In the larger municipalities of Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, an initial stratification of urban and rural areas is carried out, and 30 clusters are then selected for each area to a total of 60 clusters per city. From each commune/ward selected with the PPS method, children under five years of age are randomly selected from each of three randomly selected villages. The number of sampled children in each village is composed of two children of zero to five months, five children of six to 23 months, and ten children of 24 to 59 months, for a total of 1,530 children per province (except Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, where 3,060 children are sampled), and 99,450 children nationwide.The NNS surveys are led by a set of structured questions which collect basic information related to maternal and child nutritional status. Questions are based on anthropometric measurement, core indicators of coverage rate of services to prevent micronutrient deficiency, and core indicators of infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. In addition, since 2023, the survey has included a module (section nine) examining the access of households to sufficient food. An overview of the indicators measured through the NNS is presented in Annex I (Annex I: NNS Current Indicators). The objectives of the event included: (i) assessing how data from recent NIN's Nutrition Surveillance System survey could be used to understand mobility outcomes;(ii) validating indicators that illustrate the linkages between mobility outcomes and food and nutrition security (FNS) in nutrition-sensitive food systems; and (iii) identifying high potential avenues for future data collection activities and required capacity building. During the event, potential indicators were evaluated using a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) approach.3. The Alliance and NIN convened in a technical meeting in March 2024. During the meeting, the action plan for the finalization, piloting, and integration of FNS and mobility indicators was discussed. The discussion included a reflection on key requirements and challenges.This chapter presents the theoretical background of the human mobility-FNS nexus in Vietnam's Mekong Delta (VMD). After introducing the human mobility spectrum and its forms (3.1), the chapter presents the conceptual background of the human mobility-FNS nexus (3.2) and summarizes existing knowledge on the nexus in Vietnam's Mekong Delta (3.3). Lastly, knowledge and data gaps on the relationship between mobility and food and nutrition security in Vietnam's Mekong Delta are identified (3.4).This report refers to human mobility as a spectrum that spans from immobility to forced displacement, planned relocation, and agentic migration. Far from encompassing the overall variability and nuance within the spectrum, these classifications of mobility forms aim to embrace the complexity inherent to mobility processes.Immobility entails broadly the condition of people who have not moved to a place other than their usual residence. This can occur under different circumstances and be more or less voluntary, depending on individuals' motivations, opportunities, and capacity to move (de Haas, 2021;Schewel, 2020;Schewel & Fransen, 2022;Schon, 2019). Agentic migration, later referred to in this report simply as \"migration\", entails the movement of a household member away from his or her place of usual residence (IOM, 2019). As opposed to displacement and planned relocation, it is assumed that migration is led by an intention to move which unfolds within motivations and existing opportunities (Schon, 2019). These relate to specific geographical, socio-political, economic, and subjective factors that are expected to influence people's motivations, opportunities, and capacity to move (de Haas, 2021).Beyond different forms of mobility, this report also acknowledges different temporal and geographic scales. Regarding time, we distinguish between short-term, long-term, and circular mobility. Concerning the geographic scale, we differentiate between internal mobility (inter-province, intra-province, inter-district, intra-district) and international mobility 3 .Human mobility outcomes are inherently linked to human security and people's freedom to pursue development and wellbeing. Human security concerns \"how people live and breathe in a society, how freely they exercise their choices, how much access they have to market and social opportunities-and whether they live in conflict or peace\" (United Nations, 1994  and WHO., 2023;Savelli et al., 2023). Some households, nevertheless, may remain immobile due to a lack of opportunities, resources or because of their willingness to stay.In the absence of local adaptation options, these households are likely to experience higher risks for FNS (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO., 2023; Savelli et al., 2023). In this scenario, enabling contextual factors sustaining temporary or long-term migration can offer migrants opportunities to diversify outcomes and mitigate food insecurity risks, for example through remittances (Tuholske et al., 2024).Social-ecological disasters induced by climatic hazards, such as floods and cyclones, can damage cropland, cause harvest loss, and force the displacement of affected households (Adger et al., 2018;IPCC, 2022;Savelli et al., 2023). Disaster-related displacement can be both temporary or long-term and commonly implies the disruption of households' life strategies, income opportunities, social and family networks, and rural production assets (Adger et al., 2018). When displaced households do not have access to other alternative income and livelihood opportunities, they may be more vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity (FSIN and Global Network Against Food Crises, 2023). Similarly, State-led relocation plans, often put in place to mitigate risks of recurring climate-related hazards, can unintentionally undermine households' food and nutrition security (Adger et al., 2018).While research has identified relevant pathways through which FNS and human mobility interact, their interplay is highly contextual and nuanced. Nevertheless, identifying human mobility -FNS relationships across locally relevant geographical and demographic scales is deemed fundamental to monitoring FNS risks and opportunities under evolving socio-climatic scenarios. Aware of such complexity, we propose to visualize the human mobility -food and nutrition security nexus through a simplified risk-based framework.In the framework (Figure 1), adapted from existing literature on human mobility  In the Mekong Delta region, despite national positive trends, challenges such as households' food insecurity and children's undernutrition, stunting, and underweight remain, especially among ethnic minorities (Nabuuma et al., 2023;Vuong et al., 2023). As of 2021, more than half of the land in the Mekong Delta region was used for agricultural production (General Statistic Office, 2023b). The majority of the Delta's population lives in rural areas, and most households depend on small-scale agriculture and aquaculture for livelihoods (Bayrak et al., 2022;General Statistic Office, 2023b). However, urbanization is increasing, with 37,55% of people living in urban areas in 2022, as compared to 30,39% in 2010, and with an urban growth rate (including both natural increase and net migration) of 2,16% (General Statistic Office, 2023b). In 2022, more than 5% of the Mekong Delta population out-migrated 4 leaving the region with a negative net migration of -3.8%(General Statistic Office, 2023b). While lower than previous years (-12,5% in 2021 and -10,5% in 2020), this highlights a phenomenon shaping the future of the region.Climate change plays a significant role in households' decision to migrate away from rural areas. Climate-related impacts on houses, infrastructures, and cropland are commonly recognized as contributing to people's willingness to migrate toward urban areas, with Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong as common destinations (Ngo et al., 2023). Droughts, salinization, land subsidence, sea level rise, floods and coastal erosion put under pressure agriculture-dependent livelihoods in the Delta (Bayrak et al., 2022). Local livelihood strategies have been historically constructed around seasonal floods and characterized by circular migration patterns of temporary rural-to-urban labour migration (Chun, 2015;Clement et al., 2021;Dun, 2011). However, climate change-induced increases in flood frequency and related disasters and lack of adaptation opportunities are inducing more people in the Delta to permanently leave rural areas in search of new livelihood opportunities (Dun, 2011;Warner, 2010). Similarly, in the VMD's coastal areas, farmers exposed to environmental degradation induced by droughts and salt intrusion are found to often migrate toward urban areas (Tran et al., 2023). Here, many look for opportunities to earn an alternative income and sustain their farm-based household through remittances (Tran et al., 2023).Research on the relationship between human mobility and food and nutrition security in the Vietnam Mekong Delta reveals complementary and sometimes conflicting results.Migration is one of the region's most widely studied human mobility forms, especially concerning food and nutrition security (Entzinger & Scholten, 2022;Le et al., 2022;Ngo et al., 2023;L. D. Nguyen et al., 2017;V. C. Nguyen, 2016;Tran et al., 2023;Van Der Geest et al., 2014;Vo, 2023). Rural-to-urban migration in the Delta is acknowledged to be a complex phenomenon, with household decision-making processes influenced by individual motivations, opportunities, and capacities. In the Upper Delta, the improved lifestyle and economic opportunities in cities are reported as the main drivers of inmigration from rural areas (Van Der Geest et al., 2014). However, the poor or landless are more sensitive to climate change impacts and food insecurity risks (Van Der Geest et al., 2014). Additional research suggests that low-income households are more likely to have engaged in migration and to have received remittances (Entzinger & Scholten, 2022).In Vietnam, remittances have been found to positively affect households' food security through improved dietary diversity, increased calorie consumption, and food expenditure, specifically on proteins, vegetables and fruits (Vo, 2023). However, the impact of remittances varies across regions and demographic groups, with the most notable positive effects flowing toward low-income regions and female-headed households (Vo, 2023). Household composition and family roles are found to mediate and, in some cases, reverse the assumed benefits of migration on the household that remains in the area of origin. For example, parental migration, especially if long-term, is found to increase the per capita expenditure for migrant-sending households (V. C.Nguyen, 2016). However, the long-term migration of parents is also reported to negatively affect the health and education of children in origin areas, who may face nutrition problems due to decreased parental care (V. C. Nguyen, 2016).In the Delta, migration is recognized as a common coping, risk management, and adaptation mechanism for households facing interconnected and overlapping human security risks, including climate change (Le et al., 2022;L. D. Nguyen et al., 2017;Van Der Geest et al., 2014). Both monetary and non-monetary remittances, such as knowledge and skills acquired from returned migrants, are found to support households' livelihood diversification and to increase local opportunities to mitigate climate impacts (Entzinger & Scholten, 2022). Yet, while rural-urban migration represents an adaptation strategy for many, migrants are often facing economic, environmental, and social insecurity in urban areas (Ngo et al., 2023).How households use remittances varies across demographic groups, and according to other subjective factors. In some cases, the increased wellbeing and financial status of migrant-sending households allows them to invest in climate-related recovery or adaptation strategies (Tran et al., 2023). These may entail, for example, buying seeds or agricultural assets to sustain climate-affected productivity (Tran et al., 2023). However, low-income households who receive cash remittances may also use them to fulfil shortterm needs, such as by buying food and consumption goods, rather than pursue longterm development (Entzinger & Scholten, 2022). Ultimately, the trade-offs between the short and long-term impacts of remittances on households and regional development remain unclear (Entzinger & Scholten, 2022;L. D. Nguyen et al., 2017;Tran et al., 2023).In rural contexts where households depend on agriculture for livelihoods and food security, such as the VMD, migration of different time lengths has varying impacts on migrant-sending households (L. D. Nguyen et al., 2017). Where migrants are the labour force, their absence from areas of origin is likely to affect agriculture production;temporary migration allows household members to support their family during periods critical for agricultural production, and to migrate outward during lean seasons to generate income elsewhere. Conversely, long absences of migrants in labour-dependent households may push them to engage in less labour-intensive agricultural activities. In some instances, this may entail the reconfiguration and in some cases the abandonment of small-scale production systems (Tran et al., 2023). Overall, outward migration presents challenges and opportunities for Deltaic households, with still unforeseen long-term effects on agricultural production, food system stability, and household FNS.The significance of the mobility-FNS nexus in VMD has been highlighted by existing research at global, national, and regional levels. However, due to data limitations, lack of consistent conceptual framing, and inherent complexities of mobility processes, uncertainty remains on the locally specific relationship(s) between mobility and food and nutrition security outcomes.Existing scholarship tends to focus on rural-urban migration, which, despite its prominence, is not the only form of mobility occurring in the region. Diverse mobility forms (immobility, planned relocation, forced displacement, migration), distances (inter/intra provinces, inter/intra districts, international), and destinations (rural/urban) are likely to relate to FNS outcomes in different ways. In particular, the food and nutrition security of immobile populations requires additional research as these may have less  During the Stakeholders workshop and the technical meeting, The Alliance and NIN discussed moving the partnership forward through a series of steps to be carried out in the 2024 work plan. These entail 1) developing targeted questions based on the approved list of new indicators; 2) providing training to provincial authorities on data collection methods; 3) piloting the integrated NNS survey; and 4) cleaning collected data for providing preliminary results and discussing further steps.To ensure the success of these phases, some challenges and points of attention have been discussed. On the technical side, it has been noted that developed questions should be direct and clear and ensure the interviewees' ability to respond. In addition, the design of the questions should account for and address potential sensitivities related to the collection of migration data. Where possible, questions should be combined so to control the overall length of the survey. On the budget side, it has been highlighted that funding Human Mobility (Table II), and 2) Food and Nutrition (Table III).The Human Mobility component (Table II   The movement of a household, within five years (TBD) prior to the survey, forced to leave its place of usual residence due to the negative impacts of an impending or recently occurred disaster.A disaster is defined as a severe disruption of societal functioning, induced by a sudden crisis and resulting in widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses.\"Displacement\" definition adapted from definition of \"Disaster Displacement\": (IOM, 2019).\"Disaster\" definition adapted from: (UNISDR, 2009).The condition of a household where at least one member had a desire to migrate within five years (TBD) prior to the survey but lacked the capability (opportunity or resources) to do so.Informed by the definition of \"involuntary immobility\" by (Schewel, 2020).When a household member moves away from his or her place of usual residence, in the 5 years (TBD) prior to the survey, whether within the same country or across an international border, for either a short-or long-term period.A short-term period is defined as more than one month but less than 12 months. A long-term period is defined as a period of at least 12 months.\"Migration\" definition adapted from: (IOM, 2019).\"Short-term period\", and \"longterm period\" definitions adapted from \"short-term migration\", and \"long-term migration\" definitions from: (IOM, 2019).A migrant who moved to a new place of usual residence across an international border within five years (TBD) prior to the survey.Adapted from: (IOM, 2019).A migrant who moved to a new place of usual residence within the same province within five years (TBD) prior to the survey.Adapted from \"same province\" migration category from: Central Population and Housing Census Steering Committee (2020). Inter-province migrant A migrant who moved from a place of usual residence in a rural area to one in an urban area, within five years (TBD) prior to the survey.Adapted from: (IOM, 2019).A migrant who moved from a place of usual residence in a rural area to one in a different rural area, within five years (TBD) prior to the survey.Adapted from: (IOM, 2019).A migrant who moved from a place of usual residence in an urban area to one in a rural area, within five years (TBD) prior to the survey.Adapted from: (IOM, 2019).A migrant who moved from a place of usual residence in an urban area to one in a different urban area, within five years (TBD) prior to the survey.Adapted from: (IOM, 2019).A migrant who moved to a new place of usual residence for a period of at least 12 months, within five years (TBD) prior to the survey.The IOM definition is extended to include both domestic and international migration. Short-term migrant A migrant who moved to a new place of usual residence for at least 1 month but less than 12 months, within five years (TBD) prior to the survey. This does not include movement for purposes of recreation, holiday, or medical treatment. The duration of stay in the UNECE definition is of 90 days.The number has been reduced to 30 days to account for shorter seasonal migration.Gender The migrant's gender: female, male, other Informed by: ( \"Unaccompanied\" child is defined as a child who has been separated from both parents and other relatives and is not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so.Adapted from: (IOM, n.d.)The spouse of a migrant who remains in the place of usual residence for at least 12 months (TBD) after their spouse had moved to a different place of usual residence.Informed by: (Wickramage et al., 2015) -Definition adapted from six months to 12 months to align with other relevant indicators .-Definition extended to include both international and domestic migration Child who remains A child, under 18 years of age, who remains in the place of usual residence for at least 12 months (TBD) after at least one of their parents has moved to a different place of usual residence.Disaggregated by: -Child whose mother has migrated, but father remained -Child whose father has migrated, but mother remained -Child who's had both parents migrate Informed by: (Wickramage et al., 2015).-Definition adapted from six months to 12 months to align with other relevant indicators .-Definition extended to include both international and domestic migration. Extended relative who remains An adult member of the household who is not a spouse or child of the migrant, who has remained in the place of usual residence for at least 12 months (TBD) after another adult member of the household has migrated.Informed by: (  (Holsteijn & Kemna, 2018). With regards to calorie consumption, refrigerator ownership may lead to different effects. In Vietnam, for example, refrigerator ownership has been found to significantly associate with an overall decreases in per capita calorie intake, but also with increased dairy calories consumption (Heard et al., 2020).Distance to markets Mean distance of household to the nearest food retail outlet (meters).The indicator is informed by Nandi et al., (2021). Research in Asia has often identified a significant positive relationship between access to markets and dietary diversity. Nevertheless, this relationship is highly contextual, depends on multiple local factors, and negative associations between access to market and diet diversity have also been found (Nandi et al., 2021). Overall distance to markets may affect the availability and diversity of food, which in turn impacts nutritional status.Types of food outlets utilized by households for their main food purchases over a given period, typically one week.Sample question: Where does your household buy most of the food it consumes during a week?1. Supermarket 2.Convenient store/ Minimart 3.Formal open markets 5.Consumer cooperatives 6.Informal street market 7.Online shopping 8. Colleagues/relatives (Huynh et al., 2021) The indicator is based on Huynh et al., (2021). The assessment shows that in Vietnam consumers in urban areas often rely on wide variety of retail outlets to make their food purchases, while rural consumers depend more on traditional markets, with limited outlet diversity. Across all the areas, traditional food outlets like street markets are the most common points of food purchase.potatoes, dark green leafy vegetables, ripe mangoes, ripe papayas, and other locally grown fruits and vegetables that are rich in vitamin A. ","tokenCount":"4280"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2d98548962d80006e27cf9f0d0425670","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ee7be53c-721e-47ee-a6b2-122cbc44fb49/retrieve","id":"-1434423567"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"54446474-9e2b-4d6c-a286-d40cdc5734dd","pagecount":"5","content":"In the situation where 61 % of farmers in Nepal lack food sufficiency (NARC, 2010) and the production of cereals has been growing only 2 % per annum, which is below the population growth rate (CIP, 2010), the food deficit is particularly severe in the hills and mountains as compared to Terai (a low-lying plain area and an ecological region of Nepal). Meantime, the average size of land holdings decreased from 0.96 ha in 1991/1992 to 0.79 ha in 2001/2002 mainly caused by the tradition of paternal property subdivision among male heirs, and gradually growing population (CBS, 2002;Thapa and Niroula, 2008). Such trend has seriously threatened the livelihood and food security of those who depend on agriculture (Thapa and Niroula, 2008). The situation is even worse in mid-hills since landholdings of farmers are small compared to Terai and the opportunities for them to have other sources of income from non-agricultural activities are also limited. Therefore, a majority of the Nepalese hill farmers have chosen crop intensification as an alternative approach for farming where they can have high levels of production on small plots of land.The division of labour between men and women is slowly changing. (Dahal et al., 2009). However, unequal gender relations in Nepal create differences between men and women's access to information related to agricultural and climate change. Detailed understanding of gender roles on adopting of intensification, their involvement of different agricultural activities, gendered contribution of greenhouse gas emission due to intensification, and potential impacts of unmanaged use of chemical fertilizers on greenhouse gases emission will help to identify changing gender roles and how to integrate gender into the official discourse surrounding climate policies in Nepal. Therefore, the objectives of this study are: 1. To assess the role of gender on agricultural intensification process in mid-hills of Nepal;Research questions: What is the involvement of men and women in different agricultural activities? What are the differences between men and women on choices of crops, decisions on inputs, access to agricultural information, and participation in local institutions such as farmers' user group, cooperatives? 2. To determine the effects of agricultural intensification on the greenhouse gas emission differentiated by gender roles on farms;Research hypothesis: Agricultural intensification leads to an increase in the emission of N 2 O and CH 4 . Women are more concerned with increasing the number of crops per year and applying higher amount of chemical fertilizers. Such activities will enhance the greenhouse gas emission.It was not difficult to set up the research, since I was familiar with the people in the study area. The study area comprises the Ansikhola sub watershed located in the Kavre district of central Nepal (Figure 1). I have been working in the area since 2009, and familiar with the farming activities. However, due to lack of time and being outside the country, I had made arrangements for my study before I reached the field through contact persons in the study area. I have known my contact persons since 2009 and they are well aware of setting up research. I informed them about my proposed visit and the objectives of my study. So, all in all, the people from the village development committee, local organization and few farmers already knew that I am coming for field work. There was no difficulty regarding logistics.Most of the expenditures are within the budget. I underestimated the budget needed for data entry. The budget for transportation for field work was also not within the allocated budget. The topography of the study area is such that the local transportation is not available everywhere and walking is almost impossible in some of the cases where households are too far. Carrying the soil samples from field to the international airport to take them to University of Norway required private transportation. Therefore the budget allocated for transportation was not enough. A mixed method approach was used where both quantitative and qualitative were used simultaneously for data collection to complement each other. Preliminary field visits were made in order to know the situation in the field. Experimental plots were also selected during this period to collect soil samples. A quantitative research strategy was used in which soil samples were collected and household surveys was conducted. As a qualitative research strategy, group discussions and direct observations were made. The enumerators who helped in data collection from household survey have lived in an area adjacent to the study area for around 20 years. Therefore, there was no problem with translation and they are familiar with the context and practices in the study area. The two enumerators that worked together were trained properly before the start of the data collection. I conducted six group discussions and six key informant interviews. Group discussions were conducted based on high caste, middle caste and lower caste, with men and women from each caste. Women from higher caste are involved in agricultural activities and decision making activities than women from lower caste that will contribute on the decision making on fertilizer use which is an important factor for GHG emissions. Based on the preliminary survey, it has been found that women were more open when men were not around. All the members were enthusiastic and interested in talking about what they have been doing. Therefore, all the methods were informative to meet the objectives.Since the study area is easily accessible and near from capital city, many projects in the past. Most of the projects were implemented by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and government organizations (GOs). In order to get farmers interested in projects, project managers created high expectations in terms of money, credits and vegetable seeds for free among farmers. Farmers had the same expectation from this research until it was explained that it was for research purposes for an academic institution and not related to any NGOs, INGOs and GOs. This was a big challenge in the beginning of the field survey.I have completed the data collection at the end of April. I am now in the process of data entering and data cleaning from the household survey using a statistical software SPSS (version 16.0) in order to analyze them. The audios that have been recorded with the participants' permission during the group discussion are being transferred into the audible form. The soil samples that have been brought to Norway from study area are scheduled to be analyzed in August as lab facilities are not available until then.There have been no concrete results yet since I am in data processing and analysis stage. But from the experience of household surveys, group discussions and key informant interviews, I am confident that there are very interesting results. The involvement of men and women in the group discussion was very interesting. In general so far there have not been any unavoidable challenges that hampered meeting the objectives of this research.","tokenCount":"1142"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ce0eb2f4f3d3ca5e42c6bd52232bd51e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/85c7c2a1-8865-4d6e-9ac3-97e57054c830/content","id":"-1082085391"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c31baf7d-86e4-4687-b266-83aaafd8749d","pagecount":"13","content":"Maize is a staple food for millions of people living in many countries of Latin America and other parts of the developing world, where diet is deficient in protein. For millions of others, it is an important ingredient in the production of their milk, eggs, poultry, and meat (Figure 1). Yet in many countries of Latin America, maize production lags behind maize utilization. Consequently, imports are required to fill the gap.Imports are a fact of life in most countries of Latin America and an important source of maize. Table 1 shows the situation in some of the important countries of the region-Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Honduras, and Mexico. Imports as a percent of utilization have increased for Mexico, Central ,America, the Caribbean, and the Andean Region. In the Southern Cone, however, production has kept pace with utilization, and Argentina is one of the world's major exporters. Of the sixteen major maize-producing countries, thirteen have increased their dependence on imports. Wlth increasing populations and rising incomes, that dependence will increase unless advances in production can be achieved. Such a dependence on imports can be a serious drain on valuable foreign exchange and can leave a country vulnerable to a shortage of grain at a certain time and place.Maize utilization in Latin America continues to rise. In some countries, such as Honduras, Guatemala, and Paraguay, direct human consumption is high and continues to grow along with rapidly increasing populations. For countries like Venezuela and Mexico, incomes are growing rapidly and the use of maize as livestock feed also is increasing rapidly. Maize utilization will continue its upward trend. With population growth, direct human consumption of grain increases. However, as real per capita incomes grow, individuals substitute livestock products for grain in their diets. Figure 2 shows that in certain Latin American regions, despite a deficit of maize for human consumption, there is a considerable proportion of grain being channeled into livestock feed in order to satisfy the diet preferences of the more affluent. The grain supply in poor crop years is thus channeled to the more affluent segments of the population who can afford to satisfy their preferences for meat and dairy products. For this reason, the shock resulting from a, sudden disruption in the world supply of grain is felt most sharply by people in low-income groups, whose diet depends more directly on food grains. Many of these low-income areas are found in Latin America.Finally, the problem of supplying sufficient maize for human consumption, at reasonable prices, will become more critical if additional grain is diverted to other uses-ethanol production, for example. Realistically speaking, Latin America must improve its maize production; logically, there is every reason that it should and can achieve this goal.Argentina is in the lucky position of being a maize-exporting nation, mainly due to the large areas under maize production. However, actual average yields are below 3 tons/hectare.• Argentina could benefit itself and the world by improving its maize yields. While maize exportation may not be . desirable or even practical for many countries in Latin America (other crops having a productive and/or economic 160 -;:: ., How is it possible to increase maize production in Latin America? One way is to increase the area of land under cultivation. At present, there are 120 million hectares of underdeveloped savannah lands in South America. However, only a few countries in Latin America have this potential land reserve, and it must be remembered that as more and more land is opened up for cultivation, there will be less and less virgin land. The only possible long-term answer is to improve maize yields on land alr~ady under cultivation; in some countries this need is urgent.The average maize yields obtained in Latin America are below 1.5 t/ha, as opposed to average yields of 6.5-7 .0 t/ha in the USA. The world record is over 21 t/ha. Materials with superior yield potential are or can be made available which, combined with suitable production technology, can double or triple the yield per hectare in most Latin American countries.Yield potential in a given agroclimatic region is determined by the genetic make-up of plants. However, environmental factors influence the expression of this potential. Materials with superior yield potential alone cannot increase production. They make higher yields possible only with ~ffective use of inputs and agronomic practices. Also, the variety with the highest yield potential in the world is totally useless if it does not meet the needs of the producer and consumer.To improve maize production, it is necessary to integrate and organize the research system so that its results flow into the fields where maize is actually produced. This requires the input and analytical capability of several disciplines, and people who are able to adopt a holistic approach which addresses the total concept, not just one aspect. Integrated team work requires the skills of various disciplines. The breeder, the pathologist, the entomologist, the agronomist, and the economist must be involved in all aspects and stages of agricultural research.CIMMYT scientists work closely with scientists from most maize-growing countries of the world in germplasm development and exchange of superior germplasm and research information. A number of regional programs have emerged among various maize-growing countries, including the Central American and Andean regional maize and economics programs with seven CIMMYTassigned scientists. In the Andean region, one maize breeder is headquartered in Ecuador with responsibilities for highland floury maize improvement, and two maize scientists are stationed in Colombia, from where they support tropical maize breeding and production research activities throughout the region. Two maize scientists are assigned to the Central American and Caribbean region. The regional economists assigned to both these programs work with national scientists in on-farm research programs, focusing their work on farm-level survey research.CIMMYT's program is aimed primarily at realizing increased maize production in the developing world. It was designed with the following topics or factors in mind:A. Germplasm development B. Production technology C. Seed industry D. Government policy A. Germplasm Development When one looks at the best yields in the world-in North America, Europe, and New Zealand-one sees that they are produced by hybrids. In an attempt to imitate these results, many countries of the world, including those of Latin America, have turned to hybrid maize production. I would like to point out that there are often serious problems associated with this approach.First, the need for timely availability of quality seed to the farmer, and the ability of the farmer to pay for the seed and service, are essential factors in the hybrid maize approach. The organization necessary for a hybrid seed industry-adequate seed multiplication and distribution systems, and cash availability to the farmer-is lacking in many Latin American countries.The second point I would like to raise concerns the supposedly-inherent high yields of hybrids over open-pollinated varieties. Sprague and Eberhart suggest that the rate of improvement of hybrids from improved populations will be proportional to the improvement of the population cross between two breeding populations1L. They indicate that with a 4 percent selection intensity, the superiority of double-cross hybrids is 9.4 to 12.4 percent over the mean of the population cross. The superiority of a single-cross hybrid ranges from 15 to 20.4 percent. The yield superiority of hybrids wi II increase with an increase in selection intensity.Gardner suggests that if population improvement can be achieved without a significant reduction in genetic variability-a very important point-the best double-cross and single-cross hybrids from a series of random lines derived from the improved population will exceed the population mean by at least 20-30 percent~.CIMMYT works with open-pollinated varieties. The selection intensity exerted for families to regenerate sequential cycles for population improvement is 30-40 percent, and the selection intensity for families to generate experimental varieties is 4 percent. The performance of eight open-pollinated varieties in comparison with their parental populations of the same cycles, tested at 12 to 19 locations, is presented in Table 2. The mean gains across locations range from 7 to 20 percent. The superiority in yield of experimental varieties over their parental populations is evident.With CIMMYT's methodology, experimental varieties are extracted following each cycle of improvement. Figure 3 shows (1) the time lag, in seasons, in the development of varieties and hybrids, and ( 2) their expected performance level, based on the selection pressure exerted in CIMMYT's program for open-pollinated materials, and for hybrids, as indicated by Sprague and Eberhart and Gardner. A 40 percent selection intensity within an open-pollinated population should give 5 percent progress each cycle. In CIMMYT's program, a variety would be 15 percent superior to the parent population, whereas a hybrid would show an approximate 25 percent superiority. However, hybrids require a substantial time lag (11 cycles) for their development. C IMMYT's program can provide usable materials of superior performance at each cycle of development. Both populations and varieties improve proportionally with each selection and, after the same number of cycles, there is very little difference in the performance of hybrids versus varieties. In fact, provided that adequate selection has been practiced in each cycle, varieties can be superior to hybrids in performance after any fixed period of time.An important advantage of varieties over hybrids is that the farmer can use his own seed for the following two or three succeeding crops. This should not discourage the development of a seed industry nor the development of an adequate transportation system, both of which are essential to maximize and utilize maize production. Both of these are clearly lacking in most developing countries. CIMMYT's Maize lmprovement1>rogram But let us return to CIMMYT's maize program and how it can help improve maize production in. Latin America. Thi!> program is designed to (a) provide an overall strategy that can effectively serve different maize-growing areas of the world which have diverse levels of capability; (b) serve as a mechanism for continuous development and improvement of maize germplasm in order to meet current and future needs; (c) provide a smooth and efficient delivery system of improved germplasm to and from the national programs, and (d) meet the needs for exploratory and innovative maize research.There are three main stages in the CIMMYt system: 1. Devek>pment and improvement of broad-based gene pools for different specific areas of the world.2. Continuous improvement and refinement of populations with upgraded material from the corresponding pools.3. Development of superior experimental varieties from populations.Let us look more closely at each stage of the system, beginning with the development and improvement of broad-based gene pools for different specified areas of the world.Genetic diversity and variability are basic requirements for any successful population improvement program. A gene pool is a mixture of diverse germplasm, undergoing continuous recombinations, from which materi~ls can be taken out and to which materials can be added. CIMMYT has a total of 27 gene pools to accommodate preference in grain type and color, maturity requirement, and.environmental adaptability. We have 12 gene pools for the tropical lowland zone, eight for the subtropical temperate zone, and seven for the tropical highland areas.Each pool is a reservoir of genetic variability necessary to serve a range of known conditions. It is a source of germplasm for a dynamic improvement program, which selects and finetunes populations for more and more specific conditions as the program advances. The stage of pool management is considered the Back-Up Unit, and the subsequent fine-tuning is carried out by the Advanced Unit.Due to a concern with the danger of genetic erosion and the narrow genetic base of germplasm currently in use in Europe and the USA, CIMMYT has developed four new gene pools of 135- wide genetic diversity which will facilitate the introduction of exotic germplasm in temperate base materials. This in turn will serve to transfer superior characters from the temperate germ• plasm into the tropical lowland and highland materials. After thorough recombination, they are being subjected to multi locational screening, evaluation, and selection, followed by recpmbination of selected families at CIMMYT. Some of these materials may prove useful in various parts of Latin America.The farmers' conditions usually demand material of specific adaptability, maturity, and seed type. To serve this demand, the Advanced Unit is currently handling 26 maize populations: 23 normal, and three quality protein maize populations carrying the opaque-2 gene. At this stage international testing in the different environments becomes necessary. One full-sib cycle of selection with international testing of progenies from each population can be completed every year. However, the retrieval of trial data from cooperating countries located both in the northern and southern hemispheres makes it difficult to complete the full cycle in one year, and therefore a two-year cycle is used. Figure 4 summarizes the steps involved in CIMMYT's maize population improvement program.A selection intensity of four percent is used in the selection of families from populations for the development of experimental varieties. Experimental varieties are developed both on the basis of site-specific and across-site progeny test data. These varieties show considerably higher performance as compared to the population mean. In addition to those characters that distinguish each variety, uniformity for maturity and plant and ear height are also important considerations in the selection of the ten families so that the resultant variety is uniform in appearance.  Each experimental variety goes into a second-order seed increase in order to build-up a sufficient quantity of seed. Thus, if a variety proves to be promising in the Experimental Variety Trial, it can be used immediately in the second series, called the Elite Experimental Variety Trial.Variety names are derived from the names of the station where the progeny test was conducted, and where, in fact, that variety was made. For pedigree purposes, this name is followed by two digits indicating the year in which the selection was made, then two digits showing the population number from which the variety was derived, e.g., Tocumen 7928.The national programs then use these materials as they see fit. Some materials undergo seed increase and are released to the farmer. Others are further selected and fine-tuned, or incorporated at various stages into the breeding programs. Some national programs utilize the materials in hybrid development. Although the emphasis is on intrapopulation improvement with open-pollinated varieties as the end product, information is collected and made available to national programs on the heterotic patterns of various populations for interpopulation improvement and the development of hybrids.CIMMYT's resident program in Mexico also concerns itself with the environmental adaptability of the maize crop. Selections for reduction in plant height, drought tolerance, and disease and insect resistance are incorporated into the overall program.A reduction in plant height reduces susceptibility to•lodging, makes the maize crop more responsive to better management, and can improve yield efficiency through improvement of harvest index. Fifteen cycles of continuous recurrent selection for reduced plant height in a CIMMYT population called Tuxpeiio-1 resulted in plants one-meter shorter and seven days earlier to 50 percent silking. Selection also was made for other characteristics relevant to plant improvement, and resulted in a 2.68 t/ha yield increase (at increased density) and harvest index improvement from 0.30 to 0.46. These results are summarized in Table 3. Similar selection is being practiced in all of CIMMYT's_program because of the advantages conferred to the maize crop.Maize is usually grown as a rainfed crop in countries of Latin America and is often subject to fluctuating moisture conditions throughout the growing season.CIMMYT staff have been studying the variation for performance under water stress situations and exploring the reliability of various selection criteria for the development of droughttolerant types. A recurrent selection program for improved performance under drought was initiated in Tuxpeno-1, and the results to date show that ( 1) there is a genotype x water interaction, (2) selection under non-limiting moisture conditions does not adversely affect the performance of the material under stress conditions, and multilocation testing and the selection of families on the basis of across-site performance may enhance performance under intermediate levels of water stress, and (3) a multiple selection index which includes characteristics expressed under moisture stress can be used to identify genotypes (families) that give better than average performance under moisture stress conditions without detriment to their performance under more favorable conditions or no-stress situations.Disease Resistance One of the major causes of yield instability in the maize crop is susceptibility to diseases. Development of a reliable polygenic resistance (field resistance/tolerance) against diseases is desirable t>tjcause of its effects on yield stability. In CIMMYT's recurrent population improvement program, selection is exercised for ear and stalk rots (using artificial inoculation techniques) and for leaf blights and rusts (using reliable field inoculations). Results of international tests show that the level of resistance for these diseases has improved considerably in several materials.CIMMYT also is involved in several collaborative research projects on diseases which cannot be handled in Mexico. One such collaborative research effort is for development of resistance against corn stunt, a major disease of maize in Latin America. Good progress has been made in developing agronomically superior materials having corn stunt resistance. Similar progress also has been made for resistance to downy mildew. Its regionally-assigned staff, working closely with national collaborators, carry the principal responsibility for CIMMYT's involvement in such research.Susceptibility to insect attack is another important factor which limits yield. Successful insect mass-rearing facilities, and the development of techniques for the uniform application of larvae to the maize crop, have resulted in progress in developing resistance to fall armyworm in two CIMMYT pools and in two Advanced Unit populations. Similar progress is expected for sugar cane borer, Southwestern com borer, and earworm resistance.The advantages of high quality protein maize over normal maize are obvious. Simply, it provides better nutrition. For example, studies on nitrogen absorption and retention in children fed with diets based on non-fat milk and high quality protein maize performed at the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama in Guatemala indicated that the protein quality of this maize was approximately 90 percent that of milk.In another series of experiments in Colombia and elsewhere, groups of weanling pigs were put on diets in which all protein was supplied by either normal or quality protein maize. The pigs receiving quality protein maize gained weight much faster, requiring only one-eighth as much feed per kilogram of body weight gained as their counterparts eating normal maize. The substitution of quality protein maize for normal maize in diets for weanling or growing pigs reduces the amount of protein supplements required to produce optimum performance in terms of weight gain. This is due to the improved balance of amino acids of the quality protein maize, especially lysine and tryptophan. It has been demonstrated that quality protein maize can be used as the only dietary source of protein during the finishing period for pigs. Due to the high cost of animal or soybean protein supplements, the use of quality protein maize offers considerable potential advantage.However, certain detrimental effects associated with the original maize materials of high nutritional quality made them unacceptable to the farmer and consumer. The major defects had been soft chalky kernels with a dull appearance, greater vulnerability to diseases, such as ear rots, and to insect pests, higher moisture content at harvest, and, most important, reduced grain yields.CIMMYT believed that the advantages which the extra protein quality provided merited the substantial effort required to overcome the associated disadvantages. The progress made there since 1971 in the development and improvement of normal-looking, hard-endosperm maize from the soft opaque-2 maize is illustrated in Figure 5. We now have materials which are equal to or superior to normal check materials under cultivation in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The problems of reduced yield, vulnerability to ear rot and stored grain pests, and the dull and chalky B. Production Technology Different maize11rowing areas require appropriate varieties and cultural practices to maximize yields and minimize potential risks and losses; therefore, location-specific research is needed. Consequently, CIMMYT uses suitable locations in Mexico to train key workers from countries all over the world in the basic principles involved and the possible methods of approach to this problem.This training focuses on the organization and execution of a production research program which can be implemented in the trainees' home countries. The importance of on-farm research at key locations is emphasized in order to obtain the necessary information on the value to the farmer of various materials and agronomic practices.It is there, in the farmers' field, that appropriate materials, genuine fertilizer responses, economic rates of insecticides and herbicides, and appropriate plant densities can be identified. This is where the farmers, the extension staff, and the research staff meet and work together toward the common goal of increased production. This brings the farmer into the decision-making ' process, which is particularly important since it is he who decides which products of research are useful to him. He also can help determine, along with the research and extension staff, what . further research should be carried out.In addition to training key workers from various countries all over the world, CIMMYT, at the request of those countries, assigns staff in certain countries or regions important for maize production, in order to help organize such systems. The responsiblity of the CIMMYT staff is to help improve the maize production in the country or region of their assignment, in collaboration with local national programs.This type of flow system ensures continuous improvement and acceptance of technology. Observation and research carried out with the involvement of the farmers quickly indicates the primary requirements and/or weakness of the system. As each weakness is corrected, another problem may be identified. As each link in the chain is tested and improved for strength, another link will be shown to be weak, and will require further strengthening.The best materials developed by researchers are only as good as the quality of seed planted by the farmer. Lack of proper seed production programs is a critical factor limiting maize production in most developing countries. Its importance in increasing maize production in Latin America cannot •be overemphasized. There must.be a mechanism to supply good quality seed to the farmer.In a few of the countries of Latin America, there are national and multinational seed companies marketing high quality seed; in these countries, seed supply and distribution should not be a constraint. However, in most Latin American countries, the farmers traditionally save their own seed and distribute it locally. However, most farmers cannot be expected to possess or exercise the management control that is possible on experimental stations which have uniform soil, fertility, irrigation, drainage, and insect and disease control. Good quality seed for the farmer begins with the production of good quality basic seed. This is a function of research and should be an integral part of the total agricultural production system.Basic seed production includes both the maintenance of the purity and uniformity of varieties and the maintenance of inbred lines for hybrid production. Inadequate maintenance of parental stocks of hybrids and varieties will result in inferior performance, which is not compatible with increased maize production.In order to produce good quality basic seed, it is essential to develop adequate experiment station facilities and management and satisfactory storage facilities. Such facilities could be organized on a regional basis within a country, where the appropriate material is increased and stored near the area where it will be used; this places less burden on the transport system.Much of the work necessary to achieve increased maize production can and must be executed at a regional or local level. However, the whole system requires centralized organization, where appropriate analyses and conclusions can be made for the development and maintenance of an increasingly efficient program.Ultimately, any program for increased maize production will succeed or fail depending on government policy. The task of improving maize production cannot rest solely with the farmer. For farmers to increase maize yields a host of factors must be in order. Appropriate technologies must be available to the farmers and must be acceptable to them. Critical inputs must be available and at appropriate prices. Markets must be in place to accomodate increased flows of product. Infrastructure must be strengthened so as to handle vastly increased demands for services. All of these things and more must be in place if farmers are to move forward with more intensive production practices and to attain the accompanying higher yields. The farmer is interested in feeding himself and his family and in producing enough maize for his own needs. He also is interested in improving conditions for himself and his family, and he will grow excess maize if he can sell it at a profit. He will buy superior quality seeds and inputs and adopt practices to increase production if it is profitable for him. This is largely, if not wholly, the responsibility of government. Grain prices are generally under government influence, as are the costs of the various inputs. Simple calculations can show the relative prices which would assure the farmer a satisfactory profit, provided that he follows suitable agronomic practices.The availability of the input is not enough. The farmer must have a cash flow to be able to buy them. This will require the organization of a credit system which could be facilitated by government assistance.In conclusion, let me emphasize the fact that increased maize production in Latin America can become a reality. It is time for the countries of Latin America to pay close attention to all the links necessary for increased maize production and begin to strengthen each one. This task begins with the creation of an integrated research system with results that ultimately flow to the farmers'•production fields. In this manner, sustained increases in maize production can be ensured for the future of Latin America.","tokenCount":"4263"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"66035ae528fa1c588bc66ea2843bbee4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c07ad148-4729-474d-95d9-b22a65842a1a/retrieve","id":"138207654"},"keywords":["Mitogenome","Erionota torus","banana pest","phylogeny"],"sieverID":"0246a187-5314-4cbc-873a-547df895c884","pagecount":"3","content":"Erionota torus (Evans, 1941) is a banana pest and is mainly distributed in Southeast Asia and the Pacific regions. The complete mitogenome of E. torus (GenBank accession number MW586888) is 15,987 bp in size, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs genes, and a noncoding A þ T-rich region. The A þ T-rich region is located between 12S rRNA and tRNA Met . The base composition of the whole E. torus mitogenome is 39.68% for A, 7.30% for G, 41.55% for T, and 11.47% for C, with a high AT content of 81.23%. The phylogeny analysis indicated that E. torus had a close relationship with Notocrypta curvifascia. The present data could contribute to the further detailed phylogeographic analysis and provide a comprehensive control strategy for this banana pest.Banana (Musa spp.) is an ideal and low-cost crop and accounts for the fourth most important food in the world today (Tripathi et al. 2021). Especially in developing countries, many populations depend mostly on bananas as food and feed source (Mohapatra et al. 2010). The banana skipper or banana leaf-roller, Erionota torus (Evans, 1941) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), is a common banana pest in Southeast Asia and Pacific regions, ranging from Papua New Guinea and Australia, Sikkim to south China, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Vietnam (Inoue and Kawazoe 1970;Okolle et al. 2006;Corbet and Pendlebury 1992). Almost all banana cultivars could be attacked by this skipper (Sivakumar et al. 2014). The larvae of E. torus cause considerable damage to banana foliage by rolling the leaf while feeding on it (Chiang and Hwang 1991) and could lead to yield loss of about 20% (Okolle et al. 2010). Elucidating the sequence and structure of E. torus mitogenome is important for the diversity and phylogeographic analysis of this banana pest, thus providing information for its comprehensive control.The specimen of E. torus in the present work was obtained from Honghe, Yunnan, China (N 22 77 0 , E 103 24 0 ), and deposited in the insect museum (handled by Jin-Hua Zhang, email: museum_insect@126.com) in Agricultural Environment and Resources Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, with a voucher number AERI-G-20200518. Sequencing work of the complete mitogenome of E. torus was performed by Illumina Nextseq500 in Beijing Microread Genetics Co., Ltd., with a total data volume of 4 G (150 bp Reads). High-quality reads were assembled from scratch using IDBA-UD and SPAdes (Gurevich et al. 2013). Protein-coding genes (PCGs) of the E. torus mitogenome were identified using BLAST search in NCBI, and tRNA genes were identified using the tRNAscan-SE search server (Schattner et al. 2005). The final assembled mitogenome was also verified on the MITOS web server (Bernt et al. 2013).The E. torus mitogenome is 15,987 bp in size (GenBank accession number MW586888), including 13 typical invertebrate PCGs, 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and a noncoding control region (A þ T-rich). The A þ T content of the whole E. torus mitogenome is 81.23%, showing an obvious AT mutation bias (Eyre-Walker 1997). The A þ T-rich region exhibits the highest A þ T content (94.89%) in the E. torus mitogenome.All the 13 PCGs use standard 'ATN' as start codons and have the common mitochondrial stop codon 'TAA.' All the tRNAs except tRNA Ser (GCU) could be folded into the typical cloverleaf secondary structures. The unusual tRNA Ser (GCU) had completely lost the dihydrouridine (DHU) stem and loop. The 12S rRNA gene is located between tRNA Val and the A þ T-rich region, while the 16S rRNA is located between tRNA Val and tRNA Leul . The locations of these two rRNA genes in E. torus mitogenome are quite different from the ancestral insect's mitogenome (Boore 1999).Based on the concatenated 13 mitochondrial PCGs sequences of 11 species from Hesperiinae, the neighborjoining method was used to construct the phylogenetic relationship between E. torus and 10 other Hesperiinae species (Figure 1). The phylogenetic analysis was performed by MEGA7 software (Kumar et al. 2016). The potential saturation of any PCG was assessed using DAMBE5 software (Xia 2013). The phylogeny analysis indicated that E. torus had a close relationship with Notocrypta curvifascia (Figure 1), which adds new information to the evolutionary lineage research of E. torus (Jaleel et al. 2019). This mitogenome data might be also valuable for further phylogeography analyses and provide a comprehensive control strategy for this banana pest.No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). The views expressed in this document cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of the funding organizations. . Phylogenetic tree showing the relationship between E. torus and 10 other hesperiinae species based on neighbor-joining method performed using 500 bootstrap replicates. Ochlodes venata, Zinaida jigongi and Zinaida nascens were used as outgroups. GenBank accession numbers of each sequence were listed in the tree behind their corresponding species names.","tokenCount":"797"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"29228ed755cafffcbaa0e440c4daec5d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5fd6a128-a8a2-4b67-9279-1ac0b5b75162/retrieve","id":"-1729715747"},"keywords":["Blend fertilizer","Leaf area index","Phenology","Physiology","Sorghum varieties","Terminal drought"],"sieverID":"d8e279fb-8c5f-455e-b8c5-cfae12a41a7b","pagecount":"19","content":"The productivity of sorghum, an important staple food crop in Ethiopia, has been constrained by environmental stresses and declining soil fertility, and addressing these constraints improves the productivity of sorghum. A field experiment was conducted in Raya Valley to evaluate the responses of eight sorghum varieties to NPSZn and NP fertilizers and to select the varieties that combine desirable traits. The field experiment was laid out in RCBD in three replications. The varieties showed significant (p<0.001) variations for phenological, agronomic, and physiological traits. Meko and Melkam were the early maturing varieties with different yielding potential. Melkam was the second highest (4808 kg ha -1 ) yielding variety after Dagnew. Melkam has combined desirable traits, earliness, and high yield, for production in semi-arid drought-prone areas like the Raya valley. The local sorghum varieties outperformed Meko in most traits, which shows their potential use in breeding and production systems. NPSZn and NP fertilizers did not affect the studied traits differently but differed significantly from the zero treatment. The variety × fertilizer interaction effect was significant on most traits except PW, TGW, and GY. NPSZn treatment has increased biomass yield by 18.4% and 8.6% over NP in Gombilu and Dagnew, respectively. High LA and LAI were recorded from the high-yielding varieties, Dagnew and Melkam, and vice versa for lowyielding varieties. It can be concluded that working for varietal selection could be more rewarding than switching the application of NP to NPSZn fertilizer type in the Raya Valley to enhance sorghum production and productivity. The 100 kg ha -1 NPSZn blend recommendation, however, makes a 50% fertilizer price discount. Hence, Melkam from improved and Dagnew from the local varieties had better performance and can be preferably cultivated by farming communities.Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) is among the major staple cereals in the Arid and semiarid environments. It is the fifth major cereal crop in the world in terms of production after maize, wheat, rice, and barley (FAO, 2012). In Ethiopia, it is the third important crop after tef and maize in terms of total area coverage and the fourth after maize, wheat and tef in terms of production (CSA, 2015). However, it is second to tef for making several local food stuffs such as Injera, Kitta, Nifro, Pourage, processed infant food and local beverages such as Tella and Areke (MoA, 2010). Besides using its grain for human consumption, the straw can serve as animal feed while its stalk is used as construction material and firewood. The grain analysis showed that it has good nutritional content for essential nutrition types: 69.3-75.99% carbohydrate, 8.2-13.7% protein, 2.48-4.59% fat, 2.61-7.84% fiber, and 1.1-2.29% ash (Masresha and Belay, 2020) and preferred over other cereals. Protein in sorghum is gluten free and thus, it is a specialty food for people who suffer from celiac disease, including diabetic patients and is a good substitute for cereal grains such as wheat, barley, and rye (Dial, 2012).In Ethiopia, sorghum is grown in almost all regions covering an estimated total arable land area of 1.83 million ha with national average productivity of 2369 kg/ha (CSA, 2015), with a share of 16.1% total cereal crops production. The major sorghum production regions of the country are Oromia (38.5%), Amhara (32.9%), Tigray (14.1%), and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People (S.N.N.P.) region (7.6%) (CSA, 2015). In Tigray, it is mainly produced in southern, central, and western zones (Yemane et al., 2009). In the Raya valley, southern Tigray, it covers an estimated total cultivable area of 40,302 ha with an average productivity of 1930 kg ha -1 , which is much less than the national average productivity (CSA, 2015). Sorghum is considered as a rescue crop and is widely produced more than any other crop in moisture deficit areas (MoA, 2010;Asfaw, 2007), which implies that moisture stress is among several factors constraining sorghum production and productivity. In the Raya valley, poor soil fertility, erratic rainfall and lack of improved varieties are the major factors that significantly influence the production and productivity of sorghum. Moisture deficit is the major constraint of rainfed agriculture which coincides with the most sensitive development stages (flowering and grain filling) of the crop and resulting in poor crop performance and low yield (EIAR and TARI, 2011).Even though sorghum is an important crop in the Raya valley, farmers are forced to depend on few late maturing sorghum varieties (Berhane et al., 2010), probably because the varietal replacement by the national breeding system is low and most of the local farmers' varieties are gradually disappearing. As a result, the farmers in the area have been vulnerable to the recurrent terminal drought occurring in the area. On the other hand, the decline in soil fertility due to cereal based cropping is another factor challenging crop production (Corral-Nũnez et al., 2014). Soil fertility has been managed by applying NP fertilizer in the form of UREA and Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) for the last two decades. In most part of Ethiopia, Yemane, G. E., Gebremeskel, G., Yemane, T., Kidane, G and Dejene, K. M (MEJS)  NP has been applied at a rate of 64 kg ha -1 N and 20.24 kg ha -1 P or 100 kg ha -1 UREA and 100 kg ha -1 of DAP in blanket regardless of the soil type and crop nutrient requirement. Such unbalanced application of plant nutrients may aggravate the depletion of other important nutrient elements such as micronutrients in soils (Fayera et al., 2014)  . The pre-trial soil sample analysis indicated that the soil of experimental site is clay with near neutral (6.89) pH and high (36%) CEC (Hazelton and Murphy, 2007), low nitrogen content (Tekalign, 1991) and low to medium available phosphorus (London, 1991;Olsen et al., 1954). The organic matter content of the soil is 1.92%.  Eight sorghum varieties, six local landraces (America, Dagnew, Gombilu, Kodom, Mereawi, and Woitozera) and two improved varieties (Meko and Melkam) were grown during 2016 cropping season under field conditions. The varieties were selected for variation in their phenology and agronomic characteristics (Table 1). It was supposed that the varieties differently respond to the applied fertilizers [unfertilized (F1), 100 kg/ha of DAP and Urea which is equivalent to 64 kg ha -1 N and 20.24 kg ha -1 P (NP) (F2) and 100 kg ha -1 of blended The eight sorghum varieties, described above, were grown under two fertilizer types of application: the conventional NP at a rate of 64 kg ha -1 N and 20.24 kg ha -1 P each and the new blend NPSZn fertilizer at a rate of 100 kg ha -1 with elemental composition of 17.7 kg ha -1 N, 35.3 kg ha -1 P2O5, 6.5 kg ha -1 S and 2.5 kg ha -1 Zn. For comparison purpose, nonfertilized was also included. Varieties and fertilizers were arranged in factorial randomized complete block design (fRCBD) whereby each treatment was replicated thrice. The trial was laid out on 810 m 2 plot size, where the size of individual plot was 11.25 m 2 (3.75 m x 3 m) with inter-and intra-row spacing of 0.75 m and 0.20 m, respectively (Adugna et al., 2005;Wilson and Myers, 1954).Blocks and plots were separated by gang way of 1.5 m and 1 m, respectively. The three central rows were used for all agronomic data recording.Seedbed preparation was done following standard procedures from June until planting time in July using tractor traction. The trial was manually planted on 25 th July 2016 in rows whereby the seeds were placed at 5 cm depth by drilling hole at a rate of 2 seeds per hole (Adugna et al., 2005) and DAP and half dose of UREA. The remaining half dose of UREA was top dressed when the crop reached at knee height. Weeds were maintained at bay throughout the trial period using manual weeding. Stalk borer was controlled by applying soluble Karate Insecticide (Lambda Cyhalothrin 5% EC), which was applied twice uniformly to all plots at a rate of 300 ml/ha, as per the manufacturer guideline. The Raya Valley is severely moisture stressed area which is affected by terminal drought frequently ( Fig 2). Hence, the rainfall of the area could not fully provide the water required to support the complete sorghum growth life span.Supplementary irrigation was, therefore, applied twice at ten days interval to all varieties to alleviate soil water shortage at critical developmental stages of the crop up to maturity after the rainfall completely stopped.The phenology traits such as days to 50% flowering (DF), days to heading (DH) and days to maturity (DM) were recorded on plot basis after 50% of the plant population reached the respective phenology. DM was recorded after the plants completed their physiological maturity at growth stage 9, confirmed by inspection of the black layer formed on the kernel.The other traits such as plant height (PH), panicle length (PL) and leaf area index (LAI) were collected from five randomly sampled and tagged plants. Plant height was measured in cm from the ground soil surface to the tip of the panicle and panicle length was also measured from the lower panicle branch to the tip of the panicle as described in Boukrouh et al. (2023).The LAI was calculated as the ratio of unit leaf area to unit ground area covered, as described by Watson (1958), at heading stages.The panicles of the five randomly selected and tagged plants per plot were bulk harvested to determine head grain weight per plant (g plant -1 ). Head grain weight per plant was measured at adjusted moisture content to 12.5% using Digital Grain Moisture Meter (Satake, UK). After recording the head grain weight, 1000 kernels were manually counted and weighed on electronic sensitive balance (Sartorius, Germany). Grain yield (GY) in kilogram per hectare (kg ha -1 ) was measured by harvesting the central two rows per plot. GY was weighed using the same electronic sensitive balance used to weigh TGW and then converted to kg ha -1 . Similarly, the above ground biomass (BY), in kg ha -1 , was recorded from the two central rows by harvesting all the plants from the ground and sun dried for equal days to remove the water content.The raw data, after checking for normality and homogeneity, was analyzed for variance using GenStat statistical software version 14 (Payne et al., 2011), following factorial randomized complete block design procedure. This analysis allowed us to examine the main effects and the interaction effects between genotypes and applied fertilizer types. For significant effects, means were compared using least significance difference (LSD) at 5% significance level. While main effects results were presented in tabular form, the interaction effects results were presented graphically to make its visualization easier. The mean value of each variety by fertilizer combination was used to construct the bar graphs using excel graphing features with standard deviation used to assign error levels on each bar.The tested sorghum varieties showed highly significant (p<0.001) variations for all measured agronomic, phenological and physiological traits (Table 2). The magnitude of variation in the measured traits helps to select varieties that combined desired traits for Raya valley areas, which is affected by frequent terminal drought. The flowering time was ranged from 65.33 days (for variety Meko) to 92.22 days (for variety Mereawi) (Table 3), with a difference of 27 days between the two varieties. Meko was the earliest maturing variety with 101.44 days followed by Melkam (~113 days). On the other hand, Kodom took longer time (141 days) to mature and was late by 40 and 28 days compared to Meko and Melkam, respectively. This showed that there has been genetic diversity in the tested sorghum varieties for phenological traits variations.Table 2. Mean square values from analysis of variance for phenological ‡, agronomic § and physiological$ traits due to variety, fertilizer rates and their interaction effects. Note: a = significant at 5% significance level, b = significant at 1% level of significance, c = significant at 0.1% level of significance, ns = non-significant.   The difference in the tested sorghum varieties for other traits such as PH, PL, PW, BY and GY, was highly significant (p<0.001). The mean difference in PH ranges from about 2.6m for variety America to 1.43m for variety Mereawi. Consequently, the highest BY was recorded from the tallest variety, America while the other shorter variety, Meko, gave the lowest BY which implies that BY linearly associates with plant height (Table 3). The extent of variation among the varieties for PL and PW was large where the longest (31cm) and most compact (99.5cm) panicle was recorded from the variety Melkam while the shortest (18.37 cm) and lighter (75.2 gram) panicle was recorded from Dagnew and Mereawi respectively (Table 3). It is well accepted that yield components such as PL and PW are indicators for varietal yield performance.The result showed that the highest (5878 kg ha -1 ) GY was obtained from Dagnew and the second highest (4808) GY was obtained from Melkam variety, which is early maturing next to Meko and having long and dense panicle (Table 3). On the other hand, the lowest (3930 kg ha -1 ) GY was obtained from Meko, the earliest maturing variety. The early maturing varieties, Meko and Melkam, have produced lighter seeds compared to the other varieties.The late maturing variety, Kodom, has produced the heaviest (51.67) grains compared to the other varieties, which might imply that this variety benefited the most from the supplementary irrigation in extending its grain filling period. The knowledge of varieties performance for LA and LAI in the drylands is very important to select resource use efficient varieties.This study showed that the LA and LAI of the tested sorghum varieties ranged from 7270 (Kodom) to 3083 (Woitozera) and 4.85 (Kodom) to 2.05 (Woitozera), respectively (Table 3). Grain yields of field crops are dependent on their rates of growth and on the efficiency with which they partition dry matter to the different plant organs. Low yielding varieties, Meko and Dagnew, had lower LA and LAI while the high yielding varieties Dagnew and Melkam varieties had high LA and LAI values (Table 3). Leaf area (LA) and leaf area index (LAI) are important indicators of radiation and precipitation interception, energy conversion and water balance.The effect of fertilizer ranged from significant (p<0.05) on DH and DF to highly significant (p<0.001) on the remaining traits implying that the difference in response to applied fertilizers inflicted during grain filling stages (Table 2). Both NP and the new NPSZn have affected the performance of sorghum varieties over the control (Table 3). NP fertilizer significantly affected phenological traits (DB, DF, and DM) when compared with the control, while NPSZn did not affect these traits significantly compared to the control. NP and NPSZn fertilizers have improved the performance of agronomic and physiological traits over the check but it didn't show statistically significant effect due to the two fertilizers on most of the traits except on PH and LAI. Averaged over genotypes the tallest (213.3 cm) plant was recorded from plots treated with blanket NP application. On the other hand, the highest LAI (3.46) was recorded from NPSZn treated plants.The applied fertilizer types improved the yield and yield components of the sorghum varieties over the unfertilized plots. The mean PL and PW due to the application of NPSZn increased by 2 cm and 11.54 grams, respectively over the unfertilized performance. Averaged over genotypes, the mean BY, which is important for livestock feed and fencing in some cases, has increased by 18.4% and 16.8% due to application of NPSZn and NP fertilizers, respectively. Similarly, an increase of 19.6% and 16.3% for GY was obtained from application of NPSZn and NP, respectively over the control (Table 3). The current study found that application of both types of fertilizers had significant effect on GY, BY and other related traits.The analysis of variance showed that the important traits such as PW, GY and TGW were not significantly affected by the interaction effect of genotypes (G) and applied fertilizers (E).(  . Sorghum Genotypes interaction with applied fertilizers effect on sorghum PH (A), PL (B) and BY (C) traits under unfertilized (control), 100 Kgha -1 NP combinations and NPSZn blend (17.7 Kg ha -1 N, 35.3Kg ha -1 P2O5, 6.5 kg ha -1 S and 2.5Kg ha -1 Zn).The BY of sorghum varieties was significantly affected by the applied fertilizer types (Table 2; Fig 4). The degree of its increment due to the applied fertilizers greatly differed from variety to variety. In Gombilu and Woitozera the application of NPSZn increased the BY by 18.4% and 8.6%, respectively over NP treated plants. Compared to the unfertilized plants, BY increment of 50.6% and 17.8% was obtained in these varieties due to NPSZn application. On the other hand, some varieties such as Dagnew and Mereawi responded well to NP fertilization (Fig 4). The results showed that there is genetic difference among the sorghum varieties in their response to the applied fertilizer types. Yet, the magnitude of the interaction effect between varieties and fertilizer types on PW, TGW and GY was not statistically significant despite larger numerical differences recorded (data not shown).Similarly, the interaction between varieties and fertilizer types imposed significant (p<0.01) effects on physiological traits: LA and LAI (Table 2). The result from the V×E effects on LA and LAI was presented in figure 5 . Effect of sorghum genotypes and fertilizers interaction on sorghum physiological traits (A=LA and B=LAI). Control= unfertilized, 100 kg ha -1 NP combinations and NPSZn blend fertilizer (17.7 kg ha -1 N, 35.3 kg ha -1 P2O5, 6.5 kg ha -1 S and 2.5 kg ha -1 Zn).The eight sorghum varieties are genetically different for the studied phenological, agronomic and physiological traits; this is in par with the work of Boyles et al. (2019). Variability for phenological traits especially maturity time is very important trait in dryland farming systems where terminal drought is a major production constraint. This genetic variability can be exploited by growers and breeders to respond to the impact of climate change on crop production. In Raya valley, identification of early maturing varieties for any crop is  Assefa et al., 2020).This implies that the earliness of Meko and yielding potential of Melkam could be repeatable over environments and can be concluded that earliness in Meko and high yielding of Melkam could be genetically controlled. Our result showed that the local varieties were late maturing compared to the two improved varieties. Melkam was the second early maturing and second high yielding variety (Table 3). The tallest PL and densest PW was recorded for Melkam variety while the shortest PL and lighter PW were recorded for Woitozera and Mereawi varieties, respectively. The result presented in Table 3 showed that the genetic variation for GY ranged from 3930 kg ha -1 for Meko, an improved variety, to 5878 kg ha -1 for Dagnew, a local sorghum variety. The second-high yielding (4808 kg ha -1 )was Melkam which was also the second early maturing variety. The combination of earliness and high yielding capacity makes Melkam the most preferred variety in dryland environments. The current result agreed with other scholars finding who reported the superiority of Melkam variety for GY in moisture stressed areas (Assefa et al. 2020;Abduselam et al., 2018).The genotypic variation for BY ranged from 9108 kg ha -1 for Meko variety to 17111 kg ha -1 for America variety (Table 3). It was observed that the improved varieties had lower BY compared to the local varieties presumably due to their shorter height. Variation in sorghum varieties for BY was reported by other scholars as well (Assefa et al., 2020;Fantaye and Hintsa, 2017). The genotypic variation for TGW ranged from 37.67 g to 51.67 g for Melkam and Kodom varieties, respectively, which imply that the local sorghum varieties produced heavier seeds than the two improved varieties (Table 3). The variations observed in yield and yield related traits could be due to variation in growth parameters like LA and LAI.The varieties showed significant variation for LA and LAI whereby the highest LA (7270 cm 2 ) and LAI (4.85) were recorded from Kodom variety while the lowest LA (3082 m 2 ) and LAI (2.05) were recorded from Woitozera variety. Variety Melkam had the second highest LA (6231 cm 2 ) and LAI (4.15). Such genetic variations in sorghum varieties for LAI is important as LAI influences photon capture, photosynthesis, assimilate partitioning as well as growth and yield formation in crops (Tsialtas and Maslaris, 2008;Rosenthal and Vaderlip, 2004). Genotypic difference in sorghum varieties for LAI was also reported by Olugbemi and Ababyomi (2016).The effect of applied fertilizer types was apparent on all studied traits (Tables 2 & 3).Although traits from fertilized plants did significantly differ from respective mean values over the unfertilized control, no significant difference existed between plants treated with NPSZn and NP fertilizer. There was slight delay in reaching heading, flowering and maturity time due to application of both types of fertilizers over the control. Similarly, higher mean values for each agronomic and physiological trait were obtained from fertilized plants (Table 3), which shows that the sorghum varieties positively responded to the applied fertilizer regardless of its type. Despite absence of statistical significance numerical advance in mean values of most agronomic and physiological traits was obtained from NPSZn treatment.Previous study conducted on few sorghum varieties involving rates of blended fertilizers and NP reported the absence of significant difference between NPSZn and NP rates on most phenological, agronomic and physiological traits (Gebrekokos et al., 2017). The result shows that sorghum varieties responded well to NP and NPSZn fertilizers even though the response to the two fertilizer types was not substantially separated probably due lack of sufficient rates for NPSZn.The significant variety × fertilizers interaction effect was observed for most traits but was not significant on PW, TGW and GY (Table 2; Figs 3-5). The non-significance of variety × fertilizer interaction effects on PW, TGW and GY does not necessarily indicate the absence of the effect rather it implies the magnitude of variation expressed by G×E could be small and not sufficiently detected (Saltz et al., 2018). Gombilu and Melkam varieties treated with NPSZn fertilizer matured earlier than under the zero and NP treatments. Woitozera, Meko and Dagnew varieties have delayed the maturity time under both NP and NPSZn treatments.The results imply that the varieties differently interacted with the applied fertilizers. Among The BY of all varieties was positively affected by the application of NP and NPSZn fertilizers over the unfertilized control. Slightly higher BY was harvested from NPSZn treated plants for Woitozera, Gombilu, Meko and Melkam varieties. On the other hand, the BY of Mereawi and Dagnew was higher under NP treatment. This clearly showed that there could be genetic variations in responses of the varieties to applied fertilizers. These differences in BY due to the fertilizer types might be related to the differential nutrient uptake and translocation under the different fertilizers' treatment (Redai et al., 2018;Kurmar et al., 2010). Gebrekorkos et al. (2017) also reported that some sorghum varieties responded differently to NPSZn and NP fertilizers. In other crops such as Maize, application of blended fertilizers reported to increase productivity (Chimdessa, 2016).The variety × fertilizer type interaction effect on physiological traits (LA and LAI) was significant (Table 2; varieties was also reported by other scholars (Gebrekorkos et al., 2017;Addai and Alimiyawo, 2015).There was vast genetic variation among the tested sorghum varieties for phenological, agronomic and physiological traits. The improved varieties, Meko and Melkam, matured earlier than the local varieties. Melkam can be considered as best variety for Raya valley area, prone to terminal drought, for combining earliness and high yielding. Application of NPSZn and NP fertilizers could bring different degree of performance improvement in sorghum varieties. Averaged over varieties, application of NPSZn and NP fertilizers has produced a yield advantage of 19.6% and 16.3% over the unfertilized control, which implies that fertilizer application is an important management practice in sorghum production. The non-significant effect of variety × fertilizer interaction on some traits such as PW, TGW and","tokenCount":"3989"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2dc5e12542e28257d47f41d535ae185b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e08110ef-b645-4bfe-8ce3-0e7e70fbedc0/retrieve","id":"-819965384"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9921ed9-4de1-4d4d-9d1d-4b8dc7b1642b","pagecount":"5","content":"Inefficient management and use of water is unanimously the most single constraint of agricultural production of Ethiopia. The study was conducted to assess the effect of livestock feed sourcing and feeding strategies on livestock water productivity (LWP) in mixed crop-livestock production systems of the Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopian Highlands. Three districts representing diverse agricultural farming systems were considered. Each district further stratified to different farming systems. Multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was employed to select farm households. Household survey, group discussions and plant biomass sampling were done to generate data on beneficial outputs, water depleted and feed sourcing and feeding strategies. LWP was estimated as a ratio of livestock's beneficial outputs and services to depleted water. The results indicated that the major feed sources were mainly from crop residues (58.5 to 78.2%), natural pasture (10.9 to 33.4%) and aftermath grazing (9.9 to 24.3%) in study farming systems. The feed source from energy dense (improved forages) was low. The feeding strategies were relatively similar among the study farming systems. No apparent difference (P>0.05) was observed in LWP within all districts among the farming systems and the value falls between USD 0.15-0.19 m -3 . However, LWP difference was observed within clustered wealth status within all farming systems and lower value of LWP general observed for the poor farm households. Such differences of LWP values can be accounted for by the strategies farm households are following in feed sourcing and how water productive those feed sources are. Hence, in the context of this work, options to improve LWP mainly involve sourcing water productive and higher quality feed.Media grab: Improving feed sources, feed quality and feeding system increases water productivity and hence LWPWater competition among different uses and users can hinder meeting increasing food-feed demands (Benin et al. 2006). For decades, long irrational communal exploitation of land, has led to competition over land and water and thus caused water scarcity in Blue Nile Basin (WFP 2007). The Nile basin in Ethiopia contains about 27.6 Tropical Livestock Unit (TLU) per km 2 (Breugel et al. 2007) but livestock's requirements for and impact on agricultural water uses have been largely ignored (Peden et al. 2007;Peden et al. 2008). Globally, current animal production depletes more than 1 × 10 12 m 3 of water per year only for feed and this is about one seventh of the global water depletion for agriculture (Peden et al. 2007). However, by 2020, livestock will likely produce more than half of the total global agricultural output in monetary value. This will place a significant extra demand on agricultural water resources; especially for livestock feed production. Hence, emerging understanding suggests that better integration of livestock and water development can help improve agricultural water productivity in the Blue Nile basin (Peden et al. 2007). A livestock water productivity framework enables a better understanding of livestock-water interactions. However, little is known about water depleted to produce feed, the efficiency with which feed is converted into animal products and services and the impact animals have on water resources in different landscape of crop-livestock system. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of current feeding strategies and feed sourcing on livestock water productivity in different farming systems and landscapes of the mixed crop-livestock systems of Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia.This research was undertaken in Diga, Jeldu and Fogera Districts, as part of the Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) project. Three study watersheds one from each district were selected. The watersheds identified were; Dapo from Diga, Meja from Jeldu and Mizewa watershed from Fogera.A multi stage stratified random sampling technique was employed to select farm households. Household survey, group discussions, feed resources assessment using harvest index and plant biomass sampling were done to generate data on beneficial outputs, water depleted and feed sourcing and feeding strategies. LWP was estimated as a ratio of livestock's beneficial outputs and services to depleted water.Sufficient and quality feed resources availability are some of the major determinants of livestock productivity. In all study systems, majority of sample farmers responded that crop residues, green grass from natural pasture and aftermath grazing are major feed resources. The contribution of each of these feed ingredients to the diet of livestock varies across study systems. Generally, for all farming systems, the crop residues contribution to feed on a dry matter basis ranged from 58.5 to 78.2%. But the point is as to whether these major feed sources; crop residues, influence the livestock water productivity in mixed crop livestock systems of Ethiopia. The grazing land and aftermath grazing contribution on dry matters basis ranged from 10 to 33 and 9 to 24% in study systems, respectively. Decline of areas and dwindling of biomass productivity of grazing lands in the study areas are some of the major concerns. What is encouraging in terms of future improvement of dry matter productivity and associated LWP is the huge yield gaps between these traditional practices and research managed intervention. For example, in Fogera as much as 10.8 t dry matter yield per hectare was reported (Ashagre 2008) from improved natural pasture. By closing yield gaps as high as 100%, improvement in LWP is reported for mixed crop livestock systems of India (Haileslassie et al. 2011). Moreover, the results of this study demonstrated that improved forages production and feed supplementation (e.g. bran, oil cake) were rarely practised in all study sites. This indicates that to date adoptions of technologies are generally limited to peri-urban and urban areas. The relevant question here is probably as to why policy measures that enhance improved forage production could not be implemented and as to whether policy recommendations, if they exist, are system specific or generalized.In teff-millet system of Diga, about 34.3% of respondents practice tethering of livestock on grazing land. However, in Jeldu and Fogera, most of the private grazing lands were grazed by herding and some of it used for hay making. About 95.6 and 96.7%, of respondents practice giving small amount of crop residues to livestock near homestead in farming systems of Jeldu and Fogera, respectively. About 76.1 to 96.8% of respondents did not practice any treatments or improvements made during feeding to increase the quality of straws in all study systems.Although the magnitude of LWP varies across systems and study sites, differences were not statistically significant. LWP is derived from number of data sets and assumptions. Therefore the reason for similarity or divergence of LWP values among systems can trace back to those data sets. A simple example is the livestock beneficial outputs and the water depleted for feed production in the study system. The beneficial output on TLU basis, for example, does not show many discrepancies among system. This implies that the farming practices from which the beneficial outputs mainly derived is very similar. Probably difference emerges when considered at farmers' wealth category level where difference in land holding is important and thus beneficial outputs from livestock services differed between farm households. One major trend worth mentioning here is that in areas of higher beneficial outputs (e.g. Fogera rice system) as the results of livestock density, the water depletion for feed was very high and this offset the LWP value. Generally, LWP values for the study farming systems falls between USD 0.15 m -3 to USD 0.19 m -3 . The LWP estimates of this study, for rice system, was comparable with the study of Haileslassie et al. (2009) (USD 0.15 m -3 ) of Gumera watershed. Cook et al. (2008) also suggests those kinds of variability to the temporal and spatial scales at which livestock production systems are analysed and strong fluctuations in water availability related fluctuations in livestock productivity. Descheemaeker et al. (2010) also suggested that the amount of water used by different feed types and the influence of management practices and agro-ecological conditions lead to variation of LWP value.The value of LWP (USD 0.25 m -3 to USD 0.39 m -3 ) from a controlled experiment reported by the Geberselassie et al. (2009) shows greater values than this study. This may be due to the difference of feed composition, animal age and weight under considerations. This indicates that there are options to increase LWP by improving feed quality in the study areas. To understand more if there are any LWP differences related to household access to resources, LWP estimates in the study were disaggregated into household clusters. The livestock water productivity, for example, among wealth group within each farming system varies. Generally, the livestock water productivity of poor smallholder is lower than other wealth clusters. The average value of LWP among wealth status in this study lies between USD 0.08 m -3 to USD 0.23 m -3 per household for all farming systems. The fact that the range among wealth categories is wider than the system scale suggests also higher opportunities to improve LWP by targeting farmer's livelihoods. Such big differences of LWP values among farm households can be accounted for by the strategies farm households are following in feed sourcing and how water productive those feed sources are.• Currently, in all of the study farming systems, crop residues constitute the major ingredient of livestock diet.Supplementary feeding with high value feed is not commonly practised. Hence, strategic way of feed source diversification (forage production), improvement of quality and improved feeding strategies are important entry for feed productivity improvement and hence LWP values.• System scale LWP did not show apparent divergences between farming systems as the farm scale did. The farm scale showed a very wide range between the resources of poor and better off farmers. Such big gap of LWP for farm households operating in the same farming system suggests a potential for improvements. Hence, to exploit this potential, policy measures that build farmers' capacity to access key livelihood assets (e.g. land and livestock) is important.","tokenCount":"1633"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"efd3bbf9c8be5e665e83c31c3726ea5b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/16d15166-c00a-4bb5-8f3d-a61354375f2a/retrieve","id":"-2005800653"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f1b95e61-026e-431c-8454-d8eb9c597b10","pagecount":"4","content":"Pérez, W. 1 ; Gamboa, S 1 .; Forbes, G.A. 2 y J. Andrade-Piedra 3   1 Centro Internacional de la Papa [CIP]. Lima, Perú. E-mail: w.perez@cgiar.org. 2 CIP. Beijing, China 3 CIP. Quito, EcuadorLa papa es producida en 19 de los 24 departamentos del Perú y es uno de los principales cultivos alimenticios debido al área sembrada [260,000 ha/año], número de productores que dependen de ella [600,000], aporte a la economía nacional (11% del Producto Bruto Interno agrícola) y aporte a la dieta humana [consumo promedio de 68.4 kg/habitante/año] [19]. Por su ubicación geográfica y condiciones climáticas determinadas por la cordillera andina y la corriente marina de Humboldt, en el Perú se siembra y cosecha papa prácticamente durante todo el año, aunque en diferentes proporciones de acuerdo a la altitud y épocas de cultivo y cosecha [11].El tizón tardío es la principal enfermedad que se presenta en el cultivo de la papa, especialmente en los valles interandinos y áreas cercanas a la vertiente oriental amazónica. La severidad de la enfermedad varía de acuerdo al área geográfica de producción y al tipo de control utilizado [11]. [27] reportó inicialmente que en el Perú, el número promedio de aplicaciones de fungicidas por campaña para controlar al tizón era de 6, sin embargo [9] y [23] reportaron hasta 12 y 15 aplicaciones de fungicida por campaña respectivamente. La característica principal del uso de plaguicidas por parte de los agricultores en Perú es que dichos productos no son usados en las dosis recomendadas, hay desconocimiento del tipo de fungicidas a utilizar, existe un deficiente diagnóstico de la enfermedad y hay un alto riesgo para la salud humana por la no utilización de equipos de protección personal [26].El tizón tardío afecta principalmente a la papa (Solanum tuberosum), tomate (S. lycopersicum) y pepino dulce (S. muricatum). Se ha reportado infección natural en 47 especies : S. medians, S. montanum, S. senecioides , S. tuberiferum, Nolana gayana, N. humifusa , S. laxissimum; S. sitiens, S. bukasovii , Lycopersicon chilense, L. peruvianum, L. pimpinelifolium, S. lycopersicoides, S. ochranthum, L. pennelli, S. sitiens [4], S. tuberosumssp. andigena, S. goniocalyx, S. chaucha, S. phureja, S. stenotonum, S. acaule, S. ancophilum, S. bill-hookerii, S. cajamarquense, S. cantense, S. chiquidenum, S. chomatophilum, S. gracilifrons, S. hastiforme, S. huancabambense, S. hypacarthrum, S. jalcae, S. medians, S. mochiquense, S. multiinterruptum, S. orophylum, S. paucissectum, S. piurae, S. raquialatum, S. simplicissimun, S. sogarandinum , S. wittmackii [16], S. caripense, S. hirsutum,S. peruvianum y S. megistacrolobum [W. Pérez, datos no publicados].P. infestans. Según [3] los primeros reportes del tizón tardío de la papa en el Perú datan del siglo pasado. Los primeros estudios de caracterización fenotípica de P. infestans fueron realizados por [1,2], mientras que Tooley realizó los primeros trabajos de caracterización molecular del patógeno [34], posterior a ellos [29] y [14,15] continuaron con estos estudios. P. andina. En el Perú el tomate de árbol (S. betaceum) es un cultivo subutilizado a diferencia de otros países de la región andina donde es producido extensivamente con la finalidad de exportar y aprovechar sus frutos comestibles. [13] reporta la presencia de P. andina en Perú afectando en forma específica a este hospedante.P. infestans. Diversos estudios realizados con aislamientos provenientes de diferentes lugares y hospedantes han determinado la presencia solo del grupo de apareamiento A1 en el Perú [2,28,35] La hipótesis de una frontera sexual del patógeno entre el grupo de apareamiento A1 del Perú y el grupo de apareamiento A2 predominante en Bolivia no fue confirmada en los estudios realizados en el 2001 [29]. P. andina. Los aislamientos colectados de tomate de árbol en Oxapampa [Pasco] fueron apareados con aislamientos conocidos de P. infestans del grupo de apareamiento A1 y produjeron oosporas, por lo que se infirió que los aislamientos de P. andina pertenecen al grupo de apareamiento A2 [Pérez, W datos no publicados]. La prueba de PCR usando el marcador ligado al locus de apareamiento propuesta por [20] confirmó que los aislamientos peruanos de P. andina pertenecen al grupo de apareamiento A2 [S. Gamboa, datos no publicados].Diversidad genética, linajes clonales, grupos de microsatélites P. infestans. [34] en 1989 reportó que la población de P. infestans en el Perú era similar a la de México, Estados Unidos y Europa dominada entonces por el linaje US-1. En el 2001, [29] reportó el cambio poblacional y determinó que linaje EC-1 era dominante en el país, también reportó a los linajes US-1, PE-3, PE-5 y PE-6 que se encontraban en menor proporción y restringidos a determinadas zonas. [16] encontró asociación entre los linajes EC-1, US-1, PE-3 y PE-7 y el hospedante del que fueron aislados. [14] reportó que la mayoría de los aislamientos de P. infestans colectados en el Perú presentan las variantes alélicas ipiO1, ipiO2 y ipiO3, hizo mención especial de la presencia de aislamientos del linaje US-1 que no contienen el alelo ipiO1 pero si el alelo ipiO4. [18] plantea la hipótesis que la diversidad de P. infestans en Los Andes ha sido producto de una migración global junto con un proceso de hibridación entre poblaciones establecidas vía eventos independientes de migración. P. andina. Los aislamientos colectados de S. betaceum en Perú y algunos aislamientos provenientes de la sección Anarrhichomenum colectados en Ecuador están agrupados en un sub-clade diferente al de los aislamientos colectados en el mismo hospedante en Ecuador y Colombia. Estos datos son confirmados con los resultados de RFLP y de haplotipo mitocondrial que indican que los aislamientos peruanos pertenecen al linaje EC-2 presente también en Ecuador pero diferente al linaje EC-3. Los aislamientos de P. andina colectados en Oxapampa (Pasco), Perú solo infectan S. betaceum [S. Gamboa, datos no publicados].Estudios realizados en campos de papa situados entre 3718 y 4090 m.s.n.m. de los Andes centrales del Perú, se determinó que la enfermedad con mayor incidencia afectando la papa era el tizón tardío [datos no publicados]. Estos resultados corroboran con lo previsto por el modelo agroclimático GEOSIMCAST usado para generar mapas de riesgo al tizón tardío, que determinó que la enfermedad aumentará en las zonas más altas y situadas a mayor altitud debido al cambio climático [17].Perú, con sus condiciones tan variables de clima, fue el lugar en donde se realizó la modificación y validación del simulador LATEBLIGHT para condiciones de trópico de altura al final de la década de los 90, utilizando las variedades Amarilis, Yungay y Amarilis [5,6].Se están caracterizando aislamientos de Phytophthora spp. colectados de Urera laciniata Goudot ex Wedd. Y S. chrysotrichum Schltdl, así como también aislamientos de P. infestans de diversas zonas agrícolas del Perú.La Escuela de Campo de Agricultores [ECAs] se implementó en el Perú en 1998 como una propuesta de capacitación intensiva enfocada en fortalecer las capacidades y experiencias de los agricultores principalmente en el manejo integrado del tizón tardío de la papa. Como resultado del auto aprendizaje y una eficiente toma de decisiones, los agricultores incrementaron el rendimiento del cultivo y obtuvieron un beneficio adicional de US$ 236 / ha como resultado del conocimiento adquirido en las ECA´s [25,36].Las doce variedades de papa más difundidas en el Perú fueron evaluadas en campo de acuerdo a la escala de susceptibilidad al tizón tardío propuesta por [35]. Se confirmó la pérdida de resistencia de la variedad Canchan y Amarilis y se estableció en forma cuantitativa la susceptibilidad de las variedades a diferencia de la terminología ambigua que fue usada al momento de su liberación [7].El CIP ha desarrollado módulos de capacitación para fortalecer las competencias de los agricultores en el manejo del tizón tardío [10] y actualmente se está validando tres herramientas para la toma de decisiones (DSS) en el control de la enfermedad diseñados especialmente para agricultores de subsistencia y apropiados para las regiones tropicales/subtropicales.Principales moléculas químicas aplicadas para el control del patógeno e información sobre los niveles de resistencia del patógeno P. infestans. Los fungicidas mayormente usados en el Peru para el control del tizón tardío son el cymoxanil , metalaxil [11], mancozeb, dimetomorf y benalaxyl [33]. [33] reportó la existencia de 23 ingredientes activos de fungicidas que son usados en el cultivo de la papa, muchos de los cuales son usados para el control del tizón tardío pero sin tener el registrado para su uso contra esta enfermedad, como por ejemplo, el carbendazim. Aislamientos del linaje EC-1 colectados en Huánuco mostraron bajos niveles de resistencia al cymoxanil, sin embargo ocurre lo contrario con el metalaxyl -M en el cual la concentración más alta aplicada en el campo estuvo por debajo del promedio de EC50 que se encontró en pruebas de laboratorio e invernadero [30]. El uso de fosfonatos a dosis de 2.5 g i.a./litro tuvo similar control del tizón tardío que los fungicidas de contacto mancozeb y clorotalonil usados a las mismas dosis [21]. P. andina. No se han realizado estudios sobre el control químico del tizón afectando S. betaceum. Estimación de las pérdidas actuales causadas por el patógeno en los cultivos de papa P. infestans. Los agricultores de los Andes Peruanos indican que el tizón tardío es uno de los principales problemas que afectan el cultivo de papa ocasionando pérdidas incluso hasta en un 100% [28]. Un estudio realizado en 1992 determinó que la enfermedad ocasionaba pérdidas de 6 t/ha [8]. P. andina. El tomate de árbol en el Perú está restringido a jardines y parcelas de reducida escala comercial por lo que no se han realizado estudios sobre las pérdidas ocasionadas por P. andina.Las principales variedades de papa que se cultivan a nivel nacional son Yungay y Canchan, otras variedades tienen predominancia regional como Liberteña y Amarilis en la sierra norte [33], y en el caso de las variedades nativas Amarilla Tumbay, Peruanita, Huayro, Huamantanga, Amarilla del Centro, Camotillo y Tayacaja son producidas principalmente en la sierra centro y sur del Perú [24].En el Perú al igual que en otros países, la industria de procesamiento promueve el uso de variedades que tienen buenas características para el procesamiento pero tienen bajos niveles de resistencia al tizón tardío como es el caso de Diacol Capiro y Canchan [24]. Debido a la aparición de poblaciones del patógeno más virulentas y agresivas, variedades como Canchan y Amarilis perdieron su resistencia genética [7,12], la cual combinaba la resistencia vertical y horizontal propia de la población A de mejoramiento genético del Centro Internacional de la papa (CIP) [22] a la cual también pertenecen las variedades Perricholi y Serranita que también son utilizadas en la industria de procesamiento.El Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA) del Perú ha liberado variedades como Chucmarina y Anteñita con altos niveles de resistencia horizontal alto rendimiento y buena calidad para mesa e industria y que pertenecen a la población de mejoramiento B3C1 del CIP. De igual manera ha liberado variedades como Pallay Poncho, Puca Lliclla y Antiplano que pertenecen a una población mejorada (B1C5) a partir de variedades nativas de S. tuberosum spp. andigena, seleccionadas por su alto nivel de resistencia horizontal, alto rendimiento y sobretodo que mantienen la forma de la variedad nativa como la diversidad de colores de piel, contenido de materia seca, etc. [19]. En trabajos de búsqueda de resistencia genética realizado por el CIP se encontró 19 accesiones de cultivares nativos con mejores o similares niveles de resistencia al tizón tardío que la variedad Chucmarina [31]. En trabajos con especies silvestres se encontró que las especies S. urubambae, S. violaeimamoratum, S. cantense, S. cajamarquense, S. orophilum, S. velardei y S. wittmackii presentaban altos niveles de resistencia a la enfermedad [32].","tokenCount":"1896"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/1871846881.json b/data/part_6/1871846881.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f8d04d55667deaf1e64c92731244885ed4d97cf1
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"71448ba9886354538b4d66404220ba93","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/351641a1-8194-4e0d-88ef-04a9d4bc9621/retrieve","id":"1816211666"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a06fe986-f5da-41f7-bd88-9e41f42938ff","pagecount":"1","content":"The introduction & adoption of the 3G system by public and private seed producers changed the availability of basic seed in Kenya dramatically.More efficient starter seed production can be pursued through further adaptation of existing RMTs, like the successful introduction of aeroponics technology (Fig. 1 and pictures), which in the increased multiplication rate from plantlets more than 6 fold (Fig. 2). Moreover, the technology attracted private sector involvement in the seed potato business. This helped to increase minituber production from 30,000 to 1,000,000 within 3.5 years (Fig. 3).Before the introduction of aeroponics and the involvement of the private sector the annual basic seed potato production was ranging between 35-80 tons, with the aeroponics within a period of less than two years about 850 tons of G3 seed (equivalent to basic seed) was realized, in particular by private sector actors (Fig. 4).Potato yields in Eastern Africa are between 6-10 t*ha -1 . One of the main reasons for this low yield is the use of poor quality seed potato. Currently the formal seed system is only able to supply less than 1% of the country's demand and on-farm management of seed borne diseases is hardly practiced. Viruses and other seed borne diseases can cause severe seed degeneration leading to reduced yield, quality and income. Viral infections like PVY, PLRV and bacterial wilt are the main diseases affecting seed quality in the region.To increase the availability of high grade seed potato, CIP together with its national partners, has developed an innovative seed strategy which both lowers the cost of quality seed potato and coupled with extension based interventions to train smallholders in better on-farm management of their own seed. Engagement with the private sector as a means to widen the supply base and satisfy demand for quality seed is also a key component of the strategy.The \"3 G\" seed strategySeed quality plays a pivotal role in the improving the paltry yields of potatoes in Eastern Africa. To overcome the supply crisis of high quality seed serious investment has to be done in seed sector. The \"3G\" approach involved private sector actors for making available seed to farmers in three generations instead of the usual seven or more provided one of the best opportunities to exploit the contribution of the potato to improving livelihoods.The '3G seed potato revolution\" a strategy to overcome the shortage of quality seed potatoes in Eastern Africa-experience from interventions in KenyaThe \"3G\" project, implemented in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, from, 2008-2011 was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the US Agency for International Development (USAID). As result of project interventions and in particular improved accessibility to quality seed and capacity building, farmers have witnessed an increase in their production . From their experimental plots where farmers compared farmer practice (FP) seed (unselected) with the positive selected (PS) and 3G seed potatoes. Farmers observed improved plant vigor, less number of plants affected by BW and viruses, and a yield increase of 84 and 180 % with PS and 3G seed, respectively.(Fig. 5).  To evaluate the combined effects of seed quality and plant nutrition, fertilizer levels of 0, 45 and 90 kg*ha -1 N: P: K were applied to G3 and FP seed at eight sites. Tuber yields increased with increasing fertilizer levels with both seed qualities. The G3 seed yielded 4.3 t*ha -1 higher with no fertilizer than FP seed with 90 kg N: P: K *ha -1 , underscoring the importance of seed quality (Fig. 6).  ","tokenCount":"582"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/1890814406.json b/data/part_6/1890814406.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..fb0c814c986f1764267859b9911de0df50611b3c
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b192ce06ab5f625cc6d75942a38753b9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c7939980-128a-4687-866c-9cae282cb5f0/retrieve","id":"-771819061"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"20cb6193-53e1-4a6b-9393-3f05bc23753a","pagecount":"4","content":"Future Seeds replaces the original genebank of the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Palmira, Colombia, which has outgrown its capacity, and will continue to house its current collections of vital crops. These collections have been assembled over the past four decades from around the world, and constitute a veritable treasure trove of bean, cassava, and tropical forage species, varieties, and landraces. Future Seeds will not only hold the global collections of beans, cassava, and tropical forages for humanity, with more than 67,000 different materials, but will also expand its collections to other essential crops and their wild relatives, thus supporting global food and nutrition security. *LEED: Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is granted by the US Green Building Council. *LBC: Living Building Challenge, is granted by the International Living Future Institute.Future Seeds is a state-of-the-art genebank, now part of the CGIAR's 11 international genebanks strategically located in centers of crop diversity. Future Seeds aims to:Efficiently and effectively conserve and distribute the genetic resources of three key food and feed crops: beans, cassava, and tropical forages.Innovate to improve conservation methods and uncover the hidden value of genetic resources to enable more targeted use of crop diversity to accelerate genetic gains.Engage the public to raise awareness of the vital role of crop diversity and contribute to policy dialogue on equitable sharing of the benefits of crop diversity.The current genebank has distributed more than 500,000 seed samples to 142 countries since 1973. The main countries are Colombia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Costa Rica, Italy, Peru, El Salvador, Zambia, China, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, India, Japan, Holland, and Panama.Distribute free samples to farmers and researchers around the world. By adding 30% more storage space, Future Seeds will secure more wild varieties and landraces, which may hold the secrets to higher temperatures, drought, and flooding.A new module, the Data Discovery and Biotechnology Lab, will facilitate new discoveries by leveraging genomics and big data technologies to further improve crops for higher yields, better nutrition, and climate resilience. Scientists around the world will have free and open access to the digital passports for these crops, speeding up collaboration and discoveries.Future Seeds also serves as a genetic library from which plant breeders can continue to develop new varieties of nutritious crops that are adapted to specific growing conditions around the world.Approximately 75% of crop diversity has been lost in the last century. Future Seeds can provide the sowing material needed to rebuild agricultural losses by providing countries with varieties adapted to local conditions. 04 05 23,958.37 square meters of construction + green areas 7,035.17 square meters of construction 6,428.96 square meters of canopy Through Future Seeds, the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT will also collaborate with partner genebanks around the world and the network of CGIAR genebanks in optimizing protocols for cryopreservation and ensuring plant health, and hosting collections (including safety duplicates of other key crops). In addition, a new generation of genetic resource scientists will be trained at Future Seeds. Future Seeds is the first genebank in the world built with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Desigs) platinum level certification. It features an iconic, energy-efficient building design that includes an external \"skin\" canopy to repel solar radiation, solar energy harvesting panels, thermal control, natural ventilation, and rainwater harvesting.The windThe roof is designed to let in sunlight, but only as much as necessary, so that heat does not accumulate. This large pergola protects the spaces it covers with its shade and allows them to be open to the landscape, to the wind, to the singing birds.Since it rains about 100 days a year in Palmira, we take advantage of the generosity of the local climate. Therefore, at Future Seeds we take all the water we need from the rain and then treat the used water before returning it to the land.The habitatThis building is intended to behave like a tree, a forest, and a canopy. It is built with the most environmentally friendly materials. Its structure, like the branches of the saman tree, is open to the landscape, the light, the air, and the rain.We want the building to have LEED Platinum V4* and LBC Petal* sustainability certifications, which will not make it a tree, forest, canopy, but we hope that the certifying bodies will recognize our effort to make it look like one.The vegetation we plant is native to the region or adapted to the local climate and needs only rainwater to thrive. It also attracts birds and insects and maintains the health of the soil.The building's black and gray water is treated and filtered in a closed cycle.The sanitary fixtures and faucets are water efficient.We wanted the construction materials to be the least polluting for environment. sustainable not only implies thinking about the and finite resources, also about our wellbeing, that is why the paint and plumbing have less materials that are harmful to our health.Near Future Seeds there is a solar panel plantation that provides almost half of the electrical energy the building needs to operate. In addition, the use of efficient lighting, cooling systems and materials that reduce energy consumption, make this place always environmentally friendly.","tokenCount":"864"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/1903906559.json b/data/part_6/1903906559.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9ba8ba81f3edf5ab141258aea2d0c1dc9b1ed521
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_6/1903906559.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"14f7c1407f4d48864d72ea40414d4606","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0257902e-a821-429f-a4a6-cf1aa213bbf8/retrieve","id":"708893260"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0a1b39a8-bd46-4a08-b83e-4cc3a9bb4687","pagecount":"4","content":"A gricultural landscape provide a range of ecosystem services apart from producing crops. However, the inter-linkage of the ecosystem services and agricultural activities is poorly understood. For over 50 years, agriculture has been conducted without considering the natural ecological processes that safeguard agricultural production in the long run. To ensure that agricultural systems are sustainable, we have to make sure that the crucial ecosystem functions in the natural landscape are protected. Agricultural intensification, dramatic land use changes, application of agrochemicals and intensification of resource utilization are among the factors contributing towards biodiversity loss. The process of agricultural intensification is associated with an increase in labour inputs, increase use of natural and artificial fertilizer, use of improved seeds, change in technologies, change in agricultural mechanization & frequency of cultivation, changes to the landscape such as irrigation or soil conservation measures. The agricultural inputs, for instance, have altered the key-hydrological processes of rivers, lakes, floodplains and groundwater-fed wetlands, damaging their ecosystems and services that they provide.Agricultural intensification affects large parts of terrestrial area, therefore, assessment of its contribution to biodiversity loss is critical for successful conservation in the future. December, 2016 environment, and maintains the benefits that ecosystems provide to farmers, communities, and the nation as a whole. Therefore, while there is little doubt that the agricultural intensification enables massive increase in agricultural yields in the cluster and beyond, negative environmental impacts cannot be ignored. The aim of this brief is therefore to highlight the contribution of agricultural intensification to ecosystem services availability in Ihemi cluster.There are various threats and challenges towards sustainable ecosystems management in Ihemi cluster. Concerted efforts are needed in addressing them. People should be empowered to understand and practice sustainable agricultural management. Responsible authorities should ensure that the National Environmental Management Act of 2004 that oversees all issues on environment is enforced.A range of qualitative and quantitative tools and techniques were used in ecosystem services and agricultural intensification assessment. The project team gathered a range of opinion across gender, age-group and wealth status. Data was collected across the two regions, five districts and 20 villages based on nature and level of agricultural activities performed, and ecosystem services obtained from the landscape. Representatives from over 607 households were surveyed and about 15 investors interviewed. Direct observation were also made to support the identification of ecosystem services availability to corroborate what has been explained by respondents and informants. The approach used was meant to identify key resource users, nature of use of the ecosystem services, main resources harvested and use pattern. Separate analysis was carried out for qualitative and quantitative data and a combined comprehensive interpretation was employed to provide meaning of the analysed data. Results indicate that provisioning services are highly demanded by the majority of community members and their availability are increasingly scarce. Apart from provisioning services, investors in the area rely also on regulating function of the ecosystem because a well-functioning ecosystem supply the soil with needed nutrients that support plant growth and agricultural activities.People in Ihemi cluster harvest forest products for different purposes including materials for construction, fuel, raw materials for pharmaceutical industry, traditional medicines, and necessary conditions for growing food. The trend depicted by members in Ihemi cluster matched elsewhere around the world. Availability of these services around Ihemi cluster is decreasing due to several reasons. Ihemi cluster is pressured by a growing demand for land to increase agricultural production through investments, tree planting and clearing of natural forest for different uses such as agriculture, urbanization and the draining of natural wetlands -valley bottoms for agriculture popularly locally known as vinyungu. Their conversion to agriculture has impacted on the water resources by causing some rivers to dry-out or becoming seasonal. The sustainability of water supply is the Ihemi cluster is jeopardized by the human actions. To continue enjoying the ecosystem benefits, measure need to be put in place to facilitate tree planning, improved energy stoves, sustainable farming, etc. All the districts need to continue emphasizing tree planning, using of improved energy stoves and improving community awareness on bottom valley cultivation since these mostly are water catchment areas.Cutting down trees for energy has contributed to the negative impact to the environment by cutting down trees which in turn leads to deforestation. Although most of the firewood used especially in Njombe come from wattle tree remains, the consumption rate is not equivalent to the regeneration capacity. Population increase in the area has also led to the increase in demand of firewood and other ecosystem resources. Traditional medicine that used to be readily available and highly used by majority, it has been scarce and difficult to find due to deforestation. To continue enjoying the ecosystem benefits, measure need to be put in place to facilitate tree planning, improved energy stoves, sustainable farming, etc.Most of the wetlands (vinyungu) are water sources for the most rivers in the cluster. Their conversion to agriculture has impacted on the water resources by causing some rivers to dryout or becoming seasonal. The sustainability of water supply is the Ihemi cluster is jeopardized by the human actions. Equally important is a realization that farming in the Ihemi cluster not only occurs in the valley bottoms (vinyungu) but also in the dry land and notably in the high rainfall forested steep slopes area. Farming in steep slopes results into erosions thus generating a lot of sediments that discharges into the wetlands/valley bottoms and rivers. Owing to this, most of the rivers in particular the Little Ruaha River which is the main river flowing the Ihemi cluster has silted up and its channel capacity has been reduced substantially.Irrigation practices in most areas are still traditional and inefficient coupled with very low productivity. Even where the irrigation schemes have been improved, the on-farm water management is inappropriately practised. Along with this is the improper use of agricultural inputs including pesticides. This is largely attributable to lack of extension services on proper agronomic practices. It is important to note that irrigation waters that return to either groundwater or surface waters can contain salts, pesticides, or have elevated levels of nutrients such as nitrate and phosphorous. These contaminants in turn can cause harm to plant and animal life that depend on the returned water.• Design a comprehensive policy that will balance socio-economic activities with action to protect vital ecosystem services ","tokenCount":"1051"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/1929471512.json b/data/part_6/1929471512.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1a15aad75dd766abc5b0811ee309e894674344fc
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a944f7c16324ce2ad88d777a9972534","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6500e0af-da74-4f3d-8cd8-4bda5cb140ae/retrieve","id":"-1712322818"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"319ec583-6430-4b8a-8e2f-0db991c9fd3a","pagecount":"25","content":".The Board, as part of its risk assessment management role, approved a risk management statement at the meeting held in March, 2006 and will continue to monitor and manage these iisks to the best advantage of the Center activities.The Board recognizes its responsibility for the financial statements in the interest of stakeholders and donors, and in responsibilities towards the Center's employees, collaborating farmer communi ties and its operating environment.On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I would like to thank the management and staff for their dedication and perseverance in facing the challenges of re-settling in Cotonou, Benin within the last two years to December 2006. We would like also to put on record our appreciation of our donors, collaborating national institutions and the CGIAR partners for their continued support and cooperation towards meeting the laudable mission of the Center, which is aimed at alleviating poverty and enhancing income of resource-poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The Board of Trustees of WARDA has responsibility for ensuring that an appropriate risk management process is in place to identify and manage major and significant risks to the achievement of the Centre's business objectives, and to ensure alignment with CGLAR principles and guidelines as adopted by all CGIAR Centres. These risks include operational, financial and reputation risks that are inherent in the nature, l710dllS operandi and locations of the Centre's activities. They are dynamic owing to the environment in which the Centre operates. There is potential for loss resulting from inadequate or failed intenial processes or systems, humaii factors or external events. Risks include low impact science (and therefore irrelevance); inisallocation of scienrific efforts away from agreed priorities; loss of reputation for scientific excellence and integrity; business disruption and information system failure; liquidity problems; transaction processing failures; loss of assets, including information assets; failures to recruit, retain and effectively utilize qualified and experienced staff; failures in staff health and safety systems and; failures in the execution of legal, fiduciary and Centre responsibilities.The Board has adopted a risk management policycoininunicated to all staffthat includes a framework by which the Centre's management identifies, evaluates and prioritises risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies which balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and periodically reports to the Board on results. This process draws upon risk assessments and analysis prepared by staff of the Centre's business unit, internal auditors, Centre-commissioned external reviewers and the external auditors.The risk assessments also incorporate the results of collaborative risk assessments with other CGIAR Centres, System Office components, and other entities in relation to shared risks arising from jointly managed activities. The risk management framework seeks to draw upon best practices, as promoted in codes and standards promulgated in a number of CGIAR member countries. It is subject to ongoing review as part of the Centre's continuous improvement efforts.. Risk mitigation strategies include the implementation of systems of internal controls, which, by their nature, are designed to manage rather than eliminate risk. The Centre endeavours to manage risk by ensuring that the appropriate infrastructure, controls, systems and people are in place throughout the organization. Key practices employed in managing risks and opportunities include business environmental scans, clear policies and accountabilities, transaction approval frameworks, financial and management reporting, and the monitoring of metrics designed to highlight positive or negative performance of individuals and business processes across a broad range of key performance areas. The design and effectiveness of the risk management system and internal controls is subject to coordination through a Risk Management committee and ongoing review by the Centre's internal audit service, which is independent of the business units, and which reports on the results of its audits directly to the Director General and to the Board through its Audit Committee.The WARDA Board and management have reviewed the implementation of the risk management process during 2006 and the Board is satisfied with the progress made. . .The Association receives funds and assistance from the CGIAR which comprises international and regional organizations, also from its Member States and International aid Agencies. The accounts are prepared under the historical cost convention. The significant accounting policies, which have been applied consistently with the previous year, are set out below.(i)The Financial Statements are prepared and presented in accordance with the recommendations made in the CGIAR Financial Guidelines Series N\"2: Accounting Policies and ReportingPractices Manual (March 2004) which are in conformity with International Accounting Standards (IAS) for not-for-profit organizations.The Financial statements of the Association are presented using the accrual basis of accounting except for contributions from Member States, for operations which are recognized as revenue in the fiscal year following the one in which they are collected.All grants whether restricted or unrestricted, are recognized as revenue upon fulfillment of the donor-imposed conditions, or the donor has explicitly waived the conditions.They are classified according to the type of donor-imposed restriction. Pledges in currencies other than in US dollars are recorded at the exchange rates prevailing at the time of receipt or, if outstanding, at the rate of exchange prevailing at the year-end.Monetary assets and liabilities in currencies other that the US dollars are restated at market rates of exchange prevailing at the year-end. Differences in exchange are accounted for in the statement of activities.The introduction of revised CGIAR accounting Financial Guidelines No.2 effective from year 2004 has resulted in a change in the treatment of Fixed Assets acquired through restricted project finds. The depreciation rates for all such purchases have been revised to 100% during the year of purchase in line with these guidelines.Likewise, the treatment of Fixed Assets intended to revert to Host Countries in the event that WARDA ceases operations in that country have been revised. The assets constructed or purchased effective January Ist, 2005 will now be capitalized in accordance with the new guidelines.The annual depreciation rates are as follows:Land * With an exception for Land Buildings and Instalations constructed in Benin which have been depreciated at an accelerated rate of 20% in line with the Board approved decision to remain in the new temporary location for 5 years.A provision is made to meet the terminal relocation allowance in accordance with the contracted amount for each international staff member. This provision takes into account a new Board approved policy that no allowance is payable before one full year of service, and is further prorated for the period between one and two years of service before attaining the full sum contracted.Inventories of materials and supplies are stated at the lower of acquisition cost or net realizable values. Acquisition cost is determined using the moving average method.Materials in transit are stated at invoice cost.In accordance with the agreements between WARDA and the Ivorian and Benin governments signed on September 26, 1989 and December 14, 2004 respectively, the Association, its assets, exempt from all taxes on salaries and benefits for their activities at WARDA.The financial statements do not include grants in-kind, but these are disclosed in as detailed below:The following countries and institutions provided support in the form of seconded scientific personnel to the Association during the year. The costs were borne by the donors based on a fair valuation of the services provided by these personnel as shown below, whilst WARDA provided the necessary operational services and utilities.       ","tokenCount":"1206"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/1931403264.json b/data/part_6/1931403264.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0244750f7b9944d9796247a435a767ecec3178a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_6/1931403264.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5fbf96533920407f3c95885030d591da","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c038536d-f07e-4b61-9104-30578df3ba26/retrieve","id":"-2086842671"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba781e86-ba2b-41c7-8294-ec08f31fb4ef","pagecount":"26","content":"Sustainable intensification schemes such as integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) are a proposed strategy to close yield gaps, increase soil fertility, and achieve food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Biogeochemical models such as DayCent can assess their potential at larger scales, but these models need to be calibrated to new environments and rigorously tested for accuracy. Here, we present a Bayesian calibration of DayCent, using data from four longterm field experiments in Kenya in a leave-one-site-out crossvalidation approach. The experimental treatments consisted of the addition of low-to high-quality organic resources, with and without mineral nitrogen fertilizer. We assessed the potential of DayCent to accurately simulate the key elements of sustainable intensification, including (1) yield, (2) the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC), and (3) the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of CO 2 and N 2 O combined.Compared to the initial parameters, the cross-validation showed improved DayCent simulations of maize grain yield (with the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency (EF) increasing from 0.36 to 0.50) and of SOC stock changes (with EF increasing from 0.36 to 0.55). The simulations of maize yield and those of SOC stock changes also improved by site (with site-specific EF ranging between 0.15 and 0.38 for maize yield and between −0.9 and 0.58 for SOC stock changes). The four cross-validation-derived posterior parameter distributions (leaving out one site each) were similar in all but one parameter. Together with the model performance for the different sites in cross-validation, this indicated the robustness of the DayCent model parameterization and its reliability for the conditions in Kenya. While DayCent poorly reproduced daily N 2 O emissions (with EF ranging between −0.44 and −0.03 by site), cumulative seasonal N 2 O emissions were simulated more accurately (EF ranging between 0.06 and 0.69 by site). The simulated yield-scaled GHG balance was highest in control treatments without N addition (between 0.8 and 1.8 kg CO 2 equivalent per kg grain yield across sites) and was about 30 % to 40 % lower in the treatment that combined the application of mineral N and of manure at a rate of 1.2 t C ha −1 yr −1 . In conclusion, our results indicate that DayCent is well suited for estimating the impact of ISFM on maize yield and SOC changes. They also indicate that the trade-off between maize yield and GHG balance is stronger in low-fertility sites and that preventing SOC losses, while difficult to achieve through the addition of external organic resources, is a priority for the sustainable intensification of maize production in Kenya.In Kenya, as in many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), maize yields have remained low; on average they have been 1.7 t ha −1 compared to the global average of 5.6 t ha −1 over the last decade (2011-2021;FAO, 2023). This contributes to the low self-sufficiency of food production, with around 20 % of the Kenyan population facing severe food insecurity (World-Bank, 2021b). If yields are not improved, increased population growth will further deteriorate food self-sufficiency and food security in general in the coming decades (Zhai et al., 2021), especially considering expected yield declines resulting from more frequent extreme weather events (Lobell et al., 2011). One of the key limitations to sustainable maize production in SSA is the insufficient use of mineral fertilizer and organic inputs (Vanlauwe et al., 2010). Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) is a sustainable intensification practice that can alleviate these limitations by combining the use of mineral fertilizers with organic inputs (Vanlauwe et al., 2010). Several studies have reported that ISFM has the potential to more than double maize yields in Kenya, especially on infertile soils, due to its positive impact on soil fertility, including soil organic matter (SOM) content (Chivenge et al., 2009(Chivenge et al., , 2011)). Furthermore, increasing SOM can help mitigate adverse effects of climate change, offering considerable potential in carbon-depleted soils across SSA (Corbeels et al., 2019). However, the effectiveness of ISFM in increasing yields strongly depends on local site conditions, such as soil and climate (Chivenge et al., 2011).To close yield gaps in a resource-efficient way and to assess the climate change mitigation potential of ISFM, we need to understand the long-term effects of ISFM practices at a larger scale. Ideally, this would be facilitated by implementing a large number of long-term experiments across a representative range of soil and climatic conditions. However, the significant costs, labor, and time required to maintain longterm experiments limit the number of sites for evaluating the variable effects of ISFM practices under site-specific conditions. In addition, relying on statistical predictive techniques to upscale results from a limited number of sites may lead to low predictive power and large errors because it is unlikely that the effects of soils and climate on yield and SOM would be fully captured in the statistical models.Biogeochemical process-based ecosystem models, such as DayCent (Parton et al., 1998;Del Grosso et al., 2001), simulate the effects of important driving variables on crop yield and SOM formation using semi-mechanistic functions developed through decades of agronomic and soil research. Because they (partly) embed our current understanding of the complex ecosystem processes, they are more robust for scaling up the yield potential (Saito et al., 2021) and the SOM building capacity (Lee et al., 2020), compared to statistical predictive techniques. However, to avoid bias in model output, it is best practice that models are calibrated and eval-uated for local conditions (Necpálová et al., 2015), especially when applied in novel contexts such as different climate zones with different soils.Although DayCent has been used to estimate SOM stock changes in Kenya on a national scale (Kamoni et al., 2007) and recently to assess the impact of conservation agriculture on SOM in Ethiopia (Lemma et al., 2021), its modules of SOM and maize crop growth have never been rigorously calibrated and evaluated for tropical agroecosystems in SSA. A recent evaluation of DayCent in Kenyan maize systems showed that SOM turnover is underpredicted by the model (Nyawira et al., 2021). Because SOM is coupled to nitrogen (N) mineralization in biogeochemical models, there is the potential that this translates into biased crop responses to N addition and biased crop productivity predictions in any upscaling exercise. A potential solution to this issue is the simultaneous calibration of soil and crop parameters in Day-Cent using data from local long-term experiments. Ideally, this calibration would include the uncertainty in the model parameters and model outputs (Clifford et al., 2014), so an estimation of uncertainties is possible in upscaling exercises (Stella et al., 2019). This is especially relevant given a recent study showing considerable uncertainty in DayCent's SOM turnover rates, even when calibrated using a range of longterm experiments (Gurung et al., 2020).In order to use DayCent to assess the potential of ISFM to reduce yield gaps while minimizing environmental impact in Kenya and other SSA countries, this study aimed at using a Bayesian calibration to derive robust DayCent parameters of SOM cycling and maize growth in Kenya. With robust, we mean that the model evaluation statistics are representative of applying the model to new sites with the same climate and soils. We used the experimental data of four long-term ISFM experiments conducted in Kenya over nearly 2 decades (Laub et al., 2023a, b). Of these, two sites were in humid western Kenya and two were in subhumid-to-semiarid central Kenya.The first objective of our study was to evaluate to what extent DayCent can reproduce the differences in yields and SOM development in response to the addition of different qualities and rates of organic resources combined with different rates of N fertilizer for a number of contrasting sites. The second objective was to evaluate the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of different addition rates of organic material in ISFM to find the optimal balance between limiting GHG emissions from the soil and optimizing crop yield (that is, sustainable intensification). The reason for this was that ISFM can be a source of N 2 O to the atmosphere (Leitner et al., 2020), but compared to standard practices, it reduces soil organic carbon (SOC) losses or even increases SOC (Laub et al., 2023a), thereby mitigating CO 2 emissions.The specific steps to reach the objectives of this study were (i) to test the capability of an uncalibrated version of Day-Cent to simulate yield and SOC development of the different ISFM practices; (ii) to calibrate DayCent to represent ISFM under Kenyan conditions using experimental data from four long-term experiments, displaying the uncertainty in model parameters by Bayesian calibration; and (iii) to use the calibrated model to gain understanding of the GHG balance of the different ISFM treatments.2 Material and methodsThe present study used data from four long-term field experiments in Kenya, in which the effect of the addition of different organic resources at different rates was tested, either alone or in combination with the application of mineral nitrogen fertilizer, in the context of ISFM. The sites are located in agriculturally important areas in central and western Kenya (Supplement Fig. S1). The Embu and Machanga sites are both located in Embu County, in the central part of Kenya. The Aludeka site is situated in Busia County in western Kenya, while Sidada is located in the adjacent Siaya County, south of Busia (Supplement Table S1). The experiments at Embu and Machanga began in early 2002, while those at Aludeka and Sidada began in early 2005. Therefore, 19 years of data was available in central Kenya and 16 years of data was available in western Kenya (2 sites × 16 years + 2 sites × 19 years = 70 site years = 140 site seasons). The sites cover a range of altitudes, temperatures, and precipitations. Embu, with a mean annual temperature (MAT) of 20 °C and an annual precipitation of 1200 mm, is the coolest site, while Machanga has a MAT of 24 °C and the lowest annual precipitation (800 mm). Sidada (23 °C, 1700 mm) and Aludeka (24 °C, 1700 mm) have a high MAT and receive significantly more precipitation than the sites in central Kenya. There are two rainy seasons at each site, corresponding to two maize growing seasons per year. The long rainy season occurs from March to August or September, while the short rainy season occurs from October until January or February. In terms of soil texture, Machanga and Aludeka have low clay content (13 % clay at both sites), while Sidada and Embu are rich in clay (56 % and 60 %, respectively).All experiments were set up as a split-plot design with three replicates, with different qualities and quantities of organic resources as main plots and the presence or absence of mineral N fertilizer as subplots. Maize was grown continuously in all experiments, with two crops per year, one in the long rainy season and one in the short rainy season. The experimental design was identical at all four sites and has been described in detail in earlier publications (Chivenge et al., 2009;Gentile et al., 2011;Laub et al., 2023a, b). Organicresource treatments consisted of high-quality Tithonia diversifolia (TD) green manure, high-quality Calliandra calothyrsus (CC) prunings, low-quality stover of Zea mays (MS), low-quality sawdust from Grevillea robusta trees (SD), locally available farmyard manure (FYM), and a control treatment (CT) without organic-resource additions. Organic re-sources differed in quality by the contents of N, lignin, and polyphenols (Supplement Table S2). Each organic resource was applied once a year at two rates, 1.2 and 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 , while mineral nitrogen fertilizer was applied at a fixed rate of 120 kg N ha −1 (CaNH 4 NO 3 ) in each of the two growing seasons. Of this, 40 kg N ha −1 was applied at planting, and the remaining 80 kg N ha −1 was applied about 6 weeks later. Organic resources were applied only once a year, prior to planting in the long rainy season, i.e., in January or February. They were incorporated to a depth of 15 cm with hand hoes. Furthermore, a blanket application of 60 kg P ha −1 as triple superphosphate and of 60 kg K ha −1 as muriate potash at planting was provided to all plots each season. The plots were kept weed free by hand weeding, two to three times per season, and selective application of pesticides was used when necessary to control armyworm, stem borer, and/or termites.DayCent (2017 version of DD_EVI) is a terrestrial ecosystem model of intermediate complexity (Del Grosso et al., 2001). It simulates daily C and N fluxes within the soilplant-atmosphere continuum and has been parameterized for several crops and ecosystems (Necpalova et al., 2018). It has submodules to simulate plant growth and organicresource and soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition, including mineralization of N, soil water and temperature, N gas fluxes, and CH 4 oxidation. The net primary productivity (NPP) of plants is a function of their genetic potential, a simplified phenology, solar radiation, temperature, and stresses such as reduced water or N availability. Here, we used the non-growing degree day version of the DayCent crop module that does not simulate phenology but has a seedling stage with reduced growth until a certain biomass (full canopy) is reached. SOC and soil N in the topsoil are represented by an active, slow, and passive SOM pool, while litter and organic resources are represented by a structural-and metabolic-litter pool (Parton et al., 1987). All SOM pools are conceptual and have no measurable counterparts, whereas the litter pools are semi-quantitative. Their division is based on the measurable ratio of lignin to N in the organic resources and plant litter. DayCent can adequately simulate crop yields, SOC and soil N dynamics, and N 2 O emissions in temperate conditions (Del Grosso et al., 2005;Necpálová et al., 2015;Necpalova et al., 2018;Gurung et al., 2020Gurung et al., , 2021)), but a recent paper showed inadequate performance for tropical conditions (Nyawira et al., 2021).To provide an overall assessment of the performance of DayCent for its use in Kenya, a leave-one-site-out crossvalidation approach was applied to evaluate the model performance. Specifically, this involved using a data subset from https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3691-2024 Biogeosciences, 21, 3691-3716, 2024 three of the four sites for model calibration, with evaluation performed using the data from the fourth site. This process was repeated four times, every time with another site serving as the evaluation site. Different data were used for this: maize grain yield and the aboveground biomass, both on a dry matter basis, were available for each cropping season between 2002 and 2020 (further details in Laub et al., 2023b). All these data were used with one exception -the short rainy season of 2019 at Sidada, which had unrealistically high maize grain yields of up to 16 t ha −1 . In addition, plot-scale SOC and total N contents in the top 15 cm soil layer were available at several time points and in 2021 for the 0-30 cm soil depth. At Embu and Machanga, soil samples were taken every 2 to 3 years since the start of the experiment in 2002 until 2021, while at Sidada and Aludeka, soil sampling occurred only in 2005, 2018, 2019and 2021(further details in Laub et al., 2023a)). Because soil bulk density data were not available for most time points and there was no significant difference in topsoil bulk density between treatments at any site in 2021, the mean soil bulk density per site was used to calculate SOC stocks of the top 15 cm of soil depth. We used a DayCent parameterization that was developed to simulate SOC stocks of the IPCC-recommended (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 0-30 cm topsoil layer (Gurung et al., 2020) (further details in Sect. 2.3.2). Thus, the 0-15 cm SOC stocks were adjusted to 0-30 cm depth. This was done by adding the site-specific SOC stocks from the 15-30 cm layer (specifically, the 15-30 cm equivalent soil-mass-based ones; Wendt and Hauser, 2013;Lee et al., 2009) to the treatment-specific SOC stocks from 0-15 cm. Due to limited data availability for the 15-30 cm soil depth (only 2021), this approach was considered the most conservative and robust; subsoil carbon usually changes very slowly, and a statistical test revealed no differences in the equivalent soil-mass-based SOC stocks of the 15-30 cm layer (2.5-4.7 t soil ha −1 ) between treatments at the same site in 2021 (with only one single exception at Aludeka; Supplement Fig. S2). Data on N 2 O emissions were used in the model evaluation phase but not for model calibration, due to their scarcity and high uncertainty. The N 2 O measurements were conducted after N fertilization in 2005 (weekly measurements from March to June at Embu and Machanga and daily measurements at Machanga in November), in 2013 and 2018 (weekly measurements from March to the beginning of May at Sidada and Aludeka), and in 2021 (weekly measurements from mid-March to mid-May at Sidada). The measurements applied the static-chamber method (Hutchinson and Mosier, 1981) with two measuring frames per plot permanently installed for a whole rainy season (one within, one between maize rows). The sampling chambers (0.27 × 0.375 × 0.11 m) had a vent tube and fan for homogenizing the gas sample before extraction with a 60 mL polypropylene syringe through a septum-sealed sampling port. Four gas samples were collected at 0, 15, 30, and 45 min of chamber closure. Gas samples from within and between maize rows were combined per time point in the same syringe (Arias-Navarro et al., 2017). All analyses were conducted using an SRI 8610C gas chromatographer (456-GC, Scion Instruments, Livingston, United Kingdom) equipped with an electron capture detector for N 2 O analysis. Fluxes per surface area were determined using the linear slope of gas concentration over time (Pelster et al., 2017;Barthel et al., 2022). Simulated N 2 O emissions were evaluated against measured daily and cumulative N 2 O emissions. To determine the cumulative emissions at the plot scale, we used the trapezoid method (Levy et al., 2017), specifically, the trapz function of R (Tuszynski, 2021). Treatment-scale means and variances of the daily and cumulative N 2 O emissions were then computed in a similar way as for the other measurements.Finally, continuous soil moisture measurements were conducted using sensors placed in each replicate at 10 cm soil depth (EC-5 Soil Moisture Sensor, METER, Germany) in the control and the 1.2 t C plots of the Calliandra, farmyard manure, and maize stover treatments at the Sidada and Aludeka sites (March 2018 to December 2020). These soil moisture data were used to initially determine the optimal pedotransfer functions for soil hydraulic conductivity but not used in the model calibration.The site-specific crop management data were obtained from season-and site-specific records of field management operations. These included dates of organic-resource application, manual plowing before planting, maize planting, split application of mineral N, weeding, and harvest. Dates of pesticide applications and gap filling or maize thinning were also available, but these operations are not part of standard Day-Cent management and were therefore not included in modeling. Therefore, our model runs assumed no occurrence of pests or diseases and an optimal plant density at emergence, which, in practice, was ensured by manual thinning and gap filling.Recorded weather data existed for all sites, but filling in data gaps was necessary due to the unavailability and loss of recorded data. At Embu and Machanga, manual recordings of daily minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation were available from 2002 until the end of 2007, but from 2008 until 2017, only measured precipitation was available. After 2017, newly installed TAHMO stations (https://tahmo. org/climate-data/, last access: 16 May 2022) were available for these two sites, providing daily values for temperature and precipitation. At Aludeka and Sidada, manual recordings of daily minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation were available for all years from 2005 to 2017. Thereafter, weather stations (METER climate station, METER Environment, Munich, Germany) were installed and provided the data. Data gaps were filled using the NASA POWER product (https://power.larc.nasa.gov/docs/methodology/, last access: 19 May 2022). A bias correction for the minimum and maximum temperature of NASA POWER data was performed, using a linear regression with measured data as the dependent variable (y) and NASA POWER data as the independent variable (x). Specifically, the slope and intercept of the regression equation y = mx + b were used to produce a corrected estimate of these data. In our specific case, the slopes were not significantly different from 1, but intercepts (b) were significantly different from 0. The specific intercepts for the maximum temperature were −0.3, −0.4, +3, and +6 °C for Embu, Machanga, Sidada, and Aludeka, respectively. The intercepts for the minimum temperature were −0.25, −0.5, −3, and +1 °C for Embu, Machanga, Sidada, and Aludeka, respectively. For precipitation, no bias correction was done.The data on the soil hydraulic properties needed in Day-Cent (volumetric soil water content at field capacity, wilting point, and saturated hydraulic conductivity K S ) were calculated based on the soil texture measured at each site. The pedotransfer functions of Hodnett and Tomasella (2002) were used because they were specifically designed for tropical soils. Their soil hydraulic properties also showed better agreement between the measured and simulated soil moisture contents than when soil hydraulic properties of Saxton and Rawls (2006) were used. Because the Hodnett and Tomasella (2002) equation does not provide a method to estimate K S , K S was calculated using the Saxton and Rawls (2006) equation, with values of the water retention curve, α and n (van Genuchten, 1982), calculated with the equation from Hodnett and Tomasella (2002). The equations can be found in Supplement Sect. S1.It was assumed that the organic-resource inputs had the same properties across all sites (i.e., mean values of lignin contents and C/N ratios per organic resource were assumed; Supplement Table S2). This approach was used because measurements were not available for all sites and years and was justified as an analysis of variance of data from the years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 at Embu and Machanga, as well as from 2018 at all sites, did not indicate any significant differences in lignin contents and C/N ratios between the sites or years. The C content of maize grain was assumed to be 42.5 % throughout the simulation period. This was the mean value of measured grain C content across sites (standard deviation of 1.8 %) in the short rainy season 2018 and long rainy season 2019 (data not shown). Given the strong correlation between maize grain yield and aboveground biomass in the measured data (r = 0.87), the aboveground biomass data were transformed to harvest index data for the model calibration process because harvest index had a lower correlation with yield (r = 0.59) than aboveground biomass. The DayCent simulations were conducted at the treatment scale using average values across all three replicate plots for soil parameters (i.e., soil texture, bulk density, pH), SOC and soil N stocks, maize grain yield, and aboveground biomass/harvest index. This aggregation was done to reduce the computation time of the simulations and because initial tests showed similar model performance as compared to applying the model to each experimental replicate individually. The site-specific standard deviation for each type of measurement was used as a measure of uncertainty in the measured data (computed from the three replicates at each time point for each treatment at each site). This choice was based on the statistical models of Laub et al. (2023a, b), showing variance heterogeneity between sites but not between treatments.The standard parameter values of the DayCent 2020 version were taken as initial model parameters, with three exceptions. First, we used the adjusted decomposition parameter values of the SOM pools from Gurung et al. (2020) to allow for the use of DayCent for simulating SOC stocks of the 0-30 cm soil depth layer instead of the standard 0-20 cm layer. Second, we modified the parameter value representing the fraction lost as CO 2 upon structural-litter and lignin turnover (ps1co(1&2)&rsplig). The default value for this parameter is 0.5, assigning a carbon use efficiency (CUE) value of 50 % to structural litter, based on outdated theories that lignin-rich materials form stable SOC most efficiently (Frimmel and Christman, 1988). Newer studies have, however, clearly shown that minimal structural litter is conserved in the long term, while metabolic litter forms SOC more efficiently (Cotrufo et al., 2013;Denef et al., 2009;Puttaso et al., 2013;Kallenbach et al., 2016). Thus, we opted for a more realistic prior value of 0.85 for ps1co(1&2)&rsplig, corresponding to a more plausible CUE value of 15 % for structural litter (Mueller et al., 1997). Third, for the parameters determining the minimum and maximum proportion of nitrified N lost as N 2 O, we used values that fell between the DayCent default values and recent values from Gurung et al. (2021). This choice was motivated by the fact that the Day-Cent default parameter values led to excessively high emissions, while the Gurung et al. (2021) parameter values resulted in emissions that were too low. Finally, we assumed that the maize growth parameters of the second highest production level (C5 in DayCent) represent best the production levels observed in the experiment.To identify which model parameters to include in the global sensitivity analysis (see Sect. 2.4) and model calibration, we reviewed the literature for recently conducted sensitivity analyzes of the DayCent model (Necpálová et al., 2015;Gurung et al., 2020). Additionally, we consulted the DayCent manual to identify and add further parameters of potential importance for the processes considered in our study (i.e., plant productivity and soil C and N cycling). This resulted in a selection of 66 parameters (Table 1 and Supplement Table S3). Some of these parameters belong to the same category but can be individually calibrated in DayCent. For example, the \"tillage multiplier\" of SOM turnover can have different values for different SOM pools but is usually the same for all SOM pools in the standard DayCent parameterization. Thus, we decided to have the same tillage multiplier value for all SOM and litter pools. Some parameters can have different values between the surface and soil SOM pools (e.g., C/N ratios and turnover rates). For simplicity, we assigned the same C/N ratios and a constant ratio to the turnover rates of surface and soil SOM pools (i.e., decX(2)/decX(1), with X being a number between 1 and 5, representing each of the five defined SOM pools). This simplified parameter sensitivity analysis and calibration with regard to surface and soil SOM pools. Finally, the parameters governing the minimum and maximum values were reformulated. Instead of calibrating them as a maximum and a minimum value, we considered the maximum value and the difference between the minimum and maximum values (i.e., N2Oadjust_(max−min) and aneref(1) − aneref( 2)). This ensured that the minimum value was smaller than the maximum value, thereby avoiding numerical problems (initial N2Oadjust_max was set to 0.015; N2Oadjust_(max − min) was set to 0.003).Instead of relying on spin-up simulation based on uncertain historical land use and management of the simulated sites, we used measured mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) fractions as a proxy for the initialization of the passive SOM pool (Zimmermann et al., 2007). Replacing SOM initialization assumptions with measured proxies can enhance model performance (Laub et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2023) and, more importantly, is less sensitive to user assumptions. It also aligns with the DayCent concepts on SOM; the manual (Hartman et al., 2020) denotes that particulate organic carbon (POC) and MAOC are related to the slow and the passive SOM pool, respectively. MAOC data for samples from the 0-30 cm soil layer were available from the year 2021 (specifically for the control −N, control +N, and the farmyard manure −N and Tithonia diversifolia −N treatments at 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 at all sites). It was derived by density fractionation using a sodium polytungstate solution (1.6 g cm −3 for Aludeka and 1.7 g cm −3 for the other sites). Aggregates were dispersed with ultrasonication at 400 J mL −1 (217 s at 200-240 W), after which samples were centrifuged for 2 h at 4700 rpm to separate the heavy and the light fraction, which were then separated, washed with deionized water, dried at 60 °C for 24 h, and analyzed for weight and C content. A statistical analysis revealed the absence of treatment differences within the same site, so the site-specific MAOC values for the 0-30 cm soil depth across treatments (0.91, 0.88, 0.85, and 0.86 g MAOC g −1 SOC for Aludeka, Embu, Machanga, and Sidada in 0-30 cm, respectively) were used to initialize the SOC in the passive SOM pool in DayCent simulations. Further, 3 % of initial SOC was assigned to the active SOM pool (mean value recommended in the DayCent manual), and the remainder of SOC was assigned to the slow SOM pool.The DayCent manual further states that, although the slow SOM pool is closely related to the POC fraction, it tends to be larger (Hartman et al., 2020). Consequently, the passive SOM pool must be smaller than the MAOC fraction. Additionally, the fractionation data were from 2021, when the experiments were already 19 and 16 years old. To address these issues, two new parameters were introduced in the simulations: (1) an intercept (IC MAOC ) to account for the passive SOM pool being smaller than the MAOC fraction and (2) a slope for the time since the start of the experiment (SL t ) to account for SOM changes (mostly losses) since the start of the experiments, with the passive SOM pool typically changing at the slowest rate. Given that all sites were converted to agriculture only a few decades ago (Laub et al., 2023a), the percentage of total C in the passive SOM pool at the start of the experiment should be higher than the 30 %-40 % that is common at the steady state of SOM pools (Hartman et al., 2020). Considering this, it was assumed that the intercept's initial value was −0.1 g MAOC g −1 SOC and the slope's initial value was −0.005 g MAOC g −1 SOC yr −1 since the start of the experiment, giving both terms approximately the same weight. Thus, the fraction of SOC in the passive SOM pool at the start of the experiment was SOC p (g g −1 ) = MAOC 2021 + IC MAOC + SL t × t dif .(1)Here, SOC p represents the fraction of SOC in the passive SOM pool at the start of the experiment, MAOC 2021 is the MAOC fraction in 2021 (g MAOC g −1 SOC), IC MAOC is the intercept, and SL t is the slope value that is multiplied by the time difference between the measurement and the start of the experiment in years (t dif ). With the selected standard values for IC MAOC and SL t , between 66 % (Machanga) and 73 % (Aludeka) of SOC were assumed to be in the passive SOM pool at the start of the experiment. The uncertainty related to this initialization approach was accounted for in the model calibration by allowing large ranges for these parameters. Finally, to initialize the soil N pools, C/N ratios of the active, slow, and passive SOM pools were set to 10, 17.5, and 8.5, respectively, which are the best estimates provided by the manual (Hartman et al., 2020).To reduce the number of optimized parameters during the calibration, we performed a parameter screening (van Oijen, 2020). For this purpose, a global sensitivity analysis was conducted to quantify the relative importance of different model parameters to the relevant model outputs regarding our study's focus on maize yield and the greenhouse gas mitigation potential of ISFM. The aim was to identify and fix less influential model parameters to their initial values, reducing the computational cost for performing the consecutive Bayesian model calibration (see Sect. 2.5). The global sensitivity analysis was performed using the Sobol method (Saltelli, 2002a, b), which allows for the estimation of the proportion of variance in the model outputs that is explained by each model parameter while considering the first-order and higher-order interaction terms (Gurung et al., 2020). The \"sensitivity\" package (function sobolSalt; Iooss et al., 2021) of R version 4.0 (R Core Team, 2020) was applied. This function implements a simultaneous Monte Carlo estimation of first-order and total-effect Sobol indices. The computational cost is N (p + 2) model runs, with N being the dimension of the two matrices to construct the Sobol sequence and p being the number of parameters (66 in our case). Our tests indicated similar results for N = 500 and 1000, so we chose a dimension of 1000. The preselected model parameters to include are described above and in Table 1 and Supplement Table S3. The ranges used for the global sensitivity analysis were centered around the initial parameter value obtained as described above (Sect. 2.3.2). The upper and lower parameter boundaries were based on previous sensitivity analyses (e.g., Necpálová et al., 2015;Gurung et al., 2020), with plausible ranges reported in the DayCent manual and variations observed in different maize parameterizations in the literature. The parameters were then grouped according to the magnitude of their ranges. Parameters with very small, small, and moderate ranges were varied by ± 10 %, 25 %, and 50 % from the initial parameter value, respectively. For parameters with large and very large ranges, the upper boundaries were the initial parameter values multiplied by 3 and 10, respectively, and the lower boundaries were the initial parameter values divided by 3 and 10, respectively. The parameter sensitivity was independently determined for the mean maize grain yield and aboveground biomass, averaged over all seasons at all sites, as well as for the SOC and soil N stocks at the end of the simulation period (equations presented in the Supplement Sect. S2). (2)While the prior p(θ) is chosen based on previous knowledge of the model parameters, the likelihood function p(D|M, θ) measures how well the model and the data match. In practice it is derived for a given set of parameters sampled from the prior, by running and evaluating the model using the measured data, the simulated counterpart, and the variance-covariance matrix of the model residuals. Follow-ing Gurung et al. (2020), we applied the R software (R Core Team, 2020) to create a mixed model with restricted maximum likelihood estimation with the lme4 package (Bates et al., 2015), which automatically constructed the variancecovariance matrix based on the nested design of observations to account for autocorrelation of residuals. The likelihood was a function of the following form:where is the variance-covariance matrix, M(θ z ) is the vector of simulated values using the zth parameter set θ z , and D is the vector of observed data. In the R software, this can be constructed by setting the residual (modeled value − measured) as the dependent variable of a zerointercept model with nested random effects (i.e., sampling date within site) and assigning the inverse of the median standard deviation (of each type of measurement at each site) as weight. By using the inverse of the standard deviation of each type of measurement as weight of the zero-intercept model, it is possible to include different types of measurements into the same likelihood function. This is similar to what is done in weighted analyses commonly performed in meta-analyses (Möhring and Piepho, 2009). The logLik() function is then used to extract the log likelihood, which is transformed to the likelihood by raising e to the power of the log likelihood.The sampling importance resampling method, which was used in this study, is a direct form of Bayesian calibration, which has recently been used by Gurung et al. (2020) to calibrate the parameters of the SOM module of DayCent using a large collection of temperate long-term experiments. It samples the prior by running the model for a large sample of parameter sets of size I from the prior, computing the likelihood for each sample, and filtering the prior based on importance weights w(θ z ):where p(D|M, θ z ) is the likelihood function of the zth parameter set and w(θ z ) is the corresponding importance weight. It is consistent with the proportionality form of Bayes' theorem in that it uses the importance weights w(θ z ) as probabilities for sampling from the prior, without replacement, to derive the posterior. Combined Bayesian calibration of the sensitive DayCent parameters was performed using all available data on maize grain yield, harvest index (calculated from aboveground biomass), and SOC stocks. A notable exception was that SOC stocks from the Machanga site were not used in the calibration process because this site was severely affected by soil erosion (Laub et al., 2023a) that is not represented by Day-Cent. The main reason for only using grain yield, the harvest Table 1. DayCent model parameters and the coefficient of variation used in the calibration. Displayed are parameters considered for calibration due to a total sensitivity index > 2.5 % (top) and with a total sensitivity index > 1 % (bottom). The remainder of parameters (< 1 %) are not included in this table and can be found in Supplement Table S3. The presented calibrated parameter values correspond to the single parameter set with the highest likelihood, which was derived using the data from all four sites combined. The posterior was also derived using the data from all four sites combined. CV: coefficient of variation, SD: standard deviation, 95 % CI: 95 % credibility interval, Ly: langley (1 Ly = 41 840 J m −2 ). index, and SOC data was that the yields, SOC stocks, and their trade-offs were the focus of this study. Technical constraints also influenced the decision; the creation and readout of daily simulation outputs to match simulated and measured soil moisture content, mineral nitrogen content, and N 2 O fluxes would slow down the whole Bayesian calibration process by a factor of 5. The Bayesian calibration would have taken more than 3 months on the virtual machine with 64 cores. Following Gurung et al. (2020), model parameters that had a total sensitivity index of at least 2.5 % for either yield, aboveground biomass, or SOC were considered influential and thus were subjected to calibration (11 parameters). Additionally, the new parameters that were associated with the initialization, IC MAOC and SL t , had to be calibrated, resulting in a total of 13 parameters for calibration (Table 1).Overall, a total of 200 000 simulations were performed, from which 0.1 % (200) of the parameter sets were sampled to derive the posterior distribution through resampling (Gurung et al., 2020). It was assured that this number of simulations was sufficient by splitting the simulations into two halves and visually assessing the similarity of derived posteriors for these subsets. In our experience, the sampling importance resampling algorithm is highly suitable for Day-Cent, which is prone to crashing with inappropriate parameter combinations. Unlike chain-dependent methods such as Markov chain Monte Carlo, this method relies on model runs that are independent of each other, ensuring that an erroneous run does not stop the algorithm. In addition, this method allows for an efficient cross-validation of the posterior parameter set, such as the leave-one-site-out cross-validation employed in this study. Notably, the sampling importance resampling algorithm's advantage lies in its ability to store model results for each parameter set by site, allowing for straightforward cross-validation by site, without the need for rerunning the model for each iteration. The posterior parameter distributions of this study are displayed for both the leaveone-site-out cross-validation and the combined dataset from all four sites (Fig. 2). The former shows the importance of individual sites in the calibration process, while the latter provides the most representative posterior distribution for model upscaling, making efficient use of all available data.To ensure computational efficiency, we used informed Gaussian priors that were centered around the standard parameter values of DayCent, with different coefficients of variation based on different observed ranges in previous studies. To make optimal use of existing knowledge about the parameters, the selected coefficients of variation per range were initially based on previous studies that had performed Bayesian calibration of the DayCent model. The coefficients of variation were chosen in a way that the prior from our study covered the whole range of the posterior from previous studies and then was multiplied by a factor of 1.5 to account for the additional uncertainty that arose from applying Day-Cent at tropical sites. The studies of Gurung et al. (2020) and Mathers et al. (2023) were the basis to derive the coefficient of variation for the parameters dec4, dec5(2), clteff(1,2,&4), ps1co2(1&2)&rsplig, and pmco2(1&2). The study of Yang et al. (2021) was the basis for the parameters ppdf(1) and ppdf(2), and the study of Necpálová et al. (2015, though not being Bayesian) was the basis for the parameters aneref(3) and fwloss(4). For himax and prdx(1), we looked into the default parameters of annual crops in DayCent to assure that the whole range of values (0.30-0.55 and 1.1-3.5, respectively) was covered by the prior. The final coefficients of variation were 0.08, 0.15, 0.23, 0.38, and 0.45 for parameters with very small, small, moderate, large, and very large ranges (Table 1). For the newly introduced parameters, we used large coefficients of variation, namely 0.38 for SL t and 1 for IC MAOC , with the reason for the latter being an initial test in which IC MAOC was set to −0.3 instead of −0.1, which proved to be too low, but in which the uncertainty range with a standard deviation of 0.1 proved to be reasonable. Additionally, all parameters were constrained to remain within their physically sensible limits (i.e., not < 0 for all and not > 1 for those representing fractions).We used the following standard model evaluation statistics (Loague and Green, 1991):where the MSE y is the mean squared error, RMSE is its root, and EF y is the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency. We further divided MSE y into squared bias (SB), non-unity slope (NU), and a lack of correlation (LC), as suggested by Gauch et al. (2003). We expressed them as a percentage of the MSE y :where O yz is the measured value of the zth measurement of the yth type of measurement, O y is the mean of the yth type of measurement, and P yz is the simulated value corresponding to O yz . P y is the mean predicted value of the yth measurement type, b is the slope of the regression of P on O, and M. Laub et al.: Modeling integrated soil fertility management for maize production r is the correlation coefficient between O and P . The indicators LC, SB, and NU show the nature of model errors; that is, a high LC shows that it is mostly random, a high SB shows a systematic bias, and a high NU shows issues of model sensitivity.To compare different ISFM treatments in terms of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, their net GHG balance was computed on a yearly basis (kg CO 2 eq. ha −1 yr −1 ) over the whole simulation period. This calculation was based changes in the SOC content and cumulative emissions of N 2 O using a 100-year time horizon of global warming potentials (Necpalova et al., 2018):where SOC is the change in SOC stocks (kg C ha −1 yr −1 ) and N 2 O is the cumulative N 2 O flux (kg N 2 O ha −1 yr −1 ).The CH 4 oxidation capacity was not considered because it usually makes a very limited contribution to GHG balance in rainfed cropping systems (Lee et al., 2020) and we did not have data to evaluate the reliability of this simulated flux. In addition to the net annual GHG balance (in t CO 2 eq. ha −1 yr −1 ), we calculated the yield-scaled GHG balance (in CO 2 equivalent per kg maize grain yield) by dividing the cumulative GHG balance over the entire simulation period by cumulative simulated yields (dry matter basis).3 ResultsThe results of the global sensitivity analysis showed that of the 66 model parameters analyzed, only 20 parameters had a Sobol total sensitivity index > 1 % for either maize grain yield, aboveground biomass, SOC, or soil N stocks (Fig. 1). Of these, only 11 parameters had a Sobol total sensitivity index > 2.5 %, a threshold that captures the most influential parameters and represents a suitable selection of parameters for model calibration (Gurung et al., 2020). The parameters that turned out to be the most sensitive, with a Sobol total sensitivity index > 10 % for at least one type of measurement, were radiation use efficiency (prdx(1); for all measurement types), the optimal and maximum temperature for maize growth (ppdf(1) and ppdf(2), respectively; only for grain yield and aboveground biomass), and the maximum harvest index (himax; only for grain yield). Further, the turnover rate of the slow and passive SOM pools (dec5(2) and dec4, respectively; only for SOC and soil N), the decomposition multiplier for soil tillage (clteff(1,2&4); only for SOC and soil N), and the fraction lost as CO 2 of the metabolic-litter pool (pmco2(1&2), i.e., 1-CUE); only for SOC and soil N) belonged to the most sensitive model parameters. The parameters of further importance, with a Sobol total sensitivity index > 2.5 % and < 10 %, were the minimum value for the impact factor of anaerobic soil conditions (aneref(3); only for SOC and soil N), the scaling factor for potential evapotranspiration (fwloss(4); only for maize grain yield), and the fraction lost as CO 2 of the structural-litter and lignin pools (ps1co(1&2)&rsplig, i.e., 1-CUE; only for SOC and soil N). The fact that the Sobol first-order and total sensitivity indexes were similar for most parameters suggested only a limited number of interactions between the parameters identified by the global sensitivity analysis.Following the global sensitivity analysis, 13 selected model parameters were calibrated using Gaussian priors which were centered around the initial parameter value, with standard deviations according to the uncertainty ranges (Table 1). It should be noted that the presented calibrated parameter values in Table 1 correspond to the single best parameter set for all four sites combined (i.e., the parameter set that had the highest likelihood in the case of no cross-validation).Compared to the range of the prior parameter sets, the ranges of the posterior parameter sets calibrated with data from all four sites changed significantly for the parameters fwloss(4) and pmco2(1&2); had a similar mean value but a more narrow distribution for the parameters IC MAOC , prdx(1), and ps1co2(1&2)&rsplig; and changed slightly for the parameters dec4, dec5(2), ppdf(1), ppdf(2), and himax (Fig. 2). The posterior parameter sets of the leave-one-siteout cross-validations were largely in agreement with each other and with the posterior parameter sets calibrated with data from all four sites. The exception was the parameter pmco2(1&2), which was centered around 0.55 for the case that the Aludeka site was left out and around 0.70 for all other cases (Fig. 2).The parameter that changed most strongly in the parameter sets calibrated with data from all four sites was the scaling factor for potential evapotranspiration (fwloss(4); from 0.75 to 0.94), thereby not including the initial value in the 95 % posterior credibility interval (0.81 to 0.99; Table 1). Also the CUE of metabolic litter was reduced (by an increase in pmco2(1&2) from 0.54 to 0.91 g g −1 ), but the initial value was still within the 95 % posterior credibility interval (0.48 to 0.91 g g −1 ). The turnover rates increased for both the slow SOM pool (dec5(2); from 0.10 to 0.13 g g −1 yr −1 ) and the passive SOM pool (dec4; from 0.0035 to 0.0060 g g −1 yr −1 ), which was however counterbalanced by a reduction in the effect of tillage on decomposition (clteff(1,2,&4); from 10 to 5), and all three of these parameters contained their initial values in the 95 % posterior credibility intervals. The maximum harvest index slightly increased (himax; from 0.40 to 0.43 g g −1 ) and so did the potential production of maize per unit of light interception (prdx(1); from 2.25 to 2.62 g C m −2 Ly −1 ). Finally, the optimum temperature for maize growth decreased (ppdf(1); from 30 to 28.6 °C), while the maximum temperature for maize growth increased (ppdf(2); from 45 to 47.1 °C). Of the two parameters that translated measured MAOC into SOC in the passive SOM pool, only IC MAOC was altered (from −0.1 to −0.02 g g −1 ), but the initial value was still in the 95 % posterior credibility intervals (−0.25 to 0.06 g g −1 ). Overall, the parameter correlations in the posterior parameter set across the four sites were low for soil-carbon-related parameters (around 0.4 at maximum), but stronger correlations existed between plant-productivity-related parameters (e.g., −0.7 between himax and prdx(1) and 0.58 between ppdf(1) and ppdf(2); Supplement Fig. S3).While the overall variation in maize grain yields across sites and treatments could be captured to some extent with the initial model parameter set, a negative model efficiency was obtained for two sites (Fig. 3). With the leave-one-site-out cross-validation approach, the model efficiency for maize grain yields at the left-out site improved ubiquitously (i.e., from 0.32 to 0.38 at Aludeka, from −0.04 to 0.15 at Embu, from 0.32 to 0.38 at Machanga, from −0.16 to 0.31 at Sidada, and from 0.36 to 0.50 across all sites), and so did RMSE and bias. The same was true for the simulation of aboveground biomass (e.g., from 0.03 to 0.23 across sites; Fig. 4), with the exception of Machanga. Overall, biases in simulated grain yields were mostly eliminated through the model calibration, and biases in simulated aboveground biomass were eliminated at Sidada and reduced at Embu but increased at Machanga. While DayCent could not capture the full season-to-season variability in grain yields and aboveground biomass, the mean yields and aboveground biomass throughout the simulation period were simulated well for most treatments without the addition of mineral nitrogen (Supplement Fig. S4). The exception to this was the Embu site, where there was a systematic underestimation of yields in the +N treatments. Nonetheless, DayCent was able to acceptably simulate the variability in grain yields across sites by organic-resource and mineral-nitrogen-fertilizer treatment (model efficiencies between 0.30 and 0.54; with values for control −N (0.08) and sawdust −N (0.18) being the exception; Supplement Fig. S7). Interestingly, DayCent poorly distinguished the mean yields and aboveground biomass of treatments with high compared to very high rates of N inputs (i.e., the differences between the different organic resources and the control within the +N treatment). An additional test of the model sensitivity of mean yields to different levels of mineral ni-  trogen fertilizer in the control provided further insights into this (Supplement Fig. S5). In this test, the yields plateaued at rates of mineral nitrogen that were lower than the maximum N rates provided in the organic-resource and mineralnitrogen-fertilizer treatments with mineral N and organic resources combined (up to > 500 kg N yr −1 or > 250 kg N per growing season). At Machanga and Embu, simulated mean yields stopped increasing at around 100 kg N ha −1 per growing season, which is less the 120 kg N ha −1 per growing season in the control of +N. At Aludeka and Sidada, simulated mean yields stopped increasing at 200 to 250 kg N ha −1 per growing season, but most of the response to N was below 120 kg N ha −1 per growing season (Supplement Fig. S5). Although the mean yields in −N treatments with the highquality inputs were well simulated, some of the low-quality input treatments at Aludeka and Sidada, namely maize stover and sawdust at 1.2 and 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 , had lower simulated than observed mean yields in their −N treatments (Fig. 5). The same was true for the control −N at Aludeka, Embu, and Machanga.Similar to the simulation of maize grain yields, the simulations of changes in SOC stocks following the application of organic resources at different rates (1.2 and 4 t ha −1 yr −1 ) generally improved across sites by the leave-one-site-out cross-validation approach compared to using the initial model parameter set (Fig. 6). The improvement was even stronger when compared to DayCent simulations with the default CUE value for the structural pool (these had a negative model efficiency at all four sites; Supplement Fig. S6). While Aludeka experienced an improved but negative model efficiency for simulated changes in SOC stocks with the leave-one-site-out cross-validation (from −4.17 to −0.90), the model efficiencies at Embu and Sidada were positive in the initial parameter set and improved with calibration (from 0.53 to 0.54 at Embu and from 0.47 to 0.58 at Sidada). Also across sites, the model efficiency (computed without Machanga) improved considerably from 0.36 to 0.55 follow- ing calibration. As expected, Machanga, for which the SOC stock data had been removed from the calibration dataset due to soil erosion at this site, still exhibited a poor model efficiency after calibration (−1.9 compared to −4.8 before calibration). DayCent performed well in simulating the variability in the changes in SOC stocks across sites, evaluated by organic-resource and mineral-nitrogen-fertilizer treatment (also computed without Machanga). With the exception of the treatments farmyard manure ± N, maize stover ± N, and sawdust −N model efficiencies were between 0.51 and 0.79 (with RMSE between 3.2 and 4.3 t ha −1 ; Supplement Fig. S8) with the highest performance for the control +N (0.79) and control −N (0.69) treatments. The other treatments still had positive model efficiencies (0.15 to 0.42), but the SOC losses of the farmyard manure treatments were overestimated (EF of 0.15 for −N, 0.29 for +N, RMSE of 5.1 and 5.3). While SOC changes were well captured in the control treatments across all sites, it should be noted that the increases in SOC stocks in the treatment receiving 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 were overestimated at Aludeka (Supplement Fig. S9). As a result, the posterior credibility intervals of simulated SOC stocks matched well with measured SOC stocks of Embu and Sidada but not with those of Aludeka (Fig. 7). The difference between the 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 input and the control treatments were generally well simulated, but the fact that Machanga, the other sandy site, could not be used in the calibration due to erosion likely contributed to the poorer performance of the sandy site in Aludeka.The negative model efficiencies and the absence of correlation between observed and simulated daily N 2 O values indicated that model performance for daily N 2 O emissions was poor (Fig. 8). While treatments with higher N loads had both higher simulated and measured N 2 O fluxes compared to those with lower loads, the peaks of N 2 O emissions were often simulated on different dates than the measurements. This was most noticeable in +N treatments (Supplement Fig. S10). Conversely, the simulated cumulative N 2 O emissions per season were in a better agreement with the measured values. All sites, except Machanga, showed positive model efficiencies (highest at Embu, 0.69; lowest at Sidada, 0.06) but generally underestimated the uncertainty around cumulative N 2 O emissions (Fig. 8). Additionally, the correlation between simulated and measured N 2 O emissions was notably higher for the cumulative emission fluxes than for daily fluxes (R 2 of 0.74 for Aludeka, 0.7 for Embu, and 0.36 for Sidada, compared to an R 2 value of close to 0 for daily fluxes). Furthermore, despite some bias at Aludeka and Sidada, most of the error in seasonal N 2 O emissions was not systematic (i.e., LC of 51 %-96 %).The simulated changes in SOC and seasonal N 2 O emissions revealed a positive GHG balance for all treatments at all sites (Fig. 9a). Yet, the magnitude of emissions, as well as the relative contributions of N 2 O and CO 2 , differed strongly between sites and treatments. For instance, in the control −N treatment, emissions ranged from 1.5 t CO 2 eq. ha −1 yr −1 at Aludeka to 5 t CO 2 eq. ha −1 yr −1 at Sidada. The relative contribution of N 2 O also differed strongly by site. At Aludeka, for example, all positive GHG balance values in the 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 treatments receiving farmyard manure, Tithonia, and Calliandra came from N 2 O, while SOC acted as a sink of GHG. In contrast, at Sidada and Embu, most treatments had between a third and half of their GHG balance associated with N 2 O emissions, with the remainder attributed to SOC losses. Compared to the control −N treatment, all organic-resource treatments in the −N treatments were simulated to have lower emissions at inputs of 1.2 t C ha −1 yr −1 (Fig. 9b). Yet, when including the 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 and the +N treatments, the changes ranged from an increase of around 1.5 t CO 2 eq. ha −1 yr −1 to a reduction of 2 t CO 2 eq. ha −1 yr −1 . Embu was the site where the addition of mineral N (+N treatment) led to the strongest increase in simulated GHG balance compared to the control −N treatment.Finally, there were site-and treatment-specific differences in the yield-scaled GHG balance. The treatment control of −N, maize stover −N, and sawdust −N had the highest simulated emissions per kilogram maize grain yield across sites (0.8 to 1.8 kg CO 2 equivalent per kg yield). In contrast, the farmyard manure, Calliandra, and Tithonia treatments at inputs of 1.2 t C ha −1 yr −1 in the +N treatment and Model statistics across all sites except Machanga (from which SOC data was excluded in the calibration process due to strong erosion). Before calibration -EF: 0.364, RMSE: 5.199 t ha −1 , SB: 1 %, NU: 22 %, LC: 77 %. After calibration (with 45 % of measurements being in the 95 % credibility interval of the posterior) -EF: 0.548, RMSE: 4.22 t C ha −1 , SB: 1 %, NU: 11 %, LC: 89 %. at 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 in both −N and +N treatments tended to have the lowest simulated emissions at all sites (around 0.3, 1, and 0.6 kg CO 2 equivalent per kg yield at Aludeka, Embu, and Sidada, respectively).As shown by the leave-one-site-out cross-validation (Figs. 3  and 4), the Bayesian calibration considerably improved the predictive capability of DayCent for maize grain yield, aboveground biomass, and changes in SOC stocks across sites. The model evaluation statistics from this calibration were comparable to those reported in recent publications that also combined the predictions of crop yield and SOC (Necpalova et al., 2018;Levavasseur et al., 2021;Nyawira et al., 2021). However, while these studies generally showed a better simulation of crop yield than SOC, our study diverged. We found that while better yield simulations compared to SOC simulations were evident at the Aludeka and Machanga sites with soils of low clay content, the results were different at the Embu and Sidada sites with clay-rich soils. Here, SOC stock changes were more accurately simulated than maize grain yield. This, together with the fact that the simulation of aboveground biomass worsened at two sites as a result of the calibration (Fig. 4), suggests that no single best parameter set exists for the current version of DayCent to accurately represent the conditions at all four sites. In that regard, the dis- crepancy between the sites with clay-rich and clay-poor soils could indicate that DayCent insufficiently includes soil textures effects on nutrient availability and SOC formation. Yet, drawing definitive conclusions from just four sites is probably not warranted. In the absence of data from more sites, it is preferable to apply the full range of possible parameter sets that are supported by the available data (Mathers et al., 2023) rather than using only the single best parameter set.Because our calibration shows a good model fit with observed mean yields and changes in SOC stocks across sites, with no overall major bias (positive EF and errors mostly consisting of LC), the parameter set, especially the full posterior, appears suitable for upscaling of model simulations. Specifically, the yields of the ISFM treatments applying farmyard manure, Calliandra, and Tithonia were simulated well, both with and without the addition of mineral nitrogen fertilizer (Supplement Fig. S7). The changes in SOC stocks for the control, Calliandra, and Tithonia treatments were also simulated well across sites, while DayCent underestimates the SOC buildup from farmyard manure treat-ments (Supplement Fig. S8). However, one should keep in mind that the season-to-season yield variability is captured less accurately than the mean yields (lower RMSE) and that changes in SOC are better represented at sites with clay-rich soils than those with clay-poor soils. Because the model calibration and evaluation were performed at sites with diverse characteristics, it is reasonable to assume that DayCent, when applied to sites with similar climate and soil conditions, will provide satisfactory results with similar model uncertainties and errors. In that respect, while the leave-one-site-out crossvalidation made efficient use of data for model evaluation, further model upscaling should apply the full posterior model parameter set including all sites (Fig. 2). In that case, a computationally inexpensive exercise would use only the single best parameter set (Table 1), while the full posterior parameter set should be used to get estimates of the posterior credibility intervals for changes in SOC stocks. To estimate the potential yield and long-term sustainability of cropping systems without major bias using biogeochemical models, region-specific model calibrations are needed (Rattalino Edreira et al., 2021;Yang et al., 2021). Therefore, while previous studies have simulated crop productivity under ISFM and similar practices with the default parameter values (e.g., Nezomba et al., 2018;Nyawira et al., 2021), the results of our study underscore the importance of a local calibration, especially when simulations are done with a single parameter set. On the one hand, the similar ranges of the prior and posterior model parameter sets for SOC-decomposition-related parameters (i.e., clteff(1,2&4), dec4, dec5( 2)) indicate that the included prior knowledge about DayCent parameters from recent Bayesian calibration studies (Gurung et al., 2020;Yang et al., 2021;Math-ers et al., 2023) represent good parameter estimates for a tropical setting. On the other hand, the CUE values of both metabolic litter (centered around 25 % with pmco2(1&2) around 0.75) and structural litter (centered around 10 % with ps1co2(1&2)&rsplig around 0.9) are low compared to the default values. This indicates the difficulty in stabilizing the organic-resource additions into SOM at the tropical soils of these four long-term experiments. Both parameters (pmco2(1&2) and ps1co2(1&2)&rsplig) are even higher than in a recent study by Mathers et al. (2023). However, because these values had reached their predefined upper boundary limit in the study by Mathers et al. (2023), our CUE values might even be representative of temperate and not just for the tropical conditions of Kenya. In general, including prior knowledge about model parameter values from similar studies substantially improves model performance compared to using default parameter values (e.g., see the poor model performance without including prior knowledge on ps1co(1&2)&rsplig; Supplement Fig. S6). In fact, the aligning turnover rates of the slow and passive SOM pools with those derived for temperate conditions (Gurung et al., 2020) indicate that the DayCent temperature function is well suited to handle the faster SOM turnover under tropical conditions.It is important to note that our sites were under natural vegetation (i.e., forest) or fallow until relatively shortly before the establishment of the experiments (Laub et al., 2023a). Consequently, upon the start of cultivation, erosion and potentially accelerated decomposition (due to soil disturbance) occurred, and SOC had likely not yet reached a new equi-librium with C inputs from maize cultivation. Therefore, C loss is the dominant process occurring at the sites. The good simulations of the strong SOC changes in the control treatments when using MAOC initialized SOM pools, a method not commonly used with DayCent, further supporting suggestions to move away from purely conceptual SOM pools (Abramoff et al., 2018;Laub et al., 2024). Such conceptual pools require many assumptions about the initial vegetation and soil conditions (e.g., in the spin-up modeling or estimation of SOM pool distribution). In fact, the high uncertainty about initial vegetation, as well as time and management since site conversion, was a major reason to move away from the model spin-up and site history run usually typically done with DayCent. Thus, our study provides additional support to modify DayCent, incorporating measurable SOM pools (e.g., Dangal et al., 2022).Nevertheless, soil property maps, which would be needed to initialize measurable SOM pools at scale, are also subject to uncertainty. For example, differences between different SOC maps used in model initialization propagate into differences in the changes in SOC stocks (Zhou et al., 2023). It was shown that uncertainty in the simulated effect of a soil management practice on the difference in SOC stocks compared to a counterfactual is lower than the uncertainty in the simulated temporal development of SOC stocks (Zhou et al., 2023). Therefore, it may be best practice to work with a baseline and an improved scenario. Both spin-up and SOC map initialization have their shortcomings, and in the end the model user must make an informed decision on which initialization method they consider subject to less uncertainty, based on which data are locally available.The similarity of our DayCent model calibration with that of Gurung et al. (2020) and earlier studies, despite using different model initialization approaches, indicates the broad applicability of DayCent. It suggests that the SOM turnover and maize traits in DayCent are representative of temperate to tropical conditions. The adjustments made to the values of optimal and maximum temperature for maize growth (ppdf(1) and ppdf(2)) could be attributed to the local maize varieties that are adapted to the higher temperatures in Kenya. For example, Yang et al. (2021) conducted a regionspecific Bayesian model calibration of the DayCent maize growing parameters and found ppdf(1) to vary between 26 and 32 °C, a range similar to our posterior. However, the differences in model performance by site shows that the broad representativeness of DayCent comes at the cost of model simplification and site-specific model performance. A main reason for this may be that DayCent model formalisms do not include the latest mechanistic understandings of the role of microbes in SOM decomposition (Laub et al., 2024) and the sorption kinetics of carbon to minerals for SOM protection (Abramoff et al., 2018;Ahrens et al., 2020). Additionally, DayCent does not fully consider that a lot of stabilized SOC is formed by microbes from metabolic and not structural litter (Cotrufo et al., 2013;Kallenbach et al., 2016).For example, it was recently demonstrated that the Millennial model, which includes measurable SOM pools and improved kinetics of carbon sorption, better predicts SOC stocks at the global scale than the CENTURY model, which has conceptual SOM pools (Abramoff et al., 2022). While model calibration can compensate for deficiencies in mechanistic accuracy at a single site (Laub et al., 2024), this is likely not possible across sites with different conditions.An interesting observation is that while the model bias for the mean maize yield was treatment specific (i.e., the mean yields of +N treatments of farmyard manure at 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 at all sites and of Tithonia at the same rate at all sites but Sidada were underpredicted by DayCent), the bias for SOC stocks was mostly site specific (i.e., SOC formation at Aludeka of 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 was overpredicted). A potential explanation for this site-specific bias for SOC is the fact that DayCent was developed under the paradigm of SOM formation occurring mainly from recalcitrant humic compounds in the soil. Alternatively, it might indicate that soil texture alone is insufficient to explain the mineralogy-driven storage potential of SOC (e.g., Reichenbach et al., 2021;Mainka et al., 2022) or that, because Machanga SOC stocks were not used in the calibration due to erosion, SOC changes at clay-rich sites cannot inform SOC changes at sandy sites like Aludeka. Finally, our model sensitivity test of inputs of mineral nitrogen suggests that the maize yield bias at high N is due to DayCent's inability to capture yield increases above 100-150 kg N ha −1 per season at the four sites (Supplement Fig. S5); the +N treatments of Tithonia, Calliandra, and farmyard manure at 4 t C ha −1 yr −1 supplied on average > 250 kg N ha −1 per season. Here, it should be noted that DayCent does not include other potential beneficial effects of organic-resource treatments, such as increased pH from farmyard manure application (Xiao et al., 2021;Mtangadura et al., 2017) or improved water infiltration of treatments that maintain SOC stocks compared to those that reduce them.In general, the poor match between observed and measured daily N 2 O emissions (Supplement Fig. S10) illustrates the difficulty of simulating the timing of microbial processes, through which nitrate (NO 3 − ) is converted to N 2 and N 2 O gases, with models of intermediate complexity such as Day-Cent. One reason is the poor representation of soil moisture dynamics by the \"tipping-bucket\" soil water balance approach and that soil gas diffusivity is not explicitly simulated (Zhang and Yu, 2021;Wang et al., 2020). However, the fact that cumulative N 2 O emissions were better simulated than daily emissions, that there was no systematic under-or overprediction of cumulative N 2 O emissions, and that simulated N 2 O emissions were within the uncertainty range of measured N 2 O emissions demonstrates the suitability of Day-Cent to represent average N 2 O emissions with the current calibration. Nonetheless, the fact that the uncertainty around predicted cumulative N 2 O emissions was lower than the uncertainties in the measurements indicates that the posterior, which was only calibrated with yield, SOC, and harvest index data, underestimates the uncertainty around N 2 O emission predictions. Thus, although DayCent's simulations of N 2 O emissions are superior to using emission factor approaches (dos Reis Martins et al., 2022), simulating N 2 O emissions remains challenging and highly uncertain due to the complexity of the processes involved and their high temporal and spatial variability. Given the limited bias in simulating SOC changes and cumulative N 2 O emissions shown, the DayCent simulations provide a reasonable first estimate of the GHG balance. Nevertheless, the contributions of N 2 O emissions to the GHG balance of up to 100 % (at Aludeka) and between 10 % to 60 % (at the other sites; Fig. 9) are subject to high uncertainty, as evident from the measurements.Despite this unresolved uncertainty, our modeling results show that all ISFM options in a maize monocropping system have a net positive GHG balance, aligning with the prevalent trend of SOC losses in recently established (< 50 years) maize systems in SSA (Sommer et al., 2018;Laub et al., 2023a). The findings also support the postulate that closing yield gaps in SSA will increase N 2 O emissions per area of land (Leitner et al., 2020). However, the large differences in the yield-scaled GHG balance between treatments, such as the 30 % to 60 % lower yield-scaled GHG balance in the FYM 1.2 +N treatment compared to the control −N treatment across the sites, indicate that ISFM has the potential to produce crops with relatively lower GHG emissions than no-or low-input systems and that the calculation of emissions per unit of food is preferable to the calculation per land area (Clark and Tilman, 2017). Specifically, the ISFM treatments with low-emissions and high yields, such as FYM 1.2 +N, which produces between 2 and 4 t of yield per season at emissions of between 0.3 and 1 kg CO 2 equivalent per kg yield, are a suitable mitigation practice compared to the control treatment with few or no inputs of organic and/or chemical fertilizer. Consequently, sustainable intensification and mitigation of greenhouse gases can go hand in hand.ISFM but has a limited sensitivity to high nitrogen inputsBecause mean maize yields across sites were reasonably well represented by the calibrated version of DayCent, it can be used for upscaling to predict the potential impact of ISFM in lowering yield gaps at national levels. However, the plateauing of mean yields at high nitrogen loads (Supplement Fig. S5) indicates that DayCent may not be suitable for estimating maximum achievable yields (e.g., Ittersum et al., 2016) and should thus be restricted to yield predictions for medium nitrogen input levels. Given that the historical rates of nitrogen fertilizer application in Kenya are less than 50 kg N ha −1 (World-Bank, 2021a), the model seems suitable to simulate the effect of implementing \"realistic\" ISFM practices, which target maximum nitrogen use efficiency ( Vanlauwe et al., 2010), with N input rates considerably below the maximum N rates used in the field experiments of this study (e.g., 80 kg N per season; Mutuku et al., 2020). At all sites, the prediction of mean maize yields was reasonably well for Calliandra, Tithonia, and farmyard manure treatments at 1.2 and 4 t C ha −1 in the −N treatment, as well as for CT +N, i.e., all treatments that supply nitrogen at the desired rate for ISFM. Also, the variability in yields and SOC stock changes per treatment across sites was simulated well for Calliandra, Tithonia, and farmyard manure in both +N and −N treatments (with changes in SOC being simulated a bit worse in farmyard manure treatments; Supplement Figs. S7 and S8).While this shows the general capability of DayCent to simulate differences in yields and SOC changes between sites as a function of organic-resource composition, it also shows that DayCent cannot capture the better performance of farmyard manure compared to Calliandra and Tithonia treatments when only considering C, N, and lignin contents. Overall, simulated mean maize yields at medium nitrogen levels are likely representative of the achievable yield through ISFM.In summary, the model calibration seems suitable for assessing the long-term effects of relevant ISFM practices on soil fertility, maize yield, and GHG emissions as well as their trade-offs, given the good representation of mean yield potential and SOC changes by the model. Nevertheless, since year-to-year yield variations were not captured well by Day-Cent, it remains uncertain how effectively the current model calibration can simulate scenarios of climate change, where temperature and precipitation patterns will become more erratic. In the absence of major pests (which in the experiments were controlled), the variations in seasonal precipitation and temperature are responsible for these differences, and if these are not well represented, the applicability of DayCent beyond the climatic range that it was calibrated for is questionable.In this study, we demonstrated the effectiveness of simultaneously calibrating the SOM and plant modules of DayCent to simulate maize productivity and changes in SOC stocks under integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) in Kenya. Using a Bayesian calibration approach, our study shows the importance of using a local calibration and of choosing correct prior values for model parameters. Although the initial DayCent parameterization represented the tropical conditions in Kenya acceptably, the overall model performance for maize grain yield, aboveground biomass, and SOC stock changes was improved after calibration using local data. Furthermore, while parameters related to SOM turnover were comparable to previous studies, a lower carbon use efficiency of applied organic resources (higher values of CO 2 -lossrelated parameters) compared to previous studies highlighted the difficulty in building new SOC stocks in the studied tropical soils. Our leave-one-site-out cross-validation showed that the calibration-derived parameter set is robust for upscaling the model simulations to larger areas in Kenya, particularly when applying the full posterior parameter set. At the same time, while mean maize grain yields were well simulated, the year-to-year yield variability raised concerns about the model's ability to capture the short-term effects of climate change adequately. Finally, while no ISFM treatment was predicted to act as a net sink of greenhouse gases, treatments with high and intermediate yields exhibited the lowest yieldscaled emissions.","tokenCount":"12646"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"09d351009197759c54f9ff4f19468950","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f770438f-322b-497c-a4c1-c3aafd25077b/retrieve","id":"-1050737180"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0a730ee2-0d1a-41e8-bb03-0c7dbcddcaf2","pagecount":"9","content":"The CGIAR 2030 research and innovation strategy is being implemented through a series of research initiatives designed to create lasting impact in five key areas:• nutrition, health and food security;• poverty reduction, livelihoods and jobs;• gender equality, youth and social inclusion;• climate adaptation and mitigation; and• environmental health and biodiversity.One of these research initiatives, Protecting human health through a One Health approach (One Health Initiative), aims to improve the prevention and control of antimicrobial resistance, foodborne diseases and zoonoses in seven target countries: Bangladesh, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Uganda and Vietnam. Launched in January 2022 for an initial three years, the One Health initiative will be implemented in collaboration with national and regional partners including academia, national agricultural research systems, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.The initiative's research activities will take place through five work packages:• zoonoses;• food safety;• antimicrobial resistance;• environment (water and wildlife interfaces); and• economics, governance and behaviour.This communication plan covers the first year of the initiative (January to December 2022). As this is the start-up phase of the initiative, the main communication objectives are:• creating awareness;• sharing information; and• connecting teams and collaborating.Guiding principles Objective of the initiative: This initiative uses a One Health approach to reduce antimicrobial resistance, improve food and water safety, and manage zoonotic diseases, leading to better human, animal, and environment health.The challenge: Working across multiple sectors and disciplines, a One Health approach is best to effectively tackle the complex global challenges of antimicrobial resistance, foodborne diseases and zoonoses.• Antimicrobial resistance causes 1.2 million deaths annually and is projected to kill 10 million people every year by 2050. • The magnitude of the global burden of foodborne diseases is comparable to that of HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis, and most of this burden is in low-and middle-income countries.• About 600 million people fall ill and 475,000 die each year after eating contaminated food, and unsafe food costs low-and middle-income economies USD 110 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses annually. • Livestock generate 85% of global animal faecal waste, leading to environmental degradation and human exposure to antimicrobial residues and waterborne pathogens. • More than 60% of human infectious diseases come from animals and yet health systems often do not prioritise endemic zoonoses, especially in poor countries which bear 98% of the global burden of zoonoses.In collaboration with national and regional partners, the initiative will generate evidence for decision-making, evaluate impacts of the One Health approach, and scale up innovations into national policies and programs in seven target countries (Bangladesh, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Uganda and Vietnam).• The antimicrobial resistance work package will reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance by promoting the prudent use of antimicrobials in crop, fish and livestock production systems. • The food safety work package will reduce the burden of foodborne disease in traditional food value chains, with a focus on animal-source foods and other perishables. • The water work package will improve waste and water management in livestock and aquaculture systems to reduce antimicrobial residues and zoonotic pathogens. • The zoonoses work package will pre-empt the emergence and spread of zoonoses at the interface of wildlife, livestock and people. • The economics, governance and behaviour work package will investigate the drivers of people's behaviour within food systems and the impact of policies and governance approaches on this behaviour.• Email: Email will be used as the main channel for internal and external communication, information sharing and collaboration. • Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams will be used primarily for team collaboration activities including work planning, meetings and sharing of updates and working documents among members of the work packages and the initiative management unit. • SharePoint: A SharePoint site, linked to Microsoft Teams, will be used for sharing and curation of internal documents e.g. meeting notes, reports, concept notes etc. • Meetings: In-person and/or hybrid meetings for team planning and stakeholder engagement will be held in accordance with the prevailing COVID-19 regulations. Regular monitoring and evaluation will be carried out to track the status of implementation of the communication plan. Both qualitative and quantitative indicators will be evaluated, as summarized in the table below. Objective This initiative uses a One Health approach to reduce antimicrobial resistance, improve food and water safety, and manage zoonotic diseases, leading to better human, animal, and environment health.Activities Outcomes Working across multiple sectors and disciplines, a One Health approach is best to effectively tackle the complex global challenges of antimicrobial resistance, foodborne diseases and zoonoses.In collaboration with national and regional partners, the initiative will generate evidence for decision-making, evaluate impacts of the One Health approach, and scale up innovations into national policies and programs in seven target countries (Bangladesh, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Uganda and Vietnam).As a result of this work, countries will adopt the One Health approach in policy planning and implementation to reduce the burdens of antimicrobial resistance, unsafe food and water, and zoonotic diseases.Antimicrobial resistance causes 1.2 million deaths annually and is projected to kill 10 million people every year by 2050.The magnitude of the global burden of foodborne diseases is comparable to that of HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis, and most of this burden is in low-and middle-income countries.• About 600 million people fall ill and 475,000 die each year after eating contaminated food, and unsafe food costs low-and middle-income economies US$ 110 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses annually.• Livestock generate 85% of global animal faecal waste, leading to environmental degradation and human exposure to antimicrobial residues and waterborne pathogens.• More than 60% of human infectious diseases come from animals and yet health systems often do not prioritize endemic zoonoses, especially in poor countries which bear 98% of the global burden of zoonoses.The antimicrobial resistance work package will reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance by promoting the prudent use of antimicrobials in crop, fish and livestock production systems.The food safety work package will reduce the burden of foodborne disease in traditional food value chains, with a focus on animal-source foods and other perishables.The water work package will improve waste and water management in livestock and aquaculture systems to reduce antimicrobial residues and zoonotic pathogens.The zoonoses work package will pre-empt the emergence and spread of zoonoses at the interface of wildlife, livestock and people.The economics, governance and behaviour work package will investigate the drivers of people's behaviour within food systems and the impact of policies and governance approaches on this behaviour.Countries will be able to use evidence from this research initiative in their national antimicrobial resistance action plans to reduce antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance.• This work will facilitate government and private sector support for voluntary upgrading of informal food business operators serving 174,000 consumers towards their integration into food safety regulatory structures.• National One Health policies can draw on this research to recognize the role of water in the transmission of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance and adopt proposed solutions for improved waste and water management.• This work will enable countries to adopt decision-support tools for emerging infectious diseases, and as a result at least 100,000 livestock-dependent people will benefit from strategies that integrate human and animal health services to control zoonoses.• National One Health policies can draw on this work when considering gendered constraints and incentives of smalland medium-scale food system actors, trade-offs across policy goals, and the magnitude and distribution of impacts.","tokenCount":"1215"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"deef4594cce95307a0f898b68a8162b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b51b7e6f-ebd1-4542-985d-ab4d5557feb2/retrieve","id":"-216298540"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c7b083b1-0324-44ab-a8a8-4635e972ec7f","pagecount":"22","content":"the CGIAR opened a new chapter in its 39-year history by adopting a new business model. The 2009 CGIAR Business Meeting held on 8 December 2009 endorsed the reforms that had been designed over the previous two years, and approved the founding documents of the reformed CGIAR -including drafts of the Constitution of the Consortium on International Agricultural Research Centers, the CGIAR Fund Framework, the joint declaration for outcomes between the Consortium and the Fund, and the monitoring and evaluation framework. This initiated the process of establishing the CGIAR Fund and Fund Council, the Consortium, and the Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) (which replaces the CGIAR Science Council), and heralded a busy year ahead in putting these all into effect. The central innovation of the new model is to clearly delineate the responsibilities and accountability of those who conduct research and those who fund it. The Consortium unites the international agricultural research and natural resource management Centers supported by the CGIAR and provides a single contact point for donors. Similarly, CGIAR donors join together in the CGIAR Fund the new multi-donor, multiyear trust fund administered by the World Bank with the aim of harmonizing their contributions to agricultural research for development, improving the quantity and quality of funding available, and engendering greater financial stability. The Fund Council is the Fund's decision-making body. It is composed of 22 members who represent and make decisions on behalf of Fund Donors and stakeholders. It is chaired by a vice president of the World Bank and comprises representatives from eight developed countries and eight developing countries and regional organizations, and six members drawn from multilateral and global organizations and foundations. The Funders Forum, held every two years, provides a platform through which participants, funders and stakeholders can discuss and exchange views about the CGIAR.• the Strategy and Results Framework (SRF), which guides the development of a results-oriented research agenda in line with the CGIAR's new vision and strategic objectives;• the monitoring and evaluation framework, which provides a coordinated approach for assessing the implementation of the SRF, as a means to promote both institutional learning and accountability; and• the Joint Agreement: the umbrella to all legally binding funding and performance agreements that render the Consortium and Fund Council mutually accountable while operationalizing the SRF through a portfolio of 'CGIAR Research Programs' (CRPs).The ISPC, a standing panel of world-class scientific experts provides advice to the CGIAR funders on strategic scientific issues and harnesses the best of global science to support the goals of the international agricultural research community. The ISPC replaces the former CGIAR Science Council.The CRPs (originally designated 'mega programs') mark the beginning of a new way of working in the CGIAR, with their strategic focus on development impacts and impact pathways, their integration of research capacities within and outside the CGIAR, and their commitment to working through open partnerships.The World Bank Board of Directors took the first step in putting this new structure in place when they approved the concept of creating the CGIAR Fund in early January 2010.The Fund Council held its inaugural meeting on 23 February 2010 at the World Bank offices in Brussels, Belgium. This meeting focused on actions needed to make the CGIAR Fund and Consortium fully operational and to establish the interim ISPC (iISPC) 1 . These included adopting interim rules of procedure for Council meetings; approving the budget for the Consortium; approving the 2010 work plan and budget for the iISPC, and the structure and nomination and selection processes for the ISPC; and agreeing to the appointment of an independent evaluator to help in the development of a permanent evaluation arrangement for the CGIAR. The purpose of the Consortium shall be to provide leadership to the CGIAR system and coordinate activities among Member Centers and other Partners within the framework of CGIAR Research Programs, in order to enable them to enhance their individual and collective contribution to the achievement of the CGIAR vision, through such means as:(i) Fostering a more conducive international environment for agricultural research for development and increasing CGIAR relevance and effectiveness within the institutional architecture for international development;(ii) Enhancing the impact of Member Center research through common strategic objectives, programmatic convergence, concerted action and fostering innovation;(iii) Together with the CGIAR Fund Council, expanding the financial resources available to the Member Centers to conduct their work;(iv) Managing the allocation of funds to meet priorities identified in the Strategy and Results Framework, and serving as a central point of fiduciary and operational accountability for all funds that pass to the Consortium and/or to the Member Centers from the Fund;(v) Improving the cost-efficiency of each Member Center and of the CGIAR system as a whole through the provision of advice, shared functions and research platforms, and other means; and(vi) Identifying with the Member Centers and promoting opportunities to achieve gains in relevance, efficiency and effectiveness.The Consortium shall in particular … - • Producing greater impact on the ground with regards to reducing poverty and hunger and improving food security and environmental sustainability. The impact pathway must be clearly spelled out and quantified.• Indicating clear strategic focus and added value to current Centers and programs.• Clear articulation of the Program's strategy regarding gender research issues and capacity building.The Alliance presented a draft of the SRF that included a preliminary description of eight CRPs, called mega programs at that time, at the first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD), held in Montpellier, France, in March 2010 (see page XX). The estimated 1000 participants included researchers, policymakers, farmers, donors and members of civil society from every region of the world. The conference gave the CGIAR the opportunity to discuss priorities for agricultural research with a wide range of stakeholders. The views and insight provided by this dialogue were useful inputs into the long process of defining the research programs, while enhancing the concept of partnerships in agricultural research for developmentThe iISPC held its first meeting in April 2010 at ICARDA's headquarters near Aleppo, Syria. High on the agenda was a review of the March 2010 draft of the SRF developed by the Alliance, including how it was reflected in the CRPs and its contribution to the ongoing process of change in the CGIAR. In discussing its role in the process, the iISPC decided that it was important that it: (i) look very clearly at the SRF and provide suggestions as to how it could be modified to lead the process of research portfolio development;(ii) evaluate and comment on the criteria used by the Consortium to evaluate CRP proposals; (iii) develop a short statement on partnerships in research and development that would be useful to the Consortium and provide a foundation for the ISPC's own work plan and budget; and (iv) comment on the science content of the CRPs as they were developed. The meeting also received reports on the activities of the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) and its proposed new business model, which is centred on greater independence from the Centers and an increased budget to allow for commissioning and managing impact assessments directly on behalf of the Fund Council.In April representatives from the donors and the Consortium Board met at the World Bank offices in Berlin, Germany, to discuss key issues relating to the CGIAR Fund Governance Framework and the CGIAR Fund Contribution Agreement or Arrangement between each Fund donor and the Trustee -the World Bank -and commented on the Joint Agreement between the Consortium and the Fund Council. These three documents are central to the functioning and legal underpinnings of the Fund. The Governance Framework covers the governance terms for the CGIAR Fund adopted by the Fund Council. The Contribution Agreement is the arrangement entered into between the Trustee and a Fund Donor in respect of the Fund Donor's contribution to the CGIAR Fund.The Joint Agreement sets forth an umbrella set of terms and conditions that govern principally the submission and approval of CRP proposals and the transfer and use of funds from the CGIAR Fund for implementation of CRPs. The meeting set out a timeline for completion of these documents.In May, the Consortium Board, at its second meeting, held in Rome, Italy, received the revised version of the SRF, submitted by the Alliance, which incorporated input from GCARD. The Consortium welcomed it as a great step forward while acknowledging limitations in the document that required further improvements. At the same time, the Consortium Office and the Science Task Force discussed and assessed the reports of the reviewers of the 12 CRP concept notes (see box, 'Initial concept notes'). The Consortium Office had organized the external review by international referees of all the first CRP proposals submitted to the Consortium Board.Each proposal was reviewed by four external reviewers, one of whom focussed on gender issues.Twelve initial concept notes were submitted under eight research thematic areas.1. Integrated agriculture systems for the poor and vulnerable The Board made specific recommendations for the further development of the SRF and decided that 11 of 12 the concept notes received (three related to thematic area 1 on agricultural systems, four related to thematic area 3 on crop improvement and the other four related to each of the other thematic areas) should be developed further. As regards the concept note on 'Genetic diversity for better lives', the Board acknowledged the importance of genetic diversity in underpinning all agriculture and decided to commission a scoping study to examine the best approaches to address this cross-cutting issue, especially in terms of advocacy and policy. The Board also commissioned a scoping study to explore how research on gender should be taken forward in the context of the new CRPs.At the request of some donors, the Board also received four proposals for 'fast tracking' which focussed on rice, wheat, maize and climate change. These were sent for assessment by external reviewers proposed by the interim Consortium Office.In an effort to improve coordination of the assessment of the CRPs with the other units of the system, the Consortium proposed a process for the submission and approval of CRPs (see box, 'Process for submission and approval of CGIAR Research Programs'), which was discussed with the iISPC and agreed with the Fund Office during July and August 2010.Process for submission and approval of CGIAR Research Programs The Center chosen as the Lead Center should:• generally be the one with the greatest level of research activity and investment in the CGIAR Research Program (CRP);• generally have the greatest proportion of budget allocated to Centers involved in the CRP;• have played the catalytic role in advancing the area of research and development in question and has in addition to the core competence, the comparative advantage in implementing the activities of the CRP;• have a demonstrably strong record in management, financing and governance;• have the geographic focus and ability to partner with key institutions for impact on the ground;• demonstrate a comparative advantage in implementing the activities of the CRP;• be capable of managing and dealing with the scope and scale of the CRP;• have core competencies and demonstrated scientific quality in the key science involved in the CRP; and• be acceptable and credible as a Lead Center in the eyes of its partners.The Board also acknowledged and accepted the resolution of the Alliance to cease operations as of 31 May 2010 as the new Consortium had come into being. Anne-Marie Izac, Chief Alliance Officer until then, was appointed as Interim Executive Officer of the Consortium.Other key matters addressed in this Board meeting included: presentation of a draft of the Program Implementation Agreement (PIA), a proposed agreement between the Consortium and Lead Centers for delivery of CRPs; the selection process for the Consortium chief executive officer; and the search for a location for the Consortium Office among the five candidate countries bidding for it -Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), France (Montpellier), India (New Delhi), Italy (Rome) and Kenya (Nairobi). Each country was asked to submit a formal expression of interest for consideration by the Consortium Board. The Board task force on the Consortium Office location handled the negotiations with the candidate countries, and after seven months of deliberations chose Montpellier, France, as the site for the Consortium Office.In June, the Consortium Board held an informal meeting with donors at the USAID offices in Washington, DC, to discuss progress on the reform of the CGIAR and to raise concerns arising from the new business model, not the least of which was uncertainty about funding for the Centers pending the establishment of the full set of CRPs. This informal meeting proved very useful for a better understanding of problems and concerns.  Also in September, the Consortium Board announced the appointment of Lloyd Le Page as the chief executive officer of the Consortium. At its third meeting, held at ICARDA at the beginning of October, the Consortium Board chose Montpellier, France, as the headquarters of the Consortium Office. It also announced that France had offered to act as the depository of the agreement establishing the Consortium as an international organization and to work with the Consortium Office in seeking the signatures needed for the agreement to enter into force. The CRPs were a major topic of discussion.The Board approved two fast-tracked CRPs -GRiSP Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and -and submitted them to the iISPC. It also asked the Lead Centers of the proposed wheat and maize CRPs to make some additional changes to these Programs.CGIAR Research Programs at the end of 2010 With an initial five-year budget of nearly US$600 million, GRiSP is intended to deliver innovations in rice genetics, agronomy, postharvest processing and policy that strengthen food security through large and sustainable increases in crop yields. The research will be carried out jointly by three CGIAR Centers (AfricaRice, CIAT and IRRI) and major international organizations in France and Japan in collaboration with hundreds of partners, including the private sector, national agricultural research systems and civil society. A series of processes generated new thinking in the run up to the first GCARD, held in 2010:Reviews, e-consultations and face-to-face meetings organized by regional forums identified regional needs. These innovative mechanisms brought in new thinking from around the world and from all sectors. Over 2,000 people had their say, including, most importantly, farmers themselves.• Surveys and discussions on reform of the CGIAR's strategy and programs helped shape the CGIAR Strategy and ResultsFramework.• International workshops were held on key systematic needs, such as information and communications management, capacity development, gender focus, public-private partnerships and new roles of fast growing economies.A panel of international experts used the findings of these processes to propose new ways forward, embedding research directly in development and setting the scene for GCARD 2010.These rich discussions explored how the complex jigsaw of actions required in transforming agricultural research for development can be brought together and turned into practical programs for large-scale change. Over 800 invited delegates then attended the GCARD 2010 conference, from farmers to the heads of UN agencies.The Conference, held in Montpellier, France, in March 2010, was highly energized and achieved a remarkable new consensus:all involved recognized the need for transforming and strengthening agricultural research for development systems at all levels.Participants called for integrated actions in agricultural innovation to be driven by development demands and centred on the needs of the poor, in particular poor smallholder farmers. Among these actions is the revitalization of the international agricultural research system and its move towards large-scale outcome-focused actions, with clear partnerships and accountabilities. Participants also recognized that agricultural innovation is essential, but not itself sufficient; appropriate enabling inputs, stability and incentives are also required for impacts.These dynamic processes created the GCARD Roadmap: Transforming Agricultural Research for Development Systems for Global Impact (http://www.fao.org/docs/eims/upload//294891/GCARD Road Map.pdf). The Roadmap establishes clear paths for change at national, regional and international levels, and has been endorsed by representatives from all sectors.The GCARD Roadmap proposes a six-point plan for transforming agricultural research for development around the world:1. Improved foresight and focus on key development priorities 2. Establishing true and effective partnerships between research and those it serves 3. Increased investments to meet the huge challenges ahead 4. Greater capacities to generate, share and make use of agricultural knowledge 5. Embedding research effectively in wider development processes and actions 6. Better linking between science and society, creating awareness of the crucial value of agricultural innovation in development GCARD 2010 and its resultant Roadmap have established an inclusive rolling process of reform and action. Going forward, the GCARD process will enable the CGIAR's work to be further developed in unison with the actions of national partners and to have an impact on the lives of millions. Together we have created tremendous collective will to enable development change through agricultural innovation. Achieving these transformations requires urgent action among all those who care about the future of agriculture and rural development -'business as usual' is no longer an option.Nine CGIAR Centers and the Consortium Office are integrating their diverse project, financial and human resource management systems into a common corporate platform, known as One Corporate System (OCS). The move is expected to create a highly functional and interconnected system that will boost efficiencies, support greater cross-Center coordination and result in better investments of donor funding.The impetus for OCS reaches back several years, when Deputy Director Generals of Finance and Administration from several Centers began investigating the potential benefits and cost savings that could be gained from adopting a joint system. That potential has become even more important with the advent of the CGIAR Research Programs and demands for greater accountability from funders.OCS incorporates a vast array of management data and processes. It provides a sophisticated platform to aggregate results, reduce redundancies and improve accountability. The resulting efficiency gains and process improvements represent a whole new generation of cross-Center collaboration.The new structure is designed to integrate data and processes, using standard solutions and functionality. At the same time, it offers the flexibility to support locally specific information needs across Centers or decentralized, regional offices.Research and administrative managers from numerous Centers have invested considerable time and effort to align their management terminology and practices in preparation for the new system. They have devoted weeks to face-to-face workshops and reviews, along with conference calls and remote meetings to compare processes, test proposals and prototypes, and prepare for implementation.The OCS project is now widely recognized as a model of cross-organizational collaboration across the CGIAR system. In addition it promises important financial benefits. Calculations indicate that each participating Center is saving about US$500 000 by implementing a common platform and purchasing a system jointly instead of individually. And there are significant annual savings in equipment and maintenance costs from the fact that they are using a commonly hosted infrastructure.Not surprisingly, the scope and complexity of the task have posed         ","tokenCount":"3122"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b47b9644b0a5d8c1121afa9c02fdeefe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H020736.pdf","id":"945506660"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba9afedd-8092-4d79-a89e-9edcccf6718a","pagecount":"62","content":"Nornbre oficial del pais 2.Indicadores bksicos del Perti 2 . 1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.i 1 2.121 1 . Material 1 1 . 1 Term inologia (local) 1 1.2 1 I .3 Publicaciones de interds especial Fuentes principales de informacibn. 3 3 CUADRO 1 CUADRO 2 CUADRO 3 CUADRO 4 CUADRO 5 CUADRO 6 CUADRO 7 CUADRO 7.1 CUADRO 8 CUADRO 9 CUADRO 10 :Distribucibn y tasa de crecimiento de la poblacibn total seghn departamentos (1981-1993).:Poblacibn censada urbana y rural segun departamentos (1 98 1-1 993).:Superficie y densidad, segun departamentos (1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993).:Product0 bruto interno, total y agricola. Tasas anuales de crecimiento.:Capacidad de us0 mayor de las tierras, total nacional y por regiones naturales.:Exportacibn e importacibn de productos agropecuarios (1991-1 994).:indices alimentarios 1994.:indices de seguridad alimentaria y product0 nacional bruto per cipita( 1988).:Disponibilidad hidrica.:Distribucibn y us0 actual de las aguas superficiales segun vertientes hidrogrificas.: Aguas subterraneas, explotacidn y us0 en la vertiente hidrogriifica del Pacifico. CUADRO 10.1 : Tip0 de pozos, n ~m e r o , estado y superficie bajo riego a nivel nacional(1994). CUADRO 11 :Balance hidrico. CUADRO 12 CUADRO 13 CUADRO 14 :Area con infraestructura de riego y Area regada, segun regimes. :Fuentes de riego y irea regada s e g h regiones naturales :Caracteristicas, disponibilidad del agua y superficie cultivada de las cuencas de la vertiente del Pacifico. dnventario de riego, sistemas operativos. CUADRO 15 CUADRO 15.1 :Inventario de riego, proyectos en estudio y construcci6n a cargo del INADE CUADRO 15.2 :Inventaria de riego, proyectos y obras simples y elementales por departamentos CUADRO 16 (1987).:Serie histbrica de la tarifa de agua con fines agrarios, s e g h categoria de sistemas de riego (1982-1991). CUADRO FIGURA 1 FIGURA FIGURA 3 FrGURA MAPA 1 MAPA 2 MAPA 3: lnversiones en riego en grandes proyectos hidrulicos en ejecucibn.: Regiones naturales del Peru.: U bicacion de cuencas hidrogrificas y vertientes del Peru.: Distribucibn de precipitaciones.: Ambito de 10s proyectos de inversibn a cargo del INADE.: Mapa de isoyetas del Peru.Otras instituciones sobre recursos de agua Riego y otros Usos del Agua PROLOGO El Instituto Internacional del Manejo de la Irrigacibn (IIMI) esth actualmente ejecutando un proyecto sobre \"Fortalecimiento Institucional para el Manejo del Recurso Agua en la Zona Andina\", con fondosa travts de una donacibndel Banco lnteramericano de Desarrollo (BID).Dentro de las actividades adelantadas bajo el marco de ese proyecto, el llMl ha querido documentar cull es la situacibn actual del sub-sector riego en cada uno de 10s paises estudiados: Colombia, Ecuador y Perk El presente documento: \"Perfil de Riego de la Republica del Perfi\", tiene como objetivo presentar en forma Clara y breve cuil es la situacion en que se encuentra el sub-sector riego en este pais. Ademhs de 10s indicadores bhsicos, el documento expone informacih sobre el clima y 10s recursos tierra y agua. Asimismo, presenta informacion agricola bisica y sobre la administracibn de 10s recursos naturales en el pais. Dada la diversidad de fuentes existentes, se han tornado aquellas que 10s autores han considerado m i s conveniente.Con respecto a1 riego propiamente dicho, el perfil abarca su historia, desarrollo actual e inventario, y discute sobre las politicas existentes incluyendo leyes, derechos y tarifas. Presenta ademis una breve relaci6n entre el riego y el ambiente, la salud, y cuestiones de gdnero.Finalmente, el documento expone alguna terminologia \"local\" asociada al riego y cita publicaciones y fuentes especiales sobre el tema.Aunque se ha pretendido abarcar el mayor terreno posible, el documento esta disedado primordialmente como una fuente rhpida de consulta para todos aquellos interesados en el riego en el Perir; par lo tanto, el lector no encontrarh discusiones en profundidad sobre ninguno de 10s temas tratados; esto queda para las publicaciones especializadas.Finalmente, vale la pena adarar que se pretende que el Perfil de Riego del Peru sea un documento dinamico, el cual se pueda ir actualizando a medida que van cambiando las condiciones existentes en el subsector asi como la informacibn disponible. Por ello su presentacibn permite ir afiadiendo facilmente nueva informacibn o reemplazar la obsoleta. Rephblica del Perh 2.El PerC esth situado en la parte centro occidental del Continente Sudamericano y en ta parte sur-oriental de la Cuenca del Pacifico. Se encuentra entre 10s paralelos 0\" 0 1' 48\" y 18\" 20' 50.8\" de Iatitud sur y 10s rneridianos 68\" 9' 27\" y 81\" 19' 34.5\" de longitud Oeste. Limita por el Norte con Ecuador y Colombia, por el Este con Brasil y Bolivia, por el Sur con Chile y por el Oeste con el Ocdano Pacifico.La superficie total es de 1'285,215.60 km2.La poblacibn total es de 22'639,443 habitantes, segun el IX Censo de Poblacion y 1V deVivienda Crecimiento anual FBI.12.9% en 1994. (Cuadro 4).Perfil de Riego de la Republica del Perii IPROGA -IIMI 2.9US $ 1,495 en 1994.Castellano; tambitn lo son, donde predominan, el quechua, el aymara y las lenguas aborigenes.Nuevo Sol, U S $ 1 = SI. 2.30 (DiC 1995).Catblica, mayoritariamente.La Cordillera de 10s Andes divide al pals en sentida longitudinal en tres regiones geograficas naturales: Costa, Sierra y Selva ( Figura 1).La Costa, regibn arida, es una estrecha faja longitudinal que se extiende entre el Ocean0 Paclfico y 10s contrafuertes de la CordilIera de 10s Andes (aprox. 2,000 msnm), con un ancho que varia entre 5 km (Arequipa) y un maximo de I60 km (Sechura, Piura). La superficie es de 136,361 km2(1 0.6 1 %).El relieve es moderado predominando las terrazas marinas, 10s abanicos aluviales, tas dunas y 10s dkpositos de arena eblica, alternadas con cerros pequefios que forman parte de 10s contrafuertes occidentales de 10s Andes. En esta regibn se concentra la agricultura de riego.La Sierra, semihrida o semihfimeda, es la region de la cordillera de 10s andes comprendida entre 10s 2,000 msnm del flanco occidental de 10s Andes y 10s 2,000 msnm del flanco Este de la cordilleraoriental. La superficie es de 39 1,991 km2 (30.50%). El paisaje es imponente y desolado pues presenta una configuracibn heterogbnea de cumbres escarpadas, profundas gargantas, estrechos valles y arnplias mesetas. El 70% del area se encuentra encima de 10s 3,000 msnm. En esta regi6n se desarrolla la agricultura de secano.La Selvs, trbpico hurnedo, comprende desde 10s 2,000 msnm en el flanco Oeste de la Cordillera Oriental hasla el llano amazbnico y se extiende hasta las fronteras con Ecuador, Colombia, B r a d y Bolivia. La superficie es de 756,864 km2 (58.89%).Se distinguen tres zonas: la Selva Aka, situada encima de 10s 2,000 msnm, area boscosa de la vertiente oriental de 10s Andes, su topografia es accidentada porque corresponde a 10s uitimos contrafuertes orientaies andinos. Se caracteriza por la presencia de cerros escarpados boscosos, quebradas profundas, grandes cailones, y por 10s L'pongos''* o rirpidos de 10s rim.La Ceja de Selva, situada entre 10s 2,000 y 800 msnm, es predominantemente escarpada, conformado por laderas empinadas y escasos valles amplios.L a Selva Baja, situada por debajo de 10s 800 msnm, es el Llano Amazbnico, de relieve ondulado, cubierto de exuberante vegetaci6n tropical y sujeta a inundaciones peribdicas.El territorio peruano presenta un cuadro morfol6gico estrechamente ligado a! marco geolbgicotectbnico, mostrando relieves y formas topogrdficas contrastante; en 10s que destaca el Sistema Montailoso de 10s Andes y que obedece a estructuras sucesivas tect6nicas y superpuestas que se han ido desarrollando desde tiempos precambrianos, luego en el Paleozoico, Mesozoic0 y Cenozoico.Las rocas mhs antiguas del pais son del Proterozoico (600 a 2,000 M.A.), en la Costa Sur y en la Cordillera Oriental de ios Andes, entre 10s rios MaraAbn y Huallaga. Estan constituidas por graniticos, esquistos, cuarcitas y rocas volcanicas muy metamorfizadas.Las rocas del Paleozoico inferior (570 a 3 5 5 M.A.), fueron depositadas en un mar inferior que ocupaba lo que hoy es la Cordillera Oriental y que llegaba en partes a la Cordillera Occidental y la Costa. E s t h formadas por areniscas, limolitas, lutitas, cuarcitas; que fueron luego levantadas, plegadas, falladas y metamorfizadas, a esquistos y pizarra, por un proceso de fines del Dev6nicoy comienzos del Carbonifero (35 5 M.A .). Sus afloramientos delineaban entonces la Cordillera Oriental.Las rocas del Paleozoico superior,distribuidas en la CordilIera Oriental y que tam bi6n afloran en la Costa Sur y Noreste, estdn conformadas por conglornerados, areniscas, limolitas, lutitas y calizas, con un origen continental durante el Csrbonlfero supe.rior e inferior (320 a 260 M.A.).Otro proceso tect6nico a fines del Paleozoico (250 M.A.), di6 lugar a1 levantamiento del territorio, y a la retirada de 10s mares, siguiendo un intenso volcanismo y luego la erosi6n de 10s terrenos levantados, lo que origin6 la deposicibn de sedimentos rojizos intercalados con volcinicos.A comienzos de la Era Mesozoica, durante el Trihico (250 M.A.), el mar ingresb nuevamente, teniendo esta vez la parte mks profunda en la Cordillera Oriental, deposithidose secuencias de calizas en el centro de la cuenca y volcanicos en la margen occidental.Durante el Jurbico y CretSlcico (205 -65 M .A.), el Continente Sudamericano se separa del Africa (Continente Gondwana) y empieza a desplazarse hacia el Oeste montando a la Placa Ocehnica.La fracturacibn de Iacorteza terrestre did lugar aun volcanismo activo en el margen litoral sudamericano, en un arc0 de islas volcanicas y en un mar interior que llegaba por el Este hasta la Cordillera Oriental.Las rocas depositadas durante el JurAsico y Cretslcico son: volcinicas, andesiticos en la Costa y sedimentos de origen marino en la Cordillera Occidental. Estos depbsitos se extienden con menor espesor hacia la Cordillera Oriental, a la Faja Subandina tambi6n al Llano Amazbnico, donde 10s mares eran pocos profundos, habidndose depositado alli corn0 areniscas, arcillas y calitas asociadas a yacimientos petroliferos.Cordillera Occidental y retirhdose 10s mares a la Faja Andina. En esa 6poca se emplazan grandes cuerpos de rocas intrusivas que constituyen el Batolito de la Costa.En la Era Cenozoica (65 M.A.), que comienza con el Paleigeno, el volcanismo es intenso en la Cordillera Occidental, producitndose plegamientos, fallamientos y levantamientos por etapas. Las rocas del Pale6geao son: tobas, aglomerados y cenizas volchnicas, asi como lavas, principalmente andesitas, intercalhndose en algunos lugares con rocas sedimentarias formadas en medios lacustre.En el Nedgeno, especialmente en el Mioceno y Plioceno (23 a 1,6 M ,A,), la actividad volchnica fue m6s activa a lo largo de la Cordillera Occidental, prolonghndose en el Sur hasta el Cuaternario reciente.Los depdsitos del Cuaternario en la Faja Andina son aluviales, lacustrinos y de glaciar. En la Costa son aiuviales, eblicos y marinos, formando terrazas y arenas recientes en las playas.Presentan una vasta variabilidad y complejidad de caracteres morfolbgicos, como resultado de la interaccibn compleja del clima, vegetacibn, topografia, geologia y rasgos geomorfolbgicos. Se ha establecido siete regimes geoedhficas:Ubicada entre 10s 0 a 200 msnm. Es laregidn hrida de la Costa. Comprende 53 valles irrigados paralelos, interconectados por amplias planicies, terrazas marinas elevadas y un conjunto de cerros y colinas (aprox, 10 millones de ha).Los suelos son de rnorfologia estratificada, de profundidad y textura variables, de topografia plana y drenaje libre. Las ireas bajas irrigadas presentan problemas de drenaje deficiente. Es frecuente la presencia de capas impermeables.Entre 10s 1,000 a 5,000 msnm. Comprende el flanco occidental de 10s Andes Peruanos (aprox. 10 millones ha).Es un medio desfavorable para el desarrollo agropecuario debido a1 relieve abrupto de 10s suelos, erosionabilidad, fuerte diseccibn y f o r m a c i h litica. En la parte mhs elevada se crian ovinos y camtlidos sudamericanos (llamas y alpacas).Se extiende entre 10s 4,000 a 5,000 msnm. Cerca de I5 millones de ha. Abarca ias Areas altoandinas (puna aha). El relieve es suave. Vegetacibn representada por plantas herbaceas (graminal altoandino) y algunas especies semilefiosas perennes. Suelos poco profundos, hcidos y un horizonte superficial negro conspicuo, rico en rnateria orgdnica descompuesta. La actividad pecuaria es dominante: ovinos y camelidos sudamericanos.iv) v) vi) vii)Entre 10s 2,000 y 4,000 msnm. Comptende la mayor parte de las mesas y valles interandinos* altos o intermedios que corren paralelos a la direccibn de la Cordillera de 10s Andes. Cerca de 14 millones de ha. Es la regi6n representativa de la agricultura de secano de la Sierra. Los suelos son relativamente profundos, generalmente bhsicos y susceptibles a la erosi6n. Severo proceso erosivo por el us0 intensivo de las tierras y sin mayores prlcticas de conservaci6n.Entre 10s 2,000 a 3,000 msnm. Comprende el borde oriental boscoso de 10s Andes Peruanos (Selva Muy Aha). Siete millones de ha, Edificamente es pobre con excesiva precipitacibn.Son tierras de proteccibn.Desde menos de 500 a 2,000 msnm. Abarca el grueso flanco oriental boscoso de 10s Andes Peruanos (Selva Aha). Cerca de 17 millones de ha. El relieve topogrhfico es predominantemente escarpado, conformado por laderas empinadas y escasos valles amplios. Los suelos varian en profundidad, de tendencia hcida y susceptible a la erosibn. Es una regi6n de ma1 drenaje.Agricultura variada a base de cultivos permanentes e intensivos.Comprende la vasta semiltanura amaz6nica o Selva Baja, constituida a base de sedimentos del Terciario o Pleistoceno, principalmente, con un relieve ondulado donde discurten 10s grandes rios. Aproximadamente 15 millones de ha. Los suetos son muy profundos, mayormente meteorizados en forma intensa, de naturaleza 6cida y poco fkrtiles. Requieren de ttcnicas y tratamientos especiales para su rnanejo adecuado y producci6n econbmica. La vocacibn predominante es para la explotacibn det recurso forestal.Segun la Capacidad de Us0 Mayor de las Tierras, ONERN (1982) estirna que el us0 potencia[ de tierras cultivables es de 7.6 millones de ha. que equivalen a1 5.9% de la superficie total del pais. (Cuadro 5).Las tierras cultivadas, segun el 111 Censo Agropecuario (1NEI-1994), se estiman en 3.034 millones de ha. que equivalen al39.9% de las tierras cultivables, y distribuidas en: a: 2 136 000 ha.. Cultivos permanentes* : 898 000 ha.Porcentaje de agricultura en PBI (riego/secano):12.9%,1994 ( Cuadro 4).* Tcrminotogia localEl escenario territorial donde se desenvuelve la organizacidn econbmica y social det pals se caracteriza por la gran heterogeneidad de recursos naturales que ofrecen condiciones favorables para el desarrollo de la actividad agraria. La heterogeneidad de los ecosisternascasi todos 10s microclimas del mundopermite producir una amplia gama de cultivos y crianzas en diferentes tpocas del aAo; es decir, se puede distribuir 10s riesgos intertemporalmente y plantear una oferta miis estable a 10s mercados urbanos a lo largo de1 afio, a d e m b de aprovechar la contraestacionalidad respecto a 10s mercados internacionales.A pesar de que la tierra agricola es muy escasa, fraccionada y dispersa, aun existe un potencial de tierras cultivablescultivos en limpio y cultivos perrnanentesbajo riego y de secano, ubicados en la Costa y Selva peruana. En la Sierra, el Brea cultivada ha sobrepasado en demasia la superficie de 1.361.000 hecthreas recomendada por Ia ONERN (1984).El Perti es uno de 10s mayores centros de germoplasma de especies domesticas de la flora y de la fauna del mundo. Se conoce cerca de 1,200 especies silvestres de plantas M e s para diversos fines: alirnentos, fibras, aceites, grasas, ceras, t h i c o s , colorantes, medicamentos, etcbtera. Por lo tanto, la Ingenieria Genttica dispone de un extraordinario Banco de Germoplasma para adecuar 10s cultivos a la diversidad de 10s ecosistemas y a las variaciones climAticas a fin de aumentar la productividad y disminuir 10s riesgos de cosechas.Existe una marcada diferencia entre la agricultura de riego y la de secano. La primera desarroIIada mayormente en la Costa, tiene una tecnologia adecuada en comparacibn con la tCcnica que utilizan en la Sierra y Selva, tiene acceso al credit0 de la banca privada y a la asistencia ttcnica, que tambi6n es privada. En la Sierra, el Estado esth impulsando diferentes programas de asistencia tkcnica y crediticia a favor de 10s pequefios agricultores. En la Selva, la ayuda es menos intensa. La comercializacidn de 10s productos es una dificultad que no est4 superada. Valor de irnportaciones agricolas: US $ 342,972,000 en 1994. (Cuadro 6 ) .La agricultura es una actividad fundamental para el desarrollo del pais. Involucra a un 30% de la poblacibn total y aporta alimentos e insumos para la propia poblacibn rural y para el mercado interno y externo. En la bltimas dkcadas 10s procesos politicos, econbmicos y sociales han originado una significativa declinacih en la produccibn agropecuaria; en 10s dltirnos tres aAos se observ6 cierta recuperacibn, que sin embargo es insuficiente para salir de1 estancamiento de nuestra agricuttura;Actualmente la superficie cultivada cs de 3 034 000 ha. es decir un 2.36 % del territorio nacional. Hay asi tan sblo 0.134 ha. por habitante, lo que es sumamente bajo en cornparacidn a la mayoria de 10s paises.Los rendimientos unitarios son muy bajos, aunque con marcadas diferencias seghn las regiones naturales. Asi por ejemplo, el promedio nacional de 10s principales cultivos (1994)  La actual producci6n es insuficiente para satisfacer la creciente demanda de la poblaci6n. En general, el Peru es deficitario principatmente en trigo, cebada cervecera (agroindustria), maiz amaritlo duro (aves), oleaginosas (aceite) y leche. En el (Cuadro 7) se muestra 10s principales indices alimentarios del Perfi, aflo 1994.Recursos de agusEI escurrimiento anual medio es de 2 044 billones de m 3 lo que equivale a 64,800 rn'ls. El escurrimiento superficial representa casi el 5 % del escurrirniento total de 10s rios del mundo.la \"escorrentia especifica\" es de cerca de 1 600 mm/afio. La disponibilidad hidrica por vertientes y cuencas se muestra en el (Cuadro 8). A continuacion se detalla un resumen del mismo: La ubicacibn de las vertientes y cuencas hidrograficas se muestran en la Figura 2. Subdireccion de Supervisih y Fiscalizacidn Ambiental.La actual ley regula el aprovechamiento de las aguas maritimas, terrestres y atmosfdricas del territorio y espacios nacionales, en todos 10s estados fisicos. Las aguas son de propiedad del Estado, y 5u dominio es inalienable e imprescriptible. El dominio maritirno del Estado comprende el mar adyacente a sus costas, asi como su lecho y subsuelo hasta la distancia de doscientas millas marinas desde la linea de base que establece la ley. Para utilizar las aguas terrestres se requiere de un otorgamiento que se hace a travts de la Autoridad de Aguas.El aprovechamiento de Ias aguas internacionales, no maritimas, es efectuado de conformidad con 10s principios de derecho internacionai y 10s acuerdos vigentes.En julio 95 se promulg6 Ia Ley de Tierras, Ley 26505, que declara el libre acceso a la propiedad de la tierra de us0 agricola, de pastoreo, forestal asi como las riberas y cauces de 10s rios. NO existe lirnitaciones o restricciones a fa propiedad de {as tierras. El Estado garantiza a toda persona natural o juridica, nacional o extranjera el libre acceso a la propiedad de las tierras, cumpliendo las normas del derecho sustantivo que las regula. Las lreas naturales protegidas por Ia Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre mantiene su intangibilidad. Las Comunidades Campesinas y las Comunidades Nativas son libres de adoptar por acuerdo mayoritario de sus miembros el modelo de organizacibn empresarial que decidan en Asambtea.Aatecedentes de Riego 8.1 Historia del riego y el ma1 USO. Existian penas muy severas para 10s que alteraran el reparto. La limpieza anual de 10s canales era una tarea obligatoria, el Curaca* o Cacique* era el responsable para la organizacih de estas labores, acompaiiado por el \"Varayoc\"* o alcalde.Algunos historiadores consideran una superficie cultivada en la Costa (siglos XIlI-XIV) en mSs de 700,000 ha; 10s cultivos sembrados: malz, algod6n nativo, pallar, frejol, etc., eran de bajo consumo de agua.En el Peru Colonial (siglos XV-XVHI) la agricultura fue reemplazadapor la actividad minera.El iirea de cultivo alcanza unas 300,000 ha. El proceso de despoblacibn indigena, Ias guerras pizarristas, las 'knitas\"* y la virueia, contribuyen a esta decadencia. T a m b i h contribuye a esta reduccibn del Area la introduccibn de la cafia de azucar, de alto consumo de agua.En este periodo se destacan disposiciones en torno a1 aprovechamiento y administracih de las aguas: La Real Ctdula del20 de noviernbre de 1536 dada por el Emperador Carlos V, ordenando que 10s espailoles se repartieran el agua de acuerdo a 10s \"usos y costumbres\" de 10s indios y respetando sus derechos; el Reglamento de Antonio de Saavedra, Dean de la Catedral de Trujillo (1660); y, el Reglamento de Cerdsln (1 793), Juez de Aguas y Oidor de la Audiencia.A com ienzos del siglo XX, Period0 Republicano, el Estado toma mayor interds en las obras de irrigacibn; se Cree diversos organismos: lngenieros de Minas y Aguas (l904), el Servicio Hidrolbgico (191 1). Se contratan 10s servicios del Ing. Charles Sutton (1914), pionero de las irrigaciones y se obtiene el primer pr6stamo para la ejecucibn de obras de irrigacih. En el segundo gobierno de Leguia(1 91 9-30) se inicia una politica de irrigaciones y se ejecutan pequeilos proyectos de riego y diversos estudios de irrigacidn (Olmos). En 1930 se crea la Direccibn de Aguas e lrrigacidn que se encarga de 10s estudios y ejecucibn de obras de regadio.En 1945-48 se elabor6 el Plan Nacional de lrrigacibn y Mejoramiento de Riego. Entre 1948 y 1956 el peso de las inversiones pfiblicas alcanza niveles sin precedentes: SO% respecto a1 total de la inversi6n pdblica de 1952. Se destacan las obras de derivacibn del rio Quiroz a1 rio Piura y la del Chotano al rio Chancay-Lambayeque. Entre 1956 y 1968, se ejecuta la irrigaci6n La Joya, las presas de San Lorenzo y Tinajones y se inicia la ejecuci6n de pequefios y medianos proyectos de irrigacibn. A partir de 1970 se da impulso a la construccibn de 10s Grandes Proyectos Hidraulicos.La relaci6n Precipitacibn versus Evapotranspiraci6n Potencial Referencial a nivel de regiones naturales en la Vertiente del Pacific0 es variable: en la Costa existe un marcado d6ficit rnensual de agua por ausencia de lluvias, en la Sierra la relacibn es rnenos critica. En la Vertiente del AtlAntico el balance es altamente positivo, y en la Vertiente del Titicaca existe un balance positivo.Los balances hidroI6gicos (Cuadro 11) consideran el concept0 de cuenca humeda o eficaz (area aportadora) como aquella superficie de la cuenca a partir de la isoyeta 200 m m como aportadora (caso Vertiente del Pacifico), asi corno el recurso natural como la surna del recurso interno m8s el externo que a su vez equivale a ia aportaci6n especifica.En 10s balances no se ha considerado las intercuencas de la Vertiente del Pacifico; en la Vertiente del Atlhntico, las cuencas de 10s rios Putumayo y Yavari, que ingresan a 10s paises de Colombia y Brasil, respectivamente.Los suelos aptos para desarrollar una agricultura intensiva de riego, clase I a 111, segun la ONERN (1 984) se estiman en 1.8 millones de ha. y st encuentran localizadas principalmente en 10s valles de la Costa, en !as terrazas aluviales de 10s valles de Sierra y Ceja de Selva.Segun lNEl (1994), las tierras con sistema de riego en diferentes estados de conservacibn y manejo cubren una superficie de 1 752 000 ha.en promedio se riegan 1 109 000 ha (63.3%), (Cuadro 12).Si se acepta la hipdtesis de que las tierras regadas cubren una superficie de 1 109 000 ha, se deduce que aCln existe en el Peru 700 000 ha, aptas para el riego, ubicadas en la Costa y Selva del Peru.Adicionalmente, existen 10s suelos de la Clase IV, suelos arenosos, ubicados mayormente en el desierto costero (1 .S millones de ha) que se incluye corn0 potencialmente irrigablesy que ya se esthn incorporando a la agricultura (CHAVIMOCHIC, CHINECAS, etcetera.). En consecuencia, el potencial de tierras regables es de 3.6 millones de ha. En la actualidad solo se utiliza alrededor del 30.8% det potencial existente.Las fuentes de abastecirniento dei riego son:Los rios, cuyas aguas son captadas directamente mediante estructuras hidraulicas especiales (bocatomas) y derivadas a 10s sistemas de distribucibn, conduccion y control (partidores, canales principales y secundarios, tom as, etcttera.).Las lagunas naturales, de tamaiio variable ubicadas entre 10s 4 000 y 6 000 msnm de la Cordillera de 10s Andes, que se recargan a travis de la precipitacidn estacional, deshielos de nevados y filtraciones provenientes de cuencas superiores.Los manantiales o puquios* de us0 muy frecuente en la Sierra.  La Ley y sus reglamentos ha sido modificada mediante nuevos dispositivos. El m i s relevante es el Decreto Legislativo N\" 635, que propicia la participaci6n de 10s productores agrarios nacionales y extranjeros en materia del us0 de aguas mejorando 10s sistemas de riego y aprovechando Ias aguas subterrkneas y servidas en la habilitacih de tierras para la produccibn agricola, pecuaria, forestal Q agroindustrial.La tendencia actual esta orientada a que la concesidn de aguas sea un derecho real, que ya es reconocido por la Constitucibn Politica del Peru de 1993, y que el recurso se use para cualquier fin.Pars utilizar las aguas, las personas naturales o juridicas, requieren de Perrniso, Licencia o A utorizacibn.El Permiso se concede sobre aguas sobrantes, despuks de satisfacer el us0 permanente y para fines agrarios, cultivos de corto periodo vegetativo; es vhlido mientras dura el excedente y es otorgado por Resolucih del Administrador TCcnico del Distrito de Riego.","tokenCount":"4100"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a27bde8b7f43c39c1749f78488511e62","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ad50274f-ce31-43c0-a1cd-113d1c13eab3/retrieve","id":"1250412765"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ff849ee8-8a22-4216-9474-b4a25c75564a","pagecount":"19","content":"The emergence, spread, and unprecedented impacts of COVID-19 provide opportunities for devising lasting solutions for alleviating human suffering. The pandemic has halted economic growth, reversed progress towards realizing the different sustainable development goals and induced human physical and mental suffering. As clearly put by Bhavani and Gopinath (2020, p. 881), the global spread of coronavirus should serve as a wake-up call for \"humanity to reflect, rethink and redesign food systems that are safe, healthy, sustainable, and beneficial to all.\" Although this statement is applicable across nations, it is particularly relevant to \"developing\" countries where agriculture is the primary economic activity.The pandemic has exposed underlying inefficiencies and vulnerabilities in global supply chains (Leach et al., 2021). First, food loss and waste occasioned by restricted movement, lockdowns, and border closure are a danger to the environment (FAO, 2020;UNEP, 2020). Second, the pandemic struck at a time when 690 million people go to bed hungry each day with about 740 million, being food insecure and 2 billion people not having regular access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food. The projections show that if this trend continues, the number of people who go to bed hungry will increase to 840 million in 2030. It also estimates that the pandemic will add 83-132 million undernourished people in the world in, 2020, depending on the economic crisis scenario (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2020). Unfortunately, developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, shoulder much of the food insecurity and malnutrition burden (Akombi et al., 2017). Furthermore, sub-Saharan Africa countries have high poverty levels, and, therefore, the COVID-19 containment measures were expected to worsen the situation (Ayanlade and Radeny, 2020). Finally, the impacts were expected to be dire in the agriculture sector due to the double tragedy of climate change and overreliance on global supply chains for input and food imports (Nchanji and Lutomia, 2021a;Shimeles et al., 2018). Such challenges and situations offer important lessons for thinking strategies for developing resilient and sustainable food systems now and in the future.The pandemic impacts have also catalyzed discussions around sustainability discourse, with much attention paid to enabling developing countries to upend the deteriorating situations. The mainstream definition of sustainability in agri-food chains encompasses systems that safeguard and generate economic, social, and environmental outcomes for present and future generations (FAO, 2018). This indicates that sustainability is a multidimensional concept. However, Schmitt et al. (2016) note that this definition is rigid and does not provide a definitive understanding of sustainability in the context of dynamic agri-food chains. For this reason, sustainability should comprise a variety of concepts to accommodate the dynamic and complex nature of food systems.In this regard, Schmitt et al. (2016) highlighted sustainability attributes to be assessed based on a set of indicators. The attributes and indicators are expected to be adapted on a case-by-case basis, relevance, analytical soundness, based on a phenomenon, measurability, country, and relatedness. It is in line with these arguments that the sustainability definition is expanded to capture health and ethical dimensions (Schmitt et al., 2016).Economic sustainability attributes include affordability, value-addition, economic development, efficiency, and resilience. Environmental sustainability in agri-food systems captures pollution, resource use, biodiversity management, food loss, waste, and consumer behavior, while social sustainability encompasses producer-consumer interactions and relationships, food security, and labor (Schmitt et al., 2016). On the other hand, the health dimension comprises food safety and food quality/nutrition, and ethical sustainability concerns animal welfare in terms of feeding and health.This chapter shows how sustainability in agri-food supply chains has been hampered or enhanced during the pandemic. We demonstrate this by applying pathways that producers and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa pursued during the pandemic, as Schmitt et al. (2016) argued. The chapter focuses primarily on two Sub-regions in sub-Saharan Africa: Eastern and Southern Africa. The data used are drawn from a survey conducted by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture in collaboration with National agricultural research partners in nine countries. Six countries in Eastern Africa countries; Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and three countries in Southern Africa; Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Because of small samples per country and acknowledgment that they are not representational of the status of agri-food systems' sustainability in the focus countries, we classify them as cases and present them under different sustainability themes: localized input supply and food system sustainability, diversification and Resilience, and consumer behavior.Sustainability is achieved when food chains are resilient to disruptions generated by external forces, including pandemics and business cycles. This underlines the relationship between sustainability and resilience, concepts that are critical in supply chain management with or without crises (Edgeman and Wu, 2016). Marchese et al. (2018) observed that resilience and sustainability are related in different ways because one is a component of another; that is, they influence each other (Fahimnia et al., 2019), and they both play critical roles in supply chains (Negri et al., 2021). The first form of relationship depicts sustainability as a process that leads to resilience as the ultimate goal of supply chain management (Marchese et al., 2018). The second type of association between the two terms is that resilience is the precursor for fulfilling the sustainability goal of supply chains. The supply chain is considered sustainable in the second form when its activities are resilient or less vulnerable to disruptive events. Taking these relationships into account, resilience as one of the attributes in assessing the economic pillar of sustainability.The inseparable relationship between resilience and sustainability has been strengthened by recent findings by Snow et al. (2021) in an agrifood study done in New Zealand and Australia. The study found evidence that the high resilience of agri-food systems to the impacts of the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic was driven by social, economic, and environmental subsystems. First, social and cultural interactions catalyzed rapid acceptance, adoption, and adaptation to \"a new normal and realities\" regarding adherence to coronavirus containment protocols. Second, the agricultural industries' agility and other actors' ability to align value chain activities to new realities significantly minimized losses and uncertainties (Snow et al., 2021). Third, the agricultural industries assimilated losses and disruptions in both input and output markets through product diversification and short supply chains, creating business cases for local manufacturing and value addition, which had positive implications on environmental, health, and economic pillars of sustainability. Furthermore, Snow et al. (2021) link the resilience of rural food systems to the impacts of COVID-19 containment measures on the innovative capacity of rural communities in the two countries. Thus, resilience and sustainability are inseparable constructs in the context of the ongoing pandemic because their attributes are premised on actions that reduce the effects of external disruptions on food supply chains.In light of disruptions occasioned by COVID-19 in most developing countries, the FAO suggested strategies for reducing food loss and waste. Among these strategies was food processing in rural agricultural communities for perishable food products such as vegetables, fruits, and milk (FAO, 2020). Localized production, food processing, and consumption of perishable food not only contribute to social sustainability (food security) but also to environmental (minimizes greenhouse gas emission) and economic (minimizes food and income losses) sustainability (Audsley et al., 2010;Mbow et al., 2019;Shukla et al., 2019;Nchanji et al., 2021a,b;Michalsky ´and Hooda, 2015). These observations are reinforced by an illustrative case study in Southern and Eastern Africa.In Table 1, livestock production activities of 275 out of 351 (78%) livestock-keeping households in Eastern and Southern Africa were not disrupted by the spread of coronavirus. However, the distribution of those who were affected by the pandemic was unevenly skewed in Southern Africa. In other words, a significantly higher percentage of livestock rearing households that were affected were located in Southern Africa (34%) than in Eastern Africa (14%). This finding suggests that major spatial aspects underpin differentiated impacts of the pandemic. Besides geography influencing the spread and magnitude of the effect of coronavirus, Ba nski et al. ( 2021) posit that socioeconomic conditioning determines the severity of impacts of the pandemic. Furthermore, as earlier stated by Snow et al. (2021), a high level of ingenuity among local communities precipitated the resilience of New Zealand and the Australian agriculture sector to coronavirus disruptions. These findings could also explain the distributional effects of the COVID-19 on livestock owners in Southern and Eastern Africa.The results presented in Table 2 shows that all (100%) of milk producers that had butter and yogurt as processed products reported no disruptions of livestock production activities during the pandemic. This indicates that the  number of farmers affected by the pandemic was associated with the value addition of milk. Farmers who were already processing milk into different food products or those that made immediate changes in farm-level milk processing reduced their exposure to the effects of COVID-29 and containment measures. These results demonstrate the integral role of processing in creating, delivering, and safeguarding the resilience and sustainability of the food supply. Processing extends the shelf-life of perishable food products, which helps bridge production and consumption gaps (Knorr et al., 2020) created when supply chains are disrupted by emergencies of higher magnitude, such as the current pandemic.Unlike butter and yogurt, cheese processing is relatively expensive and possibly more affected by disruptions, as shown in Table 1. Cheese production relies heavily on the market for the supply of processing technology. The technology is sophisticated and unaffordable to most farmers. With COVID-19 restrictions, milk producers found it challenging to access cheese processing machinery and materials, explaining why about onethird of cheese processors reported that they were affected by the pandemic. Furthermore, as reported elsewhere, the pandemic disrupted labor supplies as governments issued stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and banned social gatherings (OECD, 2020). Cheese processing requires technical skills, and farmers possibly faced challenges accessing labor.Furthermore, 12% and 26% of milk and meat producers were also affected by the pandemic. This could be explained by mobility challenges that prevented the timely delivery of perishable food products to markets. These results underline processing as a crucial source of resilience to delivery disruptions, an important attribute for sustainable supply chains.Furthermore, B en e (2020) identified several pathways for building the resilience of the local food system in the context of COVID-19 shocks. Among the pathways is diversification which the authors define as the ingenuity or ability of value chain actors to make changes to a set of food products they sell in the market. Diversification is potent for the local food system's resilience to the effects of the pandemic. Food processing as a form of product diversification reduces supply chain disruptions, helping mitigate the effects of disruptions on economic, social, and environmental outcomes of agri-food chains (B en e, 2020). Results presented in Fig. 1 corroborate these observations. First, the results show that farmers in Eastern Africa had a diverse portfolio of processed livestock products than those in Southern Africa. For example, the percentage (27%) of farmers who processed milk into butter, cheese, and yogurt in Eastern Africa was significantly higher than in Southern Africa (Fig. 1). Second, most farmers in Eastern Africa had milk as one of the livestock products, suggesting one reason they had diverse processed products. Product diversification thus created resilience capacities for dairy systems.The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 and the unprecedented restrictions to curb infections disrupted the provision of essential farm inputs across the globe. Sub-Saharan Africa countries largely depended on farm inputs and machinery imports and were expected to be affected by the pandemic (Nchanji and Lutomia, 2021a). Nchanji and Lutomia (2021a, b) reported challenges accessing seed and fertilizer as some of the consequences of lockdowns and other COVID-19 containment measures in Sub-Saharan Africa. In another study, Nchanji and Lutomia (2021b) affirmed that localized access to seed strengthened the resilience capacity of supply chains to the effects of the pandemic. Bean farmers that used seed sources from local areas were less affected by the pandemic than those that relied on certified seed. Dolgui et al. (2020) and Ivanov et al. (2014) observed that supply chain disruptions caused material delivery delays and shortages which have ripple effects on production and other downstream activities. Here, aggregated data collected from nine countries in Eastern and Southern Africa is used to demonstrate the potential role of localized access to inputs on sustainable livestock production.Before showing how localized access to inputs is associated with resilience to disruptive external forces, the effects of the pandemic as identified by livestock producers are provided. Half of the livestock keepers affected by the pandemic reported limited mobility (transportation and movement challenges) as the leading disrupters of production activities (Fig. 2). On the other hand, 28% and 21% of affected livestock farmers reported low prices of livestock products resulting from low demand, disrupted people's movements, and a supply glut in the production hubs. At the Sub-region level, the mobility challenge was more profound in Southern Africa, while farmers in Eastern Africa identified high production costs and low prices as the main challenges (Fig. 3). Producers in Eastern Africa who reported high production costs and low prices were significantly higher than Southern Africa. This is expected because of a wide portfolio of processed products in Eastern Africa. Low demand for raw products-milk-could have motivated processing to increase shelf-life due to low demand and oversupply in local markets resulting from movement restrictions. In contrast, significantly higher percentages of producers in Southern Africa than in Eastern Africa reported movement challenges. Notably, limited mobility, low prices, and high production cost directly affected public transportation, which disrupted access to input and output markets. For this reason, short supply chains, as recommended by Nchanji and Lutomia (2021b) using the same data, could also explain the significant differences in the number of affected farmers in the two subregions. Findings presented in Table 3 show more diverse sources of fodder in Eastern Africa than in Southern Africa. Except for stover, percentages of farmers in Eastern Africa that obtained commercial feed and fodder from diverse sources were higher than those in Southern Africa. This could be a possible reason why farmers in Eastern Africa were less affected by the pandemic. Therefore, the experiences of farmers during the pandemic show that diversity in access to inputs increases the resilience and sustainability of supplies during precarious periods. Pan et al. (2020) posited that the livestock industry has long industrial chains and is characterized by large feeding volumes. Therefore, it was inevitable that measures taken by governments to combat the pandemic would seriously upend the livestock industry. The results in Table 3 suggest that localized access to inputs, including on-farm production of improved fodder, can increase the diversity of livestock products (Table 2) and reduce farmers' reliance on livestock industry input supply chains. Thus, multiple access to animal feed reduced farmers' vulnerability to external pandemicinduced shocks such as feed shortages and high input costs. In addition, diversification of feed sources suggests developing short supply chains for livestock inputs, reducing the environmental footprint associated with long livestock supply chains.The environmental pillar of sustainability encompasses several attributes. The most discussed environmental attribute in food systems literature is pollution in terms of both negative and positive externalities of food production, distribution, and consumption. Another attribute is supply chain inefficiencies such as food losses and waste which are environmental hazards. The third attribute is consumer behavior, often taken as customer actions with direct or indirect connections with environmental outcomes. Besides being an environmental sustainability attribute classified, consumer behavior can also be an attribute of health and social pillars of sustainability. Kneafsey et al. (2013) argue that consumers' food purchasing behavior is motivated by myriad reasons, including health and food quality consciousness, environmental concerns, and economic and social justifications in support of local farmers. To this effect, several studies have demonstrated the connection between consumer behavior and the four sustainability pillars.The pandemic has halted progress towards environmental sustainability due to concerns about reusable food packaging material, safety and hygiene during the pandemic period. Consumers' fear and concerns for getting infected by coronavirus by touching surfaces and objects resulted in the rising use of non-reusable plastic and lifting the ban on single-use plastics in countries that had made progress towards a sustainable food supply chain (Boyacι-G€ und€ uz et al., 2021;Menjivar, 2021). Sereenonchai and Arunrat (2021) explain how consumer behavior contributed to food security during the pandemic periods in Thailand through case studies. Mobilization by village leaders in a village in Khon Kaen province enabled households to survive the pandemic without relying on external food support. Through the support of the development foundation, the village leaders encouraged farmers to plant rice and vegetable organically; this changed consumer behavior leading to the establishment of food banks. In Thailand, two ethnic group leaders coordinated the exchange of fish and rice even before the coronavirus outbreak. These lasting relationships between the two ethnic groups created self-reliance, encouraged food safety, social interactions, excluded middlemen, which contributed to the fulfillment of four pillars of sustainability during the pandemic period (Sereenonchai and Arunrat, 2021). These are just cases that demonstrate connections of agri-food chain sustainability pillars precipitated by changes in behaviors.Gardening is considered a form of consumer behavior because of the varied reasons why urban and peri-urban consumers utilize open spaces and home gardens. Unlike rural households that own and access land primarily for agricultural purposes, households in inner cities and urban fringes utilize land for varied reasons. For instance, Lautenschlager and Smith (2007) found that urban dwellers' participation in home gardening was motivated by their concerns about the future of the environment. Kiesling and Manning (2010), Scott et al. (2015), and Soga et al. ( 2017) identified connection with nature, need to stay healthy physically and mentally, and enhancement of image and aesthetic value as some of the reasons for home gardening. Uhlmann et al. (2018) report the need for food, social connections, and economic motivations for urban gardening. These reasons depict gardening in cities and peri-urban areas as drivers of sustainability.Pandemic-induced effects of stay-at-home, work-from-home, movement restrictions and social distancing are new realities in urban areas. Together with resultant job losses and closure of food markets, the measures have caused changes in consumer behavior. In times of economic uncertainty, urban households have been compelled to change income sources and food sources to secure their livelihood. Data collected from urban and peri-urban consumers in Eastern Africa is used to illustrate this behavior.In Table 4, consumers owned home gardens for three main reasons; reduce the financial burden on food and for cash income (economic sustainability), provision of fresh and safe food, and social connection (social and health sustainability), and healthy lifestyle (health sustainability). As a result of the pandemic, consumers changed the sizes of home gardens as they were more concerned about food safety (need for fresh and healthy foods), supplementing food supplies, reducing the financial burden on food, and earning income. The changes in consumer behavior could have been informed by disruptions of food supply from production hubs due to transport restrictions and the closure of food markets. These disruptions caused limited economic access to food and compromised food safety due to delayed delivery of perishable food products. For these reasons, home gardening contributed to sustainable urban food systems during the pandemic. However, owning and utilizing home gardens in urban areas is necessary but insufficient for sustainable consumption. Galanakis et al. (2021) predicted that plant-based meat alternative innovations are nascent developments that will inevitably transform the food sector in the near future. In fact, COVID-19 is a wake-up call for expedited changes in consumer behavior regarding the consumption of plant-based meat alternatives. Pulses are important plant-based meat alternatives capable of bridging the impact of COVID-19 on urban food security. However, food banks in urban areas may not be sufficient or accessible to poor populations during the pandemic because of the closure of informal markets and hoarding. This challenge could be overcome by encouraging bean production in urban areas, which, besides contributing to environmental sustainability by reducing inorganic fertilizer use via natural nitrogen fixation ( Jensen et al., 2012), could increase plant-based meat alternatives in urban areas. Fig. 4 shows that the common bean was the second most grown crop in urban and peri-urban areas in Eastern and Southern Africa, suggesting the possibilities of shifting towards sustainable urban production and consumption.The effect of home gardening on sustainable consumption of plant-based meat alternatives was evident in Eastern Africa than in Southern Africa. This finding explains why urban households in Southern Africa were relatively worse-off in food security as reported by Nchanji and Lutomia (2021a). In Table 5, the percentages of urban households that consumed beans twice, thrice, and more than three times per week during the pandemic increased by between 1 and 2% from their pre-pandemic frequencies of bean consumption. In contrast, the percentages of consumers in Southern Africa that ate beans once, twice, thrice or more than three times per week reduced by between 1 and 2%. These results could be linked to more farmers in Eastern Africa growing beans than those in Southern Africa (Fig. 4). Thus, the results reveal that the pandemic somehow enhanced the transition of urban food systems into sustainable consumption in Eastern Africa.The first case presented in this chapter emphasizes the diversification of food products as a strategy for sustainable agri-food supply chains. Diversification involves the transformation of food products into storable, longer shelf-life products. As illustrated in the first case study, the diversification pathway towards sustainable food systems can emerge in three ways. First, food processing is central to eliminating food loss and waste resulting from disruptions of the supply chain. Second, this eliminates post-harvest inefficiencies and delivers environmental sustainability. Furthermore, food processing increases the competitiveness of local food systems, making them perform strongly amid supply chain disruptions. Competitive food systems guarantee reliable markets, stable prices, and higher profits for producers, resulting in economic sustainability. Third, food processing, especially during precarious times like pandemics or natural disasters, improves access, availability, stability, and utilization of safe and nutritious food, leading to the achievement of health and social pillars of sustainable agri-food systems. Therefore, diversification of food products through farm-level processing during crisis empowers producers and consumers by sustaining access to food products at a low environmental cost.In the second case, local production of inputs delivered resilience to the effects of COVID-19 on livestock production. Feed production at the local level reduces reliance on long supply chains that are often shaken by crises. On-farm feed production, besides ensuring the stable supply of feed, also reduces livestock production-related greenhouse emissions. The industrial processing of feed is a major generator of emissions into the atmosphere and the highest contributor to carbon emission through the transportation of finished inputs. In addition, feeds account for more than half of the total cost of dairy production cost. Therefore, on-farm production of feed is a cost-saving strategy that reduces the utilization of expensive commercial inputs. Cost efficiency is an important strategy for ensuring higher economic returns for farmers and affordable prices of dairy products. Thus, besides environmental benefits, the local production of diverse feeds helps in realizing economic sustainability. These benefits are more relevant during pandemics when livestock supply chains are disrupted.The third case uncovers the crucial role of consumer behavior in the development of sustainable agri-food systems. The findings reveal that sustainable consumer behavior during pandemics goes beyond responsible consumption. Instead, consumers need to rethink and devise consumption models that alleviate the food consumption-related effects of the pandemics and increase the availability and consumption of alternative products with social, economic, health, and environmental impacts. Lasting solutions to sustainable urban food systems depends on consumers engaging in activities that develop resilient and sustainable food systems. For instance, gardening improves consumption practices and contributes to a sustainable food supply. However, the pandemic's disproportionate effect on the supply of perishable food products and environmental concerns about agriculture provides an opportunity for consumers to adopt plant-based meat alternatives that adequately contribute to food and nutrition security while ensuring a low environmental footprint.Achieving sustainable agri-food supply chains in sub-Saharan Africa needs refocusing and attention drawn to product diversification through local processing of perishable food products. Second, local input production like animal feed can reduce the effect of supply chain disruption on production, distribution, and consumption. Third, consumer behavior is crucial to connecting sustainability pillars through a change in consumption models. Taken together, these conclusions imply that production and consumption should be shortened to ensure availability, accessibility, affordability, social connections, reduction in losses and waste, health and safety, as well as the reduction in emissions. In other words, short food supply chains have the potential of realizing the economic, environmental, health, and social pillars of agri-food chain sustainability.In line with the conclusions, reducing farm-level food loss and waste should be prioritized during the pandemic. Interventions such as training in primary and secondary value addition and the introduction of improved and affordable food processing technologies are recommended. Local communities also need to be supported to establish food processing infrastructure. Second, the promotion of local production of inputs through financial support to farmers and public-private partnerships is recommended to shorten input supply chains. Lastly, gardening in cities and urban fringes should be reinvigorated to focus not only on food supply but also the introduction of crops with multiple benefits.","tokenCount":"4187"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"95caaad7769680d5d3c792876e668292","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a0273994-f9c9-4ecf-a662-413357d791aa/retrieve","id":"2069329318"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c9deee04-498f-4622-bf25-54dd5c2ea9ff","pagecount":"40","content":". Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) initiative aims to deliver an increase in productivity and quality per unit of input (agronomic gain) for millions of smallholder farming households in prioritized farming systems by 2030, with an emphasis on women and young farmers, showing a measurable impact on food and nutrition security, income, resource use, soil health, climate resilience and climate change mitigation. The planting date use case is based on the principle that the efficient management of the cropping calendar through timely planting is a precondition for achieving regional food security in the Eastern Gangetic Plain (EGP). The authors express their deepest appreciation and gratitude to several people for their support in the implementation of the Focus Group Discussion which includes the team of Jeevika, Bihar Agriculture University and CSISA. The authors also express their deepest appreciation to the technical and field-level moderation teams of Jeevika, BAU and CSISA in Bihar to moderate and manage focus group discussions with different stakeholders and farmers.This report presents findings from 21 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) conducted in seven districts of Bihar namely Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Samastipur, Vaishali, Gaya, Nalanda, and Lakhisarai with 221 farmers 116 female and 105 males to establish a deeper understanding of the challenges and coping mechanisms in the rice-wheat system related to climate change variabilities faced by farmers in the region. The findings also highlight the opportunities and suggestive interventions for strengthening farmers capacities to deal with the challenges. The study was conducted as part of the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) initiative use case on \"Managing time in the rice-based cropping systems of South Asia\". FGDs were conducted with three groups of farmers in each of the seven districts: Demonstration or Demo farmers, non-Demo farmers and JEEViKA farmers to capture their varied perspectives on challenges and opportunities in rice-wheat cropping systems.The findings present that the rice wheat cropping system is the dominant cropping systems across the districts where Rice in Kharif and Wheat in Rabi are the predominant crop. As far as the engagement of household members in agriculture is concerned, it was found that both men and women are involved in agriculture but with variations related to the degree of women's active involvement based on farmer categories. For example, in the big farmers household no female members were involved in the agriculture operations on the field and on the other hand the involvement of female members of small and marginal farmers are quite common. In general children's engagement in agriculture was found very limited and that too mainly carrying meals to the farm. FGD captured the complex set of threats, risks and challenges faced by the farmers in the rice-wheat cropping systems. Unpredictable and unevenly distributed rainfall patterns were a major concern raised by the farmers for making decisions related to planting time. For instance, the late arrival of rainfall in 2022 led to a delay in transplanting, especially affecting the poor farmers with no irrigation facilities. During the discussion farmers also raised the concerns such as a) Tenant farmers working on leased lands were doubly disadvantaged in terms of access to borewells or other irrigation sources b.) High costs incurred in irrigation were a key deterrent for all kinds of farmers c) High cost in procuring diesel due to lack of adequate and regular supply of affordable power in irrigation. d) Increasing cost of irrigation due to scattered farmland.Although irrigation was considered by the farmers as a possible solution to deal with unreliable weather and to do the planting when required. In the subsequent discussion farmers shared the limited availability of finance to invest in agriculture as another concern. They shared the need for a formal, systematic, and timely institutional credit facilities in these areas. The lack of timely access to, and reliable information on, good quality and affordable farm inputs was another challenge mentioned by farmers. Unavailability of labour in the household and in the community, was considered by farmers as one of the critical challenges farmers faced during the sowing and transplanting period, and in the overall cropping cycle. Across the crop cycle stages and activities, a cross-cutting and persistent constraint that emerged was the lack of timely and reliable information and advisory services particularly related to monsoon. The lack of proper and reliable marketing facilities was also identified by the farmers as one of the challenges.Famers capacity to farm in general and to plant on time specifically, was influenced by a complex interplay of the climate-related and systemic barriers described above. Looking through an intersectional and gender lens it was found that farmers had similar yet differing experiences of being impacted with the multiple constraints facing the rice-wheat cropping systems. These varied interpretations were based on the socioeconomic and demographic background of the farmers. For instance, landless or tenant farmers, women farmers with migrant husbands and resource-poor and marginalised farmers were in a more precarious situation in terms of their capacity to mitigate risks and complete their farm operations on time, make final decisions regarding transplanting dates, and sustain their agricultural productivity and growth. In the study sites, Demo farmers were found to be the farmers with more resources and better access to services and capital as compared to non-Demo and women farmers. During the FGDs it was found that the women farmers who were part of the JEEViKA did not raise concern accessing financial support, extension, and advisory services. They highlighted that being a member of self-help groups (SHGs) they get support in enhancing their access to reliable sources of finance, extension, and advisory services.The report also presents evidence of coping mechanisms adopted by the farmers. Replanting the nursery in case of delayed rainfall and low germination was one of the important coping mechanisms mentioned by the farmers. To deal with the rainfall uncertainties many farmers mentioned that constructing borewell at individual level or renting in the borewell services are the popular mitigation strategies. The community level engagement to mitigate the risk was highlighted by very few FGDs. Instances of community innovation emerged from some sites wherein male farmers collectively constructed borewells to irrigate on time and women farmers raised nurseries collectively to manage limited water resources. During the women farmers group FGD, the expansion of farmers individual and collective capacity by extension and support system of SHGs/Jeevika came out as one of the strong platforms to deal with the management practices and its associated risk in the rice-wheat cropping farming system.Farmer groups across the districts reported facing a delay in transplanting in 2022, primarily reported to be caused by the late arrival of rainfall. Farmers with irrigation facilities prepared the nurseries in Rohini (May 25-June 8) or Mrigashira (June 8-June 20), and the farmers who had limited access to irrigation through renting waited for their chance and prepared nurseries in Mrigashira. The timeline of seeding also depends on the seed variety. For instance, open pollinated varieties (opv) varieties were sown in Rohini Nakshatra (May 25-June 8) while hybrid varieties which is relatively shorter in duration, was sown in Ardra Nakshatra (June 22-July 5). Farmers with no access to any irrigation source waited for the rainfall to even prepare the nursery which caused them further delays in the transplanting. A delay in rainfall caused a drought-like situation and raised the temperature limiting the germination of seeds in the nurseries. Many farmer groups reported reduced yield and wastage of financial capital in farm inputs which was lost due to delays in rainfall in the year 2022.Climate change and associated uncertainties, particularly related to rainfall have serious direct and indirect consequences on cropping systems, particularly on planting dates and the resultant crop production and food security situation of the agriculture-dependent farming communities (Park et al., 2018). Other climate change-induced vulnerabilities facing agriculture are changes in average temperatures, weather extremes, pests and diseases, and changes in the nutritional quality of foods (Tesfaye et al., 2017). Evidence suggests that these vulnerabilities and weather extremes in the form of erratic monsoons and increased frequency and intensity of drought and flooding are expected to further impact agriculture in many ways (Chattopadhyay, 2011;Randhawa et al., 2014). Agriculture in South Asia is highly susceptible to climate variability and is more likely to have a direct impact on the livelihoods of millions of farmers in the region, particularly the small and marginal landholders (Aryal et al., 2020). Indo Gangetic Plain is the main wheat growing area of the South Asia, with rice wheat cropping system (Andrew et al.2022). In India, and more specifically in the eastern part of the country, 80% of the rice-growing areas are rain-fed and thus suffer either from excess water or from drought depending upon rainfall pattern (ibid).Agriculture contributes 21.3% of Bihar's GDP (GOB, 2015). Lying in the eastern part of the country, Bihar is one of the climate-sensitive states of India due to its topography, its susceptibility to hydrometeorological natural disasters and a high proportion of its rural communities living in disadvantage and abject poverty (ibid). The state of Bihar falls under the Eastern Gangetic Pains (EGP) characterised by high rainfall region with recurring floods, but the occurrence of droughts during the monsoon season is also a serious concern threatening farmers' productivity (Subash et al., 2012). Since rice and wheat crops are important Kharif (monsoon) and Rabi (winter) crops respectively in the state, a lack of awareness of rainfall timings and the occurrence of droughts and floods can lead to a delay in planting and endanger crop yields. Moreover, this uncertainty increases the dependence of farming communities in Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) on irrigation, primarily through groundwater, which is in a precarious condition in the state, owing to the scarce, unreliable, and expensive irrigational infrastructure and declining water table. (Sinha et al., 2017;Urfels et al., 2023). Research over the last decades has shown that effective management of the cropping calendar through timely planting is a precondition for achieving regional food security in the EGP and building resilient agroecosystems (Urfels et al., 2021).Timely crop planting and harvesting are linked to high and stable levels of crop productivity and overall agricultural development as they align crop cycles with favourable climatic conditions thereby mitigating risks of crop losses and increasing resource-use efficiencies (Singh et al., 2019). However, more than 50% of farmers are small landholders in eastern India (EiA Brief, 2023). The vulnerability context of the farmers and other socio-economic factors influence farmer's decisions to plant crops during an optimal time window. With lower levels of literacy and mobility, and unequal access and exposure to modern and improved technological innovations, women and marginalised farmers are in a more vulnerable situation in terms of making decisions on the farm (Agarwal et al., 2022). With an aim to support small and marginal farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change and specially to address the delay in planting, the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) initiative is working in the region on developing a dynamic genderinclusive and data-driven tool to empower farmers to make informed decisions about timely planting for rice. In order to understand the coping mechanisms related to climate change and variabilities and opportunities that can be built upon to strengthen farmer capacities for timely planting, improved agriculture productivity and enhance farm incomes a study was conducted in seven districts of Bihar.Pivoted on the context that more than 50% of the farmers in eastern India plant rice and wheat late. If timely planting is done it can double productivity in the region and reduce vulnerability to seasonal drought in rice and terminal heat in wheat. A prototype of demand-driven spatially explicit planting date advisory to optimise resource use and improve profitability by addressing landscape heterogeneity, monsoon variability, and risks of innovations in rice-wheat systems is being created in the ongoing planting date use case in Bihar. In realm of the current situation, this study was designed to understand and delve deeper into the farmers' adaptation to the climate change and drought-like situation they faced and their coping mechanisms. It thus becomes crucial to delve deeper and understand farmers' perspective on the barriers opportunities and possible interventions needed to accelerate the pace of timely planting.Following thematic areas were explored to understand the research objective from farmers perspective.Twenty-one Focus Group discussions (FGDs) were held in 2022-2023 in the 7 districts of Bihar namely, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Samastipur, Nalanda, Gaya and Lakhisarai with farmers. These seven districts fall under two Agro-climatic zones. Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Samastipur and Vaishali are in Agro-climatic zone 1, also called the northwest alluvial plains characterised by an average annual rainfall of 1234.7 mm, medium acidic, heavy textured and sandy loam to clayed soil, and large areas remaining underwater (flood-prone). Gaya, Nalanda and Lakhisarai on the other hand are in southeast alluvial plains or Agro-climatic zone 3, witnessing 1102.1 mm of average annual rainfall and made up of old alluvium to sandy loam soils (ParthSarthi & Singh, 2013).The purpose of the FGDs was to understand the perceptions on threats in rice-wheat cropping systems, rice transplanting date scenarios, drought/flood situation in the respective villages and their coping mechanism, constraints and issues concerning nursey establishments and transplanting, wheat cropping in the upcoming season and agro-advisory systems in the region.FGDs were conducted with three categories or groups of farmers in each of the seven districts: i) Perceptions of threats in rice-wheat cropping systems, ii) Rice transplanting date scenarios, iii) Drought/flood situation in the respective villages and their coping mechanism, iv) Constraints and issues with respect to nursery establishments and transplanting, v) Wheat cropping in the upcoming season and, vi) Agro-advisory systems in the region.1. Demonstration farmers: Farmers on whose plots the EiA trials have been set up. 2. Non-Demo farmers: Farmers of the same area where the Demonstration was not done. 3. Women Farmers Group: Women farmers of the same block who are members of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) promoted by JEEViKA, Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPs)Sampling strategy: At the core of the sample selection were the Demo farmers-In each district, all Demo farmers (from different blocks in the district) were requested to travel to one of the villages that were logistically convenient for all to participate in the FGD. Hence Demo groups FGDs include men and women farmers from different villages. To draw a comparison, non-Demo farmers (men and women) were selected from the same village where the Demo group FGD was conducted. To understand the challenges and opportunities through a gender lens, Jeevika farmers were also included in the study from the same area. SHG and Village Organisation (VO) members from the same block (and different villages) were assembled for the FGD. For non-Demo groups' FGDs and Jeevika groups' FGDs-participants were randomly selected. The goal of the sampling strategy was to select respondents who were willing to share their experiences and perspectives and provide rich insights into the areas of inquiry. The FGDs were conducted between October to November 2022 and were designed as semi-structured interactions, with probes that were structured around the research aim and objectives. FGD guides were written in English and administered in Hindi or other local languages by the interviewers. FGD was audiorecorded after obtaining informed verbal and written consent from the participants. FGD recordings were originally in Hindi and were translated and transcribed into English. A total of 21 FGDs, (7 in each of the three-farmer category/3 in each of the 7 districts) were entered into a data template designed to record the responses. Thematic content analysis was done in two phases: The first phase of data analysis involved screening the transcript texts for descriptive codes or common areas of information.Recurring themes were identified afterwards followed by the second phase of comparing responses across farmer groups and the seven districts.This section is structured based on the integration of the initial hypothesis and areas of inquiry set out before conducting the FGDs and the perspectives and insights that emerged from them. The findings are presented in five broad themes and various sub-themes under each of the themes, outlined in Table 2. Rice in Kharif and wheat in Rabi are found to be the predominant cropping system in the region followed by maize, vegetables and pulses in small patches of the area as per farmers need .Following are the cropping patterns followed in the 7 districts. Table 3 presents an overview of the major crops grown in two primary agricultural seasons: kharif and rabi, and the farmer-reported land distribution between the crops grown.In Muzaffarpur, the major crops grown in the Kharif season are rice in the lowlands and pulses and mustard in the upper lands. During the Rabi season, wheat is a primary crop and maize is grown as a secondary crop. Though the cropping pattern was similar across the three farmer groups (Demo, non-Demo and Jeevika) who participated in the FGDs, the Demo and non-Demo groups reported growing primarily rice in Kharif season while the Jeevika farmers also grew mustard and pulses and cultivated rice in their uplands besides the traditional practice of cultivating rice majorly in lowlands.In Madhubani, farmers across the three groups reported growing rice in Kharif with a few patches of vegetables for self-consumption. Similarly, in the Rabi season, wheat is planted as a major crop, and potatoes and pulses are planted in 5-25% of the available lands. Demo farmers shared that one-fourth of their lands remain fallow after paddy harvest.Farmers in Samastipur also rely on rice as their major crop in the Kharif season. The non-Demo farmers, however, reported that rice is not considered a primary crop in their village and that it is grown only in 30% of their lands. Instead, sugarcane is sowed after paddy harvest and grown as a year-long crop. In the Rabi season, non-Demo farmers grow wheat in half their lands while the other half is occupied by the sugarcane crop. Demo farmers and Jeevika farmers also cultivate wheat as a primary crop, but while Demo farmers distribute lands in the ratio of 75:25 for wheat, and, pulses and vegetables, Jeevika farmers grow maize and potatoes in half their lands, after dedicating the other half to wheat crops.Vaishali district farmers also reported rice and wheat as their major crops in the Kharif and Rabi seasons respectively. All three groups of farmers grow vegetables in small patches for self-consumption during Kharif. In Rabi, in addition to wheat in half to one-third of their lands, farmers grow maize, pulses, potatoes and vegetables.Farmers in Gaya cultivate rice in the lowlands and vegetables in the uplands. Vegetables in Kharif are mostly grown for self-consumption and surplus produce is sold locally. In the Rabi season, wheat is grown in large patches and other crops such as pulses such as chickpeas, red gram, mustard, onion, tomatoes, and other vegetables are grown.In Nalanda, Demo and Jeevika farmers reported growing predominantly rice crops in the Kharif season.The non-Demo farmers on the other hand, grow vegetables in almost half of their lands, and rice in the other half. All farmer groups grow wheat in Rabi and pulses such as chickpeas and vegetables in small patches of irrigated lands. Lakhisarai farmers grow rice in most of their lands, particularly lowlands, and vegetables in 10-25% of their lands. non-Demo farmers reported growing only rice. In Rabi, wheat was grown in half to one-third of farmers' lands across the groups and pulses, maize, and vegetables in the remaining lands. Family income and social status show an influence on gender roles and responsibilities both in households and farming activities. All the farmers shared about both women's and men's involvement in agriculture but with variations related to the degree of women's active involvement based on farmer categories and locations. For instance, the Demo farmers from Gaya, Vaishali, Lakhisarai and Muzaffarpur described that women of their families do not work on the farm instead they employed poor and landless women farmers as agricultural labourers. FGDs with the remaining farmer groups reported equal participation of men and women in the farm. Non-Demo farmers from Gaya and Madhubani mentioned that \"all adult household members work on the farm due to labour shortage.\" In contrast to Demo farmers who reported restricted women's mobility, Jeevika farmers reported a high participation of women in agriculture. Moreover, women from locations with high rates of male out-migration for work reported more substantial participation of women on the farm. Jeevika farmers from Nalanda remarked, \"How will men farm without women? Men hardly stay here, and it is women who take care of the farm.\"The dominant patriarchal rules and norms are well reflected in the process of socialisation. As far as the distribution of farm roles between men and women is concerned, normative and gendered division of labour emerged across all groups, particularly from the Jeevika farmers who were more articulate about the defined gender roles. Work done by men on the farm was typically described as one requiring physical strength such as ploughing, tilling and irrigation. Women were reported to be engaged in work involving drudgeries such as managing plant nurseries, transplanting, weeding, harvesting and post-harvest activities such as threshing (paddy), cleaning and drying the crop. One of the Jeevika farmers from Nalanda shared her perception of women's role in agriculture, \"Women do a lot in agriculture. Much more than men do. For example, we lay water pipes in the field for irrigation too and can fold them back.\"Mostly men were found to be involved in outward-facing work such as crop sales in the local markets and purchasing farm inputs. However, increasing male out-migration was reported as one of the emerging factors contributing to the changing gender division of labour shifting farm responsibilities to women. For instance, farmers from Madhubani, Samastipur, revealed that the roles of men and women in agriculture have started shifting in their area now. Due to the migration of the male spouse and other male members of the family women are being engaged more in various stages of farm operation which was not the case earlier. Women farmers of Jeevika from Muzaffarpur reported visiting the market for purchase and sale when men in their families out-migrate for work.Children's education was prioritised and their involvement on the farm was limited to carrying food, water, and farm tools just as a supporting activity. Varied responses on the engagement of children on the farm were recorded, primarily influenced by the socio-economic characteristics of the household or the community. The majority of Demo and non-Demo farmers reported that it was rare for children to be involved in agriculture as they were busy with their studies. Moreover, farmers expressed their disinterest in \"How is farming linked to children? We are already suffering as farmers. Why would we include our children? They should have a job\", commented a Demo farmer (M) from Gaya.Another dominant narrative on children's engagement in agriculture was that it is limited to bringing food and water to the farm or aiding in carrying pipes and other tools to the farm. In contrast, Jeevika farmers from Samastipur, Madhubani pointed to the children's involvement in activities such as ploughing, transplanting, and harvesting primarily driven by the absence of migrant male spouses. \"During the transplanting or harvesting season, children also contribute, especially when our husbands are staying out for work. Or, children will take the food, and take care of the cow and other livestock.\"But it was just an activity which was supportive in nature. It was not affecting the education of the children of the household. In other districts, farmers categorically mentioned that they did not want their children to engage in agricultural activities and instead focus on their studies.It is important to understand the challenges faced by farmers to develop strategies and coping mechanism from a bottom to top approach, putting this into context, it was further explored with the farmers about their experience and perspective on the major issues they faced in the rice-wheat cropping system in the last five years. The major challenge faced by the farmers in all districts was erratic and insufficient rainfall further exacerbated by the lack of irrigation sources.The complex web of emerging threats, risks and challenges facing the rice-wheat cropping systems in the past year have been grouped into the following areas based on farmers' responses:Major thematic dimensions of the issues faced by farmers emerged. related to Physical, Human, Financial and Informational resources.Climate variabilities; lack of irrigation facilities; labour unavailability, lack of access to good quality farm inputs; lack of financial capital, pests, and diseases; lack of access to systematic marketing facilities; and lack of information on new technologies/innovation an extension service (Figure 1). The farmers groups responses across the three respondents' groups of demo, non-demo and women farmers were related to the major threats and challenges were found to vary in degree as far as their perception was concerned (Figure . Farmers from across the three groups in the seven districts reported suffering from the unpredictability and the consecutive years of low and erratic rainfall forcing them to take risks and endure hardship in farming, Farmers used terms like \"hope\", \"luck\" and \"god's grace\" while describing their helplessness in agriculture due to high dependence on monsoon rainfall. Rainfall was reported as an important determinant for making crop decisions. to excessive waterlogging (flood-like situation) and adversities caused by it as their villages lie in and around the banks of Gandak and Bagmati rivers.In the context of low and unpredictable rainfall, irrigation becomes important to sustain crop growth and enhance crop yield. However, across the farmer groups, a lack of reliable irrigation facilities and irregular access to irrigation sources emerged as another issue. Borewells were reported as the primary source of irrigation for farmers in these regions. Motors/Pump-sets run by diesel or electricity are used to draw water from these borewells. However, borewells were constructed by farmers with better financial capital while the poorer farmers reported renting motors from the former. Farmers without a borewell facility of their own perceived themselves to be more vulnerable than the others. Some of the male non-Demo farmers in the Muzaffarpur FGD echoed, \"Those who have borewells manage somehow. Farmers without borewells suffer.\" Many other farmers from Vaishali and Lakhisarai shared a similar perspective. Though few anecdotes of farmers collectively constructing a borewell emerged from Lakhisarai, Madhubani and Nalanda, but collective investments for borewell construction were perceived to be difficult due to the obscurity of operational structure and in the day-to-day functioning of wells leading to a lack of trust and confidence among farmers in adopting a collective approach.The following perspectives describe the complex aspects of the challenges faced by farmers in relation to irrigation: a) Tenant farmers working on leased lands were doubly disadvantaged in terms of access to borewells or other irrigation sources. Farmers especially from Samastipur, Nalanda and Lakhisarai were resource-poor, landless, or marginal landholders and were found incapable of irrigating their leased-in lands if the lands did not have any existing irrigation source in its vicinity.b) High costs incurred in irrigation were a key deterrent for all kinds of farmers. Though borewells partly augment the cropping intensity of farmers, those who constructed irrigation infrastructure as well as those who rented them, all farmers who don't own irrigation infrastructure pay around Rs 150-300 per hour (or Rs 200 per Kattha) for renting the pump sets and the borewells.Farmers also find the cost of irrigation using pump sets run by diesel perpetually increasing with rising diesel prices thereby reducing the profitability of farming, particularly for small landholders.c) Lack of adequate and regular supply of affordable power limited farmers' irrigation capacity and pushed them to incur high costs in procuring diesel. Diesel engines were found to be more expensive to operate, maintain and repair than electricity-run motors, however, the lack of adequate Farmers across the three groups in the seven studied districts shared a range of challenges they faced in terms of access to good quality farm inputs, grouped into six broad categories. The district-wise responses across these six categories of perspectives are listed in Table 4. b) Farmers' trust in vendors and dealers in the market was determined by networks and relationships among them. The trust factor was found to be related to the relationship between the farmers and the input dealers and farmers with a \"good understanding\" with the dealers were confident in receiving good quality inputs. Farmer groups from Muzaffarpur, Madhubani and Vaishali reported having limited choice in buying as the shopkeepers \"advise\" them to buy or sell them only particular brands of seeds or fertilisers. . c) The prices of seeds and fertilisers were perceived to be increasing, further exacerbating farmers' problems. One of the comments from Samastipur non-Demo FGDs points to the complexity of rising prices and the nature of the challenge: \"Fertiliser is available in the market now, but there is no money. Money will come when the paddy harvest is sold, but by then its value in the market will increase.\"A lack of financial capital was reported as a recurrent challenge among the farmers. They shared the need of formal, systematic, and institutional credit facilities from banks or microfinance institutions. farmers, particularly from non-Demo and Demo categories across the seven districts still face difficulties in accessing institutional credit sources and resort to informal sources where they must pay usurious amounts of interest on loans. Non-Demo farmers are more vulnerable in terms of access to credit. In contrast the credit and loaning patterns of women farmers from Jeevika groups were found to have undergone substantial and positive shifts from private moneylenders to borrowing from their SHG.a) Jeevika SHGs-a conducive platform for promoting the access of the rural poor to institutional finance.Jeevika farmers from all the districts reported having access to regular loans from their SHGs.Participation in SHGs has thereby increased members' access to reliable credit, and reduced women's dependence on men, particularly when there is a cash crunch in the household and men are out-migrating. Some of the other farmer groups such as Demo farmers from Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Vaishali, Gaya and Nalanda, and non-Demo farmers from Samastipur, Gaya and Nalanda also access Jeevika loans through the SHGs of which they or other women in their household are a part. Jeevika loans were reported to be sought for agricultural purposes as well as for building other livelihood opportunities.b) Landless, marginal and tenant farmers faces higher level of financial vulnerabilities. Small landholders and landless farmers, particularly in the non-Demo and women farmers across the seven districts were found leasing in lands for agriculture, which makes them non-eligible to access formal institutional credit. in the absence of formal (on-paper) lease agreements. One of the tenants Jeevika farmers from Samastipur shared, \"Even when the crop productivity is not up to the mark, we must pay rent to the landlord. And if there is a delay in the money sent by my [migrant] husband, I take a loan from my SHG. Sometimes if money is not available in my SHG, I take it from relatives and moneylenders. I worry that the landlord will take the land back if I am not able to pay the rent.\"Pest and insect infestation, perceived to be primarily induced by unpredictable rainfall conditions, was reported as another serious constraint to enhanced crop productivity across the respondent groups in the seven districts.While occurrences and nature of pests and diseases were common across the districts, some farmer groups were more articulate about the diseases and their unique experiences of dealing with them: Gaya farmers reported crop destruction by Stem Borer and Khaira diseases and their inability to address them amidst a lack of advisory services; Farmers from Lakhisarai experience insects and field rats increasingly \"We cannot avail Kisan Credit cards, or any other sources of loans based on our leased land. So, we must incur all the expenses ourselves and share a part of the produce with the landlords. Sometimes we end up mortgaging our household assets.-Non-Demo Farmers: Lakhisarai impacting their yields and expressed dissatisfaction in the quality of pesticides to mitigate the crop destruction; and, farmers from Muzaffarpur and Vaishali are waiting for the state's support to stop the regular crop destruction they face by Asian antelopes such as blue buck (referred to as Nilgai or Ghurparas locally) that have been destroying farmers' readyto-harvest crops for the past few years. Women (Jeevika) farmers from Vaishali articulated the double burden faced by them in managing crop spoilage due to wild animals. One of them commented, \"It is. difficult for us to continuously remain vigilant against attack by wild animals while also managing household and other care responsibilities.\" b) Farmers also reported facing excessive weed growth in their crop fields with rising temperatures and less rain, severely impacting their yields. Though the occurrence of weeds was reported across the district, only some farmers (Demo farmers from Muzaffarpur and Lakhisarai, and Jeevika farmers from Vaishali) were found to be aware of the causes of the same-temperature and texture of the soil (whether it is dry or moist).Farmers were largely unaware of the quantity and timing of fertiliser and pesticide/fungicide application. The Jeevika farmers were relatively more satisfied with the quality of information received from the Block Programme Managers or Community Resource Persons (CRPs) who are a part of JEEViKA. Some of the Demo farmers registered with the KVKs also reported receiving information from Kisan Salahkars but wanted the quality of the information to improve. Non-Demo farmers shared they did not receive sufficient information on the effective application of fertilisers and pesticides.The absence of proper and reliable marketing facilities and services acts as a demotivation for farmers to expand and diversify their production. Farmer groups from Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Samastipur and Nalanda perceived the lack of proper marketing infrastructure and facilities as one of the significant limiting factors. Most of the farmers, particularly men farmers travel to the market, some of which are extremely far away, to sell their produce. Some farmer groups such as non-Demo and Demo farmers from Nalanda, and Demo and Jeevika farmers from Muzaffarpur shared that the government purchases their paddy and wheat crops sometimes, however, delay in receiving the payment for the sales was recognised by them as a demotivating factor. Furthermore, the prevalence of low market rates in the region and the lack of institutional mechanisms to support the farmers in selling their crops in bigger and more formal markets emerged as other significant market-related challenges (reported by farmer groups from Vaishali and Samastipur). Demo farmers from Vaishali shared their challenging experience with middlemen and fluctuating crop rates. While the Demo farmers shared a more articulate understanding of the market rates and patterns owing to their frequent interactions with the vendors and external agents, women respondents from almost all farmer groups were largely unaware of the same due to their restricted mobility. Women farmers were \"There are no fixed market rates of the crop, due to which middlemen tend to gain more than the producers. They have more say and sometimes they raise prices based on a whim\".-Demo farmers, Vaishali \"Women don't go to the markets a lot to sell crops except when their husbands are outmigrating. When buyers come to the village to buy our produce, it is difficult to negotiate with them in the absence of men.\" -Jeevika farmers, Muzaffarpur found to be more vulnerable as far as market activities were concerned due to their lack of mobility and limited interaction with the external actors owing to the social and gender dynamics of the regions.Agricultural extension and access to innovation were perceived to play a crucial role in enhancing production and improving livelihoods. Varied responses were recorded across the farmer groups and seven districts in terms of access to such services. Demo farmers were found to have enhanced access to agricultural inputs, machinery, and tools from different organizations which made their farming experience more innovative and effective. Some of the Demo farmers also mentioned receiving training on, and their adoption of the DSR method as a part of the training from CSISA.Across the sites, Jeevika farmers shared having an improved access to information related to improved agriculture practices, mechanization, and extension services through their self-help groups. With the support of loans from SHGs and in some instances, remittances from migrating spouses, women reported renting machines from Jeevika to reduce their drudgery on farms. Jeevika farmers exhibited awareness across a range of innovative farming practices such as kitchen gardens, preparing organic manure, and information on farm tools such as tractors, weeders, pesticide spray machines, threshers, seed drills and zero tillage machines.In contrast, non-Demo farmers were found to lack access to extension services or new technologies thereby facing major constraints for innovation and value addition. \"The people of Jeevika provide tractors, threshers and spray machines that we can borrow, and they also teach us about new methods of farming.\"To design interventions to improve farmers' planting patterns and behaviour, it is important to understand the specific challenges faced by farmers during the sowing of seeds and the overall nursery establishment stage. The previous section captures all the broad and major constraints encountered by farmers in the cropping systems, especially in the last 5 years. This section funnels those perspectives to provide an overview of the challenges specific to nursery establishment that need to be addressed to mitigate risks of yield loss and enhance crop productivity. Figure 3 presents a word cloud illustrating the frequency of the multiple perspectives on key challenges that emerged from across the farmer groups. The size of the phrase/constraining factor portrays the number of FGD responses across farmer groups.\"If after planting the seeds, the rainfall is inadequate, our seeds burn and very few seeds germinate. We can't transplant such a small quantity, so we plant the seeds again. This is an extra expense, not only in buying seeds but also in employing labour. Many poor farmers don't transplant as they can't incur the additional expense which has no certainty of returns.-Non-Demo farmers (M), Samastipur \"We face issues related to irregular and delayed rainfall during the nursery establishment which also result into delayed transplanting.-Farmers (Demo, Non Demo, Jeevika)Though low and erratic rainfall and delays in the onset of rains during nursery establishment were considered a perpetual deterrent, the lack of irrigation infrastructure and limited access to the same emerged as serious impediments in expanding farmers' agricultural capacity and livelihoods. Shah et al. (2018) also suggests improving unreliable and expensive irrigation infrastructure as a prerequisite to agricultural growth and resilience in the Eastern Gangetic plains. According to farmers' perspectives across the seven districts, the lack of irrigation infrastructure was further exacerbated by the high costs involved in agriculture including costs of diesel for running the pumps, pipes, pump sets, and power cuts leading to increased use and cost of renting the pump sets, elaborated in the earlier sections. Farmer groups from Gaya and Nalanda also articulated the depletion in groundwater levels in their areas that force farmers to incur more costs in drawing water from borewells and tubewells during nursery establishment.Additionally, unpredictable, and insufficient rains and high temperatures burn or dry up the seedlings and prevent the seeds from germinating. This forces the farmers to replant their nurseries in turn increasing their costs and risks, as reported by several farmer groups across the districts.The unavailability of labour, also described in Section 3.2.1 earlier, further aggravates the challenges associated with the lack of infrastructure and limited financial capital during the nursery establishment period, particularly for women from migrant households. The lack of access to timely availability of farm inputs (good quality and affordable seeds and fertilisers), labour, and technology (tractors and other agricultural machinery) were other frequently reported challenges, the various aspects of each are described in the earlier sections. Through the lens of agriculture, the rainfall situation in 2022 was characterised by both a droughtlike situation, and a situation of waterlogging/overflowing. Farmers across the districts reported the rainfall in 2022 as \"less\" and \"insufficient\" compared to the previous year. The insufficiency range that emerged from the farmers' responses was 75-95% less rainfall than in 2021.Rainfall was distributed unevenly leading to a drought-like situation during dry spells during the monsoon season and a waterlogging or flood-like situation during continued periods of excessive rainfall. Light rains occurred during the sowing of seeds/establishing nursery in May and early June and no rainfall during transplantation time (Late Juneearly July). Rainfall occurred erratically in short periods in August. Some farmers highlighted the reduced rainfall during this time in terms of \"so less that even ponds and deep lands were not filled with water\". Hence, farmers perceived the beginning of the kharif (rice) agricultural season (June-July in 2022), as a drought-like situation. Rainfall arrived towards the end of October, between Durga Puja and Deepawali when some rice varieties were ready to be harvested. During this time the rice fields were overflowing with water, and they were unable to harvest paddy. This FGD excerpt highlights the insufficiency of the rains:• Lack of preparedness and awareness to mitigate the impacts of the erratic rainfall situation in 2022.All farmers across the districts reported a lack of awareness and preparedness for the less rainfall situation in 2022. Fewer land parcels were cultivated in 2022; In Madhubani and Lakhisarai, farmers across three groups reported cultivating only 50-60% of their lands in 2022 as compared to 2021. The drought-like situation also gave rise to excessive weed growth in the farms.The wait for rainfall during and after transplantation, along with expenses incurred for irrigation, added burden on farmers in the form of loans, risk and uncertainty of adequate produce. Owing to heavy rainfall in October, the accumulation of rainwater on the rice fields during the harvesting period delayed the harvesting as well as reduced production as crops were \"washed away\". This further added precarity to the wheat cultivation that was delayed. Farmers across the respondent categories in Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Vaishali, Nalanda, and Gaya districts also cited a lack of information available to them on techniques to cope with drought-like situations or to increase their production amidst droughtlike situations. Largely, the rice-wheat cropping system was significantly affected due to erratic rainfall and lack of irrigation infrastructure.Some districts emerged as more vulnerable and affected by the rainfall situation than others. For instance, all three categories of farmers from Gaya and Vaishali pointed at the drinking water scarcity due to the rainfall situation. \"Forget farming, we had to struggle to arrange drinking water for a few weeks. The water table had gone down\", commented one of the Jeevika farmers from Gaya.Wheat production in these districts is constrained by three commonly emerging critical factors:\"On the 22 nd of May or June, it rained for 12 days. Then after a week of no rains, again it rained for 3 to 4 days then it was drought-like for 4-5 days. During the transplanting time this year, it wasn't raining. We could transplant our crops but had to incur lots of expenses on irrigation.\" -Jeevika farmers (F), Samastipur a) Unpredictable rainfall, and low moisture levels in the soil was the persisting and primary concern in the wheat cropping system. However, in 2022, due to the occurrence of rainfall right before and during rice harvesting, most farmers across the districts were found to anticipate farmlands to have adequate moisture for planting wheat. At the same time, farmers were also anticipating excessive rainfall and waterlogging to have deposited sand on farmlands making it a cumbersome process to plant wheat. Madhubani Jeevika farmers threw light on this situation: \"Many poor farmers are not able to cultivate wheat after excessive rainfall and waterlogging situation as the sands deposited on the farms needs to be removed by a lot of irrigation that then becomes too expensive\".b) Late rice harvests to cause a delay in planting wheat timely : A key concern was the delay in wheat planting due to the delay in rice planting caused by erratic monsoon and a drought-like situation, thereby leading late harvesting of paddy, The income from the sale of rice crops was found to be one of the primary sources of investment in buying farm inputs and arranging other machines and tools required for wheat cultivation. Hence, several farmers, especially across non-Demo and Jeevika groups perceived themselves to be in a vulnerable situation in terms of arranging finances due to the overall delay.c) Incidence of diseases and pests and lack of timely availability of good quality seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides to mitigate impacts of diseases was a critical impediment, true to the overall cropping system, but specific to the wheat cropping system. Farmers from across districts described the shortage of good quality and affordable seeds and fertilisers in the market for wheat crops and the high process of farm inputs. Low and erratic rainfall and high temperatures increase the susceptibility of the crops to pests and weeds thereby multiplying the need for pesticides. While many farmers across the three groups received improved quality seeds and fertilisers from Jeevika, Demo farmers with better access to resources reported procuring farm inputs from outside the state (Demo farmers, Madhubani).The perception of farmers in their capacity to plant on time varies considerably, shaped by multifaceted enabling factors and constraints. This section presents timeline-related scenarios in rice cultivation in three parts: a) Farmers' knowledge and awareness of planting timing, b) farmer practices, primarily as a response to the rainfall situation, and c) barriers to adopting ideal practices on planting timing. Table 5.Presents an overview of the timeline-related awareness and practices of farmers, and the perceived challenges are explained in the text.Though across the districts, farmer groups perceived Rohini (May 25 to June 8) and Mrigashira (June 8-June 20) Nakshatras as the ideal time for nursery raising, a large proportion of farmers carried out seeding the nursery in Ardra Nakshatra (June 22-July 5). Some farmers, for instance, in Lakhisarai articulated different sowing times for different varieties of crops. Overall, the time taken for raising the nursery \"We didn't know the rainfall would be delayed when we bought seeds of Rs 5000 to 10000 and did the seeding. If we had the mechanism to know the rainfall prediction or any prior information related to rainfall, we would not have done it and would have been saved from wasting money.\" -Demo farmers, Nalanda Farmer groups across the districts reported facing a delay in transplanting in 2022, primarily reported to be caused by the late arrival of rainfall.Farmers with irrigation facilities prepared the nurseries in Rohini (May 25-June 8) or Mrigashira (June 8-June 20), and the farmers who had limited access to irrigation through renting waited for their chance and prepared nurseries in Mrigashira. The timeline of seeding also depends on the seed variety. For instance, traditional rice was seeded in Rohini Nakshatra (May 25-June 8) while Hybrid rice, which is relatively shorter in duration, was seeded later, in Ardra Nakshatra (June 22-July 5).Farmers with no access to any irrigation source waited for the rainfall to even prepare the nursery which caused them further delays in the transplanting process. A delay in rainfall caused a drought-like situation and raised the temperature limiting the germination of seeds in the nurseries. Many farmer groups reported reduced yield and wastage of financial capital in farm inputs which was lost due to delays in rainfall in the year 2022. Other factors preventing timely transplanting were: labour unavailability, further amplified by delays in rainfall (and hence delays in transplanting) pushing the labourers to out-migrate to other cities for their livelihoods, in turn, raising the cost of labour that had to be then hired from outside the village or seek the short supply of remaining local labour; and, the timely availability of, and rising costs of fertilisers and seeds.Women and poor farmers were found to be more vulnerable to the constraints of planting delay: Across the farmer groups and sites, farmers recognised that men and women face similar challenges as they farm together and are a part of the same households. However, on further probing, it was acknowledged across the sites that women faced more problems than men. This narrative emerged primarily from Jeevika farmer groups and from Demo farmers (mostly men) FGD of Vaishali, Madhubani, Lakhisarai and Nalanda. While Demo farmers centred the reasons on women's inability to do heavy physical work on the farm, a lack of exposure to operating heavy machines and modern technology, and interacting with vendors and buyers in the market, Jeevika farmers perceived the absence of their migrant husbands as a key factor increasing their work burden making it difficult for them to manage all by themselves on time.Non-Demo and Jeevika farmers also pointed to the socio-economic context of farmers which limits or enables farmers to plant on time. For instance, challenges differ whether the farmer is landless or a big farmer. It was perceived that while rich or resourceful farmers are less likely to get delayed in timely planting as they can arrange labor from outside the state (from Punjab) and organize other farm-related logistics and complete tasks faster, resource-poor farmers must wait for their chance to avail services thereby enduring delays.The common methods of rice planting across the seven districts are a) broadcasting the seeds, and b) preparing the rice nursery and transplanting the seedlings, following a sequence of ploughing the field-irrigating (farmers with irrigation source)-sowing the seeds to form a nursery-uprooting the seedlings ideally after 20-22 days to plant into the rice fields. Many farmer groups also reported doing seed treatment by soaking the seeds overnight and drying them before sowing them to make a nursery. After the seeds germinate, the seedlings are uprooted and planted in straight lines on their farm by the farmers. However, some farmer groups such as Demo farmers of Lakhisarai, non-Demo farmers of Muzaffarpur, Vaishali and Nalanda, and Jeevika farmers of Muzaffarpur and Lakhisarai also reported ploughing the land and broadcasting the seeds without preparing a nursery. Demo farmers and some of the non-Demo and Jeevika farmers indicated using the Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) method to plant their rice seeds using zero tillage machine, driven by the CSISA project in 2022. The key determinants for the decision making on transplanting dates by farmers related to Puddled transplanted rice and direct seeded rice were influence by various factors -climate and onset of monsoon, irrigation facilities, socio-economic status, labour availability, access to input and resources and in few cases, it was also found to be influenced by weather forecast.• Multiple climate-related factors determined farmers' capacity and decisions in timely sowing and transplantation. The onset of monsoon, access to reliable irrigation facilities, distance between the irrigation source and the farmland, access to agricultural machinery and tools such as tractors for ploughing and land preparation, availability of seeds and fertilisers, and labour, and capital to pay for crucial operations were some of the key factors. Though the challenges reported were common across the farmer groups in seven districts, they impacted the farmers in varying intensities based on the intersectional factors shaping their vulnerability contexts. At the household level, farmers reported making decisions on planting timings based on the Nakshatras, availability of financial capital, access to agricultural infrastructure and variety of paddy seeds, and sometimes based on weather forecast checked on the internet or received agro advisories on the mobile and in consultation with village elders.• Socio-economic status and access to inputs and resources impacted farmers' planting time scenario. Farmers were found to differ in their landholding size and access levels to agricultural inputs, mechanisation and investment capacity thereby determining their ability to prepare nurseries or transplant on time. For example, Jeevika farmers in Madhubani pointed out that though they receive tractors and other agricultural tools through their SHGs, it is shared between 10-12 women, so others must wait. \"Another woman from the same FGD shared an interesting perspective on differential access to the tractor, \"In my SHG, one of the didi's lands is in the middle-one where the tractor cannot go. And the farm adjacent to that belongs to another farmer who had ploughed earlier so he didn't let the tractor pass through his fields. As a result, she could not do direct seeded rice.\" Likewise, though the migration-induced shortage of labour was reported as an important determinant in transplanting on time from all farmer groups, farmers with cash availability hire labourers, sometimes at a higher cost and get their nursery and transplanting done on time. Similarly, at the village level, Irrigation water is generally made accessible by pump owners to other farmers who rent the pump sets on a pay-per-hour basis so that variability in prices and availability further constrain timely planting. Another factor influencing planting time at the village level, particularly reported by Vaishali and Gaya farmers was the susceptibility of early planters to blue bucks or pest and disease pressures due to crops on a small number of plots rather than being diluted across the landscape.Farming-related decision-making in the household was governed by the local gender dynamics.Intra-household decision-making was reported as being done by both men and women together across the farmer groups and districts, except in a few instances. For instance, in Gaya and Vaishali, Demo and non-Demo farmers held men responsible for making these decisions, being the head of the household. Mobility of women in these areas appeared to be restricted and their participation in the farm was also limited to tasks assigned to them by the men of the household. Jeevika farmers in these areas, however, shared that planting-related decisions were taken by both men and women or by women when men were outmigrating. Moreover, Jeevika farmers in all the districts described the decision-making process as consultative as women perceive that SHGs act as a significant platform for providing information and services in enhancing their agricultural-related knowledge and capacity, yield and men were also found recognizing that in these areas.Research suggests that improving unreliable and expensive irrigation infrastructure is a prerequisite for mitigating climate-related risks and developing the capacity and resilience of farmers in the EGP (Shah et al., 2018). This section presents the measures adopted by farmers to address the challenges and constraints primarily caused due to unpredictable rainfall causing drought-like or excessive waterlogging (flood-like) situations.3.4.1 Solutions adopted to address rainfall-timing-related challenges.• To overcome the impact of drought-like situations in agriculture, borewells were constructed by individual farmers and rented by other farmers. In the context of an overall absence of governmentsupported or government-provided borewells, farmers with more resources were found to construct borewells at an individual level. Diesel or electricity-run pump sets were also procured by them that were used to extract groundwater out of the borewells. The resource-poor farmers were found to rent the irrigation structure from owners of irrigation facilities, and they reported facing delays often in accessing the borewells as the owners rented out the pump set after completing irrigating their own fields.• To address the low germination of seeds induced by high temperatures, farmers adopt measures such as re-establishment of nurseries/re-seeding. In case of destruction of the nursery, farmers with resources establish nurseries again and then plant the saplings when they germinate. Farmers with \"Men cannot farm without the support of women. We both make decisions together, but he goes out more, so he knows more. So, I trust his decision. Sometimes I also share the information I receive from my SHGs-on seed treatment or farming techniques, and then he also listens.\" -Jeevika women farmers, Samastipur fewer resources transplant remaining seedlings or don't transplant fearing another round of disappointment. Responses across the farmer groups differ, for instance, replanting is practised by only non-Demo farmers from Nalanda and Samastipur, Demo farmers from Madhubani and Vaishali, and all three farmer groups from Gaya and Lakhisarai. Another mechanism adopted by the farmers to cope with low yield during drought (and excessive waterlogging during harvest) was planting late-flowering varieties of rice. Some farmers preferred planting a combination of early flowering and late flowering varieties to incur fewer losses in the context of unpredictable rainfall.• Innovation support from institutions such as JEEViKA and CSISA initiative was perceived as reliable and adopted by farmers to cope with climate variabilities: Another theme on coping mechanism that emerged from the perspective of Demo farmers, but also from non-Demo and Jeevika farmers was that of adopting the CSISA project activities. Demo farmers reported using zero tillage machines for planting wheat in Rabi following the practice of Zero tillage in wheat and doing directseeded rice (DSR) in Kharif. Farmers found DSR as a cost saving technology, no yield penalty with less labour input. They shared the success in DSR is dependent on good rainfall and proper weed management. Demo farmers from Gaya and Muzaffarpur expressed using CSISA recommended seeds or short-duration variety. As discussed in earlier sections, JEEViKA acted as a platform of support by providing tools and resources to cope with climate-induced risks particularly to women farmers and hence their household. Jeevika and many non-Demo and Demo farmers were found to be receiving good quality paddy and wheat seeds and fertilisers from JEEVIKA to support their crop cycle, especially planting on time. Jeevika farmers from Gaya and Samastipur reported arranging fertilisers for wheat and rice through JEEViKA before it became scarce.• Collective efforts were recognised to offer great potential for community innovation and agricultural development but were also considered impractical due to an overall lack of trust among farmers.Collective efforts were adopted in some districts especially by Jeevika farmers to cope with the challenges of drought, such as constructing nurseries together in a place with access to irrigation, farmers with motors helping other farmers, and supporting each other as agricultural labour during transplanting and harvesting. A collective approach adopted to address the lack of irrigation facilities emerged from non-Demo groups in Lakhisarai and Nalanda, and Jeevika farmers from Madhubani. 10-12 farmers collectively constructed a borewell in one instance, in another, Jeevika farmers coprocured a pump-set and placed it in an area accessible to all the SHG members. The ownership, sharing, renting and usage patterns of borewells differ across the districts and farmer groups based on the social norms of the village. Such innovations here and there gives a hope for collective efforts to be an innovative solution to deal with irrigation issues at the field level but is totally dependent on the management process involved inculcating trust and transparency related to management. An overall lack of trust was cited as a factor behind the scattered and sporadic instances of collective efforts. \"Nothing can be done collectively. People think why I should give my money to others. It is an individual issue, so we must tackle it accordingly. The trust is lacking. [Demo farmers, Muzaffarpur]. This comment from Jeevika farmers in Vaishali also pointed to the lack of labour and other resources further disabling any opportunity for collective efforts \"If a didi will help me in my farms after her farm work is completed, I will have to wait for her work to finish first and hence will get late. Everyone wants to finish theirs first. In this case who will help whom first remain a question?\" However, from the overall perspectives and practices being followed by Jeevika farmers, \"a strong possible potential of SHGs emerged that have the potential to trigger the pathway for collective effort through strategically strengthening their social capital, and management skills and creating an enabling ecosystem, to adopt community innovation aimed at mitigating climate-related challenges.3.4.2 Support required to implement solutions for nursery establishment and transplanting.The support anticipated and articulated by the farmer groups across the districts were on the lines of the major constraints being faced by farmers in their cropping system. A predominant support anticipated from the farmers was the government support in ensuring a reliable source of irrigation. Along with constituting borewells and tubewells other sources such as rivers, canals, and ponds can also be efficiently used. On the construction of groundwater irrigation, an interesting perspective emerged from the non-Demo farmers from Gaya and Nalanda: \"We should have other sources of irrigation also other than borewells or tubewells because so many borewells will overexploit the groundwater. The water table is already declining-now if we need to dig a borewell, we must dig it much deeper as compared to earlier time [non-Demo farmers, Nalanda]. Demo and non-Demo farmers from Lakhisarai also shared the need for connecting canals with the river Ganga as a prospective solution to deal with irrigation-related challenges. Another aspect of enabling smooth irrigation was a regular supply of electricity at affordable rates so that farmers could use pump sets for irrigation. Table 6 lists the recurring and frequently answered perspectives on support expected from external agencies, particularly from the government. It also lists some of the unique perspectives that emerged from FGDs with specific farmer groups or from specific district.In the context of a shortage of labour, farmers perceive agricultural machines and equipment as important tools to reduce their burden and drudgery along with saving time.This was especially raised by women farmers in Jeevika who find tractors, drum seeders, pesticide spraying machines or other machines received from their SHGs as critical to support them when the male member of the family migrates. However, some of the Jeevika farmers, and some other Demo and non-Demo farmers receiving services from Jeevika expected the Jeevika support to become more regular and cater to more people. This excerpt from the Jeevika FGD in Samastipur highlights their expectation: \"There is one tractor in the VO, so it is not available on time to everyone as everyone starts farming together. We keep waiting for our turn so sometimes it gets delayed. If there can be a greater number of tractors, then it would benefit more people?\" [Jeevika farmers, Samastipur]Farmers expected regular and easy access to innovation, extension services, and credit facilities to improve their effectiveness and efficiency of agriculture. Other key areas of support to facilitate a smoother nursery establishment and transplanting recounted by farmers are -timely availability of good quality high yielding seeds and address fertiliser shortage and check on rising prices; Systematic and uncomplicated process of availing loans and institutional sources of credit to address the lack of financial capital; regular training and information on improved varieties of seeds and innovative methods of farming to increase crop yields were other arena farmers shared. Amongst the three groups of farmers, the nature of support expected by farmers was largely the same, with slight variations in the context of their subjective geographical needs and groups affiliation. However, apart from receiving financial and infrastructural support from their SHG systems, Jeevika farmers shared receive training on innovative methods of farming that they would like to expand to include more livelihood enhancement activities. Demo farmers also reported receiving good quality seeds, zero tillage machines and innovative cropping techniques from the CSISA project and while some farmers recognised their cost saving, labour saving agriculture practices with no yield, a few farmers expected the project activities run by different stakeholders to become more robust. Agricultural advisory systems are important to not only enhance agricultural productivity and income but also to strengthening ties between farmers, research, agricultural education, and other private and civil society actors (Faure et al., 2012). In the context of extreme climate variabilities faced by farmers in India, reliable and economical agro-advisory services are crucial for the dissemination of timely information to mitigate risks and losses in agricultural productivity and income. For example, timely information on monsoons would help farmers make decisions to sow at the right time to cope with rainfall-related uncertainties particularly in the rain-fed areas (Raghuvanshi et al. 2018).This section presents the opportunities and challenges of the current agro-advisory systems shared by the farmers in the seven districts and their feedback and expectations for strengthening the agro advisory system. Sections 3.2 and 3.3 put forward farmers perspective on climate-induced uncertainties and associated risks as the most critical constraint faced by farmers in the various stages of agriculture. It also emerged during the discussions, that at the farmer level, their self-perception of distress and vulnerability to the climate variabilities was primarily induced by a lack of preparedness for the unpredictable weather. A general lack of awareness and access to information/advisories about accurate weather predictions and rainfall timings emerged as the challenges being faced by the farmers.Farmers receive advisories from different sources and stakeholders ranging from village elders and their traditional knowledge systems to government and several non-governmental and private entities. The sources of information were similar as well as varied across the districts and farmer groups. Figure 4 provides an overview of the sources of advisories across 21 FGDs with three farmer groups-Demo, Non-Demo and Jeevika. Across the farmer groups, village elders and their intergenerational and traditional knowledge of farmers in the villages remain a significant source of information on farming practices. Additionally, Kisan Salahkars (Agriculture department extension personal), were also perceived to be one of the important sources of information related to agriculture (Figure 4).As described in the earlier sections, Demo farmer groups had increased access to innovation and information from the government and different private organizations, and non-governmental organizations. The primary sources of information for the Demo farmers were text or WhatsApp messages from KVKs and the agriculture university (PUSA), and correspondence with Kisan Salahkars in the district of Samastipur, Demo farmers were found receiving information and support from different agencies operational in their vicinity like the Dr. Reddy Foundation, and Demo farmers from Nalanda received pesticide spraying machines and information on effective pesticide utilisation from Oxfam and HDFC Foundation. Information from the CSISA project was also found to be a regular source of information by several demo farmer groups in recent times.Non-Demo farmer groups relied heavily on the experience of village elders and information from Kisan Salahkar. They perceived themselves to be receiving \"no reliable information for improving agriculture.\" This comment from the non-Demo farmer group (M) FGD in Lakhisarai exemplifies that: For receiving information from KVK, PUSA or the Meteorological department, your number should be registered with them. And we don't know the right people who can help us in registering our numbers.\" Though both Demo and non-Demo farmer groups reported receiving financial and mechanisation support from Jeevika (documented in earlier sections), most of them shared the need for also receiving advisories through JEEViKA.For Jeevika farmers, the intermediaries between the SHGs at the village level and JEEViKA at the block level were their primary sources of information. These intermediaries (block resource persons (BRPs) and Village resource persons (VRPs)) provided them with information on improved farming techniques, and advisory on quantity, quality and timing of plantation. Krishi Salahkars were also reported by Jeevika farmers as another source of information. Women farmers making market visits to buy farm • Low levels of literacy were found to be a key constraint among farmers to read and interpret advisories received either as messages on mobile phones or accessing smartphone applications, posters and other print materials. • The gender issue is particularly critical in developing countries and is addressed by numerous authors who demonstrate the difficulties encountered by women in obtaining advisory services (e.g. Lahai et al., 1999, in Nigeria;Saima et al., 2005, in Pakistan, andKansiime et al., 2019, in India).Multiple perspectives on women's low access to advisory services emerged from our study sites, especially in terms of owing and accessing ICT tools such as mobile phones, television or radio. Most women across Jeevika groups and non-Demo groups reported not having a personal mobile phone making them dependent on their children to provide them with the information. \"Mobile phones are mostly with the children so when any message comes-about rainfall dates or something. They inform us.\" [Jeevika (F) farmers, Gaya]. Many women can't read, making them dependent on other household members, especially children to read them the advisory messages that are received as messages on mobile phones. Jeevika farmers from Vaishali also pointed to the timing of programmes on the television which they end up missing because they are working on the farms.• Low access to smartphones and their usage, especially for small and marginal farmers and women acted as another barrier to access advisories. On one hand, a few Demo and non-Demo farmers were found using internet and mobile applications (on weather and agriculture-related advisories) on their smartphones, on the other, all women farmers (Jeevika and non-Demo) and many men farmers reported not owning a smartphone. However, some men farmers were aware of the usefulness of smartphones and the different sources of information that can be acquired. Farmers owning smartphones also commented on challenges with the user interface with their smartphones or in other words their digital illiteracy. Some other farmers mentioned that they don't buy it due to a lack of finances and lack of digital know-how. \"What will we do with a smartphone? We don't know how to use it and we will need so much money to recharge it. [non-Demo farmers, Nalanda] • Low access to television and radio acted as barriers as local news was considered (especially by male farmers) a useful source of information on farming methods and weather conditions to decide planting dates and techniques. Some Demo and non-Demo farmers were found following television programmes like Krishi Darshan to obtain timing-related information. Women farmers (Jeevika) found taking out time to watch television programmes was a difficult task as they were overburdened with housework and farm work. • Figure 4 illustrates Kisan Salahkars as an important source of information for farmers across the categories and districts. Farmers further shared the need to strengthen this mechanism with regular visit of Kisan Salahkar on their field.To design contextual, effective, and signalled agro-advisory systems, it is important to listen to, and consider, the perspectives, concerns and expectations of farmers using the advisories. Farmers' responses on improving the current agro-advisory systems have been categorised into the following themes or areas of information. These suggestions and expectations can act as feedback to the programmes seeking to improve the local agro-advisory system in each context. The comment from one of the FGDs typifies the relevance of context-specific agro-advisories:• Accurate and timely information on rainfall. Every farmer group across the sites expected to receive more accurate and timely information on weather conditions, especially rainfall to minimise losses. Moreover, farmers from some Demo groups perceived that the rainfall information should not only be about the percentage of rainfall anticipated but also information on the amount of rainfall. • Reliable information on sowing and transplanting time: The lack of accurate information on rainfall followed by the limited and unreliable information on planting time is another key challenge faced by farmers. Jeevika farmers (F) from Gaya remarked on the importance of timely rice planting to avoid costly groundwater irrigation, \"Seed germination and crop productivity depends so much on when the planting was done. Our biggest worry is what if we plant and it will not rain. And then we will end up incurring huge expenses on irrigation.\" This comment from non-Demo farmers (M) from Madhubani exemplifies that though farmers recognise the importance of timely planting, they find themselves at the receiving end of limited information that aggravates their other vulnerabilities: \"We will be able to save our crop loss and high expenses of irrigation, replanting or pesticides if know the right time of planting.\" • Information on, and access to, genuine quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, and effective application techniques. Though Demo, Jeevika and non-Demo farmers reported receiving farm inputs from different organisations, they were largely dissatisfied with the limited information on the effective use of seeds and fertilisers. Only Jeevika farmers reported a certain level of satisfaction with \"The advisory that we receive should be contextual and non-generic. The situation of the neighbouring panchayat can be different to ours. So, information should be tailor-made for us so that we can make effective use of it and improve our agriculture capacity and returns.\" -Demo farmers, Vaishali the advisories received through BRPs, but they expected more practices regularly. Overall, the farmers expected advisories on the quality of seeds to improve production, real prices of seeds and fertilisers, good quality fertilisers and pesticides and their effective application to prevent crops from insects, and strategies to manage weeds. \"We want advisory on different varieties of seeds based on seasons, on pesticides -how to apply and how much to apply\" [Demo farmers (M), Gaya]In the context of farmer's perception of barriers to accessing information and advisory services, presented in Section 3.5.1, this section provides an overview of ways articulated by farmers to improve the medium of disseminating agro-advisory systems. Figure 6 presents farmer group-wise pie charts and the mediums they perceive as convenient and effective.Face-to-face meetings in the village or Aam Sabhas and \"Kisan Chaupals\" emerged as the most preferred medium of receiving advisories. For Jeevika farmers, SHG meetings were the most convenient platform that the resource persons could use as platforms to disseminate knowledge and information on varied topics and mitigate the information asymmetry especially faced by rural women. The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones, smartphones, televisions, radio, and internet services was found to be another effective mode of dissemination of technologies, practices, and other services to farmers. Due to low levels of literacy 2 , audio messages on mobile phones or audio calls were reported to be more convenient. Nevertheless, farmers were also comfortable with text messages on mobile phones. In some cases of smartphone users, voice messages, audio, and videos on WhatsApp, and were also suggested as a potential platform to be explored.Other preferred platforms were through other creative and in-person modes such as micing or announcements through autos and printed posters. Demo and non-Demo farmers also consider Kisan Salahkar as a useful intermediary for knowledge dissemination and exchange. Jeevika farmers (in earlier sections) reported irregular and inequitable access to Kisan Salahkars, hence, they considered SHGs as the more reliable and accountable platform. The pie chart also illustrates the Demo farmers' greater access to agro-advisory modes as compared to Jeevika or non-Demo farmers.Farmers' language preferences for receiving advisory services are determined by the sociodemographic context of the area. Largely due to low levels of literacy, it emerged that farmers expected messages and information in easily understandable language. Farmers expressed a certain level of comfort with receiving advisories in Hindi, however, local languages were recognised as a definite added advantage. \"It will be easy for people like us who don't know much clean Hindi and have also not studied much.\" [Jeevika farmers, Nalanda] \"The information is fine in Hindi as we all know Hindi, but it should be clear message on how to apply that or how a certain technology is adaptable in our field. Otherwise, how will we make use of any information [Demo farmers, Madhubani] As far as the timing of the information is concerned, farmers' preferences varied based on the nature of their livelihood and household activities in which they were engaged. Farmers were of the understanding that advisories should start 2-3 weeks before planting season and should continue throughout the crop cycle. Messages should be disseminated at different times of the day. This is important to cater to individuals engaged in different livelihood activities, especially for women who are engaged in agriculture as well as in the household. While some farmers preferred receiving advisories in the afternoon/evening or the early mornings before leaving for the field, others preferred during the daytime or after lunch when there is a short resting time.  Unpredictable and unevenly distributed rainfall patterns were a major determinant for farmers decision on the planting of crops. The analysis in this report pursued to understand the farmer's perspective regarding the major constraints in the rice-wheat cropping systems. The constraints shared by farmers were further delved deeper and analysed to understand the interaction between the multiple layers of vulnerabilities faced and shared by the farmers and the potential opportunities and mechanisms for coping and building adaptation and resilience to the constraints. In the studied sites in Bihar, the climate situation is perceived to be playing a critical role in deciding what crops are to be grown, how (farming practices), and when (timing of planting), thereby determining crop yields amidst the small-holder farming systems. Extreme weather patterns have adverse impacts on the stability of yields of rainfed crops like rice and wheat, the two primary crops in the region. Lack of irrigation infrastructure and the absence of assured access to timely irrigation, impacts farmers in varying intensity. Crop yields were also found to be affected by the quality of seeds and fertilisers. Farmers also shared the challenge with the timely availability of good quality farm inputs making them susceptible to greater risk of yield loss. The lack of financial capital by small and marginal farmers to access farm inputs were further affected by the climate uncertainties and risk associated with the unpredictable monsoon. The labour unavailability due to increased migration of men and shift in livelihood patterns to non-farm migrant work also act as a bottleneck in timely sowing and transplanting activities. Lack of proper marketing facilities, and lack of timely and assured advisory emerged as the other systemic challenges exacerbating the vulnerability of rice-wheat cropping systems.The report also presents an analysis of the findings through a gender lens to describe the contextualised and varied experiences of the farmers thereby recognising the importance of diversity and heterogeneity in designing programmes and policies to address cropping system challenges. Out of the three groups of farmers in the study, Demo farmers were relatively big farmers with larger land parcels and more improved access to inputs, information, and other services, as compared to the resource-poor farmers in non-Demo and Jeevika groups. The findings demonstrate that the challenges and opportunities of the poor and marginalised farmers depends on their resource-base, restrictive gender norms of the communities and the structural disadvantage for instance, landless or tenant farmers have no access to irrigation infrastructure and often cannot avail government subsidies and schemes related to agriculture. Access to scarcely available labour was gendered and skewed towards the big farmers as women and poor farmers lacked the finances and networks to hire labour, that were often procured from outside the village. Moreover, women from poorer households worked as labourers on their own and other farms while bigger farmers \"considered it ideal if women looked after the household and left the outward-facing work on men.\" While out-migrating men added to women's work burden, it also opened spaces for women to participate in outward-facing stages of the agricultural value chains like marketing and innovation, especially through SHGs. Access to mechanisation, innovation, extension services and information was inequitable, wherein bigger farmers in Demo groups could contact agriculture intermediaries and other external organisations easily for information and services while other groups were largely not a part of such networks. This trend was, however, positively changing with women's increased access to, and adoption of, services and mechanisation through JEEViKA-SHGs.JEEViKA-SHGs emerged as a promising platform for augmenting agriculture and improving the experiences of smallholder farmer households, especially women. In addition to providing financial benefits in the form of loans to invest in agriculture, SHGs also offered information, innovation, mechanisation, and extension services to its members. This has strong potential and can be explored to act as a vehicle of change for the reliable scientific recommendations and advisories reaching out to the farmers in the state. Women farmers now have reliable access to larger pools of capital and other services providing them with a safety net and decreasing their dependence on male members of the family. Men farmers also recognised the potential of SHGs in addressing some of the structural barriers in agriculture faced especially by poor and marginalised farmers. Though this report does not explore the strength of social capital in the SHGs in securing benefits for agricultural improvement, several studies have presented evidence for the same. Hence, limited instances of collective action in these regions in the form of synchronous rice planting, rice-wheat cropping system, use of irrigation sources or any other community innovation to mitigate structural or climate-related challenges could be tapped by leveraging the institutional platforms of JEEViKA SHGs. In summary, for programs to have diversified reach and benefits, SHGs can be utilized as a platform for transmitting information, disseminating improved farming practices as well and generating demands and feedback to improve the contextual significance of the intervention. As an innovative impact-oriented platform SHGs are playing productive roles in mainstreaming and empowering women in agriculture. (Munshi.et .al 2021) Addressing the various constraints facing farmers in the rice-wheat cropping system and enhancing agroecosystem resilience is a special challenge that requires efficient channelising of resources to not only strengthen farmers' adaptive capacity to climate variabilities but also address their structural disadvantages. The vulnerabilities of individual farmers and households can vary in response to different constraints. Equally, their ability to cope with major barriers can also change over time. Time management in the rice-wheat cropping system is crucial catering to the challenges posed by the erratic climate. It has emerged that responding to the contextual and dynamic reality of the farming communities is essential. The report also showed that there is a need to strengthen the quality of the existing agro-advisory services considering the socio-economic characteristics of the communities and their preferences and useability towards various advisory platforms.","tokenCount":"13482"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e677d36c995af4626463ef7b8803febc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/118a44f6-cd83-4d47-b453-6cd1cc54c768/content","id":"-951717584"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"de660234-abec-49b3-b0cf-b0420a5b9150","pagecount":"58","content":"Los autores desean agradecer a Robert Tripp, Mike Morris, Ramiro Ortiz, Mario jauregui, Héctor Barreto, jerome Fournier, Porfirio Masaya, Elio Durón y Giancarlo de Piccioto por sus comentarios y sugerencias realizadas a una versión preliminar que permitió mejorar enormemente este trabajo. También desean agradecer a la Cooperación Suiza para el Desarrollo (COSUDE), a la Fundación Ford (FF), y al Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) por el apoyo financiero a las actizlidades del CIMMITy el PRM. Sin su generosa contribución este trabajo no hubiera sido posible. Finalmente aIICTA, y al CIMMYFpor brindar el apoyo institucional necesario para tener un excelente ambiente de trabajo.La mayor parte de los productores de maíz de Guatemala son pequeños agricultores de subsistencia que generalmente no tienen acceso a insumos agrícolas como semilla mejorada y a otros insumos agrícolas. Por ejemplo, en 1987 sólo un 16% de la superficie total cosechada de maíz en Guatemala fue sembrada con semilla mejorada.En 1986 se pone en marcha el Proyecto de Generación y Transferencia de Tecnología y Producción de Semillas (PROGETTAPS) con el fin de mejorar el acceso de los pequeños agricultores a la semilla mejorada. Este trabajo intenta identificar la intensidad, formas de uso, patrón de difusión de semilla mejorada, y factores que influyen sobre la decisión de su adopción por pequeños productores de maíz en el Departamento de ]utiapa, Guatemala. Se pretende conocer cual fue el impacto del programa de DIGESA como un medio de difusión de este insumo entre los pequeños agricultores.Los resultados muestras que el programa tuvo un impacto significativo en la adopción y difusión de semilla mejorada en el Departamento. A nivel del agricultor, involucrarse con el programa por un mínimo de un año incrementa en forma significativa la probabilidad de usar semill:i mejorada. También relacionada con el nivel de información que maneja el agricultor, se encontró que aquellos agricultores que participan en asociaciones comunales también incrementan la probabilidad de usar semillas mejoradas.El uso de variedades mejoradas se encuentra asociado a un cambio en el sistema de siembra de maíz asociado a maíz en monocultivo. Aquellos agricultores más lejanos a los centros tienen menos probabilidad de usar semilla mejorada. Lo mismo para aquellos agricultores más pequeños. Las futuras estrategias de extensión deben considerar estos factores al establecer sus prioridades. Si bien la propiedad de la tierra es un factor que afecta el uso de variedades mejoradas en forma significativa, su importancia relativa no es tan considerable como los anteriores.Un resultado importante por sus implicaciones para investigación y extensión es el hecho de que los agricultores del Departamento tienden a sembrar semillas mejoradas en tierras planas más que en las laderas. La edad del agricultor resultó importante solamente en el caso de adopción total. Los agricultores jóvenes además de ser menos adversos al riesgo, tiene menos dependientes y por lo tanto tienen más probabilidades de usar la semilla mejorada en la totalidad de la superficie dedicada al maíz.La República de Guatemala, con alrededor de 680,000 hectáreas cultivadas y una producción total de 1.4 millones de toneladas métricas, es el mayor productor y consumidor de maíz a nivel centroamericano. Guatemala produce el 42% del total de maíz de la región. La importancia del cultivo en la economía guatemalteca se refleja en el hecho de que durante la década de los 80 el valor de la producción de maíz representó aproximadamente el 10% del valor total de la producción agrícola del país. (Cuadro 1).La mayor parte de los productores de maíz de Guatemala son pequeños agricultores de subsistencia. Aproximadamente un '60% de las explotaciones productoras de granos básicos en Guatemala son minifundios caracterizados principalmente por un tamaño que muchas veces resulta insuficiente para satisfacer las nec<:;sidades alimenticias básicas de una familia típica (5 a 6 personas). La' importancia numérica de este grupo, su situaciÓn alimenticia precaria y su crecimiento demográfico urgen una atención permanente para mejorar el nivel tecnológico de estos productores y con ello, sus ingresos (Herrera y Jiménez, 1992).De ahí la importancia de incorporar a los sistemas de producción de maíz nuevas tecnologías que contribuyan a mejo~ar los rendimientos y de esa manera propicien el incremento en los ingresos de los agricultores. Una estrategia para aumentar los rendimientos en forma rápida y efectiva es promocionar un' mayor uso de semilla mejorada por los pequeños agricultores. Aunque la ' 9 l. INTRODUCCIONLa República de Guatemala, con alrededor de 680,000 hectáreas cultivadas y una producción total de 1.4 millones de toneladas métricas, es el mayor productor y consumidor de maíz a nivel centroamericano. Guatemala produce el 42% del total de maíz de la región. La importancia del cultivo en la economía guatemalteca se refleja en el hecho de que durante la década de los 80 el valor de la producción de maíz representó aproximadamente el 10% del valor total de la producción agrícola del país. (Cuadro 1).La mayor parte de los productores de maíz de Guatemala son pequeños agricultores de subsistencia. Aproximadamente un '60% de las explotaciones productoras de granos básicos en Guatemala son minifundios caracterizados principalmente por un tamaño que muchas veces resulta insuficiente para satisfacer las nec~sidades alimenticias básicas de una familia típica (5 a 6 personas). La\" importancia numérica de este grupo, su situaciÓn alimenticia precaria y su crecimiento demográfico urgen una atención permanente para mejorar el nivel tecnológico de estos productores y con ello, sus ingresos (Herrera y Jiménez, 1992).De ahí la importancia de incorporar a los sistemas de producción de maíz nuevas tecnologías que contribuyan a mejo~ar los rendimientos y de esa manera propicien el incremento en los ingresos de los agricultores. Una estrategia para aumentar los rendimientos en forma rápida y efectiva es promocionar un\" mayor uso de semilla mejorada por los pequeños agricultores.  Figu(~oa (1992), Herrera y Jiméncz (1992). disponibilidad de semilla mejorada de maíz a través del sistema de producción convencional creció durante el período comprendido entre 1981 y 1992 (Cuadro 2), este crecimiento ha sido irregular e insuficiente para cubrir las necesidades potenciales de semilla mejorada limitando seriamente el acceso de los pequeños agricultores a ésta y a otros insumos agrícolas.Por ejemplo, en 1987 la superficie cosechada de maíz en Guatemala sembrada con semilla mejorada fue de sólo un 16% siendo agricultores medianos y grandes los principales usuarios de este insumo (Echeverría, 1990).En los últimos 20 años el rol del sector público en la producción de semillas certificadas de granos básicos disminuyó en términos relativos. Por ejemplo, la participación del Instituto de Tecnología Agropecuaria (lCTA) en la producción de semilla certificada de granos básicos disminuyó de un 25-30% en 197525-30% en -197925-30% en , a sólo el 1% en 1985 (Veliz) (Veliz). Dado que los precios de la semilla mejorada proveniente del sector privado son, en términos generales, mayores que los precios de semilla provenientes del sector público, la disminución del papel del sector público en la producción de semilla mejorada puede haber influido en el uso de semilla mejorada por pequeños agricultores.Con el fin de mejorar el acceso de los pequeños agricultores a la semilla mejorada mediante el incremento de las actividades de transferencia de tecnologías agrícolas, se puso en funcionamiento, a partir de 1986, el Proyecto de Generación y Transferencia de Tecnología Agropecuaria y Producción de Semillas (PROGETTAPS).Aunque el proyecto cubrió inicialmente 7 departamentos, a partir de 1989 se incorporan 8 más para un total de 15 departamentos (Figura 1).El proyecto puso énfasis en la promoción y transferencia de nuevos materiales genéticamente mejorados los cuales eran producidos por el Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología Agrícola (lCTA) y transferidos por la Dirección General de Servicios Agrícolas (DIGESA). Ambas instituciones se integran en la ejecución de PROGETTAPS y aprovechan el vínculo entre investigadores y extensionistas para promover un efecto multiplicador a través de la participación de agricultores en la prueba, adopción, integración y transferencia de tecnología (Córdova el al., 1992, Ortiz). A partir de 1987, el Programa cobra vigor mediante la implementación, a nivel nacional, de estrategias y mecanismos de transferencia de tecnología destinadas a generar un seclor productivo de semilla mejorada con la participación de los pequeños agricultores a nivel de sus propias comunidades rurales, para que de esa manera, este sector tuviera acceso en cantidades suficientes a la semilla de nuevos materiales mejorados (Córdova et al., 1992). Aunql;e no estaba programada en la formulación inicial del Proyecto, una estrategia de acción que surgió durante su ejecución fue la del Programa de Producción Artesanal de Semilla Mejorada. Este programa fue planteado y ejecutado como una estrategia para hacer accesible la semilla mejorada a los agricultores que no tenían suficientes recursos para su compra o para aquellos que no la tenían disponible en su comunidad (Ramiro Ortiz. Comunicación Personal).Así, el número de parcelas de transferencia realizadas a nivel nacional por PROGETIAPS para los distintos cultivos involucrados pasa de 506 en 1986 a 4630 en 1989 (Ortiz et al., 1991)  Años 1981-1992. Veliz 1993. 2. Años 1985-1990, Valladares y Sain, 1993. Años 1991-1992, Veliz 1993.El objetivo general del trabajo es el identificar los factores que influyen sobre la decisión de usar o no semilla mejorada por pequeños productores de maíz en jutiapa, Guatemala. Se pretende conocer el impacto que ha tenido el programa de DIGESA como un medio de difusión de este insumo entre los pequeños agricultores. El estudio contribuye además a conocer cuál es la intensidad del uso, preferencias en cuanto a formas de uso de semilla mejorada, e identificar el patrón de difusión histórico del uso de variedades mejoradas y materiales híbridos en la región.La información generada es de utilidad para los diferentes sectores relacionados con la industria de producción y distribución de semilla así como para los fitomejoradores, y en forma, para los responsables de orientar y mejorar el diseño de los sistemas de suministro de semillas mejorada para los agricultores más pobres.En este trabajo los datos primarios provienen de una encuesta realizada durante los meses de junio y julio de 1991 coordinada por un equipo de técnicos del Centro Internacional de Agricultl.:lra Tropical (CIAT), y DIGESA bajo el patrocinio conjunto del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) , del Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT), y del Programa Regional de Maíz (PRM). La encuesta se realizó con extensionistas de DIGESA previamente capacitados para recolectar la información adecuadamente.El tamaño de la muestra fue de 208 agricultores diseminados en los 18 municipios del departamento de jutiapa que corresponde aproximadamente al 2% del total de fincas en el Departamento. El número de agricultores en cada Municipio se determinó de acuerdo con la proporción del número total de fincas en cada uno de ellos (Cuadro 3). Dentro de cada Municipio los agricultores fueron seleccionados al azar. El diseño de la encuesta fue coordinado por el CIAT (Baltensweiler, 1992). Cuadro 3. Número y proporción de fincas en la población y en la muestra por Municipio en el departamento de}utiapa, Guatemala. El departamento de ]utiapa se encuentra ubicado en la región sudeste de Guatemala (Figura 1) y tiene una superficie aproximada de 322,000 hectáreas. Existen alrededor de 33,000 fincas familiares con un área promedio de 6.70 has; sin embargo, un 77% de esas fincas tienen menos de 3.5 has (Baltensweiler, 1992). La región produce alrededor del 12% del maíz, 37% de sorgo y 39% de frijol cultivado en Guatemala. El uso de insumas agrícolas es bajo lo que se refleja en la productividad de los principales cultivos que ha permanecido estancada en los últimos años y es altamente dependiente de factores climáticos y edáficos. Sin embargo, estos productos representan la mayor parte del ingreso y fuente alimenticia de una familia rural típica en la zona (Thornton y Hoogenboom, 1990).Aunque el promedio de lluvias anuales en el Departamento oscila entre 1100 y 1450 mm/año dependiendo del municipio, ]utiapa puede ser considerada como una región en donde la humedad es un factor limitante para la agricultura. Esto se debe principalmente a que la precipitación se concentra en los seis meses que van de mayo a octubre cuando cae más del 80% del total anual (Figura 3) (Simmons et al., 1959, Thornton y Hoogenboom,1990). Los suelos de jutiapa se dividen en tres clases. Suelos de la Altiplanicie Central que comprenden un 85% de la superficie total del Departamento son suelos pedregosos e inclinados, aptos sólo para pastos y bosques. Suelos del Litoral del Pacífico, que comprenden sólo el 5.4% de la superficie total, son suelos fértiles, productivos y fáciles de manejar. Finalmente, existe Lina clase miscelánea (9.6%) que incluye áreas donde no domina ninguna clase particular de terreno. En general son suelos aptos para la agricultura.La mayoría de los agricultores poseen la tierra en propiedad (61%), mientras que un tercio de ellos la alquilan (Cuadro 4). El tamaño prc1medio de las fincas es de 2.3 hectáreas aunque existe una cierta variación de acuerdo con la forma de tenencia. Los propietarios lic:'len fincas con un tamaño promedio de 2.7 ha mientras que 10S arrendatarios alquilan un promedio de 1.4 ha (Cuadro 2). Estas cifras ponen de manifiesto el carácter minifundista de las fincas predominantes en la región. 2.70• Medianero: comparten costos y ganancias en mitad y mitad.La superficie total de la finca se dedica en un 60% a actividades permanentes en donde predominan los pastos y bosques y barbechos. Dentro de los cultivos anuales (40%), la producción de granos, principalmente maíz y frijol, ocupa el mayor porcentaje de la superficie con un 39% del total de la superficie de la finca (Cuadro 5).Consultados sobre sus expectativas de cambios en el uso de la tierra, la mayoría de los agricultores (53%) piensa que continuará sembrando la misma superficie que en la actualidad mientras que un tercio (29%) tienen la intención de aumentar la superficie cultivada con granos básicos y tubérculos.Aunque no existen estadísticas oficiales sobre la superficie total cultivada con maíz en el Departamento, un estudio reciente indicó que en 1989 había un total de 21,579 productores que en total cultivaban 32,170 hectáreas de maíz (SPADA citada por Viana, 1990).El maíz se siembra bajo dos sistemas: el sistema tradicional donde el maíz se siembra asociado a otro cultivo y en monocultivo. En el primero, el maíz se asocia generalmente con frijol, sorgo u ocasionalmente algún tubérculo.Cuadro 5. Uso de la tierra por pequeños agricultores en Jutiapa, Guatemala, 1991. En el área hay dos épocas de siembra naturales para el cultivo del maíz las cuales están relacionadas al patrón de lluvias. La primera época coincide con el inicio de la temporada lluviosa y se extiende desde el fin de abril hasta mediados de mayo y la ' segunda durante el mes de agosto (Figura 2).La segunda época se considera de mayor riesgo por la disponibilidad de agua durante el llenado de la mazorca por lo que los agricultores, en su gran mayoría, solo siembran durante la primera época de siembra. Casi el 90% de todos los agricultores en la muestra, usan las dos primeras semanas de mayo para establecer su cultivo. De esa manera se previenen de situaciones de lluvia errática o de sequía, y tienen suficiente tiempo para establecer un segundo cultivo anual durante la segunda época de siembra.Casi tres cuartos de los agricultores del Departamento de jutiapa utilizaron semilla criolla durante la siembra del maíz en 1991, mientras que más de un tercio de ellos usaron semilla de maíces híbridos y de variedades mejoradas (Cuadro 6, panel a). Sin embargo, cuando se desagrega la información, se observa un panorama lln poco más complejo ya que un 35% de los ,agricultores usaron dos o tres tipos diferentes de semilla (Cuadro 6, panel b). Un poco más del 40% de los agricultores utilizaron sólo semilla,.criolla siguiéndole en orden de importancia aquellos que . sembraron semilla criolla y mejorada y en tercer lugar aquellos agricultores que sólo sembraron híbridos. La diferencia en las cifras entre agricultores que sólo siembran materiales híbridos en relación con aquellos que sólo siembran materiales mejorados pareciera indicar la tendencia de que los primeros tienden a ser sembrados en exclusividad mientras que los materiales mejorados se siembran en adición a los materiales criollos.Los agricultores reportaron usar al menos 30 variedades criollas. Sin embargo, ocho de estas treinta cubren el 85% del área cultivada con este tipo de semillas. La variedad más popular es la denominada Arriquín cultivada por la mitad de los agrictiltoreũ sando el 56% de la superficie dedicada a variedades criollas,:'Las otras siete variedades criollas usadas con mayor frecuencia (29%) se conocen como: Ulupilsc, 13ayonil, Americano, Maizón, San Marceño, Cola de rata y Candela (Cuadro 7). En el caso del maíz mejorado, los agricultores reportaron usar un total de 9 clases de semílla mejorada, de las cuales cinco son híbridos y cuatro son variedades. Sin embargo, cuatro clases, dos variedades y dos híbridos, son utilizados por un 89% de los productores y ocupan el 90% del área total sembrada con semilla mejorada. Las semillas mejoradas mas usada correspondieron a las variedades B-1 y B-S ya los híbridos H-S y H-3 (Cuadro 8). Cuadro 8. Variedades mejoradas e híbridos usados durante la primera época de siembra. }utiapa, Guatemala. 1991.B-1 El patrón de difusión de la semilla mejorada de maíz en el Departamento de ]utiapa se estimó mediante la recolección histórica entre los agricultores en la muestra de información sobre cuando comenzó a comprar o intercambiar semilla de variedades mejoradas o híbridos z . Para minimizar los errores relacionados con este tipo de información se usaron ayudas visuales en donde se ubicaron en el tiempo eventos especiales ocurridos en el área. Los resultados reflejan parcialmente el impacto que tuvo el programa de DIGESA-PROGETIAPS (Figura 3). En los primeros 8 años 0977-1985) el porcentaje de agricultores que usaban semillas mejoradas aumentó en un 11 % mientras que en los 6 años siguientes 0986-1991) la difusión de semilla mejorada en el departamento se aceleró y aumentó en un 38%, es decir a razón de un poco más del 6% anual.   1977 -1979 1980 -1982 1983 -1985 1986 -1988 1989 -\\991Existen tres formas de adquisición de semilla para la siembra de maíz: comprar la semilla, guardarla de la cosecha anterior, y cambiarla con otros agricultores. Aunque la mayoría 05%) de los agricultores practican una sola forma de adquisición, el 25% restante adquiere la semilla de dos o más formas diferentes. La forma más común es la de guardar la semilla de la cosecha anterior para utilizarla en la próxima siembra. El 66% de los agricultores guarda parte de su producción de maíz como material de siembra para la próxima cosecha, un 26% de los casos compra la semilla de maíz y un 8% la cambia por otros productos.Aquellos agricultores que siembran semilla híbrida tienden más a comprarla que aqueJlos que siembran materiales mejorados (Cuadro 9). Esto es consistente con las mayores pérdidas en productividad asociadas con el uso de semilla híbrida de generaciones avanzadas.Cuadro 9. Tipo de semilla mejorada y forma de adquisición.Jutiapa, Guatemala, 1991.Semilla y forma de adquisición Dentro del grupo de agricultores que compran semilla de maíz, los lugares más comunes donde el agricultor adquiere la semilla también varía de acuerdo con el tipo de semilla que usa (Cuadro 10). En el caso de la semilla criolla, otros agricultores de la misma o de otra aldea son la fuente de origen para la adquisición de semilla mientras que en el caso de semilla mejorada, ya sean materiales híbridos o variedades mejoradas, la comprá en casas comerciales y a otros agricultores son las fuentes principales para la adquisición de la misma.Cuadro 10. Lugar de origen más comunes para la compra de semilla de maíz. ]utiapa, Guatemala 1992.COlo de agricultores)Agricultor de su propia aldca Agricultores fuera de la aldca Tienda agrícola en el municipio Tienda agrícola fucra del municipio Productor artesanal 80 20 34 18 18 6 25Cuando se les preguntó a los agricultores, cuál(es) es (son) la(s) forma(s) de adquirir semilla mejorada 3 que ellos prefieren, las preferencias de los agricultores en la muestra se volcaron hacia la producción de su propia semilla ya sea por selección del mejor grano o por producción artesanal (Cuadro 11).Cuadro 11. Formas de adquirir semilla mejorada de maíz preferidas por los agricultores. Las preferencias sobre las dos primeras formas de adquisición tienen en común que en ambos casos la semilla se obtiene de dentro de la finca pero se diferencian fundamentalmente en que, producirla artesanalmente, implica cumplir con los requisitos y controles que PI\\OGETAPPS exige a un agricultor para ser beneficiario y recibir la asistencia técnica e insumas que brinda el proyecto, mientras que, la preferencia por seleccionar el mejor grano de la cosecha implica continuar con los métodos tradicionales del agricultor para producir la semilla. Estos resultados son consistentes con los encontrados en estudios similares en donde los agricultores utilizan el sistema convencional de semillas más para cambiar sus variedades que para obtener 3. No se distinguió entre variedades mejoradas y materiales híbridos por lo que las preferencias respecto a las formas de adquisICión se refiere a materiales mejorados en general semilla nueva de las variedades que ya cultivan, y por tanto se requeriría un sistema activo de producción de semilla con nexos cercanos a la investigación y extensión para lograr una reposición más rápida (Heisey 1990).La información sobre las formas de adquisición y uso de la semilla mejorada permitió estimar que más del 85% de los agricultores reemplazan la semilla mejorada (variedades o híbridos)4 en tres o menos ciclos de cultivo, mientras que casi un 250/0 de los agricultores cambian la semilla después de un ciclo de uso (Cuadro 12).Cuadro 12. Número de ciclos de siembra que los agricultores usarían la semilla mejorada.Ciclos de uso de la semilla mejorada24 36 26 14 Esta información es importante ya que el horizonte de tiempo en el cual los agricultores reemplazan sus semillas es muy importante para el establecimiento de políticas agrícolas ya que los períodos de reemplazo considerados como óptimos por los fitomejoradores y agentes proveedores de semilla a menudo subestiman la duración del ciclo de reemplazo usado por el agricultor (Heisey y Brennan 1991).Una de las condiciones que los agricultores consideran importante en la determinación del número de ciclos a usar es el precio de la semilla. Un 74% de los agricultores manifestaron no estar de acuerdo con el precio que conocen de la semilla mejorada. Sin embargo, al consultarles sobre cuál sería el precio máximo que pagaría por ésta, el promedio resultó ligeramente superior al promedio del precio que ellos revelaron conocer de la semilla (Cuadro 13). Si se comparan los precios que los agricultores dicen conocer con los precios reales de la semilla (Cuadro 14) se aprecia que los agricultores de ]utiapa tienen una idea bastante acertada del valor comercial de la semilla mejorada y que estarían dispuestos a pagarlo si las condiciones de los demás aspectos relacionados con la comercialización fueran de su conveniencia. Z. Precios al mayoreo. Sección Noticias de Mercado, INDECA. Los precios de la semilla son del sector público. Los precios de semilla del sector privado fueron en 1993 un 37% m1s altos para los materiales híbridos y un 18% superiores para las variedades mejoradas (Veliz, 1993).Para explicar el modelo conceptual usado para estimar la demanda de semilla mejorada se considera que el agricultor se enfrenta con la decisión de elegir entre dos alternativas: usar semilla criolla (j=O) o usar semilla mejorada 0=1). La elección de un determinado tipo de semilla depende de la utilidad que las características o atributos de la semilla tengan para el agricultor iésimo (Xii) y de las características (circunstancias internas y externas) del agricultor y su finca (C). Es decir, que cada agricultor valora en forma diferente las características de las alternativas de acuerdo con las circunstancias internas y externas que enfrenta.De esa manera, la utilidad de un determinado tipo de semilla j para el i-ésimo agricultor (ViL> se representa por la función:donde Xj representa el conjunto de características de cada una de los tipos de semillas alternativos y C el conjunto de características del agricultor. El subíndice i indica que tanto el conjunto de alternativas como el de características puede ser diferente para distintos agricultores.En una muestra aleatoria de agricultores es casi imposible que el investigador pueda observar todos los elementos de Xi o de C o que conozca con exactitud cuál es la función de utilidad de los agricultores. Entonces es posible dividir la función de utilidad en dos partes: una parte determinística o sistemática formada por la función [1] y otra parte aleatoria que representa todos los elementos no observados y toda la incertidumbre del investigador respecto a aquellos aspectos de la función de utilidad que son desconocidos. Es decir:[2] U(Xi¡, C;) = V(Xi, e, 13) + Cij donde, 13 es un vector de parámetros a ser estimados, y Ci¡ un vector de \\'ariables aleatorias.De acuerdo con Manski (1977) hay cuatro fuentes de incertidumbre que justifican la presencia de Cij: 1) características no observables. Ni el investigador ni el propio agricultor conocen perfectamente el vector de características de las semillas; 2) variaciones no observadas en las preferencias de los agricultores. Las preferencias individuales varían entre los agricultores dentro de un dominio de recomendación y esta variabilidad es capturada en este término aleatorio; 3) errores en las medición tanto de las características de las alternativas tecnológicas como en las circunstancias de los agricultores; y 4) error en la especificación de la forma de la función de utilidad. Usualmente se asume una forma lineal lo cual puede inducir a errores.La introducción del término aleatorio significa que aún conociendo la parte sistemática de la utilidad el investigador no podría estar seguro de cuál sería la elección de un determinado agricultor. En su lugar, se puede representar la probabilidad de que el agricultor i-ésimo elija cada una de las alternativas como:[3] P,(yi = O) = P,(Uo > Ul) P,(yi = 1) = P,(U¡ > Uo)Es decir que el agricultor elegirá el tipo de semilla que le de la mayor utilidad. Dado el modelo de utilidad aleatoria (MUA) especificado en la expresión [2] es posible expresar la probabilidad de que el i-ésimo agricultor elija usar la semilla mejorada (alternativa 1) como: La parte derecha de la desigualdad corresponde a la parte sistemática de la función de utilidad y se puede definir como un índice de utilidad Ji. Cuanto más grande sea este índice mayor será la diferencia entre las partes sistemáticas de las utilidad derivada de la alternativa 1 sobre la alternativa O y mayor será la probabilidad de que el agricultor adopte la semilla mejorada. Suponiendo que la parte sistemática de la utilidad es una función lineal en los parámetros de las características de la semilla y del agricultor, el índice de utilidad se puede expresar: La parte izquierda de la desigualdad está formada por la diferencia de dos variables aleatorias por lo que es también una variable aleatoria.[6] p¡¡ = Pree¡ < Z B)Por lo tanto la probabilidad de que la alternativa 1 sea adoptada es igual a la probabilidad de que la variable aleatoria definida por la diferencia entre los términos aleatorios de las alternativas sea menor o igual al índice de utilidad Ji. La probabilidad de que una variable aleatoria sea igual menor que un valor determinado está dado por la función de distribución cumulativa (fdc) de esa variable aleatoria. Por lo tanto: Asumiendo que la variable aleatoria ei tiene una función de distribución logística se obtiene:La función [8] es la base del modelo logit usado en el modelo empírico de este trabajo para estimar la probabilidad de adopción de las variedades mejoradas.Adopción. Los factores observados en la encuesta no estaban diseñados con la precisión suficiente para discriminar en la decisión del agricultor de adoptar o una variedad mejorada o un híbrido, por esta razón se decidió agrupar a estos materiales en una sola categoría: variedades mejoradas. De esta manera el modelo empírico propuesto intenta determinar los factores que influyen en la decisión de adoptar en forma parcial o total un material mejorado sin diferenciar entre si se trata de un híbrido o una variedad mejorada.La variable dependiente es una variable cualitativa que clasifica a los agricultores en tres categorías. El valor O representa al agricultor que no ha adoptado una variedad mejorada. El valor 1 representa al agricultor que ha adoptado la semilla mejorada en forma parcial, es decir, que sembró parte de la superficie con maíz con semilla criolla y parte con semilla mejorada. El valor 2 representa al agricultor totalmente adoptador que siembra toda la superficie con variedades mejoradas. El Cuadro 15 muestra las proporciones de cada una de estas categorías encontradas en la muestra.Cuadro 15. Variable dependiente, proporción de cada categoría en la muestra. El impacto de las variables individuales sobre la probabilidad de adopción parcial o total se estima mediante el cálculo de las elasticidades. La elasticidad e mide el cambio porcentual en la probabilidad de adopción ante un cambio porcentual en el factor. Se calcula como:A continuación se describen las variables independientes incluídas en el modelo, sus efectos esperados y sus principales características en la muestra.Sistema. Es una variable dicotómica que toma el valor 1 si los agricultores siembran alguna parcela de maíz en monocultivo, y O si todo el maíz se siembra asociado a otro cultivo. Se espera que los agricultores que siembren alguna parcela en monocultivo tiendan a usar más semilla de maíz mejorado que aquellos que siembran maíz en asocio. Es probable que el cambio del sistema tradicional a monocultivo r.':sté impulsado por motivos relacionados con el incremento en productividad y rentabilidad y, por lo tanto aquellos agricultores que cambian el sistema también cambian a variedades mejoradas buscando una rentabilidad mayor.Distancia. Esta variable representa la distancia en km. de la parcela del agricultor al municipio donde se encuentra la plaza comercial más cercana donde adquiere insumas y vende su producto. Tanto la distancia como el tiempo que tarda el agricultor en recorrerla, son circunstancias que determinan en mucho la facilidad del campesino para obtener insumas agrícolas, vender sus productos y recibir servicios de asistencia técnica. Como circunstancia de vida este factor juega un importante rol en la decisión de un agricultor para usar o no semilla mejorada de maíz y otros insumas agrícolas. Se considera que a mayor distancia, mayores serán los costos no sólo de adquisición de la semilla, sino también de adquirir o recibir información (asesoría técnica) sobre sus características y manejo. Por lo tanto se espera una relación inversa: agricultores ubicados a mayor distancia del municipio tendrán menor probabilidad de adoptar la semilla mejorada.Se consideró que la relación entre distancia y costos de transacción no era lineal por lo que se incluyó además un término cuadrático para capturar este efecto.Variable dicotómica que toma el valor 1 si el agricultor conoce por al menos un año el programa de producción artesanal de semilla desarrollado por DIGESA, y Osi no lo conoce. Esta variable captura el grado de información de los agricultores sobre la producción artesanal de semilla por lo que se espera una relación directa entre esta variable y la probabilidad de adopción.Familia. Tamaño del núcleo familiar medido por el número de personas que viven en la casa del agricultor. Se espera que entre más numerosa sea la familia menor será la probabilidad de usar semilla mejorada. El sustento de esta hipótesis se basa en dos argumentos. Por un lado, familias más numerosas necesitan mayores cantidades de maíz para satisfacer el consumo interno el cual se realiza preferentemente con maíz criollo. Por otro lado, familias más numerosas destinan mayor proporción del ingreso total a satisfacer necesidades vitales y por lo tanto es probable que tengan mayores restricciones presupuestarias para la adquisición de semilla mejorada.Tamaño. Tamaño en hectáreas de la finca. Numerosos trabajos anteriores incluyen al tamaño de la explotación como una de las características de la finca más relacionada con la adopción de nuevas tecnologías. Es usada también para caracterizar el sesgo distributivo de la nueva tecnología. Se espera que a mayor tamaño menores serán las restricciones de recursos financieros y de tierra para su adopción y por lo tanto mayor será la probabilidad de adoptar la semilla mejorada.Tenencia. Variable dicotómica que toma el valor 1 si el agricultor posee al menos parte de la finca en propiedad, y Osi no posee ninguna. La tenencia ha sido un factor importante mencionado en la literatura sobre adopción de nuevas tecnologías especialmente en casos de aquellas dirigidas a la conservación de recursos o que requieren de una inversión inicial considerable. En el caso de semillas mejoradas se espera una relación positiva entre la propiedad de la tierra y la probabilidad de adopción debido al efecto riqueza. Aquellos agricultores con tierra en propiedad son más ricos que los que no tienen y por eJJo más probable que adopten la semilla mejorada.Asociación. Variable dicotómica que toma el valor 1 si el agricultor pertenece a ninguna organización local (asociación, cooperativa, comité comunal, etc.) y Osi no pertenece a alguna organización. En la literatura sobre adopción de nuevas tecnologías, la afiliación de los campesinos a organizaciones locales o regionales frecuentemente se reporta como un factor muy relacionado a la adopción de nuevas técnicas de producción. Se espera que una mayor participación en organizaciones campesinas incrementa las alternativas de obtener servicios de asistencia técnica, crédito u otras formas de asistencia económica reduciendo los costos de adquirir información e incrementar la probabilidad de adopción de semilla mejorada.Finanext. Variable dicotómica que toma el valor 1 si el agricultor usa alguna fuente de financiamiento externo a la finca para la producción de maíz y Osi no 10 hace. Esta es otra variable que también se reporta en la literatura como un factor importante sobre la decisión de adopción. Se espera que el acceso al crédito facilite el uso de estos insumos comprados fuera de la finca como la semilla mejorada.Edad. Edad del agricultor en años. La edad es una de las características del agricultor que se menciona frecuentemente en la literatura como un factor de importancia en la adopción de nuevas tecnologías. Aunque los resultados encontrados en trabajos anteriores no son concluyentes, se espera que los agricultores jóvenes sean más receptivos a las nuevas tecnologías y por tanto más innovadores.Educación. Variable dicotómica que toma el valor 1 si el agricultor tiene al menos un año de escuela y Osi no tiene educación formal. El nivel de educación es otra característica del agricultor, además de su edad, que más frecuentemente se relaciona en la literatura con mayores tasas de adopción de nuevas tecnologías. Un alto nivel educativo se ha vinculado consistentemente con mayores tasas de adopción.La variable que más se ha usado para reflejar el nivel de educación es el número de años de educación del agricultor, sin embargo, muchos de estos casos corresponden en su mayoría a trabajos realizados en países desarrollados donde esta variable. presenta U,la variabilidad razonable. En el caso del presente trabajo el nivel de educación formal de los agricultores en la muestra fue muy bajo. Un 43% de los agricultores no posee ningún tipo de escolaridad y un 54% de ellos recibieron un promedio de dos años de educación primaria y sólo un 3% tiene educación secundaria.Plana. Porcentaje de la superficie cultivada con maíz que el agricultor considera plana. Estudios previos recientes (Bellon y Taylor, 1993) han mostrado la importancia de la clasificación campesina de los suelos sobre la adopción de nuevas tecnologías especialmente cuando existe adopción parcial. Se espera una asociación positiva entre esta variable y la probabilidad de adopción de variedades mejoradas ya que es probable que el agricultor invierta más en tierras planas con mayores probabilidades de altos retornos que en aquellas tierras en laderas.Mala. Porcentaje de la superficie cultivada con maíz que el agricultor no considera como una buena tierra para el cultivo de maíz. Además de las características topográficas los agricultores también clasificaron la tierra de cultivo en tres categorías de calidad: pedregosa, erosionada, y buena (Cuadro 16). Para la definición de esta variable se agruparon las categorías pedregosa y erosionada en una sola que define a la tierra como no buena en el criterio del agricultor. Se debe considerar que una tierra pedregosa no necesariamente tiene una baja fertilidad. Esta variable dice simplemente que el agricultor no la considera como buena. En este caso se espera una relación inversa por la misma razón esgrimida anteriormente: es más probable que el agricultor invierta en tierras que él/ella considere de mejor calidad que en aquellas que considera de menor calidad.Cuadro 16. Caracterización campesina de las parcelas de maíz.Erosionada Los Cuadros 17 y 18 resumen las variables incluidas y sus características más importantes en la muestra.Los resultados de la estimación mediante el método de máxima verosimilitud de las ecuaciones 8 y 9 pueden considerarse satisfactorios. El modelo ajusta bien de acuerdo con las distintas pruebas estadísticas propuestas en la literatura. La mayor parte de las variables incluídas tienen los signos esperados y son estadísticamente significativas (Cuadro 19).La ecuación 6 fue usada para estimar la probabilidad de adopción de semilla mejorada para un agricultor típico y otros tipos de agricultores calculada a los valores promedios de las variables cuantitativas (Cuadro 20). De acuerdo con los valores más frecuentes encontrados en la muestra un agricultor típico de maíz en ]utiapa se caracteriza por tener parte de la tierra en propiedad (69%), no participar en ninguna asociación (86%), no conocer a DIGESA (74%) y sembrar todo su maíz en asocio con otro cultivo (58%). Los otros tipos de agricultores son definidos por cambios en las variables cualitativas cuyos coeficientes resultaron diferentes de cero: sistema de cultivo, información sobre DIGESA, participación en una asociación y tenencia de la tierra. Las probabilidades asociadas con cada uno de ellos reflejan cambios en la probabilidad de adopción respecto al agricultor típico ante un cambio en el nivel de la variable cualitativa que se trate manteniendo las demás al nivel definido para el agricultor típico. De acuerdo con los resultados sobre la probabilidad de adopción de semilla mejorada reflejados en el Cuadro 20, para un agricultor típico de ]utiapa, la probabilidad de usar semilla mejorada en forma parcial es de un 24% y en forma total de un 18%.Un factor que incide en forma significativa en la probabilidad de adopción es el hecho de si el agricultor decide sembrar al menos parte de su maíz en monocultivo. En este caso, tal como fuera postulado, la probabilidad de que el agricultor use semilla mejorada en forma parcial se incrementa en un 80% y entre un 40 y un 50% que la use en forma total. Este resultado indica la posibilidad que el cambio de sistema de cultivo, en parte o en el total de la superficie, y la decisión de adoptar semilla mejorada sea una decisión conjunta.Cuadro 20. Probabilidades de adopción de semilla mejorada de maíz entre varios tipos de agricultores. Dos factores que tienen un impacto similar al anterior sobre la probabilidad de adopción de un agricultor típico se relacionan con el nivel de información que posee. Uno de ellos se refiere directamente al conocimiento que tiene al agricultor del programa de DIGESA. En este caso el impacto sobre la probabilidad es similar al encontrado para el cambio del sistema de cultivo. El otro factor, es la participación en organizaciones locales. En este caso el 43 De acuerdo con los resultados sobre la probabilidad de adopción de semilla mejorada reflejados en el Cuadro 20, para un agricultor típico de ]utiapa, la probabilidad de usar semilla mejorada en forma parcial es de un 24% y en forma total de un 18%.Un factor que incide en forma significativa en la probabilidad de adopción es el hecho de si el agricultor decide sembrar al menos parte de su maíz en monocultivo. En este caso, tal como fuera postulado, la probabilidad de que el agricultor use semilla mejorada en forma parcial se incrementa en un 80% y entre un 40 y un 50% que la use en forma total. Este resultado indica la posibilidad que el cambio de sistema de cultivo, en parte o en el total de la superficie, y la decisión de adoptar semilla mejorada sea una decisión conjunta.Cuadro 20. Probabilidades de adopción de semilla mejorada de maíz entre varios tipos de agricultores. Dos factores que tienen un impacto similar al anterior sobre la probabilidad de adopción de un agricultor típico se relacionan con el nivel de información que posee. Uno de ellos se refiere directamente al conocimiento que tiene al agricultor del programa de DIGESA. En este caso el impacto sobre la probabilidad es similar al encontrado para el cambio del sistema de cultivo. El otro factor, es la participación en organizaciones locales. En este caso el impacto se destaca en la decisión de usar semilla mejorada en la totalidad del área dedicada a la siembra del maíz. La presencia de este factor casi duplica la probabilidad de que el agricultor típico siembre la totalidad de la superficie dedicada a maíz con semilla mejorada. Los coeficientes asociados con las variables relacionadas con la participación en organizaciones comunales y con conocimiento del programa de DIGESA resultaron con los signos esperados y significativos por lo menos al 5% de probabilidad tanto para adoptadores parciales como totales. La participación en organizaciones comunales disminuye los costos de adquirir información y aumenta la probabilidad de adopción de semilla mejorada. Este resultado coincide con aquellos encontrados por Harrington et al., 1992, Belknap y Saupe 1988, Herdt y Capule, 1983. La importancia del programa de DIGESA puede ser medida a través del impacto asociado a un cambio en esta variable.El cuarto factor que resultó importante en la decisión de usar semilla mejorada fue la propiedad de la tierra. Si el agricultor no tuviera tierra propia la probabilidad de usar semilla mejorada en forma parcial o total se reduce en un 60%. Es importante reconocer que aún cuando los retornos a la inversión en semilla mejorada se recuperan inmediatamente, este resultado estaría indicando 1;:1 importancia de restricciones financieras. Es probable que las tasas mínimas de retornos para aquellos agricultores que no poseen tierras propias sean demasiadas elevadas como para inducirlos a invertir en nuevas semillas.El Cuadro 21 muestra la elasticidad de la probabilidad de adopción respecto a las variables cuantitativas que resultaron estadísticamente significativas. Las elasticidades se calcularon, usando la ecuación 9, para el caso del agricultor típico. A continuación se analizan las variables agrupadas por tipo.Distancia. Tal como fuera esperado, una mayor distancia a los mercados afecta negativamente la probabilidad de adoptar semilla mejorada. Un aumento del 10% en la distancia reduce la probabilidad de adopción parcial o total por parte de un agricultor típico en un poco más del 3%. Estos valores son consistentes con los encontrados por Gottret el al., 1993. Tamaño. Es la variable que tiene un mayor impacto sobre la probabilidad de adopción. Un aumento del 10% en la superficie total de la finca conlleva un aumento de aproximadamente el 5% en la probabilidad de adopción total o parcial. El tamaño de la finca y el hecho de tener tierra en propiedad son dos características que afectan positivamente la probabilidad de adopción ya sea en forma parcial o total. Una mayor superficie de la finca y la propiedad de tierras son indicadores de mayor riqueza e ingreso que, a su vez, está muy relacionado con la posibilidad de adquirir más y mejores insumas agrícolas. Estos resultados son consistentes con aquellos encontrados en otros trabajos sobre adopción de nuevas tecnologías. (Brush el al.• 1990, Belknap y Saupe 1988, y Rahm and Huffman, 1984).Familia. Tal como fuera mencionado con anterioridad el número de integrantes del núcleo familiar afecta negativamente la adopción de semilla mejorada en el caso de adopción total; sin embargo, no juega un papel importante en la adopción parcial. Este resultado es consistente con la hipótesis sobre la importancia del maíz criollo en el autoconsumo. En el caso de la adopción parcial el número de miembros de la familia no es importante ya que las necesidades se satisfacen con el maíz criollo sembrado. Este resultado es consistente con los hallazgos de I3rush el al., 1990 y de Rauniyar y Goode, 1990.Clasificación campesina de los suelos. De las dos variables incluídas para capturar el efecto de la clasificación campesina de los suelos sólo aquella relacionada con la topografía resultó significativa. Un incremento del 10% en la proporción de tierra dedicada al maíz considerada por el agricultor como plana, eleva en poco más del 3% la probabilidad de adopción total o parcial de semilla mejorada. La clasificación campesina relacionada con la calidad de suelo (tierra pedregosa o erosionada) no parece afectar en forma significativa la probabilidad de adopción de variedades. Estos resultados son parcialmente consistentes con aquellos reportildos por Bellon y Taylor quienes encontraron una clara asociación entre calidad de suelos y adopción de variedades mejoradas de maíz en Chiapas, México (Bel\\on y Taylor 1993).Cuadro 21. Elasticidades de la probabilidad de adopción (cambio porcentual en la probabilidad de adopción ante un incremento de 1% en el factor). Finanext. Aunque los coeficientes asociados con la disponibilidad de financiamiento extra finca tuvieron signos contrarios a lo esperado tanto en el caso de adopción parcial como total, no resultaron estadísticamente significativos a ningún nivel relevante de probabilidad. Una posible explicación para este resultado es el bajo nivel de uso de fuentes de financiamiento afuera de la finca. Sólo un 17% de los agricultores posee algún tipo de financiamiento extra finca los cuales provienen de el crédito brindado por el Banco Desarrollo Agrícola (11%) Y el alquiler de servicios de bueyes y mano de obra (60/0).Edad. El coeficiente asociado con la edad del agricultor no resultó estadísticamente significativo en el caso de la adopción parcial, sin 46 report;1dos por Bellon y Taylor quienes encontraron una clara asociación entre calidad de suelos y adopción de variedades mejoradas de maíz en Chiapas, México (Bellon y Taylor 1993). Finanext. Aunque los coeficientes asociados con la disponibilidad de financiamiento extra finca tuvieron signos contrarios a lo esperado tanto en el caso de adopción parcial como total, no resultaron estadísticamente significativos a ningún nivel relevante de probabilidad. Una posible explicación para este resultado es el bajo nivel de uso de fuentes de financiamiento afuera de la finca. Sólo un 17% de los agricultores posee algún tipo de financiamiento extra finca los cuales provienen de el crédito brindado por el Banco Desarrollo Agrícola (110J0) Y el alquiler de servicios de bueyes y mano de obra (6%).Edad. El coeficiente asociado con la edad del agricultor no resultó estadísticamente significativo en el caso de la adopción parcial, sin embargo sí existe una asociación inversa significativa entre la edad y la siembra de toda la superficie de maíz con semilla mejorada. Es decir que son los agricultores más jóvenes los que tienen más probabilidad de cambiar la variedad en forma total aunque su impacto no es muy importante. Un incremento de un 10% en la edad del agricultor reduce la probabilidad de usar variedades mejoradas en toda la superfice en sólo 0.4%.La mayor parte de los productores de maíz en Guatemala son pequeños agricultores de subsistencia que generalmente no tienen acceso a insumos agrícolas como semilla mejorada y a otros insumos. Por ejemplo, en 1987 sólo el 16% de la superficie total cosechada de maíz en Guatemala fue sembrada con semilla mejorada. En 1986 se pone en marcha el Proyecto de Generación y Transferencia de Tecnología y Producción de Semillas (PROGETTAPS) con el fin de mejorar el acceso de los pequeños agricultores a la semilla mejorada.Este trabajo intenta identificar la intensidad, formas de uso, patrón de difusión de semilla mejorada, y factores que influyen sobre la decisión de su adopción por pequeños productores de maíz en el departamento de )utiapa, Guatemala. Se pretende conocer cuál fue el impacto del programa de DIGESA como un medio de difusión de este insumo entre los pequeños agricultores.Los agricultores del departamento usan y prefieren dos variedades mejoradas de polinización abierta (B-1 y B-S) Y dos híbridos (H-S y I-f-3). Si bien no se tiene información sobre el número real de ciclos que el agricultor usa estos materiales, sin embargo las formas de adquisición reportadas y preferencias indican que la mayoría de los agricultores usan la semilla entre 1 y 3 ciclos agrícolas. Los niveles de precios relativos de la semilla mejorada encontrados (cntre 3.5 y S) son considerados adecuados para los agricultores.Los resultados muestran que el programa tuvo un impacto significativo en la adopción y difusión de semilla mejorada en el departamento. A nivel de agricultor, involucrarse con el programa por un mínimo de 1 año incrementa en forma significativa la probabilidad de usar semilla mejorada. Este impacto se refleja a nivel agregado por el incremento de la tasa de crecimiento en el uso de variedades mejoradas que se registra a partir de J986. También relacionado con el nivel de información que maneja el agricultor, se encontró que aquellos agricultores que participan en asociaciones comunales también incrementan la probabilidad de usar semillas mejoradas.El uso de variedades mejoradas se encuentra asociado a un cambio en el sistema de siembra de maíz asociado a maíz en monocultivo. Un agricultor que siembra parte o toda su parcela en monocultivo incrementa en forma significativa la probabilidad de uso de semilla mejorada. Es probable que el agricultor que siembra en monocultivo destine el producto exclusivamente al mercado por lo que la productividad de la parcela juegue un rol preponderante en la decisión de qué variedad usar, mientras que preferencias sobre el consumo jueguen un papel secundario. Esta hipótesis es apoyada por el resultado encontrado sobre el impacto del número de miembros en la familia campesina. Este factor no es importante en la adopción parcial pero sí es limitante en el caso de adopción total.Dos factores importantes para la estrategia de extensión usada en el programa son: la influencia que tiene el costo de adquirir insumas e información reflejados por la distancia del agricultor al centro de abastecimiento y el tamaño de la finca. Los resultados confirman que aquellos agricultores más lejanos a los centros tienen menos probabilidad de usar semilla mejorada. Lo mismo para aquellos agricultores más pequeños. Las futuras estrategias de extensión deben considerar estos factores al establecer sus prioridades. Una difusión más rápida requiere mayor esfuerzo promocional de los extensionistas agrícolas, y aumentar los canales de distribución.Si bien la propiedad de la tierra es un factor que afecta el uso de variedades mejoradas en forma significativa, su importancia relativa no es tan considerable como los anteriores.Un resultado importante por sus implicaciones para investigación y extensión es el hecho de que los agricultores del departamento tienden a sembrar semillas mejoradas en tierras planas más que en las laderas. Este hallazgo es consistente con la hipótesis mencionada anteriormente sobre la inversión en nuevas tecnologías.La edad del agricultor resultó importante solamente en el caso de adopción total. Este resultado confirma la aseveración realizada respecto a la importancia del uso final del producto. Los agricultores jóvenes además de ser menos aversos al riesgo, tienen menos dependientes y por lo tanto tienen mas probabilidades de usar la semilla mejorada en la totalidad de la superficie dedicada a maíz.","tokenCount":"8453"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1ab9e020b2960c6e9101a302a4284a6e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/36bc98d9-ce63-4a90-95ee-7db6d780090e/retrieve","id":"584210996"},"keywords":["Climate-smart agriculture technology adoption; technology complementarity","multivariate probit","Tanzania"],"sieverID":"0ff98122-7354-46d0-9bd0-2a102ef8366c","pagecount":"33","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Projected and current climate change impacts on agriculture, food and nutrition security, and poverty are raising global concerns, calling for urgent action by communities, governments, regional and international organizations. Small-scale farmers in East Africa are already experiencing rising scarcity of and reduced access to agricultural land due to rapid population growth, and declining soil fertility, leading to declining agricultural yields and production (Jayne et al. 2014, Nelson et al. 2014, Yamano et al. 2011). The frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and rainstorms are expected to increase in East Africa, which, coupled with increased outbreaks of pest and disease, will lead to a further decline in agricultural yields (IPCC 2014, Seneviratne et al. 2012). These changes are likely to have differentiated impacts. Overall, the poor farmers who depend on rain-fed agriculture and have low adaptive capacity are likely to bear the heaviest brunt (IPCC 2001), leading to worsening poverty and food security indicators (Thornton et al. 2011). Thus, it is imperative that these farmers transition to agricultural technologies, practices and innovations that enhance their resilience and climate risk management in terms of ecology and socio-economics (Berkes et al. 2003). Some of the strategies that farmers use to cope with climate change include diversification into improved resilient crop varieties and livestock breeds, soil and land management technologies, water conservation, and improved fodder production and livestock feeding technologies (Babatunde and Qaim 2010, Burney and Naylor 2012, Karamba et al. 2011, Kristjanson et al. 2012, Nyasimi et al. 2017). These technologies, collectively referred to as climatesmart agriculture (CSA) technologies, increase productivity, enhance adaptive capacity, and food and nutritional security of the farming households, and contribute to climate change mitigation (FAO 2010).In order to increase uptake, the CSA technologies and practices need to be appropriate for local ecological, climatic, socio-economic and cultural conditions, and the farmers need to be equipped with relevant knowledge and skills to use the technologies. It is for this reason that the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), in partnership with other stakeholders, has been piloting the Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) approach in East Africa to help farmers respond to climate variability and change. The CSVs include Lushoto (Tanzania), Wote and Nyando (Kenya), Hoima and Rakai (Uganda), Borana and Doyogena (Ethiopia). The CSVs in EastAfrica have been described in detail in previous studies, including the various CSA technologies piloted (see Recha et al. 2017, Radeny et al. 2018). This paper examines the adoption of CSA technologies and practices, using data from the Lushoto CSV in Tanzania. The paper documents CSA adoption trends and investigates the multidimensional agricultural technology adoption decisions by farmers across heterogeneous households. We seek to quantify potential complementarities among agricultural technologies and innovations, and the unobserved household heterogeneities.Quantifying complementarities of these technologies and innovations is important because they are potentially correlated with some of the observable and unobservable drivers of household technology adoption decisions (Barham et al. 2004, Duflo et al. 2008). From a policy perspective, this is important for designing strategies for effective diffusion of agricultural technologies. We focus on three technologies and practices: diversification of improved resilient crop varieties, inorganic fertilizers, and pesticides and herbicides, which have sufficient observations and variability for quantitative analysis with the available data. Diversification of improved resilient crop varieties has been promoted by CCAFS and the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) as an effective strategy for climate-risk management, improving household food diversity and building resilience to climate change. To maximize performance and benefits, diversification of improved resilient crop varieties has been promoted alongside improved agronomic practices, improved land management practices such as use of inorganic and organic fertilizers, agroforestry, soil and water management practices, minimum tillage characterized by prudent use of herbicides and pesticides, and improved storage of the harvest through careful use of pesticides to minimize post-harvest losses. The three technologies and practices identified for analysis are part of the portfolio of CSA technologies and innovations promoted by CCAFS and TARI in Lushoto and, indeed other CSVs of East Africa.Because the smallholder households are already experiencing the adverse effects of climate change, one would expect a quick transition to and use of CSA technologies. However, previous studies have noted that adoption and diffusion of agricultural technologies is not a linear process. It may be complicated by uncertainty, costs and benefits of the technology, gender of the farmer, social capital, labor and credit constraints and market access (Nordin et al. 2014, Ogada et al. 2014, Rao and Qaim 2010). Other studies have also shown that farmer-to-farmer interactions, visits to demonstration farms, and participation in informal social networks enhance uptake and use of agricultural technologies (Bandiera and Rasul 2006). The CSVs approach is structured in a way that encourages farmers to learn and share information with each other and take up CSA technologies and practices which are appropriate for their environments. It is believed that this provides a platform for more farmers to learn from the already adopting counterparts. While this is plausible from the perspective of literature, it is important to analyze its relevance for Lushoto district in Tanga Region of Tanzania. Lushoto provides an interesting context because of its diverse agroecology, socio-economic conditions and previous participatory selection and testing of CSA technologies and practices jointly undertaken by CCAFS, TARI, the Lushoto District Council and the partners (see Recha et al. 2015Recha et al. , 2017;;Nyasimi et al. 2017).The study has several important findings. First, adoption decisions show strong complementarity among the agricultural technologies and practices. Second, unobserved heterogeneity effects are correlated with observable household characteristics which influence agricultural technology adoption decisions. Thus, ignoring the unobserved heterogeneity and complementarity effects in modelling agricultural technology adoption leads to biased estimates with adverse implications for policy and program design. The paper demonstrates that conventional agricultural technology adoption promotion approaches based on individual production functions may not achieve the desired impacts and outcomes.In the rest of the paper, we discuss the methodology used and the results of the analysis. In the final section, we make conclusions and infer some policy options.As indicated earlier, this study was undertaken in Lushoto, within the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. Lushoto is a global biodiversity hotspot, characterized by warm and cold humid agroclimatic zones. Farming and tourism are the main economic activities. The altitude ranges from 780 to 2010 m above sea level. Rainfall is bimodal, ranging from 690 to 1230 mm per annum. The long rains occur from March to May (MAM), and short rains from October to December (OND). Over the years, the rainfall amounts have been declining (Mahoo et al. 2015, Nyasimi et al. 2017) and have become highly variable, characterized by intense storms. Soil types vary along the topographic gradient, ranging from limited and shallow soils (Regosols and Lithic Leptosols) on the peaks, to more developed soils (Cutanic Acrisols and Ferralic Cambisols) (Massawe, 2011). The valleys are characterized by alluvial and wet soils (Mollic Gleyic Fluvisols and Fluvic Gleysols). Lushoto is densely populated, with average household landholding size of 0.4 hectares. The upper parts are characterized by intensive mixed crop-livestock farming, with agro-pastoral practiced on the lower parts. Because of the steep slopes, deforestation and population pressure, soil erosion is endemic.The soils are degraded, with low levels of soil organic carbon, indicating limited nutrient retention capacity (Winowiecki et al. 2016), and observed deficiencies in phosphorus and nitrogen (Ndakidemi and Semoka 2006). Overall, croplands have lost approximately 50% of soil organic carbon, and 34% of nitrogen (Winowiecki et al. 2015). This, coupled with the high rates of poverty, has made the households highly vulnerable to climate-related risks and climate change.To The study uses two approaches: descriptive analysis of the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) data collected annually from 2013 to 2016, and an econometric analysis of a comprehensive cross-sectional survey of 2015 which covered all the villages as well as a range of household, farm level and contextual factors.For the econometric analysis, we make a stylized assumption that farm households are rational with the objective of maximizing their utility from agricultural technologies and innovations. More often, this utility is captured by agricultural productivity. Increasing agricultural productivity requires multiple technologies and practices. Thus, a farm household faces multidimensional adoption decision problems. A rational household will choose a combination of technologies and practices which maximizes its expected utility. This is the basis of the argument that package adoption may be more productive and beneficial to the farmers than independent adoption of the individual technologies and practices (Ogada and Nyangena 2019). However, pervasive uncertainty about a new technology or practice and binding credit constraints may confound the complementarity argument (Feder 1982). Nevertheless, there is sufficient justification to consider farmers' multiple adoption decisions jointly because they are inter-related and likely to affect each other. Considering that the dependent variables are binary, we use the Multivariate Probit Model (MVPM) for this analysis.The general specification an MVPM with our three dependent variables is:where \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56 * is an unobserved variable representing the latent utility of adopting input/technology \uD835\uDC56, \uD835\uDEFD \uD835\uDC56 is a vector of unknown parameters to be estimated, \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC56 is a vector of observed factors believed to influence household adoption of input/technology \uD835\uDC56, \uD835\uDF07 \uD835\uDC56 is the error term which is normally distributed with mean of 0 and variance of 1, and the variance-covariance matrix of the error term is]. Therefore, the observed binary adoption variable \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56 = 1, \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56 * > 0, 0 otherwise.Thus, the probability that \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56 = \uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC56, conditioned on parameters β, ∑, and a set of explanatory variables, \uD835\uDC4B, can be expressed as,where Φ is the density function of the multivariate normal distribution with the mean vector 0 and the variance-covariance matrix ∑ while \uD835\uDC3C \uD835\uDC56 is the interval (-∞, \uD835\uDEFD \uD835\uDC56 ′ \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC56 ) if \uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC56 = 1 and (\uD835\uDEFD \uD835\uDC56 ′ \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC56 , ∞) if \uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC56 = 0 (see Chib and Greenberg 1998 for details). The model is estimated by maximum likelihood method.Crop diversification may be viewed as the introduction of additional crops to the existing cropping system (Makate et al. 2016). In this paper, crop diversification is more broadly defined to include the substitution of indigenous crop varieties with improved and resilient crop varieties while broadening the base of the cropping system. The change also integrates improved and efficient crop agronomic management such as use of fertilizers, and pesticides and herbicides for improved productivity.Common measures of crop diversity include Berger-Parker Index, Entropy Index, Herfindahl Index, Margalef Index, Ogive Index, Shannon Index and Simpson Diversity Index. Counting the number of crops grown by the farmer is another commonly used method. In this study, we use Simpson Index, popularly known as Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) in economic literature. The preference is informed by the fact that the index has no requirement that the farmers produce all types of crops (Adjimoti and Kwadzo 2018). The index was computed as follows:where \uD835\uDC5D \uD835\uDC56 is the proportionate land area under crop \uD835\uDC56 in the gross land area under crops; \uD835\uDC5B is the total number of crops that the household grows.The score value ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 means the household is specialized (not undertaking any crop diversification) while 1 means the household has the maximum possible level of diversification. Thus, all households with a score of 0 were classified as non-adopters while those with a score above 0 were classified as adopters of diversification of improved resilient crop varieties. For the complementary technologies and/or practices (i.e. fertilizer and pesticides and herbicides), a household is considered an adopter if it is used on two or more of the improved resilient crop varieties adopted by the household. This is because these technologies and practices are meant to be supportive of the crop diversification initiative. Thus, their use must reflect the diversification.For the analysis of adoption trends, we use four waves of M&E data collected in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Information was collected using close-ended questionnaires and included household demographic characteristics, adoption of climate-smart crops and crop varieties, production and consumption of crops and livestock products, sale of farm products, land use management, agroforestry, household sources of food, access to climate and weather information, relative changes in household income and social capital. However, the waves did not consistently target the same households and therefore, cannot be used to create panel data. Moreover, because of lack of counterfactual, we do not attempt to link adoption with CSVs. Instead, we examine the trends in proportion of households adopting CSA technologies and practices across the survey periods.For econometric analysis of adoption, therefore, we use a relatively more comprehensive survey of 2015, covering all the seven villages of Lushoto. Our interest is to examine how households make their adoption decisions when multiple technologies and practices are available. As indicated earlier, we focus on three interdependent technologies and practices: diversification of improved resilient crop varieties, use of inorganic fertilizer, and pesticides and herbicides. We provide a summary of the adopters of each technology and how the different technologies are correlated with each other (Table 1). The results show that about 63% of the households were diversifying their crop enterprises and shifting to improved resilient crops and crop varieties. Another 37% were using inorganic fertilizers, with 38% using pesticides/herbicides. Correlation analysis shows that adoption of crop diversification of improved resilient crops and crop varieties may trigger the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides/herbicides by farmers. This underscores the notion that profitability of a given agricultural technology or practice may depend on adoption of another technology or practice (Barham et al. 2004, Ogada andNyangena 2019). Bivariate adoption of crop diversification and inorganic fertilizer provides additional insight about perception of the farmers of the profitability of these technologies (Table 2). About 80% of the households surveyed were male-headed while 20% were female-headed, with an average household size of 5. The highest level of education attained was primary for 62% of households, secondary for 31% of households, and post-secondary for 6% of households. For about 1% of households, no member had any formal education. Average years of schooling was 9. The average household land holding size was 1.99 acres. Crop farming was ranked by households as being more important with a score of 65%, while livestock production had an average score of about 21%. Notably, the households had a modest annual income of about USD 200. In the period of reference, 40% of the households belonged to farmer groups. The same proportion also had access to credit. Weather and climate information was received by 79% of households.As indicated previously, the study used descriptive and econometric analysis. Therefore, the results are also presented in two components: descriptive results from the M&E data and the econometric results from the analysis of the 2015 household survey.This focuses on crop management, land management, accessing climate and weather information and collective action.We examine adoption of high yielding, drought tolerant, early maturing, flood tolerant, and disease tolerant crop varieties overtime, disaggregated by gender (Table 4). Overall, the adoption rates of crop diversification and management practices in Lushoto have been increasing. High yielding crop varieties are the most widely adopted, with adoption rates rising from 73% in 2013 to 94% in 2014. Proportion of adopters dropped marginally to 93% in 2015 and 89% in 2016. The other widely adopted practices included early maturing crop varieties and use of inorganic fertilizer and/or manure. This is partly attributed to the highly variable and declining rainfall amounts, and soil degradation in Lushoto. It is estimated that about 1980 households were using improved resilient crop varieties and intercropping by the end of 2017 from the seven villages (Bonilla-Findji et al. 2018) and increasing to 4,650 households by end of 2019 (TARI Technical report communication).The main improved resilient crop varieties being adopted are maize and beans. This has been attributed to the introduction of drought-tolerant Lyamungo-90 bean variety and Situka and Lishe maize varieties and multiplication through community seed bulking. These varieties are also high yielding. In the long rains of 2012, for example, a total of 140 farmers received half a ton of Lyamungo-90 bean seed. They planted and harvested about 7 tons of beans (Recha et al. 2017). Twenty percent of the harvest was kept in the community seed banks managed by the village Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOS) and distributed to a different set of farmers in the season that followed. Thus, it is not surprising that by 2016, 94% of farmers had completely switched to improved maize varieties while another 3% were using both improved and local varieties side by side. For beans, 76% of the farmers had completely switched to improved varieties by 2016 while 7% were using improved varieties and local varieties side by side. Only 17% of the farmers were still using the local bean varieties. This is a significant progress in adoption given that, in 2013, only 73% of the households were using improved maize varieties while only 60% had introduced improved bean varieties. This trend continued in 2019, with farmers in Lushoto through their village SACCOS engaging researchers from TARI to source and supply more seeds of the improved resilient bean and maize varieties.Popularity of these improved resilient varieties is also attributed to their good taste.Another promising crop in Lushoto CSV is the potato, courtesy of on-farm trials led by the International Potato Center (CIP) and TARI. Three better performing varieties of potato, Asante, Shangii and Obama, were introduced in Lushoto (Harahagazwe et al. 2016, Recha et al. 2017). By 2016, 62% of the farmers had adopted these improved varieties while 16% of the farmers were growing them alongside the local potato varieties. That is an impressive adoption rate of 78%, implying that only 22% of the farmers were still planting the local potato varieties. This is a tremendous improvement from 2013 when only 34% of the farmers had switched to improved potato varieties, 6% were growing a mixture of improved and local varieties while 60% were growing exclusively the local varieties. On the first attempt, farmers who planted these potato varieties for consumption tripled their yields, from 7 tons per hectare per season for local varieties (e.g. Kidinya), to 24 tons for Asante, 29 tons for Shangi, and 32 tons for Unica (Mkanano) improved resilient varieties. Similarly, yields increased for farmers growing potato for seed production. For example, the Asante variety yielded 18 tons per hectare per season for the seed potatoes compared to 5 tons per hectare per season for the local Kidinya variety.Information on yield increase from these improved resilient potato varieties has spread to the adjacent villages (i.e. spill over effects). In order to maintain high quality potato seeds, the Lushoto farmers are using the diffused light storage (DLS) technology-a low-cost method of storing seed potatoes developed by CIP. DLS uses natural indirect light instead of low temperature to control excessive sprout growth and associated storage losses. Similarly, the proportion of farmers taking up improved cassava varieties increased from 12% in 2013 to 36% in 2016.To improve access to high quality seeds, farmers in Lushoto are now linked to the quality declared seeds (QDS) program of the Tanzanian government. The program seeks to empower farmers who face challenges with accessing high quality viable seeds. The QDS program involves multiplying seeds at the village level, using selected trained farmers. QDS seeds are of high quality, and free of deadly diseases such as bacterial wilt, which causes extensive losses. The QDS farmers store between 1 to 2 tons of seed potatoes, and DLS has been useful in extending potato storage life and therefore maintaining their productivity.In addition to crop diversification, farmers were making changes in their crop management practices (Figure 1).Between 2013 and 2016, the widely used crop management practices included use of fertilizer/manure application and early planting. Figure 1 also shows that each year, about 29% of the farm households were introducing at least one new crop variety. The same proportion of farmers started using inorganic fertilizer and/or manure in the production of a crop where it had not been used before. Another 21% of the farmers were taking up early planting as a measure to manage crop production. The annual uptake of pesticides and/or herbicides was 12%, while that of dropping the indigenous crop varieties was 9%.As a result of the crop diversification and changes in crop management, some progress has been registered in household food security. While 62% of the households experienced more than 4 hunger months in 2011, only 36% of the households had such an experience in 2016. Although data were not collected on household nutrition, the diverse crops produced provide a reason to safelyStopped growing a crop variety 9%Started using fertilizer/manure 29%assume that household nutrition has also improved over the years. This is consistent with the changes in household harvest of the main crops (Figure 2). Land management practices include adoption of terraces, ridges and bunds, intercropping, microcatchments, mulching, stopping the burning of crop residues, agroforestry, the number of trees planted, and reduction or expansion of land under cultivation of specific crops. Table 5 provides a summary of these over the years of the surveys.  Notably erosion control measures such as ridges, bunds, terraces and micro-catchments have not been widely adopted. Most probably this is because they are labor intensive and the high initial costs involved, which the poor farm households may not afford. In most cases, farmers pool labor through the village SACCOS to help one another construct the soil erosion control structures.Incrementally, more farmers were introducing cover crops and inter-cropping. Cover crops are important for reducing soil erosion and would be more popular among farmers on the upper slopes than those on the lowlands. Thus, proportion of farmers using it, though increasing, is not expected to be very large. Inter-cropping is gaining currency, especially as an insurance and risk management strategy. Not all the crops planted on the same piece of land are expected to fail at the same time. This is important for food security as well as dietary diversity. Mulching, which is important for reducing water loss, is relatively less popular. Perhaps this is partly attributed to increasing adoption of drought-tolerant and early maturing crop varieties, and limited availability of organic residues (grass clippings, leaves, hay, and straw) which are used as fodder for livestock. Increasing adoption of agroforestry may also reduce the need for mulching. As observed, the households are increasingly planting more trees. Another good land management practice that is gaining traction in the area is stopping of burning of crop residues which, in turn, boosts the development of soil organic matter over time. Every year of the survey showed that more than 60% of the farmers were adopting the practice. The fact that each year, 100% of farmers are expanding their farmlands under some crops is a possible indicator that, previously degraded land is getting rehabilitated, either through soil erosion control or adoption of improved inputs. It is also a likely indicator of farmers switching to some more promising crops while stopping production of other less promising ones. This is further illustrated by the high proportions of farmers reducing their land area under some crops.Agroforestry has gained traction, with 75% of farm households indicating having planted trees in 2015. In 2016, 59% of households planted trees. Because trees are perennial, this cannot be viewed as a decline in agroforestry. Indeed, as the peak is approached, the number of households planting new trees in any given year is expected to drop. It is estimated that about 1,210 households in Lushoto had adopted agroforestry by end of 2017 (Bonilla-Findji et al. 2018). The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI) are leading in research for identifying appropriate agroforestry trees. Three tree nurseries have since been established under the management of the village SACCOS, with a capacity to produce 150,000 tree seedlings every 6 months. Besides the SACCOS, there are model champion farmers establishing tree nurseries, and training other farmers in their villages. The trees are planted within the farms, along boundaries and across the contours, and are important, not just for environmental conservation but also for livelihood diversification. The farmer can harvest firewood, fruits and timber, and honey either for personal use or for sale. The SACCOS also plant trees on community land to protect the natural water sources that are increasingly running dry because of disturbance of the natural hydrological cycles that trees provide.For farmers to adopt some practices, they need to be equipped with accurate and up-to-date weather information. The CSVs approach has provided a platform for the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) and traditional weather forecasters to work together and generate more reliable location-specific weather information to be shared with farmers for decision-making for each season. Partnership of local SACCOS, Lushoto District Council and TMA ensures more reliable weather forecasts and that information is shared with households who are members of the village SACCOS. Analysis, however, indicates that the proportion of farmers accessing and using weather information in their farming planning remains relatively low (Table 6). It is highly likely that the majority of the farmers use indigenous knowledge (IK) forecasts to predict weather (Mahoo et al. 2015). Over 80% of the households that received climate and weather information did so through radio, and in over 70% of these households, the information was received by both men and women. About 90% of the households receiving the information indicated that it included advice on how to use the information to improve farming activities although only 80% of them were able to implement the advice. The main changes informed by the advice were land management activities and scheduling of farm activities.Overall, this is an area that needs to be strengthened to improve access and use of climate and weather information to support decision making by the farmers. The information dissemination network already constituted and working to embed weather forecasting in the Lushoto District Agricultural Development program is a milestone in the right direction.In Services provided to the community by the SACCOS include village savings, table banking, and loaning, and acquisition of farm inputs. While there were no data collected on household group membership for 2013 and 2014, the 2015 survey showed that 43% of the households were members of social groups. This had improved to 48% by 2016. Over 70% of these community groups are engaged in savings and credit. A few others are engaged in management of tree nurseries, crop production and marketing, and soil conservation.By 2016, the SACCOS had saved USD 30,200 which could be loaned to members for agricultural activities, purchase of food and starting or boosting small businesses. In 2014, 15% of the farm households obtained loans from the groups, totalling to about USD 3,003 or an average of USD 91 per household. The proportion of borrowers from the community groups increased to 21% in 2015, with a total amount of USD 13,389, and an average of USD 212.53 per household. In 2016, the proportion rose to 61%, with the total amount borrowed being USD 19,620, and the average amount borrowed per household being USD 218. Thus, households are increasingly turning to the community groups for loans and the groups are, so far, able to meet this rising demand for the loans.Examination of the use of the money borrowed from community groups provides interesting insight (Figure 3). The bulk of the money borrowed is spent on agricultural activities. A good number of borrowers also direct the money to payment of school fees and funding of small businesses. Notably, in 2016, about 30% of the borrowers spent the money on food purchases. Allocation of this expenditure is closely related to adoption of crop management practices and the crop harvest. For example, in 2015, more households spent the funds on agricultural activities. In the same year, adoption levels of most of the crop management practices increased (Table 4). Harvest of the main crops also increased (Figure 2). In 2016, although a large proportion of households borrowed from the community groups, those spending the borrowed money on agricultural activities declined. This is correlated with the decline in adoption of most of the crop management practices and the associated harvest of the main crops.An estimated 1,980 households accessed informal group loans by the end of 2017 (Bonilla-Findji et al. 2018). The number of farmers accessing those loans increased further to the year 2019 because households purchased more improved seeds from TARI through the umbrella CBOs.Empirical results from the econometric analysis are summarized in Table 7. The highly significant likelihood ratio test shows that MVPM fits the data better and captures farm technology adoption decisions better than the independently formulated probit models. This is also evident from the significant error correlation parameters. In a nutshell, the MVPM outperforms the standard univariate model popularly used in technology adoption studies. This shows presence of complementarity among farm technologies and substantial unobserved heterogeneity effects. The contemporaneous error correlations of the MVPM are all positive and statistically significant.They are interpreted as the estimates of input complementarities among crop diversification, inorganic fertilizer, and pesticides and/or herbicides. There is a very strong complementarity between adoption of crop diversification and inorganic fertilizer adoption (correlation coefficient of 0.59), and inorganic fertilizer and pesticides and/or herbicides adoption (correlation of 0.72). The strong correlation between adoption of crop diversification and adoption of inorganic fertilizer is most probably because of the anticipated better returns from the joint adoption (Ogada et al. 2014).The strong correlation between inorganic fertilizer and pesticides and/or herbicides adoption is understandable because the use of inorganic fertilizers may also trigger growth of weeds, necessitating the use of herbicides. Further, the possible good harvest associated with inorganic fertilizer use may call for use of pesticides on the stored harvest. Complementarity between crop diversification and pesticides could be, like with inorganic fertilizer, through the path of increased yield which necessitates prolonged storage periods, possible through pesticides. These results are consistent with those of previous studies (see Sheahan andBarret 2014, Ogada et al. 2014 for examples).Estimation results on the other explanatory variables in our CSA technology adoption propensity equations largely show heterogeneity in impact. For example, while the age and education of the household head have no effect on adoption of crop diversification and inorganic fertilizer, they are negatively correlated with adoption of pesticides and/or herbicides. This shows that older farmers and those with more years of schooling have a lower propensity to adopt pesticides and/or herbicides. Possibly this is associated with their health and environmental awareness which could be driving them to other alternative safer ways to store the harvest. Male farmers and those with larger family sizes are more likely to adopt all the three complementary technologies under consideration.Both factors could be associated with better resources and better networks that may affect farm technology adoption. It is also possible that larger household size is a source of family labor which is important for crop diversification, and application of both inorganic fertilizer and pesticides and/or herbicides. Those that view livestock as important are also less likely to adopt pesticides and/or herbicides. This is not surprising because such households could be concerned with implications of the pesticides and/or herbicides for the health of the livestock. Moreover, domestic animals could feed on the plants and reduce the need to use herbicides. Households with larger land sizes were more likely to adopt diversified crops and pesticides and/or herbicides. This is not surprising because more land provides opportunity for the farmer to grow a wide range of crops, and to cut on demand for farm labor, the farmer may rely on herbicides. Because such a farmer may have a large harvest, probability of using pesticides for storage may also increase. Households with higher income were more likely to adopt inorganic fertilizer and less likely to diversify their crops. It is possible that such households are producing crops, not for domestic consumption but for the market. Thus, they tend to specialize on particular market-oriented crops and also use inorganic fertilizers for optimal output. This further shows that households with less liquidity constraint are less likely to seek absolute risk aversion (see Zerfu and Larsen 2010). Households which receive weather forecast information are more likely to adopt crop diversification and pesticides and/or herbicides. Perhaps this is because crop diversification and use of herbicides may require better and early planning. For example, to diversify crops, the farmers must prepare a number of seed varieties before the onset of rains. A farmer who is empowered with weather information and agro-advisories is better placed to do this than their counterpart who is not. Last, a farmer who has previously used inorganic fertilizers is more likely to use it in subsequent cropping seasons. Most probably this is because the initial use is a chance to experiment and when the farmer updates their belief on the good returns due to inorganic fertilizer use, they are likely to continue using it and even upgrade the intensity of application.The paper used MVPM analysis to investigate multidimensional agricultural technology adoption decisions in the presence of household heterogeneities. The technologies and practices include diversification of improved resilient crop varieties, inorganic fertilizer, and pesticides and/or herbicides. Thus, the paper quantified the complementarities among alternative agricultural technologies and practices while controlling for unobserved heterogeneities which might be independent or correlated with the observable explanatory variables which influence household farm technology adoption. Results show that agricultural technology adoption decisions exhibit complementarity for the technologies and practices analyzed. Conditional on various observable household level factors and unobservable heterogeneity, we find correlation in adoption propensities among crop diversification, inorganic fertilizer, and pesticides and/or herbicides. We also find evidence of unobserved heterogeneity which leads to heterogeneous impact of explanatory variables on adoption of different farm technologies even among farmers with similar observable characteristics. These heterogeneities could represent variations in tastes and preferences among households for individual farm technologies and practices conditioned by the extent of risk aversion or perceived rate of return to technology adoption. This implies that technology diffusion strategies and policies based on the univariate analysis may be insufficient in addressing household agricultural technology adoption processes and may have contributed to the low levels of adoption. These findings provide critical insights which may be useful in scaling technology adoption and diffusion among smallholder farmers. For example, complementarity among technologies shows that policy instruments that affect one technology are likely to influence other related technologies.Thus, diffusion can be improved by providing and promoting these technologies as a package (bundling). Other constraints to farm technology adoption such as farmer income, education, farmer experience with the technology, access to weather information and agro-advisories, and gender may also need to be tackled in designing effective technology diffusion strategies. For example, poorer and marginalized households may not be enjoying the benefits of inorganic fertilizer and even if they access credit, unless the use of that credit is restricted, they are unlikely to use it for improving agricultural production.","tokenCount":"5830"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e65b8d8e13721e967ab9f09bf5ad1e9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e2373e62-5cad-46ff-bf2b-1356a6b716ab/retrieve","id":"375739152"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7237c71a-4e4b-450a-9954-1cd17cc18fac","pagecount":"60","content":"A child carrying drinking water through deep floodwaters in Bangladesh. Millions of people have been affected by severe flash flooding following particularly heavy monsoon rains across South Asia. Climate change is increasing the incidence of severe storms and flooding.Picture this: a bright sun beating down on a 12 500 km2 salt lake 4000 metres above sea level. This is the Uyuni Salt Flats in the southern Bolivian altiplano, one of the most astonishing settings on Earth. It is also one of the harshest environments in the world, with temperatures ranging from -18°C to a high of 27°C. The soils around the salt lakes are sandy and infertile and rainfall is scarce. When temperatures drop at night, frost settles over the land. The harsh environment makes it difficult to reach, with only the odd bus willing to venture down the few dirt roads and paths that link this region to the rest of the country.Despite the harsh and isolated conditions, hundreds of communities of Aymara and Quechua origin (descendants of the Incas) have built their lives here, learning to adapt to the inhospitable conditions over thousands of years.Life for the women in these communities is far from easy. Collecting dry sticks for fuel involves travelling long distances on foot, and water has to be hauled from underground wells in heavy buckets. A trip to the market to buy fruits and vegetables can take up to three days.The communities around the salt flats depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, but the harsh conditions mean that their foods are limited to a few products such as quinoa, bitter potatoes, faba beans and llama meat. Efforts by national and international organizations to create a market for the local crops over the last 20 years or so have helped these communities to improve their incomes but, in the case of quinoa, commercial cultivation has had some unintended consequences.Astudillo, Mickey Leland International Fellow from the Congressional Hunger Center in the USA, to conduct a two-year study on the impact of commercial quinoa cultivation on communities in southern Bolivia.Quinoa is a highly nutritious grain providing a good source of protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. The communities formerly consumed quinoa with every meal. But, as Astudillo soon discovered, they had come to prefer less nutritious foods instead, such as rice and pasta.Astudillo discovered that one of the main reasons for the change in preference was the length of time needed to process quinoa for food. Quinoa grains are covered with a layer of saponins, a substance with a bitter taste that is often found in plants and that can be toxic if consumed in large quantities. The saponins need to be removed before the grains can be consumed. Women are responsible for this laborious, back-breaking task. Processing 12 kg of grain can take as long as six hours and involves a long process of roasting or toasting the grains, stepping on them in a stone bowl withbare feet while they are still hot to loosen the saponins, winnowing the grains to get rid of the saponin dust and, finally, rinsing the grains in water before drying them out in the sun. With more time spent in the fields to meet growing market demand for local crops and less time to spend in the kitchen, the women find it easier and quicker to prepare a plate of pasta or rice.Working with Rolando Copa, a local mechanic and inventor, Astudillo developed a small machine that reduces processing time from six hours to seven minutes. Furthermore, processing with the machine causes far less damage to the grain than manual processing, keeping the grains intact and conserving their nutritional qualities.The machine was tested in various communities in the region with great success. The women were delighted at the prospect of having a machine do the hard work for them. Most families cannot afford to buy their own machine, but for a small fee they can pay to use a community machine to process their grains.\"The needs of these farming communities are great and large investments are required to lift them out of poverty,\" said Astudillo, \"but this small machine can still have a significant impact on their lives, by reducing the burden on women, improving livelihoods and facilitating the consumption of a nutritious grain. This is a low-input, high-impact model for any organization committed to practical rural development and the improvement of the lives of marginalized populations.\"Based on 'The potential of small holder technology in quinoa producing communities of the Southern Bolivian Altiplano,' by Damiana Astudillo (http:// www.underutilized-species.org/features/quinoa.htm).For more information, contact Damiana Astudillo damiana.astudillo@gmail.com A simple machine reduces the time required to process 12 kg of quinoa from 6 hours to 7 minutes.For nearly two decades, the PROINPA Foundation (Promotion and Investigation of Andean Products) of Bolivia has been helping low-income Andean farmers to cope with weather-and pest-related challenges. This has been accomplished in large part by integrating genetic and technological resources, and has recently fostered the development of new, disease-resistant varieties of potato. Under the direction of PROINPA and using wild relatives of the common potato, farmers and scientists have created successful new varieties that are resistant to some of the most common potato pests plaguing the country.The importance of the potato to the diets and livelihoods of rural Bolivians is difficult to overstate. Each year, potato is grown on approximately 130 000 ha of land in the country, generating food and income for nearly 200 000 farmers and their families. It is estimated that the annual consumption of this root vegetable is upwards of 80 kg per person. Despite its abundance, however, the potato has proven to be vulnerable to frosts and droughts, as well as to some 266 diseases and pests, including viruses, fungi, bacteria, nematodes and insects. Perhaps the most dangerous of these is late blight, caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans. Widely distributed in the potato-growing area of Bolivia, late blight has in recent years caused annual crop losses of up to US$30 million and has forced farmers to apply harmful fungicides to their crops.The development of the 'Jaspe' variety began back in 1984, when Dr Nelson Estrada of the Columbian Agricultural Institute crossed various strains of cultivated potato crops with wild potato relatives. The types that resulted were selected for favourable qualities by farmers in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia during the 1990s.Over the next five years, a variety that came out of this initial selection, and which showed great promise due to its resistance to the late blight fungus, was further evaluated by farmers and scientists from the high Andes and the valleys. They found that the variety-'Jaspe'resisted not only late blight but also a strain of root-knot nematode and a harmful virus. Meanwhile, potato processing plants judged it suitable for processing into French fries. In 1995, 'Jaspe', along with five other types, was finally released to farmers in the valley of Cochabamba for small-scale cultivation. Today, three of those released varieties-'Jaspe', 'Robusta' and 'India'-are being cultivated by Bolivian farmers.Since their release over ten years ago, 'Jaspe', 'Robusta' and 'India' have made measurable impacts on the well-being of farmers across Bolivia. The potato varieties perform well in a variety of different agro-ecosystems and altitudes; it is estimated that some 70% of farmers in the Altiplano zone and the Inter-Andean valleys of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz have adopted them since 1995. This translates into plantings covering 40% to 70% of the total cultivated area in each zone-equivalent to nearly 13 300 ha. The economic impact of these plantings is estimated to be around US$5.3 million per year and growing. Should the varieties continue to spread throughout Bolivia, where approximately 63 000 ha of potato are sown in all, annual earnings may top US$7.5 million.The success of the new varieties is further evidence that the solution to many modern agricultural dilemmas may be found by looking into the wild. Living untamed for thousands of years, the wild relatives of crops harbour valuable traits that can be introduced into common cultivated varieties. As the PROINPA experience has shown, the incorporation of genes from wild relatives has the potential to increase yields and profits-good news for the millions of small-scale farmers across the globe whose crops are regularly threatened by both climateand pest-related challenges.Translated from the Spanish and edited by Megan Brandeland, Bioversity InternationalA new atlas makes a first attempt to provide a detailed picture of the links between people, land and prosperity in Kenya. In a country where maps and information are still hard to come by, this atlas provides a refreshing, easy-to-understand overview of where Kenya's rural poor are located in relation to the different ecosystem services (land, food, water, trees, tourism) they depend on for their livelihoods.\"Using this knowledge we can move forward to protect our environment, provide economic opportunity for everyone and build a strong democracy,\" said Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Laureate and a member of the Kenyan Parliament.Maathai wrote the foreword to the atlas, which was launched earlier this year in Nairobi, Kenya.The atlas contains 96 different maps that superimpose statistical information about population and household expenditures with spatial data on ecosystems and their services, including water availability and the presence of livestock and wildlife populations in a particular region. The atlas alsoFor the majority of the poor, environmental resources offer the surest route out of poverty, providing them with important goods and services that can be used to improve their livelihoods. Information about these resources and their relationship to people's wellbeing is critical for policymakers and development organizations, allowing them to target their efforts and focus on areas that have the greatest potential for poverty reduction.Mohammed Said, a lead scientist at ILRI and coauthor of the atlas, gives an example of the kind of analyses available in the atlas: \"One of the maps shows the spatial coincidence of poverty and milk production. Most of the areas with high milk production have a low incidence of poverty, but further investigation is needed to determine whether households in these communities became less poor once they became high milk producers or whether a certain amount of capital had to be in place to support a high milk production system.\" One of the 96 maps that make up Kenya's poverty atlas. The atlas analyses the links between poverty and environmental resources, providing an overview of where Kenya's rural poor are located in relation to the different ecosystem services they depend on for their livelihoods. For more information, contact Susan Macmillan, ILRI s.macmillan@cgiar.orgThe Global Crop Diversity Trust and the United Nations Foundation have announced a joint initiative to safeguard 21 of the world's most critical food crops. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding the initiative with a US$37.5 million grant, which includes US$7.5 million in matching funds from the Government of Norway.\"This is the largest grant to support crop diversity ever made. This initiative will rescue the most globally important collections of the world's most important food crops,\" said Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Trust. \"It will secure at-risk crop diversity collections in poor countries and document their astonishing diversity, making it available to meet the food needs of the poor.\"The unprecedented effort will help developing country genebanks-many of which are underfunded and in disrepair-to secure over 95% of their endangered crop diversity. It will fund the largest single regeneration effort in history. In addition, it will fund a comprehensive global information system that will allow genebanks worldwide to be searched for traits needed to combat new diseases and cope with climate change.\"Our effort to help hundreds of millions of small farmers and their families overcome poverty and hunger rests in part on food security,\"said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President of the Gates Foundation's Global Development Program. \"But there can be no food security without first securing the basis of our food production-the genetic diversity of every crop, in particular those most important to the poor, which unfortunately are neglected by modern plant breeding.We invite others to join us in securing this resource of immeasurable value.\"\"By providing access to crop genetic information, plant breeders across Africa may be able to adapt their crops to varieties that will grow in different climate conditions. Investing in this future may help stave off potential catastrophic damage to some agricultural systems due to climate change. Not only will this partnership combat hunger and protect crop diversity, but it also helps nations prepare for the impacts of climate change,\" said Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.The genetic diversity found within each crop is the raw material that enables plant breeders and farmers to develop higher-yielding, more nutritious and stressresistant varieties. It is also the cornerstone of successful adaptation to climate change, providing the raw material for new 'climate-ready' crop varieties. However, much of this diversity held in genebanks is threatened by decades of underfunding and neglect, as well as by wars and natural disasters.Among the priority crops covered by the Gatesfunded initiative are many 'orphan crops.' Particularly important to the poor, these crops have been largely bypassed by modern plant breeding because of their lack of importance in wealthy markets, despite their high-yielding, nutritious qualities. Some orphan crops, such as yam, cannot be grown from seeds but need to be cultivated from cuttings,Samples stored at ultra low temperatures in the CIP (International Potato Centre) genebank. Thanks to the Gates Foundation grant, research on cryopreservation will reduce the costs of conserving crops such as sweet potato and yam by up to 75%.Geneflow Newsroots or cell cultures, making their regeneration and conservation more complex and expensive. The grant will finance research on inexpensive conservation techniques for such crops, including cassava, sweet potato, yam, taro and coconut. These new technologies are expected to reduce conservation costs by 75% and improve the security of collections of orphan crops.The initiative will also increase communication among plant breeders and farmers around the world through the creation of an information system that aims to include data on 4 million samples of more than 2000 species of more than 150 cropsamounting to 85% of the diversity of all agricultural crops. The initiative will fund development of a state-of-the-art genebank management software system, document at least 100 000 new samples and evaluate at least 50 priority collections for 100 different traits.The new initiative also ensures that developing countries and international agricultural research centres will be able to send at least 450 000 distinct seed samples to the Svalbard Inside the Global Seed Vault. Engineers monitor the construction of the tunnel that will lead to the collection housed deep in the mountain.At the beginning of 2007, the Norwegian government unveiled the architectural design for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, to be carved deep into frozen rock not far from the North Pole. The site was chosen, in part, because the ground there is perpetually frozen, providing natural back-up refrigeration that would preserve the seeds should electricity fail. Yet even here project architects had to consider how to offset the potential impacts of climate change.The design accommodates even worst-case scenarios of global warming in two main ways. Firstly, the vault will be located some 130 m above current sea level. This puts it well above the 7 m rise that would accompany the melting of Greenland's ice sheet or even a 61 m rise that could result from the unlikely total meltdown of Antarctica.Secondly, scientists determined the impact of rising air temperatures on the permafrost, which is normally between -4°C andGeneflow News -6°C. They found that the permafrost would warm much more slowly than the air. In addition, the deeper into the mountain, the colder it will remain. Therefore, the vault will be located an extraordinary 120 m into the rock, ensuring that rising external air temperatures will have limited influence on the surrounding permafrost.In contrast to the vault's utilitarian interior, which consists of concrete walls and no windows, \"the exterior structure shoots out of the mountainside,\" according to project manager Magnus Bredeli Tveiten, of Statsbygg, the Norwegian government's Directorate of Public Construction and Property. The entrance will be a narrow triangular structure of cement and metal, illuminated with artwork which changes according to the special lighting conditions of the Arctic. In the summer months, the entrance \"will gleam like a gem in the midnight sun,\" Tveiten said. Throughout the dark winter, when the sun never rises, it will glow with gently changing lights. \"This design takes us one step closer to guaranteeing the safety of the world's most important natural resource,\" said Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which will co-fund the vault's operations and pay for the preparation and transport of seeds from all developing nations to Svalbard. \"Every day that passes, we lose crop diversity. We must conserve the seeds that will allow agriculture to adapt to challenges such as climate change and crop disease. This design is as awesome structurally as it is attractive aesthetically, and both are fitting tributes to the importance of the biological treasure to be stored within.\"The town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, where the seed vault is being constructed.For more information, contact Julian Laird, j.laird@croptrust.orgThe conservation of farm animal diversity is often overshadowed by efforts aimed at charismatic species, like the majestic bald eagle, the untamed white tiger and the adorable panda bear. This is troubling, given the vital role livestock play in the livelihoods of farmers and consumers across the globe. According to a report released by the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture), the biggest factor in the gradual loss of livestock breeds is industrial livestock production, especially in developing countries where animal diversity is richest. \"In the next 40 years, the world's population will rise from 6.2 billion to 9 billion, with all the growth occurring in developing countries,\" said FAO Assistant Director-General Alexander Müller in his address to the Commission. \"We need to increase the resilience of our food supply by maintaining and deploying the widest possible portfolio of plant and animal genetic resources, which are vital and irreplaceable.\"As demands for meat, milk and eggs continue to rise, so does the world's reliance on high-yielding animals and the products they supply. Adding to the problem is the fact that genetic material from highly productive breeds can now be transported easily across the globe, making it easier for farmers to replace their native breeds. As native varieties are slowly phased out, so are many valuable traits-such as disease resistance or increased tolerance of harsher environmental conditionswhich may be useful in dealing with future changes in climate.\"One livestock breed a month has become extinct over the past seven years, and time is running out for one-fifth of the world's breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry,\" said Müller. According to the FAO report, the problem is occurring mostly in developing countries, which until recently have managed to hang on to a large number of their indigenous breeds. In Viet Nam, for example, the percentage of indigenous sows declined from 72% of the total population in 1994 to only 26% in 2002. Of its 14 local breeds, five are classified as vulnerable, or facing moderate risk of extinction, two are considered to be in a critical state with very few populations left and a restricted range, and three are at extremely high risk of disappearing completely.The report warns that these trends are unlikely to reverse unless adequate resources are devoted to the management of animal genetic diversity. \"From a research viewpoint, it's clear that if we're going to manage the world's remaining livestock genetic resources, we'll have to characterize the remaining populations to decide which are worth saving and why,\" said Carlos Seré, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya. \"We'll have to find ways of broadening the use of those populations deemed useful, and we'll have to conserve the most important livestock genetic diversity for possible future use-by poor and rich farmers alike.\"Currently, the conservation of animal genetic resources is greatly lacking in the majority of developing countries. According to the FAO report, 48% of the world's countries report that they have no national in vivo, or live animal, conservation programmes; 63% report having no in vitro programmes, that is, the conservation of embryos, semen or other genetic material, with the potential to reconstitute live animals at a later date. Similarly, structured breeding programmes are absent or ineffective in most countries. \"Frameworks for wide access to animal diversity and for equitable sharing of the benefits derived from their use need to be put in place, at both national and international levels,\" said Clive Stannard of the FAO Commission.Unlike the situation in Europe and North America, where a few high-performance breeds have virtually wiped out traditional types, the loss of genetic diversity in many developing countries is not yet complete. Many important species of livestock can still be saved if efforts are made to reverse these trends. Experts fromAnkole cattle are renowned among communities of East and Central Africa for their tasty meat, rich milk and ability to tolerate drought.    Similarly alarming was the fact the parents were relatively oblivious to the state of their children's weight. For instance, of the children found to be overweight, 61% of their parents considered them to be of normal weight. Meanwhile, 20% of the obese children were deemed 'normal' by their parents.Although these results cannot be attributed to any single variable, one of the principal culprits is thought to be simplification of the diet, from one rich in traditional vegetables, pulses and cereals, to one that is much less diverse and that depends on the ready availability of cheap, refined carbohydrates and fats.In an effort to modify the trend, the Almost all of the 1180 fifthand sixth-grade students surveyed purchased food from street vendors; twothirds bought additional snacks from the vendors on a daily basis. The snacks include fried potatoes, fried cassava, fried rice, rice and beans, fried banana, fried groundnuts with sugar, and sweetened and flavoured water. Among these purchases-which set the students back around 11 US cents or less a day-the favourite was fried cassava, consumed by half the students as a mid-morning snack. \"It's bulky, energy dense and satisfies the students' hunger for a longer period of time than many of the other types of snacks,\" noted Joyce Kinabo of Sokoine University, who coordinated the study. Unfortunately, fried cassava is no more nutritious than the other offerings.The convenience and low cost of street foods make them appealing to children who have little money to invest in filling their stomachs. One solution to improving childhood nutrition in Tanzania-and presumably in many other countries as well-thus  Ulises and Carmen are proud of the strawberries they grow on their farm, from which they make a delicious organic ice cream.The strawberries have been planted under the shade of the cassava trees next to rows of garlic. \"The pungent odour of the garlic protects our strawberries from pests, and the shade of the cassava tree keeps them cool,\" Ulises explained.But the farm's greatest secret is the guinea pigs. \"We eat the meat,\" Ulises said (guinea pigs are a specialty food in Lima). But they also use the manure from their 1000 or so guinea pigs as fertilizer and mix it with crop residues to produce compost. The compost isUlises explains how the biodigestor works. A mixture of compost, rumen and crop residues is fed into the machine. The fermentation process releases a biogas that is used for cooking and heating.  The combination starts a fermentation process that results in the production of biogas. This is then used for cooking, heating and lighting gas lamps. \"We save a lot on electricity this way,\" Ulises said proudly.Carmen and Ulises do not make any financial profit from their farm. The money they make from the sale of their compost and fertilizer (sold at the symbolic price of 1 Sol, around 33 US cents) and from the odd consultancy is just enough to cover their costs. The centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) hold the world's largest collections of plant diversity, containing over 600 000 accessions of some 3000 staple crop, forage and agroforestry species essential to human food security and nutrition.An analysis of the capacity of the centre genebanks to meet international standards for security and accessibility revealed critical gaps. The collections of crop diversity held in trust by 11 of the CGIAR centers are among the most important public goods managed by the CGIAR system, providing vital resources for agricultural growth and development. Together the Centers hold over 600 000 accessions of some 3000 staple crop, forage and agroforestry species important for global food security.For In developed countries, most people would be hard pressed to find more than one banana variety at their local market. That would come as a shock to the inhabitants of the Pacific island of Pohnpei-a country with which few can compete in terms of the diversity of bananas available to consumers. Last year, results of the first Pohnpei Banana Market Study revealed that 17 different varieties of banana were sold in the Pohnpei region over a period of two months.Affairs, the study kept track of the volume and varieties of banana purchased by each participating market as well as the number of markets selling each variety. Fourteen markets participated in the study. \"The market people wereTwo of the market vendors who participated in the Pohnpei banana market study pose in front of their stall. The man on the left holds a bunch of Karat bananas.  As a token of appreciation to all those involved in the inaugural Pohnpei Banana Market Study, Let's Go Local t-shirts and photographs of their markets were handed out to market vendors. These gifts will serve as daily reminders of the fact that people lie at the heart of the effort to produce more diverse, nutritious crops for the Pohnpei region. According to the IFCP, \"Pohnpeian community participation and empowerment is the cornerstone of our work.\"Based on an article by Lois Engleberger that appeared in the Kaselehlie Press.The Pohnpei banana market study revealed that seventeen different varieties of banana were sold in the Pohnpei region over a period of two months.For further information, visit www.islandfood.org or contact Lois Engleberger nutrition@mail.fmIn the past century, the average surface temperature of the Earth has risen by about 0.74°C. While that may not seem much, the increase has already started to challenge the survival of many plant and animal species. In Australia and the Caribbean, rising sea temperatures are killing coral reef communities (see related story, p 23).Across the Arctic, polar bear populations are dying off as many of the ringed and bearded seals they rely on for food are wiped out. In the case of sea turtles, whose sex determination depends on temperature, many more females are being hatched than males. As we are already seeing, the extinction of organisms that cannot adapt quickly to changing environmental conditions leads to permanent, irreversible changes in valuable ecosystems across the globe.The challenge of this special issue of Geneflow is to demonstrate to our readers how climate change has and will continue to affect biodiversity, as well as how biodiversity, in turn, can help to mitigate the effects of climate change.For hundreds of millennia, changes in temperature have been closely tied to changes in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Most scientists attribute this relationship to the greenhouse effect, a naturally occurring process that is needed to keep the Earth warm and habitable.Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, water vapour and ozone allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere, but prevent heat from leaving. In recent decades, however, the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, coupled with the loss of forests and changes in farming practices brought about by the demands of rapid population growth, have resulted in the highest concentrations of greenhouse gases in 400 000 years.The elevated levels of greenhouse gases now present in our atmosphere pose different threats in different parts of the globe. In coastal areas, for example, rising sea levels due to melting ice caps and glaciers threaten wild fish stocks and ponds. Meanwhile, increases in both the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as drought, storms and flooding are projected to be felt most strongly in tropical regions.Changing rainfall patterns and rising temperatures in sub-Saharan Africa-where FAO reports that 95% of cropland is rainfed-will be devastating to the yields of rural farmers.The risk that climate change poses to biodiversity warrants special attention.Global warming creates a negative feedback loop for biodiversity: as biodiversity loss increases, so do opportunities to use it to combat climate change.More than simply reducing the number and variety of organisms inhabiting a specific region, climate change has the potential to wipe out crucial agricultural biodiversity that may help farmers cope with shifting environmental conditions.A prime example of this can be seen in the loss of the wild relatives of crops, which are a crucial source of genes for traits such as drought tolerance and pest resistance. These traits will be sorely needed in the future. Yet one study predicts that by the year 2055, nearly a quarter of the populations of several wild species of cowpea, groundnut and potato will be extinct.While many people assume that the solution to climate change lies solely in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions or the increased uptake and storage of carbon, it could be that the most promising solution to this complex problem lies in the conservation and use of biodiversity. Each species of plant or animalAgricultural biodiversity offers farmers in poor, marginal areas a sustainable solution to many of the challenges brought about by climate change. Yellow damselfish swim among the branches of a bleached Acropora coral. Great Barrier Reef, Australia.A group of orange and white striped hingebeak shrimp at the mouth of an underwater cave. Australia's Great Barrier Reef is rich in biodiversity.  Bari, scientist at Bioversity International's regional office for Central and West Asia and North Africa. Some traits that may help plants to use water more efficiently and better handle drought include quicker seedling establishment, delayed senescence or leaf death, and early flowering.Although it can be a long and laborious journey from the classification of traits to the large-scale production of improved crop varieties, the development of lessthirsty versions of common cultivars will be worth the time and effort for the benefits they will provide to both small-and large-scale farmers across the globe.In More than two thirds of the water used by humans is designated for agricultural use. 25For further information, contact Abdallah Bari, Bioversity International a.bari@cgiar.orgThe agricultural sector accounts for more than two-thirds of freshwater consumption worldwide; in many countries, irrigation is the principal water user. As water becomes increasingly scarce, the need to produce more food with less water poses an enormous challenge. Today, maximizing water use now has a higher priority than maximizing yield.In Tunisia, annual rainfall has traditionally been diverted to an agricultural sector dominated by olive groves.Having seen a reduction in its annual rainfall in recent years, Tunisia has begun to experiment with irrigation techniques that will at once intensify olive production and improve water efficiency.A technique known as partial rootzone drying was recently put to the test in the region of Sfax in central Tunisia.The strategy involves partly wetting the area around each olive plant. The hope was that by allowing some of the roots access to water, the plant would continue to grow despite the fact that the roots in the dry soil were instructing the plant to shut down.Researchers assessed the extent to which partial irrigation affected the quantity and quality of the fruit and oil. They found that, although the trees grown using the partial rootzone drying technique saw yield reductions in the first year, during the second year yields did not vary much from the norm. This suggests that there are stages when the stress brought on by strategies like partial rootzone drying is not harmful to yield. In fact, in some cases the reduction in yield caused by water restriction was compensated for by an improvement in fruit and oil quality.Tunisia is not the only country facing an increase in water demand from the agricultural sector as water resources shrink every day.The partial rootzone drying strategy may be one method by which we can maintain yield while improving product quality and wateruse efficiency.By M. Ghrab, K. Gargouri, M. Ayadi and H. Bentaher, Olive Tree Institute, TunisiaIn Tunisia, Bioversity scientists are looking at new ways to intensify olive production while using less water. Water scarcity is one of the biggest challenges facing agriculture in the future.A new UN report cautions against a rapid switch to biofuels and describes the potentially harmful impacts of using them on a widespread scale, including biodiversity loss, a contribution to global warming and high food prices.The push for energy security is currently focusing on ethanol, as more and more countries around the world turn to ethanol as a fuel source. Ethanol is a renewable fuel produced by producing alcohol from the sugars and starch found in crops like maize, sugarcane and sugar beet. Less commonly used crops that can also be used to produce ethanol include rapeseed, oil palm, cassava, soybean, barley, wheat, rice, sorghum, sunflower and potato.As countries strive to improve their economic growth while decreasing their dependence on oil imports and mitigating the impact of fossil fuels, they are promoting largescale production of such energy crops and setting targets to increase biofuel use in transportation. In March 2007, European Union leaders pledged that 10%For further information, contact Abdallah Bari, Bioversity International a.bari@cgiar.org of transport would run on biofuels by 2020, while the USA and Brazil (the two leading producers of ethanol) signed a cooperation agreement to support research on biofuels and the development of new technologies to promote their use.Developing countries are readying themselves to meet the West's growing demand for biofuels by dedicating more and more land to the cultivation of energy crops. Already, rainforests in Asia are being cleared to make way for growing energy crops and the EU has announced plans to give aid to developing countries that grow energy crops for rich nations.However, according to the UN report, \"Sustainable Bioenergy: A Framework for Decision-Makers,\" without strict environmental regulations, energy crop production can have negative impacts, particularly on climate change and food production, as well as irreversible consequences for agricultural biodiversity.While the production of energy crops could help local farmers and boost the economies of developing countries initially, the UN report warns that \"use of large-scale mono-cropping could lead to significant biodiversity loss, soil erosion and nutrient leaching\"significant retrograde steps in the long term.Additionally, converting fields to the production of energy crops rather than food crops could reduce the quantity and variety of crops available for food, driving up global food prices. For example, the USA currently converts about 20% of its maize into ethanol and has already decreased its maize exports, hurting Mexicans who rely on the cheap imported grain. After prices soared in Indonesia, millions can no longer afford palm oil. In Germany, the replacement of barley with heavily subsidized energy crops means that the traditional October beer festival will cost consumers more than the customary hangover, with beer prices rising by an estimated 5.5%. Italian consumers and consumer groups rallied in autumn to protest against the rising price of bread and, more significantly, pasta. The cost of this beloved Italian staple has risen by an astonishing 20% as durum wheat is increasingly used as a source of biofuel.As for its effect on climate change, the demand for energy crops has led farmers to clear forests and grasslands to make room for large plantations, removing natural carbon sinks-reservoirs that remove carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere. Energy crops are meant to absorb the same amount of carbon emitted by the use of biofuels, making the source carbon neutral (i.e. no carbon is added to the atmosphere). However, fossil fuel inputs used to grow, harvest and ferment bioenergy crops can add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than is being removed. When the whole life cycle of bioenergy crops is taken into account, using biofuels can have a greater negative impact on climate change than using gasoline.Yet, biofuels can still be a viable energy source when produced sustainably, with appropriate mitigation of the potential risks. Produced on a proper scale, with food security and biodiversity in mind, biofuels can be a beneficial alternative to fossil fuels around the world, not just for transportation but for other utilities as well.The cost of pasta, Italy's beloved staple, has risen by an estimated 20% as a result of the use of durum wheat for biofuel production.istockphoto.com For further information, visit the website of UN-Energy at http://esa.un.org/un-energy/ Germans will be watching their pockets this Oktoberfest. The cost of beer has gone up by 5.5% as a result of the replacement of barley with heavily subsidized energy crops.Indigenous peoples survive in some of the most marginal and fragile ecosystems on Earth. For generations they have relied on traditional methods of caring for the plants and animals unique to their communities. In this way, they have played a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity in many delicate environments across the globe. As temperatures continue to rise due to global warming, the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, though often overlooked, will become vitally important in helping ecosystems adapt to climate change.Around the world, biodiversity is a safeguard against catastrophe. By cultivating several different species of crop, each of which is adapted to slightly different environmental conditions, farmers are usually able to produce at least some kind of yield, even during bad years. Now scientists predict that some of the most diverse areas on Earth will experience the greatest effects of climate change, with potentially disastrous impacts on indigenous peoples. According to Jan Salick, Darrell Posey Fellow of Ethnoecology at the University of Oxford, UK, \"As climate change threatens biodiversity, it simultaneously removes the major defence that indigenous peoples have against variation and change. Their primary tool for adaptation is at risk.\"Because indigenous peoples inhabit a wide variety of habitats-from mountains to islands and deserts-they will experience the effects of climate change in many different ways. People living in polar regions are projected to be the hardest hit by climate change. As ice sheets and permafrost melt, they will face hardships in hunting, fishing, travelling and building permanent homes. In alpine areas, the upward movement of tree lines and mountain plants will push many highaltitude plant species right off the top of the mountains. This could be devastating to the Tibetan and Andean highlanders who depend on their local flora for medicines, food and grazing. As weather patterns become more and more irregular, some people in temperate ecosystems will no longer be able to depend on the dry periods needed for preserving fish and seaweed.An additional challenge is that many indigenous peoples have difficulty relating their own experiences to scientific explanations of what is happening to the climate. \"Scientific causal explanations of climate changes may be seen as removed and abstract,\" said Salick. \"Invisible gases are being put out into the atmosphere by anonymous corporations and states.\" An example of this disassociation between science and tradition is the traditional belief that harsh weather conditions are some sort of punishment for man's misconduct. In Tibet, for example, it is believed to be the wrath of local deities that is to blame for hail and thunderstorms. In the community of Cariquina Grande near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, farmers till the land using a traditional tool dating back to Incan times. For further information, contact Nathan Russell, CGIAR Secretariat nrussell@worldbank.org minimize evaporation from the soil surface and coax the soil to store more water, thereby ensuring better water provision for the arid summer months.In addition to initiatives aimed at soil, water and the molecular machinery of plants, other CGIARsponsored projects are encouraging scientists to keep their heads in the clouds-to address the management of greenhouse gases.Poor farmers are some of the most crucial players in the removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Yet most of them are missing out on the benefits of carbon removal programmes because of their inability to calculate just how much carbon they are eliminating from the air. Farmers sequester carbon simply by growing crops, which take carbon dioxide from the air to grow. The carbon remains in the cells of the plant and in the soil; as long as the plant residues are not burnt and no-till agriculture is practised, the carbon remains undisturbed and is not released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is raising an endowment that will protect against unpredictable funding for crop diversity conservation.In China, research has shown how growing different varieties of rice in the same field can improve resistance to rice blast, a common disease affecting rice plants in the region.Experts Agriculture is the economic foundation of most countries and the most likely source of economic growth for developing countries.Growth is most rapid where agricultural productivity has risen the most, and the reverse is also true. Agriculture's part in fighting poverty is complex, but without the genetic diversity found in crops and their wild relatives it will never fulfill its potential. Crop diversity is one of humanity's most potent weapons in the fight against hunger and poverty and in the struggle to respond to climate change. Yet you could be forgiven for thinking it is a secret weapon.Children among a diverse stand of the Andean grain Cañihua, in Sillustani, Juliaca, Peru.For more information, contact Julian Laird j.laird@croptrust.org or visit the Trust's Web site at http://www.croptrust.org1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth.generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO ² . • If the average global temperature rise exceeds 1.5 to 2.5°C, 30% of animal and plant species will be at risk of extinction.• In Brazil, climate change will cause losses of 24% of 138 tree species.• In West and Central Africa, climate change will cause agricultural losses of up to 4% of GDP.• In the Mediterranean, there will be an increase in forest fires, reduced water and increased drought. When changes like these affect commercial marine species, the international fishing industry faces a whole new set of challenges.As major commercial species make their way into new waters, for example, fisheries treaties between neighbouring countries may need to be amended. Meanwhile, the issue of over-fishing will need to be addressed as fishers attempt to get the same amount of fish from a stock that has been reduced as a result of climate change.The seas in Europe and across the globe play a vital role in regulating climate, absorbing greenhouse gases, providing habitats for diverse species of plants and animals and contributingAround 70,000 kilometres of European coastline could suffer irreversible damage as a result of rising sea levels and more frequent storms. Over a period of six months, Professor Alan Gange performed statistical analyses on more than 52 000 fungal fruitings from about 1400 different areas.He found that the species that typically fruit early have been fruiting an average of 8.6 days earlier each decade and those that fruit late are fruiting around 7.5 days later each decade. These rates of change are higher than any rates previously reported, including those for fish, mammals, birds and plants. In addition, the length of the full fruiting period has, on average, more than doubled-from 33 to 75 days-over the past 50 years. Some fungal species have even begun to fruit twice a year-a phenomenon previously virtually unheard of. Hypholoma fasciculare now fruits much earlier than it used to: in April and May as well as in autumn. Climate change is affecting the fruiting patterns of many species of fungi.A. Gange past 56 years. Together, these have caused the doubling in the length of the fruiting season.\"I looked up the data on the average temperature for February in southern England during the 1950s, and it was 3.5°C,\" said Professor Gange to BBC News. \"In the current decade it's 5.2°C. We used to get cold days and nights in February, which caused fungi to be dormant; these days we get very little of that.\" This explains why some species now fruit twice a year-it is no longer cold enough in spring to slow their growth.The connections between fungal fruiting patterns and climate change are also linked to patterns in the availability of nutrients to trees in deciduous forests. Fungi living in forests often act as a sort of intermediary, intercepting nutrients en route to trees and using them to produce the characteristic fruiting bodies we recognize as mushrooms and toadstools. Because fungi in many deciduous forests are fruiting earlier, the timing of nutrient availability to the trees in these forests must also be changing with climate.A lifetime of work by Ted Gange has not only resulted in a great resource for studying some of the effects of global changes in climate, but has also led to an increased awareness of the impacts rising temperatures might have on plants and animals in the future.Calvatia gigantea, the famous giant puffball mushroom now fruits earlier than it used to.A. GangeMushroom aficionado, Ted Gange, identifies fungi following another foray into the fields of southern England.A. GangeFor further information, contact Alan Gange a.gange@rhul.ac. Jatropha, widely grown in Mali as a garden shrub, yields oil-rich seeds suitable for the production of biodiesel. For more information, contact Paul Stapleton, CIP p.stapleton@cgiar.org or visit http://inrm.cip.cgiar. org/altagro/Different varieties of potatoes on display at Petronila's farm. • Buy fresh foods instead of frozenFrozen food uses 10 times more energy to process, store and transport.• Buy organic foods as often as possible Soils on organic farms capture and store much more carbon dioxide than do soils on conventional farms. The use of fertilizer on conventional farms stimulates rapid decay of organic matter, releasing carbon dioxide. If we grew all of our maize and soybeans organically, we would remove over 250 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!• Eat less meat Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas, and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters.• Protect and conserve forests worldwide Forests store carbon.When forests are burnt or cut down, their stored carbon is released into the atmosphere. Deforestation now accounts for about 20% of carbon dioxide emissions each year.It takes 70 to 90% less energy to make recycled paper than to make paper from fresh lumber. Using recycled paper prevents the loss of forests worldwide.Climate change will increase the number and frequency of severe storms.G. Fochesato/istockphoto.comA single tree absorbs one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Swarna and Samba Mahsuri from India and IR64 from IRRI. Not only do these strains survive extended periods of submergence, they also retain many other desirable properties of the original strains-including high yield, pleasant taste and good regional adaptation. Some have even been shown to produce greater yields than the original strains.The success of the Sub1 strains has spurred the current development of commercial submergencetolerant varieties in Bangladesh, India and Lao PDR.Although this work has taken some time to come to fruition, it has certainly been worth the wait. These new varieties possess some of the most advanced features farmers could want in a strain of rice. Some estimate that, in addition to helping farmers cope with a challenge that has faced them for generations, they have the potential to benefit over 70 million of the world's poorest people.Based on information provided by David Mackill, Head, Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology Division, IRRI (d.mackill@cgiar.org).IRRI researchers Abdelbagi Ismail (left), Sigrid Heuer (second from right) and David Mackill (right) examine a submergence-tolerance screening experiment at IRRI.Characterized by low, flat areas of cropland that are susceptible to submergence by nearby rivers, lakes and streams, these are regions with potential for both high agricultural productivity and as a habitat for a wealth of wildlife. It may be in the cultivated floodplains that the balance between highlevel rice production and biodiversity conservation is to be found.Bringing floodplains into agricultural production generally requires flood control and drainage to manage water levels. These modifications, along with ploughing and land levelling, radically alter the ecology of the ecosystem and tend to eliminate much native vegetation. From a wildlife conservation perspective, converting wetlands to agricultural fields too often represents habitat simplification that favours the needs of one speciesthe crop-at the expense of many others.While at first the goal of achieving high levels of food production while maintaining wetlands biodiversity may seem hopeless, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) ecologist K.L. Heong maintains that a solution lies in the way we think about agricultural systems.\"If our goal is to optimize natural resources to maximize grain production or the number of bird species, for example,\" said Dr. Heong, \"we perceive the world quite differently than if we say we want to optimize the totality of services that humanity derives from an ecosystem over a period of many generations.\"One way we can understand how human activities influence ecosystems is by using indicator organismsin particular, the kind with feathers. Birds are a very diverse group, with many species that depend on different resources for food, shelter and reproduction. This means that changes in abundance of a particular bird species can give us clues to specific things that have changed in the overall environment.The loss of native vegetation resulting from the conversion of wetlands to agricultural areas poses a major threat to birds today. While there can be large numbers of birds in rice fields, there generally aren't nearly as many species as are found in undisturbed wetlands.According to Tim Fisher, a prominent Philippinesbased naturalist, \"The bird species we see in rice fields tend to be the ones that are lucky enough to have an ecological niche that overlaps with some aspect of the rice system. Such species might do extraordinarily well because the system has essentially been optimized for them as well.\" An example of this is the Eurasian tree sparrow, a rice pest that can eat large amounts of grain and which thrives in very high numbers in rice-growing areas throughout the Philippines.Rare species, like the streaked reed-warbler, meanwhile, have proved quite sensitive to the conversion of wetlands into agricultural production areas. Breeding in China and wintering in reed-beds in the Philippines, this small bird is now rarely observed in Candaba marsh, a small municipality in the Philippines that has gradually been modified for rice production.In an effort to protect species like the streaked reed-warbler, Candaba City mayor Jerry Pealayo established a 72-hectare bird sanctuary adjacent to the marsh. The sanctuary attracts some 500 local species and foreign visitors each year, boosting the local economy through increased employment and tourism.In addition to preserving biodiversity for bird lovers, there are numerous other human benefits resulting from the maintenance of wetlands. Healthy wetlands protect downstream areas by storing floodwaters during the wet season, recharging underground storage areas for water, and releasing the stored water during the dry season. Wetlands also act as biological filters by retaining and processing nutrients and pollutants.While humans receive benefits from wetlands, the wetlands must in turn be managed appropriately by humans. \"While we must Balanced on a wing: bird diversity and the cultivated floodplainAn egret flying over rice fields, Philippines.restore wetland habitat to effectively conserve bird biodiversity,\" explained Dr Thomas Brooks, senior director of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science in Washington D.C., \"this alone won't be effective unless the rice systems in the same landscape are managed in a manner that maintains an appropriate water flow regime into the areas within the system that are important to wildlife.\"This of course raises the question of whether high food production can co-exist with biodiversity.According to Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, leader of the Genetic Resources Center at IRRI, it can. \"In theory, judicious selection of the appropriate components of a biodiverse system can actually increase productivity by enhancing beneficial processes like the activity of the natural enemies of diseases and pests, and can increase the stability of production by buffering the impacts of climatic uncertainty.\"Brooks added that \"The most authoritative study on this shows that, if the value of all environmental services is considered, conservation areas adjacent to agricultural production areas are generally worth 100 times the opportunity costs of establishing them.\"\"When you look at very extensive wetlands,\" said Sackville Hamilton, \"they are actually quite homogeneous at the landscape level and it's quite possible that when agriculture is introduced to the landscape in patches, it can actually increase the overall biodiversity of the system. This is because the farmed field is an entirely different ecosystem, providing additional niches for species that are not normally found in wetland ecosystems.\"A purple heron sighted in a rice field in a once marshy area.Native to the rainforests of Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, the fruit of the Maya Nut tree is a better source of nutrients than many foods grown on farms. And what is more, it has long been available when crops failed. As Jose Lira of Chinandega, Nicaragua, recalled, \"When I was a child, there was a terrible famine that lasted five years. We had no food so the families went to the forest to gather Maya Nut to eat. We ate almost nothing but Maya Nut for five years and no one in the village died or even got sick. Maya Nut saved our lives.\"Today, the Maya Nut tree is danger of extinction.Extensive cutting for firewood and agricultural expansion over the last several decades nearly wiped out the tree from the forests of Central America. Fortunately, a chance meeting set off the chain of events that led to the creation of a programme to rescue the Maya Nut tree from extinction in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua.American biologist Erika Vohman was first introduced to the Maya Nut tree while in the forest gathering food for animals at a Guatemalan wildlife rescue organization.Accompanied by a local man whose ancestors had eaten the nuts as a famine food, she was given the opportunity to try them for herself when he offered to prepare a nut soup for her. After this first taste, Vohman was determined find out more and, upon returning to the USA, where she studied the nut, learned that the nutrient levels found in three of the most widely produced grains worldwide-corn, wheat and rice-paled in comparison with those of the Maya Nut. When she returned to Guatemala as part of a UN rural development programme, Vohman used this knowledge to help the impoverished residents of La Benedición village survive for three months with virtually no food and no crops other than the Maya Nut trees that grew naturally in nearby forests.The Maya Nut (Brosimum alicastrum) is called variously the Ramón Nut, Breadnut, ujuxte, mojo, ash, ojite, capomo, pisba, masica and guaimaro. Yet while the name may vary from community to community, the uses of the Maya Nut are similar throughout the region. Traditionally prepared by boiling with salt, the Maya Nut has in recent years found its way into a variety of interesting dishes. Today, fresh Maya Nut is stewed and incorporated into tamales, pies, burgers, soup, sauces and more. And the sun-dried or roasted seeds, which taste like a combination of coffee and chocolate, are used in cakes, biscuits, cereal, pancakes, puddings and the like.Working with local women, Vohman helped create the Equilibrium Fund, a non-profit organization with a mission to improve livelihoods in the region without destroying the environment. The objectives of the Equilibrium Fund are accomplished primarily through the Maya Nut Programme, a unique and highly successful project that focuses on women as caretakers of the family and the environment.The goals of the Maya Nut Programme are ambitious: they include conservation; personal and community health and well-being, economic growth, and the empowerment of women. The Programme educates women about the potential health benefits and uses of the Maya Nut, while teaching them how to conserve the nuts and to market Maya Nut-based products such as ice cream, biscuits and other sweets.Hundreds of participants have been motivated to create their own microenterprises to raise money for their families and communities. For example, several groups of women have invested their earnings in local Maya Nut tree nurseries in hopes of reforesting their villages with the trees.Fans of the Maya Nut have even ventured beyond the immediate boundaries of their villages to instruct and empower their neighbours. Incredibly productive, one Maya Nut tree can yield nearly 180 kg of food per year. Combined with the fact that the nuts are easy to process and do not rely on the use of chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides, it perhaps will come as no surprise that, since 2002, more than 150 000 new Maya Nut trees have been planted throughout Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. For her efforts, Vohman was awarded the 2006 St Andrews Prize for the Environment, worth US$50 000.Although the Maya Nut Programme is certainly having an impact, lack of funding remains a challenge. Until the project is able to scale up in size and achieve legal protection for the Maya Nut tree, this important resource will continue to be threatened throughout its range. Of course, difficulties like these have only served to encourage organizers of the programme to work even harder: 80 000 more trees were set to be planted in 2007 in hopes that this precious source of food and income will become even more difficult to ignore.Maya nut producers pose behind their maya nut seedlings.The Equilibrium Fund's Maya Nut Programme teaches women how to market maya nut-based products such as ice-cream, cookies and other sweets.Freshly picked maya nuts.For more information or for a copy of the Maya Nut Cookbook, contact Erika Vohman info@TheEquilibriumFund.org or visit http://www. Communities of farmers living in the Kolli Hills of India, about 300 km southwest of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, are enjoying higher incomes and better nutrition thanks to the efforts of a Bioversity-led project to promote the value of neglected and underused species of grains.Small-grain cereals such as finger millet, foxtail millet and little millet once formed an important part of the diets of people living in the south of India. However, with the introduction of rice and other high-yielding crops, communities gradually abandoned these traditional grains. Farmers in the Kolli Hills were no exception to this trend. They too abandoned their millets in favour of highyielding crops that were more popular on the market.Millets are high in folic acid, minerals, iron and fibre and have higher vitamin levels than crops such as rice.They are also well suited to dry soils and tolerant of drought, providing a source of nutritious food even in the driest, harshest years.However, lack of demand for millets and the laborious processing that millet grains demand eventually pushed the Kolli Hills communities to instead start growing cash crops such as cassava for sale to local processing factories. With the extra income, the farmers were able to buy other foods that were less nutritious but much easier to prepare.\"The communities of the Kolli Hills had become seriously malnourished,\" explained Stefano Padulosi, the global coordinator of the project, which was implemented in India through the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. \"Millet diversity was vanishing because it was no longer being grown and the sustainability of farming systems was also at risk because cassava and other cash crops are harder to grow.\"One of the main reasons for the millets' fall from grace was the long and laborious processing that was required before they could be consumed, a job invariably carried out by the women of the community. The growing availability of preprocessed or more-easily processed foods made them more attractive to the overburdened women.To address the problem, the project introduced mini-mills to the farmers' self-help groups. \"The mills do in ten minutes what used to take the women two or three hours,\" said Padulosi.Reducing the drudgery involved in the preparation of the millets and promoting their nutritional value made them more attractive to grow. The project worked with the community to build capacity by organizing courses on topics such as cultivation practices and marketing. Access to micro-credit schemes allowed the community to buy additional machines, further reducing the burden of the women.Family incomes increased, not only from the sale of millet grains but also because people ate more millet at home, which saved money that they had previously been spending on food.The communities of the Kolli Hills are not the only ones that have benefited from the project on neglected and underused species, which is supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The project worked with partners in seven countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Nepal, Peru and Yemen) to help communities make the most of local crops in order to improve their food security and income. Such was the impact of the project that a second phase was launched in 2007 to consolidate and extend the work.The health of children in the Kolli Hills villages is improving as their parents return to growing more nutritious crops P. Bordoni/Bioversity International Electrical mini-mills allow women to prepare the millet for a day's meals in 10 minutes instead of 2 hours.Since the beginning of the last century, nearly threequarters of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops is thought to have been lost. This means that for every four species that existed at the beginning of the 20th century, only one remains today. This dramatic decline in crop diversity is largely a result of the replacement of traditional varieties with highyielding, modern cultivars.It has been said that a species is only as safe as its habitat.As climate change threatens to raise temperatures and increase the frequency of catastrophic events such as droughts and floods, the habitats to which traditional cultivated varieties have spent centuries adapting will face serious changes. This is likely to speed the loss of crop diversity even further, with catastrophic consequences for agriculture. Conserving the genetic material of traditional crops is the best way to ensure that irreplaceable traits are not lost along with diversity in the field. ICRISAT Diversity of groundnut conserved in the ICRISAT genebank.The coconut has been at the heart of many controversies over the years. Should it be classified as a fruit, a nut, a vegetable or a seed? Should its rich saturated fat content be likened to the artery-clogging fats found in meat and dairy products? Has anyone ever really been injured by a falling coconut? Rather than pondering modern-day questions like these, the early Spanish explorers who encountered the coconut simply observed the three indentations on this hairy sphere, dubbed it 'coco', meaning 'monkey face', and spent their time enjoying its sweet, creamy taste.Although the exact origin of the coconut is still debatable, the general consensus is that it came from one of three places: South Asia, northwestern South America or the islands of the western Pacific. With the help of both human and marine transport, the coconut has since traveled far from its origin, typically establishing itself in sunny climates that receive regular rainfall. Some of the best places to find the salttolerant coconut tree are in the sandy soils along tropical shorelines. It is here that many of these trees, often planted in a deliberate effort to prevent coastal erosion, provide a habitat and food source for local animals like the coconut crab.Throughout South Asia and the South Pacific, the coconut tree has been referred to as the 'tree of life' or the 'tree that grants all wishes' thanks to its endless assortment of culinary and non-culinary uses. The coconut is perhaps most famous for its role as a delicious and nutritious food source, whether eaten fresh or in cooked dishes.All across the globe, the sweet, refreshing liquid found inside the coconut (known as coconut water) is enjoyed fresh, while the rich, white meat is often dried and added to baked goods. For the peoples of South Asia and the Pacific, the coconut palm is an integral part of their lives. Whether the fruit is eaten fresh as a sweet snack or the tree trunk is fashioned into a bridge, the coconut will continue to provide both economic and nutritional benefits to these regions for generations to come. \"No one can overestimate the value of the coconut tree to our communities,\" said Vili Lese, a resident of the Pacific island of Samoa, \"There are two things all Pacific islands have in common-the ocean and the coconut trees.\"Diversifying production to include livestock and fodder can help boost the incomes of coconut farmers. Most experts agree that the best way to combat insecttransmitted viruses is by using virus-resistant plant varieties. Loroco, however, is still at an early stage of genetic improvement. This is why loroco farmers in Central America are being shown how to avoid viral diseases by adopting a simple but effective practice: the use of partial shade to camouflage loroco plants from airborne aphids. The strategy is tailormade for loroco. In the wild, the plant normally grows in the shade of trees, benefiting from reduced light exposure. These experimental results are good news for loroco farmers, who stand to benefit significantly from increased yields. It has been estimated that a single hectare of loroco in full production can produce a net economic benefit of over US$10 000/ year. And in rural areas where women usually grow loroco in home gardens, the crop could bring an important additional source of income. Even a very small backyard plot of loroco can make a substantial contribution to improving the well-being of resource-poor households in Central America.Loroco: a pre-Columbian crop with a bright future For further information, contact Dr Francisco Morales, CIAT f.morales@cgiar.orgCommercial loroco plantation in the Valle de Zapotitlan, El Salvador.Planting loroco in the shade helps avoid plant contamination. Scientists in Central and South America have discovered a way to trace the history and domestication of one of the most popular foods native to the region: the chilli pepper. Archaeological sites throughout the Caribbean, Venezuela and the Andes have been found to contain tiny fossils of starch grainsso-called 'microfossils'-that are similar in shape and general appearance to the five domesticated varieties of chilli pepper that exist today.Limited archaeological evidence for many crops has made it difficult to deduce exactly when, where and from what species modern-day crop varieties developed. For example, while few people would argue that the chilli pepper originated somewhere in Mexico or Mesoamerica, no one is sure how long it had been cultivated by indigenous populations prior to its 'discovery' by Christopher Columbus in the fifteenth century.With the findings made by Dr Linda Perry, a postdoctoral fellow in the archaeobiology department at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and colleagues, however, that date has been set at several thousand years ago. An analysis of microfossils taken from sediment samples, milling stones, cooking vessels and other artefacts at two sites in south-western Ecuador revealed that ancient civilizations were actively cultivating chilli peppers on a large scale more than six millennia ago.The ancient peoples of the coastal and highland areas of Peru, meanwhile, were found to have been chilli eaters as far back as 4000 years ago.Both wild and domesticated chilli peppers come in many varieties, each with a unique colour, flavour, shape and level of heat. Jalapeño and cayenne peppers tend to be the hottest, while bell and cherry peppers are significantly milder. The rule of thumb is that the smaller and thinner the pepper, the hotter the taste. In addition to being used in popular dishes like enchiladas, salsa and tamales, chilli peppers have recently been lauded for their potential health benefits. Rich in vitamins A and C, they contain a compound called capsaicin that, besides giving peppers their 'kick', may help fight cancer and inflammation and provide pain relief.Because all of the microfossils uncovered from the seven sites across the Americas were characteristic of fully domesticated (as opposed to wild or semi-domesticated) varieties of chilli pepper, the question still remains as to exactly where and when the chilli pepper was first brought under the management of humans. Nonetheless, at least two conclusions can safely be drawn from the research of Perry and her colleagues. First, domestication must have occurred before the development of any of the ancient societies examined in the study, i.e. at least 6000 or more years ago, and, second, chilli peppers were often cultivated alongside crops such as maize as part of a plant food complex that may, in some areas, predate pottery. \"All of the components of the modern Mexican diet were there,\" said Perry. \"Whether or not the food was exactly the same, the main ingredients were there.\"Thanks to a perpetual interest in exotic foods, humans have greatly influenced the distribution and trajectory of the chilli pepper across the globe. But, just as humans are responsible for the expansion in the range of the chilli pepper, so too are we responsible for continuing to investigate its origins. The microfossils uncovered by Perry are just one means by which we have begun to unravel the evolution of the chilli pepper.Delving even deeper into its history may reveal traits that were lost in the process of domestication-traits like resistance to pests or diseases that may one day help modern farmers improve their own chilli crops.Based on Perry L, Dickau R, Zarrillo S et al. 2007 It is hoped that these efforts will contribute to securing the conservation of wild bananas and ensure that their genetic diversity can be used to improve the lives of the millions of people who depend on bananas as a source of food and income.For further information, visit http://www.bananas. bioversityinternational.org/H. Chen and M. Häkkinen Musa monticola is one of the wild banana types that was found to be threatened. It grows on the island of Borneo, a real hotspot of wild Musa diversity.Cacao: from the farms of Nicaragua to the mouths of gourmet connoisseurs everywhereA new project from Bioversity International will use highquality chocolate to link poor farmers in Nicaragua to gourmets in Europe and North America. The farmers will gain income and independence, the gourmets will enjoy complex-flavoured chocolates based on new varieties of cacao, and the environment will benefit from organic and sustainable farming. All of this while preserving the diversity of cacao for future generations.Funded by the Austrian Development Agency, with additional contributions from local and international partners, this project will serve as a complement to the CacaoNet initiative, also coordinated by Bioversity, whose work is to promote the conservation and use of cacao genetic resources across the globe.In the community of Waslala, in the buffer zone of the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve in Nicaragua, about 1200 families make a poor living tending small farms of low-quality and low-earningpotential crops. Part of the reason for this hardship is that the rules for living on the reserve do not permit the traditional shifting agricultural practices of these farmers. In the past, they would clear a patch of forest, grow crops there for a few years and then move on. In the reserve, many farmers today have only a few cacao trees on a permanent patch, from which they harvest beans for cocoa and chocolate. Most of these are modern disease-resistant hybrids, but of poor quality.Rather than try to increase the yields and value of these trees, the new cacao project will instead focus on a small number of older trees, called criollo, that remain in the reserve. The criollo trees produce much better cocoa-superior in terms of flavour-but are nonetheless vanishing as a result of neglect. This is because they tend to be low-yielding. In the past, because of poor communication between farmers and consumers of chocolate, farmers placed priority on producing high yields rather than high quality cacao.Working with local partners and foreign chocolate companies and scientists, Bioversity hopes to boost the yields of the criollo and to increase the quality of the beans they produce by improving processing methods. As a result of increases in product quality using organic standards, trade links will be strengthened with farmers getting a fair price for their produce.Bioversity and its partners in the project plan to focus on training and empowering women, because they are vital in the processing of cocoa beans.\"We will work with our partners at all steps in the chain from cacao farmer to chocolate eater to give everyone a taste of the benefits of cacao diversity,\" said Bioversity scientist Michael Hermann, who manages the project. \"Better chocolate is just one of the many spin-off benefits of improving the lives of poor cacao farmers.\"The project team poses alongside local cacao farmers in Waslala, Nicaragua.International Different varieties of cacao on display at the project site in Waslala, Nicaragua.X. Scheldeman/Bioversity International For further information, contact Michael Hermann m.hermann@cgiar.orgAccession: A sample of a crop variety or wild relative collected at a specific location and time.Biodiversity that contributes to food and agricultural production.Ecosystems that produce food via farming under human guidance.The total variability within and among species of all living organisms and their habitats.A change of climate that can be directly or indirectly attributed to human activity and that is in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods.Cultivar: Shorthand for cultivated variety.The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a strategic alliance of countries, international and regional organizations and private foundations supporting 15 international agricultural research centres.Desertification: Land degradation in arid, semiarid and dry subhumid areas resulting from various factors including climatic variability and human actions.Ecosystem: An ecological system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment.Conservation of a plant, animal or other organism outside of its original or natural habitat.Genebank: Facility where crop diversity is stored in the form of seeds, pollen, in vitro culture or DNA, or in the case of a field genebank, as plants growing in the field. Genebanks can also be used to store the genetic resources of animals, microbes and other elements of biodiversity.The genetic variation present in a population or species.Genetic resources: Genetic material of plants, animals and other organisms that is of value for present and future generations of people.Genotypes: 1. The genetic constitution of an organism. 2. A group of organisms with similar genetic constitutions.Germplasm: A set of genotypes that can be conserved or used.In ","tokenCount":"12420"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1e13335682d847aec1ea21c61599ffc7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8a9b5f14-ff64-4278-9958-f3ade08394bc/content","id":"-1499626665"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4c1bdfe7-4a3f-4d34-8b05-e6693b7a8e20","pagecount":"65","content":"This report provides a feminist analysis of seven policies, relating to gender equality in the agriculture sector of Ethiopia. Ethiopia has progressively expanded women's rights and the enabling policy environment since 1994. Despite the strong commitment of Ethiopia towards gender equality and gender mainstreaming, many of the policies analyzed do not integrate gender equality as a priority for the growth and development of the country and do not adequately mainstream gender. At best, there is an emphasis on increasing women's participation and integration, but little solid 'gender' targets are set. The analysis shows gender-specific policies have regressed since the 2006 National Action Plan on Gender Equality (NAP-GE) that proposed important gender-sensitive measures. The 2017 Women´s Development Package reduces gender objectives to the expansion of women´s access to certain services and benefits. Meanwhile, agriculturerelated policies have significantly improved in gender-sensitivity over the same time, culminating with the approval of the Gender Equality Strategy for Ethiopia´s Agricultural Sector (GESAS) in 2017. However, alignment across policies and implementation remains ad hoc.This report was commissioned by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by BMZ under the project, Understanding gender in wheat-based livelihoods for enhanced WHEAT R4D impact in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Ethiopia and thus has an agriculture and wheat focus. This report begins by: a) Defining and describing the international, regional and national policy framework for gender equality; b) Mapping out the most relevant national gender equality and agricultural policies; c) Presenting results from a critical feminist analysis of seven policies using an approach adapted from Krizsan and Lombardo (2013) to assess the quality of gender integration in seven policies (Table 1).  again for the Gender Equality Strategy, relate to any African treaty or convention. Most of the agriculture-related policies and also the Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTPII) mention the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), previously the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and claim that their targets are integrated within the national policies, although effective integration has not yet been achieved. Moreover, GTPII does not align with national gender-specific policies, nor does it follow the Gender Mainstreaming Guidelines formulated in 2010 by Ministry of Women and Children's Affair's (MoWCA).In general, despite the strong commitment of Ethiopia towards gender equality and gender mainstreaming, many of the policies analyzed do not integrate gender equality as a priority for the growth and development of the country and do not adequately mainstream gender. At best, there is an emphasis on increasing women's participation and integration, as a means to empower women but little solid 'gender' targets are set.The GoE can make a considerable impact on national growth and development by tackling gender inequality in one of Ethiopia's most important economic sectors. Women's drudgery has not been reduced despite being mentioned in several agriculture policies. Women's empowerment is aligned with policies produced over the last thirty years and yet targets are poorly set, and infrequently met. The gender sensitivity of agriculture policies have improved over time and this should be translating into changes for women on the ground, but the impact is unclear in the absence of policy evaluations. Ethiopia lags behind other African countries at a similar level of growth on gender equality.In the light of these findings, several conclusions and recommendations are made including:• Ethiopian policies tend to adopt a women-in-development (WID) approach from the 1970s, when a gender and development (GAD) approach is needed; • The agriculture sector has taken a more progressive approach to gender by viewing women as productive workers and discussing different types of women (pastoralists, women living in male headed households), rather than positioning all women mainly as mothers and carers, like the national policies; • Considerable capacity building is needed to help GoE set appropriate sex disaggregated targets and gender sensitive targets, as these are repeatedly done poorly across policies and development plans; • More evaluations of policies from a feminist or gender angle are required, along with evaluations that assess the impact of a policy on different kinds of women; • More documentation around best practices and lessons learnt is required to advance gender equality; • Gender norms are increasingly considered a barrier to women's empowerment in agriculture policies, but very few projects are designed to overcome gender norms that limit women's opportunities. Gender norm changes must be integrated into all policies;• More participatory policy making that include an equal representation of women is needed to enable women to have more of a voice in the policymaking process; • By not completely aligning with international and regional gender policies, the GoE suggests that it wants an Ethiopia-specific approach to gender equality. For this to be achieved, GoE should consider developing a national understanding of what gender equality means for the country; • Enabling women's organizations to mobilize and discuss women's rights must be done by removing the charities and societies proclamation currently in place; • All policies need to more effectively tackle women's drudgery and unpaid care burden.LIST OF TABLES   Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women's and men's rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. Equality between women and men is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centered development. Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men are taken into consideration -recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is not a 'women's issue' but should concern and fully engage men as well as women. Source: UN Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women ( 2001) GAD/WIDThe WID (or Women in Development) approach calls for greater attention to women in development policy and practice and emphasizes the need to integrate them into the development process.The GAD (or Gender and Development) approach focuses on the socially constructed basis of differences between men and women and emphasizes the need to challenge existing gender roles and relations. Source: Reeves and Baden (2000) Gender is not determined biologically but is constructed socially. While gender relates to sexual characteristics of either women or men (cisgender), intersex people are born with sex characteristics that do not fit neatly into biological categories that relate to male or female and transgender people enjoy acting like a gender that does not match their biology. Hence gender is an intersectional category that exists along a spectrum along with class, race, poverty level, ethnic group and age to determine opportunity structures, beliefs and informal rules about how people should act.The systematic gathering and examination of information on gender differences and social relations in order to identify, understand and redress inequities based on gender. Source: Reeves and Baden (2000) Gender GapThe term gender gap refers to any disparity between women's and men's condition or position in society. It is often used to refer to a difference in average earnings between women and men, e.g. \"gender pay gap.\" However, gender gaps can be found in many areas, such as the four pillars that the World Economic Forum uses to calculate its Gender Gap Index, namely: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. Source: Hausmann et al., (2012).Gender-sensitive indicators allow measuring changes in the relations between women and men in regards to a certain policy area, a specific program or activity, or changes in the status or situation of women and men, over time. The degree of integration of a gender perspective in any given project/policy can be seen as a continuum: Gender-neutral: Gender is not considered relevant to development outcomes. Gender norms, roles and relations are not affected (worsened or improved); Gender-sensitive: Gender is a means to reach set development goals. Addressing gender norms, roles and access to resources in so far as needed to reach project goals; Gender-positive: Gender is central to achieving positive development outcomes. Changing gender norms, roles and access to resources is a key component of project outcomes; Gender-transformative: Gender is central to promoting gender equality and achieving positive development outcomes. Transforming unequal gender relations to promote shared power, control of resources, decision-making, and support for women's empowerment. Source: UNWOMEN Training Centre. Policy Analysis Policy analysis involves identifying, examining, explaining, and understanding the content, causes and consequences of public policies. Source: Dye (1998) Sexdisaggregated data Sex-disaggregated data is data that is cross-classified by sex, presenting information separately for men and women, boys and girls. Sex-disaggregated data is necessary for effective gender analysis. Source: UNWOMEN Training Centre Women's Empowerment Empowerment of women is the process by which women gain power and control over their own lives and acquire the ability to make strategic choices. Women's empowerment has five components: women's sense of self-worth; their right to have and to determine choices; their right to have access to opportunities and resources; their right to have power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home; and their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally. Source: EIGE (n.d).Gender equality is a key government goal in Ethiopia, \"… attaining development among all the pillars of sustainable development is unthinkable without empowering women and obtaining gender equality, thereby using the entire potential of the country\" (Bayeh 2016:40). The Women's Affairs Office (WAO) within the Ethiopian Prime Minister's Office was created in 1992 and set the structure of women's institutional machinery at all levels of government. Women's Affairs Departments (WADs) were established in all ministries at the national level. Regional Women's Affairs Bureaus (RWABs) at the district level are responsible for providing gender mainstreaming guidance for all regional, zonal and woreda, or district, programs and plans (UN Women 2014). This structure was replicated at the sub-regional, woreda and kebele levels. 2 Moreover, the GoE has directed all ministries by proclamation no. 916 to address women's and youth affairs in policies, laws and development programs and projects (FDRE 2015).This report tries to understand the policy response to gender inequality in the agriculture sector and adopts a historical perspective. The analysis asks two questions:• What is the quality of Ethiopia's agriculture and gender policies as viewed through a feminist lens? • How can the heterogenous needs of women working across the country in the agricultural sector be enshrined in policy? While Ethiopia may lag behind other African nations at a similar level of growth in terms of gender-equality indicators, it has progressively expanded rights for women.The report is structured as follows: section one describes the methodology; section two analyzes the international, regional and the national context; section three presents the critical feminist policy analysis results; and, section four discusses the results and sets out the conclusions and recommendations.SECTION 1: RESEARCH DESIGN/METHODOLOGYThe analysis includes literature reviews and secondary quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The review drew from many published resources using a keyword search 3 in Research Gate, Google Scholar, UNECA library and Women Watch. Grey literature was also searched by visiting the websites of bilateral and multilateral donors working in Ethiopia, such as, the United Nations (UN), the World Bank and other international agencies, and local non-government organizations (NGOs), and research institutes.The review served the following purposes: (i) contextualizing the policy analysis by 2 Ethiopia is a federal republic with five administrative tiers: federal, regions, zones, woredas (districts), and kebeles (peasant associations) (World Bank and IFPRI 2010). 3 Keywords used: Ethiopia gender policy, Ethiopia gender mainstreaming agricultural, gender and agriculture Ethiopia, productivity and gender, poverty and gender, Ethiopia, gender and extension services, gender Ethiopia, agricultural policy review Ethiopia, understanding the current situation of women, and specifically women working in the agricultural sector; collecting national and international secondary data on current gender inequalities and their determinants; (ii) defining and describing the international, regional and national policy framework for gender equality; (iii) mapping out the most relevant national gender equality and agricultural policies; (iv) helping to choose a sample of policies to be subjected to the critical feminist analysis.The sample of seven policies was selected in accordance with three selection criteria: a) National policies specific to gender equality b) National policies from the agricultural sector that relate to wheat and/or gender c) Current national development plans that govern the agricultural sector.The sample is composed of the following policies: The criteria for analysis are framed by the Feminist Critical Policy Analysis Principles proposed by Bensimon andMarshall (2003) andMcPhail (2003). The principles have two main purposes: 1) To deconstruct conventional theories and explanations and reveal gender biases, and 2) To conduct analysis with a critical awareness of androcentric tendencies at the foundation of policies and social constructs (Bensimon and Marshall 2003). In applying these principles, McPhail (2003) stresses that the focus should be on rectifying any bias and exposing its existence in present and future policies. This is done by making women visible, by presenting evidence on how men and women are treated differently, by recognizing underlying assumptions and stereotypes of women embedded in the policies, and by understanding how women´s lives and roles are regulated and constrained by policies (McPhail 2003).However, this analysis includes other polices that are not gender-focused and hence adaption to the criterion is required. This is supported by the authors of the original framework, Krizsan and Lombardo (2013), who affirm that the quality criteria are not fixed across contexts and time, but rather context-dependent and in a constant process of construction.The first five quality criteria selected follow the Krizsan and Lombardo (2013) frame of analysis and focus on both policy content, (the first three criteria) and policy process, (the fourth and fifth criteria). The policy content criteria look at the way policies secure the gender content, and the policy process criteria ensure women´s participation and inclusion in the policy-making process. Two other criteria are added for the present research. They focus on the intersection of gender-equality policies and agricultural ones, and on how the national policies relate to the regional and international legal framework. In total, there are seven analytical criteria applied to the policies. Table 3 lists the questions asked for the seven criteria.Table 3: Analysis Criteria and Questions Analysis CriteriaResearch Questions 1. Gendering of the policy 1.1. Does the policy aim for gender equality? 1.2. Does the policy include sex-disaggregated data consistently? 1.3. Does the policy treat men and women differently in order to achieve gender equality? Does the policy consider gender differences in order to create more equality? 1.4. Does any special treatment of women cause unintended or restrictive consequences? Is there an implicit or explicit double standard? 1.5. Is the policy defined as \"gender neutral\"? Does the presumed gender neutrality hide the reality of the gendered nature of the problem or solution? 1.6. Are gender stereotypes challenged or reinforced? 1.7. Is gender mainstreamed throughout the document or relegated to a separate section? 2. Structural understanding of gender equality 2.1. Are women clearly visible in the policy? Does the policy consider the historical, legal, social, cultural, economic and political contexts of women´s lives? 2.2. Is the male experience used as a standard? Are results extrapolated from male experience and then applied to women? 2.3. Is the social construction of the problem recognized? What are alternate representations of the problem? 2.4. Does the policy sustain the pattern of men being viewed as public actors and women as private actors, or does the policy challenge this dichotomization? 2.5. Are women penalized either for their roles as wives, mothers or caregivers, or their refusal to adopt these roles? 3. Intersectionality 3.1. How does this policy incorporate multi-dimensional forms of exclusion and inequality (e.g. ethnicity, sexual identity, class, religion, marital status, disability or other identity criteria? 3.2. Does the policy target one \"standardized\" type of women? Are women treated as a homogenous group? 3.3. Does the policy address the ethnic and regional differences existing in the country? 4. Empowerment of women 4.1. Were women involved in the making, shaping, and implementation of the policy? In what ways were they involved? How were they included or excluded? 4.2. Were civil society groups and especially, women's groups, involved in the implementation of the policy? 4.3. Does the policy work to empower women? 5. Incremental transformation 5.1. Does the policy build on previous gender-equality achievements/policies? Does the policy build on previous evaluations and evidence? Or is it less progressive? 5.2. Does the policy use a rhetorical discourse or aim at genuinely materializing the reforms proposed? 5.3. How does the policy affect the balance of power between men and women? Is this done at a suitable pace given the context and current situation (e.g. does the policy adopt a \"do no harm\" approach to transformation to safeguard women's rights)? 6. Genderresponsive agricultural policies 6.1. Does the agricultural policy align with, and refer to, any other gender law/regulation/commitment/policy? How effectively has the agricultural sector policy aligned with the totality of government gender policies? 6.2. Does the agricultural policy address the specific needs and interests of women farmers/ women working in the agricultural sector? 6.3. Does the agricultural policy defer to gender norms and social traditions that impair women´s involvement in the agricultural sector? Or does it take a more progressive approach to gender equality than other GoE gender policies? 7. Regional and international contextualization 7.1. How does the policy comply with international and regional conventions, policies, laws and commitments that safeguard women's rights? 7.2. Does the policy borrow any measure/model from regional and international regulations? How? Source: Author's compilation based on Krizsan and Lombardo (2013) The research presents several limitations and challenges in its design and methodological approach. The language of the research is the first limitation encountered; policies were originally written in Amharic and then translated into English. The present research relies on English translations and thus, meanings and interpretations are subject to the accuracy of the English translation. Specifically, the Women´s Development Package (both the first version from 2006 and the second one from 2017) has not been officially translated into English and is not available on the internet. A nationally-based translation company was commissioned to translate the 2017 document into English. Thus, the present analysis relies on a non-official English translation of the 2017 Package, which may affect the assessment of the discourses and narratives in law. A copy of the 2006 package was not found.The literature on Ethiopia's gender policies is scarce. There is little investigation into the impact of gender-related policies on the country´s development. As an example, a national assessment on gender mainstreaming in Ethiopian policies has not been done. The only Action Plan on gender equality ever formulated (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) was never evaluated, nor was the Women´s Development Package (2006). Similarly, the gender impact of national development plans such as the GTP I and GTP II and agricultural policies is only anecdotally and lightly recorded. Consequently, this policy analysis had little to use for triangulation.Compared with the important number of policies and development plans and strategies produced by the MoANR and other government bodies, the selected sample is small. However, the selection criteria of the sample ensure that the policies included in the analysis are sufficiently representative to give an understanding of gender in the agricultural sector, and specifically in wheat-related policies. Moreover, the policy and legal overview captures the national framework by summarizing 19 major laws and policies.SECTION 2: OVERVIEW This section sets the Ethiopia context by providing an overview of the regional and international legal framework and the national policy and legal framework.Ethiopia is part of the African Union and signatory to many international and regional agreements for gender equality (Table 4). The pan-African agenda for gender equality is strongly encouraged in regional agreements. There are several regional plans and institutions that oversee and support state members like Ethiopia in mainstreaming gender and achieving gender equality goals. Other international legal conventions ratified by Ethiopia that specify women's rights include several International Labor Conventions.3.1 CEDAW (1979) Ethiopia signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1980 and ratified it in 1981. Since its ratification, the government has developed four national reports (1996; 2005; 2009; 2016) but not signed the Optional Protocol (OP-CEDAW) 4 which includes an inquiry procedure and a complaints procedure. The eighth periodic CEDAW report (Article 14) addresses rural women's issues and outlines how the government has considered the problems of rural women.A number of organizations including the African Rights Monitor (ARM) and Amnesty International have criticized GoE's efforts to promote women's rights in their CEDAW 'shadow reports'. The CEDAW (2011) observation report notes that the GoE's CEDAW Reports lack reference to the committee's previous observations and lack specific disaggregated data.Ethiopia endorsed the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) without any reservation during the 4th World Conference in 1995 and played a very important role in the preparatory process of the document at sub-regional and regional levels (Women Watch n.d). The BPA names twelve areas of concern to guide the mainstreaming of gender into policies and actions of the 189 signatory countries (UNwomen n.d). BPA member countries meet every five years to discuss progress.GoE's 2014 BPA report identified several challenges: a. Data-related challenges: there is a lack of data providing concrete evidence on gender relations, roles and issues, and a need for systems to collect sex-disaggregated data at all administrative levels, and civil servants have limited capacity to utilize raw data for formulating policies.b. Deep-rooted social norms: the historical legacy of inequality and discrimination is considered an important challenge for the implementation of gender equality in the country. c. Capacity-related challenges: there is limited capacity at various levels in the national gender machinery for the mainstreaming of gender equality in policy-making and policy implementation. Gender mainstreaming is not fully adopted across sectors at all levels in the country. The Report also identifies several emerging priorities, including: empowering rural women through improved access to and control over productive resources and extension services.In 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration and a comprehensive framework: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It has been reported that the level of adoption and contextualization of the MDGs in the country has contributed to Ethiopia's positive results and achievements in six out of eight MDGs. However, the two gender-related goals (Goal 3: \"Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls\" and Goal 5: \"Improve maternal health\") were not met (NPC and UN 2015).The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (hereinafter the Protocol) was adopted by the African Union (AU) in July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique, to supplement the African Charter on Human and People´s Rights (Kombo, Sow, Mohamed 2013). Ethiopia signed the Protocol in 2004 although it has not yet been ratified. The Protocol is regarded as one of the most progressive legal instruments providing a comprehensive legal framework for the human rights of women in Africa (WGDD 2016). Bond (2014) argues that the Maputo Protocol comes closer to reflecting the realities of African woman and better addresses the intersections of cultural identities with gender identities than other international conventions like CEDAW (Bond 2014). Hence, it is surprising that sixteen African countries, including Ethiopia, have not ratified the Protocol.At the African Union's summit meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 6-8 July 2004, the AU adopted the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA). The SDGEA reaffirms its commitment to the principle of gender equality as enshrined in regional and international commitments, declarations and instruments such as the CEDAW, MDGs and Maputo Protocol among others (Bond 2014).Ethiopia produced a report on the SDGEA in 2006, highlighting the following \"important steps\":• Land registration in the names of both spouses;• The National Food Security Program targeting women (providing productive safety nets, public works and direct income support);• Affirmative action to increase women's access to extension services and the number of female agricultural agents. In 2006, the African Women's Movement decided to create the campaign \"Gender is my agenda\" (GIMAC) to improve the slow progress towards the SDGEA.The Banjul Declaration on the Strategies for Accelerating the Implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action was developed at the Eighth Africa Regional Conference on Women (Beijing + 15) held at Banjul, Gambia, 2009 and focuses on the following strategic areas (UNECA 2009):1. Economic empowerment of women through reduction of poverty, creation of employment, social protection and use of information communication technologies; 2. Peace, security and development; 3. The prohibition of violence against women; 4. The representation and participation of women in all areas of decision-making; 5. Sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS; 6. Climate change and food security; 7. Financing for gender equality.In January 2015, nine months before the SDGs were launched, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union adopted Africa´s Agenda 2063, a long-term development strategy for inclusive growth and sustainable development (ECA 2016). Structural transformation, supported by industrialization, is at the core of the economic objectives of the Agenda and this is reflected in GTP I and II. The gender equality components relating to economic empowerment, participation of women and reduced violence against women are not well integrated into GTP II.There are important synergies between the African Agenda 2063 and the SDGs (also known as the Global Agenda 2030). Both agendas share common aspirations of structural transformation and sustainable development (ECA 2016). However, the agendas are not identical and thus, African countries -including Ethiopia -will face several challenges related to coordination, data-gathering and follow-up of the two initiatives (ECA 2016).The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the 2030 agenda replaced the MDGs in 2015 and focuses on achieving seventeen development goals:• No poverty; 2. Zero hunger; 3. Good health and well-being for people; 4.Quality education; 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; 6. Clean water and sanitation; 7. Many SDG 5 targets are relevant for the agriculture sector (box 5)Box 1. SDG Goal 5 Targets 5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere; 5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation; 5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation; 5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate; 5.5 Ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life; 5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences; 5.7 Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws; 5.8 Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women; 5.9 Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.3.9 CONCLUSION There are various international and regional conventions and commitments in place to govern gender equality. Effort has been made to find an African approach to international gender commitments. However, GoE has a mixed record when it comes to adopting and implementing regional and international gender commitments. Not ratifying the Maputo Protocol and not reaching the gender related MDGs are examples of slow progress. The lack of consideration of CEDAW committee recommendations suggest that perhaps in the past when the government signed such conventions it was more committed to gender equality than today, or possibly that Ethiopia wants to set its own development direction for gender equality.The next section will discuss the domestication of the international and regional agreements. This shows how Ethiopia has integrated some of the international commitments into its national policies but has not consistently and fully adopted the 2030 and 2063 targets into its National Plans. Particularly those associated with gender. This is worrying given the two gender related MDGs were not met. Moreover, the next section reveals the way women's rights are grouped under broader human rights and restricted when state power is threatened.This section offers a brief overview of domestic policies and national development strategies (Table 5), that are grouped under the headings: legal; women/gender; national plans; and agriculture. Gender-Equality Package * These policies are the sample selected for the feminist-policy analysis.The oppressive Derg regime (1974 to 1987) restricted all forms of human rights. In an attempt to maintain some power, the Derg regime gave way to The People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) (1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991) which retained many Derg leaders. It was not until The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), gained power from the PDRE in May 1991, that human rights improved. Known as the transition government, (1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995) it legislated human rights and incorporated them into policy.The 1994 Constitution of Ethiopia represents a huge leap forward for women's rights. It confirms the equality of all persons before the law and guarantees equal and effective protection without discrimination based on sex (FDRE 1994). The Constitution incorporates international agreements previously ratified by Ethiopia, Article 9 (4) stipulates that \"all international agreements ratified by Ethiopia are an integral part of the law of the land\" and article 13 of the Constitution requires all government organs to comply with the international human rights conventions to which Ethiopia is a party (MoWA, FDRE, WB 1998). The Constitution also dedicates a separate article (Article 35) to the rights of women and specifies affirmative action.The Revised Family Law (2000) gives equal rights to women in marriage and includes several highly important dispositions in protecting women´s rights and promoting equality between the sexes (Endalcachew 2015). The revised law raised women´s minimum age of marriage to 18 years and Article 6 states mutual consent of the spouses as one of the essential conditions for marriage. The law also confers to women the right to share property after divorce -even if they engaged in an irregular union (Article 102). Article 50 provides for joint management of family assets.Ethiopia possesses a number of legislations that protect the labor rights of women:• The Labor Proclamation No. 377 of 2003 ensures women's rights as well as young people's rights upon the formation of an employment contract, prohibits sex-based discrimination in compensation and employment, and grants women paid maternity leave. GoE has signed the following international labor conventions that protect women's rights as workers:• C100 Equal Remuneration, which guarantees equal remuneration and calls for ending workplace discrimination; • C111 Discrimination (Employment and Occupation), which promotes the rights of working women; and • C156 Workers with Family Responsibilities, which promotes equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women workers (ILO n.d).However, serious limitations and absences persist, particularly in sexual harassment, where there are no laws that even define what it is (Beyene 2015). Moreover, prohibiting women's right to work evenings when pregnant (although good intentioned) represents the government's paternal attitude towards women.The Federal Rural Land Administration Proclamation No 456/2005 provides the core guiding principles on the acquisition and use of rural land. The proclamation states that: \"… women who want to engage in agriculture shall have the right to get and use rural land\". There is a requirement that land-administration committees at the kebele level, the smallest administrative unit, have at least one female member (Macneil 2013). Ethiopia has gone through a two-phase land registration process: First Level Land Certification (from 1990 to mid-2000), took place in four of the nine Regions, and Second Level Land Certification (from 2005 after the revision of the 1997 Land Law) extended to the rest of the country.Kumar & Quisumbing (2015:420) confirm that \"Ethiopia´s land-registration process increases security of tenure among women and, if properly implemented, has the potential for far-reaching impacts.\" Moreover, they found that awareness about the land-registration process is positively correlated with the shift in perceptions toward equal division of land and livestock upon divorce.The criminal code/penal code that came into force in May 2005 criminalizes most forms of violence against women and girls including rape, trafficking/abduction, prostitution, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), sexual exploitation, early marriage, physical violence within marriage or in an irregular union, bigamy, and harassment (Endalcachew 2015).Despite a progressive expansion of women's rights in Ethiopia's legislation, many of these successes are limited by the Charities and Societies Proclamation (Box 2) that prohibits rights promotion and advocacy. The first National Policy on Ethiopian Women (NPEW) was developed in 1993 by the transitional government at the time. Although strategies and implementing actions are not sufficiently defined, the policy provides the foundations and an overall vision towards the realization of gender equality. The policy envisions three main objectives (OPM 1993):1. Facilitating the conditions for women´s equal participation in political, social and economic life; 2. Facilitating the conditions for rural women to access basic social services; 3. Eliminating harmful and customary practices that are based on gender prejudices and male supremacy, so that women can hold public office and better participate in the decision-making process at all levels.Importantly, the policy establishes the women´s institutional machinery and sets the duties and responsibilities of the Women´s Affairs Office (WAO) within the Prime Minister´s Office, as well as those of its subsidiary structures: the Women´s Affairs Sector in all the regional administrative offices, and the Women's Affairs Departments (WAD) in all ministries and government organizations (OPM 1993). However, Ogato (2013) claims that there is inadequate assessment of women´s roles and responsibilities, particularly in rural areas. MoWA (2006), also affirms that the policy´s coverage of women´s issues is limited and that a revision of the policy is necessary 5 .In 2006, The National Action Plan for Gender Equality (NAP-GE) 2006-2010 was developed by the Ministry of Women´s Affairs (MoWA) and was developed in the light of the 2000 Beijing+5 Political Declaration and the MDGs. This is the first and only example of a gender related international treaty being aligned with an Ethiopian policy.The main goal of contributing towards the attainment of equality between men and women in social, political and economic development (MoWA 2006). In contrast with its predecessor, the NPEW, the NAP-GE is not based on the rationale of human rights, but on a pragmatic view of gender equality to achieve sustainable development and economic growth.The NAP-GE's situation analysis identifies several gender gaps and proposes that the contemporary PASDEP should link to the NAP-GE. The plan contains four general objectives, followed by seven strategic objectives or priorities for action linked to the PASDEP pillars (Box 3). 5. Reduce violence against women and girls and respect their human rights; 6. Increase women's access to all levels of decision-making, and particularly in political and public spheres; IV. Improved public institutional performance 7. Implement a gender-based analysis and approach in all government departments and support institutional mechanisms for gender mainstreaming. Source: MoWA (2006) The specific budget allocation for the implementation of the NAP-GE is not provided within the formulation document. As for the evaluation of the plan, an M&E framework is proposed but not included. Given the fact that the NAP-GE is the country´s first attempt to explicitly integrate gender issues into a national development plan, an evaluation of its gender impact would have been prudent.In 2006 the Government of Ethiopia released the First Development and Change Package of the Ethiopian Women to address women's economic, social and political challenges and aligns with the NPEW. However, a version of this package could not be sourced. In March 2017, the MoWCA released a second package that aligns with the Constitution and the NAP-GE (MoWCA 2017).The 2017 package contains a situation analysis that includes the results achieved and the challenges encountered by the previous one. The analysis presents general information with little data and few evidence-based conclusions. The package contemplates three specific objectives:1. To enable women to benefit from employment opportunities in all sectors of the economy; 2. To enable women to become active participants and beneficiaries in social development sectors; 3. To support women´s organizations, increase women´s powers of decisionmaking and enhance women´s political participation.The objectives are to be achieved through the implementation of several strategies that target urban and rural women differently. Box 4 below presents the main strategies proposed to address the gender issues of rural women.Box 4. Strategies to address the gender issues of rural women 1. Strategies in the economic sector: 1.1. Ensuring land tenure and use; 1.2. Supporting rural women in engaging in non-agricultural activities; 1.3. Ensuring that rural women are beneficiaries of the food security and safety net programs; 1.4. Ensuring that rural women benefit from extension services; 1.5. Ensuring that women benefit from husbandry and fishery development packages; 1.6. Enabling women to be organized in cooperative unions; 1.7. Ensuring that women benefit from saving and credit services; 1.8. Enabling market access for women´s products; 1.9. Enabling women to benefit from environmental protection and development.2. Strategies in the social sector: 2.1. Enhancing the participation of rural women in education; 2.2. Ensuring that rural women are beneficiaries of better/improved health services; 2.3. Expanding programs that minimize the work load of rural women; 2.4. Preventing and avoiding harmful traditional practices; 2.5. Preventing and avoiding abuses being committed against women.3. Strategies in the political and good-governance sector: 3.1. Facilitating suitable conditions for the formation of women's organizations and development teams, and strengthening the ones already formed; 3.2. Ensuring the participation and benefits of women by strengthening the organizational structure of the government; 3.3. Ensuring the participation and benefits of women by issuing, revising and introducing legal frameworks and monitoring their implementation; 3.4. Enhancing the decision-making capacity and leadership participation of women; 3.5. Enhancing good-governance on gender issues; 3.6. Ensuring gender-responsive communication in mass media. Source: MoWCA (2017) The package document contains a chapter on monitoring and evaluation; however, there is no M&E plan proposed and thus, no indicators, timelines or targets to be achieved. It states that a survey will be conducted every two and a half and five years, to evaluate the progress of the package and set out required directions for the next period. This evaluation plan is welcome as previous plans of the MoWCA like the Package ( 2006) or the NAP-GE (2006-2010) have not been evaluated.A series of guidelines have been developed to help the government better mainstream gender. The Gender Mainstreaming Guidelines were developed in 2010 by the MoWA and aim to serve as reference material and as a national framework for all government and non-government partners. The National Gender-Responsive Budgeting Guidelines were developed by the MoFED in 2012, with the purpose of providing an operational framework for mainstreaming gender in the Ethiopian budgeting process. Despite these efforts, there has not been any assessment of gender mainstreaming in Ethiopian policies and thus, the usefulness and effectiveness of these guidelines has not been evaluated. Gender equality is integrated both as an objective and as a mainstreaming strategy. The PASDEP integrated NAP-GE in its formulation, which forms the core of its gender strategy (Box 5) (MoFED 2005: 171). Given the NAP-GE aligned with the BPA, it is a more progressive policy in terms of gender than GTP I or II.Box 5. Specific gender-equality (GE) priorities for actions and interventions to achieve the outcomes during the PASDEP period a) To enhance women's and girls' economic empowerment:• Promote women's participation in the formulation of economic policies and in the follow-up of their implementation; • Enhance rural women's equal access to and control over productive resources and services (land, oxen, extension, credit) to render them food-secure and enable them to escape from the poverty trap; • Enhance urban women's access to and control over economic resources and services (land, credit, employment, training); • Reduce women's workload;• Provide special social and economic safety and security to poor urban and rural women. b) To enhance the role and benefits of women in environmental management and protection: c) To promote equal access and success in education and training for women and girls: d) To improve women' and girls' reproductive rights, health and HIV/AIDS status: e) To reduce violence against women and girls and improve their human rights: f) To increase women's access to all levels of decision-making, in political and public spheres: g) To implement a gender-based analysis and approach in all government departments and to support institutional mechanisms for gender mainstreaming:• Create/raise public and institutional gender awareness to facilitate wider involvement in gender work and mainstreaming; Although the plan included several rather ambitious gender-equality objectives, it did not manage to translate such high-level commitments into concrete activities and indicators. The plan does not contain specific gender-equality actions, and the priorities do not include gender-specific indicators. Despite that, it was the first ever attempt to fully integrate gender equality into a national development plan and thus, it should be considered a significant milestone for gender mainstreaming in Ethiopia's policy making history.  2006) 6 , unlike their predecessor the PASDEP that followed the objectives set in the NAP-GE (2006-2010). Consequently, GTP I (and II) focus on developing women´s empowerment as an objective and as a strategy but, GTP I translates gender equality into women´s issues and treats the women's, children's and youth sectors as interlinked. GTP I claims to align with the MDGs.The Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP II) is the Government of Ethiopia´s main development plan for the period 2015/16-2019/20 (MoFED 2016a). The GTP II builds on the achievements of the GTP I in several sectors including the economic, industrial, social and governance sectors (MoFED 2016a). The government observes a number of challenges for women in accessing agricultural extension services, agricultural technologies, and land and credit services, and considers that more efforts should be made during GTP II (MoFED 2016a).The principal objective of the GTP II is to serve as the vehicle to achieve the national vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2025, through sustaining rapid, broadbased and inclusive economic growth (MoFED 2016a). GTP II focus on key sectors that have significant bearings on growth and structural transformation, including modernization in the development of the agricultural sector, and expansion of the industrial sector with the primary focus on light manufacturing and export development (MoFED 2016a). Regarding agricultural development, GTP II states that agriculture will continue to be the main source of economic growth.GTPII consultations brought the voices of rural women to national policy makers for the first time. This is considered by the Planning Department as a key reason for the women's focused outcomes -central policymakers heard the voices of rural women and tried to integrate gender into the policy. Under the specific pillar for the promotion of women and youth, several strategic directions, objectives, targets and implementation strategies are set out, and are summarized as follows: a. Strategic directions: i) Strengthening women's and youth organizations; ii) Ensuring active participation of these women's and youth organizations in the development and governance programs of the country; iii) Establishing coordination of these organizations with other concerned bodies and strengthen the accountability mechanisms and implementation processes of women and youth agendas, strengthen women's and youth associations through the empowerment of women and youth, and eliminate violence and harmful traditional practices. b. Objectives: ensure equal participation and benefits for women and youth in political, economic and social development, through empowering women and youth and enhancing their participation in ensuring child rights and well-being. c. Targets: i) empowering women and ii) empowering youth. d. Implementation strategies: mobilization of women and youth through \"development armies\"; climate change and gender-related programs will be developed; generating and using data, and expanding the accessibility of reliable data and establishing modern data-management systems; a strong monitoring and evaluation system will be built.While the policy discusses 'enhancing agricultural productivity' to spur on industrialization and export growth, it does not link gender inequality as a barrier, nor equality as a potential solution. Gender is not sufficiently mainstreamed: Women´s issues are considered solvable through women-only activities. This highlights the weakness of the national women's ministry -the government listened to their requests, but these requests were not sufficient for gender equality and women's strategic empowerment.4.4 AGRICULTURE In terms of agriculture, in 1993 The Agricultural Development-Led Industrialization (ADLI) strategy, became the Government's overarching policy response to Ethiopia's food security and agricultural productivity challenge (Teshome 2006). The objective of the ADLI is to strengthen the interdependence between agriculture and industry by increasing the productivity of peasant farmers, expanding large-scale private commercial farms, and reconstructing the manufacturing sector in such a way that it can utilize a country's natural and human resources (Kassahun 2004).ADLI contemplates several strategies and measures that are highly relevant to female farmers. However, there is little attention given to the mainstreaming of women farmers' concerns, or to the impact of gender relations in the subsistence farming sector (AfDB 2004). ADLI does not use any sex-disaggregated data and thus, women´s problems, concerns and interests are invisible (Ogato 2013). Moreover, there are no specific objectives or gender priorities. Women are mentioned in some parts of the document, but their needs are not consistently addressed. Reviews of ADLI are genderneutral and thus, information of the possible gender impact of the policy is unavailable (Mitik 2010) and yet, ADLI was considered Ethiopia's 'flagship' policy at the time of its release (Teshome 2006).The Rural Development Policy and Strategies (RDPS) 2003 sees rural-and agriculturecentered development as a key means of (i) ensuring rapid economic growth; (ii) enhancing benefits to the people; (iii) eliminating dependency on food aid; and (iv) promoting the development of a market-oriented economy (Teshome 2006). The policy states that it is necessary to make special development efforts targeting women so that they may gain the benefits of rural development as well as men (box 6). Furthermore, women are necessary to the achievement of the rural development goals since they make up 50 percent of the potential productive capacity of the country (MoFED 2003). However, gender equality is not regarded as a priority or an objective within the RDPS, although the participation of women and improvement of their conditions are considered as ways to better manage rural development.To ensure women's participation in rural development, the RDPS aims to increase women's:• productive capacity through education, and especially the provision of primary education;• increasing employment in agricultural activities helps to protect women's rights;• eliminate harmful traditional and outdated cultural practices;• reduce women's work load;• ensure women's right to acquire and own property and their user rights on plots of land; and• increase women's participation at the kebeles.Source: MoFED (2003).The The development of the PIF included a comprehensive review of policies, strategies and institutions, and an identification of gaps and weaknesses to be addressed (MoANR 2010). However, the analyses did not provide any information about gender-related gaps. Even though the PIF recognizes the importance of gender as a crosscutting issue in the agricultural sector, the policy does not mainstream gender in practice, nor does it include any women's empowerment objectives within its priorities (MoANR 2010).Furthermore, the Mid-term Review of the PIF found that recommendations to address gender issues -such as women´s lack of equality in control over resources and inheritance of land, limited access to traction animals, disproportionate suffering because of environmental degradation, and an excessive workload due to firewood and water collection -were not addressed as expected. The review recommended the integration of the National Action Plan on Gender within its framework (Chipeta et al. 2015). This mid-term review highlights that the rhetoric around gender and women is not followed by implementable actions.It Regarding the integration of gender equality, the strategy recognizes that integrating effective gender-mainstreaming during implementation is one of the potential challenges to achieving its set goals. Thus, sustained efforts to institutionalize gendermainstreaming in all plans and interventions is believed to be the way forward (MoA and ATA 2014). Two out of the six outcome indicators include sex-disaggregated targets, suggesting a lack of gender mainstreaming. Output indicators on the other hand are not sex-disaggregated (MoA and ATA 2014).The strategy puts the focus on FHHs and on the promotion of women´s participation in the GoE´s extension and training programs. The strategy also stresses the need to include women in programs for the promotion of new technologies, as well as in educational training programs. Although the strategy does not fully mainstream gender, it attempts to make women´s specific needs visible, and includes several proposals for empowering women farmers.The National Social Protection Policy of Ethiopia (2014) focuses on protecting vulnerable groups, including women and girls, and views social protection as a right (UNICEF 2016:2). Unlike many other countries, MoANR manages Ethiopia's main social protection program (Box 7). The National Social Protection Policy is significant in that it labels the GoE's food security program as a social protection program, rather than a food security program. The policy states that \"there can be no poverty eradication without sincere commitment to gender equality in general and addressing the problem of women in particular\" and that poverty eradication should be viewed from the \"angle and the position that women occupy in the society\" (MoLSA 2012:18). The objectives of the policy are to empower women economically; achieve gender parity in access to education, health and other basic services; strengthen the capacity of the public sector for gender mainstreaming; strengthen efforts to replace discriminatory norms, attitudes and practices; and monitor trends and disparities in gender parity (MoLSA 2012). Despite these statements, the policy asserts that social protection actions shall be \"gender neutral\". In 2016 a country-wide consultation process occurred to develop the Gender Equality Strategy for Ethiopia's Agriculture sector (GESEA). The Women's Affairs Directorate (WAD) of MoANR, together with the ATA and a Gender Taskforce composed of representatives from national and international development partners had the strategy approved by GoE in 2017.It is built on an analysis of gender gaps that points out an important number of prevalent gender disparities between men and women, as well as among different categories of women (women household heads, women in monogamous and polygamous marriage relationships and young women) in farming, agro-pastoral and pastoral livelihoods. This strategy represents the most comprehensive gender assessment of the agricultural sector to date and highlights the immense number of challenges and improvements required to achieve gender equality in the agricultural sector. It includes a theory of change, five strategic objectives (Box 9), along with seventeen desired outcomes and several indicators. The strategy specifies that the WAD at MoANR will be the leading agency at the level of implementation. WAD will initiate a process of internal transformation to ensure that gender issues are mainstreamed at the policy and operational levels. A training of trainers (ToT) model will be adopted, to equip regional staff with the needed knowledge and skills to cascade capacity building to zonal and woreda levels. Annual work plans will be developed by WAD together with the gender focal points at the regional levels. WAD will also develop guidelines and toolkits and will also lead regular gender audits to assess the degree of implementation of commitments achieved by MoANR (MoANR 2016b). Although it is not specified in the strategy, the Action Plan indicates a five-year timeframe.Ethiopia has formulated an important number of gender-related policies since the DERG regime ended. The Ethiopian Women´s Policy (1993) marked the beginning of the gender-equality agenda of the country and set up a strong basis for women´s empowerment and advancement.The way the NAP-GE aligns with the BPA and PASDEP are efforts to emulate, along with The way the PASDEP tried to mainstream gender (rather than integrate women). In summary, a slow but progressive expansion of women's rights through policies, proclamations and laws are evident. However, this commitment has diminished since 2009 CSP and shows how women's rights are connected to the politics of the country.Of the four national gender policies, only one NAP-GE includes a full situation analysis that identifies several gender gaps, including in the agricultural sector. None of them, however, build on a comprehensive and evidence-based gender analysis able to identify men and women farmers´ roles, needs, constraints, interests, and interactions. Thus, implementation strategies are formulated based on general information and assumptions (sometimes even prejudices and misconceptions about women and gender) not on accurate data and evidence.Aside from the terrific gains made through agriculture policies, particularly the GESEA, at the national level women have moved from having rights to serving a utilitarian function that will help the country develop. This represents a loss of progress which would have been picked up if any policy evaluations had been completed. Since gender-equality plans did not draw upon previous evaluations of lessons learnt and best practices, there has not been an incremental progression of the gender-equality agenda; instead, plans have been formulated in a non-complementary nor harmonized way. Consequently, different national plans and agricultural-sector policies and strategies have chosen to align with or to refer to different gender policies, and to focus on different priorities in a non-coordinated manner. For example, the PASDEP builds upon the NAP-GE whereas the GTP II is aligned with the first Women´s Development Package.Most policies include some indicators and targets, although not all of these are inserted within a logical framework or are part of a monitoring plan. Those policies that contain a monitoring plan do not consistently disaggregate targets by sex, and gender-sensitive indicators are not found. Overall, gender is not consistently mainstreamed through the monitoring instruments of the policies. This makes monitoring (and evaluating) the policies difficult.This section provides an in-depth analysis of seven policies, to review the quality of gender integration into policy content and policy formulation. As per the methodology section, set criteria were used to review each policy. Findings on each of the policies against the criteria are presented and discussed.GENDERING OF THE POLICY Being the first-ever policy to address gender equality in the country, it acknowledges the past and present discriminatory political, economic and social rules prevailing in the country. It presents a general situation analysis of the needs and constraints of women, but with little data or evidence. Several traditional gender stereotypes are found throughout the document. For example, \"as child bearers, women have direct contact with the younger generation … the key role they (women) play as mothers makes their advice more heeded than that of men.\"The policy advocates for the elimination of all types of discrimination against women. However, there is an implicit -most probably unintended -narrative about women (depicted as victims of past and present oppressions) being responsible for their own \"liberation\". A passage in the introductory chapter reads: \"… so that women can solve their own problems … since women make a major contribution to the welfare of society, they are in a better position to promote and/or eliminate the harmful traditional customs and practices of their localities.\" The portrayal of women both as victims and saviors of their own condition exempts men and the government from any responsibility other than supporting women to find their own solutions (to their own problems).The policy acknowledges women´s contribution during the Ethiopian Civil War (1974War ( -1991) ) to the democratization of the country. The document specifically blames the previous political regime (the Derg) for women´s lack of political voice and their reduced presence in public arenas.The social roots of discrimination against women are acknowledged: \"The prejudicial attitude prevalent in the country's political, social and economic life made it difficult to ensure the full development and advancement of women in all fields on an equal basis with their male counterparts. Based on this attitude, the laws, too, reflect the idea of the inferiority of women\" (TGoE 1993: Chapter 2). However, the document does not recognize the contemporary structural problems that impaired women´s access to the same treatment and opportunities as men. The narrative on the causes of women´s discrimination puts the emphasis on historical circumstances and cultural legacies and does not examine current socio-structural constraints and power inequities.The policy only makes the distinction between rural and urban women. Other categories such as race/ethnicity, age, religion or class are not considered. However, the policy does say \"Discrimination against women is perpetuated in various waysdepending on their ethnic background, culture and religion. Nonetheless an in-depth study has not yet been undertaken to determine the exact conditions of women in the various regions and among the different ethnic groups\" (TGoE, 1993, Chapter 2). In general, the policy targets and depicts a standardized and stereotype of a woman, since little data and evidence are provided.Although the document contains numerous statements vindicating the rights of women in all realms and makes special reference to the political realm, it is difficult to evaluate the extent to which women were involved in the policy's development. Moreover, it states that women should \"…participate in the formulation of government policies, laws, regulation programs, plans and projects that directly or indirectly benefit and concern women as well as in the implementation…\" (TGoE, 1993, Chapter 2). To achieve equality in the field of politics, the policy proposes to enable women to hold public office and to participate in the decision-making process.Empowerment of women is not specifically mentioned in the document, since at the time the policy was formulated the term \"women's empowerment\" was not as commonly used by governments and development agencies as it is today. However, the policy considers several measures that aim at promoting women´s organizations, strengthening women´s associations, enhancing their decision-making power and improving their access to education so that they can increase their presence in public arenas.Since the policy was created in the aftermath of a long period of war in the country and by a transitional government, the text is full of optimism and enthusiasm about the realization of women´s aspirations in liberating them from old forms of oppression. Consequently, the policy draws on the human rights perspective. The principles of the policy are based on the vision of an Ethiopian woman able to exercise her rights of participating in all levels of society, being educated, working and benefiting equally with men, and accessing basic health and social services. The rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association are also emphasized and that the government would provide appropriate support to all women´s associations.Despite having an explicit pro-equality intent, the policy contains an implicit narrative that aims to equalize opportunity and fairness for women by extending to them the rights previously enjoyed by men, but they don't attempt to create any change in the roles men and women have played.As mentioned above, the policy addresses the specific needs of rural women and proposes some specific strategies to address them but does not mention any alignment or intersection with any agricultural policy or plan, nor does it discuss or define 'gender'.The principles of the policy are inspired by the CEDAW and it is based on respect for human and democratic rights.The explicit goal of the plan is to achieve equality between men and women in social, political and economic development. The plan recognizes the need for treating women differently because of their disadvantaged status and is built on a gender analysis that includes sex-disaggregated data and proposes several actions, followed by gendersensitive indicators. The NAP-GE aims to integrate with the PASDEP and help to alleviate poverty and contribute towards achieving the MDGs. The policy says, \"investing in girls' education therefore has high social and economic returns and is instrumental in achieving sustainable development and economic growth.\" (MoWA 2006:1). The policy commits to supporting women by improving their current situation, but without challenging the power structures that are at the core of women´s inequalities.STRUCTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF GENDER EQUALITY Despite an explicit commitment to addressing gender relations, the social construction of the problem is not recognized. For instance, the situation analysis of the plan acknowledges several gender gaps in different areas, such as agriculture, employment, education and training, health and others. However, the analysis provides little discussion on the historical, cultural and political context of women. Gender stereotypes, gender norms and social traditions are not identified as underlying factors. Although the plan states that males should be involved in all gender work (MoWA 2006:3). Furthermore, the strategies and activities proposed address only women, their access to services and resources, and their capacities to be enhanced. Overall, the plan does not aim to dismantle traditional social structures nor does the plan address power relations between men and women.The plan hardly considers the interaction of gender with other discriminatory categories such as ethnicity, national origin, class or religion, and nor does it recognize regional differences. There are some specific activities that address women working in agriculture and pastoralist women, but in general, the plan considers women as one homogeneous group.One of the strategic objectives of the plan is to enhance women´s and girls´ economic empowerment, and the remaining strategies aim at increasing women´s capacities and enhancing their leadership and decision-making roles. Thus, the plan works towards the empowerment of women.In terms of empowerment of women through the policy process, the plan does not describe how it was created, or whether women and women´s organizations were involved in the policy-making process. However, it asserts that: \"The government's role is to elaborate the NAP-GE and ensure its implementation in collaboration with various stakeholders, including Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). NGOs and women's groups are major partners at the grassroots level\" (MoWA 2006:2). The planning matrix considers women´s associations as \"potential partners\".The plan acknowledges the contributions made by the NPEW (1993) and the FDRE Constitution (1995) to the protection and promotion of women´s rights. It also recognizes that women´s rights are ensured on paper but have not been applied, especially in the country´s previous poverty reduction programs. Therefore, the plan builds on previous progress made at policy level to ensure women´s rights and goes further by proposing pragmatic actions to ensure its implementation.The plan does not mention its alignment with any specific policy from the agricultural sector but is intended to be integrated within the PASDEP, which addresses several issues relevant to the agricultural sector. MoWA (2006:3) explain that this \"represents an opportune moment for ensuring gender consideration in the country's poverty reduction endeavors\". As such, the plan integrates several strategies and actions targeting women working in agriculture and pastoral areas.The plan acknowledges the importance of international commitments such as the CEDAW and the Beijing Declaration as declarations grounded on the human rightsbased approach. Furthermore, it declares that it works towards the attainment of the MDGs and the objectives of gender equality expressed in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action and the 2000 Beijing+5 Political Declaration (MoWA 2006:1). However, the MDGs and BPA objectives are not integrated or contextualized.2010-2020 GENDERING OF THE POLICY Gender equality is not an objective but a means to improve the agricultural sector. It acknowledges that \"gender disparities significantly impede women´s empowerment\" and mentions the higher incidence of poverty in FHH and asserts that \"there are significant gender equity issues that the PIF needs to address\" (MoANR 2010:4). It explains that \"gender mainstreaming needs to be strengthened and expedited in order to increase the benefit obtained from rural labor (men and women) and enhance value addition in the agricultural sector\" (MoANR, 2010:15). Thus, the document implies that gender-sensitive measures in the agricultural sector are to be put in place to better develop the sector.Despite the commitments expressed above, the PIF does not include any specific gender-sensitive objectives or measures aimed at reducing inequality, nor does it mainstream gender. Within the PIF results framework, it is stated that all indicators are to be gender-disaggregated (MoANR 2010:33); however, there are no specific targets for women or female-headed households in the matrix. Furthermore, it is uncertain if indicators are sex-disaggregated since the mid-term review report of the PIF claims that gender issues are not addressed (Chipeta et al. 2015).Women are not visible in the policy; they are only mentioned in specific sections of the document when referring to crosscutting issues. The PIF references to women are based on the description of their vulnerabilities and the inequalities they suffer. The male experience is used as a standard throughout the document, thus contributing to women´s invisibility. For instance, \"farmers\" and \"smallholder farmers\" are the main beneficiaries of the plan, and their productivity issues, access to services and credit, new technologies, etc. are all described. The PIF does not recognize the social construction of gender inequality nor the underlying causes of these inequalities.The PIF does not consider any intersection with any identified criteria. As mentioned above, the plan presents a standardized male-dominant type of beneficiary, \"the farmer\" and no other gender, ethnic, or geographical distinction is made, aside from a brief cursory to FHH.The PIF does not work to empower women, despite a few references to the need to improve women´s conditions. There is no specific objective or strategy is proposed to empower women. It is unknown if women were involved in the preparation of the PIF or if opportunities for dialogue and the participation of women´s organizations were offered during the formulation of the PIF.The plan's reference to gender equality is built on general statements about the need to address gender inequalities, but it does not include any plan to put into effect those general commitments. This rhetorical discourse on gender is present throughout the document, but the document does not contain any tangible proposal for change.The PIF is aligned with several national policies and strategies, such as GTP I, ADLI, RDPS and PASDEP and consequently, the results framework contains a specific column referring to the linkage of each specific objective with different national and international policies (MoANR 2010). The document also acknowledges the National Action Plan on Gender (NAP-GE) but does not specify the alignment within the objectives, unlike the other national policies. The PIF mentions \"removing gender disparity and ensuring gender equality and women's empowerment is key to accelerated economic growth and social development\" but little effort is made to address this statement.Since the plan only weakly addresses the needs of women and does not consider their empowerment or the attainment of gender equality, it can be concluded that there is poor intersection between PIF and other gender-related plans or policies. The mid-term review explains that PIF did not do as much as was expected for gender equality. It calls for PIF to \"draw attention through its technical committees and taskforces to attending to the root causes of gender gaps (socio-cultural settings) and to promoting partnerships beyond government to address those gaps (both public and private partnerships).\" This reference to social norms and addressing the root causes of gender inequality is a refreshing addition to the agriculture policy landscape.The PIF document affirms that it is designed to operationalize the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and that it aligns with the MDGs. The specific objectives of the plan are linked to both international commitments, as are some other national policies. However, it is not specified how these international commitments are integrated within the plan.GENDERING OF THE POLICY This strategy contains an overview of the different roles of women in wheat production, and references three separate studies on wheat that sex disaggregate their data (Klawitter et al 2009;Aregu 2010;Tiruneh et al 2001). It also presents differences in wheat productivity between MHHs and FHHs and differences in input use between the households. This rather small gender analysis serves in turn as the basis for proposed interventions: \"Considering the significant role of female farmers in post-harvest activities, purposively targeting them during technical trainings can help improve community practices. These can be done through targeting women's development groups and networks\" (MoA, 2014: 44). Therefore, the analysis of women's specific needs is further translated into specific actions that effectively target women farmers involved in wheat production.Overall, the strategy does acknowledge gender differences and the need to address women´s needs differently. This renders the gendering of the policy better than previous agricultural policies analyzed. STRUCTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF GENDER EQUALITY Not all the women´s needs identified in the situation analysis are addressed. The strategy recognizes the differences in inputs and that FHHs produce less than MHHs, but the related indicator does not specifically target FHHs. Moreover, the strategy uses an acronym 'WMY' for 'Women, Men and Youths', which unhelpfully serves to render women invisible: \"at least 60% of WMY smallholder wheat farmers in target woredas will have access to at least 75% of their demand for input finance by 2017\" (MoA 2014: 55). This is not a sex disaggregated target.The strategy does not attempt to find the causes or factors that contribute to the differences between the sexes in roles and productivity, nor are other gender-related challenges identified. Consequently, gender does not appear as an intervention. Rather, gender inequalities will be addressed through the purposive targeting of women's development groups and networks in various activities, such as demonstrations of new technologies, consultations and technical trainings, and to emphasize the importance of gender in creative technologies and by targeting some FHH, the strategy acknowledges that: \"Effective gender mainstreaming may remain a serious challenge\" (MoA 2014:56).While the policy does acknowledge the 'deep roots' of gender inequality, the activities proposed to address inequalities focus on improving women's access to agriculture inputs and resources, rather than on targeting the unequal power relations that underpin them. In general, the structural understanding of gender equality is not sufficiently considered.No intersectional criteria are considered in the policy. However, there is reference to 'gender roles varying by location and household' and some indicators specify FHHs, which is an improvement on past policies. Three outcome indicators do mention female headed households (Box 10), but leave women living in MHHs unaddressed.Box 10. Gender-Sensitive indicators. Wheat Strategy• At least 90% of SHF (including at least 50% of female-headed households) wheat farmers using best agronomic practices (including crop rotation) by 2017 • At least a 50% increase in smallholder wheat farmers (including a 30% increase in femaleheaded households) to have adopted improved post-harvest handling techniques and practices by 2017 • At least 90% of wheat farmers in target woredas (including 90% of FHHs) to receive training, experience sharing of learning and demonstration of the benefits of using best agronomic practices in all major activities from land preparation to harvesting and storage by 2017.Source: (MoA 2014: 54-55)The empowerment of women is not proposed as a clear objective of the strategy. However, the actions proposed fall into the type of interventions that aim at empowering women. For instance, the strategy states that female farmers should be addressed in integrated crop management. It also states that both men and women should receive training through extension programs, and that women should be given special attention by increasing their access to post-harvest technologies and favorable output-marketing opportunities.The strategy formulation process is not described and thus, it is not possible to evaluate the level of women's involvement. However, the document recognizes the role of the MoWCA in the development of the wheat sector strategy and promotes the enhancement of women's groups as an intervention strategy (MoA 2014:60).When comparing the strategy with previous agriculture policies like the PIF, an important advancement is observed in terms of drawing upon evidence to discuss women's needs and including a context analysis of women's role in wheat. However, the strategy does not build on previous gender-equality policies and does not use sexdisaggregated national statistics to build actions upon. Moreover, the measures proposed are not progressive, and are still in line with previous polices that propose better access for women to services and resources.The strategy acknowledges that gender norms and other social traditions impair women´s involvement in the agricultural sector. However, it reinforces the gender division of labor when enhancing the role of women in the post-harvest and marketing of products, rather than trying to overcome this division. The strategy does not refer to any gender equality policy or regulation.The strategy does not refer to any regional or international policy.GENDERING OF THE POLICY The improvement of women´s conditions is seen as an objective and a means of achieving the development goals of the country. The plan does not consider sexdisaggregated targets among the macroeconomic, economic, and social development indicators (MoFED 2015:93-97) and thus, relevant indicators such as poverty, unemployment rates, and productivity in the agricultural sector are not gendersensitive. The same happens with most of the agriculture-related indicators, apart from some specific agriculture extension indicators for women. 7 Even within the \"Human Resource Development\" group of indicators, only one education-related indicator targets the gender-diversity ratio (MoFED 2016a). Overall, the poor integration of gender-sensitive indicators and sex-disaggregated targets within the plan indicates deficient mainstreaming of gender issues, despite the existence of several specific targets for the empowerment of women and youth (Box 11). GTP II seemingly adopts the 1970s Women in Development (WID) approach by focusing on women-only interventions.STRUCTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF GENDER EQUALITY Women are visible in the GTP II only in the crosscutting issues section. The rest of the document vaguely mentions women (and youth) but with no clear definition of their specific needs or constraints and no sex-disaggregated data is presented. Thus, we can assume that the male experience is used as the standard throughout the document, and that the economic, social and political experiences of men are considered universal. The invisibility of women in the plan (except for the section dedicated to women and youth) signals the insufficient attention given to gender equality and gender issues.It is assumed in GTP II that if women´s participation in extension services, credit-related groups, organized women´s associations, capacity-building sessions, agricultural activities and other forms of employment are increased, then women will develop on par with men. However, without also changing gender relations, women will see their workload substantively enlarged under GTP II. Moreover, the gender norms and social practices that hinder women´s control over assets and limit their powers of decisionmaking will remain.The plan does not address any ethnic or regional differences and treats women as a homogeneous group aside from a brief mention of pastoral and FHH farming households.measures proposed are less numerous and less ambitious than the ones contemplated in previous policies such as the PASDEP. Overall, the GTP II is built on a rather rhetorical discourse that contains an unclear vision for materializing any substantive reform regarding women's advancement.The GTP II is built on the achievements and lessons drawn from the implementation of the GTP I and addresses specific goals in the agricultural sector. However, it does not refer to any gender or agricultural policy explicitly. Thus, the plan aligns with the Women´s Development and Change Package to a certain extent although it does not completely address the specific needs and interests of women working in the agricultural sector. Nevertheless, it goes further than the PIF on this criterion.The plan asserts that its formulation draws upon the commitments towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other regional and international economic collaboration activities but does not specify which ones. In its policy matrix, GTP II includes a column highlighting the SDGs correspondence with each GTP II objective (MoFED 2016a). SDGs related to security of land tenure and gender are not integrated into the GTP II, and indicators of success are not evaluated or reported (UNwomen 2017; MoFED 2015b).Ethiopia´s 2017 Voluntary National Review on SDGs shows that SDG 5, on achieving gender equality and empowering women, is only integrated into two of the ten GTP II priority areas and is not integrated into national development priority area no. 1: agricultural sector development. Overall, the gender implementation mechanisms highlighted in the 2017 Review are not sufficiently detailed and refer to old gender policies. Nevertheless, the review document demonstrates that the SDG on gender equality has not been adequately mainstreamed across GTP II.GENDERING OF THE POLICY The package aims at increasing the participation of women in all aspects of the society, as a way of contributing to the development of the country and achieving the country´s goal of becoming a middle-income country. Like the Ethiopian Women´s Policy in 1993, the package recognizes the important role of women in the struggle for peace and democratization of the country.Like the 1994 gender policy, this package also places much of the blame on women, and specifically on women´s organizations, because of their failure to focus and work on identified and prioritized strategies (MoWCA 2017, part 1). As observed on the 1993 policy, women are playing the double role of victims and perpetrators and are responsible for their own progress and this has not changed in over two decades. The package does not address the structural aspects of inequalities, going beyond the problems (and capacities) of women and aiming for long-term impact. 9 STRUCTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF GENDER EQUALITY The package´s main objective is to enlarge women´s access and capacities, ignoring the structural construction of gender inequalities. The package overlooks women´s entitlement to equal rights and portrays women´s issues as mere obstacles to development. It does stress the importance of women´s right of association but in an organized and integrated manner and promoted through a top-down approach.The fact that the most recent policy for gender equality is named and formulated as an exclusive woman´s development strategy shows the lack of progress. Gender is still seen as adding women into the development process. Although social and gender norms are acknowledged, they are not addressed. Gender stereotypes and social structures such as the organization of labor, intra-family inequalities and subordinated citizenship are not challenged. Given this package is developed by MoWCA, the lack of a gendered lens suggests a weak ministry that lacks the ability to strategically identify and deliver sustainable change for women.The package is progressive in terms of this criterion. It acknowledges that women are diverse and tries to address their specific needs, it provides support to women with disabilities and special needs, recognizes that pastoralist women face specific challenges that require specific solutions. Furthermore, the package offers separate interventions to rural women and urban women.A key element of the package is the empowerment of women: strengthening the decision-making role of women by increasing their participation in the education, health and economic sectors. Women's participation in the package's development is not mentioned.The 2017 Package is the fourth federal gender/women focused policy/strategy formulated under the FDRE Constitution. 10 Since previous gender policies have not been evaluated, the current package proposes measures that are not based on best practices or lessons learnt. Moreover, because the situation analysis of the package does not provide evidence-based information or accurate data on the current situation of women, problems are defined in general terms, and thus, only vaguely addressed. Unfortunately, the 2017 package is built upon a conservative understanding of women's needs and does not advance previous gender-policy gains.The situation analysis included in the package considers the general limitations and problems faced by women working in agriculture. It also contains a sub-chapter describing the general conditions of women living in pastoralist-and semi-pastoralist regions, although no specific agricultural policy is acknowledged.The document generally refers to the regional and international conventions ratified by Ethiopia but does not mention any specific alignment.GENDERING OF THE POLICY This strategy represents the greatest progress of women and gender equality in a policy document produced by GoE. Gender equality is viewed as a core development objective and a way to achieve the objectives of GTP II. Gender equality is described as \"smart economics\" -the way to enhance the economic efficiency of the country.The strategy includes a women's rights dimension which was never considered before in any other agriculture-related policy. It asserts that women´s rights enshrined in the legal framework of the country should be respected. Even for the gender-related policies, the women´s rights perspective was only enshrined in the Ethiopian Women's Policy in 1993. The strategy points out that: \"It is important to perceive women and youth as legitimate actors enabling growth, not only beneficiaries of the growth outcomes\" (MoANR 2016b:6). With this assertion, the strategy is recognizing women not only as subjects to be empowered, but also as active participants of the transformational agendas in the agricultural sector.It states that involvement of women in agrarian activities may boost agricultural productivity but \"unless gender equality is fully incorporated into the Ethiopian agricultural strategy, growth is unlikely to benefit males and females equally; rather, it will further marginalize women and affect the development of the entire community (women, men, boys and girls)\" (MoANR 2016b:8). This means that gender is not considered merely as a means of achieving development but is a development aim. It also states that gender equality is a right that benefits families and women.Moreover, the situation analysis of the strategy fully integrates the gender-equality perspective and identifies gender gaps at all levels. It includes a comprehensive review of agricultural sector policies and their integration of the gender perspective, and an institutional analysis of the accountability and capacities of the government structure. The analysis includes the assessment of gender gaps in both agricultural value chains and livestock value chains, as well as in natural resource management, agricultural research and extension services, among others. Thus, gender is mainstreamed throughout the strategy and sex-disaggregated data is integrated consistently within the document.The official strategy released in August 2017 is a much shorter version of the draft strategy circulated in 2016 for comment and that offered a considerable gender analysis.The draft 2016 strategy shows a deep understanding of the historical and socio-cultural contexts of women´s lives and recognizes the social construction of problems. \"Gender inequalities are socially determined, that is, they are the result of deeply-rooted attitudes and cultural traditions that vary from area to area (agricultural, pastoral and agro-pastoral) and that disempower women, men, girls and boys. They are responsible for the discrimination faced by women\" (MoANR 2016b:69). Furthermore, gender stereotypes are challenged through the theory of change. A gender-transformative approach is chosen to promote changes at the level of gender relationships and systems. The action plan aims to improve accountability for gender mainstreaming and gender results, strengthen coordination and build capacity in the institutions that matter for female farmers (e.g MoANR, WAD, ATVET). It also discusses increasing women's access to finance and revising land policies and laws to favor women.The strategy examines the circumstances of different types of women, including pastoralist women, women heads of households, women living within a male-headed household, etc. Their specific needs and constraints are pointed out in the document's situation analysis. However, these differences and heterogeneities are not sufficiently addressed by the shortened 2017 strategy 'pathway for change' since it does not contain specific actions for different types of groups of women (the notable exception being pastoralists and agro-pastoralist women).The strategy is one of the few policies examined that includes a reference to the policymaking process. It reads: \"The gender strategy development process was led by the Women's Affairs Directorate (WAD) of MoANR and overseen by a gender taskforce which included representatives from national and international development partners and institutions dealing with gender and agricultural issues in Ethiopia. The regional consultation workshops were undertaken in Semera (Afar), Hawassa (SNNPR), Bahir Dar (Amhara), and Assosa (Benishangul Gumuz), and 120 gender practitioners (male and female) were drawn from offices of agriculture and natural resources and other institutions attended at regional, zonal and woreda levels\" (MoANR 2016b:6). It also includes the names and organizations of the task force members, which include: donors, major agriculture projects, ATA and UN women. However, the involvement of civil society groups is not documented.The strategy is progressive and innovative in several aspects. To start with, it recognizes the women´s rights dimension and explicitly commits to the transformation of the power structures that maintain gender inequalities. It also draws upon the integration of gender perspectives in other policies. It aims at materializing the reforms proposed, presenting a pathway for change that guides the process for the transformation of gender relations. However, the pathway for change is vague, e.g. it says design specific programs to address underlying causes of gender inequities in the sector.The strategy acknowledges main gender policies like the Ethiopian Women's Policy and the Women's Development Package. The strategy also contains an analysis of the level of gender mainstreaming within previous agricultural policies and builds upon the bottlenecks found. Notably, the strategy is the first agriculture-related policy that clearly addresses the specific needs and interests of women working in the agricultural sector. It is the first policy that explicitly defines the gender norms and social traditions that impair women´s involvement in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, the strategy proposes important changes at the institutional level to integrate gender equality as a sector priority and set up the basis for these transformations. It also offers a more gender sensitive set of GTP II targets (Box 13) and shows that GTP II did not adequately consider women's needs.• Promote women-friendly technologies that reduce workload.• Targets for coverage by extension are disaggregated by sex into MHHs and FHHs, married women, youth farmers, pastoralists, and agro-pastoralists. • Fifty percent of the total beneficiaries for extension services are to be married women (women in MHHs). • Extension services will be provided to 100% of FHHs, and 10% of extension beneficiaries will be rural youth. • Disaggregation of targets into MHHs and FHHs for (i) issuing second-level land certificates (ii) PSNP graduates, (iii) food and cash transfer beneficiaries, (iv) households utilizing agricultural inputs and artificial insemination services, and (v) participation in cooperatives. • Women and youth membership of cooperatives is to reach 50% and 30% respectively.• Agricultural extension will be implemented to address the needs of women farmers, agropastoralists, and pastoralists through gender-sensitive approaches. • Training will be delivered at FTCs to enable DAs to provide gender-sensitive support to women and rural youth involved in agricultural activities. The management of FTCs will include representatives of women and youth. • Raise women beneficiaries of agricultural mechanization tools to 30%.• Thirty percent of extension services and trainings to rural women.• Ten percent of extension services to youths, including female youths.• Fifty percent of coop membership to women and 30% to youths.• More focus to make women benefit from market participation and value addition.• Twenty-three percent of the poultry package technologies to FHHs.• Twenty-three percent of cattle breed improvement package to urban and peri-urban FHHs.• Focus on forage development package to pastoral and agro-pastoral women.• Twenty percent of land use right certificates to FHHs.• Thirty percent of the land administration and utilization positions to women experts in all the structures from federal to kebele levels. • Thirty percent of participation in watershed management to be women.• Thirty percent of water management and irrigation beneficiaries to be women.• One hundred percent of trainings on climate-resilient and green economy for FHHs and 50%for women in MHHs. • Fifty percent of support to women on early warning and climate change coping mechanisms.Source: Annex 2 of MoANR 2017The strategy acknowledges several international commitments, such as the CEDAW, BPA, MDGs, SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. Regionally, the strategy mentions the Maputo Protocol and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. However, the document does not describe how the strategy aligns with them.The policy sample analyzed through a feminist critical policy lens presents a range of approaches to gender equality from WID to GAD. Despite textual analysis about the importance of gender equality and/or women's rights, this is rarely followed through with substantial action or indicators that align with the analysis. Even in the policies and plans that present a gender analysis (e.g. wheat strategy), the indicators or solutions proposed either target FHH only or group women into a homogeneous category, or group women generically with men and youth. In short, gender evaporates.There is also a tendency to talk about gender mainstreaming but focus on women only. Many policies have a separate gender section, and this is not well integrated into the rest of the plan/strategy. This highlights the way gender is siloed during policy making. To achieve effective mainstreaming, the policymaking process should include women and have them mentioned throughout the policy -not just isolated to a separate section. The policy making process is opaque in many of the documents reviewed and hence, the extent of women's involvement cannot be determined.The 1993 National Policy on Ethiopian Women and the 1994 Constitution and other significant legislative changes highlight the great strides Ethiopia was making towards gender equality. The 2006 NAP-GE also promoted important gender-sensitive measures. However, since then, gender-specific policies have regressed. The 2017 Women´s Development Package reduces gender gains by only focusing on the expansion of women´s access to certain services and benefits. This regression aligns with the political economy of the time that suppressed all human rights. Yet, the 2017 GESEA produced the most comprehensive gender sensitive policy to date, despite being created during the same suppression of rights.The same trend is observed in the National Plans. The GTP II is less progressive than GTP I and even less advanced than PASDEP in terms of integration of gender equality. Although women's (and youth's) empowerment is one of the strategic pillars of GTP II, the plan does not mainstream gender in the rest of the plan´s objectives, and poorly integrates gender-sensitive indicators. Comparatively, the old PASDEP incorporated the Gender and Development (GAD) approach and mainstreamed gender equality much better than any other national plan. In summary, the current national vision for Ethiopian women entails the simple enlargement of their access to certain services and resources and ignores any attempt to change power relations or address the structural causes of inequalities.Concerning the interaction between gender policies and agricultural policies, a strong linkage has not been found. Strong linkages between gender policies and national development plans are also absent with the exception of the NAP-GE, which tried to fully intersect with the PASDEP (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010). GTP II (2015II ( /16 -2019-20) -20) does not integrate any gender-specific policy, nor does it follow the MoWCA's Gender Mainstreaming Guidelines. It only mentions the Women's development and change package 2006. In hindsight, including the GTP II, ANR GTP II, PASDEP and the social protection policy may have revealed more lessons about gender mainstreaming across Ethiopia's agriculture policy landscape.Regarding the contextualization of international treaties, the NAP-GE and GESEA refer to CEDAW and other important gender-related international conventions. Only the GESEA refers to an African treaty or convention. Most of the agriculture-related polices and the GTP II mention the SDGs (previously MDGs) and claim that their targets are integrated within the national policies, although effective integration has not yet been achieved. Table 6 below summarizes the level of attainment of each of the policies towards the seven criteria used in the analysis.5.9 DISCUSSION This section helps to provide answers to the core research questions:• What is the quality of Ethiopia's agriculture and gender policies as viewed through a feminist lens? • How can the heterogenous needs of women working across the country in the agricultural sector be enshrined in policy? International and regional conventions have inspired the national legal framework, and some provisions of these conventions are even an integral part of Ethiopian laws (see FDRE Article 13). However, a closer look at national plans and development programs reveal that international treaties are mentioned, but not fully integrated. Except for the NAP-GE that follows the BPA´s priorities, other gender-related policies acknowledge international/regional treaties but do not fully contextualize them. For instance, the MDG targets were not adopted in any of the contemporary national development plans such as the PASDEP or GTP I. Some of the indicators coincide, but the national plans did not fully incorporate these indicators and did not set up country-specific targets especially around the gender equality MDGs. Unfortunately, the gender equality SDG is also inadequately integrated into GTP II.The appearance in 2006 of two important gender-related strategies: the NAP-GE and the first Women´s Development and Change Package, did not contribute to the creation of a conducive environment for the incorporation of gender-equality objectives to be put at the top of the agricultural agenda. The NAP-GE is advanced in terms of its approach to gender equality and its influence of PASDEP. It is the one and only experience in the country of real gender influence over a national development plan. The NAP-GE is mentioned in the PIF and the Women's Development and Change Package (2017) but these policies are not complementary to the NAP-GE and do not even share objectives or strategies. However, this can only be confirmed once a 2006 English version of the package is made available -until then the analysis relies upon secondary data.Given the strong pan-African women's movement, it is surprising that very few of the policies mention regional conventions. The purpose of adopting these conventions is to learn from and progress in line with other African nations. In the current context, where social norms and traditions are considered important barriers and obstacles to the enactment of the policies, the adoption of the Maputo protocol could guide the GoE in better integrating socio-cultural aspects into national policies and laws. If GoE is interested in developing an Ethiopia specific approach to gender equality, then further analysis and consultation processes should be commissioned, with lessons learnt from other African nations documented.The low participation of women in the formulation of the policies assessed is a potential cause of policy misalignment. Only the GESEA describes the participation of women in the policy-making process. More effort should be made to involve women and women's groups in the formulation of policies in general and specifically involve rural women in agricultural ones. Overall, the limited participation of women at all levels of the decision-making chains not only impairs their political empowerment but also reduces their visibility in the agricultural laws, projects and activities and reduces the possibility of women's needs being addressed.The participatory processes and the roles of women´s associations in the governance of the country have been substantively weakened since the approval of the CSO Proclamation in 2009. Both the GTP II and the 2017 Women´s Development Package stress the important role of women´s organizations at grassroots level but only program to work with/reach the government-led Women's Development Army. Studies affirm that the establishment of government agencies for women´s affairs and the election of women to office at all levels (from woreda to ministry) has not challenged systemic gender bias (World Bank and IFPRI 2010). Consequently, gender-related policies have not had a significant influence over the agricultural sector.The heterogeneity of both men and women is rarely considered in agricultural and national policies and rarely explored in analysis. Marriage status, age, ethnicity and religion are only some of the numerous characteristics that define women´s inequalities and opportunities. The GESEA and the 2017 Women´s Development Package examine the needs and constraints of different types of women, for instance, pastoralist women versus women farmers, or women heading households versus women living in male-headed households, but ethnicity, geographical location, ability, religion, and women living in polygamous households are categories to focus on in the future. These characteristics are not captured by agricultural policies since disaggregated data and intra-household data is not systemically collected in the main national surveys that feed agricultural policies. Thus, the most vulnerable groups of women are insufficiently considered. Nevertheless, a notable improvement in agriculture policies mainstreaming gender is found post 2011 when ATA was established.There is little mention of gender in most of the agricultural policy documents analyzed, except for the GESEA (2017), which specifically addresses gender equality within the sector. While many policies have a focus on empowering women this is narrowly interpreted to mean increase women's income and participation in training and events. None of the policies reviewed address the disparity in the unpaid workload between men and women. Although a number of policies, especially in the agriculture sector, mention the need to reduce women's workloads, targets are not set and programs are not developed. Consequently, agriculture policies have likely increased women's workloads.Women do not just need to be integrated into agriculture policies, but agriculture policies should put women at the center. Gender norms and socio-cultural aspects (like the double work burden for women or the gender-labor divide) need to be considered and overcome in all agricultural interventions. Otherwise, policies run the risk of not only perpetuating gender inequalities but also reinforcing the subordinate position of women within families and communities. Addressing the root causes of women's subaltern status is overdue, and this includes the different needs of different kinds of spouses and FHH involved in agriculture. Improving the gender orientation of agriculture policies requires revamping MoWCA and all women's affairs departments into gender departments.CONCLUSION Gender mainstreaming is nascent in the policies reviewed. Gender tends to be used as a pseudonym for women's participation. The current approach takes a passive view to include women which in some countries delivers incremental and small wins but in Ethiopia, this approach has not progressed to dismantle gender hierarchies.The problems of gender evaporation in policies and development plans have been identified repeatedly in subsequent policies, but not solved. Consequently, the implementation of the laws and policies confronts local customary practices but does not address the norms and practices that need to be changed. In reviewing the policies, there has been good progress made in the language used in policies intermixed with regression. This paradox is tied to national politics such as the Derg regime and the 2009 CSP that have effectively banned human rights activities.The policies analyzed showed very little understanding of the structural issues resulting from gender-based cultural and social norms and practices. Many policies -especially the gender-related ones -acknowledge the existence of gender norms and sociocultural barriers to the promotion of gender equality, but these norms are not tackled. There are some examples of how statutory laws confront customary ones at the community level, affecting the effective implementation of the policies and impairing women´s enjoyment of their rights. Yet, generally none of the policies analyzed try to integrate these issues within their objectives or action plans despite considering these as risk factors.There is a lack of political will to remove patriarchy from Ethiopia's present-day reality. Yet, why was PASDEP and the GESEA and even the social protection policy more progressive than other policies developed during similar political regimes? Moreover, how can more gender-focused evaluations and gender-focused targets be set within policies to ensure learning occurs and how can capacity for reaching women, and changing unequal gender norms increase? Ethiopia has signed many regional and international commitments for gender equality, so it is incorrect to say the government of Ethiopia is against gender equality. Moreover, in April 2018, a reform minded prime minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed, was appointed and has shown strong leadership support for a more inclusive and gender responsive government. This new operating space could, potentially, overcome the evaporation of women's rights in policy and may help to achieve results for more rural women.Taking a systems approach to patriarchy and how it is reproduced by government organizations and through the agriculture extension system is strongly endorsed. Changing 'the rules of the game' and informal practices that lie behind formal institutions can determine who is included and consulted and who is excluded. Gendered institutional reforms are needed to overcome the reproduction of inequality and to prevent further regression with the next head of state coming to power. Women should be recognized and supported for the incredible role they play feeding the nation. While it may be premature to adopt a feminist approach, the current approach is ad hoc and insufficient to deliver the necessary changes to achieve the GTP II goals of reaching middle income country status by 2025.RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the analyses, several recommendations can be proposed that could both improve the gender quality of agricultural policies and plans and strengthen the mainstreaming of gender through institutions and implementation mechanisms:➢ The approach to gender equality in policies should move to address the structural causes of inequalities, including at the institution, intra-household and community levels. ➢ All policies should include a comprehensive gender analysis within the formulation process, to ensure that strategies and measures proposed are consistent with the realities of the men and women they target. ➢ Women should be consistently understood as a heterogenous category: mothers, workers, spouses, FHH, old, young, etc. An intersectional and GAD approach should be adopted and institutionalized. ➢ More sex disaggregated and gender sensitive targets need to be set in policy and used consistently. ➢ Implement policy monitoring mechanisms and commission impact evaluations to assess gender gaps in the results. ➢ National debate about what gender mainstreaming means and what gender equality should look like in Ethiopia needs to occur. ➢ The Charities and Societies Proclamation should be revised to allow for women's rights promotion. There needs to be a stronger domestic constituency and grass roots activism on women's rights to ensure Ethiopia has its own gender equality agenda that makes sense to the nation, rather than being victim to donor and international agendas. Active women's movements help shape policies and keep MoWCA accountable for gender equality. Consequently, the lack of a domestic women's movement means the MoWCA is outwardly focused reporting to the UN and regional bodies with little capacity, incentives and time for domestic alignment and oversight. ➢ Policy formulation processes should include a more participatory approach and involve more actors from government agencies, international organizations and civil society organizations, especially women´s associations. ➢ The role of the Women´s Development Army (WDA) and other grass-roots-level women´s organizations should be better defined and their power in local decision-making structures (especially agriculture related) enhanced. ➢ The links between researchers and policy-makers should be strengthened. ➢ The existence of significant gender legislation at the national and international/regional levels offers a robust framework. Better coordination mechanisms between ministries (especially MoWCA and MoANR) should be promoted to improve alignment with national policies.➢ Incorporate gender norm changes and set clear targets to measure progress in all policies, especially around women's drudgery and unpaid workloads. ➢ Increase the number of politically well-connected gender experts within ATA. ➢ Work towards more robust national gender policies that influence national development plans.","tokenCount":"16967"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e4861c62a9f5db1b86af2a14f69753f4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/57b65bcf-9c93-41e5-9b6d-f6acf61959bc/retrieve","id":"-317392104"},"keywords":["Agricultural Insurance","Index insurance","aggregators","meso-scale","scaling"],"sieverID":"49b3aca6-dc52-4969-804b-b89e96df89b8","pagecount":"32","content":"Security (CCAFS). Available online at: www.ccafs.cgiar.org CCAFS Workshop Reports aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.1. To support the sustainable scale up of the Ghanaian index insurance industry and show how CGIAR expertise can interact with this process 2. To investigate the impact of index insurance on gender dynamics and develop tools to support gender sensitive index design These aims are not exclusive or independent and many of the project activities address both goals. We are also working closely with our industrial stakeholders, the Ghanaian Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP).Farming is a risky business. Shocks such as drought, flood, pests or disease can make it difficult for farmers to invest in new productive options, such as seeds or fertilizer. These shocks are often regional, reverberating past the level of the individual smallholder. These spatially correlated nature of the shocks often make it difficult to extend credit to farmers; a bank cannot afford for all their customers to default in a single year. It makes it equally difficult for aggregators such as seed companies, input providers, agri-shops, seed growers and for commercial farmers, all of whom rely on the yields of a large number of smallholders or out-growers.Agricultural insurance is one way to mitigate this risk, unlocking new markets and making existing markets more profitable. Its value is that it unlocks productivity in a normal, \"nonpayout\" year. If insurance can reduce the risk just enough that more farmers can buy new inputs or be offered credit, then the increased profit in a good year can more than out way the cost of the premium. The same story holds at a farmer level. If the insurance unlocks new productivity in a normal year, then they are more able to invest and better able to protect themselves in a bad year. To achieve this however, care must be taken to fully incorporate insurance with these productive options.Most training on insurance is either designed directly for poor smallholder farmers (Norton et al., 2014, Greatrex et al., 2015), or for very large aggregators (e.g. a country-wide fertilizer company). Less attention has been paid to small and medium level aggregators, who might have tens or hundreds of acres, or have a relationship with a smaller number of out growers (tens to thousands) (Hazel et al 2010). For example, these might be some rural banks, seed growers or Village Chiefs. However, this group of people presents a significant business opportunity for scaling index insurance. The local nature of many of the aggregators allows insurance to reach poor smallholders without personally visiting every village. The aggregators are also typically from the local communities and can act as champions for new initiatives. These same incentives for interaction with aggregators hold true for other CCAFS and rural development initiatives.The aim of this workshop was to reach a group of local aggregators in rural Ghana with tailored insurance capacity building material. A secondary aim was to gather their feedback about their experiences with agricultural insurance, along with jointly designed ideas about how insurance could more easily fit in with their practices.Capacity building on insurance has typically been conducted at two scales:1. Directly with smallholder farmers, typically those with very little financial literacy training. This has been achieved through radio campaigns (GSMA, 2015) and participatory games (Madajewicz et al., 2013).2. With national or international stakeholders with a high level of financial literacy. For example, the ACRE insurance programme works with large-scale seed companies to assess how insurance might add value to their product chains (GSMA, 2015). In another example, Africa Risk Capacity work build the capacity government stakeholders to insure against disasters (ARC 2016).There has been little attention to the middle scale in African agriculture -that of smaller aggregators. These include smaller rural banks and MFIs, the heads of farmer cooperatives, seed providers for seed companies and Village Chiefs. These aggregators have a typical reach of between a few tens of smallholder farmers to several thousand.At the smaller end of the scale, these aggregators typically have basic financial literacy skills, keeping business budgets, records and have access to smart phones. At the larger end of this scale, these aggregators might have detailed records. Despite the growing evidence that insurance helps support the uptake of inputs such as seed and fertilizer (R4 Rural ResilienceInitiative , 2016;Bertram-Huemmer & Kraehnert, 2016), there is little guidance on the logistics of how such an aggregator can use index insurance as part of their risk management strategies. For example, whether the aggregator holds the insurance contract, or simply coordinates, what basis risk means for reputation and whether protection from climate would allow them to expand or protect their businesses.Our aim was to tailor some of the existing smallholder participatory tools for this audience and to gather their feedback on their experiences of insurance and on how it could be more effective for them. We did this within the context of the Ghanaian insurance industry, so we also planned capacity building on that particular approach.A key participatory design activity within the R4 Resilience Initiative is called the \"Educational Game\" (Appendix 3). This takes two scenarios, say 'traditional seeds' vs 'hybrid seeds & fertilizer' and imagines how much profit or loss is made in a normal year and a drought year. The game has proven extremely popular across several countries and is credited both with encouraging farmers to think of their farm as a business and in helping them examine the different aspects of index insurance (for example basis risk). However, the game must be recalibrated for each local scenario and as it is tailored to a group, it makes some basic assumptions about the productive opportunities open to farmers. The Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) project takes a similar approach for individual farmers, asking them to make a basic farm budget (Dorward et al. 2015). This has been widely requested by farmers and useful in understanding how different climate risks affect their farm output.Many of the aggregators targeted in this training do not keep formal records of crop yield, production or profit, however they are much better aware of their annual costs and constraints than individual smallholders. The first exercise we developed was to extend the game into farm budgets for a variety of crops, looking at the impact of drought (or other climate hazards) on profits. The exercise is included in Appendix 3. It was aimed to strike a middle ground between those with full detailed records and the participatory approaches discussed above.A major reported constraint to index insurance take up is the perception and reality of basis risk, which is where index insurance pay-outs (say from drought), don't match observed damage (USAID, 2015). This is particularly important in cases where there are multiple risks affecting a customer (say drought, flood and prices).This exercise (Appendix 4) was based on the commonly used business mapping tool (Curtis & Carey 2012), where the probability of different events happening is mapped against their impact. There are three aims to this exercise:1. For insurance design. Weather index insurance is mainly suitable for scenarios with one overriding risk with massive consequence. It is less suitable for scenarios with multiple competing risks. This exercise allows insurance designers to see which risks are being covered by the insurance product and where sources of basis risk might occur.2. For customer capacity building. This exercise leads neatly onto a discussion about basis risk and allows for a chance to check comprehension about the insurance design.3. To understand the differing impact of different events. For example, the impact of low rainfall at the beginning of the season might be mitigated if a backup plan is in place for replanting.Workshop participants were selected either from existing/previous GAIP customers, or from those who had previously suggested interest but had not purchased any products. Aggregators were invited if they represented over 50 farmers or out-growers. The numbers represented by participants varied between 50 and 2000 farmers. Participants were also evenly selected from the three regions of Northern Ghana (Upper West, Upper East and Northern).GAIP could not find any female aggregators to invite; all of the aggregators on their books were men. This is indicative of the general gender bias within Ghanaian farming systems and challenges facing woman farmers. Contrary to the experience of several other operational programmes (Madajewicz et al 2015;Goslinga R. Personal Communication, Dec 2016; Baegant and Barrett 2016), GAIP have observed low demand for insurance by women in Ghana. However, they do not take gender-disaggregated statistics, so this evidence is anecdotal. At several points during the workshop, the trainers deliberately brought up the stories and experiences of women farmers. This caused a significant amount of discussion because they ran contrary to many of the participants' own experiences.The comments above show the importance of the parallel gender and insurance work being conducted in CASCAID, to explore why women are or aren't purchasing insurance, to potentially unlock new markets and to begin to advocate on behalf of women farmers and aggregators.Workshop record   The workshop started with introductions between all parties, where participants' hopes for the workshop were captured on post-it notes (Fig. 2 and 3). These include: § To learn about the different forms of crop insurance. § To learn about the experiences of other farmers. § On why farmers should insure their crops. § To be more informed about GAIP. § To understand the package and terms and conditions around GAIP contracts. § On how weather and climate info is collected on farms. § The consequences of climate change and how it can be mitigated on farm. § To understand the conditions for a pay-out. § To work out ways to share this knowledge with out-growers.This was followed by a presentation by GAIP's underwriter, Angelina Yeboah about GAIP and agricultural insurance. It covered topics such as the history of crop insurance, the different products held by GAIP (drought and multi-peril), claims procedures, the benefits and costs of insurance. Helen Greatrex then presented on the different types of insurance available across the world and how other agri-businesses are investing in insurance.The two presentations were followed by a detailed question and answer session, where the participants were able to share their questions and viewpoints. Some of the aggregators had previously purchased insurance from GAIP and were able to share their experiences. These highlighted some common issues about insurance, for example, whether there should have been compensation or not in a given year. In other cases, crops were planted later than had expected, which misaligned them with purchased insurance coverage. This led to discussion on whether insurance should also cover bad practice (e.g. planting too late), and on the use of mobile technologies that could register and start a potential index on the farmer's actual planting date.In the afternoon, the participants took part in the budgeting exercise (Appendix 3). It was explained that premise of the exercise was to examine which cases the insurance would make more money for the farmer. Figure 4 shows a similar example for a Mrs. Grace Alo, a pastor, head teacher and farmer in West Mamprusi, Ghana, which was used as an example. This example elicited some discussion because the aggregators in this training felt that groundnut was not a cash crop. It was decided that this difference could stem from either the difference in location (no participant was from West Mamprusi, but this area was considered to have very poor soil that needed a lot of fertilizer), the fact that groundnut is grown more by women in some areas (all the participants were men), or the fact that Mrs. Alo is a farmer as a side business, so has a different perception of a 'cash crop' to the commercial farmers present.This discussion highlighted the heterogeneous nature of farming in Ghana and that there will not be one \"perfect\" product covering everybody.The budget template that the farmers were asked to individually complete is shown in Fig. 4.The results are not recorded in this report because the expenses were individual and private to each participant. The participants then worked together to make a similar table with general costs which could be used by CASCAID. This is shown in Figure 5. In general insurance was considered profitable for soy bean and rice. This was an interesting result because the main crop covered by GAIP is maize, as it's commonly described as the \"main crop\".There was positive feedback for this exercise because few of the farmers had thought to examine the impact of climate on their businesses. There had been no prior formal quantification on how much they were risking on climate sensitive activities. The younger participants in particular were surprised that some of their crops were not profitable due to drought. The tool was considered to be useful in understanding which crops would be best protected by drought insurance. Several of the participants stated that they would continue to build on their budgets outside the workshop environment.  When the risk mapping exercise was presented to the participants, they decided that they would instead prefer to continue discussions around insurance logistics and design. This is indicative that in Ghana, customers are still unsure about the logistics and procedures surrounding insurance purchases.The start of the second day was spent completing the insurance budgeting exercise, then on request, Helen Greatrex presented on satellite rainfall estimates within answering questions such as where they come from, how they are measured and how accurate they are. Most of the participants were aware that GAIP's rainfall insurance product was based around satellite rainfall data, but had not been given further details.This was followed by a final discussion about insurance and how it might be useful to the participants. Several topics were discussed:1. There was a debate about the merits of \"invisible insurance\" for out-growers, vs.visibly holding contracts for them. § \"Invisible\" insurance is essentially a meso level product, where the aggregator is insuring their own portfolio. It was argued by participants that the compensation in a drought year means that the aggregator does not need to chase out-growers to repay loans in drought years and allows them the confidence to expand their business. However, there were also concerns that out growers would not be officially contributing to the premium. § For \"visible\" insurance, the aggregator is holding the policy on behalf of the outgrowers, who know they are covered. Advantages were stated that encourages out-growers to work with the aggregator and builds trust, but disadvantages were posed that it could increase moral hazard unless the out-growers fully understand the product. There were also concerns about the reputational risk of basis risk.Many of the participants felt uncomfortable taking all responsibility for explaining index insurance to out-growers.2. The topic of liquidity was discussed, especially whether smallholder farmers (outgrowers) could afford insurance and whether it was suitable for them. One aggregator suggested that his out-growers could pay him for the insurance premium in-kind, then he would purchase it in cash from GAIP. This technique could act as an informal (and sustainable) version of the World Food Programme's Food for Insurance project (within the R4-Rural Resilience Initiative), where farmers can pay for their insurance premium in labor.3. The participants stated that the GAIP index was considered to be very complicated and the aggregators would be interested in a simpler index that they could plan their activities around. There was interest in a coordinated approach with their supply chains, rather than them having to organize the insurance, credit and inputs individually.4. Participants were unsure about the logistical challenges of insuring their out-growers.For example, the current policy is that GAIP staff would not be able to record the locations of thousands of out-growers, expecting this information to be provided by the out-grower. In another example, a farmer had experienced a basis risk event because their location had been wrongly recorded. It was suggested that there needs to be investment in better computing systems to prevent this type of error from happening in the future.5. There was a further discussion around basis risk. In most of North Ghana, drought is not the sole and overriding threat that affects farmers; they are also vulnerable to floods and pests. Area yield and multi-peril indices were seen to be much more attractive by the aggregators.Interesting facets of insurance language were uncovered. By the end of the workshop, about 80% of the aggregators were considering purchasing insurance in 2016, with some still unsure. However, every participant was interested in a bundled \"replanting guarantee\" with a new seed or fertilizer (product currently not offered). It appears that the bundling and the change in language made the insurance much more attractive. This effect has also been seen in other initiatives around the world, for example in ACRE Africa (GSMA, 2015).The workshop finished with two presentations. Ms. Abigail Tettey presented the first on the 2015 CASCAID-352 research on farmer interviews and crop modeling. The final presentation was selected by the participants to be on the impact of climate change in Northern Ghana.There was a great deal of interest in this topic and a desire to learn more.In the workshop conclusion, all participants stated that they were glad to have attended the workshop and that they would like similar trainings in the future. Most stated that they were better equipped to understand index insurance and several stated that they were more likely to consider it for their farmers and out-growers. There was a consistent request from all the participants to intensify education around insurance, for example to hold similar future workshops. However, to be sustainable past CASCAID time-lines, any training or marketing needs to be slotted within GAIP's existing practices and budget lines, or additional funding found. GAIP stated that they would assess the impact of themselves funding capacity building based on whether the participants showed further interest in insurance.In summary, the workshop proved to be an effective method for reaching aggregators in Ghana. It allowed the participants to learn more about insurance and spend time with GAIP.It also allowed a feedback channel for them to air their compliments and concerns about their experiences with index insurance -this was the first opportunity the farmers had to provide feedback. Finally, the workshop produced interesting ideas and useful data for research, for example in the budgets or from the suggestion that aggregators could collect insurance premiums from out growers in-kind, then purchase insurance on their behalf.Some of the tools of the workshop also proved effective. This was especially the case for the budgeting tool, which helped many of the aggregators quantify how climate sensitive their activities were and to see the role insurance could play. Other tools developed for the workshop were dropped at the request of the participants, who preferred open discussion on the topics that most worried them. As participants reported that they would discuss insurance with their out-growers, the workshop proved an effective way of reaching many thousands of smallholder farmers by proxy. However, for the activities in this workshop to be sustainable, a method must be found of utilizing the workshop discussions and tools in a more cost effective manner. A method must also be found of providing aggregators a way to explain insurance to their out-growers, which could link well into a \"training of trainers\" approach being promoted in other participatory programmes (R4, PICSA).","tokenCount":"3219"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"86835b253220e61f82968b08562a23e1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fade5baf-39d0-4da3-9cdf-9beb514d6906/retrieve","id":"1548204210"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e1a415df-534d-45dd-b9ce-4718efef3d52","pagecount":"5","content":"Community-based breeding programs are an attractive option to achieve genetic improvement of small ruminants in low-input systems ◼ Selective breeding programs have resulted in satisfactory genetic improvement and significant inclusive socioeconomic and livelihood benefits to the smallholder farming communities in climate-smart landscapes ◼ The trend for participation of farmers in community-based breeding programs is increasing ◼ There is a significant breeding knowledge difference on husbandry and management practices, forage legume utilization and use of alternative feed resources and efficient production strategies between community-based breeding program (CBBP) members and nonmember farmers ◼ Small ruminant CBBPs run by smallholder farmers are becoming the nucleus to produce climate-resilient sires for new broad-based out scaling sites to the surrounding small-scale farmers, private farms, governmental and nongovernmental institutionsIn developed countries, national breeding programs have been implemented by well-organized breeder associations with full support from the state in a developed infrastructure and high-level capacity to run the breeding programs. Such breeding programs are successful in data recording and processing, and the evaluation of the best candidates for optimal breeding. However, adopting such breeding programs in developing countries was not successful due to a lack of support from government and poor infrastructure.A new approach gaining global interest in developing countries is the CBBP. It adopts a strategy considering farmers' needs, views, decisions, and active participation, from inception through implementation, and their success is based upon proper consideration of farmers' breeding objectives, infrastructure, participation, and ownership. Since 2009, this breeding approach has been adopted in Ethiopia (Mueller et al. 2015). Continuous evaluation of genetic progress and breeder's cooperatives performances are crucial to assess their performances and to optimize or to develop more efficient genetic improvement programs in the future. Thus, in the current study, we evaluated the genetic progress in Doyogena sheep CBBP.The study was conducted in Doyogena climate-smart landscapes. Sheep owners in the study were organized into breeder cooperatives to run the CBBPs. A total of 8 (3 new and 5 older) CBBPs were involved in this study. Animal identification, and performance recording on growth and reproduction traits were carried out by enumerators with close supervision by researchers from AARC, ICARDA and CCAFS.Breeding ram selection was carried out twice a year from older CBBPs. The breeding rams were selected based on estimated breeding values (EBVs) of their six months weight (6WT), incorporating farmers' criteria. First-ranked (top 10%) of the breeding rams were retained in the CBBP flock while second-ranked were sold for breeding purposes to other communities. The third-ranked were either castrated to be fattened or marketed to prevent unwanted mating (Haile et al. 2019). After one year of service, the breeding rams were sold to other areas of the region. Data was analyzed using a generalized linear model in the statistical software SAS (SAS Institute Inc. 2008) and animal model in WOMBAT -a software package for quantitative genetic analyses of continuous traits (Meyer 2007) to assess fixed effects and genetic trends, respectively.Initially, the program was started with 148 male-headed and 24 female-headed households. Currently, a total of 811 households directly participate in the breeding programs (Table 1). This is due to the fact that achievements of participating farmers have attracted other farmers and membership has increased over time. Since the initiation of CBBP, there has been no report of dropouts from any of the cooperatives. Several trainings have been given to members on sheep husbandry and management practices, utilization of forage legumes, use of alternative feed resources, and sheep fattening strategies. As a result, we observed significant knowledge difference between member and non-member farmers. Due to continuous follow-up and training, 99.2% of participant farmers were aware of the effects of inbreeding (the mating of closely related animals) and its control mechanism. Participating farmers practiced breeding ram exchange among themselves to control the level of inbreeding. However, non-member farmers did not take any measure, as they were not aware of the negative effect of inbreeding.Mean birth weight, weaning weight, and 6WT of Doyogena sheep in the study areas is presented in Table 2. The overall mean weight at birth, three months and six months was 3.12 kg, 14.86 kg, and 23.07 kg, respectively.Substantial improvement was attained at birth, three-and 6WT of lambs that showed an increasing trend over the years. The 6WT of Doyogena sheep was comparable with 6WT of Bonga sheep (21.0 ± 0.718) (Haile et al. 2014). The estimates of direct heritability (h 2 a) for birth weight, weaning weight, and 6WT were 0.33 ± 0.06, 0.31 ± 0.06, and 0.14 ± 0.06, respectively (Table 3). Heritability estimates for 6WT were moderate, which reflect less variation among lambs at 6-month age. The estimates of direct heritability for birth weight, and weaning weight fall within the range of values reported for high heritability.Similarly, the estimates of total heritability (h 2 t) for birth, three-month and 6WT were 0.21, 0.12, and 0.14, respectively. The estimate of h 2 t for the mentioned traits were in the moderate range and decreased in value as the lambs advanced in age.The estimate of h 2 a for 6WT (0.14 ± 0.06) was found in the range of h 2 a estimated for Afar sheep 0.14 -0.32 and blackhead Somali sheep 0.00 -0.43 (Yacob et al. 2008), while the report of Gizaw et al. (2014) for Menz sheep 0.46 was much higher than the present estimate. Kebede (2002) estimated 0.18 ± 0.05 of h 2 a for Horro sheep that was higher than the current estimate.In Doyogena, the existing selection trait was 6WT. Therefore, evaluating this trait concerning a genetic trend is very important as both birth weight and weaning weight are early growth traits which are significantly influenced by maternal effects.Since the start of the CBBP, an increasing genetic trend was observed for selection traits in each breeder cooperative. Figures 1 and 2 show an example of the first two established breeder cooperatives (Ancha and Hawora Arara) genetic progress. Annual genetic progress for 6WT was increased by 0.14 kg and 0.05 kg in Ancha and Hawora Arara, respectively. Direct genetic change for 6WT was 0.68 kg (Ancha) and 0.19 kg (Hawora) after 5years of selection. Maximizing the genetic progress of litter size and shortening the lambing interval (LI) has paramount importance. The average litter size, LI and annual reproductive rate (ARR) obtained were 1.75 ± 0.02 litter/head/ewe, 281.22 ± 8.8 days, and 2.16 ± 0.06, respectively. The results of LI were comparable to the findings by Edea et al. (2012) with 276 for Horro sheep.The estimate of heritability for litter size was 0.28 ± 0.12.Estimates indicated that genetic improvement through direct selection for this trait would be high for Doyogena sheep. Compared with other studies, the current heritability estimate for litter size was higher. Kebede et al. (2002) reported h 2 a of twinning was 0.06 -0.17 for Horro sheep. The reason could be due to the fact that 53% and 11% of lambs born were twins and triplets, respectively (Figure 3). The genetic correlation between growth and litter size traits were all negative, ranging from -0.50 ± 0.04 to -0.18 ± 0.08. Phenotypic correlations also had similar trends. The negative genetic correlations were expected since large litter size had been shown to have a negative effect on the body weights of lambs. The negative correlation between growth traits with litter size indicates that litter size cannot be considered as a selection criterion to indirectly improve growth traits.  ","tokenCount":"1228"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d677fb8e300dbd1de4fc6d9f7b608380","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ee143355-fe17-453a-a621-7ddfbb75ab78/retrieve","id":"-274651305"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e973a1ef-b1dc-46c7-948f-ddb723c8fd06","pagecount":"4","content":"A review of the bones and tallow value chains in Somaliland Export of livestock and livestock products is the main source of foreign currency earning in Somaliland. However, in the recent past, the growth in earnings from livestock sales has been declining against a background of increasing human population growth. Adding value to livestock and livestock products provides an avenue for reversing declining growth in incomes.This study was conducted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Terra Nuova and IGAD Sheikh Technical Veterinary School (ISTVS) to map and characterise the bones and tallow value chains in Somaliland, as well as to delineate the main constraints that have hindered the growth of this sector. The research used the case study approach focusing on SOMDA and encompassing three steps. The first step entailed collecting secondary information about SOMDA and reviewing literature on the value of the bones and tallow value chain in the horn of Africa. The focus was to gather information on the content of technical training offered to value chain actors prior to the establishment of the value chains. The second step involved contacting and interviewing trainers to obtain their perspective on the potential viability of these value chains. The third step comprised focus group discussions with value chain actors and physical inspection visits to their premises. It was envisaged this would provide a good understanding of the current state of the value chain and promote understanding of the constraints and opportunities within the chain. A SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) analysis was also carried out to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the soap processing and bone crafting ventures, as well as the threats and opportunities they face. This will help outline key bottlenecks that should be addressed to revitalise the businesses.Results revealed that the bones and tallow value chains in Somaliland are relatively short (Figure 2) and are operated by self-help groups involved in cottage processing of bones and tallow. The main players are Bilan Soap Company, involved in the processing of soap from tallow; and Future Way Enterprise, involved in crafting of trinkets and ornaments from livestock bones. The activities of the two groups are coordinated by SOMDA.It is important to note that the bones and tallow value chains serve a unique niche in the livestock sector where marginalised communities, women and youth work. In this regard, the value chains play a role in employment creation and income generation. In addition, they contribute to create cleaner environments by making use of livestock byproducts that often pile up as landfill.The SWOT analysis highlighted a number of strengths and weaknesses for both enterprises. Potential opportunities that could significantly contribute to strengthening of the businesses were also identified.1. Business strengthsThe soap production process largely relies on natural inputs, such as camel tallow and natural fragrance and colorants. This is preferred by consumers and has the potential to attract more buyers if final products are standardised and certified.• Sufficient supplies of raw materials (livestock bones and tallow) are available in the local market and at a short distance. The development of export slaughterhouses currently taking place will also increase the availability of these materials.• There is good-will from other value chain actors within the market. The soap business has reliable wholesalers who collect and deliver products to retail outlets located all over Somaliland. More often than not, the wholesalers pay upfront, thus relieving the business from cash flow problems. This marketing model also reduces overall marketing costs.The vertical integration between the soap processing and bone crafting businesses is designed to reduce the overall operational costs of the two ventures. The bones, which are waste from soap processing, are an input for the handicraft businesses.• The business plans for the two enterprises are not well formulated. The business plan for soap processing (Bilan business plan) is not well developed and does not include all required information about production costs, need of cash-flow and marketing strategy. On the other hand, the bone crafting venture (Future Way) does not have a business plan at all.• There was lack of growth oriented marketing strategy for the bone crafting business; while the soap business relied on only three wholesale outlets, which poses a potential risk.• There is lack of trained human resource which has an impact on the quality of products, affecting their value on international markets.• The businesses had limited options to finance growth, particularly in the acquisition of equipment and machinery. This curtailed their capacity to produce outputs that are of consistent standard and quality. Most importantly, the soap business was unable to respond to occasional upsurge in demand due to constraints in production.• Production workshops are located in a residential area with increasing pressure from residents to have them relocated due to pollution.• Somali consumers generally prefer buying local products when available with good quality. There is also encouragement from the government to promote local production and decrease imports, thus relieving pressure on the demand for foreign currency.• There is demand in import countries-mainly the United Kingdom and United States of Americafor hand-made and environmental friendly/organic jewellery made from livestock bones. Previous export experiences from Somalia and Kenya have shown that demand exists, but there is need for consistency in quality.The businesses exhibit positive environmental impact by turning bones and horns, which would have otherwise ended up as waste in landfills, into value added products. This has increased buyers' interest and attracted support from the government and other development partners.• Both value chains are short (few actors are involved). This offers opportunities for timely delivery of raw materials and lower transaction costs, often translating into lower prices of final products.• There is growth in trade of processed meat products, both for local use and exports, which ensures raw material availability.• Mobile phone and social media usage is growing fast. This facilitates communication and information sharing, as well as quicker modes of payment.• Increasing demand for animal feed provides an option for further diversification of the business by inclusion of bone meal as part of the product portfolio.The establishment of the national standards body-the Somaliland Quality Control Commission (SQCC)-provides an opportunity to develop and promote product and process standards that will lead to production of better quality, standardised products, contributing to increased market opportunities.• More often than not, the main input used in soap processing (tallow) becomes a key source of food for majority of the low income households in the Somali ecosystem during periods of stress (drought). The competing use of tallow for soap production leads to reduction in supplies and increase in price, and in the process exposes the company to cyclic shocks. Due to ongoing changes in climate and the increasing frequency of extreme climatic events (like droughts), such supply shocks will most likely increase in frequency and intensity.• There is high competition from imported products (soap and jewels), particularly from Asia, China and India.The ease of entry into the bone crafting and soap processing businesses due to low entry barriers provides a potential risk of rapid change in market structure and loss of market share.The bone and tallow value chains in Somaliland are short, use low value inputs, produce relatively low valued products and involve participants from minority pastoralist groups (women and youth). These value chains offer an opportunity for inclusive economic growth that encompasses the most vulnerable groups in Somaliland and directly and/or indirectly generate additional revenues for the pastoralists.The value chains have directly employed more than 150 people in the past, sustaining around 1000 people (average of six per household). The tallow/soap value chain is worth USD150,000 of income to severely disadvantaged groups living in both urban and pastoral areas.However, the two value chains have failed to exploit the various opportunities for growth due to a number of constraints that include low quality of final products, lack of access to working and investment capital and inconsistent supply of raw materials.Strengthening of these promising value chains will require the following interventions:i. Capacity development of value chain actors to improve their skills and allow development of quality products.ii. Enhancing access to working and investment capital through financial institutions or donors to allow acquisition of necessary equipment to upgrade the quality and quantity of products.iii. Review and/or develop new business plans that include a clear strategy for sustainable growth of existing businesses. ","tokenCount":"1381"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7d8cf65316d9baabe81fda85cf1530ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/af6e11c8-bc6e-473a-a6b8-e49ee2a6b23e/retrieve","id":"101410625"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fa9e2a1c-1025-4e12-a1c9-7ea6f0e3673a","pagecount":"62","content":"Breeding philosophies and melhodologies developed for favorable condilions and high•inpul agriculture have been íneffectivo in generating improved cullivars for marginal conditions and low-input agrieulture. The project is implemenling • novel breeding approach for barley improvement in Ihe low-potenti.l, marginal-rainfaU envíronmenl of lordan, based on early seleclion snd testing under farmer's conditions .nd with farmers' participalion.The expected outputs inelude identification of farmers' (men's and women's) seleclíon crileria, inlroduction of participatory approaches into n.lion.l breeding programs, dissemination of inform.lion generated by the project, increased adoption of new varieties in low-inpul agriculture, and higher .nd more stable barley yields. The new breeding program, targeted al marginal conditions and low-input agriculturc, wil! movo selection and les!ing work outside experiment stalions .nd put breeding into the hands off.rmers. We expeclthal even in a relalívely smal! geographical area, farmers will tend lo exploit specific adaptation. Specific adaptalian benefits biodiversity through seleclian and spreading of a nummof differenl cultívars, instead ofthe few, afien closely relaled, cullivars charactenstic of conventionaJ breeding for wide adaptation.Plant breeding has been beneficial 10 fanners who enjoy favorable environments or those who can profitably modify their environment to suit new cultivars. It has not been so beneficial to those fanners (the poorest) who could not afford to modify their environment through the application of additional inputs (Byerlee and Husain 1993). Fanners in favorable environments using hígh levels of inputs are now concemed with the possibility of adverse environmental effects and the 1088 of genetic diversity. Poor fanners in marginal environments conlínue 10 8uffer from chronícally low  yields, crop failures, and in the worst situations, malnutrition and famine. Because of its past successes, conventional plant breeding has tried to solve the problems of poor farmers living in unfavorable environments by simply extending the same melhodologies and philosophies applied earlier to favorable, high-polenlial environments.The essential concepts ofthe conventional breeding approach can be summarized as follows:• Seleclion is conducted under lhe well-managed conditions of experiment slalions.• Cultivars, especially in self-pollinating species, should be pure lines and should be widely adapled over large geographical areas.• Locally adapted landraces should be replaced because lhey are low yielding and disease susceptible.• Dissemination of seed of improved cultivars should lake place through formal mechanisms and institutions, such as variely-release committees, seed-certification schemes, and governmental seed-production organizations.• The end users of new varieties need not be involved in selection and testing; Ihey are only involved at the end of the consolidated routine (breeding, researcher-managed trials, verificatíon trials) to verif'y which ofa Iimited selection offinished cultivars are acceptable.In situations where the objectives are lo improve yield and yield stability for poor farmers in difficult environments, plant-breeding programs rareJy question the efficiency and the effectiveness of Ihe conventíonal approach. The implicit assumption is Ihat what has worked well in favorable conditions must a1so be appropriate to unfavorable conditions, and very little attentíon has been given to developing new breeding strategies for low-input agriculture in less-favorable environments.There is mounting evidence lhat this assumption is not valid and that, in faet, lhe problems ofmarginal environments and their farming systems mus! be addressed in new and innovative ways.In Ihose few cases where the application of conventional breeding strategies lO marginal environments has been assessed, the following has been found: 382• Selection in ｷ ･ ｬ ｬ Ｍ ｭ ｡ ｮ ｡ ｾ ･ ､ ＠ experiment stations tends 10 produce cultivars tha! are superior to local Jandraces only under improved management and nol under lhe low-input condilions characteristic oflhe farming systems (Galt 1989;Sirnmonds 1991;Ceccarelli 1994). The result is lhat many new varieties are released, but few, if any, are actual1y grown by farmers in difficult environmenls.• Poor farmers in diffieult environments tend to maintain genetic diversity in lhe form of different crops, different cultivars within lhe sarne crop, andlor heterogeneous cultivars in order to maximize adaptation over time (stability), ralher lhan adaptation over space (Binswanger and Barah 1980). Adaptation over time can be improved by breeding for specific adaptation, Le., by adapting cultivars lO their environment (in a broad sense) ralher lhan modif'ying the environmentto fit new cultivars (Ceccarelli 1996). Since diversity and heterogeneity serve to disperse or buffer lhe risk of total crop failure due to environmental variation, farmers may resist lhe idea of abandoning traditional cultivars.• When an appropriate cultivar is selected, adoption is much faster through non-market methods of seed distribution (Grisley 1993).• When fanners are involved in the selection process, their selection critería may be very different from those of the breeder (Hardon and de Boef 1993;Sperling, Loevinsohn, and Ntabomura 1993). Typical examples are crops used for animal feed, such as barley, where breeders often use grain yield as the sole selection criterion, while farmers are usually equally eoncerned with forage yield and the palatability ofboth grain and straw (Saade et al. 1993).Because the concepts of conventioual plant breeding are rarely questioned, the blame for the nonadoption ofnew cultivars is variously attributed to the ignoranee offarmers, the ineffieiency of extension services, and the lack of availability of seed of improved eultivars. Thus, an impressive . amollOt ofhuruan and financia! resources eontinue to be invested in a model that has not been, and most likely will not be, suecessful in llOfavorable agroc1imatie conditions.We base our approaeh on the following four assumptions: l. Farmers have aecumulated experienee and know their speeifie environment better than breeders. 2. Farmers operate aeeording lo speeifie needs and objeetives, whieh may not confonn to breeders' research objectives. 3. Farmers will determine the sucee•ss of a new variety, not breeders. 4. It is possib!e to integrate the seientific knowledge of breeders (in areas such as genetics, breeding, physiology, agronomy), as well as their broader experience aeross environments and theír ability to ereate and manipulate genetic variability, with the knowledge and experienee of farmers.The concepts ofthe projeet are not new. F anners have been participating to a greater or lesser extent in the pigeon-pea and pearl-millet programs of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT), in the breeding program carried out by the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Rwanda, and in a number of projeets implemented by ICARDA and national agricultural researeh systems (NARS) in Syria, Tunisia, Moroeeo, Eritrea, and Yemen (Cecearelli et al. 2000(Cecearelli et al. , 2001)). These projects, however, were only experiments in participatory plant breeding, since they did not incorporate the cyclieal nature ofplant breeding. The projeet presented here represents a step forward beeause it will transfer to farmers' fields various steps of a fonnal breeding programo Although we wiIl document farmers' selection eriteria, and whether seleetion criteria differ between men and women, through descriptive indigenous-knowledge studies, emphasis wiIl be given to (l) measuring and quantifying the effect of using fanners' selection eriteria on the performance and adoption of improved barley and (2) developing an approach tbat can be readily utilized by other NARS in deve!oping eountries.The geographical scope ofthis researeh is the dry areas of Jordan where drought stress is the major biotic stress and where barley IS often the only possible erop for resource-poor farrners. This area eneompasses a range of agroeeological conditions, a11 ofwhich may be considered as low-potential emironments for cereal production. Arable land is predominantly cultívated with barley landraces.In Jordan, the popularity ofbarley among fanners, despite the failure to improve yields, Iies in its use as feed for small rurnÍnants (sheep and goats); meat, milk, and milk products represent the prin-cipal source of income for rural households in marginal areas, Barley grain and straw constitute the most important source of feed fo! the small ruminants throughout much of the year when grazing is in short supply. In the driest areas, a grain yield ís obtained onJy one year in lO. And yet barley is sown every year, essentially as a forage crop whose value depends on biomass yield rather tban grain yield (figure ¡, table 1).fiigure 1. The rainfall zone. of Jordan Barley is mainly cultivated in tbe dryland areas tbat cover part of east Jordan. These areas are characterized by low rainfal!, irregular1y distributed, with most of the rain falling during the winter. Temperatures vary widely, witb frequent feost in early spring and in late spring, resulting in head sterilíty, low yields (table 2) and often in crop failure. The unpredictable envirorunental conditions, along with poor soils and crop management, have made it difficult to introduce new cultivars and obtain yield increases.Table 1. Planted Ares, Production, and Productivity ofBarley in Jordan (1990Jordan ( -1997) )  Nore: Data are !he means of84 barley lines during the 199611997 growing soaSoo.The long-tenn goal oflhe project is the improvement oflhe welfare ofsmall, resource-poor fanners by increasing and stabilizing barley and livestock productíon.The imrnediate objectives of the project are• to develop a participatory approach to breedíng barley for stress conditions• to improve barley varieties Ihat fulfill Ihe needs of poor fanners in Ihe marginal rainfed environrnents of Jordan• to enhance the rate of adoption of new varietíes through fanners' participation in selection and testing• to identify dífferences in seleetion eriteria used by different types of farmers (aceording to gender, enterprise mix, and other farm characteristics)At the end of the project we expect the following outputs:• documented and validated information on farmers' objeetives, know ledge, and field condilions• the performance and quality, under both farmers' and station conditions, of barley fines selected by farmers in their fields, compared with the performance and quality oflines selected on the experiment station using breeders' setection erítería• doeumentation of the selection eritería used by different types of farmers andlor different members offarm households• a number oflines selected and developed through this participatory breeding program multiplied by farmers and tested by neighboríng farmers• the importance of the interactions between selection erítería and selection envíronment assessed• incorporation of participatory approaches by the two national breeding prograrnsAl each ofthe locations included in the project area, cooperating farmers (\"host farmers\"), who will hos! breeding plots and make individual selections, will be recruited from the pool of participants in previous on-farm research and cooperatíve research programs in ongoing research-and-devetopment projects. A rapid-appraisal exercise will be conducted wíthin the agricultural cornmunity assocíated with each ofthe selected agroecologicallocations, and a group oflocal \"expert farmers\" wiU be identified and recruíted on the basis of reputatíon, key farming contacts, past performance, gender representation, producer and consumer categories, and se1f-selectíon. The expert farmer groups, together with the host farmers, wíll participate as key informants in the indigenous-knowledge study and will perform group selections from their respective host furmers' germplasm collectíons.Ibis component has several crucial outputs for developíng the partícipatory-breeding approach.First, there will be an enquíry into farmers' objectíves, reasons for producing barley, and different end-uses ofthe crop. This will include theírperceptíons ofthe dífficulties they experíence in reaching these objectíves. Household economic securíty and rísk considerations will also be considered in the context of production objectives and genotype evaluation.The índigenous-knowledge study will pro vide the information needed for the analysis of concepts 5uch as how farmers, both men and women, value various characteristics ofthe barley erop and how much they understand adaptatíon for specific environments and uses. The methodology for data collectíon and analysis will rely prímarily on formal ethnographíc techniques used in sociocultural anthropology, including participant observation, structured interviews, and taxonomic and componential analysis of labeled traits. As much as possible, badey characterístícs recognized by fanners will be classified hierarchically to enable selection procedures to be applied one afier the other aeeordíng to prioritíes reported by fanners. Indígenous methods for reeognízing desirable characteristies within populatíons ofbarley eultívars will be documented, and activities of fanners applying these methods will be recorded in detail.An important aspect ofthis component i5 the ídentíficatíon ofwomen's seleclíon eriteria, partícularly, but not only, al those locatíons where barley is u5ed for human consumption.Specific outputs for tbis component inelude the following:• evaluatíon of the innovatíve capacity of fanners and insíght into theír potentíal for direct participation ín formal breeding programs• lí518 of desirable characteristícs, prioritized and cross-referenced to environment and utilization• indigenous knowledge and perceptions of environment-genotype ínteractions in barley landraces• the theory, objectíves, and implementation ofthe participatory-breeding prograrn will be discussed thoroughly with the host fanners and expert farmer groups in order to obtain their input into the design of the breeding scheme, including selection procedures, such as the proper time for selection, how ofien selection is done, etc.This componen! represents the major empirical thrust ofthe project and will quantify the effects of the selection environment (experiment station vs. fanner's field), of who does the selection (breeder vs. farmer), and whether these effeets interact or vary from year to year.The traits that fanners select for, and the eriteria they use in their selection, will be recorded by the breeders and social scientists, and compared with objective measures of trai18 used by barley breeders, including the yíeld and quality of graín and straw.A common set oflines and populations (including the farmers' cultivars) will be grown on a typically well-managed experiment station field and on one fanner's field at each of six !ocations in Jordan under fanners' management practices (fertilízer use, rotations, date and method of sowing, land preparation, etc.). The locations will be as follows:Al-Mohay 60 km southeast ofK.arak and about 130 km south of Aroman, with an annual rainfull of about 1 3Q....1 50 mm Al-Muaqure Ramtha Khanasri RaMa Ghwer 55 km east of Amrnan, in the arid areas, with an annual rainfaIl of 150 mm 160 km north of Amrnan, with an annual rainfall of 250 mm 135 km north of Amrnan, with an annual rainfall of200 mm 140 km south of Amman, with an annual rainfall of 340 mm 160 km south of Aroman, with an annual rainfall of 280 mm By ineluding locations with less than 200 mm average annual raínfall, there will be opportunities to investigate the performance of breeding material in environments where barley is a forage crop rather than a grain erop. In addition, small graín-producing areas occur wíthin the < 200 mm zone. These are seasonally f100ded wadi f100rs (marrabs), where high graín yields are normal wíthín a generally arid environment. Because of theír ímportanee locally, and the uniqueness of the agroecosystem, these !ocations are included in the project.[n the project area, the majority of farmers still grow barley landraces ¡hat are heterogeneous populations composed of a large number of individual genotypes. Although the population buffering of such heterogeneous populations-and, hence, their role in reducing ¡he risk of crop failures-is well documented, we do no! know whether farmers perceive this type of diversity as importan! and jf this is the reason for the popularity of landraces. To gain information on this specific point, the genetic material will include high-yielding fixed or nearly fixed lines, segregation populations, and farmers' cultivars. The use ofbolh pure lines and heterogeneous populations will provide a means for testing the attitude of farmers towards heterogeneity, as opposed to the conventional breeders' propensity for homogeneity. The farmers' cultivars, which are likely to be different at each location, wíll be collected from each farmer during the harvest of the previous year, and all farmers' cultivars will be grown at each site. Selection will be conducted on the experiment station by breeders, and in each host farmer' s field, selection will be conducted by both the breeders and the host farmers, their spouses, andlor olher household members. Whenever possible, neighboring farmers wiJI also participa te in lhe selecnon process.The collaborating farm householders will make selections from theír fields. Following a group selection procedure similar to thatused by ICRISAT in Rajasthan (ICRISAT 1996:98-100), the expert farmer groups wíll be asked to select material from lhat grown by lheir host farmers, material lhat they think would be use fui for-them and olher farmers in lheír area. The selectíon wiIl be conducted in such a way as to reveal the criteria being used by lhe farmers and olhers when they make their choices. There will be detailed discussions regarding lhe cultivars selected and the eriteria used in selection. Farmers' observatíons, expected performance, and crop-management practices wíll be recorded.At lhe end ofthe frrst year, in addition to the breeders' se1ections from lhe experirnent stations, for each particípating farmer, the following groups of selected Iines wíll be available: 1. lines selected by lhe breeder 2. Iines selected by the farmer 3. Iines selected by other household members 4. lines selected by lhe farmer's neighbors In lhe second year, each host farmer wilI growall lhe Iines selected in hislher ficld in the fust year, regardless of who made lhe selection, Le., groups 1 to 4 aboye, as well as the lines selected by the breeder in lhe experiment station. The selections will be grown as one populatíon oflines without obvíous distinctions between the groups to avoid any possible bias in the second cycle of selection. AH lhe lines selected in lhe first year wíl1 also be grown on the experiment station in the sccond year to provide enough seed for lhe third year. Data on grain and straw yield will be collected at each host farmer' s field and at lhe experiment station. Response to selection will be evaluated using lhe farmer's cultivar as reference. In lhe second and trurd year, selection will be done, as in the first year-on the lines resulting from the first and second cycle of selection. Thus, during lhe second and third cycle (year) of selection, lhe farmers and lhe breeders wí11 be exposed to the material selected by each olher. By lhe third year, the project will have involved a total of36 households in lhe target area and will have simulated tbree cycles of selection of the sarue type of cyclical processes !hat take place in conventional breeding prograrns (figure 2).  During the selection proeess, the eriteria ofboth fanners and breeders will be monitored and eompared. Of particular inlerest will be the frequeney with wmeh me fatrners,in me seeand and thírd year, seleet from the material they selected themselves in the first year and from among the material selected in me first year by the breeders. This will give not only an indícation ofthe eonsistency of fanners' seleetion eriteria, but also an indieation of the possible effects of fluetuations in environmen! over years on genotype performance and fanners' perceptions ofthese effects.Tm3 component is designed to quantify the following effects:• the effeet of the selection environment (experiment station vs. farmer' s field) by comparing, both on the experiment station and on the fanner' s field, the superiority over the fanner' s cultivar ofthe Iines selected by the breeder on-station with the superiority ofthose seleeted by the breeder in the fanner' s field• the effect of seleetion eriteria (breeder vs. fanner) by comparing, in the fanner's field, the superioríty over the fanner's cultivar ofthe lines seleeted by the breeder with the superiority of those seleeted by the fanner (this comparison wíll be extended to cover seleetions done by others, Le., farm household members and/or neighbors.)At the end of the first three years, it is expected tha! the number of selected lines wíll be small enough 10 stimulate the interest of the participating fanners, and possibly of sorne neíghboring fanners, to grow one or more of them as commercial erops. The experimental material will be assembled and distributed by the barley breeders to ensure a UIÚform seed souree.Wheat ís lhe third most ímportant cereal crop in Nepal, afier rice and maíze. Until lhe mide 19605, wheat was consídered a minor cereal and its cultivatíon was limíted only to the far westem hill regíon. Coordínated research and extension efforts in wheat during the last 30 years have sígnificantly contributed towards an increase in the area planted to wheat and in produetion and productivíty. At present, the wheat crop covers more than 640,000 hectares wíth a total production of 1,086,000 metric tonnes. The natíonal average productivity of wheat is 1700 kglha (CBS 1999). Wheat occupies 22% ofthe country's total eultivated area and 20.2% ofthe total planted lo cereals. It contributes 16.2% ofthe total cereal produetion in the country.Although there has been a tremendous ínerease in area and production, national wheat productivity is stilllow, whích is attributed to many factors. Some ofthese are a poor rate ofseed replacement, slow varietal replacement, use of poor-quality seed by fanners, suboptimal fertilizer use, ínsufficient irrigation facilities, and a low fann-gate price. More than 90% ofthe wheat seed moves from farmer to farmer. The present seed-replacement rate is 4% to 5%, and a newly released variety takes five to 10 years to cover a large area, depending on the acceptance ofthe variety. Ninetypercent of the country's wheat area is covered by modem wheat varieties; however, many farmers still grow old, dísease-susceptible, low-yieldíng varieties, resulting poor yield. In Nepal there are two major wheat-production zones, One líes in terai, and terai-like arcas in river basins and lower valleys up to 500 meters and the other is in the mid-and high hills, aboye 500 meterso The former zone represerits 60% ofthe total wheat area and contributes 63% ofthe total wheat productíon in the country. Tnis zone is further subdivided into three production environments: (1) rainfed, which represents 28% of tbe terai wheat area, (2) irrigated, which represents 72% of the terai wheat area, and (3) Late-sown, which represents 250/0-30% of the wheat in the terai. Rice-wheat is tbe dominant croppíng pattern in this zone. The mid-hil1s represent about 40% ofthe total wheat area and production, and the high hills, about 37%. In these areas, wheat is grown after ricc-wheat in irrigated khet land and after maize and millet in rainfed barí land.The wheat-research program has released 27 improved wheat varietíes since 1960, and if we look critieally at their adoption rate, five out of27 have very high adoption, 10 have high, six have low, and five out of the 27 have a very low adoption rate (table 1).Figure 1 cJearly indicates the research-generated technologies practiced on experiment stations, revealing a 4.8 tiha grain yield, compared to 3.2 tlha obtained in farmers' field trials. Howeyer, the national average is 1.7 tJha, clearly indicating that a threefold yield increase-compared to experiment-station yields-and a twofold increase-compared to fanners' field trials-is possible,To achieve this, new technological advances are to be made in the area of crop improvement through participatory plant breedíng and partícipatory varietal selection. This will facilitate fue rapid adoption of newly released varieties, along with a faster seed-replacement rate. And ultimately, fanners will get varieties wifu fueir preferred traits. This will further help in the identification and release oflocation-specific wheat varieties for different agroecological niches. - Figure 2 illustrates the presen! and past wheat varietal development process of tbe wheat variety release system. Farmers' informal participation starts from tbe initial evaluation trial onwards, where farmer-visitor groups are allowed to evaluate wheat genotypes planted at different research ,tations. Coordinated farmers' field trials are carried out in tbe farmers' fields in multilocational test sites. The genotypes in on-farm trials are evaluated jointly by farmers and researchers. As in farmers' acceptance tests, small seed kits of pre-released and released varieties are distributed to a number of farm families tbroughout tbe country, along with a questionnaire to be retumed by them. The questionnaire used in evaluating coordinated farmers' field trials and tbe farmers' acceptance test are given in annex l. Frontline, on-farm research is a triangular activity where farmers, extension personne1, and research scientists are involved right from síte selection to variety evaluation.In frontline research, a complete technology package is introduced, along with an improved variety, in a large area where many farmers are allowed to join in. In the district seed self-sufficiency program, tbe multiplication of seed from recently released varieties is carried out jointly by farrners groups, extension personnel, and research scientists. The seed produced is procured and marketed by tbe farmers groups tbems<;lves. A part of tbis wheat-research program is continuously supplying genetic materials to several NGOs and actively participating in variety-evaluation work.Thus, with tbe involvement of farmers and various developmental agencies, tbe participatory crop-improvement program could help in (1) the ídentificatíon and release of farmers' preferred varieties, (2) the release of location-specific varieties for diverse agroclimatic ruches, (3) faster A participatory assessment to determine the preferenee eriteria that farmers employ in selecting wheat genotypes was carried out at Bankatti village in the Rupandehi distriet. Twenty male and female farroers were invited, divided into two groups by gender, and asked te list the traits tha! they preferred in selecting wheat genotypes. After Iisting their preference eriteria, individual members were alIowed to rank the preference eriteria. Based on their preference eriteria, 12 wheat varieties with two replieations were planted in farroers' fields in Bankatti vilIage. These differed in maturity, height, tillering, grain size, disease response, grain yield, and other traits. At physiologieal rnaturity, women and men farroers were allowed to seleet wheat genotypes based on the preference traits listed and ranked previously. A format-containing list of 12 wheat genotypes and preference traies listed by the two groups was distributed to both the groups, and they were asked to rank the genotypes from one te 12, Afier harvesting the crop, farmers were asked to rank the grain size and color for their preference. Grain-yield samples frOID the harvest were weighed, adjusted to 12% moisture, and analyzed statistically.The preference eriteria ser by the two groups is presented in table 2. The women's group listed 12 traits, while men listed only níne traits. There were eight traits that were common to both groups. If we compare the eriteria set by tbe two gender groups for selecting wheat genotypes and tbose set by the National Wheat Research Program, we can see many similarities, except in sorne traits related to quality, drought, and sterility. This is because Bankatti is an irrigated and sterility-free area and farmers have never experienced drought and sterility. Table 3 reveals the preference eriteria set by the two gender groups afler ranking in order. It clearly shows the differential ranking of traits by gender. Men gave top prioríty to tolerance to late heat stress, followed by large, white graillS and tolerance to shattering, while women ranked resistance to diseases first, followed by high tillering and high yield.Wheat Gcnotypes (pre-Breeding Survey) Tables 4 and 5 show the preference ranking of wheat genotypes by women and men farmers, respectively. Both lhe groups selected BL 14 73--a recently released variety-as lhe number one choice, followed by Nepal 297. The differential ranking appeared when selecting lhe lhird genotype, where women group ranked NL 731 as third and lhe men group selected Bhrikuti (table 6). Table 7 represents the genotypes evaluated, along with lheÍr main characteristícs. It can be seen that the farmers' number one choice is not grain yield but other important traits like bold grain, earliness, and disease resistance.Tahle4 The results of this exercise revealed lhe following:1. Farmers have vas! knowledge and skills regarding varietal preferences and evaluation techniques (i.c., they can truly idenlifY suitable genotypes and can look very critically al lheir farming system).2. Women farmers seem to have an inherent ability 10 look at the required traits faster tban male farmers do.A, Coordinated fanners' field Iríais  This ís another area of my experímentation and innovation. I had leamed Ihe basíe lechniques of dry farming in Ihe young farmers' learning eourse al the Indían Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) In 1982. The water needed for irrlgatlon was very searee. The only persisting problem was to stop evaporation and water 1055 by caplllary aetlon. Thi5 could be done by breaklng capíllary movemen! and eontrollíng weed growth by plowíng or díggíng ¡nto the 5011 up lo 20 cm in depth. This should be done twlce-1 O days after the firsl monsoon and jusi after Ihe lasl monsoon.  This paper presenls a discussion of the qualities 01 local species 01 paddy rice, along wi!h !he advantages 01 growing it-marketability, flavor, use in religious ｣ ･ ｲ ･ ｭ ｯ ｮ ｩ ･ ｳ ｾ ｦ ｲ ｯ ｭ ＠ a larmer's perspective. It also compares produclíon technologies tor local paddy and improved varieties, with information on traditional techníques lor seed management.I am Kapil Dev Bhagat Mali, an ordinary farmer owning about one and a half bigha of land in Bara and supporting a family of five members. I have been cultivating the same local specíes of paddy in the traditional method as had been practiced by my ancestors in the pas!. I have both types of land-bhadaiya and aghahani land. (In bhadaiya land there is a winter crop and in aghahani there is the summer crop.) In both types of rice fields, I cultivate local species of paddy. The advantage of the local varieties is their power to resíst díseases and pests, and less labor ís needed in weeding. This paddy gives good tumover despite less fertilizer and less water. Besides beller production, in our religious and social rituals, only the local paddy is accepted and we cannot make use ofthe improved variety. In such sacred rituals, all types of aghahani species and in bhadaiya, the sathhi species are of great importance in the local community. The paddy species locally called Sokan and Sotawa, are even given to patients suffering from high fever, as the rice texture is soft and readily digested. In fact, some of !he local types of paddy are no less in production than the improved varieties. Another advantage of the local paddy is tha! even in less fertile soil, it gives an excellen! harves!. Some specíes 01 !he local paddy have good production in deep-water fields and some other local species are equally good in ralher dry fields too. However, in both these types of land-wet and dry-the improved species of paddy cannot be cultivated.I have seen many local species of paddy and have also personally experienced their cultivation. Each of Ihe local species has.its own specific characteristics and qualíties. I am giving a brief description of the specific qualities of the local species of paddy:• Among !he aghahani, the Basmati has a special fragrance, hence il is called Basmati. It is very tasty and very costly.• In Aanga there is tunda; so these local types are no! easily allacked by diseases and pests.• The Dudharaj variety is thick textured, and it is white in color; hence, il is called Dudharaj (king of milk). This species grows equally well in all types of land, wet, deep, or dry land.• The species called Bhathi is grown in deep water. II can grow equally well in fields tha! have water as deep as a man's heighl.• Budhi dayan is another species of paddy that can be cultivated in high or low places. It is good for making beaten rice (chiura) and the rice is also excellent.• Anandi is rather sticky in teXture and is very good for rice dishes.• The Kanna species can be cultivated in both types of land, in high and low areas. The rice in yellow in color and has a very good taste.• Kamodh is fragrant and delicious and grows equally well with less fertilizer.• Lajhi is fairly good, grows well in les s fertilized fields, is good for daily consumption, and lhe production is high-about two and a half maund of rice per each katha of land, almost equal to the improved variety.• Mansara and Mansari have good straw and are very good for daily use.• Bachi basmati (Chanchur) is fragrant, good for eating and makes good beaten rice (chiura)Production technology and production status of the local and the improved varieties of paddy• The local variety, in comparison to Ihe Bikashe, is much less in production, but in orderlo get a good retum on the production of the Bikashe species, there must be proper provísion of fertilizers, good irrigation facilities, and as they are easíly atlacked by pests, it is necessary to make the field pest free with pesticides. Having provided all these facilities in cultivation, then lhere is only the possibility of getting 3 to 4 maunds of paddy per katha of land. Bu! lhe local species, depending on !he monsoon rain, with less manure and fertilizers and without the use of pesticides, can produce paddy in the same ratio as the Bikashe varíety.• In the case of paddy saplings to be replanted in the fíeld, the timing is very importanl for the Bikashe, butforthe local species, Ihere is no such limitation, as Ihe saplings can be either 15 to 20 days old or 35 to 40 days old.• The straw (para/) of Bikashe paddy from one katha of land is equivalent to the straw from local species coveríng an area of 10 kathas.• If the family members are few in number, il is nol wíse to cultivate Bíkashe species because il requires greal labor, as in sprinkling pesticides, spreading fertilizers, weeding, etc.• Those farmers who cultivate Bikashe paddy make use of tyanki but I have never used any such thing.• I experimented by cultivating two species of paddy in one field: in half the field, the Bíkashe species callad Masula, and in the other half, local varieties callad Dudhraj and Chhataraj. In both, I used equal measures of irrígation and fertilizers, and I dídn't find much difference in paddy production. I usad 2 kg of urea fertilizer in each katha of land.• Though I have the facliity of irrigation in my fíeld, I will no! discontinue cultivating the local paddy because, with good irrigation, lhe rate of production of local species will also be equally high.The  I am a small-scale farmer, eultivaling a small plol of land and sustaining my small family, trusling the maxim lhal 'contenlmen! is bliss,\" and I have continued wi!h the tradilional lechnology of local paddy cultivation practiced by my aneestors sinee Ihe remole past. I know lha! !he local variety of seeds have many good qualitíes which are no! available in the improvedlBikashe seeds. The local varie!ies have less chance of being altacked by diseases or pests, they are able lo withstand climalie condítions, and give good produclion with les s fertilizer and less care Ihan Ihe improved varieties. Besides Ihese, Ihe local varieties are delicious for eating, are acceplable in religious ritual s, and have medicinal properties, Some varieties al so have a higher market value than the improved variety of rice. II is nol only difficult and labor consuming to cultivate the improved variety of seeds, bul in lerms of rice production, there is not much difference if the method of cultivating both types of rice is carried the same way, I believe that farmers who are commitled lo developing improved varieties of paddy seeds must give equal importance to protect and promote the local varieties of seeds because these seeds are the basis for future improved varieties of species that can give beller produclion al harvesl. So if the government ilself took the iniliative to give the required training and make arrangements for educational tours, then Ihe farmers could contribule beller in farming and cultivation. We farmers are much behind in farming skills. We do nol have the knowledge of!he latest technology in farming, So we follow the same old technology that our ancestors have followed from past times. About selecting and keeping the seeds, storing Ihem. we have the same traditional techniques, When we don'! have seeds of our own, then we borrow from our relatives and friends as we don't trust the seeds that we buy out in the market. Neither have there been any effective measures taken by Ihe government to ensure good storage syslems for seeds lo have beller produclion.I request our farming community brolhers and sislers lo continue lo cultivate our local paddy. Though less in quantity, the local species have less of a chance of pesl and disease infestation, require less fertilizer. and grow equally well, Even in insufficiently irrigated fields, the production is good, and Ihese local varielies are acceptable in our sacred and social rituals. As cooked rice also, il is delicious and it is good tor our health, In poor soil also, il gives good production. If we lel !he local varieties and species disappear, than there is less chance for developing improved seeds for the future use, Today !he need Is for an initiative tha! must be started from !he govemment level lo protect the local paddy seeds, which are fast dísappearing and unaccounted tor: lo conserve, lo protect, and to highlight them through local development clubs, district-Ievel agriculture development offices, the Agriculture Ministry, departments, etc. The scientists must not only work towards making !he rice grains trom long to short or bringing grealer production, but they must also make provísions for Ihe availability of proper irrigalion syslems. In a similar manner, the government musí also make provision lo supply fertllizer in time, good seeds and Ihe means lo control and destroy the diseases and pesls that attack the improved varieties.--------_ .. __ . _ --------------- The majority of the people in the Durbar Devisthan VOC in the district of Gulmi, which falls under Ihe Western Development Region, are dependen! upon agriculture. In this area, the prominent crop is maize. Olher species of maize are also planted, but in this hilly region, the most common species is the large-sized yellow-colored variety. This type of maize is remarkable tor grealer production and the higher amount of fodder for animals, and Ihe corn Is delicious to eal. So the majn crop here is maize, bul farmers are facing a great problem as Ihe malze plants have the tendency lo fall. Olher problems are relaled lo Ihe lack of irrigation facilities, the problem of pests and diseases, and also Ihe scarcity of better technology lo improve our crops. .We are making our own efforts to solve the problem of maize plants falling down easily. What we do is when the plant is about 20-30 days old, we dig and weed out the grass around the saplings.Then when the plant is about 45-55 days, then there is a special type of digging done just to loosen the roots, and we cut one side of Ihe root, loosen il, and lay the plants on the soi!. This stops Ihe growlh of Ihe height of the maize plants for so me days and the rool is strengthened. Some farmers also plan! maize in straighl line.Sometimes, aflerweeding out the grass around the maize saplings, Ihe soil is pressed around il. In Ihis way the farmers make great efforts lo prevent Ihe maize plants from falling down easily. Initially, when the Locallnitiatives for Siodiversity Research and Development (U-SIRO) came visiting our village, we were most happy. AII of us villagers gathered together. At that time they were in the procesa of choosing the appropriate place to carry out their research. We requested them to carry out Ihe program in our village only, so Ihal we too could participate in the programo Afler that, il was settled tha! the program would be conducted in our village. Under Ihis program, they told us their plan-that they would give us new improved species of maize seeds, and we could choose those species that would be most suitable under our soil and climatic conditions. About this, we were not in agreement as we knew Ihat the species of maize tha! we locally grew, the big yellow variety called Pi ya/o, was good for uso We were not willing lo change from the local variety because this species gave a good harvest, the quantity of com-liour after grinding was more, il was delicious eilher dry roasled or grilled over the lire, and the maize plants also provided excellent fodder for our animals. The U-SIRO teachers had asked us whether we would grow a species of maize Ihat was very similar lo the Piyato variety in taste, production, and as fOdder, bu! the maize planta would be shorter in height.We suggested tha! we didn't want any of Ihe new variety bul we would be happy to be taught Ihe techniques to prevenl the Pi ya/o maize planls from falling down easily. Then we asked if there could be improvemenls in this variety. So as we wanled, LI-SIRO is helping us lo improve the big variety of Piyato. We have started a cross-pollina!ing program in which we have crossed the big variety of Piyalo with improved varieties. Another program is mass selection. In this, the main worl< is lo improve the big-grained Piyalo itself, by separating and selecting seeds from tal!, weak maize stalks, identifying and marking poor seeds by removing the straws from such ears. We have done other programs too, and ourfarmer brothers have experimented by growing other improved varieties. Some of the species have also been appreciated by our folk. Likewise, we have also considered Ihe 36 varieties of maize species brought by CIMMYT, and from among them we have selected some species for cultivation.In this way, U-BIRO has helped us to solve our problem and to bring improvement to the cultivatíon of malze. We have been given training in how to do cross-fertílizatlon and mass selection. We farmers are also commltted lo improving the species of big Piyalo and we are very optímistic about this improvement. It is true that we have leamed about crossing the maize species and plucking out Ihe straws from weak and tal! maize stalks in order lo selee! good seeds, but sliII, we feel thal if we are Irained in other melhods of improving our crop production, we would be capable and successful farmers. Therefore, Ihrough mutual efforts, underslanding, and cooperation among our farming community and NGOs, we would surely be able to bring out improved maize specíes líke Ihe yellow Piyalo variety according lo the suitabilíty of our soll and weather conditions.There In my field, we crossed belween Ganesh-1 males and big yellow variety females. We planled three lines of male seeds and six lines of female seeds. Likewise, we advised some five olher farmers lo cross-fertilize Ihe big yellow variety of maize with olher species. While cross-fertilizing, we planted Ihe male and female seeds separately, with a difference offive days. But all the time we were worried Ihal Ihe seeds mighl nol grow. The seeds grew, bul maybe due lo Ihe growth of Ihe grass or something else., the saplings became yellow and Ihey didn't grow well. Then I was very much frightened. I was worried Ihat if we didn't have a goOO maize harvest, how are we going to survive? Then I visited the fields of Ihose farmers who were asked lo cross-fertilize maize seeds Jike me. At thal time my husband came home. He was also surprised atwhat I had in the fields and asked whal we were going lo eat if we didn'! have a good maize harvest. I assured him Iha! !here was no! mueh to worry about as we had in our village the experts working in maize cultivation, so we would be happy if we could find out the means lo stop the plants falling and preven! Ihe yeariy losses. So even if we didn'l have a good maize harvest this year, there was still hope for a better return in Ihe next year.In the hope that the teachers would come and Instruct us, we had not prepared Ihe field for cross-fertlllzlng. Bu! they carne late. Here the seeds we had planted could not grow properly due to weeds. Then I took the rlsk, whatever the consequences, and we began lo dlg and lo loosen the 5011 around !he malze saplíngs. Then we pul In a líttle urea and the malze plants showed good results. Then we put one teaspoon of urea Into each planl and the resul! was excellent.Then !he teachers came and gave us tralnlng. In tha! !ralnlng, ¡ ha ve lo know thal even malze has male and female f1owers. I unders!ood tha! even maize has a cross-fertilization process. When we cross the malze plants, we have lo take out the straws from the ears of corn, and we were asked to take out the straws from Ihe female maize plants. I was amazed Iha! taking out the straws from !he maize could result in !he better growth of malze kernels. Even my father used to say If we remove the straws from the malze, there wouldn't be good corncobs.Then it was time lo take out Ihe straws from Ihe malze. I was slill uncertain abou! the outcome of Ihis bul I reassured myself Ihat since we were belng told by people who are experts in maize cultivalíon, I shouldn't doubt. AII the maize didn't grow the straws al Ihe same time, so every day I went and pulled out the straws. After this work was completed, !hen it became my habit lo go inlo !he field at least !WO times to sae the result. I was all the time worried about whether the maize cullivated in one ropani of land would yield as much crop as we expected.Every day I saw corn cobs growing on the maize plants. Then I wanted lo find out if the cobs had kernels inslde. I was nol without worrles. Then one day I pulled out the eorn eob, took out the outside layers and looked inside. There were beautiful kernel s and now I was at peaee. Now I was confident and happy that we eould bnng out a new species of maize.Now !hal we have learned !he teehnology to cross species, we want to learn how and when the new species will come lo be, how lo grow many species, and if the maize is nol well filled wlth kerneis, what is to be done? If the seeds are of mixed variety, what ís to be done? What measures can be taken lo ensure the qualíty of one particular variety only? Ifwe can get answers to such quenes in our minds, 1 am sure our village called Simichaurwould be changed lo Makaichaur.Chhomrong ís a 5mall village situated at the foot of the Machhapuchhare and Annapurna Range of mountaíns. It lies al Ihe heighl of 1800-2000 meters aboye sea level, on the Pokhara-Baglung Highway, six to eighl hours' trek lo !he north from Nayapul. This village has a majority of Gurung residents.II is believed that in the year 1962/1963 pakhe red rice paddy species was introduced. This species was originally brought and cultivaled as a specimen by aman who lived in Lumle VDC and had worked in Shillong, India. Gradually, this paddy was found to be planted in other villages too, and in Ihis way il gained enlry into Chhomrung village. Here people began lo cullivate Ihis variety of paddy loo. To improve upon this species, the Lumle Agriculture Center took the initiative and this variety was recammended as the Chhomrong local.From the yaar 1993, this villaga was selected for research under !he Lumle Agricultura Centar for the Participatory Plant Breeding Programo The main objective of this program was lo improve !he species oflhe local red paddy.11 is rather hard textured and took long time in husking, and as there was no alternative species Ihat could tolerate the cold of the local place, so research was begun to improve upon the local variety so Iha! il could wilhstand Ihe cold and make!he grain white ín color.In the initial stage of the program, 250 specíes of paddy variety brought from !he national and international paddy research program were planted in the nursery on an experimental basis. These different species were carefully selected and kepl under the joínt care of the technicíans of the Lumle Agriculture Center and the Chhomrong VDC participant farmers.The selection was as follows:• Chhomrong Local ripened in its usual time periodo• The straws were !he same as that of Chhomrong.• Good grains of rice.• Capable of tolerating diseases and pests.• Capable of tolerating the cald.These species were carefully selected and those that gave white grains of rice were particularly taken care of. Along with !he experimental nursery planting, the participant farmers had also planted lines of paddy species tor the experiment. The species used for the experiment were as follows:After planting the selected species, the technicians, the scientists, and the participant farmers visited !he fields and carefully selected the species on the spot. The process of selecting the species started from Ihe year 1993 to 1995. Then those thal was selected were carefully studied by using different methods.• paddy abundantlnot abundant The paddy species called Bhathi was bought from the Uchidiha VDC from Ihe village called ltawal at the price of RS.15 per kilo. I have been planting this species of paddy for the las! 10 years. Every year, I have planted this variety of paddy in abou! one bigha of land. The return has been 18 maunds (720 kilos of rice l.These species of paddy can be cultivated in areas where Ihe water is deep. Therefore, this variety needs a place where there is always water available. This type offarming can be done up to nine months only. The reason is that at the time when we sow the seeds, the land has to be dry and in the month of Chitra ( March/Aprill, the sowing of seeds is done. The harvesting season is always in the month of Mangsir (NovemberIDecember) regardless of Ihe time paddy may have been planted. The roots extend from the rice stalks on Ihe water's surface so plants seem to balance on lhe surface of the water. Therefore, there is no possibility of the paddy plants falling, however deep lhe water level may be. The other good point about Ihis paddy species is no malter how much the water level may in crease during the night, Ihe rice plants seem lo grow in equal propor!ion.The length of the rice stalk is almost Ihree meters high. Since the stalk is pretty thick, there is less possibility of the rice plants falling over. The leaves are broad and light green in color. The roots are quite strong so Ihat Ihe normal sor! of f100d can't drag them out and sweep away lhe plants. The rice grains are shapely and big. The rice grain is red in color and there isn't any tunda.In the month of Chaítra ( March/April), the tractor is used to plough the land and Ihe seeds are sown. At this time of the year, the land is dry. A few days after lhe sowing of the seeds. the rain star!s and the land starts getting filled with water. As the water level rises, the length of the rice stalks grow. As the species grow in water, there is less possibility of the plants being atlacked by pests and diseases, Bul Ihe rice plants are infested wilh ínsects called gawaro. This varíety of paddy neither requires weeding out grasses nor Ihe need offertilízers. The harvesting time for Ihis species ís the month of Mangsir (November/December). In this monlh, the level of Ihe water comes up to Ihe knee and the paddy can easily be cut down wilh Ihe help of a curved knife called hasiya or kachiya. After the paddy is cut down and carried home, il is dried, beaten, threshed, and sto red wel/, ready for use.The rice is softand delícious to eal. It is readily digested. From this rice beaten rice (chíura) can be made, and varielies of local delicades líke bread, thakuwa, fried bread, etc., are prepared The paddy of Ihis species is accepted in our sacred rituals and practices. This variety of rice is general/y used in feasts and parties.Possibi/ity of improvíng the qua/mes of this specíes of paddy This endangered variety ot paddy, having such odd qualities, is in Ihe process of being losl. If we do nol direct our attention in time, its extinction is certain. Now there is an increasing tendency to fil/ up the water-Iogged land and convert il into residential areas. This is a really dangerous situation because il ¡ncreases Ihe possibility Ihat Ihis species will be completely wiped oul. For Ihis reason, both the govemment and Ihe NGO must take the iniliative lo conserve this varíety of paddy and work towards helping Ihe farmers wilh Ihe technology lo improve their living conditions.Both Ihe stalks and Ihe ríce grains of these two varieties look Ihe same. The two species are cultivated in fields that require less depth of waler than for Bhafhí, bullhe Sakhar paddy is shorter than Ihe Amadhouj species.Both are cultivaled in a similar manner. They are sown by spreading the seeds on the prepared fields. They require less fertilizer but need to be weeded. If Ihe fertilizer is loo much, Ihen there is the possibility of the paddy plants falling. If the cultivation is done wel/, the return harvest can be as much as four to six maunds (160-240 kilos) per each ka/ha of land, The rice crop is long and the grains are fal and heavy.This year I boughl bolh Ihese species of paddy trom the village cal/ed Sonarniya in the Raulahal distríct. I cullivated Amadhouj variety on Ihree katha of land and Sakhar on one bígha of land. But in the field there was too much watercol/ected, and Ihe paddy was good only in two ka/has of land.These two varíeties of paddy are acceptable in our sacred rituals. From Ihe rice straws, we can make floor mats. The cooked rice is good and any person who is sick can ea! this rice without any problem.In the Amadhouj stalks, three or four grains of paddy grow together, so Iha! at a glance, Ihe paddy crop looks almosl like wheat. But there is a superstilion attached lo the cullivalion of Ihis paddy. II is believed thal iflhe paddy grows In equal measures in thefourcorners ofthe field and the produc-líon is equal in all the fourcorners, then the farmerwho has such a harvest will suffer so me evil, like some one wiU be sick or some one in the famíly may die.In the month of Jestha (May/June), the seeds are sown, and in the month of Asadh ( June/July). the rice saplings are planted, and in lhe month of Mangsír (November/December), the paddy is harvested. As the level ofwater is less. the paddy needs to be weeded. It can also be given fertilizers. I had personally used three kilos of urea and 2.5 of DAP in Ihe paddy fields. As the paddy grains have tunda there is less possibility of disease and pest problems. But !his year, the paddy was infested wilh bolh disease and pests. and I had lo use the pesticides called che/amín and metacid. After taking all these measures, the harvest was three maund (120 kilos) per each katha of land.This variety of rice is importan! from a religious point of view. In the worship of our family God, Gobín Maharaj. this variety of rice is absolutely needed and no other variety will do. The cooked rice from this species is equally delicious. From the rice straws, the f100r mats are made and even the cattle have a special preference for lhis type of rice straw. This variety needs less fertilizer.We have been following the traditional method of cultivating crops according to the methods used by our ancestors. In those early days it was not possible to know the kinds of soil, the type of crop that was suitable to the kind of soil, the types of pests and diseases, the methods of controlling them and how much fertilizer is required for a particular type of crop, and hence, the harvest was not satisfactory. I feel the govemment is not much interested in the agricultural sector, but without improvement in fhe agricultural sector, there can't be improvement in industries and commerce. In every country the role of agriculture is prominent. Because of the three basic human needs-food, shelter, and clothing-food occupies the prominent place in man's life. The basic need of all sorts of living beings, from the wealthy to the poor beggars and birds and animals, is food. Without food, nobody can live; it is a universal fact. This point is most significant for us to understand.Nepal is an agricultural country, so the people here would be most happy if they were given knowledge about the formation of land, the types of soil, means of irrigation, and given the priority to develop improved seeds for local use. In 1929 we migrated from Lamjung to Geetanagar VDC, Ward no.8. At that time there was no irrigation system in the village. The field had mixed cultivation of different species of paddy in the same plot, like Dudharaj, Aap jhuthe, Battisara, Gola, Mansara, Thapachini, Jetho bure, Ghaiya, etc.In terms of harvest, there used to be 25 to 35 muri of paddy per bigha of land. At Tandi, we grew maize and mustard. There was no system of cultivation by rotation. Later on there carne new species of paddy called Achhami masino, Mansuli radha-4, and Radha-17. Among them, the Mansuli was the best, so there was extensive cultivation of this species of paddy everywhere. Vegetable cultivation was limited to small kitchen gardens for vegeta bies like green vegetables and radishes, but later, from the year 1937, with the assistance of the Agricultural Development Branch Office, we began to grow vegetables on a larger, commercial scale: improved species like cauliflower snowball, Kathmandu local, snowcom cabbages, radishes, carrots, mustard, etc. Now, these improved varieties require good irrigation systems, so we took a loan from the Agriculture Development Bank, dug out deep wells, kept motor engines, drew out water, and kept sprinklers to irrigate the vegetable fields.Now we have at our rescue the LI-BIRD Organization, who, by keeping in contact with the different research centers, have made available for us new and beller improved seeds, like Rajma, Panta-11, BC 1442, PNR 381, and Sarvati. These crop species are suitable for the soil at Tandi, but in water-Iogged fields where the paddy plants tend to fall easily, the Sawarna species of paddy seems to be appropriate.Maramche is a small hilly village in the Dhikur VDC near the Lumle Agriculture Research Center. It is aboul 30 kilometers from Pokhara, the tourist area in the Kaski district, lo !he northern side of!he western Baglung Highway. II has a cold climate and a diversity of ethnic tribes. II is 1600 melers aboye sea leveL In Ihis village there are about 36 households only. Allhough the village contains a diversity of ethnic tribes, the majority of the people belong to the Brahmin caste. Just as Cheerapunji is the world-renowned place for rain, likewise Maramche is also the village in Nepal that has the highest rainfall. .Due to poverty in !he country, many of the people have left their homeland in search of work, while the rest are dependen! on agriculture. Looking into Ihe picture of farming in this village, we find much diversity. The following table helps to illustrates the important crops and vegetables grown in this area.  The qualities that we farmers would want in our paddyThe paddy musí have long slraws, full and so Id rice grains. II musí be delicious lo lasle, fragranl, able lo lolerale heavy rains, able lo lolerale Ihe cold, able lo lolerale Ihe fertilizer. II will nol f1ower, nol easily fa 11 , give heavy paddy crops, lake less lime lo ripen, and increase in volume in cooking.As these qualities were no! available in the paddy, we continued to cultivate the local variety. But in the year 1996, LI-SIRO not only brought the M-3 and M-9 varielies but also 144 other varieties of paddy. In the land that belonged to Indra Prasad Poudel, the nursery was made and all the differenl varieties of seed were planted in that plot of land. At that time, due to hailstones, the experiment suffered setbacks, but even then, among them, 30 species were saved and selected for our purposes. In this experiment, three groups were actively involved: U-BIRO, the Mothers' Group, and the Progressive Youth Club.In this way, in the year 1998, the 30 species-selected on the basis of discussions among the local organizations-were distributed among the 30 households of the village, so that each household got to cultivate one particular variety. On the other hand, in the year 1996, U-SIRO had sent us 25 species of paddy and we had also cultivated them. Among the 25 species, our farming community had selected one particular variety on the basis of the harves! produclion, the height of the straw, the taste of the rice, the shape of the rice grain, etc.Among the 144 varieties from 1996, only 30 species were selected, and from the 30, three (the process of selection is continuing).In 1999, from among the 25, one variety was selected. This species was cultivated by Maheswor Poudel in 1999 in two separate fields, and in 2000, he is planning lo cultivate il in Ihree fields. Moreover, al the instigation of the local club, we are planning lo cullrvate that single variety at the rale of 5.5 and 9 by buying the seeds ourselves. We do no! know the name of this paddy. Now In the year 2000, under the joint auspices of U-BIRO. the Mothers' Group, and the Youth Club, we are golng to give it a name.1. The height of the straws and the productivity of the paddy crop 2. Falling/not falling 3. Less chance of disease and size of the rice grain 4. CapabJe of tolerating the cold and wet conditions and quick ripening periodThe above-mentioned basis tor selection was made after the field inspection and discussions in the group meelings among our participant farmers and club members. In this. the local organization relays the information and also tea ches us how to do Ihe work. In the end, we review the whole matter and wilh the participation of the entire farming community, we selec! the paddy species.We appreciate this program highly, for it respects our experiences and the traditional technology that we have been following in farming. When looking into the statistics available. we found that without the participation of the farming communily at the nationallevel. there had been recommendations made for more than 42 species of crops, allhough this sort of selection had nol much affecled Ihe people living in Ihe hlgh hilly areas. Therefore, il is most necessary that we have a participalory planl-breeding program among uso For example, we can take Ihe case of paddy species M-3 and M-9 thal we have been cullivating in our own village.1. A partlclpalory program means the collective presence of the farming communily: they can selee! tor themselves the paddy species that suit their soll and cllmatic conditions.2. The farmers themselves are more aware oftheir own needs and requlremants.3, In the seleetlon of the paddy species, the farmers themselves are participants.The farmers leam the technology about how to breed between two speeies to ereate several varieties, Reasons 1. Climatie conditions differ according to altitude and have different affects on farming.2. Land and climatle conditions differ in the hilly region.3. When improved species are selected according lo the suitability ofthe particular place and climate, they have a high degree of tolerance and survivability.The disappearanee of the local species. For example, after the introduction of M-3 and M-9, Ihe local species called Kalo patla and Reksali have gradually disappeared.In the process of developing a plant-breeding program, we must remember to include the local species so that the genes of Ihe local wilt not disappear completely. Priority is given lo persons who have been successful in order to encourage and bring maximum participa tia n of farmers. Or Ihe farmers have themselves selected one among them or have won the confidence of Iheir farming community.Among the 25 species, one variety was selected and it is cultivated in the field of Maheswor Poudel. This species of paddy was cultivaled al his inltiation. He has said that he took this iniliative because this species has all the good qualities to be found in paddy. As he says, this variety has good tasle lo ea!, long slraws, salid grains of rice kernel and Ihe grains are nol Ilkely lo fall off easily from the plants. Therefore, Ihis species of paddy without name as ye!, has the grea! possibility of becoming popular in this village.The official and scientific research trom LI-BIRO was carried out under !he leadership of Indra Bahadur Poudel.cullivation, although in some places, improved specles of paddy are also being used by some farmers. The common varletíes of paddy belng cultivated are Mansuli, Taichung, and'Radha-7, while some years back, we (one-third of the farmers) culllvaled the varielies called Mansule, Madhise, Chhote, and Radha-7 in order lo make a beller profit. ----------------------------1 to resistdisease We farmers want improvement in the quality and quanlily of the paddy according lo our interests and needs. Bu! we lack the knowledge and technology lo do Iha!. Therefore, the farmers must select the species through their own presence and participation in the process so that by crossing differen! species, a grea! variety of species can be obtained, ye! also keeping the original breed, so that the improved species can be strong and withstand local conditions. Hence, we feel confident that with the help of the in situ Program we will surely succeed in Improving the local species.Our conclusions and recommendations are that !he in situ Program will surely assist Ihe farmers of this small Begnas Village in conservíng the diversity of the local species of paddy and inspiring Ihe local farmers lo participate in collective activities, so we not only conserve !he local species bu! also bring together maximum participalion of the farmers so that the standard of life of the local farmers will also improve ..Q.1. Everybody stressed crossing bul who is aclually doing it? Farrrers? Scientists? Or is il done jointly?Ans: The farmers in the village initiated Ihe crossing program with lechnical support from U-SIRO as and when needed.Q. 2. Where do the male and female plants come from in maize crossing?Ans: The male is an improved variety-ganesh-1-from NARC, and!he female is a locallandrace-Thulo pahelo.Q.3. Are you willing lo share the seeds of your crossing? If 'yes,' why? If 'no,' why no!?Ans: Farmer 1. Seed from crossing is community property, so it's up lo !he community to decide whether or not to share il.Ans: Farmer 2. We are willing lo share and, in fact, have already done so by supplying 250 kg.If our new varieties help improve the production of olher farmers, we will share il.Q.4. Today, large companíes have Ihe polential to spread biolechnology as a form of imperialism. Gandhi used the spinníng wheel as a symbol of freedom. What should be the symbol of the farmers to fight against such domination?Ans: One way lo be self-reliant ís lo improve our seeds/varieties so Ihat Ihey are more productive or competitive, before Ihe large companies grab away our genetic materials. The farmers should have control over the genetic resources.Q.5. How will the new Unes coming out of crossing s8thi be developed and studied?Ans: The decision lo select or rejee! the outcome of !he cross rests in community. No individual holds absolute rights over developing !he lines.Bidakanne Sammamma DDS woman tarmer from Andhra Pradesh, Soulh India Abstract A farmer from Bangladesh describes crop diversity in her fields and gives the reasons tor encouraging diversity versus mono-cropping.I am trying here to explain the soU type, the problems associated wilh the soil in my area. You will find a 101 of stones there. so farming is very difficul!. The soil is black and you can see the amount of stones. In the areas where lhere ís red soil, lhe depth is very shallow-not more Ihan five lo six inches-and below II there Is a complete sheet of rock. So keeplng in mind Ihe soil types and Ihe problems associated wlth ralnfed agriculture in my area, the women try to grow a lot of crops in a given area so ¡hat they can be sure of getting at leas! one crop in the crop season.We slore different types of seeds of differen! crops and mix all these crops. Women, especially, playa vital in this mixing. Keeping In view lhe soil fertility, we observe the soil-which type of crop can be grown in a certain patch of land the woman owns. So women playa vital role and they mix al! the different types of crops that can give foed. fadder, and add to lhe fertility of Ihe soll.We grow a range of crops-al leasl eighl lo 10 crops in a year in a given area: you can see crops like jowar (sorghum), red gramo field beans, and cow peas. We grow Ihis many crops lo gel so me of Ihe crops al one time and others at anolher time. So me crops will mature first. so they are harvested first. so we get toad when we are hungry.The maln reason behind growing so many crops in a glven period is lhat even if. due lo any reason, some crops fail, we are sure of getting something. So we will be harvesting differenl crops over a periad of a season of six months. Every time we go to Ihe field, we will gel something to lake back to our homes to cook. At the same time, there won't be much work because during the periad of six months, one crop will be coming al one time and anolher Ihe nexl lime and anolherlhe nex!o So the load is spread evenly on the women and not all at one time.The second reason is lhat lhere are different varieties of jowar-compact-headed and loose ones.In our area, we sometimes gel rain at lhe harvesting stage. When we gel rain al lhis time, Ihe compact-headed seeds germinate in the head itself. So we also grow lhe loose-headed variety. Even if there is drizzle for two or lhree days, lhis variety can overcome that problem. Unless there is a big drizzle tor one week, I am sure of getting at least some jowarfor consumplion.Keeping in mind lhe soil fertility, I also mix legume crops like field beans and jowar. We grow jowar also because of the fodder requirements of the animals we own.Cow peas and field beans may nol be importan! to you, and although we sow lhese crops in jusi a few rows, they are very importan! to us because they take care of the soU fertility and we also gel very good nutrilious food out from them. So lhey are importanl lo us even though they are grown in small quantitíes. Now I will explain about lhe multiple uses of crops like red gramo We use lhe pulse for dhal, a curry Iha! we eat wilh our bread and rice. We use the stalks of red gram for fuel wood and for thatching. This crop is very important lo us; il is useful to us in a number of ways.In Ihe rabí (winter) season, we also grow a range of crops. We grow mus!ard wi!h whea! for pest control because some insects thal a!tack wheal will be atlracted to mustard, and in this way pesls will be conlrolled.Foxtaíl millet is the firsl crop of the season in our area. When we don't have anything to eat in our homes, Ihis is the firs! crop thal will meel our hunger needs because most of the !hings stored from the earlier season will have been used up.When we grow crops, we also keep in mind the fodder requirements of the animal s we own. Thal is the reason we grow some varieties that will give more fodder for our animals.One agricultural practice in our area is this: after harvesting red gram, the farmers plow back lhe land, so lhal whatever leaf-fal! Ihere is from Ihe red gram will immedialely go back lo the 50il. We are consciou5 of whatever we exlracl from Ihe soíl and we Iry lo give back Ihe same amounl of Ihings Ihat we are extracting from Ihe soil. This is very important lo usoThe more crops we grow, Ihe more the load will be evenly spread on us for harvesting them. More lhan that, we will al so get more employment. The greater lhe diversíty of crops, lhe more harvesting lhere is for differenl crops at different times; people in lhe víllage will gel more employment when there is more diversity.Women in our area do not prefer mono-cropping. The grealer lhe diversity, lhe fewer the grains of each crop, so lhe women won't want lo seU lhís smaU quantity of grain in Ihe market. Neilher will the men bother because of the small quantity; they will lhink Ihal \"even if I take this lo Ihe market, wha! is it lha! I am getting?\" When you see each crop individually, il will be very small, bu! when we compare the grain produetion for all of lhem, lhere will be more grain in total. Whatever inputs we are using for farming. Ihe resources should be avaílable loeally and the farmer should not depend on any external resources. We want lo use our own products; we want to use some of the green-Ieaf manuring crops. We give a 101 of importance to soil fertility management. Whatever variety you may grow, unless lhe soU is fertile, we cannot achieve anythíng; we eannot achieve the potential yield even though Ihe genelie potential may be lhere. So soil fertility is one of Ihe mos! important lhings we are trying lo address.Our way of looking at lhe productivity of a farm is different. We generally don't look al yield only or yield per unil of land only or only general yield. There are many things we getfrom lhe farm, like uncultivaled greens, medicinal planls, vegetables, fodder. So ifyou monitor all these things, Ihey will be more lhan wha! you would get from a single crop. Everything is equally important in this whole farming system, so we look at different things in farming and nol at a single lhing.Raksya Begam Woman (armer from Bang/adeshA farmer trom Bangladesh describes her experiences growing a modem rice variety.I'm trom Bangladesh and my name is Rabia. 1 am here to talk about our experiences. The scientists told us, lhe farmers, tha! you can lake a variety and planl il in your fields and you will gel plenty-20 mounds of rice per acre. We were very simple; we believed il and were very happy lo hear the news. We actually planted Ihis variety. It was a dwarf variety, and the kind of straw we gol from lhese planls was the type Ihal if there was rain lhen alllhe straw gol rolten and was no good for fodder for liveslock, nol even as fodder for the scavenger chicken. Allhough the straw mixed with cow dung created many insects. which were useful for chickens to ea!. We also had lo use pesticides and fertilizers and soon the whole land became hard like rock.Previously we used to cultivale Ihe local rice varieties of Aaush and Aamon. The slraw of Ihese varietíes was long-taller-and was very good for fodder. 1I ensured thal we could keep livestock and poullry.Now, Ihe scientisls have always made claims. They showed us Ihe profil_hat we will gel trom Ihe production of Iheir varlelies-bul they never actually calculated the losses, the olher losses thal lhe farmers have lo pay the cosl foro Now we, the farmers, have realized these other costs.The situation right now is that Ihe soll has become just like rock and the fertllity is not the same as il was before. Now il also requires a lot of money to cullivate paddy or to remain in agriculture and the relums lo Ihe farmers are very peor.Previously, Ihe kind ofvariety we used to cullivate was laslier, compared lo Ihe modem varielies.lt was also not a source of disease: il did not conlain any pesticide or pesticide residues. After consuming thase new rice varieties, we are now suffering trom many diseases, so lhere are health problems along with the olher problems. There are health problems in the livestock and poullry also, so the managemenl of lives!ock and poultry is more difficult now.On Ihe olher hand, uncultivated food is not available any more, al leasl il has really become scarce. But the scientists never calculated lhis serious cast to Ihe tarmers. So we tarmers have now realized !hal we have had to pay too much for !hese new varieties and il is lime lo realize !ha! we need lo gel away from Ihem.The older varielies had many other uses. We could use Ihem as sources of energy and also as a kind of organic fertilizer. The dwarf--or modem--variety is no! useful as the older varie!ies.There ís a proverb in Bengal, \"Don't go lo lhe field in the ea s!. \"This is a local saying, which means, \"Don't go lo a place where you will hear bad informalion; il looks like !he sun bul it is no! the sun.\" Now we realize thal to the scientists, Ihe farmers were not lheir objective-their main focus was nol really lo serve the interests of !he farmers.15 There an Imminent Crisis in Agriculture?Abu Taher Rahamani Farmer from Bangladesh Abstract A farmer from Bangladesh, with 22 years of experience, predicts an imminent crisis in agriculture, I have been practicing modern agriculture for quite a long time and received the Presidential Award twice. I am here lo share some of my experiences wi!h the different varieties, especially !he modem varieties, tha! I have planted on myown farmland.ln terms oflhe productivityof a single crop, I have been able to demonstrate that some of the varieties performed well, but economically, I did nol galn. In my 22 years as a farmer planling modem varieties, one Ihing I would like lo say is Ihat we are heading for an imminen! crisis in agriculture. And we need the collaboration of the government and the scientists with the farmers. As scientists have noticed, the organic maller is very low, now it is 0.50 (the lowest) and 1.63 (lhe highest). This is the range in one area. We can talk about plant breeding or talk about Ihe inlroduction of modern varieties, bul unless we take care of Ihe problems of organic maller in the sOI', we will not be able lo resolve Ihe crisis in agriculture, On my farmland, I am Irying lo make available more organic maller from my farm and I am also reducing Ihe use of pesticides. Despile the fac! that many people are aware of the dangers of pesticides, the use of pesticides Is increasing, partly because of the companies' aggressive marketing techniques. Farmers are somellmes confused with Ihis type of aggressive markeling and eventually they pay Ihe cost of using pesticides, In my experience and from Ihe literature available lo me, none of the pesticides I am familiar with can reduce Ihe allack to 50% or 60%, In conlrast, partly from my own experience, from my own practice, and al the same time from some of Ihe training I got for inlegrated pes! management (IPM), I have been able to reduce the attack of pests by 80%-90%.Al the same time, seed is a very vital issue. You have lo have good-quality, healthy seeds for Ihe farmers. So this is a very sensitive area for the farmers. You have to have good-quality seeds for the experiments that we are trying.And now there is more promolion of hybrid seeds around the world. They say thal the hybrid cannot contribute lo the interests of the farmer because they cannot keep Ihe seeds. The farmers will not know the characteristics of the seeds the way they know the lraditional varieties, So eventually i! canno! be good for the welfare of the farming community,'My general feeling aboul the technology is thal when you prom ate a technology, it is very importan! to understand the nature ofthe technology, whose interests il is serving, and how it is good for the farmer, or for thal maller, who the consliluencies of Ihe technology are. Unless you know very c1early about that, !hen eventually the technologies will not be very fruitful.When we decide about technology, certain characleristics are very important. One is Ihat jt should no! be costly or it should be al leas! wilhin Ihe reasonable reach of farmers. Second, il should be verified by scientific procedures and by an indication !ha! it can perform as they are claming it Is going lo perform. Third, it should be gainfullo Ihe farmer-the recipient who is receiving it. 1I should be sustainable and also should be used by a large number of farmers.So I appeal to Ihe scientists lo note what I ha ve said. I hope you will take it as coming from the farmers and that you will take interest in Ihese issues.l. Translator 's commenL He (the farmer) is emphasizing the question ofwhether the farmers can really keep these seeds in me ","tokenCount":"13416"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"449ecb9ac8e12648a9776478414a6a0a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3327a408-c79b-4206-a4cc-c03cb6435040/retrieve","id":"1760817668"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9bb1799f-9a1e-416c-af81-11efc73657fc","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: This is a low-cost drying technology option for solving the drying problems by providing a simple and flexible alternative to sun drying that offers protection of the grains from rain. It is also a climate smart technology as it does not require an external energy source. New Innovation: No Innovation type: Production systems and Management practices Stage of innovation: Stage 2: successful piloting (PIL -end of piloting phase) projectInnovations.geographicScope: National Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Country(ies): • Nepal Description of Stage reached: A three-day training and demonstration was conducted at Nepal Agricultural Research Council to Government institutions, researchers, extension agents, members of NGOs or of the private sector. There were also discussions on developing a business model for a drying service provision to disseminate and promote adoption of the technology .","tokenCount":"137"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"217722687d97a66605924d5b45b39079","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bb7ad19b-e965-48ef-893b-75e1642d818a/retrieve","id":"974914529"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"475ecc08-bf01-4db5-a5f4-167af42dff3b","pagecount":"56","content":"Parasitic diseases cause serious illness and often death in human populations and domestic livestock, particularly in the tropics. These include malaria, trypanosomiasis and tick-borne diseases. Important recent developments in the fields of immunology, bio chemistry and molecular biology might make it possible to control some of these diseases.An international workshop on parasite antigens was held at the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) in May 1985. The objectives of the workshop were (1) to review the current status of research aimed at charac terizing, producing and utilizing parasite antigens which could lead to the improved control of parasitic diseases, (2) to identify constraints which impede the progress of this research, and (3) to explore new approaches towards the solution of these major disease problems.This report of the workshop consists of summaries of the presen tations and discussions prepared by ILRAD staff members who served as rapporteurs. These were S.A.R. Gray I would like to say a few words to introduce this workshop and first I have to say that we have been thinking about it for almost two and a half years. There has been a gradually increasing feeling that we need to review our work on the antigens of parasites in relation to what others are doing, and to do so, not in a massive gathering, but in a much smaller group of people. I hope we have a small enough, intimate group here to make a success of the workshop.As an introduction 1 would like to say just a little about the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases -ILRADas an organization.ILRAD is one of 13 international agricultural research centres funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) which is itself composed of a consor tium of government and other agencies.These provide money for research on food crops and livestock with the objective of improving world food supplies, particularly in developing countries. In most of the international agricultural research centres this is to be achieved through research on food crops, but in two of the centres, ILRAD and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (1LCA), through research on livestock.ILRAD' s aim is to identify better methods for the control of economically important diseases, par ticularly the diseases caused by tsetse-transmitted trypanosomes and tick-borne Theileria parasites.Although we have been in exist ence for the last 12 years, we have in fact, been operational for about 8 years and by the end of this year we hope to have a full complement of 41 scientists.ILRAD' s approach to its two target diseases is basically immuno logical and this approach has been agreed upon by the Board of Directors and the CGIAR.We would like to identify parasite antigens which induce high levels of immunity.In theileriosis, despite some parasite strain variation, we can stimulate high levels of protective immunity but we have to use whole live organisms to do so.We can also create immunity against trypanosomiasis but the immunity is restricted, in practice, to protection against organisms of the infecting genotype.In both instances, we want something broader and better in the way of protection, so that is what we want to consider in this workshop. Our primary objective is to identify, characterize and produce trypanosomal and theileria l antigens which can be used to prevent infection in livestock. To lelp us with this review of our progress, we have invited you, as r\" jtinguished scien tists with experience with antigens of other parasites, to consider what we have been doing at ILRAD and what is being done elsewhere. Considerable work has been done in parasite antigenicity in para sites other than trypanosomes and Theileria, which could be of assistance to us. We also invited you here so that we could learn about your work and perhaps see new opportunities of applying your findings to the problems of trypanosomiasis and theileriosis.Although we are concentrating on finding and applying suitable protective antigens, we are also interested in improving current methods of control such as diagnostic tests or epidemiological surveys, and perhaps there are also possibilities related to re search on pathogenesis.We hope that in return for sharing your wisdom and experience with us in our efforts against trypanosomiasis and theileriosis , you will learn from what is happening here and perhaps be able to incor porate it into your own programs.At the end of the week I hope that the ILRAD staff members who have been identified as rapporteurs for each session will be able to produce a report and recommen dations which will be useful to us all.If we can achieve that, I am sure that we will have had a good meeting. Rapporteur's summaryThere are three possible targets for a malaria vaccine, i.e. the sporozoites, merozoites and gametes. Previous work has demonstrated the possible use of sporozoites as the immunogen.For example, Mulligan in the 1940s used UV-irradiated sporozoites when working on avian malaria.Nussenzweig working with Plasmodium berghei in rodents and P knowlesi and P cynomolgi in monkeys used X or gamma-irradiated sporozoites, while Clyde and McCarthy, working with P falciparum and P vivax in humans, used irradiated sporozoites.Antibodies to the protective antigens on the sporozoite surface produce a capping-like phenomenon called the circumsporozoite pre cipitation (CSP) reaction, i.e. an antibody-mediated shedding of the sporozoite surface coat. However, it is not possible to remove all the CS protein molecules from the parasite surface by this process.Monoclonal antibodies and hyperimmune serum raised against P berghei sporozoites both recognized a 44,000-dalton protein which occurs on the parasite surface.Blocking studies using Fab frag ments suggested that the sporozoite molecule (CS protein) may be involved in hepatocyte invasion.A family of sporozoite surface antigens is present in four dif ferent Plasmodium species.These antigens differ slightly in molecular mass (approximately 44,000 daltons) and isoelectric points.Higher molecular mass precursors of these proteins have also been identified.The CS protein has one immunodominant region as assessed by competition and inhibition of polyclonal antibody binding using monoclonal antibodies.The sporozoite surface antigens of P vivax, P falciparum and P knowlesi all have repeated epitopes in the immunodominant region, and between species the repeated epitope differs in the total number of amino acids, specific amino acids and number of repeats. Other areas of the sporozoite antigen (flanking regions) are more uniform and there is some similarity between the different species.In P falciparum the epitope must contain at least three repeats before an effective antibody response is elicited. Similarly human hyperimmune serum appears to require a three-repeat epitope for recognition.Immunization with a synthetic three-epitope repeat of P falci parum coupled to tetanus toxoid produces high antibody titres in a dose-dependent manner.Without the addition of adjuvant, antibody of a lower titre was elicited.Most antibodies to the synthetic peptide recognize sporozoites in the immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) and homologous sporozoites inhibited binding of antibody to the peptide immunogen but heterologous sporozoites did not. Antibodies to synthetic peptides inhibited hepatocyte invasion by P falciparum sporozoites.The choice of suitable carriers and adjuvants needs careful consideration before synthetic antigens can be used as a vaccine against malaria in man.No antigens other than the CS protein could be detected on the sur face of the sporozoite even after antibody-induced shedding of most of the surface coat.In terms of antigenicity, synthetic sporozoite antigens con taining three to five repeated epitopes were equally immunogenic.when synthetic peptides were used to immunize monkeys against P knowlesi infections, only partial protection was achieved. How ever, sera from immunized monkeys contained sporozoite neutralizing antibodies.The incubation of sporozoites in such sera before infection of monkeys abolished their infective capacity.Monoclonal antibodies to sporozoite antigens did not react with any subsequent stage of the parasite lifecycle. However, antibodies to the merozoite stages recognized sporozoite antigens.Antibodies may act by inhibiting sporozoite binding to liver cells. It has been proposed that the CS protein recognizes a recep tor on the hepatocytes .The antibodies alone do not always cause irreversible damage to the sporozoite.The role of cell-mediated reactions in protection against the sporozoite form of the parasite is unknown, but, because of the short time (30 min) the sporozoites take to reach the liver cells, it is difficult to envisage a major role for cell-mediated immunity at this stage.In malaria endemic areas, children under 10 years old have very low anti-sporozoite antibody titres whereas adults over 25 have antibodies in their serum which recognize the immunogenic peptide fragment of the sporozoite surface antigen. Trials of the synthetic peptide vaccine in man are being planned as are further trials in Aotus monkeys, although the variability of infections in these monkeys limits their use as a good model for human malaria.Rapporteur's summary Patients in malaria endemic areas who, in the face of continuing high challenge, show only occasional parasitaemia and minimal cli nical symptoms can be considered to be immune. Humoral immunity is known to be important since serum from immune patients has been used to treat children with acute disease.Growth of in vitropropagated Plasmodium falciparum is inhibited by immune serum (although large amounts may be needed).Human serum from endemic areas can be used to screen for P falciparum antigens that are protective.Relevant molecules of parasite origin can be selected by analysis of human sera using the following approaches:(1) checking the rise of antibody titres against specific proteins in semi-immune individuals during convalescence(2) longitudinal studies of antibody specificity as individuals acquire immunity(3) studying the effect of immune serum on In vitro growth of the parasite and comparing the specificities of inhibitory versus noninhibitory immunoglobulins (4) for strain-specific antigens, neglecting all clones recog nized by antiserum (rabbit or human) against a closely related strain and selecting those preferentially recognized by the serum of interest.When immunoprecipitated, biosynthetically labeled P falciparum extracts were analysed by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, sera of exposed individuals (immune and nonimmune) recognized many proteins.No single antigen was found that correlated completely with the devel opment of immunity. However, a negative correlation was noted with a 96 ,000-dalton protein which was never recognized by sera from acutely ill patients; the antibody which inhibited in vitro growth recognized this protein.Significant advances have been made in the identification of relevant parasite antigens by the use of parasite expression libra ries.These libraries were probed with sera from both acute and convalescent patients .Several fusion proteins were recognized differentially by the different sera, e.g. inhibitory compared with noninhibitory immunoglobulins or serum having antibody to strainspecific S-antigen.Bacterial clones containing expressed antigens could be injected directly into mice to produce antisera to cloned proteins (for immunoprecipitation, IFAT etc). Affinity columns using the bacterially synthesized parasite fusion proteins allowed the purification of monospecific, polyclonal antibodies from sera. These antibodies were then used to probe Western blots of proteins from different lifecycle stages of the parasite.The sera were also used in IFAT to localize stage-specific parasite antigens.One particular protein was identified in all asexual stages. This protein was sequenced and a portion was found that was similar in sequence to the circumsporozoite protein.This is termed the 'circumsporozoite-related antigen' .When different isolates of P falciparum were examined, hetero geneity in molecular mass of some proteins was apparent.The molecular masses of other antigens did not vary between different isolates. Other proteins, such as S-antigens, were isolate-specif ic.One protein frequently recognized by convalescent sera was specific for the schizont stage of the parasite.A protein was found on the surface of red blood cells infected with ring stages (and other stages). It possessed two regions of repeated sequences, one near the 5' end and another at the 3' end.Different indivi duals showed variable antibody responses to the two areas of repeated sequences. Purified fusion proteins are used as substrates in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing for seroepidemiology using defined antigens.There are several constraints on the analysis of human immune response: many antigenic specificities could be important in pro tection, many protective mechanisms may be involved, in vitro studies do not necessarily reflect the in vivo situation, and the immune response at the level of individual antigenic determinants must be elucidated (cloned antigens can now be used in cell-mediated immunoassays and seroepidemiology) .The class and subclass of human antibodies to stage-specific para site antigens have yet to be determined. A high proportion of human sera from endemic areas have anti-merozoite antibodies and indivi duals with long exposure may have anti-sporozoite antibodies.The epitope recognized by the anti-merozoite sera on the sporozoite has not yet been determined.of Anaplasma Organisms G. PalmerRapporteur's summaryAnaplasmosis is an infectious arthropod-borne disease of cattle. The infectious agent, Anaplasma marginale, is an abnormal rickettsia transmitted through ticks, mechanical vectors (flies and ticks) or blood-contaminated fomites.The disease has an incubation period of 3 to 8 weeks, a develop ment period of 4 to 10 days, and if death does not occur, a period of convalesence with the majority of cases producing a carrier state. Experimentally up to 95% parasitaemia of the red blood cells can occur and 10% mortality can occur at crisis, the point of maxi mum packed red cell volume (PCV) depression.Parasite initial bodies initiate infection by invading red cells where they then replicate.Rabbits were immunized with purified initial bodies to show that neutralizing antibodies could be induced.The resultant antiserum when preincubated with A marginale protected splenectomized cattle from infection by antibody-treated initial bodies.Immunoprecipitation revealed five parasite surface antigens which showed no cross-reactivity with red blood cell surface antigens. Two monoclonal antibodies recognizing epitopes on antigen Am 105, when mixed, completely neutralized the infectivity of 10^initial bodies (but not higher numbers).Extension of the prepatent period occurred in splenectomized cattle even though infection was estab lished.Competition between these monoclonal antibodies showed reciprocal inhibition.The antigen is protease sensitive and all tests for carbohydrate content have so far proved negative. While different geographical isolates can be distinguished on the basis of the recognition pattern of other monoclonal antibodies, all carry the antigen Am 105 which is reactive with neutralizing monoclonal antibodies .Purified, detergent-solubilized initial bodies and monoclonal antibodies in affinity columns were used to purify Am 105. Antigen was eluted from the immunoabsorbent column with 0.5% deoxycholate and 2 M KSCN in Tris buffer. DOC was chosen as the detergent as it is easily removed by dialysis whereas NP40 is not. The column can be regenerated after this elution procedure.Cattle were given four doses at 100 micrograms of antigen in com plete Freund's adjuvant per dose at 14-day intervals.Antibody titres estimated by ELISA against the antigen were 104 to 10-* . On challenge, 60% of the cattle showed infection but with low para sitaemia and an extended prepatent period; 40% of the cattle did not show parasitaemia.Those cattle not showing parasites were still carriers as their blood generated infections when subinoculated into splenectomized cattle.The mode of action of the protective antibodies is uncertain.The relevant parasite antigens have been shown to be present on the parasite surface but not on the surface of the infected red blood cells.Immunized cattle were challenged by inoculation with purified parasites rather than infected ticks.It is not yet clear why naturally infected cattle do not produce detectable neutralizing antibodies.A 36,000-dalton parasite antigen also proved to be partially protective.Chairperson: G.V. Brown Antigens of Sporozoites of Thellerla parva A. J. Musoke Rapporteur's summary Recent studies have indicated that sporozoites of several Thellerla parva isolates possess a common antigenic determinant which induces neutralizing antibodies to this stage in cattle and rabbits. There fore, efforts have concentrated on identifying the protein(s) bearing this determinant.Antigenic analysis of sporozoites using either recovery sera from cattle or immune sera produced by feeding infected ticks on rabbits revealed several specific proteins with approximate molecular masses of 105,000, 6 7,000, 43,000, 25,500 and 18,500 daltons.Using a monoclonal antibody directed against the epitope responsible for inducing neutralizing antibodies, only the 6 7 ,000-dalton protein was recognized.This protein has been iso lated using an immuno absorbent column on which the IgM monoclonal antibody was coupled.Efforts are being made to produce polyvalent monospecific antisera to the 105,000-, 67,000-and 25 ,500-dalton proteins for screening the DNA libraries. This is done by eluting the proteins from gels before inoculating them into rabbits and mice.Sera were collected from several farms in Kenya in order to investigate parasite antigens recognized by the immune system of cattle in endemic areas.The sera were first screened for antisporozoite antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence and neutrali zation of infectivity tests.Those sera which were found to stain and neutralize infectivity of sporozoites were used in Western Blots where the 105,000-and 67 ,000-dalton proteins were identified.Polyvalent antisera were raised in rabbits using individual antigen bands cut out from SDS-PAGE gels . Antigen was eluted from the gel slices and various immunization schedules were performed by varying the amount of antigen in the different protocols.Complete and incomplete Freund's adjuvants were used.Cattle were immunized to produce anti-sporozoite antibodies by first using the 'infection and treatment' protocol and then chal lenging with batches of infected ticks until sufficiently high antisporozoite antibody levels were achieved. Conditions for elution of immunoabsorbent columns ranged from pH 2.5 to 11.5. Monoclonal antibodies do not always work in Western blotting techniques and IgM class monoclonal antibodies are difficult to work with in this technique.It is not known whether the higher mole cular mass antigens are glycosylated. Such responses are restricted by products of the major histocompatibility (MHC) gene loci and, in some instances, are specific for the infecting parasite strain.Attempts to identify the target antigen on the surface of the infected cell, using biochemical and monoclonal antibody tech niques, have so far proved unsuccessful.Recent studies have involved propagation and cloning of the cytotoxic effector cells in vitro.The potential uses of such cytotoxic cell populations include:(1) clarification of the role of cell-mediated cytotoxicity in protective immunity, i.e.-Do the effector cells generated in vitro kill parasi tized cells from infected animals?-Can an effect be demonstrated In vivo following adoptive transfer experiments (these will require genetically related cattle)?(2) determination of whether the effectors show parasite strain specificity; if so, they could be used as strain typing reagents(3) identification of relevant cell-surface antigens, i.e.-screening for monoclonal antibodies which block the cyto toxic effector function -screening of target cells transfected with relevant para site or host DNA.Despite much effort, the antigen responsible for the induction of specific cytotoxicity for schizont-infected lymphocytes has not been identified.There was general agreement that, owing to the strain specificity of the cytotoxic response, parasite rather than host antigens were involved.MHC-restricted cytotoxic T-cell clones which killed rheHeriainfected cells and some uninfected blast cell populations did not kill the bovine leukaemic cell line BL-3.The classical approach to vaccines, i.e. immunization with live attenuated or dead organisms, does not work with African trypano somes because of the antigenic variation of the parasite.The neo-classical approach to vaccines, i.e. identification of the surface antigens of the pathogenic organism for production of a subunit vaccine, shows little promise for the African trypanosome because its surface is covered by variable antigens.One approach is the use of infection sera to detect antigens with vaccine potential.N'Dama and Zebu cattle are used because they differ in their resistance to African trypanosomiasis.Resistant and susceptible animals develop antibodies to common (nonvariant) trypanosome antigens and resistant animals develop antibodies to three antigens (110,000-, 150,000-and 300,000-dalton molecules) not recognized by animals unable to self-cure.Theoretically there are several antigens which might offer protection against African trypanosomiasis:(1) receptors for receptor-mediated endocytosis; endocytosis occurs in the flagellar pocket; endocytotic vesicles have been purified and internalized host molecules are being studied(2) lysosomal enzymes; the lysozomes of trypanosomes are being purified to study their essential enzymes(3) secreted or released pathogenic molecules including specific enzymes such as proteases or phospholipases and factors defined by pathogenic function such as mitogens or haemolysins (4) procyclic surface antigens; where tsetse were fed on animals immunized with whole procyclics, infection rates in the flies were reduced; surface antigens of procyclic Trypano soma brucei are being characterized(5) metacyclic variable surface antigens; these are more limited in number than the bloodstream repertoire so it may be possible to vaccinate against individual serodemes (6) vector antigens as targets: tsetse feeding enzymes and tsetse tissue antigens.Data are scarce from well-controlled experiments which could deter mine the mechanisms involved in the control of parasitaemia by trypanotolerant livestock.Both phagocytic cells and antibodies from resistant wild animals have an enhanced effect compared with those from trypanosusceptible animals. It is not clear why anti bodies to mammalian clatherin do not recognize the equivalent protein in trypanosomiasis.Immunization of mammals with antigens from uncoated trypanosomes and/or tsetse antigens would only have an impact on the control of tsetse/trypanosomiasis risk where tsetse are feeding predominantly on domestic livestock.The result of antibody-enzyme interactions can be inhibitory, enhancing or have no effect at all on enzyme function.The possibility of gene transfer as a means of improving genetic resistance to trypanosomiasis is being considered. The first stage is to identify the mechanisms responsible for trypanotolerance.Chairperson: A.F. BarbetIn vitro Peptide Synthesis H.M. GeysenA technique has been developed for the simultaneous synthesis of many peptides on solid supports in the form of polyethylene rods coated with a polymer of acrylic acid.These peptides can be used to determine those epitopes recognized by antibodies raised in a classical manner against native antigens.The advantage of this technique is that it analyses the immunodominant regions of an antigen directly.Identified epitopes can be analysed further to indicate those residues directly involved with antibody binding.The residues which are freely replaceable by nonsimilar amino acids are identi fied by determining the effect of all possible single amino-acid substitutions on antibody recognition.Starting with a monoclonal antibody which has been shown both to neutralize foot-and-mouth disease virus strongly and to bind to a discontinuous epitope on that virus, peptides simulating the epitope were determined.An iterative procedure was used based on the progressive definition of amino acids in a random octapeptide se quence.Optimization of the antibody-binding sequence was carried out at several intermediate stages.It was found that W-Q-M-G-H-S was the optimal hexapeptide made from the common L-amino acids. Longer sequences gave no significant increase in binding activity. Further optimization of this hexapeptide was carried out either by the incorporation of flexible spacers (beta-alanine) between resi dues, or substitution of the L-isomer by the D-isomer. Strongly binding peptides were found to consist of the two elements W-Q-M and H-S separated by a flexible spacer.It was also shown that the element W-Q-M was best incorporated as the D-isomers of each of the residues and the element H-S as the L-isomers. This general procedure will allow the determination of an antibody-binding peptide for a monoclonal antibody for which the sequence of the immunogen, or even its identity, is completely unknown.It is anticipated that the extensive 'mapping* of the antigen-combining site of antibodies (using this technique) will answer questions about the nature of discontinuous epitopes and the stereochemical requirements for antigen-antibody interactions. How ever, its use in defining potentially useful peptide immunogens is possibly more important.Using this technique to map substratebinding sites in enzymes may allow rational design of selective inhibitors for use as drugs.As different species can recognize different epitopes on the same antigen, it is hoped to incorporate degeneracy into thp immune res ponse by using incompletely specified peptide immunogens .Tn this manner a greater cross-reactivity for related antigens may be in duced and at the same time this approach would overcome 'holes' in the repertoire and minimize interspecies differences.There are many factors involved in the successful cloning of desired genetic sequences into suitable expression vectors and in subse quently obtaining high levels of expression in various host cells. Obtaining expression involves the inclusion of initiation and termination signals as well as sequences that ensure vector repli cation and methods for selecting transformed cells.Sometimes product synthesis must be regulated to prevent toxic effects on host cells .In addition to transcription of gene sequences, effective expression requires proper protein folding and may involve modifica tions such as glycosylation and intermolecular interactions between amino-acid chains following the translation process.Processing of translation products must be carried out in the proper order and compartment of the host cell.An example can be given of a host secretory cell which contains the protein disulphide isomerase compartmentalized within the endoplasmic reticulum which catalyzes formation of disulphide linkages in proteins iust before secretion. The enzyme has two thioredoxin domains at either end with a highly charged connecting sequence which wobbles to allow the appropriate interaction of the sulph-hydryl residues in the natural configura tion. This illustrates the difficulties in preparing such a protein by recombinant DNA technologies.Recombinant DMA technology has been used to develop a vaccine against the hepatitis B virus.This virus has an outer surface antigen coat and a core which contains the DMA polymerase and DMA. The vaccine for hepatitis B virus was produced by genetic enginee ring using the gene for the surface protein antigen which makes the outer coat. Cloning and expression of this gene were carried out in yeast, rather than in bacterial, expression systems as they can produce large quantities of gene product more stably.The yeast vector employed contained the yeast 2u plasmid and the Leu 2 gene (for selection), a yeast promoter and an Escherichia coli origin of replication (to allow plasmid production in bacteria). An addi tional expression method employed an SV40 cloning vector transformed into COS cells.Unlike cloning in yeast, this method of cloning produces glycosylation of the expressed protein in a normal way. However, glycosylation is not required for immunogenicity.In characterizing the surface antigen gene it was discovered that multiple initiation sites were present within the viral gene which produced 45,000-, 31,000-and 25 ,000-dalton molecules whose anti genicity increased with increasing size. This enhanced antigenicity is correlated with increasing protrusion of the peptide from the surface of the viral particle. The P31 surface antigen produced in yeast also assembled into hepatitis-shaped particles which lacked the core antigen and viral DNA.At present scientists are engi neering modified gene sequences that carry other important immuno genic gene sequences to enhance the response.For example.sequences from the herpes viral genome have been fused to the hepatitis surface antigen sequence and effectively triggered an anti -herpes humoral response.It was not known if cell-mediated immunity was triggered by the viral particle, nor if cell-mediated immunity was necessary in immunity to hepatitis. Antibodies alone can provide passive protection.Although difficult, it is also feasible to employ transfection of genes into cells using shuttle vectors to test for cell-mediated immune responses.Construction of a Genomic Library J . Dame Rapporteur's summary A method has been developed to generate genomic expression lib raries.It entails the generation of gene-sized fragments using digestion with mung bean nuclease in the presence of varying concen trations of formamide.This approach is particularly useful for identifying genes from small parasite genomes when the use of cDNA technology may prove difficult due to low representation of parti cular mRNA species.Digestion of nuclear DNA with mung bean nuclease in the presence of formamide releases gene-sized fragments in a number of instances including plasmodial genes for tubulin, actin, the small rRNA subunit, the histidine-rich protein and the circumsporozoite (CS) protein.This procedure can also be used for Drosophila ADH genes or for genes in schistosomes and trypanosomes and retroviruses in mammalian DNA.The most extensive analysis was performed with the CS antigen gene of Plasmodium falciparum, which was isolated from a lambda gtll expression library.Clones selected from this library with a range of monoclonal antibodies demonstrated that the whole gene was cloned and, in addition, in most cases expression was not in the form of a B-galactosidase fusion protein.Expression was observed with the gene in either orientation in the vector but most often in an orientation opposite to that of the B-galactosidase gene. It was suggested that transcription was initiated in these clones from a lambda promotor and that the polycystronic transcript was processed in some way to produce the mature CS protein. One clone was in the orientation of the B-galactosidase gene, but was out of phase with the B-gal gene and was probably produced by translational slippage. Another clone was detected with the monoclonal antibodies which produced a fusion protein with B-gal but was unrelated to the CS protein gene.In some cases screening expression libraries with monoclonal antibodies can lead to the selection of clones which are apparently unrelated to the antigen being sought.The nature of the cleavage sites with mung bean nuclease are at present unknown and are apparently not related to the AT content of the sequences. It was suggested that since formamide is necessary, local structural transition states between coding and noncoding sequences may be involved. Apparently the enzyme does not cleave at introns .Optimal formamide concentration was a characteristic of the genome as opposed to particular genes.The particular optimum was widely different for different genomes.Noncoding DNA sequences also occurred in libraries.Construction of a cDNA Library J. Williams Rapporteur's summary Isolation of genes from a cDNA library should be easier than from a genomic library when the relative abundance of a sequence in mRNA is greater than its abundance in the genome. It also has the advantage that the organization of genes containing introns can easily be defined in the cDNA clone and expression in a prokaryote vector is possible.Recent developments in techniques for cDNA library con struction have improved efficiency in terms of cDNA length and numbers of clones. One million clones can be obtained from 1 micro gram of double-stranded cDNA, and 200,000 clones are required for a 95% probability of obtaining any sequence from an mRNA population consisting of 10 to 15,000 base-pair sequences.Significant technical advances are:(1) the availability of cloned reverse transcriptase free of nuclease activity(2) the availability of good RNase inhibitors (human placental RNase inhibitor)(3) the inclusion of an RNA denaturation step (heat or MeHgOH) before first-strand synthesis to circumvent obstruction by secondary structures in the RNA (4) second-strand synthesis by replacement using RNase H and Escherichia coll DNA polymerase is more complete and reliable than the old methods of fold-back hairpin selfpriming (the Okayama-Berg procedure).Two methods were considered for inserting double-stranded DNA into the vector.GC tailing requires only one enzymatic reaction. Better preparations of terminal transferase, which are now avail able, have reduced the problem of spurious tailing at internal nicks generated by contaminating nuclease. Self-limiting G tailing of the target DNA molecules circumvents problems of controlling the length of tails.Tailing of the vector with G can be controlled because the size and quantity of the vector DNA are known precisely. Opti mal tail length (15 to 20 nucleotides) is crucial for efficient vector-target annealing.Linker addition circumvents some problems encountered with GC tailing (use of cloned insert as hybridization probe, sequencing through tails) and can give higher cloning efficiencies. This involves four enzymatic reaction steps and therefore is only appro priate if these advantages are important.New, highly efficient transformation procedures allow the use of plasmids to produce large cDNA libraries (10°clones per microgram double-stranded cDNA) , and it is easier to grow plasmids. Phage cloning is more efficient and gives lower backgrounds in screening which may be especially important if differential hybridization screening is planned.For cloning cDNAs in plasmids, the Okayama-Berg procedure is the most efficient but requires considerable investment in preparation of the system reagents. An example of a cDNA cloning experiment was described: human transferrin receptor cDNA was cloned from mRNA by immune precipitation of polysomes and differential screening. This sequence constituted only 0.01% of the total mRNA.It is better to store cDNA libraries as colonies on filters, rather than amplifying or storing as plasmid preparations because of the differential representation due to different growth rates during amplification.This problem is not as severe with cDNA as with genomic libraries.Rec-positive strains are not required for successful cloning with tailing procedures. No problem with instability of cDNA inserts was encountered.Cell-mediated Immunity F. LemonnierRapporteur's summaryThe techniques for introducing DNA into cells include:(1) calcium phosphate co-precipitation(2) electroporation; target cells and foreign DNA are subjected to an electric pulse which forces the DNA into the cells(3) fusion of target cells with DNA-loaded particles such as bacterial protoplasts (4) direct microinjection of DNA into the cell nucleus.Since not all target cells will take up and/or express foreign DNA, selection methods to identify transfected cells are necessary. The classical method consists of introducing thymidine kinase (TK) or hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HGPRT) genes along with the DNA of interest into TK-HGPRT cells. Newer methods of selection have been developed including a family of neomycin-like antibiotic-resistant genes and enzymes such as phosphotransferase. Positive selection is achieved by detection of cell-surface markers on a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) .Rosetting assays have also been used for selection.The efficiencies of transfection when CaP04 co-precipitation, electroporation and protoplast fusion are used range between 10~* and 10~6 .Microinjection is by far the best technique, with efficiencies achieved of up to 5%.The molecules involved in antigen presentation have been iden tified and include class I and class II antigens.Structural and functional analysis of class I and class II antigens have shown the functionally important molecular domains for restriction of presen tation of foreign antigens to the immune system.The first and second domains of class I, which are hypervariable, are most impor tant. The response is genetically restricted.Class I molecules are involved in the rejection of tumour cells. Some alleles appear to confer tumour resistance to the animal. An example of this is the mouse leukemia cell line, K36.16 which is rejected In vivo following transfection of the cell line with the H-2Kk allele.Lyt 2, a T-cell differentiation marker, has been used with FACS to select a population of transfected cells which over-express this marker.Such cells are then cloned and expanded and used for bio chemical and functional studies.Potential uses of transfection and cell-mediated immunity include:(1) analysis of T-cell recognition unit(2) transfection of embryonic cells with genes of interest (3) differentiation, for example, in the identification of enhancer sequences responsible for tissue-specific gene expression (4) transfection of cells with DNA coding anti-sense mRNA(5) potential for therapy; this has already been realized in severe combined immunodeficiency (adenosine deaminase deficiency) where cells from a patient were reconstituted In vitro; many other possibilities, such as sickle cell anaemia, exist.Transfection efficiencies tend to increase if linearized DNA is employed. It was suggested that under optimal conditions it would take about 8 weeks to transfect, culture and express genes.Progress in Malaria G.V. Brown Rapporteur' 8 summary So far most progress in malaria has been made with the circumsporozoite protein studies, and vaccination trials in humans are planned for later this year. Another important area is the trans mission blocking studies of the sexual stages of the parasite.In these studies monoclonal antibodies identifying antigens of 250,000, 60,000 and 55,000 daltons have been shown to block extracellular gametes of Plasmodium falciparum and inhibit fertilization and ookinete stages in the mosquito. A synergistic effect of two mono clonal antibodies on fertilization blockage was noted, whereas neither alone had an effect.Human immune responses naturally appear not to be directed against sexual stages.The monoclonal antibody binding to sexual stages of P falciparum does not, so far, appear to be isolate specific and antigens associated with the sexual stage may be used as part of a combined vaccine.A large body of evidence demonstrates that immunity is directed at asexual stages of the parasite. Candidate molecules for vaccine development have been identified. Some of these have apparent bio logical functions while the biological roles of others are unknown.The following molecules are of potential use as vaccines:(1) the 195,000-dalton schizont surface antigen; this a protein which is precursor to the 83,000-dalton processed product on the merozoite surface.The molecule appears to be altered following the release of the schizont from the host cell. The 83,000-dalton merozoite surface protein is shed during the process of erythrocyte entry. Immunization against this molecule appears to confer partial protection.(2) cyto-adherent molecules; these are thought to mediate adherence of infected host erythrocytes to capillary endo thelial cells.Although of parasite origin, cyto-adherent molecules appear as knobs on the surface of infected eryth rocyte membranes and can be detected by surface labeling techniques.These molecules vary from isolate to isolate. Monoclonal antibodies raised against them inhibit cytoadherence. The histidine-rich protein is thought to be one of the molecules present in infected erythrocyte knobs. Cyto-adherent molecules are lost during In vitro passage.(3) ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen (RESA) (4) glycophorin binding • protein which occurs on the merozoite surface(5) rhoptry proteins (41,000 daltons) show no variation from parasite to parasite and monoclonal antibodies have been shown to confer some protection.(6) s-antigen; genes encoding this antigen have been shown to be localized on different chromosomes by pulsed gradient field gel electrophoresis. Some Plasmodium chromosomes appear haploid.Several of the malaria antigens consist of short tandemly re peated units.Analysis of these repeats within a given antigen and comparison of repeats of different antigens in one stage or at different stages of the lifecycle have revealed a great deal of variation. The biological significance of this variation is unknown.The new technique of pulsed gradient field gel electrophoresis demonstrated that field isolates had different chromosome-size DNA profiles.It also showed the presence of at least six or seven resolvable chromosomes ranging in size from 800 kb to 2 Mb.Immunization with sexual forms resulted in the failure of ookinetes to develop.It was indicated that gametocyte neutralization would require large amounts of antibody.Experiments are in progress on the effect of trypsinization on merozoites.It was indicated that polydisperse repeats exist in the human genome and one of these has been identified at the 5' end of the human insulin gene.This element has a repeating unit of 15 to 20 bases which is repeated many times.Studies in family members show rapid sequence variation.The role of this insulin polymorphic region is unknown.A.F. BarbetThe iodinated antibody screening method of Young and Davis is used to isolate genomic clones containing the gene for the 105,000-dalton protein which appears to be protective against Anaplasma margi nale.Monoclonal antibodies against the 105,000-and a 36,000dalton A marginale antigen were tested in extensive controlled experiments with infected and uninfected erythrocytes and the purified target proteins. The later threshold of the sensitivity of the assay used was 1 ng of the 105,000-dalton protein.Partial Sau 3A fragments of A marginale DNA were cloned into the Bam HI site of pBR 322, and 8,000 recombinants were screened with a polyvalent antibody prepared against the 105,000-dalton pro tein immunopurif ied on an anti-105 ,000-dalton monoclonal antibody absorbent column.Thirteen positive colonies yielded 10 stably expressing clones.Four genomic fragments of different sizes were identified in these clones; three of these appeared, by mapping, to be derived from the same genomic sequence.\"S labeling of trans formed bacteria containing any of the four cloned fragments revealed a 105,000-dalton protein that was absent in control bacteria and was specifically precipitated by the antibody used in screening, but did not react with a monoclonal antibody recognizing the authentic 105,000-dalton protein.Two possible explanations for the failure of recognition by the monoclonal antibody were considered.The native 105,000-dalton molecule might be modified post-transcriptionally.Alternatively, since Southern blots with the cloned gene suggested the presence of three genes, it was possible that another member of a homologous gene family had been cloned.The mature 105,000-dalton protein appeared as a closely spaced doublet in SDS gels and the recombinant protein migrated between the two components.It was considered essential that the recombinant protein should be used, either as whole bacteria or after immunopurif ication, to raise an antiserum that could be tested in reaction with the mature 105,000-dalton protein. Neutralization of the initial bodies of A. marginale by the anti-recombinant protein antibody could also test the potential of the cloned gene for producion of a vaccine.Genomic Libraries and Identification of Sporozoite and Macroschizont-specif ic GenesRapporteur's summary Thelleria parva DNA has been obtained from piroplasms of infected bovine blood. Lambda gtll clone libraries were constructed from the purified DNAs with 200-to 500-base pair sonicated fragments. The lambda libraries have been screened with antisera and monoclonal antibodies to identify stage-specif ic gene sequences. Several sporozoite surface antigen gene sequences have been identified by Dr R. Hall (TLRAD) and two macroschizont-specif ic sequences have also been identified.Dr P. Conrad (ILRAD) is now using the macroschizont sequences in experiments aimed at differentiating T parva strains.These macroschizont clones and one sporozoite clone have been used to characterize digestion fragments produced by mung bean nuclease treatment of T parva DNAs.The results indicated that T parva DNAs are reduced specifically to gene size fragments on trea tment with mung bean nuclease in the presence of 45 to 50% formamide.Mung bean nuclease libraries are now being constructed to allow identification of complete gene sequences for sporozoite and macro schizont genes. Some difficulty has been encountered in maintaining the recombinant clones stably in pUC9. Future work will involve production of T parva genomic libra ries from mung bean nuclease treatment of DNAs.These libraries will be used to identify macroschizont-specif ic genes which will be tested for their ability to trigger in vitro cytotoxic responses on transfection into bovine lymphocytes.Instability of recombinants expressing fusion protein in pUC vec tors, probably due to leaky repression, has been encountered by others using pUC. Lambda gtll and other non-pUC expression vectors were recommended.Purification of macroschizonts from rheileria-infected lym phocytes is being developed using aureolysin and centrifugation techniques.This should allow preparation of pure Thelleria DNA from cells grown in vitro.Meanwhile Hoescht dye 3325 which appears to bind preferentially to AT-rich DNA could be used to separate parasite DNA from lymphocyte DNA by isopycnic centrifu gation.It was suggested that in screening for Thelleria antigens involved in cytotoxic responses an inhibition assay with standard target cells might be easier to set up. However, other workers have found such inhibition assays difficult. PH-15 cells may be the best to use for transfection to make target cells.Progress in Theileriosis: 2. Identification of Genes Encoding Important Protective Antigens of Sporozoites of Theileria parva R. Hall Rapporteur's summary A series of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies has been used to screen genomic expression libraries constructed in lambda gtll. Several clones have been identified and characterized.One clone studied encodes the sequence of part of a protein antigen of 18,500 daltons.The antiserum to this protein blocks infection of target cells by sporozoites In vitro.Three other clones encode peptide sequences for a protein of 25,500 daltons, which may be a breakdown product of a 6 7 ,000-dalton antigen.The serum to this antigen is also capable of inhibiting infection of target cells In vitro.A number of problems have been encountered in the course of these studies including:(1) lysogen instability(2) insert instabilities(3) reduction of recombination frequencies upon amplification (4) selection of bovine DNA sequences (5) no positive clones detected with monoclonal antibodies.Other studies have been carried out on the translation of mRNA from infected tick salivary glands.These indicate that the level of sporozoite mRNA is very low compared to tick mRNA.Immunoprecipitation of in vitro translated products with one serum revealed a sporozoite mRNA-encoded antigen of 105,000 daltons. However, several other antigens precipitated by this serum are of tick origin. A cDNA library was constructed and screened with this serum and seven clones were isolated.Problems encountered with this approach were low overall levels of sporozoite mRNA and antitick antibodies in the sera. Future research will be directed towards purifying fusion pro teins. These will be used for immunization experiments and in vitro blocking experiments to detect genes encoding sporozoite receptors.Discussion focused on the validity of the clones identified using anti-sporozoite antibodies. Some examples of antibodies recognizing spurious clones were given.A suggestion was made that these se quences be used to probe mung bean nuclease digests of Theileria DNA for the presence of gene-sized fragments. These experiments are already in progress.A novel approach to identifying the reading frame of some of the genes expressed in the bacteria was suggested using the micropeptide synthesis method described by Geysen. The information necessary for peptide synthesis was derived from the amino-acid sequence of the B subunit and the choice of which peptides to synthesize was based on the known involvement of pieces of the B subunit in the biological activities of the intact toxin.The peptides were conjugated to tetanus toxoid (TT) with a number of synthetic carriers, with palmitic acid, or were poly merized with gluteraldehyde and injected into rabbits.Conjugates with TT, TGAL, palmitic acid and polymerized peptides were all good immunogens and elicited efficient anti-peptide antibodies.The anti peptide antibodies were screened for activity against the native molecule.Reactions were observed but no clear rules were found to account for the relationship between the titre of antibodies against either the peptide or the native molecule.The antibodies were also screened for their ability to block the biolo gical activities of cholera toxin. The systems used were inhibition of cholera toxin adenylate cyclase and inhibition of toxin-induced fluid accumulation in isolated loops of rat intestine.Two of the peptides induced inhibiting antibodies and the most efficient was chosen for vaccine development.The chosen peptide was also examined for its ability to elicit antibody responses which inhibit the biological effects of heatlabile toxins related to cholera toxin, e.g. Escherichia coli toxin, porcine labile toxin, and heat-labile toxins from vibrios such as Vibrio minicus toxin.Once again the test used was inhibition of toxin-induced fluid accumulation in isolated gut loops. A peptide was chosen which induced broad protection.Having identified the appropriate peptide, methods are being developed for its large-scale preparation. The chosen method gene rates synthetic DNA which encodes the peptide.The DNA has been inserted into the expressing vectors pAMl and pAM2 which have many favourable properties, i.e. they support the production of the peptide fusion protein, transport that peptide to the surface and express it without degradation.Both vectors expressed a fusion protein which was recognized by antibodies against the original synthetic peptide.The fusion protein was injected into rabbits and was found to induce good antibody responses.The antibodies reacted with the synthetic peptide and neutralized biological activity of cholera toxin in the gut loop system. It appears that first steps in the production of a synthetic vaccine have now been made.Discussion revolved around several general themes. How can a vac cine be developed which will induce antibody responses of a selected isotype? What carriers should be used with synthetic or genetically engineered peptides in order to avoid epitope-specif ic suppressions or rapid carrier clearance brought about by previous exposure of the host to the carrier? What adjuvants should be used to promote ef ficient and safe responses? Many specific cases were discussed for each of these questions but no general rules were identified.The Role of Synthetic Adjuvants for Enhancement of Vaccines F. AudibertIn immunization against infectious agents adjuvants are called upon to potentiate immune responses to protective antigens.This may take the form of increasing the magnitude of the response or chang ing the nature of the response, e.g. by biasing towards a particular immunoglobulin isotype or towards cell-mediated rather than humoral responses or vice versa.The availability of effective and safe adjuvants is particularly important when considering vaccines based on peptide subunits, since such small molecules on their own are invariably poorly immunogenic.It was pointed out that the criteria for an adjuvant to be ac ceptable for use in animals are somewhat different from those that apply in humans.The primary considerations in using adjuvants in humans are safety and absence of side effects, whereas cost is a major factor in animals and minor side effects may be acceptable.Overall, the most effective adjuvant for both antibody and cellmediated immune responses in experimental situations is complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) . However, because of the undesirable reac tions which this adjuvant provokes at the site of inoculation, it is not acceptable for use in vaccines.In addition it sensitizes to tuberculin which mitigates against its use in cattle.Studies on adjuvants were based mainly on the use of the peptidoglycan, muramyl dipeptide (MDP) , which is the minimal chemical structure from the mycobacterium in CFA which will provide adjuvant activity. When MDP was incorporated into incomplete Freund's adjuvant it was found to replace completely the adjuvant activity of the mycobacterium.MDP was also found to have adjuvant activity when used alone without oil.Furthermore, while inoculation of the adjuvant along with antigen was found to give optimal results, some adjuvant effect was observed when the adjuvant was administered at sites distant from the antigen (including the oral route).One disadvantage of MDP is that it has pyrogenic activity. However, by a simple chemi cal substitution, a derivative known as murabutide has been produced which is devoid of pyrogenic activity but has retained adjuvanticity. Several examples were presented which illustrate the potent adjuvant activity of this compound. These include one study which used 1 microgram of hepatitis B virus surface antigen. This dose of antigen on its own was poorly immunogenic, whereas a strong response was elicited when given with 100 micrograms of murabutide.The simultaneous use of murabutide plus alum resulted in complementation of the activity of the two adjuvants and, interestingly, resulted in a very low specific IgE response which was induced by antigen plus alum alone.The use of peptides in immunization was considered, focusing particularly on the requirements for adjuvants and for carrier molecules when dealing with small peptides.Examples of peptides used included a subunit of the diptheria toxin and a peptide from the malaria circumsporozoite antigen.With the latter, murabutide was shown to be as effective as CFA, although the antibody elicited by this particular peptide reacted very weakly with the parent molecule.Nevertheless these antibodies were capable of inducing the circumsporozite protein precipitation which correlates with protective activity.Small peptides (haptens) for use in immunization have to be linked to a carrier molecule to induce a significant antibody re sponse.The potential problems accompanying the use of carriers were outlined. These include the possibility of hypersensitivity to the carrier molecule, rapid clearance of the hapten-carrier complex by a predominance of anti-carrier antibody after repeated boosts and induction of suppression to specific hapten epitopes. One approach to overcome some of the problems is to use polymerized haptens as carriers.Data were presented on the use of a foot-and-mouth dis ease virus peptide with the peptide itself used in polymerized form.This was administered either as a mixture with MDP or covalently linked to MDP-lysine.Both procedures resulted in strong biologically active antibody responses, although the MDP-conjugated antigen was superior. A further experiment involved testing a poly merized polypeptide prepared from four different peptide units. When given with either CFA or murabutide, this resulted in good immune responses to all four peptide components.Protective ac tivity was demonstrated in the case of diphtheria toxin and CS protein.In addition mice were challenged by a lethal dose of streptococci and were shown to be protected. The antibody response to the peptide could not be checked for protective activity. It was pointed out, however, that some peptides in polymer form do not induce easily detectable antibody responses to the native peptide. Finally, it was demonstrated that immunological castration of male mice could be achieved by administering LH releasing hormone coupled to MDP-lysine (three doses).These studies provided extremely valuable information on the effi cacy of chemically defined adjuvants when used with a range of well-defined antigens presented in a number of different ways. Further studies are required to determine whether these compounds can be used effectively in domestic animals in quantities which are not financially prohibitive.One pilot study has been conducted using murabutide in humans with encouraging results.It was clear from the discussion that more information is required on the isotypes of antibody induced using these adjuvants and the duration of serum antibody and immunological memory. Persistence of significant levels of serum antibody is an important factor when considering immunity to Theileria sporozoites and would require the presence of antibody at the time of challenge.Despite the many studies carried out on adjuvants, very little is known about their mode of action.There are indications that MDP and murabutide exert their effect on macrophages, possibly by increasing the release of immunological mediators.Further infor mation on the mode of action of existing adjuvants might provide a more rational basis on which to develop new compounds.A similar approach was used to generate genomic probes specific to Plasmodium falciparum.In the blot test using parasitized whole blood, there were problems of high background. This was over come by first mixing 100 microlitres of blood in 500 microlitres of lysis buffer containing Triton X-100 and digesting the protein before application of the material to nitrocellulose filter paper. By so doing, the presence of P falciparum was detectable with DNA probes in blood samples where the paras itaemia was as low as 0.001%.Probes for the Brugia species of filaria have also been derived by shotgun cloning and used to detect parasites in the vector.The value of antibody detection as a means of diagnosis was compared to demonstration of the presence of the causative organisms or their antigens.It was stressed that antibody detection could be useful in some instances, such as when it is difficult to demonstrate parasites or their antigens in certain epidemiological situations or in some cases of clinical diagnosis, e.g. splenomegaly due to L donovani.It was suggested that the sensitivity of the probes can be increased 100-to 1000-fold by the use of the SP6 plasmid.The practicality of using nonradioactive probes was raised, as well as the problem of the high background and associated sensi tivity.In some instances drug resistance can be related to amplification of certain genes and these genes could be used as hybridization probes. Those against T vivax reacted with T vivax, while the antibodies against T congolense reacted with T congo lense and T simiae.By sandwich ELISA, antibodies to T b brucei were used to detect circulating antigens in serum samples from cattle infected with T b brucei .Such antigens were detected 2 weeks after tsetse challenge. Thereafter, they were demonstrable in sera taken every third day even when parasites could not be detected in blood by microscopic examination of the blood buffy coat.The same monoclonal antibodies were also used to detect circulating antigens in sera from known cases of Rhodesian and Gambian sleeping sickness.These antigens were also detected in cerebrospinal fluid of some Rhodesian and Gambian sleeping sickness patients and in infected tsetse flies.The T vivax and T congo lense monoclonal antibodies detected the corresponding antigens in sera of T vivax-or T congolense-infected cattle.This test would appear to be more sensitive than microscopic examination of the blood buffy coat. Work is in progress to clone and express the genes encoding these antigens in bacteria for mass production of the antigens.An alternative approach involving peptide synthesis is also envisaged. The ultimate objective is to develop a simple field assay system for antigens and antibodies.To distinguish the infecting trypanosomes species in field cases where there are multiple infections, sera can be tested against each of the antigens. False negative results in the antigen assay could arise from situations of antibody excess. So far, there has been no problem of false positives arising from hypergammaglobulinaemia in trypanosomiasis.The situation regarding other causes of hyper gammaglobulinaemia is being investigated.Sera from blood donors are now being analysed to establish the minimum serum dilution to be used in a screening assay. The rea gents are being tested against sera from patients with various infectious diseases to determine the level of specificity. Urine samples should also be tested for the presence of antigens. Cloned DNA hybridization probes can be used to detect trypanosomes and distinguish within and between species by two approaches: demon stration of the presence or absence of a particular repetitive sequence or detection of restriction enzyme site polymorphism around a sequence. The first approach is more easily applied because blood or tissue samples can be used and propagation of trypanosomes is not necessary for DNA preparation.Repetitive DNA sequences can be easily identified and cloned and can often be used to detect a very small number of parasites, either in the vertebrate host or in the insect vector. For example, repe titive minichromosome sequences cloned from Trypanosoma congolense can detect as few as 30 parasites. These probes appear to be spe cific for subgroups of T congolense.DNA probes that would define important characteristics of the trypanosomes such as infectivity to man, clinical characteristics or serodeme-specif icity would be more valuable, but are more difficult to identify. The disadvantages of using radiolabeled probes, i.e. short halflife, expense and disposal problems, can be obviated by biotinylation of the probe.The DNA probes can be biotinylated by nick translation using either biotin-11 dUTP or biotin-11 dCTP, both of which are currently available commercially.The hybridization reaction can then be visualized enzymatically using either avidin biotinylated peroxidase/alkaline phosphatase or streptavidin biotinylated peroxidase/alkaline phosphatase. The method can be used in all instances where radiolabeling is currently being employed, such as Southern blots, dot blots and colony hybrid ization.Adaptation for field use is possible since the stability of DNA probes would allow standardization of the assay.Efforts are being made to refine the technique by eliminating the high back ground and improving sensitivity.The following problems associated with the use of nonradioactive detection systems were discussed:(1) the lack of linear relationship between quantity applied and signal obtained when whole trypanosomes are used; this did not apply when purified DNA was used(2) photosensitivity of the reagents and, therefore, need to standardize the reagents in each experiment.A point was also raised regarding the comparative sensitivity of radioactive and nonradioactive probes.It was reported that the sensitivity of the two techniques is similar.Rapporteur's summary One of the major impediments to the elucidation of the epidemiology of trypanosomiasis is the lack of appropriate tools with which to identify and characterize parasite populations at the molecular level.The feasibility of using the orthogonal-field-alternation gel electrophoresis (OFAGE) for karyotypic analysis of Trypanosoma congolense cloned populations has been explored. Karyotypic dif ferences were demonstrated at the species and serodeme levels. Qualitative differences in gene expression were also demonstrated using variable surface glycoprotein-specif ic probes. The potential application of this technique in epidemiological studies was dis cussed.An attempt should be made to resolve the large chromosomes which in the present system do not migrate appreciably. When certain repe titive hybridization probes are used on the chromosome blots, smears instead of discrete bands are observed. This problem might be over come by decreasing the quantity of trypanosomes applied.Strain/species Characterization P . ConradRapporteur's summary Classification of Thellerla parva isolates continues to be a major epidemiological concern.Since the use of anti-schizont monoclonal antibodies alone does not appear to be adequate, the possible use of DNA probes and restriction endonuclease analysis of genomic DNAs is currently being investigated. A genomic expression library prepared from T parva (Mariakani) piroplasm DNA was screened with antischizont monoclonal antibodies and two clones were identified which contain genes coding for schizont antigens. Preliminary experiments show that one of these probes hybridizes to DNA in preparations of lymphocytes infected with the Muguga and Mariakani isolates of T parva, but not to uninfected lymphoblasts .DNA has been prepared from lymphoblastoid cells infected with T p parva (Mariakani, Marikebuni and Muguga isolates), T annulata, T taurotragi and T p lawrencei -type isolates from buffalo.The objective of this ap proach is to identify gene probes that could be used:(1) to better characterize isolates and identify closely related parasite populations that may correlate with the strain dif ferences detected using in vitro cytotoxicity tests and in vivo cross-immunity trials(2) to determine if the antigenic change undergone by T p law rencei in carrier buffalo and during passage through cattle is the result of antigenic variation and/or genetic selec tion from a mixed parasite population.A question was raised regarding the prospect of using cell-mediated immunity as a means of typing theilerial strains. It was pointed out that such studies are already in progress.basically protein in nature.The first involves production of antigens using recombinant DNA technology and the second the in vitro biochemical synthesis of peptides with the relevant antigenic specificity.The first step in recombinant DNA technology is to identify and isolate the genetic information coding for the relevant antigen or epitope.This can be done in two ways. The first and most direct is to identify and isolate the mRNA coding for the antigen in ques tion and construct cDNA libraries. The second is to digest nuclear DNA with restriction enzymes and construct a genomic library of these fragments, usually in an expression vector such as lambda gt 11.The workshop discussed the recent advances in both tech nologies, especially the improved efficiency in cDNA library construction and the ability of mung bean nuclease to cleave genomic DNA into gene sized fragments.Both procedures have advantages and disadvantages and the choice bewteen them will be largely determined by factors such as the types of material available for DNA or RNA isolation and present knowledge of the structure of the antigen and its epitopes.The identification of relevant mRNA or DNA sequences has been greatly facilitated by the use of polyvalent antisera specific for a particular antigen, either by immunoprecipitation of polysomes or screening the products of a genomic library in an expression vec tor.Polyvalent antisera, because of their ability to recognize multiple epitopes on an antigen molecule, are much more efficient in precipitation and screening assays than monoclonal antibodies.It can be concluded that recombinant DNA technology provides a practical means of identifying and isolating parasite genetic mate rial coding for potentially protective antigens.In combination with immunose lection, these techniques have already led to the suc cessful identification of relevant genetic material for antigens of Plasmodium, Theilerla and Anaplasma.When suitable genetic sequences have been identified, isolated and characterized, sufficient amounts of the antigen coded for by the genetic material must be obtained in a protective immunogenic form for immunization trials. The selection of suitable expression systems is a complex issue.Factors to be considered include: quantity and purity of the desired antigen, requirements for posttranscriptional and/or post-translational molecular modification and epitope structure.Expression systems are now available using bacteria, yeasts or mammalian cells. Each system has advantages and disadvantages, but the complexity increases when the mRNA or its protein product must be processed to produce an immunogenic pro duct.Suitable expression systems have been successfully developed for large-scale production of viral antigens as demonstrated by the hepatitis B vaccine.It is unlikely, therefore, that the develop ment of suitable systems for parasite antigens will prove to be a major constraint to future vaccine production.Synthesis of defined peptides is a conventional biochemical technique when a short amino-acid sequence has already been determined.New technologies in micro-sequencing now make it pos sible to obtain accurate amino-acid sequences from minute quantities of purified parasite protein antigens. In both malaria and cholera, it is now possible to synthesize the short peptides of an immuno genic epitope whose sequence has already been determined. When appropriate immunization protocols have been established, such peptides can induce protective antibody responses. One obstacle to the widespread use of synthetic peptides as immunogens has been the fact that not all epitopes are made up of linear stretches of con tiguous amino acids.In certain cases the epitope comprises amino acids which come together in a spatial relationship due to folding of the protein chain, and the amino acids which form the epitope are therefore not linearly associated.The development of a new tech nology for synthesizing peptides was described which is cheap, efficient and suitable for large numbers of simultaneous synthetic steps.This system has the potential for producing synthetic pep tides which specifically combine with the combining sites of mono clonal antibodies and recognize epitopes of protein antigens, for example, of the foot-and-mouth disease virus.The use of such synthetic systems to form peptides which immunologically mimic protective epitopes on parasite antigens should be explored.At present there do not appear to be any substantial obstacles to the identification and characterization of relevant parasite protein antigens and the genetic material coding for such antigens or their significant epitopes. Nor are there major obstacles to the in vitro synthesis of antigenic materials in quantities sufficient to assess their potential as vaccines in vivo.Indeed, rapid ad vances are being made in these technologies which make them more widely applicable.The final step, and ultimately the most important one, is the development of appropriate immunization schedules using in vitro produced materials to produce vaccines against important diseases of man and livestock. The most commonly used adjuvant in experimental models is complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) . This is undoubtedly a powerful adjuvant and in most cases induces good antibody responses even to short peptides.However, since it contains mycobacteria, CFA causes unacceptable reactions at the injection site and sensi tizes the host to tuberculosis, so it cannot be used in vaccines applied to man or to domestic livestock where tuberculosis eradi cation schemes are in place. Alternative strategies include the use of the active moeity of the tuberculin molecule of the mycobacteria which does not have significant side effects, and the use of alter native adjuvanting substances such as alum.The major problem in the induction of humoral responses using peptide antigens seems to be that such peptides are generally poorly immunogenic by themselves or when combined with possible adjuvants. One approach to this problem has been to link the peptide to an unrelated carrier protein to obtain a modified hapten-carrier effect.In some cases antigens of other important pathogens have been used as carriers to explore the combined vaccine approach. The possibility should not be overlooked that the best carrier for a peptide epitope is some portion of the original parasite protein molecule from which the epitope was identified.It is clear that enhancing peptide immunogenicity with carriers and/or adjuvants is of substantial importance in the development of new and successful vaccines against major parasitic diseases.A better understanding of the epidemiology of these diseases and the nature of the pro tective humoral responses induced in natural acquired immunity would considerably aid the development of effective vaccines. A great deal of research still needs to be done.While the development of effective antibody-mediated vaccines can be visualized in the near future, the problems of inducing pro tective cell-mediated immune responses remain.Only when relevant parasite antigens have been identified and the immunological reac tions they induce are defined, can the question of how to induce such responses by immunization be approached systematically.The workshop closed after considering the usefulness of mono clonal antibodies, DNA probes and DNA analysis for parasite charac terization and diagnosis.Considerable progress has been made in these areas, especially in the major protozoan diseases such as malaria, trypanosomiasis, anaplasmosis and theileriosis.It is anticipated that many new reagents and techniques will be developed in the future, but the question remains of adopting the technologies developed in sophisticated laboratories to conditions in the regions where these diseases are significant problems. Encouraging results have been obtained in the substitution of radio active isotopes by enzyme-linked bases in the preparation of DNA probes.However, there are still problems of the specificity and sensitivity of enzyme-labeled probes which must be resolved, or alternative labeling methods must be devised, before the benefits of these new technologies can be made widely available to the human and animal populations exposed to these diseases.","tokenCount":"11092"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"971fb834fbeab03cefda7e8c5ac74688","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8d67884f-6b0f-4a07-b564-c4047dcb1a80/content","id":"965171050"},"keywords":["Mexico","Conservation tillage","Crop residues","Crop management","Methods","Technology transfer","Innovation adoption","Maize","Zea mays AGRIS category codes: E14 Development Economics and Policies F07 Soil Cultivation Dewey decimal classification: 338.162"],"sieverID":"81aa6ea0-686b-406f-a775-d2cadd5ae55d","pagecount":"13","content":"CIMMYT is an internationally funded, nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, the Center works with agricultural research institutions worldwide to improve the productivity and sustainability of maize and wheat systems for poor farmers in developing countries. It is one of 16 similar centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR comprises over 50 partner countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations. It is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).Financial support for CINIMYT's research agenda currently comes from many sources, including the govern ments of Australia,In recent years, conservation tillage has received a great deal of attention in Mexico. Several governmental as well as non-governmental organizations have conducted research on it or have promoted the technology throughout the country. All this attention has favored the adoption of conservation tillage by farmers, but has had some disadvantages. For example, the large number of people involved has generated an equally large number of definitions of the technology. To some, 1 At the time of publication, Associate Expert, CIMMYT Natural Resources Group, Apartado Postal 6-641, 06600 Mexico, D.E, Mexico. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 4th International Forum on Conservation Tillage, May 2-4, 1996, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and included in the proceedings of the event (compiled by FIRA, Morelia, Michoacan).Published in 5intesis de resultados experimentaies del PRM, 1993PRM, 1995PRM, , vol. 5 (1997), pp. 188-197. ), pp. 188-197. conservation tillage simply means not burning, while others view it as zero or reduced tillage (no soil inversion). However, the real key to the technology is retaining a sufficient amount of residue as mulch. Without mulch, practices such as zero tillage may be counterproductive. This confounds the interpretation of the reported conservation tillage experiments, as it is frequently difficult to discern if the mulch was actually present.How did this confusion in terms originate? As a matter of fact, \"a classic problem affiliated with conser vation tillage over its years of development has been its definition\" (Pierce, 1985). The confusion in terms is due partly to the different interpretations of \"conserva tion\" (conservation of what? soil, water, residues?). Another source of confusion is the word \"tillage.\"There are many different types of tillage methods (involving a wide range of tools and practices). The word \"tillage\" also places a great deal of emphasis on working the soil. This seems to be most adequate for production systems in the United States, where the technology originated and where incorporating residues through tilling was the major end use of residues. When tillage was reduced, more residues automatically remained as mulch. Nevertheless, in tropical environments, tillage is only one of several factors affecting residue availability. In fact, in some tropical environments no-tillage is already being practiced (e.g., manual labor systems in marginal areas where stick planting is used), but residues are not necessarily retained (they are sometimes grazed or burned). Thus \"residue conservation,\" which emphasizes a crucial rather than a partial component of the technology, seems to be a more appropriate term in tropical systems. This paper summarizes the implications of residue conservation for crop production systems in Mexico. It focuses mainly on maize-based production systems, given that maize is the most important crop in Mexico. However, before discussing residue management in Mexico, we will discuss the role of crop residues in soil (and water) conservation.in a given year may be 1mor or insignificant, butmay accumulate over L'le (Lal, 1987). Similarly, the benefits of reducing deg J.dation by way of soil The two. major processes of water erosion are conservation practices are cumulative. In contrast, the loosening of soil particles by rain splash and the small farmers in tropical environments have washing away of soil particles by water runoff. The problems and needs that require short-term major control mechanisms are maintaining good solutions. They are generally not willing to invest soil cover (to reduce rain splash) and maximizing large sums in conservation measures. For soil soil infiltration (to reduce the amount and speed of conservation practices to be viable in these runoff) (Shaxson et ai., 1989). Crop residues may environments, additional costs must be limited. provide both mechanisms if sufficient quantities are left to form an effective layer of mulch. MulchResidue conservation also works as a water serves a double purpose by providing a protective conservation measure by decreasing water losses cover for the soil and, at the same time, increasing (less runoff, better infiltration, less evaporation) and soil infiltration. The mulch increases infiltration by increasing the amount of water available to the crop. forming new physical barriers against runoff andIn general, this effect of water conservation is what improving the physical structure of the soil (and, is first noticed in terms of better yields after the therefore, its permeability). When 35% of the soil adoption of residue conservation practices. The surface is covered with uniformly distributed effect is most evident in areas where there is residues, splash erosion may be reduced up to 85% moisture stress during the cropping cycle. However, (compared to exposed soil) (Shaxson et ai., 1989).it should be emphasized again that this effect of The relationship between relative splash erosion water conservation depends primarily on the use of and low-level soil cover is shown in Quadrant I of residues as mulch. In other words, soil and water Figure 1.conservation are a function of residue conservation.Using Quadrant II of Figure 1, it is possible to The effect of water conservation may produce estimate the amount of maize residues needed to short-term benefits and reduce the cost of residue achieved a given level of soil cover. For example, conservation. However, the adoption cost (and, approximately two tons of residue per hectare are therefore, the potential) of residue conservation necessary to obtain 35% soil cover. Although more depends on several local factors that directly affect than two tons will increase coverage, the gain in residue availability. terms of diminishing erosion is relatively small. For example, four tons of residues would provideIn the following section, factors that influence approximately 60% soil cover and a relative erosion residue availability in Mexico are discussed. of less than 5%. Thus, from a conservation point of Residue production is presented, and then the view, larger amounts of residues do conserve soil alternative uses of residues are discussed. Figure 2 better. However, from an economic standpoint, soil shows this information in graphic form. conservation becomes increasingly expensive in terms of the amount of residue required. Two tons per hectare have been established as the minimumamount required for achieving a substantial reduction in relative erosion. To classify as a residue Agricultural production generally focuses on conservation system, this threshold should be generating one or more basic outputs (e.g., maize satisfied immediately after planting, that is, after grain). However, the production of basic outputs crop establishment but before the new crop generates residues (e.g., maize stubble) that are produces enough vegetative cover.generally considered by-products of farm production. Interest in generating the basic output is The idea of using residues as mulch arose from reflected, among other things, in the harvest index, the need to conserve the soil. However, an which expresses production of the basic output as a important aspect of soil degradation is that the fraction of total biomass. damage is cumulative. The effect of soil degradation Relative erosion (%) 100~------------------------------------ (adapted from Tripp andBarreto, 1993, andKok andThien, 1994).  Sain, 1996).In cereals such as maize this relationship may be expressed as:where:HI: harvest index (fraction) Y g : grain yield (t/ha) Y r : residue yield (t/ha) By reorganizing this relationship, residue production may be calculated as:This relationship shows that residue production is directly linked to production of the basic output. In addition, the harvest index for cereals such as maize is relatively constant for a given variety. Therefore, for these cereals, residue production is a linear function of grain production (see Figure 2, Quadrant II).It should be noted that the harvest index may vary greatly among crop varieties. For example, a maize landrace may have a harvest index as low as 30%, while in an improved variety it may reach 50%. Thus, at the same grain yield level, residue production will generally be substantially higher with a landrace than with an improved variety.The direct relationship between grain and residue production implies that all factors influencing grain production also directly influence residue production. Grain production is a function of several factors, including some that are both agroecological and socioeconomic in nature.Ecological factors are the primary determinants of potential biomass production in each environment. The most important factor in tropical environments is water availability, followed by availability of macro-and micronutrients. Availability of these factors is directly related to ecological characteristics such as precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil, temperature, altitude, topography, etc. Ceteris paribus, the amount of available biomass (and hence, residue production) is generally much greater in the humid tropics than in the arid tropics; in tropical lowlands than in tropical highlands; under good rainfed conditions than under marginal rainfed conditions (short and/or irregular rainfall), etc. Environmental limitations may be modified by agronomic practices. Water availability may be increased not only through irrigation but also through water conservation practices or by adjusting planting dates. Similarly, nutrient availability may be increased not only through fertilization, but also by altering the physical or chemical soil properties. Ceteris paribus, the quantity of biomass available (and hence, residue production) is generally much greater in irrigated systems than in rainfed agriculture; in systems using chemical fertilizers than in those that rely on soil mining; etc. However, agronomic practices do not only influence the availability of basic factors. To a large extent, the crop itself determines the response (in terms of production) to the availability of production factors. In the first place, the type of crop has major implications. For example, a cereal crop (e.g., maize) potentially produces more biomass than a leguminous crop (e.g., beans). In the second place, the variety itself also plays a role. An improved cereal variety generally responds better to inputs than a landrace. Furthermore, the differences among varieties are reflected in the harvest index (Figure 2, Quadrant II).The combination of agroecological factors determine the form of the production function, as shown in Quadrant I of Figure 2.Agronomic practices can alleviate some of the environmentallirnitations. However, the use of these practices is directly influenced by socioeconomic factors such as input and output prices and, especially, the ratio between the two. The relative price of an input (relative to the output price) largely determines its level of use. 2 But prices are not the only factors that affect input use. The type of production (commercial or subsistence) largely determines the influence of prices on the use of inputs. However, the availability of resources also influences the use of inputs. For example, applying 100 units of fertilizer per hectare to the crop may be economically sound, but the farmer may sometimes use only 50 units due to a lack of cash.Socioeconomic factors determine to a large extent where the use of inputs is located in Quadrant I of Figure 2. Therefore, given the prod uction function, socioeconomic factors determine the level of production.Residue production does not translate simply into its availability as mulch. In tropical regions, residues have several uses (or destinations) that directly affect their availability as mulch. These uses may vary considerably between and even within regions. The different alternative uses of residues affect the relations shown in Quadrant III of Figure 2. We present these uses in greater detail in the following section, and will discuss their implications for retaining residues as mulch in a later section.Although maize residues are generally considered agricultural by-products, they have several productive uses. The most important use is as forage, although residues are also sometimes used as building materials or as an energy source (Choto and Sain, 1993). With regard to their use as forage, a distinction must be made between grazing and harvesting residues for later use. There are several ways of harvesting residues both manually and mechanically (e.g., by packing residues in bales or grinding them). In general, residues are harvested thoroughly, leaving very little in the field.1 For example, the devaluation of the Mexican peso at the end of 1994 caused an increase in prices of external inputs relative to agricultural and livestock products. The use of the affected inputs was substantially lower during the 95 spring/summer cycle than in previous years.They are usually harvested after the main produce, although there are exceptions, such as the practice of removing the part of the plant above the ear once the grain reaches physiological maturity.In Mexico, the use of maize residues as forage during the dry season is very common, especially by grazing. The amount of residue grazed varies, although in general it depends to a large extent on livestock pressure (intensity and duration) and the existence of other forage sources (e.g., summer pasture or forage crops). In general, residues are not very nutritious as animal feed and are used more out of necessity. This is even more apparent when comparing the use of residues in arid and humid areas. In the latter, there are usually other forage alternatives better than residues, and their use is limited. Grazing by livestock is relatively selective, which also reflects the low nutritional value of residues. In general, livestock will eat the tender parts (the leaves and totomoxtle, or leaves surrounding the ear) first, leaving the tougher parts (stalks) for last.Burning is a traditional way of eliminating residues (commonly called \"basura\", or debris). In many areas of Mexico, it is still one of the first steps in land preparation. Before the crop cycle (which generally coincides with the end of the dry season), fire is set to the dry biomass in the field. This practice originated in migrant slash and burn systems to get rid of large quantities of biomass and improve fertility with the ash. The practice persists in sedentary systems, even though the amount of biomass is much smaller. Farmers continue burning for several reasons, but mainly to clear the field and facilitate other land preparation operations and planting. This is especially the case in systems where manual labor or animal traction is used and the incorporation of residues is minimal, which makes subsequent planting difficult. Further, burning also controls animal pests, diseases, and weeds. In this respect, burning is a double-purpose control method because it directly affects both the organisms and their natural habitat. The latter effect is particularly important in controlling such pests as rodents.In general, burning is very effective for disposing of residues. However, it may be less efficient when there are small quantities of residues and the farmer does not group these.In arable systems, land preparation traditionally implies tillage before planting. The main purpose of this operation is to create a clean, uniform seedbed that facilitates planting and crop establishment. To achieve this, the top soil is turned over, incorporating residues remaining on the soil surface. In mechanized systems, incorporation may be substantial, depending largely on the tillage method used. Of special importance are the type of implements used, the number of passes, and the depth and speed of the cultivations (ACC and CTIC, 1994). There is generally a certain degree of residue incorporation in animal traction systems, although less than in mechanized systems. In manual labor systems with zero tillage, the level of residue incorporation is not significant.In arable systems in Mexico, disk plowing and harrowing are common. Plowing is especially effective for incorporating residues (80-90% according to ACC and CTIC, 1994), although several passes with the harrow are also effective for incorporating large amounts of residues.Even if not used for any specific purpose, the amount of residues diminishes over time due to the weathering process, consisting mainly of residue decomposition, which is a function of time,3 and several agroecological factors such as moisture, temperature, and biological activity in the soil. The nature and status (fragility) of the residues are additional factors that facilitate/ speed up decomposition. Besides decomposition, weathering may include wind and water erosion of residues, which may be important in areas with steep slopes and/ or strong winds.3 Relevant for residue conservation is the interval between harvest and the establishment of the subsequent crop.In warm, humid environments, residue weathering between cycles may be substantial. However, weathering is relatively limited in many Mexican environments due to a combination of factors. The unimodal rainfall distribution in most environments implies a long, intense dry season, sometimes lasting more than six months. During this season, weathering is limited by the lack of water. In more humid areas where there is a second crop (e.g., relay cropping), the period between crop cycles is shorter. In addition, the main crop in Mexico is maize, and maize residues are not very fragile, especially if harvested manually.In general, the sum of all possible uses or destinations of residues should not exceed production. Although in theory there is the option of importing residues into the field to form an effective mulch, in general it is not economically feasible on a production scale (La!, 1989). It is also worth noting that residue uses (with the exception of mulch) are irreversible, though several can coexist. For example, part of the residue may be used for grazing (productive extraction) and the rest may be incorporated during land preparation. Thus the residue balance may be expressed as:where:The residue balance is site specific because both production and use are determined by local factors. A complication when determining the residue balance is that, in many uses, residues are not usually harvested or measured. It is thus sometimes difficult to gather the above information quickly. Nevertheless, there are several techniques that facilitate measuring the amount of residues. Two methods based on field observations are the use of photographs with predetermined amounts of residues as reference (e.g., Tripp and Barreto, 1993) incorporation compared with more intensive tillage and the transect line methodology (e.g., Shelton et systems. One of the first goals in promoting al., 1994).conservation tillage in arable systems is to eliminate the practice of plowing. It is worth emphasizing that the use of residues as mulch will always be residual, i.e., other uses Reducing tillage greatly decreases residue generally determine how much residue is left over incorporation and may also generate substantial for use as mulch. Earlier we saw that at least two savings in land preparation costs. This is one of the tons of residues per hectare are needed for an technology'S most attractive features in the short effective mulch. We can thus reorganize the relation term. However, reduced tillage also means a more (3) to establish the following condition for residue irregular seedbed covered with more residues. The conservation:presence of residues makes planting difficult and more time consuming, whether it is done manually, with animal traction, or mechanically, with a conventional seed drill. A direct seed drill solves If this condition is satisfied, sufficient residues this problem by planting the seed through the have been retained to form an effective mulch. If it is residues in unprepared (but arable) soil. However, not, either residue production (P) will have to up to now this type of machinery has been relatively increase or its alternative uses (sum of U) have to unavailable in Mexico, among other reasons, decrease in order to form an effective mulch. In the because of its high cost. Therefore, the adoption of following section, we discuss these options in conservation tillage in arable systems in Mexico has general terms, taking into account the potential costs been geared toward minimum tillage systems. The for the farmer. The higher the costs, the higher the disadvantage is that these minimum tillage systems opportunity cost of residues as mulch and the less still incorporate a substantial portion of the residues attractive the adoption of the technology.(e.g., two passes with a disk harrow will incorporate Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that these half the residue present; ACC and CTIC, 1994). This costs are site specific.is a problem, especially in areas where residue availability is already limited.Furthermore, it is not only planting that is made more difficult. Some crops simply cannot Increasing residue production may at first emerge from under a cover of residues from the glance seem an option that satisfies the condition of previous crop (e.g., chickpea after maize in Jalisco; residue conservation (4). However, many uses such Mendoza et al., 1992), so the cropping pattern may as burning, incorporation, and weathering are limit the possibility of decreasing residue directly related to the total amount of residues.incorporation. The lack of tillage may also generate Ceteris paribus, this implies that an increase in problems of perennial weeds in zero tillage systems, production would result in an increase in such uses.though it also can actually restrict weed growth if Only in cases where extraction is important and at a the layer of mulch is thick enough. more or less fixed level (e.g., grazing) would residue availability be substantially alleviated by increasing production. Reducing uses such as burning andNo burning incorporation would thus seem to be a higher priority.Efforts aimed at promoting conservation tillage in zero tillage systems have focused on eliminating the burning of crop residues. Burning is Reducing incorporation incompatible with conservation tillage because it is so efficient at getting rid of residues that it does not Campaigns promoting conservation tillage in leave enough for mulch. However, many farmers arable systems have focused on reducing residue associate the incidence of several maize pests, incorporation. Hence the emphasis on minimum and including soil pests such as white grubs (Phyllophaga zero tillage, which substantially reduce residue spp.), leaf pests such as fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), and rodents, with the practice of not burning maize residues. There is potential for higher incidence of pests and diseases, given that most rainfed areas in Mexico have a pattern of continuous maize-maize cultivation with one crop cycle per year. However, residue conservation favors not only harmful pests and diseases, but also their natural enemies, which helps to establish a new equilibrium. In fact, several studies have reported equal or lower incidence of some pests (for example, fall armyworms; Violic et al., 1989), but others have increased. Therefore, it is still unclear how using residues as mulch may affect the costs of controlling pests and diseases or the damage they may cause. Some conservation tillage programs have focused on convincing farmers not to bum by giving them incentives and disincentives. For example, the government of the State of Chiapas has been distributing backpack sprayers, inputs, and credits as an incentive to adopt the practice of not burning. It has also passed a law banning the use of burning for land preparation (Cadena, 1995).It is worth noting that a farmer will stop burning only if he believes the benefits of not burning are greater than the costs. However, it is not enough that an individual farmer stop burning his residues because he is convinced of the advantages of not burning. As long as one of his neighbors continues burning to prepare the land or regenerate pastures, there is the risk that his mulch will accidentally catch fire (in Mexico it is common to hear that a farmer did not bum, but that the \"the fire crossed over\" into his fields) . To be sure that his residues will not bum, the farmer would need to make additional investments in terms of time and energy to build a fire barrier.Reducing the extraction of residues is feasible only if the farmer believes the benefits of not extracting them are greater than the costs. It should be noted that as it is a matter of productive extraction in general there are true visible costs in retaining residues. Furthermore, several scenarios are possible. The farmer may extract the residues for his own benefit. In this case, if he reduces extraction, he will need to seek alternative sources of forage or reduce the size of his herd. At first glance, this does not seem to be a very attractive option.It may also be that other farmers extract his residues. In that case, the cost of reducing extraction depends considerably on whether users pay for the residues. Extraction might be free-for example, through communal grazing after harvest, a practice common in Mexico and Central America. If socially acceptable, the farmer may consider restricting the access of livestock to his fields by fencing them off, for example. However, in this case the need to protect his residues may represent a substantial entry barrier in terms of costs.In other places where there is already a market for crop residues, the residue is generally sold standing. Arrangements and prices vary, depending on the region (e.g., demand for and production of residue as forage) and on plot specific factors (e.g., location, fencing, water availability, amount of residue). In these cases, the costs of reducing residue extraction are very evident, given that farmers will have to stop selling residues. This limitation is particularly severe if the benefits from the sale of residues constitute a substantial part of the farmer' s gross income (e.g., > 10%), which is the case in some semiarid areas of Mexico (e.g., the Mixteca region in the State of Oaxaca, Bravo et al., 1992).It should be mentioned that land tenure agreements in Mexico generally contain provisions regarding the use of residues. If the decision is completely up to the owner, it may be impossible for a tenant to reduce residue extraction.Weathering is difficult to reduce given that it is an autonomous process and a direct result of the forces of nature. However, the farmer may influence the weathering process somewhat by: 1) selecting a crop with non-fragile residues, 2) using an appropriate harvesting method, and 3) deciding how long residues are exposed to weathering (e.g., planting date). However, this option does not seem to offer great opportunities for residue conservation.In summary, the most realistic options for satisfying the condition of residue conservation seem to be to eliminate burning and to reduce residue incorporation (especially plowing in mechanized systems). Both practices are very efficient in getting rid of residues and therefore incompatible with residue conservation. In Mexico, efforts aimed at disseminating conservation tillage have emphasized these two factors. However, even with no burning and reduced tillage, there may still not be enough residues to form an effective mulch. In that case, the extraction of residues would have to be reduced, which seems to be the most costly option, and the potential of the technology would depend largely on the opportunity cost of residues as forage. The other two alternatives, increasing residue production or reducing weathering, seem less promising.The key to conservation tillage is the use of residues as mulch. However, there is much confusion over the term conservation tillage-among other reasons, because it over-emphasizes tillage. Tillage is only one of the factors that affect the availability of residues in tropical areas. Therefore, residue conservation seems to be a more appropriate term in tropical environments.In Mexico, efforts promoting conservation tillage to date have emphasized no burning and no soil inversion (no plowing). Though burning and plowing are incompatible with retaining enough residue to form an effective mulch, it should be emphasized that to retain residue it is necessary to consider all alternative uses, that is to say, not only burning and plowing, but also extraction, aggregate incorporation, and weathering, as well as residue production. The whole range of alternative uses and production are included in the residue balance. Since this balance is site specific, it is unwise to make generalizations. However, in the Mexican context, the residue balance does not generally facilitate residue conservation in semiarid areas where residues are an important source of forage during the dry season. For example, in the semiarid Mixteca region (State of Oaxaca), Bravo et al. (1992) found that the importance of residues as forage and their resulting high price present a serious limitation for residue conservation.","tokenCount":"4670"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"979cde02a60c5dc1dc2185fba25c06d7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eb702c3d-4fe8-4ad0-8fb2-4dd56c83c40a/retrieve","id":"-338158778"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5bf065d9-4e1f-4f9a-b17b-db2bd3df8600","pagecount":"26","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-This document constitutes a guideline for information technology (IT) specialists to implement the online version of the Option 2 (based on household survey) to conduct the assessment of the socio-economic contributions of the livestock activities at the household level in the Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit (LSIPT).We acknowledge technical support and other valuable inputs provided by the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Livestock and all donors and organizations which globally support CGIAR research work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.The Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit (LSIPT) that has been implemented and used in different countries (such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, and India [Bihar]) to develop livestock master plans (LMPs), is composed of a set of integrated and articulated tools. The tools assess the multiple functions and contributions of the livestock sector at different scales of the economy, from the livestock system to the national economy. The LSIPT toolkit is a 'household-centred approach' to livestock sector development that seeks to estimate the existing contribution and demonstrates the potential to increase the contribution of the livestock sector to poverty reduction and economic growth. In summary, the tool has been designed to assist members' countries in preparing an evidence-based Livestock Sector Strategy and Investment Plan aiming at promoting and increasing public and private investment in the livestock sector, including increasing the quality of the World Bank and other international financial institutions (IFI)'s investment in the sector.Since 2017, the future development of the toolkit has been entrusted to a consortium comprising of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Joint actions by the consortium members have already taken place. As such, a workshop was organized in Ethiopia to initiate the institutionalization of the LSIPT and the Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM) within the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia. At the request of the Government of Nepal, a joint project proposal was submitted for the development of a livestock master plan using LSIPT and GLEAM. More recently, the Government of Kenya has requested technical and financial support for the development of its LMP.However, in order to help in further development of LSIPT as a support tool to implementation of LMPs, an initiation of the migration of the LSIPT onto a user-friendly web-based platform started during the last trimester of 2019 with a study of feasibility. A new phase started in January 2020 with three main objectives: (i) to implement a new LSIPT Analytical Model by translating the logic from the Excel-based system into a modern self-documented Analytical Model; (ii) to lay out the foundations for the advanced version of the LSIPT through a solid system architecture; and (iii) to launch the new application implementation process. The expected products by the end of this third phase are: (i) a new LSIPT Analytical Model capable of producing the same result analysis as the Excel version; and (ii) detailed user interface (UI) guidelines and mock-ups for the new LSIPT web system that will be discussed between key partners and users (e.g. the Animal Production and Genetics Unit (AGG) or Information Technology Division (CIO) at FAO, CIRAD and ILRI).To implement the new LSIPT Analytical Model, it has been proposed to develop a narrative for each Excel tool that will serve to build the architecture of the new version. Under the Livestock Livelihoods and Agri-Food System Flagship of the CGIAR Research Program on livestock, our work aimed to review the narratives related to LSIPT pathways, livestock system characterization and typology, the approach of the technical and financial analysis of the livestock farming system and the narratives related to the assessment of the livestock's sector contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and poverty analysis; with punctual supports on the links between Excel sheets to build the indicators.Besides, we have developed the narrative of 'household poverty and vulnerability' in Option 2 of the LSIPT that aimed to assess the livestock contribution at the household level in terms of monetary viability, food security, employment and poverty reduction (presented here). This narrative has constituted the support for training the FAO-IT team in charge of the toolkit transfer and it will also constitute the basis for the users' guideline of the new online version.The majority of livestock farming systems in developing countries, especially in small and medium family farms, is composed of different animal species. For example, in pastoral or agro-pastoral farms it is frequent to find mixed sheep and goat flocks. In the rural zone, some family farms have some dairy cattle, with a small flock of sheep and goats, plus some hens or ducks. Generally, this complementary of income and food sources reduces the vulnerability faced from shocks. So, addressing the contribution of livestock to reduce vulnerability needs to consider the whole livestock system and its place with the other agricultural or non-agricultural activities.The sub-module 'Household poverty and vulnerability' in the LSIPT toolkit seeks to describe the profiles of monetary poverty, food security, employment and inequality among the rural households involved in a livestock activity and to highlight the livestock contribution in reducing vulnerability and poverty.In the end, this sub-module aims to identify the households that are in a precarious position within the different production systems (corresponding to agroecological zone).This analysis at the household level intervenes between the livestock production system analysis and the overall contribution of the livestock sector at the national level (see Figure 1). 2 Background of the current version of the household sub-module in the Excel versionThe economic and financial analysis of the different livestock production systems allowed assessment of the livestock net income per animal for the different animal species considered as dominant.  However, this economic assessment presents several biases when approaching the livestock contribution at the household level. Among them, we can cite: 1) the uunderestimation of the complementarity of animal species; 2) the emphasis on large herds and economic growth; and 3)we neglect the different roles of livestock in diversified system.So, the objective of the household analysis was to understand the multiple functions of livestock farming at the household level to be able to propose a poverty reduction approach based on the complementarity of animal species at the household level.Two main hypotheses have guided our approach (Alary et al. 2011):1. Role of multi-activity (diversification) to the livelihood => needs to include all family activities.Livestock as capital (security, saving) varies according to the agro-ecological areas. So, we proposed to develop a multi-dimensional approach for assessing the several livestock contributions to household livelihood, including the multiple products and by-products generated by the livestock systems and their contribution in terms of saving, investment, net safety and solidarity through social exchanges.The current LSIPT toolkit structure is accessible from: http://www.alive-lsiptoolkit.org (Username: alive; Password: toolkit). The specific tool at the household level are accessible here: Alive -Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit -A4-Household poverty and vulnerability (HHD) / SM1-LS performance & HH vulnerability / M3-Household level (alive-lsiptoolkit.org). The Excel file is named m3_sm1_a4_TOOL_household.xlsm.The main objective in the design of the spreadsheets was to facilitate a rapid analysis of monetary, food and employment vulnerability at the household level.In the toolkit, the vulnerability assessment at the household level was conducted through the following sheets:• The database at the household level inserted in the sheet 'Option_2a' of the m3_sm1_a4_TOOL_ Household_[LG/MR/MI] file.• Define the typology of the livestock production system in the sheet 'Typo_LS' that will be imported in the file 'm3_sm1_a1_TOOL_Synthesis'. From this typology, we can directly generate the LS models and conduct the technical and financial diagnostic at the livestock farming system level.• Reconstituting household incomes and the home-consumption of animal products in the sheet 'Param_A3' from which the user can generate the various indicators related to monetary and food security vulnerability.• Describe the different profiles of household according to the livestock contribution to household income ('typo_HHI'), the livestock orientation ('typo_HHD'), livestock asset (Assets_HH), or the combination of the livestock income*asset (Typo_HHD*I).• Key indicators are summarized in the sheets 'V_financial', 'V_Food', 'V_work' and Poverty & Gini' for the different categories of households.The Option 2 toolkit is built on the basis of a household database that describes the main assets and sources of income of the household. Before starting with the Option 2, you must check:1.Mandatory data for conducing the household vulnerability diagnostic are available in the household database that will be used and they are derived from primary data of the related survey.The sample is representative of the diversity of households with livestock systems in the agro-ecological zone that is considered.This methodological note concerns the analysis of the vulnerability of the households from the main production systems: grassland-based (LG), rain-fed (MR) and the irrigated (MI) (including village (backyard) pig and poultry systems). It has been built from the note: m3_sm1_a4_NOT_vulnerability_option2_EN.pdf (website of the LSIPT toolkit).For households with specialized livestock production, the analysis of vulnerability is conducted using the tools m3_ sm1_a2_TOOL_ [Species].xls, from the sheets 'Diagnostic' and 'Impact Analysis'. Refer to the methodological note ofStep 1].3 Narrative on 'household poverty and vulnerability' in five stepsStep 1: Household database elaboration and import Each line corresponds to one household.The Excel sheets are structured in 2 sets of data:1. 'Mandatory date' that needs to be informed to analyse vulnerability at the household level.'Supplemental data' that can be used for defining the entry parameters in the livestock farming system (m3_ sm1_a2_TOOL_[Species].xls). Sheet 'Diagnostic'The mandatory data includes• Number of heads by animal species (including cattle, sheep, goats, camels, hens, sows, donkeys equines and others).• Structure of herd by age of cattle in number (according to previously determined age groups) (for calves, bullocks, bull, heifer calves, heifers, cows, total).• Mobility cattle? (1=yes, 0=no)• Total cultivated area, agricultural income• Household size, number of children, active labour, % farm labour in cropping, % labour in livestock production, % off-farm labour, % female labour (livestock), % child labour (livestock), Number of months of external labour employed in the household, % of external labour employed in a livestock production unit.• Off-farm income, off-farm income linked to livestock (like live animal trader).General data on the household and crop system• Percentage area food crops, cereal production, income from food crops, income from cash crops, % sale of cereal production, % sale of food crop.• The average level of education per person in the household.Data related to a livestock production system that can be used to define the entry parameters in the integrated tool which is proposed to simulate the bio-economic performances of livestock -ECORUM, model (Import in Data_A3 in the file m3_sm1_a1_TOOL_Synthesis) includes:• Number of heads by animal species • Milk home-consumption (%)• Direct sales to consumers in money (%)• Direct sales to consumers barter (%)• Selling through intermediaries (%)• Milk given as compensation for the wage of the shepherd (%)• What is the number of animals fed/fattened for cattle, sheep, pigs • Manure used on the farm (%)• Manure exchanged in barter (%)• Manure exchanged (monetary) (%)• Other function (specify)• For cattle, what use is made of manure and animal traction• Manure spread (% cultivated area)• Manure sold (kg/year)• Traction: days/year total• Sources of fodder resources (FR) and other feed costs: [cattle/sheep/goat/camels]• R grazed/collected (%)• FR cultivated (%)• FR purchased (%)• Verification total equal to 100%• Annual expenditure on food (FR excluded)• Annual expenditure on supplements (vitamins, etc.)• Other feed costs: [poultry, pigs]• Annual expenditure on food (FR excluded)• Annual expenditure on supplements (vitamins, etc.)• Other livestock production costs: [cattle/sheep/goat/camels/pigs/poultry]• Veterinary care and drugs fees (amount/year)• Costs for access to pastures (amount/year)• Fees for access to water (amount/year)• Other costs (amount/year)Step 2: Define the typology of a livestock production systemIn Option 2, the typology of a livestock production system is defined from the household database (Option_2a) by considering the distribution of flock size for each animal species.This typology will be used to estimate the technical and financial performance of the livestock production systems (as described in Step 1).From the household database, we can calculate by animal species (see Tables B4 to D9 in the sheet 'Typo_LS'):• The total number of animals• The number of households with this animal speciesBased on the herd composition per animal species in the household survey (Sheet 'Option_2a') and the total number of animals (calculated above), we can get the distribution of each animal species by herd size.By default, the toolkit proposes a typology based on tercile to define the categories of herd size for each animal species. The user can modify the categories of herd size in columns I and J (sheet 'Typo_LS').The tool gives an overview of the categories ('Final choice') with the minimum and maximum of the herd size and the average by class in columns M and O.A summary table is proposed for each animal species and each class named [small/medium/large] giving:• Number of herds (in the total household sample)• % of each [small/medium/Large] categories for each animal species (herd distribution)• Average herd size in each category [small/medium/Large]• Representativeness by species based on % of animals in each [small/medium/Large] categories for each animal species (animal distribution)Import the typology in the file synthesisAt this stage, the user needs to import the typology in the sheet 'data_A1_opt2' of the file Synthesis.Automatically, the cell in grey (col M and N in the sheet 'data_A1_opt2') will be filled based on the table described in 2.1 (above).The user can generate the files• for ruminant LS: 'm3_sm1_a2_TOOL_ruminants_[LS]'• and for monogastric: 'm3_sm1_a2_TOOL_[chicken/pig]_[LS]'Before moving to Step 3 (in the present document), the user needs to fill each LS model (or ECORUM Excel file).For that, the user has two paths to complete the ECORUM models.No supplemental data regarding the livestock management as described in 2.1. (above): then the user needs to follow the pathways described in Option 1;Full data in the household database with the supplemental data: in this case, the user can use these data to define some technical or economic parameters in ECORUM.In 2), from the database [Option_2a], the user can define some financial parameters of livestock farming systems for RUMINANTS LS (excluding fattening systems) and then export these data into files m3_sm1_a2_TOOL_ ruminant [CODE].xlsm / diagnosis. At this time there is no automatic calculation and transfer of these parameters...(It will be considered in the NEW VERSION)When the user finalizes the technical, financial and economic diagnostic for each LS, they can return to the file 'm3_sm1_a4_TOOL_household_[LG/MR/MI].xls' to complete the diagnosis (Step 3 and 4) at the household level.Step 3: Reconstituting household incomes and the home-consumption of animal products (sheet 'Param_A3')For conducting any financial or nutritional analysis at the household level, we need to reconstitute the household income and the nutritional contribution of animal products for each household in each main agro-ecological zone (LG, MR, MI).In the case of option 2,• the incomes are estimated at the household level based on the family farm activities defined in a household survey (sheet 'Option_2a') and technical coefficients from the file 'm3_sm1_a1_TOOL_synthesis.xls'.• the nutritional contributions of animal products are estimated at the household level based on the herd composition and % of home consumption defined in a household survey (sheet 'Option_2a') and technical coefficients from the file 'm3_sm1_a1_TOOL_synthesis.xls'.Entry/import parameters First, the user must import the general parameters from the file m3_sm1_a1_TOOL_synthesis.xls into the sheet 'Param_A3' (in grey on the sheet) related to:• Coefficient TLU per animal species [from sheet 'Data_A2' in 'Synthesis']• Currency [from sheet 'Data_A4_Opt2' in 'Synthesis']• The poverty line [from sheet 'Data_A4_Opt2' in 'Synthesis'] is based on the absolute monetary poverty threshold (per capita) determined from the minimum expenditure to ensure an acceptable standard of living. For specialized systems or other animal species, the user must enter manually/directly the parameters in the sheet 'Param_A3' (white boxes).Second, the user imports the intermediary data related to the financial performance or nutritional intake of the LS models synthesized in the sheet 'Output_A3' of the file 'Synthesis'. These data result from the financial and economic analysis of the livestock farming system (see LS model in Option 1) and are given for each animal species and livestock production system and in the two situations (Actual and Improved situation):• The net financial income and the cash-flow (treasury) generated per animal• The average annual production per animal for meat [kg], milk [l] or eggs [numbers])• Nutritional value of the average annual production of an animal (in calories and proteins)• The ability of an animal to cover the annual needs of an adult in calories and proteins for meat and protein for eggs and milk• % home-consumption (for meat, milk and eggs)Output 1: Calculation of 'total income' at the household level Based on the parameters in 'Param_A3' and the activities in 'Option_2a', the household incomes are automatically calculated in the sheet 'database_without' for the 'current situation' and in 'database_with' in the 'Improved situation'. The user does not have to do anything in these files.The household income is the sum of:• Income from livestock production: sum of the income per animal species estimated from the number of heads of livestock owned by the household (entry data in Option_2a) multiplied by the average income generated per animal head in the livestock production system (LS), average income estimated in M3-SM1-A3 (Import in Param_A3).• Agricultural incomes:• In Option 2a: the 'agricultural incomes' is already given in the database (sheet 'Option_2a'). No action.• In Option 2b: the agricultural incomes are calculated from the primary data. The cropland allocation (the number of cultivated hectares with cereal crops, other subsistence crops, cash crops, market gardening) (in 'Option 2a') is multiplied by the average income per ha (filled in the sheet data_A4_opt2 in file Synthesis]. In this case, the parameter 'Average income/ha' is imported in Param_A3. Then the 'Agricultural income' results from the cultivated area (Option_A2) by the average income/ha for each category of crops (Param_A3).• Off-farm incomes: income from services, craft or salaried activities or transfers received (income from migration). 'Off-farm income' is directly derived from the household data and constitutes mandatory entry data.Output 2: Calculation of nutritional contribution from animal products in household requirement From:• Default values for caloric and protein intakes of livestock products (meat, milk, eggs) for each animal species are proposed in the sheet 'data_A4_opt2' (file 'Synthesis') that have been imported in Param_A3. The user can modify these default values in the sheet 'data_A4_opt2' (file 'Synthesis').• The daily nutritional requirements in protein and calories for an adult or a child are also default values given in the sheet 'data_A4_opt2' (file 'Synthesis').We can estimate the average calorie and protein contributions provided by one animal head per year and for a given livestock production system (columns K and L in sheet Param_A3).From:• The percentage of animal products used by the household for home consumption (col R and S in the sheet 'Param_A3' coming from the sheet 'data_A3' in 'Synthesis':We will be able to estimate the nutritional contribution of animal products in the full-nutritional requirement at the household level for the food security approach (see below 'V_food').NB. Households' individual home consumption is calculated automatically in the sheet 'database_without' for the current situation and in 'database_with' in the Improved situation (as a function of the change in the level of production per livestock system resulting from an intervention). The user does not have to do anything in these files.Step 4. Define the 'household' typologies (four brown sheets)Once the household income has been reconstituted, the user obtains automatically the relative contribution made by the livestock production activity to the household economy and the income contribution made by each animal species to the household income.This will be the basis for the following typologies, respectively 'Household typology 'sources of income' (HHI)' and 'Household typology 'dominant livestock production' [HHD/HHS]'(i) Household typology 'sources of income' (HHI)A preliminary typology for households, which is proposed in the sheet 'typo_HHI', consists of crossing the household's level of income (three levels [poor/medium/rich]) with the relative contribution from sources of income (livestock production, agriculture, off-farm, mixed).This typology is built in two steps:1.Determining the income categories: the households are classified by default, according to income terciles (33.3% of households with the lowest incomes 'Poor', 33.3% of households with intermediary incomes 'Medium' and 33.3% of households with the highest incomes 'Rich'). Nonetheless, the user can modify these categories by choosing a different percentage of households represented per category in the table of income partitioning (cells D13 to D15].Determining the categories of activity: the households are then classified according to their main activity, which is determined in the model as follows:• 'Livestock producer': if the income from livestock production constitutes over 50% of total income.• 'Cultivator': if the income from agriculture (crop system) represents over 50% of total income.• 'Off-farm activities': if the off-farm income represents over 50% of total income.• 'Mixed': if none of the activities is dominant.In the HHI typology, the user gets a rapid description of each household category based on:• Representativity of the system:• The average number of heads for [ruminant TLU, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, poultry, swine]• Active members of the household• Income per capita• Hectares cultivated depending on the main activity and the level of income• Non-agricultural income• Household size• Number of working people• The average level of education (ii) Household typology 'dominant livestock production' (HHD and HHS)In the sheet 'typo_HHD', the households are categorized according to the species of the animal reared and, in particular, the dominant species.Two modes of 'dominance' can be envisaged:• Relative dominance (HHD): here, by dominant species, we mean the species that contribute the most to the household income derived from livestock production. Thus, the households are classified according to the dominant species and the dominant species' herd size. This typology will be chosen by default for the rest of the analysis in M3 and M4. In other words, it provides the basis from which an intervention can be envisaged (in relation to the dominant species). However, it is important to remember that in some cases, the numbers of animals of one species can largely be apportioned between households for which this species is not a dominant one, rather than between households for which it is dominant (often the case for village chickens).• Absolute dominance (HHS): here, by dominant species, we mean the species that contribute more than 50% to the household income from livestock production. The households are thus classified per household with:• A single species (income from livestock production derived from a single species of animal).• A dominant species (income derived from livestock production for which over 50% comes from one particular species).• A mixed herd (income derived from livestock production that comes from several species, none of which is dominant).In the HHD and HHS typology, the user gets a rapid description of each category based on:• Representativity of the system:• Number of households• % households• Average number of heads for [ruminant TLU, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, poultry, swine]• Average size of herds [small/medium/large]• Herd representativity in the system (and the other system for dominant livestock production systems)• Active members of the household• Income per capita• Hectares cultivated depending on the main activity and the level of income The main results are presented in the sheets 'Assets_HH' and typo_HHd*I' for the characterization of the household categories and in the sheets 'V_financial', 'V_food', 'V_Work' and 'Poverty & Gini' for the vulnerability assessment.Characterization of the households' assets (sheet 'Assets_HH')The analysis of poverty in terms of assets helps identify the households that are structurally vulnerable.The sheet 'Assets_HH' shows the profiles of households according to:1. the main assets (based on 'Ruminant TLU', 'Off-farm' income, 'Household size' and 'Number of working people'), and 2. the livestock assets, by focusing on the ruminants (cattle, sheep and goat) for the households studied and this according to the different typologies (HHI and HHD/S) and level of monetary poverty considering the households with low incomes 'Poor', medium incomes 'Medium' and high incomes 'Rich'.This classification makes it possible to determine how the herd structure varies, in particular, as a function of the income groups.• The total contribution of each animal species in the household nutritional requirement for calories and protein.Other quantitative indicators for evaluating food insecurity are proposed in the vulnerability approach of Option 1 as the livestock production activity's contribution to household cereal security, for example.Livestock production as an employment-generating activity (sheet 'V_work')The livestock production activity creates a wide range of jobs and, thus, helps generate resources for numerous unqualified or landless stakeholders. By identifying the workforce involved in each production system and their volume of activity, we can determine the total volume of activity generated in the number of person-months per year and per livestock production system.In the sheet 'V_work' of the 'household' file, the volume of family and salaried activity generated by the households that own livestock is estimated in person-months per year.These indicators are aggregated by household types [HHI and HHD] given:• % household labour [for agriculture/off-farm/livestock production]• % household labour/livestock production (women %, children %] Indicators of poverty and inequality (sheet 'Poverty&GINI')The last sheet 'Poverty & Gini' proposes key indicators of poverty and inequality that can be used to draft a full report of the link between the livestock production activity and poverty at the national level (M4-SM1-A4).Three indicators of poverty for the different household categories (HHI, HHD, HHS) are calculated:• 'Incidence' of poverty: percentage of households living below the poverty line.• 'Depth' of poverty: the average difference between the incomes of poor households and the poverty threshold.• 'Distribution of the poor': calculates the percentage of poor people from each household category for each typology given as a function of the incidence of poverty and the representativity of household categories.These indicators allow targeting the households that are the most vulnerable related to monetary poverty according to two criteria: the households with the highest incidence of poverty or those with the greatest number of poor people.The GINI coefficient is an indicator that is frequently used to characterize the income distribution within a given population. It is calculated using the Lorenz curve (the cumulative share of income as a function of the cumulative share of the population). The GINI coefficient is between 0 (which corresponds to perfect equality, the previous curve is on the right) and 1 (which corresponds to maximum inequality).The indicator GINI is calculated as followed:1. GINI_max: sum ( % cumulated income * weigh in the population (decile=0.1)) (Z7 to Z16) 2. GINi_min: sum (%cumulated income * weigh in the population (decile=0.1)) (Z8 to Z16)GINI_mean: (Ginimax+Ginimin)/2 4. Final 'GINI Coefficient'=2 * (0.5-Gini_mean)Step 5. Final resultsThe main results of this activity (M3-SM1-A4) are imported in the file 'm3_sm1_a1_TOOL_synthesis.xlsm', sheet 'output_A4'. Click on the 'Import' button to transfer the results from the three 'Household' tools and the 'specialized_LS' tools.This sheet gives an overview of poverty based on:• Monetary vulnerability• At household level: 'Poverty incidence (% poor households)';' Total net income of household per capita'• In relation to the dominant farming system with the 'Net income from livestock system/total net income', 'Net income from livestock farming system/household poverty', 'Number of animals needed to reach the poverty threshold';• In relation to all animal productions: 'Net income from livestock production/household total net income', 'Net income from livestock production/poverty line';• Food security -coverage of household requirements• By the dominant LS: in calories (%), in protein (%);• By all livestock: in calories (%), in protein (%);• Employment generated by livestock production: 'Family employment (pers/month/year)'; 'Salaried employment (pers/month/ year)'.The current LSIPT toolkit structure is accessible from: http://www.alive-lsiptoolkit.org (Username: alive; Password: toolkit). The specific tool at the household level is accessible here: Alive -Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit -A4-Household poverty and vulnerability (HHD) / SM1-LS performance & HH vulnerability / M3-Household level (alive-lsiptoolkit.org). The Excel file is named m3_sm1_a4_TOOL_household.xlsm with supplemental documents.The overall vulnerability of households is determined in relation to an analytical grid, which also includes vulnerability in relation to social capital, access to resources, access to social services, access to technical services, access to the main marketing sectors and, lastly, vulnerability in relation to climatic and economic crises. For these additional indicators, we propose to refer to a supplementary methodological note: m3_sm1_a4_NOTC_vulnerability_ nonQindicators_EN.pdf (on the website).","tokenCount":"4686"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"09aca0129ad15ae19a00734004e93a0d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f081f5b5-8cba-4b9c-979a-06eacb92580c/retrieve","id":"517251970"},"keywords":["AIDS","Antiretroviral","Crop Production Practices","HIV-1","Organic Fertilization","Phytochemical *"],"sieverID":"38b26239-b1d4-42dd-8558-3583249d7ee7","pagecount":"7","content":"L-chicoric acid is a dominant phenolic compound in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and has been shown to accumulate in response to many abiotic stresses and crop management practices. It is a potent inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) integrase needed for the replication of this virus and for the productive infection of the host cell. L-chicoric acid has been found to act synergistically in combination with anti-HIV drugs used for treating acquired immunodeficiency disorder (AIDS). We show in this study that organic management practices increase the chicoric acid content by nearly 2-fold compared to conventional management practices while they did not have a significant effect on the overall accumulation of phenolic compounds and antioxidants. Similar increase was observed in quercetin-3-O-glucoside under organic management. In addition, pre-plant fertilization decreased the levels of many phenolic compounds including chicoric acid under organic management unlike under conventional management. However, organically managed crop without pre-plant fertilization had better growth and produced about 2.5 times higher yield and higher chicoric acid content than did the conventionally managed crop. Thus, the results show that long term organic crop management practices, but avoiding pre-plant fertilization, can significantly enhance the yield of antiretroviral agent chicoric acid in lettuce.Currently drug therapies for treating human immunodefiency virus (HIV-1), the causative agent of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), target multiple enzymes that can disrupt the viral lifecycle [1][2][3]. For productive infection, this retrovirus needs to incorporate its cDNA into the host genome with the help of the viral enzyme, integrase [4]. Integrase activity is essential for viral replication, a key step in the infection of the host cell, and is inhibited by L-chicoric acid (decaffeoyltartaric acid) which is naturally found in a number of plants species. Extensive studies have shown that both in vivo and vitro chicoric acid is a potent and selective inhibitor of this enzyme with favorable therapeutic indices [5,6]. In addition, numerous synthetic analogs of chicoric acid have been examined for its efficacy as an antiretroviral agent with favorable results [7][8][9]. L-chicoric acid has been found to act synergistically when used in combination with drugs containing reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitor and has been found to be equally effective against both wild and drug resistant mutants of HIV-1 [1]. The first drug using integrase inhibitor (Raltegravir) was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007 while still others are being actively tested in clinical trials [10]. The focus on integrase inhibitors, especially L-chicoric acid for developing successful anti-HIV drug therapy, has been a promising area of study [3,[10][11][12].Although chicoric acid has been identified in multiple plant species including Echinacea [13], dandelion [14], basil [15], and others [16], lettuce is particularly an attractive source of this phenolic compound since it is a commonly consumed leafy vegetable in many regions of the world including the US. Chicoric acid is a major phenolic compound in lettuce [17,18] and can accumulate in significant amounts in response to various abiotic stresses including, heat shock, chilling, mild water stress and high light [18,19]. In addition to abiotic factors, many biotic factors can also influence the accumulation of phytochemicals in plants [20]. Therefore, crop management practices and growing conditions are likely to play an important role in affecting the phytochemical content [21][22][23][24][25] and thereby, providing promising practical strategies to enhance this phytochemical content in lettuce.To keep pace with the rapidly growing demand for organic foods in the US, organic production has been steadily growing over the past two decades [26,27]. The increasing popularity of organic food is partly based on the overwhelming consumer perception that they are healthy and are rich in health-promoting nutrients and phytochemicals. Although many studies tend to support this view [21,25], a broader review of studies on various crops under varied field conditions suggests that the impact of organic practices on phytochemicals in crops is rather less than conclusive [28,29]. However, our previous studies have shown that several abiotic factors including growing conditions can lead to accumulation of a number of phenolic compounds in lettuce grown under greenhouse and field conditions [18,24]. Based on these findings, in this study we examine the effects organic management practices on many phenolic compounds including chicoric acid in lettuce.Seeds of a green leaf lettuce, \"Baronet\" were germinated in plastic pots, 8 cm × 8 cm × 7 cm (L × W × H), with a growing medium (Metro-Mix 350, Sun Gro, Canada). Seedlings were grown in a greenhouse in Manhattan at Kansas State University for 3 weeks until they were transplanted to field plots and certified organic plots (each plot 9.8 m × 6.1 m; L × W) at K-State Horticulture Research and Extension Center, Olathe, KS. Organic plots were managed organically for the past 5 years in compliance with USDA National Organic Program standards. The field trial was laid out on a completely randomized block design (CRBD) with 3 replications. Based on the analyses of soil samples (Kennebec silt loam) from K-State Horticulture Research and Extension Center, the amount of both organic and conventional fertilizers to be applied was determined. As the organic source, Hu-More 1N-0.4P-0.8K (composted cattle manure and alfalfa hay; Humalfa, Inc., Shattuck, OK, USA) was applied to each plot at 224 kg•ha -1 N. Commercial synthetic fertilizer 13N-13P-13K (Greenskeeper Select Lawn and Garden Fertilizer, T and N, Inc., Foristell, MO, USA) was used for conventional cultivation at 112 kg•ha -1 N. Fertilizers were incorporated into soil 1 week before transplanting the seedlings to the field plots. The plots were irrigated though the drip tape line. Both organic and conventional plots were divided into two groups; namely control (C) that did not receive any fertilizers and treated (F) that received either organic or synthetic fertilizer. From our preliminary studies, high fertility had an adverse effect on the accumulation of phenolic compounds in lettuce and therefore, control plots were selected not to receive any fertilizer application.For total phenolic content analysis, 3 leaf samples per treatment from 3 randomly selected plants were collected at the time of harvest. Samples were collected from fully expanded, just matured leaves and frozen immediately in liquid N 2 before transferring them to the laboratory where they were stored at -20˚C until use. The total phenolic content of lettuce leaves was determined by a modified Folin-Ciocalteu reagent method [30]. About 1 g of fresh leaf tissue was macerated in liquid N 2 with mortar and pestle and mixed with 3 mL 80% (v/v) acetone. The sample was placed into a 1.5 mL tightly covered micro-tube and incubated in darkness at 4˚C overnight. Subsequently, the sample was centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 2 min and the supernatant was used as phenolic extract. A mixture of 135 μL distilled water, 750 μL 1/10 dilution Folin-Ciocalteu reagent (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) and 600 μL 7.5% (w/v) Na 2 CO 3 was added to 50 μL of phenolic extract in a 1.5 mL micro-tube. After vortexing for 10 s, the mixture was incubated at 45˚C in a water bath for 15 min. Samples were allowed to cool at room temperature before measuring the absorbance at 765 nm by a spectrophotometer (U-1100, Hitachi Ltd. Japan). A blank was prepared using 50 μL 80% (v/v) acetone. A gallic acid standard curve was prepared from a freshly made stock solution of 1 mg•mL -1 gallic acid (Acros Organics, Belgium) in 80% (v/v) acetone.The sample collection for the measurement of antioxidant capacity was the same as those for the analysis of total phenolic content. A modified ABTS (Aminobenzotriazole) method was used to analyze the antioxidant capacity of lettuce leaves [31]. Antioxidants were extracted by 5 mL extraction solution [acetone: water: acetic acid = 70:29.5: 0.5, (v:v:v)] from about 1 g of lettuce frozen in liquid N 2 . A 1 mL of the extract placed into a 1.5 mL tightly covered micro-tube was incubated in darkness at -20˚C overnight. Subsequently, the solution was centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 2 min. ABTS [(2.5 mM) (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN, USA)] stock solution was prepared and 0.4 g of MnO 2 (Acros Organics, Belgium) was added to 20 mL of stock solution to generate ABTS radical cations (ABTS * ), stirring the mixture occasionally for 30 min at room temperature. Excess MnO 2 was removed by filtration first using a filter paper (No. 1, Whatman plc., UK) through a Buchner funnel, and then with a 0.2 μM syringe-end filter (Millipore Corp., Bedford, MA, USA). The ABTS * solution was incubated at 30˚C in a water bath during the analysis and was diluted to an absorbance 0.7 (±0.02) at 730 nm with 5 mM PBS [phosphate buffer saline, pH 7.4, ionic strength (150 mM NaCl)]. A 100 μL of the extract was add to 1 mL of ABTS * solution. The solution was vortexted for 10 s and its absorbance was recorded at 730 nm by a spectrophotometer (U-1100, Hitachi Ltd. Japan) at the end of 1 min reaction time. Trolox [(6-Hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid) (Acros Organics, Belgium)] was used as a standard for quantification.The extraction of phenolic compounds from lettuce leaves was carried out as described by Nicolle, et al. [32] with minor modifications. Three leaves collected from separate plants at the time of harvest were used per treatment.Frozen leaf sample (1 g) macerated in a mortar with a pestle using liquid N 2 was mixed with 50 mL of 70% methanol at 80˚C for 1 min. After stirring at room temperature for 1 h, the mixture was filtered through a filter paper (No. 1, Whatman plc., UK). The extract (25 mL) was evaporated to dryness by a rotary evaporator (Rotavapor R110, Brinkmann Instruments, Inc., Westbury, NY, USA) under reduced pressure at 50˚C and then resuspended in 5 mL of 70% methanol. The concentrated solution was filtered through a 0. Data on biomass accumulation in lettuce were collected at 5 and 7 weeks after germination. Fresh and dry weights of roots and shoots were determined using six lettuce plants per each treatment. Immediately after collecting samples, fresh weights of roots and shoots were measured in the field. The samples were dried at 70˚C in an oven for 3 d for the determination of their dry weights.Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed by the statistical analysis system program (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Duncan's multiple range test was used to compare means.There were no significant differences in the total phenolic content or antioxidant capacity between lettuce crops grown organically and conventionally with or without fertilization (Figure 1). However, organic management enhanced the accumulation of some key phenolic compounds in lettuce. Chicoric acid was the dominant phenolic compound in lettuce followed by chlorogenic acid. Organic management of the crop resulted in a significant increase in the levels of chicoroc acid and quercetin glycoside in lettuce over conventional management. The conspicuous increase was in the chicoric acid content which nearly doubled by organic management practices while no differences were observed in amount of other phenolic compounds including chlorogenic and caffeic acids and luteolin glycoside between organic and conventional management practices (Figure 2). Similar results have been observed in lettuce in response to a number of abiotic stresses in a growth chamber study [18]. In our previous study, levels of chicoric acid and other phenolic compounds increased significantly due to a brief exposure of lettuce plants to stress conditions including chilling, heat shock and high light (800 μmol/m 2 /s) with high light producing the largest response of a four-fold increase over the control. This was confirmed in a recent field study with green and red leaf lettuce, where lettuce grown in open field with exposure to direct solar radiation produced more chicoric acid than did the crop grown in high tunnels [24]. Similarly, higher chicoric acid was found to accumulate in young lettuce seedlings grown in open field than under greenhouse conditions [33]. In addition, recurring mild water stress in lettuce was also found to increase chicoric acid by 2-fold and the expression of gene, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), which encodes for the gateway enzyme in the phenylproponoid pathway responsible for the biosynthesis of a wide range of phenolic compounds [19].The increase in the amount of chicoric acid in lettuce due to organic management was the largest (more than 0.8 mg/g FW). Chicoric acid has been extensively investigated as an effective inhibitor of HIV-1 integrase, an antiretroviral agent for developing effective therapies against AIDS. Chicoric acid was found to be a potent component in combination therapy and can act in a synergistic fashion with drugs that target other enzymes including Zidovudine, the first antiretroviral drug approved (nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor) and a Nelfinavir (a protease inhibitor) [1]. Interestingly if chicoric acid was included in the drug regimen, the dose of these retroviral drugs could be reduced by more than 33% to obtain equivalent effect in controlling HIV-1 [34]. This may have the distinct advantage of reducing both the potential toxicity and the high cost associated with these drugs in treating AIDS.However, it should be noted that although large increases in chicoric acid and quercetin glycoside were noted with organic management, this trend was neither reflected in the overall content of phenolic compounds nor in the total antioxidant activity. In a study comparing organic and con-ventional management practices in lettuce, Zhao, et al. [35] observed similar results where no significant differences in either total phenolic accumulation or in some individual phenolic compounds that did not include chicoric acid.Fertilization generally reduced the overall phenolic content and antioxidant capacity in both organically and conventionally managed crops. It significantly reduced the accumulation of some key phenolic compounds including chicoric acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and quercetin glycoside only under organic management while it did not have any effect on the accumulation of these compounds under conventional management. In fact, caffeic acid accumulation was completely suppressed by organic fertilization in lettuce but not in conventionally managed crop. It is interesting that organically managed plants, not receiving any fertilizers, had 4 fold higher chicoric acid content than those receiving fertilization while there was no effect of fertilization in conventionally managed crop. Nitrogen over fertilization has been found to have a negative effect on crop quality by decreasing polyphenol content [36,37]. Conversely, nutrient deficiency, especially nitrogen has been found to induce phytochemicals such as ascorbic acid, flavanoids, and flavonols in Arabidopsis and tomato [38][39][40][41]. Similarly, the deficiency of other nutrients such as phosphorous, sulfur, and zinc also had an impact on the phytochemicals and related enzymes in several plant species [39,40,42]. Our results show that organically managed crops respond differently to fertilizations perhaps because they present unique set of conditions such as slow availability of soil nutrients and enhanced microbial activity [43,44], particularly with regard to some specific microbial interactions with plant roots, which are known to induce the accumulation of secondary metabolites in plants [45,46]. The field plots used in our study have been managed organically for the last 5 years and thus, it is reasonable to expect the presence of a favorable root-microflora interaction which may promote phytochemical accumulation in lettuce crop.With regard to the growth of lettuce plants, organically grown lettuce produced about 2.5 fold higher shoot biomass (fresh weight basis) at the time of harvest (7 week old) than its conventional counterpart with no fertilization (Table 1). Pre-plant application of organic fertilizers to the crop, although producing an unfavorable effect on the chicoric acid content, did not have any significant effect on fresh shoot weight at the time of harvest. The organic plots used here were managed organically for extended period of time and it is likely that they have built up a basal fertility level. Furthermore, addition of organic fertilization will make nutrients available at a slower rate which is likely to result in a rather steady and slower response in plant growth and biomass accumulations. However, in conventional plots, with fertilization, shoot biomass increased but was similar to that grown under organic conditions both at 5 and 7 week stages. Similar trend was also observed in the accumulation of biomass in the roots. The results show that in organically managed lettuce, there was no difference in the crop yields between pre-plant fertilization and no fertilization. However, avoiding pre-plant fertilization did have the additional benefit of increased chicoric acid content in the leaves. Thus, the results show that adoption of long term organic production practices but avoiding pre-plant fertilization is beneficial in enhancing the antiretroviral agent chicoric acid in lettuce by increasing both its content and the crop yield relative the conventionally managed crop.L-chicoric acid, an antiretroviral agent, is a dominant phenolic compound in lettuce and its accumulation is affected by a number of extrinsic factors including crop production and management practices. The results from this study indicate that organic management practices of lettuce can increase the L-chiocric acid content of leaves nearly 2-fold along with quercetin glycoside content compared to the conventional management practices. However, pre-plant application of fertilizers in organically managed crop resulted in reduced accumulation of many phytochemiclas including L-chicoric, chlorogenic and caffeic acids but did not have any significant effect on the crop yield. Therefore, adopting a long term organic production practices without the pre-plant fertilization is a successful practical strategy to significantly enhance the levels of L-chicoric acid in lettuce crop.","tokenCount":"2864"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6ff67f60d19ea30038f39b5c28af07d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.iita.org/dataset/40a282f5-b3b1-4e2c-850b-18c86f245365/resource/f64153a3-4772-4f87-b522-9ac65051fa92/download/iita-cpsop-cp13_sampling_and_genotyping_validated.pdf","id":"1779563792"},"keywords":["Crop","Cowpea Function","Sampling and Genotyping SOP # IITA-CP-SOP13 Revision # IITA-CP-SOP13-1 Implementation Date 15/05/2022 Crop","Cowpea Function","Sampling and Genotyping SOP # IITA-CP-SOP13 Revision # IITA-CP-SOP13-1 Implementation Date 15/05/2022 Crop","Cowpea Function","Sampling and Genotyping SOP # IITA-CP-SOP13 Revision # IITA-CP-SOP13-1 Implementation Date 15/05/2022"],"sieverID":"8065ab3e-dce5-4e2b-9b4c-bc7d1a126a0a","pagecount":"14","content":"Breeder (Patrick O. Ongom) Approval Date 10/05/2022leaf tissues, processing the tissues and shipping where DNA will be extracted and genotyped, including handling of genotype data.Genotyping is the process of determining differences in the genetic make-up (genotype) of an individual by examining the individual's DNA sequence using biological assays and comparing it to another individual's sequence or a reference sequence. It reveals the alleles an individual has inherited from their parents. Effective deployment of molecular markers in breeding requires use of good quality DNA which begins with a good plant tissue sampling and preparations before going through the downstream processes of DNA extraction and eventual genotyping, irrespective of the genotyping methods used. In cowpea, genotyping is commonly done for various purposes including testing germplasm purity, authenticating hybridity of F1s, discovery of quantitative traits loci (QTL) and genomic-aided selections. The SOP describes the general processes involved in sampling Sampling for genotyping involves collecting biological material from which DNA can be extracted and analyzed to determine genetic variations. Proper sampling is crucial to ensure the accuracy and reliability of genotyping results. Hybridity testing is a quality control method used to determine whether a plant is a hybrid, meaning it is the offspring of two genetically distinct parents. In plant breeding, hybridity testing is particularly important for verifying the genetic purity of hybrid seeds, ensuring that they possess the desired combination of traits from both parent lines. Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) mapping is a statistical method used to identify the specific regions (loci) of the genome that are associated with variation in quantitative traits. Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) are a powerful tool used to identify genetic variants associated with complex traits and diseases in populations. Unlike traditional linkage studies that focus on familial relationships, GWAS analyzes genetic variation across the entire genome in a large group of unrelated individuals to find associations between specific genetic markers and traits.All staff involved in implementing breeding activities in the cowpea improvement program at IITA must use the genotyping SOP. No alteration should be made to the procedures unless approved exceptionally by the program leaders. The list of individuals responsible for each section of the SOP are listed below.Responsible for oversite and advise on genotyping materials and populations to be used. The CL could be a lead breeder, a principal investigator (PI), or a cluster lead. Molecular Breeder: Responsible for designing and directing all genotyping activities. Molecular breeder should also identify relevant genotyping methods and services. He is also responsible for sending quality samples to service providers for genotyping.Technicians: Responsible for implementing activities related to genotyping, especially establishing the seedling nursery, sampling, and processing tissues.Genotyping is a key activity in cowpea breeding and must be guided by the steps outlined below:Genotyping for any purpose begins with defining an apprpriate population to be used from which a sample list is generted. In cowpea, genotyping is often done on the follwing types of populations i) Germplasm, parental lines or varieties to be fingerprinted for future identy and for purity assessment ii) Populations of F1 progenies and their parents to be tested for hybridy iii) Baccross, F2, and Recombinanat Inbred Lines (RILs) to be used for QTL mapping and marker assisted selection (MAS) iv) Breeding lines for genomic selection.  For all these populations, the process begin by generting unique idenfiers (UIDs) for the samples to be genotyped.  Unique IDs (UIDs) should be generated from the EiB galaxy website http://cropgalaxy.excellenceinbreeding.org/  Utilize the pre-genotyping tool on this site to create UIDs. Three options are avaliable in this section: i) Intertek Order form: use this to get a template excle file for sending samples specifically to Intertek labs ii) Get a list of unique IDs: to generte random unique identifers for each sample.Enter the number of samples and click Execute.Screenshot of cropgalaxy page showing pregenotyping tools and how to generate unique IDs.iii) Sample tracker: Use this option to the generate IDs and plate layout for samples. This option requires uploading a tab-delimited text file with two columns; germplasm_name and number_of_plants. This tool parses a tab- Seedling establishement  Treat seeds of materials chosen for geneotyping with approprite seed dressing chemical, normally, using Apron Plus at the rate of 10 g/4-5 kg of seeds (1 sachet), or Apron Star 42 WS at the rate of 10 g/8 kg of seeds/1 sache  Plant seeds in pots pots of size 24 cm (height) x 25.4 cm (diameter), and fill threequarter of the pot with sterilized topsoil, place the potd the crossing benches in the screenhouse  Plant two samples per pot, each sampl planted with 2 seeds in a hill  Water the pots well and after a week, apply NPK fertilizer at a rate of 0.5g per pot  Inspect the seedlings for presence of white flies and spray accordinglyThe following are required for a good leaf sampling process:  Plates and seals or mats. A 96-well plate, 1.2 ml AbGene Storage Plate (AB056)is required together with Sealing Mats (AB0674) (see leaf sampling protocol by Milcah Kigoni)  Plate labels. The labels should be prepared prior to sampling and should have human readable plate ID, including the range of samples in the plate. Where possible, bar codes can be used.  Plant labels or tags. It is important that the plants being sampled are tagged for traceability/tracking. Each plant being sampled should have its own tag/label, and the labels should be able to withstand harsh field conditions.  Sampling tool: Broad leaf plants like cowpea, should be sampled using the single hole punchers, especially the ones that produces holes that is 6 mm in diameter  Note: Unique sample identification (UIDs) can be automatically generated from the EiB galaxy website as descrbed in step 1 above.The steps outlined below are adopted from the one used for broad leaf grasses. 1. First, Identify and tag/label the plants to be sampled. 2. Clean the single hole-puncher or the sampling tool with 50-80% ethanol. It is recommended that cleaning is done before each new sample is taken. Handling genotyping data  The genotype data can be for different purposes, quality control, qtl mapping, marker-assisted breeding or genomic selection. In any either cases, genotyping report will return from the service provider with data presented in different formants: VCF format, intertek format (similar to hapmap format), and counts format. Details of the formats are often explained in a report file named \"metadata\". The metadata will also list the samples that failed and thus not reported in the data (It is important to not this).The intertek format is easy to manipulate in microsopft excel.  Once data is receiced, it is impotant to allign the unique IDs with the actual sample names before any analysis can be done.QC/QA of F1 hybridity:1. Identify markers that are polymorphic between the parents of a cross and use the polymorphic markers to track parental alleles among the F1 progenies from that cross (See example below). Breeding support: Ousmane Boukar; O.Boukar@cgiar.org Molecular breeding support: Patrick O. Ongom; P.Ongom@cgiar.org Entomology: Abou Togola; a.togola@cgiar.org Genetic support: Christian Fatokun; C.FATOKUN@CGIAR.ORG Physiology support: Saba Baba Mohammed; s.mohammed@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"1180"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0fbd00e8342fa93b2bad347c6ca3a597","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5e0d40fb-183d-4978-8b69-7ff6ed898910/retrieve","id":"1531990627"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4b97eb34-8505-4cd2-99e4-91868cdae4a0","pagecount":"2","content":"The 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories provide countries with methodologies for estimating national inventories of emissions by sources and sinks. However, until recently, there was a lack of sufficient data concerning the carbon stocks of wetlands and peatlands. These valuable forest ecosystems are rich in carbon, meaning that improper management practices can be extremely costly in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. If these ecosystems are absent from estimations, it can be difficult for policymakers to holistically assess and plan their greenhouse gas inventories and mitigation strategies.To remedy this gap in the Guidelines, the IPCC initiated a Wetlands Supplement as more data became readily available. National governments appointed experts to draft the Wetlands Supplement, including two CIFOR scientists among the 18 coordinating lead authors. In addition, five of the seven chapters of the Wetlands Supplement cite research from CIFOR scientists and associates. Contributions include five years of measurements in high emission wetlands in Indonesia, and the creation of a pan-tropical data set based on carbon stock assessments in mangroves across Asia, Latin America and Africa.In October 2013, the IPCC presented the Wetlands Supplement, providing a new and comprehensive set of emission factors for tropical land uses in both peatlands and mangroves, as well as estimations for emissions from fires. These new Guidelines draw attention to these high carbon ecosystems, allowing policymakers to act on the agricultural emissions in wetlands.• Tropical wetlands provide a diverse array of ecosystem services and are carbon rich. Extensive deforestation of these ecosystems has significant impacts both locally and globally.• The IPCC Wetlands Supplement provides countries guidance on emissions from wetlands.• CIFOR scientists were among the coordinating lead authors, and CIFOR research is cited in five of the seven Wetlands Supplement chapters.• The IPCC's adoption of the Wetlands Supplement methodology indicates that member countries have unanimously accepted it.• The robust scientific data and measurements underlying the Guidelines give policymakers a basis for better decision-making involving greenhouse gas mitigation in wetlands.• 2013 Wetlands Supplement: http://bit.ly/1UaV1Hg ","tokenCount":"335"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd564e015c6973d6631a6cf0075b062d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c8d232f3-b4cb-451c-bc17-6f247a98aa55/retrieve","id":"-1531411398"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c247a8db-f846-4b02-a3bf-c7052fdd779e","pagecount":"4","content":"One of the primary objectives of the Urban Zoo project is to quantify and understand microbial diversity in an urban setting and to try and link that to urban livestock keeping. In so doing we aim to elucidate the possible role of livestock as a risk factor in the emergence of disease in cities.To give us a handle on microbial diversity we have chosen commensal Escherichia coli as an indicator species, which we have isolated from samples taken from a diversity of sources across the city of Nairobi. These comprise people and their living spaces, including the food they eat; their immediate environments, including water sources, waste and wildlife; and the livestock that they keep either for their own consumption or for sale. From these samples we isolate and culture E. coli, extract their DNA, and perform whole genome sequencing, enabling us to compare isolates from different compartments and to determine how closely related they are, and thus how microorganisms might pass from one to another.The collection of these samples has been guided by a highly structured sampling frame, which I described in newsletter number 7. Essentially, we have selected 33 sub-locations in Nairobi representing a range of social strata and, within each, have chosen 3 households to sample: one with no livestock; one with only monogastric species (pigs or chickens); and one with ruminant livestock (sheep, goats or cattle).The collection of such comprehensive data from these 99 households was an enormous undertaking and has been a considerable logistical feat of coordination between the field and the laboratory. The good news is that the sampling is now complete, thanks to the heroic efforts of the field team, led by Judy Bettridge and James Akoko, and of our colleagues in the laboratories.Overall, 2,351 samples have been collected and we managed to culture E. coli from 80% of these (1,850). Once the last few have been done this will give us 1,809 whole genome sequences to analyse. 327 of these are from people; 58 from the places where they prepare food; 64 from animal source foods (milk meat and eggs); 644 from 12 different species of livestock; 239 from the environment around the homestead including water sources; and 477 from a wide diversity of wildlife in the vicinity of the household. But it is not over yet. We will very soon have finalised the sequencing and now comes the equally challenging task of deciphering all of this genetic data to unveil the pattern of microbial diversity across Nairobi. Over to you Melissa! On that note, I would like once again to congratulate the field and laboratory teams, and to wish everyone a great year ahead, 2017. The \"URBANQuarterly Newsletter on \"Epidemiology, Ecology and Socio-Economics of Disease Emergence in Nairobi\" The dairy food system is considered one of the most crucial systems to improve food security in Nairobi, with the rapid population growth providing an increased challenge. We utilized the Mapping component of the Value Chain Analysis to describe the structure of the Nairobi's dairy value chain.Cross sectional data were collected in focus group discussions and key informant interviews with dairy farmers, retailers, traders, dairy cooperatives, large processing companies, policy makers and regulators to obtain qualitative information on type of people and products in the chains, their interactions and to quantify existing chain flows.The study was done through a complex qualitative analysis: 1) thematic analysis, which was used to identify emerging themes explaining flows or identifying activities;(2) combining emerging themes and flowchart created by participants to create the final profiles for each system segment, (3) use of quantitative data obtained to assess importance of flows.The results showed that the Nairobi's dairy value chain is vast and complex with some degree of interlinkages between the formal and informal systems (Figure 1). Although the city's dairy market is enormous, the chains depend on small scale individuals who mainly operate singly. If assessed in their individual capacity they may appear insignificant, but keen scrutiny reveal the niche created by each of them to form the overall complex dairy value chain.In conclusion, while we appreciate the need to enhance milk production to meet the current and the anticipated demand for dairy products, opportunities for expanding production in the city are dim owing to the prevailing circumstances among them the diminishing land for expansion of the dairy farming and insufficient utilization of the modern technologies to enhance production. Alternative sources should therefore be enhanced to ensure adequate supply of the city residents. ","tokenCount":"744"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/2299207890.json b/data/part_6/2299207890.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a6c8e72adc46fcb9d11ec37f83aaca6c82c9ae99
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2fdd8174a4a1f88994342209d141ccb0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a67ff8f5-0792-49ee-aa14-4e67455bfaee/retrieve","id":"64823741"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"416cc225-5619-4d7e-9b28-1198c9849b8f","pagecount":"1","content":"• This study was launched to support the ongoing development of the pastoral code in Tunisia and ensure it is gender-sensitive.• Results were shared at a stakeholder policy workshop held in 2018 on the pastoral code, participants found the findings revealing, particularly that women are articulate about their needs in rangelands and the negative implications of climate change on their roles in livestock management. This study is contributing to changing stakeholders' and policy makers' perceptions.Rangelands in Medinine South of Tunisia. Photo Dhekra El HidriGender and climate change adaptation in livestock production in Tunisia § Both men and women are negatively affected by rangeland degradation and lack of water. § Women are additionally disadvantaged by drought-mitigation strategies related to rangeland degradation which only target men. § Our findings reveal that women are more involved in rangeland grazing than is generally believed in practitioner and policy circles, and in different ways than men. Women practice grazing closer to homes and do not stay overnight in distant locations. Accepting this participation in rangelands use is a necessary first step to enable women to benefit and participate in rangeland-related decisions and projects. § Women's involvement and opinions are important to be considered for the sustainable and equitable use of rangelands and reaping benefits from related interventions.The • Current perceptions in rangeland policy circles is based on a widely held stereotype that women are seldom involved in livestock grazing despite women's growing contributions due to male-outmigration and increased availability of off-farm income for men.• We studied two areas of Southern and Central Tunisia to address this gap and inform the current reforms in the pastoral code.• We used focus groups and interviews (total of 220 respondents) for in-depth analysis of men's and women's involvement in rangeland management.• We worked with women enumerators in order to have access to women in conservative pastoral rural areas.• We examined roles, needs and impacts of climate change for diverse types of women and men involved in groups or projects, of different social status, and entrepreneurship levels.• Continue to be involved in the future policy dialogues to impact upcoming institutional changes.• Contribute to the development of a \"Land governance toolkit\", led by CRPs and other donors in Tunisia to ensure it is gender sensitive.","tokenCount":"374"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f2da157969677a31b8d8f5e6d8bb45c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5f0bef58-04cb-4f08-93eb-c725922e1fae/retrieve","id":"1797121948"},"keywords":["Climate change","Groundwater potential","Recharge","REMO","SDSM","Werii watershed","WetSpa","WetSpass"],"sieverID":"16cb6c78-9081-4039-ae4d-6069b2bcd414","pagecount":"117","content":"respectively, for their constructive advice, suggestions and comments. I am special to Dr. Asfaw Kebede who first introduced and consulted me to pursue my M.Sc. thesis study on field of groundwater hydrology and climate change, starting from the initiation of proposal development and provision of raw REMO data. My advisors professional guidance was invaluable and valid to finish this thesis timely. I am also grateful to Mr. Shimels Birhanu for his assistance on how to use WetSpass model. I would also like to express my greatest appreciation to Tigray Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) in general and Mekelle Agricultural Research Center in particular for their permission to peruse my M.Sc. Degree. TARI has provided me leave of my absence payment my salary and travel financial support. I am thankful to Dr. Eyasu Abraha, Mr. Niguse Hagazi and Mr. Kinfe Mezgebe for their administrative guidance and encouragement at the institute. My special appreciation goes to ILRI, LIVES Project for giving me fellowship award to my M.Sc. Thesis. The ILRI, Lives Project Tigray regional office coordinator, Dr. Gebremedhin Woldewahid, his consultation and encouragement is highly appreciated. Without TARI and ILRI's financial support, this thesis would never have been possible. It gives me great pleasure to thank my friends, staff and colleagues at the Mekelle Agricultural Research Center (Tesfay Gebretsadkan, Esayas Meresa, Awetahegn Niguse and Gebrekiros Gebremedhin). I also thanks to my friends; Gebrekidan Tadesse, Desalegn Emuru, Daniel Desta, Gidena Tasew, Berhane Sibhatu and Guesh Tekle, Haftu Kiros, Adhiena Mesele and classmates Endalkachew Abebe and Konjit Sifir My greatest appreciation goes to my family for their patience and understanding: my lovely wife Aregay Kidanu and my handsome son Simon who I didn't spent much time with him. My father, Gebremeskel Haile and Mother, Gebriel Tekleab, brothers; Gebrihiwot, Kinfe and Tesfay and sisters; Tsadkan, Nigisty, Azeb and Edinya for their support and encouragement. Above all it is a gift of God who created and gave me knowledge and to whom I shall return.Water is a basic and fundamental entity for living things as there is no living creature which did not depend on water directly or indirectly for survival. Alcamo et al., (1997) indicated that water plays an essential role in the existence of human beings. That is why people become more vulnerable to shortage of water, if there is no water in access. Even if the total water resources in the world are estimated to be 1.36 Billion Km 3 (Raghunath, 2006) its spatial and temporal distribution remains uneven. Higher rate of population growth, enhanced living standards, extreme water pollution and the global climate change have made water endangered these days.Anthropogenic impacts play an important role for these issues to occur as a result of unsustainable and unwise use of water resources especially in the past century.Ethiopia has an estimated groundwater potential of 2.6 Billion m 3 (Awulachew et al., 2007) even if it is lower as compared to the surface water potential. This indicates that there is ample amount of water with regards to its geographical positions. However, this water potential has threatened by the impact of climate change. Different authors (Soliman, 2009;Melesse, 2011) indicated that climate change in the Upper Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia would occur and would shift and reshape the annual and seasonal climate patterns and variation in rainfall, reduced reservoir yield and erratic rainfall. Similarly, Kebede et al., (2013) indicated that an increasing trend of annual maximum temperature and annual future rainfall with seasonal variations was observed in Baro-Akobo Basin, Nile Basin. Variations in frequency; distribution and intensity of rainfall are now a common phenomenon in the country. Furthermore, the country's economy mainly dependent on rain-feed agriculture, as a result people remains food insecure and the country is not possibly to achieve the millennium development goals in all sectors if it likely to continue.The groundwater recharge is the residual flow of water added to the vadose zone or water table resulting from the evaporative, transpirative and runoff losses of the rainfall. Thus groundwater recharge is a sensitive function of the climatic factors, local geological formation, and topography and land use types of the area under consideration (Dragoni and Sukhija, 2013). The regime has a direct relationship with precipitation and physicochemical properties of soil. As precipitation gets varied due to variations in climate change as a result of temperature and evapotranspiration, there is possibly variation in groundwater recharge. Recharge in a watershed is a function of many different factors such as amount, distribution and frequency of rainfall across the watershed, land cover and land use, the area of bare soil, vegetation type, soil type and soil properties and the like. Thus, recharge is not static but dynamic witch varies in space and time. When one goes across various locations across a watershed recharge gets varied accordingly. The amount of groundwater recharge occurring at a given location is typically expressed as a depth of water across the watershed. Recharge amounts are expressed over some time. Recharge rate is expressed as a volume (depth) per given time.Due to variations and distribution of rainfall, drought in Ethiopia is a frequently recurring phenomenon. The spatial distribution and the frequency of its occurrence have increased in recent years (Walraevens et al, 2009). Due to this case, Ethiopia in general and Tigray in particular were suffering from shortage of food due to erratic rainfall, unsustainable use of water resources and lack of scientific technologies especially during the 1980's. Being part of the region, Werii watershed is the place which is extremely affected by drought resulted from unwise use of these resources. This is experienced with unforeseen bad weather conditions and improper management of land and water resources in the region. The people did not have any opportunity to solve these limitations of proper management of land and water resources in any cases during that time. Now a days, the practice of modern irrigation and improved agricultural practices are introducing as a mechanism to address these food security problems by the people, governmental and NGOs. The regional government and NGOs are trying to expand the system of irrigation through use of surface as well as groundwater in the watershed, due to this, there are changes observed in the people's livelihood. To achieve these objectives, knowledge of the available ground and surface water resources and the capacity to use them; the conservation of the surface runoff and groundwater recharge and the impact of climate change as well are needed to be taken in to consideration. Some researches were conducted to investigate climate change impacts of groundwater and recharges in Tekeze river basin at the Giba catchment (Adem, 2006;Walraevens et al., 2009;Tesfamichael et al., 2010) found alongside of Werii watershed.However, there were no researches made to study the groundwater processes and the impact of climate change in the Werii watershed. It can be said that the groundwater studies regarding its potential, recharge rate and the impact of climate change on it were totally untouched.Agriculture serves as a livelihood and ensures the food security of the people in the area; therefore studying of the availability of water resources is quite essential. However, unless the available water resources are utilized with a balanced approach of the supply and demand and with a careful consideration of sustainability, satisfying the needs of current and future generation will remain under question. Nevertheless, for planning sustainable use of water resources, the impact of climate change has to be considered. In Werii watershed there is currently a higher demand of supplemental and full irrigation for the production of food crops due to erratic nature of the rainfall and the area relying on available water resources. Though the groundwater is one of the resources, it was not properly estimated. Therefore, detail study about the whole aspect of groundwater potential for irrigation use to grow high value crops and fruit production, livestock consumption and forage development have paramount importance for the people. The available water in the watershed and its recharge rate and the impact of climate change studies as well needs to be conducted. It will be better implication for the people in the watershed to use it for their benefit based on the results obtained from the study.It was believed that this study would focus in a specific watershed (Werii watershed) but the result would benefit the local community, local districts, NGOs and the policy makers as well.It would be also helpful to know the impacts of climate change on groundwater resources and recharge. Moreover, the application of hydrological and climate models to be involved in this study could be verified, so that it would be considered for related other future studies in the region.Hence, the overall objective of the study was to estimate groundwater potential, groundwater Water the most powerful substance for living things has a 1.36 Billion Km 3 of water resources globally, from this 97.2% is salt water mainly in oceans and 2.8% is available as freshwater (Raghunath, 2006) world wide. Even if the water available in water bodies, such as ocean and great lakes stores plenty of water in amount, it is not directly useful for human beings. The immediate use of water for human being is the one stored as groundwater and the remaining water found in land surfaces, lakes and streams as fresh water.Ethiopia is quite rich in water resources and its drainage pattern is of great importance for its neighboring countries. It has 12 river basins with a total annual water resources estimated at 111 Billion m 3 of which 75.5 Billion m 3 is in the Nile basin (Yazew, 2005). In addition the country release an annual runoff volume of 122 Billion m 3 of water (Awulachew et al., 2007), the Abay, Baro-Akobo, Omo-Gibe and Tekeze being the main river basins contributing runoff to the neighboring countries.Water by nature is renewable natural resources found in three phases as liquid, solid and vapor which are mostly explained by hydrologic cycle. The hydrologic cycle is a circulation of water in the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and atmosphere. It is defined as the pathway of water as it moves in its various phases through the atmosphere to the earth, over and through the land, to the ocean, and back to the atmosphere (National Research Council, 1991) cited in (Karamouz, 2003). As there is no loss or gain of water in the hydrologic cycle it can be considered as a closed system water circulation system for earth.The hydrological cycle also defined as a water transfer cycle occurs continuously in nature; at which the phenomena of evaporation and evapotranspiration, precipitation and runoff takes place during the water transfer system (Raghunath, 2006). Water first evaporates from the surfaces of water bodies and transpires from surface vegetation as a vapor. Then the vapor rises up to the atmosphere, condenses and form clouds and then through process of condensation, results precipitation back to the earth surface. This precipitation flows as runoff to the oceans or infiltrates into the soil to be a groundwater. This system of water circulation starts its cycle again and again and will not be stop at one time. Adem and Batelaan (2006) indicated that groundwater is a major source of water supply and food production on irrigated agricultures worldwide. It plays an important role in sustaining rivers, lakes and wetlands during dry periods and is also essential for many ecosystems. Water is naturally stored in land surfaces as lakes, streams, reservoirs, ponds and ocean, and as groundwater in deep aquifers and saturated and unsaturated soils.The groundwater is the water stored at underground/subsurface of the earth. It can also be defined as it is the water found below the surface of the land which exists in pores between sedimentary particles and in fissures and aquifers of solid rocks. The total groundwater of the world is estimated to be 10.53 Million km 3 ; and the groundwater comprises 99% of the earth's available fresh water resources (Delleur, 1998). The groundwater is therefore essential for storing the fresh water required by human. Groundwater can also be stored in the saturated zone of the soil which serves as a largest reserve of drinkable water. This water can be accessed for human by different mechanisms as form of springs, tapped by wells or drilled from boreholes.It is less contaminated by wastes and can sustain the flow of surface water during dry periods.Ethiopia is considered as a water tower of Africa next to Zaire, due its plenty of water resources available on the surface and groundwater beyond the erratic rainfall it has. The total groundwater storage potential in Ethiopia is estimated to be 1 trillion m 3 (kebede, 2013). In contrary, Awulachew et al., (2007) have indicated that as compared to surface water resources, Ethiopia has lower Groundwater potential, which is estimated 2.6 to 6.5 Billion m 3 but this figure appears to be extremely underestimated. The total exploitable groundwater potential is high as compared to other countries in Africa. But knowledge available on groundwater resources of Ethiopia is scanty. There is also a defined agreement among the authors on the available groundwater potentials and the like. It needs to have a very detailed study on this issue so that enough information is available.For efficient and sustainable management of the groundwater resource, understanding and quantification of groundwater recharge have paramount importance (Obuobie et al., 2008).Water flows from higher water content to lower water content due to gravity, soil water tension and hydraulic gradient. This is observed in groundwater recharge as it moves and enters in to aquifers, saturated soil and unsaturated soil zones. Groundwater recharge is a movement of any water that enters into the groundwater system from any direction i.e. up, down or laterally (Lerner 1997, Adem andBatelaan, 2006;Russell, 2010). Recharge begins from rainfall infiltrates through diffuse and preferential soil pathways passes through the root zone and soil matrix, and then reaches the plane of the water table. Batelaan et al. (2004) andRussell (2010) described recharge as it is often the smallest component of the water balance and is calculated as the residual after subtracting evapotranspiration and runoff from precipitation. Hence, it is part of a water balance system that can be computed with the help of the continuity equation.The accurate estimation and quantification of groundwater recharge involves identification of hydrological and biophysical characteristics in the hydrological cycle. Factors that affects groundwater recharge include, rate and duration of precipitation, application of irrigation water, soil moisture content, geological formation, soil properties, depth of water table and aquifer properties, vegetation, land use, topography and land slope (Obuobie et al., 2008). Consideration of these characteristics is a prerequisite in groundwater recharge estimation.Groundwater recharge estimation is extremely important for efficient and sustainable management of groundwater systems. For estimating groundwater recharge a variety of methods exist. Different scientists (Nakashima et al., 2001;Scanlon et al., 2002;Christoph et al., 2011;Ahmadi et al., 2013) have used different methods to estimate groundwater recharge. Scanlon et al., (2002) classified groundwater recharge methods based on hydrological zones from which the recharge data is obtained. These zones are surface water, unsaturated zone and saturated zone. The groundwater recharge estimation methods are further classified into physical techniques, tracers and numerical modeling within each of the hydrologic zones. The detail of the appropriate techniques for groundwater recharge estimation is provided in Table 1. The detail description of each of the recharges estimation techniques is found in (Lerner, 1990;Scanlon et al., 2002)  The groundwater estimation techniques have their own characteristics during recharge estimation. There must be factors that can help to choose which method should be selected in the course of the study. Hence, several factors such as the goal of the recharge study, the required accuracy and reliability, space and time scale, the range of the expected recharge estimates, the time to be spent on the study and the financial resources available should be considered, for accurate estimation of groundwater recharge (Lerner et al., 1990 andScanlon et al., 2002).Hydrologic models are among those methods which are frequently used for groundwater estimation. Groundwater recharge modeling techniques can be used to estimate recharge based on time series data from hours to years. The application of groundwater recharge modeling techniques are important for forecasting recharge in the future time horizon (Obuobie et al., 2008). There are a number of hydrological models available today for estimation of groundwater recharge. These models are designed to work based on spatial and temporal distributions of the complex systems of groundwater recharge. Models can be categorized as conceptual, distributed, undistributed or stochastic etc. based on their physical parameterization and model structure. Most of the models are basically rainfall-runoff models and or hydrological models.Most of the time, the terms rainfall-runoff models and or hydrological models are used interchangeably in literatures.WetSpa is an acronym for Water and Energy Transfer between Soil, Plants and Atmosphere. It is a physically based and distributed hydrological model for predicting the Water and EnergyTransfer between Soil, Plants and Atmosphere on regional or basin scale and daily time step, developed in the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium (Batelaan et al., 1996 andWang et al., 1997). The model is physically based and simulates hydrological processes of precipitation, interception, depression, surface runoff, evapotranspiration, infiltration, percolation, interflow, groundwater flow (Liu and De Smedt, 2004). It simulates continuously both in time and space, for which the water and energy balance are maintained on each raster cell (Figure 1).Historical climate and physical data such as precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, minimum and maximum temperatures and discharge data and grid maps of elevation, land use and soil type of higher resolution are used as an input for this model on each pixel. During simulation a simple linear reservoir method will be employed for determination of the groundwater flow. According to Liu and De Smedt (2004) and Nyenje and Batelaan (2009) river flow hydrographs, soil moisture, infiltration rates, groundwater recharge, surface water retention and runoff are the main outputs of the WetSpa model.Figure 1: Structure of WetSpa Extension at a pixel cell level (Liu and De Smedt, 2004) Different authors (Adem and Batelaan, 2006;Bahrem and De Smedt, 2008;Nyenje and Batelaan, 2009;Jaroslaw and Batelaan, 2011) have studied hydrological processes and groundwater recharges and associated impacts of climate change using the WetSpa distributed hydrological model. As a result, these researches were shown remarkable results through using this model. The model is user friendly and easily compatible with ArcView GIS software. This is the reason why WetSpa model is selected in this research to study the impacts of Climate change on groundwater potential and groundwater recharges.In this study, WetSpa (Wang et al., 1997;Liu and De Smedt, 2004) model was employed for the groundwater potential and recharge estimation. WetSpa is a physically based and distributed hydrological model for predicting water and energy transfer between soil, plants and atmosphere on regional or basin level developed in the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium (Wang et al., 1997). This hydrologic model is GIS based and is compatible with the use of Arc-View GIS environment. It simulates hydrological processes of precipitation, interception, surface runoff, infiltration, evapotranspiration, percolation, interflow, groundwater flow (Liu and De Smedt, 2004).The model conceptualizes a basin hydrological system, based on physical and empirical relationships, being composed of atmosphere, plant canopy, soil zone, root zone and saturation groundwater zone divided into grid cells/raster in order to deal with the heterogeneity of the basin. Data inputs to the model are digital maps prepared with the help of GIS and remote sensing packages and parameter files from spreadsheet tables with their specific extensions (Tesfamichael et al., 2010). The digital maps are seasonal or daily records of meteorological parameters such as precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, temperature and wind speed, groundwater level, land-use, soil, slope and topography. The parameter tables are time series data that have an attribute data for the model which contains land-use type as rooting depth, leaf area index, vegetation height; soil parameter for each textural soil class as field capacity, wilting point, permeability and runoff for all combinations of land-uses, slope, and soil type.In this study, the spatial groundwater potential is investigated using the WetSpa model based on groundwater balance equations (Liu and De Smedt, 2004)  Where:D is the root zone depth; Δ θ is the change in soil moisture content; Δt is the time interval; P is the precipitation; I is the initial abstraction (interception and depression losses); S is the surface runoff; E is the actual evapotranspiration; F is the interflow; and R is the percolation out of the root zone. The percolation out of the root zone recharges the groundwater storage, which then contributes to groundwater discharge forming the base flow of a stream hydrograph (Liu and De Smedt, 2004). Recharge is estimated based on the relationship between hydraulic conductivity and effective saturation (Brooks and Corey, 1966):Where:R is the recharge or percolation; Ks is the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity; θr is the residual moisture content; B is the pore size distribution index.In WetSpa model, the general watershed water balance system is expressed asWhere P is the total precipitation in the watershed over the simulation period (mm), RT and ET are total runoff and total evapotranspiration (mm), ∆SS is the change in soil moisture storage for the watershed between the start and the end of the simulation period (mm), and ∆SG is the change in groundwater storage of the watershed (mm (5Where MB is the model bias, Qsi and Qoi are the simulated and observed stream flows at time step i (m 3 /s), and N is the number of time steps over the simulation period. Model bias measures the systematic under or over prediction for a set of predictions. A lower MB value indicates a better fit, and the value 0.0 represents the perfect simulation of observed flow volume.Model bias has the ability to clearly indicate performance of a model. Model bias values tends to vary more during dry periods than during wet periods for streamflow (Gupta et al., 1999). It is useful to consider the behavior of this criteria when using split-sample data for calibration and for validation. Model simulation values can be accepted if it is between -0.25 and 0.25 for streamflow (Moriasi et al., 2007).Model confidence expressed by coefficient of determination, which is one of the important criteria in assessment of continuous model simulation. It is calculated as the sum of the squares of the deviations of the simulated and observed discharges from the average observed discharge.R 2 = 1-where R 2 is the model determination coefficient, \uD835\uDC44\uD835\uDC5C ̅̅̅̅ is the mean observed stream flow over the simulation period. R 2 represents the proportion of the variance in the observed discharges that are explained by the simulated discharges.R 2 value varies between 0 and 1, with a value close to 1 indicating a higher level of model confidence having less error of variance and model simulation values greater than 0.5 are considered acceptable (Santhi et al., 2001). R 2 is very sensitive to outliers and less sensitive to additive and proportional difference values between simulated and observed data (Legates and McCabe, 1999) Where NSE is the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency used for evaluating the ability of reproducing the time evolution of stream flows or discharges. The NSE value can range from a negative value to 1, with 1 indicating a perfect fit between the simulated and observed hydrographs.NSE is used to calibrate highly variable flow regimes characterized with extreme high flows and extreme low flow events. Hence, NSE found to be the best objective function for reflecting the overall fit of a hydrograph. Model simulation can be judged as satisfactory if NSE > 0.50 (Moriasi et al., 2007) WetSpass stands for Water and Energy Transfer between Soil, Plants and Atmosphere under quasi-Steady State (Batelaan andDe Smedt, 2001, 2007). It was built upon the foundations of the time dependent spatial distributed water balance model WetSpa (Batelaan et al., 1996;Wang et al., 1997). WetSpass is a physically based model for estimation of the long-term average spatial patterns of surface runoff, actual evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge which is suitable for studying long-term effects of land-use changes on the water regime in a watershed (Batelaan andDe Smedt, 2001, 2007;Batelaan and Woldeamlak, 2007;Aish et al., 2010). The application of this model is compatible and integrated with the GIS ArcView software during simulation process.WetSpass is developed as to regional groundwater models are quasi-steady state used to simulate infiltration-discharge relations based on long-term average recharge input data. This model simulates water balance components, surface runoff, actual evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge based on distributed data. WetSpass estimates spatial groundwater recharge at seasonal and annual scales. WetSpass was successfully applied in Belgium (Batelaan and De Smedt, 2001) and other environments as in Gaza Strip, Palestine (Aish et al., 2010) and Geba catchment, Ethiopia (Tesfamichael et al., 2010). Based on those authors groundwater recharge was successfully estimated which is the main interest of this research.In this study, WetSpass model was used to estimate spatial groundwater recharge at seasonal and annual scales based on some relationships. The description and formulas below are based on Batelaan and De Smedt (2001) and used by (Tesfamichael et al., 2010)  Where:-ETraster, Sraster and Rraster evapotranspiration, surface runoff, and groundwater recharge [LT -1 ] with subscript relating to a cell (raster), vegetation (v), bare soil (s), open water (o) and impervious area (i). The coefficient, a, expresses the contribution of each land use. Moreover, P, I, Sv, Tv and Rv (Equation 7) represents the total seasonal precipitation, the interception by vegetation (precipitation that evaporates from the wet surface of the vegetation), the surface runoff over the land surface beneath the vegetation, the actual transpiration of the vegetated surface and groundwater recharge expressed in [LT -1 ] units respectively.ET tot = I+T V +E S (12)ETtot is the total actual evapotranspiration, I is evaporation of water intercepted by vegetation, Tv transpiration of vegetation cover and Es is evaporation from the bare soil between the vegetation.Recharge is the entry of water into the saturated groundwater zone at the water table surface and is calculated as a residual term of the water balance system in the model. The model determines the long-term average spatially distributed recharge as a spatial variable depending on soil texture, land-use, slope, meteorological conditions (Batelaan et al., 2004).ETv is the actual evapotranspiration [LT -1 ] given as the sum of transpiration, Tv, and the evaporation from bare soil in between the vegetation Es [LT -1 ].From the discussions so far, spatially distributed hydrological parameters as groundwater recharge, surface water retention and runoff, soil moisture, infiltration rates and river flow hydrographs are the main outputs from the WetSpa /WetSpass models.Climate change is now a days an overwhelming global issue. Everything, living or non-living in one or another way relates with the subject of climate change. It is because the global warming, an indicator for the climate change, is a common phenomenon unlike the past times.Increase in temperature of the atmosphere, oceans, and landmasses of planet earth are main symptoms of global warming. At present earth appears to be facing a rapid warming, which mostly believed as results of human-induced activities. The chief cause of this warming is thought to be the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas from which greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere (IPCC, 2013).It is difficult to blame global warming is caused by a specific hurricane or flood or drought or forest fire, it is a collective evident that, it is due to a distinct anthropogenic influence (Bates et al., 2008;Casper, 2010;IPCC, 2013). It doesn't mean that the natural hazards are not contributing to the climate change, but human-induced climate changes are tremendously higher and complex.Since the 1999s the intergovernmental panel for climate change (IPCC, 1990(IPCC, , 1995(IPCC, , 2001(IPCC, , 2007 and now 2013) releases different climate change related assessment reports. These reports have forced policy makers to take action on the climate change that threatens the earth. Meanwhile, based on the new evidence of climate change from different independent scientific analyses, from observations of the climate system, paleoclimate archives, theoretical studies of climate processes and simulations using climate models, the IPCC has released a new assessment report.As a result, the Working Group I of the IPCC's releases its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) outlined and has projected the climate change that could be occurred on the globe during the twenty first century.Therefore, according to IPCCs Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2013) In many countries of the world the use of groundwater resources for public water supply constitutes an important potable water. However, many factors affect future groundwater and groundwater recharge as changes in precipitation and temperature regimes, coastal flooding, urbanization, land use changes and changes in cropping system (Holman, 2006). Similarly, Herrera-Pantoja and Hiscock ( 2008) concluded that future climate may present a decrease in potential groundwater recharge that will increase stress on local and regional groundwater resources. As a result attention to the groundwater resources remains inevitable to overcome the problem with some solutions.Many studies have been conducted to investigate the impact of climate change in water resources, stream flow and land use/land cover changes in the upper Blue Nile of Ethiopia. In the upper Blue Nile of Ethiopia, climate change has observed to shift the time of rainfall patterns and of the groundwater recharge and temperature has observed increasing trends in the mean annual, rainy and dry seasons (Tekleab et al., 2013). However, land use change is rather the main anthropogenic factor which has significantly affect groundwater and the rate of ground water recharge in the basin (Gebremicael et al., 2013). These changes contributed tremendous effects on the groundwater potentials and corresponding groundwater recharges in Ethiopia.Therefore, groundwater is a vital water resource and awareness needs to be raised on its vulnerability to overexploitation, pollution and most importantly, climate change (Nyenje and Batelaan, 2009). The change in climate and weather conditions in the atmosphere and hydrosphere leads to changes in precipitation patterns and this leads to changes in groundwater and this leads to changes in groundwater recharge. As groundwater recharge has direct relationships with rainfall, the more rainfall rains the more water infiltrates the soil to the groundwater and hence the more recharged water stored in the water table.Models are physical or mathematical simplifications of natural systems used for analyzing physical parameter data. It also describes equations of physical systems and techniques that provide a means for quantitative explorations or predictions that will help in decisions making.Projections of changes in the climate system are made using a hierarchy of climate models REMO stands for Regional MOdel, it is a climate model developed, to forecast climate changes, at the Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPIM) in Hamburg, Germany (Jacob, 2001). The regional climate model REMO is based on the Europamodell, the former numerical weather prediction model of the German Weather Service (Majewski, 1991). REMO is a hydrostatic limited area model that has been designed for applications at the synoptic scale (Jacob, 2001).The quality of the REMO simulation is achieved by using perfect boundaries which are considered as reality in local scale levels. The regional climate model is nested into the driving fields to harmonize the fields under consideration. The Model is therefore works based on primitive equations related with temperature, surface pressure, horizontal wind components, water vapor content and cloud water content as prognostic variables (Jacob et al., 2001). The model equations are then transformed based on a geographical latitude/longitude grid with a terrain-following vertical coordinate during application.REMO, the regional climate model, have used in Western, Eastern and Northern Africa (Paeth and Thamm, 2007;Paeth et al., 2005aPaeth et al., , 2005bPaeth et al., , 2007Paeth et al., , 2009;;Kebede et al., 2013). As a result, REMO has proved its applicability even at low altitudes in West Africa after having adjusted to some of its parameters on tropical weather and climate (Paeth et al., 2005a). Similarly, the climate data downscaled from REMO and observational data are showed similarity in the wet and dry summer monsoon seasons in West Africa. Paeth et al., (2009) in the study conducted on regional climate change in Tropical and Northern Africa due to greenhouse forcing and land use changes using REMO, has compared with a present day global simulations and concluded that, REMO is used with a six times higher resolution, Spatially detailed patterns of future land use changes are prescribed and Transient forcing is realized by REMO than by global simulations (GCM).Generally with comparison of observational and REMO model data sets, REMO have lots of advantages and perspectives: a realistic boundary conditions and high spatial resolution is available over a large area. The data can be considered to be fully consistent in a physicaldynamical sense down to the synoptic scale. Moreover, REMO is now ready to carry out to simulate West and North African climatic features (Paeth, 2005a(Paeth, , 2005b)).The REMO user capacity covers regions of Tropical and Northern Africa from 15°S-45°N and extends up to 30°W-60°E (Paeth et al., 2007). As Ethiopia is belongs to this region, the REMO dataset can also be used for our case. Due to this, Kebede et al., (2013) has used this regional climate model to model climate system in Baro-Akobo river basin of Ethiopia and revealed successful works. Based on this, for this study REMO will be used as a dataset for the determination of future climate change projections and likely groundwater impacts by downscaling REMO in to the basin of interest.The main concern of this research is to estimate the effect of climate change on the groundwater recharging rate and its hydrologic counterparts in the watershed using data sets available from REMO. REMO is a climate model developed, to forecast climate changes, at the Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPIM) in Hamburg, Germany (Jacob, 2001). Jacob and Podzun (1997)  Downscaling of climate scenarios refers to a process of taking global information on climate response to changing atmospheric composition, and translating it to a finer spatial scale that is more significant in the context of local and regional impacts. According to Wilby et al., (2004) and Wilby and Dawson, (2007), there are two general approaches used in downscaling regional climate models.Dynamical downscaling approach:-this approach is a method of extracting local scale information by developing and using regional climate models (RCMs) with the coarse general circulation models (GCM) data used as boundary condition. It simulates climate processes over the region of locality or basin with a high resolution regional climate model. Dynamical downscaling involves the nesting of a higher resolution Regional Climate Model (RCM) within a coarser resolution GCM. The RCM uses the GCM to define time varying atmospheric boundary conditions around a finite domain, within which the physical dynamics of the atmosphere are modeled using horizontal grid spacing's of 20-50 km (Wilby and Dawson, 2007) According to Wilby et al., (2004), Wilby and Dawson (2007), Xu et al., (2005) and Kebede et al., (2014) the statistical downscaling model provides a consistent estimates of temperature extremes and precipitations in seasonal and site level. Statistical downscaling model have advantages of ease of computationally, can easily crafted and used for specific uses, direct regional incorporations of observational records as well as it uses basic standard statistical procedures (Wilby and Dawson, 2007).Therefore in this study, the statistical downscaling model (SDSM) will be used to downscale future climate change scenarios, which will be obtained from the REMO regional climate model in the watershed. Result of the SDSM will be used as input to analyze the impact of climate change to groundwater potential and groundwater recharge.After having run the SDSM model, two methods of evaluation of performance of the model were done. In the first case, the model by itself has its own evaluation criteria, the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and explained variance (EV). Coefficient of determination (R 2 ) is expressed as a squared ratio between the covariance and the multiplied standard deviations (Krause et al. 2005). Explained variance (EV) is estimated as one minus the ratio of residual variance under the modeling and the residual variance under the null model (Gelman and Pardoe 2006).Moreover, the data out puts of the model were evaluated through using the standard deviation (STD) and mean absolute error (MAE). Mean absolute error is a quantity used to measure how close simulated forecasts are from the observed data (Willmott and Matsuura 2005).It is given bywhere, \uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC56 is the predicted value and \uD835\uDC66\uD835\uDC56 is the observed value.The optimum value for mean absolute error is 0.0. Hence, values closer to 0 is appropriate for calibration.Model calibration is the process of minimizing differences between observation and model output by tuning model parameters. This process of changing parameter values are used to obtain simulated results that most likely reflect observed values. The general approach to calibration is one of trial-and-error in which various values for each parameter are tried, their effects are noted and appropriate changes are made to improve agreement between simulated and recorded values (Morgan, 1995;Johnson, 1998). The procedure is to manipulate and compare the simulated parameter values against recorded values using both numerical and graphical methods.According to (Morgan, 1995;Johnson, 1998) numerical and graphical methods are used to compare simulated and recorded values over the simulation periods. The calibration process requires a procedure to evaluate the success of a given calibration and another procedure to adjust the parameter estimates for the next validation. The criterion of success for calibration is subjective to a judgment based on statistical measuring of goodness of fit.Model verification involves checking the validity of the parameter values for a period not originally simulated. Once the calibration process has been used to estimate the best values for the model parameters, the outcome needs to be evaluated to determine if the results provide adequate information for the intended period. Validation consists of an objective test on how well the model outputs fit the data by using data that were not used for calibration process. The usual method is to test the performance of the calibrated model on a selected portion of the data that were not used during the calibration processes. Calibration data fit values are used to simulate for the intended portion of time for future time periods that will likely yields simulated and verified values (Johnson, 1998). Through calibrating the parameter values over the longer simulation periods, a verification value will immediately be obtained for the next simulation period.Werii watershed, where this study was conducted is located in Tekeze river basin of Tigray regional state, Northern Ethiopia (Figure 2). Werii watershed is found in the border between  The topography of the watershed is highly vulnerable to soil erosion by water and become As depicted in Figure 4, the slope of the watershed ranges from 0 to 319% with mean slope of 19%. Rainfall distribution is uni-modal and mostly erratic with dry and wet seasons characterized by arid and semiarid climatic environments (Figure 5). Most of the time, this erratic rainfall starts at June and reaches its peak at middle of July and ends up at late September. The annual average rainfall of the watershed varies between about 414 mm-974 mm with an average of 717 mm per year. The watershed receives about 77% of the annual rainfall in summer season from June to September (JJAS) and remaining 23% rains in winter season from October to May. Unless early growing crops are cultivated, the quality and quantity of crop yields are hindered by water stress.Moreover, the average annual temperature of the watershed is found to be 18.4 °C (Figure 6).The relationships created between temperature and altitude shows that the elevation is inversely related to temperature regime in the watershed. Due to that, temperature at the western part, lower altitude, of the watershed is higher than that of eastern part.    Improved animal production practices are commonly available in the watershed even if the distribution differs among the households. Cattle, equines and small ruminants rearing and productions are practiced throughout the watershed.For this research the following data were collected; historical daily precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, minimum and maximum temperatures, daily discharge and daily large-scale RCM predictors from REMO to predict future climate changes. Moreover, 30m resolution DEM, land use and soil type of the study area were used as an input for the models. Primary data like average groundwater depth and location of gauging station was collected at field level using appropriate data collection methods.Secondary data inputs for the models employed in this study were acquired from Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE) and the Ethiopian National Meteorological Agency (NMA). These meteorological data were collected from the meteorological stations found in and around the watershed. Precipitation, minimum and maximum temperature data are among the meteorological data collected from the Ethiopian Meteorological Service Agency.Moreover, the hydrological data, the available flow net data of the watershed's gauging station, were collected from the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Energy and Irrigation.Since WetSpa is a distributed hydrological model hence it makes use of DEM, slope, soil type and land use types of the study area. The elevation grid map at 30m resolution was obtained from the elevation data bases of the ASTER (http://aster.usgs.gov). The soil and land use maps were also obtained from FAO Africover data base (http://www.africover.org./index.htm).The climate scenario data for the base period and future A1B and B1 SRES emission scenarios were obtained from REMO (http://www.remo-rcm.de). The REMO predictor variables are provided in grid format from which the data used for downscaling were taken from. Therefore, by taking use of the geographical coordinates of REMO predictor variables versus meteorological stations, the exact point of intersection between the stations and REMO has been known and used as a downscaling point at that location. The predictands variables were taken from meteorological stations which were selected for this study. These climate scenario data were used to investigate the relative change between the current and future study period. The output of the future climate impact was then used to estimate the hydrological impacts in the WetSpa model.The materials GPS for taking geographic-coordinate values in (altitude, latitude and longitude)and Digital camera for field photographs was used during the duration of the study. MeanwhileArcGIS 10, Arc-view 3.2, WetSpa Model, WetSpass Model, SDSM 4.2, xls to dbf converter and a data set REMO was employed for the study.Data were checked if there is missed data. The consistency of records at the station was tested by a double mass curve by plotting the cumulative annual (or seasonal) record at station against the concurrent cumulative values of mean annual (or seasonal) record for a group of surrounding stations. The missed records of the station were adjusted by multiplying the recorded values of the data by the ratio of slopes of the straight lines. Hence, if there is missed rainfall data values from the rain gauge stations double mass curve method was adopted to correct and adjust the reported rainfall values. Similar, procedures were adopted for the other climatological data series.In order to effectively implement the study, the structural setup of the approach (input/output relationships) is shown in Figure 3  The physically based distributed hydrological models WetSpa and WetSpass were used in the study of groundwater recharge rate and water balance components of the watershed. It is conceptualized based on groundwater parameters such as precipitation, discharge rate, interception, surface runoff, infiltration, evapotranspiration, percolation and interflow and groundwater flow. For the impact of climate change on groundwater recharge, the climate parameters from REMO were used after downscaling using the SDSM for future  climatic conditions. The following sections discuss on the descriptions of the models separately.This research work used two storyline emission scenarios A1B and B1. These A1B and B1 SRES emission scenarios were selected for this study due to the basin was believed to experience of such emission and socio economic scenarios in the future. Data was collected from selected meteorological stations indicated in Table 2. Precipitation and temperature history data recorded for the period (in between 1972-2000) was used as a base line. Accordingly, REMO was downscaled for the A1B and B1scenarios. Downscaled data and base period observations were compared, for graphical fitness and statistical analyses to the best agreement of the parameters.After calibration of the model, the relationships created between predictor and predictands was The meteorological data available in meteorological stations were used for calibration and validation of the statistical downscaling model. The historical database of rainfall and temperatures observed variable and revealed different in each stations. The non-continuous data record were used separately for calibration and validation purpose easily in the SDSM model. Time series data with longer periods were used for calibration and the lesser for validation of the model as depicted in Table 3.  1973-19841973-19841973-19831973-1982Validation 1992-20001992-20001992-20001992-2000 Rainfall and temperature data were stored at, and brought from Ethiopian National Meteorological Agency (NMA) for research purposes. Local climate station data (predictands)were used to downscale the regional climate data produced from REMO. Each predictands parameter are downscaled with corresponding predictor variables data obtained from REMO archives. Arc GIS software were used to investigate the REMO raster nodes surrounding each meteorological stations. Accordingly, for downscaling the predictands, one REMO nodes were selected as a predictor variable, to each station data except for the Adigart station. Two REMO nodes were used for the Adigrat station as it is laid in between two REMO nodes of equal distance. In principle, the predictands rain fall was downscaled by predictor variable rainfall from REMO and this works for all the remaining predictands variables. The meteorological stations, REMO nodes and Werii watershed in Tekeze river basin and the Tigray regional map is explained in Figure 11.   After downscaling daily minimum and maximum temperatures, potential evapotranspiration time series data were estimated for use in the WetSpa model. The PET time series data was calculated through use of the Hargreaves equation (Allen et al., 1998).PET = 0.0023 (Tmean +17.8) (Tmax -Tmin) 0.5 Ra (15)where, PET is the potential evapotranspiration (mm day -1 ); Tmean, Tmax and Tmin are average, maximum and minimum temperatures (°c) respectively; Ra is extraterrestrial radiation (mm day -1 ).The downscaled average daily PET time series data for all the stations, together with precipitation and observed discharge were used as an input for the WetSpa model for simulation of the hydrological water balance components response for the watershed. These climate data were generated based on the SRES emission scenarios for the future climate change projections from 2015-2050 in future basis.The four meteorological stations at Adigrat, Hawzen, Adwa and Abyiadi are selected based on data availability and proximity to the Werii watershed. To use the stations climatic data to the watershed modeling process in WetSpa a Thiessen polygon method was developed and used accordingly. This method were used in the Arc GIS software to determine how much part of the watershed is covered by each of the meteorological stations (Figure 14). The Thiessen polygon method clearly identifies areal weight coverage of each meteorological station. Accordingly, the meteorological stations with corresponding percentage of areal coverage are; Adigrat (15%), Hawzen (52%), Adwa (31%) and Abyiadi (2%). Hawzen station has covered more than half of the watershed area whereas Abyiadi has covered only small part of the watershed.The geographical coordinates of each meteorological stations and the delineated watershed boundary through use of the application of Thiessen polygon in arc GIS helps to capture the grids for daily precipitation and Potential evapotranspiration for use of the modeling process in WetSpa. Regarding the hydro-meteorological data, discharge data were available from one recording station at the outlet of Werii watershed. Precipitation data were also available from four meteorological stations (Abyiadi, Adwa, Hawzen and Adigart) found in and around the watershed. Temperature were not used in the model run as snow melting is not present in the watershed. Potential evapotranspiration were estimated using Hargreaves equation (Allen et al., 1998). These data were provided in a daily data basis in the model running process.The available average monthly precipitation and potential evapotranspiration derived from all stations and discharge data measured at the outlet of the watershed, for the separate calibration and validation periods, is presented in Table 4 and 5 respectively. This figures are provided to illustrate the available measured data that were used for the purpose of calibration and validation processes of the WetSpa model.  The general physiographic features of the watershed which incorporates watershed boundary, major contributing river networks and gauging station at the outlet is presented in Figure 7.Moreover, watershed physical parameters with their corresponding values and data sources are briefly listed in Table 6. The meteorological data ranges for each of the stations and their measurement and sources are presented as well in Table 6. The elevation map of Werii watershed spreads from 1363m up to 3010m above sea level. It is characterized with an undulating terrain with erosional features. Similarly, the slope map is derived from elevation map explained as ragged with very steeply landscapes (Figure 3). The spatial topography and slope map of the watershed is prepared and used in the WetSpass model (Figure 3 and 4). Moreover, FAO based land use and soil map has been prepared and used in the WetSpass model as explained in the Figure 8 and 9. The elevation map was also obtained from 30m resolution ASTER map.To run WetSpass model, nineteen input files are required. Fifteen of them are maps prepared in grid format of 100m cell size with 510 and 518 number of row and columns respectively. The remaining four files are attribute lookup tables inserted as dbf format. These input data are presented hereafter in detail.WetSpass model uses grid maps prepared based on seasonal, summer and winter and without seasonal basis. Topography, slope and soil type grid maps are inherently non-seasonal that couldn't show variability when season changes. In contrary, land use, precipitation, temperature, potential evapotranspiration, wind speed and ground water depth are variable in nature when time goes up. As a result, these data were prepared separately in winter and summer so as to show the existing feature of the watershed that may appear when the season changes overtime.Table 8 explains the annual and seasonal average values of precipitation, PET and temperature.Seasonal precipitation, potential evapotranspiration and average temperature were made available in grid map were produced by universal kriging interpolation method. As a result, the average grid maps of the meteorological data were developed based on the interpolation technique. Wind speed and depth of ground water were taken as one value grid map for the separate seasons of winter and summer. As a result the average summer and winter season weed speed for the watershed was taken as 1.63 and 1.55 m/s respectively. Table 7 indicates average annual and seasonal wind speed values for each meteorological stations. Similarly, depth of ground water was also taken as twenty five meter below the surface for simply model run only.The watersheds physiological parameters of land use, soil type, topography and slope were also prepared with the help of Arc GIS tools. These data were obtained from the remote sensing technology and FAO based land use and soil maps clipped or masked by Werii watershed boundary.  11) and runoff coefficient data were made ready as attribute lookup tables for the input of the model. These different biophysical data are obtained and reviewed from scholarly published literatures. However, some of the seasonal land use parameter values are readjusted so as to fulfill the conditions in the study area as it has been used by (Tesfamichael et al., 2010). The highlighted portion of the table indicates the amended values for the study watershed. The developed grid maps and the parameter data together make the required interaction among each other so as to produce appropriate average values during the simulation processes. As a result the output grid maps were simulated with the help of spatial analyst tool in the arc view GIS environment.   Rainfall is the most variable and fundamental element in the climate system and its characteristics is not well manipulated in easy way. The diversity of rainfall patterns is inherent and naturally explained as erratic in this region. Before and after calibration results for rainfall of the stations considered in the watershed is explained in Figure 14. Moreover, the validation results of the SDSM model is also depicted in Figure 15. Rainfall was downscalled for the periods ranging from 2015-2050. As it has been dipicted in Figure 16, the maximamum change of rainfall in the period was simulated for Adwa and Hawzen stations for the SRES emmision scenarios, A1B (34% and 31% respectivelly) and B1 (both 33%). Minimum ranifall change was also observed in Abyiadi station for A1B (11%) and B1 (10%) . In the future climate sytem, negative change in rainfall is seldom in the watershed.  Meanwile, the SDSM model was produced possible rainy days and the amount of mean annual rainfall for each of the stations for the station data and REMO as explained in Table 12. The After having calibrated the model, a future change in maximum temperature is identified for both A1B and B1 SRES emission scenarios for each of the stations (Figure 19). As a result, maximum does not show a systematic increase or decreasing trend however it coincides to be increased in the future as the majority of the stations revealed increasing even if it is not showed high significance. Higher change in maximum temperature is observed in Hawzen station for A1B (0.16°c) and B1 (0.19°c). Smaller change in maximum temperature is investigated at Adigart and Abyiadi stations. A negative change is also appeared at Adwa station for B1 (-0.01°c) emission. Generally, maximum temperature is expected to be in the range of -0.01°c to   and Batelaan,2009;IPCC, 2013, Tekleab et al., 2013). Regarding the sensitivity analysis for SDSM model, the variance inflation and bias correction were the most sensitive parameters, for which the calibration process were conducted. Manning's coefficient for lowest order m -1/3 s 0.055Manning's coefficient for highest order m -1/3 s 0.025Impervious area within an urban cell % 30In order to run the WetSpa model the input base maps must have similar area and cell size.Hence, same area and cell size of the watershed is created for the base maps of topography, land use and soil type. This helps the WetSpa model to perform the simulations properly.Accordingly, the watershed's base maps are made for 100m grid cell size with an average of 510 and 718 number of row and columns respectively.The most useful list of main calibration global parameters and corresponding measurement units of WetSpa model are given in Table 14. Interflow scaling factor (Ki) is a parameter for reflecting the organic matter in plants root zone associated with soil hydraulic conductivity. Groundwater flow recession coefficient (Kg) is a global parameter for reflecting catchment's groundwater recession regime and relative soil moisture parameter (K_ss) is related to field capacity for soil moisture content. Similarly, potential evapotranspiration is associated with a correction factor K_ep and G0 is the depth of initial groundwater storage. The maximum groundwater storage parameter (G_max) is dependent on groundwater depth and K_run is an exponent for reflecting the effect of small rainfall intensity on surface runoff. P_max is a modelling time dependent threshold for rainfall intensity. Since snow melting and accumulation is not occurred in the watershed, temperature data was not taken as an input for the modeling process. The parameters generated as a function of temperature were not considered in the simulation. Hence, the global parameters as base temperature (TO) and degree day coefficient (K_snow) for estimating snow melt as well as the rainfall degree day coefficient (K_rain) were set to negative value (-1) to make it nonsense by the model.For modeling process of WetSpa, appropriate model calibration and validation were undertaken.The hydro-meteorological data were deliberately divided so as to use for independent calibration and validation process. Hence, data recorded within similar time scale for all the meteorological parameters and spatial data derived from the base maps of topography, land use and soil texture were used for calibration as well as validation in the modeling processes. The calibration and validation of WetSpa model was implemented by observing the graphical fitness between simulated and observed discharges (Figure 21) and through use of model performance evaluating criteria (Table 16). In both cases, the statistical and graphical comparisons of the observed and simulated discharge hydrographs have confirmed that WetSpa model is calibrated well in the modeling process. This calibration result was obtained with a repetitive trial and error method to fine-tune the global parameters within the range. Table 15 reveals the best fit agreement values created between observed and simulated discharges for the watershed.The statistical model performance evaluation results for both calibration and validation processes are indicated in Table 16. Model bias (MB), model confidence (R 2 ) and Nash-Sutcliffe    17. The mean and maximum values of the water balances are also presented along with respective water balance component totals (Table 17).Similarly, total runoff, actual evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge, interflow and soil moisture are simulated as spatial distribution grid maps during the simulation process. As indicated in Table 17, the actual evapotranspiration (2606.5 mm), surface runoff (100.6 mm) and percolation (151.35 mm) were simulated as 89%, 3.4% and 5% of the total precipitation (2928.4 mm) respectively and this is consistent with the findings of (Tesfamichael et al., 2010;Beyene et al., 2011) at Giba catchment of Ethiopia.Baseflow is a basic element in groundwater studies as it explains the behavior of water movements in the subsurface. It is obtained as a summation of interflow and groundwater flow simulated from the WetSpa extension. The base flow was produced from 7% (64.5 mm) interflow and 92.8% (895.8 mm) groundwater flow. The total runoff (996.4 mm) was simulated as 10% (100.6 mm) and 90% (895.8 mm) baseflow which has similar trend with (Nyenje and Batelaan, 2009). Due to uni-modal rainfall distribution in the watershed, the simulated total runoff is contributed by baseflow especially in the dry season. The simulated water balance changes for future (2015-2050) periods for both the SRES emission scenarios A1B and B1 and the measured current (1974)(1975)(1976)(1977) is illustrated in Table 18. The water balance components are analyzed and presented in annual average basis. Hence list of the main water balance components are provided and their future changes are analyzed based on the indicative SRES A1B and B1 emission scenarios.Accordingly, precipitation of the study area is expected to increase by 13% in similar trend for both A1B and B1 scenarios. This result is consistent with the projections produced by SDSM model for each of the stations in Werii watershed. The actual evapotranspiration will also increase by 15% for A1B and 18% for B1 which showed similar projections as precipitation.This indicates as precipitation increase actual evapotranspiration will increase with similar trends in the time horizon.  The future groundwater recharge is expected to increase by 5% and 2% from the reference period for A1B and B1 SRES emission scenarios respectively. This will occur as a result of increment in precipitation in the time horizon. The spatial distribution of the total groundwater recharges for the reference period and for future A1B and B1 scenarios for the period ranged from 2015 to 2050 are depicted in Figures 24, 25 and 26. The higher groundwater recharge is observed in the northern and eastern part of the watershed for both scenarios. The southern and western parts of the watershed, however, showed lower groundwater recharges. As compared to the reference period the future spatial maps of groundwater recharge indicated consistent spatial changes. In future spatial groundwater recharge produced for A1B scenario has showed little change especially in the south eastern parts of the watershed (Figures 24 and 25). In general the groundwater recharge produced for both scenarios will increase and observed higher for A1B scenario. This result is consistent with findings of (Nyenje and Batelaan, 2009) indicated groundwater recharge will increase.Moreover, the baseflow produced as a result of interflow and groundwater flow would show an increasing trend with A1B scenario (14%) higher than B1 (8%) scenario. The baseflow is more sensitive to A1B scenario as it is 6% higher than B1 scenario. According to (Nyenje and Batelaan, 2009) the baseflow would generally increase in the future and remain positive. Unlike baseflow the surface runoff will show a decreasing trends for both emission scenarios. As result, the surface runoff will decrease by 22% for A1B and by 24% for B1. Hence, risk of annual flooding is limited in the watershed due to decreased amount of surface runoff in the future.It can be concluded that the future hydrological water balance changes will happen and will increase for the emission scenarios considered in this study. The precipitation, actual evapotranspiration and baseflow will show positive increment. The surface runoff, however, will decrease and flooding problems will not treat the watershed.  Interception is occurred due to presence of vegetation when rainfall rains in the watershed. The spatial average annual interception in Werii watershed is presented in Figure 28 and the corresponding mean values of seasonal and annul interception is given in Table 19. The annual interception rate of the watershed is found to be in the range of 25 to 239 mm/year with an   and Merkel, 2009;Tesfamichael et al., 2010;Arefaine et al, 2012). This shows that evapotranspiration plays key role in water loss in the watershed due to the active solar radiation and dry winds in the watershed. As depicted in Figure 29, the eastern part of the watershed shows lower mean evapotranspiration as compared to the western part. Evapotranspiration is occurred due to solar radiation and radiation is high in lower altitude. This is the reason that the evapotranspiration of the western part of the watershed is lower than the eastern part.  19). About 97% of the transpiration has occurred at summer and the 3% loses at winter seasons.Evaporation from soil was also simulated during WetSpass model running process for the watershed (Figure 31). Accordingly, annual average soil evaporation was estimated to be 189.99 mm/year with winter and summer averages of 144.85 mm and 45.14 mm respectively (Table 19). Unlike transpiration the soil evaporation is higher at winter than summer season. About 76% of the evaporation from soil escapes the soil surface during winter season and the rest evaporates at summer season. The average long term seasonal and annual groundwater recharge in the Werii watershed was simulated through WetSpass hydrological model. As a result, 9.55 mm of average winter and 19.51 mm of average summer groundwater recharge was simulated in Werii watershed (Table 19). The average annual simulated groundwater recharge is 30.06 mm. The average annual long term groundwater recharge for Werii watershed was simulated as 4.2% of the average annual precipitation (717 mm) in the watershed. Based on that, the groundwater recharge in Werii watershed was estimated 54.02 Million m 3 . About 69% of the annual groundwater recharge of the watershed occurs during the wet season (summer), and the remaining 31% in dry season (winter). In the water balance system of the watershed, the precipitation amount was simulated to be 90.7% evapotranspiration, 6% runoff, and 4.2% recharge (Figure 32). Hence, 1712 l/s rate of recharge is estimated for the whole 1797 km 2 area of the watershed. Regarding future recharge, the watershed is expected to increase by 5% under A1B and 2% under B1 SRES emission scenarios from the reference period (see section 4.2.4 for detail)The simulated average winter and summer groundwater recharge is presented in Figures 33 and 34 respectively. The western part of Werii watershed receives relatively higher rainfall during summer season and has positive groundwater recharge values. However, the simulated summer recharge in some places in the eastern part of the watershed have negative value (Figure 34) which indicates there is no groundwater recharge. This occurred due to discharge from the subsurface is greater than that of recharge at that place. Similarly PET from the subsurface is also greater than summer recharge. The combined effect of discharge and PET from the subsurface makes the summer recharge to have a negative value. It is obvious that subsurface groundwater is saturated if there is abundant rainfall in the watershed. The winter recharge in Figure 33, is significantly lower with majority of the watershed receives from 0 -10 mm.Similar studies in different parts have been conducted to estimate average groundwater recharge through use of WetSpass model by different scholars for their respective study watersheds.Accordingly, an average recharge of 28 mm, 5% of annual precipitation (Tilahun and Merkel, 2009); 37 mm, 6% of precipitation (Tesfamichael et al., 2010)  WetSpa and WetSpass are hydrological models which simulates groundwater recharge, runoff and actual evapotranspiration among others. Both are physically based and distributed models for transfer of water and energy between soil, plants and atmosphere. WetSpa is time and space dependent spatially distributed model. Thus, WetSpass is built up on the foundations of WetSpa which simulates long term spatial average values for the hydrological elements (Batelaan et al., 1996;Wang et al., 1997). The simulation of the water balance components are consistent and found with in similar trends with the exception of surface runoff (Table 20). The WetSpa simulated average values of groundwater recharge and actual evapotranspiration are more than that of WetSpass simulations.Nevertheless, the WetSpa simulated surface runoff is significantly higher than the WetSpass simulated result.The average estimated annual groundwater recharge in Ethiopia is about 28,000 Million m 3 (24.8 mm) (Ketema and Tadesse, 2003) cited in (Obuobie et al., 2008). The estimated recharge ranges from 10 mm to 120 mm. Hence, both models simulated consistent groundwater recharge estimates in Werii watershed.The overall objective of this thesis work was to estimate spatial groundwater potential, average Based on data availability and proximity to the watershed, Abyiadi, Adwa. Hawzen and Adigrat are selected from available meteorological stations from nearby and inside the watershed. To investigate the future climate change impacts for the separate meteorological stations, a statistical downscaling model (SDSM) was employed to downscale the regional climate outputs from REMO. Hence, available data from these stations was used separately for model calibration and validation processes. After downscaling, the future likely changes in precipitation for each of the meteorological stations, maximamum change was observed in Adwa station, 34% for A1B and 33% for B1 and Hawzen station 31% for A1B and 33% for B1. Minimum ranifall change was also observed in Abyiadi station for A1B (11%) and B1 (10%) . In the future climate sytem, negative change in rainfall is seldom but expected to increase in the the future time horizon. Change in projected maximum temperature will also likely. As a result, maximum change in maximum temperature is observed in Hawzen station for A1B (0.16°c) and B1 (0.2°c).Smaller change in maximum temperature, however, is investigated at Adigart and Abyiadi stations. A negative change is also appeared at Adwa station for B1 (-0.01°c) emission.Generally, maximum temperature is expected to be in the range of -0.01°c to 0. Due to the effect of climate change, the precipitation will show 13% increment. Groundwater recharge will increase from 2-5%. The actual evapotranspiration will also increase in the range of 15-18%. Moreover, the baseflow will also increase higher for A1B (14%) than B1 (8%). The surface runoff will show decrement within the range of 22-24%.It can be concluded that the future hydrological water balance changes would happen and would increase for the emission scenarios considered in this study. The precipitation, actual evapotranspiration and baseflow would also show positive increment. The surface runoff, however, will decrease and flooding problems will not threat the watershed.The long term seasonal groundwater recharge of Werii watershed (1797 km 2 ) was estimated through use of a grid based physically distributed model, WetSpass. The model applies up to date physical and empirical relationships of the watershed for its efficiently running processes. of the average annual precipitation (717 mm) in the watershed. In the water balance system of the watershed, the precipitation amount is simulated to be 90.7% evapotranspiration, 6% runoff, and 4.2% recharge. Hence, a 1712 l/s rate of recharge is estimated for the whole 1797 km 2 area of the watershed. The simulated results of water balance components and hence the recharge, however, can be varied when there is a change in climate and land use processes of the watershed. Hence the results obtained from this study can be taken as an initial investigation in the ground water modeling of Werii watershed.Finally the distributed hydrological models WetSpa and WetSpass were compared based on their simulated values for recharge, evapotranspiration and surface runoff. These two models simulated with in similar trend and were consistent each other and with other similar literatures.Hence both models can be used in agro-ecologically similar watersheds.Generally, the future likely changes in precipitation and temperature is positive and will increase in the period from 2015 to 2050. Hence, people have to be aware of it and take actions as per necessary.The water resources is potentially available in Werii watershed is useful for irrigation use, livestock consumption and potable water for the resident people. Wise use of these water resources potential have paramount importance. Hence, increased exploitation of these water resources which is parallel to the water resources increment is recommended provided that wisely use of the water resources is provided.Knowing the annual and seasonal simulated long term average annual groundwater recharge and water balance components is useful in such a way that, 1. The average annual amount of incoming rainfall to the watershed should be planned on the bases of the residents demand for irrigation purposes, home use and livestock use and so on.2. The future groundwater resources development and improvement should be based on the water balance results obtained from this modeling.3. The simulated result is also useful for rainfall-runoff relationship modeling and hydrological change studies in the areas below ground surface. ","tokenCount":"11573"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"26446aa443597837bf9b211bbda2ff76","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dfbd647c-0296-42ab-8adb-cd0d98ebeb2c/retrieve","id":"551844953"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bee6c237-b4f1-4ff9-af46-b8252a16bc05","pagecount":"3","content":"At the COP 26 Glasgow, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh joined more than 100 countries in signing a methane emission reduction pledge [1] . Rice production contributes almost half of Vietnam's total methane emissions and is the centre of action for reducing the powerful greenhouse gas. Reaching the goal of reducing methane emissions from rice by 30 per cent will require transforming millions of smallholder practices to lowemissions cultivation.Methane is a short-lived pollutant with a lifetime of around 12 years, compared to carbon dioxide's several hundred years. But methane's global warming potential is 28 times that of carbon dioxide, which means reducing methane emissions can curb global warming with comparably quick effect.Rice production is a major contributor to global anthropogenic methane emissions [2] and Vietnam is one of the few top rice-producing countries to sign the global methane pledge. The signatories agree to take voluntary actions to collectively reduce global methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030. The feasibility of this pledge depends on the realistic levels of methane reduction at the national level.According to Vietnam's Third National Communication [3] , national methane emissions were 99.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2019. Irrigated rice accounts for 43 per cent of this at 42.7MtCO2e [3] . Assuming a uniform reduction in methane emissions across all sectors, the 30 per cent target translates to an annual reduction target of 12.8MtCO2e for irrigated rice production alone.In the updated 2020 Nationally Determined Contribution [4] , Vietnam committed to reducing overall emissions [5] by 9 per cent unconditionally and by 27 per cent conditional on international funding. A 9 per cent reduction in the rice sector would equate to 3.8MtCO2e. The national strategy for achieving emission reduction [6] in rice outlines pragmatic and economical methods of controlled water management, reduction of straw burning and conversion of inefficient rice land for other uses. Various crop management systems, including the Sustainable Rice Platform standard and the System of Rice Intensification, could disseminate mitigation practices such as alternate wetting and drying, and mid-season drainage.Achieving the 30 per cent methane reduction target would require another 9MtCO2e of methane reduction in the rice sector. An approximate 5.5MtCO2e reduction would be feasible, but will require greater targets and investments [7] -reliant on international finance [8] for low-emissions rice farming practices -than are currently outlined in national plans.Investments are needed to improve existing canals and pumping facilities to enable controlled water management. These efforts must be backed up by enhanced training and an awareness campaign to encourage better water management behaviour. The total mitigation from this transition is estimated at 9.5MtCO2e or a reduction of approximately 22 per cent. This target is ambitious but feasible -the additional 8 per cent has to be regarded as aspirational at this point. The remaining 8 per cent will require a paradigm shift in agriculture policy prioritising emission reduction as an overarching goal in rice production.The government could also consider improvements in the management and use of rice straw by incentivising its adoption for off-field purposes in circular economy approaches. This option could reduce methane emissions further but the current lack of detailed data impedes estimation of its mitigation potential. A possible trade-off with soil health should also be considered when planning for large-scale straw removal. Investments in research and scaling which have not yet left the scientific sphere -innovative fertiliser management, soil additives or ultra-short duration and low-emission varieties -could also contribute further to reaching the reduction goal.While the numbers are pointing towards the target, the challenge is introducing a set of mitigation options to millions of farmers across Vietnam. Low-emission practices have previously been successfully implemented.Through its provincial extension program, An Giang -a major rice producing province in the Mekong River Delta -successfully promoted good management practices, known as 'one must do, and five reductions [9] '. Lowemissions programs have contributed to a reduction of over 2 MtCO2e per year [10] , in farming systems with good irrigation and track record of advanced production practices. These conditions cannot be assumed as the standard throughout the country.Vietnam's participation in the methane reduction pledge represents an opportunity to tap into international climate financing. These funds could channel resources into green agricultural development projects in rural regions and secure funds for low-income farming populations heavily threatened by climate change. Additionally, participants commit to the highest tier of IPCC inventory methodologies and to improve the transparency, accuracy and comparability of national greenhouse gas inventory reporting. This will require coordination among various government, private and international institutions and could create trickle-down effects that will benefit global greenhouse gas reduction efforts as well as Vietnam's rice exports to environmentally conscious consumers [11] . Twitter [12] Facebook [13] Reddit [14] LinkedIn [15] Pocket [16] Email [17] Print [18] ","tokenCount":"792"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"956c52b77e31149e8bff6e01e4422273","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ba192cea-b769-4414-ba6a-8aeb38a1c58a/retrieve","id":"1660367220"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8b823092-dcf5-4d1b-8a8e-990e801b7dd5","pagecount":"2","content":"Understanding the implications of climate change requires detailed local projections and hydrological models capable of applying climate change scenario information in their analyses and alongside proposed interventions and land use changes. In AguAAndes/Waterworld we provide such data and systems for all CPWF basins and examine here the impacts of climate change basin by basin, building on work carried out for the CPWF Basin Focal Project Special Issue and on CPWF Phase II work on AguaAndes. We find that the nature, magnitude and rate of climate change will vary significantly between and within CPWF basins and that in some cases the outcomes may be beneficial for crop production whilst in others the outcomes may be detrimental.Climate change occurs within the context of complex socio-economic, biophysical and political states and changes and these add considerabe complexity to understanding the likely impact of climateInternational Forum on Water and Food change as a global and regional driver on water and food in the basins. Results are presented basin by basin for Phase II basins.","tokenCount":"170"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..30936d1b61ebcfb3c6448e625cc1d0158d010b55
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"80a022e6e4d6ea0f950d2438dd696eaf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/587c083c-4210-460e-adec-8c35878e4985/content","id":"2005993500"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"79c434b5-d3d8-4328-a5c3-dd457425cc45","pagecount":"46","content":"Quisieramosregistrarnuestrosagradecimientosatodos las programasdetrigode la regi6n, sus coordinadores y el personal tecnico, por su constante apoyo en proporcionar los materialesdealtopotencialderendlmientoysobresalientes anivel nacional parasuinclusi6n en TIFCOS. Asimismo, sucolaboraci6n en evaluarlosviverosy enviarlos resultados para el analisis es ampliamente reconocida. Apreciamos de manera especial la colaboraci6n de los colegas y dirigentes del INIA La Estanzuela, Uruguay, por las facilidades proporcionadas en multiplicaci6n de semilla y distribuci6n de los viveros. TambienWinter and Facultative Wheat Nursery of Southern Cone (TIFCOS) was started in consultation with the National Programs of the region in order to fulfil the need for genetic diversity in this group of materials. Besides being a vehicle for exchange of regional germ plasm, it could also incorporate a selected portion of the world germ plasm introduced by CIMMYT Regional Program based in Uruguay.The 1st. TIFCOS included 157 lines mostly from CIMMYT program in Mexico but also materials from Argentina and Brazil. The nursery was sent to selected 10 cooperators. Only six results were analysed.The first look at the results indicates a low level of rust resistance among the material included. Leaf and Stripe rust susceptibility was predominant. The trial also suffered from drought at two locations that resulted in low test weight.In general, lower level of wide adaptation was observed in the materials included in the 1st. TIFCOS compared to spring material (LACOS). PIO PIO cross represented the best group of lines selected in the region.  En general la informaci6n sabre Hneas del 2° TIFCOS tomada par las cooperadores, fue muy valiosa. Ademas de las datos agron6micos de altura y espigaz6n, las datos sabre las enfermedades y de selecci6n fueron utiles. Los datos de las royas de la hoja yestriada fueron transform ados usando la metodologra convencional donde se asigna un valor a cada tipo de reacci6n. Los valores fueron R=0.2, MR=0.4, MR-MS=0.6, MS=0.8 y S=1.0 Estos valores fueron multiplicados por el porcentaje de severidad para lograr un Coeficiente de lnfecci6n Cl que finalmente fue promediado sabre todas las localidades donde estas enfermedades fueron evaluadas.Por otra parte, se decidi6 proporcionar los datos originales en los casos de Septoriosis de la hoja, mancha foliar, fusariosis de la espiga y del oidio.Todos los datos promediados de las evaluaciones estan presentados en el Cuadro 2. Como en el caso del 1° TIFCOS, las dos royas (de la hoja y estriada) fueron las enfermedades mas severas, cad a una fue evaluada en cinco localidades y las mejores lfneas seleccionadasestan presentadas en los Cuadros 3 y 4. A pesarde que hubo pocas localic:lades para observar otrasenfermedades,su evaluaci6n esta incluida en el Cuadro 2. Las mejores selecciones para resistencia al oidio, septoriosis de la hoja y fusariosis de la espiga estan presentadas en las Cuadros 5, 6 y 7 respectivamente. Las lfneas con mayor frecuencia de selecci6n sabre nu eve localidades estan presentadas en el Cuadro 8. Asimismo, las Hneas seleccionadas en diferentes localidades estan resumidas en el Cuadro 9 para la facilidad de los criaderos.Observaciones de los resultados 1. Las condiciones del at'lo agrfcola fueron relativamente secas en la regi6n. A pesar de este hecho, algunos colaboradores pudieron evaluar el material genetico para las enfermedades.2. La roya de la hoja y roya estriada fueron las enfermedades mas severas en el vivero. Entre estas, la infecci6n de la roya estriada fue mas aguda que la de la roya de la hoja. Esto se puede apreciar en 133 lfneasque tuvieron un promedio de Cl<2 para roya de la hoja. En el caso de roya estriada s61o hubo 45 materiales con Cl<2 y un total de 67 If neas con Cl<5.3. Aunque las datos sabre oidio fueron tomados en una sola localidad (Passo Fundo), el nivel de la infecci6n fue adecuada para identificar 74 materiales con alto nivel de resistencia.4. Asimismo, parece existir un buen nivel de resistencia en este material para Septoriosis de la hoja y mancha foliares en general. Serra importante reevaluar este material en un at'lo hUmedo para confirmar este alto nivel de resistencia.5. En este segundo at'lo, casi 40 lfneas fueron seleccionadas por mas de 40% de los cooperadores. Una tercera pa rte de las lfneas (89) incluidas en el vivero fueron seleccionadas por mas de tres cooperadores. Este hecho no s61o demuestra posible adaptaci6n de estas lfneas a la regi6n, sino tambien su utilidad en incrementarla variabilidad genetica en este grupo de materiales. Las lfneas seleccionadas por mas del 50% de los cooperadores (41, 46, 48, 72, 7 4, 76, 146, 173, 181, 193, 233, 239 y 249), provienen de dos orfgenes (Chile y Kansas, EE. UU). Entre ellas la nueva variedad de Kansas.6. Jaggerfue una de las mas seleccionadas pero susceptible a la roya estriada y al oidio. Es sorprendente observar que una gran mayorra de las mencionadas anteriormente se encuentran susceptible para estasdos enfermedades (roya estriada y oidio).7. En base a su selecci6n por mas de 40% de colaboradores y resistencia a las enfermedades las siguientes lfneas fueron seleccionadas: 2nd. TIFCOS was distributed to 12 collaborators and results from 10 locations are summarized. In spite of being a dry year, collaborators were able to take good notes for diseases. Leaf and stripe rust susceptibility remained a major problem forthe germplasm. In addition high infection of powdery mildew was also observed. Majority of the lines demonstrated high level of resistance to Septorioa leaf blight. Given the diversity among the lines a large number (1/3) were selected by at least 30% of the programs. However, the lines demonstrating the highest frequency of selection were susceptible to stripe rust and powdery mildew. Jagger was one of top selected lines.On the basis of selection frequency and moderate to high level of disease resistance a group of lines (21,46,218,230,249,270) given in the table above were selected.   ","tokenCount":"946"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3e763197fe18b8c5c3fefc7ab4d50322","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9aeab4bf-e73b-4d0f-b80b-823d284e3831/retrieve","id":"-1964002461"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"68c7686a-cabd-42fd-a188-7dd921d00956","pagecount":"97","content":"The FAO SOFA (2002)  noted that economists and historians indicate five different perspectives on the agricultural growth process. Of these five, the 'Resource Perspective' is in keeping with Porter's Factor-Driven stage of development. This perspective suggests that with abundant land and water, resources need not decline as population grows since more land can be brought under cultivation. However, as land and water boundaries are closed, the ratio of population to resources will rise and bring about a reduction in per capita production. This model provides the idea that population growth or population density may stimulate investments in institutional and technological change.There is consensus that the key to transforming agriculture out of a Factor-Driven/Resource Perspective stage of development is productivity growth. Agricultural growth entails achieving increased productivity per unit of resources used to produce agricultural goods. High and sustained levels of productivity growth are a prerequisite to fuel the transformation to Investment Driven growth. Porter noted that heavy investment in efficient infrastructure, business-friendly government administration and strong investment incentives and access to capital are essential to allow for such productivity growth. Porter notes that in Investment-Driven growth, economic activity is concentrated on manufacturing and outsourced service exports of products and services that are more sophisticated, with greater presence along the value chain. While there is continued reliance on imported technologies accessed through licensing, joint ventures, foreign direct investment and imitation, countries have developed the capacity to improve on foreign technologies.The four other perspectives of the agricultural growth process described by FAO SOFA (2002) generally fall within Porter's Investment Driven stage. These include investments in the following areas which are all elements for sustained productivity growth: ▪ Institutional Change Perspective-addresses inefficiencies associated with transaction costs and imperfect markets. Investments in infrastructure and institutions (credit institutions and legal systems) are important for agricultural economies to reduce transport, transactions and other costs as well. ▪ Human Capital Perspective-emphasizes that farm management and production skills (farmer human capital) can be improved through investment in training (schooling) programs, experience and agricultural extension programs. ▪ Best Practice Perspective-focuses on the fact that at any given time, farmersmay not yet have tested and adopted existing technology that would reduce costs and produce growth because of failures in the information andManaging Hazards, Reducing Risks and Increasing Investment in Agriculture -Some PerspectivesFor Your InformationGovernments of the Caribbean region have decided that continued low productivity and modest results from agriculture are no longer acceptable. The Heads of Governments of the Caribbean have agreed that the sector can no longer survive in a \"business as usual\" mode. They have called for a fundamentally different approach for the repositioning of agriculture.Four decades ago, Mosher (1966) argued that this repositioning, or as he put it 'getting agriculture moving' boils down to a simple concept: -that agricultural production and marketing decisions are made independently by several different individual entrepreneurs. Within the Caribbean Community, these decisions are being made daily and simultaneously, by thousands of agri-entrepreneurs within the context of the risks of their operating environments. This decision making framework is built around the following elements: ▪ Price data (interest, exchange and wage rates, and input, transport and energy costs); ▪ Technical information (technologies, etc); ▪ Production process (commodity selected by entrepreneur based on expected economic gains); ▪ Agro-ecological data (weather, land fertility, pest risks, etc); ▪ Output composition (goods for either households or processing); ▪ Local policies/rules (agriculture, health, environmental policy, others, eg., e.g. larceny); ▪ Market data (location, demand, prices, standards, access regulations, promotion, others); ▪ Output market (final or intermediate goods, local, regional or extra-regional).Generally, decision-making pertaining to agriculture production is influenced by the incentives to work rather than by the nature of the work itself (Timmer, 1998). In this context, Timmer (1998) astutely contrasts the desire to achieve increased agricultural output through a change in agricultural production decisions with that of attaining a higher output from a steel or cement plant when he noted: @ 2006 \"...a dozen or so individuals could take direct action which could lead to a 10 percent increase in steel output in a year or so, and their decisions would be decisive. Nowhere can a similar small group of individuals decide to raise food production by 10 percent.A small group of planners, or the president and the cabinet, can decide that they want food production to rise by 10 percent… but they cannot increase food production by themselves. They must also convince the millions of farmers in their country to want to increase food production by 10 percent and make it in their self interest to do so.\"Translating that argument to the Region's goal of agricultural repositioning implies that a comprehensive appreciation of the environment within which the agri-entrepreneur makes his or her decisions is a necessary prerequisite in the design of any intervention aimed at stimulating and expanding agricultural output. Stated simply, the agri-entrepreneurs must perceive it to be in their interest and or be strongly convinced and encouraged through government policy, to increase their output. Governments of developing countries intervene through national plans and other interventions, to impact on the production, marketing and consumption of agricultural products and inputs (Stephens and Jabara, 1988). Macroeconomic policies heavily influence prices -wage rates, interest rates, land rental rates, foreign exchange rates and the rural-urban terms of trade. These in turn influence the production and investment decisions of producers (Timmer, 1998 b) and the pace and extent to which agriculture grows and is transformed.Attention is again being focused on revitalizing agriculture in the Caribbean to strengthen its contribution to national and regional development in the Caribbean, including providing a level of food security. Against this backdrop, an understanding of the process of agricultural growth can be had using Michael Porter's description of the three sequential stages of the economic development process: namely the initial 'Factor-Driven' Stage, followed by the 'Investment-Driven' stage, then the, 'Innovation-Driven' stage.Porter describes the Factor Driven stage as having a reliance on basic factor conditions such as low-cost labor and access to natural resources as the dominant sources of competitive advantage and exports. Activity is geared towards the production of commodities or relatively simple products, with firms engaged in price-based competition and assimilation of technology through imports, foreign direct investment and imitation. Factor-Driven economies are highly sensitive to world economic cycles, commodity price trends and exchange rate fluctuations. demonstration systems available to them.Investments in agricultural extension systems will then produce growth in food production per capita by bringing farmers closer to best practice technology use. ▪ Adaptive Invention Perspective-emphasizes that agricultural technology is location-specific to a considerable degree. Biological processes are sensitive to soil, climate and even economic conditions. Natural \"Darwinian\" evolutionary change produced a rich diversity of species, resulting in natural differences in plant and animal life in each ecological niche. Farmers only partially overcame this niche phenomenon when they selected the landraces (farmers' varieties) that today constitute the genetic resource stock utilized by modern plant (and animal) breeders as they search for varietal (and breed) improvements.Modern plant breeders must also respect soil and climate factors and tailor varietal improvements to regions or niches. This means that technology that is valuable in one location may not be valuable in another. It also means that targeted invention (plant breeding) programs can produce growth in per capita food production.The institutional change, human capital, best practice and adaptive invention perspectives all depart from the resources perspective by introducing dynamics that enable producers to produce more with the same amount of factor resources. That is, they introduce productivity change. Each of these perspectives is associated with the development of what is referred to as technological capital (TC). This represents a country's capacity to implement, adapt and develop productivity-enhancing technology. The latter perspective is particularly critical for transforming agriculture from a factor to an investment driven stage. As previously alluded to, the agriculture production process does not function as a factory under controlled conditions. Hence, with particular emphasis on the role of technologies, and given that such technologies are created in developed countries for highly industrialized, energy-dependent agricultural production models, much consideration should be given to foreign direct investment that act as vehicles for technology transfer. Indeed, it is because of this operating reality, that innovation in agriculture at all levels, (from input supply-to production processes-to product and human capital development), has to become the driver and sustenance of productivity growth in agriculture. Bonnen (1998) argued that increases in agricultural productivity are not solely the result of technological improvements but can also be attributed to changes in institutional innovation and improvements in human capital. He concluded that without ongoing sustained institutional development and human capital growth, a developing country would fail at achieving a highly productive and industrialised agriculture. Bonnen (1998) observed that the prevailing institutional structures within the USA, including the legal system, served to reduce many of the risks and costs of commerce thereby contributing to increased productivity within agriculture. He concluded that sustained national policy and institution building together with an approach that coordinates investment in research and technology, physical and human capital, and an adaptive response to their use, is a pre-requisite to achieving goal of increased productivity.productivity and modest results from agriculture are no longer acceptable. The Heads of Governments of the Caribbean region have agreed that a new strategy must be developed, built on national and regional consultations, so as to find sound solutions and responses to constraints and challenges facing the sector. In January 2005, at a meeting of the region's Ministers of Agriculture of the Alliance, President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana as the lead Head for Agriculture within the Conference of Heads of Governments of CARICOM presented the report on the outcome of the Consultative process. The results of the Consultative process will jump start a much wider and more involved process of agricultural repositioning in the region, towards an agricultural sector which by 2015 would have: ▪ made substantial progress towards contributing significantly to national and regional development and to economic, social and environmental sustainability; ▪ operated under a transparent regulatory framework at national and regional levels, that promotes and facilitates investment and attracts (direct and indirect) inflows of capital; ▪ transformed, significantly, its processes and products and stimulated the innovative entrepreneurial capacity of Caribbean agricultural and rural communities; and ▪ enabled the region (as a whole) to achieve an acceptable level of food security that is not easily disrupted by natural hazards and/or man-made disasters.The Consultative process identified ten Key Binding Constraints to repositioning. These have become the basis for articulating and implementing the 'Jagdeo Initiative' which seeks to develop practical regional interventions to alleviate same.1. Limited financing and inadequate levels of new investments; 2. Outdated and inefficient agricultural health and food safety (AHFS) systems; 3. Inadequate research and development;4. Fragmented and disorganized private sector; 5. Weak land and water distribution and management systems; 6. Deficient and uncoordinated risk management measures; 7. Inadequate transportation systems, particularly for perishables; 8. Weak and non-integrated information and intelligence systems; 9. Weak linkages and participation of producers in growth market segments 10. Lack of skilled and quality human resources;The perspectives that follow explore the implications for the Caribbean Community of three critical issues relating to 'agricultural repositioning', or 'getting agriculture moving'. These critical issues relate to two of these constraints, namely, \"Deficient and Uncoordinated Risk Management Measures' and 'Limited Financing and New Investments'.In summary, the perspective on 'Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in Agriculture' recognizes explicitly, that geography and small size expose the Caribbean Region to a broad range of natural hazards. It contends that disaster management and sustainable agriculture development are inextricably intertwined.Empirical evidence over the 1970 to 1999 period indicated that more than 70% of natural hazards that resulted in disasters were of meteorological origin; the remaining 30% resulting from geological phenomena. The large economic and human cost associated with these natural events is mainly the result of extreme vulnerability. This vulnerability stems from the pattern of socioeconomic development in the region as well as inadequate risk management policies. The experiences of these natural events proved conclusively that there is urgent need for mitigation measures as a means of reducing human suffering, infrastructural damage or financial loss. Further, preliminary evidence on climate change suggests a strong likelihood that the incidence of more severe natural events will increase in the region.Natural hazards have been a reality for Caribbean populations for a long time, but their frequency and intensity have increased in recent years. Hurricanes, floods and droughts and to a lesser extent earthquakes and volcanoes, have resulted in deaths, homelessness, the destruction of property and the disruption of food supplies and communication and other essential services. The year 2004 was unprecedented in terms of extreme effects of natural hazards in the region, and indeed throughout the world. In the Caribbean, for the agriculture sector, natural hazards of greatest significance have been floods, hurricanes, landslides, drought, invasive species, and volcanic eruption.With the advent of increasingly sophisticated information technology, greater emphasis is being placed on prevention. The region can no longer continue to rely upon costly reconstruction processes and post-disaster international assistance. Improvement of risk management is essential to guarantee the protection and future progress of agricultural, economic and social development in the region. Applying this philosophy to the reduction of agricultural risks from natural hazards this paper proposes the adoption of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Mitigation Point (HACMP) system that consolidates national and regional agency initiatives and embraces gendersensitive procedures into the hazard analysis, vulnerability and mitigation measures.Reduction' also recognizes explicitly, that natural hazards present a major and often, unmitigated risk in agriculture in the Caribbean. Further, it acknowledges that while insurance is an important risk mitigation instrument, its availability as a disaster risk management strategy in the Caribbean is limited to a few crops.The development of agricultural insurance markets in the Caribbean will be a critical aspect of the suite of measures available for the reduction and management of risk in agriculture. To date, the history of insurance in agriculture in the Caribbean is limited to bananas in the Windward Islands, administered through WINCROP-Windward Islands Crop Insurance and coffee, banana and coconut all under separate coverage in Jamaica. Traditional disaster risk management strategies, including use of savings, accessing loans, diversification and the provision of relief by Governments have not proven to be adequate in preventing serious economic loss and allowing speedy recovery. The stimulation of agricultural production in the Caribbean will require a more structured approach to the management and reduction of risk, through mechanisms such as, crop insurance, particularly multi-crop insurance.The perspective on 'A Multi-Commodity Agricultural Insurance for Risk Reduction' discusses the critical lessons from experiences and issues to be considered in any efforts to establish multi-commodity crop insurance in the Caribbean. Limited finances and lack of global experience are seen as major constrains to regional governments efforts at pioneering the establishment of crop insurance schemes. There is substantial scope for leadership of the private sector, in pioneering and managing crop insurance schemes, with support from the public sector. Among the key factors for consideration in establishing a model multi-commodity insurance scheme, include sound open market criteria, such as, comprehensive assessment of the demand, clear identification of the key perils, informed decisions on the crops to be covered, appropriate rating of premiums, involvement of the private sector and a supporting role of governments. Further, economic viability and sustainability issues suggest that consideration must also be given to the establishment of a scheme that is regional in scope and coverage.Effective risk mitigation is one of the critical pre-requisites for improving business confidence and stimulating investment in agriculture in the Caribbean. The perspective on 'Catalyzing and Expanding Investments in Agriculture and Rural Areas' recognizes explicitly, that reducing the perceived and real risks of the agri-entrepreneurs must factor clearly among public sector and donor objectives if investment targets in agriculture are to be realized.The perspective concludes that in the absence of risk mitigation financial instruments, such as, insurance markets, farmers have few options to manage systemic risks affecting physical production (droughts, floods, pests, etc.) or profitability, hence impacting negatively on the level of investments or the capacity to realize high returns from same.The need to build domestic and national capital for stimulating and sustaining growth is a prerequisite for development. This is particularly significant in light of the dramatic evolution in the environment for investment in agriculture and rural development. In the past twenty years, agricultural investments were geared towards increasing production and world food supplies. In today's emerging environment, investments in agriculture seek to increase competitiveness and profitability along the commodity chain from farmer to consumer, enhance sustainability of the environment and natural resource base and empower rural people to manage change.International competitiveness and social and environmental sustainability are the overarching goals for agriculture as the region moves closer to the reality of a Single Economy under the CSME. The Region must therefore embark on deliberate and concerted activities to develop a modern, efficient and holistic agribusiness system, if it is to improve its ability to participate in the growth segments of the regional and international agri-food/markets and reduce its dependence on extra-regional food imports. Such dependence is also in terms of donor assistance. While it is widely agreed that donor assistance is often times a catalyst for agricultural growth and rural development, no developing country should perpetuate a reliance on donor assistance for development, particularly in agriculture.Investment in the agricultural and rural sectors is critical to the process of creating an enabling economic and business environment for competitive and sustainable agricultural and rural development. It is argued that agrientrepreneurs are motivated to invest in agriculture by the perceived opportunities of economic returns. While the prospect of promoting economic returns is also a goal, the realization of increased social welfare also ranks in importance for investment by governments and agencies. The application of some of the issues pertaining to investment intended to catalyze productivity in the sector is illustrated with reference to the Chilean experience. The perspective concludes with the identification of a few possible projects for consideration for government/agency or tripartite investment in Caribbean countries.The Jagdeo Initiative makes a clear link between the limited and declining investment and financing for agriculture in the region and the general lack of risk management mechanisms. It makes a strong call to develop an integrated and coordinated regional approach to risk management, including innovative agricultural insurance instruments, as risk mitigation facilities. Given the premise that agricultural production and marketing decisions are made independently by several different individual producers -the agri-entrepreneurs -then it is advised that that consideration of options in these specific areas must benefit from inputs from the agri-entrepreneurs themselves.Los Gobiernos de la región del Caribe han decidido que la continuación de la baja productividad y los resultados modestos de la agricultura ya no son aceptables. Los Jefes de Gobierno acordaron que el sector no puede sobrevivir si se sigue pensando que \"todo sigue igual\". Han pedido que se adopte un enfoque fundamentalmente distinto para el reposicionamiento de la agricultura.Hace cuatro décadas, Mosher (1966) sostuvo que este reposicionamiento, o según él, el impulso a la agricultura no es más que un concepto sencillo: -que las decisiones relativas a la producción y la comercialización de la agricultura son tomadas de manera independiente por muchos empresarios distintos. Dentro de la Comunidad Caribeña, las decisiones al respecto se toman a diario y simultáneamente por miles de empresarios agrarios en el contexto de los sucesos internacionales nuevos y cambiantes y las condiciones ambientales. El marco de la toma de decisiones se fundamenta en los siguientes elementos:-Datos relativos a los precios (intereses, divisas, tasas salariales, insumos, transporte, costos energéticos, etc.); -Información técnica, (tecnologías, etc.); -Proceso de producción (bienes elegidos por los empresarios basado en ganancias económicas esperadas); -Datos agroecológicos (clima, fertilidad del suelo, riesgos de plagas, etc.); -Composición de la producción (bienes para hogares o para el tratamiento); -Políticas/reglas locales (agricultura, salud, política ambiental, otras, p.ej. el robo) -Datos sobre el mercado (ubicación, demanda, precios, normas, reglamentos de acceso, promoción, entre otros); -Mercado de producción (bienes finales o intermedios, locales, regionales o extra-regionales).De manera general, la toma de decisiones con respecto a la producción agropecuaria es influida más por los incentivos para trabajar que por el trabajo en sí mismo (Timmer 1998). En este contexto, Timmer (1998) compara perspicazmente el deseo de lograr un aumento de la producción agropecuaria a @ 2006 través de la modificación de las decisiones relativas a la producción agropecuaria con el de lograr una mayor producción en una planta siderúrgica o de cemento. Afirmó: \"…una docena de individuos pueden tomar acción directa, lo que puede conducir a de aumento del 10% en la producción de acero en un año más o menos, y sus decisiones serían decisivas. No es posible en ningún lugar que un pequeño grupo de este tipo decida aumentar la producción de alimentos en un 10%. Un pequeño grupo de planificadores, o el presidente con el gabinete pueden decidir aumentar la producción de alimentos en un 10%, pero no pueden aumentar la producción de alimentos por si solos. También deben convencer a los millones de agricultores de su país para que sean motivados a aumentar la producción de alimentos en un 10 por ciento, haciendo que dicho aumento sea en su propio interés.\"Traducir ese argumento al objetivo regional de reposicionar la agricultura implica que una comprensión exhaustiva del entorno en el cual el empresario agrario toma sus decisiones es un requerimiento necesario al diseño de toda intervención destinada a estimular y ampliar la producción agropecuaria. En otras palabras, los empresarios agrarios deben considerar que esto está en su interés y/o tener la convicción fuerte y el estímulo a través de las políticas gubernamentales, para aumentar su producción.Los Gobiernos de los países en vías de desarrollo intervienen por medio de los planes nacionales e intervenciones de otra índole para impactar la producción, comercialización y consumo de productos e insumos agropecuarios (Stephens y Jabara 1988). Las políticas macroeconómicas influyen fuertemente preciossalarios, tasas de interés, alquileres de terreno, tipos de cambio y los términos de intercambio rural-urbano. A la vez, éstos influyen en las decisiones de los productores con respecto a la producción y las inversiones (Timmer 1998 b) así como el ritmo a que la agricultura crece y se transforma y la medida en que lo hace.Una vez más se está concentrando la atención en la revitalización de la agricultura en el Caribe, con el propósito de fortalecer su contribución al desarrollo nacional y regional en la región, incluyendo el proveer un nivel de seguridad adecuado. Contra el trasfondo, un mejor entendimiento del proceso de crecimiento agropecuario puede tenerse usando la descripción de Michael Porter las tres etapas del proceso de desarrollo económico; a saber la Etapa inicial \"Impulsada por los Factores\", seguida por la etapa \"Impulsada por laManaging Hazards, Reducing Risks and Increasing Investment in Agriculture -Some PerspectivesInversión\", y después, la etapa \"Impulsada por la Innovación\".Según Porter, la etapa Impulsada por los Factores depende de las condiciones básicas de los factores, tales como la mano de obra barata y el acceso a los recursos naturales, fuentes dominantes de la ventaja competitiva y las exportaciones. La actividad es orientada hacia la producción de mercancías o de productos relativamente sencillos, las empresas estando dedicadas a la competencia basada en precios y la asimilación de la tecnología a través de las importaciones, la inversión extranjera directa y la imitación. Las economías Impulsadas por los Factores son altamente susceptibles a los ciclos económicos mundiales, las tendencias en los precios de las mercancías y fluctuaciones del tipo de cambio. En el Estado de los Alimentos y la Agricultura de la Organización de Alimentos y Agricultura (FAO SOFA) (2002) se observó que los economistas y los historiadores indican cinco perspectivas distintas sobre el proceso de crecimiento. De los cinco, la \"Perspectiva de los Recursos\" es acorde con la etapa del desarrollo Impulsado por los Factores de Porter. Esta perspectiva sugiere que con una abundancia de tierra y agua, los recursos no tienen que disminuir a medida que crezca la población, porque es posible cultivar más tierra. Sin embargo, a medida que se cierren las fronteras terrestres y marítimas, la proporción de la población a los recursos se incrementará, y traerá una reducción de la producción per capita. Este modelo plantea la idea de que el crecimiento de la población o la densidad de ésta puede estimular las inversiones en transformaciones institucionales y tecnológicas.Existe un consenso de que la clave para transformar el sector agropecuario de la etapa Impulsada por los Factores/ Perspectiva de los Recursos es el crecimiento de la productividad. El crecimiento agropecuario consiste en lograr mayor productividad por unidad de recursos utilizados para producir productos agropecuarios. Niveles de productividad altos y sostenidos son necesarios para que se realice la transformación hacia un crecimiento Impulsado por la Inversión.Porter afirmó que importantes inversiones en una infraestructura eficiente, la administración pública propicia a los negocios, y fuertes incentivos para la inversión y el acceso a los capitales son fundamentales para permitir dicho crecimiento de la productividad. En el crecimiento, Impulsado por la Inversión, la actividad económica se concentra en la manufactura y la exportación de productos y servicios más sofisticados con mayor presencia en la cadena de valor. Aunque se mantiene la dependencia de tecnologías importadas la las cuales se gana acceso por medio de licencias, empresas mixtas, inversión extranjera directa y la imitación, los países han desarrollado la capacidad de mejorar las tecnologías extranjeras.Las cuatro otras perspectivas del proceso de crecimiento agropecuario delineadas por FAO SOFA (2002) generalmente son acordes con la etapa Impulsada por la Inversión de Porter. Incluyen las siguientes inversiones, necesarias para mantener el crecimiento de la productividad:-La Perspectiva de la Transformación Institucional responde a las ineficiencias asociadas a los costos de transacción y los mercados imperfectos. Las inversiones en la infraestructura y las instituciones (instituciones crediticias y sistemas legales) son importantes para que las economías agopecuarias reduzcan los costos de transporte, transacciones y otros. -La Perspectiva del Capital Humano hace hincapié en que las capacidades de administración de explotaciones y de producción agropecuaria (capital humano -agricultor) pueden ser mejoradas por medio de la inversión en programas de entrenamiento (escolarización), experiencia y programas de masificación agropecuaria. -La Perspectiva de las Mejores Prácticas se concentra en el hecho de que en cualquier momento dado, es posible que los agricultores no hayan probado ni adoptado la tecnología existente capaz de reducir los costos y producir crecimiento debido a fallas de los sistemas de información y demostración disponibles. Inversiones en sistemas de masificación agropecuaria producirán crecimiento de la producción de alimentos per capita, haciendo que los agricultores se acerquen más al uso de la tecnología de las mejores prácticas. -La Perspectiva de la Invención Adaptiva enfatiza que en gran medida la tecnología agropecuaria es propia de la ubicación. Los procesos son susceptibles a las condiciones del suelo, del clima y aun de la economía.La transformación natural evolucionaria \"Darwiniense\" produjo una rica diversidad de especies, dando lugar a diferencias de la flora y la fauna en cada nicho ecológico. Al haber seleccionado las razas terrestres (variedades de los agricultores) que hoy constituyen los recursos genéticos utilizados por los criadores y cultivadores en la búsqueda de mejores variedades y razas, los agricultores apenas lograron superar este fenómeno relacionado a los nichos. Los cultivadores modernos también deben respetar los factores relacionados al suelo y al clima, y adaptan las mejoras de las variedades a las regiones o a los nichos, lo que significa que la tecnología que tiene valor en un lugar tal vez no lo teng en otro. Además, significa que los programas de invención bien dirigidas (cultivo de plantas) pueden producir crecimiento en la producción de alimentos per capita.Las perspectivas respecto de la transformación institucional, el capital humano, las mejoras prácticas y la invención adaptiva todos se apartan de la perspectiva relacionada a los recursos al incorporar una dinámica que permite que los productores aumenten su producción a partir de la misma cantidad de recursos. Es decir, que presentan cambios de productividad. Cada una de estas perspectivas se asocia al desarrollo de lo que se denomina el capital tecnológico (CT), que representa la capacidad de un país para implementar, adaptar y desarrollar tecnología que mejore la productividad. Esta perspectiva es particularmente crítica para transformar la agricultura de la etapa vinculada a los factores a la etapa impulsada por la inversión. Como se ha aludido arriba, el proceso de producción agropecuaria no funciona como una fábrica bajo condiciones controladas. Por ello, dando un énfasis particular al papel de las tecnologías, y dado que dichas tecnologías son creadas en países desarrollos para los fines de modelos de producción agropecuaria que dependen de la energía, se debe tomar muy en consideración la inversión extranjera directa que sirven como vehículos para la transferencia de la tecnología. En efecto, es debido a esta realidad operativa que en la agricultura, la innovación a todos los niveles desde los insumos, la oferta hasta los procesos de producción y el desarrollo de productos y capital humano debe convertirse en el motor y el sostén del crecimiento de la productividad en la agricultura.Bonnen (1998) sostuvo que los aumentos de la productividad agropecuaria no son solamente el resultado de las mejoras tecnológicas, sino atribuibles a variaciones de la innovación institucional y mejoras del capital humano. Concluyó que sin mantener el desarrollo institucional continuo o crecimiento del capital humano, un país en vías de desarrollo no lograría tener un sector agropecuario altamente productivo e industrializado. Bonnen (1998) observó que las estructuras institucionales existentes, incluyendo el sistema jurídico, servían para reducir muchos de los riesgos y costos vinculados al comercio, contribuyendo al incremento de la productividad del sector agropecuario. Concluyó que la construcción sostenida de las políticas nacionales y las instituciones, en conjunto con un enfoque según el cual se coordine la inversión en investigación y tecnología, capital físico y humano y una respuesta adaptiva a su uso son un requisito necesario para lograr los objetivos de mayor productividad.Investment in Agriculture -Some Perspectives Los Gobiernos de la región del Caribe han decidido que la continuación de la baja productividad y los resultados modestos de la agricultura ya no son aceptables. Los Jefes de Gobierno de la región del Caribe acordaron que es necesario desarrollar una estrategia nueva a partir de consultas a nivel nacional y regional para encontrar soluciones y respuestas sólidas a las limitaciones a las cuales se enfrentan en el sector. En enero de 2005, durante una reunión de los Ministros de Agricultura de la Alianza regional, el Presidente de la República de Guyana, Bharat Jagdeo, en su calidad de Jefe de Gobierno con responsabilidad en material de la Agricultura en el seno de la CARICOM, presentó el informe sobre el resultado del proceso de Consulta. Los resultados del proceso de Consulta den un ímpetu a un proceso más extenso y complejo de reposicionamiento de la agricultura en la región de contra con un sector agropecuario que, para el año 2015:-Haya avanzado de manera importante hacia una contribución significativa al desarrollo nacional y regional y a la sostenibilidad social y ambiental, -Disponga de un marco regulatorio tanto a nivel nacional como regional que promueva y facilite la inversión y atraiga la entrada de capitales (directos e indirectos); -Haya transformado de manera importante sus procesos y productos y estimulado la capacidad empresarial innovadora de las comunidades agropecuarias y rurales del Caribe; y -Permita que la región en su totalidad logre un nivel aceptable de seguridad de los alimentos que no sea fácilmente afectada por catástrofes naturales o generados por el hombre.Los Ministros de Agricultura, en coordinación con otras organizaciones internacionales están abordando la tarea de encontrar soluciones prácticas y respuestas a las limitaciones y desafíos que afectan la agricultura. En el proceso de Consulta se identificaron las diez limitaciones claves y más vinculantes: 1. La falta de recursos financieros y los niveles de nuevas inversiones poco adecuados; 2. Sistemas de transporte poco adecuados, particularmente con respecto a las mercancías perecedoras; 3. Insuficiencia de la investigación y desarrollo; 4. Un sector privado fragmentado y desorganizado; 5. Debilidad de los sistemas de distribución y gestión de tierras y agua; 6. Deficiencia y la falta de coordinación con respecto a las medidas de gestión de los riesgos; 7. Sistemas de seguridad sanitaria y de los alimentos en el sector agropecuario anticuados y poco eficientes; 8. Debilidad y la falta de integración de los sistemas de información e inteligencia; 9. Debilidad de las vinculaciones y de la participación de los productores en los segmentos del mercado en crecimiento. 10. Falta de recursos humanos capacitados y de buena calidad;Las siguientes perspectivas analizan las implicaciones para el Caribe de tres asuntos críticos relacionados al 'reposicionamiento agropecuario', o 'para dar un impulso a la agricultura'. Estos asuntos críticos son relacionados a dos de estas limitaciones, a saber la \"Deficiencia y la falta de coordinación con respecto a las medidas de gestión de los riesgos\" y la \"Falta de Recursos Financieros y Nuevas Inversiones\" Para resumir, la perspectiva de la 'Gestión de los Peligros Naturales y las Catástrofes en la Agricultura' reconoce explícitamente que las características geográficas y las dimensiones de los países del Caribe, la región está expuesta a una serie de peligros naturales. Sostiene la gestión de las catástrofes naturales y el desarrollo agropecuario sostenible son inextricablemente entretejidos.La evidencia empírica durante el período 1970 a 1999 indicó que más de un 70% de peligros naturales que resultaron en catástrofes fueron de origen meteorológico, y un 30% fueron el resultado de fenómenos geológicos. Esta vulnerabilidad es el resultado del patrón de desarrollo en la región, así como políticas de manejo de riesgos poco adecuadas. Las experiencias vinculadas a estos eventos demuestran decisivamente que urge tomar medidas de mitigación como una manera de reducir el sufrimiento humano, los daños infraestructurales o pérdidas financieras. Además, la evidencia preliminar respecto del cambio climático parece indicar que aumentará la probabilidad de que ocurran más eventos producidos por los fenómenos naturales severos.Los peligros naturales son una realidad entre las poblaciones caribeñas desde hace mucho tiempo, pero su frecuencia e intensidad han aumentado en años recientes. Los huracanes, las inundaciones y las sequías, y en menor grado los seísmos y los volcanes han provocado muertes, la pérdida de viviendas y la destrucción de la propiedad, afectando el suministro de alimentos, las comunicaciones y otros servicios fundamentales. El año 2004 fue sin precedentes en términos de los efectos extremos de los peligros naturales en la región, y aun en el resto del mundo. En el Caribe, con respecto al sector agrícola, los peligros naturales más significativos son las inundaciones, los huracanes, los deslizamientos de tierra, sequías, especies invasivas y erupciones volcánicas.Con la llegada de la tecnología informática cada vez más sofisticada, se hace hincapié más en la prevención. La región ya no puede seguir dependiendo de los procesos costosos de reconstrucción y de asistencia internacional post desastre. Es imprescindible mejorar la gestión de los riesgos para garantizar la protección y el progreso del desarrollo agropecuario, económico y social en la región en el futuro. Aplicando esta filosofía a la reducción de los riesgos que enfrenta el sector agropecuario en los peligros naturales, esta ponencia propone la adopción de un Sistema de Análisis de Peligros y Punto de Mitigación Crítica que consolide las iniciativas de las agencias nacionales y regionales e incorpore procedimientos con una perspectiva de género en las medidas de análisis de peligros, vulnerabilidad y mitigación.La perspectiva sobre \"la Reducción de los Riesgos Para Múltiples Productos Agropecuarios\" también reconoce explícitamente, que las amenazas naturales constituyen una mayor y muy frecuentemente desestimado riesgo para la agricultura en el Caribe. Además, este reconocimiento de que el seguro puede ser un importante instrumento de mitigación de riesgos se presenta en la estrategia de desarrollo de pocos cultivos en la región.El seguro agrícola está emergiendo de nuevo como un tema de interés para los agricultores, gobiernos y formadores de políticas, compañías aseguradoras e instituciones financieras para el desarrollo. En general, los seguros constituyen una forma de reducir o gestionar los riesgos cuando existe incertidumbre sobre los posibles resultados de producción. En particular, el seguro de cultivos, orientado a cubrir pérdidas derivadas de eventos adversos de origen climático o similares, que están más allá del control de los productores, está emergiendo como un proceso dinámico y un área de negocios en crecimiento. Esto está siendo impulsado por un aumento de la comercialización de productos agrícolas, la viabilidad de nuevos tipos de seguros, el desarrollo de la política de comercio internacional y la necesidad de los bancos de tener garantías sobre los préstamos que brindan a los productores. Parte de este crecimiento está ocurriendo en los países en desarrollo.El desarrollo de los mercados de seguros agrarios en el caribe será un aspecto crítico del conjunto de medidas disponibles para la reducción y gestión de los riesgos en la agricultura. Hasta hoy, la historia de los seguros agrarios en el Caribe se limita a algunos cultivos a saber: el banano en las Islas de Barlovento, a través de WINCROP -(Seguros para los Cultivos en las Islas de Barlovento) y el café, el banano y el coco, cada uno con cobertura separada en Jamaica. Las estrategias tradicionales para el manejo de los riesgos, incluyendo el uso de los ahorros, el acceso a créditos, la diversificación y el suministro de medidas de alivio por los gobiernos no son adecuadas para prevenir las pérdidas económicas importantes y permitir la recuperación rápida. La estimulación de la producción agropecuaria en el Caribe requiere un enfoque más estructurado a la gestión y la reducción de los riesgos, por medio de mecanismos tales como los seguros de cultivos, y en particular, los seguros para múltiples cultivos.La perspectiva de seguros para la reducción de los riesgos para múltiples productos agropecuarios discute las lecciones críticas de las experiencias y los asuntos que deben considerarse cuando se pretenda establecer un seguro para múltiples cultivos en el Caribe. La escasez de recursos y la falta de experiencia internacional son consideradas como limitaciones importantes que enfrentan los gobiernos de la región al intentar establecer planes de seguro para los cultivos. Existen muchas posibilidades para que el sector privado lidere el establecimiento y la gestión de los planes de seguro agrario, con el apoyo del sector público. Entre los factores claves que se deben considerar al establecer un plan modelo de seguro para múltiples productos son los criterios firmes de mercado abierto incluyendo una evaluación exhaustiva de la demanda, una identificación clara de los peligros claves, decisiones bien informadas sobre los cultivos que requieren cobertura, la elaboración de tarifas adecuadas para las primas, la participación del sector privado y un papel de apoyo de parte del gobierno. Además, Los asuntos relativos a la viabilidad y la sustentabilidad económica implican que se debe tener en cuenta el establecimiento de un plan de alcance y cobertura regional.La mitigación efectiva de los riesgos es unos de los requisitos críticos para aumentar la confianza en el ámbito comercial y estimular las inversiones en la actividad avícola en el Caribe. La perspectiva de \"Catalizar y Ampliar las Inversiones en la Agricultura y en las Zzonas Rurales\" reconoce explícitamente que la reducción de los riesgos percibidos y reales de los empresarios deben figurar entre los objetivos del sector público y los donantes, para que las inversiones deseadas se concreticen.Esta perspectiva reconocimiento que en la ausencia de instrumentos financieros para la mitigación de riesgos, tales como los mercados de seguros, los agricultores disponen de pocas opciones para la gestión de los riesgos sistémicos que afectan la producción (sequías, inundaciones, plagas, etc.) o la rentabilidad, así impactando negativamente el nivel de las inversiones o la capacidad de generar altos retornos de las mismas.La competitividad internacional y la sostenibilidad social y ambiental son los objetivos globales para el sector mientras que la región avanza hacia la realidad de una Economía Unica (CSME). Por lo tanto la región debe emprender actividades deliberadas y concertadas para desarrollar un sistema de empresas agrarias moderno, eficiente e integral para así mejorar su capacidad de participar en los segmentos de crecimiento de los mercados de agrialimentos regionales e internacionales, reduciendo su dependencia de las importaciones de alimentos extraregionales. Es de importancia crítica la creación de un entorno económico y empresarial propicio al desarrollo competitivo y sostenible del sector agropecuario y las zonas rurales por medio de las inversiones en dichos sectores.La necesidad de construir capital interno y nacional para estimular y mantener el crecimiento es un requisito del desarrollo. Esto tiene particular importancia a la luz de la evolución dramática del clima inversionista para la agricultura y el desarrollo rural. Durante los últimos veinte años, las inversiones agrícolas se orientaban hacia el aumento de la producción y el suministro mundial de alimentos. En el nuevo entorno las inversiones en el sector agropecuario intentan aumentar la competitividad y la rentabilidad a lo largo de la cadena de productos entre el agricultor y el consumidor, fomentar la sostenibilidad del medio ambiente y de la base de recursos naturales, y empoderar a la gente rural para que puedan manejar los cambios.La competitividad internacional y la sostenibilidad social y ambiental son los objetivos globales para el sector mientras que la región avanza hacia la realidad de una Economía Unica (CSME). Por lo tanto la región debe emprender actividades deliberadas y concertadas para desarrollar un sistema de empresas agrarias moderno, eficiente e integral para así mejorar su capacidad de participar en los segmentos de crecimiento de los mercados de agrialimentos regionales e internacionales, reduciendo su dependencia de las importaciones de alimentos extraregionales. Asimismo, dicha dependencia existe con respecto a la asistencia de los donantes. Generalmente, hay consenso en que la asistencia de los donantes puede catalizar el crecimiento del sector agropecuario y el desarrollo rural, pero ningún país en desarrollo debe perpetuar una dependencia de asistencia a favor del desarrollo, especialmente en la agricultura.La inversión en la agricultura y el sector rural es crítica en el proceso de crear un entorno económico y empresarial propicio al desarrollo competitivo y sostenible del sector agropecuario y las zonas rurales. Se sostiene que los empresarios agrarios son motivados a hacer inversiones en el sector por las oportunidades percibidas para obtener retornos económicos. Aunque la posibilidad de promover los retornos económicos también es un objetivo, la realización de mayor bienestar social es otra consideración importante para la inversión de parte de los gobiernos y sus agencias. La aplicación de algunos asuntos relativos a la inversión para catalizar la productividad en el sector se ilustra con referencia a la experiencia chilena. La perspectiva se concluye identificando unos proyectos posibles para la consideración de los gobiernos/las agencias o para la inversión tripartita en los países del caribe.La iniciativa Jagdeo establece claramente el vínculo entre los niveles limitados y disminuyendo de la inversión y el financiamiento de la agricultura en la región, y la falta de mecanismos de gestión de los riesgos en general. Se hizo un llamado fuerte para que se desarrolle un enfoque regional a la gestión de riesgos integral y coordinado que incluya instrumentos de seguros agrarios innovadores. Dada la premisa que las decisiones con respecto a la producción y comercialización en el sector agropecuario son tomadas independientemente por muchos productores individuales -los empresarios del sector-es aconsejable que una consideración de las opciones al respecto debe beneficiarse del aporte de los mismos.Les Gouvernements de la région de la Caraïbe ont donc décidé qu'une productivité modérée mais constante et de modestes résultats du secteur agricole ne sont plus acceptables. Les Chefs de Gouvernement de la CARICOM ont déjà proclamé que le secteur ne peut plus fonctionner « comme si de rien n'était ». Ils ont fait appel à une approche fondamentalement différente pour le repositionnement de l'agriculture.Il y a de cela quatre décennies, Mosher (1966) a soutenu que le repositionnement ou comme il l'entend « parvenir à faire l'agriculture bouger » se traduit par un simple concept: -la production agricole et les décisions relatives à la au marketing sont prises indépendamment par plusieurs entrepreneurs individuels. Dans la communauté de la Caraïbe, ces décisions sont prises quotidiennement et de manière simultanée, par des milliers d'agri entrepreneurs avec en toile de fond les risques de leur cadre d'opérations. Ce cadre de prise de décisions est établi autour des éléments suivants :-Des données liées aux prix (intérêts, change, salaires, intrants, transport, coûts énergétiques, etc); -L'information technique (technologies, etc); -Le processus de production (produit choisi par l'exploitant à partir des gains économiques escomptés); -Les données agro écologiques (le temps, la fertilité des terres, les risques relatifs aux pestes, etc); -La composition des produits (produits pour les foyers ou pour la production); -Les politiques/règlementations locales (agriculture, santé, politiques en matière d'environnement, autres par exemple le vol); -Les informations relatives aux marchés (lieu, demande, prix, normes, réglementation de l'accès, promotion, parmi tant d'autres); -Marchés de produits (produits finis ou intermédiaires, locaux, régionaux ou extra-régionaux).Généralement, le processus de prise de décisions en matière de production agricole est influencé par les encouragements au travail plutôt que par la nature du travail lui-même (Timmer, 1998) description par Michael Porter des trios étapes séquentielles du processus de développement économique, notamment l'étape initiale « motivée par les facteurs » suivie de l'étape « motivée par l'investissement », puis l'étape « motivée par l'innovation ».Porter décrit l'étape motivée par les facteurs comme une étape dépendante des conditions de bases relatives aux facteurs tels la main d'oeuvre bon marché et l'accès aux ressources naturelles étant les principales sources liées à l'avantage en matière de concurrence et d'exportations. Les activités visent à produire des marchandises ou des produits simples connexes avec des entreprises engagées dans la concurrence motivée par les prix et l'assimilation de technologies à travers les importations, l'investissement direct étranger et l'imitation. Les économies basées sur les facteurs sont très sensibles aux cycles économiques mondiaux, aux tendances des prix des produits et aux fluctuations des taux de change. L'Organisation pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture/Etat de l'alimentation et de l'agriculture (The Food and Agriculture Organization State of Food and Agriculture (FAO SOFA)) ( 2002) a remarqué que les économistes et les historiens indiquent cinq perspectives différentes sur le processus de croissance de l'agriculture. De ces cinq perspectives, la 'Perspective ressource' est conforme à l'étape de développement basée sur les facteurs mentionnée par Porter. Cette perspective suggère qu'avec des terres et de l'eau en abondance, les ressources ne devraient pas décliner alors que la population augmente puisque plus de terres peuvent être acquises pour la culture. Cependant, alors que les limites des terres et de l'eau sont fixées, la proportion de la population quant aux ressources augmentera et entraînera une baisse de la production par habitant. Ce modèle offre une idée selon laquelle la croissance de la croissance ou la densité de la population pourrait stimuler les investissements dans des changements institutionnels et technologiques.Il existe un consensus anonyme selon lequel la clé de la transformation du secteur agricole à partir de l'étape de développement : Perspective motivées par les facteurs/ressources est la croissance liée à la productivité. La croissance agricole exige l'obtention d'une meilleure productivité par unité de ressources utilisée pour générer des produits agricoles. Des niveaux de croissance de productivité élevés et constants sont une exigence requise dans la transformation vers une croissance poussée par l'investissement. Porter a remarqué que les investissements dans l'infrastructure efficace, l'administration gouvernementale favorable au commerce, des encouragements à l'investissement convaincants et un accès au capital représentent les éléments essentiels permettant une telle croissance de la productivité. Porter avance que dans le cas de la croissance poussée par l'investissement, l'activité économique se concentre sur la production et les exportations de services et de produits de l'extérieur, qui sont plus sophistiqués, avec une présence plus marquée dans la chaîne de valeur. Alors que l'on continue à se fier aux technologies importées, accessibles par le biais d'une autorisation, aux associations temporaires, à l'investissement étranger direct et à l'imitation, les pays ont développé leur capacité d'amélioration des technologies étrangères.Les quatre autres perspectives liées au processus de croissance du secteur de l'agriculture décrites par la FAO SOFA ( 2002) correspondent en termes généraux à l'étape basée sur l'investissement mentionnée par Porter.Celles-ci comprennent des investissements dans les domaines suivants, qui sont tous des éléments propices à une croissance durable de la productivité :-La perspective relative au changement institutionnel qui traite des inefficacités liées aux coûts de transaction et aux marchés imparfaits. Les investissements dans l'infrastructure et les institutions (institutions liées au crédit et aux systèmes juridiques) sont d'importance pour les économies basées sur l'agriculture et permettent de réduire les coûts relatifs au transport, aux transactions et autres.-La perspective liée au capital humain souligne que les aptitudes relatives à la production sur les exploitations (capital humain : exploitants) peuvent être optimisées à travers des investissements dans des programmes de formation (études) et de développement du secteur agricole.-La perspective de la meilleure pratique met l'accent sur le fait que, à tout moment, les exploitants pourraient ne pas avoir essayé et adopté des technologies existantes qui pourraient réduire les coûts de production, à cause d'un manque d'information et de démonstration des systèmes disponibles. Les investissements dans les systèmes de développement du secteur agricole vont alors permettre une croissance de la production alimentaire par habitant en rendant les exploitants plus aptes à utiliser la meilleure pratique en matière de technologie.-La perspective liée à l'invention adaptive souligne que la technologie agricole est déterminée en grande partie par la localisation. Les processus biologiques sont sensibles aux sols, au climat et mêmes aux conditions économiques. Le changement évolutionnaire naturel \"darwinien\" a permis une grande diversité d'espèces donnant lieu aux différences naturelles dans la vie animale et végétale de chaque groupe écologique. Les exploitants n'ont pu que partiellement surmonter ce phénomène de niche lors de la sélection des variétés de produits qui constituent de nos jours le stock de ressources génétiques utilisé par les producteurs modernes de plantes (et d'animaux) dans leur quête d'amélioration des variétés et des espèces. Les producteurs modernes doivent, au même titre, respecter le sol et les conditions climatiques en vue de concevoir des améliorations sur-mesure conformément aux régions et aux niches. Ceci signifie qu'une technologie qui est utile à un endroit pourrait ne pas l'être pour un autre site. En d'autres termes, l'invention spécifique (culture végétale) peut donner lieu à une croissance de la production par habitant.Le changement institutionnel, le capital humain, la meilleure pratique et les perspectives relatives à l'invention adaptive reposent tous sur la perspective de ressources en introduisant des dynamiques qui permettent aux exploitants de produire de plus grandes quantités avec la même quantité de ressources liées aux facteurs. Autrement dit, ces éléments introduisent un changement au niveau de la productivité. Chacune de ces perspectives est liée au développement de ce qui est appelé le capital technologique (CT), qui représente la capacité d'un pays à mettre en oeuvre, adapter et développer une technologie visant à améliorer la productivité. Cette dernière perspective est particulièrement critique pour le passage de l'agriculture à l'étape basée sur les facteurs à celle basée sur l'investissement. Comme mentionné auparavant, le processus de production agricole ne fonctionne pas comme une usine dans des conditions contrôlées. Par conséquent, avec un accent mis sur le rôle des technologies et étant donné que ces technologies sont inventées dans des pays développé pour des modèles de production agricole hautement industrialisée et dépendante de l'énergie, il conviendrait de considérer l'investissement direct étranger qui fonctionne comme des véhicules de transfert technologique. En effet, c'est à cause de cette réalité que l'innovation en matière d'agriculture, à tous les niveaux, de l'approvisionnement des intrants aux processus de production, en passant par le développement du capital humain et des produits, doit devenir le moteur et l'agent de durabilité de la croissance de la productivité dans le domaine de l'agriculture. D'après Bonnen (1998), les augmentations de la productivité ne résultent pas uniquement d'améliorations technologiques mais également aux changements liés à l'innovation institutionnelle et aux développements des ressources humaines. Il a conclu que sans développement institutionnel durable et des ressources humaines, de manière constante, un pays ne peut obtenir un secteur agricole hautement productif et industrialisé. D'après Bonnen (1998) les structures institutionnelles courantes aux USA, y compris le système juridique, ont permis de réduire une grande partie des risques et des coûts du commerce, contribuant ainsi à accroître la productivité dans le secteur agricole. Il a conclu que des politiques nationales durables, un développement institutionnel et une approche qui coordonne les investissements dans la recherche et la technologie, le développement du capital physique et humain, ainsi qu'une réponse adaptive pour leur utilisation, constituent une exigence requise pour l'obtention d'une plus grande productivité. Building Les Gouvernements de la région de la Caraïbe ont donc décidé qu'une productivité modérée mais constante et de modestes résultats du secteur agricole ne sont plus acceptables. Les Chefs de Gouvernement se sont entendu pour qu'une nouvelle stratégie soit développée, en vue de trouver des solutions et des réponses concrètes aux contraintes et défis auxquels fait face le secteur agricole. En Janvier 2005, lors d'une réunion des Ministres de l'Agriculture de l'Alliance de la région, le Président du Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo, en sa qualité de Président des responsables de l'Agriculture dans le cadre de la conférence des Chefs de Gouvernement de la CARICOM, a présenté un rapport sur les résultats du processus consultatif. Il est prévu que les résultats du processus de consultation permettront de lancer un processus beaucoup plus large de repositionnement de l'agriculture dans la région. L'intention est d'avoir un secteur agricole qui, d'ici 2015, devrait avoir :- Les catastrophes naturelles constituent, depuis longtemps, une réalité pour les peuples de la Caraïbe, mais leur fréquence et intensité se sont décuplées au cours de ces dernières années.Les cyclones, les inondations et les sécheresses, ainsi que dans une moindre mesure les tremblements de terre et les éruptions volcaniques, ont eu pour résultat des décès, des personnes sans abri, la destruction de propriété et des troubles au niveau de l'approvisionnement en nourriture, de la communication et d'autres services essentiels. L'année 2004 a été unique en son genre en termes d'effets extrêmes des dangers naturels dans la région et dans le monde. Pour le secteur de l'Agriculture, les dangers naturels les plus lourds de conséquences ont été les inondations, les cyclones, les glissements de terrains, les sécheresses, les pestes, le feu, les éruptions volcaniques et les tremblements de terre ou tsunamis. Certains des dommages potentiels peuvent être évités par le bais d'un investissement dans des évaluations des dangers et à travers l'incorporation des plans de développement.Avec la venue d'une technologie de l'information de plus en plus sophistiquée, un accent particulier est mis sur la prévention. La région ne peut plus continuer à dépendre de processus de construction coûteux et d'une assistance internationale post catastrophe. L'amélioration du système de gestion des risques est essentielle en vue de garantir la protection et les progrès avenirs de l'agriculture, du développement économique et social dans la région. Pour appliquer cette philosophie à la réduction des risques dans le secteur agricole générés par des dangers naturels, cette communication propose d'adopter un système de points pour l'Analyse de dangers et un système de points pour la Mitigation critique qui consoliderait les initiatives d'agences nationales et régionales et est sensibles aux procédures relatives à la sexospécificité dans l'analyse des dangers, de la vulnérabilité et des mesures de mitigation.Agricole pour Cultures Multiples » reconnaît également explicitement que les dangers naturels présentent un grand risque souvent non mitigé pour le secteur de l'Agriculture de la Caraïbe. En outre, elle comprend qu'alors que l'assurance est un instrument important en terme de mitigation des risques, sa disponibilité en tant que stratégie de gestion des risques liés aux catastrophes dans la Caraïbe est limitée à quelques cultures.Le développement de marchés d'assurance agricole dans la Caraïbe sera un aspect critique dans la détermination de mesures disponibles en matière de réduction et de la gestion des risques dans l'Agriculture. Jusqu'à ce jour, l'histoire de l'assurance dans le secteur agricole de la Caraïbe est limitée aux cultures telles les bananes dans les Iles sous le vent, gérées par WINCROP-Windward Islands Crop Insurance et le café, la banane et le coco étant autrement couvertes en Jamaïque. Les stratégies traditionnelles de gestion des risques, y compris le recours aux épargnes, l'accès aux prêts, la diversification et l'offre d'une assistance par les gouvernements ne se sont pas avérées être des mesures adéquates dans la prévention d'importantes pertes économiques et n'ont pas semblé permettre un redressement rapide. La stimulation de la production agricole dans la Caraïbe requiert une approche plus structure de la gestion et de la réduction des risques, à travers des mécanismes telle l'assurance pour les cultures et l'assurance pour les cultures multiples.La perspective sur la « l'Approche de la réduction des risques basée sur l'assurance agricole pour cultures multiples» aborde les leçons critiques tirées des expériences et thèmes à considérer dans tout effort de mise en place d'une assurance pour cultures multiples dans la Caraïbe. Des financements limités et un manque d'expérience générale sont considérés comme des contraintes clés face aux efforts faits par les gouvernements régionaux pour établir des modèles d'assurances pour cultures. Il existe une forte possibilité pour le secteur privé mène en matière d'efforts dans l'articulation et la gestion de modèles d'assurance des cultures, avec un soutien du secteur public. Parmi les facteurs clés à considérer, il faut mentionner des critères de marché solides, tels qu'une évaluation exhaustive de la demande, une claire identification des dangers clés, les décisions sur les cultures à couvrir, un classement approprié des primes, l'implication du secteur privé et le soutien des gouvernements. Par ailleurs, une viabilité économique et des questions de durabilité suggèrent qu'une considération devrait être accordée à l'établissement d'un schéma qui est régional dan sa portée et sa couverture.Une mitigation efficace des risques est une des exigences requises critiques pour l'amélioration la confiance en matière d'affaires et pour stimuler l'investissement dans le secteur agricole dans la Caraïbe. La perspective relative à l'action de « Catalyser et Accroître les Investissements dans lAagriculture et les Zones Rurales » reconnaît explicitement que la réduction des risques réels et perçus des agro-entrepreneurs doivent prendre clairement en considération les objectifs du secteur public et des bailleurs de fonds si les investissements ciblés doivent être réalisés.La perspective comprend qu'en l'absence d'instruments financiers pour la mitigation des risques, tels que les marchés d'assurance, les exploitants n'ont que quelques options en terme de gestion des risques systématiques affectant la production physique (sécheresses, inondations, pestes, etc.) ou la profitabilité, ayant donc un impact néfaste sur le niveau des investissements ou sur la capacité à obtenir des bénéfices élevés émanant de ces investissements.La perspective conclut que le besoin d'accumuler un capital intérieur et national pour stimuler et assurer la durabilité de la croissance est une exigence requise pour le développement. Ceci revêt une importance particulière à la lumière de l'évolution dramatique des investissements dans le domaine de l'agriculture et du développement rural. Au cours des vingt dernières années, les investissements dans le secteur agricole étaient destinés à augmenter la production et les quantités de nourriture dans le monde. De nos jours, l'environnement et les investissements dans le secteur de l'agriculture cherchent à accroître la compétitivité et la profitabilité dans la chaîne des produits, de l'exploitant au consommateur, avec une plus grande durabilité de l'environnement avec des ressources naturelles et le développement des capacités des peuples ruraux pour mieux gérer les changements.La compétitivité internationale et la durabilité sociale et environnementale sont des objectifs stratégiques pour l'agriculture, alors que la région se rapproche de la réalité d'une Economie unique dans le cadre de l'EMUC. La région doit donc s'engager dans des activités concertées et délibérées en vue de développer un système moderne, efficace et exhaustif d'agri business si ceci permet d'améliorer sa capacité de participation dans la croissance de segments de marchés de produits agricoles au niveau régional et international et pour réduire sa dépendance d'importations de denrées extra régionales. Une telle dépendance existe également en terme d'assistance provenant des bailleurs de fonds. Alors que beaucoup pensent que l'assistance des bailleurs de fonds est souvent un catalyseur pour la croissance du secteur agricole et du développement rural, aucun pays en voie de développement ne devrait continuer à dépendre de l'assistance de bailleurs de fonds pour son développement, particulièrement dans le secteur agricole.L'investissement dans les secteurs agricole et rural est critique dans le cadre du processus de création d'un milieu économique propice aux affaires pour la compétitivité et un développement agricole et rural durable. Il semblerait que les motivations qui poussent les agroentrepreneurs à investir dans l'agriculture sont des opportunités perçues en matières de bénéfices économiques. Alors que la possibilité de promouvoir les bénéfices économiques représente également un objectif, la réalisation d'une meilleure assistance sociale revêt une importance particulière pour l'investissement fait par les gouvernements et les agences. L'application de certaines questions relatives à l'investissement visant à catalyser la productivité dans le secteur est illustrée avec une référence faite à l'expérience chilienne. En guise de conclusion, la perspective considère l'identification de quelques projets possibles à présenter à la considération des gouvernements/agences ou tout investissement tripartie dans les pays de la Caraïbe.L'initiative de Jagdeo établit un lien clair entre l'investissement limité et en baisse et le financement pour l'agriculture dans la région, ainsi que le manque général de mécanismes de gestion des risques. Un appel résonnant a été fait pour développer une approche régionale intégrée et coordonnée en matière de gestion des risques, y compris des instruments innovateurs en terme d'assurance agricole, comme instruments de mitigation des risques. Etant donnée la prémisse selon laquelle la production agricole et les décisions liées au marketing sont prises indépendamment par plusieurs producteurs individuels -les agroentrepreneurs -il est donc conseillé que la prise en considération d'options dans ces domaines spécifiques doivent bénéficier de l'intervention des agroentrepreneurs eux-mêmes.The policy, institutional and information environment for disaster management in the Caribbean has improved significantly since the establishment of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) in 1991. As a result, the term 'natural disaster' is now widely used in the Caribbean to describe the region's vulnerability to natural hazards. A 'hazard' refers to the exposure to danger, risk or vulnerability. The United Nations Environmental Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), defined natural hazards as \"naturally occurring physical phenomena\", or risk elements inherent in the natural environment, which are an inevitable part of life on earth. Natural hazards may be of either: (a) atmospheric or 'weather-related' (hydro-meteorological) origin, such as, hurricanes, floods, droughts; (b) geological origin, such as, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslides, tsunamis; or (c) environmental origin, such as, wild (forest) fires and invasive species. In many situations, the probability of one or more natural hazards can be predicted, albeit with different advance warning depending on the type of hazard. A full description of the major tropical natural hazards, categorized by origin can be found in 'Natural Disaster Management, 1990-2000' (IDNDR, 1999).A natural hazard is not a disaster. Hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes and flooding are natural hazards not natural disasters. These two phrases are not synonymous and should not be used interchangeably. Disasters are also described as temporary events triggered by natural hazards or man-made actions that cause serious disruptions in the functioning of a community or a society due to its incapacity to respond and/or cope using only local resources. The result is widespread human, material, economic and/or environmental loss -the disaster.In the context of a natural hazard, UNESCO defined disasters as 'the consequences or effects of natural hazards….', representing '…. a serious breakdown in sustainability and disruption of economic and social progress'. UNESCO emphasized that natural hazards '..must not automatically cause disaster', observing that they may not be \"entirely 'natural', for people are agents of disaster\". This is based on the fact that some human practices and activities may increase the level of exposure to risks and/or may trigger disasters. For example, severe deforestation and unregulated over-construction on hillsides may cause more serious flooding; concentration of populations on flat coastal areas may worsen the effects of flooding and seaManaging Hazards, Reducing Risks and Increasing Investment in Agriculture -Some Perspectives surges; extensive settlements in hazard-prone zones and/or poor building codes and construction may place a significant number of the population in harm's way. Unfortunately, it is usually the poor segments of a society that settle in hazard prone areas and most vulnerable to natural hazards. The effects of natural hazards to man can be reduced through better understanding of exactly what a natural hazard is, the different triggers and vulnerability factors. This is essential in defining and applying preventive and preparedness measures, including land use and building codes, poverty-reduction and management and mitigation measures.Natural hazards have been a reality for Caribbean populations for a long time, but their frequency and intensity have increased in recent years. Hurricanes, floods and droughts and to a lesser extent earthquakes and volcanoes, have resulted in deaths, homelessness, destruction of property and disruption of food supplies, communication and other essential services. The year 2004 in particular, was unprecedented in terms of extreme effects of natural hazards in the region, and indeed throughout the world. The change in frequency and intensity of natural hazard events has been strongly linked to the impacts of climate change. The scientific community predicts higher and increased probabilities of more frequent and severe hurricanes and floods. Given this, the impact and cost of disasters as a result of hurricanes occurring near or over countries are expected to increase.Disasters from frequent incidences of natural hazards in the Caribbean have significantly impacted the history and development of the economies, particularly agriculture. Un-mitigated risks of natural hazards rank prominently as a major deterrent to investment in agriculture, particularly in primary production (farming, livestock, fishing etc). There is the general perception that such risks and uncertainties in other economic sectors are more easily managed and mitigated. This is evidenced by the existence of a range of risk mitigation instruments for the industrial and services sectors. Agriculture is an important economic activity and livelihood in most, if not all Caribbean countries. Its continued inability to cope with a range of natural hazards makes agricultural industries extremely vulnerable. During the past two decades, the more common natural hazards to which agriculture in the Caribbean was most vulnerable were floods, hurricanes, drought, landslides, invasive species and to a limited extent, volcanic eruption. These have affected agriculture in different ways, with varying disastrous consequences.Floods, whether flash, minor or major flooding, are classified by IDNDR (1999) as a weather-related hazard. They are becoming more prevalent and harmful over time and are listed as among the world's most frequent and damaging forms of disaster. Flooding is often the product of interaction between environmental and social pressures in which the principal motivation for the interaction is the desire to exploit natural resources. Flood hazards may be difficult to minimize in the absence of enforced policies and laws that deal with zoned land use, denudation of hillsides and the de-silting of watercourses. This reinforces UNESCO's assertion that 'people are agents of disaster\".In In virtually all these cases, the countries have been unable to cope in the absence of international assistance. The damage to agriculture has been substantial, in some cases totally devastating leading export crop industries (eg., banana, sugar, nutmeg) and destroying infrastructure. The following Drought is classified by IDNDR (1999) as a weather-related hazard. Drought is defined as the insufficiency of rain for an extended period that causes water shortages, stream-flow reduction and depletion of groundwater and soil moisture. IDNDR noted that agricultural drought in particular, does not depend only on the amount of rainfall, but also on the correct use of that water.Agriculture in the Caribbean is still largely rain-fed, rendering it highly vulnerable to disasters from natural hazards and the inefficient use and management of water resources. At the extremes are Antigua and Barbuda and some parts of Guyana which are both vulnerable to drought on an annual basis.The impacts of drought on agricultural production are usually documented in general terms, with information on specific losses ascribed solely to drought less common. This could be explained by the fact that losses from drought occur over an extended period of time with the impact less pronounced, than the damage caused by a hurricane.Landslides classified by IDNDR (1999) as a Geologic Hazard, are downslope movements of soil, rock or mud, triggered by prolonged or heavy rainfall and earthquakes, among others.The climate and geology (steep slopes resulting from tectonic and volcanic forces), make Caribbean countries vulnerable to landslides. Only on islands with low relief and limestone bedrock, such as, the Cayman Islands or the Bahamas can landslides be considered irrelevant as a hazard. Damage to structures, especially roads results in major economic loss from landslides. Estimates suggest that the cost of repairing landslide damage to roads throughout the Caribbean averages $15 million per annum. The magnitude of agricultural losses attributable to landslides varies based on the socio-economic status of the location where the landslides occur. Losses in the form of buried cropland and delays that span months to a few years before replanted crops are harvestable lead to substantial loss of livelihoods for many small farmers. Because agriculture is carried out mainly by individual farmers, with per capita incomes ranging from hundreds to a few thousand dollars, losses of this magnitude represent a severe burden to the economies of both individual families and island nations.Invasive species are defined as non-indigenous species that are capable of establishing a breeding, widely spreading population in the new location without further intervention by humans. Invasive species represent a major factor in the otential extinction of 30% of threatened bird species, and 15% of threatened plant species (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)).Overall, approximately two-thirds of species extinctions may involve competition with invasive species.Traditionally, Caribbean countries have suffered from the debilitating impacts of 'exotic pests and diseases' in agriculture. Such experiences date back to the mid-1980s, with the carambola fruit fly infestation in border regions of Guyana and Suriname. More recent experiences have been the rapid spread of the Pink Hibiscus Mealy Bug, from the initial outbreak in Grenada in 1994, to other Caribbean islands and the arrival of the Giant African Snail from the Martinique and Guadeloupe to St. Lucia, Dominica and Barbados from 2002/03. The lack of national action plans has allowed some invasive species to spread to unprecedented extents, interfering with human livelihoods, causing ecosystem disruption and ultimately impacting on local economies. Often, it is when the event reaches crisis proportions that concerted actions towards policy change and practice are mobilized as a regional response. These experiences and the various responses have done much to enhance understanding of the nature and impacts of invasive species and afford priority to the development of comprehensive national strategies and action plans and technical expertise in emergency and long-term management capacities.Invasive species are considered to be THE greatest threat to biodiversity in geographically and evolutionarily isolated systems, such as, islands of the Caribbean. Consequently, Caribbean countries have accelerated efforts to modernize their agricultural health and food safety systems and infrastructure in order to comply with their obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures. The CARICOM Secretariat, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and IICA were mandated to develop a new regional response -the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHSFA). CAHFSA is intended to be a functioning, self-sustainable, regional Agricultural Health Agency that would embrace animal and plant health activities, systems and infrastructure. CAHFSA could play a lead role in the mechanisms to limit invasive species as they affect terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals.Volcanic eruptions present a range of different hazards one after the other, or at the same time. These include moderate-sized earthquakes, landslides, fragmented rock and gas 'bombs' (ejected from the crater), pyroclastic flows, ash falls, lava flows and volcanic mudflows or lahars. However, it is not until the rich soils formed on their ejection are occupied by farms and human settlements that they are considered hazardous (IDNDR, 1999).Although volcanoes are a distinctive agent in the formulation of several Caribbean islands, they have been relatively less significant as a natural hazard within recent times. It is also noteworthy that several of these volcanoes in the Caribbean have been named 'Soufriére'. The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Soufriére Volcano erupted twice in the last century, in 1902/03 and 1979. The former eruption killed 1,565 people, with extensive damage to agriculture in both events. Kick 'em Jenny, the submarine volcano 8 km north of Grenada has been the most active in the Caribbean in the 20 th Century, having erupted 11 times since it was first discovered in 1939. However, the Montserrat Soufriére Hills Volcano has been the most active since 1995.Volcanic eruptions have continued to ravage Montserrat over the last 10 years, with almost total devastation of ground vegetation in the affected areas. The forest has been severely impacted by acid rain, noxious gasses and the weight and physical impact of heavy ash and projectiles. While the forest will recover over time, most if not all wildlife habitat and biodiversity have been severely impacted. The May 2006 ash fall and associated acid rains disrupted the delicate recovery in agriculture, destroying arable farming, livestock (largely sheep and goats), fruit tress and some ornamentals island wide. A rapid assessment suggested that at least 20 major arable crop farmers and over 50 small and back yard farmers were affected. With an approximate 52% of farmers wholly dependent on farming for livelihoods, the loss of current incomes and delayed recovery add to existing socio-economic pressures. It is expected that when these eruptions subside and finally cease, the nutrients added to the soil will greatly enhance the agricultural potential.  The MACC project offers critical inputs to the regional disaster management environment through its promotion the adoption of the Comprehensive Hazard Assessment and Risk Management (CHARM) approach for national planning.The CHARM strategy begins with the establishment of the context followed by the identification, analysis, evaluation and treatment of the risks (SOPAC, 2002). The success of this strategy is dependent upon participation of and acceptance by all stakeholders, including government planning departments, national disaster management offices, non-governmental organizations, community groups, private sector, donors, and regional partners.The history of these events and likelihood of future severe events, including those associated with climate change, have opened the window of opportunity to foster greater attention to hazard risk reduction, disaster management and specifically, mitigation measures. CDERA (2001) concluded that, altogether these natural events have diverted considerable sums of government budgets from capital investment and recurrent expenditure into reconstruction. Losses in earnings from visible (agriculture) and invisible (tourism) exports have exacerbated the economic hardships experienced. Some countries, notably, Antigua and Barbuda and Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis and Montserrat, have experienced multiple losses in close succession. Each disaster leaves in its wake an overwhelming volume of evidence suggesting that planning and investment can mitigate vulnerability and consequent risk from subsequent events. Mitigation and adaptation strategies must form part of a multi-purpose investment in the future of an economy and society.Disaster management refers to policies, strategies and activities in preparation for and response to the effects of natural or man-made hazards. Disaster risk reduction is guided by consideration of human vulnerability to natural hazards, the impact of the development process on human vulnerability and the desire to reduce risk and vulnerability. Taken together, these principles imply that disaster reduction should be an integral component of development process. In the development of disaster management, particularly in the development of early warning systems for crops, diseases and climate, rapid advances in Information Technology (IT) has played a key role. The FAO promotes three such IT-based systems:The Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) that monitors food production, stocks, trade and export prices.The Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) for Trans-boundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases linked to GIEWS, issues alerts of imminent livestock epidemics.The Desert Locust Information Service, an arm of the EMPRES network, offers information about threats of upsurges, using computer technology to track the movement of locusts (CTA, 2005).The experience of the 2004 hurricane season has catalysed efforts to improve disaster preparedness within the region and so reduce the vulnerability of the countries. As most Caribbean countries are small low-lying island systems, they are inherently vulnerable to the effects of natural hazards, particularly hurricane winds and flooding. Indeed, even with the limited severe seismic activity, there is very little evidence of contingency planning for potential impacts of a major land or submarine eruption. Similar emphasis is being placed on developing national capacities for disaster management in agriculture in particular. These include compensation for losses, insurance systems for hurricane-induced losses, proactive surveillance of pest and disease incidence and a collaborative early warning systems and Emergency AHFS Preparedness Plans. Much of natural disaster mitigation efforts are undertaken at the farm-level with many of the practical mitigation measures are embodied in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and are therefore not viewed as an add-on procedure (Protz, 1999). In some countries, various forms of insurance are also associated with agricultural disaster mitigation and risk reduction (Esters, 1997;Glauber, 2004). However, it is noted that the regional agricultural insurance market is virtually non-existent.The lessons learnt from the disasters of 2004 afford recognition of the need for cooperation and collaboration among international agencies. The main areas for concerted efforts and strengthening in disaster management cycle include an urgent need, to inter alia: ▪ heighten awareness and understanding among Caribbean nationals of the dangers and potential impact of natural hazards; ▪ improve national coordination for pre and post disasters to facilitate more effective and timely delivery of the necessary support; ▪ establish and maintain a high level of transparency in the conduct of relief and other operations during and post disasters; ▪ define clear communication plans for disaster management that specific lines of responsibility, including the extremely important management of public information. While there are plans in many countries, the communication responsibility and strategy is not well known or tested; ▪ implement public information campaigns for dealing with disasters and emergencies throughout the year, not just after the disaster; ▪ dedicate a national frequency for emergency broadcast information and service (IICA, 2004).For the Caribbean, regional collaboration is the most appropriate and cost effective way to implement and monitor disaster management programmes. In this regard, the establishment of CDERA in 1991 has impacted positively on the policy and institutional environment for disaster management in the Caribbean. CDERA's main function is to make an immediate and coordinated response to any disastrous event affecting any participating state, once the state requests such assistance. Besides its primary function of disaster response, CDERA carries activities in all aspects of the disaster management cycle: defined as preventionmitigation-preparedness-response-recovery-rebuilding. The partners of CDERA are the regional response organizations, the national disaster organizations, the donor agencies, specialized technical agencies, Non Governmental Organizations, other private sector groups and other response agencies.CDERA has had some successes in guiding an agenda that promotes international cooperation, information exchange and technical assistance aimed at improving disaster management. In recognition of the need to develop and implement structured and comprehensive programmes, which lead to a reduction of hazard risk and disaster losses, CDERA and CDB developed a Model Hazard Mitigation Policy for the Caribbean in March 2003. It addresses natural and technological hazards and is designed to be used as a guide, together with sector vulnerability assessments and reduction measures, by CDERA participating states and Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) borrowing member countries to develop national hazard mitigation policies (CDERA, 2003). Among the data available are hazard maps to enable agricultural entrepreneurs to assess flood risks in order to inform crop selection and planting decisions.Within the region the Caribbean Agricultural Meteorology network (CarAgMet) with current membership from Barbados, Grenada, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, inter alia, provides information and advice to the agricultural community on meteorological issues affecting agricultural production (CarAgMet, 2006). In all instances, the effectiveness of these systems is influenced by the speed of response of agricultural entrepreneurs themselves, governments and donor agencies.The CDB has approved capital loans, equity participation and technical assistance grants for Regional projects in areas at risk from climate change and climate variability particularly agriculture, forestry, fishing, tourism, water, health and housing. The CDB has also established a Risk Management Programme in its borrowing member countries and a Disaster Mitigation Facility for the Caribbean (DMFC). The DMFC is supported by funding from the USAID.The DMFC will strengthen regional capacity for disaster mitigation as a means of vulnerability reduction and will provide technical assistance in support of the implementation of functional disaster mitigation policies and practices.The involvement of key international agencies in disaster management in the Caribbean is summarized as follows. The collective efforts at both the national and regional levels should strengthen the capacity and suite of disaster mitigation measures available to Caribbean countries. However, the expectations from these disaster mitigation initiatives would not be achieved if Caribbean countries continue to under utilise the available disaster loss reduction tools. This was the conclusion of a recent CDERA study (February 2005) conducted in 20 English, French-and Spanish-speaking Caribbean states. The study revealed that a number of hazard maps were available across the region but few countries were maximizing the use of them. In fact, only in Martinique and Puerto Rico was the use of vulnerability assessments in the planning process legally enforced. Vulnerability assessments and hazard mapping are important as the starting point of any activity for disaster loss reduction. However, the absence of a clearly stated recognition of gender-specific pre and post disaster impacts and capabilities was a glaring omission. This is part of a more systemic lack of appreciation of the gender specific dimension of hazard mitigation.Notwithstanding national and regional efforts and donor interventions, the Caribbean continues to suffer heavy losses from natural hazards. Primary causes can be found in the rapid development of the tourism sector in highly vulnerable coastal areas, a lack of capacity for sound physical planning and development control and the absence of appropriate building standards. But perhaps the most profound cause is linked to the absence of effective mechanisms for mainstreaming disaster management in development planning. Agricultural development remains the bedrock of economic and social development of the countries of the region. Therefore, despite substantial allocations from agencies to recovery and reconstruction efforts in affected countries, the fragmentation in approach and the lack of adequate attention to sustainable agricultural development has reduced the impact of the efforts.Traditionally, within Latin America and the Caribbean, integrated development planning and hazard mitigation are usually treated as separate parallel processes. The CDERA/CDB model hazard mitigation policy recognises that effective formulation and implementation of hazard mitigation activities benefits from coordination and collaboration among agencies. Advantages of such coordination include a greater possibility that vulnerability reduction measures will be implemented if they are part of a development package, efficient generation and use of data from joint activities and a lower cost of vulnerability reduction. It also leads to more robust activities due to improved information exchange, inputs into the science and engineering research agenda and the building of resiliency in the most vulnerable segment of the population.Institutional weakness remains one of the central constraints to disaster management in the Caribbean. Indeed, this has been identified as a key binding constraint to sustainable agricultural development in the Caribbean. This is exacerbated by the limited knowledge and facts on the vulnerability of populations and their assets. Hazard assessment data have not been sufficiently integrated and transformed into policies and strategies for managing the adverse consequences of natural hazards, in particular high winds and flooding.While regional organizations and governments through the national entities take actions to strengthen their response capacities, these efforts tend to prepare for and respond to the onset of hazards, rather than to take actions that in the short and longer term that will lead to stabilization, recovery and hazard risk reduction. Risk transfers such as insurance, financial market, privatization of public services and calamity funds are either, undeveloped, unavailable or very discreet. Furthermore, where they do exist, the primary beneficiaries are physical structures and stocks. This tends to exclude agriculture, which is a key sector in the social and economic recovery of most of the countries when a natural disaster occurs. (IICA 2004)A critical point is a step that if controlled, will eliminate a hazard, or reduce it to an acceptable level. The critical point concept has gained currency in relation to food safety with the application of HACCP. It can also be applied to Thermodynamic phase transitions. It is the timely adjustment of phased activities in agriculture by utilizing the appropriate mitigating measure that gives the critical mitigating point its utility. It can be a powerful tool when coupled with proper analysis involving the identification of the hazards that could occur at each phase in the process and the description and implementation of measures to be taken for their control.Beyond that critical point, the same measures will be ineffective, incurring costs that will outweigh the benefits.There is a clear and present need for a comprehensive disaster mitigation mechanism within the region, generally, and for agriculture in particular. The escalating economic, environmental and social costs dictate that a concerted, systemic and systematic approach is adopted. In this regard, the food safety concept of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system seems applicable in conceptualizing a Hazard Analysis and Critical Mitigation Point (HACMP) system for disaster mitigation. This approach provides a framework to fully integrate the CHARM and HACCP principles into one system, and to further institutionalize the critical point concept within the agricultural sector. It also provides a structured mechanism to inculcate gender-sensitive procedural elements into the hazard analysis, vulnerability assessment and mitigation measures. The well-documented roles of women in the agricultural and rural sectors will be recognized in the determination of critical points.The seven principles of HACMP are (1) the analysis of the hazard, (2) the identification of critical points, (3) the design and establishment of critical limits for each mitigation point, (4) the design and establishment of monitoring measures for theManaging Hazards, Reducing Risks and Increasing Investment in Agriculture -Some Perspectives respective critical points, (5) establishment of corrective actions, (6) establishment of verification measures and ( 7) effective record keeping. The design of the programmes should incorporate the seven HACMP principles and every effort should be made to involve the stakeholders in all phases of the activities.The HACMP framework should be perceived as a policy framework to guide responses and interventions intended to mitigate the impact of natural hazards. HACMP provides a basis for a natural hazard mitigation policy for the agricultural sector with advantages that include focused attention as required and the opportunity to be proactive and tailored to specific stakeholders. It promotes and utilises a systems approach based on sound science and provides a structured mechanism for multi-agency participation, increased efficiency, effectiveness of oversight and linkages with regional disaster mitigating agencies. If properly implemented and managed, HACMP can also lead to a substantial reduction in the cost of post-hazard resumption.However, for its effective implementation, HACMP will require a 'driver', perhaps a legislative or institutional or agency framework together with political support. There will be need for the adoption of cost containment measures together with effective communication with and participation of stakeholders. In addition, the benefits of HACMP will have to be contrasted with a perception of it being too rigorous. Further, its adoption would require political and policy support from the various levels of the public sector. This could be complemented with supporting programmes of agencies working in the agricultural sector.One of the most important aspects of a successful hazard mitigation strategy is the participation of the public during the planning process. Such participation must fully and integrally include women in all steps of the HACMP process, taking specific actions that will ensure their full participation in post-disaster mitigation and recovery. Indeed, case studies in developing countries highlight a serious deficiency in the policy response to disaster reduction and sustainable development -that is failure to reflect principles of participation and sustainability in post-disaster efforts (Ayse Yonder et al, 2005). This is evident in emergency and short-term disaster response programming that often favours technical responses that emphasise the involvement of outside professionals over the priorities, skills and knowledge of the affected persons. Many standardised programmes ignore the complexity of communities' needs in rebuilding their lives and livelihoods. Even when the importance of local communities' participation is recognised, there is often no clear agreement about what the participation should entail leading to confusion at best and wasted resources at worst. Yonder et al (2005) observed that in addition, relief and recovery efforts fail to adequately consider gender-specific impacts of disasters. Disasters increase women's household and care giving work dramatically yet post disaster efforts often ignore these inequalities. Misconceptions are widespread about the contribution grassroots women can make to post disaster efforts. Women's efforts, once supported, are no less technologically appropriate than those of with males. Reducing the economic vulnerability of women and their families should be seen as a key mitigation measure that reduces potential losses from future disasters.Yonder et al (2005) concluded that lessons learnt from the experiences in other countries suggest that aid agencies must broaden accountability measures to reward efforts that demonstrably reduce social vulnerabilities and foster participatory local development throughout the post disaster relief and recovery stage. The responses should include monitoring mechanisms to ensure that women, being among the most vulnerable and marginalised groups, can access resources, participate publicly in planning and decision making, organise themselves and build capacity to sustain their involvement throughout the recovery exercise. There must be formal, linked mechanisms to ensure women's participation in the overall mitigation process.Within the past two decades the Caribbean region has experienced repeated losses from hurricanes and associated wind, rain, storm surge damage, drought, volcanic eruption flooding and landslides. However, approaches to natural disaster management in the Caribbean continue to focus on either avoidance, not taking any action, minimizing the impacts, recovery/rehabilitation, long-term mitigation through good practices and/or compensation for damages and losses. Such losses, including those in agriculture, have exacerbated the economic and social hardships and seriously disrupted the economic growth and development process.The Caribbean cannot continue to rely on costly reconstruction and post-disaster external assistance. Disaster management and mitigation adaptation strategies must be viewed as a multi-purpose investment in the economic, industry and society's future. The UN/ISDR Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Inter-Agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction 8th meeting Geneva (5-6/11/20030) concluded that reducing agriculture's vulnerability to natural hazards is critical to its sustained development and that disaster reduction is also equally important for poverty reduction.Under the Jagdeo Initiative 'Deficient and Uncoordinated Risk Management Measures' is identified as one of the ten Key Binding Constraints for urgent regional action. Despite renewed preventative efforts, through, mainly strengthened Offices of Disaster Preparedness and Management, there is still no specific reference to the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors within National Disaster Management Plans. Strengthening the policy and institutional framework and technical capacity for hazard reduction and disaster management will require an urgent consolidation and strengthening of disaster management policies, strategies, resources and capacities in agriculture.In comparing the agricultural, community's response to food safety hazards through the introduction of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), it is suggested that agriculture adopt similar principles to guide the response to environmental hazards as they relate to natural events. A counterpart system, namely the Hazard Analysis and Critical Mitigation Point (HACMP) system has been offered as a possible starting point. This system promotes the need for institutionalising the critical point concept within agriculture and offers a structured mechanism to include gender-sensitive procedural elements into all aspects of the system, from hazard identification to mitigation and relief efforts. The perspective outlined above therefore is offered as a basis for developing a structured, auditable system to consolidate the disparate efforts of several regional and national agencies with interest in the natural hazard reduction and disaster management.The agric-entrepreneur, particularly the farmer, experiences many stress and risk factors unique to the agricultural livelihood, that influence the decision making process. This makes agriculture a complex business.Akcaoz and Ozkan (2005) categorised risk in agriculture into three areas, production, marketing and finance. These areas encompass uncertainty pertaining to such as rainfall (in rain fed cultivation situations), price changes, timely availability of labour, availability and functioning of machinery and changes in government policy. The USDA expands the classification into five areas; namely price, production, income, financial and institutional. Price risk is associated with price fluctuations in the global market while production risk pertains to planting, harvesting and yields. Income risks relate to changes in production or prices or swings in various input costs and financial risks are associated with such as farm cash flows, cost of debt and cost of capital. Institutional risk is linked with government policy (USDA, 2006). Akcaoz and Ozkan (2005) reported on a study of South African commercial farmers that identified some risk sources as crop gross income, government policy, livestock gross income, credit access, and government regulations.For ease of reference, these varying classifications can be grouped as follows:Price and market risk -associated with price fluctuations in the global market and those arising from trade and travel, e.g. invasive species; Production risk -related to planting, harvesting and yields (the latter especially in relation to natural disasters, e.g., hurricanes and floods); Income risks -related to changes in production or prices or swings in various input costs; Financial risks -associated with cash flows, cost of debt and cost of capital; Institutional risk -linked to government policy and the regulatory environment;Personal risk -linked to the improper use of machinery and chemicals, lack of awareness about safe practices and unavailability or inappropriateness of protective equipment. This ranks agriculture alongside mining and construction as the three most hazardous occupations in both developing and developed countries. Experience suggests that an optimal approach to mitigating risk in agriculture may encompass a strong element of entrepreneurial perspective. It will be prudent for any consideration of risk reduction options to be made within the context of the prevailing macroeconomic, entrepreneurial, agro-ecological, sectoral and market environment. Like the typical financial pursuing a diversified portfolio in order to reduce risk, the typical agri-entrepreneur, worldwide, also engages in risk reduction activities through practices, such as, intercropping, irrigation in preference to rain-fed production and crop selectivity. This is supported by the research of Lukanu et al (2004) who investigated the cash crop cultivation decisions of farmers in Mozambique. Lukanu et al (2004) concluded that the production decisions of those farmers were influenced by factors such as the ability to intercrop with existing food crops, the availability of drought-, pest-and disease-resistant varieties, technical and financial support systems and the availability of a market. Reflection upon these findings and the entrepreneurial decision-making framework (see introductory section) suggest that consideration of risk reduction options should benefit from inputs from the entrepreneurs themselves. Reducing risk in agriculture can be partly achieved by stabilizing the respective variables that influence entrepreneurs' decisions, and/or by establishing mechanisms that cushion the negative impact of unexpected occurrences. One such mechanism is that of insurance.In general, insurance is a way for reducing or managing risks when faced with uncertainty of outcome. The concept relies on the pooling of the risks separately faced by a large number of individuals, who contribute through premiums to a common fund that is used to cover the losses incurred by any individual in the pool. The viability of the insurance scheme is based in part on the level of the premiums and the expectation of a spread in the probability of the losses that each participant may face.Requirements of a viable insurance scheme include: Symmetric information shared between the insurer and the insured on the distribution of probable losses so that the risk can be properly classified. The information needs for agriculture pertain to weather patterns, yields, market trends, farm conditions, farm management capacity, risk attitudes, and capacity to pay for the insurance.A large number of similar exposed units since for the actuarial models used to determine coverage, indemnity and premium levels to be accurate, the size of the pool or portfolio should be large and face similar risks.The risk should be nearly or perfectly independent across insured individuals and spatially uncorrelated. The degree of correlation in financial losses caused by the risk insured is critical and as such the greater the spatial correlation, the less efficient insurance becomes as a risk transfer mechanism.Where losses are catastrophic, the risk-pooling does not present an advantage for insurance since the contributions of the unaffected are insufficient to cover the damages of the affected.An insurance company should be able to calculate both average frequency of the random event to be insured and the average severity of loss. For lowprobability risks with potentially catastrophic results, it is usually difficult to fix a rate.Actual losses must be determinable and measurable with evidence of a clear and causal linkage between the actual loss and the random event insured.Potential losses must be significant and an insurable interest must prevail otherwise there will be no incentive to purchase insurance. In addition, insurance cannot be provided to policyholders who have a vested interest in a loss occurring.There must be limited policyholder control over the insured event with the buyer unable to control whether an insured event will occur, otherwise \"moral hazards or suspect claims\" are likely to prevail.Premiums should be economically affordable and attractive to potential buyers; a condition achieved when the premium cost is substantially less than the potential benefit offered by the policy should the insured event occur.Agriculture is an inherently a risky business and entrepreneurs, particularly farmers, face a multitude of risks, high among them being production or yield risk. Production risk cannot be eliminated but could be reduced, mitigated and managed using various technologies. Among the financial mechanisms that have been employed to deal with production risks is that of insurance. Other risks affect viability of enterprises but these risks are typically managed through other instruments.support for insurance development in agriculture is growing . . . Agricultural insurance is remerging as a topic of interest to farmers, governments and policy makers, insurance companies and developmental finance institutions. The major types of insurance products available in agriculture globally are for yield, catastrophes, price, revenue and income. In addition, index insurance and one for mutual funds are also available. Price Insurance is feasible for those commodities for which objective price data are available. Loss assessment is usually based on a price that cannot be influenced by the farmer such as 'futures price' and 'spot market price'.Revenue Insurance is a combination of price and yield insurance that has the potential advantage of being cheaper than either since the probability of a bad outcome is smaller. Revenue insurance can be established on a commodity basis or for a portfolio of commodities. The latter can be cheaper for the farmer, because low revenue from one enterprise is likely to be partly offset by higher revenues from another, if the revenues are not positively correlated. In order to offer revenue insurance, an insurance company must be able to determine the joint probability distribution of price and yield risks and find solutions to overcome moral hazard and adverse selection problems.Income Insurance is potentially more attractive to farmers than other forms of insurance, because it deals with losses affecting farmers' welfare more directly. However, moral hazards and adverse selection issues make it difficult for an insurance company to calculate the probability distribution of a bad outcome and to fix a sound premium.Index Insurance allows for a weather or climatic measurement to be used as the trigger for indemnity payments. In this case a coupon that specifies a monetary sum becomes payable on proof that the reference weather event, of defined severity, has occurred. The value of the coupon may be standard or varied in proportion to the severity of the event. Such a product is suitable where weather perils may affect a wide area such as with drought or hurricane.Mutual Funds are a special case of insurance where the participants, having previously contributed, own the funds to be used to reimburse a loss. A member's loss is fully or partially compensated from money already in the fund. A mutual funds scheme offers the advantage that farmers, knowing each other, will be able to exercise social control, reducing problems of moral hazard or adverse selection.Agricultural insurance is an especially difficult product to deliver because, despite the possibilities of reinsurance, it is hard to calculate farm premiums in order to develop sufficient reserves for low probability but high loss events. (Asian Development Bank, 2003). In addition natural risk in agriculture is a different but not an intractable problem when approached on a limited-peril basis by an insurer structured along quite different lines to the typical government program (Roberts and Dick, 1991). This suggests that it is possible to contain costs, both for underwriting and for administration, and still provide a useful risk-transfer mechanism that farmers will voluntarily purchase. Roberts and Dick (1991) observed that there was a growing volume of business based upon more flexible limited-peril insurance arrangements between agricultural industries wishing to transfer some of the major production risks and insurers willing to accept the risk for an adequate premium and safeguard. However, it is conceptualised that market niche for insurance is more in the commercial agricultural sector, where substantial investments have been made.Specific-risk commercial agricultural insurance is currently developing slowly in the commercial sectors of many developing countries and in many cases in the absence of public sector participation. This phenomenon is mainly as a consequence of the increasing scale and commercialization agricultural in developed and developing countries. It reflects insurers having followed old clients or producers, risking large sums of capital on uncertainties of weather, requesting the insurance industry to develop risk-transfer mechanisms tailored to their specific needs (Roberts and Dick, 1991). With this trend, agriculture seems gradually becoming on par with other industries with the felt need for risk-transfer mechanisms that will at least provide protection against certain natural catastrophic risks, and help ease the fluctuations in the usual unstable cash flows of agricultural enterprises. The high premiums paid make such business attractive to insurers with the added incentive that many perils are controllable by management, leaving a limited number to be covered by insurance.Support for insurance development in agriculture is growing with the new thinking of re-insurers who are more willing to participate in agricultural risk.The scale of the enterprise, together with advances in technology and its capacity to mimimise the risks previously thought to be uninsurable (pests, diseases and drought) has made agricultural industries viable commercial reinsurance risks. Also important is that these risks are not tied to government schemes, typically characterised by inadequate premiums, and government interference in indemnity payments.Crop insurance, geared to covering losses from adverse weather and similar events beyond the control of growers, is emerging as a dynamic process and growth business area. The approach of risk management in the application of crop insurance in developing countries has grown over the years, following interest in risk-related schemes, and is still evolving. This is being driven by increasing commercialisation of agriculture, the availability of new types of insurance products, international trade policy developments and the need for the security of loans by banks to farmers. Some of this growth is occurring in the developing world where some 13% of global insurance premiums are paid (Roberts, 2005).Like any business transaction, crop insurance must allow both parties to benefit. Portfolios of geographically dispersed crop insurance contracts can be as much as twenty times more risky than an equally valued portfolio of health and car insurance contracts. (Asian Development Bank, 2004). With respect to risk management, there are two caveats for successful crop insurance schemes, namely: 1) Buyers must be confident that the premiums and expected benefits offer value while the sellers must see opportunity for a positive actuarial outcome and profit, over time; and 2) Insurance can address only part of the losses resulting from some perils and is not a universal cure for the risks and uncertainties inherent to farming process.Any limitations to the scope for effective and economic crop insurance, though real at any given moment, can change over time. That is because farming is dynamic and does present different patterns of risk and new ways of coping with effective production, farm management and other risks. As such the potential to develop new types of insurance products always exists.Typical crop insurance schemes in the past were government subsidized or in some cases combined with mutual funds. These traditional agriculture insurance programs built upon multi-peril products have generally been failures because of high administrative costs, adverse selection and moral hazards problems all leading to inefficiency. Other than the high administrative costs of multi-peril crop insurance, political inability on the part of governments to charge fair premiums and enforce impartial loss adjustments has characterised schemes in developed and developing countries alike (Roberts and Dick, 1991). Indeed, while developed countries are able to afford such schemes, developing countries can ill afford such luxuries with limited national budgets and constraints on using state resources. Multi-peril agricultural insurance was widely discussed during the eighties but its adoption as a risk-mitigating instrument suffered from a dearth of analysis of the product and ways of efficiently implementing it (Roberts and Dick, 1991).The experience of various developing and developed countries with crop insurance is varied and instructive.In India the experience suggests that multi-crop insurance and a mix of selfsupporting schemes together with subsidy support are more feasible and economical approaches. The insurance products should be built on commercial principles and geared to producers of high quality products (Roberts, 2005).In Brazil, the government-subsidized crop insurance programme was constrained by major teething problems linked to an insufficient understanding of 'risk'. Recent developments have been better informed and include efforts to introduce crop revenue products, under area-based determination of loss. However, crop insurance is still very small in relation to the size of the agricultural sector.Malaysia offers crop insurance to both small scale and large enterprises, covering a number of horticultural products. However, the large-scale farmers are more likely to buy insurance. Experiences are varied but a business approach to understanding risk and design of appropriate policies is evolving, along with possibilities of commercial pooling of insurers to cover important crops, such as rice.In Mauritius there is a well-established scheme offered by parastatal agencies, providing coverage to sugar farmers against looses to cyclones for over 50 years. More recently, coverage has been extended to fire, excessive rain and yellow spot disease (in conditions of excessive rain). The experience has led to a sound method for rewarding growers whose claims record has been good for the insurer. All growers for each insurance/growing season are positioned on a dynamic 100-point scale with the ranking on the scale determining their level of premium to be paid and the indemnity level to be received in the event of a claim for that period.In the Philippines current crop insurance emerged from an agricultural guarantee fund operated by the main government-owned agricultural development bank. The scheme is operated by a parastatal entity, provides risk management services to borrowing farmers and their lenders and offers policies to self-financed farmers. Participation in insurance is compulsory for maize and rice farmers in the higher-potential agricultural regions, but government and institutional lenders heavily subsidize the premiums paid (Roberts, 2005).The United States of America (USA), Canada and Mexico have well developed and long-standing insurance products and services in agriculture.In the USA, the over-riding driver for the insurance appears to be social welfare as opposed to the efficiency objective even though the programme seems intended to improve the social welfare of farmers, as well as deliver insurance products in an actuarially sound manner (Wenner, 2005). Coverage is extensive with policies covering up to 100 commodities in 2004 up from 59 in 1994. Four crops, corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton accounted for 79% of the total premiums collected in 2004. Six different yield and revenue insurance products are offered, with the most popular being the revenue ones (Wenner, 2005). Private insurance companies sell the products while the government provides subsidies to farmers to pay the premiums and also reimburses administrative and operating expenses for private companies, of approximately 22% of total premiums. The government also provides reinsurance to private insurance companies at an estimated subsidy rate equivalent to 14 % of total premiums. Although approximately 70% of the nation's crop acreage is insured, the participation rate is comparatively low. Wenner (2005) concludes that the programs are not actuarially sound and represent more of an income transfer program than a risk management tool.In Canada, a tripartite system evolved from a 1939 disaster assistance program to grain producers. The system consists of three programs: 1) Crop Insurance which providing a yield guarantee based on an historical yield data for the farm; 2) Net Income Stabilization Account offering a matching savings program to help farmers achieve long-term income stability; and 3) Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance, designed to help farmers recover from external shocks that threaten the viability of their enterprise. The federal government funds 60% of the cost while provincial governments meet the remaining 40%. The program is very participatory involving stakeholders in product design, rate setting and performance feedback.In Spain the existing system is a public-private partnership involving three main players, namely a department of the ministry of agriculture, a pool of sixty private insurance companies and a public enterprise under the ministry of economy. The important features of the program include universal coverage (130 commodities to date), insurance of all agricultural risks, provision of income stabilization while maintaining actuarial soundness and participation rate of 31% and involvement ofmany players, with farmers, extension agents, cooperatives and insurance involved in products design. However, the programme's major weaknesses are in the areas of efficiency and long-term viability, particularly given attempts to insure all risks and all conditions. The administrative costs are severe, given the scope of the programme. However, the high fiscal costs have been justified in a political-economic basis since the cost of such subsidies is far less than sums to be budgeted for ex-post disaster relief.Mexico's history of crop insurance dates back to 1926 and initially evolved to include government involvement in direct retail of all risk crop insurance product with 45-61% subsidy in the premium. This program ended due to high losses, high administrative costs and low premiums. A new and more liberalized state owned scheme which competed against five private companies under the same set of rules and regulations was instituted. Over time this scheme offered multiple risk products for both crop and livestock, diminishing moral hazard issues by insuring 70-90% of total value. Also through modern underwriting techniques, such as, deductibles, loss rations of 64.6% for crops and 78.6% for livestock were established in 1999. In 2000, this scheme was transformed into a second tier institution mainly providing reinsurance and to a lesser extent working to promote and develop the industry by providing technical assistance to mutual funds developing innovative instruments (parametric and catastrophic bond products). It has since proven to be a profitable scheme.In exploring the potential for multi-crop revenue insurance for Mississippi crop producers, Coble et.al, (2001) observed that the introduction of revenue insurance products that insured against both price and yield shortfalls has prompted consideration of a number of other variants on the traditional yield insurance concept. Their study confirmed a substantial reduction in risk and insurance premium rates resulting from combined crop and revenue coverage with the possibility of a multi-crop option. Wenner (2005) observed that agricultural insurance is re-emerging as a topic of interest to farmers, policy makers, insurance companies and development finance institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean after a long hiatus. In a recent IDB/FIDES survey in 16 Latin American countries, 35.3% of the insurance companies polled stated that development of crop insurance is important and 43.5% believed that the growth potential for this product is high (Tovar, 2005; cited by Wenner, 2005). Wenner (2005) notes that renewed interest stems from a number factors;1) A number of economically costly natural disasters in recent years;2) The need to improve agricultural competitiveness in the region in light of ongoing trade liberalization and integration movements that will expose regional producers to farmers in industrialized countries that avail themselves to a greater extent to an array of modern agricultural risk management instruments, among them crop insurance; and 3) The promise that new information technology and advanced probabilistic risk modelling techniques holds to lower the cost of developing and supervising crop insurance products.The history of crop insurance in the Caribbean is severely limited to traditional major export single crop industries. In the Caribbean region, crop insurance is active in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Windward Islands. Surinam, Belize, Guyana, Bahamas, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago do not have commercial agricultural insurance available (Wenner, 2005) although efforts are in train to establish a scheme in Trinidad and Tobago. Crop insurance is also active in many Latin American Countries.Crop insurance programmes in the region tend to be specific to crops of special economic significance to each island. Workable schemes in the region are particularly exemplified in the case of WINCROP for bananas in the Windward Islands, bananas, coffee and coconut in Jamaica and a multi-crop scheme in the Dominican Republic.The Windward Islands since 1988 have insured their main export crop bananas. This is done through a private company WINCROP ownership of which is vested in the industry itself, through Banana Growers' Association in the three participating Islands. WINCROP has underwriting freedom and responsibility and enjoys a good international reputation and has access to reinsurance. WINCROP has been a viable insurance scheme and this can be attributed to the following:The scheme operated based on the principles of commercial insurance and in a business like manner.Administrative constraints were minimized due to the single marketing channel which facilitated an easy mechanism for premium collection, indemnity calculation and allowed for consideration of compulsory insurance.The scheme which is single peril coverage and had a simplified lossassessment system which allowed a wide-scale loss event to be measured by on-call assessors.Proper levels of investment were made during start-up to enable transparency in its management and operations and a system respected and trusted by growers.A well-established data-base system facilitates efficient handling of grower registration and of claims events and this minimizes office overhead costs.There was also lack of pressure from grower interest to stray from prudent strategies for setting benefit and premium levels, and an ability to resist requests for loans from reserve funds.Notwithstanding WINCROP has had its share of problems during its long hiatus and included the following: There were large numbers growers involved and this necessitated development of measures for cost-effective field operations. Large numbers also limited the effective implementation of grower education in the operation of the programme.Reliance on a computerized data-base requires careful staff planning between field workers and staff responsible for data entry;The coverage of a single crop for a single catastrophic peril provides for a very unstable annual underwriting result, where premiums and claims have to be balanced between years, instead of between crop types and perils within the same year.A number of mechanisms and strategies have been developed to mitigate against some of these challenges. For example, assistance from other stakeholders such as the Banana Grower Associations in grower registration eased the burden with regard dealing with large numbers across the islands. Also, a simple system of claims evaluation and prior knowledge of previous schemes has helped with respect to grower education. Control of data processing and data-base management and in-house programming were areas targeted for scrutiny and capacity building.The scheme has benefited from the spread of risks between islands and cooperation among islands and the status of WINCROP as an independent organisation amidst the high political profile in the islands has assisted greatly. The role of reinsurers in the operations of WINCROP was recognized from early and the organisation has maintained a strong and close relationship with its reinsures. However, there are concerns about the future of WINCROP. Its financial reserves have dwindled by more than 68% over the last few years to just over EC$3 million (US$1.11). It incurred an operating loss in 2005 and premium income was lowest on record due to non payment of dues by banana companies. Moreover, it is noted that it is impossible to recover these amounts given the vast number of farmers who have gone out of bananas. It is proposed that deductions be made through one channel (WIBDECO) instead of the banana companies or make premium payment mandatory as in the case of Dominica.Jamaica has a well developed range of crop insurance programmes all of which are administered by parastatal boards. All of these schemes were established with some encouragement from government. Policies are named perils and in the case of bananas and coconuts, the peril is windstorm while for coffee, a range of natural disasters are covered. Some of these such as the banana windstorm dating back to 1934 being the oldest banana wind storm scheme in the world. A board manages the program and controls and manages a fund called the Banana Insurance Fund. Money for the fund is raised from the following sources: a cess paid by growers; premiums paid by producers to the Board. Money borrowed by the Board; Reinsurance claims; and sale of assets. Premiums payable are based on the number of acres under cultivation. In the case of coconuts, coverage is on a per tree basis and the farmer insures the quantity of trees he so desires.Insurance is via the Coconut Board which reinsures to cover itself. Premiums for coffee are paid on a per box basis. There are plans by government to restructure the Banana Insurance Scheme while insurance for coffee is reported to be no longer compulsory and there are reports of moral hazards;In the Dominican Republic, crop insurance is provided by AGRODOSA the successor organisation to ADACA. AGRODOSA is a mixed public-private company (majority capital is public) which offer multi-peril policies which is yield based and covers damages due to wind, excessive rain, flooding, drought, earthquakes, disease, pests and hail that result to yields inferior to the expected. Indemnity covers up to 70% of investments and the principal crop insured is rice.There is a linkage with the state agricultural development bank, which sells policies but also provides credit which requires a policy in the name of the bank. Premium paid are related to the size of the loan, and to keep premiums affordable and expand the market, government subsidizes the premiums by 50%.Previously ADACA which was government controlled and focused on insuring subsistence farmers for a range of crops was also tied to bank credit. There were problems such as absence of farmer representation; indication that the board was not operating independently and there were viability concerns since business development was restricted. Some best practices with regard AGRODOSA include; Higher private sector board representation; Focus on rice producers with a moderate to high level of technology and recognized good practices;It is recognized that decisions with regard that Scheme more influenced by national agrarian reform (Wenner, 2005), it is noted that farmers are interested in crop insurance and in terms of priority price stabilization was key. Other areas were wind damage from hurricanes and drought.In the case of Trinidad and Tobago where establishment of a crop insurance a scheme is being considered, what is proposed is a Multi Peril Agricultural Insurance Program where the perils and commodities covered will be as wide as possible to achieve the greatest coverage and to spread the risk over the widest range of commodities including machinery and equipment and farm buildings. It is also being proposed that as far as possible that the program should be made compulsory for farmers for the categories of farm enterprises covered by the insurance program, so that the widest possible participation in the program can be achieved, to increase its likelihood of success.Given the risky nature of Agriculture, producers in the Caribbean face a multitude of risk among them production or yield risk. Other risks may affect viability of agri-enterprises but these risk arte typically managed through other instruments, although such coverage seems to be quite limited in the Caribbean. Production risk cannot be totally eliminated but could be reduced, mitigated and managed. The mechanisms that have been employed to deal with financial problems coming out of production risk typically involve, risk mitigation, risk transfer and risk retention. Risk transfer is critical to implementation of crop insurance in the Caribbean.While concerns about the reduction of agricultural risk suggest the need for multi-commodity crop insurance in the Caribbean, the global experience dictates that the mechanism for establishing any scheme must be well investigated. Any system must be based on a demand assessment, knowledge of the key insured parties, clear identification of the key perils, sound decisions on the crops to be covered, appropriate rating of premiums, and the respective roles perceived for governments and the private sector. It is likely that, in order to satisfy the earlier referenced basic requirements, any proposed scheme may have to be regional in scope and coverage.Given the cited experience of other countries, and the underlying insurance principles, the core issues which must be addressed in attempts to establish agricultural insurance products in the Caribbean seem to be: 1) Designing a product that encourages a high participation rate.2) Developing a product the delivery of which would be attractive to the private sector and would require minimal or no government financial support.3) The gathering of reliable data on the potentially insurable crops and events to satisfy the actuarial requirements and other pre-requisites.These issues point to the necessity for involving all stakeholders in the elaboration of any plans for agricultural insurance schemes in the Caribbean as an agricultural risk reduction measure.It is clear that farmers, in paricular, face a number of different risks among them production or yield risks which cannot be fully eliminated but can be reduced and managed. Farmers have in the past depended upon a range of strategies for coping and include risk mitigation, risk retention and risk transfer. The first two being traditional risk managing and coping strategies. It has generally been argued that these traditional risk management and coping strategies are not robust and not cost effective (Wenner, 2005). Some on farm risk management mechanisms such as crop diversification, intercropping, integrated pest management, irrigation and accumulated savings among others are highly recommendable but Wenner (2005) cites various reports that point at other practices such as plot fragmentation, reducing the amount of purchased inputs, and use of low-yielding but drought resistant varieties represent production efficiency losses. It is postulated that costly risk mitigation techniques can contribute to chronic poverty and increased vulnerability. Where trade liberalization and integration are already a global phenomenon, the absence of agricultural and crop insurance would place the developing countries at a disadvantage when compared to industrialized countries.Where crop insurance programmes have been in existence in the Caribbean, they have contributed to a perception of reduced risk. This has been particularly so with banana cultivation in the Windward Islands and coffee and banana cultivation in Jamaica, in both situations these crops being prime export commodities in earlier times. Whether or not insurance for these crops have promoted increase investment is questionable given the significance of the challenges faced, primarily, the impact of new trading regimes (e.g. WTO) on preferential markets, increased competition from other markets, declining returns from these crops, new standards with regard quality and transportation and distribution of these commodities, among others. Moreover, it is recognized that should crop insurance be expanded in the Caribbean, there is a rapid emergence of new and other risk areas which should be addressed and include droughts and floods for bananas which is only covered for wind damage, pest and disease, quality and distribution risk, praedial larceny for vulnerable crops such as fruits and vegetables, in addition to equipment and machinery, buildings which requires a certain level of investment.Where insurance has not been instituted but where plans are in train to establish same as in Trinidad and Tobago, the role of insurance in reduced risk is considered to be critical based on surveys conducted. What is important also is that farmers identified a range of risk which they faced including, disease, pest, price, yield, flood, praedial larceny, fire, technology failure, quality and hurricane. While these farmers typically used other management and production strategies to deal with these risks, they were of the firm view that sound crop insurance would help to reduce risk particularly with respect to production security, partial cost recovery, development of the sector, increased production and reduction of moral hazard. There was also the view that crop insurance should be supported by some form of disaster assistance programme.Indeed while farmers have in the past relied on traditional methods of risk reduction, there is every reason to believe that a sound crop insurance programme should not only be responding to a few named perils such as windstorm, drought, and flood which are seasonal, but instead should respond to some traditional and other emerging threats which are significantly impacting agricultural production. This is particularly important with increased commercialization of agriculture. Areas to be looked at include praedial larceny, pest and disease, and new risk and threats to agriculture such as price variability due to globalization, distribution including transport and handling quality and food safety concerns among others.However, a critical component of the effort to revitalize agriculture in the region should be the establishment of effective and sustainable insurance as it would facilitate the following. In many quarters in the Caribbean, there is expected growth in demand for insurance products based on various factors all of which are critical to the repositioning of agriculture in the Caribbean. These factors include the following.Evidence of an increasing incidence of crop damaging weather events; If farming is to be commercialized for increased competitiveness, this requires greater levels of financial investment. As such farmers/investors/banks will look to a financial mechanism to address part of the risk to that investment. Such a scenario is now playing itself out in the form of contract farming (hotels and various food processing companies are engaged in this practice) where along with inputs insurance is provided to farmers. Regulations of the WTO generally prohibit direct subsidy to agriculture by governments, but allow subsidization of agricultural insurance premiums. Governments of the region in seeking to revitalize agriculture, should have a common approach to effect transfer payments to the sector through insurance; this could be done through -Provision of information and data on weather patterns, incidents of perils, etc relevant to the assessment of risks -Payment for research leading to the establishment of new crop insurance programme -Direct subsidy of farmers premiums -Some form of reinsurance ▪ The developments in the design of new insurance products such as Crop Revenue and Index or Parametric products should be explored as having potential for sustaining multi-commodity crop insurance. This would aid greatly in the diversification effort which is important to, the revitalization of agriculture in the Caribbean. ▪ There is an emergence of exotic pest and disease (some introduced accidentally) in the agricultural sector in the Caribbean, which can nullify all other efforts aimed at revitalizing Caribbean agriculture. Crop insurance can address the risk of a breakdown of these measures. ▪ Insurance can also assist in managing on-farm production risk consequent to changes in pest management practices. These are becoming increasingly important to address issues of food safety and environmental protection. Indeed many of the export markets for Caribbean food crops are demanding that such issues be addressed from the on-farm practices thorough post harvest.Indeed, while there are many other factors including greater government support for the sector, increased private sector involvement, use of new and updated technology, farmer education and training, improved extension services, availability of credit and finance, that are key to repositioning the agricultural sector in the Caribbean, the role of insurance is pivotal and is required for support of all these named and other elements.Whereas in the past, insurance in the Islands where it was active were specific to crops of special importance to each islands economy, now due to globalization and the establishment of various trade regimes, WTO requirements, dismantling preferential treatment, all making trade in agriculture more competitive, islands are moving away from mono-crop cultivation, and diversifying into multi-crop systems. These systems require significant investments and there is limited insurance coverage for such investments in agriculture. As such insurance should over multiple options.The basis for expanded insurance coverage as elucidated previously should consider the increasing incidence of natural disasters, new trade requirements impacting competitiveness, issues of standards and quality, environmental protection and the required technological investments, emergence of new exotic pests and disease among other factors. One has seen the impact of some of theses factors in the case of bananas (e.g. Black Sigatoka now in the Caribbean) or nutmeg in Grenada following hurricane Ivan. In fact not just should crop insurance in the Caribbean give coverage based on premium payments, but consideration should also be given to some kind of disaster fund.Any insurance scheme for the Caribbean while targeting commercial production should be relatively broad in scope to cover anything that would constitute a disaster with the main objective of allowing some form of compensation to farmers/enterprises not just for production but in terms of total investment if such investments are not covered otherwise.What Insurance schemes should be looked at? ▪ Administration: Other than the high administrative costs of multi-peril crop insurance, political inability on the part of governments to charge fair premiums and enforce impartial loss adjustments is a situation which has characterized schemes in developed and developing countries alike (Roberts and Dick, 1991). Governments in the region at this time can ill afford wastage of financial resources. Sound administration is most likely to come from private insurance or a parastatal organisation which is independent. This independence should rely on influences from external actuaries and reinsurers bearing in mind to keep staff to a minimum. In the region WINCROP probably best exemplifies an example of private insurance where ownership of the insurance company is vested in the industry itself. It is proposed that WINCROP can be built into a viable scheme with some of the best practices from parastatal schemes along with its own best practices for a regional public-private insurance scheme.▪ Operational Features: The decision to establish multi-commodity insurance must go through the basic developmental stages through an investigative process. The developments in the design of new insurance products such as Crop Revenue products and Index or Derivative should be explored as having potential for sustaining multi-commodity crop insurance. Classic insurance products, Damaged-based (e.g. named-peril insurance products) and Yield-Based products (e.g. Multi-peril crop insurance) still account for the significant proportion of crop insurance world wide. However, Wenner (2005) notes that these products are still restrictive and lack a high level of flexibility. The new products such as Index or parametric insurance and revenue based schemes offer much more promise and flexibility which could be suited to a Caribbean environment given the number of factors impacting negatively on Caribbean agriculture, but in the final analysis all reflected the income or revenue that accrues to the farmer. In the case of a Caribbean-wide insurance program, rainfall and seasonal drought, lend themselves for the weather index. One concern however, with using index insurance in hurricane prone areas like the Caribbean is that it is difficult to define an accurate trigger. As such there is the possibility of mismatch between insurance payout and actual losses but it is envisaged that proposing two triggers could help alleviate this problem. According to Roberts (2005), that despite the paucity of experience with index insurance, there is a high level of interest in its development as it offer a practical solution to many problems of classical insurance (e.g. adverse selection, moral hazard, transaction costs, loss assessment expenses) to many dispersed farmers in less developed areas like the Caribbean.In terms of a specific scheme or schemes, a detailed study would be required to determine which approach or mix of approaches would best suit the multitude of interacting conditions we have in the Caribbean. However, it is proposed that multi-crop insurance instead of single-crop insurance be considered in the Caribbean and that it be based on (i) an index or parametric based approach or (ii) a crop revenue scheme or (iii) a mix of both. It should also be multi-peril. A combination of the weather-index based and crop revenue insurance schemes would allow flexibility where weather perils are difficult to measure through some trigger but at the same time allow farmers to recover loss revenue when necessary as for example due to wind damage from hurricanes which may not always lend itself to a trigger measurement.Multi-crop products will be quite complex and highly data intensive but it is believed further development of the proposed model could benefit farmers. This approach of multi crop insurance has potential for use in the Caribbean for a multitude of reasons.▪ With the demise of bananas and the usual economic fallout when other traditional single crops such as nutmeg in Grenada, sugarcane, coffee in Jamaica, etc, the diversification of crops in regional agriculture must take on a more commercial approach. Conditions in the region allows a range of crops to be grown by anyone farming enterprise, but may sometimes be limited in terms of financial returns based on production/yield. A revenue based approach for multi-cropping systems presents an option to revitalize agriculture and diversification in the Caribbean. ▪ Insurance premiums for bananas have increased due to decreasing numbers of farmers. Diversification including banana production will allow a greater pool of farmers/enterprises to be insured and reduce premiums. ▪ The Caribbean is known to be a high risk area with respect to agricultural production. Risk areas of concern include hurricanes, heavy rains, flood, drought, volcanic eruption, wind, elements of pest and disease and praedial larceny. Multi-crop insurance may be an option with respect to alleviate some of those problems associated with loss of revenue.It is proposed that consideration be given to some form of multi-peril disaster scheme directly related to commercial production of selected crops and perils that may affect them. In addition it should be recognised that there are traditional risks or threats to the viability of agriculture such as praedial larceny that is becoming role widespread and significantly impact production that should be dealt with. Also while its know that on-farm management practices would help to reduce other risk such as pest and disease, increasing incidence of natural disasters/hazards, the threat of man-cultivated intentional hazards, these are not known to be sufficiently dependable and strong.The issue of the delivery of crop insurance continues to evolve with two salient points being stressed from a review of recent literature on the topic, namely: 1) Expert opinion moved from a position supportive of public sector multiperil programs targeted principally and preferentially small farmers, to one that realized that these programs were unsustainable, costly and unable to produce the befits previously anticipated from them. In support of abandoning the earlier position, administrative costs have been high with a significant loss of government resources and the data suggest that there are no welfare gains attained; and 2) The emerging view supports a specific-risk scheme operated on a sound financial basis, following the long established practice in countries such as the United Sates and Europe (Roberts and Dick, 1991).The Caribbean governments are not in a position to provide massive subsidies to any agricultural insurance scheme therefore any such risk reduction measure must be actuarially sound and meeting the basic requirements for viability and sustainability. In addition the need for reliable data to support the evaluation and monitoring requirements of the insurance scheme must not be overlooked. Despite these seemingly insurmountable constraints, the embryonic experience with agricultural insurance in the Caribbean suggest that there is a possibility of insurance markets being developed sequentially, as one element in the risk management strategy within agriculture. Based on the above discussions, the following recommendations are made. ▪ It is recommended that multi-commodity crop insurance in the Caribbean should be a multi-peril scheme and consideration given to instituting a weather-index or parametric based approach, probably in combination with another scheme. Since guaranteed prices for most commodities in the region no longer exist, a crop revenue approach may be considered as the complementary scheme. Any scheme chose should be supported by a regional disaster fund. ▪ Crop insurance in the region should be multi-peril addressing, not only yield or production risk, but also traditional threats to agriculture such as praedial larceny and pest and disease but new threats such as pertaining to quality and distribution issues. Insurance should also cover other areas of investment such as machinery and equipment and buildings. ▪ A crop insurance programme for the Caribbean should be managed by a separate joint private-public sector corporation. The Board of Directors should be representative of all stakeholders including farmers and should be private sector led. The structure of WINCROP could be utilized in establishing the scheme. Administration of the scheme at the local level could be through existing private sector insurance companies. ▪ The establishment of a regional insurance scheme should be funded jointly by regional Governments (using a mechanism for proportional contribution) and private sector, with some form of subsidy to growers for payment of premiums, thus allowing the option of compulsory insurance. ▪ An education programme for farmers on risk management at the farm level, good agricultural practices and investment in insurance should be established. ▪ There is need to improve and extend agricultural extension services to support risk management at the far level particular as it relates to pest and disease, water management practices and post harvest handling. ▪ Praedial larceny is now seen as a major threat (and risk) to various components of Caribbean agriculture. As such the process of enacting and/or legislation regarding praedial larceny need to dealt with as a matter of urgency. ▪ The public sector should provide assistance in establishing a financially viable scheme and supporting the scheme in cases of catastrophic losses that exceeds coverage offered by private enterprise. ▪ Where local private insurance is weak, the public sector role should be to support a financially and technically sound insurer and step back from the underwriting and loss adjustment portfolios.In discussions with various parties and based on the available literature, it can be said that clearly there is a growing market for agricultural insurance and in particular crop insurance. The view is also held by some that while crop insurance is important, it may not significantly change the agricultural sector in the region but farmers and regional governments stand to benefit. Indeed high participation rates would lead to private sector marketing and redirect the focus of farmers. Some are of the view that while multi-commodity insurance could work in the region it present special challenges in itself and must be carefully thought out. The information on the models presented earlier can be used as the basis for developing of a scheme, but general consideration must be given to issues of life cycle assessment, risk analysis, cost of infrastructure, selling price of premiums, and whether there can be a mechanism for pooling to enable adequacy of numbers as a regional approach is what is required. For that matter some are of the view that sustainability is suspect as numbers will matter.Financing is seen as one of the major challenges with respect to initiation and sustainability of the insurance programme. Some sort of development fund would be required at least for start-up of operations.The World Bank in its Agricultural Investments Sourcebook states \"constraints to agricultural development are many, and access to financial services is only one response needed to address these constraints. However, improving the provision of, and the access to financing for agriculture, can meet a range of needs, and can be critical to the success of agricultural development programs. Indeed, many investments in agriculture are dependent on access to appropriate financial services\". The obvious intervention which is required to address the constraint of limited finance and inadequate new investments is to increase the level of financing and investment in agriculture.The consequences of poor capital investment decisions can directly determine the financial viability of a business enterprise, industry or sector. According to Bauer (2005), an investment involves making an expenditure of funds with the expectation of return at some time in the future. The future may be a long way off. Investment in agriculture might involve establishing an abattoir, an ethanol production plant or formation of an agricultural commodity marketing company. It might be an investment in primary agriculture, for example expanding a traditional farm business. It might mean starting up a new farm business or transferring asset ownership from one generation to another (Bauer, et al, 2005).As attention is focused on catalyzing investment in agriculture it is important to recognize that the agricultural entrepreneur needs no other catalyst than the opportunity for gain economic gain on his or her investment. Broadly speaking agricultural investments can be categorized into three groups, the first is those that are pursued by agricultural entrepreneurs, the second is investments by the public sector and or donor agencies and the third is those that are jointly pursued by the public and private sectors, with or without agency participation. Governments or agencies are motivated differently however, usually with goals that also seek an improvement in the welfare of society. Each group, government, agencies and agricultural entrepreneurs, and society will benefit when circumstances occur such that the investments of governments and agencies lead to a reduction of the perceived risk of the agricultural entrepreneur that stimulates additional investment leading to greater output. In all instances, when contemplating the milieu of investment opportunities, consideration should be given to the synergies available from partnerships among three main categories of potential investors.Agricultural investments by agricultural entrepreneurs, whether individually or collectively, are generally catalyzed purely by the desire to earn economic returns based upon perceived opportunities. Agricultural entrepreneurs, regardless of size, will decide to invest in any given agricultural venture based on the elements of their decision framework 1 . It follows then that the investment targets of the public sector and donors ought to be such that their perceived risks are reduced, thus catalyzing the private sector into additional agricultural investments and increased productivity there from.Even experienced farmers with good management skills may be affected by technical failure of the investment: wells may fail, cattle may die or machinery may break down during the critical periods of the agricultural calendar. These risks increase if new technologies or farming activities are to be financed for which the spare parts and other support services might not be readily available and farmers have limited management experience. In view of the absence of risk mitigation financial instruments, such as, insurance markets, farmers have few options to manage systemic risks affecting physical production (droughts, floods, pests, etc.) or profitability (sudden price declines for produce, increasing costs of inputs, etc.). They normally respond through diversifying into a number of farm and non-farm related activities on a small scale. The role of the public sector is evolving, driven by trade liberalization and international agreements, and requiring new skills and analytical capacities. Support for policy and institutional development in the agricultural sector has evolved dramatically. In the 1970s and 1980s, much investment went into building state organizations to manage agricultural development programs. Ministries of agriculture, starting often with very limited capacity, expanded their range of agencies and programs, many of which attempted to supply inputs, credit, and services directly to producers, and to purchase and market agricultural products. Some of these public sector investments had high payoffs. However, economic returns on many of these investments (such as large-scale irrigation) are now lower, and some interventions (such as subsidies) are very costly in terms of the distorting effect that they have on domestic markets. The failure or lack of sustainability of many of these programs led to a rethinking of the role of the state in the agricultural sector.Growth is not produced by passive \"let the markets work\" policies that do not include critical public investment programs. The proper role of government in a market economy is to devise and administer institutions (legal systems, regulations, competition policy) that provide incentives for efficient private (farm) production while, at the same time, investing in provision of public goods where appropriate. These public good investments will lead to improvement in agricultural productivity by addressing these main gaps in the agricultural growth process namely: ▪ The Extension Gap -investments in extension programs and infrastructure will increase crop yield from average to best practice; ▪ The Research Gap -investments in applied research program if successful will increase crop yield above practice yield; ▪ The Science Gap -applied adaptive research program which is supported by national and international science program will increase yield even further.As for investments, the experience has been very different for investments in true public goods production for agriculture (research, schooling and extension) and for investments in most state-owned enterprises. Within the past two decades, institutional reform, prompted by international donors and structural adjustment programmes, have been undertaken in countries to privatise inefficient state-owned enterprises to eliminate marketing boards and other cumbersome regulatory agencies. However, some of these reform movements have not fully appreciated the historical role of public goods in agriculture in all economies. Public sector investment in rural schools, agricultural extension and applied agricultural research has been vital to agricultural development in every economy in the world. Institutional reform without investment in these public goods does not produce economic growth in the agricultural sector.The limited information available seems to suggest that Government expenditure in agriculture in CARICOM countries has been declining over the years and there has not been the corresponding increase in private sector expenditure. International donor agencies have also reduced their assistance to agriculture in CARICOM countries, this at a time when policy makers in developing countries are expected to show a clear commitment to agriculture.There has been a dramatic evolution in the context for context for investment in agriculture and rural development. In the past twenty years, agricultural investments were geared towards increasing production and world food supplies. In today's emerging environment, investments in agriculture seek to increase competitiveness and profitability along the commodity chain from farmer to consumer, enhance sustainability of the environment and natural resource base and empower rural people to manage change. In reviewing the priorities of four major international donor agencies, the following major themes in providing financing and investment funds for agricultural and rural development appear common: Institutional reform without creating the environment for strategic public-private sector investment in critical services, including those divested by the public sector, will neither produce nor sustain economic growth in the agricultural sector. Agricultural repositioning will require more active public-private sector partnerships, particularly in joint financing, capacity building and with nonfinancial institutions such as equipment suppliers, agri-business, NGOs and government agencies to ensure the provision of complementary services, tripartite risk sharing arrangements and interlinked transactions.The recent IDB signal of a change in its business model which now permits lending to private, state-owned and mixed capital companies without government guarantees in all economic sectors will provide a catalyst to increasing the partnerships that promote effective economic development (IDB, 2006). This decision of the April 2006 IDB Board of Governors Meeting will enable direct lending to firms in sectors such as agribusiness, manufacturing, technology and tourism and is in support of the decentralisation taking place in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Chilean experience is instructive in demonstrating the results of the confluence of some of these issues highlighted herein.Over the past four decades, Chile's agricultural sector has grown to the point where the country's exports of fruit now account for nearly all of the table grapes, apples, peaches, nectarines pears and avocados that are available out of season in the USA's market. This is partly due to the country's initial investment in building a cadre of agricultural scientists (human capital) through an exchange programme with the University of California at Davis, beginning in 1965(Holder, 2005). The application and adaptation of the new techniques and technology, particularly in relation to the scientific approach to problem solving, catalysed the transformation of agriculture in Chile. This was supplemented by institutional innovation and cooperation among agencies, the public sector and Chilean agri-entrepreneurs.One example of such tripartite cooperation pertains to Chilean export of 'pomme fruit' (Apples, pears and peaches). The Chilean agriculture entrepreneurs became concerned that the shelf life of their exports to their main market, USA, was very short. In order to solve the problems being experienced a tripartite post-harvest technology research project was established, at the University of Talca in Chile, which itself was founded in 1981. The University provided the physical building space, the Chilean government the equipment and a consortium of agriculture entrepreneurs who were pomme fruit producers financed the research activities. The end result was two-fold. Several potential quality problems have now either been solved or can be identified and circumvented when the fruit is still in the fields. In addition, Chile has been able to secure and expand its market share in these fruits.Another indication of the success of the project was the expressed desire of other agriculture entrepreneurs to become involved.In support of the country's agricultural sector the University of Talca now has five centers of technology, the research activities of which are concentrated in the areas of the country's agricultural focus (Universidad de Talca, 2006) Another example of institutional innovation pertaining in the Chilean agricultural sector is the nonprofit business incubation agency Fundaciòn Chile created in 1976 by the Chilean government and ITT Corporation. The activities of the agency span agribusiness, marine resources, forestry and forest industries, environment and chemical metrology, human capital and information and communication technologies. Since its establishment Fundaciòn Chile has helped introduce many Chilean products on to the market as well as promoted the adaptation of technologies to Chilean production systems (Fundaciòn Chile, 2005). The agency is currently actively collaborating with personnel from the University of California at Davis in developing a nation plan to get Chilean research innovations to market. This is part of its goal to diversify the Chilean economy based on sustainable natural resources. Fundaciòn Chile is actively looking at the potential for Chile's commercialization of technologies developed at the University of California campuses (Holder, 2005).It is well appreciated that well-targeted public sector and donor assistance tailored to the specific needs and operating realities and capacities of the country, sector and rural communities is an important stimulus for agricultural growth and rural development. However, there has been a decline in lending to agriculture, including term loans, since the mid-1980s, following the general disenchantment of many donors and governments using the \"old paradigm\" of directed agricultural credit. Since then, many agricultural credit projects have been phased out and many agricultural banks were liquidated in the context of financial sector reforms in many developing countries. This decline has not yet been compensated by other providers of finance. In this context, the need to build domestic and national capital for stimulating and sustaining private-sector led growth is a prerequisite for development.The main sources of finance for agricultural enterprises in the region remain the Commercial Banks and to a lesser extent Credit Unions. There are Development Banks operating in member states and a few Venture Capital funds have recently been established. Private equity plays a small role in agricultural financing in the Caribbean, hence, very few agricultural base companies listed on local stock exchange. Most small agricultural enterprises are financed from savings. A review of the effectiveness of the various services of financing in the region with regard to agricultural enterprise revealed the following conclusions: ▪ a growing consensus amongst practitioners and donors that micro-finance with its current focus on small, but highly profitable short-term activities, is unable to respond to many of the financing requirements and opportunities related to agriculture, and particularly to those requiring larger amounts and longer maturities (Hollings, FAO); ▪ the financing needs of many agricultural enterprise which require longer term finance amortized (paid off) over several years are not appropriately met by Commercial Banks which view agricultural term loans as being extremely risky. Their preference is for short term lending and recovery; ▪ it is difficult to use trust funds to finance agricultural projects which are perceived as requiring risk capital since they are extremely limited in respect of loan size and term (Commercial Banks and Credit Unions, the latter being mutual funds which cannot maintain a high level of liquidity); ▪ Venture Funds are fairly new in the Caribbean and there are investing in agricultural enterprises in the region no known cases of their specific successes in agriculture investments. Most the venture capital funds investments are in corporations which are well established and have a proven track record and in sectors where the risks are considered low. ▪ the absence of a vibrant public market for securities in the region limits significantly the opportunity to raise capital through public listing or private equity; ▪ Development Banks have moved away from direct lending preferring instead to operate through intermediaries. However, the majority of agricultural financing institutions (AFIs) are commercial banks and credit unions.Since commercial banks continue to be the main source of finance available for private sector investments in agriculture and term finance is the main instrument used by commercial banks, it is important therefore, to focus specifically on term finance as an instrument and its effectiveness for agricultural development. Term finance comprises debt instruments, such as, term loans and leasing, equity instruments, such as, term savings, third party equity and venture capital, and combined instruments, such as, savings-cum-loan products. However, the absence of viable term finance arrangements limits the abilities of entrepreneurial farmers to undertake term investments to enhance the scale or productivity of their farming operation or to exploit new market opportunities.From an aggregate perspective, this may result in slower pace and more uneven patterns of technology adoption and farm enterprise diversification. This weakens the potential of the agricultural sector to contribute to rural development and poverty reduction and respond to the challenges of an increasingly competitive environment (Hollings, FAO).The scarcity of examples for successful term finance arrangements in agriculture highlights the intrinsic difficulty of this activity as compared to other fields of banking. Agricultural term loans are particularly risky, since they combine the particular risks of agricultural lending with those related to longer terms. The development experiences show that innovative financing products and technologies have allowed rural finance institutions (RFIs) to make some progress in extending the financial frontier of term finance to small farmers in rural areas. The combination of an enabling environment, a specific institutional mission and external support has been instrumental for these RFIs to successfully engage in term finance. RFIs will benefit from different types and levels of external support, including use of public funds for their establishment towards a specific mission to provide agricultural credit and considerable donor support for the development of term finance products. Some RFIs also comprise successfully reformed public agricultural development banks, and also RFIs which started as NGOs. In order to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of RFIs, focus must be placed on the several constraints which limit the profitability of farm related investments and the borrowing capacity of farmers as well as the targeting of public-donor support to these RFIs.The changing context for agricultural development suggests a new vision for investment in agriculture based on a more comprehensive view of the requirements for stimulating investment in agriculture including: (a) the reorientation of investments now under way; (b) criteria for allocating investment resources in the future; and (c) identifying new sources of investment, including innovative partnerships and greater cooperation among agri-entrepreneurs, government and agencies in the sector.With particular respect to a different approach to the criteria for allocating investment resources, essential criteria are that they must: ▪ promote projects that will foster synergies between agricultural productiontrade chains and territories, ▪ link agriculture with other sectors to help create and stimulate economies of scale and clustering, ▪ foster the development of new productive activities, promote associations and help mobilize the savings that are generated within territories, ▪ strengthen human and social capital in rural territories. Rural people must be given the chance to participate in decisions on investment strategies and priorities (IICA, 2005).Investment financing systems also need to be thoroughly revised to reflect the different levels at which innovation is appropriated: a) technology that is incorporated directly into production (inputs, tools, capital goods) should be financed by the producers themselves; b) technology of collective interest to producers' unions should be financed by union members; and c) technology of strategic interest, which includes basic research and technological development of some of the components of the two previous points (a and b) that are of collective interest (for small-scale farmers, food security or sovereignty), must be primarily financed by government. This scheme would bring greater clarity to policies and to the organization of knowledge markets (IICA, 2005).The range of public and private options for financing agricultural investments and rural development must also be expanded. Innovative options could include funds that can be generated by environmental services markets (e.g. the Clean Development mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, as an option for financing investment in biofuels), and, in some countries, the resources freed up as a result of debt relief (e.g. Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Guyana). Collaboration between multilateral cooperation and financing agencies and national institutions to promote strategies, policies and investments for the development of agriculture and rural life should recognize the specific features of countries, and to consider regional options for promoting integration (IICA, 2005).There are many kinds of organizations, in particular NGOs, savings and loan cooperatives and even producers' organizations themselves that have forged links in the micro-financing or investment chain. These mid-sized institutions have developed the capacity to offer sophisticated financial products that can be adapted to a diverse and complex demand characterized by high operating costs. The strength of these interfaces lies in their location and their market targeting strategies. They reveal an in-depth knowledge of their clientele, a great capacity to create revolving funds, flexibility in the handling of collateral and guarantees that are more consistent with the reality of their customers, and the capacity to provide coaching and be responsive. In short, they are highly innovative financial systems. Although their intermediation costs are high, their rates are less usurious than those that small producers traditionally had to pay (IICA 2005).International competitiveness and social and environmental sustainability are the overarching goals for agriculture as the region moves closer to the reality of a Single Economy under the CSME. The Region must therefore embark on deliberate and concerted activities to develop a modern, efficient and holistic agribusiness system, if it is to improve its ability to participate in the growth segments of the regional and international agri-food/markets and reduce its dependence on extra-regional food imports. Such dependence is also in terms of donor assistance. While it is widely agreed that donor assistance is often times a catalyst for agricultural growth and rural development, no developing country should perpetuate a reliance on donor assistance for development, particularly in agriculture. Agricultural repositioning will require more active public-private sector partnerships, including the process of creating an enabling economic and business environment for competitive and sustainable agricultural and rural development. The following will constitute some of the more critical elements of an environment that will foster greater investment in agriculture and rural sectors.A comprehensive national agricultural sector policy and strategy is essential as a basis for investment. Such a strategy should include or form part of a broader national rural development strategy. In providing a vision for the sector, strategies should focus the efforts of donor organizations and governments on the most relevant problems and solutions and should ensure that initiatives are complementary rather than conflicting. Translating strategic priorities into budgetary allocations is often more difficult than formulation of sector strategies. Budgetary allocations must be well planned and based on revenue expectations, as well as realistic estimates of the funding needs for different policy priorities. Good analysis and effective information systems within the agricultural sector, backed by competent policy staff with good presentation and negotiating skills, are important for promoting public investment in agriculture, improving investment quality and strengthening policy-based lending.▪ Policy-Based Lending Sustainable economic development cannot take place in the absence of an enabling policy framework, effective allocation of resources in rural economies and development of sustainable financial intermediation in developing countries.Sector adjustment lending is of critical importance to removing market distortions in agriculture, rural economies and financial institutions, and to building effective linkages between informal financial institutions and the formal banking sector. It is important therefore, that National Governments in collaboration with national and regional financial institutions and donor support strengthen their involvement in policy base lending. This differs fundamentally from the traditional project-based lending for development assistance which has had limited impact in increasing rural incomes and reducing rural poverty in developing countries. Fragmentation, duplication and lack of participation by local stakeholders in project design, implementation, and supervision are among the reasons for the lack of success. Policy-based lending is backed by a clear and comprehensive policy and strategy, built on full participation and collaboration in the design of future sector adjustment programs to address strategic issues in an holistic and integrated manner. Within this approach, adjustment lending would play an active role in policy dialogue with the CARICOM member states in addressing sectoral policy gaps to promote an appropriate policy environment for agricultural and rural development, while ensuring that the social costs of adjustment are mitigated by appropriate interventions.Emphasis must be placed on increasing financial intermediation and linkages between informal sector financial institutions, apex organizations, and the formal banking sector. This will involve significant assistance for institutional capacity development. Lending and technical assistance could be restricted to selected viable development banks, and where feasible, assist in the privatization of these institutions and the development of permanent private sector mechanisms for funding rural development.Some of the lending instruments with good possibilities at the national level include:Lines of Credit: this remains a useful tool to increase the availability of development financing. However, recent research has indicated a reduction in the use of lines of credit as a number of developing countries close their agricultural development banks or express reluctance at assuming the foreign exchange risk interest in lines of credit. In going forward, efforts and initiatives to help rural households and enterprises to mobilize their own savings will have to be considered.Micro Enterprise Lending: lending to micro-small-medium-enterprises (MSMEs) should continue where possible. This could be by matching grant funding to informal sector financial organizations and apex societies. Subsidies could be used, but only on a limited, time-bound basis, to provide start up assistance to institutional skills and capacity development. Lending to MSMEs will have to be done mainly through private sector banks and informal institutions with a particular focus on creating permanent access to credit funds through the development of sustainable guarantee mechanisms, such as end-user owned mutual guarantee funds, mutual and venture capital funds.Managing Hazards, Reducing Risks and Increasing Investment in Agriculture -Some PerspectivesBeneficiary Contribution through Matching Grants: through the use of matching grant mechanisms to foster increased grassroots participation could also be considered. This strategy has proven to be an effective instrument in providing institutional development support to local institutions, including credit and savings associations and NGOs. These grants provide support for strengthening management capacity and systems, developing competency in the areas of commercial credit analysis, and developing apex organizations, which can then provide technical assistance to informal sector financial institutions and linkages to the formal banking sector. Matching grants also encourage indigenous savings mobilization.At the regional level the proposal to establish an Agricultural Modernization Fund (AMF) within and managed by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and taking into account the Regional Development Fund holds much merit.An AMF will be an essential vehicle through which funding will be made available for actions required to support the regional policy framework desired objective of agricultural growth and rural development. An AMF intervention is critical to initiate actions in all of the other nine constraints highlighted in the Jadgeo Intiative, particularly as it relates to reducing and mitigating business risks and transactions costs. Further, through the operation of a Business Incubator and Agribusiness Development Services Facility, that utilizes and builds on national capacity and linked to international agencies, such as, Prolnvest, commercial activities and entrepreneurship could be stimulated and expanded in areas, such as, agrotourism, herbal and neutraceutical products and value-added/diversified commodities (ethanol, snack foods etc). In this regard, the following is offered for special consideration of the AMF:Establishment of a Regional Venture Capital Fund (RVCF): A portion of the AMF could be used to create a RVCF which would be dedicated to financing private sector projects geared towards agricultural and rural development.The Fund should be staffed with individuals who understands agricultural risk and are sufficiently trained in agriculture to assist in the effective design, evaluation, and monitoring of agricultural projects.CARICOM Governments have accelerated efforts to reposition agriculture in the region to ensure that it plays a central role in sustainable growth and development. Ineffective policies at the national level and the absence of a coordinated implementation framework have been identified as two of the key reasons for the poor performance of the region's agricultural sectors in the past. This deficiency partially explains the limited and reducing levels of financing and investment for agricultural development.In this context, experiences have shown that investments made in a poor policy environment produce poor results, a more significant result being the low, limited and unsustained investment and reinvestment with the entrepreneurial community itself. In responding to 'limited private sector (mainly domestic) investment' governments, supported by international donors, have made heavy investments in public goods, such as infrastructure, research facilities and marketing structures. While these have, to some extent, impacted on production and transactions costs, there have been little, if any positive, meaningful and sustainable impacts in terms of reducing the level of risks or instilling investor confidence in the sector.Public and donor investment must consider the fact individual producers are the ones that make decisions in agriculture. Agri-entrepreneurs, regardless of size, will decide to invest in any given agricultural venture based purely by the desire to earn economic returns based upon perceived opportunities and the significance of risk factors. It follows then that the investment targets of the public sector and donors ought to be such that the perceived risks of the agrientrepreneurs are reduced, thus catalyzing the private sector into additional agricultural investments and increased productivity there from. If at an individual level, entrepreneur security does not sufficiently exist (including the core issue of praedial larceny), then no macro-led programme to catalyze or increase financing and investment will be sustained.","tokenCount":"27816"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6ea9cddefa560423256ef8e441f9e0d6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/42736c0b-b266-44a4-b0aa-0904f3a9b728/retrieve","id":"80846244"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"acdba966-262e-401c-a357-a352ae2c3ded","pagecount":"8","content":"Amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus L.) is the most consumed leaf vegetable in Benin. A study carried out in south Benin have shown that the production of this vegetable is severely limited by insect pest pressure. The present study aimed to identify the major constraint limiting amaranth production in Ségbana municipality, located in the north of Benin and proposed sustainable agroecological solutions to farmers. Thus, a survey was conducted among 150 farmers in three villages of Ségbana (Lougou, Sokotindji and Piami) through well-structured questionnaires to know the major constraint limiting amaranth production. Agroecological methods for managing pests of this vegetable were offered to farmers through an experimental trial consisting of a Fisher block with four treatments and five replications conducted in Sokoundji village. The control treatment (To) consisted of amaranth in pure culture; the treatment (T1), amaranth plants surrounded by basil plants; (T2) rows of amaranth alternated with basil rows and (T3), amaranth plants alternated with basil plants in all directions. Every 5 days, 5 plants were randomly selected per treatment and the numbers of S. recurvalis and P. basalis were counted. Pest damage and yield per treatment were also assessed. Almost all farmers surveyed (100%) reported pest attacks as the major constraint limiting amaranth production. The results obtained on the abundance and the herbivory rate showed powerful negative effects (Df = 3; P < 0.0001) of the different treatments. Moreover, the treatment T2 (amaranth plants alternated with basil rows) gave the highest yield (1.25 t/ha of fresh leaves) and differed significantly from the other treatments (Df = 3; p = 0.039). The association basilamaranth reduced the abundance of P. basalis and S. recurvalis and also improved the amaranth productivity with LER = 1.16. The association basilamaranth is more beneficial than pure cultures because it hosts less of the insect pests studied, provides higher yields and makes rational use of the growing space.Agriculture is one of the main sectors contributing to economic development. In West Africa, and specifically in Benin, it employs more than 42.36% of the active population, contributes to 75% of export earnings and provides around 70% of jobs [1,2]. The economic contribution of agriculture is based on a number of activities; among these, market gardening occupies a very important place and contributes significantly to food sovereignty, the fight against poverty and to family income [3,4,5]. In Benin current context, market gardening has become one of the priority sectors to be promoted in the \"Plan Stratégique pour la Relance du Secteur Agricole (PSRSA)\" and in the \"Plan Stratégique de Développement du Secteur Agricole (PSDSA).\" It employs about 4% of the active population, or 60,000 jobs [5]. Actual data indicate that the margin generated by market gardening can reach 16.395 million CFA francs/ha/year, or 4.31 billion on an area of 263 ha exploited in 2000 [6]. The growing importance given to vegetable cultivation is due to the primordial role it plays in the economies of most of these African countries [7]. Indeed, vegetables are an important component of daily diets, and sources of income, particularly in urban and peri-urban areas [4]. They can be grouped according to the part of the plant that is consumed and/or sold. Thus, we find leafy vegetables (amaranth, nightshade, cabbage), fruiting vegetables (tomato, chilli) and root vegetables (carrot) which are all important sources of plant proteins, vitamins, and trace elements for human and animal nutrition [8]. Amaranth (Amaranthus spp) is a traditional vegetable whose leaves and seeds are consumed in various forms [9,10]. In Benin, there are several varieties, but Amaranthus cruentus is the most cultivated and consumed, because leaves are rich in protein, vitamin C, beta-carotene, iron and calcium [11][12][13].However, its production is limited by several challenges including abiotic and biotic constraints. Climate change is not only creating favourable conditions for the development of pests (leafminers, mites, whiteflies, aphids, thrips, moths, bugs) and diseases, but is also altering their modes of transmission [1,14,15]. According to Ref. [4], the damage caused by these pests can be estimated at 100% yield loss. Attempts to control these pests consist of the frequent and unreasoned use of synthetic chemical insecticides that can lead to chemical residues on fruits and vegetables, biological imbalance, environmental contamination, intoxication of people and animals, as well as the appearance of pest resistance, the elimination of useful entomofauna, in particular parasitoids [4,[16][17][18][19][20]. However, chemical control is not always effective in the short or medium term due to the use of unsuitable, poorly dosed or overused products.Environmental-friendly agricultural practices have retained agronomists attention these latest years to solve the problems. An interesting approach in this respect is the use of pesticide plants [21][22][23]]. The biocidal activities of various plant families used as extracts, essential oils or repellent odor sources have been demonstrated on various pests [24,25].Certain aromatic plants, according to their particular odors, can keep away or eliminate harmful insects. Among these plants are those of the genus Ocimum which are plants of the Lamiaceae family, rich in aromatic essential oils. They are collectively known as the \"basils\" and are represented by more than 150 species cultivated and distributed throughout the tropical and temperate regions [26]. Different basil types are commonly used, including holy basil (O. sanctum L.), sweet or Thai basil (O. basilicum L.), lemon basil (O. citriodorum L.), and tree basil (O. gratissimum L.) [27,28]. Ocimum gratissimum is an erect hairy aromatic herb used as relief for blocked nose [29], delicious teas [30], mosquito repellence [31] and treatment of snake bites [32]. A literature survey has revealed that O. gratissimum has anti-microbial activity against both gram positive and gram-negative bacteria [33], anti-fungal effect against Alternaria alternata, Alternaria tenuissima, TZ10.2.2 and TZ8.2.2 [34], insecticidal and repellent effects against various insect species [35][36][37][38][39]. Several studies have shown a repellent effect on pests when the crop was intercropped with Ocimum species [22,[40][41][42].To increase the production of amaranth, the Government of Benin has set up the \"Projet d'Appui au Développement du Maraîchage Résilient aux Changements Climatiques et d'Amélioration des Revenus des Exploitants\" (PADCMaRCARE) in the Segbana municipality to support small-scale producers, mainly women, to improve their income. A recent study has shown Spoladea recurvalis Fabricius and Psara basalis Walker as the mains pests encountered on amaranth in south Benin [43]. The main goal of this study was to identify the real constraints limiting amaranth production in north Benin through a survey using well-structured questionnaires, and then to propose a sustainable agroecological approach to control two main pests of amaranth, S. recurvalis and P. basalis.The municipality of Segbana (north Benin) is located in the Alibori department and bounded: to the north by Malanville municipality, to the south by Kalale municipality, to the east by the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to the west by Kandi and Gogounou municipalities (Fig. 1). Segbana is characterized by a monomodal rainy pattern, with rains occurring May to October with annual rainfall generally between 800 and 1200 mm 3 [44] and dry season from October to May. The monthly relative humidity across the country ranges from a minimum of 44% to a maximum of 99%.In 2018, a sampling visit were conducted from 15th July to 30th August in Segbana municipality. During the survey, three (3) towns were visited: Lougou, Sokotindji and Piami. The survey was conducted among 150 farmers. The choice of farmers was mainly based on the importance of amaranth production. A total of 21 questions were asked and the interviews took on average 15 min per farmer. After obtaining information on the social situation, each farmer was asked about the amaranth production, the main pests causing damage to it. They were also asked about the major constraints encountered in amaranth production and the solutions applied.Ocimum gratissimum L. (basil) and Amaranthus cruentus L. were used in this study. The seeds were purchased from approved shops in Cotonou.The experimental design (Fig. 2) used in this study was the Fisher block. Four subplots per bloc measuring 6 m × 1.2 m were made. The amaranth nursery was carried out one week after sowing the basil plants. The nurseries of both crops were realized directly on the ground. The portion of land delimited of that was disinfected with hot water to kill any pests hidden in the ground. After 24 h, the ground was well plowed and mixed with compost; the beds were then dressed, watered and the sowing lines were drawn using a piece of wood, furrows spaced with 1 cm of deep. For sowing, amaranth and basil seeds were mixed with a little fine sand and the blend was spread in the furrows. Next, the nursery was covered with a thin layer of sand, watered it and cover it with straws then treated with fungicide Topsin M (10 g mixed in 11L of water). Three days later for amaranth and ten for basil, the straws were removed and replaced by a shadehouse. The young seedlings with 3-4 well-developed leaves were transplanted three weeks later for amaranth (with a density 20 cm × 20 cm) and four weeks for basil (with a density 30 cm × 30 cm) on well-dressed beds. One week after transplanting, plants were fertilized with a mixture of manure, chicken droppings and cow purse all at the rate of 10 tones/hectare, i.e. 7.2 kg/ subplot. Because of the poorly state of soil, in addition to organic fertilizer, Urea and NPK were also added the second week after transplanting at 75 kg/ha (i.e. 10 g/m 2 ). The basil plants were transplanted 2 weeks before the amaranth plants. A reasonable quantity of water was used to daily water the amaranth plants manually with watering can morning at 7 a.m. and afternoon at 5 pm.During the bioassay, no chemical was applied. Four treatments were tested: T0 (Control treatment with amaranth in pure culture); T1 (amaranth plants bordered by basil plants); T2 (amaranth plants alternated with basil rows); T3 (amaranth plants alternated with basil plants in all directions) (Fig. 2).Sampling started 14 days after transplanting and every 5 days, 5 plants were randomly selected per treatment and the numbers of S. recurvalis and P. basalis were counted and recorded. The pest damages were also evaluated. The mean leaf damage index was identified following [45] ranking: 0 = no damage; 1 = little damage (pinholes, and/or small holes, small leaf edge parts eaten, shot holes); 2 = medium damage (some larger holes and/or larger leaf edge areas eaten); 3 = heavy damage (many larger holes and/or larger leaf edge areas eaten) and 4 = total damage (destroyed, non-functional leaves). The harvest started 21 days after transplanting for amaranth and 30 days for basil. At harvest, the plants have been cut, counted and classified into three categories: plants totally attacked, plants totally healthy and plants partially damaged (damaged but part of which is still marketable). Leaves were then weighed using the Weiheng Brand Scale 10 Kg reach with 5 g. The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) was also calculated using the formula LER = ∑ (Ypi/Ymi), where Yp is the yield of each crop or variety in the intercrop or polyculture, and Ym is the yield of each crop or variety in the sole crop or monoculture. For each crop (i) a ratio is calculated to determine the partial LER, then the partial LERs are summed to give the total LER for the intercrop [46][47][48]. An LER value of 1.0, indicates no difference in yield between the intercrop and the collection of monocultures [48][49][50]. Any Value greater than 1.0 indicates a yield advantage for intercrop. The results obtained were estimated per hectare.The data from the survey were analyzed by using analysis of variance followed by the Bonferroni test according to the losses in production estimated by the farmers. We determined the pest abundances by calculating the number of larvae collected per treatment. Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) with the Poisson family were used to determine the variation in the pest abundances and vegetable yields according to the different crop associations (treatments). GLMs with the Binomial family were used to determine the variation in the herbivory rate according to the different treatments. To test the direct and indirect interactions between the crop associations and the pest abundances/ herbivory rate, we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the 'lavaan' package [51]. Collected data were analyzed using the software R version 3.4.2 [52]. The constraints mentioned by farmers have been prioritized and ranked into constraints of production, conservation and marketing. Almost all of the farmers (100%) reported the pest attacks (Table 1) as being the major constraint limiting the amaranth production, while 40% and 33.33% respectively reported the lack of technical route and support. In addition, 20% and 25% respectively estimated that the lack of storage warehouse and the lack of conservation equipment are also limiting factors in amaranth production. The insufficiency of the market was also reported by a large number of farmers (60%) (Table 1).The Fig. 3, Fig. 4 (a and b) and Fig. 5 showed respectively the relative abundance and pest damage of P. basalis and S. recurvalis of the different vegetable associations. The abundances of the two species were higher on the T0 and T1 treatments Fig. 4 Table 1 Identifications and prioritization of constraints.    Equation Models showed a significant difference between the different types of association (Df = 3; P < 0.0001) that exerted a powerful negative effect on the pest abundance and damage of P. basalis and S. recurvalis (Table 2) (see Fig. 5).Fig. 6 showed on the one hand the relationship between the different associations of vegetables and the relative abundances of the two pests and on the other hand the relationship between the abundances of the pests and the rate of herbivory. Structural Equation Models showed significant effects of the abundance of P. basalis (Df = 3; P < 0.0001) and S. recurvalis (Df = 3; P < 0.0001) on herbivory rate. In addition, the abundance of pests has significant positive effects but is weak on the herbivory rate (Fig. 6).  3). The treatment T2 (amaranth plants alternated with basil rows) showed the highest yield (1.25 ± 0.09) followed by the T3 (amaranth plants alternated with basil plants in all directions) (1.11 ± 0.06) and T1 treatments (amaranth plants bordered by basil plants) (1.07 ± 0.1) (Fig. 7). The Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) showed a significant difference in vegetable yields across the different associations (Df = 3; P = 0.039).This study carried out in northern Benin have showed constraints relative to the amaranth production and the use of environmentalfriendly agricultural practices such as approach in this respect like plants pesticide to control pests [21][22][23]. Our results showed there are many factors that hinder the production of this vegetable. As limiting constraints, few farmers reported the lack of technical route and support while other estimated that the lack of storage warehouse and the  conservation equipment follow by insufficiency of the market. Almost all of them (100%) reported the pest attacks as being the major constraint in the amaranth production. Our results confirms those of [43,53,54] who have shown pest attack as the important factor limiting the production of this vegetable. Apart from pests attack [53], reported certain constraints related to production, processing, distribution and marketing who hinder its development and maintain it in the status of a neglected and underused species. It is therefore necessary to develop this production and diversify amaranth products for national and international markets, knowing that it is a very well vegetable appreciated in Beninese dishes.Environmental-friendly agricultural practices like crop association appears to be an interesting approach [21][22][23] that offer major potential in market gardening, in reducing the use of chemical products while maintaining a satisfactory level of yield in terms of quality and quantity [55]. In the second part of this study, we evaluated the effect of basil/amaranth to control P. basalis and S. recurvalis, two major pests limiting amaranth production [54]. The results showed that treatments T2 (amaranth plants alternated with basil rows) and T3 (amaranth plants alternated with basil plants in all directions) harbored fewer pests overall than T1 (amaranth plants bordered by basil plants) and T0 (Control treatment with amaranth in pure culture) treatments. Indeed, several studies have shown that cabbage plots in association with basil plants show less infestation by Spodoptera littoralis Boisd, Plutella xylostella Linnaeus and Hellula undalis Fabricius than those of cabbage in pure culture [22,56]. Moreover [57], reported less damage of H. undalis to cabbage grown in association with pepper or onion. Similar results were also reported by Ref. [58] who found a low density of mites Polyphagotarsonemus latus Banks in the gboma field by using an aqueous extract of basil, Neem oil and Sunpyrifos. Other study carried out by Ref. [59] in the cropping system gboma/basil showed also low density of aphids, Selepa docilis, Bemisia tabaci and mealybugs. Our result could also be explained by the insecticidal and repellent properties of basil [34][35][36][37][38][39]. Indeed, the essential oil of the basil was principally composed by the aromatic ether estragol (74.0%) and the terpene with alcohol group linalool (17.8%), which are known to have repellent and toxic activities against stored product insect [60]. The repellent effect of aromatic plants on insects is generally attributed to their volatile organic compounds (VOCs) shown to disturb the oviposition of P. xylostella and Pieris brassicae Linnaeus on cabbage plants in association with clover [61]. According to the same authors, this disturbance is much more linked to the presence of repellent compounds than to the physical appearance of the clover. In fact, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by aromatic plants greatly influence the process of localization of host plants by pests [62,63]. The genus Ocimum, has been also investigated with regard to its insecticidal properties against diverse insect pests [64][65][66][67].These properties of the genus Ocimum have been demonstrated on various arthropods [68][69][70]. In fact, the biocidal effect of these plant species to control pests would be linked to phenol, which is a phytochemical compound present in the plant [71,72]. The low infestation of the insect pest population would therefore be linked to these egg-laying disturbances and to the phenol [73]. Thus, the volatile compounds emitted by basil plants would have disturbed the oviposition of P. basalis and S. recurvalis on amaranth plants. This could then explain on the one hand the low numbers of pests recorded in treatments T2 (amaranth plants alternated with basil rows) and T3 (amaranth plants alternated with basil plants in all directions). On the other hand, the activity of the natural enemies of these pests could also influence. Indeed, in pear orchards associated with O. basilicum, [74] demonstrated that O. basilicum emits volatile substances attractive to auxiliary insects. Thus, basil would have attracted the natural enemies of these pests in the associated crop plots. These natural enemies would have contributed to reduce the number of pests in plots of associated amaranth crops. The so-called natural enemy hypothesis of [75,76] that natural regulation by parasitism, predation, etc. is more effective in intercropping systems than in pure cropping systems is verified.The best yields were obtained on T2 (amaranth plants alternated with basil rows) and T3 (amaranth plants alternated with basil plants in all directions) while the lowest were on T0 (Control treatment with amaranth in pure culture) and T1 (amaranth plants bordered by basil plants). The Structural Equation Models showed significant negative effects of pest abundances on intercropping but the effects are weaker for T2 and T3 treatments. This confirms the hypothesis that Ocimum plants secrete volatile substances that repel pests [77,78], so crop associations would have harbored natural enemies [79]. By these SEM, we understood that the two pests increase the rate of herbivory but not more important than in monoculture. These results confirm the insecticidal and biocidal properties of basil since the treatments that have been the most effective on pest populations are also those that have induced the best yields of amaranth.The LER in the T2 (amaranth plants alternated with basil rows) = 1.16 is greater than 1. This means that the association amaranth plants alternated with basil rows have a potential interest in rationalizing the cultivable space. The amaranth plants alternated with basil rows (T2) could save 16% of the area compared to the pure culture of basil and amaranth. Our results are similar to those obtained by Refs. [80,81] on the cowpea/maize association, [82] on the cabbage/basil association and [59] on gboma/basil. According to these authors, the LER obtained were respectively 1.46, 1.07, 1.2, 1.11 et 1.40. The amaranth/basil cropping association would be a cropping system that allows better space management in the of increasing population context with consequent pressure on land resources.From this study, we can conclude that the amaranth production is mainly limited by pest attacks and others constraints relative to the production, conservation and marketing. As agroecological practice to control S. recurvalis and P. basalis, the amaranth plants alternated with basil rows are the best cropping system. This spatial arrangement of these two vegetable crops provides a high yield of amaranth and shelters natural enemies for their conservation and the natural regulation of vegetable pests. We therefore suggest to continue investigation of other important vegetables more sensitive to arthropod pests in order to explore the potential of basil to really control these pests of vegetable crops.This work was supported by the Ecole d'Horticulture et d'Aménagement des Espaces Verts (EHAEV) of Université Nationale ","tokenCount":"3544"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6efa4f8142c8b9b117cb9745b13fcd9b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/504adfd8-a059-418d-833d-73e681a45bc6/retrieve","id":"-1918313730"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4cb6be25-6164-429f-926e-0a2f26defaa5","pagecount":"1","content":"▪ Aval GANSO is a voluntary assessment tool that has five pillars -Environment, People, Management, animal welfare, and beef quality -which group a set of 52 practices of sustainable cattle production that are verified by an independent auditing entity.▪ Aval GANSO enables markets and consumers to play a more active role in supporting sustainable livestock practices at farm level.• Beef production is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which leads to climate change, deforestation, and a decrease in biodiversity.• With increased awareness of environmental issues, socially responsible consumption has emerged as a trend, where consumers consider the environmental and social impact of the products and services they choose in addition to their quality and price.Jacobo Arango Alliance Bioversity-CIAT j.arango@cgiar.org Jhon Freddy Gutierrez GANSO jf.gutierrez@ganso.com.co• In Colombia, the Aval GANSO program offers three levels of progress based on the assessment of farm management practices and sustainability criteria.• GANSO is monitoring approximately 81,500 hectares of productive land and close to 7,000 hectares of forest for conservation.• Aval GANSO is applied in the main livestock producing regions in Colombia, covering more than 40,000 hectares of productive land, over 2,000 hectares of forest for conservation and over 60,000 animals under management.• Beef from the endorsed farms is commercialized by Grupo Éxito in 182 markets and 6 cities, and the number of farms working with GANSO has a huge growth potential in the coming years.• This endorsement is applied to the farm and recognized in its products, such as meat, sold in supermarkets. The price of the product increases depending on the level achieved by the farm, incentivizing sustainable production practices. • The cattle producer receives an assessment report of his evaluation and GANSO provides technical support for continuous improvement of the farm.Between 51 and 80 % for the assessed sustainability practices.Up to 50 % compliance for the assessed sustainability practices.Over 81 % compliance for the assessed sustainability practices.We thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders. This document is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. July 2023• The GANSO guarantee is in process of extending its coverage to dairy production","tokenCount":"361"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fb267706ba7e982a906857d580b3dfe2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9e3fe6b5-c73f-437f-b935-bd9a51245d9b/retrieve","id":"1047285582"},"keywords":["Participatory","crop improyement","agrobiodiversity","germplasm","on-fann","and knowledge"],"sieverID":"0486f4c0-00a9-4e9b-a0f9-3421185e3aac","pagecount":"28","content":"This paper highlights the role offanners iD crap improvemeDt and managiDg agrobiodiversity. The fiDd-iDgS are mostly based 00 focus-group discussions aDd tield observations. Documentation of faooers' knowledge and experienees in erop ímprovement and managíDg agrobiodiversity may serve as a referenee for individual breeders or inslitutions involved in participatory erap improvement through differeDt strategies like particípatory plant breedíDg, particípatory varietal seleetion, Of partieipatory geooplasm enhaneernenl. The strength of participatory crop improvement is that there is rnultistage inyolvemeDt of farmers, from parent seleclion through to eultivation and selectian ofplanting materials, because faooers have a wide range ofknowledge .nd experience, and they are the end-users as well. Sine. ancien! times, fanners have been dependent upon lhe Iraditional seed-supply system, which slill aceoun!s for over 90% of Ihe secd requirement in NepaL A variety of mechanisms like varietal selectinn, seed seleetion, seed proeessing and storage, and Ihe seed-flow system have contributed lo crop development, creating agrobiodíversity on-faoo. More reeently, participatory germplasm enhancemen! has arisen as a new stra!egy to enhance lhe germplasm ofloeallandraces, whieh will no! only empowerfarmers in improving lbeir landraces bu! .Iso strengthen in situ conservation of sueh landraces on-fann. The curren! need is to incorporale farmers' relevanl knowledge and use it in lhe oyerall crop-improvement process.Farmer's concept 01 a \"variety\" Farmers' seed management can only be evaluated if one fully understands the farmers' concept of a \"variety.\" Ims term, as understood by plant breeders, does not seem lO be fully appropriate for the farmers' pearl míllet seed system in west Rajasthan. In order to learo how farmers perceive \"varieties,\" informal interviews as well as classification and ranking exercises were carried out during workshops with farmers from the study villages. Care was taken to inelude both female and male farmers in the interviewing process. The results demonstrate tha! environrnental adaptation was the main eriterion for farmers' c!assification of pearl millet plants in westem Rajasthan. Potential uses and quality aspeets further eontributed to the farmers' method of grouping different plant types (Christinck and vom Brocke 1998).Traditionallandraces that have adapted to the environment show a high basal and nodal tillering ability, indicating toleranee to drought and low requirements for soil fertilíty. If these eharaeteristies are combined with tmn stems, narrow leaves, and thin, compact panicles with srnall grains, farmers will conclude that sueh a plant will grow under low-input eonditions (Le., in their fields) and produce grain and straw of high nutritional quality. In contrast, the characteristics of modem varieties are low basal and nodal tillering ability, tmck stems with broad leaves, and Iarge panicles with relatively large grains Iha! are mostly round in shape. From the farmers' experience, this plant type is not toleranl lo drought stress, requires higher soil fertility, and has inferior food and fodder qualities. Farmers, however, are aware that pearl millet plants showing such characterístics can produce higher yields under favorable conditions (Chrístinck and vom Brocke 1998). Farmers are therefore concemed about the composition oftheir seed stocks, i.e., wmch plant types and, thus, which properties are present. Farmers expect plant types to change over time, in reaction to environmental conditions such as soil quality and raínfall, so Iha! the seed stock generated in one year cannot be exactly reproduced the next season. They have a strong concept of continuous interactions between plant type and environmenl, as evidenced by their belief, or experience, that any pearl millet cultivar, including modern varieties, that is grown in their fie1d for sorne years will eventually become like their local cultivars.Contrary to the views of professional plant breeders, the farmers' concept of a \"variety\" is not that of a population with more or less uniform and stable plant characterístics based on its genetic background; the term \"variety\" is applied to a plant type that is evolving under or adapting lo certain environmental conditions. This concept is reflected in fue farmers' seed-management strategies.Seed management comprises all activities of a farming faroily that influence their seed stock, including introgression of modern cultivars (open-pollinated varieties or hybrids), seed selection, processing, storage, exchange, and procurement. In this paper, we refer mainly 10 seed selection and processíng, and the ways in wmch farmers deal with modem varieties frorn the market.Farmers in Rajasthan generally employ two main selection methods. The first is winnowing or grading, which entails cleaning and separating seed grains. The rate of selection can vary greatly. It may be lhat only 10% of the threshed and stored grain will be rejected (rnainly husks and broken and insect-infested grains), or more than 50% ifthe grains, for example, are small and not fully developed. Generally, the smaller grains are be used for food.The second method, which is also very cornmon, is the selection of panicles that show preferred traits. Farmers usually select for panicles on the threshing ground afier the panicles have been separated from the straw, although sorne farrners prefer to select for panicles in the field before harvesting, taking the entire plant into consideration, e.g., number oftillers, height. Even by inspecting the panicle, farrners can envisage what the plant's other characteristics looked like (or would look like when regrown). Many farmers do not perforrn panicle selection every year, but only in the better seasons, which usually occur every two to four years. In harsher years, they are most likely to use the winnowing/grading method. A third, less cornmon, forrn of selection is to use the harvest of a preferred field-a field considered to be more fertile than others-for sowing the following year.Using \"improved varieties\" or hybrids from the market If a farrning family does use pearl millet seed from the market, in most cases it will be mixed into the family's own seed stock. In western Rajasthan, farrners without access to irrigation facilities generally do not grow improved varieties or hybrids in pure stands. Market seed is mostly certified or \"truthfully labeled\" seed. Further advanced generations of such seed can be optioned from the market or from other farrners. This grain is not labeled and its origin is ofien unknown. There are two ways in which farmers use seed from the market: l. Occasional introgression of new seed from the market into the previous year' s seed stock: the resulting crop consists of many different plant types (traditionallandrace, market variety, and several generations of progeny). Mixing ratio and frequency can vary widely, ranging from 1:10 up to 50:50.2. Regular introgression ofnew seed from the market into the previous year's seed stock, selecting for desired plant types among outcrosses: One or more new plant types will become dominant, and the variability of plant types is less than in the first example. The amount and frequency of mixing new seed, as well as selection intensity, can differ greatly from farmer to farrner and from year to year.It is important to understand that most farmers do not use improved varieties to replace their own seed, as is ofien assurned. Rather, they use new seed to increase the variability of plant types in their fields, thereby creating new options for their strategies of selecting for preferred plant characteristics, including grain and straw yield, food and fodder quality, storability, drought tolerance, early maturity, tolerance to adverse weather conditions (heat, sandstorrns, thunaerstorrns), and resistance to bird or locust damage.The availability of seed grain at the onset of rains is very important for farmers in western Rajasthan. The success of a crop depends very much on sowing irnmediately afier the first rains of the monsoon. For centuries, farmers have had to deal with crop failures due to severe drought conditions. Therefore, \"taking care ofthe seed\" is considered to be of great importance. Farmers who can successfully maintain their own seed, or be in a position to provide other villagers with seed in times of scarcity, are considered to be good farmers and are respected by al!. There is a special caste in most villages for whom maintaining seed and sharing it with others is considered to be a traditional obligation. Nevertheless, other farrners can also build up a reputation for owning good seed, and \"lending\" or sellíng il to others. Seed management is, therefore, related to aspects of caste and status in vilIage life. Furthermore, ít ís a gender-related actívíty. Selecting the seed, storíng it, and processing it before sowing is traditionally done by women, whereas soil preparation and sowing ís usually done by men. Men also often participate in harvesting, and depending on the family, they can be equally involved in selecting seed. Buyíng seed from the market and obtaining information about market varieties is done almost exeJusively by men.Diverse seed-management strategies co-exist ín villages in western Rajasthan, reflecting the diversíty of socíoeconomic conditíons: farmers who grow traditionallandraces with or without selection; families who mix, sometimes orregularly, seed from the market ínto the landrace seed with or without selectíon; and familíes who sow the pure seed of markct varieties. All these seed-management strategies can be found in one village. Even though pearl millet is a cross-pollinating crop, it seems to be possible for a village cornmuníty to maintain a diversity of plant types. The reasons for a farming family using a certain strategy can only be partly explained by soíl conditions and c1imatic factors. Other important factors seem to be the size ofthe landholding (market-oriented or subsistence-oriented), the number and species of animals and their fodder requirements, the aecess to cash income or loans to buy seed, the family tradition and knowledge, and access to information on new varieties, e.g., literacy and mobility. Most ofthese socioeconomic conditions are related to the caste system in Rajasthani villages.To quantif)' the effects of farmers' seed management, 69 graín stock samples were collected from 16 farmers located in four different villages in westem and central Rajasthan during 1995-1997. Samples were characterized by the farmer, e.g., as separated seed grain and food grain, and were classified into four main seed-management strategies (rabie 1). These grain samples from farmers, along with 12 modem varieties known to be grown in these víllages, were evaluated under varyíng drought-stress conditions at three research stations in westem Rajasthan (Mandor, Jodhpur, Palí) between 1997 and 1998. Climatíc conditíons in 1997 were generally favorable, whereas in 1998 severe drought affected the plant growth, especíally at Mandor. The fie1d trials comprised 81 entries and were laid out in lattice designs with five replications. The different plant traits that are used by farmers and scientists 10 describe the performance of pearl millet were recorded in order to assess productivity and characteristícs of entries. These plant traits inc1uded noda! tillering, leaf shape, stem diameter, panicle girth, number of productíve tillers, grain weight, straw and grain yield, as well as diversity of plant types withín one entry. Separate analysis of the five test environments revealed a significant phenotypic relationship betwcen grain yield and plant characteristics (table 2). The number ofpanicles and basal tillers, plus nodal tillering and phenotypic diversity ofplant types within one entry, were al! positívely assocíated with grain yield in the stress envíronments and negatively associated in the non-stress environments. Conversely, entries with large stems, large leaves and panicles, and bold grains showed negative correlatíon coefficients with grain yield under stress conditions and positive coefficients in the non-stress environments. A genotype X envITonment (GE) analysis based on grain-yield data was carried out in order to gain an overall view ofthe effects ofthese strategies on the adaptation offarmers' seed stocks to different environments. For this purpose pattem analysis was used to c1assify environments and to assess relatíonships between the entries and between environments, as well as 10 analyze the interrelation between entries and environments. To generate the analysis, the statistícal packet GEBEI was used (Watson et al. 1996). The details ofthis calculation will be published elsewhere.The phenotypic relationship described in table 2 shows the effectíveness of fanners' seed-management strategies. Entries with plant characteristics that farmers associated with adaptation 10 stress proved to be more productíve under stress conditions than other entries. These findings were supported by the results of the pattem analysis. The analysis indicated that most of the entries classified as LR showed dose interactíon with the preflowering drought stress at Mandor and Jodhpur.Compared 10 the LR entries, entries classified as IGRI tended to show a less specific interaction with the stress envITonments. In contrast to the management groups LR and IGRI, a change in the adaptatíon pattem seemed to be obvious in entries derived from IGR2. The positive interactíon of the samp!es exc\\usively with the preflowering drought environments was mostly eliminated.Entries also tended to show relatívely high productivity in more favorable environments. Samples grouped in IGR2 thus tended to perform fairIy well in al! the test environments. Entries labeled as modem varieties (MV), indicated almost no positive associatíon with the preflowering drought envirorunents. Ihe exceptions were sorne modero varieties with pedigrees based on landrace material from westero Rajasthan.Fanners who practice IGR2, which includes introgression and selection for contrasting plant types, are generaJly successful with this method. In the one seed stock, the IGR2 method produced traits indicating adaptation to stress as well as potential for high yield under favorable conditions. In terms of potential grain yield, this method appears to be effective. Sorne of the fanners' grain stocks generated by this strategy even yielded better with increased rainfall compared to the \"pure\" landraces (LR). It was the fanners' aim to introgress modero varieties so as to produce seed stocks that \"take advantage\" of good rains and it appears they have met their objective.Although \"pure\" landraces are not as productive under favorable conditions, they are more resílient under conditions of stress. For centuries they have been grown in heterogeneous envíronments. They therefore have the capacity lo adjust to the erra tic climatic conditions that occur in this region.Seed samples from farmers practicing introgression, in combinatíon with regular panic1e selection, seem to indicate that it is possible to improve a landrace population through newly introgressed variability. It also appears !hat if farmers use panicle selection to separate seed from food grain, they can improve their control over seed-stock performance.The present study has revealed opportunities, as well as constraints, for farrners' own crop improvement. Olher studies have assumed that landraces are mainly a product of natural adaptation and that fanners ofien do not, or only \"unconsciously,\" select landrace seed (Damania 1996). However, direct observation and interview data from this study have revealed that this view does not apply to the case of pearl millet in westem Rajas!han. The results of this study confirm !hat different seed-management strategies are practiced in the one village. Sorne fanners malntain the locallandraee with superior quality and yield stability, while others create variability through introgression ofmodero varieties. Furthermore, previous studies carried out in westero Rajasthan also show!hat fanners use theír own sophisticated strategies for seed managernent and crop ímprovement (Dhamotharan et al. 1997;Weltzien et al. 1998). Quantitative data from field trials proves that these farmer strategies lead to popuiations with díverse plant types. Ihis diversity offers possibilíties of recombination in the population and natural selection, and also increases the gains of fanners' selections.Seed selection, especialIy intensive selection of plant type or panicle, enables fanners to exert control over the negatíve effects of introgression. F anners select aeeording to their various breedíng goals, such as yield stability under stress conditions and higher productivity in regard to straw and grain yield in the target environment. These selection strategies are largely guided by theír concept of a variety. Mainly fanners who practíce introgression along with panicle or plant type selection are able to ímprove the productivity of their landraces without losing yield stability. However, other results show that traditional methods of seed selection practiced before the introduction of exotic material, such as winnowinglgrading, can lead to a decrease in the expression ofadaptive traits and characteristics in the typicallandrace phenotype. This is due to seed winnowing and the use of Ihe bolder grain for seed purposes. Smaller grains (representing adapted landrace types) are rejected, whereas bigger grains (representing less adapted modero material) remain in the seed stock.It should also be taken into consideration that the fanners who benefit from the higher yield potential of the introgressed cultivars are mainly those who have relatively good Iand and resources. These farmers are traditionally those who distribute seed material to other, poorer, farmers in times of scarcity. As poor fanners usually have less fertile land and less manure, the properties of the originallandrace pearl millet are ideal for them. If better-off farmers continue lo use introgressed seed, which requires better land and continuous selection lo assure yield stability, the availability of landrace seed may decrease for poor farmers with marginal lands unless measures are taken to maintain the originallandrace plant type. Finally, farmers often show a lack oftechnical knowledge conceming the genetic material tha! is available on the market. For instance, most farmers are not aware ofthe differences between hybrid varieties and open-pollinated varieties, nor are they aware of the consequences of using hybrids in seed production.These constraints point to several possible ways in which researchers can help to improve farmers' seed stocks in westem Rajasthan. Researchers could take on an advisory role and support fanners in their own crop-improvement strategies, for example, with technical knowledge or explanations of the effects of different management strategies. The plant breeder could recommend material that has the ability to combine with local material and has the potential to achíeve genetic gains in farmers' preferred traits. Material should no! rnere\\y be handed out to the farmer by the breeders. A material exchange between farmer and breeder should also be supported. Breeders could help to improve those traits that farmers have difficulty working with, e.g., specific resistance or seed-set improvement. Where farmer and breeder both provide material and resources, intellectual property rights should be respected.Results from this study show that farmers in westem Rajasthan are acti vely working on developing and improving their seed stocks, and that many opportunities exist for fruitful collaboration be• tween farmers, plan! breeders, and other scientists.In many developing countries, farmers playa pivotal role in the conservation of gene tic resourees, thus maintaining biodiversity, sinee they hold the bulk ofthese resources (Worede 1992). From time inunemorial, farmers have experimented with naturally existing genetic variations in their own environments to produce present-day landraces (Sthapit and Joshi 1998). Farmers have grown, tested, utílized, developed, and finalIy, selectednew varieties and crop combinatíons to suit particular ecosystems. The role of farmers in creating agrobiodiversity is also evident from their involvement in seed storage and seed exehange. Of eourse, the need and preferences of individual farm families have driven them in ,the selectíon of crop species. For this reason, they have acquired a profound knowledge about landraces and niche-specific placement.Given the inherent advantages oftraditional practiees, on-farm landrace conservation and enhaneement provides a valuable option for observing genetic diversity (Worede 1992). A large number of subsistenee farmers still use traditional methods. Those using modern teebnology account for approximately 40% of global agriculture, while rest is under traditional agriculture, which provides between 15% and 20% of the world' s food (Franeis 1986;Sthapit and Joshi 1998). The mos! important factors that motivated fanners to diversifY crop and Iivestock in the past were probably ensuring Iivelihood and meeting qualitative preferences and requirements (Roder 1995;Sperling and Berkowitz 1994;Sthapit and Joshi 1998). Roder (1995), has reiterated the faetors motivating farmers in maintaining diversity as follows: • Ihe need for high self-sufficiency due lo communication problems• reduction of risk factors• labor considerations• lack of availability of suítable ímproved varieties• market fluctuations• traditional food preferences• specíal requírements for ceremoníes and rítualsOne of the commítments made in Leípzig in 1996 during the NGO eonference on the access and control of agricultural biodiversity was to enable the formal sectors, through trsiníng, to recognize the value offarmers' and indigenous peoples' knowledge and practices in conserving and strengthening agricultural diversity, The following statements further stress tha! the documentation of farrners' knowledge and participation in crop improvement ís essentiaL• To be able to define precísely the objectives, límits and means for implementing in situ conservation, it ís necessary lo obtain a better understanding of the structure of polymorphism witbin farmers' varieties, ways it evolves with farrners' practices and the methods and mechanism for managing Ibis source of diversity, (FAO 1989;Brush 1992;Louette and Smale 1996) • Recognizing farmers' knowledge and the farmers' role in developing landraces and mainlaíning theír genelic diversity through Ihe partnership of farmers wíth formal science institutes ís an important step in enhancíng Ihe maintenance ofbiological diversíty, agricultura) sustainabilíty and food security at the farrn, regional and globallevels. (Teshome 1997) This Crops have trsveled through different stages of natural evolution and systematíc crop breeding, Breedíng by different groups, such as routine seed selectíon by farrners and formal breeding in publíe and private institutíons, has played an important role in bringing erops and varieties to their present status, Crop specíes have been adapted to different agroecological conditions while evolving from a wild to a cultivated fonn through more refined landraces because of farrners' selectíons, Farrners' landraces have been extensively used to develop improved varieties through breeders' efforts and again through diffusion through formal and informal institutíons. Gene flow from wild relatives to farrners' landraces and from landraces to improved cultivars is a dynamic process and should be maintained if plant breeding is lo meet the growing needs of the world's populatíon (Vaughan and Stich 1991;Slhapit and Josbi 1998). Thís ís why the conservation ofplant genetic resources in situ has very recently been widely accepted by several formal and informal institutions worldwide. The inclusion ofa landrace as one ofthe parents in participatory plan! breeding and the involvementoffarmers in several stages ofits development is imperative ifthe needs offarmers are to be accurately met, leading to a successful conservation strategy. The figure below outlines the stages and the processes through whích crops have traveled and the important role played by farmers to make the story successful.  Extension (E il1$t.fdevl NGO} , Adaptation. diffusíon Farmers have given names to their traditional varieties of different crop species based on their ¡den-tifYing characteristics, whích can either be external appearance or internal quality. For sorne ofthe landraces, one can easíly dístinguish one from another on the basis of their names. Farmers' nomenclature has a scientific basis since words lhat constitute the name have an important meaning lhat reflects the characteristics ofthat variety. For instance, lal tengan is one landrace; it has been named for its red (lal) lemma and palea color and a long, stout tentacle/spur (a type offish called a tengar has spur like this). A few examples ofthe names offarmers' varíeties and theirmeanings are presented in table 1.Varietal replacement has been taking place with the introduction of modern varíeties for several years, starting from the Oreen Revolution in Asia during the early 1970s. In many regions ofthe world, farmers have economic incentives to replace the varieties that have evolved witrun theír own ecosystems with ímproved, introduced varieties (Louette and Smale 1996). Landraces seem so Parewa pankh fragile to maintain that farmers easily adopt improved varieties-they have a higher yield potentiality than farmers' traditional varieties. As a result, the number of fanners growing locallandraces and the area covered by fuose landraces is declining. To counteract this trend, there has been a big contribution to varietal diversification through fue varietal choices made by different institutions, and on-farm varietal diversity has further been enhanced by fanner-to-fanner dissemination of new rice varieties (Josm et al. 1997),Figure 2 gives examples of diversity created by different factors, For instance, rice varieties grown in ucha khet (upland) are different from fuose in nicha khet (low wetland) and man/pokhari (water-logged areas), Similarly, basmati, sathí, and khera fulfil cultural and religious requirements, while sokan and sotwa are valued for their medicinal qualities. Bhathi is grown for its unique characteristic of adapting in deep water, and sathi, mutmur, and sokan are grown in marginal uplands where no other landraces or modern varieties can be cultivated satisfactoríly. In contrast, fanners generally confine fuerr sources of planting material s to neighbors, relatíves, and whatever is available in a new envrronment,The fanners' role in conventional breeding generally starts afier fue variety has been released, particularly for adoption and diffusion if the released varieties are preferred by fue fanners. Once a variety is released through the breeding system, it is made available to a few fanners for assessing acceptance and rejection. The farmers' role is stiU as a passive partner and as an end user. Fanners' responses about new teclmologies are collected through fanners' days, fanners' fíeld observations, and demonstrations,Khatiwada, and K.D. Joshi Partícipatory plant breeding (PPB) is widely used by different institutions, both government organizations and nongovernment organizations, and even by farmers. However, farmers' participatíon in PPB varies. The approach and methods ofPPB are described in detail by IPGRI (1996: 57-65), Sthapit, Joshi, andWitcombe (1996), and Witcombe el aL (1996). However, the stages where farmers' involvernent is most ímportant are plant selection, germplasm enhancement, seed selectíon, and management (Joshi et al. 2000). Table 2 summarizes the range offarmers' partícipation in the PPB process.The germplasm of local landraces can be improved through pure-Hne or mass selection with the active partícipatíon of farmers and modest technical backstopping from formal institutions for most of the processes. This can be achíeved through farmers' active partícipation, with mínimum costs and Iittle effort for breeders. At the same time, the genetic potential oflocallandraces can be conserved by encouragíng in situ conservation.Farmers at Begnas, Kaski and Kachorwa Bara have recently taken the initiative for participatory germplasm enhancement (PGE) through pure-line selection. In these areas, farmers' knowledge about seed selection and storage were first documented. Gn the basis ofthis information, the farm- ers were next given an orientation on seed selection and gennplasm improvement. Finally, an agreement was made to follow a pure-line selection process in which fanners' participation in Ihe process was assured. Ihis process was designed to help impart a selection of skills to fanners and improve their cop varieties through pure-line selection if they wished. Ihey would also feel empowered through their own participation in the process. This process rnay be proven to be a holistic, less time-consuming, and more cost-effectíve approach to ímprove the quality of landraces, thus making them competitive with improved varieties and, eventually, invigorating in situ conservation on-farm.The role of farmers in crop improvement and managing agrobiodiversity can best be explained by the traditional seed-supply system (figure 3). Approximately, 60% of global agrieulture ís perfonned by subsistence fanners using traditional methods-providing between 15% to 20% ofthe world'g food (Francís 1986;Sthapit and Joshi 1998). Diffusion in most parts ofNepal happens through the infonnal seed-supply system; the contrihution ofthe fonnal seed sector is less than 5% in major staple crops (Baniya et al. 2000). The traditional seed-flow system ineludes variety selection and adoption. seed seleetion, seed exchange, processing, and storage (Shrestha 1998), and al! of these processes are responsible for local crop improvement and creating agrobiodiversity. A review of ease studies from Bángladesh (Mazhar 1997), Indonesia (Winarto 1997), Nepal (Joshi el al. 1997;Sthapit et al. 1998), and Ethiopia (Worede 1992) shows a wide range of examples in different eountries where farmers-either independent1y or in collaboration with fonnal or infonnal institutions-have played an important role in erop improvement through seed production and russemination (see also figure 1).From time immemorial, farmers have been observing and selecting their crops and crop varieties, saving and maintaining the seeds for next season, and experimenting with new seeds exchanged with neighbors and relatives (Shrestha 1998). It is noteworthy tba! farmers have med to seleet the best available portion of the harvest for growing the subsequent year and also to meet the requirements offood and tradition. Fanners introduce new varieties in their localities to suit the different needs of 80il fertility, moisture, family, and society, and to spread labor and reduce risk. Hardon (1995) and Joshi et al. (1997) reported tha! farmers pos ses s the ability and knowledge to selee! crops and species that suit their environment and meet quality and other consumer requirements.    This process has created a diversity of crops and crop species, and thus, present-day landraces are no doubt the outcome of farmers' knowledge about and activities in crop improvement. Formal breeders in the narne of \"PPB\" have lately consolidated the role of farmers in crop improvement through regular seed seJection and exchange.There is a wide range of information about the particípatory methods practiced by scientists and breeders in severa! countries. Informal research and development (IRD), a type of particípatory varietal selection (PVS) is reported to be 43% more cost effective compared to the formal system (Joshi et aL 1996 andJoshi et aL 1997).Tbe sources and directions of seed flow are vital to creating the diversity ofboth landraces and improved varieties. Al! the means through which seeds flow from one farmer to another contribute to diversity in totality. Seed flow inc1udes purchasing, exchanging, giving as a free gift, borrowing, and stealing. Sources of new seeds might be markets, neighbors, relatives, agriculture extensíon, and research stations (see figure 1). In these ways, plant genetic materials drift from one place to another, creating new diversity in each community. This creates opportunities for farmers to meet different needs, which they could not do with a single variety (Joshi et al. 1997). In one ofthe studies in Begnas, Kaski, Baniya et al. (1999) reported that rich farmers generally initiate variety introduction. Most farmers (85%) change seed lots or cultivars regularly, and about 49% follow this practice every one or two years. Ex situ conservation in gene banks being unaffordable, the fate of crop diversity in many mountain areas is largely govemed by the fate ofthe traditional seed-supply systern that exists within local comrnunities (Shrestha 1998).For generations, farrners have been involved in seed selection, testing crop varieties to address single or multiple household needs such as food security, economic benefits, and religious and cultural requirements, as well as finding varieties that suit their land type depending upon the access or availability ofplanting material s (see figure 2).The choices or preferences for varieties of a crop may, however, differ with differences in socioeconomic status. Religious and cultural considerations, level of education, and gender dimension are equally important in influencing the choices and preferences for different crops and varieties. In traditional farming systerns, varietal mixtures either emerge through the deliberate action of farmers, or seeds get rnixed at several stages from seed sowing through harvesting, threshing, drying, and storage. Box 2 gives examples ofthe reasons for seed mixtures in rice, as mentioned by the farmers at Kachorwa, Bara.F armers have developed different seed-proeessing and storage practices for different crops and erop speeies, whieh help the seeds stay viable. The praetiees that are followed by seed-storage companies and researeh stations today are the results of farrners' experiments in seed storage, transferred from generation to generation. Where seed proeessing is coneemed, farrners keep the bare seeds ofsome erops, such as rice and wheat, or the eobs ofmaize orpanieles or bunches orthe fruit of sorne erop speeies, especially vegetables. For sorne crops, grains are cleaned and then dried well after threshing, while others require no such proeessing. Farrners store the seeds of sorne vegetable crops in the kitehen, where they are exposed to a eontinuous flow of smoke and heat. In the cornmercial world, there may be a lack of interest in participatory memods because resource-poor farroers might not appreciate irnmediate benefits from participation in research.They have a restricted time for contribution and limited resources to support research. On the omer hand, resource-rich farroers, especially in a high production-potential system (HPPS) are likely to migrate to urban areas, thereby discontinuíng active participation after ayear or more. Urbanization and cornmercialízation rnight have a negative ímpact on me partieipation sinee absentee landlords may have less time to thínk about aU mese participatory approaches, their being capable of supporting land for research purposes. Moreover, without compensation, long-term participation of farroers can not be assured, since the time for research activities can cause conflicts with fiumers' field activities,Confining farroers to trsditional cultivation systems has made mem focus on traditional selection practíces; they are less aware of advances in agricultura! science for seed selection and varietal selection based on agroecology. Searching and procuring seeds becomes cumbersome and time conswning for individual farmer. Traditional ways of procuring seeds without adequate information about new varieties rnight in sorne cases adversely mect me farroers' yield, Lacking adequate kuowledge about seed selection, farroers keep mixtures in their selections to ensure adequate yields, but this also creates high diversíty. Furthermore, in most of the participatory approaches to crop improvement, gathering postharvest information trom rich people does not provide useful insights-they are not actually the end users, since they are likely sell a large portion oftheir produce in the market (Witcombe 1999).Several areas ofknow!edge are associated with landraces, and with the elimination oflandraces, we not only lose genetic resources from our farming system or community but also the knowledge associated with them. With the ever-increasing dependence of farmers on modem technologies, accompanied by lhe use of chemical fertilizers and hazardous pesticides, farmers are being handicapped in severa! ways, inc1uding the area of indigenous knowledge. Farmers are, therefore, not only losing benefits from plant genetic resources, but more important, theyare losing the right to save, exchange, and improve their seeds (Mazhar 1997).Despite several efforts, it has becn observed that no \"steady state\" is possib1e in populations of primitive cultivars because of technological changes in the farming systems that once produced them (Frankel 1970;Brush 1995). It is, therefore, certain that genetic erosion ls pervasive and may accelerate if no proper action is taken on time to check it. It is also true that gradually the habitats of the landraces will be changed, the strength ofthe planting material s will be weakened, development and revolutionary options for various species may be shut off in lhe process, diversity will be skewed, and farmers' decision-making and indigenous knowledge systems will be diluted. The hardest hit by this will be small and marginal farmers, whose situations will be further worsened by concomitant increases in uníformit;t and eJ(pensive market seeds, fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides, irrespective of their quality. As a result, food deficiency will become more widespread and the [ives of people will be threatened. Thus, there is an urgent need to look for a solution that helps cope wilh food deficiency through lhe management of agrobiodiversity.The threat to farmers' knowledge, as well as to agrobiodiversity, can be addressed through the following strategies.• Research should emphasize the process of responding to farmers' needs rather than designing fixed options in stándardized trials. Research-maoaged on-station and on-farm trials need to be combined with trials designed and run by farmers. Researchers therefore need to expand their focus and learn abou! the complex adaptations made by farmers.• Agricultural research needs to reflect farmers' own diverse conditions. It needs lo be adapted to different settings (e.g., both dry-field and wetland agriculture), lo different fieldconditions (e.g., a variety of soil types), and to different cropping patteros (e.g., multiple and intercropping pattems), rather than focusing on standardized, uníform tria! plots, so that the processes of local adaptation and the technology developed are understood and can be supported.• Farmers can be successfully empowered through training in the process of germplasm enhancement through pure-line and mass selection of their traditional varieties (Chaudhary and Joshi 1999), enhancing in situ conservation on-farm.• The seed-supply system can be strengthened for self-reliance and cost effectiveness through the use offarmers' networks ofinformation and seed exchange, involving grass-roots institurions (Joshi et aL 1997).F anners' knowledge (skills) and routine involvement in the crop-improvement process is crucial to the management of agrobiodiversity on-fann, Fanners are key players, bringing a wild species through generations, creating diversity to suít to their different agroecologies and traditions, However, fanners' knowledge is being eroded and plant genetic materials are beíng lost forever, Our current need is to document agrobiodiversity and the knowledge associated with it to use in crop improvement in the future. It is essential to have an adequate scientific explanation of fanners' knowledge in order to better and or improve this knowledge for efficient and sustainable agriculture. This can be achieved through different strategies such as diversity fairs, community bíodiversity registers, poetry journeys (Rijal, et aL 2000), censuses, and field observations 01' transect walks. lt requires the cornmitrnent of fanners and strong Iinkages with fonnal scíence institutes to enhance tbe maintenance ofbiologicaI diversity, agricultural sustainability, and food security at the fann, regional, and globalleveL We need to enfore. favorable policíes and effeelÍve implementation for the conservalÍon of our genetic resourees and partieipatory development of crops and varielies. Therefore, to have influenee al lhe poliey level, we have lo develop links between operational work and advoeaey. In tbis eontexl, advocaey can support eommunities demanding fueir righls in gennplasm conservalion. It is abou! having an inpul when governmenl is fonnulating relevant polieies, eonsidering the voiee oftbe powerless in developing plant-breeding program orplans, and bringing aboutthe reaHzation offavorable promises or polieies for lhe benefit offanners. The case sludies show that fanncrs have seleeted and maintained lheir riee eropsThis paper basically deals with two issues: the first is the issue of advocacy and the need for advocaey in participatory crop improvement (per) and plant genetic resource enhancement (pGRE). It also analyzes the trend of global mechanisms to develop erops and or varieties wíthout the partícípation of real stakeholders and the threat to developing countries. The second part highlights the major processes of seed production and saving rice in the mid-hills ofNepaL The cases elaborate these processes along wíth gender dímensíons and the exclusíon of farmers from breedíng processes. Further to this, it bighlights sorne of the advocacy and operational work of the development organization taking place in the Jajarkot area. The cases we bighlíght are from Khotang, in the easternhills ofNepal for farmer-managed seed ptoduction, and Jajarkot, in the western bills ofNepaL Yamuna Ghale is foad right campaign co-ordinator with AcríonAid Nepal. Thi. paper was prepared with the assísrance ofKhadga Regmi, J.jarlcor Pennaculture Program (lPP); Dil Bahadur Rai; Jana Sewa Sarnaj; Min Bahadur Rokaya, fanner, laJarkot; and Pra!eemm Raí, farme<, Khotang.•The need for advocacy in peI and PGREAdvocacy is public action directed towards wider social change. It is about changing the policies, practices, attitudes, positions, or programs of goveming institutions within the Pllblíc and prívate sectors that have a negative impact. The co-director of the Advocacy Institute says, \"To be meaningful, advocacy must be value based. It must be social, economic and políticaljustíce orientcd.\" In most cases, government is still resisting the advocacy role being assumed by civil society.Advocacy is not just another fad of development discourse; ir is, rather, importan! to the sustainability of development work as well as policies. Forthe basic reason that for development organizations to have an effect, there needs to be a bettcr undcrstanding of the policies and practices of powerful development actors and how these ean be changed in ways that benefit the large groups of poor farmers in their working areas. It is very important to reeognize the importance of ehallenging deep-rooted and sustained inequality and injustíce. In the age of globalization, polícies are increasingly influenced by mllltinational and transnational eorporations (MNCsrrNCs), which are not bound by rights-related laws and regulations. To have an influence at the poliey level, linkages between operational work and advoeacy should be developed, strengthening civil groups and alliances; lobbying decision makers directly; campaigning, promoting, and fucilitating participation in research; building coalitions; and :ngaging the media.Soeiety is the cornmon element that supports advocacy, with advocacy holding goveming institutions to account on the behalf of citizens. There must be mechanisms to support nonrestrictive and robust debate on policy issues, procedures to resist harassment from authorities, and transparency in government. Civil organizations are increasingly expanding their activities beyond the provision of traditional services to include advocacy. Clear objeetives, targets, methods or taeties, and allies are very basic eIements of advocacy.In the eontext of participatory plant breeding (PPB) and PGRE, advoeacy can support cornmunities in demanding their rights in germplasm conservation, in having an input when government is formulating policies, in making the voice of the powerless heard when plant-breeding programs/plans are developed, and in bringing the promises to tbe ground.ActionAid Nepal' s definition of advocaey is a process, a deliberate, systematic ami organised way 01 influencing publíc policy, pub/k attitudes and polícy practíce in order to either change, maintain, implement or lonnulate new or altemative polícíes in lavour 01 the poorest and most disadvantaged people.It is a set of eoherent actions designed to introduce, influence, and change policies, practiees, attitudes, and decisions for a just and equitable world. With this basic principIe, ActionAid launehed the International Food Rights Campaign to safeguard the right ofpoor people to food. The campaign aims to ensure that international agricultural trade benefits the poor and protects farmer' s rights to seed and plant resources.As biodivefSity i5 owned by the community, there i5 an urgent need to include farmers in erop improvement and genetie resonree enhancement. The issue ofbiodiversity conservation is rooted at the grass-roots level, which needs program linkage to be developed betwecn operational work and advocacy. Therefore, ActionAid Nepal believes in strengthening the capacity of local organizalions working al the grass rools to develop macro-micro linkages and, hence, to tackle the root causes of poverty, and it works lO achieve this end.Threat of the trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) agreement to the crop-improvement process and PGREThe TRIPs agreement provides eomprehensi ve rules and standards for the protection of intellectual property. Under this agreement, Artiele 27.3 (b) Patenting on Life Forms is a major tbreat for participatory plant breeding. It allows MNCs/TNCs to extend their control over the resourees required to produce food ín the South, as well as providing means to gaín rights over many traditional plants growing in the South. This completely ignores rights of indigenous farmefS to control and maintain the germplasm that fits in their lifestyles. There is a belief that TRIPs will have severe conse-quence5 for farmefS in the South, tha! they will no longer be able to research, use, or exchange seeds and may lose ownership over traditional varieties of plants as well. Therefore, there i8 an urgent need to work on advocacy forparticipatory plant breeding, which preserves the rights ofthe indigenous farming cornmunity.Where do es the word participation fit in growing genetic engineering technology?In the global trend oftechnology development, genetic engineeringplays a crucial role in erop and or variety development. Ibis kind of sophisticated technology is promoted by profit-oriented MNCsrrNCs and is Iimited to the laboratory. Therefore, the participation offarmers in this process is only a dream, and will remain so. Ifwe are advocating participatory plant breeding, we must eonsider how we can play our role.The general Kiranti (Tibeto-Burman group) myth about the paddy erop invention in Khotang is lhat the ancestor, Khokehilipu, ･ ｾ ｯ ｹ ･ ､ ＠ a pot ofrice cooked by his elder sistefS, Nana Toma and Nana Khema, the cotton weavers, and he unfortunately trod on the fire-stick while dancing in the jolly mood and overturned the pot of rice. Another myth from Dhumi Rai is the story of an irritable king who had the habit of eating one pathí (approximately 4 kg) of rice, which had to be dehusked by nails. Ifthis was not done properly, the cook was severely punished. These myths cJearly show that the people ofKhotang have grown a paddy erop sinee time irnmemorial.In the case of Jajarkot, it is known that riee has been grown for about 110 years, and was brought from neighboring districts by the people of Jajarkot when they mígrated. Patle, mehel, kaumaro, and dotelo are the main local varietíes grown in the arca.Rice is grown as major crop in both Jajarkot and Khotang, especially in the less steep irrigated lowlands. It i8 strongly related to the eating habits of the local people.3, chhomrong and badagaunle. In addítion, sorne ofthe new varieties such as the radha series and mansuli, have been introduced from district agriculture development. The lPP is working on advocaey in the promotion of indígenous seeds and technologies, and as a result, sorne of groups boycott the introduction ofhybrid seed; they are more curíous and alert about the value oflocal seeds and germplasm.In the Rai culture, rice must be offered to the departed ancestors. The local faith healers offer rice to chicks before sacrificíng them as part of heáling ceremonies. This shows the relationship between the culture and rice growing in the area.In Jajarkot, the farmers celebrate Hare/o on the third and fourth Sundays of Shrawan (August). During this festival, they spray cow urine by the twigs of tilepati (Artemisia vulgaris) and worshíp the Harelo god with bhojpatra and pieces of red and whíte cloth.Another interesting activity is a visit to a Jhan temple by pilgrims every five years during night of the full moon of Paush (lan!Feb). There is a big trench below the ground where the pílgrims keep the rice grains they offered to the godo The grains replaced every five years to coincide with this celebration, so every five years there are new ones. When there is a famine and alI the seeds stored in the house have been used for consumption, this store is opened and the stored grain is used for seed.The first harvest is generally taken when there is sait (a good moment). The day offirst consumption is considered a special day, when relatives gather and eat delicious foods.• At the star! of lhat occasion, the harvest is first offered to the god, and this offering is later used for seed if needed.IPP has introduced a permaculture philosophy: making the earth live and grow on its own, with all bío-organisms surviving their full cycle. IPP has also encouraged farmers to use indigenous methods of farming and caring for nature. They have provided information on using green manure, on the use of skin-fermented water to control blast, and on patteros of crop rotation. JIP organized a farmers' level workshop on \"Impact of Genetic Engineering on Indigenous Knowledge and Seeds\" to raise awareness about the issues ofbiodíversity conservation. Now sorne ofthe women farmers' groups have dropped out ofthe cornmercíal vegetable production group, which advocates the use of external inputs for agricultural production. The farmers have also boycotted the introduction of hybrid seeds in two of the village development cornmittees. This means that farmers are able to make well-informed decisions if they have access to the right information. This will create a self-sustaining process among the farmers themselves, as well as helping to promote local biodiversity, in which they have the expertise of generations. Now lana Sewa Samaj, a nongovemmental organization working in the Khotang district is trying lo replicate the IPP model in the eastern hills of Nepal.The case studies reveal that the indigenous communíty continues to manage plant breeding and tha! PGRE is most cornmon in both case-study areas. Neither distinct formal-led nor farmer-led plant-breeding practices are cornmon. Now such cornmunity-managed plant-breedíng processes and genetíc resource management are severely threatened by globalízation, especially Article 27.3 (b) ofthe WTO TRIPs Agreement. ActionAid Nepal believes Ihat the food security of poor farmers and farmers' rights in seeds and plan! genetic resources should be protected from such threats, To minimize the negative impact of íntemational policies Ihat are unfavorable lo poor farmers, ActionAíd Nepal has implemented a food-rights campaign. Micro-macro Iínkages are extremely important in influencing tbe policies for which the food-rights campaign is working, JPP and lana Sewa Samaj are examples of strengtheníng and mobilizing local organizalions to work on community-based PGRE and PPB. Samoa is a small independent Pacific Island country with two main islands (Upolu and Savaii) and five other small islands (figure 1).11 has a population of about 160,000 largely involved in agriculture. Most agricultura! househoJds grow a variety of crops, including taro, bananas, breadfruit, cocoa, and coconuts. Prior to 1993, taro (Colocasia esculenta) was the most important export of the country, with 96% of agricultural holdings cultivating the crop. 1t is estimated that the area under taro at that time was 14,600 ha, ofwruch 76% was grown as a monocrop. A single cultivar, taro Niue, dominated the cropping area because of domestic and export demando The appearance oftaro leafblight (TLB), caused by Phytophthora colocasíae, in 1993 demonstrated how vulnerable the íntensive production of taro had become, and production virtually ceased ovemighí. Since then the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forests and Meteorology (MAFFM) has explored various approaches to overcoming the problem, incJuding plant breedíng. More recently, research staff at the University of the South Pacific (USP) have also become involved in breeding taro for resistance to the disease. There are clear signs that farmers in Samoa are slowly returning to taro again.Taro, an edible aroid that originated in the Indo-Malayan regíon, is grown as a staple or subsistence crop throughout the humid tropics but is of greatest importance in the Pacific Islands, where it accounts for about 20% ofthe root crop area. The corms are baked, roasted, or boiled and the leaves are eaten as palusami. Taro spread eastwards into the Pacific, probably reaching the Polynesian islands 2,000 years ago. There is now evidence to suggest that most cuJtivars found throughout the Pacific were no! brought by the frrst settlers from the Indo-MaJayan regíon but were domesticated from wild sources existing in the Melanesian regíon (Lebot 1992). There are now thought ro be  . .Samo,a.\", Americ.an -., Samoa Fiii '1\" ｔ ｾ ｮ ｧ ｡ ＠ Cook.T!.>. <t: Prior to !he arrival ofTLB, fanners in !he Pacific selected taro cultivars for a number of traits but not resistance to the disease. In the absence of this selection pressure, taro cultivars have reduced levels of resistance. At the turn of the century when the TLB pathogen began to spread into the regíon, it encountered a host plant that was genetically vulnerable.Taro is the most important plant in Samoa, having special cultural, dietary, and economic imporlance. It is considered an essential component of an everyday mea!. It is a plant witb high prestige and great importance as a presentation on formal occasions, It is also favored for its considerable productivity in !he fertile and high•rainfall environment of Samoa (Ward and Ashcroft 1998). In 1983. the returns from taro were three times higher than that from bananas and eight times higher !han from coconuts (Asían Development Bank 1985).Impact of taro leaf blight in Samoa TLB was first observed on the island ofUpolu at Aleipata and two days later from Saanapu and adjacent districts in July 1993. The disease spread rapidly throughout the country, severely affecting alllocal cultivars, but it was most devastating on taro Niue, tbe cultivar of choice for cornmercial production because of its quality and taste. Various factors contributed to the rapid spread of!he disease in Samoa. The area planted to taro Niue at the time was extremely large and effectiveJy ensured a monocrop situation. Ihere was a continuous and abundant source oftaro for the disease because of the practice of fanners to interplant on old plantations and stagger their cultivatíon.Combined with the widespread movement of infected planting material and ideal weather conditions, the dísease quícldy reached epidemíc proportíons.In 1992, prior to the blight, the World Bank estirnated taro exports from Samoa at US$10 mi Ilion, with a similar value on the domestic market. Ihis placed taro as the dominant export and domestic market commodity. By 1995, the export value of taro had fallen to US$60,750, or less than 1% of pre-blight figures. Initial efforts by MAFFM to contain the disease, including fungicide spraying, quarantine efforts, and a public-awareness program, failed dramatically. The disease spread rapidly, and by 1996 only 200 farrners were growing taro in Samoa.In 1995, MAFFM, in conjunction with the Australian government-funded Westem Samoa Farrnlng Systems Project, initiated a program to evaluate exotic cultivars. Nine exotic cultivars were evaluated against taro Niue in preliminary trials in 1995 and 1996. The cultivars Pwetepwet, Pastora and Ioantal (originating from the Federated Sta!es ofMicronesia) and PSB-G2 (now known locally as taro FíIi and originally obtained from the Philippine Seed Board) were assessed in on-station trials for resistance to TLB. These trials indicated lhat all four cultivars were more resistant than Niue, the locally preferred cultivar. MAF.FM further evaluated these four cultivars in on-farro trials during 1996 and 1997. Farrners involved rated Fili as the best lasting and both FiIí and Pwetepwet as the most resistant to leafblight MAFFM began recornmending and distributing Fili to growers in late 1996.The identification oftaro Fili has allowed many farmers to retum to taro production, and over the last few years, the area under taro has slowly increased. However, the release ofthis single cultivar has no! been enough to mee! the needs of aH growers, and a few shortcomings have been reported. including the following:• relative susceptibility to the disease, especialIy in wetter areas of the country• low yields• poor storabilíty, which is a problem with growers starting to export to markets in American Samoa and the United StatesIn addition, MAFFM imported a range of exotic taro cultivars from Palau in 1995. Field trials at the University ofHawaii bad shown that sorne ofthese cultivars bad good levels ofresistance to TLB.To date, no Palau cultivars have been released or recornmended by MAFFM.Efforts to breed taro with resistance to TLB in Samoa cornmenced in 1996. Crosses were made among introduced TLB-resistant cultivars and susceptible local cultivars. This cycIe-l population has been evaluated and 10 promísing clones have been selected. These clones are being further evaluated in multilocational trials in Samoa.The apparent need for a more particípatory approaeh to plant breedíng in Samoa arose as a eonsequence of informal diseussions with farmers, who ofien expressed dissatisfactíon with the pace of release of resistant taro germplasm through the conventional taro-breeding programo Researchers al USP were also coneemed wilh the rate at which resistant taro was released through conventional taro breeding and the rigorous testing over several years !rying to identify a few clones or cultivars that might be of limited relevance lO farmers. There is evidence from elsewhere that mueh of the germplasm officially released through conventional plant-breeding programs is of Iimited relevanee to furmers, and much of the material that is rejected has been found lO have subsequent acceptance among farmers (Maurya, Bottrall, and Farrington 1988). The conventional taro-breeding program was also doing tittle to inerease the diversity of taro in the country.A participatory approach lo planl breeding, involvíng researchers, farmers, and extension staff, was considered as a means to -• Icaro more about what farmers want from improved taro cultivars and to involve them in lhe technology development process• involve many farmers under diverse environments, providing them with a range of options so that they can selee! lhe best for their conditions, which would ensure !hat farmers gained quicker access to resistant taro• increase the diversity of taro. cultivars grown by funners in Samoa. Thís was an important perception in minimizing a repeat ofthe disease outbreak. The danger ofrelying heavily on one or a few genotypes is only too apparent from events in Samoa in 1993• strengthen the linkages between researchers, extension staff, and farmers• make more effective use oflimited time and resources of researchers and extension staffThe Taro Improvement Project (TIP), a large farmers' group, was initiated at USP in 1999. TIP aims to bring together taro growers and provide lhem with more options for improving production and managing taro leafblight.lt represents a partnership between USP research staff, MAFFM extension staff, and farmers. Currently, the project is working with 25 farmers on the island ofUpolu to evaluate introduced taro cultivars from Palau, Micronesia, and the Philippines. Initiation of lhe TIP farmers' group was motivated by factors outlined aboye and the noticeable success of other similar funners' groups implemenred elsewhere 10 address problems aimed at farming systems improvement (Norman el al. 1988).Farmers become members ofTIP by eilher contacting staff at USP or notifying their district extension officer. When a farmer has been selected as a taro grower, he or she agrees to compare taro cultivars in a grower-participatory research programo Farmers have been selected from most districts on Upulo.Cultivar selection. TIP supplies each participating farmer with planting material of severa! taro cultivars for a simple nonreplicated trial. Information is provided on triallayout, labeling, and simple data collection. The trials are maintained and rnanaged by farmers. Famlers can record their own observations on lhe growth of taro cultivars using the simple data sheets provided. TIP research staff regularly visit participating farmers, help keep records on cultivar performance, and","tokenCount":"9377"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"549c72b8fc02a02438a2fff95805360f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_21069.pdf","id":"213216397"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d6f503cb-4aa5-4775-aabf-1622a422260d","pagecount":"33","content":"Sustainable Agriculw Programme. International Institute for Environment and Development, London. UK. * Team contracts * Teamreviewsand discussions * Interview guides and checklists . Rapid report writmg Energizers * Work sharing (taking part in local activities * Shared presentations by villagers, and -Process notes and personal diaries -Transectwalks -Wenlthrankingand well-being ranking * Social maps -Interview maps * Interview chains nterviewing and dialogue Semistructured interviewing Direct observation Focus groups Key informants Ethnohistories and biographies Oral histories Local stories, portraits, and case studies Visualization and di -g methods * Mapping and modeling * Social maps and wealth rankings * Transens * M o b i l i maps -Seasonal calendars * Daily routines and activity protiles * Historical profiles * Trends analyses and * Matrixscoring timelines Preference or private ranking Network diagrams * Venn diagrams . System diagrams * Flow diagrams Piediagrams 'This case is drawn from Jinapala, Brewer, and Sakhtivadivel(1996).The Short Repoii Series on Locally Managed Irrigation is designed to disseminate concise information on the role of local management in irrigation and irrigation management transfer or turnover experiences and policies. The Series is disuibuted worldwide to a broad range of peoplepolicy makers, planners, researchers, donors, and officials in both public and nongovernmental organizations-who are concerned with the irrigated agriculture sector. IIMI's goal is not to promote policies such as irrigation management transfer, but to enhance the knowledge base available to decision makers and advisors as they face questions of policy adoption and strategies for implementation.Locally managed irrigation can be of many types, such as traditional farmer-constructed diversion or tank schemes, indigenous and often new lift irrigation, government-constructed but farmer-managed irrigation systems, and systems where management is or has been transferred from an outside agency to a local user organization.By \"irrigation management transfer\" we mean some degree of transfer of responsibility and authority for irrigation management from the government to farmer groups or other nongovernmental entities. This generally involves contraction of the role of the state and expansion of the role of the private sector and water users in irrigation management. In other words, there is a shifting upstream of the point where management responsibility and control of the water supply are transferred from the irrigation authority to local management. This may involve changes in policies, procedures. practices, and the performance of irrigated agriculture. It may or may not involve \"privatization\" of ownership of the assets of the irrigation system. The Short Report Series addresses questions such as the following:What is the range of diffeerent models that are being applied worldwide for turnover or transfer of responsrbrlrty for local management for recently developed irrigation?What are the effects of management transfer on the pmductivity, pmjitability, jimncial viability, equity, eficiency, and sustainability of irrigated agriculture? What are the perspectives of farmers, managers, policy-makers, urban consumers, and other stakeholders in irrigated agriculture about irrigation management transfer? What adjustments in government may be needed as a result of turnover to provide support to locally managed irrigation system and to improve pmductivity in the public sector?iiiThe Short Report Series is produced by the Program on Local Management of the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI). Support for the Series is provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ), through the Privatization and Self-Management of Irrigation Project (No. 91.7860.9-01.288). Individuals wishing to contribute to the Series are invited to direct communications to the editors of the Series:In recent years, there has been a considerable amount of study and writing about Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and its promotion. The basis for this interest apparently lies in the perception that these methods significantly enhance the ability of professionals in rural development to: 1) elicit the knowledge, values, and aspirations of rural people, 2) facilitate participatory planning and Research and Development (R&D) processes, 3) be more multidisciplinary in analysis, and 4) reduce the time and cost requirements for project appraisals. PRA is a collection of techniques (many of which were derived from applied anthropology) to facilitate structured group discussion and decisionmaking and to graphically depict local knowledge and preferences. It is distinguished from its precursor, Rapid Rural Appraisal, by its slightly less concern for rapidity and greater emphasis on involving fanners as partners, rather than mere subjects, in the appraisal process.This report summarizes recent experiences with the application of PRA methods in the fields of irrigation and water management in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Estonia, and Zimbabwe. Methods of group dynamics, sampling, semi-structured interviewing and dialogue, visualization and diagramming are explained, with examples. The authors attempt to clarify some confusion about PRA that exists, and offer several recommendations about how it can be usednot as a replacement but as a complement to other conventional methods of appraisal-to enhance processes of research and development in the fields of irrigation and water management in developing areas.The aim of this report is to present and analyze recent innovative applications of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods in irrigation and water resource management, and to assess the lessons they offer for research and development. The report begins with an examination of the defining characteristics of participatory appraisal methods that distinguish them from more conventional approaches. This is followed by a review of the participatory methods available to researchers, practitioners, and local people as they carry out their joint analyses, planning activities, and development efforts. After this, attention is turned to cases in which the application of participatory approaches have produced valuable insights and important outcomes. The cases are drawn from a wide range of countries, from South Asia to Eastern Europe, and a diverse array of socio-technical contexts, from irrigation performance assessment to watershed management and conservation. They illustrate the growing use of participatory approaches for both research and development work, and offer lessons for their possible use in other countries and contexts in the future.Despite the sense that the agricultural sciences and rural development are in the midst of a methodological revolution--one in which local people are viewed not as \"beneficiaries\" or \"clients,\" but as \"partners\" in the process-many questions remain unanswered about the problems and potential associated with participatory methods. For this reason, the closing section of the paper is devoted to an'asessment of the emerging challenges and opportunities surrounding the use of participatory methods for research and development in the imgation and water resource management sectors. To most water development professionals, these methods represent a marked departure from standard practice. In a growing number of organizations, extractive research and top-down planning activities are giving way to interactive and enabling initiatives in which local people are active partners in the process. These methods are being used not just to enable local people to inform outside researchers or development workers, but to stimulate local people's analysis of their own conditions, constriunts, and capacities.The ideas and experiments of numerous professionals around the world have led to multiple methodological innovations, and the emergence of many variations in the way these participatory methods have been developed and applied. Nevertheless, these methods all share a number of common characteristics (see Box on page 3). Fundamental to these methods is their emphasis on joint learning and action.In recent years, the creative ingenuity of researchers, practitioners, and local people in many parts of the world has increased the range of participatory research and development approaches in use. Many have been drawn from a wide range of contexts, and were adapted to new needs (see, for example, Annex I on fanner participatory research). Others are innovations arising out of situations where practitioners have applied a methodology in a new setting, the context and people themselves giving rise to the originality.The methods common to many participatory approaches may be grouped into four categories: (1) improving group dynamics and building strong teams; (2) identifying and sampling various interest groups within a community (e.g.. poor and vulnerable groups, key informants. etc.); (3) facilitating effective interviewing; and (4) stimulating joint analysis through visualiza-A Systematic Methodology and Interactive Learning Process: The focus is on systematic analysis and learning by all the participants, which occur in an iterative and cumulative manner. Given the nature of these methods as systems of joint learning and action, their use, by definition, has to be participatory.Multtple Actors, Multiple Perspectives: A central objective is to seek diversity, rather than characterize complexity in terms of average values. The assumption is that different individuals and groups have different \"stakes\"in the management of resources and decisionmaking. These stakeholders make different evaluations of situations, depending on their sociocultural and political economic conditions, which, in turn, lead to different outcomes.Group Learning Process: Possibilities for cooperation and collective action emerge through joint analysis and interaction. There are three ways of mixing participantsby different disciplines, different sectors, and by place of origin (i.e., local people or outsiders).Context-Specific: Although they are applied in a systematic manner, the methods are flexible and adaptable to suit each new set of conditions and actors.Facilitating Experts andStakeholders: The methodologies involve the transformation of existing research and development practices to bring about changes that all stakeholders in a situation regard as improvements. The role of the \"expert\" is to create conditions in which local people carry out their own diagnostic analyses and planning. The facilitating experts may be stakeholders themselves.SustainedAction: The process leads to debate about change, which in turn changes the perceptions of actors and their readiness to contemplate action. Action is agreed, and implementable changes will therefore represent an accommodation between the different competing, sometimes conflicting, views and interests. The process of negotiation identifies changes and seeks to motivate people to take action to implement the changes. This strengthens local organizations, increasing the capacity of people to initiate and sustain action on their own. tion and diagramming (Table 1). It is the gathering of these methods into particular works for learning and action (e.g., for farmer participatory research, local-level adaptive planning, irrigation system performance assessment, and so on) that constitutes participatory research and development methods.To ensure that the perspectives of competing interest groups are investigated and represented, practitioners must be clear about who is participating in the research or development process. Communities are rarely, if ever, homogenous and there is always the danger of assuming that those participating in a particular discussion or analysis are representative of the larger community. All too frequently, however, those who are missing (and therefore unseen and unheard) are usually the poorest and most disadvantaged people (frequently women). Sampling methods are, therefore, an essential part of participatory methods, as they help analysts recognize differences in local people's access to resources and power. Facilitating sensitive interviewing and constructive dialogue between different groups is the third element of participatory learning and action. For ideas and opinions to be revealed, the conventional dichotomy between the interviewer and respondent should not be permitted to develop. Interviewing is, therefore, structured around a series of methods that promote a beneficial dialogue. This should appear more like a structured conversation than a formal interview, and aim to give local people greater control of the interview process and the information that it generates.The fourth element is the emphasis on diagramming and visual analysis of complex ideas and issues. In conventional surveys, the interview is controlled and conducted by the interviewer, who collects information from various \"respondents\" or \"informants\" based on predefined sets of questions, then analyzes, interprets, and makes decisions ahout that information apart from those who provided it in the first place. By contrast, diagramming by local people gives them a share in the creation and joint analysis of the ideas and information generated during a participatory analysis. providing a focus for dialogue that can be sequentially modified and extended.Local categories, criteria, and symbols are defined and applied during these diagramming activities, which include mapping and modeling of resource management changes and social relationships, charting of daily, seasonal, and historical trends and changes, scoring and ranking of priorities, problems, innovations, strategies, and options, and analyses of resource flows, organizational connections, and livelihood systems. Rather than answering questions that are directed by the interests and inclinations of the external researcher, local people are encouraged to explore creatively their own versions of their worlds. Visualization, therefore, helps to balance dialogue and increase the depth and intensity of discussion and debate. Even those people who are considered functionally illiterate are able to contribute constructively to the proceedings, as they too are encouraged to draw on their own \"visual literacy\" (something all human beings share) to represent and analyze complex ideas and issues.Using these methods local people have shown a greater capacity to observe, diagram, and critically examine their own conditions, constraints, and capacities than most professionals had anticipated.In the next section, attention is turned to how these methods have been applied to support participatoj research and development activities on irrigation and water resource management. Some of these innovative applications have been undertaken by programs supported by the International Imgation Management Institute (IIMI), while others have been initiated by government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and international agencies. Together, these cases provide insights into the possible uses of participatory methods in these sectors, and offer lessons for their application in the future.Efforts to put the new participatory research and development methods into practice are well under way in the imgation and water resources fields. All emphasize the process of reflexive learning leading to action and new roles and relationships for external researchers, development practitioners, and local water users. Several case studies are presented below, which shed light on the complexities of implementing these methods within the imgation and water sectors. The examples are drawn from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Estonia, and Zimbabwe.In the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka, many efforts have gone into the development and rehabilitation of small reservoir irrigation facilities. The results of several projects to improve small tank (reservoir) systems have been disappointing, however, due to a poor understanding of tank hydrology and the variability of water supplies in the Dry Zone. The approach adopted by the International Irrigation Management InititUte (IIMI) in two recently implemented area development projects focused on (sub)watersheds and tank cascades, rather than the individual tank as a starting point of analysis.A typical Dry Zone tank cascade is a chain of tanks, one located above another within a subwatershed. Tanks located in cascades are almost fully dependent on water flows from the catchment area. Drainage from one tank forms the major inflow to the next lower tank. Typically, the lowest tank in the cascade receives water from several tanks above it. These hydrological interconnections imply that changes in one tank may affect other tanks and water users.In Sri Lanka, improvement efforts have focused exclusively on isolated tanks, because tanks were traditionally seen as independent entities belonging to one village. Recent participatory research has made clear that water users were thinking along the same lines, and appeared to be confined to the limits of village jurisdiction. Water supply was perceived as the major constraint in imgated agriculture. This called for a planning process at the cascade level, as improvements of water distribution among tanks in the cascade might improve the overall water supply situation.Thus, IIMI researchers designed a three-stage process to conduct PRAs: (1) participatory action research with water users to analyze problems and opportunities associated with village tank development and management and stimulate discussion about the concept of cascade planning; (2) multi-village meetings (3-4 villages); and (3) meetings attended by all villages under the cascade, Participatory mapping was used to facilitate the discussion at cascade level, which appeared to be something they were not used to. The maps turned out to be extremely useful as they allowed water users to visualize how water flowed from tank to tank.During a series of meetings, it was realized that water users were hardly aware of cascade tanks under the control of other villages and that they had not grasped the hydrological relations of the tanks, streams, and wells of the cascade or the watershed as a whole. This meant that the suggestions for improvement by the villagers were mainly directed towards their own village tanks, rather than towards other tanks or the cascade system as a whole.These were held with representatives from the 6 to 12 villages that form a typical cascade system. During participatory mapping exercises, water users were requested to analyze the current status and use of key natural resources in the cascade (water and land), existing resource management mechanisms, and problems and proposals to improve the management of cascade resources. This led to a series of detailed maps and multilevel analyses of water resource problems and opportunities at sub-cascade and cascade levels. W a t e r users combined their knowledge of individual tanks andthe connections between them. In this way, water users categorized the cascade tanks and agro-wells into groups on the basis of agricultural performance, water availability, and quality. Local indicators of low performance were developed, and cultivation practices and the institutional arrangements at the cascade level were critically debated.Plans developed during these meetings were depicted in several maps and included proposals for water management improvements in the cascade. These included recommendations for tank system improvements, redistribution of water among cascade tanks, capturing additional water, and using excess water from another cascade. Proposals were also made for the development of new land and a management organization to handle the water resource.These inter-village exchanges were not free of conflicts, and sometimes passions would run high as representatives of different localities pressed their claims for access to and control of vital resources. For example, when members of several villages proposed a diversion of spill water to imgate additional land in their area, representatives from villages using a downstream tank challenged their proposal. A complex series of negotiations ensued before the issue was resolved. The villagers were able to reach agreements about a range of initiatives to enhance catchment and command area development, institutional management, and home garden development.Representatives from each village discussed the proposals of the multivillage planning meetings, which had made potential conflicts clear to the participants. While all water users understood the idea of cascade development, time was required to explain the setting of the whole cascade with its constituent parts. After this interchange of information, the actual negotiation of the final plan among the farmers tended to be rapid and straightforward. The result of this cascade-level planning was the adoption of proposals that benefited the greatest number of tanks and involved the most appropriate and least expensive construction.The participatory action research process influenced the nature of the water resources development proposals considerably. The original village-level suggestions concentrated almost exclusively on repair and improvement of individual tank systems, while the new plans define possibilities to augment water supply to tanks from within andoutside the cascade. system Through this process, farmers realized that their original ideas would have little effect on agricultural production, as shortage of water-the major problem-was not addressed. Only augmentation could lead to the opportunity of increased cropping intensity or command area.The benefits of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) are evident and relate to the increased awareness of concepts of watershed hydrology and the felt-need of farmers for representative and effective institutions to manage water resources at the cascade level. As Sri Lankan farmers have an awareness of the basic principles of hydrology they were in a position to contribute substantially to the concept of cascade-level planning on the basis of local historical knowledge.These activities illustrate the possibilities of joint planning with water users. Water users contributed their share of information on cascade hydrology and other local factors, which formed the basis for the water resources development plans. IIMI staff helped facilitate and provide organizational support for the meetings. While the final decisions were left to the water users, IIMI facilitators contributed to the farmers' discussions and conclusions in a fundamental way. The concept of cascade-level planning enabled farmers to address the weaknesses of earlier rehabilitation efforts and encouraged them to take account of the interconnectedness of village tanks. Water users recognized the value of this integrated approach to water resource management, and showed a willingness to collaborate with farmers from other communities and with IIMI.. This multilevel, participatory appraisal method enabled local water users to develop their own management plans, with the help of the IIMI team. It has allowed farmers to identify their own indicators for monitoring and evaluating the performance of their organizations. In conventional rehabilitation and water resource development efforts, local knowledge and potential for conflict is often overlooked. In this case, PRA provided constructive dialogue and information sharing among the full range of local stakeholders and led to the accommodation of different needs and interests related to. water resource management, with only limited external involvement. The case also provides an example of how PRA for participatory planning can be done at the supra-village level.IIMI has conducted participatory research in Pakistan to examine water users' perspectives of irrigation performance. An important objective of IlMI's Performance Assessment Program is to develop and disseminate methodologies to enable policy makers and irrigation system managers to select indicators of performance. This includes indicators of irrigation performance derived by water users. These are compared with indicators used by policy makers and system managers.The objectives of this study were to analyze imgation supply from the perspectives of water users, identify performance indicators used by water users, understand how these indicators are used in monitoring water supply performance, and examine the impact of different levels of performance on water users' decisions. PRA was adopted as the methodology for conducting the diagnostic analyses and planning. The field activities in the Punjab, which were undertaken by interdisciplinary teams of social scientists and technicians, took about 4 weeks. The following were achieved:Identification of performance indicators: Joint analyses with water users from several tertiary command areas were initiated to identify irrigation-related problems and opportunities, performance indicators, and actions undertaken as a reaction to observed performance levels.Water users' perceptions of irrigation system performance: A series of group meetings with water users for cross-checking and consensus-building along one watercourse enabled all parties to clarify issues and resolve misunderstandings.Farmers were asked to use the indicators identified in group meetings to evaluate their own water supply performance. Analysis of irrigation system performance from water users' perspectives: Group meetings were held at which the water users' analyses of irrigation system performance were presented and their findings were compared and contrasted with those of IIMI. This stimulated detailed discussions about the potential changes needed to improve system performance.A range of participatory techniques was used during the exercises (for examples, see Annexes I1 and In), such as Venn diagrams, trend lines, resource maps, transects, systems diagrams, and causeeffect diagrams. The application of these techniques led to the identification of indicators used by farmers (e.g., adequacy and timeliness of water delivery, etc.), ranking of water supply problems, analysis of local responses to poor performance, and identification of constraints to irrigation water supply performance.The research raises a number of challenges for IIMI's work with water users in the future: (i) Can IIMI gain new insights about irrigation system performance by applying this methodology in areas where it has already collected ?great deal of information? and (ii) How can researchers interact effectively with water users to improve irrigation system performance through participatory analysis?Water Users' Perceptions of Salinity and Sodicity (Pakistan) IIMI is involved in another participatory action research initiative as part of a research project entitled, \"Managing Irrigation for Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture in Pakistan\" (DGIS 1994). A special component of this activity is research on salinity and sodicity, which presents widespread environmental problems for Pakistan's imgated agriculture. The project examines water users' perceptions and irrigation management practices related to salinity and sodicity and their impact on the physical environment and fanning systems.A first step in the research was to document water users' perceptions, and strategies and practices to cope with salinity and sodicity in a selected watercourse in Punjab (Fordwah distributary). The field data for this case study were collected through application of selected PRA tools, namely participatory mapping exercises, historical trends analyses, semi-structured interviews of key informants, and focus group discussions. The participatory mapping was conducted on a base map of the watercourse, which provided details such as blocks, irrigation canals, and location of tubewells. Water users were invited to indicate different salinity and sodicity charac-'Information drawn form Kielen 1996.teristics, to elicit their knowledge about causes and effects, and the processes through which salinity and sodicity occur.Several mapping exercises were conducted in the field, starting with a group of elderly water users. With their detailed information, it was possible to generate a good deal of background information about the historical development of soil salinity and sodicity, and the changes that took place during recent decades. Other farmers from different locations along the watercourse mapped the present soil conditions. Research facilitators elicited farmer perspectives and coping strategies through semi-structured interviews. This information was contrasted with secondary information collected during earlier research. Water users' strategies were evaluated against the opportunities and constraints of the farming system.The resource mapping exercise proved to be an efficient method for obtaining complex insights into changing soil conditions and salinity/sodicity processes. The historical analyses and interviews revealed further details about water users' strategies to cope with salinity and sodicity, and changes in their irrigation management and farming practices over time.One of the outputs of the PRA exercises was a set of indicators water users apply to recognize soil problems. They differentiate between indicators based on the physical characteristics of the soils (physical indicators) and those which relate to crop performance (impact indicators). Some of the former indicators reflect the application of poor quality irrigation water, while others identify soil salinity and scdicity problems (Annex IV). Water users defined six salinity/sodicity classes to differentiate between the different types and levels of saline, sodic, or waterlogged soils.The research concluded that water users possess a profound knowledge of the causes and consequences of soil salinity and sodicity, and have a detailed understanding of related agronomic processes (e.g., salinization due to the use of poor quality tubewell water, capillary salinization from high and saline groundwater tables, etc.). The research also demonstrated that despite this understanding, water users are not always able to design effective strategies for reducing salinity and scdicity levels as their actions are often constrained by their limited access to canal water. In general, however, their practices are in line with those recommended by scientists.The issue of sustainable natural resources management is nowadays intrinsically linked with the involvement of local communities. Thus participatory methods play an important role in the implementation of watershed management projects. In the Shared Control of Natural Resources (SCOR) project in Sri Lanka, IIMI applies PRA for diagnosis of problems related to natural resources management. Specific participatory tools are used as planning, and monitoring and evaluation methods (see Wijayaratna 1995). The case presented here refers to a participatory soil and water conservation program in India, implemented by the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), as reported by Shah (1994). The case demonstrates that the adoption of flexible and long-term approaches that build upon local systems, knowledge and skills, involvement of villagers in technology generation, and the use of village facilitators for appraisal, planning, implementation, and monitoring can lead to remarkable results in terms of crop and livestock productivity and wider economic benefits. A crucial element at the start of the process is that AKRSP spends a considerable amount of time working to enable village communities to participate in appraisal and planning, technology generation, adaptation, and diffusion.The process begins with a participatory appraisal and inventory of all natural resources i n the village, traditional use practices, local institutions, and existing management systems of the village. Initially, the village, not the watershed, is used as a unit for interaction and appraisal with the community. The appraisal process involves the following methods.Base m p preparation. Villagers use various locally available materials (seeds, twigs, leaves, etc.) to prepare their village map, which shows major natural resources, landmarks, boundaries and divisions, drainage points, status of these resources, and community assets or infrastructure (such as ponds, drinking water wells, tanks, and individual wells, both functional and dysfunctional). Annex V shows how local watershed users perceive the changes in their watershed over a long period.Transect walk. A transect walk mainly focuses on observation of physical characteristics (e.g., erosion, waterlogging, soil depth, condition of irrigation infrastructure and moisture retention, etc.) and involves discussions on people's perception of these issues. This is done while walking along a route selected jointly by local people and facilitators, which covers different resources, such as private and public lands, forest lands, grazing areas, canals, rivulets, gullies, etc.Thematic maps. Thematic maps are drawn by local \"key informants\" who have specialized knowledge of water resource management, local land use classifications, cropping patterns, aquifers, etc. These maps lead to questions about problems and constraints faced in effective utilization of resources and help focus attention on possible solutions. People are encouraged to present solutions that they have tried out earlier, both those that worked and those that did not, along with their reasons for failure. People are also asked the reasons for not trying out some solutions that they have identified. Older key informants can also create historical maps to compare resource conditions over time (see annexes for examples).Opportunity identification matrix. Opportunity identification matrices are diagrams produced during the transect showing local land-use classifications, the existing state of resources, constraints to efficient management of these resources, solutions tried and options identified by the people for solving resource management problems, and the development potential of each resource. This matrix is used as a facilitating input to other methods used subsequently.Equity appraisal and well-being ranking. The next phase of the approach looks at equity issues in the village. To ensure that wider consultation is carried out and that poorer and less articulate sections of the village community are involved, a well-being exercise is carried out to identify the various social groups in the community. The more important aspect of this exercise is finding the criteria used by the village to differentiate themselves. This helps in identifying those groups that have been unrepresented or underrepresented in the mapping or transect exercises. It also helps to identify focus groups for further discussions.Focus group discussions. Based on the outputs and the process started earlier. semi-structured interviews are conducted with different groups separately. These groups could include: resource owners resource users resource nonowners and users resource nonowners and nonusers groups facing a common problem related with a resource women socially disadvantaged groups A focus group discussion builds on the information collected on maps and during transects. Each problem identified is discussed in depth. New problems and possible solutions are analyzed. People also indicate the likely conflicts that might arise in implementing solutions and begin to set priorities. Seasonality and livelihood analyses involving variables such as rainfall, food, fuelwood and fodder availability, human, animal, and crop diseases and pests, and income and employment are carried out to identify major constraints to adoption of certain priorities.Organization of village meeting and presentaiion by focus groups. It is important that overlapping or conflicting visions are expressed either publicly or indirectly, when more vulnerable groups fear open confrontation. Therefore, the next step is to organize a village meeting where most local residents participate and most groups in the village are represented. Each group nominates a representative to present their problems and priorities at the meeting.Prioritization of options and appraisal. At this stage, discussions are initiated with the community members to identify priority options under the resource management plan. This leads to conducting shorter but intensive topical appraisal exercises, which include transect walks with the focus groups concentrating in detail on local solutions identified by the people. Aspects considered during the appraisal exercise are technical feasibility of the proposed solutions, financial viability, extent of benefits and their impacts on poorer groups, resource investment, expected contributions by the community, and institutional support and training inputs required.Preparation of proposals and presentations to the external agencies. Depending on the activities identified, a formal proposal is developed by the community. This proposal is then shared with the external agencies who wish to support the implementation of the plan. This village natural resource management plan also becomes a future reference or baseline for monitoring and evaluation.The performance of AKRSP's participatory watershed management program has been analyzed using economic indicators, such as area developed each year, investments made, contributions by the community, overhead costs, net income increases, and so on, and it has shown that such an approach can bring significant increases in productivity and income generation over a relatively short period of time. Additional benefits consist of strengthened village institutions, reduced out-migration, higher school enrollments, and improved nutrition and health standards. groups left out of the initial appraisal process Participatory Impact Assessment and Self-Evaluation (Kenya) This section summarizes key objectives and findings of a number of participatory impact studies and self-evaluations of the catchment approach to soil and water conservation (SWC) a s undertaken by the Soil and Water Conservation Branch (SWCB) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Development and Marketing, Kenya (Thompson and Pretty 1996;Pretty, Thompson, and Kiara 1995). The study was conducted jointly by a team of officers of this ministry and local farmers in six catchments in different agro-ecological and sociocultural settings in western and central Kenya.The SWCB introduced the Catchment (or Area of Concentration) Approach to accelerate the rate of implementation of soil and water conservation across the country. The objective was to concentrate resources and efforts within a specified catchment area (typically 200-500 hectares) for a limited period of time, thus conserving all farms and leaving small adjustments and mainte-nance to be carried out by local extension agents and the community itself (Mwenda 1991). Subsidies were removed, and resources allocated instead, to extension, training, tools, and farmer trips.Local communities are now involved in the analysis of their own SWC problems, and decisions and recommendations are made with their active participation. Community mobilization and participation are achieved through interaction with farmers by the planning teams, the formation of catchment committees by farmers themselves, and intensified publicity and training through field-days, barazas (public meetings), demonstrations, and tours. This helps pass information widely to the catchment inhabitants, to develop better understanding of the conservation problems specific to each area, and to cultivate closer collaboration between fanners, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), and other ministries and departments.The PRA methods are used during the Rapid Catchment Analyses (RCAs) by interdisciplinary teams of between six and ten people from various government ministries and departments to assess (1) the present state of land use and land degradation in microcatchments (200-500 hectares), ( 2) help form Catchment Conservation Committees (CCCs) made up of locally elected farmers (both women and men), and (3) establish detailed action plans for implementing soil and water conservation activities. Each RCA is coordinated by an ofticer from the SWCBIMOA.spically the RCAs involve 1 day of orientation, introductions, and reconnaissance, 2 to 3 days of intensive fieldwork, and a final baraza during which findings are presented to, and analyzed with, local farmers. Catchment reports are prepared at the end of these activities and serve as baseline documents for later planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. The CCCs receive support in the form of basic tools, equipment, and technical training and advice from ministry staff. In turn, the CCC members assist their fellow farmers in planning and implementing various individual and group soil and water conservation activities.This impact study took the catchment as its point of reference for measuring change. It used participatory methods such as group and team dynamics, sampling, interviewing and dialogue, and visualization and diagramming. PRA methods employed were used in the ways described in Annex 1.Several methodological innovations emerged during the impact analysis. For instance, historical matrices were used widely with different groups to explore changes since the 1950s, including changes in land use management and conservation practices prior to and after the implementation of the Catchment Approach. These showed a variety of interesting relationships, such as (1) increased levels of conservation and agricultural productivity coinciding with increased population, (2) crop diversity falling with adoption of modem varieties of maize, then rising after the Catchment Approach, (3) increases in manure use as fertilizer prices rose rapidly, and (4) soil and water conservation, high in the 1950s when enforced, disappearing in the 1970~-1980s, then reappearing due to the Catchment Approach. Venn diagrams showing historical changes in institutions, historical farm sketches and farming system diagrams, and seasonal labor demand diagrams were all helpful in understanding changes in resource use and conditions over time.Triangulation (obtaining data on the same thing from multiple sources) on all the indicators was done extensively, since each catchment team had four or five research teams working in parallel in the field. The findings were shared in daily review meetings, which produced vigorous discussion and a deeper understanding of issues. For example, where there was disagreement between two groups over an indicator, it was often found that both were correct and that conditions differed between farmers (e.g., yields were increasing for some farmers, but falling for others).The diagrams were produced on the ground in the communities and then recorded on large sheets of paper. These were used as a focal point for the SWCB team's discussions during the post-fieldwork write-up. Drawing on this material, each sub-team analyzed impacts according to a set of commonly agreed general indicators. There was no need to lead the discussion; team members took a great deal of time cross-checking and triangulating their information. In this way, they drew together trustworthy evidence and rejected dubious information because of concerns over the manner and context in which it was collected (e.g., such as in cases where local people's analyses may have been influenced by the statements or actions of team members of the ministry).Participatory methods were to measure six key indicators of change, some of which were physical while others were social or institutional: (1) changes in productivity; (2) changes in resource degradation; (3) changes in local resilience and decreases in vulnerability; (4) changes in self-reliance of local groups and communities; ( 5 ) diffusion (spread) to non-project sites; and (6) changes in the operational procedures of the ministry and attitudes and behavior of soil and water conservation professionals.The SWCB team used the six sets of indicators to assess the impacts of the Catchment Approach in six catchments in western and central Kenya. The study revealed that impacts varied according to the quality of the interaction between extension staff and local people. When participation in planning and implementation was interactive, the impacts were substantially greater than when participation was simply consultative. In the interactively planned catchments, an interdepartmental PRA was wnducted to launch the conservation work. This included open barazas for presenting findings and developing plans. The Catchment Conservation Committee (CCC) was freely elected and involves both men and women. Fanners participated with the Divisional Planning Team (comprising one soil conservation officer and two technical assistants) in planning and laying out the conservation measures on their farms. A final baraza was held to formally hand over the conservation work to the community after implementation. After the catchment was completed, the CCC remained active and committed to maintenance and replication.Drainage Rehabilitation and Participatory Social Assessment in an Economy in 'bansition (Estonia)6Drainage system that were constructed over the past 40 years enabled Estonian farmers to raise the productivity of 740,000 ha, or 66 percent of the country's arable land. As was characteristic of Soviet agriculture, drainage systems were engineered to the scale requirements of collective farms and were centrally managed with little or no input from fanners.The Government of Estonia has requested funds from the World Bank to rehabilitate drainage systems in five counties (districts) on 60,000 ha of the most productive land. To ensure that these investments have sustainable results, farmers are required to form Land and Water Associations %See Thompson 1996 (LWAs). The LWAs in these five counties will negotiate with the government on the design of improvements, collect fanners' contributions of 20 percent of the rehabilitation costs (in cash or kind), and assume responsibilities for managing and financing drainage system operation and maintenance in the future.It was unclear whether all the farmers in the identified catchment areas would continue fanning, as some are moving out of agriculture because it is perceived to be unproductive, or whether the uncertainty over landownership would be a major disincentive to investment in drainage improvements. The Ministry of Agriculture reasoned that if farmers did not consider drainage a priority, and were unable or unwilling to pay construction and O&M costs, or were disinterested in acting collectively through LWAs, then the proposed investment would not he feasible or sustainable.To fill in the information gaps with the involvement of farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) designed a program to carry out Participatory Social Assessments (PSAs) in the five counties.The broad objectives of the PSAs were to: (1) identify key stakeholders and obtain their views:(2) collect information on social factors for selecting and screening appropriate sites;(3) strengthen the MOA's ability to communicate with fanners and understand local priorities and capacities:(4) develop a process to enable farmers to identify drainage problems, analyze constraints, and propose viable solutions; (5) identify procedures for decision making and planning of LWA activities; (6) anticipate the types of support (such as training and technical assistance) required by LWAs; and (7) generate fanners' participation in drainage rehabilitation and management.The program was divided into three phases. During Phase I, training was provided to key stakeholders in PSA and participatory planning, and a PSA process was launched in two of the five counties selected for drainage rehabilitation. Phase 11, which was implemented in late 1996, was conducted in three other counties; and Phase 111, scheduled for early 1997, will focus on consolidation of stakeholder knowledge and participation through workshops and farmer-to-fanner exchange events. As part of Phase I, an intensive, national-level workshop on Participatory Social Assessment was organized by the Amelioration Unit of the MOA in October 1995. Participants represented a range of professional and academic disciplines, including agronomy, anthropology, amelioration planning, drainage engineering, land management, and rural sociology.During the training and fieldwork, the participants were introduced to a wide variety of methods and worked with farmem to prepare catchment drainage maps (where drainage problems were identified and tenure issues were discussed), farm profiles, seasonal diagrams of agricultural production, labor demand and income and expenditure, rankings of priority projects in pairs, network and Venn diagrams of institutional linkages and information flows, and so on.PSAs of Phase I produced several unanticipated findings and clarified a number of issues. For example: Fanners' perceptions of land tenure issues appeared to be less of a constraint to LWA formation than anticipated.Prior to the PSAs, the MOA and the World Bank expected the formation of the LWAs and their operation to be standardized across the counties. The social diversity apparent during Phase I illustrated the need for a more flexible and contextualized approach if farmers were to develop a sense of trust and remain committed to their LWA.Farmers were most concerned with local contractors' expertise and the possible impact of poor rehabilitation work on their future maintenance obligations and costs.The PSAs conducted during Phase I led to the following outcomes. First, farmers' interests and needs were more clearly identified and The farm profiles provided the basis for identifying household assets and the conditions that affect potential ability of LWA members to utilize improved drainage and apply new farming practices. This information will be available to LWAs, MOA facilitator?., and design engineers when planning and budgeting for the rehabilitation works.Second, a participatory planning process was set in motion. The participatory analyses became a means for giving voice to farmers. The catchment mapping enabled farmers to articulate their priorities and assess how they could cooperate with and agree on the modalities for LWAs.Learning from the past, building for the future Since October 1995, 15 LWAs have been formed with the help of the National Training Team (NTT), a small group of trainer-practitioners drawn from various departments of the MOA, and the county Amelioration Units. The use of the PSAs has enabled MOA staff to screen the selected sites according to social criteria-primarily indicators of readiness to form and manage an LWAand to develop a continium of sites primed for collaboration in the program. The Land Board of Estonia has endorsed and supported the screening process by accelerating their assistance for land titling in those areas selected for rehabilitation.The social assessment process also established an enabling environment for the MOA facilitators, by systematically including local-level stakeholders in the training events and social assessments undertaken so far, so that all interest groups were aware of the planning and requirements for LWA formation.Recent experiences from the field illustrate the increasing use of participatory methods for research, planning, and impact analysis of irrigation and water resource management programs. In general, results have been encouraging, but it is clear that more in-depth studies are needed if we are to understand the longer-term outcomes of participatory methods, especially regarding differential access to water resources by different subgroups, and the implications of this for sustainable resource management.Participatory Research and the Analysis of Difference (Zimbabwe) Participatory research conducted in Zimbabwe by Redd Barna, a Norway-supported NGO, included the analysis by separate groups of men and women of how they expected a planned riverfed irrigation scheme to affect their lives. Through a series of discussions and the use of impact diagrams (Annexes VI and VII), they examined people's perceptions of potential positive and negative outcomes of the scheme. Particularly striking was the concern about mismanagement of funds. Welbourn (1993) writes:(The women) feared that ifthey were not in charge of the sales of their pmduce, their husbands would pocket the earnings and squander the cash on beer: Ifthis happened, they would divorce their husbands, and they were ready to stand up in public to declare this threat.The young men's analysis revealed similar concerns, with jealousy, witchcraft, and death identified as other anticipated problems. They also noted that the extra money that irrigation might provide could lead to arguments with their spouses-and even divorce. It is unlikely that many irrigation engineers would have foreseen such connections without this type of interaction.This example shows the kinds of social and economic problems that may result from an intervention that does not effectively address conflicts and competition over resources. The danger remains that participatory planning and development activities stop with simple consultation.The surge of renewed interest in using the word \"participatory\" to describe any form of planning or research has resulted in it meaning all things to all people. The adoption of participation as a guiding principle has been driven by both ideology and pragmatism. Many institutions with explicit mandates to reach the \"poorest of the poor\" employ methodologies consistent with their ideology, involving intended \"beneficiaries\" or \"clients\" in the process. It is a commonplace for donors and development agencies to require the participation of beneficiaries as a condition for provision of development assistance. Summary of Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities for PRA Despite their proven effectiveness, concerns remain about the application of participatory research and development in different agro-ecological and socioeconomic contexts. These concerns relate to unclear definitions and contradictory objectives, concerns over the role of professionals, questions over complementarity of methadologies, the influence of politics and power, measurement of impacts, and the challenges of going to scale and institutionalize participatory approaches in large, government bureaucracies.We address each of these concerns below, and examine the challenges and opportunities for improving the practice of participatory research and development for water resource management.Issue. Participatory research approaches have variously been described as methodologies, techniques, a basket of tools, and a menu of methods. Whatever approach is employed, they usually involve a series of group interactions in public spaces, which may or may not involve separate activities with different groups and individuals with competing interests.Challenges and Opportunities. Within the water sector, innovation in participatory research and development is underpinned by a commitment to principles of equity and empowerment, and to enabling people to express themselves in their own terms.Issue: Rapid appraisal and participatory approaches frequently rely on similar methods, but are generally used to pursue different objectives. Rapid appraisal offers planners, researchers, and pmject staff the tools with which to gain an understanding of local conditions, constraints, and capacities in a short amount of time. Information is then processed and analyzed by external professionals and fed into formal research, planning, programming, or policy-making arenas. At the local level, participants may play an active role in the collection of information, but agendas continue to be set elsewhere, offering local people limited opportunities to take part in decision making and planning for themselves.With participatory methods, the emphasis is not only on local-level analysis but also on enabling people to set their own agendas, pursue their own priorities, and play a more prominent part in decision making. In short, it is about allowing local people to at least partially control the research and development process.Challenges and Opportunities. Policy change in imgation and water resource management may require strategies that appear \"extractive,\" but can ultimately bring wider benefits. And rapid data collection can be a stepping stone to more engaged and participatory work at the local level over the longer term. The selection and sequencing of methods will depend on the nature and purpose of the research or development initiative.Issue. Even where pa&ipants begin to work in more interactive ways with local people, apreoccupation with methods (maps, matrices, systems diagrams, etc.) and their immediate results (for reports, research agendas, plans, etc.) has led to a neglect of the contexts and interactions that give rise to these outputs. In many cases, the participatory methods continue to be used to seek \"facts\" rather than to explore stakeholders' agendas and sets of interests. Information is taken out of the complex social and micro-political contexts in which it arose. Different people in different settings may choose to represent their situations to facilitators and each other in different ways.Challenges and Opportunities. A major challenge for water management professionals is to try to understand the local context better and to see that social interactions are part of the \"data,\" and indeed influence what is and what is not said. Training needs to concentrate more on developing skills of facilitation, observation, and analysis, and on enhancing practitioners' and researchers' abilities to reflect on their own personal biases to recognize the influence they have on outcomes.Issue. Mastering the use of participatory methods is the easy part. Acquiring the skills of communication and facilitation with which to apply them is far harder. Exposure to participatory approaches involves a learning process that can be deeply challenging, on both professional and personal levels. Many of those who are now being trained in participatory research and develop ment in the water sector have spent much oftheir working lives in formal institutional hierarchies with rigid rules and highly bureaucratic decision-making procedures. Professional advancement in such settings often depends on acquiring specialized knowledge, demonstrating \"expertise,\" and accumulating power. Participatory methods actively challenge these boundaries and may be perceived by some as a threat to their status and even theirjobs. As many participatory trainers can testify, resistance. confusion, and frustration often arise in training sessions as participants try to adapt to these new roles.Chal1etrgc.i und Opporturrities. Water development professionals cannot \"deliver\" empowerment, but they can create opportunities for people to empower themselves. Knowing what professionals bring to a participatory process (such as financial resources, information and technical knowledge, long-term support. and links with external organizations) can help local water users to change their expectations of such professionals and establish the basis for a more constructive partnership.i.i.suc. Conflict is a fact o f life. I t occurs in all communities and all groups, and is manifest in a variety o f ways, sometimes constructively, and at other times destructively. The practice o f participatory research and development in such settings i s never value neutral. Participatory processes generate expectations, which agencies and individuals may find difficult to meet. Choices need to be made and sides taken, raising ethical and political dilemmas. If consensus is sought, whose interests are served and whose voices are heard? I n settings where there is competition over access to and control of water resources, local political structures may prove to be the biggest obstacle to the empowerment of marginalized groups. Moreover, when choices are made to work with the less powerful, what repercussions might this involve? Practitioners are often not equipped to deal with some o f the conflicts that participatory analyses may expose or provoke, Challenges and Opportunities. BrinEing about fundamental shifts in the social relations of power requires not only sustained interaction with the various stakeholders, but also the willingness to take risks that may generate contlict. External agencies involved in water management must be prepared to mediate and arbitrate disputes over resources when they arise. This will require developing new skills and capacities in conflict management as well as in the use of participatory research and development approaches. Challenges and Opportunities. In assessing the impact of participatory approaches. it is important to look beyond whether or not they have produced more efficient (and cost-effective) programs or enabled agencies to meet their objectives. I t is essential to examine the perceptions local people have of participatory work. What impact do they feel it has had on the quality of their lives? And what indicators do they use to assess changes and measure improvements? Opportunities exist for developing participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) systems to improve irrigation performance. This will involve identifying the key indicators for which the water users, as well as managers, engineers, and other stakeholders, judge system performance and make management decisions, then employing these indicators in new PM&E systems to improve irrigation management.Issue. In some settings and for some purposes, conventional research methodologies (such as survey questionnaires and environmental impact assessments) may be more appropriate than participatory methods. In others, the reverse may be true. In still others, conventional and participatory methods may be complementary. Exploratory work using a participatory approach may, for example, identify issues that require further investigation using a short, focused survey. Or conventional approaches may be used to establish the basis for future participatory planning and development work.Challenges and Opportunities. Ultimately, participation rests on questions about who sets the agenda and who controls the process. As part of a process led and managed by local people, \"non-participatory\" methods can complement participatory methods as means to ends defined by the people themselves. In the irrigation and water sectors, further field testing and experimentation are needed to learn more about potential methodological complementarities and conflicts,Issues. Originally intended for and developed around use at the community or local level, recent attempts to apply participatory methods in national research and development programs and institutionalize their use in large government bureaucracies have raised new problems and oppor: tunities. The expansion of participatory training on a large scale also raises pressing concerns about quality assurance and capacity.Challenges and Opportunities. The challenge for large public institutions attempting to employ participatory methods at a national scale is to facilitate the emergence of new ways of knowing and behaving so as to manage change creatively. This will offset growing concerns over the co-opting of the term \"participation\" by those with short-term time horizons and narrow agendas who may be promoting the status quo, rather than change. Participation must be seen as something that is not only good for local people, but also good for government agencies and research institutions. Too much sall in the soils will bum the crop yellow.source: Kielc\" 19%.","tokenCount":"9257"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5847ddf047a9180685d36f6d9e2556b7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0699174c-517f-4c90-bb17-2c7b12f25d9f/retrieve","id":"641990122"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ec424fbd-9981-4404-ac6a-31be6bff79ef","pagecount":"10","content":"Some observations from KIIs in Soc Trang  The area is affected by salinity intrusion and drought => no rice planting during dry season => Farmers usually reported that salinity and drought did not affect their farming because they don't grow when salinity is too high  Problems that farmers are facing:• High cost of fertilizer, petrol • Fake fertilizer, fake herbicide, low quality seed • Output price is unstable • Pest and disease problem • Rice planting is not profitable due to high input cost • Land belongs to big farmers, small farmers don't get profit from rice planting  50% population are Khmer ethnic minority  Lots of out-migration  Trust issue Some observations from KIIs in Bac Lieu  Rice-shrimp farming area: some farmers make good profit from this farming model  Climate/weather change: unpredictable raining (early, late), long-term raining, storm, salinity, drought  Complex water management systems: small sluice gate, boat sluice gate, small dam  Problem that farmers are facing:• Water pollution • High cost of fertilizer, petrol • Output price is unstable • Pest and disease problem Some observations from KIIs in Tien Giang  Heavily affected by salinity intrusion and drought in 2019-2020.  Farmers were encouraged to change from 3 rice seasons per year to 2 rice seasons per year. Government supported 2 millions VND per hectare if farmers drop the Autumn-Winter season. Some conflicts happened. Majority of farmers in Go Cong Dong and Go Cong town are small scale farmers with less than 1 hectare. Several farmers moved from rice to horticulture (cabbage, ginger, onion, …)  Horticulture production is more profitable than rice production, however, also riskier. Vegetables farming usually require more investment, time and labor; output price is less stable. Normally they only transfer parts of their land from rice to vegetables. Less out-migration since there are some big factories located in this area so  Usually poor households with small land size  Sometimes whole family moves away  During COVID-19 pandemic, some people move back but they tend to go again, except older people (above 50)","tokenCount":"349"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"789b57664cc93d0514b1a8ced4484cf2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/481fb641-cd76-4bbc-ae2d-ccb4ddf4c42f/retrieve","id":"-1714672777"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6b5a4dd7-dee7-4838-b4f3-6d5ad0e49dc3","pagecount":"4","content":"J The countries examined demonstrate a range of suitability for contributing to the Great Green Wall by investing in rangeland restoration through value chains.J Long supply chains with non-transparent price quality links must be redesigned by willing value chain actors.J Low technical, commercial and environmental capacities of value chain actors and government agencies must be addressed.J Productive collective structures must be designed and implemented.J Value within the value chain must be identified and be of sufficient magnitude and certainty that all partners are incentivized.J Most significantly, rangeland restoration outcomes must be visibly beneficial to supply chain actors and accesible by actions related to the value chain's operation.The Great Green Wall unites 11 Sahel and Sahara countries in curbing rangeland degradation and restoring natural vegetation to the landscape. Launched by the African Union in 2007, it covers 156 million hectares from Senegal and Mali in the west to Ethiopia and Djibouti in the east in a band across their arid zones.Box 2. Rangelands J Cover half the earth's surface J Support 2.5 billion people North African rangelands are suffering a decline in quality. Degradation of soil and vegetation is reducing biological, economic and social productivity. The causes are complex; both natural and human and of local and global origins. They include climate change and frequent droughts, over-grazing, weakening of traditional knowledge bases and increasing pressure from human populations. Degradation is characterized by loss of vegetation cover, changes in flora and fauna, soil erosion and encroachment of woody species. Its impacts are far-reaching; immediately on the resident pastoral communities; more broadly on the region's city dwellers who use the rangelands' water and other resources; and universally on global ecosystems and the services they deliver to all nations.Rangeland restoration resets and boosts the productivity of natural systems. The natural, social and economic capital is restored so that in addition to ecosystem productivity, employment and incomes are generated and communities and cultures are strengthened. Local benefits accrue to poor populations including pastoralists in the arid zones. Products from the restored rangelands also reach consumers in regional and international markets. Global public goods and services are generated, such as biodiversity, cleaner air and water and carbon sequestration. This convergence of public and private interest offers unique opportunities.Box 3. Rangeland products as value chain investment targets J Wool, cashmere, mohair J Processed dairy J Tourism J Gum arabic J Aloe Vera and Shea butter J Hides and skins International investment in developing country food, fibre and other rural products is not new. They have successfully blended the delivery of high-value products and environmental benefits such as sustainable production methods and supported smallholder farmers with payments for environmental services. The Great Green Wall programme is using the same model for rangeland restoration to generate investment in pastoralist value chains.Leveraging investment Financing and implementing environmental action like rangeland restoration draws on state and private investment and international assistance. The scale of the global environmental challenge means that scarce government and aid funds are best directed to support and leverage the private sector. Creating and maintaining a supporting environment for private investment is now a priority for government and international agencies. Experience shows that there are roles for all levels of government, particularly at the local level. The Great Green Wall is partnering with governments to provide the right investment environment: risk reduction, productivity increases, new services to agriculture, underwriting new technologies and ensuring information flow. A lesson from private investment in environmental projects is that mechanisms need to be in place that allow for quick payment and fair pricing along with transparent links between environmental outcomes and the payments made. The Great Green Wall is deploying new technologies to help build a reliable transaction environment. This lays the groundwork for investors to get products to high-value markets, invest in local facilities and people, and ensure compliance with rangeland restoration action.Box 6. Helping smallholders reach global markets J Standards for products and processes J Uniformity of the product J Reliability of supply J Verifiability of origin Firms serving high-value markets have a storyline about their products. Impact investment in rangeland value chains then requires guarantees regarding the truth of that story. Keeping the customer happy means delivering the right product at the right time with the same quality every time. Investment sets up systems that deliver value with the Great Green Wall programme providing support.French cosmetics company L'Occitane started sourcing shea butter in Burkina Faso from women's collectives in the 1980s. A first step was standardizing product quality and training to maintain the standard. Producers signed contracts with prices that covered production costs and provided advance payments. National and international bodies for capacitybuilding and financing provided support. Organic certification followed. L'Occidane further invested in local processing and packaging facilities and set up the Shea Centre in Ouagadougou in the early 2000s (Reynolds 2010). There is a strong and vital relationship between rangeland restoration and livestock value chains. In livestock systems, feed shortages accelerate rangeland deterioration and create more feed shortages. Rangeland restoration stabilizes these systems and enables efficient production regimes that consistently deliver a high-value product. Building on this, buyers can work with pastoralists to access products and schedule delivery to high-value markets.Supporting dialogue between actors Box 8. Actors' dialogue J Mapping actors helps establish dialogue J Organisation of actors along value chains J Awareness of benefits of rangeland restoration J Capacity building, institutional reform, infrastructure and applied researchReinforcing dialogue among value chain stakeholders at local, national and regional levels is crucial to support value chain investments along the Great Green Wall. Enabling investment calls on all partners to take some action. Investors require a secure environment where risks are visible and manageable. New business models are developing where investments offer a broader and longerterm return to all the rangeland partners.Box 10. Financing J Rules for credit accessIn the Great Green Wall countries, rangeland restoration investment is transitioning from localized projects using national and external funds to regionally coordinated efforts drawing on multiple funding sources. This is a new investment landscape. It needs to accommodate the needs of capital lenders, borrowers, asset owners and managers.Advances are needed in rules about collateral, insurance mechanisms and rules for fund flows nationally and internationally. Investments that target climate change need to be recorded and linked to national and global support mechanisms without disturbing business operations. These support mechanisms need to be reliable, permanent and visible to everyone with a stake in the rangeands.Recommendations have been offered to strengthen institutional capacity development for rangeland restoration. The Great Green Wall: the story so far J Comparisons of benefits delivered by each element of the triple bottom line* will yield insights into pastoralist preferences and reveal the strength of investor motivation in terms of investment impact.J As new investment mechanisms and blends emerge along with novel action portfolios for rangeland restoration, empirical analysis of stakeholder preferences is needed.J Benefit measurement needs to extend to stated and observed preferences and measurement of non-market impacts.J In addition to contributing to design of funding mechanisms, these measures will inform national priorities with rankings for value chain actors and stakeholders.J Interactions between elements of financing blends should be studied, particularly as sequencing and complementarity between public and prívate sectors are observed.* The triple bottom line is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental and economic. Some organizations have adopted the framework to evaluate their performance in a broader perspective to create greater business value.","tokenCount":"1236"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"28abf0efaaea005ebff731b683506feb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b94dda75-0bb6-45f5-9abe-5017fb930d8d/retrieve","id":"1534113447"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7668c548-8f62-4ef1-99df-fd1fc251bfd8","pagecount":"117","content":"By my signature below, I declare and affirm that this is my own work. I have followed all ethical principle of scholarship in the preparation, data collection, data analysis and completion of this thesis. All scholarly matter that is included in the thesis has been given recognition through citation. I affirm that I have cited and referenced all sources used in this document. Every serious effort has been made to avoid any plagiarism in the preparation of this thesis. This thesis is submitted in chapter fulfillment of the requirements for degree from the postgraduate directorate at University of Gondar. The thesis is deposited in the University of Gondar Library and is made available to borrowers under the rules of the library. I solemnly declare that this has not been submitted to any other institution anywhere for the award of any academic degree, diploma or certificate.Brief quotations from this thesis may be used without special permission provided that accurate and complete acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotations from, or reproduction of this in whole or in chapter may be granted by the head of the school or department or the dean of the Postgraduate Directorate when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the of the material is in the interest of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author of the thesis. Name: Mesfin Fenta Signature:___________________ Date: November, 2017 Department: Agricultural Economics vii BIBLIOGRAPHIC SKETCH The author was born at kolladiba town, Dembia district, North Gondar Administrative Zone, Amhara National Regional State in March 1982. He attended and completed his junior and senior secondary school at kolladiba town. He joined the former Ambo College Agriculture, now Ambo University and earned diploma in general agriculture in 2003. After graduation, he worked crop production expert in Tegede District until he joined Gondar Agricultural Research Center as technical assistant in 2005. Later, he joined University of Gondar to advance to the degree of Bachelor of Art (BA) in economics and received in 2010. After graduation, he continued serving Gondar Agricultural Research Center as socio-economics research assistant position in Socio-economics and Agricultural Extension Research Directorate. He then joined University of Gondar in September 2015 to pursue a study leading to the degree of Masters of Science (MSc) in Agricultural Economics.viii ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like thanks many people and organizations who have supported me in accomplishing thesis work. My greatest and special gratitude go to my major advisor, Dr. Akalu Teshome for his professional guidance, encouragement, valuable comments and suggestions throughout the whole research process. My deepest thanks also to my co-advisor Dr. Wondimhunegn Ezezew, Dr. Workeneh Kassa and Mr. Tamiru Amanu for their technical and professional support and comments in this thesis work.I gratefully acknowledge Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute for providing the chance to do my second degree and University of Gondar for providing me educational opportunity. I would like thanks to N2-Africa ILRI Ethiopia project for generous research financial grant to this research study. My beloved, Mother and Father deserve special thanks for their raised me up in love and affection, support and encouragement. I would like also tremendous thanks to Mrs. Zinash Milakew for your love, patience, unlimited support, providing your precious time during my research time.The efforts of people who devoted their time and resources to assist me in the process of this study are greatly acknowledged. This study would have been, beyond doubt, impossible had it been for the kind help of a number of good people, colleagues and friends. I am also thankful to all enumerators who assisted me in data collection with commitment and dedication. I am grateful to all respondent farmers and agricultural experts for providing valuable time and necessary information for this research work.  ................................................................................. Table 3. Proportional       Ethiopian economy and employment are largely depending on agriculture sector. Its GDP reached 55 billion USD and per capita was 631 USD by the end of 2013/14. Agriculture, industry and services sectors contributed 40%, 14% and 46%, respectively to the GDP. In the total employment opportunities, 72.7% was generated from agriculture sector and the other 19.8% and 7.4% generated from service and industry sectors, respectively, (UNDP, 2015).However, the agriculture, services and industry sectors accounted for 38.8%, 46.6% and 15.2% of real GDP, respectively. Despite its declining contribution to GDP over the years, agriculture leading sector in the contribution to the country's overall economy. It is a major source of food, raw material for the domestic industries and commodities export (UNDP et al., 2016).Most of Ethiopian population, residing in the rural area, is engaged in agricultural as a major means of livelihood. However, the agricultural productivity is low due to use of low level of improved agricultural technologies, risks associated with weather conditions, diseases and pests, etc. Moreover, due to the ever increasing population pressure, the landholding per household is declining leading to low level of production to meet the consumption requirement of the households (Bezabih and Hadera, 2007).There are different pathways that help out of poverty i.e intensification of smallholder agriculture, commercialization, diversification, migration and urbanization. The pathway out of poverty trap in Ethiopia depends on the growth of the agricultural sector since agriculture is the mainstay of the country's economy and drive the livelihood of the majority of the poor.Yield enhancing technical options should be there to achieve agricultural growth and development because without improved agricultural technologies it is no longer possible to meet the needs of increasing numbers of people by expanding areas under cultivation (Menale et al., 2010).Chickpea is one of pulse crops, which is cultivated in above 40 countries of the globe around 11 million ha of land from which over 8 million tons of seed is yearly harvested. The major producers are India, Pakistan, Turkey, Australia, Iran, Myanmar, Canada, Ethiopia, Mexico and Iraq with over 93% of the global production. In Africa, chickpea is widely grown in Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. It contributes around 46% of the total production in Africa (Menale et al., 2009). In Ethiopia, chickpea ranks third in area coverage from among the pulses grown areas and proceeded by Faba bean and Field pea and second in volume of production only next to Faba bean. In the country, with a total area of 229,720.74 ha land a n d its productivity was 1.85 ton hectare (CSA, 2014).In our country, chickpea is widely grown across the country and serves as a multi-purpose crop. Chickpea provides the small farm households alternative sources of protein, energy, minerals and cash income. In addition, its residue is used as animal feed and it enhances fertility of the soil (Bekele et al., 2007). It is produced for different purposes including food and feed, cash and foreign currency earnings. In addition, it replenishes soil fertility as it fixes a substantial amount of atmospheric nitrogen in symbiotic association with different species of root nodule bacteria. However, the national average yield of chickpea in Ethiopia under farmers' production condition was around 0.8 tons per hectare. On the other hand, if improved technology packages used, the potential of the crop was more than 3 tons per hectare (Legesse et al., 2005).In view of this, the government of Ethiopia in an attempt to increase agricultural productivity and improved food security at both national and household level, efforts have been underway to generate and disseminate improved agricultural technologies among smallholder farmers. Over the past two decades, on-farm trials, demonstration and popularization of improved chickpea production technologies (improved varieties, fertilizers and management practices) have been undertaken in several potential chickpea producing areas to promote improved technologies and enhance their adoption (Legesse et al., 2005;Million and Asnake, 2011).So far many improved chickpea technologies have been released to increase chickpea production and productivity. However, due to various reasons the adoption of improved technologies is low. In the previous studies indicated that demographic, socioeconomic, institutional and infrastructure access factors, attitude towards the technology and communication condition of the household were significantly related to adoption and intensity of adoption of improved agricultural technologies (Almaz Giziew, 2008;Hassen Beshir, 2013;Akinbode and Bamire, 2015).Even though many efforts have been conducted to popularize and disseminate improved chickpea technologies among farmers of Gondar Zuria District, the adoption of improved technologies are not impressive. Why farmers are resisting or adopting and levels of adopting about improved chickpea technologies is a big question so far not answered with substantial evidence for the study area. Thus, this study is proposed with the objective of analyzing adoption of improved chickpea technologies and farmers' preference to the technologies in Gondar Zuria district, North Gondar Zone.Pulse crops function as a natural fertilizer through nitrogen-fixing, which improves yields of other crops through crop rotation, and can also reduce smallholder farmers' expense for commercial fertilizer purchase. They also contribute significantly to Ethiopia's foreign currency and the third-largest export crop after coffee and sesame, contributing 90 million USD to export earnings (Shahidur et al., 2010). Chickpea is one of very important pulse crops in Ethiopia contributing to about 17% of the countries' total pulse production. Ethiopia is the first chickpea growing country in Africa, with a share of about 37% in area and 63% in production and the seventh chickpea producer in the world. Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) has 61.5% in chickpea cultivated area and 60% in production share from the country.North Gondar Administrative Zone also contributes more than 25% of chickpea cultivated area share in the region (Menale et al., 2009). However, the area share of chickpea cultivated land was increased to 31.10% and 35% production share in 2013/14 production season (CSA, 2014;TL-III, 2016).In order to increase production and productivity, using technologies are very determinant factor for economic growth and development. Agricultural technologies, improved crop varieties are helping to improve income and livelihoods for subsistence farmers. Agricultural research institute and international projects introduced a number of technology package, each consisting of an improved crop varieties and improved management methods (tillage, seed rate, planting date, fertilizer application rate, weed and pest control, and irrigation schedule) to maximize the benefits from the variety. Packages were developed for different crops, and different varieties of each crop. Studies indicated that, farmers who adopted technology packages (or components) obtained crop yields 8% to 70% higher than non-adopters. In Ethiopia, chickpea crop production technology adopters earned a significant higher net return which was USD 551 per hectare than non-adopters (ICARDA, 2008).In the previous years, to get higher benefit from chickpea crop, international crops research institute for the semi-arid tropics (ICRISAT) collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research (EIAR) has developed several high yielding, stress tolerant and marketable varieties of chickpea with desirable agronomic management (Solomon et al., 2011). Agricultural research institutes, Bureau of Agricultural (BoA), technology producer organizations, different NGOs and institutions had been undertaking on farm technology demonstration, popularization and multiplication activities in order to facilitate the transfer of technologies to farmers in the country. Improved chickpea varieties (Arerti, Shasho and Natoli) with recommended bio-inoculant, chemical (DAP) fertilizers and management practices were promoted intensively in Gondar Zuria and Dembia Districts to boost chickpea production and productivity.Although these efforts and potentials, different studies indicated that, the adoption of improved technologies was very low. Among the total chickpea cultivated area (194,981 ha) only 0.69% was covered by improved chickpea varieties (Solomon et al., 2010). It has been recognized that the continuous use of local low yielding crop varieties is a major cause of low productivity. The main reasons indicated for low adoption rates are insufficient seed and marketing systems that limit the availability of quality improved seeds, lack of credit, and late delivery of inputs (Menale et al., 2009). Other studies also pointed out that the total quantity of improved seed supplied nationally has been increasing, however, the adoption of improved varieties was around 3% to 5% of cropped area was under improved varieties (Spielman et al., 2012). The productivity of chickpea was low according to its potential i.e 1.85 ton per hectare (CSA, 2014). In addition, the market share of the country from the world was low i.e about 4% by volume (TL-III, 2016). There is a need to identify the reason for low productivity of chickpea.Gondar Zuria District has potential farm land, favorable environmental condition, availability of improved technologies and good national and international market opportunities for chickpea production. To make use of the potential of the crop over the past, on-farm trials, demonstration and scale up/out of these improved chickpea production technologies (improved varieties, bio-inoculant, DAP fertilizer and management practices) have been undertaken by government and NGOs in several chickpea producing areas of the region to promote improved technologies and enhance their adoption by farmers. In this District, improved chickpea technologies were popularized to improve the food security status of farmers and increase their income.In spite of such intervention, information with regard to level of adoption of pulse crops in general and chickpea production in particular, on locally specific factors that hinder or promote adoption and variation among farmers in their intensity of adoption of improved chickpea production package practices are scanty in the study areas. Studies by Solomon et al. (2010), Simtowe et al. (2011), Tesfaye et al. (2014), Akalu et al.(2016) and Sisay Debebe (2016) reported that location specific socio-cultural, institutional, infrastructure, demographic and communication variables significantly affect technology adoption behavior of farmers.Since farmers of Gondar Zuria District have different geographic location and culture practices their problems related to technology adoption might be different and level of adoption of technologies on chickpea production was not known, this study intended to find out those problems. On the study area, many farmers are using local varieties and traditional agronomic practices for the production of chickpea crop.To promote higher levels of adoption, understanding conditions of adoption of recommended technologies and current improved chickpea technologies preference are important concerns for the people dealing with agricultural development. This study is focused on factors determining adoption of chickpea technologies particularly in the study area.This study has attempted to answer the following important research questions:1. What are factors important in influencing adoption of improved chickpea technologies in the study area?2. What are the levels of adoption of improved chickpea technologies?3. What are the improved chickpea technologies preferred to adopt by farmers?The overall objective of this study is to analyze adoption of improved chickpea technologies by smallholder farmers in their farming system in Gondar Zuria District.1. To identify drivers of adoption of improved chickpea technologies (improved varieties, bio-inoculants and chemical fertilizer).2. To determine levels of adoption of chickpea technologies in the study area.To assess farmers' preference to adopt improved chickpea technologies in the study area.The remarkable productivity growth in the agricultural sector of the world mainly comes from the technological improvement. It is proved from the Asian and some Latin countries that the green revolution is able to increase the productivity of the farmers very significant. Adoption agricultural technologies can boost production and productivity of crops. Similarly, chickpea crop production and productivity is enhanced by different improved technologies. Improved technologies were developed by researchers in different time. Gondar Zuria district has one of the best suitable lands for chickpea production both in rainfall and irrigation condition.However, the adoption of technologies in the farmers seems very sluggish. Farmers' are not always adopting the newly introduced technologies that came to them from any extension organization as it is immediately. They try to evaluate according to its match with their social, environment and economic importance (Bezabih and Hadera, 2007). So, knowing derivers and levels of improved chickpea technologies adoption by farmers have a paramount importance for the researchers to develop agricultural technologies and for the agricultural extensions to make scale out and promote more which suits to the current setting conditions of farmers. Decision makers too will benefit from the research output since they require micro level information to formulate and revise strategies concerning agricultural research and extension.Thus, the study assumed to produce very important information on locally specific factors related to economic, social, cultural, institutional factors and farmers' preference and perception on improved chickpea technologies. Finally, the information produced from this study will contribute for technology generators, extension agents, input suppliers and other organization working in agricultural sector to improve their service for the production chickpea.The findings of this study will enable agricultural researchers, higher education institutions and peoples working on agricultural development to redirect their research focus based on the real situation and demand of farmers. An understanding of the processes leading to the adoption of new technologies by farmers will be important to the planning and implementation of successful research and extension programs.The study was conducted in Gondar Zuria district of North Gondar administrative zone, Amhara National and Regional State (ANRS) and focus on understanding the determinants of adoption of improved chick pea technologies. Hence, the study was restricted to the assessment of factors affecting adoption, level of adoption on improved chickpea technologies and farmers' preference to adopt among different improved chickpea technologies package. Chickpea crop is selected for this study due to its importance for food consumption, high market demand, agronomic purpose and agro-ecological suitability to grow this crop in the study area. It is examined local specific factors such as demographic, social capital, institutional, infrastructure and access to agricultural extension service. The study was mainly based on the information generated from the sample household survey during a single cropping season using a cross-sectional data due to the limitation of time and logistics. Dynamic agricultural farming system and households behavior are determinant factors and vary from place to place. Hence, the generalizations might not be possible for the whole region of the country.The first chapter has presented the introduction of the study. Chapter two presents literature review. The reviewed studies are in the area of basic concepts of technology adoption, technology adoption decision theories, technology adoption in the world, chickpea research and production in Ethiopia and analytical framework. Chapter three presents research methodology; includes study area description, sampling procedure, methods of data collection and data analysis. Results and discussions are presented in chapter four. Finally, chapter five concludes the study and presents policy recommendations.Innovation is new ideas, methods, practices or object, which perceived as a new and provides the means of achieving, sustained increases in farm productivity and income. The innovation may not be new to people in general but, if an individual has not yet accepted it. Diffusion is a process by which new ideas or practice communicated to the members of social system over certain period of time (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971).According to Rogers (1962) adoption is process as the mental process through which an individual passes from the first hearing of about an innovation or technology to a final adoption. It is the integration of an innovation into farmers' normal farming activities over an extended period of time. The author also noted that, adoption is not a permanent behavior.This implies that an individual may decide to discontinue the use of an innovation for a variety of personal, institutional and social reasons one of which might be the availability of another practice that is better in farmers' fields. However, largely because of the complexity of adoption and diffusion behavior, as well as the impermeable boundaries and perspectives of the traditions and disciplines involve in this research, there is as yet no generally accepted theory available to guide the professionals in research of the factors affecting the adoption behavior.According to Loevinsohn et al. (2013), technology is the means and methods of producing goods and services. It is new to a particular place or group of farmers, but the technology may in use within a particular place or farmers. Technology adoption is important because it is the vehicle that allows most people to participate in a rapidly changing world where technology has become central to our lives. Individuals who can't adopt will increasingly limit their ability to participate fully in the financial and convenience benefits associated with technology. Understanding the factors influencing technology adoption helps us predict and manage who adopt, when and at what conditions. Unfortunately there is no clear definition of technology adoption, in large part due to the tremendous variability in types of technology and circumstances under which people adopt them.Technology adoption and diffusion are highly interrelated but distinct concepts. Technology adoption is measured at one point in time while technology diffusion is the spread of a new technology across population over time (Thirtle and Ruttan, 1987). While explaining the distinction between these concepts, Rogers (1962) argued that, technology (synonymously used with the term innovation) is often accompanied by two processes, namely the processes of adoption and diffusion. Technology is described as an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or groups of a society. Technology adoption is the use or non-use of a new or improved technology by an individual or farmer at a given period of time. On the other hand, technology diffusion is defined as \"the process by which a technology is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of social systems\". It signifies a group of phenomena, which suggests how technology spreads among users. It takes place at the individual level and is the mental process that starts when an individual first hears about the technology and ends to its final adoption or rejection. Rogers (1962) summarized the above definition of technology diffusion using the following four core elements: (1) the technology that represents the new idea, practice, or object being diffused, (2) communication channels which represent the way information about the new technology flows from change agents suppliers (extension, technology suppliers) to final users or farmer, (3) the time period over which a social system adopts a technology and (4) the social system. Overall, the technology diffusion process essentially encompasses the adoption process of several individuals or farmers over time.According to Feder et al. (1985), adoption can be categorized into individual or aggregate adoption. They defined individual adoption as the degree of use of a new technology in long-run equilibrium when the farmer has full information about the new technology and its potential, whereas aggregate adoption is defined as the process of spread of a technology within a region. Further, their studies distinguished technologies that are divisible and nondivisible. Divisible technology in terms of resource allocation requires the decision process to involve area allocations as well as levels of use of the rate of application (for instance, improved seed, chemical fertilizer, and bio-inoculant fertilizer). Therefore, adoption of improved agricultural technologies such as improved chickpea variety, bio-inoculant and/or chemical fertilizer can therefore be categorized as divisible technology, defined as farmers who planted at least one improved chickpea variety and/or use chemical fertilizer for chickpea, and non-adopters are those who did not grow any of the improved chickpea variety and/or used chemical fertilizer in chickpea production.According to Jeffrey Pickens (2005), perception is the process that organizes and interprets by our sensory in order to give meaning about the environment. It is the set of processes by which an individual become aware of and interprets information about the environment. The person interprets the stimuli into something meaningful based on their past experiences.However, an individual interprets or perceives may be different from reality. Van den Ban and Hawkins (1998) defined perception is a process by which we receive information or stimuli from our environment and transform it into psychological awareness. However, all innovations do not diffuse at the same rate. Various innovations are objectively differ and probably are perceived as being different by farmer decision maker. Thus, perception of differences would affect decisions to adopt or reject a particular innovation. Therefore, farmers receive and gather stimuli that indicate the attributes of improved chickpea technologies are superior over local and traditional one or not. Rogers (1983) has classified characteristics which may describe an innovation and individuals' perception, which predict their rate of adoption. These characteristics of innovations are: relative advantage to current tool or procedure, compatibility with the pre-existing system, complexity or difficulty, trial ability (testability) and observability of its effects. These qualities interact and judged as a whole.There are different categories of decision theories. According to Ndah et al. (2010) indicated that behavioral and cognitive theories are components of adoption decision theories in agriculture. Each of them could be defined as: behavioral theories are learning based on the idea that all behavior is through conditioning. It used in therapeutic settings to help clients learn new skills and behaviors. Cognitive theories are action is triggered through the uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts at the same time.It is focus on the internal state such as: motivation, problem solving, decision making and thinking condition.In theories of psychological field, human behavior is a result of the interplay of different forces that make set circumstances through the dynamic interaction of human being and their environment. It also the interaction of situational forces with the perceived environment can be explained as a field of force, a system in tension or a psychological field (Ndah et al., 2010).Theory of behavioral modification contains the inhibiting forces that negatively influencing behavioral change and the driving force that conductive to positive target of adoption.Behavior (adoption) is resulting from the psychological field of inhibiting and driving forces.In the diffusion innovation theory, according to Rogers (1995) diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of social system. Diffusion is a special type communication concerned with the spread of messages that are perceived as new ideas. The characteristics of an innovation, as perceived by the members of social system determine rate of adoption. Technology users differ widely in their attitudes towards technology and their skills, ranging from early adopters who will master even the most difficult technology through to people who will never adopt. At bridge to technology we define technology adoption as a process that begins with awareness of the technology and progresses through a series of steps that end in appropriate and effective usage.According to Borges et al. (2015), it is difficult to capture the complexity of farmers' decision. In the field of agricultural economics, farmers' decision and behaviors studied by two main different approaches: one is based on purely economic models, where expected utility theory (EUT) plays a central role. The other approach was based on sociopsychological theories, where psychological constructs explain farmers' behavior, that the decision to adopt an innovation.The development of the TBP/TPA orginated in the field of social psychology. As early as 1862 psychologists began developing theories showing how attitude impacted behavior. The theory of planned behavior helps to understand how people's (adoption decision) behavior can be influenced. It predicts deliberate behavior, since behavior can be deliberate and planned. This theory assumes that human action to be guided by three things. These are behavioral, normative and control beliefs. Behavioral belief is the attitude towards the behavior and consequences of the behavior-adoption, normative belief is subjective norms and about the normative expectation of others and control belief is perceived behavioral control and express about the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of behavior-adoption (Ndah et al., 2010).TBP does not cosider explict background factors, specially the role of acquistation of information/ learning process. However, EUT assume that that farmers' have the single objective of maximizing expected utility of profit (Borges et al., 2015).Expected utility theory (EUT): tells that the household chooses between risky or uncertain prospects by comparing their utility values. It states that a farmer compares the innovation with the traditional technology and adopts it if the expected improved technologies utility greater than the expected utility of the traditional technology (Batz et al., 1999 as cited by Borges et al., 2015). In this theory, there is Subjective Expected Utility Theory (SEUT) which is focus on uncertainty condition, and Von Neumann-Morgensern Theory (VNMT) in the case of risk condition. Von Neumann and Morgensern chose to determine the utility value of randomized strategy in mathematically convenient way (Philippe Mongin, 1998). EUT assumes that farmers have only the objective of maximize expected utility of profit. However, it does not consider social pressure on farmers to adopt an innovation. The combination of EUT and TRA/TPB avoid the above pointed restrictions. Considering both theories provide broad and compressive view on adoption decision.The farmer households are influenced by the utility that they obtain as a result of making their own decision. Allying the theory that smallholder farm households are maximizing utility (the Von Neumann-Morgenstern's utility theory). The adoption decision is modeled in a random utility framework. The difference between the utility from adoption (U TECH¡ ) and nonadoption (U TECH¡ *) of agricultural technologies (i= 1, 2, 3 represent improved chickpea varieties, bio-inoculant and chemical fertilizers, respectively) may be denoted as T i *, such that a utility maximizing farm household will choose to adopt an improved chickpea variety, bio-inoculant and/or chemical fertilizer, if the utility gained from adopting is greater than the utility of not adopting (T i *= U TECH¡ ̶ U TECH¡ * > 0). Since these utilities unobservable, it can be expressed as a function of observable elements in the following latent variable model:Where T i * is a continuous indicator variable, represents adoption status and its level of improved variety, bio-inoculant and chemical fertilizer in chickpea crop production. The status of adoption is whether the farmer applied improved chickpea variety, bio-inoculant and chemical fertilizer in chickpea production or not, while the level of adoption is measured by calculating the proportion of cultivated land covered by technologies of the total chickpea cultivated land during 2015/16 production season, and β and α are vectors of parameters to be estimated; Z and X are vectors of explanatory variables; and ε is the error term.From a sociological point of view, an innovation is an idea, practice, or object that an individual perceives as new. Since the focus is on the perception of the idea, the innovation need only be 'new' to the individual adopter. This indicates that adoption is the mental process from first hearing about an innovation to deciding to make full use of the new idea (Rogers and shoemaker 1971). Feder et al. (1985) argued, the sociological definitions of option are usually indicate for 'rigorous theoretical and empirical analysis' due to their inaccurate and limited to distinguish individual or farm level adoption from aggregate adoption.From an economic point of view, an innovation is a technological factor of production that perceived and /or objective uncertainties about its impact on production. Farmers reduced uncertainty over time by getting good experiences, modifying the innovation, and becoming more efficient in its application. Therefore, economists have defined final adoption at farm level as the degree of use of a new technology in long run equilibrium when the farmer has full information about the new technology and its potential (Feder et al., 1985).According to Yigezu et al. (2015) adoption typically has been viewed from two perspectives.At individual farm level, each household chooses whether or not to adopt and the intensity of adoption. Farm level adoption studies, then, are concerned with the factors influencing the adoption decision either statistically or dynamically by incorporating learning and experience. At macro level, diffusion studies examine how adoption involves across a population or region. Since the objective is to identify specific trends in the diffusion cycle over space and time, diffusion models do not explicitly address the innovation process.According to Feder et al. (1985) summarized empirical literature on adoption of new technology and production at household level constrained may arise from different sources, such as limited land size, access of credit availability, risk and uncertainty related to the technologies and availability of cash resources. Socio-economic, demographic, institution factors and subjective perception were determined the new agricultural technologies adoption (Akinwumi and Jajo, 1995).A common drawback of previous empirical analysis of innovation adoption was dichotomous terms (adoption/ non-adoption) and multinomial qualitative choice models established in the adoption literature even though the actual decisions made by farmers are defined over a continuous range (Feder et al., 1985). The purpose of qualitative choice models is to determine the probability of an individual with a given set of attributes will make one choice than an alternative (Green, 2003). The two most popular functional forms used for adoption models are the Probit and the Logit models. Ghadim andPannell (1999) cited Linder (1987) indicated that four major problems for the inconsistent results obtained by most of the empirical studies of agricultural innovations such as failure to account for the importance of the dynamic learning process in adoption, Biases from omitted variables, poor model specification, Failure to relate hypotheses to a good conceptual framework. They also assumed that previous adoption models did not substantially consider the dynamic technology adoption decision model, such as farmers' personal perception, managerial abilities and risk preferences. Dimara and Skuras (2003) and Yigezu et al. (2015) model depicts adoption as a multistage decision process by violating full information assumption that incorporates information acquisition and learning by doing by farmers who vary in their risk preference and perceptions of the risks associated with the innovation.In recent studies involves multiple stages and the decision may be independent or sequential for the determinants of technology adoption and intensity by farmers indicated by Ibrahim et al. (2012)  Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) was first produced in the Middle East about 7,000 years ago.At present, it is cultivated in above 40 countries of the globe around 11 million ha of land from which over 8 million tons of seed is yearly harvested (Menale et al., 2009). The major producers are India, Pakistan, Turkey, Australia, Iran, Myanmar, Canada, Ethiopia, Mexico and Iraq with over 93% of the global production. In Africa, chickpea is widely grown in Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. It contributes around 63% of the total production in Africa. In Ethiopia, chickpea ranks third in area coverage from among the pulses grown areas and proceeded by Faba bean and Field pea and second in volume of production only next to Faba bean. In the country, with a total area of 229,720.74 ha land an d the productivity of 1.85 ton per hectare (CSA, 2014;TL-III, 2016).Chickpea is considered less labor-intensive crop and its production requires less external inputs as compared to cereals. It is widely grown around the world and serves as a multi-use crop. It plays a significant role in improving soil fertility by fixing the atmospheric nitrogen.It can fix up to 140 kg nitrogen per hectare from air and meet most of its nitrogen requirement. After harvest, it leaves substantial amount of residual nitrogen for subsequent crops and adds some amount of organic matter to maintain and improve soil health and fertility. This saves the fertilizer input cost not only for chickpea but also for the subsequent crops. Chickpea has the ability to grow on residual moisture which gives farmers the opportunity to engage in double cropping, where chickpea is sown at the end of the rainy season following the harvest of the main crop. This allows more intensive and productive use of land, particularly in areas where land is scarce. It is also an excellent source of protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals thus can help alleviating malnutrition and improving human health. The growing demand in both the domestic and export markets provides a source of cash for smallholder producers (Million and Asnake, 2011).Chickpea research was started at Debre zeit Agricultural Research Center to contribute for increased productivity, insuring sustainability of production, and to improve the economic and social welfare of farmers. Diseases and insects, limited use of modern inputs, and inappropriate agronomic practices were found to constrain productivity of chickpea. Lack of market incentives and postharvest losses are also important problems of chickpea production (Legesse et al., 2005).In the last 30 years many different varieties of chickpea were released from research centers. The availability of improved seed varieties from agricultural research centers has facilitated the release of varieties since the 1990s. These include Shasho, Arerti, Chefe, Ejere, Teji, Habru, Akaki and worku improved chickpea varieties. Generally, Desi and Kabuli types are the two major types of chickpea grown in the world with major differences in seed size, seed color, surface and thickness of the seed coat. The Desi type is characterized by small seeds with angular appearance, sharp edges and varying colors but usually light brown. On the other hand, the Kabuli type produces large round seeds of white or pale cream or yellow color (Legesse et al., 2005;Solomon et al., 2011). Desi-type is a small dark seeded with rough coat, fairly drought tolerant, adapted to low rainfall areas and is of shorter height. It account for about 10% of the world's current production. Kabuli-type is a lighter color, late maturity type with a thin white seed coat and is found mainly in areas of good rainfall. It is relatively taller height, larger seed size and smoother coat.Different studies in different countries indicated that improved chickpea variety, and chemical fertilizer with Rhizobium inoculation were significant increment (8 to 40%) on grain yield and up to 60% Stover yield. Studies in Ethiopia specifically in Oromia, Gondar and in southern part of the country indicated that inoculant was strong response for chickpea crop (N2Africa, 2013). Source: CSA, 2014 and TL-III, 2016 reports.There are literatures on adoption of high yielding varieties and management of technologies both abroad and inside the country. Studies indicated that, the adoption decision of farmers are affected by a number of variables such as demographic, economic, social and networking, communication and information, behavioral and institutional variables. However, Solomon et al. (2010) reported that gender differential was not effect on technology adoption. In addition, according to Ibrahim et al. (2012) study on the determinants of farmer adoption of improved peanut varieties and their impact on farm income reported that gender was not significance difference on technology adoption. Solomon et al. (2011) reported that age and gender of the household head have no significance difference on the agricultural technology adoption. According to Huang et al. (2015) on the study of adoption intensity of agricultural technology indicated that there was not significance difference in gender between adopters and non-adopters of the household heads.The age of the household head one of the factors that influenced the adoption of technology. It is incorporated as it is believed that with age, farmers accumulate more personal capital and thus, a greater chance of investing in innovations. However, it may also be that younger household heads are more flexible and hence likely to adopt new technologies. According to Huang et al. (2015) on the study of adoption intensity of agricultural technology indicated that Youngers are more technology adopters than elders. According to Langat et al. (2013) on the study of drivers of technology adoption in a subsistence economy reported that age had significant effect on the technology adoption. However, according to Akalu et al. (2015) on the study of House-Level determinants of soil and water conservation adoption phases indicated that age not significant effect on the stage of adoption. Similarly, Simtowe et al.(2011) study on the determinants agricultural technology adoption in the case of improved pigeon pea varieties in Tanzania reported that age was not significant influence on adoption.In addition, Adam Bekele and Yitayal Abebe (2014) indicated that age was negative and significant factor for technology adoption.Education is associated with the technology adoption because of it is assumed that increase farmers' ability to obtain and analyze information that helps him/her to make appropriate decision. According to Huang et al. (2015) on the study of adoption intensity of agricultural technology indicated that education is positive and significant effect on the technology adoption. According to Langat et al. (2013) on the study of drivers of technology adoption in a subsistence economy indicated that education level of head of household was found to favor adoption of tissue culture banana compared to their counterparts with less schooling.However, Simtowe et al. (2011) study on the determinants agricultural technology adoption in the case of improved pigeon pea varieties in Tanzania reported that education was not significant influence on adoption. In addition, according to Solomon et al. (2010) and Ibrahim et al. (2012) studies reported that education was not significance difference on technology adoption.Active family labour is also one of important variable for the technoloy accepting easilly.According to Solomon et al. (2011) on the study of agricultural technology adoption, seed access constraints and commercialization in Ethiopia that reported, active family labour force had positively significant effect on the level of improved chickpea varities adoption.However, Simtowe et al. (2011) on the study of the determinants agricultural technology adoption in the case of improved pigeon pea varieties in Tanzania reported that labor was not significant effect implying that labor was not constraint for farmers to adopt improved varieties of pigeon pea. According to Huang et al. (2015) on the study of adoption intensity of agricultural technology indicated that there was not significance effect on the technology adoption.Economic variables: are very important for agricultural technology adoption. These are total land holding, on farm and off farm incomes, total livestock and number of plots of land. Land that there was positive and significant factor for agricultural technology adoption. In addition, Huang et al. (2015) found that the higher the participation of farmers in groups and local cooperative, the more the household head adopted the improved seeds. However, Solomon et al. (2011) andBerihun et al. (2014) revealed that farmers association did not significant factor for technology adoption decision.A cosmopolitan is the degree of contact of a farmer with external situation of the social system. This is believed to influence the access to information on improved farming practices as compared to other members of the group and influence adoption positively. According to Almaz Giziew (2008) it was not significantly influenced for technology adoption.which are mostly associated with farmers' adoption behavior. These are radio, mobile, extension service and attendance extension events (Field day and training).Extension service one of the most important factors for technology adoption. Negera Eba and Getachew Bashargo (2014), Huang et al. (2015), Arslan et al. (2013), Solomon et al. (2011) and Adam Bekele and Yitayal Abebe (2014) studies indicated that extension service was a positive and significant factor for technology adoption decision. However, Ibrahim et al. (2012) study on the determinants of farmer adoption of improved peanut varieties and their impact on farm income reported that extension service had not a significance difference on technology adoption.Radio and mobile are important tools for technology adoption and diffusion. Solomon et al. (2011) revealed that radio and mobile ownership had a positive and significant effect on technology adoption. However, Simtowe et al. (2011) showed that radio and TV had not statistically significant effect on technology adoption decision.Attendance on extension events is very necessary for decision of technology adoption. Almaz Giziew (2008) and Simtowe et al. (2011) showed that significant effect of this variable on technology adoption.Perception with the way the attribute of innovation is perceived and the respondent's perception of the technology attribute. According to Akalu et al. (2015) on the study of houselevel determinants of soil and water conservation adoption phases indicated that farmers' perception about soil erosion had a significant effect on adoption of soil and water conservation practices.Several literature, practical experiences and observations of the reality have indicated that one factor may facilitate adoption of technology in one area and time. However, it also may hinder in another situation. Therefore, it is difficult to develop specific and unified adoption model in technology adoption process because of the economic, social and networking, behavioral and infrastructure variation of different areas, and also various natures of determinant factors. This study is based on assumption that a number of factors influence adoption of improved chickpea technologies. These factors are demographic, economic, social capital and networking, information and communication, institutional and behavioral variables. Increasing production and productivities of chickpeaThis chapter discusses how the research is conducted. This section consists of description of study area, sampling procedure and sample size determination, methods of data collection, methods of analysis and defections of variables and hypotheses.The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is administratively divided into nine national regional states and two administrative councils. The Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) is one of the nine regional states. The ANRS is again divided into eleven administrative zones, one of which is North Gondar. As specifically related to farming life, the ever-increasing population overstocks the limited land resource. The total population density of Gondar Zuria district was found to be about 203 persons per Km 2 while the agricultural density, considering both crop and grazing lands regardless of slope, was 250 persons per Km 2 . This shows that there is high population, which should be seen from the high subsistence requirement and the limited sources of earnings.Hence, using improved technology is a gear to escape from poverty. It has high potential of chickpea production and arable land coverage. In the district, improved technologies were demonstrated and popularized in the previous years.Source: GIS shape file of Ethiopian administrate mapA multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select district, kebeles and farmers. In the first stage of sample procedure was purposive selection of Gondar Zuria district. The district was selected purposively because of intensity of chickpea crop production, agro-ecological suitability and accessibility. In addition, Gondar Agricultural Research Center and nongovernmental organizations (e.g N 2 Africa, TL-II and ICARDA projects) in collaboration with district office of agriculture, cooperative and unions generated, demonstrated and promoted chickpea technologies in Gondar Zuria district in previous years. Gondar Zuria district is stratified as potential kebeles for chickpea crop production and others not. kebeles were about 17 identified for their good potential for chickpea crop production. Kebele administritives were stratified into chickpea crop growing and non-growing kebeles. As the second stage of sampling procedure, a total of four kebeles namely Tsion-segaje, Bahirigimib, Zengaj and Degola-chinichaye were selected randomly from chickpea growing potential kebeles that included kebeles from far and near distance from the main town of district. As the thrid stage of sampling procudure respondets were selected using simple random sampling in the selected kebeles. The respondents from each selected kebeles were identified using probablity proportional to size random sampling technique. The respondent farmers were both male and female household heads in the selected kebeles. A representative sample size, for cross-sectional household survey and known population the study employ the sample size determination formula given by (Kothari, 2004). Finally the sampled household heads were selected using probability proportional to size from each kebele that makes a sample size of 224 household heads, which is estimated by the following equation ( 1), sample of household heads were randomly selected from the selected kebeles  To undertake this study, cross-sectional survey involving both qualitative (focus group discussion, key informant interview, and spot observation using checklists) and quantitative using semi-structure interview schedule was employed. To collect required data for this particular study, both primary and secondary source of data were used. The primary data were collected using semi-structure interview schedule, focus group discussions and key informant interview methods. The secondary data were gathered from secondary sources such as published and unpublished documents. The documents were collected from North Gondar Agricultural Development Department, District office of Agriculture, Gondar Agricultural Research Center.A formal survey instrument was prepared and data were collected by trained enumerators from randomly selected household heads using semi-structured interview schedule. The interview for the formal survey was tested on farm with household heads. These were interviewed by using semi-structured interview for this specific study. The questions were forwarded to 224 household heads were randomly selected from 4 rural kebeles namely, Tsion-segaji, Bahiri-gimib, Zengaj and Degola-chinichaye in the study district.The information gathered from different sources was compiled. The quantitative data were entered in STATA version 13 and SPSS version 20 statistics tools for analysis. The result of analysis were interpreted and discussed in using descriptive statistics and econometrics models. The data were obtained from focus group discussion and key informant interview were analyzed by qualitatively.Descriptive statistics was employed to analyze data by using mean, percentage, standard deviation, chi-square test and t-test. It gives a summary of statistics related to variables of interest. Chi-square test and an independent sample t-test were applied used to identify variables that vary significantly between adopters and non-adopters. The chi-square test was conducted to compare some qualitative characteristics of adopters and non-adopters. The ttest was used to observe if there is statistically significant difference between mean of respective adopter and non-adopter categories with respect to continuous variables.Probit Model: In the Probit model, household heads are assumed to make decisions based upon an objective of utility maximization. For a given decision, separate models are developed for each decision. The underlying utility function depends on household specific attributes X and a disturbance term having a zero mean:and U i0 (w) = α 0 w i + ԑ i0 for non-adoption (3) as utility is random, the i th household head selects the alternative \"adoption\" if and only if U i1 > U i0 . Thus, for the household i probability of adoption is given by:Where Φ is cumulative distribution function of standard normal distribution. The parameters α are estimated by maximum likelihood w is a vector of explanatory variables which explains adoption. In case of normal distribution function, the model to estimate the probability of observing a farmer using a new technology can be stated as:Where P is the probability that the i th household used new technology and 0 otherwise. The Where, and are the standard normal cumulative distribution function and density function.Where y i * is a latent endogenous variable representing household adoption decision, y i observed dependent variable (level of land use by improved chickpea technologies), x i is a set of individual characteristics explaining the adoption decision, x i is variables explaining the level of improved chickpea technology adoption decision and ԑ i is independent, homoscedastic, normally distributed error terms.The likelihood function for Tobit modelThe impacts of the regressors on the dependent variable, marginal or partial effects are calculated by using maximum likelihood results. The overall effect values of the explanatory variables x on the dependent variable is expected value of y i . In the Tobit model and its various generalizations, this is more commonly known as the unconditional expectation of y i is written as E⦋ yi /x⦌. The unconditional expectation can be decomposed in to two parts, the conditional expectation E⦋ y i /y i > 0, x ⦌ which is the expected value of y i for values of the explanatory variable x, conditional of y i > 0 and the probability of a positive value of y i for values of the explanatory variable, x, P⦋y i > 0/x⦌. Where, i refer to the observation (a farmer), y i * is latent or index but unobserved dependent variable that represent adoption stages or phases farmer i. x i is vector independent variables, and β is vector of regression coefficient which we wish to estimate are the random error terms assumed to be standard normal distributed. Further suppose we have N independent individuals (Observations) and we face three alternatives for level of adoption, such as:WhereThat is, we observe an individual y i in one of the J ordered categories, these categories being separated by the threshold parameters or cutoffs, the µs. In other words, the threshold parameters demarcate the boundaries of the various categories. The µ j s is unknown ordered threshold parameters to be estimated with the unknown coefficients β. The probabilities that the ordered dependent variable y takes the different possible value areProb ( y=2/X) = (μ2 − ) − (− ′ ), (25)i= 1, 2……..m j= 1,2……kX ij = 1, if the i th attribute and j th level is present in a profile = 0, otherwiseThe preference judgment is an approximately interval scale, then the part-worth can be presented by dummy variables and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is a natural and relatively straight forward means with which to estimate the part-worth.The measures of attribute levels are independent variables. The estimated coefficients associated with the independent variables are the preference scores for the levels. The coefficients are utility estimate (part-worth) of the attribute levels.In the conjoint analysis, the part worth model is the model used to express the utilities or the measure of desirability of the various attribute levels this can be estimated with different techniques such as ordinary least square regression analysis and logistic regression. Bard et al. (2002) found that multiple linear regressions were appropriate estimation method in conjoint analysis. If the preference judgment is an approximately interval scale, the part-worth can be represented by dummy variables and multiple linear regression is a means with which to estimate the part-worth utility (Hauser and Rao, 2002). For this study, multiple linear regression models that used are specified as follows. Where: Y i = represents the rating value given by respondent \"i\" on the five point likert scale.The conjoint methodology is a decomposition approach to analyze consumer preferences.Respondents give an overall score (a real score in the rating approach or an implicit score in the ranking approach) to a product profile and the analyst has find out what the preference contributions are for each separate attribute and level, where it is commonly assumed that the overall utility of a profile is constructed by adding the attributes preferences. This means that a compensatory preference model is used, where ''low\" scores on certain attribute can be compensated by \"high\" score on another attribute. In conjoint experiments the contribution of an attribute (level) to the total utility is called a \"part-worth\" and the total utility of a profile in a compensatory, additive preference model is equal to the sum of the part-worth:Where U is the utility of the profile, the value of attribute (level) and is the (estimated) weight parameter of attribute (level). The part-worth is equal to . More complex constructions are possible, such as a multiplicative model for the overall utility or the presence of interaction effects in the utility function.In order to get information and insight on household heads' decision of improved and new technologies use, perceptions' about each attribute of a given technologies is of paramount importance. Hence, farmers' knowledge for evaluation criteria about technology attributes is important. Farmers' knowledge about improved chickpea technologies (new varieties or seed, bio-inoculant and fertilizer) and their attributes are important for adoption of technologies.Technology adopter and non-adopter farmers about each technology for the increment of chickpea crop production and productivity.The attributes of improved chickpea varieties (yield, maturity, and pod per plant, disease resistance, and marketability and seed color), bio-inoculant and chemical fertilizer are concern for this study. Four descriptions are superior, same, inferior and don't know were employed to facilitate the comparison of improved seed with local seed, with and without bio-inoculant and with and without chemical fertilizer for the production of chickpea crop. The assessment of perception of improved technologies was on both user and non-user farmers. Descripitive statistics analysis was employed.Adoption status: this is the dependent variable that is used to know whether the households are adopters or non-adopters of improved chickpea technologies. It also helps to evaluate the aggregate tobit model for the two groups (adopters and non-adopters). It is a continuous variable that a proportional size of the land allocated for improved chickpea technologies in the production of chickpea crop. This helps to evaluate the factors that affecting adoption of improved chickpea technologies.Adoption status Indicators Non-Adopter  Household head has used improved technology for chickpea production in the 2015/6 production season. Adopter  Household head has used improved technology for chickpea production in the 2015/6 production season.The following explanatory variables were hypothesized that influence adoption and level of adopting chickpea technology in the study district.Explanatory variables were identified and listed based on review of related literatures and discussion with few experts.Household head sex: is used as dummy variable. Sex difference is one of the factors expected to influence adoption of new technologies. This is because of different socio-cultural values and norms, males have freedom of mobility, participation and interaction in various groups. These help greater access to get information. Therefore, it is hypothesized that male farmers are more likely to adopt chickpea technologies (Berihun et al., 2014;Hassen Beshire, 2014).Household head educational status: is used as dummy variable and educated household head in the family is increase the ability to analyse and use information relevant to the adoption of chickpea technology package. Hence, household head's educational level is expected to influence the probablity of adopting chikpea technologies postively (Afework and Lemma, 2015).Age of household head: is measured in numbers of years. Olders have good experience in crop production than youngers. However, when household head age increase, he or she may also decrease the flexibility to accept new technologies. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the sign of the factor on the adoption of chickpea technology (Berihun et al., 2014;Akalu et al., 2014). Land holding: It is an indicator of household wealth and social status in the community. This indicates that households who have relatively large land size more initiated to adopt improved technologies. In addition, the reverses are true for small size of land and as a continuous variable and hypothesize to have positive relationship with adoption process (Berihun et al., 2014;Hassen Beshire, 2014;Negera and Getachew, 2014;Afework and Lemma, 2015).Livestock holding: It is measured in Total Livestock Unit (TLU). Livestock ownership is hypothesized to be positively related to adoption of technologies because it serves as proxy for wealth status (Hassen Beshire, 2014).The total amount of physical asset owned by the household head in Ethiopian birr. High asset ownership is hypothesized to be positively related to adoption of technologies because it serves as proxy for wealth status.The farm income refers to the total annual cash earnings of the family from the sale of crops, livestock and livestock products after family requirement. This is to be main source of capital for purchasing agricultural inputs. Thus, households with relatively higher level of farm income are more likely to purchase or exchange improved technologies. It is measured by the amount of Ethiopian birr obtain from sale of farm products (Afework and Lemma, 2015).A number of plots of land that hold by the household head. Number of plots of land may increase farmer's transaction and investment costs. Hence, it is hypothesized that a number of plots increase, technology adoption decision more likely decrease.Social participation: Household head particpate in membership and leadership in cooperative organization frequently more likely to be aware of new practices. Therfore, it is hypothesized that those farmers who participate in some cooperative organization as member or leader and more frequently participate is more likely to adopt chickpea technologies (Solomon et al., 2011).It is a number of relative and non-relative people rely on critical time in the social system. This assumed that farmers who have many people with him/her during critical time, they can access to information and confidential about improved farming practices as compared to others and hypothesised to influence adoption of chickpea technology positively (Solomon et al., 2011).Distance Mass media exposure: is measured in terms of have access with different media (Radio, TV and printed paper). Farmers who have mass media exposure, their level of awarness should be high. Mass media plays a significant role for technology adoption. It is expected to have positive influence on technology adoption (Solomon et al., 2011).Attendance on extension events: it is measured in terms of opportunities of participation on the events i.e., household who participated on agricultral field days and trainings in the previous year. Participation in the field day and training is expected to positively influence farmers' adoption of improved chickpea production (Solomon et al., 2011).It is getting market information (outputs and inputs demand) that help farmers to the right dicision. Agriculteral technologies adoption is influenced by access of market information. Therefore, it is dummy variable and hypothesized to be accelerates the effective dissemination of agricultural information to the farmers there by enhancing farmers' decision to adopt new technologies. Therefore, it is hypothesized to affect adoption of chickpea technologies positively (Negera and Getachew, 2014).Perception on technology: for this study, in order to evaluate the overall quality of improved (new) varieties, an index is developed. The procedure involves counting the number of superior, same, inferior and don't know traits and multiple them by their corresponding grades (i.e 3, 2, 1 and 0, respectively), adding up and dividing the sum by the number of traits. Since the overall preference index measures the general quality of technology attributes (yield, maturity, pod per plant, disease resistance, marketability and seed color), it is used in the adoption models as dummy (define as 1 if the overall preference is above the indifference or same value and 0, otherwise). This variable measures farmers' recognition of the superiority/ inferiority of improved chickpea varieties attributes that is expected to influence adoption of new technology. Hence, it is hypothesized that good perception is expected to positively influence adoption of improved chickpea technologies (Solomon et al., 2011;Akalu et al., 2016).Dependent variables The total number of profiles, as shown on Table 7 that can be generated with above list of attribute and its levels was 4*2*2*2=32. This size of profiles (32) might lead to information overload on a respondent farmer that will ultimately reduce accuracy of preference evaluation.This appeared to be manageable number of the respondents and also exceeds minimum number of stimuli (The number of levels across all attribute -Number of attributes + 1 = 7) that must be evaluated by the respondent to ensure the reliability of estimated parameters. In addition, farmers cannot provide proper and meaningful evaluation when large number of product profiles presented in data collection. Therefore, fractional factorial main effect was employed for this trial research by considering orthogonally. It assumes that all interactions present in stimuli are negligible. Orthogonally makes the correlation between attributes minimum for regression analysis and makes each level to appear in equal numbers (Green and Srinivasan, 1990). Five level of likert scale (least preferred, not preferred, undecided, preferred, most preferred) was used to capture each respondent preference score in the product profile generated from orthogonal array design.This part presents the findings of the study and discusses in comparison with the result of similar studies. It is organized under different sections: the first section deals with the description of demographic characteristics, socioeconomic characteristics, land holding characteristics, institutional support services, market access and communication information and social capital and networking characteristics. The second section covers the results on the status, level of technologies adoption, preference and perception of improved chickpea technologies by smallholder farmers in the district.This section covered about sex, educational status, age, family size and labor supply variables.As shown in Table 8, from the entire household heads interviewed, about 88.8% were male headed while about 11.2% were female headed, who are divorced or widowed at the time of survey. The proportion of male headed higher than female headed. Educational level of the household heads were about 67.4% literate which included persons that write and read while the remaining was illiterate. The average age of the sample household head was found to be 48 years with the standard deviation of 10.71. This shows that most of the household heads were within the productive age.As shown In this part which covered livestock holding, physical asset, farm income, off-farm income and land holding are main indicator of wealth status of the household in the study area.Ethiopia is believed to have the largest livestock population in Africa. Livestock are very important for traction power, soil fertility improvement from their manure, human nutrition gain its product and income generating from live sale and their product. Based on appendix Table 1 conversation factor and as the Table 9 shown that the average livestock holding in tropical livestock unit (TLU) was found to be 5.9. This is relatively larger in the croplivestock mixed farming system of the country. The average cow and ox owned were 1.58 and 1.88, respectively. Oxen are very essential to plough, prepare land and threshing crops.According to the result most farmers have at least one ox but not all farmers' have two oxen.It is one the factor for technology adoption and utilization. Cows also provide milk for consumption and sale, but sample household head owned few in the crop-livestock mixed farming system of the country. In general, in the study area the sampled household has better position in their TLU. This is an indicator for technology adoption. As revealed in Table 10, average physical asset holding of the sampled household was 45,876.37 Ethiopian birr. Income is one of the factors to purchase and adopt new technology.The average farm income that comes from different farm crops was 27,337.93 Ethiopian birr.The household heads participated in off-farm employment such engaging in daily labor, handicrafts, petty trade and others. The average monthly off-farm income of the respondent farmers was about 162.69 Ethiopian birr. These additional incomes will support individual farmer to adopt technologies. Land is one of main resource for farmers to live sustainable.The average total land holds of the sampled households were 1.69 hectare of land. However, cultivated land was 1.57 hectare land while 0.12 hectare of land was uncultivated land used for perennial plant and animal grazing purpose. This was used to produce different agricultural crops on their farm fields. Chickpea one of stable food and income generating access to credit freely was about 64%. These show that there are some farmers who did not get easily access credit service in the district. Ownership of radio and mobile by the household head help to acquire information related to production and marketing conditions. In this regard, as shown in the Table 12, about 34% interviewed farmers have radio and 43% have mobile while others did not have radio and mobile. These communication variables are help farmers to get information about newly introduced technologies in the country and their living localities. Field visit and field day participation on the demonstrated technologies is very crucial to adopt new technology. These help farmers to compare and contrast new and existing technologies. In this condition from the sampled household interviewed about 41% participated on chickpea and related crops field day in their localities, while the others did not participate in this event. Agricultural training is also promoting acceptance of new improved technologies. In this regard, from the total interviewed farmers about 45% have got training on pulse and related crops about production and marketing activities during survey time by different organizations. Sampled respondents were around 77% got market information while others did not get easily the information. Market information is enhancing the adoption technologies. Participation of different social groups is believed to hasten the information exchange and experience sharing among individual farmers on the use of improved agricultural technologies and recommended agronomic activates. As displayed in the Table 13, about 41% of the sampled farmers were members of administrative membership in the kebele. The result of cooperative membership and farmers' development group were about 81% and 55%, respectively. These household heads who participated at various groups in the community are assumed to have more access to agricultural input, information and better understand about the new improved technologies. The other social network was household rely on relatives and non-relatives during shortage of income which matters for technology adoption. The survey result revealed that a household head who had on average about 28 persons during the shortage of economic and other social related issues. Household heads that have many grant in economic and relative issue from their relatives and others believed to adopt new improved technologies early than others. As in Table 15, described the mean values or proportion values of variables hypothesized to influence the decision to adopt bio-inoculant in 2015/16 cropping season by their adoption status. The result revealed that comparison between adopter and non-adopter based on independent variables. Bio-inoculant fertilizer adopters have significantly higher in asset (11,548.72 birr) ownership than non-adopters' asset (7,793.69 birr). Adopters have also significantly higher in livestock holding size (7.18 TLU) than non-adopters (5.59 TLU). They have also significantly larger land size (1.91 ha) than non-adopters' land holding size (1.64 ha). Technology adopters were significantly lesser in market distance (50.69 minutes) than non-adopters distance (60.55 minutes). The proportion of administrative membership was significantly higher in non-adopters (31.7%) than adopters (10.27%). Bio-inoculant fertilizers users on their chickpea land have significantly higher in average number people rely on in critical time (46) than non-users number of people (24). Field day and training participations, market information and technology perception were highly significant differences between technology adopters and non-adopters.As indicated in Table 15,   Tobit model was employed to identify factors that determine adoption status and level of adoption of improved chickpea varieties, bio-inoculant fertilizer and chemical fertilizer (DAP) technologies by smallholder farmers in the study areas. The likelihood test statistics is applied to test dependency of adoption of improved technologies on the selected independent variables in the model. The result shows that explanatory variables are simultaneously related to adoption of improved chickpea varieties, bio-inoculant fertilizer and DAP fertilizer at 1% level of significance for production of chickpea crop. These indicate that all models have good explanatory power.Additionally, as shown in appendix 6, problems of multicollinearity checked by using VIF (Variance Inflation Factor) was found the mean 1.89 which shows that there is no problem of multicollinearity. As shown appendix 4 and 8, Heteroskedasaticity and omitted variables were also checked by Breusch-pagan test and Ramsey RESET test, respectively that shows there were no problem in the model for improved chickpea varieties. Breusch-pagan test for heteroskedasaticity indicated a large chi-square value (117.88) for bio-inoculant fertilizer and (104.67) for chemical fertilizer, this indicated the existence of heteroskedasaticity problem in the models. To obtain corrected variance estimates, robust option was applied in the final model. Lastly, Ramsey-RESET test was applied to check model specification problem, and results show there were no omitted variables in the model.As the result revealed that (Table , 16 Farmers' training center (FTC) distance was negatively and significantly influences adoption of improved chickpea varieties at 1% level for adoption. This might be due to farmers who are nearest to FTC can get enough information about improved technologies and able to observe and visit early. Therefore, farmers who are nearer to farmers' training center, they are more likely to adopt improved technology. Hence, the hypothesis is true. A minute near to farmers training center leads to an increase in probability of improved chickpea varieties adoption by 0.62%. Studies by Sezgin et al. (2011), Negera andGetachew (2014) and Afework and Lemma (2015) also obtained a similar result in their studies.Farm income was positively and significantly affects the adoption of improved technology at 5% significance level. This is due to the fact that farmers are getting more income from farm crop. They take a risk and responsibility about a new technology. One additional Ethiopian birr get from farm crop leads to an increase the probability of improved chickpea varieties by 11.38%. Negera and Getachew (2014) and Debelo Duressa (2015) and also reported that farm income was significant and positive effect on the adoption of technologies.Livestock holding size is the proxy of the wealth status of the household. It was positively and significantly influence the adoption improved varieties at 10% level of significance. This shows that a larger livestock holdings more likely to adopt a new technologies. This indicates household can generate additional income from livestock and livestock product and purchase improved chickpea varieties for production purpose. A unit increase in the TLU leads to 1.92 percent increase in the probability of adoption of improved varieties and level of adoption.Studies by Adam and Yitayal (2014), Hassen Beshir (2014), Debelo Duressa (2015) and Sisay Debebe (2016) also obtained similar result. However, Negera and Getachew (2014) and Berihun et al. (2014) reported that negative and significant relationship with the adoption.Agricultural training participation has a positive and very significant influence on the adoption of improved chickpea varieties at 1% level of significance. This might be training can improve capacity building and awareness creation of chickpea producers in the study area. This shows that more training participation on the pulse crop production and marketing condition more likely to adopt new and improved chickpea varieties. The result shows that being participate on training of pulse crop in the production season leads to 28.09 percent increase the adoption of improved varieties and level of technology adoption in the study area. This is consistent with the result of Sezgin et al. (2011), Adam andYitayal (2014), Hassen Beshir (2014), Debelo Duressa (2015) and Akalu et al. (2016).Credit access has a positive and significant effect for adoption of improved varieties. This shows that credit is grant during critical time of production and to purchase new and improved chickpea varieties in the production season. Households who have more access to credit, they are more likely to adopt improved chickpea varieties in the study area. The result shows that being access to credit leads to 11.10% increase the adoption of improved chickpea varieties and level of proportion of improved technologies in the production chickpea crop. A study by Hassen Beshir (2014), Negera and Getachew ( 2014  Chickpea production experience has a positive and highly significant influence on the status and level of adoption of bio-inoculant fertilizer at one percent level of significant in the production of chickpea crop. This indicates that, more experienced farmers in chickpea production have better knowledge and information on the chickpea production and marketing condition. Therefore, more experienced farmers in the production chickpea crop are better to adopt bio-inoculant fertilizer in the study area. A year increase in experience on production chickpea crop leads to an increase the probability of adoption by 0.89%. A study by Okeke-Agulu and Onogwu (2014) and Akinbode and Bamire (2015) found similar result.Main market distance has a negative and significant influence on adoption of bio-inoculant fertilize at 1% level of significant. This shows that, farmers who are more nearer to the main market, they have more information about new technologies, production and marketing conditions. These farmers have more frequent visit the market and share information and experiences with other farmers. Therefore, farmers were more nearer to the main market, more likely to adopt bio-inoculant fertilizer. A minute decrease to the main market place leads to an increase the probability of adoption by 0.28%. Earlier studies by Berihun et al. (2014),Hassen Beshir (2014), Negera and Getachew (2014), Afework and Lemma (2015), Akinbode and Bamire (2015) and Debelo Duressa (2015) revealed similar result on their findings.Farmers training center distance has a negative and significant influence on adoption of bioinoculant fertilizer at 10% level of significant. This helps farmers to get advice frequently from agricultural experts about improved agricultural inputs and activities. In addition, new technologies are tested and demonstrated on the farmers training center before distributed and applied by farmers. This is an opportunity for farmers, who are living nearer to the FTC, more likely to adopt bio-inoculant fertilizer in the stud area. A minute decrease to FTC in the living kebele leads to an increase the probability of adoption by 0.24%. Sezgin et al., (2011), Hassen Beshir (2014) and Debelo Duressa (2015) found a similar result on their studies.Main road distance has a negative and significant effect on the adoption bio-inoculant fertilizer at 1% level of significant in the study area. This might be the fact that farmers are living nearer to the main road are more likely to get information about new technology, information marketing of input-out and experience than other farmers live far from the main car road in the study area. This encourages farmers to adopt bio-inoculant fertilizer. A minute decrease to the main car road in the living kebele leads to an increase the probability of adoption by 0.31%. Studies by Hassen Beshir (2014) and Debelo Duressa (2015) also found the negative relationship between distance of main road and technology adoption.Livestock holding has a positive and significant on the adoption of bio-inoculant fertilizer at 10% level of significant in the study area, indicating that farmers with large number of livestock are more likely to adopt bio-inoculant fertilizers than others. This is because of farmers with relatively more livestock can make generate more income from livestock and livestock products to purchase bio-inoculant fertilizer. A unit increase in the TLU leads to an increase in the probability of adoption of bio-inoculant fertilizer by 1.26%. Previous studies by Adam and Yitayal (2014), Berihun et al. (2014), Hassen Beshir (2014), Debelo Duressa (2015) and Sisay Debebe (2016) also found a similar result. However, Negera and Getachew (2014) found negative relationship between fertilizer adoption and livestock rearing in their studies.Relative and other people rely on critical time shows farmers social relationship and their networking in their environment. It has a positive and significant on the adoption of bioinoculant fertilizer at 1% significant level for production chickpea crop in the study area. This indicates that more social capital and networking is helping to share information, resources and minimize risks of problems and thereby encourages the adoption of new technologies.Therefore, people have more social networks are, more likely adopting bio-inoculant fertilizer. A unit increase in number of people relies on in critical time leads to an increase the probability of adopting bio-inoculant fertilizer by 0.14%. A study by Miah et al., (2015) found the same result on their research finding.  Chemical fertilizer (DAP) is very important to boost production of chickpea and other crops.As Table 17 shows that, Tobit model was employed to identify factors which affect adoption of DAP fertilizer in the production of chickpea crop in the study area. In total 19 independent variables were included in the model and among them 11 variables have significant effects on adoption of chick pea technology. These are household head age, sex, radio, household size, household asset, livestock holding, land own, education level, agricultural training participation and farmer's perception about the technology.Age of household head has a negative and significant influence on adoption of chemical fertilizer at 10% significance level on production of chickpea crop in the study area. The result shows that younger farmers have more flexible to accept and implement chemical fertilizer than older farmers. Therefore, younger farmers are more likely to adopt chemical fertilizer (DAP) in the production of chickpea crop. A year decrease in the age of household head leads to an increase in the probability of chemical fertilizer adoption by 0.48% in the study area. Previous studies by Sezgin et al. (2011), Berihun et al. (2014), Akinbode and Bamire (2015) and Debelo Duressa (2015) found a similar research result. However, other studies by Hassen Beshir (2014) and Adam and Yitayal (2014) found that older farmers are more technology adopter than younger farmers.Household size has a negative and significant effect on the adoption status of chemical fertilizer at 1% of significant. This indicates that farmers who have less family size are more likely to use chemical fertilizer (DAP) on the production of chickpea crop than other farmers.Possible explanation for this result is that less family size can't prepare enough compost for their farm land to replace chemical fertilizer as larger family size for chickpea crop production and large family size had low input purchasing power hence large family size means more expenditure on schooling, health, clothing and food. Decrement of one additional family member in the household will lead to an increase of adoption of chemical fertilizer by 3.24% in the study area. Earlier studies by Negera and Getachew (2014) and Hassen Beshir (2014) also found a similar research result. However, Sisay Debebe (2016), Akinbode and Bamire (2015) and Adam and Yitayal (2014) found different result in their studies. increases the probability of chemical fertilizer adoption by 14.73% in the study area. Sezgin et al. (2011), Adam and Yitayal (2014), Debelo Duressa (2015) and Akalu et al. (2016)  As result shown on Table 18, there are four levels of adoption of improved chickpea package in Gondar Zuria district. Adoption categories were determined by proportion of land which was allocated for production chickpea crop in production season. These are non-adopter, low adopter, medium adopter and high adopter of chickpea technologies package in the district.Non-adopters were 36.6% from total respondents and zero percent covered by improved chickpea. Household heads that have not used any improved chickpea technologies for the production of chickpea crop. Low adopters were 31.3% and 1% up to 33% of farm land covered by improved technologies for the production of chickpea crop. Medium adopter farmers also were 24.1% and the proportion was 34 up to 66% of chickpea production land.Finally, high adopters were 8% and 67 up to 100% was covered by the technologies for the production of chickpea crop farm in the production season. This show that, high adopters are very low in percentage and it needs more efforts to scaling up in wider area of land and many household heads in the study area. Studies by Cicek et al. (2008), Zebib Kassahun, (2014), Miah et al. (2015), Koirala et al. (2015) and Akalu et al. (2016) also categorized adoption level with the same as low, medium and high adopters. As results shown on Table 19, Ordered Probit and its marginal effect are applied on levels of technologies adoption. Marginal effects were estimated. It is an indication of relative magnitude of a unit increase in the independent variables on probability of being one of adoption category levels. If the parameter is positive then an increase in independent variable, necessarily decrease the probability of being in the lowest category (y i =1) and increase the probability of being in the highest category (y i =3).The study shows that non-adoption of improved chickpea technologies package is higher when there is a decrease of farm income and livestock size (TLU). Absence of training participation and credit access increase the probability of chick pea technologies nonadoption. In addition, when increase a minute distance far from farmers training center, the probability of non-adoption of chick pea technologies also increase.Medium and high adoption levels are also influenced by different explanatory variables.Distance to farmers' training center (FTC) is negatively related to the medium and high adoption level of chickpea technologies. The marginal effects reveals that farmers who live a minute nearer to FTC, are 0.4% and 0.1% more likely in medium and high adoption level, respectively. Farm income is positively related to the medium adoption level. Farmers who have an additional Ethiopian birr, the probability of fall on medium adoption level are increased by 7.4%. Livestock size is also positively affected to the medium and high adoption level. The marginal effect shows that farmers who have one additional TLU, the probability of medium and high adoption level also increase by 1.7% and 0.5%, respectively.  After the analysis of the data using the conjoint procedure, a utility score, part-worth, for each attribute level is calculated. The utility scores are analogous to regression coefficients; provide a quantitative measure of the preference for each attribute level, with larger values corresponding to greater preference.Part-worth is expressed in a common unit which allows them to sum up to give the total utility (preference) for any combination of attribute levels. The part-worth is constitutes a model for predicting the preference of any improved chickpea technologies package profile (Zardari and Cordery, 2012;Oyatoye et. al., 2016).The range of the utility values (highest to lowest) for each factor provides a measure of how important the attribute was to overall preference. Attributes with greater utility ranges play a more significant role than those with smaller ranges (Zardari and Cordery, 2012;Oyatoye et. al., 2016). As result on  As in Figure 3 indicated that, comparison of improved chickpea technology with local technologies were analyzed. The result shows that, 4.5% of respondent farmers didn't know about improved chickpea varieties. Household heads compared the new varieties with local varieties. About 1.8% of household heads perceived that improved chickpea varieties were inferior to local varieties, and 46.4% of farmers believed that improved varieties did not have difference with other local varieties. However, 47.3% of household heads perceived that improved varieties are superior to local varieties. They perceived that improved chickpea varieties are very important for increasing production and productivity of chickpea crop.Bio-inoculant fertilizer is very important for the production of chickpea crop. The legumerhizobial symbiosis has a large impact on success of legume hence the atmospheric nitrogen converted into plant usable form. Hence, symbiosis can provide simple and cheap way to enhance soil fertility and increase crop production. As Figure 3 shows, about 34% of household heads did not know about bio-inoculant fertilizer that increase chickpea yield in the study area. However, about 55% of household heads perceived that using bio-inoculant fertilizer can increase chickpea yield and superior to without fertilizer chickpea production.Chemical fertilizer (DAP) has great significance in yield increment of chickpea crop production. It is the source of phosphorous nutrient in the production of chickpea crop. As Figure 3 result shows that, about 20% of household heads have no information and knowledge about chemical fertilizer (DAP) role in increment of chickpea crop yield in the study area. About 4% of household heads perceived that chemical fertilizer is insignificant effect on chickpea yield increment. In cereal dominated farming system area, chemical fertilizer prior choose for cereal production than pulse crops. However, about 76% of household heads perceived that chemical fertilizer has a potential and superior in increment of productivity of chickpea crop in the study area. In focus group discussion household heads sorted out that chemical fertilizer preferred for teff and maize crop production to chickpea crop. They mentioned that it is unaffordable to buy and add chemical fertilizer on all crops production. The level of adoption of improved chickpea technologies package were categorized into nonadopters, low, medium and high adopters. These categories were about 36%, 31%, 24% and 8%, respectively. Non-adopters (36%) were high in the total respondent farmers. High adopters (8%) were also lower. This result indicates that, there should be need more effort to increase in to higher level of adoption in the study area.  ","tokenCount":"14323"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ff64197e209bcddd2e2804cac25200b6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/241c86af-ab41-40af-b6fd-5223cd4df2d5/retrieve","id":"-630124821"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a31720c9-3dc3-41e3-bb27-01cef1bbce5c","pagecount":"6","content":"Evaluation and selection of indigenous forages and locally available feed resources with high nutritive value was an important strategy• to increase feed access;• reduce production cost i.e. feed and • promote provision of quality feed for fattening and breeding sheep.Capacity development programs enabled ease of adoption and implementation of improved feeding and fattening systems, practices and technologies by:• advancing skill and knowledge, motivation and selfconfidence of sheep fatteners, champion farmers and extension workers.Collective fattening through \"Youth Coops\" approach promoted the tendency towards business-oriented sheep fattening by encouraging:• \"peer to peer\" knowledge and information transfer on improved fattening practices and market information.Strengthening partnership platforms through Community of Practices create a room for collaboration and coordination of activities and dissemination of innovations.Further identification, evaluation and standardization of the utilization of potential indigenous feed resources.Improve access planting material and seed of forages to encourage forage development Promote cooperative/group management of youth groups and financial literacy among group members.Active engagement of cross-cutting themes (gender, health, breeding) with the fattening activities.Training and capacity building programs for available/developed feed balancing tools Create linkage and promote engagement of private sector -seed suppliers, traders…Strengthen structure and functionality of existing Community of Practice platformsThe CGIAR Research Program on Livestock aims to increase the productivity and profitability of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world.This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.The program thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system livestock.cgiar.orgMore meat milk and eggs by and for the poor","tokenCount":"268"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b50a7c4062729974d5bd78e22054ca47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/96b26729-90e1-4b83-badd-fa8f57c59acb/retrieve","id":"743319327"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b51c5aba-ca70-47f5-8178-47e8cce4cae1","pagecount":"5","content":"Comprehensive Analysis: CGIAR Climate Impact Platform's Review of CGIAR's Climate Portfolio in 2022Central to the CGIAR Climate Impact Platform's mandate is providing strategic guidance on portfolio management. In alignment with this objective and within Module 2, emphasizing synthesis, the Platform conducted an in-depth examination of CGIAR's climate portfolio, utilizing outputs released in 2022.The insights gleaned from this analysis were subsequently integrated into CGIAR's Annual Report for the same year. Read about the deep-dive in the CG Annual Report hereIn 2022, out of 3,364 results, 51% were identified as either climate-significant or climate-principal. The Resilient Agri-food Systems Action Area recorded the highest number of outcomes, succeeded by the Systems Transformation and Genetic Innovation Action Areas. Regarding initiatives, the CGIAR Initiative on Accelerated Breeding within the Genetic Innovation domain yielded the most climate-relevant knowledge products, trailed by the CGIAR Initiative on Livestock and Climate and the CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience.Within the same year significant climate change actions were predominantly observed in East and Southern Africa, South Asia, Central and West Asia, North Africa, and West and Central Africa. Notable results from these regions were utilized in key result stories, exemplified by: o In East and Southern Africa: \"Munda Makeover\" facilitates climate-smart agriculture education for 3 million people weekly.o In West Africa and Asia: \"Climate-agriculture-gender inequality hotspot mapping methodology\" gains traction among policymakers and development partners.o In sub-Saharan Africa: \"Artificial intelligence\" enables extension services to reach 12 million farmers, responding to their needs.o In Kenya: Advancement in regulatory measures ensures quality assurance of planting material for vegetatively propagated crops.o In Vietnam: Government scales Asian Mega-Deltas innovations to support Mekong River Delta development.Significant or principal climate change actions were executed in collaboration with various entities, including national research organizations, universities, governments, and private sector companies, involving over 2,000 organizations.The majority of CGIAR outputs in 2022 (135) were methodological approaches aimed at understanding diverse aspects of climate change. This emphasis reflects the prioritization of methodology development during the inaugural year of initiative implementation.In 2022, a total of 119 outputs were classified as \"solutions\" -which range from climate-resilient seeds and breeds, to technologies, institutions and policies that helped small-scale producers in adapting to climate change and reducing emissions from various sub-sectors such as livestock, fertilisers, and rice paddy cultivation. These solutions can be categorised as adaptation, mitigation, mitigation with adaptation co-benefits, policies and institutions, and finance solutions.CGIAR research delved into the effects of climate change on crops, livestock, and human systems, encompassing gendered impacts, migration, and natural systems such as forests, soils, extreme events, and water. Examples of climate impact-oriented studies include:1. Monitoring extreme rainfall in Ghana. Read here.2. Assessment of soil salinity changes under the climate change in the Khorezm Region, Uzbekistan. Read here. 3. Impact of historical climate variability on rice production in Mainland Southeast Asia across multiple scales.Read here.A little over half of CGIAR's results are tagged as climate-relevant and show the increasing contribution of CGIAR science to tackling climate change. Science in the solutions space covered topics such as climate-resilient seeds and breeds, and ways of adapting to climate change and implementing mitigation solutions that have adaptation co-benefits -along with solutions in the arenas of finance and policies and institutions.Adapting to droughts: from impacts on food security to early warnings and seeds CGIAR scientists worked on various aspects of droughts. As just one example, in rural communities in Tunisia, research demonstrated that climate change-induced droughts increased the risk of food insecurity. The effectiveness of adaptation measures depended on household characteristics such as income, asset possession, access to services, adaptive capacity, and social safety nets to help reduce food insecurity. ","tokenCount":"598"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"62cc9c36fde5da45d582aeaf1285736c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f2b1d56b-b965-4b66-a24f-706de89bcd28/retrieve","id":"-245148696"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2035a18c-f10a-4a77-9170-178ceffce60d","pagecount":"146","content":"The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is undergoing a major change process, which sees its Center operations implemented through a number of CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs). These are aimed to better coordinate Research for Development (R4D) efforts, enhance efficiencies, and encourage cooperation and collaboration with a focus on effective partnerships to achieve more development-oriented impacts. CRP1.2 Humidtropics stands for R4D partnerships that impact people's lives in the humid and sub-humid tropics while enhancing the ecological integrity of natural resources.Systems for the Humid Tropics, referred to as Humidtropics. This program seeks to transform the lives of rural poor in the humid lowlands, moist savannas and tropical highlands in three major Impact Zones of Sub-Saharan Africa and tropical America and Asia, presently containing a population of 2.9 billion persons, mostly poor smallholder farmers. Humidtropics research is guided by a Global Hypothesis \"A stepwise series of preferred livelihood strategies exist within the humid tropics where poverty reduction, balanced household nutrition, system productivity and natural resource integrity are most effectively achieved and contribute best to human welfare\" and several related Specific Hypotheses and Research Questions addressing integrated production system interventions, expanded livelihood options, and the abilities of institutions to take these interventions to scale and target rural poverty and gender equity outcomes. A dynamic program structure is built around three complementary Strategic Research Themes; Systems Analysis and Synthesis, Integrated Systems Improvement, and Scaling and Institutional Innovations. Together these SRTs will conduct a baseline Situation Analysis leading to identified entry points for integrated production systems research; design and implement an M&E Framework; assemble, test and refine systems interventions through participatory processes; champion new farm opportunities through Research for Development Platforms as pathways to assess fuller impacts and adoptability of the most promising opportunities; link these platforms to partner development institutions; and then advance the effectiveness of these institutions to scale up these interventions, with a particular focus on poor households and gender equity.These activities will be conducted within 11 Action Areas that were selected on the basis of being representative and capturing diversity of their larger Impact Zones, the urgent need for large-scale impacts on poverty and natural resource integrity and their potential to advance earlier investments and potential partnerships. Some of these Action Areas are arranged as transects from humid lowlands to highlands while others are nested into large concentrations of poverty and resource degradation. Together these Action Areas contain 11% of the population on 9% of the lands in the program's Impact Zones, leaving great potential for direct impacts through targeted interventions addressing rural poverty, food security, improving nutrition and health, and sustainable management of natural resources. Each Action Area contains nine to 24 Action Sites where integrative research on systems productivity, natural resource management and market development are conducted. These Action Sites will serve as proving grounds for integrating tree, crop and livestock enterprises, advancing the status of women and linking them to technical innovations, fostering and expanding agro-biodiversity, developing new products for rural industries, and linking farm management to better managing community natural resources and mitigating climate change.Humidtropics will be implemented through a governance and management framework balancing inclusiveness and responsibility. Its success is based upon partnership including raising the effectiveness of local and national partners and providing opportunities to test outputs developed by other CRPs. In many ways, the Action Areas operate as independent units but then combine their lessons learned, research outputs and developmental outcomes into a larger Global Synthesis focused upon the production and dissemination of International Public Goods. In its first three years, Humidtropics will reorganize diverse and narrowly focused research efforts in these Action Sites and transform them into a larger, impact-oriented thrust in their respective Action Areas in accordance with planned cross-Center collaborative reform within the CGIAR.Over the next 15 years, Humidtropics will advance System Level Outcomes within the eleven Action Areas by increasing staple food yields by 60%, increasing average farm income by 50%, lifting 25% of poor households above the poverty line, reducing the number of malnourished children by 30% and restoring 40% of these farms to sustainable resource management. In this way, Humidtropics will serve as a model to other agencies seeking to link agricultural systems research to developmental impact.programmatic and institutional innovations that takes this research to scale. This research integrates market-level innovation with production system intervention. Furthermore, scaling up by itself, generates research questions that are critical in addressing how production system intensification impacts upon the CGIAR's SLOs. Research on scaling up will be located across eleven strategically selected Action Areas, within which are embedded representative Action Sites where research on markets, productivity, and natural resource management (NRM) is conducted. While going to scale with production system intensification is a direct pathway to achieving the food security and sustainable natural resource outcomes, other methodological and institutional innovations are required to ensure impacts on rural poverty and improved nutrition of the most vulnerable. These may involve increasing access of poor households to technology and markets through farmer associations, ensuring participation of poor households in farmer groups organized around extension, microcredit or marketing, using women groups to introduce marketing of \"women's\" food crops and value added processing, or ensuring poorer households participation in innovation platforms or value chain development. Strategies for scaling up programs to achieve these SLOs will build on past experiences and be directed by market opportunities and resource availability within the different Actions Sites. In this way, greater understanding on how to better design and adjust future rural development programs is generated.The overall program will be monitored and evaluated in relation to achieving targets related to CGIAR System Level Outcomes in the program's Action Areas. While the details on these targets is addressed later in this document, overall targets of the Humidtropics Program include increasing crop yields by 60% by optimizing input costs, crop and livestock combinations and land management practices; reducing poverty for 25 million people below the poverty line by increasing their incomes by at least 15%; and restoring productivity to 30 million ha of degrading cropland. The time frame for these achievements is estimated to be 15 years. What is presented in this document is a very new research agenda for the CGIAR, and the first three years of project implementation will focus on establishing the Action Areas, building the research teams, and testing basic protocols and data collection methods. Over these three years, a diverse array of existing, weakly related agricultural research thrusts, transition into a comprehensive, coordinated Research for Development (R4D) portfolio answerable to a wider array of partners and stakeholders.The following 15-year targets apply to the farming population in the Action Areas: a. Increase staple food yields by 60% b. Increase average farm income by 50% c. Lift 25% of poor households above the poverty line d. Reduce the number of malnourished children by 30% e. Nutrient depletion on 40% of farms reversed to sustainable nutrient flowAn integrative approach to research is necessary to sustainably increase productivity, reduce poverty and ensure ecosystem services in the challenging ecosystems of the humid and sub-humid tropics. Research on farming systems rather than technological components is essential to meeting both productivity and resource management goals and farmer investment choices are enhanced by integrally linking farming systems to markets. These dimensions determine the following overall goal for Humidtropics:\"To strengthen research and stimulate institutional innovation that increases economic and social returns among rural households adopting enhanced and sustained agricultural production and marketing strategies, while improving the biological and ecological integrity of their natural resource base.\"Agricultural systems span the humid and sub-humid tropics from the highly productive and densely populated irrigated rice systems of Asia, through the sparsely populated slash-andburn systems of the Congo Basin, and to the highly vulnerable areas of the humid Andes in South America. The humid and sub-humid tropics are at the same time critical to global supplies of basic foodstuffs, central to the maintenance of global biodiversity and the mitigation of greenhouse gases, and yet offer the largest potential for meeting world food demand over the next several decades. In addition, the bulk of the rural poor reside in the humid and sub-humid tropics, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, areas also associated with poor household nutrition and soil fertility depletion. Indeed, sustainable intensification of farming systems in the humid and sub-humid tropics offers in many respects the greatest potential contribution to all four of the CGIAR's System Level Outcomes yet this opportunity is matched by the challenges to working in such a large and diverse suite of agro-ecologies where the pre-conditions for sustainable intensification are so varied and in many circumstances do not provide appropriate incentives.Agricultural growth trajectories in the humid and sub-humid tropics can be broadly characterized as either expansion of extensively cropped land or land use intensification, although these exist as poles along a continuum of farmer investment in sustainable land management. This continuum usually covers a transition from conversion of natural forest or savanna, a period of rapid degradation of the land resource base and then investment and improvement in land productivity (Scherr and Hazell, 1994;Lambin et al., 2001). The degree and scope of degradation and the point at which the land resource starts to increase in value causing investment are broadly determined by population density and market conditions. In areas farthest from markets, the cost of transportation reduces this value and restricts availability of farm inputs. At the other end of the intensification spectrum are the intensively managed irrigated agricultural regions of the Asian river deltas, where low costs of inputs, inefficient water use, and poor understanding of environmental externalities results in soil and water degradation and excessive reliance upon external inputs, particularly fertilizer and pesticides. Between these two extremes lie the bulk of agricultural lands in the humid and sub-humid tropics, where production systems are essentially rainfed, dominated by smallholders, and intensification faces a number of unique constraints. This is where CRP1.2 will focus, as the extensive margin in the humid forest is central to CRP6 and the more intensive margin is the focus of CRP1.3 and GRISP (Global Rice Science Partnership).Agricultural development in the humid and sub-humid tropics has been uneven, and is best reflected in what the World Development Report (World Bank, 2007) has called the three worlds of agriculture. In the \"first agricultural world\", primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, economies are dependent on agriculture but growth remains sluggish, and poverty predominates in rural areas. Generating agricultural growth is crucial for poverty reduction, and this must take place both where land availability is highly constrained, such as Kenya, Rwanda, Liberia and Malawi, and where land is relatively abundant, such as Mozambique, Zambia, DR Congo, Tanzania, Nigeria and Ghana. The incentives for production system intensification vary significantly across this spectrum, and yet the need to increase productivity and ensure sustainable management of the natural resource base is a constant.The transforming economies of the \"second agricultural world\" are primarily found in tropical Asia. These countries are characterized by rapid economic growth, where agriculture is a declining contributor to the overall GDP (although livestock as a proportion of agricultural GDP increases), but where the number of poor is still very large and concentrated in lagging areas that have not participated in the agricultural growth process. These areas include Laos and Cambodia, eastern India and the mountainous highlands of Vietnam and Thailand. These lagging areas often have constrained access to markets, are dependent on rainfed farming systems, have trade-offs in the sustainable management of the natural resource base, and yet rely on agriculture as the means to escape poverty.Urbanized economies are primarily found in Latin America and in these \"third agricultural world\" countries agriculture is highly commercialized, poverty is concentrated in urban areas, and sustainable management of natural resources drives policy formulation in relation to smallholder agriculture. This region has seen the largest increase in new land brought into agricultural production, primarily in the savanna ecosystems in the cerrados of Brazil and the llanos of Colombia and Venezuela where large-scale agriculture dominates. Apart from the drier areas of the Northeast of Brazil, most smallholder agriculture in Tropical America is concentrated in the highland systems of the Andes and Central America. It is the highland ecosystem in Latin America that is most congruent with the CGIAR's SLOs.Humidtropics will cover all three agricultural worlds spanning humid forests, tropical highlands, and moist savannas. All three are important for Sub-Saharan Africa, while in Asia the focus will be on the highland regions and the highly populated, humid forest regions of Indonesia, while in the Tropical Americas highland systems predominate. Choice of these ecosystems across the three continents integrates the growth dynamics of the economy with CGIAR System Level Objectives. At the same time, Humidtropics will focus on production system intensification in these agro-ecosystems outside of both the immediate forest margins and the intensive, irrigated areas of Asia. Also Humidtropics will focus on livelihoods based upon integrated agricultural production rather than those dominated by a single commodity covered within other CRPs. The program will therefore, identify and focus on farming systems where the integration of components is more important than the production of any one. This focuses the work of Humidtropics directly on rainfed smallholder farming systems and their opportunities for sustainable intensification. To fully justify the focus of the Humidtropics CRP, however, we must address why the focus on integrated production systems, what is the best approach to alleviating rural poverty in the selected agro-ecosystems, and how to scale complex technologies in order to achieve desired SLOs.Sustainable intensification of production systems in the humid and sub-humid tropics offers the potential to address simultaneously a number of pressing development objectives, particularly unlocking the agricultural potential of large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, adapting production systems to climate change, sustainably managing land and water resources in upland regions of Southeast Asia, Eastern Africa, and Tropical Americas, and reducing rural poverty in regions that have been most intractable to lifting the poor above the poverty line. The approach that is developed in this program extends the work of the CGIAR in several different ways. Firstly, it locates technical change within a dynamic framework of production system evolution, where farming systems are conditioned by relative prices of land and labor and by the access and distance to market. Secondly, it pursues intensification beyond a singular focus on increasing staple food productivity; although important, there may be more profitable productivity increases derived from other cash crops or livestock enterprises. Thirdly, it pursues intensification through multiple means, not just increases in yields of single commodities but also by exploiting complementarities between system components, particularly tree-crop-livestock interactions. Fourthly, our increasing understanding of agro-ecological process moves beyond mere increase in off-farm inputs to the combined response in productivity resulting from more efficient harnessing of ecological services and farmer-available resources. Finally, it provides new areas of partnership by integrating investment in the natural resource base with the returns from improved productivity and marketing through a phased process of system intensification.Humidtropics contextualizes this multi-prong research within a stage theory of system change and intensification. In the initial phase at very low population densities and high cost of participation in markets (what was termed above the extensive margin), the conditions for farmer investment in any type of intensification process are limited to population increase and settlement by colonists. Humidtropics has chosen not to work in such contexts. This critical point is reached in the humid forest zone at population densities of 15 persons per square kilometer where long-term shifting cultivation no longer suffices and at 30 persons per square kilometer in the moist savannas, where communal grazing systems collapse as population rises, improving the viability of combined tree-crop-livestock enterprises. Above these population densities, particularly where markets are not well developed, land managers continued to focus on subsistence production primarily by exploiting natural soil capital, causing food security to be sought at the expense of natural resource degradation. This need not be the case, however, when integrated approaches toward production, marketing and resource management systems are offered to farming households through reliable agricultural services, policy and infrastructure. There is no longer a single entry point for farm intervention, but rather a suite of complementary livelihood options that empower rural households to reject subsistence strategies while gaining proficiency in crop and livestock production.Increasing market integration in turn leads to a process of crop diversification and commercialization of marketable surpluses, where farming becomes a business. The farming system may nonetheless continue to devote some resources to the production of preferred staples, as the farm gate difference in selling and buying price is still often large. Improved road networks in the highlands of Southeast Asia and a little over a decade of market liberalization in Sub-Saharan Africa are leading to smallholder diversification into higher value activities such as horticulture, dairy, coffee, tea, cocoa, and soybeans. This process is driven by growing urban demand and by the recent trend of global food price increases. Diversification offers the potential to explore complementarities in tree, crop and livestock enterprises that further increase overall system productivity. In this phase, the rising value of land warrants further investment in the natural resource base. Where markets are highly developed and farmers can meet household needs through purchases, farmers' objectives shift primarily to income generation. Often the tendency is to move to specialization within the production system based on Sub-regional comparative advantage within the country. Few smallholders are at this stage of farm development apart from irrigated and peri-urban areas. However, pressures toward such intensification through specialization are evident in the highlands of Northern Thailand, central Kenya, and parts of the Andes. In such market contexts, the question arises how best can intensification through diversification of production offer equally sustainable and economically viable pathways for development given farmers' expectations of improved lives?This interplay of market conditions, farmer choice of production activities, and farmer investment in the natural resource base allows Humidtropics to explore intensification pathways across gradients of market, population density, and agro-ecological conditions. Humidtropics is a new research direction for the CGIAR and at the same time it builds on a number of system-wide programs and a range of potentially integrated sub-systems research. Much of the impetus for more integrated approaches resulted from a series of meetings organized around integrated natural resource management (INRM). Consensus grew that attempted to develop a framework for better integration of productivity research of the CGIAR with the expanding NRM work (Science Council, 2003). This integration of productivity and NRM at farm scale was not made operational within the CGIAR, as much of the NRM research moved to broader scales such as river basins or landscapes, as reflected in the Challenge Program for Water and Food and the Alternatives to Slash and Burn, and East African Highlands system-wide programs. The System-wide Livestock Program also evolved from focused work on livestock feed to broader systems level research, for example on biomass trade-offs in smallholder systems. In response, INRM research tended to focus on sub-systems, such as smallholder dairy, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, integrated soil fertility management, and the development of multi-purpose crop varieties balancing food, feed, and soil management. Such research provides a strong base on which Humidtropics will build but such research still has not been framed within the context of farming systems at very different stages of intensification. This has led to a lack of nuanced approaches to scaling up such technologies, as reflected in the critique of conservation agriculture by Giller et al. (2009). Additionally, different Centers have often taken a different approach to system-level problems compatible with their mandates. A good example is Striga control where different centers each pursue a single, non-integrative line of research to the problem (De Groote et al., 2010;Vanlauwe et al., 2008), or the continuing issue of how to better integrate legumes into smallholder systems. Finally, other critical research areas to system intensification have received little attention, particularly increasing labor productivity in smallholder systems, a critical issue in system intensification. Humidtropics builds on this research base and lessons learned by integrating the ongoing research of the CGIAR at the level of the farming system (this issue will be discussed in more detail in Section 8).Large-scale reductions in rural poverty are generally linked to economic growth and structural transformation of the economy, and are tied to both increasing farm incomes and moving population into higher-paid urban employment. As might be expected, there are \"larger effects from agricultural growth on poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but larger poverty-reducing effects of growth originating in other sectors in East Asia and Latin America\" (World Bank, 2007). Rural poverty rates across the humid and subhumid tropics largely vary depending on economic structure, economic opportunities outside the agricultural sector and growth rate in the rural population. Areas with high densities of rural poor correspond to the distribution of the program's three agro-ecological zones except for South Asia, where the rural poor tend to be concentrated in the semi-arid regions and river deltas. In Sub-Saharan Africa, while poverty rates tend to be higher in the semi-arid regions, by far the largest number of rural poor live in the humid highlands, with very high population densities practising rainfed agriculture, and in the higher population density areas of the humid forest. In Southeast Asia and Tropical America, rural poverty tends to be concentrated in the highlands, and this could also be associated with pressure on the natural resource base. Humidtropics offers a framework to better understand rural poverty dynamics under contrasting economic structures, market conditions, and rural population densities, the very factors that also govern intensification pathways.A key hypothesis governing impacts on rural poverty from investment in Humidtropics is that \"rural poverty reduction will come from direct income benefits at the early stages of agricultural intensification, but will shift to indirect income benefits in the latter stages of intensification\". Indirect benefits come from increased employment in both the farm economy and the non-farm rural economy and expanded small business opportunities, all generated by increasing agricultural productivity. In what can be called the subsistence and diversification stages of intensification, the poor tend to have sufficient access to land and labor resources but are limited by market constraints, disinvestment in natural capital, and limited technological options. This is often compounded by limited education opportunities. The approach here is broadly to ensure participation of the rural poor in both market and technological opportunities, with an overriding issue of how to do this at relevant scale within what are being termed Action Areas. Impact on poverty in the early stages of intensification thus becomes a research and methodological question within the scaling process, an issue outlined later in this section.The greater challenge is defining an impact pathway for poverty reduction in more densely populated tropical highlands. Poverty reduction in such circumstances is much more complex because of the limited and often declining farm sizes and the impact on land and labor markets from increasing market participation. Such conditions often result in poverty traps, where a degrading resource base, limited assets and inability to participate in markets results in few options for households to move out of poverty. This is compounded by some economies of scale in the intensification process, at least across the range of farm sizes in contexts such as the highlands of Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. In such situations the majority of farms are often less than one hectare in size, and yet effective participation in dairy, horticulture, or even coffee requires farm sizes considerably larger as productivity significantly increases within the 2─5 hectare range. A certain minimum critical level of resources is needed to move effectively onto an intensification trajectory, but population pressures seldom allow increasing farm size, and alternatives must be explored for the poorest households falling beneath these thresholds. Livestock enterprise offers a partial solution such as dairying in the highlands of East Africa, small ruminants in the moist savannas or pigs in smallholder systems in Southeast Asia and parts of East Africa. At the same time, farm level growth in production based on increasing productivity inevitably stimulates the non-farm rural economy, which provides markets, processing opportunities, inputs, and transport within a growing agricultural economy. All of these provide employment and income possibilities for poor households. Such poverty dynamics are not well understood in terms of which phased interventions lead to the most significant impact on poverty and conducting research in a number of contrasting Action Sites will generate significant understanding, allowing more equitable growth under more densely populated conditions.A critical and not widely explored research question is how to best move research on production system intensification to scale in order to achieve meaningful development outcomes. To date, scalability is largely associated with component technologies, reflecting the experience of the high yielding rice and wheat varieties that sparked the Green Revolution. This approach, however, represents a very narrow perspective. The situation within rainfed, smallholder agriculture is far more complex and has changed significantly since the Green Revolution. More recent impact studies demonstrate the narrow range within which technologies are adopted at scale, as Maredia and Raitzer (2006) show in their evaluation of CGIAR research in Sub-Saharan Africa. Biocontrol of cassava mealybug alone accounted for 80% of overall benefits, with varietal improvement accounting for much of the rest. Notably, mealybug biocontrol required no adoption decision on the part of farmers, relying only on the integration of the biocontrol agent into the agro-ecosystem. A wide range of project work attests to the fact that local adaptation is a requirement for successful technology adoption, and even this must cope within significant intra-farm variability such as nutrient gradients, striga infestation, or topography. Unrealistic recommendations concerning input use complicate this situation, as characterized by the early work of Global 2000. Working with multiple components linked to market demand offers a higher probability of profitable increases in productivity. This has led to a rethinking of institutional arrangements around the concept of innovation systems and moving beyond the oversimplified framework of a division between research and extension (Hall et al., 2006;Klerkx et al., 2009;Hall and Clark, 2010).The Humidtropics will build on the experience of the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA-CP) and innovation systems theory, especially its development of innovation platforms (FARA, 2009;Klerkx et al., 2009). The SSA-CP was designed to integrate market development, increased productivity, and natural resource management through joint planning by principal stakeholders facilitated through an innovation platform. The SSA-CP was limited, however, to only technologies currently \"on the shelf\" (Lynam et al., 2010). Although this will be explained in more detail in Section 4, Humidtropics will add an analytical framework to better identify critical entry points to intensify farming systems and to identify various lines of component integration and system intensification. Through the work in the Action Sites, a pipeline of component technologies will feed into this innovation platform. Methods for working across different farm typologies, especially with a focus on those below the poverty line, have not been well developed and this will be a particular focus of the methods development. Also, another critical element that goes beyond the work of the SSA-CP is to define an \"optimum\" scale at which the innovation platform will be organized and around which it will organize its activities.Scaling is central to realizing development outcomes and this in itself leads to a research agenda around institutional innovations, improved market efficiency and the reduction in the transaction costs faced by smallholders. Interaction between market access, technology options, and farmer investment strategies is central in technology development and selection of target farming systems. This research will rely on developing a well-designed farm and market agent survey capacity, with the expectation that this will be done in a panel survey design (Triomph et al., 2012). A coordinating capacity is needed to define which components of the monitoring system will be standardized across Action Areas and which will be adapted to the particular characteristics of individual sites. This system, when functioning properly, will provide the capacity to understand agricultural system change across much of the humid and sub-humid tropics, a unique international public good in itself.Figure 1 presents a structure for addressing different baseline conditions though systems interventions. It consists of three simplified initial situations (A, B and C) within a 2 × 2 population density and resource integrity matrix and a common preferred outcome. Situation A warrants balanced investment in infrastructure, markets, social cohesion, institutional strengthening, and policy. Situation B requires better infrastructure, non-agricultural employment, and strengthened supply chains. Poorer and more vulnerable people in these areas need support and the danger is that if degradation continues livelihoods will suffer, and the situation can degrade rapidly. Situation C results from relatively less stress on resources with high endemic poverty and vulnerability and limited livelihood options requiring investment in markets and livelihood alternatives that maintain resource condition while increasing incomes. The SSA-CP aimed at generating impact through the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) process, which has its roots in the innovation system approach for development. The IAR4D approach was implemented through a structure called Innovation Platforms (IP), of which 36 are operational. The IAR4D approach has the following characteristics:• A functional linkage point for all the stakeholders along the value chain of the specific agricultural commodity and system of production. The linkages bring together farmers, researchers, extension agents, private sector (input dealers, financial institutions, transporters etc.), policymakers and commodity end users (supermarkets, bulk buyers, institutional buyers, companies). • Integration of productivity; NRM; markets; policy; product development and nutrition; and gender into the research agenda • An efficient modality for organizing stakeholders for interaction and output delivery.• An effective mechanism for knowledge generation and transfer to farmers and other stakeholders for over successive generations of innovations. • Action research oriented toward problem solving and impact, and;• Bottom up organizational development and scaling up of innovations.Although the SSA-CP is yet to conclude the proof of the effectiveness of IAR4D concept against the traditional linear approach; a recent CGIAR commissioned review of the SSA-CP program (Lynam et al., 2010) found sufficient indications that the program was on the right track.The attributes of the IAR4D concept are equally relevant to the Humidtropics and the objectives of the program partly overlap in the East and Central Africa Actiona Area with the SSA-CP. Several lessons learnt that would contribute to Humidtropics include:• Market integration as process for internal as well as external quality control and adaptive management of the IPs. • Increased access to institutional capitals (social, human, financial-credit) and exploring nonformal sources of credit (e.g., self help groups for community banking to leverage credit from commercial banks) requires specific facilitation, and; • ICT tools are important for knowledge extension and human skill development.Three tasks for integrating the SSA-CP into the Humidtropics program are proposed:• Integration of the SSA-CP pilot learning sites through selected IPs in DRC, Rwanda and Uganda as learning sites for partners in the Humidtropics. • Use of SSA-CP learning sites to improve collaboration among researchers in the CG centers to address specific research issues raised on the IPs, • Define scaling up process in new sites based on the experiences under the SSA-CP. Initial Action Sites in the East and Central African Action Area will include some of the most effective IPs, established through the SSA-CP. This is fully in line with a recommendation from the external review that 'there is an existing research infrastructure into which several million dollars has been invested that could be built upon as part of one of the CRPs' (Lynam et al., 2010). The Humidtropics is an ideal match where the SSA-CP IAR4D approach and the innovation platforms operational frame concept could be used to foster quick delivery of impact along productivity, NRM, market, policy, gender and development of new products. Innovation systems approach, particularly IAR4D that has been used in the SSA-CP allows for setting up a comprehensive framework to utilize current solutions and develop future research agendas in each and all of these thematic research areas. This would be the case for Humidtropics where feedback is integrated in a broader scale and where lessons from the SSA-CP are so important. This framework serves several purposes. Since constraints are inherent within the framework, they can be better translated into activities and solutions. It provides focus to all the subsequent steps in planning and carrying out the proposed activities and facilitates a relatively complex set of objectives and questions within clear conceptual boundaries tailored to the various Action Areas in the humid tropics. It provides focus to the procedural planning and choices from initial design selection, through instrument development or adoption, to the organization, analysis and interpretation of data at Action Site, Action Area and Global levels without being prescriptive in detail. Most important of all, is the impact of the explicit conceptual structure on subsequent inquiry in the same area. The research activities no longer stand alone but can develop into a line of inquiry that other researchers can check, replicate or build upon while reducing the effects of confounded and uncontrolled variables.In this way, Humidtropics addresses many of the thematic research priorities for Tropical Asia, Americas and Africa. It complements the priorities identified by the Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutes (APAARI) and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), Its plans are in line with the priorities established by the Forum of American Agricultural Research and Technological Development (FORAGRO), particularly to promote collaboration and information exchange among government, nongovernment, farmer and private sector organizations in Central and South America. The aims of Humidtropics also relate well to those of The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), which is the agricultural program of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which in turn is a program of the African Union (AU). In particular, Humidtropics works with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) as one of the primary partners (Box 1). These relationships capitalize on South-South learning opportunities and offer immediate clients for the program's International Public Goods. .The Humidtropics Program will identify, examine, improve and promote clusters of desirable livelihood options based upon sustainable agricultural production and marketing systems within representative Action Areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, tropical Asia and tropical Latin America. These livelihood clusters represent stepwise targets for rural communities based upon farm resource endowment and household skill sets and their effects upon crop and livestock enterprises, farm input and crop production levels, conservation of soil, water and beneficial organisms, opportunities for gender equity and more accessible and fairer marketing. A Global Hypothesis (H 0 ) to this effect and related Specific Hypotheses (H 1 to H 9 ) relating to poverty alleviation, resource conservation and stakeholder equity follow: H 0 : A stepwise series of preferred livelihood clusters exist within the humid tropics where poverty reduction, balanced household nutrition, system productivity and natural resource integrity are most effectively achieved and contribute best to human welfare.Advancing these livelihood options through production systems integration, enterprise diversification and market development will have a profound effect upon food and nutritional security, household incomes and natural resource integrity where:H 1 : Intensification within the humid forest zone necessarily involves farm diversification and specialization, trends that must be weighed against natural resource integrity. Farm diversity contributes more toward food and nutritional security than does enterprise specialization, although the latter may offer greater potential for income generation. Within livelihood clusters, farm resource endowments determine how well diversification, specialization or both may be accommodated. H 2 : Innovation and policy support at farm level and above are essential to the establishment and maintenance of preferred livelihood clusters that, in the lower range require supportive incentives and in the upper range also require protection of farm viability (alternatively stated, rural landscapes are strengthened through policies and innovation that avoid large-scale resource degradation and peri-urban poverty cycles). H 3: Providing adequate water through rainwater harvesting, storage and supplemental irrigation will reduce the climatic risks of farming in rainfed areas of the sub-humid tropics, thus motivating farmers to increase crop yields through larger investment in farm inputs. Small-scale irrigation systems based on low-cost technologies lead to positive improvements in the livelihoods by enabling households to better respond to market opportunities on a year-round basis. H 4 : Livestock enterprises become more integrative and profitable in more intensively managed situations but also present increasing environmental risk and equity challenges. H 5 : Targeted livelihood clusters sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the increase in carbon stocks in soils and biomass and tighter organic matter cycling. Mechanisms exist to quantify these gains and reward responsible land managers. H 6 : Biodiversity is most effectively fostered within targeted livelihood clusters below which it is exploited and threatened and beyond which it is contained or lost. H 7 : Women have greatest opportunity for high-value crop production and value-added processing within targeted livelihood clusters, below which there is insufficient demand for their high-value crops and cottage industry products; and beyond which time is more profitably spent in off-farm employment and trading. H 8 : Mobilizing the energies of skilled youth as service providers to the larger farming community is essential to upgrading livelihood clusters, below which their efforts lead to natural resource exploitation and beyond which they are forced into idleness or migration. Examples of these services include land preparation, strategic transfer of bulky organic resources, pest and disease management and commodity processing and marketing, often using tools not readily available to most smallholder farmers. H 9 : The aged and vulnerable contribute positively to households operating at intermediate intensification gradients, below which they are exposed to numerous hazards and beyond which they risk becoming marginalized within larger society.This suite of Specific Hypotheses is intended to guide the design and analyses of integrative research activities but may have varying relevance to different agro-ecologies and communities within the program's Action Sites. These hypotheses often require expansion or re-expression into practical research questions before they may be tested. Many of these research questions are raised within later sections of this proposal.A dynamic program structure is built around three Strategic Research Themes; SRT1 Systems Analysis and Synthesis; SRT2 Integrated Systems Improvement and SRT3 Scaling and Institutional Innovations (Figure 2).SRT1 provides an analytical framework covering institutions and stakeholders for identifying alternative trajectories, bottlenecks and opportunities to address SLO targets. Its activities begin through conducting a Situation Analysis, including established baselines of the identified Action Areas. This Situation Analysis provides the basis for assembling the R4D innovation network, identifying specific needs, and prioritizing technological interventions, which are expected to vary among areas and sites, and identify specific entry points and actions under SRT2. Activities within the Situation Analysis will also become formalized into a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework (Section13), which establishes baseline conditions within the Action Sites and later describes adaptive integration within SRT2 and household and community benefits accruing from SRT3. Within three years, SRT1 will lead to a Global Synthesis that directs the strategies undertaken in the next phase of the program.SRT2 comprises the essential integrative field and socio-economic research aspects of the program. It is built around an \"R4D triangle\" where stepwise improvement in agricultural systems production (SRT2.2) is closely integrated with Natural Resource and Biodiversity Management (SRT2.3) and marketing of both needed farm inputs and farm surpluses, including value-added products (SRT2.1). Improved rural nutrition arises as a benefit from the R4D triangle as a whole through systems diversification, increased agro-biodiversity and market access to a wider variety of foods, but it is achieved via improved diets at the household level, often involving cottage industry. These elements will be targeted differentially based on household and community typologies in terms agro-ecological intensification trajectories. Systems productivity is viewed in the most holistic sense to include annual and perennial crops, trees and livestock and their relationship with one another and to the integrity of available farm resources, including on-and off-farm natural areas.Natural Resource Management (NRM, SRT2.3) is considered both within the context of resource conservation and ecosystem services. Renewable and conserved farm resources contribute to systems productivity through improved nutrient use efficiency and recycling, protection of soil quality and greater water use efficiency. Efficient management of ecosystem services particularly relates to those offered by trees and forests to stabilizing soil, mitigating climate change and preserving biodiversity. Successful NRM efforts prevent soil erosion, restore degraded lands and foster beneficial organisms, key considerations in systems sustainability. Community and landscape perspectives are required to assess ecosystem services including products extracted from natural common areas, carbon sequestration, status of biodiversity, access to clean water and flood control. Our focus to resource conservation is primarily at the farm and community scales as it is at these levels where individual and collective actions are best undertaken.Market integration (SRT2.1) is also considered in a holistic context to include greater availability of proven technologies and farm inputs, fuller access to fairer commodity markets and the social implications of stronger market integration. Part of the proposed research will involve comparing different marketing models, and analyzing their impacts on key household types, including women, skilled youth and the aged and vulnerable. SRT2.1 also examines value-added processing as a cottage industry and small enterprise. Ultimately, the Humidtropics Program will produce International Public Goods (IPGs) that provide means to achieve these SLOs within and beyond the Action Areas. At first, these IPGs will arise from the ongoing Global Synthesis (SRT1) and be primarily methodological, particularly the extension of its M&E Framework for use by others and the publication of guidelines on integrated research within the R4D triangle. Within three years, however, these IPGs will include farm-and community-based approaches, and supporting technologies and trainers, that increase food security, reduce rural poverty, and improve household nutrition in a manner that ensures sustainable management of natural resources in the major eco-zones of the humid and sub-humid tropics. In terms of improving food security within the Action Areas over the next 15 years, the program seeks to increase farm yields by 60% while reducing poverty by 25% within its Action Areas. Increased crop diversification will lead to fully balanced and better diets, including among women and children. Sustainable management of natural resources will be practiced by 40% of farm households, protecting millions of hectares that would have otherwise degraded (see SRT2.3). This sustainable management will better direct and provide greater opportunities to skilled youth, women and more vulnerable members of the community. These are challenging goals, but ones that are achievable by a talented network operating within the robust program structure proposed by Humidtropics.This section describes the geographical logic of the Humidtropics in line with the overall research framework and developed around Impact Zones, Action Areas, and Action Sites. Specific selection and sampling strategies are in line with the Specific Hypotheses and related research questions in a manner that stimulates IPGs and facilitates both scaling up of needed technologies and zooming in on underlying processes, both of which are necessary to create and refine an environment for large-scale impact.The Humidtropics is focusing its activities in three Impact Zones, based on agro-ecological conditions and minimum population densities. The targeted humid lowlands have growing periods of at least 270 days per year, altitudes less than 1000 m, and population densities of at least 15 people km -2 . The targeted sub-humid and moist savannas have growing periods between 180 to 270 days per year, occur at altitudes less than 1000 m, and support populations of at least 30 people km -2 . Targeted highlands have growing periods of greater than 180 days per year, altitudes above 1000 m, and population densities greater than 30 people km -2 . This selection process is largely covered within the Justification (see Section 3). Overall, these areas cover approximately 3 billion ha and contain a total population of 2.9 billion people (Table 1).  These Impact Zones define the geographical focus of the Humidtropics in broad terms but have no further functional role in its research strategy, which is based on the representative Action Sites in key Action Areas within these zones (Figure 3).To realize tangible synergies between Centers and partners, Humidtropics opts for a common approach towards R4D in welldefined Action Areas across Tropical Africa, America, and Asia. Action Areas are strategically selected parts of the target Impact Zones where intensification is a must, thus excluding areas below a minimal population density (e.g., forest margins which are targeted by CRP6) and the areas with intensive lowland rice production (which are targeted by other CRPs, see Section 9). All Action Areas occupy varying positions along the poverty × NRM continuum, based on aggregate data presented in tables 4, 6 and Figure 3. Approximate location of the Action Areas along the poverty × NRM status axes.8 (Figure 3), allowing better comparison and wider learning across more broadly applicable farming conditions and community settings. In this way, the choice of Action Areas within Humidtropics shapes its relevance because this determines the range of interventions that the program invests in and the applicability of the public goods it generates. Three major criteria were applied for identifying Action Areas (Figure 3) within Humidtropics:1. They are both representative and capture diversity. Since the Humidtropics is targeting humid and sub-humid environments, the length of growing period is at least 180 days per year and often much greater. Within these environments, Action Areas contain widespread poverty and poor natural resource integrity, justifying the investments towards the System Level Outcomes, targeted by the program 2. Urgent need exists for large-scale impacts. The Action Areas have relatively high population densities and poverty levels where intensification, production systems diversification and integration, and rural transformation are urgently needed. In most cases, natural resource degradation and vulnerability to climate change pose great risks to the poor and complicate progress toward rural development. This criterion includes areas with high absolute population densities, and therefore significant potential for increased market participation (e.g., the African and Andean highlands).Planned interventions are based on collaboration to generate new synergies between existing expertise of the Centers and their partners. At the same time, many earlier research investments in the Action Areas have not achieved their full impact. These earlier initiatives form the basis for creating more effective and efficient synergies between Centers and partners towards achieving unrealized impact and better working together in the future.  Based on above considerations, the Humidtropics will work in a total of 11 Action Areas of which 6 are in Tropical Africa, 2 in the Tropical Americas, and 3 in Tropical Asia (Table 2). These Action Areas cover 11% of the population in the humid and sub-humid tropics and 9% of the land area (Table 3). Within the current set of Action Areas, the level of activity and cross-Center cooperation is variable from effective and operational with various Centers cooperating within a broad set of themes and through functional partner networks (Tier 1 Action Areas); to embryonic with a single Centre leading a set of activities of a limited scope (Tier 3 Action Areas). Tier 2 Action Areas are intermediate between both Tier 1 and 3. The long-term vision of CRP1.2, beyond the initial 3-year period is to have active R4D platforms in all Action Areas within the logic of the overall Humidtropics research framework. Some required actions within these Tiers follow: Tier 1 Action Areas. Tier 1 Action Areas typically contain on-going R4D activities focusing on various components within specific farming systems and through cooperation between various Centers and national research systems, backstopped by Advanced Research Institutes. Partnerships usually include value chain and dissemination partners and substantial investments are made in the promotion and dissemination of best-fit technologies, supported by an effective M&E framework and partner capacity building. In Tier 1 Action Areas, priority interventions needed for transforming current partnerships into R4D Platforms include: 1) broadening of partnerships to cover all value chain components, 2) consolidating R4D innovation networks with clear goals, roles, and responsibilities, and effective interactions, 3) widening available expertise to include an innovation network perspective thereby enabling interventions for all system components, 4) instilling a systems approach towards intensification and natural resource integrity and biodiversity, 5) strengthening the dissemination tools and approaches to enable integration of complex knowledge, and 6) strengthening capacity for learning, evaluation, and scaling up.Tier 2 Action Areas. Tier 2 Action Areas typically have on-going R4D activities usually focused on one or few system components, promoted by a single Centre. Market linkage and value chain investments are usually minimal and dissemination partners are commonly promoting single component technologies developed by that Center. Systems research is not practiced but R4D is understood. Besides those detailed above, the following interventions will also be required to initiate R4D innovation networks in Tier 2 Action Areas: 1) incorporating other partner Centers in Action Area activities, sometime through linkage with other CRPs, 2) promoting the concept of innovation within the research agendas and development activities operating in that Action Area, and 3) identifying and establishing value chain and value-addition partnerships.Tier 3 Action Areas. Tier 3 Action Areas commonly have a very limited range of activities focused on specific, often isolated technologies without clear linkage to markets and with weak and disorganized dissemination channels. Tier 3 Action Areas also include parts of Action Areas lacking Center-lead activities but with potential for systems research and impact (e.g., Haiti in the Central American Action Area). All interventions mentioned under the Tier 1 and 2 Action Areas will be equally required for Tier 3 Areas. In addition to reduced capacities in technology development and outreach, the baseline conditions are often poorly documented and M&E skills lacking. This situation offers one advantage, however, because here all Centers may be introduced to national and local cooperators as an established team rather than a new partner. Six Action Areas, one in each sub-region are proposed for Tropical Africa: 1) the Western humid lowlands, 2) the Central humid lowlands, 3) the Southern humid lowlands, 4) the East and Central African highlands, 5) the Western moist savannas, and 6) the Southern moist savannas (Table 4, Figure 5). Population densities and poverty levels are relatively high as 28 to 71% of people earn less than US $1.25 per day with land degradation, a proxy for natural resource integrity status, averaging 40 to 90% of the land area (Table 4). Numerous partnerships exist within the Tropical Africa Action Areas that can form the basis of initiating Humidtropics activities (Table 5).Two Action Areas are proposed in Tropical America: 1) Low to mid-altitude humid and subhumid Central America (and the Caribbean), and 2) the mid-altitude humid Andes (Table 6, Figure 6). Population densities and poverty levels are relatively low in these areas as only 5 to 20% of people earn less than US $1.25 per day but land degradation is widespread, averaging 46 to 72% of the land area (Table 6). Several partnerships exist within the Tropical Americas Action Areas that can form the basis of initiating Humidtropics activities (Table 7).Three Action Areas have been identified in Asia: 1) the Greater Mekong Sub-region, 2) Indonesia, and 3) South Asia (Table 8, Figure 7). Population densities and poverty levels are relatively high, with 20 to 29% of people earn less than US $1.25 per day with land degradation averaging 31 to 44% of the land area (Table 8). Several partnerships exist within the Tropical Asia Action Areas that can form the basis of initiating Humidtropics activities (Table 9).  Data source: see references in Table 2.  Data source: see references in Table 2.    Population and market access gradients: The Action Sites need to cover existing population × market access gradients within each Action Area (Figure 8). Variation exists in population density and market access along different ranges for the different Action Areas (Table 10). Decision on the number of Action Sites to be identified along these gradients will be based upon the Situation Analysis under SRT1 (see Section 4.5).Figure 8 shows in situation (a), population or market access should not be considered as a variable between Action Sites (refer to the vertical arrow) while in situation (b) and (c), Action Sites will need to cover existing gradients in population or market access (2 sites in situation (b) and 3 sites in situation (c)).  Model for integration of activities: Under SRT3 (see Section 4.9 below), two models for cooperation are proposed, one model whereby R4D platforms drive activities towards the identification and implementation of a comprehensive research agenda based upon entry points and innovation, and another model whereby platforms are merely facilitating value chain partners to cooperate, more in line with the innovation platforms of the SSA-CP. While it is certainly not the intention to duplicate all Action Sites identified in using both models, a limited number of Action Sites with similar population × market access characteristics will be developed using each of these two models to answer specific research questions developed under SRT3.Replication of Action Sites: Action Sites with similar characteristics must be replicated within an Action Area to allow meaningful analysis of results. The exact number of replicates will be determined through SRT1 and its M&E Unit. In some cases, similar communities within a larger Action Site may serve as replicates, or different communities may serve to contrast interventions, again based upon results of the Situation Analysis.In conclusion, the exact number of Action Sites within an Action Area will likely vary between nine (e.g., = 2 population × market access levels × 3 replicates + 1 alternative model × 3 replicates) and 24 (6 population × market access levels × 3 replicates + 2 alternative model × 3 replicates), with the possibility of downward adjustment based upon the Situation Analysis. The number of Action Sites may also be adjusted to reflect improvement of Tier status as partnership consolidates. Indeed, Action Sites will be periodically revised in terms of number, location, and types of activities in response to achievements, needs, and opportunities. Action Site exit strategies will likely result from successful transition from SRT2 to SRT3 (focus from Action Sites to Action Areas) but this is not anticipated over the first three years of the program.People's lives and livelihoods in the humid and sub-humid tropics are complex, diverse, dynamic, vulnerable and greatly influenced by the environmental context in which they operate. One of the primary actions of the Humidtropics will be to understand the status of and variation in the current agricultural, social, economic, natural, institutional, and policy situation, including gender, within and between Action Areas. This understanding will form the basis for putting in place a correct framework for priority setting and identifying the appropriate blend of productivity improvement, natural resource management, market development and institutional strategies. In addition, these rural communities, and stakeholder groups within them, are affected by population growth, climate change, weak rural infrastructure and difficult commodity markets. An understanding of these drivers and their potential impact on people's lives is crucial information towards priority setting or improved integrated systems performance, and Humidtropics will provide this understanding. For the program to deliver on its goals, effective, complementary and efficient partnerships with an innovation perspective that cover the entire Humidtropics Program Structure are crucial. SRT1 serves to identify Action Sites and the most promising interventions through balanced priority setting for increased production, poverty alleviation, market development, natural resource integrity, and biodiversity enhancement. Indeed, the Action Sites within Action Areas that are currently operational will serve as a starting point but further guidance from SRT1 will provide a basis for transition to a more systematic set of Action Sites and activities within the project's first three years.The assessment and analysis of the existing systems will take place at two levels. Firstly, the innovation system and institution level will address the array of potential stakeholders operating in the Action Areas, their capacities and their linkages for addressing the SLOs, essentially for both on-the-ground, policy and institutional change. This perspective will also take into account value chains and farmer and community organizations and local governments. Secondly, the needs of the poor and vulnerable within the Action Areas will be characterized using Sustainable Livelihoods guidance sheets, developed by DFID (2000), and using recently available information generated by stakeholder institutions at each Action Area. This will form the basis to develop livelihood typologies based largely on the analysis of Titonnell et al. ( 2010) that in turn determine the Action Sites and entry points for production increase, poverty reduction, market development and more sustainable natural resource management. This process is supported through the expression of key SRT1 Research Questions, including:1. How many Action Sites are required to provide a basis for generating reliable and robust technologies scalable to the larger Action Areas? How many communities, households, farm types and (by extension) target number of beneficiaries should an Action Site contain? 2. What are alternative configurations of key stakeholders that facilitate learning alliances and innovation networks addressing the multiple objectives linked to improving the SLOs in the Action Areas? How can these be identified? 3. Which baseline information drawn across the Action Areas is required to prioritize entry points for integrative research? Who are major partners in these Areas? How is this information best compiled, shared and analyzed among partners? How may comparable activities be framed within different Action Sites and Eco-zones to permit useful cross-site analyses? 4. How can drivers of change be identified which capture issues related to opportunities and bottlenecks in institutions and innovation systems, markets, natural resource status and others? 5. How can Action Sites be selected to complement sites chosen by other CRPs in the same Action Area in such a way as to lead to joint research activities that will result in comprehensive and tangible outputs and impacts? 6. Through which M&E, knowledge management and learning processes is analysis and priority setting best transitioned into a Global Synthesis leading to useful International Public Goods? 7. How is systematic improvement in current farm enterprises further enhanced by different livelihood strategies, natural resource investments and/or higher value for farm products? What opportunities and challenges does new farm enterprise bring for poverty alleviation, improved nutrition, natural resource integrity and market development? 8. What processes are required to apply our understanding of farmers circumstances and needs for wider benefit? How long does this process require before these goods become formalized and extended throughout and beyond the program's Action Areas and how may this process be accelerated?Several activities within SRT1 are required to address these research questions, some of which are strongly site-specific to the Action Areas. These activities include, but are not limited to:• Compiling existing information on the Action Site systems status, gender, and policy/institutional information, • Constructing household, community, innovation system and Action Sites typologies across all Action Areas as a basis for identifying opportunities towards enhanced system performance, • Identifying common denominators underlying the facilitating role of policy and institutions towards increased wealth and natural resource integrity, • Analyzing necessary conditions that make partnerships effective and efficient,• Compiling the drivers of change affecting people's livelihood options across all Action Areas and ex-ante assessment of their potential relationship with the Action Site system's status within the timeframe of the program, • Developing and utilizing priority setting tools and procedures towards the identification of Action Site-specific opportunities for enhancing system performance, and • Merging existing and new partnerships towards implementing, evaluating, and disseminating priority opportunities.The role of policy and institutions affecting poverty and natural resource integrity will be assessed in both the Action Sites (SRT2 Research Outputs) and Action Areas (SRT3 Developmental Outcomes) through the Situation Analysis and the resulting M&E Framework and be considered within the Global Synthesis (Figure 2). Specific attention will be given to policies and institutions affecting collective action towards marketing and natural resource management, input and output value chains, agricultural service provision and capacity enhancement. The identification of major drivers affecting livelihoods at the Action Area level will be mapped using geo-referenced baseline data, available secondary information from IFPRI, national ministries, and development agencies and other available georeferenced databases including the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (http://www.maweb.org/en/). Four partners, CIAT, ICRAF, IITA and ILRI will take the lead in these areas. Bioversity will strengthen the Situation Analysis of the status of agrobiodiversity and its role in production, nutrition, system risk and resilience.Partnership analysis will be based on the evaluation of earlier and on-going initiatives, since existing partnership is a criterion for the identification of Action Areas, and will include lessons learned in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, gaps and need analysis, determination of eligibility criteria (including interest in co-support for Humidtropics activities), and identification of specific roles and responsibilities. More importantly they will be subject to partnership and communication research activities themselves, exploring types and purpose of partnership and important concepts of trust and transparency that may help define the investments needed in starting, sustaining and ending partnerships along the R4D pathway. IITA will take the lead in partnership analysis and designing necessary capacity building response.Based on a baseline understanding of farming systems, gender relations, and current policy and institutional support, opportunities towards enhanced system performance will be identified for all Action Sites. This course will be guided by the socio-ecological niche concept of Ojiem et al. (2006). The required partnership arrangements will be developed around these opportunities to ensure that both technical issues and a more enabling environment are considered. These must arise as early developments in the Situation Analysis so that activities under SRT2 may proceed.The full Situation Analysis, leading to a Global Synthesis, is led by all primary partners and intended to analyze issues beyond their site-specific dimensions (see Section 6). This synthesis contributes to the coherence of the program in terms of approach and studies aimed at enhancing the common vision within the Humidtropics. It will rely upon both qualitative and quantitative analytical approaches. The qualitative analysis will focus on the perspective, understanding and satisfaction of beneficiaries and systems actors. It will include participatory identification and evaluation of options and institutional arrangement for improving effectiveness of systems interventions. This will also include analysis of the communication roles and methods used for supporting change at the individual, network and innovation system level. Participatory evaluations will be aggregated for defining models for scaling up systems interventions. For example, the World Bank conducted a study at the global level on understanding poverty from the perspective of the poor themselves including their priorities, role of gender and how poor persons interact with institutions (Narayan, et al., 1999), we intend to undertake a similar approach.Meta-analysis requires that data collected in the Action Sites and Areas measure the effects of different interventions (see Section 13). Both econometric and systems modeling will be employed to further understand changes and factors that affect those changes. The relative magnitude and size of those effects will determine the most important ones that can be the focus for further policy and practice recommendations. Advances in the field of econometric modeling aimed specifically at evaluating treatment effects (Heckman, 2005) allow for very robust analysis of the effects of systems interventions including principal component analysis. Documenting and tracking adoption of the technologies introduced and tested in each site leads to better adjustment and replication of impact pathways and communication roles. Moreover, Global Synthesis expresses lessons useful to future projects and contributes to research tools and knowledge in the other CRPs (see Section 9). This synthesis will result in methods and models for assessing interventions on systems productivity and diversity, NR integrity, biodiversity and institutional effectiveness, including gender equity. This leads to a framework for defining extrapolation domains and targeting systems interventions beyond Action Sites; comparison of development trajectories, and identifying innovations and institutional policies supporting system's changes. The Global Synthesis will also define key system indicators for NR improvement and poverty reduction and develop models for assessing system interventions based upon these indicators. The roles of traditional and new methods of communication as extension and social media must also be considered. Special attention will be paid to institutional policies and practices that support changes evaluated across Action Areas and strengthening capacities for scaling up complex interventions.1. Humidtropics Analytical Framework developed and tested for institutional and innovation stakeholders and for sustainable livelihoods (3 months, addressing SRT1 Research Questions 2 and 4). 2. Humidtropics Analytical Framework will identify Action Sites within all Action Areas of the program (4 months, addresses SRT1 Research Questions 1 and 5). 3. A combined baseline study, involving collection of gender disaggregated data and priority setting exercise will identify critical entry points for increasing systems productivity, NRM, and gender equity research by household typologies in these Action Sites (12 months) based on a preliminary identification of innovation network partners (addressing SRT 1Research Question 3). 4. Opportunities for developing self-sustaining input delivery and product marketing platforms that facilitate value addition and wealth creation at farmer level will be identified (9 months) and initiated shortly thereafter (12 months, addressing Research Question 7). Clusters of localized agri-businesses (service hubs) owned and managed by self-reliant and resilient small-scale farmers' groups including women and young people emerge in Action Sites and lessons are learned on the organizational requirements for replicating such hubs across wider action areas and utilization (supporting SRT1 Research Question 3). 5. Institutions influencing poverty and the natural resource and agro-and biodiversity status will be assessed across all Action Areas and directed toward specific roles within Action Sites (15 months, addressing SRT1 Research Question 8). 6. Drivers of change affecting SLOs will be identified and their potential impact compared across Action Areas and the three Eco-Zones (18 months, addressing SRT1 Research Question 7 part 2).Research Outputs and Developmental Outcomes, including strengthening of existing Innovation Platforms (where available) and establishment of new ones, will be formalized (24 months, SRT1 Research Questions 7 & 8 part 2). 8. The ongoing Situation Analysis, guided by continuous M&E will develop a Global Synthesis that identifies specific IPGs for the Phase 2 of the program (30 months). These IPGs will include detailed pathways directing systems integration across all Action Areas (addressing SRT1 Research Questions 6 and 8 part 2). 9. A detailed Phase 2 Humidtropics proposal will be developed from the Global Synthesis that includes a strategy to transition from partner-based to humid tropics system based operation beyond Year 3 (36 months).The CGIAR has set a goal of improving livelihood and reducing poverty through the interventions of Centers and their partners. At a global level, it is of interest to understand how R4D contributes to achieving these objectives. CRP1.2 will intervene through its achievements across the humid tropics of Africa, Asia and Americas. In all three regions, diverse, and in some cases common, issues related to poverty, ecosystem integrity, systems productivity, institutional effectiveness, natural resources management, and gender are affecting people's lives and livelihoods. Understanding these issues at the global level with a humid tropics perspective is therefore necessary to providing solutions that will not only apply to Action Sites but for scaling up and out program results to Action Areas and the humid tropics regions of the world.The diversity in these research sites coupled with the differences in access to productivity enhancing technologies and natural resource endowments and degradation will provide a platform for understanding trajectories of changes. The M&E Framework that captures and classifies these trajectories will constitute the program's first IPG. Humidtropics seeks to redirect these trajectories (or their drivers) by prototyping flexible combinations of proven solutions, first tested in the Action Areas. Alternative approaches by household and community typologies that emerge from the Global Synthesis will produce the next generation of IPGs.The scene for such synthesis of IPGs is based to a larger extent on cross-site analyses of Action Areas strengthened by strategic case studies. In a systems-level intervention, tradeoffs among the different components is inevitable. It is essential to clearly attribute outcome to system components either individually or in groups. Untangling the effects of different system components is best performed at a higher level through meta-analysis across time and space. In addressing natural resource integrity, the Global Synthesis and IPGs resulting from it will guide diagnostics of natural resource degradation and provide site-specific responses to it. These alternative approaches will not be trivial or narrow in focus. Clearly, the design of the IPG packages must be built upon not only technological knowhow and its narrowly focused promotion to farmers, but rather upon proven approaches within different production systems and along the entire agricultural value chain at systems level. In this way, IPGs range from practical; guidelines directing land mangers' response to production and natural resource management challenges to complex survey and analysis intended to partition and redirect drivers of change.The overall goal of SRT2 is to identify technologies with a proven ability to offer different types of farm household opportunities for more sustainable and profitable farming, ultimately resulting in better lives in vibrant rural communities. In essence, SRT2 is going to work from the opportunities and critical entry points towards system intensification, identified in SRT1, through a 'R4D triangle' comprising increases in system productivity, market integration, and improvement in the natural resource status differentiated by agro-ecological setting, household types and their respective trajectories.The unit of operation of SRT2 is the Action Site, allowing assessment of specific planned interventions within a well-described baseline farming condition. These interventions are based upon innovation within the R4D triangle (Figure 2) and involve interactions between production systems, natural resources and market availability. Action Sites consist of different sets of farms at a landscape scale, selected within a well-defined typology of resource and income levels, often compiled at a local administrative level. These farms are used for monitoring, on-farm research, and participatory testing. The Action Site also contain relatively controlled experimental sites, which may either be a representative farm or spread across an entire farming community according to local conditions and innovations to be tested. Action Sites are selected based on their varying positions on the poverty and NRM integrity axes of the Humidtropics Conceptual Model (see Sections 3 and 4.3) and intensification strategies identified within specific population and market conditions encompassing the variation within its constituent Action Area. Specific entry points will be directed towards the 'missing links' to move different farm household types along an intensification continuum targeting productivity, market linkages, and natural resource interventions or most often a combination of the three.Two important aspects of SRT2 are related to comparisons across Action Sites. First, insights are reached by crosscutting its three component sub-SRTs in relation to most successful interventions across existing gradients and variability within farming systems. Some successful interventions will prove to be very site-specific while others are more robust and adaptable. Another aspect is related to tradeoff analysis to ensure that systems are intensified based on principles of agro-ecological sustainability and in a way that's equitable to various farm typologies and stakeholder groups.The following suite of SRT2 Research Questions will be addressed through SRT2 activities within the overall research context of the program. Not all questions can be tested at every Action Area but planning will guarantee that all are addressed in a comprehensive fashion. These questions may also assist in structuring the SRT1 Situation Analysis as it relates to activities within Action Sites (see Section 4.4). These research questions are overarching as they relate to all three components of the R4D research triangle; production systems, markets and natural resource integrity, and their key interactions.SRT2 Research Question 1. How robust are critical entry points towards intensification in the context of existing variability in household resource endowment, agro-biodiversity use, soil fertility status and market access, and how do these entry points vary with gender roles?Rationale. Densely populated rural areas are very heterogeneous, both in terms of access to production factors for farming families within a community (with female-headed households most often belonging to the relatively poor typologies) and in terms of status of fields within farms and farms within landscapes. Lower resource endowment has been associated with a reduced ability to take risk in a manner that attenuates yield potential. Entry points related to intensification require investments of farmer's labor, cash, and land, and the outcomes of investment vary with natural resource conditions. Consequently, the effectiveness of these entry points is likely to vary across farmer typologies and natural resource gradients and this needs to be understood in order to identify robust interventions that embody least risk and optimal benefits. SRT2 Research Question 2. What is the impact of population density, land availability, initial natural resource condition, agro-biodiversity status and market access on the management of trees, crops, livestock and their interactions in mixed systems? How may system productivity, natural resource integrity, farmer income and household wellbeing best be enhanced simultaneously and how do these interventions differ by genderHere this research question is discussed from the perspective of integrating livestock management but within the program's similar exploration of the impacts from perennial and annual crops. Livestock management systems can range from free-ranging to zero-grazing systems. In zero-grazing, feeds are produced as cut fodder and crop residues, and shortfalls must be purchased. Trees offer an important alternative feed source and provide shade for livestock. These sub-systems result in varying impacts on livestock productivity and natural resource integrity while access to markets determines their incomegeneration potential that in turn influences farmers to re-invest in trees and livestock.Beyond a certain population density, where land resources become too scarce, producing sufficient fodder within farm becomes less realistic, as in Rwanda, notwithstanding its equitably-based policy of 'one family one cow'. In more sparsely populated areas, freegrazing leads to degradation as stocking rates exceed a critical limit. Appropriate conditions for intensifying tree-livestock systems need to be better understood to ensure that productivity and profit remains aligned with natural resource integrity. An expansion of this research question is \"How, and under what circumstances, can tree intensification along agro-ecological principles contribute to the productivity and sustainability of livestock production sub-systems?\". Rationale. Incentives for investment in trees by smallholders vary. In West Africa, restoration of cocoa production demonstrated potential to rehabilitate exhausted soils. At the same time, economic returns from rubber production are also increasing, driven by international demand outstripping supply. Farmers have little guidance as to which is more advantageous, the rejuvenation of existing stands or diversification into new tree-crops, and how does this impact household benefits and resource management over time? Can agroecological principles be applied in agroforestry systems to sustain more intensive production without negative consequences for the environment or leading to premature yield declines? Indeed, what are the comparative opportunities and household benefits for intensification and diversification of tree-crops through intercropping? In the East African Highlands, suitability of land for coffee, and the spread of pest and disease are both very sensitive to climate change. To what extent can management of coffee agroforestry buffer impacts of climate change and maintain key ecosystem services including pollination and pest and disease control? Can appropriate social capital be developed to allow smallholder coffee producers to reap benefits from higher value and certified market prices, and how will this affect carbon stocks? Clearly, the area of tree-crops, their relation to other farm subsystems and their role in resource management open many promising, and practical, avenues for integrative research.SRT2 Research Question 4. Are productivity and market-related interventions and their expected contributions to income and food and nutritional security necessary to allow land users to invest in measures improving their agricultural natural resource base?Rationale. Basically, will farmers invest in resource conservation directly, or is this best arranged as an indirect benefit of farm enterprise? Should interventions necessarily be crafted in a manner that provide immediate benefits to farmers but also assure that less tangible value in the resource base also be accrued over time? Early answers are mixed. Farmer interest in dual purpose soybean appears governed by the value of grains to the household for consumption and sale, not the supply of additional residual N as farmers prefer faster maturing, larger seeded varieties over those with greater symbiotic potential.On mid-altitude hillsides, the installation of soil and water conservation structures is widely recommended and farmers clearly recognize the threat of soil erosion but investments in terrace construction or reintroduction of trees on slopes has been minimal, and more often driven by subsidized, community-based programs. Fodder hedges that reduce soil erosion appear attractive to smallholders because they supply high quality livestock feed but are not necessarily positioned on the more vulnerable slopes. These perspectives suggest that immediate benefits to farmers are a near prerequisite for investments in NRM to be effectively scaled and integrative means to do so are required.SRT2 Research Question 5. How does the process of production systems diversification respond to market conditions, particularly the price differential between sale and purchase of foods, and what interventions are necessary to assure benefits resulting from stronger market orientation are fairly distributed across households and their members?Rationale. Markets are a key driver of farming system intensification and markets have correspondingly become more dynamic. Past policies relating to structural adjustment and market liberalization, together with more recent globalization of food markets and prices, have stimulated these changes as well. Nevertheless, much of the rainfed agricultural regions of the humid and sub-humid tropics face a range of constraints in accessing free and fair markets. A central understanding within the program is that market conditions determine the options and constraints on sustainable intensification, particularly the ability to balance subsistence and income objectives. This consideration in turn influences the options for investment in farm inputs and the natural resource base, and the potential for plant and animal diversification within the farming system. More critically, changing market conditions create more options for poverty alleviation but at the same time lead to over exploitation of the natural resource base or increased risk that poorer households are less able to respond to improved market conditions, perpetuating cycles of poverty.SRT2 Research Question 6. How can improved household nutrition be directly stimulated within production system diversification and value added processing, and be accommodated within interventions targeting expanded rural markets and renewed resource conservation.Rationale. Pioneers into the humid tropics general enjoyed healthy diets based on foraged and cultivated plants and hunted and domesticated animals. Agro-ecological succession, where larger numbers of persons farmed smaller parcels of degraded lands, however, resulted in progressively poorer, carbohydrate-rich diets, particularly in terms of protein, mineral and vitamin availability. Mechanisms to improve diet through farm diversification include the production of traditional and market vegetables, greater reliance upon grain legumes, and more regularly consuming forest and animal products. Means of raising the mineral content of foods through blended fertilizers containing micronutrients are also available for use in areas with infertile soils. But improved nutrition also has a strong educational and institutional component because opportunity alone does not guarantee that families will consume better balanced diets. Even monitoring diets requires much closer contact with households than does characterizing and guiding their farming practice. Within the program, food processing must not only address markets but also household needs in a manner that may influence gender roles and differences. Ideally, improved nutrition will be embedded into interventions involving production systems and markets, but realistically it may prove necessary to commission specific interventions targeting food preparation practices and consumption patterns among the program's poorest households.Within each Action Site, several dimensions of smallholder farming systems are considered:Smallholder systems are diverse. Within a certain location, households differ in their resource endowment, production and consumption decisions, livelihood strategies, and long-term aspirations. Even in areas where a large majority of households can be considered to be resource-poor, differences in livelihood strategies between households may be decisive for their ability to adopt improved technologies and practices. The diversity of rural livelihood systems may be captured through typologies, which may be structural when clustering farm types that differ in their level of resource endowment or functional when they explain the determinants of each observed type, which in turn will be essential to understand the potential for an intervention's extrapolation and scaling-up through modeling.Smallholder systems are spatially heterogeneous. Differences in soil quality within a single farm may be as wide as between agro-ecological zones. Next to inherent variability of soil types in the landscape, often based on landscape position, management decisions on the allocation of (scarce) resources generates gradients of soil fertility within individual farms. Often animal manure and composted crop residues are added to the fields near the homestead, creating zones of higher carbon and nutrient concentrations within the farms. In undulating landscapes, the fields that are farther from the homestead are often located on steeper slopes. Due to soil heterogeneity, the performance of agricultural technologies fluctuate from success to failure across the fields of a single farm, and this needs to be better understood to improve technology adoption and innovation systems as a whole. To have a significant impact on natural resource management, it is necessary to have a suite of interventions that collectively accumulate at the landscape level to improve environmental services, while at farm-level they will contribute to improving household income and livelihoods.Smallholder systems are dynamic. Farming systems experience changes in their configuration and functioning with time and their capacity of adaptation through human activity differentiates them from natural systems. To understand the dynamics of a system, it is necessary to consider the dynamics of the supra-and subsystems, that is, its context and internal components, by examining processes operating at immediately higher and lower scales, in this case the field, the farm and the landscape. The sustainability of farming systems depends largely on their capacity to adapt to changes at all scales. The contribution of agricultural technologies to the sustainability of smallholder systems, and their feasibility, should be evaluated in the long-term considering dynamic aspects of farming systems and their context.Moreover, rural families undergo different phases along a 'farm developmental cycle' (Figure 9), which includes establishment, maturity and dissolution, along which household resources and objectives vary accordingly, often in accordance to changing market and economic opportunities.The impact on productivity, profitability, and natural resource integrity of specific technologies and interventions will be affected by Action Site variation. System modifications and successful interventions are those that deliver agro-ecological intensification outcomes for specific and well-understood biophysical, social, and economic conditions. Ojiem et al. (2006) proposed using biophysical and socio-economic constraints and opportunities to define 'socio-ecological' niches within which compatible can be defined. SRT2 aims at identifying such alternative interventions along specific intensification stages, as affected by population and market conditions, local innovation networks and policy and institutional configurations.SRT1 will define critical entry points based on a detailed characterization of the Action Areas and Action Sites (where opportunities will be defined) and these will be translated into specific interventions, implemented through the R4D Innovation Networks operating at the Action Site level (Figure 9). These interventions will be implemented across ranges of farmer resource endowments, within-farm soil fertility gradients, soil types within  An important dimension of SRT2 activities is analysis of trade-offs and synergies. The design of systems or multifunctional landscapes aims at fulfilling various objectives simultaneously. Often the impact of an intervention on two or more objectives may be in conflict or compete where one objective is enhanced while another is negatively impacted, in other cases interventions may enhance one objective without reducing others, or there may be synergy where two or more objectives are positively impacted at the same time.Tradeoffs may exhibit cases of strong substitution, in which fulfilling an objective renders a second objective impractical or cases in which complementarities or compromise solutions are possible (Figure 11). The agro-ecological intensification paradigm is based on the principle of simultaneous occurrence of positive contributions of specific interventions to productivity, income, and natural resource integrity in ways that are equitable across gender, farm typologies, and for other stakeholders. This represents a very ambitious view of agro-ecological intensification, which extends beyond improved production based on an understanding of ecological processes into areas of economics and social equity.Absolute 'win' situations are likely to be scarce so any intervention aiming at improving systems will need to pass the trade-off test to ensure that accrued benefits are superior to aggregated disadvantages. There are many examples where improvement in one farming dimension can have a negative impact on other dimensions. For instance, the increased sales of banana to urban markets in the Great Lakes region is exporting large amounts of plant nutrients from the farm while previously banana-based systems were sustained by tight internal nutrient cycles. Integration of a cash crop within a farming system can enhance farm income but negatively impact on food and nutritional security and the power relations within a household. Trade-offs can also have a temporal dimension, for example, tradeoffs can be made between today's productivity and long-term sustainability, or between shortterm food security and longer-term environmental impacts. A key aim of SRT2 is to find those combinations of interventions that improve the ratio of benefits to unwanted consequences and to recognize and avoid repercussions leading to system properties falling below a critical threshold. In practical terms this may often lead to the identification of necessary combinations of practices, for example proportioning fertilizer applications to banana sales. An integral part of the tradeoff analysis framework is an assessment of decision-making related to farm resources and the expected benefits from their utilization. Tradeoffs are central to rational decision making as resources become scarce and are prioritized differently among household typologies. As stakeholder's interests differ, resource management conflicts emerge and conflict resolution among stakeholders becomes an important outcome of tradeoff analysis, and needs to be fully embedded within the planned R4D platforms.Tradeoff analysis begins with identifying the various decision makers, their objectives, and the value they attach to these objectives. Trade-off analysis will primarily focus on the farm level but may include tradeoffs-offs within the value chain as well, as when increased market efficiency is achieved by reducing transactions (and eliminating their actors) within the chain. Various ex-ante and ex-post methods will be used to perform tradeoff analysis. Ex-ante tradeoffs are analyzed quantitatively through evaluation of the consequences of specific interventions under different modeling scenarios, for example farmer resource endowment versus market access. Models used for this purpose vary in complexity. Multiple Goal Optimization Models, also referred to as Bio-economic Models (Kruseman, 2000;Janssen and van Ittersum, 2007) effectively analyze tradeoffs. This approach has an economic bias and the limitation of being 'static' because models run for a single season and thus are unable to capture temporal variability and feedback. Inverse modeling techniques, and related global search algorithms, optimize a number of objectives by running dynamic models with a huge number of different combinations of parameters that represent farmer management decisions. Multi-Criteria Decision-Making techniques estimate solutions and partition conflicting objectives and various actors' points of view (Romero and Rehman, 2003). These approaches will be incorporated into our tradeoff analyses.Farmers' livelihoods involve conflicting objectives, which are often influenced by other community members and sectors. The utilization of natural resources usually involves negotiation between other farmers, local authorities and policymakers, each operating from their own perspectives. The methods developed by Gonzalez-Pachon and Romero (2007;2011), allow including at the same time individuals (farmers) and collective (communities or authorities) preferences to draw trade-off curves between objectives. Ex-post tradeoff analysis will be implemented by looking at the M&E outcomes on productivity, income, and natural resource integrity related to various interventions. These results will be interpreted in relation to the overall objectives of the interested stakeholder groups, as a basis for prioritizing future interventions. Models will be validated and farmers' decision making further explored using multi-agent modeling approaches and role-playing methods (Barreteau et al., 2001). An example of this approach is the trade-offs in farmer management of tree cover in coffee plantations in the Western Ghats of India available over the internet (see http://www.cirad.fr/ur/var/upr47/docs/presentation-vende-garcia.pdf).Capacities in the application of tradeoff analysis will be enhanced through training and mechanisms for incorporating them into partner institutes developed (see Section 6).1. An improved system-modeling framework that allows for integrated assessment of the impacts of specific interventions on productivity, profitability, and natural resource integrity under different biophysical and community settings within and across Action Sites (addressing SRT2 Research Question 2). 2. A set of tools for trade-off analysis between various indicators related to specific interventions at various scales based upon the specific objectives of different stakeholder groups (addressing all SRT2 Research Questions). 3. An understanding of necessary conditions for the occurrence of triple win scenarios, where farm productivity, profitability, natural resource integrity all improve, across various farm typologies and landscapes and a framework for focusing research on reducing trade-offs and increasing complementarities through agro-ecological intensification (addressing SRT2 Research Questions 2 and 3). 4. Tools for strengthening adaptive capacity of the stakeholder groups involved in the R4D platforms to participate in tradeoff analysis and conflict resolution (supporting SRT3).A central concept within the development of Humidtropics is that the pathway along which production systems intensification is directly related to the structure, conduct and performance of markets. Market development trajectories in relation to smallholder farming vary tremendously as large areas are locked into market stagnation resulting from prolonged cycles of poverty; other areas are focused upon relatively few, unfairly traded commodities; and yet others enjoy the benefits rural transformation where local markets and buyers, commodity trading associations addressing internal and export markets, and local processing opportunities provide a host of marketing options; and all cases in between.Obviously as a program we strive toward the latter condition but recognize that in the least developed settings first-steps must be taken based on relatively few new marketing opportunities.Markets as an area for research and institutional innovation are relatively recent and largely developed as a response to policy adjustment and market liberalization. The structure of markets in the humid and sub-humid tropics can often be characterized as having high costs of transport, high transactions costs of market participation, inefficient bulking through too many transactions along the supply chain, transactions on a cash basis that undermine emerging financial institutions, large differentials between the farm gate sales to middlemen compared to the buyers purchase price, weak market intelligence among producers, and irregular price volatility. This set of interacting structural characteristics result in low confidence among producers that in turn create disincentives toward the adoption of needed technologies. This dynamic interaction between market structure, conduct and performance and technical change has resulted in markets being a critical field for research and intervention within CRP1.2, regarded with the same importance as systems productivity and NRM.The The nature of the research problem and its current state of development suggests a challenging scope for innovative research addressing markets and their interaction with farming system intensification and NRM.SRT2.1 will focus on three different but related research areas. Firstly, it will explore the role of market structure on system intensification that may lead either toward diversification or to specialization, and farmer investment in the natural resource base. The focus here is on understanding how changes in markets, whether autonomous or piloted, influence farmer decision making in regards to shifts in production structure, changes in management, investment in soil and water recapitalization, or adoption of new technologies. Research at this level will also be critical for defining critical entry points on which production system research will be based. Secondly, SRT2.1 will evaluate the role of markets in scaling up production system findings and how market innovations such as credit or insurance programs, further stimulate spontaneous diffusion of improved techniques. Expanded research questions must be framed and addressed at the Action Site level. For example, do interventions promoting warehouse receipt systems or dairy collection points lead to intensification of their respective commodities? Thirdly, SRT2.1 will assess the impact of improved market participation at the community level on poverty alleviation and gender equity. Market development provides the most powerful vehicle for poverty alleviation but at the same time those farms with higher levels of human capital and with more resources are better able to participate. Ensuring equitable market participation may require either institutional innovations or, as in the high population density areas, participation in other income generating opportunities. Possibly even more difficult has been ensuring gender equity under increased market participation. Women's crops tend to be selected basic staples, vegetables and small domestic animals. Women also do most of the on-farm processing. Defining leverage points that guarantee women's participation and control over farm assets and income generating activities remains both a principal research area as well as an area for piloting institutional innovations. Finally, we must weigh the comparative advantage of interventions that target different types of markets including specialty niches, local trading associations, urban areas, immediate cross-boundary trade and commodities intended for domestic processing and export.Given the knowledge gaps described above, the principal methods to be used in this strategic research theme will only be sketched. The methods will be expanded in four critical areas, namely; 1) survey protocols and data structures for market performance integrated with farming system surveys, 2) defining critical production system entry points based on market potential, 3) piloting and evaluating market innovations, and 4) developing a monitoring system and indicators to evaluate progress towards specified targets. Methods for work areas 1 and 4 must be coordinated program-wide across Action Areas, while those for work areas 2 and 3 will be crafted to the specifics of each Action Area and their component Action Sites. In both cases, research protocol design is coordinated with the SRT1 M&E Unit so that results are accommodated within program data services. As with much of the research in CRP1.2, a balance will need to be sought between needs for centralized coordination and the delegation of responsibility and creative approaches to the decentralized research teams in the individual Action Areas. Indeed, many market advances will be localized and result from iterative problem solving but these too must be reported to the larger program.The design of an efficient survey protocol for markets integrated into a larger Action Site characterization structure requires a significant amount of planning. This involves multiple commodities with complex supply chains to principal markets and where an evaluation of costs and prices at each transaction point is essential to evaluating market efficiency. Sampling of market agents, being able to repeat interview market agents, number of supply chains to be selected, price data collection with standardized weight conversion equivalents, and efficient monitoring within the entire Action Site (and later extended across Action Areas by SRT3) pose issues relating to the cost and potential value of the data collected. There are too few examples of a panel survey of market supply chains, much less one linked to smallholders, and expertise is required to this end. Budget constraints will also dictate the choices to be made in survey design.Identifying entry or leverage points for system intensification requires understanding market demand, expected farm gate price, and strategies for assembly and bulking. Such analysis is then integrated with more traditional farm management models to define activity sets that offer the best potential for initiating an intensification pathway for representative farm types.Piloting institutional innovations to improve market access and efficiency, such as warehouse receipt systems, value adding processing, or interlinked microcredit, insurance schemes and input supply, are important options available for research within Action Sites and accompanying monitoring and reporting mechanisms must be developed and interfaced with SRT1. Another consideration is the choice of control conditions as this arbitrarily (randomly) opens opportunities to some households and not to others. Randomized controls and specified counterfactual may be experimental requirements, but they are not necessarily fair and must be balanced with community relations. Reliance upon models of market interventions is one means to reduce this difficulty. The greater potential for market development is through commissioned pilot programs that improving market conditions under SRT3, particularly those with proven impacts on poverty and gender equity, and our research within SRT2 must remain on track toward that goal.4.6.2 Research outputs of SRT2.1Research outputs from SRT2.1 follow directly from the SRT2 Research Questions and the methodologies described above.1. Integrated market and production system panel surveys conducted, compiled, analyzed and interpreted (addressing SRT2 Research Questions 4, 5 and others). These outputs will take the form of published survey results, the release of an integrated database with meta data for analysts researching agricultural change, published validation of several economic models and monitoring systems for improving market performance.2. Research support to other program areas including SRT1, SRT2.2 and SRT3. This support includes validated models for use within the Global Synthesis of SRT1 and systems productivity research by SRT2.2; and proven market innovations for scaling up within SRT3. It also provides proven methods for implementing market innovations, packaged evaluation systems of marketing pilot activities, packaged approaches to scaling up market innovations and business and value chain analysis procedures appropriate to diagnose smallholder engagement.3. Research products facilitating policy reform and infrastructure improvement will be released that relate to improving market intelligence and performance. These products will take the form of specific published recommendations to policymakers and local authorities and potential investors. This output is accompanied by a synthesis of business-related opportunities describing market trends useful for guiding public and private investment (addressing SRT2 Research Question 5 and supporting SRT3 and SLO 1).4. New farm input products and small agri-businesses will be launched as a result of research findings and pilot programs. New inputs, such as specialized fertilizer blends or the design of more ergonomic farm tools, will be released as IPGs. New businesses will include local market collection points, local food processors and agents offering credit facilities and farm insurance (addressing SRT2 Research Questions 5 and 6 and SLO 1).Systems' productivity is viewed in the most holistic sense to include annual and perennial crops, remnant forests and other non-crop areas, livestock and their interrelationships at the farm and community levels. A core research question directing SRT2.2 concerns 'How can farm households mobilize farm technologies and ecosystem services into more productive, profitable and efficient small enterprises to meet their livelihood aspirations?'. Sustainable intensification is regarded as an overarching solution because more effective farmer decision making of useful combinations of tree, crop and animal technologies, combined in synchrony with ecological processes and proper management of the available resource base results in productive and sustainable agricultural systems, assuming the presence of market incentives, required farm inputs and supporting institutional arrangements (Pretty et al., 2011). The constraint to systems productivity periodically posed by soil moisture stress within the sub-humid tropics must also be considered as the full beneficial impact of 'best combinations of crop and animal technologies' cannot be realized without effective water management. This research agenda is embedded within the intensification pathways for specific Action Areas and Sites (see Section 3) and based on the identified critical entry points towards intensification emerging from Situation Analysis (see SRT1). The specific components to deploy under this SRT will depend on the balance of food security improvement and income generation within household production objectives. They will also depend on the resource endowments of the farm households, and the services and skills within farmer associations and their extension providers participating in different R4D platforms.Specific entry points towards improving system productivity will be a combination of improved lines of crop and livestock; external inputs including organic inputs, fertilizer, and other soil amendments; better agronomic and pest and disease management; and better feeds and health services for livestock. Improved seed and higher seedling quality is a frequent entry point that must be accompanied by a suite of appropriate crop management practices. Improved germplasm most often involves targeted annual food crops, but also includes indigenous plants that are tolerant to local stress conditions, fodders, and multipurpose trees, including legumes contributing greater biological N fixation. It also includes numerous perennial and annual cash crops emerging as market opportunities arise. Livestock components can include improved breeds of species currently integrated in treecrop-livestock systems, providing incentives to advance along the livestock progression from better managed and smaller to larger livestock (McDermott et al., 2010). It also includes re-introduced plants that have disappeared from farming systems. Other key livestock components include improved feed options through crop residue processing, use of agro-industrial byproducts, planted forages and forage trees. Enhanced livestock health inputs will also be important including vaccines and drugs. Evidence shows that bundling of breed, feed and health improvements is key to sustainable livestock intensification.Organic inputs consist of recycled crop residues, farmyard manure, or organic resources produced through cut-and-carry systems, including agroforestry systems. Fertilizer and other soil amendments (e.g., lime, rock phosphate) will be deployed depending on their availability and anticipated profitability, thereby aiming at maximizing their use efficiency.Adapted agronomic practices can adjust plant densities and spacing patterns, adapt time of planting to explore compatibility between growth patterns of associated or rotated crops, target applications of inputs to specific phases within a crop rotation, or other practices that explore synergies between crops in mono-cropped or intercropped systems. In general, green manuring is considered as a stand-alone rotation but is better combined with need for forage and fodder. Improved pest management will exploit host resistance, agronomic as well as soil management practices, and explore bio-control and amendments, which will be more accurately targeted following improved pest and disease diagnosis. Improved soil management practices related to the use of best tillage and land preparation practices, water harvesting structures, drip irrigation on high-value horticultural crops, erosion control measures, or other practices that conserve soil and water and favor crop water and nutrient uptake will also be advanced. Crop management packaging will also draw on knowledge of agro-ecological opportunities for increasing the role of integrated control mechanisms.These inputs and practices will be mainly derived from earlier experiences in the Action Areas and research outputs from the CRPs focusing on these specific components (see Section 9). The main difference with other CRPs and earlier investments is that SRT2.2 evaluates not only the impact of individual components on the productivity of the field production unit but also their interactions with the larger farming system. A good example is tree-crop-livestock interactions where introduction of improved cattle breeds can result in higher milk, meat, and manure production but where the need for more and higher quality feed is often a limiting factor to generate these benefits for farmers with insufficient land (Klapwijk, 2011). Besides tree-crop-livestock interactions in the moist savanna and midaltitude Action Areas, other interactions that will be considered in SRT1.2 are those between food security and tree cash crops in the humid lowlands, and between farms and farmer typologies within micro-watersheds.The Humidtropics uses the agro-ecological intensification paradigm as its basis for system intervention. Agro-ecological intensification is the mobilization of ecological processes to increase agricultural production and the productivity of external inputs, labor, natural resources, and to reduce losses to abiotic and biotic stress and the negative off-field impacts of production (Cote et al., 2010 andDore et al., 2011). Better use of biological regulation mechanisms and agricultural biodiversity (Jackson et al., 2007) at different field, farm and landscape management levels is also postulated. An important component of agro-ecological intensification involves the use efficiency of inputs, labor, and capital as itas a guiding principle rather than a model. This framework acknowledges that 1) the performance of specific components will depend on the biophysical environment (e.g., temperature, rainfall, day length, and soil stresses such as acidity, aluminum toxicity, limiting nutrients) and its variability in time and variation spatially within specific Action Sites; 2) crop, soil and pest management, as affected by farmer resource endowment and understanding of ecological processes, is an important complement to assure that improved germplasm or crop biodiversity delivers its potential in a certain environment; 3) several components deployed together may interact, either positively and negatively, at the field, farm and landscape scales; 4) agro-ecological rules of thumb usefully guide the design and management to suit different household typologies and trajectories; 5) market opportunities influence farmer decisions, particularly choice of G and M.A good example subscribing to the principles of agro-ecological intensification is the Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) approach for enhancing crop productivity (Sanginga and Woomer, 2009). ISFM is a flexible approach to soil health management based on combinations of useful soil management principles, including some of the principles advocated by conservation agriculture and agroforestry, provided these make sense in a particular farming context. ISFM is defined as: 'A set of soil fertility management practices that necessarily include the use of fertilizer, organic inputs, and improved germplasm combined with the knowledge on how to adapt these practices to local conditions, aiming at maximizing agronomic use efficiency of the applied nutrients and improving crop productivity. All inputs need to be managed following sound agronomic principles' (Figure 12) (Vanlauwe et al., 2011). The ISFM framework thus aims at maximizing the use efficiency of all production factors and acknowledges the need to foster interactions between individual soil management components. Many new biotechnologies involve the culture and release of beneficial soil organisms and these will be considered as well. The first stages of the Situation Analysis of SRT1 will identify and characterize the most prominent farming systems, farmer typologies, and social networks within specific Action Areas, and provide entry points to intensification. Based on these first understanding of the Action Sites, and with attention to gender relations, policy environment and partnering institutions, and other potential drivers of change; opportunities towards enhanced system performance will be identified for all Action Sites. These critical entry points will for certain Action Sites have important productivity-enhancing components as detailed above. Even in Action Sites where investments in profitable market access may be the focus of entry points towards system improvement, productivity enhancement and natural resource integrity will nonetheless be included in work plans in compliance with the full suite of Research Questions and the overriding CRP SLOs.Within the context of the agro-ecological, infrastructural, and institutional boundaries of a specific Action Site and the identified critical entry points, specific interventions, adjusted for farmer typologies and landscape positions, will be identified through the following principles (see Box 2):• Increase overall productivity and yield of crops, trees and animals,• Increase capture of light, water and nutrients leading to greater conversion to useful biomass, • Increase symbiotic nitrogen fixation through prominence of grain, vegetable and tree legumes • Tighten nutrient cycling and reduce other forms of nutrient loss, resulting in greater retention of nutrients, • Increase in effective suppression of weeds, pests and diseases through habitat management and • Increase above-and belowground biodiversity to enhance system resilience. These options will be tested and evaluated with farmer associations or other social networks within the Action Sites through participatory action research using multi-locational designs, and following a demonstration-adaptation-adoption sequence, depending on previous experiences with specific interventions (Figure 13). This approach will be compared to, and possibly replaced in time with a more streamlined development of simple prioritization tools advanced through expert consultation through R4D platforms. Demonstration trials consist of a number of best-bet component technologies that have been derived from earlier research or from experiences in other areas under similar agro-ecological conditions. Observations recorded from demonstration trials include agronomic and economic performance of the tested technologies (against the local practice) and gender-segregated participatory evaluation of the technologies. Based on the performance of the tested technologies at the demonstration sites, a few of the most promising technologies are taken forward into adaptation trials, consisting of two or three technologies and a local practice. These adaptation trials are numerous (e.g. +200 per Action Site per season). These trials are can eventually be accompanied by soil and plant sampling on a sub-sample of sites to have a better understanding of plant-soil relationships underlying the performance of a specific technology. After participating households have tested and evaluated these technologies against local practice, an indicative number of them will adjust their practices accordingly. This number will vary and depend on the nature of the technology and the creation of enabling conditions for technology uptake but is generally proportionate to a technology's adoptability. This sort of research cycle is accompanied by M&E focusing on key indicators of yield, profitability, and soil conservation, quantifying tradeoffs and assisting in designing future interventions. Specific indicators related to system performance for different farmer typologies will also be included. The large number of simple trials permits interpretation in terms of position within farms and landscapes, which is in turn related to risk assessment. These activities are also used to initialize and later validate system models operating at farm and landscape level. These tools are used for the identification of subsequent generations of entry points towards system productivity and natural resource integrity enhancement through ex-ante methods and approaches, taking into account tradeoffs between outcomes, between households within an Action Site, and between the various stakeholders' interests. This approach is admittedly geared to annual crops and soil management but similar pragmatic, robust approaches toward livestock and perennial crops will be developed.There are five research outputs resulting from activities in SRT2.2 Increasing System Productivity, with each described in detail and related to SRT2 Research Questions as follows:1. Parameterized system models at the farm and landscape level to allow identification of best entry points towards system intensification and productivity enhancement for applicable farm typologies (addressing SRT2 Research Question 1). Identification and modification of existing models: Existing models that consider systems at the farm and landscape level will be used to evaluate ex-ante trade-offs Box 2. Translation of a critical entry point in a set of simultaneously applied components towards system improvement in the CIALCA region. The major staple crop is cassava but yields were severely affected by the cassava mosaic virus. The productivity of beans, one of the major sources of protein, was low as a result widespread pests and disease, poor nutrient management, and sub-optimal agronomic management. Taking these factors into consideration, together with farmer associations, CIALCA installed on-farm field trials and demonstrations that improved productivity of cassava-based systems through 1) combining improved cassava and bean varieties previously identified through participatory selection, 2i) adapted agronomic practices through row planting that adjusting the spacing between cassava plants and legume intercrops, and 3) targeted small doses of fertilizer in combination with organic inputs (Photograph 1). This combined management strategy resulted in 30-50% higher cassava yields and a doubling of legume yields. Such improved performance is sufficient to overcome food insecurity and malnutrition except that poorest households have less ability to access mineral fertilizer and mobilize organic resources, stressing the importance of farm typologies in targeting technologies.Photograph 1: Improved legume-cassava intercropping, with cassava at 2m x 0.5m, intercropped with 4 legume rows in the 1st season (left) and 2 legume rows during the 2nd season (right). This system can produce an extra 1 ton/ha of legumes without affecting cassava yields.involving prioritized technology components on farm productivity such as biomass production and nutrient redistribution. Such models include the Africa NUANCES model that operates at the farm scale, includes crop-livestock interactions, assesses the impact of interventions on soil C stocks, and integrates resource endowment as a set of independent variables. Other models include the IMPACT (Integrated Modeling Platform for Animal-Crop sysTems), developed by Herrero (2007), landscape models and learning organizations (O'Farrell and Anderson, 2010), or ecological network analysis (Rufino et al., 2009). Emerging models of the role of agro-biodiversity will also be identified due to its increasing importance in resilience for climate change.Parameterization and validation of models within and between Action Sites: To allow cross-site comparisons and cover the impact of variation within Action Sites, models will need to be sufficiently robust and inclusive of various farm types. This requires substantial parameterization activities using information gathered under SRT1.Information collected during implementation of SRT2.2 activities will be used to continuously fine-tune the models. The first aim of such models will be to integrate and explore potential options towards intensification rather than to predict outcome.A clear understanding of the potential to enhance the productivity of system components and their interactions within a variable and heterogeneous production environment along the G × E × M × M1 framework in the short and long term (Addressing SRT2 Research Question 2). Performance of system components: promising interventions are identified and tested among participating farmer organizations and other stakeholders through action research, coupled with a standardized M&E framework, covering aspects of productivity, resource use efficiency, profitability, and natural resource integrity. This approach allows the estimation of likely system responses in a manner that assesses both gains and risk. Quantification of interactions among system components: Agro-ecological intensification aims at optimizing resource use efficiency, partly by integrating various system components and fostering their positive interactions. Incomplete factorial designs following the G x E x M logic will be implemented within targeted landscapes in sufficient numbers to allow a analysis of the interactions between system components. Evaluation of the medium to long term benefits of system components: Most agronomic research is interested in immediate benefits of improved system components but some interventions require years of investments with potentially negative returns before their benefits are accrued. Systems-level livestock studies are similar. Within the set of activities implemented at farm and landscape scale, some will be turned into long-term field studies aiming at monitoring the accrued benefits, their resilience to stresses and their impact on the natural resource status. 4. Decision support tools become available to assess system productivity enhancement based on local diagnosis of system constraints, farmer's production objectives and household interests. Develop and deliver diagnostic tools for assessing system constraints: Various methods will be developed to identify constraints to enhanced productivity, from local diagnostic tools to complex and formal laboratory-based analyses. Although the latter methods are important to facilitate an initial understanding of constraints, the final tools needs to be based more on efficient, low cost indicators that can be easily mastered by all stakeholder groups within the R4D innovation networks (see Section 6). Precautions will be made to assure that some tools are extensive in nature and able to accommodate scalability within SRT3. Participatory approaches will be used through the R4D platforms to deliver specific tools for decisionmaking and conflict-resolution.5. An approach for monitoring the performance of promising component technologies and their combinations as these are adopted within R4D platforms and lead into SRT3. Assessment of system productivity at scale: Measuring system productivity is not necessarily but difficult process and standard approaches, commonly used in agronomic trials, cannot be readily scaled up to tens of thousands of households. Assessment approaches based on single real-time observation, nondestructive measures, and rapid data entry are needed to assess whether benefits to interventions are realized at scale. SRT2.2 must calibrate these rapid methods with more detailed studies for use by SRT3. Assessment of the adaptation of component technologies: While specific component technologies are often demonstrated using standard implementation protocols at the level of demonstration trials, farmers usually adapt these to better fit within their specific conditions. It is important to observe such adaptations since they may constitute the difference between large-scale adoption and rejection by rural communities. Specific M&E tools, focusing on adaptation and feasibility of best-fit technologies, will be developed in collaboration with the SRT1 M&E Unit and implemented through SRT3 activities.The integrity of the natural resource base is a crucial aspect of sustainable intensification, relating especially to the efficiency of resource use for agricultural production and the maintenance of ecosystem services in supporting production. In this respect, natural resource management is important for all the intensification trajectories described earlier.NRM is considered within the context of renewable and conserved farm resources that contribute to systems' productivity, with particular reference to nutrient recycling, soil and water conservation, surface and ground water quality, carbon stocks, greenhouse gas emissions, and fostering beneficial organisms. Natural resource integrity is in itself very much affected by agro-ecological and biophysical conditions and the supply of its services has limits within a specific context (Box 3). Box 3. An example of NR integrity.Natural grassland on poor sandy soil may not have much agricultural value as it is low in nutrients, does not retain water, and supports vegetation of limited potential. However, the NR integrity may well be close to 100% as it is \"intact\" and delivers the ecosystem services possible under these conditions. On the contrary a primary forest thinned to establish a cocoa plantation may have been stripped of half of its biodiversity, a large portion of the standing biomass, and the soil biological, chemical, and physical quality may have dropped substantially to <50% of its initial status. Yet, this system may still deliver most of its ecosystem services relevant to man.The conversion of natural ecosystems to agriculture inevitably affects the natural resource functions related to soil, water, biodiversity, and carbon stocks. These changes will impact the ecosystem's ability to sustain its service functions for agricultural and non-agricultural land use. Changes in the natural resource status depend on the scale and type of agricultural activities and the resilience of the ecosystem. In the humid tropics, slash-andburn is often considered the first and most dramatic step towards either repeated shifting cultivation or permanent agricultural use of land whereby the natural resource such as soil fertility, biodiversity, and carbon stocks first steeply and later on progressively decline (Figure 14). Despite this loss, however, natural lands converted to agriculture undergo an accompanying increase in agro-biodiversity, which declines with intensification and greater use of off-farm inputs, and increases as systems later diversify.The first task is defining the current NR status that serves as a baseline against which improvements are achieved. In many existing production systems, the NR status is extremely low compared with its natural condition. On the other hand, there are examples of human activity improving NR indicators, for example through introduction of perennial production systems for permanent or rotational use. Agro-ecological intensification as an approach is focused upon improving the condition and renewable performance of natural resources both in terms of contribution toward agricultural system productivity and overall system sustainability. Research has yet to identify the extent to which the natural resource base can be 'consumed' and what threshold should not be passed before its ability to deliver essential ecosystem services is significantly or irreversibly compromised. Different components are exhausted at different rates, but which are the most vulnerable and how may they be differentially conserved? Research is also needed on the extent that agro-ecological intensification can be achieved by the use of agro-biodiversity and agro-ecosystem based management. These approaches may impact on adjacent natural resources in a manner leading to more positive interaction between agricultural land use and adjacent natural areas. Humidtropics intends to identify \"hotspots\" where essential ecosystem services are at risk or where the natural resource base is no longer able to support critical services to agriculture and rural communities. Non-responsive soils, as detailed in Figure 14 are examples where critical soil-based ecosystem services may have been lost. Tools like the land degradation surveillance framework (LDSF) developed through the African Soils Information Service (AfSIS) will be used to identify these areas and candidate interventions for land restoration and management.Another important task of SRT2.3 is to understand how the increased flow of agricultural products from farms to markets contributes to soil depletion and what mitigation measures may be framed into interventions. This consideration is particularly relevant in terms of intensification pathways, comparing farm specialization and diversification, and further reflects on the complementarity of agricultural activities. For instance, the increased sales of banana to urban markets in the Great Lakes region is interrupting nutrient cycles as a growing proportion of produce is exported from the farm, while traditionally, banana-based systems were sustained by tight internal nutrient cycles. In contrast, on-farm processing of banana retains more nutrients because peels remain available for recycling. In addition, establishing leguminous trees and shrubs within banana lands replaces nitrogen loss through biological fixed nitrogen. The Resource-to-Consumption framework, developed by CIAT, extends the conventional production to consumption or commodity chain approach to include investment in natural resource management and other productive resources (social, human, financial, natural and physical) and strengthens forward and backward linkages between natural resource management, agricultural production and markets (Kaaria and Ashby, 2001). The Resource-to-Consumption approach relies upon participatory market research to assess into soil fertility management in a manner that supports enterprise development based upon realistic levels of increased nutrient removal as harvest products from the farm.Along similar lines, as systems intensify, livestock move from acting as supporting inputs to arable production, providing manure and traction, to being kept as commodities in their own right. Intensification of livestock production includes interactions with crops and trees as food sources but in its extreme has implications for environmental integrity. Key environmental implications of intensifying livestock production include increased greenhouse gas emissions, and degradation of vegetation resources. These aspects can be studied through lifecycle analysis to determine the effects of different intensification scenarios on key environmental variables. In many cases, livestock production intensification can reduce environmental burden by greater production per unit of feed and hence per unit of greenhouse gas emitted. Some interventions and technologies are able to both enhance agricultural productivity and sustain natural resources, and are currently being adopted, adapted, and disseminated. For example, in some coffee growing areas, shading through agroforestry has greater total system productivity with lower household risks than mono-cropped coffee (van Asten et al., 2011;Perfecto et al., 1996) and supports greater biodiversity (Perfecto et al., 2005) including some of the original forest cover (Philpott et al., 2008). In West Africa, it was shown that following forest clearance, the diversity and prevalence of mycorrhizal fungi declined with intensification of the system (Tchabi et al. 2008), however certain species persisted better than others and proved beneficial to subsequent crop production (Affokpon et al., 2009;Tchabi et al., 2010). To date, most technologies are single component or modular, focusing on one or few aspects of the production system without consideration of the wider effects on natural resource condition. Many technologies related to crop management focus on soils without regard to larger resource management issues. In other cases, technologies were pioneered by farmers themselves (coffee shading) and documented from incomplete perspective. Barrett et al. (2002) demonstrated for a wide range of NR management practices, the paramount importance of the economic and risk-management requirements to implement such technologies. Hence, activities on NR-enhancing technologies have social dimension to ensure that the technological requirements can be met by smallholder endowments. A full scope of activities is necessary to address natural resource integrity at the watershed, landscape, and regional levels relating to conservation and restoration technologies, providing incentives to land managers, and establishing policies handling access and management of those resources. Specific consideration will be given to interventions that enhance diversification, system resilience, and system productivity. These win-win-win options are more likely to improve overall agro-ecosystem services across scales.SRT2.3 has two major objectives: 1) maintain the natural resource condition of relatively productive agro-ecosystems, and 2) improve the natural resource status of degraded agroecosystems and their abilities to provide essential ecosystem services. In both cases, diagnosis is important. Ecosystem processes are complex and their interactions the target of strategic research in CRP5. However, in CRP1.2, we will use well-defined processes and easily determinable parameters as proxies for essential ecosystem services (see Section 5). Emphasis will also be placed upon tradeoff analysis relating increased systems output to their disturbance and consumption of natural resources and resultant impacts.Essential ecosystem services and the interactions between them will be defined at plot, farm, and a range of landscape scales, encompassing the dimensions where different ecosystem services become manifest (Box 4). Initially, the entry points and outcomes will be considered at the farm household level, however, disturbance and management of natural resources by individual smallholders can have profound cumulative effects at the community, landscape and higher levels (extending to global in terms atmospheric change and biodiversity loss). In the same way, maintenance of some ecosystem services critical for production and livelihoods such as maintenance of pollinators and protection of water quality operate at scales above the farm. Erosion and erosion control is readily observed, causing major problems downstream through sedimentation or eutrophication. Erosion has consequences from the plot to watershed level. At some levels it is easy to quantify, yet at others it may be rather cumbersome and cost intensive. In addition, the consequences of erosion are site specific and of variable importance along the plot to watershed continuum. The contribution of agrobiodiversity, on the other hand, may be more difficult to see, but also has scale interactions, particularly for such functions as pest control, and pollination.A stepwise approach will first identify the ecosystem services required at the household and production system level. Within a farm, the hierarchical order of such services, and their interactions, will be determined by identifying how any component or practice affects production system components within the household or area of operations. Once essential ecosystem services within the household decision making domains are identified, a similar exercise will follow at community level with specific focus on interactions between farm management and community-based resources. This will be of particular importance where communities have attained a certain level of division of labor with accordingly variable natural resource use requirements by different members of communities or there are existent incentives for resource protection.Work on NR integrity needs to identify processes and factors with known precision to allow reliable modeling in time and space. At scales above the farm level, particularly the community and watershed levels, GIS modeling may express proxies for key environmental services that can be calculated from readily available data. For example, parameters such as water flow calculated from digital elevation and land cover and habitat network connectivity for biodiversity protection have been effectively used to work across sites where intensive measurements to parameterize more sophisticated models are impractical (Eigenbrod et al., 2010;Pagella, 2012).Modeling is also important to extrapolate effects of system interventions in time, and to better understand tradeoffs between short-term production benefits on the one hand, and reduction of natural resource integrity on the other. Sustainability of natural resource use in crop production systems may be relatively easily determined through analysis of soil chemical, physical, and biological parameters once the rates of change and threshold values have been determined. However, it is unlikely that any individual parameter will serve as a reliable indicator of sustainable production or natural resource condition. To identify indicators for sustainable delivery of ecosystem services, higher-level processoriented measurements of the effects of soil quality, health or functions (such as biomass decomposition) can be used (Hauser et al., 2005). Monitoring specific ecosystem processes essential for crop, animal or tree production will then be developed and linked to agricultural yields, farm household well-being and parameters of NR status and integrity (see Section 5). In sub-humid parts of the Humidtropics domain, the integration of crop and livestock production are important, and with increasing market opportunities the spatial separation of these enterprises could present a threat to natural resource integrity if appropriate solutions are not sought.At the same time that natural resource status is being characterized and threshold values identified, it is necessary to conduct participatory research to determine farmers' access to those resources, their patterns of resource use and perceptions of ecosystem services. This includes capturing the social and economic dimensions of natural resource use and integrity (van Asten et al., 2009). The latter allows the determination of resource use efficiency in relation to resource decline and current and potential investment in practices that maintain and restore those resources, often with corresponding increases in farm productivity. For example, the level of NR use efficiency is considered low in traditional slash-and-burn production systems as they consume large 'quantities' of natural resources for relatively little crop yield. However, slash-and-burn systems are labor efficient and smallholders' reasons to use them are largely related the time required for activities outside of farming (Box 5). As lands become more populated, a better balance between resource consumption and productivity must be achieved to prevent rapid destruction of remaining forests. Means must also be found to manage and conserve forest remnants. This sort of research will rely upon close collaboration with CRP5 in terms of methodology and tools (see Section 9).Household and community participatory evaluation approaches (Sayer and Campbell, 2004) will be used both to capture local knowledge (Sinclair and Walker, 1999) and perceptions of the current production systems and natural resource requirements (Vanclay et al., 2006). This activity serves to identify potential entry points for sustainable intensification technologies from all three SRT2 components. These technologies will be evaluated in participatory ways to ensure that they fit the labor, land and capital endowments of smallholders. Such evaluations will produce valuable data on the infrastructural requirements to increase improved technology use by smallholders. Data will be furnished to policymakers to inform about the changes required to improve supply and marketing infrastructure that support implementation of sustainable intensification technologies without compromising ecosystem services.In many cases, opportunity exists to develop compensation and reward mechanisms for investment in natural resource conservation and ecosystem services (Swallow et al., 2009). Participatory rapid appraisal tools such as the TULSEA negotiation support toolbox and spatially explicit GIS tools such as Polyscape at landscape or InVest at regional scales, that explore synergies and trade-offs among ecosystem services (Nelson et al., 2009;Pagella, 2012) will be utilized and refined for integrated systems application to assess watershed functions, carbon stocks, land tenure and agro-biodiversity. These understandings will in turn set priorities and strategies for designing, testing and refining interventions through action research. Approaches described in SRT3 and Section 6 to strengthen institutional mechanisms that support improved natural resource management are particularly important here.Within SRT2.3 we intend to build on methods and tools developed in other initiatives, particularly CRP3, CRP5, CRP6, and CRP7 (see Section 9) and apply them in a systems context relating to the environmental stewardship of smallholders (van Noordwijk and Leimona, 2010).Box 5. Labor requirements versus crop yields in slash-and-burn agriculture.In sparsely populated areas, long fallow systems have large land endowments and only systems with low labor requirements can be used. The energy or labor efficiency of long fallow slash-andburn systems is the highest among all agricultural systems in terms of energy invested versus the amount of energy gained from crop yield. In the Amazon basin, only 8 % of the human energy input to cultivate a cassava field, including post-harvest processing, is used for slashing and burning. This is largely due to the absence of fossil fuel use and chemical inputs. However, the destruction of the biomass and the release of carbon in the burn are not considered in such calculations. In areas with higher population densities and consequently shortened fallow periods, economic conditions become more suitable for market-oriented, commercial farming. While labor is available, capital for agricultural inputs may be scarce. Thus, high-input, intensive agriculture is rarely practiced. With reduced fallow length, the labor requirement for clearing decreases yet overall labor increases as additional work, weeding and tillage become necessary. In short fallow systems of southern Cameroon, slashing, burning and cleaning the soil surface of weed stumps, was 10 to 13% of the total labor required to establish and harvest a groundnut / maize / cassava intercrop. Historically, the direct connection of slash & burn with labor availability was demonstrated when population density in the Mayan lowlands decreased and this was followed by a transition from intensive agriculture to long-fallow systems.Source: Hauser, S. and Norgrove, L. 2001. Slash and Burn Agriculture, effects of. In: S. Levin (ed.). Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. Vol. 5, 269-284, Academic Press, San Diego, USA. The identification of essential services will be linked to sustained agricultural production at the farm level and guidelines to better manage natural resources developed. The consideration of social and economic components is paramount as investments in resource conservation rely on smallholders' understanding the importance of maintaining its benefits. Socio-economic farm surveys, participatory appraisals, and knowledge sharing platforms will provide data on smallholders' endowments and bottlenecks related to NR management and investments. Scalability of ecosystem services: The identification of essential ecosystem services will be based on compiled results of biophysical and socioeconomic analyses at lower levels (field, farm, household) up-scaled to community and landscape through models to understand interactions across temporal and spatial scales. Essential services such as extended agricultural production, carbon sequestration, protection of agro-biodiversity and beneficial organisms, suppression of pest and disease outbreaks, preserving surface and ground water quality, and protection against flooding, landslides, and siltation of ponds and lakes will be determined at community, landscape and regional levels. This will involve a wide range of stakeholders, including policymakers. Impaired ecosystem services threaten not only rural communities but also distant urban populations, an assessment that requires linkages with CRP5. Ecosytem service trade-offs: Different ecosystem services cannot always be improved simultaneously as many trade-offs exist. This will require a system research approach on the quality, quantity, spatial patterns and temporal processes of these services relating to the intensity of land use. For example, studies will be conducted to determine if certain NR functions of natural systems can be sustained in confined, less affected areas, while more production related resource functions will be the primary focus in areas of rapid land use change. At the global level, it may be advantageous to intensify production through specialization (e.g. perennial plantations) while protecting nearby diversified smallholds and natural ecosystems. Both land use strategies have potential to sequester carbon but the latter provides additional benefits through protection of biodiversity. An example is the carbon-rich, shaded smallholder cocoa systems with nearby protected forests (Gockowski et al., 2010) including the Bia National Park and Krokosua Hills Forest Reserve in the Western region of Ghana. Particular interest will also be on the options for resource restoration in degraded areas through reintroductions from conservation areas. These activities will contribute to the understanding and management of ecosystem services under different intensities and patterns of land use change.Assessment of natural resource status: The development of reliable methods to determine biodiversity and resource status and their changes as a consequence of use at different special scales will be based on existing methodology of quantifying biophysical parameters of soil, water, vegetation mass and biodiversity assessment.Research will further focus on simple and cost efficient methods that quantify combined parameters of soil, water and biodiversity into indices closely related to overall natural resource condition and essential ecosystem services. This output again requires linkages with CRP5.. This is conducted with emphasis on understanding tradeoffs between short-term production gains and longterm NR sustainability issues at the farm level and the effects of agricultural practices on landscape level ecosystem services. Identification and adaptation of models: Research approaches will be designed to include the collection of data with specific use in model parameterization and validation. Existing models will be reviewed for their ability to support the identification of essential services and the prioritization of linkage to agricultural production. Others will be explored in terms of assessing changes in the resource base as a consequence of technological, social, economic, infrastructural and policy interventions. Landscape models, such as ones developed by CSIRO, will be modified as required to support the assessment of the current resource base, its services and changes as a consequence of land use at watershed, landscape and regional levels. Economic models will be used to demonstrate the impact of intensified agriculture on income generation, resulting from investment and improvement in NRM.Combining research and participatory process, the above models will be run to calculate ex ante impact in a dynamic biophysical and socio-economic context, including potential technological, infrastructural and policy improvements on smallholders' livelihoods and their ability to invest in resource conservation, as well as larger scale effects on more distant areas and populations.4. Policymakers sensitized on the importance of natural resource integrity on rural development, reward systems for investment in resource integrity, and crafting an enabling social and economic environment for sustainable agricultural production. Sensitization to the importance of NR integrity: The sensitization of policymakers to the importance of resource integrity for future food production and income generation and the value of incentives for natural resource stewardship will be demonstrated through the development of ex-ante analysis of 'non-investment' versus interventions sustaining NRM. Sensitization on compensation and reward systems: The sensitization of policymakers on the importance of compensation and reward systems for investment in natural resource integrity will be demonstrated through the results of ex-ante analysis of the consequences of no compensation of smallholders implementing NR conservation measures with potential long-term compromising effects on income and food security. Such models will be up-scaled to demonstrate as well the importance of an enabling social and economic environment (market access, input supply, access to information and knowledge, access to credit, etc.) for sustainable intensification of crop, animal, and tree production.5. Interventions combining technologies, incentives and policies that enhance productivity, reduce risks and improve ecosystem services are piloted and validated. This allows direct use of natural resources while protecting delivery of essential ecosystem services. Identification of NR improvement practices: The development of agricultural production technologies that combine increased food production and income generation with NR conservation and improved NR integrity will comprise the use of external inputs ranging from fertilizer and natural nutrient sources (manures, biomass, compost), to improved fallow management, rotations and biomass use that increase soil carbon and N-availability. For pest management, the focus will be on better understanding pest cycles and their response to abiotic and biotic factors which will permit the design of more pest-and-disease suppressive production systems. Technologies will focus on alternative land use management without compromising labor requirements and crop yields. Aspects of biomass trade-offs, croplivestock integration and the 'threat' of spatial separation of these enterprises with increased market participation present new challenges to be addressed. This activity will be implemented together with SRT2.2 with a focus on agro-ecological intensification and the smart use of agro-biodiversity. Identification of NR conservation practices: In areas of relatively high NR integrity, production often suffers from high pest and disease incidence and severity. Environmentally sound pest and disease management technologies for key income and food security crops and for crops drawing heavily on the NR base will be developed or fine-tuned to reduce crop yield losses. Where labor is limiting, such technologies can lead to a reduction in cropped area while maintaining crop output and income. Here, research will focus on the consequences of reduced land use frequency at increased land use intensity and contribute valuable data toward best ways of conserving NR and biodiversity. This activity will be implemented together with SRT2.2. Assessment of tradeoffs between NR integrity and productivity: The effects of any technology will be quantified through a set of essential and sensible soil properties, water availability and the status of biodiversity and economic data obtained in the intervention area to determine tradeoffs between NR integrity and productivity. For example, potential trade-offs in biomass use (mulching vs. animal feeding) on short-term farm production and long-term soil sustainability can be assessed by combining experiments and modeling tools described in SRT2.2 and currently implemented by the System-wide Livestock Programme (SLP). Lifecycle assessments of livestock: Selected technical interventions will be offered for inclusion within rural development efforts that facilitate livestock impacts on water, land and biomass use at varying levels of intensification.4.9.1 Introduction SRT3 is in many ways extends the boundaries of CGIAR research in that it attempts to understand how complex research outputs generated in SRT2 and supported by SRT1 are brought to scale to achieve CGIAR development outcomes, particularly in different market, institutional and policy contexts. SRT3 combines research on three critical areas central to Humidtropics, namely (1) understanding how to take complex technologies often integrating productivity with sustainable resource management to scale under different market conditions, (2) evaluating alternative methodologies or frameworks for scaling up, especially in terms of their cost effectiveness, and (3) through the scaling up testing how impact on development outcomes can be enhanced, if not optimized-in essence evaluating alternative impact pathways. Providing the technological and market conditions for sustainable production system intensification, especially where there are significant differences in farm resource endowments, farmer education, and quality of the natural resource base, requires innovative institutional approaches in providing information, building farmer capacities, organizing farmers, linking farmer groups to service providers, and building more efficient input and output value chains. Humidtropics adopts an agricultural innovation systems approach to linking a range of organizational actors in the agricultural sector that can promote evolving farmer investment strategies resulting in farming system change and intensification.Implicit in this developmental research is understanding why so few \"proven\" technologies become adopted at scales large enough to demonstrate impact and sufficient return on investment. SRT3 is a blend of agricultural and social sciences. Insights from innovation studies adopting a complex systems perspective clearly indicate a co-evolution between different technologies, socio-economic structures and institutional arrangements (Ekboir, 2003;Elzen and Wieczorek, 2005;Geels, 2004;Geels and Schot, 2007;Hall and Clark, 2010). This co-evolutionary process involves generating a variety of developmental strategies and comparing them in a manner that identifies which intensification realms are most viable under certain conditions. This implies that many innovation options still will not reach the larger developmental mainstream. Scaling can thus be seen as a measure of a particular intervention to have made it from a niche in an Action Site to the mainstream regimes of an Action Area. This SRT also supports other CRPs by including their most promising innovations into institutional agendas that would not otherwise have been achieved.Geels ( 2004) has described a multi-level model of socio-technical transitions (Figure 15). These levels, taken into the context of Humidtropics include: 1. Innovation niches exist within research institutes where technologies and interventions originate. Within the context of developmental research, some promising innovations emerge as candidates to replace current technologies and practices and contribute to a new mainstream, while other less-viable innovations fade away (Geels and Schot, 2007). 2. Within the mainstream, dominant technologies and institutional arrangements operate below their potentials. Here candidate innovations literally complete with the status quo and the most useful of which become incorporated into a better performing mainstream. Within a developmental research context, this competition occurs at different levels (Action Areas, Action Sites, nations and regions) and involves changes in technologies, markets, policy, livelihoods and culture. 3. Meaningful change occurs within a broader landscape of natural, social and economic conditions that in turn influences innovation develop (level 1) and mainstream regimes (level 2).SRT3 addresses the challenge of building more effective strategies to enable a wider diversity of stakeholders to implement system improvements in ways that are equitable and sustainable. This demands institutional change that better coordinates the actions of these stakeholders (CAPRI, 2010;Rajalathi et al., 2008;World Bank, 2006), helping them to achieve things collectively that they would not achieve on their own. The effectiveness of institutions can, therefore, be measured by the extent to which they influence behavior in ways that contribute to achieving desired outcomes. In addition to effectiveness, institutions should also be efficient-achieving the desired objective at the lowest cost-and equitable in terms of how the benefits and costs are spread across all those affected.Research for development projects increasingly recognize the need to move beyond a technology dissemination paradigm to address institutional issues through employing a range of approaches including innovation systems (Rajalathi et al., 2008;Hall, 2009), using multi-stakeholder alliances (Lundy et al., 2008), facilitating involvement of a wider range of development partners (Kristjanson et al., 2009), and conducting more participatory and action-oriented research (Scoones and Thompson, 2009). SRT3 will identify appropriate institutional arrangements to connect diverse stakeholders to better share knowledge and strengthen their capacities through joint action. This leads to robust outcomes that impact on livelihoods, enhance economic and environmental sustainability (beyond conventional short term projects) and enhance the ability of smallholders to respond positively to opportunities made available within their Action Areas. Humidtropics has adopted a sequenced set of research questions that have previously been devolved to other research or development organizations on how to evaluate alternative impact pathways through different approaches to going to scale. These are set out in respect to the three broad areas that introduced SRT3 above.Understanding How to Take Complex Technologies to Scale SRT3 Research Question 1. How do farmers operating under different resource endowments and access to input and output markets assess and adopt complex, systembased technologies?Rationale. There has been some experience with disseminating complex, system based technologies such as conservation agriculture, ICIPE's push-pull technology, agroforestry systems, or control of banana bacterial blight using only cultural practices. Adoption of such technologies often entails a staged process of sensitization, sourcing information and/or technology components, experimentation, and adoption and integration into the farming system. This process is most often supported by intensive adaptive research and dissemination projects without a framework to assess farmer evaluation and adoption decisions and often without understanding how alternative dissemination strategies impact on what is a cumulative assessment process by farmers. Humidtropics will provide a framework to systematically conceptualize and assess farmer decision making at a production system level, choice among technology options, and adoption under alternative dissemination strategies (see below).SRT3 Research Question 2. System intensification involves a phased process of technology adoption, increased incomes, and changing farmer investment priorities. What linked institutional innovations are necessary to \"nudge\" farmer investment strategies along pathways of sustainable system intensification?Rationale. Due to the CGIAR's past focus on component technologies and adoption of these, there were few studies that assessed how farmers reinvested income gains from initial adoption of those component technologies, or even if those income gains were reinvested in the farming system itself. Humidtropics has framed this problem in terms of initial adoption around critical entry points and phased investment in other areas of the farming system (often moving from crop to livestock investments), particularly in increased investment in the natural resource base. Institutional and policy innovations in the areas of micro-credit, insurance, reduced information asymmetries, and improved access to input and output markets can investment choices, particularly those where the returns are lagged by more than one cropping season. Understanding farmer investment choices is thus critical to both understanding alternative intensification pathways as well as modalities for scaling up.SRT3 Research Question 3. Given that scaling up production system research oriented to sustainable system intensification requires a combination of new technologies, necessary institutions, and an appropriate incentive environment, what are the most effective dissemination and scaling up approaches?Rationale. Over the last decade there has been substantial work on new approaches to dissemination, building on adapting ICT's to dissemination, new theories such as innovation systems, and the multiple approaches to traditional extension. At least five principal approaches or frameworks might be distinguished, namely (1) scaling up within a communication/ICT framework; (2) scaling up within a farmer capacitation framework, eg farmer field schools; (3) scaling up within a organized advisory service framework; (4) scaling up through improved market linkages and investments; and (5) scaling up within an innovation systems framework, particularly optimally deploying innovation platforms. At the same time there has been very little systematic assessment of these different approaches, primarily work on comparing FFS to traditional extension approaches (when in fact the projected outcomes are quite different) and the SSA-CP's evaluation of innovation platforms. It would be useful to compare these different approaches in terms of both cost and effectiveness in increasing farm factor productivity but at the same time in understanding the potential synergies between different approaches on farmer decision making, for example the use of ICT approaches in farmer sensitization and FFS in building farmer adaptive research capacity.SRT3 Research Question 4. Given that agricultural innovation system (AIS) approaches tend to combine most of the characteristics needed for taking production system intensification to scale, what are the design options in AIS approaches that allow cost effective scaling within the Action Areas?Rationale. Agricultural innovation systems is in many respects the leading edge in R4D conceptualization but practice has been mostly limited, apart from the SSA-CP, to a range of pilot projects applying the approach in quite specific themes (see the associated box on FIP). This has produced a range of methods but without an effective evaluation of alternative design options, particularly the scale at which innovation platforms can most effectively operate and how these platforms function when organized around other constructs than just value chains. Given the very different contexts across the different Action Areas, SRT3 has the potential to evaluate the relative effectiveness of alternative designs of AIS approaches.SRT3 Research Question 5. Inherent in the approach to scaling up (as represented in the research questions above) are direct impacts on productivity, food security and natural resource integrity. However, there may be impacts on poverty and gender equity from direct production system interventions but these cannot be predicted. How then can impacts on gender equity and rural poverty be both understood and assured in the design of scaling up strategies?Rationale. Humidtropics adopts the approach that impacts on rural poverty and gender equity are not a matter of ex-post evaluation but are inherent in the design of scaling up options. Rural poverty and gender equity are conditioned by social factors involving power relations, community social structures, and constraints on access to services and resources. Scaling up approaches across the five frameworks sketched above can be designed to assure access by poor households and women. Market participation is a critical area to ensure equity and institutional innovations in farmer organization, collective action, and access to services can be designed to improve equitable access to markets.Systematic research in the areas of understanding farmer investment trajectories and associated stages in technology adoption, evaluating alternative dissemination and scaling up models, and designing institutional innovations that achieve equitable outcomes is virtually non-existent. While this represents an enormous opportunity for the work of Humidtropics, it also creates the challenge of developing new research methodologies to support this work. Inherently in this type of work there will be trade-offs between rigorous statistical and quantitative approaches and more process-oriented, action research approaches where systematic monitoring is key to evaluating performance and outcomes. The following will provide only a brief sketch of methodological approaches to the set of research questions set out above.Research on farmer investment and intensification trajectories will build on the integrated production system and market agent panel surveys. A range of modeling approaches can be built around this data set from constrained optimization or programming models at farming system or regional agricultural economy level, potentially using a social accounting matrix that can be constructed from the panel data. More behavioral models of farmer decision-making can be estimated from the panel survey data and contextualized using the variation in market and policy conditions. Most importantly the panel data will provide the basis for monitoring production system change with alternative interventions. Whether this is done within an experimental framework will depend on the research questions being asked and whether appropriate counterfactuals can be established, a particular difficulty with a long-term research site.The rigor of research design and the use of counterfactuals and randomization are even more of an issue in the evaluation of alternative dissemination approaches. Much of this work will be done within an action research modality, where the focus is systematic monitoring and assessing outcomes in relation to a series of critical inputs, particularly cost.On the basis of this type of assessment alternative \"best-fit\" models or approaches may emerge and the choice of whether other development agencies may take these to scale outside the Action Areas or in other Action Areas may necessitate a more rigorous and costly evaluation design, which may have to be done outside the Action Area in order to have clear counterfactuals within a fully randomized design. The experience of the SSA-CP in undertaking such an evaluation for innovation platforms should be instructive in both the decision to undertake such an evaluation and the conditions under which a systematic design can be implemented.The key to the work on directing impact to gender and poverty outcomes primarily comes in the actual design of the institutional innovations and then monitoring outcomes in their development and implementation. This work will be linked to the research on alternative dissemination models and will entail some of the choices in the selection of evaluation methods. Understanding poverty outcomes at the level of the monitoring at Action Area level will be linked to the sectoral/SAM modeling work above. In general it will be difficult to attribute changes in development outcomes at this level to just the work of the Humidtropics investments but some of the causal determinants may be elucidated by combining modeling and monitoring results.Research outputs for SRT3 follow directly from the methods outlined above, namely:1. An interactive modeling, panel survey, and monitoring framework for understanding the interaction between farmer investment, system intensification pathways and interactions with market structures (addressing SRT3 Research Questions 1 and 2). 2. Fully evaluated, best bet models for dissemination and scaling up of production system strategies developed for potential uptake by development partners (addressing SRT3 Research Questions 3 and 4). 3. Institutional innovations to achieve gender equity and poverty outcomes designed and evaluated (addressing SRT3 Research Question 5). 4. Developed research agenda and research community around scaling up, particularly using agricultural innovation system approaches (addressing SRT3 Research Questions 4 and 5).66 5 QUANTIFIED IMPACT PATHWAYThe Humidtropics approach to impact pathways is to treat it as a research area in its own right. CRP1.2 will evaluate alternative impact pathways under different market, institutional and policy contexts in its work on scaling up in SRT3. Given that production system intensification is highly location-specific, one of principal challenges in Humidtropics is how to conceptualize approaches to going to scale and this intrinsically will involve improved capacities at farmer and institutional level. In many respects the central rationale for the Action Area definition is to serve as a laboratory for understanding the interplay of markets, institutional innovations, and policy in fostering the sustainable intensification of production systems and, most importantly, how impact on SLOs is a design feature of alternative approaches to scaling up. Thus, Humidtropics moves away from viewing impact pathways as purely a set of institutional linkages from research to technology dissemination. Rather it is within a more innovation systems framework of interacting actors in the agricultural sector with a focus on integrated approaches, that are linking technology, farmers' adaptive capacity, informed farmer investment strategies, more efficient supply chains, full participation by women and poor households, and meeting the needs of processors and marketing agents. The institutional arrangements that facilitate such integrated approaches is then the focus of scaling up and thereby tests alternative impact pathways.The Humidtropics R4D approach strongly includes the social, cultural and psychological aspects that are embedded within SRTs 2 and 3. The main premise is that \"the poor and vulnerable themselves make important decisions governing the best management of available agricultural resources and that the most effective interventions are those that build upon farmer knowledge and practice rather than approaches that seek to supersede current systems in the cause of modernization\". This principle is illustrated in Figure 16 and reflects the program's impact pathways. Indeed, the underlying process of agricultural intensification involves not only technology development but also a working understanding of social and cultural frames of references. The Humidtropics approach thus considers efficient progress in basic research and technology development and supports effective poverty reduction strategies focused upon the needs of rural households.There are several ways in which agricultural research and technologies influence livelihoods, reduce risks, and build assets through different forms of capital and collective action (Adato-Meinzen, 2007). The Humidtropics Program Pyramid (Figure 16) not only provides entry points to address poverty, but also provides a better insight into how agricultural technologies can be adapted to specific situations. It also addresses institutional issues that enable effective use of technologies (Adjei-Nsiah et al., 2008;Dormon et al., 2007;Klerkx et al., 2010). Its approach starts with the needs Figure 16. Humidtropics Program Pyramid Box 6. Constraints to systems productivity may be rooted within complex social settings.Gender inequity is often influenced by the social and cultural context and decisions made at the social-cultural level. Innovations introduced without a sound understanding of this context can lead to undesirable consequences. For example, innovations successful in increasing commercial maize yield led to deteriorating nutrition of women and children in northern Zambia because it was not understood that there were separate but interacting male and female headed systems, rather than integrated household systems (Rocheleau, 1987). Men were in control of commercial maize (that was sold) but women contributed their labor. Women were in control of growing local maize varieties (eaten, not sold) in separate home gardens-more commercial maize meant less time for subsistence maize. In Bangladesh, women contribute about 80% of the labor involved in dairy husbandry. However, cultural norms do not allow them to participate in markets and this bars them from benefiting from their efforts.and opportunities of farming households within Action Sites but also considers the institutions and drivers of change that affect their lives (Figure 16). Poverty has a clear geographical dimension (Okwi et al., 2007) and Humidtropics includes challenging Action Sites where poverty and population density are high and natural resources integrity is low as a test of its diagnostic and problem solving capacities. Indeed, constraints to systems productivity may be rooted within complex social settings (Box 6). In this way, household members will choose among proven management options and their decisions will be analyzed within an economic, natural, institutional and social setting, providing better understanding of the scalability of program technologies.Innovations and technologies will be pioneered within Action Sites, the most effective and adoptable of which will then be piloted within their respective Action Areas. This is achieved through an iterative process between the targeted farm types and household income strata and the service providers. These innovations will also be exchanged among Action Areas for evaluation and adjustment to site-specific conditions. These innovations are not only technological but can also represent new social, institutional and organizational arrangements (World Bank, 2006). Open Innovation systems are needed, in which new actors and institutions are constantly being created, changed, and adapted to suit the dynamics of scientific and technological creation (Juma and Yee-Cheong, 2005). As interventions move from the pilot stage to wider implementation, it becomes more important that they be buttressed by an enabling institutional and policy environment (Klerkx et al., 2010).Development impact and program success require targeted agricultural research outputs and outcomes. This R4D model was selected for Humidtropics as a holistic impact pathway that permits close feedback between research and developmental outcomes and readily responds to changing needs (Figure 17). This model ensures that development needs and impact serve both as a guide and goal for program investments by integrating the Strategic Research Themes through a six-step approach (Figure 17). Step 1: Development needs identified (SRT1). Needs are identified with the participation of policy, research and development partners to achieve a holistic understanding of the problems at hand, and identify candidate solutions (Klerkx and Leeuwis, 2009;Wongtschowski et al., 2010). To reach key policy processes and practitioners' communities, the first line of engagement for impact will be with NARS and International NGOs and development partners on the most promising combinations of tree, crop, and livestock use, as well as their specific natural resource, market and institutional challenges.Step 2: Research action undertaken (SRT2). Research design, management, and output are aimed at addressing the development needs in partnership with national and international research institutes, universities, and nonprofit and private sector research organizations. Findings are then translated into improved options within and between Action Sites. This research process demands vision into the potential research and development outcomes, and accompanying institutional change with which to achieve research outcomes (Dormon et al., 2007;Adjei-Nsiah et al., 2008). Mitigation of and resilience to risk are major considerations. Development of environment-friendly crop management alternatives, resistance to pests and diseases, abiotic stress tolerance, and improved tree, crop and livestock husbandry, and subsequent economic and nutritional benefits will be addressed.Step 3: Research outcomes translated into developmental actions (SRT2 linked with SRT3). Research impact is determined by the sharing of scalable research outcomes and accompanying advocacy activities with development partners and outcomes are adjusted to fit local circumstances (Douthwaite et al., 2001). A successful outcome entices partners to adoption, adaptation, and learning activities. Research and development partners are involved in the identification of extension strategies, policy advice, and advocacy, to enable a favorable environment for embedding the research outcomes. A gender-sensitive perspective is required, as women face particular challenges in accessing information, extension, advisory services and education.Step Cocoa cooperatives also diversified their services to include provision of alternative crop and tree varieties to their smallholder cocoa farmers and others in the community. The Step 5 development impacts increased income for the adoption of new management by cocoa farmers, cooperatives, and communities. The private sector benefited through increased access to high quality cocoa. Income from plantain, fruit trees, and cassava, which usually serve as temporal shade for the cocoa during its earlier years of establishment rose from the access to improved planting material by the community. This impact led to a number of new challenges to be addressed in Step 6. These are the production challenges of cocoa certification schemes, sustained intensification with better use of inorganic fertilizers, sustained access to inorganic fertilizers and other inputs, need for new high-yielding varieties and better management approaches that avoid continued deforestation due to expansion of land area by smallholders.Quantifying impacts of a large, integrative R4D project requires a series of well-planned measurements throughout all stages of program activities and at scales that link representative Action Sites to their larger respective Action Areas and beyond. The Situation Analysis performed early in the project not only prioritizes critical entry points for integrative research, but also assembles current baselines concerning households, crop enterprises, current management and yields, market opportunities and commodity prices, the status of key natural resource endowments and the engagement of women, skilled youth and the most vulnerable members of the community. These parameters construct an essential baseline against which improvements in farm enterprises, household well-being and business activities are weighed. Key data must also be collected within the Action Sites during the process of production systems integration, particularly during the process of adaptive, on-farm research. Often, pilot production packages may be assembled and distributed to large numbers of farmers and data collected on the agronomic efficiencies of inputs, and resulting yields and economic returns. Farmer adjustments to these technologies are also important. An M&E framework must be constructed and field-tested that captures this baseline and interacts with research outputs from the Action Sites and as proven technologies are scaled up to achieve development outcomes (see Section 13).Scalability is evaluated within Action Areas and requires that information be gathered on the potential land area targeted for production gains, adjusted for outreach coverage, farmer adoption, site-specific management and marketing innovation by stakeholders. A list of parameters essential to establish farm baselines, stepwise improvement of production systems and larger impacts that result from subsequent extension campaigns is presented in Box 8.Box 8. Quantitative parameters allowing calculation of impacts from integrative farm enterprise based upon current practice and extension recommendations (after Sanginga and Woomer, 2009). The need exists to monitor the agricultural resources as production systems are improved so as to ensure that production gains are not accrued at the expense of resource integrity (see Section 4.8) In order to do so, a suite of practical indicators must be developed; soil baseline conditions established and then monitored over time based upon landscape, physical, chemical, biological and land management criteria applicable to target production systems. The following criteria provide means for rapid assessment and ranking of agricultural resource integrity based upon the observations of landscapes, surface water, soils, plants and beneficial soil organisms (Sanginga and Woomer, 2009).Exposed soils are more susceptible to erosion and compaction. This criterion is expressed as a percentage of total farm area using walking transects, and measurements should not be taken early in the cropping cycle before crop canopies have closed. Severity of soil erosion may be expressed as a percentage of total farm area using walking transects. Extreme erosion signals the need of land restoration rather than production systems integration. When fields are sloped, structures built along the contour are necessary to control soil erosion. These structures may be terraces, bunds, rock and trash lines, hedgerows or grass strips. The presence, length and distance between contour structures are important indicators of soil conservation awareness. The width of riparian strips may be either scored or measured. In addition, well-protected streams are clear and poorly protected streams are usually muddy.Nutrient deficiency symptoms offer quick insight into soil fertility status. Plant deficiency symptoms may, however, be confounded with one another and by moisture stress, waterlogging and pathogens, so they are best calibrated through soil testing. Soil acidity is readily measured using litmus strips, inexpensive hand-held instruments and by portable soil test kits and is corrected by applying agricultural lime. Soil carbon is measured in the laboratory by acid digestion-calorimetric analyses or using complex instruments that are not well suited to rapid assessment of soil health. Two SOM fractions, microbial biomass C and particulate organic matter indicate the short and mid-term dynamics of organic matter additions to soil, but require more complex measurement. A portable, hand-held device that measures soil carbon based upon spectrography has recently become available. Stable soil aggregates resist erosion and permit a healthy combination of air and water within soil void space. Both of these measurements are conducted using carefully collected soil cores and straightforward analytical procedures within the soil physics laboratory but these laboratory measurements are difficult to include within rapid field-based assessment.The presence and degree of selected beneficial and detrimental organisms can be described through careful and experienced field observation. The presence and effectiveness of rhizobia, the microsymbiont associated with nitrogen-fixing legumes, may be inferred by the abundance, size and interior coloration of root nodules. Soil macrofauna are important indicators of soil health because their activities accentuate soil physical properties and nutrient recycling. Foremost indicators of soil fauna are the presence of earthworms and large soil grubs (insect larvae). Termites are important soil engineers but also attack crops, trees and wooden structure and represent a mixed blessing. Detailed information on quantifying soil fauna may be obtained from Moreira et al. (2008). Striga is a serious parasite of cereals and legumes in Sub-Saharan Africa, and its presence is an important indicator of soil health because severely infested hosts do not respond well to management. Striga seed banks are quantified in soils using elutriation-density separationcounting procedures (Odhiambo and Woomer 2005). Alternatively, the severity of host infestation may be scored in the field as emergent stems per host plant. One need not know the causal organism to ascertain that root systems are not well developed. Root disorders vary among crops, with some being resistant and others chronically affected. A visual ranking of root disorders includes severely stunted, galled or rotten roots.Box 9. A simple checklist approach to assessing agricultural resource status in conjunction with production system integration. Soil acidity extreme <4.5 (0), severe 4.5-5.5 (1), moderate 5.5-6.5 (2), neutral 6.5-7.2(3)Legume root nodulation absent (0), sporatic (1), abundant (2), super-abundant (3) Nodule interior color white (0), pink (1), red (2), dark red (3) Soil macrofauna detrimental (0), largely absent (1), present (2), active and abundant (3) Striga infestation (stems/plant) >2 per plant (0), 1-2 per plant (1), <1 per plant (2), absent (3) Root disease (see key for details) severe (0), moderate (1), occasional (2) healthy (3) Root galls (see key for details) severe (0), moderate (1), occasional (2) healthy (3) Biology subtotalCrop residues (see key for details) wasteful or sold (0), retained (1), collected (2), processed or fed (3) Composting (see key for details) none (0), small piles (1), large piles (2), covered and fortified (3) Manure management (see key) absent or wasteful (0), haphazard (1), regular (2) processed (3) Pre-plant mineral fertilizers none (0), ≥75 kg ha -1 applied (1), 75-150 kg (2), >150 kg (3) Top-dressed nitrogen fertilizers none (0) applied once (1) applied twice (2), applied thrice 3 Farm management subtotal Grand TotalThe handling and application of organic resources and mineral fertilizers are important factors maintaining resource integrity within cultivated lands. These materials include crop residues and their utilization, composting, manure management, pre-plant fertilizer application and nitrogen top-dressing. It is difficult to gauge a farmer's organic resource and mineral fertilizer handling procedures from a single visit without queries of season-long practices. For this reason, rapid information is best collected through a participatory group discussion rather than a formal on-farm survey.These criteria for field assessment of agricultural resource management, intended for use at the farm level and illustrate that key indicators, may be monitored in conjunction with an integrated rural development program. These criteria are not exclusive and additional observations include tree, pasture and fallow coverage and agro-biodiversity. It is also important that representative observations be made across the Action Sites so they may be related to the landscape and watershed approaches advanced by CRP5 (see Section 9). Nonetheless, these criteria illustrate how a farm-level checklist (Box 9) may be developed for standardized use across a wide range of land uses within the Humidtropics Program.Quantifying impacts in the area of marketing requires that several, and very different, parameters be monitored. These parameters are related to agro-dealer activities, establishment and compliance with industry standards, initial situation and changes in local marketing opportunities, national trends in commodity imports, production, consumption and exports, announced tenders and prices offered by top-end buyers, and the growth of new opportunities in rural value-added processing (Box 10). A full spectrum of marketing parameters must be considered in the baseline study and initial Situation Analysis, and then key indicators monitored with time. In some cases, it is advantageous to work through existing agro-dealer networks and training activities in order to promote farm inputs accompanying new production systems. Similarly, farm input manufactures have existing retail agro-dealerships contacts that may rapidly stock new, proven inputs.Box 10. Quantitative parameters relating to markets, commodity marketing and rural social development.Agro-dealer activities: geo-referenced location and business name; owner (male or female); years in business, fertilizer in stock and packaging; seed in stock and packaging; inoculants in stock and packaging; links to extension, NGOs and farmer groups; past training; industry certification, credit received and extended; seasonal business volume; expressed needs Industry standards: commodity moisture content; insect damaged grain; diseased and discolored grain; off-color grain; foreign matter; households with tarpaulins and sieves, frequency of compliance Local marketing opportunity: engagement with local markets, price at local market, distance to local market, membership in marketing group and fees; access and distance to collection point; price at collection point; sales in local markets. National and export marketing opportunities: top-end buyers and locations; commodity imports, production, consumption and exports; announced tenders and prices; tariffs and related policies Value-added processing: opportunities for cottage and rural industry; value of product and production costs, frequency of household and community participation, local employment (number and wages)Compliance with industry standards is an important indicator of marketable farm surpluses. Early in the season, compliance with moisture content is easily quantified at collection points as farmers market early to gain higher prices. Later in the season, insect damaged, diseased and discolored produce threatens quality. Top-end buyers have little tolerance of foreign matter, particularly small stones that can injure mills. Working with households to introduce tarpaulins and sieves, and to take care during shelling is the best means to improve quality. Compliance is best conducted within ongoing marketing operations at local collection points where sub-standard goods can be tracked to individual farms and simple kits containing moisture meters, sorting tools, scales and quality report forms can be distributed to collection point managers.Smallholders trained in compliance often achieve higher standards than larger commercial farms reliant upon mechanized processes, and in this way brand recognition for smallholders' produce may be established.Expanded local marketing opportunity is a core impact accompanying systems productivity research and development. Initial engagement with local markets and prices offered there serves as a baseline. Opportunities may arise from membership in a marketing group, training in post-harvest handling, access and distance to new commodity marketing collection points and prices offered there, and innovative credit and repayment schemes. In many cases, local institutes such as schools and hospitals offer more favorable prices than middlemen buyers and monitoring must remain alert to these buyers. Assessments of this sort are best performed within the Action Sites and then successes scaled up to the Action Areas. Finally, engagement in value-adding cottage and rural industry, the value generated through processing and local employment offered must also be considered against the simple marketing of produce. Cottage and rural industries are best described as case studies within Action Sites, with successes then replicated elsewhere.At the broadest scale, marketing impacts are assessed at the national level. First, estimates are made of commodity imports, production, consumption and exports. As development outcomes are realized, the contribution by the Action Areas to changes in these statistics is assessed. Another approach is to identify the replacement of imports by commodities produced within Action Areas. This is achieved by identifying top-end buyers relying upon imports and securing their commitment to purchasing domestic produce. As domestic supply improves, then markets may also be monitored through publicly announced tenders and prices. Commodities intended for exports may be monitored in a similar manner through contacting exporters and their agents. In some cases, buyers and exporters may operate within the Action Areas, and monitoring these marketers alone will provide sufficient information to estimate project impacts without confounding the inclusion of production and marketing at a national level. In other cases, large-scale buyers are few and routine monitoring at a national level becomes more feasible.Quantifying outcomes within SRT3 is in many respects the most difficult challenge of all and will require new methods as the structure of CRP1.2 is put in place and the work progresses. The following will only outline some of the principal issues, and this starts with some framing of alternatives for scaling up. Five approaches or institutional frameworks for scaling up might be distinguished and this list is not necessarily comprehensive, namely 1) scaling up within a communication/ICT framework; 2) scaling up within a farmer capacitation framework, e.g., farmer field schools; 3) scaling up within a organized advisory service framework; 4) scaling up through improved market linkages and investments; and 5) scaling up within an innovation systems framework, particularly optimally deploying innovation platforms. These constitute very different options with significant differences in both cost and potential effectiveness, especially in relation to the particular needs inherent in sustainable production system intensification. Within each it is also possible to build processes that particularly target women or poor households, which becomes an additional dimension in the evaluation of scaling up approaches.CRP1.2 will be faced with some difficult methodological choices in how to evaluate the outcomes of this type of work, with the choices resting across a continuum from monitoring and adaptive management within an action research modality to fully randomized control trials (RCTs) with well-defined counterfactuals. Suffice it to say at this point that each has particular strengths and weaknesses and that there is not much experience with RCTs in agricultural research or rural development (as compared to their use in the education and health sectors). Experience in both the SSA-CP and HarvestPlus suggests that this approach is costly, is not conducive to design changes or adaptive management, and that to be effective the research question is usually quite narrowly defined. It is anticipated that more of the work will be done within a well-structured action research framework and that use of an RCT approach will be limited to the comparison of well-defined approaches that trade-off cost with effectiveness.Impacts on system level objectives will be monitored at both the Action Site level through panel surveys and at the Action Area level through both the monitoring work related to the scaling up research and less intensive monitoring of baseline survey households. Performance of the Humidtropics program and impacts on development outcomes will be evaluated at the level of the Action Area. At this time there are no plans to evaluate spillovers outside the Action Areas. Assessment of the potential for impact is continuous in CRP1.2 and built into the overall research framework. What will be most interesting is to assess what types of modifications might be made in the program design that better allow Humidtropics to achieve its targets. It is probably more important to understand why the program is not achieving its targets than to have a research program that shifts much of its effort into more downstream development activities in order to realize those targets. This framework of continual assessment is a better alternative to the latter focus on meeting targets. Horton et al. (2009) defined partnership as \"… a sustained multi-organizational relationship with mutually agreed objectives and an exchange or sharing of resources or knowledge for the purpose of generating research outputs (new knowledge or technology) or fostering innovation (use of new ideas or technology) for practical ends\". CRP1.2 adopts and builds upon this definition. Partnership within the Humidtropics intends to combine efforts to take fuller advantage of opportunities; consolidate operational and management activities: operate more efficiently by sharing costs and skills; integrate ideas, activities and goals with others; better attract needed expertise and experience; make better use of shared knowledge and ideas; more rapidly discover solutions to complex problems; add additional value to products, services, programs and activities; increase lobbying ability, influence, credibility and standing; and eliminate duplication and overlap between similar groups.The Humidtropics Program relies entirely upon partnership and much attention will be paid to how these partners are managed. Viable partnership requires understanding by all parties, and recognition of their respective roles and complementarity. Partnership must be mutually agreed, properly developed and well maintained, and when necessary ended. This is particularly true when dealing with different stepwise components within production, marketing and innovation systems. Productive partnership offers more than just the sum of the individuals or organizations working together but rather a more efficient approach to planning multiple activities, identifying and solving real problems, and expanding the scope of program successes. The Humidtropics is built upon a purposefully designed partnership structure intended to empower individuals, teams and organizations to change for the better.Promoting innovations of economic importance requires a coalition of interests among stakeholders such as farmers, entrepreneurs, development workers, researchers and supporting institutions that can work together to generate and use different types of knowledge, such as scientific, technical, organizational, institutional, market-related and managerial, that take advantage of emerging economic opportunities (Hall et al., 2005). There are no blueprints for ensuring the effectiveness of partnerships, and each case is a learning process for the partners involved. Hence \"learning to innovate\" (Douthwaite et al., 2009) for effective system interventions will be an integral part of monitoring and assessing how partnerships work in Humidtropics. The following is a general overview of different types of partnerships Humidtropics considers at the Action Site, Action Area, Regional and Global levels and some of their characteristics:• Humidtropics will engage in and with community-based partnerships in Action Sites through a wide variety of initiatives. We refer to partnerships as being \"communitybased\" when they take place in a community, have community members involved and have a direct impact on the community, rather than within an organization or institution. • Partnerships in either a rural or urban area have different advantages and drawbacks, depending on the focus and requirements of the partnership. For example, urban areas have the benefit of a larger population base from which to draw, and often have better access to resources and influence. People in rural areas tend to work more closely together due to their history and familiarity, and the fact that they usually know what local resources are available and how to get them. Humidtropics will thus consider these differences, especially when looking at innovations and value chains. • Partnerships can span several people, communities, regions and/or nations at a time.While the poor and vulnerable people in Action Sites themselves face their own unique challenges, there are many common issues across the Action Areas and the program as a whole that are best addressed by a more encompassing partnership. Humidtropics will explore the economies of scale associated with those partnerships to address longer-term, more complex issues and creates a bigger picture of the opportunities and innovations that are possible, while providing different locations to test or pilot solutions and models.Engaging a wide range of stakeholders and actors from the outset of the program and at key points throughout program implementation will strengthen the program's influence as well as the likelihood and rate at which system recommendations are adopted.Complementarities in knowledge and skills of the different partners, and comparative advantages will generate synergies and enhance cost effectiveness of interventions at Action Sites and Action Areas and contribute to the Global Synthesis and IPGs. In the same light, opportunities for sharing research facilities and administrative services will be implemented within all Action Areas. Our management of partners will be based on previous experience. For example, the Ford Foundation supported a program of organizational change, which analyzed experiences with partnerships and produced guidelines (Spink and Merril-Sands, 1999).In addition, private and civil society partnership will be guided through lessons from key sources (e.g., Spielman and von Grebmer, 2006;Smith and Chataway, 2009).To leverage collective resources and expertise in each of the Action Areas, the program will seek to develop partnerships with diverse international, regional, national and local organizations, according to capabilities and expected roles (Table 11). The rationale for partner selection will consider: 1) overlap of agendas between the organization and Humidtropics, 2) complementarity of research or development strengths, 3) filling a significant gap in research or development expertise needed by Humidtropics and other partners, 4) clear geographic focus in one or more of the Action Sites, 5) comparative advantages for delivering promised SRT outcomes within the Action Sites and Action Areas, and 6) ability of contribute additional resources to co-finance or extrapolate program activities. Initial identification of potential partners resulted from the participatory consultation process carried out as part of the proposal preparation. It is clear that there are different types of partnership arrangements already being implemented in different Action Sites (i.e., CIALCA and SSA-CP), and therefore, Humidtropics should strengthen such partnership relationships in some cases, while in others, new platforms must be formed.Once Humidtropics starts functioning, a process for formalizing partnerships will be carried out with key stakeholders. The first-level platform for partnerships will emerge from the Action Sites where most of the initial characterization, research and development activities will be conducted. CGIAR centers will be in charge of coordinating and facilitating partnership formation, playing the role of \"innovation brokers\" (Klerkx et al., 2009;Winch and Courtney, 2007) around specific tasks related to the SRTs. Later in the program, partnership platforms more oriented to deliver development outputs throughout the Action Areas will be formed, as well as new partnerships forged to share IPGs.Table 11. Partnerships of different types and scales, and their expected outcomesNote that local development partners include the target groups, community-based partnerships and public and private sector organizations.Table 11 illustrates partnerships of different types, and their expected contribution to program outcomes at different scales of operation, the Action Sites, Action Areas and global levels. Additional information for each of these levels follows:Partnership within Action Sites. Local research and development partners, such as a NARS, community-based partnerships, local universities, development organizations, local governments and policymakers, and private sector will participate more actively to codevelop and deliver research outputs related to the SRTs 1 and 2. This will include situation and priority analyses and the improvement of integrated systems, particularly focusing on the development and delivery of research outputs of local application, validation of action research methods, better understanding of adoption processes, and interdependencies of biophysical and socio-economic systems at Action Site level. The conceptual framework and methodological support will be provided by CGIAR and other international research organizations, while the research implementation process towards developing integrated strategies using participatory methods will be the responsibility of local partners. In addition, capacity-strengthening activities will be planned and implemented as needed with partners.A communications plan will be developed and implemented in consultation with all the partners in each of the Action Sites.Partnership within Action Areas. Partnerships at this level have regional coverage and develop regional research outputs or public goods. They will be key for achieving the development outputs included in SRT3. This level will include NARS, universities with regional influence, regional R4D organizations, development organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector. The CGIAR Centers and other international research organizations will provide methodological and conceptual backstopping for the integration effort at Action Areas. The types of research outputs to be delivered include decisionsupport tools, analyzing system trajectories, market-NRM relations, policy analysis and partnership approaches in a comparative basis. In addition, capacity-strengthening activities will be planned and implemented as needed with partners. A communications plan will be developed and implemented in consultation with all the partners in each of the Action Sites.Global partnership. Strategic partnerships will be operationalized with a long-term perspective, particularly to deliver the SRT1 outcomes dealing the Global Synthesis the release of IPGs. Initially, the main partners will be CGIAR centers and other international research partners such as WUR, AVRDC, and icipe, interested in a global learning process for the humid and sub-humid tropics. As rightly pointed out in the SRF document, \"The CGIAR is one of the few institutions that can provide a bridge between the local and the global levels\". This is of paramount importance when dealing with topics such as climate change, which requires widespread interventions for mitigation and adaptation. The research needs for most of the Strategic Research Themes will require partnership with Advanced Research Institutions such as universities and other national government entities, who have research skills and focus that complement that of the main international partners and can support PhD training.Partnership with other CRPs. Another important type of partnership for output delivery will be among CRPs. Section 9 describes the types of interactions across CRPs and envisions that Humidtropics will use research outputs from other CRPs and create demand for new ones and provide feedback about relevance and applicability of their research products. Therefore, Memoranda of Understanding will become formalized among CRPs in order to coordinate action, particularly within overlapping Action Sites and Action Areas.At the Action Site level, partners will participate through R4D Platforms, first building on existing relationships but later broadened to include new and more diverse sets of partners, depending on the Situation Analysis and priority interventions identified under SRT1. These platforms must include partners along the research-to-development continuum that focus on: 1) identifying best practices and interventions for known solutions to priority challenges (e.g., resistant varieties to a known disease); 2) implementing strategic, adaptive, and applied research to address constraints to system intensification where solutions are not immediately at hand; 3) evaluating the performance of new practices and approaches and monitoring their sustainability; and 4) addressing new constraints and challenges as they arise, including those generated by better understood drivers of change. The local partners will participate in result-oriented planning sessions and common M&E activities, including standard data collection schemes. R4D Platforms (R4DPs) differ from Innovation Platforms, as employed in the Sub-Saharan African Challenge Program, in the sense that the latter rely on existing solutions to identified problems and build on what is already known. Humidtropics will also build on existing knowledge but also actively engage in research activities leading to improved productivity, profitability and resource use efficiency, with particular focus on increasing institutional effectiveness. The current SSA-CP pilot learning sites will transition from innovation platforms to R4DPs by the third year of Humidtropics. This will be the key focus for integration of the Challenge Program into the CRPs' where lessons learned and evaluation of outcomes and impacts will be part of the inherited research focus. In this way, R4DPs will also serve as a primary source of information for system intensification within the Action Areas.There will be specific efforts to facilitate exchange of lessons among platforms within Action Areas, regions and also at global level, so that a process of synthesis of experiences can be promoted, documented and shared at wider scale. An additional function of the R4DPs will be to integrate efforts from other CRPs according to the needs of the specific projects to be implemented at Action Sites.Achieving significant development requires partnerships with a medium-and long-term perspective, for which the Humidtropics program will play a catalytic role. Table 12 presents the types of partnerships for achieving these outcomes at local, regional and global levels. Within SRT3, partners ensure that research outputs from SRT2 are scaled up to the Action Area level and contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable natural resources management. The role of local and regional partners in this endeavor will be more important than that of CGIAR centers and other international research organizations.• Outcome partners in Action Sites. The participation of local development organizations from both the government, non-government and private sectors are required to achieve improvement in system productivity while improving natural resources, enhancing gender equity and empowerment of local organizations, and strengthening value chains at Action Sites. These partners will be actively engaged in transforming research outputs into development outcomes. CGIAR and other international research centers will participate to extract lessons and best practices and support monitoring and impact assessment.• Outcome partners in Action Areas. These same partners will participate in the Action Areas, but partnership also incorporates regional development organizations and businesses, particularly farm input manufacturers, commodity buyers and food processors. This expansion facilitates regional interaction, sharing of lessons about development outcomes and impacts among R4DPs, so that regional policies are strengthened and investment in developmental research is increased.• Outcome partners at global level. Partners with global responsibility, mainly CGIAR and other international agricultural research centers, together with global development organizations will participate in the process of extracting lessons and synthesis from the specific outcome oriented interventions. In this way, lessons will be useful for designing global and regional investment policies for improving the humid and sub-humid tropics.In addition, partners will adopt common agendas relating to rural poverty reduction, food and nutritional security, and the enhancement of natural resources, which will better position partners to cope with climate change and future food demands.Humidtropics specifically allocates resources for partnership formation and facilitation to ensure a common vision of objectives and outputs as well as the co-creation and dissemination of solutions. It is expected that CGIAR and other international research organizations will play the role of facilitators for partnership formation and function through the following steps:1. Partner selection. The choice of the partners will be based on expertise and experience for either research outputs or outcomes at local, regional or global levels.As part of the SRT1, the program plans to undertake mapping to determine who are the main actors and their activities in the Action Areas and their potential contributions and benefits. Some specific criteria related to the selection of partners include: 1) where possible each Action Site should have at least one partner from each of these categories; farmer organizations, NGOs, extension workers, and the private sector, 2) the partner should already be active in the Action Site, 3) the partner should be willing to disseminate technologies recommended by the program 4) the partner should be willing to participate in capacity development activities. A non-exhaustive list of candidate partners also appears in Table 12. 2. Partner eligibility. Where possible each candidate partner that will be receiving funds from Humidtropics partner must provide 1) a copy of their organization's registration, charter and by-laws; 2) a brief narrative description of their mission and ongoing activities; 3) a list of their governing board and key officers; 4) recently audited accounts of their organization; 5) a description of recent grants made by other organizations or units of government to their organization; and 6) details of their bank account. 3. Partner engagement. Overlapping objectives and strategies, and complementary resources (human, financial and expertise) will be criteria for initiating partnership formation at the Action Site level. Partners will have to invest institutional resources to participate in the platforms. The relationship will be formalized through Memoranda of Understanding specifying roles and responsibilities. Partnership formation and operation should be flexible for facilitating both engagement and disengagement. 4. Participatory planning. An important building block of partnerships is clarity in expectations and transparency in roles, responsibilities and resource allocation. We distinguish different types of partnership roles. There will be partnerships more oriented to research on component integration, system integration or market development, and others more oriented toward policy and capacity building. Planning meetings will be essential for the efficient performance at each Action Site although some planning for developmental activities and capacity building is better conducted within Action Areas. 5. Partner communication. All partners must regularly and reliably communicate, and partners that persist in communicating poorly are by definition poor partners.Communication will occur at two levels, among participants through program reporting, and among a wider outreach circle. Cost-effective means for internal and external communication include websites, electronic fora and networks, regular face-to-face interactions and teleconferences. CGIAR partners must play a key role in facilitating communication at all levels of program operations. 6. Joint M&E. All partners will be actively involved in monitoring and evaluation of activities in order to gauge progress, adjust methods and stimulate joint learning. This will also provide an opportunity to detect potential conflicts among partners and propose solutions. This involvement reinforces partners' rights to program resources but also assures their awareness of program obligations. 7. Co-funding for increased coverage. Resources indicated in the program budget clearly cannot improve the lives of all persons throughout the humid tropics, and means of amplifying and replicating program success must be found. Therefore, the program will seek co-funding strategies with other research organizations, large development organizations and governments interested in reducing poverty and improving natural resources management. This may be achieved through buy-ins of the program's IPGs.Humidtropics views communication as a means to change people's behaviors and as a research area in its own right. Communication becomes more effective when what is implicitly assumed becomes explicitly stated. Knowledge sharing and communication activities are intrinsic to the program and directly related to partnerships, capacity development adoption pathways. Communication tactics will be based on audits of the current Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP), communication methods and communication technology and relate those to the envisioned adoption of innovations and technologies. For communication and information sharing, we will consider the following:• A major impediment to innovation in integrated systems relates to inadequate knowledge and information flow between different elements of the various systems. This includes both lateral flows between actors at a given scale and vertical flows from local to higher scales and back again. • An important outcome of the program will be enhanced knowledge and information flows through social and technological networks at different scales, to facilitate timely decisionmaking, enhance innovation and improve its uptake leading to impact. • Lessons on how to foster innovation through better information flows among actors in networks and between scales will be obtained from across the Humidtropics and shared with the wider R4D community including other CRPs as part of both the Global Synthesis and M&E framework.The communication strategy will be embedded within the research conducted as part of the program (SRT1). We will include a \"knowledge exchange element\" whereby lessons about the processes are captured and made available beyond Humidtropics Action Areas. This will capture, document and extract lessons within Action Sites, and also across collaborating CRPs. A set of communication processes and tools will be used to maximize interaction, learning and knowledge sharing among the participants, partners and where applicable the larger society. Lessons emerging from this program will be shared with interested parties, including development agents, donors, policymakers, and the R4D community among others. A number of principles define the communication and knowledge sharing activities of the Humidtropics program:• A commitment to early sharing of soft outputs (activity reports, meeting reports, presentations at local meetings, videos, etc) through publicly accessible and permanent web spaces and services, including a global electronic program repository. For learning within Action Areas, a full range of communication opportunities will be offered through the establishment of Action Area Learning Groups. Although face-to-face interactions at least once per year would be beneficial, other means of communication using telephone and Internet may be more feasible. Reports, meetings and presentations will be regularly posted into the Humidtropics e-repository.For program learning and beyond, other mechanisms are useful including the establishment of a Global Humid Systems Knowledge Exchange Group with representatives drawn from all Action Sites. Humidtropics communication spaces and tools serve as outreach platforms to wider communities. The aim is to maximize global 'harvesting' and reuse of the public goods generated by the program and also to provide opportunities for other people to interact with and challenge the program's findings.As part of the above it is important to promote Humidtropics and ensure transparency and trust to further develop internal and external relations and communications. The following approaches will be developed and supported:• Advance Humidtropics identity. Actions involve using www.humidtropics.org website as a platform for information exchange and practicing virtual branding based on the Humidtropics informational and promotional releases, and scanning the media environment for potential reputation enhancing or reducing messages. • Improve public awareness. Actions include media releases at all levels and posting a regular e-newsletter. • Support to partner relationships. Actions include program and project briefs, online collaboration through posting planning results, survey and research findings and meeting reports. • Support to investor relations. Through absolute and timely compliance with all technical progress and financial reporting requirements and the development of investment information packs. • Enhance Humidtropics knowledge management. Through development of an online, open document repository, online bibliography and media library. Communication efficiency and effectiveness must be incorporated within the M&E framework.Improving institutional effectiveness requires capacity development in terms of knowledge, skills, and resources. Capacity development is required beyond technical expertise, but must also include new approaches to knowledge sharing, scaling up and fostering small enterprise development. This effort will begin with an assessment of capacity building needs among research partners in the Action Sites and continue with development partners in the Action Areas and in both cases include skills in M&E. Capacity development must ultimately strengthening partner capabilities in innovative technology development, stakeholder participation and information exchange. Developing capacity to do research on production systems focuses more on individuals and households while developing capacity for scaling up the results of such research focuses more on institutions and their services. Each requires quite different strategies. Some partners may participate in both processes, such as universities for example, but more often, partners will be different for the two processes. The role of policies in establishing conducive, supportive and sustainable environments for capacity development must also be examined and a capacity response formulated. Humidtropics envisions the following capacity development outputs:• Capacity of individuals and regional and national organizations strengthened to deal with emerging issues from system intensification, • Emerging issues from system intensification incorporated within curricula of agricultural universities and other training institutions, • Greater gender sensitivity embodied into governmental, education, non-governmental and grassroots organizations and a framework for gender inclusion included within their capacity building programs, • Continuous assessment on learning, in particular, on system-oriented vs. traditional approaches to capacity building adopted by the program.A related challenge concerns forming strong partnerships that bring proven research findings into wider use. Partners directly involved in the scaling up and delivery of IPGs must be phased in as needed and quickly brought up to speed to ensure effective participation in the SRT3 activities of the program. Similarly, gender sensitivity must be incorporated into priority setting, design and implementation phases of the program. The poor and vulnerable people's capacity for building their capabilities to use the project's public goods will strengthen the innovations produced. For example, experience and institutional learning that has already been gained on the role of self-help groups in creating markets will be applied to strengthen the capacity of poor women producers to enhance their livelihoods. Finally, Humidtropics offers real opportunity for enhancing institutional learning and cross-fertilization of ideas. The cross-regional nature of the program implies that capacity development will benefit from both technical and non-technical lessons in different regions, as well as drawing from outputs of other CRPs; combining them in the Action Areas and beyond to empower stakeholders with knowledge and skills greater than the sum of the component parts. Mechanisms will be developed for capturing and sharing innovative learning processes and experiences across components and feeding these back into the program for continuous learning and improved performance.Any type of intervention that ignores gender issues may in fact increase vulnerability; hence, gender research and capacity building are integral within Humidtropics. Men and women have individual and shared roles, but women have critical productive, reproductive and community roles, often making them more vulnerable (Gladwin et al., 1997). The rise of women's studies and advocacy on women's rights over several decades has led to investments in women's empowerment and corresponding improvements; but in general, too many rural women remain disadvantaged due to male-bias and repressive cultures and policies that do not account for gender differentials. In contrast, where gender issues are appropriately addressed, sustainable and productive livelihood outcomes are likely. Women play important roles in tropical agriculture by cultivating and marketing crops and managing mixed enterprises while, at the same time, attending to family and social obligations (Ashby et al., 2008). Ironically, the benefits from their efforts are not always realized at the personal and household level due to entrenched inequities between gender relations tolerated by culture and society. Women face particular challenges in accessing information, extension, advisory services and education (Saito and Weidemann, 1990), as well as in owning or acquiring land, assets, and technology (Ezumah and Domenico, 1995;Kaaria and Ashby, 2001). But despite the lack of attention to their needs, women have developed organizational capacities to learn and support each other even when there is no direct economic benefit.Women comprise an average 43% of the agricultural work force in developing countries, ranging from 20% in Tropical Americas to 50% in Eastern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, women have less access than men to agriculture related assets, inputs and services. For example, only 5% of current agricultural extension efforts and resources are directed to women and they invariably earn far lower wages than men for equivalent work. Had they enjoyed the same access to productive resources as men, women could boost yield by 20 to 30%. This gain in production could lessen the number of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17%, besides increasing women's income (FAO, 2011). Studies show that when women control gains in income, they are more likely to be spent on food and children's needs. By investing more in women, we amplify benefits across families and generations. There is consistent and compelling evidence that when the status of women is improved, agricultural productivity increases, poverty is reduced, and nutrition improves. Reducing gender inequality and recognizing the contribution of women to agricultural productivity are therefore critical to achieving global food security.Women's participation has been sought in agricultural development interventions but there are considerations that require serious attention. Participation in meetings and training alone does guarantee positive results in terms of empowering women, and in some cases, women are more burdened as they take on new roles that are either not traditionally expected or externally imposed on them. An electronic consultation recently asked for the level of agreement on the assumption that \"R4D programs hardly address the specific needs of women\" and of the 91 respondents, 25% disagree, 47% partially agree, 20% agree and 8% had no opinion on the matter. The responses are inconclusive, indicating that more research needs to be done to verify the assumption. More conclusive were the responses to the assumption that \"The role of women in household decision making processes needs to be improved\" with 79% agreeing and only 3% disagreeing.The key objectives of the Humidtropics gender strategy are to: 1. Ensure that men and women, young and old have equal access to assets, inputs, and technologies, including land and other productive natural assets, extension services, financial services, agricultural inputs, and the knowledge to enable them to participate in and obtain appropriate returns from the agricultural system. 2. Expand the involvement and participation of women in decision-making at all levels of the program including management and technology development. This effort will help ensure that women have a voice so their contributions can be recognized and their needs better met. Men need to be engaged in these change processes to achieve sustainable outcomes for the entire community. 3. Ensure the interests of women and men are reflected in activities, interventions and projects of CRP1.2, including efforts to help ensure the participation of women, establish reasonable targets for the participation of women, and monitor and evaluate program impact on both men and women.On the basis of the above, this component aims to improve the quality of women's participation and increase benefits to women from research and development processes and reduce gender inequity-and will be addressed through 1) gender mainstreaming and integration into the research and development processes, 2) strategic gender research and 3) institutional support and collaboration.Gender will be mainstreamed into all research and development processes, and decisionmaking structures of the program. A key approach to integrating gender into Humidtropics research and development agenda will be to use gender analysis to inform strategies to address gender inequalities. The gender analysis will take into account women's and men's lives and experiences, needs, issues and priorities and the fact that these are different. These issues and priorities will also differ based on their social position and age.Gender analysis will focus upon the following issues: 1. The key gender constraints and opportunities in the crops, livestock and other system interventions of interest, 2. The gender division of tasks and responsibilities around key crops and livestock, 3. Access to, ownership and control over productive resources as well as the constraints faced by men and women in accessing improved technologies, services, inputs and markets, 4. Intra-household decision making and how these influence agricultural production and marketing, 5. Men and women farmers' preferences for technologies, inputs and services and 6. Opportunities that the research and development processes provide for reducing gender inequalitiesResults of the gender analysis will be used to develop strategies to better address gender based constraints in different areas of the Humidtropics research and development process. The outcome of this gender analysis will improve the understanding of gender roles in the productive, reproductive and community development spheres, better understanding key institutional, cultural and policy contexts that ingrain gender inequity at each Action Site, and identify gender-sensitive policy interventions appropriate at different scales and settings. Understanding ways in which women's roles reinforce social support systems and identifying options that enable women to improve their livelihood and living conditions allows for better targeted interventions for both men and women.Using the results from the gender analysis, gender responsive approaches and gendertargeted interventions will be implemented as part of the interventions. For each set of activities or interventions, gender has been integrated in nine important ways.In each of the Action Sites, a Situation Analysis is conducted that includes the identification of social, legal and cultural barriers that could prevent women from active participation in the various activities of the project. 2. Gender responsive objectives: Program targets must show the expected outcomes of the interventions for both men and women as well as marginalized groups. 3. Methodology and implementation approaches: Gender responsive approaches are required for different phases of the implementation process. These include technology development and evaluation with men and women, market analysis and development reflecting the priorities of men and women, and evaluation methods that focus on impacts of technologies and other innovations on men, women and on reducing gender inequalities. 4. Monitoring and evaluation: For all the Humidtropics interventions, the monitoring and evaluation plans will include gender-specific outcomes and targets; gender disaggregated indicators and data collection tools. Some of the specific outcomes are: reduction in gender disparities in access to inputs, services and technologies; women's empowerment for decision making and income management, increase in productivity in men and women managed farms, increased income for men and women. As a result gender disaggregated data would form an integral part of indicators developed and the M&E data collection protocols so as to acknowledge the roles of gender norms and inequalities and to develop actions that will adjust to and compensate for them. 5. Budgets: Specific budgetary allocation will be clearly allocated out for specific gender research. Where gender is included as part of other activities, the proportion of the budget to be used for gender will be specified. 6. Work plans: Gender activities will be reflected in the work plan and the necessary expertise identified from within Humidtropics and its partners for implementation of those activities. 7. Gender expertise: Humidtropics will appoint a gender focal person, who will lead the mainstreaming of gender into research, lead the strategic gender research and be the link person with the other CRPs. While the gender focal person provides the specialist gender expertise, it will be the responsibility of all the researchers and partners to mainstream gender in their activities. 8. Capacity Building: Capacity building will be targeted to both men and women to promote complementary skills and interventions for systems improvement, and to facilitate equitable innovation processes and outcomes. Women need to be empowered to leverage their roles to invest in, and gain from, agriculture production and derived activities. As a result, women will be able to attain organizational positions and power to influence institutional effectiveness. 9. Impact Assessment: Indicators that provide evidence of gender inequalities and asset disparities will be developed and measured at the household level for both male and female headed households in order to capture gender differences. Baseline and impact and evaluation studies will also focus on the effects of new innovations and new institutional arrangements to empower women, with a key focus on gender division of labor and appropriation of resources and benefits within households and communities.Household level impact study surveys shall be designed such the views of both men and women are heard, not the views of only the household heads.There will be gender representation in all the decision-making levels of the Humidtropics.The gender expert will be part of the Program Advisory Committee in order to ensure integration and commitment of gender. At the implementation level, the program will set targets (with the minimum internal target of 30%) for women's representation in the different implementation structures and activities.To achieve the above objective, funding will be allocated for strategic gender research across the regions to allow for regional analysis and generate robust knowledge and experience in addressing gender issues. The research will focus on developing, testing and evaluating approaches for increasing women's participation and benefits from research and development processes; analysis of what technological, institutional and market innovations are most appropriate for reducing gender inequalities and equity in women's representation at various levels of decision-making, as well as in benefit sharing. This research will take an experimental design approach and will be carried out across Action Sites in order to ensure validity and replicability of the results. Other issues for strategic gender research will be continuously identified within the program and in collaboration with the gender expert at the consortium office and in the gender network that will have membership of gender experts from the other CRPs.It is critical that an enabling environment be provided to enable gender mainstreaming and research and linkage to policy and practice, including relations with the gender research teams in other CRPs. The Humidtropics leaders will act as gender champions and will seek commitment and support from all partners to ensure that gender researchers are given institutional support. A virtual support group of gender researchers will be created and regular communication, knowledge sharing and capacity building undertaken.Gender research capabilities within Centers involved will be enhanced and knowledge sharing expanded through collaborative undertakings with gender expert groups such as the WOCAN. Whenever appropriate and necessary, collaboration with these groups will be supported to advocate for policy change at the national or international levels, support capacity building of R4D projects, improve gender M&E indicators and contribute to ex-ante and ex-post outcome assessments.A gender guide will be developed for Humidtropics to offer direction and recommended best practices that will be used in all the program activities. It will also include advice on M&E indicators and organizational mechanisms such as collective action that allow women to participate in and benefit from program activities. Because women in most parts of the humid tropics are disproportionately below the poverty line and at the same time are central to decision making in agricultural households, understanding how women can improve control over income streams arising from systems-oriented technological innovations will be a significant component of the impact monitoring.Research on production systems in the CGIAR represents the evolution of understanding of and the changing context for the improvement of agricultural production. The establishment of the CGIAR in 1972 divided its mandate between two commodity centers, IRRI and CIMMYT, and two centers that focused on production systems in the lowland tropics, IITA and CIAT. However, the commodity centers gained prominence with the success of the high yielding rice and wheat varieties in the irrigated lands of Asia and Mexico, based on the advances of breeding programs begun before the founding of the CGIAR. By 1978, CIAT was essentially four commodity programs, organized around germplasm improvement.Ironically, these four commodities, cassava, beans, rice, and tropical forages had little potential for integration at the level of farming systems in the tropical lowlands. While IITA maintained a focus on moving slash-and-burn agriculture to sedentary, intensified systems, much of the research was organized around breeding programs as well.It was soon apparent that the Green Revolution would not be reproduced in rainfed agriculture, particularly in terms of the wide adoption of improved varieties (Okigbo, 1990). Instead, changes in farmer management and agronomic practices were required to achieve sustainable increases in productivity from improved varieties. Farming systems research (FSR) became the framework by which to test and adapt new varieties and management practices to farmers' local conditions (Chambers et al., 1989). FSR led to the development of methods for what eventually would be known as adaptive research. In rainfed systems this was seen as a crucial link between applied, on-station research and extension, and FSR was designed to provide \"feedback\" to applied research teams. FSR went through various stages as it moved away from research on farming systems per se, first simplifying to commodity research within a farming systems perspective, then to an increased emphasis on farmer participation, and finally to more of a focus on extension than on research methods, in many ways a forerunner of Farmer Field Schools (Braun et al. 2000).FSR was something of a misnomer, as the focus was essentially on cropping systems and purely in a testing modality. Moreover, in this period market conditions were taken as a given, and there was no integration of market and technological interventions. While adding adaptive research and participatory farmer research to the research toolbox, FSR never evolved into a research program on farming systems but rather evolved into methods for local adaptation and extension.The 1990s were the period of expansion of the CGIAR into natural resource management, attempts at developing eco-regional programs, and the development of cross-Center, system-wide programs organized around specific issues of integration at a farming systems level. This was more a period for exploring the potential for inter-center research collaboration, and much of this work was organized around sub-systems such as foddergrain trade-offs in crop-livestock systems, integrated soil management, or integrated pest management. This was also the period of moving away from core funding to project-based funding, which created more competition than collaboration between Centers. In the end, system-wide programs operated at the margins of the Centers' mandates and were never central to their core research programs. Unfortunately, these programs and initiatives were never able to exploit the complementarities across the CGIAR that could underpin a dedicated research program on production systems.This last decade leading up to the CGIAR reform was the period of experimentation with another cross-Center institutional arrangement, the Challenge Programs. Two of these focused on exploiting the potential of molecular biology in breeding programs, HarvestPlus and the Generation CP, while the other three had a particular systems focus, namely the Water and Food CP, focused on river basins, the Climate Change CP with a focus on farming system adaptation and the SSA-CP with a focus on testing innovation platforms as a vehicle for integrating productivity, NRM, and market innovations. None of these programs had a focus on research on production systems, per se, nor on exploring the potential for the synergistic integration of crop, livestock, and management options within a dynamic process of system change.This brief history is testament to the difficulty of organizing research programs on production systems and outlines the extensive base of systems learning within the CGIAR on which Humidtropics will build, including the reasons why a full-fledged systems research program never developed within the CGIAR. Three factors provide the pre-conditions for the success of the Humidtropics program over the false starts of the past. Firstly, the CGIAR reform has provided the incentives for inter-center collaboration at the same time as reducing the transaction costs in such collaboration. Success in this program builds on the sub-system research across the different Centers and provides a platform for expanding the potential application of that research. Secondly, Humidtropics exploits the dynamic interplay of markets, technical change, and farmer investment in the natural resource base. This is within something of a stage theory of system intensification and exploits different critical system interventions under different market and farm resource endowments. Finally, Humidtropics builds on a range of information technologies and systems research methods that were not available in the past, including the integration of spatial data and analysis in location-specific research, the development of data standards in systematic panel surveys, the analytical methods underlying ecosystem services, trade-off methodologies, advances in system modeling and simulation, and the expanding use of evaluation methods in agricultural programs.  Gockowski and Sonwa (2011) estimated that had intensified cocoa technology, already developed in the 1960s, been pursued in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon that over 21,000 km 2 of deforestation and forest degradation could have been avoided along with the emission of nearly 1.4 billion t of CO2. Addressing the low productivity of agriculture through research and extension should be one of the principal objectives of REDD + Climate Mitigation Programs in the humid tropics (Gockowski and Sonwa, 2011;Gockowski and van Asten, 2012). An analysis of productivity at the farm gate in Ghana has revealed significant positive impacts achieved by the Ghana Cocobod High Tech program. The major effect on productivity was the increased adoption of fertilizer and insecticides in the Western region of Ghana. Ghana has more than doubled its cocoa output in the last eight years mainly as a result of system intensification. Future sources of productivity growth are likely to include improved cocoa hybrids which account for only 8% of bearing cocoa but were four times as productive as the local planting materials most commonly used by farmers.Humidtropics is very clear about the boundaries that separate its work from the other CRPs, either in terms of focus, i.e., production systems, or in terms of agro-ecology, i.e., humid and sub-humid tropics. However, as an integrative CRP, Humidtropics draws on the work of all of the other CRPs, if only for shared methodologies and shared knowledge. Humidtropics serves as a R4D laboratory in the humid and sub-humid tropics and must necessarily engage in shared learning and system-level research with the other CRPs. From its very onset, it will proactively solicit collaboration with these CRPs through convening a collaboration-planning workshop, appointing specific liaison staff to work with other CRPs and allocating budget for this purpose. Figure 18 illustrates this collaboration and more specific details on entry points for collaborative action appear in Table 13.Humidtropics is by nature and design, a mechanism to integrate research results from the strategic objectives of other CRPs according to their contribution to food and nutritional security, poverty alleviation and natural resource integrity. Moreover, Humidtropics provides an opportunity to develop the new competency in production systems as highlighted in the SRF, addressing system constraints and opportunities in very different production systems across Sub-Saharan Africa, tropical Asia and tropical Americas. Over time, this program will also provide feedback from experimentation on system interactions, priorities, needs, and applications relating to other CRPs. While other CRPs focus on crop, livestock or theme-specific methods, models, tools and technological components (Error! Reference source not found.), Humidtropics will draw on such research outputs and integrate them into its production system and NRM research within SRT2 in those Action Areas where such outputs are relevant.Knowledge sharing and capacity building dimensions are other important integrating functions within Humidtropics, facilitating the application and use of outputs generated from other CRPs for stakeholders on the ground. Table 13 summarizes the potential interactions between Humidtropics and other CRPs, but more definitive collaboration will emerge from the planning workshop. Specific interactions are also highlighted in the descriptions of the SRTs (see Section 4). Below we also highlight some of the key interactions with specific CRPs to provide further illustration of the anticipated starting points and subsequent evolution of such interactions. Box 12 describes specific elements of the interaction between Humidtropics and CRP7. Humidtropics is one of three CRPs that addresses systems complexities and in this respect, responds to the need for the \"adding together\" of Figure 18. Relationships between Humidtropics and other CRPs research for development in specific production systems. In this respect, considerable opportunity exists for sharing and learning from approaches to complex production system challenges that combine both institutional and biophysical dimensions. Within three years, it is important that streamlined approaches relevant to all three regimes (dryland, humid and sub-humid, and aquatic) be established leading to more rapid identification of most promising best practices. The innovative approaches to strengthening institutional effectiveness pioneered within Humidtropics will also have a direct application to CRP1.1. In addition, complex livelihood issues in both dryland and humid systems involve issues of trade-offs in biomass production and utilization best analyzed using common methodologies (see www.vslp.org). Humidtropics and CRP1.1 have a number of participating Centers, and indeed individual scientists, in common which will be an initial mechanism to foster interaction, sharing and learning. Leaders and/or scientists from these two CRPs will further strengthen this through participation in inception workshops. As the work evolves, it is anticipated that specific cross-CRP learning for common approaches as described above would also be pursued. Distinguishing between CRP1.1 (drylands) and CRP1.2 (humid and sub-humid tropics) has been initially based on the simple categorization of below and above a length of growing period of 180 days. While there is no overlap of action areas, the scope for shared learning is enormous.There are many special opportunities for collaboration between Humidtropics and CRP5 because CRP5 is focused on sustaining the environment and natural resource base used across a range of sub-humid and humid zones (Error! Reference source not found., Table 13). However, CRP5 operates at landscape, watershed and basin scales with entry points predominantly through sustainable management of natural resources. Humidtropics will readily absorb these findings to better balance system productivity and natural resource integrity. There are many other examples of how differences in focus can be used to positive ends:• CRP5 refines management strategies that protect water and soil resources to ensure both agriculture and ecosystem services. Humidtropics applies these findings towards intensification of agricultural production in a manner that maintains natural resource integrity, particularly through the development of guidelines for Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM). • CRP5 deals with component issues of soil fertility and management including the reuse of agricultural by-products that improve soil physical and chemical properties and minimize soil erosion and sedimentation, approaches that readily contribute to system integration within Humidtropics. • CRP5 will identify policy and governance changes required for better management of natural resources that Humidtropics must rely upon to scale up proven production systems advancing the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable. • CRP5 examines how agricultural landscapes can be managed and regulated to better deliver critical environmental services while Humidtropics directs these findings to collaborative national institutions within the context of improved production systems so they may better fulfill their service mandates.There is mainly an overlap between CRP5 SRP Rainfed, which represent an opportunity for collaboration in Action Areas in Africa. In America and Asia, there is mainly an overlap between Action Areas of Humidtropics and SRP Ecosystems and SRP Basin. These also represent opportunities to collaborate and share research outputs, research sites, and address scalability issues. The CRP5 SRP on information systems and the outputs of SRT1 can be linked to develop more comprehensive regional and global databases.Humidtropics includes forested areas and therefore intersects with the work of CRP6. CRP6 utilizes a forest cover transition model as an organizing framework that captures the overlap with Humidtropics at various points from degraded to healthy forest ecosystems. The greatest opportunity for collaboration or overlap will be in Components 1, 2, and 3 especially as it relates to sustainable livelihoods with tree crop integration and improved productivity and markets for forest or tree products (Error! Reference source not found.). The outputs from CRP6 will address the needs for components in SRT2 activities but will also allow for collaboration on system knowledge and integration in forest-cropland mosaics in relation to SRT1 and SRT3.Box 12. Cross-linked CRP7 example on how a CRP interaction in the area of climate change may operate.1. Get agreement on goals that serve both Humidtropics and CRP7, with CGIAR Centers and partners. This includes conducting scenario analyses of visions for the future. 2. Standard methods and data collection in Humidtropics on agro-ecosystems characteristics, including land use (e.g., cropping, rangeland), geographical specifics (e.g., land slopes), poverty dimension, cropping patterns, crops and forages grown, livestock specifics, rotation practices, soil specifics (e.g., organic matter, fertility), water availability (e.g., precipitation, wells, access to rivers), market connectivity, value chain specifics, existing analysis on how future production systems may change under climate change. Data collection will be in collaboration with other CRPs at regional level, and will include participatory approaches so that farmer and community perspectives are understood. 3. Sharing data with modeling community. Carrying out of modeling in CRP7 using various climate change and development scenarios to identify possible mitigation and adaptation interventions. 4. Joint analysis, between Humidtropics and CRP7 and partners. Selecting sub-set of scenarios that seem congruent in their predictions. Identifying the possible sets of mitigation and adaptation interventions in terms of food security, poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability (these options may come from any points in the overall food system). 5. Developing and testing options. Humidtropics will test possible options, with co-financing from CRP7. CRP7 will provide the expertise for climate-specific components where needed (e.g., climate risk insurance methods, improved delivery of climate and weather related information for smallholders, mechanisms to enhance access to carbon markets). 6. Multilocation and multi-year trials conducted in benchmark Action Sites, both existing (with historical data already available) and new sites based on site-similarity and analogue mapping of the future production conditions for the target sites (from modeling). This will allow real-term experimentation on future predictions. 7. Joint analysis between Humidtropics and CRP7 and partners. 8. Monitoring and evaluation for learning and improvement to maximize added value.CRP6 also intends to select Sentinel Sites that could overlap with Humidtropics Action Areas or Sites. They intend to select sites as funds permit, thus collaboration with Humidtropics will inform the process with input from SRT1 on exact location for Humidtropics focus.Humidtropics will ensure effective collaboration with other CRPs through close planning and liaison through the following mechanism:1. Humidtropics has identified specific budget items intended solely for CRP collaboration including buy-ins to Action Sites and field activities of common interest. 2. Within the first three months, Humidtropics will convene a Collaborative CRP Action Planning Workshop specifically intended to develop work plans around these sites and field activities. 3. Specific liaison staff within Humidtropics will be identified that are required to implement these work plans and to regularly exchange information and lessons with counterparts in other CRPs.4. Program scientists from CRP3 will provide recommendations and germplasm of promising varieties of maize, upland rice, grain legumes, forages, root and tuber crops and banana for assessment in humid lowlands, moist savannas and upper altitudes. Humidtropics researchers will evaluate this germplasm in the Action Areas and provide feedback on their performance. CRP4 will then evaluate the nutritive contributions of these best varieties, including biofortified varieties, and all parties will jointly publish these findings. Similarly, animal scientists will recommend breeds of animals and feeding requirements for use in the different Action Sites. 5. Humidtropics will collaboratively formulate a suite of ISFM guidelines for the humid lowlands, moist savannas and mid-altitude zones, and jointly publish them with CRP5. 6. Humidtropics will request that CRP6 provide tree-crop management guidelines and these will be tested, refined and followed in all Action Sites interfacing with forests and in tree-cropland mosaics. 7. Humidtropics will request guidelines in system carbon measurement from CRP7 and document carbon sequestration resulting from systems integration accordingly. CRP7 will be invited to measure greenhouse gas flux from all Humidtropics Action Sites. 8. The intersection of livestock and environment issues will be explored in Action Sites that overlap between CRP3.7 priority value chains including pigs in Uganda and Southeast Asia, and dairying in East Africa, Central America and India. 9. Other forms of direct and mutually-beneficial collaboration will be formalized at the planning meeting and implemented. IITA as Lead Center has fiduciary and operational responsibilities for the implementation of Humidtropics. The Lead Center is thus fully responsible and accountable for the successful execution of the program and for its performance against the aforementioned contractual obligations.The IITA Board will:• Account to the Consortium Board, including financial analysis and risk assessment • Oversee the Lead Center's Performance Contract.• Ensure efficient and effective engagement of the Advisory CommitteeThe IITA Director General will:• Be an observer of the Advisory Committee • Be a champion for Humidtropics working together with the Executive Director and Program Management Committee. • Work closely with the Consortium CEO on matters of Humidtropics.• Advice the Executive Director as needed • Resolve conflicts between involved partners.The Advisory Committee will have a major advisory role on Humidtropics on priority setting, partnerships, the strategic allocation of resources, and external linkages, to ensure that the needed set of Partners and Centers participate in order to achieve the goals and objectives of Humidtropics. Having an Advisory Committee ensures independence of the Humidtropics programmatic directions, shields the Lead Center from real or perceived conflict of interest, while still being accountable to the Lead Center. The Advisory Committee is composed of individuals that comprise R4D expertise and insights from diverse public and private sector partners such as farmer organizations, NGOs, Private sector, IARCs, NARs, and ARIs. The 8-person gender-balanced team is composed of 1 representative each from Tropical Americas, Asia and Africa following the general expertise and insight criteria, 3 individuals identified for their specific expertise including a Gender Specialist, Communication & Partnership Specialist and Systems Specialist, and 2 co-opted individuals on identified needs' basis. The IITA-DG and a 2 nd center DG, recommended by the Consortium in collaboration with the ISPC, will be observers on this committee.The Lead Center's Board will formally appoint the Advisory Committee. The Lead Center Board and the project's Primary Partners will select the Committee members and Chair for the first year. Thereafter, the Committee will nominate its Chair and members, to be ratified by the lead Center Board and the Primary Partners. Committee membership will be for 3 years. Terms of 2-4 years in the initial year may be used to staggered turnover of members or continuity of the Chair's position. The Committee may recommend renewal of the appointment of a Committee member, once, at the end of his or her term. The Committee will meet twice per year, one of its meetings arranged back-to-back with the Lead Center Board. The committee's role is to:• Review the global program performance and the relevance of its outcomes.• Make recommendations to Executive Director, Lead Center Board, and Individual Partners on opportunities for enhanced performance of the program, strategic alliances with partners, and effective engagement of R4D capacities towards greater impact. • Advise the Lead Center and Executive Director on approval of the proposed workplans and budgets. • Make recommendations to Executive Director, Lead Center Board, and Individual Partners on principles that assist the IITA DG in conflict resolution • Periodically review the principles that guide resource allocation between projects, Primary and other partners, and the use of internal and external capacities and make recommendations to Executive Director, Lead Center Board, and Individual Partners on changes needed.The Chair of the Advisory Committee will be required to prepare an annual report to the Center Board, Primary Partners, and Executive Director. The Chair will liaise with the DG of the Lead Center and the Executive Director as needed. The Executive Director will provide quarterly progress reports to Primary Partners who are required to regularly update their constituencies on relevant progress and alert them to any emerging opportunities or threats that are of significance.Primary partners are selected institutional research partners that through their mission, complementary skills, capacities and resources provide significant opportunities for greater innovation, accelerated development and greater impact of significant components of Humidtropics at international level. In the course of executing Humidtropics, strategic alliances with new and additional primary partners will be pursued and these partners may come from the NARS, ARIs, Centers, SROs or the private sectors. The Advisory and Management Committees will review and recommend on the inclusion or exclusion as primary partners annually in relation to the above criteria. Initial Primary Partners are those that are selected on the above criteria and co-authored the proposal, they currently are: IITA, CIAT, CIP, ILRI, ICRAF Bioversity, IWMI, AVRDC, FARA and WUR.IITA, in consultation with the Primary Partners initially and the Advisory Committee once formulated in subsequent recruitments, will appoint an Executive Director for the Humidtropics. The Executive Director Humidtropics will manage implementation through the Strategic Research Theme Leaders and Action Area Team Coordinators, lead the Humidtropics Executive Office and consult with the Lead Center Management regularly. Once per year, the Executive Director, on behalf of the Management Committee (see below), will prepare an annual report that is considered by the Advisory Committee. The Management Committee comprises of 5 Strategic Research Theme Leaders who will provide scientific leadership, oversight, and guidance for the SRTs. These will be nominated by their organization to allocate time for this global responsibility. They will be selected through a competitive process involving the Primary Partners, Advisory Committee and Executive Director. They will be supported and employed by their host organization.They will insure that the themes are appropriately planned, implemented, and monitored and advise on workplans and budgets to the Advisory Committee and Executive Director. They will review and support the quality of science within the theme and support global synthesis with the Executive Director. They will interact to insure integration amongst themes at local, regional, and global level. They will work with the Action Area Coordinators to insure that the thematic work is of priority for the region. They will facilitate links to other CRPs and to all partners. They will represent Humidtropics at international meeting related to the specific scientific focus to insure the relevance and quality of the science.Humidtropics assumes that resources are best used where the action takes place and thus advocates highly decentralized operational management to ensure efficiency, flexibility, agility and relevance to improve effectiveness. Implementation of R4D project activities is carried out in the Action Areas. Assuring that projects are truly international each Action Area must span several countries within a Region (see 4.3 on Action Areas). It is recognized that most field operations are conducted at national level by Action Site Teams, but these will be internationally coordinated by the Action Area Teams to deliver their outputs. It is our vision that the Humidtropics is best managed at the tropical regional level but financial realities dictate the current approach that works at a less optimal level. When funding allows, Regional Coordination will be established to represent the Humidtropics Program regionally -Tropical Africa, Tropical Americas and Tropical Asia -and to coordinate the Action Area and Action Site teams in the region for the Humidtropics Executive Director.Action Area Teams are executive multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary; gender balanced R4D working teams consisting of the relevant managers of project partners that individually oversee the implementation of multiple Action Sites' workplans in the action areas. The composition of these teams is expected to be increasingly inclusive of non-traditional partners as they take on more projects under the program. Each Action Area Team will designate a Coordinator, who will be a scientist allocated from one of the project partners.The Coordinator leads and represents Humidtropics in the Action Area and serves on the Management Committee.The Action Area Teams are responsible for developing Action Area and Action Site R4D projects, including preparation of workplans and budgets for inclusion by the Management Committee planning for those, aligned with available funds and lead activities. They will ensure the fulfillment of their sub-contract's performance measures, including the timely submission of financial and technical reports to the Humidtropics Executive Office. They will conduct evaluations in the Action Areas as required and implement response to these evaluations.The Action Area Teams will ensure consistency in R4D approaches and methodologies across all Action Sites and organize the evaluation of activities on a seasonal basis.Monitoring and evaluation activities, as described in Section 13 will be embedded in above activities and the lessons learnt will be fed back into the next cycle of planning and activity implementation. The Action Area Teams will interact with the Humidtropics Management Committee through the Executive Director to contribute to the production of outputs and outcomes and receive feedback on its operations. The contributions from the Action Areas will be used to make strategic decisions on approaches, partnerships, geographical focus, etc. 10.7.2 Action Site Teams An Action Site Team is a gender-balanced inclusive working team consisting of the relevant public and private sector research and development partners that execute Humidtropics R4D activities in an Action Site. Research and development partners are public and private sector institutions and individuals that through their complementary skills, capacities, and resources contribute to the development of specific research outputs of Humidtropics.Responsibilities and accountability of research and development partners that receive financial support towards the objectives of Humidtropics are defined in subcontracts executed at the action area level.The team is responsible for the R4D action of Humidtropics in their Action Site relating mainly to the NRM, Productivity and the Markets Research Themes, valuing production, nutrition and health, gender and poverty related outcomes. They will manage R4D projects in the Action Site, including developing work plans, delivering outputs, and responsibly manage allocated budgets. They will ensure the fulfillment of their sub-contract's performance measures in the Action Site, inclusive the timely submission of financial and technical reports to the relevant Action Area Team. They will conduct evaluations in the Action Sites as required and implement response to these evaluations.will be equally required for Tier 3 Areas but without much previous experience or earlier initiative as compared to the Tiers 1 and 2 Action Areas.Within the first 3 years, the Humidtropics program will use the following logic to transform itself from an aggregation of on-going activities led by different Centers, towards an effective and integrated program that's focused around the delivery of the science and impact outcomes around the main research questions and hypotheses:Year 1 Analytical framework. First, baseline characterization activities will be implemented within the Action Areas which are areas targeted for impact within the Humidtropics. Secondly, across all Action Areas, the outcomes of SRT1 will set the scene for the identification of Action Sites within all Action Areas and ensure that the design or layout required to answer the research questions is embedded in this selection process. These activities will be implemented in the Tier 1, 2, and 3 Action Areas. It is anticipated that the critical entry points towards intensification will be identified and interactions with other CRPs formalized for the Tier 1 Action Areas in year 1.No SRT2 activities are expected to be initiated during year 1.Only in the Tier 1 Action Areas will R4D platforms be operationalized with direct involvement of representatives from other CRPs that are crucial towards the success of the Humidtropics. This planning will include workshops to develop a more comprehensive system operational plan, identify activities and milestones, and assign responsibilities to all platform partners. We anticipate that an important part of current research being done by Centers and their partner will be integrated into Humidtropics but this will have to be assessed collectively through the planning processes.Year 2 Analytical framework. Identification of critical entry points towards intensification will happen in year 2 for the Tier 2 and 3 Action Areas.In Tier 1 Action Areas, the complete package of SRT2 interventions will be implemented while in the Tier 2 Areas SRT2 will start operating through some initial interventions, aiming at creating the necessary environment for SRT2 to operate in (e.g., input supply systems, value chain operationalization). Depending on the availability of new funding, this may also happen in Phase 3 countries. Interactions with other CRPs will be formalized for Tier 2 and 3 Action Areas in year 2.Development outcomes. In the year 2, Tier 2 and 3 Action Areas will be operationalized following the logic used in year 1 but with modifications based on the experiences of year 1.R4D platforms will be established and critical entry points identified. Dissemination activities under SRT3 will be initiated in the Tier 1 Action Areas, supported by an effective M&E framework.Analytical framework. Although year 3 is early for the synthesis activities under SRT1, the concepts and methods that will have been developed to achieve this outcome will be tested and evaluated in the Tier 1 countries.Research outputs. In year 3, SRT2 activities will be operational in all Action Areas. The level of activity will vary between the Tier 1, 2, or 3 Action Areas, depending on earlier progress with identification of interventions towards agro-ecological intensification, partner commitment, and general support for the R4D platforms. By year 3, interactions with other CRPs are anticipated to result in the added benefits that are hypothesized when focusing on system approaches.Development outcomes. SRT3 activities will be activated in all Action Areas although progress is expected to decrease from the Tier 1 to the Tier 3 Areas. For the Tier 2 and 3 countries, relatively more effort will be invested in institutional capacity building and supportive infrastructure and policies compared to Tier 1 Areas.In terms of budget allocations within the first 3 years and following above logic, it is clear that the scale of new investments will substantially increase over time because of two dynamics taking place simultaneously: 1) gradually more Action Sites will become operational in time, aiming at having all of them operational by the end of year 3, and 2) the intensity of interventions will increase in time with all the SRTs becoming active by the end of year 3. Moreover, a relatively smaller proportion of existing funds will be available for Humidtropics activities over time, thus requiring additional investments towards year 3. Investment needs are expected to level off by year 3 once all Action Sites are operationalized and all SRTs being implemented.The required level of funding beyond year 3 is anticipated to consist at least of a basic amount required to keep the R4D platforms operational, implement all M&E activities, and deliver a synthesis or the delivery of IPGs. Buy-in of other partners will determine the final level of investment made in the Humidtropics.Different R4D partners involved along the impact pathway may not posses sufficient human, knowledge, capital, and infrastructural resources at the time of their essential involvement in delivery, which may seriously hamper progress and thus threaten impact. The political climate may affect policies on R4D investment, implementation and uptake. This risk will be mitigated through public-private partnerships and the development of dynamic strategic subprograms in which governance and resource issues will be anticipated and strategies and expectations adjusted accordingly.Improvement of the quality of life of the poor and vulnerable goes beyond integrated agricultural systems, and should fit and collaborate with existing institutions and new initiatives in governance, health, education, social services and infrastructural development that are all influencing the poor and vulnerable. Failure to integrate risks working in isolation, and in the worst-case scenario, creates opposition and competition that may seriously affect implementation and effectiveness. This risk will be mitigated by conducting an inventory of institutions and including other programs in the development of the strategic sub-programs.Communication is often hampered by cultural differences, technology and expectations, which may cause conflict, limited knowledge and technlogy transfer, lack of participation, and the reduced ability to monitor and evaluate progress. Through communication audits, an inventory of cultural awareness issues and potential communication challenges should be compiled and incorporated into essential solutions and development expectations as part of the R4D management system.There could be a risk if validated technologies are not scaled out because of inadequate linkages with extension and development partners. Thus, this issue needs to be high on the agenda when being discussed with a wider range of stakeholders.The Humidtropics program is complex and development impact will take a long time to achieve. This requires detailed business planning that brings in development partners to facilitate impact, timely progress reporting and sustained investment with long-term commitments from all R4D partners and investors. Unfortunately, long-term commitments are not common in the current research and development scenario.The Humidtropics Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system provides the basis for operational and performance monitoring as input into adaptive program management and accountability. M&E within Humidtropics systematically develops much of its data as a part of ongoing research activities. This is especially so for activities that integrates panel surveys at the level of the Actions Sites with baselines and periodic monitoring at the level of Action Areas. There is continual program monitoring along principal impact pathways that feeds directly into research planning and indirectly into the evolving M&E system for the whole CGIAR. To complement this part of the M&E system, monitoring instruments to capture much of the \"process\" innovation of the Humidtropics will also have to be developed, especially in the work of SRT3. This will be particularly important in monitoring what are effectively multi-institutional R4D efforts, often in an action research mode and focused on capturing institutional innovations. The following discussion of the M&E framework adds detail to Section 5 on Quantified Impact Pathways. The M&E Unit (see further below) will work within the larger team addressing SRT1 that is responsible for the Situation Analysis. It will operate at both the program level and within the individual Action Areas. First that team will compile available information for the Action Sites and Action Areas and prepare a preliminary baseline based upon this secondary information (Figure 20). Next the unit will design a baseline survey, aligned to the Independent Evaluation unit (IEA) of the CGIAR and arrange for it to be field tested in representative Action Sites. Enumerators must be trained and operate from practical guidelines (not represented in Figure 20). As a result of field-testing, the baseline survey may be tailored to site-specific conditions but still contain sufficient standardized elements to permit cross-site analysis. The unit will then develop the data screening, entry and analysis procedures that permit steady progress as baseline information streams from the Action Sites surveys. A synthesis of these data will also contribute to the initial Situation Analysis, a task of SRT1.Next the M&E Unit will develop monitoring tools for the field activities under SRT2. These too must be aligned with IEA guidelines and field-tested. In this case, monitoring will be accompanied by detailed training in the use of these tools as such reporting will stem from both participatory monitoring methods and structured data collection instruments. Again, as monitoring commences, findings must be captured within similar processing and analytical protocols that consider baseline conditions so that the first increments of impact may be detected. Refinement of the M&E Framework continues as monitoring extends to the aggregation of development impacts under SRT3 to a point where the framework itself, and its accompanying survey instruments and analytical tools, are packaged as a flexible International Public Good for adoption by other CRPs and developmental research programs (Figure 20).The functions of learning and adaptive management are central to the M&E Framework. It will be designed as a continuous dynamic action-reflection-action process. This is an iterative process that allows revisiting certain reference points in order to clarify, confirm or change assumptions. Practical implications for dealing with the complexities of the integrated systems approach therefore include the need to establish continuous learning and reflection spaces and opportunities for adjustment and metrics that assess both technical and non-technical dimensions (Tubiello and Rosenzweig, 2008). The system research for R4D platforms and communication strategies described in the partnership section (Section 6) will play a key role to facilitate participatory M&E activities.Humidtropics will measure the impact of its systems-oriented research and development primarily as part of the scaling up research of SRT3 using a combination of methods for results-based monitoring, evaluating, and assessing impact in the various research themes.This M&E system will feed information back to research activities to inform research design and for development practitioners to inform the design of interventions. The framework for impact pathways (Section 5) allows for the identification and measurement of the outputs and outcomes of research, but also of its ultimate impacts on SLO targets. The impact pathway achievements and measurements or indicators (Table 14) provide a basis for the M&E Framework.Humidtropics intends to further develop methodologies for measuring and monitoring sustainable system intensification as part of tracking progress toward sustainable natural resource management. Evaluating the impacts of natural resource management via positive and negative externalities is based on an evaluation of changes in the provision of ecosystem services using tools such as choice experiments and payments for environmental services. This in turn influences the trade-offs and opportunity costs of farmers and broader aspects of community welfare (Hoyos, 2010;Swallow et al., 2009). Given the complexity in measuring changes in health and nutrition within a systems approach, household surveys will be conducted to measure changes in patterns of consumption (Smith et al. 2006). For example, a study on the patterns and determinants of dietary micronutrient deficiencies in rural areas of East Africa based upon food variety showed that staples provide somewhat more than 70% of the calorie intake of farmers in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania (Ecker et al., 2010). Key indicators that contribute to improving nutrition and health will involve measuring changes in household diets, and their nutritional values, with the understanding that the M&E process must link with CRP4 (see Section 9) to achieve this target. The list of initial variables to be monitored (Table 14) provides examples of indicators on which to focus from a technical standpoint, but without an assignment of priority or declared relevance to management and decision-making. A more comprehensive list of all candidate, prioritized indicators will be compiled at the project inception workshop.Table 14. Types of partners to be involved in the PMEIA.Participatory monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment approaches (PMEIA) will be implemented in the on-farm work with farmers and in the scaling up activities in SRT3 working with a range of organizations and actors. The PMEIA will have four major and equally important objectives. The first is accountability to the beneficiaries. The second is participatory priority setting to provide project managers and Humidtropics partners with information for deciding what activities to implement, where to work, with whom, when and where to develop the livelihood frameworks. The third is accountability to investors based on feedback from project participants outside the CGIAR. The fourth is learning from the experiences to improve the design and performance of project investments over time, which will be essential in complex, system-oriented interventions.The Humidtropics' M&E system will provide a comprehensive data and information system for undertaking ex-post impact studies across the four SLOs of the CGIAR. The M&E system will encompass baseline surveys at both Action Site and Action Area level, in-depth panel survey data at Action Site level, and household monitoring at Action Area level. The panel survey data will allow in-depth evaluation of more difficult to measure impacts on ecosystem services, nutrition, and poverty which then can be expanded at the level of the Action Area. To account for selection bias using the \"with and without\" project impact estimates, suitable combination of new advances in statistical techniques such as regression adjustment, instrumental variables, control function, propensity score matching, and difference in differences will be employed to reduce the variability between treatment and non-treatment groups (Baker, 2000;Godtland et al., 2003). This will be complemented with spatial analysis used on geo-referenced, disaggregated data to more clearly link outcomes and impact to local development interventions that will be complemented by process level monitoring (Thornton et al., 2003).The M&E process is an extension of the framework as it is used to monitor field activities in the Action Sites (SRT2) and later to assess key impacts within the Action Areas (SRT3). First, Action Site teams must be commissioned to conduct the baseline survey so that it may be quickly reported for inclusion into the SRT1 Situation Analysis (Figure 20). If all goes well, these same enumerators will likely continue to monitor changes in production systems, market progress and natural resource integrity. Again, these results are reported to the M&E Unit for data entry and analysis. Experience suggests that different Action Sites will have varying capacities in collecting and entering data at the grassroots level and it is likely that additional training will be necessary to assure continuity in monitoring, as was done in the case of ICRISAT's Village Level Surveys.One key to successful monitoring is that it provides feedback and guidance to field scientists within the Action Sites in a timely manner. Many agro-ecosystems support two (or more) cropping cycles per year and if baselines or monitoring results are to be used within constructive planning cycles, then it is important that results and constraints be quickly distilled and forwarded to Action Site cooperators, a feature not included within Figure 20. One important aspect is that cooperators not only regard monitoring activities as compliance with a central program authority, be it operated by the Action Area or program as a whole, but also as an opportunity for them to help guide their Action Sites, and they must feel free to analyze and interpret their findings locally. By the end of three years, R4D collaborative platforms will emerge and the M&E framework must begin to capture their effectiveness as well.The M&E process is also intended to aggregate development impacts through monitoring key indicators within the Action Areas. As was stated previously, the first three years of CRP1.2 are primarily to assess and redirect the divergent activities within the Action Sites and to consolidate them into a developmental research thrust that achieves targets specifically relating to SLOs. In many cases, targeted impacts among the general farming communities may not be readily quantified within only three years, but several indicators may signal progress (Figure 20). Adoption of innovative approaches by collaborators suggests improvement in institutional effectiveness. Cooperators' compliance with gender targets and participation in gender research serves as an early signal of program impact. So too is the early adoption by partners of measures designed to scale up the first technologies identified within the R4D platforms. Ultimately these measures should lead to improvement in rural infrastructure and agricultural policies within the Action Areas, but these changes are premature within a three-year timeframe. Nonetheless, based upon these and other institutional indicators, it is possible to evaluate the program's intermediate goals within three years, and doubtless an overall external evaluation will be conducted. Ultimately, the M&E process is intended to evaluate the program's performance in terms of quantifiable System Level Outcomes, and the ability of its M&E system to do so across the different Humidtropics Action Areas, and the proficiency of the M&E Unit will be evaluated in this regard.The M&E process also serves a governance and management function and monitors the implementation of the program and gauges the efficient utilization of the program's resources in relation to the program's production of outputs. Its main reporting activities include timely financial and technical reporting, subcontract management, monitoring resource use (labor and capital), and application of human resources and their institutional development. Action Area and Action Site Teams are responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the program and its activities and report their progress to the Executive Director through the M&E Unit.The more detailed M&E plan will be developed and implemented by an M&E Unit in the Executive Office in liaison with the Advisory Committee. The Consortium Board and Lead Center Management may consider the need for external evaluations. Action Area coordinators supported by local staff from various institutions at the Action Site level will produce regular technical reports where performance against the research questions and SLOs will be reported. All project cooperators are expected to report on program activities and outputs, track progress, and take corrective action when needed through use of the M&E Framework. A monitoring plan will be developed under each SRT and will include milestones for activities, outputs (such as publications, datasets, training materials and training activities), and networking to ensure appropriate uptake of project outcomes. At the same time, the M&E Process must be streamlined to avoid duplication and bureaucratic burden. The M&E plan will be subject to continuous review and adjustments as required over time. The M&E Framework will cater for emerging themes and include performance indicators when applicable. Thus, more emphasis would be placed on measuring process indicators and milestones that capture changes in livelihood that best facilitate an understanding of the pathways out of poverty. The M&E Unit will work with all the Action Area Team Coordinators on data collection protocols. Data will be gathered and analyzed at the Action Area level by the respective teams. The Action Area Team Coordinators will then send data and reports for regional synthesis to the M&E Unit.The total budget requested from all sources for the Humidtropics program is given for each year separately and overall (Table 15). The specific budget request for each Center and FARA for the SSA-CP is given in Appendix 5. The main budget items (without the overall management cost) are personnel cost that account for about 34% of the budget request, operating expenses that account for about 18% of the budget request and funds allocated to partners is about 20% of the budget request. While the allocation to partnerships is less that optimal for a program that is so reliant on the role of partners, it is based on the current allocation by the Centers and FARA. The Centers and the SSA-CP (FARA) have a wide range of allocation to partners.  508,539 23,670,683 26,013,171 69,192,394 Current Restricted Donor Projects 26,835,436 24,306,006 24,083,715 75,225,156 Total Funding 46,343,974 47,976,688 50,096,886 144,417,549 The fund requested for 2012 is a 3.8% increase over 2011 while the 2013 request is 4.8% increase over 2012. The funds requested from the CGIAR funds (Window 1 and 2) are 42% of the total budget in 2011 and increase to 52% of the total budget in 2013. Thus, the funds requested from the CGIAR fund increase at a much great rate (27% increase in 2012 and 12% increase in 2013) to adjust for increased expenditure from CGIAR funds as the CRP becomes fully operational.The current distribution of the budget to the regions is 83% Africa, 11% Asia, and 6% America in 2011 and by 2013, we have proposed a ratio of 81% Africa, 13% Asia, and 6% Americas. Donors and Centers skew this distribution towards Africa because of the current focus on R4D activities in Africa. We anticipate a ratio closer to 65% Africa, 25% Asia, and 10% America for SRT1 and SRT2. We expect the allocation to SRT3, Global Synthesis, will cut across all three regions. We would expect a shift to the more desired ratio as we fully implement the program with funds and activities for increased funding from both sources. ","tokenCount":"43319"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dbcbf527cf4de631156fde4e40cc2b78","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/36064175-a9bd-4532-9c6e-1e58261e2fe3/retrieve","id":"1543272093"},"keywords":["index insurance","crop yield","APSIM","leaf area index","phenological monitoring"],"sieverID":"2abacaaa-e434-45b4-827d-1450bfbd509e","pagecount":"38","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Agriculture plays a critical role in supporting livelihoods and food security for rural households across the developing world (Castañeda et al., 2018). Designing strategies to protect farmers against crop losses caused by adverse weather conditions such as droughts or floods has become a key priority for governments and donors, particularly given expected increases in the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events in the coming decades due to climate change (Afshar et al., 2020). One of these strategies is to provide smallholder farmers with agricultural insurance, which offers financial protection from losses associated with extreme weather. In recent years, several agricultural insurance programs have been rolled out at scale, and large amounts of money have been invested in these programs. For instance, in the monsoon season of 2019, India's national insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), covered more than 33.5 million hectares of land through subsidized crop insurance, with gross insurance premiums amounting to more than USD 3 billion. 1   In developing countries, the main type of crop insurance being offered to smallholder farmers is index-based insurance. Unlike traditional insurance schemes, which is based on the direct verification of crop yield losses for each insured field, payouts from index insurance are made on the basis of an empirical relationship between a proxy index and expected yield losses (Dalhaus & Finger, 2016). Proxies used include weather indices, satellite vegetation indices, or area-yield indices, whereby yields are measured for a sub-sample of fields through crop cutting experiments (CCEs) to estimate an average yield over a given region, and payouts are made when these average yields fall below a threshold that is based on historical yields for the region. Using an objective observable index in claims settlement helps provide more timely payouts and reduces costs of loss verification for insurers, making coverage more affordable for farmers and potentially improving farmers' willingness to pay for insurance (Kos & Kloppenburg, 2019). Uptake has been generally low, though, in part due to high levels of basis risk, that is, a mismatch between the index -and thus insurance payouts -and actual yield losses (Clement, Wouter Botzen, et al., 2018).One component of basis risk is design risk, which arises from limited data availability (Hellin et al., 2019). In particular, the limited availability of observed yield data inhibits the identification and definition of reliable weather and vegetation indices that accurately predict yield losses. Whilst this is not a limitation for area-yield index insurance, high costs of conducting representative samples of CCEs in heterogeneous smallholder farming environments can lead to biased estimates of average yields, and thus basis risk. Another important driver of basis risk relates to the temporal specification of the variables used to predict crop yields. Most index-based insurance schemes trigger payouts based on indices that are defined over fixed calendar periods, often relating to the average timing of key phenological stages in a given agricultural system (Enenkel et al., 2018;Miller et al., 2020;Vroege et al., 2019). In reality, the timing of a crop's sensitivity to weather may vary significantly across fields due to differences in management practices such as variety and sowing dates, as well as meteorological conditions, which affect rates of crop development (Van Oort et al., 2011). Failure to consider this heterogeneity may lead to inaccurate estimation of yield losses and basis risk (Bucheli et al., 2020;Ceballos & Robles, 2020).In an effort to address these challenges, we analyze to what extent the integration of crop models and phenological monitoring can help reduce these design and temporal basis risk, respectively. Biophysical crop simulation models can be leveraged to generate larger synthetic yield datasets, which can then be used to train weather-or satellite-based index models (Bandara et al., 2020;Blanc, 2017;Yin & Leng, 2020) or support spatial targeting of limited numbers of CCEs that can be conducted as part of area-yield insurance products. However, to date, this approach has not been widely applied in the context of index insurance design, with limited evidence about its performance at spatial scales relevant for insurance applications (e.g. field, farm or village) or in comparison with index models derived empirically from available observational yield datasets. Approaches to reduce temporal basis risks have focused on developed countries, where detailed phenological monitoring networks exists (Dalhaus et al., 2018). In contrast, there has been limited attention on how to embed phenological information in the design and implementation of index insurance in smallholder environments, for example through use of satellite or in-situ phenology monitoring systems or technologies (Hufkens et al., 2019;Parkes et al., 2019).We address these knowledge gaps through a case study on rice yield estimation in the state of Odisha, India, an area of extensive rainfed rice production, where agriculture is highly exposed to risks posed by monsoonal rainfall variability. We demonstrate how the integration of crop models, phenological monitoring through satellite remote sensing, and machine learning techniques can support the design and implementation of smart phenology-based index insurance products at spatial scales relevant for smallholder communities. Our findings highlight the opportunity for robust and scalable yield estimation by combining satellite data with machine learning and crop modelling. We show that this approach can significantly outperform models that rely solely on satellite imagery. At the same time, our results demonstrate several remaining challenges that need to be addressed in order to accurately and reliably estimate yields at plot scales in smallholder farming environments.In the following subsections, we outline our methodological approach to estimate rice yields.In Section 2.1 we provide information about the case study area, including key characteristics of agricultural production in Odisha. In Section 2.2, we describe the modelling approach used to develop a database of synthetic yield data for our study area, followed in Section 2.3 by the statistical techniques used to relate simulated yield data to relevant crop, phenology, and weather conditions. In Section 2.4, we discuss the process for validating statistical models against both synthetic and observed yield data. We also contrast performance of our models with estimates of yields derived directly through regression analysis using satellite vegetation indices.Our analysis focuses on rice yield estimation in the state of Odisha in eastern India (Figure 1).Agricultural production in Odisha is dominated by small-scale farmers, with most rice production occurring during the summer monsoon season (Kharif). Rice production in the region is mainly rainfed, reflecting the relatively limited access to affordable and reliable irrigation water supplies in eastern India. Monsoonal rainfall variability is therefore a key production risk for many farmers. For example, a late onset of the monsoon leads to delays in rice transplanting, resulting in yield losses due to use of older seedlings and exposure to end of season temperature stress (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2019). Similarly, a lack of access to irrigation limits farmers' ability to protect crops against dry spells during the season, which can have damaging impacts on yields if droughts occur around critical development stages such as anthesis and grain filling (Cornish et al., 2015).To support our analysis of alternative yield estimation approaches, observed yield data were collected through CCEs for a total of 80 paddy rice fields located in two blocks of Jajpur district, Odisha. Yield data were collected in late 2019, following the end of the 2019 summer monsoon season that was characterized by above average rainfall and early starting time. Rice fields were sampled from 20 Gram Panchayats (GPs)-clusters of nearby villages-as GPs are the primary spatial unit to estimate area-yields in the context of the Indian Government's National Crop Insurance Program (PMFBY). In each of the selected GPs, field staff would randomly select among consenting farmers the fields of 5 farmers for seasonal monitoring. Monitoring was done through smartphone images of the crops, and at the end of the season, as the crop had reached maturity, field staff collected yield data through CCEs. Field sizes range from 375 to 800 square meters (mean of 630), which are typical of smallholder farming in eastern India. Designing index insurance products requires establishing a relationship between crop yields and one or more predictors (that is, the variables used to operationalize the insurance 'index') that can be monitored and observed at a lower cost than would be required to manually verify yields directly through surveys or CCEs. However, limited availability of in-situ yield data represents a major barrier to estimating these relationships accurately and reliably. Resulting biases in the estimated relationships between yields and predictor variables or indices introduce basis risk. An increase in data availability could help address such basis risk. We therefore analyze whether index performance can be enhanced by relying on ensemble process-based crop simulations to generate synthetic yield data, representing yields across a range of potential weather conditions and agricultural management practices that would be infeasible to observe directly through in-situ data collection.To develop a database of synthetic yield data, through a process-based crop model-APSIM (Agricultural Production System sIMulator)-we simulate the response of rice yields across a range of potential weather conditions and management practices in our study area. APSIM's rice module, ORYZA2000, is a dynamic physiological model of rice development, which has been widely applied for studies of both rainfed and irrigated rice production systems across south and southeast Asia (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2016, 2019;Gaydon et al., 2017). Thus, the synthetic yield data go beyond the limited observation data stemming from the CCEs, which will be used only to validate the statistical models, not to train the statistical models.APSIM simulations consider a range of plausible weather and management practice scenarios observed in our study region. Specifically, we varied the parameters in the model specifying sowing dates (from 15 May to 15 Aug on one-week intervals), seedling ages (from 25 to 40 days on 5 days intervals), planting density (100, 150, or 200 plants per square meter), number of hills (from 30 to 45 hills on 5 hill intervals), and fertilizer amounts (50, 100, or 150 kilograms of urea per hectare) in accordance to information on typical management practices drawn from published literature (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2016, 2019) and state-level agronomic advisory documents (Dhaliwal & Kular, 2014). We carried out APSIM simulations for each combination of parameter values (2016 in total) for 100 weather years, resulting in a total of 201,600 unique yield simulations. Weather time series used in the crop simulations were developed using a weather generator (LARS-WG) and relying on 39 years of historical observed meteorological data between 1981 and 2020, obtained from ERA5 v5.1.3 (including daily minimum and maximum temperature, total precipitation, and solar radiation).For each simulation, we defined crop growth parameters in APSIM according to the dominant local rice cultivar -MTU7029. MTU7029 (often referred to as Swarna rice) is a long-duration variety, for which parameters in APSIM have been calibrated and validated previously by Balwinder-Singh et al. (2019). All simulations assumed that rice was transplanted into a clay loam soil -the dominant soil type for rice production areas in the region based on spatial analysis of soil texture data provided by SoilGrids (Hengl et al., 2017) -with hydraulic properties determined using pedotransfer functions (Saxton and Rawls., 2006). Specifically, the volumetric water contents used in our analysis for the lower limit, drained upper limit, and saturation levels were estimated as 18%, 32.3%, and 46.1% respectively, with saturated hydraulic conductivity assumed to be 20 mm/day and 1 mm/day for the top five and bottom soil layers (out of six), respectively, in line with APSIM guidelines for ponded transplanted rice simulations (Single season crop simulations -APSIM, n.d.).The variables that are used as predictors of yields in index insurance can vary in terms of the underlying type of data (such as various weather variables or indicators of crop development such as leaf area index) and the temporal period over which each predictor is aggregated (for instance, whether one uses the average for the entire growing season versus the average for a specific phenological stage), along with the spatial scale at which yields are estimated (plot versus village, GP or district aggregation).To assess the implications of these choices, we fit 28 alternative statistical models that vary in terms of the underlying assumptions about which variables and what level of temporal aggregation are most useful for explaining variations in the synthetic yield data generated by APSIM as described in Section 2.2 (Figure 2). Specifically, the 28 alternative model specifications developed consider different unique combinations of three potential meteorological and agronomic predictor variables (that is, temperature: T, precipitation: P, and LAI: L, resulting in seven unique predictor combinations of T, P, L, TP, TL, PL, and TPL), along with four different assumptions about the time period over which each predictor is aggregated for yield prediction on a given plot.The four different temporal specifications that we consider in our analysis include: ( 1  Each of the 28 models was fit using random forests (RF) (Breiman, 2001), a cumulative learning algorithm for regression and classification problems based on decision trees and bagging (bootstrap aggregation). Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the RF model in modeling agricultural biophysical processes, particularly those that are nonlinear (Everingham et al., 2016;Jeong et al., 2016;Sakamoto, 2020). During the training process, RF builds a 'forest' from regression trees that are developed from a bootstrap sample of input datasets. Each bootstrap sample contains two-thirds of the input dataset while the remaining samples that are not included in training, are used to validate the model and assess the importance of predictor variables. Once the model construction terminates, predictions can be done by considering the expected value of all individual predictions of regression trees in the forest. We performed this RF analysis using the randomForest package v 4.6-14 (Liaw & Wiener, 2002) in R, and considering the default parameters (e.g., number of trees) suggested by package developers in R environment (R Core Team, 2018).We first compared the ability of each alternative model design to reproduce synthetic yields simulated by APSIM, focusing on the R-Squared and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of yield estimates in comparison with the actual APSIM simulated yields. For this analysis, we split 201,600 simulated yield observations into training and validation samples through a random selection, considering 80% of the observations as training data and the remaining 20% of the observations as data not used during the development phase of the statistical models.After identifying the best performing statistical model for emulating APSIM simulated yields, we seek to evaluate the ability of this model to reproduce observed yields in our study area.To determine yields for each of the 80 unique fields in our observed yield dataset (Section 2.1), we obtained weather and crop development observations for the 2019 rice growing season over our study region. Daily time series of precipitation and temperature (minimum and maximum) were obtained from the ERA5 reanalysis dataset at 0.25° x 0.25° resolution (Hersbach et al., 2020). Timing of rice growth stages was determined from NDVI time seriesinterpolated from discrete values obtained from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery-for each of the 80 fields in our sample. Specifically, we assumed that the minimum NDVI value at the inflection point on the rising limb of the curve corresponds with the transplanting date, and that harvest occurs when the NDVI time series equals 0.25 on the falling limb. Timing of other growth stage transitions was determined based on typical time from transplanting to reach the start of each stage for Swarna rice: 41 days, 61 days and 75 days for start of panicle initiation, flowering and grain filling, respectively. LAI time series for each field were generated based on spectral band data obtained from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 imagery retrieved through Google Earth Engine (Gorelick et al., 2017). Estimates of LAI were generated for each cloud free pixel based on spectral band data provided by Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 imagery using an inverted radiative transfer model (RTM) (Jacquemoud et al., 2009). The RTM inversions were developed by running the PROSAIL model 5000 times to generate synthetic reflectance data for a range of possible combinations of rice canopy, leaf and soil properties (Table 1), following parameter ranges reported in previous applications for rice LAI estimation (Campos-Taberner et al., 2016). We use the simulated reflectance data to develop statistical models between the spectral bands collected by Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 to LAI using a procedure similar to the RF approach described previously in Section 2.3. To develop statistical models for LAI, we split data equally at random between training and validation. The validated RTM model is subsequently used to convert observed reflectance on a given field into a discrete estimate of rice LAI for each available cloud-free observation, which is then converted to a continuous LAI time series for each field by fitting a double logistic function. Estimated yields were compared with observed data from CCEs using R 2 , RMSE, and Normalized Room Mean Square Error (NRMSE) statistics at two spatial scales: (1) plot scale (80 observations), and (2) GP scale (20 observations, with an average of 4 plots per GP). As noted previously, the latter equates to a spatial scale similar to a cluster of nearby villages, which is the lowest level of governing institutions in India's administrative structure.Importantly, GPs form the primarily spatial unit for area-yield insurance within the Indian government's national crop insurance program, which at present relies on data from manual CCEs to verify crop yield losses and any resulting payouts to farmers. Understanding performance of our methods at this scale therefore is of particular importance for understanding potential opportunities and challenges for satellite data and crop models to help reduce costs and time associated with crop insurance in India. We first compare the performance of different model specifications (with varying predictor variables and varying levels of temporal aggregation for these variables) in terms of their ability to reproduce the synthetic yield data generated using APSIM. This is equivalent to selecting the best performing index for the design of an index insurance product. Figure 3 summarizes the performance (left: R 2 , right: RMSE) of each candidate model during validation against the validation data not used during training of the RF models.From inspection of Figure 3, two trends are apparent. First, the models more accurately reproduce heterogeneity in APSIM-simulated rice yields when considering greater temporal disaggregation of predictor variables (i.e., moving from left to right along a row in Figure 3).The greatest improvement in model performance is found when including predictor variables disaggregated by crop growth stage (DSTG models). The RMSE error across potential models reduces by 5% to 85% (with an average of 47%) and 8% to 80% (with average of 50%) when input variables are aggregated by fixed and dynamic growth stage as opposed to over the fixed and dynamic seasonal -FS and DS -models respectively. However, the reduction in RMSE in yield estimates from aggregating predictor variables over a dynamic aggregation approach compared to a fixed aggregation approach is much smaller (40-86% with an average of 60% across models considering different combinations of temperature, precipitation, and leaf area index predictors).The second noticeable trend from examining Figure 3 is that model performance improves by integrating multiple weather and crop predictor variables. A comparison of alternative model configurations using unseen validation datasets in Figure 3 (i.e., comparing across rows in each figure panel) shows that the best model performance in terms of both R 2 and RMSE is achieved when combining temperature, precipitation, and leaf area index predictors. Reliance on a single variable alone appears to reduce the capacity of our models to accurately capture the variability in crop yields simulated by APSIM. Leaf area index alone is found to be the least robust individual predictor of yields, with models based on temperature, precipitation, or a combination of these two variables generating significantly more accurate yield estimates. For example, for dynamic stage model specifications, the RMSE of models considering only leaf area index as a predictor is 572.9 kg/ha compared with 238.7 kg/ha for models including only weather predictors (temperature and precipitation) -an increase in RMSE of approximately 140% when only using leaf area index as a predictor of yields. For application in the context of agricultural insurance, it is important to assess the ability of statistical models to reproduce not only synthetic yields simulated by APSIM but also observed yield in real world smallholder farming environments. We therefore evaluate the ability of our We find that our statistical model, developed based on the synthetic yield data simulated using APSIM, explains around 54% of the variance in observed rice yields at GP level, with an RMSE of 546.27 kg/ha (Figure 4b and Table 2). Performance of yield estimation at plot level is lower, with our model able to explain approximately 26% of observed yield variability with an RMSE of 860.1 kg/ha (Figure 4a and Table 2). Model accuracy is lower when predicting observed yields than when predicting APSIM simulated yields, likely due to constraints imposed by the spatial resolution of weather data, gaps in LAI time series caused by cloud cover, and uncertainties in the underlying radiative transfer model used to translate spectral data obtained from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 into estimates of rice LAI during the season.However, an R 2 of 0.54 for GP-level yields suggests that such an approach may offer a useful tool for the design of index insurance products at this scale, for example in the context of supporting area-yield index insurance products within the Indian Government's PMFBY crop insurance program. As previously highlighted, a common challenge when developing and designing index insurance products is the limited availability of yield observation datasets to train underlying models that quantify yield losses based on proxy data. To evaluate the value provided by using crop models to generate larger synthetic yield training datasets, we compare the performance of our models reported in Section 3.2 with plot and GP level yield estimates derived using statistical vegetation index (VI)-based models developed by using observed yield data from CCEs. This is a common approach underlying design of many existing index insurance products in India and other parts of the world (Brock Porth et al., 2020;Kölle et al., 2020;Turvey & McLaurin, 2012), and, as such, understanding what -if any -improvements in accuracy are with larger RMSEs; on average, RMSEs are 12% higher than in the statistical yield model that we estimated from APSIM simulations.Moreover, VI-based models are also associated with higher levels of uncertainty depending on which data are included in model training (for instance, we find a 47.63 standard deviation of RMSE values of 1000 bootstrap EVI based yield estimations at the GP scale). Where the total number of yield observation data are limited, as is the case here, and is common in almost all smallholder environments, this result suggests that use of APSIM or other crop models can play an important role in improving the accuracy and robustness of yield-index relationships necessary for designing index insurance products, relative to satellite vegetation indices alone. Relative to other forms of insurance and risk financing, index insurance schemes can provide a relatively low cost and easy-to-implement solution to protect smallholder farmers against production risks posed by extreme weather events and climate change (Barnett & Mahul, 2007;Clarke et al., 2012). However, the value of these products for farmers and insurers is strongly predicated on the ability to base insurance payouts on index relationships that reliably and accurately quantify crop yield losses at disaggregated spatial and temporal scales (Clement, Botzen, et al., 2018).We show that combining crop modelling and satellite-based crop phenology measurements can provide a scalable solution for deriving the relationship between yields and proxy indices at spatial scales relevant for agricultural insurance. Our findings highlight that accounting for field-level heterogeneity in crop phenology and combining multiple types of predictor variables, including both weather and leaf area indices, can significantly enhance model accuracy, in particular when aggregating to spatial units larger than an individual plot; which is common for area-yield index insurance in smallholder farming systems such as those in our study area (Shirsath et al., 2019). It is also important to note in this regard that in the crop model simulations, we only used publicly available information on typical ranges of cropping practices and varieties to generate synthetic yield training data; we did not measure these variables to implement crop models at the plot level, which adds to the scalability of this approach.Our findings do not support a finding from previous research combining earth observation data and crop models: that yields can be estimated using either a single (peak or aggregated total) value of LAI for the season, or multiple LAI predictors that relate to specific satellite image dates but are not directly correlated with crop growth stage timings (Burke & Lobell, 2017;Jain et al., 2017Jain et al., , 2019)). Due to the lack of variation across space and time of our field level observations, we were unable to validate all model combinations and aggregation levels with field measurements. Nonetheless, the comparison of models derived from simulated data in terms of their ability to capture heterogeneity in simulated yields suggest that disaggregating predictor variables by crop development stages enhances the accuracy of predicted yields relative to simpler seasonal aggregation. This will be true especially when heterogeneity in phenology between fields and seasons is large due to differences in farm management practices, crop varietal choices, and weather conditions. We also find that insurance index performance can be improved further by combining LAI and weather predictor variables, which we attribute the ability of weather data (in particular temperature predictors) to capture crop yield losses associated with deficient grain filling or pollination that would not be fully captured by changes in LAI alone (Waldner et al., 2019).Although the value of phenology data for improving yield estimation and index insurance has been demonstrated previously (Conradt et al., 2015;Dalhaus et al., 2018;Ortiz-Bobea et al., 2019), these studies have focused on developed countries where extensive and longstanding phenological monitoring networks exist. We show that it is possible to replicate some of these improvements in yield estimation accuracy, and we highlight for smallholder environments the potential to reduce basis risk in index insurance using satellite-derived information on the timing of key development phases. The value of phenological information is largest when considering not only heterogeneity in the timing of the start and onset of the crop growing season but also in the timing of specific individual growth stages. This result is consistent with evidence suggesting that effects of extreme weather on yields of rice and other crops are strongly dependent on the timing of shocks during the season, with potential for larger yield losses if weather-related shocks occur during critical growth periods such as anthesis (Barlow et al., 2015;Cornish et al., 2015). Critically, only adjusting the seasonal time period for index insurance contracts -for example to account for potential impacts of delayed transplanting of rice in years for with late monsoon onset (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2019) -would fail to exploit the true value of phenological information for yield estimation.While our results suggest potential benefits of using crop model simulations to support the design of agricultural index insurance products, several approaches could be used to improve the accuracy of yield estimation at the plot level, which would aid both the design of plot-level index insurance and the accuracy of larger scale area-yield index insurance. For example, in this study we rely on a relatively simple satellite-based method for estimating intra-seasonal crop phenology. Integration of in-situ imagery, for example taken by farmers through smartphones at regular intervals during the season (Hufkens et al., 2019), could help to reduce uncertainties in satellite-derived of growth stage timings while also providing a supplementary source of information to help to validate fitted LAI time series. Such data would be especially valuable for crops grown during the rainy season, a period where substantial gaps in satellite imagery often occur due to high levels of cloud cover. In addition, in-situ imagery could provide a mechanism for detecting crop damage that may be difficult to reliably correlate with weather or vegetation indices, for example mechanical damage to crops caused by flooding, wind and hailstorms, or pests and diseases (Ceballos et al., 2019). These factors are a potentially important driver of errors in plot-level yield estimation, suggesting that integration of in-situ imagery should contribute to reduce basis risk especially at these finer spatial scales.A further factor that may explain the larger errors in yield estimations observed in our analysis at the plot versus GP scales is the coarse resolution of weather data available in our study region. The ERA-5 reanalysis dataset used in this study has a spatial resolution of 0.25 x 0.25 degrees (approximately 25km x 25km), which is sufficient to capture heterogeneity in weather conditions between GPs but not between individual plots within a GP. Given the important role of weather data in yield estimation (Section 3.1), this suggests that provision of finer resolution weather data could play an important role in supporting reductions in basis risk of index insurance products. However, development and validation of fine-scale weather data products remains challenging in many smallholder environments due to the limited density and completeness of in-situ weather records (Norton et al., 2013), in contrast to more extensive monitoring networks found in regions such as Europe and North America (Dalhaus & Finger, 2016).Finally, a key finding from our analysis is that the use of crop models provides added value for yield estimation beyond the use of statistical models based solely on satellite vegetation indices. Nevertheless, it is important to note that while our analysis considers two of the most commonly used vegetation indices for index insurance and yield estimation (NDVI and EVI), alternative types and combinations could have been used. For example, studies by Enenkel et. al. (2018)  (Enenkel et al., 2018), andMollmann et al., (2020)  (Möllmann et al., 2020) showed that developing more complex statistical models using multiple types of vegetation indices from different satellite datasets (e.g., Sentinel-1 or Sentinel-2) can yield more robust crop yield information. Hence, future research should seek to evaluate a broader range of vegetation index models to further explore the added value provided by integration of crop models alongside satellite and other data sources. Moreover, future analyses should also consider how trade-offs between the two types of methods are affected by the amount and completeness of observational yield data and satellite imagery used to train statistical VIbased models. We hypothesize that the added value of crop models will be highest in environments where observational yield datasets are smaller, where satellite imagery is strongly affected by cloud cover, and where small plot sizes pose a challenge for remote sensing with currently available resolutions of satellite imagery; each of these are common characteristics of smallholder farming environments that are the focus of this study.Index-based insurance provides a potential solution to transfer risks caused by crop failure away from smallholder farmers, providing farmers with a timely payout in the event of a poor harvest without the need for expensive manual verification of yields as in the case of traditional indemnity insurance. However, basis risk, that is, a poor correlation between actual yield losses and losses estimated based on the insurance index, remains a key challenge to scaling index insurance, reducing farmers' willingness to pay for insurance products and their ability to adapt to climate variability and change. In this study, we evaluate the potential to improve the accuracy of index insurance by combining process-based crop models, satellitederived phenological metrics, and geospatial weather data to design index insurance products, focusing on a case study of rainfed rice production in the state of Odisha in eastern India.We show that when accounting for field-level heterogeneity in crop development and timing of extreme weather events, it is possible to reliably estimate rice yields without the need for extensive observational yield training datasets, and without having to apply real-time datademanding plot-level crop simulations. Our analysis demonstrates that yield estimation is improved by considering both agronomic (i.e., leaf area index) and meteorological (i.e., temperature and precipitation) drivers of yield variability. Performance also increases when aggregating individual plot-level estimates to village or GP-level scales, suggesting that approaches proposed in this paper may have value in reducing reliance on the time and resource intensive CCEs that are typically used to support assessment of losses in area-yield index insurance products in India.Our findings further show that the accuracy of yield estimation by our preferred crop model and satellite information approach significantly outperforms models based solely on satellite vegetation indices and is consistent with existing research using crop models and satellite data","tokenCount":"5414"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3ac896783ad7b545df14aef3736b5a02","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFS/BC22003.pdf","id":"2094250143"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c7528363-ea05-476e-968a-f362609a07c5","pagecount":"22","content":"• Africa is at the crossroads of industrialisation, and tree commodities can make a valuable contribution.• Industrialisation through tree commodities can significantly propel green economic growth. It is potentially doubling contributions to GDP through revenues and jobs.• Challenges related to infrastructure, skills, intra-African trade and corruption are significant obstacles to industrialising Africa.• Creating \"green entrepreneurs\", \"African brand of value-added products\" and enhancing intra-African free trade areas can significantly boost the industrialisation agenda, including tree commodities.In the forward section of the elite book \"Industrialise Africa: Strategies, Policies, Institutions, and Financing\", the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) notes, \"The secret of the wealth of nations is clear: developed nations add value to everything they produce, while poor nations export raw materials. Africa must quit being at the bottom of global value chains and move to rapidly industrialise, with value addition to everything that it produces.Africa must work for itself, its people, not exporting wealth to others\" (AfDB 2017). This statement captures a decade of evolving calls and actions to promote endogenous African industrialisation and leverage enormous opportunities the continent stands to offer. The AfDB, within its mandate as a development bank for the continent, places African industrialisation as one of its five accelerators for African development and growth. It seeks to support African industrialisation by assisting national governments in increasing national production and adding value to everything they produce. The bank launched six flagship programs to foster its agenda across different sectors. These programs focus on supporting industrialisation CHAPTER 17 policies with technical assistance to the government, facilitate funding of infrastructure and industrialisation projects, develop liquid capital markets, facilitate access to funding for SMEs, promote partnerships and develop industry clusters. This initiative falls within the continental strategic development framework, African agenda 2063; it is a \"strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years. It builds on and seeks to accelerate the implementation of past and existing continental initiatives for growth and sustainable development.\" (AU agenda 2063). Similar to the AfDB, the African Union (AU) puts industrialisation as a key pathway to African growth. Industrialising Africa through commodities is at the heart of this strategy, with a commodity strategy for Africa being developed.Tree commodities happen to be core products of the commodity strategy for Africa, and continental level development initiatives and policies are key to their growth. Tree commodities are key pacesetters to African industrialisation because 73%, 11% and 3% of global output for cocoa, coffee and palm oil production, respectively, are from Africa (ICO 2020). Cocoa accounts for 40% of export revenues in Cote d'Ivoire and 25% in Ghana, and coffee contributes to 34% of total exports in Ethiopia (Goodman 2017, USDA 2019). However, the contributions of these commodities to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are not commensurate with their total export shares. For instance, cocoa contributes only 15% and 7% to the GDP of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, respectively, while the share of coffee in Ethiopia's GDP is just 5%. This can be explained by the fact that these commodities are often exported in raw or semi-processed forms. Consequently, a very small portion of the global value-addition is captured by local economies in Africa. For example, Africa exports 2.5% of world merchandise trade by value and imports 3%. However, in terms of trade by volume, Africa exported 7% of world maritime trade and imported 4.6% in 2019, thus making a trade deficit by value and trade surplus by volume (UNCTAD 2020). In contrast to the African context, other cocoa-producing countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, in the past decade exported more than 50% of their production in semi-processed form (cocoa paste, butter and powder) while Malaysia exports almost all her cocoa at the higher end of semi-processed stages (cocoa butter and cocoa paste). Brazil is equally making considerable efforts to add value to cocoa outputs, with one-third of its total production exported as chocolate products. In contrast, almost all of Mexico's export is made up of chocolate products (Fessehaie and Rustomjee 2018).African economies that depend on the export of basic products with low value-added cannot deliver strong and sustainable economic growth. African countries need to undergo a structural transformation of their economies by adding value to their raw materials and turning them into processed products (AfDB 2017). Conceptually, shifting from a purely agrarian to an industrialised society starts with adding value to primary commodities. Value added is the difference between the costs of goods purchased by an enterprise and the value of the products it sells. It is made up of the amounts paid in wages and salaries, interest, profits, sales taxes and depreciation (Adeyoju 1975). It also includes part of its raw material that is turned into waste or low-value products. The benefits of value addition and industrialising commodity sectors in Africa, where most exports are still in primary forms, will include job creation, food security, revenue generation, increased foreign exchange earnings, improved livelihoods and industrialisation (AfDB 2018b, AfDB et al 2014). On the downside, there may be pollution, increased (fossil) energy use, and exploitative or socially undesirable jobs.To harness the potential of these commodities in driving industrialisation in Africa, the AU commodity strategy seeks to enable African economies add value, capture higher rents from commodities, integrate and potentially dominate global value chains while promoting vertical and horizontal diversification anchored around value addition and intra-African development.This strategy seeks to build on the increasing population growth of Africa (around 3% per annum) with a market of 1 billion people, recent growth in income (about 5% per annum), increasing middle class of about 123 million, averaging daily expenditure levels of US$4-20 (AfDB 2014). These commitments at the continental level underline the importance of industrialisation as a growth pathway for Africa. This chapter seeks to contribute to the African industrialisation agenda by underlining the potential of African industrialisation through tree commodities. The chapter reviews the progress made so far in industrialisation through tree commodities, critically examines industrialisation policies and learns from industrialisation policies and strategies from leading Asian countries with similar tree commodities. Key challenges and options for African industrialisation through tree commodities will also be discussed.Major producing countries of cocoa, coffee and palm oil in Africa have been confrontedwith value addition over the past decades. They have successfully put in place measures to progressively add value to these commodities to benefit from the value addition of moving up the value chain.The development of industrial processes should equally reduce negative environmental impacts, enhance environmental efficiency through material and energy efficiency, circularity and ensure product durability. The industrialisation of African Economies through value addition to tree commodities also requires inclusive social development, which is captured by preserving cultural values through \"Endogenous African Development\". The economic contribution of tree commodities to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of African Economies is increasing.It is recognised and promoted at the policy level in many African countries (AfDB 2018a).Indeed, increasing returns have been recorded when a manufacturer moves from one stage to another along commodity value chains (Xing and Luo 2018). Cocoa is a key tree commodity in West and Central Africa, and this section looks at its potential of industrialising Africa on economic growth. Côte d'Ivoire is the largest cocoa producer in the World, with an annual production of 1,963,949 tonnes of dry cocoa beans (FAOSTAT 2020). The country is thus in a good situation to drive their industrialisation strategy through the domestic processing of this commodity.As processing goes up the value chain, value addition increases significantly. Cocoa barometer (2015) shows the estimated potential value addition that can be captured if the country goes up the value chain. Figure 2 shows the potential increase in GDP if 100% and 50% of cocoa production is processed locally. GDP figures were extracted from the World Development Indicators database, and 50% is used to capture the potential gains of the government policy to domestically process 50% of cocoa production (Reuters 2020)  Potential increase in GDP following 50% and 100% local processing If 50% of domestic production is processed right up to retail and taxes, the country can benefit from a significant contribution to GDP of up to 43.78% from the cocoa industry. However, if 100% is processed locally, the contribution to current GDP can go up to 87.56%. This increase also comes with creation of new jobs and improvement of the balance of payments situation of the country.Semi-processed cocoa products represent a low percentage of exports of processed products from the continent; cocoa butter and cocoa powder (6%), cocoa paste (9%) meanwhile exports of finished chocolate products represent 4% of cocoa beans exports (FAOSTAT 2019). Figures Ghana, like other cocoa producing countries, has been putting in place policies to promote local processing of cocoa. The country seeks to raise the current proportion of export earnings by 40% from domestic processing of cocoa (Mulangu et al 2015). The country promotes this strategy by according premiums to locally processed cocoa. This falls in line with the country and regional strategy of industrialising Africa from primary product-based economies to industrial-based Economies (AfDB 2019 Over the years, coffee has remained one of the major tree commodities, and Ethiopia is the largest coffee producing country in Africa and 5 th globally (Tamru et al 2016). The country produced 7,250 (1,000 MT 60-kg bags) during the 2018/2019 production season with average productivity of 0.82 tons/ha (USDA 2019). Coffee is either processed wet or dry in the country, and the quality of coffee depends on the processing technique used. Wet processing commands higher premiums due to its better quality; however, only 30% of exported coffee is wetprocessed (Tamru et al 2016). The involvement of smallholders in production and processing of coffee in Ethiopia makes the sector one of the highest employers, with over 20 million people who depend directly or indirectly on coffee (USDA 2012). The importance and potential of coffee processing driving the Ethiopian Economy hinges on the fact that the domestic market absorbs 50% of the total production; meanwhile, the rest is exported through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) (Alemayehu 2015). The industrialisation process in Ethiopia through coffee is peculiar because of the dominance of nationals, small-scale processors and farmers who organise themselves into cooperatives and a union of cooperatives to put funds together and invest in coffee processing (see Case of Oromia coffee farmers coorperative).Other small-scale processors use traditional processing techniques to process and sell coffee in shops in major cities of the country. The increasing processing prowess of smallholder farmers coincides with an increasing number of cooperative unions engaged in processing and export of coffee (Minten et al 2014). The growth of wet processing mills has been significant in major production belts in the country. In the Sidama area, single private companies, cooperatives, and shareholding companies account for 40%, 28% and 32 % of wet mills, respectively (Minten et al 2017). The increasing availability of these wet mills in rural areas increased farmers options to sell red cherries used for coffee processing; over a ten year period, sales of red cherries increased by 6.3%. The average distance to the nearest wet mill plant was reduced by 11.7 minutes in the area (Minten et al 2017). Domestic demand for oil palm in Nigeria is very high, which explains the very low level of exports, even though production has been increasing (Figure 17.8). More than 80% of oil production is consumed domestically. The demand pattern for palm oil suggests that the industry comprises two dominant types of processors; small-scale or artisanal processing and industrial processing.There is high demand for SPO coupled with the increasing supply from smallholderprocessors who are predominantly women. About 37,000 local processors exist in the Niger Delta, with women making up a good share (>50%) of this number (PIND 2018). Rudimentary technologies and equipment such as mortar and pestle are used. This technique is not very efficient as only 25% of the oil is extracted; thus, there is a significant loss of yield. However, modern processors are now using mini-processing units, which are semi-mechanised and often composed of a digester, press and small engine. They are more efficient, extracting 67% of available oil. Medium-scale processors can transform an average of 0.5 tons of fresh fruit bunch (FFB)/hour. They have processing units composed of a boiler, digesters, press, clarifier, generator and screening machine. These units produce SPO and can employ up to ten people for operations. Processing units of up to 60 tons FFB/ hour are considered to be large units.They are often very efficient, with up to 75% oil extraction efficiency. Small and medium scale processors still suffer from a significant loss in yields due to inefficiencies of the artisanal technologies they use. The Nigerian Institute has done research on improved techniques for Oil Palm Research. However, research on the challenges faced by users in the adoption and efficient use of these machines needs to be done, and constant upgrading of machines based on users feedback should be put in place.With with government policy to increase oil palm production by 700%, estimated at 600,000 tons a year with a total investment package of US$ 500 million (Bloomberg 2019).Promoting domestic processing at both large-scale and small-scale levels with important policy coordination on incentivising smallholders to process into oils of good quality are relevant options for palm oil in Nigeria. This entails the extensive implementation of sustainable production strategies at both large-scale and smallholder levels with the promotion of high yielding varieties at low cost to farmers. Increasing the research budget for processing raw materials that meets the operational conditions of rural areas and quality demands of consumers is important. Widespread development, testing and dissimilation of processing machinery are therefore key. Policy reforms aimed at marketing and distributing final products with quality control mechanisms are equally important for promoting palm oil in Nigeria.Reorientating industrial policies that create employment, promote shared prosperity and protect the environment while sustaining economic growth, continue to be an overarching objective of African Economies. The recent surge in processing of tree commodities domestically in Africa underscores the potential of good policies in offering incentives for domestic processing of tree commodities. At the continental level, domestic processing of tree commodities is a key trajectory to industrialisation, as outlined by the AU agenda 2063. National Economies have been developing policies that aim for structural transformation of their economies at different levels. Tree commodities have been at the centre of these policies in major producing countries.For example, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire have developed different policies and incentives to promote domestic processing and cocoa marketing. Nigeria developed policies and incentives to increase oil palm production and processing, while similar policies have been developed in Ethiopia for coffee. Table 17.1 highlights progress made on industrialisation policies for tree commodities in case study countries.To better improve the incomes of value chain actors and have a better control of coffee quality, Reducing imports and increasing domestic production to meet demand is central to the oil palm policy of Nigeria. To enforce this policy, a 35% duty on palm oil imports has been imposed since 2008, alongside other fees and taxes applied on oil palm imports which increase the price used for export tariff pricing (reference price) to about 50%. Thus, making it possible for palm oil from Nigeria to compete with imported palm oil (UNIDO 2010). The oil palm industry also benefits from research from the Nigerian Institute for Palm Oil Research (NIFOR), although funds are insufficient to deliver on its mission effectively (Gourichon 2013). Global value-chain actors, processors and retailers of products from major tree commodities are for-profit organisations. Their decision to localise in any country is guided by cost and efficiency gains; thus, the marginal cost per unit in the producer country must be lower than in other locations. Therefore, for African economies to propel industrialisation of their economies through processing of tree commodities, policies and the business environment must provide comparative advantages. The following key challenges have been underscored from the literature as key barriers to industrialisation through tree commodities.The growth of the industrial sector depends on a sound and attractive business environment and basic infrastructure, such as good roads, airlines, seaports, energy supply and communication.Lack of adequate infrastructure increases production and transaction costs to different actors along the value chain, thus making production more expensive and less competitive. The level of infrastructural development is an important element of investment climate, facilitates access to markets, reduces the cost of doing business and is critical in advancing technology and trade integration (Patunola-Ajayi 2013). Electricity costs in Africa are three times higher than in other developing countries, and most companies rely on expensive backup generators that increase operational costs (KPMG 2016). The poor state of regional roads makes it difficult for manufacturing industries to tap into the increasing regional market. Calderon et al (2018) underscores that since 1980, there has been a decline in railroads and few roads are usable all year round. The continent is said to be lagging by 20% compared to average low-income countries in terms of infrastructural development. Only ten African countries are above the global median for transport infrastructure and only five for electricity supply (Yaw-Saw et al 2016).Although the demographic configuration of Africa is dominated by youths, this labour force lack skills and efficiency, which is a major obstacle to investment. Only two-thirds of 15-24 years old complete primary education, and less than 20% go beyond primary education (Filmer and Fox 2014). The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index ranks only ten African countries in the top half of the \"pay to productivity index\". These African countries have well developed educational systems, and thus, the skillset of human resources meet labour market demands. In other countries such as South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Namibia, the Industrializing Africa through Tree Commodities marginal value of labour is lower than the wage rate (KPMG 2013). Some companies have resorted to the importation of the required skillset or intensive training of local staff, which is expensive to companies; thus, making the territory less attractive (UN 2015).Africa registers the highest direct and indirect costs of international trade due to cumbersome port and tax bureaucracies. Issues related to uncoordinated personnel practices and overlapping jurisdictions are frequent amongst different African countries, and government ministries and states have not been able to eliminate this effectively (Yaw Ansu et al 2016). African trade blocs are being promoted as options to promote intra-regional trade, but national bureaucracies and personnel practices still make intra-regional trade more expensive than international trade.The corruption level across the continent is the highest globally, and application of taxes and trade regulations are dominated by corrupt practices (Transparency International 2019).Stronger political will and coordination are required to facilitate trade within countries and regional blocks.Domestic processing requires the installation of heavy equipment and high upfront fixed capital investments; thus, there is the need for large-scale production to benefit from scale economies.However, the productivity of tree commodities in producing countries in Africa is low, so there is the risk of idle capacity within industrial installations (Nasser et al 2020). For example, the average yield per hectare of cocoa in Africa varies between 100-500kg. However, other countries such as Brazil and Indonesia average 1800kg/ha (Abdulai et al 2018). Low yields are also common with other tree commodities such as palm oil and coffee. Poor farm management practices, low use of fertilisers, aging farms and poor coverage of extension services help explain low yields (Asare 2017).Africa is at industrialisation crossroads, with initiatives at different scales to drive industrialisation and revamp the structural transformation agenda. Tree commodities, as described above, offer specific opportunities and options to be considered for industrialisation.Industrial targeting, coupled with research and development, skills development and incentives for exports and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which have been used by Malaysia to boostTree Commodities and Resilient Green Economies in Africa their industrialisation quest and could be tested in Africa (MITI 2006). Building from current experiences in industrialisation through tree commodities and success stories from Malaysia and other Asian countries, a house diagram with a foundation and pillars for industrialising Africa through tree commodities is proposed (see figure 17.6). At the foundation of countries that have succeeded in industrialising through tree commodities is a sound governance and enabling environment. This is constructed on political stability coupled with good and committed leadership with a long-term vision for the nation. Malaysia achieved this through a phased development agenda coupled with medium and long-term plans and adjusted at different phases of their development (World Bank 2019). Coordination between sectors and countries coupled with strategic partnerships are key elements of \"industrialisation governance\". Infrastructural development with the development of land, sea and air transport networks connected with proper information and communication infrastructure are key prerequisites. Access to sustainable energy sources at low prices and qualified labour at affordable rates are key elements that constitute an enabling environment for industrialisation.For tree crop production systems to be termed sustainable, they must be produced at potential optimal productivity levels, permit farmers to earn above \"living income\", are food secure and sustainable agricultural practices employed with reduced deforestation. For this to happen, farmers must embrace and practice the concept of \"green entrepreneurship\", which entails producing more for commercial purposes in a sustainable way. This entails that farmers have a good mastery of their cost structure and potential revenue and clear knowledge of diversification and competitive strategies. These measures entail the adoption and practice of climate-smart farming techniques to mitigate climate change while increasing productivity at a relatively low cost (Likoko and Kini 2017). Development and scaling-up of efficient farmer organisations that enhance farmer productivity through provision of better planting materials, fertilisers, and access to markets, can improve the value chain for tree commodities, such as cocoa, coffee and oil palm. Sustainable agricultural practices that ensure economic viability, resistance to climate change and better access to markets should be the new normal.For African countries dependent on tree commodities to capture a greater share of global value chains, they must put in place policies, and systems that give domestic economies cost and operational efficiency for domestic and FDI-led industrialisation processes. This can be done at two levels:Production of tree commodities such as cocoa, coffee and palm oil is dominated by smallholders. Currently, these smallholders lack the technical support, finance and skills to process their products to semi-finished or finished products; thus, preventing them from gaining the advantages that come with value addition. Therefore, actions could include linking smallholders to better market outlets for semi-finished products, and small-scale farmers or cooperatives could engage in semi-processing of cocoa to liquor to be used by large enterprises for the production of finished products (Ton et al 2008). Policy incentives in Ethiopia to organise the export of coffee and allow smallholders to process and export coffee is driving the industrialisation process. So far, in West Africa, policy incentives for industrialisation through tree commodities have been tilted towards attracting FDI and large companies to process domestically. Engaging smallholders with a proper quality control mechanism can be a pacesetter for industrialisation within the continent.These incentives will motivate multinationals with processing stations in the US and EU to delocalise their processing factories to Africa. Incentives and tax rebates employed so far in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire have succeeded in increasing considerable FDI led grinding of cocoa beans. However, they have not been adequate to motivate large-scale domestic processing to finished products, principally due to high operational costs. Thus, an adequate understanding of overseas cost per unit can help African government design strategies to make their economies cost-efficient for industrialisation. Moreover, tree commodities are only one of the other elements of the final product; enhancing production and importation systems for inputs and by-products are also options for reducing operational costs for industrialisation.Enhancing African demand for African products and trade is key to marketing tree commodities. Intra-regional trade in Africa today accounts for 17% of total exports, which is significantly low compared to more advanced continents like Asia and Europe with intra-regional trade of 59% and 69%, respectively (Signé and Johnson 2018). Thus, reduced transaction costs within the continent make them more competitive. This would enhance trade for products between African Box 17.2Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union is located in the region where coffee originated and coffee cultivation is a cultural activity of the region. The cooperative was established on June 1 st 1999. The Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union is a democratically-managed union composed of coffee growers, processors, suppliers of high quality organic coffee for export. Over the years the union has grown significantly from 34 primary cooperatives representing 22,691 farmers to 405 cooperatives representing 400,000 farmers. The initial capital of the cooperative also increased over time, from $90,000 to $20,763,000.Coffee processing, both wet and dry, is an intergral part of the activities of the cooperative. They currently run three high tech processing facilities in Kality (11 tons per hour), DireDawa (3-4 tons per hour) and Elan (5-7 tons per hour). The Cooperative Union equally boasts a lab for quality control and central facility for technical, administrative and financial issues. The processing units employ more than 2,000 seasonal workers. Coffee exports are certified by Rainforest alliance, UTZ, Fair trade and organic systems. Fair trade premiums are used for social projects such as health, schools, clean water and bridges. So far, a total of 266 projects have been executed with over 224,544 beneficiaries. countries and within intra-regional trade blocs. Intra-regional trade of manufactured products accounts for 42% of intra-regional trade compared to 15% extra-regional trade (Songwe 2019). Thus, products processed to end-uses within the continent are of high demand within the continent, suggesting that developing intra-regional markets for them can significantly boost the industrialisation agenda. This equally enhances diversification of exports and reduces shocks due to dependency on particular countries. For instance, emerging countries in Asia are using export diversification strategies to overcome exogenous and dependency shocks.Diversification is facilitated by high-level political will and coordination between member states, a proper review of competitive advantage and removal of tariffs and administrative barriers to the movement of goods and capital (Songwe et al 2012).Access to finance remains a major obstacle to SMEs, especially those engaged in tree commodities value chains. Institutions such as AFBD and regional development banks within the framework of continental and regional development plans can integrate financing of SMEs involved in processing of tree commodities as a priority. Enhancement of existing financial markets also stands as key opportunities to facilitate access to finance.The industrialisation of Africa is being promoted by national governments, regional and continental development banks and organisations as the next phase of Africa's economic transformation. However, the industrialisation process has been hampered or slowed down by challenges such as poor infrastructural development, lack of adequate skills, poor interregional coordination and road network, low productivity of tree commodities and corruption.A holistic and inclusive approach to industrialisation through tree commodities would help promote domestic processing and include smallholder farmers, research and development, and the development of key skill sets. At the foundation of the industrialisation agenda is a stable and visionary political leadership, proper infrastructural development and skills that meet the shifting paradigm. Sustainable production of these tree commodities is the first and most important pillar of Industrialisation through tree commodities. It gives assurance of continuous supply of raw material, proper industrialisation policies that make African economies comptetive, cost and operationally efficient and thus, key in attracting domestic and FDI-led investors. The African free trade area, financial market and financing mechanisms for SMEs are key in financing and marketing the industrialisation process.","tokenCount":"4578"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"764c052c186e0ec8b84d716e64052f35","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/712af83d-3f7a-45a2-aeb4-6916a23712c1/retrieve","id":"1730875528"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"848ff8c8-f899-4f38-92e6-c7abda532a92","pagecount":"28","content":"Ak in w um i Ad es in a, ne w Pr es id en t of th e Af ric an De ve lo pm en t Ba nk an d fo rm er Mi ni ste r of Ag ric ul tu re fo r Ni ge ria ACCess To ferTilisersntil recently, increasing food production in Africa had generally been achieved by extending cropland. But population pressure, increased competition between crop and livestock farming, and declining soil fertility are forcing African countries to ramp up their investment in fertilisers. So what fertilisers are best -chemical, organic or mixed? While some promote fully organic farming, most experts agree that chemical fertilisation is necessary to a greater or lesser extent, albeit in combination with a relatively high level of soil organic matter and good cropping practices. Opinions differ, but all agree on the importance of producing more on the same amount of land without damaging the resource base, an ambition now widely known as 'sustainable crop intensification'.The statistics are startling: on average, fertilisers are applied at a rate of 10 kg/ha in Africa, compared to 100 kg/ha worldwide and 200 kg/ha in Asia, and are typically focused on cash crops or commercial plantations. Africa's minimal use of fertiliser can be explained by a number of factors: high fertiliser costs (up to four times greater than elsewhere in the world), insufficient ports, roads and distribution infrastructure, and weak access to credit among smallholder farmers are three of the most significant.Producing more and better is a priority for farming worldwide. But in Africa, the task is even more difficult given that agricultural productivity is lower than in any other region. Providing access to fertilisers is therefore vital.Driven by international markets, fertiliser prices are high and will remain so, making them unaffordable to the majority of African smallholders. Many countries strive to offset this problem by subsidising fertilisers, but this is costly, weighs heavily on state budgets and is frequently ineffective: subsidised fertilisers do not always reach the targeted farmers and cases of misappropriation and fraud are common.In response, 'smart subsidies' have been developed by the International Fertiliser Development Center (IFDC), which is active in various countries including Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria and Rwanda. The subsidies come in the form of fertiliser vouchers that are issued on a case-by-case basis to targeted farmers, who in turn take them to registered distributors to obtain fertilisers at a discounted price. This more transparent system, typically implemented through a public-private partnership, is a way for countries to provide direct help to needy farmers and develop an effective fertiliser distribution network.Farmers' fertiliser expenditures may also be reduced by tailoring fertiliser formulations to soil and crop characteristics, thus boosting their efficacy. Ideally, specific fertilisers should be formulated to match the characteristics of each field; while this is clearly unrealistic, current trends in fertiliser manufacturing are moving in the right direction.In Ethiopia, for instance, 3,500 soil samples were taken throughout the country to draw up a comprehensive soil map. Levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and trace elements in the samples were recorded. Fertiliser formulations were then developed for specific regions and crops, based on field test findings and mathematical model simulations. An initial 120 formulations were subsequently narrowed down to 12.Ethiopia's next step has been to invest in a number of fertiliser blending plants to manufacture complex, readyto-use fertilisers, thus overcoming the need to import these formulations. The first plant, located in the Oromia region, began production in June 2014. Three others should soon be operational in Amhara, Tigray, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region. The ultimate aim is to help 11 million smallholders increase their crop yields by giving them access to these tailored fertilisers. Farmers' cooperatives are full partners in the initiative, operating the fertiliser blending plants with the support of regional governments and Ministry of Agriculture agencies.\"Bespoke fertiliser formulations will generate much higher agricultural and economic returns. Hence, at virtually the same cost, crop yield increases of over 35% can be achieved through just slight adjustments in the fertiliser compositions and especially by focusing on trace element levels,\" says Patrice Annequin, IFDC senior market analyst and coordinator of the AfricaFertilizer.org initiative.Fertilisers must be accessible for farmers, which means establishing distributor networks. While there are vast regions with no distributors at all, networks have been relatively well developed in some countries. Uganda, for instance, has around 2,000 input distributors, and since the turn of the century, Niger's Ministry of Agriculture has been developing fertiliser outlets (currently around 800) that are managed by farmers' organisations. Farmers can purchase inputs in small quantities while also getting advice on how to apply them.Another way to improve input availability is to link smallholders with markets i.e. input suppliers put fertiliser producers in contact with the farmers. For example, WIENCO, the main private fertiliser distribution company in Ghana, links farmers with the Masara N'Arziki maize farmers' association. One hitch, however, is that farmers have to sow at least 5 ha of maize to qualify to be an association member, which in practice excludes farmers with small or very small farms. Apart from being privately run, this resembles the public integrated cotton production sectors in West Africa.In terms of organic approaches, a number of new technologies and alternative solutions are being developed to help farmers address the challenges they face. These include agroecology, agroforestry, permaculture and croplivestock integration. Overall, the trend is moving towards ecological intensification, which implies that nothing is lost and everything is transformed; dung becomes manure and plant waste becomes compost. New practices are being implemented, such as direct seeding, mulch-based cropping systems and crop rotations, especially with legumes or nitrogen-fixing trees. These 'green manures' enhance soil fertility management and are affordable for smallholders.In Africa, a green revolution is in the making but will, undoubtedly, be very different to the model that prevailed in Asia and Latin America.For over 20 years, IFDC has successfully used the fertiliser deep placement (FDP) technique for rice fields in Bangladesh as an alternative to conventional fertiliser application methods. The fact that 70% of urea was lost via runoff or evaporation prompted the idea of compacting this organic compound into briquettes. These are buried in the soil manually or with a mechanical applicator to a depth of 7-10 cm near the plant roots, where they gradually release nitrogen. This practice boosts yields by 18% on average, while reducing fertiliser quantities by roughly a third.Since 2009, IFDC has been promoting FDP in 13 African countries and similar improvements have been achieved in rice crop fields in all of these areas. Annequin points out, however, that this process has so far only proven successful in irrigated cropping systems, which limits the scope of its use in Africa. We decided to implement the e-wallet system to reduce the Government's direct involvement in the procurement and distribution of agro-inputs. This joint initiative between the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ensures that agro-inputs as well as key extension messages reach the farmers in a fast and transparent way. Key elements include modules on farmer registration, transaction management, agro-dealer lending, and third party auditing. By putting the power in farmers' hands, vouchers for subsidised inputs; seed and fertiliser are received on their mobile phones -or 'e-wallets' -which they use to buy inputs directly from the agro-dealers.Since its launch, what have been the major benefits for farmers and the Government? What will be the long term impact of the e-wallet on Nigeria's agricultural sector?Since 2011, we have reached about 20 million smallholder farmers. Fertiliser companies have sold €100 million and seed companies €10 million worth of inputs. Banks have lent €20 million to agro-dealers and the default rate has been 0%. We now have an up-to-date register with complete profiles of more than 15 million farmers. As a nation, we have produced an additional 21 million tonnes of food and reduced the food import bill. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, food imports declined from €6.3 billion in 2009 to €4.11 billion in 2013, and continue to decline. Our national import bill for rice has been reduced by 60%.We have successfully brought transparency, accountability and structure to the input distribution system in Nigeria and we can track whatever is going on within the system. It has also restored trust between the Government and farmers. Major local and international investors are investing in this new agriculture sector.The long term impact of the e-wallet system is the integration of all the elements of our national agricultural system: from production to consumption. Attaining our national food security and economic development goals is no longer unreachable. Agriculture has regained its rightful place as the major creator of jobs and increased incomes. We can reduce our dependency on oil wealth because we also have 'soil wealth'.What have been the challenges? Is there need for continued government intervention or will farmers be willing to pay for future services?Changing behaviour that has been entrenched over 40 years was not easy but we have succeeded in convincing farmers and agro-dealers, among others, to adopt this transparent way of doing business. The second challenge was infrastructure. We need a more robust telecommunication, road and rail infrastructure. Our investments over the past 3 years are now bearing fruit. For example, more farmers have adopted mobile telephone technology, we have fixed major roads and we have increased access to markets. We plan to upgrade the e-wallet by embedding a micro-chip to serve as an electronic identification bank card as part of the Nigerian Agricultural Payments Initiative.What advice would you give to other African governments who are considering adopting the e-wallet?Nigeria is the first African country to launch an electronic wallet system for the delivery of subsidised inputs to farmers. Our advice is simple; visit Nigeria to learn from our experience if you want to implement your programme at a faster pace. There is no need to replicate our mistakes. Hundreds of women from northern Mozambique, organised into rural cooperatives, have changed the lives of their families by creating a flow of agricultural products and fish to urban areas. These groups are also raising awareness in rural communities on women's rights, with a focus on civic and political engagement and resource management in the region. Rosa Halaneque, leader of a women's group in Meconta district, said her work in the last two years has helped change her family's life. \"Now I can send my children to better schools and ensure they are well fed,\" she says, stressing that this change \"has been shared by the members of most groups.\"Aunício da Silva fArMer ownersHiPOver 700,000 coffee farmers are benefiting from a new system for adding value to their coffee beans, and are earning more from their crop as a result. I n Uganda, coffee farmers have traditionally been price takers, selling their unprocessed coffee beans for whatever a buyer will offer. Under the Farmer Ownership Model, developed by farmer Joseph Nkandu and recently recognised as a CTA Top 20 Innovation, farmers join together, form partnerships with exporters and roasters, and take on several roles within the coffee value chain. This process has been led by the National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE), and now involves over 700,000 farmers in 160 associations.Under the new inclusive model, NUCAFE and its member associations do not buy the farmers' coffee, but rather provide farmers with affordable services. This allows farmers to retain ownership of the coffee during the value addition process, and thereby earn a higher return from the value added product. Farmers take responsibility and share in the benefits from the more lucrative parts of the value chain. Coffee processors have also benefited, achieving higher operational capacity for their processing equipment and increased revenue.The model redefines the role of farmer organisations to being partners who work with farmers to increase the value they receive from commodity sales. Engaging in more profitable parts of the value chain has not only increased farmer incomes, but is also challenging and reshaping power relations within the chain. Farmers have been motivated to invest in developing their entrepreneurial and leadership skills, as well as infrastructure and policy advocacy. As a result, the model has been incorporated within the National Coffee Policy, launched by the Ugandan government in December 2013. It has also been prioritised for adoption in other farming sectors by national and regional organisations responsible for agricultural development.Joseph Nkandu, executive director of NUCAFE (on the right with a hat) training farmers on coffee bush management for better coffee, and improved investment returns under the farmer ownership model © NUCAFE/J Nkandu nuTriTion the benefits of chaya CAre is encouraging the production and consumption of chaya (spinach) in a pilot project with more than 150 farmers from nampula district, in northern Mozambique. High rates of malnutrition, and the fact that chaya is a fast-growing plant with recognised nutritional qualities that can be produced all year round, have led to this change. The project will include cooking demonstrations and awareness-raising of its dietary importance.Fresh boost for rubber tree in 2012, the ivorian government decided to increase the total area dedicated to rubber tree to more than 300,000 ha by 2020. in the Daoukro, Dimbokro, Prikro, Bocanda, M'bahiakro, gagnoa and Bongouanou regions, farmers have shown their willingness to replace cocoa and coffee with more profitable rubber tree cultivation. it has the notable advantage of generating a monthly income. rubber production increased to 311,429 t in 2014, up from 255,000 in 2012.Pasta made in Cameroon instead of imported wheat, Dorothy selamo, a Cameroonian businesswoman, is using cassava, yam and cocoyam flour to make pasta. To achieve this, she discovered a technique to enable her products to maintain their viscoelasticity once cooked. The pasta is sold in Douala under the brand 'Miondonini'.A south African beehive protects bees from extreme temperatures, thereby reducing colony stress and maintaining productivity. The composite material used to make BeePak TM hives is lightweight, easy to transport and has a 50-year lifespan. The new hive produces around 5kgs more honey than traditional hives.Plants for promoting health and well-being in Palau, a recent survey of traditional medicine use found that seven out of ten people self-prepared medicinal remedies using plants such as Morinda citrifolia L. (used as a treatment for diabetes) and Phaleria nishidae (used to treat obesity). The plants are now being investigated in clinical trials.CAlling for HelP iCt support for medical emergencies rural people in Cameroon's far northern district of lagdo have gained improved access to health services thanks to a new, iCT-supported, emergency alert system. under M-Health, farmers warn local health facilities of an emergency via text message, the system pinpointing their location using gPs.A new interactive online tool, the Biofortification Priority Index (BPi), is now available to guide stakeholders in making investment decisions on seven crops biofortified in vitamin A (cassava, maize and orange sweet potato), iron (bean and pearl millet) and zinc (rice and wheat). The BPi, developed by HarvestPlus -a global research partnership -gives useful information to determine which crops the investment will have the highest payoff for in reducing micronutrient deficiencies. http://tinyurl.com/osf7l7g PesTiCiDes improved health in Kenya, pesticides are widely used on vegetable crops. in order to limit the damage caused by insects and to protect the health of agricultural workers, researchers from the African insect science for food and Health (icipe) have developed polyethylene nets to place over crops. This has effectively reduced pesticide use for tomatoes and beans by 100%.Haitian farmers are using good agricultural practices to help control aflatoxin contamination in groundnuts AflAToXin ConTrolHaitian groundnut farmers have adopted innovative strategies to tackle aflatoxin contamination, thereby improving their incomes and consumers' health.n Haiti, the NGO Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) is providing a valuable market for locally sourced groundnuts. MFK is an approved supplier of groundnut-based ready-to-use foods (such as fortified peanut butter) to UNICEF (the UN Children's Fund) in Haiti, used in feeding programmes. Since 2004, MFK has sourced over 180,000 kgs of groundnuts from Haitian farmers, using a model that supports smallholders to control aflatoxin contamination through training, collaborative research and price incentives. As a result, farmers have been able to access credit and increase yields by 30% and farm incomes by 100%.Aflatoxins -poisonous chemicals formed by soil-borne Aspergillus fungi, which are commonly found in the tropics -are highly carcinogenic, leading to liver cancer after long term exposure. Children are particularly at risk, and consumption of contaminated foods is strongly linked with childhood stunting and reduced birth weight. Aflatoxins are also damaging to livestock health and can enter the human food chain through foods such as milk and eggs.Meds & Food for Kids, with the support of their farmer networks, has been able to reduce aflatoxin contamination levels to within international standards. Developed in collaboration with national and international partners, MFK's model -one of CTA's Top 20 Innovations -promotes the use of appropriate control strategies throughout the entire value chain. At the field level, the model focuses on the adoption of good agricultural practices, for example use of vigorous varieties, crop rotation, timely planting, maintenance of soil fertility and weed, pest and disease control. Harvesting, threshing and drying to less than 10% moisture must be done as quickly as possible. Tarpaulins are used when drying and breathable bags are used for storage to prevent moisture build-up. MFK also conducts moisture and aflatoxin testing at the point of purchase. Collectively, these strategies ensure that aflatoxin levels are controlled.Since 2012, a private company, Acceso Peanut Corp., has expanded the model to new regions of Haiti, opening up new markets to more farmers. A fodder production unit has been set up in fatick. Acquired under a cooperation programme between senegal and saudi Arabia, the unit can produce within a very short time (7 days), up to 1 t of fodder a day. A special feature of this incubator is that it is powered by solar energy with the possibility to switch source to electrical energy powered by a generator.An indoor fish farming unit in the south of Cameroon is boosting production and providing employment to over 200 people. C ameroon's Miyomesala indoor fish farming centre, established in 2012, is supplying around 250 t of fish per year to the Cameroon market, and aims to double this production within the next three years. Built by the national government and local council authorities, the indoor system aims to maximize production in a relatively small amount of land, while reducing water usage. Wastewater from the fish rearing process is largely re-circulated after treatment.The centre practices polyculture of Nile tilapia and African catfish and directly employs 23 young, trained fish farmers. Over 200 people benefit indirectly through marketing, fish smoking and production of feeds. According to the local authorities, fish farming has become a major source of income for the council, already earning over €120,000. This success has encouraged the government to rethink its aquaculture policy, with plans to invest money normally used for fish importation to train farmers and subsidise indoor aquaculture through cooperatives and local council projects.In Uganda and Kenya, abattoir waste is being used to produce biogas and bio fertiliser for use as organic manure.W ith a daily slaughter capacity of over 700 cattle and 450 smaller livestock, Kampala City abattoir produces around 400 m 3 wastewater per day, with a damaging impact on both the ecology and the quality of drinking water in the area. Researchers at Makerere University are working with Bio-resources Innovations Network for Eastern Africa to help the abattoir reduce and clean its wastewater. Waste from the abattoir is first passed through digesters to produce biogas. The digested waste is then separated into a nutrient-rich sludge for use as a biofertiliser. The effluent, meanwhile, is passed through a hydroponic system constructed in an artificial wetland, to be further cleaned before it is dispersed into the environment.In Kiserian town in Kenya, 320 Maasai pastoralists running Keekonyokie slaughterhouse are also producing biogas from livestock waste. The digested waste is then used as manure to replenish their grazing pastures. The abattoir is capable of generating biogas for 100 x 6 kg cylinders per day, which are sold for €6.5 per cylinder, about half the cost of conventional LPG gas. According to Professor Erastus Gatebe of Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute, a biogas flame is hotter one than that produced from LPG gas, and guarantees 30 to 40% greater energy efficiency.TrADiTionAl KnowleDgeAncestral knowledge of goat, sheep and cow diseases is being tapped from 250 ethnoveterinarians in four districts in Rwanda. Their knowledge is being used to compile a French-Kinyarwanda (local language) database of animal diseases and their symptoms. The ethnovets are also helping researchers from VSF Belgium, Rwanda Scientific and Technological Research Institute and Rwanda Agriculture Board and National Veterinary Laboratory identify the ethno-medicinal plants and herbs and their active ingredients used to treat livestock diseases. The focus of the collaboration is on common diseases like mastitis and worm infections.Increased investment in the aquaculture sector will boost production of farmed fish by as much as 4.14% per year over the next decade, according to a recent report by FAO. Enhanced technologies in water use, breeding, hatchery practices and feeds will be the main drivers of growth in the sector, which in 2014 contributed more to direct fish consumption than captured fish. However, alternative forms of fish feed, such as those based on vegetable protein, will be required to meet expanding needs and respond to price pressures, particularly in Africa where many fish farmers rely on imported feeds.Protein-rich rodents in south Kivu region of DrC, over 18,000 households displaced by war have increased their protein intake by 20% after engaging in cavy husbandry. After maturing at 6-8 months, locals use them for home consumption or sell them at €0.8-1.5. According to researchers, protein content of cavy meat is higher than chicken and ideal for malnourished children. gloBAl ToolThe recently launched global yield gap Atlas, developed by the university of nebraska and other project partners, allows users to estimate the gap between potential and actual crop yields, based on plant, soil and climate data for a given area. it aims to boost production while conserving land and water.By restoring degraded mangroves, communities in Kenya and Mozambique are earning funds for community projects and protecting themselves against flooding.ikoko Pamoja, a small-scale carbon offset project in Gazi Bay, Mombasa, Kenya is helping local communities to protect and rehabilitate their mangrove forests and thereby qualify to receive carbon funds. The community project has been accredited by Plan Vivo to sell credits to the value of 3000 t of carbon per year over the next 20 years, which is derived from a mix of avoided deforestation and forest degradation plus reforestation activities.As well as offering crucial nursery habitat for marine life and protecting the coastline from storms and tsunamis, mangrove forests are natural carbon sinks. Able to lock and store CO 2 in their sediments, the forests help lessen the impacts of global warming. Their carbon storing powers are thought to be on average five times that of tropical rainforests.However, according to Professor Mark Huxham of Edinburgh Napier University, one of the key forests in Mikoko Pamoja, Kenya has lost 20% of its mangroves in the last 25 years.Through its activities, Mikoko Pamoja ('Mangroves Together' in Kiswahili) expects to generate an average of €11,000 each year from sale of carbon credits, 30% of which will go towards meeting local community needs. In 2013, a very good year for the project, they sold 3,000 t and received approximately €13,700, which the Mikoko Pamoja Committee decided to use to improve the education system in the area. As a result Makongeni primary school benefitted from books and Gazi primary school saw their leaking classrooms renovated.Meanwhile in northern Mozambique's coastal districts of Moma and Angoche, local communities are drawing on knowledge gained in training activities to invest in replanting of mangroves and more robust construction of houses. Replanting has been recommended by a number of NGOs as a means of minimizing the impact of floods, a high priority in the context of climate change. Construction of smaller, more robustly designed houses in less windy locations is also a climate coping strategy, with more frequent and intense storms posing a dangerous threat to stored crops and other household goods.Targeting young people aged 15-31, the Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN) is currently involved in a wide variety of youth education, information delivery and advocacy projects. With over 800 individual members and more than 30 organisational members at the start of 2015, the network is focusing on a number of key issues connected to climate change and the impact of natural hazards. Potable water conservation, wastewater management, sustainable agriculture and land degradation are among the leading priorities, with a CYEN statement on climate change delivered at the Small Island Developing States conference in Samoa in 2014. Since 2009, a multidisciplinary team involving close to 50 researchers from 20 countries and coordinated by FAO and the International Atomic Energy Agency has been studying fruit fly, one of the most destructive fruit pests. The results recently released show that Oriental, Philippine, Invasive and Asian Papaya flies all belong to the same biological species, Bactrocera dorsalis. According to Dr Marc Schutze, this outcome has major implications for global plant biosecurity. It will lead to reduced barriers to international trade and improved pest management, and will facilitate transboundary international cooperation. Furthermore, quarantine measures will be more effective, post-harvest treatments more widely applied and fundamental research improved.Radio Marché enables rural communities in the Tominian area to access market information available online for farming businesses.H ow do you bridge the digital divide to benefit illiterate rural communities who have no access to the internet or a computer? Voice technology appears to be a solution. Amadou Tangara, a Malian innovator, has developed three platforms giving rural communities access to new technologies through voice: Tabalé organises events, Foroba Blon supports citizen journalism and Radio Marché links together 600 small farmers (70% women).Thanks to Radio Marché, more than 20 rural communities in the Tominian area, south of Mali, are now selling honey, shea nuts, tamarind and other products. It's a business system that helps farmers to find customers for their products by converting market information sent through mobile phones into computer generated voice communiqués broadcasted on the radio.How does this virtual famers' market work? On a weekly basis, farmers send an SMS to the project coordinators with the type and quantity of goods they want to sell. These offers are entered into a form on the Radio Marché website. The system automatically converts the information into a voice communiqué in French and notifies the radio by SMS. The radio journalist simply dials a phone number and hears a communiqué , which can be saved and broadcast on the radio directly from a mobile.The radio station can broadcast the message several times a day. This saves the journalists' time, in no longer needing to read long data lists, and ensures that the information is broadcasted accurately. Stations connected to the internet can receive the voice communiqués as audio files sent by e-mail.To create the automatic voice messages, the project team recorded and processed the personal voices of two journalists, one from a rural radio and the other from the Malian public radio, to make the communiqués sound natural although computer generated.Today, Radio Marché is generating voice communiqués only in French but is aiming to extend the service in vernacular languages and to other areas in Mali and the West African sub-region. Farming by phone edyn has developed a solar powered, smart phone operated system enabling gardeners to both monitor and respond to changes in their garden from a distance. The garden sensor monitors humidity, pH, temperature and light and can advise on which crops to plant. An automated watering device is also available.niTrogen use effiCienCyghana's Crops research institute, investigating nitrogen use efficiency (nue) in rice plants, believes it may have identified genes that offer a 15% yield advantage over non-gM varieties. future experiments will evaluate plants for greater efficiency in water use and salt tolerance, as well as nue.With many of Africa's economies amongst the fastest growing in the world, middle class urban consumers are increasingly changing the face of the food market in Africa. This evolving, more sophisticated market brings with it new challenges and opportunities. doSSieR W ith 40% of its population living in cities, Africa is now more urbanised than India (30%) and almost as urbanised as China (45%). By 2016, over 500 million Africans will live in urban areas and the number of cities with over 1 million residents is expected to exceed 65, up from 52 in 2011. This development is critically important for retail companies, with a McKinsey report -Rise of the African consumerforecasting that annual consumer spending in Africa is poised to surpass €1.3 trillion during 2015, up from €810 billion in 2008. However, whilst urbanisation and rising incomes are an attractive prospect for food companies, urban areas cannot be viewed as a single, uniform market. Consumer preferences and needs vary significantly according to available income and geographical location, and the creation of relevant packaging and marketing strategies requires detailed market research.The World Bank estimates that by 2030 Africa's food market will be worth €0.95 trillion. Over the last 20 years, the food retail sector has been transformed by the rise of supermarkets and sales of packaged foods. This trend is showing no sign of abating, with packaged food sales enjoying double-digit growth during 2013-4. The largest market in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can be found in Nigeria, where a booming urban population is fuelling demand for convenience foods, such as drinking yoghurt, pastries and sweet and savoury snacks. The modernisation of urban consumer tastes in Nigeria, and a rising demand for standardised, packaged and better quality products has also coincided with the rapid growth of supermarkets and hypermarkets. Thus, whilst open markets and kiosks have been the traditional channel for packaged foods, as elsewhere in Africa, many consumers appear to be favouring the convenience of having all their household needs met by a single, large store which, through its high volumes of produce, can offer competitive prices and easy comparison between large numbers of brands.However, as Africa's dependence on food imports has grown and foreign companies seek to invest in the urban retail markets, many African countries are attempting to boost the availability of local products. Senegal, for instance, is one of the most food-import dependent countries in SSA, especially when it comes to rice, a main staple. In 2011, rice made up almost 40% of the country's total agricultural imports by weight, with imported rice contributing around 60% of national rice consumption. In response, the Senegalese government have been increasing their focus and investment in localCherubet foods, based in Nairobi, supplies ready-to-eat, nutritious foods to urban consumers through five of Kenya's major supermarket chains. Established in 2007 because owner and working mother, Mary Cherop Maritim, felt nutritious local foods were not conveniently available for urban consumers, the company now supplies up to half a tonne of frozen pre-cooked foods (including beans, green maize, pigeon peas, black beans and boiled maize) each week. For her products to be accepted for sale, inspection teams from each of the supermarkets visited her factory, where the foods are cooked and packaged, to verify safety standards were being met. Her employees also received training on good manufacturing practices and aflatoxin testing from the African Alliance for Improved Food Processing. Her market is currently predominantly urban middle class. However, by investing in equipment to increase production, she hopes to lower her prices and sell products in 0.5 kg packet at less than KSh 50 (€0.50), which will be more affordable for poorer communities. doSSieR Supermarkets offer urban consumers competitive prices and easy comparison between large numbers of brands rice production, and the private sector has been working hard to develop appropriate packaging and branding for the product, which many consumers regard as inferior to imported rice.A consumer preference research project found packaging to be a key factor in rice purchasing, with 47% of women identifying brands by colours and/or symbols rather than by brand name; consumers were willing to pay price premiums of 17% for their preferred brand. But urban consumers are not a homogenous group (see Viewpoint on p17). In Senegal, local brands were more popular among poorer women, who were not really brand conscious, and who traditionally purchased local rice; international brands were preferred among wealthier women, who tended to be more brand conscious.Appealing to consumers' national loyalty by packaging only locally manufactured goods, Eastern Africa's Nakumatt supermarket launched 'Blue Label' -its own store brand -in 2013, which was designed to provide product variety alongside 'value for money'. The brand includes everyday products, such as beans, home baking flour and household cleaners, as well as more indulgent snack products, such as popcorn and chilli lemon crisps. Nakumatt has also adopted the strategy of marketing small-sized products by repackaging goods such as sugar, flour and grains under its Blue Label brand. By embracing what is popularly known as 'the kadogo economy' (kadogo meaning 'tiny' in Swahili), it is responding to consumer demand for products in large, medium and small packs.In Zimbabwe, to attract consumers in the face of competition from cheaper, imported products, a government supported initiative, 'Buy Zimbabwe', was launched in 2011. At the time, the country imported €5.6 billion worth of goods against exports of €3.75 billion, the stimulus for the government to give priority to local producers of goods and services. The initiative has established partnerships with 60 companies who have embraced new marketing methods. For instance, Irvine, a local chicken producer, has repackaged its products with a new seal that keeps them fresher for longer. Olivine Industries (established in 1931) has taken a different strategy to marketing, re-introducing old and trusted product lines (cooking oils etc.) to appeal to urban consumers who will recognise the brand as providing quality.Following the Buy Zimbabwe campaign, which has taken place in-store, as well as through road shows and online marketing, retailers have said that around 50% of their consignment is now local and, as a result, Zimbabwe reduced its import bill by €1.5 billion in 2014 compared to 2013. \"Many of our organisations have understood the importance of packaging; how the products appear affects the buying habits of the consumer,\" says Vandudzai Zirebwa, an economist with Buy Zimbabwe. \"Some of our partners are now meeting world class packaging standards because they have been innovative and this has led to improved sales. However, some still have a way to go as they are operating on a tighter budget, but we encourage companies to aim high and invest in research and development.\" (see also box, Keeping up with the trends) opportunities for farmers?Much of the packaging and marketing for food consumption is carried out at the top end of the value chain. But what about farmers who are endeavouringConscious of remaining competitive in the face of cheaper, imported food products, Kershelmar Dairies -a leading Zimbabwean manufacturer -is packaging its juice and dairy products in eye catching and conveniently sized containers that suit the pockets of increasingly discerning urban consumers. Previously bulky, blandly labelled containers have been replaced by smaller, lighter, attractively labelled versions. Juices come in 250ml, 330ml, 500ml and 5l bottles. Dairy blends come in 250ml bottles and 500ml sachets. Other products, including fresh cream, butter, full cream milk, drinking yoghurt and sour milk, are sold under the brand 'Inkomaas'. \"The environment is ever changing and customers have become very price conscious,\" says Roland Bent, Kershelmar Dairies marketing manager. \"So we are continually improving our packaging to keep up with current competition and trends.\"  to tap into urban markets? In Zambia, the NGO Self Help Africa has supported small-scale farmers to set up a system for cassava processing and packaging in order to enhance their marketing opportunities. Before 2010, most of the farmers in Kaoma in Western Province sold pounded cassava in the market at a price that was dependent on what the buyer offered. However, in the past few years, training by Self Help Africa and Ministry of Agriculture extension officers has enabled men and women farmers to process and package their cassava in order to fix the price and quantity of their sales. Organised into Kaoma Cassava Processing, the farmers now package their processed flour into 2 and 5 kg bags which have a fixed price. And, due to the increasing demand for cassava flour by urban consumers, their attractively packaged flour is even sold by the supermarket company, Shoprite.Through improved organisation, a greater number of Zambian farmers are now supplying grocery chains. Near Lusaka, for example, an independently owned packhouse, which supplies the retailer 'Pick n Pay', consolidates horticultural produce from about 60 farmers, who are trained in quality standards. At the packhouse, the vegetables and fruit are prepared and packaged (including trimming and wrapping) for supermarket shelves. For farmers in remoter areas, however, distance remains a problem, with fuel and transport costs from farm to packhouse still proving a significant drain on profitability. An alternative approach adopted by Farm Concern International in Kenya emphasises the creation of 'Commercial Villages', enabling smallholder producers to pool their efforts and their produce and thereby respond to increasing market demands, including in urban areas (See Spore 172 'Bagging a deal with onions').In the Caribbean and Pacific, urban populations are, of course, much smaller than in Africa. Nevertheless, FAO has warned that retail food outlets in small island states are increasingly selling imported, processed foods that are pricing locally produced, healthier foods out of the market and affecting the long-term health of islanders. Over 30% of the Caribbean population is obese and the cost to the economy of obesity-linked diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, is estimated at almost €1 billion per year. If local food producers are to supply expanding urban and tourist markets and reduce demand on imported products, a policy-driven, multi-sector approach (including public and private sectors) will be required. This will be a particular challenge in the Pacific, however, where most countries currently lack the technical skills and resources to process and package local foods into the 'convenience' products demanded in urban markets. In responding to this challenge, FAO has stated that revenue generated from additional tariffs and taxes on unhealthy imported food products should be invested in greater nutrition awareness campaigns and in improving the competitiveness and availability of nutritious local foods.Susanna thorp doSSieRJoab Ouma is the business development director for Lasting Solutions, Uganda -a commercial agro-processing company specialising in developing new products for the urban poor.Developing affordable, convenient products for urban consumers is very important. Beans, for example, are a nutritious, popular staple but they are a slow-cooking food, which requires time and a lot of fuel. In Rwanda, they have had some experience in developing viable pre-cooked bean products that cook in less than 15 minutes, but this requires reliable production of appropriate bean varieties, effective marketing systems and competitive food products that are acceptable to consumers. We are now trying to do the same working with value chains partners in Kenya and Uganda.We see that there are three different categories of urban consumers. There is the urban poor who need to have affordable food with low energy costs. Then there is the middle income group who want nutritious, value-added products that are easy to cook. Finally, you have the high income consumer who likes trendy, snack foods. To develop appropriate products, one has to determine consumer demand by assessing potential demand, package sizes and product prices. Our role in the pre-cooked bean value chain is to develop prototype products and packaging for market testing.This is a new world that marketers are up against but it is a challenge we are embracing. The beauty of the challenge is that as much as consumers are diverse they have a lot in common. For instance, we all eat beans but we often eat beans very differently. Our job is to offer a range of products with a single core ingredient that is available in different pack sizes and sometimes even modify the branding to appeal to our different consumer groups.In Nigeria, an innovative new scheme is bringing fresh produce from farms directly to urban consumers using young farmers and entrepreneurs.W hile urban consumers are increasingly aware of the health benefits to be had from fresh farm produce, heavy city traffic and the pressures of modern lifestyles leave little time for visiting fresh fruit and vegetable markets. This, at least, is the situation in Nigeria's urban areas perceived by Afioluwa Mogaji popularly known as Africanfarmer, and is one of the reasons behind his 'Green Collar Jobs' project. Established in five Nigerian cities in 2012, the approach is an innovative and exciting model for agricultural marketing, which is simultaneously creating opportunities for young entrepreneurs and farmers, and bringing high quality, fresh vegetables direct to urban consumers.Development of the direct marketing model has been driven by Mogaji's work to bring young people into profitable agriculture, through training, provision of inputs, and negotiating access to disused government farmland -work for which the entrepreneur, chief executive of X-Ray Farms Consulting, has been recognised as a Fellow of Ashoka, the largest network of social entrepreneurs worldwide. Around 175 young farmers have, with Mogaji's support, established modern farming enterprises to grow maize, watermelons, off-season tomatoes, sweet peppers and leafy vegetables. Their produce is then sold to urban consumers by another team of young entrepreneurs who organise 'mobile markets' and direct sales.The green collar entrepreneurs identify customers through their own networks, including professionals working in corporate organisations and church members or other social groups. With direct sales, they arrange for the farm produce to be delivered to the home, office, church or any other location the buyer chooses. For the mobileMogaji (left) and two 'green collar' farmers with farm fresh cucumbers to deliver direct to urban consumers doSSieR fielD rePorT froM nigeriA markets, rented canopies are erected and tables set up for a few hours, typically in wealthier neighbourhoods. Some of the produce is sold by the kilo, with others sold in more traditional quantities used in open markets. When sold, the profit is shared between Mogaji's firm, the entrepreneur and the farmer -an amount that farmers know will be a decent income compared to alternative marketing systems.Mogaji is frequently invited to speak about agribusiness on TV and radio, and seizes the opportunity to create awareness of the green collar scheme. However, most of the marketing is done by the entrepreneurs, who use whatever publicity channels are available to inform people in their networks. These include direct marketing phone calls, text messaging, emails, Whats App, BB messenger, Facebook and Twitter, and announcements at social and religious gatherings.Working directly with 12 entrepreneurs and indirectly with about 20 in sales of the farm produce, Mogaji gives training to them and other potential green collar entrepreneurs on a regular basis. \"They are mostly men,\" he says, \"but we are now going to be focusing more on women. Young men are often restless and keep looking for greener pastures when we have challenges. But the women are more focused and calm as their green collar businesses grow.\"Care in handling and transport are important selling points when it comes to the success of the marketing approach. \"Fresh vegetables sold in the open markets are often in a dismal state because of the careless ways they are handled by some transporters,\" says Mogaji. \"Even when they get to the open markets in a good state, the foodstuffs may be washed with dirty water, and they are displayed in such a way that flies and dust settle on them.\" In contrast, the green collar system tries to make regular use of the same transporters, who are made aware that careless handling is not acceptable. In addition, the produce only tends to be displayed for a short time, as potential buyers are informed in advance of specific 'opening hours' for the mobile markets, which are deliberately sited very close to the homes or offices of urban consumers.In explaining why selling directly to urban consumers is so successful, Mogaji highlights a number of practical advantages. Apart from pressures on time and the problem of reaching open markets in heavy traffic, people are also put off by a shortage of car parking spaces near markets and the potential for harrassment from market touts. And, while supermarkets are more convenient and safe than open markets, only a few of the larger, more modern ones stock fresh farm produce such as tomatoes, sweet peppers and leafy vegetables.In contrast, the green collar model offers consumers the convenience of having produce supplied directly or sold close to their residence or office, saving time and expense and providing them with the opportunity to give feedback. There are also financial benefits: with the number of people in the marketing chain reduced, prices are generally about 10-20% less under this model than in open markets. Mogaji's direct marketing seems to have created a win-win model for farmers, young entrepreneurs and Nigeria's urban consumers. M illions of Africans, Asians and Latin Americans -often smallholders -rely on cassava for subsistence, especially during the lean season, and as a source of income. The roots and leaves are generally prepared and consumed in simple ways, but there is a growing trend towards processing cassava roots into flour, semolina (atieke), pasta or chips. Livestock feed is another use.Long considered a poor man's crop, cassava has more recently begun to attract greater international attention. In 2000, FAO launched the Global Cassava Development Strategy and subsequently created the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21 st Century in 2003 with the twofold aim of unlocking cassava's potential for fighting diseases while improving crop yields and nutritional quality. But it was not until grain prices soared in 2007-2008 that the resurgence of interest in cassava was followed up by tangible commitments. Funds were then made available to the research community, which is essential in order to find effective ways to boost the very low crop yields hampering farmers in ACP countries. Many initiatives are now underway to develop new, high yielding, disease-resistant varieties with improved protein and beta-carotene content.The high market potential of cassava has also attracted private sector interest. In Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria, Nestlé is now using cassava starch rather than imported maize starch in its manufactured culinary broths. This multinational company is supporting producers, providing them with improved cassava varieties and buying their crops.Brewers are also focusing on brewing cheaper beers using locally grown crops as a substitute for imported barley, an initiative that often benefits from government support through tax benefits. In Mozambique, for instance, the Cervajas brewery is working with 10,000 contract farmers to produce its cassava-based (60%) Impala brand beer. Meanwhile, Nigeria is investing heavily in the cassava starch and flour industry.More effective use of cassava helps cut grain imports, but is also important for reducing rural poverty. Farmers' incomes have been rising as a result of the dissemination of improved varieties to smallholders, the development of simple, tailored processing technologies and promotion of their products. The Cassava: Adding Value for Africa initiative is in turn developing value chains for manufacturing high grade cassava flour in several African countries to benefit smallholders, while also focusing on drying technologies, among others. Meanwhile, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute has introduced production and marketing techniques to foster the development of cassava cropping and processing in several Caribbean countries. Policies are also playing a role, as seen in Trinidad and Tobago, where cassava-based muffins have been introduced in school meals through the School Nutrition Programme.A promising but threatened future However, whilst the future looks bright for cassava, it could still be undermined by the spread of disease. Cassava brown streak virus disease -dubbed the 'silent killer' -has become widespread in Africa over the last decade. It is capable of destroying entire crops but farmers may only detect its presence when they harvest the damaged roots. Cassava mosaic virus may also hamper root growth and thus diminish crop yields by as much as 25%. Meanwhile, rising temperatures favour the development of whiteflies, vectors of this cassava disease. Scientists sounded the alarm in April 2013, which led to the launching of the Pan-African Cassava Surveillance Network. The stakes are high because cassava crops are very resistant to drought and therefore especially adapted to climate change.Anne Guillaume-GentilThe root crop of the century © IFAD/N K Acquah vALUe CHAinS Farmer Sophia Hagan harvests, roasts and packages her own cassava for the marketSmall business opportunityRaising geese is described in this introductory guide as a 'somewhat demanding process', and those considering it are advised to thoroughly research the potential market, to ensure that any investment will be rewarded. That said, geese have a number of qualities that make them an attractive proposition: more resistant to disease than chickens, they adapt easily to heat, cold and humidity and can also provide an effective alarm system against intruders.Those considering goose production will find plenty of practical information in this illustrated guide, including details on housing, feeding, reproduction and raising of the young. Geese generally need to be provided with a pond or other small water body to encourage breeding, and should have access to a yard or open area for at least six hours each day. Common diseases and their treatments are listed. There are also details of foie gras production, although readers should be aware that this practice is banned in some countries on the grounds of animal cruelty.Small-scale production of household soaps and detergents can be a rewarding business opportunity, particularly in rural areas where the market is generally stronger than amongst urban consumers. This introductory guide provides clear instructions for making five main products: bathroom soap, laundry soap, detergent powder, liquid detergent and shampoo. For the bathroom soaps, major ingredients include a variety of oils (e.g. palm oil, coconut oil, almond or olive oil) and caustic soda, plus one of several special ingredients, such as honey, shea butter or aloe vera, depending on the type of soap to be made.While the basic equipment needed in soap making consists of commonly available items, ingredients for the detergents and shampoo include several chemicals, which may need to be sourced from specialist suppliers. Use of safety equipment, such as gloves, goggles and a face mask, is also essential at various stages of the process, in order to avoid skin burns and inhalation of harmful gases.■ With contributions from 86 authors, this exploration of how landscape approaches can address the challenges of sustainable development represents a major body of research knowledge. Achieving sustainable development is recognised as being a 'wicked' problem, i.e. one that is highly complex and difficult to solve. But taking a landscape approach to development, and challenging the 'one-place-one-function' view that would regard urban areas, for example, as off limits for agriculture or forestry, can enable countries to simultaneously achieve a range of objectives, whether social, environmental or economic.Looking at landscapes within the context of climate change, this book provides a set of concepts, tools, incentives, past experiences and practices to better understand integrated landscape approaches and climate-smart landscapes, and how such concepts can be applied in practice. Written for researchers, professionals and policymakers, it is detailed and technical in style, making an important contribution in a challenging field of study. From mobile phones to satellites, the proliferation of devices that are capturing and transmitting data has major implications for almost any sector of activity, agriculture being no exception. Much of this data is 'open' -freely available to be used, analysed, modified or shared. From an agricultural perspective, such open data can be used, for example, to set productivity targets, whether for governments or individual farmers. At a policy level, it can help to measure investment and calculate the impact achieved, while for farmers, open data can inform their decisions on what to plant and where to sell it.This edition of ICT4Ag (ICT Update) highlights some practical data-based tools, including FarmDrive, a Kenyan application that aims to promote access to credit and financial services for smallholder farmers. There is also a report from the first conference of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative (GODAN), a librarian's perspective on links between libraries and farmers, and an article on 3D modelling as a form of participatory data collection. During El Niño episodes, normal atmospheric patterns become disrupted triggering extreme climate events: droughts, floods and more intense and frequent hurricanes. This study aims to enhance understanding of the El Niño phenomenon using FAO's Agricultural Stress Index System, which will in turn improve effective early warning capabilities of FAO and partners to issue timely disaster risk reduction measures. This report challenges some common precepts of value chain development. It examines the influence of risk in farmers' decision-making, the role of cash, the competition provided by independent traders, and the limitations of producer organisations, issues which all point to a need to design interventions and 'inclusion' around the reality of smallholder engagement in markets. This new journal is an international, open access, peer-reviewed and refereed journal which aims to provide a platform for researchers to publish their work related to gender and the agricultural and food sciences. The first edition contains four papers, including research from Malawi, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. The next edition, to be published in the latter part of 2015, will be a special issue focusing on how gender interacts with policies, institutions and markets in the areas of agriculture and food security. Targeting those already engaged in food processing operations, this detailed and comprehensive handbook aims to raise awareness of the exciting opportunities in production of high value foods and ingredients. These include mushrooms, spices, essential oils, high value nuts, coffee, cocoa, tea and honey. For each, the authors offer a highly practical summary of the essential information needed by would-be producers, in terms of basic production and processing methods. Readers should note, however, that the handbook does not set out step-by-step instructions on food processing operations.Other sections offer valuable information and advice on topics such as marketing and quality assurance. Meeting consumers' needs, product differentiation and development, packaging and exporting are just some of the areas covered, with the authors also highlighting ways to access different types of value chains for the products. There are also details of food, hygiene and sanitation legislation, labelling and international regulations. Real life case studies offer inspiration and encouragement for those with an interest in entering the sector, and helpful summaries and 'tips for success' make this a highly reader-friendly publication. This is the seventh and final volume in CTA's Opportunities in Food Processing series. Previous handbooks look in detail at five sectors: meat and fish; milling and bakery products; cooking oils; fruits; and dairy products, with the first volume in the series providing an overview of small-scale processing. All the volumes are available from CTA for free. Download from: http://tinyurl.com/q5aeycz. ","tokenCount":"9164"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f2e1049493eac0a6679a9e57030abf9d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/55a82b7d-b7f2-455e-aab0-74bdde8da4e4/retrieve","id":"-1704423493"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7e59476e-ff61-4348-bdc7-1f9899d401cc","pagecount":"8","content":"There is far less evidence regarding CIS impact than there is for access and use. While evidence about access, use, and impact are critical for understanding how agricultural CIS can build the resilience of Africa's agricultural sector, a 2019 review of CIS evaluations in Africa found that more than 65% focused on issues of access and use, as opposed to impact (Vaughan et al 2019).Several characteristics of CIS make evaluation of their impacts challenging. First, because climate information flows through social and institutional networks, it is difficult to identify a \"control\" sample that does not have access to the information. Second, the benefits from CIS come through improved farm decision-making, and cannot be isolated from agricultural interventions that influence farmers' decisions and their impacts. Finally, the time lags involved in building capacity to generate, translate, deliver, and use climate information mean that benefits may continue to grow long after a project is completed.Ex-post evaluations are useful for identifying actual impacts while ex-ante evaluations seek to quantify expected future impacts. Ex-post studies are conducted after project implementation when actual impacts might be empirically observed. Such observations can be gathered through a range of approaches (see Table 1). Ex-ante studies are undertaken in advance of implementation and use models and other tools (see Table 1) to estimate the expected benefits of proposed investments in new or improved services, although they are sometimes adapted to use empirical data to evaluate impacts ex post.As many donors are interested in actual, measured impacts of an activity, most evaluations take an ex-post approach. Therefore, the rest of this brief focuses on advancing ex-post evaluations.The most robust and effective ex-post impact evaluations are those that are included in project design and baseline data collection. Such assessments tend to adopt the tools of livelihoods analysis to capture and measure the impacts of a CIS (see Table 2). While each of these tools is well-developed, there is no single tool that comprehensively captures the livelihoods of CIS users, and therefore the range of potential impacts on their well-being.Advancing impact evaluations of CIS requires combining methods in a manner that augments their strengths and ameliorates weaknesses. The wide range of available tools presents opportunities to further strengthen CIS impact evaluations. Furthermore, combining methods provides opportunities to triangulate estimates of the impact, increasing robustness of the results. For example, combining livelihoods analysis methods, quantitative surveys, and ethnographic livelihoods analysis can rigorously identify patterns of CIS use and impact, while providing information about CIS users and their needs to inform CIS design (see page 8). As another example, bioeconomic modeling could be combined with participatory approaches, such as the Participatory Climate Information Services System Development method, and/or survey-based data in order to validate and improve models of how farmers respond to climate information. The models could then be used to examine a wider range of conditions than observed. QUESTION ADDRESSEDWhat impacts did users report experiencing?Options exist for establishing a counterfactual and controlling for confounding factors.May use information collected for other purposes.Depends on farmers' recall or records.Cost constraints limit number of years of analysis.Livelihoods analysis (For related approaches, see Table 2)How did the CIS change how people conduct a given activity, or the outcome of that activity?Options exist for establishing a counterfactual.Depending on the approach, can identify changes in behavior associated with a CIS.Identified impacts can be easily linked to development goals and human well-being.Often place-specific, and therefore difficult to generalize.Some livelihoods approaches rest on oversimplifications of end-user logic that can misinterpret observed behaviors and outcomes.Some approaches require intensive fieldwork and analysis that can become time-consuming.Test plots How did use of CIS impact productivity and (potentially) income?Can provide a strong counterfactual and support attribution by comparing CIS use with control groups.Limited to use of CIS for agronomic management.Sometimes misused to compare farmer's practices without CIS vs. advisers' CIS-based recommendations.How do target individuals perceive potential impacts?Existing groups may provide opportunities for low-cost data collection.Requires good facilitation and an understanding of the community.Possibility of participant fatigue.What are expected livelihood impacts under well-defined assumptions, including how impacts might evolve for different types of actors?Can sample many years of climate information and observations.Flexible model specification.Limited by ability to capture farmer decision-making realistically.Macro-economic impacts for given set of productivity impacts?Captures market impacts of adoption at scale and economywide interactions.Depends on ability to realistically capture decisions and economic impacts.Subjective willingness to pay for specified services?Simple data requirements. Can be combined with experimental economics.Depends on strong familiarity with WCS. Willingness to pay expected to be lower than average economic benefit.Mixed-methods impact evaluations can reveal important differences in CIS impacts across target beneficiary groups and impact areas. For instance, an evaluation in Senegal (see page 8) revealed that livelihood and socio-economic status influence whether and how people use CIS. The study found that the impacts of the CIS program are first visible in agricultural practice and less durable investments such as seed and fertilizer, suggesting that more durable impacts on farmer asset ownership, such as investment in additional livestock, may take longer to become apparent.The following broad lessons about the evaluation of the impact of CIS emerged from a mixed-method CIS impact evaluation in Senegal:• Low rates of information awareness, uptake, and use do not necessarily mean a CIS lacks important impacts. Most climate information is useful for only a subset of a given population. Therefore, the impact of this information should not be gauged against 100% of the population, but that proportion of the population with the authority and ability to use that information.• Evaluating CIS impacts requires understanding the pathways by which information results in changed outcomes. Most CIS have relatively narrow pathways through which they can catalyze change. To attribute particular observed changes to a CIS, the following pathways must be identified and traced: (i) the information must affect the conduct of particular activities, (ii) the person conducting the activity must have access to and the ability to use the information, and (iii) the information must either contribute to existing practice or enable new practices.• The most effective methods for impact evaluation depend on the impacts one seeks to measure. For example, to measure the impact of CIS on gender roles, it is likely that an ethnographic approach aimed at a relatively small, representative community will provide an effective starting point for data collection, which can then be expanded and tested through survey analysis of a larger population. Conversely, measuring changes in crop yields might start with a broad survey that captures differences over a large population, and then use targeted ethnographic work to identify the pathways linking those changes to the use of CIS.• The greater the coordination between data collection methods, the more comprehensive and rigorous an evaluation can be. Combining data produced by uncoordinated collection efforts introduces analytic challenges and limitations. For example, an impact evaluation in Rwanda attempted to combine pre-existing datasets from the Humanitarian Response and Development Lab (HURDL) at Clark University and World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) but ultimately was not able to use a mixed-methods approach as the two datasets were spread across different livelihoods zones. Therefore, the dataset overlap was not large enough for rigorous statistical analysis.• Livelihood zones appear to be a useful scale for the evaluation of CIS. Ethnographic understanding of CIS uptake, use, and impact appear valid at the scale of the livelihoods zone. Decision-making structures in Senegal were found to be similar across the livelihoods zone, with local context shaping the way these decision-making structures played out. Data is co-created with participants, which helps to control for investigator bias. Data can be gathered relatively rapidly.Who participates in participatory approaches is critical to data quality, and sampling participants to ensure a range of viewpoints requires knowledge of the sociocultural setting.Table 3. Templates for using mixed-methods approaches in evaluation design to improve CIS impact.The Learning Agenda on Climate Services in sub-Saharan Africa generates new information, evidence, and learning on the effective and sustainable production, delivery, and use of climate information to improve rural agricultural livelihood decision-making and outcomes. More information can be found at: climatelinks.org/projects/learningagendaonclimateservices.Combining results from poorly coordinated studies is feasible under certain circumstances. The following steps can guide such efforts:• Test how similar the sampled populations are in the different studies. A prerequisite for synthesis is that the populations studied be sufficiently similar so that findings from each study can be carried over to the other studies.• Identify surrogate measures that allow for the disaggregation of the user population into meaningful groups with different needs for climate information. For example, an in-depth study, such as with LIG (see the case study, page 8), enables the disaggregation of a user population into groups characterized by their need for and ability to use climate information. This stratification can then be applied to broader descriptive data.• Identify the pathways through which climate information can catalyze observed changes or differences. Changes or differences in decision-making, activities, or outcomes should be identified for each of the user groups. These should then be interpreted through the pathways for impact identified through qualitative analysis. This allows for the attribution (or not) of observed impacts to the use of climate information.While much can be achieved without preliminary planning, coordinated efforts can accomplish a lot more. Four aspects of coordinated planning across data collection offer significant opportunities for more robust findings.• Coordination in the choice of sampling questions and in the selection of people to include will make comparisons stronger. Choosing who to ask, what to ask, and how to ask questions, all present serious challenges. These problems become more acute when different studies make these choices independently. Conversely, a thoughtful coordination of such choices can enable studies to reinforce each other and reduce ambiguities and bias. For example, the findings from Senegal discussed here would have been more robust had the surveys gathered overlapping data that captured intra-household differences and dynamics.• Sequencing of studies offers further possibilities for improvement. The most useful approaches to coordination enable different studies to inform each other. For example, the design of a broad survey could be informed by an initial in-depth ethnographic study. The exact sequencing will be dictated by the specific evaluation objectives.• Coverage of livelihood zones. Because livelihood zones appear to be a useful spatial scale for evaluating CIS impact, all methods should assure that the range and variety of individuals within a livelihood zone receive adequate attention.• Investigate possibilities for acquiring longer-term longitudinal information. Planning and coordination can help secure the kind of long-term longitudinal impact data that the field of CIS has so far been lacking. Such data is critical for measuring and understanding impact, as the character of a season can change year-to-year, thus producing different requirements for climate information and producing different outcomes from the use of that information.In 2017, the Humanitarian Response and Development Lab (HURDL) at Clark University and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) designed and implemented a mixed-method impact evaluation of Senegal's Multi-sectoral Working Group model for CIS in parts of the Kaffrine and Kaolack Regions. ICRAF implemented an extensive survey covering 795 households in communities that either were or were not participating in the CIS. These communities experienced a range of annual precipitation conditions and different levels of access to infrastructure and services.HURDL employed an ethnographic livelihoods approach, the Livelihoods as Intimate Government (LIG) Approach, in two communities located within the same geography as those surveyed by ICRAF. This work was aimed at understanding the underlying logic of livelihoods in the zone, which might then inform the interpretation of ICRAF's data.ICRAF identified several potential relationships between access to climate information and changed or different livelihoods outcomes. HURDL and ICRAF then used the LIG data to rigorously attribute those changes to the use of climate information. Specifically, the team tested the two datasets to ensure they represented the same population (see Template 1), used the LIG data to divide the population in both samples into different types of potential users, and explored patterns of potential impact within the different user groups. Finally, the team employed the LIG analysis of local decision-making to identify plausible pathways by which climate information might have produced the observed impacts in the different subpopulations. Where such pathways existed, the team was able to attribute the observed change in outcomes to the use of climate information.Village view from an area in Senegal covered by the multi-disciplinary working group (Credit: Edward R. Carr)","tokenCount":"2054"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac32995e7ed771c40e77596ebef3f0dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/014a8d45-5b1e-4296-92e3-920f8ad81d6f/retrieve","id":"476778338"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"626ce730-22f1-4056-8594-3b8402a952c6","pagecount":"1","content":"Una de las mayores limitaciones de la valoración de los recursos fitogenéticos es la cuantificación de los valores públicos, ya que casi siempre el valor de las especies y variedades locales está en función del valor satisfactor moral, ecológico, estético, cultural, religioso, alimenticio u otros (Chavez-Servia et al. 2004).El fríjol común tipo reventón, o \"nuña\", se caracteriza por la capacidad de expansión de los cotiledones al ser sometidos al calor, sin necesidad de agua, que lo convierte en un recurso genético innovador de alto valor proteico, con perspectivas interesantes en seguridad alimentaria y como pasaboca, para los mercados locales y de exportación.Dado su origen y selección en los Andes, este material podría adaptarse a diferentes zonas alto-andinas de las cordilleras colombianas y convertirse en un producto comercial para la región. Actualmente el CIAT, conserva 374 materiales de fríjol nuña, procedentes de Perú y Bolivia (PRG, 2011).Póster presentado en el VIII SIRGEALC VIII Simposio Internacional de Recursos Genéticos para América Latina y El Caribe, Quito, Ecuador, 21-23 de noviembre de 2011.En este trabajo se realizó un estudio de valoración del fríjol \"nuña\" (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) como recurso fitogenético con potencial para la alimentación, mediante la estimación de su posible valor de uso directo como snack o pasabocas.Se realizaron 100 encuestas aleatorias a hombres y mujeres, mayores de 18 años, de estratos 2 y 3 de la ciudad de Palmira, Valle, Colombia, a través del método de valoración contingente (Pearce y Moran, 1994). Con una confiabilidad del 95%, se esperaba detectar una aceptación del producto entre el 40 y el 60%.Fue usada la accesión de fríjol \"nuña\" G23600 proporcionada por el Programa de Recursos Genéticos del CIAT. Las semillas se tostaron durante 1.5 minutos en un microondas, lo que generó un rompimiento de la testa debido a la expansión de los cotiledones; posteriormente se le añadió un 2% de sal y se le dio a degustar a los encuestados.Los resultados obtenidos indican que para las personas encuestadas, el fríjol como semilla, tiene los siguientes usos: alimento cocido (71%), materia prima para artesanías (19%) y un 10% argumenta que se le puede dar uso educativo. Un 92% desconocía el uso de este fríjol como alimento tostado. Después de hacer la degustación, el 91% de las personas manifestaron un nivel de agrado: de bueno a excelente (Figura 2). El 82% de los encuestados, está dispuesto a comprarlo y el 92% estaría de acuerdo en pagar valores entre US$0.16 y 0.33, los cuales son similares de los productos alimenticios usados con el mismo propósito (precios del maní tostado en presentación de 30 gramos: US$0.33 -0.38).El fríjol \"nuña\" es prácticamente desconocido en Colombia, lo que genera un valor de opción de este recurso fitogenético, el cual está determinado por su uso eventual o contingente, proporcionándole altas posibilidades de comercialización como alimento tipo snack o pasabocas.Los conocimientos tradicionalmente del uso y manejo de la diversidad de los cultivos deben tornarse en un bien colectivo, favorecer el intercambio de semillas e incorporar nuevas alternativas agrícolas, que podrían ser fundamentales en épocas de crisis alimentaria.Este trabajo constituye un sondeo preliminar en el que se consideró uno de los beneficios generados por este recurso fitogenético, en una pequeña población. Se recomienda realizar futuros trabajos donde se apliquen estudios de análisis de mercado, costo-beneficio y demanda del producto, que permitan determinar la factibilidad de su producción y comercialización. ","tokenCount":"557"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f67aabebded399671474c53dccf63059","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b4f8f1a1-5859-4683-8c1b-358c8557cefd/retrieve","id":"589363386"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e485f867-677c-4421-a49b-df971cae6e33","pagecount":"38","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is a CGIAR research center. CIAT works in collaboration with multiple partners to make farming more competitive, profitable, and sustainable through research-based solutions in agriculture and the environment. We help policymakers, scientists, and farmers respond to some of the most pressing challenges of our time, including food insecurity and malnutrition, climate change, and environmental degradation. Our global research contributes to several of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Headquartered in Cali, Colombia, CIAT conducts research for development in tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. www.ciat.cgiar.org CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources. www.cgiar.orgStanley Karanja Ng'ang'a Dorcas Anyango Jalang'o Evan H. GirvetzAdoption of soil carbon enhancing practices and their impact on farm output in Western Kenya Tables Table 1:  Adoption of soil carbon practices has the capability of increasing yield, thus improving income and food availability. This paper assessed the adoption of agricultural practices that enhance soil carbon. Data from 334 households were collected in the rural areas of Western Kenya using a multistage sampling technique.The multivariate probit model and propensity score matching method were used to analyze the determinants of adoption of soil carbon practices and the impact on output, respectively. Results show that agroforestry, intercropping, terracing, and the use of inorganic fertilizer are the dominant soil carbon practices, which are discretely and diversely affected by socioeconomic, farm-level, institutional, and biophysical characteristics. However, the adoption of maize-bean intercropping alone has a great impact on maize production and increases output by approximately 240 kilograms. The findings from this study suggest that the adoption capacity of farming households can be accelerated by independently making interventions targeting individual practices rather than compounding the practices. Consequently, emphasis should target interventions that encourage the adoption of intercropping since its economic impact has been evidently underlined.IMPACT OUTPUT KENYASoil erosion and nutrient depletion cause land to become unproductive (Kassie et al., 2008). Consequently, farmers tend to invest in agricultural and sustainable land management practices (SLMP) -application of farmyard manure, terracing, stone or soil bunds, and planting trees -that have the potential to improve land productivity (Liniger et al,, 2011). The adoption of agricultural practices and SLMP that improve soil organic carbon has the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change, and increase yield, thus enhancing food security (Bekele and Drake, 2003). This is because soil organic carbon improves soil structure, 1 which, in turn, ensures the sustainability of nutrient release that is critical for crops and livestock production (Powlson et al., 2011). For example, in the Kenyan highlands, cattle manure is one SLMP with a high adoption potential due to its prospects in soil fertility enhancement and thus higher maize yield (Mugwe et al., 2009).The promotion of agricultural practices and SLMP -minimum tillage and organic fertilizer -has been found to be cost-effective for resource-poor farmers because they both increase carbon sequestration and economic returns (Li et al., 2013). However, adoption of agricultural practices and SLMP that enhance soil carbon by farmers in East Africa is still limited (Adimassu et al., 2014;Bewket, 2007). In Kenya, for example, only about 5%, 7%, and 9% of the farmers engage in water and soil conservation practices, fertilizer application, and planting trees, respectively (Bryan et al., 2009).The adoption of agricultural practices and SLMP has principally been in the western region of Kenya because of its high agricultural potential, especially in the production of staple foods such as maize and beans (Karugia and Wambugu, 2009). However, with continuous production over the years, soil fertility has continued to deteriorate (Djurfeldt et al., 2011). To counter this effect, various projects have been implemented in the area, such as Agricultural Intensification in sub-Saharan Africa (AFRINT), Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project (KACP), and the yield gap. These projects aim at intensifying production among smallholder farmers, promoting the adoption of SLMP, and establishing potential yield attainable through the use of low-cost soil fertility enhancing practices, respectively.Also, despite the promotion of climate-smart and sustainable intensification and agricultural practices within East Africa (Diwani et al., 2013;Ng'ang'a et al., 2016), adoption of these practices is stunted in Western Kenya (Antle and Stoorvogel, 2008;Mutoko et al., 2014a).For instance, the average adoption rate by farmers in Western Kenya has been estimated at 16%, 48%, and 58% for mulching, inorganic fertilizer, and legume1 Soils are composed of minerals, organic matter, water, and air. The alignment of soil particles (soil structure) holds the minerals and organic matter and retains water. The air aids in biological processes that release nutrients into the soil, while the soil water moves nutrients to various parts of the plant.intercropping, respectively (Dallimer et al., 2018). This is a clear indication that an urgent need exists to prevent further soil deterioration and enhance productivity in Western Kenya, hence the need to upscale the adoption of soil carbon practices.The extensive literature has hypothesized that socioeconomic characteristics (age, gender, education level, income), institutional characteristics (access to credit, information, and markets), farm-level characteristics (farm size, output), and biophysical characteristics (slope) have varied effects, either positive or negative, on the adoption of SLMP in Kenya (Kassie et al., 2015;Kebebe et al., 2017;Mutoko et al., 2014a;Mwangi et al., 2015;Ndiritu et al., 2014;Wainaina et al., 2016). Farmers' perceptions and know-how regarding soil fertility enhancement practices are critical in their adoption (Odendo et al., 2010). Understanding farmer characteristics provides insights that aid in interventions that would enhance the adoption of soil carbon enhancing practices. Nonetheless, information is insufficient on the determinants of the adoption of such practices in Western Kenya, and their impact on farm output. Against this background, this study accordingly attempts to fill the literature gap by assessing the determinants of the adoption of soil carbon enhancing practices and their impact on farm output in Western Kenya.The survey was administered in two counties in Western Kenya: Vihiga and Kakamega. This area has a rich and varied agro-ecological base (falling between the humid and subhumid agro-ecological zones), characterized by reliable rainfall (ranging from 1,200 to 2,000 mm annually), high temperatures (ranging from 15 to 29 °C annually), well-drained fertile soils, rocky hills, and forests (Okeyo et al., 2014;Savini et al., 2016). The area covers 8,309 square kilometers of land, and has a high population density and growth rate. For instance, according to the last population census, Vihiga and Kakamega counties have a population density of 982 and 550 persons per square kilometer, respectively, compared with the national average of 66 persons per square kilometer (KNBS, 2009).The high population density in this area has exerted pressure on the land, thus affecting settlement and farming. This has led to poor agricultural management practices and continuous crop farming, and a reduction in the size of arable land to portions that are less than 2 ha (Kamau et al., 2014;Mutoko et al., 2014b;Ogada et al., 2014). This area faces soil fertility degradation, which has led to yields that are below the agricultural potential (Odendo et al., 2010).Photo: Georgina Smith/CIATPrimary data were gathered via face-to-face interviews with smallholder farmers in Kakamega and Vihiga counties in Western Kenya using a semi-structured questionnaire. A focus group discussion (FGD) was carried out at the two study sites with farmers and various stakeholders 2 to obtain exploratory insights into the various SLMP applied by farmers. The participating farmers in the FGD were identified with the help of extension officers from the two counties, and men and women and youth from each of the sub-counties were equally represented. One extension agent and one soil expert who were conversant with the soil management practices in the study region were also identified; these were our key informants (KI). This was done to aid in the modification, development, and design of the questionnaire that was used for the study (Simon, 2006).The study targeted smallholder farmers, both adopters and non-adopters of soil carbon enhancing practices. Following Israel (1992) and Särndal and Bengt (2003) when determining a sample in which the variability of the larger population adopting a certain practice is unknown, the formula in Eq. 1 was used to derive the sample size:2 An extension officer represented the Ministry of Agriculture from each county. A soil conservation expert represented the private sector, while two male and two female farmers each represented farmers who practice various SLM techniques on their farms from the five sub-counties in each county.Eq. 1where n = sample size, ρ = share of population of interest, Z = confidence interval, and e = margin of error. However, p is presumed to have a value of 0.5 since the population is concealed, and would yield the maximum sample size, Z = 1.96 and e = 0.055. Therefore, the total sample size for the study was determined as shown in Eq. 2:Eq. 2The sample was drawn using a multistage sampling technique, equally distributed in Kakamega and Vihiga counties as they represent a high-potential area facing poor agricultural productivity, due to soil infertility.In the first stage, smaller administrative units (subcounties) were selected from each county. To ensure data variability and greater sample representation, five sub-counties were considered from each county. Specifically, in Vihiga, all five sub-counties (Hamisi, Sabatia, Vihiga, Emuhaya, and Luanda) were selected. In Kakamega, 5 out of the 12 sub-counties were selected, based on the criteria of similar amount of annual rainfall received and existence of two planting seasons per year. This was done to ensure uniformity of the agro-ecological zone from which data were collected. The sub-counties selected were Khwisero, Matungu, Malava, Lurambi, and Mumias East.In the second stage, with the help of agricultural extension officers, smaller administrative units (wards) where farmers employ various soil carbon enhancing practices on their farms were identified. Two wards were then selected from each sub-county due to time constraints. Each of the wards is composed of villages; therefore, three villages were selected from each of the four sub-counties and four villages from each subcounty in both Kakamega and Vihiga. This resulted in a total of 16 villages in each county.In the third stage, ten farmers were selected from each village by randomly picking the first farmer and snowballing to obtain the remaining nine farmers. The targeted sample size as generated from Eq. 2 was 320 farmers, but a total of 334 farmers were interviewed to allow for any data challenges that could arise during the final data analysis. The interviews were conducted by five enumerators 3 especially trained for three days for familiarity with the questions in the data collection tool. The enumerators collected data on the socioeconomic attributes of the households: age, gender, education, farm income, household composition, farm characteristics, and access to credit, groups, information, and technical training. Data on production and marketing characteristics and soil management practices among the households were also collected. On average, one questionnaire took an hour to complete, and each enumerator completed about five questionnaires in a day.The decision to adopt a certain soil carbon enhancing practice is a discrete choice between adoption and non-adoption. Hence, the dependent variable Y i takes the value of one if a household adopts a certain practice and zero otherwise. Therefore, several modeling approaches (probit and logit models) can be used to estimate Y i . However, these models have a limitation of failing to incorporate simultaneous adoption behavior, which might overlook unobserved variations prompting adoption of multiple decisions (Lin et al., 2005). Thus, other modeling approaches exist (e.g., multinomial probit and logit) that permit the analysis of multicategorical and simultaneous adoption decisions, and these are more applicable (Wooldridge, 2003). However, the multinomial logit and probit models restrict the relationship between regressors and the probabilities of the outcomes, as they assume independence across different outcomes (Dow and Endersby, 2004). Even in situations in which the outcomes are correlated, these models produce significant contrasting estimates relative to the true estimates, a shortfall that the multivariate probit (MVP) model is flexible enough to overcome (Young et al., 2009). This makes the MVP model a superior model compared with the multinomial logit and probit; hence, its application in the data analysis in this study.The adoption decision operates under the assumption of the random utility framework whereby the utility (U ij ) a farmer derives from adopting a certain practice is greater than that of not adopting (U ik ), that is, U ij > U ik . The disparity between the utilities is thereforewhere U ij = utility gained by a farmer i who implements a given soil carbon enhancing practice j, β = coefficients to be estimated, X ij = independent variables determining the adoption decision, and μ = the random term.Supposing that dependent variable Y i = ( y i ,…,y i ),(i=1,…,N) is the decision to adopt where Y i takes the value of one if adopted and zero otherwise, the probability that a household will adopt a certain soil carbon practice conditional on X ij could then be defined as a latent variable where U ij -U ik > 0, and can therefore be demonstrated as a function of a set of independent variables, X ij (Ali and Abdulai, 2010), as shown in Eq. 3:Eq. 3Eq. 4where j = choice of a soil carbon enhancing practice and i = an individual household. The MVP model can therefore be specified as shown in Eq. 5 to Eq. 7 (Young et al., 2009):where = a given soil carbon enhancing practice, with the superscript zero depicting non-adoption and one depicting adoption; x is a set of independent variables that are uniform for all practices (the deterministic component) and are perceived to influence the adoption of soil carbon enhancing practices; β = the parameters to be estimated; and ε = the random term (stochastic component), consisting of unobservable factors explaining the marginal likelihood of choosing a given practice.The independent variables for the MVP model (Table 1) include variables considered in the adoption decision behavior of SLMP by farmers in Western Kenya. In this study, socioeconomic characteristics (gender, age, education, household size, livestock ownership, and income), biophysical characteristics (slope and soil type), farm-level characteristics (farm size, output, and land tenure), and institutional characteristics (access to information, extension services, credit, and group membership) are hypothesized to affect the adoption decision regarding soil carbon enhancing practices by smallholder farmers (Kassie et al., 2015;Marenya and Barrett, 2007;Ndiritu et al., 2014). According to the existing literature, the variables have varied effects on adoption; hence, in this study, the direction of effect of the hypothesized variables is subject to the model estimates.Eq. 5for Eq. 6 A dummy variable whereby a household head has been a member in a group for the last 12 months (1 = group member, 0 = otherwise) + Access to credit A dummy variable whereby a household head has had access to credit to engage in farming activities for the last 12 months (1 = credit access, 0 = otherwise) +/- Adoption of SLMP may be variedly affected by gender of the household head, due to the perception of the practices in question and accessibility of resources compared to female counterparts. While García de Jalón et al. ( 2015) and Mwangi et al. (2015) found a negative impact on the adoption of cover crops, Marenya and Barrett (2007) found a positive impact on the adoption of fertilizer and manure. Older farmers are less likely to adopt new agricultural technologies such as improved crop varieties as they lack incentives to invest in farming activities for the coming years (Simtowe and Muange, 2013). Education positively influences the adoption of soil fertility management practices such as the use of fertilizer, as it gives farmers understanding of and insights into the importance of the practices on their farms (García de Jalón et al., 2015;Kamau et al., 2014).Similarly, the size of a household positively impacts the adoption of practices that require a lot of labor in cases in which labor is costly for the household (Kassie et al., 2015;Ndiritu et al., 2014). However, the effect can be negative when little or no labor is required (Freeman and Omiti, 2003).Farm income varies in its influence on the adoption of soil fertility practices. For instance, households with higher incomes have an incentive to adopt some practices as they have the capability of acquiring inputs (Kamau et al., 2014;Mwirigi et al., 2014). A contrasting finding is highlighted by a negative impact of income on the adoption of manure probably because farmers channel their resources for other prioritized activities (Waithaka et al., 2007). According to Wairore et al. (2016), livestock ownership significantly impacted the adoption of agricultural technologies since livestock products generate income that could increase capital for households. Consequently, the number of years a household has been involved in farming activities equips the household with the experience needed to implement various soil management practices (Freeman and Omiti, 2003;Nyaga et al., 2015), which concurs with the observation that farmers who have used fertilizer for a long duration were likely to continue with adoption since they have acquired the know-how and technical skills to use it.Farm size has been found to hinder or encourage the adoption of agricultural technologies. Since households with larger farms are associated with wealth, they are more likely to adopt technologies that improve production and thus increase income (Kebebe et al., 2017;Pisanelli et al., 2008). However, in some observations (Thuo et al., 2014), farm size had a negative influence on adoption since farmers opted to allocate resources to off-farm activities.In most scenarios, farms are partitioned into plots, which independently influence adoption regardless of the farm size. Larger plots had a higher probability of adopting inorganic fertilizer, intercropping, and improved maize varieties (Ndiritu et al., 2014;Ogada et al., 2014).Also, tenure security is an incentive to the adoption of SLMP. For instance, tenure security positively influenced investment in long-term land improvement practices such as agroforestry and terracing because of individual rights (Nyaga et al., 2015;Wainaina et al., 2016). Farmers aim to maximize output so as to enhance income; hence, the expectation of increased income encourages the adoption of practices such as fertilizer and improved seed varieties (Ogada et al., 2014). Various SLMP require labor for implementation and maintenance; hence, labor is a crucial factor. The availability of family labor increased the likelihood of adopting inorganic fertilizer and manure as well as other soil conservation practices, but manure use declined with the availability of hired labor (Kamau et al., 2014;Waithaka et al., 2007).As a proxy for market access, distance to accessible roads has a significant impact on the adoption of agricultural technologies. Longer distances inhibit market access and hence discourage the adoption of technologies such as the use of fertilizer and encourage the adoption of alternatives such as the use of manure (Kassie et al., 2015;Ogada et al., 2014). Positive outcomes have been observed where good infrastructure exists (Recha et al., 2015). Membership in groups enhances the adoption of technologies such as fertilizer as membership improves access to information and social capital benefits (Kassie et al., 2015). Extension agents are the most common information diffusers in the rural setup context. Access to extension services has been found to positively influence the adoption of SLMP such as terracing, use of fertilizer, intercropping, and conservation agriculture ( Jaleta et al., 2013;Ndiritu et al., 2014). The availability of credit allows farmers to engage in costly adoptions since it enables them to acquire the inputs necessary for the implementation of SLMP such as minimum tillage, agroforestry, crop rotation, and the use of improved seed varieties (Ndiritu et al., 2014;Recha et al., 2015).Biophysical characteristics also influence the type of soil fertility management practice adopted. For example, well-drained soils facilitate the adoption of fertilizer (Ogada et al., 2014). Similarly, soils with poor water retention capacity are susceptible to runoff and low organic matter and hence declining fertility, thus encouraging the adoption of fertilizer and ridges (Okeyo et al., 2014). Farms on steep slopes encourage the adoption of terracing and cover crops as anti-erosion and fertility measures (Wainaina et al., 2016).In evaluating the impact of programs such as the adoption of a technology on the target group, various methods have been used, for example, experimental (randomized) and non-experimental methods. Experimental evaluations assume that there is no difference between the treatment group (adopters of a technology) and control group (non-adopters of a technology), only that the treatment group has access to the program/intervention. Non-experimental methods generate comparison groups similar to treatment groups using observed characteristics (Baker, 2000). Although experimental methods have the capability of addressing missing data and selection bias, they are limited to experimental studies and thus are quite costly (Khandker et al., 2010).Non-experimental techniques have therefore been widely applied, with the most common in empirical research being the Heckman two-step method. This technique is capable of controlling for the variations in observed and unobserved attributes between treatment and control groups. However, the estimators are based on the assumption that the unobserved variables are normally distributed, thereby questioning the robustness of the results (Kiiza et al., 2013). Because of this setback, other non-experimental techniques have gained prominence in impact evaluation, with the most widely used being propensity score matching (PSM). This method matches control groups with treatment groups based on a set of observed characteristics by assigning them propensity scores.The score is therefore the estimated probability of participating in an intervention whose characteristics are observable (Ali and Abdulai, 2010). Moreover, PSM has been extensively employed by empirical studies on impact assessment because of its non-random selection of adopters and non-adopters, which may otherwise result in biased estimates (Asfaw, 2010), thus its application in this study.This study posited that households that adopt soil carbon enhancing practices may increase output; thus, the surplus can be marketed for cash, which may translate into increased household income. Therefore, to evaluate the impact of the adoption of a specific soil carbon enhancing practice on output, a dummy variable is included, which is equal to one for adopters and zero otherwise, as specified in Eq. 8:where X i = outcome of a target variable for the i th household; D i = dummy variable, whereby D (i =1) stands for adoption and D i =0 for non-adoption; X i = socioeconomic, farm-level, institutional, and biophysical characteristics; and μ i = the stochastic term reflecting unobserved variables that affect Y i .In the context of this study, PSM is based on the probability of adopting a soil carbon enhancing practice, comparing outcomes between adopters and non-adopters with matching propensity scores. The propensity score is computed as shown in Eq. 9:Eq. 8Eq. 9where adoption (1) or non-adoption (0) is represented by D=(1 or 0) and X = socioeconomic, farm-level, institutional, and biophysical characteristics. The distribution of X, given the propensity score P(X), is comparable between adopters and non-adopters.However, in our estimation, the relationship between the adoption of soil carbon enhancing practices and the outcome (output) could be correlated. There is therefore a likelihood of selection bias given that the assignment of treatment is not random, and that the group of adopters is coherently different. PSM corrects this by providing unbiased estimates of treatment; thus, it is used as a correction model to reduce self-selection bias (Rosenbaum and Rubin, 1983). Consequently, all observable characteristics have to be similar between adopters and non-adopters. The average treatment effect on treatment (ATT), the expected impact of adopting a given soil carbon enhancing practice, is the difference between the actual output and the output if no adoption occurred. This can be specified as Eq. 10:where Y 1i = output when the i th farmer adopts a certain soil carbon enhancing practice, Y 01 = output of the i th farmer when he/she does not adopt, and P i = adoption (1 = adopt and 0 = otherwise).Photo: Georgina Smith/CIATA summary of the statistics of some of the variables, disaggregated by the two counties (i.e., Kakamega and Vihiga) is presented in Table 2. Results of the t-test revealed insignificant differences between the means of most variables, implying a similarity in household characteristics between the two counties. A majority of the farmers are older, with a mean of about 50 years of age, and have more than two decades of farming experience. On average, the households are composed of six members, with an estimated human dependency ratio 4 of less than 1. More than two-thirds of farming is male dominated, but the education levels are low.Almost a half and a quarter of the farmers have attained primary and secondary education, respectively (Table 2).More than 50% of the farmers are categorized 5 as poor based on accumulated wealth. Nevertheless, farmers in Kakamega receive almost twice the annual farm income as farmers in Vihiga. However, the income from livestock surpasses that from crops in both counties, probably because the crops are mostly used for home consumption and sales are based on surplus production.  The human dependency ratio was calculated by the sum of the percentage of people in the household who are below 14 years and the percentage of people who are above 64 years divided by the percentage of people between 15 and 64 years, commonly referred to as the working population. A dependency ratio of less than 1 implies that burdens are well distributed at the household level (KNBS, 2018).The wealth category was measured by the probability of a household being poor, whereby households that were assigned a value of 1 were considered poor and 0 otherwise. A totality of wealth scores derived from ownership of assets such as television sets, radio sets, housing structures, toilet structures, and employment status was used in the computation. A total score of less than 35 was assigned a value of 1 and scores greater than 35 were assigned a value of 0 (Schreiner et al., 2009). The value in parentheses is the standard deviation. The symbols *, **, and *** signify that the means were significantly different at P <0.1, 0.05, and 0.01, respectively; however, the means with the same superscript were not significant.The farm sizes indicate that small-scale farming is dominant in the area, whereby Kakamega and Vihiga have an average of 1.7 and 2.6 acres, respectively. The farms have further been subdivided into plots averaging almost an acre, where they practice farming, hence implementing most of the soil fertility 6 practices. On average, they own one to three plots in which almost 70% of the farmers practice farming (both crops and livestock). In most cases, the soils are loamy (more than 80%), but a few farms have clay and sandy soils. Most of the farmers have from two to three total livestock units 7 (TLU) and grow two to three crop varieties. However, combinations of two dominant crops are grown in the area (maize 38% and beans 31%), justifying the dominance of intercropping as a soil fertility management practice. In addition, inorganic fertilizer, terracing, and agroforestry are common soil fertility practices in the area (Table 2). The main source of labor for farm activities is a combination of both family and hired labor (more than 60%) and family labor only (more than 30%), although in a few cases only hired labor is employed.The motorable roads are more accessible to the farmers than tarmac roads, as depicted by the time taken (walking distance) to access these roads. However, the time taken to access local markets is less than that to access livestock and urban markets. More than half of the farmers belong to groups and social networks. However, access to credit is poor, whereby only 38% and 35% in Kakamega and Vihiga have access to credit facilities, respectively. Consequently, almost two-thirds of the farmers have access to extension services, signifying that knowledge on soil fertility practices might be well disseminated within the study area.Table 3 represents estimates of the variables used for the MVP model. The variables fit the model well with the Wald test = 817.15 and Prob > chi-square = 0.000, implying that the joint regression coefficients are significant in explaining the adoption of soil fertility practices. Results show that male-headed households are more likely to adopt agroforestry but are less likely to adopt intercropping and the application of inorganic fertilizer as a soil fertility enhancement practice. Female farmers are more likely to take up some practices than male farmers as in most cases they are responsible for much of the agricultural work, and thus have information on farming practices (García de Jalón et al., 2015). Moreover, women are influenced by perceptions on ease of use while men are influenced by the usefulness of a certain agricultural technology (Mwangi et al., 2015). Older farmers have a lower likelihood of using inorganic fertilizer. This is because older farmers are equated to have lost energy, being risk averse, and having short-term plans, which are key attributes in determining the choice of agricultural technologies (Ndiritu et al., 2014). Education had a positive and significant association with the adoption of terracing and use of inorganic fertilizer. This could be because education gives a better understanding of the usefulness of the practices on the farms for both soil and crop management (Kamau et al., 2014;Wainaina et al., 2016;Waithaka et al., 2007). The probability of being a poor farmer reduces the likelihood of employing intercropping as a soil fertility enhancement practice. The reason could be that, since intercropping involves at least two crops, several inputs are required, which poor farmers might lack resources to acquire. Households with a higher human dependency ratio and whose main occupation was farming were less likely to adopt intercropping. This could suggest that the households are involved in other farming activities that accrue more income other than intercropping so as to cater to the needs of the dependents.TLU was computed by adding up the total of shoats, cattle, and poultry whereby one mature sheep or goat = 0.2 TLU, one mature chicken = 0.04 TLU, and one mature cow = 1 TLU (Njuki et al., 2011). The higher the number of years a household has on farming, the more likelihood of using inorganic fertilizer. This could be because the more years of experience farmers have, the more aware they are of the benefits of using soil fertility practices (Nyaga et al., 2015;Wairore et al., 2016). Consequently, the higher the number of crop varieties grown by a farmer, the more likely they are to practice intercropping and apply inorganic fertilizer. This finding is similar to that of Kamau et al. (2014), who found that the number of crops grown had a positive association with soil fertility practices. However, an increase in the number of livestock owned decreases the likelihood of practicing agroforestry but increases the likelihood of using fertilizer. According to Kassie et al. (2015), the probability of fertilizer use is likely to increase when it is complemented with other soil management practices such as the use of livestock manure.Land tenure had a negative and significant effect on adoption, whereby land ownership without a title deed (security) and rented land reduced the likelihood of adopting agroforestry and the use of organic fertilizer, respectively. This resonates with Nyaga et al. (2015), who observed that secure land tenure gives farmers individualized rights on their farms, allowing them to make long-term investments such as growing trees.Similarly, insecurity of tenure inhibits the use of land improvement initiatives such as the use of fertilizer (Waswa et al., 2002). Households that have larger farm sizes are more likely to apply inorganic fertilizer but the likelihood of adoption decreases with the size of the plots. A similar observation (Mugwe et al., 2009;Mwirigi et al., 2014;Waithaka et al., 2007) of increased fertilizer use with increasing farm size suggests the need for farmers to improve fertility and thus improve yield. However, a decline in fertilizer use with plot size could mean that not all the plots are related to farming activities.Plots that were managed by the spouse (female managed) relative to those managed by the household head (male managed) alone were more likely to adopt intercropping and the use of fertilizer. This could suggest that females have access to resources and the knowledge required to implement the practices. Also, plots that were jointly managed compared with those managed by the household head only were likely to practice intercropping. This finding is consistent with Ndiritu et al. (2014), who found that intercropping is a common practice among jointly managed plots relative to male-managed plots. Households that employed a combination of family and hired labor were more likely to adopt agroforestry, intercropping, and the use of fertilizer, but employing hired labor only reduced the likelihood of using fertilizer. This could mean that the practices are labor intensive, hence the combination of labor sources.Households that had access to motorable roads were more likely to adopt intercropping, an implication that it is easier to acquire the inputs required to implement the practice. However, access to tarmac roads reduced the likelihood of using inorganic fertilizer since the farmers have to cover longer distances (Table 2). Access to local markets and urban markets encouraged adoption of the use of inorganic fertilizer, while practicing agroforestry was positively and significantly influenced by access to urban markets. According to Kassie et al. (2015) and Murage et al. (2015), market access is an incentive for farmers to adopt new technologies. Access to extension services had a negative and significant impact on the adoption of terracing. This finding contradicts Jaleta et al. (2013), Ndiritu et al. (2014), andWainaina et al. (2016), who found a significant and positive impact on the adoption of soil conservation practices. These imply that extension agents might be lacking the skills and knowhow for implementing some practices or have more inclination toward production practices.Farms on slightly moderate slopes were likely to practice terracing and the use of fertilizer. However, where the slopes were very steep, farmers were more likely to practice terracing but less likely to practice intercropping. These findings concur with Wainaina et al. (2016) that farms on steep slopes require physical structures to prevent soil movement/erosion in order to contain nutrients. Both intercropping and the use of fertilizer were mostly practiced on farms with loamy and sandy soils. Intense cropping on soil causes degradation and hence the need to apply fertilizer. This observation is similar to that of Ogada et al. (2014).In assessing the impact of soil carbon enhancing practices on output, PSM was used. According to Baker (2000), a discrete choice model is the first step in estimating the impact of an outcome while using propensity scores. This is, however, generated after finding a suitable matching 8 estimator (Table 4), which tries to find non-adopting farmers who have a propensity score that is very close to that of adopting farmers (Caliendo and Kopeinig, 2008). Matching performance for different matching estimators Kernel-based matching (KBM) was used since it's the matching estimator that best fit the selection criteria for the largest matching sample, lowest pseudo R2, and lowest mean bias (Mulatu et al., 2017).Table 5 represents the probit 9 model estimates for the variables that influence the adoption of intercropping 10 . The likelihood ratio test indicates the goodness of fit of the model with a P value of 0.002. Results show that household size and availability of labor positively and significantly influenced the adoption of intercropping. This could imply that household members provide labor that encourages adoption.  Both the probit and logit model can be used since they yield similar results; thus, either of the two can be applied in econometric analysis. However, this study used a probit model since it can be generalized to account for heteroscedasticity (Albright, 2015).Of the four dominant practices (intercropping, agroforestry, terracing, and use of inorganic fertilizer), only intercropping best fit the criteria for an insignificant chi-square value after matching variables, making the variables comparable between adopters and non-adopters. However, the variables gender and occupation of the household head and farm size had a negative and significance influence on the adoption of intercropping. This could be explained by the fact that male farmers adopt practices that they deem important. Also, the effect of farm size could be because the households are involved in other farming activities to supplement income. These results are a clear indication that farmers who have adopted intercropping vary significantly from non-adopters.  The propensity scores were calculated for 252 farmers that had adopted intercropping and 82 farmers who were non-adopters (Table 6). The predicted propensity score for adopters ranges from 0.325 to 1, with a mean of 0.781, while that for non-adopters ranges from 0.046 to 0.901, with a mean of 0.674. Therefore, the common support region would lie between 0.325 and 0.901.A further analysis of the propensity scores is exhibited by the density distribution of the scores (Figure 1). The bottom half shows the propensity score distribution of farmers who are non-adopters (control) while the upper half represents adopters (treated). Although some farmers in the treated group are off support, the propensity score distribution graph suggests that there is a high chance of attaining a large number of matched samples with good matches. This is an indication that several farmers who practice intercropping found a suitable match with those farmers who don't.It is important to note that matching should have the capability of reducing the biases that comes with observable farmer characteristics. Table 7 shows the results of the covariate-balancing test, showing the differences in t-test means and percentage bias before and after matching. The results reveal that the matched sample means for the variables are similar for adopters and non-adopters after matching, which was not the case before matching.In addition, the variables that were statistically significant before matching (household size, availability of labor, gender and occupation of the household head, and farm size) are no longer significant after matching (as indicated by the (P > t) column). This suggests that the variables have been balanced, making them comparable and hence reducing selection bias. This is further ascertained by the results in Impact of intercropping on output Consequently, the P > chi 2 is insignificant after matching, supporting that the variables have been balanced between adopters and non-adopters. Having proven that the matching procedure has successfully balanced the variables between the two groups of farmers, a similarity is found in observable characteristics. Thus, the results were used to assess the impact of adopting Balancing covariate indicators intercropping on farm output, which was done by computing the ATT.The impact of intercropping on output is summarized in Table 9. The results indicate that the adoption of intercropping has a positive and significant impact (at 5% significance level) on maize output, but an insignificant impact on bean output.This could imply that beans are intercropped with maize as a complementary crop with the sole purpose of enhancing soil fertility. The finding is supported by Manda et al. (2016), who found that maize-legume production is among the sustainable land intensification practices that fix nitrogen in soils, thus substantially increasing maize production. This is because where monocropping (maize is grown alone) is practiced weeds are common, resulting in a decline in output. The results further indicate that intercropping increases maize output by an average of 240 kg (approximately three bags); therefore, it can be concluded that adoption of intercropping increases maize output by approximately 27%. This finding is consistent with Ngwira et al. (2012), who observed that intercropping is a cost-effective practice as it improves maize yield and at the same time ensures attractive economic returns. These findings suggest that encouraging farmers to adopt intercropping can help in improving maize output and thus increasing income.The results of the treatment effect (adoption of intercropping) assume that all the relevant observable variables have been included in the treatment assigned. Thus, it is important to carry out a sensitivity test to verify whether the estimated results from the PSM are prone to other unobserved variables; otherwise, the positive impact of intercropping on maize output would be questionable. A sensitivity analysis was carried out using the Rosenbaum bounds (rbounds) test (Rosenbaum and Rubin, 2006) to check for hidden bias. Since the impact on the outcome (output) was positive, the level of gamma reported was for the positive effect (sig+), at the point where the 10% level of significance was exceeded.The values of gamma varied between 1.00 and 1.60, suggesting that any unobserved variable would have to increase the odds ratio by about 60% before it would bias the estimated impact. Only then would the significance of the impact on the value of output be questionable.Studies that have reported similar gamma values for the sensitivity analysis include Ogutu et al. (2014) and Miyinzi et al. (2019), concluding that unobserved variables would negligibly alter the conclusion of a positive impact of adoption of intercropping on maize output.Soil infertility has inhibited smallholder farming capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, which has resulted in decreased farm yield and hence decreased household income. Preceding studies have revealed that SLMP -more so those that have the capability of enhancing soil carbon -are critical in enhancing fertility. However, the existing literature has delved into analyzing the determinants of the adoption of diverse SLMP without evaluating the impact they have on farming households' livelihood. This study therefore establishes the factors that influence the adoption of soil carbon practices in Kenya and their impact on output. The multivariate probit model and the propensity score matching method were used on survey data collected from 334 households in Western Kenya. Four dominant SMLP (agroforestry, intercropping, terracing, and inorganic fertilizer) that enhance soil carbon are dominant in the area. The findings reveal that adoption is determined by socioeconomic, farm-level, institutional, and biophysical factors that vary for each individual practice. Altogether, education level, availability of labor, and slope significantly increase the likelihood of adopting all four dominant practices. On the other hand, land tenure and gender have a negative and significant influence on the adoption of these dominant practices. These findings suggest that interventions aimed at increasing adoption should be aimed specifically at an individual practice conditional on the determinant factors.An evaluation of the impact of adoption on output reveals that, of the four main practices, adoption of intercropping solely has a positive and significant impact on maize output. Comparatively, farmers who practice intercropping were found to have an increase of approximately 27% in maize output as opposed to those who don't. Further, unobserved variables would not transform much the results of the evaluated effects. The study therefore concludes that adoption of intercropping significantly increases maize output. The implication is that intercropping is an effective practice in boosting maize output, which constitutes a major component of Kenya's grain basket and can help resource-constrained rural farmers increase their farm income. Thus, policies that facilitate adoption of intercropping among smallholder farmers should be pursued. These include strategies such as being able to obtain affordable inputs required for the practiceimproved seed varieties and inorganic fertilizer -since the results underline that being a poor farmer reduces the likelihood of adoption.","tokenCount":"7123"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4b9b812aa045f49b232254b3f0349cca","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b80960e0-f593-4dfd-a68f-e7e45d212c4b/retrieve","id":"1964665707"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"244b1f8b-2209-489b-a990-0f2cd1c8d729","pagecount":"16","content":"• Lack of WLS services as leveraging point for pumped irrigation schemes • Lack of skill and knowledge on OMR services among pump owners Assessment of the spread of WLS service providers• Less skill and knowledge on pumps, good knowledge on engine by garages • The frontline WLS service provision (PA and scheme levels) was limited: Quantity and quality of services • Weak linkages between WLS service providers and pump owners; limited access to crop failure risk reducing measures.  From 51% before intervention to 26% after intervention. Commodity platforms are crucial in identifying the leverage points and prioritize appropriate interventions  Appropriate selection strategy and establishment of WLS would help to successful development  Establishment of frontline WLS provision can substantially improve the knowledge and skills on proper operations and servicing of pumps at grassroots levels  Linking the garages with the frontline WLS providers enable to cascade the skill and knowledges down to the pump users.  The service on repair and maintenance could reach even to domain PAs and districts  The public extension system should take up WLS as part of its market-oriented extension system.","tokenCount":"189"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"101972b01e3694a82c0065387c21f05c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bc8147d5-52b1-494c-bd9a-6e96c4efef22/retrieve","id":"219063732"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5c26221e-1b7f-4928-b8c3-3b415d65fe5e","pagecount":"2","content":"I mproving bean production in Africa has been the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA)'s goal since its inception in 1996. PABRA works with partners who play different roles in the bean production process, including national bean programs, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, church groups, farmer associations, and community-based organizations.One partner, with whom it has worked with since 2009, is the Community Enterprises Development Organization (CEDO), an NGO based in south-western Uganda. It disseminates technologies to thousands of bean farmers, using demonstration gardens, and provides practical training in cookery. It also brings together farmer groups who want to improve their agricultural production, food security, and income through cooperative activities and use of improved agricultural practices.\"Working with PABRA has raised our bean production from subsistence farming to cash cropping,\" says Mrs Rosemary Mayiga, CEDO's program coordinator, when she spoke at a PABRA forum. She adds, however, that \"PABRA and the national program need to encourage not only more communities but also, and more particularly, women-the bulk of bean producersto use these new technologies. That way, production can increase across the country.\" PABRA's nutrition program is working in partnership with CEDO and the Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO). The three partners reach out to vulnerable communities to provide micronutrient-rich beans, address malnutrition, and improve health. In the first year, CEDO produced almost 60 metric tons of beans rich in protein, iron, and zinc, and, with PABRA's help, supplied part of that production to the World Food Program and Concern International-Uganda.The three-way partnership not only benefits external markets, but also the farmers it reaches. About 85% of farmers involved also receive, for multiplication, small quantities of seed of the micronutrient-rich beans produced by NARO. Results so far indicate improved community diets, as well as increased production. That is, communities, who had previously eaten beans 2 or 3 times a week, can now include beans in their diets 4 to 6 times a week. Concomitantly, daily consumption of food groups also increased from 1 or 2 to 3 or 4. In addition, sales of surplus beans to local markets are supplementing household incomes.More than 2000 farmers of the 350 farmer groups belonging to CEDO produce seeds, especially bean seed, as their primary cash crop. PABRA is now reaching more and more farmers with improved technologies to enhance their seed production e.g. integrated pest and disease management methods. The alliance also provides capacity building in seed Martha Nyagaya, PABRA's nutrition specialist in eastern Africa, says, \"Within the region, CEDO has demonstrated that working with organized farmer groups can increase the value of beans, both as a food crop and source of farmer livelihood.\" She adds, \"This is an example of the impact PABRA hopes to bring to poor communities, both rural and urban.\"In seeking to improve crops, CEDO also works with other partners, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries; the Crop Protection Department; the National Seed Certification Service; and the private sector.Uganda, as a whole, has made strides in ensuring that micronutrient-rich beans reach markets to serve as a source of protein, iron, and zinc for the rural and urban poor. Other achievements include the development of bean flour mixes suitable for weaning small children, two recipe books, and 14 food baskets to vary cooking methods for beans, which diversify the meals prepared and consumed with beans.","tokenCount":"556"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9672c4abd173b58149f017f31220289f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43d88534-4a70-4d97-95a1-c9af6c750d8c/retrieve","id":"618853933"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6bcecf6d-c725-44f4-b62d-73885fa518f0","pagecount":"19","content":"The organizing committee expresses its sincere gratitude to all institutions, individuals and legal entities that contributed to the success of this important event. Special thanks go to: the President of the University Félix Houphouët Boigny, who has made it possible to organize this training course through all the support that the Organizing Committee has received from the University; the AGNEBY program through Mr. N'Koh Ambroise, whose cocoa plantation was used for practical activities; the WASCAL alumni network for their effective participation; staff of WASCAL Capacity Building.As part of the AICCRA project, the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are mandated to develop curricula and training materials to accelerate the mainstreaming of climate information services (CIS) and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) into university curricula in Africa. This report presents the activities of a training of trainers (ToT) workshop on the Soil Carbon Sequestration and Crop Production course module led by WASCAL as part of the AICCRA curriculum development activities. The training program was held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, from September 19 to 21, 2023. Seventy-eight (77) university lecturers, including 28% women, from seven West African countries, benefited from the training programme. University institutions, civil society organisations and technical bodies working in the field of agriculture were represented. The curricula consisted of four sessions on (i) soils for sustainable crop production, (ii) climate change and crop production, (iii) soil carbon sequestration, and (v) spatial estimation and modelling of soil carbon. The training programme was designed with a participant-centred approach. Overall, the training workshop contributed to improving participants' knowledge of climatesmart agriculture and climate information services. There is a need for monitoring to track the outcomes of this training and how it helps to mainstream CSA and CIS into universities curricula.Climate change is posing a significant challenge to agricultural development in West Africa. The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa project (AICCRA) among others is working to disseminate cutting-edge CGIAR-led science practices, technologies, and tools throughout Africa, with a laser focus on regions most vulnerable to the unforgiving hand of climate change. The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture RUFORUM is a global partner to AICCRA to focus on West Africa and the East and Southern Africa regions but also to work at the continental level. RUFORUM has been working in West Africa with WASCAL which is a Regional Institution on Capacity Building and Science Services for Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, to develop curricula and training materials that will be made accessible to other SSA countries, the knowledge on CSA and climate agroadvisory services generated in the six intervention countries.RUFORUM and WASCAL play a transformative role in the AICCRA project by raising the awareness of African universities and unlocking the true potential of CSA and CIS knowledge and products. Mainstreaming CSA and CIS into universities curricula, require thorough assessments of national and institutional capacity, knowledge, and technology. It requires faculty training, equipping educators to deploy these critical tools in the realms of teaching, research, and outreach. RUFORUM and WASCAL are committed to knowledge transfer and capacity building as the pillars of its participation in the AICCRA project.  WASCAL alumni (Figure 1) was strongly represented, with 24 alumni from Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Togo. The training programme was designed with a people-centered approach to enable the participants to identify present and/or existing issues, strengths, and the need for change. Three specific approaches were employed to conduct the training workshop involving key notes presentation, training sessions and institutional and field visits that allowed participants to obtain first-hand information to back-up the knowledge acquired during the panel discussion.The first keynote address was delivered by Prof. Daouda KONE, Director of Capacity Building at WASCAL, on enhancing capacity building for mainstreaming CSA and CIS in university curricula. In his keynote address, Prof. KONE highlighted the need to strengthen capacity building within the Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA), with a particular focus on transforming university learning programmes. Prof. KONE's insights centered on why this capacity building is critical and how it can be effectively implemented to advance the integration of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Climate-Smart Innovation (CSI) into university curricula. Prof KONE also emphasized the importance of leveraging existing resources. There are a number of valuable resources that already exist and implemented by the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL). These resources can serve as a cornerstone for shaping university curricula in a climate-smart direction.The second keynote was delivered by Dr. Alcade SEGNON, Science Officer at AICCRA-WA, on the need for regional engagement for actionable spillover in West Africa. He shared valuable insights into the organization's mission and achievements in scaling up climate-smart agriculture and climate information services across Africa.The third keynote presentation was given by Prof. Benjamin L. Lamptey, from WASCAL, on integrating climate services into university curricula: unleashing a climate-resilient future. In his presentation, Prof. Lamptey highlighted the transformative impact of integrating climate services into university curricula.Integrating climate services into university curricula is emerging as a critical step towards a climateresilient future, bridging the gap between knowledge and action in the face of climate change challenges. The first session was moderated by Dr. Andrews OPOKU. In this module, he explained the importance of soil carbon (SC) estimation and soil carbon sequestration (SCS) techniques. The aim is to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable crop production systems.The second session was related to climate change and agricultural production and was presented by Dr. Emmanuel QUANSAH, who provided insights into the dynamic relationship between climate change and crop production, focusing on adaptation and mitigation strategies.The third session was presented by Dr. Enoch BESSAH and focused on soil carbon sequestration, emphasizing the role of soil organic carbon (SOC) and its impact on greenhouse gases, as well as the importance of organic and inorganic matter in soil. The relationship between SOC and biodiversity and the role of soil as a carbon source and sink were highlighted. SOC measurement and monitoring, soil carbon sequestration mechanisms including carbon compensation and photosynthesis, and factors influencing sequestration such as soil depth and climate change were discussed. Practical carbon sequestration strategies, including management techniques and biochar, were also discussed. The last session was on \"Spatial Estimation and Modelling of Soil Carbon Sequestration\" presented by Mr. DaCosta Mensah ASARE. The module focused on remote sensing, GIS for soil carbon measurement and soil carbon modelling approaches. It emphasized the importance of understanding soil carbon and discussed different measurement methods, including remote sensing and field sampling. The design of a comprehensive measurement plan, including defined assessment boundaries and sampling strategies, was highlighted. Different remote sensing technologies, their sensors and applications such as ArcGIS, QGIS and R MultiSpec were explored. Spatial data types and georeferencing techniques were explained. In  This agro-ecological school project is the result of a fruitful partnership between the WASCAL organizations, which are implementing sustainable agriculture initiatives, particularly in cocoa agroforestry. The field trip provided an opportunity to put into practice the knowledge acquired during the various theoretical sessions, particularly best practices in agroforestry for cocoa cultivation. The field trip also enabled participants to discover various CSA technologies, including solar-powered irrigation systems, a technology that offers sustainable solutions to the water needs of our crops; the energyefficient approach, organic fertilizers etc.  The training workshop contributed to improving participants' knowledge of climate-smart agriculture and climate information services. Panel discussions and field visits enabled participants to familiarize themselves with various climate-smart agricultural technologies. Participants also learnt about the carbon emissions and sequestration in West Africa, the tools and approaches needed for estimation. The participants agreed to devote more time than in the past to discussing climate issues, climate-smart and water-oriented agriculture with students during lectures.\"This workshop enabled me to familiarise with the three key objectives of climate-smart agriculture, which are: to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes; to adapt and strengthen resilience to climate change; and to reduce and/or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions wherever possible.\" Valy KONE, ANADER, Côte d'Ivoire\"The workshop was a huge success. From the arrival to the four presentations and the fieldwork, all participants were fully engaged. It reveals lots that can be done in carbon dioxide emissions sequestration in West Africa, the tools needed and the approach.The seminar has been a transformative experience focused on the vital issues of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and climate information services (CIS). We explored the intricate relationship between agriculture, climate change and sustainable practices. We now understood that CSA isn't just a concept, but a tangible approach that enables farmers to adapt to changing climate patterns while reducing their environmental impact. By integrating climate-resilient crop varieties, efficient water management, and sustainable land use, CSA offers a way to ensure food security while protecting our natural resources.Central to the discussions was also the critical role of climate information services. These services provide the knowledge and data needed to make informed decisions in the face of climate variability. We have seen how access to timely and accurate climate information can be a game-changer for farmers, enabling them to optimize planting and harvesting schedules, reduce crop losses, and improve overall resilience.Visiting the agroecological school project in Plantation has served as a practical example of CSA and CIS in action. From the use of organic fertilizers to solar-powered irrigation systems, we learned how these technologies can increase agricultural productivity while reducing carbon emissions. We are now committed to taking the knowledge and insights gained here and translating them into real-world solutions in our own communities.We recognize that the challenges of climate change are global, but the solutions need to start at the local level. Each of us has a critical role to play in advancing CSA and CIS practices, promoting resilience, and mitigating climate risks. In this journey, collaboration will be our greatest asset. We leave this seminar not as isolated individuals, but as a network of change-makers united by our commitment to climate-smart agriculture and climate information services. By working together, sharing best practices, and advocating for sustainable policies, we can accelerate the adoption of CSA and CIS solutions worldwide.We are grateful to the organizers, speakers and participants who made this seminar a source of inspiration and knowledge. As we disperse to our respective regions, we carry with us a shared vision of a future where agriculture thrives in harmony with nature, where farmers are equipped to meet climate challenges, and where our planet thrives. Together, we are on a mission to build a more resilient, sustainable and climatesmart agricultural landscape for generations to come.It is our firm assurance that the feedback given by participants would be used to improve the course modules and represented to the stakeholders. We also need to see more of all-encompassing stakeholder workshop to adopt the modules. The WASCAL alumni network was fully represented, and we wish more alumni can be engaged in such projects in the future. ","tokenCount":"1828"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ba014ac4d5abe277f6c93312d0fc50ce","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92dc547d-3f5e-49e2-b59c-3bf757148e04/retrieve","id":"1897667475"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"413872fe-d396-46e0-b8c0-accbb19ea018","pagecount":"48","content":"This analysis and report were prepared in the context of the Project \"Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk\" supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the European Commission, and the CGIAR Research Programmes on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) from 2015-2018. The analysis has been made possible by the efforts of the Project coordination and implementation teams from Bioversity International and Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG), as well as many contributors to the design of the survey tools.The programme \"Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk\" funded by IFAD and the European Commission from 2015 to 2018 aims to strengthen the capacities of farmers to manage risks associated with climate change, poor nutrition status, and economic disempowerment through agrobiodiversity-based solutions. Enhancing productivity and promoting use of nutritious and climate-hardy underutilized species is the core of the initiative, which is focusing on chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) and tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) in Guatemala. Chaya is a native perennial shrub that produces highly nutritious leaves all year round. This underutilized crop can enhance nutrition of communities in the dry corridor of Guatemala and provide an income opportunity for small producers. A holistic approach addressing multiple bottlenecks in supply and demand is being applied for chaya in the Project, engaging consultation and participation of multiple stakeholders to ensure value chain interventions are pro-poor and gender-sensitive. Tepary bean is native to dry regions of northern Mexico and the southern USA and has been grown throughout the Mesoamerican region. It is currently almost unknown in Guatemala. Thanks to its high drought tolerance, tepary bean could help adapt farming systems to climate change, which is challenging production of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)-the fundamental staple of Guatemelan diets alongside maize (Zea mays).This baseline household assessment provided an overview of the production and livelihood systems of 88 households in three communities in Chiquimula district of Guatemala. The results reveal useful insights to guide project actions and provides a snapshot of the communities prior to intervention that can help document the impact of the Project. The survey documented the level of cultivation, commercialization, and consumption of chaya and revealed some clues to how chaya and tepary bean can contribute to improving food security, nutrition, and incomes in the surveyed communities. Chaya was cultivated by about a quarter of households in the surveyed villages. It was predominantly being used for household consumption. Aside from limited trading within the community, chaya was not being marketed. Low consumption of vegetables revealed in the 24-hour diet recall shows that chaya could contribute to more balanced diets, especially in the lean season when there is less frequent consumption of vegetables. Tepary bean was not cultivated or consumed in the surveyed communities but common bean was grown by the majority of households and was an income source for several households. No other pulses were grown in the community and there was a low level of meat consumption, meaning there was high reliance on common bean for dietary protein. The greater drought tolerance of tepary bean means it could help ensure a more stable and resilient pulse production for the communities and, with attention to value chain development, could also provide an income source. This analysis is a beginning point for more detailed analysis on the value chains of chaya and tepary bean, the relevance of these species in the livelihoods of men and women in Guatemala, and their adaptation to the threats of climate change. Further work on documenting the value chain of chaya and the seasonal calendars of local fruits, vegetables and pulses will be carried out in the Project, along with promotional activities for enhancing the contributions of these crops to farmers' livelihoods.Guatemala faces serious issues of poverty and hunger (Global Index for Hunger, IFPRI 2015). Around half of children under five are affected by chronic malnutrition (49.8%), while 1.4% are affected by acute malnutrition (ENSMI-2008/09). Thirty five percent of children under five years of age are deficient in zinc, 12.9% in vitamin B12 and 26.3% in iron (ENMICRON 2009/10). At the same time, there are cases of overweight in Guatemala, which affects 5.6% of children under five years of age (Encuesta Nacional de Salud Materno Infantil 2002). Some regions are more affected by these burdens. Highest rates of extreme poverty are seen in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Chiquimula, Izabel, Sololà, Suchitepequez, Totonicapan, and Zacapa where more than 20% of the population suffers extreme poverty (INE 2011). Chronic malnutrition is higher in rural areas than urban areas and is high to very high (60-83%) in the departments of Chiquimula, Quiche, Solola, Totonicapan, and Hehuetenango (ENSMI-2008/09). The prevalence of chronic malnutrition in children under five years of age is higher among subsistence farmers, indigenous peoples, and those with uneducated mothers (ENSMI-2008/09, UNICEF, ICEFI & SUECIA 2013).Seasonal famine is common in Guatemala-especially in the dry corridor. The agricultural calendar is marked by seasonal weather events. The first rainy season from May to June precedes a heat wave and drought in July and August referred to as the 'canicula', which is followed by a second rainy period from September to October (FEWS NET 2013). Malnutrition cases among children less than five years of age occur in conjunction with exhausted cereal reserves (April to August), the end of the coffee, sugar, and cardamom harvest that provides temporary labor (November to March), and during the rainy season (May to September), which is associated with water sanitation issues and infectious disease. Changes have been occurring in the climate and seasonal calendar in recent years. The beginning and the end of the rainy seasons have been shifting, making it difficult to predict when rain will come. Natural climate variability from phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña is being amplified, bringing more severe droughts. The expected future scenario (by 2100), will involve an increase of temperature from 2-6ºC and a decrease in rainfall between 10-20% (IPCC 2014). Increasing uncertainty and severity of the climate are bringing greater risk for food security.Guatemala is a global hotspot for biodiversity. It is a mountainous and highly forested (37%) country characterized by high rates of species endemism (13%) (CBD 2015). In addition to rich flora and fauna in the wild, the country is also rich in agricultural biodiversity. Mesoamerica is a center of origin and diversity for many globally-important crops such as maize, bean, papaya, pumpkins, avocado, cocoa, cassava, sweet potatoes, and peppers (Khoury et al 2016). There are also numerous lesser-known crops native to Guatemala that are important to indigenous food cultures as documented by Azurdia (2016; Box 1). The high agricultural biodiversity in Guatemala partly results from and reflects the high cultural diversity that exists in this country, where the majority of the population is indigenous or of mixed indigenous and European ancestry and a large number of ethnic groups coexist (Minority Rights Group International 2015). Most Guatemalans are of indigenous descent, including K'iche 9.1%, Kaqchikel 8.4%, Mam 7.9%, Q'eqchi 6.3%, and other Mayan groups 8.6% (2001 census;Minority Rights Group International 2015). A rich knowledge on the use of local biodiversity is maintained by indigenous peoples for leveraging their values for meeting subsistence needs of food, shelter, and medicine. The native plants used by these peoples are often wild-collected or semi-domesticated and have not received much research attention to enhance their roles in the livelihoods of Guatemalan peoples-even if some have much higher nutrition values and higher stress tolerance than more commercial crops introduced by European colonizers (Azurdia 2016). Two examples of underutilized crops that can support better nutrition and climate resilience in Guatemala are chaya and tepary bean, which are discussed in detail below.Anillito (Rytidostylis gracilis), calá (Carludovica palmata), castanichaj (Solanum wendlandii), colinabo (Brassica campestris), chomté (Lycianthes synanthera), hierba de San Nicolás (Calandrinia micrantha), hierba madre (Jaltomata procumbens), lechuguilla de conejo (Sonchus oleraceus), mácare (Galinsoga parviflora), malvilla (Anoda cristata), mozote (Bidens pilosa), pichojol (Tinantia erecta), siete camisas (Liabum sublobatum), tunay (Dahlia imperialis), verdolaga (Portulaca oleracea)Arbol de campeche (Prosopis juliflora), canistel (Pouteria campechiana), cericote (Cordia dodecandra), chucte (Persea schiedeana), chupe (Saurauria kegeliana), injerto (Pouteria viridis), Juruguay (Talisia oliviformis), manzanita (Vaccinium confertum), matasano (Casimiroa edulis), pataxte (Theobroma bicolor), pepino dulce (Solanum muricatum), ramón (Brosimun alicastrum), sauco (Sambucus mexicana), tomate de árbol (Solanum betaceum)Mayan spinach or chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) is a domesticated shrub that has been cultivated since pre-Hispanic times in the Mayan region (Ross-Ibarra & Molina-Cruz 2002). It was likely domesticated in the Yucatan region of Mexico but it is used commonly throughout Mesoamerica, including Guatemala, Belize, southeast Mexico, and parts of Honduras (Ross-Ibarra 2003). Four cultivated varieties exist: estrella, mansa, plegada, and picuda-all of which are grown in Guatemala (Ross-Ibarra & Molina-Cruz 2002). Chaya is used as a hedge and its leaves are consumed for food and medicine (Ross-Ibarra 2003). It is often planted in gardens, in cornfields, or with other field crops (Ross-Ibarra 2003). The leaves are highly nutritious, containing significantly higher amounts of crude protein, fibre, calcium, potassium, iron, ascorbic acid and β-carotene than spinach (Kuti & Kuti 1999). Cooking slightly reduces the nutritional content but is essential to inactivate toxic hydrocyanic glycosides (Kuti & Kuti 1999). Although the nutritive and agronomic potential of this shrub has been recognized for decades, along with its good taste, there has been little research and promotion of its use (Ross-Ibarra & Molina-Cruz 2002). The species has strong potential to enhance nutrition in communities in the dry corridor but also more widely in Guatemala and in distant markets. Promotion of chaya as a superfood could be an important income generation opportunity and its greater use can valorize this local food that was an important feature in the pre-Columbus diet.Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a staple in Guatemalan cuisine that originated in humid parts of Mesoamerica. Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) is a relative of common bean, thought to have been domesticated in dry regions of Central Mexico and the southwestern USA (Blair et al. 2012). Tepary bean is well-adapted to arid conditions, exhibiting a high level of drought, heat and cold tolerance, as well as early maturation (Blair et al. 2012, Beebe et al. 2013). Tepary bean is fairly high yielding and notably outperforms common bean in hot environments (Beebe et al 2013). This crop is underutilized, grown at a limited scale in dry parts of Mesoamerica but it shows potential to support climate change adaptation of farming systems in this region through greater use and crossing with common bean (Blair et al. 2012, Gaur et al. 2015). The beans are comparable or superior in nutritional content compared to major pulses, with protein content between 17-32% (Nabhan & Felger 1978, Scheerens et al. 1983). Two general types exist: white-seeded and brown-seeded, with the latter characterized by a stronger and more distinctive flavour (Scheerens et al. 1983). The culinary properties of tepary bean are distinct from common bean and Mexicans use different recipes to prepare these two pulses (Scheerens et al. 1983). In the southwestern USA, some prefer tepary bean to common bean and use it as a prized soup ingredient (Scheerens et al. 1983). Evaluations of organoleptic quality by students in Saudi Arabia revealed tepary bean to be moderately to highly acceptable (Tinsley et al. 1985). Nevertheless, their \"unfamiliar\" taste was believed to have contributed to a failure of early commercialization attempts for tepary beans in USA, while others contend the failure of these attempts was due to poor timing of the interventions (Nabhan & Felger 1978, Scheerens et al. 1983). The acceptability of this crop as an alternative to common bean in Guatemala is being investigated in the project.The programme \"Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk\" aims to strengthen the capacities of farmers to manage risks associated with climate change, poor nutrition status, and economic disempowerment through agrobiodiversity-based solutions. Enhancing productivity and promoting cultivation and use of nutritious and climate-hardy underutilized species is the core of the initiative, which is focusing on chaya and tepary bean in Guatemala. A holistic approach addressing multiple bottlenecks in supply and demand is being applied for chaya, engaging consultation and participation of multiple stakeholders to ensure the interventions are pro-poor and gendersensitive and to advocate for supportive policies (Padulosi et al. 2014(Padulosi et al. , 2015)). Tepary is being introduced to farmers through participatory crop evaluation trials, which also involve a taste component (Bioversity International 2015), and to consumers through acceptability trials.The project is targeting communities in Chiquimula district with activities to promote the cultivation and use of chaya and tepary bean (Figure 2). This district is part of the dry corridor and the population faces a high burden of malnutrition, poverty and climate risk as discussed above. A collaborative alliance was established between Mancomunidad Copan´chortí and UVG to identify food security vulnerable communities to participate in the project. The Mancomunidad Copan´chortí is composed of municipalities and the Majors of four Districts (Jocotán, Camotán, San Juan Ermita and Olopa) and promotes rural development. Women and men leaders, as well as the Presidents of the Comunal Development Committees (COCODES) from five Communities (La Brea, Petentá, Tesoro Abajo, Dos Quebradas and La Arada), were invited to attend a workshop where the Project objectives and activities were presented. Among the participants, three communities were chosen as the primary focus: Tesoro Abajo, Petentá and La Brea (Table 1). Tesoro Abajo is in the municipality of Jocotán with a population of 40,903. The other two villages are in the municipality of Camotán which has a census population of 36,226. The total population of the three villages surveyed was 99 families. The baseline household survey was carried out for 68 families in the target villages in December 2015. To expand the scope of the survey, another 20 households were interviewed by Mancomunidad Copan´Chortí in March 2016. The total sample size was thereby 88 households. Questions in the baseline household survey pertained to household assets, their production system (crops and livestock), income sources, management, sale and consumption of chaya, food and nutrition security, and foods consumed in lean periods and abundant periods of the year. The questionnaire developed for the project was adapted for implementation with Open Data Kit (ODK) on a smartphone.To complement the baseline household survey, an additional survey on household dietary diversity was carried out in March 2016 taking into consideration 80 households: 28 were interviewed in Tesoro Abajo, 28 in Petentá, and 24 in La Brea. The diet diversity survey followed the Household Dietary Diversity Score method (Swindale and Bilinsky 2005), in which the female head of household was asked to recall the foods eaten by her household in the last 24 hours. This document summarizes the main results of the baseline surveys with the aim to guide further investigation and actions in the Project. The analysis focuses on visualizing and identifying key patterns in the data. Comparisons are made between communities for orientation but statistical tests were not performed, so the differences discussed here are not necessarily significant. The analysis was performed in R (Version 3.02 R Foundation for Statistical Computing) and Excel (Microsoft 2013).The survey design anticipated to have the position of each respondent documented by GPS however, due to issues with satellite connectivity, the GPS position was not documented for every respondent and some uncertainty thereby resulted for the location of some surveys. Comparing the time stamp of the survey relative the field schedule and cross checking with the names of farmers surveyed in the household diet diversity survey was performed to identify the site for those surveys where the information on location was missing. A certain level of error resulted from this process, thus the most reliable results in this assessment are those for the overall sample, which aggregate the three communities. Additional sources of error are in the identification of crop species and varieties, which was made based on common name. Further work is required for some crops to assess the species name where several species could be associated to one common name and for some common names that could not be linked to scientific names by the investigators. More work is also needed to control for synonyms in variety names between households and communities, which is work that is ongoing in the Project.Almost all the interviewees for the baseline household survey were women (95%) and in most cases they were the female head of household (83%; Table 2). In four cases, a man was interviewed. In three of these cases, the man interviewed was not the head of household, while in the fourth case, details on the head of household were not provided. The age and education of the respondents is shown in Table 3. The respondents ranged from 14 to 74 years of age, with a mean age of 37. The level of education with generally low. Just 22.7% had completed primary school and 3.4% had also completed secondary school. Thirty-two percent could read and write but had not completed primary school, while 45% were illiterate and had not received formal education. Respondents were asked to name their ethnicity. 39% considered they were ladino, 31% maya, and the remaining 31% did not reply to this question (Table 4). In Chiquimula, the specific Maya group is ch'orti'. Seventy-five percent of the households were headed by a man and a woman who were both living in the home (Table 5). Fewer households (14.7%) were headed by a single woman who was widowed or whose husband was absent from the home. One household did not have a head, either because they were absent or because the house was inhabited by an orphan. Several households (9%) did not answer the question regarding their household composition. The mean age of the male head of household was 44 years and of the female head of household was 41 years.The size of the households ranged from 1 to 13, with a mean of 5.9 inhabitants (Table 6). The mean ratio of adult women to men was biased toward women. The mean number of children (under 14 years of age) per household was 2.4. Households were similar in size and composition in each village. 0.9 0.9 0.7 1.1 Mean # of adults (>20) 2.5 2.7 1.9 2.9 Mean prop. of adults in the household that are female 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.6The progress out of poverty index (PPI) was used as an indicator of wealth for the surveyed households (Grameen Foundation 2016). The index is based on 10 country-specific questions, which assess household characteristics and assets. For Guatemala, the questions relate to how many household members are 13 years of age or younger, whether all children between the ages of 7 to 13 were enrolled in school, if the female head of household could read and write, if any household members worked mainly as casual laborers or domestic workers, the construction material of the residence's floors, whether they had a refrigerator, gas or electric stove, stone mill, or electric iron, as well as if they had ungulate livestock (cow, bulls, calves, pigs, horses, donkeys, or mules) (Schreiner and Woller 2010). The answers to each question were matched to defined categories with associated scores. The sum of the scores for each question was calculated to give the PPI score, which ranges between 0 and 100 and is linked to a standardized set of poverty likelihoods. Lower PPI scores indicate higher probability of poverty.The mean progress out of poverty index score for the households surveyed was 20.8 (Table 7). The mean likelihood that households fell below the national poverty line was 80% (Schreiner and Woller 2010). The poverty likelihood ranged from a minimum 7.3% to maximum 80.2%. The mean poverty likelihood was similar across the villages. The landholdings of the surveyed households are summarized in Table 8. The mean landholding size for all the households surveyed was 0.7 Ha. The smallest landholdings were 0.06 Ha and the largest landholdings were 3.9 Ha. Landholdings were similar across the three villages. Most respondents documented their landholdings in tarea, for which the conversion to metric measurements can vary slightly. For this analysis a conversion of 15.9 tarea per hectare was applied. A few respondents indicated their landholdings in cuerda, which include 6 tarea.74% of the households owned at least some of their land and 48% were renting some land. One in five households (20%) did not own any land and were dependent on rented plots (Table 9). Land was allocated to different uses as described in Table 10. Most households (97%) had land under rainfed cultivation, and most of the area was under this land use (mean 0.6 Ha). Fewer households (4.5%) had land under irrigated cultivation and the area was quite small when they did have irrigated holdings (mean 0.2 Ha). Sixty-one percent of the surveyed households were keeping livestock. The most common types of livestock overall were chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus; 60%) and ducks (Anas platyrhynchos; 19%) (Table 11). Less common livestock were pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus; 4.5%), turkeys (Meleagris gallopavov; 2.3%) and donkeys (Equus africanus asinus; 1.1%). There was not a big difference in the livestock kept between communities (Figure 5). In total, five livestock species were kept across the sites. Households maintained a mean of 1.5 livestock species.Households that kept chickens had a mean of 18 animals (Table 12). For ducks, a mean of 5 animals were kept and for turkeys a mean 2.5 animals were maintained. Households on average had just one pig or donkey. In Tesoro Abajo, households maintained slightly higher head counts of chickens than in the other villages (Figure 4). A total of 25 crop species were documented in the surveyed communities, including two cereals, one legume, 14 vegetables, five fruits, and two other crops (Table 13, 14). One household in Petenta was noted to be growing a fruit tree but the species was not noted. There were also four records of households growing crops aside from the major cultivations, for which the crop name was not specified. Overall, households maintained a mean of 2.8 crop species, including 0.6 cereal crops, 0.7 legume species, 0.7 vegetables, 0.2 fruits, and 0.2 'other' crops (Table 15).   The most popularly cultivated crops overall were maize (Zea mays; 53%) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris; 49%) (Table 16). Aside from maize, the only other cereal documented in the sites was sorghum (Sorghum sp.; 5%), which was quite rare. No other legume was documented aside from common bean. Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius; 31%) was the most popularly cultivated vegetable. Other vegetables documented were chipilin (Crotalaria longirostrata; 9%), hierba mora (Solanum americanum and S. nigrescens; 6%), cilantro (Coriandrum sativum; 3%), radish (Raphanus sativus; 3%), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum; 3%), repollo (Brassica oleracea var. capitata; 2%), onion (Allium cepa; 2%), ayote (Cucurbita argyrosperma; 1%), chile (Capsicum sp.; 1%), guisquil (Sechium edule; 1%), hierbabuena (Mentha spicata; 1%), loroco (Fernaldia pandurata; 1%), yuca (Manihot esculenta; 1%), and dante (probable Verbenaceae; 1%). It was unclear whether chaya was indeed more popular than the other vegetables as the survey explicitly asked about chaya cultivation and this likely led to this crop being documented with greater likelihood than other vegetables. Banana (Musa sp. 13%) was the most common fruit, noting that one household was also growing plantain (Musa sp. Plantain subgroup; 1%). Less common fruits were mamey (Mammea americana; 1%), mango (Mangifera sp.; 1%), nispero (Eriobotrya japonica; 1%), and zapote (Pouteria sapota; 1%). In addition to the food crops, coffee (Coffea sp; 13%) was commonly grown and cocoa (Theobroma cacao; 2.3%) was grown by one household. A higher diversity of fruits and vegetables were documented in Tesoro Abajo but otherwise the crops were similar between sites (Figure 6). Household's assigned largest areas to maize (mean 1.0 Ha) and beans (mean 0.9 Ha) (Table 17). The few households cultivating sorghum grew it in smaller area (mean 0.2 Ha). When grown, vegetables were assigned a mean area of 0.5 Ha. Most vegetable species occupied small areas (<0.1 Ha). Chipilin, hierba mora, dante, and chaya were grown in relatively larger areas than other vegetables (0.2 to 2.0 Ha). Relatively larger areas were assigned to vegetable cultivation in La Brea (Figure 6). For some plants, especially chaya, the area was documented in number of trees or number of bushels. A conversion rate of 2 m 2 area for one tree was assumed for this analysis. The baseline household survey assessed the diversity of sources from which households drew their income. The livelihood sources included crops, livestock, livestock products, and off-farm sources. These different sources of income are described below.Overall 16% of households reported earning some income from their crop production. The most common crops that were sold for income were common bean and coffee (Table 18). Coffee was sold by 55% of those cultivating the crop and bean was sold by 16% of those producing the crop. Two households were earning some income from fruits and one household was earning income from vegetables. The production of maize was exclusively for subsistence, as was the case for most crops (Figure 9). The above cases aside, production was by and large for household consumption (Figure 10). The majority (84%) of growers did not report making income from their production and 18 of the 26 crops were not sold by any of their producers (Figure 11). Few households were making an income from livestock or livestock products. Just three households reported selling chickens as a source of income: two in Tesoro Abajo and one in Petenta. This was just 6% of the households that were keeping chickens. Four different households reported selling eggs, including three in Petenta and one in La Brea. A quarter of households reported having off-farm income sources. The most common off-farm income source was farm labor (Table 19). 9% of households had members who were day laborers on farms outside the community, while 2% had members doing farm labor on neighboring farms. Two households had their own business, one household had a member that was a domestic employee, and one household had another kind of temporary work in the community. The households surveyed had a total of 14 unique sources of income, considering all the specific crops, livestock, animal products, and off-farm sources (Table 20). Overall, individual households had a mean of 0.6 income sources-less than one (Table 21). Households in Tesoro Abajo had the most sources of income on average and households in Petenta had the fewest sources of income recorded at the household level among the communities. The average household had 0.23 cash earning crops, 0.03 cash-earning livestock, 0.05 animal products and 0.3 off farm income sources.Sixteen percent of households were gaining an income from agriculture and 3% were gaining income from livestock (Figure 16). Twenty five percent were gaining income from off-farm sources. Animal products were a less common source of income, for only 5% of households. Petenta had fewer households gaining an income from crops but more gaining income from animal products than the other communities (Figure 16).  Overall, the most common livelihood sources were farm labour (9%) and beans (8%) (Table 22). Coffee was another crop that brought income for several households (7%). Eggs and chickens were the next most common income sources but they were quite rare (3-5% of households). The most common income sources were slightly different in the three villages. Farm labour was a more prominent income source for households in La Brea. Eggs were the most common income source documented in Petenta, while beans were the most important livelihood source documented in Tesoro Abajo (14%).The project is focused on research and development of the value chains of chaya and tepary bean. A detailed assessment was made of the current levels of cultivation and commercialization of these crops, considering the diversity of varieties, as well as the management practices and associated gender roles.The level of cultivation of chaya in the surveyed blocks is shown in Table 23. Overall 31% of surveyed households were growing chaya. A higher proportion of households was growing chaya in Tesoro Abajo than in La Brea and Petenta. Overall, the farmers allotted a mean 0.1 Ha to chaya, representing about 16% of their landholdings. It is noted that the area estimates are coarse as some households documented the number of bushes and others the area in tarea. With the assumed conversion of one bush representing 2 m 2 , the estimated area of chaya cultivation was larger in La Brea compared to the other two communities. Two varieties of chaya were grown across the villages (Table 24). The most common variety was mansa (also known as criollo in the surveyed villages) and the second most common variety was estrella (known locally as extranjero). Mansa was grown in all three villages, wheras the estrella variety was only documented in La Brea and Tesoro Abajo. In several cases the variety of chaya grown by the household was not specified, so it is possible that the estrella variety was also grown in Petenta. Across the villages households typically only cultivated one variety of chaya and in more rare case, two varieties. A much higher area was assigned to the mansa variety in Tesoro Abajo, whereas the estrella and mansa vareities had similar areas in La Brea (Figure 13, Table 25). Chaya was most often managed by women (Figure 14, Table 26). Of chaya growing households, 44% reported that women were the gender most responsibe for its management. 19% reported that men were responsible for managing chaya, while 7% reported that both genders managed chaya. The sources of chaya germplasm were reported in the survey. Effectively all respondents sourced their germplasm from their family members within the community (Table 27). Some got chaya germplasm from a neighbor in the same community. Fewer had received chaya germplasm from a relative outside the community or as a donation from the government or an NGO. The yield of chaya was coarsely estimated, assuming one bunch to equal 1 kg. The estimates revealed average yields of 11 kg/Ha (Table 28). There was indication that the mansa variety was providing higher yields than estrella. It is unclear if farmers were referring to their yields over the whole year or for a specific period of time, as chaya can be harvested year round. In La Brea, few households gave detail on yields of chaya. No household reported selling chaya but three households said they had traded chaya. Two households in Tesoro Abajo and one in Petenta had traded very small amounts of chaya within the community.Tepary bean is being introduced to the communities involved in the project. Its acceptability for being integrated as a drought tolerant bean variety is being assessed. The below analysis describes the state of common bean cultivation in the communities, which may relate to tepary bean, once introduced in the villages.The level of cultivation of common bean in the surveyed blocks is shown in Table 29. Approximately half the surveyed households were growing common bean. A lower proportion of households was growing common bean in Petenta than in the other villages. Overall, the farmers allotted a mean 0.6 Ha to common bean, representing about 64% of their total farmland. The area of common bean cultivation was also slightly smaller in Petenta compared to the other two villages. While chaya was seen to be mainly a womans' crop, the baseline results show that beans are mostly a male managed crop (Figure 16, Table 30). While approximately half of households were growing common bean, only seven (16%) noted selling it for income (Table 31). Two households had sold it to the market and four sold to their neighbor (Table 32). An additional two households were noted to trade common bean. To asses food security and diet diversity a variety of indicators were applied. In order to understand patterns of food insecurity, the months of adequate household food provisioning (MAHFP) indicator was used in the baseline household survey (Bilinsky and Swindale, 2010). A separate survey in March 2016 was made to asses diet diversity. This survey applied the methodology to calculate a Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS; Swindale and Bilinsky 2005). The HDDS results were complemented by a series of questions in the baseline household survey on consumption of different foods during lean and abundant periods of the year.Overall, households in the surveyed villages experienced food shortage for a mean of 4.0 months in the last year. Five of the 88 households (6%) did not experience any month with food shortage in the last year. June was the month with the highest number of households reporting food insecurity (80%; Figure 17). In general, the most food insecure period, when 40-80% of households, had insufficient food was between May and August (Table 33). The lowest number of households experiencing food insufficiency was in October and November but some households experienced food shortages in every month of the year.  Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) is a proxy indicator that is helpful to understand the ability of a household to access a variety of foods (Swindale & Bilinsky 2006). The HDDS is composed by 12 food groups: cereals, white roots and tubers, vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, fish and seafood, pulses nuts and seeds, dairy, oils and fats, sugar and sweets and spices, condiments and beverages. The respondents are asked how many food groups have been consumed by their household in the past 24 hours. The HDDS score is calculated as the number of food groups consumed, which can range from 0 to 12. Studies have shown that an increase in dietary diversity is correlated to a household's socio-economic and food security level (Hoddinot and Yohannes, 2002;Hatloy et al., 2000).The mean number of food groups eaten by the households surveyed (HDDS) ranged between 4 and 8. The mean HDDS overall was 5.48±1.07 St. Dev (Table 34). Tesoro Abajo had a slightly higher HDDS than Petentá and La Brea. There are no established cut-off points for the calculation of HDDS, therefore, in order to develop further analysis, the mean of HDDS for the whole sample (5.48) was used as threshold, as suggested by the guidelines (Swindale and Bilinsky 2005). Every household surveyed had consumed cereals, pulses nuts and seeds, spices and condiments, and sweets and sugars in the past 24 hours (Figure 18; Table 35). By contrast, white roots and tubers, fish and seafood, meat, and dairy were consumed by less than 10% of households. Oils and fats were consumed by 24% of households, eggs by 54%, and vegetables by 40%. Tesoro Abajo was the village with the highest diversity of food groups consumed, while households in La Brea had consumed the fewest food groups. Households in this latter site had not consumed dairy, fish and seafood, meat, or white roots and tubers. Their only sources of proteins were eggs and pulses, but they had more commonly consumed vegetables than households in the other villages, which provide an important source of micronutrients. Consumption of animal protein was slightly more common in Tesoro Abajo than in Petentá, while the consumption of oils and fats was more common in Petentá than in the other two villages.  Vegetable, eggs and oils and fats were consumed much more commonly among those with above-average diet diversity (Figure 19). Those with above-average diet diversity were also more likely to consume white roots and tubers, fruits, meat and dairy, which were more rare foods overall. Information regarding the relative frequency of consumption of 12 food groups was collected in the baseline household survey considering critical months (months with food shortages, such as the ones in the lean period) and normal months. The 12 food categories considered were: pulses and nuts, cereals, tubers, vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, eggs, dairy, oils and fats, sugar and sweets and, lastly, beverages. The frequency options were: muchas veces (consumed more than 10 times a month, which means more than 3 times a week), algunas veces, (consumed once or twice per week), pocas veces (consumed once or twice per month) and nunca (never consumed).The results corroborated the findings of the diet diversity survey. Most households were consuming grains, legumes, vegetables, and eggs in the lean season as well as in good periods (Figure 20; Table 37). Fewer housheolds were consuming fish, meat and dairy, and roots and tubers. Roots and tubers, fruits, meat and fish were consumed by more households in the abundant seasons. Consumption of most food groups was less frequent (e.g. 1-2 times per month instead of 1-2 times per week) in the lean season (Figure 21). There was indication of grains being consumed more often in the critical months.  The farmers in the three villages included in this study have integrated crop and livestock farming systems for a mix of subsistence and market production. Households maintained a mean of 1.5 livestock species and 2.8 crop species, meanwhile five species of livestock and 25 crop species were documented across the communities. Crops and livestock were vital for subsistence. Few households were earning income from their crop (16%) or animal (8%) production. Farm labour positions outside the community were a prominent income source for the communities (9% of households). The primary crops grown by the most households and in largest areas were maize and common bean. A diversity of vegetables and fruit species were cultivated across the communities, many of which were native to the Mesoamerican region.Chaya was the most common vegetable that was documented in the sites-grown by 31% of households.The fact that the survey explicity asked about chaya production may contribute to the higher frequencies of cultivation documented in the survey relative other vegetables. Two varieties of chaya were cultivated in the surveyed communities. Most households kept one variety but a few kept two varieties. The most popular variety was mansa. The estrella variety was grown in lower frequency. The mansa variety appeared to give the highest yields but it is noted that there were many assumptions made in calculating the area and mass of harvest, as different units were used for yield and area between households. It was also unclear the time period for which the yield data referred to, as chaya can be harvested year round. Further investigation into yield of chaya should be carried out. Chaya was used exclusively for household consumption. Three households were noted to trade chaya within the village but no household was noted to be selling chaya in the market.Tepary bean was not cultivated by any of the surveyed households. Around half of households (49%) were growing common bean and it was grown in large areas relative other crops (mean 0.9 Ha). Whereas chaya was seen to be managed mainly by women, beans were managed almost exclusively by men. Sixteen percent of common bean producers were earning an income from their production.The households surveyed experienced food shortage for on average four months in the previous year. May to August was the peak period of food insecurity, which corresponds to the period during the first rainy season and the 'canicula', before the first harvest. In the 24 hour recall survey performed in March, households had eaten a mean of 5.5 food groups. Every household had consumed cereals, pulses, nuts and seeds, spices and condiments, and sweets and sugars. Fewer households had consumed white roots and tubers, fish and seafood, meat, dairy, eggs, and vegetables. Some food groups like meat, fish, fruit, and roots and tubers, and vegetables were consumed by more households and more frequently in the abundant period than in the lean season.Chaya stood out as a crop that can help enhance consumption of vegetables-especially in the lean period, as it is a perennial crop. There were many other native vegetables and fruits documented in the household survey that could have a role in increasing availability and consumption of these foods for more balanced diets. Native vegetables documented included chipilin, hierba mora, guisquil, loroco, and dante. Native fruits documented in the survey were mamey and zapote. Other native vegetables and fruits exist in Guatemala (e.g. Azurdia 2016; Box 1) which could also be grown locally and important in supporting better food security and nutrition.Only two species of cereals were documented in the production survey. Maize dominated production, while just a few households were growing sorghum. Other cereals and roots and tubers could be relevant for diversifiying the production of starchy foods. Similarly, only one species of legume was documented in the production survey. In this sense, tepary bean can be key in building more resilient supply of pulses for the communities.This baseline household assessment provided an overview of the production and livelihood systems of three communities in Chiquimula, Guatemala which are being targeted with activities to increase the cultivation, commercilaization and use of chaya, tepary bean and other underutilized speices to improve nutrition and climate resilience. The survey documented the level of cultivation, commericalization and consumption of these crops prior to the interventions. The study also revealed how these species contribute to the livelihoods of the surveyed communities and the roles they could have in further improving food security, nutrition, and incomes. Chaya stood out as a crop that can support increased vegetable availability and consumption, especially in the lean season. Tepary bean can play a key role in diversifying the portfolio of pulses for better climate change resilience.","tokenCount":"6869"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fd906a992c3468b8c1393685808342e6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b79d03ab-7422-4f1d-a612-59b0d0688980/retrieve","id":"-1489193136"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6e882170-f512-4018-a556-85f76467f071","pagecount":"11","content":" Sweet potato-pig systems is a major economic activity among millions of rural households in Sichuan, China; some 6.77 million households are in SP-pig systems, of which some 1.46 million are poor. SP-pig systems address one of the key constraints in smallholder pig production, i.e., seasonal crop shortages that result in fluctuating ability of feed supply to sustain the requirements of pig herd. Sweet potato is widely cultivated in Sichuan, especially in hilly or mountainous regions; about 4 million tons of roots are produced every year, of which about 70% is used as pig feed. Being an annual crop with vines and tubers easily perishable, the conservation of both parts is a technology option that can potentially extend the shelf life and availability of feed year-round. During the period 2001-2004, ILRI and CIP together with national partners from SASA implemented the CASRE Project, specifically developing and testing sweet potato-based feed technologies. New high-yielding sweet potato varieties produce more biomass, prompting the need for options to improve post-harvest crop storability. Ensiling of the roots and vines was tested and adapted by farmer collaborators; this technology helped extend shelf life and stabilized availability of SP-based feed supply. Noticeable impacts had been observed by the end of the CASREN Project, which prompted the need to properly document and evaluate these.Objectives of the study  Sample respondents included a subset of households that were interviewed in baseline surveys at the start of the CASREN project.Analytical Framework  Propensity score matching; this involves matching 'participants' with 'non-participants' using observable independent covariates. A discrete choice framework such as logit model can be applied to estimate propensity scores. Based on propensity score matching obtained from the logit estimates, the average treatment effect (ATT) can be computed, where ATT is the mean difference between the paired outcomes of 'participants' and 'non-participants' once pairs are identified. Matching algorithms commonly used are nearest neighbor matching (NNM), radius matching (RM), and kernel matching (KM).Empirical model of treatment effects  SP-based feed technology is suitable in smallholder pig production; it also can potentially help pig raising households to transition from subsistence pig production to more market-oriented operation by enabling them to build assets in the course of productivity gains derived from being cost-efficient. This also promotes resilience, by having more options for coping with external shocks from markets, e.g., price volatility of inputs and outputs. A targeted approach to scaling up of this technology is warranted; labor intensive nature of the technology (for feed preparation) is a key constraint to adoption where availability of household labor in rural Sichuan is competing labor opportunities outside the farm. SP-based feed technology is suitable for scaling up in less intensive systems where SP is an important crop, in areas with poor access to markets for inputs and outputs, where SP and pigs are important contributors to HH income and livelihood, in rainfed upland areas, and in areas with relatively more land available for SP production.","tokenCount":"490"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2bb7e8762747c19790a55f62f5a7067c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2f0bd5e9-93aa-467f-b7c6-2d64f921fe96/retrieve","id":"-1990903865"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d505deef-f3dc-497c-bb5a-23fe627d30a7","pagecount":"17","content":"• A recent foresight exercise conducted by FAO (2018) warns that \"business as usual\" is no longer an option for a foodsecure future.• If food and agricultural systems remain on their current path, the evidence points to a future characterized by persistent food insecurity and unsustainable economic growth.• The report concludes that \"high-input, resource-intensive farming systems cannot guarantee the sustainability of food and agricultural systems.• Additionally, this system have caused:✓ massive deforestation ✓ water scarcity ✓ soil depletion ✓ the loss of biodiversity ✓ antimicrobial resistance of pests and diseases and ✓ high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsSo what???• Innovative systems are needed to increase productivity without compromising the natural resource base (FAO, 2018).Why innovative way?• Recently, innovative and nature-based approaches have been receiving increased attention from many stakeholders, because:✓ They consider ecological concepts and principles that optimize interactions among plants, animals, humans and the environment, ✓ They consider the social aspects that need to be addressed for sustainable food systems.Con't…• Pastoralism is such an nature based and innovative system (FAO, 2021): • Pastoralism is a way of life and livelihood strategy for millions of people around the world.• Characteristics:✓ The freedom of mobility over outsized land is indispensable to pastoralist production.✓ Make use of arid and semi-arid environment that doesn't uphold sustainable crop cultivation.✓ Livestock diversification (Dong et. al., 2016).Con't… >180 million, living in approximately 75% of countries (Kieta et al., 2016).• Approximately 60% of total land area is pastoral areas (Homann et al, 2004 cited in Yohannes andMahmmud, 2015).• It sustains the livelihood of some 14% of the population (Yohannes and Mahmmud, 2015)• Makes the country among the top ranked in Africa in its livestock populations (CSA, 2020).Found in all horn of African countries.Con't… So what to Do???Con't…• Understanding the pastoral setup and planning developmental activities fit to the pastoral community is important task to alleviate the existing problems.• As the pastoralism is characterized by mobility, all developmental activities should consider the routes through which the pastoralist frequently travels for various reasons.","tokenCount":"335"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e4e20bc551a198051d7555aba79c7eb8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d43569f5-e936-4b26-b67b-3d56ec0fe182/content","id":"-2063326931"},"keywords":["Agricultural productivity","impact heterogeneity","Nepal","propensity score matching","sustainable tillage practices","technology adoption JEL classifications: Q12, Q16, O12, O33"],"sieverID":"9875081f-2966-49c3-be90-f7a5dd8c57b5","pagecount":"20","content":"The 'high speed' rotavator is used for shallow tillage to create a fine tilth and incorporate crop residues, often with a single tractor pass. Rotavator tillage has spread quickly in many parts of South Asia, despite short-term experimental trials suggesting deteriorating soil quality and crop yield penalties. Evidence of rotavator impacts on farmer fields across soil gradients and time is largely absent. From a farm household survey conducted among wheat farmers in Nepal, we estimate wheat yield and profitability outcomes for rotavator adopters and non-adopters using propensity score matching. We find that rotavator adoption leads to inferior outcomes, despite significant cost savings for land preparation (US$ 11-15 per hectare). With rotavator adoption, farmers lose about 284-309 kg of wheat grain and about US$ 93-101 of profits on average per hectare per season, and these penalties increase with longer-term use of the technology. Adoption of rotavator appears to be driven by the cost and time savings for land preparation. Against this backdrop, new policy and extension efforts are required that discourage rotavator use and favour more sustainable tillage technologies.The development of farming technologies that are environmentally sustainable and financially beneficial to farmers has become a key topic of agronomic research in the last two decades. One of the most prominent sustainable technologies is zero tillage (Derpsch et al., 2010;El-Shater et al., 2016). Identified as one of the transformative innovations in conservation agriculture, zero tillage has the potential to enhance the adaptive capacity of farming communities to mitigate the challenges of climate change in the tropics (Harvey et al., 2014;Arslan et al., 2015;Sapkota et al., 2015). However, the rate of diffusion of zero tillage has remained low in many parts of South Asia (Kassam et al., 2014;Krishna et al., 2016). Traditional farmers' belief that tillage is essential for crop production has been identified as one of the major barriers to rapid diffusion of this technology (Bhan and Behera, 2014). Easy access to machines for intensive tillage, ranging from cultivator to power tiller, augments this belief. In recent years, the spread of rotavators or rotary tillerstractor-operated high speed tillage machinery that breaks the soil with the help of rotating 'L' or 'J'-shaped blades to create fine tilthhas been rapid in many parts of South Asia (Erenstein, 2010). However, rotavator tillage is also shown to have several negative consequences on soil quality and crop yield in experimental research trials (Tripathi et al., 2007;Ahmad et al., 2010;Schjønning and Thomsen, 2013;Guan et al., 2015;Sang et al., 2016).If the results of these research trials hold true in farmers' fields, diffusion of rotavator use in South Asia suggests a possibly unique case of perverse adoption, since financial viability and improvement are supposed to be the important determinants of technology adoption (Knowler and Bradshaw, 2015). There are two plausible explanations for the prevalence of rotavator tillage in South Asia. First, the negative effects of rotavator tillage could be less pronounced (or even absent) in farmers' fields, especially in the short term. Researcher-managed plots often differ from farmer-managed ones with respect to production conditions and managerial efficiency. Second, adoption decisions could be made under resource constraints, and not solely based on the criteria of land productivity or profitability. In order to design technology interventions to promote resource-conserving technologies like zero tillage, the effects of technology alternatives on yield and profits should be estimated. To the best of our knowledge, no study has been conducted so far to assess the on-farm effects of rotavator tillage.At present, the adoption-impact literature is heavily biased toward documenting success stories of promising technologies (e.g., Gitonga et al., 2013;Shiferaw et al., 2014;El-Shater et al., 2016;Mishra et al., 2016). While there exists some evidence for why certain promising technologies fail (Douthwaite et al., 2001), the reasons behind farmer acceptance of unsustainable technologies has rarely been the subject of analysis. We argue that documentation of the agronomic and financial effects of less-sustainable alternatives of promising technologies also bears significant policy relevance. Here, we attempt to: (i) verify whether the effects of rotavators are negative in farmers' fields in terms of both yield and profitability; if so, (ii) identify the rationale behind the farmer acceptance of this 'unsustainable' technology. Farm household data collected from the wheat-based farming systems of Nepal are used for the empirical analysis.Nepal is one of the least developed countries in Asia with a quarter of its population living below the absolute poverty line (NPC, 2017) and about one-third of children under five facing acute nutritional deficiency (FAO, 2013) major challenge with more than half of Nepalese districts facing food deficit every year in the recent past (Joshi et al., 2012). With two-thirds of the population engaged in agriculture, technological innovations which increase yield and profit have the potential to reduce rural poverty in Nepal. Wheat is grown on 25% of the cultivated land in the country, but the crop productivity has stagnated (MoAD, 2016). Farmer adoption of less-sustainable practices further slows down the rate of economic growth. The insights gained from examining the field and plot conditions affected by rotavator adoption in Nepal have wider geographical significance, as diffusion of rotavator tillage is also rapid in other countries of South Asia (Krishna et al., 2012). In India, to date, about 600,000 rotavator units have been sold, with 50,000 new units being marketed every year (15-20% growth) by the 14 leading manufacturing companies (Rana, 2017). Experts predict an increase in the annual manufacture of rotavator units in the coming years (pers commun, R.K. Malik, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in 2018). Although rotavators are prevalent in other countries, as indicated by Paman et al. (2015) in Indonesia, Rizwan et al. (2017) in Pakistan, Memon et al. (2018) in China etc., the literature on its diffusion rate and agronomic or economic effects at the farm level has remained scant.Background details of rotavator technology and the scope of the present study are provided in the next section. The data used for the empirical analysis are described in section 3, and the analytical framework is outlined in section 4. The empirical findings are presented in section 5, while the last section discusses these findings and concludes the study.Conventionally, tillage has been perceived as one of the most important cultivation practices that determines soil quality (Mosaddeghi et al., 2009;Singh et al., 2013), crop growth (Mosaddeghi et al., 2009), and short-term and long-term sustainability of crop production systems (Bhatt et al., 2016). In wheat production, tillage is found to affect physical, chemical and hydrological requirements for crop growth (Mohanty et al., 2007;Bazaya et al., 2009). However, these effects vary depending on the type of tillage practices as soil quality, water percolation and land productivity are affected differently by different tillage practices in different agro-ecosystems (Kumar et al., 2013;Das et al., 2014). There is a growing concern about the soil productivity and wider environmental implications of conventional tillage practices, especially using iron ploughs, rotary tillers and disks (Knowler and Bradshaw, 2007), which are sometimes labeled as unsustainable (Hobbs et al., 2008). There are alternatives to conventional practices, such as zero-tillage (Keil et al., 2015;El-Shater et al., 2016) and double no-till (Jat et al., 2009), that improve crop yields and save costs compared with traditional tillage (Bhan and Behera, 2014). Nonetheless, farmer adoption of these methods has been slow, perhaps reflecting a lack of initial policy and extension support (Kassam et al., 2014). While some unsustainable technologies are adopted quickly by farming communities due to higher opportunity cost of labour time (Low, 1993) and associated lower cost of technology adoption (Pierpaoli et al., 2013), the impact of such unsustainable practices on yields, costs and farm profits are rarely subjected to analysis.The history of mechanised tillage in Nepalese agriculture dates back to early 1970s with the advent of two-and four-wheel tractors (Biggs et al., 2011). However, diffusion has been rapid only in the last two decades. The number of farms using mechanised tillage has increased from 5% in 1995 (Takeshima et al., 2015) to 23% in 2016 (Takeshima, 2017a) The area under mechanised tillage has significantly increased in recent years, albeit with only a small share of farmers (<1%) owning tractors and other tillage machinery (Takeshima, 2017b). Custom hiring has become prevalent, especially in the cereal belt of Nepal Terai.Diffusion of mechanised tillage shows high spatial heterogeneity in Nepal. While less than 8% of farms use mechanised tillage in the mountains and hills, about 46% use it in the lowland Terai region (Takeshima, 2017a). This region has been considered to have higher potential for crop intensification due to plain topography, better input access, and larger landholding size (Takeshima, 2017a,b). The higher concentration of four-wheel tractors has facilitated the use of different types of tillage machineries, including tine cultivators, disc harrows, seed drills and rotavators (Biggs and Justice, 2015;Gauchan and Shrestha, 2017). On the other hand, conservation tillage practices have been less prevalent, even in the Terai region. Technologies such as direct seeded rice and zero-or reduced-tillage wheat have been introduced recently but these technologies are spreading only slowly among farmers (Ghimire et al., 2013).The history of rotavator tillage in Nepal is recent. Krishna et al. (2012) reported that the technology was introduced in many Nepal villages only after 2005, while it was prevalent in the northwestern Indian villages even in the mid-1990s. Since Nepal and India share a porous border, farmers from Nepal Terai constantly interact with their counterparts in India. Unsurprisingly, farmers residing in the Indo-Nepal border-districts were the first to adopt rotavators in Nepal. Recognising the scope of an emerging market, the private sector started importing rotavators from the neighbouring countries, India and China. Tillage demonstrations were conducted by private dealers in many villages of Nepal Terai (Gauchan and Shrestha, 2017). Adoption was also driven by government subsidy programmes, governed by a farm mechanisation policy in 2014 and other mechanisation promotion policies (Takeshima, 2017a). The Government of Nepal provided up to 50% subsidy to promote farm mechanisation. There was also a reduction of tariffs for importing farm machinery, including rotavators (Gauchan and Shrestha, 2017).During the last two decades, a number of studies have been carried out to address the agronomic effects of this new tillage option. Several research studies have shown a weak performance of rotavator tillage when compared with other tillage methods in wheat (Ahmad et al., 2010;Amin et al., 2014). Tripathi et al. (2007) reported inferior performance of rotavator tillage in the rice-wheat systems in India. The negative effects are generated through increasing sub-soil compaction or creation of a hardpan due to continued use of shallow tillage (Khan et al., 2012;Nawaz et al., 2013;Głab, 2014;Sang et al., 2016). These effects have many detrimental consequences, including lower rate of incorporation of fresh organic matter, reduced nutrient recycling and mineralisation, reduced activities of micro-organisms, increased weed pressure, increased lodging problems, and increased wear and tear on cultivation machinery (Hamza and Anderson, 2005). Increased soil compaction also increases the bulk density, reduces pore space, impedes root growth, and requires more energy for tillage. A reduction in pore space hinders water and air movement in soil, thereby reducing water holding capacity and restricting root penetration (Ahmad et al., 2010). These factors ultimately lead to increased cost of production and reduced yield and profitability for farmers.While there exist a number of studies on negative effects of rotavators, all are based solely on information from researcher-managed field trials. While some of the socioeconomic studies have questioned the increased adoption of rotavator tillage (Erenstein, 2009(Erenstein, , 2010)), no systematic analysis has been carried out on the agronomic and economic effects of this technology in farmers' fields. While the conventional agronomic tools such as long-term trials have a role in documenting the intermediate and progressive impacts of tillage practices on soil characteristics and crop yields over time, they are too expensive to conduct and do not sufficiently capture technology interactions with the range of soil types and management factors. Against this backdrop, our research objective is to assess the on-farm economic impacts of rotavator adoption in Nepal Terai, across districts with diverse socioeconomic and agro-ecological conditions. Understanding the economic effects of rotavators is the first step toward understanding the rationale behind farmer adoption of the technology in this region.Our empirical analysis is based on the farm household data collected from wheat farmers in Nepal Terai through face-to-face interviews. The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire during April-June 2016, immediately after completion of wheat harvest in the region. 2 The questionnaire included sections on household demographics, cropping patterns, income sources, as well as wheat production technologies, inputs and practices (including tillage), outputs obtained and marketing channels. 3 The sampling strategy consists of a purposive selection of 10 districts from Terai region and 5 sub-districts (Village Development Committees or VDCs) from each of the selected districts. All districts and VDCs were selected based on the wheat acreage and prevalence of mechanised tillage adoption. One ward from each VDC, and 10 wheat farmers from each ward were selected randomly. This procedure yielded a sample size of 500 farm-households. Excluding the 15 questionnaires that were incompatible for our study purpose, data from 485 households are analysed. Figure A1 in the online Appendix shows the location of sampled districts, and extent of wheat area as well as rotavator adoption in the region.In this impact evaluation study, the 'treatment' group includes farm households who used rotavator tillage in the main wheat plot during the previous season of survey (winter 2015-2016). The 'control' group employed other tillage methods for wheat production in the same season on their main plot. 4 It is possible that tillage decisions are different across different plots managed by a single farm household, leading to a certain degree of overlap of control and treatment groups if other plots were also 2 Out of the 75 districts of Nepal, 20 lie in the Terai region (MoAD, 2016). The selected 10 districts were Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardyia, Banke, Rupendhai, Nawalparsi, Bara, Dhanusa, Saptari and Sunsari.The sample households managing more than one wheat plot were asked to provide inputs and output from their main plot. These households may use different levels of inputs in different plots, and these plots may differ with respect to soil type and topography. Eliciting details of different attributes of all plots managed by the household would have increased the survey time and cost significantly, and would have reduced the data quality.considered for the analysis. To enhance precision, the effects of adoption are estimated at the plot level using the main plot, and not at the household level, as done elsewhere (Krishna and Qaim, 2012;Kassie et al., 2015;Mishra et al., 2017b). Noltze et al. (2012) also showed that farmer adoption can be better explained by combining plot and household characteristics while examining the impact of technology adoption in rice.The traditional approach to evaluating the effects of technology adoption is to regress the outcome variables with an adoption dummy and a vector of farm household and plot attributes as the control variables. The underlying assumption of this approach is that adoption of technology is exogenously determined. However, there could be a number of unobserved farm household attributes (e.g. farmer's perceptions, risk aversion, managerial skills etc.) that may be correlated with both adoption and outcome variables, making observed adoption endogenous, and producing biased estimates for ordinary least squares regression analysis (Kabunga et al., 2012).Researchers have proposed various estimation techniques in order to resolve the endogeneity issue (Mason et al., 2017). Random assignment of the treatment is inapplicable for impact assessment when data are collected after wide-spread adoption (de Janvry et al., 2010). Wooldridge (2002) argues that application of panel estimators with household-level fixed effects can control for time-invariant heterogeneity. However, development of panel datasets is not always feasible due to time and financial constraints, and this will not control for the time-variant heterogeneity. Selection bias can also be addressed using the Heckman two-step method (Heckman et al., 1997) and instrumental variables approach. However, suitable instrumental variables are not always available (Jalan and Ravallion, 2001;Mendola, 2007).The dataset used for this study are cross-sectional. At the time of data collection, a significant share of households had already adopted rotavator tillage. Suitable instrumental variables were also not available from our dataset. 5 Hence, we use matching algorithms and propensity score matching (PSM) to partly correct endogeneity, following Dehejia and Wahba (2002). The estimation of effect of technology adoption on outcome indicators using PSM is based on balancing the distribution of observed attributes of rotavator adopters and non-adopters, and comparing differences after matching based on the similarity in their observed attributes. PSM is a non-parametric method, and has been increasingly employed to study the effects of technology adoption in agriculture (Gitonga et al., 2013;Khanal et al., 2015;Mishra et al., 2016Mishra et al., , 2017a;;Mason et al., 2017).To estimate the effects of rotavator tillage with PSM, we first specified the conditional probability of rotavator adoption, using a logit model to derive the propensity scores. In the second step, we matched the adopting farm households with the nonadopters based on similarity in the propensity scores. In order to match technology 5 Finding an ideal instrument for a cross-sectional impact study is a difficult task (Angrist and Pischke, 2009). We have conducted a detailed examination of the recent adoption-impact literature for a suitable instrument. Some of the variables used as instruments in the past studies (e.g. group membership) did not satisfy the exclusion restriction. Some other potential candidates, (e.g. year of introduction of rotavators in the village) were also found to be unsuitable as an instrument when tested using an approach suggested by Di Falco et al. (2011).adopters with non-adopters based on their distribution of observed attributes, several algorithms have been proposed in the literature (Caliendo and Kopeinig, 2005). Following popular practice, we employed three different matching algorithmskernelbased matching (KBM), nearest neighbour matching (NNM), and caliper matching or radius-based matching (RBM). Each of these matching algorithms has unique features, although robustness of estimates can be confirmed when all of them provide comparable estimates. In KBM, weighted averages of outcomes of all households in the non-adopter group are used to construct the counterfactual. These weights are inversely associated with the distance between propensity score (Caliendo and Kopeinig, 2005). While NNM involves choosing farmers adopting and non-adopting rotavator tillage that are closest as a matching pair in terms of propensity score (Ali and Abdulai, 2010), this is usually applied with replacement so that the control sample can be the best matched pair for more than one treated sample (Becker and Ichino, 2002). In the RBM approach, a tolerance level on maximum propensity score distance between subjects in the adopter group is estimated, which is then employed to derive subjects in the counterfactual non-adopter group (Andam et al., 2008).The main purpose of the PSM method is to balance the observed distribution of covariates across the treatment and control groups. This procedure requires a covariate balancing test after matching to ensure that there are no systematic differences in the distributions and there is an overlap of the covariates among adopters and nonadopters (Sianesi, 2004;Lee, 2013). The results from the post-matching two-sample ttest should not be significantly different across adoption categories for any of the covariates for meaningful comparison. The matching quality is tested by comparing pseudo R 2 and P-values of the likelihood ratio of the joint insignificance obtained from the logit model before and after matching the covariates. Lower pseudo R 2 and insignificant P-value of the likelihood ratio after matching would denote that the balancing property is satisfied (Sianesi, 2004). The balancing property can also be tested with mean absolute standard bias (MASB) between rotavator adopters and nonadopters as suggested by Rosenbaum and Rubin (1985). An MASB value greater than 20% is considered too large to qualify the matching process.A general weakness of PSM as an impact evaluation method is that the matching is based entirely on the observed characteristics. If there are certain unobserved variables that affect both the adoption decision and outcome variables (hidden biases), the resulting PSM estimates will be biased (Andam et al., 2008). We conducted the sensitivity analysis to identify whether the magnitude of hidden bias could alter the conclusions of the study. According to Rosenbaum (2002), the unobserved heterogeneity or hidden bias may leave visible traces in the observed data, which can be distinguished by a variety of tactics involving pattern specificity.The data contain 158 farm households (33%) adopting rotavator tillage and 327 households (67%) following other tillage practices. 6 The descriptive statistics are presented in Table A1 in the online Appendix. The average farm size for rotavator adopters was 33% smaller than that of non-adopters, despite no significant difference in the mean household size. Adopters and non-adopters do not differ with respect to mean age, education, or group membership status of the household head. However, the share of households belonging to the socially marginalised castes is significantly low among the adopters. 7 The share of household heads with agriculture as main occupation is also significantly low in the adopter group, although this is not reflected in the mean off-farm income. A higher share of adopters owned mobile phones. The spatial patterns of technology diffusion is evident, with rotavator use being more popular in western Terai.The difference between the rotavator adopters and non-adopters is also noticeable in the main plot characteristics (Table A1 in the online Appendix). Farmers adopted rotavator tillage mostly in plots with silty soil, but rarely in plots with sandy soil. Adoption was significantly higher in the lowlands and in plots with irrigation facilities. Furthermore, farms with delayed harvesting activities (for the previous crop) were the ones mainly adopting rotavator tillage. These systematic differences in the mean values of observed attributes of rotavator adopters and non-adopters potentially affect the adoption decision as well as wheat yield and profit, and hence necessitate matching and a test for selection bias.Rotavator technology appears to be spreading rapidly in the villages where labour scarcity is relatively high, as adopters are found to be paying significantly higher wages for agricultural labourers (Table 1). While comparing the costs and returns from wheat farming, the tillage cost is significantly lower in plots prepared using rotavator tillage, and this could be one of the major drivers of adoption. The fertiliser application rates were higher in rotavator-tilled plots, which increased the total variable costs significantly. Surprisingly, the increased fertiliser use and the cost of cultivation did not improve wheat yields, which were 15% lower for rotavator adopters compared to the non-adopters. Given the increased cost and reduced yield, it seems clear that rotavator adoption is not beneficial for farmers. The gross margin of wheat in plots with rotavator tillage was negative (a loss of NPR 2,800 or US$ 26 per hectare). In comparison, non-adopters were making positive returns from wheat (NPR 12,200 or US$ 114 per hectare). 8 There could be a number of factors other than tillage determining the wheat productivity and profitability, which are examined below.To estimate farm households' propensity to adopt rotavators, we run binary logit models using farm household and plot attributes as control variables. Table 2 shows 7 Among the four major caste categories prevalent in Nepal (Brahmin, Chettri, Vaish and Shudra), Vaish and Shudra are considered as the socially marginalised castes. 8 Use of gross margin to capture economic superiority of a technology is criticised in the literature, as the estimation does not capture the opportunity cost of family labour time. If farmers save time through the use of rotavators and they have a high opportunity cost of time, then it is economically rational for them to adopt in spite of lower yields and gross margins. However, opportunity costs are difficult to estimate, being dependent on a multitude of factors. In this study, we have taken annual off-farm income as the proxy variable; off-farm income of adopters (152,000 NPR) is not significantly different when compared with that of non-adopters (156,000 NPR). That is, inclusion of opportunity cost of family labour may not drastically alter our finding on the economic unsustainability of the rotavator technology.the results for the model that includes plot-level attributes and regional dummies. A comparison with a logit model excluding these variables (Table A2 in the online Appendix) shows that the results are relatively robust across the specifications. The majority of adopters have opportunities for non-farm income activities, belong to one of the socially non-marginalised castes, participate in the group activities, have access to mobile phones, and live in villages with high wage rates for agricultural labour. The logit model suggests that small farmers who rely on off-farm income opportunities are more likely to adopt rotavator tillage. Adoption is higher in low lands and in plots with irrigation facilities. Delay in harvesting the previous crop is another important factor determining adoption, as there could be some timesaving associated with rotavator tillage.For matching, we used three different matching algorithms to derive the treatment effect -NNM, KBM and RBMas described in section 4. The matching procedure for each of these algorithms were checked in order to balance the distribution of observed attributes for rotavator adopters and non-adopters. In Table A3 in the online Appendix, we present the covariates status before and after matching, which shows a substantial reduction in the percentage bias after matching. The statistical insignificance of differences in the observed attributes indicates the absence of any systematic difference between adopters and non-adopters. The distribution of propensity scores for the rotavator adopters and non-adopters is presented in Figure A2 (online Appendix). The overlapping of distribution of propensity scores indicates a common support for the adopter and non-adopter sub-samples (Rubin, 2008). The pseudo R 2 as well as the P-value of the likelihood ratio became significantly lower and statistically insignificant after matching, indicating further the absence of any differences in observed attributes for these sub-samples (Table A4 in the online Appendix). Furthermore, the mean and median bias after matching is significantly below the threshold of 20% for all the matching algorithms considered. The low bias values indicate that the balancing property is satisfied. This variable indicates whether the farmer experienced any delay in obtaining fertilisers in the wheat season. Fertiliser availability in time is a persistent problem in Nepal because of the undeveloped fertiliser industry in the country.Table 3 Average treatment effect on outcome variablesOutcome (per hectare) The results for the average treatment effect for the treated (ATT), as estimated by NNM, KBM and RBM algorithms, are presented in Table 3. Adoption of rotavator tillage indeed reduced the tillage cost for wheat farming significantly. The results are similar across different matching algorithms, and the tillage cost saved from rotavator adoption ranges between NPR 1,229 (US$ 11.5; 15.4% lower than the tillage cost of non-adopters) and 1,586 (US$ 14.8; 20.1% lower) per hectare. There are no significant differences across the adoption categories with respect to the total variable cost; the significance of differences in the descriptive statistics vanished after matching. On the other hand, rotavator tillage is found to result in significantly lower wheat yields, ranging between 284-309 kg/ha (13.6-14.9%). As a result, the gross revenue and gross margin for wheat farming were also lower in the plots prepared with rotavators, with the reduction in gross margin of NPR 9,916-10,811 (US$ 93-101; 397-445%) per hectare.Table 3 also includes a sensitivity analysis to detect the presence of hidden bias in the model, based on Rosenbaum bounds. 9 The critical value of Γ ranged between Γ = 1.80-1.85 and Γ = 2.30-2.35. The value of Γ = 1.80, for example, suggests that only if two farm households with the same attributes differ in their odds of rotavator adoption by a factor of 80%, could the significance of adoption effects on yield be questioned. We can hence conclude that our estimates are robust, and the inference on the estimated effects will not change even in the presence of substantial unobserved heterogeneity. Smith and Todd (2005) demonstrated that the treatment effects derived from matching can be sensitive to specifications of propensity scores. Following Dehejia (2005), three diagnostic tests were performed with re-estimated treatment effects using different model specifications. 10 Higher order covariates such as quadratic forms of farm size, household head's age, and wage rate were included in addition. In a separate model, the quantity of fertilisers and the type of seed used were included, following advice from a referee. These model estimates and sensitivity analysis of treatment effects are presented in the online Appendix (Tables A5 and A6). The treatment effects are similar to those shown in Table 3, indicating that the estimates are not affected significantly by the changes in the model specification and inclusion of additional conditioning variables.We also examined the effects for different categories of farm households with respect to farm size, years of adoption, and sowing times. The results are shown in Table 4.To study the impact of rotavator tillage across different farm size categories, the sample data were stratified into large and small farms around the median value (0.8 ha). The treatment effects of rotavator tillage on wheat yield and gross margin (profit) are found to be significantly negative for larger farmers, while the effects were small and statistically insignificant for smaller farmers. For the former, the critical value gamma 9 Since sensitivity analysis of insignificant variables is meaningless (Hujer et al., 2004), Rosenbaum bounds were derived only for the variables that are statistically significant. 10 By adding fertiliser use and improved variety adoption as conditioning variables in the logit model, we re-estimated the treatment effect and the results are shown in specification-3 in Tables A5 and A6 in the online Appendix. ranges from Γ = 2.75-2.80 for wheat yield indicating that the results will not alter even in the presence of a substantial amount of unobserved heterogeneity. The adverse effects among large farmers could be due to the early adoption of the technology compared with small farmers, and hence could be indicative of longer-term effects (as indicated by Singh et al., 2013). This is further verified by stratifying the sample data into two categories, that is, <3 and ≥3 years of history of continuous adoption. The results show that farms where rotavator tillage was used continuously for ≥3 years have more pronounced negative impacts on wheat yield and farm profits. However, no significant impact was detected in the farms that had used rotavator tillage for <3 years. In order to investigate the impact of rotavator tillage across different wheat sowing times, we stratified our data into early and late sowing groups. Our results show that wheat yield and gross margin were significantly lower for both early and late sowing groups with no significant difference between them. Although early sowing of wheat in South Asia can have a significant positive impact on wheat yield (Lobell et al., 2013;Keil et al., 2015), our results suggest that rotavator tillage could be offsetting the yield advantage of early sowing.We also estimated the differential impacts of rotavator tillage with respect to the rate of fertiliser application, because adopters apply more fertilisers compared to nonadopters (Table 1). These results along with the effects on soil types are presented in Table A7 (online Appendix). Among the plots with high nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P 2 O 5 ) applications, rotavator adoption led to a significant loss both in terms of grain yield and profit. When only one of the nutrients was higher, the yield and profit losses were even higher in magnitude.We examined the adoption and impacts of high-speed rotavator tillage on wheat yield, cost of cultivation, and gross margin among lowland wheat farmers in Nepal. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to examine the effects of rotavator tillage on farmers' fields and plots. The empirical analysis using PSM shows that, while adoption of rotavator tillage reduces the tillage cost, it also reduces wheat yield, gross revenue and farm profit. The immediate and apparent tillage cost savings from the use of rotavators appear to be perceived by farmers as more salient than the later consequences for yields and profits. We also find that small farmers are more likely to use rotavators than their larger and possibly better-informed counterparts. Those with more off-farm income are also more likely to use rotavators as they perhaps pay less attention to their farming practices and outcome. While adoption of new technologies is often driven by cost savings (Gitonga et al., 2013;Pierpaoli et al., 2013;Chuchird et al., 2017), we find that use of rotavators amongst our sample of farmers actually results in reduced yields and earnings, despite the savings in tillage costs. There is an obvious need to educate farmers regarding the negative effects of rotavator tillage, as these effects become prominent only after years of continuous use.Although our study uses cross-sectional data, the analysis does provide some valuable insights on long-term adverse effects of rotavators. Farmers using rotavator tillage continuously for 3 years or more had significantly lower yields and profit than farmers who have used rotavators for less than 3 years, reflecting the longer-term adverse effects of rotavator tillage found in field experiments. The adoption literature suggests that larger farmers tend to adopt new technology earlier (Feder and O'Mara, 1981;Feder et al., 1985;Rogers, 1995;Sunding and Zilberman, 2001). It is possible that large farmers in our sample have already discovered these disadvantages, and that is why they are less likely to use the technology. Although our analysis does not reveal any statistically significant difference between adopter and non-adopters' yields or profits for small farms, they might also suffer significant penalties in the longer-run with continued rotavator tillage. Panel data are required to establish the changes in impact magnitude over time.Zero tillage could be a sustainable alternative to rotavator tillage, especially in areas where human labour is scarce and the interval between two crops is short. Similar to rotavator tillage, zero tillage requires only a single machine pass, with significant time and labour saving along with yield and profit improvements being reported for zero tillage adoption (Krishna and Veettil, 2014;Keil et al., 2015). However, development of zero tillage needs better dissemination of information and service provision networks in many parts of South Asia, especially in the light of the conventional perceptions of the importance of a fine and clean tilth for sowing crops like wheat, as produced by the rotavator. Significant promotion programmes are required to change farmer perceptions to realise the importance of soil quality and mulching, and to prepare them to adopt more sustainable tillage practices.Policy signals are also important. The government of Nepal has promulgated an agriculture mechanisation policy since 2014 (Gauchan and Shrestha, 2017), providing subsidies for agricultural machinery (Takeshima, 2017a), including rotavators. Our findings strongly suggest that this policy is misplaced. We suggest that a policy modification is needed to encourage farmer adoption of conservation tillage, in addition to a sustained information and benchmarking service to inform farmers of the dangers of rotavator tillage and the advantages of no-till.Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article.  Table A1. Socio-economic characteristics of rotavator adopters and non-adopters in Nepal Terai.Table A2. Factors affecting rotavator adoption (excluding plot level attributes): Logit model estimates.Table A3. Test for selection bias after matching. Table A4. Statistical test to evaluate bias-reduction after matching. Table A5. Logit model estimates for sensitivity analysis. Table A6. Average treatment effects for rotavator adopters under different specifications of selection model.Table A7. Heterogeneous effects of rotavator adoption across soil types and fertiliser application rates.","tokenCount":"5887"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"569adc71a7ded0e82b0eeb4c964c108b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2017285c-1e9e-4d95-a2af-143711598073/retrieve","id":"-945545518"},"keywords":["Adoption constraint Adoption status Climate-smart agriculture Gender analysis Socioeconomic benefits ACSAS, African Climate Smart Agriculture Summit","AF, Agroforestry","AWIBI, Agricultural Weather Index-Based Insurance","CA, Conservation agriculture","CIAT, International Center for Tropical Agriculture","CSA, Central Statistical Agency","CSAP, Climate-smart agricultural practice","CSAPs, Climate-smart agricultural practices","EPCC, Ethiopian Panel on Climate Change","GDP, Gross domestic product","FAO, Food and Agriculture Organisation","GHG, Greenhouse gas","ICV, Improved crop varieties","IFPRI, International Food Policy Research Institute","ILM, Improved livestock management","INDCs, Intended nationally Determined Contributions","ISFM, Integrated soil fertility management","MOA, Ministry of Agriculture","SLR, Systematic literature review","SWC, Soil and water conservation","UNFCCC, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change","WHSSI, Water harvesting and small-scale irrigation"],"sieverID":"a89c3c08-a591-47dc-8a66-5e89c7387b15","pagecount":"22","content":"To ensure climate-resilient food and other production systems, countries must adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate-change. Adopting climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) will significantly contribute to such adaptation and mitigation. In global, regional, and African contexts, Ethiopia represents a useful case study from which much can be learned. Therefore, the fourfold objectives of this Ethiopia-focused review were to i) synthesize adoption studies of more than seven CSAPs; ii) examine their adoption status, including gender considerations, socioeconomic benefits, and constraints to CSAP adoption; iii) identify gaps in the current CSAPs adoption literature, and iv) highlight future CSAP research and policy directions. Following a systematic literature review procedure, 100 articles published between 2001 and 2021 on adoption of CSAPs in Ethiopia were reviewed. Although all the publications were about the highlands of Ethiopia, over 80% came from the regions of Amhara, Oromiya, and South Nations and Nationalities. The most-adopted practice was soil and water conservation (SWC), with a mean adoption rate of 61.5%, followed by integrated soil fertility management, and agroforestry with mean adoption rates of 56.5% and 48.8%, respectively. Gender analysis was integrated in the studies at varying levels, including in all improved livestock management initiatives; just over half the SWC initiatives; and over 75% of the remaining five practices. Quantified socioeconomic benefits were reported in only 46 papers. Greater farm income; increased land productivity; higher yields; increased food availability; and reduced household poverty were among the reported benefits of adopters compared to their counterparts. Among the aggregated constraints, socioeconomic factors and knowledge/awareness were ranked the two highest, followed by labor shortage and limited market access. The study highlighted research gaps, especially a lack of national-scale studies and studies focusing on drought-prone regions. Additionally, 37% and 46% of the studies respectively, didn't consider i) gender, and ii) analysis of socioeconomic benefits of CSAP adoption. This Ethiopian review reveals a need to fill research gaps in methodologies andTo ensure climate-resilient agricultural and other production systems, countries must adapt to and mitigate the effects of climatechange. Adopting climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) will significantly contribute to such adaptation and mitigation. In global, regional, and African contexts, Ethiopia represents a case study from which there is much to learn. As for many developing countries, agriculture underpins Ethiopia's economy. It employs over 85 % of the working population (Ministry of Agriculture MOA (2017)), supports the livelihoods of millions of people (Njeru et al., 2016), and contributes 43 % of national gross domestic product (GDP) (Ethiopian Panel on Climate Change EPCC (Ethiopian Panel on Climate Change) ( 2015)). However, land degradation poses a serious challenge in cultivated lands. Since the sector is profoundly dependent on rainfed production systems, the problem has been exacerbated by climate change.The Barcelona Climate Change workshop (2009) recognized that adopting CSAPs is critical for effectively responding to climatechange (FAO, 2010). A climate-smart agriculture (CSA) project was launched in 2012, as a follow-up to this workshop. It was cofunded by the European Union and FAO, and jointly implemented by FAO in three piloting partner countries (Malawi, Vietnam and Zambia) (FAO, 2014). The project examined CSAPs adoption at country level. It also analyzed the effectiveness of various CSAPs in terms of i) boosting agricultural productivity and income, and ii) building resilience in the face of site-specific climate shocks, compared to traditional agricultural practices in the three countries (FAO, 2018). At the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention policy directions.Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa approximately between 3.4 • N and 14.9 • N, and 33.0 • E and 48.0 • E with an area of 1,104,300 km 2 . With a dividing elevation of 1,500 m above sea level, the land masses below and above are broadly defined as lowlands and highlands of Ethiopia, respectively (International Food Policy Research Institute and Central Statistical Agency IFPRI (2006)). The mean annual rainfall pattern is characterized by a large variation in spatial and temporal distributions. It varies from 2,700 mm in the southwestern highlands to less than 200 mm in some parts of the northeastern and southeastern lowlands of Ethiopia (Dinku et al., 2018). The annual mean temperature ranges from 6.0 • C in the highlands to less than 30 • C in the lowlands (Dinku et al., 2018). On the basis of the highest political administration unit, Ethiopia has nine regional states and two city governances.This study adopted a systematic literature review (SLR) method, which has been used and acknowledged as valuable method by many researchers (Danese et al., 2018;Mihalache & Mihalache, 2016;Xia et al., 2018). This method helps to reduce bias and errors, and improves the rigorous review process, and also helps to organize the literature in specific contents/themes (Mihalache & Mihalache, 2016;Tranfeld et al., 2003). As recommended by many researchers, the systematic literature review was performed in three steps (Xia et al., 2018). Step 1: Data sourcing and developing meta-database (planning, document search, and documentation); step 2: Filtering retrieved publications using inclusion and/or exclusion criteria; and step 3: Content analysis (literature meta-analysis).First, an excel template was developed and relevant data/information from each article was captured. During this step, comprehensive search topics were considered to retrieve scientific publications that dealt with adoption of CSAPs in Ethiopia. The search keywords/themes were defined to cover the scope and research topics within the subject matter of adoption of: \"sustainable land management\"; \"climate-smart agriculture\", or \"precision agriculture\", or \"precision farming\", or \"smart farming\"-each with technologies/practices of \"integrated nutrient management\", or \"integrated soil fertility management\", or \"conservation agriculture\", or \"soil and water conservation\", or \"agroforestry\", or \"crop residue management\", or \"crop rotation\", or \"water harvesting and small scale irrigation\", or \"improved crop varieties\", or \"improved livestock management\", or \"biogas development and use\", or \"energysaving cooking stoves\", or \"weather forecasting\". The geographic study area of the retrieved documents was restricted to Ethiopia, while the search was open-ended regarding the study period.The retrieved scientific publications (peer-reviewed articles and book chapters) related to adoption of practices (as defined in the search keywords/themes above) of Ethiopia, and published in English language were obtained by searching in scientific databases of CAB, Google Scholar, and Scopus. These databases are widely used in most review studies, because they make available a wide range of peer-reviewed research documents in almost all disciplines.From the retrieved documents, we captured title of the publication, journal in which the paper is published, year of publication, absolute location (when possible, latitude, longitude), and relative locations (districts and/or regional state) of the study area, sample size used in the study (number of adopters and non-adopters), studied practices, inclusion/exclusion of gender analysis in the study, studies' methodology, constraints to the adoption of the practice(s), and socioeconomic benefits of smallholder farmers from the adopted practices (if reported). In step 1, after removing duplicated papers, a total of over 220 publications were retained for further analysis.In the next step, irrelevant documents in relation to this study were removed using exclusion criteria, i.e., excluding publication of studies i) that did not deal with adoption of any CSA practice; ii) of laboratory and/or research center's experiment; iii) of literature review; and iv) editorial and commentaries. We excluded literature reviews/SLRs from data extraction for our critical appraisal of a new systematic review (Robinson et al., 2014). However, we have used many systematic reviews in the introduction section as a background and in results and discussion, conclusion, and future directions of adoptions of CSAPs that either corroborate or check this study's results. Through this process, 140 articles/papers were retained. The validity of each of these articles was verified by referring the journal's site score and its continuity from the \"List of Scopus Indexed Journals\" database (LSIJ (List of Scopus Indexed Journals) (2022): https://www.ardaconference.com/blog/list-of-scopus-indexed-journals/ (consulted in February 2022), and we verified that only 100 papers were drawn from reputable journals that have a \"Scopus site score\". From each of 73 journals, one published adoption paper was drawn. While from each of eight journals, two publications were drawn; from one journal, three publications; and from each of two journals four publications were drawn. The Journal of International Soil and Water Conservation, and the Journal of Sustainability had the most publications (each with four publications), while the Journal of Environmental System Research was in 2nd position with three publications. This approach provided confidence that these papers could be considered reliable and be used for content analysis (Appendix A: Lists of publications used for content analysis).The third step involved content analysis, comprising a thematic classification of studied practices, and descriptive and quantitative analysis (Xia et al., 2018). For the thematic analysis, components of studied practices were grouped into seven thematical areas (Table 1).The descriptive analysis considered i) content categories of article's journal title; ii) year of publication; iii) study/research location where the publication data were drawn; iv) studied practice; v) inclusion/exclusion of gender in the study; vi) research methods and data collection tools used; and vii) reported constraints to adopting the studied practice.Research methods used were packed into five groups (cross sectional; mathematical; on-farm experiment with-and-without; longitudinal; and remote sensing). Data collection tools/methods were grouped into five categories (household survey questionnaire; field data collection; in-depth interview; focus group discussion; and secondary data collection tools).Reported constraints to adopting the studied practice were grouped into 12 categories: i) Knowledge/awareness (includes low level of farmers' education, lack of extension services, lack of training, weak technical support from extension agents, lack of awareness on the impact of climate change and the benefit/profitability of practices, and weak monitoring and evaluation of practices); ii) Socioeconomic factors (includes small plot size/land shortage, age of the household head, size of household, off-farm activity, duration of the practice to provide returns); iii) Shortage of labor (includes labor unavailability, labor intensiveness of the practice); iv) limited access to market; v) limited access to credit; vi) limited capital/finance; vii) limited access to farmers' social organization/institutions (includes access to local institutional services, membership in local organizations); viii) inadequate land tenure system; ix) limited access to irrigation; x) insufficient local organic material; xi) limited access to seeds, seedlings or planting material; and xii) challenging weather/climate.For quantitative analysis, data were extracted and documented to report on i) study sample size (number of adopters and nonadopters, and adoption rate (if it is reported)); ii) annual number of adoption publications; iii) monetized socioeconomic benefits for adopters (in Eth. Birr or USD); and iv) increases in household income and food security, yield, and land productivity.To examine annual progress and total number of CSAPs adoption publications, absolute numbers were considered. However, in the case of several studied practices, frequency is used, because in one publication, the results of one or more practices were reported, therefore, the total frequency of studied practices is greater than the absolute number of publications. The same approach was used in the cases of examining research methods and data collection tools used, and reported constraints to the adoption of practices.In order to mathematically estimate the change/increase in the number of publications over time, the number of annual publications was plotted on the Y-axis, and the corresponding year on the X-axis; and Quadratic Non-linear Regression Model was fitted.Research area spatial distribution was mapped using the ArcGIS tool. Absolute study locations were mapped using median reported values of study area latitude and longitude ranges. For study areas with no reported latitude and longitude, but containing the district name, the relative location was mapped using the district center coordinates. National and sub-national studies were excluded from mapping; however, their data were used at the national level analysis.The adoption rate of each practice was computed as the percentage ratio between number of adopters and total studied sample size. Then, after Kifle et al. (2020), adoption status classes were allocated. These were described as very high, high, medium, low, and very low, respectively, with greater than 70, 60-70, 50-59, 40-49, and below 40 % of adopters. A one-way ANOVA test was used to investigate whether or not the adoption rate difference between practices is statistically significant at the 0.05 level.Fig. 1 shows frequencies of publications that dealt with CSAPs adoption in Ethiopia from 2001 to 2021 by individual practices, and a total of seven categories of adopted practices were studied. Soil and water conservation was the most studied adoption practice, with 53 papers, followed by ISFM and AF adoption, as they were studied by 25 and 24 research teams, respectively. The fourth most studied adoption practice was WHSSI with 20 publications. Studies of ICV and CA adoption ranked fifth and sixth with 17 and 16 publications, A combined use of inorganic and organic fertilizers or integrated use of organic, and inorganic fertilizers, and measures to control soil erosion, and to correct soil acidity (Hörner & Wollni, 2021;Vanlauwe et al., 2010) grazing management, feed improvement, breed improvement (Branca et al., 2013;FAO, 2016;Saguye, 2017).respectively. Adoption on improved livestock management with only seven articles was the least studied practice.In our search, the first published research paper on CSAPs adoption appeared for Ethiopia in 2001, with only one article by Enki et al. (2001). Likewise, in each of 2004, and 2010, there was only one publication, and in 2007 there were three publications, while in between these years (i.e., in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009) there were no publications (Fig. 2A). Accordingly, in the first decade (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011) the review identified only seven publications. In the second decade (2012-2021), identified annual publications notably increased from two in 2012, to 14 articles in 2021, with an annual growth rate of about 1.2 articles. In general, from 2001 to 2021, there was a total of 100 publications, with an average of five publications per year. In terms of temporal pattern, the number of publications over the last two decades can be best estimated using a Quadratic Non-linear Regression Model (R 2 = 0.86), which showed a slower gradient during the early period (until 2009) and a steeper gradient during the later period which may indicate that future publication progression will continue with increasing gradient (Fig. 2A).This momentous growth suggests researchers' growing interest in adoption studies, and also the research topic is increasing. This also indicates that over the last 20 years, research of adoption of CSAPs was progressively considered to be an important means of building scientific knowledge in order to design appropriate agricultural practices, so as to mitigate the impacts of climate change (World Bank, 2018). only one identified publication, and both of these publications considered only adoption of SWC practice. Publications on the CSAP theme of SWC adoption started in 2001 (Enki et al., 2021), and gradually grew until 2018, with nine publications and then declined to six in 2021 (Fig. 2B). During the study period, 53 % of the total 100 reviewed papers dealt with adoption of SWC practices. In 2007, there were three publications, two on SWC (Amsalu & de Graaff, 2007;Bewket, 2007) and one on WHSSI (Ayalneh et al., 2007). In 2010, there was only one publication (Teshome et al., 2010)  were two more publications of which, the study by Mekonen and Tesfahunegn (2011) considered both SWC and AF, while the study by Bacha et al. (2011) considered only WHSSI. In 2012, adoption of four practices were published in two articles, i.e., three practices (ISFM, WHSSI and ILM) in Legesse et al. (2013); and the other one (ICV) in Goshu et al. (2012).From 2014 to 2016, the number of studied practices increased to six, with a total annual practices' frequency between 11 and 13. In 2017, 2020 and 2021, there were identified publications on all the seven adopted practices, with a total annual practices' frequency of 18,17,and 23,respectively (Fig. 2B). Publication of WHSSI started in 2007 (Ayalneh et al., 2007) and continued until 2021, except in 2013. Except in 2012, AF practice was published from 2011 until 2021. Publication on ISFM started in 2012 and continued with no interruption until the last sample year of 2021.Despite research on CSAP adoption increasing in Ethiopia, emphasis has been only on a few practices. Out of the studied practices, one-third was on SWC, and nearly one-fifth each was on ISFM and AF, suggesting research gaps in adoption studies in ICV and ILM.Out of the total 100 reviewed articles, the research data of the seven articles were from semi-national scale studies. Three of the articles were from studies that considered five regional states (\"subnational scale\"), and the other four articles were \"regional scale\" that considered two regional states (Fig. 3B). The research data of the other 93 publications were either from district, or watershed (\"local scale\") studies, associated with specific regional states, therefore, the spatial distribution of these research areas is mapped on Fig. 3A. In this mapping, research areas of seven papers were excluded, because they were not associated with any specific regional state of Ethiopia.Out of the total review papers, the highest number (37 papers) focused on the Oromiya region, followed by Amhara, and SNNP regions, with 27 and 17 papers, respectively, while there were no publications relating to Somalia, Gambella and Harari regions (Fig. 3A&B).With regard to publications on SWC, over 80 % was from research linked to three regions (SNNP, Oromiya and Amhara). The regional relative percentage distribution of research areas of other practices is very similar to that of SWC. In general, out of the total 164 publication frequencies of adopted practices, 130 (79.3 %) were located in the Amhara, Oromiya, and SNNP regions (Table 2).The highest publication frequencies of ISFM (38.5 %) were from Amhara region, followed by Oromiya, SNNP, and Benshangul-Gumz, with 26.9, 19.2, and 7.7 % of total publication frequencies for ISFM practices, respectively (Table 2). For the remaining two publications, the research data was from the semi-national source, which involved Amhara, Oromiya, Tigray, Benshangul-Gumz, and SNNP regions.This study revealed that no CSA adoption research was conducted in the three regional states of Gambella, Harari and Somala, and only one in Afar region. These regions are situated in the lowlands and periphery of Ethiopia, with either relatively lower land degradation rates, or most probably researchers and projects didn't go there to do research due to its periphery and remoteness. However, the regions are drought prone and highly vulnerable to climate-change impacts. On the other hand, although almost all previous adoption publications data were collected from the highlands of Ethiopia. Oromiya, Amhara, and SNNP are the most predominant regions with over 80 % of the total publications over the last 20 years (Fig. 3B). These results confirm that most CSAPs studies are region specific, and highlight the need to support and enhance adoption studies in the remaining regions.Fig. 4 presents research methods that have been used by previous CSAP adoption studies. Each study has applied either one, a combination of two, or integration of three or more methods, depending on the objectives of the research. Accordingly, the summation of the five methods used by all studies of the seven practices was 185 (Fig. 4). The most applied method was cross sectional and descriptive (which involves survey and observational study), with a total frequency of 158 (85.4 %), with ≥ 80 % of the time within each of the practices. ILM studies adopted a sole cross-sectional method, while a tenth of the studies of ISFM applied cross-sectional methods. The least-used method was remote sensing, which was applied only in four studies (2.2 % of the total frequencies of methodsFrequencies and percentages of studied practices by regional states of Ethiopia, 2001-2021. Note: Figures in parenthesis are percentages of total frequencies of practices within adopted practice. used), particularly for SWC followed by CA and AF practices. All the five methods were used in the studies of three practices: CA, SWC, and AF, while four methods (cross-sectional, mathematical, on-farm experiment with-and-without the practices, and longitudinal) were used in the studies of WHSSI. Three methods (cross-sectional, mathematical, and longitudinal) were used in studies of ISFM and ICV.Reviewed articles which used the cross-sectional method involved quantitative measurements of two or more variables. They provided an in-depth and valuable descriptive, and correlational discussion on topical issues at a set point in time. However, since the generated results are at a set point in time (snapshots or statics), they could not be used for future predictions, and also, they didn't determine cause-and-effect relationships. Mathematical/modeling methods do involve the use of econometrics and statistics to represent the socioeconomic benefits from adopted practices, but only for a particular time. The on-farm experiment with-and-without method involved measuring data from those who are using the practice and comparing it with their counterparts on their farm fields.Fig. 5 presents research data collection tool/methods that have been used by previous CSAP adoption studies. In general, in this review, we have summarized the data collection tool/methods in five categories: i) household survey questionnaire; ii) field survey and data collection; iii) in-depth interview; iv) focus group discussion, and v) secondary data collection. Each of the studies has applied either only one, a combination of two, or integration of three or more tools/methods (Fig. 5). Accordingly, the frequency summation of the five tools/methods used by all studies of the seven practices was 369, of which the highest frequency (119; 32.2 %) featured SWC studies (Fig. 5).In the studies of all practices, the most applied tool was the household survey questionnaire, with a total frequency of 159 (43.1 %), with ≥ 36 % of the time within each of the practices. This was followed by in-depth interview and focus group discussion, each with a quarter of the total frequency. The least used tool was secondary data collection, with a 2.9 % of the total frequency of tool used. The secondary data collection tool was used only once in each of ISFM, CA, and WHSSI; twice in AF; and four times in SWC studies. Excepting field data collection and secondary data collection tools, the remaining three tools were used in the studies of all practices, albeit at varying intensities. Both field data collection and secondary data collection tools were not used in any studies of ICV and LIM practices (Fig. 5). Soil and water conservation (SWC) is predominately used in the central and northern highland regions of Ethiopia, where soil erosion is one of the major limiting factors for agricultural production (Alemu & Melesse, 2020;Alemu et al., 2019;Amsalu & De Graaff, 2007;Gadisa & Hailu, 2020). In recognition of its importance for reducing soil erosion and land degradation, and boosting land productivity, Ethiopia started SWC many years ago, and a large scale SWC practice has been underway since the 1980 s (Engdawork & Bork, 2014;Kosmowski, 2018). Since then, the government has focused on this program, and various donors and development partners have been engaged in providing technical and financial support towards its widespread implementation in different parts of the country (Kosmowski, 2018). Accordingly, until 2015, under the integrated watershed management program, over 1.7 million ha of land were treated under area closure, and on over 2 million ha of land, physical and biological soil conservation measures were applied in different parts of Ethiopia (FAO, 2016).This review confirms that SWC is the most-adopted practice, with a 61.5 % mean adoption rate, which can be rated as high based on Kifle et al. (2020). This adoption rate is significantly higher by 26.8, 22.9, 20.5, 15.2, and 12.7 % than the adoption rates of ILM, WHSSI, ICV, CA and AF, respectively (Table 3, P < 0.05). Although, the adoption rate of SWC is higher by 4.9 % than ISFM, the difference is not statistically significant. The highest adoption rate of SWC could be because, it is one of the oldest approaches that has been supported by the government campaign.Although the adoption status of this practice is rated as high, many studies claimed that SWC did not adequately address the decline of soil fertility and agricultural productivity (Fikirie et al., 2018;Mulualem & Yebo, 2015) and the achievements were far below expectations, because many of the SWC components have not been well integrated with other soil fertility management practices (Lemma et al., 2015).ISFM is the second most-adopted practice with a mean adoption rate of 56.5 %. This adoption status could be attributed to the prevailing conditions of population growth, over cultivation, and small plot size which forced farmers to use one or a combination of two or more inputs of this practice. The practice is also being supported by a good extension campaign.The adoption rate of this practice (56.5 %) is significantly higher by 21.8, 18.0, and 15.5 % than that of ILM, WHSSI, and ICV, respectively (Table 5, P < 0.05). Although, the adoption rate of ISFM is higher by 10.2, and 7.7 % than that of CA and AF, respectively, the differences are not statistically significant at p < 0.05. According to Kifle et al. (2020) the adoption status of ISFM is rated as medium.The development of ISFM is a result of a series of transitions in soil fertility management paradigms from 1960 s to 1990 s (Guteta & Abegaz, 2016a,b). This practice has been introduced in different parts of the country to boost soil health, increase crop productivity, and mitigate the impacts of climate change (Abeje et al., 2019;Marie et al., 2020). Along these lines, many studies recommended it as the best-bet and most feasible option which could provide a more holistic, lower cost, and sustainable climate-smart solution considering the complex socioeconomic and biophysical characteristics of the country (Agegnehu and Tilahun Amede (2017); Guteta & Abegaz, 2016a,b;Mulualem & Yebo, 2015;Vanlauwe et al., 2010). However, many studies have claimed that adoption of this practice in various parts of Ethiopia was limited because of lack of proper implementation and wider dissemination (Hörner & Wollni, 2021).Agroforestry is the third most-adopted practice with a mean adoption rate of 48.8 %. This adoption rate is significantly lower by 12.7 % than that of SWC (Table 3, P < 0.05). Although, the adoption rate of AF is higher by 14.1, 10.3, and 7.8 % than that of ILM, WHSSI, and ICV, respectively, and lower by 7.7 % than that of ISFM, the differences are not statistically significant at p < 0.05. According to Kifle et al. (2020), the adoption status of AF is rated as low. However, many studies have reported that it is a best-bet practice, because it provides additional food, fuel wood, and various ecosystem services in an integrated manner (Amare et al., 2019;Gebru et al., 2019;Kassie, 2018).Farmers' adoption rate of CA takes the fourth position after SWC, ISFM, and AF, with a mean adoption percentage of 46.3. With this rate, the adoption status of CA is rated as low (Kifle et al., 2020). The adoption rate of CA is significantly lower by 15.2 % than that of SWC (Table 4, P < 0.05). On the other hand, although, the adoption rate of CA is higher by 11.6, 7.8, and 5.3 % than that of ILM, WHSSI, and ICV, respectively, and lower by 2.3 % than that of AF, the differences are not statistically significant at p < 0.05. The promotion of CA began in 1998, and in 2010, it was implemented on smallholder farms in 12 districts of the Amhara, Oromia, and Tigray regions (FAO, 2016), and subsequently, its implementation continued in different parts of the country.The adoption rate of ICV ranked fifth after SWC, ISFM, AF, and CA, with a 41.0 % mean adoption rate. With this rate, the adoption status of IVC is rated as low (Kifle et al., 2020). The adoption rate of ICV is significantly lower than that of SWC and ISFM by 20.5, and 15.54 % respectively (Table 3, P < 0.05). On the other hand, although, the adoption rate of ICV is higher by 2.5 % than that of WHSSI, and lower by 7.8, 6.3, and 5.3 % than that of AF, ILV, and CA, the differences are not statistically significant at p < 0.05.Water harvesting and small-scale irrigation adoption ranks sixth, with a 38.6 % mean adoption rate, and its adoption status is rated as very low (Kifle et al., 2020). The adoption rate of WHSSI is significantly lower than that of SWC, and ISFM by 22.9, and 18.0 % respectively (Table 3, P < 0.01). On the other hand, although, the adoption rate of WHSSI is higher by 3.8 % than that of ILM, and lower by 10.3, 7.8, and 2.5 % than that of AF, CA, and ICV, the differences are not statistically significant at p < 0.05.  Mean adoption rate of individual CSAPs by regional states of Ethiopia. Traditional and small-scale irrigation use in Ethiopia dates back several decades, and continues to be an integral part of Ethiopian agriculture (Awulachew & Merrey, 2007;Bacha et al., 2011;Hagos et al., 2009;Makombe et al., 2007;Mengistie & Kidane, 2016), while modern irrigation was started in the early 1950 s when a Dutch company introduced the technologies and practices in the Upper Awash Valley in sugar-cane plantations (Bekele et al., 2012;Mengistie & Kidane, 2016; MOA (Ministry of Agriculture) ( 2011)).According to the findings of this review, WHSSI is an important practice for reducing risks associated with rainfall variability; increasing cropping diversification and intensity; increasing employment opportunities; improving household consumption; increasing income of rural households, and reducing poverty at household level (Yihdego et al., 2015). Most recently, WHSSI has become one of the policy priorities of the Ethiopian Government for poverty reduction, and boosting climate resilience and economic growth. However, development of WHSSI in Ethiopia is limited, despite the country being endowed with an estimated 122 billion cubic meters of surface water and 3.7 million ha of potential irrigable land (MOA (Ministry of Agriculture) ( 2011)). The same reference reported that only 10--12 % of the total potential irrigable land is used under traditional and modern irrigation schemes. Subsequently, the role of irrigation to the development of the national economy is limited when considering its potential (MOA (Ministry of Agriculture) (2011)).In terms of animal headcounts, the livestock sector of Ethiopia is the largest in Africa. It contributes 20 % to the national GDP (MacDonald & Simon, 2011). At the same time, the impact of climate change on Ethiopian livestock production potential is huge (EPCC (Ethiopian Panel on Climate Change) (2015); Gashaw et al., 2014). In order to curb such negative impacts, adopting farm animal genetic resources; improving feed and feeding systems; herd diversification, and production system adjustment or intensification have been recommended (Climate Resilience Green Economy CRGE (Ethiopia's Climate Resilience Green Economy) ( 2011)). Accordingly, the Ethiopian Drought Resilient and Sustainable Livelihoods Program (DRSLP) was launched in 2013, aiming at adopting water resource development and rangelands management, along with various livestock production capacity building activities (FAO, 2016).However, this review revealed that ILM is the least-adopted practice, with a 34.7 % mean adoption rate, and so is rated as very low. It is also the least-studied practice, with a 4.8 % of the total frequency of the studied practices. The adoption rate of ILM is significantly lower than that of SWC, and ISFM by 26.8, and 21.8 %, respectively (Table 3, P < 0.05). Although, the adoption rate of ILM is lower than that of CA, AF, WHSSI, and ICV, the differences are not statistically significant at p < 0.05.The mean adoption rate by regional states ranges from 48.3 % in Oromiya region to 56.0 % in SNNP region (Table 4), however, this variation was not statistically significant at p = 0.05 (adoption rate of Afar region (81.0 %) is excluded from the ANOVA analysis, since the rate is generated from only one study). The SNNP, the Amhara, and the Tigray regions' farmers' adoption status, are rated as medium, with the mean adoption rates between 53 and 57 %. The Benshangul_Gumz and the Oromiay regions' farmers' adoption status are rated as low, with the mean adoption rates between 48 and 49 %.In Oromiya region, the most-adopted practice is CA (59.4 %), which could be attributed to the availability of a relative excess of local organic material for mulching, and a relatively good biophysical environment for crop rotation. The least-adopted practice is ILM (30.8 %). However, the variation in adoption rates between practices is not statistically significant at p < 0.05. With regard to the adoption status of each practice, SWC, CA and AF are at medium status; ISFM and ICV are at low status, and WHSSI and ILM are ranked as very low status.Some socioeconomic benefits of adopted CSAPs for the smallholder farmers as reported by previous studies. * SWC = Soil and water conservation; ISFM = Integrated soil fertility management; CA = Conservation agriculture; WHSSI = Water harvesting and small-scale irrigation; ICV = Improved crop variety; AF = Agroforestry; ILM = Improved livestock management.In Amhara region, the most-adopted practice is SWC (66.6 %), which could be because of higher land degradation problem. WHSSI (30.3 %) is the least-adopted practice. In this region, the adoption rate of SWC is significantly higher by 36.3, 35.9 and 21.8 % than the adoption rates of WHSSI, CA and ICV, respectively (P < 0.05). The second most-adopted practice is ISFM (60.2 %). This rate is also significantly higher by 29.8, and 29.5 % than the adoption rates of WHSSI, and CA, respectively (P < 0.05). With regard to the adoption status of each practice, SWC and ISFM are at high status; ILM is at medium status; AF, and ICV are at low status; while WHSSI and CA are at very low status.In SNNP region, the most-adopted practice is ISFM (68.4 %), followed by SWC and CA, with adoption rates of 62.0 and 60.5 %, respectively. These adoption rates are significantly higher than the adoption rates of WHSSI, IVC and AF (P < 0.05). The least-adopted practice is ILM. The adoption status of ISFM, SWC, and AF is high. The adoption status of AF is low, while for the rest of practices it is very low.For Tigray region, the retrieved published papers dealt with only five practices (Table 4). The most-adopted practice is SWC (66.8 %), with its adoption status of high, which could be because of greater land degradation problems. The adoption rate of AF (56.7 %) is in second position, with adoption status of medium, while the adoption rate of WHSSI (48.5 %) and CA (45.0 %) are in third and fourth positions respectively, and the adoption status of both practices is low.Also, for the Benshangul-Gumz region, the retrieved published papers reported only five practices (Table 4). The most-adopted practice is ISFM (58.5 %), and is followed by WHSSI (55.0 %), and ICV (51.0 %); where the adoption status of all three practices is medium.Gender was considered in over two-third of the total studied practices (Fig. 6A). In terms of specific practices, all studies of ILM considered gender. Gender was considered in more than half of the SWC practice studies, and in over three quarters of the remaining five practice studies.In terms of specific region, a half of the studies of Tigray region, and over 53 % of the studies of other regions considered gender, while a study of the Afar region, and all sub-national studies considered gender (Fig. 6B).In only 46 of the 100 reviewed papers, the mean value of reported socioeconomic benefits of adopters of CSAPs was reported (Table 5). Reported benefits were higher yields, greater farm income, increased food security/availability, increased land productivity, and reduced household poverty.Reported benefits of SWC practice adoption include: i) increased grain yield between 20 and 198 % per household per year (Challa, 2021;Kosmowski, 2018;Mekonen & Tesfahunegn, 2011;Tesfaye et al., 2018;Yaebiyo et al., 2015); ii) increased grain yield between 25 and 46 % (Challa, 2021;Dufera et al., 2020;Sileshi et al., 2019;Yaebiyo et al., 2015); iii) increased monetary income between 6,359 and 6,376 Eth. Birr per ha per year (Addisu et al., 2015;Sileshi et al., 2019); iv) increased grain yield between 5.5 and 7.2 tons per ha per year (Adgo et al., 2013;Challa, 2021); and v) 61 % increase in land productivity (Enki et al., 2001).Reported benefits of adoption of WHSSI include: i) increased household income between 5181 and 151,419 Eth. Birr (Adela et al., 2019;Adugna et al., 2014;Ayalneh et al., 2007;Beyan et al., 2014;Mengistie & Kidane, 2016;Temesgen et al., 2018;Yihdego et al., 2015); between 2,003 and 5,500 USD per household per year (Adela et al., 2019;Teshome et al., 2010); and increased monetary Fig. 6. Gender-sensitive and gender-blind adoption studies of CSAPs by adopted practices (A), and by regional states of Ethiopia (B). income between 29 and 193 % per household per year (Adela et al., 2019;Adugna et al., 2014;Ayalneh et al., 2007;Beyan et al., 2014;Temesgen et al., 2018). Also 32 % increased grain yield per household per year (Mengistie & Kidane, 2016) and 28 % increased land productivity (Adela et al., 2019) were reported.In a study of CA by Tadesse et al. (2021), a 38 % grain yield increase per household per year was reported, while in a study of ISFM by Teklewold et al. (2019), a 5 % higher food security of adopters than non-adopters per household was reported.This section presents the meta-analysis of constraints to scaling CSAPs among the rural households of Ethiopia, on the assumption that generated evidence could be used by policymakers, development partners, and extension workers to address the constraints. Constraints to adoption of CSAPs were grouped in 12 categories and presented in Fig. 7. They are presented in aggregated form for all (the seven) practices (Fig. 7A), and in disaggregated form for individual practices (Fig. 7B-7G).For all aggregated practices, lack of knowledge/awareness and a range of socioeconomic factors were the highest-ranked Fig. 8. Frequencies of reported constraints to CSAP adoption by regional states. In a study of the Afar region only two constraints (land tenure system, and land resource and socioeconomic factors) were reported, therefore, figure for this region is not produced.constraints, each reported in 112 studied practices (i.e., 68.3 %) (Fig. 7A). In comparison to other constraints such as labor shortage, limited access to market, and limited access to credit were reported with frequencies of 51, 40, and 36, respectively. Knowledge/awareness and socioeconomic factors are considered to be much greater constraints to CSAP adoption. In terms of knowledge/awareness, many studies have reported that farmers with a better educational level, access to agricultural extension services and technical support, and monitoring practices positively affected adoption practices (Kifle et al., 2020). In terms of socioeconomic factors, farmers with relatively higher plot sizes, higher household sizes, and greater off-farm activities were reported as factors positively affecting adoption (Kifle et al., 2020). This in turn, highlighted that these two constraints are prominent and need urgent actions in order to scale up CSAPs in Ethiopian agricultural systems. Similarly, factors such as better access to market, credit, and financial capital were reported as factors positively and significantly enhancing farmers adoption of CSAP (Kifle et al., 2020). On the other hand, categories of weather/climate and crops' disease; and limited access to seedlings were in the two last positions each with frequencies of five (Fig. 7A).In terms of individual practices, the number of reported constraints ranged from five in SWC (Fig. 7D) to 11 in AF (Fig. 7G), with varied frequencies among categories, ranging from one (weather/climate/crop disease; Fig. 7B, F, G) to 37 (socioeconomic factors; Fig. 7D). Some constraints are common to all practices, while some are specific to some others. For example, limited knowledge/ awareness appears in all practices either in first, or second position, while the land tenure system is reported in three practices (ISFM, SWC, and AF), insufficient local organic material in two practices (ISFM and CA), and limited access to seedling in only one practice (AF).Constraints by regional states are presented in Fig. 8. The number of reported constraints ranged from four in Benshangul-Gumz to 12 in Oromiya; with varied frequencies among categories, ranging from one to 39. For Amhara and Tigray regions the categories of socioeconomic factors, and knowledge/awareness appear in the first and the second positions, respectively, while for Oromiya and Benshangul-Gumz regions, they appear in the reverse positions. In SNNP region, the two constraints appear in the two first positions with frequencies of 25.With continued population growth, human demand for agricultural production will increase exponentially in the coming decades, including in Ethiopia. This increasing demand is most likely to be met through (i) sustainably increasing land productivity, and/or (ii) increasing the area of cultivated land (MOA (Ministry of Agriculture) ( 2011)). In the recent sustainable development domain, the former is more attractive and viable than the latter, or than a combination of the two. However, sustainably increasing land productivity depends on adoption of locally-appropriate practices, and biophysical environments including climate. Climate change is becoming an increasingly serious threat to agricultural systems in developing countries, including in Ethiopia (Agbenyo et al., 2022;Rohil et al., 2018). Accordingly, different CSAPs have been initiated and implemented, and also different studies have been conducted at regional, subnational, and local scales to examine adoption of the practices and agricultural biophysical benefits of implemented CSAPs. Therefore, this review has synthesized CSAP studies conducted between 2001 and 2021, in Ethiopia. Based on the review results the following concluding remarks are presented below.Since 2001, research on CSAP adoption has been increasing in Ethiopia, but with greater emphasis on SWC, ISFM and AF, and less emphasis on ILM, ICV, and WHSSI. Studies on other important practices such as biogas development and use, energy-saving cooking stoves, and weather forecasting information were missing. Therefore, future adoption research on CSAPs should consider these lesser studied practices, and other practices not considered by previous studies.This review reveals the research gap at national scale, and also the need for more studies on subnational/regional scale. Evaluating CSAPs adoption statuses and their associated benefits and constraints at multiple scales helps to \"zoom in\", and to \"zoom out\" for the issues so as to understand how they manifest at local scale and then how the local issues are related to regional and national issues, and vice versa.The review has clearly highlighted research gaps, particularly in the drought-prone regions of Harari, Somalia and Afar regions. Considering these regions in the future research will help scaling-up CSAPs adoption, realizing their outcomes in the regions, and then enhancing the national plan of agricultural transformation.In terms of methods of study, none of the reviewed articles have used dynamic simulation models, which could have been used to describe spatial and temporal changes in CSAPs adoption in response to farmers' socioeconomic factors, policy requirements and/or environmental drivers such as weather and climate change (Jones et al., 2017;Thornton et al., 2018).The adoption rate of individual CSAPs varies widely among smallholder farmers ranging from 9 % in both CA and WHSSI to 100 % in SWC, while the adoption status of practices is rated as i) very low for WHSSI and ILM, ii) low for AF, CA, and ICV, iii) medium for ISFM, and iv) high for SWC. This indicates that adoption statuses of WHSSI, ILM, AF, CA, and ICV are in their infancy in Ethiopia. The findings imply that these practices are not contributing their full share to the growth of agriculture sector of Ethiopia, therefore, the federal, regional governments, development agents, and agricultural extension agents should proactively work to help farmers to adopt these practices.Only 63 of the 100 reviewed papers considered gender. This attests that all future agricultural adoption studies should be gender sensitive, because it is critical to realize long-lasting, sustainable, and equitable adoption outcomes for both men and women.One of the potential impacts of implementing CSAPs is their additional socioeconomic benefits to those already obtained from the farm, which can also be considered as a stepping stone to scaling-up adoption. However, this review indicates that 54 % of the previous adoption studies didn't consider analysis of any of the anticipated socioeconomic benefits of adoption of CSAPs. Thus, future adoption studies should consider one or more socioeconomic benefits of adopted practices.Among the twelve categories of constraints to CSAP adoption in Ethiopia, the top five were knowledge/awareness, socioeconomic factors, shortage of labor, limited access to market, and limited access to credit. Since adoption is a continuous process, overcoming these and other constraints will support adoption action. Therefore, in order to overcome the identified adoption constraints, the following policy-related actions (but not exhaustive) could be undertaken. These actions are consistent with that of the Ethiopian Green Economy Strategy actions set out for its first pillar, i.e., \"improving crop and livestock production practices for higher food security and farmer income while reducing emissions\" (CRGE (Ethiopia's Climate Resilience Green Economy) (2011)).Limited knowledge/awareness. In this regard, the primary action of regional government could be enhancing extension services and farmers trainings. Farmers' trainings and iterative contacts between farmers and agricultural extension service agents might help to disseminate information among users in order to promote locally-relevant and practicable CSAPs adoption.Socioeconomic factors. Interventions like income supplements (safety nets), income diversification, and social protection for high priority groups (for example, for those with shortage of land, older age groups, or small families) could help to boost CSAP adoption.Shortage of labor. Introduce less labor-intensive farm management practices and technologies.Limited access to market. Federal and regional governments should build roads so that farmers could increase access to urban markets through better transport, and earn greater income from their produce, which in turn would increase the potential of farmers to adopt CSAPs.Limited access to credit and limited capital/finance. Limited access to credit and finance is a major constraint to adopting some practices, such as WHSSI and ILM, because these practices require relatively high upfront costs. Therefore, federal and regional governments should create a system for farmers access to credit and microfinance.Limited access to farmers' social organization/institutions. Regional governments should identify required institutions which could help farmers to adopt CSAPs, and then establish these where they were not available; or if they are already in place, strengthen them to help adoption of locally-relevant practices.Land tenure system. This constraint is reported in ISFM, SWC and AF, because these practices are with long-term returns, while farmers are more interested to adopt practices which offer short-term returns, particularly when they feel that their land use is not secure. Therefore, land certification could help to guarantee farmers to adopt these practices.Limited access to irrigation. Create access to rural households to locally relevant irrigation techniques accompanied by farmers' capacity building and training, so that they can more easily adopt and more effectively apply the CSAPs.Application of Remote Sensing Techniques. This study revealed that remote-sensing technology is the least-used means of data collection, while it is being widely used in various fields because of its fast, macro-level, real-time, dynamic, large-area observation, and easy economic access (Zhao et al., 2023). Additionally, the review results confirm that most CSAP studies are region specific, and they highlight the need to support national-level adoption studies, and to include unstudied, peripheral and remote regions. Such challenges can be solved using remote-sensing techniques. For example, the China Agriculture Remote Sensing Monitoring System has been in operation since 1998 (Zhao et al., 2023).Artificial Intelligence/modelling. Recent advances in computer hard-and software, and big data management have created spaces for applying artificial intelligence (AI) in assessing and monitoring agricultural practices (Zhao et al., 2023), and modelling approaches that involve econometrics and statistics. The review highlighted a minimal use of mathematical/modeling methods in CSAP adoption studies in Ethiopia. Therefore, AI and/or mathematical modeling could be used to study the long-term socioeconomic benefits from and impacts of adopted practices.Agricultural Weather Index-Based Insurance (AWIBI). Evidence showed that adoption of some CSAPs by rural farm households may not be practical because they want to avoid climate-induced risks. While such risks could be mitigated or eliminated through AWIBI (World Bank, 2018), this has not been tested for CSAPs adoption in Ethiopia. AWIBI has been gradually appearing in many developing countries including Ethiopia (Zhao et al., 2023). This all argues for using agricultural weather index-based insurance to boost CSAPs adoption rates.Like most literature studies, this review was subject to the following limitations. Firstly, although we believed that a comprehensive collection of papers on Ethiopian CSAP adoption has been reviewed, the papers used in this sample is unlikely to be exhaustive. Secondly, since the review was based on online searches, studies that are not available online would have been missed. Regardless of these limitations, we believe that the review covers a comprehensive range of scientific papers on CSAP adoption in Ethiopia. ","tokenCount":"8012"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"702eb4ae1be335e55348be3aef14c867","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/38a87ea4-b595-4b59-86c7-cf0bbb277280/retrieve","id":"-934925852"},"keywords":["Montesinos-López, O.A.","Saint Pierre, C.","Gezan, S.A.","Bentley, A.R.","Mosqueda-González, B.A.","Montesinos-López, A.","van Eeuwijk, F.","Beyene, Y.","Gowda, M.","Gardner, K.","et al. Optimizing Sparse Testing for Genomic Prediction of Plant sparse testing","wheat","maize","genomic prediction","multi-trait","and uni-trait"],"sieverID":"dfd77d6a-c51f-4e95-91fc-2fcb1d93f978","pagecount":"18","content":"While sparse testing methods have been proposed by researchers to improve the efficiency of genomic selection (GS) in breeding programs, there are several factors that can hinder this. In this research, we evaluated four methods (M1-M4) for sparse testing allocation of lines to environments under multi-environmental trails for genomic prediction of unobserved lines. The sparse testing methods described in this study are applied in a two-stage analysis to build the genomic training and testing sets in a strategy that allows each location or environment to evaluate only a subset of all genotypes rather than all of them. To ensure a valid implementation, the sparse testing methods presented here require BLUEs (or BLUPs) of the lines to be computed at the first stage using an appropriate experimental design and statistical analyses in each location (or environment). The evaluation of the four cultivar allocation methods to environments of the second stage was done with four data sets (two large and two small) under a multi-trait and uni-trait framework. We found that the multi-trait model produced better genomic prediction (GP) accuracy than the uni-trait model and that methods M3 and M4 were slightly better than methods M1 and M2 for the allocation of lines to environments. Some of the most important findings, however, were that even under a scenario where we used a training-testing relation of 15-85%, the prediction accuracy of the four methods barely decreased. This indicates that genomic sparse testing methods for data sets under these scenarios can save considerable operational and financial resources with only a small loss in precision, which can be shown in our cost-benefit analysis.To meet the demands of the growing global population, food production must increase, which is challenging because of the drastic fluctuations in climatic conditions, competition for land and deterioration of natural resources. For this reason, we must adopt novel alternatives for genetic improvement that can increase yield productivity, yield stability, improve disease resistance, nutrition, and the subsequent end-use quality of key crops such as maize, wheat and rice [1].In this vein, the genomic selection (GS) methodology uses statistical machine learning algorithms and data focused on genomic information to improve the selection of candidate lines, which is key for making crop breeding processes more efficient. GS is a predictive methodology proposed by Meuwissen [2] that trains a statistical machine learning method with data containing phenotypic and genotypic information. This trained model then predicts breeding values or phenotypic values of new (untested) lines that were only genotyped, meaning that lines can be selected earlier [3]. Successful GS methodology is found in many crops such as wheat, maize, cassava, rice, chickpea, groundnut, etc. [4][5][6]. However, the practical implementation of GS for breeders across the world is challenging because GS methodology and genomic prediction (GP) accuracy do not always guarantee moderate to high accuracies, as there are many other factors affecting prediction performance.To increase genetic gain, breeders must accurately predict breeding values. This is easy when the traits of interest have a simple genetic architecture; however, this is more challenging in traits such as grain yield with a complex, difficult-to-understand genetic architecture. For example, in complex trait prediction, it is difficult to accurately model genetic interactions such as epistatic effects, which are common in plant and animal sciences, as well as in biology [7][8][9][10]. For this reason, some model strategies are more appropriate to capture these complex interaction effects more efficiently, quantifying the level of influence in understanding the genetic architecture of these traits.Part of the challenge in plant breeding is selecting candidate genotypes that work both across and for specific environmental conditions. Genotypes were evaluated in multi-environmental trials (METs), where the goal is to select stable genotypes across environments and in specific environments considering the genotype × environment (GE) interaction. Precisely evaluating all genotypes once in each environment (that is, each environment is a complete replica of all lines) is more expensive, as it requires more extensive field-testing evaluations [11,12].\"Sparse testing\" in GS means that some lines have been evaluated in some environments and only predicted (not observed) in others. For this reason, sparse testing can save resources and can help improve the efficiency of the GS methodology by (a) increasing the number of lines tested and maintaining a fixed number of environments and financial costs or (b) increasing the number of testing environments while maintaining the cost and a fixed number of lines under evaluation. Sparse testing in plant breeding and genome prediction implies modifying the original multi-environment breeding trial system into a testing method where not all lines are sown in all environments because costs and availability of seed, land and water might impede observing all genotypes in all environments. The fundamental question is how to establish a multi-environmental trial system that will be economically acceptable without affecting the precision with which the performance of breeding lines is assessed, predicted, and selected.The information provided by the molecular markers assists breeders in predicting unobserved lines in some environments. Although, in most cases, it is impossible to evaluate all lines in all environments, observing some of these lines offers the possibility of assessing the marker alleles (or haplotypes) in all environments and the marker (or haplotype) × environment interaction. Therefore, the information on the response patterns of the markers can be used to improve the predictive ability of the unobserved lines in the environments. By using genome-enabled prediction when modeling genotype × environment, the unobserved genotype × environment combinations can be better predicted, and thus the overall costs of the testing can be reduced.Recently, Jarquín [13] and Crespo [1] studied genomic sparse evaluation in the context of maize and wheat genomic prediction, including extreme cases of (a) non-overlapping lines between environments, all lines tested in different environments; (b) lines completely overlapping across environments, all lines field evaluated in all the environments; and (c) varying numbers of different overlapping/non-overlapping lines. The results obtained by Jarquín [13] in maize and Crespo [1] in wheat multi-environment trials showed that the genome-based model, including genomic × environment interaction (GE), captured more portions of the total phenotypic variation than the models that did not include this component and provided higher prediction accuracy than other genomic prediction models that did not include GE when applied to multiple sparse testing designs. Thus, both studies clearly show that using sparse testing based on overlapping/non-overlapping methods can lead to substantial savings in testing resources when using appropriate GE genome-based models. However, the methods of Jarquín [13] in maize and Crespo [14] in wheat for assigning lines to environments by the overlapping/non-overlapping were based on a random assignation of lines to environments without any allocation optimization criterion. Also, it should be noted that these studies performed only uni-trait prediction.This study aimed to optimize allocation methods to improve the genomic prediction accuracy of sparse testing by evaluating four genomic sparse testing strategies for allocating cultivars to environments. This study addressed four objectives that have not been investigated in any previous studies: (1) to determine if there are differences in prediction ability between the four genomic sparse testing allocation methods; (2) to study if there are significant differences between the four strategies of sparse testing under a uni-trait (UT) and multi-trait prediction framework; (3) to evaluate the performance of the four sparse testing strategies with large and small trials; and (4) to quantify the various benefits of implementing this genomic sparse testing allocation of lines to environments strategies. To achieve these objectives, two real data sets from CIMMYT were used-one maize and one wheat-with one data set containing over 450 lines and the other over 4500 lines. To assess performance with small trial sizes from each of these two data sets, a random sample of 250 lines in each environment was obtained, and the four sparse testing methods were evaluated using this resulting data set.The original data set contains 4536 lines evaluated in four environments (B2IR, B5IR, BDRT, BLHT). The experimental design employed for arranging all the lines in each environment was an augmented row-column design [14,15] established using the DiGGeR package [16]. Due to some missing plots, only 4464 lines were ultimately evaluated in four environments (B2IR, B5IR, BDRT, BLHT). Four traits were evaluated: grain yield (ton per hectare), days to germination (Germination), days to heading (Heading) and plant height (cm). Since all lines were evaluated in each environment, the total number of observations in this data set is 17,856. This data set was used for the univariate implementation of the models but presented a high unbalance for the multi-trait implementation; hence, we implemented the multi-trait model with a subset of this original data set and guaranteed the presence of the response variables (traits) of all lines and environments. This subset contains 4437 lines, three environments (B2IR, B5IR, BDRT) and the same four traits.We performed a mixed model spatial analysis for grain yield in each environment and thus adjusted the data for local and overall spatial variability by spatial adjustment (autoregressive in the directions of rows and columns, AR1 × AR1) using ASReml-R [17]. The weighted BLUEs for each location were used to implement the prediction model described in the next statistical model section. When the complete data were used, this was denominated as the big wheat data set, but when only the sample of 250 lines was, this was called the small wheat data set.This data set contains 484 lines evaluated in locations within three major environments: drought stress environment (WS), low nitrogen environment (LN) and well water environment (WW). The traits evaluated were grain yield and plant height. Since all lines were evaluated in each environment, the total number of observations was 1452. The experimental design at each location for each major environment (WW, WS, and LN) was an α-lattice design with two replications.For the maize data, we used the two-stage analysis to initially account for the withinenvironmental variance in the first stage and to assess the genomic and genomic × envi-ronment effect in the second stage. The first-stage analysis consisted in computing the best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) of the maize testcrosses across locations for each major environment (WW, WS, LN) using the following linear mixed model:where Y irk is the response variable of testcross i at replicate r within the incomplete block k; µ is the general mean; R r is the fixed effect of the replicate r; B k [R r ] is the random effect of the incomplete block k within replicate r assumed to be independently and identically normally distributed with mean zero and variance σ 2 B(R) ; G i is the fixed effect of genotype i; and ε irk is the random residual error assumed independent and identically normally distributed with mean zero and variance σ 2 ε . This weighted BLUE data set in each major environment WW, WS, and LN was used for the evaluation of the uni-trait and multi-trait methods. From this data, a smaller data set with 250 lines was created to evaluate the performance of the four sparse methods under both the uni-trait and multi-trait frameworks. When we aggregate the summaries of the prediction performance of the two big (wheat and maize) and two small (wheat and maize) data sets, we call this across data sets.This model was used for the training process of the sparse testing designs:where Y is the matrix of phenotypic response variables of order n × n T , ordered first by environments and then by lines; n T denotes the number of traits, 1 n×n T is a matrix of ones of order n × n T , µ T is a vector of intercepts for each trait of length n T , T denotes the transpose of a vector or matrix, that is, µ = [µ 1 , . . . , µ n T ] T , X E is the design matrix of environments of order n × I, I denotes the number of environments, β E is the matrix of beta coefficients for environments with a dimension of I × n T , Z L is the design matrix of lines of order n × J, J denotes the number of lines, g is the matrix of random effects of lines of order J × n T distributed as g ∼ MN J×n T (0, G, Σ T ), that is, with a matrix-variate normal distribution with parameters M = 0, U = G and V = Σ T , G is the genomic relationship matrix [18] built with marker data of order J × J and Σ T is the variance-covariance matrix of traits of order n T × n T . Z EL is the design matrix of the genotype × environment interaction of order n × J I, gE is the matrix of genotype × environment interaction random effects distributed as gE ∼ MN J I×n T 0,where Σ T 2 is the variance-covariance matrix of traits of order n T × n T , denotes the Hadamard product. is the residual matrix of dimension n × n T distributed as ∼ MN n×n T 0, I I J , R , where R is the residual variance-covariance matrix of order n T × n T . This model was conducted in the BGLR library [19]. Moreover, a uni-trait version of this model given in equation ( 1) was implemented, assuming that the response variable (Y) was a vector, that is, training the model with only one trait at a time.We used the notation J as the number of lines, k as the number of lines per location, I as the number of environments (locations) and r as the number of replications for the jth line in the entire design. It should be noted that since the four methods are based on the incomplete block principle, k is less than J, since not all lines in each environment can be assigned. An equal concurrence of entries by location is the best way to ensure minimum variance when making all pair-wise comparisons. Therefore, since r i = r for all lines, the total number of observations in the experiment is N, where N = J × r = I × k.Genes 2023, 14, 927 5 of 18This was the simplest allocation method where a fraction (subset) of lines is selected and then allocated in all locations as a training set where the remaining lines are used as the testing set. In Figure 1A, we see how the partition is formed with this method; blue represents the lines used as the training set, and white represents the lines used as the testing set. Training lines are grouped at the beginning of Figure 1A, but the lines are not in numerical order, indicating they were randomly selected.jth line in the entire design. It should be noted that since the four methods are based on the incomplete block principle, \uD835\uDC58 is less than \uD835\uDC3D, since not all lines in each environment can be assigned. An equal concurrence of entries by location is the best way to ensure minimum variance when making all pair-wise comparisons. Therefore, since \uD835\uDC5F = \uD835\uDC5F for all lines, the total number of observations in the experiment is \uD835\uDC41 , where \uD835\uDC41 = \uD835\uDC3D × \uD835\uDC5F = \uD835\uDC3C × \uD835\uDC58.This was the simplest allocation method where a fraction (subset) of lines is selected and then allocated in all locations as a training set where the remaining lines are used as the testing set. In Figure 1A, we see how the partition is formed with this method; blue represents the lines used as the training set, and white represents the lines used as the testing set. Training lines are grouped at the beginning of Figure 1A, but the lines are not in numerical order, indicating they were randomly selected. M2 took a fraction (subset) of lines to be used as a training set and the remaining as a testing set in one location. For the other locations, the testing lines were divided into a number of locations-one part that is ideally the same size and one part that is interchanged from testing to training for each location. In this way, each location shared most of the training lines but contained some lines only in testing, as shown in Figure 1B.Starting from a balanced data set with \uD835\uDC3D lines and \uD835\uDC3C locations, the conformation of the random allocation of lines to locations was done in such a way that each line will be M2 took a fraction (subset) of lines to be used as a training set and the remaining as a testing set in one location. For the other locations, the testing lines were divided into a number of locations-one part that is ideally the same size and one part that is interchanged from testing to training for each location. In this way, each location shared most of the training lines but contained some lines only in testing, as shown in Figure 1B.Starting from a balanced data set with J lines and I locations, the conformation of the random allocation of lines to locations was done in such a way that each line will be repeated (approximately) in r out of I locations, and all locations will be of the same size (k). The algorithm of this random allocation is [20]:First, we computed k = J×r I (least integer greater than or equal to k = J×r I ). Then k lines out of J lines were randomly allocated to the first location. For the second location, k out of the J lines were once again randomly allocated. This process is repeated until the Ith location is completed, with the caveat that the lines allocated to a particular location are only present in less than or equal to r locations, ideally in exactly r locations. The lines that do not satisfy this restriction are not candidates for being allocated to a particular location.An example of this method with eight lines and four locations is shown in Figure 1C. Note that some locations appear up to three times in each line, while others appear only twice because it is a random process.Genes 2023, 14, 927 6 of 18This method of allocation of lines to environments is based on a balanced incomplete block design (IBD) principle, that is, when all pairs of lines occur together within a location an equal number of times (λ). In general, we specified λ jj as the number of times line j occurs within a location. To generate this sparse allocation of lines to locations [20], we used the function find.BIB() in the R package crossdes. Supposing there were J = 8 lines and I = 4 locations, this means that we need 8 × 4 = 32 plots to allocate the eight lines to the four locations. However, we used an IBD and a training set of size N TRN = 32 × 0.5 = 16, which accounts for (50%) of the total plots required under a randomized complete block design. Therefore, the number of lines by locations can be obtained by solving (kI = N_TRN) for k, which results in k = N_TRN/I. This results in k = 16/4 = 4 lines per location. The corresponding elements for the training set were obtained with the function find.BIB (8,4,4) using the package crossdes. The numbers used in the function find.BIB() denote the lines, the locations, and the lines per location, respectively. Figure 1D shows how a particular allocation for eight lines in four locations may appear. An important aspect to consider is that both lines are used at the same time, and all locations contain four lines. The final allocations of M3 and M4 in many cases look similar, with the relevant difference that M4 is allocated under the IBD principles, while M3 is under a kind of stratified random sampling.Since not all lines (treatment structure) will be allocated to each environment (plot structure), the four allocation methods described are sparse allocation methods. Each of these methods allocates lines to environments (locations) under different approaches, and some of them guarantee better connectivity of lines between environments, and for this reason, they provide different prediction performances. However, as pointed out by Montesinos-López [20], implementing the sparse allocation methods for genomic prediction is done in two stages, so each stage should be optimized. The four methods of allocation (M1 to M4) belong to the second stage, and these four allocation methods attempt to optimize the prediction performance of untested lines in tested environments.To obtain valid results in the second stage, we used valid BLUEs or best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) for each line. An optimal experimental design should be used in the first stage for allocating the lines that were allocated for each environment with any of the four methods of the second stage, in each environment to plots. Our two-stage approach of analysis is valid since it is like the BLUEs or BLUPs estimation in two stages, and there is strong empirical evidence that two-stage analysis produces similar outputs when the appropriate weighting methods are used [21,22].To evaluate and compare the predictive performance of the allocation methods, we used cross-validation with 10 partitions and 15, 25, 50, 75 and 85% of the data for training and 85, 75, 50, 25 and 15% for testing, respectively. The Pearson's correlation and the Normalized Root Mean Squared Error (NRMSE) were computed using the observed and predicted values [23] in each of the 10 random partitions with the testing sets. These metrics were then used to assess the predictive performance in each data set for each allocation method. The average of the NRMSEs and Average Pearson's correlations (APC) of the 10 partitions was reported as prediction accuracy in each data set. Since the allocation methods were evaluated under uni-trait and multi-trait frameworks, both metrics were computed for each trait separately, and then, the average of the 10 folds in the testing sets was reported as prediction performance. It is important to point out that we used different proportions of the testing set (15, 25, 50, 75 and 85%) to study that even with a small proportion of training sets, it is feasible to predict the testing set with reasonable accuracy.The results are provided in four sections; one for each complete (big) data set in maize and wheat, one for the results across data sets (summary of aggregating the four data sets: two big data sets and two small data sets) and one that illustrates the quantitative benefits of sparse testing methods when using all data. Figures and tables for the results obtained for the small data sets of maize and wheat (random selection of only 250 lines for each data set) are provided in the Supplementary Material (Figures S1 and S2 and Table S1 for Maize_250 small data set and Figures S3 and S4 and Table S2 for Wheat_250 small data set).In terms of APC, in all scenarios of testing proportions, the best prediction performance was observed under a multi-trait framework and the worst under a uni-trait framework (Figure 2, Table A1). Under the scenario with 85% (0.85) of testing, the GP accuracy does not deteriorate and is only slightly worse than under the scenario of predicting 15% testing. Between the four sparse testing methods, we observed no significant differences between them. Instead, we saw a relevant difference of 15% (0.15), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85) of testing M4 under the uni-trait framework. For example, under the 15% (0.15) of testing set uni-trait framework, M4 outperformed M1, M2 and M3 by 12.89, 7.08 and 7.33%, respectively. Under the 85% (0.85) testing uni-trait framework, M4 only outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 1.6% and 4.9%, respectively, but no difference was observed between methods in most of the proportion of testing evaluated (Figure 2, Table A1).portion of training sets, it is feasible to predict the testing set with reasonable accuracy.The results are provided in four sections; one for each complete (big) data set in maize and wheat, one for the results across data sets (summary of aggregating the four data sets: two big data sets and two small data sets) and one that illustrates the quantitative benefits of sparse testing methods when using all data. Figures and tables for the results obtained for the small data sets of maize and wheat (random selection of only 250 lines for each data set) are provided in the Supplementary Material (Figures S1 and S2 and Table S1 for Maize_250 small data set and Figures S3 and S4 and Table S2 for Wheat_250 small data set).In terms of APC, in all scenarios of testing proportions, the best prediction performance was observed under a multi-trait framework and the worst under a uni-trait framework (Figure 2, Table A1). Under the scenario with 85% (0.85) of testing, the GP accuracy does not deteriorate and is only slightly worse than under the scenario of predicting 15% testing. Between the four sparse testing methods, we observed no significant differences between them. Instead, we saw a relevant difference of 15% (0.15), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85) of testing M4 under the uni-trait framework. For example, under the 15% (0.15) of testing set uni-trait framework, M4 outperformed M1, M2 and M3 by 12.89, 7.08 and 7.33%, respectively. Under the 85% (0.85) testing uni-trait framework, M4 only outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 1.6% and 4.9%, respectively, but no difference was observed between methods in most of the proportion of testing evaluated (Figure 2, Table A1). In terms of NRMSE, we observed the best predictions in a multi-trait model and the worst in a uni-trait model (Figure 3, Table A1). In general, we also observed that the best predictions in terms of NRMSE were under methods M3 and M4. When the percentages of testing were 15% (0.15), 25% (0.25) and 50% (0.5), small differences were found between the four sparse testing methods; however, under 75% (0.75), methods M1 and M2 were worse than M3 by 2.3% and 56.33% (multi-trait) and by 4.6% and 31.6% (uni-trait). Under 85% (0.85), method M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 5% and 60.6% (multi-trait) and by 3.7% and 30.5% (uni-trait) (Figure 3, Table A1). In terms of NRMSE, we observed the best predictions in a multi-trait model and the worst in a uni-trait model (Figure 3, Table A1). In general, we also observed that the best predictions in terms of NRMSE were under methods M3 and M4. When the percentages of testing were 15% (0.15), 25% (0.25) and 50% (0.5), small differences were found between the four sparse testing methods; however, under 75% (0.75), methods M1 and M2 were worse than M3 by 2.3% and 56.33% (multi-trait) and by 4.6% and 31.6% (uni-trait). Under 85% (0.85), method M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 5% and 60.6% (multi-trait) and by 3.7% and 30.5% (uni-trait) (Figure 3, Table A1). In this data set in terms of APC, the multi-trait method was better than the uni-trait framework (Figure 4, Table A2). While we did not observe a superiority in all percentages of testing of a particular method, we noted that in all scenarios of percentages of testing, the prediction accuracies are quite similar; that is, the prediction performance does not decrease as the percentage of testing increases. Regarding the comparison between the four sparse methods, we observed that in some scenarios of percentage of testing, M4 was better than the remaining methods. For example, under 15% (0.15) of the uni-trait model, testing set M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 24.13 and 24.08, respectively, but did not outperform M3, while under the 25% (0.25) uni-trait testing, M4, M1 and M3 outperformed method M2 around 25%. In the remaining cases, no relevant differences were observed between methods in most of the proportion of testing evaluated (Figure 4, Table A2). It is important to note that for some scenarios, we were unable to estimate the prediction performance for methods M3 and M4 due to a lack of positive definite matrices for multi-trait models.Prediction performance for the complete (big) maize data set in terms of normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of the four methods of sparse testing (M1, M2, M3 and M4) under unit-trait and multi-trait models for 5 percentages of testing: 15% (0.1), 25% (0.25), 50% (0.5), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85).In this data set in terms of APC, the multi-trait method was better than the uni-trait framework (Figure 4, Table A2). While we did not observe a superiority in all percentages of testing of a particular method, we noted that in all scenarios of percentages of testing, the prediction accuracies are quite similar; that is, the prediction performance does not decrease as the percentage of testing increases. Regarding the comparison between the four sparse methods, we observed that in some scenarios of percentage of testing, M4 was better than the remaining methods. For example, under 15% (0.15) of the uni-trait model, testing set M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 24.13 and 24.08, respectively, but did not outperform M3, while under the 25% (0.25) uni-trait testing, M4, M1 and M3 outperformed method M2 around 25%. In the remaining cases, no relevant differences were observed between methods in most of the proportion of testing evaluated (Figure 4, Table A2). It is important to note that for some scenarios, we were unable to estimate the prediction performance for methods M3 and M4 due to a lack of positive definite matrices for multi-trait models.  In terms of NRMSE, the best predictions were obtained under a multi-trait method and the worst under a uni-trait method (Figure 5, Table A2). We also observed that under the 15% (0.15) and 25% (0.25) multi-trait framework, M3 was slightly better than the others. While under the 50% (0.50) multi-trait framework, M3 and M4 were slightly better than M1 and M2. In a small number of cases in the uni-trait model, M1 was better than the remaining methods (Figure 5, Table A2). In terms of NRMSE, the best predictions were obtained under a multi-trait method and the worst under a uni-trait method (Figure 5, Table A2). We also observed that under the 15% (0.15) and 25% (0.25) multi-trait framework, M3 was slightly better than the others. While under the 50% (0.50) multi-trait framework, M3 and M4 were slightly better than M1 and M2. In a small number of cases in the uni-trait model, M1 was better than the remaining methods (Figure 5, Table A2). In terms of NRMSE, the best predictions were obtained under a multi-trait method and the worst under a uni-trait method (Figure 5, Table A2). We also observed that under the 15% (0.15) and 25% (0.25) multi-trait framework, M3 was slightly better than the others. While under the 50% (0.50) multi-trait framework, M3 and M4 were slightly better than M1 and M2. In a small number of cases in the uni-trait model, M1 was better than the remaining methods (Figure 5, Table A2).Prediction performance for the complete wheat data set in terms of normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of the four methods of sparse testing (M1, M2, M3 and M4) under unit-trait and multi-trait models for 5 percentages of testing: 15% (0.1), 25% (0.25), 50% (0.5), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85).Across data sets, the best predictions were observed under the multi-trait model in terms of APC (Figure 6, Table A3). In most percentages of testing, there were no relevant differences among the four methods. For example, when the percentage of testing was 15% (0.15) in the uni-trait model, methods M3 and M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 8.6 and 3.9%, respectively. However, when the percentage of testing was 25% (0.25) in the uni-trait model, methods M3 and M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 3.6 and 2.4%, respectively. Similar performance was observed in the other percentages of testing.  Across data sets, the best predictions were observed under the multi-trait model in terms of APC (Figure 6, Table A3). In most percentages of testing, there were no relevant differences among the four methods. For example, when the percentage of testing was 15% (0.15) in the uni-trait model, methods M3 and M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 8.6 and 3.9%, respectively. However, when the percentage of testing was 25% (0.25) in the uni-trait model, methods M3 and M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 3.6 and 2.4%, respectively. Similar performance was observed in the other percentages of testing. We saw a clear superiority in the multi-trait model across data sets in terms of NRMSE in all percentages of testing (Figure 7, Table A3). In the uni-trait context, we observed that within testing 15% (0.15), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 8.0 and 5.8%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 1.7%. While within testing 25% (0.25), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 5.8 and 0.9%, respectively, and M4 was worse than M3 by 2.3%. Under the 50% (0.50) percentage of testing, M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 3.9 and 0.6%, respectively, but M3 was better than M4 by 2.3%. Within testing 75% (0.75), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 2.6 and 7.5%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 0.3%. Finally, within testing 85% (0.85), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 0.6 and 4.9%, respec- We saw a clear superiority in the multi-trait model across data sets in terms of NRMSE in all percentages of testing (Figure 7, Table A3). In the uni-trait context, we observed that within testing 15% (0.15), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 8.0 and 5.8%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 1.7%. While within testing 25% (0.25), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 5.8 and 0.9%, respectively, and M4 was worse than M3 by 2.3%. Under the 50% (0.50) percentage of testing, M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 3.9 and 0.6%, respectively, but M3 was better than M4 by 2.3%. Within testing 75% (0.75), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 2.6 and 7.5%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 0.3%. Finally, within testing 85% (0.85), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 0.6 and 4.9%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 1.6%. In the case of the uni-trait method, similar performance was observed among the four methods (Figure 7, Table A3). In Table 1, we provide the comparison of two scenarios of breeding experiments: scenario 1 with 250 lines in each of the four environments (225 new lines + 25 checks) and 1000 plots available, and scenario 2 with 4500 lines in each of the four environments (4450 new lines + 50 checks) and 18,000 plots available. Each of these scenarios was compared with sparse designs with the following percentage of training data: 85, 75, 50, 25 and 15%. The standard is defined as the conventional breeding strategy, where all lines are evaluated in each environment.  In Table 1, we provide the comparison of two scenarios of breeding experiments: scenario 1 with 250 lines in each of the four environments (225 new lines + 25 checks) and 1000 plots available, and scenario 2 with 4500 lines in each of the four environments (4450 new lines + 50 checks) and 18,000 plots available. Each of these scenarios was compared with sparse designs with the following percentage of training data: 85, 75, 50, 25 and 15%. The standard is defined as the conventional breeding strategy, where all lines are evaluated in each environment. prediction accuracy. Additionally, we provided a cost-benefit analysis of implementing sparse testing methods.As expected, we found that the best performance of the sparse testing methods was observed under a multi-trait model, and M3 and M4 were slightly better than sparse M1 and M2. However, we found that M3 was more consistent and robust, in addition to being efficient from a computational point of view. Although M4 and M3 were the best in terms of prediction performance, it is important to note that for larger training and testing sets, M4 was computationally inefficient, and since M3 displayed similar performance, it provides a better alternative to M4. However, when possible, M4 is the preferred option because the machinery of IBD and comparing treatments (genotypes) under more uniform conditions also reduces experimental error and increases precision. The primary factor in explaining the better performance of M3 and M4 compared to M1 and M2 is that M3 and M4 guarantee better connectivity between training and testing sets. However, M4 does not always outperform M3, as we observed that the larger the data set, the less difference there is in prediction performance between M3 and M4.However, in the allocation of lines to environments, M4 is different from methods M1, M2 and M3 since M4 is based on the balanced incomplete block experimental design that uses a criterion of optimality to perform the allocation of lines to locations, thus potentially increasing efficiency. However, the nature of the data sets used for implementation plays an important role in the similar performance between M3 and M4 and among the four methods since the material (lines) of these data sets are homogeneous and possess a strong degree of relatedness. We also expect less differences in terms of prediction performance between methods M3 and M4 when the number of lines (treatments) increase because the numbers are large, making any randomization relatively good. The good performance of M3 is because it is also a type of incomplete block design but with not an optimal allocation as is done under an IBD experimental design providing less biased estimates.It is important to be aware that for the successful implementation of the sparse testing methods evaluated in this research, the analyses of data in two stages is required because these sparse testing methods are applied in a second stage for evaluating the prediction performance of untested lines in tested environments which, as illustrated in this research, can save significant resources as only a subset of lines are evaluated in each location (environments), and the remaining lines are predicted. However, the second stage requires valid BLUEs (or BLUPs) that should be computed considering the experimental design in which the lines were evaluated in each location (environment). Note that since a two-stage process was performed, those lines allocated to a location (environment) can be evaluated in any experimental design, and after harvesting the traits of interest, this experimental design should be used for computing the BLUEs (BLUPs) of the lines evaluated in each location.For this reason, when method M4 is used in the second stage, the implication is that a valid and efficient experimental design was already used in the first stage to estimate the appropriate BLUEs (or BLUPs) that consider the spatial variability of the field in which the cultivar was evaluated. In the second stage, we built the genomic training-testing with the aim of improving the prediction of the untested line in tested environments. However, in the second stage, when method M4 is used, the goal is to efficiently allocate the lines to locations to guarantee good connectivity between the lines in different locations, thus improving the prediction accuracy of the cultivar to be predicted.However, under the cost-benefits analysis (see Table 1), we clearly observed the savings breeders could achieved using a sparse genomic testing approach. For example, in a sparse testing design with a training-testing scenario of 85-15%, under a fixed budget, we can increase the number of lines under evaluation by at least 17%. Under a sparse testing scenario of 50-50% for training-testing, the same fixed budget increased the lines under evaluation by at least 101.12%. Certainly, the larger the percentage of testing regarding the percentage of training, the larger the benefits of the sparse testing method; however, we do not expect these scenarios to be successful in all breeding programs. Nevertheless, in the four data sets evaluated, even in the scenario of training-testing of 15-85%, we observed a strong prediction performance, and the percentage of increase of new lines evaluated was at least 573%. While this scenario is not practical because it implies a fraction of replicates (0.6) of each line in the experiment, it does illustrate the benefits that can be obtained using a sparse testing methodology.Using four data sets, we evaluated the prediction performance of four sparse testing methods (M1, M2, M3 and M4) under multi-trait and uni-trait models and under various scenarios of training-testing partitions. We found that the best accuracies were observed under a multi-trait model and the worst under a uni-trait model. We also observed that sparse testing methods M3 and M4 were slightly better than methods M1 and M2. Additionally, we found that the prediction accuracy, even in the more extreme scenario of training-testing (15-85%), is still competitive with the more relaxed scenario of trainingtesting (85-15%), which is of paramount importance since under this scenario the efficiency of the sparse testing methodology is very high. Even under a less extreme scenario of training-testing, 50-50% for training-testing, we increased the lines under evaluation by 101.12% with the same fixed budget, which helps to significantly increase the efficiency of the GS methodology. While these findings cannot be easily extrapolated for other data sets, they illustrate the great benefits that plant breeders can obtain from implementing sparse testing designs for genomic prediction.Table A3. Prediction performance across data sets in terms of normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) and Average Pearson's correlation (APC) of the four sparse testing methods (CV) under the following proportion of testing (Prop_testing): 15% (0.15), 25% (0.25), 50% (0.5), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85). NRMSE_SE denotes the standard error of NRMSE, and APC_SE denotes the standard error of APC. ","tokenCount":"6906"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2af56bb2c38f4517702928bf155a3d54","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5fca8146-c609-474d-ab42-79b5883b8e82/retrieve","id":"-1821532174"},"keywords":["Adaptation","mitigation","local livelihoods","conservation","rainforest","Cameroon"],"sieverID":"e1506872-e55f-4ed1-a77d-b2316eb79835","pagecount":"10","content":"The mechanism for reducing carbon emissions through forest conservation is dominating climate policy processes in many tropical forests countries. However, there are concerns about the implications of these activities on forest-dependent communities, who are vulnerable to climatic stresses. Reconciling local vulnerability, adaptive capacity and forests carbon conservation initiatives is necessary but challenging. This paper examines this option in two community forests carbon conservation projects in Nomedjoh and Nkolenyeng in southern Cameroon. Base on community perception, the study reveals firstly, that communities are vulnerable to local climate variability and the carbon conservation projects might further exacerbate community vulnerability. Secondly, local adaptation needs and options encompass improvement in livelihood diversification, strengthening the viability of local economic activities, knowledge and capacity building in local agriculture systems and alternative livelihood options. Thirdly, the motivation, incentives and willingness of forest communities to participate in forests conservation activities are somehow influenced by factors linked to their adaptation needs, in addition to the perception of tenure security. Furthermore, the carbon project objectives and activities have prospects to enhance the adaptive capacity of forest communities if well implemented. This study concludes that assessing the vulnerability of livelihood options of communities to both climatic and non climatic stresses is a point of departure to minimise risk on forests carbon conservation schemes.Two opportunities to tackle the present and future impacts of climate change include; mitigation of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions particularly carbon dioxide and methaneother greenhouse gases (GHGs); and adaptation by adjusting social and ecological systems to climate change impacts (Klein et al., 2005;IPCC, 2007). In the forest sector, mitigation on the one hand is presently dominated by the reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) mechanism; with the 'plus' denoting carbon sequestration and carbon stock enhancement (Murdiyarso et al., 2005). On the other hand, forest ecosystems *Corresponding author. E-mail: e.chia@cgiar.org (00237)78057925. and forest dependent-communities are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change requiring two approaches for adaptation (Locatelli et al., 2008). First, 'adaptation for forest', which necessitates the ecological system of the forest to adapt to climate change and secondly 'forest for adaptation' necessitating forests to provide goods and services to cushion forests dependent-communities against climate change impacts (Locatelli et al., 2008).Research has underscored the potentials of linking adaptation and mitigation strategies and activities in the forest sector (Guariguata et al., 2008;Locatelli et al., 2010;Ravindranath, 2007). Integrating mitigation and adaptation provides a bundle of socio-economic, biodiversity conservation and other environmental benefits (Dang et al., 2003;Klein et al., 2005;Ravindranath, 2007;Ayers and Huq, 2009). Furthermore, with financial resources being directed towards mitigation than adaptation, it is essential to define mitigation policies and projects that contribute to the adaptation of forest communities (Ayers and Huq, 2009). However, climate policy response sets which include both optionsadaptation and mitigationare still receiving less attention in the climate change response processes, especially in the developing countries. This could be due to the limited knowledge on the commonalities between adaptation and mitigation (Dang et al., 2003).The southern rainforest of Cameroon is part of the trans-boundary Congo basin forest ecosystem. The region is second to the Amazon in terms of biodiversity and it contains about 25-30 million tonnes of carbon which is threatened by anthropogenic carbon emission activities such as slash-and-burn agriculture, plantation agriculture, logging and fuel wood extraction etc (Haore, 2007;Nkem et al., 2010;CBFP, 2006;Robiglio et al., 2010). These aspects have drawn so much attention for the region regarding its potentials for the REDD+ mechanism. The millions of people inhabiting the southern rainforests of Cameroon and the Congo basin region in general depend directly and indirectly on ecosystem goods and services for food, fibre, energy, water, medicine etc (Nkem et al., 2010). Recent findings indicate that forests and forest related sectors for example food, energy, and water are vulnerable to climate change and variability in the region (Sonwa et al., 2012) and the forests provides opportunities for forest dependent communities to adapt to climate change and variability (Haore, 2007;Justice et al., 2001, Nkem et al., 2010, 2013).Given that, adaptation and mitigation strategies are both relevant for the Congo basin region. However, climate change policy analysis in the region indicates that mitigation is dominating the process compared to adaptation and the integrated -adaptation and mitigation option. Political interests are strong for mitigation due to the available financial and investment flows, scientific uncertainty, and lack of knowledge and information related to the other options (Somorin et al., 2012;Martens Chia et al. 499 et al., 2009). In Cameroon, designing and implementing adaptation and mitigation in synergy will minimise duplication of activities; financial, technical and material costs (Somorin et al., 2012). Nevertheless, bottom-up opportunities and challenges in linking adaptation and mitigation is relevant to support the design of 'win-win' strategies at the national level.It is against this backdrop that the paper seeks to explore the links between adaptation and mitigation at the project level by examining local vulnerability and adaptation needs of forest-dependent communities in relation to climatic and non-climatic changes and their possible implication for forests carbon conservation activities in two community forests (Nomedjoh and Nkolenyeng respectively) Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) projects in the Southern rainforest of Cameroon. Drawing from the perception of communities the paper focuses on identifying the incentives, motivations and willingness for communities to participate and adhere to forest carbon conservation conditions.At the project level, adaptation opportunities exists in mitigation activities, while on the other hand, adaptation activities can promote forest conservation, biodiversity and enhance the conservation of carbon sinks (IPCC, 2007;Ravindranath, 2007). Some factors and principles have been identified to verify and guide the extent to which synergy and trade-offs exist between adaptation and mitigation activities.First, identifying the individuals or communities participating in the response options is crucial. It is important to determine the extent to which the communities targeted for adaptation and mitigation activities overlap. The communities to be involved in adaptation activities are identified by vulnerability assessments and the vulnerability of such communities to climate change may be determined by food security, skills and capacity, level of development and primary economic activities. Subsistence agricultural communities with high food insecurity and with little livelihood diversification have less opportunities to respond to climate change. The willingness and capacity of the population to participate in mitigation strategies can also be determined by the socio-economic situation of the communities (Murdiyarso et al., 2005). However, these are relationships that require empirical investigation. Murdayarso et al. (2005) further highlights that the vulnerable groups in most communities are the poor and food insecure people who depend on agriculture and other natural resources for their subsistence. Conversely, their efforts and incentives to participate in response activities may be influenced by access and use of resources, land tenure arrangements etc. It is therefore important to question whether addressing the constraints arising from the vulnerability of communities can provide a basis to design policies that offer better opportunities for adaptation and mitigation activities.Second, the location of the project is very critical in determining the need for adaptation and the effectiveness of mitigation. Climate change impacts and vulnerability of communities are spatially distributed. Communities in vulnerable agro-ecological areas require more efforts in terms of adaptation. Mitigation potentials are also spatially distributed. Characteristics of soils, topography, landcover use and climate patterns drive the potential productivity of sequestration as well as alternative land uses, which ultimately will determine the incentives and feasibility to participate in sequestration programs (Murdiyarso et al., 2005).Third, it is also important to know whether a particular activity on the adaptation or mitigation side increases or reduces vulnerability. Market instability can be a major source of risk to vulnerable populations, and interventions aimed at organizing markets, can provide an effective way to reduce vulnerability of forest commu-nities to climate change and may increase willingness or incentives to participate in climate change response options (Nkem et al., 2010). Mitigation strategies can reduce the vulnerability of vulnera-ble populations through income diversification. Income can be generated from mitigation services like carbon markets and through the diversification of agricultural activities like agro-forestry and exploittation of non-timber products and energy products (Murdiyarso et al., 2005).The two selected community forests, Nomedjoh and Nkolenyeng, are located in the rainforest of southern Cameroon, and they fall in the bi-modal humid forest agro-ecological zone with an annual rainfall of 1,500-3,000 mm and a temperature of 23°C (Bele et al., 2013).Community forests management in Cameroon emerged after the 1994 Forestry law. The law gave rights to communities to manage a forest area not exceeding 5000 hectares, after a management agreement between village community and state forests administration, for a period of 25 years renewable after every 5 years (GoC, 1995).The Nkolenyeng community forest is located in Djoum subdivision in the Dja and Lobo division in the South region of Cameroon (Figure 1). It was created in 2005 with a surface area of about 1,042 hectares (BRD, 2010). Nomedjoh is located in Lomie sub-division in the Upper Nyong division in the East region of Cameroon (Figure 1). The village is situated along a 2 km distance on the Abong-bang -Lomie road and the area of the community forest extends over 1942 hectares. The characteristics of the two study sites are presented in Table 1.The PES projects are part of the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) initiative with the objective of assisting forest communities in the Congo basin to conserve tropical forest by finding ways to integrate PES and community forest management. The projects have commitments to provide payments to communities for halting or slowing down deforestation. The projects are implemented by the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) with support from Bioclimate Research and Development, Econometrica and Rainforest Foundation of the United Kingdom.Data was collected from the Nomedjoh and Nkolenyeng commuforest areas respectively using a combination of different methods. Focus group discussions were used during data collection with one focus group for each study area. Groups comprised of men and women with at least 30 years of age capable of providing data and information on observations on climate change and livelihoods relationships for the past 10 years. Brainstorming was the dominant tool used during the focus group discussions, including historical trend observations. The focus group discussion was complemented by household surveys using semi-structured questionnaires. Simple stratified random sampling was used to identify households in Nkolenyeng, in which the community was divided into quarters (Eko-ze, Mone nlam, Mintom and Oding a Baka neighbourhood, and households selected from these quarters randomly. We made sure that respondents had a permanent stay in the area for at least 8-10 years. In Nomedjoh, one after every two households was sampled from the start of the village to the end, as the village is located along a 2 km road stretch. Questionnaires were administered to households independently, with each interview lasting between 45-54 minutes, with an average 65 household interviewed in Nomedjoh and 45 households in Nkolenyeng.Informal interviews and discussions were held with the village chiefs, elders and other villagers involved in various village committees related to socio-economic issues and the management of the community forest institution. Community resource persons of the PES projects were also involved in the informal interviews and discussions. They provided information on the development and implementation of the PES project including practical challenges.Field observation was employed focusing on farm sizes, distance of farms from households, farming methods, type of crops, respect of PES conditions, activities of the PES project such as experimental farms, cocoa and tree nurseries and bee-keeping activities.SPSS package was used to analyse the data collected. Frequen-cy and proportions were analysed in percentages to identify dominant responses between households.The vulnerability of human-environmental systems is determined by exposure, sensitivity and the adaptive capacity of social-ecological systems. Exposure relates to the potential impacts as a result of changes and variation in temperature, changes in rainfall, changes in seasonal patterns and changes in climate sensitive and related resources and activities (Ionescu et al., 2009;Locatelli et al., 2008;Yengoh et al., 2010). Climate change is expected to exacerbate the vulnerability of communities with adverse impacts on livelihood options (Somorin, 2010).Results from focus group discussions in both communities expressed observable variations in temperature and sunshine, variation in rainfall, variation in water sources, variation in appropriate sowing period and variation in appropriate harvesting period. Survey results confirmed focus group results across the two areas with respondents having observed variations in the order of temperature and sunshine (96%), rainfall (99%), diseases and pest (5%), variation in sowing period (82%), variation in water resources (8%) and variation in harvesting period (78%). The magnitude of the changes was difficult to observe; observations centred on uncertainty, irregularity, and periodic changes. \"Rain comes unexpectedly during periods observe as dry season and delay to come during periods when rain is expected following the local seasonal calendar\" a villager said. This is same with temperature and sunshine. A distortion in the local seasonal calendar was expressed in the focus group discussions which considered are linked to major climate sensitive schedules such as sowing/planting and harvesting periods. Local people described the present situation as \"accident climatique\", (\"climatic accident\"). Some authors assert that inherent variation of climate from year to year and from season to season, makes variability an integral part of climate change (Berz, 1999;Hulme et al., 1999).Climatic conditions such as rainfall, temperature vary significantly over short periods of time that is from season to season and from year to year, and at relatively smaller spatial scales and may bring surprises to an otherwise unsuspecting population as noted by other researchers (Yengoh et al., 2010). Exposure to isolated surprises, either man made or natural, is a threat to the adaptive capacity of agriculture dependent communities. In addition, it reduces the potentials of these communities to attain the objective of food sufficiency and better nutrition. Locally specific climate stressors with low predictability are mostly likely to negatively affect small-holder and subsistence farmers (Morton, 2007). About 82 and 85% of respondents for Nkolenyeng and Nomedjoh respectively indicated that a considerable percentage of households have experienced and also predicted the impacts of unexpected variation of local climatic conditions on their livelihood activities. Farmers complained of a distortion in the different stages of crop production such as farm preparation, planting or sowing, farm maintenance and harvesting. Abortive germination of crops was a major complain from farmers, as a result of over and unexpected sunshine and temperature during periods initially observed for rainfall. Cocoa farmers also complain of poor harvest attributing it to prolonged rainy season observed in the area. These findings are in accordance with similar studies carried in the same humid forests zone of southern Cameroon on community vulnerability and coping strategies in Yokadouma and Nkol-evodo (Bele et al., 2013).Despite the lack of clarity on the drivers and magnitude of change observed, changes observed relate to more or less the observations and predictions of the IPCC (2007) for variations in temperature, precipitation and a distortion in the seasonal calendar in general. The perception of a decline in agriculture production in community areas is in accordance with the IPCC predictions for Africa, which indicates that agriculture production will decline with ensuing impacts on food security and income (IPCC, 2007). Furthermore, traditional post harvesting techniques have been greatly affected by prolonged rainy seasons. The method consists of leaving part of the produce in the fields for preservation, but rainfall uncertainty and the lack of alternative preservation techniques and preparedness drive farmers into difficult situations. This affects income generation from crop production as indicated by other studies (Yengoh et al., 2010).Households involve in the collection of NTFPs as a main livelihood activity especially the Baka households in Nomedjoh communicated that the harvesting of fruits from the different tree species is at times poor as a result of poor flowering and fruiting of the tree species. Base on local knowledge, communities attributed the poor flowering to the 'accident' in the climatic system. A 54 year old focus group participant in Nomedjoh said: \"I am sure the present accident in the climate will also affect our fruit trees in the future\". Ndangalasi et al. (2007) affirms that climatic and other edaphic factors influence NTFPs productivity, density and distribution. In this circumstance of uncertainty related to future NTFPs collection, households in Nomedjoh are predicting possible decline in income from NTFPs.The vulnerability of human-environmental systems is also defined as a function of adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity of local communities is also defined as a function of access to resources, income, food security, knowledge, information and technology (Brooks and Adger, 2005). Communities deficient in any of the factors mentioned have lesser capacity to adapt, thus are more vulnerable to climate variability and change (Romero, 2005;Yohe, 2001). The conservation conditions put in place by the carbon conservation projects is seen to have implication for the main livelihood activity and the source of income according to respondents in Nkolenyeng (88%) and Nomedjoh (22%). The differences is due to the fact that many households (91%) are engaged in agriculture as their main source of income in Nkolenyeng, as compared to Nomedjoh (15%) (Table 2) and the conditions put in place by the PES project has direct repercussion on traditional agriculture practices. First, the conservation project has forbidden slash-and burn method of farming in the community forest areas, a farming method communities describe as productive and less labour intensive. A 62 year old farmer in Nkolenyeng complains: \"At my age I have little energy to prepare my fields without burning, so for now with the project conditions I will prepare only a small portion\". In this situation farm sizes will not be increased due to much work involved in preparing fields for planting. A decline in farm sizes indicates a decline in crop production and a subsequent threat to food security and a potential decline in income from agriculture. Second, the yearly opening of new agriculture fields in the virgin forest which is a routine and a necessity for farmers in the forest communities both for subsistence and commercial purposes is unacceptable under this PES regime. Agriculture has been limited only to existing fallows in the community forest areas. According to household (96%) in both communities, the opening of new fields is a yearly routine. Newly open fields in the virgin forest are more fertile, with high agriculture productivity. In this regard a decline in future agriculture productivity with subsequent impact on food security and income has been predicted by farmers especially in the Nkolenyeng community forest area where agriculture is the main livelihood activity.On the other hand, the collection of NTFPs and hunting constitute the main livelihood options for the Baka ethnic group in Nomedjoh (66% for collection of NTFPs and 22 % for hunting) (Table 2), and the PES project has no major limitations on hunting and gathering activities. Any constraint on their subsistence agriculture activities which is mostly an alternative livelihood option will be supported by NTFPs collection and hunting activities. This implies that the PES carbon project might reduce the adaptive capacity and exacerbate vulnerability of communities by limiting access to agriculture land with subsequent impacts on food security and local economic viability. This is in line with the findings of Yohe (2001) and Romero (2005).Local communities need strategies to reduce their vulnerability to climate variability as a result of exposure and sensitivity of their livelihood activities. Furthermore, communities need to enhance their adaptive capacity which has been influenced by the changes in land use activities enforced by the forest-carbon conservation projects.Local adaptation needs of rural communities are linked to income and food security, alternative income sources and livelihood diversification, information, knowledge and capacity building (Sonwa et al., 2012). In a situation of unpredictability and unevenness of rainfall and temperature, and the presence of the carbon project, farmers stressed the need to intensify their local agriculture enterprises in other to sustain income and food security. This implies adjusting and improving (technically, financially and materially) agriculture activities to reduce the vulnerability and increase the adaptive capacity of households. However, the various agriculture strategies envisaged should be capable of adapting to the local agriculture landscapes in the study areas, taking into consideration local climate variability and uncertainty. Before the carbon conservation projects, the expansion of cultivation areas into the virgin forests was a coping strategy employed especially in Nkolyenyeng and to a lesser extend in Nomedjoh. Increasing the sizes of agricultural fields is a coping strategy employed by forests communities to adjust to climatic changes (Bele et al., 2013).In relation to crop production, farmers in both community forests areas expressed the possibilities of engaging into more mixed cropping, multi-level cropping and in the planting of improved and new crop varieties. A farmer in Nkolenyeng said: \"It might be helpful if we plant seeds that can resist in the soil and wait for the rain; however it is not a guarantee because the weather really behaves funny nowadays\".Garden farming appeared to be of major interest to households in Nomedjoh, in which with limited rainfall, crops can be supplied with water using watering cans. In addition soil fertility of gardens can be improved by using organic manure. This aspect can enable year round production of certain crops. Capacity building through the strengthening of local agriculture systems, empowering of local agriculture knowledge and innovations and information sharing are relevant adaptation strategies (Somorin, 2010).Cocoa production, a major agriculture activity in Nkolenyeng can also be improved through pruning of diseased and dead branches, burying of diseased cocoa pods, planting new rootstock, grafting new higher yielding or more resistant varieties, more effective crop spraying and improved drying and management techniques. Meanwhile, in Nomedjoh, introducing a cash crop like cocoa will reduce their dependency on NTFPs as the major source of income. However, if not well monitored it might lead to deforestation.Improving agro-forestry through fruit trees was also highlighted during the discussion; households saw the planting of fruit trees as a means of supporting household food consumption and the source of income through marketing of fruits, nuts, and edible oils. Agro-forestry is a major climate change adaptation strategy for forest communities (Somorin, 2010;Verchot et al., 2006).Initiating other income generating activities within the confines of local resources is of great importance, and the benefits are relevant for forest communities adjust to climate variability and uncertainty. Activities such as beekeeping, improved collection and marketing of the different forest fruits, fish farming, and mushroom growing will enable households in the study areas to earn income from activities other than agriculture. This option is of great importance to the Nkolenyeng community forests area with a high dependence on agriculture.Enhancing livelihood diversity is seen as an appropriate adaptation option to guarantee food security and livelyhoods in the face of climate extremes and uncertainty (IDRC, 2009;Paavola, 2008). Integrating livestock production and food production provide income, food production and security for small-scale farmers in developing countries (Yengoh et al., 2010). Households in the study areas have expressed interest to engage in activities other than agriculture. Livestock was mentioned as a key activity, including beekeeping, mushroom farming, and fish farming discussions across the two communities. Livelihood and income diversification has improved the coping capacities of rural communities to climate change and variability (Robledo et al., 2012).However, improving alternative livelihood options depends on financial, technical and institutional support (Robledo et al., 2012).Furthermore, communities are still struggling to understand and master the \"climate accident\", they need knowledge and information support in this particular aspect. The need of forest communities to enhance their adaptive capacity involve a variety of research domains, which requires a multi-disciplinary information and knowledge sharing approach to minimise challenges arising from the implementation, a position shared by Howden et al., (2007).The commercialisation of agriculture commodities and NTFPs constitute the main economic activity in the study areas. Marketing is done within the community (23%) or with traders from outside called 'buyam and sellam' (78%) or through common initiative groups (22%) for the case of cocoa. The household survey reveals that some 38% of households are not satisfied with the market prices. They attribute low prices to poor road infrastruc-ture linking their communities with major towns. However, there is difference in perception between households in the Nomedjoh and Nkolenyeng, regarding market prices. The difference is due to the fact that the Baka community in Nomedjoh is still getting acquainted with monetary value and the worth of products and market price fluctuations. On the other hand, the Nkolenyeng com-munity is a long time cash crop community with much knowledge about the value of money, market value of goods and price fluctuation. In addition to the market experience the difference in commodities marketed between the two communities may also influence percep-tion on market prices. Better market prices and road networks, will increase household benefits and improve household income. This will improve the adaptive capa-city of households against climatic uncertainty and expo-sure. This finding confirms that of Nkem et al. (2010) which emphasize that better returns and benefits from commodities may improve the role of forest goods and services as safety nets for adaptation to climate change by forest dependent communities.The adaptation needs highlighted by research participants are related to coping strategies reported in Yokadouma and Nkol-evodo, including agriculture improvement through resistant crop varieties, better timing of planting and harvesting periods, better after harvest food storage, livelihood diversification and knowledge generation and training (Bele et al., 2013).Research has shown that the Bantu and Baka populations have contrasting lifestyles which has implications on their vulnerability and adaptation needs (Nkem et al., 2013). However, lifestyles of the Baka and Bantu populations in the study areas appear similar, indicating similarity in vulnerability and adaptation needs.The Baka population in Nomedjoh and Nkolenyeng are presently practicing sedentary Bantu lifestyles as oppose to their traditional nomadic hunting-gathering dependent way of life. The Baka's are gradually getting interested in livelihood activities that demand permanent involvement and monitoring such as agriculture for subsistence and commercial purpose. Murdiyarso et al. (2005) assert that some mitigation strategies such as income diversification, income from mitigation services, agriculture intensification and agroforestry have the potentials of reducing the vulnerability of vulnerable populations. Furthermore, Somorin (2010) highlights that conservation and restorations of degraded forests are also vital for community adaptation to climate change. The objectives and activities of the conservation project provide opportunities to benefit communities in relation to their adaptation needs. The carbon projects have material, technical, financial and institutional support initiatives relevant for enhancing the adaptive capa-city of communities.The forest protection and regeneration activity put in place has marked boundaries and created forest reserve zones. This activity might protect tree species relevant for NTFPs harvesting in the future, especially in Nomedjoh where NTFPs collection is a major activity.The projects have initiated sustainable forest use and management. The project is increasing tree cover, by planting new trees in new fallows, old fallows and in cocoa farms. Tree nurseries have been established with native tree species e.g. Maobi (Baillonella toxisperma), Bush mango (Irvinga gabonensis). Promova et al. (2012) confirms that forests and trees can support adaptation by providing goods to communities facing climatic threats.Sustainable agriculture activities have been initiated in the different project sites. Agro-forestry in addition to improve seed varieties and mixed cropping have been introduced in project areas. Agro-forestry can potentially improve soil fertility and provide households with fuel wood. Cocoa agro-forestry has been introduced in Nomedjoh, as an alternative income source to NTFPs. Agro-forestry is a relevant strategy for forest carbon conservation and adaptation to climate change (Ravindranath, 2007;Smith and Scherr, 2001). Agro-forestry systems are important for carbon sequestration and at the same time they provide biophysical and social support for vulnerable communities to adapt to the negative consequences of climate change (Verchot et al., 2006).Significant emphasis was made on creating and ameliorating alternative income generating activities such as beekeeping, mushroom farming, livestock and fishing. The collection of NTFPs is an activity which is being encouraged in Nkolenyeng, however many of the NTFPs tree species found in Nomedjoh are not found in Nkolenyeng. The project is introducing some of the tree species in Nkolenyeng, though it is a long term and uncertain activity. Firstly, the local climate in Nkolenyeng may pose a challenge, and secondly some of the tree species need about a century to attain the fruit producing age. \"I am really disturbed, if after all these changes and things don't work, what will be our fate?\"; a participant said.Capacity building in communities in general is being strengthened. Access to information, knowledge and capacity are very important in climate change response actions (Challinor et al., 2007;Howden et al., 2007). Capacity building of households regarding new farming techniques, alternative livelihoods and income strategies has been initiated. The carbon projects initiated capacity building in beekeeping, plantain propagation, nursery management, mixed cropping, and the planting and management of new crop varieties. About 82% of the households in both communities have participated and benefitted from at least one training activity related to agriculture intensification, agro-forestry, apiculture and silviculture. Material support has been provided in the form of seeds, nurseries and bee hives.Making the commodities produced by household's Chia et al. 505worth their value in the market is one major priority of the PES project, because with better income from commodities, households will limit pressure on forest. However, better prices can also mean more incentives to exploit and destroy forest. Lastly, financial flows from carbon sales will provide compensation to lost livelihood opportunities and enhance the different community initiatives and activities relevant for local adaptation (Wollenberg and Springate-Baginski, 2009).Identifying the underlying drivers of deforestation as a starting point of action is essential for policies aimed at halting deforestation to be effective (Agrawal, 2009). Most of the changes in forest cover in the study areas are the consequences of land use practices. The willingness to participate which translates to the positive outcome of the forest conservation activities depends on how communities are incentivized and the level of motivation of communities regarding the off-setting of poor land use practices. The capacity of the communities to participate and adhere to the PES project conditions is indicated by a range of underlying perceptions related to community adaptation needs; strengthening the viability of local economic activities, knowledge and capacity building in local agriculture systems and alternative livelihood options. This is a major incentive and motivation for communities (Wollenberg and Springate-Baginski, 2009;Salafsky and Wollenberg, 2000).In addition to adaptation needs, perceptions regarding the effectiveness of local governance processes such as equity and participation in decision making are also crucial in increasing communities' participation. Wollenberg and Springate-Baginski (2009) and Dkamela et al. (2009), acknowledged that conservation initiatives such as REDD+ are more likely to succeed if they build on the interest of forest communities and indigenous communities.The findings from the study areas indicate that the PES project was welcome and supported due to the perception of the tenure situation which favours communities as far as forest benefits are concern. In both communities, the notion of management rights for community forests and ownership rights is being misunderstood. They are aware that they own the forest and any benefit stream from the forest goes directly to the community, with limited or no conflict with the state. Households communicated that the respect they have for the present forest conservation rules will not be the same if forest was under state management. They consider forest resource management under state control as unfair, and beneficial to industrial forestry companies. The affirmative view about ownership and management of their forest is a motivating factor for the households to get involved in the PES project activities. Wollenberg and Springate-Baginski (2009) affirms that clear tenure rights, resource rights and participation are major incentives for communities to engage in conservation initiatives.Equitable distribution of resources and forest benefits is a condition that incentivizes and motivates forest communities; this can facilitate the positive outcome of carbon conservation projects (Dkamela et al., 2009). Encouraging perception about equality in benefit sharing in Nomedjoh (93% of respondents) is an indication that households will adhere to project conditions as compared with households in Nkolenyeng. Households (87%) in Nkolenyeng attribute their frustration to mismanagement and embezzlement of revenue that accrued from earlier forest exploitation deals. As a result suspicion and doubt loams around the present carbon project in Nkolenyeng and this atmosphere has implications on their willingness to participate and adhere to project conditions. Dkamela et al., (2009) highlights that inequitable distribution of forest revenues is a threat to community participation in REDD+ schemes. Despite these situations, households still argue that they are satisfied with the management of their community forest. Though, they stressed that management of the initial benefit flow from the PES project will be a test for their local governance structures and processes and this will determine the future and sustainability of the PES projects.The findings of this study accentuate the importance of understanding the vulnerability of the livelihood strategies of forest-dependent communities to climatic and non climatic changes. On the other hand, households are the main agents of deforestation through their livelihood strategies in their respective forest areas and any action aim at halting deforestation will marginalised livelihood opportunities of forest communities. Strategies to reduce community vulnerability include livelihood diversification, strengthening the viability of local economic activities, knowledge and capacity building in local agriculture systems and alternative livelihood options for food security and income. These are also incentives that make the land management changes as a result of the conservation initiatives attractive to land users. The positive outcome of the conservation activities depends on the willingness and motivation of communities to engage and participate in the different mitigation activities, which can also be influenced by tenure rights. In this regard, there are commonalities between the adaptation needs of forest communities and the incentives and motivation of communities to participate and respect forest conservation initiatives. And strategies for a double response to climate change can be better designed by using the knowledge on vulnerability as a point of departure. However, further research is needed to analyse gender and vulnerable group differentiation regarding vulnerability, adaptation and forests carbon conservation.","tokenCount":"5647"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e1e52987a086d8d07f88765aff9a22f8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fbe45692-7ddf-45cd-ac5d-e7b72fda3cad/retrieve","id":"2031097965"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b364a109-e5a7-4e22-bc95-3991124ac860","pagecount":"152","content":"En Venezuela la producción de arroz se localiza predominantemente en los IJ.anos CentJ:ales (Estado Guárico) y los IJ.anos Occidentales (Estados Ba.rinas, eojedes y Portuguesa).En los IJ.anos CentJ:ales el área = se concentra en el Sistema de Riego Rio Guárico y su zona de influencia. la precipitación es de 1. 515 mm que se concentra entre los meses de M3.yo a O:::tubre y alcanza su valor máximo (294 mm) en el mes de Junio. la temperatura prome:lio es de 30 o e.ros suelos son de origen aluvial y han sido formados por la deposición del material arrastrado por los rios Tiznados y Guárico.El área del sistema se ubica en el Distrito MiraOOa del Estado Guárico y posee una superficie total, incluida. la zona de influencia, de 120.000 hectáreas, de las cuales 75.000 están servidas con agua. ros suelos solo son aptos para la siembra de arroz\"y pastos, pero en conjunto presentan una baja utilización; siendo ,el caso que en el año 1987 se sembraron 33.000 hectáreas de arroz en el ciclo de norte verano y 13.000 en invierno. Da aquí que un objetivo es hacer :más eficiente el manejo del Sistema, de mane..>-a que, mediante un uso racional del agua, se incremente la superficie cultivada..Por su parte en los IJ.anos Occidentales se encuentran grandes áreas con condiciones de ta\"T[)eratura (2S-32°C), pluviosidad (900-1.500 mm) y suelos (relativamente pesados, arcillo limoso o franco arcilloso) aptos para el cultivo del a..\"TOZ. En estas condiciones hay 200.000 hec;'-..áreas en Earinas, 507.000 en Cojedes y 180.000 en Portuguesa. la mayor parte de estos suelos están sierdo usados para ganadería extensiva.El Estado Portuguesa es el que ha alcanzado la mayor superficie cosechada (140.000 en 1981), en períodos en que el sistema tradicional de secano fue predominante. En la actualidad el potencial arrocero de los suelos de los llanos Occidentales no está sierdo aprovechado I debido a factores = la ineficiencia del sistema de secano, la inexistencia de una infraestructura de riego que permita el manejo tecnificado del cultivo en una superficie mayor y la falta de una política de priorizacián del sector arrocero.otra región con potencial para el cultivo del arroz es el Delta del ormoco. Aqui existen factores de clima y disponibilidad de agua favorables para la producción, pero se hace necesario investigar en adaptación de variedades a las condiciones de suelos acidos que son predominantes en la zona. En esta región se han llegado a cultivar hasta 3.000 hectáreas con el sistema tradicional de secano.la prod:L=ión y el consumo de arroz en Venezuela ha clismi.nuído sustancialÍnente. Da una situación en 1981 de producción excedentaria y consumo per capita superior a los 20 Kg/persona-año, se ha llegado en los dos últiIocls años a tener que i1llportar arroz para satisfacer una demanda interna que se manifiesta en un consumo per capita inferior a los 10 Kg/persona-año.la situación de baja producción y consumo se presenta agravada por un incre.'TIeJ1to sostenido en los costos de pro:rucción que afecta la rentabilidad del cultivo. AdEIl'ás, el manejo tecnolÓ;ico promedio, aplicado por los productores, resulta ineficiente para garantizar, en un proceso de ajuste económico como el que se sucede en el país, una rentabilidad que permita incrementar en la pro:rucción.-Por otra parte, la investigación en arroz ha sido incipiente y desvinculada del sector pro:ructor. la investigación que se hace es aislada, sin que obedezca a una prcgramación que tenga como objetivo la eficiencia en el manejo del cultivo.En el marco descrito se abordó la realización del Diagnóstico &.7oceroNacional con la participación del Fondo Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (FONAIAP) , Asociación de Prcductores de Se.'nilla Certificada de los llanos Occidentales (APROSCELlD), Asociación de Productores de los llanos Centrales (APROSCELJ:AC) y Fun:Jación para el Desarrollo de la Región Centro Occidental de Venezuela (FUDECXl) • Este diagnóstico ha sido estimulado y asesorado por el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) y ha contado con la colaboración de la Federación Nacional de Arroceros de Q)lombia (FEDFARROZ).El objetivo del trabajo, en primer lugar, es hacer un análisis de las prácticas agronómicas que realizan los productores, detectar problell'aS en el manejo del cultivo, detectar necesidades de investigación y hacer un inventario general de la oferta tecnolÓ;ica existente en el país. En segundo término, definir proyectos de investigación y de trar\".sferencia tecnolégica que deben ser adelantados por el FONAIAP I con la participación de las asociaciones de productores; igualmente orientar la asesoría técnica y la colaboración en la capacitación de recursos humanos por parte del CIAT.--~ ~c-.t.q 1•: El Estado Portuguesa es la prilnera entidad productora (Oladro No. 5) I se;¡uida del Estado Guárico, conCentrando las dos más del 90% de la producción. Conpar'a:OOo la participación regional se tiene que la del Estado Portuguesa disminuye en el año 1987 en relación con 1977 (año de despegue en producción) y 1981 (año de :máxima producción) I debido a que la reducción de la producción de secano ha afectado notablemente a esta región.En lo referente a la distribución por tamaño de las explotaciones, (CUadro No. 6) se aprecia que los grandes prcductores (14.8%), con unidades de explotación superi=es a 100 hectáreasl/ y promedios de 138 hectáreas 1/ Se refiere a tamaño de la unidad de explotación (finca) parte de la cual se cultiva con arroz.se:\"..bradas de arroz FOr finca, cosechan el 59.6% de la superficie de arroz. Venezuela, Arroz -1958-87 Produo::ion (1000 1m) y Áreo (1000 ha) 700.0,--------------------------:---___ -..,   (1983)(1984)(1985) el consumo aparente fue inferior a la disponibilidad, es decir que durante este lapso los déficits en la producción fueron cubiertos con excedentes a=nulados. El consumo per capita de cereales en Venezuela bajó en la década de los ochenta como resultado de la• disminución = i d a en el peder adquisitivo de los consumidores. Esta situación explica en parte, la reducción en el consumo de arroz.  (1) En este año 1984 se =ea la canisión Nacional de Cosecha, mediante la cual se instrumentan mecanismos que permiten coordinar la recepción, secamiento, almacenamiento y despacho de la cosecha nacional de cereales. La descripción de esta situación evidencia que el crédito oficial ha :mantenido la linea de apoyo a la producción agrícola, concentrándose en la pro::lucoión de cereales, pero fundalnenta~te orientado hacia Il'aiz y sorgo, mientras por el contrario la pro::lucoión arrocera ha sido desestimulada.En la operatividad del =édito éste se asigna en base a patrones de financiamiento, es decir montos definidos por hectárea, que no cubren la totalidad de los requerimientos. Aunado a ésto se encuentra la de¡rora en la liquidación de los =éditos que no permite hacer una compra oportuna de insumas, lo que conlleva a un in=e:rnento de los costas mediante el pago de intereses por co::1pras a crédito. Este aspecto tiene fuerte incidencia en la ejecución inoportuna de labores y en los rendimientos esperados.El crédito para arroz en Venezuela diferencia entre el destinado a la producción en sistema de riego y el sistema de secano. En el Cuadro No. 15 se observa que las variaciones en el total financiado están totalmente correlacionadas con' las variaciones del financiamiento para el sistema de secano, de manera que el desestimulo a la producción de arroz en los últ:i.mos, se ha concretado mediante una reducción drástica del crédito para los productores secaneros (Cuadro No. 16).Cuadro 15. VENEZUELA: Financiamiento oficial para la producción de cereales. 1982~1981. Para la asistencia técnica, enter:dida como la actividad orientada a ayudar al pro::iuctor a superar las limitaciones tecnológicas del proceso pro::iuctivo, en el caso del arroz, no existe un organiSIl'D público que la aborde, de manera que el productor se encuentra generalmente asesorado por los \"asistentes técnicos\" de las casas comerciales y por el referencial que el entorno le transmite.En el año 1984 se decretó la creación del sistema Nacional de Asistencia Técnica que tiene entre sus objetivos específicos el de garantizar la asistencia, técnica y comercialización a los campesinos y pequeños productores, pero el ltÚ.sIlD no ha legrado :i:n;¡lementarse.Uno de los limitantes para estructurar un sistema de asistencia técnica en arroz es la carencia de personal técnico especializado en el cultivo. Este limitante se ha hecho manifiesto en los últimos años cuando la enpresa privada los ha requerido para desarrollar la actividad de asistencia técnica como parte de sus programas de financiamiento.la ausencia de un sistema de asistencia técnica en arroz, :i:n;¡ide que exista un mecarUSIl'D que enlace la irwestigación, la extensión y la producción. De manera que la irwestigación que se realiza en arroz, aunque deficiente, no se transmite al sector productivo, profundizándose la desconfianza entre productores e investigadores.Este aspecto de la asistencia técnica es un limitante fuer'\"...e en el cultivo del a=z en Venezuela.Junto a los limitantes señalados como generales, existen otros que se manifiestan con particularidad de acuerdo a las zonas productoras y que influyen en la rentabilidad y en las ¡::osi.bilidades de desarrollo del cultivo.El subsidio que se da a los productores del Sistere de Riego Río Guárico con una tarifa fija de 100 Bs¡Ha Y su desvinculación del• mantenimiento y conservación del sistema, produce un uso irracional del recurso me::liante gastos excesivos y obstrucción y deterioro de canales, lo que en conjunto obliga a largos periodOS dedicados al mantenir:lÍento del sistema y recuperación de la capacidad de riego. Como resultado se tiene que sólo se dis¡;:one de riego para un ciclo, en este caso el de verano, cuando lo correcto saria disp::lner del mlSlTO para el ciclo de verano y de riego corrplementario para producir en el periodo lluvioso.l.Ds altos requerimientos de inversión para adecuación de tierras y construcción de pozos, actúan = un limitante para la ampliación del área cultivada en las zonas diferentes a la de los sistemas de riego público.Este limitante es de consideración ya que es indispensable disponer de riego para poder mantener un cultivo rentable, toda vez que se ha demostrado las limitaciones del sistema de siembra en secano.ha venido incrementando el uso de semillas no certificadas, considerándose que el Estado Portuguesa un 48% da la superficie es sembrada con este tipo de semillas, lo cual repercute en la rentabilidad por requerirse de un mayor costo en la p:rotección al cultivo y por su efecto en los rendimientos.De la información que se dispone se concluye que las prácticas de preparación de tierra, fertilización y p:rotección al cultivo difieren entre las dos princ:ipales zonas prcductoras, lo que ÍIlillica la necesidad de hacer concreciones al respecto en el punto referente al manejo del cultivo.rv MANEJO DEL CULTIVO l. PREPARACION DEL SUEI.DLas características de la preparación del suelo difieren entre la zona del Estado Guárico y la de los Uanos Occidentales.Asi rusrno hay diferencias en la preparación predominante entre los ciclos de \"invierno\" y ''verano'' 1/. En el Estado Portuguesa predomina la preparación en seco en el ciclo de \"invierno\" y la de batido o fangueo en el ciclo de \"V6..'\"'aJ10\", mientras en el Estado Guárico la preparación es casi exclusivamente en fango en los dos ciclos.En el Oladro No. 17 se presenta infomación sobre la preparación realizada por tres tipos de productores en regiones distintas: productores empresariales del Estado Portuguesa, productores empresariales del Estado Guárico y productores campesinos del Estado Guárico. En el Estado Guárico el predominio de la preparación del suelo nediante fangueo se debe a la introducción de esta práctica = una foma de combatir malezas y al hec110 de que las siembras de \"invierno\" y las tempranas de \"verano\" obligan a la preparación en batido por las condiciones edáficas impe..>-antes. sin e..'TIba....\"10 para las siembras de \"verano\" de los meses de Diciembre hacia adelante en algunos casos se emplea una preparación mixta.l! \"Invierno\" periodo llwioso y \"verano\" periodo de sequía.PREPARM: Al_Ot1ADDF:P, 100Este:• pOtl\"\"r.:E'!Ttcij(,~ t;;:5 l'-el ac:Íon i:¡l nÜHíf:?f\"CJ de pr\"üduct.D¡\"'¡'::'S que F;¡'-¡:'::P,,:;;'-¿\"4{; en 'fElngo~ FUEtHE:(::,) F~Of'~{':,IP,F-GU(.)F\\lCO. Encuc:?s't¿{ ¿, ~:r-l•\")duct:orc•:.::, c:e ¿•:~I-•¡-O:\"W ,:1(:::,1 Sistema de F~iego Río 13uárico. Tecnici:\\\"(1) EST Itl{:¡CIONES PHDF'lAS\"En cambio el predominio de la preparación en seco en el ciclo de \"invierno\" en el Estado Portuguesa se debe, primero, a que para parte de la superficie la preparación se realiza en tiempo de sequiá; segundo a que el fangueo es una práctica no aceptada totalmente por los productores, fundamentalmente por aquellos que le dan un uso alterno a la tierra mediante dos cultivos diferentes en el año; Y un tercer factor q.le contribuye a imponer la preparación en seco es la insuficie.l,te disponibilidad de agua.1.1 Prácticas actuales:La preparación de la tierra en el Estado Guárico se realiza bajo condiciones de inundación (batido o fangueo), en fonna predominante, utilizando una rastra en \"V\" denominada rastra Yona seguida por uno o dos pases de viga. otros productores en el período de \"verano\" hacen una preparación mi.xta, es decir, primero pasan el big-rorne en seco seguido de una rastra y luego inundan el carrpo para hacer el batido con una viga con enganche de tres puntos. sin embargo hay quienes hacen preparación exclusivamente en seco, pr=ediendo a sembrar después de inundado el carrpoEl pase de rastra Yana tiene por finalidad voltear el suelo péL'a incorporar las malezas y resíduos de cosecha para su desccrnposición, así como también para dispersar las partículas de suelo y de esta mar.era disminuir la párdida de agua por percolación. El pase de rastra Yana es una labor fundamental de la preparación en fango a fin de ejercer la función de centrol de malezas, especialr.1ente de \"arroz rojo\". . \"accesorias de hierro denominadas \"chapaletas\" que van acopladas a las llantas traseras para darle mayor tracción al tractor;En los Llanos Occidentales, en contraste, no existe un patrón único de preparación de suelos para la siembra del arroz. las :mc::dalidades de preparación son muy variadas entre productores, zonas, etc, dependiendo del criterio de cada productor y a la disponibilidad de agua, la planificación de siembra (rotación con otros cultivos), disponibilidad de maquinaria, ilIq:>lementoS y equipos, etc. En los esquemas 2 y 3 se muestran las diversas combinaciones realizadas y en el cuadro No. 18 los datos técnicos sobre la maquinaria utilizada =-n.mmente.Seguidamente se describen las principales labores realizadas en cada ciclo en los Llanos Occidentales:A.Ciclo de \"Invierno\":las labores se inician durante los meses secos (Febrero-!'\"Jayo) y la cosecha se realiza en los meses lluviosos (Agosto-Noviembre). Es durante este ciclo cuando se siembra la mayor superficie. ROTOV1'_O_F-:--------- Las tres labores señaladas son comunes para todas las fomas de preparación; sierdo a partir de aquí que =nienzan las variaciones para la praparación final, bien sea continuando la prepración en seco, inu.~o para batir o para proceder, a la siembra.a.l Preparación en seco:Se realizan todas las labores básicas de preparación en seco ya descritas, pero se incre.'llel1ta el nÚlnerO de pases de raS+--.ra a cinco o seis a fin de dejar el terreno bien mullido para recibir la semilla. En el proceso de rastreo se intercalan 1 ó 2 pases de land plane para el emparejamiento del terreno.Esta nmalidad es frecuente entre los productores que realizan rotación con otros cultivos, ya que consideran el batido como práctica no recorneOOable, pués produce destrucción de la estructura del suelo en función del cultivo en rotación con arroz.a.2 Inundación:Consiste en inundar el terreno Y trabajarlo bajo esta condición para desmoronar todos los agregados del suelo y transformarlo en un 1000 espeso.batidor\" y \"alisador\", los cuales se acoplan al tractor en el mismo oroen. Generalmente se efectúan 2 ó 3 pases.Hay quienes siembran después dE\\ la inurrlación. En realidad esto no :iJnplica labores adicionales de preparación como tal ya que la actividad realizada después de la inurrlación es la siembra. Quienes emplean esta rocdalidad tienen =no principal propósito disminuir costos mediante una menor utilización de maquinaria, buscando ccnjuntamel)te controlar las malezas por efecto de inundación. las variaciones observadas en la rocdalidad respoooen al ll'anejo de agua y a la siembra. En este sentido se diferenCian dos formas de manejo:-Se inurrla el ca.'lp:l, se siembra semilla seca y luego se drena ent..>-e las 24 y 48 horas.-Se inurrla el campo, se aplica herbicida pre-emergente en la lámina de agua y se rrantiene la inurrlación durante 5 ó 6 dias. lllego se drena el campo y se siembra con semilla pre-germinada. Esta es una práctica reciente, no exterxlida, recomerrlada por una casa comercial para la utilización del RONSTAR.B. ciclo de 11 Verano\": las labores se inician durante los meses de septiembre a Diciembre y la coseCha se realiza en los meses secos de Enero a Abril.lDs pro:l:uctores de este ciclo son solo los que operan con el agrosisterna arroz-arroz, sierrlo la superficie total cultivada m=nor que en el ciclo de \"invierno\", por insuficiencia de agua.la prilllera labor después de quemar la soca de la cosecha anterior e .i.nurrlar el campo, se hace con la intención de destruir e incorporar al suelo los restos vegetales y, simultánea:r.1ente, fonnar barro. Para ello existen dos variantes:-Un pase de rastra hidráulica o de rotovator seguido de 2 ó 3 pases de flcesta\" o \"rodillo\".-cuatro o cinco pases de cesta o rodillo.la segunda labor es un pase de \"alisador\", una vez, con el objeto de emparejar la superficie.En el manejo descrito destaca la ~lejidad de la preparación en cuanto a las diversas opoiones de :implementos y combinaciones utilizadas por los productores, especialm=nte durante el ciclo de \"invierno fl , sin que se hayan establecido técnicamente las bondades de cada una, así como su incidencia en los costos de pro:l:ucción. Igualmente, se presentan problerras en el cultivo que en parte son inherentes a la preparación de tierra, tales como: incidencia de malezas, plagas y enfermedades; poco desarrollo radicular y en general de la planta, etc. los problemas más resaltantes se pueden especificar en:-Generr..lizado desconocimiento de la eficiencia del uso de maquinaria e implementos en la prepración de tierra.-En el Estado Portuguesa, en los cultivos realizados en suelos preparados en fangueo, se ha observado en algunos casos U11 p:mre enraizamiento que puede deberse a una compactación superficial del suelo producida por una preparación poco profunda. El limitadodesarrollo radicular a su vez incide en el alto índice de volcarni.ento del cultivo y por tanto en los rendimientos.-las preparaciones acelerada del suelo durante el ciclo de vera~o, no dan tiempo para un proceso adecuado de desc:oIrpOSición de materia orgánica.los elementos anteriores conforman un maroo de limitaciones para el cultivo del arroz que es necesario superar mediante:-Estudios por zonas sobre la eficiencia y efecto de la utilización de maquinaria y equipos en la preparación de la tierra, en función de determinar los sistemas más eficientes y menos perjudiciales enmarcados en una concepción de manejo integral del cultivo.-Investigar sobre las corrliciones del suelo después del laboreo.-En correspondencia con el punto anterior dete.rm.inar los costos reales de prcducción.Se desconocen trabajos de investigación que se hayan realizado en el país referidos a mecanización del suelo y a la preparación de tierra y sus efectos sobre este recurso, así como sus repercusiones sobre el cultivo.En Venezuela no se utiliza el trasplante, por lo que el arroz siembra en fonna directa, bien sea con semilla pre-germinada o seca. En el CUadroNo. 19 se presenta infonnación sobre siembra para tres tipos de productores que preparan la tierra mediante el sistema de fangueo, en el cual se reflejan las variedades empleadas, tipo de semilla, modalidad de sierrbra y densidad de siembra. Hasta el momento no se dispone de infonnación que permita cuantificar las variables anteriores sobre siembra con preparación en seco.la siembra también presenta variaciones referidas a tratamiento de la semilla (seca o pre-germinada), a la época, a la densidad y a los equipos utilizados para la distribución en campo (avión, sembradoras acopladas a Es :íl!1portante señalar las variaciones ~idas en los tierrpos de pre-germinación de acuerdo al método empleado. Cllan:io se trata de siembra en avión o manual las semillas se introducen por 24 horas en tanques de pre-germinación (en el Sistema de Riego del Guárico algunos productores emplean los llIÍsmos canales y tanquillas de descarga) y luego se colocan en \"incubación\" por 24 horas :más.Cllan:io la siembra es al voleo mediante el uso de sembradoras el tiempo en \"incubación\" generalmente es de sólo 12 horas, con la finalidad de que no se dañe la semilla (el hipocotilo) en las paletas de distribución de la sembradora.Para la preparación en seco predomina el uso de semilla seca distribuida mayoritariamente con sembradoras al voleo o de hileras; en menor proporción se emplea el avión. En el caso de la siembra al voleo, bien sea con avión o con tractor se realiza el tapado de semilla nectiante un pase de rastra muy superficial.Los productores en general emplean altas densidades de siembra, observán::lose 6'1 el caso de la semilla certificada cantidades que varían entre 120 y 180 Kg.jha., predominando valores entre 140 y 150 Kg .¡'ha.Estas cantidades consideradas excesivas generan problemas de competencia entre plantas, v01ca:miento, nayor incidencia de plagas y enfermedades, así =no menor eficiencia en los controles químicos.El argumento de los productores para la utilización de altas densidades de siembra es el de la seguridad, ya que nayores cantidades de semilla les pennite canpen.sar las pél:didas ocurridas por el daño de aves y roedores, así =no deficiencias en la nivelación y en la preparación de la tierra. CUando se trata de semilla no certificada la densidad promedio es de 180 Kg.jha. Y se esgrime =no argumento adicional para la utilización de esa cantidad el :menor porcentaje de genninación.r:e lo descrito anteriormente se destaca que las principales límitantes referidas a la siembra son:-Empleo de altas densidades de siembra, lo que genera cornpetencia del cultivo y una mayor incidencia de plagas y enfermedades. A su vez origina un mayor uso y una menor eficiencia de los controles qum.icos.-Pérdida de semilla en camp::l por presencia de aves y roedores.En función de la problemática descrita se consideran necesarias las siguientes acciones:-Evaluar las pérdidas ocurridas desde la siembra hasta la cosecha, relacionándola con la búsque::la de la densidad adecuada para obtener el mejor macollamiento y mejorar la producción. Esta evaluación debe hacerse por zonas productoras.  En Venezuela los productores comunrnente aplican fertilizantes en dos momentos, uno denominado fertilización básica y el otro de reabono; este últim:J puede contar de uno a tres aplicaciones de compuestos nit:ra3'enados dependiendo del tipo de productor y de las características del suelo.Uno de los requisitos exigidos por los organismos de financiamiento oficial es el análisis de fertilidad del suelo con sus respectivas recomendaciones. sin embargo, es frecuente observar variaciones e.'1tre las reccmerñaciones que se desprenden del análisis del suelo y lo que los productores realizan en lo referente a fonuulaciones, cantidades y épocas de aplicación, determinadas por el tipo de preparación del suelo, la disponibilidad de fórmulas en el mercado y las preferencias del productor.A continuación se describen las prácticas nás frecue.'1tes de fertilización. agrupadas según mcdalidad de preparación del suelo.  -------------------------------_.------------------_.-~---------------_._-------------------------: U : P lK iN l P : K :ri   , , Ei\"IFRES{~R 1 AL(2) Las rnáxiInas dosis, principalmente de nitrégeno, son utilizados por prcrluctores del Estado Guárico. Esta tendencia a aplicar elevadas dósis de fertilizantes, aunado con las altas densidades de sie.--:-bra, provoca con frecuencia el \"acame\" del cultivo, especialmente en la época en gue la cosecha coincide con el periodo de lluvia.La aplicación se realiza con avión y en menor proporción con voleadora acoplada al tractor. En el sector campesino de Guárico la aplicación es predominantemente Ir.anual.El reabono se realiza con fertilizantes nitrogenados, predominando la Urea y se aplica generalmente en dos fracciones o en tres en el caso de quienes emplean fertilizantes simples en el abonamiento básico o cuando los suelos son ltlás livianos. La primera aplicación al momento de máximo macollamiento y la segun:la al inicio de la formación de la panícula. La aplicación se hace con avión a excepción del sector campesino de Guárico donde muchos prcrluctores la realizan manualmente.Entre las liroitantes que presenta la fertilización y afectan al cul ti VD tenernos:-Uso excesivo de fertilizantes, lo cual genera problemas de volcami.ento, incremento de costos y favorece la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades •-La fertilización se hace en base a un patrón global establecido en cada región pro:iuctora sin precisar variaciones específicas de los suelos.De igual manera, se errplean las mismas cantidades de fertilizantes indistintamente para los dos ciclos, por parte de los pro:iuctores del agrosistema arroz-arroz.-Aplicaciones inoportunas de fertilizantes debido a diferentes causas: tardanza en recibir las partidas de créditos, insuficiente disponibilidad de fertilizantes por parte de los distribuidores, problemas para disponer de los servicios de fertilización, etc.Inexistencia de controles para los servicios aéreos de fertilización, principa.lmente en lo referente a la graduación de los equipos,. hecho que afecta la eficiencia de los fertilizantes por mala distribución.-Dificultad para disponer de los macroelementos que permitan hacer fonnulaciones ajustadas a los requerimientos de una adecuada fertilización.-las fallas en la nivelación dificultan el buen manejo del agua, impidierrlo un uso eficiente de los fertilizantes.Incremento en al uso de fertilizantes foliares, aplicados especialmente en la fase de floración conjuntamente con los plaguicidas para protección de la panícula. Dado que la literatura internacional no indica resultados consistentes en cuanto a la aplicación de NPK en foz::¡¡¡;¡, foliar, se considera que su uso incide en un incremento injustificado de costos.Con el objeto de reunir mayor información en cuanto a las limitaciones enunciadas y presentar recomendaciones, es necesario establecer una red de ensayos en los diferentes tipos de suelos, utilizando las variedades disponibles en el mercado para evaluar su respuesta a diferentes niveles de fertilización, métc:dos y épocas de aplicación. Esto permitirá mejorar la eficiencia en el uso de los fertilizantes.Es necesario informar a los prc:ductores de la inconve.'\"lÍencia en el uso de fertilizantes foliares, los cuales incrementan los costos de fe..rtilización sin mejorar significativamante los rendwentos de granos.  ¡---------------------------------------------------------   Desde el año señalado se ha trabajado igualmente con el fraccionamiento del elenento nitrógeno y en tal sentido se ha detectado la conveniencia de esta práctica a partir de los 25 dias de la germinación del arroz.En relación con esta circunstancia es posible que una aplicación muy restrin;Jida de nitrógeno en el Jrom1!I1to de la siembra resulte beneficiosa, ya que dará oportunidad a que la mayor parte del elemento pueda aplicarse en los períodos más convenientes para la planta.A eSte respecto se puede señalar que en las pruebas regionales de Portuguesa se ha constatado que cuando el nitrógeno incorporado se fraccior.a entre el Jrom1!I1to de la siembra y los 25 dias de la genninación, el cultivo tiende a acusar síntonaS de deficiencia nitrogenada hacia los 50 dias de su ciclo. Por el contrario cuando el fraccionamiento se realiza entre los 25 y 50 dias de la genninación la deficiencias de nitrógeno no se . manifiestal\"! y el rendimiento de paddy tiende a ser más alto.En este sentido podemos hacer referencia a los trabajos realizados en Marzo de 1988 con la nueva variedad de arroz, Cimarrón, la cual manifestó los mejores rendimientos cuando el nitrógeno se aplicó en tres fracciones: a los 25, 50 Y 60 días del ciclo.En forma concreta la recomendación con::esporrliente respon:le al siguiente esquema:-200-250 Kgjha. de la fórmula 12-24-12 o su equivalente al momento de la siembra.-100 Kg/ha. de úrea a los 40 días de la genn:inación del arroz.El contenido de humedad del suelo es importante para lograr una mayor eficiencia en los reabonos con nitrógeno. En tal sentido se condujeron una serie de ensayos en el FONAIAP-Portuguesa durante los años 1979-1986, donde se consideraron tres corxliciones básicas para la aplicación del elemento, utilizando diferentes dosis, las cuales respondieron al siguiente esquema:-Aplicación sobre suelo me::lianarnente irlurrlado.-Aplicación sobre suelo saturado e inundado inme::liatamente.-Aplicación dos dias después del drenaje del campo.Co!ro resultado se constato que en corxllciones de me::liana inundación o de suelo saturado se presentan las mejores opciones para efectuar la aplicación de abonos ni tro;¡enados. -Control de malezas en arroz sembrado bajo condiciones de riego integral, es decir con suministro seguro y permanente de agua.-Control de malezas en arroz sembrado bajo condiciones de riego en la cual existe dificultades por insufiencia en la fuente de suministro de agua.-Control de re.lezas en arroz sembrado bajo condiciones de secano. los problemas referentes al control de malezas se J:laI1ifiestan con mayor gravedad en las siembras de arroz de secano, condición a la cual correspondía en años anteriores ÚÍ1. alto porcentaje de la superficie total del cultivo, principalmente en los Llanos occidentales. Bajo condiciones de riego f el mantenimiento de la lámina de agua tiene un aspecto coadyuvante en el control de malezas por cuanto la inundación del ca\":1pO evita la recuperación de aquellas especies que el herbicida afecta en forma pa=ial. -Control mmual: consiste en la limpieza de canales y muros una sola vez durante el ciclo. En los productores de arroz para semilla esta es una práctica común, mientras en el resto de los productores es poco frecuente.-Control Quimico: Es la práctica más generalizada entre los productores de arroz.post~entes, sin embargo en los últimos dos años se ha venido incrementando el uso de pre-e:mergentes especialmente en fama combinada con los pr:i.rreros (cuadro No. 27).la aplicación de post~entes se realiza entre los 20 y 25 días posteriores a la siembra.El herbicida más utilizado como post~ente es Propanil en' dosis de aproximadamente 10 litrosjha.Cuando se combina con preemergentes esta dosis varía entre 6 y 7 litrosjha.En algunos casos se aplican solo herbicidas pre-emergentes direct:amente a la parcela inundada, mmteniéndose la lámina durante 5-7 dias, luego se drena y se procede a la siembra; no obstante la práctica más usual en el empleo de herbicidas en condición de pre~encia se hace mediante aplicaciones al campo con humedad óptima, inmediatamente después de la siembra con semilla seca tapada.  ---------------------------------------~----------------------------.--------  fa) C~!culadQ fri base al nUilEro de productores que lo ctiliuiJ.(~l Se refiere a prüductore~ eon preparaci~n en fango.FUENTE: (U FUDEí:rUAPROSCELLO. SEguili:1l:nto éf costos !!e praduccicm en arroz.(2) SER¡~HllC. Planillas d~ seguilllentc\\ de asistencia benita.(3) FONAIAP~SUAR!CO. ErrCU€5ta a proouctor?s de ¡¡rroz d¡;l Sistelfla de CALCULO S PROPIOS.De la información de muestras de productores de Guárico y Portuguesa, se tiene que los agricultores del sector campesino en el SisteIra de Riego del Río Guárico (calabozo) al no disponer de maquinaria propia generalmente no realizan una adecuada preparación de tierra, cuestión esta que, aunada a la época inoportuna de aplicación del herbicida (cUadro No. 28) y al mal manejo del agua disminuye la eficiencia del control qu:íllIico de malezas.Los productores errpresariales de Guárico y Portuguesa, aún cuando realizan una mejor preparación del suelo, puesto que la mayoría de ellos son propietarios de maquinarias y equipos, también efectúan controles quilnicos de malezas en forma tardía (cuadros No. 29 y 30).Por otra parte cabe resaltar que algunos productores mezclan herbicidas a base de propanil con insecticidas fosforados (principalmente Parathión) , inhibiendo de esta forma la enzima amarylamilasa, reduciendo así la selectividad del herbicida, lo cual ocasiona quemado del arroz y un control deficiente de malezas.La preparación inadecuada del suelo, la época inoportuna de aplicación y el mal manejo del agua, contribuyen a mantener los problemas de malezas durante el ciclo y a acrecentarlos de ciclo en ciclo.  --------------------------------------------------------------.---------------- -Aplicación de altas dosis de herbicidas, especialmente entre los productores de los IJ.anos accidentales.-Deficiencias del servicio aéreo en la aplicación de herbicidas (calibración de equipos, uso de boquillas inadecuadas y horario inoportuno) .Las necesidades en cuanto al control de malezas, son:-Evaluar las modalidades de preparación de tierra en relación con la eficiencia en el control de malezas.BJscar alternativas distintas al avión, que pennitan la aplicación eficiente de herbicidas y la disminución de los costos de producción.-Evaluar el conportamiento de las malezas, así como los PrOOuctos ll'ás eficientes y el rr.anejo de agua más adecuado para controlarlas.-Realizar una evaluación pennanente de la calidad de los productos que concurren al mercado.-Olequeos periódicos de los equipos de aspersión aérea.Los trabaj os desarrollado~ para el control de malezas se han centrado principalmente en la prueba de herbicidas en cuanto respecta a dosis, mezclas y épocas de aplicación se::;ún el estado de las malezas y del cul ti vo del arroz, así = de la humedad del suelo. En este sentido las investigaciones realizadas han utilizado los prcductos químiCos con=idos, tanto los preemergentes = los post-ernergentes (cuadros Nos. 31 y 32).  (1) Dos preeemergentes fueron aplicados tres mas después del primer riego. El I?ropanil se aplicó 14 mas después de la genninación. El Ronstar 25 EC, en dosis de 3 a 4 litrosjha., J:1al1tiene buena efectividad en el control de malezas y su residualidad puede prolongarse hasta los 35 días.El Avirosan debe aplicarse entre 5 y 6 litrosjha.Respecto a las aplicaciones de Saturno fue posible detectar un buen control de malas hierbas en el período i.nmediato a la a....cpersión de las mismas, dando muestras sín embargo, en los días pos'\"...eriores, de una corta .residualidad en su acción. No obstante vale señalar que el efecto de este herlJicida pudo prolongarse mediante aplicaciones cornple¡nentarias de Propanil a razón de 8 l i trosjha.En cuanto al uso del Prowl, las pruebas experimentales realizadas dan idea de la poca efectividad del producto a pesar de que su acción se reforzó con aspersiones adicionales de 8 y 10 litrosjha. de Propanil.En resumen se puede concretar que en rrateria de herbicida pre-e:meJ:gentes las recomendaciones de mejor opción, para un eficiente centrol de malezas en arroz, se.'1alan el uso de los productos Ronstar y ~~~~te en dósis de 4 litrosjha. aplicados ya bien solos o coadyuvados con ura aplicación adicional de 8 a 10 litrosjha. de Propanil.Con respecto a estos herlJicidas pre-emergentes se ha obtenido, experimentalmente, bue.'1a efectividad en el control de rralezas a través de su aplicación directa sobre la lá.'1Iina de agua, es decir una vez preparado el terreno se procede a la íncorporación del agua y en el InOmel1to en que se produzca el llenado del paño de riego respectivo, se procede a cerrarlo para lograr la estabilización de la lámina.A partir de este =mento puede efectuarse la aplicación del herbicida correspondiente y al cabo de cuatro días se procede a la siembra del arroz.Posteriormente se inicia el desague del carrqx>.Estos productos actúan principalmente por contacto, no tienen efecto residual y su aplicación debe hacerse bajo buenas condiciones de humedad del suelo cuando las malezas se encuentran en estado de dos o tres hojas.En este sentido su aspersión debe realizarse entre los 14 y 18 días después de la germinación del arroz.Las aplicaciones tardías, en estado avanzado del desarrollo de las malezas, acusan controles deficientes y por lo general la recuperación de aquellas se realiza en forma mas o menos rápida.Al grupo de herbicidas post-eme:r:gentes corresponden, entre otros, el Propanil, el Pencol X-6, el Saturno plus, el Actril Y el Basagran M60.Se puede señalar la buena efectividad del Propanil, utilizado con dosis de Parathión de 300 ccjha., notándose en este último caso un control muy bueno sobre gramíneas, una acción severa sobre Cyperáceas y un moderado efecto fitotóxico sobre al arroz; no obstante, el cultivo se recupera rápidamente. El uso indíscrirninado de esta combinación y la desccnfianza que en los últimos años se ha generado en tomo a la efectividad del Propanil han determinado la des:inco:qx¡raoión de esta recarnendación.La mezcla qe Propanil con Machete dió muestras de un excelente control sobre diferentes especies de maleza y aunque acusó un rango de moderado a fuerte efecto fitotóxico sobre el arroz, éste se recuperó prontamente.La mezcla del Propanil con el Actril observó un COi:pOrtamiento negativo, pues a pesar de realizar un control muy bueno sobre diferentes especies de malezas, tambié,l1. afectó el desarrollo y roecollaJ1Úento del cultivo y ello detenn:inó, al f:inal, una confomación nn..'Y pobre de plantas.ES'\"..e resultado tal vez tiene su origen en la alta dósis (1.5 litrosjha.) de Actril utilizado.La aplicación del Saturno plus, en dosis de 8 litrosjha. roenifestó mucha eficiencia en el control de malezas y aunque pudo observarse algún efecto fitotoxico sobre el cultivo~ la recuperación de este se efectuó en , un corto periodo. La mezcla de este producto con Propanil también resulto eficiente, roentenie.'ido, igualmente, un efecto fitotoxico sobre el arroz y una rápida respuesta de recuperación por parte del cultivo.La aplicación del Ronstar plus en dosis de 3 y 4 litrosjha. resultaron muy :ineficientes en el control de malezas, observándose al final del ciclo una excesiva proliferación de éstas, lo que casi determ:inó la pérdida del cultivo. De la misrra =era la rrezcla de este producto con Propanil, utilizando las bajas dósis indicadas, resultó insuficiente para efecto de un inadecuado control de malezas.la aplicación de la mezcla de Avirosan mas Propanil acusó resultados excelentes en cuanto a la eficiencia de control de malas hierbas y aunque manifestó una acción fitotóxica sobre el cultivo, la recuperación de este se efectuó en muy poco tiempo después de la aplicación.En definitiva se pueje señalar que en cuanto a herbicidas post-emergentes en arroz las reco!lVllI'ldaciones de mayor opción se concentran en torno a la aplicación del Propanil, preferiblemente mezclado con una dosis de 3 a 4 litrosjha. de Machete.Igualmente es valejera la reco!lVllI'ldación del Saturno plus aplicado en forma independiente o mezclado con Propanil; utilizando en el pri.rr:er caso una dosis de B litrosjha. y en el segundo, 4 litrosjha. mezclado con 7 litrosjha. de Propanil.otra alternativa de control de mucha consideración corresponde a la mezcla de Avirosan y Propanil. Sin embargo sobre esta recomendación debe mantenerse mucha cautela por cuanto los excesos en la dosificación puejen crear problemas de fitotoxicidad irreversible.Investigaciones realizadas en el siste.'1la de Ríe::¡o Río Guárico en 1985, para medir la efectividad de diferentes herbicidas (cuadros Nos.   Es necesario destacar el hecho de que los agricultores desconccen las recomendaciones técnicas existentes para el control de plagas y por lo tanto el =iterio que siguen es eliminar cualquier cantidad que se presente en el cultivo sin medir la incidencia de la misma y de la época de aparición. El razonamiento que prevalece es el de mantener el carrp:l libre de insectos.lo anterior conduce a un número excesivo de controles, 3-4 y hasta 5 aspersiones aéreas por ciclo entre los productores errpreariales y entre 2 y 3 para los productores campesinos de Guárico. De igual fonna se destaca la e.'lonne variabilidad de productos, mezclas y dosis e.'Tpleadas a fL'1 de mantener los arrozales sin plagas (Cuadros 35,36,37 Y 38).Esta situación, aparte de su incidencia en los costos dL>-ectos de prcducción afecta negativamente la fauna benéfica existente, tanto de parásitos camó de depredadores de, la plaga del arroz. En calabozo, por ejenplo, hay problemas de desequilibrio ecolégico pués los agricultores para controlar la rata aplican Parathión en la lá.\"l1.i.na de agua, afec'-.. ardo de es+--.a fOJ:TI\\a a la fauna benéfica que parasita y depreda a la diatrea por lo que esta comienza a asumir importancia económica.Un factor que contribuye a explicar la situación expuesta es la ausencia de estudios especificos referentes a los nivElles críticos para el ll'anejo de plagas en arroz. Las recamenjaciones existentes son el resultado de las consultas a textos especializados que prese.'1tan resultados sobre la base de investigaciones en otros paises y/o experiencia personal de los investigadores .Por otra parte, prácticas culturales como una adecuada preparación de suelos, uso de mechurrios, un eficiente control de malezas en los campos, muros y canales de riego, así como un correcto ll'anejo de la lámina de agua, no son utilizados por los agricultores como mecanismos para el control de insectos-plagas, por lo que se recurre exclusivamente al uso del control químico.A la situación descrita debe agregarse la falta de especialistas en las principales zonas de producción del país. Así tenemos q'Je en las -------------------------------------------~----------------~--------------------------- , , ------------------------------------~---------------------------------------------------¡a¡ M.uEstra de produdür~s con prEparadon en fango.    {al Calcule en basE al numero dE productores que lo utilizan.Ft:EtHt:: FüN~IAP-GUAP.ICO. Encuesta a productores de arre=: óe} SistEÑiI di? Riego RiG 6uaricc.Estaciones Elq)erimentales del FONlIIAP en los Estados Portuguesa y Guári= solo se dispone, en cada una de ellas, de un ent=légo a tieropo parcial para trabajar en arroz.De lo señalado en parráfos anteriores destacan como problemas los siguientes:-Uso in::liscri.Jni.na.do de plaguicidas.-Alta incidencia de ácaros en Portuguesa durante el ciclo de verano, sin que se tengan estudios en la zona sobre el umbral económi= de daños.-Déficit de recursos huroanos capacitados para dar asistencia técnica que permita transmitir a los productores los resultados de la investigación.-Participación de las casas camerciales en la recomendación de productos, dosis, :mezclas y épocas de aplicación, agravado porque a veces las recomendaciones se hacen sin visitas previas al campo para la evaluación de la cantidad de plagas y sus daños y por el hecho de la inexistencia de un control oficial eficiente en cuanto respecta a la calidad y especificidad de los productos que se expenden en el mercado.En cuanto a las necesidades de ap::>yo tecnol6;¡ico se requieren:r:ete..'1llinar los niveles críticos para el manejo de plagas en arroz, según los ciclos de producción del cultivo, que permitan determinar el uso racional de plagicidas.-Evaluar y detend.nar los productos qu:ín1icos más adecuados para el control de cada especie.-Divulgar la infamación existe.'1te en el FONAIAP.-r:eterminar las prácticas para el manejo integral de insec\"\"...os-plagas (MIP) con el fin de controlar aquellos insectos que estan incidiendo en la productividad y rentabilidad del cultivo. Para ello es necesario crear una base científica para 'la toma de decisiones q..le permita el control de plagas racionalizando los costos de producción.-Preparar recursos humanos en entomología del arroz y a'1 asistencia técnica. Recomendaciones para su control:-Nivelar bien el suelo a fin de evitar sectores bajos en el =po que es donde se inicia el ataque.-Hacer un buen control de malezas dentro del cultivo y alrededor del mismo.-Eliminar la = a fin de evitar =iadero de la plaga.-Reducir en lo posible la siembra escalonada; en caso de que esto ocurra hay que evaluar en forma eficiente las plagas en los primeros lotes sembrados.-Aplicar insecticidas granulados en los lotes dome se haya generalizado el ataque, o en los focos de plagas cuando es localizado.b) Coco jui-juao del an:oz, (Dyscinetus sp): Es una plaga del an:cz que destruye la parte inferior del tallo provocando la caída de la planta, era considerada corno una plaga ocasional pero se ha presentado en el Estado Portuguesa los últimos tres af.os, producierrlo daños :importantes .Recomendaciones para su control: -Supervisar el campo desde el inicio de la germinación.-Buena preparación del suelo a fin de expJner la plaga a la i.nterrperie y a los enemigos naturales, tales corno la garza blanca rcasmerodius albus) y Corocora negra, (Meserrbrinibis cayennesis) 1 predatores de este insecto tanto en el momento de la preparación del suelo corno en el momento en que se inunda el campo.-En arroz de riego inundar los lotes afectados durante el núrrero de dias que el cultivo lo permita.-Poner mecheros en los focos de plagas; los mismos deben ser colocados en el borde por dome va avanzamo el insecto.-Aplicar i.rlseC\"c.Ícidas granulados en franjas en el borde del foco por don:1e va avanza.\"do la plaga. Estas aplicaciones deben hacerse por la tarde debido al hábito nocturno de este insecto.e) La novia del arroz (Rupela albinella): esta plaga ocasiona daños al arroz en su fase larval perforaOOo el tallo en los pri...\"'l\\eros ent..'Cl1Udos.Recomendaciones para su control:-Eliminar la soca, a fin de acabar con los hospederos de la plaga -Reducir el escalonamiento entre los lotes de siembra.-Colocar una t.ran;:la luminosa (mecheros) cada 2 Ó 4 ha.-No utilizar insectícías para controlar el adulto porque esto afectaría el control biolégico natural realizado por Telenomus sp, cual destruye el 80% de los huevos según investigacicnes realizadas en la Sección de Entomología Experimental Portuguesa.d) Sogata, (Sogatooes orvzicola): este insecto es vector del virus de la hoja blanca y además causa daños mecánicos al follaje; la planta se marchita y se seca cuan::lo ocurren altas poblaciones del insecto.Recornendaciones para su control:-la mejor forma de combatir esta plaga es el uso de variedades resistentes; actualmente se sie.'Tibra la variedad Araure 1, la cual es tolerante al daño mecánico ocasionado por este insecto.-Eliminar la soca y controlar la maleza a fin de reducir los hospederos de la plaga.-.Aplicar insecticidas sistémicos cuan::lo al hacer una evaluación en el campo se colectan 150 o más adultos, al hacer un pase doble de red.-la aplicación del insecticida se debe hacer cuando la población del insecto lo justifique a fin de proteger la fauna benéfica, ya que se Recomendaciones para su control:-Hacer buena preparación de suelo, a fin de exponer las pupas y las lru:vas a la intemperie y a la acción de los enemigos naturales.-Realizar un buen control de malezas a fin de eliminar las hospederas de la plaga.-Hacer contaje de insectos y aplicar insecticidas cuando la infestación sea de 8 ó rrás la..\"Vas por pase doble de red, a fin de proteger los ena'1\\Ígos naturales de la plaga.-El combate químico de la plaga se puede hacer en forma simultánea con el de rralezas ¡;¡azclando el herbicida con un piretroide. si la plaga se controla en forra separada se puede utilizar insecticidas fesforados o carbaIratos I cuatro (4) días después de aplicar el herbicida propanil.f) Chinche vaneadora (Oebalus ypsilon) y chinche marrón .cr:íJ2l;ES;~ limbativentris) la pri.'1lera especie ocasiona vaneamiento cuando el grano está en estado lechoso y manchado cuando está pastoso; la ot...va especie vanea la espiga al dañar con el pico la base de la misma.Recomendaciones para su control:-Combatir las malezas dentro del campo y en los muros muy especialmente la paja americana, Echinochloa colomun, ya que esta es hospedadera de la plaga.-Hacer contaje del insecto y aplicar insecticidas solall1ente cuando se encuentren más de cuatro ninfas o adultos; de esta manera se protege la fauna benéfica tales = Telenomus sp, el cual es parásito de huevos del chinche.-Para el control químico se recomienda Dimetoato, Parathión metílico, y Malathlón en dosis de 11t.jha. lt¡ha). las modalidades de control realizadas son, cacería, utilización de cebos envenenados y captura de las posturas.-Tlll:pial de agua (Agelaius icterocephalus): la presencia de esta especie ocurre entre los meses de Mayo a Agosto y causa daños por cuanto solo se alimenta de granos fo=dos en la panícula. Esto dificulta su control mediante la colocación de cebos. la cacería también se deficulta debido a su reducido taJraño.-Tomo (D:llichonyx oryzivorus): la presencia de esta especies es durante los meses de Noviembre a Marzo, presentándose en bandadas que ingieren los granos de la panícula.-Patos lAunas mtJ;»: la presencia de esta plaga ocurre en los meses de Marzo a Mayo y ocasiona daños sobre la superficie recíen serrhrada o cuando las plántulas astan elnergieroo.El control se realiza ahuyentándolos con el ruido de cohetes. Algunos productores utilizan cañones a gas coloCados en varias partes del terreno, los cuales producen explosiones intermitentes que los ahuyenta.otra fo= de control utilizada es con cebos envenenados mezclando\" insecticidas (Azodrin, Endrin, Parathión, etc) con granos de arroz.También son controlados mediante la cacería.-Pájaro arrocero ( §Piza americana): ha disminuido su presencia en los arrozales, sin embargo fue hasta hace pocos años causante de gravísÍ!nOS daños al cultivo.las condiciones ambientales, del nivel de susceptibilidad de los cultivares y del tipo de ma:1ejo que reciba la explotación arrocera.Las enfermedades más frecuentes (cuadro No. 39) gene.ralmente son de origen fungoso y entre estas se encup..ntran las Irás :in1¡;::ortantes, algunas con amplia distribución y otras de aparición localizada. De las enfermedades virales únicamente la hoja blanca existe en el país, mientras que las bac'-..eriales no han sido reportadas. TaIrbién algunas especies de nemátodos son asociados al cultivo.En la época de lluvia' = e n los !:layares daños debido a que se manifiestan condiciones ambientales favorables al desarrollo de los hongos.Se ha obse...\"Vado que el exceso de nitrógeno y la alta humedad relativa promueven la severidad de la mayoría de las enfermedades, especialmente la piricularia.En el área de calabozo; la mayor incidencia de hoja blanca =..rrre du..rante la época de \"verano\", debido a que en este periódo se presenta las más altas poblaciones de sogata. Poca imJjOY-t0n-c: i a.Ultima!nente SE ha ma-  Entre los problemas a destacar se señalan los siguientes:-Manejo inadecuado de algunas prácticas culturales gele facilitan la incidencia de enfermedades tales corno: sioobras tardías, inadecuado manejo de agua, no fraccionamiento del nitrégeno total requerido, .ineficiente cont...\"'\"Ol de malezas, no utilización de semillas certificadas, etc.-Déficit de recursos humanos capacitados tanto para la investigación fitopatológica en arroz corno para la asistencia técnica a los productores. la Estación Experimental del FONAIAP en calabczo no dispor.e. de fitopatólogo, por lo que su actividad, el. este caso, se ha orientado a la liberación de variedades que ofrezcan resistencia a las enfermedades más importantes corno piricularia, manchado del grano y hoja blancas.-Alta injerencia de las casas correrciales en las recorendaciones de biocidas, agravado por el hecho de la falta de evaluación y control oficial eficiente en cuanto respecta a la calidad y especificidad de los productos que se expen:len en el mercado.En relaCión a la necesidad de apoyo tecnológico se requiere:-Continuar los estudios relativos a la efectividad y calidad de los productos existe.\"ltes en el mercado.-Estudiar el efecto de las prácticas culturales en el desarrollo de las enfermedades.-Realizar estudios biológicos pertinentes a los fitopatógenos.-Preparar recursos humanos tanto para investigación fitopatológica en arroz =no para la asistencia técnica.La investigación se ha dirigido fundarnentalmente hacia aquellas enfennedades de significación económica para el cultivo.  mts. Y para el riego continuo (Re) 1.503 mts, obteniéndose una diferencia de 7.920 n?,/Ha, lo que representa un ahorro del 52.69% con la práctica del m. En el mismo cuadro se puede obse...\"VaI\" diferencias en relación a la lámina aplicada para efectuar la práctica de \"batidO\", siendo ésta mayor en el m; lo cual se debió a que dentro del objetivo del estudio no se contempla un control estricto de ésta lámina, solamente se midió para saber las cantidades de agua que se usan para la ejecución de dicha práctica.sin embargo a pesar de habérsele aplicado mayor cantidad de agua para el \"batido\" en el tratamiento con (m), se puede observar en el mismo cuacL\"D que existen diferencias marcadas en el total de agua aplicada.En el Gráfico No. 2 se puede apreciar que existe una tendencia a in...'\"'rernentar el consumo neto, expresado en IlIlo/dia, en la medida que la planta se desarrolle; así en los primeros estados de crecimiento se deterndnó que fue aproximadamente de 4 IlIlo/dia. Después de los 40 días aume.'1ta a 6.73 IlIlo/rua, luego a los 50 días a 7.18 IlIlo/día. En el período de máxima demanda por el cultivo sube a 7.30 IlIlo/día, estando este valor por debajo de lo reportado por el IRRI, 1963 de 8.64 rnrrv'día, en condiciones de suelo arcilloso.GRAFICO :--¡, 2.-Arruz \\' AR IH•22. En el Cuadra Na. 45 aparecen las rerrlimientos obtenidos en los des tratamientos, habiéndose pro::lucido un incremento de rerrlimiento de 797.Kg¡rla, aplicando riego intermitente.En la zona del sistema de Riego del Río Guárico, donde gra11 parte de las suelos sembrados con arroz son arcillosos y con Ira! drenaje interno, se reportan las siguientes conclusiones en relación con la aplicación del riego 12.'1 forre intermitente:  generales para la producción de semilla y los requisitos específicos para cada cultivo en cuanto\" a sus características de campo, requisitos de \" pro:::esa.'1Úento , almacenamiento y s~ de calidad exigidos al producto objeto de certificación.\" Todo est;/Pl:cgramado, \"C:.onti:olad~ y supervisado por personal oficial de las Estaciones~imentales de Amure y calabozo , \"en el caso del arroz. ","tokenCount":"8432"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9438db406570dd2634931f67e502957d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/804891e6-268a-4da6-a86e-6ab1700100b7/retrieve","id":"380602303"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5dccbd4d-16b2-40ec-b95d-a1c6e1a8b9f4","pagecount":"9","content":"important to global food security in the future. 1 The world needs livestock food systems to meet the nutritional, economic, and environmental needs of a billion poor people. To this end, we must find ways to increase milk, meat, and egg production without hurting the environment. At the same time, the most vulnerable groups of livestock producers-including nomadic herders like the Maasai in Kenya and the Fulani in Niger-need help in coping with the increasing droughts, temperatures, and extreme weather events likely to occur due to ivestock herders and small-scale farmers who mix crop production with raising livestock are facing big challenges. Over the next 25 years, the growing populations and cities in the developing world will demand more and more animal-source foods-milk, meat, and eggs. At the same time, water scarcity, changes in climate, and new technologies are likely to drive big changes in small-scale farming. These smallholder systems are feeding most of the world's poor today. And they will become increasingly climate change. A wide array of mechanismsfrom better feeding strategies to healthier animals to new ways of coping with climate change-can help. Our challenge and that of the world's small-scale livestock keepers is to make full use of these mechanisms and to continue bringing new options on stream, so that livestock enterprises increasingly reduce human and environmental poverty alike.Farm animals are an ancient, vital, renewable natural resource. Throughout the developing world, up to 1 billion people rely on farm animals for their livelihoods. Livestock sustain most forms of agricultural intensificationfrom the Sahelian rangelands of West Africa to the mixed smallholdings in the highlands of East Africa to highly intensified rice production in Asia. And livestock production today is becoming agriculture's most economically important subsector (see Table 14-1), with demand for animal foods in developing countries projected to double over the next 20 years. 2 In herding societies, which largely live off ruminant animals raised on lands too marginal to support crop production, milk is a food staple. In mixed crop-and-livestock production systems, which remain the backbone of agriculture in developing countries, the high nutrient density of milk, meat, and eggs means that even small quantities of these foods make an important contribution to the nutrition of households subsisting largely on starchy grains.Livestock are not just a source of meat, milk, or eggs in poor communities, however. For many rural people, livestock are above all an asset-like land, a house, or a bank account. Surplus income is used to buy animals, which are kept and sold to meet household expenses-with sales of smaller animals (chickens, goats, sheep) covering routine expenses and those of larger stock (cattle, water buffalo, camels) used for big investments or for coping with a medical or other crisis. Typically, what spurs even poor farmers to increase their livestock productivity is not an ambition to produce more food for themselves but rather better access to agricultural markets, where they can sell more of their livestock and livestock products.But things are changing-and changing fast in many regions. An ever-rising demand for livestock foods in the developing world as incomes rise and people move to cities is creating booming livestock markets. Technical and institutional changes in the non-livestock agriculture sector will reduce people's reliance on livestock for their subsistence. Stronger financial institutions will reduce the need to store capital in livestock. More mechanized tillage operations will leave more feed for livestock producing milk and meat. Greater access to inorganic fertilizers could reduce the need for farmyard manure. Improvements in rural infrastructure, such as better roads and mobile phone connections, will bring markets closer to producers. These changes will speed the intensification of livestock production in developing countries. Feeding strategies will increasingly focus on the production of milk and meat rather than the other functions of livestock, but this will depend on location. More regular and higher-quality feeds will be given to fewer, more productive animals. More animals on farms will be confined in stalls rather than allowed to graze freely on communal lands. Breeding strategies will combine the hardy traits of native livestock with the higher productivity of exotic animals. And morespecialized livestock producers will emerge to form commercial dairies and feedlots. These developments will take more time in some places than others. But as they unfold, livestock technologies, policies, and investments aim either to enhance a benefit of livestock development-such as food, nutritional, economic, or environmental security-or to min-imize a problem caused by livestock production-such as pollution of water sources with manure or emission of greenhouse gases. The increasing levels of livestock produced to meet the growing demand for products in developing regions need not increase the sector's environmental \"hoofprint\" at proportionately high levels. As production systems intensify, for example, and become more efficient, less feed will be needed to produce a given unit of livestock product. On the other hand, the future is likely to involve more livestock production in urban areas and higher concentrations of livestock in dairies and feedlots, which will bring with them pollution problems in terms of the disposal of animal excreta.It is also important to remember that any modifications to a livestock-based food sys- Production Developing countries produce 50 percent of the world's beef, 41 percent of the milk, 72 percent of the lamb, 59 percent of the pork, and 53 percent of the poultry. Mixed crop/livestock systems also produce close to 50 percent of the global cereal. Growth in the industrial pig and poultry sectors will account for 70 percent of production in South America and Asia. These systems will create the need for more grain as feed (which will account for more than 40 percent of global cereal use in 2050).Value of Milk has the highest value of production of all commodities globally. Apart from production rice (which is second), meat from cattle, pigs, and poultry is next in order of importance. In the least developed countries, the industry has around $1.4 trillion in livestock assets, excluding the value of infrastructure or land.Livestock contribute 18 percent of global GHG emissions (25-30 percent of the gases (GHGs) methane and the nitrous oxide and 30-35 percent of the carbon dioxide).Due to the area occupied, rangelands can be a global sink of a roughly similar sequestration size to forests. However, there is a real need to research how this large potential can be tapped through technologies and policies.Water Some 31 percent of global water use for agriculture goes to livestock, but with projected demand for livestock products, agricultural water use may need to double due to the increased need for feed production. Rangelands could be the source of significant regional increases in water productivity.Globally, manure contributes 14 percent of the nitrogen, 25 percent of the phosphorus, and 40 percent of the potassium of nutrient inputs to agricultural soils.Extensive cattle enterprises have been responsible for 65-80 percent of the deforestation of the Amazon. Some 400,000-600,000 hectares of forest a year are also cleared for growing crops, like soybeans, mostly to feed pigs and poultry in industrial systems and to provide a high protein source for concentrates of dairy cattle. However, this is changing due to enforcement and incentives by the Brazilian government for farmers and the retail sector.Source: See endnote 2.Table 14-1. Livestock, Livelihoods, and the Environment tem will affect outcomes beyond the environment. Improving feed, for instance, will not only lower greenhouse gas emissions but also, because it is usually more expensive, may increase the cost of livestock products.Feed is often cited as the primary constraint to improving livestock production in smallholder systems. This assumes that smallholders in developing countries, like larger farmers in industrial nations, keep livestock primarily for their meat and milk. But, as noted earlier, small-scale farmers may equally value livestock as a means of saving money, as traction for plowing or transporting goods, as a source of manure for fertilizing cropland, or as a source of milk for household consumption. Viewed in these terms, the widespread livestock herder practice of keeping many rather than a few animals and the smallholder practice of maintaining livestock on minimal feed that cannot produce a marketable surplus of meat and milk are entirely rational. The Maasai of East Africa, for example, follow this strategy-cows are seen as walking banks that are sold for sending children to school, for marriages, and in times of crisis. For centuries, pastoralist peoples have traveled with their animals-cattle, goats, even camels-along well-established migration routes in East Africa. But that is changing due to conflict, water shortages, shrinking regional and international borders, and expanding crop production. 3 The multiple functions of livestock in developing countries are usually supported by \"opportunistic\" feeding strategies, making use of whatever feed livestock keepers have at hand. These include the stalks, leaves, and other wastes of crops after their grain has been harvested; such crop residues play a key role in feeding farm animals throughout the developing world. Green fodder, not usually grown specifically for livestock feeding, is also used, along with thinnings from arable crops and material cut from roadsides. And grazing ruminant animals on communal lands is widely practiced. The little supplementary concentrate feed that is provided to smallholder stock is typically given to dairy cows and to other animals whose productivity depends on the better nutrition.In Gomma District, in western Ethiopia, however, women have increased the productivity of their small animals by setting up and running sheep fattening cycles. Larger numbers of healthier animals are fetching higher prices when they (or their related products) are sold in markets. Farmers are using the increased income to expand and increase the number of animals in the fattening program and to purchase agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizer, and farm tools. Household items, especially food, are also more accessible. And they can pay for their children's education. Households are making a profit of 2,250-4,500 birr ($167-333) annually from the sale of fattened animals. Women in particular are benefiting, as they are traditionally responsible for fattening up the small-animal stock. 4 In India, where feed shortages are common, farmers are trying to improve the quality of their feed to produce more milk with fewer animals-and indirectly reduce GHG emissions. A. K. Singh, a farmer in Andhra Pradesh, makes a living by keeping just three buffalo. He uses both the milk and the manure they produce. He takes good care of them, feeding them mostly on grass, sorghum stover, and brans. Each buffalo used to produce about 5 liters of milk a day until he started feeding them on stover from varieties of sorghum bred to produce both large amounts of grain (for human food) and more-nutritious stalks and other crop residues (for animal feed). Using this better feed doubled the amount of milk his buffalo produced. With his income from milk increased by 50 percent and with the sale of one animal, he was able to enroll another of his children in school. At the same time, the better feeding regime reduced by 30 percent the amount of methane (a potent greenhouse gas) his animals produced for each kilogram of milk. Stover (fodder) is the main source of feed for buffalo in India. Research centers and crop breeding companies have recognized the value of developing such crops for feed as well as food. 5 Better feeding strategies for livestock in developing countries will come about largely through the application of existing nutritional principles. With livestock diets currently dominated by crop residues and other low-quality feeds, more energy-rich diets will have to be found to support higher levels of milk and meat production. There is likely to be greater use of milling byproducts, oilcakes, and other agro-industrial byproducts combined more effectively with basal diets to enhance the animals' use of the feed. Crop residues will be chopped and made into feed blocks for easy transport and marketing. As demand for highvalue livestock products continues to increase, the practice of growing crops specifically for animal feed will become economically competitive in certain areas. Better methods of processing and conserving feeds will allow them to be transported over longer distances. And there will be greater movements of feed from rural to urban producers.Much of the knowledge about improved feeding practices already exists. The slow uptake of improved feeding practices has been mainly due to costs, including heavy labor requirements. Persistent attempts to promote feeding technologies in the smallholder livestock sector have failed to understand this.The presence of animal disease in tropical countries greatly hinders trade in animals and animal products. Despite recent attempts at liberalization, sanitary and phytosanitary regulations still allow importing countries to take a precautionary \"if in doubt, keep it out\" approach. This denies livestock-rich but poor countries an opportunity to trade their way out of poverty while doing nothing to prevent unpredictable shocks from hitting some of the world's poorest nations. 6 More than 70 percent of emerging diseases are zoonotic-that is, transmissible between people and livestock. In ecosystems that are relatively stable and whole, such as highly diversified smallholder agricultural systems, the coevolution of pathogens and their hosts (people and livestock) and vectors (ticks and tsetse flies) favors relatively low levels of pathogenicity and disease. But with increasing human incursions, agricultural and otherwise, into relatively virgin ecosystems, pathogens are encountering new hosts, with the result that new diseases are emerging, some of which, like HIV/AIDS, have the potential to harm public health in incalculable ways. 7 While intensive agriculture can produce cheap products, it also introduces new health risks for both animals and people. In particular, it selects pathogens hard to detect in animal populations (such as Campylobacter spp. in poultry or Escherichia coli in cattle) or that can survive conventional treatment (through the evolution of genetic resistance to antibiotics). The wide geographic scale and large volumes of modern consolidated food distribution systems mean that food-borne diseases can spread rapidly and affect large numbers of people greatly removed from the origin of the food.Among the most important and successful animal health innovations of all time is the development of curative drugs for animal illnesses (such as antimicrobials, parasiticides, and acaricides). Official veterinary policies at national and global levels stipulate that health treatments be given only under the oversight of a veterinarian, with the result that many veterinary drugs have reached remote users not because of policies but in spite of them. In most poor countries, which have tens of millions of livestock and livestock keepers and only a few hundred veterinarians, informal and quasi-formal drug distribution systems have blossomed. 8 This disconnect between veterinary policy and reality in poor countries makes it difficult for all those who are unofficially treating animals to get information on how to do this properly. The consequent improper treatments are a main reason that resistance to drugs is fast evolving in the organisms causing livestock diseases. Integrated disease control, which reduces reliance on therapeutic regimes by combining different methods of controlling disease, has succeeded where the scale and profitability of farming justify high managerial and technical inputs. The development of teams of community-based animal health workers is a promising innovation for many poor livestock-keeping communities. 9 Vaccines are the most cost-effective way of controlling most animal as well as human diseases. Among key innovations in vaccine development over the last few decades are DIVA vaccines; as the name indicates, these allow disease control officers to \"differentiate infected from vaccinated animals.\" This makes vaccination a much more attractive control option than culling animals, which is increasingly as unpopular in rich countries as it is unaffordable in poor ones. Development of thermostable vaccines was the key to the recent eradication of rinderpest and is helping to control Newcastle disease in village poultry. (See Box 14-1.) 10 At the same time, health communities are shifting from technology-based solutions, which address the proximate causes of disease (such as lack of vaccines), to more holistic approaches, which focus more on the interconnections among human, animal, and environmental health. The convergence of these disciplines in \"One Medicine-One Health\" or \"EcoHealth\" approaches is likely to have profound implications for veterinary as well as medical care in the twenty-first century.In some cases, traditional knowledge has improved disease surveillance. For example, Somali and Maasai herder early warning systems in East Africa were key in identifying the risk factors and symptoms of Rift Valley fever in an outbreak in 2006 and 2007. Rift Valley fever is an acute viral zoonosis spread by mosquitoes. It primarily affects domestic livestock such as cattle, camels, sheep, and goats, but it can also infect and kill people, especially those handling infected animals. In the 1970s, explosive outbreaks occurred among people throughout Africa, the Indian Ocean states, and the Arabian Peninsula. Epidemics in Egypt in 1977/78 and in Kenya in 1997/98 each killed several hundred people. Another outbreak in Kenya in 2006/07 killed more than 100 people. 11 Somali pastoralists of northeastern Kenya accurately assessed the likelihood of the 2006/07 outbreak based on their assessments of key risk factors, and they did so long before veterinary and public health interventions began. They are particularly able to predict not only the symptoms of Rift Valley fever in their animals but also the likelihood of an outbreak of the disease. Indeed, observations by local communities in risk-prone areas were often more timely and definitive than the global early warning systems in use during the 2006/07 outbreak. Maasai herders of northern Tanzania accurately recognized symptoms such as high abortion rates as indicating the presence of the infection in their herds. These examples point out the important role that livestock keepers can play in early warning and veterinary surveillance. 12 The impacts of livestock production on climate change have been discussed widely in the general as well as the scientific press. Yet each of the estimated 1 billion people who rely on small-scale livestock enterprises has a tiny environmental footprint compared with people in industrial countries. Set against the vital contributions that livestock make to the livelihoods of the poor, the greenhouse gases their animals produce are modest. 13 The changing climate is already affecting the livelihoods and well-being of livestock keepers in developing countries, who face increasing water and feed scarcity, losses of livestock genetic diversity, and changing disease threats. As climate changes, climate variability is likely to increase-with more-frequent droughts and Newcastle disease, which can wipe out entire flocks of chickens and can spread from farm to farm, is especially devastating for rural farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Vaccines for Newcastle used to be hard to come by in Africa. They were imported and usually expensive, putting them out of reach of small farmers. And even when they were available, they required refrigeration, which is not common in many rural villages.Today, however, thanks to the work of the International Rural Poultry Center of the Kyeema Foundation in Mozambique, villages have access not only to vaccines but also to locally trained community vaccinators (or para-vets) who can help spot and treat Newcastle and other poultry diseases before they spread. With help from a grant from the Australian government's overseas aid program, Kyeema developed a thermostable vaccine that does not need to be refrigerated and is easier for rural farmers to administer to their birds.Vaccinations take place three times a year and farmers are taught-with cleverly designed flip-charts and posters-how to apply the vaccines with eyedroppers. The community vaccinators try to link the control of Newcastle with efforts to address avian influenza because the symptoms of the two diseases-coughing, diarrhea, lethargy, runny eyes, mortality-are often similar. Community leaders help Kyeema identify people who are well respected in the community to be community vaccinators. Typically, women are chosen: not only do they tend to stay in the villages more than men, but the money they earn usually does much more to help the family because they use it to buy food or schoolbooks for their children. Because more birds are surviving thanks to the vaccinations, Kyeema is also working with farmers to build better housing for their poultry and to find additional sources of feed.-Danielle Nierenberg Source: See endnote 10. Box 14-1. Controlling Newcastle Disease in Poultry in Mozambique floods putting at greater risk the food, economic, and environmental security of livestock communities practicing both pastoral and mixed crop-livestock production. The complicated trade-offs between desires to conserve water and other natural resources, to reduce GHG emissions, and to help poor people enhance their livelihoods and food security are even more complex when the possibility of increased biofuel production is included.The two main options for dealing with agriculturally related climate change are finding ways to reduce or mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases from agricultural production and helping farmers adapt to the changing climatic conditions. Adaptation options range from the technological (such as the use of drought-tolerant crops) and the behavioral (changes in diets) to the managerial (different farm management practices) and the policy-related (such as developing markets and infrastructure to ensure supplies of more-appropriate inputs and fairer producer prices). Some farmers are using seasonal weather forecasts to help them plan their agricultural cycles. Others are buying livestock insurance that is \"weather-indexed.\" 14 Insurance is something of a holy grail for those working with African livestock, particularly for pastoralists who could use it both as a hedge against drought-a threat that will become more common in some regions as the climate changes-and to increase their earning potential. Fortunately, thousands of herders in Kenya's arid and drought-stricken north can now purchase insurance policies for their livestock, based on a new program that anticipates whether drought will put their camels, cows, goats, and sheep at risk of starvation. This \"index-based\" livestock insurance program uses satellite imagery of grass and other vegetation to determine potential losses of forage and to issue payouts to herders when drought is expected to occur. Insuring livestock of pastoral families had long had been considered impossible due to the formidable challenges of verifying deaths of animals that regularly are moved over vast tracts of land in search of food. This system works because getting compensation does not require verifying that an animal is actually dead. Payments kick in when the satellite images, available practically in real time, indicate that forage has become so scarce that animals are likely to perish. Droughts are frequent in the regionthere have been 28 in the last 100 years and 4 in the past decade alone-and the losses they inflict on herders can quickly push pastoralist families into poverty. 15 In some regions, opportunities are arising for farmers both to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change. Management practices that increase the photosynthetic input of carbon or slow the return of stored carbon to carbon dioxide via respiration, fire, or erosion help sequester carbon. More effective storage and management of manure can help reduce GHG emissions and increase the efficacy of the manure when applied to crops. Payments to livestock herders and others for the environmental services they provide, such as maintaining populations of wild animals and other forms of biodiversity or storing carbon, represent major opportunities to help poor households diversify their livelihoods and increase their income.The speed of global changes in human demographics, technology, resource use, public perceptions, and other factors mean that food production systems, including livestock, will inevitably change too. There are good examples around the world of creative ways to adapt to the pace of these changes in a sus-tainable manner. Whether strategies focus on diversification of income, sustainable intensification or expansion, or a mix of these, stories of success often combine a mixture of local entrepreneurship with public-and private-sector support for sound policy and investments in technology development, infrastructure, services, and market development.In some sectors, such as the smallholder dairy sector in Kenya and increasingly in other parts of East Africa, these factors have combined to create an enabling environment for increasing milk production in the region. Farmers now have access to better cows, feeds, and veterinary services, which together with national policy support have enabled incomes, food provision, and informal milk markets to flourish in the region.","tokenCount":"3994"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"433fde7d544d35c3a7ac0a61fbbbd932","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f8e63f8a-0728-4f97-90eb-eacbffa1cf3f/retrieve","id":"-427535120"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6ace878d-e661-46e9-960b-1a556d3536ef","pagecount":"2","content":"In Tanzania, the fertilizer Act No. 9 of 2009 establishes the Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority as a body mandated to enforce laws/policies/regulations governing the manufacturing, importation and use of and trade in fertilizers, or fertilizer supplements, e.g. growth stimulators and regulators and similar products.The Act also provides for fertilizer quality control and requires fertilizer dealers to ensure that fertilizer or fertilizer supplements are packed and labeled in the manner prescribed in the regulations. It prohibits the sale or distribution of adulterated or substandard fertilizer or fertilizer supplements. Under this act, fertilizer regulations were established.In 2012 the Tanzanian Fertilizer Regulatory Authority (TFRA) with the facilitation from COMPRO II project examined the existing policy and regulatory environment for bio fertilizers in Tanzania. Several gaps and challenges affecting the implementation of Fertilizer Regulations of 2012 were identified and action strategies were proposed.  Lenient penalties on bio-fertilizer dealers who violate the law  High field validation costs. Inadequately manned porous borders which allow infiltration of substandard and unregistered bio-fertilizer products into Tanzanian market.  Over-lapping mandates among agencies (TFRI, TAEC TBS) and chief chemist creates confusion and jeopardizes effective enforcement of bio-fertilizer laws. Lack of Bio-fertilizer Standards to prescribe handling, storage, minimum required quantities of active ingredients, directions for use and packaging. Lack of accredited microbiological laboratories for testing bio-fertilizer products in the Tanzanian market.Authors: Tarus D ( AATF) 1 , Ikerra S. (TFRA) 2 Masso C (IITA) 3 , Watiti J (CABI) 4 , F. Nang'ayo currently covers Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda in East Africa Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa). Objective 3 of the project aims to institutionalize and strengthen regulatory environments for Foundation.1. African Agricultural Technology Foundation, is the lead agency in charge of regulatory strengthening activities in the COMPROII project.2. Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority, Tanzania's lead institution mandated with regulating the fertilizer sector in Tanzania.4. CAB International, is the lead institution in communication and information sharing on the COMPROII project.Conduct public awareness campaigns on the implications of the new guidelines to ensure that all actors, are aware and are able to participate in ensuring that only quality and approved bio-fertilizer products are in the market.Develop a concise policy for Bio-fertilizer, bio-pesticides and agro-chemical inputs so as to be able to accommodate current development in the sector and promote good practices that will boost agricultural productivity.Amend the fertilizer Act ( 2009) so that TFRA has the power to enforce stringent penalties where applicable, to ensure that only quality bio-fertilizer products are in the market.Identify potential border points which act as entry points for bio-fertilizers so as to eliminate proliferation of unregistered poor quality bio-fertilizers.To achieve the above reforms:needs of TFRA, to allow for more inspectors to man the additional points and increase market surveillance.of laboratories to enable easier and faster inspection testing of samples of bio-fertilizers to ensure quality is maintained in the market.Development of bio fertilizer registration guidelines, and standard operating procedures bio-fertilizers.Ensuring provisions in the law to and distinguish roles among the four national regulatory agencies in the regula tion of bio fertilizers in the Tanzanian market.In 2014, TFRA, spearheaded a process of development and launch of national Stipulate the processes involved in registering, distributing, of a bio-fertilizer products.Spell out enforcement mechanisms including agencies.Establishes quality requirements of bio-fertilizer that are allowable in the Tanzanian market.","tokenCount":"548"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2c1e270931824c14993ca6071cc04b7f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/351e8d14-8c03-4eef-8511-41d15b05cd47/retrieve","id":"1319696691"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4fe0ea07-ade1-45ec-9087-eec21078d8dd","pagecount":"29","content":"From 1983 to 2020, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) was an international institution of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the European Union (EU). Its mission was to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. In its project portfolio (2016-2020) of 73 projects, CTA focused on digitalisation, youth entrepreneurship, and climate resilience as its priority intervention areas.CTA came to the end of its mandate as the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the ACP countries, the legal and financial framework within which CTA functioned, ended on 31 December 2020. As part of CTA's orderly closure, all major projects created project completion reports which are now being made available to the wider public to share lessons learned. These reports specify sections on results, financial information, lessons learned and references.CTA complies with the European data protection legislation, in particular Regulation 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data ('GDPR'). When personal data have been processed in the context of the project in which CTA and project partner are involved, CTA can request from project partner to a) permanently delete the personal data, or b) undertake the Data Controller role by signing the Data Controller Role Transfer letter issued by CTA as an Annex to Project Completion Report.This means that the processing of personal data that project partner eventually continues to perform after the project closure date are under sole responsibility of the project partner, as sole controller.The project partner as the new Data Controller shall have the responsibility to comply with the applicable legislation on the protection of personal data, which it is for project partner to verify, and the obligations such applicable law imposes on the Controller.CTA will no longer bear any responsibility for the processing operations, not towards the data subjects, nor towards the data protection authority.En Afrique de l'Ouest, les céréales font partie du régime de base des populations et constituent une importante source de revenu pour de nombreux petits producteurs. Le commerce des céréales représente une part significative du commerce intra régional et présente un potentiel important pour l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire et des moyens de subsistance. Toutefois, le développement de ce commerce est actuellement entravé par de nombreux obstacles : l'absence d'un réel système d'information sur les céréales qui réponde aux besoins spécifiques du secteur privé, l'absence de normes de qualité harmonisées au niveau régional et de systèmes de  Tenant compte des constats ci-dessus, les objectifs globaux du projet ont été définis comme suit :i. L'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire sous régionale par un meilleur fonctionnement des marchés céréaliers ;ii. La création de conditions de marché facilitant l'investissement dans la production, le stockage et la distribution de céréales.L'objectif spécifique du projet est « l'amélioration des stratégies de commercialisation et de stockage des céréales du secteur privé en Afrique de l'Ouest par une meilleure gestion des risques fondée sur l'intelligence économique prospective ». Cet objectif doit permettre d'aider à la décision plus de 10 000 opérateurs des chaines de valeurs céréalières. L'aide à la décision, basée sur l'intelligence économique, est assurée via la diffusion massive et ciblée de conseils en gestion du risque prix.Le projet s'articule autour de trois grands axes d'activités permettant d'atteindre les trois résultats principaux suivants :A. Résultat 1 :Les 50 membres des organisations du ROAC, les 500 organismes stockeurs suivis et les 10 000 producteurs informés par SMS bénéficieront d'information et de conseil commerciaux qui les aideront à optimiser leurs stratégies de production, de commercialisation et de stockage.Pour atteindre ce résultat, les activités suivantes qui sont reprises dans le cadre logique en annexe 1 étaient prévues : Les 50 organisations membres du ROAC verront leur représentation à l'échelle de la sousrégion s'accroitre et leurs intérêts mieux défendus par le ROAC. En participant au suivi de 500 organismes stockeurs, à la production et à la diffusion d'information, elles accroîtront également leur visibilité et amélioreront la qualité des services rendus à leurs membres ainsi que leurs stratégies de commercialisation ce qui leur permettra de jouer un plus grand rôle dans le secteur céréalier dans leurs zones d'implantation.Pour atteindre ce résultat, les activités suivantes sont prévues :• B.1. Identification des organismes stockeurs présents dans les pays d'intervention du ROAC. Cette activité implique la conception d'un questionnaire permettant de qualifier les Organismes Stockeurs (O.S) et leur localisation.• B.2. Création d'une base de données, incluant la géolocalisation ainsi que des formulaires de suivi de l'activité de stockage.• B.3. Inscription au service d'information et accompagnement (conseil de stratégie achats/ventes, appui technique réponses appels d'offres, facilitation des partenariats avec des institutions de microfinance et des organisations professionnelles agricoles).• B.4. Suivi et capitalisation des résultats.• B.5. Rencontre finale sur les expériences des Organismes Stockeurs.Le ROAC possède une expertise reconnue et améliore la visibilité de ses actions et initiatives et peut ainsi attirer l'adhésion de nouvelles organisations professionnelles du secteur céréalier et accroitre son influence sur les actions de coopération et les politiques de régulation et de sécurité alimentaire dans la sous-région en défendant le point de vue et les intérêts du secteur privé.Concrètement, les activités suivantes seront mises en oeuvre :• C.1. Préparation des modules de formation. Deux grands types de modules seront réalisés : une partie théorique sur la compréhension du « métier » d'analyste de marchés agricoles, une partie opérationnelle sur la mise en place d'un service d'information et de conseil. Les modules théoriques seront « M1 : Enjeux de la commercialisation », « M2 : Comprendre l'offre et la demande », « M3 : Comprendre les autres facteurs de prix ». Les modules pratiques décomposeront les principales tâches d'un analyste de marché : collecter, traiter, diffuser et conseiller. Chaque module sera conçu avec ses supports pédagogiques, ces exercices pratiques et des mises en situation sur le terrain.• C.2. Edition, traduction et impression des modules.• C.3. Formations des analystes.• C.4. Utilisation des formations par les analystes ROAC (retour vers activité A.3.)• C.5. Assistance technique en continue auprès du ROAC et appui aux décideurs pour la structuration d'un plaidoyer argumenté.Avant la fin de l'année 1 du projet, une enquête de perception a été menée auprès de 50 bénéficiaires, 50 Organismes Stockeurs qui reçoivent les informations diffusées par le projet.Il en ressortait les éléments suivants :• Comprenez-vous bien ces informations ? Vous servez-vous de ces informations pour prendre des décisions de stockage ou de vente ? 88% ont répondu « oui ». Cet indicateur montre que non seulement l'information envoyée est juste mais qu'en plus les personnes l'intègrent dans leur décision.• Vos stratégies ont-t-elles changé ? Suivez-vous les conseils que vous recevez ? Près de la moitié ont répondu « oui ». L'enquête ayant été menée seulement un an après le démarrage du service d'information, ce chiffre devrait augmenter à la fin de l'année 2.A la fin de la première année du projet, les résultats étaient difficilement exploitables car le marché du maïs n'avait que très peu varié cette année et les références manquaient pour faire une étude comparée à l'année précédente sur les impacts des informations. Cependant, le suivi de l'état des stocks des 64 OS a permis d'avoir une bonne indication sur la situation des stocks dans les pays et ainsi améliorer la connaissance du marché pour fournir des conseils de meilleure qualité. L'activité a permis également de diffuser des offres de céréales, cependant après diffusion les mises en relation se sont faites directement sans que le projet soit informé des transactions réalisées (cf. bulletins en ligne sur https://roac-wagn.blogspot.fr/).Au cours de la deuxième année de mise en oeuvre du projet (juillet 2017-juillet 2018), une deuxième vague d'analyses de perception a été réalisée et les résultats issus de cette enquête indiquaient que :1. Par rapport aux messages reçus : 100% des OS enquêtés ont confirmé recevoir aussi bien les SMS que le bulletin « les céréaliers » ; Retenons également que le bulletin mensuel « les céréaliers » est de grande utilité pour la majorité des OS rencontrés dans chacun des pays membres du ROAC. Aussi dans beaucoup de pays (5/8) le besoin de voir le bulletin mensuel « les céréaliers » en version imprimé a été vivement recommandé. pisteur n'ait ensuite proposé de prix plus avantageux. Cet écueil est en effet fréquent chez les producteurs qui n'ont pas l'éducation requise à la bonne interprétation des messages. Certains producteurs se fixent sur la fourchette haute des prix annoncée par les messages et exigent ce prix en occultant les frais liés à leur enclavement.o L'utilisation de l'information par les producteursIl existe deux types de producteurs dont les caractéristiques conditionnent la nature de l'utilisation de l'information :▪ Les producteurs qui ne disposent pas de marge financière et dont les décisions de ventes sont entièrement contraintes et rythmées par leurs besoins de liquidités. L'impact du service se limite alors, outre les effets d'apprentissage, à un gain en matière de pouvoir de négociation, puisque le fait de disposer de l'information de prix leur permet de ne pas se faire léser par les commerçants.  En année 3, les gains sont inférieurs à ceux des années 2 et 1 pour les raisons suivantes :• Cette dernière campagne a été marquée par une situation de surproduction, de prix bas et de très peu de variation de prix.• Les prix ayant été bas tout au long de l'année 3, les gains quantitatifs dans cette situation ne peuvent pas être très importants.• Il y a eu moins de volatilité sur les prix, ce qui rend le service moins impactant. En effet, un producteur n'ayant pas reçu d'information a obtenu des prix proches de celui qui en a reçu.• Les volumes de production moyens par producteur par pays ont été légèrement revus à la baisse, suite à de nouvelles données obtenues.Pour garantir un bon usage de l'information reçue et une bonne utilisation du service N'kalo, le projet prévoyait une série de formations dont les objectifs et résultats sont détaillés cidessous : La première présentation a porté sur la méthode d'analyse fondamentale qui consiste à :• Développer une connaissance approfondie de l'offre et de la demande pour le(s) produit(s) ciblé(s) ainsi que de tous les facteurs économiques, logistiques, sociaux, politiques et sécuritaires qui peuvent affecter l'évolution du marché ;• Suivre l'évolution du marché sur la base de l'évolution des prix mais surtout sur la base d'informations qualitatives sur les conditions de commercialisation ;• Utiliser une grille d'analyse appelée « Matrice d'Analyse de Marché » permettant de mettre en comparaison les éléments « baissiers », « haussiers » et « stabilisateurs » affectant le marché et d'estimer leur enchainement et leur impact dans le temps.• Établir un pronostic sur l'évolution du marché la plus probable à court et à moyen terme et estimer les risques encourus par les acteurs pour leur proposer une stratégie de commercialisation qui minimise les risques.La deuxième partie de la 3 ème journée a été consacrée à l'examen de propositions pour la mise en place du SIM sur les céréales au sein du ROAC. Les formations décrites précédemment ont directement contribué à atteindre les objectifs du projet. Ainsi, comme spécifié plus bas dans le cadre logique du projet (annexe 1), la majorité des indicateurs de résultats (outputs) ont été atteints voir même dépassés.• Le service qui a été lancé en août/septembre 2016 a su répondre aux attentes. La collecte d'information a été efficace, l'analyse a été de plus en plus performante, les bulletins et les SMS ont été régulièrement diffusés et les objectifs fixés ont été dépassés (27 645 contre 10 000 producteurs prévus).• Les échanges avec les professionnels du secteur ont été fructueux. Au cours de cette deuxième année, il y a eu encore beaucoup de conseils, de suivi de proximité. Elle a également permis de capitaliser sur les résultats antérieurs et d'améliorer le transfert de compétences avec plus de missions de terrain.• 64 Organismes stockeurs (OS) sont répertoriés, géo référencés de même pour leur capacité totale de stockage dans les 8 pays. Leurs approvisionnements et leurs ventes de maïs ont été suivis afin d'estimer les stocks à un moment 't'et de mesurer la prise en compte effective de nos conseils. (Cf. carte)• A l'issue de la deuxième année de mise en oeuvre du projet, on dénombrait 2652 abonnés au bulletin céréales contre un objectif de 2000. La figure 3 montre la répartition des abonnés aux bulletins du ROAC à la fin de la deuxième année de mise en oeuvre (juillet 2018).• Les analystes ont suivi plusieurs formations et ont été coachés à distance pour améliorer sans cesse leur réseau et la qualité de leur analyse. Ce coaching s'est poursuivi chaque mois à l'occasion de la collecte des données mensuelles.• L'élaboration mensuelle du bulletin d'information du ROAC a permis la parution de 36 numéros à l'issue de la mise en oeuvre du projet contre un objectif initial de 10 parutions.Un extrait d'un des bulletins est en annexe 5.2 du rapport.• L'assistance technique a continué et l'appui aux décideurs du ROAC a été réalisé.Le tableau ci-après résume les résultats principaux du projet : • Une méthodologie de travail plutôt qu'une structure ;• Une approche focalisée sur les besoins d'information des acteurs économiques ;• Une information et des conseils engagés et adaptés à chaque filière et à chaque type d'acteur. Le dispositif venant du secteur privé, ceci a conduit à un changement de perception de l'information reçue et une plus grande confiance de la part des abonnés (cf. les résultats des enquêtes). Le projet « Intelligence économique au service de la gestion du risque prix dans les marchés céréaliers ouest-africains » mis en oeuvre par le ROAC en étroite collaboration avec RONGEAD/NITIDAE a connu des succès notables au cours des 3 années de mise en oeuvre.On citera notamment les éléments suivants :• La mise en place effective d'un service d'information et d'analyse régional privé répondant aux besoins spécifiques des opérateurs des chaînes de valeurs céréalières des pays membres du ROAC ;• La disponibilité d'une expertise régionale en matière de production et de diffusion d'intelligence économique prospective ;• Une réflexion approfondie au sein des Comités Interprofessionnels Céréaliers et du ROAC sur l'amélioration des conditions de mise en marché des produits et les stratégies de gestion du risque prix ;• Un accroissement du chiffre d'affaires et des revenus des abonnés au service (même si cela reste à confirmer sur une période plus longue) ;• La pérennisation du service à travers une collaboration de long terme entre le ROAC, RONGEAD et la CEDEAO. ","tokenCount":"2416"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6a01f5bd933baf6ce0ff8f546ffabc61","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/423610d0-df39-448e-b35b-9b3a0256c784/retrieve","id":"-330802526"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f194dc6-6d52-4de7-b5df-f70f21420e61","pagecount":"2","content":"P750 -Activity 5.4.4: Livestock Market System Performance It corresponds to the product line on 'Menu of organizational and business models for improved livestock value chain performance' Description of the innovation: Development and policy options to minimise policy-induced price distortions in markets for small ruminants New Innovation: No Innovation type: Social Science Stage of innovation: Stage 1: discovery/proof of concept (PC -end of research phase) Geographic Scope: National Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Country(ies): • Ethiopia Description of Stage reached: Policy and development options have been identified to minimise policy-induced price distortions in small ruminants markets. The options were developed based on empirical findings of a study that covered the small ruminant value chains in the whole of Ethiopia","tokenCount":"120"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"14973bd3be42a2392b91134d500ea824","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/58979bc4-3bda-45f3-9c75-cacec9b9a74b/retrieve","id":"584784153"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7bca1752-e19c-4956-a2c9-ea9ff8032f66","pagecount":"9","content":"The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is a non-profit institution helping people in lowand middle-income countries to improve their lives, livelihoods and lands through the animals that remain the backbone of small-scale agriculture and enterprise across the developing world. ILRI belongs to CGIAR, a global research-for-development partnership working for a food-secure future. ILRI's funders, through the CGIAR Trust Fund, and its many partners make ILRI's work possible and its mission a reality.Every cloud has a silver lining -even a pandemic. For months, while the COVID-19 crisis locked CGIAR researchers into their homes, it also unlocked virtual innovation cross the whole network.Like green shoots in the sunshine, people across the CGIAR turned in their thousands towards virtual tools, applications and opportunities to connect, share, collaborate, communicate and innovate. This wide adoption of virtual work and interactions is a significant positive pandemic 'legacy' the CGIAR can benefit from.In October 2020, in and alongside the CGIAR Big Data Platform's virtual convention, ILRI staff facilitated several online conversations to identify how this shift to virtual is happening, some of the effects, and what it might mean for future CGIAR activities. We aimed to capture, discuss and assess, and share the diverse ways the CGIAR is growing and adapting to the virtual 'normal'.This note summarizes points from various interactions -which themselves illustrate the diverse virtual tools landscape: a conversation thread (on the Whova platform) as part of the Big Data convention, a Zoom virtual discussion with mainly communicators and facilitators, and a chat on the Microsoft Teams platform of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock.On a scale of 1 to 5, we asked participants in the zoom conversation to reflect on the digital preparedness of their organizations. Some organizations had clear champions for tools and different ways of working, others did not have such people.Tools were widely taken up, there was much experimentation (and stress) and probably not enough guidance on which worked best for each situation. Some organization themselves had tight control over IT systems so their staff sometimes struggled -using zoom for example, which was banned by many, but widely used globally. Agility was key suddenly.Staff generally moved quickly. When forced, people showed they can pivot very quickly, trying new tools and approaches and learning new skills. In some cases, it was a case of sink or swim.An 'epidemic' of virtual meetings has swept the CGIAR and beyond. Some excellent, some terrible and everything in between. These show that much interaction and engagement can be done virtually -not just meetings to share and disseminate, but also brainstorming, working together and teambuilding.Virtual meetings offer benefits over face to face in terms of inclusion, using more innovative tools, and reminding people of the need to focus on design and objectives. But, they also suffer from technical and connectivity challenges, some simply replicate the worst elements of face to face meetings, it is difficult to have the important social and inter-personal dimensions that people value in face to face discussions, people wonder if the quality of participation is actually better, while the number of meetings has expanded creating overload and significant challenges to work-life balances. Perhaps we are seeing just too many meetings that dilute their usefulness.\"At the end of the day, the major goals and objectives of the meeting were not met; the majority couldn't connect, contribute or share their opinions.\" More generally, \"virtual meetings lack the personal appeal, more so when the videos are off, so you will not know if people are actually participating\" -CGIAR national partner \"Many people miss the brainstorming, but through virtual spaces my experience is that large team discussions can be much more inclusive -colleagues who are often silent (or drowned out) in face-toface meetings can interact and contribute more through virtual means, especially when tools like MURAL are used live\" -CGIAR scientist \"People most missed corridor chat, and brainstorming. And people most appreciated regular team check-ins, virtual town halls and email updates to stay connected\" -CGIAR scientist \"We are better at preparing for and delivering virtual meetings, we've discovered new (and not new) tools to improve this experience including enhancing interaction and documenting the meetings beyond just hitting the recording button etc\" -CGIAR scientistThe extent that activities like brainstorming translate well to the virtual spaces attracts mixed views: \"Over a google doc, in a small group, with enough time, it's working. Problems occur when we try to use too fancy tools (like MURAL and we spend more time trying to make it work and change the colour of the arrow).\" Alternatively: \"brainstorming for a paper or proposal is a lot different than in technical modelling, and I do not see a lot of good virtual options for the latter at least in the passive way we are set up to do virtual events. If we invest in virtual whiteboards and the physical infrastructure needed (tablets, multiple screens for staff), it might be possible.\"Another variation is the hybrid meeting where some participants meet face to face and others virtually. \"I think a fully virtual meeting works better that a hybrid one, unless there is a good facilitator who pays equal attention to both sides (not easy). Besides, participants attending physically are inclined to pay more attention to those physically present, especially in big meetings, because they can communicate fully. The result is that virtual attendants feel left out.\"Whatever the format, the pandemic has raised expectations about the need for virtual events and participants in the zoom meeting argued that it is essential for these to be even better designed and planned. \"Bad offline meetings are terrible when they are transported to the virtual environment.\"To promote better meetings, some practical lessons from running good virtual meetings were documented by ILRI staff.Some areas of research, such as surveys of farmers or other actors in value chains, have also become virtual. While phones and tablets were already used to record data from face to face interactions, entire surveys have been conducted using phones. This has allowed data to continue to be collected, especially on impacts of the pandemic. While recognizing these positives, scientists are also concerned about the validity and reliability of such data, and such fully digital approaches require high levels of trust by the respondents. Thus, from a CGIAR scientist: \"a planned survey in Kenya didn't take place as the traders were not comfortable interacting on phones … trust is everything!\"From a CGIAR national partner: \"My organization is testing how phone interview could replace inperson surveys. I must confess, it has not been easy as majority of the farmers declined our invitation. However, many obliged us and gave meaningful information. I must also mention that the cost of conducting this phone interviews was far below our budget for the initial in-person survey.Another limitation is that we couldn't verify some of the technical information provided.\"Existing distance and e-learning approaches were boosted by the pandemic and, like meetings, training is being delivered virtually, often with new learning materials developed, sometimes blending digital delivery with face-to-face interaction with trainees who could gather locally. A CGIAR example illustrates how planned training went online with a YouTube channel established to complement field manuals and other training materials. One major trade-off in such virtual training is the lack of personal interaction and achieving the 'joint' learning achieved in a face-to-face setting.A CGIAR scientist: \"So I expect that we will increasingly see a hybrid form, with face-to-face training and online support, where some participants are able to gather in the same room and join the remote training together.\"Elsewhere, this virtual training is extending into something closer to project supervision: \"Something that was quite new is doing a whole complex soil data collection exercise (fresh soils for microbiology) in Rwanda completely virtually with just the field assistants on location. A PhD student was supposed to be on location for many weeks to do this, and now we did virtual training plus very close field follow up and video calls in the field. It worked better than I had hoped!\"One of the challenges encountered, just as for physical meetings, is that many participants need to have time and permission to attend the various events. So, while virtual often seems very informal, \"one lesson is that virtual workshops actually need the same level of formal invitations etc.; we had underestimated this and saw that some participants struggled consequently to be released for the time required for the training.\"Some surveys and feedback indicate that virtual home working is generally productive in that staff are able to work, collaborate, manage and meet, and they can interact with partners and clients who themselves are in the same situations. A significant caveat is that such virtual home working poses work-life balance challenges, and people are concerned that social capital and relationships built over time with colleagues and partners are weakening.The challenges are captured by one CGIAR scientist: \"It is very hard to remain engaged online for more than 2 hours. National partner meeting participation is still an issue as many cannot connect. Time boundaries are less respected than before as we have virtual meetings across time zones and the sense that if you are not there you lose out. It is very hard for parents.\"Further: \"For day-to-day work, one of my colleagues commented that it is harder to have a work-life balance now as there is an expectation for workmates to be always connected as they work from home.\" And: \"I think there are significant gender issues around this work from home stuff for women.\"From partners in a university: \"When the education had to move online there was kind of a 'let's do this' spirit and everybody made a real effort. The summer did not provide enough time for recovery and now in autumn colleagues are really stretched and everybody is feeling the strain. … So, we are literally 'hanging in there' and have noted that the increase of digital meetings has led to zero time to switch between meetings.\"As so many interactions become virtual, scientists are concerned they are \"surviving in many instances on social capital with colleagues built up over years of face-to-face interactions … The power of bonding over local beer should not be underestimated. And the lack of exposure to field realities will eventually become a problem. Endless zooms are taxing; although I don't miss the exhaustion of travel, I now realise that meeting colleagues on the road is very important for energy and creativity.\"Another scientist: \"We are currently banking on the social capital we built in the past. I don't think it necessarily just maintains itself, the same with local partners -you need to sometimes sit together and chat, go to the field or travel together to build and maintain the relationships that have been one key component of the added value of the CGIAR.\"On a scale of 1 to 5, we asked participants in the zoom conversation to rank the usefulness of different virtual tools and platforms.MS Teams is widely used, but many other tools have been added to overcome perceived gaps, especially Zoom for meetings and when access restrictions make inter-organization sharing in Microsoft platforms difficult (MS Teams and Sharepoint).Some instances of Yammer, Slack and Trello to support team working, OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox for document sharing, Google slides to document meeting discussions.More generally, what worked initially may not work in the longer term, we need to manage the edge between \"cool new tool\" and \"tool overwhelm\", and cope with the incredible number of these tools and bringing them all into use by different people and teams at once.As everyone becomes a virtual meeting organizer, Zoomer, Muraler, slacker, miro-er, slido-er, mentimeterer, there is a bazaar of tools now as everyone tries new things out and every member of staff now has their favourites and wants to use them. Which calls for our organizations to strategically define standard platforms for collaboration. Some use Teams, others Zoom, etc. What is the optimum/desirable tool for each situation?CGIAR centres and the pandemic -a zoom conversationReflecting on these and other experiences, a group of mainly communicators and facilitators zoomed in on CGIAR experiences with virtual engagement and interaction, identifying insights and directions for the future.We have seen a widespread growth in digital and e-literacy among individuals and teams, with previously semi-used tools and platforms widely taken up and everyone learning and perfecting virtual skills and tools and trying out new ways of collaborating and meeting. We have also seen a growing 'process' literacy as people recognize that virtual events and working needs additional effort -whether to designing virtual agenda's, setting up regular interaction and support for virtual homeworkers, or integrating different forms of online interaction over time.Key points for a more effective more virtual CGIAR include: Develop best practices for digital engagement; be more purposeful on what we want to achieve; make it easy for people to interact digitally; map different tools and approaches to different purposes and be sure we know what works where and when; share the experiments; support communities of practice to really learn; use a 'big data' approach to track and systemise lessons; work together with common documents and platforms; blend real-time with asynchronous interaction so meetings are better and are better connected together; and, find ways to deal with virtual meetings overload and find virtual ways to build back some of the informal networking and socializing that is so necessary to facilitate our work.• We became more productive: More virtual events, blog posts, Podcasts, Op-eds, editorials, PR articles • A ran a virtual learning week for 80 scientists with MS Teams chat and meetings.• An online West Africa sweet potato community of practice.• Building capacity as we do the work -working in design teams, NOT working alone.• Getting the IT folks to provide training to all staff on using MS Teams.• I did some nice Fishbowls internally and Open Spaces (with Teams) to help people accelerate their online practice and share experiences. • Moving from a face-to-face event to a static platform with keynotes, presentations etc.• Custom use of various tools for events and workshops (Whova and Zoom, Interactio, MURAL).• More junior scientists and partners could attend high profile virtual events.• Senior management realizing that teams can work remotely effectively, despite previous reticence. • The great interaction between Americas centres (CIP, Alliance, CIMMYT, IFPRI) in the 2 Degree Climate resilience consultation sessions. • Liberating Structures as a process to unleash and engage folks and move to truly get everyone in on the online work. • Our weekly online roundups and townhalls for all staff; Successful Internal seminars and communications.• GLF 2020 virtual session with close to 900 attendees. I attribute success to: (1) topical subject (2) very engaged presenters and panelists, and (3) expertise developed by colleagues in running these types of digital events.","tokenCount":"2458"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ec36a387409c6ed3205012135644e793","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7bf1e5eb-779d-421a-9b50-bd4d62c48647/retrieve","id":"1541092349"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1cff98a5-37d0-4a44-aad0-81985f3735e7","pagecount":"25","content":"and genetíc resource management are severely threatened by globalízation, especially Article 27.3 (b) ofthe WTO TRIPs Agreement. ActionAid Nepal believes Ihat the food security of poor farmers and farmers' rights in seeds and plan! genetic resources should be protected from such threats, To minimize the negative impact of íntemational policies Ihat are unfavorable lo poor farmers, ActionAíd Nepal has implemented a food-rights campaign. Micro-macro Iínkages are extremely important in influencing tbe policies for which the food-rights campaign is working, JPP and lana Sewa Samaj are examples of strengtheníng and mobilizing local organizalions to work on community-based PGRE and PPB.Improvement Project (TIP), involving university .nd ministry research staff, students, extension slaff, and farmers. Bolh initi.tives have becn motivated by an interest in gre.ter participation of students .nd farmers in Ibe breeding process aud evaluation of introduced taro cultivars. This paper revíews and_ evaluates experieneos in Samoa with participatory approaches to plant breeding using a breedors' club and a fanners' group (TIP), highlighting the benefits ofboth.Samoa is a small independent Pacific Island country with two main islands (Upolu and Savaii) and five other small islands (figure 1).11 has a population of about 160,000 largely involved in agriculture. Most agricultura! househoJds grow a variety of crops, including taro, bananas, breadfruit, cocoa, and coconuts. Prior to 1993, taro (Colocasia esculenta) was the most important export of the country, with 96% of agricultural holdings cultivating the crop. 1t is estimated that the area under taro at that time was 14,600 ha, ofwruch 76% was grown as a monocrop. A single cultivar, taro Niue, dominated the cropping area because of domestic and export demando The appearance oftaro leafblight (TLB), caused by Phytophthora colocasíae, in 1993 demonstrated how vulnerable the íntensive production of taro had become, and production virtually ceased ovemighí. Since then the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forests and Meteorology (MAFFM) has explored various approaches to overcoming the problem, incJuding plant breedíng. More recently, research staff at the University of the South Pacific (USP) have also become involved in breeding taro for resistance to the disease. There are clear signs that farmers in Samoa are slowly returning to taro again.Taro, an edible aroid that originated in the Indo-Malayan regíon, is grown as a staple or subsistence crop throughout the humid tropics but is of greatest importance in the Pacific Islands, where it accounts for about 20% ofthe root crop area. The corms are baked, roasted, or boiled and the leaves are eaten as palusami. Taro spread eastwards into the Pacific, probably reaching the Polynesian islands 2,000 years ago. There is now evidence to suggest that most cuJtivars found throughout the Pacific were no! brought by the frrst settlers from the Indo-MaJayan regíon but were domesticated from wild sources existing in the Melanesian regíon (Lebot 1992). There are now thought ro be . .Samo,a.\", Americ.an -., Samoa Fiii '1\" ｔ ｾ ｮ ｧ ｡ ＠ Cook.T!.>. <t: approximately 2,000 taro cultivars in the Pacific regíon (Hunter, Pouono, and Semisi 1998). Prior to !he arrival ofTLB, fanners in !he Pacific selected taro cultivars for a number of traits but not resistance to the disease. In the absence of this selection pressure, taro cultivars have reduced levels of resistance. At the turn of the century when the TLB pathogen began to spread into the regíon, it encountered a host plant that was genetically vulnerable.Taro is the most important plant in Samoa, having special cultural, dietary, and economic imporlance. It is considered an essential component of an everyday mea!. It is a plant witb high prestige and great importance as a presentation on formal occasions, It is also favored for its considerable productivity in !he fertile and high•rainfall environment of Samoa (Ward and Ashcroft 1998). In 1983. the returns from taro were three times higher than that from bananas and eight times higher !han from coconuts (Asían Development Bank 1985).TLB was first observed on the island ofUpolu at Aleipata and two days later from Saanapu and adjacent districts in July 1993. The disease spread rapidly throughout the country, severely affecting alllocal cultivars, but it was most devastating on taro Niue, tbe cultivar of choice for cornmercial production because of its quality and taste. Various factors contributed to the rapid spread of!he disease in Samoa. The area planted to taro Niue at the time was extremely large and effectiveJy ensured a monocrop situation. Ihere was a continuous and abundant source oftaro for the disease because of the practice of fanners to interplant on old plantations and stagger their cultivatíon.Combined with the widespread movement of infected planting material and ideal weather conditions, the dísease quícldy reached epidemíc proportíons.In 1992, prior to the blight, the World Bank estirnated taro exports from Samoa at US$10 mi Ilion, with a similar value on the domestic market. Ihis placed taro as the dominant export and domestic market commodity. By 1995, the export value of taro had fallen to US$60,750, or less than 1% of pre-blight figures. Initial efforts by MAFFM to contain the disease, including fungicide spraying, quarantine efforts, and a public-awareness program, failed dramatically. The disease spread rapidly, and by 1996 only 200 farrners were growing taro in Samoa.In 1995, MAFFM, in conjunction with the Australian government-funded Westem Samoa Farrnlng Systems Project, initiated a program to evaluate exotic cultivars. Nine exotic cultivars were evaluated against taro Niue in preliminary trials in 1995 and 1996. The cultivars Pwetepwet, Pastora and Ioantal (originating from the Federated Sta!es ofMicronesia) and PSB-G2 (now known locally as taro FíIi and originally obtained from the Philippine Seed Board) were assessed in on-station trials for resistance to TLB. These trials indicated lhat all four cultivars were more resistant than Niue, the locally preferred cultivar. MAF.FM further evaluated these four cultivars in on-farro trials during 1996 and 1997. Farrners involved rated Fili as the best lasting and both FiIí and Pwetepwet as the most resistant to leafblight MAFFM began recornmending and distributing Fili to growers in late 1996.The identification oftaro Fili has allowed many farmers to retum to taro production, and over the last few years, the area under taro has slowly increased. However, the release ofthis single cultivar has no! been enough to mee! the needs of aH growers, and a few shortcomings have been reported. including the following:• relative susceptibility to the disease, especialIy in wetter areas of the country• poor storabilíty, which is a problem with growers starting to export to markets in American Samoa and the United StatesIn addition, MAFFM imported a range of exotic taro cultivars from Palau in 1995. Field trials at the University ofHawaii bad shown that sorne ofthese cultivars bad good levels ofresistance to TLB.To date, no Palau cultivars have been released or recornmended by MAFFM.Efforts to breed taro with resistance to TLB in Samoa cornmenced in 1996. Crosses were made among introduced TLB-resistant cultivars and susceptible local cultivars. This cycIe-l population has been evaluated and 10 promísing clones have been selected. These clones are being further evaluated in multilocational trials in Samoa.The apparent need for a more particípatory approaeh to plant breedíng in Samoa arose as a eonsequence of informal diseussions with farmers, who ofien expressed dissatisfactíon with the pace of release of resistant taro germplasm through the conventional taro-breeding programo Researchers al USP were also coneemed wilh the rate at which resistant taro was released through conventional taro breeding and the rigorous testing over several years !rying to identify a few clones or cultivars that might be of limited relevance lO farmers. There is evidence from elsewhere that mueh of the germplasm officially released through conventional plant-breeding programs is of Iimited relevanee to furmers, and much of the material that is rejected has been found lO have subsequent acceptance among farmers (Maurya, Bottrall, and Farrington 1988). The conventional taro-breeding program was also doing tittle to inerease the diversity of taro in the country.A participatory approach lo planl breeding, involvíng researchers, farmers, and extension staff, was considered as a means to -• Icaro more about what farmers want from improved taro cultivars and to involve them in lhe technology development process• involve many farmers under diverse environments, providing them with a range of options so that they can selee! lhe best for their conditions, which would ensure !hat farmers gained quicker access to resistant taro• increase the diversity of taro. cultivars grown by funners in Samoa. Thís was an important perception in minimizing a repeat ofthe disease outbreak. The danger ofrelying heavily on one or a few genotypes is only too apparent from events in Samoa in 1993• strengthen the linkages between researchers, extension staff, and farmers• make more effective use oflimited time and resources of researchers and extension staffThe Taro Improvement Project (TIP), a large farmers' group, was initiated at USP in 1999. TIP aims to bring together taro growers and provide lhem with more options for improving production and managing taro leafblight.lt represents a partnership between USP research staff, MAFFM extension staff, and farmers. Currently, the project is working with 25 farmers on the island ofUpolu to evaluate introduced taro cultivars from Palau, Micronesia, and the Philippines. Initiation of lhe TIP farmers' group was motivated by factors outlined aboye and the noticeable success of other similar funners' groups implemenred elsewhere 10 address problems aimed at farming systems improvement (Norman el al. 1988).Farmers become members ofTIP by eilher contacting staff at USP or notifying their district extension officer. When a farmer has been selected as a taro grower, he or she agrees to compare taro cultivars in a grower-participatory research programo Farmers have been selected from most districts on Upulo.Cultivar selection. TIP supplies each participating farmer with planting material of severa! taro cultivars for a simple nonreplicated trial. Information is provided on triallayout, labeling, and simple data collection. The trials are maintained and rnanaged by farmers. Famlers can record their own observations on lhe growth of taro cultivars using the simple data sheets provided. TIP research staff regularly visit participating farmers, help keep records on cultivar performance, and record yield data. To facilitate feedback and sharing ofinfonnation on lhe evaluation of cultivars, the members ofTIP hold regular monthly meetings at varíous 10calÍons. These meetings help growers lo leam about other growers' experiences. Participants are also asked to bring conns of cultivars ready to harvest for taste-test evaluations. Growers also provide infom1atíon on cultivars tha! have been prepared for home consumption.Fanners have been evaluating cultivars from the Philippínes, Federated States ofMícronesía, and Palau. Recently, the TIP farmers who have been evaluating these cultivars, were asked to rank them on a scale from I to 4 for characteristics of vigorous growth, yield, TLB resistance, sucker productíon, and eating quality. These preliminary results are shown in table l. 2.9Niue now 8 1.92.0 1.1 1.91.9Niue before TLB 10 3.93.9 3.1 4.0 Alafua Sunrise 2 2.72.5 1.7 1.0Note: 1 = Unaoceptable; 2 = Okay, bu! no! good; 3 = Good; 4 Outstanding.TIP meetings pro vide an exeeIlent forum for conducting participatory rural appraisals (PRAs) to elicit infonnation regarding problems facing taro growers, the important entena of an ideal taro cultivar, and farmers' perceptions ofthe cultivars lhat they are evaluating. TIP meetings also allow researeh staff to address those issues tIlat farmers would like more infonnation about, such as disease management and the processes involved in breeding. TIP meetings also help to facilitate the organization of taro diversity fairs and farmers' field days in Sarnoa.Clone selection. So far, farmers have been mostly involved with evaluation and selection of introduced cultivars. As the prograrn develops, it is intended that farmers wiU become more involved in the breeding prograrn and partícipate in the selection of clones. This process is already underway.In September 1999, a eycle-2 population oftaro seedlings was transferred from USP to a farmer's field in the village ofSafa' atoa. A farmers' field day organized at this location helped to explain theBeyond Taro Le\",afLB\",I\",ig\",h::-t ________ _ objectives ofthe breeding program currently underway in Samoa ami how clones are selected from a seedling populatíon. Farmers had the opportuníty to observe firsthand the preliminary selections made by USP researchers. These preliminary selections totaled almost 200 clones. Duplicates (suckers) ofthese selectíons have been given to three farmers for evaluation on their own farms. The farmers as a group have also helped in narrowing the preliminary clones from 200 to the final 25 selections by participating in taste and quality tests during TlP monthly meetings. These 25 clones (table 2) are being multiplied for on-farm evaluation by TIP farmers later this year. University Taro-Breeders' C1uhA university taro-breeding club was initíated al USP in 1999, The fírst university breeding club in the world was started in 1995 in Mexico, We believe that the club at USP is the fírst to be inaugurated outside ofLatin America. The club represents an innovative approach to teachíng and learning at USP. It is a cheap and easy approach to breedíng. It ensures that there are many hands to do breeding work and has resulted in increased taro breeding activity. Robinson (1996Robinson ( , 1997) ) has proposed university breedíng clubs as a \"hands-on\" approach for students to lcarn about breeding for horizontal resistance and a way of\"scalíng-up\" fanner participation in plant breedíng (see box 1), Robinson (1997) envisaged student-members ofbreeding clubs retuming to theír famíly fanns wilh potential new cultívars for evaluatíon. After a few decades, there could be hundreds, or even ¡housands, of former club members testing new lines as they emerge from clubs. Addítional breeding clubs would inerease lhe oulput even more, providing the widest e;x:tent and the híghest possible quality ollarmer participation in plant breeding.Box e Hundreds al plan! breeding clubs worldwlde could significantly improve craps by a huge increase in breeding activity. o Clubs would re-establish link. belween researchers and larmers. High levels 01 farmer participation in plan! breeding would resull when farmers' children jOln unlversity breeding clubs.The overall aim of Ihe USP taro breeding club is to produce high-yielding, good-quality taro cultivars lhat have high levels of horizontal resistance to TLB and other locally important taro pesís, and that are adapted to a range of diverse environments, At the same time, lhe club allows students to leam abou! lhe breeding process in a practical way. The club is seen as an integral componen! ofTIP, using selected furmers for evaluation of clones and multiplieation ofpotential new cultivars. The club has a formal structure wilh elected officers, including a president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary. A club constitution was drawn up and it is run along lhe lines of a student organization. Most members are students but sorne are professionals, such as lecturers, crop researchers, technicians, and university adrninistrators, while a small percentage are fanmers.The club meets regularly at lhe University's Alafua Campus. This campus is lhe location for the club's breeding blocks and it is on-campus that most crossing takes place and where taro seedlings are raised. Screening and evaluation of seedling populations take place a! locations with suitable disease pressure. To date, duplicate breeding blocks have been initiated on-campus. Qne block is for lhe use of researchers and lhe other for the use of students. The student breeding block is made available solely for lhe use of students, and lhey are encouraged to maintain lheir own subplot, make crosses within lhis, harvest seed, and raise seedlings for fíeld evaluatíon. The committee decides on a program of topícs and field visíts to facilitate leamíng about plant breeding with assistance from university technical staff, The club is self-fínaneed largely throllgh Ihe payrnent of membcr fces and fund-raisíllg evcllts.Although TIP ís a young organization, it is already showing Ihat farmcrs can evaJuate many different taro cultivars and selee! those they prefer. The membership ofthe program has expanded rapidly in its fírst yeaL The program has improved dialogue between researchers, extension staff, and farmers. Evaluation of cultívars is stíll underway and a considerable amount of quantitative and qualitative data have been compiled, This will be analyzed shortly, There are early indíeations that growers are selecting a range of cultivars. Taro Fifí has been included as Ihe preferred resistant cultivar lo date. It is interestíng to note thal sorne growers are showing preferences for cultivars (Toantal, Pwetepwet, Pastora) that were evaluated by MAFFM at the same time as taro Fili but which were not recommended or wídely promoted. Both Pwetepwet and Pastora were previously believed to be of poor quality, although they both have good levels of resistance to TLB and they are both high yielding. One farmer has observed that the quality improves ifharvest ís delayed for a few months. The same farmer has also reported that he likes Pastora despite its tendency to be susu (meaningwet, a quality not liked by Samoans). He removes the top (wet) halfand uses the bottom part ofthis high-yielding cultivar.There has been considerable confusjon in Samoa about Palau cultivars. This has arisen as a result of unauthorized imports ofbatches of rnixed cultivars from nearby American Samoa. There are 12 dífferent cultivars from Palau in Samoa. Sorne are good quality and sorne are considered wet. TIP has been working to address this confusion, and gradually those cultivars of good quality are being identífied. Early indícations are that growers prefer Palau 20 and 10. Reports from American Samoa show that both Palau 20 and lOare most preferred by growers there. Many of the growers have experimented with the harvest date of the Palau cultivars and report that this can sígnificantly influence the corm quaJity. These findings are important. Sorne Palau cultivars are found to be wet ífharvested early (five to six months), but this can be overcome, in some cases, by delaying harvest untíl seven to eight months. Research station evaluations oftaro usually occur after six months.As a result of the impact of TIP on Upulo, MAFFM have initiated a similar TIP program on the other main island of Savai' i. In May 2000, nine extension officers from Savaii spent time on Upulo visiting farmers involved with TIP and took part in the May monthly meeting to observe how the club operated. This should ensure lhat farmers on that island get quicker access to a range of resistant taros.There are sorne aspects of the USP taro•breeders' club that make it different from other clubs like the one at the Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo in Mexico. The University of fue South Pacific ís a regional university, whereas the Universidad is a national universíty. USP draws a student body from over 12 individual counlrÍes dispersed in the Pacific Ocean. This poses one problem for a university breeders' club but it abo has an advantage. Robinson (1997) highlights the positive interaction that may arise between a breeding club and farmer participation schemes. In fue Universidad situation, students come from sUITounding villages. Students can return lO fuese villages with the progeny offue crosses fuey have made and carry out participatory selection with farmers on family farms. Certain selections may become potential cultivars but can also be fed back into the breeding club system to become future parents. Unfortunately, fue majority of student members of the taro-breeding club come from countries other than Samoa and quarantine and unresolved owner-ship íssues preclude taro germplasm leaving Samoa for evaluation on many family farms, The soluhon to this problem is to pool al! crosses together and evaluate seedlings as one population through the TIP programo The advantage of having members from many differen! countries is the high potentíal for similar breeding clubs lo be initíated elsewhere when students retum to their home countTÍes at the completion of studies, The club also plans a regular newsletter to maintaín contact with members who have finíshed their studíes,The breeders' club has been successful as an innovative \"hands-on\" approach to teaching and learning, but club activities place considerable demands on student time. A three-year degree means that students have a packed timetable tha! allows little time for \"extracurricular\" activitíes.One possible solutíon to this problem is a cross-credit system to the conventional degree-Ievel breedíng courses thal are taught at USP. Thís would allow students lo obtaín cross-credits for the breeding activities that they carry out as par! ofthe breeders' club. Likewise, lecturers would also accrue teaching credits fOf their involvement in the breeders' club.After rice, maize is the most important cereal crop in the rainy season for the largely tribal farmers of the Chhotanagpur plateau region of eastem India. However, maíze ís in decline and yields vary greatly from year to year. The Birsa Agricultural University (BAU), Ranchi has released severa! varieties, but tribal farmers have not adopted them because of theír late maturity, which results in the common end-of-season droughts severely limiting yields. Therefore, a participatory maíze breeding program was initiated ín a collaborative project between Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, and the KlBHCO Indo-British Rainfed Farming Project (KRlBP) managed by KRlBHCO (K.rishak Bharati Co-operative).The major objective was to breed and test early-maturing and high-yielding open-pol!inated varieties and intervarietal hybrids of maize in participation with farmers. An analysís of farmers' constraints showed that farm holdings are very smal! in the area and that shallow, infertile soils on sloping lands give poor yields. The crop is large1y rainfed, and iITÍgation to mitigate the effects of drought is rarely available.Participatory rural appraísals were used lo solidt farmers' preferences in maize varieties. Farmers wanted the following:• early maturity • long cobs with high placement on the stem• prolificacy (two to tmee ears per plant)• resistance to lodging, disease, and insect pests• nonhybrid varieties because ofthe cost and difficulties ofpurchasing hybrid seed every yearTo develop new varieties of malze, two strategies were adopted:• breeding open-pollinated composite varictiesTo breed new open-pollinated composite varieties a base population was initiated in the main season of 1997 by making nine crosses between three yellow-endospermed flint varieties (BM 1, Suwan, and Chandan 3) and three white-endospermed flint varieties (GDRM 187 from Gujarat AgriculturaJ University and KRlBP west, Gujarat [see Goyal, Joshi, and Witcombe, this volume]; Shweta, from Uttar Pradesh; and Rudarpur local, from Uttar Pradesh). The parental varieties were either farmer-preferred varieties or had complementary traits. The three yellow varieties are medium-to late-rnaturing and have a higher yield potential when water 1S not limiting than the three earlier-maturing white varieties. By 1999, the population had been randomly rnated for five cycles by using a pseudo-random hill planting plan. In each cycle, 50% ofthe plants were detasseled, and paJe yellow grains were harvested from lhe detasseled plants (Goyal, Joshi, and Witcombe, this volurne). At lhe C 3 and C 4 cyc1es, two open-pollinated (C3/98-99 and C4/99) varieties were extracted frorn the base population.The yellow-grained variety C3/98-99 was formed from deep yellow seed harvested from about 200 early-maturing, detasseled plants of lhe C 3 cycle of lhe base population in the post-rainy season of 1998-99. In the rainy season of 1999, lhe random-mating population was grown frorn these seeds.In the post-rainy season of I 999--{)0, farmers were invited lo visit the research station at Ranchi lo select desirable plants. Farmers graded them inlo three categories and the third preferences were rejected. In the rainy season of2000, lhe seIection will be repeated and the population will be tested in research station triaIs.Similar procedures were followed for variety C4/99.A white-endospermed population was also developed by bulking white grains frorn three sources: frorn selected p1ants ofthe C 4 cycle ofthe base population, frorn the C3/98-99 population grown in the rainy season of 1999, and from plants selected for rnaking the C4/99 population. The first random rnating will be carried out in the rainy season of2000, and farmers will be involved in selection before and after flowering.Intervarietal hybrids offer a faster approach to creating new varieties for farmers than generating new cornposites, but they require more complex seed rnultiplication than open-pollinated varieties. However, the seed of intervarietal hybrids is cheaper and sornewhat easier to produce than that of The new open-pollínated varieties developed have not yet been tested for yield on farmers' fields. However, intervarietal hybrids were tested in farmer-managed participatory-research (F AMP AR) trials in !he rainy season of 1998 as well as in research-station trials in tbe pre-rainy season of 1998-99 and the rainy season of 1999.Ofthe three hybrids tested, BM 1 x Suwan yielded tbe mos! in trials conducted in !he pre-rainy season of 1998-99 (rabIe 1). The advantage of!he intervarietal-hybrid approach is clear: the hybrid yields more !han either parent and is earlier tban tbe later, highest-yielding parent (Suwan).F AMP AR trials in tbe rainy season of 1998 showed tbe following: • Farmers preferred BMI x Suwan and Chandan x Suwan because oftbeir yellow flint grains, higher yield, medium maturity, and higher fodder yield .• Hybrid Megha x Suwan was rejected because of a high proportion ofpoorly developed and diseased plants.Bíhar, a typical eastem Indian state, has 5,4 million ha planted to rice, with yields of, on average, onIy 1.2 t ha-1 of grain. More than half ofthe rice area is rainfed, inc1uding the drought-prone, upland ecosystem. In tbis ecosystem, most farmers grow traditional varieties and productivity is very low. Most farmers prefer to grow traditional varieties. Many of the varieties bred and released by the formal system, both nationalIy and at the state level, have no! been adopted by farmers because they lack traits important to farmers (Virk and Bhasker Raj 1996). However, variety Kalinga I1I, which was promoted by the project in its target area covering mne districts ofBihar, West Bengal, and Orissa, has severa! advantages-excellent grain quality and extreme earliness, which allows it to escape end-of-season droughts. However, because it has weak straw, a major objective of the participatory plant-breeding (PPB) program was to breed varieties to replace Kalinga I1I that díd not have this wealrness.The breeding strategy was to cross a popular, locally adapted cultivar (in this case, Kalínga ill) with exotic, high-yielding cultivars from a centralized breeding program (Witcombe et al. 1996). Varieties IR64 and IR36 were chosen as the high-yielding cultivars since both are grown in large areas in eastem India. A strategy of a few crosses with large populations was used (Witcombe and Virk, in press).At the request ofthe Centre for Arid Zone Studies (CAZS), crosses were made at the Intemational Rice Research Institute (IRRI), in the Philippines. Because only a few crosses were used, more resources could be devoted to each cross, so large population sizes and many progeny rows were employed in lhe breeding programo A large F 2 population was raised al Ranchi in lhe main season of 1997 and the F3 was grown in the off-season at the Central Rice Research Instítute (CRRI), Cuttack, in 1997-98. In the main season of 1998, the crop was grown at lhe collaboratíve research farm of Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) and the KRIBHCO Indo-British Raínfed Farmíng Projeet (KRIBP), Ranehi. Each year since then, two crops have been grown. We describe lhe breeding strategy for the Kalinga 1II x IR64 cross. Two participatory methods were used; they varied according to the main type of particípation employed, Le., consultative or collaboratíve (Joshi and Witcombe 1998).In the consultatíve approach, breeders grew all of the tríals on a research farm wíth moderate applícatíon ofpurch<lSed ínputs. Farmers from villages where lhe KRIBP project was operatíng were brought to the farm to make selectíons. Farmers visited the BAU-KR!BP research station farm on two occasions. There were two groups of farmers: one of 23 men and one of 12 women. F armers observed 177 bulk-pedigree lines at lhe F 4 generation in 10 m 2 plots and 400 single-row plots of2.5 m in length. Farmers selected plots for one offour ecosystems (uplands, medium uplands, medium lowlands, and lowlands) using labels offour colors. Farmers selected 68 plots; and breeders, 23. Of these, 20 were selected by bolh farmers and breeders.The two most preferred entries-Ashoka 228 and Ashoka 238-were multiplied in the off-season 1998-99 at CRRI, Cuttack, and were submitted to formal trials at the F 6 generation in 1999 along with anolher variety derived from the same cross, Ashoka 200F (see below).In lhe collaborative-breeding program, farmers grew segregating generations in theír own fields.Although we believe lhat lhe F 2 generation is usually too early a generation for farmers lo make selectíonefficiently, given lhe availability of seed and as an experiment, two farmers were given F 2 seed in 1997. Neilher farmer, one in West Bengal and one in Orissa, continued with the population. The F3 generation was grown ¡;¡t BAU in lhe main season and further advanced in the off•season of 1997-1998. Ten kilograms ofthe F 4 bulk seed so obtained was given to four farmers in lhe main season of 1998. One farmer in Mehru village, Rajendra Singh, grew 2 kg of F 4 bulk seed and selected earlier-maturing plants of similar phenotype that had slender grains. This gave rise to Ashoka 200F. In Thabrah village, West Bengal, Sakya Singh Mahto, grew 2 kg of the F 4 bulk in 1998 and ils further generatíon ín 1999. He selecled for tan and dwarf types under medium land situatíons. Wíthin lhe tall and dwarf bulks, he produced early and late bulks. These bulks wíll be tested in lhe main season of 2000 on lhe research statíon. The olher two farmers did no! pursue lhe populatíons further.The three Ashoka entries were tested in the All India Co-ordinated Rice Improvement Trials, IVT E (DS), al BAU, Ranchi, in lhe maín season of 1999 (figure 1). They were also tested in another trial al the BAU-KRIBP farm, Ranchi, under direct-seeded conditions. In bolh trials, al! Ashoka entries yielded considerably more lhan Kalinga III (an average ¡nerease of over 50%). Two of them were as early to flower as Kalinga III. Fanner-selected Ashoka 200F was the best entry in the Al! India Co-ordinated trial at Ranchi and the second best for yield in the BAU-KRIBP tria!.A paral!el program was followed for the Kalinga III x IR36 cross. The F 4 bulks of this cross haye been named Sudha and are being eyaluated in fonnal and fanner-field trials in the main season of 2000.  In addition to the two crosses ofKalinga III x IR64 and Kalinga III x IR36, other crosses haye been made for participatory plant breeding (PPB). Modified bulk-population breeding is being used in the cross Kalinga III x Vandana, and the F 6 bulk populations will be grown in the main season of 2000.Eyen though, so far, the products of only a single cross, Kalinga III x IR64, have been tested in fonnal trials, progress has been considerable. A yield increáse of 50% oyer the yariety targeted for replacement, Kalinga !II, in only four years is an annual rate of gain far in excess of mos! conventional breeding programs. Moreover, the gain wíU reaeh farmers more quiekly. The gains have been made without any loss in the quality of grain shape and, in two ofthree cases, without any inerease in length of maturity. It is not possible to apportion these gaíns into the novel components of the breeding program, and it is over simplistic to say that the díffercnce is due to participatory methods.Ihis is only one component, since the hreeding program also employed a strategy of low eross nmnber, high population size, with selection in the target environment, or one very similar to it (Witcomhe, Joshi, and Subedi, this volume).Ihe true sueeess, or otherwise, of the breeding program awaits the results of collaborative participation (the testing ofnew varieties in farmers' fields in the main season of2000), when traits other than yield and maturity will be evaluated. However, even iflhese entries prove to be unacceptable, the high population sizes used mean that there are rnany more entries frorn lhe sarne eross that ean be tested. Ihese entries, like Ashoka 200F, yield more than Kalinga III and have retained the des irable slender grains and early maturity ofKalinga III.Participatory Crop Improvement in Maize in Gujarat, IndiaThe Gramin Vikas Trust (formerly the KRIBHCO Indo-British Rainfed Farming Project [KRIBP]) manages a participatory-development project in rainfed areas ofwestern India.1t is financed by the UK. Department for International Development (DFID) and the Government of India. Initial surveys at lhe project planning stage showed that, in cornrnon with many marginal environments in India, lhe adoption of improved cultivars by the resource-poor farmers of lhe project area was extremely low. At lhe inception ofthe project, a program ofparticipatory varietal selection (PVS) was planned. The methods ofPVS employed (Joshi and Witcombe 1996) were designed to identify and overcome the constraints lhat caused farmers to continue to grow landraces. In lhe first three years of lhe project, PVS programs were conducted with several crops, including rice, maize, chickpea, black gram, and pigeonpea. Ti].e PVS program in maize identified varieties lhat were liked by farmers, but none ofthem were suitable for the most cornrnon agricultural environments oflhe project area. Given lhe shortcomings ofthe PVS program, a participatory plant-breeding (PPB) program was initiated early in the project. This paper describes sorne of this programoIn the past, efforts to breed white-endosperm maize have been largely, or even entirely, dependent on lhe progeny of crosses between white-endosperm parents. However, since most maize-breeding programs have concentrated on yellow maize, lhe diversity and yielding ability of yellow maize parents is higher. It is, therefore, desirable that yellow-grained parents be used when breeding white-grained maize. Crossing white and yellow endosperm maize in lhe breeding ofwhite maize is reasonably straightforward because grain color is a highJy heritable trait, affected by xenia (i.e., the pollen genotype is apparent in the seed in the maize cob), which makes the traíl even easier lO select. Not only is access Ihcn gained lo superior yellow maize as parents, bu! crosses between relatively unrelated yellow and white maize varieties create a very broad-based population.Parents were chosen on the basis of adaptatíon to the project area in PVS trials (table 1), Ihe results of which are surnmarized in Joshi and Witcombe (1998). In all cases, Ihe varieties were within the maturity range of Ihe maize grown by furmers in the project area. Selection was done in an appropriate envrronment: low-fertility fields under management typical of local farmers. The traits selected for were those identified by farmers. In sorne of the later generations, furmers were invited to carry out mass selection in Ihe populations. Early in the breeding program, farmers were given Ihe composite to evaluate in Iheir fields, and as soon as varietíes were produced' from the composite, they were included in PVS trials.Several white-endosperm and yellow-endosperm varieties were produced from the composite by selection for grain color afier randorn mating was completed. Three white-endosperm varieties, GDRM 185, GDRM 186,andGDRM 187, were tested in formal trialsandon farmers' fields in participatory trials.GDRM 187 was bred as an extra-early variety ofrnaize. Extra-early varieties, such as Chandan Safed 2, can play an important role in the farming system, particularly for growing in rows Ihat alternate with olher crops. Chandan Safed 2 had been appreciated by farmers in Ihe participatory trials, particularly for intercropping with pigeonpea, as Ihe maize could be harvested before it had a significant competitive effect upon the pigeonpea crop. Moreover, early varieties can escape end-of-season drought and produce a harvest al Ihe time when grain is se arce, thereby fetching a high price. It was assumed Ihat Chandan Safed 2 could be improved because it was a direct introduction from South America. GDRM 187 was bred from al) six parents (table 1), but in Ihe third generation of random mating, selection was made for plants that had Chandan Safed 2 as a maternal grandparent, and these lines were backcrossed to Chandan Safed 2.The white-grained maize varieties were tested by Gujarat Agricultural University (GAU) in the system of state trials that is used to identify varieties for release. The mean performance of these entries was superior for grain yield by 7%-29% (depending on the variety) in a multi-year, multilocational trial to lhat ofGujarat Makka I (GM 1), a variety that out-yields the most widely grown locallandrace by 10% for grain. They also silked two to six days earlier than GM l.In lhe rainy season (kharif) 1997, GDRM 185 and GDRM 187 were tested in farmer-managed participatory-research (F AMP AR) trials in Itawa and Bihar (Madhya Pradesh); Smjumi, Bar, and Katarani Palli (Gujarat); and Khundini Rupa, Mathura Khali, and Kunda (Rajasthan). Focus-group discussions showed that both varieties were much preferred by farmers over the local varieties.Both were perceived to be earlier than the local varieties (GDRM 187 particularly so) and to be higher yielding. GDRM 187 was reported lO have much better grain quality than the most widely grown local variety, and GDRM 185 was reported to have somewhat better grain. Both varieties were reported to have fewer plants lhat failed to produce cobs, more plants with two cobs, larger cobs, and, unlike the local varieties, cobs that were filled to the tipo In kharif1998 GDRM 187 was tested in three villages in Gujarat and one in Rajasthan (figure 1). Yield increases in farmers' fields were higher in percentage terms lhan those found in higher yielding research station trials. Overall, GDRM 187 was the variety most liked by farmers. Like GDRM 185 and GDRM 186, it yielded more than the local varieties, but it had the added advantage ofbeing significantly earlier to mature. In addition, farmers cornmented that its cobs were tightl y and completely enclosed by the husk, reducing insect attacks, and they al so cornmented on lhe superior quality of its grain. •,i cJ ''0. The PVS in maize was nol very successful. Perhaps Ihis is nol surprising since mosl oflhe varieties that were tesled were not bred in Ihe target environment. Gujaral Makka 1, the only cultivar tha! was bred in the area, was selected from the locallandrace \"Farm Sameri.\" Although this selection was successful in producing a statislically higher-yielding variety in tríals, the difference was insufficient. On farmers' fields ¡Is 10% yield advantage was not noticed by farmers.Even a PVS program that does not identífY highly successful varieties is of use. In Ihis case, it enabled target traits to be idenlified-for example, the preference for whíte grsín and extreme earliness. Mosl important, it a1Iowed the ídentification of parental genotypes.Was this a participatory plant-breeding program? Biggs (1989) classified participation inlo four types, two of which are collaborative and consultative participation. Collaborative participation by farmers mass seleeting in the populalions in their own fields was attempted, bul failed. It was difficult for farmers to preven! cross-pollination of the composite with locally grown material by, for example, planting the erop in an isolated plor. Farmers were reluctant lo mass seleet by uprooting undesirable plants because ofthe IOS5 ofyield this would entaiL The allemative of delasseling undesirable plants and rejecting them al harvest lime would be possible but difficult However, the breeding program did involve consultative participation-farmers were involved in the identification ofparental material and target traits, and in the evaluations of the breeding generations on the research farm. Of majar importance was the . decentralization ofthe breeding programo Although selection was not in farmers' fields,.it was in the largel geogrsphícal area. The composite was grown under lower input levels Ihan normaIly found in a research station and cIoser to the levels used by farmers.The breeding program also had innovative aspects Ihat were not related directly lo farmer participation. Wide crosses were made between yellow-and white-endosperm maize with reselection for white. Quite elaborate designs during Ihe random mating of the composile were employed: hill planting and detasseling was done to increase the pollination between progeny of the original nine crosses and reduce sibbing within them. In the random-mating generations, grains with pale yellow were selecled to advance Ihe riext generalion. Thís color is the mos! probable phenotype ofheterozygotes and selecting for it maximized the possibility of recombination around the locus controlling grain color.It is not possible to know which component was most important in the success oflhe program--<:ollaborative selection of parents by PVS, consultative PPB, decentralization lO the target environment, or innovative breeding techníque5. However, part ofthe breeding philosophy in PPB, argued by Witcombe et aL (1996), is the need lo concentrate on ouly a few crosses or populations, which allowed the required resources for the novel leehníques used in Ihe breeding programoWas PPB cost effective? Conventional breeding had never produced a cultivar thal was preferred by even a significant minority oflhe farmers in the projecl area, In about five years, PPB had produced al least one cultivar, GDRM 187, that was liked by most farmers for most oftheir fields. It yielded significantly more grain (about 15%-30% more) even though it was significantly earlier to flower (about one week earlier). Ihis combination ofhigher yield and earlier flowering is extremely valuable for farmers","tokenCount":"6735"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cb5d396526c53db67b66a8c6d58a60d6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/794eef4c-1796-4420-a1b1-75d2cfbf6a16/retrieve","id":"-955097251"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c40a765f-9974-46fd-95ab-758d2416bd3b","pagecount":"23","content":"to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agroecologies and socio-economic settings.Through action research and development partnerships, the Initiative will improve smallholder farmers' resilience to weather-induced shocks, provide a more stable income and significant benefits in welfare, and enhance social justice and inclusion for 13 million people by 2030.Activities will be implemented in six focus countries globally representing diverse mixed farming systems as follows: Ghana (cereal-root crop mixed), Ethiopia (highland mixed), Malawi: (maize mixed), Bangladesh (rice mixed), Nepal (highland mixed), and Lao People's Democratic Republic (upland intensive mixed/ highland extensive mixed).Mixed farming is defined as agricultural production systems with the integration of crops, agroforestry, fisheries, and livestock in a system approach. Crops and livestock are critical components of the mixed farming system. The sustainable intensification of the mixed farming systems entails the integration of different components of the mixed farming systems with efficient and sustainable use of resources, such as the use of domesticated animal manure (organic farming) for crop production, feeding crop residues to livestock, growing crops with fruit trees, integrating fish with rice (rice-fish farming), and so on. It provides a high return on agricultural labor because every product is utilized.In this report, we try to know the temporal changes in crop area, production, yield, and livestock in the MFS-selected study districts in Bangladesh.The WP1 of the SI-MFS study is focused on five districts covering the northern and southern regions of Bangladesh (Figure 1). The study areas are Rangpur, Dinajpur, and Nilpharmari districts in the northern region and Khulna and Patuakhali districts in the southern region of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, rice is cultivated in the following three seasons:      Based on our trend research, it has been observed that there has been a rise in Boro rice production in the study districts of Dinajpur, Khulna, Nilamphari, and Rangpur. However, in the Patuakhali area, we have only observed the existence of Aus rice in recent years. Based on the study conducted, it can be inferred that there has been a substantial shift in the rice cultivation pattern, particularly with a notable rise in the cultivation of Boro rice over the past decade. If we can uncover the underlying components behind this phenomenon, it will greatly assist us in understanding the recent development of MFS.      ","tokenCount":"385"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9a46cc3ed2ed440811a414cd0d85baed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5d604366-0e9c-4ba9-871c-416883612af6/retrieve","id":"1843654349"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8092712b-eda9-4f77-bb27-da204572a7cf","pagecount":"8","content":"Changes in frequency and intensity of climate and weather events are a key challenge to agricultural production among farmers in Zambia. Climate variability reduces farm productivity, which in turn contributes to household food insecurity, income variability, and reduced overall economic growth. Using improved technologies such as mechanization, improved seed varieties, irrigation, and fertilizer can improve climate resilience and farm production among smallholder farmers. However, in Zambia, as in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, most famers lack sufficient access to credit to purchase these technologies. Limited access to credit is mainly attributed to lack of collateral, fear of losing collateral in case of a default, and low financial literacy among smallholder famers (Balana et al. 2022). Information asymmetry also makes it risky and expensive for lenders to serve smallholder farmers, thus they ration the quantity of credit offered and/or raise the interest rates making credit too expensive and inaccessible for millions of smallholder farmers.Bundling agricultural credit with insurance, commonly referred to as risk-contingent credit (RCC), provides a mechanism for addressing some of the credit access constraints faced by smallholder farmers in developing countries. RCC is a loan product that is bundled with an insurance component. RCC seeks to enhance long-term resilience to climate uncertainties by promoting optimal farm investment and productivity among smallholders through sustainable access to credit markets. Under RCC, qualifyingsmallholder farmers borrow funds for agricultural production from formal financial institutions such as banks and microfinance institutions with minimum collateral requirements. The borrower's ability to repay the loan is linked to climate outcomes, which are highly correlated with farm productivity. An insurance company underwrites the climate risks (either in the form of drought or flood), such that if that underlying risk passes a certain threshold, the insurance is triggered and part or all of the borrower's liability is transferred to the insurer. If the underlying risk remains below the threshold, the borrower repays the loan at the agreed upon interest rates and is also obligated to pay the insurance premium, as part of the loan repayment. Linking farmers' loan repayment obligations to an underlying risk, as opposed to stringent collateral requirements, is expected to reduce the borrowing constraints faced by many poor farmers. At the same time, de-risking the lender by transferring a portion of risks to the insurance market is expected to promote credit supply, hence expanding the rural credit market (Shee et al. 2019).To evaluate the feasibility of implementing RCC in Zambia, researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with the University of Greenwich conducted a scoping mission in October 2023. This mission aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the smallholder farmers' productions practices, production risks, credit needs, and constraints to credit uptake. It also sought to understand the types of credit and insurance products already available for smallholder farmers; the private financial sector's challenges in serving smallholder farmers; and any existing government policies guiding smallholder access to agricultural production credit. This project note presents the findings from the scoping mission. We present a brief overview of the RCC product, methods used in the stakeholder engagements, and findings from the different stakeholders, and we conclude with the key opportunities and challenges to implementing RCC in Zambia.RCC was first piloted in Kenya in 2017 as a collaborative effort among several partners. The product was designed to promote credit supply and enhance credit access at the beginning of the cropping cycle among maize and bean farmers in Machakos County of eastern Kenya. The program has since expanded its operations to Embu County, also in eastern Kenya, and five woredas (districts: Adama, Bora, Dawo, Dugda, and Woliso) in Ethiopia. RCC is offered as a short-term loan with a payoff structure linked to a dynamic trigger that captures risks within each crop phenological stage. This is aimed at reducing intertemporal basis risk (the within-season discrepancy between actual losses and losses reflected by the insurance index). The RCC insurance index is based on the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) rainfall measures (see Shee et al. 2019 for more information). To ensure that the credit is used only in the agricultural production process, RCC farmers are given vouchers which they use to collect inputs from local agrovet supply shops.RCC has two main characteristics that make it more attractive than conventional credit and complementary agricultural insurance products. First, RCC links the farmers' ability to repay a loan with their most important crop and with the season's rainfall/drought outcomes, rather than collateral. This increases farmers' access to credit while also reducing their likelihood of defaulting. Second, unlike conventional, stand-alone agricultural insurance products that require upfront premium payments, RCC premiums are paid at the end of the cropping cycle. This can help farmers overcome liquidity constraints, as evidenced by other agricultural insurance experiments across the globe (Casaburi and Willis 2018;Liu et al. 2020).Participants for the scoping mission in Zambia were purposively selected based on the project needs.Two focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with smallholder farmers from Mumbwa District in the Central Province. Mumbwa District was selected because of its agroecological characteristics, climate risks, the role of smallholder production in the community, diverse types of smallholders, and its proximity to the capital city. A total of 131 farmers (39 percent men and 61 percent women) were interviewed about various aspects of production including: their main agricultural production activities, crop production cycle, use of improved inputs, sources of agricultural inputs, agricultural production risks, and credit demand and uptake. Information was also collected about crop phenology and moisture requirement during the different stages of growth. This was aimed at improving the quality of the RCC index trigger and reducing intertemporal basis risk. Based on a game outlined in Shee et al. (2015), farmers were introduced to agricultural credit, farm investment, and the role of RCC in reducing downside risks related to drought and floods.In addition to the FGDs with farmers, key informant interviews and open-ended discussions were held with representatives from the private financial sector, including three banks and two insurance companies. These firms were selected based on their past experiences with offering tailored agricultural credit and insurance products to smallholder farmers. To understand the types of insurance products available for Zambian farmers, key informant interviews were also held with three insurance aggregators who work with smallholder farmers across the country. Finally, discussions were held with representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Meteorological Department. Agricultural production risks: Farmers in the FGDs indicated that climate risks, especially droughts, and unfavorable rainfall distribution through the cropping cycle are the main production challenges.Droughts, especially those that occur during the crop germination and flowering stages, cause up to 40 percent crop losses on average. Flood risks were also highlighted by some farmers. Other risks include disease and pests, such as the fall armyworm that attacks maize; lack of input and output markets; lack of liquidity to purchase inputs; and low output prices.Agricultural credit: Almost 97 percent of the farmers in the FGDs had never borrowed for agricultural production purposes. Three percent had borrowed from microfinance institutions (MFIs). The farmers indicated that the interest rates were too high, which discouraged borrowing. In addition, the banks have stringent conditions in terms of collateral and guarantee requirements. Most farmers are unable to provide collateral because they live on ancestral and communally owned land, without land certificates that can be used as security against borrowing. Farmers also noted that it is easier to borrow as a group than as individuals. Due to the lack of formal credit infrastructure for small farmers, some borrow through informal channels like friends and family. The farmers indicated that lack of agricultural credit leads to sub-optimal farm investment, which lowers their yields. Some farmers are also forced to switch to crops such as soybeans that are less demanding in terms of inputs.Through RCC games and participatory learning, farmers received training on different farm investment options, including high potential production practices that involve use of agricultural credit. Farmers were informed about the pros and cons of credit under different weather outcome, including high returns under good weather outcomes and the negative returns under bad weather outcomes. The role of RCC in reducing downside risks related to bad weather outcomes was emphasized. Farmers were also informed about the extra premium payment under the RCC production regime, which can result in marginally lower returns under good weather outcomes. Regardless of the extra premium payment, all farmers in the FGDs preferred the insurance protection provided by the RCC production regime.The discussion with the government sector was aimed at understanding existing government initiatives for smallholder farmers, specifically farm credit, input, and insurance support. We found that the government has put in place a Farmer Input Support program (FISP), which enables eligible households to purchase fertilizer, hybrid seeds, and pesticides at subsidized prices. The program focuses on smallholder farmers who own land and live in their villages. To enhance long-term sustainability, the government is now moving toward an inclusive Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) that aims at reducing government input support and promoting sustainable access to agricultural production credit. The CASP also encompasses a comprehensive development agenda, including infrastructure, irrigation, livestock, extension services support, farm block development, and climate change adaptation.In addition to the government programs, a number of donor-funded programs support farmer access to credit and input markets, for instance, the Africa Development Bank's initiative to support 45,000 smallholder farmers with production inputs in 2023.The meeting with the banks was geared toward understanding their relationship and lending practices with smallholder farmers, the value chain of focus, interest rates, and their local networks. We also discussed the banks' experience in offering products like RCC. We found that within the agricultural sector, the banking sector in Zambia mostly lends to large-scale commercial operators who constitute only about 3 percent of farmers in the country. The banks also lend to organized groups of smallholder farmers through cooperatives and to farmers under contractual production agreements. The banks' interest rates vary between 10 and 23 percent depending on the borrowers' risk profile, the loan amount, and the currency-the interest rates are lower for US dollar credit products. Banks also lend money to MFI, who in turn lend to smallholder farmers at higher interest rates-which can reach 60 percent. The banks highlighted that the key barriers to serving the smallholder farmers are lack of collateral, lack of credit history, the risky nature of agricultural production, and lack of data on individual farmers to ease tracking.Some insurance companies have agricultural insurance products designed for both livestock and crop farmers in Zambia. This ranges from traditional indemnity-based products, weather-based index insurance products, and area yield insurance. They also have bundled products such as agricultural insurance bundled with agricultural inputs, agricultural advisories, and other private insurance products. Insurance companies are also responsible for delivering government initiatives like FISP and CASP. The insurance intermediaries work primarily through aggregators along the agricultural value chain to develop agricultural insurance products to address a range of relevant risks. They also provide services such as facilitating smallholder access to microfinance, supporting reinsurance and local underwriting, pricing insurance products, and providing training to aggregators, farmers, and other clients.The findings from this scoping mission will provide the RCC researchers with important information for the development the RCC product, including the role of agricultural production among smallholder farmers, the most important crops produced by smallholders in Zambia, climate risks faced by the farmers, crop phenology, and the crop germination cycle. The findings are also important in understanding the existing private and public infrastructure that can support RCC implementation. Below, we highlight the key opportunities and challenges to RCC implementation in Zambia.Thriving private sector: Zambia has a well-established private financial sector, including banks and insurance companies with experience in offering products similar to RCC.Partnerships with existing programs: One of the main contributions from the scoping mission is an indepth understanding of existing government and donor-funded programs such as FISP and CASP. Working with both the government and private sector to jointly design and deliver RCC programs will not only increase RCC reach and the benefits available to the farmers, but also it will significantly reduce the cost of delivery.Leveraging digital platforms: Private banks in Zambia have developed digital service delivery platforms for their clients. By leveraging these platforms, RCC can digitalize its services including farmer recruitment, farmer credit scoring, credit application, agro-advisories, use of electronic vouchers, and linking farmers to input and output markets. Using digital platforms to deliver RCC will significantly reduce transaction costs and expand the services available to farmers.Farmer willingness to take up the product: During the FGDs, farmers indicated their willingness to use credit to improve their farm productivity. In addition, farmers showed greater interest in using RCC, given its ability to reduce farmers' payment obligations in seasons with bad weather outcomes.High interest rates: The formal interest rates in the country are extremely high, which makes credit expensive for smallholder farmers. Adding the RCC premiums will increase the cost of borrowing.The banking infrastructure for lending to individual farmers is not well developed. Developing the system will involve building a credit scoring system for individual farmers, which is a challenge since farmers do not have previous borrowing experience. The banks also lack critical farmer data such as geographical location, agricultural production practices, and incomes.Finally, the banking infrastructure is either missing or not very well developed in rural areas; this will make it very expensive to deliver individualized credit products such as RCC.All the stakeholders in the study indicated that, in addition to drought, farmers face other production risks such as pests and diseases, soil degradation, and price risks, yet RCC only covers drought-related risks. Moreover, the farmers produce a wide array of crops and livestock, but RCC is narrowly focused on specific crops. This might reduce farmers' willingness to pay for the product and its long-term sustainability as a climate resilience tool.Zambia has only one growing season; this means that the interventions such as RCC need to be well coordinated and delivered in a timely manner.Anne G. Timu is an associate research fellow in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, IFPRI, Washington, DC. Apurba Shee is an associate professor of applied economics, University of Greenwich, Kent, UK. Liangzhi You is a senior research fellow in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, IFPRI, Washington, DC.","tokenCount":"2383"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"26b729a7828847edc4ebd51e758b4334","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/385a324b-58c7-4599-97c9-93e2373c41db/retrieve","id":"174251029"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"775fa904-a42d-468e-b0ae-20b6d687dfb8","pagecount":"31","content":"• Within the last 100 years the world has seen the rise of genetics as a scientific discipline (1900s),• The finding of DNA as the hereditary material (1944),• The elucidation of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule (1953),• The cracking of the genetic code (1966),• The ability to isolate genes (1973),• The application of DNA recombinant techniques (from 1980 onwards).• There are several applications of Biotechnology in crop improvement• Initial focus on ALS and Pythium root rot • Molecular diagnostic tools to characterize and study the spatial distribution pathogens/races• Marker Assisted Selection: Integration of markeraided breeding with conventional approaches is aimed at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of common bean breeding in Africa• MAS refers to the use of DNA markers that are tightlylinked to target loci as a substitute for or to assist phenotypic screening.• By determining the allele of a DNA marker, plants that possess particular genes or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) may be identified based on their genotype rather than their phenotype• Speed breeding cycle by selecting at seedling stage• Increase precision and effectiveness (markers linked to genes of interest)• Efficient pyramiding genes of desirable traits• Screening without the target constraint (e.g. pathogens or races) to identify sources of resistance or make selections  ","tokenCount":"208"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c2de98416367f5a56a358c922e1008e4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/020e15c4-eef9-4cd3-9d7c-af26a4164e12/retrieve","id":"2046141676"},"keywords":["Badji, A.","Machida, L.","Kwemoi, D.B.","Kumi, F.","Okii, D.","Mwila, N.","Agbahoungba, S.","Ibanda, A.","Bararyenya, A.","Nghituwamhata, S.N.","Odong, T.","et al. Factors Influencing Genomic Prediction Accuracies of Tropical Maize Resistance to Fall prediction accuracy","mixed linear and Bayesian models","machine learning algorithms","training set size and composition","parametric and nonparametric models"],"sieverID":"f9b76107-6738-479d-8432-593de4ae1bfb","pagecount":"22","content":"Genomic selection (GS) can accelerate variety improvement when training set (TS) size and its relationship with the breeding set (BS) are optimized for prediction accuracies (PAs) of genomic prediction (GP) models. Sixteen GP algorithms were run on phenotypic best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) and estimators (BLUEs) of resistance to both fall armyworm (FAW) and maize weevil (MW) in a tropical maize panel. For MW resistance, 37% of the panel was the TS, and the BS was the remainder, whilst for FAW, random-based training sets (RBTS) and pedigree-based training sets (PBTSs) were designed. PAs achieved with BLUPs varied from 0.66 to 0.82 for MW-resistance traits, and for FAW resistance, 0.694 to 0.714 for RBTS of 37%, and 0.843 to 0.844 for RBTS of 85%, and these were at least two-fold those from BLUEs. For PBTS, FAW resistance PAs were generally higher than those for RBTS, except for one dataset. GP models generally showed similar PAs across individual traits whilst the TS designation was determinant, since a positive correlation (R = 0.92***) between TS size and PAs was observed for RBTS, and for the PBTS, it was negative (R = 0.44**). This study pioneered the use of GS for maize resistance to insect pests in sub-Saharan Africa.Insect damage on maize plants and stored grains potentially impedes food security in Africa [1][2][3]. The fall armyworm (FAW) and stem borers in the field, and the maize weevils (MWs) in storage facilities, are some of the most devastating insect pests on the continent. These insect pests cause yield losses ranging from 10-90% leading to loss of grain marketability, and consumer health concerns due to the possible contamination of the grain with mycotoxins, such as aflatoxins [3][4][5][6]. In Africa, tremendous efforts were made during the last two decades to build host plant resistance to insect pests in maize through traditional pedigree (phenotypic)-based selection (PS) with substantial desirable results. Several Africa-adapted maize lines were developed and successfully tested for resistance to MW damage on grains [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Some of the success stories are from the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) of Kenya through the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa project (IRMA) that produced several storage pest and stem borer resistant maize lines [7,8,[13][14][15]. On the other hand, the FAW is a new pest on the continent, first reported in 2016 in West and Central African countries [16], from where it spread throughout the African continent [17]. Hence, although efforts to develop FAW resistant varieties are underway at several institutions, including CIMMYT, published reports of FAW resistant varieties are not yet available [18,19].The complex nature of insect resistance traits makes PS slow and expensive, and thus, difficult to implement, especially for resource-constrained breeding programs [20]. Application of traditional marker-assisted selection (MAS) is hampered by the necessity to first discover resistance-associated genomic regions through genetic linkage and genome-wide association mapping methods, both with several shortcomings, especially for complex traits [21][22][23]. In addition, genetic linkage and genome-wide association mapping studies have seldom been explored in African germplasm [8,24], which further impedes the application of MAS in the development of insect resistance maize germplasm in Africa. In a previous study, we discovered several quantitative trait nucleotides and genes that are putatively associated with FAW and MW resistance, confirming the quantitative nature of these traits, hence the difficulty in improving these traits through MAS [25]. An alternative to both PS and MAS is genomic selection (GS), which uses whole-genome markers to perform genomic prediction (GP) of breeding values of unphenotyped genotypes, from which one can select superior candidate genotypes for crossing to produce hybrids or to advance to the next generation [26]. GS was reported to achieve up to threefold annual genetic gain in maize improvement when compared to MAS, due to a more efficient accounting of trait-associated quantitative trait loci (QTL), faster selection cycles, and lower phenotyping costs [27][28][29][30][31][32][33].Several statistical and machine learning GP models with various strengths and weaknesses have been developed to adapt to different contexts that are partly influenced by the genetic architecture of traits (number and effect size of QTL, proportions of additive and non-additive genetic effects) and reproductive classes of plants (allogamous vs. autogamous vs. clonally propagated) [34][35][36]. Therefore, to effectively implement GS in crop improvement programs, it is necessary to employ a holistic approach to determine the best GP strategy for particular breeding targets for given crop species [31,37]. Statistical models for GS vary in their prior assumptions and treatment of marker effects [31]. Parametric models focus on parameter estimates rather than prediction, while nonparametric algorithms give priority to prediction and have fewer assumptions [38]. Some parametric methods assume the SNP effects follow a normal distribution with equal variance for all loci, which seems unrealistic in practice.Representative parametric methods are ridge regression best linear unbiased predictors (RR-BLUP) [39] and genomic BLUP (GBLUP) [40]. GBLUP was the first GP method to be developed, and it replaced the traditional pedigree-based relationship matrix with a genomic information-based matrix to improve prediction accuracies (PAs) [41]. Parametric methods BayesA [26] and weighted Bayesian shrinkage regression (wBSR) [42], on the other hand, consider a prior distribution of effect with a higher probability of moderate to large effects. Regarding parametric models such as BayesB [43] and BayesCπ [44], assumptions are made that consider the effects of some SNPs to be zero. The Bayesian least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Bayesian LASSO) assumes that the effects of all markers follow a double exponential distribution [45], whilst the Bayesian sparse linear mixed model (BSLMM), a parametric method developed by Zhou et al. [46], combines the hypotheses of both GBLUP and Bayesian methods and achieves higher PAs than BayesCπ and BayesLASSO. Nonparametric or semi-parametric approaches such as random forest and reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) [47,48] are better suited for accounting for non-additive genetic effects (37,38), in contrast with parametric genomic prediction models [23,38,47,49]. Several studies compared the performances of GP models under different conditions. In a simulation study, Meuwissen et al. [26] found that while GBLUP achieved PAs of up to 73.2%, BayesA and BayesB comparatively provided additional increases of around 9% and 16%, respectively. However, when a population is composed of close relatives and the target traits are controlled by several small effect genes, the different methods perform similarly [50][51][52]. On the contrary, BayesB and BayesCπ are better when dealing with distant relatives and traits affected by a small number of large-effect loci [23]. Kernel methods such as RKHS are robust in predicting non-additive effects and in solving complex multi-environment multi-trait models [53,54]. Compared to the above-mentioned parametric methods, deep learning techniques such as support vector regression (SVR), multilayer perceptron, and convolutional neural networks models performed poorly in some studies [55,56]. However, there are also instances where RKHS outperformed one or several of the parametric methods, for instance, GBLUP, rrBLUP, and Bayesian algorithms, in terms of several traits in several crops including maize [51,[57][58][59]. These results were most likely because nonparametric GS models capture more adequately the non-additive genetic components which are an essential characteristic of complex traits [23,37,38] and hence could be good candidate tools for the prediction of FAW and MW-resistance traits which are controlled by both additive and non-additive gene action [21,23,31,41,60]. Therefore, since GP for maize resistance to insect pests such as FAW and MW is not yet well explored, it is pivotal to compare performances of several available prediction algorithms to inform better future GS programs. Therefore, the Genomic Prediction 0.2.6 plugin of the KDCompute 1.5.2. beta (https://kdcompute.igss-africa.org/kdcompute/home), an online database developed by Diversity Array Technologies (DArT, https://www.diversityarrays.com) for the analysis of DArT marker data, presents great interest for this purpose. It hosts a suite of parametric, semiparametric, and nonparametric GP methods that can be run simultaneously on genotype-phenotype datasets.Additional factors that influence PAs are the different sizes of the training sets (TSs) and breeding sets (BS) and their genetic relationships, the number of markers used to estimate genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) of lines, the population structure, and the extent of linkage disequilibrium [21,23,31,41,60]. Since phenotyping is the current bottleneck in plant breeding and one of the disadvantages of GP is the requirement of large TSs for high PAs to be achieved, determination of effective TS composition and size is critical for effective implementation of GS in crop improvement programs [21,[61][62][63][64]. Additionally, the best TS determination will depend on the genetic architecture and the extent of population structure of the trait targeted for GP [63], two parameters that are substantially variable among plant breeding traits. Another factor that is a determinant of the predictive ability is the kinship between the TS and the BS (63). Several methods are used for TS optimization and these generally fall into two categories-namely, untargeted and targeted approaches. For the untargeted approach, the TS is determined independently of its genomic information, whereas the targeted method considers the genomic relationship between the TS and the BS as a means of maximizing PAs [65]. However, deciding on the best TS selection method is not straightforward and depends on context [66].Furthermore, in maize, GPs were previously conducted using either genotypic best linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs) [67][68][69] or best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) [31,41,70] as means of phenotypic correction [70]. BLUEs are obtained by treating the genotypic effect of a mixed linear model as fixed effects and provide an estimated mean for each individual of a population equal to its true value. On the other hand, BLUPs generated by considering the genotypic factors as random and allowing for the shrinkage of the means towards the population mean [71]. Whether to use BLUPs or BLUEs in GP is debatable. Phenotypic BLUEs allow avoiding double penalization which BLUPs suffer from. With phenotypic BLUPs, this double penalization is, however, compensated through maximization of the correlation between predicted and true line values, while phenotypic BLUEs do not rely on this shrinkage [70]. However, the shrinkage in the BLUP procedure accounts better for outliers and environmental variabilities [72], permitting better estimates of individual genetic effects than BLUEs [71], and therefore, it usually yields more accurate predictions of phenotypic performance [70,72,73]. Furthermore, BLUPs are better in handling unbalanced data, wherein, for example, the number of individuals is not the same in different locations or in the different replications of an experiment [49,70]. On that basis, the current study was conducted to evaluate the efficacies of different parametric, semiparametric, and nonparametric methods from both statistical and machine learning GP models in generating prediction accuracies (PAs) for maize resistance to FAW and MW in a diverse panel using both genotypic BLUEs and BLUPs.The panel used in this study consisted of 358 maize lines with diverse genetic and geographic backgrounds, and they were sourced from the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI/Namulonge, Uganda), the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA/Ibadan, Nigeria), and The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT/Nairobi, Kenya). The panel consisted of 71 inbred lines developed for various purposes at NaCRRI; 28 and five stem borer (SB)-resistant inbred lines from CIM-MYT [6,13,14] and IITA, respectively; 19 storage pest (SP)-resistant inbred lines [7,8]; and a doubled haploid (DH) panel of 235 lines developed at CIMMYT using six parents-three of which were stem borer-resistant, one was a storage pest-resistant inbred line (these were also included in the population), and two were CML elite lines (one, CML132 was included in the panel) (Supplementary Materials Table S1).The panel was planted and evaluated in three environments, at Mubuku Irrigation Experimental Station in Kasese, western Uganda in 2017 (316 lines) during the second rainy season (2017B) and the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), Namulonge, central Uganda in 2018 (92 lines) and 2019 (252 lines) both during the first rainy seasons (2018A and 2019A, respectively). Detailed information on these locations is presented in Table 1. Each combination of location and season was considered an environment, resulting in a total of three environments. An augmented experimental design was adopted in all three environments using six checks in 2017B, two in 2018A, and four in 2019A replicated in all the blocks. The experiments in 2017B, 2018A, and 2019A consisted of twelve, five, and ten blocks, respectively, containing the replicated checks and unreplicated lines and the experiment in 2018A was replicated twice.Genotyping of the panel and SNP quality were described in our previous study [25]. In brief, maize leaves at the sixth-leaf stage of development were harvested from 341 of the 358 lines of the panel (5-10 plants per line) in 2017B and 2018A (for lines not captured in 2017B). The leaf samples were oven-dried overnight at 36 degrees Celsius and shipped to the Biosciences east and central Africa (BecA) Laboratory of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya) for DNA extraction and genotyping. Diversity Array Technology (DArT) genotyping facilities (44) were used to successfully identify 34,509 SNPs from 341 of the 358 lines composing the panel; hence, only these lines were considered for the GP analyses. Duplicate SNPs were first removed using the R package DartR (45), leaving 28,919 unique SNPs (DRSNP) distributed across all the 10 chromosomes of the entire maize genome.The DRSNP dataset was imputed before GP using KDCompute 1.5.2. beta (https:// kdcompute.igss-africa.org/kdcompute/home), an online database developed by Diversity Array Technologies (DArT, https://www.diversityarrays.com) for the analysis of DArT marker data. KDCompute uses a suit of imputation methods to impute the SNP dataset and scores the imputation results by calculating simple matching coefficient (SMC). The method with the highest SMC is considered as optimal and used to impute the original genotypic dataset.After germination, plants were left unprotected to allow sufficient natural pressure of fall armyworm (FAW) population to build up. FAW damage scoring in all the three environments was carried out two months after planting when adequate natural FAW infestation levels had manifested, and scoring was based on a visual assessment using a scale of 1 (no or minor leaf damage) to 9 (all leaves highly damaged) [75], illustrated in Figure S1 [18].Rearing of and bioassays for MW were performed as described in previous experiments carried out at NaCRRI [76,77]. Weevils were reared prior to the MW bioassay to obtain enough insects aged between 0 to 7 days for infestation. During rearing, standard conditions were provided for weevils to ensure proper acclimatization during the experiment. Rearing was carried out by preparing a weevil-maize grain culture of 300-400 unsexed insects and 1.5 kg of grains contained in 3000 cm 3 plastic jars incubated for 14 days in the laboratory at a temperature of 28 ± 2 • C and relative humidity of 70% ± 5%, to enhance oviposition. The lids of the jars were perforated and a gauze-wire mesh with a pore size smaller than one mm was fitted on each lid to allow proper ventilation while preventing the weevils from escaping.After harvesting and shelling, grains of each line were bulked across environments. Then, samples of 30 g were weighed from each grain bulk, aiming to produce three replicates per line for the MW bioassay experiment. However, due to the lack of an adequate amount of grains for most of the lines of the panel, only 64, 123, and 132 lines could generate three, two, and one replicates, respectively, and were therefore considered for the MW bioassay experiment. Each of these samples was wrapped in polythene bags and kept at −20 • C for 14 days to eliminate any weevil infestation prior to the start of the experiment. After this disinfestation process, samples were left to thaw and transferred into 250 cm 3 glass jars and infested with 32 unsexed weevils. After 10-days of incubation to allow oviposition, all dead and living adult insects were removed. One month after infestation (MAI), each sample was removed from its jar, and the grains and the flour were isolated and their weights were recorded. The total number of holes inflicted by the weevils on the grains was counted along with the number of grains affected by such damages. Additionally, the numbers of dead and living weevils were recorded. After these measurements were collected, the grains were returned to their respective jars and all the measurements were repeated at two and three MAI. The collected data were used to infer, for each sample, the cumulative grain weight loss (GWL), the cumulative number of emerged adult weevil progenies (AP), and the final number of damage-affected kernels (AK).Both best linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs) and predictors (BLUPs) were generated using the general linear model with only phenotype option of the software Trait Association through Evolution and Linkage (TASSEL) [78] and the ranef function of the R package [79] lme4 [80], respectively. The mixed linear model for generating BLUEs (all factors considered as fixed) and BLUPs (all factors considered as random) for MW traits (GWL, AP, AK, NH, and FP) was as follows: The mixed model for generating BLUEs (all factors considered as fixed) and BLUPs (with all factors considered as random) for FAW damage scores across environments model was:where µ in the two equations is the intercept. Due to inadequate amount of seeds, only 37% (126 out of 341 that had genotypic data) of lines from the panel had phenotypic data on grain weight loss (GWL), adult progeny emergence (AP), and number of affected kernels (AK). Therefore, to estimate GP accuracies for MW resistance, these 126 lines were used as the TS and the remaining 215 lines with only genotypic data constituted the breeding set (BS).The GP analyses for FAW resistance were carried out on the 341 lines of the panel that were genotyped and phenotyped for FAW damage resistance. To determine TS and BS sizes and compositions for the evaluation of maize resistance to FAW damage, two strategies, namely, random-based TS (RBTS) and pedigree-based TS (PBTS), were used.For the RBTS, 126 (37%) lines used for GPs of MW-resistance traits were used as the TS for FAW to predict the GEBVs of the remaining 215 lines first. To build the second TS for FAW, the 215 (63%) lines used earlier as BS were considered as a TS. Then to determine the third and fourth TSs for FAW, random selections of 75 and 85% of the lines in the entire panel were performed through the Excel formula \"=INDEX($A:$A,RANDBETWEEN(1,COUNTA ($A:$A)),1)\" and dragging until the adequate number of lines for each percentage determined above was obtained.The four datasets determined based on the pedigrees of the lines in the panel (PBTS strategy) are presented in Table 2. For the first dataset (FAW.Ped1), the 235 (68.91%) CIMMYT doubled haploid (DH) lines were used as a TS and the remainder (106 lines) as a BS. Regarding the second dataset, the TS and BS were switched to consider the TS in FAW.Ped1 as BS, and BS in FAW.Ped1 as the TS. The third dataset, FAW.Ped3, had a TS composed of the 294 that were neither stem borer (SB) resistant nor storage pest (SP)-resistant lines from CIMMYT, whilst the 28 SB and 19 SP-resistant lines from CIMMYT constituted the BS. In the last dataset, FAW.Ped4, the 235 DH lines, the 28 SB and 19 SPresistant lines from CIMMYT, and the five SB-resistant lines from IITA amounting to 287 (84.16%) genotypes were considered as the TS and the remaining 54 lines from NaCRRI lines were considered as the BS (Table 2). The GP analyses were performed using the BLUEs and BLUPs of the phenotypes and the 28,919 DRSNPs. Sixteen algorithms available in 10 GP methods were implemented using the Genomic Prediction 0.2.6 plugin of the KDCompute 1.5.2. beta. The 10 methods were directly translated from functions of five R packages designed for GP analyses: 2.6.1. Bayesian Models Bayesian models have different prior distributions with a general model that can be as follows: y = 1 n µ + Zµ + ε, where y is the vector of observations, Z is the design matrix for random effects, and µ is the vector of random effects [31].The BLR (Bayesian Linear Regression) algorithms from the BLR R Package [81] are used to fit the Bayesian ridge regression. The marker effects are assumed to have a Gaussian prior distribution with mean 0 and variance σ 2 , where σ 2 is unknown and assumed to have scaled x 2 distribution. In the KDCompute genomic prediction 0.2.6 plugin, the Gibbs sampler is run with 4000 iterations and 1000 iterations for burn-in period as default parameters.The Bayesian Generalized Linear Regression (BGLR) package fits various types of parametric and semi-parametric Bayesian regressions. The parametric Bayesian algorithms used from this package rely on different prior distributions that induce different types of shrinkages of the marker effects [82], including: Gaussian (Bayesian ridge regression, BRR [83]), scaled-t (BayesA [26]), double-exponential (Bayesian LASSO, BL [84]), and two component mixtures with a point of mass at zero and a distribution with a slab that can be either Gaussian (BayesC [44]) or scaled-t (BayesB [43]). In the KDCompute genomic prediction 0.2.6 plugin tool, defaults parameters for running the Gibbs sampler were used: 4000 iterations and 1000 iterations for burn-in period.Reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) [47,48] is a semiparametric Bayesian method from the BGLR package implemented on the KDCompute genomic prediction 0.2.6 plugin. The RKHS methods employs a kernel function to convert the molecular markers as a between pairs of observations distances, thereby, generating a square matrix that fits in a linear model. This non-linear regression method is expected to capture dominance and epistasis effects more efficiently. This approach can be modelled as:where µ represents the fixed effects vector and ε is a vector of random residuals. The parameters α and ε are assumed to have independent prior distributions α ∼ N(0, K hσ 2 α ) and ε ∼ N(0, I σ 2 ε ), respectively, and the matrix K h relies on a reproducing kernel function with a smoothing parameter h. The parameter h measures the genomic distances among genotypes that can be interpreted as a correlation matrix and it controls the rate of decay of the correlation among genotypes [51]. To perform this analysis, the same number of iterations and burn-in parameters as for the other Bayesian methods described above were set on the KDCompute genomic prediction 0.2.6 plugin.The Sommer (solving mixed model equations in R) package [85] was used to implement the mmer (mixed model equations in R) function on the KDCompute genomic prediction 0.2.6 plugin. The package solves mixed model equations proposed by Henderson [86]. It works incidence matrices and known variance covariance matrices for each random effect using four algorithms: efficient mixed model association (EMMA) [87], average information (AI) [88], expectation maximization (EM) [89], and the default Newton-Raphson (NR) [90].The model by Sommer can be formulated as [85]: y = Xβ + Zµ + ε with variance V(y) = V(Zµ + ε) = ZGZ + R Additionally, the mixed model equations for this model are:where G = Kσ 2 ω is the variance covariance matrix of the random effect µ, from a multivariate normal distribution µ ∼ MV N(0, Kσ 2 µ ), K is the additive or genomic relationship matrix (A or A g ) in the genomics context, X and Z are incidence matrices for fixed and random effects, respectively, and R is the matrix for residuals (here Iσ 2 e ). A mixed model with a single variance component other than the error (σ 2 e ) can be used to estimate the genetic variance (σ 2 µ ) along with genotype BLUPs to exploit the genetic relationships between individuals coded in K(A). The genomic relationship matrix was constructed according to VanRaden where K = ZZ /2 ∑ p i (1 − p i ) [91].The ridge regression best linear unbiased predictor (rrBLUP) packages can either estimate marker effects by ridge regression, or alternatively, BLUPs can be calculated based on an additive relationship matrix or a Gaussian kernel. Additionally, using the rrBLUP package, the mixed model solution (MMS) that calculates the maximum-likelihood (ML) or restricted-ML (REML) solutions for mixed models to perform GP [92] was fitted in the KDCompute genomic prediction 0.2.6 plugin.The mixed models fitted by rrBLUP can be formulated as:where β is a vector of fixed effects and µ is a vector of random effects with varianceThis class of mixed models, in which there is a single variance component other than the residual error, has a close relationship with ridge regression (ridge parameter λ = σ 2 ε /σ 2 µ ) (https://kdcompute.igss-africa.org/ kdcompute/home).The R package RandomForest that implements Breiman's random forest algorithm for classification and regression [93] was used on the KDCompute genomic prediction 0.2.6 plugin to fit the function missForest. Random forest is a non-linear machine learning algorithm that uses a two-layer randomization process to build decorrelated bootstrapped trees. As a first randomization layer, it builds multiple trees using a bootstrap sample of the marker data in the training. Then, a second randomization process is carried at the novel nodes to grow final trees. The random forest method selects at each node of each tree, a random subset of variables, and only those variables are used as candidates to find the best split for the node [94]. To predict the breeding value of a line in the TS, predictions over trees for which the given observation was not used to build the tree are averaged [51]. On the KDCompute 1.5.2. beta platform, both options for the mtry, square root and regression (sqrt(p) and p/3, respectively, where p is number of variables in x), for the classification of the number of variables randomly sampled as candidates at each split were implemented in this study. Additionally, the trees to grow (ntree) was set to 10, while node size (minimum size of terminal nodes) and max nodes (maximum number of terminal nodes trees in the forest can have) were set to 5 and 10, respectively. The 16 methods used in this study and their statistical characteristics are presented in Table 3. To calculate the predictive accuracies of each of the 17 methods, a cross-validation approach was performed using the data for the TS with 10 folds and five repetitions amounting to 50 replications. The PAs were estimated as the correlation coefficient (R 2 ) averaged across the 50 cross-validation replications between the observed phenotypic values and the predicted genomic-estimated breeding values (GEBV) (https://kdcompute. igss-africa.org/kdcompute/plugins).Both genotypic BLUEs and BLUPs for resistance to FAW and MW traits such as AK, AP, and GWL were used in GPs. In general, BLUPs produced better predictions than BLUEs by at least two orders of magnitude in terms of PAs (Figure 1). The PAs realized with BLUEs (Figure S2) varied from −0.246 for FAW (mms_ML) to 0.299 for AP (BayesB), while PAs for BLUPs ranged from 0.668 for AP (mmer_NR) to 0.823 for AP (missForest_Reg). The differences in terms of accuracies between BLUEs and BLUPs were high, despite the highly significant (p < 0.001) correlations between BLUEs and BLUPs for each trait ranging from 0.93 for FAW to close to 1 for AP, AK, and GWL (presented in Figure 1); therefore, only results for BLUPs will be presented hereafter.orders of magnitude in terms of PAs (Figure 1). The PAs realized with BLUEs (Figure S2) varied fr −0.246 for FAW (mms_ML) to 0.299 for AP (BayesB), while PAs for BLUPs ranged from 0.668 for (mmer_NR) to 0.823 for AP (missForest_Reg). The differences in terms of accuracies between BLU and BLUPs were high, despite the highly significant (p < 0.001) correlations between BLUEs a BLUPs for each trait ranging from 0.93 for FAW to close to 1 for AP, AK, and GWL (presented Figure 1); therefore, only results for BLUPs will be presented hereafter.  The PAs were generally high for the tested MW traits, mostly above 0.668 across the 12 GP models that were successfully run on the datasets (Figure 2); however, RKHS failed to work for AK. The highest PAs were achieved for AP with missForest_reg (0.823), followed by BRR (0.805), and RKHS (0.804), whilst mmer_NR algorithm had the lowest prediction accuracy of 0.667 (Figure 2). The PAs achieved for GWL ranged from 0.742 for missFor-est_Sqt to 0.795 for mmer_NR, while for AK, they varied from 0.749 for missForest_sqrt to 0.779 for BRR (Figure 2). In general, Bayesian models predicted better than both mixed model and machine learning methods, although the differences were small (Figure S3). models that were successfully run on the datasets (Figure 2); however, RKHS failed to work for AK. The highest PAs were achieved for AP with missForest_reg (0.823), followed by BRR (0.805), and RKHS (0.804), whilst mmer_NR algorithm had the lowest prediction accuracy of 0.667 (Figure 2). The PAs achieved for GWL ranged from 0.742 for missForest_Sqt to 0.795 for mmer_NR, while for AK, they varied from 0.749 for missForest_sqrt to 0.779 for BRR (Figure 2). In general, Bayesian models predicted better than both mixed model and machine learning methods, although the differences were small (Figure S3).  3 for GP algorithms).The different maize resistance to FAW datasets showed high predictive abilities with 10 of the 16 GP algorithms used in the study. For the RBTS approach, the PAs were lowest with the dataset that had a TS composed of 37% (lowest size) of the panel and highest with the largest TS (85% of the panel). Even with a TS of 37%, the PAs were still high, ranging from 0.694 to 0.714 for mms_ML and BLR methods, respectively (Figure 3). However, it should be noted that with equal TS sizes and same composition (37% of the panel), higher PAs were achieved for MW-resistance traits (GWL, AP, and AK) compared to FAW-resistance ones (Figure S3). The PA for the RBTS of 63% varied from 0.833 for BL method to 0.838 for the missForest_Sqt; thus, there was a small variation among different methods. Similarly, there was minimal variation among GP algorithms on the dataset with a 75% TS whose PAs varied from 0.838 for mms_REML to 0.843 for MissForest_Reg. The same trend was obtained on the dataset with a RBTS of 85% of the panel, with PAs ranging from 0.843 for the BRR model to 0.847 for the missForest_Reg method. Furthermore, there was a high and significant (p <  3 for GP algorithms).The different maize resistance to FAW datasets showed high predictive abilities with 10 of the 16 GP algorithms used in the study. For the RBTS approach, the PAs were lowest with the dataset that had a TS composed of 37% (lowest size) of the panel and highest with the largest TS (85% of the panel). Even with a TS of 37%, the PAs were still high, ranging from 0.694 to 0.714 for mms_ML and BLR methods, respectively (Figure 3). However, it should be noted that with equal TS sizes and same composition (37% of the panel), higher PAs were achieved for MW-resistance traits (GWL, AP, and AK) compared to FAWresistance ones (Figure S3). The PA for the RBTS of 63% varied from 0.833 for BL method to 0.838 for the missForest_Sqt; thus, there was a small variation among different methods. Similarly, there was minimal variation among GP algorithms on the dataset with a 75% TS whose PAs varied from 0.838 for mms_REML to 0.843 for MissForest_Reg. The same trend was obtained on the dataset with a RBTS of 85% of the panel, with PAs ranging from 0.843 for the BRR model to 0.847 for the missForest_Reg method. Furthermore, there was a high and significant (p < 2.2.10 −16 ) positive correlation of 0.92 (Figure 4) between the PAs and TS sizes for FAW datasets for the RBTS denoting a steady improvement of the PAs as the TS size increased. However, the PAs for FAW resistance reached a plateau at TS size above 63% of the panel (Figure 5).) positive correlation of 0.92 (Figure 4) between the PAs and TS sizes for FAW datasets for the RBTS denoting a steady improvement of the PAs as the TS size increased. However, the PAs for FAW resistance reached a plateau at TS size above 63% of the panel (Figure 5).   3 for GP algorithms).Plants 2020, 9, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 22 2.2.10 −16 ) positive correlation of 0.92 (Figure 4) between the PAs and TS sizes for FAW datasets for the RBTS denoting a steady improvement of the PAs as the TS size increased. However, the PAs for FAW resistance reached a plateau at TS size above 63% of the panel (Figure 5).  3 for GP algorithms).(A) (B)   Although the PAs did not vary much among GP algorithms, especially when the analyses involved larger TS sizes equal or bigger than 63% of the panel, the machine learning methods slightly outperformed other GP algorithms for all the traits, except for the TS of 37% where Bayesian methods such as BLR and BayesC showed a slight advantage over the machine learning methods (Figure S4). The PAs for FAW-resistance datasets with PBTS were generally high, mostly above 0.82 (Figure 6). For the first dataset (FAW.Ped1) with a TS of 68.91% of the panel (see Table 2), the PAs varied between 0.828 for BLR to 0.835 for missForest_Sqt. For FAW.Ped2 (TS = 31.09%), the PAs ranged from 0.862 for BayesC to 0.864 for mms_REML. Although the PAs did not vary much among GP algorithms, especially when the analyses involved larger TS sizes equal or bigger than 63% of the panel, the machine learning methods slightly outperformed other GP algorithms for all the traits, except for the TS of 37% where Bayesian methods such as BLR and BayesC showed a slight advantage over the machine learning methods (Figure S4). The PAs for FAW-resistance datasets with PBTS were generally high, mostly above 0.82 (Figure 6). For the first dataset (FAW.Ped1) with a TS of 68.91% of the panel (see Table 2), the PAs varied between 0.828 for BLR to 0.835 for missForest_Sqt. For FAW.Ped2 (TS = 31.09%), the PAs ranged from 0.862 for BayesC to 0.864 for mms_REML. Although the PAs did not vary much among GP algorithms, especially when the analyses involved larger TS sizes equal or bigger than 63% of the panel, the machine learning methods slightly outperformed other GP algorithms for all the traits, except for the TS of 37% where Bayesian methods such as BLR and BayesC showed a slight advantage over the machine learning methods (Figure S4). The PAs for FAW-resistance datasets with PBTS were generally high, mostly above 0.82 (Figure 6). For the first dataset (FAW.Ped1) with a TS of 68.91% of the panel (see Table 2), the PAs varied between 0.828 for BLR to 0.835 for missForest_Sqt. For FAW.Ped2 (TS = 31.09%), the PAs ranged from 0.862 for BayesC to 0.864 for mms_REML.  2 for the PBTS strategy and Table 3 for GP algorithms).For FAW.Ped4, with a TS of 84.16%, PAs varied between 0.860 to 0.864 for missForest_Sqt and mms_ML, respectively. However, for FAW.Ped3 with the largest TS (86.22%), eight of the 10 algorithms achieved low PAs (below 0.20) and only missForest_Reg and missForest_Sqt attained PAs of 0.749 and 0.750, respectively. Thus, the Pearson correlation between the sizes of the PBTS datasets and the predictions accuracies for the 10 GP algorithms revealed a significant (p > 0.0036) negative relationship of r = −0.45 (Figure 4).  2 for the PBTS strategy and Table 3 for GP algorithms).For FAW.Ped4, with a TS of 84.16%, PAs varied between 0.860 to 0.864 for missFor-est_Sqt and mms_ML, respectively. However, for FAW.Ped3 with the largest TS (86.22%), eight of the 10 algorithms achieved low PAs (below 0.20) and only missForest_Reg and missForest_Sqt attained PAs of 0.749 and 0.750, respectively. Thus, the Pearson correlation between the sizes of the PBTS datasets and the predictions accuracies for the 10 GP algorithms revealed a significant (p > 0.0036) negative relationship of r = −0.45 (Figure 4).In the FAW datasets, the PAs were more influenced by the composition of the TS and its genetic relationship with the BS (see Table 2). Using the doubled haploid (DH) lines as TS (FAW.Ped1) and vice-versa (FAW.Ped2) or DH and stem borer (SB) and storage pest (SP)-resistant lines as TS (FAW.Ped4) permitted achieving relatively high PAs from all the 10 algorithms, which when considering the CIMMYT SB and SP-resistant lines as BS and the remainder as a TS (FAW.Ped3), only resulted in machine learning algorithms missForest_reg and missForest_Sqt achieving relatively high PAs. Furthermore, the composition of the TS and its relationship with the BS determined which GP methods achieved the highest Pas; machine learning algorithms worked best on FAW.Ped1 and FAW.Ped3, linear mixed model approaches outperformed Bayesian and machine learning algorithms on FAW.Ped2 and FAW.Ped4, and Bayesian methods ranked either second or third on all datasets (Figure S5). It should be noted that the PBTS strategy generally achieved better PAs than the RBTS irrespective of the size of the TS, except for the FAW.Ped3 dataset (Figures 3 and 6).Tropical maize germplasm is characterized by rapid linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay with high diversity [95]. These germplasm genetic characteristics make genomic selection (GS) a promising approach to integrate into African breeding programs [96]. However, genomic prediction (GP) models are very diverse and their differential performances depend on crops and trait architectures, besides other parameters such as the size of the training set (TS) and its genetic relationship with the breeding set (BS) [31,37]. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the feasibility of genomic selection for maize resistance to FAW and MW through estimation of the genomic prediction accuracies achieved by parametric, semiparametric, and nonparametric (machine learning) genomic prediction (GP) algorithms using phenotypic BLUEs and BLUPs, and random and pedigree-based TS determination strategies.With a RBTS of 37% of the panel, which was the smallest and expected to give the worst PAs, PAs were higher (at least two-fold) across both FAW and MW-resistance traits and for all GP models when trait BLUPs were used as phenotypes compared to BLUEs, although there were high Pearson correlations between these two categories of phenotypic data for each trait. In general, BLUPs were reported to have higher predictability than BLUEs owing to better accounting for outliers and environmental variabilities permitted by the shrinkage procedure in BLUPs, which results in more accurate estimates of individual genetic effects [70][71][72][73]. Furthermore, most of the predictive differences between BLUPs and BLUEs might have stemmed from BLUPs being more suitable than BLUEs in fitting data recorded from unbalanced experiments [49,70] as was the case for both FAW damage scores across environments and MW bioassay in this study. Therefore, for all subsequent analyses with higher RBTS sizes and the PBTS strategy for FAW, only BLUPs were focused at in this study and will be further discussed.The obtained PAs were high for both MW and FAW-resistance traits even with TS of moderate sizes confirming the potential of genomic selection (GS) in Africa-adapted germplasms [28][29][30]33]. With a TS of 37% of the entire panel, high PAs (above 0.70) for MWresistance traits, grain weight loss (GWL), adult progeny emergence (AP), the number of affected kernels (AK), and FAW resistance were achieved in agreement with the moderate to high heritability values for these traits as, reported earlier [21,31,41]. These results are significantly important considering that one of the disadvantages of GS is the requirement of large TS which negatively impacts the reduction of phenotyping cost [62,64].The PAs increased up to above 0.85 in proportion to the increase in TS (RBTS approach) size for FAW resistance which was the only trait phenotyped for all the lines of the panel. It would be interesting to phenotype other lines of the panel that were not evaluated for MW-resistance traits to establish larger TS which may improve the PAs [31,65,97,98]. Very few reports of GP are available for maize resistance to biotic stresses. High PAs were achieved for maize resistance to chlorotic mottle virus (up to 0.95) and maize lethal necrosis (reaching 0.87) in tropical germplasm [67]. However, lower PAs of up to 0.59 were obtained in a study that assessed the predictability of maize resistance to the European corn borer [99] in temperate germplasm. Additionally, Gowda et al. (69) reported moderate PAs (close to 0.60) for maize resistance to a biotic stress, maize lethal necrosis in tropical maize populations.In this study, several GP models that included statistical and machine learning algorithms from parametric, semi-parametric, and nonparametric approaches were used to predict FAW and MW-resistance traits. These GP algorithms, as expected, performed differently on the different traits although the predictive variations were generally minimal, especially when large TS were involved, similarly to earlier model benchmarking reports [100,101]. Bayesian models (parametric: BLR and BRR, and semi-parametric: RKHS) performed better on MW traits, GWL, AP, and AK, while nonparametric machine learning algorithms (missForest, here), and to a lesser extent, the linear mixed model (especially in the PBTS approach), achieved the highest PAs on FAW datasets. The differential performances of the different GP algorithms on the insect resistance traits evaluated in this study could be due to differences in the genetic structures (extent of additive vs. non-additive gene action) of the respective traits [23,38,47,49]. Maize resistance to FAW, which was moderately heritable across environments [25], would be expected to be controlled by both additive and non-additive genetic factors, including epistasis [102][103][104], whereas, MW-resistance traits such as GWL, AP, and AK with heritability values above 90% [25] were most likely characterized by a prevalence of additive gene action [105,106] in the current panel.This supposed genetic architecture difference between FAW and MW-resistance trait could be the reason for non-linear methods such as random forest performing better at predicting FAW resistance, since these are more capable of integrating epistasis in the statistical modelling [27,51]. However, the RKHS algorithm, also a non-linear GP approach known to efficiently handle epistatic genetic relation [51,59], did not successfully run on FAW dataset, although it was among the best models for predicting MW-resistance traits, except BLUPs for the number of affected kernels (AK), for which the RKHS algorithm did not run successfully. In this study, the reasons for some GP algorithms failing to run either on MW or FAW-resistance datasets are unclear, but this could be related to the BLUPS structure of the datasets that failed to run. It should be noted that all the algorithms ran successfully on phenotypic BLUEs datasets with the smallest TS (37% of the panel) being used to compare PAs between BLUPs and BLUEs in this study. However, the two to three-fold predictive ability gain with BLUPs compared to BLUEs would be an incentive to consider BLUPs in future GS activities for maize resistance to MW and FAW. Overall, future GS efforts for maize resistance to MW and FAW are recommended to focus more on Bayesian and machine learning algorithms such as random forest, BayesA, BayesB, BayesC, BRR, and BLR which outperformed mixed linear models for most datasets considered in the current study.Two factors, the relative sizes of the TS and BS (RBTS approach) and their genetic relationship (PBTS approach), influenced the levels of PAs across FAW-resistance datasets, corroborating earlier reports [31,63,65,97,98,107,108]. A net increase in PAs for maize resistance to FAW was realized when the size of the TS was increased from 37% (0.694 to 0.714) to 63% (0.833 to 0.838), similar to earlier reports on wheat yield [109]. This increase was followed by a slight gain in predictability at 75% (0.837 to 0.843) and 85% (0.843 to 0.847), and thus, the PAs plateaued when TS sizes above 63% were considered in this study as reported earlier in other studies [21,64,[109][110][111]. Thus, future GS programs for maize resistance to FAW could be designed around TS composed of a minimum of 60% of the entire breeding germplasm to achieve high genetic gains. These results were further supported by the highly significant (p > 2.2.10 −16 ) positive correlation (R = 0.92) between TS size and PAs. Similarly, positive correlations between the number of lines in the TS and the PAs, and plateau for the PAs were also reported by Edwards et al. [109].The composition of the TS and its relationship with the BS are determinant factors for the genomic predictability of complex traits [63,[112][113][114]. In the current study, using the PBTS approach, these two parameters were more important than the size of the TS since higher PAs were achieved in FAW.Ped2 (0.862 to 0.864) with a TS of 31.09% compared to all other FAW PBTS datasets, including FAW.Ped3 (0.114 to 0.750), with the largest TS of 66.22%. In fact, FAW.Ped3 achieved the lowest PAs among all the PBTS FAW datasets. These results were further illustrated by the significantly (p < 0.0036) negative correlation (R = −0.45) between the sizes of the PBTS and the achieved PAs.However, it is not very clear why the predictions for the BS FAW.Ped3 (47 CIMMYT SB and SP-resistant lines) and the TS (DH, IITA SB, and NaCRRI lines) led to lower PAs for FAW.Ped3. A possible explanation could be that these two sets were distantly related since only two and one CIMMYT SB and SP-resistant lines, respectively, were used as parents to develop the DH lines. Spindel et al. [111] argued that high PAs can be achieved with smallsized TS when lines in the TS and the BS are closely related, since such TS would sample the full genetic diversity of the population. However, the more distantly related the TS and the BS are, the larger the required TS size to reach high PAs [111]. Using the CIMMYT SB and SP-resistant lines as a TS would most likely lead to lower PAs since such a TS would be additionally disadvantaged by its small size (47 lines). The DH lines in the current study are involved as a TS in most of the best performing GP datasets evaluated in the current study (both in the RBTS and PBTS approaches) and as unique lines in the BS of the best performing pedigree-based BS (FAW.Ped2). This DH population could be of interest in future breeding activities targeted at improving insect resistance in maize [23,[115][116][117] and potentially useful for GS of complex traits with low to moderate heritability [118].This study assessed prediction accuracies of genomic-estimated breeding values for fall armyworm (FAW) and maize weevil (MW)-resistance traits in a diverse Africaadapted maize panel using several parametric, semi-parametric, and non-parametric genomic prediction models. Prediction accuracies for maize resistance to FAW and MW traits were relatively high, even with a moderate training set size. For FAW resistance, although the prediction accuracies were positively correlated with the size of the training set, the composition and the relationship of the training set with the breeding set were more influential in predicting line performance. Additionally, TS determination-related parameters were more important than the type of genomic prediction models in predicting FAW and MW-resistance traits. However, Bayesian models on MW-resistance traits and machine learning models on FAW damage resistance outperformed mixed linear models in almost all the datasets used in this study. Therefore, future genomic selection programs for maize resistance to insect pests such as FAW and MW in Africa should put more effort into designing effective training sets and use selected Bayesian and machine learning GP algorithms to improve genetic gains, shorten breeding cycles, and accelerate variety release.","tokenCount":"7801"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7d2cbef09bac2ba11d44d3e2541a3d4c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_9255i.pdf","id":"-1947968951"},"keywords":["IV","2","2","2 Les volumes d'eau pr IV","2","2","3 Les doses globales dirrigation el les apports pluviom&iques IV","2","2","5 Les d u r h el petiodes de fonctininement des reseaux d'irr 1V","2","2","6 L'efficience globale des rtseaux C'irrigation","IV","2","2 La gcstion de I'eau d i n i IV","2","3 La gcstion 1V","2","4 Le dimensionnment des rtseaux d'irrigati"],"sieverID":"56425122-fc8d-49ad-8769-ff2b67f71b89","pagecount":"185","content":"V . 1.9 Du point de w e du dimensionnement c es rkseaux d'irr V.1.11 Du point de vue de La gcstion de I'eau de drainage .....Le PMI-BF a 6te mene par une cquipe pluridisplinaie constituee de quatre sections : agronomique, hydraulique, sociodconoinique et information-communication.Le personnel suivant a contribd & la mise en oeune des activitks de recherchedeveloppement de la section hydraulique et a la production de ce rapport :Le present rapport sectoriel est l'aboutissement de cinq ans d'efforts intenses sur cinq petits perimktres irrigds autour de barra6:es ( voir Carte ci-dessous) que sont :Dakiri dans la province de la G M ~; 0 Gorgo et Itenga dans la province du Kourittenga;MogtMo dans la province du Ganzowgou;et Savili dans la province du Boukiende.I1 y sera expose la methodologic employee et les resultats acquis dam le domaine hydraulique au cours de ces cinq ans de travail du projet. Les analyses et interprbtations des rksultats acquis kront ressortir les tliverses tendances observables et les kcarts de perfoffnance. La possibilite de gddralisation des resultats obtenus y sera aussi abordee. Entin, le rapport fera des recommandations aussi bien gbnbrales que specifiques (par site) pour permettre de corriger les Bcarts negatifs dl: performance observes. Elle a consist6 i recueillii auprks de services et de societtb intarvenant dans les mbnagements hydro-agricoles, toutes ies refirences techniques et la documentation diverse se rapportant aux cinq sites d'intervention. Cela afin de disposer des informations utiles relatives aux equipements en place et i leur fonctionnement hydraulique conceptuel.Elle a consiste a se rendre effectivement sur les sites afin de prendre reellement connaissance d'eux (y compris leurs difficult& ou facilites d'acces), a verifier g r o w mod0 le contenu des dossiers techniques et a dflechir sommairement sur l'approche et les moyens a mettre en place pour une bonne execui ion du diagnostic 21 faire.I1 s'est agi ici de noter, en mi3me temps que la reconnaissance terrain et a chaque occasion de presence sur les site, durant les premiers moments d'itervention, le fonctionnement hydraulique reel des ouvrages ; c'est en quelque sorte un constat des pratiques existantes en irrigation avant toute intervention Cela pour juger de l'efficience de ces pratiques et leurs avantages et inct>nvenients par rapport aux pratiques preconides pour ainsi savoir oh et comment intervenir.Cette &ape consiste a synthetiser les difficultes primaiies relevees lors des etapes preckdentes et a travers les reponses mx entretiens sommaires avec quelques exploitants et l'encadrement technique des sites ou parfois avec des societes ou services ayant fait des prestations (refection, rehabilitations) sur le site. Ce qui va permettre de mieux orienter et approfondir les axes de recherchediagnostic.L'inventaire et le contr6le tor'ographique des canaux et ouvrages repondent a une confiontation des previsions du projet d'amknagement (dossier) avec les realisations sur le terrain. Cette &ape permet de mettle en evidence les kcarts et les modifications et de rechercher leurs causes. En effet, certains dysfonctionnements peuvent y trouver lew explication. L'inventaire a it6 complete par le diagnostic de 1'6tat physique general des organes de I'amenagement. A ces fiches de collecte de doniees, dont des exemples sont present& en annexe I1 du present rapport, ont 6te jointes des fiches d'enqu@tes dont le remplissage permettait de disposer de complhents d'informations tr&s utiles lors des analysediterpretations des donnees collectees par les autres fiches.En dehors des repartitions de I'eau, les mesures de dkbits nous ont permis egalement de deduire les coefficients de debit des dkversoirs de regulation sur les canaux primaires.Parall&lement a la recherche des donnees quantitatives, une analyse qualitative du fonctionnement hydraulique du perimctre et du comportement des acteurs par rapport a la gestion de l'eau, a la maitrise de I'irrigation, a l'entretien des infkastructures et A la gestion de I'espace a etk kite. Le long du reseau dirrigation se trouvent des ouvrages de regulation des debits dont:. 7 dkversoirs giraudets sur le :anal primaire ;. des deversoirs transversaux clont un en tkte de canal primaire;. des dkversoirs de decharge e 1 fin de certains secondaires ;. des deversoirs lateraux de securite sur le canal primaire et certairis secondaires.Les ouvrages de repartition de l'eau dans les secondaires sont constitues de modules a masques et de vannettes en titles.La digue de protection du pbrimktre se trouve du cdte sud longeant le chenal  La construction de l'amenagement en 1987 aprks celle du barrage en 1980 s'est faite g r k e a la mission catholique de Koup6la par l'entreprise de Monseigneur YOUGBARE -M q u e de ladite ville.Finance par la FKDEA et I'CIPEP, pour I'exploitation de 50 ha de r i z en saison pluvieuse et 30 ha de cultures marail:heres en saison siiche, l'dnagement de Gorgo n'a jamais connu de campagne maraicherf ; cela dfi ti la non-realisation du rehaussement prevu de la digue du barrage, entrainant un manque considkrable de volume d'esu et une absence de reception definitive de l'amenagement.Alors que la situation geogre'phique du site a 16 ! a n de Kou@la, grand centre commercial et carrefour international, constitue un atout trks important pour I'ecoulement des produits agricoles.   Le pkrhhtre dispose d'une piste principale en rembhi lateritique compact6 de 3,s m de largeur, le long du canal primaire. Elle comporte 9 ouvrages de franchissanent du primaire vers les pistes secondairfs au nombre de 8 et ayant des largeus de 2,s m environ chacune.  Le pkrim6tre irrigu6 de Itenga a &6 r6alis6 par l'ONJ3AH dam le cadre des projets de l'autorit6 du LIPTAKO-GOURMA SLV financements des fonds OPEP et FKDEA. Le @rim&tre en aval du barrage se pr6sentl: en trois entit6s distinctes (appelks sous-p6rim&res ou blocs) reli6es entre elles par des ponts-canaux du rkseau principal d'irrigation. I1 convient de signaler, pour terminec la pr6sentittion du site, la position stratkgique (favorable ?i l'koulement des produits agricoles) du site au carrefour de dew centres commerciaux que sont :-Kou@la, carrefour international des Brands axes routiers b i t d s rejoignant ie Le @rim&re de Savili est esseniiellement matcher avec pour principale culture le haricot vert destine surtout A I'exportaion et en partie au march6 national. La situation gkographique du site facilite l'kcoulement des produits vers les centres de tra6c international que sont:-Koudougou, Chef-lieu de province A 42 km du site et poss6dant une gare ferroviaire SITARAIL de la ligne Ouaga-Abidjan.-Sabou ii 20 km, chef-lieu tle dkpartement situB sur la nationale 1 (RNl), Ouagadougou-Bobo.Le pbim&re marakher de Savii, iinanck sur fonds FAC, est un pkrwtre semigravitaire situ6 en amont de retenue d'eaii avec une station de pompage contenant 7 groupes motopompes alimentks en eau par un chenal d'amenee en terre de 150 m de long. La position actuelle de la station de pompage est le ~Bsultat de dficultks d'alimentation en eau du chenal survenues quelques mois seulement apr6s la klisation du pkrhdtre.  Les ouvrages de rkgulation et de rkpartition de l'eau sur ce pkrimktre sont reprdsentks par les vannes manuelles B brides 3\".La seule digue de protection ( d k u , : au regard de l'emplacement du pkrim&re en amont du barrage) est situde en amont du phim&tre et longe la colature de ceinture dont les terres de dkblais ont servi B sa rkalisation. Mais on note par contre, un m g e avec 3 portes d'acds entourant tout le p6rimhtre pour le protkger contre la divagation des animauX.Les pistes sont de 3 types dont :---Une piste principale latkritiquci compactk ; Des pistes secondaires pour l'rccks aux parcelles ; Et des pistes de phktration siiukes lat6ralement aux secteurs.On note en phq la prksence d'un magasin SIN le site pour la conservation des htrants et des rkcoltes en attente d'enlkvement.  Ce qui a permis Fobtention d'un certain nombre de rksultats concernant aussi bien les ressources en eau (capacitk rkelle en eau des retenues et utilisation de la ressource eau) que le &sew hydradique (entretien des ouvrages, gestion de l'eautour d'eauet fonctionnement des ouvrages et kquipements). Des rapports de tout genre (rapport d'activitk, de stage sur Itenga, de diagnostic de Itenga, Mogtcdo et Savili ou de proposition de rkhabilitation du pkrirn6tre de Dakiri) &dig6 ii ce propos en tkmoignent.La cellule hydraulique, de m&ne que les autres cellules du PMIBF, a participk ii la premitre session de formation des encildreurs des @&tres irrigu6s organis& en Janvier 1992 et dont le th6me ktait \"Managemeni de l'irrigation\". Elle a prksentk un recueil de cours et un support de diapsitives sur :-La conception des am6mq:ements hydro-agricoles au Burkina Paso ;Les out& de mesure de dkbits et de hauteurs d'eau dam les canaux d'iiigation par gravitk.On note aussi la participation dt: la cellule hydraulique ii l'encadcement des phases pratiques terrain : de la 2eme session de formation ETSHER-CNEARC-IIMI du 03 Fkvrier au 11 Avril 1992 de cadres BmZcinab6 (Ingknieurs et Techniciens) en \"Gestion des pkrimhtres irriguks\"; de la formation ADR40-[IMI-EIER en Mars 1992 (du 02 au 28 Mars sur les sites de Mogtao et Itengit) dlnghieurs et Chercheurs de 12 pays de 1'Afrique de 1'0uest ii la \"Gestion de l'eau et de l'irrigation pour la riziculture\".La cellule hydraulique durant cctte p6riode a enregistrt! ii la fois le dkpart de 2 stagiaires professionnels pour des emploir: permanents et l'arrivke de 2 autres. --La redaction de divers riipports (rapports de mission ou d'activites ou de diagnostic hydraulique des sites de Itenga, Mogtedo et Savili).Au cours de la pr6sente ptkiode, la cellule hydraulique a concouru B la rdalisation de : Tout en observant le depart de 2 stagiaies, la cellule hydraulique a enregistre l'arrivke de 5 autres, toutes categories confortdues (stagiaires professionnels et tin de cycle de formation universitaire) pendant la dite pkriode. L'un des stages (celui de MALE de l'ENGREF6) visait une validation de l'utilisation du modde infbrmatique SIC (Simulation of Imgation C d ) de simulation des tkoulements dam les canaux d'iiigation sur les rkseaux de petites dimensions. Le PMI/BF a pu acqirt5rir ce modkle mis au point par le CBMAGREF7. La cellule a particip6 au s6minair:-atelier org& par le PMIBF du 08 au 10 Juin 1994 B Ouagadougou sur le t h h e \"Objectifs et performances des petits p6rim&res irrigues autour des barrages\".Une communication sur \"les indicateurs de performances en gestion de Feau et maintenance des i&astructures\" a Bt B prbsentee.Pendant la $tiode, la cellule hydraulique a accueilli dew stagiaires et enregistrb le depart de 3 autres. Elle a aussi observ6 l'ttniv6e en son sein du technicien en hydraulique en remplacement du prBc6dent admis B la retriute anticipke en Janvier 1993. Le projet &ant t3 sa demikre annk prbvisionnelle d'existence, l'ensemble des activit6s de recherche-dtveloppement au niveau de l'hydraulique se sont focalisks, en dehors de la collecte des donnks complbmentaires des campagnes agricoles en cows, sur :les traitements, les rbflexions et les analyses des donnks d6jA collecttes sur les la mise au point de la m5tl1odologie de diagnostic employbe et les recommandations essentielles inhtrentes aux analyses bites en vue sites -d'dliorer les performancies observbes sur les pbrim6tres 6tudi6s.L'ttat exceptionnel des pluies dwant la periode a atrent la cellule, en accord avec la cellule Information-Communication, t3 organiser une tournbe de constatation en Septembre 1994 des dtgats survenus aux ptrim&tmi d'ttude du PMIBF et A prodiguer des conseils aux bureaux des coop6ratives pour la recherche de subventions ou aides aux rtfections des dbg&ts.Cette m4me m o d e du projet a aussi vu la finalisation au sein de la ceMe hydraulique du rapport de l'&ude de rbhabilitation de la station de pompage du p & i i t r e madcher de Savili, ainsi qu'un dossier de demande de financement avec une prbsentation des r6sultats escomptbs de cette rbhabilitation 111.5.2 Au Niveau de la Formation A ce niveau, la cellule hydradique a eu A assurer la formation :du nouvel encadreur CRPA de Itenga h la lecture des tchelles limnjmbtriques des exploitants (un exGIloitant par site pour Gorgo, Itenga et Savilii du barrage pour la collecte des donntes ; alphaMtSs en moor6 A la lecture des tchelles limnimbtriques des barrages en vue de Fautogestion future des @rim&tres irrigu6s. IV.l.l La maintenance des ouvrages de 1,etenues d'eau Les observations du PMI/BF montrent que la maintenance des ouvrages des retenues d'eau laisse a d6irer. En effet, sur la midorit6 des sites d'etudes, soit les digues de barrage prdsentent de s4rieux dCg& pouvant renlettre en cause leur existence, soit les dkversoirs de barrages ou les prises d'eau et leurs huipements necessitent des refections pour leur redonner une bonne efficience de fonctionnement. i k i :A Dakiri le constat a 6t6 que dcpuis ses 37 ans d'existence (depuk 1959), la retenue n'a requ aucune refection, a elle enseigne que le par15 maqonne A l'amont du barrage qui s'est dechausd sur une surface de pr&s de 250 m2 a w alentours imrnediats du dbversoir central reste toujours visible. Le diversoir central h i -m h e presente de nombreux points dc fuites de l'eau par les joints \"waterstop\". De msme, les blocs de pierres du bassin de dissipation d6port6s d m le chenal d'kvacuatlon restent sans rangement, favorisant ainsi des affouillements perceptibles a I'aval immediat du ddversoir central. A tout ceci s'ajoutent l'inmmbilit6 d6.finitive de la vanne de garde de la prise ci'eau rive gauche et l'impraticabditt! du restant de passerelle de la prise d'eau rive droite. C'est au vu de ces inquiktudes que des ktudes bathyndtriques de confirmation seront effectukes sur dew (2) sites en donmuit pour chacune des dew retenues des capacitks beaucoup plus importantes (6.560.000 IT? d'eau au lieu de 2.900.000 m3 pour Mogt6da et 2.500.000 m' et non 2.000.000 m' pour Itenga).Les analyses poursuivies sur les dossiers techniques des autres sites de travail ont kgalement montrh des insfiances dans l'dvaluation des capacit6s rkelles en e m sauf le site de Savili ou en l'absence du plan topographiqiie de la cuvette de la retenue, le PMI-BF n' a pu que reconstituer les courbes H-S et H-V B partir des donn6es H, S et V qui y figuraient.Ce grand taw d'incertitudes (80 %, soit 4 sites sur 5 ktudiks) emiSes et confirm6es sur les ressources en eau disponibles dans le!; retenues, a confort6 le projet B : Dkployer, avec hide des partemires que sont la DIRH et les CWA, tous les dispsitifs dcessaires a m suivis de la gestion de l'eau dans :. les retenues par l'instailation de limnigraphes et 6chelles linmim6triques A MogtMo, Itenga, Gorgo et Savili ;. les r6seaux d'irrigation par la mise en place d'kchelles iimnim6triques 21 M o w 0 et de centrales de mesure automatique (de marque CR2M) A sondes ultrasoniques (de type UST 540) 2I Itenga, Gorgo et Dakiri ;. les p h k t r e s meme A travels les pluviodtres install6s et donnant les hauteurs de pluies tomb6es B Mogtkdo et Gorgo. Les autres sites en &ant auparavant rnunis.Recommander A la DIRH qu'elle dkploie, dorknavant, plus de mayens et de temps aux contrijles et suivis de l'kvolution de la capacit6 en eau des diverses retenues afin de permettre aux organismes c: t services intervenant en milieu rural de disposer de d o d e s fiables pour leurs divers travaux.Les donnkes collectCes (niveaux cl'eau des barrages et hauteurs de pluies) durant la vie du projet et prksentkes en annexes I11 el IV du present rapport, ont permis de noter que de &on generale, toutes les retenues d'eau ignorent des probl&nes de remplissage et deversent trks souvent dans l'ande durant la periode mi-Juillet 2I mi-Aoiit (53 % des deversements) sauf MogtMo en 1991 ou le barrage s'est just< rempli sans dkvers6 (cf. tableau 2). Au deb de ces indicateurs et coefficients permettant d'apprkcier les niveaux de remplissage annuels des retenues, il coivient de signaler les insfiances dans le suivi des instruments de mesure des niveaux d'eau i:Cf. Annexe IV des fiches de relewk des niveaux d'eau des retenues) obligeant parfois B avoir rccours aux enquetes pour la d6tenmination de certains paramhtres des indicateurs (Cas de \"Nombre d'annks de deversements du barrage\" pour l'indicateur FR).En effet de t&s grandes irrkgularitks y sont constatkes avec des t a w amuels de suivi kvaluks parfois B 25 % (3 mois sur 12 de suivi dans l'annee). Inutile donc de soufigner que de telles situations sont prkjudiciables B la quillit6 des informations que l'on p u t y extraire.Parmi les raisons probables A un tcl &at de fait, on cite le manque d'iniplication vkritable des structures partenaires du projet, et piutant de leurs agents commis a ces tkhes, faisant en sorte que ceux-ci ne mesurent pas sufiisannnent le poids & la qualit6 des donnkes collectkes dans la qualitk des rksultats qu'on en d6duit et Its dkcisions, les changements importants qui peuvent en dicouler. Cet objectif ultkrieur mais pric ritaire par son caractere, confhe la campagne maraichere sur le perimetre un r6le secondaire. Les superficies exploitables (20 ha au plus selon les simulations faites par le PMI-BF; cf. JP. Sandwid< 1995) en saison kche mnt limitks. De plus, il faut d'avantage de rigueur dans la plarjfication de la gestion de I'eau de la retenue tenant compte de toutes les fonctions qui lui sont devalues.Un autre cas est celui de Gorg, ou la retenue initialement coque pour l'alimentation des populations et le cheptel doit desormais (depuis 1991), supporter un amhagement en aval de 50 ha de riz en saison humide et 30 ha de cultures maraicheres en saison Ache ; cela avec une prevision de rehaussement de la digue cu barrage afin d'augmenter la capacite a 2 530 000 m3. Ceci n'ayant pas ete realisk, la gestioti de l'eau du barrage de Gorgo se presente en terme de gestion de phuries oh il est parfois diffcile de boucler certaines campagnes agricoles humides (SH 93) sans compter toutes les autres consequences que sont les importants et interminables deversements du barrage dus aux appo ts considerables au regard de la zone climatique (isohy&e 800) et de la taille du bassin versant (1 76' km2 au lieu de 165 km') du site.IV. 1.4 La valorisation de l'eau des r e t e m L'ensemble des donnkes collectbes par le PMI-BF ont permis d'inifier quelques analyses notamment en tenne de valorisation de ~'eau stockee dans les retenues des sites d'intervention.Ainsi une analyse des intensites culturales des sites (cf. rapport sectoriel agronomique du PMI-BF) et de la disponibilite relative en eau (qui est le rapport entre Capacite nette des retenues et la superficie d n a g e e soit k, ce ramort) montre une trks forte correlation (figure 14) entre ces deux paamktres avec un facteur r = 0,83 (et msme r = 0,91 lorsqu'on fait exception du site de Savili, p6imetre matcher en amont de barrage).On observe la m6me bonne corrc!lation entre les valeurs de disponibilite relative en eau des sites d'ktude et leurs produits annuels buts moyens A l'hectare (qui sont leyb vaaleurs moyennes des productions brutes annuelles par hectare amenage. Mais Ilorsqu'on analyse les paramhes 'produits annueh bruts par m3 d'eau exploitable\" ( p m d t r e reprksentmt les valeurs myeimes des productions brutes des sites 6tudi6s par unit6 de volume d'eau exploitable des retenues) el \"disponibilit6 relative en eau des retenues\" (figure 16), on remarque un faible niveau de corrdation.Tout en soulignant la taille relativement limitbe de l'kchantillon d'analyse (5 sites etudiks pendant 5 am), on pourrait dire (en attendant de pouvoir khrgir le champ d'analyse, la taille de l'6chantillon) que, par rapport a la conception et il la valorisation des barrages et des amknagements hydro-agricoles au Bzukina, \"plus il y a de l'eau disponible, plus l'utilisation productive de la tene augmente (constat confirmant la rehiin d6gag& dans la figure 14   Le PMI-BF $ I ses d6buts en 19511 et par les diagnosticd6valuations de performance des petits p&idtres irriguh du Burkina FaiO, a constat6, tout comme le CIEH dans son rapport sur les petits barrages en terre au Burkina Few (avec plus de 300 barrages fich6s), la carence d'6tudes approfondies sur l'envasement des barrag,es.Ce sujet pourtant pr6occupant pc ur qui veut g6rer rationnellement les ressources d'eau des retenues pour l'irrigation de cultures, a amen6 le PMl, en 6tudiant les cinq (5) sites d'interventions et h partir de quelques mesures et expressions disponibles dans la littkrature, tt tenter de combler la lacune concernant ce.s sites.Mais auparavant, il faut signaler un certain nombre de raisons expliquant cette situation d'absence de donn&s sur l'envasement dc:s retenues au Burkina Faso. Ce sont :Pour le CIEH (en 1986), la phipart des concepteurs admettaient que \"seules les grandes retenues sont susceptibles de s'envaser\" ; cela en dkpit de recherches menks sur l'efficacit6 des mesures de luttc: anti-6rosive.Pour bons nombres de bar rag:^, tous les objectifs ne sont trks souvent pas clairement d6finis au depart. C'est g6n6ralement aprks la rkalisation des retenues d'eau, et bien des ann6es plus tad, que l'on se rend compte qu'il faut lui adjoindre un amknagement hydro-agricole en aval. On pourra aussi ajouter qu'avant de procaer par la &ode 6voqde ci-dessus, le projet avait tent6 d'6valuer sommairement l'envinement des retenues des sites d'btudes par des analyses et actualisations des courbes hauteuni-volumes initiales des dossiers techniques mais les insufFisances qu'iI a relevees et prksenttks dans le tableau 1 du pr6sent rapport n'ont pas permis d'obtenir des r6sultats probants sauf au niveau de Mogtao comme le montre Ie tableau 9. . Le deplacement de la station de pompage a une position plus eloignke des secteurs d'irrigation avec modification du fonctionnement des groupes mis en p d 6 l e et refoulant l'eau dksormais dans une conduite wiresse commune qui assure la repartition dans les condwtes secondaks du schdma initial de distribution. Ce qui engendre des pertes de cherges donc de dkbits de refoulement.Le nombre de groupes mo to-pompes fonctionnels rdduit a 5 et parfois 4 seulement pour les 7 secteurs B irriguer ; cela par manque de maintenancz prkventive et ddt6rioration des aubes der, roues des pompes due a la cavitation des moteurs.. . L'obsolescence des groiipes moto-pompes (&oh me vitesse de rotation des mteurs rauite ii 1300 tr/mn au lieu de 1425 et des dwks totales de fonctionuement dtpasskes).Toutes ces ditficult6s citkes, ont donc introduit dans les p6rim&es des modifications profondes sinon des abandons des tours d'eau conceptuels au profit de modes de distribution dits \"adaptCs\" et beaucoup plus conformer aux capacitks r&ks des ouvrages et Cquipements disponibles. Mais B bien observer, on se rend compte que ces nouveaux tow; d'eau, en plus du fat qu'ils sont daCrents de ceux conceptuels restent peu suivis.Ces constats sont du reste corrolrx6s par les valeurs calcul6es de l'indicateur de diagnostic STE (Suivi du Tour d%au) dont la formule : Les divers instruments de suivi installts par le projet ont p d de quantifier les pr616vements d'eau des barrages pour l'iiigation des cultures SUI les sites d'6tudes ; exception kite de Savili oh I'absence de compteur voludtrique sur la conduite ma&esse n'a pas permis de quantifier exactement les volumes prClevCz pour l'irrigation. Aussi ces volumes ont-ils Ct6 dCduits, par c q a g n e , B partir de la dose moyenne @irrigation consid6rCe B 846 mm.Quant aux autres sites, en fonction des dCmarrages et fins de campagnes agricoles ainsi que des dates dinstallation des instrument3 de mesure, les volumes d'eau prClev6s pour l'irrigation des cultures sont rksum6s comme suit d m le tableau 12.   Parmi les rksultats obtenus par le projet, nous 6voquions les tours d'eau. A ce niveau, quelques unes des raisons j u s t k t leur profonde modification par rapport A ceux conceptuels et leur non respect sur les sites &etudes ktiient la qualit&/quantite de la desserte en eau et la qualit6 des structures organisationnelles de gestion.En effet, une analyse des debits d'irrigation en periode &he, en t8te de reseau primaire sur les dif€&rents sites, montre des valeurs de desserte asxz faibles ( m o b de 60 % des debits nominaux des prises sont atteints).Lorsqu'on fait exception des sites de Gorgo et Dakiri oh les tours d'eau pratiques justifient des debits en t8te de rbseau inf6rieurs aw; d6bits nominaux des prises d'eau, on remarque B travers le tableau 22 ci-dessous, que les debits de desserte g6nkrale sur les p&im&tres &etude soni absolument faibles ; jouant ainsi sur la qualite de la repartition de l'eau entre secondaires.  Les rksultats du PMI-BF a ce niveau ont surtout concernd les outwages physiques de drainage. La seule tentative possible de suivi des quantitks d'eau drainkes par les parcelles en riziculture est restke infiuctueuse. Elle a (concern6 le p&im&tre de Gorgo oa une batterie d'cheelles limnimktriques avaient kt6 installkes en Jiiillet -Aoat 1993 par la DIRH h la demande du PMI-BF et un suivi des niveaux d'eau amorc6 par I'encadreur du @rim&tre.Mais ce dernier h t obligk de suspedre les lectures parce qu'h la premiere grosse pluie qui tomba, il dut remarquer un reflux des e a u des deux marigots dam le pkr&tre par l'intermkdiaire du dispositif d'kvacuation des eaux dc drainage insuffisamment ktanchr: et qui se trouvait exactement a la coduence des marigots en cause. Ce qui contribua 31 inonder tout le p6rim&tre par la &me occasion.Quant ? I l'ktat physique meme des wseaux de drainage, il faut dire que beaucoup de choses restent b. faire. En effet, sur tous les sitcs, les drains sont tr6s mal entretenus, bouchRs ou tout simplement inexistants ; rkcupdrks qu'ils sont par certains exploitants pour aggrandr leurs parcelles. En effet :A D W le rtseau de drainage (principal et secondaire surtout) est canstamment sous eau pour diverses raisons (sous-dinxmionnement, envasement assez prononc6 rkduisant la capacitk, enherbement, contre-pente, etc..) dont la plus importante est I'absence d'un exutoire bien atdnagk. L'exutoirc prkm ici pour le drainage des e a w u*es et de pluies est un clapet anti-retour dont l'ktat du rkseau de drainage interne ajoutk 31 la faiblesse de la pente du tmain nature1 en aval de l'ouvrage induisent une insuE%ance de pression pour dkclencher l'ouverture des clapetr, d'dvacuation des eaux des parcelles. Cela est d'autant plus remarquable qu'en saison de pluies les eaux dkverdes du barrage remplissent le cours d'eau et constituent une pression si forte que les clapets restent knn6s pendant toute cette piriode engendrant du meme COUF' une inondation des parcelles situks A l'amont immRdiat des clapets.A Mogtkdo le phknomrSne d'abseiice d'entretien des drains est d'autant plus grave qu'en saison pluvieuse bon nombre de parcelles (les spontanks de la tete morte et du S1 notamment) ont rarement besom tlirriguer. La plupart des drains terliaires et secondaires de ce site ont disparu ; seul subsiiie de w o n visible le drain principal reprksentant I'ancien cours d'eau mais dont les contours actuels sont loin de ressembler aux initiaux.. A Itenga le phknodne est naissant. L'entretien est dkrisoire concernant tous les drains.Un dkbut de r6cupBration du drain secondaire du sous-pkrim6tre no 1 et sa piste, remarquk lors de la formation du PMI-BF en Mai 1995 b. l'intention des exploitants, a 6tk Bcartk.A Gorgo, les drains existent nlais le manque d'entretien en sus du problhe de l'emplacement de l'exutoire b. la confluence de dew cours d'eau, le drain principal reste pendant longtemps inondt en saiiron pluvieuse. Ce fait est exacerb6 par le dbversement des eaux de la colature exteme cbt6 Nord du @rimktre vers l'intkrieur de celui-ci &s qu'une gross pluie tombe ; cela ptr manque d'une digue de protection consistante et probablement aussi de la capacitd, peu adapt6e de la colature; ce qui pose ainsi le p r o b h de la protection du site contre les inondations.Quant au site de Savili, w e la position de ramhagement en amont de retenue et son caractkre marafcher, le problkra de drainage ne se pose pas et constitue moins une pr6occupation Mais Is aussi, au regard du plan d'am6nagement, les drains tertiaues et la colature de ceinture pr6vus par le concepteur sont de nos jours invisibfes, disparus probablement pour des besoins d'aggrandissement de parcelles.Ainsi il est dficile aujourd!hui pour le PMI-BF de pouvoir se prononcer sur la qualit6 de la gestion des eaux de drainage des petits pkrimktres irriguks 6tudi6s cela comparativement aux quantit6s d'eau d'irrigation mais pour ce qui est des ouvrages de drainage, les r6sultats pr&&Iemment present& permettent de tirer ia sonnette d'alarme et d'inviter les organisations paysannes A plus de regards sur ces ouvr,iges afin de toujom espher des rtcoltes satisfaiantes.Les rtsultats du projet B ce niveru ont concern6 la d6termination de d e w optimales de d6bits d'huipement pour le dimensionnement g6nkral des r6seaux d'irrigation ; cela au regard des divers rksultats et observations faites par ailleurs sur les sites &etude du projet notamment : les tours d'eau actuels en compl&e modification par rapport A ceux conceptuels et leur non respect ; les ouvrages de transport et distribution de dimensions souvent peu conformes au tour d'eau pr6conid ; les durkes journali&res de fonctioimement du r6seau d'irrigation largement suptrieures aux dur6es pr6vues par les concepteur's ; etc... En effet, nous savons Bgalement que le pamrktre hydraulique de base pour le dimensionnement d'un rkseau d'irriiation est le d6bit d'dquipement qe (exprim6 en V h ) calcul6 B partir du d6bit fictifcontinu de pointe qfcl (exprim6 lui aussi en Vs/ha) qui correspond au d6bit qui, s'il 6tait d6livr6 24 heures sur 24 dam le idseau d'inigation, permettrait, aprks d6duction de toutes les pertes beau, de satisfaire en p6riode de pointe les besoins en eau des cultures sur une superficie de I ha. Mais dam la pratique, le r6seau &irrigation ne fonctionne gh6dement qu'un certain nombre d'heures T, dam la journ6a.Le dtbit d'kquipement q. repdsente dors la valeur de qw augment& de mani6re A ce que les besoins en eau des cultures continuent B &re satisfaits en @riode de pointe (de demande maximae en eau) en un temps joumalier ,firrigation limit6 B T, : Les analyses ont 6tk guidees et son1 W e s , comme nous le mentionnions plus b u t , SUT les differents rksultats concernant les parani&tres qui sous-tendent la d6termination des valeurs du dkbit d'kquipement et qui sont : le d6bit tictif continu de pointe q tp lequel traduit les besoins bruts en eau d'irrigation des cultures qui, ew, sont dendantr des paradtres :les pertes d'eau par infiltration clans les canaux dont les r6sultats au niveau des sites du projet ont abouti aux valeurs de 70 % en saison humide et 60 % en &n skche comme le mentionnent les dossiers techniques des amknagements &udiks ; la percolation au niveau de la parcelle (partie de l'eau &irrigation non utilisable par les racines) ; cette valeu, pour la c :llule agronomique 21 l'issue de ses mesures sur les sites d'ktude, se situe autour de 3 nun5 ; la formule de calcul de 1ETo (€'em, Turc ou Bac d'kvaporation) dont au niveau du projet, Penman (la plus utiliske) mnble la miew indiqude pour ses nombreux paramktres tenant compte de tous les aspectti influant sur ETo ; le type de sp6culation ou les assdements (riz ou maraichage).Le temps journalier d'irrigation Tj dont la valeur actuelle sur les pkrhn&tres irrigu6s dkpasse de loin la valeur conceptuelle de 10 heures en riziculture et 9 hews en maraichage ;Le nombre total de jours N(j) d , m la periode considkee qui, ici, est le nombre total de jours d'irrigation de la culture Donc, partant de ces diff6rents paramktres essentiels dans la determination du q. comme Font Pour un assolement de riz en saison humide et riz en saison sdche, un debit d'equipement Tandis qu'un assolement de riz 8 :n SH et mardchage en SS se contenterait dun qe = 3 Cela pour peu que les durees journalikres d'irrigation atteignent 12 heures ; ce qui est d6jh le hit les concepteurs travers le tableau 29, le PM-BF est parvenu ti la conclusion que : qe = 5 l/s/ha serait largement suff ! a t (voir tableau 30).VSma comme d6bit d'equipement. cas sur les sites etudi4s au regard du tabhau 24. A partir des donnees collectkes SUI les sites dtitude, nous avons calculk les valeurs de ces indicateurs de performance et effectue les interpretations necessaires ii une borne comprtihension des valeurs obtenues. Le manque d'organisation de l'irrigation au niveau des exploitants ayant emblav6 leurs parcelles et qui fait que celles-ci, rparpilks surtout le pdrirnth au lieu de se regrouper le plus prks possible de la prise d'eau pour une distriiution eflticiente de l'eau, favorisent des gaspillages d'eau B travers les pertes le long du rkseau d'iiation.Le faible niveau de connaissance de l'aiguadier qui fait qu'il ne sait pas adapter Its d6bits en t&e de r6seau am superficies emblavks et surtout a m parcelles en irrigation.La charge d'eau exploitable faible BU niveau du barrage en p6riode &he explique aussi des ddbits dkisoires B la prise d'eau qimd bien &me celle-ci est ouverte au maximum.V.1.4 Du mint de vue du trawpo rt de l'ca I1 est parfois not6 des problkmes de transport d'eau dus B de mauvakes rblisations des ouvrages ou leur 6tat vieillissant et parfcis les vandalismes ; de sorte que ces demiers n'arrivent plus Zi v6hiculer la main d'eau p r h e . Ce qui a pour con&quences, en plus de l'indiscipline g6n6rale vis-A-vis des tours d'eau, de hvciriser un fiactionnement de la main d'eau entre plusieurs w a n t s pour des ddbits d6risoires de 2 ti 5 Vs exprimes par RGP dont les valeurs wnt t d s en de@ des r6fkences (RGP .< 0,40 saufsabili (RGP = 0,66)) et des d w b s d'irrigation atteignant 17 voire 18 heures environ. Inutile d'ajoute. que de telles irrigations sont gk&dement nocturnes avec tous les incondnients possibles don1 l'absence de surveillance engendrant des gaspillages par d6bordements de I'eau des casidparcelles vers les drains.V.1.5 Du uoint de vue de I'utilit6 de l'eau d6livrkOn remarque, au niveau des sites 6ttutlids, que les valeurs d'approvisionnements relatifs en eau sont assez fortes (RWS > 2,3) surtout en saison humide tandis que les doses globales d'irriigation sont rehtivement bonnes dans l'ensemble c,De i 1500 nnn/campagne). Cela s'expliquerait, de toute 6videncc , par la non prise en compte des eaux de pluies dans le sch6mas g6n6ral d'irrigation et les irrigations, rares mais rdelleq de certaines parcelles ri partir des eaux des drains (cas fidquent B Mogt6do). En e&t, pendant la dite &node l'abondance des ressources exclue toute i d k de tour deau, la seule loi qui &vaut est la concurrence des ddversements des barrages par les ouirertures des prises d'eau pour alimenter les canaw d'irrigation.V. 1.6 Du mint de vue de I'ornanisation cle la nestion de l'eau d'irrigation I1 y a presqu'une absence d'organisaiion sur les p6rhtWes irriguds pour la gestion de l'eau d'irrigation Ceci est perceptible au niveau des indicateurs Eq et STE (STE > 0,05) oii, en dehors de Savili (site B higation par pompage) les tours d'eau sont rarement appliq&s. Les raisons SOIIt, d'une part le manque ou 1 ' -de sensibilisation et de formation et d'autre part, des problemes de conformit6 dans la rdalisation ou d'absence d'ouvrages de transport et de &partition de l'eau.V.1.7 Du Doht de vue de la maintenaxe des hfbstructureg L'entretien courant sur les sites 6ttudies n'atteint pas un niveau dapplication suffisant pour phrenniser une fiabfit.5 du fonctionnment des inErastructures et juguler I'amplification des degradations n o d e s . I1 n'y a pratiquc:ment pas d'audits techniques pennettant de soutenir une politique et une exrkution performante de la maintenance. I1 manque dgalement de cadre organisationnel et financier (comme le montrent les difficult6s de calcul de valeurs de CFM et EFE pour chacun des sites 6tudi6s-tableau 30) pennettant d'assurer une meilleure prise en charge de la maintenance, de la planification de la gestion de l'eau ainsi que la protection de l'environnemt autour des amhgements.V. 1.8 Du point de w e de l'envasement des retenues d'eau Les rksultats obtenus par le projet et pr6sent6s dans le tableau 10 A ce sujet, appellent quelques commentaires. En eEet selon c:e meme tableau, Dakiri serait en train de se combler en raison d'environ 2 % de son volume initial par an, qui lui donnerait une dunk de vie autour de 50 ans (mais, il f a u t admettre que des dout :s subsistent sur le volume r6el de ce barrage). D6j& on constate que des bmdres des dk@ts scilides, observables en fin de campagne de contre-don, empgchent I'abntation en eau de la prise de l'am6nagement. De fait, une campagne de lev& topographiques, pour cerner le volume reel de ce barrage, est souhaitable en w e d'une bonne planification et utilisation de la ressource en eau L'envasement ne semble pas &re un problkme B Gorgo et Itenga (0,6 % et 0,2 YO de la capacit6 totale des retenues par an), du itloins pour I'alimentation en eau de la prise d'irrigation. Lors de l'avant-projet d'adduction d'eau de la ville de Pouytenga, les bureaux d'ktudes I. Krtiger AS et COW consult (1989) ont fait des .iimulations (A parti du modkle de GULLY qui leur ont permis d'avancer 500 ans comme dunk de comblement du barrage de Itenga, ce qui est proche du resultat que nous avons obtenu. Une cer!aine crtkiibilith peut alors &re accordke aux c m e s du tableau 8A Mogtkdo (taw d'envasement anntel d'environ 1 YO), il est facile d'observer que le fond de la cuvette a atteint et a meme depasd, pir endroits, le fond de l'orifce de prise d'irrigation. Ces d6pbts provoquent, en fin de campagne une rupture prematurk de l'alinmtation de la prise d'irrigation.L'envasement de la cuvette de Savil est rapport6 lors des enqdtes auprks des exploitants.Mais il ne semble pas &re trks grave actudlement. Selon les resultats du tableau 10 le phbmkne doit &re contenu rapidement par des mestres de lutte anti-erosive si I'on veut conserver la totalit6 de la superficie exploitable.Mais en dehors de ces analyses site par site, les differences de valeurs d'envasement moyen annuel entre site trouvent leurs explications travers des paramktres comme : la densite du couvert vegetal; les pratiques culturales ; et la densitk de la population eicistant sur le BV des retenues d'eau de ces sites. Ce qui pose du &me coup le problhme de la protection de ces retenues contre l'envasement. Ainsi B mains d'eau (q) Bgales, plus le dkbit d'equipemnt (qe) d'un &rWtre est faible, plus il y a de possibilitks de disposer de qwrtiers hydrauliques A superficies plus importantes (S, = q/qe; S, &ant la superficie du quarth hydraulique). Ce qui pourrait se traduireselon la topographie du sitepar un nombre plus dduit de canaux secondaires (fgure 18B). Mais la topographie du site pourrait dtre telle, qu'on aboutisse ii des longueurs de canaux secondaires plus importantes (figure 18C) et, par cordquent, des coats plus klev6s par canal secondaire. I1 est donc dficile d'apprkier dirwtement la rkpercussion, sur le coQt total du rkseau d'irrigation, de l'augmentation de longueur des canaux stxondakes revetus. Toutefois, on note que le COQt de confection du r6seau d'iiation entrant pour 50?? a 60 % dans le d i t total de 1'hech-c amhag&, toute 6conomie dans ce domaine est potentiellement fort apprkciable. construction du canal (beton de proprete et de revaement, remblai compacte, etc.) varient dans le m h e rapport que mlui de d&lai.De ce fait et si I'on suppose que le canal primaire entre pour 20 %I2 dans le cot3 total de I'ha amenage, alors l'adoption d'un qe de 3 Vdlm au lieu de 5 Vdha permettrait d'konomiser 0,30* 0,20 = 6 Yo du cotit de l'ha pour chaque kilometrc: de canal primaire avec pour conkquence qu'on ne pourra pas emblaver du riz sur la totalite de la supwficie du p&im&re en saison &he contrairement au q, de 5 vsiha.En d'autres termes, si I'amenagemcnt devait cotiter 7.000.000 FCFA a I'ha sur la base d'un q., de 5 U s h a , il cofiterait 420.000 FCFA dc inoins a l'ha pour chaque !an de canal primaire realise, konomie pouvant toujours servir a d'autrm travaux. Pour les d n a g e m e n t s dotes d'une longue t&e morte (ex. le perim&re de Mogtedo possede une t6te morte longue de 800 m), le choix judicieux du q.revEt une importance plus grande encore.Ce qui permet, sur la base du tableau 33 d'etablir, pour chacun des debits d'equipenient 3 Vdha et 5 Vdha, des formules exponentielles pclur exprimer le volume de terrassement en fonction de la superlicie a amhager. On obtient alors les tleux equations suivantes :  Sans me strat6giR nouvelle de Misation des Unagements hydro-agricoles par une forte implication des populations bhkficiaires iiu dharrage et ?i la fin des travaux de rhlisation de ces amhgementa de sorte B ce qu'ils s'approprient I'amknagement r k W , ainsi qu'une sensibilisation effective des structures dirigeantes paysannes au rkflexe d'entretien des infrastructures des dnagements (par la collecte de redevances eau plus consistantes et une organisation des travaux d'entretien), la nlaintenance des i&astructures pour la p6rennisation des dnagements restera dkrisoire.Les compktences paysannes insuffmtes, l'absence d'instruments adkquats de collecte de donn&s et l'inexistence d'une structure nationale de conservation, archivage, traitements et analyses des donnbs collectkes constituerd des fieins reels ti la mise en place d'un suidkvaluation des amknagements, source d'importantes dkiiions pour l'amklioration des performances hydroagricoles.Au regard de tout ce qui prkcMe en terme de rksultats obtenus et kcarts de performances hydrauliques sur les sites d'intervention, le PMI-BF formule, ci-a@s, quelques recommandations en vue d'amkliorer la situation et toujsours rendre performante la gestion de l'eau et des infrastructures des petits @rim*tres irrigu6s tout en assurant une peremisation des activitts agricoles sur ces sites et tous les autres sites semblables. Des initiiives de formation et de sensibilisation soient entreprises, portant sur les techniques de commation des eaux et des sols, B l'htention des agriculteurs qui exploitent des champs pluviaux dam le bassin versant et surtout en ceinture autour de la retenue, pour c o n t r i i la lutte contre l'cbsioa ans. Que la structuration des organisations paysannes soit revue en m h e temps que s'op&rera un chgement des mentalit& piw sensibilisation de chaque exploitant par rapport A la conception de 1'Etat cornme un &emel assistant des paysrmns et aussi par rapport aux conditions d'blection et d'6Iigibilitk des dirigeants des organisations paysannes.Que des t a u de redevance eau plus cordquents et conformes au revenu individuel des exploitants soient instaw&., collestes et effectivement u t W s pour la maintenance et les rkfections des diverses inftastructures des p6ridtres irrigu6s.Qu'un audit technique d'6valuaticin du Nveau de maintenance des sites soit instaure tous les 3 ou 5 ans a611 de renseigner siu la v i a b a d r6elle des @rim&tres.. .CoUecter des d o d s pour &valuer les performances d'un p6rimt5tre irrigu6 etait une activit6 inconnue sur les perimtitres irri@s ; en thmoigne l'absence de certains instruments essentiels de mesures pour la collecte de d o d e s (kchelles limnimetriques dans les retenues, pluviom&tres SLU les p h e t r e s , etc..). Ce constat conduit a u x recommandations suivantes : I1 est imphratifque tout nouvel amknagement soit dot6 d'khelles hnimktriques de suivis des hauteurs d'eau dans la retenue ainsi qu'une (au moins) khelle gradde en debits en t h e de canal primaire et un pluviom?tre pour le wivi des hauteurs de pluies tombees sur le p6rirrRtre.Un aiguadierexploitant alphabCtis6sera commis aux tgches de suivis et collectes des donnkes moyennant une r6mudration r6gub6re par la coop6rative et une formation prealable en guise de sensibilisation aiin de le parfitire dam sa t b h e de gestionnaire de l'eau d'irrigation. -Au niveau du riseau de drainage et des owrages annexes Pour ce qui concerne le r6seau de drainage de m6me que les digues de protection, leur meiUeur fonctionnement passe par des travaux permanents de maintenance et de rkfections qui sont : reprofilage a leur cote initiale ('iossier technique) des colatures en fin de campagne agricole ;curages des dalots r e h t les colatilres secondaim z i l'ancien canal primaue ; institution de seances de d6sherbages et d'entretien des drains tout au long des campagnes agricoles (p6riodiquement ou h la tlemande) ; 0 refections impbratives de l'ouvrage de dkbouchk des eaux sauvages provenant du nord du perimhtre dans le marigot ;rkfections plus consistantes de totites les parties effondrees de la digue de protection du cat6 sud du p&im&tre afin de contmir les grosses quantitks d'eau dkverdes du barrage ;quant aux clapets anti-retour dont le mauvais fonctionnement affecte le p&im&tre, d e w solutions sont envisageables :. le reprofilage du chenal dans le lit mineur du marigot pour amkliorer 1'6coulement ; mais il hut signaler le coat prohibitifde tels travaux ;. Les ouwages de rencontre des colatures devront &re rkalids en revgtement de perrk mqonnd bloquk par des parafouilles suivi dr: transitions en perrk sec kgalement bloqukes par des pardouilles.Pour ce qui est de I'ouvrage a l'exutoire de la colature primaire, des am6liorations par un systkm de cornikre devraient &re apportees pour assurer son ktanchkitk.Ces recommandations dont la rhlisation est en majeure partie a la port& de I'organisation paysanne pennettent d'escompter des rksultats sans commune mesure avec l'investissement et qui sont : la rkduction des superficies susceptibles A l'asphyxie par une amdioration du drainage ; la suppression des risques d'inorxlation par reflux des eaux des marigots dam la colature principale.La protection du pkrim&tre de Gorgo contre les inondations est le problhe le plus prtbccupant pour les exploitants et repose le problkme de la protection en gberale des p k r d t r e s irriguks. En effet a Gorgo la protection du pkrimktre contre les inondations met en cause aussi bien le rehaussement prkvu mais non r W du barrage que celui du positionnement mkme du site A la confluence de grands cours d'eau. Cela demande alors quelques recommandations formulkes comme suit :A dkfaut bun financement pour k: rehaussement de la digue du barrage qui rkduirait les quantitks d'eau susceptibles d'inonder le p&im&tre il conviendrait de reconsiderer les param&res de dmensionnement di:s digues de protection de &me que la consistance du compactage du remblai afin de mieux prot6ger le ptiritnktre.Une solution de rechange A la situation actuelle serait de dkvier le lit du marigot attenant au dkversoir du barrage afin d'6loigner une des sources dinondation du perimktre et par la meme occasion rdsoudre le problem d'inondation par reflux des eaw a la confluence des marigots avec l'ouvrage de dkbouchk. Mais il faut dire tout de suite que cette solution onbreuse par la quantite et la technicitk des travaux ? I exdcuter au regard de la morphologie et la topographie des terrains environnants, d r i t e peu &attention.En demibre position et pour m e solution extreme, ne fhudra t-il pas abandonner simplement le site de Gorgo, puisque sa position se pr&e peu a un tel ambgement ? Mais cela ne remettrait-il pas en cause les raisons qui avaient prdvalu ii sa cr6ation ? Et les infrastructures rBalis6es a miit de millions, que faire ? Les principaux rdsultats attendus de ces recommandations &ant : une meilleure planitication de la campagne agricole en fonction de la quantitB d'eau disponible ; une distribution plus Quitable du ,?rofit du barrage aux populations; une protection plus consciente dt: la ressource en eau dont le coGt ddsormais prohibitif (plus de 500.000.000 de FCFA avant d6valuation) rend de plus en plus diEcile de nouvelles rdalisations.-Concernant lepiratage de I'eau par 1e.r exploitants spontanks I1 convient de songer juguler le ph6nomkne le plus rapidement possible par un certain nombre de dispositions telles : D'abord, la d6limitation de la 7xme d'emprise du barrage et de l'amdnagement permettra de dBfinir une stratdgie de planEcation des actions d'occupation de ladite zone afm de la soustraire aux v6lIditb (\\'occupation anarchiques dont les impacts ndgatifs condamneraient a terme la survie du systkme. En effet l'exploitation agricole sans pr6cautions du pourtour de la cuvette sow irrigation ou en culture pluviale fait planer un certain nombre de memces sur la p6rennite de la retenue (acc616ration du phknodne denvasement) e. sur la qualit6 de I'eau (pollution par les produits phytosanitaires et les engrais).En outre, dans le cas de l'irrigation informelle, elle viendrait en comp6tition avec le systhe officiel et entraverait toute formule de planification de la gestion de la resource en eau. Le d6veIoppement de l'iigation informelle sur les abords du &r&tre amhag6 pose le &me type de problhe avec en sus une d6sorganisation des programmes d'irrigation.PI&, des sanctions approprides A l'encontre de tous ceux (personnes physiques ou modes) qui mhent des actions pr6judiciables A la bonne conservation de la resource et des infrastructures. Ces sanctions peuvent &re p6cuniaires et/ou penales selon leur graVit6, leur application etant faite par les autorites reconnues comp6tentes de l'Etat. La ressource en eau et les ouvrages de mobilisation et de distribution de l'eau sont UD patrimoine national acquis a grands h i s et qu'il convient de proteger et d'utiliser judicieusement .L'Blimination du piratage de I'eau sur te peridtre est plus que nkessaire. Une application de ces recommandations engendrerait plui que des avantages pour I'organisation paysanne dont : une meilleure capmite d'organisation et de distribution de l'eau ; I'm& puis I'6limination pure et siniple de piatage ; la suppression de causes latentes de conflits ; la consolidation des liens de I'organisation paysanne pour d6fendre ses mtkdts vis-8-vis de partenaires ext6rieurs.Le p6rRtre irriguk de MogtLAo a beaucoup derive: pour se trouver aujourd'hui dans un Ces recommandations viseront soit lux &habilitation partielle, soit une n5habilitation totale de la station de pompage que seules les capacitC financikres de I'organisation permttront de choisiret un Cquipement de la conduite maftresse de refoulement en compteur volUmttfique d'eau afin de pouvoir quantifier les volu1111:s p&ievks pour l'irrigation.Elle a &tc kvaluee a 2.000.000 FCFA environ et consistera en : un changement des roues des ponpes (environ 200.000 FCFA par pompe). une modification des aspirations des pompes ($100 au lieu de $ 80).un changement (ou la refection) d1: s moteurs avec une limitation de vitesse inviolable.et en l'evacuation des gaz brWs Flar un profond r 6 -d n a g e m n t de la salle des machines.Une telle rkhabiiation ne redonnerait pas au reseau les caracteristiques de projet (pace que les pertes de charge &aient sous estimees et parce que la conduite mabesse introduit de nouvelles pertes de charge entratnant une diminution de debit). D'un autre cbtt! les consignes de mainttmce devraient &re precises et une formation SUT place du ou des mhniciens devrait &re prevue. Cette formation viserait : l'entretien des moteurs ; l'entretien des pompes ; l'entretien du reseau. Le pr6sent rapport sectoriel qui brasse tous les aspects du management de 1'Irrigation relatiti ri l'hydradique a permis de mettre en 6vidence les performances r & k s des cinq petits amknagements autour des barrages du 13urkina ; leurs Bcarts par rapport aux rdfkrences et les causes de ces kcarts de performance.Loin d'avoir fait un bilan exhaustif des performances hydrauliques de ces amenagemnts ktudi6s au cours des cinq ( 5 ) d e s de travail, ce rapport constitue nkanmoins un apport non nkgligeable dans la recherche des amkliorations possibles A y apporter en w e de toujours rendre perfonnants leurs fonctionnements hydra iliques et leurs rksultats agricoles.La portbe, la representathit6 des rksultats obtenus sur les sites ktudi6s par rapport aux autres dnagements du Burkina, constituent lc, futur champ de bataille du PMI-BF ; a h de bien cibler les rksultats g&n&aIisables et diffusibles h souhait au profit des divers amknagements semblables au B u r b et dans la sous-r@ion.        . .----_---I ---","tokenCount":"8487"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"52300bd7065b9488df13424f7a0db2cc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/435696f5-9f61-4346-90b8-470de1dd10db/retrieve","id":"1692042407"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4e24c873-3ec0-4828-8097-69348c6100ca","pagecount":"10","content":"A study of grazing behaviour of herded cattle kept by settled Fulani pastoralists showed that a wide range of different feed resources are utilized, particularly during the dry season. Sorghum and millet residue grazing accounted for 12.6% of annual grazing time in Abet, a farming area, and for 6.6% in Kurmin Biri, a grazing reserve. It peaked in December with 65% of monthly grazing time in Abet and 50% in Kurmin Biri. Browsing accounted for 11.2% of annual grazing time in Kurmin Biri and 1.4% in Abet, with a peak in the late wet season, when browsing was 30% of monthly grazing time in March in Kurmin Biri and 8% in April in Abet.Natural herbaceous vegetation was not differentiated in this study but includes fallow land, upland range, low-lying areas (fadama) and regrowth after burning an fallow and upland range. Fadama and regrowth after burning are utilized during the dry season, whereas fallow fields are preferred grazing during the early wet season.Both herding and grazing time are however very short, with little more than 6 hours grazing per day on average over the year and only 5 hours per day during the late wet season. Compared with free grazing animals, short herding time changes the diurnal pattern of grazing. When the day was divided into 2-hour periods the level of grazing was constantly high, above 70% for most of the year and around 50% in May, the transition period between wet and dry season. Walking accounted for most of the remaining time, with little time spent on resting and ruminating during the herding day. Resting and ruminating account for almost half the time during daytime in the case of free-grazing animals.Reasons for short herding and grazing times are discussed, and their implications for animal production are examined in view of the spatial and operational integration of farming and cattle herding and the possibilities of using different grazing resources.Grazing behaviour and grazing time of free-grazing cattle have been extensively researched. From the literature, Arnold and Dudzinski (1978) compiled data on the grazing time of beef and dairy cattle in the temperate and tropical zones. Much less, however, is known about the grazing behaviour and grazing time of herded cattle. Early work (e.g. Smith, 1961) merely stresses that restricted grazing and walking fang distances have negative effects on cattle performance. In recent years, more detailed studies of herded cattle have been made. Van Raay and de Leeuw (1974) pointed out that a wide range of different feed resources are used by pastoralists' herds in the semi-arid zone of Nigeria, particularly during the dry season. This paper presents results of a study of grazing behaviour and forage resource utilization by herded cattle in the subhumid zone of Nigeria. The study was carried out over 2 years in Abet, a farming area, and over 1 year in Kurmin Biri, a government grazing reserve. Observations were made of the time when the herd left and returned to the camp (ruga) and predominant herd activities during the time out of confinement. These were classified into: walking, resting, watering, and grazing. Grazing was further subdivided into: grazing of natural range, browsing, and crop residue grazing. During the course of the study, it was decided to include grazing of burnt areas as an additional subdivision.As shown in van Raay and de Leeuw's study, pastoralists' cattle used a variety of grazing resources (Table 1). Grazing time on crop residues was about twice as long in the farming area as in the grazing reserve, whereas browsing accounted for eight times the grazing time in the latter than in the former area. In this study, crop residues included only sorghum and millet, but subsequent more detailed work on crop residue utilization in the farming area revealed that rice and soybean residues are also grazed to a considerable extent. Important browse species were Afzelia africana, bamboo, Khaya senegalensis, Adenolichos paniculatus and Mucuna spp.Both crop residue grazing and browsing were highly seasonal. A peak in crop residue grazing occurred in December after grain harvest, when it accounted for 65% of total grazing time in the farming area and 50% of total grazing time in the reserve. Browsing peaked in March, when it accounted for 8% of grazing time in the farming area and 30% in the reserve (Figure 1). Crop residues provided good-quality forage during the early dry season. Faecal nitrogen in December (the height of crop residue grazing) in the farming area was found to be 1.55%, corresponding to 9.7% crude protein, whereas by the late dry season it had dropped to 0.6% (Powell, personal communication). If faecal nitrogen falls below 1.3% animals respond to nonprotein nitrogen supplements such as urea, indicating nitrogen deficiency in the diet (Winks and Lainge, 1972). In both study areas, more than 80% of total grazing time was spent on natural range (Table 1). During the second year of study, when regrowth on burnt areas was included as a distinct resource within natural range, the cattle in the farming area spent 19.3% of their total dryseason grazing time and 8.5% of their total wet-season grazing time on regrowth, which may contain more than 8% crude protein (Blair-Rains, 1978). The wet-season regrowth grazing was in the 2-month period before heavy rains began. Over the entire year, 13% of total grazing time was spent on recently burnt areas. In the case of cattle in the grazing reserve, corresponding figures were 22% of dry-season grazing, 7.9% of wet-season grazing, and 14.1% of total annual grazing.Low-lying seasonally inundated (fadama) areas contributed primarily to dry-season grazing.The contribution of fallow land grazing was greatest during the early wet season. However, observations did not permit a detailed analysis of upland, fadama and fallow land grazing times.The cattle were herded for an average of 8.4 hours par day in the farming area and 8.8 hours per day in the reserve. The longest time out of confinement was recorded in April (period of scattered rains in the early wet season), when the monthly average was 10.8 hours per day in both study areas, and the shortest time in September (late wet season) with 6.9 and 7.5 hours per day in the farming area and reserve respectively. Walking accounted for about one quarter of herding time, whereas resting and watering together represented only 5% of total time out of confinement, with little difference between study areas (Table 2). Actual grazing time constituted roughly 70% of time out of confinement in both areas. Herding and grazing time varied according to season. Longest herding time was recorded in April and shortest in September (Figure 2). Actual grazing time was little more than 5 hours per day in the wet season, reached 8 hours per day in the late dry season, and averaged only about 6 hours per day over the year as a whole. The general annual pattern of daily grazing time longer in the dry than the wet season, with a peak when the first scattered rains fallagrees well with the patterns of free-ranging domestic ruminants in similar climates (Smith, 1959;Wilson, 1961). However, the absolute daily grazing times of the herded cattle are very low compared with free-ranging animals. In the review by Arnold and Dudzinski (1978) of grazing studies in tropical and temperate areas, the average grazing time of beef cattle came to 9.5 hours/day/; only 10% of the over 100 references indicated less than 7 hours/day and only 2% less than 6 hours/day. Stobbs (1974) found grazing times of up to 14 hours/day by dairy cattle in southern Queensland, Australia. Smith (1959) found similarly long grazing times by Zebu cattle in Zimbabwe when pasture quality was low. Moreover, night grazing by indigenous African cattle inept on pasture for 24 hours/day accounted for up to 25% of total grazing time (Haggar, 1968).Effects of restricted grazing time on animal productivity have not been extensively researched.In Zimbabwe, Smith (1961) compared grazing behaviour and liveweight development of cattle allowed on pasture for 7 hours, 11 hours and 24 hours/day. The animals in the 7 hour treatment partly compensated for the shorter grazing day by deferring resting and ruminating until they were confined and by increasing feed intake per grazing hour. Nevertheless, they gained less or lost more weight than animals in the 11-hour and 24-hour treatments in the dry season, when pasture quantity and quality were low. Over the entire trial period of 16 months, liveweight gains per animal in the 7-hour treatment were only half those in the 11-hour and 24hour treatments (37 versus 73 kg). These data suggest that short grazing time may be a factor contributing to the low productivity of pastoralists' cattle in the study areas.Some reasons given by pastoralists for this relatively short grazing time were: increasing danger of worm infestation in early morning during the wet season; negative effect of wetseason dew on feed intake by cattle; difficulty of controlling animals with satiated appetite; and competition for labour between herding and cropping. Night grazing is avoided for fear of predators and thieves.The arguments concerning control of satiated animals and labour competition deserve particular attention in the context of livestock-crop integration. Ethological studies show that towards the end of a grazing period some animals still feed, although probably more selectively, while others begin to ruminate or wander idly (Arnold and Dudzinski, 1978). A herd which ceases to behave uniformly becomes more difficult to handle. The practice of grazing fallow and uncultivated fields adjacent to cropped land and grazing crap residues adjacent to unharvested crops demands tight herd control if crop damage is to be avoided. Cessation of herding before animal appetite is satisfied and behaviour begins to diversify reduces the danger of crap damage. Whereas young boys can handle herds in the dry season, it is necessary for older youths or adult men to accompany the cattle when grazing control is critical during the wet season and early crap residue grazing period. However, these people are also needed for land preparation, weeding and harvesting of their own fields. It is unlikely that the cattle can eat their fill during the short grazing time found in Nigeria. Fulani cattle allowed on pasture for 11 hours grazed for 7.5 hours daily in the wet season (Haggar, 1968).Transhumant herders, who use the study areas only in the dry season, leave camp each morning 1.5 -2 hours earlier than the settled Fulani and, subtracting a mid-morning break in the camp for 0.5 -1 hour, herd their cattle for about 1 hour/day longer. Those herders who bring cattle into the study areas during grain harvest herd their animals for up to 3 hours/day longer than do the settled Fulani in that period.Reports from semi-arid savannas (Hoper, 1958;Barral, 1967;Riesman, 1977;Fricke, 1979) indicate that night grazing of cattle is practised by some transhumant groups. There is little information on productivity comparisons of these different pastoral systems. Wilson and Clarke (1976) found in Sudan that productivity was higher in nomadic than in settled cattleherds, yet recent work in Mali (Wilson, 1982) showed no significant difference in productivity indices between a transhumant and a settled cattle-keeping system. Van Raay and de Leeuw (1974) compared grazing strategies of nomadic and settled pastoralists in the semi-arid savanna of Nigeria, which has higher human and cattle population densities than in the subhumid savanna. The nomadic cattle were longer out of camp and generally grazed longer, but walked up to 30 km per day compared with a maximum of 14 km by settled herds. The settled Fulani were able to provide their cattle with a more varied and steady fodder supply within more confined areas, i.e. requiring less energy expenditures by cattle and herders. By virtue of their closer association with cropping systems, settled Fulani appeared to have an advantage over nomads in terms of access to valuable grazing resources such as crop residues and fadamas.In the study areas of the subhumid zone crop residue and fadama grazing is more abundant, relative to cattle density, than in the semi-arid zone and transhumant herds appear to have easy access to these resources. Camping and grazing of transhumant herds on farmland in the dry season is welcomed by the farmers, who appreciate the manure and the fact that the herds leave the area again before crop damage becomes possible. Transhumant pastoralists moving into these farming areas only seasonally are by no means disadvantaged and may even gain from their ability to utilize a wider ecological range of grazing resources than settled pastoralists; transhumant cattle are therefore likely to be more productive.The present systems of livestock-crop integration in the subhumid zone, whether involving settled or transhumant herds, are characterized by high labour inputs for animal control in order to make optimal use of space in farming areas. The restricted grazing time when pastoralism and cropping are spatially integrated is a constraint on animal productivity. However, partial compensation is gained through the herded animals' access to better quality feed on fallow and harvested land. Segregation of cattle keeping from cropping would sacrifice the better utilization of land resources possible within the present production systems and would lower the total animal and crop yields per unit area.If the pastoralists could establish fenced pastures, at least selected productive animals could be allowed longer grazing times without extra labour requirements for herding. Such a combination of improved forage and a longer grazing day should bring substantial improvements in animal productivity. Expressed in terms of liveweight gain of the selected animals, increases of about 30 kg per head and year may be expected, calculated on the basis of Smith's (1961) data from Zimbabwe and the preliminary results of ILCA's fodder bank grazing experiments.The grazing studies in Abet and Kurmin Biri also presented an opportunity to examine the diurnal activity patterns of herded cattle. The diurnal grazing activity pattern of non-herded cattle in the tropics as well as in temperate zones has been well documented (e.g. Smith, 1959;Wilson, 1961;Arnold and Dudzinski, 1978). The general pattern includes a peak in grazing activity in the early morning, another in the late afternoon, and substantial grazing activity at night. Climactic factors, particularly high ambient temperatures, influence this general pattern, especially in the case of exotic cattle in the tropics. For example, Breintholz et al (1981) found in Ibadan, Nigeria, that almost 60% of the grazing time of Friesian cattle was during the night hours, whereas only 25% of the grazing time of indigenous African cattle was at night (Smith, 1959;Haggar, 1968) .Management practices also affect grazing behaviour of cattle. For instance, a peak in grazing activity occurs immediately after a new strip of pasture has been allocated (Hancock, 1953).Less is known about the effect of herding on diurnal grazing pattern. The Fulani practice of confining the cattle overnight and well into the morning excludes both: night grazing and the early morning grazing peak found in free-ranging cattle.As shown in Figure 3, the diurnal feeding activity pattern of herded cattle differed markedly from that of non-herded cattle in that grazing continued throughout most of the day. This corresponds with a report from Smith (1961) that animals restricted to a grazing day of 7 hours grazed almost continuously while on pasture.Although the White Fulani cattle, with their white hair and dark pigmented skin, are well adapted to high radiation, it is likely that even they suffer from heat stress during midday grazing, particularly in February and March when midday temperatures above 35°C are common. The short herding time and shortage of feed forces the animals to graze more or less continuously, thus preventing them from seeking shade and rest, as described by Lewis (1978). Utilization of fenced pastures for night grazing may be a means of alleviating this problem to some extent. Analysis of diurnal cattle activity reveals that another problem expressed by the Fulani in the case study areas -insufficient water for stock in the dry season -is not very severe. The cattle are watered at least once daily throughout the year. During the dry season, watering frequency is increased, and thrice daily watering is not uncommon. In this respect, management of stock in the subhumid savanna differs markedly from management in semi-arid or arid tropical areas, where animals are led to water only every second or even third day (King, 1983).1. Herded cattle in the subhumid zone use a variety of different feed resources including crop residues, browse, low-lying seasonally inundated areas and fallow land. Crop residues are more important in a farming area whereas browse is used to a greater extent in a grazing reserve.2. Utilization of these different resources demands control of animal movements combined with flexibility, which can be achieved only through the practice of herding. The need to herd, together with labour competition between cattle husbandry and cropping activities, leads to short grazing times for agropastoralists' herds, particularly in the late wet season.3. The short herding times lead to a change in the diurnal grazing activity pattern of cattle to one of almost continuous grazing throughout the time out of confinement, even during the hottest time of the year.4. It is suggested that short grazing time and reduced feed intake during the hot midday in the dry season contribute to the low level of cattle productivity.5. It is further suggested that the use of fenced pasture for night grazing would enable cattle to extend grazing time and avoid stressful midday grazing, thus increasing feed intake, without sacrificing the flexibility-and utilization of different grazing resources during the day as practised in the present agropastoral system.","tokenCount":"2908"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1f6f3ed994b9d913a546d56185634f73","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43877929-fbf6-4fda-ad06-854982bb456d/retrieve","id":"246684467"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5b638833-475c-4a53-9709-fdadb248f458","pagecount":"153","content":"We are following a two-entry-point strategy. We begin at the reference sites with strategic and participatory action research approaches, and scale up through training, the forrnation of national training tearns, and implementation of numerous and di verse local action plans. These lead to development i.mpact outside our reference sites on a larger scale. The second entry point is the regional view. Here we use DSS and GIS as important parts in the multi-disciplinary approach to larger areas like Central America linking to forrn a kind of continuum, which will help avoid repetition and fragmentation.. ¡: 'l-, ! OQO 3.2 Train local, regional, and national organizations in the use of methodologies and/or tools developed by CIA T and its partners, using methods developedTraining in managerial administration and postharvest management of seed 77 Action plans: Support their development, hold training workshops for 78 their follow-up and evaluation, and supervise, monitor, and document those elaborated by trainees Incorporate the use of methodological tools to support NRM organizations through workshops with national groups 3.3 Strengthen small-scale producers, managers, and local, regional, and national organizations in aspects related to rural development using participatory investigative methodsTraining in the elaboration ofprojects at community level Support the consolidation of Cornrnittees for Developing Rural Agroenterprises in Yorito and Sulaco Consolidate Committees for Developing Rural Enterprises in 81 developing a local system of support for small rural agroenterprises Interchange experiences of development and rura) strengthening at local, 84 national, and international levels .4 Support, through incorporating processes of participative investigation, local organizations oriented to agricultura! investigation 85 3.5 Promote and support interinstitutional processes and plans for sustainable rural developmentFeeding into the natural resource management (NRM) logframe, the PE-3 logframe has five main outputs, which malee up what we see as the three main pillars of our strategy. They are innovative technologies (Outputs 1 and 2), strengthening organizations (Outputs 3 and 4), and decision support tools (used in Outputs 1 to 4). These three pillars are intercommunicated and link to the other expertise areas of agroenterprises, soils, participatory research, various crop commodities, and geographical information systems (GIS). We foster collaboration internally with other CIAT projects and extemally with other partners (Output 5) in order to achieve these three pillars of impact mentioned in the Central American report. We aim to achieve this through intercommunication, using the Supermarket ofTechnologies for Hillsides (SOL, its Spanish acronym) and the reference si tes as laboratories, and outside the reference si tes with training, consultancies, and partly with decision support systems (DSS) and other tools.We start at the reference si te and landscape levels where our work is maturing into an integrated watershed management approach (CIAT-Hillsides 2000 1 ), into which the SOL system is being worked. This very new development has just begun in Central America and is slower to establish itselfbecause this participatory work deals with plants and the biological systems. Thus the SOL system needs time to grow and establish itself. Evaluations are under way on new genetic materials of annual crops (rice, beans, maize, sorghum, cassava, soybean, and sweet potato) in Honduras and Nicaragua Participative evaluations of grain and legume crops at farm level have also begun. Other investigations include quantifying the performance of animals in traditional and improved pastures, and evaluating the efficiency ofthe combination of organic and inorganic sources in annual crop production. Work with fallows includes evaluating the potential of various treelbush species for improved fallow and fallow management for soil fertility recovery.We are upscaling from this work through training.The strengthening of organizations is dealt with at the reference si te level. This output is the historical strength of the project and is now being reemphasized and moving outwards to other countries. The training of trainers is the hotbed of this upscaling. The eight Guides being used in training are soon to be published in an updated second edition, which will also be available in CD-ROM. Guide no. 1 on local indicators of soil quality now has an adapted African edition (in English). New Guides are being developed on demand and include establishing small seed enterprises, the use of maquetas, and the management of soil organic matter, among others. All the Guides are being translated into English and edited fo~ publication as new editions. Training has been given in managerial ad.ministration and postharvest management of seed as well as on the Guides. Fifteen action plans were made and follow-up is in process. In February and March so me of the Guides were presented in Asia, East Africa, and Pero. Support continues in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Colombia To date, 18 training courses have been given since August of last year (Table 19). Support continues to local cornrnittees and organizations in many different ways on demand.In the past, the project was strongly biased in the direction of developing DSS and DS tools and more progress in this field is shown in this report beca use of it. Historically this part of our work has been self-standing, but it needs more socialization that unfortunately was not done from the start. We see that we have sorne valuable tools that should be used at regional leve}, but this must be done with ground truthing and in a participatory manner. We look at GIS as an important part of the multi-disciplinary approach needed to move into the larger, regional view to find the main concentrations ofthe problems ofinterest The use ofmodels in ex-ante analysis is helpful to decision makers ( e.g., Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer [DSSAT] modeling, spatial water budget model, and linear programming and optimization models). Other tools were developed to solve differing needs. The spatial data exploration toolbox contains sorne ofthese, and the Accessibility Wizard is an example oftheir success (used after Hurricane Mitch). The Intelligent Team Decision Assistant (ITDEA) builds on years of experience following the methodology of participatory planning by objectives to help build partnerships and expedite the planning process.We are following a two-entry-point strategy. We begin at the reference sites with the SOL approach, upscaling through training, which in tum upscales through the training of trainers and the local work on action plans that translate into development impact. moving outwards to other sites. The second entry point is the regional view. Here we use DSS and GIS as important parts in the multi-disciplinary approach to this larger area, linking to form a kind of continuum, which will help avoid repetition and fragmentation. We believe that this linking approach will begin to glue the process together. We may be able to concentrate a lot of opportunities instead of spreading out, and we will be able to do so without ignoring our past. The reference si tes are usefullaboratories and are growing and have an input to give to the approach.The project management is also following the participatory pattem. Empowerment is the mainstay of our system, building a \"self-directed\" work team where constant monitoring and evaluation helps strengthen the process.We strongly believe in the importance of empowerment ofthe local people. We cannot continue to develop tools and the technology transfer approach without involving the local communities.The opportunities are clear. People are not empowered because of inadequate education, lack of farmer organizations, research development and extensiori organizations that focus on one-time technology transfer, and the formal agendas ofresearch and development are out oftouch with long-term processes.We see that CIAT is strong in separate disciplines, but that the new research frontier where CIA T has a great strength is in the multi-disciplinary approach.1 Output 1Project PE-3: • Natiooal and local   To improve the standard of living and food• Improved water quality in rivers and streams statistics security ofhillside fanners in Tropical• Increased income (monetary afidlor in kind)• Local research  Major HighlightsOutput 1: Production systems improved > Fann-level models are being developed to help simulate new technology options and the likely etfect of new policies at local and nationallevel and will help decision makers choose the best options. )> New genetic materials of annual crops (rice, beans, maize, sorghum, cassava, soybean, and sweet potato) are being evaluated in the Supermarket of technology options for hillsides (SOL, the Spanish acronym) sites in Colombia, Honduras, and Nicaragua. )> Multipurpose forages for crop/livestock systems are being evaluated and selected with farmer participation. )> Continuous support to Committees for Local Agricultura! Research (CIALs, the Spanish acronym) has made them a key component in the process of identification and evaluation of technological innovations. They also form an important linkage between formal research carried out in the SOL and farmer perspective for a given technology.Output 2: More sustainable landscapes)> Information was generated relevant to developing scenarios of use and extrapolation of SOL technologies and is expected to contribute to the diagnostics of sustainability of current land use systems and as an entry point to extrapolate improved land use systems generated at the SOL sites. )> The spatial water budget model (SWBM) was developed and is available for download at the Intemational Consortium for Agricultura! Systems Application (!CASA) Web site. It is intended to support local decision making and for teaching local stakeholders about basic functions of multiple-community watershed components such as relationships between land and water resources, etfects of land use, demographic changes on future water accessibility, and upstream-downstream relationships. )> Hydrological maps oí Honduras were produced to help decision makers in locating the best areas for location of small seed enterprises (PES, the Spanish acronym) and what irrigation is needed in less optimal areas. )> Consortia activities supported include initiation with the Manejo Integrado de Suelos (MIS) and consolidation of annual operative plan with the Local Committee for Sustainable Development ofthe Tascalapa River watershed (CLODEST, the Spanish acronym). Work with Campos Verdes in San Dionisio and the Network of Local Organizations in Yorito and Sulaco (REDOL YS, the Spanish acronym) better identified demands at locallevel and their effective linkage with institutional work at different levels.Output 3: Organizations strengthened)> A Guide was developed and elaborated for the establishment ofPES with aspects of marketing, feasibility, and revised managerial administration. It includes basic and essential . concepts of orientation to the market, profitability, and sustainability. )> A CD-ROM ofthe Guides in use will be available soon. New Guides on local indicators of soil quality and management of soil organic matter are being developed. )> During the year, 15 action plans were elaborated and national teams oftrainers trained in their evaluation. )> Workshops on the Guides were held in Africa, Asia, the Andean zone, Central America, and Colombia ::;> Two local committees for the development of rural agroenterprises were established. The committees are strengthened by attending to support demands. They should be able to mount a support system that is sustainable in the future thanks toan offer of services adapted to the area's demand and with the establishment of a payment mechanism for services.>-Lessons leamed, hypotheses, principies, and spaces to be filled by future research activities were identified for CLODEST and REDOL YS in Honduras and the Asociación Campos Verdes in Nicaragua.);:> Following visits to collaborating organizations, an inventory of needs was made from which agreements of collaboration were drawn up and signed with seven organizations of national importance in Honduras. );:> Linear programming models were developed and used in various scenarios to help decision makers with questions of land use practices and soil conservation. );:> An agreement of collaboration was established between CIAT, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC, the Spanish acronym), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAGFOR) to complete the rural National Atlas ofNicaragua. Sixty thematic maps were elaborated describing and analyzing the most important environmental, social, economic, and cultural aspects in the rural environment ofNicaragua. );:> The project ''Methodologies for integrating data across geographic scales in a data rich environment: Examples from Honduras\" was completed. It has made a substantial and innovative contribution to the development of methodologies that will allow researchers and policy makers to conduct user-controlled and purpose-specific cross-scale analysis using large and complex sets of georeferenced data. It has also produced a valuable extensive database for Honduras. );:> Over 39 workshops, meetings, and training and other collaborative events were held to help train decision makers at different levels and establish and maintain links with partners. );:> The Intelligent Team Decision Assistant (ITDEA) version 1 is available. The ITDEA helps build partnerships and expedí tes the planning process. It advantageously replaces participatory planning by objectives, and can be used for strategic planning. );:> W e are providing decision support to top leve! decision makers to try and influence policy and approaches of those providing funds.Output 5: Efficient, participatory project management);:> An operational structure was designed and is being implemented to ensure effective coordination of activities among SOL si tes in Honduras. The main activities were defined for SOL sites in Nicaragua. The SOL initiative is beginning to play an important role in fostering collaboration among research and development institutions. );:> Project plans and research results were diffused through the project Web page, the quarterly bulletin, and publications. The project's Center ofDocumentation stores all documents, slides, and photos relevant to the project and makes them easily available to interested users. );:> Collaborations were strengthened through the many meetings and workshops held throughout the year (Table 19). );:> The Hillsides Strategic Planning Workshop was held at Montelimar, Nicaragua for a participative evaluation of project performance, readjustrnent of its vision and purpose, and strategy planning.Output 1: Production systems improved Activity 1.1. Ex-ante evaluate improved system alternatives (identify markets, perform simulation modeling)./ Models on market options developed in 1999 were validated and results diffused toa sample of producers from different comnnmitiesThe aims were to: l. Evaluate how profitable and sustainable are the production systems that include the market options that were the most preferred in the participatory evaluation with small-scale farmers, and 2. Develop and apply a method for improving farm-level planning by using mathematical simulation to determine crop combinations that will maximize income while protecting the natural resource base.In 1999, eight base models representing eight producer categories were designed to support the participatory method for instant farm modeling with small-scale farmers using linear programming. Based on these models, scenarios were developed to aid in decision making relative to which options were the most profitable, taking into account the resources available for each farm type and making different hypotheses. An example of a hypothesis is changing the available capital to simulate a credit system and evaluate its impact on the optimum production system and the resulting income. Full details on methods are given in García ( 1999), Escolan (2000), and Totobesola et al (2000)  In 2000, the use of the models is being validated and improved in order to consider the influence ofrisk factors on the results. Nine more farms were analyzed to improve the significance ofthe results. The database was completed with data on the new sample and risk parameters needed to run the models. The models are designed and run properly. Further results will be available and analyzed by the end ofNovember 2000.Table 1 shows results. The overall conclusion is that diversification with short-cycle crops may result in increased erosion, but the difference would be relatively small because new crops cause less soil erosion than do the traditional crops. Further, perennial options such as avocado, coffee, and pastures contribute directly to soil conservation. The results from these models were given to a sample of producers from different communities to diffuse them among other producers and use them to make better decisions as to which market options (for each category ofproducers) suit them best.('~ ~t... 9,. '¡ \\ 1 .¡ l 1). ' '\\l '). 'Contributors: 1f Barbier, M'Totobesola, R 0 García (Escuela Agrícola Panamerican [EAP]-Zamorano), J Escolán (Escuela Nacional Agricola de Olancho [ENA]) Collaborators: ENA, SN-1, (EAP)-Zamorano./ Limits ofmaize yield detennined for the Tascalapa watershedIn the region ofYorito, developers and researchers who are members of the SOL questioned whether rainfall, soil nutrients, or gennplasm-limited maize and bean yields. The aim was to discover the limitants first of the maize yields.The DSSAT model was applied with a soil organic matter (SOM) module from the CENTURY model. Because little weather data are available for the watershed ( only 2 years of rainfall data) the new MarkSim weather generator program was used (Jones and Thomton 2000i. Soil analyses were available from sites near the three weather stations. Missing parameters were estimated with a non-DSSAT soil utility. The maize cultivar PB-8 was selected because of its similarity to those used in the watershed whose genetic coefficients are not known.Figure 1 shows results ofmaize yields from optimum planting conditions. The limitations of water and N stress were assessed. Irrigation is likely to be a yield-increasing operation and eliminating both water and N stress further increases yield (Figure 2).Irrigation is not an unrealistic situation for farmers in the hillsides. These simulations give a good reference production level and may help in determining where to put the emphasis. If farmers are able to just irrigate once or twice during the season, a set of model runs can determine at which date or crop growth stage irrigation would give its maxim~impact.  Water-filled pore hction at planting (%)Modeled maize yields resuhing ftom optimum planting conditions, Y orito, Honduras.10000No«esa tntatment Modeled potential maize yield under conditions of no N stress {N), no water stress (H20), and neither N nor water stress (N+H20) as resuJts from optimum planting conditions of 500/o water-filled porosity. The yields under unfertilized and nonirrigated conditions are indicated as reference points (Defauh).ldentih improved beon cropping pottern with .D..S&4 T in the Toscalllpa walershed Bipt¡pt -/ Optimal planting date for bean determined for Tascalapa watashed, HondurasThe aim was to discover limitants ofbean yield in the T ascalapa watershed, Honduras.Tbe same metbod was used as for the analysis of maize yield determinants. Tbe bean cultivar Rabia de Gato was used to siJDJiate the native varieties wbose genetic coefficients were not known.Differeut planting dates and maturity times were plotted Growth limiting factors were also examined.For San Antonio (Jow ahitude) the planting date is crucial, with the first 2 weeks of October clearly the optimum planting dates. The peak yields ofEJ Guaco (mid altitude) are not strongly affected by planting dates betweeu early September and late October. In Las Lagunas (high altitude) planting date bas no major impact on yields. Overall time to maturity ranged fiom 55 to 75 days. Besides the yield in terms oftotal bean weight, the size and weight ofindividual bean grains is also an importaol factor for farmers. Figure 3 sbows that for San Antonio and El Guaco the grain weight can vary considerably. Tbe decision conceming the optimum planting date may not only depend on the e:xpected yield. but also on the size of the individual graim.  The high SOM content ofthe soils makes N2 fixation by the bean crop ofümited importance and N hardly a growth-ümiting factor. Figure 4 shows clearly that in San Antonio and El Guaco water was the main growth-limiting factor, but oflimited importance in Las Lagwútas. The application ofN onJy hadan impact ifthe water limitation was also eliminated. Tbus fertilization alone seems a blast of resources, while fertilization combined with irrigation can give an enonnous yield increase.: r¡-S -an _A _ n -to-n -io -----11; g?•.::--1 ----1 ~' In collaboration with professors and students from the Universidad Nacional Agraria (UNA), Nicaragua, CIA T developed severa! models of representative farms. A typology was drawn from 70 farm interviews. The analysis is complete, but the students are still developing the models for each type of farm. Results will be reported when the models are completed and tested.Contributors: R Wchardo (UNA student), ~uniga (UNA student), L Balmeceda (UNA professor), M1~altodano, B~BarbierAnalysis of agro forestal production systems, Nicaragua Higbligbt ../ Six farm-level models developed that help assess profitability of severa} agro forestal techniques such as organic coffeeThe aim is to investigate the irnpact of agroforestry on production systems. Although agroforestry techniques have been promoted for sorne time in the Calico River watershed, little is k:nown as to how widely techniques have been adopted and even less is known about their impact.Two students from the UNA supported by CIAT developed six fann-level models ti help assess the profitability of several agroforestry techniques such as organic coffee (Moreno and  Calderon 2000 4   ). Results are encouraging and should be ready in December. A main objectives ofthe SOL initiative is to develop technologies aimed at establishing profitable, sustainable production systems through multi-institutional alliances, using a participatory approach in the design, planning, and evaluation of different options. The introduction ofimproved crop and pasture germplasm is a key component ofthis strategy.During the participatory planning exercise held last year with farmers in the watershed they emphasized the need to improve productivity of grain crops (beans and maize) and diversify production systems introducing other crops or developing innovative production systems. Cassava and sweet potato can improve food security and do not require extensive use of inputs.The specific aims were to: l. Determine the yield potential and adaptation of local and improved bean, cassava, and sweet potato materials to the soil and climate conditions ofthe SOL-Luquigue, and 2. Evaluate potential acceptance of improved materials by farmers incorporating participatory evaluation methods.An Ensayo Centroamericano de Apaptacion y Rendimiento (ECAR) trial was established at the SOL in Luquigue including 14 bean lines in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three reps. Seed was provided by the EAP-Zamorano. The objective was to further test most prornising red bean lines within the network supported by the Proyecto Regional de Frijol para Centro América, México y el Caribe (PROFRIJOL).Pararneters evaluated were grain yields, physiological maturity, and disease pressure. Seventytwo farmers conducted a participatory evaluation ofthe materials at three stages ofthe crop: befare planting, at physiological maturity, and at han est. Evaluation criteria used by farmers focused on grain characteristics and plant growth habit.EAP 9508-93 was the best line in terms ofyields followed by PM 94223 (Figure 5). Other EAP lines yielded more than 1.4 tons per ha, which is considered good for the region. Behavior of the EAP lines in this trial was similar to those obtained in the other 16 locations where the same trial was established (EAP-Zarnorano 2000i. Grain yields and nurnber ofpods per plant showed a clear correlation. Physiological maturity was similar arnong most lines and varied between 84 and 88 days. The local control, Catrachita, was the earliest maturing. Disease tolerance to rust and angular Jeaf spot was higher for EAP 9509-93 and lower for EAP 9510-77. Most lines were moderately affected by diseases (12%-14% in terms ofincidence). Farmers preferred the EAP 1ines among the materials tested (Table 2). e uGrain yields (t ha\" 1 ) of 14 red bean lines planted in an adaptation trial in the SOL-Luquigue, Honduras.Main criteria for selection were related to grain characteristics ( small size, red color, and rounded shape) Further testing wiJI continue in the SOL during the second season ofthe year and in farmer' s fields. The best eight lines were distributed for thls purpose to several CIALs in the regionResults ofthe bean trial indicate that EAP lines are well adapted to the conditions ofthe region and produce higher yields than the local controls (DOR and Catrachita). However. their susoeptibility to diseases may be a problem, especially for EAP 9510-77Thirty-two cassava cultivars and eight sweet potato species were planted in the SOL sites at Luquigue and Mina Honda to evaluate adaptation to the soil and climate conditions of each site. Highlights ./ Improved upland rice has potential to become a feasible option for small-scale farrners in hillsides ./ Producers visiting the SOL trial perceived the high genetic diversity and potential adaptation ofpromising bean materials ../ Seven red bean lines selected for further evaluation in farmers' fields ./ Preliminary evidence suggests soybean is a prornising option for diversifying agricultural activities in the San Dionisio regionResults ofthe participatory workshop conducted with farrners at the Calico watershed showed that upland rice could be an important option to diversify crop options in the region. Materials developed by CIA T and the centre de coopération intemationale en recherche agronomique pour le dévelcppement (CIRAD) in the region show promise. The present objectives were to:• Evaluate the adaptation of 11 rice cultivars to the soil and climate of San Dionisio, Nicaragua, • Expose 92 advanced bean lines to the conditions of San Dionisio, • Evaluate the yield and adaptation of 16 advanced red bean lines, • Evaluate grain yields and adaptation of three soybean varieties, and • Evaluate the grain and characteristics of 10 improved varieties ofmaize in San Dionisio, Nicaragua.Eleven rice lines were planted in small plots in June 1999 in the SOL site at San Dionisio, Nicaragua. The Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) and CIRAD provided seed. Seed was planted in the field in rows 40 cm apart using a seed rate equivalent to 60 kg per ha, the research norm for rice varieties 1999.Rice yields can be grouped into three categories (Figure 6). The most responsive variety was CT-8553, followed by a group of seven varieties that produced between 4 and 5 tons per ha. . IRAT-90Figure 6 Rice yields (t ha' 1 ) from adaptation testing ofupland rice varieties, San Dionisio, Nicaragua.To continue the process, IRAT-367 variety is being multiplied and given to eight CIAL committees for further testing under farm conditions. Results reported here are preliminary. They constitute one step ofthe process that will lead to the adoption ofhigh yielding, pest-resistant. Bean eva/uation trials -Vivero de Adaptación Centroamericano de grano rojo (VIDAC) 1999-2000A VIDAC was planted at the SOL site in San Dionisio. This trial is part ofthe evaluation network supported by the PROFRIJOL network.Sixteen lines were selected as the most promising in the San Dionisio conditions according to grain yields and farmer preferences. They are PRF 9657 -57 -14 (3 .1 t ha' The ECAR trials were designed by the PROFRUOL network to evaluate the genotype X environment interaction of advanced red bean lines before they are released as varieties. The SOL sites in Yorito-Honduras, and in Nicaragua were selected as testing sites. The trial was planted and managed according to the standard protocol provided by PROFRIJOL.Table 3 shows the ranking ofmaterials according to yields and farmers' preferences. Materials from EAP-Zamorano were the materials that farmers most preferred. These results are similar to those observed at other testing sites in Central America including the SOL ofYorito, Honduras. However, these materials must be further tested. Seed ofEAP-9508-93, EAP-9510-1, DICTA-117, PTC-9558-17, UPR-9609-2-2, PM-9422-3, and EAP-9510-77 was delivered to CIAL committees for planting during the second season of 2000. Soybean is a crop with high nutritional valu~ and high added value. Small-scale fanners in other parts of the world ha ve successfully exploited its potential. However, little has been done to bring this crop into the hillsides region to improve food secu.rity. The PE-3 Project this year introduced sorne soybean varieties to initiate the process of selecting the most adapted and most accepted soybean materials by fanners, especially women. Three soybean varieties were planted in the SOL-San Dionisio. The varieties planted-{CEA-CH-86, CH-P-96, and Cristalina) are commercially available in Nicaragua, but have not been tested in the region before.The variety CEA-CH-86 was the best in terms of grain yields and Cristalina was the worst. Farmers prioritized varieties in terms of grain size, type of stand, and number ofpods per plant The varieties CEA-CH-86 and CH-P-96 are currently under testing in four CIALs in San Dionisio.The introduction of adapted crop and pasture gennplasm can potentially diversify agricultura! activities in the region. Preliminary evidence indicates that soybean is a promising option. However, further testing and evaluation is needed before fanners can widely adopt it. The 10 varieties ofmaize were established in San Dionisio using an RCBD with three repetitions. The distance between furrows was 80 cm, with four furrows per plot, 5 m long, and 25 cm between plants. This trial is established in the field and has not finished. The plants are in grain-filling stage (R4 phenological stage). Results and output will be reported next year.The general objective is to reduce dependence on annual crops and to increase the proportion of semi-perennial and perennial components that favor greater stability and resilience in agrosilvopastoral systems.Beca use of the high natural variability of the hillside soils, and as observed in the SOL-Wibuse, this year we began a phase of reducing soil variability tbiough the sowing of maize as a covering without fertilizer before beginning the production systems experiments. This practice allows us to carry out a better experiment block when using the crop as a bioind.icator (i.e., height) that integrates the soil chemical, physical, and biological characteristics. Sowing maize without fertilizer also allows the levels of nutritional variability from the effect of previous use to diminish, and the 2ffe t of the used treatments will be clearer for the later experiments. Forage germplasm in its multiple uses could play an important role in improving the well-being ofthe small-and med.ium-scale farmers in Central American hillsides. However, adoption (particular! y of forage legumes) has been limited, possibly because of lack of direct interaction with farmers. Therefore we need to develop forage germplasm technologies with farmers, using participatory approaches. W e anticípate that the work will also con tribute to developing an overall strategy to guide future research and to aid in the 4iffusion and final adoption of foragebased technology by small-scale farmers.In collaboration with NARS, NGOs, and farrner groups CIAT identifies gennplasm preferred by fanners. Sorne GIS tools are being developed for strategic targeting of forage gennplasm frrst to environmental and later to socioeconomic ni ches in the hillsides of Central America. The interaction with strong national partners -alongside the farmers -will be of paramount importance to the success of the approach.As a spin-off, an on-farm experiment to test the ability of improved forages to reclaim land in valley areas affected by Mitch is underway. Letters of Agreement with the institutions involved in the project were prepared and are in process of ratification. Severa! types of trials for the agronomic evaluation and simultaneous participatory selection of improved forages as agreed in the planning workshop were established in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Multipurpose germplasm including grasses, herbaceous legumes, shrub legumes, and cover and green manure legumes are offered to farmers. Table 4 shows the trials established in Central America. The sites were selected based on the diagnosis and in sorne cases complimented by approaches from interested farrners. The initial plant material selected is as follows (in future years this list could be altered according to perceptions and demand by farmers as well as performance).Grasses The trials are in the establishment phase, hampered in sorne sites by dry conditions and in others by extremely wet conditions. Most sites, in sorne cases a:fter reseeding, have now acceptable populations for a good establishment. A1l plantings were done together with groups of small-to medium-scale farmers, including mixed crop-livestock farmers and farmers focusing on crop or livestock production. The farmers were identified in previous diagnosis studies, in sorne cases complemented with stakeholder analyses. These fanners are expected to continue in the process of participatory selection of forage options. W e are beginning to see a potential that communication lines between small-/medium-and larger-scale farmers are reversed. Although normally smaller scale farmers were seeking information from bigger scale farmers ( often with better access to information), in our study the bigger scale farmers address the small-/mediumscale farmers to obtain information on scale-neutral pasture grasses. This indicates that the project may facilitate more interactions between different groups of farmers.As an example, Table 5 shows results from preliminary work in Honduras on the agronomic performance of sorne shrub legumes. In all diagnosis, the participation -ofwomen was significant except for Luquique where only 18% ofthe participants were women. Common problems identified across the three communities include:• Eros ion, lack of water, burning, deforestation, low productivity of the resource base, and low fertility. • Free roaming of animals in the dry season, lack ofwood (poles and firewood), Iack ofland, and lack of green material in the dry season for conservation and as feed. • Lack of technology options, technical support, and seed and planting material.• Interestingly, one group mentioned their own lack of interest in improving their situation as being a problem.Most problems were closely related with the lack of feed for animals, soil degradation, and lack offirewood. Results ofthe prioritization ofthese problems were heterogeneous, but tended to emphasize the problem oflack ofsuitable planting material and lack of livestock feed particularly during the dry season.The communities clearly perceived the degradation of soils and deforestation and the inherent negative effects of these on themselves.This work is just initiating, the pastures being in the process of establishment. Grazing trials will be carried out in both SOL si tes in Honduras and Nicaragua, in collaboration with TROPILECHE.Contributors: M Peters, P Argel (IP-5), H Cruz, T Reyes Collaborators: TROPILECHE, DICTAEvaluate potential of various tre,ef}ush species for improved fallow in SOLThe aim is to evaluate various tree and bush species for their potential for improved fallows in the SOL.Two trials of improved fallows were established in the SOL-Nicaragua with five species in each. Each trial is an RCBD with three repetitions, but with different sized plots. Contributors: E 'Barrios (PE-2), GPalma, PPThe aim is to determine ifN, P, or K is restrictive for normal crop development.The establishment ofthis trial was carried out according to the protocol of activities carried out in the SOLs ofHonduras and Nicaragua and the Tropical Soils Biology and Fertility (TSBF) Program protocol. The sowing date was 27.06.00. The trial is established and results are pending.The plants are in the Rl stage.Contributors: L Bnzuela, M Ayarza, E Barrios (PE-2), RJ Thomas (PE-2), JI SanzHighlights v' Results from field studies suggest that the Tithonia diversifo/ia slashlmulch fallow system could be the best option to regenerate soil fertility of degraded volcanic-ash soils of the Andean hillsides where rainfall is not limitingThe aim was to identify strategies for the soil fertility recovery of volcanic-ash soils degraded following continuous cassava cultivation.Previous studies on land use in the Cabuya! River watershed (6500 ha) show that a considerable proportion ofland (about 25%-30%) remains under natural fallow every year. The focus of our studies is on systems of accelerated regeneration of soil fertility, or improved fallow systems, as an altemative to the natural regeneration by the native flora. The typical cropping cycle in the region includes monocrops or intercrops of maize, beans, and/or cassava. Cassava is usually the last crop before local farmers leave plots to natural fallow. Fallow improvement studies were conducted on plots following cassava cultivation. The potential for soil fertility recovery after 12 and 28 months was evaluated with two fast growing trees Calliandra ca/othyrsus (CAL) and lndigofera constricta (IND), and one shrub, Tithonia diversifolia (TIH) as slashlmulch fallow systems compared to the natural fallow (NAT). This study attempted to integrate the impacts of slash/mulch planted fallow systems on soil quality by simultaneously evaluating the biological, chemical, and physical dimensions ofthe soil. For greater detail on the methods see the PE-2 Annual Report.The slash/mulch planted fallows systems evaluated in this study were more productive in terms of greater biomass production and nutrient recycling than the traditional practice of natural regeneration by native flora, suggesting that the objective of increased nutrient recycling was achieved. The TTH slasblmulch fallow system proved to be the best option to recover the overall soil fertility of degraded soils following cassava monocropping. Nevertheless, its use may be restricted to areas with seasonal drought because it is not very tolerant to extended dry periods.The CAL slash/mulch fallow system proved to be the mo~t resilient because it produced similar amounts ofbiomass independently of initial soil quality and thus has the potential for wider testing as a possible so urce of nutrient additions to the soil and fuelwood for rural communities.The slower rates of decomposition in CAL, compared to IND and TTH, suggests that benefits provided would be longer lasting and potentiallosses would be reduced through a greater synchronization between nutrient availability and crop demand. The IND slash/mulch fallow, on the other hand, showed more susceptibility to initial soil quality and this may limit its potential for extended use. Increased soil bulk density as a result of decrease in SOM was possibly mediated by the presence oflarge populations of endogeic earthworms. Additionally, the decrease in total soil N and increased N availability by slash/mulch planted fallows using this species suggests that the process of mineralization is greatly accelerated. Tlús is consistent with the observation of increased soil bulk density values in this treatment containing large density of earthworm species, Pontoscolex corethrurus, k:nown to stimulate N mineralization and responsible for soil compaction when a di verse earthworm community capable of ameliorating soil physical structure is absent. Although increased available N may be apparently a good shortterm impact, the significant decrease in total soil N suggests that considerable N losses may be occurring during the fallow phase and benefits to subsequent crops could be limited. Further multilocation testing is needed to confirm these observations.The use of Tithonia diversifolia slasb/mulch fallow systems has the potential to regenerate volcanic-ash soils that are degraded as a res, ulf continuous cassava cultivation in Andean hillsides.., JActivity 1.3. The aim is to strengthen the capacity ofrural communities to take sound decisions to improve their production systems incorporating formal research principies. The main objective ofthe analysis was to evaluate their dynamics o ver time in terms of number of CIALs and materials tested.A qualitative analysis was made on the information collected from the CIALs in the Calico River watershed in San Dionisio. These committees were created in 1997. Details about methodological approach were given in the 1999 Annual Report and in Braun and Hocdé (2000) and Tijerino et al (1997) 7 • Quantitative assessment wíll be available soon through the Participatory Research Project (SN-3).There are 12 CIALs at present in the region. Four were formed in each of 1997, 1998, and 1999.Most work in CIALs has concentrated on germplasm evaluation (bean and maize ). Recently, soybean has been incorporated. This year CIALs ha ve evaluated eight maize varieties, 1 O bean lines, and three soybean varieties. Maize has been evaluated in five CIALs. The result of this process is the successful spreading ofthe Catacama maize variety (NB 90-43) within the range between 380 and 750 m. Other maize varieties have higher yields, but are taller and suffer from wind flattening.Farmers have evaluated 1 O bean materials in 33 plots. The materials most frequently tested were Estelí 150, Compania 93, and DOR 364. Ofthese, farmers selected the bean Compañia 93 and distributed it to Wibuse, Zapo te, and Quebrachal. The reasons for its preference are associated to its wide adaptation to soil and climate conditions. Other materials such as Tío Canela and Estelí 150 have shown good adaptation to other sites in the watershed. We expect that testing and exchange of new materials will intensify with the SOL presence in San Dionisio.Figure 7 shows the results ofthe analysis ofCIALs' performance in the region based on a Strengths, Options, Deficiencies, Actions (FODA, the Spanish acronym) approach. Interest in this methodology of farmer experimentation is growing, but sorne weaknesses exist that should be considered in any sustainability analysis.   The principal púrposes ofthe SOL's M&E system are to:• Regularly provide and document information on the activities and processes in each site,• Identify problems and obstacles in order to support decisions for corrective action and to allow for adjusting project strategies in a timely way, • Systematize the most relevant experiences with the SOL project, • Improve feedback and communication between farmers and scientists and between collaborators within the network, and • Provide a basis for measuring the impact ofthe SOL project.The M&E system was developed in iterative cyc1es of action and reflection, jointly with field staff ofthe collaborating institutions (CIAT, SERTEDESO, EAP Zamorano, and IPCA) and with sorne representatives oflocal groups involved in the SOL Project. The actual M&E system is the outcome of a process of consultation with stakeholders and analysis of collected information. The system is not static, but will gradually evolve and improve with the experience of the actors involved.Tlús 'pilot experience' forms part of an action research project implemented by the University of Hohenheim in collaboration with the Participatory Research on Gender Analysis (PRGA) Program. It involves three different case study projects with the aim ofyielding knowledge on participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) as an instrument to support collective leaming in participatory research processes.The actors involved selected sorne aspects that need to be monitored for successfully managing the SOL Project towards achieving an impact at locallevel (success factors). Each ofthese tapies was further specified in form ofmore precise 'indicators•. Quantitative and qualitative limits or envisaged 'milestones• have not yet been defined. Forms were developed to document the required information (Table 6). A set of corresponding questions is supposed to facilitate the analysis and evaluation of the information obtained. Most of the infonnation is documented by agronomists and local groups working in the three SOL si tes using simple formats. The fact that the three sites use the same M&E procedure will facilitate an exchange and the comparability of results between the institutions and groups involved. Table 6.Fonn for documenting required infonnation in monitoring and evaluation.Questions for analysis and reflection-Accomplishment of the annual workplan.How do we perceive the cooperation in the interinstitutional -Number of workshops and field days that have SOL network? Does it lead to collaborative cooperation been organized to¡::efuer. advantage?-Collaboration and responsibilities in other -Satisfaction of collaborators in the joint project Client participation in -Re gis ter of people ( clients) who visit the SOL Who are our clients? theSOL sites and purpose of their visit Do women and marginalized groups -Participation of men and women (form #2).participate in or make use of the SOL? {poverty-orientation, equity)Activities and events -Number of workshops and field days that ha ve Is there a regular and functioning developed in a been or~anized together. communication/dialog between farmers and practica!, attractive, -Evaluation of each event from fanners' point scientists/institutions? and user-friendly ofview.How can we improve the communication? manner How can we increase farmers' interest in new technological options and stimulate local experimentation?Demand-orientation -Comments and feedback from clients made Does the SOL correspond to farmers ' during site visits and events. needs?-(Specific surveys 1 interviews in order to How can we increase demand-orientation of capture farmers demands and perception).research?Cost efficiency of the -Costs of experimentation and events.Is the SOL approach cost efficient? SOL approach How can we reduce the costs of investigating, validating, and transferring technologies?The M&E forms have only recently been put into practice, and it needs sorne time, practice, and joint learning until monitoring and documenting becomes a routine (instead ofbeing perceived as a burden). The same applies for analyzing and reflecting on M&E results, as a prerequisite for decision making and corrective action.The M&E system lays the foundation for measuring the SOL's impact. Because ofthe documentation of activities, events and clients' comments, the formulation of impact hypotheses and the design of a more in-depth impact assessment study will be facilitated. The continuous registration of all people coming to the SOL sites ( clients) will also allow for a more precise impact assessment and adoption study. The registration includes baseline data on their actual fanning practices and socioeconomic conditions, the purpose oftheir visit, and the things they take home from the SOL (knowledge, seeds etc.). ~t<~Q Highlights ./ Land ownership has, in the short term, a positive impact on the decrease of rent costsThe aim was to analyze the impact of land ownership as an economic alternative for improving the quality oflife ofthe poor rural family.Lack ofland is a big obstacle to improving the quality oflife ofthe small-scale hillside producers according to the results of an ex-ante study dev~loped by the project in 1997. To check this hypothesis, we designed a pilot action for facilitating land purchase to nine producers, two of them women. The project provided them with the capital to purchase a unit of0.7 ha in 1997.Selected producers had the following characteristics: • Main income was obtained from salaried employment. Only two of the producers did not have employment.• The average family size was six people. This figure is similar to the average ofthe whole watershed. • Most of the producers only sow maize and bean, the main crops, and only have small animals andlor a horse. • Half of the producers consume 50% of what they produce and the remainder is sold. Of the rest of the producers, three consume all they produce.The description ofthe current state ofthe plots acquired by the producers is: Plot 1: Wibuse, one part coffee and the rest in fallow.Plot 2: Piedra Larga, rnaize. Plot 3: Ocote Abajo, sown with beans only.Plot 4: Ocote Abajo, maize and bean. Soil conservation with live and dead barriers, dams, irrigation canals. Diversified with fruit-bearing trees and sorne vegetables. Plot 5: Wibuse, nursery of 4500 plants of coffee, orange trees. Plot 6: El Carrizal, beans. Plot 7: El Quebrachal, beans; diversified with banana, fruit-bearing trees, tomato. Plot 8: Wibuse, maize. Plot 9: Wibuse, rnaize, beans, and sorne reforestation.To date the integration of farnily manpower to the production of their own plot is not yet a decisive element in the observed changes. In the cases where it occurs, it is circumstantial, that is, it is nota product ofthe change in land ownership. However, the fact ofbeing owners ofthe land that they work presents a significant saving when not having to pay rent for the land (US$30.00). The crop revenues remain at the same level as those obtained on rented lands because they are subject to the same technological and climatic problems.In terms of adoption of conservation practices, the introduction of live and dead barriers, irrigation canals, dams, and even trees for shade and to reforest sources of water can airead y be observed on sorne plots. It is worthwhile mentioning that other factors can be observed that are inherent to the project and that are interesting for follow-up, such as the exchange of experiences among the farmers of the group to find methods of payment, and the resolution of their problems.Land ownership has, in the short term, a positive impact on the decrease of rent costs. However, the producer needs to accumulate enough capital to adopt more efficient systerns of management that allow long-term improvement in well-being.The management problems of the plots are the same as those of all farmers of the watershedlow fertility, little diversification, few market options, and little investment capital. 1bis causes the impact of land ownership to be slow.  Fieldwork was conducted in collaboration witb Helle Munk Ravnborg (CDR) in Nicaragua between November 1 and December 4, 1999. Two sites were selected; tbe community ofPuertas Azules in tbe Natural Reserve called Miraflore in the district ofEsteli and tbe community ofEl Zapote in tbe municipality of San Dionisia. The research sites were dominated by small-scale farmers and selected according to their importance as reference si tes for DANIDA, Estelí, and CIAT-Nicaragua. The basic metbodologies used were parts ofa stakeholder analysis methodology (Ravnborg et al 1999 8 ) and method for defining local indicators for development botb previously developed at CIAT-Laderas (Ravnborg 1999~.Intensified cultivation ofriver banks and valley bottoms cause problems of erosion and ofwater depletion and pollution further downstream; crop damage caused by crop pests and diseases suddenly escalates either because of the occurrence of new pests and diseases or because of the sudden escalation of those airead y known. These are just sorne examples of the spatial and temporal interdependency that characterizes NRM and that is accentuated especially as land use intensifies. What happens at one point in time or in one part ofthe Iandscape affects and is affected by what happens at other times or parts of the landscape. Sorne of these temporal and spatial interdependencies are immediately visible while others, such as the relationship between landscape diversity and structure and the occurrence of specific crop pests and diseases, are more complex and subtle.The complex and subtle nature of the biophysical interdependencies at play in determining many NRM problems is, however, not the only factor complicating improved NRM. Particularly in hillside regions, agricultura! landscapes are fragmented among numerous users, that is numerous individual decision makers. Thus, even if recognizing the biophysical interdependencies related to a specific NRM problem, effectively managing these requires the individual farmer to coordinate his or her resource management with that ofneighboring farmers.This brings a second set ofinterdependencies into play, namely the social and economic interdependencies that exist between individuallandscape users. Sorne farmers depend fully or partly on others for their livelihood. Examples are through their provision of employment as day laborers or of informalloans, or farmers may belong to di.fferent etbnic or religious groups that may complicate communication and thus coordination between them, or previous experiences of cooperation among farmers may have failed. These and other factors shape the individual farmer's willingness to engage in coordinated or collective NRM and thus the ability to manage the biophysical interdependencies in volved in many NRM problems.The paper (Ravnborg 2000) was presented at a workshop in the Netherlands and at a conference in the US. An article was submitted for publication in the journal Agricultura! Systems.The collaborative project proposal and the primary results ofthe fieldwork were presented at the local DANIDA office in Estelí at the beginning ofDecember. Although the proposal raised much local interest for further collaboration, DANIDA in Denmark did not approve it. The poster was based on a recently published booklet (CIAT-Hillsides 2000 1 1). The elaboretion of a watershed management approach is a continued effort guiding our research and at the same time benefiting from its outputs. At the workshop we also made a presentation for discussion about participatory watershed management and research. Based on this presentation a paper is being written in collaboration with Nancy Johnson (BP-1), Helle Munk Ravnborg (CDR) and Kirsten Probst (PRGA) that will be submitted to the intemational journal, Water Policy. This paper will in elude an analysis of CIA T's stakeholder watershed management approach in relation to participation and research.These publications help diffuse CIAT's watershed management approach and help guide our research. \\ , .Contributor: The aim is to provide good knowledge in the local support system for rural agroenterprises to improve the database's efficiency and augment its use by those involved in local development (producers, small-scale managers, those who lend services, and institutions).Support systems for rural entrepreneurial development is defined as:\"The willingness of all the different local actors that are involved in andlor influence the rural development process (state, special interest groups, universities, research institutions, NGOs, civil society, private entrepreneurs, etc.) to develop a common vision and mission to support rural development, with an entrepreneurial approach and an efficient use ofhwnan, technical, and financia! resources.\" This implies that support systems should emanate from a broader process in which, if possible, all existing social actors in a (micro) region should participate. This process requires going beyond specific products and committed actors at the personal and institutionallevel.The guiding principie in the whole process is that all the methodological steps are especially designed to moti vate an active participation of all the actors, users, and clients. This achieves a high level of commitment among actors and fosters the growth of social capital in the region. A database is being established on the support system to the agroenterprises to evaluate the supply and demand of support services in Yorito and Sulaco and to be able to design actions for improving this system's efficiency. Data were collected on 24 formal support institutions, organized producers, and independent suppliers. Nineteen institutions and producers of support services for rural agroenterprises were identified and their services evaluated through rapid diagnostics in severallocal workshops and revision ofthe available literature on the topic in the area. The database needs completing with:• Data on informal suppliers (middlemen, service suppliers such as transport or manpower, farnily companies) and a higher number of users, and • A more complete and detailed characterization of the services that are offered or demanded (e.g., in costs/prices ofthe services and products, quality/quantity, and terms ofloans and credits).Of the 24 offerers of support services, 14 (58%) offer di verse financia! services (lines of credit for production, irrigation projects, buying and selling ofinputs and equipment, etc.). However, . the existing financia! support although high does not seem very efficient and needs improvement because, ofthe 19 demanding services surveyed, 75% still need financia! support for severa! uses (e.g., production capital, work capital for the support institutions, capital to enlarge credits). At the same time, adaptive initiatives ofthe financia! services offered are observed to answer better to the demand requirements and more feasible payment capacity for small-scale producers. In this way the rural banks and funds for small productive projects co-negotiated by development institutions or of producer investigations and associations emerged in the zone, for example:Rural or communa/ banks: IPCA-Asociación de CIALs (ASOCIALs) and producers who are members ofCIALs SERTEDESO-producers who are members of Asociaciónes de Enlaces de Ladera (ACELYs) Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), Secretaria de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG)-women members of Asociación de Mujeres Campesinas de Y oro (AMCY) Credit funds for small productive projects: IICA and CIAT, CLODEST and CIDES, and producers ofYorito and Sulaco A high offer ofnon-financial services is observed in technical assistance for production and postharvest management in basic grains and cattle farming. A few organizations offer technical assistance that promotes crop diversification ( e.g., evaluating and installing systems of micro irrigation, support for horticulture, etc.) apart from the organizations that support family kitchen gardens for food security, dietary improvement, and supply ofhomemade medicine in the area E ven scarcer is the offer of service related to management of small agroenterprises, transformation, marketing strategy, and commercialization channels and the little on offer is inefficient or does not serve all the demand. Indeed almost all demands are for training in forming and administrating microenterprises (accounting and managerial organization included), transformation of products, search for commercialization channels, and market information (prices, linkage to buyers), etc. • A supply of training is observed on topics of sustainable agriculture and soil conservation. The training of local actors in diagnostic processes, systematization and diffusion of information for the development and strengthening of a local system of support to the rural agroenterprises, and their strengthening in answering this process according to needs is being achieved during the whole process.A system ofM&E ofthe impact will be needed at alllevels. It is hoped that productivity, profitability, and incomes will be increased. ./ Predominant soil types were identified in the watersheds where the Luquique and Mina Honda SOL sites are located ./ Information was generated relevant to the development ofscenários ofuse and extrapolation of SOL technologiesThe three main aims were to: l . Define the reference situation of soils in the watersheds where SOL sites are situated. 2. Make a diagnostic of the potential, conflicts of use, and vulnerability c;>f the systems of soil use in the watersheds based on edaphic parameters (geology, soil type, current and potential use). 3. Guide the extrapolation of SOL technologies at watershed level within biophysical parameters.Agronomic commodity-constraints research has focused on improving cropping productivity. This approach is an undeniably important element in predicting the acceptance and rejection of new technologies by individual decision makers. However, an arguably more relevant task for assessing the impact of soil degradation within a watershed context is the identification ofland management practices and inherent soil characteristics that put the soil resource at risk of exceeding a threshold ofirreversible loss ofsoil productivity.The work consisted of a preliminary phase in which the different landscape units were de.fined.During the field phase the actual use of the units and soil conditions were verified. A map of current and recommended use was later elaborated based on the soil characteristics.The studied watersheds are composed ofhighly defined morphological units. Mountains predominate (60%), then ridges (23%), and terraces (1 7%). Acidic sedimentary materials prevail in the Luquigue basin and calcareous materials in upper Jalapa. The lower parts ofthe Luquigue watershed have rainfall sediments. Laboratory analyses are pending.Big differences exist between the two watersheds in terms of soils and land use. Upper Mina Honda has.moderately good fertility for crops, but is highly susceptible to erosion. UpperLuquigue is suitable for agroforestry systems, but has low fertility. The lower part is suitable for agricultura! activities. The presence of SOL si tes in each watershed is justi:fied because of the edaphic, climatic, and risk differences found in each.The information generated in this work is expected to contribute to the diagnostics of sustainability of current land use systems and as an entry point to extrapolate improved land use systems generated at the so~ sites.-)f-.(1~ Highlight ./ Analysis showed that most ofthe watershed is covered with forests ofpine and broad-leaved species airead y intervened by production of wood and coffee and that the diversity of forest species and bushes of the watershed is relatively lowThe aims were to describe the floristic and structural composition ofthe watershed's tree and bush vegetation and elaborate a map of its distribution.The Luquigue watershed is located in the central-northern region ofthe Yorito municipality, Y oro Department. The work included field and laboratory phases.The field information began with an identification ofthe watershed through participative mapping together with 21 producers of the watershed. Th~ information gained was coordinated with air photos of 1:10,000 scale. Later, 14 transects of 100 m length and 4 m width were de:fined in so me points of the watershed to identify the predominant vegetation. The detailed characterization of the vegetation was made in four plots of 1 O x 1 O m selected in sorne points of the watershed. In these plots the type ofvegetation and its age and composition were identified.The laboratory information consisted of identifying the predorninant species in the watershed. The collected field samples were identified in the herbarium ofEAP-Zamorano. The land use maps and vegetation maps were elaborated at the GIS laboratory of EAP-Zamorano.Most ofthe vegetation is young pine (<15 years, about 39%) and broad-leaved forest (about 27%) that is mostly (90%) mixed with coffee. The area in pasture is about 18% and gallery forest is about 3%.Results indicate that most of the watershed area has been intervened. The predonü: mee of young pine confirms that the original pine forest was deforested about 15 years agL . On the other hand, most ofthe broad-leaved forest is sown with coffee. In these high areas serious erosion problems are observed. In the low parts of the watershed only some small gallery forests remain.The rest has been incorporated in agricultura! production. Overall the vegetation is not very di verse.The diagnostic of vegetation coverage gives information that can be used to propose strategies for recovery of degraded lands and the sustainable management of areas WÍth agroforestal potential.Contributors: ~erra, J Pilz (EAP-Zamorano)The purpose of the study was to generate and improve knowledge on the ethnobotanic and productive uses of the forest species of the watershed.The work was divided into three stages, fieldwork, laboratory work, and analysis of the information. Dendrological, ecological, and usage records were completed for 31 fanns distributed in the upper, middle, and lower parts of the watershed.Seventy-one different forest species were encountered, corresponding to 32 botanical families. The most representative were Fabaceae, Mimosaceae, and Caesalpiniaceae. The greatest representativeness is in the lower part ofthe watershed, diminishing as one moves upwards. This is because of the edaphoclimatic changes of the si te. Consequently, the flora appears in the form ofbushy patches in the highest parts, altered by the extensive pasturing and agricultura! crops.Also, 15 different uses were found, the most frequent being firewood, posts, rural construction, beams, and shade for coffee. Table 7 shows the type of results obtained in this investigation. No forest tradition exists in the watershed; thus knowledge regarding the best use, management, and conservation of forest resources is lacking.A better knowledge of the ethnobotanic and productive use of forest species in the Calleo River watershed was obtained. This will be helpful to decision makers regarding land use and sustainability.Contributors: RA Martinez, UNN Facultad de Recursos Naturales (F ARENA)Highlight v\" Laboratory and fieldwork completed and thesis drafts will be completed by year-endIntellectual tradition assumes intensive, detailed measurements of fine-scale processes are necessary to predict consequences ofbroad-scale pattems such as changing land cover/use in complex tropical hillside agroecosystems. The strategic goal of this activity is to infer effects of trends of ecological processes at the landscape scale for tropical hillside agroecosystems using . observations and procedures appropriate for local-leve!, community stakeholders. The research activity reported here focuses on \"soil and water\" -valued ec;:osystem resources. Our intent is to explicitly address responses of soil functions in scenario analysis. We are interested in characterizing the responses of the critica! functions of environmental filtering and water retention as well as productivity for different scenarios.Figure 8 shows a hierarchical framework for soil quality assessment proposed by The Canadian Center for Land and Biological Resources Research (CLBRR). The figure illustrates relationships for in situ measurements associated with nutrient retention and ultimately productivity. The work on determining spatial and temporal variability of selected soil chemical properties, with emphasis on organic carbon. total exchangeable bases and exchangeable acidity, for selected land-uses has been ongoing since 1993 (see PE-3 Annual Reports from 1994 to date for methods). Results then showed that clear differences in organic-e, total. exchangeable bases (TEB) and exchangeable acidity (ExAc) existed between the fi.ve si tes and their land-use types (LUTs).The original sites were resampled in 1998 to assess whether significant changes and trends in the soil properties could be identified. Data analyses were made in 1999.The trends the data show reinforce the earlier findings that intensive cultivation in the Cabuya! River watershed is actually improving important soil chemical properties, most significantly, TEB presumably as a result of increasing applications of organic fertilizer. The \"bad news\" is the increased poten tia! for leaching of ions and concomitant nutrient loading of the Cabuya! River.These soil chemical properties will be evaluated as proxies of landscape risk and fitness during scenario analysis.  The aim is to model productive and technological options of producers in the watershed, analyzing mainly the types of existent producers, based on their resources and their economic and social situation.A survey of 103 families was completed to obtain a fust global description ofthe agracian reality of the area At the same time it served as a diagnostic to establish agroecological, geographical, economic, social, cultural, and infrastructural conditions of the area and to describe its main crop systems. This information was obtained by interviewing producers and key informants. The work includes a prediagnostic, the definition of the typology of producers, and final! y a simulation model ofproduction systems. Financia!, social, and productive indicators were also calculated to characterize the production systems. The financia! indicators used were gross margin, net flow, family benefit, net income, and profitability of capital. The selected social indicators were: manpower by production unit, opportunity cost ofwomen's work, family composition, farm nutritional balance, production unit expenses, and groups by age. The productive indicators were: total vs. cultivated area, item type, technical-economic criteria by farm, and indicators of the cattle system by farm. The collected information is being analyzed and will be reported on next year.The analysis ofthis infonnation will allow the definition ofthe typology ofproducers and then the simulation of a production systems model.Contributors: Universidad Agraria/ FARENA Collaborators: B Barbier, Mf\\_BaltodanoHighlight ./ Use of integrated parameters to assess and monitor soil quality in hillside agroecosystemsThe aim was to analyze and compare soil parameters in hillside areas as an early warning of soil quality.Data collected during the PE-3 project\" Impact ofland use in hillside areas on the communities of macro fauna of the department of Cauca, Colombia \" were analyzed and reviewed to develop land quality indicators under di verse land uses types in the Cabuya! River watershed of Cauca. Feijoo et al (2000) 11 give the sampling protocol.A cluster analysis perfonned on the chemical characteristics of 1 O land use types differentiated them into three clusters grouped by carbon content. The first group had an average C content of 12.7% (± 2}, the second 4.4% (± 1}, and the third 7.90/o (± 1.5). The lowest levels corresponded with land uses that are susceptible to erosion, such as Melinis minutiflora and Brachiaria humidicola pastures or cassava crops Highest levels corresponded with sites with good vegetative cover, e.g., forests or Pennisetum clandestimJm pasture (Feijoo et al, unpublished  data). Few studies have been made on the changes in SOM with the conversion offorest (mainly C3 plants) to pasture {C4 plants) so this could be an important contribution to the literature. Our resuhs agree with the literature in the case of P. clandestimtm pasture, but disagree with it in the case of B. humidicola and M minutiflora pasture.In Cauca Department, Feijoo et al (unpublished data) found that the structure and composition of the communities changed with land use. Under secondary forest, the biodiversity was higher (98 taxonomic units [tu.]) than when the land was used to raise cattle (13-20 t.u.). Cultivation (18-31 t.u.) drastically reduced the diversity ofthe macrofauna. B. humidicola, bean/maize/cassava cultivation, and pine plantations had fewer species than other agricuhural systems (Figure 9). At biologicalleve~ these results are promising, because they made it possible to use the future in a tool with prediction facility to monitoring the changes ofthe land use at landscape level. Species richness of earthworms and taxonomic units of macrofauna in the study sites, Cauca, Colombia.Feijoo (unpublished data) in an attempt to explain the interaction ofvariables ofthe soil as possible tool predicting of its quality carried out a regression analysis between leaf and trunks biomass and earthworm biomass in a forest of >40 years and pasture of P. c/andestinum. Linear regression explained a low percentage of the total variati<?n (r = 0,359 and 0,34 respectively).This was also the case when a multiple regression analysis was made of earthworm biomass against precipitation, soil humidity, organic matter content, total nitrogen, Ca, Mg and Al. In another attempt to explain the distribution of earthworm biomass an analysis was made for soil properties against two land uses. The results do not show a clear tendency in the distribution pattem of earthworm biomass.Earthworm population distribution may be a complex system that requires more sophisticated tools for data analysis and modeling. These results open several ways for future research.#V' The SWBM is intended to support local decision making and for teaching local stakeholders about basic functions of multiple-cornmunity watershed components such as relationships between land and water resources, effects of land use, and demographic changes on future water accessibility, and upstream-downstream relationships.The SWBM was developed using hillside watersheds in Latin America and the Caribbean ofup to about 50,000 ha and for which limited biophysical data are available. Before the SWBM was developed, a thorough evaluation of many available water-based simulation models were evaluated including AGNPS, ANSWERS93, SWRRB, SWAT, PRMS, ARCIINFO GRID and ArcView Spatial Analyst, BASINS, and OWLS. None met all our criteria. In general they are too complex, too data demanding, or incapable of simulating and manipulating stream flows or simulating flow control structures, e.g., dams. The SWBM fills the gap between current needs and resources of rural corrununities throughout developing countries and data demands of established, more complex multi-faceted models designed for resources and applications in developing countries. The model is not designed for engineering specific hydrological projects or for describing the movement ofwater and soil based on detailed physical processes. This simulation model was developed around the belief that an approximate answer to the right question is worth a great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong question.A case study demonstrating the value of the SWBM was carried out for a benchrnark watershed, Tascalapa, in Central Honduras. Using the SWBM, scenario analyses were carried out describing effects of plausible development paths on future water yields and patterns. Another analysis looked at equity issues, i.e., which zones in the watershed were net suppliers or net consumers of accessible water. Results are being made available on the Web as part ofthe Project's tutorial.Based on the results, staternents can be made such as, \"In the second half of April, about 20% of the residents in the watershed have to walk. more than 1 km to get to any stream, and 30% have to walk over 5 km before they reach a point where stream flow is greater than 501/s\". Not surprisingly, the poorest families and those settling the \" frontier\" ofthe watershed are often those without piped water and therefore may rely on stream water for domestic needs. The analysis also has implications for gender studies.Based on the above analysis, decision makers could, for example, set goals for mínimum flows at the watershed outlet during the driest seasons so that all farm families have access to water within a set distance from their bornes (Figure 1 0). A second type of analysis carried out with the SWBM demonstrates the effects of different land use patterns on water yields. Current land use varíes signiñcantly between zones within the watershed that in tum affects relative water yields and temporal variability.The model is an official !CASA tool and is available for download at the ICASA Web site. lts publication in ArcUser has already resulted in a strong demand internationally. The fact that it is easy to use and requires few data makes it attractive to application in data-poor environments typical of most developing countries.  ;-\"\" . , :'.:'.:::-:t.-. . . . ~~-. . . ./ Simulations modeled for three scenarios in the Jalapa River watershedThe aim was to compare different scenarios of land use in the Jalapa River watershed and malee projections for future years.The SWAT is a scale model developed by the Blackgrass Experimental Station ofTexas A&M University. It is a too! useful for evaluating water use and to quantify the impact of practices of land use in large watersheds. It is a model of continuous time that operates in daily periods.The SW AT was used interfaced with Are View to estímate the monthly water flow and siltage in the Jalapa watershed. Information (maps and databases) was prepared to feed into the model. The defined projection system for all the entrance maps was the Universal Traverse Mercator 1927.A digital elevation model (DEM) was prepared to delineate the watershed starting from a 20-m contour map. The DEM combined with river pattem was used to calculate the direction and accumulation ofwater flow. The two resulting maps were overlaid with a mask defining the mínimum )ayer of available information. A map of the watershed was obtained showing relief and river system.Three different land uses were modeled. The three scenarios that were tried in the model were current use, potential sustainable forest. and potential environmental payoffs. Each land-use map was converted to grid format for later feeding to the model. The current use was generated from air photos and verification in the field. For the scenario of sustainable forest management, the optimization made by the model obeys current market conditions: prices, costs, yields, manpower availability and requirements, capital, and soil for crop type. These were obtained by analyzing survey data. The watershed's recognized potentialland uses were analyzed by comparing revenues that the pine forest could generate (selling toan industry that would pay Lps.l20.00 for each standing cubic meter) versus the revenues perceived as coming from traditional agricultura} crops such as maize, bean, pastures, and coffee.To define soil polygons we used the maps ofSimmons and Castellanos (1968) 12 and the soils database ofthe Dirección Ejecutiva de Catastro (DEC). For the configuration ofthe climate generator we used daily rainfall data for Yorito 1996.The simulated average rainfall was about 1814 mm and was used for the three simulated scenarios The annual production of silt in the scenarios of sustainable forest and environmental payoffs did not differ significantly in quantities of silt, the sustainable forest scenario having the smaller quantity On the other hand, current land use produces twice the siltage than the optimal land use scenarios The differences ofwater production between optimal and current use are small (about 2%) Figure 11 shows the simulated quantities of silt and water production. Simulated annual averages of sediment and water production in three scenarios, Jalapa watershed, Honduras.The monthly average of siltage for the three scenarios shows a tendency towards smaller quantities at the beginning of the year ( dry months) and a maximum between the months of September and November (months with higher incidence of phenomena such as tropical stonns or hurricanes) We must mention that the series of available rain data for the simulations is from the last 4 years, during which (in 1998) Hurricane Mitch struck., which may be affecting the calculation of monthly averages of siltageThe scenarios of optimal use generate similar quantities of silt. This may be because both scenarios ha ve considerable forest coverage and the more sloping areas are protected from erosion. Agricultural activities in the upper part of the watershed with bigger slopes contribute 500/o more silt compared to siltage in the optimal use model. Water production is not significantly affected among the different scenarios, because the scenario of current use possesses considerable vegetative coverage.The simulations will belp decision makers in choices of land use and soil conservation for the Jalapa watershed The Secretaria de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente (SERNA) is in charge of improving land use in Honduras. Their Office ofLand Use Planning (OLUP) has been storing a large amount of biophysical and socioeconomic data about agroclimatic potential and infrastructure for Honduras at different scales. However, their team has had sorne difficulties in developing a coherent picture of watershed problems and in identifying useful strategies. Our aim was to give support to their efforts by bringing in our expertise in analyzing watersheds and proposing concrete solutions.The CIA T DS tools allow determining how to reduce the conflicts between optimal and current land uses by comparing different scenarios. The Choluteca watershed was selected, being the most affected by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, for the application of such tools. The OLUP contracted two students to apply two models with CIAT help. The optimization model is maximizing the income ofthe wbole watershed based on homogenous land units (Figure 12).Fi~ 12.Map ofhomogenized land units (In. U) oftbe • Cboluteca River watersbed...Total: 399 m.uFrom: SI-PI-El-Al To: S18-P4-E2-A3Homogenous land units of the Choluteca watershed, Honduras.The homogenous land units are the results ofthe superposition ofthree maps: distance to market, slope, and altitude and soil characteristics. The optimization spatial model is based on a spatial analysis ofthe watershed. The analysis consisted in determining homogenous land categories. These were determined using altitude, slope, and distance to road. The map is drawn. The student is still collecting data about local farming systems.• ..We expect that the OLUP will go beyond map making and analyze the watershed in an integrated way. They are likely to apply the technique for other watersheds and present relevant scenarios to policy makers. Highlights ./ Optimization modellinked to a virtual reality rendering software ./ The tool improves communication of possible futures for land uses, and replaces the use of maquetas and flat mapsThe aim was to help communities more clearly visualize possible futures for land use.Exploratory work on the communication of possible scenario outcomes to the population of a small watershed was done by combining optimization models with computer-generated images of future landscapes. Five scenarios (a rapid population increase, a sustainable forest management, an increase in agricultura! productivity, a new credit program, anda payment for environmental services) were introduced in a linear programming (LP) model that maximizes the total income of the watershed while finding the most profitable land use condition.The results of the model were fed into a virtual-reality (VR) landscape rendering software that allows us to simulate the aspect ofthe watershed under given scenarios. We presented to the population the realistic \"pictures\" of the watershed they are living in, according to possible futures. This included present and future roads, buildings, land use pattems, and eroded hillsides.We also generated animations that correspond to what an observer travelling through or flying o ver the landscape will ha ve in his field of view.Figure 13 shows the resulting actualland use and environment payments scenario. Surprisingly, fanners have no problem in grasping the profit maximization principie, and understand perfectly wbat would be the impact on the landscape. In fact, we found that VR helps to lower the leve) of abstraction typically associated with LP and GIS. The VR animations reinforced the perceived realism of the simulated landscapes.Figure 13.ActualLand Use Enviromnent Payments Scen.arioResults of using the model to show actual land use and environment payments scenano.This OS tool will help communities forecast the impact of different collective actions such as new rules, new roads, or adoption of new techniques on both their incomes and their landscapes. 0., ~ .¡v ~ J .,¡JJ Contributon: GÍ eelerc (PE-4), B Barbier, A Hemandez (COHDEFOR)Highlight ./ Hydrological maps ofHonduras produced to help in Iocating best areas for small seed enterprisesThe aim was to generate informative maps that allowed the Seeds ofHope Project to malee correct decisions in identifying the appropriate areas for establishing small seed enterprises (PES, the Spanish acronym) both in Honduras and NicaraguaA series of maps was produced using rainfall data from the CIA T database.The maps showing the Honduran hydrological balance show that in the months of J anuary and April the hydrologicallevels are deficient, between 100 and 200 mm, the lowest in the year. This indicates that to produce seed in these months we need to have irrigation equipment to guarantee success of production. We would be making from the weakness of the system strength for the SSE, because we would be producing seed at a difficult time for the rest of the producers.Also, we can select the areas with the best hydrologicallevel, O -250 mm and supplement the levels from 0-100 mm with irrigation. We can avoid those areas where precipitation is very high, over 250 mm. This amount would be a problem in field production because ofthe risk ofpests. It would also be a problem because ofhigh relative humidity, which would make it, if not impossible, then highly difficult to reach a humidity content in the seed of 11%-12%, which is safe for their storage.The maps produced are ofhelp to decision makers in working out the best areas to locate the PES and what irrigation is required in less optimal areas.Contributors: dGiraldo, M MendezBiophysical characterization of the Calico River-soil pro files, sea/e 1:50,000Highlight ./ Biophysical characterization of Calleo River watershed carried outThe aim was to generate basic information on edaphic resources through a soil characterization.A biophysical characterization was carried out using 21 aerial photos ata scale of 1:25,000.Using GIS, seven maps were defined collating data ofthe physiography, slope, soils, capacity for land use, and proposed land use. Nine land systems or landscapes were determined in the watershed and their individual areas were estimated using polar planimetry. The area percentages were checked using GIS.The hillsides system proved to be predominant in the area (Table 8). The topography ofthe area is characterized by an irregular reliefwith slopes that vary from 2% to >75%. The simplified soil classification ofthe watershed (Table 9) was made using the categories order, suborder, great group and subgroup, according to the soil classification system ofthe United Sates Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1995 version. The purpose was to analyze the present dynamics of the CIA T research si te in San Dionisio, exemplifying the relationships among the different levels of decision within the municipality.The management of natural resources and agriculture is approached considering biophysical and socioeconomic aspects because the optimization of these resources also depends on the decisions taken by those who can take advantage ofthem. The investigation is developed from an anthropocentric perspective and focused on decision taking at different levels of collective organization. Emphasis was laid on the definition ofthe level immediately above farm level corresponding to groups of the community carrying out collective action. Second, the hierarchical relationship between social and biophysical systems was analyzed; evaluating in what measure the domains ofthe detenninants coincided with biophysical units ofthe landscape, like for example, watersheds. One might expect that each level of decision tak:ing would correspond with a landscape and characteristic domain.The study area was the community of Ocote Abajo in San Dionisio, Matagalpa, Nicaragua. The analysis was to identify an intermediate level between farm and community, that is, a level above Productive Unit. We used the Stakeholder Analysis methodology. To identify the relationship between collective action and landscape, projects were spatially represented, considering the influence area of each of the participant families, looking for a grouping pattem.At least 99 families have dominion over about 678 ha. About half (53%) ofthis dominion is dedicated to pasture and fallow, about one third (29%) is occupied by agricultura! crops, about one fifth (17%) by forests, and the remaining area by buildings and public places. About 86% of the area is managed by landowners. In the remaining 14%, multiple work agreements were observed to take advantage of the lands.The farnily domain at productive unit level extends over an average area of 6.6 ha. Ten types of area were observed-shifting agriculture, permanent crops, subsistence farming, forests, pastures in use and others, fallow, agricultura! use of low fertility, buildings, and public places. Men, with or without a family to support, dominate the areas of shifting agriculture, pastures, and permanent crops as landowners, sharecroppers, lessees, or joumeymen. Women with a farnily to support take care of water supply and the smaller animals. Their radius of action is bounded to the house, the lots where hens are raised, and the patches of forests where the sources of water are. The women also participate in collecting fi.rewood and cultural labor of agriculture.In the level above productive unit were 25 groupings congregating in turn around initiatives led by NGOs of development, religious, and political tendencies. Groups of families work in collective form in sorne ofthese initiatives, mainly in those in which NGOs participate, related with the management ofwater, reforestation, soil conservation, and sowing ofbasic grains.The community is divided into three sectors, but they are not an administrative division nor are they recognized by the municipality, therefore they are not a decision spáce. They respond more to historical reasons, territorial extension. Sorne relationship was found between divisions of watersheds bigger than 1 O ha and the sectors.Four levels of landscapes were determined, their characteristics, the resources that the community demands at each leve!, and who decides upon them {Table 11).• The family has direct influence on the productive unit. Families take advantage ofthe resources ofthe productive unit and take the decisions, being mainly the men and the women with families to support. The leve! below the productive unit is the plot or territory associated with the subdominions ofthe family. The level above productive unit is the \"sector\", which exhibits characteristic historical and social specifics. When analyzing the projects in NRM and agriculture that are developed in combined form, it is deduced that the sector domain is related with the water of collective springs and the forests that protect them, food, and credit. With respect to water, the owners of the lands where the source is located decide on this resource and not the group.The community would correspond to a higher landscape level than the sector and is defined by the limits of the district. Who makes the decisions at this level is not clear, despite having an \"a/ca/dito\". However, such a :functionary does not have autonomy for the position. The absence of recognized petitions that represent the interests of the whole community is noted.The main elements that call the community together are the necessities ofwater and credit The problems with water supply gave rise to the formation of the Comité de Agua Potable (CAP), which involves 29% of families plus 34% in informal collectives.The clearer picture that emerges of the levels of decision making within the community helps make support more efficient. The methodological Guide for development of a local geographical system has been the object of various planning meetings anda basic idea for its construction has been agreed. The CIAT-CATIE proposal to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in which it is included as a tool for intermediate production, has been approved. Work has begun.The Guide for constructing scenarios of land use based on bioeconomic models is pending the finalization of respective research. Meanwhile components ha ve been validated to generate the methodological tool, validate it, and produce the Guide.The initial proposal of a single Guide on the use of mapping and phototopographic analysis in evaluating natural resources at watershed leve! integrating mapping and phototopographic analysis was discarded following the analysis made this year. We are presently working on the reconstruction of the form for the Guide to include in the ~econd edition of Guides being prepared from January 2001.V Zapata c;on~ ~~~ Activity 2.4.Highlights ./ Operational Plan for 2000-2001 defined and approved by stakeholders ./ Exchange of information and systematization of experiences initiated ./ Collaborative activities with other Soil Water and Nutrient Management (SWNM) consortiums identifiedThe aim is to develop, adapt, and disseminate improved options for the sustainable management of fragile soils in the Central American region.Following a series ofmeetings with stakeholders including farmers, farmers' organizations, NGOs, Ministries of Agriculture, and local universities, it was decided to develop an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional consortium to develop alternative management systems that con tribute to improving the quality of life of small-scale produ9ers. The MIS Consortium is a member ofthe SWNM Pro~ a CGIAR's systemwide program.A second workshop was convened during Jan 31-Feb 2, 2000 to define the outputs and modus operandi of the consortium. Stakeholders identified common problems including:• Soil and SOM losses,• Water quality and availability constraints,• Burning,• Lack ofknowledge ofthe role ofbiological processes and nutrient cycling,• Inadequate use of fertilizers and lack of altemative sources,• Limited use of altemative production systems/components, • Lack of quantification of the biophysical and socioeconomic impact of traditional and improved land use practices, and • Inadequate policies on land use.Agreed common si tes for the consortium activity were the• watersheds of the Tascalapa River and Lempira Sur in Honduras and the Calico and La Dalia Rivers in Nicaragua. The group elected a steering committee. It includes representatives from the NGO PRODESSA and the UNA in Nicaragua, the National Program DICTA and the EAP-Zamorano in Honduras, with CIAT as coordinator.The consortium recognizes that a large amount of information and practices airead y exist on the integrated management ofhillside soils, but it is often not readily available in adequate forms for the end user. Therefore we are collating this information and presenting it in easily understood formats using a variety of media Better understanding of the driving forces behind land use is also required. For this reason we are characterizing constraints and potential use of fragile soils in the two countries. This work will identify opportunities and sites for tecbnical interventions that are thoroughly grounded in the socioeconomic and environmental contextThe expected outputs include: • Information on SWNM available for multiple stakeholders, • Production systems efficient in the use of soil, water, and nutrients, and • Technological innovations developed and disseminated with active participation of farmers.Contributor:The aims were to: l. Improve coord.ination among the institutions and at the same time between the institutions and the local organizations to be able to reach a sustainable development over time.requested by local, regional, and national entities. 3. Improve the capacities of each of the partners in the areas of administration, research, and development.The establishment ofthe interinstitutional consortiwn, CLODEST, has increased social capital considerably within institutions and between institutions and local actors. This has allowed us to develop combined activities. An example ofthese is the establishment ofthe SOL network that allows us to put agricultura! technologies related with environment conservation and improved production levels at the disposition ofthe small-scale producers in the hillsides. In this way a rational use of the natural resources is obtained.Another important example of the benefits of this coordination was the creation of a documentation center in the reference si te. This will facilitate in the future the establishment of a local system of support for decision taking, because it will bring together all available information ofthe municipality, reducing in this way the duplication of effort and maximizing the use ofhuman and economic resources. Having organizational structures in place has facilitated the integration of partners that develop topics of great importan ce in the region.The annual operative plan is thus of great importance to the working of the consortium. On the 16th ofMarch, a workshop was held on \"Establishing the action plan, vision, and mission ofthe local committees of development ofrural agroenterprises ofYorito and Sulaco\". The workshop consolidated the committees involved in CLODEST, clarifying and revising the prioritization of activities for the year 2000 and established work plans and budgets. On the 29th ofMay the Support Group for CLODEST (CIAT/llCA Holland/IPCA) met to discuss lines of action for strengthening the consortium.Table 12 shows the activities developed by the commission and support group.   The aim was to help local consortia in setting up a documentation center in Yorito so that tools and models that have been developed can be used and maintained.By law the municipalities ofHonduras are required to build development plans in order to improve infrastructure and production, reduce poverty, and reduce vulnerability. Over the last 6 years, CIAT has worked with the community ofYorito and Sulaco to develop DS tools for municipalities and organizations involved in development. These tools included an interactive municipal Atlas, local database, farm optimization models, and watershed optimization models. However, to date technicians have made a limited use ofthese tools despite severa! years of training and an apparent interest. The local organizations pointed out their limited capacity to use or to maintain the tools. Also the organizations could not afford to put enough human resources into these activities.In 2000, severa! organizations from Yorito decided to join in an effort to create a common platform where the different stakeholders can share data and information in a way that reduces costs and improves individual analysis capacity. This platform was called the Documentation Center and a technician was hiredAfter 6 months of existence the Center seems sustainable and computers are available for the public and the local population. The technician has been giving regular courses to organizations, highschools, and primary schools where participants pay, making the center financially sustainable.The Center will help local farmers, organizations, and institutions in training with GIS and other tools that help in decision making. The aims were to: l. Strengthen local networks of community organizations allowing them to develop their abilities and capacities to achieve interaction with externa! agents and the tak:ing of decisions especially in NRM. 2. Develop local structures that are participative and representative with the power to negotiate and channellocal necessities to the agents of externa! help.For the past 3 years we have been offering support to an agricultura! association of farmers (Campos Verdes) in San Dionisio, Matagalpa, Nicaragua and for 1 year to the network oflocal organizations (REDOL YS) in Honduras. This support attempts to invigorate the Association, on one hand through its increasing.decision taking that affects its locality, and on the other hand through stimulating and creating spaces so that decision taking is covered at municipallevel.We ha ve supported and documented the organizational experience of the Campos Verdes Association and REDOLYS. The systematizing ofthis experience has hadas a platform the nine methodological steps that hypothetically guarantee a certain level of success in the development of an organizational process at watershed Ievel (Beltrán et al 1999). 13The success of CLODEST can be seen under the report \"Consolidate annual operative plan of CLODEST .. , page 65, and in the numerous references to its work that are made in this annual report. The association is becoming ever more independent as it becomes more experienced.One year after fonning the REDOL YS network, it is being well consolidated since the elaboration and approval of its intemal regulations. The members, and especially the Board of Directors, have developed a series of activities that allows an evaluation of its level of development (Table 14).We have been applying the SWAT hydrologic model in three watersheds in Honduras. In the Tascalapa watershed, we are measuring sediments as well as stream flow and rainfall. These measurements permit us to verify the accuracy ofthe model. Ifthe model is able to predict stream flow and rainfall reasonably, then the modeler can run other scenarios with different land uses. Sedimentation is being measured twice weekly during the 2000 rainy season. Results will be published at the end ofthe rainy season in December.Stream flows were also ruler measured every day on four spots in the watershed by paid farmers.Rainfall in the watershed was measured over the last 5 years in 15 raingauges.When results are finalized, the information will be of use in deciding on relevant proposed projects of soil and land conservation. .) ~ .Contributors: S San Martín (SERTEDESO), B~arbier, o'Mejía (CIAT)Collaboraton: SERTEDESOHighlight ./ Information on soil erosion provided for the Calico River watershedThe aim was to collect data on soil erosion, which is much needed.Erosion is the first expressed concern in discussing sustainable agriculture in developing countries. Most projects claiming to work on NRM first promote soil conservation practices, but little is known about erosion and the real cost of erosion for farmers and for society in general.The Central Bank ofNicaragua is putting in place a green accounting framework to verify ifthe gross domestic product (GDP) is sustainable. The bank has asked soil scientists to provide information about the real cost of erosion.The CIAT experiment is located in the Calico River water5hed in Nicaragua on a representative antisol. Students from UNA have been monitoring the erosion process and its impact on yield in six different plots for 2 consecutive years. They compared three techniques in á maize-bean rotation, such as traditional techniques, dead barriers, and contour plowing with one replication of each land use. Results are pending.The data and analysis produced will be of great use to decision makers given that little information is available on soil erosion. ./ Measurement of interception from vegetative covers in Tascalapa River watershcd confirms that forest cover decreases the production of spring water ./ Precipitation data for San Dionisio analyzed for the years 1987-99The aim is to help validate the biophysical and bioeconomic models that we have been developing and to pro vide information of use to decision makers in the watershed.We measured the rainfall interception by different vegetative cover in the Tascalapa watershed. The problem is that interception is a main factor in the water balance. The main hypothesis behind the watershed project is that trees increase water production through more rainfall and through better infiltration and retention. Most hydrology books disagree with this hypothesis. Evidence shows that tree cover reduces water production through higher evaporation (interception by tree crown) and by transpiration caused by deeper roots and larger leaf area. Literature mentions about 30% or 40% interception in tropical forests. There has been no measurement in Honduras to date.In 1999, ESNACIFOR and CIAT installed 27linear rain gauges under three vegetative covers and one electronic rain gauge in a pasture to compare the difference of interception between tree cover and no tree cover. The rain gauges were installed in one small area in the Tascalapa River watershed. A farmer measured the rainfall daily during 1999 and 2000.In 1999, the results suggested interception as high as 60% for both pine trees and broadleaf forest, including coffee. Among the dozens ofmeasurements made in the world this was the highest. Given that the protocol suffered from the failure of the electronic rain gauge, we had to redo the measuring in 2000.The impact ofthis study is likely to be important in the Honduran context where most projects are based on a misconception. lf it is confinned that trees intercept most of the water, then it is probable that the watershed strategy should be rethought. The national Electricity Company of Honduras has already tried to discuss the matter at the political level because they suspect that trees reduce the production of electricity. The company even tried to pro mote improved pasture instead of trees in the El Cajon watershed. í\\~\\J Rabrfall analysis in San Dionisio, The Meteorology Department ofthe Instituto Nicaraguense de Estudios Territoriales (INETER) provided the data. Figure 14 shows the monthly pattem over the years analyzed.  ------------------------------------~~ I SilO + ---P . r - ------------: ---A ---f --- The month with most rain in the 13 years was October 1988 because ofHurricane Mitch. However, subtracting that maximurn value (741 mm), the maximum precipitation moves to the month of September and the minimum to the month of May. The rain average in the winter months (May-October) oscillated between 100 and 280 mm per month, with September always having the highest and May the lowest average.Observing annual precipitation, very dry years occurred from 1989 to 1994 and in the remaining years distribution has a highly irregular tendency with very marked highs and lows. The high points of the years 1988 and 1996 present more reduced rainfal1 when compared with the year of Hurricane Mitch. However, this is because ofits distribution-the 741 mm ofthe hurricane fell over 15 days, whi1e in the years 1996 and 1988 an accumulation ofthe whole year is presented.The tendency in 1999 and so far in the year 2000 is of a reduction in rainfal1, which has already been demonstrated with the droughts that fanners have had to face in this period.We now have a clear diagnostic on the rainfall pattem for San Dionisio for the years 1987 to 1999. This information can be used for planning with regard to land use, crop systems, and Urigation.Contributor:Collaborators: INETER, NicaraguaAlthough scientists consider that trees are likely to decrease the volume of water produced by springs, development practitioners and farmers consider that deforestation decreases the water volume of springs. This contradiction is important for watershed management. Many projects pro mote protection of small watersheds, which means aforestation, expecting to increase water volume. This is of particular importance for the national econom.ies because the cost of electricity is partially determined by the volume of water produced by the springs during the dry season.For the past 4 years, SERTEDESO has been measuring spring volume in the Tascalapa River watershed in collaboration with SDC and CIAT. We have acted as adviser to the student doing the survey in 2000. The results of the study will help CIA T run a study of environmental pay offs.The infonnation from this project will add to that on rainfall measurement in the watershed to help decision makers on matters of water conservation. Develop and/or validate methods and tools for developing and strengthening key organizations Develop a Guide for establishing small seed enterprises Highlights ../ A Guide developed and elaborated for the establishment of small seed enterprises with aspects of marketing, feasibility, and revised managerial administration ../ The Guide includes basic and essential concepts of orientation to the market, profitability, and sustainabilityThe aims were to: l . Help trainers and trained small-scale managers to take into account market tendencies, profitability, and sustainability involved in setting up a PES. 2. Develop a methodological tool that allows the National Institutions and NGOs to implement, with groups of producers of the hillsides and marginal areas, the PESs 3. Decentralize seed production and allow these producers access to a source of good quality seed and to fair prices and suitable quantities at the required times.Using previously collected data and experience, between March and July, four sections were produced as components of the Guide.Section 1 is entitled \"Identifying the appropriate zone and organizing the interest group\". This section emphasizes the alternatives that institutions have in identifying the appropriate zone to establish the PES, for example, using GIS, the physical and agroclimatic profile, and the psychometer. Different aspects related with the strategies are analyzed for identifying and organizing within a community the group of producers most appropriate for the PES. This is based on organization, planning, execution, M&E, and on the strengths and weaknesses ofbeing associated to a PES.Section 2 is entitled \"Seed commercialization and managerial administration\". • This section puts forward some mechanisms for commercializing the seed produced by the PES, based on the socioeconomic pro file, the studies and evaluation of markets in the PES ' s zone of influence, and the distribution channels and publicity. Also relevant aspects related with accounting systems are presented as mechanisms for the economic control ofthe PES.Section 3 is entitled \"Pre-and postharvest management ofthe seed\". This section presents all aspects related with seed quality, appropriate harvest time, and their influence on seed deterioration. Rules are also established for the seed drying and storage, as well as sorne tests for evaluating seed quality.In Section 4, aspects related with the interna! quality control in the PES are presented. This is managed through M&E in all production processes: field, cleaning, drying, storage, commercialization, and administration. 1bis internal quality control is also compared with the official control carried out by the institutions of seed certification.This Guide will also ha ve a set of prototypes of the equipment used for producing better seed, such as: an air ventilator, a chute for manual selection o. f seed, and a stationary dryer. These prototypes will allow qualified technicians to carry out sorne exercises related with the .postharvest handling of seed.This Guide will ensure that small seed enterprises are formed, trained, have studied market options, have pre-evaluated profitability and sustainability, and thus have an increased Highlights ./ CD-ROM of Guides in preparation ./ New Guides on local indicators of soil quality and management of soil organic matter are being developedThe aim is to improve the Guides developed to contribute to the institutional strengthening of projects, programs, and entities working in the managemept, protection, and negotiation of natural resources with emphasis on the locallevel (watershed/municipality).The second edition ofthe Guides so far produced is being prepared as a CD-ROM using material from the first edition and introducing editorial changes. The product is ready for copying. A pause is being taken to give authors of the Guides the time to make corrections. This has delayed production ofthe CD-ROM because ofthe multiple commitments ofstaff. The end of2000 has been stipulated as a final date for submitting corrections.The first draft of Guide 1, Local Indicators of Soil Quality, is prepared. Contributions from six specialists in Africa are included with the scientific coord.ination ofEdmundo Barrios (PE-2). This Guide will be validated in Arusha, Tanzania in October in a course for 30 trainers of five East African countries.At the same time, and following the model developed for the CIA T Guides, Robert Del ve (CIAT-Africa) is developing a Guide on the Management ofSoil Organic Matter. This will also be used in Africa and later adapted to tropical America It will be revised by the team of African authors and CIAT staff at the Arusha course in TanzaniaThe .Guides provide support and training for decision makers and those working in the field of NRM at locallevel. .• ~ ~Collaborators: PE-4, PE-2, SN-1After various attempts to secure the participation of Jairo Morales (UNA-Nicaragua) to work with a student on the research necessary for this Guide, an agreement has been reached. Work is going ahead with UNA and results will be available by the end of the year. The Guide should be available by Apri12001.Contributors: J Morales, V Zapata Collaborators: JA Beltrán, Campos Verdes, PE-4, UNA Activity 3.2. Train local, regional, and national organizations in the use of methodologies and/or tools developed by CIAT and its partners, using methods developedThis activity is part ofthe Seeds ofHope Project and will be reported in the SOR final report later this year. Sorne ofthe training workshops are shown in Table 19 under Activity 5.4.Action plans: Support their development, hold training workshops for their follow-up and evaluation, and supervise, monitor, and document those elaborated by trainees./ 15 action plans elaborated ./ National teams of trainers trained in evaluation of action plansThe aim is to support and strengthen local institutions and decision mak:ers involved in NRM at the locallevel (watershed, municipality).V arious training events and workshops were carried out during the year with the support of teams ofnational trainers in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Colombia (see Table 19 under Activity 5.4). As a result, the managements ofthe respective institutions (seven in Nicaragua, six in Honduras, and two in Colombia) have supported 15 action plans (APs). The 13 APs ofCentral America have produced evaluation reports in an independent publication, containing text, figures, and photos on the:• Socioecono:mic and physiographic context where the methodological tools are applied,• Description ofthe organizations and institutions ofthe area where the AP is to be applied and their relationships with the AP, and • S tate of execution of the AP. Three participative workshops were carried out as follow-up to the APs in situ in Tegucigalpa (Honduras), Granada (Nicaragua), and Bolívar (Valle-Colombia). In these workshops, the trainers, in their new role as monitors, revised the general theory on follow-up and they designed, with those from CIAT responsible for training, the tools for collecting ex-ante information. They also formed work teams to visit the APs and the timetable for this work.The supervision, monitoring, and documentation of the follow-up process to the APs was in the charge of the training coordinators in the three countries with the collaboration of the trainers. Table 15 shows the visited institutions and organizations whose APs were reported on in the separate publication.The activities whose tasks were completed have generated:• National teams of trainers trained to carry out the evaluation of specific cases where APs are carried out. • A simple methodology for carrying out in situ follow-up ofthe APs anda set oftools.• Fifteen institutions in the process of incorporating the Methodological Instruments into their normal development plans and programs.• Sorne relationships strengthened with the partner institutions, to such a point that it has been intemally suggested that their representatives should be members ofthe CIAT Consultative Group in each country. .Incorporate the úse of methodo/ogica/ tools to support NRM organizations through workshops with national groups Highlight -/ Workshops held in A.frica, Asia, the Andean zone, Central America, and ColombiaThe aim is to support and strengthen NRM organizations through workshops on the methodological tools with national groups.In February-March 2000 sorne ofthe Guides were presented to audiences in Asia (CIP-CIAT Vietnam-Analysis ofGroups oflnterest and Gender) and toa group ofresearchers from East Africa (Uganda) with the collaboration ofthe African Highlands Initiative (AHI) and the SWNM. The African experience allowed the formation of a team of soils experts who have elaborated a Guide ofLocal Indicators of Soil Quality, which will be validated during the training of30 trainers from five countries ofthis region.In February 2000, four ofthe Guides were presented to 22 professors ofthe National University ofLa Malina in Peru. They elaborated an action plan on their application in classwork and in fieldwork carried out with their students. In October the visit to follow up this plan was made.A variety of additional support has been given to institutions that requested partial access to information and/or training in the use ofthe Methodological Tools. Marco Tullo Treja, together with the Honduran national team of trainers offered support on five opportunities to organizations, partners, and non partners, such as CARE-DIPP AC y Extensa, PROLESUR, SCD, the CALEL and CASFUL Cooperatives, and CONCERN 14 , involving almost 250 individuals. In Nicaragua, a variety of support events were carried out, such as Maria Eugenia Baltodano offered to students ofthe Universidad Centroamericana in the application ofthe tool on levels of well-being. The work carried out by Celia Gutierrez stands out in the induction of members of other UCA faculties to the kn.owledge ofthe Methodological Tools.In Colombia, seven support meetings were held on the application of the Guides in which OlafWestermann and Vicente Zapata participated for the formulation ofthe APs ofEcofuturo and Acuavalle.Training in and diffusion of the methodological tools is ensuring better management and decision making in NRM.Contributor:vÍ:.~ ,/~ -. / ' • Collaborators: ~ ~ejo1ttJl~estermann, :rvffi'Baltodano, J Cisneros, national groups ~Ív~ Activity 3.3 Strengthen small-scale producers, managers, and local, regional, and national organizations in aspects related to rural development using participatory investigative methodsEvents are recorded in Table 19 under Activity 5.4.Highlight ./ Two local com.m.ittees for development of rural agroenterprises establishedThe aim is to help and support the consolidation of committees for developing rural agroenterprises in the region, including help with integrated production projects (PPis, the Spanish acronym) and system oflocal support (SAL, the Spanish acronym).A workshop, \"Support to the commercialization and development of agroenterprises in Y orito and Sulaco\", held in October 1999 in Yorito consolidated two local committees of development for runil agroenterprises. The two committees were consolidated based on an existent structure within CLODEST and CIDES that are CMCs ofCLODEST in Yorito and the CPCCM of CID ES in Sulaco. However, they were not very active because they lacked a vision and clear mission, a well-defined action plan, and starting capital to begin to develop activities.The committees were formed through local partners interested in taking into their own hands the managerial development in the region. At present the committees have a similar vision and mission guided toward the development of rural agroenterprises and they ha ve established action plans for the year 2000, which are being implementing with SN-1 support. Both the committees benefit from a starting capital of the Intemational Development Research Centre (IDRC) to develop strategies and execute activities whose results are beneficia! for the development of activities related to agroenterprises in Y orito and Sulaco.Action plans ha ve been defined and started upon. The functions of the committees ha ve also been defined and their vision and mission. Monitoring and evaluation remain to be put into operation to define impacts.\\t.,. The aim is that the committees for developing rural enterprises (DER, the Spanish acronym) are strengthened by attending to support demands. They should be able to mount a support system that is sustainable in the future thanks toan offer of services adapted to the area's demand and with the establishment of a payment mechanism for the services.The method used for Y orito and Sulaco was a similar process to that being developed by the Proyecto de Desarrollo de Agroempresas Rurales (PDAER) elsewhere in Colombia and Peru.The process has two components: l. Support the formation of a local DER committee in the organization of the interested parties (institutions, individuals, organized groups), definition of a vision, mission, and work concepts held in common that are in harmony with those ofthe CIAT's SN-1 project. 2. Familiarize and strengthen members ofthe local committees in the use or adaptation of PDAER-developed methodologies to attend the development needs ofrural agroindustry ofa given area, such as the following ones in Yorito and Sulaco, that is:• Identify market opportunities for small producers (IDOP, the Spanish abbreviation) • Develop a system oflocal support (SAL, the Spanish abbreviation) for the development of rural agro industries • Participative design of integrated productive projects (PPI, the Spanish abbreviation)The IDOP methodology (see SN-1 Annual Report) identifies and evaluates the different market options that are presented to the prod~cer following a process of different stages:• Socioeconomic pro file of the area of interest, • Rapid market study to determine demand tendencies in the market of severa! products that can respond to different marketing strategies, • Characterization of the products of a \"products-with-demand\" portfolio from the agronomic, commercial. and economic point ofview, and • Participative evaluation-where the different options are presented to the producer for their choice of preferences.In the case ofYorito and Sulaco this methodology was carried out in 1999 and the following varied products were chosen: red onion, green chili, tomato, cabbage, avocado, banana, butter and cheese, coffee, maize, and beans. The process of participative evaluation allowed rejection of sorne products because of such problems as sustainability or access.As part oftheir activities for the year 2000 the Yorito DER local committee chose coffee and the Sulaco committee chose maize to test the development methodology ofPPis. They chose these products because they are traditional in the area, they show demand according to the IDOP methodology applied in 1999, and their development problems affect most ofthe residents ofthe two places. For the elected options an analysis ofthe agroindustrial chain was made to identify the processes in the chain-the actors present at each stage and the bottlenecks that exist and need to be overcome. Then the problems that exist were identified and prioritized and finally an analysis of cause and effect to establish the activities that should be determined in the project design. This design can establish research and development actions that can moti vate implementation of activities or projects developed in a participative way with the different actors present in the chain.Table 16 shows results to date for activities in Sulaco and Table 17 shows results for Yorito. An informal meeting was held and an informative meeting followed. Other meetings are planned for later this year.Two maize processing agroindustries were contacted: Alimentos Concentrados (ALCON) and Compañia Avícola de Centro América (CADECA) with verbal agreement on poSS1bilities of purchase and prices.3. Funds ad.ministration In process.The Instituto Nacional de Formación Profesional (INFOP) has been contacted and has advised the Comisión de Producción, Crédito, Comercialización y Microempresas (CPCCM) ofthe probable dates ofactivities Activities and subactivities of support service executed by the CMC in Yorito l. Ad.ministration of committee operative funds 2. Adm.i.nistration of funds for the formation of new projects or strengthening of existent companies 3. Suppor;t to organic compost company 4. Support to the formation of an organic coffee company 5. Support to the formation of small artisanal seed companies of maize and bean 6. Support to the m.arket information system 7. Support to the certification of organic products 8. Support to companies of transformation of market garden productsAn accountant was hired and a mechanism of control is in place. A mechanism of sustainability is in place and consists of charging a percentage of the budget gained from proposals generated for the committee funds.There is a guide for the elaboration of proposals. The PPI design for coffee is in process. Activities are in process for companies of organic compost., artisana1 seeds, and market gardening products. A list is available of supporting financia! sources. A database is being compiled on supply and demand of services {fi.nancing included).A market study is being made and results will be available later this year.The design of the coffee PPI is in process.A market study is in process and results will be available later this year.Affiliation is effective: the net will communicate the supply and demand ofYorito and Sulaco with other regions, press information, contacts of buyers and sellers, and transport service of products. The SERTEDESO office is the headquarters of the center of information (information can be received and sent from Yorito, Y oro, Y orito, Victoria, and El Progreso) by telephone, Internet, and fax. Information will be diffused in the communities. Verbal contact was made with the local cooperatives and space will be rented according to storage needs. An inventory is being made of products and demands in Yorito and Sulaco.Information was identified on the certification process, handling of organic coffee, contacts in OCIA-AHPROCAFE in Honduras, Biolatina in Nicaragua, experiences of production of organic coffee for smallscale Honduran producers for an organized learning tour.Market garden products that are produced in comercializable quantities are being identified befare beginning these activities.a.Acronyms and abbreviations used: PPI =proyectos productivos integrados, SERTEDESO = Servicios Técnicos para el Desarrollo Sostenido, OCIA-AHPROCAFE = Organic Crop Improvement Association Intemational-Asociación Hondureña de Productores de Café.Highlight ./ Lessons leamed, hypotheses, principies, and openings for future research activities were identified for CLODEST and REDOLYS (Honduras) and the Asociación Campos Verdes(Nicaragua)The aim was to elaborate an initial conceptual framework on organizational processes based on CIAT's experience in the reference sites ofCentral America, to establish leamed lessons, to develop clear hypotheses, and to generate work principies.Taking into account the different stages mentioned in logical order by Beltrán et al (1999)  To facilitate construction ofthe matrix at each stage, the following questions were kept in mind: What have we done and why? With whom and why? With what objective and why? What methodology was used? What are the impacts 1 achievements, spaces 1 difficulties? For each stage, a \"Force Field Analysis\" (Hope and Timme11984 1 ~ was used to identify the different forces. We identified, from the analysis of forces for the organizational process carried out in Honduras and Nicaragua, the lessons learned, work hypothesis, and principies from the search for causes of problems.The di verse results were tabulated. To augment possibilities of success in organizational processes at locallevel, the following lessons leamed from these experiences in Central America should be taken to heart:1. Begin with clearly defined objectives that are logically linked with strategies, products and indicators of impact, and res\\llts ( either physical or in terms of the development of capacities). 2. Identify key actors, both their capacities and interests. 3. Evaluate demand. 4. Strengthen local organizations for collective action that assures the conservation or improvement of natural resources. 5. Actions with the objective of involving local organizations should contain principies of participation and decentralization; the process should be seen as something that will probably change and that should change over time, as local priorities change and institutions mature.This process of analysis and reflection will continue so that at locallevel collective decisions can be taken that allow communities to govem their own destiny, and to be more efficient and more effective.~ lV ..  The aim is to help decision makers at different levels with their work in NRM by diagnosing and fulfilling training needs.At least two visits were made to each of the institutional partners and two collective meetings held with their leaders and the trainers of the national team to inform about the progress of activities and to explore new needs for training and consultancy.As a result of these meetings an inventory of needs was made. From this agreements of interinstitutional collaboration were elaborated and signed with seven organizations of national importance. They were: the Association ofMunicipalities ofHonduras, World Vision-Honduras, CARE-Honduras, Secretary ofNatural Resources and the Environment, Christian Services ofDevelopment, Com.mission ofMennonite Social Action, and National School of Agriculture. These agreements were signed in August this year. This is a step that clears the way to sustainability of a mechanism (group of institutions) that, at country level, can incorporate research products in a permanent way.Two visits were made to partners and potential donors and two meetings held to give information of the strategy advances and of progress towards signature of interinstitutional collaboration agreements. Also, communication was made personally and in writing to a group of donors coordinated by the Programa del Trópico Seco Nicaraguense (TROPISEC). The result of these contacts has served so that the institutions involved in that project send their technicians for training, but we have not consolidated a more concrete collaboration.Three personal contacts were established among officials ofPE-3 and the United States Agency for International Development (US.AID). Following their instructions, a proposal was prepared to attend the training needs of an important group of receivers ofUSAID economic help. The proposal is being studied. An agreement of collaboration was established with the Proyecto Cuencas Matagalpa and a training project was written for 19 organizations that are in volved in this project. The initiative initially presented to USAID received no affirmative answer and is now presented to the WK Kellogg Foundation.Contacts were established with MAGFOR officials to explore the possibilities of a long-term agreement of collaboration with this Ministry. The constant changes of officials have hindered the concreting of a definitive proposal.In a meeting of2 August 2000 in CIAT-Managua, a proposal was outlined for the replanning of the training strategy for development, based on the experiences gained to date in the reference countries. Briefly, the planning concentrates efforts toward supporting institutional partners, with a wide mandate at geographic and program levels. To these partners we offer continuous support so that they can exercise the work of applying, analyzing, and diffusing the research results catalyzed by PE-3, maintaining the work of follow-up oftraining in a collaborative scheme with national trainers. To guarantee the sustainability ofthe training teams, new trainers will be trained within the institutional partners, in time for these to acquire the commitment ofbeing linked to the national training team. For this reason, agreements of collaboration were drawn up with the Honduran institutions and we hope to proceed in similar form with those ofNicaragua.Support activities have mainly concentrated on the two action plans presently being carried out (1) in Bolívar-Valle, area of influence of the BRUT project (Represa de agua potable para los municipios de Bolívar, Roldanillo, La Unión, and Toro), and (2) in the Bolo and Frayle Rivers' watersheds, with Acuavalle.This activity has brought together EcoFuturo, Corporación V allecaucana de las Cuencas Hidrograficas y el Medio Ambiente (CORPOCUENCAS), and CIAT in an agreement of interinstitutional collaboration for the application ofsix ofthe CIAT Guides in 10 communities ofthe municipality ofBolivar. At the same time, we are supporting the application offour CIAT Guides in the two communities ofthe Bolo and Frayle Rivers.The collaborative agreements and support to other organizations should bring about more sustainable managem t of natural resources in the regions. A community from the Jalapa River watershed between the municipalities ofYorito and Sulaco has a conflict over the use of its remaining forest. The local tribe, which has the title for the land, wants to cut and sell the forest to a logger. The rest of the community, which represents the majority but has no say in the title, disagrees. We aimed to develop a model to compare different uses of this forest to help the decision makers in this conflict.The model was developed and applied to the watershed. The first results were discussed with the community. We have developed a good relationship with the community ofthe Tascalapa watershed through the parents' association of the local school. This organization is the only one to be considered neutral in the conflict between the tribe and the mestizo community because parents from both groups attend the meetings. The problem of the forest is not discussed upfront and CIA T does not want to take si des. lt is believed that the tools will help loo k into the future.To operationalize what might look too theoretic to the community, CIAT has started a computertraining program with the higher grades. They were given an old typewriter to leam how to use a keyboard so that they will start computer sessions in the municipality.Fanners did correcta few of our misconceptions such as the real use ofthe forest, which for them is as mucha forestas apasture. Fanners were skeptical about the environmental payment scenarios. They think this will never happen. In fact environmental payment to farmers is perhaps closer to reality than they think. In the same watershed many communities have received large donations to protect communal forests. The SDC is negotiating with the municipality of Yorito, which own a fraction ofthe Tascalapa watershed, to implementa tax to improve the water quality through more friendly land use in the upper watershed. Environmental payment has been implemented at a large scale in Colombia and Costa Rica.The model developed will help the community to better envision possible futures and resol ve tbe conflict over use of remaining forest. The Jalapa watershed is part of the bigger El Cajon watershed, which drains into the largest hydroelectric dam in Honduras. The Tascalapa watershed is considered a hotspot because the steep upper watershed is cultivated. The govemment' s El Cajon Watershed Project wants to k:now how expensive it would be to change the Jand use so as to reduce erosive practice. The aim was to help decision makers with information on the expense in volved.Using an existing linear program.ming model from the Jalapa watershed, CIAT and COHDEFOR calculated the cost to the local com.munity ofrespecting a more sustainable land use. Todo so we put a constraint on total erosion produced by the watershed and ran the model. The model then changes the land use so as to maximize incomes while complying with the erosion restriction (Figure 15). 35000 37000 39000 41000 43000 45000 47000 49000 51000 Eroslon (tonlyur) Modeling of trade off between erosion and in come in the Jalapa watershed, Honduras.The results show that reducing erosion by putting the right land use in the right place would reduce erosion substantially without major cost for the community. This is good news for the proposed dam, for the El Cajon watershed project, and for the community, which has taken concrete steps in the past.Information was produced to help decision makers at government leve! with land use practices and soil conservation. The aim was to support decision makers ofthe El Cajon Project who are promoting changes in land use (Ordenamiento Territorial). A recent study ofthe Forestry Department's GIS laboratory shows as muchas a 60% conflict between current land use and that which the Project believes to be sustainable. The next step is to create the right incentive to change the current land use. The challenge is that land is owned either by poor small-scale farmers or by large ranchers. Both groups are reluctant to reduce their income by returning cropland and pasture to trees, and to stop burning their pastures and their crop residues.The method links GIS and a linear programming model. An ESNACIFOR student determined the homogenous land units using a GIS. All farmers ofthe watershed were interviewed on their practices. Ten representative farmers were interviewed with more quantitative questions on their production system.The watershed was divided into hundreds of homogenous .categories based on slope, type of soil, altitude, distance to market, and land tenure.The information genérated can be used by the El Cajon Project in making decisions on land use changes in the watershed. The Honduran hillsides have a serious problem of.water contamination during the coffeeprocessing period because thousands of traditional coffee processing plants eject coffee residues into the river without any treatment. The Instituto Hondureño del Café (IHCAFE), following the example of all the neighboring countries, is trying to solve the problem by concentrating coffee processing in fewer modero plants of several types. The aim was to produce information for decision makers on the best location and size for the plants.The centers CIAT and the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) developed a spatial model that determines the optimal allocation of processing plants under different scenarios of contamination. A student from CATIE who is also an IHCAFE long-time employee spent 6 months in collecting the data and building the model.We developed an innovative procedure in a classic non-linear programming model. The model behaves like an Integer model and can be used in any similar situations. The model objective function is to minimize the cost of processing and transporting the coffee produced witb.in the watershed and then to the exporter to the next large city. The cost incurs the transport from the farm to the plant, from the plant to the exporter, the operational cost of processing the coffee, and the annualization of the fixed costs. The model has to choose between five types of plants, from the traditional plants currently in use to the large modem plant. The model chooses the b~st plant for the best locations (along the river and close to the roads witb.in the watershed).The limitations introduced in the model are that all the coffee produced in the watershed has to be processed. A second limitation is stream water. The plants ha ve to be located close to rivers because coffee processing uses a large quantity of water. In the model one plant leaves the remaining water to the next plant and so on until water is finished. Because it is a \"central planner'' problem no undue competition occurs between plants. The model chooses the best place for the society, not for a given individual.Most ofthe watershed data were collected by IHCAFE, including coffee production and stream flows from the main rivers. The digital maps (Figure 16 is an example) were elaborated by CIAT and actualized by field observations by the student. •The results show that the larger plants are the most cost effective, however, they also need the highest initial investment. When we limit the investment, the model chooses less costly plants, but ones that are smaller and more contaminating. Water was nota constraining factor in the scenarios based on the actual coffee production. In fact, a plant rejects most of the used water in the river meaning that water is not likely to be a problem as was initially thought. The scenario where coffee production doubles does not suggest a serious problem of water use, but it suggests a different plan of inversion. lnstead of constructing the plants based on current production it would be wiser to build an investment plan based on the likely expansion of coffee in the area.Tbe lliCAFE was pleased with the intermediary resutts. The Asociación Hondureña de Productores de Café (AHPROCAFE) showed interest in a study for a larger region.Contributors: J Gonzalez (lliCAFE and CA TIE student), B Barbier, R Heam (CATIE professor), A,Nelson, 0 \\ Mejía, A lturbeThe Rural Atlas of Nicaragua./ An agreement of collaboration was established between CIAT, INEC, and MAGFOR to complete the rural National Atlas ofNicaragua ./ Sixty thematic maps were elaborated describing and analyzing the most important environmental, social, economic, and cultural áspects in the rural environment ofNicaragua.The aim is to allow different national and international organizations to make diverse decisions that involve the rural environment ofNicaragua using geographical maps of environmental, social, economic, and cultural aspects.First a document was elaborated that conceptually gave a preliminary thematic content ofthe Atlas, its main users, the different products to be generated, the cartographic model to use, a tentative timetable of activities, and the outlines for participation and support to develop the Atlas. This document was then given in tum to the two main institutions for generating data in Nicaragua, INEC and MAGFOR, in order to elaborate the Atlas together. The document was accepted and subjected to superficial modifications; it was redefined according to the available resources of the participating institutions and to available data The resulting document is the \"Conceptual design ofthe Rural National Atlas ofNicaragua.\"The database was then developed. Both MAGFOR and INEC offered CIAT the geographical and statistical data in comparable digital format to be integrated in the Atlas. The MAGFOR data were then standardized and incorporated in the GIS software for use in elaborating the Atlas. All data were prepared to develop the mapping phase. The INEC provided data relative to the National Population Census of 1995 and the Agricultura! Census of 1997. Those tabulated were organized, structured, and analyzed to derive indexes and values that will be represented in a cartographic way. An important process was the generation ofthe cartographic mould for replicating all the Atlas maps.At present, the Atlas is in the mapping phase. About 60 thematic maps covering the general and physicogeographic medium, population, economics, housing, and education.The Atlas will be a tool that integrates di verse thematic data from official institutions of Nicaragua, standardizes scales, and allows the correlation of variables in a very simple way. These characteristics will allow many decision makers and other users to exploit the information contained in the Atlas. The rationale ofthe project is to facilitate collective action for NRM and agricultura! development through the creation of methods and procedures for multi-scale analysis. This is a very powerful statement and one that has resulted in important contributions to ecoregional research and development.Many methods were applied in the cross-scale exploration of spatial data. A highly novel application was the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) method combined with the use of the Self-Organizing Map (SOM), which is a type of artificial neural network.The GWR technique is based on a combination of existing theories and methods. It allows a calibrated regression model to vary spatially, such that \"spatial drift\" from the global relationships can be measured. Pararneter variations can be mapped across space to improve understanding of the processes being modeled and to reveal system structure and boundaries. The parameters from a calibrated regression model can be analyzed through SOMs, to discover scale-dependent trends and pattems across an area The pattems reveal a set of distinct system boundaries. These maps suggest a potential for revealing multivariate structure that would otherwise prove difficult to visualize or understand. The novelty líes not in the techniques themselves (they were already existent), but in their combination and application within ecoregional research. This method was tested in two case studies, using data from Honduras.• The first analyzed average production per worker (dependent variable). It showed clear spatial trends, considering that the contribution ofthe independent variables changed over the study region, including changes in sign from positive to negative and vice versa. • In the second case study, zones were identified that have comrnon patterns of resource management. This analysis, conducted at the village level (3500 locations), showed strong pattems within the parameters, and that these pattems had a very strong geographic distribution.Figure 17 describes the key features ofthe process. Figure 17a, displays a typical GWR parameter map, where the re~ession parameter clearly varies across space. Figure 17b indicates how this modeJ permits the R 2 goodness of fit to be mapped and further analyzed. Figure 17c, is the final output, whereby the spatial trends across all the regression pararneters ha ve been analyzed by a SOM to generate regions that have common pattems of resource management.Figure 17 17a. Technical Credit (left) and its regional effects on Agricultura! Production (right) R 2 forGWR 0.2 0.3 Global R 2 --l--l 0.4 0.37 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8+ 17b. The map ofR 2 from the GWR model, compared to the OLS R 2 value., l7c. The GWR outputs are combined into agricultura! regions by the SOM.Key features in cross-scale exploration of spatial data using the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) method combined with the use ofthe Self-Organizing Map (SOM).This and other more standard methodologies were made operational by CIAT in the Spatial Data Exploration toolbox to generate the data sets for virtuaJly all case studies conducted under this project.The concept ofthe \"ecoregional-shed\" was developed to address what is referred toas the modifiable areal unit problem. This problern is related to the use of meaningful spatial units when performing spatial analysis. For example, if one is interested in poverty, one should not base a spatial analysis on watersheds because no functional relation exists between poverty and watersheds. The solution is to create user-defined, meaningful spatial units (altemative ecoregions) at various scales (Figure 18). An example is the development of econosheds, which are defined by a set of economic, physical, and agricultura! variables. These 'sheds' are potentially dynamic, because they will change with any change in the chosen variables.The Accessibility Wizard (an ArcView extension) is a tool based on the concept ofthe econoshed. Users can create and explore a variety of accessibility indicators using a grid-based, cost-distance algorithm. By means of a tutoría!, users are guided along the most appropriate data sources for the cost-distance process.The tool is implemented for Honduras, where it allows an assessment of accessibility based on selected variables. Many variables in the CD-ROM database ofHonduras can be used to define accessibility. This too! was used to help prioritize and direct disaster relief after Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in October 1998. Accessibility maps produced before and after Mitch were widely used and received wide coverage in the Honduran and intemational press. The tool requires an ArcView license and can only operate on up-to-date computer facilities (mínimum requirements 90 MHz, 32 Mb RAM).The concept of accessibility was applied to the defmition of market catchments or econosheds, that is, units in which the cost ofreaching a market town are relatively homogeneous. Although this map of econosheds of Honduras is in itself a valuable product, the key issue that must be understood is that the same procedure can be used to derive other types ofunits that suit other research or development purposes: healthsheds, schoo/sheds, biodiversitysheds, extensionsheds, and so on. Two of the case studies used to test and demonstrate this new procedure were:• The development of a village-level index of well-being with 40 variables for 3730 villages in Honduras. • An exploration of Honduran population census data to identífy patterns and relationships about \"population at risk\" for hypothesis generation.The Accessibility Wizard will help in moving this approach down the line to more applied use. Potential users ofthe methodology and the associated tool and procedures will be teams and individuals who have a good grasp ofGIS. Fortunately, many organizations in Central and South America already have this capability. Training would also be an important activity for CIAT to undertake if it wants to promote the use of this product. Validation of Ecoreglonal-shed. Dots correspond to plots, latge squares to aldeas, and polygons to Ecoregional-.shetj. Colors match almo perfectly demonstrating the importance of accessibility.This methodology allows the generation of reduced spatial data sets, which retain the original fundamental spatial characteristics. Two methods of data generalization or reduction can be used to generalize (1) the multivariate basic data by clustering, classification etc. and (2) by means of spatial aggregation. The use of a neural network called the SOM combines both approaches: visualization of clusters in the data set and representation of the set on a map by means of pattems. The methodology itself is not new, but it has not previously been applied to ecoregional 1ssues.The project has made a substantial and innovative contribution to the development of methodologies that will allow researchers and policy makers to conduct user-controlled and purpose-specific cross-scale analysis using large and complex sets of georeferenced data. It has also produced a valuable extensive database for Honduras. It is expected that these methodologies will serve as the basis for the development of standard sensitivity tools for crossscale research within GIS environments. The project also made substantial progress in developing procedures to generate cross-scale databases starting from unit-level data.The Spatial Data Exploration Toolbox is powerful and can be applied to a wide range ofNRM and agricultura! development problems whose solution requires the use of complex cross-scale data sets. Given the exponential growth in the availability of information, the need for this type of method is likely to increase with time. ./ Geographical regression method and tool produced ./ Link between agriculturallabor productivity and natural resource variables examined at national level in Honduras ./ Causality proved difficult to establish at nationallevel, but strong regional effects presentThe study examines the link between agricultura! labor productivity and natural resource variables at the nationallevel in Honduras using correlations, multivariate regression, both standard and quantile, and cluster analysis. We show through spatial-statistical analysis of georeferenced, village-level data that causality is difficult to establish at national scale and strong regional effects are present. This is done through examination of muhi-panel scatter plots, correlation, standard and quantile multivariate regression, and clustering.The theoretical model explaining labor productivity is. PW = bl . NR + b2 . PD + b3 . AC +M . TEC + b5 . LC + b6 . ED + b7 . EX + b8 . CR + b9 . PR Where PW is production per worker, NR is natural resource conditions, PD is population density, AC is access to market, TEC is technology, LC is land concentration, ED is education, EX is extension, CR is credit, and PR is property right.At country level, the length ofthe rainy season has a strong and quasi-linear relation with income. Soil has little impact on productivity as well as slope and altitude because coffee production in the mountains has a strong relation to productivity. Access to the main cities and seaports has little relation with productivity because so me of the main cities are located in unproductive areas. lmproving the small road network would have a more positive impact. Figure 19 is an example of the mapping done.Figure 19.The dependent variable per cap ita income, Honduras.System boundaries are discovered by cluster analysis, and by performing multivariate regressions at different spatial scales. Coefficients of regression vary across the country, and mapping them helps the policy maker anticípate the impact of a policy designed from countrylevel data. Analysis at department scale is vastly superior to municipal scale, mainly because too many municipalities do not include enough villages to permit regression. The improvement of the coefficient of determination at regional leve! suggests that many hidden variables, which contribute to the \"error'' term ofthe regression, are monotonous at smaller scale. For the particular spatial distribution ofthe 3700 villages the optimum scale is found to be 50 km. We examine how policies derived from analysis at country scale are being modified at regional scale.The methodology performs spatialanalysis of census data to determine system boundaries and anticípate the impact of pólicies. The tool replaces the use of maquetas and flat maps to help decision makers with such questions as those of land use.Contributors: ctttc~:c (PE-4), B~~::bier, d~ O Madrid (i>E-4)Highlight ./ The main deteiminant of production per hectare is months of rainfallThe aim was to pro vide information for an analysis of determinants of land productivity to help decision makers when planning cropping systems and planting.An analysis was made of the determinants of land productivity in Honduras. The analysis is based on regression. We have produced a study on land productivity based on the 1993 census and other maps of Honduras. The study produced first a map of the value of production per hectare in Honduras. To show the results on a map the production is averaged at the village leve!.The results suggest that months of rainfall are the first determinant of land productivity. A surprise in the result is that the more productive areas are also less populated. Thus there might be room to ease the current pattem of migrations. Productíon per land unit is higher in the north and usually higher in the valleys. The main determinant of production per hectare is the number of months of rainfall because these allow an extension of the cropping period from one cycle in the south to two or three cycles per year in the north or at higher altitudes.The information generated will be ofuse to decision makers when analyzing questions ofland productivity and migration. This was based on the revision of various CIA T docum.ents and interviews and meetings with researchers and participants, especially those related with GIS, databases, and poverty indicators and well-being methodologies.The first consultancy bidding was for the diagnostic and prioritization ofHonduran watersheds. The small watersheds within the Ulúa, Chamelecón, and Naca watersheds were delimited. They were characterized along with specific areas using physico-geographic and socioeconomic data (over 100 variables). A support matrix was generated to identify in an interactive way the prioritization, and maps were produced. During the project development a series of meetings were held with members ofSERNA, COPECO, UCP, SAG, PRONADERS, COIIDEFOR, BID, the Finance Secretariat, and other institutions who fed into and helped define results. 18   We ha ve also won a second consultancy bidding with CA '!lE on the \"Study of technicalfinancial feasibility and design of the program for NRM in the prioritized watersheds ofUlúa, Chamelecón, and Nacaome. Work has begun.For the first consultancy, a characterization was made of each ofthe large watersheds based on selected indicators. Specific areas at small watershed level were defined where the principal problems of deterioration of natural resources and vulnerability occurred. The areas defined exist in all three main watersheds. Full results are available on the CD-ROM 19 • The areas proposed for intervention (total area 20, 174 km) were:• Chamelecón, southern zone (high areas ), • Ulúa, eastem zone (actual area ofthe El Cajón Project), • Ulúa, central-south zone, • Ulúa, south-western zone, and • Nacaome, northern zone (high areas).By providing decision support to top level decision makers, we are trying to in.fluence the policy and approaches ofthose providing funds to the country and, ultimately, alleviating the situation of the rural poor. Strengthen capacity for management and use of information, tools, and methods (train, diffuse, and follow up the process)Highlight ./ Results ofthe project \"Methodologies for integrating data across geographic scales in a datarich environment: Examples from Honduras\" were diffused, discussed, and demonstratedThe workshop on scale effect in decision making for ecoregional development (July 4-6, Costa Rica) aimed at summarizing and reviewing the main achievements ofthe research project. It also aimed at establishing the bases and contacts for the production of a book and for collaborations in ecoregional research.The workshop established bases and contacts for the production of a book and for collaborations in ecoregional research. In total, 35 people from 10 coumries attended the workshop. All participants were selected from a multidisciplinary perspective, having in common a system's approach and experience with dealing simultaneously with a range of scales. We believed that the achievements of the Project, which were far from being exhaustive, would be better understood in a broader context that highlights the complexity ofthe ecoregional research. The participants acted as speakers and reviewers of the eco regional process. They participated in hands-on demonstrations of a few software tools developed by the Project.The book proposed at the workshop, a primer in this mainstream subject, is intended to reach a large audience of scientists and students. Collaborations with Agricultura} Research Institutes (ARis) and Central American partners should lead to improved methodologies and fund raising capacity. Training was given on Guide no. 5 (Identifying levels of well-being to construct local pro files of rural poverty) to students ofUCA's Technology ofthe Environment Faculty in Managua. Five workshops were held over 2 months. The Guide was also applied in two studies in communities ofMatagalpa, Nicaragua.A presentation was given ofthe results ofthe study on irnprovement ofwater quality, San Dionisio (N Johnson), at the World Congress ofStudents in Mexico.Other workshops are shown in Table 19 under Activity 5.4.Activity 4.4.The InteUigent Team Decision Assistant (ITDEA): CoUaborative decision making in the information age Highlight -/. ITDEA version 1 availableAfter years of experience following the participatory planning by objectives methodology, it became apparent that circumstances exist where its efficiency and accuracy can be questioned. It becomes more problematic in circumstances where a diverse group of stakeholders attempt to address imprecisely defined core issues and desired future conditions For example, a \"problemfocused\" planning approach will inevitably overlook prevention of futurc risks to currently desirable, non-problematic issues.The ITDEA is an extension of group decision support system techniques that already have bcen shown to increase the effectiveness of group decision making. Essentially. the process is based on a series of templates that guide the group in a systematic process conststing of defining goals and desirable future conditions, evaluating • problems and alliances, defining indicators and projected future conditions ...!PEA and elaborating an action plan. In its first version, the ITDEA is developed as a stand-alone interface to a database that stores the infonnation associated with every step ofthe decision-making process. Analysis ofthe data reveals important factors to incorporate in the decision process itself.The entire process aims at helping users take generic concerns, such as those mentioned above, and turn them into concrete statements ofvalues and goals in a way that allows stakeholders to see their significance, and that gives them a chance to enact compromíses wrthm a collaborative environment. Two unportant •characteristics ofthe ITDEA are (1) the specific checks along the process for keeping it manageable (\"pruning\"), and (2) the database underlying the process A main characteristic ofthe ITDEA originates in the concem for maintaining the development ofthe decision as focused as possible, preventing eventual bottlenecks. This ts achieved through a senes of specific checks along the way, which we refer toas \"pruning\". Because the Central Issue is intended to be relatively broad to encompass multiple stakeholders' interests, we found that without pruning the complex:ity ofthe decision components was increasing geometrically as we were progressing towards the action plan. Pruning may look restrictive at times, one roa y think that important points are being left out, but going back is always possible as the need arises.A complex database design underlies ITDEA. This is required in order to: • Keep track ofthe process (e.g., represent past states),• Store and give access to infonnation ( e.g., web links, contacts, documents, and GIS), • Allow customized reporting (e.g., logical framework, goal hierarchy), and • Allow knowledge discovery on the decision process ( e.g., identify key stakeholders, \"universal\" goals, problems, or indicators). In prevision of a Web-based version, two types of users can access lTDEA: the participant and the facilitator. Participants log on as such, identify themselves, and state their responsibility towards a Central Issue that they select. Facilitators log on as such and ha ve control of all templates that require participation ofthe group (such as Central Issues, General Goals, Shared Goals, etc.). The database stores the information filled in by participants and facilitators in a way that allows going back in time, i.e., represents the state of the decision process at a given point in the past.The ITDEA helps build partnerships and expedites the planning process. It advantageously replaces the partícipatory planníng by objectives, and can be used for strategic planning. The Canadian Intemational Development Agency (CIDA) has manifested interest for its Sahel division. Impact can be enormous if adequately promoted.i ~ {#\"' Contributors: G~clerc (PE-4), EB Knapp, G NarvaezThe requirements for training requested by project collaborating institutes were identified (see under 4.1 ). F orease of reponing and reading, the numerous training workshops are listed in Table 19, under Activity 5.4. A main strategy of the SOL concept is the location of strategic research experiments across landscape in a network of sites including different types of experiments: to provide an innovative approach to technology development for production systems in complex, highly variable tropical environments.The SOL strategic research experiments may share the same site with applied or adaptive trials run by other organizations, including NGOs or farmer research committees (CIALs). In additio~ the SOL includes sites that are purely demonstration trials run by extension; or are adaptive research trials that farmers manage. Any SOL site may be used in different ways by different partners: for strategic research; for adaptive testing; for demonstration purposes, for training and extension; or for participatory research with farmers, for example. All types of trials are networked throughjoint planning, monitoring and evaluation meetings ofthe different partners and a shared annual plan of operations. This interactive network of many different research and development partners is the SOL, or supermarket oftechnology options.A meeting was held in Y orito with the participation of representatives of CIA T -Laderas, IPCA, EAP-Zamorano, SERTEDESO, CLODEST, anda coffee growers association to establish a coordination rnechanism that ensures a truly interaction among SOL sites.Figure 21 shows the main structure approved by participating institutions. This structure attempts to integrate the efforts of stakehoJders across different scaJes of decision making of institutions involved in the SOL. The operationaJ structure ~11 make the use of SOL sites more effective.... :-, 1 N'-' ~-t '). PY>Coutribotors: f D~~a, M Ayarza, J Jimenez (IPCA), JC~osas (EAP-Zamorano), M Gonzales (SERTEDESO)CoUaboraton: B Ferrera (CLODEST), farmers from Santa CruzThe operative Technical Committee ofthe SOL in Nicaragua was formed with the participation ofrepresentatives ofPRODESSA, ADDAC, INTA, and the CIALs. We are aJso seeking a way ofinvolving the local organizations offarrners so that they form ofthis Committee. During the year 2000, three meetings were carried out to define the regulations of the Committee and to present the research activities to carry out during the year.The prioritization of the topics was carried out tbrough the group method. Three main topics were defined and then activities defined by themes. In May 2000, the participatory planning by objectives workshop was held in San Dionisio to form the SOL. In this workshop, different technologies to be evaluated in the region were identified. Topics of interest were defined and sorne activities incorporated into the SOL. An order ofpriority was established.Three topics were agreed upon for prioritizing:• New field technologies (SOL)• Local organizational processes • CIALsIt should be mentioned that producers felt the PESto be ofmost importance, because ofthe difficulty of getting seed at low cost and of good quality. However, technicians cited bad experiences in this field, resulting from concentrating on a single crop and little initial exploration ofthe local and regional markets. At the same time, the use ofmodeling alone was important only to technicians, and GIS had a low priority for both groups.   Activity 5.5.Highlight Establish a participative system of monitoring and evaluation of the project to monitor its performance and feed back to planning ../ Participative valuation ofproject performance, readjustment ofits vision and purpose, and strategy planningThe objectives ofthe Hillsides Strategic Planning Workshop, Montelimar, Nicaragua were to:• Reach a clear understanding ofthe significance ofthe interna! and externa! evaluations that the Hillsides Project has undergone during the 1999-2000 period. • Gain a shared vision about the Hillsides Project and its endeavors.• Achieve an enhanced understanding of the \"development problems\" at reference si tes.• Obtain a better picture of present and foreseen research activities and their relationships with the \"development problems\" at research sites. • Achieve an increased understanding of the Hillsides Project Mission and its relationships with future research activities and their expected ímpact. • Gain an enhanced understanding ofthe \"causal uptake paths\" methodology.• Guide the Hillsides Project activities in obtaining the expected research impacts.• Reach a clearer understanding of research gaps that need to be overcome to achieve the research objectives. • Gain a better understanding of evaluation methods and instruments for the Hillsides Project activities and results.Among severa! important ground rules, participation of all members was stressed as well as the collective construction ofknowledge through workgroup and team presentations throughout the workshop. Although time was a constraint in achieving the desired objectives, participants had sufficient for group discussion and for collecting their thoughts. Diversity among group members in terms of experience and formal training was counted an advantage to ensuring richness of opinions. Finally, participants were encouraged to synthesize thinking and produce tangible results for their immediate application.The eight objectives were worked through, sorne with group activities, sorne as presentations.Analyses ofthe various points were recorded. The workshop clarified the group's ideas and thoughts into a single vision and way forward. The full results ofwork done will be published in a report. A preliminary draft report is available.The main output ofthe workshop is a clearer concept ofthe project's aims and strategies and the stronger participatory fellowship ofthe PE-3 team.Contributors: Whole team Activity 5.6. Initiate on-site activities of impact evaluation Objectives l. To develop a conceptual framework for monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment of PE:-3 work in the reference sites with specific emphasis on organizational modeis. 2. To conduct an initial and explorative survey with the objective of gathering data and experience from the reference si tes for further elaboration and refinement of the impact assessment methodology.The process started. by developing our vision or final development objectives ofthe research output defined in the conceptual framework for the CIAT -NRM division. Tbese were redefined and discussed at a 2-day seminar on organizational processes held in Cali with the objective of interchanging experiences between the researchers in the reference sites in Pucalpa, Cauca, San Dionisio, and Yorito. Then causal uptake paths were developed for each ofthe Hillsides outputs to the desired development impact or goal. Intermediate indicators for each step in the causal uptake path were selected, as well as final \"development indicators\". Afterwards, methodologies and models for impact assessment analysis were defined to ensure that data collected would be the most appropriate for the analysis. Finally, data collection methodologies, protocols and sampling strategies (including reference sites boundaries and limits) were defined and tested in the field with specific emphasis on institutional and community collaboration.The fieldwork conducted in Honduras and Nicaragua consisted mainly of semi-structured interviews and participatory exercises with regional and local institutions and community organizations both individuan y and in focus groups. W e also conducted some interviews with selected communities.The goals, objectives, and conceptual frameworks for outputs 5.1 (interinstitutional consortium), 5.4 (comrnunity organizations network) were elaborated. Erameworks for outputs 2.3 (bioeconom.ic modeling) and 4. 1 (cropping systems options-SOL) were also elaborated. These conceptual frameworks are very extensive especially for the organizational models but the exercise has been very useful as a planning tool for the elaboration of the impact evaluation methodology and for future directions of our research with institutional and community organization. Such planning is seen as a learning process in itselfthat interacts closely with experiences from action research in the field and with the informal process of interchange of experience on organizational processes that has been started between the reference si tes in Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Peru.Analysis ofthe fieldwork is underway and will be available later this year. Al1 the interviews and workshops were taped and are transcribed. A summary of all interviews was written in a chronological order (almost complete). An inventory ofthe different surveys and interviews conducted in San Dionisio and Yorito was made. This inventory includes (a) the name ofthe study, (b) the content ofthe survey and/or interview, (e) the sampling procedure if available, and ( d) the availability of the data set in the CIA T offices, or if an agreement with the institution that owns the data set is needed.Based on the above information an analysis for each critica! path is being conducted including: (a) A list ofproposed indicators for the critica! path, (b) The degree in which this critica! path was achieved or not is analyzed, (e) The usefulness ofthe proposed indicators is evaluated, and ( d) Needs for further information and analysis.The set of preliminary development impact indicators developed for the four types of capitals (human, social, economic/financial, and natural) are being contrasted with the \"development visions\" defined in the workshops with CLODEST, REDOLYS, and Campos Verdes. Also the short-term expected changes are contrasted with the \"paths to development impact'' developed for the PE-3 and SN-1 projects.An initial analysis was made of the degree to which the critica! path towards development was achieved. This analysis follows the process indicated in the diagram showing the critica! path for PE-3 research towards development. lt should be noted that this path has been generated as a result of ongoing research and continued feedback, and not as a preplanned process. Thus many steps have not or only partly been completed. •The commitment to establish a long-term impact evaluation process in the PE-3 reference sites ensures the long-tenn development impact of our research, guides our process of research, and provides feedback~• o the research p_ rocess~s .  The NRM project El Cajon has contracted CIAT to evaluate its SUS 20 million project, which is ending next year. We are studying the project's data to elaborate a baseline. We are also evaluating the project's evolution and proposing a new monitoring plan. We are conducting an impact assessment study using the data generated by the 4-year-old project. The project data include only project activities and adoption oftechniques. Few indicators ofimpact were found.CIAT is using its experience in indicators and monitoring ofnatural resources to propase a new M&E plan. Results are preliminary because the study has not been published yet. The El Cajon watershed project seems to have difficulties in proving its relevance because a problem is lack:ing and there are sorne misconceptions. Current land use is notreasonable. Less than 10% ofland is cultivated. Sedimentation levels are too low to reduce the life expectancy ofthe dam in a way that requires intervention in the upper watershed. The program of reforestation is more likely to reduce the amount of water available to the dam than to increase it. The agricultura! program has shown a very high rate of adoption of land conservation practices. The project has further difficulties in proving that it has improved the life of the population living in the watershed.The study is expected to feed into the design ofthe large IDB project that the consortium CIAT/CATIE is now writing. Also the real impact ofthe privatization of extension services is strongly debated. The payment of prívate enterprise by k:ilometer of land conservation practices, although impressive in term of adoption level, is being criticized by many as unsustainable. Our study is likely to have a strong impact in the design of future projects ..j...-ÑContributors: B","tokenCount":"26651"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05e435d0cc06f8b8e9befcb4669ef138","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e7d378c6-5e32-42e5-9924-de9607f69fc8/retrieve","id":"1791476342"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8059274a-2fb5-40f8-b1bb-48c7985a7981","pagecount":"1","content":"•Vietnam is a leading coffee and black pepper producer•Central Highlands (CH) region is a key contributor•Unsustainable farming practices lead to decline in production 1,2 •V-SCOPE project 3 seeks to improve coffee and black pepper farming systems and value-chain for improved smallholder livelihoods in the CH, Vietnam.•GAP promoted include; soil fertility management, liming, intercropping, soil rejuvenation and water saving practices. •Across the 3 districts, majority of the farmers planted 2 -4 crops on the same field (Figs. 2 & 3).•Majority planted coffee with other crops (maize, rice, macadamia, vegetables and fruits) than mono coffee.•Also, black pepper was planted with other crops than mono black pepper.•Irrespective of the district, majority practiced only one (1) GAP with few practicing 2 -4 GAP (Fig. 4).  ","tokenCount":"121"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/3075045832.json b/data/part_6/3075045832.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2d606aa8e6f543cf94fc24712bd4c494","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/10561497-4b3c-4864-b5f9-acf6a51a1e57/retrieve","id":"958101236"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1e5122d2-d975-4ddd-a318-913f21c66fd7","pagecount":"69","content":"• New products allocated (Maize, tomato and onion)• New field designs (Alphalattice) Released/Pipeline varieties    Ongoing Activities:• NMRP and GATE-Nepal collaborate to register zinc enriched synthetic white maize.• Lumbini Seed Company working on proposal for yellow and white hybrid maize.• SEAN Seed Service Center and Gorkha Seed Company to register two hybrid tomato variety • In 2021/22 hybrid maize production was held in Dang in collaboration with private seed companies, PMAMP, NMRP and NSAF • Initially 20 ha planted, however, seed was harvested from only 10ha, due to parental seed quality issues. • Nearly 9.0Mt seed so far collected which will be enough to cover 450ha with expected grain production of more than 3000Mt. • Major lessons from hub Approach:• Importance of clustering lands as blocks for ease of farm operations, logistic management, seed collection, transportation and frequent seed quality monitoring. • The hybrid maize production hub fosters collaboration and market access by integrating major value chain actors viz contract growers, seed companies and end users. • Technical support from full time staff of NSAF and fertilizer and machinery support from PMAMP was critical for farmers motivation and back stopping • Farmers from hub are now requesting more hybrids that can able to maximize profit.- • Exposure visit to Hyderabad-India, 3-6 May 2022• Five partner seed companies participated in the trip • The exposure visit includes:-B2B interaction with Indian seed companies -Participate in the IMIC Asia field day• The main purpose of the visits were:-Practical visit and experience sharing from the seed business operations of Indian seed companies involved in hybrid seeds","tokenCount":"261"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/3084280506.json b/data/part_6/3084280506.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..014a666c78efc55499ca2a9af5f9690fc7629c58
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"44368b49116673f859fb536e82b225a6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8d1e1214-ed6f-4383-a3a8-7c8931a3eee5/retrieve","id":"267369804"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b08875d9-7197-4192-8926-b16077bfbaea","pagecount":"6","content":"en ASAC (MP-ASAC) fue implementado como una herramienta de apoyo a la identificación, análisis y priorización participativa de prácticas ASAC para el Corredor Seco de Guatemala. El conjunto de prácticas de ASAC seleccionadas a través de múltiples procesos analíticos y participativos refleja el deseo colectivo de promover un sector agropecuario productivo y adaptado al clima en el Corredor Seco del país. Desde el punto de vista financiero, el análisis destacó la introducción de variedades de frijol tolerantes a plagas y enfermedades, variedades de maíz tolerantes a altas temperaturas y estrés hídrico, y la rotación de cultivos como las opciones más rentables para los productores de la región. Los resultados del análisis costo-beneficio también estuvieron a favor de los sistemas agroforestales, cuyos beneficios al reducir la contaminación de agua y suelo en el mediano plazo, complementan el alto potencial de captura de carbono, siendo una opción importante de mitigación en el sector agropecuario. La implementación del MP-ASAC en Guatemala ofreció opciones de inversión alineadas con los diversos objetivos de los actores políticos y sociales del Corredor Seco guatemaltecoagricultores, representantes de los sectores gubernamental, académico, investigación, y donantes. Además, el proceso resaltó la importancia de complementar el análisis económico con una discusión participativa de los beneficios sociales, culturales y ambientales de las prácticas, para mejorar la toma de decisiones en agricultura. Esto asegura, entre otros, que prácticas con beneficios sociales significativos o con beneficios económicos visibles al medio plazo, pero con costos de inversión altos, no se queden fuera del análisis y de los portafolios de inversión finales.El concepto de Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima (ASAC) refleja un enfoque integrado para el desarrollo sostenible. Surge de la necesidad de proporcionar soluciones innovadoras hacia las metas complejas y entrelazadas del aumento sostenible del rendimiento (productividad), mejorar la capacidad de resiliencia (adaptación) y promover un sector agropecuario bajo en emisiones (mitigación), de cara a los presentes y futuros retos climáticos. ASAC ha sido también aplicada como un marco conceptual para resaltar los beneficios ambientales, económicos y sociales derivados de la adopción de diversos portafolios de opciones (prácticas, tecnologías, servicios), programas y políticas agropecuarias, a diferentes niveles.El Corredor Seco en Centroamérica ha sido afectado por la recurrencia de graves sequías en los últimos dos años, que afectan especialmente la producción de maíz y frijol, amenazando la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional de aproximadamente 2.5 millones de personas en la región. Más del 50% de la población afectada practica agricultura de subsistencia y se encuentran en las zonas central, noreste y noroeste de Guatemala. En estas regiones, la sequía prolongada en 2014 dio lugar a pérdidas de alrededor del 70% en la cosecha de frijol (equivalentes a 70.000 toneladas) y 80% en maíz (200.000 toneladas), en comparación con los rendimientos de 2013. Estas pérdidas fueron avaluadas en US$ 58 millones y han tenido consecuencias importantes sobre las reservas de alimentos locales y regionales, la nutrición y la salud de las personas, así como el acceso al agua potable. Se ha estimado que alrededor de 275,000 familias fueron afectadas por la falta de lluvias en el Corredor Seco de Guatemala durante el 2014 (UNOCHA, 2014).Estos acontecimientos han puesto de relieve la necesidad urgente de estrategias a corto plazo que pueden ayudar a las familias afectadas, pero a su vez de una visión de mediano y largo plazo que ayude a incrementar la resiliencia de los productores a eventos climáticos extremos e inesperados. Esta visión tendría que incorporar variables climáticas (tales como los cambios en los patrones de lluvia) en la planificación agrícola y otras intervenciones de desarrollo, dado que el sector agropecuario es uno de los mayores contribuyentes a la economía del país.A raíz de la grave sequía en 2014, el gobierno de Guatemala, a través del Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación (MAGA) y la Secretaría de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional (SESAN) formularon un plan a 6 meses, por valor de US$ 88 millones, conocido como \"Del Corredor Seco al corredor de oportunidades: Plan de atención a familias afectadas por canícula prolongada de 2014\". El plan consiste en asistencia alimentaria (raciones) para los hogares que se comprometan a adoptar prácticas de conservación del suelo y del agua destinadas a aumentar la capacidad de resiliencia de los sistemas agropecuarios frente a potenciales amenazas climáticas, así como el establecimiento de mercados comunitarios e inversiones a largo plazo en estrategias de conservación. Debido a la recurrencia de la sequía, este plan de emergencia fue extendido en 2015.En línea con estas iniciativas, el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) y el Programa de investigación en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria del CGIAR (CCAFS, por sus siglas en inglés) han buscado apoyar el proceso de toma de decisiones en Guatemala a través del MP-ASAC. En estrecha colaboración con la Unidad de Cambio Climático (UCC) del MAGA se ha reconocido la relevancia de su implementación en la generación de criterios e indicadores de sostenibilidad que permiten caracterizar y valorizar los planes e iniciativas llevadas a cabo por el ministerio en el territorio. De esta forma se constituyó un marco de referencia para la planificación institucional al momento de definir, orientar y ejecutar las inversiones en prácticas ASAC clave, que puedan asegurar la seguridad alimentaria y la resiliencia de los agricultores más vulnerables frente a la variabilidad y cambo climático.En Guatemala, el MP-ASAC se ha desarrollado en cuatro fases:Fase I: Evaluación preliminar de opciones ASAC Consultas con representantes del MAGA, así como con expertos nacionales en agricultura se llevaron a cabo para establecer el alcance del proceso de priorización CSA. Los actores involucrados destacaron zonas agroecológicas claves por su vulnerabilidad climática (el corredor seco, el altiplano y la región del Norte) y diferentes amenazas ambientales e impactos sobre los agro-ecosistemas (sequías, inundaciones, aumentos de temperatura, de incidencia de plagas y enfermedades, erosión del suelo, entre otros).Los expertos también identificaron 28 prácticas ASAC relevantes para estas regiones y evaluaron su desempeño a través de indicadores de productividad, adaptación y mitigación (Figura 1). En un taller realizado en Agosto de 2014 en Ciudad de Guatemala, en donde 43 representantes del gobierno nacional, asociaciones de productores, la academia, instituciones de investigación y donantes, interesados en escalar la ASAC en Guatemala, priorizaron el Corredor Seco como la principal zona de intervención del proyecto.A partir de una lista amplia de prácticas, fueron priorizadas ocho prácticas ASAC relacionadas con los sistemas productivos de maíz y frijol, para realizar una fase posterior de análisis económico, tomando como base criterios que el grupo de trabajo planteó en plenaria. Dentro de estos criterios de priorización se destacaron: La relevancia para los sistemas productivos clave para la seguridad alimentaria del Corredor Seco guatemalteco. La capacidad de respuesta al riesgo de sequía actual.  La accesibilidad y aplicabilidad para los pequeños agricultores en términos de costos de implementación. Respeto por los aspectos territoriales y culturales.  Beneficios para los pilares de la ASAC (productividad, adaptación y mitigación) (Figura 1).Los participantes también destacaron el papel de las instituciones en la promoción de la adopción de estas prácticas por parte de los pequeños agricultores, lo cual se refiere a: una mejor coordinación institucional para gestionar los riesgos climáticos de la agricultura (entre ministerios y entre los sectores público y privado); fortalecimiento de las regulaciones con respecto a la conservación y uso del agua, semillas y quema de los bosques; las inversiones públicas en infraestructura para la producción agropecuaria en general (presas, sistemas de riego, drenaje y alcantarillado); generación de capacidades en todos los niveles (desde la finca hasta las instituciones), a través del sistema nacional de asistencia técnica y servicios de extensión, entre otros mecanismos.A continuación, se realizó un Análisis Costo-Beneficio (ACB) para las ocho prácticas priorizadas en la fase anterior. Este análisis se basó en una muestra de 200 productores los departamentos de Zacapa y Chiquimula (los municipios San Diego, Huite, Cabañas y Zacapa en Zacapa, y Camotán, Jocotán, Olopa y San Juan Ermita en Chiquimula). Estos representaron dos de los diez departamentos con mayor número de casos reportados de desnutrición aguda tras la sequía de 2014.Se estimaron indicadores económicos y financieros comprendiendo los costos de implementación y mantenimiento, el Valor Actual Neto (VAN), Tasa Interna de retorno (TIR) y Periodo de Recuperación de la Inversión (PRI). El análisis de los indicadores económicos y financieros, presentados en la Figura 2, destacó las opciones más rentables para los productores de la región: la introducción de variedades de frijol tolerantes a plagas y enfermedades, de variedades de maíz tolerantes a altas temperaturas y estrés hídrico, y la rotación de cultivos (dado el VN positivo, el TIR mayor que la tasa de descuento, y el PRI corto). Sin embargo, la mitad de las prácticas ASAC analizadas toman más de cuatro años para proporcionar los mejores resultados económicos, lo que podría constituir un factor limitante para los pequeños productores vulnerables que esperan cambios al corto plazo (Sain et al, 2016).Como parte del ACB, se consideraron externalidades positivas o negativas relacionadas con la conservación de la biodiversidad, mantenimiento o mejora de la calidad del suelo y agua, e incremento en la captura de carbono.Los resultados del ACB fueron socializados durante un segundo taller realizado en Junio 2015, en el que se procuró invitar a los mismos actores del primer encuentro. Los participantes validaron los resultados de la ACB y definieron los portafolios de prácticas a ser promovidos en el contexto del Corredor Seco (Tabla 1), considerando el objetivo que los actores se plantearon y teniendo en cuenta tanto el impacto potencial de las prácticas en los pilares de ASAC, como en los indicadores del ACB. Adicionalmente, se realizó un mapeo de actores participantes y las posibles formas en que podrían apoyar la implementación de las prácticas ASAC y se discutieron las barreras y oportunidades de adopción de las mismas.En general, los participantes estuvieron interesados en la consecución de los objetivos de seguridad alimentaria y resiliencia (adaptación) de agricultores a pequeña escala. Se seleccionaron prácticas ASAC y se agruparon en portafolios por sector participante (Tabla 1), tomando en cuenta diferentes aspectos  El aporte de beneficios potenciales en los pilares de ASAC -adaptación, productividad y mitigación (Figura 7), basados en las evaluaciones cualitativas de los indicadores correspondientes a cada pilar (Figura 1).  Los bajos costos de implementación y mantenimiento de las practicas ASAC (Figura 3);  La generación de ingresos adicionales en relación con los indicadores económicos y de externalidades (Figura 4-6).  Las figuras siguientes presentan el desempeño de los tres portafolios seleccionados (P1, P2, y P3) con respecto a indicadores de ASAC (seleccionados en la Fase 1 y presentados en la Figura 1), a la rentabilidad económica (costos de implementación y mantenimiento [Figura 4], valor actual neto [Figura 5], tasa interna de retorno [Figura 6]), y el ingreso adicional por externalidades (Figura 7).Con respeto a la contribución a los indicadores ASAC, se observa poca diferencia entre los portafolios. Sin embargo, los resultados muestran que prácticas de conservación del suelo y agua (labranza de conservación y rotación de cultivos) y de introducción de variedades tolerantes a la sequía (constituidas en el segundo portafolio) tienen beneficios mayores tanto para la productividad, como para la adaptación y mitigación. El conjunto de prácticas en el Portafolio 3 (variedades mejoradas de maíz y frijol, labranza de conservación y reservorios de agua) tiene costos de instalación mayores en comparación con los otros dos portafolios, sin embargo, el costo de mantenimiento de estas prácticas, aun alto, queda por debajo de los costos de mantenimiento del Portafolio 2. En cuanto a los beneficios públicos, se observa que las tres opciones de inversión tienen el potencial de aportar un ingreso adicional a los productores de maíz y frijol del Corredor Seco. El conjunto de prácticas del Portafolio 1, priorizado por el grupo de productores y representantes del sector ONG, puede aportar beneficios económicos importantes a través de la conservación de la calidad de suelo y agua, de la biodiversidad y de la captura de carbono (Figura 6). Impulsando esfuerzos en torno a la ASAC La implementación del MP-ASAC hizo posible resaltar la importancia del concepto ASAC en la conservación del capital natural de las familias campesinas, permitiendo afianzar el abanico de posibilidades en cuanto a las prácticas que componen los programas ejecutados por el MAGA, cuyo objetivo ha estado dirigido al aumento sostenible de la productividad.A partir de la experiencia de este proceso, se fortaleció la posición e interés del MAGA en apoyar la declaratoria del Consejo Agropecuario Centroamericano (CAC) referente la declaración de Placencia derivada de la reunión ordinaria de Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno de los países miembros del Sistema de Integración Centroamericana (SICA). En este contexto regional los países se comprometieron a integrar esfuerzos institucionales e intersectoriales para afrontar en agendas comunes los retos de la variabilidad y el cambio climático, impulsando así la producción sostenible bajo el concepto ASAC.Adicionalmente, durante la vigésima primera Conferencia de las Partes (COP 21) en París, el MAGA contó con la vocería oficial del CAC, generando así la oportunidad de presentar y buscar financiamiento de proyectos con el enfoque de ASAC.En el ámbito nacional, recientemente se constituyó una alianza público-privada, con objetivos claros y coherentes entre el MAGA y la Cámara del Agro de Guatemala, (CAMAGRO). Esta alianza permitirá impulsar una visión compartida en la promoción de temas estructurales en los que se ha fundamentado el concepto ASAC, tales como: seguridad alimentaria y nutricional, adaptación, sostenibilidad productiva, ambiental y social, recuperación de tierras degradadas y gestión integrada del suelo y agua, aspectos vitales en la orientación de portafolios de inversión en el Corredor Seco.La priorización de inversiones y configuración de portafolios permiten sustentar la implementación de la Política Nacional de Desarrollo Rural Integral (PNDRI), especialmente en su componente de promoción de buenas prácticas agropecuarias, cuyas intervenciones en campo son lideradas por el Sistema Nacional de Extensión Rural (SNER) del MAGA, a través de los Centros de Aprendizaje para el Desarrollo Rural (CADER) que logra atender más de 373,000 familias en el territorio nacional.Dicha estructura, en sinergia con la posibilidad de configurar portafolios de inversión, se convierte en un valioso punto de partida para promover y orientar proyectos y alianzas estratégicas entre organizaciones de cooperación y el MAGA. Esto les permitirá alinear sus agendas y fomentar su gestión, hacia el logro de un mayor impacto del proceso de priorización en ejes estratégicos de trabajo tales como la ampliación de la cobertura geográfica y calidad de la asistencia a pequeños agricultores, a través del sistema de extensión rural.Son muchas las barreras y las oportunidades en el proceso de escalamiento de las iniciativas ASAC. Por ello, un punto importante a ser considerado, es el logro de la estructuración de una estrategia de gestión coordinada entre las diferentes organizaciones a nivel local, nacional e internacional, para brindar un proceso de atención a las familias de pequeños agricultores, de forma permanente y sostenible a largo plazo.Para ello, es necesario fortalecer las plataformas de actores existentes en el territorio y generar la capacidad de convocatoria y empoderamiento de las partes interesadas, desde las familias y agremiaciones de pequeños agricultores indígenas y campesinos (Figura 9), hasta las agencias de cooperación internacional. Esto con el fin de evitar trabajos aislados entre las partes y abordar en agendas conjuntas las estrategias y acciones necesarias para el logro de los objetivos en común.Con el logro de la organización y fortalecimiento del potencial humano en el territorio, entra en juego el uso sostenible de los recursos, naturales y económicos actuales y futuros, dejando en evidencia los puntos de enfoque clave, a los que los portafolios de prácticas ASAC pueden apuntar, permitiendo asegurar medios de vida sostenibles para los agricultores. Es aquí donde toma relevancia la necesidad de configurar un sistema de extensión robusto, conocedor de las problemáticas locales y de las soluciones prioritarias, que maximicen los impactos positivos de las prácticas y tecnologías agropecuarias en la capacidad productiva, de adaptación y en lo posible de mitigación, de las comunidades, aumentando así la probabilidad de éxito en la gestión de sus territorios.Toda acción llevada a cabo dentro del MAGA una vez reconocida y validada por el gobierno central, favorecerá la apropiación de estrategias de trabajo, para lograr mayor fluidez y orientación en la toma de decisiones, difusión de información y direccionamiento de la inversión de recursos económicos, lo que permitirá hacer operativos los portafolios del MP-ASAC en los diferentes territorios, con el apoyo del Sistema Nacional de Extensión Rural.La aplicación del MP-ASAC en Guatemala se alineó a los esfuerzos gubernamentales y no gubernamentales para responder a los impactosn de la grave sequía que afectó el Corredor Seco en 2014. El proceso permitió el reconocimiento e integración de una diversidad de actores sociales y políticos a diferentes niveles, quienes, a través de un proceso participativo, proporcionaron soluciones conjuntas y concretas frente a los retos climáticos presentes y futuros, que los productores de maíz y frijol afrontan.Se destacó la importancia de llevar a cabo un análisis multidimensional de las inversiones en ASAC, en donde es importante conocer e incluir en el analisis los factores sociales, institucionales y ambientales, que pueden obstruir la adopción de prácticas ASAC. Es el caso de los aspectos relacionados con la tenencia de tierra, que dificultan el acceso al crédito y otras inversiones a largo plazo en las parcelas. Un buen conocimiento del entorno social e institucional, de las barreras y oportunidades de adopción de prácticas y conjuntos de practicas, constituye un aspecto clave en la priorizarción de inversiones al nivel de finca, que refleje las sinergias entre los objetivos de productividad, adaptación y mitigación propuestos.Los portafolios ASAC contruidos por los diferentes actores en Guatemala no constituyen soluciones definitivas frente a la sequía que amenaza miles de familias en el Corredor Seco, pero ofrecen abanico de posibilidades que tienen en cuenta multiples criterios y dimensiones que responden a los diferentes necesidades de los actores participantes, y que establecen los métodos y herramientas necesarias para poder adaptar o expandir los resultados a otros contextos agroecológicos, de tal forma que sean accesibles y rentables para los agricultores desde diferentes puntos de vista.El éxito del MP-ASAC radica en gran medida en el compromiso y participación de todos los actores involucrados y en su voluntad de aportar al proceso, desde el ambito económico, educativo, técnico-científico y políticoinstitucional. Esto permitirá crear el entorno propicio en donde el potencial de los portafolios ASAC de influenciar las políticas y estrategias del sector agropecuario nacional pueda ser efectivamente aprovechado. ","tokenCount":"3053"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4488be84e4f9e83ba90334366e10738c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/770ec26f-ae50-402d-a859-10f500f5caa6/retrieve","id":"-184113785"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"416bfccd-f00b-4632-9be8-a22f81107790","pagecount":"16","content":" Gender equality and inclusive climate-resilient agriculture is an important agenda in recent literature and development practices. [1-2] Gender inequality in the context of agriculture and food security has been a severe concern in Bangladesh due to its climate vulnerability. [3-4]    Climate change impact the lives of men and women but women and marginal groups of people face specific constraints because of socio-cultural factors, geographical context/ location. [5-6]    Women farmers face more constraints than men in accessing resources, markets, and services and it affects to end hunger, food insecurity, and malnourishment. [7-8]    Research objective: situational analysis in two climate vulnerable hotspots in Bangladesh  To explore the gender equality and gender dynamics in agricultural and food system transformation.  To investigate the challenges and opportunities related to climate change.• The primary data was collected between June and August 2022. Questions about current (last 12 months) situation and recall questions for situation 10 years ago  Method of analysis       Intrahousehold gender difference in food insecurity increased in last 10 years. Despite women's increasing role in agriculture, they are not recognized as farmers in official document and their participation in agriculture is still underreported. Social norms matter for women's participation in agriculture and a gender transformative approach is necessary for better women's participation in agri-food systems in rural Bangladesh. ","tokenCount":"221"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c44b02233e31a23eecf2bdbfd1426d47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576_0x003aba1a.pdf","id":"-1810757352"},"keywords":["mobile PPGIS","usability","multi-national study","eye-tracking"],"sieverID":"1012a309-8aeb-4b2c-a51b-81f384502aea","pagecount":"22","content":"Designing user-friendly Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) is a challenging task, since a PPGIS is typically used by users who have different characteristics and different requirements and needs. Hence, applying Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) principles is of particular importance in designing PPGIS. This study aims to create an inventory of usability aspects of a PPGIS by focusing on understanding the characteristics of a broad range of users. The usability study included 73 participants from Colombia, Uganda and Austria. We combined a custom qualitative survey (conducted in all three countries) with an eye-tracking based survey (conducted only in Austria). Considerable usability problems were faced especially by participants with low levels of IT-literacy. This was mostly due to a lack of experience in using functionally complex smartphone applications or interactive maps. In general, we observed a high level of difference in usability between the user groups. The eye-tracking statistics for the Austrian study supported the outcomes of the qualitative survey well.Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) are commonly used in spatial planning processes where different kinds of users are involved. PPGIS are designed to support decision-making processes that involve citizens, taking their opinions into account (Corbett & Keller, 2005;Irvin & Stansbury, 2004;Stivers, 2016). PPGIS are typically used by a heterogeneous user group, e.g. having different levels of experience, skills and interests (Brown et al., 2013). Some potential user groups are not used to working with this kind of application. Consequently, a PPGIS should be designed in such a way that all users can easily and enjoyably interact with it (Sidlar & Rinner, 2007;Tobón & Haklay, 2002). Thus, it is particularly important for the design of a PPGIS to include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) principles, and to investigate the usability of the PPGIS (Brown et al., 2013;Tobón & Haklay, 2002).A number of HCI design principles are addressed in the PPGIS literature. Meng and Malczewski (2009) state that the map interface should highlight specific elements, and that the number of buttons and amount of information should be limited. Timita (2014) describes how any piece of information or visual element should be carefully chosen and should not overload the user. Skarlatidou and Haklay (2006), and López-Ornelas, Abascal-Mena and Zepeda-Hernández (2013) indicate that the map presentation, colours and other features affect the user's perception and should be evaluated according to the application's objectives. Newman et al. (2010) also discuss the importance of explaining the context and purpose of the application to the user thoroughly. López-Ornelas et al. (2013) further state that each symbol should be intuitive and easily understandable, so that the user can concentrate on the essential information without being distracted by having to read explanations for the symbols. They also show that inexperienced users prefer to use map applications that are in a pre-defined state and offer all the information needed at once. A study by Brown et al. (2013) re-emphasizes Nielsen and Mack's guideline (1994) that natural terminology should be used. Lastly, Newman et al. (2010) mention that a 'motivating' application design creates a positive and pleasant experience.Usability studies help to evaluate these design principles and their influence on users. Numerous usability studies have been conducted for PPGIS (e.g. Butt and Li (2015), Haklay and Tobón (2003), Meng and Malczewski (2009), Poplin (2015), Skarlatidou andHaklay (2006), andAtzmanstorfer et al. (2016)). These studies are usually carried out with participants who have similar user characteristics. We argue that PPGIS are often used in quite different geographical contexts with different user types. Hence, we see a gap in the literature analysing the parameters and consequences of user characteristics (in different geographical regions), and how these affect the usability of a PPGIS.This paper therefore aims to evaluate the usability aspects of a mobile PPGIS for participants with a wide range of characteristics, including their varying IT skill levels and age. We asked people from three different areas -Colombia, Uganda and Austria -to participate in a qualitative survey to evaluate the usability of a PPGIS. Further, like Çöltekin, Heil, Garlandini and Fabrikant (2009), we combined a custom qualitative survey with eyetracking statistics as an objective way of measuring usability aspects. Since the eye-tracking device was not available in Colombia and Uganda, we were able to combine the qualitative survey with eye-tracking only for the participants from Austria.The paper addresses the following research questions:-What are the key usability problems of a PPGIS for participants in a multi-national study that includes a broad diversity of user types? -To what degree do these main usability problems depend on age, IT-literacy, national context and type of task? -Do eye-tracking statistics support the findings of the qualitative survey?This usability study evaluates the GeoCitizen application as an example of a PPGIS (Figure 1). The application aims to structure citizens' knowledge about local phenomena for use in the spatial-planning decision-making process in cities and municipalities. Citizens can participate in surveys, upload georeferenced ideas for improving their environment, and involve themselves in discussions with, for example, their neighbours (Atzmanstorfer, Resl, Eitzinger, & Izurieta, 2014). The application was developed by the Fundación CEC in cooperation with the Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics -Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia.  2016) conducted a usability study using GeoCitizen with participants from marginalized communities in Cali, Colombia. This paper extends their approach by testing the usability with novice users of different user characteristics from three study areas. We measured the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of using the PPGIS. This corresponds to ISO standard 9241-11 defining usability (International Organization for Standardization, 1992). The three aspects of usability refer to the ease, pleasure, comfort and trust experienced when carrying out tasks with an application (Nayebi, Desharnais & Abran, 2012).In this study, participants carried out six tasks (Table 1). Two of these concerned general interaction with the application (entering the application; changing the profile configuration of the account). The remaining tasks were about interacting with the map element (changing the basemap; finding and reviewing a Point of Interest (POI); adding a new POI). We measured three usability metrics of the application -effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. Effectiveness corresponds to the error rate: completion without errors, with light non-critical errors (slight usability problems that were overcome), moderate non-critical errors (major usability problems that were overcome), or critical errors (major usability problems that were not overcome). Efficiency corresponds to the time spent on each task. Finally, we measured the participants' satisfaction. After participants had completed the tasks, we asked general questions about the application's design so as to understand usability in a more holistic manner. Remarks and observations were documented while the participants were carrying out the tasks and/or responding to the questions. In addition, we used an eye-tracking device for the Austrian participants. As Poole and Ball (2005) indicate, statistics derived from eye-tracking aim to understand the cognitive processes of the participants. This in turn supports the evaluation of usability aspects (Çöltekin et al., 2009).In the eye-tracking based evaluation, the application's interface was defined by and divided into Areas of Interests (AOI) for which it was possible to obtain statistics, such as when, for how long and how often eye fixations occur on an AOI. Our study included two eyetracking metrics: (1) the time to first glance at the target AOI (i.e. the AOI that the participant had to focus on in completing the task), compared to how long it took to complete the task, indicating how much attention the AOI drew, and how clear the task to be completed was to the participants; (2) comparing the number of fixations on the target AOI to the total number of fixations reveals how search-efficient the participants were in completing the tasks. A higher number of fixations equals lower search-efficiency (Çöltekin et al., 2009;Poole & Ball, 2005).We selected 73 participants from three different study areas: 30 from Colombia (12 female, 18 male), 23 from Uganda (9 female, 14 male), and 20 from Austria (11 female, 9 male). (See Appendix 1 for a detailed overview of participants' attributes.) In selecting countries of differing levels of economic development, we expected to find participants with varying user characteristics. The participants from Colombia were students at Camacho University in Cali, and employees from CIAT in Palmira. In Uganda, the participants were coffee farmers from the Luweero district, students from the Makerere University in Kampala, and employees from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Kampala. In Austria, students and employees from the University of Salzburg participated. The participants were invited by email and assigned a time slot. They were divided into four different user groups according to age range and self-rated IT skills (Table 2). For coherence, the same age ranges were selected as in the earlier usability study by Atzmanstorfer et al. (2016). We asked the participants to sit at a desk in a quiet place. In Austria, the participants were linked to the eye-tracking device, which was installed on the desk. In all study areas, the smartphone remained on the desk, without being moved or held by the participants. Each survey took between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on the amount of feedback that the participants provided. For each task, we gave oral instructions. If clarification was needed, we allowed participants to ask questions. Since most participants were unfamiliar with GISrelated terms (e.g. basemap, POI), we explained these using language that was accessible to the participant.Figure 2 and Figure 8 show the error rate (effectiveness) of tasks 1 and 6, concerning general interaction with the application. Figure 3, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7 show tasks 2-5, which relate to interactions with the map.For task 1 (Figure 2), the participants were asked to navigate to the map. The majority of the participants were able to complete the task without help. Participants from Austria and Colombia finished without errors or with non-critical errors (mostly light non-critical); medium-high IT-literate participants from Uganda finished the tasks without errors; Ugandan participants of low-medium IT skills experienced greater difficulty, for the most part completing the task with non-critical errors, while 20% of Ugandan participants aged 18-29 finished with critical errors. Nevertheless, for the majority of participants the interface design was intuitive.   Most of the participants were guessing which button was the right one for the task, randomly screening, tapping and/or selecting other buttons on the map, thus indicating that the icons do not clearly illustrate the buttons' functionalities.For task 3 (Figure 5), participants had to find a POI on the map and review its description. Most of the participants did not use the search bar which had been designed for this purpose. We deduce from this that the search bar must be better placed. Some of the participants discovered and used it after a while; others found the right POI by chance; some were not able to complete the task at all. Generally, we detected a high number of critical errors among participants from all study areas, except for participants aged group 18-29 years with medium-high IT skills.  From our observations, the location of the information seemed to be intuitive to most of the participants, and the meaning of the button icons was understood. The participants who made critical or moderate non-critical errors had already faced usability problems in the previous tasks. We assume that these participants had a higher level of frustration that decreased their motivation to complete the task. This is a crucial insight that underlines the importance of a frustration-free experience.For task 5 (Figure 7), we asked the participants to add a new POI. Austrian and Colombian participants of the user group 18-29 years with medium-high IT skills completed the task without errors or with light non-critical errors. Austrian participants of the other user groups mostly carried out the task without errors or with light non-critical errors. Only participants aged 30-65 with low-medium IT skills made critical errors (20%). Colombian participants aged 30-65 with medium-high IT skills for the most part carried out the task with moderate non-critical errors (43%); 29% of this user group were unable to finish the task. The majority of low IT-literate participants from Colombia were unable to complete the task (50% and 71% for the younger and older age groups respectively). A high number of Ugandan participants from almost all user groups were unable to finish the task, with 60%, 80% and 50% of critical errors for the user groups aged 30-65 with medium-high IT skills, and both age groups of low-medium IT skills. Only 60% of the participants of the user group 18-29 years with medium-high IT skills were able to finish the task with light non-critical errors. As in task 2, some participants faced problems finding the right button. In order to add a new POI, there is a marker positioned in the centre of the map that the participants have to place over a selected location. Afterwards, a tap on a button opens a menu to input the POI description. Some participants were confused by the marker in the centre of the map; some expected to have to tap for longer on a specific location in order to create a new POI; others thought that they should first tap on the button for adding a POI and then define the location. Hence, we need to understand what seems to be the most intuitive way to add a new POI and to re-design this functionality.For the last task (Figure 8), we asked the participants to make changes to the profile configurations of the account. Here, they faced considerable problems completing the task. Most of them criticized the fact that the profile configuration was hidden. Apart from 12.5% and 20% of the Colombian and Ugandan participants belonging to the user group aged 18-29 with medium-high IT skills, participants were unable to carry out the task without any errors. The user group of those aged 30-65 with low-medium IT skills faced the highest number of problems. Here, all participants from Colombia and Uganda and 80% of the participants from Austria made critical errors. The rest of the Austrian participants finished the task with moderate non-critical errors. The Ugandan participants had the most difficulties, followed by the Colombian participants. Comparing the user groups, we detected a trend (reading the diagram from left to right): fewer usability problems were encountered by the user group aged 18-29 with medium-high IT skills, and more were found by the user group aged 30-65 with low-medium IT skills. We hypothesize that the high number of moderate non-critical errors and critical errors was due to two problems. First, the application offers three separate configuration menus for the information/visualization settings, basic application settings (e.g. language settings) and the user-profile information (Figure 9). The first two configurations were prominently displayed in the side menu or in the taskbar menu. Hence, participants were distracted by these menus and did not find the profile configurations. Second, the profile configurations are accessible by tapping on the user profile icon in the upper section of the side menu. However, the account did not reflect the participant's name, since we provided a neutral account for the study. We deduce that due to the other two configuration options and the neutral profile, participants got confused. In order to avoid this, we could have asked participants to create their own accounts to be used for the task scenario. However, the application needs a reliable internet connection for the creation of an account, which was not the case in Uganda and, therefore, we chose to provide an account for all participants.For the qualitative study, we also measured the time spent on each task (efficiency) and the evaluation by the participants (satisfaction). Both of these measurements show similar trends to the error rate (Appendices 2 and 3).In what follows, we analyse the time to first glance at the target AOI, the duration of each task, and the number of fixations on target AOIs by the Austrian participants.For most of the participants, task 1 (navigating to the map; Figure 10) was easy to carry out.The median for the time to first glance was low (3.26s), whereas for the time to complete the tasks the median was 8.92s. This means that the participants were quick to locate the target AOI and spent 36.5% of their time searching for it. The rest of their time (63.5%) was used for finishing the task. This seems to be unexpectedly high. However, since this was the first interaction with the application, participants had to familiarize themselves with it. This assumption supports the high number of fixations (median = 28.5). Medium-high IT-literate participants were quicker to locate the target AOI and in completing the task compared to low-medium IT-literate participants. This supports the findings of the previous section, since high IT-literate participants finished the tasks with fewer errors. For task 2 (changing the basemap; Figure 11), after the first glance at the target AOI, participants spent 81.3% of the task-completion time on understanding how to carry out the task and making sense of the information. Here, the median time to first glance was 2.02s, whereas the median task-completion time was 10.83s. The same trend also supports the number of fixations. The median number of fixations was twice as high (43) as in the previous task, indicating the reduced search-efficiency due to the ambiguity of the button icons. Task 3 (to find a POI and review its description; Figure 12) showed the highest medians of all tasks and of all metrics, except for the total number of fixations. The median for the time to first glance was 7.82s, and for the time taken to complete the task it was 34.87s. Hence, participants spent 22.4% of their time locating the target AOI and 81.6% understanding how to carry out the task. The median number of fixations was extremely high (59.5), indicating a reduced search-efficiency. In comparison, the median number of fixations on the target AOIs was low (3.75). The user group of people aged 18-29 with medium-high IT skills had a medium of 0 fixations on the target AOI. As stated in the previous section, participants faced difficulties in locating the search bar, and many participants navigated randomly on the map in order to solve the task. For task 4 (leaving a comment on an existing POI; Figure 13), we observe a low median for the time taken to complete the task (6.87s). The median for the time to first glance was 3.46s. Participants spent 50.4% of their time looking for the right AOI. The median number of fixations was 16.33, the lowest for any task. This demonstrates a high search-efficiency. People in the 18-29 group with medium-high IT skills were fast in locating the target AOI and in finishing the task. The older user groups were slower and had a higher numbers of fixations. For task 5 (adding a new POI; Figure 14), the median for the time to first glance was 5.04s, and for the time taken to complete the task it was 11.45s. Participants were using 44% of their time looking for the right AOI and 66% understanding how to carry out the task. The median number of fixations, 30, was higher than in the previous task, indicating a lower search-efficiency. Low-medium IT-literate participants needed a comparatively long time to finish the task, further indicating a lower efficiency. Since task 6 (locating and changing the profile configuration) was difficult for most of the participants, we excluded it from the eye-tracking data analysis. This was due to difficulties interpreting the data, since participants were searching in different areas of the application to locate the right information.Through the qualitative survey and eye-tracking metrics, we were able to pinpoint individual usability aspects of different functionalities of the PPGIS. We observed that low IT-literate participants showed a higher rate of critical errors in comparison to other user groups. This was due to two factors. First, most of these participants were not accustomed to using an application with functionally complex elements and stated that they typically used their smartphones for social media, messaging applications and phonecalls. Second, most of these participants were not experienced in using map applications. We observed that high ITliterate participants were much more confident in their IT skills and familiar with functionally complex applications; lower IT-literate participants had lower confidence in their skills and were used to more basic applications. For the latter type of participant, we detected a higher level of frustration, with a tendency to give up more easily. This underlines the importance of a positive user-experience for all types of participants.We also detected differences between the study areas. Most Ugandan participants mentioned not being used to interacting with maps. Low IT-literate participants from Colombia and Austria, by contrast, were more used to interacting with maps, but faced problems with the complex functionalities of the application. It is, however, beyond the scope of this article to discuss further differences between the study areas.Some participants criticized the ambiguity of the button icons, which should be re-designed.Several participants also commented negatively on the non-user-friendly search bar and the zoom and navigation performance of the map. All of this affected the usability of the application, which had an impact on the performance of low IT-literate participants in particular.We further observed that older user groups and low IT-literate participants were less satisfied than younger and high IT-literate participants. This underlines that younger participants may be more accustomed to using functionally complex applications (they are 'digital natives') in comparison to older participants. Several participants with low-medium IT skills faced problems using the application: they felt uncomfortable using it, due to, for example, the complexity of the information. The majority of the participants in the 30-65 user group with low-medium IT skills indicated the need for more time to familiarize themselves with the application and how to use it. This observation gives important insights into the different requirements of each user group with regard to the content visualization, the complexity of the content, and functionalities.As a limitation of this study, we faced a challenge with the post-calibration process of the eye-tracking data. Since the eye-tracking device was sensitive to movements, the offset of the eye-tracking data had to be handled. This potentially biased the statistics. Further biasing limitations (among others) were the setting of the study (the 'lab environment'), the chosen number of participants, and the way the user groups were established (e.g. grouping of the participants, and the self-rating of the participants' IT-literacy levels).To conclude, the purpose of the study was to understand not only the key usability issues of the PPGIS but also the differences in usability for different user groups. We were able to see clear differences between the user characteristics: IT-literacy, age and geographical location. This shows the need to respond to the individual requirements of each user group by distinguishing between them in the application's design. Adaptive interfaces may help provide elements that suit the differing needs of the users (Kiefer, Giannopoulos, Athanasios Anagnostopoulos, Schöning, & Raubal, 2017). Using adaptive interfaces, allows elements to be simplified, and to reduce both the information load and the number of functionalities, depending on the user. With this study, we want to emphasize the importance of responding to the user's characteristics and individual preferences. We therefore suggest exploring approaches to personalizing map applications (for example context-aware systems, mass customization, recommendation systems, content and interface adaptation etc.). All of this is highly important for advancing the usability of PPGIS applications. ","tokenCount":"3891"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dca8088bbf1dcb7090b43a52195947d9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f50ef0e2-fa82-4aaf-abac-e574a91d61c8/retrieve","id":"-1935182046"},"keywords":["Somalia","Pastoralist","Livestock keeping objective"],"sieverID":"de5fafe3-0b8e-4901-94f0-3b70f8e1e5c8","pagecount":"3","content":"This study describes the livestock keeping objectives of female and male Somalia pastoralists, for camel, sheep, goat and donkey. The objectives were assessed using a matrix scoring approach, implemented during participatory rural appraisals conducted in 20 settlements in northwestern Somalia, involving 254 female and 252 male participants. All species were kept for multiple objectives (up to 14), with the most important objectives including domestic milk consumption and milk sale, income from the sale of slaughter as well as breeding animals, savings and insurance, domestic meat consumption, transport / loads, drawing water from wells, ceremony / dowry, and hide use. There were strong gender differences in the scoring of objectives, notably with 'savings and insurance' and 'sale of breeding animals' being more important to female and male pastoralists, respectively. This work is part of a larger project aimed at pro-poor livestock development in Somalia.Somalia, located in the horn of Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than 80% and 65% of the population classified as poor and severely poor, respectively, via the multidimensional poverty index (2006 data; Oxford poverty and human development initiative (2013)). The livestock sector is a main contributor to Somali livelihoods, engaging an estimated 65% of the population (FAO-Somalia (2014)). In the north and central areas of Somalia most livestock keepers are pastoralists, whilst there is a mix of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in the south. In contrast to many pastoral systems, the Somali system has a heavy domestic trade and export orientation. Somalia currently exports millions of animals annually to the Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, and animals are also marketed in neighbouring African countries (FAO-Somalia (2014)).In order to ensure that pastoralists and other stakeholders along this export value chain receive maximal benefits from this market opportunity, a pro-poor livestock development project was initiated (see http://www.ilri.org/ node/1212). This project has several components including (amongst others): a) understanding pastoralists' management practices in relation to their animal genetic resources, in particular breeding practices, b) identifying domestic and importing country market requirements, and c) identifying and promoting changes in animal management practices to better meet these market requirements. This study presented here is part of this larger project, and specifically examines the objectives of keeping livestock for female and male pastoral groups. This is the first report of this nature of which we are aware, and provides information critical to the process of identifying and prioritizing livestock interventions.Overview and sampling strategy. Data presented in this report was obtained from participatory rural appraisals (PRAs) of pastoral livestock keepers, as part of a larger data collection process. PRAs were carried out in the Togdheer region of northwestern Somalia, specifically the West Golis pastoral livelihood zone of the Sheikh district and the Toghdeer agro-pastoral livelihood zone of the Burco district (FSNAU-Somalia ( 2014)). Within each livelihood zone, settlements were stratified as being less than, or more than, 30 km from a major market and within each of these stratification levels five settlements were randomly selected, giving a total of 20 selected settlements. In each settlement, PRAs were conducted separately for male and female livestock keepers, using facilitators of the same gender, with group sizes ranging from 7 to 19 persons. PRAs were conducted from November to December 2013, in the Somali language.A total of 506 pastoralists were involved in the PRAs, with equal gender representation (Table 1). A result of the availability of the pastoralists, male group members mainly represented settled households, whilst female group members mainly represented both semi-nomadic and settled households (Table 1). Few members of truly nomadic households were present, due to the difficulty in locating these households. It is also of note that many traditionally nomadic pastoralists in the region are settling, due to externalities such as civil war, drought, and restricted access to grazing land (this study, results not shown). Typically one member per household attended the PRA session, joining either the male or female group. Objectives for keeping livestock. Objectives for keeping livestock were assessed using a rating matrix with livestock species (differentiated by male and female for some species) as column headings and objectives (both preset and 'other' as defined by group members) as row headings (see Table 3). Participants scored the matrix by placing between 0 and 10 stones (or similar objects) in each matrix, with 0 stones indicating an objective of no importance and 10 stones indicating a very important objective (Ejlersten et al. (2012)). Each male and female PRA group filled one matrix, omitting any livestock species they did not keep, and using at least one score of 10 per matrix. For male animals, the milk objectives were considered structurally empty. Whilst the exercise was performed for five species (camel, cattle, sheep, goat and donkey), cattle were only kept by 3 female and 7 male PRA groups, and thus these results are not reported here. Given the semiquantitative nature of the exercise, results are interpreted based on broad trends.Livestock ownership for all households represented in the PRAs is summarized in Table 2. Across both male and female groups the most common species kept was goat (97% of all households), followed by sheep (64%), camel (37%), donkey (20%) and cattle (9%). There were, however, more camel keeping households in the male PRA group than the female PRA group, possibly due to female household members not considering camels part of their household herd. Herd sizes varied considerably across households, with the largest herds found for goats (up to 500 per household). Breeds kept, where they could be named by the pastoralists, are also given in Table 2. The scoring of livestock keeping objectives for camel, sheep, goat and donkey, by female and male pastoralists, is given in Table 3. As expected, all species were kept for multiple objectives (up to 14), with differences in the relative importance of objectives across both species and PRA group gender.The main objectives for keeping livestock, across species, can be broadly classed as domestic milk consumption and milk sale, income (mainly from sale of animals for slaughter, but also hire-out in the case of donkeys), domestic meat consumption and transport / carrying loads, for both male and female pastoralists, savings and insurance and drawing water from wells for female pastoralists, and sale of animals for breeding purposes for male pastoralists.For camels, the most important objectives were milk sale, domestic milk consumption and carrying loads / transport, for both male and female pastoralists; drawing water from wells and savings / insurance for female pastoralists; and sale of animals for breeding purposes for male pastoralists. The scores indicated that male camels are strongly preferred for tasks such as load carrying and drawing water from wells, but that female camels are also used for these tasks.For the small ruminants (sheep and goat) the most important objectives were domestic milk consumption, milk sale (goats only), domestic meat consumption (particularly sheep), and income, for both male and female pastoralists, as well as sale of animals for breeding purposes for the male pastoralists. It is of note that whilst domestic milk consumption was an important objective for both goats and sheep, sale of milk was only important in the case of goats. Donkeys were kept for fewer objectives in comparison to the other species, with the most important objectives being drawing water from wells and transport / carrying loads (particularly important to the female pastoralists).In addition to the most important objectives described above, all species where kept for further objectives. These were: ceremony / dowry, the use of hide / skin (used in the construction of housing, and also sold for cash or exchanged for goods), manure (used as a soil fertiliser for own cropping land, exchanged for access to fodder, or sold), ghee (a type of clarified butter), and human medical treatment (this requires further investigation, though it was mentioned that milk is used to treat snake bite and snake venom spit into eyes), for both male and female pastoralists. Further, male pastoralists indicated the use of bone (in foods / soups, also for oil). In addition, one male and female PRA group indicated keeping camel for ploughing and 'blood compensation' (camel payment for crime), respectively (results not shown in Table 3).There were significant gender differences in the scoring of livestock keeping objectives, as described above and indicated in Table 3. The most striking of these is the sale of animals for breeding purposes, which scored highly for the male pastoralists and zero for all but one of the female pastoralist groups, over all species. Follow-up discussions confirmed that animals were specifically sold for breeding purposes by male, and not female, household members. The apparent strong market for breeding animals requires further investigation, but may be driven by pastoralists restocking after an extreme 2011 drought which depleted livestock numbers. Another objective that was scored considerably higher by the male pastoralists, in comparison to the female, was domestic meat consumption for camel. It is also notable that female pastoralists scored savings and insurance (for camel, sheep and goat) higher than the male pastoralists, perhaps indicating that female pastoralists are more risk adverse than male pastoralists. Female pastoralists also scored transport / carrying loads and drawing water from wells (for camel and donkey) higher than the male pastoralists, likely reflecting the importance of these activities to daily female life. Over the 14 objectives listed in Table 3, nine were scored significantly differently by the male and female pastoral groups, for one or more species, indicating the im-portance of assessing livestock keeping objectives on a gendered basis. When comparing the female PRA group scores between PRAs with mainly settled household representatives (which numbered 11) and those with mainly semi-nomadic household representatives (which numbered 6) results were similar, suggesting that the differences between the male and female PRA groups were indeed due to group gender rather than household type representation.It was also of interest that the typical differentiation of large animals being kept for savings and insurance purposes and small animals being kept for income (due to their relatively small currency unit and high liquidity) (Ejlersten et al. (2012)) was much more pronounced for the female pastoralists than the male. That income and sale of breeding animals always rated higher than savings and insurance for the male pastoralists (even for camel) attests to the reported market orientation of this group of livestock keepers.This study provides interesting insights into the livestock keeping objectives of Somalia pastoralists. Whilst the methodology employed (a rating matrix scored by the livestock keepers) is semi-quantitative, it provides sensible results in a relatively rapid and low resource manner.As part of the larger project under which this data was collected, information has also been obtained on the pastoralist's selection criteria for livestock, as well as livestock attributes desired by both market traders and the importing Gulf countries. Combined analysis of these results will be performed with the view of identifying whether or not there are simple breeding interventions, such as changes in selection practices, which can be implemented to produce animals that better match the needs of both the pastoral livestock keepers and end consumers.","tokenCount":"1842"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aeb08c220795837b60062f4d983d4eb8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/109fdf14-96c4-432c-a53f-4cfd9f644316/retrieve","id":"-528638281"},"keywords":["21°C (2,3)","4.5°-26.5°C (5) Pre-chill: 4.5°C, 2w, germinate at 4.5°-26.5°C (5)","4°C, 37d, germinate at 20°C (3) IV. Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatments A. chinensis Alternating temperatures: 21°/10°C, 10°/21°C (16h/8h) (2,3)","4.5°/21°C, 10°/21°C, 15.5°/21°C, 26.5°/21°C (16h/8h) (5) Pre-chill: 4°C, 37d (2,3)","4.5°C, 5w (5)","4.5°C, 4-12w, germinate at 10°-26.5°C (5)","4°C, 37d, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 24h, 10-500 ppm (2) 25°-28°C (35)","30°C (3,4)","35°C (31)","35°C, dark (6)","35°C, 40°C, dark, 7d (28) Alternating temperatures: 23°/35°C (12h/12h) (31)","25°/8°C (18h/6h) (24) Pre-chill: 5°C, 3d, germinate at 30°C in dark (20,21)","5°-20°C, 3-15d, germinate at 35°C (35) Warm stratification: 14°C, 6m (22)","15°C, 7d, germinate at 30°C (30)","25°C, 8-31d, germinate at 35°C (30)","40°C, dark, 1,5d, germinate at 35°C, dark (29) 10°-13°C, 1-21d (1) Scarification: sand paper (3) P. chinensis Pre-chill: 3°C, 10°C, 90d (5) P. integerrima Scarification: concentrated sulphuric acid, 30 min (13)","sulphuric acid, 10%, 12,24h (12) P. terebinthus pre-applied, 7-21d, 100 ppm, 10°-13°C (1) Removal of seed covering structures: epicarp, then pre-soak, 10°-13°C, 3-21d (1)","epicarp, then pre-chill, 10°-13°C, 3-21d (1)","epicarp, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 3-21d, 10-1000 ppm, 10°-13°C (1) Scarification: concentrated sulphuric acid, 1.5h, then pre-soak, 24h (3) P. chinensis Pre-chill: 0°C, 30-90d (5)","3°C, 30d (5)","5°C, 30,90d (5) Pre-soak: 1-2h (7) Removal of seed covering structures: epicarp, then pre-soak, 10°-13°C, 1-21d (1)","epicarp, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 1-21d, 500 ppm, 10°-13°C (1) P. integerrima Pre-chill: 3°-5°C, 15,30,45d (12) Pre-soak: 100°C, then cool (13) GA 3 : pre-applied, 24h, 50, 100 ppm (4) Vitamin B 9 : pre-applied, 24h, 50 ppm (4) Scarification: sand paper (4)","sulphuric acid, 10%, 6h (12)","sulphuric acid, 10%, 6,12,24h, then pre-chill, 3°-5°C, 15,30,45d (12)","concentrated sulphuric acid, 15 min (13)","concentrated sulphuric acid, 5,10,20 min, then pre-chill, 3°-5°C, 15d (12)","concentrated sulphuric acid, 5,10 min, then pre-chill, 3°-5°C, 45d (12)","concentrated sulphuric acid, 10 min, then pre-chill, 3°-5°C, 30d (12) P. terebinthus Pre-soak: 3°-6°C, 15d, with or without epicarp (2) GA 3 : pre-applied, 7,15d, 50, 500 ppm (2) Removal of seed covering structures: epicarp, then pre-soak, 10°-13°C, 1-21d (1)","epicarp, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 1-21d, 500 ppm, 10°-13°C (1) Scarification: concentrated sulphuric acid, 1.5h, then pre-soak, 24h (3) P. vera Pre-soak: 3°-6°C, 7,15d (2) GA 3 : pre-applied, 24h, 150 ppm (4) Scarification: sand paper, then vitamin B 9 , pre-applied, 24h, 50-150 ppm (4)","concentrated sulphuric acid, 5,20 min, then pre-chill, 3°-5°C, 30d (12)","concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then pre-chill, 3°-5°C, 45d (12) P. lentiscus Pre-soak: 2-3h (6) P. terebinthus Pre-chill: 5°C, 6w, germinate at 21°C (7) Pre-soak: 2-3h, then warm stratification, 22°C, 2w (6, 14)","2-3h, then remove epicarp and endocarp, then pre-chill, 2°-3°C, 4w, germinate at 20°C (10) P. vera Pre-soak: 5°C, 2w (6,7,14)","2d, then remove epicarp and endocarp (11)","2-3h, remove epicarp and endocarp, then pre-chill, 2°-3°C, 4w, germinate at 20°C (10) Pre-wash: 1-2d, then warm stratification, 22°C, 2w (6) Removal of seed covering structures: epicarp, split endocarp, then pre-soak, 10°-13°C, 14d (1)","epicarp, split endocarp, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 14d, 10-1000 ppm, 10°-13°C (1) Pistacia spp. Pre-soak: 15°-17°C, 24h (8)","warm, 24h, then warm stratification, 1-2w (9) dark, at 10°-35°C, 10°/20°C, 10°/30°C, 15°/25°C, 15°/35°C, 20°/30°C, 25°/35°C (16h/8h) (2) C. polyspermum 25°/15°C, 15°/25°C, 25°/1°C, 1°/25°C, 15°/1°C, 1°/15°C (8h/16h) in dark (19) pre-applied, 3h, 2%, shaken (8) Scarification: sulphuric acid, 20%, 30 min (8) C. hybridum, C. murale, C. paganum, C. polyspermum, C. rubrum, C. strictum, C. urbicum Pre-chill: 3°C, 3-5m (5) 20°C, 48h, germinate at 30°C (1)","30°C, 24,48h, germinate at 30°C (1) Pre-soak: plus oxygen, 1, 6 bar (12) IV. Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatments S. oleracea Constant temperatures: 25°C, 30°C (1)","4°C, 29°C (9)","15°-30°C (11)","10°-20°C, plus excess moisture (12)","18°-20°C (18) Pre-chill: 0°-2°C, 3-5d (20) Pre-dry: 30°C, 40°C, 1-60d (20)","50°-60°C, 7d (21)","70°-75°C, 1h (21) Pre-wash: 5°C, 10°C, 1-48h, germinate at 30°C (1)","20°C, 1-24h, germinate at 30°C (1)","30°C, 1-12h, germinate at 30°C (1) Pre-soak: plus oxygen, 1.5, 4, 5 bar (12) Removal of seed covering structures: pericarp, germinate at 30°C (1)","cut (10) Scarification: concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min (15)","sulphuric acid, 50%, 60°C, 5 min (12) Hydrogen peroxide: pre-applied, 2-6% (12) Sodium carbonate: pre-applied, 24h, 10% (12) Calcium hypochlorite: pre-applied, 2h, 0.6% (12) Polyethylene glycol: pre-applied, 7d, -12.5 bar, 10°C, germinate at 30°C (2)","pre-applied, 14d, -12.5 bar, 5°-30°C, germinate at 30°C (2)","pre-applied, 14d, -15 to -20 bar, 10°C, germinate at 30°C (2)","co-applied, -5.5 bar, at 20°C (12) V. Successful dormancy-breaking treatments S. glabra Constant temperatures: 10°C (5) S. oleracea Pre-chill (ISTA) Constant temperatures: 0°-5°C, plus excess moisture (12)","0°-10°C (11)","0°-25°C (12)","1°-4°C (18)","3°-17°C (3)","5°-20°C (1)","8°-22°C (8,9)","10°C (4,6) II. Germination regimes for non-dormant seeds C. tinctorius TP","BP","S: 25°C","20°/30°C (16h/8h): 14d (ISTA) BP","TP","S: 15°C","20°C: 14d (AOSA) Constant temperatures: 15°-20°C (4) 20°/30°C (16h/8h), dark (22) Pre-chill: 5°-8°C, 5d, germinate at 20°C, dark (22) L. sativa 4°/15°C, 10°/15°C, 7°/18°C, 13°/18°C, 13°/24°C, 19°/24°C, 25°/30°C, 28°/33°C, 31°/36°C (16h/8h) (7) B. alba (L.) Rabenh. [B. hirta Moench","Sinapis alba L.] white mustard B. campestris L. field mustard B. chinensis L. Chinese cabbage, pakchoi B. chinensis L. var pekinensis (Rupr.) Sun [B. pekinensis Rupr.","B. Pe-Tsai Bailey","pe-tsai Sinapis pekinensis Lour.] B. juncea (L.) Czern.& Coss. [B. rugosa Hort.","Sinapis juncea L.","] leaf mustard, Indian mustard B. juncea (L.) Czern.& Coss. var crispifolia Bailey [B. japonica Hort.] B. kaber (DC.) Wheeler [B. arvensis Rabenh.","Sinapis kaber DC.","Sinapis arvensis L.] charlock, wild mustard B. napella Chaix rape B. napus L. annual rape, winter rape, colza B. napus L. var napobrassica (L.) Reichb. [B. Napobrassica Mill.","B. oleracea L. var Napobrassica L.] rutabaga, swede B. napus L. var oleifera B. nigra Koch [B. cernua Coss.","Sinapis nigra L.","Sinapis cernuaThunb.] black mustard B. oleracea L. var acephala DC. borecole, collard, kale B. oleracea L. var acephala DC. borecole, collard, kale B. oleracea L. var alboglabra (Bailey) Musil. Chinese kale B. oleracea L. var botrytis L. [B. cauliflora Gars.","B. botrytis Mill.] broccoli, cauliflower B. oleracea L. var capitata L. cabbage B. oleracea L. var gemnifera DC. brussel sprouts B. oleracea L. var gongylodes L. [B. caulorapa Pasq.","B. oleracea L. var caulo-rapa DC.] kohlrabi B. oleracea L. var sabauda savoy cabbage B. oleracea L. var tronchuda Bailey tronchuda cabbage, Portuguese kale B. perviridis (Bailey) Bailey spinach mustard B. rapa L. [B. campestris L. var rapifera Metz.] turnip B. spinescens Pomel B. tournefortii Gouan B. vesicaria [Eruca vesicaria (L.) Cav.] CHAPTER 32. CRUCIFERAE field cress, field pepperweed L. densiflorum Schrad. [L. apetalum L.] L. draba L. L. lasiocarpum Nutt. L. muelleri-ferdinandi Thell. L. perfoliatum L. yellowflower pepperweed L. sativum L. garden-cress L. virginicum L. Virginia peppergrass II. Germination regimes for non-dormant seeds L. muelleri-ferdinandi Constant temperatures: 16°C (24) L. sativum TP: 20°/30°C (16h/8h)","20°C: 10d (ISTA) TP","BP: 15°C: 10d (AOSA) III. Unsuccessful dormancy-breaking treatments L. campestre Constant temperatures: 20°C, 30°C, light or dark (9) Alternating temperatures: 20°/30°C (16h/8h), light or dark (9) Light: dark, continuous, at 25°C, 30°C (9)","dark, continuous, at 30°C, 35°C (16)","red, 0.3x10 -3 W cm -2 , 16 min, at 35°C (16) L. densiflorum Light: far red (15) L. lasiocarpum Constant temperatures: 20°-35°C, diffuse daylight (1,2) Alternating temperatures: 20°/30°C (16h/8h), diffuse daylight (1,2) L. perfoliatum Constant temperatures: 0.5°C, 10°C, 20°C (20) Alternating temperatures: 0.5°-20°/-20°C (20) Pre-chill: -20°C, 30,60, 120d (20) L. sativum co-applied, 50, 100 ppm (8) L. virginicum Pre-chill: 3°-5°C, 7-14d, germinate at 20°/30°C (17h/7h), dark (14) Warm stratification: 25°C, 2d, dark, germinate at 15°C, dark (12)","15°C, 2d, dark, germinate at 25°C, dark (12)","20°C, 3d, dark, 40°C, 1-4min, red light, germinate at 20°C, dark (11) Light: dark, continuous, at 15°-35°C (6,12,14,16)","dark, at 15°/25°C (2d/2d) (22)","dark, continuous, at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (6,14,16)","red, at 30°C, 35°C (6,15,16)","red, at 30°C, with 11°C, 17°C, 23°C, 26°C, 29°C, 70d (5) Pre-chill: 0°C, 65d, germinate at 26°C, 29°C, 85d (5) D. preussii 17°-29°C, 70d (5) Pre-chill: 5°C, 65d, germinate at 29°C, 85d (5)","5°C, 20,35d, germinate at 20°C, 65-80d (5) D. septemloba Constant temperatures: 11°-29°C, 70d (5) Pre-chill: 0°C, 65d, germinate at 29°C, 85d (5) D. tenuipes Constant temperatures: 23°-29°C (5) Pre-chill: 5°C, 50d, germinate at 29°C (5) 14°C, 20°C, 70d (5) Pre-chill: -2° to 2°C, 100d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 40d (5)","0°C, 65d, germinate at 11°-23°C, dark, 85d (5)","5°C, 30,80d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 20-70d (5) D. opposita Constant temperatures: 25°C, light, 4000 lux, 16h/d, 30d (10) Pre-soak: 45°C, 2d (1) Potassium nitrate: co-applied, 10 -2 M (1) D. quinqueloba Constant temperatures: 11°-14°C, 70d (5). Pre-chill: 2°-11°C, 75d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 15d, (5)","5°C, 65d, germinate at 11°C, 17°C, 20°C, 23°C, dark, 85d (5)","5°C, 50,80d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 20-50d (5) D. septemloba Pre-chill: 0°-2°C, 65d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 60d (5)","0°C, 65d, germinate at 11°-20°C, dark, 85d (5)","0°C, 30,60d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 40-70d (5) D. tenuipes Constant temperatures: 11°-20°C, 70d (5) Pre-chill: 5°C, 20d, germinate at 20°C, in dark or light (4)","-2° to 17°C, 30d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 30d (5)","5°C, 35d, germinate at 11°C, 14°C, 17°C, 20°C, 26°C, dark, 50d (5)","5°C, 20,35d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 65-80d (5) 11°-23°C, 70d (5) Pre-chill: 2°-17°C, 20d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 15d (5)","5°C, 35d, germinate at 26°C, dark, 50d (5)","5°C, 20-50d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 50-80d (5)","5°C, 30,50d, germinate at 25°C, dark (4)","5°C, 80d, germinate at 25°C, light (4) Pre-chill: 5°C, 35d, germinate at 23°C, dark, 50d (5)","5°C, 50,80d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 20-50d (5)","5°C, 50,80d, germinate at 20°C in dark or light (4) D. tokoro Pre-chill: 5°C, 30d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 11d (6)","5°C, 35d, germinate at 11°-23°C, dark, 50d (5)","5°C, 80d, germinate at 20°C, dark, 20d (5)","5°C, 80d, germinate at 25°C, dark (4) (2,9,18,21)","1°-5°C, 30-60d (32)","3°C, 60-120d (4)","4°C, 60-90d (6)","2°-3°C, 8-20w (15)","0°-2°C, 2-12w, germinate at 27°C (16,17)","5°C, 1-14w (20)","7.5°C, 1-10w (22)","4°C, 3m (29)","4.5°C, 17,100d, germinate at 30°C (31)","3°-7°C, 30-90d, germinate at"],"sieverID":"15a137a7-7d28-4403-b67f-e728c1ac20f2","pagecount":"715","content":"Volume I of Handbook of Seed Technology for Genebanks dealt with many of the principles of seed testing which need to be understood when monitoring the viability of seed accessions maintained in gene banks. It will have become clear that one of the main problems facing those who have the responsibility for monitoring seed viability in gene banks is that seed dormancy can often interfere with the results of germination tests designed to estimate the percentage viability of accessions. The extent of the problem varies between species and between accessions within species, and the techniques which are most appropriate for minimising dormancy in germination tests also vary. In some species the problems are sufficiently understood so that prescriptions for germination tests have been developed which enable dormancy to be removed completely. In other species sufficient is known to minimise the problem of dormancy so that it is no longer a serious problem. However, there are still many species where existing techniques for dormancy removal are unsatisfactory, and yet others where the information on dormancy is meagre.This volume provides general approaches, detailed information, guidance and, where available, prescriptions for removing dormancy and germinating the seeds. Since completely satisfactory prescriptions are relatively rare, Chapter 17 deals with general approaches which may help staff in gene banks develop their own techniques for solving dormancy problems.The subsequent chapters (Chapters 18 to 75) provide information, family by family, on the germination of individual species of crop plants and sometimes their wild relatives. These chapters are essentially for consultation and, since the amount of information is large, considerable use is made of abbreviations. The final chapter (Chapter 76) summarises the germination test recommendations which are available for species outside the 58 families covered by Chapters 18 to 75.The rest of this chapter is essential to understanding Volume II since it explains the structure and abbreviations used. It also provides guidance on the preparation of solutions commonly used in dormancy-breaking treatments.Each chapter which deals with a single family begins with a short introduction which includes, where available, the algorithm for devising dormancy-breaking techniques developed by staff at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank (see Chapter 17). A comment is also provided on seed morphology if this is considered to be of help in devising appropriate treatments to promote germination. Prescriptions for germination test procedures and recommendations for dormancy-breaking treatments from various sources, but primarily the ISTA and AOSA rules, are tabled for species within genera where more detailed information is not provided within the chapter. Most alternating temperature regimes are diurnal cycles of 16h/8h and, to save space, only exceptions to this general rule are noted in these tables. The following abbreviations are used within these tables, and also Chapter 76, to describe the source of information.should be noted that sometimes identical synonyms may be given for species within another genus. Where this occurs and information is provided for the second genus the reader should consider the information provided for both genera. The information on dormancy-breaking techniques and germination test regimes for each genus is divided into seven sections. Note that although the term dormancy is used in the titles below information on factors other than dormancy per se (see definition in Chapter 5, Volume I), particularly hardseededness (Chapter 4, Volume I), is also included.This section simply provides evidence of whether dormancy can be a problem and attempts to place it in context -often by giving details of how long after harvest 'post-harvest' dormancy typically remains a problem under ambient conditions. Differences in the degree of dormancy between species within the genus are sometimes noted. Other problems may be noted in this section. For example, it is sometimes necessary to draw attention to the classification of seed storage behaviour (see Chapter 1, Volume I) where this has been in some doubt.In the majority of cases this section provides details of the prescribed germination test conditions for species within the genera given by the ISTA and the AOSA -where these are available. The ISTA and AOSA rules are divided into three parts here.The first information is the method (or methods) of providing the medium for the germination test. The abbreviations used and their meanings are: TP test on top of paper, that is, place the seed on filter papers, blotting papers or paper towels in a petri-dish or similar container. BP test between paper, including rolled paper towels and pleated papers.S test in (sterilized) sand.TS test on top of (sterilized) sand.Often more than one medium is suggested. In this case choose whichever is the more suitable for your laboratory.The information after the first colon gives the prescribed temperature regime for the germination test. An alternating temperature regime is denoted by A°/B°C (xh/yh), where A°C is provided for x hours per day and B°C provided for the remaining y hours per day; e.g. 20°/30°C (16h/8h) means germinate in a continuous alternating temperature regime in which the seeds are subjected to 20°C for 16 hours followed by 30°C for 8 hours each day. Often alternative temperature regimes are provided. The alternative regimes are separated by semicolons.The final information provided (after the second colon) is the total germination test period in days, but of course seedlings may have to be removed and counted at more frequent intervals. Moreover, it is likely that in many cases gene banks will have to continue germination tests beyond these periods.The provision of both the ISTA and the AOSA prescriptions for germination test regimes (where these are available for a species) allows the reader to compare and contrast the two sets. In the main these are quite similar, but where they occur the differences of detail should be noted.In addition to the ISTA and AOSA rules this section also includes other published information, where available, on germination test procedures which are satisfactory for non-dormant seeds.The third section gives details of treatments that have been applied to seeds in attempts to break dormancy, but which have either failed to increase germination more than marginally or may have even led to a reduction in germination -either by inducing dormancy in the seeds or by damaging the seeds in some way. Although at first sight the reader may consider this information to be of no interest -after all the requirement is to promote germination -it is important to be aware of those treatments which should be avoided. Moreover, the reader will begin to notice that similar treatments may appear in more than one section. These apparent inconsistencies and contradictions, often between different reports, are nevertheless probably indicative of the real situation: a treatment which greatly promotes the germination of seeds of one accession, may fail to promote the germination of seeds of another accession, whilst in a third accession germination may be reduced by the treatment. Hence the inclusion of this information here.Treatments detailed in this section have promoted the germination of some dormant seeds, but have either failed to promote the germination of all the dormant seeds within a single accession, or within a report they may have promoted full germination in some accessions but not promoted full germination in other accessions.The ISTA and/or the AOSA recommendations for breaking dormancy are provided first of all in this section (where available for a species). The style of layout is different from, and less detailed than, that given for other sources of information. The reasons for this are to highlight the ISTA and AOSA recommendations and to avoid repetition of the treatment details, which are given below.Pre-chill: Seeds are placed in contact with the moist substratum and kept at a low temperature for an initial period before being moved to the germination test temperature. With the exception of tree seeds, the pre-chill temperature is between 5° and 10°C and the initial treatment period up to 7 days, although in some cases -particularly the more dormant of the grasses -this may be extended to 14, or, rarely, 28 days. Tree seeds are kept at 3°-5°C for between 7 days and a year.Pre-dry: Before imbibition the dry seeds are heated at a temperature not exceeding 40°C with free air circulation for up to 7 days.Potassium nitrate: The germination test paper is moistened with a 0.2% solution of potassium nitrate (see below for details of solution preparation).GA 3 : The germination test paper is moistened with 200-1000 ppm of gibberellic acid (see below for details of solution preparation).Pre-wash: Seeds are soaked and washed in running water at between 20° to 25°C for 2 hours or so to remove substances in seed (or fruit) coats which may inhibit germination.Test at: An alternative germination test regime is suggested if difficulties are encountered at the prescribed germination test temperatures (given in II. Germination regimes for nondormant seeds).The information which follows the ISTA and AOSA recommendations (where available) provides details of those treatments which have been reported to be fully effective in promoting the germination of all, or nearly all, dormant seeds within accessions. Note, however, that these treatments may on occasion be the same as those given in the preceding sections: that is a treatment found to be successful for one seed lot may not have been successful when applied by another worker to a different seed lot.This section may point out problems with the ISTA/AOSA prescriptions and recommendations, conflicts between various reports in the literature and attempt to provide a guide to devising appropriate germination test regimes. In a few cases germination test prescriptions may be given; in rather more cases the more suitable techniques will be suggested with alternatives in the event of failure. The symbol A in this section indicates unpublished work by the authors of this report.Within each genus the numbers in brackets refer to the references provided in the last section. These are numbered in alphabetical order with the exception of those references added in final revisions of this manuscript. It is envisaged that gene bank staff will consult only a very few of these references, if at all. Most, if not all, of the relevant information has been extracted and summarised in the sections I to VI.A shorthand notation has been devised to present the information in as concise a form as possible. A description of the treatment is given before the colon; the information following the colon gives precise treatment details -where available. Some examples follow.Alternating temperatures: (4); 20°/30°C, 20°/35°C (16h/8h) (8) Potassium nitrate: pre-applied, 24h, 0.1-1% (7); co-applied, 0.1, 0.2%, at 25°C (6) Light: (10); dark, continuous (12); red, 15 min/d (3) These have the following meaning: Reference 4 reported that alternating temperatures were used but no treatment details were given. Reference 8 applied alternating temperatures of either 20°C for 16 hours per day and 30°C for 8 hours per day or 20°C for 16 hours per day and 35°C for 8 hours per day. Reference 7 treated the seeds to potassium nitrate solutions between 0.1 and 1% -with several intermediate concentrations -for one day before beginning the germination test which was then carried out on a substrate moistened with water -hence pre-applied. Reference 6 moistened the germination test substratum -hence co-applied -with either 0.1% or 0.2% potassium nitrate (but at no intermediate concentrations) and the germination test was at a constant temperature of 25°C. Reference 10 reported that a light treatment was given but no details were reported. Reference 12 carried out the germination test in the dark. Reference 3 exposed the seeds to red light, but only for 15 minutes per day.Often incomplete treatment details are provided. References 4 and 10 above provide examples of the layout in such cases. Incompleteness is usually because the information was not provided by the paper referred to, but sometimes we have omitted information that appears to us to be mistaken or misleading.It is possible that mistakes in interpretation or transcription may have been made. We apologise to the authors of any papers cited if this has occurred and would welcome How to utilise the information provided for each genusIt is not intended that all seven sections of the information on seed germination provided for each genus should necessarily be read in sequence. The following approach is suggested.After reading the introduction to the family -and Table 17.1 or Table 17.2 if either is referred to -read sections I (Evidence of dormancy) and VI (Comment).In most cases these sections will provide sufficient information to decide upon a suitable germination test procedure and whether to apply one or more dormancy-breaking treatmentsand, if so, the details of these treatments. Reference to sections II (Germination regimes for non-dormant seeds) and V (Successful dormancy-breaking treatments) may help to clarify the details of these treatments and procedures.The information provided in sections III (Unsuccessful dormancy-breaking treatments) and IV (Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatments) should help the reader to understand why certain dormancy-breaking treatments and germination test procedures are to be preferred and why others are best avoided. This information, however, will probably be of more use to those attempting to devise and develop improved germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments if the advice presently available (Comment) is found to be inadequate or inappropriate for an accession.For gene banks handling comparatively few genera Section VII (References) could form the basis of a reference library of articles on seed germination and dormancy. However this is not essential in view of the information summarised in this manual. More useful will be the information generated from the results of germination tests on material maintained within the gene bank.If seeds are to be tested in an alternating temperature regime it must be decided which of the two temperatures the seeds are exposed to first. There are three main possibilities:(1) Initially expose the seeds to the first stated temperature of the alternating temperature regime. For example, in the case of the regime 20°/35°C (16h/8h) the seeds would be exposed to 20°C for 16 hours before their first exposure to 35°C.(2) Expose the seeds to the lower of the two temperatures first. For example, in the above alternating temperature regime 20°C is the lower temperature and the seeds are thus exposed to 20°C for 16 hours before their first exposure to 35°C.(3) Expose the seeds to the longer duration of the two phases first. In the above example 20°C is applied for the longer duration and thus the seeds are exposed to 20°C for 16 hours before their first exposure to 35°C.Where a regime is described as, for example, 30°/10°C (16h/8h) it will be seen that it is not possible to satisfy all three possible rules. We suggest that it is logical for the first stated temperature to be the initial temperature to which the seeds are exposed and that, therefore, the first rule should take priority over all others. It is important that the protocol to describe alternating temperature regimes be explicitly stated and consistently applied in gene banks.When light is applied during part of an alternating temperature cycle it is the usual practice for the light treatment to coincide with the higher temperature phase (as would occur in a natural environment). If the light is applied once a day for a lengthy period, it is also convenient for the duration of any light treatment to be the same as that for the higher temperature phase of the alternating temperature cycle. This is because the heat generated by the lights (even fluorescent tubes) will affect the maintenance of temperature. Thus if the periods of exposure to the higher temperature and to light coincide throughout then the higher temperature of the germination environment can be set taking into account the heat generated by the lights. It is important that the protocol adopted for the provision of light during alternating temperature regimes be explicitly stated and adhered to. For more information on light and seed germination see Chapter 6, Volume I.Two of the more common dormancy-breaking treatments pre-applied or co-applied to seeds are potassium nitrate and gibberellic acid. The preparation of solutions of these and other compounds will be required in most, if not all, gene banks. Consequently some notes on the preparation of solutions are provided below.To make up a 0.2% solution of potassium nitrate, 2 g of potassium nitrate is dissolved in one litre of distilled or deionised water. (It is not essential to make up a whole litre of solution. For example, 1 g dissolved in 500 ml would also provide a 0.2% solution.) To make up a 500 ppm solution of GA 3 dissolve 0.5 g GA 3 in one litre of distilled or deionised water. GA 3 generally takes a long time to dissolve in water and considerable stirring; with a glass rod, may be required before all the GA 3 has dissolved. Strong concentrations of GA 3 , above 800 ppm, will reduce pH. To avoid this it is generally advised to use a buffer solution of 0.01 M di-sodium hydrogen orthophosphate dihydrate/di-sodium hydrogen orthophosphate monohydrate for GA 3 concentrations of 800 ppm and above. This solution is prepared by dissolving 1.7799 g of disodium hydrogen orthophosphate di-hydrate (Na 2 HPO 4 2H 2 O) and 1.3799 of di-sodium hydrogen orthophosphate monohydrate (Na 2 HPO 4 H 2 O) in distilled or deionised water and making up to one litre. The GA 3 is then dissolved in this buffer solution.Throughout the report the concentrations of solutions of potential dormancy-breaking agents are expressed in the style given by the reference. To enable the reader to convert between these different forms of presentation, Figure 16.1 has been provided. In particular the grammes per litre scale (g/1, or g 1 -1 ) provides sufficient information to enable the reader to make up the required concentrations of solutions. The only additional information required to use Figure 16.1 is the molecular weight of the potential dormancy-breaking agent. These are usually provided on the labels of chemical containers. Some values are provided here in Table 16.1, but more comprehensive information is available from chemical company catalogues and Merck's Index. The latter is particularly recommended. The use of Figure 16.1 is described in the caption.Deciding appropriate germination test regimes for accessions so that germination tests reflect true viability with minimum interference from dormancy (and other factors which limit germination, such as hardseededness) can be one of the more difficult decisions which gene bank staff need to make. In the following chapters we have summarised useful information on the germination response of seeds of various genera to very many test regimes and dormancy-breaking treatments together with advice on suggested test procedures. In many cases, however, the information available is far from complete and accordingly much of the advice is very tentative. In such cases it is hoped that gene bank staff will be able to improve on the suggestions made. In order to help in this endeavour, in this chapter we discuss four different types of approach to determining appropriate germination environments.A consideration of the ecology of a species may sometimes help to provide some guidance as to appropriate germination test conditions. At the simplest level tropical species generally require higher temperatures for germination than temperate species. However, there are other more subtle responses which relate to the strategy of the plant in relation to its natural environment and a consideration of these may help in the development of germination test conditions which minimise dormancy.As mentioned in Chapter 5 (Volume I) the majority of mature seeds show innate (or inherent or primary) dormancy -a condition necessary to prevent germination on the mother plant before the seed is shed. Innate seed dormancy in most species tends to be gradually lost with time (except in some tree species), often at a rate depending on temperature and moisture content. But induced (or secondary) dormancy, in many respects similar to innate dormancy, may subsequently be induced by conditions which signal that the current environment is inappropriate for germination -e.g. high temperatures or anaerobic conditions. Furthermore enforced dormancy may be temporarily imposed by conditions which again appear to play a role in ensuring that the seed only germinates when there is a reasonable probability of the seedling growing to maturity. Dormancy in all its forms (see Chapter 5, Volume I) therefore tends to prevent seeds from germinating in the wrong place at the wrong time.For example, many annual or ephemeral species produce large numbers of small seeds. At any one time it is common for there to be more dormant seeds in the soil waiting for appropriate conditions than there are growing plants. Since small seeds only contain small food reserves, only a small amount of seedling growth can occur before the seedling needs to start photosynthesising. Thus germination more than a few centimetres below the soil surface or beneath dense vegetation could lead to seedling destruction. It would seem that many species have evolved dormancy mechanisms which avoid these problems. The seed needs to be able to respond to environmental factors that signal when it is at or near the soil surface. There seem to be two major environmental factors which many species use as indicators -light and alternating temperatures; and in most cases the seeds respond to both. Light is obviously only present at or near the soil surface; and diurnal temperature alternations have a maximum amplitude (or diurnal range) at the soil surface: the range rapidly diminishes with depth in the soil profile. Furthermore even at the soil surface the amplitude is diminished by the presence of vegetation. Since vegetation contains chlorophyll which absorbs strongly in the red region of the spectrum, the quality of light beneath vegetation may be inhibiting since far-red light penetrates much more and thus the light quality tends to affect the balance of phytochrome in the seeds in favour of the inactive Pr form (see Chapter 6, Volume I).Accordingly it is very common for small seeds of annuals and ephemerals to be light-sensitive and to germinate in response to white (or red) light and alternating temperatures. In many cases neither of these factors on their own has a major effect and both are necessary for a maximum response. Both these factors also often interact with nitrate ions.It may be worth considering the maternal environment in which the seeds develop as a further guide to distinguishing those species likely to require light treatments in order to promote seed germination. The light-filtering properties of the maternal tissues which surround the developing seeds, whilst they remain moist, can affect the sensitivity of seed germination to light in subsequent environments. Where the maternal tissues have a high chlorophyll content (that is are green) the seeds tend to require a light stimulus for germination (in subsequent tests). In contrast those seeds which have developed within maternal tissues where the chlorophyll content declined whilst the seeds remained moist tend to be able to germinate subsequently in light or darkness (that is are light insensitive). This is because the seeds developing within green maternal tissues would have received light filtered by the chlorophyll. This light would have a low red/far red ratio and most of the phytochrome would be in the inactive Pr form. In the latter case, however, the light would not have been filtered to such an extent; the red/far red ratio of the light received by the seeds would have been greater and thus more of the phytochrome would be in the active Pfr form which promotes germination. This Pfr would remain after desiccation and subsequent imbibition and accounts for the insensitivity of these seeds to light.As mentioned in Chapter 6 (Volume I), sustained and/or high-intensity light can also inhibit the germination of some seeds. This response is more common amongst somewhat larger seeds of species of arid environments, where it is more important for seeds to germinate below the soil surface where short-term severe water shortage is less likely, and the probability of the shoot not reaching the soil surface before food reserves are reduced is lessened by the larger food reserves of the seed.In desert regions where rains are infrequent and of limited duration, ephemeral plants have short life cycles and it is important for them to germinate only after a substantial fall of rain (and not after a minor shower which would not provide sufficient water for survival). In such cases seeds of some species appear to have their own 'rain gauge' which depends on the fact that it takes a certain minimal amount of rain to leach germination inhibitors. Thus in such cases germination may be stimulated by washing the seeds in running water.Dormancy mechanisms often also tend to ensure that the seeds do not germinate at times when the probability of the survival of the plant to maturity is poor. For example, many seeds in temperate latitudes tend to germinate after the winter, i.e. at the beginning of the main growing season. These seasonal considerations are often independent of seed size and thus many temperate species germinate best after a period of stratification (i.e. cool temperatures applied to moist seeds). Such a response ensures that seeds do not germinate at the beginning of winter. In contrast, seeds of species from Mediterranean climates tend to avoid germination at the beginning of the hot, dry summer and germination at the beginning of the cool moist winter is more common. In such cases it would be less likely to find marked responses to stratification. This would also be generally true of tropical plants, but see the note below.In tropical rain forests the temperature and water supply is always adequate for growth and so seeds of such species often show little dormancy. Seeds of many of the woody perennial species are also recalcitrant. Such seeds do not have to survive long periods in the dry conditions, and fresh supplies of short-lived seeds are produced regularly by the mature plants. Many seeds of this type show little dormancy, and many are killed by cool temperatures (e.g. less than 10° to 15°C) which they would never normally experience. However, even in tropical forests some species are not recalcitrant, and some may show light responses to ensure that they only germinate when a gap arises in the forest canopy and/or the soil is disturbed after clearance, thus ensuring that early growth is not inhibited by low light intensity.There are, of course, exceptions to these general principles. In particular it should be noted that laboratory treatments which emulate environments which the seeds would never experience in their natural habitat may sometimes promote germination. For example, low temperatures applied to moist seeds of some species of tropical and sub-tropical ecotypes can promote germination. Nevertheless the few examples above may be sufficient to indicate that a consideration of the ecology of the species may give useful clues as to the type of laboratory germination techniques which may be most appropriate.Cresswell, E.G. and Grime, J.P. (1981). Induction of a light requirement during seed development and its ecological significance. Nature, 291, 583-585.Grime, J.P., Mason, G., Curtis, A.V., Rodman, J., Band, S.R., Mowforth, M.A.G., Neal, A.M. and Shaw, S. (1981). A comparative study of germination characteristics in a local flora. Journal of Ecology, 69, 1017-1059.This approach has been developed largely by B.R. Atwater from long experience of attempting to germinate seeds of flower and ornamental species. Atwater's observations suggest that dormancy and germination requirements in these species are closely related to the maturity of the embryo and the structure and permeability of the seed coat coverings in the mature seed.Atwater has described eight basic forms of seed structure. These categories have been described in Chapter 3 (Volume I). Within each of these categories it is suggested that the seeds have similar dormancy and germination patterns, but it should be emphasised that the mechanisms suggested are hypotheses rather than established facts.I. Seeds with dominant endosperm (ENDOSPERMIC SEEDS) and immature dependent embryos (that is embryos not ready to germinate)The rudimentary embryos are the principal cause of delayed germination in this group. Inhibitors found in the endosperm may also contribute to the delay. Treatment consists of neutralization of the inhibitors with leaching, or with extra oxygen at low temperature followed by higher temperatures favourable to rapid embryo growth. Gibberellic acid increases the rate of embryo development if added to the substrate.Linear embryos are similar to the above. An additional block is added by the seed coats which may limit oxygen entry, but seed coat permeability may be increased when the seeds are exposed to light. Gibberellic acid added to the substrate increases the rate of embryo development.Miniature seeds having minimal embryos are protected by thin seed coats showing a light requirement for oxygen permeability. Germination is prompt. Gibberellic acid is an aid, but not a substitute for light.Peripheral embryos which surround the food storage organ rather than being contained within it have multiple seed coverings which contain inhibitors, and which form barriers to both oxygen and water. Treatment is primarily leaching of the inhibitor but cold or light treatments may be required to increase permeability. Removal of the seed covering structures is also effective.Summaries of seed anatomy, blocks to germination, successful germination test regimes and families exhibiting these characteristics are provided in Table 17.1 for endospermic seeds. example, alternating temperatures) in some laboratories.The rules of the ISTA and AOSA list the prescribed germination test conditions for each species. These prescriptions specify the substrata, temperatures and test duration which seed testing laboratories must adhere to, Additional directions are provided for special treatments which may be required for certain species together with recommendations for breaking dormancy. These prescriptions and directions are summarised in the chapters which follow. Now, these rules and directions are intended to give the most regular, rapid and complete germination for the majority of samples of seed of a particular species. To that end we presume the rules are successful, but how closely does the above aim coincide with the problems facing those testing seeds within gene banks?Prescriptions are not available for all species First, ISTA and AOSA tend to only provide rules for those species in which certian individual seed testing stations have knowledge of the germination behaviour of a large number of seed samples. Thus the species listed in the ISTA and AOSA rules are those in which there is considerable trade in the sees; the seed-propagated crops. In contrast gene banks will often need to germinate seeds of species which are not yet in substantial trade in the developed world (e.g. the tropical pasture species), true seeds of vegetatively propagated crops (e.g. potato, Solanum tuberosum), and seeds of species which do not have crop status such as wild and weedy relatives of modern crop species (e.g. teosinte, Euchlaena mexicana). Thus the first drawback for gene banks of the ISTA/AOSA rules is that for many species on which gene banks require advice on germination test conditions no information is provided.Secondly, within those species for which ISTA and AOSA prescribe test conditions the range of seed lots which seed testing stations test for germination, and upon the results of which ISTA precriptions are based, are generally limited to relatively nondormant, high quality, modern, genetically homogeneous cultivars. That is in most cases the cultivars with which the rules have been developed are likely to have been subjected to considerable selection pressures. In contrast gene banks will be testing seeds of primitive cultivars and genetically heterogeneous landraces which may also show considerable dormancy and/or be of poor quality. Thus the second drawback for gene banks of the ISTA/AOSA rules is that the prescribed conditions for a particula species will not necessarily be suitable for those acessions within gene banks which are dissimilar to modern cultivars -or of poor quality.Thirdly, for some crops seed testing stations may operate under considerable pressure at harvest time. For example, in temperate countries autumn sown cereal seeds are sown only five or six weeks after harvest. Thus seed testers may need to complete germination tests in as short a time as possible. Hence seed testing stations' aim of providing conditions which give rapid germination. Now in at lest one group of species -the temperate cereals -although the conditions prescribed by the rules may give rapid germination this is only achieved in our experience by using supra-optimal temperatures at the cost of the parallel aims of achieving regular and complete germination which are better achieved at much lower temperatures. In contrast to seed testing stations, gene banks are not under any pressure to give priority to rapid germination over achieving regular and complete germination. Thus the third drawback for gene banks of the ISTA/AOSA rules is that the aims of rapid and complete germination may not always be compatible. Note that this criticism does not apply to the rules for all crops. In the case of tree species, for example, considerable periods are allowed for dormancy-breaking and germination test treatments by ISTA and AOSA rules, and the requirement for complete germination takes precedence over the requirement for rapid germination.The purpose of commercial testing is to provide information on the comparative field planting value of different seed lots. In general the ISTA and AOSA prescriptions make no attempt to enable those viable seeds which will not germinate under field conditions to germinate in the laboratory test. If, for example, dormancy is a problem in laboratory tests, but not in field sowings (for example, due to differences in temperature between the two regimes) then directions to break dormancy must be provided in the rules -otherwise the field planting value may be underestimated. However, where dormancy is a problem in both laboratory tests and field sowings then to obtain an indication of field planting value the rules may not necessarily provide dormancy-breaking directions -since the removal of dormancy in laboratory tests may result in an overestimate of field planting value.Again whether or not this objective of ISTA or AOSA prescriptions and recommendations makes them unsuitable for viability testing in gene banks depends on the species. For example, in tree species directions for dormancy removal are suggested to enable viability to be estimated in laboratory tests and these directions must also be followed in field sowings if laboratory results are to provide a reasonable estimate of field planting value. In contrast in some species where hardseededness prevents germination no recommendation is made to render the seed coat permeable. Instead the proportion of hard seeds is reported. Thus the fourth drawback of ISTA/AOSA rules is that no attempt may be made to overcome a wide range of physiological phenomena which may prevent the germination of viable seeds under both laboratory and field conditions. Of these phenomena the most important are hardseededness and strong dormancy. In contrast to seed testing stations, gene banks aim to provide conditions which will enable all viable seeds to germinate both in laboratory tests and in subsequent field or glasshouse sowings.Numerous groups of workers have attempted to provide prescriptions for germination tests of species for which no ISTA/AOSA rules are available or which overcome certain of the deficiencies of the ISTA and AOSA prescriptions for species where rules are available. Particular emphasis has been placed on overcoming dormancy since this can be an important problem for plant breeders, and also for seed testers if considerable dormancy is experienced when the seeds are tested but which is likely to be lost during storage before sowing.However, much of this information is also of limited use in gene banks. This is because the majority of such information relates to the application of single dormancy breaking agents alone. In Chapter 5 (Volume I) it was explained that if this approach is used then the treatment concentration (if a chemical agent) or duration (if another form of treatment) required to break dormancy in the most dormant seeds would be likely to damage less dormant seeds, particularly if these are also of poor quality.We believe that the ultimate desirable aim of a prescriptive test for a given species is to be able to provide within one test environment or procedure those conditions which enable all viable seeds of that species -whether strongly dormant, moderately dormant, weakly dormant or non-dormant, and of high or low quality -to be able to germinate. This means that any stimulus or combination of stimuli used to promote the germination of dormant seeds must not be damaging to other nondormant seeds in the sample or to intolerant genotypes.Whether this aim can in fact always be achieved is a matter for debate, but two considerations are important in attempting to achieve it. The first is to ensure that the germination test temperature is suitable for poor quality seeds; within this range attempts can then be made to determine the most suitable temperature regime which will minimise the expression of dormancy. In certain species this first step may result in an adequate single germination test environment without any need for further treatment. In temperate cereals this appears to be the case, where a single low constant temperature is appropriate for both purposes. However, in other species simple solutions of this type may not be available and so it is necessary to take a second step and provide further stimuli to break dormancy which do not impair the germination of less dormant seeds. In our opinion this is often best attempted by combining more than one additional stimulus with all stimuli being applied at relatively low dose-levels. This is an attempt to utilise the positive interactions observed between many dormancy-breaking agents (see Chapter 5, Volume I). The treatments developed for Oryza spp. and Vitis spp. provide examples of this type of procedure (these and other prescriptions are described in the appropriate chapters of this volume).Gene banks considering developing their own germination test prescriptions may be discouraged by the wide range of different treatments -and the even wider range of different treatment combinations -which may be of potential benefit in promoting the germination of viable seeds. Consequently it is worthwhile considering which factors should receive priority in any investigation. We believe that the three most important factors to consider first are to ensure that the seeds have imbibed moisture without damage (see Chapter 7, Volume I) and then to attempt to determine the most suitable temperature (probably alternating temperature, see Chapter 5, Volume I) and light (see Chapter 6, Volume I) regimes for germination.Provided a prescription is already available for a species which is suitable for application in a gene bank then this would be the simplest approach for gene banks to use. However, even where a prescription is well-tried, gene banks will still need to be alert to the possibility that some accessions may be discovered for which the prescription does not appear to work. Furthermore, for many years to come, there will continue to be a large number of species for which there are no adequate prescriptions. Accordingly alternative approaches to providing suitable germination test environments are also considered in this handbook.Although a gene bank can never be absolutely certain about the efficacy of any approach to germinating seeds, do not forget that the efficacy of a species prescription on a particular accession can be tested by comparing the results of the germination test with that of the topographical tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I) on a sub-sample of the seed lot and by also applying a tetrazolium test to the seeds remaining ungerminated at the end of the test. In this way one can determine the proportion (if any) of viable seeds which are either killed by the germination test procedure or remain dormant at the end of the germination test procedure.In the above we have detailed objections to the wholesale and unquestioning adoption of either ISTA or AOSA prescribed germination test procedures as gene bank germination tests. However, this certainly does not mean that such prescriptions should be ignored by gene banks. The ISTA and AOSA rules summarise a wealth and depth of expertise and experience which is unmatched. Thus where available, the prescribed conditions represent a control against which any proposed alternative should be tested; and, despite our earlier comments, certain of these prescriptions will be suitable for gene bank use.As mentioned above, germination test prescriptions are available for only a small proportion of seed-producing species. What environment should be chosen to test the germination of seed accessions of species for which no prescription or no acceptable prescription is available? This is exactly the problem which faced staff at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Wakehurst Place Gene Bank, for almost all their accessions, because this gene bank deals entirely with seed collections of species which do not have great commercial significance. The method that they developed to answer the question posed above provides another approach to developing appropriate germination test regimes for seed accessions maintained in gene banks.This approach acknowledges that the most suitable environment for testing each accession is unknown. Thus, instead of a single prescription, an attempt has been made to develop the shortest series of tests which is likely to give a solution to the problem of defining a suitable test environment. The decision as to which test to try next depends on the results obtained in the previous test(s), and so we call this series of tests an algorithm. For gene banks a truly universal algorithm would be one appropriate to all seed-producing species, irrespective of taxonomy. However, such an approach would be rather unwieldy and require a large number of tests. Certain similarities in the response of seed germination to environment for species within a family can be recognised. Consequently this approach provides a separate algorithm for each family where sufficient knowledge has been accumulated.Where available, the algorithms developed by the staff at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank are presented according to family in Chapters 18 to 75. However, it is necessary here to provide some explanation of how the algorithms were developed, their possible faults, and how they should be applied.Storage at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank began in 1974. Since then all accessions entered into storage have been tested for germination as soon as possible thereafter. In many cases accessions were tested in more than one germination test environment, the reason for this being an inadequate proportion (less than 85%) of seeds germinating in the first test. Thus for many accessions it was possible to compare germination test results over a number of different environments with and without the imposition of various additional dormancy-breaking treatments. For each accession the best germination test regime was noted, and this regime was then used for all subsequent germination tests of that accession. In addition the results of all the different germination tests carried out on each accession were filed according to species to provide a growing information bank on the response of seed germination to different test conditions. Table 17.3 provides an example of the information generated and filed from such tests for a single accession of Veronica verna. 1 expressed as the percentage of the original number of seeds testedThe two original tests on seeds from this accession, begun on 16/12/77, demonstrated a high proportion of dormant seeds (those designated as fresh at the end of the test -see Chapters 10 and 11, Volume I). At 21°C all seeds exhibited dormancy (Table 17.3). The alternating temperature 'regime of 21°/11°C was only partly successful in breaking this dormancy (Table 17.3). Therefore towards the end of the latter test, a decision was made to sample more seeds from the accession and begin two additional germination tests in different conditions (which are known to promote germination in several species). One of these additional regimes -consisting of a preliminary period during which the imbibed seeds were exposed to 26°C (sometimes described as a warm stratification treatment) followed by subsequent exposure to 11°C -was entirely successful at breaking dormancy, enabling all the seeds tested to germinate (Table 17.3). Consequently this regime will be used for any subsequent germination tests to monitor the viability of this accession.Over the past ten years or so a considerable amount of information on the response of seed germination to various test regimes (similar to that described above for Veronica verna) has been generated by staff at Wakehurst Place. This raw information has subsequently been analysed, principally by Mr. S. Linington, in the following manner. For a particular family all the routine test data for all accessions (each similar in form to that provided in Table 17.3) were examined. It was (arbitrarily) decided that test regimes in which 85%, or more, of the full seeds germinated would be classified as successful. For each accession all the successful regime(s) (if there were any) were listed. For example, two regimes would be listed as successful for the accession shown in Table 17.3: 2°C constant; and 28 days at 26°C followed by 11°C constant.When this first stage of analysis was completed a pattern of successful regimes within each family was sought. Emphasis was placed on determining those simpler regimes (that is those employing few dormancy-breaking agents) which were successful for the greatest number of accessions. These regimes are those which are now used as the first step in the algorithms which have been developed. More complicated regimes (involving the use of many dormancy-breaking treatments) which are successful for fewer accessions are then provided as subsequent alternatives (later steps) in the algorithm if the first step does not provide a suitable environment for germination testing.There are a number of possible faults inherent in this method of analysis. First, by excluding from the analysis all accessions which failed to reach 85% germination under any test regime, the response of accessions which are either very dormant, or very poor quality and vulnerable in certain germination test environments may have been ignored. Secondly, it is based on tests of accessions within the Wakehurst bank which, at least in the past, were biased towards collecting in temperate regions. Not only may this result in an algorithm more suited to temperate collections, but it may also result in algorithms more suited to certain tribes within each family. For example, the algorithm for the Leguminosae was based largely on accessions of the Papilionoideae tribe and little data was available for accessions from either the Caesalpinoideae or Mimosoideae tribes. Finally it should be noted that the analysis was based on data obtained over only a limited range of treatments. Other, untested, treatments may be superior and there is as yet no way of knowing whether this will be the case.Despite these reservations, the algorithm approach to determining germination test environment works well at Wakehurst and is likely to be useful in other gene banks. Tests at Wakehurst on previously untested accessions using the algorithms for the Amaranthaceae, Gramineae, Leguminosae and Solanaceae families (provided in Chapters 20, 39, 43 and 67 respectively) have shown that 100%, 50%, 90% and 75% of accessions within each family reached 85% germination or greater. In view of the importance of the Gramineae in food production the limited success of the algorithm for this family is disappointing. One group of species within the Gramineae whose seed is particularly difficult to germinate is the tropical pasture species.Unfortunately tests on five seed lots of tropical pasture species at Reading (Table 17.4) confirm that the present algorithm for the Gramineae (Chapter 39) is not particularly helpful for determining germination test environment in these species.Nevertheless, Table 17.4 can be used to explain the method of applying the algorithm. Table 17.4 should be studied together with the Gramineae algorithm provided in Chapter 39. In Table 17.4 every feasible combination of dormancy-breaking agents within the algorithm was applied to the seeds, amounting to some 24 separate test environments. Note, however, that only a few of these tests would have been applied if the algorithm had been followed. The pathway through the tests which would have been followed if the Gramineae algorithm had been applied is shown by the boxed values in Table 17.4, the sequence being from the top of the table to the bottom.  Alternating temperature [19] (10,10) [21] (74,73) [46] (90,92) [18] (13,7) [31] (57,69) [22] ( [10], [15]) [57] ([75],[77]) [49] ([92],[93]) [18] ( [15], [8]) [44] ( [58],[70])10 -3 M KNO 3 3 3 [28] (13,17) 0 1 [18] (66,-) 61 31 [59] (93,82) 14 14 [13] (14,14) 3 0 [40] (64,79) [4] [3] [30] ( [13], [19]) [1] [2] [64] ([67],-) [61] [31] [64] ([97],[90]) [16] [14] [13] ( [17], [14]) [6]  Three details of the work reported in Table 17.4 differ from the Gramineae algorithm provided by the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank. First the germination test temperatures are not identical, but are within 1°C -except for the upper limit of the alternating temperature regime where the difference is 2°C. These minor differences are unimportant and result from differences in the standard temperatures available at Reading and Wakehurst. Secondly the comment in the algorithm to test at constant temperatures either below 20°C or above 25°C depending upon which gave the higher test result was not followed, since previous experience with dormant seed lots of these species indicated that alternating temperatures were essential to promote germination. Thirdly, following on from the last point, seeds were also tested for germination at the two additional alternating temperature regimes of 15°/30°C and 10°/30°C.To enable the reader to understand fully the use of the algorithm, an explanation is provided below of the sequence of tests and decisions that would have been applied for tests on the accession of Brachiaria decumbens. The first stage in the algorithm was to test the seeds at constant temperatures of 20°C and 25°C. These test results were inadequate (less than 85% germination). Now, according to the algorithm (Chapter 39) the next step would have been to look for trends in the results of these two tests (i.e. was germination greater at the higher or lower temperature?) and test for germination at either a more extreme higher or a more extreme lower constant temperature accordingly. This, however, was not done for the reasons given above and we proceeded to the second step of the algorithm which was to test a fresh sample of the seeds in an alternating temperature regime of 35°/20°C (the nearest regime available to the standard 33°/19°C Wakehurst regime). The germination obtained in this test was substantially greater than at either of the two constant temperatures, but again inadequate as a germination test regime. Consequently further tests were required.The third step according to the algorithm was to test a fresh sample of the seeds in a medium containing 10 -3 M KNO 3 at, in view of the difference observed between the results at steps 1 and 2, an alternating temperature of 35°/20°C. Again the result of this test at step 3 was an improvement on the result at step 2 but inadequate as a germination test regime since 85% germination was not achieved.Thus the fourth step was to remove the seed covering structures from a fresh sample of the seeds and test in a medium containing 10 -3 M KNO 3 (since the result at step 3 was greater than the result at step 2) at an alternating temperature of 35°/20°C. Once again the result of the test at this step was an improvement on the previous test result (suggesting that dehusking was a worthwhile treatment), but the percentage of seeds germinating was still unsatisfactory.Consequently the final step in the algorithm was applied. Namely dehusked imbibed seeds were pre-chilled at 3°-5°C for 8 weeks and then transferred to an alternating temperature regime of 35°/20°C in a medium containing 10 -3 M KNO 3 .Unfortunately this test resulted in substantially fewer seeds germinating than the previous test. Thus the conclusion reached by using the algorithm is that dehusked seeds of this accession of Brachiaria decumbens should be tested on a substrate containing 10 -3 M KNO 3 in an alternating temperature regime of 35°/20°C.Note that the decision making procedure at each step in the algorithm did not result in the algorithm missing more favourable treatment combinations. For example, if the algorithm had been followed dehusked seeds would not have been tested at 35°/20°C without 10 -3 M KNO 3 in the germination medium. In fact this treatment gave a very similar result (that is there was no significant difference) to the treatment with dehusked seeds which did include 10 -3 M KNO 3 in the germination medium. Thus it appears that the use of 10 -3 M KNO 3 in the medium is in fact not necessary, but its use (apparently necessary if the algorithm had been followed) does not result in a significantly lower proportion of seeds germinating. In that sense we can regard the decision-making procedure within the algorithm as being successful, but unfortunately the algorithm itself was not successful since the level of viability indicated by the tetrazolium test was not achieved in these germination tests.In addition to all the possible germination test regimes according to the Gramineae algorithm, Table 17.4 also presents results of tests carried out in two additional alternating temperature environments (15°/30°C and 10°/30°C) and also in combination with 10 -3 M KNO 3 (where sufficient seeds were available). These results suggest that, for some seed lots at least, those gene banks testing tropical grass species would be well advised to include additional alternating temperature regimes as the second step of the algorithm. For three of the seed lots tested here small differences in the alternating temperature regime greatly influenced the proportion of seeds which germinated (Table 17.4). Not only did this result in almost full germination of viable seeds, but it would have avoided the need for several stages of the algorithm in the case of Gatton Panic. (See the section on the genus Panicum, Chapter 39, for advice on an appropriate alternating temperature regime for this species.)In passing note that the results shown in Tables 17.3 and 17.4 emphasise that seed germination can be particularly sensitive to the temperature regime in which the seeds are tested. It cannot be overemphasised that gene bank staff must make strenuous efforts to get this right first before embarking on investigations as to the efficacy of other dormancy-breaking agents.Possible use of ungerminated seeds from prior step in algorithm for the current testIn the algorithms provided here additional tests are carried out by drawing a fresh sample of seeds from the accession bulk in storage. In some cases, for example if the supply of seeds is severely limited, it is possible to test the response to additional treatments by applying these to those ungerminated seeds which remain fresh and firm at the end of a previous test. This is particularly suitable for scarification, dehusking or puncturing treatments since it may avoid the need to apply these timeconsuming procedures to all seeds tested (see Chapter 7, Volume I). For example, if 70% of seeds tested of a legume accession germinate without scarification it is easier to scarify the remaining proportion of seeds and to return these to the germination environment than to draw a fresh sample of seeds from storage and scarify all of the seeds to be tested.During each step of the algorithm it is necessary to decide when to terminate the germination test and whether to pursue the next step in the algorithm. Since both aged and dormant seeds may only begin to germinate in a test after a substantial delay (see Chapters 4 and 5, Volume I) it is not possible to provide categorical advice. In Chapter 10, Volume I, an example is provided of how to decide when to terminate a germination test by constructing a germination progress curve. This technique can be used for each step in the algorithm, but each test should not be continued for an excessive period because the next step in the algorithm might result in a more suitable and more rapid procedure. That is if the progress of germination is very slow it might be better to pursue the next step in the algorithm.A minimum germination test period of 28 days is suggested. A comparison of results after 28 and 56 days in test (Table 17.4), for example, shows substantial germination after 28 days in test for only the Brachiaria humidicola accession tested at 35°/20°C. Consequently it is suggested that the decision to test a further sample of seeds in the next step of the algorithm can generally be made once the 28-day test result is known, but that the current test be continued for a further period dependent upon the shape of the germination progress curve. In tests at a very low temperature (e.g. 6°C), however, it may be better to delay a decision as to whether to continue through the algorithm until the 56-day test result is known.It is suggested that the algorithms could be applied soon after an accession is received if the standard advice on germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments is unsatisfactory or if no advice is available. The number of seeds tested in each of the regimes required by the algorithm need not exceed 100 (and 50 seeds may well be sufficient), but the seeds should be sampled from the accession at random (see Chapter 13, Volume I) and replication in each test is advisable (which will allow the use of the tolerance tables, Chapter 14, Volume I).Once a suitable test procedure has been developed a further sample of 200 seeds can be withdrawn from the accession and tested by this procedure in order to 'estimate initial accession viability (discussed in more detail in Chapter 15, Volume I). Subsequent monitoring tests of accession viability will also apply the same germination test procedure, but may be either fixed sample size tests (see Chapter Germination is reported to be epigeal, at least in Agave spp. Seed dormancy can be problematic with poor germination being reported for freshly harvested seeds. Detailed information on seed germination and dormancy-breaking treatments is limited (Table 19.1), but the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures for other species in the Agavaceae.The first step in the algorithm is to test the seeds at a constant temperature of 16°C with light applied for 12h/d.If this is not successful in promoting full germination then the second step is to test the seeds in an alternating-temperature regime of 23°/9°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature. The Amaranthaceae comprise about 500 species within 40 genera. The most important genus is Amaranthus which is cultivated for grain and as a leaf vegetable. The seeds show orthodox storage behaviour.The fruits are usually surrounded by a persistent perianth. B.R. Atwater classifies seed morphology as endospermic seeds with peripheral linear embryos (see The first step of the algorithm is to test three samples of the seeds at constant temperatures of 26°C, 31°C, and 36°C with light applied for 12h/d. If full germination has not been promoted and there is a trend in germination response to constant temperatures, then test further samples of seeds at more extreme constant temperatures. That is: if germination was greatest at 26°C then test at constant temperatures of 16°C and 21°C with light applied for 12h/d; but if germination was greatest at 36°C then test at a constant temperature of 41°C with light applied for 12h/d. If, however, germination was greatest at 31°C then go to the next step of the algorithm.If full germination has not been promoted, the second step of the algorithm is to test a further sample of seeds in an alternating temperature regime of 33°/19°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature.If full germination has not been promoted, the third step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11,Volume I).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information provided in this chapter for the genera Amaranthus and Celosia and from Table 20.1. nitrate co-applied; expose briefly to red light -1x10 -9 mol cm -2 is probably sufficient (36).Although one exposure is probably satisfactory, it might be worthwhile to provide this daily in case some individual seeds require a longer period of imbibition before they reach maximum sensitivity to light. It is likely that an alternating temperature regime would be preferable to a constant temperature of 35°C; 20°-25°/35°C (12h/12h) is suggested, again with potassium nitrate and red light as described above, but this must be regarded as untested as yet. Finally, if it is difficult to provide a suitable light environment it is worth noting that pre-chill treatments can reduce the need for light in subsequent germination tests (35); try 14 days at 3°-5°C and then transfer to 35°C in the dark for the germination test.The Anacardiaceae comprise some 400 species of trees and shrubs in 60 genera which provide edible fruits (e.g. Mangifera indica L., mango) and nuts (e.g. Anacardium occidentale L., cashew), tannin (e.g. Schinopsis lorentzii (Griseb.) Engl., quebracho), lacquers (e.g. Rhus verniciflua Stokes) and mastics (e.g. Pistacia lentiscus L.). The fruits are usually indehiscent drupes -but with important exceptions, e.g. cashew. The seeds have fleshy cotyledons and little or no endosperm and the seed covering structures are usually hard. For example, mango seeds are surrounded by a stony endocarp.Seed storage characteristics appear to differ within the Anacardiaceae. Some species show orthodox seed storage behaviour: for example cashew; and seeds of Schinus spp. are maintained in the long-term seed store of the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank. But other species, of which the best known example is the mango, are reported to exhibit recalcitrant seed storage characteristics.B.R. Atwater classifies seed morphology as non-endospermic seeds with axile foliar embryos contained within hard seed coats (see In this algorithm the seed covering structures are chipped before any germination test is begun. The first step of the algorithm is to test one sample of the chipped seeds at a constant temperature of 21°C with light applied for 12h/d and a second sample in an alternating temperature regime of 23°/9°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature.If neither regime promotes full germination then the second step of the algorithm is to test a further sample of chipped seeds in the more successful of the two regimes applied in the first step, but with 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 co-applied to the germination test substrate. Pistacia spp. show orthodox seed storage characteristics (1,6,7,14). The seeds can be tested for germination on top of paper, between paper or in sand (4,12). Non-dormant seeds germinate well at 21°C or below, poorly at 27°C, whilst no seeds germinate at 33°C (7) -with the exception of seeds of P. terebinthus which germinate well at 27°C (7). Consequently it has been suggested that non-dormant seeds of Pistacia spp. be tested for germination at a constant temperature of 20°C, between moist paper towels (7,10).The seed covering structures can, however, represent a formidable barrier to embryo growth: the epicarp (the soft outer hull) can inhibit germination (6), and the endocarp can reduce the rate of imbibition (3); removal or careful scarification of these covering structures can promote germination (3,4,6,10,11,12,13,14), but removal of the endocarp can also damage seeds, reducing the proportion which germinates (2). Warm stratification (6,9), pre-soaking (1,2,6,7,14), or pre-chilling treatments (1,5,7,10,12) can be promotory, but soaking for more than 21 days reduces germination (1). Treatment with gibberellins can be promotory, particularly where the seeds have first been scarified (1,2,4). A 10 minute scarification treatment with concentrated sulphuric acid appears to be safe and can be combined with advantage with subsequent gibberellin or pre-chilling treatments (12).It is suggested that dormant seeds of Pistacia spp. be pre-treated as follows before the germination test. Scarify the seed: either by hand, by first removing the epicarp and then chipping the endocarp or rubbing it with sandpaper, or by a 10 minute treatment in concentrated sulphuric acid followed by through rinsing in running water. Then pre-treat the seeds with GA at 500-1000 ppm for 24 hours, followed by a 2 to 4 week pre-chill at 3°-5°C.Despite the seed coats of Annona spp. being thick and heavily lignified the seeds imbibe without difficulty (3,4,6). Consequently scarification or pre-soaking treatments are not beneficial (2,3,4,6). The major germination problems appear to result, in A. squamosa at least, from the fact that the embryo is small, only partly developed, and embedded in a large endosperm (3); the embryo continues to develop after being shed from the mother plant (3). It has been suggested that non-dormant seeds of Annona spp. be tested for germination in moist sand or between moist paper towels at a constant temperature of 30°C for 100 to 300 days (4). It is suggested here that, in addition, GA 3 be pre-applied for 24 hours at 350 to 500 ppm to promote the germination of dormant seeds. Pre-application of GA 3 for 1 day at concentrations between 3.5 and 35000 ppm showed maximum promotion of germination at 350 ppm for 5 lots of A. diversifolia (1). Do not exceed 350 to 500 ppm because GA 3 at higher concentrations, 1000 ppm (6), 3500 ppm (1), may reduce germination and, moreover, affect seedling growth: treatment at 350 ppm did not cause abnormal seedling development whereas treatment at 3500 ppm and higher did (1).The Aquifoliaceae comprise more than 300 species of trees and shrubs within three genera. The fruits are drupes and contain several bony seeds or nutlets. The seeds show orthodox storage behaviour.Dormancy can be a major problem: successful dormancy-breaking treatments are available but can require substantial treatment periods. Effective dormancy-breaking treatments consist of alternating between warm stratification and pre-chill treatment regimes. Detailed information on seed germination and dormancy-breaking treatments is limited (Table 23.1), but the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures.The first step in the algorithm is to imbibe two samples of seeds at 26°C for 4w (i.e. a warm stratification treatment) with light applied for 12h/d. One sample is then moved to a constant temperature regime of 2°C and the other sample moved to a constant temperature regime of 6°C. In both cases light is applied for 12h/d.If these treatments are not successful in promoting full germination then the second step of this algorithm is to alter these regimes slightly. For example, increase or reduce the period of warm stratification. Also test further seed samples in alternating temperature regimes of 23°/9°C (12h/12h) and 33°/19°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature after the initial warm stratification (26°C)/pre-chill (2°-6°C) treatment. The Araceae comprise roughly 1500 species, mainly herbaceous, within more than 100 genera. The aroids provide edible roots (e.g. Amorphophallus campanulatus. (Roxb.) Blume, elephant yam), edible fruits (e.g. Monstera deliciosa Liebm., ceriman) and oils (e.g. Acorus calamus L., sweet flag). The fruits are usually berries. Seed storage behaviour is orthodox, at least in Colocasia and Xanthosoma spp.The seeds are usually endospermic and can exhibit dormancy, although the problem may not be pronounced. Xanthosoma spp. show orthodox seed storage behaviour and can be stored at low moisture contents and temperature, but longevity is reported to be comparatively short (4). We have found no evidence of dormancy in the literature.Agar: Hoagland's nutrient agar medium, room temperature, 18d Flowering in Xanthosoma spp. is sporadic and consequently seeds are only produced infrequently (1,4). Flowering can be promoted by foliar application of gibberellic acid at 250 ppm (1) or between 500 and 1500 ppm (4); pollination by hand is then required (1,4).It is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination on top of filter papers at 25°C in light: a 28 day test should be adequate. For seedling production the seeds can be germinated on top of sterile soil (4), but do not let the temperature fall below 22°C (4). The seedlings can be transplanted between 14 and 21 days after sowing (4).The apparent absence of dormancy in freshly harvested seeds of cocoyam may have been the result of the earlier foliar applications of gibberellic acid which were used to promote flowering in references ( 1) and (2). If this were to be the case then it would suggest that seed treatment with gibberellic acid is likely to be an effective dormancy-breaking treatment where seed dormancy is encountered in accessions of X. sagittifolium. Orthodox seed storage characteristics are shown by C. esculenta (4) and C. gigantea (3), although in the former seed longevity under ambient conditions is short (5). Seed dormancy can be exhibited in C. esculenta, for example after-ripening the seeds for 60 weeks at room temperature has been reported to result in the germination of a greater proportion of seeds (8), but tends to be less of a problem than is the case for freshly harvested seeds of C. gigantea which show considerable dormancy (3). The Bignoniaceae comprise more than 600 species of trees, shrubs, woody vines and, rarely, herbaceous plants in about 100 genera. Cultivated species include Crescentia cujete L.(calabash), the woody shells of the fruits providing domestic utensils, and Parmentiera edulis DC. (cauchilote), the flesh of the fruits being edible. The fruits are large and, usually, dehiscent capsules. Where known, seed storage behaviour is orthodox. For example, seeds of Incarvillea spp. are maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank.The seeds are usually winged. Seed dormancy does not appear to be a great problem and it appears that most species are easily grown from seed. The information on seed germination provided here is limited to that summarised in  The Bromeliaceae comprise about 1500 species of herbaceous plants in about 60 genera which provide edible fruits (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr., pineapple) and fibres (e.g. Neoglaziovia variegata Mez, caroa). The fruits are either berries or capsules, but in some genera the production of seeds may be comparatively rare. Seed storage behaviour is orthodox. Seeds of Aechmea spp. show orthodox seed storage behaviour, that is they can be dried and then stored at low temperatures (1). The seeds can exhibit dormancy (1). Seeds of pineapple can be tested for germination on sand or on top of filter papers. Whichever germination test substrate is used it should be sterile, kept moist throughout the test (intermittent mist sprays may be helpful) and well aerated (1-6). It is quite likely that light is required for germination since it has been recommended that the seeds be sown on top of sand (1,3). In addition many other genera within the Bromeliaceae require light for germination. Although very short acid scarification treatments can promote germination, a 30 second treatment in concentrated sulphuric acid can also be detrimental to pineapple seed germination (2).It is suggested that the seeds be germinated on top of moist (sterile) sand or on top of filter paper at 30°C' in light with regular mist spraying to maintain moisture. Seeds which fail to imbibe within four or five days can be scarified by hand. Alternating temperature regimes may prove to be beneficial. The Caricaceae comprise roughly 30 species of small trees and shrubs within four genera: Carica spp. provide edible fruits. The fruits are generally large berries. The seeds possess fleshy arils and show orthodox seed storage behaviour.Germination is epigeal and dormancy can be a severe problem. Information is provided in this chapter for the genus Carica only.C. papaya L.papaya, papaw, pawpawThe germination of seeds of C. papaya is frequently reported to be slow, erratic, and incomplete (2,5,7). For example, in one investigation freshly harvested seeds gave only 6% germination (4). The seed is enclosed within a gelatinous sarcotesta (aril, or outer seed coat) which is formed from the outer integment. Whilst this sarcotesta can prevent germination (5,10,11), dormancy is also observed in seeds from which the sarcotesta has been removed (5,10,11).Constant temperatures: 28°-29°C (2); 28°-30°C (3); 30°C, 30d (10) Alternating temperatures: 20°/30°C (15h/9h), 90dConstant temperatures: 30°C, in dark, after arils removed, 30dPre-chill: 11°C, 3d (8); 15°C, 10-40d (10)Warm stratification: 40°C, 50°C, 1-4d (10)Pre-soak: 24h (8)QA3: dust (7); pre-applied, 50-100 ppm (2)Napthaleneacetic acid: pre-applied, 10-10000 ppm (5); pre-applied, 24h, 100, 200 ppm (8) Indoleacetic acid: pre-applied, 1-10000 ppm (5) Maleic hydrazide: pre-applied, 10, 10000 ppm (5) Dimethyl aminosuccinamic acid: pre-applied, 24h, 10000 ppm (8) 2-Chloroethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride: pre-applied, 24h, 10000 ppm (8) Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid: pre-applied, 24h, 100, 200 ppm (8) Benzyladenine: pre-applied, 20h, 1-1000 ppm, after arils removed, germinate at 30°C in dark, 30dIV. Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatments Removal of seed covering structures: arils (5,6,10); arils, then pre-soak (5); arils, then prewash (5); arils, then GA 3 pre-applied, 10-1000 ppm (5) Potassium nitrate: pre-applied, 24h, 1.5%, plus potassium phosphate, 1.5% (6) Sodium phosphate: pre-applied, 12h, 200 ppm (9) Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid: pre-applied, 12h, 200 ppm (9)Pre-chill: 15°C, 50d, arils removed, germinate at 30°C (10)The flesh of papaya fruit contains an inhibitor which can prevent germination (5), the sarcotesta can prevent germination (5,6,10), but drying freshly extracted seeds results in increased germination in subsequent tests (10,11). Consequently it is suggested that, as a general practice at harvest, the freshly extracted seeds are rubbed to remove the gelatinous sarcotestae and thoroughly washed in running water before being dried for storage. Presoaking the seeds in water for 24 hours is reported to promote germination in seven Carica spp. (12).Treatment with gibberellins may (4,5,8,11) or may not (2,7) promote germination, but even where it does not promote the germination of a greater proportion of seeds the time taken to germinate is reduced (2). Indeed the major effects of both gibberellin treatments and removal of the sarcotestae is a reduction in the time taken to germinate (5,11). Pre-application for 24 hours with 500 ppm GA 3 is suggested.Temperature is reported to affect greatly the percentage of seeds which will germinate (5), but unfortunately no details have been provided. On the basis of the evidence available at present, it is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination at 30°C or 20°/30°C (16h/8h), but the temperature requirements for germination require further work. If a combination of aril removal, washing and drying prior to storage, followed by pre-treatment with GA 3 at 500 ppm and testing at either 30°C or 20°/30°C for 30-42 days is insufficient to promote germination, then a pre-chill treatment should also be considered: 15°C for 40 or 50 days was extremely promotory in one case (10), and is suggested as a possible standard procedure.The Chenopodiaceae comprise about 1400 species of herbaceous plants in more than 100 genera which provide edible roots (e.g. Beta vulgaris L., beetroot), leaf vegetables (e.g. Spinacia oleracea L., spinach), oils (e.g. Chenopodium ambrosioides L., wormseed) and grain (e.g. Chenopodium quinoa Willd., quinoa). The fruits are utricles (see Chapter 3, Volume I) and the seeds show orthodox storage behaviour.The seeds can show considerable dormancy and, in addition, the presence of the fruit structures may also hinder seed germination. B.R. Atwater classifies seed morphology as endospermic seeds with peripheral linear embryos (see If an alternating temperature regime is not successful in promoting full germination then the third step of the algorithm is to pre-chill a fresh sample of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test for germination in the most successful regime determined from a comparison of the results of steps one and two.If this is not successful in promoting full germination then the fourth step of the algorithm is to co-apply 10 -3 M potassium nitrate to the germination test substrate and test a fresh sample of seeds in the most successful regime determined from the tests carried out in steps one to three. If this includes a requirement for pre-chilling then the potassium nitrate is co-applied to the pre-chill as well as the germination test substrate.If full germination has not been promoted, the fifth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I). If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information provided in this chapter for the genera Beta, Chenopodium and Spinacia, from Table 17.1 and from Table 29.1.B. vulgaris L.beet, beetroot, sugar-beet, mangel, swiss chardSeed germination can be erratic (6,13,16,32) and dormancy can create severe problems for seed testing (4-6, 13, 15,36). The seed is contained within a fruit structure and this is the cause of most problems: germination inhibitors are present within this structure (4-6, 13, 17), and the tight ovary cap can act as a physical barrier to germination (17,24,29). In seed testing stations fungal infections can affect the reliability of germination tests and consequently fungicides may be applied: see Chapter 9 for details. Cytokinin: pre-applied, 12h, 1%, germinate at 15°C (34) Oxygen: (17) Hydrochloric acid: pre-applied, 0.5-8h, 0.5 N (2); pre-applied, 0.5-6h, 1 N (2); pre-applied, 0.5-2h, 2 N (2); pre-applied, 2,3h, 26%, then pre-wash, then pre-dry, 2-3h (29); pre-applied, 2h, 1 N, then pre-wash, 5 min, then hydrochloric acid, pre-applied, 2h, 1 N plus either GA 3 , 10, 100 ppm, or kinetin, 10, 100 ppm, germinate at 20°/30°C (8h/16h), 9°C, -10, -15 bar (1)Hydrogen peroxide: co-applied, 2% (9, 10); co-applied, 1-3% (17); co-applied, 1% (18); preapplied ( 21)Pre-wash or pre-soak treatments are the most effective method of removing germination inhibitors from the fruit. Percentage germination in subsequent tests increases with increase in the duration of either treatment (13,22,25,26), until maximum promotion is reached after 8 to 16 hours for pre-wash or 16 to 20 hours for pre-soak treatments (13). Drying, subsequent to either pre-wash or pre-soak treatments, may also further improve germination (22,28).The ISTA recommend 2 or 4 hour pre-wash treatments at 25°C for multigerm and genetically monogerm fruits respectively, with subsequent pre-drying at 25°C. The AOSA recommendations vary between the various crops: 2 hours' pre-soaking at 20°C (250 ml of water per 100 fruits) or 3 hours' pre-washing at 20°C is recommended for beet, mangel and swiss chard; but for sugar beet 16 hours' pre-soaking at 25°C may be necessary, followed by rinsing and 2 hours' drying at room temperature.Despite the removal of germination inhibitors by pre-washing or pre-soaking, successive germination tests may produce erratic results. The major difficulty remaining is the moisture of the germination test substrate (14): dry seeds require a moist substratum, whilst pre-soaked or pre-washed seeds require a relatively dry substratum (9,(16)(17)(18)(19)22,33). For the more dormant seeds hydrogen peroxide, co-applied at 1%, can be beneficial (9,10,17,18,21).Optimum constant temperatures for germination of 11°-25°C (23), 15°-25°C (8), 15°C (20,34), 20°C (7,11,20), and 25°C (15,25) have been reported, as have optimum alternating temperatures of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (1,3,11,14,19,20,22,28), 15°/25°C (16h/8h) (22), 5°/30°C, 5°/25°C (16h/8h) (15), 25°/11°C and 4°/25°C (16h/8h) (23). It is unlikely that there is any advantage to testing in alternating temperature rather than constant temperature regimes (11,15,20,22,23).It is suggested that the AOSA prescriptions and recommendations be followed, but with an additional hydrogen peroxide treatment (see above) for the most dormant seeds. However, one of the problems with pre-soak treatments of 16 hours for seeds of sugar beet is that treatments of such length may be damaging to some accessions. One way for gene banks to avoid this is to extract the seed from the fruits by hand and thus avoid the requirement for a pre-soaking treatment. (The ovary caps can be lifted with a scalpel and the seed dropped out.) This has further advantages in easing the scoring of seedlings during subsequent seedling evaluation (which can be difficult with multigerm fruits) and avoiding ovary caps hindering seedling emergence.VII. References The four most important factors in the promotion of germination of dormant seeds of Chenopodium spp. are light, (potassium) nitrate, alternating temperatures, and pre-chill. In the absence of the other three, pre-chill treatments generally appear promotory (17,21,22), though not in all cases (18,19). However, in the presence of some, or all, of the other stimulatory agents the benefit from pre-chill is only marginal (17,22). The principal stimulatory agents are light, potassium nitrate, alternating temperatures, and particularly interactions between the latter two (17). Very short duration light treatments are sufficient (2). Diffuse laboratory light reaching the seeds from irregular opening of germination cabinet doors is sufficient (17), although a regular intermittent, treatment with red light as described in Chapter 6 can be provided if this is possible. Potassium nitrate treatments should be co-applied at 10 -2 M (17,19,20,22) or possibly 10 Provided that low temperatures and long enough test periods are provided, problems from seed dormancy in germination tests of accessions of Spinacia spp. will be minimised. Although the rate of germination is highest at 20° or 25°C, the optimum temperature range for total germination is 5°-10°C (11). Consequently it is suggested that the lower of the two constant temperature regimes prescribed by ISTA/AOSA (10°C) be used in gene banks for testing seeds of Spinacia spp.One possible source of difficulty may be the moisture of the filter papers used in germination tests; if the substratum is too wet percentage germination will be reduced (12,13). Testing for germination at a low temperature should minimise the likelihood of such problems arising (12,13), but nevertheless attempts should be made to maintain a relatively dry germination test substrate.VII. References The Compositae comprise about 20000 species of herbaceous plants in more than 800 genera which provide oils (e.g. Guizotia abyssinica (L. f.) Cass., niger), leaf vegetables (e.g. Lactuca sativa L., lettuce), edible tubers (e.g. Helianthus tuberosus L., Jerusalem artichoke) and other products (e.g. Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium (Trev.) Bocc., pyrethrum). The seeds are achenes (see Chapter 3, Volume I) and show orthodox storage behaviour.In most genera the seeds normally exhibit dormancy, but the problem this poses when attempting to promote seed germination varies considerably between both species and accessions. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genera Carthamus, Cichorium, Guizotia, Helianthus, Lactuca and Parthenium. In addition, Table 30.1 provides a summary of germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments for very many other species and the algorithm below may be helpful in developing germination test procedures for species where no advice is provided here and for difficult accessions where the regimes summarised in Table 30.1 are unable to promote full germination.The first step in the algorithm is to test three samples of seeds at constant temperatures of 11°C, 16°C and 26°C with light applied for 12h/d. If any of the regimes applied in the third step of the algorithm does not promote full germination then the fourth step of the algorithm is to pre-chill a further sample of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w: the subsequent germination test regime is that judged most suitable from a comparison of the results of the previous steps of the algorithm.If the additional treatment of pre-chilling does not result in full germination then the fifth step of the algorithm is to take a further three samples of seeds, chip the fibrous seed coats and test in the most promotory regime determined in the previous steps (this may include a prechill treatment if the fourth step resulted in an increase in germination over previous steps) with GA 3 co-applied in the germination test substrates at three concentrations, viz: 3 x 10 -4 M, 7 x 10 -4 M, and 2.6 x 10 -3 M. Some experimentation with these conditions may be helpful. For example, if a trend in the results at different GA 3 concentrations is apparent it may be worthwhile investigating the response of germination to a more extreme concentration; or chipping plus pre-chill may be sufficient to promote germination without a GA 3 treatment.If full germination has not been promoted, the sixth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environment can be obtained from the information provided for six genera in this chapter, from   18,20,21). This causes problems for breeding programmes (7). Dormant seeds require between 2 and 7 weeks after-ripening at room temperature to lose dormancy (2,5,11,14,16,17,21) and the dormancy of seeds buried in soil can prevent them from germinating for more than 50 years (18). The seeds of the wild species H. bolanderi, H. exilis and H.petiolaris are rather more dormant (8,12,22). GA 3 : pre-applied, 24h, 300, 500 ppm (5); pre-applied, 24h, 300, 500 ppm, then pre-dry 0°C, 3dRemoval of seed covering structures: husk, pericarp (Ethrel: co-applied, 25, 50 ppm, dehulled seeds (13); co-applied, 250 ppm (21); pre-applied, 24h, 100 ppm (7) H. debilisPre-chill (ISTA)The most dormant seeds of H. annuus require 60 days pre-chilling to promote germination (9). Consequently the treatment prescribed by ISTA (3°-5°C for up to 7 days) is unlikely to be a sufficiently adequate treatment for gene banks. Moreover, in less dormant seed lots a 2 to 3 day pre-chill treatment can reduce germination (3,5). Thus it appears that pre-chill treatments are ruled out for gene bank use. No completely satisfactory dormancy-breaking methods have been found for the wild Helianthus spp.It is surprising that little work has been done on the effect of the germination test temperature (both constant and alternating) in promoting the germination of dormant seeds of Helianthus spp. It is suggested that gene banks dealing with these species might investigate this topic. In the meantime it is suggested that seeds of Helianthus accessions be tested in rolled paper towels or sand at an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h). For many accessions it will be necessary to increase the germination test duration considerably beyond the 7 or 10 days prescribed by AOSA and ISTA respectively and additional dormancybreaking treatments will also be required. Ethephon is one of the more effective dormancybreaking agents for H. annuus (7,13,14,20,21): it is suggested that it be co-applied at 100 ppm for all Helianthus spp. accessions with dormant seeds with the additional treatment of removal of seed covering structures from ungerminated seeds after 14 to 21 days in test.VII. References The considerable literature on lettuce seed dormancy might provide the impression that it is difficult to achieve full germination of lettuce seeds. This is not so. Full germination of dormant seeds of L. sativa can be achieved by testing at 12° to 15°C in diffuse light or the light regime given in Chapter 6.Prolonged exposure to higher temperatures may induce dormancy (thermodormancy) whereby the seeds will fail to germinate -even when subsequently removed to a lower temperature. As a precaution imbibing seeds should be placed in the germination test incubator as soon as possible: that is imbibing seeds should not be left at laboratory temperature.This regime is, however, unlikely to be successful in promoting the germination of all dormant seeds of L. biennis (22) or L. serriola (36,37). It is suggested that seeds of L. biennis be tested for germination at an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light, but that seeds of L. serriola be tested in the dark at a constant temperature of 20°C since light inhibits germination in this species (36,37).32. A single application of GA 3 is able to break dormancy in partially dormant seeds of P. argentatum but is unlikely to be successful for freshly harvested seeds. Sodium hypochlorite pre-applied singly at 1.5% or at 1% combined with GA 3 at 200 ppm is effective for promoting germination in freshly harvested seeds but is unfortunately detrimental to less dormant seeds (2,5). Whilst light treatments promote the germination of dormant seeds of P. argentatum (1-3), the effect on the germination of dormant seeds of P. hysterophorus appears to be mo re equivocal; promotion by light has been observed in a few temperature regimes, but inhibition of germination by light has been observed in the majority of temperature regimes investigated (7).Consequently it is suggested that seeds of both species be tested in an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h), but that the light regimes should differ with seeds of P. argentatum being tested in the light and seeds of P. hysterophorus being tested in the dark Pre-washing of the seeds may be advantageous, and it is suggested that the seed coveringThe Convolvulaceae comprise roughly 1000 species of shrubs and herbaceous plants in about 50 genera. The most important genus is Ipomoea which provides edible roots (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., sweet potato), leaf vegetables (e.g. Ipomoea eriocarpa R. Br.) and fodder (e.g. Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) Sweet). The seeds show orthodox storage behaviour.The The first step in the algorithm is to test several samples of seeds at constant temperatures of 11° to 26°C with light applied for 12h/d. Four constant temperature regimes at 5°C intervals are suggested.If none of these constant temperature regimes is successful in promoting full germination then the second step of the algorithm is to pre-chill a further sample of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test for germination in the most successful germination test regime determined in step one.If the second step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the third step is to chip a further sample of seeds and then test in the most successful regime determined in steps one and two. This may include a pre-chill treatment if the second step of the algorithm results in an appreciable increase in germination compared to step one. Whilst the production of viable seeds from sweet potato (I. batatas) clones -particularly those subject to repeated vegetative propagation -is difficult, e.g. (17,18,24), seed viability can be maintained in the long-term with, for example, no appreciable loss in viability over a 20 year period (13)(14)(15). Moreover, no problems have been encountered when raising plants from seeds in long-term storage (19,29).Embryos extracted from sweet potato seeds have been reported to be non-dormant (4). However, seed germination can be severely restricted by hardseededness (1,4,13,15,21,23,24,26,28,30). Reported proportions of hard seeds in seed populations vary from around 50% (20,21) to 90 or 95% (23,28). The germination of seeds of other Ipomoea spp. can also be restricted by hardseededness (3,(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)22,25,27). As far as possible the information is presented below according to species, but this has not been possible in all cases.II. Germination regimes for non-dormant seeds Further steps in the algorithm do not distinguish between temperate and tropical accessions. If full germination has not been promoted by the second step of the algorithm then the third step of the algorithm is to pre-chill a further sample of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w, and then test for germination in the most successful regime determined in steps one and two.If full germination has not been promoted then the fourth step of the algorithm is to remove the seed coats from a fresh sample of seeds and test in the most successful regime determined from the results of steps one to three. This may include a pre-chill treatment if this resulted in an increase in germination in step three.If full germination has not been promoted by step four then the fifth step of the algorithm is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 in the germination test substrate and test at the most successful regime determined in steps one to four.If full germination has not been promoted, the sixth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information provided for the six genera in this chapter, from Seeds of the cultivated Brassica spp. can show considerable dormancy (7)(8)(9)14,25,26,(30)(31)(32)(33)35,37,41,(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)52,54). This causes problems in both commercial seed testing stations and plant breeding programmes (5,38,54). A dormancy period of 2-3 months has been reported for seeds of B. napus and B. nigra, but dormancy can remain for as long as 2 years when the whole fruits are stored (47). Seeds of B. campestris, B. nigra and B. juncea require at least 7 months after-ripening at room temperature to remove dormancy (52). Not surprisingly the wild species of Brassica show much deeper dormancy, e.g. B. kaber (6,12,13,16,32,38,53,55), B. spinescens (40), B. tournefortii (40) and B. vesicaria (40). Secondary dormancy is reported to be induced by high carbon dioxide concentrations (19)(20)(21), by high temperatures (35), or by prolonged pre-chilling (35). Certain seed drying regimes can also induce dormancy (50). Freshly harvested seeds of cultivated varieties of radish can show dormancy (21). Dry storage for 6 weeks, at room temperature, is required to completely remove dormancy (21). Wild types' seeds can show deep dormancy (10,12) and require 6 months storage, at 20°C, for dormancy to be lost (10,16). Pre-chill: 4°C, 3-18w (10)Alternating temperature regimes are required to break radish seed dormancy (3,10,12); alternations of 5°/15°C or 10°/20°C (10) or 5°/25°C (18h/6h) (12) are more effective than the regime 20°/30°C prescribed by the ISTA. Testing in the dark (9,14,19) is promotory. Pre-chill treatments are unsuccessful for very dormant seeds (10,12), whereas gibberellin and fusicoccin are successful in promoting germination for the very dormant seeds (7). It is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination in an alternating temperature regime of 10°/30°C or 10°/20°C (16h/8h) either in dark or in the light regime given in Chapter 6 with 100 ppm GA 3 either co-applied or pre-applied for 1 hour.The Cucurbitaceae comprise more than 700 species of herbaceous plants within about 90 genera. They provide vegetables (e.g. Cucumis sativus L., cucumber), fruits (e.g. Cucumis melo L., melon), oils (e.g. Luffa cylindrica (L.) M.J. Roem., smooth loofah, and Telfairia pedata (Sims) Hook., oyster nut), and several other useful products. The fruits are usually pepos (fleshy berry-like structures with a rind and spongy seed interiors), but sometimes a papery bladdery pod. The seeds are usually flat and plate-like. Some care may be required when producing or collecting the seeds: seeds extracted from commercially ripe fruits may be immature. Consequently some storage in the fruit (very roughly until the fruit rinds go yellow) may be beneficial, although too long a period of storage in the fruit results in viviparous germination.In general seed storage behaviour is orthodox. However, in two species we must correct our previous classification of seed storage behaviour. Telfairia occidentalis (Hook. f.) and Sechium edule Sw. must be classified as having uncertain seed storage behaviour at present. For the time being this will mean treating the seeds as if they are recalcitrant: certainly conventional drying treatments result in seed death. However, we suspect that the species are in fact orthodox and, whilst this has not yet been proved, investigations at Reading are continuing. Any progress in these investigations will be reported in Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter.The seeds are non-endospermic and germination is epigeal. Dormancy can be a severe problem in some species: it is comparatively easy to induce dormancy by testing the seeds for germination in unfavourable environments. In particular the germination test substrate should not be too moist and only very low intensity light treatments should be applied; in most cases it is probably best to test the seeds for germination in darkness.Detailed information is provided in this chapter for the genera Citrullus (including synonyms within Colocynthis), Cucumis, Cucurbita, Lagenaria (including synonyms within Cucurbita), Luffa and Momordica. Some advice is provided below for Benincasa and Trichosanthes spp., and for other species it may be possible to develop suitable germination test procedures using the algorithm provided below.Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) Cogn. wax gourd, white gourdLight inhibits seed germination (3). Cracking the seed coat (1) and testing at a constant temperature of 30°C in the dark (3) or at 30° to 35°C in moist sand (1) (i.e. a very low light intensity at the seed surface) have been suggested as suitable germination test regimes.Seed germination is promoted if the seeds have been extracted from ripe fruits with 3% hydrochloric acid added to aid extraction (2). Presumably the acid treatment affects the seed coats and in some way reduces their ability to act as a barrier to germination. Neither thiourea, pre-applied, 24h, 0.5% nor GA 3 , pre-applied, 24h, 50 ppm, promote the germination of seeds extracted in this way (2). It has been suggested that the seeds be tested for germination in moist sand at 30° to 35°C with removal of the seed coats if full germination does not occur (1).Alternatively try testing at 30°C in the dark.The first step of the algorithm is to test the seeds at a constant temperature of 31°C. If this does not result in full germination then test additional samples of seeds at constant temperatures of 26°C and 36°C.If none of the above constant temperature regimes results in full germination then the second step of the algorithm is to test in an alternating temperature regime of 33°/19°C (12h/12h).If this alternating temperature regime does not result in full germination then the third step of the algorithm is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate and test at the most successful regime determined from the results in steps one and two.No recommendation is made for the provision of light in the algorithm presented here in view of the problems mentioned already. AOSA rules for the above two species emphasise that the germination test substrate should not be too moist. The following method is given by AOSA: the moistened substratum should be pressed against a dry absorbent surface such as a dry paper towel or blotter to remove excess moisture.Light: continuous, white, 1.2x10 -6 W cm -2 , germinate at 25°C (5,21); white, at 25°C, 1-3d, then 45°C, 45 min or 165 min, germinate at 25°C, continuous, white (5); 1d dark, 8d white, at 20°C (21); continuous, blue, 1.2x10 -6 W cm -2 , at 25°C (21); continuous, far red, 1.2x10 -6 W cm -2 (5,21); far red/dark, at 25°/5°C (both 12h/12h) (5); far red/white, at 25°/5°C (both 12h/12h) (5)6-Benzyladenine: co-applied, 10 ppm, at 25°C, continuous white light (6)GA: 3 : co-applied, 100, 500, 1000 ppm, at 25°C, continuous far red light (6)Light: continuous ( 16); infra red (18); blue (18); white, continuous, 200-300 lux ( 18)Light strongly inhibits the germination of seeds of all Cucumis spp. (4,5,11,14-16,18,21,23-25,27) -even at optimum temperatures for germination (5,21). In C. sativus continuous light at 20°C induces secondary dormancy: if subsequently tested in darkness no germination occurs unless the seeds are exposed to red light for a short period or the germination test temperature is increased (15). Thus, in contrast to previous ISTA recommendations, darkness is essential for testing the germination of seeds of Cucumis spp. Germination, particularly of dormant seeds, is reduced if the germination test substratum is excessively moist (10). Gene bank staff should take care to avoid this problem: see the AOSA advice in the section on germination regimes for non-dormant seeds.Suggested germination test conditions for seeds of C. melo and C. sativus are 25°C, 30°C or 20°/30°C (16h/8h or possibly 8h/16h) in the dark with a relatively dry germination test substratum. However, this procedure may be inadequate for the most dormant accessions (11,23). It is suggested that brief light treatments (20 minutes irradiance of white light, 0.16 W m -2 per day or 30 minutes irradiance of red light, 8x10 -4 W cm -2 ) may be a suitable further stimulus to promote the germination of the more dormant seeds (e.g. 25), and it is further suggested that the seed coats be removed from the ungerminated seeds after 10 to 14 days in test and that these seeds be tested for at least one further week. For the more dormant Cucumis spp. pre-chilling treatments at 3° to 5°C for between 20 and 45 days are suggested. Subsequent alternating temperature regimes of 25°/5°C, 25°/10°C, or 15°/35°C (12h/12h) for seeds of C. anguria, and 10°/30°C (12h/12h) for seeds of C. myriocarpus can be particularly effective in promoting germination (5,12).VII. References The storage of fruits at room temperature for several weeks prior to seed extraction is not recommended as a dormancy-breaking treatment. However, where immature fruits have been collected, a short period of fruit storage can enable seed development to continue in the fruit (13-16) and may, therefore, be worthwhile in such circumstances, but prolonged fruit storage, e.g. 6 months (3), results in viviparous germination.Light can inhibit the germination of seeds of all Cucurbita spp. (2,7,8,11,16). Moreover, not only can light severely reduce the percentage of seeds germinating, but it can also result in a high proportion of abnormal seedlings (7). It is suggested that germination in the dark at an alternating temperature of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (1,4,5) or (if this alternating temperature regime cannot be provided) at a constant temperature of 30°C (1,6,12) will be satisfactory for seeds of C. maxima and C. moschata. For very dormant seeds of C. pepo -and possibly C. foetidissima and C. Texana -however, the removal of the seed covering structures may also be necessary (6). Clip radicle end of seeds (AOSA)On the basis of the evidence available at present it is suggested that the seeds be tested at a constant temperature of 30°C or an alternating temperature of 20°/30°C (16h/8h or possibly 8h/16h) in the dark. In addition it may be necessary for the seed covering structures to be removed or clipped. Constant temperatures: 30°-35°C, scarified seeds, crack seed coat, moist sand (1)In contrast to other members of the Cucurbitaceae the germination of seeds of L. cylindrica is reported to be promoted by light (2). On the basis of the limited evidence available it is suggested that the seeds be tested in an alternating temperature environment of 20°/30°C (12h/12h) with light for 12 hours per day (2). Nevertheless, the apparent requirement for light is not proven: the germination of seeds when tested buried in sand is promoted (1); and seeds buried in soil germinate equally as well as those in a laboratory test in the presence of light (2). Finally, the response of germination to constant temperatures appears to differ between seed lots (1,2); hence the suggestion to test the seeds in an alternating temperature regime.  Seed dormancy is a major problem in Dioscorea spp., sufficient in the past to have prevented improvement by breeding (7,8). Between 3 and 5 months after-ripening removes dormancy from most seeds, at least in West African collections (7,8,13,14). However, in Japanese collections 6 months after-ripening was only partly effective in removing dormancy (6). Within the species D. japonica, D. nipponica, D. quinqueloba, D. septemloba, D. tenuipes and D. tokoro, seeds of D. septemloba are the most dormant and seeds of D. nipponica the least dormant ( 5), although of course there is considerable variation in the degree of dormancy between lots within each species (5). A further problem is the absence of embryos in some seeds due to poor pollination and/or fertilization (7).Seed germination in Dioscorea spp. is inhibited -or at best not promoted -by white light (4,5) and/or high germination test temperatures, 23°-40°C (5,6). The response of germination to gibberellins appears complicated; germination is both promoted and inhibited by treatment with gibberellins (4,10). It appears that gibberellins may mitigate against the inhibition of germination by inhibitory light sources (and thus in these circumstances appear to be promotory), but that in the dark or in red light their action is generally inhibitory (4).Consequently it is suggested that treatment with gibberellins is not worthwhile.Pre-chill treatments are particularly effective in removing dormancy (4,5,10). Optimum pre-chill treatment temperatures and subsequent germination test temperatures, however, vary between species and possibly between seed lots within a species (5). Nevertheless the following treatment is suggested for breaking dormancy and promoting germination in dormant seeds of Dioscorea spp.: pre-chill at 5°C for 30 days, then transfer to a germination test regime of 14°-17°C for 21-28 days; repeat this cycle (as many times as necessary) for those dormant (fresh) seeds which fail to germinate; apply red light throughout both the pre-chill and germination test treatments; if this is not possible, test the seeds in the dark. In addition it may be worthwhile to clip or prick the fresh seeds which fall to germinate after the first pre-chill germination cycle, since such treatments can be promotory over a wide range of species (11,12). Non-dormant seed lots can be tested for germination at 20°C, again either in red light or dark. Micro-organism contamination may be a problem in germination tests (2), particularly if these extend over considerable periods. Pre-treatment in a 10% calcium hypochlorite solution for 20 minutes has been reported to minimise such problems (2).In ecological terms the suggested treatment of dormant accessions from tropical regions at low temperatures (pre-chill) may appear surprising. Certainly the evidence that such treatments are effective is limited to Japanese collections (4,5), and thus more work is needed. Nevertheless, within the Japanese collections accessions from the warmer climates had the lower optimum pre-chilling temperatures and benefitted most from longer pre-chill treatments (5,6). Moreover, evidence in other species (rice, for example) demonstrates that pre-chill treatments can be effective in breaking dormancy in accessions collected from regions where such low temperatures would never be experienced in the soil.VII. References The Ebenaceae comprise 300 species of trees and shrubs with very hard wood within about six genera, one of which provides edible fruits (Diospyros virginiana L., common persimmon).The fruit is generally a leathery or fleshy indehiscent berry with between one and ten seeds.Seed storage behaviour was originally thought to be recalcitrant, but there is now considerable doubt about this classification in at least some species. Seed dormancy can be considerable, much of the problem being due to the seed covering structures. Detailed information is provided in this chapter for the genus Diospyros only. This information includes details of storage behaviour as well as dormancy and germination. lotus are reported to show considerable dormancy (1)(2)(3)6,8,10,14,15). The seed covering structures are reported to be the main cause of dormancy, by hindering the absorption of water by the seeds (2,8). Prolonged pre-chilling is reported to induce dormancy in seeds of D. texana (13).II. Germination regimes for non-dormant seeds Hydrogen peroxide: pre-applied, 20 min, 3%, then pre-soak, 24h (Pre-chill: 3°-5°C, 60d (6); 10°C, 120d (8); 0°-7°C, 1-6m ( 14)Pre-soak: 2d, then pre-chill, 10°C, 120d (8); 30°C, 24h, then remove part of seed coat around radicle (10) Scarification: file or abrade seed coat ( 14)Pre-chill: 3°-5°C, 90d (6); 10°C, 120d (Pre-soak: 2d, then pre-chill, 10°C, 120d (Succinic acid: pre-applied, 48h, 0.1% (12)Constant temperatures: 20°-30°C ( 5)Alternating temperatures: 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (5)Pre-chill: 0°-7°C, 1-6m ( 14)Scarification: file or abrade seed coat ( 14)Pre-chill: 90d (4); 3°-5°C, 60,90d (6); 10°C, 60-90d (8); 10°C, 60-90d, germinate at 20°/30°C, 60dRemoval of seed covering structures: part of seed coat over radicle (2); file or abrade seed coat ( 14)Seeds of Diospyros spp. can be tested for germination on top of moist paper (5,9,10). Light has no apparent effect on germination, whereas germination is very sensitive to temperature (5). The seeds will germinate at constant temperatures between 20° and 30°C, but beyond this range germination is reduced considerably (5). An alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) is reported to be satisfactory for germination (2,5,9). In general pre-chilling the seeds breaks dormancy (2)(3)(4)6,8,14), except in one report where pre-chilling for between 30 and 120 days induced dormancy in seeds of D. texana (13).It is suggested that intact seeds of Diospyros spp. be tested for germination on or between moist papers at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) for at least 4 months (2). However, filing the seed coat or removing the seed covering structures should enable this germination test duration to be reduced.In the past D. dignya, D. discolor, some varieties of D. kaki, and D. virginiana have been reported to show recalcitrant seed storage behaviour (4,7,10,14). However, there is now strong evidence that seeds of D. texana and D. virginiana show orthodox seed storage behaviour (2,5,14). For example, seeds of D. virginiana can be dried to between 3 and 8% moisture content and stored safely at -20°C (14). Similarly seeds of some varieties of D. kaki can be dried to 15% moisture content and stored safely at 0°C, -5°C, -20°C, and -196°C (10).VII. References The first step of the algorithm is to test the seeds at constant temperatures of 16°C and 26°C with light applied for 12h/d in each case.If this is not successful in promoting full germination then the second step of the algorithm is to pre-chill the seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test for germination at the constant temperature which resulted in the greater proportion of seeds germinating in step one. Seed dormancy in Vaccinium spp. is often manifested by low, slow and erratic germination, as observed in V. angustifolium (1), V. ashei (5,16), V. canadense (3), V. corymbosum (7,16,19), V. macrocarpon (9,10,18) and V. oxycoccus (18). In particular, seed dormancy in V. macrocarpon has been the subject of much attention (9)(10)(11)(12). Although seeds of Vaccinium spp. have often been stored moist (at freezing or sub-freezing temperatures) for short-term storage (1,5,8,13,17,20), the seeds are orthodox and can thus be stored satisfactorily at a low moisture content at low temperatures for long-term storage (7).II. Germination regimes for non-dormant seeds -III. Unsuccessful dormancy-breaking treatmentsConstant temperatures: 16°C in fluorescent and incandescent light, 73 x 10 -6 mol m -2 s -1 , 12h/d (4)Pre-chill: 4°C, dark,GA 3 : pre-applied, 24,48h, 100-1000 ppm, to seeds pre-chilled in fruits, 4°C, 75d (GA 4/7 : pre-applied, 48h, 100 ppm (4); pre-applied, 24,48h, 100-1000 ppm, to seeds prechilled in fruits, 4°C, 75d (5); pre-applied, 48h, 100 ppm plus 100 ppm benzyladenine (4)V. canadense Coumarin: co-applied, 10 -5 M (21)V. macrocarpon Pre-chill: 3°-4°C, 8w (18); 3°-4°C, 8w, in fruit (18) Light: dark, at 25°C (9,10,11)GA 3 : pre-applied, 20h, 300 ppm, germinate at 25°C in dark (10) Scarification: concentrated sulphuric acid, 5-20 min, germinate at 25°C in dark (10) Removal of seed covering structures: prick (12); seed coat (18); seedcoat, then pre-chill, 3°-4°C, 8w (V. oxycoccus Pre-chill: 3°-4°C, 8w (18); 3°-4°C, 8w, in fruit (18) Removal of seed covering structures: seed coat (18); seed coat, then pre-chill, 3°-4°C, 8wV. uliginosum pH: 3-9 (6)V. vitis-idaea var minusScarification: sulphuric acid, 0.1 N, 5 min ( 14)IV. Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatmentsConstant temperatures: 19°-21°C (1); 21°C, in soil (15) Alternating temperatures: 16°/18°C, dark/light (16h/8h) (V. asheiAlternating temperatures: 18°/21°-27°C, dark/light (night/day) (16)Pre-chill: 100d (7)Light: 18x10 -6 mol m -2 s - Light is an essential component of any successful dormancy-breaking regime for seeds of Vaccinium spp. (2,4,6,(9)(10)(11)(12)17,19,21), but high light intensities may reduce germination -for example, 73x10 -6 mol m -2 s -1 applied for 12 hours per day (4). The second essential component is an alternating temperature regime (16,19,21). These two factors account for the observations that seeds of Vaccinium spp. germinate readily in glasshouse sowings (2,15,17) -despite the reports of low, slow and erratic germination already noted.Although 3 month pre-chill treatments had been thought to be effective in promoting loss in dormancy and had consequently been advocated as suitable short-term storage environments (5,7,8,13,20), they have subsequently been shown to be either comparatively ineffective in breaking dormancy (3,18,21) -for example, only increasing germination by 0-8% (17) -or damaging to germination (4,14,20). Chemical treatments -such as potassium nitrate ( 21), GA 4/7 (4,5) or coumarin ( 21) -are generally ineffective in breaking dormancy, but GA 3 can, apparently, substitute for the effect of light when pre-applied for 20 hours at 1000 ppm (11).From limited investigations it would appear that 18°/27°C is a suitable alternating temperature germination test regime (16,19). This is sufficiently close to the widely used laboratory germination test regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) to suggest that seeds of Vaccinium spp. be tested for germination on top of filter paper in this regime with light applied in the manner described in Chapter 6. For the most dormant seeds, a 20 hour pre-treatment with 500 ppm GA 3 is satisfactory (10,11) and is suggested as an additional treatment.The Euphorbiaceae comprise over 8000 species of herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees within about 280 genera which provide edible roots (e.g. Manihot esculenta Crantz, cassava), oils (e.g. Ricinus communis L., castor), edible fruits (e.g. Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng., bignay), medicinal products (e.g. Croton tiglium L.) and other products (e.g. Hevea brasiliensis Muell.-Arg., para rubber). The fruits are usually dehiscent capsules, but sometimes dehiscent and berry-or drupe-like.Seed storage behaviour in Euphorbiaceae is generally orthodox. For example, Euphorbia spp. are maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank. There are, however, important exceptions. For example, seeds of Hevea brasiliensis are recalcitrant.Seeds can be either endospermic or non-endospermic; germination can be either epigeal or hypogeal. Dormancy can be a severe problem; many, but certainly not all the problems in germinating the seeds can be overcome by removing part of the seed coat and the surrounding structures. B.R. Atwater classifies seed morphology in some species as nonendospermic seeds with axile foliar embryos within woody seed coats and an inner semipermeable layer (see Table 17.2, Chapter 17). Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genera Aleurites, Hevea, Manihot and Ricinus. Table 37.1 provides a limited number of recommended germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments for several other species. In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures for species where no advice is provided in this chapter.The first step in the algorithm is to test seeds at constant temperatures of 16°C and 26°C with light applied for 12h/d in each case.If this is not successful in promoting full germination then the second step in the algorithm is to chip the seeds and test at whichever temperature gave the greater germination in the first step.If this is not successful in promoting full germination then the third step of the algorithm is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate and test in the most promotory regime determined in steps one and two. (This may include a requirement to chip the seeds.) Pre-soak: 12-48h ( 8)Tergetol: pre-applied, 12,24h, 0.1% (8) Morpholine: pre-applied, 12-48h, 0.25, 0.5, 1%Removal of seed covering structures: crack seed coat (9); seed coat, then pre-chill, 40-140dA. montanaWarm stratification: 100-150d ( 9)Removal of seed covering structures: crack seed coat (9)V. Successful dormancy-breaking treatmentsWarm stratification: 9°-24°C, 75-100d (5)A. montana Scarification: by hand, near hilum ( 9)No reports on laboratory germination test procedures for seeds of Aleurites spp. have been found; those summarised above concern treatments prior to field sowings. For nursery sowings sphagnum moss, sand or soil are suitable (8,9); seeds should be sown 2.5 cm deep (8), with the hilum at the side or top -since germination is greatly reduced when seeds are sown with the hilum at the bottom (9). The period required for germination can be considerable. For example, there may be a 60 day delay before the first seeds to germinate begin to emerge through the soil surface for A. Fordii (6), and a 75 day delay for A. moluccana (1).Although substantial pre-chill -3°-5°C, 4 months (4,7) -or warm stratification -9°-24°C, 3 months (5) -treatments result in substantial increases in subsequent germination, their major effect appears to be in enabling seed moisture content to rise (5,7), suggesting that much of the delay to germination may be caused by the seed coat delaying imbibition. Certainly cracking the seeds coats of freshly harvested seeds is promotory and reduces the time taken to germinate, but for stored seeds the treatment may be damaging (9). Rather than crack the seed coat, it is better to scarify it by hand near the hilum (9). It is suggested that this be done and the seeds then tested for germination in moist (sterile) sand at 25°C. However, investigations into the response of germination to a range of constant and alternating temperature regimes might be tried since an alternating temperature regime could possibly be more suitable than a constant 25°C.VII. References H. brasiliensis shows recalcitrant seed storage characteristics: that is the seeds are killed by desiccation (4,8,9,12). Consequently, since the seeds cannot be safely dried, the seeds are killed by exposure to sub-zero temperatures (4). Seed longevity in moist storage conditions is short (2,3,6,8,11,14).Although freshly harvested rubber seeds are reported to show no dormancy (2), seeds from certain clones show the slow, erratic and low germination typical of dormant seed populations (5,6,7). Moreover, after-ripening of rubber seeds in moist storage has been shown to reduce this problem (12). A high partial pressure of carbon dioxide can induce dormancy in the seed (8). Moist sand is generally reported to be the best germination medium for both laboratory tests and nursery sowings (1,4,6,10,11,13). The seeds should be sown deep enough just to bury the micropyle under the surface with the grooved side of the seed underneath (6). 25°C is a suitable germination test temperature, but direct sunlight should be avoided (7). Although the majority of seeds germinate 3 to 25 days after sowing (6,10), where dormancy is present 56 days, or more, may be required before germination is complete (7). After 14 days in test seeds which have not begun to germinate can be scarified by hand and returned to the germination test. There is one report that testing the seeds between wet hessian bags rather than moist sand is preferable (7). It would be worthwhile testing whether a rolled paper towel test is more suitable for laboratory germination tests; an investigation of the response of seed germination to alternating temperatures would also be worthwhile. Finally a tetrazolium test can be used as an alternative test of viability (10) if this is required.Testing Association, 28, 853-860. V. Successful dormancy-breaking treatmentsLight: red, 24h, germinate at 28°C in dark ( 8)The following laboratory procedure has been reported for germinating cassava seeds (8): remove the cork-like caruncles and scarify in the region of the micropyle until the radicle is slightly visible; then sterilize the seeds in either 10% hydrogen peroxide or 0.15 N sodium hypochlorite for 30 minutes; rinse three times; pre-soak for 16-24 hours in aerated distilled water; sterilize again in 10% hydrogen peroxide for 1 minute; irradiate with red light for one day; and finally test for germination at 28°C in the dark. Unfortunately no evidence is provided of the success or otherwise of this lengthy procedure (8). Moreover, it is clear from other results that higher constant temperatures are required for germination (3,4), that the optimum constant germination test temperature may be altered by storage (4), and that often alternating temperature germination test regimes provide a further stimulus, promoting germination to higher levels than at constant temperatures (3).From results of germination tests under a wide range of constant and alternating temperature regimes it is clear that certain minimum conditions must be provided before cassava seeds will germinate; the maximum temperature during part of the day must exceed 30°C and the mean temperature must be 24°C or more (3). However, the conditions required for full germination are rather more stringent; the maximum temperature during part of the day must be between 36° to 40°C, the amplitude of the alternation must be between 3°-18°C, and the mean temperature must be 33°C or more (3). Alternating temperature regimes have also been shown to promote the germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds of wild Manihot spp. (9).In view of these requirements an alternating temperature regime of 38°/30°C (16h/8h) has been recommended with a minimum test duration of 21 days for M. esculenta (3); for dormant seeds of other Manihot spp. a minimum test duration of 42 days is suggested here. In addition it is suggested that red light be applied intermittently -see Chapter 6.VII. References Freshly harvested seeds of R. communis show slow, erratic, low germination (1)(2)(3)(4)6,8,9,12).After-ripening at room temperature for four (2), nine (6) or several (3) months is reported to avoid this problem in subsequent germination tests. The seed covering structures (testa and caruncle) are reported to be the major cause of poor germination (1,3,4,8,9). The seeds show orthodox storage behaviour.II. Germination regimes for non-dormant seeds BP; S: 20°/30°C (16h/8h): 14d (AOSA, ISTA)In addition if the growth of moulds interfere with a germination test AOSA rules recommend that the caruncles be removed.Constant temperatures: 25°C (13); 27°C (10,11,12); 30°C (13) Alternating temperatures: 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (4,10,11,13); 20°/35°C (16h/8h) (13)Urea: pre-applied, 24h, 24%Scarification: sulphuric acid, 10%, 1,2d (7); concentrated nitric acid, 1 min (9); emery paper ( 7)Pre-soak: 24h (5); 2-3d (7)Pre-soak: pour on boiling water, then leave to cool, 24hRemoval of seed covering structures: caruncle (9,12); caruncle, then scarify testa at caruncle end with emery paper (3,4,8); seed coat, germinate in moist sand ( 9)In addition to poor germination, difficulties in seed germination tests of R. communis may also be caused by the growth of fungi and bacteria. Removal of the caruncles from seeds reduces the delay to germination and can increase the proportion of seeds germinating (3,4,8,9); it can also reduce fungal and bacterial growth during germination tests (4,12). The latter problem can be further reduced by testing for germination in moist sand rather than paper towels (10,11). Consequently it is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination as follows: remove caruncle and hand scarify testa at the caruncle end (but do not damage the endosperm), and then test in moist (sterile) sand at 20°/30°C (16h/8h).VII. References The Fagaceae comprise over 600 species of trees and shrubs within six genera which provide timber. The fruits are one-seeded nuts which may be enclosed in a cupule or a bur. Quercus and Castanea spp. show recalcitrant seed storage behaviour, whereas Fagus and Nothofagus spp. show orthodox seed storage behaviour (although careful handling, drying, and long germination test periods may be required to demonstrate this in some Fagus spp.).Dormancy can be a severe problem in some species (e.g. Fagus spp.) requiring long pre-chill treatments and overall germination test periods of more than 6 months. No detailed information is provided here for any one genus, but Table 38.1 provides a summary of recommended germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments, and the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test regimes for other species.The first step in the algorithm is to test the seeds at a constant temperature of 21°C with light applied for 12h/d.If this is not successful in promoting full germination then the second step of the algorithm is to pre-chill a further sample of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test at a constant temperature of 21°C with light applied for 12h/d.In some species it is known that an 8w pre-chill treatment will be an inadequate dormancybreaking treatment (e.g. see Table 38.1). Consequently where the seeds are known to be dormant and the algorithm does not promote full germination gene banks should consider extending the pre-chill treatment. The Gramineae comprise roughly 10000 species of herbaceous and sometimes woody plants within more than 600 genera. It is the most important of the plant families for man providing cereals, forage and fodders, sugar, construction materials, oils, and many other useful products. Consequently this chapter is substantially longer than other chapters.In Gramineae the term seed is applied to a wide range of fruiting bodies. The basic component is the caryopsis, the single-seeded fruit: this may be naked (e.g. Triticum aestivum L.) or, more commonly, enclosed within other flower structures. The number and type of other structures which may enclose the caryopses are dependent upon how they become detached from the parent plant and the point of abscission. In many grasses abscission occurs in the spikelet-axis beneath the glumes: thus the caryopses are enclosed within the glumes. The following types of dispersal units may be observed in different species.1. The caryopsis only.2. The caryopsis loosely or tightly enclosed within the lemma and palea (a floret).3. One or more florets enclosed within several glumes and bracts (a spikelet).See Chapter 3 (Volume I) for more information on seed development and morphology. In gene banks, the most important morphological feature is to confirm that dispersal units tested for germination do in fact contain a seed (see Chapter 8, Volume I).Almost all Gramineae are known to exhibit orthodox seed storage characteristics. Two possible exceptions have been reported, viz: Glyceria striata Hitche (manna grass) and Zizania aquatica L. (wild rice). Whilst these species must be treated as recalcitrant seeds for the present, both species are known to exhibit considerable seed dormancy and it is possible that the species may, in fact, possess orthodox seeds and that dormancy and viability have been confused in the past. Some support for this assertion is provided in this chapter for the genus Zizania.The seeds are endospermic and can show considerable dormancy. Part, but not all, of the problem of germinating the seeds may be associated with the seed covering structures. Typical treatments to overcome dormancy include pre-chilling, alternating temperatures, potassium nitrate and removal of the seed covering structures. Detailed information on seed germination and dormancy-breaking treatments is provided in this chapter for the 42 genera listed in Table 39.1. The table of genera is divided into their respective tribes since there may be some advantage to consult the information provided for closely related genera as well as for the genus of immediate concern. In addition Table 39.1 indicates whether the information on each genus includes information for species with synonyms in other genera. Table 39.2 provides a summary of recommendations for germination test procedures and dormancybreaking treatments for other species. In addition the algorithm below may be useful in developing suitable germination test procedures for other species for which no information is provided here and for difficult accessions of all graminaceous species.Comment on, and an explanation of, the Gramineae algorithm have been provided in Chapter 17. Since that comment includes several alternative suggestions the reader is urged to read the appropriate section of Chapter 17 before attempting to follow this algorithm.The first and second steps of the algorithm are dependent upon each accession's origin. In the first step of the algorithm accessions of temperate origin are tested at constant temperatures of 16°C and 21°C, whilst those of tropical origin are tested at constant temperatures of 21°C and 26°C. If an accession's origin is unknown or doubtful, test at all three constant temperatures, viz: 16°C, 21°C and 26°C. In all cases light is applied for 12h/d. If the results of these initial tests show a trend in the response of germination to constant temperatures (but full germination has not been achieved) then carry out further tests at more extreme constant temperatures. For example, if the germination of a temperate accession is greater at 16°C than at 21°C, then test further samples of seeds at constant temperatures of 6°C and 11°C with light applied for 12h/d.If the first step of the algorithm has not resulted in full germination then the second step is to test a further sample of seeds in an alternating temperature regime: 23°/9° (12h/12h) for accessions of temperate origin; 33°/19°C (12h/12h) for accessions of tropical origin; in each case light is applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature of each cycle. If an accessions' origin is unknown or doubtful then test a sample of seeds in each alternating temperature regime.If the second step of the algorithm has not resulted in full germination then the third step is to co-apply 10 -3 M potassium nitrate to the germination test substrate and test in the most successful temperature regime determined from the results of steps one and two.If the third step of the algorithm has not resulted in full germination then the fourth step is to remove -in part or allthe seed covering structures from a fresh sample of seeds and then test in the most successful regime determined from the results of steps one to three. The actual treatment to the seed covering structures will be dependent upon the morphology of the dispersal units. Where possible extract each caryopsis from the floret (where this is the dispersal unit) and the lemma and palea (if present). This may not be easy for very small seeds, in which case the end of the dispersal unit opposite to the embryo can be chipped or cut away to expose the endosperm. In some cases the lemma and palea adhere very tightly to the caryopsis and their removal can be difficult -and possibly damaging. If this is the case then puncture the seed covering structures and the endosperm in the vicinity of the embryo. The removal of the lemma and palea, in particular, may be easier once the seeds have imbibed.If the fourth step of the algorithm has not resulted in full germination then the fifth step of the algorithm is to pre-chill the seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test for germination in the most successful regime determined from the results of steps one to four. If this includes a requirement to remove the seed covering structures this may be easier to accomplish after the pre-chill treatment, but may be more effective in promoting germination if carried out before the pre-chill treatment.If full germination has still not been promoted, the sixth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume 1).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information provided for 42 genera in this chapter. A glance at Table 39.2, however, will provide an initial indication of likely suitable treatments.TABLE 39.1 List of genera by tribe within the Gramineae for which detailed information on seed germination procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments is provided in this chapter.  In a comparison of germination test results from different laboratories with seeds of A. gerardii x A. hallii at 15°/30°C or 20°/30°C (16h/8h) with no pre-chill or a 2 week pre-chill treatment at 5°C, 7°C or 8°C, the regime 20°/30°C after pre-chill at 7°C gave significantly greater germination (1), but the difference was only marginal. The pre-chill treatments were, however, beneficial (1).Although most of the results for A. hallii were from tests where light was applied for 8 hours per day during the high temperature phase of the alternating temperature cycle (e.g. 6), there is one report of light being applied for 16 hours per day during the low temperature phase of the alternating temperature cycle (5). This is unlikely to be of any particular benefit (7). For this species a constant germination test temperature of 35°C or an alternating temperature regime of 25°/35°C (16h/8h) have been recommended (7).It is suggested that seeds of Andropogon spp. be tested for germination at 20°/35°C (16h/8h) for at least 28 days with potassium nitrate co-applied at 0.2% and the light regime described in Chapter 6 after a 2-week pre-chill treatment at 5°-7°C. Alternatively removal of the seed covering structures -with subsequent testing at 20°/35°C (16h/8h) in light, 8h/d -can avoid the need to pre-chill and co-apply potassium nitrate (13).Seed lots of A. armata, A. ramosa, A. contorta and A. longespica have shown considerable dormancy requiring after-ripening periods of between 4 and 18 months for dormancy to be removed ( A. fatua Procedures which combine the action of several dormancy-breaking agents are more likely to be successful (e.g. 29). The following procedure has been found to be satisfactory. Test at 7.5° to 10°C for 28 days with removal of the seed covering structures once the seed has imbibed, pricking in the area of the embryo, and subsequent repricking of ungerminated seeds after 28 days and continue test for a further period (39,A). An alternative procedure (which is equally effective but delays the time at which the onerous task of removing seed coats and pricking is performed and reduces the number of seeds pricked) is to test intact seeds at 7.5° to 10°C for 21 days, then remove seed covering structures and prick ungerminated seeds in the area of the embryo and test for a further 21 days at 7.5° to 10°C (A). Another alternative is to prick the seeds and test in light with gibberellic acid co-applied at 1.44x10 -3 M (58). Note that light tends to promote the germination of partly-dormant seed lots but is ineffective with strongly dormant seed lots (58) -unless combined with several other dormancy-breaking agents.A. sativa Testing at low temperatures is the most satisfactory method of promoting germination in the cultivated oat (2,4,10,12,13,16,20,24,32,34,37,38,42). Testing at between 7.5° and 10°C for 28 days is recommended (A). Not only does this promote full germination of the dormant seeds but it is also safe for non-dormant and aged seeds (A).VII. References  (7,11). Treatment with gibberellic acid, however, has been reported to be a very effective dormancy-breaking treatment (11).Alternating temperature regimes are essential to promote the germination of dormant seeds of Bouteloua accessions (3,7,8,11). However, the AOSA prescription for B. curtipendula, 15°/30°C (16h/8h), appears to be less promotory than either 20°/30°C (16h/8h) or 15°/30°C (12h/12h) (8), whilst 35°/30°C (4h/20h) or 35°/15°C (8h/16h) are even more beneficial (8).Consequently it is suggested that the alternating temperature regime 20°/30°C (16h/8h) be adopted as a general germination test procedure for accessions of Bouteloua spp. with additional treatments of dehulling and GA 3 co-applied at 50 ppm where necessary, with a further suggestion that tests also be carried out at 35°/15°C (4-8h/20-16h) to determine whether this might provide a more suitable environment for germination.The apparently satisfactory procedure for Brachiaria (10) -described above -has been found elsewhere to fail to promote the germination of all viable seeds (3), at least over a 21 day germination test period. An alternating temperature regime of 15°/30°C or 10°/30°C (16h/8h) can be extremely promotory for B. humidicola but not promotory for B. decumbens (A). More recent work with B. humidicola has shown that alternating temperature regimes of 35°/13°C (4h/20h) or 35°/16°C (4h/20h) with the addition of potassium nitrate, co-applied, 10 -2 M, in the latter regime can be very successful dormancy-breaking treatments (12). Note the short period of exposure to the higher temperature during each daily cycle: this is the most effective thermoperiod for this species (12). It is suggested that either of these regimes be applied to B. humidicola, whilst no suggestion can be made at present for dormant accessions of B.germination promoted. Consequently despite AOSA prescriptions to the contrary it is suggested here that Bromus accessions be tested for germination in the dark. Slightly dormant or non-dormant seeds of Bromus spp. germin ate fully at constant temperatures between 10° and 15°C in the dark (10,12,13,15,16,18,20), but alternating temperatures are required for the more dormant lots (5,7,10,12,16). The AOSA/ISTA prescribed alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) is not entirely satisfactory however (5,13,14,18): 14°-15°/23°-25°C or 10°/20°C (15-16h/9-8h) are successful germination test regimes for B. erectus (12), B. inermis (13), B. mollis (13), B. sterilis (12) and B. tectorum (9). It is therefore suggested that seeds of Bromus accessions be tested for germination in the dark at 10°/20°C or 15°/25°C (16h/8h). Where this is not sufficient to promote full germination it is suggested that the seeds be pre-chilled and/or deglumed prior to testing in either regime.Light, particularly red light, promotes the germination of dormant seeds of Chloris spp. For dormant seeds of C. pycnothrix it appears that a high light intensity (direct sunlight) is required for germination since in a diffuse light regime (shaded from direct sunlight) percentage germination was reduced (10) -with no seeds germinating in the dark (10). However, the shading treatment -in a glasshouse -may have reduced the amplitude of the alternating temperature regime and it may have been this aspect of the germination test environment which caused the reduction in the proportion of seeds germinating. Unfortunately the ISTA and AOSA prescriptions for C. gayana are unlikely to be successful for the more dormant seed lots (7). It is suggested that it may be possible to improve these prescriptions by first degluming the seeds and then testing either as prescribed by AOSA/ISTA or at 35°/15°C (18h/6h) in light -see Chapter 6 -with 0.2% potassium nitrate co-applied. This regime may prove satisfactory for accessions of other Chloris spp.In one investigation seed lots of Pre-chill: 2°-5°C, 14,28d (Ethanol: pre-applied, 7d, 50x10 -6 1 (in a 125 ml flask), in dark at 35°C, germinate at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in red light, 3.3x10 -9 mol cm -2 s -1 (5)Potassium nitrate: co-applied, 0.2% (6) Scarification: sand paper (6); concentrated sulphuric acid, 0.5, 1 min (6) Two month pre-chill treatments at about 3°C appear to be satisfactory for D. ischaemum (6) and D. sanguinalis (1). Of those tested, the most suitable subsequent alternating temperature regimes for germination are between 20°/35°C and 20°/40°C (18h/6h) (6). However substantial periods in test may be required for full germination, viz. 140 days for D. ischaemum and 75d for D. sanguinalis (6).The promotion of germination of the most dormant seeds of D. milanjiana and D. pentzii is likely to prove more difficult (7,8). Suggested additional treatments are dehulling plus coapplication of gibberellic acid at 100 ppm. In addition prick and re-prick the firm seeds which remain in test.VII. References Potassium nitrate: co-applied, 0.3% (5) Indoleacetic acid: co-applied, 50, 100 ppm (7) Kinetin: co-applied, 50, 100 ppm (7) Sodium sulphide: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -2 -10 -4 M (21)8-Hydroxyquinoline: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 , 10 -4 M (21)Phenylthiourea: pre-applied, 24,48h, 10 -2 , 10 -3 M (22)2,3-Dimercapto-1-propanol: pre-applied, 24,48h, 0.1, 0.01% (22) Hydroxylamine: pre-applied, 24,48h, 10 Pre-dry: 50°C, 14d, germinate at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light (24) Oxygen: 20-100%, scarified seeds (27) Calcium cyanamide: co-applied, 10 Although long pre-chill treatments -2 to 6 months at 5°C for example -can promote the germination of dormant seeds of weedy Echinochloa spp., quite short pre-chill treatments -7 days at 5°C for example -can be detrimental to less dormant or non-dormant seeds of the cultivated Echinochloa spp. (15,26). Consequently pre-chilling cannot be used as a general dormancy-breaking procedure for all Echinochloa accessions. Light and alternating temperatures are essential for germination (8)(9)(10)13,15,16,18,20,24): 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light is a satisfactory regime for partly-dormant accessions (1), but does not promote full germination of dormant seeds of weedy Echinochloa spp. (16,20,24). In these cases lemma and palea removal or pricking near the embryo are suggested. Where this is inadequate predrying with subsequent warm stratification may be a useful additional procedure (24).VII. References Germinating seeds of E. coracana as a routine procedure in seed testing stations can be particularly difficult (1). Variation in dormancy between cultivars can be considerable (11,12).In the more dormant cultivars dormancy may remain after seven months after-ripening at room temperature (8,11,12). As might be expected the weed/pasture Eleusine spp. can show considerably more dormancy than E. coracana. Removal of seed covering structures: lemma, palea and testa (41,42) Hydrogen peroxide: co-applied, 0.5, 1%Potassium cyanide: co-applied, 5x10 -3 M (41)Malonic acid: co-applied, 5x10 -3 , 10 -2 M (41)Constant temperatures: 5°-15°C (35)Pre-chill: 5°C, 5d (11); -1°C, 1-17d (15); -3°-(+)4°C, 3-10d (15); 12°C, 7d (18,19) Calcium hydroxide: pre-applied, 4h, saturated solution, then sulphuric acid, pre-applied, 3.5h, 0.1% (5) Nitric acid: pre-applied, 3-6h, 0.05-0.1% (5) Sodium hydroxide: pre-applied, 1h, 0.5% (5) Sulphuric acid: pre-applied, 5 min-18h, 0.01-10% (5)Pre-dry: 35°C, 7d (8); 40°C, 5d (11,16) Acetone: pre-applied, 5sGA 3 : co-applied, 2.5x10 -5 M (12); co-applied, 5x10 -5 M (32); co-applied, 200 ppm (18); coapplied, 100-400 ppm (19); pre-applied, 16-20h, 100-200 ppm (14); 3-100 ppm (26) Potassium nitrate: co-applied, 0.2% (19) Antibiotics: chloramphenicol (20) Oxygen: co-applied, 95%, 1d (20); 20 atmospheres (5)Carbon monoxide: pre-applied, 90%, 3d (20) Carbon dioxide: 2.5-5% (21) Potassium cyanide: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -2 -10 -5 M (20); 8x10 -4 M (32)Hydrogen sulphide: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -1 , 10 -2 M (20); pre-applied, 16h, 0.00625-0.1% (27) DIECA: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 , 10 -4 M (20)Sodium fluoride: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -2 , 10 -3 M (20)Sodium malonate: pre-applied, 10 -1 , 10 -2 , M (20)Disophenol: pre-applied, 10 -2 -10 -5 M (20)Ethanol: pre-applied, 10 -8 -10 -1 M (21)Lactic acid: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -8 -10 -1 M (21)Hydrogen peroxide: pre-applied, 16h, 0.25-5% (28) Hydroquinone: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) Phenol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) o-Cresol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) m-Cresol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) Catechol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) Guaicol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) Pyrogallol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) Salicylic acid: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) Vanillic acid: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) m-Hydroxybenzoic acid: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) p-Hydroxybenzoic acid: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) 8-Hydroxyquinone: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) Dimethylglyoxime: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.25% (27) D-Threo-chloramphenicol: 2x10 -3 M (32)L-Threo-chloramphenicol: 2x10 -3 M (32)Thiourea: pre-applied, 16h, 0.25-4% (27) Thioacetamide: pre-applied, 16h, 0.25-1% (27) Thiosemicarbazide: pre-applied, 16h, 0.25-1% (27) Methyl mercaptan: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.1% (27) Ethyl mercaptan: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.1% (27) Propyl mercaptan: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.1% (27) Isopropyl mercaptan: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.1% (27) Ethylene thioglycol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.1% (27) Ethylene dithioglycol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.1% (27) 2-Thioglycerol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.0625-0.1% (27) Kinetin: pre-applied, 16h, 3-25 ppm with hydrogen sulphide, 500, 1000 ppm (26) Removal of seed covering structures: excision, piercing and/or scratching (5,8,9,12,13,16,26,28,32,40,42); deglume, plus potassium nitrate, co-applied, 0.2% (17) Scarification: concentrated sulphuric acid, 0.5-5 min (16); sulphuric acid, 50%, 3h (28) Oxygen: 1 atmosphere (5)Ethanol: 0.5-1% (13); pre-applied, 30h, 3%Thiourea: pre-applied, 16h, 2% (26) Hydrogen sulphide: pre-applied, 16h, 0.05, 0.1% (28) Hydrogen peroxide: pre-applied, 24h, 1% (42) Propyl mercaptan: pre-applied, 16h, 0.1% (28)1,2-Dithioglycerol: pre-applied, 16h, 0.05% (28) Dithiothreitol: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -1 M (32)2-Mercaptoethanol: pre-applied, 24h, 5x10 -2 M (32)Pre-dry: 40°C, 5d, then pre-chill, 5°C, 5dWork with non-dormant aged seeds of H. vulgare has shown that between 7.5° and 12.5°C is the most suitable range of temperature for germination; at both higher and lower temperatures the germination of aged seeds is reduced (A). Fortunately this temperature range also results in the germination of virtually all dormant seeds provided the germination test period is sufficient -at least 21 days -( The same regime should be suitable for accessions of other Hordeum spp., but in addition removal of the lemma and palea may be required. For H. glaucum and H. geniculatum full germination was not always achieved at 10°C, and removal of the lemma and palea from ungerminated seeds which remained after 21 days in test plus a further period in test at 10°C were required (30); it is possible that this would also be required at 7.5°C.Particular care should be taken to avoid excess moisture in seed germination tests with Hordeum spp. The germination of some seed lots will be reduced in the presence of excess moisture. The phenomenon is described as water sensitivity. See Chapter 9 for information on the correct level of moisture of germination test media.VII. References The earlier ISTA prescription (1976 rules) for germination tests with dormant seeds (light, prechill, potassium nitrate, and an alternating temperature of 10°/30°C) is not satisfactory for freshly harvested seeds (1,3,8,23). The AOSA prescription (potassium nitrate, pre-chill, and an alternating temperature of 15°/25°C with a further pre-chill if seeds remain ungerminated) appears to be more successful provided the change of temperature in the alternating temperature regime is rapid (8). However, rapid changes are rarely achieved in alternating temperature incubators. A Copenhagen tank where the water is completely changed between cycles would give a rapid temperature change, as would manual movement of germination tests twice daily between two constant temperature incubators.There is some evidence that 15°/25°C may not be the most suitable alternating temperature regime (1,24). An alternation of 15°/25°C (16h/8h) has been reported to give higher germination than 10°/30°C (16h/8h) (3,8) which in turn is better than 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (17). However, 5°/10°C (16h/8h) was superior to all the above (24). Consequently it is suggested that this latter regime be applied, but with an extended test period compared to ISTA/AOSA prescriptions. If this does not completely break dormancy potassium nitrate could be coapplied and/or the seeds pre-chilled for 5 days. If it is not possible to provide an alternating temperature regime of 5°/10°C the following alternating temperatures have also been reported to give high germination: 5°/15°C, 5°/20°C, 5°/25°C, 10°/15°C (16h/8h) (24). Potassium chlorate: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -1 -10 -3 M (34)Potassium dichromate: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -1 -10 -3 M (34)Calcium hypochlorite: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -1 -10 -3 M (34)Potassium permanganate: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -1 -10 -3 M (34)Dimercaprol: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 -10 -4 M (34)2,2-Dipyridyl: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 -10 -4 M (34)1,10 Phenanthroline: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 -10 -4 M (34)8-Hydroxyquinoline: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 -10 -4 M (34)Disodium edetate: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 -10 -4 M (34)Adenine: co-applied, 10 Ammonium chloride: co-applied, 10 -2 M, at 30°C in light or dark, dehulled seeds (7) Urea: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -2 -10 -4 M (32)Oxidised glutathione: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -8 -10 -4 M (33)Reduced glutathione: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -2 M (33)L-Cysteine: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -2 M (33Sodium thioglycollate: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -10 M (33)L-Cystine: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 , 10 -3 M (33)Sodium hypochlorite: pre-applied, 12h, 0.05% (23) 3-Indoleacetic acid: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -5 -10 -3 M (33)Light: (9); fluorescent, continuous, 6x10 Oxygen: 100% (14,15,36) Carbon monoxide: 90% (34)Carbon dioxide: pre-applied, 30°C, 2-5d, 20-100% (40)Thiourea: pre-applied, 2h, 0.5% (25); co-applied, 0.2% (26,40); co-applied, 10 -2 M (33)Potassium cyanide: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 M (34)Sodium sulphide: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -2 -10 -4 M (34)Hydrogen sulphide: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -1 -10 -3 M (34)Hydroxylamine hydrochloride: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -2 -10 -3 M (34)Sodium azide: pre-applied, 10 -3 M (34)Methylene blue: pre-applied, 10 Hydrogen peroxide: pre-applied, 24h, 1 M (34); 1% (41) Sulphuric acid: pre-applied, 12-48h, 10 -2 N (32); pre-applied, 4h, 10 -1 N (36); pre-applied, 3h,Hydrochloric acid: pre-applied, 12-48h, 10 -2 N (32)GA 3 : co-applied, 100ppm (26); pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 M (33)Kinetin: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -3 M (33); co-applied, 5x10 -4 , 10 -3 M, at 30°C, dark, dehulled seeds (6) Benzyladenine: co-applied, 5x10 -4 , 10 -3 M, at 30°C, dark, dehulled seeds (6) Isopentenyl adenine: co-applied, 10 -7 -10 -2 M, at 30°C, dark, dehulled seeds (6) Zeatin: co-applied, 10 Seed dormancy in O. sativa is a considerable problem in commercial seed testing (e.g. 9). In gene banks the problem is substantially greater: first accessions of O. sativa are likely, overall, to show considerably deeper dormancy than is the case for seed lots in commercial testing; second accessions of the considerably more dormant O. glaberrima will have to be germinated. In view of this and the importance of rice as a staple, a separate study with practical recommendations for those working in gene banks has been published elsewhere (10) -to which the reader is referred for detailed information.The details of the AOSA flood test for rice are: plant the seeds in moist sand and test for 7 days; then add water to a depth of 7 mm above the sand and continue the test for a further 7 days. The dormancy-breaking procedure previously recommended by ISTA for O. sativa (presoak the seeds for 24 to 48 hours in water at 40°C) is questionable. Although this or similar procedures can be promotory in some cases (9,21,41), in other cases promotion may be small or non-existent (10,31), or the pre-treatment may damage the seeds and reduce germination (10). Moreover, in deeply dormant cultivars of O. glaberrima no promotory effect has been observed (A). The pre-soak treatment in hot water is no longer recommended by ISTA and should not be used.Although dehusking can be successful with seeds of O. sativa -though apparently less successful for O. glaberrima (24) -particularly when combined with additional dormancybreaking agents it is not a particulary useful treatment since aside from being extremely timeconsuming there is a possibility of damage to the embryo resulting from the treatment and a tendency for the dehusked grains to succumb to bacterial and fungal attack (30).A number of techniques have been developed for use in rice-breeding programmes (3) of which the most relevant is after-ripening. The treatment, 47°C for 7 days for seeds with less than 11% moisture content (3), is widely used (a similar treatment -pre-dry at 50°C -is now recommended as a dormancy-breaking procedure by the ISTA). It should not be applied to the entire accession, but its use on sub-samples can be sanctioned for moderately dormant lots of O. sativa provided these are of high quality. However, this procedure is not feasible for O.glaberrima -since they require 30-60 day treatments (35) -and probably not for the more dormant O. sativa accessions. Another dormancy-breaking agent best avoided by gene banks is the use of gibberellins since their use can affect the growth and development of subsequent seedlings (29).To avoid these problems and to enable gene bank staff to be able to germinate dormant seeds of rice required the development of procedures requiring five separate dormancybreaking agents: viz, alternating temperature, hydrogen ions, nitrate ions, hydrogen peroxide and 2-mercaptoethanol (10). It was not possible to develop a single satisfactory procedure for seeds of all taxonomic groups (10). Nevertheless the procedures developed are easy to follow.For GA 3 : pre-applied, 72h, 10 -6 M (7); pre-applied, 1.5h, 10 -4 M ( 14)Kinetin: pre-applied, 24h, 50 ppm (Abscisic acid: pre-applied, 72h, 10 -6 -10 -4 M (7)Thiourea: pre-applied, 3, 5% (12) Hydrogen peroxide: pre-applied, 24h, 0.4% (1); 72h, 0.01-6% (7)Light: 100 fc, 9hPre-soak: 72h, aerated (7); 100°C, 0.5-6 min (7) Acetone: pre-applied, 72hEthanol: pre-applied, 72h (7) Chloroform: pre-applied, 72h (7) Pectinase: pre-applied, 72h (7) Cellulase: pre-applied, 72h (7) Tyrosinase: pre-applied, 72h (7) Scarification: sulphuric acid, 40, 55%, 1h (9); concentrated sulphuric acid (13); sandpaper (13) Sodium carbonate: pre-applied (12) Hydrochloric acid: pre-applied, 10 GA 3 : pre-applied, 24h, 100, 500, 1000 ppm (1); pre-applied, 24h, 10 -6 -10 -4 M (7); co-applied, 100 ppm (Kinetin: pre-applied, 72h, 10 -6 -10 -4 M (7)Removal of seed covering structures: (1,12,13); lemma and palea, then prick pericarp (19,20); lemma and palea, then prick pericarp, plus GA 3 , co-applied, 100 ppm (19); lemma and palea, then prick pericarp, plus GA 3 , co-applied, 100 ppm; plus pre-chill, 5°C, 4w (19) Scarification: sulphuric acid, 98%, 0.5-1h (7); sulphuric acid, 98%, 0.25-1.25h (9); sulphuric acid, 98%, 0.5-1.25h (12); sulphuric acid, 98%, 0.75h (17); sulphuric acid, 98%, 0.5h (14); sulphuric acid, 67%, 40 min (7); sulphuric acid, 85%, 1h (9,13); sulphuric acid, 70%, 0.75-1h (9,13); sulphuric acid, 98%, 40 min, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 70h, 10 -5 M (15); sulphuric acid, 98%, 35 min, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 1.5h, 10 -4 M dissolved in acetone (6,14); sulphuric acid, 67%, then GA 3 , co-applied, 10 -6 -10 -3 M dissolved in acetone (7); sulphuric acid (2); mechanical (2,9,12,15) Ether: pre-applied, 72hPre-soak: 2°-4°C, 40d (11)Pre-wash: 1-5d (7)Alternating temperatures: 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light (3)Light: 100-120 fc, 5 min (3,8)Pre-soak: ( 16)The AOSA directions for testing dormant seeds of O. hymenoides require pre-chilling at 5°C for 4 weeks and testing for an additional 3 weeks where paper is the germination test medium: a total germination test period of 13 weeks. This substantial test period is indicative of the dormancy problem in this species. If soil is used as the germination test medium then the direction is to pre-chill the seeds for 2 weeks at 5°C in the dark in soil prior to the subsequent germination test (AOSA): a total germination test period of 8 weeks.Several of the AOSA prescriptions are, however, unlikely to be completely effective in promoting the germination of the very dormant seeds of O. hymenoides (1). Seeds tend to germinate better when tested in soil compared to paper substrata (1,14), and an alternating temperature regime is promotory compared to a constant temperature of 15°C (1). The following standard germination test procedure has been recommended: test in previously sterilized potting compost re-moistened with 100 ppm GA 3 , pre-chill for 4 weeks at 5°C, then germinate at an alternating temperature of 5°/15°C in the dark (1). It is suggested here that the apparent requirement for testing in compost to avoid exposure to excess light may not be necessary, and that testing on a paper germination test medium may be satisfactory if the light regime specified in Chapter 6 is applied.The AOSA prescribed alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) alone is unable to promote the full germination of dormant accessions of O. miliacea (3), but pre-chilling -the AOSA directions suggest 2 weeks at 5°C -combined with lemma and palea removal should be sufficiently promotory. However, despite the AOSA prescription for light care with the light regime is also required for dormant accessions of O. miliacea: germination is inhibited by continuous light treatments but promoted by short light irradiations (8). Consequently testing in the dark is suggested with only a brief exposure to light: a single 4 minute exposure to red light (220 fc at source) 24 hours after imbibition in the dark began can be extremely promotory (8). Again the light regime described in Chapter 6 is suggested as a possible alternative. Alternating temperatures: 10°/20°C, 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (10) Potassium nitrate: pre-applied, 0.2% (10) Sodium hydroxide: pre-applied, 35% (10) Mercuric chloride: pre-applied, 0.025% (10) Oxygen: pre-applied (10) Ether: pre-applied ( The ISTA/AOSA procedures for germination tests and recommendations for breaking dormancy in P. notatum are not satisfactory (12). Alternating temperatures are an essential component of satisfactory germination test regimes, but in contrast to the ISTA/AOSA regimes the higher temperature should be applied for the greater period (16h) in each daily cycle (5,10). It is suggested that the following regime -scarification in concentrated sulphuric acid for 3 minutes, pre-chill at 5°C for 5 days, with potassium nitrate, co-applied at 0.2%, and test for germination at 30°/20°C (16h/8h) (10) -be applied for dormant seeds. However, the scarification regime is possibly too harsh for less dormant or non-dormant seeds and, consequently, should be applied discriminatingly, if at all.The ISTA procedures for seeds of P. scrobiculatum can be quite satisfactory (A). However, it is suggested that, where difficulties are encountered, the alternating temperature regime 35°/20°C (16h/8h) be tried with co-applied potassium nitrate, 0.2%.Seeds of P. guenoarum germinate well in an alternating temperature regime of 18°/35°C (20h/4h) in diffuse light within a 30 day test (16). Co-applied potassium nitrate might result in further promotion of germination.Seeds of P. arundinacea can show pronounced dormancy (1,(4)(5)(6)8,10,11) which results in considerable problems for commercial seed testing. For example, 40% of commercial samples submitted for testing in one laboratory gave less than 60% germination (13). Seeds of P. tuberosa are thought to be comparatively less dormant (8). Kinetin: pre-applied (4)2,4-Dinitrophenol: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -5 -10 -4 M, then GA 3 , co-applied, 100 ppm (5)Methylene blue: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -2 M (5)Thiourea: co-applied, 0.2% (8) Ethyl alcohol: pre-applied, 15s, 70% (10) Acetone: pre-applied, 15s, 3 min (10) Scarification: sulphuric acid, 4 N, 1 min (10) Ether: pre-applied, 15s (10) Pre-soak: 50°C, 5,20 min (10) Testing in aerated water: (11) Oxygen: low partial pressure (6)Light: ( Potassium nitrate: co-applied, 0.2% (7); pre-applied 24h, 10 -4 -10 -1 M (5); pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -1 M, then GA 3 , co-applied, 100 ppm (5)GA 3 : co-applied, 100, 1000 ppm (5); pre-applied, 24h, 2000 ppm (4)Potassium cyanide: (4); pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -2 M (5); pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -2 M, then GA 3 , co-applied, 100 ppm (5)Sodium azide: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -2 M (5); pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -2 M, then GA 3 , coapplied, 100 ppm (5)Sodium sulphide: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -2 M (5); pre-applied, 24h, 10 -4 -10 -2 M, then GA 3 , co-applied, 100 ppm (5)2,4-Dinitrophenol: pre-applied, 24h, 10 -5 -10 -3 M (5)Hydrogen peroxide: (4); pre-applied, 24h, 10 -2 -1 M (5); pre-applied, 24h, 10 IV. Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatmentsPotassium nitrite: co-applied, 5x10 -4 , 5x10 -3 M, at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light (11) Ammonium nitrate: co-applied, 10 -2 M, at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light (11) Sodium nitrate: co-applied, 10 -2 M, at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light (11) Calcium nitrate: co-applied, 10 -2 M, at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light (11) Magnesium nitrate: co-applied, 10 -2 M, at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light (11) Barium nitrate: co-applied, 10 -2 M, at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light (11) Manganese nitrate: co-applied, 2x10 -3 , 10 -2 M, at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light ( 11)Non-dormant or slightly dormant seeds of P. pratense germinate over wide ranges of constant temperatures, viz. 15° to 30°C (3) and 10° to 30°C (12), and constant temperatures between 15° and 20°C have been reported to be as effective in promoting germination as alternating temperatures (4). Dormant seeds of P. pratense, however, require alternating temperatures and light for the promotion of germination (3,8,9,11): the regimes 10°/25°C, 15°/30°C or 20°/30°C (16h/8h) are suggested for use in gene banks. Additionally it is suggested that the seeds be tested on top of filter papers rather than between papers -since the former results in greater germination (11) -and that 0.2% potassium nitrate be co-applied -since potassium nitrate can have a major promotory influence on germination (5,9,11). It is suggested that seeds of P. bertolonii be tested in environments similar to those above or as prescribed by ISTA.Freshly harvested seeds of P. pratensis can show pronounced dormancy (15,21,33,38,39,42) -particularly if seeds are harvested whilst immature, that is at a high moisture content (15,21,38). Dormancy is also common in P. annua (29,35,40), but tends to be easier to overcome than is the case for accessions of P. pratensis. Potassium nitrate: co-applied, 0.2% (45) Thiourea: co-applied, 0.2% (33) Acetone: pre-applied, 1h (39) Ethephon: pre-applied, 1h, 500 ppm dissolved in acetone (39) Kinetin: pre-applied, 1h, 10 -4 M dissolved in acetone (39); pre-applied, 1h, 10 -4 M, plus 500 ppm ethephon dissolved in acetone (39); pre-applied, 1h, 10 -4 M, plus GA, 3 , 0.5x10 -3 M, plus 500 ppm ethephon dissolved in acetone (39) Abscisic acid: pre-applied, 1h, 10 For P. pratensis, however, the similar treatments prescribed and recommended by AOSA/ISTA -potassium nitrate, co-applied, 0.2%, pre-chill, 10°C, 5 days, with germination in light at any of the alternating temperatures listed -failed to promote full germination of freshly harvested seeds (15,21) or seeds after-ripened for as long as 9 months (30), although the treatments are effective for commercial seed lots which are only slightly dormant (15,21). It is suggested that the lemmas and paleas be removed from seeds of dormant accessions prior to the treatments described above (use an alternating temperature regime of 10°/30°C) with subsequent pricking of non-germinated seeds after 21 to 28 days in test, with the tests continued for a further 14 to 21 days after pricking.Seeds of S. aegyptiacum can show considerable dormancy ( 8), but seeds of other sugar cane species tend to show little dormancy and consequently viviparous germination can occur or be readily induced (10). In general the seeds of Saccharum spp. germinate quite rapidly showing little sign of dormancy, for example within 2 days (5), between 2 and 5 days (7,9) or within 11 days (3), but there is some evidence of low germination of freshly harvested seeds being increased by after-ripening for 6 to 8 months (6). Similarly we have observed that afterripening treatments increased percentage germination in one of 17 seed lots (A) suggesting that dormancy is a problem for a minority of accessions. With the exception of S. aegyptiacum -which is more dormant -the information summarised below does not distinguish between the above Saccharum spp.Saccharum spp.Constant temperatures: 25°C, 5d (1); 28°-30°C (6); 35°C in light (3); 38°C (3)Informal contacts suggest that large variations in germination test results of Saccharum accessions can occur. One problem may be the fuzz raising the seeds above the germination test substrate. When testing seeds ensure that a seed is present within the fuzz and able to imbibe. It is not necessary to remove the fuzz surrounding the seed. Indeed this action may damage the seed (A). One way of ensuring imbibition is to maintain high atmospheric humidity above the substrate. A practical technique to achieve this when sowing out seeds for planting is to cover compost -on which the fuzz is placed -with black sand (volcanic ash). This can increase percentage germination and reduce the subsequent seedling mortality rate (7).Despite reported optimum temperatures of 35°C (4) and 38°C (3), within the range 20°-35°C, 25°C has been optimal for germination (A). However, alternating temperatures of either 20°/30°C or 20°/35°C (16h/8h) in light were superior to both a constant temperature of 25°C and alternating temperatures of 38°/30°C or 34°/11°C (16h/8h) (A).The view that alternating temperature regimes can increase percentage germination is reinforced by the observation that viviparous germination can be induced in a humid environment at 30.5°/10°C (day/night) (10). At 20°/30°C neither potassium nitrate, co-applied, 0.2%, nor thiourea, co-applied, 2.5x10 -2 M affected germination, but thiourea, co-applied, 2.5x10 -2 M, sodium azide, co-applied, 10 -4 M, 10 -3 M, or mercaptoethanol, co-applied, 10 -2 M, 5x10 -3 M, each reduced germination (A). Consequently for the present it is suggested that the seeds be tested at 20°/30°C with the standard light treatment (see Chapter 6). If further treatment is required potassium nitrate, co-applied, 0.2%, could be tried.Breeders often remove seeds from the fuzz in order to be able to determine easily the number of seeds available and to be able to handle the seeds easily in nursery sowings -since the fuzz aggregates and, as a consequence, can be difficult to sow. However, defuzzing (particularly mechanical defuzzing) can damage the embryo. Correspondence suggests a minimum proportion of 5% of seeds are damaged sufficiently to prevent germination by mechanical defuzzing, but 5-10% is the more likely range of damage to accessions (A). Consequently it is suggested that seeds should not be defuzzed, particularly as it is not necessary for laboratory germination tests.Weed Research, 23, 225-229.S. nutans (L.) Nash. Indian grassSeeds of Indian grass can show pronounced dormancy at harvest (1-6). One to 2 years afterripening may be required at room temperature for full germination (3,7). Light is an essential promotory feature of the germination test environment. Diurnal treatments of either 10 hours daylight or 2 hours red light are suitable (4), but greater treatment periods (24 hours) are inhibitory (4). Gibberellin and concentrated sulphuric acid treatments are satisfactory for promoting the germination of partly after-ripened seeds (4), but very dormant seeds require a 28 day pre-chill treatment at 4°-6°C (4) -whereas AOSA recommend prechilling for 14 days. It is suggested that gene banks pre-chill the seeds for 28 days at 5°C and then transfer to the alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) prescribed by AOSA with 10 hours light per day or the light regime described in Chapter 6.Removal of the seed coats prior to testing for germination is an unreliable dormancy-breaking procedure (6,7,14,22) and often results in heavy mould infection (22). For dormant seeds of S. bicolor pre-chill treatments are not completely successful in promoting germination (6,7,27), and the ISTA/AOSA prescribed alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) is inadequate unless additional treatments are imposed (3,4,7,24). Suggested improvements are to co-apply 0.2% potassium nitrate and test at 20°/30°C, 20°/35°C, 30°/20°C (16h/8h), or 30°/45°C (22h/2h) and remove seedcoats from firm seeds which have not germinated within the first 10 days in test. The AOSA recommendation for seeds of S. halepense, 0.2% potassium nitrate co-applied at 20°/35°C (16h/8h) in light, is not completely successful (18,19,21). As an additional treatment it has been suggested that the non-germinated seeds be dehulled after 4 days in test, and that the surface of non-germinated seeds be scratched after a further 3 days in test (8).Light inhibits the germination of dormant and slightly dormant seeds of S. viridula (13,14) and consequently the AOSA germination prescription includes a specific note to test the seeds in the dark. The inhibition of seed germination by light probably also occurs in S. leucotricha because an increase in germination is observed when seeds are tested in sand or soil rather than on top of paper (12). Gibberellic acid, co-applied, generally promotes germination in dormant seeds of all Stipa spp., particularly when this treatment is combined with lemma and palea removal (5,13).The AOSA procedures for testing dormant seeds of S. viridula are not satisfactory (10), but can be improved in part by increasing the pre-chill period from the 2 weeks recommended by the AOSA to 12 weeks (10). Thus the procedure suggested is to combine potassium nitrate, co-applied, 0.2%, with a pre-chill treatment at 5°C for up to 12 weeks and to germinate at 15°/30°C (16h/8h) in darkness. After 10 to 14 days in the subsequent germination test remove the glumes from ungerminated seeds and continue the test for a further 14 days.VII. References As in other temperate cereals, post-harvest dormancy -stronger than that observed in rye and similar to that of wheat -has been reported in seeds of triticale (2,3). A 21 day germination test at 10°C (2) or 10° to 12°C (A) is satisfactory for dormant accessions and is marginally superior to a 7-day pre-chill treatment at 3° to 5°C with a subsequent constant temperature germination test at 20°C (A). Moreover, the use of a low constant temperature for germination tests avoids the excessive fungal growth that can occur when seeds are tested at higher temperatures (2), particularly when this follows a pre-chill treatment (A).Gibberellic acid is unsuitable as a practical dormancy breaking agent for gene banks since the response is variable from year to year and varies with cultivar and provenance (2,3). If the temperature regime of the germination test is suitable then the need for special dormancybreaking treatments is considerably reduced. Although pre-chill treatments (3° to 5°C, 7 days) with subsequent testing at 20°C are widely applied in commercial seed testing (AOSA/ISTA), testing dormant seeds at a single, low, temperature throughout is more effective in promoting germination (A). This is particularly true for seeds of the primitive wheats T. monococcum and T. dicoccum (A). Temperatures as low as 5° to 7°C can be damaging to aged seeds ( 16) but marginally higher temperatures are very satisfactory (A).From ). This dormancy-breaking treatment provides one of the main reasons why the seed has been thought to be recalcitrant. In a comparison of wet and dry storage no germination resulted after dry storage (10). However, no dormancy-breaking treatment was applied after dry-storage whereas the wet storage treatment was in itself a dormancy-breaking treatment. Hence the classification as a recalcitrant species may be erroneous: failure of the seed to germinate after dry storage may have resulted from dormancy -not death. The suspicion that the classification of Zizania spp. as recalcitrant may be erroneous is greatly strengthened by the observation that seeds of Z. palustris were not killed by pre-dry treatments (to break dormancy) at 40°C, 55°C, or 70°C for 24, 48, and 72 hours (18). Greater attention to seed dormancy in future experimentation will assist in the classification of seed storage behaviour in this genus.Constant temperatures: 15°C, 20°C (13) Alternating temperatures: 15°/30°C, 30d (3,13)Constant temperatures: 30°C (13)Pre-soak: 1°-3°C, 60d (10); 1°-3°C, 90d (7,16); 25°C, 55°C, 4h (7); 30°C, 14,28d (3); 30°C, 14,28d, then pre-chill, 5°C, 28dRemoval of seed covering structures: (5,8,13); puncture pericarp (5,13); pericarp at dorsal or ventral side (5) GA 3 : co-applied, 0.1, 5, 50, 500 ppm (13) Kinetin: co-applied, 10 -8 -5x10 -6 M (5)Ethanol: pre-applied, 4h, 10% (7) Storage: 1°-3°C, 20°C, dry, 2-7m (10)  Isopentenyl adenine: pre-applied, 24h (12) 6-Benzyladenine: pre-applied, 24h (12) Kinetin: pre-applied, 24hThiourea: pre-applied (12) Potassium cyanide: pre-applied (12) Sodium oxide: pre-applied (12) Sodium nitrate: pre-applied ( 12)Ethanol: pre-applied, 24h, 43-95% (12); pre-applied, 8h, 86, 95% (12); pre-applied, 7h, 95%Sodium hypochlorite: pre-applied, 1,2h, 5.25% (12) Thiamine: co-applied (18) Potassium hydroxide: pre-applied, 12,24,36h, 60°CRemoval of seed covering structures: hulls (18) Ultrasonics: 20 kc s -1 , 15-25 min, at 25°-30°C, 45°-50°C ( 18)IV. Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatmentsAlternating temperatures: 15°/30°C (2,3,13); 14°/24°C (8h/16h) (5); 15.5°/24°C (9h/15h) (11)Pre-soak: 0°-25°C, 14,28d, then 5°C, 28d (3); 45°C, 50°C, 10 min-8h (7)GA 3 : co-applied, 10 -8 -5x10 -6 M (5); co-applied, 5x10 -6 M, plus kinetin, 5x10 -6 M (5)Removal of seed covering structures: pericarp over embryo or scrape (5,11) Scarification: mechanical, shake with crushed granite, 5-100 min (11) Ethanol: pre-applied, 4h, 25-100% (7) Ultrasonic: 70-100 kc/s, 10,15 min in water at 25°C, 50°C, 50°-70°C (7) Oxygen: low partial pressure in water (9); 0.35-1 ppm (14)Alternating temperatures: 23°/18°C (16h/8h) (12) Removal of seed covering structures: dehull, scrape or puncture pericarp (1,12); dehull, scrape over embryo, then GA 3 , co-applied, 1, 10, 100 ppm, plus thiamine, co-applied, 0.05, 0.1, 1 ppm (18)Pre-soak: 3°C, 120d (1); 45°C, 2,4,6h, then GA 3 , 1 ppm, plus thiamine, pre-applied, 48h, 0.1, 1 ppm (18)Pre-dry: 40°C, 55°C, 70°C, 24,48,72h, then GA 3 , 1 ppm, plus thiamine, 1 ppm, pre-applied (18)Ethanol: pre-applied, 0.5-5h, 28-95% (12); pre-applied, 6,7h, 28-86% (12); pre-applied, 8h, 28-71% (12); pre-applied, 4 min, 95% (12); pre-applied, 95%, 15s, then chloroform, pre-applied, 1 min, then ethanol, pre-applied, 15s (12) Acetone: pre-applied, 1 min (12)6-Benzyladenine: pre-applied, 24h, 6x10 -5 -5x10 -4 M, with mechanically scarified seeds (12)GA 3 : pre-applied, 24h, 5x10 -6 -5x10 -3 M, with mechanically scarified seeds ( 12); 5x10 -6 -5x10 -3M, plus 6-Benzyladenine, 6x10 -5 -5x10 -4 M, pre-applied, 24h, with mechanically scarified seeds (12) Hydrogen peroxide: pre-applied, 2,8h, 2. For non-dormant seeds a 30 day test period on top of filter paper is sufficient for germination to occur (13). The only satisfactory procedure available at present to remove dormancy from seeds of Z. aquatica enclosed within covering structures is the 2 to 7 month pre-soak at about 3°C (1,2,4-6,9,10,12,13,15). Similar treatments do promote germination in seeds of Z. palustris, but they are not completely effective in removing dormancy (12). However, removal of the hulls and subsequently scraping the pericarp above the embryo is completely successful (15)(16)(17) or almost completely successful (1,5,11,12) in removing seed dormancy in both species. Of the various chemical treatments applied, 5x10 -3 M gibberellic acid combined with 5x10 -4 M 6-benzyladenine either co-applied or pre-applied (5,12) or 1 ppm gibberellic acid plus 0.1 ppm thiamine co-applied (18) further promote germination of seeds previously dehulled and scraped as described above. Finally, an alternating temperature regime of 14°/24°C (8h/16h) promotes the germination of a greater proportion of dormant seeds than a constant temperature of 21°C (5).Consequently it is suggested that seeds of Zizania spp. be tested in an alternating temperature regime of 25°/15°C (16h/8h) for 28 days with either 1 ppm gibberellic acid and 0.1 ppm thiamine or 5x10 -3 M gibberellic acid and 5x10 -4 M thiamine co-applied after the lemmas and paleas have been removed: after 7 days in test scrape the pericarp above the embryo and prick those seeds which have not germinated. The Juglandaceae comprise roughly 40 tree species within six genera which provide edible nuts. The fruits are usually drupes containing a large seed (nut). Seed storage behaviour is orthodox, at least in the genera Carya and Juglans, despite many previous comments to the contrary.The seeds can exhibit dormancy, which varies considerably between accessions from only slight to very pronounced. Pre-chilling, sometimes for long durations, is the usual treatment applied to promote seed germination. Detailed information is provided in this chapter for the genera Carya (including synonyms within Hicoria and Juglans) and Juglans (including synonyms within Wallia). The Labiatae comprise about 3000 species of herbaceous plants and shrubs within 160 genera which provide edible roots (e.g. Coleus tuberosus Benth.), flavourings, oils and medicines. The fruits comprise one-seeded nutlets and seed storage behaviour is orthodox.The seeds (nutlets) generally exhibit dormancy: promotory treatments include a low germination test temperature or pre-chilling, alternating temperatures and, possibly, light. B.R.Atwater classifies seed morphology of the non-endospermic seeds into two groups: axile foliar embryos with thin, mucilaginous seed coats; and axile foliar embryos with woody seed coats and an inner semi-permeable layer. The exocarp may persist with the seeds. See Table 17.2, Chapter 17 for more information on these categories. Detailed information on seed germination is provided in this chapter for the genera Lavandula, Mentha, Ocimum, Origanum, and Salvia. Other recommended germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments are summarised in Table 41.1. In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing germination test procedures for the more difficult accessions and other species.The first step in the algorithm is to test seeds at constant temperatures of 16°C, 21°C and 26°C with light applied for 12h/d.If one of these regimes does not result in full germination then the second step of the algorithm is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate and test in the most successful regime determined from a comparison of the results of step one.If this does not result in full germination then the third step of the algorithm is to chip the seeds and then test in the most successful regime determined from a comparison of the results of the steps one and two.If this does not result in full germination then the fourth step of the algorithm is to test seeds at alternating temperatures of 23°/9°C (12h/12h) and 33°/19°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature in each cycle for both regimes: co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate if a comparison of the results of steps one and two indicate this may be worthwhile; and chip the seeds before testing if a comparison of the results of step three with those of steps one and two indicates this may be worthwhile. Some experimentation with these conditions may be worth trying. For example, a different GA 3 concentration may be advantageous.If full germination has not been promoted, the fifth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regime applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information provided for the five genera in this chapter and from Table 41.1. There is indirect evidence that seeds of O. majorana and O. vulgare may exhibit dormancy (3,4). The Leguminosae comprise about 18000 species of herbaceous plants, shrubs, trees and climbers within almost 700 genera. The Leguminosae are divided into three tribes, viz: Caesalpinoideae Mimosoideae, and Papilionoideae. Although several species within Caesalpinoideae and Mimosoideae provide useful products, the Papilionoideae (also described as Fabaceae, Faboideae, Lotoideae, or Papilionatae) is the most useful tribe to man and provides a very large number of important crop plants. The fruit is a pod, often a legume. Rarely the fruit may be single-seeded. Seed storage behaviour is orthodox.With few exceptions, dormancy per se (that is innate or secondary dormancy as defined in Chapter 5, Volume I) is a comparatively slight problem in seed germination tests of Leguminosae accessions. The major problem preventing or delaying germination in such tests is that of hardseededness (see Chapter 4, Volume I).Because dormancy is not a major problem, the layout of this chapter is slightly different from that of other chapters in this manual. No detailed information is provided for particular genera, with the exception of brief comments on a few genera where dormancy may be a problem in certain test regimes. Instead information on suitable germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments (but see comment below) is summarised in tabular form. It will be seen that the majority of treatments listed as dormancy-breaking treatments are in fact treatments to remove hardseededness. This type of treatment is described in detail in Chapter 7, Volume I.The structure of the testa (seed coat, see Chapter 3, Volume I) which may render a seed impermeable (hard) differs between the three tribes. Seeds of members of the Papilionoideae have a region of the testa described as the strophiole through which the imbibition of initially hard seeds may occur if treated appropriately -see Chapter 7, Volume I, for more details of testa structure in papilionate legumes. Percussion (shaking) treatments create a gap (the strophiolar cleft) in the impermeable testa through which moisture can enter seeds of species within this tribe. In contrast most authorities consider that seeds of the Caesalpinoideae and the Mimosoideae do not possess a strophiolar region; and accordingly percussion treatments are generally ineffective. In the Caesalpinoideae an initial treatment in absolute alcohol (see Chapter 7, Volume I) can be effective in rendering the seeds permeable, but this treatment is not so effective for seeds of either the Mimosoideae or the Papilionoideae. Finally, filing or chipping the testa is generally effective for seeds of all three tribes.Thus the treatment which might be applied to render hardseeded accessions permeable may be dependent upon the tribe to which it belongs. For this reason we have divided the summary of germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments in this chapter according to tribe -Caesalpinoideae in Table 43 For species not listed in Tables 43.1 to 43.3 and for accessions where the information tabulated is inadequate, the algorithm below may be helpful in devising a suitable germination test procedure. Note that the algorithm includes an obligatory treatment to overcome hardseededness and also an optional conditioning (humidification) treatment.The regimes tested in the first and second steps of the algorithm are dependent upon the accession's origin. All seeds to be tested for germination are chipped (part of the testa is removed) beforehand.The If the second step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the third step is to condition (humidify) the chipped seeds at 21°C and 100% relative humidity (i.e. over water) for 4d and then test in the temperature regime determined to be most successful from the results of steps one and two.If the third step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the fourth step is to experiment with the conditioning treatment by humidifying samples of the chipped seeds for more and less than 4d at 21°C with 100% relative humidity before testing in the temperature regime determined to be most successful from the results of steps one and two.If full germination has not been promoted, the fifth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I). Note that chipping and humidification of the seeds prior to this test are likely to be required.If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from Tables 43.1 to 43.3 and the next section.In addition to hardseededness some legume accessions may exhibit innate seed dormancy. A clue as to which species are more likely to exhibit innate seed dormancy can be gained from Tables 43.1 to 43.3: if the additional directions include treatments which will not overcome hardseededness (e.g. pre-chill, or ethephon) then it is likely that some accessions may exhibit innate seed dormancy. The two most important genera in which innate seed dormancy is common are Arachis (groundnut) and Trifolium (clover). Other genera in which innate seed dormancy may be observed include Medicago and Trigonella.In dormant seeds of Arachis hypogaea L. 100% oxygen in the germination test environment or an after-ripening treatment promote seed germination (11), whereas piercing the seed coat does not (11). Thus the problem of lack of germination in such cases is not hardseededness but dormancy. Of course, however, it is possible for dormant accessions to also be hardseeded (sometimes described as double dormancy, see Chapter 5, Volume I).In general the lower the temperature of the germination test the less likely is seed dormancy to prevent, or delay germination. For example, in many lots of Trifolium subterraneum L. a greater proportion of dormant seeds germinate at 15°C than at 20°C (7,13) and a greater proportion germinate at 20°C than at 30°C (5). Similarly in several species pre-chill treatments promote the germination of the dormant seeds, e.g. in red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) (10).Consequently the first suggestion to promote the germination of dormant legume seeds is to pre-chill (7 or 8d at 3° to 5°C) or test at a comparatively low temperature (10° to 15°C). Whilst the latter suggestion appears to be satisfactory in most cases, e.g. lupin (Lupinus albus L.) (10), there may be some exceptions, e.g. some lots of Trifolium pratense L. (10) and Trifolium subterraneum (13). The use of the algorithm, and in particular step one, would thus be advantageous since a trend of germination with respect to constant temperatures should be apparent from the initial results of step one and gene bank staff can act accordingly (see the algorithm).A carbon dioxide enriched atmosphere can also promote the germination of dormant legume seeds, e.g. in Trifolium subterraneum L. (1-3,9,13), and Medicago hispida Gaertn., Medicago tribuloides Desr., Trifolium arvense L., Trifolium cherleri L., Trifolium glomeratum L., Trifolium hirtum All. and Trigonella ornithopodoides (L.) DC. (3,6). Promotion of germination is normally observed at concentrations between about 0.3 and 4.5% (by volume) (1,3) with inhibition of germination at CO 2 concentrations above about 5 to 10% (1,3). The beneficial effect of carbon dioxide is generally more enhanced the lower the germination test temperature (2,9) and also where the testas have been removed (3). In general treatment with carbon dioxide is more promotory than pre-chilling, e.g. compared with three days at 3°-5°C (6).Although it is possible to artificially increase carbon dioxide concentration in germination tests, carrying out the tests in sealed or unsealed polyethylene envelopes is generally sufficient to overcome dormancy, e.g. in Trifolium hybridum L., Trifolium pratense L. and Trifolium repens L. (12). Consequently it is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination in this way.Similarly seeds of dormant accessions destined for field sowings can be imbibed in a sealed polyethylene bag for 24 hours prior to sowing out.Ethylene (applied in various forms) has been shown to promote the germination of dormant seeds of several legumes. For example, in Trifolium subterraneum L. by co-application of 1-100 ppm ethephon (also known as ethrel and as 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid or CEPA) (5), in Medicago truncatula Gaertn. by co-application of 1-100 ppm ethephon (5), and in Arachis hypogaea L. by co-application of 5 x 10 -4 M ethephon (8).Thus co-application of ethephon (use concentrations within the ranges provided above) in germination tests is another satisfactory potential dormancy-breaking treatment. Ethephon has also been successfully applied to promote seed germination in field sowings of Arachis hypogaea L., and the following treatments may be applicable to other species also. In the dry powder method 1 kg of seeds together with 2 g of a combined fungicide/insecticide and 0.02 g of ethephon are shaken in a polyethylene bag or mixed in a drum mixer (4). In the wet method a single layer of seeds is sprayed with a solution of 0.033 M ethephon (4). In both cases the seeds should be sown immediately after the treatment (4). These treatments may be useful when regenerating or multiplying dormant seed accessions of the Leguminosae.Finally it is worth noting that several other growth regulators may also promote the germination of dormant legume seeds. For example, in Arachis hypogaea L. co-application of either 10 -4 M kinetin or 10 -4 M benzylaminopurine have resulted in a considerable promotion of germination (8). In this handbook the Liliaceae is deemed to include the Alliaceae. It should also be noted that some authorities have classified the Alliaceae as the Amaryllidaceae. From the point of view of seed germination and dormancy, however, it is convenient to adopt the widest classification of the Liliaceae.The Liliaceae, by this definition, comprise roughly 2500 species of herbaceous plants within about 200 genera. The most important genus for crop production is Allium. The fruits of Liliaceae are small capsules or berries and, mostly, many-seeded. Seed storage behaviour is orthodox.Seed dormancy is common in the Liliaceae, but unfortunately often not detected. The seeds are endospermic, the endosperm surrounding the embryo. Low germination test temperatures and/or pre-chill treatments generally promote the germination of the dormant seeds. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided for the genera Allium and Asparagus in this chapter. A brief summary of additional recommended germination test procedures is provided in Table 44.1. In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test-procedures for some accessions.The If the first step has not resulted in full germination then the second step of the algorithm is to pre-chill a further sample of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test for germination in the most suitable constant temperature regime determined from the results of step one.If the second step has not resulted in full germination then the third step of the algorithm is to chip a fresh sample of seeds so that the embryo is exposed and then test for germination in the most suitable regime determined from the results of steps one and two. This may include a pre-chill treatment if the proportion of seeds germinating in step two was significantly greater than that in step one.If full germination has not been promoted, the fourth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications toThe following constant temperatures or range of constant temperatures have been described as optimum for germinating seeds of Allium spp When compared with certain constant temperatures there may be an advantage in testing the seeds for germination in alternating temperature regimes, or at least no disadvantage: with seeds of A. ampeloprasum var porrum and A. cepa alternating temperature regimes of 15°/28°C (16h/8h) (18) or 10°/20°C (16h/8h) (7) were reported to provide greater promotion of germination than constant temperatures of 15°C or 20°C; in other investigations with A. cepa there was no difference between germination at a constant temperature of 20°C and at alternating temperature regimes of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (12,13) or 12°/20°C (15h/9h) ( 14). However, it is suggested here that lower constant temperatures -combined with an extended test period -may be preferable.Seed dormancy in Allium spp. tends to delay germination, rather than completely preventing it.For dormant seeds of most Allium species cultivated as vegetables, 49-day -or moregermination tests at 10°C in the dark are likely to be successful (4,27). In some accessions only a minority of seeds may germinate during a 63-day test at 10°C (A). Should full germination not be observed in this regime then it is suggested that the seeds then be transferred to 20°C for a further 14 days: in other words the original test regime is treated as a pre-chill treatment, during which some germination may occur. In A. schoenoprasum such transfers have been extremely promotory (A). As an alternative to this somewhat lengthy test, combining potassium nitrate (0.2%, co-applied) and pre-chilling treatments (3°-5°C, 7 days) enables the subsequent germination test period at 15°C for seeds of A. schoenoprasum to be reduced from 77 days to between 14 and 21 days (A). Consequently we suggest this regime as an alternative procedure to shorten overall germination test periods. Where dormancy is not a problem -as may often be the case in A. cepa for example -testing at 15°C for a much shorter period with no additional treatments is adequate.VII. References The Linaceae comprise about 150 species of herbaceous plants and shrubs within 14 genera which provide fibre and oils (e.g. Linum usitatissimum L., flax). The fruits are usually capsules, but sometimes drupes. The seeds show orthodox storage behaviour.The seeds can show considerable dormancy. B.R. The first step in the algorithm is to test the seeds at constant temperatures of 16°C, 21°C and 26°C with light applied for 12h/d. If full germination has not been achieved and the results of these tests indicate a trend in the response of germination to constant temperatures then test a further sample of seeds at a more extreme constant temperature. For example, if the greatest proportion of seeds germinates at 16°C, then test a further sample of seeds at a constant temperature of 11°C with light applied for 12h/d.If the first step of the algorithm has not resulted in full germination then the second step is to test a fresh sample of seeds in an alternating temperature regime of 23°/9°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature.If the second step of the algorithm has not resulted in full germination then the third step is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate and test a fresh sample of seeds in the most appropriate temperature regime determined from the results of steps one and two.If the third step of the algorithm has not resulted in full germination then the fourth step of the algorithm is to pre-chill a fresh sample of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test in the most appropriate regime determined from the results of steps one to three. This may include a GA 3 treatment if a comparison of the results of step three with those of steps one and two indicate that the GA 3 treatment is promotory. Freshly harvested seeds of L. usitatissimum can be dormant (5,6), and after-ripening for 3-4 (6) or 6 (5) months is required to remove this dormancy. The Malvaceae comprise more than 1000 species of herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees within about 50 genera which provide fibres (e.g. Gossypium hirsutum L., cotton) and edible fruits (e.g. Hibiscus esculentus L., okra). The fruits are usually dry single-seeded schizocarps or capsules, but are sometimes berry-like. The seeds exhibit orthodox storage characteristics.The seeds may possess an endosperm, but the major food storage organ is the cotyledons. Detailed information on seed dormancy and seed germination for the genera Gossypium, Hibiscus (including synonyms within Abelmoschus and Trionum), and Urena is provided in this chapter. Recommendations for germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments for other species are summarised in Table 46.1. In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures for some accessions.The first step in the algorithm is to test seeds at constant temperatures of 11°C, 21°C and 31°C with light applied for 12h/d.If the above regimes do not promote full germination then the second step in the algorithm is to chip a fresh sample of seeds and then test at the constant temperature regime which gave the greatest germination in step one: test at 21°C if no significant differences in germination were observed in step one. Imbibition injury (see Chapter 4, Volume I) may occur in malvaceous species, particularly where the seed coats have been chipped. Consequently it may advantageous to humidify (condition) the seeds after chipping the seed coats and before imbibition. Chapter 7, Volume I, provides details of a suitable humidification treatment.If the second step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the third step of the algorithm is to experiment with the above conditions and test fresh samples of seeds in darkness and/or in alternating temperature regimes. The alternating temperature regimes 20°/30°C (16h/8h) and 15°/35°C (16h/8h) are suggested. If a comparison of the results of steps one and two shows chipping to be beneficial, then chip (and possibly humidify) the seeds before testing in darkness and/or alternating temperatures.If full germination has not been promoted, the fourth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information provided in this chapter for the genera Gossypium, Hibiscus and Urena and from  Standard germination tests on seeds of Gossypium spp. are often plagued by low, delayed and/or erratic germination with additional problems from fungi (1,8,9,12,16). Freshly harvested seeds and those dried below 10% moisture content are generally the more difficult to germinate since they are extremely sensitive to the conditions of the germination test (16). These germination test difficulties result from both dormancy and hardseededness.At harvest seeds of the cultivated Gossypium spp. can show considerable dormancy, viz. G. barbadense (17), G. herbaceum (9), G. hirsutum (3)(4)(5)(6)(10)(11)(12)14,16,17) and G. hirsutum x G. barbadense (5). Dormancy is reported to be lost after 1 (6,11), 1-5 (5), 2-3 (10) or 24 months (15) after-ripening. In addition secondary dormancy may be induced at low germination test temperatures (7,15), under high salt concentrations (15), or if there is excess moisture during imbibition (16). In the latter case the reported secondary dormancy may be increased hardseededness in the population.Hardseededness is induced in the majority of seeds of the cultivated Gossypium spp. when dried to 5 or 6% moisture content (16). In addition all wild forms of the cultivated spp. and most wild Gossypium spp. have impermeable seed coats at low moisture contents (3,14,17).In general the wild spp. have much thicker seed coats than the cultivated spp. ( 14) and consequently greater proportions of individual seeds of the former are hardseeded than the latter (17). Thus gene banks must assume that hardseededness is present in all cases and take steps to make the seed coats permeable, with more severe treatments being necessary for the wild spp. than for the cultivated spp. Light: white, continuous (13); red, 1,4,8 min, after 8,12,16h dark imbibition (13) Sodium chloride: co-applied, 9000 ppm, plus calcium chloride, 9000 ppm, at 25°C (15) Scarification: mechanical, after acid delint ( 12)IV. Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatmentsPre-soak: shake, drain, blot (7); 1h, after acid delint, then calcium chloride, co-applied, 10 -5 M, at 15°C (8)Pre-chill: 5°C, 71d ( 9)The term acid delint is used by many authors to describe a procedure which dissolves the lint and fuzz fibres of the seed coat and also removes other external contamination: it is frequently recommended as a means of seedling disease control (12). A typical treatment is 5 to 8 minutes immersion in sulphuric acid. Such treatments dissolve the cotton fibres and their basal cells, and in addition the epidermal and outer pigment layers of the seed coat are broken and distorted. The subsequent rate of imbibition (and hence germination) is increased, mainly due to closer contact between seeds and the germination test substratum in the absence of the fuzz. However, some accessions are damaged by acid delint treatments (12).As an alternative to the acid delint treatment AOSA, ISTA (1976 Rules) and others ( 16) have recommended saturating the lint with moisture (pre-wetting) -by soaking and/or shaking the seeds in water or by subjecting seeds to a moist atmosphere using mist propagation equipment, with excess moisture being removed by the use of blotting paper. Whilst this increases the rate of imbibition (at least if the seeds are not hard), the germination of seeds of Gossypium spp. is very sensitive to excess moisture (8,12,16). Moreover, neither acid delinting nor pre-wetting can totally avoid the problem of hardseededness which, in seeds at 5% moisture content, is likely to be pronounced.Consequently the following sequence of pre-germination test treatments is recommended for use in gene banks where seeds have been dried to low moisture contents: first scarify the seeds by chipping or sanding away a piece of the seed coat, or by piercing the seed coat with a needle; then humidify the seeds at ambient temperature and 95-100% relative humidity. A 24-48 hour humidification treatment for scarified seeds is sufficient to raise seed moisture content from around 6 to 12% moisture content (4). Provided seed moisture content is at or above 12% moisture content there should be no problems in the subsequent germination test (16). Seeds destined for field or glasshouse sowings should also be pre-treated as described.Provided low temperatures are avoided -at which secondary dormancy may be induced (7,15) -full germination occurs over a fairly wide range of alternating and constant temperatures, viz. 20°/30°C (16h/8h), 15°/35°C (18h/6h), 20°C, 25°C (16). The major effect of seed dormancy appears to be one of delay to germination under such regimes rather than a failure to germinate (12). Thus it is suggested that the pre-treated seeds be tested for germination at the alternating temperature regime prescribed by AOSA/ISTA -20°/30°C (16h/8h) -for at least 14 days. Seed scarification is reported to be necessary to allow germination to occur in H. esculentus and the wild Hibiscus spp. (1)(2)(3)5,7,9,10,13,14,16). The rules of the AOSA note that hard seeds may be present when seeds of the Hibiscus spp. cultivated as flowers are tested for germination and direct that germination tests be continued for an additional 5 days. Although hardseededness does not appear to be a major problem in H. cannabinus, it is possible that seeds dried to 5% moisture content for long-term storage may exhibit hardseededness. Acetone or sulphuric acid are commonly used in scarification treatments and are generally successful, but appropriate concentrations and treatment durations vary considerably between species and between accessions within a single genotype (3,4,16); with concentrated sulphuric acid 30 minute treatments are probably the most satisfactory ( 16), although 2 hour treatments are required for H. mutabilis and H. pedunculatus (16). In view of these differences and the difficulty in obtaining full germination with such treatments it is not suggested that gene banks acid scarify seeds of Hibiscus spp.For H. esculentus 25°C is the most suitable constant temperature germination test regime (6,8,15), but -as with other species in which hardseededness is a problem -alternating temperature regimes are preferable to constant temperatures (1). It is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination under the ISTA/AOSA prescribed alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h), and that these tests be inspected after 4 or 5 days and the nonimbibed seeds scarified by hand and then returned to the germination test. Where a high proportion of seeds with impermeable seed coats is expected, it is suggested that all seeds be scarified by hand and then humidified at 95 to 100% relative humidity for 24 hours prior to the germination test.The Menispermaceae comprise several genera of climbers and, rarely, trees and shrubs. Whilst several species are cultivated for ornament, one species (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii Diels, serendipity berry) provides a powerful proteinaceous sweetener. The fruits are drupes or drupe-like and seed storage behaviour is probably orthodox. The information on seed dormancy and germination provided here is limited to the genus Dioscoreophyllum.D. cumminsii Diels serendipity berryThere can be a delay of 6 months before sown seeds germinate and emerge (2). GA 3 : pre-applied, 2h, 0.5% (1,2); pre-applied, 24h, 500 ppm (3)Light, or at least direct sunlight, inhibits the germination of seeds of D. (1,2). Pretreatment with gibberellins can, however, promote full germination in light (1-3), but the response depends upon the concentration applied and the duration of pre-treatment. On the basis of the evidence available at present it is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination at 25°C in dark after a 24 hour pre-treatment with 500 ppm GA 3 (3) or a 2 hour pre-treatment with 5000 ppm GA 3 (1,2). However, it should be noted that there are some contradictions in the literature concerning suitable promotory pre-treatments. Consequently the above pre-treatments may require modification. Note also that even where GA 3 has been applied there may be a considerable delay before the seeds begin to germinate. For example, in one investigation no germination was observed until 68 days after the test had commenced (3). Consequently a germination test duration of 90 days, or more, may be required. The Moraceae comprise more than 1000 species of trees and shrubs and, rarely, herbaceous plants and climbers which provide edible fruits (e.g. Artocarpus altilis (Park.) Fosber, breadfruit) and other products (e.g. Broussonetia papyrifera (L.) Vent., paper mulberry). The fruits are often compound and fleshy. Seed storage behaviour is generally orthodox (e.g. Ficus, Humulus, Morus), but some genera possess recalcitrant seeds (e.g. Artocarpus).The seeds may or may not possess an endosperm. Seed dormancy can be a difficult problem to overcome and the seedcoats may also prevent germination in some accessions. Promotory treatments include pre-chilling, some disruption of the seed coat and light in germination tests. Detailed information is provided for seed dormancy and germination in the genera Ficus, Humulus and Morus in this chapter. Additional information on recommended germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments is summarised in Table 48.1. Although viviparous germination has been reported in seeds of M. latifolia var rotundiloba (4), dormancy can be exhibited in freshly harvested seeds of M. alba (3) and M. Lhou (7,8,9). At room temperature 2 years dry storage (over calcium chloride) is required to remove dormancy from the latter species (7). Alternating temperatures (2) and light (2,8,9) are required for germination, although it is reported that the promotive effect of sodium nitrate is sufficient to avoid the requirement for light (8,9). It is suggested that the ISTA germination test procedure -20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light -is satisfactory for all Morus spp., but if difficulties are encountered also co-apply 0.2% potassium nitrate and pre-chill for 4 to 12 weeks.The Musaceae comprise about 100 species of partly woody plants within about six genera which provide edible fruits (e.g. Musa accuminata Colla, banana) and fibres (e.g. Musa textilis Nee, Manila hemp). The fruits are berries and seed storage behaviour is orthodox.The seeds have linear embryos, copious endosperm and a thick hard testa. Dormancy per se (that is innate seed dormancy, see Chapter 5, Volume I) is a problem (sometimes severe) in germination tests and in addition the thick hard testa can act as a barrier to germination.Chipping the testa and testing in alternating temperature regimes promote seed germination. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genus Musa only, although a comment on Ensete is also included in this section. Promoting the germination of banana seeds is difficult in plant breeding (1,(4)(5)(6). The germination of intact seeds is either unsuccessful (1), or erratic with only low proportions of seeds germinating (4). The low germination reported for banana seeds is due to the degree of maturity of the seed when extracted from the fruit (5,6), and in particular to dormancy -as the following examples of after-ripening demonstrate. Storage of seeds of M. balbisiana in a desiccator at room temperature for 3 months resulted in an increase in germination from 73% to 95% (5). In M. acuminata and M. balbisiana germination increased from 28% to 84% and 86% respectively, after 6 months storage in an atmosphere of 5% carbon dioxide at room temperature (6). Whilst 2 year old seeds of M. balbisiana did not germinate at all at any constant temperatures after 5 months in test, 99% of seeds germinated in satisfactory alternating temperature regimes (7). Moreover seeds buried in the soil can remain dormant for a year (6) or more (4). Seeds of the closely related Ensete spp. may survive for up to 25 years in soil and still germinate after disturbance (6). The above examples of loss in dormancy with after-ripening treatments also demonstrate that Musa spp. seeds show orthodox storage characteristics.Alternating temperatures: 20°/35°C, 27°/32°C (19h/5h) (III. Unsuccessful dormancy-breaking treatmentsPre-dry: sun, desiccator, 1w (5)It is essential that banana seeds be tested for germination in alternating temperature regimes. Constant temperatures outside the range 10°-37°C result in seed death (7). Within this range virtually no germination occurs in dormant seeds (7), but the seeds will subsequently germinate after transfer to a suitable alternating temperature regime (7). A fairly large amplitude is required for full germination: 12°/35°C or 15°/35°C (19h/5h) are probably the most suitable ( 7), but 18°/35°C (19h/5h) could be used provided the germination test period is extended to 49 days (7). Chipping imbibed seeds in the germination test may result in more rapid germination (7,9). Where the seeds do not exhibit dormancy they will germinate within about 3 weeks when tested in sand at 25° to 30°C. The Myrtaceae comprise 3000 species of woody plants within about 75 genera which provide edible fruits (e.g. Feijoa sellowiana Berg., feijoa), spices (e.g. Pimenta dioica (L.) Merr., pimento), oils (e.g. Pimenta racemosa (Mill.) J.W. Moore, bay), and timber and firewood (e.g. Eucalyptus spp.). The fruits vary from a pulpy berry or drupe to a woody capsule or nut. The seeds generally show orthodox storage behaviour. For example, Callistemon and Melaleuca spp. are maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank. Eugenia brasiliensis Lam., however, is reported to show recalcitrant seed storage behaviour.The embryos are either curved or linear, the cotyledons generally large, and the seed coats hard -thereby delaying or preventing germination. Dormancy per se (that is innate dormancy, see Chapter 5, Volume I) can also prevent or delay germination. Treatments to overcome the barrier provided by the hard seed coat (see Chapter 7, Volume I), gibberellins and warm germination test temperatures (roughly 25°C) tend to result in the promotion of seed germination. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genera Eugenia (including synonyms within Syzygium and Myrtus) and Psidium, and information on recommended germination test procedures and dormancybreaking treatments for other species is summarised in Table 50.1. In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures for other species.The first step in the algorithm is to test seeds at constant temperatures of 21°C and 26°C with light applied for 12h/d. If the results of these tests indicate a trend in the response of germination to constant temperatures then a further sample of seeds is tested at a more extreme constant temperature. For example, if germination at 26°C is greater than at 21°C then test a further sample of seeds at a constant temperature of 31°C with light applied for 12h/d.If the above constant temperature regimes do not result in full germination then the second step in the algorithm is to test further samples of seeds at an alternating-temperature regime of 23°-26°/9°-11°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature. Poor and delayed germination has been reported for seeds of E. jambolana (2,3). Freshly harvested seeds of E. brasiliensis germinate readily, although it is reported to be possible to induce secondary dormancy (1). E. brasiliensis is reported to show recalcitrant seed storage behaviour (1).Constant temperatures: 25°C, 14dAlternating temperatures: 25°/30°C, light, Pre-soak: 24h (5)It is suggested that seeds of Eugenia spp. be tested for germination at 25°C; at 15°C secondary dormancy may be induced (1). A 60-day germination test period may be required.Treatment with gibberellins is an effective dormancy-breaking treatment (1,2) and is suggested as an additional treatment where dormancy is a problem.The Oleaceae comprise over 500 species of trees and shrubs within about 20 genera which provide edible fruits (Olea europaea L., olive) and timber (Fraxinus spp., ash). The fruit may be a drupe (e.g. Olea spp.), a berry (e.g. Jasminum spp.), a capsule (e.g. Syringa spp.) or a samara (e.g. Fraxinus spp.). Seed storage behaviour is orthodox. For example, Jasminum beesianum Forrest & Diels. and Syringa spp. are maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank.Seed covering structures are often hard, thereby delaying or preventing germination. Dormancy per se (that is innate seed dormancy, see Chapter Olea spp. show orthodox seed storage behaviour (10,17,19), but freshly harvested intact seeds show poor germination (1,4,9,14,(18)(19)(20). Although the seed covering structures (endocarp and testa) contribute to dormancy (1,4,9,11,12,16,(18)(19)(20), the excised seeds also show dormancy (7,20). After-ripening for 22 months (8) or 3 years ( 17) is reported to result in loss of seed dormancy. Pre-chill: 13°C, 5-15d, germinate at 25°C (6)Pre-soak: 2d, or more (Light: light or dark (19); red, 3 W m -2 , 2 min/h (20); far red, 5 W m -2 , 2 min/h (20) Scarification: sulphuric acid ( 16)Removal of seed covering structures: excise embryos, germinate at 4°C, 25°C (7); excise embryos, germinate at 18°-20°C in dark (8); excise embryos, then GA 3 , co-applied, 100 ppm (GA 3 : co-applied, 1.45x10 -4 -5.8x10 -4 M, at 15°C, 25°C, dark (GA 4/7 : pre-applied, 36h, 10-1000 ppm, then 5°C, 10°C, 15°C, 20°C, 35°C, dark, 30d, then germinate at 25°C in light, 16h/d (18)6-Benzylaminopurine: pre-applied, 36h, 10-1000 ppm, then 5°C, 10°C, 15°C, 20°C, 35°C, dark, 30d, then germinate at 25°C in light, 16h/d (18) Abscisic acid: pre-applied, 36h, 10, 100 ppm, then 5°C, 10°C, 15°C, 20°C, 35°C, dark, 30d, then germinate at 25°C in light, 16h/d (18); co-applied, 2x10 -5 -8x10 -5 M, at 15°C, 25°C, darkKinetin: pre-applied, 30s, 25-100 ppm (3); co-applied, 4.6x10 -6 -9.2x10 -6 M, at 15°C, 25°C, darkZeatin: co-applied, 4.5x10 -6 -9.1x10 -6 M, at 15°C, 25°C, dark (20) Ethrel: pre-applied, 30s, 50-200 ppm (3) 4-Chloro-5-2-3-pyridazinone: co-applied, 3.3x10 -6 -66x10 -6 M, at 15°C, dark (IV. Partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatmentsScarification: concentrated sulphuric acid, 5 min (Pre-soak: 7,15dO. europaeaThe Oxalidaceae comprise more than 500 species of herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees within about ten genera which provide edible fruits (e.g. Averrhoa carambola L., carambola). The fruits are either dry dehiscent capsules or fleshy and berry-like. Most, if not all, species are thought to show orthodox seed storage behaviour.No detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter, but it appears that problems in germination tests are comparatively minor. As a first step with a species of unknown characteristics RBG Kew Wakehurst Place suggests testing the seeds at a constant temperature of 16°C with light applied for 12h/d. If this technique does not result in satisfactory germination clues for alternative techniques could be sought from Table 52.1 which summarises other germination test recommendations.  Until recently seed storage behaviour was assumed to be recalcitrant throughout the Palmaceae, but it is now known that this classification was mistaken. Whilst it is possible that some species may ultimately be proven to show recalcitrant seed storage behaviour, for most species seed storage behaviour is expected to be orthodox. For the present seeds of Cocos spp. should be treated as recalcitrant; further investigations are required to clarify seed storage behaviour in these species.The seeds vary considerably in size and include the largest seed known to man (Lodoicea maldivica (Gmel.) Pers., double coconut). The embryos are comparatively small and are surrounded by substantial endosperm (liquid endosperm in Cocos) and a hard, woody husk; germination is hypogeal.Dormancy varies considerably between the species. For example, dormancy is substantial in Elaeis spp. but less so in Cocos spp. where seed development and germination may be continuous. It is, however, difficult to germinate seeds of most members of the Palmaceae. The main problem is the time taken by the seeds to germinate: in field or glasshouse sowings the germination of some individuals within an accession takes more than a year. Seedling development also occurs comparatively slowly. Thus embryo culture (for propagation) or the excised embryo test (to estimate viability) -see Chapter 11, Volume I -may be preferable in some cases to attempting to germinate the seeds. Treatments to the seed covering structures, pre-soaking in water (or possibly gibberellins) and constant temperatures of 25°C or 30°C or an alternating temperature of about 20°/30°C (12h/12h) are generally promotory (although some exceptions to the above are noted in this chapter).Detailed information on seed germination and dormancy is provided in this chapter for the genera Areca (including synonyms within Chrysalidocarpus), Cocos, Elaeis (including synonyms within Corozo), and Phoenix. In addition a summary of information on germination test procedures and/or germination test periods for very many other palms is provided. It will be seen that, unless special treatments are applied, considerable germination test periods are required for many of these species; it is hoped that the provision of this information will help to ensure that germination tests are not concluded too soon.Acanthophoenix rubra (Bory) Wendl.In glasshouse sowings 71d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (12,13).In glasshouse sowings 193d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (12,13).Acoelorraphe Wrightii (Gris. & Wendl.) Wendl. ex Becc.Seeds from which pericarps have been removed begin to germinate after 6m (1), but the delay is only 3m if the seeds are tested in moist sand in an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (night/day) (8). It is suggested that pericarp removal and the latter regime be used as a general procedure for germinating seeds of Acoelorraphe spp.Pre-soaking for 7d followed by warm stratification at 39°C for 80d, with a subsequent germination test at 27°C was not a successful dormancy-breaking treatment ( 19) -despite the suitability of this procedure for seeds of other palms.The seeds are difficult to germinate, but the following is a partly successful dormancy-breaking treatment: remove exocarp and mesocarp, crack endocarp and then pre-soak the seeds for 12 to 24h (7).The seeds are very difficult to germinate. Seeds from which endocarps have been removed start to germinate after 183d whilst for whole seeds the delay is 440d (11).Acrocomia sclerocarpa Mart.The seeds are very difficult to germinate. Seeds from which endocarps have been removed take a year before they start to germinate whilst for whole seeds the delay can be 2.5 years (11).Acrocomia spp.Filing and scarification are partly successful dormancy-breaking treatments (12,13), but the following procedure is more successful: pre-dry at 65° to 71°C for 2 to 3w, then germinate in moist sand in a glasshouse with a fluctuating temperature regime where the maximum temperature is 50°C (12,13).In glasshouse sowings 2 to 2.5m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11,15).There is a delay of 43 to 90d before the seeds start to germinate in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8,11).In glasshouse sowings 60 to 70d may elapse before the first seeds germinate (11).Aiphanes erosa [Martinezia erosa Lind.] Untreated seeds begin to germinate after 58 to 110d (11). Pre-soaking the seeds for 7d followed by warm stratification at 35°C for 80d with subsequent transfer to room temperature for the germination test is a partly successful dormancy-breaking treatment (19).In glasshouse sowings 2m may elapse before the first seeds germinate (11).Archontophoenix alexandrae (F. Muell.) Wendl. & DrudeThe following procedures are partly successful dormancy-breaking treatments for seeds of the Alexandra palm: pre-soak the seeds for 3d, then test for germination in an alternating temperature regime of 20°/26°C for 7w (17); scarify the seeds by hand and then either presoak in water or 1000 ppm gibberellic acid for 3d (17); pre-treat the seeds with 1000 ppm gibberellic acid for 3d (18); test for germination at constant temperatures of 25°C, 30°C, or 35°C (21,24). The following are successful dormancy-breaking procedures: testa removal (17); constant temperatures between 24° and 28°C (3); an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (8); pre-treat with gibberellic acid at 10 or 100 ppm for 3d (18); pre-treat with gibberellic acid at 1000 ppm for 3d (17).There is a delay of 90 to 100d before the seeds start to germinate (8,11), and the optimum constant temperatures for germination are between 24° and 28°C (3).Archontophoenix spp.As a general procedure it is suggested that testa be removed from over the embryos, the seeds pre-treated in 100 ppm gibberellic acid for 3d and subsequently tested for germination at 25°C or 30°C.Arecastrum romanzoffianum (Cham.) Becc.[Cocos romanzoffianum Cham.; Cocos plumosa Hook.]The seeds are very difficult to germinate (3,8,19). Pre-soaking for 7d followed by warm stratification at 39°C for 80d, with a subsequent germination test at 27°C was not a successful dormancy-breaking treatment (19) -despite the suitability of this procedure for seeds of other palms. Testing for germination in a peat/perlite medium at 24° to 28°C (3) or in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8) have, however, been reported as partly successful dormancy-breaking treatments.Pre-soak the seeds for several days and then test for germination at 27°C -the first seeds begin to germinate after 65d (12,13).Arenga engleri Becc.The seeds are very dormant (6,7,8,11) and between 4 and 21m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11). Scarifying the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid for 5 or 20 min does not promote germination (7), but the following scarification procedures may be promotory: scarifying the mesocarp at the hilum with sandpaper (7); scarifying the mesocarp at the hilum with sandpaper and subsequently pre-soaking the seeds (7); or scarifying the mesocarp at the hilum with sandpaper and then scarifying the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid for 10 min (7). Alternatively whole seeds can be tested for germination in moist sand in an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C for a year (8).Arenga microcarpa Becc.In glasshouse sowings 9m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings between 8 and 12m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Arenga pinnata (Wurmb.) Merr. [A. saccharifera Labill.]The seeds of the sugar palm (or gomuti palm) are difficult to germinate (8,19) and there can be a 6m delay before the seeds start to germinate in glasshouse sowings (8,11). Testing the seeds for germination in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8), or at 27°C after first pre-soaking for 7d and then giving a warm stratification treatment at 39°C for 80d (19) promotes the germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds.Arenga tremula (Blanco) Becc.There can be a delay of between 103 and 175d before the seeds start to germinate (8,11).Testing in moist sand at 20°/30°C is only partly-successful in promoting the germination of dormant seeds (8).In glasshouse sowings 9m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).The seeds are difficult to germinate (11,19) and 10m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11). Pre-soaking the seeds for 7d followed by warm stratification at 39°C for 80d and subsequently testing for germination at 27°C promotes the germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds (19).In glasshouse sowings between 51 and 107d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).The seeds are very difficult to germinate and may take 3 or more years to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11).The seeds germinate readily in glasshouse sowings, beginning within 38 days (12,13).The seeds take between 50 and 150d before they start to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11,12,13). The germination test procedure used is to pre-soak the seeds for several days and then test at a constant temperature of 27°C (12,13).Astrocaryum vulgare Mart.The seeds are difficult to germinate and between 11 and 14m may elapse before they start to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11).Astrocaryum spp.Pre-drying the seeds for 2 to 3w at between 65° and 71°C with subsequent germination tests in an alternating temperature environment where the maximum temperature reaches 50°C is reported to promote germination (12,13).The seeds show considerable dormancy (6) and there is a delay of between 2 and 6m before they begin to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11,12,13).In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after 69d (11).Bactris major Jacq.In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after 6m (11).The seeds germinate fully during a 3m test at 24° to 28°C (3).The seeds can be germinated by testing at 27°C after pre-soaking for several days (12,13).In glasshouse sowings there is a delay of 6 to 7m before the seeds start to germinate (11).The seeds can be germinated by testing at 27°C after pre-soaking for several days (12,13).Bentinckia nicobarica Becc.In glasshouse sowings between 74 and 85d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).The seeds can be germinated by testing at 27°C after first pre-soaking the seeds for several days (12,13).Seeds of the Palmira palm are difficult to germinate (11,19) and untreated seeds may require more than 260d before they begin to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11). Moist sand or peat/perlite (1:1) are suitable media for germination (3,26). The germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds can be promoted by pre-soaking for 7d followed by warm stratification at 39°C for 80d and then testing at 27°C (19), but testing whole fruits in a peat/perlite medium (1:1) at 24° to 28°C for 5m is reported to result in full germination (3).The germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds can be promoted by testing in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).In glasshouse sowings 8m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Butia bonnetii Becc.The seeds are very difficult to germinate (8). The germination of some, but not all, can be promoted by testing in moist sand at 20°/30°C for 300d (8).Butia capitata (Mart.) Becc.The seeds are very difficult to germinate (8) due to extremely severe dormancy (24)untreated seeds germinate between 28 and 960d after sowing (8,11). Gibberellic acid preapplied for 1h at concentrations between 100 and 2000 ppm can be promotory (24).The seeds are very difficult to germinate; between 8 and 22m may elapse before they begin to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11).Butia yatay (Mart.) Becc.The seeds are very difficult to germinate and, when tested in moist sand at 20°/30°C, take between 2 and 20m to germinate (8).Calamus spp.Seeds of the rattans are difficult to germinate and between 107 and 408d may elapse before they begin to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11). The germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds can be promoted by testing whole fruits in a peat/perlite (1:1) medium at 24° to 28°C (3).The seeds are reported to germinate readily in glasshouse sowings (11).In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after 78d (11).Caryota cumingii Lodd.In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after between 114 and 317d (11,12,13).Caryota mitis Lour.The seeds are difficult to germinate (3,8,11,14,22) and may require 5 to 6m before they begin to germinate (8,11,15,22). The germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds can be promoted by: removing the endocarps and testing in a peat/perlite (1:1) medium at 24° to 28°C (3); testing in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8); testing in vermiculite at 25°C or 30°C (22); or by pre-soaking the seeds for 7d followed by warm stratification at 39°C for 80d with subsequent testing at 27°C (19).Seeds of the fish-tail, or toddy, palm are difficult to germinate (3,8,11) and may require between 6 and 7m before they begin to germinate either in glasshouse sowings (11) or at 20°/30°C in moist sand (8).In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of 82d before the seeds begin to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings 41d may elapse before the seeds begin to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings 118d may elapse before the seeds begin to germinate (11).Mart. [Collinia elegans Liebm.; Neanthe bella O.F. Cook]The seeds of the parlor palm are difficult to germinate: the first seeds begin to germinate after 4m (with full germination after 10m) in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8). Whole fruits or seeds can be successfully tested for germination: in a peat/perlite medium (1:1) at 24° to 28°C (3); in moist sand or vermiculite at 30°C (24); or in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).Chamaedorea erumpens E.H. MooreThe seeds are difficult to germinate and may be delayed for 7m before they begin to germinate (8,11,12,13). Whole fruits or seeds can be successfully tested for germination in a peat/perlite medium (1:1) at 24° to 28°C (3).In glasshouse sowings 8m may elapse before the seeds begin to germinate (11). Pre-soaking the seeds for several days with subsequent testing at 27°C can at least partly promote germination (12,13).Whole fruits or seeds can be successfully tested for germination in a peat/perlite (1:1) medium at 24° to 28°C (3).In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of 197d before the seeds begin to germinate (11).The seeds begin to germinate after between 50 and 100d in test (8,11). The germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds can be promoted by testing in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after 5m in test (11).Chamaedorea oblongata Mart.The seeds are difficult to germinate (8,11) and begin to germinate after 40d in glasshouse sowings (11). When tested in moist sand at 20°/30°C the seeds germinate after between 187 and 237d (8).The seeds are difficult to germinate and begin to germinate after 7m in glasshouse sowings (11).Coccothrinax miraguama (HBK) Becc.The seeds begin to germinate after 60 to 104d (8,12,13).The seeds begin to germinate after 48d (12,13).Cocos plumosa, Cocos romanzoffianumCollinia elegans -see Chamaedorea elegansCopernicia alba MorongThe seeds begin to germinate after 3m in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).Copernicia australis Becc.The germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds can be promoted by testing seeds in aerated water (changed daily) after either no pre-treatment or after scarifying the seeds in 10% sulphuric acid for 15 min (10). Full germination, however, can be achieved by hand scarification near the embryo and then testing in aerated water, or by first pre-soaking for 9m in aerated water and then scarifying the seeds by hand near the embryo (10).In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after 37d (12,13).Copernicia cerifera (Arr.) Mart. [C. prunifera] In the glasshouse untreated seeds of the Carnauba wax palm begin to germinate 2m after sowing (11). Full germination has been achieved by pre-soaking the seeds for 7d followed by warm stratification at 35°C for 80d and then testing for germination at 27°C (19).In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after 37d (12,13).In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after 73d (12,13).Copernicia glabrescens Wendl. ex Becc.The seeds germinate after between 1 and 3m in test (8,11). Germination can be at least partly promoted by pre-soaking for several days and then testing at 27°C (12,13).In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after between 1 and 4m (11,12,13).Copernicia macroglossa Wendl. ex Becc.The seeds germinate after between 70 and 88d in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).seeds can be successfully tested for germination in a peat/perlite (1:1) medium at 24° to 28°CDictyosperma aureum (Balf. f.) Nich.The seeds begin to germinate 54 to 102d after sowing (8,11,12,13).After pre-soaking for several days the seeds begin to germinate 73d after sowing in tests at 27°C (12,13).The seeds begin to germinate 26 to 45d after sowing in the glasshouse (11,12,13).Drymophloeus olivaeformis (Giseke) Miq.The seeds begin to germinate after 4m in glasshouse sowings (11) and in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8). Seeds of the big blue hesper palm begin to germinate after 5 to 6m in glasshouse sowings (11) and in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).Seeds of the San José hesper palm are difficult to germinate and only begin to germinate 10 to 13m after glasshouse sowings (11). Germination can be at least partly promoted by presoaking the seeds for several days and then testing at 27°C (12,13).Erythea edulis (Wendl.) Wats.Seeds of the Guadalupe palm begin to germinate after 2.5m in glasshouse sowings (11) and within 6m when tested in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).Eugeissona tristis Griff.Whole fruits begin to germinate 5m after sowing whereas the seeds begin to germinate 7m after sowing (11,15).Germination is slow -between 6 and 11w may elapse before the seeds begin to germinate (11) -due to thick, hard mesocarps and endocarps (16). The germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds can be promoted by: mesocarp removal (16); mesocarp removal followed by pre-soaking at 30°C for 3d (16); a 2h ultrasonic treatment at 50 to 60 Hz and 80 W followed by pre-washing for 42h (16); scarification for 10 min in concentrated sulphuric acid followed by pre-soaking at 30°C for 2d (16). But the most successful dormancy-breaking treatment reported is to soak in a 6% hydrogen peroxide solution for 2d after removing the mesocarps from the seeds (16).In glasshouse sowings the seeds begin to germinate after 24d (12,13). Non-dormant seeds can be germinated between moist paper towels at 38°C (16).In glasshouse sowings between 2 and 4m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Gaussia attenuata (O.F. Cook) Becc.The seeds germinate between 1 and 9m after sowing (8,11,12,13).In glasshouse sowings 7m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings 6m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings between 2.5 and 4m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (12,13).In glasshouse sowings 9m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings fresh and dry seeds begin to germinate after 48d and 141d respectively (11).The seeds are difficult to germinate: whole fruits or seeds begin to germinate after 6 to 7m at 24°/28°C (3).In glasshouse sowings between 2.5 and 7.5m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings 2m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Hexopetion mexicanum -see Astrocaryum mexicanumWhole fruits or seeds can show a delay of between 40 and 223d before they start to germinate (1,3,8).There can be a delay of 70d before the seeds start to germinate in glasshouse sowings (12,13).In glasshouse sowings 74d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Licuala glabra Griff.There can be a delay of 4w before the seeds start to germinate (15).In glasshouse sowings there can be a one year delay before the seeds start to germinate (11).Licuala grandis Wendl.There can be a delay of between 53 and 166d before the seeds start to germinate (1,8,11,12,13).In glasshouse sowings 7m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings 4m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Licuala Peltata Roxb.The seeds may take between 3 and 13m to germinate (8,11).Licuala spinosa Thunb.Between 2.5 and 16m may be required before untreated seeds germinate (1,8,11), but germination can be promoted by pre-soaking the seeds for several days and then testing at 27°C or 20°/30°C (8,12,13).Livistona Australis (R. Brown) Mart.Although there can be a delay of 3 to 4m before the seeds start to germinate (8,11), whole ripe fruits tested in a peat/perlite (1:1) medium at 24° to 28°C are reported to germinate readily (3).Livistona chinensis (Jacq.) R. Brown & Mart.The seeds germinate readily, beginning within 1m of sowing (1,8,11,19): full germination has been achieved by testing in moist sand at 25°C, 30°C, 20°/30°C or 25°/30°C (8,20,24,28).Livistona colchinchinensis (Blume) Mart. [L. hoogendorpii; L. saribus (Lour.)Cheval.]The seeds begin to germinate within 1m of sowing in the glasshouse (12,13).Livistona decipiens Becc.There can be a delay of between 1 and 8m before the seeds germinate (1,8,11).In glasshouse sowings 48d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Livistona Jenkinsiana Griff.In glasshouse sowings 4m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Livistona Kingiana Becc.There can be a delay of 77d before the seeds start to germinate (15).Removal of the exocarps from the seeds with subsequent testing at 27°C can promote full germination (14).Livistona Muelleri Hort.In glasshouse sowings 4m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Livistona Robinsoniana Becc.There can be a delay of between 4 and 6m before the seeds start to germinate (8,11).There can be a delay of between 45 and 199d before the seeds germinate (1,8,11).There can be a delay of 9w before the seeds start to germinate (15).There can be a delay of between 2 and 8m before the seeds germinate (8,11).There can be a delay of between 74 and 93d before the seeds germinate (8,11). An optimum temperature for germination of 35°C has been reported (23,24).There can be a delay of between 5 and 7m before the seeds germinate (8,11).There can be a delay of between 3 and 6m before the seeds start to germinate (8,11), even when tested in an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (8). Pre-soaking the seeds for several days followed by testing at 27°C can at least partly promote germination (12,13).The following treatments were not successful in promoting the germination of dormant seeds: pre-soaking for 9 or 16d (9); pre-soaking for 2d and then dipping the seeds in boiling water for 2 min (9); scarification of the seeds with concentrated sulphuric acid for 5 or 10 min (9); scarification of the seeds by hand (9). Testing in moist sand in an alternating temperature regime of 30°/39°C (9h/15h), however, was a partly-successful dormancy-breaking treatment (9).Nenga pumila (Mart.) Wendl.The seeds begin to germinate after 70d in test (15).Neodypsis decaryi Jum.The seeds begin to germinate after 2m in glasshouse sowings (11) or in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).There can be a delay of between 25 and 70d before the seeds germinate (8,11).After first pre-soaking for several days, the seeds begin to germinate after 46d in test at 27°C (12,13).Oncosperma horridum (Griff.) Scheff.There can be a delay of 200d before the seeds start to germinate (15).After first pre-soaking for several days, the seeds begin to germinate after 44d at 27°C (12,13).There can be a delay of between 26 and 99d before the seeds germinate (8,11).In glasshouse sowings 7m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).There can be a delay of 70d before the seeds start to germinate (15).There can be a delay of 71d before the seeds start to germinate (12,13).Dormant seeds of the babasu palm can be germinated by removing part of the endocarp and then pre-soaking the seeds for 10d before sowing (5).Orbignya spp.The seeds can show considerable dormancy (6) and may show a delay of 6m before they start to germinate (11). It is suggested that they be treated as described for O. speciosa (above) and then tested for germination at 30°C.Pre-soaking seeds of the cabbage palm, or palmiste, for 7d followed by warm stratification at 35°C for 80d did not promote germination in tests at 27°C (19).Seeds of the royal, or cuban, palm can be dried to 7.9% moisture content and subsequently rehydrated and germinated (25). There can be a delay of between 21 and 142d before fresh seeds germinate (1,3,8,11). The optimum temperature for germination is reported to be 30°C (22,24). Full germination has been achieved using the following (alternative) procedures: mesocarp removal with testing between moist paper towels at 30°C (25); testing in sand at 25°/30°C in light, 24h/d, for 37d (28); testing whole ripe fruits or seeds in a peat/perlite (1:1) medium at between 24° and 28°C (3); or pre-chilling at 10°C for 2m, with subsequent testing for germination at 30°C (4).Phoenicophorium Borsigianum (Koch) Wendl.In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of between 21 and 124d before the seeds start to germinate (11).Phytelephas macrocarpa Ruiz & Pav.In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of between 6 and 12m before seeds of the ivorynut palm germinate (11).There can be a delay of 77d before the seeds germinate (15).There can be a delay of between 36 and 79d before the seeds germinate (8,11). The seeds can be germinated at 27°C after pre-soaking for 7d followed by warm stratification at 35°C for 80d (19).Pinanga malaiana (Mart.) Scheff.There can be a delay of 4 to 6m before the seeds start to germinate with germination being complete 9m after sowing (15).In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of 40d before the seeds start to germinate (11).Embryos can be excised and cultured in a modified Vacin & Went medium (6).There can be a delay of 45d before the seeds start to germinate (15).There can be a delay of 2m before the seeds start to germinate (15).In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of between 44 and 77d before the seeds start to germinate (11).The seeds begin to germinate after 4m in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).Pseudophoenix Sargentii Wendl. ex Sarg.The seeds show orthodox seed storage behaviour -germinating after 2 years' dry storage (29) -and can be very dormant, with fresh seeds failing to germinate (29). There can be a delay of 5m before the seeds start to germinate in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8). Endocarp removal with subsequent testing for germination at 29.5°C can promote full germination ( 29), but testing the seeds in regimes where the temperature for part of the day is below 29.5°C can substantially reduce the proportion of seeds which germinate (29).Pseudophoenix vinifera (Martens) Becc.The seeds show othodox seed storage behaviour -germinating after 2 years' dry storage (29) -and can be very dormant, with fresh seeds failing to germinate (29). There can be a delay of between 23 and 178d before the seeds start to germinate in glasshouse sowings (11,12,13).The germination of at least some, but not necessarily all, dormant seeds can be promoted by pre-soaking for several days before testing at 27°C (12,13). Endocarp removal with subsequent testing for germination at 29.5°C can promote full germination ( 29), but testing the seeds in regimes where the temperature for part of the day is below 29.5°C can substantially reduce the proportion of seeds which germinate (29).Ptychandra glauca Scheff.In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of 49d before the seeds start to germinate (11).Ptychococcus paradoxus Becc.In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of 6m before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings there can be a delay of 5m before the seeds start to germinate (11).The germination of at least some, but not necessarily all, dormant seeds can be promoted by pre-soaking for several days before testing at 27°C (12,13).Ptychosperma elegans (R. Brown) BlumeThe seeds start to germinate about 2m after sowing (1). Full germination has been achieved by testing in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).There can be a delay of 72d before the seeds start to germinate (8). Pre-soaking for several days and then testing at 27°C can promote germination (12,13).Ptychosperma hospitum Bur.In glasshouse sowings 2m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).The seeds germinate between 88 and 137d after sowing (8,11).The seeds germinate between 99 and 120d after sowing (1,11).Sabal causiarum (O.F. Cook) Becc.The seeds germinate between 43 and 131d after sowing (8,11).In glasshouse sowings 48d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).The seeds start to germinate 2m after sowing in the glasshouse (12,13).In glasshouse sowings 37d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).There can be a delay of between 48 and 120d before the seeds start to germinate (1,11).Sabal minor (Jacq.) Pers.The seeds show considerable dormancy and require 7 or 24m to after-ripen at room temperature or 3° to 5°C respectively (20). There can be a delay of 4m before the seeds start to germinate (8,11). Germination can be promoted partly by 100 ppm gibberellic acid (20). A constant temperature of 25°C has been reported as the optimum germination test temperature (20,24).Sabal palmetto (Walt.) Lodd.There can be a delay of 3 or 4m before the seeds start to germinate (8,11). Optimum germination test temperatures -in moist sand -are 25°C or 30°C (20,24).There can be a delay of between 22 and 42d before the seeds start to germinate (8,11).In glasshouse sowings 7w may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).There can be a delay of between 70 and 169d before the seeds germinate (8,11).There can be a delay of between 82 and 220d before the seeds germinate (8,11).There can be a delay of between 1 and 6m before the seeds germinate (11,15).There can be a delay of 3m before the seeds start to germinate in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8). Pre-soaking for several days before testing at 27°C can at least partly promote germination (12,13).Salacca rumphii Wall.The seeds are reported to germinate readily (12,13,15), and full germination has been achieved in tests at 27°C after first pre-soaking the seeds for several days (12,13).There can be a delay of between 70 and 112d before the seeds germinate (8,11).In glasshouse sowings 5m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).The seeds are very difficult to germinate and 466d may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings between 3 and 10m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).There can be a delay of 3.5m before seeds tested in moist sand at 20°/30°C begin to germinate (8).In glasshouse sowings 3.5m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Socratea durissima Wendl.In glasshouse sowings 4.5m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11), but presoaking the seeds for several days before testing at 27°C can at least partly promote germination (12,13).In glasshouse sowings 4m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).In glasshouse sowings 4.5m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).There can be a delay of 10m before the seeds start to germinate (12,13).There can be a delay of between 3 and 10m before the seeds start to germinate (12,13).Syagrus coronata (Mart.) Becc.There can be a delay of 3.5m before seeds start to germinate in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).In glasshouse sowings between 2 and 2.5m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Full germination has been achieved by testing whole fruits in a peat/perlite medium (1:1) at 24° to 28°C (3).The promotion of germination of some, but not all, dormant seeds can be achieved by presoaking the seeds for 7d followed by warm stratification at 35°C for 80d and then testing at 27°C (19).It is reported that the seeds germinate readily (1).There can be a delay of 99d before the seeds start to germinate in glasshouse sowings (12,13).Thrinax microcarpa Sarg.There can be a delay of 3m before the seeds start to germinate in moist sand at 20°/30°C (8).In glasshouse sowings between 2 and 6m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).There can be a delay of 3 to 4m before the seeds start to germinate (1,8).Trachycarpus excelsa Wendl.The seeds germinate readily in moist sand at 25°C (21,24) or 20°/30°C (8).Trachycarpus fortunei Wendl.The seeds are more difficult to germinate than T. excelsa (above), and there can be a delay of between 2 and 3m before the seeds start to germinate (8,11,21,24). Optimum germination test temperatures of 25°C or 30°C have been reported (21,24), but do not result in full germination.In glasshouse sowings 2.5m may elapse before the seeds start to germinate (11).Until further investigations have clarified seed storage behaviour, coconut must remain classified as probably recalcitrant. Seed dormancy in coconut has been reviewed elsewhere (5,18). In view of their large size it is unlikely that the fruits will be tested for germination in laboratory tests. The following procedure has been proposed for germinating whole coconut fruits in nursery sowings: place the seednuts close together in a moist sandy soil (6,11,17) in full sun, either with the fruits' broadest face down (7,13) or -in the case of spherical fruits -on their end with the calyx uppermost, and irrigate frequently with an overhead sprinkler (10). The most suitable constant temperatures for germination in nursery sowings are between 30° and 35°C ( 17), but alternating temperatures, roughly 20°/30°C, are reported to be more effective in promoting germination (11,14). The duration of the germination test should be at least 100 days for those varieties which germinate more readily, and 150 days for the slower germinating varieties (10). Pre-treatments to the seednuts will probably be required. A 1 to 2 week pre-soak is probably the most effective method of promoting germination (2, 4, 10, 18)particularly where the fruit has dried (2). The removal of part of the mesocarp at the base of the fruits above the eyes also promotes germination, but if this is done it is essential that the fruits be prevented from drying throughout the subsequent germination test.Extraction of the embryo from the fruits with subsequent embryo culture is required for laboratory germination tests. Embryo culture has been achieved in a variety of combinations of media (1,5,9), including coconut milk alone (9). The most favoured combination appears to be White's major elements plus vitamins, plus Nitsch's trace elements, plus sucrose, plus coconut milk (1). This has the following composition: 100 ml of White's major elements (50 ppm Ca, 72 ppm Mg, 70 ppm Na, 65 ppm K, 47 ppm N -as nitrate, 4 ppm P -as phosphate, 140 ppm S -as sulphate, 31 ppm Cl, 1 ppm Fe -as ferric citrate, 1.67 ppm Mn, 0.005 ppm Cu, 0.59 ppm Zn, 0.26 ppm B, 0.001 Mo), 1 ml of Nitsch's trace elements (3 ppm managanese sulphate, 0.5 ppm zinc sulphate, 0.025 ppm copper sulphate, 0.5 ppm boric acid, 0.025 ppm sodium molybdate) but also including 25 ppm of cobalt chloride, 4 ml of a 0.25% solution of ferric citrate, 5 ml of White's vitamins (0.57 ppm I, 0.1 ppm thiamin, 0.5 ppm nicotinic acid, 0.1 ppm pyridoxine, 3 ppm glycine, 20000 ppm sucrose) with the addition of 50 ppm calcium pantothenate and 2 ml of a 0.1% solution of indoleacetic acid in alcohol; it is then made up to 1 litre with double distilled water and 0.2g casein hydrolysate, 8g agar, and 20g sucrose added; after autoclaving and subsequent cooling 2 litres of coconut milk are added, the solution mixed, and then left overnight (1). Germination and growth have occurred at temperatures between 15° to 28°C (1) -but it is expected that germination will be most rapid at the higher temperatures. A greater proportion of embryos germinate in light than in dark (9). Germination can be quite rapid -2 to 4 weeks -but subsequent growth can be very slow (9).problems when attempting to germinate seeds of oil palm (11,12). According to some reports excised oil palm embryos are not dormant (11,12), but in other reports embryo dormancy has been detected (22). After-ripening for 2 months at room temperature can result in the loss of embryo dormancy (22), but note that after-ripening of whole seeds is not effective in avoiding the problems caused by the seed covering structures.In preparing seeds for plantation sowings heat treatments of one sort or another are almost invariably applied. Here such treatments are described as pre-dry where the moisture content of the kernels is less than 16% (fresh-weight basis) for dura, less than 18% for oleifera, or less than 17% for tenera oil palms, but described as warm stratification where kernel moisture content is between 17 to 18% for dura, between 21 to 23% for tenera, or between 27 to 30% for pisifera oil palms. The latter values are the moisture contents of imbibed oil palm kernels. These values appear to be much lower than those for imbibed seeds of other species, but see the comment for information on embryo moisture contents.II. Germination regimes for non-dornant seeds -III. Unsuccessful dormancy-breaking treatmentsWarm stratification: 44.5°C, 50-80d (24); 45°C, 40-50d (13); 50°C, 8-12d (13); 55°C, 4-8d (13); 60°C, 12hPre-dry: 60°C, 1-4d (13); 39.5°C, 80d, germinate without additional moisture (Removal of seed covering structures: pericarp, crack endocarp (26); excise embryo from dry seeds (21,22) E. guineensis (dura x pisifera)Pre-soak: (GA 3 : pre-applied, 0.25, 0.5 ppm (29); pre-applied, 0.25, 0.5 ppm, then pre-dry, 40°C, 15d, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 0.25, 0.5 ppm (29); pre-applied, 0.25, 0.5 ppm, plus kinetin, preapplied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm (29); pre-applied, 0.25, 0.5 ppm, plus kinetin, pre-applied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm, then pre-dry, 40°C, 15d, then GA 3 , pre-applied, 0.25, 0.5 ppm, plus kinetin, pre-applied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm (29) Kinetin: pre-applied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm (29); pre-applied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm, then pre-dry, 40°C, 15d, then kinetin, pre-applied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm (29) Ethephon: pre-applied, 1, 2 ppm (29); pre-applied, 1, 2 ppm, then pre-dry, 40°C, 15d, then ethephon, pre-applied, 1, 2 ppm (29); pre-applied, 1, 2 ppm, plus kinetin, pre-applied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm (29); pre-applied, 1, 2 ppm, plus kinetin, pre-applied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm, then pre-dry, 40°C, 15d, then ethephon, pre-applied, 1, 2 ppm, plus kinetin, pre-applied, 0.05, 0.1 ppm (29)Constant temperatures: 40°C, in air or oxygen, 100%Pre-soak: 30°C, 5d, germinate at 25°-40°C, in air or oxygen, 100% (12)Despite widespread suggestions to the contrary seeds of Elaeis spp. show orthodox seed storage behaviour; for example, oil palm embryos which had been dried to 10.4% moisture content (fresh-weight basis) showed no loss in viability during 8 months storage at -196°C (8).There are two problems behind the mistaken classification of Elaeis spp. as recalcitrant. First, the embryos contain substantially more moisture than the average for whole kernels (8,21,22). For example, a typical moisture content of an imbibed kernel is about 21%, but embryos excised from such kernels contain roughly 48% moisture (8). When the kernels are dried to about 7% moisture content, embryo moisture contents are as high as 20-21% (8,22). Moreover equilibrium between kernel and embryo moisture contents is not established within 7 days at room temperature (8). Consequently it is not surprising that such embryos are killed by exposure to sub-zero temperatures (8). The second problem is, we believe, one of imbibition injury. Excised embryos dried to 20% moisture content and then cultured showed no loss in viability, whereas those embryos dried to 10.4% and subsequently cultured showed a 21% loss in viability (8). Similarly cultured embryos extracted from kernels dried below 15.3% moisture content show some development, but fail to produce seedlings whereas those from kernels at higher moisture contents do produce normal seedlings (21). Rehumidification of the dried kernels (15 days in a humid environment) before embryo excision and culture avoids this damage however (21,22), demonstrating that the damage to the dry embryos results from rapid imbibition, not from desiccation per se.We believe there is a need to distinguish between those practices developed for the germination of seeds destined for large-scale sowings in plantations and those techniques required to promote the germination of oil palm seeds in tests to estimate the viability of accessions maintained in gene banks or to regenerate or multiply accessions. Most of the repeated soaking/drying treatments referred to in the preceding sections are intended to adjust kernel moisture contents to that best suited for germination -often assessed by the colour of the testae. This is necessary because subsequent germination is normally achieved in enclosed conical flasks, jars, polyethylene bags or similar vessels (11)(12)(13)17,18,20,(23)(24)(25)29). Oil palm germination is very sensitive to either excess or inadequate moisture, and such procedures are very difficult to standardise. Consequently it is not recommended that gene banks should apply these techniques.Whilst non-dormant seeds will germinate rapidly at around 25°C (3,9,10,13,17,20,(23)(24)(25)27,31), dormant seeds require a higher constant temperature, around 39°C (2,7,(9)(10)(11)(12), and between 9 (10) and 12 months (7) at this temperature, but alternating temperatures are more effective in promoting germination than are constant temperatures (7,(10)(11)(12)15). Until more definitive work has been completed a diurnal alternating temperature regime of 25°/35°C (8-12h/12-16h) would seem an appropriate, but temporary, recommendation.Removal of some or all of the seed covering structures must be considered to be an essential component of oil palm germination tests intended to estimate viability in gene banks. Although embryo excision with subsequent culture for 4 weeks or so is likely to be successful (provided imbibition damage is avoided -see below), it does require both skill and time. We believe that the most appropriate treatment is to remove the operculum from imbided seeds (11,19): with experience it is reported to be possible to de-operculate 200 to 300 seeds per hour (19) and full germination should be achieved within 3 to 4 weeks in the germination test.Whilst we envisage that the long-term storage of seed of Elaeis spp. under IBPGR preferred conditions (-20°C, with embryos at 5% moistur moisture content) is feasible, further investigations which recognise the potential problems of high embryo moisture contents and imbibition injury in these species would be advisable. The following germination test procedure is suggested. First humidify the dry embryos (or kernels) until embryo moisture content is at least 20% and preferably 40% (fresh weight basis). Then de-operculate the seed and test for germination on top of filter paper or between moist rolled paper towels at 25°/35°C (8-12h/12-16h) for at least 4 weeks. See reference (16) for a description of tetrazolium staining techniques for these species.Despite suggestions to the contrary, P. dactylifera shows orthodox seed storage characteristics (2,6,11) and can be stored successfully under IBPGR preferred conditions (6). Moist sand or paper towels are suitable media for laboratory germination tests (6,(13)(14)(15). The optimum constant temperature for the germination of seeds of Phoenix spp. is between 25°a nd 30°C (13)(14)(15). Above this range germination is reduced (15), with the exception of P. dactylifera which germinates well at 35°C (14) and P. sylvestris where some seeds can germinate at 40°C (15). Provided the test duration is sufficient, seeds of P. Loureiri will germinate at 15°C (13). Alternating temperature regimes are more likely to be effective germination test regimes than constant temperatures (10), one alternation may be sufficient (6); seeds of 7 Phoenix spp. have been reported to germinate well under alternating temperature regimes between 20° and 30°C in plastic tunnels (7).It is therefore suggested that seeds be tested for germination in an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (8h/16h?) or, if this is not possible, at a constant temperature of 30°C. The test duration must be sufficient to enable all viable seeds to germinate. The following test periods have been used: 4 months for P. acaulis (12); 39 (8) or 60 days (7) for P. canariensis; 49 (11), 56 (7) or 78 days (8) for P. dactylifera; 39 (8-10), 49 (4), 52 (3) or 65 days (7) for P. Loureiri; 42 (9,10), 67 (8) or 76 days (7) for P. reclinata; 60 (3), 92 (7) or 114 days (8) for P. rupicola; 64 days for P. sylvestris (7); and 25 days for P. zeylanica (8).The Papaveraceae comprise about 200 species of herbaceous plants and, rarely, shrubs within about 25 genera. They include species which provide an edible oil (Papaver somniferum L. subsp. hortense) and a narcotic (Papaver somniferum L. subsp. somniferum, opium poppy). The fruits are dehiscent capsules and seed storage behaviour is orthodox.The seeds are small with a minute embryo surrounded by oily endosperm. Seed dormancy can be considerable, with delayed germination a common problem. B.R. Atwater classifies seed morphology as endospermic seeds with a basal rudimentary embryo (see Table 17.1, Chapter 17). Potassium nitrate, gibberellin and pre-chill treatments generally promote seed germination.No detailed information on any one genus is provided in this chapter, but Table 54.1 provides a brief summary of recommended germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments. In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures for difficult accessions of the species listed in Table 54.1 and for other species.The first step in the algorithm is to test seeds at constant temperatures of 11°C, 21°C and 31°C with light applied for 12h/d. If full germination is not achieved in any one regime and the results suggest a trend in the response of germination to constant temperatures then test at a more extreme or an intermediate constant temperature as appropriate. For example, if germination at 11°C is greater than germination at 21°C or 31°C then test a further sample of seeds at a constant temperature of 6°C with light applied for 12h/d. A further example: if germination at 21°C and 31°C is roughly similar but greater than at 11°C then test a further sample of seeds at a constant temperature of 26°C with light applied for 12h/d. If these constant temperature regimes do not promote full germination then the second step of the algorithm is to test seeds in alternating temperature regimes. If germination at constant temperatures of 21°C and below was greater than at constant temperatures above 21°C in step one then test a further sample of seeds in an alternating temperature regime of 23°/9°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d. If germination at constant temperatures of 31°C was greater than at all other constant temperatures in step one then test a further sample of seeds in an alternating temperature regime of 33°/19°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d. If germination at constant temperatures of 21° to 31°C was similar or if germination at a constant temperature of 26°C was greater than at all other constant temperatures in step one then test further samples of seeds in both the alternating temperature regimes described above.If the second step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the third step is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate and test a further sample of seeds in the most successful temperature regime determined from a comparison of the results of steps one and two.If the third step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the fourth step is to pre-chill a further sample of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test in the most successful regime determined from a comparison of the results of steps one to three. This may include co-application of GA 3 if the results of step three show a significant increase in germination over the corresponding test in step one or two.If full germination has not been promoted, the fifth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11,Volume I).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information summarised in Sesame seeds may exhibit dormancy (1)(2)(3)(4). Six months after-ripening results in loss of dormancy (1). The position of capsules on the plant and the degree of maturity affect dormancy (4). Seeds from wild collections tend to show deeper dormancy (3), apparently failing to germinate due to impermeable seed coats (3). CHAPTER 57. PIPERACEAEThe Piperaceae comprise over 1000 species of herbaceous plants, shrubs and sometimes climbers and trees some of which provide condiments (e.g. Piper nigrum L., pepper). The fruits are dry or fleshy small indehiscent berries and seed storage behaviour is orthodox (though longevity may be comparatively short).The seeds are small with a minute embryo, copious perisperm and little endosperm. They may be dormant. Evidence of dormancy in seeds of P. nigrum is not great. In nursery cultivation seeds germinate satisfactorily provided they are sown shallow (2), or on top of sand (3), or in the shade (1,3,4). Dormancy may be present in some lots, however, because the germination of over-ripe seeds is reported to be greater than the germination of less mature seeds (3).Considerable dormancy can be exhibited in seeds of P. auritum and P. hispidum (2,6,7). For example, seeds of P. hispidum maintain imbibed at 25°C in the dark faíled to germinate within a year, but were subsequently capable of germinating if provided with sufficient stimulus (7).  Whilst treatment with light promotes the germination of dormant seeds of F. esculentum (6), high doses can inhibit germination (6). It is suggested that seeds of F. esculentum be tested for germination in the alternating temperature regime prescribed by AOSA/ISTA, 20°/30°C (16h/8h), with light applied at 200 lux or as described in Chapter 6. If it is not possible to provide an alternating temperature regime, it is suggested that 30°C would be a suitable constant temperature germination test regime.It is probable that the germination of seeds of F. tataricum will prove more difficult to achieve. Removal of both the pericarp and seed coat will promote full germination if the seeds have been partly after-ripened (1), but the promotion is meagre for non-after-ripened seeds (1).Similarly treatment with gibberellins may have some promotory effect for partly after-ripened seeds but fails to promote the germination of non-after-ripened seeds (1). For the present it is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination in the manner described for F. esculentum after the removal of pericarps and seed coats. Although pre-dry treatments have been reported to be successful (1), the treatments themselves are severe and if applied should be used with great caution.The Portulacaceae comprise about 200 species of fleshy herbaceous plants and small shrubs within about 20 genera, a few of which are cultivated as pot-herbs (e.g. Talinum triangulare (Jacq.) Willd., waterleaf). The fruits are usually dehiscent capsules and the seeds show orthodox storage behaviour. For example, Portulaca and Calandrinia spp. are maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank.The seeds have a curved or ring-like embryo and can exhibit considerable dormancy. B.R.Atwater classifies seed morphology as endospermic seeds with peripheral linear embryos (see Light appears to be an essential requirement for the germination of seeds of T. triangulare (1,3); 8 hours light per day is sufficient to promote the maximum response (3). Alternating temperatures (1), pre-chill (2,3), warm stratification (3), and pricking the seed coat (1) can all be promotory and it is suggested that these be incorporated in dormancy-breaking and germination test routines as follows: prick the seed coat with a needle then imbibe the seeds at 25°C in the dark for 10 days, transfer to 4°C in the dark for a further 10 days and then test for germination at 10°/30°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 8 hours per day during part of the period spent at the higher temperature. For some (less dormant) accessions the germination test regime alone may be sufficiently promotory. Incidentally, pre-chilling after a warm stratification treatment is more promotory than pre-chilling first (3).The Proteaceae comprise about 1000 species of trees and shrubs within more than 50 genera. The most useful species is Macadamia ternifolia F. Muell., Macadamia or Queensland nut, which provides an edible nut. The fruits are nuts, drupes, capsules or follicles. Seed storage behaviour is uncertain. Although many species show orthodox seed storage behaviour -for example, Embothrium coccineum is maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank -recalcitrant seed storage behaviour has been suggested, though not confirmed, in the Macadamia nut.Advice on suitable germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments is limited (Table 60 The Punicaceae comprise several species of trees and shrubs within the genus Punica. Punica granatum L., pomegranate, provides an edible fruit, and the roots, fruit rind and seeds have medicinal uses. The fruit is a berry containing numerous seeds surrounded by a juicy pulp. Seed storage behaviour is orthodox (see below).The only reference we have found to the germination and storage behaviour of seeds within the Punicaceae is Riley (1981) for Punica granatum L. There it is suggested that the seeds should be dried to 70% of their harvest weight and stored at 4° to 5°C. Under these storage conditions it is suggested that the seeds will have a storage life of 3 years and germinate within 14 to 30 days of sowing if they are pre-chilled at 1° to 5°C for between 30 and 60 days (Riley, 1981). Since no recommended germination test procedures are available for pomegranate we investigated the germination response of a single seed lot to a limited number of constant and alternating temperature germination test regimes. The results are described and discussed below.Seeds were extracted by hand from fruits purchased locally, rinsed in water several times, blotted surface dry and then dried over silica gel (changed daily) at 20°C for 10 days. Seed moisture contents before and after drying were 76.5 and 4.8% (fresh weight basis) respectively. Initial germination (normal) of the fresh seeds when extracted and tested between moist rolled paper towels at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) for 42 days was 87%. A further test after drying (test details as above) recorded 88% normal germination.The dried seeds were hermetically stored in a deep freeze maintained at -20°C. After 3 weeks in storage 2000 seeds were removed. Ten groups of 200 seeds each were tested for germination in one of each of the following regimes: constant temperatures of 10°C, 15°C, 20°C, 25°C, 30°C, or 35°C; alternating temperatures (all 16h/8h) of 15°/30°C, 20°/30°C, or 20°/35°C; or 3° to 5°C for 7 days (that is pre-chilling) then 20°/30°C (16h/8h). In all cases the seeds received a brief daily exposure to diffuse indoor light. The tests were concluded after 21 days. Since the highest germination was observed in the 20°/35°C alternating temperature regime all the seeds which had failed to germinate within 21 days in the original test environment were transferred to this alternating temperature regime for a further 14 days. Cumulative normal germination after various periods in test are shown in Table 61.1.The pomegranate seeds germinated most rapidly at constant temperatures of 30° and 35°C (Table 61.1); at 35°C initial germination was slightly more rapid, but the seedlings were not vigorous and fungi developed on several seeds tested in this regime (whereas in other regimes no such problems occurred). Pre-chilling for 7 days was not advantageous (compared to 20°/35°C throughout), but the seeds were not killed by exposure to the lower temperatures. For example, no seeds germinated when tested at 10°C for 21 days, but 93% germinated when subsequently transferred to 20°/35°C ( The Rosaceae comprise more than 3000 species of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants within about 115 genera. The most important genera are those which provide edible fruits (e.g. Eriobotrya japonica Lindl., loquat). Fruit structure is diverse, viz: achenes, follicles, hips, pomes or drupes. Seed storage behaviour is orthodox, although the storage behaviour of loquat has not been clarified.The seeds are usually non-endospermic and dormancy can be a considerable problem. B.R.Atwater classifies seed morphology as non-endospermic seeds with axile foliar embryos within a woody seed coat and an inner semi-permeable layer (see If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information provided for four genera in this chapter and from Table 62.1.The first step in the algorithm is to pre-chill samples of seeds for 8, 12 and 24w at 2°t o 6°C and then test the pre-chilled seeds at constant temperatures of 16°C and 21°C with light applied for 12h/d.If the first step in the algorithm does not result in full germination then the second step is to take two further samples of seeds. Remove the seed coats from one sample of seeds, but only chip the seed coats of the second sample and then subject both samples to the most successful pre-chill and constant temperature germination test regime determined from a comparison of the results of step one.If the second step in the algorithm does not result in full germination then the third step is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (as described for the third step of the algorithm for herbaceous rosaceous species). Strawberry seed germination is generally slow and erratic (5). This is one manifestation of dormancy, germination continuing to occur, for example, between 5 and 10 weeks in germination tests at 24°C (1). After-ripening treatments of 6 months duration result in partial, but not complete, loss in dormancy (1).. Seeds produced by self-pollination can be much more dormant than seeds produced from cross-pollination (1). Dormancy may be substantially less in seeds extracted from rotted fruits (3), but drying seeds at room temperature (18°-20°C) may induce dormancy (3). Since much of the work on dormancy in strawberry seeds does not specify the species, the information provided here is not divided into the separate species.Constant temperatures: 24°C, 36d (4); 24°C, 70d (1); 25°C, 60dIII. Unsuccessful dormancy-breaking treatmentsLight is essential for promoting the germination of dormant strawberry seeds (12) -red light being promotory and far red light being inhibitory (8,14). For practical treatments white light is sufficient for the promotion of germination (8). 25°C is the most suitable constant temperature germination test regime (5). For seed lots which are only slightly dormant, testing in continuous light at 25°C is sufficient for full germination (12), but for slightly more dormant seeds an alternating temperature regime of 15°/30°C (16h/8h) gives substantially greater germination than a constant 25°C (8).We can confirm that the germination of dormant strawberry seeds is promoted by alternating temperature regimes: within the range 11°-38°C constant temperatures between 23°-27°C are the most suitable, but alternating temperatures with similar mean temperatures give more rapid and greater germination provided the maximum temperature of the alternation is below about 34°C (A). The maximum benefit from alternating temperatures only requires a small amplitude of alternation, 3°-7°C, and there is some benefit in providing the lower temperature of the alternation for the greater part of the cycle; 23°/30°C (16h/8h) is the most suitable regime (A).The more dormant strawberry seed lots require further dormancy-breaking treatments in addition to alternating temperatures and light (A). Pre-chill treatments have been appliedwidely. Optimum treatment periods are reported to vary from 4 to 12 weeks between lots (1), but 4 months' pre-chilling is reported to be a suitable compromise between conflicting optimum periods, at least in one investigation with 28 seed lots (2). Very long pre-chill treatments may be counter-productive, for example 6 months (2), and there is some suggestion that very short-duration treatments may also reduce germination, for example 16 days (7). These points minimise the usefulness of pre-chill treatments.Of the gibberellins, GA 4 is the most successful in promoting germination (12), but the effect of gibberellins is often marginal (6) and in some cases may cause a reduction in germination (13). Ethrel (2-chloroethanephosphonic acid) can be very successful in promoting germination (6), but treatment with potassium nitrate is reported to be a more effective dormancy-breaking agent than either ethrel or gibberellins (8). The response to pre-treatment with sodium hypochlorite is variable between lots and in some cases may be injurious (11). Consequently it is not advisable to use a standard sodium hypochlorite disinfection treatment.Scarification of strawberry seeds with concentrated sulphuric acid can be promotory and far more effective than pre-chill treatments (7). However, the treatment period is a critical factor, 8 minutes' treatment being promotory (7) whilst 15-minute treatments may reduce germination in some seed lots (10).We found that no single dormancy-breaking agent could be applied which would promote full germination in all lots (A). Consequently we devised a germination test regime which combined a number of stimulatory factors. On the basis of this work the following regime is recommended for germinating strawberry seeds: first scarify the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid for 10 minutes, then pre-wash for 30 minutes, then treat in 1 M hydrogen peroxide for 24 hours, and finally test for 49 days in an alternating temperature regime of 23°/30°C (16h/8h) with light during the 8h cycle and 0.2% potassium nitrate co-applied (A).The combined treatment has been found to be non-injurious to seeds (A), but the reader is reminded that the provision of an alternating temperature regime with light and potassium nitrate alone is likely to be sufficient for the less dormant seed lots (8).For large scale sowings of seeds (regeneration or multiplication) it is important to apply light whilst preventing the seeds from drying out. This can be achieved by sowing the seeds on top of compost (that is, exposed to light) and using a mist-propagation unit to maintain a high humidity above the seeds (15).An indication of the degree of dormancy within seeds of Prunus spp. is provided by the fact that the preferred method of determining viability in ISTA rules is the tetrazolium test and the second preference is the excised embryo test; germination tests following a 3 to 4 month prechill at 3°-5°C is the least preferred ISTA procedure. Similarly AOSA rules suggest the use of either the excised embryo test or the tetrazolium test. Details of tetrazolium and excised embryo test procedures are provided in Chapter 11. In addition, references (47) and (25) provide details of embryo culture procedures for P. americana, P. avium, P. cerasus, P. persica, and P. amygdalus, P. avium, P. domestica, P. persica, P. salicina respectively. If sufficient expertise is available (and this is essential) then gene banks may decide to follow AOSA/ISTA rules and use either tetrazolium or excised embryo tests to monitor the viability of Prunus accessions in long-term storage. Even so, it is essential that the bank is able to promote the germination of dormant seeds when this is required. There are problems with embryo culture: seedlings obtained from excised embryo culture have a very low survival percentage in field sowings (49).Before considering germination it is necessary to point out a further problem for gene banks.In many of the references cited here the seeds were not dried: they were extracted from the fruits and then immediately placed under conditions designed to remove dormancy. Dry intact seeds, however, may take between 40 and 60 days to become fully imbibed (46); removing the endocarp halves this time (46); soaking the seeds in water further reduces this period (46). When removing the endocarp it is possible to damage the seed mechanically which results in microbial damage in subsequent germination tests (23). However, such injury can be avoided if the seeds are dried before endocarp removal (23). In most reports endocarp removal and pre-soaking or pre-washing (to increase moisture content and/or to remove possible inhibitors to germination) were used as routine preliminary seed treatments, e.g. ( 8), and are suggested for gene bank use. Incidentally, it is desirable to clean seeds of all pulp and juice -by washing -as soon as possible at seed extraction (19).Pre-chill treatments have been widely used to break dormancy, but treatment periods of six months may be necessary to promote germination. Endocarp removal can substantially reduce the pre-chill periods required for full germination, but without a long pre-chill treatment dwarf seedlings may result (14,48). A short exposure of such seedlings to low temperatures, however, overcomes this problem (14). Although pre-chill treatments between 1° and 10°C have been effective, e.g. (6,17), 3° to 5°C appear to be the most suitable constant pre-chill temperatures (5,17). A fluctuation of the pre-chill temperature between 2° and 5°C may be more promotory than a constant temperature of 3°C (49). Seeds will in fact germinate under the pre-chill treatment conditions, for example, at 2°C (45) and 10°C (28) for P. amygdalus, at 3°C for P. virginiana (31), between 1° and 10°C for P. americana (17), and at 3°C for P. armeniaca, P. avium, P. cerasifera, P. cerasus, P. domestica, P. fruticosa, P. mahaleb, P. padus, P. persica, and P. serotina (42). For this reason it is suggested that seeds undergoing pre-chill treatments be checked and seedlings removed regularly -just as in germination tests. Subsequent germination tests should not be at too high a temperature, 20°C is suggested, otherwise secondary dormancy may be induced. However, after very long pre-chill treatments the risk of secondary dormancy is reduced, in which case higher temperatures, such as an alternating temperature regime of 21°/27°C (10h/14h) (31), appear to result in greater germination than lower temperatures -10°/16°C, 16°/21°C (10h/14h) (31), and wide amplitude alternating temperatures are also promotory -for example, 5°/25°C (16h/8h) (42). Nevertheless, since it cannot be guaranteed in advance that a pre-chill treatment has been sufficient to remove the risk of secondary dormancy being induced, germination test temperatures of 20°C or below are recommended. Of course, one alternative is to use an extended pre-chilling treatment, 3°-5°C, throughout and treat it as a very long germination test.Although there is seldom any benefit from warm stratification treatments alone, a short treatment prior to a pre-chill treatment can be of benefit (4,19,29,(32)(33)(34)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44). The temperature recommended for the warm stratification is usually 20° to 25°C, but for P. pensylvanica 30°C has been suggested (29). The following pre-treatments have been recommended for breaking dormancy: 2 weeks' warm stratification then 11 to 27 weeks' prechill for P. Seed storage and germination of apple and pear for genetic resources conservation has recently been reviewed elsewhere (9). The preferred ISTA and AOSA methods for testing viability are the tetrazolium or excised embryo tests. Chapter 11 provides details of these procedures. From the above it is apparent that pre-chill treatments have been widely applied to promote the germination of dormant seeds of Pyrus spp. In addition to conventional prechill treatments to the seeds, Pyrus seed dormancy can be removed by pre-chill treatments whilst the seeds remain within the fruits (19,21). However, the longer that seeds remain within fruits under such conditions the longer they take to germinate (33). There is also some evidence that pre-chilled seeds subsequently dried and stored require additional pre-chill treatments after storage before they will germinate (12). In fact this is because drying the seeds at warm temperatures induces secondary dormancy (1,(11)(12)(13)16,30). It is recommended that the seeds be extracted from the fruits as soon as possible after harvest and dried at around 15°C with a high airflow rate and low relative humidity (about 10%) (9). Some intermediate storage of fruits is probably unavoidable. During this period the fruits should be stored at 5°C (9).Although optimum temperatures for pre-chilling may vary between species (32), a common pre-chill temperature of about 5°C can be used for all species provided the treatment period is allowed to vary (32). Unfortunately the pre-chill treatment periods required to promote germination of the most dormant seed are substantial, for example 170-180 days (6,32). In general seeds of pear species require shorter pre-chill treatments than those of apple (27).Seeds will eventually germinate during a pre-chill treatment at 5°C, for example, after 15 weeks (1) or 17-19 weeks (5). In fact the germination of dormant seeds is higher the lower the temperature, at least down to about 5°-10°C (1,11,25,26). The range of 15°-17°C has been described as the compensation temperature (1). If seeds are tested for germination at temperatures below this range germination may be reduced because of secondary dormancy. If seeds are tested for germination at temperatures below this range dormancy is likely to continue to be broken during the germination tests (1). However, the mean time to germinate will also increase (25). Thus 15°C is a sensible germination test temperature for Pyrus spp. provided seed dormancy is removed by another treatment.Seed coats of Pyrus spp. remain permeable to moisture after drying (28). Seed coat removal aids germination of dormant seeds and is preferable to 15 or 30 minutes concentrated sulphuric acid scarification (20). However, if seed coats are removed from fresh seeds and these seeds tested for germination at 25°C then the resulting seedlings are dwarf (10). Thus a germination test temperature of 15°C should be used even if seedcoats are removed. Seed coat removal is rarely completely effective on its own, but pre-chill treatment periods can be reduced if seed coats are removed (28). There is no effect of the seed coat during the pre-chill treatment (29), and it is both easier and preferable (to avoid fungal decay during the pre-chill) to remove seed coats from the moist seeds after the pre-chill treatment but before the germination test (29).The following general procedure has been recommended and found to be satisfactory. Prechill the seeds on top of moist filter paper at 5°C for 21 days; then remove all three seed coats from each seed and place the seeds on clean moist filter paper and test for germination at 15°-17°C for 21 days; return non-deteriorated seeds which fail to germinate within this period to 5°C for a further (21 day) pre-chill treatment and then return to 15°-17°C (9).At 15°C radicle growth may be substantially greater than hypocotyl growth (9). The optimum temperature for the former is 15°C whereas that for the latter is 25°C (17). Within the range 5°-25°C, the temperature at which embryo germination occurs does not affect subsequent radicle or hypocotyl growth rates in other environments (17). Thus to aid normal seedling development it is advisable to transfer germinating seedlings from 15°C to 20°C to enable more balanced growth of both radicle and hypocotyl (9).Gibberellins could be provided as an additional stimulus to promoting the germination of the more dormant seeds. Pre-applied GA 3 -24h, 500 ppm (23,32) -is suggested. This is more promotory if applied prior to the pre-chill treatment (32).hypochlorite, pre-applied, 6,9d, 0.5, 1% (8); concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then sodium hypochlorite, pre-applied, 6d, 0.5%, then pre-chill, 3°-4°C, 4-10w (8); concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then sodium hypochlorite, pre-applied, 6d, 1%, then GA 3 , co-applied, 100-1000 ppm (8); concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then sodium hypochlorite, pre-applied, 6d, 1%, then pre-chill, 3°-4°C, 4,6w, then GA 3 , co-applied, 100-1000 ppm (8); concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then calcium hypochlorite, pre-applied, 6d, 1, 2% in saturated calcium hydroxide (8); concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then calcium hypochlorite, pre-applied, 6d, 1, 2% in saturated calcium hydroxide, then pre-chill, 3°-4°C, 4,6w (8); concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then thiourea, pre-applied, 6d, 0.5-2% (8); concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then thiourea, pre-applied, 6d, 0.5-2% in saturated calcium hydroxide (8); concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then thiourea, pre-applied, 6d, 1% in saturated calcium hydroxide, then GA Sodium hypochlorite: pre-applied, 6d, 1%, then warm stratification, 21°-24°C, 2m, then prechill, 2°-3°C, 3mScarification: concentrated sulphuric acid, 20 min, then warm stratification, 21°-24°C, 2m, then pre-chill, 2°-3°C, 3mRubus spp. -blackberry Removal of seed covering structures: endocarp, then pre-chill, 2°-3°C, 5m (9)It should be clear from the long list of only partly successful dormancy-breaking treatments which incorporate several stimulatory treatments that the promotion of germination of dormant seeds of Rubus spp. is difficult and rarely sufficient to promote full germination. For this reason the topographical tetrazolium test has been recommended as essential for assessing seed viability in Rubus spp. (19): no combined dormancy-breaking and germination test procedure has yet been devised which will promote the germination of all seeds of all Rubus spp., or which will promote the germination of all seeds of all cultivars within a single species.Single application of many dormancy-breaking agents such as pre-chilling, alternating temperatures, light, potassium nitrate, thiourea and kinetin are generally ineffective (7,8,10,17,21,22), but have some effect when applied to seeds previously scarified (4,(6)(7)(8)(9)13,18,20,22,23). Gibberellins, sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite or prolonged warm stratification applied singly can promote the germination of intact seeds of Rubus spp. (4,7,8,22), but their effectiveness is greatly increased when applied to seeds previously scarified (8,14,18,20,23). However, scarification alone is either unsuccessful (11,13,15,16,22,23) or has only limited effect (2,(5)(6)(7)(8)14,16,18,20,21,24). Sulphuric acid (concentrated) scarification gives variable results depending upon treatment duration, seed lots, and species. For the majority of raspberry species a 20-30 minute treatment is safe and partly effective (5,6,8,18,20), but some seed lots have a requirement for 1-4 hours treatment for maximum promotion (21). For the majority of blackberry species 30 minute to 2 hour treatments are optimal (6,7,14), although some require 2-4 hours (2,13,21) whilst 3 hour duration treatments may kill seeds in other blackberry seed lots (13). Consequently, to avoid damage to the seeds, it is suggested that the duration of the concentrated sulphuric acid scarification should not exceed 20 minutes.It is quite clear that gene banks will have to use multifactor dormancy-breaking treatments to promote the germination of seeds of Robus spp. The following multifactor treatment has been recommended and, though not completely successful, is suggested as the most satisfactory treatment currently available. Scarify the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid for 20 minutes, then soak for 6 days in a 1% solution of calcium hypochlorite dissolved in saturated calcium hydroxide, then pre-chill the seeds at 3°-5°C for 6 weeks, and finally test for germination at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in the light on the top of filter papers moistened with 500 ppm GA 3 (8).The following investigations are suggested to those attempting to improve this procedure: the effect of replacing the calcium hypochlorite treatment with a shorter duration hydrogen peroxide treatment; the effect of an additional warm stratification treatment prior to pre-chilling; the effect of alternating warm stratification/pre-chilling treatments -see section on Prunus; and the effect of co-application of gibberellins during pre-chilling as well as during the germination test.The Rubiaceae comprise about 5000 species of mainly trees and shrubs within about 400 genera. The two most important genera are Coffea which provides beverages and Cinchona which provides medicinal products. The fruits are capsules, berries or drupes. Seed storage behaviour in the Rubiaceae is now believed to be orthodox. For example, Crucianella, Hymenopogon, and Phyllis spp. are maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank. Information on seed storage behaviour in Cinchona and Coffea spp. is discussed in subsequent sections of this chapter.The seeds are usually non-endospermic; seed size varies considerably from very small in the Cinchonoideae tribe to the very much larger \"bean\" of the Coffeoideae tribe; dormancy is a common problem. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genera Cinchona and Coffea, and a brief summary of further information on dormancy and germination in the Rubiaceae is provided in Table 63.1. In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures.The  (22), although coffee seeds will germinate satisfactorily in aerated water provided their endocarps have been removed (18,19). This suggests that oxygen can be a limiting factor in germination tests. If sand is used for germination tests a suitable moisture content for the sand is 10% by volume (22).Fresh, intact, coffee seeds require between 60 and 110 days to germinate (14,18,19). The removal of the endocarps increases the proportion of seeds which will germinate and reduces the time taken to germinate by between 14 to 21 days (2,24,31) and 28 to 42 days (18,19,21). The endocarp is reported to be impermeable to water (9), but it seems more likely that the endocarp delays the uptake of moisture rather than preventing it completely. Minimum germination test periods for fresh seeds from which the endocarps have been removed is 21  (33). Endocarps should be removed by hand: mechanical removal is damaging (12).Drying the seeds results in erratic germination in subsequent tests (10,15,29,31). Even with endocarp removal dried seeds take longer to germinate than fresh seeds (15,31): the cause of this appears to be a delay to imbibition in the dried seeds (14). Dried seeds from which endocarps have been removed require 90 days for germination (5,7). Even so, the total proportions of seeds germinating may be low. The previously dried seeds which remain ungerminated at the end of germination tests are reported to be dormant (29). Treatment with kinetin can be promotory in such cases (28), but gibberellin and light treatments are reported to inhibit coffee seed germination (24,26,28). 29°C is reported to be the most suitable constant temperature for seed germination (20).Consequently it is suggested here that coffee seeds be tested for germination, after the endocarps have been removed, at 30°C in the dark for approximately 100 days, or more.Where dormancy is a problem it is suggested that a 48 hour pre-treatment in 10 -4 or 10 -5 M kinetin be provided. ) is similar to that for onion (Allium cepa L.).Nevertheless there are a number of problems. Although one report has shown that seed moisture content can be reduced to 5% without damage to the seeds (8), certain other reports suggest damage to seeds dried below 8% moisture content (5,6,21,27). It is possible that many of these reports are due to failure of the very dry seeds to imbibe and germinate within the duration of the germination test; that is germination test periods may be adequate for fresh and partly-dried seeds but inadequate for the very dry seeds. For example, within the range of 5 to 10% seed moisture content storage at the highest moisture content was reported to be preferable to storage at lower moisture contents in one investigation, but this conclusion was based on germination tests which were concluded after only 8 days (8).Problems, however, have also been reported at low storage temperatures. For example, for coffee seeds at 13 to 15% moisture content a storage temperature of 2° to 5°C has been reported to result in poorer germination than storage at 10°C (8,31). Moreover, dry seeds stored at -18°C for 2 months or -10° to -16°C for 10 days showed reduced germination (33), whilst seeds dried to 5 to 7% moisture content and stored at -19° to -15°C for 5 months failed to germinate at all in a subsequent germination test (21).Thus whilst we are confident that Coffea spp. show orthodox seed storage behaviour, storage under IBPGR preferred conditions cannot be recommended until the above problems have been satisfactorily resolved. We suggest that the following factors should be taken into account when attempting to resolve these problems. First, germination test environment and duration must be sufficient to enable the very dry seeds to germinate. This means that endocarp removal and a very long test duration are essential. Secondly, when seeds are dried and moisture content determined the experimeter must ensure that embryo moisture content (that is, not just moisture content of the whole seed) is below the levels at which freezing damage would be expected. Either allow seed moisture content to equilibrate throughout the seeds after drying by maintaining at around 15°C for some time before storing at sub-zero temperatures, or remove the seed covering structures before drying and dry and store the embryos only. Finally, it may be advisable to humidify the very dry seeds prior to germination tests.The Rutaceae comprise about 1500 species of trees and shrubs within about 130 genera which provide edible fruits (e.g. Casimiroa edulis Llave & Lex., white sapote), flavourings (e.g. Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng., curry-leaf tree) and medicinal products (e.g. Ruta graveolens L., rue). The fruits may be dehiscent capsules, samara-like, or fleshy and berry-like. Seed storage behaviour is now thought to be orthodox. For example, Dictamnus albus L. is maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank, and Murraya exotica L. is known to show orthodox seed storage behaviour. Information on Citrus seed storage behaviour is provided in a subsequent section of this chapter.Germination of the seeds can be slow and a part of the cause may be dormancy. Treatments to the seed covering structures and gibberellins can promote germination. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genus Citrus (including synonyms within Limonia and Poncirus). Information on other species is summarised in Table 64.1 and in addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures.The first step of the algorithm is to test seeds in an alternating temperature regime of 33°/19°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature in each cycle.If this does not result in full germination then the second step in the algorithm is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate and test a fresh sample of seeds in the above alternating temperature regime.If this does not result in full germination then the third step in the algorithm is to chip the seed covering structures of a fresh sample of seeds and then test in the alternating temperature regime described in step one, with 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 co-applied if the proportion of seeds which germinated in step two was significantly greater than the proportion which germinated in step one. In all Citrus spp. seed germination is generally slow and often erratic. For example, moist seeds of C. sinensis tested for germination at 23°C showed no germination in the first 15 days in test, and only thereafter was germination observed, with individual seeds continuing to germinate up to at least 31 days in test (17).Moreover, drying Citrus seeds results in a considerable further delay to radicle emergence (18). There is a linear relationship between the mean rate of seed germination and initial seed moisture content, such that drying moist seeds extracted from fruits at 56% moisture content to 5% moisture content doubles the mean germination time of intact seeds at 20°C from 14 to 28 days, and 42 days are required for full germination (18). It has been suggested that this substantial delay to germination resulting from desiccation has been confused with loss in viability (germination test periods being too short to record the germination of dried seeds) and accounts for conflicts in the literature as to whether or not Citrus seeds can be dried safely (18). The delay to the germination of dried seeds results entirely from the considerable periods taken by the seeds to imbibe sufficiently to reach the fully imbibed state (33).There is some doubt in the literature as to whether or not seeds of Citrus spp. exhibit dormancy. Despite emphatic reports that there is no dormancy in Citrus seeds (31), seed dormancy can be discerned in some lots (4,5). The major problem in testing seeds of Citrus spp. for germination, however, is the delay to germination. For Citrus seeds, treatments which do or do not reduce the delays to germination, or which do or do not increase the proportion of seeds germinating during tests of limited duration are included here as dormancy-breaking treatments according to the layout used for all other genera. This is partly for convenience and partly because there is a view that slow germination in seeds of Citrus spp. may result, in part, from dormancy (33). It should be noted that the majority of citations concern seeds that have not been dried.Although Citrus seeds will germinate over a wide range of constant temperatures, roughly 15°-38°C (7), seed germination is most rapid and complete within the range 30°-35°C (4,7,22,33). In dry Citrus seeds the time taken to germinate is affected by the rate of imbibition and the rate of the subsequent growth processes. Temperature affects both; because of the substantial delays to the germination of dried Citrus seeds it is important to optimise the germination test temperature with regard to these rates; at 30°C the rates are not at a maximum (22,33), but higher temperatures during the growth phase can cause seedling abnormalities and may reduce percentage germination in some seed lots (22,33). Consequently a germination test temperature of 30°C is recommended. Germination tests at this temperature should be continued until a full seven days have passed in which no seeds have begun to germinate. It is expected that this will require about 28-42 days.Treatment with gibberellins can reduce the time taken to germinate (1,5,33), but the effect is marginal (33) and unreliable (5). Indeed in many cases control treatments where the seeds are pre-soaked in water with no gibberellins present account for most of the apparent effect of gibberellins compared to untreated seeds (5). Treatment with gibberellins after treatment with chelating agents (e.g. ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) has been reported to reduce further the germination time due to increased permeability of the seed coat (1). Again, however, the effect appears unreliable since other workers report no effect of such combined treatments (33). If dormancy is present then pre-chill treatments are more effective than treatment with gibberellins and also reduce the time taken to germinate in the subsequent germination test regime (6) -although if the pre-chill period is included in the calculation of the time taken to germinate then there is no overall reduction (33).It is not possible to give precise recommendations for pre-chill treatment periods where these are required to remove dormancy. Nevertheless, it is suggested that these be carried out at 3°-5°C, and that it is unlikely that treatment periods greater then 28 days are necessary.Removing seedcoats can also reduce the time taken to germinate by both moist (11) and dry (18) seeds. In both cases the effect can be substantial (in contrast to the marginal effect of gibberellins). For example, removing seedcoats from moist seeds of C. aurantium reduced the mean germination time from about 35 to 5 days at 29°C (11). Removing seed coats as a regular procedure is not recommended, however, since it is time consuming and -provided sufficient time is allowed in the germination test -rarely results in greater cumulative percentage germination (18). Moreover, embryos can be damaged where the seed coats are removed from dried Citrus seeds (18).It is worth noting that the extreme period taken by dry Citrus seeds to imbibe can also affect the results of rapid viability tests. The Sapindaceae comprise more than 1000 species of trees, shrubs and, rarely, herbaceous plants within about 125 genera which provide edible fruits (e.g. Blighia sapida Koenig, akee), beverages (e.g. Paullinia cupana HBK, guarana) and oils (Schleichera oleosa (Lour.) Merr., lac tree). The fruits are diverse: the edible portion of fruits such as akee and litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is the aril which surrounds the seed. Seed storage behaviour may be variable; further investigations are required. Some species are known to show orthodox seed storage behaviour -for example, Koelreuteria paniculata Laxm. is maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank. But the species with edible fruits such as Euphoria longan Steud., Litchi chinensis Sonn., and Nephelium spp. are thought to show recalcitrant seed storage behaviour. There appears to be no satisfactory procedure at present for promoting the germination of all dormant seeds within Ribes spp., and it has been suggested that viability can only be determined by using a tetrazolium test ( 6), but the authors provided no details of the procedures to be followed. More work is required before a completely satisfactory procedure can be advised. We suggest that investigations should concentrate on alternating temperature regimes. Three different types of treatment may be useful when combined; warm stratification, then pre-chill, then an alternating temperature for germination. Alternatively a single alternating temperature regime may be sufficient.In the meantime the following general procedure is suggested. First notch the seed coat using a razor, then pre-chill at 3°-5°C for 2-4 months, and finally transfer to an alternating temperature regime of 24°/4°C (16h/8h) -for at least a further 6 to 8 weeks. For the least dormant accessions, or where some germination is required in a short period of time, the above alternating temperature regime alone can be provided.If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environment can be obtained from the information provided for five genera in this chapter and from The germination of tomato seeds is reported to be dependent on the phytochrome ratio resulting from the light regime in which they are tested (6,9,15,16,18,(20)(21)(22)24,28,35,36,37). Several authors have reported apparently contradictory effects of light on tomato seed dormancy and germination (7,28). The reader is referred to Chapter 6 for clarification of the effect of phytochrome on germination and the high irradiance reaction -which explain the apparently contradictory results. In particular the light treatment given in Chapter 6 is recommended for this genus. The first 8 to 16 hours after the onset of imbibition are the most critical with regard to the light environment (9,16). After 24 hours of imbibition the effect of light is minimal (35). In passing it should be noted that coloured filter papers -particularly if seeds are germinated between papers -such as blue grey, brown or dark green can inhibit the germination of tomato seeds (24).Optimum temperatures for germination appear to be constant temperatures between 25° and 30°C (15) or an alternating temperature of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (24). The range 25° to 30°C appears to be an optimum temperature range for germination since seeds within this range are less dependent upon the light regime for germination, but the germination of the most dormant seeds is not promoted at either these constant temperatures or the alternating temperature regime 20°/30°C (28), but co-applied potassium nitrate may further promote germination in these regimes (13,28).As a practical regime for seed banks it is suggested that seeds be tested for germination at an alternating temperature of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) with potassium nitrate, co-applied, 0.2% with the light regime given in Chapter 6. Incidentally co-applied potassium nitrate at low concentrations (10 -1 M) is not deleterious to aged seeds and may enhance the rate of germination (26). (In commerce imbibition in potassium nitrate or water followed by drying back is known as hardening and is often used with tomato seeds.)VII. References Seeds of the cultivated and wild tobacco species and the hybrids cited above can show considerable dormancy (1)(2)(3)(4)9,12,13,17,20,27,29). Seed dormancy is said to persist for 1-3 weeks after harvesting (2). However, if light is not applied to promote germination in the test procedure, tobacco seeds may not germinate at all after 6 months or even many years dry storage at room temperature (10,23). N. goodspeedii, N. gossei promoted more by the use of alternating temperature regimes than it will be at constant temperatures (14,(21)(22)(23)27): 20°/30°C (16h/8h) appears to be a satisfactory regime (14,(21)(22)(23)27). Thus the AOSA/ISTA prescriptions are generally satisfactory. If it is not possible to provide an alternating temperature regime and a constant temperature is provided then higher temperatures (30°C) should be avoided because germination may be inhibited: use 20°C (10,14,16).If further dormancy breaking treatments are required then treatment with gibberellins is likely to be among the more effective (4,5). For successful treatment concentrations see above.Other useful dormancy-breaking agents, in declining order of reported effectiveness are ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrite, potassium nitrate (15). In the case of accessions with considerable dormancy, combinations of gibberellins and potassium nitrate are suggested, coapplied at the concentrations given above, since there can be powerful positive interactions in the effect of these two agents (16,20). Finally if these are insufficient try combining the preceding with the sodium hypochlorite pre-treatment (2).The widely recognised ability of gibberellic acid to promote the germination of dormant seeds of Solanum spp. is apparent from this list of successful dormancy breaking agents -though it should also be noted that on occasion treatment with gibberellic acid may have no effect at all (16,30,49) -particularly when applied at low concentrations -or be only partly successful (15,16,18,20,27,30,36,40,54). In general pre-application is preferable to co-application. In the latter case high concentrations can result in abnormal seedling morphology.The following general procedure is recommended for S. tuberosum: 2000 ppm GA 3 , preapplied for 24 hours, with subsequent testing for germination at 20°C for 28 days in diffuse daylight or the light regime provided in Chapter 6. This procedure is sufficiently promotory for the majority of seed lots and does not result in the production of abnormal seedlings (21,A). Moreover, treatment with GA 3 at this concentration does not appear to damage aged seeds (A). Extremely dormant seeds may require treatment with 4000 ppm GA 3 (40).Solanum collections are unlikely to be limited to S. tuberosum alone; rather they will contain very many Solanum spp. (e.g. see ( 56)). In general tuber-bearing Solanum spp. give higher germination at constant temperatures than at alternating temperatures (16,42). 20°C is suitable although sometimes 10°C may be preferable (1,7). Whichever constant temperature is used diffuse light is essential and treatment with GA 3 recommended (as given for S. tuberosum).In contrast non-tuber-bearing Solanum spp. tend to require alternating temperatures for full germination (15,24,27,(31)(32)(33)43,54,(58)(59)(60)(61). For example, in S. melongena an alternating temperature regime of 29°-30°/23°C (8h/16h) was sufficient alone to provide suitable conditions for rapid (within 5 days) and almost complete germination of both fresh and 1 year old dormant seeds (60). Note that this alternating temperature regime is similar to that prescribed by AOSA and ISTA.The following general procedure is suggested for non-tuber-bearing Solanum spp., but the GA 3 treatment may not always be essential: 500-2000 ppm GA 3 pre-applied for 24 hours or CHAPTER 68. STERCULIACEAEThe Sterculiaceae comprise about 750 species of trees, shrubs, and -rarely -herbaceous plants within about 50 genera which provide beverages (e.g. Theobroma cacao L., cocoa), masticatories (e.g. Cola spp.) and gums (e.g. Sterculia urens Roxb.). The fruits are pods. (woody drupes), capsules, and follicles. Seed storage behaviour is variable. Rulingia pannosa is orthodox and maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank, but Theobroma cacao L. is widely reported as recalcitrant. Seed storage behaviour in Cola spp. is not entirely clear: the seeds are treated as recalcitrant (that is they are not dried) but, if they are recalcitrant, then they are some of the longest-lived recalcitrant species so far reported.The main food storage organ of the seeds is the cotyledons (two or more), but a residual endosperm may also be present as a thin membrane. The testa is thin, but can be quite tough and delay or prevent germination. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genus Cola. A brief summary of recommended germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments for Theobroma cacao L. is provided in Seeds of Cola spp. can show considerable dormancy (1,(5)(6)(7)(12)(13)(14). Freshly harvested seeds of C. nitida take between 3 and 9 months to germinate whereas completely after-ripened seeds are reported to germinate immediately (6,9,13,14). After-ripening periods of between 3 months and 1 year are reported to be required to remove dormancy (1,6,7,13,14). The afterripening treatments were carried out in moist environments (e.g. undried nuts in a polyethylene bag). Therefore the success of after-ripening treatments does not provide evidence of orthodox seed storage behaviour.II. Germination regimes for non-dormant seeds -III. Unsuccessful dormancy-breaking treatmentsIn freshly harvested seeds of Cola spp. the embryo is 1-1.5 mm long and lies at the deepest point of the basal furrows in the cotyledons which are firmly held together (2,7,12). When placed in contact with a moist medium the nut imbibes moisture but germination may not occur for some weeks or months: only after considerable delays do the embryos begin to develop (7). If the cotyledons are gently teased apart without damaging their contact with the embryo or the seeds are pre-soaked or the cotyledon tip removed then the embryo imbibes more rapidly and the delay to germination is reduced (7,9,12). Consequently for dormant seeds it is suggested that testa removal and cotyledon parting be practised.Quite high temperatures are required for germination. A constant temperature of 30°C has been reported as optimal (7,12). Although continuous exposure to 37°C will eventually kill the seeds, warm stratification at 37°C for 2 to 3 weeks with subsequent removal to a lower temperature can reduce the time taken by the seeds to germinate (7) -possibly by increasing the embryo's imbibition rate? Diffuse sunlight or fluorescent light are promotory (1,5,7), but direct sunlight (in nursery sowings) can reduce germination (5,8). It is suggested that the seeds be tested for germination in moist sand or between moist paper towels at 30°C, and recommended that attention be paid to keeping the germination test medium moist throughout the test.The Theaceae are often known as the Ternstroemiaceae (an older name) and are sometimes described also as the Camelliaceae. The Theaceae comprise about 200 species of trees and shrubs within 18 to 20 genera, but the only important species is tea, Camellia sinensis Kuntze (Thea sinensis L.). The fruits are capsules (e.g. Camellia) or berries (e.g. Cleyera). Seed storage behaviour in Camellia spp. was thought to be recalcitrant, but we now question this assumption -see the Comment on Camellia in this chapter.The seeds are non-endospermic with a linear embryo, thick cotyledons and a thin testa. Tea seed germination is epigeal, but the testa can delay germination. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genus Camellia (including synonyms within Thea). In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures.The first step in the algorithm is to pre-chill two samples of seeds at 2° to 6°C for 8w and then test for germination in alternating-temperature regimes of 26°/16°C (12h/12h) and 23°/9°C (12h/12h) with light applied for 12h/d during the period spent at the upper temperature. If the supply of seeds is limited then pre-chill one sample only and then test at 26°/16°C.If the first step in the algorithm does not result in full germination then the second step is to pre-treat imbibing seeds at 26°C for 4w (i.e. a warm stratification treatment), then prechill at 2° to 6°C for 8w and, finally, test for germination in the alternating-temperature regime described in step one which gave the greater germination. If no difference in germination was observed during step one between the two alternating temperature regimes then test at 26°/16°C.If the second step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the third step is to experiment with further dormancy-breaking agents (see the information on Camellia for examples of likely suitable treatments) in addition to the warm stratification/pre-chill/alternating temperature regime described in step two. The germination of untreated seeds of C. sinensis can be slow (4,7,8,11,12), particularly if the seeds are light or not ripe, but full and rapid germination can be achieved by various pretreatments (4,(6)(7)(8)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Seed dormancy is manifested by a delay to germination rather than by preventing germination: in 9-week germination tests no difference is seen in the cumulative germination of treated and untreated seeds, but the germination progress curves differ considerably (11). See the Comment for a discussion of seed storage characteristics.recalcitrant seed storage behaviour. Indeed there are some grounds to suspect that the seeds may be orthodox. First the dried seeds' failure to germinate may result from delayed imbition.For example, in one investigation the dried seeds failed to re-imbibe to the moisture content reached by moist seeds when they were set to germinate (11). Second, and more striking, is the evidence that the majority of seeds of C. sinensis dried to equilibrium at either 0, 10, 25, 40, or 55% relative humidity remained viable for 20 weeks at 0°C (15). Moreover in this investigation the seeds were soaked for 2 days prior to the germination test and the shells cracked, a treatment which the authors acknowledged may have resulted in the seed rotting which they observed (15). As discussed elsewhere (Volume I), such treatments are known to damage very dry seeds of orthodox species -the damage to orthodox seeds being described as imbibition injury. Consequently we recommend that further investigations are required to clarify the seed storage behaviour of C. sinensis.VII. References The Tiliaceae comprise about 400 species of trees, shrubs and, rarely, herbaceous plants within more than 35 genera, some of which provide fibres (e.g. Cephalonema polyandrum K. Schum.). The fruits are capsules, berries or drupes and the seeds show orthodox storage behaviour. For example, Corchorus fructicosus is maintained in the long-term seed store at the Wakehurst Place Gene Bank. Incidentally, comments that seeds of certain Corchorus spp.should not be stored at moisture contents below 10% are erroneous and result from researchers confounding hardseededness (see below) with loss in viability.Hardseededness is likely to be the most prevalent problem in germination tests, but can be avoided by suitable treatments to the seed covering structures (e.g. chipping off a part of the seed coat). Comparatively high temperatures are required for germination tests. Detailed information on seed dormancy and germination is provided in this chapter for the genus Corchorus. A summary of recommended germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments for other species is provided in Table 70.1. In addition the algorithm below may be helpful in developing suitable germination test procedures.The first step in the algorithm is to test seeds at constant temperatures of 31°C and 36°C with light applied for 12h/d.If the first step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the second step is to chip the seed coats of a further sample of seeds and then test for germination at the constant temperature regime which resulted in the greater proportion of seeds germinating in step one.If there was no significant difference between the results at the two temperatures then test the chipped seeds at 31°C.If the second step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the third step is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate and test a further sample of seeds at the most appropriate regime determined from a comparison of the results of steps one and two. This will include a requirement to chip the seeds if hard seeds are present in the accession. A high temperature (1), a low oxygen partial pressure (1,6,9), a low light irradiance (1,5,9), potassium nitrate (5), alternating temperatures (5,9), and the rupture of seed coats (2,6,12) are reported to be essential for promoting the germination of dormant seeds of Typha spp. Seeds with ruptured seed coats (pericarp) germinate over a wide range of temperatures (6). Consequently it is suggested that the seeds be imbibed in the dark, or under a low irradiance of light, for 24 hours and the pericarps of the moist seeds ruptured at the blunt -that is the embryo -end of the seed. Then test for germination on the top of filter papers moistened with 10 -2 M potassium nitrate -use more filter papers than is usual to ensure sufficient moisture is available to the seeds throughout the test -in an alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) -since it is reported to be superior to 10°/30°C (11) -for 21 days or more with light, low irradiance, applied during the 8 hour periods spent at the higher temperature.CHAPTER 72. UMBELLIFERAE If the second step of the algorithm does not promote full germination then the third step is to pre-chill a further sample of seeds at 6°C for 8w and then test in the most appropriate regime determined from a comparison of the results of steps one and two.If the third step of the algorithm does not result in full germination then the fourth step is to co-apply 7 x 10 -4 M GA 3 to the germination test substrate and test in the most appropriate regime determined from a comparison of the results of steps one to three. If the proportion of seeds germinating in step three is significantly greater than the comparable test in step one or two then this fourth step should include the pre-chill treatment.If full germination has not been promoted, the fifth step of the algorithm is to estimate viability using a tetrazolium test (see Chapter 11, Volume I).If the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that the failure to achieve full germination is due to the presence of dead seeds and that one of the above regimes promoted the germination of all, or almost all, the viable seeds, then this regime is used for all subsequent germination tests. If, however, the result of the tetrazolium test indicates that dormancy has not been broken by the regimes applied so far in the algorithm, then experiment with modifications to the above regimes. Clues to possible satisfactory dormancy-breaking treatments and promotory germination test environments can be obtained from the information provided for nine genera in this chapter and from Table 72.1.A. graveolens L. dillAfter-ripening seeds of A. graveolens for 7 days at 35°C resulted in loss in dormancy in some seed lots (1) -suggesting that dormancy can be present.BP; TP: 20°/30°C; 10°/30°C (16h/8h): 21d (ISTA) (15,42). Differences in the degree of seed dormancy between populations are reported to be correlated with the bolting resistance of the mother plant (37); within a population the degree of dormancy of individual seeds is governed by umbel order (26,38). Dormancy can be induced when the seeds are dried from the imbibed state (2-4) (as would happen if the germination test substrate is allowed to dry out), if the imbibed seeds are exposed to high temperatures during the germination test (6)(7)(8)(9)22,29,32), or if seeds are pelleted (40). Strictly speaking in the latter case it is not so much that dormancy is induced, but that the pellet subsequently prevents light from reaching the seeds and breaking dormancy and may also restrict oxygen availability. Light: dark, at 18°C (11,38); dark, above 20°C (3,5,11,20,23,31,32,37,39,40,41,46); light, above 30°C (3,8,19,22,25,28,29,35); far red, 20 min (39) Potassium nitrate: co-applied, 2x10 -2 , 10 -2 M (24); pre-applied, 6d, 1% plus tribasic potassium phosphate, 1% (26); pre-applied, 5-20d, plus tri-potassium orthophosphate, -10, -15 bars, germinate at 20°C in light (34) Polyethylene glycol: pre-applied, -12 bars (40); pre-applied, 2-14d, -10 bars (3); pre-applied, 1,2w, -11.7 bars, plus GA 3 , 50 ppm, germinate at 25°C in light (25) Sodium hypochlorite: pre-applied, 2h, 5.25% (26); pre-applied, 2h, 0.5-2%, germinate at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in dark (35) Mercuric chloride: (22) Ether: (22) Pre-soak: then ether (22); 5°C, 48h, then pre-dry, germinate at 22°C in dark (46) Zeatin: co-applied, 10 -7 -10 -4 M, with or without GA 4/7' 2x10 -5 M (1,5)Zeatin riboside: co-applied, 10 -7 -10 -4 M, with or without GA 4/7' 2x10 -5 M (1,5)N -Benzyladenine: co-applied, 10 -5 -10 -4 M (41); co-applied, 10 -5 M (4)6-Benzylaminopurine: co-applied, 10 -7 -10 -4 M (1,5); co-applied, 10 -5 -10 -4 M (41)Dihydrozeatin: co-applied, 10 -7 -10 -4 M, with or without GA 4/7' 2x10 -5 M (1,5)Cytokinin: co-applied, 10 -7 -5x10 -6 M, with or without GA 4/7 , 2x10 -5 M (1,5)It is essential to provide light (2,3,20,23,24,27,28,32,36,38) at either a low constant temperature (2)(3)(4)(6)(7)(8)10,17,19,22,25,32,35,38,45) or -preferably -in an alternating temperature regime (17)(18)(19)(20)27,35,44) and to maintain a moist substratum (13,24) in order to promote the germination of seeds of Apium spp. Alternating temperature regimes of 15°/22°C (18), 10°/20°C (28) or 12°-15°/22°-25°C (42,43) are more effective in promoting germination than either 20°/30°C (all 16h/8h in light) or 15°C or 20°C in light (the latter being the more suitable of constant temperature germination test regimes). It is suggested that gene banks use the regime 15°/25°C (16h/8h) with light applied during the period spent at the upper temperature during each diurnal cycle. If it is necessary to use a constant temperature germination test regime then use 15°C. For the most dormant seeds it may be necessary to provide an additional stimulus with 2x10 -5 M, GA 4/7 plus 10 -4 M cytokinin, co-applied.15°C has been recommended (2, AOSA) we suspect that the use of this regime will be less satisfactory than either of the two above alternating temperature regimes since germination in 20-day tests at either 18°/13°C (8h/16h) or 15°/10°C (8h/16h) -where the mean temperature is not too dissimilar to 15°C -was far lower than at 27°/22°C (8h/16h) (3). This may explain why the previous ISTA recommendation (1976 rules) to test dormant coriander seeds at 10°/20°C (16h/8h) has been deleted from the current rules. Further dormancy-breaking agents which are likely to be effective in promoting germination include pre-chilling, gibberellins and light.Because of the problem of embryoless seeds, dissection of non-germinated seeds at the end of germination tests is advised. Freshly harvested seeds of fennel can show considerable dormancy (2,6,7) with, for example, no germination being reported at harvest, and only 41% germination after 3 months' afterripening at room temperature (2), whilst as many as 18 months after-ripening at room temperature may be required to completely remove dormancy (7). Light: dark (7)V. Successful dormancy-breaking treatmentsAlternating temperatures: 6°/25°C in dark (9)F. vulgareAlternating temperatures: 20°/30°C (16h/8h), 14d, then dry ungerminated seeds, room temperature, 3d, then return to 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (6,7)Pre-chill: 10°C, 5d, germinate at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (5)Warm stratification: 20°C, 14d, then germinate at 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (6)Pre-wash: 24h, germinate at 18°C in dark (1)Dormancy will not be the only problem encountered when attempting to germinate fennel seeds. As with other members of the Umbelliferae the variation in maturity within a plant means that certain \"seeds\" may lack embryos, whilst others may be immature with only partlydeveloped embryos. Consequently at the end of germination tests the seeds which have failed to germinate should be cut to determine whether or not they possess an embryo: as many as one third of \"seeds\" may lack embryos (3,4).Within the range 8°-29°C, a constant temperature of 15°C is the most suitable for germination tests (8). (Incidentally, previous ISTA rules, 1976, recommended a constant temperature germination test regime of 15°C as a dormancy-breaking procedure.) Alternating temperature regimes of 15°/22°C or 22°/29°C (16h/8h) provided no additional stimulation of germinationThe AOSA rules for V. vulpina suggest a 90-day pre-chill at 3° to 5°C. Plant breeders have used very long pre-chill treatment periods to break seed dormancy, but despite this have rarely been completely successful in promoting the germination of all dormant seeds. For example, a pre-chill treatment to seeds of 14 hybrid crosses at 5°C for 12 weeks resulted in a mean germination of only 40% in subsequent germination tests with a range of individual test results from 8% to 62% (16).Consequently treatment with gibberellin has been used. Gibberellins are more effective in promoting the germination of dormant seeds of Vitis spp. than other growth substances (9), or various other chemicals (15), and GA 3 is more reliable than either GA 4/7 or GA 13 (11), but -as the preceding sections illustrate -only treatments with very high GA concentrations have been successful (17) where GA 3 is the only dormancy breaking treatment. Unfortunately high concentrations of GA 3 influence subsequent seedling growth (11,13,17) -for example, producing abnormal seedlings -and cannot, therefore, be recommended for application in gene banks. The solution to this problem has been to combine treatment with GA 3 with other treatments, the most common additional treatment being that of pre-chill. Treatment with GA 3 before the pre-chill treatment is more effective than the pre-chill before treatment with GA 3 (9,15). Unfortunately, however, the GA 3 concentrations required to promote germination in such combined treatments can result in the death of some seeds within accessions, for example at 2000 ppm (4). Consequently it is necessary to reduce the GA 3 concentration and introduce a further dormancy-breaking treatment.The following combination of treatments has been devised and found to be successful for promoting the germination of dormant seeds of Vitis spp. whilst at the same time is not damaging to the seeds: a 24-hour pre-treatment in 0.5 M hydrogen peroxide, a further 24 hour pre-treatment in 1000 ppm GA 3 , followed by a 21 day pre-chill treatment at 3°-5°C with subsequent testing of the seeds in a diurnal alternating temperature regime of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) for 42 days (4). Staff in gene banks are recommended to use this procedure.In passing it is worth noting that a 12 hour cycle alternating temperature regime has been suggested for germination tests of grape seeds, viz. 20°/30°C (9h/3h) (1). There would appear to be no harm in using this regime, but neither does there appear to be any advantage of it compared to a diurnal alternation of 20°/30°C (16h/8h) (1). Thus it is recommended that the diurnal alternating temperature regime be used in preference to the 12 hour cycle.  (7), although, of course, longevity is short when air-dry seeds are stored in ambient conditions in the tropics (1,6). Germination is often poor and very irregular (4), with some seeds taking over a year to germinate (4): that is under natural conditions the seeds can remain dormant for considerable periods (1,4). The hard, stony, seed coat is reported to be responsible for the delay to germination in seeds of Elettaria spp. (1). V. Successful dormancy-breaking treatments Scarification: acetic acid, 25%, 3,5,10 min (5); nitric acid, 25, 50%, 5,10 min (5); hydrochloric acid, 50%, 5,10 min (5)It is evident that the dormancy reported in seeds of Elettaria spp. results from the impermeable seed coat: any procedure which enables the seeds to imbibe moisture promotes germination (1-3,5,7,8). The information summarised above concerns nursery sowings, and information of the precise conditions for germinating seeds of Elettaria spp. is lacking. It is known, however, that relatively high temperatures are required for seed germination, around 25°C or higher (1,3,7). Light and alternating temperatures are probably also beneficial judging from the response of the seeds in the wild (1,4).It is therefore suggested that seeds of Elettaria spp. be tested for germination on top of filter papers at 25°C or 20°/30°C (16h/8h) in light after chipping the seeds. If acid scarification is preferred then, for one seed lot at least, a 10 minute treatment in either 25% acetic acid or 25% nitric acid was very effective in promoting germination (5). The germination test period should be at least 3 months (1,7,8).1. Abraham, P. (1958). New knowledge for cardamom growers. Indian Farming, 8, 34-38.This chapter provides a summary of recommended germination test procedures and dormancy-breaking treatments for seeds of species within more than 70 families which have not been included in the previous chapters. Some caution may be needed when applying this information to diverse germplasm -see the comment on germination test prescriptions in Chapter 17. For several of the families listed here additional guidance on suitable dormancybreaking treatments is available in Tables 17.1 and 17.2, Chapter 17.The information in this chapter is not limited to those species showing orthodox seed storage behaviour: germination test procedures are also provided for species which are believed to exhibit recalcitrant seed storage characteristics. This is provided to assist both those handling recalcitrant seeds in short-term storage (moist and warm or cool environments), e.g. when collecting or transporting material, and those wishing to improve our knowledge of the physiology of these seeds with a view to increasing the periods for which they can be conserved. For more information on the recalcitrant seeds see the references listed in Chapter 1, Volume I. ","tokenCount":"54443"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"56597177fd486dd6b0df70bfb3367a3d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/482a164c-823f-49d3-a3f6-4caac75a8b1e/content","id":"-1241361286"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9a1437b4-4758-49ff-8cbd-f56d765246ab","pagecount":"13","content":"In this paper we propose a Bayesian multi-output regressor stacking (BMORS) model that is a generalization of the multi-trait regressor stacking method. The proposed BMORS model consists of two stages: in the first stage, a univariate genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP including genotype • environment interaction GE) model is implemented for each of the L traits under study; then the predictions of all traits are included as covariates in the second stage, by implementing a Ridge regression model. The main objectives of this research were to study alternative models to the existing multi-trait multienvironment (BMTME) model with respect to (1) genomic-enabled prediction accuracy, and (2) potential advantages in terms of computing resources and implementation. We compared the predictions of the BMORS model to those of the univariate GBLUP model using 7 maize and wheat datasets. We found that the proposed BMORS produced similar predictions to the univariate GBLUP model and to the BMTME model in terms of prediction accuracy; however, the best predictions were obtained under the BMTME model. In terms of computing resources, we found that the BMORS is at least 9 times faster than the BMTME method. Based on our empirical findings, the proposed BMORS model is an alternative for predicting multi-trait and multi-environment data, which are very common in genomic-enabled prediction in plant and animal breeding programs.Genomic selection (GS), first described by Meuwissen et al. (2001), is a plant and animal breeding methodology that is revolutionizing the selection of superior genotypes because it increases the rate of annual genetic gain by accelerating the breeding cycle and reducing the time and cost of phenotyping. GS assumes that a representative number of markers across the whole genome captures most of the diversity of the genome to estimate breeding values without the need to know where specific genes are located. In addition to markers, GS implementation relies on genomic-enabled prediction (GP) models that combine genomic (or pedigree) information and phenotypic data. Then the prediction equation of the implemented GP model is applied to a set of plants (or animals) for which genotypes (but not phenotypes) are available, to obtain the predicted breeding values (or phenotypes); finally, the best lines (plants or animals) are selected for breeding. For these reasons, it is obvious that GP models are a key element for successfully implementing GS. Considerable research has been done in recent years for improving the prediction accuracy of GP models; however, better prediction models to be able to implement the GS methodology more accurately are still lacking. Most of the research that has been done has been aimed at developing univariate-trait (UT) models and very little at developing multi-trait (MT) models. UT models are trained to predict the value of a single continuous (or categorical) phenotype in a testing dataset, while MT models are trained to predict at least two traits simultaneously.In general, MT models are preferred over UT models because MT models: 1) represent complex relationships between traits more efficiently, 2) exploit not only the correlation between lines, but also the correlation between traits, 3) improve the selection index because they allow more precise estimates of random effects of lines and genetic correlation between traits, 4) can improve indirect selection because they increase the precision of genetic correlation parameter estimates between traits, and 5) improve the power of hypothesis testing better than UT models. For these reasons, MT models produce more accurate parameter estimates and better predictions than UT models, as documented by Montesinos-López et al. (2016, 2018a-b). For example, Schulthess et al. (2017) found empirical evidence that MT models improve parameter estimates. Calus and Veerkamp (2011), Jia and Jannink (2012), Jiang et al. (2015), Montesinos-López et al. (2016), He et al. (2016) and Schulthess et al. (2017) found that MT models outperform UT models in terms of prediction accuracy. However, these authors also found that when the correlation between traits is low using MT models, it is not advantageous (Montesinos-López et al., 2016, 2018a-b), since the lower the degree of relatedness between traits, the lower the benefits of MT models (Montesinos-López et al., 2016, 2018a-b). In a recent review of statistical models for genomic-enabled prediction including G•E and for different heritability values, the authors (Crossa et al., 2017) did not report very high genomicenabled prediction accuracies. However, it is recognized that from the computational resources perspective, fitting MT models is much more demanding than fitting UT models.Multi-trait models are also known as multivariate analyses in statistical literature, and due to their clear advantages over UT models, they have been applied for solving a great diversity of problems in areas like environmental science, education, chemistry, telecommunications, psychology, medicine, communications, engineering and food science, among others. However, the use of MT models is not as popular as the use of UT models due to the following reasons: 1) there is less software available for performing MT analyses, 2) fitting MT models is computationally intensive and much more demanding than fitting UT models, 3) MT models are complex, as traits and variables have different response patterns in different environments and therefore create very complex genotype•environment interactions (G•E), 4) MT results are based on more assumptions than UT results and may be difficult to assess and achieve, and 5) MT models increase the problems of convergence when they are fitted with classic methods like maximum likelihood or restricted maximum likelihood, among others.Recent literature on MT models has emphasized the use of multioutput regression (also known as multi-target, multi-variate, or multiresponse regression) that aims to predict multiple continuous variables using a set of input variables. The output variables may also be binary (multi-label classification) or discrete (multi-dimensional classification) (Borchani et al., 2015;2016). Several real-world applications of multioutput regression have been studied in ecological models for assessing concentrations of species in natural populations, and in chemometric models for inferring concentrations of several substances from multivariate calibration using multivariate spectral data. Obviously, these applications give rise to many challenges such as missing data, the presence of noise that is typical due to the multivariate nature of the phenomenon, and the inevitable compound dependencies between multiple variables. Multi-output regression methods have the advantage of providing realistic methods for modeling multi-output datasets by considering the underlying relationships between the output variables, and thus give a better representation and interpretation of real-world problems (Borchani et al., 2015). A further advantage of multi-output regression approaches is that they may produce simpler models that are computationally very efficient compared to other multi-trait models. Borchani et al. (2015;2016) present the multi-output regression approach as a problem transformation method where the multi-output problem is transformed into independent single-output problems, each of which is solved using a single-output regression algorithm and finally concatenating all the predictions. However, the problem with this method is that the relationships among output variables are ignored and thus predicted independently, and this can certainly affect the prediction accuracy. However, Spyromitros-Xioufis et al. (2012;2016) recently extended the multi-output regression problem transformation method to target the dependency of the variables by introducing a novel multi-output regression approach called multi-output regressor stacking (MORS) (also called stacked single-target). The MORS method consists of two stages: in the first stage, a certain number of independent single-target models are fitted; however, those values are not used as final predictions but rather included in a second training stage where a second set of meta models is learned. In other words, the multi-output prediction problem is transformed into several single-target problems where any regression model could be used (e.g., a separate ridge regression for each variable, a regression tree, support vector regression, etc.). Then, according to Spyromitros-Xioufis et al. (2012;2016), the second stage includes using as predictor variables the predictions of the target variables obtained from the first-stage model. The second-stage model is expected to correct the predictions of the first-stage model using the information from the first-stage model.Recently, Montesinos-López et al. (2019) presented an R package for analyzing breeding data with multiple traits and multiple environments that is an improved version of the original BMTME of Montesinos-López et al. (2016). This improved version of BMTME used the matrix variate normal distribution of Montesinos-López et al. (2018c) and the appropriate priors of Montesinos-López et al. (2018a) and Montesinos-López et al. (2018b). Interestingly the R package of Montesinos-López et al. (2019) evaluates the prediction performance of multi-trait multi-environment data in a user-friendly way. Also this R package introduced the Bayesian multi-output regressor stacking (BMORS) functions that are considerably efficient in terms of computational resources. For large datasets, the BME() and BMTME() functions of the BMTME R package are very intense in terms of computing time; however functions BMORS() and BMORS_Env() of BMORS (also included in the BMTME package) are less intensive in terms of computing time and produce similar genome-based prediction accuracies as the BMTME.Given the previous considerations in terms of model prediction accuracy and the necessary computing resources required to fit different univariate and multivariate models, the main objectives of this research were: (1) to extend the theory of the multi-output regressor stacking model (MORS) to a Bayesian framework in the context of genomic selection; the resulting model is called Bayesian multi-output regressor stacking (BMORS), (2) to apply the BMORS model to seven extensive maize and wheat datasets from plant breeding programs, (3) to compare the prediction accuracy of the BMORS model with the accuracy of the most popular univariate trait (UT) model: the genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) model and its multivariate version, called the Bayesian multi-trait multienvironment (BMTME) model, and (4) to compare the computing resources employed by BMORS vs. BMTME and the GBLUP. This comparison will determine the usefulness of the BMORS model compared with other analytical options with much heavier computing time.Multiple-environment genotype 3 environment Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (GBLUP) model: This model is the one proposed and described by Montesinos-López et al. (2018a). To implement this model, the genomic relationship matrix (GRM) was calculated as suggested by VanRaden (2008). This model is the conventional GBLUP that includes genotype • environment interaction; it was implemented in the Bayesian Generalized Linear Regression (BGLR) R-package of de los Campos and Pérez-Rodríguez (2014). Briefly, the model can be described as followswhere y ij is the response of the j th line in the i th environment (i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; I, j ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; JÞ. E i is the fixed effect of the ith environment, g j denotes the random genomic effect of the jth line, with g ¼ ðg 1 ; . . . ; g J Þ T $ Nð0; s 2 1 G g Þ; s 2 1 is the genomic variance and G g is the genomic relationship matrix (GRM) and is calculated (VanRaden 2008) as G g ¼ WW T p , where p represents the number of markers and W is the matrix of markers. The G g matrix is constructed using the observed similarity at the genomic level between lines. Further, gE ij is the random interaction term between the genomic effect of the jth line and the ith environment; let gE ¼ ðgE 11 ; . . . ; gE IJ Þ T $ Nð0; s 2 2 I I 5GÞ, where s 2 2 is the interaction variance, and e ij is a random residual associated with the jth line in the ith environment distributed as Nð0; s 2 Þ; where s 2 is the residual variance.Since this model was implemented under a Bayesian framework, next we provide the priors used for the parameters. For the beta coefficients of the environments we used a normal distribution with mean 0 and very large variance 10 10 , that is, Nð0; 10 10 Þ: For the genomic variance component, s 2 1 , we used a scaled inverse Chi-square with shape and scale parameters, v 1 ¼ 5 andwhere the proportion of total variance ðR 2 Þ was set to 0.5, and VarðYÞ is the phenotypic variance of the response variable of the training set. Also, for the error variance component, we used a scaled inverse Chi-square with shape and scale parameters, v e ¼ 5 and S e ¼ VarðYÞ • 0:25 • ðv b þ 2Þ; respectively.The BMTME model is a multivariate version of the model given in equation (1) defined as follows:where Y is of dimension n • L, with L the number of traits and n ¼ J • I, where J denotes the number of lines (genotypes) and I the number of environments, X is of order n • I, b is of order I • L, since b ¼ fb il g for i ¼ 1; ::; I and l ¼ 1; ::; L; Z 1 is of order n • J, b 1 is of order J • L and contains the genotype•trait interaction term since b 1 ¼ fgt jl g where gt jl is the effect of genotype•trait interaction term for j ¼ 1; ::; J and for j ¼ 1; :: Bayesian multi-output regressor stacking (BMORS): The proposed BMORS is a Bayesian version of the multi-trait regressor stacking method proposed by Spyromitros-Xioufis et al. (2012;2016). The training of BMORS consists of two stages. In the first stage, L single univariate models are implemented using the GBLUP model given in equation (1) of Montesinos-López et al. (2018a), but instead of using the resulting predictions directly as the final output, the BMORS includes an additional training stage where a second set of L meta-models are implemented for each of the L traits under study using a Ridge regression model. Each meta-model is implemented with the following model:where the covariates Ẑ1ij ; Ẑ2ij ; . . . ; ẐLij , represent the scaled predictions of each trait obtained with the GBLUP model in the first-stage analysis and b 1 ; . . . ; b L , the corresponding beta coefficients. The scaling of each prediction was performed by subtracting its mean (m lij ) and dividing by its corresponding standard deviation (s lij ), that is, Ẑlij =ðŷ lij 2 m lij Þs 21 lij , for each l ¼ 1; . . . ; L. Therefore, the BMORS model contains as predictor information the scaled predictions of its response variables yielded by the first-stage models. In other words, the BMORS model is based on the idea that a second-stage model is able to correct the predictions of a first-stage model using information about the predictions of other first-stage models (Spyromitros-Xioufis et al., 2012;2016). This method can be implemented with the BMORS() function in the BMTME package in the R statistical software (R Core Team 2017), as shown in Appendices A and B. The R package BMTME is available at the following link: https://github.com/frahik/BMTME and it is described in Montesinos-López et al. (2019). The priors for implementing this second step were: a normal with mean zero and variance s 2 b for the beta coefficients while for the variance component s 2 b and the error variance (s 2 Þ we used the scaled inverse Chi-squares with shape and scale parameters,respectively, where the proportion of total variance ðR 2 Þ was set to 0.5 for the beta coefficients, equal to 0.25 for the error variance component, and VarðYÞ is the phenotypic variance of the response variable of the training set. Finally, it is important to point out that the underlying method of inference for all the Bayesian methods implemented was based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo.A total of seven real datasets were analyzed, one dataset comprising maize lines and six datasets comprising wheat lines. All seven datasets include several environments and traits and were previously used in several studies.Maize dataset 1: This dataset has 309 maize lines and was used by Crossa et al. (2013) and Montesinos-López et al. (2016). Traits grain yield (GY), anthesis-silking interval (ASI), and plant height (PH) were evaluated and measured in three environments (E1, E2, and E3). Phenotypes are best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) obtained after adjusting for the experimental field design. After filtering for missing values and minor allele frequency, the number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) was 158,281. Filtering was first done by removing markers that had more than 80% of the maize lines with missing values, and then markers with minor allele frequency lower than or equal to 0.05 were deleted.Wheat dataset 2: This wheat dataset is composed of 250 wheat lines that were extracted from a large set of 39 yield trials grown during the 2013-2014 crop season in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico (Rutkoski et al., 2016). The measured traits were plant height (PTHT) recorded in centimeters, and days to heading (DTHD) recorded as the number of days from germination until 50% of spikes emerged in each plot, in the first replicate of each trial. Each trait was measured on 250 lines and three environments. Phenotypes were also BLUEs adjusted by the experimental design. Genomic information was obtained by genotypingby-sequencing (GBS) and we used a total of 12,083 markers that remained after quality control. Three environments were included: bed planting with 2 irrigation levels (Bed2IR), bed planting with 5 irrigations levels (Bed5IR), and drip irrigation (Drip). Filtering also was done by removing markers that had more than 80% of the wheat lines with missing values, and markers with minor allele frequency lower than or equal to 0.01 also were deleted.Wheat Iranian dataset 3: This dataset consists of 2374 wheat lines evaluated in a drought environment (D) and a heat environment (H) at the CIMMYT experiment station near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, during the 2010-2011 cycle; it was used in Crossa et al. (2016). Two traits were measured: days to heading (DTHD) and plant height (PTHT). Both traits were measured in the two environments (Env1 and Env2) on the same 2374 lines. Of a total of 40,000 markers after quality control, we used 39,758 markers. In this dataset, markers with more than 80% of missing values were removed and markers with minor allele frequency lower than or equal to 0.05 were deleted.Elite wheat yield trial (EYT) datasets 4-7: These four datasets were planted at the Norman E. Borlaug Research Station, Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, and correspond to elite yield trials (EYT) planted in four different cropping seasons with 4 or 5 environments in each cropping season. The lines that were included each year in each of the environments are the same, but those in different years are different lines. EYT dataset 4 was planted in 2013-2014 and contains 767 lines, EYT dataset 5 was planted in 2014-2015 and contains 775 lines, EYT dataset 6 was planted in 2015-2016 and contains 964 lines, and EYT dataset 7 was planted in 2016-2017 and contains 980 lines. An alpha lattice design was used and the lines were sown in 39 trials, each comprising 28 lines and two checks, with three replications and six blocks. In each dataset, four traits were recorded for each line: days to heading (DTHD, number of days from germination to 50% spike emergence), days to maturity (DTMT, number of days from germination to 50% physiological maturity or the loss of green color in 50% of the spikes), plant height (in centimeters, measured from the ground to the top of the spike), and grain yield (GY).In EYT datasets 4 and 7, the lines under study were evaluated in 4 environments, while in EYT datasets 5 and 6, the lines were evaluated in 5 environments. For EYT dataset 4, the environments were: bed planting with 5 irrigations (Bed5IR), early heat (EHT), flat planting and 5 irrigations (Flat5IR), and late heat (LHT). For EYT dataset 5, the environments were: bed planting with 2 irrigation levels (Bed2IR), bed planting with 5 irrigations levels (Bed5IR), early heat (EHT), flat planting with 5 irrigation levels (Flat5IR) and late heat (LHT). For EYT dataset 6, the environments were: bed planting with 2 irrigation levels (Bed2IR), bed planting with 5 irrigations levels (Bed5IR), flat planting with 5 irrigation levels (Flat5IR), flat planting with drip irrigation (FlatDrip), and late heat (LHT). Finally, for EYT dataset 7, the four environments were: bed planting with 5 irrigations (Bed5IR), early heat (EHT), flat planting with 5 irrigation levels (Flat5IR) and flat planting with drip irrigation (FlatDrip). Genome-wide markers for the 4,368 lines in the four datasets were obtained using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) (Elshire et al., 2011;Poland et al., 2012) at Kansas State University using an Illumina HiSeq2500. After filtering, 2,038 markers were obtained. Imputation of missing marker data were done using LinkImpute (Money et al., 2015) and implemented in TASSEL (Bradbury et al., 2007), version 5. Markers that had more than 50% missing data, less than 5% minor allele frequency, and more than 10% heterozygosity were removed, and 3,485 lines were obtained (767 lines in dataset 1, 775 lines in dataset 2, 964 lines in dataset 3 and 980 lines in dataset 4).The prediction accuracies of the three models under study (BMORS, BMTME and UT) were evaluated with 10 random cross-validations (CV): the whole dataset was divided into a training (TRN) and a testing (TST) set; 80% (or 60%) of the whole dataset was assigned to TRN and the remaining 20% (or 40%) was assigned to TST. Since we used sampling with replacement, one observation (line) may appear in more than one partition. The CV implemented mimics a prediction problem faced by breeders in incomplete field trials, where some lines may be evaluated in some, but not all, target environments. Since N ¼ J • I denotes the total number of records per each available trait, then to select lines in the TST dataset, we fixed the percentage of data to be used for TST [PTesting = 20% (or 40%)]. Then 0.20 (or 0.4) • N (lines) were chosen at random, and subsequently for each of these lines, one environment was randomly picked from I environments. The cells selected through this algorithm were allocated to the TST dataset, while the cells (ijÞ that were not selected were assigned to the TRN dataset. Lines were sampled with replacement if J , 0:20ðor 0:4Þ • N, and without replacement otherwise. The prediction accuracy was evaluated with the average Pearson's correlation (APC) and mean arctan absolute percentage error (MAAPE) of the testing sets of the 10 random partitions that were generated with the implemented CV. It is important to point out that the first 3 datasets were implemented with 80% and 20% for TRN and TST, respectively, while the last 4 datasets were implemented with 60% and 40% for TRN and TST, respectively. It is important to point out that performance via cross-validation was based on the mean sample from the posterior distribution of predicted values. To make the models comparable in their prediction accuracy as well as on their computing time, exactly the same random cross-validations were used for the three models.The MAAPE is computed as the arctan of the absolute value of the difference between the observed value minus the predicted value divided by the observed value. Its advantage is that it is defined in radians and therefore scale-free and can include observations with missing values. Another advantage is that it approaches Pi over 2 for dividing by zero.All seven datasets (Maize dataset 1, Wheat dataset 2, Wheat Iranian dataset 3, EYT datasets 4-7), including phenotypic and genotypic data, can be downloaded from the following link: hdl:11529/10548141 (http://hdl.handle.net/11529/10548141).The results of this paper are presented in seven sections, each of which corresponds to a different dataset. Genomic-enabled prediction accuracy is presented in Table 1 for each model (BMORS, BMTME, and UT), trait, and dataset combination as average Pearson correlations (APC) and mean arctan absolute percentage error (MAAPE) with their corresponding standard deviations. Table 2 shows the time in minutes for fitting the three models for each trait and dataset.In this dataset we compare the prediction accuracy of the three models (BMORS, BMTME and UT). We did not find large differences in terms of prediction accuracy between the three models (Figure 1) across environments. The predictions in terms of APC for trait GY were 0.3449, 0.3504, and 0.3522 for models BMORS, BMTME, and UT. The APC for ASI was around 042-0.43 for the three models, and for trait PTHT, the range was between 0.4502 and 0.4787 (Table 1). In terms of MAAPE, the range of predictions was between 0.1095 and 0.1142 for trait GY. In summary, we found only slight differences in the APC and MAAPE of the three models for each trait.For the whole dataset without cross-validation, we also compared the implementation time (computational resources) between the three methods and found that the slowest was the BMTME, while the fastest was the UT implemented in the BGLR package; BMTME was 13.09 and 72.42 times slower than UT and BMORS, respectively, while the BMORS method was only 5.53 times slower than UT (Table 2).In terms of APC, we did find some differences between the three models for both traits included in this dataset (Figure 2). The BMTME gave the highest APC for trait DTHD (0.8716) and PTHT (0.4782), followed by BMORS and UT with APC around 0.85 for DTHD. The range of predictions in terms of APC for trait DTHD was between 0.8533 and 0.8716, and between 0.4617 and 0.4782 for trait PTHT. However, for MAAPE, we found small differences in prediction accuracy only in trait DTHD, and the best model was the BMTME, which, on average, was better than the BMORS and UT models by 17.63% and 14.28%, respectively. The predictions for trait DTHD ranged between 0.4633 and 0.5625, while for trait PTHT, the predictions ranged between 0.5935 and 0.6023 (Table 1).We also compared the implementation time (computational resources) between the three methods for the whole dataset, without cross-validation, and again we found that the slowest was the BMTME, while the fastest was BMORS. BMTME was 9.21 and 56.44 times slower than BMORS and UT, respectively, while the UT method was only 6.12 times slower than BMORS (Table2).For this dataset we found more differences in APC between the traits for DTMT than for DTHD (Figure 3). In trait DTMT the best predictions were observed in model BMTME (0.5182) and the worst in model BMORS (0.4288) (Table 1). The average superiority of BMTME was 17.25% and 6.33% with regard to the BMORS and UT models, respectively. The predictions in terms of APC for trait DTHD ranged between 0.5862 and 0.5918, while for trait DTMT, they ranged between 0.4288 and 0.5182. In terms of MAAPE, we only found differences between the three models for trait DTMT (Figure 3); the best predictions were observed in models BMTME and UT and the worst in model BMORS, but no significant differences were observed between the BMTME and UT models. The BMTME model was superior by 7.438% to the BMORS model. The predictions in terms of MAAPE for trait DTHD ranged between 0.039 and 0.039, while for trait DTMT, they ranged between 0.056 and 0.061 (Table 1).Regarding the computer resources used when fitting each model to this dataset, the BMTME was the slowest in terms of implementation time, for it was 10.3 and 58.65 times slower than the BMORS method and UT model, respectively; the UT was 5.5 times faster than the BMORS (Table 2).Figure 4 shows that although no large differences were found between the three models in DTHD, DTMT, and Height, the best predictions were observed in model BMTME with gains of 2.559%, 2.571% and 4.767% for traits DTHD, DTMT and Height, respectively (Table 1), compared to the BMORS model, and gains of 2.415%, 3.098% and 5.567%, respectively, compared to the UT model. However, for trait GY, the worst predictions were observed under the BMTME (0.4311), and models BMORS and UT were better than the BMTME model by around 3% and 5%, respectively. Values of APC ranged from 0.8149 to 0.8363 for DTHD, from 0.773 to 0.797 for DTMT, from 0.431 to 0.455 for GY, and from 0.546 and 0.573 for Height.For the MAAPE criterion, there were differences between the three models in traits DTHD and DTMT, and the best model was the BMTME with gains of 14.888% (DTHD) and 7.826% (DTMT) over the BMORS model and gains of 11.144% (DTHD) and 7.018% (DTMT) for those traits over the UT model (Figure 4). The predictions under MAAPE ranged between 0.0303-0.0356 for DTHD, 0.0212-0.0230 for DTMT, 0.0713-0.0736 for GY, and 0.0374-0.0381 for Height (Table 1).The implementation time between the three methods was as follows: the slowest was BMTME, the fastest was BMORS and UT was intermediate. BMTME was 11.45 and 60.72 times slower than BMORS and  UT, respectively, while the UT method was only 5.30 times faster than BMORS (Table 2).No important differences between the three models in any of the four traits in terms of APC (Figure 5) were found. However, some differences were found for MAAPE in traits DTHD and DTMT with gains of 9.959% (DTHD) and 6.875% (DTMT) compared to the BMORS model, and gains of 8.439% (DTHD) and 6.875% (DTMT) compared to the UT model (Figure 5). The predictions in terms of APC for trait DTHD were around 0.85, between 0.7902 and 0.8112 for trait DTMT, between 0.5486 and 0.5621 for GY, and around 0.55-0.56 for Height (Table 1).In terms of MAAPE, the range for trait DTHD was between 0.02170 and 0.02410, between 0.01490 and 0.01600 for trait DTMT, between 0.0684 and 0.0698 for trait GY and between 0.03460 and 0.03490 for trait Height. For this data set, the BMTME method was the slowest in implementation time, while the fastest was UT. BMTME was 11.61 and 60.43 times slower than BMORS and UT, respectively, while the BMORS method was only 5.2 times slower than UT (Table 2).In terms of APC and MAAPE, we did not find large differences between the three models in any of the three traits (Figure 6). However, although large differences between models in terms of APC were not found for traits DMT and GY, the BMTME model was better than the BMORS and UT models for traits DTMT and GY, whereas for DTHD the best model was BMORS (0.8412) and for Height the best model was UT (0.514) (Table 1). In terms of MAAPE, the BMTME was superior by 6.211% (DTMT) and 3.081% (GY) compared to the BMORS, and by 5.625% (DTMT) and 2.455% (GY) compared to the UT model (Figure 6). For this dataset, the BMTME method was the slowest in implementation time, while the fastest was UT. BMTME was 12.24 and 62.89 times slower than BMORS and UT, respectively, while the BMORS method was only 5.14 times slower than UT (Table 2).Figure 7 and Table 1 show that the best predictions were observed in model BMTME for traits DTHD (0.8549), DTMT (0.8674), and Height (0.4306). However, for trait GY, the worst predictions were observed under the BMTME model, and models BMORS and UT were better than the BMTME model by around 8%. In terms of MAAPE, we only found differences between the three models for traits DTHD and DTMT, and the best model was the BMTME compared to the BMORS and UT models. However, for trait GY, models BMORS and UT were the best, with a superiority of around 4% compared to the BMTME model, but no relevant difference was observed for this trait between the BMORS and UT models. Finally, concerning computational resources between the three methods for fitting the whole dataset, without cross-validation, we found that the slowest was the BMTME, while the fastest was UT. BMTME was 13.08 and 69.03 times slower than BMORS and UT, respectively, Figure 4 EYT dataset 4. Performance of three models (BMTME, BMORS and UT) under study in terms of average Pearson's correlation (APC) and mean arctan absolute percentage error (MAAPE) for four traits: days to heading (DTHD), days to maturity (DTMT), grain yield (GY) and Height, evaluated in 4 environments: bed planting with 5 irrigations (Bed5IR), early heat (EHT), flat planting and 5 irrigations (Flat5IR), and late heat (LHT).while the UT method was only 5.27 times slower than BMORS (Table 2).In this study, we propose the BMORS model that basically consists of a two-stage univariate process, where a conventional univariate model is applied to the training set in the first stage, and those values are used in the second stage (for training and testing); here again a univariate model is implemented with the modified training set from which the final predictions are obtained. In the first stage, a GBLUP model was trained with features of the original dataset. Next, GBLUP's first-stage predictions were used to build a meta-prediction model using the predictions of the first stage as features, but in the second stage, a Ridge regression method was used. This metaprediction model was employed to obtain the final predictions.When comparing the prediction ability of the BMORS model to that of UT and multivariate BMTME models, we found in most datasets, the BMTME model was better in terms of prediction accuracy than the UT and BMORS models. The predictions of the proposed BMORS were competitive since in general its prediction performance was similar to those of the BMTME and UT models, which may be due in part to the fact that the proposed BMORS model is a type of feature extraction technique that combines information from multiple predictive models to generate a new model. The main advantage of the proposed BMORS model is that it is considerably faster in terms of implementation time than the BMTME model. For example, in dataset 1, the BMORS method was 13.09 times faster than the BMTME, while in dataset 2, the BMORS method was 9.21 times faster than the BMTME, and in the remaining datasets (3 to 7), the BMORS was 10. 3, 11.45, 11.61, 12.24 and 13.08 times faster than the BMTME, respectively, which allows its practical implementation. When comparing the implementation time, the superiority of the BMORS model is clear, since it was at least 9 times faster than the BMTME model. For this reason, although the prediction performance of BMORS is slightly lower than the prediction performance of the BMTME, this is compensated for by the fast implementation time even for moderate and large datasets, which is not possible with the BMTME model. In the proposed method, multiple weak learners can form one learner with (expected) higher prediction performance (strong learner), as opposed to a weak learner that usually performs slightly better than random guessing (Freund and Schapire 1997). However, the key difference between this technique and conventional ensemble techniques is that the multiple predictions are not from different models for the same trait or response variable, but for different correlated traits predicted with the same model. For this reason, the proposed model is called the featured extraction method, and not an ensemble technique. Also, in the second stage of the stacking process, we only included as predictors the predictions of the first stage, although some authors suggest including the original features plus the predictions of the first stage. It is important to point out that we also tested this option, but we got the worst predictions (results not presented). The proposed BMORS model can outperform the individual models (in the first stage) due to its smoothing nature and its ability to highlight each base  model where it performs best and mistrust each base model where it performs poorly.Our results are not in agreement with those of Li et al. (2017), who used the multi-trait regressor stacking method for time series prediction of drug efficacy and found that this method was considerably superior with regard to univariate analysis in most datasets they evaluated. The results of the present study are in agreement with those of Melki et al. (2017), who evaluated the multi-trait regressor stacking method under the support vector regression framework and found the trick of expanding the predictors in the second stage with the predictions of the target traits in the first stage in order to improve prediction accuracy. These authors also proposed making small modifications to this method in order to produce a performance similar to that of the original multi-trait regressor stacking method. Our results are also in agreement with those reported by Santana et al. (2017), namely, that using the outputs (predictions of the first stage) as additional prediction features in the second stage helps to increase prediction accuracy. However, it is important to point out that under the BMOR model, the increase in prediction accuracy was very modest only in some cases.It is important to point out that the proposed BMORS method can be used for predicting material that has never been tested in the field, but of course we need to have the complete genotypic information of the lines to be predicted. Under this scenario, the implementation is the same as those described in this paper, but care should be taken when creating the design matrices to avoid problems in its implementation.An advantage of the proposed BMORS model is that its implementation can be parallelized and implemented using current genomicenabled prediction software. In this study, we implemented the BMORS model with the BGLR software developed by de los Campos and Pérez-Rodríguez (2014) using a two-stage process. It is important to recall that in the first stage, separate UT models were implemented for each trait with its corresponding training set, and predictions were made for each studied trait for both the training and testing sets, and then all predictions of the traits were used as covariates in a second-stage univariate analysis. With the same training set and with the predictions as covariates (predictions of the traits) of the first stage, the final predictions for each trait were performed. However, to successfully implement the BMORS model, the predictions of all traits used as covariates in the second stage should be standardized by subtracting their mean and dividing by their corresponding standard deviation.Also it is important to point out that in the first stage, the proposed BMORS method allows parametric and non-parametric approaches, although here in the first stage we used the GBLUP with (co)variance structures of lines and lines • environments. However, other covariance structures are allowed that can be built with different types of kernels that can capture in a better way existing non-linearity in the data. Also, the first stage can be built using a pure parametric approach with existing software for genomic selection, like BGLR and others. However, in the second stage we used a Ridge regression approach, but other types of parametric and non-parametric approaches could be used; thus this method can be made more general in a very straightforward manner.The implementation of the BMORS model is not restricted to a GBLUP in the first stage and Ridge regression in the second stage, which means that we can implement other types of models at each stage. For example, when the BMORS model is implemented in the BGLR statistical software, this allows using Bayesian Ridge regression, Lasso, Bayes A, Bayes B, RKHS, or a mixture of models at each stage. However, if the BMORS model is implemented in conventional restricted maximum likelihood (REML) software used for genomic-enabled prediction, then each stage can only be implemented under a REML framework. This shows that the application of the BMORS model is very flexible and can be implemented using the existing genomic-enabled prediction software. Breiman (1996) suggested that in the second stage, the beta (weights) coefficients of the predictor variables should be restricted to positive values; however, we tested this option by implementing the second stage with nonnegative least squares using the library nnls (Lawson and Hanson 1995;Mullen and van Stokkum 2015), but the prediction accuracy was considerably worse. For this reason, both stages were implemented under a Bayesian framework without restriction on the beta coefficients.One disadvantage of the proposed BMORS model compared to conventional multivariate analysis, is that it does not allow estimating genetic and residual covariances (and correlations) between traits. This is because the BMORS model is implemented in a two-stage process with separate UT models, which does not allow estimating these covariances. That is, the BMORS model is less interpretable than conventional multivariate analysis, which implies that the interpretation of beta coefficients makes no sense. However, for scientific studies where prediction is the main goal, not measuring the magnitude of the relationship between traits is not critical. It is important to point out that the BMORS method is appropriate for multi-trait analysis and should be preferred over the UT model when the correlation between traits is moderate or large; however, when this correlation is weak or close to zero, the UT model should be preferred because most of the time it will produce better predictions than the BMORS method and in less computing time.Analyzing MT models in the context of GS is very challenging due to the size and complexity of the underlying datasets, which nowadays is common in many breeding programs; for these reasons, MT models require much more computational effort than UT models. However, due to the advantages of MT models when improving parameter estimates and prediction accuracy, and given the continued and dramatic growth of computational power, MT models play an increasingly important role in data analysis in plant and animal genomic-assisted breeding for selecting the best candidate genotypes early in time. For this reason, in plant and animal breeding the BMORS model is an attractive alternative for selecting candidate genotypes since it produces similar genomic-enabled predictions for multi-trait and multi-environment data as other statistical models but with much less computing time, since across the seven datasets we found that the BMORS model is at least 9 times faster than the BMTME method. Although the three methods evaluated in this article used the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method for Bayesian inference, the differences with regard to the implementation time that we found are mostly due to the model itself, and how the methods were implemented in each library.In this research we proposed a Bayesian multiple-output regressor stacking (BMORS) model applied in the context of genomic selection; it is the Bayesian version of the multi-output regressor stacking method proposed by Spyromitros-Xioufis et al. (2012;2016). The BMORS model was implemented using a two-stage process, where in the first stage, a conventional univariate GBLUP model was implemented for its corresponding training set, while in the second stage a Ridge regression model was implemented for the same training set, but using as predictors the predictions in the first stage of the L traits under study. We found that the BMORS model was similar to the UT and BMTME models in terms of prediction accuracy, but in general, the BMTME model was the best. Finally, although more empirical evidence is needed to confirm the prediction performance of the BMORS model, the proposed BMORS model is another alternative for performing multi-trait genomic-enabled prediction in plant and animal breeding programs with significantly less computational time than is required for other genomic-enabled statistical packages. To be able to implement the BMORS method, it is necessary to install the BMTME library, which in addition to implementing the BMTME model also allows implementing the BMORS method. It is important to point out that the data used for illustrating the BMORS method is a toy wheat dataset called WheatToy that is preloaded in the BMTME package. For running the code given in Appendix A, you only need to copy and page this code in R and in this way you can run this in a straightforward way.In Part a) Phenotypic data-we are ordering the data first by environment and then in each environment by the GIDs of lines. It is important to have the same order of the design matrices (environments, lines and genotype by environment) with those of the genomic relationship matrix.In Part b) Design matrix-we create the design matrices of environments, lines and of genotypes by environments interaction. Here we also show how to incorporate the GRM into the design matrices of lines and genotype by environment interaction. At the end of this part the matrix of response variables (Y) is selected for which we will be implementing the BMORS method.In part c) Cross validation and predictor-the R code is provided for creating the training-testing sets using the CV.RandomPart, for which an object called pheno is provided that contains information on environments, lines and response variables. In the CV.RandomPart() was specified 10 random partitions, with 20% for testing and 80% for training in each random partition. Then, also in this part of the code the predictor of the model is created as a list, which in this case contains three components corresponding to environments, lines and genotype by environment interactions. Finally, in part d) Implementing the BMORS model-the BMORS() function is used to implement the BMORS method that needs as input the information of the predictor (ETA), the matrix of response variables (Y), the number of iterations (nIter), the burn-in (burnIn), the thin value, and the information of the observations that will be used as testing (testingSet). The number of digits that should be used to print the results is also specified, and a TRUE or FALSE value function is specified in progressBar, to print or not to print the progress of the training process. And finally, with the summary(pm), we printed the output, which in this case is:. summary(pm) ","tokenCount":"7519"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e49ae4ff30c2b65ddfa5396dca45fc79","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/371adaa7-bd92-40ff-bbba-ac95c7c78760/content","id":"-1307602135"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"260d36ed-65e8-4728-80f2-25d146295eae","pagecount":"12","content":"En las regiones altoandinas de Bolivia, se encuentra el altiplano sur a altitudes por encima de 3000 msnm, presentando fuertes restricciones de clima y suelo. En estas regiones áridas, llueve apenas unos 200 mm al año durante los meses de diciembre (15%), enero (36%), febrero (31%) y marzo (12%). Las temperaturas son bajas principalmente en el invierno. Los suelos son arenosos y susceptibles a la erosión causada por los fuertes vientos (mayores a 15 km/hora), otra característica es la salinidad que presentan una buena parte de los suelos.Bajo este ambiente con fuertes limitaciones, la vegetación natural predominantemente está constituida por diversos tipos de t'olas que son arbustos de tamaño medio y pastos del tipo pajonal, asimismo especies menores de más de 10 familias botánicas que hacen en su conjunto al paisaje de esta región árida. Sin embargo, esta cobertura vegetal ha sido removida para cultivar quinua sobre todo cuando los precios de la quinua fueron altos dejando los suelos descubiertos de la vegetación natural y expuesto a la erosión causada por el viento ya que las prácticas de reposición o reforestación son escasas o inexistentes.La ocupación de los espacios naturales por la actividad humana obedece a razones económicas, sociales y políticas. La actividad agrícola, específicamente la producción de quinua sin reposición de las especies vegetales nativas ha ido creciendo con el pasar del tiempo. Esto se ha hecho más crítico a partir del año 2010 en adelante debido a un aumento en la superficie de siembra de quinua alentado por los precios altos del mercado. Para la siembra de quinua se remueven los arbustos y pajonales quedando así los suelos desprovistos de su cobertura vegetal natural. La utilización del arado de discos remueve profundamente el suelo dejándolo expuesto a la erosión. El crecimiento de los arbustos y pajas es muy lento bajo las condiciones de aridez, por lo que el restablecimiento de la cobertura se hace a mediano y largo plazo. Si a pesar de ello, no se hacen acciones de repoblamiento de los arbustos, la situación se hace más crítica. La pérdida de cobertura vegetal no solo se afecta al suelo en sí mismo sino a los animales, aves y los microrganismos del suelo que ven reducidas sus condiciones adecuadas de hábitat.El principal efecto de la pérdida de cobertura vegetal es que se deja al suelo expuesto a la erosión causada por el viento haciéndolo cada vez menos productivo. Las prácticas de manejo del cultivo de quinua en el altiplano sur carecen de principios de producción sostenible, puesto que los productores buscan beneficios de corto plazo comprometiendo el uso sostenible del recurso más importante que es el suelo que con cada cosecha se ve disminuida en su productividad ya que no se logra reponer los nutrientes y principalmente la materia orgánica necesaria. Un bajo nivel de productividad trae como consecuencia inseguridad alimentaria y problemas de desnutrición en estas poblaciones rurales. Por otro lado, la llama, el ganado nativo de la zona cada vez tiene menos posibilidades de acceder a forrajes que proviene de los pastos y arbustos, por lo que se ven disminuidas sus posibilidades de alimentación adecuada. Asimismo, al disminuir las cantidades de llamas en el sistema también disminuyen las cantidades de estiércol para abonar el suelo. Por lo anterior es importante restablecer un adecuado balance entre la vegetación nativa (arbustos y pastos), el cultivo de la quinua y la crianza de las llamas dado que estos tres componentes están muy relacionados y se benefician mutuamente entre ellos. En la actualidad sólo un 15 a 20 % de los productores de quinua tiene llamas. A medida que la producción de quinua se intensifica y el manejo de suelos de los suelos es inadecuado, el contenido de la materia orgánica del suelo disminuye considerablemente.Por lo anterior, aportar materia orgánica a los suelos de manera continua y repoblar la cobertura vegetal son la base del mejoramiento y conservación de la fertilidad de los suelos de manera sustentable.Pasos para restablecer la cobertura vegetal 1. Recolección de semillas. 2. Siembra en bandejas en condiciones controladas.3. Repique o trasplante a bolsas negras en el caso de las t'olas principalmente. En el caso de los pastos se puede hacer el trasplante a campo directamente de las bandejas. 4. Trasplante definitivo a campo, actividad que se hace en los meses de enero y febrero.Las alternativas de recuperar la cobertura vegetal son: descansos mejorados con especies de leguminosas como la Q'ila q'ila (tarwi silvestre), establecimiento de barreras vivas de múltiples especies (arbustos y pastos).A pesar de que la tarea de recuperar la cobertura vegetal en el altiplano sur de Bolivia es una tarea de mediano y largo plazo, se deben realizar acciones orientadas al repoblamiento con especies nativas ya que éstas están adaptadas a las condiciones de clima y suelo de estas regiones áridas.1. Repoblamiento con arbustos tipo t'olas (Ñak'a t'ola, Uma t'ola y Sup'u t'ola) en barreras vivas de 2 a 3 metros de ancho y cada 40 o 50 metros según el tamaño de la parcela 2. Repoblamiento con pastos (Iru Ichu, Sikuya, Eragrostis, Nassela y Alkar), en barreras de 2 a 3 metros de ancho y cada 40 o 50 metros según el tamaño de la parcela. 3. Repoblamiento con múltiples especies pastos (Iru Ichu, Sikuya, Eragrostis, Nassela y Alkar ) y t'olas (Ñak'a t'ola, Uma t'ola y Sup'u t'ola) en barreras vivas de 2 a 3 metros de ancho y cada 40 o 50 metros según el tamaño de la parcela. 4. Repoblamiento con especies de leguminosas nativas (tarwi silvestre diversos ecotipos llamados localmente Q'ila q'ila). Este establecimiento se lo puede hacer en terrenos de descanso así como también en barreras vivas de 2 a 3 metros de ancho y cada 40 o 50 metros según el tamaño de la parcela.Para la recolección de semillas es importante identificar lugares con plantas madre o poblaciones de plantas productoras de semilla. Para esto se debe conocer la época en que estas plantas florecen y producen semilla.Las t'olas al poseer semillas pequeñas deben ser colectadas cuidadosamente, esto generalmente ocurre en los meses de noviembre y diciembre; en cambio los pastos forman semilla entre los meses de febrero y marzo. Ante la sequía y fuentes vientos, la siembra directa en campo de semilla de arbustos y pastos tiene muchas limitaciones, la emergencia de plántulas es muy baja o nula; por tanto, la opción para mejorar esto es la multiplicación de arbustos y pastos en viveros.La producción de plantines comienza con la preparación de sustrato o cama de siembra formado con: tierra agrícola, arena y turba. Luego se realiza el llenado de bandejas plásticas que tienen entre 50 a 180 celdas para la siembra. Con el sustrato preparado y se hace el riego de humedecimiento del sustrato y proceder a la siembra manual con 5 semillas por celda, posterior a la siembra se debe cubrir las bandejas. Los días siguientes hacer el riego cuidadoso con una regadera.Para el acondicionamiento de plantines de los diferentes arbustos (Uma t'ola y Sup'u t'ola) se puede realizar de dos maneras:a) Trasladar las plántulas de las bandejas a las bolsasmaceta de plástico negro y rellenar con tierra preparada y regar adecuadamente. b) Remover las bandejas de su lugar original y proceder a podar las raíces para el endurecimiento y aclimatación de las plantas.Una vez aclimatadas las plantas se trasladan a campo una vez iniciado el periodo de lluvias (enero y febrero) y se debe proceder al plantado de las mismas. La época de plantación debe coincidir necesariamente con el inicio de lluvias.Si la plantación es bajo la modalidad de barreras vivas (más común en la zona), el terreno debe ser dividido cada 40 o 50 metros en sentido contrario a la dirección predominante del viento. Dentro del espacio destinado a la siembra (2 a 3 metros de ancho) se debe hacer el plantado en el sistema de tres bolillo (dispuestas en tres hileras, en triángulo) intercalando diferentes especies entre arbustos y pastos. La distancia entre plantas deben ser 1 metro. Con la ayuda de una pala se hace un hoyo de unos 15 cm y ahí se introduce la planta retirando la bolsa negra y se lo apisona para un buen contacto de la tierra y las raíces. Es recomendable que el suelo tenga un buen contenido de humedad para asegurar el prendimiento de las plántulas. Se necesitan unas 200 a 300 plantas para una barrera de 100 metros, según la barrera sea de 2 o 3 hileras.Cuando se plantan estas barreras con diferentes especies (t'olas y pastos) se favorece a la diversidad ya que a futuro se pueda disponer de diferentes posibilidades de forraje para las llamas y hábitat para diferentes organismos.Bajo condiciones de aridez, recuperar estos agroecosistemas requeriere mucho esfuerzo y dedicación, especialmente cuando se propone el repoblamiento vegetal. El manejo de arbustos nativos y pajas inicialmente con técnicas de multiplicación, manejo en vivero, implementación de barreras vivas y descansos mejorados presentan las siguientes ventajas:Disminuye la erosión causada por el viento. Ya que funcionan como rompevientos, si bien por su altura no frenan al 100% la erosión pero lo detienen y dismunuyen su velocidad y el arrastre del suelo por el viento. Aporta con materia orgánica al suelo, el follaje que cae así como el desarrollo de raíces a la larga mejorar la mateia orgánica en el suelo. Es una fuente de forraje, para la alimentación de las llamas y otros animales silvestres como la vicuña. La calidad de estas especies aporta principalmente con fibra en el caso de los pastos y proteína en el caso de las leguminosas nativas, en el caso de los arbustos su contribución es más balanceada.Es el hábitat para insectos benéficos y otros organismos propios de esta región. Usos medicinales,algunas de las especies de arbustos y pastos son utilizados como medicina por los pobladores rurales para resfríos, dolor de estómago según las especies. Contribuye a la recuperación y mantenimiento de la biodiversidad. Aporta a una agricultura sustentable.La deforestación no sólo se da en los bosques tropicales, también en las zonas áridas del altiplano sur de Bolivia, debido al crecimiento de las superficies de siembra de quinua y el excesivo laboreo. Existen alternativas para revertir esta situación que son el establecimiento de barreras vivas con arbustos y pastos nativos, y cultivos de cobertura en las tierras de descanso. Cuanto antes se realicen estas acciones se contribuye a la sustentabilidad de estos sistemas productivos.Uso de la agricultura de conservación en sistemas integrados agrícola-ganaderos en zonas áridas para mejorar la eficiencia en el uso de agua, la fertilidad del suelo y la productividad en países del norte de África y Latinoamérica","tokenCount":"1763"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f35d149549d1f6eef0b7c8b0acacea2e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/687bdb4d-7c12-4f64-bbfe-bf23322fbd2d/retrieve","id":"-1356141388"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78e1bd95-d800-494b-81d5-94c183a94975","pagecount":"1","content":"Pork is the most widely consumed meat in Vietnam and nearly all (>90%) is sold in wet markets. In these markets, hazards are pervasive, costs of compliance are high, and enforcement capacity is weak. While many approaches have been tried to improve food safety, their uptake has been low and evidence for effectiveness is weak.The PigRISK project (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017) developed the first quantification of the risk of food-borne diseases to human health and cost of food-borne illness. Around one in five people fall ill each year from pork-borne salmonella, costing tens of millions of dollars each year.But the pork value chain is not just a potential source of disease: it is also crucial for Vietnamese livelihoods and nutrition. Hence, it is important to develop 'light-touch' approaches to improve food safety which are tailored to the capacities of value chain actors and can be applied largely and low cost.Seeking to reduce the burden of food-borne disease in informal, emerging and niche markets, SafePORK will develop and evaluate, light-touch, market-based approaches to improving food safety while safeguarding livelihoods in the pork sector.We believe market-based approaches are the best bet for improving food safety in mass domestic markets, but much work is needed to adapt them to national contexts and generate the evidence needed to engender support from the public and private sector.• Framework, tools, methods, protocols for pork safety evaluation.• Evidence-based advice on improving pork safety in Vietnam.• Manuals, guidelines, and diagnostics for new approaches to pork safety.• Roadmap for taking successfully evaluated food safety approaches to scale.• Papers, briefs, recommendations for increased gender equity in pork value chains.• Risk communication training courses, material and communication products.• Greater understanding among policymakers, donors and the private sector of the potential for existing and novel food safety initiatives that improve food safety equitably and sustainably, and that are scalable.• Agreement on what will be needed to take promising approaches to greater scale and some successful approaches already going to scale.• Improved understanding and communication of risk among academics, policymakers, private sector and media.• Improved capacity in researchers, students and partners.Fred Unger, f.unger@cigar.org, ILRI, Vietnam","tokenCount":"349"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fd9cc2cfe295c96b1cbc29e3c493ad5f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c29e81d0-fe15-4e52-90e4-7d003c2fc2a5/retrieve","id":"-949007930"},"keywords":["Harvesting beans from the seed multiplication plot at the Gumbu community seed bank","South Africa. Credit: Bioversity International/R.Vernooy managed seed systems. Diversity fair in Chimikuko","Zimbabwe. Credit: Bioversity International/R. Vernooy"],"sieverID":"71067ad6-6b71-4589-9220-eba5294bac25","pagecount":"120","content":"Agriculture (CIAT) delivers research-based solutions that address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.The Alliance focuses on the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and environment. We work with local, national, and multinational partners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, and with the public and private sectors and civil society. With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people in a climate crisis.The Alliance is part of CGIAR, the world' s largest agricultural research and innovation partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.History of seed policy development in Burkina FasoLegal regulations that support farmer-managed seed systems Introduction History of seed policy development in Ghana Regional harmonization of agricultural and seed policies Legal regulations that support farmer-managed seed systems Seed (Certification and Standards) Act of 1972 (NRCD100) Plants and Fertilizer Act of 2010 (No. 803) National Seed Policy, 2013 The National Seed Plan, 2015 The Plant Variety Protection Bill, 2020Protecting farmer-managed seed systems: current policy gaps Introduction Policies, laws, and regulations reviewed Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995) Seed and Plant Act (2007) National Seed Policy (2018) Quality Declared Seed (QDS) National Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy (2008) and the Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill (2012) Plant Variety Protection Act (2014) The National Environment Management Policy (1994) and National Environment Act 1998 Draft Food andNutrition Bill (2009) Geographical Indications Act (2013) National Agriculture Policy (2013) Analysis of the inclusion of farmer-managed seed systems in national policies and support for their development Estimates suggest that 60-80 percent of the seeds on which smallholder farmers in developing countries depend is saved on farm or obtained through informal distribution channels (rather than through formal channels that are regulated, monitored and sanctioned by government and produced and sold by the private seed sector). This seed is obtained through seed exchanges between farmers in the same or neighboring communities or other community sharing systems (e.g., labor for seed), through community seed bank seed donation and return practices, and at the local fresh food markets (where often both grains and seeds are sold). Farmers manage and control the flows of this seed, through on-farm activities such as sowing, planting, selecting (in the field, pre-or post-harvest), storing, and regenerating. Women farmers play key roles in farmer seed systems, although they are often overlooked by researchers and development personnel, policies, and programs. This high level of seed autonomy among farmers does not mean there are no challenges. Almost everywhere, local seed systems are under stress (Subedi and Vernooy, 2019). Many farming households have become more individualized in terms of decision-making and deployment of knowledge, labor, capital, and seeds. Traditional seed exchange relationships have become weaker in many areas. Farming production practices are becoming more market oriented, which has both benefits and costs depending on the local context. Large-scale rural-to-urban migration is contributing to a decline in farming in many countries or transforming small-scale family farming into contract farming. It is also leading to the feminization of agriculture, increasing women' s workload and responsibilities in many regions (Chhetri et al., 2020).These trends are affecting local seed production, selection, storage, distribution, and exchange practices, for example, through substituting local varieties with hybrids that can be easily purchased at local markets or from agrodealers. In this way, formal and informal become intertwined (Kuhlmann and Dey, 2021). Climate change is placing additional pressure on farmers' seed and food production systems and on the multiple functions that they fulfill. Future impacts of climate change are expected to become more pronounced in many parts of the world, forcing farmers to change their practices and causing them to search for information about crops and varieties that are better adapted to new weather dynamics.Resilient seed systems are generated/formed/thrive when supportive policy, legal, and socioeconomic conditions coexist, at local, district and national levels, and where a diversity of seed production and distribution practices, including farmer-managed practices (e.g., custodian farmers, seed saver groups, community seed banks, local seed businesses, farmer field schools, and community-supported agriculture) are in place and active. Such a system contributes to greater food availability throughout the year and supports the production of more nutritious and healthy crops, income generation, and a sustainable resource base.Policies, laws and regulations in support of farmer-managed seed systems: still a long way to go. A review of 14 countries in Africa vi Resilient seed systems (Subedi and Vernooy, 2019):• Rely on the ability of seed system actors to absorb disturbances, regroup or reorganize, and adapt to stresses and changes caused by a perturbation in the environment• Result from multiple seed and knowledge interactions and continuous learning among seed system actors and related institutions• Is demand driven and responsive to different needs and interests, supporting all users and farming systems• Recognizes, respects and supports the key roles played by women farmers as seed custodians, managers, networkers, and entrepreneurs.Resilient seed systems reduce vulnerability by (Subedi and Vernooy, 2019):• Ensuring access to seeds in terms of preference, affordability, and availability when needed• Ensuring availability in terms of production and distribution• Guaranteeing seed quality in terms of adaptability, safety, and longevity• Guaranteeing seed choice and diversity• Producing crops that underpin a nutritious and healthy diet, including neglected and underutilized species• Recognizing and respecting seed as social and cultural capital.The key question is: Do such supportive policy, legal, and socioeconomic conditions coexist at various levels?In the Republic of Benin, agriculture is regarded as one of the most important sectors, contributing 35 percent to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (GAIN Report, 2014). About 70 percent of the working population is employed in agriculture, providing about 75 percent of total export earnings as well as 15 percent of state revenue. Some of the major constraints limiting the sustainable intensification of agricultural production in Benin are the availability of quality seeds (Achigan- Dako et al., 2014), lack of water for irrigation and poor consideration of gender when enacting development policies. In food crop production, seeds are important components of agricultural development (Etten et al., 2017) and contribute about 30 percent to crop productivity. However, other factors, such as seed quality (for example, health status, germination power, moisture content, specific purity, varietal purity, vigor) account for 40 percent of variation in crop yield (Kpedzroku and Didjeira, 2008).Seed systems and markets are critical components of national and regional efforts to boost agricultural production, promote structural change and enhance livelihoods. For a wide group of seed system actors-including commercial enterprises, farmer-based organizations, regulators and researchersrecent seed policy reforms have provided new laws, initiatives and opportunities. Nonetheless, there are several complex issues that must be addressed. As the public and private sectors compete in emerging seed markets, their roles must be continually redefined. Much work remains to be done to better integrate informal and formal seed systems, ensuring that farmers benefit from improved cultivars developed through breeding programs, providing industry with new market opportunities and allowing the government to expand its regulatory reach to support farmers and rural entrepreneurs (Spielman, 2020).Certified seeds in Benin are mainly produced by farmers' organizations and the private sector. Most foundation seeds used for certified seed production are sourced from the Institut National des Recherches Agricoles du Bénin (National Institute of Agricultural Research of Benin), which is located in Bembèrèkè municipality.Under the guidance of the Centres d' Action Régionale pour le Développement Rural (Regional Action Centers for Rural Development), eight government-sponsored seed production farms were developed between 1978 and 1984. Following a 1989 study, the sector was restructured with the execution of a National Seed Plan for 1990-1995. This plan, which decreased the number of government-run seed farms to three, reaffirmed the need for approved seed production and sought to open the seed market to private actors. A second plan for 1995-2000 further restructured the seed industry. Seed-producing cooperatives are dominated by large federal and national umbrella organizations. The collapse of the Société Nationale pour la Promotion Agricole (National Society for Agricultural Promotion), a state-run entity that coordinated 90 percent of commercial seed business until 2008, laid the groundwork for the cooperatives.Benin is a member of the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI; African Intellectual Property Organization), which is headquartered in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The other members are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. The OAPI has a mission to establish and promote an effective seed system to encourage the creation of new improved plant varieties. OAPI' s Bangui Agreement deals with intellectual property matters relating to patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, trade names, geographical indications, copyrights, unfair competition, integrated circuit layouts and plant variety rights. The treaty recognizes the enormous contribution of farmers to the development of global plant genetic resources. Therefore, it has called for the protection of farmers' traditional knowledge by increasing farmers' participation in national decision-making processes and ensuring that they share in the benefits accruing from use of these resources. The treaty also helps to maximize crop breeding and promotes development and maintenance of diverse farming systems.Plant Variety Protection (PVP) regulations in Benin came into existence on January 1, 2006. The PVP is ensured by Annex X of the Bangui Agreement and allows breeders to obtain intellectual property protection documents known as plant variety certificates.The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Convention was adopted in Paris in 1961and was revised in 1972, 1978and 1991(UPOV, 1991)). In 2016, of seventy-four member states, South Africa and Kenya were the only African countries to adhere to the Convention by subscribing to the 1968 Act. It is specifically designed to reflect the peculiarities of breeding, cultivation and use of new plant varieties. Benin is the only African country to have ratified the UPOV Convention by subscribing to the revised Act of 1991, which was adopted on March 19, 1991, in Geneva but was rejected by several countries and farmers' organizations.In February 2017, the government of Benin transmitted a draft decree to the National Assembly to authorize ratification of the 1991 Act of the International Convention on New Varieties of Plants.However, in February 2019, the National Assembly rejected the UPOV Convention Act because the law lacks transparency and accountability, prevents farmers from saving seeds from improved varieties and prevents seed exchange among farmers, which may lead to the disappearance of traditional farmers' varieties. There are 150 varieties of non-patented seeds in Benin. Several organizations (nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), civil organizations, peasant farmers' groups) have campaigned against legalization of the UPOV Convention.Benin approved the ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas on December 17, 2018, the provisions of which, in particular Article 19, are violated by the UPOV Convention. The declaration puts peasants at the heart of global food security, access to production elements and environmental protection challenges.Benin is a member state of different regional agricultural policies in West Africa, including those of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). WAEMU' s policy operated for three years (2002)(2003)(2004) and was then extended to 2009 to define an institutional framework and adopt regional regulations and three-year plans. The last threeyear plan ended in 2016 but regional regulations on plants, animals and food safety were harmonized in 2007. In addition, a master plan was adopted to prioritize the agricultural sector.All ECOWAS member states adopted the West African Regional Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP) in Accra (January 2005). ECOWAP was defined by the agricultural component of the New Partnership for Africa' s Development (NEPAD) and the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) that was adopted in 2002 and lasted for ten years. A new direction was defined during an ECOWAP+10 seminar in Dakar in November 2015. A high-level scientific forum of ECOWAP/CAADP actors identified climate-smart agriculture as one of the most relevant responses of agricultural actors to climate change effects.The West African Seed Committee is the main management body for the implementation and monitoring of harmonized regulations at the regional level in terms of quality control, certification and the marketing of seeds to promote seed sector development in member states.Legal regulations that support farmer-managed seed systemsSeed laws and regulations define the seed sector' s institutional framework and rule enforcement, thus impacting who produces, markets and sells seeds of which varieties and under what conditions. There are various types of legal and policy initiatives that directly affect the kind of seeds that small-scale farmers can use, including intellectual property laws that grant state-sanctioned monopolies to plant breeders at the expense of farmers' rights, and seed marketing laws that regulate trade in seeds, often making it illegal to exchange or market farmers' seeds.The Republic of Benin operates intellectual property law as part of its membership of the OAPI Bangui Agreement of March 2, 1977. The law is for regional conventions of all member countries and also acts as national legislation on intellectual property. It conforms with the UPOV Convention, of which Benin is not a member state.Until 1995 when the seed sector was liberalized, the state had been responsible for seed production and distribution in the formal seed system. The government of Benin was the major source of low-cost seed delivery, challenging the competitiveness and survival of other seed enterprises. Benin' s current regional seed policy is reflected in Agreement C/REG.4/05/2008 that harmonizes the rules related to quality control, certification, and marketing of seeds in the West African sub-region (ECOWAS, 2008).In 2006, the government of Benin initiated implementation of a Strategic Plan for the Recovery of the Agricultural Sector (Plan Stratégique de Relance du Secteur Agricole, PSRSA) which was adopted in 2011 by the Council of Ministers and expired in December 2015.Benin' s national seed policy was adopted in 2015 with an action plan for implementation based on the PSRSA. The national seed policy seeks to address the following objectives: (i) make quality seeds available to farmers at an appropriate time and affordable cost; (ii) create a favorable environment for seed trade by reducing trade impediments; (iii) create a favorable environment for private investment in the seed sector; (iv) promote public-private partnership and (v) reinforce institutional and legal seed sector frameworks. The national seed policy outlines various actors' roles in the formal seed system, namely research institutions, support service providers, farmers' organizations and the private sector as well as government and regional organizations.The national seed policy was renewed for 2017-2025 under the Strategic Plan for the Development of the Agricultural Sector (PSDSA) 2025 and the National Plan for Agricultural Investments and Food and Nutritional Security (PNIASAN) 2017-2021. The PSDSA aims to: (i) enhance agricultural growth and food security through efficient production and (ii) ensure competitiveness and market access by developing value chains. To achieve these objectives, from 2012 to 2015, the government of Benin was involved in collecting, processing, and distributing staple foods (rice, maize), and cotton, which is Benin' s main export commodity,. The government also provided annual input subsidies to cotton producers, while certified seeds were occasionally subsidized for maize and rice producers in [2008][2009]. Market support measures included annually fixed floor prices at the farm gate for cotton and rice as well as recommended prices for rice and maize in selected retail stores. Finally, a 10 percent tariff is in place for rice imports. The PSDSA is strongly oriented to climate change adaptation and takes into account sustainable resource management and population resilience. Climate-resilient agriculture is promoted and value chains for cashew, maize and shea are being developed.New Market Lab and the Catholic Relief Services drafted a seed policy initiative and programs review on January 5, 2021. The review encompasses different seed programs that have been initiated in several African countries. Some of these programs are summarized below:• The Access to Seeds Index evaluates and compares seed companies according to their efforts to improve access to quality seeds of improved varieties for smallholder farmers (Access to Seeds, 2019). The index seeks primarily to identify leadership and good practices, providing an evidence base to determine where and how the seed industry can increase its efforts. In 2019, the index presented four rankings and in-depth studies that evaluated the performance of global seed companies as well as the regional industry in South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The methodology is based on input from farmers, companies and policymakers, which is then reviewed by dozens of regional experts. The index measures four categories of indicators (commitment, performance, transparency and leadership) in each of the areas studied (governance and strategy, genetic resources, intellectual property, research and development, seed production, marketing and sales, and capacity building).• The Africa Yam project involves a network of research organizations including the National Root Crops Research Institute and the Ebonyi State University in Nigeria, the Crops Research Institute and the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute in Ghana, the Centre National de Recherche Agronomique in Côte d'Ivoire, and the Université d' Abomey-Calavi in Benin (AfricaYam, 2021). The project' s objective is to develop yam breeding programs that increase productivity while reducing production costs in the four target countries. The project seeks to develop and deploy end-user preferred varieties with higher yield, greater resistance to pests and diseases and improved quality.• AMAFINE has a wide variety of projects focused on different crops. Currently, there is an ongoing project with the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research (CORAF) aimed at improving access to funding for node actors along the maize value chain in Benin, Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire. AMAFINE also developed a seed program in Senegal, from 2014 to 2016, which was focused on seeds of specific crops.Protecting farmer-managed seed systems: current policy gapsThe PSDSA 2025 and the PNIASAN 2017-2021 hardly refer to the seed sector. Currently, the Republic of Benin does not have a Plant Breeders Act and farmers rely heavily on the National Agricultural Policy. Generally, the current seed policy and regional harmonization framework of the Ministère de l' Agriculture, de l'Elevage et de la Pêche (Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries) does not include the marketing of quality declared seeds (QDS). There is no provision for including QDS into the framework as in other African countries-Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia-where smallholder farmers produce and market QDS. However, the production of certified seeds is carried out under the control of the Seed Quality Control and Certification Department of Benin (Service de la Promotion de Contrôle de Qualité et du Conditionnement des Produits Agricoles), but effective implementation would benefit from more resources and staff. The government needs to create a conducive atmosphere for seed companies to encourage private investors to enter the seed industry. Low capacity for resilience in vulnerable populations in terms of food and nutrition in the face of climate change, land degradation, and poor risk management are other challenges. In general, seeds are not resilient or tolerant to climate variability.The PSDSA 2025 and the PNIASAN 2017-2021 capture cross-cutting areas such as gender to ensure the sustainability of achievements. The PNIASAN 2017-2021 considers how to improve governance and information systems in the agricultural sector, and how to increase nutritional security. Component 4.4 under Axis 4 considers the promotion of gender in the agricultural sector.The PSDSA 2025 and the PNIASAN 2017-2021 also identify various challenges that inhibit women' s empowerment in the agricultural sector, some of which have been linked to low levels of education and training, limited access to productive resources and employment, and minimal participation in decisionmaking bodies.The documents highlight the various roles that women must play in the agricultural and rural sectors which need to be supported by ensuring that (i) women have access to improved resources with relation to land, credit, agricultural inputs and employment and (ii) rural women' s capacity for action is strengthened through education and vocational training programs. The role of women in the agricultural sector needs to be strengthened. Policies to support women in the seed sector have not been clearly defined. Future seed regulations should ensure gender equity in delivery of quality seed to farmers.The seed sector of Benin is still in a development stage and requires improvement. Although there is a seed policy in place, it is biased toward the formal seed system. There is no attention paid to quality seed production by farmers for farmers (e.g., through QDS). Certified seeds are produced under the control of the Seed Quality Control and Certification Department of Benin. The seed system in Benin is not fully liberalized, and lacks a conducive atmosphere for seed companies to enter the seed industry.Burkina Faso is a landlocked country where agriculture contributes to about 30 percent of GDP and employs over 90 percent of the workforce (Silga, 2019). Most farmers are smallholders and many produce primarily for their own consumption. The sector is dominated by small-scale farms of less than five hectares and the main products are sorghum, millet and maize (highest volume), and cotton (highest value) (OECD, 2014). People' s livelihoods therefore depend on agricultural land and seeds, making the traditional use and management of seeds vital to rural people' s nutrition. Smallholder farmers use multiple avenues to purchase seed, which helps to prevent bottlenecks in seed supply that may be caused by changes in government policy, the end of a seed project, or natural or man-made disasters (Almekinders et al., 1994). Channels for the supply of farmer seed in Burkina Faso are generally grouped into formal and informal (also known as local, traditional or farmer) seed systems.Burkina Faso' s formal seed sector comprises numerous institutions from the public and private sectors.Variety development falls within the remit of the Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA; Institute for the Environment and Agricultural Research). Seed quality control, inspection and certification is conducted by the Service National des Semences (National Seed Services), which is under the Ministère de l' Agriculture et des Aménagements Hydrauliques (Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Management). The Comité National de Semences (CNS; National Seed Committee) oversees variety release and registration. Seed production and marketing is conducted by seed companies, seed co-operatives and individual seed producers. The Association Nationale des Entreprises Semencières au Burkina Faso is the national seed association, bringing seed companies together under one umbrella. It serves as a platform for the seed industry' s private sector (Waithaka et al., 2019). The formal seed system involves a chain of activities leading to the production, inspection, and certification of seed of released varieties. The process usually starts with plant breeding, includes multi-location trials to establish wide adaptability of distinct and uniform germplasm, and concludes with formal declaration of varietal release. Seed regulations aim to maintain varietal identity and purity and to guarantee physical, physiological and sanitary quality. Seed is typically marketed through officially recognized seed outlets, either commercially or by way of national agricultural research systems (Louwaars, 1994).The informal seed sector broadly refers to the traditional practices through which farmers produce and maintain local varieties. Under this system, farmers either retain seed from previous harvests or source seed from neighbors, family members or food markets. Due to limited investment in seed production and processing, about 85 percent of smallholder farmers in Burkina Faso still rely on the informal seed sector for most crops (Sanou et al., 2017). The informal seed system embraces most of the ways in which farmers themselves produce, disseminate and procure seed, directly from their own harvest, through gifts and barter among friends, neighbors and relatives and through local grain markets or traders. Farmers' seed is generally selected from harvests or grain stocks, rather than produced separately. Local technical knowledge and standards guide informal seed system performance (Bougma et al., 2018.In an era of agricultural modernization and intensification, promoting the production and use of quality seeds of improved varieties has taken center stage in agricultural policies, strategies and programs in Burkina Faso. A conscious effort by the government has led to productivity increases of up to 40 percent. However, for staple crops such as maize and sorghum, 80 percent of farmers use their own seeds (Lipper et al., 2005). The formal seed sector is used as a source of seed largely for more recently introduced crops.In 1970, Burkina Faso experienced severe drought, which precipitated the need for agricultural improvements, especially in the seed sector. This led to the 2002 seed specialization program and the passing of the Seed Law in 2006. Law No. 010-2006/AN (Portant Règlementation des Semences Végétales au Burkina Faso) was passed with the help of donor agencies and NGOs. The law aimed to create conditions to promote the quality, production, marketing and use of seeds in order to contribute to achieving the national objectives of agricultural intensification and modernization and increasing agricultural and forestry production and food security. This liberalized the seed system in Burkina Faso.In 2008, Burkina Faso experienced a serious famine, which prompted an increase in investment in the seed sector by the Burkinabe government, causing a rise in certified seed use in Burkina Faso.After enacting the Seed Law in 2006, three decrees and twelve specific sets of regulations covering many aspects of the seed system were passed with the aim of increasing the availability and use of certified seed. • Université Polytechnique de Bobo Dioulasso (UPB, Polytechnic University of Bobo Dioulasso): UPB is a public university established in 1996. Like UO, UPB plays an important role in the national agricultural research system by supplying trained research professionals.In 2008, Burkina Faso joined ECOWAS to sign the regional Seed Regulations (C/Reg.4/05/2008) (ECOWAS, 2008) that harmonize member states' seed policies to allow easy access to and marketing of varietal seeds across the ECOWAS block. It covers seed variety release, seed certification and quality assurance, quarantine and phytosanitary measures for seeds, but does not oblige its members to harmonize national legislation with regional decisions (ECOWAS, 2008). Since 2017, Burkina Faso has taken steps to harmonize its Seed Law with that of ECOWAS.Burkina Faso is also a member of OAPI. In Burkina Faso, plant breeders' rights are protected by the Plant Varieties Protection Act. In 1999, OAPI joined the UPOV Convention (UPOV, 1991). By signing the UPOV Convention for the Bangui Agreement revision on intellectual property, OAPI members adopted another form of plant invention protection. The revised Bangui Agreement formalizes the rights of OAPI member states to protect certain new plant varieties. The introduction of this new provision meets the requirement of the World Trade Organization Agreement on aspects related to Intellectual Property which obliges all signatories to accede to the UPOV Convention. The purpose of the convention is to recognize and ensure that new plant variety breeders have exclusive rights to exploit their variety, covered by a plant variety certificate issued by OAPI. Under certain conditions, the plant variety certificate holder may prohibit any person from exploiting that variety. The convention thus prohibits the production or reproduction, packaging for the purpose of reproduction or multiplication, offer for sale, sale or any form of marketing, export and import of the protected variety without the breeder' s prior consent.Burkina Faso has acceded to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which is also known as the Seed Treaty or Plant Treaty; and the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, which regulates the exchange of plants and plant parts.In July 2005, the Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) in Sirte, Libya, suggested that the AU Commission lead a continental effort to develop an African Seed and Biotechnology Program (ASBP). The ASBP serves as a blueprint for the development of Africa' s seed sector, considered vital to address food security problems. In 2007, after much deliberation and many consultations, the AU approved the program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The aim of the ASBP is to provide a comprehensive and strategic approach to overcome current barriers and obstacles to seed industry development in Africa.The program is yet to be implemented in most African countries due to financial constraints. In 2018, Burkina Faso signed an MoU with Africa Seeds, of which Burkina Faso was a founding member in 1998.The MoU promotes sustainable seed sector development in Burkina Faso, within the framework of the ASBP.Legal regulations that support farmer-managed seed systemsAccording to the Access to Seeds Index (2019), Burkina Faso is a leading country within West Africa as it has a seed policy and regulations in place as well as a functional seed committee, certification agency, updated national catalogue and active private sector seed association. inspect seed facilities, installations, structures, vehicles, equipment and products; take samples and measurements necessary for seed quality control; and may seize and confiscate non-conforming seeds or any object related to fraudulent seed activities, without prejudice to criminal sanctions. Some of the crimes defined in the decree include usurping seed producer status, distributing uncertified or unapproved seed, using misleading labeling, distributing treated seed for human or animal consumption, importing seeds without authorization, and exporting without a declaration. Offenders can be charged between CFA 200 000 and CFA 20 000 000 if found guilty. The decree is not sympathetic to the farmerbased seed system as it criminalizes the sale of seeds generated by the system.Protecting farmer-managed seed systems: current policy gapsFarmers' traditional means of using, propagating, breeding and exchanging their seeds are under serious threat in Burkina Faso. Large seed companies are aggressively campaigning for the use of industrial and genetically modified seeds and forcing their way into the market. The companies receive support from government programs and laws that support their approach, as well as from a variety of other actors and donors in the national agricultural sector. The Seed Law does not address farmers' rights to keep, use and exchange seeds within their own networks. It restricts farmers' rights to certified varieties, which are protected by intellectual property rights. The traditional seed system or farmer seed system has been deemed inferior. There are many publicly and privately financed programs that advertise the commercial system in rural areas. The government subsidizes the production of certified varieties, presenting them as the solution to a variety of problems that farmers face, including shorter wet seasons and regional and temporal changes in rainfall patterns. Burkina Faso has a decree that criminalizes the sale and distribution of uncertified or unapproved seeds. Meanwhile, the procedure for the certification and approval of seeds is cumbersome and lengthy. Therefore, a policy framework that allows the use, sale, and distribution of farmers' seeds is needed.In Burkina Faso, approximately 95 percent of women work in subsistence agriculture or the informal sector, using low levels of technology. However, Burkina Faso is far from achieving gender equity. The Seed Law and associated decrees do not include support for women. No provision was made to provide greater support to women in agriculture from the Seed Sector Support Fund; both men and women were to be supported equally. The National Plan of Action (1991Action ( -1995) ) for Burkina Faso was drawn up to strengthen women' s role in development, and to promote women' s productivity, alleviate their work burden and eliminate oppressive structures and practices. Burkina Faso scores poorly on the Women' s Empowerment in Agriculture Index according to an assessment by the Hunger Project (2017) indicating inadequate policy implementation.Within West Africa, Burkina Faso has a relatively well-functioning seed sector. It has a seed policy and regulations in place, as well as a functional seed committee, certification agency, updated national catalogue and active private sector association. However, the sector does not address farmers' rights to keep, use, and exchange seeds within their own networks. Legal provisions should be made to recognize and effectively protect traditional seed systems in Burkina Faso, which will give farmers the right to keep, use, and trade their seed varieties. Maintaining traditional seed systems is the only way to effectively preserve Africa' s enormous diversity of species and varieties and the knowledge of its farming communities (Lossau et al., 2000).As in most African countries, agriculture is important for Ghana' s economic growth and development.It contributes about 30 percent of national GDP and over 30 percent of export earnings and is a major source of raw materials in the manufacturing sector (GSP, 2013). Although the agricultural sector is smaller than the service and industry sectors, it is the second largest employer in Ghana (World Bank, 2012). Seeds are the basic unit of plant propagation and, as such, play a large role in agricultural production. Quality seeds are considered to be the most important technology for successful agriculture and constitute a major pathway to achieving national food security goals. In a country such as Ghana, where agriculture is the main pillar of the national economy, there is great need to ensure the availability and widespread use of quality seeds that are adapted to the environment where they will be grown (Almekinders and Louwaars, 2008).A national seed sector assessment by the ISSD Africa program in 2012 identified five major types of seed system operating in Ghana. These are farmer-saved seed systems, community-based seed production systems, mixed public-private (local seed businesses), and purely public or private commercial systems (NSP, 2015). These various seed systems contribute to fulfilling the diverse seed demand of Ghanaian farmers. In practice, Ghana has three basic seed systems: formal, informal and combinations of the two (hybrid/quasi seed systems). Farmer-saved seeds and community-based seeds are informal systems existing outside of seed certification (Etwire et al., 2016).Traditionally in Ghana, seeds were either exchanged among farmers or sourced from local markets (Cromwell et al., 1992). The primary seed source for most farmers is saved on-farm from the previous harvest (about 60-70 percent); the remainder comes from off-farm and other local sources (Franzen et al., 1996). Most farmers, upon getting access to openly pollinated varieties through on-farm trials of new varieties, keep recycling from their own stock. A farmer will only purchase improved seeds after experiencing loss in seed vigor. Over time, formal seed delivery systems emerged; however, traditional or informal seed delivery systems still exist in most parts of the country. In the informal seed system, farmers obtain seeds from traditional sources based on seed exchange or gifts, or purchases from other farmers and local markets (Pandey et al., 2011). The informal seed system is not regulated or supervised by any private or public institution, but is controlled by farmers (Etwire et al., 2013). The farmer-based seed system makes up about 80 percent of the total seed system for most staple crops in Ghana (Louwaars and de Boef, 2012). In the informal system, seed varieties are selected, multiplied and distributed at the local level based on traditional knowledge (Etwire et al., 2013). Farmers combine different crops and maintain genetic diversity usually consisting of traditional landraces.In contrast to the informal seed system, the formal system is characterized by the development and distribution of improved seed varieties through a series of interdependent activities. The varieties are certified by the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate, a department under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) responsible for regulating seeds in Ghana. Formal seed only contributes to 11-14 percent of national seed requirements (MoFA, 2015). Ghana' s formal seed sector is made up of numerous institutions, including government Crop Research Institute, Ghana Seed Inspection and Certification Division (GSID), GLDB, SARI and district extension), the private sector (mostly local seed companies and agro-input dealers), and development agencies.To bridge the gap between informal and formal seed sources, a hybrid system that relies on selected farmers or groups with some degree of specialization in seed production was facilitated by various NGOs, projects, donor agencies and related entities. The hybrid/quasi-formal seed system is an emerging community seed production and distribution system in Ghana that blends the formal and informal seed systems. It is promoted by development projects to complement the formal seed system and thereby make improved seeds accessible to local communities (Etwire et al., 2013). These projects access certified foundation seeds from the formal system and pass them on to farmer groups based locally for multiplication and distribution. Usually, these farmer groups receive chemical inputs and capacity building support from the projects and the associated costs are repaid after selling the harvest. The system aims to improve farmers' access to certified seeds (Etwire et al., 2016). The farmerbased seed system and the hybrid seed system have the potential to sustain Ghana' s food system as they provide a majority of the seeds required by farmers.Ghana' s seed industry started in 1958 and was operated through various public sector entities until 1989 when the government adopted privatization. This paved the way for a new Ghana Seed Program in which the private sector took over the seed industry' s commercial components, while the public sector continued with its responsibility of supervision and service. The seed industry was regulated by the Seeds (Certification and Standards) Regulations Decree of 1972, which covered the production, certification, and distribution of seeds in Ghana. The state-owned Ghana Seed Company (GSC) was established in 1979 to produce all classes of seed except breeder seed. Dissolution of the GSC in 1989 was the catalyst for private sector involvement in the commercial components of the formal seed sector, with the public sector retaining service-related aspects (Addo-Quaye and Djokoto, 2013;GSP, 2013).In 1991, a task force was formed in MoFA to review the Seeds (Certification and Standards) Regulations Decree of 1972 and make recommendations on rules and regulations pertaining to the seed industry' s operations in view of its new, privatized structure. This led to the passage of the Plants and Fertilizer Act, 2010 (Act 803), which makes provisions for plant protection, seeds and fertilizer control. Seed industry studies in 2008 by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) identified the need for a national seed policy. In June 2013, Ghana adopted its National Seed Policy to address inequities in the seed sector. Effective implementation of the National Seed Policy requires a National Seed Plan that translates the policy statements into practical activities to develop the public and private seed sector and industry, in the short, medium, and long term.In 2015, the National Seed Plan was put in place to create an environment conducive to orderly growth as well as comprehensive and balanced development of the seed industry. Potential actors were encouraged to play their respective roles in Ghana' s seed sector. In 2011, the country passed the Biosafety Act 831, which allows the application of biotechnology to food crop production. In 2016, Ghana ratified the ECOWAS Regulations, which harmonize the rules governing quality control, certification and marketing of plant seeds and seedlings in the ECOWAS zone. The Plant Variety Protection Bill, also known as the Plant Breeders Bill, was passed into law in November 2020 (Mabaya et al., 2017).In  (Keyser, 2015), which was created under the ECOWAS Regulations to enforce legislation related to seed quality control, certification and marketing. Ghana has harmonized its seed policies with the seed regulations of ECOWAS (C/ Reg.4/05/2008). In West Africa, CORAF has also been a significant partner in regional harmonization efforts and has been tasked with implementing the ECOWAS Regulations.Legal regulations that support farmer-managed seed systemsThe National Seed Policy, 2013The government of Ghana has developed policies and projects to stimulate inclusive agribusinesses at the smallholder level, improve productivity and catalyze agricultural industrialization, which will improve national growth. One of the key policies focused on agricultural sector growth and productivity is the Food and Agriculture Sector Policy Framework, the goals of which are aligned with the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy and NEPAD' s CAADP. Although the Food and Agriculture Sector Policy Framework provided a broad strategic framework that enhanced crop production profitability through access to improved technologies, the formulation and adoption of the National Seed Policy in June 2013 was the first step in the process of addressing the seed industry' s major weaknesses and inequities in Ghana.The National Seed Policy' s main objective was to support the development and establishment of a well-coordinated, comprehensive and sustainable private sector-driven seed industry through systematic and strategic approaches, which would create a continuous supply of new improved varieties for farmers' use. It also sought to support successful seed production, certification, marketing and seed security systems, which would underpin food security and support overall development of the agricultural sector (Republic of Ghana, 2013).The Minister of Food and Agriculture is responsible for overseeing the National Seed Policy' s implementation through the Directorate of Crop Services. The policy was disseminated to the general public, notably seed industry stakeholders. Public education and awareness creation took place and specific interventions were implemented. Although the policy did not itself have force of law, it forms the basis of ensuing national legislation, such as the Seed and Plant Protection Laws, plant breeders' rights legislation, and farmers' rights legislation. The policy prioritizes the following crops:• Cereals: maize, millet, rice, and sorghum• Legumes: cowpea, groundnut, and soybean• Roots and tubers: cassava, cocoyam, sweet potato, and yam• Tree and industrial crops: cashew, coconut, cotton, mango, oil palm, orange, rubber, shea• Fruits and vegetables: banana, garden egg, okra, onion, papaya, pepper, pineapple, plantain, and tomatoThe National Seed Council has the additional responsibility of advising MoFA and the rest of the government on all matters relating to the National Seed Policy and ensuring that legislations and protocols as well as seed industry planning and implementation are followed. A Seed Industry Development Office was added to the NSS to provide direct support, guidance and assistance to any private sector agency or persons interested or participating in any seed industry activities and to gather seed industry intelligence and data required by the seed industry, particularly the private sector.The National Seed Policy is divided into three parts: Part A establishes the background and justification for the policy, Part B contains the actual seed policy statements and Part C provides guidelines for preparing an implementation plan, the National Seed Plan. The policy statements in Part B introduce an administrative setup for the seed policy and establish the objectives of the seed industry' s various components and propose required interventions.The National Seed Policy aims to enhance support to research institutions for the derivation of new varieties most suited to Ghanaian agroecologies and to ensure that processes of variety testing, release and registration as well as issues of ownership and other rights are adequately addressed as per international norms and standards. The policy aims to create a platform for safe and effective use of biotechnology and genetically modified crops in the national seed industry as a means of rapidly attaining national food security goals. It will ensure that public services are devoted to early class seed production to form a strong foundation for the seed industry and to support the private sector to take responsibility for certified seed class production by assisting with outputs from public sector-mandated agencies.The policy will boost support to the informal seed sector to integrate it with the formal sector. Some of the informal sector' s practices will be systematically upgraded with a view to part of the informal sector eventually evolving into or enhancing the growth of the formal seed sector. The policy seeks to enhance maintenance of high-quality seeds of crop varieties in production, handling and commerce. It aims to ensure that materials emanating from research and eventually proposed for introduction into the seed market as new varieties are sufficiently screened as per stated procedures. The policy also aims to ensure that adequate capacity and resources have been provided to mandated institutions to efficiently and effectively release varieties.All pertinent stakeholders should be consulted on seed export and import with a view to encouraging the national seed industry to produce seeds in excess of immediate national requirements and to exploit niche markets for international seed export. This will increase foreign exchange earnings and enhance incomes and livelihoods of producers and stakeholders along the seed value chain. Other policy objectives are to minimize over-reliance on imports by encouraging the local seed industry to develop its output potential; to strengthen national seed regulatory bodies to undertake their responsibilities in line with facilitative international seed trade norms and acting within the West African seed trade harmonization protocol; and to encourage the national seed industry to develop new varieties that can compete favorably with imports. The policy also seeks to create an enabling environment for the rapid development of an active and efficient private seed sector. This will include effective collaboration between public and private seed enterprises and agencies, facilitative investment incentive packages and infrastructural development. National seed policy formulation and implementation provides support for the farmer-based seed system to develop to its full capacity.The first stage in implementing the National Seed Policy is the conversion of policy statements into a comprehensive National Seed Plan, consisting of methodologies and programs. The National Seed Plan, created in 2015, represents the government' s strategy to guide effective and comprehensive implementation of the National Seed Policy (Republic of Ghana, 2015). It is aimed at transforming Ghana' s seed industry to attain food security and enhance agricultural productivity. The plan seeks to strengthen the private sector to drive commercialization whilst addressing key institutional and oversight challenges.Development of the National Seed Plan received financial and technical support from Africa Seeds, the Alliance for a Green Revolution, AU-ASBP, GIZ, the International Fertilizer Development Centre, Seed Producers Association of Ghana, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Bank. The plan will operationalize the National Seed Policy, resulting in seed sector improvements and an increase in the availability of affordable and quality seeds of superior varieties to farmers.The National Seed Plan is inspired by two pillars, which are clearly stated in the National Seed Policy:• Pillar 1: The government of Ghana is committed to delegating responsibility for leadership in the commercial components of the seed industry to the private sector, and facilitating the sector to assume that role expeditiously.• Pillar 2: Recognizing that several support services, which do not hold immediate prospects for commercialization are nevertheless imperative for the seed industry' s overall effective conduct, the government pledges to assume supportive responsibility for such service areas as plant genetic resources management, research and variety development, early generation seed multiplication, seed quality assurance, agricultural extension, seed security and seed production and the supply of important traditional and food security crops, which the private seed industry ignores.The National Seed Plan aims to progressively increase the national seed supply rate within five years of implementation. It includes the following budgeted interventions to ensure comprehensive, balanced and orderly seed industry development:• Direct private sector interventions to strengthen the private sector' s role in the seed industry, to develop private sector seed marketing and to assist with infrastructure improvements;• Supportive services for seed industry growth to develop a strong seed value chain for a vibrant seed industry, ensure adequate human resources and strengthen the seed industry' s plant genetic resource base;• Addressing gaps in strategic components of the seed sector to cater for traditional crop seed requirements, implementing the national seed security project and strengthening the informal seed sector; and• Seed sector governance and coordination to strengthen the National Seed Council Secretariat.The NSS did not develop as expected, failing to facilitate private sector development in the seed industry. Therefore, the National Seed Plan established a new agency known as the National Seed Industry Association, a non-profit private sector seed development agency, which is an association of seed industry entities, producers and processors. The Association' s formation fulfilled a key policy objective of the government to assist in building a credible and viable private seed sector that will constitute the main conduit for national seed delivery of key crops. The NSS also put in place the National Seed Security Project. This will assist in the development of a seed security system by which seed production and supply systems can be quickly restored to maintain the productive capacity of rural populations affected by disasters, so that they are able to recover their livelihoods as soon as possible.Finally, it will enhance the continuous availability of and access to quality seeds under all conditions.The Plant Variety Protection Bill, 2020The Plant Variety Protection Bill was passed into law in 2020 to establish a legal framework for the protection of the rights of breeders of new plant varieties. The bill ensures that Ghana complies with the 1991 UPOV Convention to which Ghana is a signatory and conforms with the World Trade Organization' s Agreement on Trade and Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The bill is designed to incentivize development of new varieties to contribute to sustainable national progress in agriculture as well as horticulture, plant medicine, floriculture and forestry.The bill aims to improve the quality and quantity of food and raw materials for industry at a time when the global food situation is precarious and uncertain. According to the memorandum that accompanied the law in parliament, \"the Plant Variety Protection Bill seeks protection for new plant varieties, which will boost investment in plant breeding, which requires long term funding sources that entrepreneurs often cannot access in the absence of protections\". The bill promotes the development of new varieties adapted to Ghana' s local environment and specific needs that will increase agricultural productivity in the face of scarcity of arable land and other resources. Providing farmers with better seeds will increase yields from the same amount of land, thereby improving productivity and enhancing economic development. Food security can be improved by breeding and distributing seeds of high-yielding varieties that are adaptable to Ghana' s environment and have good taste and nutritional qualities.The Plant Variety Protection Bill was first introduced in Ghana' s parliament in 2013 as the Plant Breeders Bill, but was later withdrawn following opposition by some civil society groups. Further consultations took place. In 2015, scientists from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement and various universities petitioned parliament to pass the bill. Their petition indicated the bill' s importance for combating poverty as farmers desperately need access to improved varieties of staple crops. The petition claimed it was essential for agricultural modernization and to spark a national green revolution. In 2020, the bill was reintroduced in parliament; it was passed into law in November 2020 and was given presidential assent in December 2020. However, the bill is hostile to smallholder farmers and farmer-based seed exchanges and sales systems as it does not allow farmers to sell and exchange seeds from so-called \"improved varieties.\" It also strengthens the power of global seed companies, commercial breeders and seed producers, as indicated in Section 23 of the bill. The bill undermines biodiversity and food sovereignty as it prevents farmers from developing and distributing seeds that suit their particular environments through the traditional method of continued selection.In Ghana, there are traditional folk laws that are not regularized into national policies or institutions but protect seed systems and agricultural environments. For example in Keta, local laws forbid farmers from building houses in areas reserved for farming. This practice has ensured diversified seed resources and protected farming systems across many generations, thus ensuring improved livelihoods.Protecting farmer-managed seed systems: current policy gapsGhana' s seed policy recognizes the informal seed sector and the community-based seed system. However, all efforts to improve the seed sector focus on the formal seed sector. Project 9 in the National Seed Plan aims to support the informal seed sector to become more useful as a source of quality seeds to the majority of farmers who depend on it, to systematically strengthen linkages with the formal sector and contribute to national seed industry growth. This intervention led to the hybrid seed system, where farmers are supported with foundation seeds and other inputs to multiply and distribute to other farmers in their communities. However, the passing of the Plant Variety Protection Bill constrained farmer-based systems as it banned local farmers from multiplying and distributing improved seeds. The Plants and Fertilizer Act also criminalized the sale of seeds without appropriate labels and packaging, thereby rendering the farmer-based seed exchange and sale system illegal.Civil society organizations who opposed the Plant Variety Protection Bill unsuccessfully proposed a Farmers' Bill instead, which would have promoted and protected farmers' rights, especially in terms of seed protection. The Farmers' Bill would have been supported by Ghana' s status as a signatory to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which has enshrined farmers' rights to save, exchange and sell their seed with neighbors and at local markets, participate in national decision-making processes, share the benefits from commercial use of their traditional varieties and protect their traditional knowledge. The passing of the Plant Variety Protection Bill has engendered intense debate in the national seed industry. The National Seed Policy therefore suggests the use of advocacy and education to reduce conflict and avoid possible constraints to seed industry development.Women play important roles in rural development and agriculture and are involved in all stages of agricultural value chains. Women constitute about 52 percent of the Ghanaian population and 79 percent of women are actively involved in agriculture (Madison, 2020). Women' s low status in rural areas, coupled with gender stereotypes and poor gender equality, continues to persist in Ghana.Despite efforts by the government of Ghana to reduce gender inequalities, there remains a gap between legislation and implementation. The National Agricultural Investment Plan, which is the Medium-Term Agricultural Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) for Ghana, considers three key cross-cutting issuesgender, climate change and nutrition. These agricultural development issues are considered in all agricultural sector programs, projects and activities. To implement METASIP, MoFA established the Women in Agriculture Directorate in 2016 to address poverty and food security and increase incomes and women' s empowerment, targeting female farmers in particular. The Women in Agriculture Directorate developed the Gender and Agriculture Development Strategy, which was designed to guide the implementation of the Food and Agriculture Sector Policy Framework and METASIP in ways that promote gender equity, reflecting the contributions of both men and women to agricultural development in Ghana.Implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda in Ghana created more opportunities to address gender inequalities in the agricultural and rural sectors. Ghana' s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has a mandate to spearhead gender equality and women' s empowerment, reduce vulnerability and promote social inclusivity through effective mainstreaming of gender in all national development processes, programs, policies and laws. However, activities are constrained by lack of budgetary support from the government, which forces reliance on donor funds to implement programs.MoFA has developed a resettlement policy framework that protects the interests of women in resettlement cases. Among the challenges faced in implementing this policy is the fact that women are often users of land but not owners, which affects their decision-making power. However, this issue is being addressed in the second phase of the Land Administration Project, which seeks to increase women' s ownership of land, as well as their user rights.Notwithstanding efforts to mainstream gender in agriculture, gender-related bottlenecks remain in the rural sector, where agriculture is the main source of livelihood, employing a majority of women. Although women contribute a lot in the informal sector, men dominate decision-making channels and power in the agricultural sector. Women lack visibility in decision-making processes, because of factors such as domestic responsibilities, socio-cultural inhibitions and poor literacy.Ghana' s seed industry is still developing, and many policies are in place to streamline this development. However, greater effort and investments are required to develop the farmer-based seed system and legalize farmers' activities through recognition of farmers' rights, which are enshrined in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, of which Ghana is a signatory.Mali is a low-income country with a population growth rate of about 3.6 percent (Centre de développement de l'OCDE, 2016). Its economy is controlled largely by the rural sector where agriculture contributes significantly to national economic stability. The agricultural sector has been a major force in job creation and income generation as well as food security improvement. The agricultural sector contributed approximately 35-39 percent of national GDP during 2006-2010(INSTAT, 2012)).In Mali, seeds are accessed through formal, intermediate and informal seed systems. The traditional methods of producing, maintaining and exchanging local varieties of seeds among farmers are referred to as the informal seed system. The formal seed system deals with strict and systematic methods of selection, production and the sale of improved seeds as well as certified varieties. It includes the formal public-private system and the formal closed public system. The intermediate seed system describes the community-based seed system. About 80 percent of seeds are produced by small-scale producers from both the informal and formal systems. The informal seed system is classified as a peasant seed system (FAO, 2015). Mali' s seed sector faces the following challenges: (i) low levels of certification of seed production for most crops, (ii) low levels of awareness of the importance of using quality seeds, (iii) poor organization, coordination and interaction among different components of the Malian seed value chain and (iv) inadequate enforcement of seed policy and its regulatory framework.Mali experienced severe drought in 2011, which affected national food security. The political situation destabilized in 2012 and a peace agreement was signed in 2015. Mali achieved the Millennium Development Goal of decreasing its proportion of hungry people by 2015 (FAO, 2017). The government of Mali aims to foster socioeconomic development and improve food security (Coulibaly, 2017) The Agricultural Development Policy (Politique de Développement Agricole, 2011-2020), was adopted in 2011. In 2015, the policy was validated based on the CAADP ten-year investment plan and the National Programme for Investment in the Agricultural Sector (PNISA, Programme National d'Investissement dans le Secteur Agricole). PNISA identifies strategic investments in five value chains: inland fisheries, livestock products (both meat and dairy), maize, millet and sorghum, and rice. The President of the Republic of Mali has pledged to support development of seed-related policy since the promulgation of the Agricultural Law.Mali is a member of different organizations that work together to formulate national and international policies. It is a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol. Mali is a member of ECOWAS, which has developed a certification guide under a West African Seed Program (WASP)/USAID project for use by approved inspectors and controllers responsible for: (i) conducting field inspections, (ii) controlling batches and (iii) certifying seeds to ensure categorical quality. The Harmonized Seed Regulations of ECOWAS were adopted on May 18, 2008, in Abuja by the Council of Ministers of the ECOWAS community.Under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Mali, Decree No. 2019-0756/P-RM establishing the national catalogue of plant species and varieties was enacted on September 30, 2019. The law focuses on a list of seed plant species and varieties that can be produced and marketed in Mali. The final draft of Mali' s National Seed Policy was presented in March 2020 by the Ministry of Agriculture. The current agricultural policy advocates participatory management of the agricultural sector, with partnerships among the state, local communities, farmers' organizations, service providers and the private sector leading to the diversification of agricultural production. The state has withdrawn from production, trade and stewardship activities and transferred its functions to the private sector and farmers' organizations.The seed sub-sector will be moved from centralized management (with a dominant role of the state at all levels including variety development, seed multiplication and extension services) to a participatory partnership consisting of inclusive management of the sub-sector. The National Seed Policy has been developed to help in structuring the different programs to be undertaken by the government such as the PNISA, the Agricultural Development Policy and the upcoming creation of the National Support Fund for Agriculture. These instruments will later be reinforced by implementation of the National Policy on Food and Nutritional Security.A new seed policy plan aims at sustainable development of the national seed policy sub-sectors by: (i) preparing and adopting legal and regulatory texts to strengthen seed sub-sector governance, (ii) establishment of the National Committee for Seeds and Seedlings, which replaced the National Committee for Seeds of Plant Origin, (iii) development of a national catalog of species and varieties; (iv) professionalization and capacity building of actors in seed production, packaging and distribution, (v) creation of a national network of seed professionals grouped within AOPP and the Seed Association of Mali (ASSEMA), (vi) structuring the peasant seed system and (vii) creation of a multi-stakeholder consultation framework for the protection and recognition of peasant seed systems.Protecting farmer-managed seed systems: Current policy gapsMali' s current seed policy focuses more on the formal than the informal seed system. However, Article 51 of the Agricultural Orientation Law (2006) provides for food sovereignty as part of national agricultural development policy. Thus, the State recognizes past, present and future contributions of the peasants of Mali to the conservation, improvement, and provision of the agricultural and food plant genetic resources necessary to achieve food sovereignty. Farmer seed systems will be recognized and supported to enable farmers to maintain, improve and sustainably use plant genetic resources, knowledge and innovations.In 2011, the government passed its National Gender Policy to address issues faced by women when accessing the seed system. The policy states that all women must have access to seed resources for agricultural commodity production nationwide but implementation has been slow and is poorly monitored. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Mali has set up several participatory plant breeding projects using the farmer field school approach for women to help in groundnut production. Women' s associations have organized to produce seed of vegetable crops, principally onions and shallots. The NSS has expressed an interest in helping these associations finance their seed production activities. The government needs to put in place policies to support the activities of these women seed-producing groups.Mali' s seed sector, which is regulated by the country' s National Seed Policy, has good potential to develop since the policy advocates the involvement of all stakeholders in the seed sector with the private sector and farmer organizations leading the production, trade and stewardship activities of seed production. Although the seed policy focuses more on formal than informal seed systems, the farmer seed systems are recognized and supported to enable farmers to maintain, improve and sustainably use plant genetic resources, related knowledge and innovations.The two main seed systems in Nigeria are the formal system, established by the State, and an informal or traditional system. The formal system is characterized by the production and purchase of commercial certified seed while the informal sector is based on seed production and exchange among farmers at the local level. Seeds from these two systems can further be grouped into four types: (i) farmer-saved seed, (ii) public-private seed development, with breeding by National Agriculture Research Institutes and private seed company involvement in certified seed production, (iii) public-led seed development and (iv) private-led seed development, which is dominated by local seed companies. Farmer-saved seed represents a large proportion of the seed available to farmers in Nigeria. It is estimated that only a small percentage of the area under crops is supported by the formal seed system, while the greater percentage is planted with seeds sourced by farmers through informal means such as local farmer-saved seed, open markets and farmer exchange. The formal seed system is able to supply 2 percent, 10 percent, 20 percent and 50 percent of the staple food crops of yam, rice, soybean and maize respectively, while the remaining share is sourced through the informal seed system (Context Network and Sahel Capital, 2016).Seed policy formulation is key because seeds give the most dramatic and cost-effective return on investment of all yield-enhancing inputs in crop production. Improved seeds have provided 50 percent of Nigeria' s agricultural productivity gains. The other 50 percent has come from improvements to management, including timeliness, best use of fertilizer, crop protection measures and equipment (NASCBF, 2019). Nigeria' s Agriculture Promotion Policy (2016-2020) highlights the importance of providing a conducive legislative and agricultural knowledge framework for enhancing access to adequate inputs such as seed, as well as institutional mechanisms for seed sector coordination. It also encourages a shift in leadership in the seed industry' s commercial aspects to the private sector and highlights the need for a strong government role in the provision of support services important for effective sub-sector development. Currently, Nigeria' s aging population of farmers does not have access to a sufficiently wide variety of high-yielding seeds and other related support for successful crop production (Mofinews, 2019).Despite efforts to raise awareness of the superiority of improved seeds over local seeds, the availability of improved seed varieties to rural farmers remains very poor. Farmers have difficulty obtaining necessary inputs of sufficient quality in a timely manner and pay very high prices (IFDC/IITA/WARDA/ FGN, 2000). Current estimates indicate that only 5 to 10 percent of the seeds required to meet total grain production are provided. Farmers in many communities in Nigeria are yet to have access to improved seeds. As a result of these challenges, most seeds planted by farmers come from local sources, including farmers' own crops, neighbors, relatives and local markets. Many improved seed varieties have been in use for between one and two decades, but smallholder farmers have not benefitted much from them (IITA, 2000).Although Nigeria is well-organized with appropriate structures for effective seed policy implementation, quantities of certified seeds are inadequate, production of breeder and foundation seed is modest, and seed distribution and information dissemination networks are poor. Improved varieties are released slowly, and this enhances the dominance of low-yielding local varieties. Poor implementation of seed quality regulatory mechanisms has allowed adulterated seeds onto the market. Effective seed policy implementation has reportedly been constrained largely by inadequate human and financial resources, as well as institutional bottlenecks. Requirements for certified seeds far outweigh supply; however, effective demand is less than 10 percent of the total requirement for most crops. Hence, seed policies and programs need to be improved (Kormawa et al., 1992).History of seed policy development  (Republic of Nigeria, 1987). . Implementation of the National Agricultural Seed Decree is coordinated by NASC as the principal institution under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. NASC is responsible for supporting varietal development, registering and releasing new crop varieties, rapid multiplication of released varieties, promotion of improved quality of seeds sold to farmers for higher yields and better income, and encouraging private sector participation in seed operations through appropriate policies, promotional activities and incentives (Kormawa et al., 1992).Under the National Seed Policy 2014, NASC is the principal institution responsible for administering and implementing the Federal Government of Nigeria' s National Seed Policy (Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Government of Nigeria, 2014). It is responsible for regulating the market to promote competitiveness and quality control to protect farmers and the environment. As a principal coordinator, it plays the lead support role, maintaining public infrastructural and service support required to maintain efficient seed supply, enhances farmer demand for improved seeds, and creates a favorable environment for investment in the seed sub-sector. It is also tasked with facilitating the production and distribution of sufficient quantities of high-quality seed of improved varieties of all relevant crops to farmers in order to ensure production of required food, feed and fiber in Nigeria (NASCBF, 2019). Nigeria needs seeds that can adapt to stresses and the changing climate and contribute to greater food security and higher income generation.The government of Nigeria is increasing its focus on creating a legal and regulatory environment that encourages a thriving market for high-quality seed. Efforts to build a legal and regulatory system to govern the seed sector are part of seed policy harmonization interventions, which were initiated in 2018 to address challenges confronting the sector and to significantly impact the availability and accessibility of improved seed within the country (Kuhlmann et al., 2018). Seed harmonization consultations in Nigeria led to the following key recommendations to strengthen Nigeria' s seed system and address remaining implementation gaps:• Incorporate clear references to regional protocols in national legislation as good regulatory practice to facilitate harmonization with ECOWAS' s regional seed framework;• Streamline and increase transparency around regulatory processes along the entire seed value chain. Consultations highlighted possible improvements to variety registration and certification including introduction of clear and consistent procedures and fees;• Put in place a plant variety protection system to motivate the private sector to more actively engage in developing new and relevant seed varieties for the market. This process is underway but will require additional effort from both government and the private sector;• Implement national laws and regulations to align with the ECOWAS Seed System, working in close collaboration with stakeholders along the entire seed value chain to ensure the systems are understood and work well in practice;• Adopt African and global good practices to improve quality and build capacity within the seed sector, including accreditation of private seed inspectors (which Nigeria is moving towards), enhancing the capacity of public laboratories, and considering alternatives to formal seed certification;• Strengthen enforcement against counterfeit seed, through increased collaboration with private sector stakeholders and adoption of best practices to combat fake seed production;• Increase regional regulatory collaboration and mutual recognition to enhance cooperation among regulators and improve mutual recognition of each other' s procedures and results; and• Improve knowledge of national and regional seed rules to enhance the ability of diverse stakeholders to benefit from the formal seed system.The consultations indicated that implementation of the described frameworks remains an ongoing challenge that requires sustained focus and government interventions that evolve over time (Kuhlmann et al., 2018).Legal regulations that support farmer-managed seed systemsIn 2019, some reforms were made to Nigeria' s seed policies through the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) Act 2019. The NASC Act 2019 assigns NASC the following key functions:• Analyze and formulate programs, policies and actions regarding seed development and the seed industry, including research on issues relating to seed testing, registration, release, production, marketing, distribution, certification, quality control, supply and use of seeds in Nigeria, and import and export of seeds;• Design improved management systems and procedures relating to administration of seed activities;• Implement official quality control and certification of seeds, and facilitate enrolment of approved private bodies in seed certification programs;• Advise the Federal Government on the organization, management and financing of seed programs;• Advise the national research system on the changing pattern of seed demand and farmers' needs;• Plan, monitor and evaluate the national seed system' s achievements and recommend improvements;• Encourage the establishment of seed companies to research, produce, process and market seed;• Issue licenses and permits under the Seed Act;• Approve policies and strategies to protect small seed producers and local varieties and promote quality seed production;• Regulate the national seed industry;• Represent Nigeria and work closely with the West African Committee on Seeds to develop the seed sector.Other key amendments in the NASC Act 2019 are expected to bring positive changes to national seed policy development. These include a reduction in the length of time spent on processing seed policy documents. For instance, under the new act, the process of registering and licensing a new seed company will be digitized to reduce processing time from 45 to 15 days. Processing annual license renewals will reduce from 14 to 5 days. This will lessen the bureaucratic challenges that have disrupted stakeholder operations in the Nigerian seed industry, especially for non-traditional seed producers.A projected increase in market inspection activities by 80 percent per region by 2024 and NASC' s responsibility as the sole certifier of foundation and breeder seed will reduce the volume of adulterated seeds used by farmers. Setting up demonstration farms in rural communities is an innovation that will increase farmers' access to first-hand information on improved crop seed, which will help to achieve a 40 percent increase in improved seed use (NASC, 2019). The introduction of diversified incomegenerating services, through which NASC must raise up to 15 percent of its budgetary allocation, will make NASC more financially independent.The introduction of private seed certification entities (PSCEs) into the national seed value chain will improve the seed industry. NASC will ensure that PSCEs include individuals (women-and youthinclusive) and companies. The power given to NASC to license PSCEs for third-party seed certification from 2020-2021 may have enhanced adherence to strict seed certification protocols at local levels by promoting the use of improved seeds among farmers (NASC, 2019). The PSCEs are expected to fulfil the following roles:• Retrieve and update lists of seed companies in focus regions: PSCEs will retrieve names and contact information from NASC of seed companies in their operating region and monitor the emergence of new seed companies in their region. This will ensure that all seeds produced across focus regions are certified.• Inspect fields: All PSCEs will be required to have working tablet devices for data collection and reporting during field inspections using seed tracker technology.• Generate revenue through certification fees: PSCE revenue will be generated from certification fees collected from seed companies. PSCEs' internal performance will be measured by the number of companies certified. Given current operational costs incurred by NASC to certify seed companies and the revenue generated from seed companies, NASC will develop a sustainable business model for PSCEs to ensure their profitability.• Report to NASC: PSCEs will report on all activities electronically using the seed tracker system enabled through tablet devices. The seed tracker platform will be designed to allow oversight by NASC seed certification and quality control teamsThe decentralized monitoring system devised by NASC and implemented through PSCEs will enable NASC to reach a greater proportion of individuals in the seed value chain. However, breeder and foundation seed certification remains the responsibility of NASC' s certification officers (Oba, 2020). With proper coordination, PSCE empowerment will contribute significantly to reducing uncertified private seed producers' activities, thereby safeguarding farmers against the purchase or use of unapproved and likely unreliable seeds.Collaborative programs in Nigeria' s seed sectorThe Collaborative Seed Programme (CSP) between Nigeria and the Netherlands started in 2021 and is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. It is designed to address the challenges involved in supplying quality seeds to boost Nigeria' s seed industry. The program ensures that only highperforming and well-adapted varieties enter the seed sector and become available for multiplication and marketing to farmers for food production. The collaboration also focuses on possible strategies to address delays in varietal release -this currently takes 42 to 55 months -ensuring timely release of new varieties in a cost-effective manner with fewer adverse effects on seed company operations. CSP' s interventions will help to increase private sector involvement in seed development, which currently accounts for about 9 percent of total seed release in Nigeria. The CSP focuses on documenting and making available quality seeds for the improvement of four staple crops (cassava, maize, rice and tomato), as well as ensuring effective and efficient crop registration and variety release that will transform the national seed industry (CSP, 2022).The CSP undertook a comprehensive review of the national seed sector, using a multi-stakeholder approach to develop a National Seed Road Map. The road map provides strategy and policies to guide all seed sector stakeholders in working towards increasing farmers' access to and use of quality seed of improved varieties. It will also contribute to government development of major seed policies and advise other stakeholders and development partners how to foster the requisite development of the seed sector in a well-structured and coordinated manner. The road map has been endorsed by all major seed sector stakeholders in Nigeria. It was originally developed for all crops at the national level but has since focused on Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states (Thijssen, 2019). The CSP also focuses on processes involved in seed sector transformation through stakeholder engagement to understand the current context and help shape a vision for the seed sector. Issues affecting stakeholders in the seed sector will be prioritized.The Seed Alert is a results-oriented activity designed to identify current challenges and outline urgent actions needed in the seed sector, based on surveys and focus group discussions with various stakeholders. Due to government measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, researchers were unable to visit and evaluate variety performance trials and the National Crop Varieties and Livestock Breeds Registration and Release Committee was unable to hold its meeting. This meant that new varieties could not be approved or released in the short term. Research institutes could not start producing early generation seed of some varieties; consequently, seed companies and seed producers cannot include these in their portfolios nor promote promising new varieties. As a result, during the COVID-19 pandemic farmers were not able to access more productive varieties with desirable traits such as early maturity and resistance to pests and diseases. COVID-19 impacted negatively on all activities relating to timely varietal release such as appropriate stakeholder involvement. Other activities tailored to help transform the seed sector and ensure the availability and use of quality seeds by farmers at all levels were also affected (Seed Alert, 2020).Protecting farmer-managed seed systems: Current policy gaps Unlike many countries in West Africa, the private sector has played a vital role in the transition and growth of Nigeria' s seed industry (Access to Seeds, 2019). Supply from local seed producers remains a major source of seed in Nigeria. The National Seed Policy contains a provision allowing farmers the right to use, exchange and share or sell their farm-saved seeds among themselves without restrictions. This is a great step in ensuring the preservation of good genetic material that has been conventionally selected by farmers at local levels over several decades. Such seeds have been found to be areaspecific and better adapted to the climatic conditions under which they were selected. They are a very good source of planting material that can guarantee food security under adverse climatic conditions. Also, local seed producers help to supply seeds for crops that are not in mainstream seed production programs (Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 2014. Farmers' rights are under the National Seed Policy (2014) and have given local farmer groups the impetus to improve communitybased seed production. Increasingly, this seed system is becoming the focus of technical and financial partners looking to enhance the availability of quality seeds to farmers across West and Central Africa, including in Nigeria. This semi-formal system of seed production makes farmer-and market-preferred seed varieties available to farming communities (Vabi et al., 2018).In Nigeria, smallholder women farmers play a crucial role in all aspects of agriculture including keeping seed banks. Smallholder farmers produce 98 percent of the food consumed in Nigeria, and 50 percent of this is produced by women farmers. However, due to cultural and religious beliefs, women are denied access to many agricultural inputs such as seeds, which would help their agricultural businesses become more successful (Jimoh, 2020). Nigeria' s agricultural policy seeks to promote the adoption of gender-sensitive and responsive approaches in the agricultural sector by ensuring that men and women have equal access to, and control of, productive resources. When well implemented, such policies will guarantee gender inclusivity at all levels of agricultural production, ensuring that women are not prevented from accessing quality seed. When women have access to farm inputs and markets and can make decisions on agricultural production, the likelihood of increasing productivity is very high (CGIAR, 2019). Hence, implementation of gender equality policies in agriculture is expected to contribute to achieving gender equity in access to agricultural inputs, including quality seeds. Development of the seed sector was initiated in 1985, but since then expansion of the industry has been limited. The draft national seed program was elaborated in 1987 but has never been fully operational.The first decree on seed production and trade was disseminated in 1993 and draft seed legislation was prepared and disseminated in the form of Decree No. 01/032, which was signed in the same year. The decree No. 01/32 emphasizes four main components: development of a national catalog of crops and varieties; provisions on production, importation, and commercialization of certified seeds; development of a seed control and certification system; and identification of each partner' s roles in the seed chain.In 1999, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock signed a series of ordinances to apply measures of the decree above (No. 01/32): Ordinance Nos. 710/500 and 710/501 were enacted on August 25, 1999, regarding the establishment of the National Seed Service, and the composition and function of the National Seed Council, respectively.However, it has been difficult to implement these measures due to government instability and civil war. The National Seed Service, also called the Department of Promotion of Seeds and Plants, which is responsible for implementation of the Seed Act, has not succeeded in reorganizing the seed sector (Baramburiye, 2010). In this chaotic seed production and distribution context, international and nongovernmental organizations active in the country started to play key roles by distributing emergency seed to vulnerable people and directly to farmers' associations. Some of this seed was used for seed production, mostly for direct consumption.The national seed policy frameworkLaw No. 01/08 of April 23, 2012, governs seed sector organization (Republic of Burundi, 2012). It establishes the key institutions and outlines the processes for various seed services through decrees and ordinances (Mabaya et al., 2021), including the following: The National Seed Policy will soon be published. Regulations have been revised, taking into account the standards of EAC members, and are currently being disseminated. This should lead to the application of procedures for regional variety testing and registration. Many NGOs and development agencies, including an International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)-sponsored initiative, PRODEFI, are engaged in projects to improve national agricultural production. NGOs have been working with farmers' associations to strengthen seed systems. In programs for seed production, storage, and marketing of beans, NGOs have been involved in seed multiplication and distribution, and postharvest improvement, and are gradually reducing farmers' dependency on seed aid interventions (Odihambo, 2020).More recently, the Dutch government supported the Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) Burundi project (2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018) to develop a national private sector-led seed industry. This was followed by the Private Seed Sector Development project (2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022), which aims to double the production and incomes of 108,000 farmer households in Burundi. ISSD Burundi achieved an increase in the number of private seed producers from 250 to over 800 (https://www.kit.nl/project/private-seed-sectordevelopment-burundi/).According to Ngendabanka et al. (2015), community seed banks in the Kirundo province are recognized as registered associations and are supported through the provincial investment plan for the agriculture sector. We could not obtain more recent information about community seed banks in the country.In Burundi, seed regulations give structure to the formal seed sector. An assessment by The African Seed Access Index (Mabaya et al., 2021) considered various seed regulations including support for seed sector growth, stakeholders' roles in design and implementation, stakeholders' awareness of laws and regulations, the presence of an enforcement agency, regulation costs, and the effectiveness of punitive measures. The study revealed stakeholders to be generally satisfied with the quality of current seed laws, ordinances, and decrees, rating them as \"good\" (70 percent satisfaction). However, producers were less satisfied with enforcement of ordinances and decrees, rating this as \"fair\" (55 percent satisfaction). The Office National de Contrôle et de Certification des Semences (ONCCS; the National Office of Seed Control and Certification), which is mandated to enforce seed laws, is constrained by limited funding and a lack of qualified personnel to fulfil required functions, including seed inspection.Burundi is a member of both the EAC and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). According to the TASAI report (Mabaya et al., 2021), counterfeit seed (also known as fake seed) threatens the seed sector in two important ways. First, it reduces farmers' confidence in certified seed due to cases in which farmers unknowingly plant inferior quality grain that has been incorrectly labeled as certified seed. Second, it threatens the success of efforts to increase the adoption of improved varieties because farmers are not sure what seed is genuine. TASAI tracks the number of cases of counterfeit seed reported by seed companies and the government and asks seed producers to report their level of satisfaction with government efforts to eliminate counterfeit seed. According to seed producers, the main sources of counterfeit seed are agrodealers who repackage seed in used bags, and some seed producers who deliberately mix seed with grain. On average, seed producers were not satisfied with the government' s efforts to stamp out counterfeit seed, rating the efforts as \"fair\" (50 percent satisfaction).The ONCCS is mandated to conduct seed inspections and to monitor the quality of seed available on the market, but the agency lacks sufficient funds to conduct these activities and does not have a system for tracking counterfeit seed reports. It does not have its own seed laboratory, but instead uses a laboratory owned by Ministère de l'Environnement, de l' Agriculture et de l'Élevage (MINEAGRIE; the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry). This inhibits the ONCCS' s ability to test seed. However, the seed regulations outline measures to address this challenge. Ordinance No. 710/339 of 4 April 2016 requires that all seed producers obtain a license before engaging in seed production. This is intended to guard against unqualified actors producing seed and to ensure that the government has a record of all registered seed producers, who can then easily be tracked. Articles 43 to 46 of the Seed Law No. 1/08 of 23 April 2012 stipulate the penalties for operating outside of the law and regulations. These penalties include fines of USD 50 for producing seed without ONCCS registration, and between USD 100 and 250 for importing seed without authorization, among other penalties. These penalties are too low to act as effective deterrents.According to TASAI (Mabaya et al., 2021) Of the 15 non-members, 7 were not aware of the association. All members must be registered with the ONCCS and are required to pay a monthly membership fee of BIF 10,000 (USD 5). COPROSEBU formulated and passed its constitution and internal rules of conduct in 2015. These instruments are operational and provide guidelines for the association' s governance.In 2020, COPROSEBU reached several important milestones. First, offices to coordinate activities were set up in each of Burundi' s 17 provinces. Second, COPROSEBU finalized a strategic plan for the period 2021-2027 to guide its activities. Third, it established a local private seed company, Setraco. This company focuses on hybrid maize varieties; it produced 66 Mt of seed in 2019-2020 and released four new hybrid varieties. However, members have raised a number of challenges including undemocratic elections, inadequate managerial ability, and an inability to raise funds, all of which were rated between 51 and 55 percent in terms of satisfaction. The overall performance of COPROSEBU ranks relatively low compared to other seed trade associations in Africa. The TASAI report (Mabaya et al., 2021) recommends that COPROSEBU addresses the concerns raised by its members to ensure better institutional support.Seed inspection services ensure that certified commercial seed meets regulatory quality standards.To provide adequate inspection services requires a sufficient number of well-resourced inspectors.The TASAI study (Mabaya et al., 2021) tracked the number of inspectors and other information pertinent to their effectiveness, such as resource availability and the use of (new) digital tools. Public seed inspectors in Burundi are employed by the ONCCS and increased in number from seven in 2018 to nine in 2020. In addition, the ONCCS trained and accredited 22 private seed inspectors in 2018, with the intention that these inspectors would complement the work of public inspectors. In 2019, the accredited private inspectors conducted seed inspection in 27 percent of the total seed area; this increased to 34 percent in 2020. In comparison, the area inspected by official public inspectors decreased from 73 percent in 2019 to 66 percent in 2020. ONCCS does not own a laboratory to conduct seed tests and analysis; it currently uses a small seed laboratory owned by the Department of Plants and Seeds under MINEAGRIE. To be effective in conducting seed tests and analysis on a full-time basis, the ONCCS needs its own laboratory.Burundi' s seed sector laws largely address the formal sector, with farmers having limited choice regarding the type of seed that they receive. Recent projects, such as ISSD Burundi, have provided technical support to strengthen the private seed sector through a process of capacity building and based on conformity with formal seed sector regulations, with some success. The farmer-managed seed system-where seed is produced, maintained, and distributed through informal networks with over 90 percent of market share-is not adequately addressed and supported.Seed is a key input in agricultural production. Good quality seed contributes significantly to farm productivity and food security. Kenya has formal and informal seed systems. However, it is estimated that the bulk (78%) of the seeds used by Kenyan farmers comes from informal seed sources. One exception to this scenario is hybrid maize seed, of which 85 percent is sourced from formal seed sources (Ayieko and Tschirley, 2006). Despite the informal seed system being the dominant player in Kenya' s seed sector, most of these policies, laws, and regulations since independence place greater emphasis on the formal seed system.In the last three years, very few new policies, laws, or regulations affecting the seed sector have been developed in Kenya. However, past and current national-level policies, laws, regulations, and Treaties discussed in this review include:• UPOV 1991 Summary of seed-related laws and regulations and their impact on farmer seed systemsThe Environmental Management and Co-ordination -which includes the Conservation of Biological Diversity and Resources, Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, Regulations -excludes seed exchange from its control. Part 3(c) in particular states that these regulations shall not apply to \"the exchange of genetic resources, their derivative products, or the intangible components associated with them, carried out by members of any local Kenyan community amongst themselves and for their own consumption.\" Therefore, Part 3(c) recognizes seed exchange as a cultural practice and as a livelihood means for local communities. This should form the basis of the informal seed system, but in practice it does not. These Regulations are in contradiction with other national legislation, which proclaims that it is even a crime to exchange seed, as we explain below. Overall, there is an unfavorable legal environment impeding farmers' freedom to exchange, share, or even sell farm-saved seeds.Section 9 of the Seed and Plant Varieties (Amendment) Act, 2011 states that farmers commit an offence for sharing, exchanging and selling unindexed (unregistered), uncertified seeds without a seed merchant license. Seed exchange can result in a fine of up to one million shillings, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both. This means that the informal seed system and its associated practice of seed exchange and sharing is criminalized in Kenya despite its immense contribution to supplying diverse seeds. Kenyan law only allows farmers to save their own seeds for their own use and, where they save varieties with Plant Breeders' Rights, they are expected to pay royalties when they sell the produce derived from those seeds. This is stipulated under the Crops Act, 2013 section 6(1)(a), which states that the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (established under the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority Act, 2013) on behalf of the national government, shall be responsible for licensing and charging of levies and breeder royalties on all scheduled crops on condition that the total sum of the levies charged by the Authority shall not exceed ten percent of the gate value of the produce. The above provisions in the constitution led to the amendment of the Seed and Plant Varieties Act in 2015 that created the Plant Genetic Resources Research Centre. Section 27(2) of the Act outlines the Centre' s functions. Among these, and of importance to the informal seed system, is the function that mandates to \"protect the ownership of indigenous seeds and plant varieties, their genetic and diverse characteristics, associated indigenous knowledge and its use by the communities of Kenya.\"Furthermore, the Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions Act, 2016 was also enacted as a requirement of the 2010 constitution. The Act did not include genetic resources and only dealt with traditional knowledge. This lack of attention to the connection between genetic resources (in a material sense) and the associated knowledge weakened the informal seed system. Seed sharing and exchange, which is a cultural practice, was subjected to other legislations that basically meant they were to be under the Seed and Plant Varieties Act. Thus. farmers did not receive any recognition and support for their seed management practices.Various ) that provide procedures to ease seed registration and business in member countries. The regulations do consider or include the informal seed system enhance the formal seed system.Lastly, the Seed Policy, 2010 identifies both the informal and formal seed systems in Kenya. It recognizes that the former contributes the highest percentage of seeds produced, exchanged and sold compared to the formal seed system. However, the interventions highlighted for the seed sector are skewed towards favoring the formal seed system, with focus on new variety development and research. Some areas in the informal seed system, including quality assurance and research, remain unsupported.The Crops (Irish Potato) Regulations, 2019These regulations were made under section 40 of the Crops Act, 2013. The main objective of the regulations was to guide the promotion, development, and regulation of production and trade in Irish potatoes. The objective should be achieved through:• Registering growers, grower associations, agrodealers, and Irish potato collection centers• Registering processors, warehouses, importers, and exporters of Irish potatoes• Quality assurance and marketing of Irish potatoes• Establishing and enforcing standards in grading, sampling, and inspection, tests and analysis, specifications, units of measurement, code of practice and packaging, preservation, conservation, and transportation of crops to ensure health and proper trading• Packaging and sale of Irish potatoes• Promoting best practices in the Irish potato sub-sectorAs explained earlier, this will be one of the major crops that farmers will be forced to pay royalties on and the County governments -due to the value chain approaches suggested under the Crops Act, 2013will support the formal seed system by supplying seeds and collecting levies. In the principal Act, which anchors these regulations, there is no mention of supporting farmers to improve the quality of their seeds despite them supplying a higher percentage of seeds compared to certified potato seeds.\"The purpose of these Regulations is to give effect to the provisions of the Act to promote the development of new plant varieties through granting of plants breeders' rights of and owners of varieties; to protect against unfair exploitation of varieties.\" The Act referred to in these regulations is the Seed and Plant Varieties Act, 2021, which supports the formal seed system. Thus, the Regulations are designed to safeguard plant breeders' interests by strengthening plant breeders' rights with no focus on farmers' varieties and farmers' rights, the latter not fitting within these regulations.The only window that is provided under part VI of the Act on the exception of plant breeders' rights provides for the use of protected varieties for private use and for non-commercial purposes. This means that farmers are free to save the seeds for their own use with the intention of producing food for their families without using them for income generation. However, section 30(2), sets further limitations to this, where it states that \"The Director shall gazette a list of agricultural crops and vegetables whose varieties have been improved, protected and with historical practice of saving seeds and maximum land sizes, where small scale farmers will not need permission of the breeder to use farm saved seeds as determined by the Plant Breeders' Rights Committee.\"The Seeds and Plant Varieties (Forest Tree Seeds) draft regulations, 2021\"These Regulations shall apply to all forest and agroforestry tree seeds produced for commercial, conservation and restoration purposes.\" These regulations are also made under Seed and Plant Varieties Act. Seeds for most forest and agroforestry trees are supplied by the informal seed system.With these regulations, how the seeds were collected, multiplied, shared, exchanged, and sold, is changed. The activities are now controlled to a greater extent by the State; even so, farmers' activities concerning these seeds/seedlings are now criminalized. All actors are required to register as legal entities (seed collectors, seed stockists [bulking seeds], seed merchants) and failure to comply will result in a fine. These regulations therefore continue to shrink the space of the informal seed systems and set high-level requirements for seed exchange and sale, which can hardly be met by farmers, including the requirement to register as legal entities.According to the Kenyan constitution, agriculture is a devolved function. The national government develops policies in agriculture that are adapted over time by county governments. The county governments are also at liberty to legislate agriculture to address specific needs for their population.However, in most cases the Crops and AFFA Acts of 2013 (GOK, 2013) guide the counties in formulating their laws, which are in support of the formal seed system and require farmers to pay royalties and levies on scheduled crops. This comprises crops identified as of economic value. Therefore, the legislations that are highlighted in this section will not have a positive impact on the informal seed systems, even if they include seed-related activities.This is an Act of the County Assembly of Migori to provide for the growth and development of Agriculture in Migori, to improve productivity and production, upgrade quality and competitiveness, facilitate efficient management through establishment of a revolving fund to finance approved programs and projects in the institution to maximize on the provision of service, as well as to generate County revenue to enhance its growth. There is no consideration of gender and equity in this policy.The major actors in this Act are: the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of Agriculture; Migori County; County Assembly of Migori; and the farmers. Actual/expected benefits for the farmers include:• Developing a Miyare farmers' training center to be used by farmers for increased knowledge skills and positive attitude towards agriculture• Establishing a fund to support demonstration farms for the farmers• Providing a legal framework to facilitate farmers and stakeholders training in Migori County• Providing facilities for adaptive on-farm county trials on relevant agricultural technologies• Serving as a bulking center for plant materials, livestock, and fish fingerlings for farmersThe Nyamira County Crop Agriculture Act, 2019This is an Act of the County Assembly of Nyamira to establish the efficient legal and institutional framework for the development and regulation of crop agriculture and for connected and incidental purposes. The law does not address gender and equity.The driving actor is the County Assembly of Nyamira, CECM Agriculture. Actual/expected benefits for farmers:• Provide a comprehensive, harmonized, efficient, and effective legal and regulatory framework for development and regulation of crop agriculture in Nyamira County.• Develop and establish an efficient institutional framework for the development and regulation of crop agriculture.• Develop efficient, effective, harmonized, and market-friendly policies and regulations for crop agriculture.• Provide for the review of regulations, permits, licenses, and other administrative or bureaucratic requirements governing crop agriculture with a view to ensuring achievement of the overriding objective of this Act.• Promote the production, development, and marketing of scheduled crops.• Establish experimental stations and seed farms and bulking sites for the development of varieties suitable to the agroclimatic conditions of the area and markets that will provide greatest value added to scheduled crops.• Provide incentives to growers through credit assistance, affordable farm inputs, technical and infrastructural support, and post-harvest facilities and technologies.Under discussion is the EAC Seed and Plant Varieties draft Bill. Its particulars are also aimed at promoting seed trade thus enhancing the formal seed system. It is geared towards standardizing seed registration, certification and commercialization to create a bigger market in seven partner states, namely, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.Similar to the Kenyan seed and Plant Varieties Act, the focus of this draft EAC Bill is on the breeder who is defined to have bred, or discovered and developed a variety. This locks out farmers' varieties, which comprises most of the informal seed system. This means there is a possibility of biopiracy. A person can steal farmers' varieties when there is mention of discovery as a prerequisite for variety registration.Lastly, once the Bill is passed, the vital practice of sharing, exchange, and sale of seeds in the informal seed system will be illegal in the seven partner states. Plant breeders' rights are also prioritized and no mention of farmers' -who are the key drivers in the informal seed system-rights is made. This shows that the proposed EAC seed law only supports the formal seed system with no interest in (recognizing and supporting the) informal seed system. Even the exceptions of plant breeders' rights, cited below, which appears farmer friendly, only applies to breeders' varieties and excludes farmers' varieties:\"Notwithstanding Section 35, for the list of agricultural crops and vegetables with a historical common practice of farmers saving seed, the breeder' s right shall not extend to a farmer and to the product of the harvest of a farmer who, within reasonable limits and subject to the safeguarding of the legitimate interests of the holder of the breeder' s right, for propagating purposes, plants on own holdings, the protected variety or a variety covered by Section 34 (4) (a) or (b).\"The legislations and policies discussed in this study show that many reforms have occurred in Kenya' s seed systems, primarily aimed at enhancing the formal seed sector. It is evident that the government of Kenya and key stakeholders in the formal seed system have been leading these efforts towards reforming the seed systems. The impact of these reforms on the informal seed system has largely been negative. The enactment of a new Constitution in 2010, which devolved agricultural functions to the counties, has created an impetus for the development of new laws, which are in tandem with the needs of specific counties, but that are still skewed towards the formal seed system.The reforms in legislations and policies at local, national, and regional levels in the seed sector have widened the playing field to accommodate various commercial players in the seed sector. However, this is at the expense of the informal seed system, which, notwithstanding, continues to account for the highest percentage of Kenya' s seed supply. Initiatives such as regional integration and increased intercountry trade have also given more space to the commercial seed sector.In East African countries, the plant breeders' rights exception under the Plant Breeder' s Rights Act, is implemented in different ways. In most countries, farmers are allowed to sell produce from saved seeds, but in Kenya it is not allowed. The Seeds and Plant Varieties (Plant Breeder' s Rights) Draft Regulations, 2021, limits farmers to commercializing crops produced with farm-saved seed.This review concludes that there is unfavorable legal environment for the informal seed system in Kenya.Hence, more reforms that fully recognize and provide for the extensive role of the informal seed systems in Kenya are needed. Efforts to review the Seed Policy, 2010, with the involvement of many stakeholders, were started in 2019, but the process was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This review confirms the need to ensure more support for the informal seed system through the collaborative research and funding usually accorded to the formal seed system.Anna Marwa and Dominic KimaniThe agricultural sector has played an important role as a key driver of economic growth in Tanzania since independence. Sixty-five percent of the population depends on agriculture either directly or indirectly. The sector contributes about 28 percent of national GDP and 24 percent of total exports and ensures national food security (United Republic of Tanzania Ministry of Finance and Planning, 2021).Agriculture has been identified as integral to economic transformation that will allow Tanzania to become a middle-income country by 2025 (Tanzania Planning Commission, 2016).Seeds are a source of food and plant life and play other significant roles such as offering employment for seed producers, diversification of consumption, increasing income through exchange and productivity, and spreading risk, especially when varieties of different origins are used. Seed is the foundation of agriculture; without seed there can be no agriculture, hence no food for humans or domesticated animals. There are two types of seed system in Tanzania that farmers depend on for their seed supply.Seed supply for agriculture is derived from both the formal and informal (also known as farmer-managed) seed systems; 90 percent originates from the farmer-managed seed system while 10 percent stems from the formal seed sector (Tanzania Planning Commission, 2016). The formal sector operates by producing improved varieties of seed-86 percent of which is maize seed-and selling it to farmers (IDLO, 2012). The much more widely adopted practice is the farmer-managed seed system. In this system, farmers are the main seed producers and distribute seeds through local processes of saving, sharing, exchanging and selling. These four functions are recognized as farmers' traditional rights with respect to seed.Before 1973, the nature of production and seed use in Tanzania was based on the agricultural commons. Two farming systems were encouraged during this time, namely communal farming through Ujamaa villages and state farms under the National Agriculture and Food Corporation (NAFCO) and the National Ranching Company Limited (NARCO). The formal seed sector was established in the 1970s with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Tanzania was offered seed multiplication aid totaling around USD 14.507 million from 1970 to 1982, with a view to producing foundation seed on a large scale to be used by both large and small-scale farmers. In 1973, the Government of Tanzania legislated the Seeds (Regulations of Standards) Act No. 29. The purpose of this legislation was to control seed quality. Its enactment was simultaneous with establishment of the Tanzania Seed Company (TANSEED) Limited, which was given a mandate to oversee production, processing and marketing of certified seeds. In 1976, Seed Regulations were formulated in order to enforce the Seeds Act (1973). This established the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Agency (TOSCA) as the sole body mandated to undertake regulatory enforcement of the seed industry with regard to seed certification and quality assurance. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture declared that it would provide coordination and monitoring of the seed production in the country through its National Seed Committee (United Republic of Tanzania, 1979a).In the 1980s, Tanzania consented to the conditions of Structural Adjustment Programs and adopted neoliberalism as a guiding ideology. This led to enactment of the Seeds Act No. 18 (2003)  Tanzania is a member of the international community and has signed and ratified several international instruments that are relevant to protecting smallholder farmers. Tanzania acceded to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) on April 30, 2004. This is a legally binding instrument that was adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on November 3, 2001; it entered into force on June 29, 2004 (FAO, no date). The treaty calls for the protection of farmers' traditional knowledge, ensuring that they participate in decision-making processes, and allowing them to share the benefits of genetic resources. Article 9 of the ITPGRFA recognizes farmers' and other local communities' contribution to conserving and developing plant genetic resources and gives governments responsibility to protect and promote such rights. The ITPGRFA requires contracting parties to ensure farmers' rights to save, use, exchange and sell farmsaved seeds and propagating materials.Tanzania is a member of two regional blocs, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Tanzania was a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) from 1994 until it withdrew its membership in 2000. Countries in these blocs have different national legal systems for seeds that must be harmonized to create common national standards and regulatory procedures.Unlike neighboring Kenya and Uganda, Tanzania is no longer a member of COMESA but is a member of SADC. In 2008, SADC adopted the Technical Agreements on Harmonization of Seed Regulations in the SADC Region, which cover seed variety release, seed certification and quality assurance, and quarantine and phytosanitary measures for seeds. The agreements do not oblige members to harmonize national legislation with regional decisions (Mkonda and He, 2018).Tanzania is designated as having a strong legal framework for the regulation of seed variety release, seed certification, and quarantine and phytosanitary measures. The legal regime is comprised of the Seeds Act ( 2003) together with the Seeds Regulations ( 2007), the Plant Protection Act (1997) together with the Plant Protection Regulations (1998), and the Protection of New Plant Varieties (Plant Breeders' Rights) Act No. 22 (2002).National Agriculture Policy ( 2013)Tanzania has no specific seed policy. Although some guidelines were formulated for regulating the seed sector, namely the Seed Policy and Implementation Guidelines (1994), these were not developed into a comprehensive policy. In the absence of a specific seed policy, the National Agriculture Policy (2013) provides general guidelines related to seeds in Tanzania. This policy has a neoliberal orientation.For example, it laments challenges in the seed sector such as inadequate knowledge of intellectual property rights, low levels of participation by local and foreign parties in seed production and breeding, and limited private sector involvement in the multiplication of breeder and foundation seed that would enable a more ample supply of improved seeds (ASARECA/KIT, 2014). Various stakeholders from different backgrounds, such as those who support strict seed sector regulation (seed capitalists) and those who advocate for farmers' seed rights, have unsuccessfully lobbied the Government of Tanzania for a specific seed policy. The Seeds Act No. 18 (2003) and a 2013 amendment that is under revision focus on commercial farmers, but have created space for smallholder farmers to produce and market quality declared seed. The Act is otherwise silent on farmers' rights to use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed (Mahop et al., 2015).The Seeds Act (2003) introduced a new class of seed known as quality declared seed (QDS), which farmers and seed cooperatives can produce, label and sell. This is based on the QDS concept developed by the FAO. It provides opportunities for small-scale seed production and local sale, and therefore improves farmers' access to seed at local levels. Under this scheme, local seed businesses, cooperatives and farmer groups can produce QDS under guidelines developed by the FAO. This accepted set of guidelines on standards and procedures for seed production has been taken up in Tanzania owing to stringent national seed regulations. The National Agriculture Policy (2013) supports farmers to purchase improved inputs in order to encourage their use. The Seeds Act ( 2003) recognizes and encourages QDS production and empowers the Minister of Agriculture to set rules and procedures for QDS certification and control. Section 10 of the Act established the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) and its functions under the Ministry of Agriculture. TOSCI is responsible for certifying and promoting quality agricultural seed produced or imported into the country for sale.The QDS system was also introduced to solve problems of seed availability and affordability faced by small-scale farmers. It allows small-scale farmers to produce seed (from no more than five acres of plants) on their own farms, declare the quality of their own seed, and sell to nearby farmers within an administrative area known as a ward or district. TOSCI may periodically inspect these farmers, but the total amount of seed inspected does not exceed 10 percent of the harvested amount. The system has been operational since 2000 and was legalized by the Seeds Act ( 2003). The Seeds (Control of Quality Declared Seeds) Regulations ( 2020) define QDS dealers, producers and growers as any small-scale farmer or group of small-scale farmers producing or processing seed for their own use or for sale to neighboring farmers within the district where the QDS is produced. The regulations restrict production to the village and district and define eligible land size and inspection standards. The model improves accessibility to varieties for climate change adaptation and increases access to diverse seeds.The Seeds Act ( 2003) has both positive and negative impacts on smallholder farmer seed systems.Among the proposed amendments are stricter control of formal seed sector quality and some modification of QDS regulations regarding production and marketing. There seems to be no intention to exempt smallholder seed producers from strict seed production regulations, in particular concerning farmer varieties that have not been registered at the national level.Plant Breeders' Rights Act ( 2012)Tanzania enacted a new Plant Breeders' Rights Act in 2012, which is in harmony with UPOV 1991 to which the country acceded in 2015. Currently, both the Seeds Act ( 2003) and the Seeds Regulations ( 2007) are under review to accommodate related legislation, such as the Plant Breeders' Rights Act (2012), regional and international agreements, and the legal and institutional framework of Tanzania' s seed industry.The main purpose of the Plant Breeders' Rights Act ( 2012) is to provide for the protection of new plant varieties to promote plant breeding activities that will stimulate, facilitate and improve national agricultural research. This will be achieved through granting and regulating plant breeders' rights and establishing a plant breeders' rights registry. The Act came into force on June 1, 2013, and replaces the Protection of New Plant Varieties (Plant Breeders' Rights) Act (2002). However, the regulations, decisions, rules and directions under the 2002 Act remain intact and all decisions made under it are still binding. This represents a bizarre scenario where regulations used to implement the law precede the law itself. The Plant Breeders' Rights Act (2012) safeguards seed saving only for personal use, thus limiting other rights of farmers to share, exchange and sell improved seeds.The government launched the National Seed Industry Development Program in 1989, which conformed with the World Economic Reform agenda, emphasizing a move from a state-controlled economy to a free market economy. Private seed companies were allowed to operate in the country. Since the mid-eighties, the Tanzanian economy has undergone gradual fundamental transformation that has redefined the role of the government and the private sector. In this new environment, most production, processing and marketing functions have been assigned to the private sector while the government has retained regulatory and public support functions. These macro changes have had and continue to have a profound impact on the agricultural sector in which agricultural input and output prices have been decontrolled, subsidies removed and cooperative and marketing board monopolies eliminated.Current policy gaps in the protection of farmermanaged seed systemsThe national regulatory framework mainly regulates the formal seed sector, imposing limits on its operations. Government policy and legislation have strongly favored the formal seed sector, which serves only a small minority of Tanzanian farmers. Two particular policy instruments, the Seeds Act (2003) and the Plant Breeders' Rights Act ( 2012), function to increase commercial producers' control over seed varieties by criminalizing seed sales and strengthening intellectual property rights. These policy instruments were developed to create a favorable environment for private sector investment; the legislation makes no exemptions for farmer-managed seed systems. It erodes farmers' core rights to share, exchange and sell seeds.Farmers' seed sovereignty is threatened by changes to national legislation. Adoption of the Plant Breeders Rights Act ( 2012), which complies with the UPOV, was designed to protect the interests and intellectual property rights of large-scale commercial seed companies. These companies are keen to penetrate the African market with hybrid and genetically-modified seeds and are supported by leading governments under the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. In the case of varieties protected under plant breeders' rights, legislative changes criminalize traditional farmers' practices of breeding, saving and exchanging seeds (Mkindi, 2015).The Seeds Act ( 2003) disadvantages the farmer-managed seed system. Section 14(6) of the Seeds Act prohibits the sale of uncertified seeds, which could have implications for smallholder farmers as they engage in selling and exchanging their own, uncertified varieties locally. Farmers who sell uncertified seed are to be fined between TZS 100 and 500 million (EUR 50,000 to 250,000) or imprisoned for 5 to 12 years.Promoting the formal seed sector over the core seed rights of farmers will result in the loss of farmers' varieties and landraces. These varieties are vital for agricultural biodiversity and climate resilience.Attempts by farmer associations and civil society organizations to review the legislation have been ignored.In Tanzania, the government has demonstrated willingness to support the production of QDS through the enactment of the QDS Regulations in July 2020. These new regulations clarify hitherto unclear aspects and introduce fees for inspection, germination and moisture tests. The sector has demonstrated steady performance in recent years: QDS production increased five-fold between 2015 and 2019. QDS farmers work closely with the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute, the Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) and district agricultural officers to ensure that farmers produce quality seeds.The QDS system was introduced through the Seeds Act (2003). Its main distinction from the certified seed system is that only a proportion of fields are inspected each season. Local agricultural officers conduct inspections, which reduces travel distances and thus inspection costs. The main requirements are that QDS can only be multiplied from formally registered open-pollinated varieties, and marketing is restricted to the ward in which the seed is produced. The formal sector focuses on breeding and evaluating improved varieties. The production and sale of seed of these varieties is certified by the government regulator, TOSCI. The formal seed sector comprises government institutions such as agricultural research institutes and ASA, private seed companies and agrodealers, and development agencies.TOSCI is a government institute under the Ministry of Agriculture that was established by the Seeds Act (2003). It is responsible for certifying and promoting quality agricultural seeds produced or imported for sale. It is also entrusted with safeguarding the farming community from poor quality or fake seeds from farm input vendors. TOSCI is responsible for field and seed inspection, sampling, seed testing, variety evaluation and verification through national performance trials.ASA was established under the Executive Agencies Act No. 30 (1997). It was launched in June 2006 as a semi-autonomous body under then named Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (now the Ministry of Agriculture). ASA took over the responsibilities that were previously assigned to the Seed Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives. The aim of establishing ASA was to ensure high quality agricultural seeds are available to farmers at affordable prices. ASA and TOSCI work together very closely to ensure that seed is verified and available to farmers.The National Agriculture Policy (2013) acknowledges that the majority of Tanzanian farmers are women, that women constitute the majority of the agricultural labor force, and that more than 90.4 percent of active women in Tanzania are engaged in agriculture. To that end, the gender objectives of the National Agriculture Policy are to facilitate equitable participation of men and women in producing agricultural goods and services, while ensuring that the benefits derived from participation are equitably shared.Within the policy' s framework, the Agricultural Sector Development Programme Phase II (ASDP II) was finalized in 2016. The goal of ASDP II is to contribute to economic growth, reduced rural poverty and improved food security and nutrition in Tanzania. Gender was mainstreamed across the ASDP II as a crosscutting issue. However, among 23 priority investment areas, ASDP II only identifies one investment that is directly related to gender or women, namely improving benefits to women and youth along various dimensions of the agricultural commodity value chain.Will policies and regulations benefit farmer-managed seed systems in the future?Farmer-managed seed systems are diverse and can be adapted to local contexts. They range from simply saving seed from one season' s harvest to the next, to sharing based on social obligation, farmerto-farmer exchange and sales. Farmer seeds are conserved and circulated in farmer-managed seed systems, which strengthens the cultural and social fabric of the community. Over millennia, farmers have developed a wealth of distinctive varieties of crops by selecting and replanting seeds and cuttings from uniquely favorable individual plants-perhaps plants that matured slightly earlier than others, were unusually resistant to pests, or possessed a distinctive color or taste. Subsistence farmers have always been acutely attentive to such varietal diversity, because it helps them to cope with variability in the environment; farmers have developed many varieties or landraces for most major crops (Mkindi, 2015).There have been some positive developments in Tanzania in support of farmer-managed seed systems, likely due to collaborative advocacy efforts among different actors, which has encouraged policy makers to reconsider current policies, regulations and practices. For example, on January 27, 2021, at the inauguration of the Silayo Tree Farm, in Chato District, Geita, the late President of Tanzania, Dr. John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, expressed satisfaction with the presence of native and modern trees and cautioned against hurried adoption of non-native species. He remarked \"Even in our crops, the seeds we plant, we must ensure that our research institutions maintain the natural seeds that are resistant to our environment\" (Takwa, 2021). Hopefully, these statements will encourage tangible changes in support of farmer-managed seed systems.In Tanzania, farmer-managed seed systems have received little recognition or support, although the introduction of the QDS system has been a positive change in favor of more smallholder farmer-oriented regulations and practices. There is a need for recognition in regional and national policy and legislative frameworks of the value and contribution of farmer-managed seed systems, including of varieties that are crucial for food and nutrition security, livelihoods, biodiversity and resilience to climate change.Policies and legislation should embrace a human rights-based approach and provide exceptions and exemptions in national laws to protect farmers' rights to save, share, exchange and sell their seeds.One key practical way to achieve this would be via registration of farmers' varieties to allow for their production under the QDS frameworks provided through the FAO.The National Seed Policy further elaborates that the informal seed system will continue to be a main source for disseminating non-commercial seed varieties and planting materials. Endorsement of the informal seed system through recognition and regulation will ensure that biodiversity and seed distribution channels are maintained for non-commercial varieties with high nutritional and food security value. Here the informal seed system, including farmer-saved seed and community seed banks, is limited to handling non-commercial varieties. This is ambiguous because the dynamics of the market forces might make all food crop varieties commercial at some point. Crops that were never thought to be commercial in the past, such as millet, common bean, banana, and groundnut, now have a good commercial value. This provision therefore is not very enabling to community seed banking or farmersaved seeds.In addition to the above, the policy provides for interventions that support farmer groups and seedproducing groups, such as community seed banks to transit to the formal system through registering their businesses/associations and formal listing of the varieties they produce and market. This enables producers to be formally recognized and brought under appropriate regulatory mechanisms to enhance commercialization of the agricultural sector and food security through the availability of high-quality seed and protection of biodiversity. This provision currently enables some community seed banks to produce seed for commercial purposes under the Quality Declared Seed (QDS) system (see next section), for which they have to be registered as a Local Seed Business (LSB). This type of registration could enhance the sustainability of farmer-led seed operations. However, for certified seed to be produced, the varieties will need to be included on the National Varieties Register; landraces or improved landraces --the materials held by community seed banks --are currently not included in the Registry.Quality Declared Seed (QDS)The 2018 National Seed Policy recognizes Quality Declared Seed (QDS) as a new commercial class of seed introduced to reduce the use of home-saved seeds as a transition for the major food and cash crops to a commercial and modern agriculture--it should be noted that QDS already existed prior to this formal recognition. QDS are seeds produced locally by trained and registered farmer groups, with field inspections carried out by authorized district agricultural officers and seed testing by the National Seed Certification Services (NSCS) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industrial and Fisheries (MAAIF). QDS can be marketed within the geographical region in which it is produced. QDS criteria for seed quality control are less strict than for regularly registered and certified commercialized seeds.In Uganda, the Local Seed Business (LSB) model has been promoted to scale out the national use of QDS.With the support of the Integrated Seed Sector Development program for Uganda, more than 300 LSBs have been established. This achievement suggests that there is demand for QDS as a seed class that is better adapted and satisfies the local demand for seeds of the targeted food crops. Bean is one of the most popular crops for which QDS is produced (Mastenbroek et al., 2021).According to Mastenbroek et al., 2017, QDS producers have minimal transaction costs and are better able to recognize and meet unique local demands. Therefore, the authors argue that QDS is more costeffective than certified seed and offers women farmers and youth employment opportunities. The farmer groups that specialize in seed production receive just a tiny increase in income as compensation.The LSBs produce and market quality seed of locally adapted crops and varieties for local markets. LSBs can also produce quality seed of indigenous varieties and sell it based on trust (non-registered varieties cannot be sold as QDS). Nationally active seed businesses are unable to produce at the same costs as farmer cooperatives and would want larger profit margins per hectare than the LSBs.Under the QDS provision, community seed banks that operate as LSBs are monitored by the seed regulatory institution and their seed is certified. This not only ensures visibility, but it creates more business opportunities for community seed banks thereby enhancing their sustainability. However, for certified seed to be produced, the varieties need to be on the National Varieties Register where the landraces are currently not included. This potentially limits the supply of landraces as certified seed while they remain unregistered and could lead to their becoming threatened or extinct. This is a limitation to farmer-saved seed, including landraces. So far, few community seed banks have ventured into QDS due to the costs and efforts linked to establishing and registering LSBs.The National Seed Policy also proposes variety development and plant variety protection to protect plant breeders' rights and the local communities' traditional breeding. Farmers are allowed to save, use, exchange, and share farm produce of all protected varieties. This favors farmers and community seed banks considering that many store landraces to which they will be allowed to attach protection and conservation rights.One of the National Seed Policy' s strategies is to promote and build the capacity of farmer and community groups, including those led by women or youth, to conserve crop varieties that have a high food security value. The policy specifically includes support for the development of community seed banks to promote the conservation of local varieties, and indigenous knowledge and practices. However, the policy does not provide any incentives or support for individual farmers and community seed banks to play that role effectively. It may also give rise to the erosion of landraces; since community seed banks can produce certified seed, they might choose to concentrate on producing certified seed of improved varieties in a bid to make money, ignoring their key conservation role, which might entail greater costs.The National Seed Policy encourages private plant breeding activities and mandates the National Agricultural Research System to maintain sufficient stocks of breeder and basic seed for various crop varieties to be sold and for dissemination of varieties without market value. This will contribute to increasing the diversity of mainly publicly-bred crop varieties leaving out the landraces.National Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy (2008) and the Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill (2012)Uganda' s Biotechnology and Biosafety policy provides a framework for the safe application of biotechnology to contribute to Uganda' s economic growth and transformation. The policy aims to achieve well-regulated conservation and sustainable utilization of Uganda' s natural resources through the use of biotechnology in the conservation of in-situ and ex-situ genetic resources, and to strengthen legal and institutional arrangements for adherence to the legislation on biodiversity conservation. This implies that the policy is conducive to community seed banking and individual farmers in this regard. However, the policy does not emphasize conservation of original varieties or the gene pools used in breeding, which could lead to the loss of original diversity to be used for breeding.The objective of the Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill is to provide a regulatory framework that facilitates the safe development and application of biotechnology. This involves the use of genetic engineering techniques to transfer useful characteristics like disease resistance or drought tolerance and to create opportunities to modernize agriculture, protect the environment and enhance public health and industrialization. In principle, this bill grants access to biotechnology that has the potential to increase the level of diversity in the community seed banks in the form of improved varieties; however, because of their traits, improved varieties could become more popular than landraces or influence them through cross pollination.Plant Variety Protection Act (2014)The Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Act provides for promotion and development of new plant varieties and their protection as a means of enhancing breeders' innovations and rewards through granting of plant breeders' rights and other related matters. The Act (i) recognizes and protects breeders' rights over the varieties developed by them; (ii) provides institutional mechanisms for the effective implementation and enforcement of the breeders' rights; and (iii) promotes the supply of good quality seed or planting materials to farmers to strengthen national food security, among other aims. The Act lays out the rights of plant breeders, which include the right to sell and export plant varieties, the exclusive rights to produce or to license other persons to produce reproductive materials of specific plant varieties.The PVP Act promotes the availability of genetic materials by obliging breeders to deliver a specified quantity of plant propagating materials of any new variety to a specified genetic resources center. It also obliges the holder of breeders' rights to stock the market with propagating material at reasonable prices or to grant such licenses as are necessary to stock the market with propagating material on reasonable terms and conditions.Community seed banks could benefit from the obligation to stock the market with propagating material at reasonable terms and conditions. In this way, they could contribute to enhancing both availability and access to diverse planting materials. The PVP Act allows farmers to exchange the breeders' varieties informally without selling them and provides for a community gene fund, which can support community seed banking, but it is not yet operational. However, the PVP Act does not protect or recognize traditional knowledge held by farmers as a form of intellectual property that needs to be protected.The National Environment Management Policy (1994) and National Environment Act 1998The National Environment Management Policy aims to provide a strategy for integrating environmental concerns into Uganda' s socio-economic development process towards attaining sustainable development. The overall policy goal is sustainable social and economic development that maintains or enhances environmental quality and resource productivity on a long-term basis, to meets the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Its objective is to conserve and restore ecosystems and maintain ecological processes and systems that are essential to supporting life on earth, especially conservation of national biological diversity. One of the principles observes that long-term food security depends on sustainable management of environmental and natural resources. The policy recognizes the importance of the agricultural sector in the national economy and in domestic food supply. It therefore calls for the promotion of farming systems and land-use practices that conserve and enhance land productivity in an environmentally sustainable manner. Since the policy emphasizes the importance of agriculture and conservation of biological diversity for food security, and sustainable social and economic development, in principle it supports seed saving by custodians and community seed banks as one of the means for conserving agricultural biodiversity.The National Environment Act provides for the equitable use and conservation of the Uganda' s environmental and natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations, considering both the rate of population growth and the productivity of the available resources. This provision is conducive to custodian farmers and community seed banking as it favors their activities on seed multiplication and variety conservation. The Act has regulations that apply to access to genetic resources or parts of genetic resources whether naturally occurring or introduced, including genetic resources bred for commercialization within Uganda or for export, under either in-situ or ex-situ conditions. The regulations, however, do not apply to the exchange of genetic resources among local communities for their own consumption, or where the exchange is purely for the purposes of producing food or beverages. This does not particularly favor community seed banking --having regulations for informal exchanges at the local level could contribute to the controlling the quality of the seeds exchanged through community seed banking.Draft Food and Nutrition Bill ( 2009)The Food and Nutrition Bill (the Food and Nutrition Policy was adopted in 2003) --formulated in 2009 and still under review --aims to provide for the right to food, establish a food and nutrition council, as well as food and nutrition committees and their relevant functions, at the county and sub-county level.It proposes that everyone has a right to food and be free from hunger and under-nutrition, and places the duty to fulfill this right on the state. It prohibits any activities that may affect the enjoyment of the right to food or activities that are detrimental to one' s nutrition status. This Bill, once passed, will enable community seed banking, as it supports activities that enhance the nutritional status of Ugandans, which community seed banking does through enhancing farmers' seed sovereignty and by promoting crop diversity.The Act provides for the protection and registration of geographical indications (GIs). The rationale for the Geographical Indications Act was that countries were taking advantage of the lack of legal framework in Uganda governing geographical indications to adopt or promote Ugandan products as their own. Proponents of the law argued that viable geographical indications essentially build a legallyprotected brand and a reputation in the marketplace. Geographical indications are also necessary to ensure quality control; they have boosted customer confidence in and the quality of the products. This makes them very conducive to seed production as a business within farmer-managed seed systems and community seed banks. It also enables seed consumers to trace the seeds' origin and monitor the seed quality. The protection of GIs can be considered a sustainable development tool capable of protecting traditional knowledge and promoting the conservation of landraces by seed custodians and community seed banks.This policy guides all existing and future agriculture related sub-sector plans, policy frameworks, and strategies, with an overall objective of promoting food and nutrition security and household incomes through coordinated interventions that focus on enhancing productivity and value addition, providing employment opportunities, and promoting domestic and international trade. One of its specific objectives is to ensure sustainable use and management of agricultural resources and it pledges, among other things, to promote and support the dissemination of technologies and practices for soil and water conservation and maintenance among all categories of farmers. The policy commits to enhancing research capacity to generate new knowledge and the technologies needed for agricultural development. Overall, the policy is conducive to farmer seed systems in the broad sense.The policy and legal framework in Uganda support farmer seed systems. The policy statements and strategies clearly state that government will support the development of farmer-and market-preferred varieties for commercial, food, and nutrition-security crops. Also, the government will strengthen the capacity to produce quality seed for crops that have low profit margins for seed companies. In addition, the government will provide an enabling environment for each seed system that matches its characteristics; this can be seen as very supportive of the farmer seed system in Uganda. The recognition of QDS in the seed policy as a new class of seed introduced to reduce the use of home-saved seeds as a transition for the major food and cash crops has encouraged local seed businesses amongst the farmer groups. The LSB model has proven to be suited to meeting local needs with regard to the production and distribution of seed of chosen food crops.Furthermore, conservation of the original varieties/gene pools is very important and necessary, as biotechnology could modify Uganda' s native biodiversity resources, causing crop diversity loss.What is needed to strengthen the country' s conservation efforts are incentives and support for individual farmers and community seed banks to play their conservation role more effectively. All 14 Southern African countries have agricultural policies governing national agricultural production.There are, however, two parallel farming systems operating in each country: a commercial farming system and a smallholder farming system. Both farming systems are supported by two seed supply systems: the commercial seed sector, which concentrates on the supply of commercial hybrid seed and the local (or informal) seed system, also known as the farm-managed seed system (FMSS). The commercial seed system is well articulated, recognized, and supported by agricultural policies.The FMSS mostly relies on supplying local, traditional, or farmer varieties (landraces), including open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) and varieties improved by farmers, e.g., through participatory crop improvement. Some authors differentiate between farmer seed systems, community seed systems, and relief seed systems (Hlatshwayo et al., 2021). Relief seed systems often involve gene banks in reintroducing lost local materials, together with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or other agencies acting as intermediary seed multipliers and distributors.Over the years, although agriculture and seed policies have largely addressed the commercial seed sector, the importance of FMSS has been recognized to some extent, in particular due to the effects of climate change and the notable contribution of local landraces to climate-change adaptation for food and nutrition security. FMSS integrate farming activities with local and context-specific knowledge and uphold the benefits of seed diversity for nutritious and culturally-appropriate food production systems and for their resilience. Seeds in the FMSS are purposefully diverse and heterogeneous, and are planted and replanted, season after season, sometimes in mixtures of varieties and with other crops, thus increasing resilience and overall productivity. Smallholder farmers' seeds are nurtured differently than the \"sow-once\" industrial seeds that are genetically modified and designed for monocultures, manufactured and grown (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018). Smallholder farmers' seeds are also an important source of neglected and underutilized species (NUS), a primary source of food and nutrition security in many rural households.The famer seed system uses varieties such as landraces, traditional vegetables, mixed races, and vegetatively propagated crops. The advantages of farmer seed systems are that they have dynamism, flexibility, can evolve over time to respond to external changes, and are also a crucial element of a demand-driven seed market system. The farmer-based seed system usually includes the distribution of large numbers of relatively small samples of improved seed varieties as a way of introducing new varieties and quality seed into local seed systems, assuming further dissemination via farmer-to-farmer exchange. Community seed banks can support the storage of seed reserves and contribute to improving production practices and (communal) storage. Potentially, community seed banks improve access to seed for the poorest farmers; they can be an entry point for farmer organizations to access seed and provide capacity building in seed multiplication, and generally serve as local germplasm collections to improve farmers' access to genetic diversity.Over time, farmers' control over their seeds has come under threat from changes to national, regional, and international legislation, as a result of the harmonization of seed laws and the introduction of plant breeders' rights that protect commercial breeders. Seed policies and laws at large, as they are being developed across Africa and globally, neither recognize nor support farmers' seed systems. However, some initiatives/organizations working to support farmer-managed seed systems are employing a variety of methods to advance smallholder farmers' interests, such as:• Working with farmers to influence seed-related policies• Seed distribution to farmers• Capacity building for smallholder farmers on seed multiplication and quality management• Empowering smallholder farmers in local seed business• Conducting research on seeds• Building linkages between seed-related government institutions and smallholder farmers, and facilitating farmer-to-farmer knowledge and seed sharing (GRAIN, 2018).Analysis of the inclusion of farmermanaged seed systems in national policies and support for their developmentMalawi' s economy is predominantly agriculture based, with agriculture accounting for 30 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), generating over 80 percent of export earnings, employing 64 percent of the country' s workforce, and contributing to the country' s food and nutrition security. The following policies and strategies govern the production, multiplication, and marketing of seed in the country:• The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy III (2017--2022)• The National Agriculture Policy (2016--2021)• The National Agriculture Investment Plan (2017--2022)• The National Irrigation Policy (2016--2022)• The National Master Plan and Investment Framework (2015--2035)• The National Rice Development Strategy (JICA Malawi Office, 2022)Farm-saved seed is widely acknowledged as the major source of seed for smallholder farmers in Malawi (Government of Malawi, 2016). However, the government of Malawi encourages planting of improved seeds by stating: \"As part of the envisioned modifications to agricultural subsidies, the Ministry will support efforts to encourage smallholder farmers to use improved seeds, irrigation, integrated soil fertility management techniques, and other modern farm technologies, as well as restructure the Seed Services Unit to make it semi-autonomous for improved seed certification and quality control\". It also has a strategy that seeks to \"facilitate private sector imports of germplasm, foundation seed and varieties that have been tested, approved and certified in other SADC and COMESA countries\" (Malawi National Agriculture Policy, 2016).South Africa' s agricultural sector is one of the world' s most diversified sectors, consisting of corporate and private intensive and extensive crop farming systems, including vegetable, fruit, nuts, and grain production. The well-developed commercial farming sector in South Africa is the backbone to the country' s agricultural economy and in 2020 showed the best growth rate of all economic sectors, at 13.1 percent. The agricultural sector contributed around 10 percent to South Africa' s total export earnings in 2020 with a value of $10.2 billion. There are approximately 32,000 commercial farmers in South Africa, of which between 5,000 and 7,000 produce approximately 80 percent of its agricultural output (International Trade Administration, 2021b).South African policies do not recognize the informal seed system as one of the contributors to food security. The seed laws and policies at national level do not recognize, protect, support or strengthen the production of informal systems, especially regarding the requirement for seed to be distinct, uniform, and stable (DUS). Plant Improvement Act No. 11 of 2018 is South Africa' s governing seed law and focuses exclusively on the commercial seed sector' s requirements (Republic of South Africa, 2018). The law does not allow farmers to sell unregistered seed. The DUS criteria for the legal recognition of a variety and listing on the national varietal list are too static and inappropriate to accommodate farmergenerated seed, which is heterogeneous and adapts to dynamic production conditions over time. DUS entrenches genetic uniformity and monocultures. There is no clarity about at what point farmers and/or farmer collectives will be required to register as businesses to produce and sell seed (African Centre for Biodiversity, 2018).The Zambian agricultural sector comprises crops, livestock, and fisheries, operating under three broad categories of farmers: small-, medium-, and large-scale. Agriculture contributes about 19 percent of Zambia' s GDP and employs three quarters of the population (International Trade Administration, 2021c).The national policy on agriculture recognizes the importance of the informal seed sector, stating that maintaining agricultural biodiversity and promoting conservation are among the strategies adopted to achieve the policy objective of food security. Objective 7: To improve food and nutrition security reads: \"Promote access to bio fortified seed or vines for the production of nutrient enhanced varieties\" (Zambia National Agriculture Policy, 2016). However, the [Plant] Breeders' Rights Act prohibits farmers from exchanging seed, which is a core component of farmers' seed systems.Zambia has a formal seed system that is regulated by the government and focuses on breeding, producing and selling certified seeds by registered seed companies. A number of policies and legislations govern the production, multiplication, and marketing of seed in the country. The policies include:• National Seed Policy (2004)• Plant Variety and Seeds Act (CAP 236)• Plant Breeders' Rights Act (No. 17)• Plant Variety and Seeds Regulations Nonetheless, an informal seed system exists, made up of unregistered seed producers. In the informal seed system, farmers conserve, multiply, and exchange seeds of food and subsistence crops using a mixture of bartering and cash. Informal systems of seed provision are important mechanisms by which farmers produce different types seed, which are necessary to select, improve, and conserve traditional varieties that are well adapted to the local environment where they occur.Zimbabwe' s economy is agriculture based. Agriculture, largely rain-fed and highly sensitive to a variable climate, is the backbone of Zimbabwe' s economy and on average accounted for 10-15 percent of its GDP between 2012 and 2020. Nearly 80 percent of the country' s 16.1 million people --the majority of whom (70%) live in rural areas --depend on rain-fed farming and livestock rearing for their livelihood. The country has a fairly well-developed seed sector; yet a significant number of households use retained seed for crop production (groundnut 54%, finger millet 52%, pearl millet 51%, and cowpea 46%) (ZimVAC, 2020). A number of policies and legislations govern production, multiplication, and marketing of seed in the country. The policies include:• Plant Breeders' Rights Act (Chapter 18:16)• Seeds Act of Zimbabwe (Chapter 19:13)• National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1): 2021--2025Under the National Agriculture Policy Framework (NAPF) that is currently being implemented, the following pillar activities support the advancement and recognition of FMSS:Strategic Objective 1 reads: \"Facilitate the implementation of policies that recognize and promote alternative agriculture practices enhancing crop diversity and availability of nutritious food moving away from maize centric interventions and maximize on low entry barriers for resource-poor farmers\". To aid this objective, a Strategic Initiative that aims to promote access to bio-fortified seed or vines for the production of nutrientdense varieties has been included under Investment and Operations.On Agriculture and biodiversity management, the policy quotes that the \"[…] framework endeavors to continue supporting conservation of genetic resources and its associated knowledge, as well as afford the smallholder farmers to participate in equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of their genetic resources and the knowledge associated with their genetic resources for food and agriculture\".The policy statement reads: \"Increase investment in agricultural research and development, technology and extension systems and adoption of climate-and business-smart technology and innovation\".Indigenous farmer systems are being promoted under Strategic Objective 5 that reads: \"To support the development of local indigenous farmer systems\". This is amply aided by the Strategic Initiatives that reads: \"The need to strengthen seed selection, seed preservation and storage of farmers' indigenous seeds\".Country outline of the support rendered to farmer-managed seed systems, as stated in the national agricultural policiesAcross the five countries included in the Southern Africa report, some policies recognize the informal sector' s important role and promote support to agriculture in areas such as extension, training schemes for farmers, community seed banks, germplasm conservation, seed regeneration, and seed quality control (FAO, 2015).Local farming communities are an important source of readily-available and good-quality seed. Through the quality declared seed (QDS) system, local farmers can collect, improve, and sell locally-developed varieties that meet the required standards, although such seed may not qualify under the seed certification process. QDS is seed that has undergone quality control measures in compliance with QDS quality requirements. QDS is often considered a locally-based and less-stringent alternative to seed certification. The seed is still subject to inspection and certification, but the QDS requirements are less demanding than those for formal certified seed.Notably, local farmers' varieties tend to be diverse and constantly evolving, thus it can be a challenge for such varieties to pass the DUS test, regardless of whether they are of high quality and highly commercial. As a result, farmers' local varieties usually fail to qualify under the variety release system and cannot be certified for sale. Reforming the legal framework to allow for additional novel systems to record local lineages would help ensure quality in the local seed supply and biodiversity. This would open the door for greater formal recognition of the varieties, particularly if scientific solutions like gene fingerprinting are used. Recognizing these varieties will be an important step towards fulfilling obligations under international treaties like the Nagoya Protocol (under the Convention on Biological Diversity) and International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Kuhlmann et al., 2019).While national and international companies engaged in global value chains are required to certify commercial seeds, a community-based system (comprising civil society and small-scale private seed enterprises) manages the exchange and marketing of food crops, of both local and improved varieties.A separate entity (comprising NGOs and the public sector) provides healthy planting material for roots and tuber crops only during times of drought or occurrence of disease. The intervention of this latter entity has been key when the yield of hybrid maize crops has dropped due to drought and farmers opt for the cassava planting material available. Quality control is also subsidized by the government, allowing small-scale seed producer associations access to testing facilities. Through ongoing government engagements through Pillar meetings with the Ministry of Agriculture, the commercialization of small grains is being promoted under public-private partnership arrangements to overcome the problem of processing drudgery. This is also being done in an effort to encourage the Grain Marketing Board --the sole trader of grains --to devise different grading standards such as for the highly-nutritious orange maize to distinguish it from less-nutritious yellow maize, hence creating a price premium for orange maize and other nutritious products like iron-rich beans, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, and other biofortified products.Community seed banks are seed collections that are maintained and administered autonomously by the community. Community-level seed enterprises, which are allowed by the government under certain conditions, are an alternative for new, non-hybrid crop varieties with NGO and/or project staff organizing farmers in a village to work as a group. The farmers are provided with source seed, usually acquired from the national agricultural research system, and trained in seed multiplication techniques. The farmers are expected to use part of the seed and distribute/sell the rest to neighboring farmers. The assumption is that this activity will evolve into a financially viable village-level enterprise, capable of recovering the costs of the source seed and advisory services. The Zimbabwe Super Seeds company (a farmer-owned seed enterprise) produces and markets specific varieties that are better adapted to local conditions such as high-saline soils (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018).Country identification and explanation of some of the good practices that have been supported by the national agricultural policies for the advancement of farmermanaged seed systemsParticipatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) in Malawi is part of a regional network grouping of non-state actors in Eastern and Southern Africa that advocates for agroecological farming, especially for the resource-poor farmers, to secure food security and improved incomes while also conserving natural resources. PELUM' s main focus is conservation of natural resources such as soil, forests, and water in farming, and the promotion of organic farming.The Purchase from Africans for Africa (PAA Africa) program is being implemented by national governments in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, and Senegal, with technical expertise from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), and financial support from the Brazilian government and the UK' s Department for International Development (DFID). By the end of 2014, governments had engaged 5,500 small-scale farmers to supply public institutions with food. In addition to improving small-scale farmer livelihoods, PAA Africa seeks to strengthen markets for traditional crops, diversify diets and stimulating small-scale farmer innovation. The pilot project in Malawi, in particular, procured a diversity of crops (maize, beans, groundnuts, sweet potatoes, onions, tomatoes, banana) and animal proteins (goat meat, fish, and milk) for school feeding programs, a unique aspect relative to existing public procurement programs (Quaker United Nations Office, 2016).In Malawi, the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition initiative, titled \"The Soils, Food and Health, and Communities (SFHC) project\" worked with small-scale farmers in northern Malawi to select and test varieties of legume species to intercrop with maize varieties. Intercropping has reduced land and soil degradation and reduced rates of 'hidden hunger' from vitamin A, zinc, and iron deficiencies. The use of grain legumes has produced ecological and nutritional benefits such as greater availability of iron and zinc, and has enhanced soil fertility, reduced the incidence of pests and diseases, and created more resilient farming systems. The project has since been scaled up and presented to the Malawi Parliament, which has shown interest in promoting the integration of a wide range of food legumes into the national farming system to improve soil fertility and nutrition.Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organization, is promoting the cultivation of orangefleshed sweet potato, in collaboration with the International Potato Centre (CIP) with the aim of creating decentralized vine multipliers.In South Africa, most smallholder farmers practice informal seed systems, and more than 90 percent of their needs are met through these informal channels (Van Mele et al., 2011). Informal seed systems are recognized as a major source of neglected and underutilized crop species, e.g., Bambara (ground)nut, vegetatively propagated crops (cassava and sweet potato), medicinal plants (ginger and garlic), pigeon pea, and leaf amaranth, which are all important contributors to nutrition and dietary diversity in rural households.Farmer-led seed systems, as an effective and proactive response to looming ecological and social crises, require support. Although there is an international push to adopt seed laws and regulations that favor private commercial plant breeders and tend to ignore and undermine farmers' rights, there is, however, a global momentum to promote agroecology, conservation, and sustainable use of plant genetic resources, and farmers' rights. To secure food and seed sovereignty, South Africa urgently needs specific policy and programing to support farmer-led seed systems (Biowatch, 2021). The government of South Africa could develop culinary tourism strategies and use government websites to promote the country as a tourist destination for its local cuisine and food culture.The NGO Biowatch works to support a just transition to agroecology in South Africa. It has reported outcomes of more people practicing agroecology, more civil society organizations learning and working together to advocate a just transition to agroecology, and more people increasingly valuing the ethical growing, buying, and eating of good food. Biowatch participated in developing an African response to the UN Food Systems Summit. It criticized the African Union' s common position regarding the Farmer Seed Systems developed without civil society; and produced a \"No to corporate food system. Yes, to Food Sovereignty,\" declaration.The government of South Africa, through the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD; formerly the Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (DAFF)), in collaboration with the Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT, established three community seed banks in South Africa, which resulted in:• Training staff of the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) under the DAFF/DALRRD of the Republic of South Africa (responsible for implementing the initiative) in the effective and efficient technical and organizational aspects of community seed bank management;• Increased access to and availability of diverse, good-quality seed, and knowledge and seed exchanges among community seed banks and between the NPGRC and community seed banks. The overall aim is to scale these out in the coming years and set up several more, eventually forming a network of community seed banks in the country (Mokoena et al., 2019).Through DAFF/DALRRLD, the Government of South Africa is considering community seed banks as a means to strengthen informal seed systems, support the conservation of traditional farmer varieties, and maintain seed security at district and community levels.Community seed banks function as an emergency seed supply when farmers experience a shortage of seeds as a result of crop failure due to flooding, droughts, or destruction of crops from pests and diseases. They also serve as a channel to restore 'lost' varieties within the community. Community seed banks are mainly informal institutions, locally governed and managed, whose core function is to preserve seeds for local use. They have existed for about 30 years, conserving, restoring, revitalizing, strengthening, and improving local seed systems, especially, but not solely, focused on local varieties. They are known by a variety of names: community gene banks, farmer seed houses, seed huts, seed wealth centers, seed savers' group, seed associations or networks, community seed reserves, seed libraries, and community seed banks. Many community seed banks annually regenerate the seeds they conserve, so that they remain well-adapted to local conditions (Vernooy et al., 2019).DAFF/DALRRD is also supporting participatory variety selection (PVS), which refers to approaches that involve close collaboration between researchers and farmers, and potentially other stakeholders, to bring about plant genetic improvements within crops. PVS uses both scientists' and farmers' knowledge to develop improved crop varieties that are suited to particular agroecological zones (Mokoena et al., 2019). The three community seed banks supported by DAFF/DALRRD, are conducting PVS experiments.Apart from yield, farmers also value other traits in their varieties, such as taste and maturity time.In Zambia, PELUM is an association that works with local seed companies on community seed multiplication and building capacity for setting up community seed banks. The Golden Valley Research Trust (GVRT), a partnership between the government of Zambia and the National Farmers' Union, undertakes research on sustainable production systems. GVRT conducts research on conservation agriculture, development of smallholder livestock systems, and production systems for local crops, including indigenous vegetables (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018).CTDO is a member of the Zambia Alliance for Agro-ecology and Biodiversity Conservation (ZAAB) and has expertise and experience in FMSSs. It is a not-for-profit NGO registered in 2009 with the objective of contributing to the livelihoods of rural communities through interventions aimed at promoting biodiversity conservation and natural resources management in food production practices. CTDO promotes the management of agricultural biodiversity to enhance sustainable livelihoods through intervention strategies aimed at facilitating restoration and enhancement of traditional plant varieties and animal breeds (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018).CTDO promotes cultivation of a wide diversity of crops and varieties to contribute to household food and nutrition security. This involves cultivation of crops from the different nutrition groups of starches (maize, sorghum, millet, and cassava), proteins (groundnut, cowpea, Bambara nut, beans, and pigeon pea), minerals and vitamins (traditional vegetables, such as Amaranthus, Hibiscus, Corchorus, and various cucurbits including cucumbers, pumpkins, and gourds). For many of the programs to succeed, they will need to be supported by the right policies. CTDO is thus actively involved in influencing policy on biodiversity through policy engagement, formulation, implementation, and capacity building for relevant stakeholders. CTDO engages in policy advocacy and lobbying designed to bring the voice and experience of local communities to the attention of policymakers. This includes informing seed policies and laws, as well as seed regulations, aiming to bring them in line with FMSS (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018). Zambia' s Seventh National Development Plan (2017) notes the importance of the informal farmer seed sector in support of its aim of creating a \"diversified and resilient economy for sustained growth and socioeconomic transformation\". To address the DUS requirement, Zambia adopted a system equivalent to standard seed, i.e., QDS but certified, although sampling for testing is done in smaller proportions.The Livelihoods and Food Security Program (LFSP) under FAO, working in partnership with the Zimbabwe government, raised awareness on nutrition issues among the population regarding the consumption of bio-fortified crops. Bio-fortification promotion through the LFSP was through:• Policy and advocacy• Seed multiplication and delivery• DemandThe main objective of the LFSP Program was to scale up production and consumption of bio-fortified food in Zimbabwe. LFSP partners based their activities on evidence-based interventions to tackle micronutrient malnutrition and its health effects, as well as assessing factors influencing production and consumption of biofortified crops in Zimbabwe, whilst the breeding and delivering of biofortified crop varieties fell under the Department of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS).Most of the sorghum, pearl and finger millet, and legumes, such as Bambara (ground)nut, cowpea, and indigenous vegetables are sourced from farmer-managed seed systems (Visser, 2017).In order to share seeds and knowledge more widely, farmers organize seed fairs, build community seed banks, and visit centers of agricultural excellence, like the Shashe Agroecology School in Zimbabwe, where they are given hands-on training in the use of traditional practices of seed saving and seed management (GRAIN, 2018). To avert the effects of climate change, farmers make use of indigenous seeds that can withstand harsh climate conditions. They are producing local drought-tolerant varieties of crops such as pearl millet, finger millet, sorghum, cowpea, bean, sesame, and groundnut (Vigna subterranea, also known as Bambara nut) (GRAIN, 2018). In Zimbabwe, rapoko or finger millet (Eleusine coracana) can be used to treat wounds. Across the continent, different millet varieties play a critical role in different ceremonies and occasions. In Zimbabwe, rapoko is the chief ingredient in a traditional beer used in rituals and cultural ceremonies (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018).The Zimbabwe Seed Sovereignty Programme (ZSSP), an alliance of seven Zimbabwean civil society organizations, is working towards greater seed sovereignty in Zimbabwe. ZSSP places strong emphasis on being farmer-led and strengthening women farmers' voices at the regional level through collaboration with farmers' organizations, civil society organizations, research institutions, and academia in Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers' Forum (ZIMSOFF) is a national organization that works in different rural areas of Zimbabwe and promotes organic farming as a sustainable and just way forward for farming. ZIMSOFF is an active founding partner of the Zimbabwe Seed Sovereignty Programme (ZSSP). It is structured into regional clusters of local farmers' organizations. In each cluster, households are organized into groups or clubs. A number of these form a community of agroecological practices, also known as a smallholder farmer organizations, and several of these form a cluster. ZIMSOFF sustains that this model addresses basic human rights issues, such as access to adequate and nutritional food, and access to clean water and air. ZIMSOFF supports its advocacy work with strong evidence from the field, with good internal information flow, and a well-conceived communication strategy, working with a number of stakeholders and allies at different levels from the grassroots up to the national level. At the regional level, ZIMSOFF has become an active participant in the regional Seed and Knowledge Initiative (SKI), through collaboration with farmers' organizations, civil society organizations, research institutions, and academia in Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. ZIMSOFF is a member of the Eastern and Southern Africa Small-scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF) and of La Via Campesina. As a member of La Via Campesina Southern and Eastern Africa region, ZIMSOFF is participating in the regional collectives on climate justice and agroecology, seeds, and biodiversity, including the women and youth articulations. The farmers' organizations' leaders are also active in the advocacy and campaigns of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). In 2017, ZIMSOFF was the international winner of the US Food Sovereignty prize for its role in empowering rural farmers in the struggle for seed and food sovereignty (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018).CTDO Zimbabwe authored the farmers' rights regulations in Zimbabwe and have worked extensively on farmer-managed seed systems. The CTDO Policy and Advocacy Programme is implementing the Rural Livelihoods Improvement and Advocacy to Strengthen Food Sovereignty in Zimbabwe project in three districts of Zimbabwe: Chegutu, Goromonzi, and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe. The aim of the project is to improve food self-sufficiency for households through a subsidized agricultural input, establishing FFSs to improve smallholder farmers' knowledge base, and carrying out farmer trainings, particularly on the concept of contract farming. The project further seeks to ensure that civil society organizations, local authorities, and communities are actively engaged in negotiations with the government on policies concerning the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources found within their areas and are empowered to regulate access to genetic resources, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use.ZimAgriHub is an integrated online knowledge and innovation service platform providing knowledge resources for agricultural research, education, extension officers, and farmers. ZimAgriHub is therefore the third Virtual Agriculture Centre of Excellence complementing the two physical Agriculture Centers of Excellence, with the aim of bringing together agricultural research, education, and extension through knowledge sharing and exchange.CIMMYT' s germplasm development work provides improved, adapted, and stress-tolerant varieties with particular benefit to resource-poor farmers. CIMMYT has produced both OPVs and hybrids of maize suited to various agroecological zones. It gives preference to applicants from national organizations given its mandate to work in the public interest and its knowledge of the local seed industry and regulatory framework. NARS partners are generally the preferred candidate for ensuring that improved maize hybrids reach the target beneficiaries (CIMMYT, 2021).Interrogation of the involvement of each country in the regional seed policy harmonization protocolAt the international level, the World Trade Organization' s Trade-Related Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights (WTO/TRIPS), which most African countries are party to, states that members must implement some degree of intellectual property protection on plant varieties. This has been interpreted by some (seed) industries as the requirement of states to join the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), which protects the rights of industrial plant breeders and restricts farmers' rights to freely use and exchange seeds (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018).Zimbabwe has not yet acceded to UPOV; however, consultations to review the Plant Breeders Rights Acts (Chapter 18:1) and ensure that Zimbabwe joins UPOV are at an advanced stage.Most African states are also parties to international agreements designed to protect agricultural biodiversity and sustain the diversity of farmers' seeds. Such agreements include the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which also recognizes indigenous peoples' and local communities' rights to resources and knowledge, and had a target of zero losses of biodiversity by 2020, in addition to the International Plant Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), which covers 64 agricultural plants and recognizes farmers' rights to their seeds and associated knowledge and to participate in policy and decision making (GRAIN and AFSA, 2018).Only seven (Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) out of the 21 states in the Eastern and Southern Africa region have so far harmonized their national seed regulations with the Regional Seed Trade Harmonization regulations (Namibia and South Africa have not done so). The harmonization of seed regulations only perpetuates the dissemination of commercial hybrid seed, not benefitting FMSS, as there are no common standards among member states to aid trade. Zambia has domesticated all three elements of the regulation and boldly claims that their seeds can be freely traded within the region.In 2013, two-thirds of SADC countries signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to operationalize the SADC Technical Agreements on Harmonization of Seed Regulations with the intent of facilitating the movement of high-quality seed across national borders. The SADC Harmonized Seed Regulatory System (HSRS) establishes commonly-agreed standards, rules, and procedures related to Seed Variety Release, Seed Certification and Quality Assurance, and Quarantine and Phytosanitary Measures for Seed. The concept of 'harmonization' in this context emphasizes the need to integrate smaller national seed markets into larger regional markets, ease movement of seed across borders, increase availability and diversity of seed, and expand farmers' access to improved seed. Integrating smaller national seed markets into larger regional markets might be an attractive idea, but the high costs and time requirements pose considerable barriers to entry.For the SADC HSRS to succeed, it is critical that the SADC Member States turn their signatures into action, first reviewing their existing seed trade laws and policies, then aligning them with the guidelines.In some instances, Member States may choose to go one step further and develop a national seed law that is fully aligned with the SADC HSRS, domesticating the regional guidelines as enacted law.The HSRS is a SADC-wide policy that establishes elevated standards for seed production and trade among all 16 SADC nations, and allows improved, high-quality seed to move quickly across SADC national borders. To date, Malawi has signed the SADC HSRS MoU, and has made significant progress towards national adoption of all three elements of the regional policy: variety release, seed certification and quality assurance, and quarantine and phytosanitary measures for seed. Malawi is anticipated to enact a seed bill, making it the second SADC nation (after Zambia) to fully adopt the HSRS (Feed the Future Southern Africa Seed Trade Project, 2021).By 2018, Zambia had adopted two out of three of the SADC HSRS components, the Seed Variety Release and Seed Certification and Quality Assurance, leaving only the Quarantine and Phytosanitary Measures for Seed unimplemented. The Zambian Ministry of Agriculture' s National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) developed three Statutory Instruments to cover the last component of the SADC HSRS: Pest Risk Analysis, Surveillance, and Phytosanitary Procedures. As a result, on June 18, 2020, the Ministry of Justice approved the final version of the Statutory Instruments, known as the Phytosanitary Certification Regulations 2020 (Surveillance, Pest Risk Analysis, Phytosanitary Procedure, and Phytosanitary Services Fees), and published them in the Government Gazette, making Zambia the first SADC nation to fully adopt the SADC HSRS on August 14, 2020 (Nagarajan et al., 2020).Zimbabwe has harmonized its national seed regulations with the regional seed trade harmonization regulations (SADC HSRS) and is striving towards adoption of its elements.Fifty percent of farmers around the world are women, yet they are rarely recognized for their contributions to food production and security. In most developing countries, women still cannot own land or make decisions regarding their households and family farms. Men remain the principal receivers of agricultural resources, deciding what crops will be grown, how they are sold, and what the family can do with the profits. Progress has been made at varying levels in the five countries under study to address these gender disparities, but much work still needs to be done towards gender equality and equity.Despite their critical role in food production for their households, Malawian women have little control over land, even when it is their own. The lack of access to economic resources is frequently cited as a major impediment to gender equality and women' s empowerment, and is a particularly important factor in making women vulnerable to poverty. The National Gender Policy (2011) aims to raise awareness on gender matters, women' s legal rights, diet and the efficient use of food for nutrition, and women' s economic empowerment, in conjunction with the poverty alleviation program. To address some of the challenges cited above, USAID in partnership with the Government of Malawi and a wide variety of Malawian institutions, is promoting gender equality and women' s empowerment by mainstreaming gender issues in activities across sectors. In addition, USAID/Malawi has included women' s empowerment and adolescent girls' activities in the sustainable economic growth, democracy and governance, and education sectors. ICRISAT Malawi' s strategic focus has been on women and youth to unlock the potential of legume-based farming systems. Importance is given to strengthening the seed supply by promoting second generation (basic) seed production through farmer clubs.To achieve women' s empowerment and gender goals in Namibia, the Co-operatives Act (1996) was adopted, which requires a substantial number of women to form cooperatives. The Employment Act, Communal Land Reforms Act, and the Labor Act all favor women' s participation in the economic sphere.In addition, the government introduced the Build Together Programme to help single mothers. Namibia developed and adopted its first National Gender Policy (NGP) in 1997, which was reviewed in 2020. This aimed to close the gaps created by the socio-economic, political, and cultural inequalities that existed previously in Namibian society. To ensure the implementation of the policy, a National Gender Plan of Action was developed in 1998.Despite these polices and enactments, high levels of inequality prevail, especially evidenced by the high levels of violence against women and children, and the feminization of HIV and AIDS. Achievement of women' s full empowerment in Namibia is still a long way off. Legal equality has not transformed into structural equality. Women remain subject to the lowest levels of employment and struggle with practical impediments that limit their economic independence and self-sufficiency. Despite there being no legal barriers, women' s access to land is also limited, due to continuing discriminatory practices, and limited implementation and awareness of existing laws and rights.different laws, policies, and projects that directly benefit women, especially those in rural areas. These efforts are being echoed in the Zimbabwean laws pertaining to agricultural land.Regarding land access, only 10 percent of the land under Zimbabwe' s land reform programme (known as Fast Track Land Resettlement programme) (2000) was allocated to women, falling short of the 20 percent quota stipulated in Zimbabwe' s constitution. This is mainly due to cultural practices whereby land is only accessible to women through patrilineage. However, section 17 of the constitution is transparent about repealing harmful customary and cultural practices that hinder gender equality and women' s rights, referring specifically about women having equal access to opportunities and, in this case, land. Control of agricultural land remains in the hands of traditional leaders, some of whom may not be necessarily implementing gender-inclusive policies regarding land distribution and allocation.Zimbabwe' s National Gender Policy importantly provides guidelines and the institutional framework to engender all sectoral policies, programs, projects, and activities at all levels of society and the economy. In 1995, the Ministry of Women' s Affairs, Gender Small to Medium Enterprises and Community Development was created to oversee coordination of all gender programs and to facilitate gender mainstreaming in all ministry sectors. However, despite Zimbabwe being an agricultural economy, the national agricultural policy framework (2018--2030) only mentions gender mainstreaming (in all its sectors) without determining an explicit set of priorities for women.Despite this shortfall in the policy framework, several organizations have championed women' s empowerment in agriculture. These include:• The Women Farmers, Land, and Agricultural Trust (WFLAT) in Zimbabwe, which is providing training and support networks for women farmers so they can become a successful part of the agricultural community. Those being helped by the organization attend workshops and receive training in their local communities. Participants are encouraged to meet with other women farmers to share knowledge, ideas, and solutions.• The Community Technology Development Organisation (CTDO), which is working with women farmers in various communities towards resilience building for sustainable livelihoods. CTDO is also advocating for the national recognition of farmer-managed seed systems. The organization is currently working through FFSs in advancing participatory varietal selection and evaluation of farmer-preferred varieties, some of which have reached varietal release stage. Through the championing of farmer seed systems, CTDO through OXFAM sponsored a woman farmer from Murewa to represent farmers at the UN Food Systems Convention.• Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers' Forum champions farmer-managed systems through agroecological farming systems across Zimbabwe.The ZAZI Growers' Network is a social venture aimed at empowering women in the Zimuto area of Zimbabwe so that they also become competitive in the agricultural sector regardless of their background. This is done by providing agricultural inputs, offering technical support to improve farm yields and increase produce quality, as well as helping with marketing agricultural products and connecting women with Zimbabwean agricultural organizations.Recognition of the complementarity of the formal and informal seed sectors offers opportunities to improve seed supply by supporting farmers' seed production. The current legislative frameworks in the five countries analyzed significantly limit these possibilities for support. There is then an urgent need to re-orient this framework to improve seed supply among all farmers.An analysis of strengths and weaknesses of both the informal and formal seed sectors reveals important complementarity and opportunities for strengthening the informal sector. Weaknesses have been identified in the areas of seed technology, introduction of new materials and genes, and in barriers to seed dissemination. These weaknesses present opportunities to improve the informal seed sector, particularly since they are the points on which the formal sector does hold a comparative advantage.The recognition of complementarity opens possibilities to define and structure a formal seed sector that effectively operates to meet local farmers' seed needs. Building on the strengths of the farmers' seed system and considering farmers as an integral part of the seed supply chain/system offers the formal sector opportunities to focus on the key activities of national seed supply, for which they have expertise and are well equipped. The impacts of COVID-19 and awareness of the immense health benefits flowing from farmer seeds, reveal a need to upscale and commercialize farmer seed production, and to reduce processing drudgery of the final products for the benefit of all.Agricultural biodiversity is critical for food security where smallholder farmers use both 'improved' crop varieties, as well as locally-developed varieties. Poor smallholder farmers cannot afford the more expensive, improved varieties. On the other hand, access to local varieties is limited due to inadequate local seed availability, resulting in farmers planting whatever seed is available and not necessarily because this is the optimal seed choice.Agricultural biodiversity and its management will be enhanced through successful use of (i) community seed banks; (ii) online knowledge and innovation service platforms that provide knowledge resources for agricultural research, education, extension, and farmers; (iii) centers of excellence; (iv) seed fairs; (v) demonstration plots; (vi) dissemination of quality declared seed (QDS); and (vii) up-scaling collaboration between government, civil society, farmers, and private players.The ITPGRFA recognizes the important role of farmers in the conservation and use of crop diversity through the concept of Farmers' Rights. It is up to national governments to promote legislation and measures that include:• Protecting traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture• Asserting the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the use of plant genetic resources• Asserting the right to participate in making decisions on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources• Asserting the right to save, use, exchange, and sell farm-saved seed.There is a need to recognize farmer-managed seed systems and provide policy and legislative support that should address increasing the availability of seed of a wide range of crop varieties (Nkhoma and Nagamba, no date).Closing the gender gap in agriculture will require action on multiple fronts. The first is land rights.In most of sub-Saharan Africa, women rarely own land. Instead, women farmers usually access land through a male relative, most commonly a husband, brother, or father. This arrangement leaves them highly vulnerable; a death, divorce, or simply a man' s change of mind can leave a woman farmer landless overnight. Considering that women are the major players in agriculture, enabling women farmers to control their resources is important for achieving not only United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 --gender equality and empowerment of women and girls --but also many others, including eliminating poverty (SDG1) and ending hunger (SDG2 Although most of the seed-related policies and laws reviewed for this study acknowledge that farmermanaged seed systems exist, the 14 country reviews do not offer many positive results related to the recognition of and concrete support (policy, legal, technical, operational, and financial support) for farmer-managed seed systems. For the most part, the seed-related policies and laws that have been or are being developed across the 14 countries in Western, Eastern, and Southern Africa do not describe the roles and contributions, nor express the value, of farmer-managed seed systems as part of the national seed sector. Minor exceptions are Mali, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and, to a lesser extent, Nigeria and Zambia. In Mali, there is some recognition of the roles of farmer-managed seed systems, including the functions of conservation, improvement, and provision of plant genetic resources. In recent years, a more supportive environment has emerged in Uganda, with attention paid to the importance of farmer varieties. In Zimbabwe, a more supportive environment has been in place for some time, with acknowledgement of the role and value of indigenous seeds. Nigeria has recently embraced the notion of a pluralistic seed sector and Zambia has some recognition of farmer-managed seed systems. These findings do not substantially differ from those of an earlier review of African seed laws, which was narrower in scope but broader in geographic coverage (all African countries were included) (Herpers et al., 2017), indicating little improvement in the last five years.The predominant narrative does not seriously address the roles of farmer-managed seed systems (Box 1); consideration is fleeting or negative and directs these systems towards \"modernizing\" and becoming commercial. Although farmers across Africa continue to rely heavily on seed of farmers' varieties and farmers in many countries have successfully improved these varieties, seed-related policies and laws continue to ignore this. The development potential of improved farmers' varieties is hindered by this lack of recognition and support.Box 1: Resilient food systems require resilient seed systemsWell-functioning farmer-managed seed systems can be resilient and contribute to resilient food systems by:• Ensuring access to seeds in terms of preference, affordability, and temporal availability.• Ensuring availability in terms of production and distribution.• Guaranteeing seed quality in terms of adaptability, safety, and longevity.• Guaranteeing seed choice and diversity.• Producing crops that underpin a healthy diet.• Recognizing and respecting seed as social and spiritual capital (Subedi and Vernooy 2019).There has been some improvement in the recognition of and support for community seed banks in recent years. Community seed banks have gained governments recognition in South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia. Through the operations of national plant genetic resource units -PGRC in Uganda and South Africa, and the National Gene Bank under the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute in Zambia -community seed banking is receiving institutional (organizational, technical, and financial) support.In Zimbabwe, community seed banking receives technical support from the National Gene Bank and governmental crop research units as part of a collaborative agreement with CTDO, the champion NGO of national community seed banking. CTDO currently supports 14 community seed banks. However, community seed banks have not obtained legal status in any of these countries. This seriously hinders further development, e.g., opening a bank account, preparing and presenting funding proposals, and applying for government or international support (Box 2). In Kenya, formal collaboration between the National Gene Bank and community seed banks and seed savers (led by the Seed Savers Network of Kenya) is incipient, with first meetings held and joint activities organized in 2021 and 2022.Community seed banks could be empowered to serve as coordinating or nodal platforms bringing together farmers, plant breeders, gene bank managers, and others, thereby becoming integral parts of national conservation systems (Vernooy et al., 2015). This would require:• Legitimization of community seed banks as local organizations for the conservation of agricultural biodiversity, organization of seed fairs, participatory seed exchanges, and community seed production and distribution.• Support for the conservation and revival of existing varieties, by providing access to and improving the availability of rare and unique local varieties.• Support for participatory variety selection to generate added value for cultivation and use of existing varieties.• Support for participatory plant breeding to develop new varieties and provide options for access to new diversity to cope with adversity and strengthen farmers' selection skills.Support for local seed business development is more common -including for the last decade in Uganda, through the Integrated Seed Sector Development program funded by the government of the Netherlands. Local seed business development support includes the use of QDS in Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. However, QDS in these countries does not include unregistered farmers' varieties of either local or improved types (e.g., developed through participatory variety selection or participatory plant breeding). This represents a huge development gap and a missed opportunity to recognize and reward the value of local varieties and the contributions of farmers and their organizations (e.g., community seed banks) to seed conservation, sustainable use, and improvement (Box 3; see also De Jonge et al., 2021;Vernooy et al., 2022).• Distributing quality seed (promising varieties, advanced lines) to farmers for evaluation, multiplication, or production (e.g., different forms of participatory variety testing; but also through emergency seed aid that delivers crops and varieties that respond to farmers' interests and needs);• Capacity building for smallholder farmers on quality seed conservation, multiplication, and distribution/marketing (when allowed);• Empowering smallholder farmers in local seed business development (e.g., training in QDS production and marketing);• Carrying out research on seed management (e.g., use of new conservation technologies and practices);• Building linkages between seed-related government institutions and smallholder farmers (e.g., collaboration between national gene banks and community seed banks) and facilitating farmer-tofarmer knowledge and seed sharing (e.g., seed web platform for seed exchanges in Kenya, national platform for community seed banks in Uganda).","tokenCount":"30744"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9af7f93f54db8ff33d65de3bef9191fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9b675002-51b0-4b49-9cbd-b1340bf751ce/retrieve","id":"792708522"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0f699bc3-f62e-41c6-b7a0-2ab86c3cea64","pagecount":"30","content":"In arder to as~ess the ecollomic potential for ~nap Leans , .,j.ECe't10mi:.::t at CrJ:..T, C•-•1 \"1:.:,~, an¿ Prr)f,=;,,'3()~~ at th._~ v;\":;stat•1.~Res:('a:::;ch Ifl8titut.E' '-:'~ '.'.!i.A'---.:, B'.?ijjng, PROC, r0~!_><2,:..•tlvely.PED. EXTERiOr¿  1983) .lowcr than urba.t1 con:~UlnI.,:'i('ll (T,1.1:.':\"  (Li, 1988) . Physí'O'llly, type (long and rou;¡d to ::-h «!,' t <1:', :: :'1 J , ¡ .:'t ~., ':::. ,-.', ~ ~. (f rorn white to dad', pULi'! r~ ) {} n .-': n p , -l.n• b.l J, j. I :,,,_=,-th :-u h climbing type). SeD:d color alzo r¡ln~feS frem ~,1hit~ t,) almost black.Clirnatic conditiüns dict.J.~_'.:' ¡ (, :JI': ( Chen,19B8. Hu,198€l). In he S<..:ut-ll j i~';L ':.:~ ,~'l '.\"F¡:-i:l9 0f bush snap bean (which ha .. al s l,.> !:tf'L'n !_,b;::: -:-rv \" d ln Turk!:\"'!y) practized It is of í t1 L et-e:; l t c' not \" t h,l t ., I t i ~H (!:: \"lh '-'l; ¡ : 11-. ': .ri u'J¿;•¡r r: ' 1 , ':; '\" r :.¡ '.; 'o' :J'-' t.a L 1 (: , .production \\.¡il 1 be \"ton,d on~~ farnl tJ.; .h  .::.1 of product:5.:n'_'1 1:\" f i ,j -:-¡ 1_ 11..1JII\";' !lf ,,',;'r( of total vegetable c.'onsurnption, . . . . 'hi 1 i, ,~ ','1: ;:-.;'/n!  ;¡ e , 'c' , , , and other ~leget.J.bj en 1 ¡ ho\"d ,¡ ., .. ,;1 1-. Alt h ol1':;h Chiru:se \\lt~:);ln o ,~ -11-' o ~: ., n \" 1 , 1 (: tú ot her count: r i ~--:\"::: Cf! 11 , ',:>  i . e by gBa f;üll ,Hld l-,y , '¡.'(.'q-¡ \" .; ! ~. /\\ '.i ,~j \" ! } ::-: :-:u:-: ..   ","tokenCount":"275"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ecbba8b7b1f53b538c28d8816f56e336","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/424995d2-3f0e-4e88-a2e1-ee670791074b/content","id":"-1669595121"},"keywords":["Líneas","progenitores","híbridos","alelos favorables Lines","progenitors","hybrids","favorable alleles"],"sieverID":"792447c8-6a3f-4333-92e1-26efe1afd2fb","pagecount":"10","content":"Generalmente el desarrollo de líneas de maíz por medio de la autofecundación es un proceso fácil de realizar; sin embargo cuando su número es grande, su evaluación es un problema crítico. Muchas líneas han sido identificadas por métodos de selección convencionales (Bauman 1981;Hallauer 1990) o por el uso de diferentes estimadores estadísticos (Zanoni y Dudley 1989;propuso un método para la estimación del número relativo de alelos favorables (µG) para un carácter dado presentes en una línea donante (P w ) pero ausentes en la mejor cruza simple disponible (P 1 x P 2 ), suponiendo dominancia completa (a=1), A=H, z= -µ y no epistasis. Este procedimiento requiere la evaluación de las líneas parentales P 1 , P 2 y las líneas donantes de alelos favorables P w, las cruzas simples (P 1 x P w ) y (P 2 x P w ) y la cruza simple original (P 1 x P 2 ). Posteriormente, Dudley (1987) presentó una modificación al método original, para eliminar el supuesto de que A=H y z= -µ. Zanoni y Dudley (1989) compararon el método modificado con el original, señalando una mayor eficiencia con el modificado.Los objetivos de este estudio fueron: 1) evaluar líneas tropicales como donantes de alelos favorables para la mejora de tres híbridos simples élites, 2) determinar cual progenitor puede ser mejorado y 3) comparar el método original y modificado propuestos por Dudley.Veintitrés líneas (Cuadro 1) con un grado de endogamia de (S6 a S8) de grano blanco fueron escogidas como donadoras de alelos para mejorar a tres híbridos simples AN1 x AN2, SSE232-33-30 x SSE255-18-19 y SSE255-18-19 x M.L.S4-1. Las líneas donantes provienen del Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT), y los híbridos simples del Instituto Mexicano del Maíz (IMM) de la Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro.Las cruzas entre las 23 líneas donantes y los progenitores de los híbridos simples élites fueron evaluadas bajo un diseño experimental 11x11 látice simple con dos repeticiones. Por su parte, las líneas donantes y los progenitores de los híbridos simples, fueron evaluados en un diseño de bloques completos al azar con tres repeticiones. La parcela experimental de cruzas y líneas fue de un surco de 5 m de largo, 75 cm entre surcos y 25 cm entre plantas, para obtener una densidad de 53.000 plantas/ha. Las cruzas y las líneas fueron sembradas en experimentos separados, en Celaya, Guanajuato (1.754 msnm,20º 31' Lat. N,100º 49' Long. O), Tlaltizapan, Morelos (940 msnm, 18º 41' Lat. N, 99º 08' Long. O) y Cotaxtla, Veracruz (15 msnm, 18º 50' Lat. N, 96º 10' Long. O) en el ciclo de verano de 1997.Se aplicaron prácticas culturales de manejo comunes en cada localidad, de manera que el cultivo estuviera libre de plagas y enfermedades, la siembra y cosecha fue realizada manualmente. La fertilización fue 180N-90P-00K (Celaya, Gto.), 75N-50P-00K (Tlaltizapan, Mor.) y 184N-46P-00K (Cotaxtla, Ver.); al momento de la siembra se aplicó la mitad del nitrógeno, y en el segundo cultivo todo el fósforo y el resto del nitrógeno. Se aplicó riego para establecer los experimentos y después se condujeron en condiciones de temporal. Al momento de la cosecha se registró el peso fresco de la mazorca en kilogramos, después se tomó una muestra de 100 gramos de semilla de 10 mazorcas para obtener la humedad del grano. Posteriormente el rendimiento de grano en toneladas por hectárea fue calculado por parcela, suponiendo el 80 % de desgrane y ajustándolo al 15 % de humedad.En cada localidad, se realizó un análisis de varianza usando el paquete estadístico Alfa -Látice (Barreto et al. 1993) para las cruzas simples y unos bloques completos al azar para las líneas. Además de un análisis de varianza combinado usando modelos mixtos (Proc Mixed, SAS Institute 1989). En todos los análisis, ambientes y repeticiones fueron considerados al azar y las cruzas fueron asumidas como fijas. Los efectos genotípicos fueron probados para obtener significación usando el cuadrado medio de la interacción genotipo x ambiente como un término de error.Las medias ajustadas de las cruzas (para efectos de bloques en el diseño látice) fueron utilizadas para estimar los seis parámetros genéticos propuestos por Dudley. Las estimaciones del número relativo de alelos favorables (µG y µ ) presentes en una línea donante pero ausentes en un híbrido, fueron calculadas usando el método original y modificado descrito por Dudley (1984aDudley ( y 1987)). El método consiste en que para tres líneas homocigotas, existen ocho clases de loci (A, ..., H) como se muestra en el Cuadro 2 y descrito por Dudley CML = Líneas liberadas por CIMMYT; A y B (grupo heterótico). (1984a). Donde las letras A, ..., H representan el número de loci en cada clase. Los genotipos ++, +-, y --fueron asignados como valores genotípicos de µ, aµ, y -µ, respectivamente, donde µ es la mitad de la diferencia entre los genotipos ++ y --.Una estimación positiva de G indica que P W contiene alelos favorables en loci donde ambos P 1 y P 2 contiene alelos desfavorables. Del mismo modo, estimaciones positivas de D y F señalan que P 1 y P 2 , respectivamente, contienen alelos desfavorables en loci donde las otras dos líneas tienen alelos favorables. El término B, estima el número relativo de loci donde ambos P 1 y P 2 tienen más alelos y P W no los tiene. C, estima el número relativo de loci donde ambos P 1 y P W tienen más alelos y P 2 no los tiene. Mientras que E, estima el número relativo de loci donde ambos P 2 y P W tienen más alelos y P 1 no los tiene.Valores de parentesco de (P W ) con (P 1 ) o (P 2 ) se obtuvieron por medio de (C+F) -(D+E) (Dudley, 1984a). Donde valores positivos indican similitud de P W con P 1 , y valores negativos parecido de P W con P 2 . Para determinar si se debe autofecundar directamente la F 1 (donador x progenitor) o bien retrocruzar la F 1 hacia el donador o los progenitores antes de iniciar la autofecundación, se obtuvieron estimaciones de µG-µD o µG-µF (Dudley 1984b). Valores positivos sugieren retrocruzar hacia P w , valores negativos y significativos indican retrocruzar hacia P 1 o P 2 ; si los valores no son significativamente diferentes de cero, se recomienda la autofecundación directa en la F 1 .Los híbridos AN1 x AN2, SSE232-33-30 x SSE255-18-19 y SSE255-18-19 x M.L.S4-1, designados a ser mejorados tuvieron un rendimiento de 7,75, 8,08 y 12,38 t/ha, respectivamente. Mientras que las líneas per se mostraron un rendimiento de 1,8 a 7,0 t/ha (Cuadro 3).Las estimaciones del número relativo de alelos favorables (µG) con el método original fueron negativas para la mayoría de las líneas, excepto CML258 (Cuadro 4). En contraste a las estimaciones con el método original, las estimaciones del número relativo de alelos favorables (µ ) con el método modificado, todas las líneas tuvieron valores positivos (Cuadro 5).De acuerdo con Dudley (1984a,b,c), las líneas con valores positivos o menos negativos de µG podrían ser seleccionadas en el método original. Sin embargo, los resultados con el método modificado son más consistentes para seleccionar líneas y coinciden con la experiencia de los fitomejoradores. Los valores más altos y positivos de µ , fueron detectados en tres líneas tropicales CML254, CML258, CML273 y tres subtropicales CML311, CML312 y CML313 (Cuadro 5). Betrán et al. (1997), reportaron que CML258 mostró la mejor aptitud combinatoria general bajo condiciones de sequía mientras que CML254 fue la mejor en suelos con bajo nivel de nitrógeno. González et al. (1997) señalaron que CML311 y CML313 fueron las más importantes para aptitud combinatoria general.Para mantener la diversidad entre los progenitores del híbrido simple designado a mejorar tanto como sea posible, es importante considerar su patrón heterótico. Basado en lo anterior Dudley (1984a) sugirió que si (µC+µF) > (µD+µE) la línea donadora (P w ) podría ser cruzada con el progenitor (P 1 ), de lo contrario si (µC+µF) < (µD+µE) entonces (P w ) deberá cruzarse con (P 2 ). De las comparaciones de BC+BF con BD+BE (las cuales son las mismas ya sea con el método original o modificado), nueve líneas presentaron valores positivos y tres negativos, indicando que tienen alelos comunes con AN1 y AN2, respectivamente (Figura 1). Las líneas CML254, CML258 y CML313 se recomiendan para mejorar a AN1, mientras que para mejorar a AN2, las líneas CML273, CML311 y CML312 son deseables. De acuerdo con la diferencia de (BG-BD) y (BG-BF) para Cuadro 2. Estado genético de posibles clases de loci para tres líneas homocigotas (Dudley 1984a).--- † P 1 y P 2 ; son progenitores homocigotes de un híbrido elite; P w es donador homocigote. ‡ = loci homocigotes para alelos favorables; -= loci homocigotes para alelos desfavorables. Ĝ Ĝ Cuadro 3. Medias de rendimiento de grano de líneas x progenitores, líneas per se, y el híbrido designado a mejorar, combinado de tres localidades. México, 1997. las cruzas F 1 (donante x progenitor) en donde se involucran estas líneas, se recomienda realizar una retrocruza hacia la línea donadora y posteriormente en la retrocruza se deberá autofecundar para desarrollar nuevas líneas.La mayoría de las líneas mostraron valores negativos de µG con el método original, excepto CML258 y CML264 (Cuadro 6). Mientras que, con el método Cuadro 5. Estimaciones de µB,…, µG y sus errores estándar para rendimiento de grano (t/ha) para 12 líneas (P w ) cuando AN1 (P 1 ) x AN2 (P 2 ) es el híbrido a ser mejorado, usando el método de Dudley (1987). México, 1997. modificado 19 líneas mostraron valores positivos de µ , excepto CML240 la cual mostró valor negativo (Cuadro 7). Los mejores valores de µ fueron detectados en seis líneas tropicales CML254, CML258, CML264, CML273, CML277 y CML281, y cuatro subtropicales CML312, CML313, CML314 y CML319. Misevic (1989b), encontró que 21 de 24 líneas presentaron valores positivos de µ y los valores negativos fueron para líneas con bajo rendimiento de grano per se. Por su parte Vergara et al. (1997), señalaron que CML264, CML273 y CML254 mostraron alta aptitud combinatoria general.Cuadro 7. Estimaciones de µB,…, µG y sus errores estándar para rendimiento de grano (t/ha) para 20 líneas (P w ) cuando SSE232-33-30 (P 1 ) x SSE255-18-19 (P 2 ) es el híbrido a ser mejorado, usando el método de Dudley (1987). México, 1997. Ee =error estándar; µ = número relativo de alelos favorables; µC+µF = número relativo de loci similares de P 1 y P w ; µD+µE = número relativo de loci similares de P 2 y P w ,; µG-µD = relación de P w y P 1 ; µG-µF = relación de P w y P 2 .  De las comparaciones de BC+BF con BD+BE (las cuales fueron similares con el método original y modificado), 13 líneas tuvieron valores positivos y siete negativos, indicando la presencia de loci con alelos comunes a SSE255-18-19 y SSE232-33-30, respectivamente (Figura 2). Las líneas CML254, CML264, CML273, CML277, CML281, CML312, CML313 y CML314 se recomiendan para mejorar a SSE255-18-19, mientras que para mejorar a SSE232-33-30, las líneas CML258 y CML319 son deseables. De acuerdo con la diferencia de (BG-BD) y (BG-BF) para las cruzas F 1 (donante x progenitor) en donde se involucran las líneas mencionadas, se recomienda realizar una retrocruza hacia la línea donadora y posteriormente en la retrocruza se deberá autofecundar y extraer nuevas líneas.Cuando SSE255-18-19 x M.L.S4-1 fue designada a ser mejorada, todas las líneas presentaron valores negativos de BG con el método original (Cuadro 8). Sin embargo, con el método modificado, la mayoría dio valores positivos de µ , excepto CML240 (Cuadro 9). Dos líneas tropicales CML264 y CML281 y tres subtropicales CML312, CML313 y CML318, mostraron los mejores valores de µ . Zanoni y Dudley (1989), en un estudio con 14 líneas, señalaron que la mayoría de ellas mostró valores positivos de µ , mientras que Misevic (1989a), encontró diferencias significativas entre 15 líneas donadoras.En cada uno de los híbridos designados a mejorar, las líneas CML240 y CML246 fueron las únicas que expresaron bajo rendimiento de grano per se y valores más negativos de µG con el método original, mientras que con el modificado, valores positivos bajos de µ o valores negativos, respectivamente. Lo anterior puede ser a que provienen de germoplasma de valles altos y no se dio buena adaptación en las localidades donde se evaluaron, además fueron más precoces a floración que el resto de las líneas y por lo general la precocidad correlaciona con menor rendimiento. Además CML240 fue desarrollada con un fondo genético de resistencia específica a la roya común (Puccinia sorghi) y al tizón foliar (Helminthosporium turcicum), más que como línea con aptitud combinatoria superior. Estos resultados coinciden con lo reportado por Srinivasan et al. (1997) quienes señalaron un bajo comportamiento per se y baja aptitud combinatoria en estas líneas. Por su parte Misevic (1989b) encontró que 21 de 24 líneas representativas de los principales grupos heteróticos de Estados Unidos y Yugoslavia, mostraron valores positivos de µ , y que los valores negativos fueron detectados en líneas con bajo rendimiento per se, debido a su pobre adaptación a los ambientes evaluados.En este caso particular, las 15 líneas mostraron loci con alelos semejantes al progenitor SSE255-18-19 y ninguna mostró relación con M.L.S4-1 (Figura 3) sobre la base de los valores de (BC+BF) -(BD+BE) los cuales fueron positivos. Por lo tanto para mejorar el progenitor Cuadro 8. Estimaciones del número relativo de loci en cada clase para rendimiento de grano (t/ha) usando el método de Dudley (1984a), cuando SSE255-18-19 (P 1 ) x M.L.S4-1 (P 2 ) fue designado a ser mejorado por 12 líneas (P w ). México, 1997.  Dudley (1987) comparó el método modificado con el original, y señaló que el modificado fue superior en identificar líneas con alelos favorables; indicó también que con el modificado se eliminan las estimaciones negativas de µG. Por su parte, Zanoni y Dudley (1989) reportaron una mayor eficiencia con el procedimiento modificado en comparación con el método original.De acuerdo a los resultados de este estudio, cinco líneas tropicales CML254, CML258, CML264, CML273 y CML281, y cuatro subtropicales CML311, CML312, CML313, y CML319, evidenciaron los valores más altos de µ , por lo que fueron identificadas como las mejores líneas donantes de alelos favorables para aumentar el rendimiento de grano en cada uno de los híbridos designados a mejorar, respectivamente.Las estimaciones del relativo parentesco entre las líneas donantes y los progenitores de los híbridos a mejorar, coincidieron con la información de pedigrí de las líneas. La mayoría de las líneas que se relacionaron con el progenitor AN1 pertenecen al mismo grupo heterótico (grupo A), de este progenitor, excepto CML322 que es grupo heterótico (B), y las líneas que se agruparon Ee =error estándar; µ = número relativo de alelos favorables; µC+µF = número relativo de loci similares de P 1 y P w ; µD+µE = número relativo de loci similares de P 2 y P w ,; µG-µD = relación de P w y P 1 ; µG-µF = relación de P w y P 2 . Ĝ Ĝ Ĝ Figura 3. Estimaciones de parentesco entre las líneas donadoras y los progenitores del híbrido a mejorar, Valores positivos indican que la línea esta más relacionada a SSE255-18-19 y valores negativos señalan similitud con M.L.S4-1. México, 1997.con el AN2, pertenecen al subgrupo heterótico (A2). Una tendencia más clara fue en el caso del progenitor SSE255-18-19 (grupo A), todas las líneas que se relacionaron con él pertenecen al mismo grupo heterótico. Del mismo modo, la mayoría de las líneas que se agruparon con SSE232-33-30 pertenecen al grupo heterótico (B). Mientras que en el caso del híbrido SSE255-18-1 x M.L.S4-1, se encontró que todas las 15 líneas se agruparon con SSE255-18-19 el cual es grupo heterótico (A), y ninguna se relaciona con el progenitor M.L.S4-1. Sin embargo, cinco de las 15 líneas pertenecen al grupo heterótico (B), por lo tanto aquí no hubo coincidencia con la información de pedigrí de estas líneas, Lo anterior puede ser debido a que el progenitor M.L.S4-1 (mazorca larga) pertenece a un tercer grupo heterótico (C) diferente a los de las líneas de CIMMYT aquí evaluadas. Además este progenitor proviene de germoplasma de amplia base genética el cual fue formado y mejorado por diferentes fuentes de germoplasma con tamaño de mazorca larga (16 -24 cm).Zanoni y Dudley (1989) y Misevic (1989a,b), en sus estudios con diferentes tipos de germoplasmas, confirmaron el argumento de que la información de pedigrí está de acuerdo con la estimación de parentesco propuesto por Dudley. Por lo tanto, la estimación del relativo parentesco entre las líneas donantes y los progenitores de los híbridos a mejorar, no necesariamente indican consanguinidad entre estas líneas, si no que más bien es una medida de que si la línea donante tiene más o pocos loci con alelos idénticos a los de los progenitores de los híbridos a mejorar.Sobre la base de las estimaciones del número relativo de alelos favorables µG y µ , la mayoría de las líneas tropicales y subtropicales presentaron valores positivos indicando la presencia de alelos favorables para rendimiento de grano, excepto las dos líneas de valles altos.Para el mejoramiento de los progenitores del híbrido AN1 x AN2, se deberá usar las líneas CML254, CML258, CML273, CML311, CML312 y CML313, mientras que para mejorar al híbrido SSE232-33-30 x SSE255-18-19 se recomienda las líneas CML254, CML258, CML264, CML273, CML277, CML281, CML312, CML313, CML313 y CML319. Sin embargo para el híbrido SSE255-18-19 x M.L.S4-1, las líneas CML264, CML281 CML312 y CML318, se recomiendan para mejorar únicamente al progenitor SSE255-18-19.La línea subtropical CML312 puede ser utilizada para el mejoramiento simultáneo de los progenitores de los tres híbridos simples élite. Mientras que CML254, CML258, CML273 y CML313, pueden usarse para mejorar a los dos híbridos AN1 x AN2 y SSE232-33-30 x SSE255-18-19. Por su parte las líneas CML264 y CML281, deberán usarse para mejorar a los híbridos SSE232-33-30 x SSE255-18-19 y SSE255-18-19 x M.L.S4-1.El método modificado propuesto por Dudley (1987), fue efectivo para identificar líneas en comparación con el original y además proporcionó información adicional del relativo parentesco entre líneas y progenitores, coincidiendo en la mayoría de los casos con la información del pedigrí.","tokenCount":"3032"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"034ad877f3f9c74b46cda02a0363dda8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2917b70c-1376-4463-9634-0adc99d00732/retrieve","id":"-11141974"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ce1ffe15-53bc-4ba4-96f5-474cf258e54c","pagecount":"332","content":"Capítulo 2 Introducción a los bancos de germoplasma y sistemas de documentación ½7 Fig. 1.Actividades involucradas en la adquisición de germoplasma de Arachis silvestre ½ 10 Fig. 2. Organización de las actividades en un banco de germoplasma ½ 14 Fig. 3.Los diferentes estados del descriptor para la actitud de la silicua en Brassica ½ 15 Cuadro 1 Centros de investigación agrícola internacional del GCIAI y sus cultivos de mandato ½ 12 Cuadro 2 Ejemplos de descriptores diferentes y sus estados ½ 16 Cuadro 3. La diferencia entre datos e información ½ 16Capítulo 3 Procesamiento de la información en los bancos de germoplasma ½37 La clasificación de un archivo por \"número de accesión\" y por \"fecha de la última prueba de viabilidad\" es posible con un sistema de documentación computadorizado, pero no lo es con uno manual ½ 169 Esta Guía para la Documentación de Recursos Genéticos, el software GMS del IBPGR (Genebank Management System software -GMS) y la Guía del Usuario (GMS User's Guide), constituyen el resultado de un proyecto realizado conjuntamente por el IBPGR y el Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo (IDRC), Otawa, Canadá, denominado \"Desarrollo de los programas de documentación sobre los recursos agrícolas nacionales sostenibles: Un enfoque autodidáctico\". El objetivo principal de este proyecto es proporcionar mecanismos que promocionen la autosostenibilidad de los esfuerzos para la documentación de los recursos genéticos, impartiendo y diseminando conocimientos que puedan ser utilizados para desarrollar las capacidades técnicas y los procesos conceptuales necesarios para una documentación eficaz de los recursos genéticos. La intención del IBPGR y del IDRC ha sido involucrar, desde el comienzo del proyecto, a todos los participantes que lo desearan. Se les solicitó a tres programas nacionales de recursos fitogenéticos que colaboraran con el IBPGR en este proyecto. Además, durante las primeras etapas del proyecto, muchas otras organizaciones colaboraron con el IBPGR proporcionando comentarios y asesoramiento sobre el tema principal de esta Guía, la metodología de la documentación y el diseño del software. Se realizaron tres talleres de trabajo regionales para estimular la colaboración en la documentación de los recursos genéticos y para presentar esta Guía y el software.Esta Guía ayudará a los usuarios para que tomen sus propias decisiones en el análisis, diseño, realización y uso de los sistemas de documentación basados en microcomputadoras y manuales. El software GMS y la Guía del usuario se suministran con la Guía de Documentación, como un mecanismo opcional para el establecimiento de un sistema de documentación.Este documento representa un tratamiento autodidáctico de interés para todas las personas que de alguna manera están relacionadas con la documentación, caracterización, conservación, manejo y utilización de los recursos genéticos. Como parte esencial del desarrollo de este proyecto, los autores de esta Guía solicitaron asesoramiento a expertos y revisores a quienes se agradece su dedicación. Finalmente, el IBPGR desea extender su agradecimiento a todas aquellas personas de otras organizaciones, que de una u otra forma, han contribuido a la realización de esta Guía.Quiénes deben usar esta guíaEsta guía está destinada a personas con antecedentes y experiencias diferentes, que se enfrentan al objetivo común de desarrollar un nuevo sistema de documentación del banco de germoplasma, o de mejorar el que ya existe.Quizá se trabaje con un banco pequeño o mediano que no ha desarrollado previamente un sistema de documentación sofisticado, o un banco recién establecido que no tiene definidas claramente sus actividades. Del mismo modo, es posible que se esté trabajando con un banco de germoplasma grande que ya cuente con un sistema de documentación, pero se desean conocer otras formas que mejoren el sistema para hacer frente a grandes cantidades de trabajo con mayor eficiencia.Si se le ha encomendado la tarea de diseñar un nuevo sistema, probablemente cuente con la capacidad académica en el campo científico o técnico. Sería útil si tuviera alguna experiencia en las actividades del banco, aun cuando ésta no es esencial. Esta guía considera el hecho de que no se cuente con experiencia previa en este ámbito, y trata en detalle las actividades del banco de germoplasma. La experiencia en el uso de computadoras también puede resultar ventajosa, pero no es esencial, ya que la guía contiene un capítulo detallado sobre los principios básicos de computación.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosAntecedentes: el problema Los bancos de germoplasma tendrán problemas en el manejo de sus colecciones si no cuentan con información actualizada, veraz y confiable, almacenada en un sistema de documentación efectivo. Tal sistema de documentación le permite al banco usar información para planear sus actividades diarias y aprovechar el uso de sus recursos frecuentemente limitados. Del mismo modo, sin un sistema de documentación efectivo los bancos de germoplasma no pueden desarrollarse hacia un objetivo definido, y presentan problemas de comunicación y colaboración con otras instituciones.Existen algunos factores que impiden el desarrollo de los sistemas de documentación continuos en el banco de germoplasma. Estos obstáculos, con los que ya se habrá encontrado, se discuten a continuación.Las técnicas de documentación constituyen un recurso esencial para todo banco de germoplasma. Si se carece de práctica en la documentación del banco, o si el personal no ha recibido una capacitación adecuada, probablemente sea necesario el consejo y la orientación sobre la importante tarea del desarrollo y la puesta en práctica del sistema de documentación.Si el banco de germoplasma carece de personal técnico especializado en documentación que transmita su valioso conocimiento, serán necesarios materiales de capacitación convenientes para orientarlo durante las distintas etapas de desarrollo y aplicación del nuevo sistema. Estos materiales autodidácticos deben ser fáciles de seguir, sin tener que requerir de ayuda adicional. Si no se tiene acceso a dichos materiales autodidácticos, el proceso de desarrollo y aplicación del nuevo sistema de documentación resultará problemático.Con frecuencia, el personal técnico tiene que realizar otras tareas y sólo cuenta con un tiempo limitado para dedicarse a la documentación. Este es un problema común en muchos bancos de germoplasma. Si no se distribuye racionalmente el tiempo que se invierte en la documentación, se tendrán problemas tanto en el desarrollo como en el funcionamiento del sistema de documentación.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosSi no se dispone de la tecnología adecuada o se usa tecnología inapropiada, el sistema de documentación difícilmente funcionará. También surgirán problemas cuando se modifique o desarrolle el sistema con el fin de satisfacer las necesidades de cambio en la documentación e información. Esto es cierto si, por ejemplo, se utiliza un sistema manual cuando se necesita uno computadorizado, o cuando se desarrolla un sistema computadorizado inadecuado. Las decisiones que se tomen sobre qué tecnología se utilizará se relacionan, de algún modo, con el presupuesto con el que se cuenta para un proyecto particular. No obstante, es esencial la previsión cuando se toman semejantes decisiones. El equipo en el que se va a invertir, se conservará por varios años y, frecuentemente, la opción más barata no es la mejor.Todos estos factores contribuyen al desarrollo de sistemas de documentación que son inadecuados o insuficientes para las necesidades de un banco de germoplasma, o a la ausencia de algún tipo de sistema de documentación. ¿Qué se puede hacer para solucionar esta dificultad?La solución: materiales autodidácticos Es vital la capacitación en las técnicas de documentación y tecnología adecuadas para el desarrollo de un sistema de documentación continuo. Como no siempre está disponible la capacitación técnica en la documentación mediante clases particulares, los materiales autodidácticos constituyen una excelente alternativa.Esta guía autodidáctica para la documentación de los recursos fitogenéticos indica de manera específica la necesidad de la capacitación. Está diseñada para ayudar a establecer un sistema de documentación, manual o computadorizado, adecuado a los propios recursos y necesidades. Esto se logra guiando al lector a través de todos los ámbitos que requieren estudio, colocándolo en una posición tal, que sea capaz de establecer sus propias necesidades. Aborda, paso a paso, las tres etapas principales al establecer un sistema de documentación manual o computadorizado: Si después de analizar el cuestionario del Capítulo 2, se llega a la conclusión de que un sistema manual es el correcto para el banco de germoplasma, pueden omitirse los Capítulos 7 a 9, ya que tratan sobre la realización de un sistema computadorizado. Si, de cualquier modo, se tiene alguna duda sobre el tipo de sistema más conveniente para el banco, se aconseja trabajar con estos capítulos. Algunos de los puntos que se tratan se refieren a los beneficios de un sistema computadorizado, lo cual puede ayudar a replantear las opciones. El Capítulo 7 es una introducción para las personas con poca o ninguna experiencia en computación.Cada cuestionario debe ser respondido y analizado, y los ejercicios de comprensión deben realizarse satisfactoriamente antes de continuar con el siguiente capítulo. Las secciones que se relacionan específicamente con el funcionamiento de sistemas de documentación computadorizados presuponen que los conceptos introducidos en los capítulos anteriores fueron suficientemente entendidos, y que se ha llevado a cabo un análisis completo de las necesidades de información y documentación del banco de germoplasma.Si se trabaja de manera exhaustiva con esta guía se obtendrán mayores beneficios que con el simple conocimiento que se necesita para diseñar y poner en práctica un nuevo sistema de documentación. El proceso le proporcionará más ideas acerca del funcionamiento del banco de germoplasma. El conocimiento y técnicas adquiridos constituirán una valiosa herramienta para cualquier trabajo que se emprenda en el futuro, tanto para el usuario como para el banco de germoplasma.Capítulo 2El Capítulo 2 es una introducción a la organización y funcionamiento de los bancos de germoplasma y los sistemas de documentación de los mismos. Cuando haya concluido este capítulo, se podrá: ½ Explicar cómo difieren los bancos de germoplasma entre sí ½ Listar las cuatro categorías principales de los bancos de germoplasma ½Examinar los distintos tipos de colecciones ½ Distinguir los datos de la información ½ Describir el papel de la información al establecer prioridades ½ Demostrar la necesidad de un sistema de documentación ½ Listar las características que se desean tener en el sistema de documentación ½ Describir cómo se organizan los datos en un sistema de documentación ½ Listar las etapas en la construcción de un sistema de documentación ½ Obtener información de fondo del banco de germoplasma utilizando el cuestionario adjuntoIntroducción a los bancos de germoplasmaAsí como las bibliotecas son centros adonde se recurre para obtener información, los bancos de germoplasma vegetal son centros de recursos para material vegetal vivo. Los bancos de germoplasma de plantas poseen colecciones de material vegetal con objeto de mantenerlas vivas y preservar sus características para el futuro beneficio de la humanidad y del ambiente. Los bancos de germoplasma también se llaman \"centros de recursos fitogenéticos\", porque dan importancia al hecho de que las plantas son fuentes de características genéticas fuentes de diversidad. Las plantas conservadas incluyen cultivos alimenticios económicamente importantes (cultivos modernos y primitivos, y sus parientes silvestres), plantas hortícolas, forrajes, plantas medicinales y árboles. Los bancos de germoplasma no contienen todos los tipos de plantas esta sería una empresa muy ambiciosa. Por el contrario, son selectivos con respecto a las plantas que conservan.El material que realmente se mantiene -ya sean semillas, cultivo de tejido o plantas en crecimiento activo-se llama germoplasma. Este es el material genético responsable de las características de una planta, que se transmite de una generación a otra. No importa en qué forma se conserve el germoplasma para el futuro, con tal de que se consiga mantener vivo el material vegetal, conservando sus características.A pesar de que todos los bancos de germoplasma conservan germoplasma, son mucho más que cámaras frigoríficas llenas de semillas. Los bancos de germoplasma involucran otras actividades que hacen que el germoplasma sea más útil para otros científicos. Algunas de estas actividades se detallan a continuación: En los próximos capítulos veremos detalladamente algunas de estas actividades.Los bancos de germoplasma difieren uno de otro en sus actividades y en la manera en que éstas se organizan y se realizan.Considere las diferencias entre un banco de germoplasma sujeto a un programa de mejoramiento particular y un banco de germoplasma nacional. Sus objetivos actividades y prioridades son distintos.Capítulo 2: Introducción a los bancos de germoplasma y sistemas de documentación ½ 9Probablemente el programa de mejoramiento conserva el germoplasma para pocos cultivos del programa, y puesto que el objetivo principal es el uso del germoplasma, quizá se almacene a mediano plazo. Por otro lado, el banco de germoplasma nacional generalmente conserva una amplia gama de especies y, dado que uno de sus objetivos principales es la conservación, almacena el germoplasma a largo plazo. El programa de mejoramiento también tiene distintas prioridades relacionadas con el suministro y recepción del germoplasma; probablemente no fue equipado para distribuir germoplasma o mantener las condiciones necesarias de cuarentena para ocuparse de los lotes de semilla que se reciben. La razón por la cual el programa de mejoramiento no fue equipado para realizar estas tareas es porque no las necesita.El objetivo de un banco de germoplasma se puede resumir en una breve frase que indique sus propósitos. Los ejemplos podrían ser: \"...para conservar el germoplasma de cebada en un programa de mejoramiento interno\"; \"...para conservar germoplasma nacional de maíz para el beneficio de futuras generaciones y asegurar su abastecimiento sin perjudicar a los científicos\". El propósito del banco de germoplasma usualmente se acompaña de una gran cantidad de objetivos. Por ejemplo, un banco de germoplasma nacional podría tener los siguientes objetivos: ½ Conservación a largo plazo de los recursos fitogenéticos a nivel Nacional ½ Regeneración de germoplasma ½ Trabajos de caracterización y evaluación sobre germoplasma específico ½ Organización de la exploración y recolección del germoplasma a nivel nacional ½ Introducción de germoplasmaIntercambio nacional e internacional de germoplasma e información ½ Capacitación, educación y organización de reuniones técnicas y talleres Con el fin de lograr estos objetivos, se deben realizar distintas actividades de bancos de germoplasma. Por ejemplo, el objetivo \"Adquisición de germoplasma de Arachis silvestre\" contiene las actividades que se ilustran en la Figura 1.Muchas actividades del banco de germoplasma generan y utilizan datos en su funcionamiento. De aquí se deduce que cualquier cambio en los objetivos del banco de germoplasma tendrá un efecto en las actividades que se realicen y en cualquier dato que se produzca o utilice.Se pueden identificar cuatro categorías principales en los bancos de germoplasma de acuerdo a sus propósitos.Un banco de germoplasma institucional se establece con el fin de conservar únicamente el germoplasma que se utiliza en (o es potencialmente útil para) los programas de investigación del instituto o centro de investigación agrícola huésped.Un banco de germoplasma nacional se establece como un centro de recursos fitogenéticos nacionales que conserva gran cantidad de muestras distintas de germoplasma de interés actual o potencial para personas que trabajan a nivel nacional en investigaciones de plantas. Con frecuencia, contendrá germoplasma que ha sido recolectado a nivel nacional. También puede estar íntimamente asociado a un programa de investigación o a la realización de su propia investigación.Un banco de germoplasma nacional puede ser una empresa de colaboración entre institutos nacionales o bajo la responsabilidad de un instituto que colabora con otros institutos nacionales.Capítulo 2: Introducción a los bancos de germoplasma y sistemas de documentación ½11 BANCO DE GERMOPLASMA REGIONAL Un banco de germoplasma regional se establece como una empresa colaboradora entre varios países que pertenecen a la misma región geográfica, con el fin de conservar el germoplasma de la región y apoyar la investigación sobre plantas. Algunos ejemplos de bancos de germoplasma regionales incluyen el Banco de Germoplasma Regional en el Sur de Africa (SADC), el Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), en Costa Rica, y el Banco de Germoplasma Nórdico para Plantas Agrícolas y Hortícolas (BGN), en Suecia.La mayoría de los centros de investigación agrícola internacional (CIAI) del Grupo Consultivo sobre Investigación Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI) poseen colecciones sustanciosas de germoplasma, centradas en cultivos específicos denominados cultivos de mandato y también otros cultivos (véase Cuadro 1). Gran parte del germoplasma se recolecta a nivel mundial gracias a la colaboración internacional, y se conserva para beneficio de las actividades de los recursos fitogenéticos en todo el mundo.Es poco frecuente que los bancos de germoplasma trabajen aislados de otros bancos o programas de recursos genéticos Regularmente existe colaboración entre bancos nacionales e institucionales como parte de un programa nacional de trabajo en recursos fitogenéticos. También existen buenos contactos entre los bancos nacionales y los centros internacionales. Este tipo de cooperación entre bancos estimula el desarrollo mutuo, y asegura un funcionamiento internacional efectivo para la conservación de los recursos fitogenéticos.Hemos hablado de los diferentes tipos de bancos de germoplasma, sin mencionar cómo se conserva el material genético. El germoplasma se conserva en diferentes \"colecciones\"; éstas son utilizadas por el banco de germoplasma de diferentes maneras. Existen tres tipos de colecciones que encontraremos regularmente en este tipo de literatura: base, activa y de trabajo. El propósito de establecer cada tipo de colección es completamente diferente. Se dan a continuación algunas definiciones útiles.Capítulo 2: Introducción a los bancos de germoplasma y sistemas de documentación ½ 13COLECCION BASE Es una colección de germoplasma que se conserva a largo plazo y no es usada como fuente de distribución rutinaria. Generalmente, las semillas se almacenan a temperaturas bajo cero, con un bajo contenido de humedad.Es una colección de germoplasma que se utiliza para regeneración, multiplicación, distribución, caracterización y evaluación. Idealmente una colección activa de germoplasma debería mantenerse en cantidad suficiente con el fin de que estuviera disponible cuando fuese necesario. El germoplasma de la colección activa generalmente se duplica en una colección base, y con frecuencia se almacena a mediano o largo plazo.Es una colección de germoplasma que utilizan los fitomejoradores o investigadores en su trabajo. La conservación no constituye una prioridad en este tipo de colección. Un ejemplo de una colección de trabajo podría ser las muestras de germoplasma derivadas de una colección activa que usan los fitomejoradores durante su programa de mejoramiento.También se pueden encontrar los términos \"colección de campo\" y \"colección in vitro\". La colección de campo (o banco de germoplasma en el campo) es una colección de plantas (por ejemplo árboles frutales, cultivos de invernadero y cultivos de campo). El germoplasma que, de otro modo, hubiera sido difícil mantener en forma de semilla puede preservarse en las colecciones de campo. Con frecuencia éste es el único tipo de colección mantenida por un banco de germoplasma. Se deben considerar las colecciones de campo como colecciones activas. Una colección in vitro es aquélla que guarda el material genético en forma de tejido de plantas que crecen en un cultivo activo en un medio sólido o líquido. En algunos casos el tejido se almacena a temperaturas muy bajas, como las del nitrógeno líquido. Al igual que las colecciones de campo, éstas deben considerarse como colecciones activas.El tipo de colección no debe confundirse con las condiciones que se utilizan para el almacenamiento. Las condiciones de almacenamiento se definen más específicamente, así: ½ Almacenamiento a largo plazo: de -1 a -20°C; 4 a 6% de contenido de humedad en la semilla, más de 10 años de almacenamiento ½ Almacenamiento a mediano plazo: 1 a 10°C, 15% de contenido de humedad, hasta 10 años de almacenamiento ½ Almacenamiento a corto plazo: reducido contenido de humedad en la semilla, temperatura ambiente A pesar de que muchas colecciones base se mantienen bajo condiciones de almacenamiento a largo plazo, se pueden encontrar también a mediano e incluso a corto plazo, particularmente cuando no se dispone de instalaciones para cámaras frigoríficas o congeladores. (Se podría deducir que en estos casos no se trata de una colección base). También se pueden encontrar colecciones activas bajo condiciones de almacenamiento a largo plazo.Comúnmente, los bancos de germoplasma conservan el material genético en más de una colección o bajo varias condiciones de almacenamiento. Un estudio hecho por el IBPGR (no publicado) sobre 321 bancos de germoplasma en 1991, mostró que 103 de éstos mantienen el germoplasma bajo condiciones variadas de almacenamiento (largo, mediano y corto plazo). Los bancos de germoplasma utilizan más de un método para mantener el valioso germoplasma, principalmente como garantía en contra de pérdidas, pero también para simplificar las prácticas de trabajo.Organización del banco de germoplasma Generalmente, el personal de los bancos de germoplasma más grandes cuenta con un curador (director del banco) y con científicos que trabajan en las actividades principales con personal de apoyo. Esta organización se ilustra en la Figura 2.Las diferentes unidades tienen objetivos específicos para su trabajo, los cuales están determinados por los objetivos generales del banco. Generalmente la unidad de documentación trabaja estrechamente con las otras unidades, apoyando sus actividades. Introducción a los sistemas de documentaciónValores cuantitativos o cualitativos que surgen de las observaciones.El significado que surge del registro, clasificación, organización, relación o interpretación de datos.Una característica que se puede identificar y medir (e.g. actitud de la silicua, véase Figura 3); usada para simplificar la clasificación, almacenamiento, recuperación y uso de datos.Un cotejo de todos los descriptores individuales que se utilizan para una especie o cultivo en particular.Una condición claramente determinable que puede tomar un descriptor (e.g. 3 erecta, 5 colgante o 7 apuntando hacia abajo; véase Figura 3).Cualquier forma de almacenar y conservar datos. Se pueden utilizar métodos manuales (tales como los registros manuales) y/o métodos completamente computadorizados para el almacenamiento y mantenimiento de datos. Se diseña también el sistema para la recuperación de la información. Cuando se pesa un lote de semillas, se mide la altura de una planta o se describe el color de las flores, se realizan observaciones sobre las características de la planta. En el trabajo de los recursos fitogenéticos se acostumbra referirse a estas características como descriptores. Lo que en realidad se escribe en las notas de laboratorio al hacer estas observaciones son datos. Estos pueden ser cuantitativos y relacionarse con números (por ejemplo, 94g, 34mm, 67%) o pueden ser cualitativos, esto es, la descripción del objeto examinado (por ejemplo, café, pubescente, horizontal). Para muchos descriptores existe un número limitado de estados de descriptores (véase Cuadro 2). Por ejemplo, el descriptor \"el hábito de crecimiento de una planta\" puede tener sólo tres estados de descriptores: procumbente, decumbente y erecto. En otros casos, los estados del descriptor son continuamente variables, tales como el peso de las semillas o la altura de la planta. En el Cuadro 2, se dan algunos ejemplos.La información difiere de los datos, aun cuando a veces se utilicen términos intercambiables. La información tiene significado, en tanto que los datos no. Por ejemplo, ¿qué significa \"94g\"? ¿94g de qué? El Cuadro 3 muestra esta diferencia esencial.En el Cuadro 3 podemos ver que cuando los datos se manejan de cierta manera, descritos o comparados con otros, surge algún tipo de significado. Esta es la esencia de la información -contiene significado. Se pueden registrar los datos de diferente manera, pero la forma en la que realmente se registran los Capítulo 2: Introducción a los bancos de germoplasma y sistemas de documentación ½ 17 datos puede afectar seriamente la utilidad de la información que se recupere. Este es un tema importante que analizaremos en el Capítulo 5.Debe recordarse que la información es tan necesaria como los datos -si las balanzas que se utilizan en el banco de germoplasma no funcionan correctamente, la información sobre el peso de la semilla ¿sería confiable?El uso de información para el manejo del banco de germoplasmaGran parte de la información que se genera y adquiere en un banco de germoplasma es interesante y valiosa para la comunidad científica. Generalmente los bancos de germoplasma distribuyen sus accesiones junto con la información pertinente, tal como la información de pasaporte e información obtenida en los ensayos preliminares de caracterización y evaluación. Frecuentemente, la información sobre estudios específicos se publican en informes, catálogos y revistas.No toda la información que se produce en las actividades del banco de germoplasma es interesante para otros científicos, pero es de vital importancia en el manejo del banco para:Establecer prioridades ½ Planificar actividadesSin una información actualizada, exacta y confiable, el banco de germoplasma no podrá realizar efectivamente ninguna de sus actividades ni siquiera el trabajo vital de conservación. ¿Por qué sucede esto?.Un banco de germoplasma tiene tiempo y recursos limitados (personal, equipo, parcelas experimentales). Por lo tanto, el curador debe establecer prioridades y decidir qué actividades son más importantes que otras en un momento dado. Si se establecen prioridades inadecuadas u objetivos no realizables surgirán problemas. Por lo tanto ¿cómo puede el curador establecer las prioridades correctas? ¿Cómo puede decidir? En cualquier resolución que se tome es necesaria la información en la cual se basen las decisiones. Más aún, ésta debe ser exacta, confiable y actualizada, de otro modo se pueden tomar decisiones erróneas.Considérese la regeneración de germoplasma. No todas las accesiones pueden regenerarse cada estación, por lo que el curador debe establecer prioridades. Algunas preguntas que pueden surgir son las siguientes: ½ ¿Qué muestras deben, a toda costa, regenerarse? ½ ¿Qué regeneraciones son menos urgentes? ½ ¿Cuáles son las consecuencias de no regenerar ciertas muestras? Para responder a estas preguntas el curador necesita información sobre los niveles de existencia de las semillas, la viabilidad de semilla y la frecuencia con la que se distribuyen las accesiones particulares. Sólo cuando se tiene esta información se puede tomar una decisión prudente sobre las prioridades de regeneración. Después se necesitará más información para planificar y organizar el trabajo. El curador necesitaría información sobre:¿Cuántas accesiones deben regenerarse?½ ¿Cuánto terreno se requiere?½ ¿Dónde debe realizarse el trabajo?½ ¿Cuántas accesiones se regenerarán en cada sitio?½ ¿Cuántos miembros del personal se requieren para realizar el trabajo?½ ¿Cuáles descriptores serán medidos y observados?Con esta información puede planificarse el programa de trabajo.Es claro que la información juega un papel importante en la planificación y organización de las actividades del banco de germoplasma. ¿Qué sucedería si la información no fuera exacta, o si no estuviera actualizada? Se tomarían decisiones erróneas. Si esto sucediera cuando se planifican las regeneraciones, se perdería germoplasma valioso.La necesidad de un sistema de documentación Un banco de germoplasma necesita un suministro constante de información exacta, confiable y actualizada para funcionar con eficiencia. ¿Dónde puede obtenerse esta información? El banco no utiliza la memoria humana como única fuente de información, puesto que ésta no es del todo confiable -las personas podemos fácilmente olvidar los hechos o confundir detalles. En la práctica, el banco de germoplasma se apoyará en un sistema de documentación como fuente de información para ayudar en la planificación y funcionamiento de muchas de las actividades del banco.Sin embargo, un sistema de documentación no sólo se usa en la recuperación de datos. También se utiliza para:Almacenamiento de datos ½ Mantenimiento de datos (actualización de datos existentes)½ Procesamiento y análisis de datosLos bancos de germoplasma difieren en sus actividades y en el modo en que éstas se organizan. Puesto que los sistemas de documentación apoyan todas estas actividades, se deduce que los sistemas usados por bancos separados también serán diferentes. Muchos sistemas de documentación de los bancos de germoplasma muestran alguna similitud en el diseño y funcionamiento, pero cada uno será distinto en la medida en que se elaboran de acuerdo a las necesidades de documentación e información del banco de germoplasma.Características deseables en un sistema de documentaciónPara que la información que se recupera de un sistema de documentación sea valiosa, debe ser exacta, confiable y actualizada -de otro modo ¿para qué sirve usar un sistema de documentación? Se debe pensar cuidadosamente en cómo diseñar y usar el sistema con el fin de facilitar el mantenimiento de información veraz.Si el sistema está bien diseñado, el proceso de recuperación de información será sencillo. Si, por el contrario, no está bien diseñado, se perderán horas, o peor aún, no se suministrará la información. Si se necesita cierta información regularmente y se invierten varias horas para localizarla, se está perdiendo un tiempo muy valioso en la recuperación. Se debe recordar que el sistema de documentación trabaja para el usuario, y no viceversa.Los datos no aparecen en el sistema de documentación por arte de magia; alguien los debe suministrar e incorporar al sistema. De hecho, se utilizará un tiempo considerable en la computadora o llenando formularios, por lo que reducir la carga de trabajo es de gran ayuda. Sería muy útil si el sistema de documentación fuese fácil para el usuario. Un sistema fácil de utilizar requiere una capacitación mínima. Uno de los problemas más comunes con los sistemas de documentación es que son voluminosos y difíciles de usar. Se debe tener en cuenta que el sistema de documentación trabaja para el usuario, y no viceversa. Si el sistema de documentación es fácil de usar, se encontrarán menos errores, y esto hará que se convierta en un sistema accesible para otras personas.El sistema de documentación no debe funcionar con rigidez. Debe ser capaz de hacer frente a los distintos requerimientos de información yGuía para la Documentación de Recursos Genéticos adecuarse a los cambios de procedimiento del banco de germoplasma. Si se nombrara un nuevo curador, ¿tendrá éste las mismas necesidades de información? Probablemente no. Si hubiera un cambio en los objetivos del banco o un procedimiento nuevo, ¿se afectaría el sistema? Por supuesto. Por lo tanto, se deben prever las posibles solicitudes de información y los cambios en los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma.Los datos no se almacenan en un sistema de documentación de manera caótica y desordenada; si así fuera, el mantenimiento del sistema sería tedioso y la recuperación de información imposible. Por el contrario, los datos se organizan en grupos de uso práctico -práctico para el registro de datos, almacenamiento, mantenimiento y recuperación de la información. En un banco de germoplasma los grupos prácticos están íntimamente relacionados con los procedimientos de éste; e.g. pruebas de viabilidad de la semilla, caracterización de Arachis silvestre y determinación del contenido de humedad en la semilla.Consideremos el modo en que están ordenados los libros en una librería. Es poco probable que se encuentren en orden alfabético de autores. Sería confuso (y molesto) buscar libros de cocina, novelas policiales, atlas y libros de texto de biología entremezclados. Generalmente se ordenan según el tema (por ejemplo, ficción, no ficción) y de aquí en orden alfabético. Si se trata de una librería grande quizá se encuentren subdivididos los grupos principales -ficción dividida en crimen, romance, acción, ciencia ficción, libros infantiles, etcétera. Los grupos en los que se han organizado los libros son útiles para la persona que va a comprar -se puede encontrar fácilmente un libro sobre un tema específico. Si el vendedor decidiera ordenar los libros de acuerdo con el color de la portada, quizá se verían atractivos en los estantes, pero no serían útiles para el comprador.Utilizando este ejemplo podemos ver cómo pueden arreglarse los distintos artículos (en este caso libros) en grupos prácticos. Esto es así porque se han tenido en cuenta las necesidades de la gente: en este caso, la necesidad es la del tema de un libro.En el sistema de documentación de un banco de germoplasma, las necesidades de los usuarios deben tomarse en cuenta al organizar los datos en grupos prácticos. Los grupos definidos deben ser prácticos para el registro, almacenamiento y mantenimiento de los datos, y para la recuperación de información. A veces, un grupo diseñado para la recuperación de información no siempre es práctico para el registro, almacenamiento y mantenimiento de datos; esto sucede particularmente en sistemas manuales. Parte de la habilidad al diseñar un sistema de Capítulo 2. Introducción a los bancos de germoplasma y sistemas de documentación ½ 21 documentación consiste en definir grupos prácticos para todas las operaciones que se realizan de manera similar. Por fortuna estos grupos se relacionan generalmente con los procedimientos del banco. En los dos capítulos siguientes veremos más detenidamente los procedimientos del banco y la manera en que estos grupos se definen.Etapas en la construcción de un sistema de documentación La construcción de un sistema de documentación requiere planificación y análisis detallados antes de diseñar cualquier forma manual y/o bases de datos. De hecho, el proceso debe inclinarse hacia un análisis detallado si se quiere realizar un sistema flexible y fácil de usar.Se pueden definir seis etapas de la siguiente manera.Etapa 1: Obtención de información de fondo acerca del banco de germoplasma Propósito: Recopilar información de fondo esencial para establecer el banco de germoplasma, la cual ayudará a definir los objetivos de documentación y facilitará el manejo de los recursos.Para desarrollar un sistema de documentación adecuado a las necesidades de los bancos de germoplasma es necesario analizar cómo se establece el banco y los recursos contando con la cooperación de otros miembros del personal. Esto proporcionará información esencial sobre el banco, lo cual ayudará a desarrollar, posteriormente, los objetivos de documentación. También será útil tomar decisiones sobre el mejor uso que se debe dar a los recursos disponibles.Este análisis se trata en la sección 5 de este capítulo.Propósito: definir las áreas prioritarias para la documentación.Es necesario tener una idea clara de los ámbitos de trabajo del banco de germoplasma que necesitan documentarse, y de las prioridades de esta documentación. Se deben escribir como objetivos de la documentación y listar en orden de importancia. Estos objetivos pueden incluir la documentación de datos de pasaporte, inventario, procedimientos de manejo de semillas, distribución de datos, ensayos de caracterización y evaluación. También pueden incluir la difusión de la información.Es fácil establecer los objetivos de documentación si el curador del banco define qué áreas se deben cubrir y cuáles son más importantes que otras. Probablemente se consideren más objetivos de documentación que los que se pueden manejar, razón por la cual deben establecerse prioridades. Asimismo, es importante identificar las áreas prioritarias desde un principio, con el fin de evitar problemas en el futuro. Recuérdese que es importante identificar si la documentación de ciertos datos es esencial. El tiempo es muy valioso, por lo que no se lo debe desperdiciar en documentar datos triviales a menos que, por supuesto, se quiera perder tiempo en este trabajo.Propósito. Identificar las necesidades de documentación para cada procedimiento y las relaciones entre los distintos procedimientos.Una vez definidos los objetivos de la documentación se hará un análisis detallado de los procedimientos más relevantes del banco. Este debe explorar las necesidades de los recursos de cada procedimiento, y los distintos tipos de datos que se generan y utilizan. Lo anterior será de gran ayuda para decidir cómo manejar los datos de la mejor manera posible; por ejemplo, la conveniencia de usar una computadora y/o formas manuales.El análisis indicará cómo se relaciona un procedimiento con otro.Esta información ayudará a construir un diagrama de flujo que muestre la relación entre los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma y el flujo de información. Posteriormente, esto le ayudará a decidir cuál es la mejor manera de manejar los datos y también le ayudará a definir los procedimientos de documentación.El análisis también dará una idea sobre los requerimientos de información del sistema. Es útil elaborar una lista de preguntas del usuario acerca del sistema de documentación. Estas contribuirán en las decisiones que se tomen sobre cómo organizar los datos en el sistema de documentación para una recuperación flexible y efectiva; además, ayudará a definir los procedimientos de documentación.Este tipo de análisis se describe en los Capítulos 3 y 4.Propósito: Identificar grupos significativos de descriptores a partir del análisis de procedimientos.Capítulo 2. Introducción a los bancos de germoplasma y sistemas de documentaciónMuchos de los datos que se registrarán serán concernientes a las accesiones individuales del banco de germoplasma. Para facilitar el funcionamiento y mantenimiento del sistema de documentación es necesario organizar los descriptores en grupos prácticos. Se puede pensar en estos grupos como si fueran libros separados, carpetas o formularios en un sistema manual, o archivos separados en un sistema computadorizado (por ejemplo, \"caracterización de Arachis silvestre\", \"pruebas de viabilidad\"). Estos grupos son prácticos por lo que se refiere a cómo se registran y utilizan los datos, y prácticos en relación con la recuperación de la información. Esto se verá con más detalle en los Capítulos 4 y 5.Etapa 5: Desarrollo de formatos de datos y formularios para registro manual y/o formatos de pantalla de entrada Propósito: Desarrollar formatos para datos que faciliten el registro de datos y la recuperación flexible de la información; desarrollar formularios para registro manual y/o formatos de bases de datos de computadora y pantallas de entrada que se utilizarán en cada etapa del proceso de documentación.Una tarea importante para el especialista en documentación es el diseño de formularios y formatos de pantalla de computadora para simplificar el registro de datos, lo que disminuirá el margen de error. Si estos formatos están bien diseñados se asegura la exactitud de la entrada de datos. Las consideraciones sobre el diseño se tratan en el Capítulo 6 (para sistemas manuales) y en los Capítulos 8 y 9 (para sistemas computadorizados).Etapa 6: Desarrollo de los procedimientos de documentación y puesta en práctica del nuevo sistema Propósito: Desarrollar los procedimientos de documentación para facilitar el funcionamiento y puesta en práctica del sistema.Un sistema de documentación puede estar bien diseñado y bien construido, pero ser inutilizable a menos que se hayan definido claramente los procedimientos de documentación y la capacitación en el uso del sistema. Estas consideraciones se discuten en el Capítulo 6 (para sistemas manuales); en los Capítulos 8 y 9 (para sistemas computadorizados) y en el Capítulo 10 (consideraciones generales).Se deberán resolver los ejercicios de la siguiente sección, los cuales probarán la comprensión de los conceptos introducidos en este capítulo.Cuando se hayan completado se resolverá el cuestionario, el cual está diseñado para recoger información de fondo esencial acerca del banco de germoplasma que se usará en el diseño del sistema de documentación.Responda tantas preguntas como pueda. Consulte el texto si necesita ayuda.Indique cuál(es) de los siguientes enunciados es verdadero o falso:a.El material genético se conserva en los bancos de germoplasma. b.Todos los bancos de germoplasma conservan semillas c.Todos los bancos de germoplasma realizan las mismas actividades d.Algunos bancos de germoplasma conservan más de una colección e.Todos los bancos conservan germoplasma bajo condiciones de almacenamiento a largo plazo f.Las colecciones base no se usan para la distribución de semillas g.Las colecciones activas contienen plantas en crecimiento activo h.Las colecciones de campo conservan cultivos de campo i.La finalidad de la conservación es preservar el material genético y sus características 2.Explique por qué se establecen los bancos de germoplasma y qué conservan.Explique por qué los bancos de germoplasma difieren uno de otro.Revise los diferentes tipos de colecciones en los bancos de germoplasma haciendo referencia específica a las condiciones de almacenamiento que se utilizan.Indique cuál(es) de los siguientes enunciados es verdadero o falso: a.La información por sí sola carece de sentido c.Todos los sistemas de documentación utilizan métodos computadorizados d.Aun cuando no todos los sistemas de documentación en los bancos de germoplasma son iguales, deberían serlo e.Al tomar decisiones se utiliza la información f.Los sistemas de documentación se utilizan solamente para obtener información g.Los sistemas de documentación deben tener un funcionamiento flexible h.Los datos en el sistema de documentación deben ser fáciles de usar por el usuarioi.Los datos en el sistema de documentación pueden organizarse en grupos 6. ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre datos e información? Dé ejemplos de cada uno.¿Por qué es necesario establecer prioridades en el trabajo del banco de germoplasma?Explique el papel que juega la información en el manejo de las actividades del banco de germoplasma.Explique por qué los sistemas de documentación difieren entre los bancos de germoplasma.10. Describa algunas características deseables del sistema de documentación. Explique porqué estas características son deseables.11. ¿Cómo se organizan los datos en el sistema de documentación y cómo facilita ésto el uso del sistema?12. Describa las diferentes etapas en la construcción de un sistema de documentación. ¿Cuál es el propósito de cada una?4 Cuestionario: obtención de información de fondo sobre el banco de germoplasmaEl propósito del siguiente cuestionario es ayudar a encontrar la información de fondo esencial sobre el banco de germoplasma antes de comenzar el análisis detallado de los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma en el Capítulo 4. La información que se recopile aquí señalará los temas para estudio posterior en el análisis detallado. Estos incluyen: ½ Las actividades que se relacionan con el sistema de documentación ½ La necesidad de manejar un sistema de documentación en más de un sitio ½ La necesidad de intercambiar datos ½ Hasta qué punto es necesario utilizar las listas de descriptores ½ Las áreas que requieren un cuidado especial considerando el diseño de los procedimientos de documentación Aun cuando trabaje con recursos fitogenéticos, pero no en un banco de germoplasma, encontrará este cuestionario muy útil dado que muchas de las preguntas están relacionadas con su situación.Reserve tiempo para trabajar intensamente con este cuestionario y hacer el análisis. Los resultados le darán recomendaciones esenciales para el diseño del sistema de documentación.Como regla general, es importante consultar a los miembros del personal en cada etapa del proceso de análisis y diseño. Después de todo, ellos probablemente utilicen el sistema de documentación para registrar datos o para recuperar información en el futuro. Si se les consulta, se sentirán más interesados y contentos con el sistema final de documentación cuando se lo haya introducido.Será útil consultar al curador en el momento de contestar este cuestionario, particularmente si la persona es relativamente nueva en el banco de germoplasma o si no conoce las respuestas a algunas de las preguntas.El cuestionario se divide en tres secciones que proporcionan información sobre las siguientes áreas:1.La relación de su banco de germoplasma con otros programas de .. recursos genéticosLa finalidad de su banco y las áreas de actividadesSe deberá fotocopiar este cuestionario con el fin de tener una hoja de referencia mientras se trabaja con esta guía.A partir de este momento no se deberá escribir nada en la columna de la derecha titulada \"Análisis\". Se debe usar sólo la columna central para las respuestas. Encontrará un ejemplo de un cuestionario completo en el Apéndice I. Si la respuesta a la pregunta 13 es \"no\", pase directamente a la pregunta 17; de lo contrario, responda las preguntas 14 y 15.A N Á L I S I S estaciones de investigación? Ya que se ha completado el cuestionario, está en condiciones de analizar las respuestas a las distintas preguntas. Trabaje en la siguiente sección de análisis, de acuerdo con las respuestas dadas a cada una. Cualquier conclusión o idea se deberá anotar en la columna derecha titulada \"Análisis\". Esto les proporcionará un registro conciso de las respuestas a sus importantes preguntas sobre el banco de germoplasma, una interpretación a estas respuestas y sugerencias de cómo pueden usarse en el diseño del sistema de documentación.También será de gran utilidad, al llegar al Capítulo 4, para transferir los comentarios referentes a los procedimientos específicos del banco a los formularios que se suministran allí para el análisis de procedimientos. La respuesta a esta pregunta le ayudará a determinar el tamaño y la complejidad del sistema de documentación necesario para identificar si se deben considerar los dispositivos de un intercambio de datos. Los bancos de germoplasma nacionales, regionales e internacionales funcionan regularmente en una escala superior a la de los bancos institucionales. Por lo tanto, tienen mayor necesidad de sistemas de documentación computadorizados capaces de intercambio de datos con otros programas de recursos fitogenéticos.¿Cuándo se estableció su banco de germoplasma?Generalmente, mientras más antiguo sea el banco, más establecidas estarán sus actividades y procedimientos. Estos, generalmente, son más fáciles de documentar que aquéllos que están en desarrollo. Por lo tanto, si el banco es nuevo o existen áreas en desarrollo, se debe tener más cuidado al analizar los procedimientos y al desarrollar el sistema de documentación.Capítulo 2: Introducción a los bancos de germoplasma y sistemas de documentación ½ 33¿Existe un programa nacional de actividades de recursos fitogenéticos en su país?¿Colabora su banco de germoplasma con otros programas de recursos genéticos en otros institutos o bancos de germoplasma?Si la respuesta a cualquiera de estas preguntas es \"sí\", se deberá investigar la necesidad del intercambio de datos y la adopción de formatos comunes de datos por parte de los diferentes colaboradores. Piense en estandarizar las listas de descriptores, los sistemas de codificación, el software y la estructura del sistema. Investigue cómo manejan su documentación los otros bancos de germoplasma. ¿Actualmente manejan sistemas manuales o computadorizados? ANÁLISIS -SECCIÓN II: LA FINALIDAD DE SU BANCO DE GERMOPLASMA Y LASResuma en una frase breve la finalidad de su banco de germoplasma.Las respuestas a estas preguntas proporcionarán información sobre el objetivo principal y la dirección del trabajo del banco de germoplasma, y la dirección de las actividades al diseñar el sistema de documentación.¿En qué forma(s) se conserva el germoplasma y en qué tipo de colección?Cada colección de germoplasma se manejará por separado y tendrá exigencias distintas de documentación. Cada colección deberá, por lo tanto, analizarse por separado y tratarse como una sección aparte del sistema de documentación (por ejemplo, a través del uso de archivos separados, procedimientos, etc.).¿Cuántas accesiones mantiene su banco de germoplasma?¿Cuántas especies diferentes posee?10. ¿Se encuentra el banco de germoplasma en fase de expansión?Las respuestas a estas preguntas le ayudarán a determinar la necesidad de un sistema de documentación computadorizado. En términos generales, cuando un banco tiene entre 100 y 500 accesiones, es deseable utilizar un sistema computadorizado; entre 500 y 1000 es altamente aconsejable; más de 1000, es esencial.El número de especies también necesita contemplarse al considerar lo anterior. Las colecciones que mantienen especies o cultivos únicos son las más simples de manejar y documentar. Cuando existen varias especies, ésto debe analizarse por separado, y tratarse de modo distinto en el sistema de documentación. Por lo tanto, a mayor número de especies, mayor la complejidad del sistema y la necesidad de un sistema computadorizado.Si el banco de germoplasma se encuentra en una fase de expansión, el sistema de documentación debe ser lo suficientemente flexible para enfrentar cambios futuros. Un incremento en la cantidad de trabajo sugiere una necesidad mayor de utilizar un sistema computadorizado.Los bancos de germoplasma necesitan saber a dónde se envían las muestras de germoplasma. Cuando este número es menor a 100 al año, el sistema manual o un simple administrador de existencias resulta generalmente adecuado. De cualquier manera, cuando este número es mayor, es necesario un administrador de existencias más sofisticado (generalmente computadorizado) para poder conservar los detalles de los destinatarios, fechas de distribución, etc., para análisis futuros.El propósito de las preguntas 12 a 16 es determinar el posible funcionamiento y organización del sistema de documentación del banco.Su banco de germoplasma puede ser parte de una organización más grande en donde ya existe documentación. Si esto es verdad, su sistema de documentación debe cumplir con los estándares ya existentes. Alternativamente, su banco de germoplasma puede tener estrechas conexiones con otros proyectos o departamentos cuyas actividades necesitan documentarse en el sistema. Si su banco de germoplasma es completamente independiente entonces se puede desarrollar un sistema de documentación para sus necesidades específicas.13. ¿Trabaja su banco de germoplasma en colaboración con otras estaciones de investigación? (e.g., para los propósitos de regeneración o evaluación de accesiones)Si la respuesta es \"sí\" se deberá investigar más a fondo el mecanismo de intercambio de datos y la posibilidad de trabajar con un sistema de documentación similar en cada estación de investigación.Si su banco de germoplasma organiza el trabajo en otros lugares, se deberán considerar las diferentes actividades en cuestión. Valore las necesidades de documentación e información de las otras estaciones de investigación, prestando atención particular a la información que se necesita para planificar actividades y manejar recursos.Si la respuesta es \"no\", probablemente trabajen con un sistema único de documentación basado en su banco de germoplasma.En donde sea posible, se deben usar estándares comunes en el diseño de los diferentes sistemas. Esto incluye las mismas listas de descriptores, sistemas de código, software y estructuras básicas del sistema. Los estándares comunes ayudarán en el futuro intercambio de datos entre las estaciones de investigación.Si la respuesta es \"no\", debe investigarse la posibilidad de usar un sistema de documentación similar en cada estación de investigación. Si la respuesta es \"sí\", no piense que el diseño del sistema de documentación necesita ser idéntico al ya existente. Sin embargo, la habilidad para intercambiar datos debe ser una prioridad plausible para cualquier diseño de sistema. En primer lugar, determine sus propias necesidades de documentación e información y después (solamente después) valore los otros sistemas con el fin de determinar si son adecuados a sus necesidades.En general, si las personas tienen claramente definidas las labores y no las comparten, será más fácil diseñar, aplicar y usar procedimientos de documentación. Las responsabilidades para la realización de los procedimientos específicos pueden repartirse más fácilmente. También hará más sencillo el proceso de establecer las necesidades de documentación e información.19. ¿En qué áreas hay generalmente atraso en el trabajo de documentación?En donde el trabajo se comparte, el diseño, la realización y el funcionamiento de los procedimientos de documentación deben ser estudiados en detalle. Por ejemplo, si se diseña un formulario para llenar manualmente para registrar los datos habrá problemas si mucha gente necesita usarlo al mismo tiempo. También es esencial desarrollar un método estándar para llevar a cabo cada procedimiento de documentación y asegurarse de que cualquiera que tenga que ver con el procedimiento esté al tanto. Regresaremos sobre este tema en los Capítulos 6 y 10.Indicar una prioridad relativa para cada uno de los procedimientos ayudará a identificar las verdaderas necesidades de documentación. Los procedimientos de alta prioridad tendrán gran influencia en la manera en que se estructure el sistema. Establecer prioridades será de gran ayuda para la planificación y aplicación del nuevo sistema, una vez que éste haya sido diseñado. No se preocupe si hasta ese momento no sabe cuáles son las prioridades de los distintos procedimientos, esto se aclarará cuando tratemos los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma en el Capítulo 4.La identificación de las áreas donde hay atraso en la documentación le indicará los procedimientos donde se generan gran cantidad de datos, procedimientos que consumen bastante tiempo y/o la responsabilidad para la documentación de un procedimiento que no ha sido asignada acertadamente. Una vez determinada la causa del retraso, ésta le indicará las áreas a considerar en la planificación y aplicación del sistema de documentación. La realización de los procedimientos de documentación antes de aclarar cualquier retraso en el trabajo le ahorrará mucho tiempo. De esta manera, en el inicio del análisis de procedimientos del banco de germoplasma en el Capítulo 4, ponga atención a las áreas que ha indicado para estimar la escala del retraso y aproximadamente cuándo será aclarada.En el Capítulo 3 se subraya el uso de los números de accesión, referencias de lote y nombres científicos para relacionar los datos y construir el sistema de documentación en el banco de germoplasma; asimismo, se describe el papel central que juega el procedimiento del banco de germoplasma en la generación y procesamiento de información. Cuando haya terminado este capítulo, el lector será capaz de:Definir los datos específicos de la accesión y los de grupo ½ Hablar del uso de los números de accesión, referencias del lote y nombres científicos al relacionar todos los datos ½ Explicar por qué se trabaja con los procedimientos ½ Clasificar los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma como operativos o científicos ½ Hablar del manejo de los comentarios en los sistemas de documentación ½ Describir las consideraciones del diseño cuando se construye un diagrama de flujoLos datos que se generan y utilizan en una amplia gama de actividades del banco de germoplasma se agrupan en dos categorías principales: datos específicos de la accesión y los datos de grupo.Los datos específicos de la accesión se refieren a la accesión individual del banco de germoplasma. La mayoría de los descriptores que se utilizarán serán para los datos específicos de la accesión, como el contenido de humedad de la semilla, el porcentaje de viabilidad, el peso de la semilla, el peso de 1000 semillas, la altura de una planta, el color de la semilla, etc. Los datos de grupo se refieren a los grupos de accesiones. Por ejemplo, se encontrarán datos referentes a especies particulares (e.g., equilibrio del contenido de humedad, métodos de prueba de viabilidad, procedimientos de regeneración, métodos para determinar el contenido de humedad, etc.). Se encontrarán también datos referentes a muchos géneros y especies, como los parámetros para modificar las pruebas de germinación secuencial.Estas categorías de datos se manejarán de distinto modo en su sistema de documentación. En esta guía nos ocuparemos principalmente de la construcción de un sistema de documentación para los datos específicos de la accesión, puesto que éstos son importantes para el manejo del banco de germoplasma. ¿Cómo se pueden relacionar y combinar los distintos datos específicos de la accesión en el sistema de documentación? Se necesitarán utilizar los números de accesión, su referencia de lote (cuando sea apropiado) y sus nombres científicos, como bases para construir el sistema de documentación. Como éstos son fundamentales tanto para el manejo del banco de germoplasma como para el sistema de documentación, vale la pena examinarlos más detenidamente.Cada accesión del banco de germoplasma tendrá su propio y único número de acceso, que lo distingue de todas las otras accesiones del banco de germoplasma. Si se utiliza un sistema numérico de acceso inadecuado, o sí no se usa ninguno, las consecuencias serán desastrosas: causará confusión, representará trabajo innecesario por los errores que se cometan y, finalmente, conducirá a la pérdida de germoplasma valioso.Si no se cuenta con un sistema numérico de acceso en el banco de germoplasma, ¿qué tipo de sistema se deberá emplear para facilitar el manejo del banco y el funcionamiento del sistema de documentación? Se necesita usar un sistema que sea simple y practico. Recuerde que se escribirán números de accesión en varios lugares, ya sea en formularios o informes, o introduciendo los números en la computadora. Si los números de accesiones son largos y complicados, el registro es más susceptible de error. Si se cometen errores al registrar los números de accesión, las consecuencias serán desastrosas. Por lo tanto, el sistema numérico debe ser simple.En las siguientes secciones se discute la forma más simple y más práctica.Utilizar un sistema estrictamente numérico y secuencial Deberá empezar con \"1\" e ir incrementando a medida que se recibe una nueva accesión; es decir, \"2\", \"3\",\"4\", etc.Los números de accesión Referencias de lote y nombres científicos se utilizan como bases para construir el sistema de documentación.Capítulo 3: Procesamiento de la información en los bancos de germoplasma ½ 39Con el fin de no confundir los números de accesiones con otros números, se agregarán al número las siglas del banco de germoplasma. Por ejemplo, si las siglas de su banco de germoplasma son \"EGRU\", las accesiones se etiquetarán EGRU 1, EGRU 2, EGRU 3, etc.El número de accesión debe usarse únicamente para identificar las accesiones, y nada más. No se debe incorporar información adicional como por ejemplo el año de depósito, o el código del cultivo, ya que puede causar confusión posteriormente.Se debe utilizar un sistema numérico único para TODAS las accesiones.Puesto que el sistema numérico de acceso es un concepto tan importante para el manejo del banco de germoplasma y el funcionamiento del sistema de documentación, vale la pena considerar las consecuencias que traen consigo emplear sistemas numéricos inadecuados.Si se cuenta con un banco de germoplasma pequeño, podría pensarse en utilizar una designación del depositante como base para el sistema numérico, en lugar de idear un sistema propio. Esto puede ocasionar serias dificultades operativas en el banco de germoplasma, y no debe intentarse.Supóngase que se recibe una accesión con el número 240ß-1D. En el siguiente mes quizá se reciban los números de accesiones etiquetados: ZP414, 240-2, Três Marías, C3P-0, ∑240, Parson Thirdly, 240α, RB12. En cualquier caso, durante los procedimientos de acceso al banco de germoplasma, el técnico no podrá leer lo que está escrito en los paquetes de las semillas: ∑240 escrito como E240, 240ß-1D como 240B-1D, Três Marías como Tras Manas, 240α como 240a y así sucesivamente. Los errores no se detectan hasta mucho después, cuando se busca en el cuarto frío la accesión \"Três Marías\". Se buscará por algún tiempo, pero lo que se encontrará será la llamada \"Tras Manas\". ¿Se trata de la misma accesión? Se invierte otra hora buscando en los registros y preguntando al técnico. Se llega a la conclusión de que se trata de la misma accesión. Bueno, probablemente lo es …Como se ilustra en este ejemplo, los errores se cometen fácilmente, aunque no se detectan con la misma facilidad, al escribir las designaciones de los depositantes. Esto conduce inevitablemente a confusión y crea trabajo adicional innecesario.No debe utilizarse el número del recolector del germoplasmaSi el banco de germoplasma es pequeño y se reciben todas las accesiones provenientes de las misiones de recolección, se podría pensar en usar los números del recolector como números de accesión. Como en la sección anterior, esto no debe realizarse.Quizá se reciba una serie de accesiones de un recolector etiquetadas LG1, LG2, LG3, etc. El siguiente lote de accesiones pertenece a un recolector distinto y se etiqueta AB22, AB23, AB24, etc. Hasta este punto no hay dificultad. Seis meses después, el primer recolector deposita más muestras de germoplasma etiquetadas LG1, LG2, LG3, etc. No se trata de las mismas muestras de germoplasma que las del primer lote, puesto que se recolectaron en diferente región. ¿Qué se hace ahora?No debe usarse un sistema numérico diferente para cada cultivo.Los bancos de germoplasma que mantienen colecciones muy grandes a veces trabajan con sistemas numéricos de acceso separados pero secuenciales para cada cultivo. Si se mantienen muchos cultivos diferentes, o sólo se trabaja con un banco de germoplasma de tamaño pequeño o mediano, no se recomienda este tipo de numeración. Supongamos que el banco de germoplasma posee alrededor de mil accesiones para unos cuantos cultivos, por ejemplo Capsicum, lycopersicom, Hordeum, Arachis, Vicia y Pinus, y que cada cultivo tiene su propio sistema numérico de acceso de manera secuencial. Para Capsicum, el sistema numérico es CA1, CA2, CA3... para Arachis es AR1, AR2, AR3, etc. Este sistema parece trabajar por algunos meses. Así, el curador decide aceptar una colección de guandul, Cajanus. ¿Qué sistema numérico se utiliza en este caso? No se puede usar \"CA\" porque se reservó para Capsicum. En su lugar podría usarse \"CAJ\". Unos meses después, el director del banco de germoplasma decide aceptar una colección de tamaño regular para leguminosas forrajeras que incluye muchos géneros y especies, quizá sólo 10 de cada especie. De pronto se da cuenta de que existen 20 o más sistemas numéricos que funcionan por separado. Por supuesto, esta situación es poco deseable. En la mayoría de los casos es más sencillo trabajar con un sistema numérico de acceso único y secuencial.Capítulo 3: Procesamiento de la información en los bancos de germoplasma ½ 41No deben usarse sistemas numéricos \"reservados\"Se puede considerar el uso de un sistema numérico de acceso único, pero \"reservar\" números para cultivos particulares, por ejemplo del 1 al 100 para la cebada, del 101 al 200 para el trigo, del 201 al 300 para el triticale, etc. Este sistema puede ocasionar una gran cantidad de problemas operativos a largo plazo, por lo que no debe intentarse.Usando los números reservados (del 1 al 100 para la cebada, del 101 al 200 para el trigo, del 201 al 300 para el triticale, etc.), considere qué pasaría si se alcanza el número 100 para las accesiones de cebada. Quizá reserve los números del 501 al 600 para accesiones de cebada posteriores. Lo mismo puede ocurrir para otros cultivos. Después de unos cuantos años se podrían tener 40 números \"reservados\" en un banco de germoplasma, y nadie (incluso el usuario) recordaría a qué se refiere cada uno. Tampoco se puede saber si los espacios vacíos en el almacenamiento de semillas se deben a que no se han asignado aún algunos números, o si se perdieron algunos paquetes de semillas Es obvio que, si se va a usar un sistema numérico único es más fácil si es estrictamente secuencial: comienza con \"1\" y continúa.A partir de estos ejemplos se puede apreciar que el número de accesión es un identificador único que distingue a una accesión de otra, y se ven las ventajas de tener un sistema único de numeración de accesiones que sea numérico y secuencial. El único caso en el que se justifica el uso de más de un sistema numérico es cuando el propósito de la colección difiere del de la colección principal, tal como una colección temporal dentro del banco de germoplasma o una colección reservada y de \"distribución restringida\". Si gran parte de la colección interna va a parar a la colección principal del banco de germoplasma, aún allí este sistema es innecesario. Las circunstancias dirán si se necesitan sistemas numéricos separados.Recuerde que cualquier sistema numérico de acceso debe usarse cuidadosamente con el fin de prevenir cualquier error. Una regla importante que no se debe romper es que un número de accesión nunca debe reutilizarse, aun cuando una accesión se pierda por cualquier motivo o muera en el almacenamiento. Incluso cuando la accesión se pierda habrá información sobre ella en el sistema de documentación y en informes, catálogos, publicaciones científicas. Asimismo, quizá se hayan distribuido las accesiones a otros usuarios; piense solamente en la confusión que causaría si se usara el mismo número para una accesión diferente. Por lo tanto, hágalo simple: dé un nuevo número a cada nueva accesión.Importancia de la referencia del lote Definición:REFERENCIA DEL LOTE Cualquier fecha, código o número que identifique únicamente el ciclo de regeneración o multiplicación de la accesión.En el Cuadro 1 se dan ejemplos de referencias de lote.Un número de accesión NUNCA debe reutilizarse Capítulo 3: Procesamiento de la información en los bancos de germoplasma ½ 43Cuando se manejan o documentan accesiones del banco de germoplasma, es una práctica común registrar la referencia del lote de cada accesión junto con cualquier otro dato. ¿Por qué es tan importante registrarlos rutinariamente? Cuando un banco de germoplasma recibe una muestra de germoplasma, por ejemplo, de una misión de recolección, la accesión no es genéticamente uniforme -ella contiene una cierta cantidad de variabilidad que podría detectarse en un ensayo de caracterización. Cada vez que se regenera la accesión hay una posibilidad de que se afecte su diversidad natural (véase Figura 1). Es importante entonces que, cada vez que se use una accesión por cualquier motivo, se conserve un registro de la referencia del lote que se usó, de manera que cualquier dato que se genere pueda relacionarse con la referencia específica del lote.Lote 2Por ejemplo, si existieron diferencias entre los ensayos de caracterización cuando se usaron las mismas accesiones, estas diferencias podrían deberse a que: a.Se usaron condiciones de caracterización diferentes b.Durante los ensayos se usaron diferentes referencias de lotes de las mismas accesiones c.Una combinación de estos dos efectos Cuando documente ensayos diferentes, debería hacerlo separadamente para mayor exactitud, registrando las referencias de lote para todas las accesiones que se usen. De la misma forma, si distribuye accesiones, querrá saber precisamente a qué referencia del lote de accesiones se distribuyeron, en el caso de que surjan dudas en el futuro. ¿Cómo elige el tipo de referencia del lote que usará? ¿Será temporada y año, fecha de siembra, número de terreno y año? Recuerde que deberá identificar únicamente el ciclo de regeneración -no es posible confundirlo con cualquier otra regeneración de la misma accesión. Entonces, para un trabajo in vitro, sería inadecuado usar el mes y el año como referencia del lote, si está subcultivando cada tres semanas, por ejemplo. También querrá elegir uno que sea sencillo y fácil de registrar. Para mucha gente, una referencia del lote basada en la fecha satisface estas necesidades. Y tiene la ventaja de indicar la edad aproximada de una muestra que puede ser útil en muchas actividades de manejo.Cuando publique cualquier dato del banco de germoplasma en documentos, informes o noticiarios, o intercambie germoplasma e información sobre germoplasma, tiene que usar el nombre científico en lugar del (o además del) nombre del cultivo. El nombre científico es un nombre latín internacionalmente reconocido para el cultivo y facilita el cotejo de información sobre una especie. El nombre del cultivo, por sí mismo, no es suficiente, puesto que varía de un país a otro. Por ejemplo, los siguientes nombres se refieren al mismo cultivo, Secale cereale: rye, centeio, Roggen, centeno, seigle, barakka, çavdar (véase Figura 3). Probablemente es más conveniente utilizar el nombre del cultivo para uso cotidiano, pero es necesario actualizar el nombre científico para todas las publicaciones y comunicaciones con otros bancos de germoplasma y usuarios de los mismos bancos. Esto es particularmente importante para aquellos grupos taxonómicos donde hay una reclasificación y cambios en la nomenclatura. Por esta razón, muchos bancos de germoplasma rutinariamente registran esta información en sus sistemas de documentación.Los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma constituyen la esencia de la generación y procesamiento de datos. Por esta razón, todos los procedimientos se deben estudiar cuidadosamente para: ½ Producir los datos ½ Usar los datos ½ Establecer el valor del manejo de los datos producidos ½ Identificar los requisitos de información de los datos documentados ½ Establecer la necesidad y prioridad de la documentación de datos Antes de ver la generación y el procesamiento de datos, vale la pena tratar, en términos generales, los procedimientos con el fin de entender por qué se realizan y, en una etapa posterior, desarrollar los procedimientos que se usarán en el sistema de documentación.Un procedimiento es una secuencia de acciones que realizan colectivamente una tarea deseada. Probablemente se sigan rutinariamente varios procedimientos en su banco de germoplasma. Estos pueden incluir los procedimientos del manejo de semillas (por ejemplo, registro de muestras, secado de semillas, pruebas de viabilidad, empaquetado y distribución de semillas) y procedimientos de documentación (documentación de los datos de caracterización, elaboración de informes). Todos estos procedimientos consisten en una serie de instrucciones detalladas que, cuando se siguen correctamente, realizan una tarea deseada.Se debe hacer hincapié en que si no es claro lo que se ha logrado en el procedimiento (y, en primer lugar, por qué se realiza el procedimiento), se podrían cometer errores en el procedimiento, y la documentación de los datos generados y usados sería difícil. Es tan simple como eso.Los procedimientos se establecen para:Simplificar la tarea para la persona que lo realiza y para la que lo utiliza.Es mucho más fácil si todo el personal sigue los mismos procedimientos en el banco de germoplasma, puesto que reduce cualquier posible confusión y es un recurso disponible de uso efectivo. Imagine solamente la confusión que se desencadenaría en el manejo de grandes cantidades de semillas si todos tuvieran su manera particular de realizar las pruebas de viabilidad: ¿serían confiables los resultados? ¿Harían un uso óptimo de su tiempo y del equipo disponible? ¡Probablemente no!Cuando se diseña un procedimiento se debe pensar cuidadosamente en lo que se logra y cómo realizar la tarea con los recursos humanos y físicos disponibles. Hay más de una forma de llevar a cabo el trabajo, y por lo tanto, más de un procedimiento que se puede diseñar para hacerlo sin embargo, no todos ellos serán practicables. Depende en gran medida de los recursos en el banco de germoplasma. De aquí se deduce que los procedimientos difieren entre los bancos de germoplasma, siendo cada uno diseñado de acuerdo con sus propias necesidades.Si un procedimiento ha sido mal diseñado o carece de información, puede provocar fácilmente confusión y errores. Esto, inevitablemente, creará más trabajo en el banco de germoplasma -en primer lugar, corregir errores que debieron ser evitados. Podemos imaginar los errores que se pueden cometer si no hubiera procedimientos claros para el secado de semillas y la determinación del contenido de humedad de la semilla -las tareas serían difíciles de realizar y podrían perderse semillas valiosas.Generación y uso de datos en los procedimientosEs útil clasificar los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma en dos clases: operativos y científicos.Los procedimientos operativos se refieren al funcionamiento diario del banco de germoplasma. Estos incluyen: registro de muestras, limpieza de semillas, determinación del contenido de humedad de la semilla, secado de semillas, pruebas de viabilidad, empaquetado, almacenamiento, control y distribución de semillas.Los datos que se producen en estos procedimientos son de vital importancia para el manejo de las colecciones del banco de germoplasma, y la continuidad de la viabilidad del germoplasma. Puesto que estos datos son tan importantes, se les debe dar gran prioridad para su documentación.Los datos de procedimientos operativos tienden a ser dinámicos; es decir, necesitan estar actualizados. Por ejemplo, la viabilidad de la semilla se debilitará después de un almacenamiento prolongado; la cantidad de semilla almacenada disminuirá en la medida en que sea usada en el banco de germoplasma, o enviada a otros científicos. Si la información recuperada del sistema de documentación tiene algún uso, es importante que estos datos estén actualizados.Los procedimientos científicos generan datos de interés potencial para aquellas personas que trabajan fuera del banco de germoplasma. Algunos ejemplos de procedimientos científicos incluyen todo lo que se refiere a la caracterización y evaluación preliminar del germoplasma. A diferencia de los procedimientos operativos, la información de los procedimientos científicos tiende a ser estable. Por ejemplo, es poco probable que cambien los datos sobre la caracterización que ya ha sido registrada, digamos, después de un año aproximadamente. Puesto que la información es interesante para otros, se deben analizar los modos de comunicar esta información a otros científicos a través del sistema de documentación.En la mayoria de los bancos de germoplasma se otorga más prioridad a la documentación de procedimientos operativos que a los procedimientos científicos, puesto que los datos de estos últimos no se usan en el manejo diario del banco de germoplasma. Esto no significa que todos los datos producidos por los procedimientos operativos deben estar documentados. Tampoco quiere decir que los procedimientos científicos no necesitan documentarse. Algunas de las características de los procedimientos operativos y científicos se resumen en el Cuadro 2 y se analizarán con mayor detalle en secciones posteriores.Relación entre los procedimientos Cuadro 2.Algunos ejemplos de los procedimientos científicos incluyen la caracterización y evaluación preliminar del germoplasma Generalmente, los procedimientos científicos son \"autónomos\"; es decir, se pueden realizar independientemente de otros procedimientos. El ensayo de caracterización es un buen ejemplo.En contraste, los procedimientos operativos generalmente dependen de (o están relacionados con) otros procedimientos del banco de germoplasma. Dichos procedimientos forman parte de una cadena y siempre se realizan en secuencia. Un ejemplo de una cadena de procedimientos operativos relacionados se ilustra en la Figura 3.En este ejemplo, el empaquetado de semillas no podría hacerse a menos que éstas hayan sido secadas y se les haya encontrado suficiente viabilidad para su almacenamiento.Los procedimientos operativos con frecuencia forman parte de una cadena de procedimientos pero pueden operar en forma independiente (e.g., prueba de viabilidad, regeneración, distribución de semilla). Por ejemplo, la prueba de viabilidad de semilla es una parte rutinaria de la introducción de una muestra, así como lo es un procedimiento utilizado para controlar los lotes en el depósito de semillas.Para los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma que están relacionados se deberá elaborar un diagrama de flujo que muestre el orden en que se realizan. Los diagramas de flujo son una forma útil para obtener una visión completa. Una vez elaborado el diagrama, también el flujo de información será mucho más claro. Veremos diagramas de flujo más adelante en este capítulo. Se deberá saber cuántos datos se manejan durante un período dado, con el fin de tomar decisiones sobre el modo más apropiado para documentarlos. Puede suceder que un procedimiento genere muchos datos, pero sólo se realice una vez al año (por ejemplo, un ensayo de caracterización). Alternativamente, un procedimiento puede producir pocos datos, pero puede realizarse regularmente (por ejemplo, las determinaciones del contenido de humedad).Al documentar los procedimientos operativos surge una pregunta: ¿cuál es el valor del manejo de estos datos? Para responder es necesario entender porqué se lleva a cabo el procedimiento. También se tendrá que valorar la necesidad de la documentación de datos. Recuerde que el sistema de documentación le proporcionará la información en una etapa posterior, generalmente como respuesta a sus preguntas. Si ha entendido el propósito del procedimiento y los tipos de preguntas que se formularán posteriormente, será más fácil identificar aquellos datos que necesitan documentarse y la mejor manera de hacerlo.Por ejemplo, se lleva a cabo un procedimiento del banco de germoplasma para la prueba de viabilidad de las semillas con el fin de obtener datos sobre la viabilidad de lotes particulares de semillas. Obviamente, estos necesitan documentarse para que puedan tomarse decisiones futuras sobre las prioridades de regeneración, utilizando la información del sistema de documentación.Surge un problema cuando el procedimiento no se lleva a cabo con el fin de generar solamente datos, pero éstos necesitan documentarse. Un buen ejemplo es la distribución de semillas -la finalidad es distribuir, pero es necesario registrar los datos sobre la cantidad de semilla que se envía, la fecha en que se hace y a quién se manda. En el siguiente capítulo veremos más detenidamente los distintos procedimientos del banco de germoplasma y los requisitos de información de los datos una vez que sean documentados.Siempre habrá observaciones ocasionales hechas durante los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma, las cuales pueden ser importantes (ahora o en el futuro) y que se deseen documentar, pero que no se adecuen a ninguno de los grupos que ha definido. Estos comentarios son particularmente comunes en procedimientos recientemente establecidos o desarrollados. Sin embargo, aun el procedimiento mejor establecido debería dar lugar para incluir estos datos de miscelánea.En ocasiones, los comentarios pueden ser una fuente útil de información, pero constituyen un problema en el manejo efectivo porque no se conoce su cantidad -necesitan referirse a distinto tema, no se realizan regularmente, no se hacen sobre el mismo tipo de cultivo y no tienen una estructura previsible. Los comentarios se incorporan a la estructura de la documentación como un asunto aparte, sólo cuando se elaboran extensa y regularmente sobre el mismo tema.Si se registran muchos comentarios en el procedimiento, hágase las siguientes preguntas:A veces la razón por la cual se hacen tantos comentarios durante el procedimiento es que el objetivo de éste no está claramente delimitado. En este caso, el usuario anotará cualquier cosa que se le ocurra sin haberla estructurado. Si el objetivo del procedimiento está claramente definido, entonces será más fácil identificar los datos que necesitan documentarse.Si la respuesta es \"sí\" puede suceder que las áreas de generación de datos están cambiando, o que hay cambios en las prácticas de trabajo.Puede suceder que hagan falta ciertos descriptores, o que los que se están usando sean inadecuados para las observaciones que se hacen. Por ejemplo, el descriptor \"producción de herbaje a intervalos de tres semanas\" no puede ser utilizado si las mediciones se hicieron cada cuatro semanas.Es importante distinguir entre los procedimientos de trabajo intenso y aquéllos cuya documentación es intensa. Recuerde que algunos procedimientos pueden requerir mucho trabajo, pero realmente no producen muchos datos que valga la pena documentar. Muchos procedimientos operativos son así (por ejemplo, el de limpieza de semillas).Si el registro y/o análisis de datos requiere un mayor uso de tiempo, el procedimiento es de documentación intensiva. Deberá invertir tiempo asegurándose de que el procedimiento de documentación sea una parte integral y eficiente del procedimiento general, y de que ayude, en lugar de estorbar, a los usuarios. Este es el caso de los procedimientos científicos tales como los ensayos de caracterización, en donde se realiza mucho trabajo de campo; en el campo se registran muchas observaciones y luego ½51 se documentan formalmente en el laboratorio. Cuando más de una persona está involucrada, el procedimiento será más eficiente si existe una idea clara de las responsabilidades de cada persona, y de quién está a cargo. Esto también ayudará al proceso de documentación si éste es parte integral del procedimiento del banco de germoplasma.Construcción de un diagrama de flujo Los diagramas de flujo son una ayuda visual esencial para que el usuario tenga una idea global de las distintas etapas del procedimiento y de las distintas relaciones involucradas. Durante el análisis del banco de germoplasma puede ser útil la elaboración de un diagrama de flujo para cada procedimiento, que muestre los diferentes pasos, las decisiones que se han tomado en cada etapa y los datos usados/generados. También se puede elaborar un diagrama de flujo o un cuadro que muestre las relaciones entre los diferentes procedimientos de los bancos de germoplasma.Existen muchas maneras de elaborar un diagrama de flujo. Un diagrama de flujo para un procedimiento puede elaborarse como sigue:1 .Listar verticalmente cada paso del procedimiento en secuencia, con las decisiones tomadas (si existen), en cada paso 2.junto a ésta coloque la información y datos generados o usados En la Figura 4 de la sección 4.2 se ilustra un ejemplo de este tipo de diagrama de flujo. Un diagrama de flujo que muestre las relaciones entre los procedimientos se puede construir de la siguiente manera:1 .Acomode los procedimientos relacionados de manera vertical y en secuencia, junto a cada procedimiento describa brevemente: a) La finalidad del procedimiento b)Los datos y la información usados o generados La forma de este diagrama puede ser también tabulada, como se ilustra en el Cuadro 3 de la sección 4.3.No cometa el error de incorporar todos los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma en un solo diagrama de flujo sólo incluya aquéllos que están relacionados. Elabore un diagrama de flujo adicional para mostrar las diferentes relaciones. .................................Guía para la Documentación de Recursos Genéticos Trate que el diagrama de flujo sea simple -deberá tener sentido cuando esté terminado. Recuerde que los diagramas de flujo sirven para aclarar los procedimientos y sus relaciones, no para hacerlos más complejos y oscuros.Los bancos de germoplasma siguen distintos procedimientos para realizar, esencialmente, la misma tarea. Los siguientes ejemplos no pretenden dirigir la forma de llevar a cabo los procedimientos; haga una versión conveniente para su banco de germoplasma.Ejemplo 1: Procedimiento de registro de muestras para nuevas accesionesEste procedimiento se describe de la siguiente manera:\"Las muestras de semillas para incluir en el banco de germoplasma se reciben de un depositante y se colocan en almacenamiento temporal. Se revisan para asegurarse que el banco de germoplasma no tiene ya estas accesiones de ninguna otra fuente. Si cualquiera de las muestras existe ya en el banco, se debe decidir sobre el destino de la muestra (por ejemplo, devolver las muestras al depositante). Las muestras que van a entrar se clasifican por orden del número del depositante, y a cada una se otorga un número de accesión en secuencia. Estos números de accesión se escriben en los paquetes al igual que cualquier documentación que haya sido suministrada junto con los paquetes de semillas. El Cuadro 3 resume una secuencia de procedimientos en el orden en que éstos se realizaron. Las decisiones que se toman en cada paso no se incluyen en el cuadro.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos Genéticos Cuadro 3.Secuencia de los procedimientos que se realizan cuando se recibe una muestraUna vez que se han completado satisfactoriamente los ejercicios de la siguiente sección el lector podrá comenzar el análisis detallado de los procedimientos que se usan en el banco de germoplasma. Este análisis lo trataremos en el siguiente capítulo. EjerciciosIndique si los siguientes enunciados son verdaderos o falsos: a. La mayoría de los datos específicos de la accesión son iguales b.Los datos de grupo se refieren a los grupos de accesiones c.Los datos de grupo se manejan igual que los datos específicos de la accesión d.El número de accesión identifica solamente un cultivo e.El sistema numérico de acceso debe ser estrictamente numérico y secuencia en su uso f.Se debe usar un sistema numérico de acceso distinto para cada cultivo g.Un número de accesión nunca debe utilizarse dos veces, aun si la accesión muere durante el almacenamiento h.El nombre científico de un cultivo varía de un país a otro y no debe ser usado i.Los números de accesión, referencias de lote y nombres científicos se usan para relacionar los datos y construir el sistema de documentación del banco de germoplasma 2.Distinga entre los datos específicos de a accesión y los datos de grupo. Dé ejemplos de cada uno.3. ¿Porqué los datos específicos de las accesiones tienen una prioridad mayor en la documentación que los datos de grupo?Revise los diferentes enfoques sobre los sistemas numéricos de acceso. ¿Con cuál sistema se trabaja de manera más simple y práctica?Explique por qué es necesario registrar la referencia del lote de modo rutinario en el sistema de documentación.Indique si los siguientes enunciados son verdaderos o son falsos: a.Un procedimiento es una serie de acciones que realizan colectivamente una tarea deseada. b.Todos los bancos de germoplasma siguen los mismos procedimientos c.Los procedimientos operativos generalmente generan datos de un alto valor de manejo. d.Los datos de los procedimientos operativos tienden a ser estables y generalmente no necesitan ser actualizados e.Los procedimientos operativos frecuentemente forman parte de una cadena de procedimientos. f.Los procedimientos de trabajo intenso también son de documentación intensa g.Si un procedimiento genera muchos comentarios es posible que esté mal diseñado.h. Los diagramas de flujo se usan para mostrar los diferentes pasos del procedimiento y la relación entre éstos i.Los diagramas de flujo deben elaborarse con el fin de que contengan la mayor cantidad de información posible 7. ¿Cuáles son los beneficios de trabajar con un procedimiento bien diseñado?8. Distinga entre procedimientos operativos y procedimientos científicos. Dé ejemplos de cada uno.9. ¿Porqué se da mayor prioridad a la documentación de los datos producidos en los procedimientos operativos?10. Explique porqué se usan los diagramas de flujo y cómo se pueden diseñar.Capítulo 4Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasmaEn el Capítulo 4 se verá detalladamente gran parte de los procedimientos que comúnmente realiza el banco de germoplasma, considerando la generación y uso de datos. Cuando se haya concluido el capítulo se podrá:½ Hablar sobre los objetivos de los procedimientos comúnmente realizados en el banco de germoplasma.Hablar de la relación que tiene cada procedimiento con los demás procedimientos.Identificar los datos producidos y utilizados en cada procedimiento. ½ Describir las formas para ahorrar tiempo en la documentación de cada procedimientoEn este capítulo veremos más detalladamente los procedimientos que comúnmente se llevan a cabo en el banco de germoplasma, tomando en cuenta la generación y el uso de datos. Veremos las razones por las cuales se realizan los procedimientos y los datos que se producen y utilizan en ellos. También consideraremos la relación entre las diferentes actividades.Desde el principio se debe subrayar que:Esta no es una lista completa de los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma. Quizá no se realicen todos los procedimientos listados aquí, o se hagan muchos más. Depende del motivo por el cual ha sido establecido su banco de germoplasma.Esta no es una guía práctica sobre los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma. Es una sinopsis de los procedimientos comunes de los bancos de germoplasma, tomando en cuenta su documentación. Los bancos muestran variantes en la manera de llevar a cabo sus procedimientos y en el orden en que los realizan. Esta variación depende de una serie de factores que incluyen las actividades del banco de germoplasma, los recursos disponibles, sus prioridades y las decisiones que se tomen.En la sección final veremos cómo se puede elaborar un análisis en su banco de germoplasma.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosEn esta sección veremos los procedimientos que realizan los bancos de germoplasma que manejan colecciones de semillas. Estos procedimientos pueden visualizarse en forma de diagrama de flujo (véase Figura 1) Este es sólo un ejemplo de cómo pueden organizarse los procedimientos.Con el diagrama de flujo de la Figura 1, analizaremos cada procedimiento considerando:El objetivo ½ La relación con otros procedimientos ½ Los datos producidos y usados ½ La necesidad de registrar los datos en el sistema de documentación: el valor del manejo de los datos y la información que requiere el sistema de documentación.Capítulo 4: Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasma ½50Registrar cada muestra nueva con el fin de incluirla en el banco de germoplasma con un número de accesión único y registrar toda la información pertinente recibida con la(s) muestra(s).Las muestras de semillas se reciben para incluirlas en el banco de germoplasma. A menos que éstas ya se encuentren en el banco de germoplasma, se deben asignar números de accesión nuevos. Se realizan pruebas sobre la sanidad de la semilla antes de continuar con el proceso de introducción. Si las semillas están en buenas condiciones, se pueden documentar los datos que se reciben con las muestras. Toda la documentación original se archiva para referencias posteriores.El objetivo primario del procedimiento de registro consiste en dar a cada muestra de germoplasma un número único de accesión. Algunos bancos de germoplasma prefieren realizar esta tarea después del procedimiento de limpieza de la semilla. Con el fin de evitar una situación en la cual se asigne accidentalmente el mismo número a más de una accesión, conviene utilizar un sólo archivo de registro de accesiones (véase Cuadro 1).El registro de la muestra es el primer paso de una cadena de procedimientos que sigue la mayoría de las accesiones (véase Figura 1). Hay una gran cantidad de trabajo en esta cadena de procedimientos, v por esta razón los bancos de germoplasma frecuentemente adoptan algún tipo de política de introducción -un grupo de condiciones específicas que deben considerarse si se va a introducir el germoplasma. En contadas ocasiones los bancos de germoplasma no aceptarán ningún germoplasma.Una parte importante del procedimiento de registro es documentar los datos recibidos con las muestras. Muchos de ellos serán datos de pasaporte, es decir, la información registrada cuando se recolectó originalmente la muestra, nombres o números asignados después de la recolección y cualquier otra información pertinente. Los descriptores de pasaporte pueden dividirse en dos categorías, así:1.Descriptores de la accesión -aquéllos referentes al registro de accesiones en el banco de germoplasma 2.Descriptores de la recolección -aquéllos referentes a los datos registrados cuando se recolectó originalmente la accesión Es muy frecuente usar un archivo único para documentar todos los datos de pasaporte, particularmente donde se conservan sólo unos pocos cultivos. Esto, no es siempre posible (o práctico), especialmente si se usa una amplia variedad de descriptores de recolección para diferentes cultivos. En dichos casos, es posible usar un archivo único para registrar los datos de la accesión y archivos separados (uno por cultivo) para registrar los datos de la recolección (véase Figura 2). Trate de evitar el uso de más de un archivo para los datos de la accesión dado que los errores en el registro de la muestra pueden provocar serios problemas posteriormente.Capítulo 4: Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasma ½63Los datos de pasaporte no son los únicos datos que se registran durante el registro de una muestra. También puede haber datos sobre las características de las accesiones obtenidos por el recolector o datos de ensayos de caracterización y evaluación realizados después del recibo de las muestras (se hablará de ellos posteriormente en este capítulo). Se podría suministrar una cierta cantidad de datos de miscelánea (\"comentarios\"), tales como referencias bibliográficas, datos anecdóticos y datos etnobotánicos (por ejemplo, la conveniencia para aplicaciones particulares, informes insustanciales acerca del rendimiento en ensayos, etc.). En el Capítulo 6 veremos la forma en la que se pueden manejar éstos y cualquier otra información de retroalimentación.Clasifique las muestras por orden del número de donante antes de asignar números de accesión Esto puede parecer trivial, pero le permitirá: 1.Localizar cualquier error en la documentación posterior 2.Producir informes o catálogos fácilmente legibles (que listen tanto el número de accesión como el número del donante) 3.Comunicarse más fácilmente con el depositante en el futuroResulta más fácil archivar si todos los documentos recibidos están marcados con los números de accesión. Hágalo claramente, con tinta roja en la esquina superior derecha o izquierda. Por ejemplo, \"EGRU 196\" para una accesión única, o \"EGRU\" 232-EGRU 244\" para los documentos relacionados con una serie de accesiones.Guarde estos documentos en un archivo (o serie de archivos) clasificándolos según el orden de los números de accesión. Como el sistema numérico de acceso será estrictamente numérico y secuencial, el archivo será un registro cronológico de las accesiones recibidas.Parte del proceso de registro es la documentación de la información que se recibe con las muestras. No hay nada más molesto que recibir la información seis meses o un año después de haber introducido el germoplasma (o peor aún, nunca). Por lo tanto, como parte de la política de introducción, ¿porqué no insistir en que al menos los datos de pasaporte se suministren con el germoplasma? Para los nombres científicos no use abreviaturas Es aconsejable escribir completamente el nombre científico y evitar abreviarlo en el sistema de documentación. Esto evitará cualquier posible confusión. Por ejemplo, no es claro qué significa \"P.\"; ¿si es para Phaseolus, Physalis, Pouteria, Prunus..? Por lo tanto, escriba correcta y completamente el nombre científico.Limpieza de semillasSacar de la muestra cualquier semilla rota o extraña, desechos o semillas infestadas o infectadas.Hay una gran cantidad de procedimientos que se emplean para limpiar las semillas, ellos dependen de la especie y del estado de la muestra. Los procedimientos varían en el funcionamiento y en la intensidad del trabajo, pero tienen los cuatro elementos básicos siguientes: ½Examen inicial ½ Eliminación de desechos ½ Examen de infestación por hongos o insectos ½ Desecho de semillas vanas o dañadas La limpieza de las semillas incluirá una etapa de secado para aquéllas con alto contenido de humedad (e.g. frutas o semillas recién cosechadas). De otro modo, se dañarían durante el proceso de limpieza. En este caso la secuencia podría asimilarse a la que se ilustra en la Figura 3.Capítulo 4: Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasma ½65La limpieza de semillas es un procedimiento rutinario y algunos bancos de germoplasma deciden no documentarlo, excepto, quizá, por la fecha en la que se realizó. Sin embargo, no siempre es el caso. Generalmente, los bancos de germoplasma establecen límites al número mínimo de semillas que aceptan para su introducción; pueden variar de 1000 (muestra de población homogénea) a 12000 (muestra de población heterogénea). Se rechazará el acceso a una cantidad menor de semillas, o será necesario multiplicar el número. En los bancos de germoplasma se registran datos importantes en el proceso de limpieza de la semilla, a saber, la estimación del número total de semillas y la proporción de semillas vanas. También debe registrarse si las semillas son tratadas de alguna manera (por ejemplo, con fungicidas o por fumigación).Lista de descriptores para la limpieza de las semillas Algunos, o todos los descriptores del Cuadro 3, pueden usarse en la limpieza de semillas.Secado de semillasReducir el contenido de humedad de la semilla a niveles aceptables (sin afectar su viabilidad) y, de ese modo, prolongar la vida de la semilla en almacenamiento.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosEl período de secado de las muestras se predetermina a partir de la estimación inicial del contenido de humedad. Las semillas se preparan para el secado y, posteriormente, se secan. Se determina el contenido de humedad; si no es lo suficientemente bajo, las semillas se secan por un período más largo.Posteriormente se determina el peso total de las semillas secas junto con el peso de 1 000 semillas (o el de 100 semillas si éstas son grandes). Algunos bancos de germoplasma prefieren registrar el volumen en vez del peso de 1 000 semillas, si manejan habitualmente el concepto de volumen y no el de peso. Cuando se trabaja con semillas grandes (tales como el coco o la palta), los bancos de germoplasma eligen generalmente registrar el número total de semillas en lugar de su peso.Existen muchos métodos para determinar el contenido de humedad de las semillas, así como también para secarlas. Las técnicas que se utilicen dependerán de las semillas que se sequen y del equipo del que se disponga. Se ilustran en el Cuadro 4 los descriptores para el secado de las semillas.Capítulo 4: Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasma ½67Prueba de viabilidad de la semilla (prueba de germinación)Determinar, a través de una prueba de germinación conveniente, el porcentaje de semillas vivas de una accesión y capaces de producir plantas en las condiciones apropiadas.Este es un procedimiento de rutina que se realiza después del secado de la semilla y periódicamente después de controlar su viabilidad.No existe un método común para probar la viabilidad de la semilla de todas las especies; cada especie tiene distintas exigencias de luz, medios y temperatura. Sin embargo, hay tres métodos que se utilizan generalmente para determinar la viabilidad de la semilla: en papel absorbente, entre papel absorbente y en arena. Estos métodos tienen tres pasos en común:Preparación de las semillas -generalmente se usan dos o más reproducciones por cada lote ½ Realización de la prueba ½ Interpretación de los resultados -si el resultado es bajo, se repite la prueba. Se decide a continuación el destino del loteEl objetivo de este procedimiento es muy específico: obtener datos sobre la viabilidad de la semilla. Estos datos son importantes y contienen un alto valor de manejo. Se tendrá que pensar en qué otros datos deben ser registrados. ¿Se necesita información detallada sobre cómo se realizó la prueba? ¿Es necesario hacer referencia al método utilizado? Si sólo se usó un método, no serán necesarios los detalles. En el Cuadro 5 se ilustra una lista de descriptores para la viabilidad de las semillas.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosEmpaquetado y almacenamiento de semillasEmpaquetar las semillas de manera tal que se pueda prevenir la absorción de agua de la atmósfera y la contaminación por plagas; almacenar las semillas en condiciones que mantengan la viabilidad y la integridad de la accesión.½ Preparar el empaque. Se preparan los paquetes de semillas o los recipientes en los cuales se almacenarán, y se rotulan adecuadamente ½ Empaquetar las semillas. Se coloca una cantidad de semillas en el paquete/recipiente y se sella. Se revisan los sellos del paquete/ recipiente para asegurarse de que estén intactos y no tengan signos de daño ½ Determinar el lugar en el que se colocarán los paquetes/recipientes en el almacén de semilla ½ Colocar el paquete/recipiente en el almacén de semilla ½ Registrar los detalles sobre la ubicación en el sistema de documentación Capítulo 4: Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasma ½69El empaquetado y almacenamiento de semillas forma parte de una cadena de procedimientos y sigue, generalmente, al de secado y a la prueba de viabilidad. Usualmente las semillas se almacenan si tienen bajo contenido de humedad y alto nivel de viabilidad. Al igual que con el registro, la documentación (véase Cuadro 6) es parte integral de estos procedimientos y deben registrarse varios datos importantes del manejo.Existen algunas consideraciones, que a pesar de que no conciernen estrictamente a los especialistas en documentación, pueden ayudar al manejo del procedimiento y al funcionamiento del sistema de documentación.Se deben etiquetar los paquetes con el número de accesión y la referencia del lote. Sin embargo, no es deseable pasar del cuarto frío al sistema de documentación para descubrir de qué paquete se trata; por consiguiente podría considerar etiquetar los paquetes con la siguiente información adicional.Nombre del cultivo. Es útil colocar el nombre del cultivo (o nombre científico) en el paquete, particularmente si el almacén de semillas no está organizado por número de accesión, sino por cultivo. Usted (u otro miembro del personal del banco de germoplasma) podrá localizar fácilmente los paquetes que están mal colocados. ½ Código de localización del almacén de semillas. Si la semilla almacenada no está organizada por orden del número de accesión, el código de localización le dirá cuál es la \"dirección\" de un paquete de semilla. Se podrá dar cuenta rápidamente si un paquete está mal colocado. ½ Fecha de almacenamiento. Se usará esta información al tomar una decisión sobre la próxima fecha de control de viabilidad de la semilla. Esto es útil si tiene paquetes de semillas del mismo lote, que fueron almacenadas en fechas diferentes (casi no ocurre en la práctica). ½ Número del paquete. Si el lote se almacena en más de un paquete, es útil registrar el número del paquete de semilla.No etiquete los paquetes de manera arbitraria: use un formato homogéneo en todos los paquetes. Por ejemplo, se podría registrar el número de accesión y bajo éste escribir la referencia del lote, el nombre y la localización del cultivo. Si se utilizan etiquetas adhesivas, asegúrese de que no se caigan. Si se usa un marcador para etiquetar, utilice una tinta indeleble. También evite etiquetar los paquetes en la parte superior ya que las etiquetas pueden dañarse al abrir y cerrar los paquetes.Organice razonablemente el almacén de semillas Buscar un paquete en el cuarto frío o congelador puede ser un trabajo arduo; es por eso que cada lote de una accesión tiene una localización en el almacén; generalmente está en código (por ejemplo: \"A/01/02/01\": cuarto frío \"A\", mueble \"01\", estante \"02\", caja \"01\". Una de las preocupaciones principales del personal de documentación y demás personal del banco de germoplasma, es cuando debe modificarse el almacén por motivos de dificultades operacionales. Dichas reorganizaciones son necesarias a veces, pero en muchos casos se pueden evitar si, en primer lugar, se piensa cuidadosamente en la organización del almacén. Por ejemplo, ¿debe organizarse el almacenamiento por orden estricto de número de accesión, o por cultivo? ¿cuántos muebles, estantes y cajas se están usando? En cualquier caso, el envase más pequeño será una caja o un cajón, por lo que es de gran ayuda que a cada cajón o caja de paquetes de semilla se le asigne un orden numérico de acceso.Capítulo 4: Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasmaMantenga ordenado y limpio el almacén de semillas No permita que se caigan o se pierdan los paquetes de semillas. Recuerde que el sistema de documentación debe dar información sobre el almacenamiento de las semillas: qué germoplasma contiene y en dónde. El sistema de documentación no informa si se ha caído un paquete al piso (si lo hiciera ¿qué razón hay para documentar el hecho de que el paquete está en el suelo?).Distribución de semillasSuministrar semillas de una accesión junto con la información pertinente a fin de satisfacer las solicitudes.Se recibe una solicitud de una muestra de una accesión del banco de germoplasma. Si hay suficientes semillas en el almacén, se separa una muestra y se empaqueta para su distribución. Si no hay suficientes semillas en el almacén primero debe multiplicarse la accesión, antes de que se distribuya cualquier semilla. Los datos disponibles de pasaporte y científicos se recuperan del sistema de documentación y se suministran junto con la muestra.El inventario del almacén se actualiza con el fin de mostrar la cantidad de semilla que queda para un lote particular de la accesión. También se registran los detalles referentes a la distribución.La distribución de semillas es una parte muy importante de la documentación; por lo que vale la pena diseñar el procedimiento de distribución con el fin de que la documentación sea una parte integral y no una ocurrencia del momento. Si se envían muestras con cierta regularidad, se debe asegurar que el diseño del procedimiento sea simple, bien estructurado, eficiente y fácil de manejar, para que cualquiera lo pueda realizar y para que no se cometan errores. Con este propósito se estandarizarán los paquetes, las etiquetas, las formularios, etc. del procedimiento. Esto puede ahorrar tiempo puesto que es, después de todo, una operación de rutina.La manera en la que se documentan los datos de distribución es un buen ejemplo de cómo los objetivos, prioridades y necesidades de información del banco afectan directamente al sistema de documentación una vez desarrollado. Por ejemplo, si sólo se envían algunas muestras de germoplasma cada año (y no es probable que aumente en el futuro) las posibilidades son que, tal vez, no se necesite un sistema de documentación sofisticado y racionalizado para la distribución de semillas; quizás un libro o expediente en el archivero será suficiente para las solicitudes de información. Por otra parte, si se envían muchas muestras de semillas cada año y se quiere seguir la pista del lugar adonde van las muestras (y de qué lote), de la cantidad de accesiones que se envían a diferentes categorías de científicos, etc., se querrá mantener un sistema de documentación más complejo y, probablemente, computadorizado. El sistema puede ser similar a los sistemas que manejan las tiendas de venta al por mayor o las firmas de pedido postal que requieren un análisis detallado de ventas, control de existencias y facturación con características contables; sin embargo, es probable que esto no sea necesario. En el Cuadro 7 se ilustran los descriptores para la distribución de semillas.Capítulo 4: Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasma ½73Control de semillasEstablecer si la cantidad y la viabilidad de las semillas mantienen niveles aceptables.El control de semillas consta de dos procedimientos independientes: 1.Determinar, a intervalos determinados (por ejemplo, cada 5 años), la viabilidad de las accesiones utilizando la prueba de germinación. Si la viabilidad no es aceptable, es necesaria la regeneración. 2.Determinar a intervalos regulares, la cantidad de semillas de cada accesión en el almacén. Cuando la cantidad no es aceptable, las accesiones deben multiplicarse.La secuencia de los eventos durante el control de semillas es:a.Determinar las accesiones para la prueba b.Realizar la prueba c.Trabajar sobre los resultados El control de semillas depende en gran medida del sistema de documentación, para proporcionar información sobre las existencias de semillas que están disminuyendo, qué accesiones necesitan pruebas de viabilidad, cuáles necesitan ser multiplicadas/regeneradas. Si no fuera porque el sistema de documentación proporciona información actualizada, sería difícil hacer un control de semillas efectivo.Regeneración/multiplicaciónReponer las existencias de una accesión haciéndolas crecer en condiciones adecuadas.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosLa regeneración o multiplicación se realiza cuando la viabilidad de un lote se encuentra por debajo de un nivel aceptable; este nivel es, frecuentemente, del 85%.Por otra parte, la multiplicación se realiza cuando el peso o el número total de semillas de una accesión es menor que la cantidad mínima permitida.Los procedimientos desarrollados para multiplicar o regenerar una muestra dependerán de una serie de factores que incluyen la especie, la forma de reproducción y la heterogeneidad de la accesión. Estos no se tratan aquí, pero los procedimientos tienen los siguientes elementos en común:Determinar cuántas accesiones se pueden manejar.Cuando se toman en consideración las solicitudes de diferentes muestras junto con la cantidad de terreno disponible, se puede calcular una cifra aproximada de los números de accesiones que pueden ser regenerados o multiplicados en el espacio disponible.Decidir qué accesiones se deben regenerar o multiplicar Se da el siguiente orden de prioridad a las accesiones:1 Aquéllas que tienen baja viabilidad 2.Las que se necesitan con urgencia para suministro o uso en el banco de germoplasma 3Aquéllas que tienen un bajo número de semillas pero una alta viabilidad ½ Determinar dónde sembrar el material Para aquellas accesiones que están siendo regeneradas, deben consultarse los datos de pasaporte para determinar las condiciones apropiadas para la regeneración.Generalmente se dibuja un mapa de la zona que va a utilizarse que muestra la distribución de las accesiones en las parcelas particulares.Se saca del almacén la cantidad de semillas que se necesita y de acuerdo con esto, se modifican los archivos de distribución de semillas y de inventario.½ Las muestras están creciendo para la regeneración o multiplicación ½ Cosechar y procesar la entrada de las nuevas semillas al banco de germoplasmaLas muestras se cosechan y luego pasan por los procesos de limpieza, secado, pruebas de viabilidad, empaquetado y almacenamiento como se mencionó anteriormente.Se pueden usar una parte o todos los descriptores del Cuadro 8 para registrar los datos de regeneración y/o multiplicación. Como los métodos varían según las especies, debe haber también un número determinado de otros descriptores de especies específicas que habrá que registrar. Esos datos no se mencionan aquí.La regeneración o multiplicación se realiza como resultado de la información obtenida en el procedimiento de control de semillas. También se necesitan los datos de pasaporte y otros datos de la accesión en la planificación de la regeneración. Se solicita información (cuando sea adecuado) del número de plantas, de la distancia entre las parcelas, del sistema de mejoramiento del cultivo, de cualquier aislamiento y del método de polinización necesario. Probablemente el banco de germoplasma ya tenga registrados estos datos como métodos estándares; en este caso, no hay que preocuparse por registrarlos para cada accesión.Si tiene la posibilidad de regenerar las accesiones en más de un sitio, podría considerar listar el \"sitio preferido de regeneración\" en el archivo del inventario. Esto ayudará a no tener que consultar el archivo de pasaporte cada vez que se decide dónde regenerar una accesión, y hace más sencillo el proceso de planificación.Caracterización y evaluación preliminarHacer crecer las accesiones en condiciones adecuadas y obtener datos para descriptores particulares.La diferencia entre la caracterización y la evaluación es la siguiente. La caracterización consiste en registrar aquellos descriptores que son altamente heredables, pueden detectarse a simple vista y se expresan en todos los ambientes e.g. el color de la flor, el número de hojas. Se ilustra en la Figura 4 un ejemplo de la caracterización de la disposición de las raíces reservantes en los tallos subterráneos de la batata. La evaluación consiste en registrar aquellas características susceptibles a las diferencias ambientales (por ejemplo, rendimiento del fruto, susceptibilidad a la sequía). Por lo tanto, una accesión se puede evaluar en muchos sitios diferentes, quizá dando distintos resultados significativos para varios descriptores. Por otro lado, es probable que una accesión caracterizada en muchos sitios distintos proporcione, esencialmente, los mismos resultados. Probablemente no querrá caracterizar una accesión más de una vez, a menos que se controle su integridad y se quiera saber si aún representa el depósito original.En la práctica, cuando se caracteriza una accesión, se registra al mismo tiempo un número limitado de caracteres de evaluación (llamados caracteres de \"evaluación preliminar\"). Generalmente su registro es sencillo y son de interés general para los usuarios de un cultivo particular.Se utilizan ciertos procedimientos distintos para la caracterización y la evaluación preliminar que dependen de la especie. Los procedimientos varían en el funcionamiento y en la intensidad del trabajo. La caracterización o ensayos de evaluación preliminar pueden ser planificados de manera similar a los procedimientos de regeneración o multiplicación, y es probable que tengan los siguientes pasos:Determinar la cantidad de accesiones que se pueden manejar ½ Decidir qué accesiones deben caracterizarse o evaluarse ½ Determinar el lugar dónde se va a sembrar el material ½ Preparar el plan de siembra ½ Preparar las semillas para la siembra ½ Realizar la caracterización o evaluación preliminar ½ Registrar los datos en el sistema de documentación A pesar de que la caracterización puede realizarse al mismo tiempo que la regeneración o la multiplicación, esto no es posible con la evaluación; por ejemplo, no se puede establecer la tolerancia a plagas o enfermedades de una accesión cuando la está regenerando.Muchos descriptores de la caracterización y de la evaluación preliminar son específicos para cada especie. Sin embargo, existen algunos descriptores generales que se relacionan con las condiciones del ensayo, los cuales se ilustran en el Cuadro 9. Colecciones de campo El manejo y la documentación de las colecciones de campo muestran gran similitud con los de las colecciones de semilla. Por esta razón no entraremos en detalle, ya que los conceptos han sido tratados oportunamente. Una gran diferencia es el hecho de que en los procedimientos de manejo de rutina es necesario documentar la información de las plantas individuales que constituyen una accesión.Los procedimientos comunes realizados en las colecciones de campo se pueden visualizar en la Figura 5.Se aplican las mismas consideraciones que para el registro de muestras de semillas. Si en el futuro se necesita documentar la información sobre las plantas individuales, se le dará a cada planta de la accesión un número de identificación único. Las medidas para la cuarentena también se observan estrictamente, puesto que las colecciones de campo son más susceptibles a plagas y enfermedades que las colecciones de semillas.Las accesiones en buenas condiciones se siembran de acuerdo con un plan preestablecido en el campo, invernadero o huerto. El inventario de campo, por lo tanto, será un registro de la localización precisa de las accesiones (y plantas individuales). Los descriptores podrían incluir algunos o todos los que se listan en el Cuadro 10.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosLas accesiones se controlan periódicamente para prevenir enfermedades o plagas. Cualquier enfermedad o plaga se elimina con los procedimientos estándares ya descritos. La información sobre cualquier tratamiento puede documentarse para propósitos de manejo.Otras actividadesMuchas de las consideraciones hechas a las colecciones de semillas se aplican también a las colecciones de campo con respecto a estas actividades. Con frecuencia, será necesario documentar en estos procedimientos el número de identificación de la planta.El germoplasma se mantiene in vitro, así como el tejido de la planta varía del protoplasto y las suspensiones de las células hasta la dureza de los cultivos, meristemas/puntos de crecimiento y embriones. Para el mantenimiento se usa una variedad de métodos que incluyen métodos de cultivo en medios sólidos o líquidos y almacenamiento a temperaturas muy bajas (criopreservación). Al igual que en el caso de las colecciones de campo, el manejo y la documentación de las colecciones in vitro muestra muchas similitudes con los de la colección de semillas, pero existen otras consideraciones importantes que se refieren principalmente a la forma en la que se conserva el germoplasma.Los procedimientos realizados comúnmente en las colecciones activas in vitro se pueden visualizar en la Figura 6.Las muestras pueden entrar al banco de germoplasma in vitro como colecciones in vitro o como material cultivado en el campo, muestras vegetativas recientemente recolectadas, o semillas. Como hemos visto en las colecciones de campo, el material propagado vegetativamente, frecuentemente presenta problemas más serios de sanidad y cuarentena vegetal dado que tiende a acumular patógenos que de otro modo se eliminarían durante la etapa de producción de semilla. En consecuencia, la iniciación de cultivos para conservación in vitro generalmente implica la indización y la erradicación de la enfermedad.El almacenamiento in vitro puede ser a corto o a mediano plazo en condiciones de cultivo normales o en condiciones que reduzcan el índice de crecimiento (almacenamiento de crecimiento lento). Para el almacenamiento a largo plazo, se usa la criopreservación en nitrógeno líquido. El primero es un proceso cíclico con subcultivo cada uno o dos años (véase Figura 6), mientras que el segundo es un método de almacenamiento de un sólo paso para el cual las únicas actividades recurrentes (además de la adición o distribución de muestras) son los controles periódicos de viabilidad y estabilidad. Los cultivos in vitro se duplican generalmente en condiciones diferentes, e.g. crecimiento lento y criopreservación, o crecimiento lento y en el campo. Ellos pueden tener también colecciones de semillas relacionadas.La estabilidad genética continua de las accesiones conservadas es un tema que concierne a todos los bancos de germoplasma; es necesario tener especial cuidado para proteger las colecciones in vitro contra la inestabilidad. Los cultivos que no estén organizados, tales como los cultivos de células en suspensión son más propensos a la inestabilidad genética (o variación somaclonal) que los sistemas organizados como los meristemas y los embriones. Estos últimos, por lo tanto, se prestan más para la conservación genética, pero son susceptibles de formación de durezas aún durante el almacenamiento, incrementando el riesgo de inestabilidad. Ciertos cultivos de raíces, tales como el banano y el plátano también son inestables, amplificando a menudo las mutaciones somáticas que pueden ocurrir en el campo.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosLos cultivos en crecimiento lento o normal necesitan un control periódico para poder observar sus características, tal como la contaminación por microbios, la formación de durezas, el porcentaje de defoliación, la decoloración de las hojas y la coloración del cultivo. La duración del subcultivo y el número de duplicaciones producidas del cultivo sufren la influencia de los datos obtenidos durante el proceso de control. Por ejemplo, los cultivos que muestran signos de coloración excesiva, necesitan antes el subcultivo; aquéllos afectados por contaminación deberían ser eliminados y reemplazados mediante la multiplicación de cultivos clonalmente idénticos.El objeto de la caracterización in vitro es extremadamente limitado, excepto por las técnicas bioquímicas y moleculares, como por ejemplo, los estudios de isoenzimas y el análisis de ADN usando el RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) o el RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic).Esto se debe a que cuando el material vegetativo se introduce en el cultivo, pierde muchas de las características morfológicas que tenía como planta de crecimiento independiente. Por lo tanto, la caracterización completa se realiza generalmente antes de la iniciación del cultivo o usando duplicaciones clonales de material cultivado en el terreno. Debido a los riesgos de inestabilidad, la estabilidad genética se controla mediante cualquier recurso disponible. Ello puede involucrar el análisis de isoenzimas, el monitoreo molecular (RFLP o RAPD) o la transferencia periódica al campo para su evaluación.La referencia del lote de una accesión es de particular importancia para las colecciones in vitro y se registra siempre. A menudo la referencia del lote representa el pedigree de la muestra y utiliza generalmente la notación que se ilustra en la Figura 7.La notación es algo como el sistema numérico que se usa en esta guía para distinguir las diferentes subsecciones de cada capítulo. De la misma forma, la referencia del lote puede ser una referencia al régimen de subcultivo que se use (ambos, sistemáticos o al azar).Muchos aspectos del proceso de conservación in vitro necesitan análisis detallados cuando se construye el sistema de documentación. El Cuadro 11 resume descriptores para algunos procedimientos importantes para el manejo de las colecciones in vitro. Usted debe realizar un análisis detallado de cada procedimiento para producir su propia lista de descriptores. No olvide que puede documentar los datos de pasaporte de la misma manera que para las colecciones de semilla. Los detalles precisos de las técnicas que usa (cultivo medio y condiciones, indización de enfermedades, control, etc.) también se pueden conservar en archivos independientes, a los cuales hacen referencia los archivos de inventario. Cuestionario/análisis El siguiente cuestionario está diseñado para ayudar al lector a analizar los procedimientos realizados en el banco de germoplasma, con el fin de identificar los datos generados en el curso de cada procedimiento, y para identificar grupos significativos de descriptores para cada procedimiento Capítulo 4: Análisis de la generación y uso de datos en los bancos de germoplasma ½85 realizado. Es esencial contestar este cuestionario, para cada procedimiento en forma sucesiva, ya que éstos se utilizarán como base del nuevo sistema de documentación.Hemos visto en las secciones previas a este capítulo los distintos procedimientos usados comúnmente en los bancos de germoplasma, e identificamos los diferentes descriptores que generalmente se usan para registrar los datos en procedimientos específicos. Esta será una referencia útil para contestar el cuestionario.Los procedimientos realizados en su banco de germoplasma pueden diferir de los que hemos estudiado. Puede haber más procedimientos que el lector quiera documentar, o algunos que necesitan documentarse de manera diferente.La primera etapa de este análisis consiste en identificar todos los procedimientos realizados en su banco de germoplasma. Quizá ya los haya identificado. Si no, la siguiente lista detalla todos los procedimientos examinados anteriormente, lo cual le proporcionará un punto de partida útil.Se debe elaborar un diagrama de flujo que muestre cómo se relacionan los diferentes procedimientos. Consulte el Capítulo 3 y el principio de este capítulo si no sabe cómo hacerlo.Hay que utilizar un formulario de análisis por separado para cada procedimiento identificado. El formulario que aparece en la página 87 está diseñado específicamente para este propósito. Fotocopie el formulario con el fin de tener una para cada procedimiento identificado. En este momento, complete sólo los detalles preliminares en cada formulario: el procedimiento que se analiza, el nombre del banco de germoplasma, la localización del banco, su nombre y la fecha de hoy.El siguiente paso es decidir cuáles descriptores es necesario registrar en su sistema de documentación para cada procedimiento identificado. Será útil construir un diagrama de flujo para cada procedimiento. Considere los datos producidos en cada procedimiento individual y analice cuidadosamente cuáles son los descriptores que necesita registrar. A lo mejor ya los había identificado; si no lo ha hecho todavía, consulte las secciones anteriores de este capítulo. Los descriptores listados para cada procedimiento representan un buen punto de partida.Trabaje con un procedimiento a la vez. Para cada procedimiento, a medida que identifique un descriptor, agréguelo a la columna 'Descriptor\". Si conoce cualquier tipo de estado del descriptor que actualmente usa mientras registra un descriptor particular, sería útil registrarlo ahora en la columna \"Estados del descriptor\". Cualquier sistema de codificación utilizado se debería indicar en \"Estados del descriptor\" junto con el estado del descriptor, y se puede explicar posteriormente en la columna \"Comentarios\". Si, no obstante ello, no está seguro de los estados del descriptor, no pierda el tiempo en ellos ahora, dado que se estudiarán a fondo en el próximo capítulo. Ellos se analizarán después de terminar el Capítulo 5. En la Figura 8 aparecen las diferentes columnas que se deben completar.La columna de comentarios se puede utilizar también para incluir datos de miscelánea que desee registrar acerca de cada descriptor, y se proporciona una sección de comentarios generales en la parte inferior de cada formulario para registrar cualquier dato de miscelánea relacionado con el procedimiento en general. En el Apéndice 1 se da un ejemplo de un formulario que ha sido completado: Si no está seguro todavía por dónde empezar a analizar los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma, el Cuadro 12 que está al final de este capítulo le ayudará. Este lista todos los procedimientos que hemos tratado en este capítulo, y sugiere descriptores útiles que pueden ser registrados en cada caso.Se le aconseja consultar el Cuadro 12 después de haber analizado cuidadosamente los procedimientos de su banco de germoplasma. Es vital que cada formulario se base en la manera en que funcionan los procedimientos de su banco de germoplasma. Todos los bancos funcionan de distinta manera, motivo por el cual es imposible elaborar un modelo estándar.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos Genéticos Capítulo 5El Capítulo 5 tratará más a fondo la forma en la que se registran los datos. Cuando haya terminado este capítulo podrá: ½ Revisar las ventajas y desventajas de las distintas maneras de registrar los datos ½ Explicar por qué se usan las listas de descriptores ½ Describir los diferentes pasos en el desarrollo de las listas de descriptores ½ Listar las convenciones usadas para clasificar los descriptores ½ Describir las formas para manejar datos heterogéneos 1En el Capítulo 4 hemos analizado los procedimientos y también hemos identificado grupos de descriptores que podrían usarse en el sistema de documentación de un banco de germoplasma. Sin embargo, no hemos visto la forma en la que se registran los datos o los factores que pueden afectar la precisión y exactitud de los mismos. En las secciones 1.1 a 1.6 se describen los pasos que se deben seguir para coleccionar los datos.Es importante que la persona que realiza la observación esté familiarizada con el rasgo o característica que se está estudiando; de otro modo, la calidad de los datos que se obtengan será dudosa. Por ejemplo, si se hacen observaciones sobre el color del hipocótilo de la plántula y el observador no sabe qué es el hipocótilo de la plántula, será difícil que los datos que se obtengan sean confiables. Sin embargo, la familiaridad con la característica en sí mismo no es suficiente. El observador tiene que conocer también la forma más exacta para realizar la observación generalmente empleando métodos estándares. Si el observador no tiene cuidado cuando realiza la observación o el equipo que usa es defectuoso, difícilmente los datos obtenidos serán confiables. Por ejemplo, si se está llevando a cabo una prueba de germinación usando un método equivocado, cualquier dato de viabilidad será discutible. Igualmente, si se sabe que un medidor portátil de contenido de humedad es defectuoso, ¿se podrá confiar en cualquier medición hecha sobre el contenido de humedad de la semilla?Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosLos datos sin procesar o en bruto, se registran generalmente en papel, usando con frecuencia formas estandarizadas. En muchas ocasiones también es posible usar registradores de datos computadorizados quienes facilitan enormemente este tedioso proceso. Por ejemplo, las observaciones en un ensayo de campo pueden registrarse directamente mediante un registrador de datos de bolsillo. También los códigos de barra, que son dispositivos comunes en muchos paquetes de programas comerciales, se están usando cada vez más para los inventarios de almacén de semillas, debido a que facilitan en gran medida el manejo de las colecciones. Sea manual o computadorizado el método que utilice para registrar los datos en bruto, es esencial que los datos se registren exactamente y con el grado deseado de aproximación.Los datos que se han registrado pueden transcribirse a un formato diferente (e.g. de los libros de apuntes de campo a formularios para llenar manualmente) o por diferentes medios (e.g. de los libros de apuntes de campo a un esta formato computadorizado). La transcripción de datos es una fuente común de errores si no se realiza con la debida atención. Por razón, es conveniente mantener un número mínimo de transcripciones, en particular, si se trabaja con diferentes formatos manuales.Para producir información, los datos necesitan ser analizados o trasformados. Existe una gran variedad de análisis que varía desde los aritméticos más simples hasta los análisis estadísticos más complejos. El análisis que se realice depende totalmente de las características que se estudien y de la información que se necesite para el análisis.Muchos descriptores se pueden clasificar directamente a partir de los datos en bruto y no requieren análisis. Algunos ejemplos de éstos son el peso de la semilla, la fuente de recolección y la fecha de la siguiente prueba de viabilidad. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los descriptores referentes a datos científicos y muchos descriptores de manejo necesitan algun tipo de análisis de los datos en bruto, antes de clasificar los descriptores. Gran parte de los descriptores de caracterización se basan en observaciones o medidas de, por ejemplo, 20 plantas; estos datos, necesitan analizarse antes de que pueda ser clasificado el descriptor. Los cálculos que se registran comúnmente incluyen el promedio, la desviación estándar, la media y el modo.Una vez que se hayan clasificado los descriptores, es posible recuperar los datos en otros formatos que dependerán de su posterior aplicación. En sistemas computadorizados por ejemplo, la recuperación de datos se puede efectuar en hojas electrónicas o software estadísticos para su posterior análisis. Para la difusión de la información, los datos se organizan generalmente para producir informes específicos que podrían contener cuadros, gráfica circular y otros elementos gráficos.Hay varios métodos para registrar los datos. El que se escoja afectará: ½ La facilidad con la que se registren los datos ½ La facilidad con la que se pueden modificar o actualizar los datos registrados ½ La facilidad para la recuperación flexible de la información ½ El potencial para la transformación y análisis de datosLos diferentes métodos se resumen en los Cuadros 1 y 2.Algunos descriptores deben clasificarse en una escala continua. Un buen ejemplo es el peso de la semilla -es necesario saber con precisión cuanta semilla se encuentra en la cámara frigorífica. Sin embargo, cuando clasifique el descriptor, antes de usar una escala continua, se debe decidir sobre la precisión -¿cuántos decimales se necesitan: 1, 2, 3, 4, ó ninguno? ¿Se debe registrar la viabilidad de la semilla como 87.342% ó sólo 87%? ¿Se debe registrar el peso como 256.13 g ó como 256 g? La decisión que se tome aquí puede afectar la facilidad de la entrada y modificación de datos, y la utilidad de la información recuperada.Los datos cuantitativos tienen más potencial para el análisis estadístico en una escala continua que en una ordinal. Por lo tanto, si el análisis estadístico es prioritario se deberá utilizar una escala continua al clasificar los descriptores. Se puede transformar una escala continua a ordinal, pero se pierde precisión. Por ejemplo, la altura de una planta de \"0.9m\" puede transformarse en escala ordinal como \"pequeña\", pero no es posible hacer esto a la inversa. De este modo, es mejor registrar los datos cuantitativos en bruto en una escala continua, maximizando así la información potencial de los datos.Al igual que las escalas continuas, es sencillo clasificar los descriptores que se usan en las escalas ordinales. La actualización o modificación de estos datos en el sistema de documentación es sencilla, puesto que existe un número limitado de estados del descriptor. En la Figura 1 se ilustra una escala ordinal.El potencial del análisis y transformación de datos no es tan grande como en los datos de la escala continua. No obstante, facilita algunos tipos de recuperación de información, puesto que los datos, hasta cierto punto, ya han sido interpretados y clasificados. Fácilmente podrá buscar directamente \"plantas resistentes a enfermedades\" o \"variedades de alto rendimiento\". Podrá establecer sin problemas si las accesiones individuales del banco de germoplasma son similares o diferentes. Sin embargo, sólo se podrá lograr esto si los estados del descriptor están significativamente definidos para un cultivo específico. Este es un punto importante que analizaremos en la sección 3.3.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosEl uso de códigos numéricos facilita enormemente la clasificación simple y exacta de los descriptores. Por ejemplo, le llevará mucho tiempo escribir \"variedad de alto rendimiento\" para una serie completa de accesiones: ocuparía mucho espacio en los formularios o en la base de datos de la computadora que utilice. Pueden cometerse errores, como escribir una palabra de manera incorrecta o puede que la letra de otra persona sea ilegible. Estos errores hacen que la recuperación de información sea más difícil. Es mucho más fácil escribir \"2\" que escribir \"variedad de alto rendimiento\". Asimismo, la actualización y modificación de datos es más sencilla es más fácil buscar \"2\".El problema principal con los códigos numéricos surge cuando se maneja más de un cultivo. Cada cultivo tiene su propia lista de descriptores, y estos no están necesariamente relacionados entre ellos, particularmente si se consideran escalas nominales como \"usos de la accesión\" o \"sitios de recolección\". Cuando consulte el sistema de documentación para informarse, se preguntará ¿qué significan todos esos \"2\"? (Y ¿qué significan todos esos números 1, 3, 5, 2, 6, 4, 8, 9?). Es necesario regresar a las listas predefinidas para saber lo que significa. La recuperación de la información puede ser lenta, particularmente en sistemas manuales. En los sistemas computadorizados, el software a veces convierte automáticamente los códigos numéricos que corresponden a los estados del descriptor de manera que puede buscar (o visualizar) ya sea \"5\" o \"intermedia\", y así sucesivamente para los otros estados del descriptor.Otra importante consideración es que nunca debe pensar en usar códigos de abreviaturas en lugar de códigos numéricos; por ejemplo. \"cr\" para las cortas, \"vrd\" para las verdes, \"mrc\" para mercado, \"l\" para irrigación, etc. El problema con los códigos de abreviaturas es que, mientras que para usted pueden resultar obvios, no lo son siempre para otras personas, especialmente si se usan códigos de abreviaturas para muchos descriptores. Peor aún, si muchas personas usan el sistema de documentación con códigos diferentes, esto causará confusión; por ejemplo, \"mc\" \"m.cr\", \"mcrt\" para muy corta. La falta de uniformidad ocasionará serias consecuencias en la recuperación o intercambio de información. Piense solamente en los problemas de intercambio de datos con otros bancos nacionales de germoplasma, donde todos usan códigos de abreviaturas: para el inglés \"very short\" puede ser \"vs\", para el español \"muy corto\", \"mc\" y para el francés \"tres courte\", \"tc\". Qué confusión... Por otro lado, con un código numérico todos pueden ser '1\". Aun cuando utilice códigos de abreviaturas en las notas originales de laboratorio, el sistema de documentación debe contener sólo códigos numéricos (o su equivalente traducido),Hay ocasiones en las que se pueden usar códigos alfabéticos no numéricos, pero, comparativamente, son raras si se trabaja con datos genéticos. Un ejemplo es el Código de tres letras para nombres de países recomendado por la Oficina de Estadística de las Naciones Unidas. Estas abreviaturas son reconocidas internacionalmente y se usan con frecuencia. Ellas se detallan en el Apéndice II.Para los datos genéticos se usan frecuentemente símbolos que representan las características particulares. Estos símbolos a menudo pueden ser más largos y confusos y las convenciones que se usan varían de acuerdo al sistema biológico que esté en estudio (e.g., bacterias, virus, hongos, plantas, etc.). Sin embargo, generalmente se adoptan ciertas convenciones en la documentación de los datos genéticos en los recursos-fitogénicos los siguientes son algunos de ellos:1 .Para un rasgo particular se da un símbolo básico común. Cuando la característica es causada por más de un gene, se enumeran los diferentes genes usando números arábigos. Por ejemplo, para el maíz el símbolo gde significa que se usa para el rasgo \"grano defectuoso\", pueden ser responsables de este gene más de 30 genes y éstos se enumeran en secuencia, gde1, gde2, gde3 y así sucesivamente. Observe que los símbolos están escritos en cursiva, caso contrario podrían subrayarse.Donde no existe ambiguidad, el símbolo básico de un gene dominante debería comenzar con una letra mayúscula y aquéllos de un gene recesivo con una letra minúscula. Esta información es de particular importancia cuando se realizan cruzamientos genéticos. De manera que, para el maíz, el rasgo \"grano defectuoso\" es recesivo y escrito como gde, mientras que la característica \"grano con arrugas\" es predominante y se escribe Garr.3.Los diferentes alelos de un gene particular se designan con minúscula, siguiendo la designación del gene. Por ejemplo, para el centeno las designaciones Mb1a y Mb1b representan alelos diferentes del mismo gene Mb1, quien es el responsable de la característica \"resistencia al mal blanco\". En donde se detectan alelos mediante análisis de isozimas, es frecuente separar la designación del alelo del símbolo del gene con un guión. En consecuencia, para los alelos de la soja del gene Sod2, (para el superóxido dismutasa) se escribirá Sod2-a; Sod2-b.Existen otras convenciones más específicas para la especie que se estudia, de manera que no se tratarán aquí. Se debe señalar que muchos de los símbolos que se usan son solamente significativos para la especie que se estudia. Por ejemplo, los genes se designan en la manera en que 100¼ Guía para la Documentación de Recursos Genéticos han sido identificados, entonces, a pesar de que el símbolo Mfg podría usarse para la enzima mutasa de fosfo-glucosa en ciertas especies, el número de genes es particular a la especie. Por lo tanto, se debe prestar atención cuando documente los datos genéticos de especies diferentes. Utilice convenciones aceptadas y bien establecidas -no cree su propia convención. Se usa un número considerable de símbolos con los datos genéticos, por lo tanto, no agregue confusión creando uno más.En teoría, los descriptores clasificados en una escala binaria son, por lo general, los más fáciles de clasificar, actualizar y modificar en un sistema de documentación. No se necesita consultar ninguna lista de definición previa. Sólo es cuestión de responder \"presente\" /\"ausente\" (\"sí/no\"). La recuperación de información mejora si los estados de los descriptores se clasifican rigurosamente, y se comparan fácilmente, también es más fácil el intercambio de datos.Quizá se tengan problemas prácticos al clasificar los descriptores si muchos de ellos se clasifican en la escala binaria. Como vimos en los Cuadros 1 y 2, los descriptores que se clasifican usando una escala ordinal o nominal se pueden expresar en escala binaria, siendo cada estado del descriptor una observación binaria separada. Así, 20 descriptores clasificados en escala ordinal con 9 estados de descriptores separados corresponderán a 180 descriptores clasificados en una escala binaria. Eso significa 160 entradas más para elaborar en formas manuales o computadorizadas, lo que implica un gran aumento en la carga de trabajo para clasificar los descriptores. Asimismo, sería más difícil recuperar la información. Por ejemplo, la respuesta a preguntas generales como \"¿qué color de flores produce esta accesión?\" En cambio, se tendría que preguntar, ¿esta accesión produce flores rojas?\" \"¿esta accesión produce flores azules?\", y así sucesivamente.En ciertos casos, el uso de la escala binaria será una pérdida de tiempo y esfuerzo. Si el cultivo produce regularmente una variedad con flores de distinto color en la misma accesión, entonces se pueden registrar fácilmente los diferentes estados del descriptor utilizando una escala binaria que indique la presencia o ausencia de cada color. Por otro lado, no se usaría una escala binaria para clasificar descriptores de una escala nominal tal como \"sitio de recolección\". El hecho de que una accesión haya sido recolectada en el \"mercado rural\" excluye necesariamente su recolección de un \"instituto de investigación\". Si hubiera nueve fuentes de recolección separadas, ocho de éstas serian siempre registradas como negativas.El análisis estadístico o la transformación de datos en datos de escala binaria son más limitados que aquéllos de escala ordinal o continua. Por binarias es limitado estas razones y las anteriores, el uso de datos clasificados en escalas binarias es limitado.Capítulo 5: Registro de datos ½101 3Listas de descriptores 3.1 La necesidad de las listas de descriptores ¿Para qué se deben utilizar las listas de descriptores? Por ejemplo, con el descriptor \"sitio de recolección\" ¿por qué no clasificar solamente el descriptor tal y como es?; después de todo, no se necesita una lista para decir que se ha recolectado una muestra de maíz en un \"mercado rural\" ¿o lo necesita? La respuesta a esta pregunta es simple. El uso de listas de descriptores bien definidas y rigurosamente probadas para clasificar los descriptores simplificará considerablemente todas las operaciones que tienen que ver con el registro de datos, actualización/modificación, recuperación de información, intercambio, análisis y transformación de datos. En otras palabras, se debe usar una lista de descriptores existente y ampliamente aceptada.Cuando se registran los datos, éstos deben ser clasificados e interpretados; si se cuenta con una lista predefinida de descriptores y estados de descriptores para consultar, se ahorrará una considerable cantidad de tiempo. El uso de listas asegura la uniformidad en el banco de germoplasma (y entre bancos) y reduce la posibilidad de error. La gente que usa las mismas listas en distintos bancos podrá intercambiar datos fácilmente, e interpretar los datos sin problemas.En el Cuadro 3 se demuestra la necesidad de las listas de descriptores. Dos bancos de germoplasma quieren intercambiar datos. Sin embargo, ambos usan escalas distintas para clasificar los descriptores. El intercambio de datos constituye obviamente un problema.Guía para la Documentación de recursos genéticosEn este ejemplo y en muchos otros a lo largo de la literatura, observará que el descriptor incluye: ½ Una etiqueta (6.1.1) y un nombre (Formación de la raíz reservante) -que identifican claramente la característica ½ Una definición del descriptor -para hacer observaciones y/o subsiguientes clasificaciones del descriptor ½ Una lista de los estados del descriptor (cuando corresponda) ½ La unidad utilizada (en este ejemplo no es relevante) Otras convenciones de rutina usadas en la documentación de recursos fítogenéticos son las siguientes.Los descriptores se clasifican en una escala que va del 1 al 9 La gran mayoría de los descriptores que se usan en una escala ordinal pueden clasificarse en una escala de 1 a 9, en donde los estados de los descriptores pueden interpretarse como sigue:Capítulo 5: Registro de datos ½103 1 = muy bajo 2 = muy bajo a bajo 3 = bajo 4 = bajo a intermedio 5 = intermedio 6 = intermedio a alto 7 = alto 8 = alto a muy alto 9 = muy alto El uso de esta convención ayuda considerablemente en el registro, modificación, recuperación e interpretación de datos de un gran número de descriptores. Usted sabrá que \"5\" es siempre \"intermedio\", \"9\" es siempre \"muy alto\", etc. Un ejemplo del uso de esta escala es la susceptibilidad al estrés, e.g. susceptibilidad al daño provocado por temperaturas bajas o altas, acidez del suelo y susceptibilidad al daño causado por patógenos.Observará en las listas de descriptores publicadas, que a menudo se lista solamente una selección de los estados; por ejemplo, 3, 5, 7. Cuando esto sucede, la gama completa de la escala (1-9) está disponible para su uso, utilizando la extensión de los códigos dados o mediante la interpolación entre ellos.El uso de otros caracteres es limitado Cuando no sea posible clasificar un descriptor en una escala de 1 a 9, se pueden utilizar las convenciones listadas en el Cuadro 4. estar al tanto de lo que es \"desconocido\" sobre una accesión o grupo de accesiones quizá se desee clasificar estos descriptores en una fecha posterior. El estado de descriptor \"desconocido\", generalmente se indica con un espacio en blanco.El uso del dígito \"X\" no es la única manera en la que se indica la heterogeneidad de una accesión -veremos otras formas en la sección 4.Es importante que la escala continua se base en una unidad estándar SI (le Systéme International d'Unités) y que todas las unidades se utilicen consistentemente. Por ejemplo, la altura de la planta de una especie particular debe medirse o en metros o en centímetros, no a veces en metros y otras en centímetros -y por supuesto, nunca en pulgadas.Cuando los descriptores se clasifican en una escala nominal que usa números en lugar de texto (por ejemplo, \"2\" en lugar de \"parcela del agricultor\"), el uso de 0, + y X debe ser limitado de la misma forma que para las escalas ordinales. Por lo tanto, si se clasifica \"0\" esto significará siempre \"descriptor no observado\". También es útil cuando los estados de los descriptores se ordenan lógicamente. Un buen ejemplo es el descriptor \"color secundario de la pulpa\" en la batata:Morado oscuroA veces es necesario definir los estados del descriptor para aquéllos que se deseen usar cuando no haya listas de descriptores publicadas para los cultivos que se están usando, o cuando las listas publicadas son inadecuadas a sus necesidades.Los análisis estadísticos y la transformación de los datos con una escala ordinal no son tan eficaces como los análisis de datos en una escala continua. Esto se debe a que hay una pérdida de precisión en el proceso de clasificación. Con el fin de maximizar las posibilidades de un análisis significativo (y de ahí, recuperar la información significativa) se debe poner especial atención en la construcción de escalas ordinales para que la variación inherente no sea una pérdida. Así, ¿cómo se determina la escala de 1 a 9 para que 1 = muy bajo y 9 = muy alto, para un descriptor particular? Se pueden hacer tres cosas:Consulte -pregunte a los expertos ½ Revise la bibliografía ½ En primer lugar, use una escala continua, después analice los datos para descubrir la naturaleza de la distribución Si los datos se distribuyen normalmente se puede construir una escala ordinal basada en el promedio y la desviación estándar. Sin embargo, tenga cuidado cuando construya esta escala porque algunos rasgos (tales como el rendimiento y la susceptibilidad al estrés) son sensibles a las influencias ambientales. Esto se debe a varias razones. En primer lugar, muchos de estos rasgos están bajo el control de un gran número de genes, algunos de los cuales podrían ser sensibles a factores ambientales diferentes tales como la duración del día, la lluvia, el pH del suelo y demás. En consecuencia, una combinación particular de estos factores podría afectar considerablemente la expresión de una característica. En segundo lugar, debido a que muchas accesiones son en realidad poblaciones (es decir su constitución genética no es uniforme y podrían mostrar variación en ensayos de evaluación preliminar que se lleven a cabo en condiciones diferentes) habrá un cambio en los valores promedio para rasgos particulares. A menudo, esta diferencia en la realización es bastante notable. Por lo tanto, el rendimiento de un grupo de accesiones podría variar de año en año (dependiendo de las condiciones prevalentes). De manera que si una escala fue construida basándose en los resultados de un año, sería inapropiado en los años siguientes donde el rendimiento promedio Podría ser notablemente mayor o menor. También, si se recibió un grupo nuevo de accesiones, sus variabilidades con respecto al rendimiento podrían ser inesperadamente altas, tan altas que la escala podría ser inutilizable. Esto es particularmente cierto para las accesiones que han sido recolectadas de hábitats diferentes.Si la distribución es multimodal y los datos se distribuyen a través de toda la gama, se construye una escala que cubra la gama usando quizás intervalos regulares. Por otro lado, si los datos no se distribuyen a través de toda la gama y muestran modalidades distintas, es más adecuado clasificar el descriptor usando una escala nominal.Un buen ejemplo de este último caso es el color de la flor: es concebible que se clasifique en una escala continua como la longitud de onda de la luz en nanómetros. Sin embargo, en la práctica se registra en una escala nominal (por ejemplo, crema, amarillo, rosa, rojo). Esto se debe a que muestra modalidades distintas; estas modalidades se utilizan para definir los estados del descriptor.Ya hemos visto cómo las accesiones de los bancos de germoplasma son comúnmente heterogéneas, es decir, cada accesión no es genéticamente uniforme y contiene una cierta cantidad de variaciones (véase Figura 3). Es un problema delicado para los especialistas en documentación: ¿cómo se refleja esta variación adecuadamente en el sistema de documentación? ¿Cómo se clasifican estos descriptores?Antes que nada, ¿es necesario documentar esta heterogeneidad? Si no hay una necesidad presente o futura, es de poca prioridad, por lo tanto, ¿por qué molestarse? ¿Qué tipo de detalle debe documentarse de esta heterogeneidad debe ser muy detallado?, o ¿sólo una nota de que los datos son \"variables\"? ¿Qué se hará con los datos una vez que sean documentados análisis, informes, nada en particular?Si se anticipa a hacer muchos análisis para el futuro, sólo hay una cosa que puede hacer en la práctica: REGISTRE LOS DATOS EXPERIMENTALES EN BRUTO (observaciones originales).Si esto no es posible por razones prácticas, existe una gran cantidad de métodos que puede realizar.Capítulo 5: Registro de datos ½107Registre el promedio y la desviación. estándarEs probablemente, el mejor método para el uso de datos en escala continua. Le proporciona una idea del punto medio de la gama de valores para un descriptor particular y el alcance de variación de la muestra. Es especialmente útil para los datos de distribución normal dado que se pueden realizar pronósticos útiles a partir de esos datos. Sin embargo, si los datos muestran una distribución multimodal, estas cifras podrían llevar a conclusiones erróneas.Esta es una vía de salida muy útil porque ignora completamente el problema: toda la información sobre el alcance de la variación se pierde.Registre la frecuencia de cada estado del descriptorSi se está registrando el color de las flores de las plantas en una accesión, con este método se registrará, por ejemplo, 25%, son amarillas, 10% crema, 50% anaranjadas, 15% rojas y 0% moradas. Los datos genéticos son a menudo, de esta forma: se puede tratar con ellos de manera similar. Por ejemplo, si ha realizado un estudio de isoenzimas, podría registrar el porcentaje de plantas en una accesión que muestre cada uno de los alelos en un lugar en particular.Otro método podría ser listar hasta tres códigos en orden de frecuencia pero no cuantificarlos posteriormente. En ambos casos, sin embargo, podría tener problemas al recuperar la información del sistema.Se puede almacenar la altura de una planta para una accesión particular como \"0.75-1.2 m\"; esto le dirá algo acerca del alcance total de variación pero nada acerca de dónde están muchos de los valores.Esto indicará si una accesión es heterogénea, pero no podrá cuantificarlo para decir qué tan heterogénea es la muestra. Tendrá que afrontar las desventajas de manejar datos binarios: problemas de redundancia y registro de los datos, y de recuperación de la información.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosRegistre como \"variable\"Esta es probablemente la forma más fácil porque ignora el problema completamente: toda la información sobre el alcance de la variación se pierde y no hay indicación de dónde están muchos de los valores.Por dónde continuarEn el análisis de los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma en el Capítulo 4 se identificaron ciertos descriptores básicos para el sistema de documentación. Ahora debe escoger la escala adecuada para cada uno de estos descriptores, considerando cuidadosamente los siguientes puntos que han surgido en este capítulo: Fuente de recolección c.Altura de la planta d.Precipitación pluvial mensual e.Fecha de la cosecha f. Peso de 1000 semillas g. Tipo de grano h.Número de accesión i.Diámetro del follaje j.Textura del suelo k. Topografía Color de la flor e.Forma de la fruta f. Calidad comestible g.Susceptibilidad a enfermedades h.Vellosidad de la hoja i.Ambiente de evaluación j.Fuente de recolecciónPara cada uno de los siguientes ejemplos (a-t), especifique:i) ¿Cuáles de los siguientes descriptores pueden clasificarse en una escala continua y ordinal? ii) ¿Qué método escogería y por qué? a. Peso de 1000 semillas b.Número de accesión c.Altitud del sitio de recolección d.Fuente de recolección e.Diámetro del follaje f. Indice de cosecha g.Fecha de la cosecha h. Tipo de grano i.Anchura de la hoja j.Contenido de humedad (%) k.Precipitación pluvial mensual l.Número de flores por planta m. Altura de la planta n.Contenido proteínico (%) o.Peso de la semilla p.Contenido de humedad de la semilla (%) q.Viabilidad de la semilla (%) r.ph del suelo s.Textura del suelo t. TopografíaLa siguiente escala nominal lista las posibles fuentes de recolección de maíz. Conviértalas a una lista de observaciones binarias separadas (presencia/ausencia). ¿Cómo están mejor expresados los datos -Como escala nominal o como observaciones binarias separadas? Dé razones de su elección. Organización de los diferentes tipos de datosEn el Capítulo 6 se analiza el uso de los formularios para registrar y organizar los datos manualmente, y se consideran la organización y el funcionamiento de un sistema manual de documentación. Al concluir este capítulo, será capaz de: ½ Explicar por qué no siempre es posible registrar los datos directamente en el sistema de documentación ½ Hablar sobre las consideraciones que se deben tener en cuenta al diseñar los formularios que se llenan a mano ½ Describir la composición y el funcionamiento de un archivo de administración en los sistemas manuales de documentación ½ Describir las alternativas para trabajar con información de retroalimentación y datos sin procesar (en bruto)1 El uso de los formulariosAun cuando use, o planee usar, un sistema de documentación computadorizado, muchos de los procedimientos de documentación que haya desarrollado incluirán el uso de formularios para registrar manualmente los datos en bruto o clasificar los descriptores.Hemos visto anteriormente la utilidad de la documentación como parte integral del procedimiento del banco de germoplasma. Dicha integración es necesaria para evitar la duplicación de esfuerzos. Por lo tanto, debería analizar los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma para determinar cuán práctico es registrar los datos directamente en el sistema de documentación. Si la entrada directa de los datos no es posible, se debe, generalmente, a las razones que se mencionan a continuación.Si tiene un sistema de documentación computadorizado y hace evaluaciones de campo o trabaja en el depósito de semillas a -20ºC, no puede llevar la computadora por todas partes (y, de cualquier modo, quizá ni lo desee). En tales casos necesitará usar un cuaderno o un registrador de datos. Posteriormente transferirá esos datos al sistema de documentación.En algunos casos no es posible clasificar los descriptores directamente, debido a que se requieren ciertos cotejos y análisis previos de los datos.Si está registrando los datos de una serie de procedimientos, quizá no sea posible registrarlos directamente por razones operativas.Por ejemplo, imagínese qué sucedería si trabajara con un sistema de documentación computadorizado y con una sola computadora … la situación que se crearía si muchas personas tienen que esperar el turno para registrar los datos antes de continuar con el resto del procedimiento. Esto, de hecho, haría más lento el funcionamiento del procedimiento del banco de germoplasma -obviamente, se debe evitar una situación como ésta. En este caso particular, probablemente registre los datos a mano en los formularios y en una etapa posterior, los introduzca en el sistema, o mejor aun, tenga una persona dedicada especialmente a la entrada de datos.En un sistema manual, se podría desarrollar un formulario para una cadena de procedimientos, el cual puede ser usado por personas diferentes. Surgirán problemas si la gente necesita registrar los datos en el formulario al mismo tiempo. Esto hará más lento el proceso. En este caso tendrá que dividir el grupo de descriptores en juegos más pequeños y significativos, y desarrollar formularios por separado para cada grupo: los formularios se usarían uno a la vez por cada persona.El Cuadro 1 le ayudará a aclarar cuáles son los grupos de descriptores que pueden ser clasificados directamente y cuáles no.Capitulo 6: Organización de los diferentes tipos de datos ½ 1132 Diseño de formularlos para sistemas de documentación computadorizados y manuales.Es importante que cualquiera de los formularios que se utilicen, ya sea de un sistema de documentación computadorizado o de uno manual, sean fáciles de usar, con el fin de asegurar la integridad o coherencia de los datos. Generalmente, se utilizarán dos tipos de diseño: disposición en columnas (para varias accesiones) y composición de una página (para una sola accesión). Veámoslos más detalladamente.Las columnas son muy prácticas debido a que son fáciles de usar. Cada formulario debería ser: ½ Fácil de llenar ½ Fácil de actualizar (cuando sea necesario) ½ Fácil de leer Los siguientes puntos le ayudarán en el diseño de la composición de una página con columnas.Trate de usar formularios preimpresos, cuando registre los datos, esto hará la tarea mucho más sencilla. Los puede diseñar en un procesador de palabras si cuenta con uno.Si no puede usar estos formularios, utilice papel rayado. No escriba en un papel que tenga espacios angostos entre las líneas, dado que tendrá problemas si tiene caligrafía grande. Tendrá como resultado formularios desordenados y difíciles de leer. ¿Cómo se puede solucionar este problema? En primer lugar, no use una hoja con espacios estrechos entre las líneas -utilice una con espacios anchos. Asimismo, dibuje claramente las columnas con una pluma de punta fina o un lápiz con buena punta y utilice una regla -no use cualquier cosa que tenga a mano, como una cajetilla de cigarros o el borde de un peine. Las columnas deben ser paralelas con el fin de que no se vuelvan angostas en la parte de abajo de la página.Es tentador tratar de poner en una página tantos datos como sea posible, haciendo que las columnas sean numerosas y angostas. No lo haga. Esto hará que el registro y la recuperación de los datos sea más difícil: tendrá dificultad cuando escriba en columnas tan estrechas y, posteriormente, dificultad para leer lo que ha escrito. También existe la 114¼ Guía para la Documentación de Recursos Genéticos tentación de inventar códigos abreviados en el momento del registro, con el fin de que los datos quepan en la columna. Esto será desastroso cuando deba recordar qué significan esos códigos.Si tiene problemas con las columnas angostas, usted puede:1.Girar la hoja de manera que la parte superior se convierta en el costado de la página -también se denomina orientación de paisaje (véase Figura 1). Esto le proporcionará más espacio.Use una hoja que sea ancha, pero no tanto como para que se vuelva engorrosa.Considere el uso de los códigos numéricos que se describen en el Capítulo 5 -si es que ya no los está utilizando.Vea si son muchos los datos que tiene que registrar en el formulario, si es así, considere si los datos se pueden dividir en grupos más pequeños que puedan caber holgadamente en páginas o formularios separados.Organice las columnas con el fin de que el registro y la recuperación de los datos sean más sencillos Debe organizar las columnas con el fin de que el registro y la modificación de los datos sean más fáciles, particularmente si se transfieren los datos de los libros del laboratorio o de otros formularios en donde éstos ya han sido registrados con un orden regular. Por lo tanto, utilice el mismo orden tanto en los libros de laboratorio, como en el formulario de documentación. Si no lo hace, perderá mucho tiempo reorganizando los datos cada vez que quiera transferirlos y podría cometer errores.Capítulo 6: Organización de los diferentes tipos de datosPara los sistemas manuales: si sabe que los datos deben modificarse posteriormente (por ejemplo, cantidad de semillas en el depósito), será útil si adopta la norma de poner estos datos en las columnas colocadas al lado derecho.También deberá organizar las columnas para hacer más sencilla la recuperación de los datos. Por lo tanto, para todos los datos específicos de la accesión se tendrá la primera columna de todos los formularios para el número de accesión. Cuando sea necesario, puede usar las siguientes tres columnas para el nombre científico, referencia del lote y fecha de la prueba. (véase Figura 2).Si todos los formularios (cuando sea apropiado) están estructurados de esta forma, será fácil recuperar la información de muchos formularios diferentes, puesto que sabrá dónde buscar.Deberá conservar el orden de las columnas que ha escogido. No deberá cambiar el orden, a menos que sea problemático en el momento de registrar o recuperar los datos. Altere el ancho de la columna para que el registro de datos sea más sencillo, pero si cambia el orden de las columnas, esto causará confusión cuando hojee todas las páginas.Si tiene espacio, siempre es útil incluir una columna para los comentarios u observaciones. Ponga la columna de comentarios al extremo derecho de la hoja y hágala bastante ancha.Si está diseñando formularios impresos, no se olvide de darles un título y una breve explicación si es necesaria -no deseará que la gente use un formulario equivocado. Si no utiliza el reverso de la hoja, reserve este espacio para dar una explicación del formulario y de cualquier sistema de códigos que use.Esto es muy importante. Se pueden cometer errores fácilmente en la documentación de los datos, por lo que debe asegurarse de que el formulario sea tan fácil de usar como sea posible. Intente con algunos diseños y vea cuál es el que los usuarios prefieren. No utilice un diseño incómodo. En los ejemplos siguientes (véanse Figuras 3 y 4), se ilustran algunos de los puntos que tiene que considerar cuando diseñe los formularios.Deberá utilizar este tipo de diseño cuando se registren muchos datos para una accesión en particular. Un buen ejemplo es el formulario que utilizan los recolectores de plantas cuando tienen que registrar muchos datos y observaciones varias.Con la composición de página tiene más libertad para decidir en qué lugar se colocan los descriptores. En la composición de página puede usar:Una combinación de columnas o recuadros de texto ½ Múltiples opciones para ayudar al usuario ½ Comentarios para ayudar al usuarioNo se entusiasme con esta libertad adicional y termine con un formulario atiborrado, confuso y difícil de manejar. Sea cuidadoso al diseñar la composición de página en el procesador de palabras -a veces es difícil distinguir si son prácticos ciertos diseños. Intente con algunos diseños diferentes para descubrir cuál es el más fácil de usar.Muchas de las consideraciones que hemos discutido acerca del diseño de columnas se aplican también a las composiciones de página, a saber: Existen otros temas que deben considerarse cuando diseñe la composición de las páginas.Utilice la página completa -no atiborre los descriptores en una zona pequeña.Decida cuánto espacio se necesita para cada asunto. Si no hay límite de espacio, sea generoso -otorgue a cada asunto el espacio suficiente para permitir que el registro sea fácil. Cuando los datos se registran cerca del título, deje el suficiente espacio vertical (al igual que espacio horizontal) para registrarlos.Capítulo 6: Organización de los diferentes tipos de datos ½ 119Utilice los recuadros de texto para enfatizar los descriptores que desee localizar rápidamente, tales como los números de accesión. No los use rutinariamente para todos los descriptores, puesto que la página será difícil de leer. Pocos recuadros de texto bien colocados son muy útiles para localizar los datos en una etapa posterior.Algunos diseños parecen agresivos cuando contienen títulos largos y en negritas, y notas explicatorias excesivas. A veces estos formularios tienen poco espacio para el registro de los datos. Si está diseñando el formulario en un procesador de palabras, recuerde que el texto contiene diferentes estilos (por ejemplo, negritas, cursivas, subrayado). Úselos escasamente y sólo para enfatizar partes importantes del texto.Como regla general, no mezcle estilos diferentes, use sólo un estilo cada vez.Organización de un sistema manual de documentación Esta sección trata de la organización y el funcionamiento de los sistemas manuales de documentación. Es importante analizarla aun cuando trabaje, o piense trabajar con un sistema computadorizado, puesto que deberá utilizar algunos formularios para llenar manualmente en los procedimientos de documentación, los cuales podrán usarse posteriormente como respaldo del sistema principal.El secreto para diseñar un buen sistema manual de documentación consiste en hacerlo: ½ Simple ½ Fácil de entender -con procedimientos de documentación bien definidos ½ De fácil acceso -para la gente que lo usará Las etapas que se seguirán en el proceso de construcción del sistema manual de documentación se ilustran en la Figura 5.Los bancos de germoplasma que trabajan con sistemas manuales de documentación solamente, utilizan generalmente un archivo de administración que contiene los descriptores esenciales de manejo, provenientes de procedimientos diferentes del banco de germoplasma. Dicho archivo de administración podría contener algunos o todos los descriptores que se listan en el Cuadro 2. En el Capítulo 4 se encuentran los descriptores adicionales que incluyen los descriptores para las colecciones de campo e in vitro.½ 121Los formularios pueden diseñarse de modo que contengan éstos u otros descriptores. Puesto que existe, comparativamente, un gran número de descriptores y, potencialmente, más de una referencia de lote para cada accesión, los bancos de germoplasma usan generalmente un formulario por accesión (véase Figura 6).Es muy importante que el archivo de administración se actualice como parte rutinaria de todos los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma que producen datos de administración. En la práctica, los archivos que se refieren al manejo de semillas contendrán generalmente datos en bruto, mientras que los descriptores se clasifican en el archivo de administración. Esto evita cualquier discrepancia en las diferentes partes del sistema de documentación dado que los descriptores se clasifican en un solo lugar.En un sistema de documentación manual probablemente utilizará algunos de los siguientes materiales, ya sea que escriba a mano en ellos, o utilice una máquina de escribir: ½ Cuadernos (libros de texto, libros de ejercicios) ½ Fichas de archivo ½ Hojas sueltas Capítulo 6: Organización de los diferentes tipos de datos ½ 123Con frecuencia a estos materiales diferentes se les denomina materiales o medios de almacenamiento.No deberá registrar los datos de manera arbitraria y desordenada en estos medios de almacenamiento; deberá diseñar una página que le ayude a registrar y recuperar los datos para cada grupo de descriptores que haya identificado.Se pueden usar cuadernos si los descriptores son iguales para todas las accesiones y las páginas no necesitan clasificarse posteriormente. Si organiza los datos en columnas en el libro, podrá registrar (y recuperar) los datos de manera sencilla. Podría considerar el uso de cuadernos para el registro o la distribución del germoplasma. Probablemente no los usará para hacer listas de direcciones, a menos que haya dividido el libro en secciones separadas.Las fichas de archivo son muy útiles para registrar pequeñas cantidades de datos acerca de un tema único, tal como una accesión del banco de germoplasma o una dirección. Use las fichas de archivo cuando quiera clasificar los artículos en una etapa posterior y cuando no sea necesario hacer investigaciones rápidas para los mismos datos sobre muchas muestras de germoplasma. Puede usarlas para elaborar listas de direcciones, puesto que éstas siempre están actualizadas, pero probablemente no se utilicen para los datos de pasaporte (demasiados datos) o para los datos de caracterización (se necesitan comparar muchas muestras).Las hojas sueltas son las más flexibles, pero ello depende de cómo se usan. Si se están almacenando datos sobre una accesión por hoja, ellas son como fichas de archivo debido a que se pueden clasificar fácilmente, pero con la ventaja adicional de que almacenan que más datos. (Desafortunadamente, al igual que las fichas de archivo, se pueden extraviar fácilmente a menos que se preste una atención especial). Si se almacenan datos para más de una accesión por hoja, son como cuadernos (porque el registro y la recuperación de datos son fáciles y porque se pueden realizar comparaciones directas entre las accesiones), pero con la ventaja adicional de que, posteriormente, las hojas se pueden clasificar, por estas razones se utilizan ampliamente las hojas sueltas.Estas características se resumen en el Cuadro 3.Puede almacenar las hojas sueltas en los siguientes medios:Expedientes de un archivero ½ Encuadernaciones ½ Cajas de archivo ½ Carteras de archivo Las fichas de archivo se pueden almacenar en una caja o en bandejas móviles. Para simplificar este tema llamaremos a las diferentes unidades de almacenamiento \"archivos\". Los archivos deberán etiquetarse correctamente para que sus contenidos resulten obvios. Deberá indicarse si forman parte de una serie. Es una buena idea incluir al frente del archivo las instrucciones para su uso y las descripciones de cualquier sistema de codificación que se utilice. Asimismo, todas las hojas almacenadas en el mismo archivo deberán tener el mismo formato.De ser posible, todos los archivos deberán almacenarse en el mismo sitio -no es aconsejable buscar los diferentes archivos de un lugar a otro. Deben ser de fácil acceso -no deberá subirse a una silla para bajar los archivos. Sí el espacio es limitado, los libros y cuadernos de laboratorio que se usan sólo ocasionalmente pueden guardarse en lugares menos accesibles.Los datos deben ser de fácil lectura ¿Cómo se pueden organizar los datos en una hoja para que sean fáciles de leer? Es sencillo -necesita desarrollar un diseño claro; es decir, la forma en la que aparecerán los datos sobre la página. Veamos un ejemplo. Examine la siguiente lista de direcciones de cinco Centros Internacionales de Investigación Agrícola: Hemos visto que se deben organizar los datos en un orden útil, un orden que ayude a recuperar los datos y la información. Este orden no siempre será el orden del número de accesión. También puede ser por el nombre del cultivo, el nombre de la especie, la fecha del ensayo, la fechaCapítulo 6: Organización de los diferentes tipos de datos ½ 127de distribución, etc. En teoría, se puede clasificar con base en cualquier descriptor, pero tendrá que ser en un orden útil y practico. Recuerde que un orden útil para la recuperación de datos no siempre es práctico para el registro y modificación de los mismos: a veces tendrá que tomar partido. Si se escogiera un orden inadecuado, perdería mucho tiempo:½ Registrando los datos en el sistema ½ Manteniendo el sistema actualizado ½ Recuperando los datos específicos En un sistema manual deberá decidir cuál es el orden más útil desde el principio, teniendo en cuenta que se realizará más trabajo si después cambia de opinión.Cuando registre los datos de varias accesiones en un formulario, será de gran ayuda si se clasifican en orden antes de registrarlos; por ejemplo, por el orden del número de accesión. Esto ayudará a toda la actualización futura de los datos y a la recuperación de la información.Frecuentemente, puede registrar una accesión del banco por línea. Por lo tanto, en un formulario con 20 líneas separadas, habrá 20 números de accesión del banco de germoplasma separados (clasificados por orden, por supuesto). Sin embargo, habrá ocasiones en las que necesitará quizá, más de una entrada por cada accesión. Por ejemplo, en un archivo de inventario quizá necesite almacenar más de un lote de semillas: a veces, estos registros adicionales se agregarán en una fecha posterior. Si no ha reservado espacio para estos registros adicionales ¿dónde los pondrá? El sistema de documentación puede empezar a desordenarse.Ilustremos este punto considerando una parte del archivo de inventario de la Figura 7. ¿Dónde colocaría un nuevo lote para la accesión 100? Es un problema… Si ha reservado un par de líneas para nuevos lotes (véase Figura 8), será mucho más fácil.Otro punto a considerar es que, puesto que el número de accesión y el nombre científico es el mismo para cada lote de una accesión, sólo necesita registrar estos datos en el formulario para la primera referencia del lote. Esto hará más fácil la lectura del formulario.A veces tendrá que cambiar los datos que ya ha registrado en un formulario debido a ciertas operaciones del banco de germoplasma. Por lo tanto, para el archivo del inventario, necesitará cambiar el \"peso de la semilla\" cada vez que mueva semillas del almacén. Si cuenta con una columna angosta en el formulario, tendrá que borrar el peso existente de la semilla (con borrador o con líquido corrector) y escribir el nuevo peso. Si debe hacerlo muchas veces, puede resultar difícil leer el valor registrado. Para evitar este problema, puede hacer la columna más ancha y simplemente tachar el antiguo valor y escribir el nuevo (véase Figura 9).Capítulo 6: Organización de los diferentes tipos de datos ½ 129Use \"señales\"Si transfiere los datos de los cuadernos al sistema de documentación, es buena idea habituarse a poner una marca b u otra \"señal\" en la esquina superior derecha, cuando se hayan transferido todos los datos de la página del cuaderno. Esto es particularmente útil cuando se transfieren los datos a más de un lugar en el sistema de documentación, dado que querrá saber si los datos han sido transferidos. Igualmente, se puede colocar una señal en el sistema de documentación, cuando todos los datos hayan entrado en una página particular. De ese modo, sabrá si falta algún dato.En el Capítulo 3 vimos que los datos de accesiones del banco de germoplasma no sólo provienen de las operaciones del banco. Otras personas también pueden estar usando el germoplasma, y, por lo tanto, estar generando sus propios datos. Si se realiza el trabajo a nombre del banco, tal como un ensayo de evaluación, suministre los formularios o los formatos computadorizados para el registro de estos datos.Otros datos de retroalimentación serán los datos de grupo o los datos de accesiones específicas publicados en informes, tesis, referencias bibliográficas, conferencias o datos sobre observaciones de los ensayos de campo no publicados o comunicaciones verbales.Tomando en cuenta que se desean buenos datos en el sistema de documentación, necesitará decidir:La necesidad de documentar estos datos ½ La prioridad para la documentación ½ Los requisitos de información de los datos documentados Comúnmente, deberá guardar una referencia de la fuente de información (por ejemplo, referencia bibliográfica) en lugar de tratar de incorporar al sistema los datos detallados.Si existe una cantidad limitada de información de retroalimentación, el enfoque más simple sería contar con una \"hoja de información\" para cada accesión. Use esta hoja con todas las referencias bibliográficas que se refieran a la accesión en cuestión y cualquier otro comentario adicional (\"variedad de alto rendimiento\") o información específica (\"porcentaje del contenido mineral de la hoja\"). También podría agregar a la hoja cualquier carta o comunicación que tenga que ver con la accesión y almacenar éstos en un archivo por orden numérico de accesión. Elabore una hoja de información sólo para las accesiones que tienen información, no necesita elaborar hojas en blanco.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosHabrá ocasiones en las que deseará ver los datos en bruto o saber las condiciones precisas de un ensayo de caracterización. En estos casos, hará referencia a la fuente de datos en bruto en el sistema de documentación. Esto significa que deberá guardar los datos en bruto, y no tirarlos. ¿Cómo sigue la pista de los datos en bruto?Los diarios o calendarios de pared (véase Figura 10) son útiles para la planificación del trabajo y el mejor uso del tiempo. Ellos no forman parte del sistema formal de documentación como tal, pero será una herramienta útil para la planificación y como fuente de información posterior. Por supuesto, si trabaja en un banco de germoplasma grande, sería difícil conservar un diario de todo lo que sucede en el banco; pero tratándose de bancos pequeños, el diario puede ser una fuente útil de información posterior.Algunas personas guardan cotidianamente los cuadernos (u hojas) que usan para registrar los datos de sus experimentos, escribiendo estos datos de manera más ordenada en una etapa posterior (como informes) y/o registrándolos formalmente en el sistema de documentación.Capítulo 6: Organización de los diferentes tipos de datosEstos cuadernos deberán guardarse y no tirarse. Tendrán que ser archivados según el tema y la fecha, con el fin de que se puedan localizar posteriormente los datos en bruto. Se debe especificar claramente en la portada del cuaderno/archivo el período de tiempo que representan, (por ejemplo, marzo 1990-noviembre 1991).Haga una referencia a la fuente de los datos en bruto en el sistema Para muchas de las operaciones del banco de germoplasma (regeneración, caracterización, evaluación) se pueden guardar las fechas de las pruebas en el sistema de documentación, de manera que pueda localizar los datos en bruto en fechas posteriores. Por lo tanto, si un ensayo de evaluación empezó el 23 de mayo de 1990, la fecha del ensayo se registra en el sistema de documentación y el cuaderno original está disponible para futuras referencias.½ Solamente el sistema manual: decida si se debe usar un archivo de administración. Determine cómo mantenerlo actualizado en los diferentes procedimientos del banco de germoplasma ½ Haga una lista de los formularios que necesita desarrollar ½ Para cada formulario, experimente con algunos diseños para saber cuál es el más práctico y más fácil de usar En el Capítulo 10 analizaremos la forma de poner en práctica un sistema de documentación. Los Capítulos 7, 8 y 9 tratan específicamente los sistemas de documentación computadorizados. Ejercicios 1.Indique si los siguientes enunciados son verdaderos o falsos:a. Los formularios que se llenan a mano se usan solamente para los sistemas de documentación manual b. Es preferible usar formularios preimpresos c. Es una buena idea diseñar formularios que puedan contener tantos datos como sea posible d Se puede usar un sistema de documentación manual como copia de seguridad de un sistema de documentación computadorizado e. Es posible diseñar mas de un archivo de administración f. Cuando los descriptores de manejo se clasifican en más de un lugar se asegura su consistencia g. Todos los archivos de documentación manual deberán clasificarse de acuerdo al orden del número de accesión h. Los datos en bruto no forman parte de un sistema de documentación y deben ser eliminados i. Los cuadernos de laboratorio deberán ser llenados de acuerdo a sus números de accesión 2.Liste las ocasiones en las que no es posible registrar los datos directamente en un sistema de documentación.¿Cómo diseñaría un formulario para la entrada de datos que sea fácil de usar?Liste las etapas en el proceso de construcción de un sistema de documentación manual.¿Qué tipo de datos debe contener un archivo de administración? Explique como funcionaria el archivo de administración para evitar discrepancias con otros archivos.¿Por qué se deben organizar los datos en un orden útil en un sistema de documentación? ¿Cuales son las consecuencias de usar un orden inadecuado?7. ¿Cómo puede trabajar con la información de retroalimentación en un sistema de documentación?8. ¿Por qué es una buena idea conservar los datos en bruto? Describa los formularios que podría usar para seguir la pista de los datos en bruto.Capítulo 7Características básicas de la computadora En el Capítulo 7 se describirán las características básicas de las computadorasen qué consisten, cómo funcionan y su empleo como herramientas de trabajo para realizar una amplia gama de actividades. Cuando haya terminado este capítulo, será capaz de:½ Listar los usos de una microcomputadora estándar ½ Describir la estructura de una microcomputadora estándar ½ Definir algunos términos básicos que se usan regularmente durante las conversaciones sobre computadoras ½ Explicar en términos generales qué hace un microprocesador ½ Explicar las utilidades de los diferentes discos de la computadora ½ Describir la función de un sistema operativo y dos tipos diferentes de interfaz con el usuario ½ Describir cómo las microcomputadoras difieren en cuanto a diseño del microprocesador y sistema operativo que utilizan ½ Saber perfectamente si un software funcionará o no en la estructura de un hardwareUna de las dificultades más grandes que tendrá que superar cuando esté aprendiendo a usar las computadoras (si nunca o sólo algunas veces las ha usado) es el lenguaje altamente técnico que, con frecuencia, se usa. Algunas veces puede ser bastante amedrentador. Los acrónimos, abreviaturas, palabras raras (algunas de las cuales son muy graciosas) y conceptos extraños, pueden parecer como un conjunto de palabras sin sentido. Usted podría preguntarse \"¿Qué necesito saber para usar una computadora?\" Piense en una persona que está aprendiendo a manejar un auto. Se le enseñan los principios básicos sobre cómo funciona el vehículo, pero no la forma en la que trabaja la combustión interna del motor. El hecho de que una persona sea incapaz de reemplazar el motor no significa que sea un mal conductor. Sin embargo, si tiene información básica sobre cómo trabaja el auto ayudaría si, por ejemplo, el motor falla al arrancar.Se puede razonar de la misma manera cuando se trata de computadoras. Tiene que aprender cómo usarlas para aplicaciones específicas y, en general, saber cómo \"manejarlas\". Ellas pueden ser herramientas de trabajo valiosas, aun cuando usted no sepa todo lo que hay que saber acerca de ellas. Cuanto más use las computadoras, más conocimientos obtendrá. No obstante, no debe obtener este conocimiento a expensas de perder de vista el motivo por el cual, inicialmente, ha adquirido una computadora, es decir, como una herramienta de trabajo.En este capítulo se presenta la información básica que debe conocer para estar en condiciones de usar computadoras; ella se concentra en la clase de computadoras que se usan comúnmente en el laboratorio, oficina o casa. Estas son las llamadas computadoras personales (usualmente abreviadas PC) o microcomputadoras. A veces se denominan computadoras de escritorio, debido a que pueden usarse sobre un escritorio común de oficina.Se exponen las características básicas de la estructura de una microcomputadora, y también se explica cómo (y por qué) las microcomputadoras difieren entre sí. Las instrucciones detalladas sobre el funcionamiento no se incluyen aquí, debido a que difieren con los diferentes tipos de microcomputadoras.En la vida cotidiana, las computadoras se usan cada vez más. Se están convirtiendo en una parte integral de nuestra forma de vivir. Una de las razones principales es el rápido adelanto tecnológico que ha permitido que los componentes eléctricos que se usan para la fabricación de las computadoras sean muy económicos debido a que se fabrican en serie.Los microcircuitos de silicio, los microcircuitos integrados, las plaquetas o sencillamente las tarjetas son porciones delgadas de silicio (de alrededor de 1mm de espesor), las cuales contienen varios miles de componentes eléctricos, tan pequeños que se necesitaría un microscopio para poder verlos. Ellos son potentes dispositivos que tienen una gran cantidad de aplicaciones en la industria electrónica.Un microprocesador es un microcircuito muy potente, que controla los demás componentes de un sistema dado. Los componentes controlados por un microprocesador pueden ser plaquetas diferentes, o piezas separadas de un equipo eléctrico. Por ejemplo, un microprocesador que trabaja con otros componentes realizará los cálculos en una calculadora manual, señalará el nivel de exposición en una cámara y controlará las condiciones en un experimento de electroforesis. Realmente hay mil circunstancias en las que se usan los microprocesadores. ¿Significa esto que hay mil microprocesadores diferentes, uno para cada situación? La respuesta es no.Se le tienen que dar instrucciones a un microprocesador para que sepa qué tiene que hacer y cómo debe funcionar. Estas instrucciones están contenidas en un microcircuito aparte. Esto significa que se puede usar el mismo microprocesador con diferentes juegos de instrucciones para varias aplicaciones diferentes. A pesar de ello, hay numerosos diseños de microprocesadores -algunos más potentes que otros, los cuales se usan para objetivos completamente diferentes. Por ejemplo, un microprocesador que se usa para navegación aeronáutica, seguramente será más potente que uno que se usa para un reloj despertador.En los ejemplos mencionados anteriormente, el microprocesador es destinado a una tarea específica. Pero no ocurre lo mismo para el microprocesador en una microcomputadora. Se puede fabricar para que realice una gran cantidad de tareas diferentes, siempre que se le impartan las instrucciones correspondientes. Esto significa que se puede usar la computadora para varias aplicaciones diferentes que incluyen: la administración o manejo de la base de datos, el procesamiento de textos, la administración de cuentas, la publicación mediante computadora, el diseño gráfico y, además, el envío de faxes. La computadora es por lo tanto, un instrumento muy flexible.Debemos estudiar a las computadoras más detenidamente, dado que constituyen una parte muy importante del sistema de documentación de un banco de germoplasma.Características de la estructura de una microcomputadora estándar Definiciones: HARDWARE (Soporte físico)Nombre que se da a todos los elementos físicos que componen una computadora. PROGRAMA Nombre de una serie de instrucciones lógicas que se dan a la computadora para realizar una tarea determinada. SOFTWARE (Soporte lógico) Nombre general que se da a un programa o grupo de programas que realizan una tarea determinada. Por ejemplo, el software para la administración de la base de datos, el software para el procesamiento de textos. Nota: Los términos software y programa con frecuencia se usan intercambiablemente.En la Figura 2 se ilustra el sistema hardware de una microcomputadora estándar. Se compone de un monitor, un teclado, una unidad de sistema que contiene el microprocesador, una impresora y, a veces, un ratón.Capítulo 7: Características básicas de la computadora ½ 137Hay dos formas de dar instrucciones a una microcomputadora. La primera es escribir las instrucciones en un teclado como el de la máquina de escribir (véase Figura 3a). Todas las microcomputadoras tienen un teclado y un monitor (o unidad de despliegue visual) que muestra lo que se ha escrito en ellas (véase Figura 3b). Las instrucciones pueden ser que comience a funcionar algún software, o si el software ya está funcionando y se está produciendo un documento o un archivo, el monitor muestra lo que se ha escrito.Existen varios tipos de monitores que varían en términos de capacidad de resolución, los requisitos de hardware/software y, por supuesto, según el precio. De la resolución más simple hasta la más compleja, estos tipos de monitores incluyen una tarjeta adaptadora de gráficos en colores (CGA), un adaptador de realce de gráficos (EGA), una matriz de gráficos de vídeo (VGA) y una super matriz de gráficos de vídeo. Existen varias consideraciones técnicas que hay que tomar en cuenta para escoger el monitor adecuado. Por ejemplo, si está realizando un trabajo que incluye muchos gráficos de computadora, necesitará un monitor de alta resolución, tal como una super matriz de gráficos de vídeo. También algunas aplicaciones especializadas requieren el uso de pantallas sensibles al tacto para la entrada de información -el usuario simplemente toca una zona de la pantalla. En todos los casos deberá poner a prueba el monitor con las combinaciones de hardware/software que usará para controlar la calidad de la visualización.La segunda forma de introducir las instrucciones es mediante el uso del ratón de la computadora. No todas las microcomputadoras tienen un ratón adicional. El ratón es una pequeña caja plástica portátil, con uno o más botones en la parte superior, conectada a la unidad de sistema o a veces al teclado, por un cable -o por una señal de radio, en cuyo caso no se necesita del cable (véase Figura 4).Cuando se mueve el ratón en una superficie plana, generalmente una zona próxima al teclado, hay un movimiento correspondiente del puntero o indicador sobre la pantalla. El puntero es a menudo una flecha. Se dan las instrucciones indicándolas, pulsando sobre ellas y arrastrando los objetos que se visualizan en la pantalla. Se requiere muy poco mecanografiado. Generalmente resulta difícil trabajar con los programas gráficos sin la ayuda de un ratón.El cerebro de cualquier computadora es un microprocesador situado dentro de la unidad de sistema (véase Figura 5). Este microprocesador esencial se denomina unidad central de procesamiento o UCP. Esta controla los demás componentes del sistema, incluyendo otros microcircuitos.Las plaquetas especiales denominadas microcircuitos de memoria están conectadas a la UCP. La memoria es el espacio de trabajo electrónico de la computadora. La medida del espacio de trabajo influye en la medida del programa que la computadora maneja y en la velocidad a la que el programa puede funcionar.Capítulo 7: Características básicas de la computadora ½ 139Una computadora tiene diferentes tipos de memoria, los cuales se usan para objetivos diferentes. La memoria de acceso aleatorio o RAM (Random access memory) es la parte de la memoria que se usa generalmente cuando se trabaja con programas o archivos. Se usa para información que se escoge al azar. La información contenida en la RAM se pierde cuando se apaga la computadora.El segundo tipo de memoria de la computadora es la memoria de sola lectura o ROM (Read-only memory). Como su nombre lo indica, este tipo de memoria contiene información que se puede leer pero no se puede modificar. Las instrucciones que necesita una computadora para comenzar a trabajar cuando se enciende están contenidas en la ROM. La información contenida en la ROM no se pierde, ni siquiera cuando se apaga la computadora.La unidad de sistema también tiene enchufes a los cuales se pueden conectar el teclado, el monitor, la impresora y otro equipo,Los discos de las computadoras son dispositivos de almacenamiento. En ellos se pueden almacenar los programas y los datos.Es similar al uso de casetes en una radio-grabadora; usted puede grabar música en un casete y luego reproducirla. Si decide que no quiere conservar más la música, la puede borrar grabando música nueva sobre la música anterior. De la misma manera se pueden dar instrucciones a la computadora (usando el teclado o el ratón) para usar (o reproducir) los programas y/o los datos almacenados en los discos. Si decide que no quiere almacenar más los programas específicos o los datos, puede indicarle a la computadora que los borre. Hay dos clases de discos de la computadora, los discos duros y los disquetes. Ellos se describirán en las secciones siguientes.Muchas computadoras tienen lo que se denomina disco duro. Casi todos los discos duros están situados permanentemente dentro de la unidad de sistema y no son removibles. Pueden tener una capacidad grande de almacenamiento y generalmente se usan para almacenar los programas y los datos. Los discos duros trabajan más rápido que los disquetes cuando almacenan y recuperan datos o programas.El segundo tipo de disco es el denominado disquete. Se usan comúnmente dos tamaños: 31/2 pulgadas y 51/4 pulgadas. Los disquetes difieren de los discos duros en la cantidad de información que pueden almacenar, pues tienen una capacidad de almacenamiento mucho más pequeña (frecuentemente cien veces menor que los discos duros). Sin embargo, tienen la ventaja de ser muy portátiles, de manera que se pueden transportar fácilmente. Con frecuencia los disquetes se utilizan para introducir nuevos programas o datos en el disco duro, o para transferir datos o programas entre computadoras diferentes. Los encontrará muy útiles cuando intercambie los datos con otros bancos de germoplasma.Los disquetes almacenan los datos cuando una cabeza magnética escribe sobre la superficie del disco. Debe tener especial cuidado de no exponer los discos a campos magnéticos debido a que se podrían dañar o borrar los datos almacenados. Los campos magnéticos pueden ser el resultado de las radiaciones emitidas desde atrás del monitor de la computadora, como también de imanes y de otros electrodomésticos. Los disquetes no se dañan cuando se exponen a rayos-X.Capítulo 7: Características básicas de la computadoraDebido a que los disquetes (especialmente los de 51/4 pulgadas) son plásticos delgados y flexibles, para evitar eventuales daños se deben colocar en una caja rígida o de cartón antes de transportarlos.Cada disquete se debe preparar antes de almacenar la información. Este proceso de preparación denominado formateo o formateado organiza la superficie del disco de manera que la información se pueda almacenar y leer. El formateado borrará toda la información previamente almacenada en un disco. Para saber cómo formatear un disquete deberá consultar las instrucciones contenidas en el manual principal de la computadora.La unidad de sistema contiene espacios para los discos de la computadora. Estos espacios contienen dispositivos que copian o recuperan la información de los discos. Estos dispositivos se conocen con el nombre de unidades de disco. Las unidades de disquete son ranuras visibles situadas en la unidad de sistema, mientras que la unidad del disco duro está oculta dentro de la unidad de sistema.El CD-ROM (disco compacto con memoria de sola lectura) es una adaptación de la tecnología de audio que usa discos idénticos en apariencia a los discos compactos de audio o CD. Estos discos se denominan también discos ópticos. Una forma de almacenar grandes cantidades de información es mediante el uso del CD-ROM que le permite al usuario acceder a archivos de información grandes (por ejemplo, bases de datos bibliográficas, imágenes, ilustraciones y trabajos de texto completo), los cuales necesitarían demasiado espacio para conservarse permanentemente en una microcomputadora estándar. El disco compacto actual es muy portátil, pero para leer los datos se necesita conectar a la unidad de sistema un tipo de disco diferente, un dispositivo para disco compacto ROM (véase figura 9).Los progresos recientes en tecnología de CD-ROM han hecho posible la lectura y la escritura de datos en discos ópticos. Un ejemplo de esta tecnología es un dispositivo denominado disco óptico WORM (escribir una vez, leer muchas), que le permite almacenar los datos una vez, pero leerlos tantas veces como lo desee. Todavía no se ha generalizado el uso de esta tecnología. Hasta que se vuelva de uso corriente, muchos de los discos compactos disponibles sólo le permitirán ver los datos almacenados, más que cambiar los datos existentes o agregar nuevos datos.Capítulo 7: Características básicas de la computadoraPara imprimir cartas y otros documentos, generalmente se conectará una impresora a la computadora. Existen varios tipos y modelos de impresoras disponibles. A continuación se mencionan los tipos más comunes.Impresora de rueda tipo margarita. Este es un tipo básico de impresora que genera los caracteres de la misma forma que lo hace una máquina de escribir -golpeando una cinta entintada con un carácter moldeado. Este tipo de impresora puede ser muy ruidoso.Impresora matricial (o de matriz) de puntos. Este es otro modelo básico de impresora que genera los caracteres electrónicamente, manipulando una matriz de agujas minúsculas que forman los caracteres requeridos (véase Figura 10a). La calidad de los caracteres generados por estas impresoras no es buena, pero son relativamente económicas, rápidas y versátiles. También pueden ser muy ruidosas.Impresora de chorro de tinta. Este es un tipo de impresora sin percusión. Con comandos electrónicos imprime los caracteres, uno a la vez, mediante descargas de tinta. La calidad de la impresión es mucho mejor que la de las impresoras matriciales y no son tan ruidosas, pero son más costosas.Impresora láser. Estas impresoras usan tecnología de rayo láser para producir imágenes de texto y gráficos de buena calidad. La mayoría de ellas ofrece un amplio surtido de tipos de letra. Son más costosas que los otros tipos de impresoras (véase Figura 10b).La impresora matricial y la impresora de rueda tipo margarita son los tipos básicos de impresora, resultan muy adecuadas para imprimir informes simples. Sin embargo, si tiene la posibilidad de usar otro tipo de impresora; como la de chorro de tinta o una impresora láser, las encontrará más flexibles para imprimir informes y cartas y éstos parecerán más profesionales.Diferentes impresoras pueden usar lenguajes diferentes para describir la forma en la que el texto o la imagen aparecen en una página. Estos lenguajes se denominan lenguajes de descripción de página. Algunas impresoras son capaces de imprimir páginas en lenguajes diferentes. El PostScrip tm es un ejemplo que se usa comúnmente para el lenguaje de descripción de página.Se puede conectar a una computadora otro equipo que puede mejorar su funcionamiento y su utilidad. En las secciones siguientes se discuten algunos de ellos. Recuerde que la tecnología de las computadoras está en constante evolución, por lo tanto, trate de mantenerse informado sobre los nuevos y emocionantes progresos que encontrará en las revistas y diarios sobre computadoras.Los cortes de electricidad provocan temor a la gente que trabaja con computadoras porque cuando ello sucede, se puede perder el trabajo, se pueden dañar los archivos y se pueden alterar los datos. Se puede proteger el sistema de los cortes de electricidad utilizando un suministro eléctrico continuo. Este actúa como interfaz entre la computadora y la fuente principal de energía eléctrica; cuando éste detecta una disminución o una pérdida de la energía, inmediatamente interviene y suministra energía de su propia batería. No la puede suministrar indefinidamente pero le dará el tiempo suficiente para grabar el trabajo y para salir del programa que estaba utilizando. En consecuencia, el suministro eléctrico continuo es altamente deseable si los cortes de energía son frecuentes en su lugar de trabajo.Un regulador de voltaje está diseñado para proteger su sistema contra cualquier fluctuación en el suministro de energía, tal como un aumento o disminución. Tales fluctuaciones pueden tener consecuencias desastrosas que varían desde el comportamiento errático del equipo (produce pérdida de datos) hasta el daño difundido e irreparable al sistema que podría provocar la caída de un rayo en el edificio. Un regulador de voltaje es por lo tanto altamente deseable si se producen fluctuaciones en la corriente eléctrica en su lugar de trabajo. Podría comprar un suministro eléctrico continuo y un regulador de voltaje combinados en la misma unidad, consulte a su agente de computadoras para más información.Un módem (véase Figura 11) es un dispositivo que convierte las señales que genera una computadora de manera que se puedan transmitir a través de una línea telefónica. Un módem en el lado receptor reconvierte las señales para que las use la computadora receptora. Por lo tanto, un módem permite la comunicación entre las computadoras. Generalmente se usan para acceder a computadoras de telegestión que contienen bases de datos grandes (e.g. bases de datos bibliográficas) o software especializados (e.g. para biología molecular). La computadora de telegestión podría contar también con el servicio de correo electrónico que le permite enviar y recibir mensajes electrónicos por todo el mundo. Los módem especializados (los denominados módem para fax) le permiten enviar y recibir faxes.Capítulo 7: Características básicas de la computadora ½145En la misma forma que una fotocopiadora produce la imagen de una página y la imprime, el analizador produce la imagen de una página y la almacena como un archivo de computadora. Los analizadores se utilizan ampliamente en el trabajo científico en el análisis de geles electroforéticos. En la oficina los analizadores y el software especializado son muy útiles para leer texto de una página, convirtiéndolo en texto computadorizado, lo cual evita su tediosa reescritura a máquina.Los dispositivos de entrada con lápiz permiten una forma directa pero manual de introducir los datos o imágenes en la computadora. Una forma común es usar una tablilla gráfica. Esta es una placa plana sobre la cual se coloca el papel que contiene la imagen; utilizando una lapicera especial se puede marcar una serie de posiciones sobre la hoja y éstas se introducen directamente en la computadora. Comúnmente se denomina este proceso digitalización.. Esto es de gran utilidad cuando se trabaja con los datos de cartografía.Otro dispositivo de entrada con lápiz que es muy útil para introducir los datos de los códigos de barra, es el lápiz óptico (o lector del código de barras). Como hemos visto en el Capítulo 5, los códigos de barra se están utilizando cada vez más en la administración de existencias de los bancos de germoplasma. Si este tipo de tecnología está a su alcance, úsela como una ayuda para su trabajo.Es posible comprar unidades de disco adicionales para la computadora, desde las unidades de disco convencionales de 31/2 y 51/4 pulgadas hasta los cartuchos removibles que tienen una capacidad similar a la de los discos duros. Se pueden comprar también dispositivos con cintas magnéticas para copiar el disco duro completo -que son las denominadas cintas serpentinasideales para el registro de archivos grandes de datos y como salvaguardia contra posibles pérdidas.Cómo trabaja una microcomputadora Hemos visto las diferentes características de una microcomputadora típica y también sus usos. Hemos considerado que la microcomputadora consta de:Una UCP que controla los demás componentes del sistema (esencial) ½ Un teclado para la entrada de instrucciones (escencial) ½ Un ratón para la entrada de instrucciones (opcional) ½ Un monitor para visualizar los resultados (escencial) ½Uno o más discos para almacenar los programas y los datos (escencial) ½ Una impresora para imprimir los documentos (altamente deseable) ½ Equipo perisférico conectado a la computadora que funciona a través de la computadora (opcional)Hemos hablado de cómo una microcomputadora no hará nada a menos que se le den instrucciones. Entonces ¿cómo puede hacer para que trabaje una microcomputadora? ¿Cómo le dice a la microcomputadora que trabaje como un ordenador de textos, un administrador de una base de datos y demás?El sector de carga inicial es el área del disco a la cual se recurre cada vez que la computadora arranca, para obtener las instrucciones sobre cómo funcionar. Cuando se enciende una computadora, en primer lugar busca en las unidades de disquete para recuperar las instrucciones de arranque. Si las unidades están vacías, la computadora busca en el sector de carga inicial del disco duro para obtener sus instrucciones de arranque.Cuando se enciende la computadora, ella automáticamente \"ejecuta\" un programa importante denominado sistema operativo. Este seguirá funcionando durante todo el tiempo que la computadora esté encendida. El sistema operativo controla el funcionamiento de los programas y la comunicación con el teclado, el monitor, el ratón, los discos, las impresoras y cualquier otro equipo eléctrico conectado a la computadora. Sin un sistema operativo, no se le podría transmitir nada a la computadora. Es la interfaz entre el usuario y la computadora. El sistema operativo le permite:Hacer funcionar programas (e.g. ordenadores de texto, administradores de bases de datos, etc.) ½ Organizar su trabajo (e.g. agregar, modificar o borrar algún programa o los datos almacenados en el disco)Con un poco más de experiencia, puede comenzar a usar el sistema operativo para adaptar a su medida la forma en la que la computadora funciona y la forma en que se visualiza la información (por ejemplo, el color de la pantalla).Existen dos formas con las que un usuario puede interactuar con el sistema operativo. Esto depende del tipo de interfaz del usuario.Interfaz de línea de instrucciones. Estos sistemas requieren que se escriban las instrucciones en el teclado. Para usar este tipo de sistemas, es necesario conocer algunas instrucciones básicas. A un usuario ocasional le puede parecer bastante difícil, debido a que hay más de 50 instrucciones diferentes que se usan comúnmente. Un ejemplo de este tipo de sistema operativo es el MS-DOS®. (Véase figura 12). 2. Interfaz gráfica. Estos sistemas aceptan instrucciones mediante menúes y símbolos que se seleccionan de la pantalla de la computadora (véase Figura 13). El ratón se usa generalmente para la selección, pero con frecuencia los usuarios encuentran más veloz usar el teclado. Los menúes y símbolos gráficos representan instrucciones para la computadora, así como también programas y archivos de los datos que se han almacenado en los discos. Generalmente los sistemas operativos que están orientados hacia los gráficos son mucho más fáciles de manejar para usuarios ocasionales. Indicando y pulsando sobre los símbolos se puede explorar el sistema operativo y descubrir cómo se realizan las tareas con muy poca capacitación. Los sistemas operativos de Microsoft, Windows tm , y Apple tm , Macintosh tm , son algunos ejemplos de este tipo de sistema operativo.Es necesario conocer los principios básicos de un sistema operativo antes de comenzar a usar la computadora. Pero no se debe tratar de aprender todo, pues exige mucho tiempo y no es imprescindible.¿Cómo traduce la computadora la entrada de los comandos (mediante el ratón o el teclado) en instrucciones para realizar una tarea específica?Capítulo 7: Característícas básicas de la computadora ½ 149El software es un programa o grupo de programas mediante el cual se le dan instrucciones a la computadora para que realice tareas específicas. El software es quien traduce los comandos que se introducen en la computadora en un lenguaje que ésta puede entender.Afortunadamente, no se espera que usted escriba todos los programas. Hay muchos programas sofisticados para usos generales que están disponibles en todas partes. Por ejemplo, se puede comprar software para tratamiento de textos, para contabilidad, para administración de la base de datos, para administración de proyectos, para diseño gráfico, para publicación o edición mediante computadora y para detección y eliminación de virus.Cualquier software comercial que compre tendrá un manual detallado que le proporcionará las instrucciones sobre el funcionamiento y algunas lecciones adicionales que le permitirán practicar lo que ya ha aprendido.El uso del software de administración de bases de datos puede ser un poco más complicado que el de los demás software. A veces tiene que dedicar algún tiempo al aprendizaje del lenguaje de la base de datos para obtener el máximo rendimiento del software,Los virus de las computadoras son programas indeseables que se distribuyen entre computadoras, usualmente a través de disquetes o de redes, y a menudo causan daño a los archivos de las computadoras. Así como los virus biológicos, sus efectos pueden variar en intensidad. A veces pueden ser irritantes pero al mismo tiempo inocuos. Otras, pueden tener efectos devastadores, destruyendo el trabajo e interrumpiendo el funcionamiento de la computadora.A continuación se mencionan algunos de los efectos provocados por los virus:Daño permanente a archivos de datos y a archivos de programas ½ Borradura de grandes zonas del disco duro o del disquete ½ Funcionamiento lento de la computadora ½Comportamiento inesperado e irregular de la computadora ½ Cambios en el funcionamiento de los periféricos (e.g. módem, impresoras)Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GeneticosLos virus de la computadora se pueden clasificar de diversas maneras. La forma más útil es clasificarlos según la parte del sistema que atacan. Pueden identificarse dos clases: los virus de archivo y los virus del sector de carga inicial.Un virus de archivo infecta los archivos, generalmente los archivos de programa. Cuando se abre el archivo de un programa que está infectado, se activa el virus y queda activo durante todo el tiempo que se use el programa. Con frecuencia este virus se transmitirá a otros archivos del programa. Si se infectan los archivos del sistema operativo, el virus estará activo durante todo el tiempo que la computadora esté. trabajando.Un virus del sector de carga inicial infecta el sector de arranque del disco duro o del disquete. Si se infecta esta zona, el virus se activará cada vez que la computadora arranque. Estos virus se distribuyen muy fácil y rápidamente debido a que se transmiten a través del sistema operativo de la computadora que está trabajando continuamente. Se puede infectar la computadora por el simple hecho de listar los archivos de un disquete infectado.A continuación se mencionan otros tipos de virus de los que hay que estar alerta:Gusanos: son los virus que infectan las redes de las computadoras ½ Bombas: estos virus entran en acción (o \"detonan\") en una fecha particular ½ Caballos de Troya: estos nos son virus en el sentido estricto de la palabra. Son aparentemente programas inocentes (e.g. los programas de juegos), los cuales causan serios daños a los discos de la computadora Los virus son una causa por la que vale la pena preocuparse y usted querrá estar seguro de que ninguno se introduzca en su sistema. Hay una serie de pasos que se pueden seguir para mantener al sistema libre de virus. Se hablará de ellos en el Capítulo 10 que trata sobre la Ejecución y mantenimiento del sistema.Diferencias entre las microcomputadoras ¿Son iguales todas las microcomputadoras? Para responder a esta pregunta global, tenemos que analizar más detenidamente dos características fundamentales de la microcomputadora: el microprocesador y el sistema operativo.Capítulo 7: Característícas básicas de la computadora ½ 151Hemos visto ya en este capítulo que, en el corazón de cada microcomputadora había una microcircuito especial denominado microprocesador el cual desarrolla las siguientes actividades:1.Trabaja con otros componentes eléctricos (incluyendo otros microcircuitos).Controla gran parte de los otros componentes y cualquier otra cosa conectada con la computadora. El diseño de este microprocesador es fundamental para el funcionamiento general de la computadora.Hay diferentes familias de microprocesadores, denominadas familias porque contienen microprocesadores que se basan en el mismo diseño original. Cada vez con más frecuencia se desarrolla una nueva generación de micoprocesadores con mejor funcionamiento técnico. Estos continuarán trabajando con los software diseñados para los microprocesadores antiguos. Pero el software que se ha escrito para la nueva generación de microprocesadores, se ha escrito para sacar ventajas de las nuevas capacidades y, en consecuencia, no trabajará con los microprocesadores anteriores.Un ejemplo de una familia de microprocesadores es la familia Intel®: 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486 (ordenados según la generación y el aumento de capacidad de procesamiento). Esta familia de microprocesadores ha sentado las bases para la serie de microcomputadoras populares IBM® PC. Otro ejemplo es la serie de microprocesadores del Motorola 680XO, que se usa en las computadoras Apple tm Macintosh tm .Hay muchas familias de microprocesadores. El software escrito para una familia de microprocesadores no trabajará con otra familia de microprocesadores. Sin embargo, es posible (en teoría, si no lo es en la práctica), trasladar un programa de una máquina a otra. Para lograrlo, se le deben dar las instrucciones para que trabaje con un microprocesador y un sistema operativo diferentes.El sistema operativo se diseña para que funcione con un microprocesador particular o con una familia de microprocesadores.Hemos visto anteriormente que había dos tipos de interfaz del sistema operativo: la interfaz de línea de instrucciones y la interfaz gráfica. A veces se pueden elegir los dos tipos de interfaz pero se puede usar uno a la vez solamente. Algunos software trabajarán con un sólo tipo de sistema operativo. Sin embargo, otros software han sido adaptados para producir otras versiones que trabajan con sistemas operativos diferentes.Los fabricantes de software mejoran permanentemente. el sistema operativo, y cada tanto dan a conocer versiones actualizadas. Los software escritos para que funcionen con las versiones anteriores del sistema operativo, trabajarán igualmente con la nueva versión. Sin embargo, algunos software creados para la nueva versión del sistema operativo, se escriben para sacar ventajas de las nuevas capacidades y características y, en consecuencia, no trabajarán con los sistemas operativos anteriores.Los disquetes son formateados para un sistema operativo particular. Esto significa que no siempre se puede trabajar con el mismo disquete en microcomputadoras diferentes. Ello depende de la combinación de microprocesador y/o sistema operativo que los programas tienen en el disco para trabajar, o de los programas que tienen en el disco para producir archivos. Los recientes progresos tecnológicos han hecho posible que algunas microcomputadoras puedan usar la información registrada por una combinación diferente de microprocesador/sistema operativo. Sin embargo, esto no es en la actualidad de uso corriente.La capacidad del disco indica la cantidad de información que un disco puede almacenar. La capacidad del disco no se relaciona directamente con el tamaño físico,sino que depende de las propiedades de almacenamiento de la superficie magnética del disco y del tipo de formateado de éste. Muchas unidades de disquete de las computadoras comunes permiten el acceso de datos que se encuentran en disquetes con una capacidad de almacenamiento diferente. De todas maneras, los modelos antiguos de computadoras sólo pueden tener acceso a discos con menor capacidad de almacenamiento. Consulte el manual de la computadora para obtener más información acerca de las diferentes capacidades de disco que se pueden usar en su(s) unidad(es) de disquete. Esto tendrá mucha importancia cuando intercambie archivos de datos entre microcomputadoras, si las unidades en las diferentes computadoras no son idénticas.Capítulo 7: Característícas básicas de la computadora ½ 153Algunos software pueden necesitar, además de una combinación específica de microprocesador/sistema operativo, una potencia adicional, que puede ser la siguiente:Una memoria grande ½ Un tipo particular de monitor ½ Una capacidad de almacenamiento grande del disco duro ½ Un ratón de computadora ½ Un tipo particular de impresora ½ Otro equipo conectado a la computadora ½ Un co-procesador matemático -un microprocesador que trabaja conjuntamente con la UCP, y que realiza más eficazmente determinadas tareas (especialmente los cálculos matemáticos)Finalmente, cuando compre el software acuérdese de todas estas exigencias. Después de todo, no querrá tirar su dinero en un software que no podrá usar.Hay varias medidas de seguridad que se deben tomar durante el funcionamiento de una computadora. Al igual que otros equipos eléctricos, las computadoras son sensibles al ambiente en el cual trabajan y cualquier condición adversa puede provocar una falla eventual del equipo que podría causar pérdida o deterioro de la información. Muchas de estas medidas de seguridad están contenidas en el manual que se suministra con la computadora. A continuación se mencionan algunas consideraciones generales.La zona de trabajo ½ Tenga la computadora en una superficie de trabajo plana y amplia con suficiente espacio para acomodar cualquier equipo periférico. ½ Asegúrese de que el aire pueda circular adecuadamente de manera que no se recaliente el equipo. ½ Asegúrese de que tiene espacio suficiente para apoyar los libros o papeles que tendrá que consultar cuando trabaje con la computadora -se sentirá más cómodo y trabajará con más eficacia. Si usa el ratón, deje suficiente espacio para moverlo.Conserve los cables en orden y lejos de los sitios de peligro -no los deje colgando por el suelo, cualquiera podría tropezar con ellos. Si tiene problemas con los cables que cuelgan, analice una posible reorganización de la oficina de manera que la computadora quede más cerca de los enchufes. Cuando conecte equipo perisférico a la computadora, hágalo cuidadosamente y no forcejee con el enchufe en la toma de corriente. Para mayor seguridad, apague todo el equipo antes de conectarlo.Algunos líquidos de limpieza pueden dañar la superficie o el monitor de la computadora, por lo tanto asegúrese de que usa el tipo de líquido correcto.A menos que la computadora sea portátil, evite moverla más de lo absolutamente necesario. ½ Sea cuidadoso cuando mueva la computadora -asegúrese de que esté aislada de cualquier vibración o golpe mediante el uso del material de empaque o contenedor para transporte original.Coloque un disquete en blanco en la unidad del disquete para protegerlo.En el Capítulo 10 analizaremos la seguridad de los datos y las formas en las que puede asegurar la integridad de los datos. Ejercicios 1.Indique si los siguientes enunciados son verdaderos o falsos:a.Las computadoras contienen microprocesadores. b.Se pueden dar las instrucciones a la computadora usando el teclado o el ratón. c.La memoria de la computadora es la cantidad de espacio contenido en el disco duro. d.Con frecuencia un disquete contiene 100 veces mas espacio que un disco duro. e.Los discos compactos con memoria de solo lectura tienen una capacidad grande de almacenamiento de datos y se usan para bases de datos de literatura. f.El sistema operativo puede controlar el funcionamiento de todo el equipo conectado a la unidad de sistema. g.Los sistemas operativos están diseñados para trabajar con familias de microprocesadores diferentes. h.En general, el software escrito para una versión antigua de un sistema operativo no trabajará con las nuevas versiones del sistema operativo. i.En general, el software escrito para una generación antigua de un microprocesador no trabajará con las nuevas generaciones del microprocesador. j.Mientras más grande sea un disco en tamaño físico, más datos podrá contener.Llene los espacios en blanco:a. ________________es la zona de trabajo electrónico de la computadora b._____________es el microprocesador principal o \"cerebro\" que controla las otras partes del sistema c._____________es una pequeña caja plástica portátil, que cuando se mueve sobre una superficie plana, controla el movimiento del puntero sobre la pantalla d.Muchos programas y datos son almacenados en ________________. e.Los discos compactos de tecnología de audio han sido adaptados para almacenar grandes cantidades de datos en sistemas denominados _________________________ f.Si quiere comunicarse con otra computadora a través de una línea de teléfono necesitaría usar _______________________ 9.__________________es una zona del disco a la que se recurre cuando arranca la computadora. Es también el blanco para un tipo de virus particular h.Los virus se transmiten fácilmente entre las computadoras a través de una red o mediante el uso de _________________ infectadosListe el hardware que desearía encontrar en la estructura de una microcomputadora. Mencione brevemente sus funciones.¿Cuáles son las diferencias entre los discos duros y los disquetes? ¿Qué otro tipo de tecnología se usa para almacenar y recuperar datos?Liste los diferentes tipos de impresoras que se encuentran. ¿Cuáles son los tipos adecuados para imprimir los gráficos de computadora de buena calidad?6. ¿Cuáles son las posibles consecuencias de la fluctuación de la energía en la estructura de una computadora típica?¿Cómo se podrían evitar estas consecuencias?7.Se pueden introducir datos en la computadora mediante el teclado o con la ayuda de un ratón. ¿Cuáles son las otras formas de introducir datos en la computadora?Liste los diferentes tipos de virus de la computadora y sus características.Algunos disquetes trabajarán en una computadora, pero no lo harán en otra. Mencione las razones.10. Si está instalando una nueva computadora en su oficina ¿cuáles son los pasos que debe seguir para lograr la seguridad de la gente que usa la computadora y la seguridad de la computadora?Capítulo 8En este capítulo analizaremos más detenidamente cómo se puede construir un sistema de documentación computadorizado para los datos de grupo de accesiones específicas usando el software de administración (manejo) de la base de datos. También veremos brevemente cómo se pueden manejar los datos de grupo. Cuando haya terminado este capítulo, estará en condiciones de: Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos GenétícosPara el diseño de una buena base de datos, es fundamental la creación de archivos que tengan un objetivo perfectamente definido y una estructura lógica.Generalmente, los diferentes descriptores que se usan con cada uno de los elementos en un procedimiento determinado, o relacionados con los otros de alguna manera, se pueden agrupar en un sólo archivo de la base de datos. En muchos casos esto es obvio; por ejemplo, no se deberían tener los datos de existencias en un archivo que se usa para la evaluación del germoplasma.Cada archivo debe tener una estructura claramente definida para el almacenamiento de los datos. Esto influirá en la facilidad con que se pueden registrar, actualizar y recuperar los datos. Si los archivos tienen una estructura mal diseñada, ello dará como resultado un sistema poco flexible, ineficaz y problemático.La eficacia de una base de datos depende de las capacidades y características del software de administración que se use. Dado que las capacidades pueden variar considerablemente entre paquetes de programas diferentes, es vital dedicarle tiempo al estudio del software disponible para asegurarse de que satisface sus necesidades. Recuerde que mucho de los software de base de datos disponibles comercialmente, pueden ser creados especialmente para satisfacer las necesidades específicas del sistema de documentación de su banco del germoplasma.En el análisis del banco de germoplasma habrá identificado grupos significativos de descriptores que sirven para registrar los datos y para recuperar la información. El ejemplo más simple de tal grupo, es la composición de una página única en el sistema de documentación manual y un archivo correspondiente en el sistema computadorizado.Si se considera el ejemplo del secado de semillas que se describió en el Capítulo 4, se podría definir una lista que conste de los siguientes descriptores:Número de accesión Referencia del lote Contenido final de humedad Fecha de determinación final del contenido de humedad Peso de 1000 semillas Una vez que haya definido esta lista de descriptores, se puede diseñar la composición de página en un sistema manual, tal vez, algo similar a la Figura 1.Se puede idear cada archivo de la base de datos de la misma forma que la Figura 1. En realidad cada archivo se denomina frecuentemente tabla.Un campo es la sección del archivo (o tabla) que contiene siempre el mismo descriptor. Se puede considerar a cada columna de la Figura 2 como un campo, cada descriptor ocupa un campo en la tabla.Un registro es un grupo de campos diferentes que se manejan como una unidad. Un registro contiene descriptores diferentes que se refieren a un elemento único. En la Figura 3, un registro corresponde a una hilera.El ejemplo de la Figura 1 contiene dos registros y cinco campos: en los registros para los números de accesión 1363 y 1427, podemos distinguir que hay campos para el número de accesión, la referencia del lote, la fecha de determinación final del contenido de humedad, el peso de 1000 semillas y el contenido final de humedad.Cuando se diseña un formulario que se llena a mano, se tiene que decidir cuáles son los descriptores que aparecerán en el formulario, y cuán ancha debe ser cada columna, de manera que haya suficiente espacio para los datos que se desean registrar. Con las bases de datos computadorizadas, también es necesario especificar cómo se deben manejar los datos en los diferentes campos, pero, como veremos posteriormente en este capítulo, quedan todavía muchas características por especificar.A menudo, el diseño del archivo en un sistema de documentación computadorizado, es similar al formato correspondiente en el sistema de documentación manual. Usualmente se usa el mismo grupo de descriptores. Mediante el análisis se determinó que el grupo debía ser práctico en términos de registro de los datos, y práctico en términos de la recuperación de la información. Esto también será válido para ambos sistemas, tanto el manual como el computadorizado.Características del software de administración (manejo) de la base de datos Muchos software de administración de bases de datos le permiten realizar las siguientes actividades:Incorporar nuevos datos ½ Modificar o borrar datos ½ Buscar y recuperar datos para los informes ½ Ordenar datos ½ Importar y exportar datos ½ Modificar la estructura de un archivo según las necesidades de los cambios en la información El software de la base de datos varía de acuerdo con:1. La flexibilidad con la que el software puede realizar estas actividades 2. La facilidad con la que se usa el software 3.Las características adicionales del software tales como el archivo de seguridad y el acceso compartido a los archivos Encontrará dos categorías importantes de software de administración de bases de datos: los administradores de archivos planos y los administradores de bases de datos relacionales, los cuales se analizarán en las dos secciones siguientes.½ 161Los administradores de archivos planos son los tipos más simples de administradores de bases de datos, y generalmente, los más fáciles de entender y de usar. Cada base de datos consta de un archivo único. En cada archivo se pueden realizar las actividades básicas mencionadas anteriormente en una forma flexible, pero en un archivo a la vez solamente. En muchos casos esto es bastante adecuado, pero cuando necesite trabajar con los datos de diferentes archivos al mismo tiempo, tropezará con las limitaciones que tiene un sistema de archivo plano.Con varios de los administradores de archivos planos que existen actualmente, hay diferentes formas de resolver esta dificultad. Generalmente es posible estructurar el sistema de manera que se puedan relacionar archivos diferentes y, de hecho, puedan trabajar simultáneamente. La manera en la que los archivos se relacionarán se debería establecer precisamente desde el comienzo, de manera que se puedan hacer los arreglos necesarios cuando se diseñe la estructura básica de la base de datos. Estudie cuidadosamente las instrucciones del manual del software de la base de datos para realizarlo.Si cree que usará el software de administración de base de datos de archivos planos y desea establecer enlaces entre los archivos, asegúrese primero de que su software es capaz de hacerlo.Los administradores de bases de datos relacionales difieren de los administradores de archivos planos porque se diseñan específicamente para trabajar con más de un archivo al mismo tiempo. Se pueden realizar las actividades básicas enunciadas anteriormente, en más de un archivo a la vez. Esto se logra relacionando dos o más archivos separados a través de un campo, el cual es compartido entre los archivos. Mediante el enlace de todos los archivos, se produce una relación entre ellos. El campo compartido es almacenado una vez solamente, no se duplica en cada archivo, y actúa como enlace entre los diferentes archivos. Se puede trabajar luego con los archivos relacionados simultáneamente. El término técnico para el proceso de enlace de archivos en esta forma se denomina normalización.La teoría de los administradores de bases de datos relacionales es bastante compleja. La descripción anterior es bastante simplificada, pero es suficiente para nuestras necesidades actuales.Cuando se diseña el sistema de documentación del banco de germoplasma, es como si se quisiera relacionar todos los archivos, de manera que se pueda trabajar con los datos de archivos diferentes al mismo tiempo. Tal como se ha señalado anteriormente, se puede hacer de diferentes formas, ello dependerá del tipo de software que haya escogido (un administrador de archivo plano o uno de base de datos relacional).Otra característica importante del encadenamiento de los archivos es que, a veces se puede usar un archivo para modificar los datos en otro archivo. Por ejemplo, podría tener un archivo que detalla la distribución de semillas del almacén y otro archivo que detalla las existencias en el almacén de semillas:Número Para identificar un lote únicamente, es necesario usar ambos, es decir, el número de accesión y la referencia del lote para relacionar los dos archivos. Luego, puede darle las instrucciones al campo \"cantidad de semilla enviada\" para que actualice el archivo del inventario, de manera que indique el peso total de semillas que quedan en el almacén. Para obtener las instrucciones, consulte el manual del software de la base de datos.La capacidad de relacioanar los archivos es, en consecuencia, un recurso muy valioso. Por ejemplo, puede ser muy útil para documentos los datos de accesiones específicas y para recuperar la información almacenada en archivos diferentes, que luego pueden manejarse en forma que usted necesite. Veamos ahora más detalladamente, comó se puede organizar y usar los archivos relacionados en la documentación del banco del germoplasma.La organización de los archivosCuando se relacionan los archivos para producir informes o para actualizar datos, el software tiene que seleccionar los registros correctos con los cuales trabajará. ¿Cómo lo hace?Examine un archivo de registro que contiene un registro por accesión, un archivo de inventario que puede tener uno o más registros para cada accesión (porque el almacén de semillas puede contar con uno o más lotes) y un archivo de evaluación que podría contener varios registros para cada accesión (que representan los ensayos de evaluación realizados en lotes diferentes y en momentos diferentes). ¿Cómo se podrían relacionar estos archivos?A menudo querrá identificar y trabajar con un registro individual. Pero otras, querrá trabajar con un grupo de registros que, por ejemplo, tienen el mismo número de accesión. ¿Cómo puede darle las instrucciones al software para que seleccione el registro correcto, o grupo de registros? ¿Se necesita más de un campo para distinguir un registro individual o un grupo de registros de otro? Es importante aclarar qué campo o combinación de campos se necesitan para identificar los registros con los que se desea trabajar. Tales campos se denominan campos de identificación y se usan para relacionar los diferentes archivos entre sí. La forma en la que se estructuren los enlaces dependerá de si se requiere la identificación de un registro específico o si se desea trabajar con un grupo de registros. En el Cuadro 1 se ilustran algunos ejemplos de los campos de identificación.Tenemos que ver nuevamente los grupos de descriptores representativos que se identificaron en el análisis del banco de germoplasma. Se debería usar su estructura como base para la construcción del sistema de documentación, pero todavía se necesitará realizar alguna modificación para aprovechar todas las ventajas que ofrece el enlace de los archivos.¿Se puede usar cada grupo de descriptores para un archivo separado en la base de datos? La respuesta es \"sí\", si se respetan los siguientes principios:Hemos mencionado la forma en la cual se pueden relacionar los archivos a través de los campos comunes. Sin embargo, debe pensar cuidadosamente acerca de cuáles campos está usando para relacionar los archivos y evitar la duplicación innecesaria de los datos.Los campos que no están relacionados y que están repetidos en dos o más archivos contienen datos redundantes que desperdician un espacio valioso en el disco. También se debe tener en cuenta que si hay que actualizar tales campos en cualquier momento, esto se debe hacer gradualmente, de lo contrario, comenzarán a surgir inconsistencias en la base de datos. También puede ser difícil recordar dónde están situados los campos duplicados. Evite estas inconsistencias desde el principio, no duplique los campos que no estén relacionados en los diferentes archivos.Veamos el ejemplo de un banco de germoplasma. Considere los siguientes archivos para registro, pasaporte y caracterización de una especie de Phaseolus. Hay tres campos que están repetidos, estos son: el número de accesión, el nombre científico y el nombre del cultivo.Se necesita el número de accesión en cada archivo, dado que ésta es la zona que se usará como campo de identificación. Sin embargo, el nombre científico y el nombre del cultivo son duplicaciones innecesarias debido a que serán siempre los mismos para una accesión en particular. Imagínese qué sucedería si cambiara el nombre de la especie Phaseolus. El nombre científico se debería corregir en tres de los archivos. Si no cambió el nombre científico en los tres archivos, se creará posteriormente una gran confusión cuando trate de establecer cuál es el nombre científico correcto.Será mucho más fácil registrar los cambios como éste si el nombre científico se almacena solamente en un archivo. Ocurre lo mismo con el nombre del cultivo. En este caso, el lugar más adecuado para almacenar estos nombres es en el archivo de registro, particularmente si éste es un archivo de registro general para todas las accesiones del banco de germoplasma.Suponga que tiene un archivo llamado \"movimientos\" que lista los movimientos del almacén de semillas y que tiene los siguientes campos:El \"número de accesión\" y la \"referencia del lote\" son los campos de identificación debido a que identifican precisamente cuáles son las semillas que se enviaron. Sin embargo, los campos \"nombre del instituto, línea de dirección 1 y línea de dirección 2\", representan la ínformación acerca del \"nombre del destinatario\", pero no del número de accesión. Si el \"destinatario\" ha solicitado semillas en una fecha posterior, será necesario asentar de nuevo la dirección completa en un registro diferente. Sería mucho mejor almacenar la información del destinatario en un archivo separado como éste:Se podría asignar un código que identificara a cada destinatario únicamente. (El número de cuenta en un Banco identifica la cuenta de una persona en particular, en una forma parecida). Cuando se envían las semillas a otra parte, se registra el código del destinatario en el archivo de movimientos. El archivo del destinatario en el cual se registra la dirección, está relacionado con el archivo de movimientos a través del código del destinatario.Veamos un ejemplo más complicado. En el Capítulo 6 hemos visto la estructura de un archivo de administración para un sistema de documentación manual que contenía la información resumida de las existencias, de la viabilidad de la semilla y del secado de semillas. La lista de descriptores se asemejaría a la que se ilustra en el Cuadro 2.Lista de descriptores para el archivo de administración de un sistema de documentación manual. Las zonas sombreadas indican los descríptores que se almacenarían más eficazmente en un archivo aparte de la base de datos, pero al mismo tiempo relacionado La razón por la cual sugerimos este tipo de archivo para un sistema manual se debe a razones prácticas -usted no habría buscado en tres lugares separados para recuperar la información. Sin embargo, las bases de datos computadorizadas establecen enlaces entre los archivos que permiten ver varios lugares al mismo tiempo. Como podría ser complicado trabajar con un archivo grande como el de arriba, es más eficaz trabajar con varios archivos pequeños relacionados por campos comunes para la administración de los datos.Los campos sombreados en el Cuadro 2, no están directamente con ninguno de los campos de identificación (número de accesión y referencia del lote). Ellos se refieren a la viabilidad y a la distribución de la semilla. Una estructura más conveniente sería el uso de tres archivos en lugar de uno. Usted podría diseñar sus archivos de la siguiente manera: Los campos de cada archivo son dependientes exclusivamente de los campos de identificación que se usan para formar el enlace entre los archivos (número de accesión y referencia del lote).Hemos visto que en un sistema de documentación manual, los registros se almacenan según los siguientes principios:Los registros se deben almacenar en un orden que ayude a recuperar la información subsiguienteCuando se asigna el número de accesión a los registros nuevos en un sistema computadorizado, simplemente se agregan al final del archivo. Esto significa que los registros (identificados por el número de accesión) pueden aparecer en cualquier orden (teóricamente), tal como se ilustra en el archivo de caracterización de la Figura 4. Este orden fortuito no es un problema para un sistema computadorizado en la forma en que lo podría ser para un sistema manual. Antes de que se recupere la información, se pueden dar las instrucciones a la computadora para que clasifique los registros en un orden específico (por ejemplo, por el orden del número de accesión). En consecuencia, las dos reglas enunciadas anteriormente que se deben aplicar a los sistemas manuales, son innecesarias para los sistemas computadorizados.Más aun, se le pueden impartir las instrucciones a un sistema computadorizado para que ordene en otros campos además del campo del número de accesión. Esto le permitiría por ejemplo, clasificar sus registros por el orden de las referencias de lotes, cosa que podría ser útil si necesita saber cuáles accesiones deben ser regeneradas. Es también posible usar más de un campo para la clasificación. Podría, por ejemplo, clasificar por ambos, por el número de accesión y por la fecha de la última prueba de viabilidad (véase Figura 5).Se pueden ordenar los registros de manera diferente. Generalmente, se clasifican por el orden alfabético, por el orden numérico (ascendente o descendente) o por el orden de las fechas. Hay otras formas de. clasificar, pero dado que todos los software de bases de datos difieren en la forma en que realizan el proceso de clasificación, se debe consultar el manual para obtener más información sobre las capacidades del sistema.Un indice es un archivo independiente que almacena información sobre la ubicación de cada registro en un archivo de la base de datos. Es como el índice de un libro, que lista los números de página de los diferentes temas. Los índices sirven para ayudar a ubicar información específica en la base de datos.La indización se realiza en los campos seleccionados a través de todos los registros de un archivo de la base de datos. Si indiza el campo del número de accesión, se creará un archivo de índices que contendrá una referencia a la ubicación de cada registro (identificado por el número de accesión) en el archivo principal de la base de datos. Esta referencia a la ubicación de un registro se denomina usualmente dirección.Los administradores de bases de datos utilizan los índices de diversas maneras: aquí nuevamente sería conveniente consultar el manual para comprender cómo se usan los índices en el software. A veces se utiliza la indización para acelerar la búsqueda. De cualquier modo, algunos administradores de bases de datos no buscarán en un campo a menos que éste tenga los índices.Con la mayoría de los software se pueden indizar tantos campos como se desee. Generalmente los campos indizados serán los campos que se usan con más regularidad. En consecuencia, los campos de identificación, acerca de los que ya hemos hablado en la Sección 2.1, deberían tener siempre un índice debido a que se trabaja con ellos asiduamente.La relación entre archivos Después de haber visto la importancia de contar con una buena organización del archivo y cómo lograrlo, estamos en condiciones de ver cómo se puede establecer una relación entre los archivos.Del análisis del banco de germoplasma, probablemente haya identificado algunos archivos que incluyen:Un archivo de registro único que se puede usar para todas las accesiones del banco de germoplasma ½ Algunos archivos de pasaporte -uno para cada cultivo ½ Algunos archivos de caracterización/evaluación -uno o más para cada cultivo ½ Un archivo de inventario único que se puede usar para todas las accesiones del banco de germoplasma ½ Algunos archivos referentes a las pruebas de semillas ½ Un archivo que detalle los movimientos desde el almacén de semilla (cuando sea adecuado) ½ Un archivo que detalle las direcciones de los destinatarios (cuando sea adecuado) ½ Los datos de grupo (se analizará en la Sección 5 de este capítulo)Podemos distinguir en los cuatro primeros archivos (véase Figura 6), la relación que existe entre los tres cultivos (A, B y C) cada uno de los cuales tiene tres archivos de caracterización o evaluación (1, 2 y 3). ¿Cómo se pueden relacionar estos archivos representativamente? ¿Cuáles son los archivos que se deben usar para formar el enlace? Si no está claro todavía, el Cuadro 3 le ayudará.La relación entre los archivos debe ser representativa de manera que la información recuperada sea útil.Por ejemplo, no tiene sentido relacionar un archivo de caracterización de Phaseolus con un archivo de caracterización de Musa, usando la \"Referencia del lote\" como campo de identificación, aun cuando 172¼Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos Genéticos teóricamente se podría hacer. Se recuperaría una mezcla de datos sobre accesiones que no están relacionadas (las cuales coincidencialmente tienen la misma referencia de lote); esta mezcla de datos no sería ni útil ni válida. En consecuencia, ¡piense atentamente antes de establecer relaciones entre los archivos! En el Cuadro 1, de la página 164 encontrará algunos ejemplos de los campos que se pueden usar representativamente como campos de identificación para diferentes tipos de archivos.Una vez que haya decidido cómo organizar sus archivos, puede comenzar a especificar las características de todos los campos que contiene cada archivo. Antes de que comience a construir el archivo principal de la base de datos, sería útil producir una definición de registro, que detalle la estructura del registro y las características de cada campo.Cuando defina los campos, considere atentamente los siguientes temas:El nombre de cada campo ½ El tipo de datos que puede contener un campo. Por ejemplo, numérico, carácter, fecha, lógico (sí/no o verdadero/ falso) etc. ½ Si un campo se usará como enlace de otro archivo de la base de datosLas decisiones que tome ahora influirán en la forma en que funcione la base de datos; por esta razón, analizaremos cada una de estas características en las secciones siguientes.El nombre de un campo es importante debido a que se usa para relacionar archivos, crear informes y también diseñar formularios de entrada.El nombre de un campo debe ser:Unico -para que el operador o el software no lo confundan con el de otro campo ½ Descriptivo -porque describe el contenido del campo ½ Simple -para que se pueda recordar fácilmente A veces el software de la base de datos establece restricciones en cuanto a longitud del nombre del campo. Por ejemplo, algunos administradores de bases de datos permiten 10 caracteres solamente para el nombre del campo. Entonces \"contenido de humedad actual\" no sería aceptable, por lo cual se debe usar una abreviatura.Capítulo 8: Principios básicos de la basé de datosOtros programas tampoco aceptarán los espacios entre las palabras en el nombre del campo. Si así ocurre, y desea separar las palabras, lo puede lograr usando el subrayado (_) entre ellas.El nombre de un campo debe ser único A menos que se refiera al mismo descriptor, nunca duplique el nombre de un campo en los archivos. Esta regla no se debe infringir.Por ejemplo, si los campos \"peso total de semillas\" y \"peso de 1000 semillas\", han sido abreviados a \"peso sem\" en los dos campos, cuando busque o recupere la información, produzca los informes, o relacione los campos, etc., ni usted ni su software serán capaces de distinguirlos. Esto provocará una gran confusión.Se deben evitar los códigos o los nombres muy abreviados, debido a que pueden causar problemas (a usted o a otras personas) cuando se desee identificar un campo. Por ejemplo, no use \"X\", \"F4\" o \"F_A\" para \"fecha de adquisición\". Los dos primeros no se parecen en absoluto a \"fecha de adquisición\", y el tercero está tan abreviado que no es claro a qué campo se refiere. Sería más descriptivo y mucho más fácil de reconocer e l nombre \"fech-adq\".Si tiene que abreviar una palabra en varios nombres de campos diferentes, trate de usar la misma abreviatura cada vez. De esta manera le será más fácil reconocer los campos.Por ejemplo, los nombres de los campos que contienen la palabra \"fecha\" son comunes en la documentación de los bancos de germoplasma. Como norma, trate de utilizar siempre la misma palabra. No utilice \"fecha-adq\", \"fec_siembra\" o \"feregener\", es mucho mejor utilizar \"fech_adq\", \"fech_siem\" y \"fech-regen\".Asegúrese de que un determinado descriptor tenga el mismo nombre de campo en los diferentes archivos. Esto le pemitirá relacionar los archivos usando estos campos. La redacción de los informes también será mucho más sencilla. Esto pude parecer obvio para los descriptores que se usan comúnmente como campos de identificación (tales como el número de del recolector, el instituto recolector, el sitio de recolección, el país de recolección, la latitud, la longitud, la altitud, etc.Se pueden asignar características diferentes a cada campo, que cambian considerablemente la forma en la que éste maneja los datos que contiene. La característica más importante es el tipo de campo. Los administradores de bases de datos usan tipos de campos muy parecidos. A continuación se detalla una lista típica:Carácter -cualquier cosa que se escriba con el teclado (incluyendo los dígitos) ½ Numérico -solamente para los dígitos ½ Notación científica -para los números muy grandes o muy pequeños (e.g. los exponenciales) ½ Fecha -contiene la fecha (año, mes, día) ½ Lógico -para los datos verdaderos/falsos (o sí/no) Algunos campos aceptarán los datos en un formato específico solamente. Por ejemplo, se podría estructurar un campo para que acepte la fecha en el formato DD/MM/AA solamente, pero que no la acepte para el formato MM/DD/AA. Con frecuencia, los campos lógicos aceptarán solamente un grupo específico de respuestas.Generalmente es un proceso sencillo decidir qué tipo de campo usar para un determinado descriptor, a veces sólo es posible usar un tipo. Sin embargo, como hay casos en los que se puede escoger, necesitará conocer los méritos relativos a cada elección. A continuación se mencionan algunas de estas consideraciones.Esto es de suma importancia. Los campos que tienen el mismo nombre deberían tener especificaciones idénticas, especialmente si se utiliza el campo para establecer un enlace entre los archivos. Si usted define el \"número de accesión\" en un archivo como un campo de caracteres, y en otro como un campo numérico, no podrá establecer conexiones con los otros archivos.Se deben examinar cuidadosamente los estados de los descriptores para descubrir si hay casos en los que se debería introducir un carácter en lugar de un número.Esto puede suceder por ejemplo, cuando se ha definido una escala ordinal de 0 a 9 para un descriptor, usando el cero para \"ausente\" o \"no Capítulo 8: Príncipíos básicos de la base de datos ½175 expresado\" pero aún no se ha realizado la prueba. Luego, querría indicar \"desconocido\" o \"no realizado\". Si ha dejado el campo en blanco, algunos software registrarán cero automáticamente que significa \"no expresado\". Si trata de registrar \"?\" para \"desconocido\", el software no aceptará la respuesta debido a que usted ha definido el campo para que acepte solamente los dígitos. En tales casos, sería mejor definir el campo como un campo de caracteres.No utilice campos de caracteres para datos puramente numéricos Generalmente los campos de caracteres no se pueden usar directamente en cálculos matemáticos. Si un campo de caracteres contiene dígitos, necesitará convertir el contenido del campo antes de que el software pueda realizar los cálculos. Algunos administradores de bases de datos requieren también que se especifique si los cálculos se realizarán en un campo numérico. Entonces, si desea realizar cálculos matemáticos en un campo, asegúrese de que se ha definido el campo de manera tal que le permita realizarlo.Cuando se usan campos de caracteres para almacenar datos numéricos, no se puede evitar cometer el error de entrar un carácter en lugar de un dígito, o de dejar un espacio donde no corresponde. Por ejemplo, \"1006\" en lugar de \"1006\" ó \"9 11 \" en lugar de \"911\". Si el contenido de un campo es de números solamente, el campo se definirá como numérico.Use con moderación los campos para \"notas\" y \"comentarios\"Algunos software de administración de bases de datos le permitirán definir tipos de campos de texto diferentes que tendrán características diferentes.A veces, querrá almacenar una gran cantidad de texto, o entradas que varían en longitud y que no se pueden estandarizar con \"valores aceptables\". Algunos software le permitirán definir un campo específico para tales casos. Este tipo de campo puede tener varios nombres, pero se denomina generalmente campo de notas, observaciones o comentarios.Existe la tentación de usar este tipo de campo en cada archivo para manejar datos varios. Sin embargo, se debe usar cuando sea absolutamente necesario, debido a que pueden surgir problemas cuando se desee localizar los datos en dicho campo. Algunos software le exigen que busque este campo separadamente en cada registro -lo que puede significar una enorme cantidad de trabajo adicional. Otros software no le permitirán de ninguna manera buscar este tipo de campo.Es conveniente, por lo tanto, restringir el uso de estos campos. Quizá pueda incluir solamente uno en el archivo de registro que se usará para toda la información miscelánea, en esta forma tendrá que mirar en un lugar solamente. Esto a veces sería como tener una hoja de información para cada accesión en un sistema de documentación manual (véase el Capítulo 6).El Cuadro 4, muestra algunos ejemplos de los tipos de campo que se pueden asignar a los diferentes descriptores.Ciertos administradores de bases de datos le exigen que especifique desde el comienzo cuántos datos (esto es, cuántos caracteres) puede contener un campo. Esto se denomina anchura del campo. Con otros programas, los campos pueden llegar a \"adaptarse\" a la longitud de los datos. Antes de que comience a definir los campos, debe controlar si el software necesita que se le especifique el tamaño de los campos. Si es así, necesitará analizar cuidadosamente en esta etapa, la cantidad máxima de los datos que probablemente querrá almacenar en cada campo. No obstante, trate de no sobreestimar el tamaño ya que muchos software asignarán esta cantidad de espacio a cada registro, sin considerar si se almacenan o no los datos, lo cual provocaría pérdidas inútiles de espacio en el disco.Por ejemplo, si el número más alto de un banco de germoplasma es actualmente \"1324\", usted debe elegir una anchura de campo de \"5\" en lugar de \"4\", particularmente si su banco de germoplasma está en una fase de expansión.Generalmente la anchura de los campos numéricos incluye el número para los decimales, la coma decimal y el signo (+/-). Entonces, \"2312\" tiene una anchura de campo de 4 caracteres, \"109.2\" tiene una anchura de campo de 5, \"-0.712\" tiene una anchura de campo de 6.Un tema importante que hemos analizado anteriormente, es que los campos con el mismo nombre deberían tener especificaciones idénticas. Si su software le exige que especifique la anchura del campo, esta también debe ser idéntica para los campos que tienen el mismo nombre. Si el campo que recibe tiene menor anchura, cuando se transfieren los datos de un campo a otro se pueden perder.Si después de haber trabajado con el sistema, se da cuenta de que los campos que había definido son muy angostos, los podrá modificar en una fecha posterior.Hemos visto ya cuán trabajoso y problemático resulta mantener un campo actualizado si éste se repite en más de un archivo sin estar relacionado. Esto sucede particularmente con los nombres científicos que son propensos a los cambios. Por lo tanto, es aconsejable almacenar el nombre científico para cada accesión en un sólo archivo. El lugar más apropiado para ello es el archivo de registro. De esta forma, si necesita cambiar el nombre científico, solamente tiene que ir a un lugar.Otra consideración que se debe tener en cuenta, es cómo definir el campo para el nombre científico. Algunos nombres científicos son muy cortos (e.g. Zea mays) y otros son muy largos e.g. Macroptilium longepedunculatum o Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera). Si debe especificar la anchura del campo, ¿cuán ancho debe ser éste? ¿Puede usar abreviaturas? ¿Se puede dividir el nombre científico en varios campos?La abreviatura del nombre científico le ahorrará espacio, pero puede volverse inconsistente y fácilmente confuso, y por lo tanto se debe evitar. Por ejemplo, con M. longepedunculatum, ¿es la M. representativa de Macroptilium, Mangifera, Manihot, Medicago, Mentha, Mimosa, Musa...? Recuerde que su primera preocupación debe ser tener datos confiables. Por lo tanto, evite confusiones, no use las abreviaturas.Para una mayor flexibilidad, considere el uso de campos separados para género, especie, rango de la subespecie y subespecie, tal como se ilustra en el Cuadro 5.Si decide adoptar esta norma, las anchuras de campo siguientes se acomodarían a todos los nombres científicos que pueda encontrar: género:24 caracteres especie:26 caracteres rango de la subespecie: 8 caracteres subespecie:26 caracteresAgregue campos adicionales para la autoridad del nombre científico si piensa que necesitará registrar esta información.Escoja un formato que sea conveniente. Pregúntese cómo quiere que aparezca el nombre científico en los diferentes informes -¿De la misma manera siempre? ¿Imprime el nombre de la subespecie siempre, o a veces no lo hace? ¿Abrevia siempre el nombre de los géneros, o a veces los tiene que escribir completos?La consistencia es esencial cuando usted define los campos. Una manera de asegurarse es hacer un registro de las definiciones de campo para cada archivo. Para cada campo puede registrar:El nombre completo del descriptor -e.g. \"número de accesión\" ½ El nombre del campo (generalmente es una abreviatura) -e.g. \"no _acc\" ½ El tipo de campo -e.g. carácter, numérico, lógico, fecha, etc. ½ La descripción del campo -una explicación de cómo se debe usar el campo, incluyendo el tipo de los datos que deben introducirse y la forma ½ Las reglas para verificar los datos -cualquier regla para validar los datos que se aplique al campo ½ El índice -¿está el campo indizado? ½ La anchura del campo (cuando sea necesario) ½El nombre del archivo -¿en cuál archivo de la base de datos está el campo? Muchos software de administración de bases de datos pueden generar automáticamente esta lista de especificaciones de campo para cada archivo, para cada archivo esto se denomina diccionario de datos. Si su software no lo puede hacer, usted podría hacerlo manualmente. Diseñe un formulario con columnas para cada una de las descripciones mencionadas antes, y complete las definiciones de campo para cada descriptor. En el Cuadro 6 se ilustra un diccionario de datos para un archivo de pasaporte.Se debería producir una lista como esa para cada archivo de la base de datos. Consulte estas listas cada vez que defina un nuevo campo, de manera que se asegure la consistencia en todos los archivos. Si ya tiene alguna experiencia con el software de la base de datos, podría usar también su administrador de archivos para mantener un registro central de las definiciones de campo.La documentación de los datos de grupoLos datos de grupo se refieren más a los grupos de accesiones, que a las accesiones individuales. Los datos pueden referirse a una especie o a un cultivo particular. Por ejemplo: los métodos para la prueba de viabilidad y los procedimientos para la regeneración. Los datos de grupo se pueden referir también a varios géneros y especies, tales como la información acerca de la flora de una región ecogeográfica o la información de estudios etnobotánicos. Esta clase de datos se puede reproducir en publicaciones como diarios, libros y memorias de conferencias.Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos Genéticos ¿Cómo puede usar una computadora para manejar este tipo de datos? Así como con cualquier dato que administre, tiene que determinar sus necesidades de información y recién entonces formar grupos de datos relacionados representativamente (listas de descriptores), que serán prácticos en términos de registro de los datos y prácticos en términos de recuperación de la información.Debido a que estas fuentes de datos son tan diferentes y el área del tema es enorme, sus necesidades de información serán muchas y variadas y el número de listas de descriptores para los datos de grupo será potencialmente muy grande. Es ilusorio pensar en computadorizar todos los datos relacionados con el material publicado. Es mucho más práctico conservar una referencia de la fuente de la publicación que se debe mantener aparte de la documentación de su base de datos. Esta será una base de datos bibliográfica basada en una \"lista de descriptores\" para referencias de literatura. Usted diseñará la lista de descriptores basada en sus necesidades de información y en la clase de referencias que quiera computadorizar.Generalmente las bases de datos de literatura se mantienen usando un software de base de datos desarrollado específicamente para tratamiento de textos -son los denominados sistemas de administración de texto. Si tiene la ventaja de contar con uno de ellos, úselo para construir su base de datos de literatura. Si no tiene la posibilidad de usar tal sistema, fíjese cómo se puede usar su software de base de datos actual y cómo se puede adaptar para hacer el trabajo. Si usa el software existente, recuerde que la base de datos de literatura debe ser un archivo aparte.Los sistemas de gestión de texto funcíonan de la misma manera que los otros software de bases de datos pero tienen dos características valiosas que vale la pena destacar. En primer lugar, tienen mayor flexibilidad para realizar búsquedas, debido a que su programa no requiere que se le especifique en qué campos buscar. Se pueden estructurar para que busquen en cada campo. Esto es muy útil si necesita información, pero no sabe en qué lugar buscarla. La segunda característica se refiere a la forma en la que el software almacena los datos: los campos \"Ilegan a adaptarse\" a la cantidad de datos que se introducen y los campos \"vacíos\" no ocupan espacio en el disco. Generalmente las bases de datos de literatura contienen cantidades variables de datos para cada registro; por lo tanto, esta característica puede resultar un enorme ahorro de espacio en el disco.Las hojas electrónicas (véase Figura 7) son herramientas valiosas que se usan en aplicaciones científicas y comerciales para realizar una gama completa de cálculos estadísticos y matemáticos. Se pueden usar con los datos de una base de datos para realizar cálculos más complejos que aquéllos que se realizan con la base de datos solamente.Por ejemplo, se pueden exportar los datos de viabilidad de la semilla y de almacenamiento de una base de datos a una hoja electrónica, para calcular los efectos de la variación de los parámetros de almacenamiento en la viabilidad de la semilla.Se pueden usar también para imprimir informes o para generar gráficos usando los datos que contienen. Por lo tanto, con estas hojas se puede producir una representación gráfica de los datos almacenados en la base de datos.A pesar de las capacidades obvias de las hojas electrónicas, no debe usarlas como un administrador de la base de datos. Ellas están diseñadas específicamente para operaciones complejas, y no para la administración flexible de los datos documentados. Las hojas electrónicas, no permiten relacionar archivos diferentes; los servicios de búsqueda /informe de las hojas electrónicas son limitados y a veces inexistentes (lo que puede hacer que la recuperación de la información sea muy difícil). La modificación de los datos almacenados puede ser también una pérdida de tiempo, especialmente cuando se trabaja con archivos voluminosos.Si quiere almacenar grandes cantidades de datos en varios archivos, estas limitaciones le causarán muchos problemas. El uso de las hojas electrónicas debe limitarse a las tareas para las que fueron diseñadas -la realización de cálculos complejos. Para una efectiva documentación de los datos de su banco de germoplasma, usted trabajará con el software diseñado específicamente para esta tarea -el software de administración de la base de datos.Hay una serie de pasos involucrados en el diseño de una base de datos con archivos relacionados. Estos han sido analizados en este capítulo y se resumen en la Figura 8. Ejercicios 1. Indique si los siguientes enunciados son verdaderos o falsos: a. Con frecuencia se denomina tabla al campo de un archivo b. Un registro es un grupo de campos que se maneja como una unidad c. Una base de datos computadorizada siempre contiene varios archivos d. Los archivos se pueden relacionar con cualquier campo en común e. Un archivo de registro debe contener un sólo registro por número de accesión f. Los campos del mismo tipo siempre deben tener el mismo nombre (e.g. numérico, fecha) g. Es importante evitar la duplicación de los campos de identificación de los archivos en el caso de que haya cambios en la nomenclatura. h. A veces se usa la indización para acelerar la búsqueda i. La clasificación es permitida en los campos de identificación solamente j. La referencia del lote se usa como campo de identificación para todos los datos de las accesiones especificas 2. Complete los espacios en blanco:a. ___________________es la sección de un archivo o tabla que siempre contiene el mismo descriptor b. ____________________se usan para seleccionar uno o más registros con el objetivo de relacionar los archivos c. Un ____________________ almacena información sobre la ubicación de registros especificos en un archivo de la base de datos d. Un campo __________________ se puede estructurar para que acepte cualquier cosa que se escriba con el teclado, incluyendo números e. Un campo ____________________ acepta los datos \"si\" o \"no\" 3. ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre administrador de archivo plano y uno de base de datos relacional?4. Hable de las situaciones en las que un grupo de descriptores identificado en el análisis del banco de germoplasma no puede usarse como un archivo aparte en una base de datos.5. Describa cómo se pueden relacionar los archivos de registro, pasaporte, caracterización e inventario en un sisterna de base de datos, indicando que campos se pueden usar para relacionar diferentes archivos.6. Un registro de definiciones de campo sirve para garantizar la consistencia en la definición de campos; mencione los detalles que tal registro deberia contener y explique por qué. 8. El software de la hoja electrónica no se usa en lugar del software de administración de la base de datos. ¿Por qué? ¿Cómo se podria usar una hoja electrónica conjuntamente con su software de administración de la base de datos?Capítulo 9En el Capítulo 9 se estudiará el procedimiento para construir un sistema de documentación computadorizado para su banco de germoplasma.Una vez finalizado este capítulo, se habrán examinado los siguientes temas:½ Las etapas en la construcción de un sistema de documentación computadorizado dirigido por menúes ½ Las consideraciones que se tienen que tener en cuenta para diseñar formatos de pantalla, informes y menúes ½ La impresión de los informes ½ La puesta en práctica de las capacidades de manejo de datos de su software ½ La incorporación de los formatos de pantalla e informes en los procedimientos de rutina ½ El desarrollo y la organización de los menúes 1 IntroducciónEn el análisis de su banco de germoplasma, se examinaron:½ La generación y el uso de los datos en los procedimientos ½ El uso de diagramas para aclarar procedimientos ½ Las necesidades y prioridades de documentar los datos en el banco de germoplasma ½ Los requisitos de información (e.g. informes específicos) ½ La posibilidad de que la documentación sea una parte integral de los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma El estudio de estos temas proporciona una lista detallada de las especificaciones que se deben usar como base para diseñar su sistema de documentación computadorizado. Esto se denomina diseño del sistema lógico y define cómo debe funcionar el sistema de documentación con respecto al hardware y al software que se utilicen.A partir de su diseño del sistema lógico, puede comenzar a realizar el diseño del sistema físico. Este detalla cómo funcionará el sistema de documentación con el hardware y software que ha escogido. También toma en consideración las personas que usarán el sistema. El resultado final del diseño de sistema físico es un plan detallado de cómo el sistema computadorizado funcionará en la práctica. Este diseño físico se examinará detalladamente en este capítulo.El primer paso es determinar sí el software y el hardware de los que dispone pueden respaldar el diseño del sistema lógico. Es posible que se presenten limitaciones operativas. Por ejemplo. es posible que el software no pueda realizar las tareas que se le han especificado, o que la persona seleccionada para introducir los datos, no tenga acceso a la computadora que procesa el sistema. En tales casos, para contemplar estas complicaciones necesitará modificar el diseño lógico. Necesitará analizar nuevamente la elección del software, o deberá buscar otras formas de obtener el mismo resultado final, usando el mismo software pero de manera diferente. Podría examinar la posibilidad de trasladar la persona seleccionada para entrar los datos, de manera que tenga acceso a una computadora apropiada, moviendo la computadora cerca de la persona designada para la entrada de datos o asignando a otra persona esa tarea.Por el momento, habrá definido los archivos de datos para su sistema de documentación. La etapa siguiente es comenzar a construir el sistema (que se basa en estos archivos) utilizando el software que escogió. También debe analizar cómo se puede usar el software para mantener estos archivos y recuperar la información del sistema.En la Figura 1 se ilustran las diferentes etapas en la construcción de un sistema de documentación.En los capítulos anteriores, se estudiaron en detalle las cuatro primeras etapas que se ilustran en la Figura 1. En las secciones siguientes de este capítulo, veremos más atentamente los últimos pasos del proceso de construcción de un sistema de documentación.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosEl desarrollo de formatos de pantallaPara que su sistema de documentación tenga éxito, es fundamental que el registro y la recuperación de la información sean de buena calidad, precisos y confiables. Si el registro de los datos es difícil, o si no hay sistemas que puedan controlar la calidad de los datos que se introducen, se cometerán errores inevitablemente y la información obtenída será de calidad dudosa. Es necesario asegurarse de que los datos se introducen correctamente desde el comienzo, dado que la corrección posterior de los errores es una pérdida de tiempo valioso.La pantalla actúa como interfaz entre el operador y los archivos de datos. A veces se denomina también pantalla de visualización. Ellas son lo que usted ve en el monitor cuando entra, modifica, busca o borra datos, y son el equivalente computadorizado de los formularios que se llenan a mano. Las pantallas le ayudarán a introducir los datos de manera precisa y confiable.Cuando diseñe los formatos de pantalla, las metas deben ser:1.Evitar que se introduzcan errores en el sistema 2.Facilitar la entrada y modificación de datos por parte del usuario Como veremos en las secciones siguientes, las pantallas son interfaces muy valiosas e indispensables. En la Figura 2 se ilustra el diseño de una pantalla típica. A menudo, los software de manejo de bases de datos vienen con formatos de pantalla básicos para la entrada y la modificación de datos. Sin embargo, generalmente resulta mejor diseñar pantallas propias.La mayoría de los programas de manejo de bases de datos producen una pantalla básica para entrar los datos automáticamente, que muestra todos los campos definidos y el orden en que fueron definidos. El nombre que se asigna a cada campo aparece usualmente como una etiqueta junto a la zona de entrada de datos. Esto se ilustra en el siguiente ejemplo.Un archivo de pasaporte podría tener los siguientes descriptores:Número de accesión Número del recolector Instituto recolector Fecha de recolección País de recolección (otros campos) La pantalla de entrada básica que se suministra con el software podría ser similar a la siguiente:Zona para la entrada de datosLa entrada de datos, tal como se ve en la pantalla de arriba, podría causar problemas a un usuario ocasional. Sin embargo, se pueden diseñar pantallas para la entrada o modificación de los datos, que sean más fáciles de usar para el usuario. En las siguientes secciones veremos cómo se puede lograr.Los dispositivos que existen para diseñar las pantallas dependen del software que haya escogido; algunos cuentan con mecanismos básicos solamente, mientras que otros son muy sofisticados. El diseño final dependerá de las preferencias que tengan las personas que usarán el sistema.De todas formas, existen algunos principios generales que se deben tener en consideración.Diseñe un formato de pantalla para cada procedimiento de documentación Probablemente su software habrá generado una pantalla básica que muestra todos los campos de cada archivo que se pueden usar para la entrada y la modificación de los datos. Sin embargo, a veces querrá trabajar con un subgrupo de los descriptores que hay en un archivo. Para ello puede diseñar pantallas que muestren sólo ciertos campos y en un formato que se adapte a sus procedimientos de entrada y modificación de datos. Con frecuencia dichas pantallas se denominan máscaras.Por ejemplo, puede utilizar una máscara cuando actualice algunos descriptores en un archivo de pasaporte, o cuando introduzca los datos de un ensayo de caracterización donde se han realizado solamente algunas pruebas. Seguramente no querrá recorrer toda la pantalla buscando los campos que desea llenar -ello sería una pérdida de tiempo y también desalentador, y el riesgo de cometer errores sería muy alto. El diseño de una pantalla que contenga solamente los campos de cada procedimiento de documentación le evitará todo esto. No se confíe en un formato único para cada archivo.Si está introduciendo los datos de un ensayo de caracterización muy grande y tiene un formato único que contiene todos los descriptores, la pantalla podría resultar confusa (desordenada) y difícil de leer. Si es difícil de leer, es también difícil de usar y aumentaría el riesgo de cometer errores. Esto se puede evitar si distribuye los descriptores en más de una pantalla las otras pantallas se pueden usar en secuencias. Esto facilitará la lectura y el uso de las pantallas.También podría querer incluir una lista de respuestas aceptables cerca de cada descriptor para aquellos usuarios que no estén familiarizados con su sistema de codificación, pero ello ocuparía mucho espacio de la pantalla. Esta información se puede colocar en otra parte, tal como en un servicio de ayuda en línea o documentada.En los formatos de pantalla utilice el nombre de los descriptores, no el de los camposSi el nombre del campo se restringe a un número limitado de caracteres, a lo mejor tenga que abreviar el nombre de los descriptores para producir el nombre del campo. Para un usuarío ocasíonal, puede resultar difícil entender qué significan las abreviaturas o descifrar qué datos corresponden a cada campo. Por ejemplo, el usuario podría pensar que \"F_RECOL\" se refiere a información sobre la \"fuente de recolección\". Evidentemente en este caso, introducir los datos no resulta fácil para el usuario, que puede introducir errores en el sistema muy fácilmente.Los nombres de los campos se pueden reemplazar con una etiqueta más descriptiva, de manera que el usuario ocasional pueda descubrir cuáles son los datos que deben ir en un determinado campo. Las etiquetas le permiten visualizar los textos en la pantalla de manera más descriptiva y no tienen límite en cuanto al número de caracteres por campo. Por lo tanto, es buena idea usar el nombre completo de los descriptores en lugar del nombre de campo.Por ejemplo, en lugar de: .................. FEC_REC Podría usar la etiqueta: ..................... Fecha de recolección Tomando en consideración el ejemplo anterior de pantalla de entrada básica (véase página 191), se podría diseñar una pantalla similar a la que se ilustra en la Figura 3. En el formato de pantalla utílice el mismo orden de campos del formularlo que se llena a manoEn la base de datos frecuentemente se introducen los datos que están en los formularios manuales. Esto se hace más fácilmente si los campos aparecen en la pantalla en el mismo orden en que aparecen en el formulario manual. Es muy dispendioso ordenar de nuevo los datos antes de introducirlos en los archivos de la base de datos. Recuerde que cuando diseñe la pantalla, puede colocar los campos en cualquier lugar y en cualquier orden; no se le exige que respete el orden en que aparecerán los campos en la definición de sus registros (véanse las definiciones de registro en el Capítulo 8, sección 4, página 172).Si hay consistencia en el diseño de las diferentes pantallas, el usuario regular podrá usar más fácilmente el sistema. Trate de colocar el mismo tipo de información en el mismo lugar de cada pantalla. Por ejemplo, los mensajes de error, la información sobre la función de ciertas teclas, cómo pedir ayuda, etc.Recuerde colocarle un título a la pantalla. Piense en el procedimiento de documentación para el que se usará la pantalla y póngale un título descriptivo. Si el procedimiento es para registrar nuevas accesiones en el banco de germoplasma, denomínela \"Registro de nuevas accesiones\" o \"Asignar el número de accesión del banco de germoplasma\". El título \"Pantalla para la entrada de datos\" no es suficiente la entrada de datos ¿para qué archivo? 2.2.6 Explote las capacidades del software para reducir al mínimo los errores en la entrada de datos A veces el software le permitirá definir la manera en la que un campo acepta y muestra los datos en la pantalla. Esto es muy útil para detectar los errores antes de que entren en la base de datos. A continuación se mencionan algunas de las características que vale la pena destacar.Se puede estructurar un campo de manera que acepte las respuestas válidas solamente. Esto es muy útil para detectar los errores cuando utilice los códigos para los estados de los descriptores. Para comprender mejor este tema, veamos el ejemplo de un archivo de caracterización cuyos datos se codifican con frecuencia.Los campos se pueden colocar en CUALQUIER LUGAR y en CUALQUIER ORDEN en lapantalla Ponga el mismo tipo de información en el mismo lugar de cada pantallaColor de la flor Tamaño de la flor Altura de la planta Tamaño de la hojuela Firmeza del fruto Aroma del fruto Para muchos de estos descríptores, existe un número limitado de entradas válidas, e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, +, X. Sin embargo, la computadora aceptará normalmente cualquiera de los caracteres de su teclado, cuando en realidad son válidos, probablemente 12 de ellos. Esto podría atiborrar el sistema de datos incorrectos, pero se puede evitar diseñando formatos de pantalla que limiten la entrada de datos a respuestas válidas exclusivamente.El mensaje de ayuda puede servir para verificar si la información de un campo es una respuesta válida o no.Estos sirven para informar al usuario cuando se ha cometido un error y qué se puede hacer para corregirlo.Generalmente los campos están vacíos hasta que se introducen los datos. Sin embargo, con determinados campos, podría querer almacenar un valor sustituto por omisión (o valor por defecto) hasta que se realice la entrada de datos. Esto es útil si la respuesta inicial es siempre la misma, tal como \"desconocido\" en un ensayo de caracterización en el que la prueba no se ha realizado. Antes de almacenar un valor sustituto por omisión analice si éste se aplicará en todos los casos.La computadora puede generar automáticamente ciertos valores de campo que se usan regularmente, e.g. la fecha del día. Esto es ventajoso cuando se introducen los datos de pasaporte, o cualquier otro dato del cual desee registrar la fecha de la entrada o de la modificación. Algunos software ofrecen la posibilidad de copiar el mismo campo de las entradas anteriores, presionando una tecla. Esto es muy importante cuando por ejemplo, se introduce una serie de registros de una misión de recolección, en la que se recolectaron diversas accesiones en el mismo lugar.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosA veces querrá almacenar los datos en mayúsculas solamente. Los campos se puéden definir para que conviertan a mayúsculas todos los caracteres que se introducen. Por ejemplo, si escribe el número de un donante como \"egru 380\" este se almacenará \"EGRU 380\". Esto puede ayudar a recuperar la información posteriormente.Utilice \"protección de campos\" o \"sólo visualización\"Es muy útil poder proteger ciertos campos (como el número de accesión o la referencia del lote) de la modificación accidental de datos. Si desea que el campo se visualice, pero que no se modifique utilice el mecanismo de \"protección de campos\" o \"sólo visualización\".Todas estas características son muy útiles y son dignas de explotarse al máximo. Ellas no detectarán todos los errores, pero reducirán significa tivamenté el número de los que entran al sistema.Es muy importante poder revisar una pantalla y corregir cualquier error antes de pasar a la pantalla siguiente. Si su software le da esta posibilidad, úsela en todas las pantallas que desarrolle.No abuse del uso de estilos diferentes En el Capítulo 6 se analizó el uso de estilos diferentes. Recuerde que debe usarlos para trabajar más facilmente con las pantallas. Por ejemplo, las letras muy grandes o en negrita, o demasiados cuadros y líneas y muchos colores, pueden dar como resultado formatos difíciles de leer. Concéntrese en la presentación de la página, utilizando estilos diferentes sólo para enfatizar. Procure mantener un formato simple.Limite el uso de los efectos sonoros. Ellos se pueden utilizar para alertar al usuario cuando la computadora ha terminado una tarea que exige mucho tiempo o cuando el operador ha cometido un error. Sin embargo, el ruido continuo de la computadora puede ser irritante no sólo para el usuario, sino para cualquiera que se encuentre en el mismo lugar.Capítulo 9: Construcción del sistema ½197Experimente con diseños diferentes, y escoja el que considere más prácticoCiertas pantallas pueden parecer \"Iindas\" a primera vista, pero pueden resultar poco prácticas. Podrían ser difíciles de leer, tener demasiada información o necesitar mejores servicios de ayuda en línea o documentada. Vale la pena realizar versiones diferentes y pedirle a los usuarios que experimenten con ellas. Con la respuesta de los usuarios, se puede desarrollar un formato que sea fácil de usar. Recuerde que, cuanto más fácil de utilizar sea una pantalla, más seguros y exactos serán los datos almacenados.Etapas en el diseño de un formato de pantalla 1.Antes de comenzar a crear el formato utilizando el software de su base de datos, es conveniente hacer un esquema preliminar en papel. Haga una lista de los campos que quiere que se visualicen. Consulte la lista de las especificaciones de campo que ha realizado para cada archivo de la base de datos, pues éstas influirán en la presentación del formato.Familiarícese con las capacidades que tiene su software para el diseño de formatosexperimente con algunos diseños, y ponga a prueba algunas o todas las características que se mencionaron en la sección 2.2.6. Descubra cuán fácil de usar es cada formato introduciendo algunos datos a manera de prueba.Diseñe un formato de entrada y, si es necesario, uno para modificar los datos de cada archivo de la base de datos. Estos formatos le permitirán trabajar simultáneamente con todos los campos de cada archivo de la base de datos. Si hay dos formatos independientes, probablemente serán casi idénticos en apariencia (aparte del título), pero el formato para la modificación de datos podría tener algunos campos protegidos o que se pueden visualizar solamente, tales como el número de accesión y la referencia del lote.Luego, diseñe el formato de entrada de datos, y cuando sea necesario, el de modificación de cada procedimiento, usando los mismos principios que se mencionaron en el punto 3. Estos formatos contienen probablemente un subgrupo del total de posibles campos para un archivo.La generación de informes es una de las formas más valiosas para recuperar información de una base de datos. Los informes se realizan cuando se solicita información regularmente y en un formato específico.El formato para la recuperación dependerá de las necesidades de información y puede ser completamente diferente al formato de entrada de datos.Cuando las solicitudes de información no son ni regulares ni previsibles, hay diversas alternativas para recuperar la información del sistema. Por ejemplo, se puede dar un vistazo a cada registro (o grupo seleccionado de registros) e imprimirlo en el formato en que aparece en la pantalla. Si su software cuenta con los mecanismos necesarios, podría utilizar el lenguaje Query (de consulta interactivo simple) o el SQL (lenguaje de preguntas estructurado, que es más sofisticado) para realizar la búsqueda. En este caso se pueden seleccionar uno o más registros y generar un informe de ellos.En esta sección se analiza el desarrollo de informes. Este es un proceso que incluye varias etapas, las cuales se ilustran en la Figura 4.Capítulo 9: Construcción del sistema ½199 Algunos software tienen servicios para generar informes más eficaces que otros. Sin embargo, si necesita realizar análisis estadísticos más complicados o producir gráficos para obtener la información que necesita, tendrá que analizar la posibilidad de exportar los datos a una hoja de cálculo electrónica.A continuación analizaremos las etapas en el desarrollo de un informe.Cuando hizo el análisis de su banco de germoplasma, usted identificó sus necesidades de información.Por ejemplo, si habló con el responsable de la evaluación de semillas sobre las necesidades de información de esa unidad, puede tener idea del tipo de informes que serían útiles para el trabajo de esa unidad. Es posible que haya redactado una lista de informes como ésta:Viabilidad de una determinada accesión Viabilidad de un determinado cultivo Accesiones con un determinado rango de viabilidades Accesiones que no se han evaluado Accesiones que se deben evaluar en los próximos meses Accesiones que se deben evaluar en los próximos 6 meses Accesiones para las que ya se venció la fecha de evaluación (otros informes) Para cada informe ya debe haber determinado qué descriptores deben incluirse. Tendrá idea acerca del orden en el que deben aparecer los informes (por número de accesión, por orden alfabético de cultivos, por fechas, o aun, por una combinación de ellos), y si necesita hacer algún tipo de cálculo con los datos. En la Figura 5 se ilustra la distribución de los datos de diferentes archivos en un informe único.Las necesidades de información para las diferentes actividades del banco de germoplasma ya deben haber influido en algunas de sus decisiones sobre qué descriptores necesita registrar y en qué archivos de datos de su sistema ubicarlos.Por ejemplo, la evaluación de semillas se realiza periódicamente, pero, ¿con qué frecuencia? -¿cada seis meses, cada dos años? ¿Necesitan algunos cultivos más evaluación que otros? De este tipo de preguntas habrá identificado la necesidad de registrar la \"fecha de la siguiente evaluación\" que utilizará en los informes.La etapa siguiente es desarrollar formatos para la recuperación de información de diferentes archivos de datos y el orden deseado. Al comienzo de esta sección, se mencionaron tres consideraciones, a saber: 1.Los campos que desea buscar 2.La necesidad de relacionar los archivos 3.La información que el usuario debe suministrar Analicemos estas consideraciones con algunos ejemplos.Informe sobre la viabilidad de las semillas de todas las accesiones de maíz (por número de accesión) y fecha en que deberán evaluarse nuevamente Los descríptores que visualizará en este informe son: el número de accesión, la referencia del lote, el nombre del cultivo, la viabilidad y la fecha de la próxima prueba de viabilidad. Estos descriptores se pueden ubicar en dos archivos separados: un archivo de registro general y otro de prueba de viabilidad de las semillas:Viabilidad de las semillas Número de accesión u Número de accesión u Nombre científico Referencia del lote Nombre del cultivo Viabilidad Pedigree/cultivar Fecha de la prueba de viabilidad Número del depositante Fecha de la próxima prueba de viabilidad Número de adquisición (otros campos) Tipo de material (otros campos) Tecla u campo de enlace Los descriptores deseados aparecen en negritas Capítulo 9: Construcción del sistema ½201 Los archivos se deben relacionar antes de generar un informe. Cada registro del archivo de viabilidad de las semillas se debe relacionar con el correspondiente en el archivo de registro, donde tiene el mismo número de accesión, de manera que éste sea el campo de identificación. Una vez que se ha establecido el enlace, solamente tiene que:1 .Seleccionar los registros relacionados que tengan el nombre de cultivo \"maíz\" 2.Ordenar estos registros por el número de accesión 3.Imprimir los archivos pertinentes en el formato escogido Su informe podría asimilarse al que se ilustra en la Figura 6.Nota: Aun cuando se usa el campo \"nombre del cultivo\" en la producción de este informe para especificar que se buscan los registros que tengan el nombre de cultivo \"maíz\", no hay necesidad de mostrar este campo en el informe final. Este informe atañe solamente al maíz, entonces la misma información se repetirá para cada registro si se incluye el campo del nombre del cultivo. En lugar de eso, se puede hacer referencia al maíz en el título solamente.Informe de las accesiones con un determinado rango de viabilidad de la semilla (por nombre de cultivo y número de accesión)Este ejemplo es similar al anterior, pero difiere en que requiere clasificar los datos resultantes por nombre del cultivo y número de accesión. Además, el usuario debe especificar el rango de viabilidad, e.g., de 70 a 80%. ¿Cómo incorpora el usuario el rango de viabilidad? Se puede diseñar un formato de pantalla para que el usuario lo llene antes de que se genere el informe, y en el cual se le pide al usuario que especifique el rango de viabilidad. En este caso, el usuario especificará que el rango de viabilidad de las semillas es de 70-80%.Cuando el usuario incorpore estas cifras, el procedimiento será similar al del Ejemplo 1. Los archivos se relacionan por el número de accesión. Luego, se seleccionan los registros que tengan la viabilidad especificada. Los registros relacionados se clasifican por nombre de cultivo; cada grupo de nombre del cultivo se clasifica también por orden del número de accesión. Por último, se imprimen los campos pertinentes a cada registro en el formato especificado.En este informe, puede desear visualizar otros campos diferentes a la referencia del lote y a la fecha de la próxima prueba de viabilidad. El informe final se parecerá al que se ilustra en la Figura 7.Informe de las accesiones que no se han evaluado por viabilidad de semillas (por nombre de cultivo y número de accesión)En este caso, es necesario buscar los registros \"ausentes\" en el archivo de viabilidad de la semilla, es decir registros que no se han evaluado por viabilidad de la semilla. El enlace entre los dos archivos es de nuevo el número de accesión. Puede darle instrucciones a su computadora para que seleccione los registros que no tengan uno correspondiente en el archivo de inventario, esto es, aquéllos que no tengan la prueba de viabilidad de la semilla. Luego, clasifique los registros seleccionados por nombre del cultivo y número de accesión. Por último, imprima los campos pertinentes a cada registro en el formato que ha diseñado.El informe final será similar al que se ilustra en la Figura 8. Informe de las accesiones con baja viabilidad de la semilla y peso de las semillas en cámara frigorífica (por nombre del cultivo y número de accesión)Para introducir los datos en el campo del peso total de semillas, tiene que relacionar los tres archivos: el de registro, el de viabilidad de semillas y el de inventario:Viabilidad de la semilla Inventario Número de accesión u Número de accesión u Número de accesión uReferencia del lote u Referencia del lote u Nombre del cultivo Viabilidad Ubicación en el depósito Pedigree/cultivar Fecha de la prueba de Peso total de semillas Número del depositante viabilidad Peso de 1000 semillas Número de adquisición Fecha de la próxima Peso mínimo de semillas Tipo de material prueba de viabilidad permitido (otros campos) (otros campos) (otros campos)Dado que probablemente tendrá más de un lote por cada accesión, deberá relacionar el archivo de viabilidad de la semilla y el archivo del inventario mediante los campos de referencia del lote y número de accesión. No obstante, ambos archivos se pueden relacionar con el archivo de registro utilizando el número de accesión solamente.Al igual que en el Ejemplo 2, se seleccionan los registros que tienen baja viabilidad de semillas, agregando un rango específico. Otra opción consiste en introducir un valor único inferior a aquellas viabilidades queGuía para la Documentación de Recursos Genéticos se consideran \"bajas\". Los registros seleccionados se clasifican por nombre del cultivo; y dentro de éste se ordenan también por número de accesión. Por último, los campos pertinentes a cada registro se imprimen en un determinado formato.El informe final se parecerá al que se ilustra en la Figura 9.En resumen, para cada informe se necesitará especificar:Cómo se relacionan los archivos ½ Cuál es el criterio de cada búsqueda (e.g. un cultivo particular, un rango de viabilidad) ½Cómo se detallan los criterios de la búsqueda (se incluyen en el mismo informe de rutina o los especifica el usuario en un formulario aparte) ½ Cómo se deben visualizar los informes (clasificados en un orden determinado, qué campos aparecerán en el informe) Para todos los informes que quiera generar debe desarrollar especificaciones de búsqueda similares.El diseño de los informes se debe abordar de la misma forma que para los formatos de pantalla. Los informes deben ser fáciles de usar, leer y comprender. Por lo tanto, es importante dedicarle tiempo al diseño de ellos. Después de todo, usted se basará en ellos para tomar decisiones importantes, como por ejemplo, establecer prioridades de regeneración. La precisión con la que se diseñen los informes, dependerá del programa que esté utilizando.Capítulo 9: Construcción del sistema ½205 Puede diseñar un informe que liste una accesión en cada página en un informe como éste, cada descriptor aparecerá exactamente en el mismo lugar en cada página. Es similar al método que se utiliza para los formatos de pantalla en donde cada descriptor tiene su propia ubicación en la pantalla. Puede usar este estilo de informe si, por ejemplo, tiene que dar información detallada sobre los resultados de un ensayo de caracterización para una determinada accesión (véase Figura 10), o utilizar papelería impresa (tal como facturas), o producir etiquetas de dirección.A menudo querrá generar informes que muestren los datos seleccionados de varias accesiones en una página y en columnas, como se ilustra en los ejemplos 1 a 4 de este capítulo (véanse Figuras 6 a 9). Cada descriptor ocupará una columna determinada en la página. Como el informe se puede extender a más páginas, cada una debe tener el mismo diseño básico.El diseño del informePara poder saber a primera vista de qué se trata un informe ¡póngale un título! A veces los informes abarcan varias páginas. Si las páginas se obtienen separadamente, puede no ser obvio a cuál informe ellas pertenecen o a qué lugar del informe corresponden. Por lo tanto, coloque un título y un número en cada página.También acostúmbrese a colocar la fecha en los informes, así no mezclará informes viejos con los nuevos, y evitará trabajar con información anticuada.Piense cuidadosamente cómo se deben organizar las columnas en el formato. Si está comparando dos columnas, es prudente colocar una al lado de la otra.Debe ser claro para la persona que lee el informe qué tipo de información contiene cada columna. La elección obvia para los encabezamientos de columnas son los descriptores. Sin embargo, los problemas comienzan cuando hay muchas columnas y los descriptores tienen nombres largos, tales como \"promedio de días hasta la floración\" y \"resistencia a Helminthosporium maydis\", pues el espacio de la página se le acabará rápidamente.La solución más fácil es colocar los encabezamientos de columnas en más de una línea, de manera que pueda examinar primero si el software le permite realizarlo. De lo contrario, si el software que está utilizando tiene un mecanismo de \"resumen del informe\", puede darle un número o una abreviatura a cada columna y luego, en el resumen del informe listar los números de las columnas o de las abreviaturas junto al nombre del descriptor correspondiente (véase Figura 11). Si su software no tiene ninguna de estas características, podría considerar:1 .Dividir el informe en dos o más informes separados que contengan subgrupos de descriptores. Si lo hace, piense atentamente qué información necesita ver en la misma página.Producir el informe con números de columnas o abreviaturas y hacer una lista de éstas en una hoja de información aparte. Si usa esta opción, asegúrese de que suministra la hoja con cada informe, de lo contrario provocaría confusión.Analizar nuevamente el formato en el que se utilizará el informe. ¿Realmente necesita especificar todos los descriptores en la misma página?Capítulo 9: Construcción del sistema ½207Los usuarios usarán más fácilmente los informes, si el diseño de éstos es consistente. Por ejemplo, si produce informes diferentes sobre el inventario de semillas, organizar las columnas en el mismo orden le será de gran ayuda.Estudie todas las características del software que ha escogido y explótelas al máximo en sus informes.Por ejemplo, algunos software pueden agrupar registros con el mismo valor para un determinado descriptor (e.g. el mismo nombre de cultivo) y luego realizar cálculos o análisis estadísticos en otros campos del registro. Por lo tanto, en un informe sobre las accesiones que necesitan evaluación de las semillas, es posible calcular cuántas accesiones de cada cultivo hay que evaluar, o cuántas accesiones hay que evaluar en un determinado mes. Este tipo de información puede ser muy útil y puede ahorrarle muchísimo tiempo en el futuro.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosLa impresión del informe \"!Los informes lucen perfectos en la pantalla, pero cuando los imprimo se ven horribles!\"Si ha usado otro programa de procesamiento de textos, publicación mediante computadora, diseño gráfico u hojas de cálculo, puede haber tropezado con problemas al imprimir el trabajo. Muchos de ellos se pueden resolver si lee atentamente el manual de la impresora y la sección del manual del programa que se relaciona con la impresión de los informes. No obstante ello, se ha experimentado una serie de problemas durante la impresión de los documentos que se discuten en las próximas secciones.El tamaño y el tipo de letras de la impresora Su impresora puede imprimir caracteres de tamaños diferentes. Obviamente, cuando el tamaño del carácter es más grande, ocupa más espacio en la línea, mientras que si los caracteres son más pequenos pueden entrar en una sola línea. La impresora también puede imprimir en varios tipos de letras. Compare los tres tipos de letras que se dan a continuación: Tipo de letra #1: Recursos fitogenéticos Tipo de letra #2: Recursos fitogenéticos Tipo de letra #3: Recursos fitogenéticos Vea la diferencia que hay entre los diferentes tipos de letra del mismo carácter. Note también que algunos tipos de letra ocupan más espacio que otros; por eso la longitud de la línea para \"Recursos fitogenéticos\" es diferente en cada caso.Si se considera la forma en que están espaciados, los tipos de letra se pueden clasificar en dos categorías: espaciado único y espaciado proporcional. Cada carácter de un tipo de letra con espaciado único ocupa el mismo espacio, e.g., \"i\" ocupa la misma cantidad de espacio que \"o\". Con los tipos de letra de espaciado proporcional, el espacio ocupado varía de un carácter a otro. En el ejemplo siguiente se puede apreciar la diferencia entre estos dos tipos de letra: Tipo de letra con 00000 00000 00000 00000 espaciado único:iiiii ... iiiii iiiii iiiii Tipo de letra con 00000 00000 00000 00000 espaciado proporcional:iiiii iiiii iiiii iiiiiCapítulo 9: Construcción del sistemaControle los tipos de letra disponibles en el software y en la impresora y asegúrese de que no haya conflictos en la configuración.Si las columnas del informe están alineadas en la pantalla, pero no en la página impresa: 1.Controle el tipo de letra que ha utilizado. Trate de cambiarla a un tipo de letra con espaciado único, como la \"Courier\". 2.Revise el tamaño del carácter. ¿Es muy grande? Si lo es, redúzcalo. Consulte el manual para saber cómo hacerlo.Las impresoras matriciales de puntos pueden mostrar una cantidad limitada de caracteres por línea solamente. Muchas de ellas tienen dos tamaños de página; uno estándar, que permite hasta 80 caracteres con espaciado único por línea, y otro ancho que permite 132 caracteres con espaciado único por línea. Si la anchura total de los campos en un informe excede este límite de caracteres (incluyendo los espacios), el texto que sobra pasará a la próxima línea. Por lo tanto, si usa una impresora de matriz de puntos o una impresora de margarita, asegúrese de que la anchura total del informe no exceda este límite.Si usa papel ancho, asegúrese de que la impresora está configurada para aceptar papel ancho: la impresora no es inteligente -necesita que se especifique el uso del papel ancho, sea por medio del programa, o cambiándole manualmente la configuración.Para algunas impresoras es necesario establecer la longitud de página del informe tanto en el programa como en la misma impresora.Siempre es posible modificar la configuración de la impresora para que acepte una determinada longitud de papel (e.g., 21 cm, 28 cm, 29 cm (A4), 32 cm). Si la impresora está preparada para recibir papel de 32 cm y usted usa papel de 21 cm, los resultados pueden ser imprevisibles. Asegúrese de que la configuración de la impresora coincida con el tamaño de papel que utiliza. Consulte el manual para averiguar cómo puede configurarla correctamente. Tenga en mente que a veces el programa puede anular la configuración de la impresora.Si tiene que especificar el número de líneas por página en el programa cuando diseñe un informe, asegúrese de que éste corresponda al número correcto de líneas para el tamaño del papel que está utilizando. Si coloca un número muy alto o muy bajo, sus páginas tendrán grandes zonas de espacios en blanco.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosLas etapas para el diseño del informe se resumen en el diagrama de la Figura 12.4Ponga en práctica las capacidades de manejo de datos del softwareUna vez que haya diseñado varios formatos de pantalla y de informes, puede comenzar a trabajar con las rutinas para administrar los datos en el sistema de documentación. Aunque no es posible analizar aquí con mayor detalle cómo puede hacerlo, debido a que gran parte depende del software que use, podemos examinar algunas consideraciones generales.En la Figura 13 se ilustran las etapas en el desarrollo de rutinas de manejo de datos.En las secciones siguientes veremos algunas consideraciones que podrían afectar el manejo de los datos.Cuando se introducen los datos, generalmente se trabaja con un solo archivo. Sin embargo, a veces uno desea que los datos que introduce en un archivo, automáticamente pongan en funcionamiento la entrada de datos, o actualicen los datos en otro archivo.Por ejemplo cuando se sacan las semillas de la cámara frigorífica, el procedimiento de documentación correspondiente incluye:1.La introducción de un nuevo registro en el archivo de movimientos.La actualización del registro correspondiente en el archivo de inventario.A través del programa, puede estructurar el sistema para que cuando entre un nuevo registro en el archivo de movimientos, actualice automáticamente el registro correspondiente en el archivo del inventario. Esto requiere relacionar los archivos con anterioridad.Hay otras consideraciones que deben tenerse en cuenta cuando se desarrollan rutinas para la entrada de datos.Puede usar su software para rechazar registros que están repetidos. Los ejemplos siguientes le mostrarán cómo lograrlo.Archivos de registro y de pasaporte Sólo debe haber un archivo por cada accesión, dado que los datos de registro y pasaporte siempre serán los mismos. Por lo tanto, cuando se introducen estos datos, siempre se debe controlar si ya existe un registro para esa accesión. Si ya existe un registro, o se rechaza la entrada de los datos, o se le permite al usuario modificar solamente ciertos campos del registro existente.Es posible detectar registros duplicados agregando referencias a los campos de identificación de número de accesión, referencia del lote y fecha de la prueba, pues estos identifican especialmente un registro. Si el registro existe, o se rechaza la entrada de datos, o se le permite al usuario modificar solamente ciertos campos del registro existente.Para detectar regístros idénticos, es posible usar los campos de número de accesión y referencia del lote, pues estos identifican especialmente un registro, a no ser que se almacenen lotes idénticos de semillas en diferentes lugares de la cámara frigorífica. Nuevamente, si el registro existe, o se debe rechazar la entrada de datos, o se le permite al usuario modificar solamente ciertos campos del registro existente.Archivo de prueba de viabilidad de las semillas Es posible detectar registros que tienen el mismo número de accesión, referencia del lote y fecha de la prueba, dado que estos identifican un registro especialmente. Sin embargo, después de algunos años, este archivo podría crecer y contener datos de evaluación para lotes de semillas que ya no existen en la cámara frigorífica. ¿Cómo puede asegurarse de que este archivo contiene solamente los datos de los lotes de semilla que existen? Puede considerar la posibilidad de hacer una rutina adicional de mantenimiento del archivo de inventario que le permitirá al usuario hacer dos cosas:1. Cancelar un registro del archivo de inventario, es decir, un determinado lote de semillas que se agotó. 2.Trasladar todos los datos de las pruebas de viabilidad de la semilla referentes a este lote a un segundo archivo \"histórico\" de viabilidad de las semillas. Este archivo podría ser util en el futuro como una fuente de información sobre la viabilidad a largo plazo de las semillas, por ejemplo.Capítulo 9: Construcción del sistemaAntes de cancelar un registro, debe analizar si querrá utilizar los datos nuevamente. Si piensa que podrían ser útiles como referencia futura, trasládelos al archivo histórico. De lo contrario, se pueden borrar.Utilice el software para asignar el número de accesiónComo el número de accesión constituye la base de todo el sistema accesiones de documentación de los datos de accesiones específicas, es esencial que dos accesiones nunca tengan el mismo número.Si la asignación de los números de accesión es parte del procedimiento de documentación, se debe usar el software para asignarlos automáticamente. De esta manera, nunca tendrá que entrar un nuevo número de accesión, el programa lo hará por usted.Si su software no tiene una opción automática para hacerlo, puede llevar un archivo aparte que mantenga un registro del \"último\" número de accesión. Llamemos a este archivo, \"archivo contador\". Cuando utilice el formato de pantalla de entrada de datos, el \"último\" número de accesión se íncrementará en 1 y se visualizará la nueva pantalla. Una vez que se introduzcan los datos, el número de accesión incrementado se almacenará en el archivo \"contador\". Puede haber ocasiones en las que desee colocar manualmente el número de accesión en el archivo de registro. Cuando cambie de un sistema manual a uno computadorizado y necesite entrar los datos de registro para las accesiones existentes seguramente deseará hacerlo. Sin embargo, debe asegurarse de que podrá detectar los registros duplicados. Entonces, tendrá dos rutinas para la entrada de datos (nuevos registros):1 .Registro de la muestra -asignar un nuevo número del banco de germoplasma 2.Entrar los datos de registro de las accesiones existentesDebe utilizar las capacidades de su software para configurar sistemas que le permitan modificar los datos de cada archivo en su sistema de documentación. Esto se puede utilizar para corregir errores en registros específicos, actualizar registros con los nuevos datos y cancelar cualquier registro indeseado. Se pueden incorporar las siguientes capacidades:1.Servicios para \"vistazos \": esto le permite trabajar con un registro a la vez y ver o editar cada registro. Generalmente puede especificar el orden en el cual quiere ver los registros antes de dar un vistazo, e.g., en orden ascendente del número de accesión.Servicios de búsqueda: esto le permite localizar un deteminado valor en un campo específico. Por ejemplo, podría querer localizar un número de accesión particular.La protección de determinados campos: esto asegura que el usuario \"sólo puede leer\" los campos, no modificarlos, e.g., el número de accesión.Ya hemos visto algunos aspectos del diseño y funcionamiento de los documentos. Los diversos elementos de una rutina de informe, e.g., el diseño del informe, los criterios de búsqueda y la información del usuario, se deben integrar en una opción de rutina única que se pueda escoger en el menú. Asegúrese de que incluye las opciones para:1.Visualizar el informe en la pantalla 2.Escribir el informe en un archivo 3.Imprimir en papel/papelería preimpresa 4.4 Ejemplos de diseño lógico para la entrada de datos en un archivo de pasaporte de cultivoAntes de que comience a trabajar con los servicios de manejo de datos de su software, es muy útil ilustrar las etapas de cada rutina como si fuera un diseño lógico. Considere un procedimiento para la entrada de datos de pasaporte para un determinado cultivo. La meta de este procedimiento es aceptar y almacenar los datos de pasaporte para una o más accesiones de un determinado cultivo. En la Figura 14 se ilustra un diseño lógico.Ilustre las etapas de cada rutina como si fuera un diseño lógico De todas formas, este no es el único diseño lógico que usted puede desarrollar. En la Figura 15 se ilustra otra alternativa de diseño lógico.Si ilustra los pasos del procedimiento de esta forma le ayudará enormemente cuando comience a poner en práctica cada rutina utilizando su software.Para ayudar a los usuarios a seleccionar los procedimientos, se deben reunir todas las rutinas para la entrada y la modificación de datos y la generación de informes, en una serie de menúes fáciles de usar. Los sistemas dirigidos por menúes bien diseñados, son fáciles de usar y constituyen una característica común de muchos de los software comerciales. Veamos más detalladamente cómo se pueden diseñar. germoplasma en particular. Por ejemplo, cuando se trasladan las semillas del banco, ¿cuál es el procesamiento de los datos -\"entrada\" o \"modificación\"?La otra manera es diseñar los menúes de acuerdo con sus áreas temáticas, por ejemplo, registro, pasaporte, caracterización, prueba de semillas, inventario. En esta forma, el usuario ocasional sabe dónde buscar un determinado procedimiento de documentación.Si se considera el ejemplo de Arachis silvestre, la secuencia de los menúes sería similar a la que se ilustra en la Figura 17.En ambos sistemas se tiene que buscar en los tres menúes para encontrar el procedimiento pertinente. ¿Cuál organización prefiere? ¿Cuál organización piensa que los usuarios del sistema prefieren? ¿Tiene idea de cualquier otro tipo de organización?Se puede trabajar con uno de los tres estilos de los sistemas dirigidos por menúes: el menú de pantalla completa, el menú de barra y el menú desplegable.Las opciones de este menú se visualizan verticalmente, y generalmente están centradas en la pantalla, tal como se muestra en la Figura 18. Para seleccionar la opción deseada se utilizan las teclas o el ratón.Las opciones del menú se visualizan en una banda en la parte superior de la pantalla, tal como se ilustra en la Figura 19. Las opciones se seleccionan mediante el teclado o el ratón.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosInicialmente se parece al menú de barra, aquí también el usuario puede usar el ratón o el teclado para seleccionar una de las opciones. Luego, se visualiza el submenú como si fuera una columna debajo de la opción del menú principal (véase Figura 20).Los menúes de barra son los más simples de diseñar, pero ofrecen muy poca libertad de acción para la presentación de la pantalla. Los menúes desplegables son más rápidos de usar, particularmente cuando se usa el ratón. Los menúes de pantalla completa ofrecen la máxima libertad en el diseño, pero muchas veces al usarlos, son más lentos que los desplegables.Hemos visto detalladamente el diseño de formatos de pantalla; para diseñar los menúes se aplican consideraciones similares. Cuando se diseña cualquier tipo de menú, se debe:1.Organizar los menúes según el tipo de procesamiento de datos o según el tema 2. Tener como objetivo la consistencia en el diseño. Experimente con varios diseños básicos y escoja uno para todas las pantallas 3.Usar escasamente los estilos gráficos diferentes 4.Evitar introducir muchas opciones o incluir demasiada información en cada menú La documentación del sistema Es importante documentar la construcción del sistema. Una buena documentación ayuda al funcionamiento cotidiano del sistema y es esencial para cualquier modificación que se realice en el futuro.Cualquier persona podría ser responsable del mantenimiento del sistema en el futuro, y necesitará entender la estructura lógica del mismo. Si usted desea modificar el sistema en una fecha posterior, necesitará consultar una fuente de referencias detallada: seguramente no deseará preguntarse \"¿por qué lo hice así ... ?\" una pregunta que comúnmente formulan las personas que diseñan sistemas de computadoras pero que no han documentado adecuadamente su trabajo.Una de las razones por las cuales los sistemas carecen de documentación es porque con frecuencia se espera hasta que se ha puesto en práctica todo el sistema. Debido a que los sistemas de documentación son dinámicos y cambian después de un tiempo, es difícil identificar en que qué momento se pueden considerar \"completos\". Esta naturaleza dinámica del sistema a menudo induce a una escasez de documentación. No caiga en esta trampa. Debe documentar cada procedimiento tal como ha sido diseñado y realizado. El proceso de documentación es más fácil si lo hace a medida que diseña y construye el sistema, mientras los conceptos están todavía frescos en su mente.El método para documentar el sistema es esencialmente el mismo, tanto para el sistema manual como para el computadorizado.Es muy útil construir un diagrama de flujo cuando se documenta cada procedimiento: liste lo que ocurre en cada etapa del procedimiento. Indique cuáles son los archivos, menúes, formularios o formatos de pantalla, que se usan en cada etapa y cualquier relación que exista entre los archivos de datos. Adjunte al diagrama una descripción escrita del procedimiento.Procedimientos del banco de germoplasma 1.Construya un diagrama para cada procedimiento. En el Capítulo 4 (página 64) se dió un ejemplo de un diagrama que ilustraba el procedimiento para la limpieza de semillas con alto contenido de humedad. Este procedimiento se ilustra en la Figura 21.Construya un diagrama que muestre la relación que existe entre los diferentes procedimientos. ¿Qué procedimientos dependen de los otros? ¿Cuáles son independientes?En la Figura 22 se ilustra un ejemplo de la relación que existe entre los diversos procedimientos realizados por los bancos de germoplasma que manejan colecciones de semilla (véase Capítulo 4).Procedimientos de manejo de datos 1.Construya diagramas para la recuperación de la información. En la Figura 12 de este capítulo, se ilustró un diagrama con las diferentes etapas para el diseño de un informe. 2.Construya un diagrama que muestre la organización del sistema de menúes. Incluya todos los menúes e ilustre cómo se relacionan. En este caso no se incluye el ejemplo, dado que la organización de su sistema de menúes se hará según sus exigencias.Construya diagramas que ilustren los procedimientos para hacer las copias auxiliares de archivos de datos y para transferir los datos. Los métodos para realizar las copias de apoyo se harán según el sistema que use, y por ello tampoco se ilustran aquí. La transferencia de datos se discutirá en el Capítulo 10.Como se mencionó en el Capítulo 8, muchos programas de manejo de bases de datos pueden generar automáticamente una especificación detallada de cada archivo de la computadora, denominada diccionario de datos. Un diccionario de datos proporciona una lista de todos los campos de un determinado archivo de la base de datos, e incluye las especificaciones detalladas para cada Campo. Para mayor información, consulte el Capítulo S.Estas serán las rutinas que desarrolle cuando utilice las capacidades de manejo de datos de su software, y deben suministrarse en disquete, así como también en forma impresa. Asegúrese de que sea claro a cuál procedimiento o elemento del menú se refieren los comandos. Incluya un diseño lógico para cada opción que ayude a la comprensión de la misma.Proporcione copias de todos los formatos y modelos de informe La documentación del sistema debe incluir copias de los formularios, de los formatos de pantalla y de los modelos de informe. Esto se hace con el fin de evitar tener que consultar el sistema de documentación cada vez que necesite ver algun formato o informe.Resulta ventajoso incluir en la documentación una lista de los objetivos del banco de germoplasma y una breve explicación de cómo el sistema de documentación satisface estas necesidades. También se puede mencionar cualquier limitación del sistema actual y las zonas que necesitan desarrollo en el futuro.Escriba una guía para el usuarioEs conveniente escribir una guía para el usuario del sistema, si se prevé que varias personas utilizarán el sistema. La guía del usuario no debe ser tan detallada como la documentación del sistema principal; por el contrario, debe limitarse al uso del sistema y presentar las instrucciones paso a paso.Por donde continuar Después de determinar si el software y el hardware que escogió pueden respaldar el diseño del sistema lógico (se analizó en capítulos anteriores), puede proceder a construir el sistema. Este capítulo se ha concentrado en la forma en la que su sistema funcionará en la práctica con el hardware y software que escogió, esto es, el diseño del sistema físico. El diagrama de la Figura 23 resume las diferentes etapas en el proceso de construcción del sistema.En el próximo capítulo hablaremos de la puesta en práctica, funcionamiento y mantenimiento del sistema de documentación.Ejercicios 1 Indique si los siguientes enunciados son verdaderos o falsos:a.Un diseño de sistema lógico es una descripción detallada de como funcionará el sistema de documentación con el software y hardware que escogió b.Los formatos de pantalla se usan para \"facilitarle al usuario\" la entrada y la modificación de los datos y para impedir que entren errores al sistema c. Los campos deben aparecer en el formato de pantalla en el mismo orden en el que aparecen en el archivo de la computadora d. Se deben aprovechar las capacidades del software para detectar los errores despues que han entrado al sistema e. El formato de un informe puede ser completamente diferente al correspondiente para la entrada de datos f. Los registros se deben clasificar en un determinado orden, antes de imprimirlos en el informe g. Los informes se deben imprimir con un tipo de letra de espaciado único solamente h.Los menúes; facilitan el uso del sistema de documentación i. El sistema se debe documentar cuando se haya puesto en práctica y probado completamente j. Los diagramas constituyen una parte importante del sistema de documentación 2.¿Cuál es la diferencia entre diseño lógico y fisico? ¿Qué consideraciones podrian hacerle cambiar el diseño lógico del sistema?3. ¿Cuales son las ventajas de usar formatos de pantalla para entrada y modificación de datos? Explique cómo diseñaria usted un formato de pantalla fácil de usar.Describa las capacidades de muchos software para reducir la ocurrencia de errores en la entrada de datos.Suponga que necesita producir un informe que liste las accesiones con baja viabilidad de semilla. Describa las diferentes etapas que seguiria para producir este informe.Describa cómo se pueden usar las capacidades de manejo de datos del software, para construir rutinas para entrada y modificación de datos. Recuerde e ldiseño lógico de una rutina utilizado para la entrada de datos de pasaporte.Explique por qué se usan tanto los sistemas dirigidos por menúes en la documentación de recursos fitogenéticos y cómo se pueden organizar las rutinas en una serie de menúes.¿Por qué es importante una buena documentación del sistema? Describa las formas que puede usar en la documentación del sistema.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosCapítulo 10En el Capítulo 10 se analiza la puesta en práctica del sistema de documentación, el intercambio de datos entre sistemas y aplicaciones diferentes, las consideraciones que hay que tener en cuenta para la seguridad de los datos y los procedimientos para modificar el sistema. Cuando haya terminado este capítulo, será capaz de:½ Preparar un programa de capacitación adecuado para los usuarios del sistema ½ Escoger la mejor forma de introducir el nuevo sistema en su banco de germoplasma ½ Establecer rutinas eficaces para el intercambio de datos, entre: i) su sistema de documentación y otros sistemas de documentación ii) su sistema de documentación y otras aplicaciones ½ Identificar las principales fuentes de alteración de datos y la manera de evitarlas ½ Tomar medidas para proteger el sistema contra las infecciones por virus de computadora ½ Modificar su sistema de documentación para adaptarlo a los cambios inevitables en las prácticas de trabajo de su banco de germoplasma ½ Revisar los cambios en las necesidades de información de su banco de germoplasma y adaptarlos a su sistema dle documentación 1 Puesta en práctica del sistema de documentación La realización del sistema de documentación implica reunir el trabajo que ha hecho hasta la fecha sobre todos los aspectos del diseño del sistema de documentación, para formar un sistema físico completamente funcional que cumpla con las especificaciones que desarrolló en su análisis.Sea su nuevo sistema manual o computadorizado, su puesta en práctica es un proyecto muy importante que requiere una planificación cuidadosa. Si trabaja en una unidad pequeña, y solamente usted es el responsable de la documentación, la realización es sumamente sencilla; una vez que haya diseñado, controlado y documentado el sistema, puede comenzar Parte de este capítulo se ha tomado de la siguiente publicación: Lee B.S. Basic systems analysis, 2nd edition, Copyright @ 1980,1984 by Stanley Thomes Ltd. (Eds.). AU rights reserved. a usarlo inmediatamente. El proceso es más complicado si trabaja en una unidad más grande, en la que otras personas utilizarán el sistema de documentación, o si el sistema de documentación funcionará en más de un lugar.Para lograr que el sistema de documentación funcione correctamente, es importante que una persona asuma la responsabilidad de supervisarlo y manejarlo. Desde el punto de vista práctico, es preferible que una sola persona tenga la responsabilidad. Esta persona (denominada administrador del sistema), debe estar disponible para responder a todas las observaciones y sugerencias de los usuarios acerca de la eficacia y facilidad de manejo del sistema, y para resolver cualquier problema que pueda surgir. El administrador del sistema también debe estar en condiciones de responder a otras solicitudes de información, ya sean de colegas del mismo banco o de investigadores de otros institutos o bancos de germoplasma que necesiten información sobre accesiones almacenadas en su banco.En las secciones siguientes veremos dos aspectos de la puesta en práctica del sistema de documentación que deben considerarse cuidadosamente para garantizar su éxito, a saber: 1.Capacitación de los usuarios del sistema 2.Introducción del nuevo sistemaEs imprescindible proporcionar una capacitación adecuada a todas las personas que utilizarán el sistema de documentación. Si los usuarios no reciben una capacitación conveniente, no podrán utilizar idóneamente el sistema, e inevitablemente cometerán errores. Descubrir al tanteo las Descubrir al tanteo las capacidades de un sistema es una forma muy lenta de aprender.La capacitación debe ser una parte esencial de la realización de su sistema de documentación, no un accesorio opcional. Es fundamental analizar cuidadosamente quiénes utilizarán el sistema, con qué tipo de conocimientos ya cuentan y qué más deberían saber antes de que puedan realizar los procedimientos de documentación.Antes de convocar a un programa de capacitación, es esencial evaluar los recursos disponibles. Las habilidades y la experiencia del personal constituyen un recurso fundamental y se pueden evaluar mediante el diagrama de la Figura 1.A este punto debería analizar la rotación del personal. Por ejemplo, si un empleado trabajará con su organización durante un período breve solamente, no sería justo emplear mucho tiempo en capacitarlo dado que cuando éste se marche, tendrá que entrenar a otro miembro del personal.La identificación de los objetivos de la capacitación implica un estudio detallado de cada procedimiento de documentación. En este caso se debe considerar lo que el usuario necesita saber para poder realizar las diferentes etapas de cada procedimiento. Estas consideraciones incluyen:Las opciones del menú que se necesitan para escoger el procedimiento de documentación ½ La forma en la que se deben utilizar los formatos de pantalla para la entrada y modificación de los datos ½ Cualquier sistema de codificación que se haya utilizado ½ Cualquier escala que se haya utilizado ½ Cualquier pulsación (de tecla) que se necesite para realizar determinadas operaciones Se debe realizar un análisis para cada procedimiento, que incluya las opciones para generación de informes, copias de seguridad del sistema e intercambio de datos.Es esencial evaluar las necesidades de capacitación de cada usuario en particular. Analice qué conocimientos, habilidades y experiencias tiene cada usuario, junto con los objetivos de capacitación que se identificaron precedentemente, y comience a determinar qué tipo de capacitación se necesita. Examine si existe algún punto débil en la experiencia del personal, que se pueda subsanar con la capacitación correspondiente.Si trabaja con un sistema computadorizado, la capacitación tiene que incluir instrucciones generales sobre el funcionamiento de la computadora. El nivel de capacitación que se requiere, dependerá de la experiencia previa que tengan los usuarios con el manejo de las computadoras. Puede ser necesario dar algún tipo de instrucción básica que cubra cómo encender y apagar la computadora, cómo funciona la impresora y demás.Analice si el personal responderá mejor a la capacitación \"en el lugar de trabajo\", o si sería más conveniente que la capacitación se llevase a cabo fuera del ambiente de trabajo habitual. En una organización muy activa, muchas veces es mejor realizar la capacitación lejos de las distracciones e interrupciones del ambiente de trabajo normal.La capacitación debería estimular el interés y el entusiasmo de la gente que utilizará el nuevo sistema. Una buena forma (y además interesante) de comenzar es dar una demostración del sistema que ilustre cómo se deberían realizar los procedimientos. El objetivo debe ser siempre brindar confianza a los usuarios; si se sienten seguros de sí mismos con el sistema, trabajarán más eficazmente y cometerán menos errores.Analice si la capacitación debe ser intensiva y realizarse en un período continuo, o si seria mejor dividirla en sesiones cortas, distribuidas durante un período largo. Existen ventajas y desventajas en cada una de estas consideraciones. Cuando se divide en pequeñas sesiones, la capacitación no interfiere mucho con el trabajo habitual de su banco de germoplasma. Sin embargo, muchas personas responden mejor si no se fracciona, esto significa que se pueden concentrar más en la comprensión del funcionamiento del nuevo sistema, evitando las distracciones cotidianas del trabajo.Los ejercicios que se realizan tomando como modelo los procedimientos de documentación reales, constituyen una forma útil de brindar confianza en el manejo del sistema. Esto se puede llevar a cabo bajo su dirección, como parte del programa de capacitación. Asegúrese de que tiene una copia de seguridad de la base de datos principal, o una base de datos que contenga datos de muestra con los que el usuario puede trabajar en esta etapa. De esta forma evitará modificar o dañar accidentalmente los datos de la base principal.La capacitación es más efectiva si se realiza mediante clases particulares individuales, o mediante la enseñanza en grupos pequeños, debido a que las personas se sienten más compenetradas con el sistema que utilizan. También les brinda la oportunidad de plantear preguntas sobre los temas que no entienden completamente, sin sentir miedo de retrasar a los colegas por ello. Los temas con los que el personal está familiarizado se pueden tratar más rápidamente, u omitir del todo. Esto también implica que la capacitación puede ser flexible. Los temas que los usuarios comprenden más fácilmente se pueden analizar brevemente, dejando más tiempo disponible para las secciones que son más complejas.Producir una guía del usuario Produzca una documentaiòn que describa paso a paso còmo se realiza cada procedimiento utilizando el nuevo sistema. Estos procedimientos se pueden compilar en una guìa del usuario.Cuando comience a entrenar a los usuarios, la sesiòn de capacitaciòn puede ser bastante intensiva y es poco probable que ellos recuerden todo lo que se ha enseñado. Es esencial que tengan una guìa del usuario a la cual recurrir en una fecha posterior. Sin embargo, las instrucciones escritas no sustituyen la capacitaciòn pràcticaLa evaluación posterior de su programa de capacitación, le brinda la oportunidad de constatar si se han logrado los objetivos señalados. También proporciona información que se puede utilizar en los futuros programas de capacitación. Los usuarios pueden tener dudas sobre el funcionamiento de ciertas partes del sistema. Esto sugiere la necesidad de analizar estas secciones en una sesión de complementaria y tratarlas más a fondo en un programa futuro de capacitación. La capacitación complementaria después que los usuarios han tenido la oportunidad de trabajar con el sistema por un determinado período, es importante porque le ayuda a evaluar la comprensión de ciertos conceptos, así como también el impacto del programa de capacitación inicial.Las sesiones de capacitación ofrecen la oportunidad de obtener información de los usuarios sobre el manejo del sistema. Ellos pueden aportar nuevas ideas para mejorar el sistema, que se pueden incorporar en una versión futura del mismo.Se puede introducir el nuevo sistema cuando: ½ El equipo es completamente funcional y está disponible para el uso ½ Se han transferido todos los datos del antiguo sistema ½ Se ha puesto a prueba todo el sistema ½ Se ha capacitado a los usuarios Cuando se introduce un sistema nuevo, hay con toda seguridad, ciertas dificultades y dudas iniciales en los usuarios. Es esencial que usted esté disponible en la fecha del cambio y varios días después, y que tenga tiempo libre para controlar estos cambios y resolver cualquier problema o duda que puedan surgir.Si cambia a un sistema computadorizado o a un sistema manual nuevo, necesitará analizar cómo se transferirán los datos de su sistema actual (si existe alguno) al nuevo. Si actualmente cuenta con una gran cantidad de datos, introducirlos en la computadora o transferirlos manualmente a diferentes formularios puede ser un proceso muy lento. Obviamente, no puede empezar a trabajar con el nuevo sistema hasta que todos los datos pertinentes estén en su lugar. Sea realista acerca del tiempo que ello le tomará cuando establezca fechas límite para introducir el nuevo sistema.Si actualmente no utiliza un sistema de documentación, la introducción de uno nuevo puede ser inmediata. Sin embargo, si utiliza un sistema manual o computadorizado, el cambio se debe planificar cuidadosamente, y debería ser un procedimiento gradual. En la sección siguiente examinaremos las cualidades relativas a las diferentes formas de introducir el nuevo sistema.Capítulo 10: Puesta en práctica y mantenimiento del sistema ½ 237El cambio inmediato es una opción realista si los usuarios del sistema serán unos pocos solamente. Antes de realízarlo, se debe controlar si los datos son exactos y compatibles. También se debería verificar cada procedimiento y asegurarse de que se puede realizar de modo uniforme y correctamente.Luego, en una fecha preestablecida que todos los usuarios deben conocer con antelación, se puede introducir el nuevo sistema y desactivar el antiguo. La capacitación de todos los usuarios se debe llevar a cabo antes de esta fecha.Este es un enfoque muy simple, pero puede ocasionar problemas si existen errores en el nuevo sistema que no han sido detectados previamente. Es entonces esencial que ponga a prueba su sistema tan a fondo como sea posible, antes de la fecha del cambio.Si decide introducir su nuevo sistema de documentación con el funcionamiento paralelo al antiguo sistema, es esencial que todos los usuarios entiendan la importancia de mantener ambos sistemas actualizados. Esto implica que sí existen problemas o errores en, o con el nuevo sistema, se puede recurrir al antiguo para satisfacer las necesidades de documentación e información. Si ambos sistemas no se mantienen actualizados correctamente, toda la operación será inútil. Por ejemplo, si encuentra valores diferentes almacenados en los dos sistemas ¿cómo sabe cuáles son los datos correctos? Si decide introducir el sistema con el funcionamiento paralelo al antiguo, debería explicar este concepto en el programa de capacitación. Con este procedimiento, también es esencial poner a prueba el sistema antes del cambio. Sin embargo, cualquier tipo de problema con el nuevo sistema no será tan devastador como con el cambio inmediato, dado que siempre podrá recurrir al antiguo sistema.Recién cuando esté satisfecho con el funcionamiento de su nuevo sistema, puede desactivar el antiguo. Asegúrese de que los usuarios estén informados de la fecha en la que se realizará el cambio y controle que no hayan tropezado con algún problema con el nuevo sistema que usted ignore.Esta puede ser una forma segura de cambiar a un sistema nuevo. El problema principal con este método, es que trabajar simultáneamente con los dos sistemas implica una duplicación de esfuerzos y, si ellos no están actualizados adecuadamente, se podrían cometer errores.La introducción del nuevo sistema mediante este proceso es gradual. En vez de reemplazar el sistema de una vez, los procedimientos de documentación se dividen en módulos que después de ser puestos a prueba se introducen, uno por uno. Los módulos separados se pueden introducir poco a poco, usando las dos formas descriptas precedentemente, es decir, mediante el cambio inmediato, o introduciendo el nuevo módulo de procedimiento paralelo al antiguo procedimiento (y aplicando las mismas consideraciones para desactivar el módulo antiguo, tal como se describieron en la sección 1.2.2).El orden en que se introducen los módulos debe ser lógico, no arbitrario. Entonces, un posible orden lógico para trabajar con los módulos separados, en su banco de germoplasma, podría ser el procedimiento de \"registro\" primero, luego el procedimiento de \"prueba de semillas\", más tarde el procedimiento de \"inventario\" y, así con los demás. Este es sólo un ejemplo de un orden lógico. A lo mejor un orden diferente podría ser más lógico para su banco de germoplasma (aun cuando sea a la inversa). La ventaja de esta forma, en comparación con los dos métodos anteriores, es que en cada etapa hay una oportunidad de aprender de los errores, en lugar de afrontar el peso de todos los problemas al mismo tiempo. Se debería asegurar de que este tipo de cambio se realiza concienzudamente para evitar confusión. Seguridad de los datos Para que un sistema de documentación sea útil, es esencial el mantenimiento fácil de datos fehacientes y exactos. Esto se denomina con frecuencia integridad de los datos. El mantenimiento de la integridad de los datos es una parte vital del mantenimiento de su sistema de documentación. En esta sección examinaremos cómo se puede ver amenazada la integridad de los datos, y las medidas para protegerla.Existen cuatro razones que pueden poner en riesgo la integridad de los datos. Ellas son:Un error humano -los datos se introducen erróneamente, o se modifican o cancelan accidentalmente ½ Un error del software -son los errores que están en el programa, que causan la alteración o corrupción de los datos (denominados defectos o duendes) ½ Un error del hardware -son averías del equipo que causan la corrupción de los datos ½ Un daño intencional -son los daños causados por otras personas o por virus de la computadoraEl mantenimiento de la integridad de datos implica mantener la seguridad del sistema. En la sección siguiente se sugieren algunas prácticas útiles que lo ayudarán a establecerla.Una de las formas más efectivas de asegurar la seguridad de los datos es reducir el número de usuarios que tienen acceso al sistema. Esto se puede lograr mediante una restricción física (e.g. la computadora o los archivos manuales se conservan en una oficina con llave), o mediante el uso de contraseñas para proteger el sistema computadorizado (o las partes del sistema) de los usuarios que no hayan recibido la capacitación.En el Capítulo 8 se analizaron otros temas referentes al uso de las capacidades del software para impedir la entrada de errores al sistema. Por ejemplo, se deben utilizar las máscaras para la entrada y modificación de los datos, para evitar que se introduzcan o alteren los datos que no estén relacionados con un determinado procedimiento. Los campos se deben estructurar de manera tal que acepten respuestas válidas solamente. Y además es fundamental que los usuarios sean capaces de acceder al sistema a través del menú: no deberían utilizar la \"puerta del fondo\" de la base de datos por vía del software de administración de la base de datos.Copias de seguridad de los archivos de datos Aun en los sistemas mejor regulados pueden ocurrir desastres. Usted podría borrar los archivos de datos accidentalmente; el disco duro podría fallar; podría haber un desperfecto en el software que altere sus datos; un virus podría infectar el sistema; podría caer un rayo en el edificio y destruir el equipo eléctrico. Estas situaciones que parecen improbables, pueden producirse aun en los sistemas de documentación de recursos genéticos más sofisticados.La realización de copias regulares de todos los archivos de datos lo protegerá contra todos los posibles desastres. Hágalo diaria o semanalmente. Copie los archivos de datos en disquetes y considere la posibilidad de conservarlos en un lugar aparte. Asegúrese de que el menú principal del usuario contiene la opción de las copias de seguridad de los archivos de datos, de manera que se convierta en una operación de rutina. Evite tener que recriminarse: \"si sólo hubiera hecho una copia de seguridad de los datos\"Capítulo 10: Puesta en práctica y mantenimiento del sistema ½ 241En el Capítulo 7 hemos visto brevemente cómo su sistema se puede infectar con los virus de las computadoras. Este riesgo de infección se puede reducir sustancialmente si se toman algunas precauciones. Sin embargo, es imposible evitar la infección completamente.En primer lugar, si piensa que su computadora puede tener virus, debería apagarla. Los virus no pueden causar ningún daño cuando la computadora está apagada. En las secciones siguientes examinaremos estas precauciones y estudiaremos también las medidas que se pueden tomar para librar al sistema de los virus, en el caso de que su sistema tenga la mala suerte de infectarse.No copie el software ilegalmente La copia del software es una fuente común de infección, ya que si el programa que está copiando está infectado, su sistema se infectará también. Además, es ilegal para la mayoría de los software. Entonces, instale solamente los que ha comprado directamente de un distribuidor comercial, ya que éstos se examinan para comprobar la existencia de virus antes de su distribución. Asegúrese de que el paquete original del disco que compra esté cerrado herméticamente, o si un vendedor instala el software en su computadora; asegúrese de que utiliza la copia original del fabricante, no su propia copia. Esta última puede haber sido empleada en otras computadoras y puede estar infectada.Existen muchos paquetes de programas comerciales que se pueden instalar en el sistema para impedir y eliminar la infección por virus. Algunos software anti-virus se activan automáticamente cuando la computadora arranca, y controlan rutinariamente todos los discos que se usan. Otros requerirán que se les ordene el control en cada disco que se use. Existen también algunos software que pueden crear una copia de las zonas vitales del disco que le ayudarán a recuperarlo de posibles desastres. Sin embargo, usted necesitará crear esta copia antes de que ocurra cualquier daño. Estudie el manual del software anti-virus para obtener más información al respecto.El software anti-virus lo protege solamente de aquellos virus para los cuales se ha diseñado. Debido a que continuamente aparecen nuevos virus, el software no será capaz de detener todas las posibles infecciones, pero puede reducir signifícativamente el riesgo.Si los virus no se pueden eliminar con el software anti-virus, será necesario borrar todos los archivos infectados y copiarlos nuevamente de los discos originales; éste debería ser el último recurso. Si hay virus en el sector de arranque o carga inicial, debería reformatar todo el disco. Si esto sucede, es indispensable tener una copia de seguridad del sistema que ha creado.Si no está seguro de cómo eliminar o impedir que los virus infecten el sistema nuevamente, solicite ayuda al personal competente.Proteja los discos de programa de la escrituraCuando instale un software comercial nuevo utilizando los, disquetes, es aconsejable proteger el disco contra escritura antes de instalar el software. Esto significa que debe colocar una pestaña de protección de escritura en el disco (consulte el manual de la computadora para investigar cómo se realiza, véanse también las Figuras 3 y 4). Un disquete protegido contra escritura no puede ser infectado por los virus de las computadoras. Sin embargo, para determinados software, parte del procedimiento de instalación incluye la escritura en los disquetes y entonces no tendrá la opción de proteger el programa de la escritura.Conserve un disquete del sistema protegido de escritura y libre de virus En circunstancias normales, su sistema recurrirá al disco duro para arrancar. En el Capítulo 7 se mencionó la posibilidad de hacer arrancar el sistema con un disquete de arranque, denominado disco del sistema. Es conveniente conservar un disco de sistema protegido de escritura en el caso de que el disco duro se infecte con un virus.Exportar/importar datos a/de otros sistemas de la base de datos ½ Exportar datos a un software de tratamiento de texto, o paquete de programas de edición con computadora, para la preparación de informes o catálogos de alta calidad ½ Exportar datos a una hoja electrónica o prógrama estadístico para realizar cálculos complicados ½ Importar datos de una hoja electrónica o software estadístico. (Esto le permite realizar cálculos y análisis en sus datos antes de registrarlos en el sistema de documentación)Si usted desea utilizar los datos.de una base de datos de otro banco de germoplasma, y ellos desean utilizar los datos de su base, es decir, si se intercambian los datos entre bases de datos de diferentes lugares y regularmente, pretenderá que él procedimiento sea fácil y uniforme. El hecho de que las bases de datos se manejen con el mismo software, ayuda considerablemente. El proceso se facilita aun más, si los archivos de bases de datos de diferentes lugares tienen la misma estructura y usan formatos iguales para los datos.Si instala un sistema de documentación que funcionará en lugares distintos (e.g. en diferentes estaciones de investigación), se debe buscar que sean uniformes. En la práctica, esto significa que todos los lugares utilizarán la misma versión del sistema de documentación guiado por menúes que usted utiliza, tal vez con menos procedimientos de documentación. Esto facilitará el intercambio de datos.Asegúrese de que los datos de las accesiones de su banco de germoplasma se pueden distinguir de los de las accesiones de otras estaciones almacenados en su base de datos. Si los diferentes bancos utilizan diferentes sistemas de numeración, el número de accesión identificará el lugar en el que está almacenada la accesión.A veces, el intercambio de datos con otras computadoras implica simplemente copiar los archivos de su computadora en un disquete, y luego recuperarlos del disquete en otra computadora. Los disquetes constituyen un método conveniente para el intercambio de datos entre computadoras. Ellos son portátiles y fáciles de enviar por correo a colegas de otros bancos de germoplasma.Los datos también se pueden intercambiar entre computadoras que están conectadas con una red. Una red es un grupo de computadoras que se encuentran generalmente en un edificio, o en un lugar único y que están vinculadas físicamente con cables.Si las computadoras están ubicadas en lugares geográficamente diferentes, es posible intercambiar los archivos de los datos utilizando sistemas de telecomunicación nacionales o internacionales y el software de comunicaciones adecuado.Si piensa intercambiar los datos regularmente, explore las capacidades del software para ver si es posible señalar especialmente los datos que se han añadido o modificado desde la última fecha en que fueron intercambiados. Algunos software de administración de bases de datos le permiten realizarlo mediante la opción de almacenar la última fecha en la que un registro se modifica y la fecha en la que se incorpora un nuevo registro. Los datos modificados después de la última fecha del intercambio pueden luego seleccionarse y transmitirse, en lugar de transmitir una copia de toda la base de datos.Desafortunadamente, el intercambio de los datos no es siempre sencillo. En las secciones siguientes, trataremos de examinar algunos de los problemas que surgen cuando se intercambian los datos.El intercambio de datos entre bases de datos es generalmente sencillo si la estructura de los archivos es idéntica, es decir, si la estructura, los nombres y las especificaciones de los campos son iguales, y si tienen la misma escala cualitativa y cuantitativa y el mismo sistema de codificación.Si los campos no tienen las mismas especificaciones, se corre el riesgo de perder o alterar los datos durante el intercambio.El Cuadro 1 muestra algunos ejemplos de las dificultades en el intercambio de datos entre dos archivos.Si desea intercambiar datos entre diferentes bases de datos, asegúrese de que los descriptores y los estados de descriptores que se utilizan son iguales. No obstante, es posible intercambiar los datos cuando los descriptores o sus estados son diferentes, pero el procedimiento es más complicado. Por ejemplo, si se ha registrado un descriptor en archivos separados, utilizando escalas o grupos de códigos diferentes, antes de que pueda intercambiar los datos, se le deben traducir al sistema las escalas o códigos que utiliza el archivo destinatario.Nota: si su base de datos le exige para intercambiar los datos que especifique la anchura de los campos, cuando los defina asegúrese de que sea la misma en ambos casos. Si son diferentes, usted corre el riesgo de perder los datos.Si hay personas que tienen experiencia en computación en otros lugares con quienes piensa intercambiar datos, debería trabajar con ellos para asegurarse de que existe uniformidad en los descriptores que se utilizan y compatibilidad con cualquier estructura de archivo que ellos desarrollen.Si se intercambian datos entre diferentes paquetes de programas, el procedimiento es más complicado. El formato de un archivo diferirá según el software que se emplee para generarlo. Los diferentes paquetes de programas para la administración de bases de datos, hojas electrónicas, procesamiento de texto, edición mediante computadora, diseño gráfico y análisis estadístico, tienen diferentes formatos de archivo que no son necesariamente compatibles.Sin embargo, la mayoría de los paquetes comerciales cuenta con opciones de importación y exportación de datos, con las cuales se convierten los archivos a diferentes formatos además de aquél que usa el programa. También es común un servicio para convertir a determinados formatos estándares de archivos.El ASCII (Código Estándar Americano para Intercambio de Información) es probablemente el formato de archivo de texto más aceptado. La mayoría de los paquetes comerciales, tales como los administradores de bases de datos, las hojas electrónicas, los paquetes de análisis estadístico, los procesadores de texto y los editores mediante computadora pueden producir y procesar los archivos ASCII.Si tiene que intercambiar datos con otro banco de germoplasma, averigue en qué formatos aceptan los datos. También informe el formato de archivo que usted prefiere. Si tiene dudas, utilice aquél que emplea con más frecuencia; el formato para el software de administración de bases de datos es generalmente ASCII.Los disquetes se describieron como un método simple y conveniente para intercambiar datos entre computadoras. Sin embargo, cuando se intercambian datos entre computadoras que trabajan con sistemas operativos diferentes, el procedimiento no es tan sencillo. Para intercambiar los datos en un disquete, se debe utilizar el software de conversión. Esto le permitirá a su computadora leer los datos de un disco generado por otra computadora que trabaja con un sistema operativo diferente y viceversa.Alternativamente, se pueden intercambiar los datos a través de una red de computadoras, ya que las computadoras con sistemas operativos completamente diferentes se pueden interconectar en una red. Esto le brinda la posibilidad de intercambiar los datos fácilmente entre computadoras que utilizan sistemas operativos diferentes.Si intercambia datos entre bases de datos manejadas con el mismo software, o con software diferentes, o entre paquetes de programas completamente diferentes, utilizando formatos de archivos diferentes, hay una serie de aspectos que debe aclarar antes de que intercambie los datos. Estos se ilustran en el diagrama de flujo de la Figura 5.Se debe controlar siempre la precisión en el intercambio con datos de prueba -nunca utilice los datos reales en el procedimiento de prueba ya que se podrían perder durante el proceso. Como medida preventiva, siempre haga copias de seguridad de los archivos que utiliza antes de intercambiar cualquier dato. Así siempre podrá recuperar los datos que se perdieron o alteraron durante el proceso, si algo funciona mal.Los programas de hoja de cálculo electrónica se utilizan más en los análisis estadísticos que los software de administración de bases de datos porque cuentan con servicios más convenientes, y es por ello que se emplean con frecuencia en la documentación de los recursos genéticos. Para utilizar estas hojas conjuntamente con el software de administración de bases de datos, es necesario desarrollar un sistema que permita agilizar el intercambio de datos sin errores.En muchas ocasiones el intercambio de datos entre las hojas electrónicas y las bases de datos implica una reorganización de los datos antes de su intercambio. Por ejemplo:La estructura del archivo puede necesitar alguna modificación para que el paquete de programas destinatario pueda reconocer los diferentes elementos de información ½ Los datos pueden necesitar alguna transformación para adaptarse a los estados, escalas y códigos de los descriptores que se utilizan ½ Las especificaciones de los campos pueden necesitar modificarse para armonizar con las especificaciones definidas en el paquete de programas destinatarioVale la pena dedicarle tiempo a programar el método más eficaz para el intercambio de datos, especialmente si necesita intercambiar los mismos archivos regularmente. Consulte el manual al respecto. Utilice las capacidades de administración de datos de su software para estructurar una opción de rutina para el intercambio regular de datos, e inclúyala como una opción en su sistema de ménúes.Muchas veces es mucho más rápido y menos complicado intercambiar los datos de una base de datos a una hoja electrónica, en lugar de hacerlo en la dirección opuesta. Examine sus necesidades de análisis de datos para comprobar si sus datos se pueden registrar primero en la base de datos, para exportarlos posteriormente a una hoja electrónica para análisis.Modificación de su sistema de documentación Usted ha diseñado un sistema de documentación que satisface las actuales necesidades de documentación e información del banco de germoplasma y ha anticipado las futuras necesidades tan rápido como ha sido posible. En consecuencia, después de haber empleado mucho tiempo y esfuerzo en el diseño y realización del sistema, la sola idea de cambiar puede ser aterradora.Los sistemas de documentación del banco de germoplasma raras veces son estáticos e inmutables; por el contrario, son dinámicos y evolucionan para adaptarse a los cambios en las necesidades de documentación e información del banco de germoplasma.Los bancos de germoplasma son propensos a expandirse después de algunos años. Así como ellos cambian, las políticas cambian, se aceptan nuevas accesiones de cultivos, se crean nuevas áreas de trabajo, las actuales se reducen progresivamente, se establece nueva colaboración con otros institutos. Todos estos cambios influirán en los requisitos de información del banco de germoplasma y en el funcionamiento del sistema de documentación. Debido a que las áreas de trabajo cambian, se necesitará desarrollar nuevos procedimientos de documentación y también modificar o reducir los procedimientos existentes. Puede ser necesario desarrollar nuevos informes para los cambios en las necesidades de información. Se puede necesitar el diseño de nuevos formatos de pantalla. Los menúes pueden tener que ser modificados para incluir nuevos procedimientos o para excluir procedimientos redundantes. Se puede necesitar crear nuevos archivos de datos e integrarlos al sistema computadorizado.Continuamente se realizan progresos sorprendentes en la capacidad de las nuevas microcomputadoras. Algunos de ellos son, el aumento de la velocidad de funcionamiento, el incremento de la capacidad de almacenamiento, la aparición de software más sofisticados y mejores servicios para comunicarse con otras computadoras. Estos avances tecnológicos son cada vez más accesibles al comprador y tendrán un gran impacto en la forma en la que pueda funcionar su sistema de documentación. Trate de mantenerse actualizado con los progresos tecnológicos, ya que podrían mejorar el rendimiento de su sistema.Saque ventajas de las modificaciones de los programas: estos se actualizan pensando en las necesidades del usuario. Entonces, suponiendo que usted haya elegido un paquete adecuado de programas con el cual comenzar, cualquier actualización debería contribuir al mejor rendimiento de su sistema.Capítulo 10: Puesta en práctica y mantenimiento del sistema ½ 251Es improbable que las mismas personas trabajen en su banco de germoplasma durante un período de cinco años, por ejemplo. La gente cambia de trabajo, se emplea nuevo personal. Los cambios en el personal ocasionan inevitablemente cambios en los requisitos de documentación e información. Por ejemplo, si se nombra un nuevo director, ¿tendrá éste las mismas necesidades de información del que se marcha? Si se nombra un nuevo oficial de manejo de semillas, él (o ella) tendría que tener ideas sobre cómo perfeccionar los procedimientos o cómo organizar mejor el trabajo. Cualquiera de estos cambios tendrá un efecto en los procedimientos de documentación y en las solicitudes de información del sistema.Usted necesitará revisar su sistema de documentación periódicamente para:½ Determinar si satisface las necesidades de información y documentación ½ Identificar las áreas en las cuales se puede mejorar ½ Identificar nuevas capacidades que se pueden incorporar Esta revisión de su sistema de documentación se debe realizar en una forma diferente a la del análisis del banco de germoplasma que usted hizo antes de diseñar el sistema. Las preguntas que se debe formular son diferentes. Veamos algunos de los asuntos que necesita considerar en tal revisión.Objetivos del banco de germoplasma ¿Han cambiado los objetivos del banco de germoplasma desde que se estableció el sistema de documentación? Si son diferentes ¿cómo influyen en los requisitos de documentación e información? ¿Satisface todavía su sistema de documentación los requisitos de información?Necesita modificar alguna operación, o para saber si se deben diseñar nuevamente los formatos de pantalla o los formularios. También debe haber habido cambios en el personal desde que usted diseñó el sistema, y los nuevos empleados pueden tener necesidades diferentes a las del personal anterior.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosRendimiento del sistema ¿El sistema usa al máximo los recursos disponibles (e. g. computadoras, personal)? Puede suceder que determinados procedimientos de documentación que usted diseñó sean ineficaces, o poco prácticos. Por ejemplo, aquellos para la entrada de datos de un sistema computadorizado pueden ser poco prácticos (porque la computadora está ubicada en un lugar poco conveniente), o ineficaces (lentos o implicar una duplicación indeseada de esfuerzos).Si actualmente usa un sistema manual de documentación, ¿podrían manejarse los datos más eficazmente si utilizara un sistema computadorizado? Si la cantidad de datos que se documentase incrementa constantemente, esta podría ser una opción para tener en cuenta.Si usa un sistema de documentación computadorizado, el uso de un nuevo hardware o software ¿incrementaría el rendimiento del sistema?Precisión del sistema ¿Son fehacientes, exactos y actualizados los datos que se documentan? ¿Es fácil detectar y corregir errores en el sistema? ¿Son útiles los informes? Trate de identificar cómo entran los datos incorrectos al sistema y los pasos necesarios para impedirlo. Utilice las capacidades de su software de administración de datos para impedirla entrada de datos incorrectos al sistema.Requisitos adicionales de información ¿Son útiles todos los informes que genera rutinariamente? ¿Se necesitan otros informes?Para obtener esta información, hable con la gente que utiliza o solicita estos informes.Después de haber revisado el sistema, usted tendrá una idea exacta de su funcionamiento, y habrá identificado las áreas que necesitan modificaciones. Si trabaja en un banco de germoplasma pequeño y es el unico responsable de la documentación, esta revisión no le llevará mucho tiempo, dado que ya sabrá cuáles son las áreas que tienen problemas.Sin embargo, es importante demostrar la necesidad de modificar el sistema, aun cuando las modificaciones sugeridas sean de poca importancia. Es fundamental que no modifique el sistema sin examinar las consecuencias, debido a que podría introducir errores accidentalmente que podrían afectar los procedimientos de documentación y la recuperación de la información. Esto es particularmente aplicable si usted modifica la estructura de los archivos de datos. Los cambios en las especificaciones de campo influirán en el funcionamiento de los formatos de pantalla para la entrada, la apariencia de los informes y la habilidad con la que se intercambian los datos.Es necesario planificar cualquier modificación del sistema de documentación. Esto involucra una serie de etapas que se ilustran en el diagrama de la Figura 6.Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosLos bancos de germoplasma son organizaciones dinámicas. Ellos evolucionan constantemente para apoyar el esfuerzo mundial de conservación y para satisfacer las necesidades de los investigadores en el campo de los recursos fitogenéticos. El sistema de documentación del banco de germoplasma tiene un rol central en el apoyo de actividades de los bancos de germoplasma y en la planificación de proyectos futuros. La modificación periódica del sistema de documentación es, por lo tanto, inevitable. Un diseño flexible del sistema de documentación significa que cualquier modificación será más fácil de realizar.Después de haber trabajado concienzudamente del principio al fin de los Capítulos 1 a 10 de esta guía, usted habrá obtenido los conocimientos necesarios para diseñar y poner en práctica un nuevo sistema de documentación para su banco de germoplasma.Es fundamental determinar cuidadosamente la mejor manera de introducir su nuevo sistema. Asegúrese de que estará libre el día en que se pondrá en práctica el sistema, y también varios días después, para hacer frente a los problemas y preguntas que puedan surgir.La capacitación debe ser un proceso dinámico. A medida que cambian los empleados, el personal nuevo necesitará capacitación en el manejo del sistema. Si se incorpora equipo nuevo a su sistema o se actualiza el software, los usuarios necesitarán capacitación para saber cómo funcionarán. Para incorporar estos cambios, debe hacer las modificaciones pertinentes en su programa de capacitación básica.Usted debe tratar de mantenerse actualizado con los progresos que se realizan en el área del intercambio de datos para mejorar los servicios de su sistema. Estos incrementarán el valor de su sistema de documentación.No sea negligente con la seguridad de los datos. Asegúrese de que se realizan procedimientos estrictos para mantener la seguridad de los datos y que todos los usuarios son conscientes de la importancia de seguirlos. Esto se debe recalcar en todos los programas de capacitación.Un sistema de documentación diseñado cuidadosamente, que funciona de acuerdo con las recomendaciones que se dan en esta guía, le proporcionará una fuente valiosa de recursos a usted y a sus colegas del banco de germoplasma.Ejercicios 1. ¿Por qué es necesario tener un administrador del sistema? Liste algunas de las funciones que cumple.Liste tres formas de introducir un nuevo sistema de documentaciòn. ¿Cuàles son las ventajas y desventajas de cada método?3. La capacitaciòn adecuada en el funcionamiento de un sistema de documentaciòn es esencial para el èxito del mismo. Describa brevemente los aspectos que se deben tener en cuenta cuando se construye un programa de capacitaciòn con respecto a los recursos que tiene el personal y a sus necesidades de capacitaciòn.Què medidas debe tomar para reducir el riesgo de infección por virus en su sistema?6.Liste las formas en las que se puede facilitar el intercambio de datos entre sistemas de documentaciòn. ¿Què precauciones se deben tomar cuando se desarrollan los procedimientos para el intercambio de datos?Guía para la Documentación de Recursos GenéticosMuestra distinta de germoplasma que se mantiene en un banco de germoplasma para conservación y uso.Véase monítor administrador de archivo plano Sistema de manejo de bases de datos simple que trabaja con un archivo a la vez. Los sistemas más sofisticados que manejan varios archivos simultáneamente se denominan administradores de bases de datos relacionales administrador de bases de datos relacional Software de administración de bases de datos que puede manejar varios archivos al mismo tiempo, relacionándolos por medio de los campos que son comunes a los archivos. A diferencia de los administradores de archivos planos, los campos comunes se almacenan sólo una vez y no se duplican en los diferentes archivos.Responsable de la supervisión y manejo de un sistema de documentación. Es quien recibe los comentarios y sugerencias de los usuarios sobre la eficacia y facilidad de uso del sistema y resuelve los problemas que surgen.Acido desoxiribonucleico. Consituye la base molecular de la herencia y se encuentra principalmente en los cromosomas y también en mitocondrias y cloroplastos.Forma alternativa de un gene que tiene Diferentes propiedades cuando se expresa almacenamiento Custodia y conservación de accesiones en un banco de germoplasma. Las semillas difieren con respecto a las condiciones bajo las cuales pueden ser almacenadas sin pérdida de viabilidad.Dispositivo que produce la imagen de una página y la almacena como un archivo de computadora de la misma manera que una fotocopiadora produce la imagen de una página y la imprime. Los analizadores se utilizan en trabajos científicos para analizar geles electroforéticos. En la oficina, los analizadores y el software son útiles para leer texto de una página convirtiéndolo en caracteres ASCII.Número de caracteres que entran en un campo.archivo Grupo de datos (o programa) que el sistema operativo trata como una sola unidad.Código Estándar para Intercambio de Información (de EE.UU.). Código que se utiliza para intercambiar datos.Centro de recursos genéticos donde se conserva germoplasma en una o más colecciones.Banco de germoplasma establecido para conservar únicamente el germoplasma que se utiliza en (o es potencialmente útil para) los programas de investigación del instituto o centro de investigación agrícola huésped.Se incluyen en este glosario definiciones que se publicaron previamente en los siguientes trabajos: Coombs, J. Dictionary of biotechnolgy, Copyright @ 1986 by The Macmillan Press Ltd. All rights, reserved; McGraw-Hill dictionary of scientific and technical terms, 3rd ed., Copyright @ 1974Copyright @ ,1976Copyright @ ,1978Copyright @ ,1984 by by McGraw-Hill Inc. All rights reserved; Elsmier's dictionary of plant genetic resourses, Copyright @ 1991 by Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved.Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos Genéticos banco de germoplasma nacional Banco de germoplasma establecido como un centro de recursos fitogenéticos nacionales que conserva gran cantidad de muestras distintas germoplasma de interés actual o potencial para personas que trabajan a nivel nacional en investigaciòn de plantas. Con frecuencia contiene germoplasma que ha sido recolectado a nivel nacional. También puede estar íntimamente asociado a un programa de investigación o a la realización de su propia investigacíón. Un banco de germoplasma nacional puede ser una empresa de colaboración entre institutos nacionales o bajo la responsabilidad de un instituto que colabora con otros institutos nacionales. banco de germoplasma regional Banco de germoplasma que se establece como una empresa colaboradora entre varios países que pertenecen a la misma región geográfica con el fin de conservar el germoplasma de la región y apoyar la investigación sobre plantas.1. General: Grupo organizado de datos, reunidos para un objetivo específico y contenidos en uno o más materiales de almacenamiento.2. Computadorizada: Grupo bien organizado de datos interrelacionados, contenidos en uno o más archivos, los cuales son manejados por el mismo software.Zona específica de un registro que contiene siempre datos de un determinado descríptor.Campo que se utiliza para seleccionar uno o más registros deseados. Se pueden utilizar uno o más campos de identificación de diferentes archivos para formar una relación.1. Cualidad o atributo reconocible que resulta de la interacción de un gene o grupo de genes con el ambiente. 2. Letra, dígito, signo de puntuación o gráfico especial que se utiliza para la producción de un texto.Registro de aquellos descríptores que son altamente heredables, se ven a primera vista y se expresan en todos los ambientes. Véase también evaluacion.Disco compacto con memoria de sólo lectura. Un disco óptico que puede almacenar grandes cantidades de información, tal como bases de datos bibliográficas o bibliotecas Con gráficos computadorizados. El CD-ROM para leer los discos requiere una unidad especial denominada dispositivo o lector de CD-ROM. Como su nombre lo indica los discos permiten la lectura de los datos almacenados, pero no así la escritura o la corrección. Véase también WORM.Todas las células que no participan en el proceso de reproducción sexual e.g. células vegetativas.Certificado emitido por un servicio reconocido de cuarentena vegetal que indica que la muestra (objeto del certificado) es sustancialmente libre de enfermedades o pestes.Tarjeta adaptadora de gráficos en colores. Véase monitor.Un dispositivo que utiliza cinta magnética para copiar los discos duros. Se usa comúnmente como memoria o archivo de grandes volúmenes de datos y como defensa contra potenciales pérdidas.Grupo de organismos o células idénticas que descienden de un ancestor común y son genéticamente idénticas. Se pueden producir por apomixis, partenogénesis, propagación vegetativa o cultivo de tejidos.Etiqueta con una imagen de líneas claras y oscuras que se puede leer con un lápiz óptico y entrar directamente en la computadora. colección Grupo de germoplasma de accesiones que se conserva con un objetivo específico y en determinadas condiciones. Véase también -base, -activa, -de trabajo, -de campo ein vitro-.Colección de germoplasma que se utiliza para regeneracion, multiplicación, distribucion,½ 259 caracterización y evaluación. Idealmente una colección activa de germoplasma debería mantenerse en cantidad suficiente con el fin de. que estuviera disponible cuando fuese necesario. El germoplasma de la colección activa generalmente se duplica en una colección base, y con frecuencia se almacena a mediano o largo plazo.Colección de germoplasma que se conserva a largo plazo y no se utiliza como fuente de distribución rutinaria. Generalmente las semillas se almacenan a temperaturas bajo cero, con un bajo contenido de humedad.Colección de germoplasma que se conserva como planta (e.g. árboles frutales, cultivos de invernadero y cultivos de campo). El germoplasma que, de otro modo, hubiera sido difícil conservar en forma de semilla, puede preservarse en las colecciones de campo. Con frecuencia es el único tipo de colección mantenida por un banco de germoplasma.Colección de germoplasma que se conserva en almacenamiento a corto plazo y que utilizan principalmente los fitomejoradores o investigadores. La conservación no constituye una prioridad en este tipo de colección.Colección de germoplasma que se conserva como tejido de plantas qué crecen en cultivo activo en un medio sólido o líquido. El germoplasma se conserva como tejido vegetal y varía del protoplasto y las suspensiones de las células hasta la dureza de los cultivos, meristemos, puntos de crecimiento y embriones. En algunos casos el tejido se almacena a temperaturas muy bajas como las del nitrógeno líquido (denominado criopreservacion). composición de página Diseño básico de una página.computadora personal Sinónimo de microcomputadora. conservación Manejo, preservación y uso de recursos genéticos conocidos para obtener el mayor beneficio para la generación actual, mientras conservan sus características para satisfacer las necesidades de las generaciones futuras.Verificación periódica de niveles aceptables de viabilidad y cantidad de germoplasma de accesiones copia Sistema, dispositivo, o archivo seguro que se puede utilizar cuando surgen problemas en el hardware o se pierden o alteran los datos.Microprocesadora que se utiliza para realizar cálculos matemáticos.Preservación o almacenamiento a temperaturas muy bajas, usualmente en nitrógeno líquido (-196 0 C).El confinamiento oficial de plantas sujetas a regulaciones fitosanitarias para observación e investigación o para inspección y/o evaluación posterior.Variedad de cultivo producida por métodos científicos (variedad moderna, mejorada o de alto rendimiento) o métodos de selección del agricultor (cultivar primitivo o nativo).Grupo de poblaciones o clones de un cultivo que producen y conservan los agricultores.Especie cultivada expresamente para el uso.Cultivo cuyo estudio y conservación son responsabilidad de una determinada organización. cursor 1. Símbolo intermitente que aparece en una pantalla que indica dónde se puede introducir el próximo carácter. 2. Símbolo, como una flecha, que se visualiza en la pantalla y se mueve con la ayuda de un ratón (o de teclas especiales).Valores cuantitativos o cualitativos que surgen de las observaciones.Descripción no cuantitativa de los caracteres que se examinan ( e.g. \"marrón\", \"pubescente\", \"horizontal\").Valores numéricos que se derivan de las mediciones u observaciones.Datos que se refieren a grupos de accesiones.Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos Genéticos datos de pasaporte Información sobre el origen de una accesión (como los detalles registrados en el sitio de recolección) y cualquier otra información relevante incluyendo descriptores que ayuden a identificar la accesión.Observaciones experimentales originales.Descripción detallada de la estructura de un registro y las características de cada campo. Véase también diccionario de datos descríptor Característica que se puede identificar y medir; utilizada para simplificar la clasificación, almacenamiento, recuperación y uso de datos.Medición estadística de la variación acerca del promedio para los datos cuantitativos.Descripción del significado, relación, uso y formato de los datos en la estructura de una base de datos.Proceso de computadorizar datos a partir de una copia impresa. Véase también tablero gráfico directorio Unidad de organización de un disco en la que se pueden agrupar los archivos.Dispositivo que se utiliza para almacenar y programas. Véanse también disco duro, disquete y CD-ROM.Disquete que la computadora necesita para arrancar.Disco de computadora con una capacidad grande de almacenamiento que está situado generalmente dentro de la computadora y no es removible.Especificaciones de cómo debe funcionar un sistema de documentación en un ambiente específico y con el hardware y software escogidos. Véase también diseño del sistema lógico.Sistema de documentación basado en los requerimientos del usuario, que esquematiza cómo el sistema debería funcionar con respecto a las consideraciones del hardware y software. Véase también diseño del sistema físico.Disco portátil de computadora que tiene capacidad de almacenamiento pequeña. Se utilizan dos tamaños: -31/2 y 51/4 pulgadas. Con frecuencia los disquetes se utilizan para introducir nuevos programas o datos en el disco duro, o para transferir datos o programas entre computadoras diferentes.Nombre dado a una imagen de variación comúnmente observada en datos biológicos, representada por una curva campaniforme.Carácter descriptivo de un alelo que se expresa con respecto a la naturaleza de otro alelo del mismo gene.El instituto o individuo responsable de la donación de germoplasma (datos de pasaporte).Sistema operativo en discos. Véase sistema operativo.Grupo de células divisorias vegetales y sin diferenciar que se forman sobre o debajo.de una superficie dañada. Es la primer etapa en la regeneración de ese tejido. Los cultivos con durezas se . pueden producir in vitro tratando un fragmento del tejido con un regulador de crecimiento.Adaptador de realce de gráficos. Véase monitor.Planta rudimentaria en una semilla que surge de un cigoto o de una célula de huevo no fertilizado.Escala para clasificar los datos en la que existen únicamente dos respuestas posibles.½ 261Escala para clasificar datos cuantitativos para la cual los posibles valores no se predefinen y es potencialmente limitada. Por ejemplo, el descriptor \"peso de las semillas\" realizado en gramos.Escala para clasificar los datos cualitativos utilizando una serie de valores predefinidos. Por ejemplo, el descriptor \"color la flor\" es una escala nominal que lista los posibles colores de flores que se pueden observar.Escala para clasificar los datos cuantitativos utilizando una serie de intervalos predefinidos y organizados en una secuencia lógica.Grupo de poblaciones naturales actual o potencialmente mejoradas que se reproducen aisladamente de tales grupos. Muchos nombres comunes de organismos denotan la especie, e.g. tomate (Lycopersicon lycopersicum), maní (Arachis hypogaea).Especie vegetal sin cultivar que comen los animales.Condición claramente determinable que puede tomar un descriptor.Registro de aquellos descriptores cuya expresión es afectada frecuentemente por los factores ambientales. Véase también caracterización.Extracción de los datos seleccionados de una aplicación computadorizada.Organización de los datos en un archivo. Con el software de manejo de bases de datos se refiere a la definición de registro que se utilice.Interfaz visual entre el usuario de un sistema de documentación y los archivos de datos.Unidad básica de herencia codificada en una secuencia de ADN.Grupo taxonómico de especies similares.germoplasma Material genético responsable de las características de una plantaNombre que se da a todos les elementos físicos que componen una computadora.Sinónimo de variación.Software utilizado para realizar cálculos. Es útil en el análisis estadístico y en aplicaciones comerciales.Incorporación de los datos que se originan de otra aplicación computadorizada impresora de chorro de tinta Tipo de impresora sin percusión. Con comandos electrónicos imprime los caracteres, mediante descargas de tinta.Modelo básico de impresora que genera los caracteres golpeando una cinta entintada con un carácter moldeado.Tipo de impresora que utiliza tecnología de rayo láser para producir imágenes de texto y gráficos de buena calidad.Modelo básico de impresora que genera los caracteres electrónicamente manipulando una matriz de agujas minúsculas que forman los caracteres.Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos GenéticosEs con frecuencia un archivo independiente que almacena información sobre la ubicación de registros específicos de un archivo de la base de datos basado en un único campo combinación de campos.Significado que surge del registro, clasificación organización, relación o interpretación de los datos.Documento que prepara el software de manejo de bases de datos para recuperar la información.La exactitud y confiabilidad de los datos.interfaz Software o equipo eléctrico en el que existe una interacción entre dos sistemas. Por ejemplo, un sistema operativo es un interfaz entre el hardware y el usuario del sistema.Lista detallada de las accesiones que posee un banco de germoplasma que se refiere a su conservación y almacenamiento.Múltiples formas de una isozima en un organismo que se puede distinguir por medio de electroforesis. También se denomina isoenzima.Lenguaje de preguntas interactivo que en determinados software de manejo de datos, facilita las operaciones con datos, como búsqueda e informe.Cotejo de todos los descriptores individuales que se utilizan para una especie o cultivo particular. lote Germoplasma de un ciclo específico de regeneración o multíplicación de una accesión.Subgrupo del total de campos disponibles en una visualízación.Cualquier material o mecanismo electrónico que se utilice para registrar datos e.g. formularios para llenar a mano, cintas magnéticas.Véase monitor.memoria Espacio de trabajo electrónico de la computadora. La medida de la memoria influye en la medida del programa que la computadora maneja y en la velocidad a la que el programa funciona. Véase también RAM, ROM.Véase RAM. memoria de sólo lectura Véase ROM. menú Visualización de las opciones disponibles que el usuario del sistema puede seleccionar.Región localizada de células no diferenciadas de división rápida, de las cuales surgen nuevas células que se diferencian en tejidos especializados. Los meristemos se encuentran en zonas de crecimiento, e.g. raíces y puntos de crecimiento.Véase microcircuito de silicio.Porciones delgadas de silicio que contienen varios miles de circuitos eléctricos. Son potentes dispositivos que tienen gran cantidad de aplicaciones en la industria electrónica.microcomputadora Computadora que se utiliza con frecuencia en el laboratorio, oficina o casa y puede colocarse sobre un escritorio. Sinónimo de computadora personal.microprocesador Microcircuito de silicio muy potente, que trabaja con y controla los demás componentes de un sistema dado. La microprocesadora principal de una microcomputadora se denomina unidad central de procesamiento o UCP.Parte del equipo que convierte las señales que genera una computadora de manera que se puedan transmitir a través de una línea telefónica. Un módem en el lado receptor reconvierte las señales½ 263 para que las use la computadora receptora. Un módem permite la comunicación entre las computadoras y se utiliza para acceder a computadoras de telegestión que contienen bases de datos grandes (e.g. bases de datos bibliográficas) o software especializados (e.g. para biología molecular). Pueden utilizarse también para enviar y recibir mensajes electrónicos.Módem especializado que se utiliza para enviar y recibir faxes.Dispositivo parecido a la pantalla de la televisión que se utiliza para mostrar lo que se ha escrito y cualquier resultado que el software esté produciendo. También denominado unidad de visualización o VDU multiplicación Incremento de un lote de una accesión en la cantidad de material conservado.Modificación en el material genético de la célula que provoca la expresión de una característica anormal. El cambio puede ser cuantitativo (el número de genes o cromosomas) o cualitativo (la estructura del material genético).Designación reconocida internacionalmente que se utiliza para denominar organismos. Los nombres científicos se expresan binomialmente (e.g. Secale cereale, Triticuin durum); o trinomialmente cuando se requiere mayor precisión (e.g. Brassica oleracea var. botrytís, Brassica oleracea var. gemmífera). En publicaciones científicas es también común listar la autoridad e.g. Manihot esculenta Crantz.Etiqueta dada a un determinado campo.Identificador único que se asigna a cada accesión cuando se registra en un banco de germoplasma.Organismo capaz de provocar una enfermedad en otro organismo.Computadora personal. Sinónimo de mícrocomputadora. pedigreeRegistro del ancestor de un individual, variedad o línea genética.Equipo que trabaja con una computadora pero que no forma parte de la misma tal como una impresora, módem, cinta serpentina y tablero gráfico.Medición de la tendencia central de un grupo de números que se obtienen al dividir la suma por la cantidad de números.Cualquier manera de hacer que los archivos o discos sean de lectura exclusivamente.Nombre de una serie de instrucciones lógicas que se dan a la computadora para realizar una determinada tarea.Estructura sensitiva osmóticamente que se forma cuando una célula se remueve completamente, usualmente por acción enzimática.Proceso que determina la proporción de semillas que pueden germinar en determinadas condiciones.Memoria de acceso aleatorio. Es la parte de la memoria de la computadora que se utiliza cuando se trabaja con programas o archivos. La información contenida en la RAM se pierde cuando se apaga la computadora.Random amplified polymorphic DNA. Amplificación aleatoria de ADN polimórfico. (Fragmentos particulares de ADN que hibridizan consecuencias moleculares clonadas).Cualidad o atributo reconocible que resulta de la interacción de un gene o grupo de genes con el ambiente.½ 264 ratón Pequeña caja plástica portátil con uno o más botones en la parte superior, conectada a la unidad de sistema (o a veces al teclado) por un cable o una señal de radio. Cuando se mueve el ratón en una superficie plana, hay un movimiento correspondiente del puntero en la pantalla. Se le dan las instrucciones indicándolas, pulsando sobre ellas y arrastrando los objetos que se visualizan en la pantalla. recesivo Descriptivo de un alelo que no se expresa en presencia de otro alelo dominante del mismo gene.Germoplasma vegetal, animal o de otros organismos que contiene características útiles de valor presente o futuro.Grupo interconectado de computadoras. A un nivel simple, una red es un grupo de computadoras ubicadas en un único edificio que están físicamente relacionadas por medio de cables. A un nivel más sofisticado, una red es un grupo de computadoras que están ubicadas en lugares geográficamente separados y que se comunican con las demás utilizando sistemas de telecomunicación.Duplicación innecesaria de datos o información en un sistema de documentación.Desarrollo de un lote de una accesión que restablece la viabilidad.Dispositivo electrónico portátil, manuable que se utiliza para registrar datos que se transferirán posteriormente a un sistema computadorizado. registro 1. Grupo de campos relacionados que se manejan como una unidad.2. Aceptación de una nueva accesión en un banco de germoplasma, asignación de un único número de accesión e incorporación de los datos que acompañan la muestra en el sistema de documentación.regulador de voltaje Dispositivo de protección del equipo eléctrico contra las fluctuaciones en el suministro de energía tal como un aumento o una disminución. Véase también suministro eléctrico continuo.Cualquier fecha, código o número que identifique únicamente el lote de una determinada accesión.Producida cuando dos o más archivos se relacionan utilizando uno o más campos comunes.Restriction fragment length polymorphism. Polimorfismo de la longitud de los fragmentos de restricción.Memoria de sólo lectura (o memoria muerta). Contiene información que se puede leer pero no se puede modificar. Las instrucciones que necesita una computadora para comenzar a trabajar cuando se enciende se encuentran en la ROM. La información contenida en la ROM no se pierde ni siquiera cuando se apaga la computadora.Area de un disco a la cual se recurre cada vez que la computadora arranca para recuperar las instrucciones del funcionamiento.Marca claramente visible que indica una determinada condición.Cualquier forma de almacenar y conservar datos. Se pueden utilizar métodos manuales (tales como los registros manuales) y/o métodos completamente computadorizados. Se utiliza también para la recuperación de la información.Software específicamente desarrollado para manejar datos almacenados en una computadora. La mayoría de los software de manejo de bases de datos permiten realizar las siguientes actividades: entrada, modificación y eliminación de datos, recuperación de la información, e intercambio de datos.Interfaz entre el usuario y la computadora. Controla el funcionamiento de los programas y la comunicación con el teclado, monitor, ratón, disquetes, impresoras y cualquier otro perisférico conectado a la computadora.½ 265Nombre general que se da a un programa o grupo de programas que realizan una tarea determinada e.g. software de manejo de bases de datos, software de procesamiento de textos, etc.Tipo de acceso a los datos que permite la lectura de los mismos pero no la modificación. En algunos casos, los datos de sólo lectura no se pueden copiar ni imprimir.Véase lenguaje de preguntas estructurado subcultivo 1. Transferencia aséptica de una parte del cultivo madre a otro medio de crecimiento. 2. Cultivo derivado del cultivo madre que se obtiene utilizando técnicas de subcultivo.Actúa como interfaz entre el equipo central y la fuente principal de energía eléctrica. Cuando el suministro eléctrico continuo detecta una disminución o una pérdida de la energía, inmediatamente comienza a suministrarla de su propia batería.Grupo de datos (e.g. un archivo), en el que cada elemento (e.g. un registro) se identifica únicamente por su posición relativa en el grupo o por una etiqueta.Placa plana sobre la cual se coloca un papel que contiene una imagen. Utilizando un lápiz especial, se puede marcar una serie de posiciones en el papel e introducir estas coordinadas directamente en la computadora. Este proceso se denomina digitalización y se utiliza principalmente en la cartografía. Se denomina también lector de coordenadas o tablero digitalizador.Determinado tipo y tamaño de letra que incluye todos los caracteres producidos (letras minúsculas y mayúsculas, números y signos de puntuación). Los tipos de letra pueden ser de espaciado único cada carácter ocupa el mismo espacio) o de espaciado proporcional (el espacio ocupado varía de un carácter a otro).Es el microprocesador principal de una computadora que controla y trabaja con otros componentes. Se denomina UCP.Sinónimo de monitor.Dispositivo que se utiliza para leer y escribir datos de y en los discos.Véase unidad central de procesamiento.Diferencias entre individuos, poblaciones o especies en la expresión de rasgos causadas por factores genéticos y ambientales.Variación que se encuentra en células somáticas que crecen en cultivo.Unidad de visualización. Sinónimo de monitor.Matriz de gráficos de video, Véase monítor. viabilidad 1. Capacidad de un organismo de vivir o de continuar su desarrollo. 2. En semillas: La capacidad de germinar cuando se sacan del letargo.Programa que se distribuye entre computadoras, usualmente a través de dísquetes o de redes, y a menudo causa daño a los archivos de la computadora. A veces los virus tienen efectos devastadores, destruyendo los archivos e interrumpiendo el funcionamiento de la computadora.Campos que tiene disponibles un usuario cuando utiliza un archivo o archivos relacionados. Véase también formato de pantalla y máscara.Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos Genéticos e. Falso f. Verdadero g. Falso -pero puede conservar también árboles frutales y cultivos de invernadero h. Verdadero i. Verdadero 2. los bancos de germoplasma son centros de recursos genéticos que se establecen principalmente para conservar germoplasma en una o más colecciones. Se puede conservar el germoplasma en forma de semilla, cultivo de tejido o planta en crecimiento activo.Los bancos de germoplasma difieren uno de otro en sus actividades y en la manera en que éstas se organizan y realizan con los recursos disponibles. Estas actividades están determinadas por el objetivo general del banco de germoplasma y los objetivos de las diferentes áreas 4. En la. Sección 1.5 se describen las diferentes colecciones.a. Verdadero b. Falso c. Falso d. Falso e. Verdadero f. Falso g. Verdadero h. Falso i. Verdadero 6.En la sección 2.1 se explica la diferencia que existe entre datos e información.Se deben establecer prioridades para aprovechar al máximo el tiempo y los recursos disponibles.En la sección 2.2 se detalla el papel que juega la información en el manejo del banco de germoplasma.El sistema de documentación de un banco de germoplasma está hecho a medida de las necesidades de documentación e información del mismo. Debido a que los bancos de germoplasma difieren entre si en sus actividades y en el modo en que éstas se organizan, se deduce que los sistemas de documentación también serán diferentes.10. En la sección 2.4 se describen las caracteristicas deseables del sistema de documentación.11. Los datos se organizan en grupos de uso práctico para el registro, almacenamiento y mantenimiento de datos. Estos grupos están intimamente relacionados con los procedimientos del banco de germoplasma.12. En la sección 2.5 se detallan las etapas en la construcción de un sistema de documentación.1. a. Falso b. Verdadero c. Falso d. Falso e. Verdadero f. Falso g. Verdadero h. Falso i. VerdaderoLos datos especificos de la accesión se refieren a la accesión individual (por ejemplo, el peso, contenido de humedad y color de la semilla), mientras que los datos de grupo se refieren a los grupos de accesiones (por ejemplo, equilibrio del contenido de humedad, referencias bibliograficas y métodos de prueba de viabilidad).Los datos especificos de la accesión tienen mayor prioridad que los datos de grupo debido a que son importantes para el manejo del banco de germoplasma.En la sección 1.1 se describen los diferentes enfoques para los sistemas numéricos. Es preferible trabajar con un sistema estrictamente numérico y secuencial.La referencia del lote se registra rutinariamente debido a que muchas operaciones del banco de germoplasma se realizan con germoplasma de ciclos de regeneración especificos. En la caracterización y evaluación preliminar existe la posibilidad de una variación entre los diferentes ciclos especificos de regeneración, por lo tanto se debe registrar la referencia del lote. También, en el inventario del almacén de semillas, cada lote puede tener diferente viabilidad, contenido de humedad, cantidad de semilla en depósito, etc. La referencia del lote se registra rutinariamente debido a que es muy importante seguir la pista de estos datos para los propósitos del manejo.a. Verdadero b. Falso c. Verdadero d. Falso e. Verdadero f. Falso g. Verdadero h. Verdadero i. FalsoUn procedimiento bien diseñado facilita la realización, simplifica la tarea para la persona que lo maneja y aprovecha al máximo los recursos disponibles. Se cometen pocos errores y los datos producidos son confiables.Un procedimiento operativo se refiere al funcionamiento diario del banco de germoplasma y produce datos con alto valor de manejo se actualizan en una fecha posterior. Estos incluyen el secado, prueba de viabilidad y almacenamiento de la semilla. Un procedimiento cientifico produce datos de interés potencial para aquellas personas que trabajan fuera del banco de germoplasma, tal como datos de ensayos de caracterización o evaluación preliminar.Los datos de los procedimientos operativos tienen un alto valor de manejo. Por esta razón se le da mayor prioridad a su documentación.10. Los diagramas de flujo se utilizan para ilustrar las diferentes etapas de un procedimiento, asi como también las decisiones que se toman en cada etapa, las relaciones con los datos y con los demás procedimientos. En la sección 4 se describen las consideraciones para el diseño.  ordinal: b., c., f., g., h. nominal: a., d., e., i., j. 3.i) Los siguientes descriptores se pueden clasificar utilizando ambas escalas: a., c., e., f., g., i., j., k., I., m., n., o., p., q. y r.. Los descriptores b., d., h., s. y t. se clasifican utilizando escalas cualitativas, Se debe señalar que a pesar de que el descriptor \"número de accesión\" es con frecuencia numérico, se utiliza corno una etiqueta y en consecuencia es cualitativo; es decir, no se puede utilizar el número de accesión en los cálculos. ii)Todos los datos cuantitativos pueden, teóricame, clasificarse en una escala ordinal, pero debido a que siempre existe pérdida de precisión no se recomienda. Por lo tanto es aconsejable que los datos cuantitativos sin procesar se clasifiquen en una escala continua para maximizar la información potencial de los datos. Posteriormente se puede transformar la escala en ordinal.Recolectado de un hábitat silvestre Recolectado del campo del agricultor Recolectado del almacén del agricultor Recolectado de un jardin horticola Recolectado de un mercado rural Recolectado de un mercado urbano Recolectado de un instituto Es preferible clasificar este descriptor utilizando una escala nominal porque cada accesión tiene solamente una posible fuente de recolección. Si se utiliza una escala binaria, seis de los descriptores rnencionados arriba serian redundantes para cada accesión. .a. Esta escala se deberia organizar de la siguiente manera: 1=Muy corta (<0.5m) 2=Muy corta a corta (0.5-0.75m) 3=Corta (>0.75-1.0m) 4=Corta a intermedia (>1.0-1.25m) 5=lntermedia (A.25-1.5m) 6=lntermedia a alta (>1.5-1.75m) 7=Alta (>1.75-2.0m) 8=Alta a muy alta (>2.0-2.25m) 9=Muy alta (>2.25m).. b. Se deberia clasificar siempre \"ausente\" con el carácter cero (0). Se deberia, por lo tanto, escribir la escala de la siguiente manera: ...... 0=Ninguna 3=Poca 5=Media 7=Abundante c. Cuando se utiliza una escala de 1 a 9 Para clasificar datos de una escala ordinal, se debe establecer la siguiente convención: 1=Muy bajo y 9=Muy alto. Se deberia escribir la escala de la siguiente manera: 1 =Muy escasa (esponjosa, grandes cavidades aéreas) 3=Escasa (desmenuzable) 5=lntermedia 7=Densa (pulposa) 9=Muy densa (con mucha pulpa) d.Se deberia reservar el carácter cero (0) Para \"ausente\" o \"no observado\". Se deberia escribir la escala de la siguiente manera: 1=Amarillo 2=Anaranjado 3=Rojo 4=Morado oscuro 5=Morado e.Tal como está, no representa una escala binaria sino una escala nominal que utiliza incorrectamente la convencion Para el carácter cero. Se deberia escribir como: 1=frutitos agrupados; 2=frutitos aislados. Para ser una escala binaria deberia dividirse en dos descriptores separados y utilizarse la convenclón Para ausente y presente, de la siguiente manera: Presencia de frutitos agrupados +=Presente 0=AusenteGuía para la Documentacíón de Recursos Genéticos Presencia de frutitos aislados +=Presente 0=AusenteCapitulo 6a. Falso b. Verdadero c. Falso d. Verdadero e. Verdadero f. Falso g. Falso h. Falso i. FalsoLas ocasiones en las que no es posible registrar los datos directamente en un sistema de documentación son las siguientes: a) cuando no es materialmente práctico (la computadora esta ubicada en un sitio diferente), b) cuando se requiere análisis de los datos antes de la documentación formal y c) cuando son varias las personas que necesitan utilizar el sistema de documentación al mismo tiempoLas composiciones de página claras, son la clave de los formularios faciles de usar, de Ilenar, de actualizar y de leer. Con este objetivo los formularios preimpresos se deberán utilizar con columnas (o recuadros) lo suficientemente anchos como para contener los datos.Las columnas se deben organizar de manera que faciliten el registro y la recuperación de datos. En los casos en los que existan muchos descriptores, se deberia utilizar la orientación de paisaje o en su lugar se deberia utilizar más de un formulario para acomodar los datos. El formulario debe tener un titulo y una columna separada para los comentarios.Las etapas son: 1. Decidir si se usa un archivo de manejo 2. Desarrollar formularios para registrar los datos en bruto y clasificar los descriptores manualmente 3 Organizar los formularios en archivos separados de acuerdo a los temas 4. Desarrollar los procedimientos de documentación para garantizar que el sistema de documentación manual se utiliza correctamente 5.Un archivo de administración debe contener aquellos descriptores que son esenciales para el manejo de las colecciones (e.g. descriptores para la viabilidad, cantidad de germoplasma, ubicación en el depósito, fecha de la próxima prueba de viabilidad, etc.). Se pueden evitar discrepancias si los descriptores se clasifican pura y exclusivamente en el archivo de administración.Los datos se deben organizar en un orden que facilite el registro y la recuperación de la información. Si se escoge un orden inadecuado, se creará trabajo innecesario cuando se introduzcan los datos, se actualice el sistema o se recuperen datos especificos.Una forma de trabajar con la información de retroalimentación es conservar una hoja de información para cada accesión con las referencias bibliográficas, comentarios anecdóticos e información especifica (e.g. de los ensayos de campo).No se deben eliminar los datos en bruto ya que pueden ser útiles para análisis futuros o para información de fondo (e.g. para investigar las condiciones de un ensayo de evaluación). Para seguir la pista de los datos en bruto, se deben conservar todos los diarios, cuadernos, y hojas según los temas y las fechas. La fuente de los datos en bruto se debe conservar también en el sistema de documentación para poder acceder a ella posteriormente El hardware de la computadora consta de un monitor, teclado, unidad de sistema, impresora y un ratón. El teclado se utiliza para escribir las instrucciones o el texto en la computadora.Alternativamente, se pueden introducir las instrucciones con el ratón. El monitor muestra lo que se ha escrito o, si un programa está funcionando muestra lo que se está produciendo. La impresora se utiliza para imprimir los documentos.Los discos duros tienen una capacidad de almacenamiiento mayor que los disquetes y funcionan más rápidamente. La mayoria de ellos están situados dentro de la unidad de sistema y, a diferencia de los disquetes, no son removibles. Otros dispositivos de almacenamiento incluyen los cartuchos removibles (los cuales tiene una capacidad muy grande similar a la, de los discos duros), el CD-ROM (capacidad muy grande) y las cintas serpentinas que se utilizan para almacenar grandes archivos de datos.Existen cuatro tipos de impresoras: matricial de puntos, de rueda tipo margarita, láser, y de chorro de tinta. La de chorro de tinta y la láser son las, impresoras más adecuadas, para imprimir gráficos de buena calidad; la impresora de rueda tipo margarita no imprime gráficos y, generalmente, la calidad de la impresion de la matricial no es lo suficientemente buena.Las fluctuaciones en el suministro de energia pueden provocar un comportarniento errático del hardware que daña los archivos, altera y pierde los datos. En casos extremos puede dañar seriamente el hardware. Para evitar estas situaciones se puede instalar un regulador de voltaje para proteger el sistema de las fluctuaciones en la corriente eléctrica y un suministro eléctrico continuo para proteger el sistema contra los cortes de energia.Otras formas de introducir los datos incluyen los dispositivos de entrada con lápiz (e.g. con una tablilla. gráfica), analizadores (para la entrada de texto y gráficos) y los módem para la entrada y salida de datos a través de la linea telefónica.Los virus de computadora infectan los archivos de programas y se activan cuando arranca el programa. Se distribuyen fácilmente a otros programas. El virus del sector de carga inicial infecta el sector de arranque del disco duro o disquete y se distribuye fácilmente debido a que se transmite a través del sistema operativo. Los gusanos.son virus que infectan las redes de computadoras, las bombas son virus que entran en acción en una fecha particular y los caballos de troya (que no son virus en el sentido estricto de la palabra) son programas inocentes que causan serios daños a la computadora cuando se utilizan. 2. Diferente capacidad de almacenamiento del disco (e.g. capacidad grande de almacenamiento) que no es reconocida por otra computadora 3. El disquete fue formatado por un sistema operativo diferente 4.Los programas fueron escritos para una combinación de microprocesador/sistema operativo diferente 10. En la sección 7 se encuentra la lista de medidas de seguridad. El administrador de archivo plano es un administrador de bases de datos simple que trabaja con un archivo por vez. Con los administradores de archivos planos más sofisticados se pueden referenciar los diferentes archivos y de esta forma trabajar como una sola unidad. El administrador de bases de datos relacional trabaja con más de un archivo por vez y almacena los mismos elementos en un lugar solamente.Se dan a continuación dos ejemplos: a. Los descriptores para la distribución de la semilla del depósito se refieren a los detalles sobre las accesiones enviadas y los destinatarios del germoplasma; éstos se deben almacenar en archivos independientes que se pueden relacionar. b. Los datos importantes de manejo (e.g. datos de inventario, viabilidad y secado de la semilla) que se pueden colocar en un archivo único en un sistema de documentación manual, se almacenan en el sistema computadorizado en archivos separados pero relacionados.Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos GenéticosEn la sección 3 se describe una relación.Un registro de descripciones de campo (o diccionario de datos) debe contener los detalles sobre el nombre del descriptor, el nombre del campo y la descripción, el tipo y anchura de campo y el indice utilizado. El registro de estos detalles garantizarála consistencia entre los archivos y facilitará el proceso de construcción del sistema de documentación.Muchos El diseño del sisterna fisico es un plan detallado de cómo trabajará en la práctica el sistema de documentación con la combinación de hardware/software y los usuarios del sistema. El diseño del sistema lógico es un esquema de cómo funcionará el sistema en teoria basado en las necesidades de los usuarios y sin considerar el hardware o software. Se debe modificar el diseño lógico si son impracticables algunos de los procedimientos (e.g. el software no es lo suficientemente potente, pocas computadoras disponibles, etc.)Cuando las pantallas están bien diseñadas, se puede impedir que los errores entren en el sistema de documentación y facilitar la entrada y modificación de los datos. Las pantallas deben ser fáciles de leer, evitando el uso de abreviaturas y demasiados descriptores por cada formato y, cuando sea apropiado el orden de los campos en la pantalla debe ser el correspondiente al formulario manual. Es importante aprovechar las capacidades del software para detectar los errores desde el comienzo y facilitar la entrada de datos.En la sección 2.2.6 se listan las diferentes capacidades.1. Se identifican los descriptores que aparecen en el informe 2. Se identifica la anchura de los campos que se utiliza en la búsqueda 3. Se establece la necesidad de crear enlaces entre los archivos 4. Se define el criterio para la búsqueda -en este caso es seleccionar accesiones que tengan viabilidades con un determinado nivel 5. Se define la forma en que se visualizarán los registros -en este caso clasificados por orden numérico y de cultivo 6. Se diseña la presentación de página del informe, se experimenta con varios diseños hasta encontrar el más adecuado 7. Se produce el informe final.En la sección 4 se describen todas las capacidades.La organización de las diferentes rutinas en un sistema dirigido por menúes facilita considerablemente el uso del sistema de documentación. Los menúes se pueden organizar segun la función de los datos (e.g. entrada, modificación, bilsqueda, informe, etc.) o según el tema (e.g. registro, pasaporte, caracterización, etc.).Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos GenéticosEl sistema debe tener una buena documentación para facilitar las futuras modificaciones del mismo. En la sección 6 se detallan. los diferentes enfoques.1.El administrador del sistema es la persona responsable de la supervisión y manejo del sistema de documentación. Debe estar en condiciones de resolver los problemas del sistema, responder a las preguntas, comentarios y sugerencias de los usuarios y manejar las solicitudes de información.El sistema de documentación se puede introducir: a. Con un cambio inmediato -requiere pruebas intensivas antes del cambio para prevenir errores b. Con un funcionamiento simultáneo al antiguo sistema -implica una duplicación de trabajo pero evita algunas de las dificultades en el periodo del cambio c. Con módulos independientes durante un periodo -permite flexibilidad y aprendizaje de los errores durante el proceso.En la sección 1.1 se señalan las consideraciones para. la capacitación.El software se debe comprar siempre de un distribuidor comercial y se deben proteger los disquetes contra escritura antes de instalar el software. Las copias ilegales del software no se deben utilizar. Se deben utilizar los programas antivirus para proteger el sistema y controlar cada disquete nuevo que se utiliza.Se facilita el intercambio de datos si se utiliza el mismo software de administración de bases de datos con la misma estructura, de archivos y formatos de datos. Se debe controlar a fondo la precisión de la transferencia de datos utilizando datos de prueba. Es importante realizar las copias de seguridad de los archivos antes de realizar el intercambio en caso de que surjan problemas.Apéndice I: Formularios completos ½ 287Apéndice 1: Formularios completos En este apéndice se incluyen algunos ejemplos del cuestionario analizado en las páginas 27 a 31 y de los formularios de las páginas 87 y 88 de esta Guía. Seguramente habrá utilizado el cuestionario como ayuda para analizar el banco de germoplasma en su totalidad, y los formularios para analizar cada uno de los procedimientos realizados en su banco de germoplasma. Trate de trabajar independientemente, no base sus respuestas en las que se suministran en este apéndice. El cuestionario y los formularios completos se suministran como guías en caso de que tenga dificultades cuando lo complete o analice los procedimientos.El Banco de germoplasma de plantas medicinales y ornamentales (PMO) es la organización que se ha escogido como estudio de caso práctico para completar el cuestionario y los formularios. El Banco de germoplasma PMO pertenece a la Unidad de plantas medicinales y ornamentales de la Facultad de Agronomía, de la Universidad X. Fue establecido en 1964 con la finalidad de proveer a los investigadores de la universidad y fitomejoradores de plantas medicinales y ornamentales, cultivares primitivos, mutantes, líneas de mejoramiento e híbridos necesarios para investigación adicional, semillas y plántulas de estos cultivos. El Banco de germoplasma PMO conserva 1200 accesiones de especies de plantas medicinales y ornamentales, la mayoría de ellas de origen endémico, tal como Rosa, Viola, Chrysanthemum, Oenothora, Mentha, Lawsonia, Geranium, Aloë yThymus.La colección de semillas se conserva como \"colección activa\" en condiciones de almacenanmiento de 5 o C con control relativo de humedad del 20-25% H.R. Algunas de las fuentes de esta colección incluyen las misiones de recolección de la Universidad X y otros recolectores ajenos a ella, institutos de investigación del exterior, colecciones de fitomejoradores de otros institutos, etc. Parte de esta colección se mantiene en el campo, huerto e invernadero. El personal de este banco de germoplasma se compone de un curador (técnico de categoría superior del Departamento) y seis técnicos que se ocupan del procesamiento y almacenamiento, crecimiento y mantenimiento en el campo/invernadero, multiplicación y regeneración, así como también de la caracterización y evaluación. Las pruebas de viabilidad se realizan en el laboratorio fisiológico de plantas y semillas del Departamento de fisiología de plantas. El curador conserva los \"registros centrales\" sobre el material (control de existencias y datos 288¼ Guía para la Documentacíón de Recursos Genéticos de viabilidad), mientras que el personal de investigación (incluyendo estudiantes para doctorado en filosofía) es el responsable de la caracterización/evaluación y de los experimentos de cruzas y selecciones. Los supervisores de investigación del Departamento conservan separadamente los datos pertenecientes a estos últimos.  ","tokenCount":"64090"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5678a4224281e6f0bc55b192d002d71","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Flyer/REDD-safeguards-2-ES.pdf","id":"-956296155"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ff633388-5ec5-41c7-b5c2-c955f9aef824","pagecount":"6","content":"• Dada la importancia de cada contexto nacional, este folleto presenta los resultados de una revisión de documentos legales y entrevistas con especialistas legales para entender el apoyo a los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas en la legislación y las políticas públicas en el contexto de REDD+ en Perú.• Si bien el reconocimiento legal de los Pueblos Indígenas en Perú está fundamentado en diversas normas jurídicas internacionales, en la Constitución, y en diferentes leyes y sus reglamentos, aún se vulneran sus derechos en algunos contextos.• En Perú, los derechos a la tierra y a los recursos naturales de los Pueblos Indígenas son reconocidos legalmente de manera parcial, lo que fomenta la inseguridad territorial en un contexto en el cual existe una fuerte presión sobre las tierras colectivas indígenas.• A fin de construir un mecanismo de distribución de beneficios que sea justo y transparente, es necesario que el recientemente lanzado Módulo de Información de Salvaguardas (el Sistema de Información de Salvaguardas peruano) diseñe una estrategia u hoja de ruta que haga posible integrar las contribuciones y retroalimentación de las organizaciones representativas de los Pueblos Indígenas.A medida que el marco para la reducción de las emisiones derivadas de la deforestación y la degradación de los bosques (REDD+) avanza hacia los pagos por resultados, es necesario reexaminar sus salvaguardas. En la Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC) de 2010 en Cancún se adoptaron siete principios de salvaguardas para REDD+. Dos de estos principios son relativos a los Pueblos Indígenas. Las salvaguardas de Cancún exigen que los países interpreten estos principios dentro del marco jurídico nacional para decidir, por ejemplo, qué se entiende por \"respeto\" o \"participación\" de los Pueblos Indígenas.Desde los inicios, diferentes actores han mostrado preocupación por el impacto potencial de iniciativas REDD+ sobre los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas (Sarmiento Barletti y Larson 2017). Sin directrices claras, la variación en la interpretación e implementación de las salvaguardas para REDD+ varía según país, resultando en impactos distintos sobre los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas (Jodoin 2017). De hecho, la interpretación nacional y la puesta en marcha de las salvaguardas están enmarcadas por la interpretación jurídica de los derechos pertinentes a nivel nacional, la adhesión de cada país a los acuerdos internacionales sobre los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas, y sus diferentes prioridades políticas y económicas. Las preocupaciones en torno a las salvaguardas se centran en la necesidad de ampliar el reconocimiento de los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas y cerrar las brechas en su acceso a los derechos reconocidos, incluidos los derechos a la tierra y los recursos naturales, así como a la participación (Savaresi 2013; Wallbott 2014).La introducción de estándares voluntarios para pagos relacionados a REDD+ significó una oportunidad para establecer salvaguardas que, en general, protejan de mejor manera los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas que las interpretaciones nacionales de las salvaguardas de Cancún. Esta transición es importante en aquellos países en donde los Pueblos Indígenas han sido históricamente discriminados.Por ejemplo, aunque Perú tiene uno de los mayores porcentajes absolutos y relativos de población indígena en América Latina (4 millones de personas o 12.5% de su población), este sector tiene tazas de pobreza, morbilidad y mortalidad más altas que losEste folleto es parte de una serie de publicaciones sobre las salvaguardas para REDD+, centrada en los derechos y la inclusión social de las mujeres y hombres de los Pueblos Indígenas y las comunidades locales (PICL) que viven en territorios en donde se vienen implementando diferentes iniciativas climáticas. Este conjunto de publicaciones proporciona lecciones para la implementación de salvaguardas en diferentes contextos nacionales, presenta evidencia para que los tomadores de decisiones y profesionales de REDD+ consideren las implicancias y los beneficios que supone proteger los derechos de los PICL, y busca fomentar la participación de los representantes de PICL en las discusiones sobre salvaguardas y el monitoreo de su cumplimiento.no indígenas. Pese a ello, existe una considerable variación en los estándares voluntarios (Sarmiento Barletti et al. 2021). Mientras que algunos motivan a los países a fortalecer la protección de los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas, vinculando los pagos por resultados a evidencia de \"hacer bien\" o, en algunos pocos casos, de \"hacerlo mejor\", otros estándares establecen exigencias más bajas de \"no hacer mal\" (Lofts et al. 2021).Dada la especificidad contextual de los procesos nacionales de interpretación de salvaguardas, este texto presenta los resultados de una revisión de documentos legales y entrevistas con especialistas en Perú para entender el nivel de protección de los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas en la legislación y las políticas públicas en el contexto de REDD+ (Tabla 1). Como parte de esta misma serie de publicaciones, se presentará un análisis más profundo sobre los estándares voluntarios que ya rigen con el sistema jurídico peruano, así como las reformas necesarias para cumplir con estándares más estrictos. Los resultados de la investigación buscan apoyar a los actores de REDD+ a navegar por la gama de criterios, indicadores y normas en los diferentes estándares, e integrarlos en la implementación de los marcos nacionales y en el seguimiento de procesos de operacionalización de salvaguardas.Perú: El estado de la protección de los derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas en el contexto de REDD+ Por lo tanto, los individuos, comunidades o empresas solo pueden acceder a los recursos forestales mediante un contrato de cesión de uso. En ese sentido, los derechos de propiedad comunal en la Amazonía sólo se otorgan sobre las tierras clasificadas para uso agrícola mas no sobre las de uso forestal. Sobre estas últimas las comunidades sólo ejercen derechos de usufructo (Monterroso et al. 2017). Los especialistas entrevistados para esta investigación consideran que esta dicotomía entre tierras agrícolas y forestales es una \"ficción legal\", ya que en la práctica las comunidades acceden y gestionan ambos tipos de tierras. A pesar de ello, esta dicotomía impacta negativamente en la seguridad territorial de los Pueblos Indígenas ya que complica el proceso de titulación de comunidades, lo cual resulta más preocupante aún en un contexto en el cual existen fuertes presiones sobre las tierras comunales.Por último, puede decirse que los derechos sobre el carbono en Perú están ligados a la propiedad y tenencia de la tierra (RRI 2020). Algunos de los especialistas entrevistados sostienen que, de una lectura de la Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (nº 29763) y la Ley de Mecanismos de Redistribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos (nº 30215), se puede deducir que los servicios ecosistémicos -entre los cuales está el almacenamiento de carbono-son componentes inherentes a los derechos de tenencia sobre los bosques. Así, aunque no existe una legislación ad hoc en relación a los derechos sobre el carbono, se puede interpretar que quien tenga derechos de tenencia sobre la tierra -ya sea propiedad privada, comunal o concesiones forestalestambién tiene derechos sobre el carbono. Sin embargo, si bien las comunidades pueden gozar de derechos de usufructo sobre los bosques -y, en ese sentido, tienen derecho a los beneficios económicos derivados del pago de servicios económicos-sus derechos de control y manejo de los mismos está restringido. De allí que puede que no se reconozca que las comunidades tengan la autoridad para decidir o negociar directamente la venta de derechos de emisión de carbono dentro de sus territorios.Es en este escenario legal en el cual se ha desarrollado el proceso nacional de interpretación de salvaguardas para REDD+ en Perú. El Módulo de Información de Salvaguardas (el Sistema de Información de Salvaguardas requerido por la CMNUCC) de Perú fue completado en diciembre de 2021 y aún hace falta probar el funcionamiento de sus tres componentes. Estos son: 1) el portal de salvaguardas; 2) la aplicación del MIS en donde los usuarios podrán registrar cómo las iniciativas REDD+ están respetando las salvaguardas; y 3) un mecanismo de atención de quejas (Mecanismo de Atención al Ciudadano -MAC REDD+). Si bien el desarrollo del MIS no contempló un proceso formal de consulta, sí hubo participación de las organizaciones indígenas -junto con organizaciones de la sociedad civil y de investigación-en el Subcomité Técnico de Salvaguardas del MINAM creado en 2019.Por otro lado, las organizaciones nacionales de mujeres indígenas participaron en el proceso de interpretación de salvaguardas, enfatizando la inclusión transversal de temas de género. Sin embargo, según una evaluación independiente del paquete de preparación para REDD+ realizada por una ONG peruana (Vásquez et al. 2019), se promovió la participación de las organizaciones indígenas nacionales con sede en Lima, mas no de sus bases regionales y locales. Además, este estudio no encontró evidencia de una metodología o estrategia para integrar las contribuciones de los Pueblos Indígenas en el desarrollo de los niveles de referencia de emisiones forestales y los sistemas de monitoreo para REDD+.En opinión de los especialistas entrevistados para esta investigación, dado el reciente lanzamiento del Módulo de Información de Salvaguardas, aún no se puede evaluar si existen mandatos claros para el monitoreo, reporte y verificación de las salvaguardas para REDD+. Asimismo, señalaron que, aunque la infraestructura institucional del Estado peruano es débil, el papel desempeñado por las organizaciones representativas de los Pueblos Indígenas y los procesos y plataformas participativas generados hasta ahora podrían considerarse una base sólida sobre la cual construir y supervisar un sistema de distribución de beneficios justo y transparente. Para apoyar esta base, será esencial que el MINAM desarrolle una hoja de ruta clara que sirva para incorporar las contribuciones de las organizaciones indígenas tanto a nivel nacional como subnacional.¿Qué contiene la tabla? Global Jurist 20(1).Sí (MIS completado en 2021)El Módulo de Información de Salvaguardas (MIS) se presentó en diciembre de 2021 como un plan piloto con tres componentes principales: 1) un portal de salvaguardas; 2) una aplicación donde los usuarios pueden registrar cómo las iniciativas REDD+ están respetando las salvaguardas; 3) un mecanismo de atención de quejas (Mecanismo de Atención al Ciudadano -MAC REDD+). El desarrollo del MIS incluyó un proceso participativo con diferentes actores, entre los cuales figuran las organizaciones representativas de los Pueblos Indígenas.https://www.un-redd. org/news/hondurasand-peru-launch-newplatforms-ensureredd-environmentalsafeguardsLa Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (Nº 29763) establece que el Estado, a través del diseño e implementación de las políticas públicas forestales, debe garantizar condiciones de igualdad (con enfoque de género) en el acceso a los recursos, oportunidades de desarrollo y mecanismos de distribución de beneficios. El Ministerio del Ambiente ha desarrollado un Plan de Acción de Género y Cambio Climático con el objetivo de incorporar el enfoque de género dentro de las políticas e instrumentos de gestión de la adaptación y mitigación del cambio climático. Además, el género es un tema transversal dentro del proceso de implementación de las acciones que contribuyen hacia las Contribuciones Nacionalmente Determinadas (NDC), pero esta transversalidad sigue sin traducirse en acciones concretas y relevantes de mitigación y adaptación. El género fue también un tema transversal en el proceso nacional de interpretación de salvaguardas (que incluyó la participación de las organizaciones de mujeres indígenas), como en el establecimiento del Subcomité Técnico de Salvaguardas.  8) requerimiento de mecanismos formales de distribución de beneficios; (9) requerimiento de mecanismos formales de atención de reclamos; y (10) disposiciones para el monitoreo, reporte y verificación (MRV) del cumplimiento de derechos y temas de inclusión social. Cada criterio está calificado en función de a su ajuste con la legislación peruana: de forma completa (sí), de forma limitada (limitado -sólo cumplen algunos aspectos del criterio), o no se ajusta (no). La tabla incluye referencias a los documentos e informes legales que se revisaron para este folleto. Además, tanto la tabla como el texto en este folleto se basan en entrevistas con seis especialistas sobre REDD+ en Perú.ningún individuo, comunidad o empresa puede ser propietaria de tierras forestales, y que sólo pueden acceder a los recursos forestales por medio de concesiones. Por lo tanto, solo se otorgan derechos colectivos sobre las tierras clasificadas como apropiadas para la agricultura o los pastos. Sobre tierras clasificadas como forestales, los Pueblos Indígenas solo pueden recibir derechos de usufructo, a través de un proceso complejo y sobre regulado. Esta dicotomía entre tierras agrícolas y forestales es una \"ficción legal\" -ya que en la práctica las comunidades gestionan ambos tipos de tierras-que obstaculiza el proceso de titulación de comunidades. Finalmente, los derechos sobre los recursos del subsuelo de las comunidades tituladas los tiene el Estado. El derecho de los Pueblos Indígenas al consentimiento previo, libre e informado se legisló bajo la Ley de Consulta Previa (Nº 29785) y su reglamento, siguiendo las responsabilidades de Perú bajo el Convenio 169 de la OIT. Aunque el proceso de interpretación de salvaguardas no implicó un proceso de consulta formal, las organizaciones indígenas participaron en el Subcomité Técnico de Salvaguardas. Según una evaluación independiente de la etapa de preparación para REDD+ en Perú (DAR 2019), se promovió activamente la participación e implicación de las organizaciones indígenas nacionales con sede en Lima, pero no de sus bases regionales y locales. La evaluación no encontró evidencia de una metodología, estrategia u hoja de ruta para integrar las contribuciones de los Pueblos Indígenas al desarrollo de los niveles de referencia de emisiones forestales y los sistemas de monitoreo, reporte y verificación para REDD+.DAR. 2019. Independent Assessment of Peru's REDD+ Readiness Package. Executive Summary.No Aún no se ha presentado el mecanismo de distribución de beneficios para REDD+. Sin embargo, la Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre proporciona algunas directrices importantes para el diseño de este mecanismo. Por ejemplo, esta Ley establece que los titulares de derechos forestales tienen derecho a recibir los beneficios derivados de los pagos por servicios ecosistémicos. Queda por verse cómo se incluirán estos temas en el mecanismo formal de distribución de beneficios.El Mecanismo de Atención al Ciudadano (MAC-REDD+) fue diseñado como parte del Módulo de Información de Salvaguardias (MIS) y aún no se ha piloteado. El MAC-REDD+ pasó por un proceso de socialización participativa a fin de recibir comentarios para mejorar su funcionamiento. El MAC-REDD+ será accesible in situ, por internet y por teléfono.No Dado el reciente lanzamiento del Módulo de Información de Salvaguardas (MIS), aún no es posible evaluar si es que existen disposiciones sólidas para el monitoreo, reporte y verificación para las salvaguardas para REDD+.","tokenCount":"2339"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d0ddb4d106d365f8c6ddc3a531e41a2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4e24aaba-dccd-4fb9-be0c-b2d168749d7a/retrieve","id":"-895962935"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1c492bae-ba26-4396-8658-05e12f87fd30","pagecount":"8","content":"• An underground wood wide web for environmental health and productive landscapes An interdisciplinary research team reports on how an underground network of tiny mycorrhizal fungi provides valuable ecosystem services. • GANSO: When the development of good practices and sustainable technologies reaches consumers Grupo Éxito opened a new supermarket in Bogotá, Carulla FreshMarket 140, a commitment to inclusion, sustainability, innovation, and the shopping experience. There, consumers will be able to find products from cattle ranches that are committed to sustainability, with the support of GANSO, (the Spanish acronym for Sustainable Livestock), a technical and financial assistance center seeking to support and professionalize livestock farming in the country. GANSO is led by Climate Focus and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. • Latin America's livestock sector needs emissions reduction to meet 2030 targets Reducing livestock's carbon footprint in Latin America is necessary if countries in the region are to meet emission-reduction goals under the Paris Agreement, researchers argue in a new analysis published May 14 in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. The study, called \"Ambition meets reality: achieving GHG emission reductions targets in the livestock sector of Latin America,\" found that the emission reduction targets set by Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay may not be met without wider adoption of emissions-reduction techniques in the livestock sector. Additional resource: https://mundoagropecuario.com/el-sector-ganadero-de-americalatina-necesita-reduccion-de-emisiones-para-cumplir-con-los-objetivos-de-2030/ • From research to practice on Sustainable LivestockThe twenty-first version of the International Forum seeks to provide tools to Colombian farmers to achieve a holistic management of their livestock. (In Spanish).did was, we turned to Jacobo Arango, researcher at the Tropical Agriculture Research Center (In Spanish).• The Latin American livestock sector needs to reduce its emissions to comply with the Paris Agreement According to a study recently published in the journal 'Frontiers', it is necessary to reduce the carbon footprint of livestock in Latin America for countries to meet the emission reduction targets set in the Paris Agreement (In Spanish).• \"What's fart\" with cow burps? Mitigation of methane gas emissions in livestockReducing methane emissions from cows, sheep and goats on ranches and stables in the country's livestock regions is easy to reduce. In the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics of the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán it has been investigated that the feeding of cattle with gourd or mouse-killing foliage, or parota or carob pods, or with the fruits of the ramón Methane emissions can be reduced by up to 30%.• Importance of livestock products in the food security of Latin American peoples Presentation prepared for the 12 th International Congress on Higher Education. La Habana, (Cuba), February 10-14, 2020. (in Spanish).A positive side-effect of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic was the increase of online events, such as webinars, talks and e-trainings. This was an opportunity to besides sharing knowledge, feature our work to a wider number of audiences, from decision makers, academics, scientists, NGOs, development practitioners, extensionists, and farmers. Below are the main ones in which we participate:• LiveOnYara: Visions of sustainability in livestock grazingThe discussion organized by YARA addressed issues such as the challenges facing livestock production in Colombia, and how institutions are preparing to adapt to climate change and globalization. In response to the low efficiency and resilience of livestock systems, The efforts of the Alliance to reduce the environmental footprint and improve productivity through the use of improved fodder, influence public policies, value chains with a socioeconomic approach, and technology transfer to enable the sustainable intensification of meat and milk production systems, and thus improve the living conditions of livestock farmers, were socialized.The central theme of this forum was silvopastoral systems based on improved forages as a strategy to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. It was socialized how well-managed tropical forages can help intensify production in a smaller area (sustainable intensification), the importance of forage legumes in increasing productivity and reducing methane emissions, the BNI potential of some forage species that directly increase the efficient use of nitrogen, implementation of more productive pastures through proper management can improve income and reduce nitrous oxide emissions.• Virtual seminar series on Sustainable Beef and Dairy: GHG module The purpose of his participation was to socialize the research on tropical forages to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. Starting from the bank of genetic resources, selection and maintenance of forages, main findings in studies of silvopastoral systems, animal weight gain, N fixation by leguminous plants to the soil, biological inhibition of nitrification, reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases and sustainable intensification of livestock systems.• Sustainable Livestock Landscapes in Latin America and the Caribbean: Launching a series of dialogues.Presentation of The Two Degrees Initiative for Food and Agriculture, in the inception of a series of dialogs on sustainable livestock landscapes in Latin America and the Caribbean. Strategies were proposed to transform food systems to make them resilient to climate change, increase producer incomes and reduce poverty.","tokenCount":"813"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ae56d29abe155bab8a651ae4259269fd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a6ee97d0-5ae5-4a70-b8cc-484c0d21ffc0/retrieve","id":"81614009"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"23bc9561-5cb5-459d-8bd3-9059d103c873","pagecount":"5","content":"La producción de frijol en Guatemala es deficitaria si se considera la necesidad de mejorar la proporcíbn de consumo de frijol en relación con el consumo de maiz.La proporción recomendada es de 28:72 partes de frijol y de maiz, respectivamente.La proporción de consumo actual es 10:90 lo que se considera bajo.sector pUblico agropecuario es aumentar la disponibilidad del grano en el pais.La estrategia para el mejoramiento consiste en utilizar la variabilidad genetica de los materiales tradicionales <criollos) locales y la de CIAT. La variabilidad genetica proveniente de CIAT consiste en el acceso al banco de germoplasma, a las lineas codificadas y poblaciones segregantes.Los objetivos generales son:a.Producir tecnologia estable y de bajo costo, que sea f ac i 1mente transferible.b.Apoyar los procesos de transferencia de tecnologia y producción de semillas.Para garantizar una tecnologia estable y de bajo costo se ha escogido el desarrollo de variedades como la espina dorsal de la nueva tecnología por las siguientes consideraciones:1.3.El agricultor usa semilla como un insumo, no importa su condicibn socioeconbmica o su sistema de produccibn.El uso de una variedad resistente no altera el ambiente.medio La semilla es el anico insumo agricola que puede ser producido totalmente en el pais.La introducción de una nueva variedad puede mejorar un sistema de producción completo.Una variedad de calidad nutritiva superior puede mejorar directamente la nutrición de la familia campesina.Para desarrollar opciones de nueva tecnologia se sigue el esquema tecnológico del ICTA que consiste en pasos secuenciales e interactivos que son:Estudios socioeconbmicos, incluyendo diagnbsticos, actualizaciones y formacibn de bases de datos para cada regibn.Caracterizacibn de los sistema-finca de cada regibn.incluyendo participacibn temprana del proceso investigativo.agricultor en el 4. Prueba de la nueva tecnologla bajo las condiciones del agricultor.Evaluacibn de la tecnologla por el agricultor.6.Evaluación de la aceptabilidad y adopción por el de la nueva tecnologia. agricultor 7.Apoyo a la transferencia.1. Seleccibn de progenitores.Hibridación.Ident i f i c:ac:i bn, aislamiento y perpetuamiento de las plantas con la herencia deseada. Avance, de las lineas avanzadas al proceso de validacibn.Producción de semilla b4sica.El mejoramiento de variedades se ha hecho usando los metodos de retrocruza, selección recurrente, masal, pedigree y combinaciones de todos los métodos anteriores.Para el despliegue de variedades se ha dividido el pals en zonas de adaptación, basadas principalmente en temperatura media y fotoperiodo. La calidad del suelo se ･ ｳ ｴ ｾ ＠ utilizando como una sub-división de las zonas de adaptación. Asi se producen varieda des experimentales para tierras planas y favorecidas y variedades experimentales para zonas de ladera.Se manejan tres programas de mejoramiento independiente: En Chimaltenango se mejoran las variedades para:1. Precocidad.2. Alto rendimiento.Resistencia a la mancha de Ascochyta.Resistencia a la antracnosis del frijol.Resistencia al picudo de la vaina.b.Arquitectura erecta.En Jutiapa se mejoran las variedades para los siguientes objetivos:1. Precocidad.2. Alto rendimiento.Resistencia al virus del mosaico dorado.Resistencia a la bacteriosis coman.Resistencia al picudo de la vaina.b.En Cuyuta se realiza mejoramiento genetico para:1. Arquitectura erecta.Adaptacibn al relevo con malz o asocio con papaya.Resistencia al virus del mosaico dorado.Resistencia a la bacteriosis coman.DISCUSIDN POR:ASAI1BI..EA.RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ.Se establecib que en varios paises de la red regional, ya se realiza la identificacibn de dominios de recomendacibn con el r.propósito de lograr mayor eficiencia y aplicabilidad de los resultados a esos dominios.En funcibn de hacer ｭ ｾ ｳ ＠ eficiente una produccibn de semilla, se determinb, en forma general, que un ｭ ｾ ｩ ｭ ｯ ＠ de tres materiales por regibn haria ｭ ｾ ｳ ＠ manejable su produccibn por las unidades de semillas en cada pals.Para el caso del altiplano guatemalteco, se encontrb que la razón por la cual el agricultor ya no prefiere los friJoles deIV <volubles) es el ciclo largo de los mismos, comparado con el ciclo corto de los frijoles arbustivos que se ･ ｳ ｴ ｾ ＠ introduciendo a la zona.Por ｾ ｬ ｴ ｩ ｭ ｯ ＠ se mencionb que la produccibn artesanal de semilla se inicib con el propbsito de evitar que el ICTA cayera en el plano de produccibn de semilla como tal. Una de las acciones iniciales, en este sentido, fue estimular al sector privado a interesarse en producir semilla, lo cual, para el caso de frijol, no se ha logrado debido a que la venta de la misma no es constante cada ｾ ｯ Ｌ ＠ ya que los agricultores compran una vez y luego conservan su semilla por cierto tiempo, evitando comprar.Por lo anterior se ha encontrado que la producción artesanal de semilla se presenta como una buena alternativa para suplir la falta de produccibn de la misma.","tokenCount":"747"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"68aba7220a31434b1077d0b663a1370b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/27adc1bd-b905-48c2-b4c8-e468c24088fa/content","id":"2112962080"},"keywords":["DArT","durum wheat","QTL mapping","SNP","stem rust","Ug99 Blé dur","cartographie de QTL","rouille noire","SNP","Ug99"],"sieverID":"9979b51d-0fa5-41e5-9a15-e2da79f3ac4b","pagecount":"13","content":"Stem rust, caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt), has potential to cause major yield losses in durum wheat. Development of durum cultivars with improved resistance to stem rust is a sustainable option for effective control of this disease. This study was conducted to identify genomic regions associated with resistance to Ug99-derived Pgt races using a doubled haploid (DH) mapping population produced from a cross between the resistant experimental line A9919-BY5C and the moderately susceptible cultivar 'Strongfield'. The parents and DH lines were phenotyped for adult plant disease severity and infection response at Njoro, Kenya, for four years, and for seedling reaction to race TTKSK in a containment facility near Morden, Canada. Composite interval mapping using 612 SNP and DArT markers indicated four significant QTL for resistance to stem rust on chromosomes 1B, 4A, 5B, and 6A. A major and stable QTL from A9919-BY5C was identified on the short arm of chromosome 6A (6AS), which accounted for 71% of variation explained for seedling resistance and up to 46% for field resistance. This QTL mapped near the Sr8 locus and may be Sr8155B1, or a novel gene at the same location. Another QTL for adult plant resistance from A9919-BY5C was mapped on chromosome 1B that explained up to 14% of the phenotypic variation and likely is Sr14. Two minor QTL were identified in 'Strongfield' on chromosomes 4A and 5B that were inconsistent over years. Markers associated with the 6AS and 1B QTL can be used to proactively stack resistance to Ug99-derived races of Pgt into Canadian durum wheat.Stem rust, also known as black rust, is a disease caused by the basidiomycete fungus Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) that can severely affect durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum). Historically, epidemics of stem rust have been noted in the majority of regions where wheat is grown (Van der Plank 1963). Fear of the Pgt pathogen has risen again with the emergence of Ug99 (TTKSK), identified in Uganda in 1998, because this race and its derivatives have rendered multiple resistance genes ineffective (Pretorius et al. 2000;Jin et al. 2007Jin et al. , 2008)). Until race TTKSK became virulent and widespread, gene Sr31 was a paramount source of resistance to stem rust for almost 30 years and has been introgressed into many wheat cultivars. In addition to TTKSK, 12 more variants within the Ug99 lineage have been identified. These variants are: TTKST, TTTSK, TTKSF, TTKSP, PTKSK, PTKST, TTKSF+, TTHST, TTKTT, TTKTK, PTKTK, and TTHSK (https://rust tracker.cimmyt.org/?page_id=22). Ug99 and related races that have evolved and been detected recently pose a significant threat to global food security (Singh et al. 2011a).In the past, in Canada, major epidemics of stem rust resulting in significant production losses were reported over three consecutive years from 1953 to 1955 (Peturson 1958). The serial epidemics in Western Canada resulted in reduced durum wheat production until the release of the stem rust-resistant durum wheat cultivar Stewart 63 in 1960 (Knott 1963). Currently, durum wheat is grown yearly on approximately two million hectares, predominantly in the southwestern Canadian prairies (Clarke et al. 2010) and is worth an estimated 1 USD billion in farm gate receipts (AAFC 2019). The stem rust pathogen can spread rapidly over long distances from the south-central United States to the prairies of Canada. Deployment of genetic resistance along this North American rust pathway can be an effective strategy to manage stem rust and its spread. Although the presence of Ug99 has not been observed in Canada, the risk of introduction is a concern with around 78% of wheat cultivars grown being susceptible to Ug99 and its derivatives (Fetch et al. 2011(Fetch et al. , 2012;;Xue et al. 2012). With the imminent threat to global wheat production (Dean et al. 2012), it is important to understand the resistance present in Canadian germplasm.There are two main classes of resistance genes to rust diseases in plants, i.e., race-specific (Flor 1956) and race non-specific (Van der Plank 1963). Race-specific resistance genes are usually expressed at the seedling stage and typically function throughout the plant's life cycle. Resistance genes of this class provide intermediate to high levels of resistance, but can be overcome shortly after deployment by the evolution of new races, when deployed singly in commercial cultivars (Lin and Chen 2007). Genetic variation for the evolution of Pgt races occurs via random mutations, sexual recombination, and somatic hybridization (Figueroa et al. 2016(Figueroa et al. , 2018)). Race nonspecific resistance, on the other hand, is usually conferred by multiple genes with minor effects, expressed during later stages of development, and is generally referred to as adult plant resistance (APR). However, some APR genes provide race-specific resistance, such as Lr13 and Lr37 that confer resistance to leaf rust (McIntosh et al. 1995). The cumulative nature of these genes means resistance can be enhanced to near immunity with the stacking of multiple genes. Through an integrated approach that combines improved surveillance, incorporating new genes enhancing diversity for resistance, and pyramiding multiple race-specific genes with APR in breeding materials, the evolution of new races can largely be curtailed (Singh et al. 2015).Development and use of resistant cultivars is one of the most effective strategies and environmentally safe approaches for controlling diseases such as stem rust. To date, about 70 genes have been characterized for wheat stem rust resistance that are effective at the seedling and adult plant developmental stages (McIntosh et al. 1995(McIntosh et al. , 2012;;Chen et al. 2018). The majority of these genes are race-specific and show qualitative inheritance (Singh et al. 2011b), likely because they are more expressive and have been easier to characterize genetically. In durum wheat, stem rust resistance genes Sr9d, Sr9e, Sr9g, Sr11, Sr12 (seedling stage), and Sr17 are known to be ineffective against Ug99 and its derived races. Although Sr2, Sr12 (adult plant stage), and Sr13 are effective against the Ug99 group of races, several new genes and loci have also been characterized recently (Laidò et al. 2015;Nirmala et al. 2017;Saccomanno et al. 2018). Recent advances in high-throughput genotyping methods have helped researchers to develop highdensity molecular maps and to detect quatitative trait loci (QTL) with major and minor effects at greater precision (Maccaferri et al. 2014;Wang et al. 2014). With increasing map densities and larger population sizes, increasing numbers of partial resistance genes are being identified through QTL analysis. Often using biparental mapping populations with germplasm accessions, several recent studies have reported numerous QTL for stem rust resistance in durum and common wheat (Bansal et al. 2008;Kaur et al. 2009;Bhavani et al. 2011;Yu et al. 2011Yu et al. , 2012;;Haile et al. 2012;Singh et al. 2013Singh et al. , 2013aSingh et al. , 2013b;;Njau et al. 2013;Rouse et al. 2014;Kassa et al. 2016;Edae et al. 2016;Saccomanno et al. 2018;Miedaner et al. 2019).Single genetic factors that confer resistance to multiple pathogen species can be useful in wheat breeding. For example, three APR genes originally identified to confer leaf rust resistance (Lr34, Lr46, and Lr67) have since been shown to provide partial resistance to all three wheat rusts [leaf rust (Puccinia triticina), stem rust (Pgt), and stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis)] and to powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici). They are also associated with leaf tip necrosis (LTN) -a morphological trait often used as a phenotypic marker. These pleiotropic genes are identified as Sr57/Yr18/Pm38/Ltn1 (Lr34) on chromosome arm 7DS, Sr58/Yr29/Pm39/Ltn2 (Lr46) on 1BL, and Sr55/Yr46/Pm46/Ltn3 (Lr67) on 4DL. The multipathogen resistance conferred by Lr34 is due to the expression of a single gene encoding an ABC transporter (Krattinger et al. 2009(Krattinger et al. , 2019)). Lr67 encodes a hexose transporter that confers resistance to multiple fungal pathogens (Moore et al. 2015). These and other genes are revealed in QTL analysis. Using marker assisted selection, the potential exists to stack these genes through breeding to gain durable resistance to multiple pathogens.The components of stem rust resistance in Canadian durum germplasm is unclear. Identification and utilization of genetic resistance in variety improvement is a key to manage existing races of stem rust and emerging virulent races. Genetic characterization of stem rust resistance in the breeding line A9919-BY5C that derives from the durum cultivar Napoleon is important for durum wheat improvement to combat the stem rust threat in Canada. In the present study, we report on genomic regions associated with stem rust resistance (adult plant and seedling) using an A9919-BY5C /Strongfield durum wheat doubled haploid (DH) mapping population.A durum wheat DH population comprising 66 lines from a cross between A9919-BY5C and Strongfield was produced from F 1 plants at the Swift Current Research and Development Centre (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) (formerly, Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre) of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) following the maize pollen method described by Knox et al. (2000). A9919-BY5C, which derived from the cross DT696/Napoleon, is highly resistant to stem rust including Ug99 and its variants in field screening in Njoro, Kenya. Strongfield is a spring durum wheat variety well adapted to the semi-arid environment in Western Canada (Clarke et al. 2005) and is moderately susceptible to the Ug99 stem rust group of races in field screening in Njoro (T. Fetch, unpublished data).The DH lines along with their parents were grown in unreplicated trials for response to stem rust infection in disease nurseries at the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Njoro, Kenya, for four consecutive years (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011). Both parents were replicated twice in each nursery every year, except for A9919-BY5C, which was absent in 2008. About 2 g of seed per genotype was planted in 70 cm twin rows spaced 30 cm apart. A suspension of urediniospores consisting of Ug99-type races (predominately TTKST, but also TTKSK and TTTSK in low proportions) was inoculated onto susceptible spreader rows. Stem rust severity was rated as 0% to 100% (Peterson et al. 1948), and stem rust infection response was recorded as R, R-MR, MR, M, MR-MS, MS, MS-S, or S, where R is resistant, M is moderate, and S is susceptible (Roelfs et al. 1992). The infection response overlapping between two scores was denoted by a hyphen. Stem rust severity and infection response were recorded twice between heading and maturity. DT696 was evaluated in the Kenya stem rust nursery from 2007 to 2009. Since 2011, except 2013 and 2019, Napoleon and Strongfield have been evaluated in the nursery in Kenya for stem rust reaction.To further understand the nature of resistance, seedling infection type in the parents and DH lines to stem rust race TTKSK (isolate SA31) was evaluated in a biological containment facility at AAFC-Morden Research and Development Centre, Morden, Manitoba, Canada, in March 2010. Infection type ratings for TTKSK were completed approximately two weeks after inoculation following the scale described by Stakman et al. (1962). For quantitative analysis, the Stakman scale was converted to a numeric scale as follows: '0ʹ = 0, ';' = 1, '1-' = 2, '1ʹ = 3, '1+' = 4, '2-' = 5, '2ʹ = 6, '2+' = 7, and so on to '4+' = 13. Additionally, Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated, using PROC CORR of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) v9.1 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina, USA) software, between years for infection response and for severity, and between field results and the seedling test.A portion (3-5 cm length) of primary leaves of the parents and DH lines were excised for extraction and purification of high-quality genomic DNA using the BioSprint 96 workstation and the BioSprint 96 DNA Plant Kit (Qiagen Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada) following the manufacturer's instructions. Total DNA was then quantified using a Qubit® 2.0 fluorometer (www. probes.invitrogen.com/qubit) to facilitate equalization of the concentrations. Each sample was normalized to 250 ng/µL of DNA for Diversity Array Technology (DArT) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping. DNA of all 66 DH lines and their parents were sent to Triticarte Pvt. Ltd., Yarralumla, Canberra, Australia (www.triticarte.com.au; a whole-genome profiling service laboratory) for genotyping with a mediumdensity DArT array, as described by Mantovani et al. (2008). The DArT genotyping data were recorded as present (1) or absent (0) as described by Akbari et al. (2006). The parents and DH lines were also genotyped with the Infinium II iSelect wheat 90 K SNP array (Wang et al. 2014) using the Illumina platform (Illumina Inc.) available at the National Research Council, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The clustering and allele calling of each SNP assay was analysed using the genotyping module of GenomeStudio v2012 software (Illumina Inc.) with a GenCall score cut-off of 0.15 (as per Illumina's recommendations). Polymorphic SNPs were identified and exported from GenomeStudio to a spreadsheet for subsequent data analysis.Polymorphic markers obtained from both genotyping platforms (Infinium 90 K SNP and DArT), were combined for assigning the markers to linkage groups. Linkage groups were constructed in JoinMap 4.1 (Van Ooijen 2011) using a minimum logarithm of odds (LOD) value of 3. Markers with missing genotypes (> 20%) and/or Chi-square goodness-of-fit test (p < 0.05) values that did not meet the expected Mendelian segregation ratio of 1:1 were excluded from further analysis. Recombination frequencies were translated to map distances in centimorgans (cM) using the Kosambi mapping function. Assignment of DArT and SNP linkage group markers to wheat chromosomes was based on Maccaferri et al. (2014) and Wang et al. (2014). The final chart of each linkage group was drawn using MapChart 2.2 software (Voorrips 2002). The high-density genetic map contained many markers with common segregation patterns that mapped at the same position in genetic bins. A bin consists of co-segregating markers and is separated from an adjacent bin by a single recombination event (Isidore et al. 2003). Such uninformative markers consumed computational resources during analysis for detection of marker-trait associations. Therefore, redundant markers were excluded and only one marker with the least missing data was retained as representative of the genetic bin. The remaining markers were remapped and used for QTL analysis.Composite interval mapping (CIM) was performed using QTL Cartographer v2.5 software (Wang et al. 2012) to determine the significant association of markers with stem rust resistance. Background marker selection in the forward and backward regression method in CIM model 6 was used for QTL discovery. The walk speed was 1 cM and the window size was set at 10 cM. A genome-wide threshold LOD score for each trait was computed by the permutation test of 1,000 random iterations at a significance level of P < 0.05 (Churchill and Doerge 1994) to declare significant QTL. The effect in this population of identified QTL on the level of stem rust resistance was obtained as a percentage of phenotypic variation explained (%PVE).In Kenya, the infection response of A9919-BY5C was consistently resistant (R) to stem rust across the four environments (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011), while Strongfield exhibited infection response MS in 2008, MSS in 2009and 2011, and RMR in 2010 (Fig. 1, Supplemental   The stem rust severity of A9919-BY5C in Kenya across three years ranged from 0% to 10%, and Strongfield ranged from 5% in 2010 to 60% in 2008 (Supplemental Table 1). The severity of the DH lines varied from 1% to 70% in 2008, 1% to 20% in 2009, 0% to 15% in 2010, and 0% to 40% in 2011. Figure 2 shows skewed distributions of the DH population for stem rust severity, with the majority of lines showing resistance. Several lines of the DH population expressed similar low disease severity across environments like A9919-BY5C. Likewise, several DH lines with higher disease severity similar to Strongfield were also evident.When the parents were tested as seedlings with Pgt race TTKSK (Ug99), the infection type (IT) of Strongfield was 0 whereas A9919-BY5C was between 1 − and 1 (resistant). Fig. 3 shows the frequency distribution of stem rust seedling ITs for the A9919-BY5C/Strongfield DH population. A bimodal distribution of stem rust seedling ITs for the population was observed. One mode consisted of DH lines expressing an IT similar to Strongfield and the other showed a slightly higher IT similar to A9919-BY5C (Fig. 3). One line with a 2-to 2 rating was observed, a line that was rated 60 S in the Kenya nursery in 2008. No DH progeny displayed a susceptible IT, while the Little Club wheat check had IT = 33+ (data not presented). Of the 81,587 SNP results from markers assayed on A9919-BY5C/Strongfield DH population, 76,969 (94.34%) were removed from analysis due to the following reasons: the SNP probes failed to hybridize, were monomorphic between the two parents, or had >20% missing values. The remaining 4,618 (5.66%) polymorphic SNPs were added to 187 polymorphic DArT markers, which together were used for linkage analysis. Further, out of 4,805 markers, 84 showed segregation distortion that excluded them from further analysis. Finally, 4721 markers (4545 SNPs + 176 DArTs) were assembled into 29 linkage groups representing 14 chromosomes of tetraploid wheat and covered a total genetic distance of 1213.4 cM. Linkage groups were assigned to wheat chromosomes by the information obtained from (i) BLASTn search against the wheat genome assembly (Triticum_aestivum.IWGSC1+ popseq.31_genome assembly), and (ii) SNP markers reported in Maccaferri et al. (2014) and DArT markers reported by Colasuonno et al. (2013). The complete genetic map of A9919-BY5C/Strongfield is given in Supplemental Table 2 and a summary is presented in Table 1. The genetic map of all 14 chromosomes was assembled in two or three linkage groups for each chromosome except for 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6B, which were single linkage groups. The number of mapped markers on different chromosomes varied from 132 on 4B to 623 on 1B. We observed an excess of cosegregating markers on all chromosomes. The genomewide proportion of co-segregated markers were 86.8% (4108/4721). A similar proportion of 85% co-segregating markers was previously reported in a doubled haploid mapping population of durum wheat (Maccaferri et al. 2014;N'Diaye et al. 2017). After binning the co-segregating markers, only 613 markers retained a unique map position (Table 1) and were further utilized for QTL discovery.Composite interval mapping (CIM) analysis revealed four significant QTL for stem rust resistance on four different wheat chromosomes, with one QTL consistently appearing over all test environments. The number of QTL, chromosomal location, level of significance, LOD value, additive effect, proportion of variance explained by the QTL and parent expressing the favourable allele are presented in Table 2. A stable QTL (designated QSr.spa-6A) not only contributed to adult plant resistance to stem rust in all Kenya nurseries, but had a major effect on seedling resistance to TTKSK (Ug99) in the Morden test. The QTL identified on linkage group 6A_3 (hereinafter referred to as chromosome 6A) spanned an interval of 4.3 cM flanked by markers IAAV8377 and wPt-5652 (Table 2 and Fig. 4). The QTL QSr.spa-6A explained up to 46% of the phenotypic variation for infection response and severity of stem rust measured in Kenya, and more than 70% of the phenotypic variation for race TTKSK in the seedling test. The second QTL (designated QSr.spa-1B) was identified in two environments (Kenya in 2008 and 2009) and was mapped on linkage group 1B_1 (hereinafter referred to as chromosome 1B) at an interval flanked by markers wPt-2389 and Ku_c8767_1245 (Table 2). The QTL QSr. spa-1B explained up to 14% of the phenotypic variation for stem rust infection response and severity.Two additional QTL with minor effects were detected in the CIM analysis. The third QTL (designated QSr.spa-5B) was revealed only for stem rust infection response in one environment (Kenya 2008) and was mapped on linkage group 5B_3 (hereinafter referred to as chromosome 5B) between SNP markers Tdurum_contig28868_84 and BobWhite_c7818_278. QSr.spa-5B accounted for 11.9% of the phenotypic variation. The fourth QTL (designated QSr.spa-4A) on chromosome 4A with a minor effect on only stem rust severity was identified in a single environment (Kenya 2011) at SNP marker D_GBF1XID01EMISV_148 and explained 6.5% of the phenotypic variation (Table 2). The stem rust-resistant loci associated with QTL QSr. spa-6A on chromosome 6A and QSr.spa-1B on chromosome 1B were derived from the resistant parent A9919-BY5C. The resistant alleles for QTL QSr.spa-5B and QSr.spa-4A were contributed by Strongfield.The significant QTL LOD scores for stem rust resistance in the A9919-BY5C/Strongfield population ranged from 3.4-22.2 (Table 2).There were variable degrees of stem rust infection across the four years of testing in Njoro, Kenya.   lines fitted a 3 R:1S ratio (χ 2 = 0.57, P = 0.78), indicative of two gene segregation. Given correlations of rust severities or of rust infection responses between environments were low to moderate, it is not unexpected that some resistance loci were expressed in one environment and not others. On the other hand, the fact that environments showed some level of correlation suggested there was also some consistency in resistance expression across environments. This aligns with the QTL analysis of the segregation pattern of stem rust phenotypes from the A9919-BY5C/Strongfield population, revealing two major genes and two minor genes. The Napoleon and DT696 parents of A9919-BY5C have shown high levels of field resistance in Kenya over the past decade. Therefore, it is not unexpected that A9919-BY5C would possess multiple resistance genes. The contribution of two minor QTL from Strongfield is also not surprising given Strongfield was not completely susceptible to stem rust in the Kenyan nurseries. The expression of a QTL at the 6AS chromosomal region across four field environments indicates the presence of a stable gene. The QTL, labelled QSr.spa-6A, explained 71% of the phenotypic variation in the Morden seedling test and 28-46% in adult plants in field nurseries in Njoro, indicating major all-stage resistance for stem rust. There are three reported Sr genes on 6AS to date. Two correspond to the Sr8 locus as two alleles (Sr8a and Sr8b) (Knott and Anderson 1956;McIntosh 1972;McIntosh et al. 1995). The Sr8a allele was detected and characterized in common wheat, while Sr8b is known to be present in durum wheat (Bhavani et al. 2008). The QTL QSr.spa-6A mapped on 6AS between markers IAAV8377 (4.8 cM) and wPt-5652 (9.1 cM), spanning a distance of 4.3 cM that colocalizes with previously mapped QTL for stem rust resistance (Fig. 4) that suggests QSr.spa-6A contains an allele of the Sr8 gene (Bhavani et al. 2008;Yu et al. 2011;Dunckel et al. 2015;Guerrero-Chavez et al. 2015;Babiker et al. 2017;Hiebert et al. 2017;Nirmala et al. 2017;Zurn et al. 2018;Saini et al. 2018). The QSr.spa-6A genetic region contains DArT markers wPt-6520 and wPt-4016, which are found on the consensus map of Yu et al. (2014) and overlap with SSR marker gwm334 reported by Bhavani et al. (2008) to be associated with Sr8b. However, Bhavani et al. (2008) also found Sr8b to be ineffective against pathotype TTKSK, indicating that QSr.spa-6A is a different allele from Sr8b.Using a DH population, Dunckel et al. ( 2015) identified a QTL for resistance to Pgt race TRTTF on 6AS that was likely an allele of Sr8. We could not compare the Table 2. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) identified for adult plant field infection response (IR) and severity in nurseries in Kenya between years 2008 to 2011, and seedling resistance to stem rust race TTKSK (Ug99) in the A9919-BY5C/Strongfield doubled haploid population, the environment where expressed, chromosome, closest marker or markers to peak LOD and position where located, peak LOD value, percent phenotypic variation explained (R 2 ), additive effect and parental source of favourable allele.Trait  While QSr.spa-6A found in our study could be associated with Sr8155B1, it does not explain the association of QSr.spa-6A with seedling resistance to isolate SA31 (TTKSK). Yu et al. (2011) reported DArT markers wPt-6520 and wPt-4016 along with SSR gwm334 to be significantly associated with a genetic factor controlling Ug99 resistance on 6AS (Fig. 4). QSr.spa-6A, if an allele of Sr8, may be Sr8155B1, but could be another allele consistent with that of Yu et al. (2011). A simple way to test the presence of Sr8155B1 in A9919-BY5C would be to use the SNP marker KASP 6AS_IWB10558 developed by Nirmala et al. (2017). This will be done in future studies. Currently, none of the QTL/genes on 6AS have been reported to confer resistance to Ug99 race TTKSK. The SA31 isolate of TTKSK may be unique because it is avirulent to the QSr.spa-6A QTL on 6AS, which may be Sr8155B1.The large quantitative effect of QSr.spa-6A was associated with a qualitative bimodal phenotypic distribution in the DH population, suggestive of the segregation of a major gene for resistance against Ug99 race TTKSK at the seedling stage. The segregation of the seedling Fig. 4 Correspondence of markers associated with stem rust resistance QTL QSr.spa-6A and markers on genetic maps of chromosome arm 6AS reported in previous studies (Yu et al. 2011(Yu et al. , 2014;;Guerrero-Chavez et al. 2015;Hiebert et al. 2017). The region corresponds to the location of the Sr8 gene (Bhavani et al. 2008).reaction deserves further consideration. Although the distribution of IT was bimodal, both peaks were resistant, one peaking around IT = 0 and the other near IT = 1 − . Since no susceptible DH progeny were detected, both parents must contain the same effective seedling resistance gene. In order to see two different ITs in the DH progeny, one parent must contain an additional resistance gene. This is what was observed for the A9919-BY5C/Strongfield population. The results indicate that A9919-BY5C contributed the QSr.spa-6A allele, which was absent in Strongfield, and thus must be the additional effective gene at the seedling stage. If this is Sr8155B1, then the isolate of TTKSK used in this experiment may be unique in its avirulence to this gene as indicated above. Differences in TTKS races previously have been found by Terefe et al. (2016), who reported a new race of TTKSF with additional virulence to gene Sr9h. Testing of isolate SA31 to gene Sr8155B1 is needed to determine if isolate SA31 of TTKSK is avirulent to this gene. We postulate that the gene present in both parents is Sr13, which is common in durum wheat. This gene is effective at the seedling stage to TTKSK (Jin et al. 2007), but in field nurseries in Kenya from 2006-2011 has shown variable reaction from 30 M to 70S (T. Fetch, unpublished data) and is not stable. This would account for the variation in field reaction of Strongfield (Fig. 2) presuming it only contains Sr13. The Strongfield seedling reaction observed in this study (IT = 0) is more difficult to explain, since Sr13 typically produces a 2 − to 2 + IT to race TTKSK. Several possibilities may explain this: 1) isolate SA31 is different from other isolates of TTKSK used to phenotype Sr13; 2) Sr13 may react differently in a durum background than in the hexaploid Sr13 differential line used in this study (Prelude*4/2/Marquis*6/Khapstein); or 3) Strongfield may have minor modifier genes that lower the IT compared to Sr13 alone. While no QTL was found on chromosome 6AL where Sr13 is located, this is expected since both parents would have the gene and no segregation in the population would occur in order for the gene to be mapped. Testing to determine if both parents contain Sr13 will be done in future studies using the cloned Sr13 dCAPS marker (Zhang et al. 2017).In addition to the major gene on chromosome 6A, QTL observed on chromosomes 1B (QSr.spa-1B), 4A (QSr.spa-4A), and 5B (QSr.spa-5B) would contribute to the skewed nature of the segregation of resistance in the field. The value of QTL QSr.spa-1B from A9919-BY5C, which mapped on chromosome 1B, is revealed by reducing both stem rust infection response and severity in 2008 and 2009 in Njoro, Kenya. Our results found QSr.spa-1B associated with markers wPt-2389, wPt-3451, BS00062740_51, and BobWhite_c1456_615 -Ku_c8767_1245 (Table 2). Based on marker position on the consensus map of Yu et al. (2014), these markers mapped more than 50 cM away from both Sr31 and Sr58 (= Lr46), which are found at opposite ends of chromosome 1B. Therefore, QSr.spa-1B is not Sr31 nor Sr58. Chromosome 1B also carries the Sr14 gene that originates from tetraploid wheat and is located near the centromere (McIntosh et al. 1995). Gene Sr14 is ineffective to race TTKSK at the seedling stage, but shows intermediate resistance in the field in Njoro to Ug99derived races (Jin et al. 2007;T. Fetch, unpublished data). As Sr14 and marker wPt-3451 are both located near the centromere and Sr14 is effective to TTKST in the field, the QSr.spa-1B QTL likely is gene Sr14.The QSr.spa-4A QTL from Strongfield with a minor effect on stem rust severity (only in year 2011) was associated with SNP marker D_GBF1XID01EMISV_148 on chromosome 4A, 1.9 cM from DArT marker wPt-5749 on the same chromosome. The marker wPt-5749 is located in the interval between SSR markers gwm350 and wmc219 on the map reported by Yu et al. (2014). Basnet et al. (2015) associated the SSR markers gwm350 and wmc219 with a temporarily designated gene SrND643 on the long arm of chromosome 4A. Saini et al. (2018) also detected a major QTL (QSr.rwg-4A) on 4AL with a 37% PVE, and a LOD = 30 at marker wmc219, which is approximately 27 cM from the D_GBF1XID01EMISV_148 marker for the 4A QTL we identified. SrND643 reported by Basnet et al. (2015) and the QSr.rwg-4A QTL reported by Saini et al. (2018) mapped to the Sr7 region. Letta et al. (2013) and Yu et al. (2017) also reported QTL in the same region. More research is required to determine if any of these QTL contain the same gene and whether or not that gene(s) is allelic at the Sr7 locus.The QSr.spa-5B QTL identified from Strongfield on chromosome 5B with minor effect on stem rust infection response (IR, only in year 2008) was more than 50 cM distant from other stem rust QTL reported on the same chromosome by Haile et al. (2012). A QTL for APR to stem rust in Canadian and Kenyan field nurseries was also reported by Singh et al. (2013a) on chromosome 5B. The QSr.spa-5B QTL was mapped on 5B in an interval of 5.4 cM between SNP markers Tdurum_contig28868_84 -BobWhite_c7818_278, and DArT marker wPt-7665 was located in close proximity to the same interval. The marker wPt-7665 is known to be linked with adult plant resistance gene Sr56 on the long arm of chromosome 5B (Bansal et al. 2014). It is possible that the QTL QSr.spa-5B corresponds to Sr56 but additional work is needed to confirm the association of QSr.spa-5B with Sr56.A limitation of this study is the genetic sampling of only two durum lines in one bi-parental population. Additionally, these parents are from the Canadian germplasm pool and are not highly diverse. Consequently, the modest level of polymorphism observed in this study is not unexpected. Futhermore, the 90 K SNP chip is based on SNPs identified mainly from hexaploid wheat, and may not, therefore, be as representative of polymorphism in durum. In particular, SNP probes belonging to the D-genome will generally not hybridize to genomic DNA of durum wheat, leading to a smaller percentage of polymorphic markers. Due to these constraints, any resistance QTL in common between parents will not be revealed and map intervals will not be highly resolved. A low mapping resolution is also a limitation of the small population size used here.In this work, we report four significant QTL associated with resistance to stem rust in a durum wheat DH population derived from a cross of A9919-BY5C and Strongfield genotyped with SNP and DArT markers. Among them, one consistently expressed QTL (QSr. spa-6A) on the short arm of chromosome 6A (6AS) with a major effect on resistance at the seedling as well as adult plant stages was contributed by A9919-BY5C, a line derived from the cross DT696/Napoleon. This QTL appears to be gene Sr8155B1 or a novel gene at the Sr8 locus. Another QTL (QSr.spa-1B) derived from A9919-BY5C with a modest effect on resistance at the adult plant stage in two environments was identified on chromosome 1B and likely is gene Sr14. Two QTL, one on chromosome 4A (QSr.spa-4A) and the other on 5B (QSr.spa-5B), each with an independent minor effect on resistance at the adult plant stage, were contributed by Strongfield. Because the 1B and 6A QTL were from one parent and the 4A and 5B QTL were from the other parent, opportunity exists to stack the four loci towards improving the durability of resistance to stem rust. A9919-BY5C is not only a valuable source of resistance to TTKSK and other members of the Ug99 race group, but also to other Pgt races.","tokenCount":"5358"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"282b7144ec59a3e5545c1b691e1fb531","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/22fe7724-1b0a-436a-9ccb-a77a8bcccb75/retrieve","id":"659682232"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"381dab1b-7fef-40ab-b455-3ca0638589b3","pagecount":"36","content":"Revista de informação sobre desenvolvimento agrícola e rural nos países ACP http://spore.cta.intA maioria dos observadores concorda que as cadeias de valor constituem uma estratégia útil, baseada no mercado. Todavia, o consenso é menor no que toca ao seu significado e àquilo que elas visam atingir.N os círculos agrícolas, o conceito de cadeia de valor é cada vez mais utilizado para descrever estratégias que visam melhorar as perspectivas comerciais dos produtores e aumentar as margens de lucro. Mas, o que é exactamente uma cadeia de valor? Não é fácil definir um termo originalmente cunhado para o sector industrial. É mais simples começar por dizer o que uma cadeia de valor não é. Uma cadeia de valor não é constituída simplesmente por um agricultor que vende a sua produção a um comprador, por mais sólida que seja essa ligação comercial. Nem é a sequência de produção e comercialização de um produto específico como o café ou o cacau. Para muitos observadores, a característica distintiva de uma cadeia de valor reside em que todos os seus elos estão coordenados, ocorrendo um acréscimo de valor em cada fase, tendo decisivamente na mira o mercado final. Assim, se um comprador trabalha com um agricultor na base de um acordo prévio sobre que tipo de produto é necessário fornecer a um certo tipo de consumidor ou transformador, estamos na presença de uma cadeia de valor. Nas Caraíbas, algumas iniciativas puseram em contacto directo os agricultores com os proprietários dos estabelecimentos turísticos, com base numa definição prévia dos tipos de fruta e vegetais frescos necessários para os turistas, incluindo em alguns casos a prestação de apoio aos produtores. No âmbito desta Edição, a definição poderia ser Elos da cadeia de valor dos pimentos de Diffa (Níger)O significado de muitos termos utilizados nesta edição, particularmente o termo cadeias de valor, é matéria de muita discussão.Este glossário pretende ajudar os leitores a entender as controvérsias. Note-se, porém, que muitas vezes existem definições alternativas.Produção e entrega de um produto ou serviço final desde o fornecedor dos fornecedores até ao cliente dos clientes. A ênfase é posta no fluxo do produto desde a fonte até ao destino.Actores ligados por uma cadeia para produzir e fornecer bens e serviços a consumidores, por meio de um conjunto de actividades sequenciais e coordenadas que acrescentam valor em todas as suas fases (produção, transformação, distribuição). O conceito coloca a ênfase na inovação do produto e na satisfação das necessidades do consumidor.Integração, na cadeia, de actividades adicionais distintas daquelas que caracterizam a operação central de uma empresa. Por exemplo, um transformador de vegetais que começa a cultivá-los, ou que adquire uma frota de camiões.Análise de uma cadeia de valor para identificar quem são os actores-chave, como funciona a sequência e que factores influenciam o desempenho da cadeia. Pode ser muito útil para identificar obstáculos em todas as fases da cadeia, e apontar possíveis soluções.Serviços e produtos financeiros que fluem para e/ou através dos participantes da cadeia de valor.Produção agrícola levada a cabo segundo um acordo entre o comprador e os agricultores, que estabelece as condições da produção e comercialização dos produtos agrícolas.mais ou menos esta: uma cadeia de valor é uma sequência orientada pela procura do consumidor e caracterizada por um aumento de valor e coordenação em cada fase da produção, transformação e distribuição. Ela integra uma gama de funções de apoio, nomeadamente o fornecimento de insumos, serviços financeiros, transporte, embalagem, pesquisa de mercado e publicidade. Os elos da cadeia de valor podem ser constituídos por fornecedores de insumos, agricultores, transformadores, embaladores, distribuidores e retalhistas -afinal todos os elos na sequência entre a génese de um produto e o seu caminho até ao consumidor.O desenvolvimento das cadeias de valor está a ser imposto activamente como resposta aos problemas de baixo rendimento dos produtores, difícil acesso ao mercado e, mesmo, segurança alimentar. Mas é importante não esquecer que, independentemente dos benefícios, o princípio orientador de uma cadeia de valor é a realização de lucro. As cadeias de valor coordenadas representam ainda apenas uma parte do produto agrícola total nos países ACP. O grosso da produção ainda é produzida especulativamente, por agricultores que não estão certos se serão capazes de a vender por preços compensadores na altura das colheitas. As cadeias de valor agrícolas não se limitam às culturas alimentares. Uma cadeia de valor de forragem desenvolvida na Etiópia permitiu aos agricultores mais do que a criação de gado de melhor qualidade; permitiu também uma fonte adicional de receitas, dado que os agricultores venderam o excedente da forragem a outros criadores.As cadeias de valor podem ter diversas formas e dimensões. Ao nível mais básico, uma cadeia pode envolver um líder agricultor que coordena o fornecimento a um comprador, como por exemplo um supermercado, e que age como ponto focal de outros elos do processo de produção e comercialização. As grandes cadeias podem representar também um bom potencial para os pequenos produtores. No Quénia, a Brookside Dairies fornece 750.000 litros de leite por dia com base numa rede de 100.000 produtores de lacticínios. A maneira como a cadeia está organizada, com cada elo solidamente ligado ao seguinte, permite-lhe oferecer oportunidades interessantes aos pequenos produtores na ponta mais remota da cadeia.Embora mais referido no contexto das cadeias dos supermercados europeus, o desenvolvimento de cadeias de valor não é exclusivamente orientado para a exportação. Os mercados domésticos e regionais, alimentados por uma rápida urbanização e uma classe média em crescimento, são da máxima importância. O Banco Africano de Desenvolvimento estima que, por volta de 2060, haverá um bilião de africanos de classe média. No Uganda, a urbanização teve um enorme impacto no sector de lacticínios, triplicando o mercado dos pequenos produtores. As classes médias dos países em desenvolvimento consomem mais carne e derivados do leite, assim como alimentos prontos para o consumo, saladas preparadas e sumos de fruta frescos. As sofisticadas cadeias de valor de exportação têm frequentemente mais dificuldade em penetrar neste mercado do que os produtores domésticos, mesmo em termos de padronização.As cadeias de valor bem-sucedidas são orientadas por informações relativas às exigências dos consumidores, muitas vezes por meio de pesquisas de mercado.Na região de Kwazulu Natal, na África do Sul, esta estratégia trouxe dividendos quando se concluiu que havia uma forte procura de tomate chucha por parte da comunidade indiana de Durban. Foi elaborado um plano e, quando a cadeia se estabeleceu, os produtores beneficiaram de um aumento de receitas da ordem dos 400%.O valor pode ser atribuído, ou aumentado, por meio da melhoria da qualidade do produto, através de melhores sementes, insumos ou gestão pós-colheita no caso das culturas alimentares, ou melhor qualidade\"Todos os elos da cadeia podem beneficiar com a adição de valor\"O Ruanda apostou tudo na qualidade do seu café, para agradar às empresas exigentes, como a Starbucks e os seus clientes, e vender a um preço mais alto. E ganhou a aposta.Este cafeicultor do Norte de Ruanda passa os dias a mimar os seus 8000 pés de café, que lhe garantem um rendimento miraculoso: \"Nos últimos 5 anos, com a ajuda da Starbucks, pude aumentar e tratar bem da minha plantação. Agora ganho entre 600 a 800 mil RWF (entre 800 e 1000 €) por campanha agrícola\", conta-nos. Pouco tempo antes quase que arrancara todas as suas plantas de café, desanimado com os baixos preços de compra! A partir de 2004, a Définir les chaînes de valeur de forragem para o gado. A qualidade superior obtém preços mais elevados. A adição de valor pode também ser conseguida por meio de maior eficiência, com uma logística melhorada, especialmente nos transportes. Pode simplesmente tratar-se da questão de levar o produto de um local para outro, talvez para um local onde esse produto não esteja facilmente disponível. Por exemplo, levar hortaliças tradicionais para o espaço urbano ou frutas tropicais para os consumidores na Europa. Outras maneiras de acrescentar valor podem ser uma melhor apresentação e a preparação, e a introdução de sistemas de classificação.As cadeias de valor são uma estratégia de criação de receitas com importantes repercussões para ampliar o alcance da agricultura, mas também para atrair os jovens ao sector rural -ou dissuadi-los de o abandonar. Esta estratégia também poderá desempenhar um papel na melhoria das condições sociais e de trabalho, combatendo o desemprego, os salários baixos e a insegurança alimentar. As cadeias de valor regionais podem ser essenciais no combate à necessidade de importações maciças.O facto de as cadeias de valor serem orientadas pelo mercado significa que a utilização final dita todas as fases precedentes. Se se cultiva fruta para exportação, é importante que seja uma variedade popular no seio dos consumidores do país onde essa fruta será vendida. Tal poderá afectar o gosto, a cor e a suculência da variedade plantada. A fruta tem de ser colhida antes daquela que se destina aos mercados domésticos, uma vez que os tempos de viagem serão maiores. As técnicas de transformação também poderão ser diferentes. A embalagem poderá ter de ser concebida de propósito para o destino final, o mesmo acontecendo com os padrões de qualidade a satisfazer. O planeamento é a chave, com atenção extrema aos detalhes. É essencial a comunicação entre todos os elos da cadeia uma vez que, se um dos elos falha, toda a cadeia será afectada. Os gestores do projecto da Organização Internacional do Trabalho sobre as cadeias de valor em Madagáscar verificaram que alguns actores nunca se tinham encontrado, e portanto juntaram-nos para discutir problemas comuns e encontrar soluções.Embora algumas cadeias de valor sejam estabelecidas com ajuda externa, é importante que em última instância elas sejam capazes de avançar por si próprias. As companhias líderes podem constituir a força motriz, como no caso da Maldeco Fisheries do Malawi, que desenvolveu um plano de negócios para produzir peixe chambo inteiro e em filetes, com o envolvimento de pescadores de pequena escala. Além de estabelecer infra-estruturas de aquacultura e de criar novo valor por meio da diferenciação do produto, a Maldeco investiu em formação técnica no estrangeiro para promover a cultura sustentável do peixe.As três características principais de uma cadeia de valor são: ▪ coordenação de todos os elos da cadeia, ▪ valor acrescentado em cada fase, e ▪ estratégia orientada pelo mercado, respondendo à procura do consumidor aos níveis local, nacional e internacional.ANdREW SHEPHERdAs cadeias de valor são empreendimentos comerciais e os agricultores mais pobres podem encontrar dificuldades em participar nelas se não beneficiarem de ajuda externa. A confiança e a coordenação são elementos chave para todos os elos da cadeia, mas o estabelecimento de relações de negócio sólidas leva tempo e requer muito trabalho. Podem as cadeias de valor ser adaptadas aos pobres?Na verdade, isso depende da sua definição de 'pobre'. Claramente, as cadeias de valor modernas não constituem resposta para os problemas dos mais pobres. As pessoas que não estão previamente envolvidas na produção para venda têm poucas possibilidades de satisfazer as exigências das cadeias comerciais. Podem estar demasiado afastadas das estradas principais, ter muito pouca terra, não ter uma educação suficiente para serem capazes de sopesar as exigências dos compradores, e ter poucos ou nenhuns recursos financeiros para melhorar a produção.As cadeias de valor não são empreendimentos de caridade. Para poderem ser sustentáveis elas têm de ser lucrativas: a decisão sobre quais agricultores incluir deve basear-se em critérios comerciais. Assim, a inclusão dos muito pobres nas cadeias de valor requer apoio governamental. Isto não significa subsidiar os agricultores, mas sim melhorar a sua viabilidade comercial. A melhoria da educação, o fornecimento de mais acessos a serviços de extensão e melhores infra--estruturas, particularmente estradas, podem, com o tempo, tornar os agricultores mais pobres mais atractivos aos olhos das empresas comerciais. É também essencial que fique garantido um ambiente no qual os negócios rurais possam ser bem--sucedidos. As empresas fornecedoras de insumos não quererão trabalhar em áreas rurais onde existe corrupção ou demasiada burocracia. Algumas das vulnerabilidades dos agricultores pobres podem muitas vezes ser resolvidas por meio de soluções de agricultura contratual.Relativamente a esse tema, você foi co-autor de um livro sobre agricultura contratual 1 . Porque acha que este modelo de negócios é válido?Ao estabelecerem acordos com as empresas, os agricultores podem evitar alguns dos problemas que referi. As empresas podem fornecer insumos ou apoio de extensão, e mesmo levar a cabo a preparação da terra. Muitas vezes elas garantem mesmo o transporte dos produtos. A vantagem das empresas é que elas conseguem assim um fornecimento mais fiável e podem especificar as variedades de que necessitam. Mas a agricultura contratual não está ao alcance de qualquer um. Ela exige vontade de honrar os compromissos, entregar os produtos na altura adequada, e resistir à tentação de vender a outros compradores. É importante que a confiança se estabeleça entre agricultores e empresas, e isto leva tempo e exige trabalho árduo. Muitas vezes critica-se a agricultura contratual alegando que faz dos agricultores assalariados na sua própria terra. Mas o facto é que os que se envolvem nesse sistema conseguem melhores resultados do que a maioria dos outros agricultores.Muitas vezes! Mas o sector privado tem uma grande capacidade de resistência. Se alguma coisa não funciona, aprende com os erros e procura novas alternativas. Por exemplo, uma empresa de algodão que visitei no Uganda mudou três vezes a sua ligação com os agricultores antes de encontrar a estratégia adequada.A certificação de acordo com os padrões ocidentais pode ser muito cara. Em certa medida, esses custos têm sido ocultados pelo apoio de doadores que ajudam a acreditação dos agricultores, mas a certificação não é um acto isolado. De tempos a tempos é necessário re-certificar. Há evidência de que o número de pequenos agricultores que fornecem os mercados governados pelo sistema de certificação está a declinar. Mas nem todos os mercados internacionais exigem certificação, o mesmo acontecendo com os mercados domésticos.As cadeias de valor bem-sucedidas envolvem a colaboração entre todos os elos da cadeia. Os agricultores e os compradores do produto têm de trabalhar em conjunto para assegurar que os produtos adequados são produzidos em quantidades suficientes e no tempo certo. Da mesma maneira, aqueles que compram aos agricultores têm de colaborar com os seus clientes para satisfazerem as necessidades de consumo e minimizarem os custos. Quanto mais todos os elementos da cadeia falarem uns com os outros, mais viável se torna a colaboração.Neste início de Abril, a atmosfera é poeirenta em Richard Toll (375 km a norte do Dakar, Senegal), zona açucareira e agrossilvipastoril do vale do rio. É aqui, no bairro Thiabakh que a fábrica Laiterie du berger (LDB) se encontra instalada desde 2005. Para produzir o seu leite \"Dolima\" (\"Dá-me mais\" em wolof), assina contratos de compra com os criadores que lhe fornecem o leite saído directamente da vaca. Em contrapartida, a LDB assegura o fornecimento de ração para o gado por meio de outra parceira, a Companhia Açucareira Senegalesa (CSS), o gigante industrial de Richard Toll. Nesta parceria em que todos lucram, os criadores não escondem a sua satisfação. é o caso de Silèye Mbaye Bâ. Da aldeia de Yéeyri, (a 25 km de Richard Toll), Silèye possui 45 vacas seguidas pela LDB: \"Vim buscar as minhas três toneladas de alimentos (bagaço de amendoim, palha de cana-de-açúcar, farelo de arroz, luzerna, etc.). é a quota que me reserva a fábrica no contrato assinado após negociação\". Durante todo o ano e até à estação seca, na qual os custos de alimentação são mais elevados, o criador não paga nem o alimento do gado, nem o acompanhamento profiláctico para as vacas. Em contrapartida, vende o seu leite fresco à LDB a 200 francos CFA/litro durante todo o ano, sendo o preço médio no mercado local informal de 700 Francos CFA. \"Todos os dias forneço à fábrica cinco baldes de leite [de 18 litros: Nota do Editor] provenientes das minhas vacas\", indica ele. Como Silèye, há 200 criadores com contrato com a LDB, que lhes garante a compra do seu leite. Embora se sintam bastante satisfeitos, alguns criadores entrevistados na fábrica contestam o preço. \"Sinto-me contente com a fábrica que alimenta as nossas vacas, que são a nossa riqueza, mas o preço de compra do leite é baixo e gostaríamos que passasse para 500 Francos CFA por litro durante todo o ano\", defende um jovem criador. Um operário da LDB reconhece que este preço de compra é baixo mas explica aos criadores que a fábrica suporta o custo do transporte que vai até às aldeias remotas recolher o ouro branco. No Senegal, a produção leiteira é de 120 milhões de litros/ano, para cerca de 3,1 milhões de bovinos, segundo o Instituto Senegalês de Investigação Agrícola (ISRA). Mas a grande maioria da população consome leite em pó importado da Europa (equivalente a 240.000 t em leite) e transformado de modo artesanal em leite coalhado, vendido a granel. \"Estes criadores fornecem-nos leite fresco produzido no Senegal que nós transformamos para oferecer uma resposta adaptada à procura dos consumidores\", explica Bruno Lobry, o director industrial que entrevistámos no seu escritório sobriamente mobilado. Em seguida, acrescenta: \"Organizamos jornadas de intercâmbios com os criadores para conhecer os problemas relacionados com a cadeia de valor: saúde dos animais, preço do leite, formação em estabulação, alfabetização, etc.\" Todos os dias, as carrinhas isotérmicas desta pequena fábrica de 40 pessoas percorrem as aldeias, num raio de 100 km, para recolher o leite. \"O leite recolhido passa por controlos rigorosos em matéria de higiene e de normas sanitárias. Em seguida, é fermentado e pasteurizado. É colocado em pacotes de 90, 225 e 400 g, vendidos respectivamente por 100, 250 e 400 francos CFA\", conta B. Lobry. Além destes pacotes de leite muito apreciados pelas crianças, são comercializados outros produtos: o thiackry, uma mistura de leite coalhado e de cuscuz apreciada pelos consumidores, e o iogurte natural ou de baunilha. A LDB tem por objectivo chegar a um abastecimento adequado das aldeias em grande crescimento. Para o director da produção, Malick Cissé, a fábrica posiciona--se cada vez melhor nos mercados do Dakar e de Saint-Louis onde os seus produtos são vendidos a uma população urbana sensível à mensagem do \"consumir local\": \"Bom para mim, bom para o meu país\". Esta é amplamente transmitida por um marketing eficaz -spots publicitários animados por uma estrela da televisão senegalesa com uma música de Ismael Lo, produtos com as cores do Senegalrealizado com o apoio da especialista em social business, a Danone Communities. Existe ainda o projecto ''leite na escola\", levado a cabo com certas escolas do Dakar para combater a subnutrição infantil. À entrada da LDB, na loja da fábrica pintada de verde e decorada com um alegre pastor, o novo vendedor, o jovem Pap' Diao, regozija-se pelo seu contrato com um salário de cerca de 90.000 francos CFA/mês (cerca de 150 €). \"Desejo manter o meu emprego para sustentar a minha família\", afirma. A fábrica acaba também de recrutar dois novos quadros: um veterinário senegalês e um engenheiro expatriado.Madieng SeckGraças à parceria com a empresa Laiterie du berger (Leitaria do Pastor), os criadores de gado de Richard Toll reencontram a esperança com a certeza de venderem o seu leite. Em Saint-Louis e Dakar, as populações deleitam-se com os produtos rotulados \"Bom para mim, bom para o meu país\". A ATCL tem o objectivo de resolver os problemas de transformação e de comercialização dos cereais locais, de modo a melhorar a segurança alimentar, lutar contra a pobreza através da criação de empregos, sobretudo para as mulheres, que predominam neste sector. A ATCL responde a concursos e junta as forças dos seus membros para a execução dos contratos. Hoje em dia assegura a maior parte da transformação dos cereais locais vendidos no Senegal e regista resultados impressionantes: de 10.000 toneladas processadas no início da associação (em 1998) para mais de 100.000 actualmente.A associação conta com 24 membros, profissionais de transformação de cereais locais (milho-miúdo, milho, sorgo, arroz local, fónio) em farinha, sêmola e granulados embalados em caixas ou sacos, vendidos no mercado. Cada membro possui a sua própria unidade de transformação e trabalha por conta própria. Os nossos principais parceiros são os produtores de cereais com quem a ATCL assina contratos de compra de produção e os distribuidores, entre os quais europeus que fazem negócio em áfrica. Os contratos com os produtores são estabelecidos no quadro do programa \"Iniciativa Milho--Miúdo e Sorgo\" financiado pelo FIDA, sendo atribuídos bónus pela qualidade dos cereais e regularidade das entregas na sede da ATCL em Dakar. Também temos parcerias com ONG e organismos de ajuda ao desenvolvimento, como a USAID.Ao colocar à disposição dos consumidores senegaleses farinhas de cereais locais em quantidade e qualidade suficientes para fabricar pratos locais cada vez mais procurados -cuscuz, papas, pastéis -a ATCL contribuiu bastante para o aumento do consumo de cereais locais. Para além 10 UM CASO EXEMPLAR disso beneficiou da introdução de cereais locais no fabrico de pão, visando diminuir os custos com o trigo importado (450.000 t/ano). Também ganhámos concursos com padarias que procuram milho-miúdo e milho de qualidade. O pão \"doolée\" (\"a força\" em wolof) contribuiu para colocar o milho-miúdo e o milho nos 2.º e 3.º lugares dos cereais mais consumidos no Senegal (estudo da USAID/PCE em 2011). Com a abordagem cadeia de valor, apostamos nas sinergias entre os nossos membros para levá-los a desenvolver a qualidade e a competitividade das suas empresas. Os resultados estão à vista: em Fevereiro de 2012 a Associação vendeu a um distribuidor italiano, para exportação, um contentor de 30 toneladas de cereais locais transformados, por 10 milhões de FCFA (mais de 15.000 €). Em 2011 foi organizada uma operação semelhante com um comerciante senegalês estabelecido em França, no valor de 17,5 milhões de FCFA (cerca de 26.000 €). Os membros da ATCL trabalharam em conjunto, a uma só voz. Esta solidariedade permitiu-nos alcançar bons resultados, embora reconheçamos que tivemos dificuldades. Com efeito, apesar da nossa determinação em permanecer na cadeia de valor, pode acontecer que seja necessário cancelar uma operação caso se detecte que o milho-miúdo não é de qualidade ou se os produtores não cumprirem o contrato. Conhecer os gostos do cliente, adicionar valor… É o que os produtores devem fazer para convencer os consumidores a aceitarem os seus produtos. Podem, por vezes, até dar um pequeno passo em frente para se aproximarem deles, mas devem evitar sempre, submeterem-se a todos os seus caprichos.T êm um ar suculento estes abacates, grandes, brilhantes, bem maduros… No entanto, nenhum consumidor europeu os compraria. Isso é surpreendente para um produtor de um país africano, habituado a levar os seus frutos para o mercado mais próximo, onde são muito apreciados. O facto é que ele não conhece as necessidades e os gostos dos consumidores europeus, que preferem abacates pequenos, para serem comidos por uma só pessoa, com poucas gorduras e que possam conservar-se durante alguns dias. Uma série de critérios indispensáveis a levar em conta para aceder aos mercados de exportação. Um exemplo, entre tantos outros, que mostra que os agricultores não podem contentar-se apenas em oferecerem o que cultivam, mas devem adaptar-se aos desejos de quem, no fim da cadeia, irá consumir os seus produtos, frescos ou transformados, tanto no seu próprio país, como no estrangeiro.Para desenvolver uma cadeia de valor é importante conhecer bem os mercados a fim de oferecer um produto adaptado e que seja suficientemente valorizado. Por exemplo, é necessário saber que, para um pequeno produtor poder entrar nos mercados de exportação, é melhor visar um nicho de mercado específico, onde os produtos serão notados e vendidos normalmente a um preço mais elevado: comércio justo, frutos e legumes biológicos, produtos de origem… Os compradores europeus são também muito exigentes no que respeita a normas -tamanho, qualidade, paladar, tratamentos, rastreabilidade, regularidade do aprovisionamento. Sem contar que, para atrair o consumidor que faz as suas compras numa loja ou num supermercado, o que interessa mais é a apresentação. Um produto bem rotulado e com uma embalagem bonita vender-se-á sempre melhor. Os produtores de mangas da Tanzânia, que se esforçaram muito para melhorar a qualidade dos seus frutos, estão frustrados por não poderem valorizá-los melhor, porque as embalagens não são atractivas. Por esta razão pediram recentemente ao seu Governo para instalar uma fábrica de acondicionamento.Granada é um pequeno produtor de cacau e não pode concorrer com os gigantes deste mercado. Mas um empresário soube combinar a origem e a qualidade do produto oferecido com uma embalagem atractiva para vender por bom preço os seus chocolates a lojas de renome na Europa.A mesma lógica pode ser aplicada aos mercados locais, nacionais ou regionais, em particular aos mercados urbanos onde surgem os supermercados e onde os consumidores têm menos tempo para cozinhar. No Ruanda, os produtores de batatas de Koabiki tiveram a ideia de vender os seus tubérculos, cuidadosamente seleccionados, lavados e embalados, em bonitos cestos cobertos com folhas de bananeira, nos supermercados e restaurantes de Kigali. O sucesso foi grande e, em 2010, já vendiam as suas batatas um terço mais caras do que os outros produtores.Os agricultores isolados, ou mesmo agrupados, têm dificuldade em conhecerem estas exigências e em inovarem. São os actores no final da cadeia, as grandes ou pequenas empresas de distribuição que, muitas vezes, fazem uma análise do mercado e o explicam aos produtores e aos transformadores. É assim que no Uganda a Coca-Cola, com a ajuda da Fundação Melinda e Bill Gates, forma e organiza 50.000 produtores de mangas e de maracujás, que venderão os seus frutos a esta empresa. A informação é o factor-chave para aproximar os actores da cadeia, de modo a que as expectativas de uns quanto à produção dos outros sejam satisfeitas. Assiste-se a um progresso dos Sistemas de Informação sobre os Mercados (SIM), que fornecem dados sobre os preços e as necessidades de certas regiões ou cidades. Mas outras informações, mais qualitativas, sobre as oportunidades regionais são pouco acessíveis, a menos que se efectue um dispendioso estudo de mercado. No Quénia, o SMS Sokini fornece informações, que são pagas por SMS, sobre os preços dos produtos agrícolas aos agricultores, aos compradores e aos exportadores, graças a uma parceria entre a bolsa queniana de produtos agrícolas (Kenyan Agricultural Commodities Exchange -KACE) e a operadora móvel Safaricom. Mas é uma iniciativa ainda isolada à qual, infelizmente, nem todos têm acesso.Várias soluções são oferecidas aos produtores, para que tirem proveito das cadeias de valor. Podem tentar valorizar a sua produção, reduzindo o númeroEm Trindade e Tobago, uma associação de criadores de ovinos está a romper o ciclo de mercados inseguros e preços erráticos, ajudando os criadores a comercializar melhores cortes de carne.A Trinidad and Tobago Goat and Sheep Society (TTGSS) tem boas razões para se orgulhar. Após algumas tentativas falhadas, esta associação de produtores de animais conseguiu estabelecer uma cadeia de valor altamente eficiente, ligando os criadores de ovinos a fornecedores de produtos e serviços, e a um lucrativo mercado de carne. A via para o sucesso nem sempre foi fácil. A primeira tentativa da associação para estabelecer uma cadeia de valor envolveu produtores de lacticínios. Foi em 2009 e a ideia era pasteurizar, engarrafar e comercializar o leite sob uma marca. \"Mas cada produtor produzia apenas uma pequena quantidade e, portanto, embora o projecto tenha sido bem recebido, o trabalho de recolha do leite exigia demasiado investimento\", lembra John Boreley, presidente da TTGSS.O apoio passou a incidir nos produtores de carneiros e borregos. Um membro da associação, mestre cortador, teve a ideia de transformar as carcaças de carneiro em cortes de carne de qualidade superior. \"O problema passou a ser termos demasiado sucesso\", conta Boreley. \"Não conseguíamos satisfazer todos os compradores que surgiam.\" O problema resolveu-se quando o supermercado Super Quality, de Endeavour, concordou em adquirir toda a carne, contratando o mestre para a transformar. O elo necessário seguinte era um matadouro. O único matadouro moderno regularmente inspeccionado pelas autoridades sanitárias públicas pertencia ao Sugar Feeds Centre. E também aqui surgiram dificuldades. Os criadores que levavam os seus animais para abate tinham de pagar antecipadamente uma taxa e eram responsáveis pelo transporte do produto para o mercado. O pagamento tinha lugar apenas algum tempo depois, o que causava problemas de liquidez a muitos. A resposta da TTGSS consistiu no estabelecimento de um fundo de maneio, facilitado pela Trinidad and Tobago Agribusiness Association, para assegurar o pagamento atempado aos criadores.O apoio à satisfação dos padrões de qualidade revelou-se essencial. Os representantes da TTGSS visitam os produtores para inspeccionar os rebanhos e aconselhar na sua alimentação. Intervindo nas duas pontas da cadeia, a associação doou carcaças aos hotéis mais importantes na tentativa de recolher a impressão dos clientes. \"A resposta, de que a carne tendia a ser demasiado magra, foi levada aos produtores e serviu de base ao melhoramento dos programas de alimentação, de forma a podermos igualar a qualidade das carnes importadas\", explica Borely. A TTGSS ajudou a assegurar que os produtores obtivessem melhores preços durante todo o ano. Actualmente, a associação planeia restabelecer a cadeia de valor do leite de cabra, assim como criar uma outra para a certificação de gado.Andy Taittde intermediários e gerindo eles próprios outros elos como a transformação e a embalagem, visando a venda: farinha de mandioca em vez dos tubérculos secos, fónio lavado e pré-cozido… É o que se chama integração vertical. Se bem que esta abordagem pareça à primeira vista atraente, para colocar no mercado produtos agro-alimentares é necessário possuir tecnologias adaptadas, meios financeiros e uma organização esmerada…Quanto mais longa for a cadeia, tanto maiores são os riscos para aqueles que se lançam em ofícios que não são os seus. Mas se as cadeias são pequenas, se é suficiente moer o milho e pô-lo num saco, esta solução é eficaz, permitindo, além disso, manter--se em contacto com os consumidores do produto e adaptá-lo melhor aos seus desejos. Geralmente são as cooperativas, profissões integradas ou agrupamentos de produtores, que organizam e gerem estas cadeias. Recolhem os produtos, acondicionam-nos ou efectuam uma primeira transformação antes de os escoar.Na República Dominicana, o filho de um grande agricultor, regressado dos Estados Unidos, teve a boa ideia de lançar-se, sozinho, no abastecimento de bananas maduras no ponto certo, para os restaurantes, supermercados e numerosos navios de cruzeiro que fazem escala no país... Os agricultores podem também permanecer no seu papel de produtores e participarem numa cadeia constituída por diferentes actores -produtores, transformadores, comerciantes, distribuidores -da qual são o primeiro elo, mas que é normalmente organizada pelo último elo, o que vende o produto final. Para se obter lucro, é necessário que os produtores ou as suas associações disponham de boas aptidões de gestão: saber calcular o preço de custo dos seus produtos, assegurar-se da sua qualidade e da regularidade dos aprovisionamentos -dois aspectos primordiais -e da sua rastreabilidade, conhecimento dos mercados e dos preços praticados. Só desta forma podem negociar favoravelmente os preços de venda com os compradores e garantir que os frutos do seu trabalho sejam bem valorizados. Senão arriscam-se a que lhes sejam impostos preços pouco rentáveis. Cabe-lhes também melhorar os seus processos de produção para reduzir os custos e melhorar a competitividade. É a estes aspectos que se dedicam numerosas ONG em África, tentando evitar que os agricultores fiquem à mercê das empresas internacionais.É cada vez mais frequente, sobretudo em relação aos produtos de exportação, que os agricultores ou as suas organizações trabalhem sob contrato com empresas que transformam ou comercializam os seus produtos. Estas asseguram-lhes a venda dos produtos, na condição de que estes respeitem um dado caderno de encargos, fornecendo-lhes os insumos ou facilitando--lhes o aprovisionamento dos meios de produção.Para um bom funcionamento das cadeias de valor, é indispensável a presença de outros actores não directamente envolvidos, tais como serviços financeiros, empresas transportadoras, de acondicionamento e de logística. O Mali multiplicou por doze as suas exportações de manga entre 2005 e 2010 ao pôr em funcionamento uma cadeia de transporte rodoviário e ferroviário, com sistemas de refrigeração até ao barco, para que a fruta chegue em quantidade e em bom estado à Europa, e mais barata do que por avião. A manga do Mali, muito saborosa, só chegava ao mercado europeu em poucas quantidades por falta de frete aéreo, enquanto o mercado estava em forte expansão.O acesso ao crédito continua a ser muito difícil para as pequenas organizações agrícolas, que têm necessidade de dinheiro para funcionarem e de empréstimos para investirem em materiais de produção ou de transformação, raramente concedidos pelos bancos. Na Etiópia, na região de Oromia, organizações de produtores, fornecedores de insumos, financiadores, transformadores e compradores, reagruparam-se em torno da cadeia de valor do leite de soja, uma cultura nova desenvolvida com a ajuda de duas ONG, uma belga e outra etíope, para alimentar Jimma e Adis Abeba. A iniciativa beneficia de um financiamento pioneiro proposto pela instituição de microfinanças local Harbu, que oferece uma variedade de serviços aos vários actores da cadeia.Quando estas necessidades se inserem numa cadeia de valor bem estruturada, alguns bancos, como o Banco Comercial de África/ Commercial Bank of Africa ou o Equity Bank no Quénia, estão dispostos a investir.O sucesso de uma cadeia de valor assenta, em grande parte, nos agricultores que fornecem os produtos de base. Mas estes dependem dos elos finais da cadeia para valorizar a sua produção. Trata-se de uma interdependência, que envolve um trabalho conjunto, que traz benefícios a todos.e o equilíbrio pode ser frágil.A adaptação dos métodos de produção, colheita e embalagem aos gostos dos consumidores é a chave para que o próspero sector hortícola do Quénia consiga preços mais elevados.Em que medida os agricultores de pequena escala do Quénia entendem a importância de acrescentar valor aos seus produtos?Os agricultores de pequena escala entendem o significado da adição de valor. Mas, muitas vezes a adição de valor é confundida com transformação. Em muitos sectores, como na produção de frescos, não é necessariamente verdade que se acrescente valor durante a transformação. Em alguns casos pode mesmo perder-se valor. Por exemplo, o feijão-verde consegue o melhor preço por quilo quando é fresco. O preço por quilo pode cair mais de 50% quando enlatado, porque os consumidores não consideram que o feijão enlatado seja fresco.De que outras maneiras podem os produtores de frescos de pequena escala acrescentar valor? Formamos os agricultores de pequena escala para atribuírem maior importância à qualidade, colherem na altura própria e assim obterem preços mais altos. Obviamente que é fundamental colher e entregar a produção na melhor altura. Todavia, a adição de valor também ocorre quando o agricultor faz aquilo a que chamamos mistura. Um agricultor pode misturar feijão-verde com cenouras-bebé e milho-bebé, e colocar tudo em pacotes de pronto a comer, aumentando assim o preço por quilo. Ensinamos os agricultores a manusear correctamente os produtos e a preservá-los para o transporte, de forma a poderem satisfazer a exigência comercial de entrega do produto num período máximo de 24 horas entre a colheita no Quénia e os supermercados da Europa.Como é que a FPEAK ajuda os agricultores a manter padrões elevados?O secretariado da FPEAK é responsável por coordenar as actividades agrícolas e a capacitação ao nível familiar, para que os agricultores possam produzir dentro dos padrões internacionais exigidos. Organizamo-los de maneira a eles poderem participar na cadeia de valor global. Fazemo-lo dando formação aos agricultores sobre os padrões de qualidade necessários, tanto os sistemas oficiais de controlo como os padrões governamentais, quer os produtos se destinem ao Quénia ou à União Europeia.A capacidade de satisfazer os padrões comerciais internacionais constitui o principal atractivo dos produtos frescos do Quénia. Os produtos frescos podem ser produzidos em qualquer parte do mundo, mesmo em muitos países africanos. Todavia, aqui existe a capacidade de os agricultores provarem ao mercado ou aos consumidores da Europa que obedecem escrupulosamente às normas e regulamentos exigidos -é por isso que a horticultura queniana triunfa. Outra coisa que a FPEAK fez foi aglomerar os agricultores em unidades que são economicamente viáveis. Não temos um único agricultor possuidor de dois hectares de terra situado a 200 km de distância do seguinte. Isso nunca funcionaria, porque a logística do transporte de produtos provenientes de apenas dois hectares não faz sentido economicamente. Ou seja, escolhemos aglomerar agricultores que operam como indivíduos mas no interior de um grupo. As actividades agrícolas são assim conduzidas uniformemente mesmo com explorações independentes.Nos últimos dois anos estabelecemos o Centro de Formação Prática (PTC) na cidade de Thika, a cerca de 50 km de Nairobi, com o objectivo de centralizar as actividades de capacitação para adição de valor, padronização e agro-negócio, especialmente para pequenos agricultores. Os agricultores são iniciados em tecnologias importantes para a agricultura, como sistemas de irrigação gota a gota, boas práticas de controlo de pragas, assim como técnicas de transformação para adição de valor.Trabalhamos com uma rede de exportadores, que estão muito familiarizados com os mercados internacionais da Europa, onde vendemos 82% da nossa produção. Os EUA e o Médio Oriente compram, cada um, 5% da nossa produção. Organizamos os agricultores de pequena escala para, em grupos, exportarem directamente para esses mercados.Será que os agricultores de pequena escala estão a receber apoio suficiente?  ENTREVISTA de venda, que é o puré do fruto do embondeiro. O puré é apresentado como o iogurte, num boião. Ao contrário do iogurte feito de leite de vaca, é consumido por todas as idades. O nosso grupo-alvo é composto, em primeiro lugar, pelos beninenses das zonas urbanas e pelos compatriotas residentes no estrangeiro que, quando viajam ao Benim, se reabastecem no Centro, que é muito frequentado.Somos nós que definimos as normas de qualidade que impomos aos nossos parceiros. Mas gostaríamos que o País contasse com um laboratório de referência que pudesse certificar os nossos produtos. A segunda dificuldade é o aprovisionamento das matérias-primas. Os nossos parceiros nem sempre dispõem dos recursos para se abastecerem e responderem eficazmente à procura. E o fraco nível do seu equipamento também não lhes permite responder com prontidão a pedidos urgentes. O Centro também carece de estruturas de fabrico de embalagens. Para suplantar estas dificuldades, estamos a criar, em conjunto com os nossos parceiros, a Caixa Mútua de Rotulagem para a marca Benim. Trata-se de criar, num banco local, um fundo de garantia que irá facilitar o acesso ao crédito a uma taxa de juro relativamente baixa. Estes créditos servirão para o equipamento e para a constituição de fundos de maneio para os membros, para que estes possam aumentar a sua capacidade de resposta aos nossos pedidos.Entrevista conduzida por: Joachim SaizonouNo altamente competitivo mercado agro-alimentar dos dias de hoje, existe uma crescente pressão para elevar a qualidade e baixar os custos. Esta situação pode abrir novas janelas de oportunidade, mas representa igualmente um desafio para produtores e transformadores nos países ACP.Q uando corre bem, o sistema da cadeia de valor pode ser vantajoso para todas as partes, proporcionando aos compradores um fornecimento fiável e aos agricultores um mercado seguro. Na perspectiva do agricultor, fazer parte de uma cadeia de valor pode representar mais dinheiro. Mesmo os preços sendo por vezes mais baixos do que os do mercado local, essa solução representa geralmente uma receita mais estável. A participação em cadeias de valor pode levar à aquisição de novas habilidades e melhores práticas. Mesmo a simples limpeza e classificação do produto pode fazer a diferença. Em vez de empilhar vegetais numa grade e transportá-los de camião para um comerciante ou mercado, os produtores podem ter lucro se realizarem uma transformação básica no local. Fornecer alfaces ou tomates já lavados e embalados a uma loja local ou supermercado pode permitir preços mais elevados. Descascar e cortar a fruta pode ser uma maneira eficaz de aproveitar o mercado crescente de produtos alimentares prontos a comer. No Quénia, os agricultores organizam-se em grupos de produtores que classificam e embalam fruta e vegetais em centros concebidos para tal. Na província de East New Britain, da Papuásia-Nova Guiné, os agricultores aprendem a tornar-se transformadores, adquirindo habilidades para satisfazer as exigências do mercado e os procedimentos de quarentena.As mulheres, com as suas aptidões organizativas e conhecimento intrínseco do mercado, estão particularmente bem colocadas para realizar serviços úteis nas cadeias de valor. Os novos sistemas de produção podem representar janelas de oportunidade para elas, embora a participação em cadeias de valor possa representar igualmente um trabalho suplementar. Algumas iniciativas estão a fazer da participação feminina uma propaganda comercial. Na América do Sul, a marca Café Femenino divulga café especial produzido por mulheres. A inclusão das mulheres no desenvolvimento e comercialização de produtos pode trazer dividendos. As rainhas comerciais doEstão a ser feitos esforços para restaurar o sector de noz-moscada em Granada, e para desenvolver uma cadeia de valor que o torne mais competitivo. A noz-moscada, que já foi uma cultura muito importante em Granada, sofreu um rude golpe devido aos furacões Ivan e Emily, que devastaram a ilha em 2004 e 2005.Segundo maior exportador mundial de noz-moscada em 2001, Granada caiu desde então para o nono lugar. Presentemente o sector está a ser reavaliado, com atenção especial à melhoria do financiamento da cadeia de valor. A estratégia é conduzida pelo International Trade Centre e envolve os principais actores da cadeia de valor, incluindo agricultores, agrotransformadores, a Associação de Cooperativas de Noz-Moscada de Granada, instituições financeiras e retalhistas. O objectivo consiste em inovar na comercialização e no desenvolvimento do produto, e melhorar o acesso ao financiamento. A pedra angular do plano é a adição de valor, nomeadamente na produção de óleos essenciais, noz-moscada em pó para utilização culinária, utilização da casca para produtos de beleza e para a pele, e desenvolvimento das propriedades medicinais da noz-moscada. Uma visita recente à Índia, onde a cadeia de valor da noz-moscada está bem desenvolvida, ajudou os actores de Granada a observar directamente o fabrico de óleos e resinas de noz-moscada, a conhecer o equipamento de transformação e a estudar as técnicas para testar e garantir a qualidade.© AMCAR Um produtor transporta palmito para a fábrica de transformação (Guiana).Gana, que controlam muitos mercados de frescos do país, estão em contacto com os agricultores e organizações comerciais para garantir que os produtos satisfaçam as exigências de preço, quantidade e qualidade.Cada vez mais os consumidores exigem saber como os alimentos são produzidos e por quem; este interesse representa novas oportunidades para a participação dos agricultores de pequena escala nas cadeias de valor, por meio de esquemas de certificação orgânica, de comércio justo e outras. Mas os produtores precisam de pesar a despesa adicional que cumprir com essas exigências acarreta, contra as recompensas que daí advêm. Alguns dos melhores esquemas envolvem o apoio de empresas. A empresa Blue Skies, no Gana, que transforma fruta tropical fresca para supermercados europeus, assumiu junto dos seus fornecedores a responsabilidade técnica e financeira das certificações orgânica, GLOBALGAP e de Comércio Justo.As cadeias de valor não estão ao alcance de todos, e os produtores mais pequenos são, com toda a probabilidade, excluídos em razão da localização física, difícil acesso a tecnologias de irrigação ou mecanização, eDois empreendimentos na Guiana rural estão a permitir que a população indígena adicione valor aos produtos locais. Mas, embora as empresas sejam lucrativas, enfrentam agora uma dura competição por parte de fornecedores mais baratos.Cerca de 600 habitantes rurais de concentrações remotas na Guiana, na sua maioria mulheres, estão a trabalhar para uma empresa privada guianesa, a Amazon Caribbean Ltd. (AMCAR), que colhe, transforma e exporta ananases orgânicos e palmito (Euterpe oleracea) enlatados. Estes produtos, cada vez mais populares entre os consumidores europeus, são enviados por barco para os supermercados gigantes Carrefour e Auchan, em França, e outros países da UE. Completamente auto-suficiente, o empreendimento introduziu nas comunidades a ideia de acrescentar valor aos produtos tradicionais. Os agricultores locais fornecem os produtos frescos e as mulheres são ensinadas a transformá-los e embalá-los para exportação. Outros transportam e rotulam os produtos, integrando uma cadeia de actores comunitários por toda a Guiana.A cultivadora de ananás Yvonne Pearson está ligada ao projecto desde 2003. A sua aldeia, Mainstay, tem mais de 40 agricultores de ananás, e 30 pessoas da mesma localidade, sobretudo mulheres, levam a cabo a transformação e embalagem. Joel Fredericks gere a fábrica de transformação. \"Com este projecto de ananás vejo um futuro brilhante para as pessoas de Mainstay\", disse-nos. Enquanto fala, ouve-se na fábrica a azáfama das mulheres a lavar o produto fresco, a descascá-lo e cortá--lo em bocados, e a extrair o sumo das cascas para preservar a fruta enlatada. O projecto do palmito começou em 1987, com uma fábrica em Drum Hill, a montante do rio, na remota região noroeste da Guiana. \"Construímos ali a fábrica porque é ali que estão as florestas onde crescem as palmeiras manicole\", explica o director executivo da AMCAR, Jean-François Gerin. Criaram-se assim oportunidades para 300 indígenas colectores, que fornecem diariamente a fábrica, e para 30 trabalhadores de transformação, sobretudo mulheres, que descascam, lavam, cortam e preservam o produto antes de o colocar em latas e frascos de vidro. A cadeia de palmito abrange mais de 30 comunidades.Os dois projectos não estão livres de desafios. A logística e a competição comercial constituem dois deles. Dado que as fábricas estão localizadas em zonas remotas, o transporte do produto para a cidade, para rotulagem e exportação, é oneroso. Ao nível da exportação, ambos os produtos enfrentam uma dura competição por parte da Costa Rica e do Sri Lanka. No ano passado, o comprador exigiu que a empresa baixasse o preço do ananás ou perderia o mercado. \"Durante muito tempo não chegámos a acordo. Discutimos o assunto duramente, até que houve por fim um entendimento\", lembra Gerin. \"Somos grandes em certo sentido, mas pequenos em termos de operação comercial, e é difícil para nós competir com fornecedores mais baratos\".Ravena GildharieOpportunités et risques falta de organização. O acesso inadequado à terra, água e insumos de qualidade são outros tantos factores limitativos.Algumas empresas multinacionais, como a Unilever e a Walmart, estão a optar por uma política de inclusão de produtores de pequena escala enquanto fornecedores, afastando-se de uma Responsabilidade Social Corporativa directa em favor de uma perspectiva baseada em parcerias sustentáveis que assegurem fornecimentos fiáveis às empresas e receitas mais estáveis para os produtores. Na província do Limpopo, na África do Sul, dois supermercados rurais fazem questão de ser abastecidos com vegetais de produtores locais. As lojas, abertas sob licença do grupo SPAR, também beneficiam uma vez que estão geograficamente distantes dos mercados grossistas.A agricultura contratual é um dos modelos mais frequentes de integração dos pequenos agricultores nas cadeias de valor. Embora o sistema tenha os seus críticos, esta estratégia pode ser eficaz, oferecendo apoio aos agricultores sob a forma de insumos, padronização e, mesmo, gestão de risco. Em grande medida, o seu sucesso baseia-se no desenvolvimento, pelas empresas, de contratos após consultas com os agricultores e discussão das dificuldades enfrentadas pelos fornecedores. Os contratos devem estipularO desenvolvimento de um altamente bem-sucedido esquema de produção de flores não é desprovido de riscos. Mas uma empresa das Fiji está determinada a impedir que o catastrófico clima seja um obstáculo aos seus planos de expansão.O maior risco enfrentado pela empresa de flores de corte South Seas Orchards (SSO) é um risco que ninguém pode controlar. Este ano a empresa das Fiji foi atingida de forma particularmente dura, com grandes cheias a destruir parte das suas reservas e material de plantio. Resistindo aos colossais estragos, a proprietária Aileen Burness procura reagir, determinada a salvar o muito bem-sucedido programa de floricultura por ela lançado em 1996. Para além dos seus próprios rendimentos, ela sente-se devedora às muitas pequenas floricultoras e negócios de floricultura que fazem parte da cadeia de valor por ela edificada. O sistema criou a oportunidade de as mulheres rurais e periurbanas se envolverem no esquema de desenvolvimento da SSO, que lhes fornece material de qualidade para plantar e aconselhamento de extensão, além de lhes assegurar um mercado. A cadeia inclui actualmente um total de 40 mulheres por todas as Fiji.A SSO tem conseguido garantir empréstimos para que as fornecedoras rurais possam financiar os seus próprios viveiros. O sucesso deste programa de cultivo tem sido tal que a SSO fornece actualmente orquídeas e antúrios a todas as floristas de Viti Levu, a principal ilha das Fiji.A cadeia é altamente organizada. A SSO fornece às agricultoras material de plantio de alta qualidade e outros apoios. O aconselhamento de extensão faz parte do pacote da SSO, e em 2004 o CTA financiou um manual de formação para as produtoras, tendo desde então ajudado a organizar diversas sessões práticas de formação. As floricultoras associadas à SSO trazem as suas flores para as instalações da empresa em dias marcados e, no final do mês, recebem os pagamentos relativos ao mês anterior, a preços pré-determinados. \"A classificação e embalagem das flores são feitas por nós, sendo depois efectuado o fornecimento às floristas,\" diz Burness. com clareza as responsabilidades e prazos de preparação da terra, práticas agrícolas, fornecimento e qualidade dos insumos, crédito e serviços de extensão, assim como as questões-chave da qualidade dos produtos, preços e modalidades de pagamento. A Lecofruit, em Madagáscar, é rigorosa nas exigências aos fornecedores, mas também oferece uma gama de benefícios, todos eles claramente estipulados em microcontratos assinados com os seus 9000 produtores de pequena escala.Para que a agricultura contratual seja sustentável e possa crescer, é fundamental que todos os elementos da cadeia possam lucrar, embora os pequenos produtores sejam provavelmente os que têm menos poder de negociação no interior da cadeia. Se os agricultores suspeitarem que não estão a conseguir um preço justo, a cadeia corre o risco de se romper. Os agricultores que não acompanhem o percurso do seu produto até ao comprador precisam de ser adequadamente informados das quantidades que forneceram e das razões de quaisquer deduções. O pagamento atempado é também outra questão importante.A participação em cadeias de valor formais pode fazer aumentar o risco e a vulnerabilidade. Padrões mais elevados de produção significam frequentemente mais desperdício, e os produtos de nicho de valor acrescentado tendem a representar um risco maior uma vez que as exigências do consumidor podem mudar rapidamente, deixando os produtores sem saída. Uma vez que cada elo da cadeia é interdependente, as repercussões a jusante podem desencadear um efeito de dominó. Assim, cada elo precisa de estar precavido se as coisas correrem mal. O recurso ao seguro é uma possibilidade, para protecção contra o risco de perda da cultura devido a condições climatéricas, ou contra a perda de gado devido à seca ou doenças, embora nem sempre tal seja possível no caso dos pequenos agricultores. É importante que os riscos, assim como os benefícios, sejam partilhados por todos ao longo da cadeia, e alguns dos melhores sistemas conseguem estabelecer um seguro para todos os agentes. Têm também sido desenvolvidas outras estratégias, incluindo fundos de gestão de risco concebidos especificamente para cadeias de valor e alargados a todos os elos da cadeia.Não são só os agricultores que enfrentam dificuldades. Operar uma transformação com sucesso requer um fornecimento constante de matéria-prima, e o tempo de transformação precisa de ser maximizado para se poder retirar o máximo efeito do oneroso equipamento. Os agricultores podem ser tentados a vender o seu produto a mercados que ofereçam melhores preços, causando problemas de fornecimento. Uma fábrica de transformação de tomate da Costa do Marfim resolveu o problema dos fornecimentos irregulares prestando formação, apoio técnico, sementes híbridas e crédito a 12 agricultores. As colheitas quase duplicaram, ficando os agricultores livres para vender o excedente onde quisessem.A confiança é essencial de parte a parte. A Guinness, na Nigéria, lançou um esquema de cultivo de 4 anos, mas este falhou, em parte porque os agricultores desviaram o fertilizante fornecido para o sorgo, para o aplicarem em outras culturas. Pelo contrário, na Guiné, a Macenta Banana Producers Union estabeleceu uma parceria com a associação de comerciantes de banana para promover a confiança e a transparência. Ambas as partes encontraram-se para acordar os preços, e realizam uma reunião semanal para discutir as quantidades. Uma vez pago o adiantamento, e as bananas prontas, os produtores pesam-nas em frente aos comerciantes e recebem o que falta dos compradores. Preços baixos, má qualidade e técnicas locais de transformação rudimentares são alguns dos problemas dos agricultores de café na PNG. A organização em cadeias de valor tem ajudado os produtores a aceder a mercados mais lucrativos.Como é que a cadeia de valor de café na PNG está a gerar benefícios?Em primeiro lugar, se os pequenos produtores estiverem suficientemente perto de uma fábrica de separação da polpa, em vez de produzir o café pergaminho (nota do editor: café processado por separação da polpa, ainda com a \"camisa\" seca envolvendo o grão), podem vender a cereja (nota do editor: o fruto cru da árvore do café) directamente a essa fábrica. Se apenas as cerejas vermelhas maduras forem colhidas, as fábricas transformam-nas para produzir café de plantação de elevada qualidade, pelo qual são pagos os melhores preços. Para os pequenos produtores, a venda da cereja resulta num aumento de 35-38% do lucro líquido em relação ao preço do café pergaminho. Ensinando os pequenos produtores a colher e transformar correctamente o café, é possível reduzir imenso a variação da qualidade. O terceiro e último mecanismo para obter o melhor preço consiste em levar a cabo a acreditação do produto, como orgânico ou Comércio Justo.Sim. Os consumidores beneficiam de uma experiência superior -melhor sabor nas suas chávenas. Os comerciantes beneficiam porque conseguem vender café de qualidade superior a preços mais elevados, obtendo assim uma margem maior. Os agricultores beneficiam de preços mais elevados, o que lhes permite não só melhorar o seu padrão de vida mas, também, assegurar que mais crianças frequentem a escola. Além disso, a ligação directa a comerciantes e transformadores significa um melhor acesso a insumos, tecnologia e informação comercial. Ao nível da comunidade, o trabalho em conjunto, como grupo comercial cooperativo, tem facilitado enormemente o acesso a apoios do Governo e a infra-estruturas essenciais como água corrente e electricidade.Para que a cadeia de valor tenha sucesso, todos os elos da cadeia devem beneficiar. Mais importante ainda, todos devem sentir que são tratados com justiça e equidade. Tal implica que os comerciantes revelem informações sobre os preços, e que sejam transparentes em termos dos seus custos.Ultrapassar décadas de desconfiança entre os pequenos agricultores e os intermediários comerciais. Uma vez que não entendem a dinâmica do mercado internacional do café, os pequenos agricultores têm dificuldade em perceber por que razão os preços são tão voláteis. As diferenças culturais também têm sido um factor, dado que na sua maioria os comerciantes são forasteiros.A educação e formação -a capacitaçãotêm tido grande impacto no ultrapassar da maioria dos obstáculos. Os comerciantes têm procurado convidar grupos de produtores a visitar a fábrica para verem com os seus próprios olhos o processo de preparação do café para exportação. Talvez o factor mais influente tenha sido o curso de iniciação à comercialização, que explica aos pequenos agricultores o mercado internacional do café e a dinâmica da Bolsa de Café de Nova Iorque, assim como os mercados internacionais de câmbios. Dado que poucos agricultores bebem café, não entendem o impacto que a sua maneira de manusear o café tem sobre o sabor. Os comerciantes organizaram sessões de prova, para demonstrar como as deficiências de manuseamento mais prevalentes têm impacto no sabor, no aroma e na textura.A comunicação e a confiança são fundamentais na edificação de relações duradouras. Quando são trocadas informações entre os parceiros da cadeia, os agricultores percebem o trabalho realizado por transformadores, comerciantes e exportadores. Só quando a confiança está instalada é que os agricultores se mostram inclinados a alterar as suas práticas de produção, e só quando há confiança é que os comerciantes e exportadores se mostram inclinados a investir na transferência de tecnologia e na facilitação da adopção de sistemas de garantia de qualidade.Tradicionalmente, a penetração financeira na indústria de café tem sido caracterizada por muitas dificuldades. Dado que os preços do café são tão voláteis, os bancos não têm garantias de reaver o seu dinheiro, e os pequenos agricultores, desprovidos de bens de garantia, não conseguem empréstimos. Na PNG, a situação é ainda dificultada por conflitos tribais e disputas de terras. No mercado informal, a maioria dos comerciantes e exportadores mostram-se relutantes em estender o crédito aos agricultores. O bónus pretende ser um incentivo para dissuadir os agricultores de venderem o seu café a outros compradores. Kizito controla cuidadosamente toda a cadeia de valor, pagando aos agentes de recolha uma comissão e exigindo deles um registo meticuloso de todas as operações.\"Insisto numa boa documentação para garantir que os agentes de recolha paguem aos agricultores,\" conta.O agricultor Daniel Wogogo viu o preço do seu café em grão mais do que duplicar desde que aderiu à cadeia de valor. \"Dantes vendia os meus grãos de café a quem aparecesse e o preço era muito baixo,\" disse. \"Agora, aumentei para 25.000 o número dos meus pés de café, numa extensão de 35 acres (14 ha) de terra.\" A Anderson Investments fornece aos pequenos produtores serviços gratuitos de aconselhamento sobre técnicas de gestão das culturas, para os ajudar a aumentar o rendimento. Os agricultores também recebem apoio no manuseamento pós--colheita para garantir que os padrões de qualidade são respeitados. Está disponível crédito isento de juros para ajudar os produtores a pagar insumos essenciais, tais como fertilizantes e pulverizadores. Um sistema flexível de pagamento da dívida deduz os empréstimos dos ganhos dos produtores, numa taxa que eles possam suportar. Os agricultores recebem também gratuitamente os encerados para secagem dos grãos de café. Uma vez que o café é uma cultura sazonal, a empresa apoia os seus pequenos fornecedores a diversificar e estabelecer-se noutras actividades geradoras de receita. A maioria dos produtores dedica-se agora à criação de abelhas e aos lacticínios para obter receitas suplementares, o que ajuda a impedir que se sintam tentados a vender o seu café a outros compradores.UGANdAApoiados por uma empresa privada local, os agricultores ugandeses estão a melhorar a qualidade do seu café, o que lhes permite colher os benefícios de integrar uma eficiente cadeia de valor ligada a mercados de exportação.É crucial entender as oportunidades e os riscos inerentes à participação numa cadeia de valor. Há diversos mercados possíveis, mas é importante escolher o mais adequado.Como podem as cadeias de valor ajudar os produtores e transformadores de pequena escala?As cadeias de valor ajudam os produtores de pequena escala a aceder a bons mercados. As cadeias de valor comerciais de índole formal são muitas vezes tecnicamente mais difíceis do que os mercados informais. Mas, quando os produtores triunfam, ficam com a possibilidade de acelerar a sua profissionalização e competitividade.É claro que todos queremos evitar os riscos de ligar os produtores mais fracos aos mercados mais exigentes. O nosso trabalho centra-se no apoio às empresas para que possam chegar aos agricultores de pequena escala, desenvolver estruturas de investimento e comerciais apropriadas, e colaborar com os agricultores para que possam melhorar e ter acesso a mercados mais exigentes mas também mais lucrativos. Isto não quer dizer que os mercados formais sejam adequados a todos os agricultores.Será que alguns mercados são melhores do que outros para as cadeias de valor?Os mercados são diferentes -alguns oferecem barreiras maiores à penetração. Os de vegetais e fruta fresca estão entre os tecnicamente mais exigentes, mas podem gerar rendimentos elevados para pequenas parcelas de terra. Em contrapartida, os de bens essenciais são frequentemente os mercados tecnicamente mais acessíveis, com elevada procura local, mas nos quais é difícil realizar valor suficiente com pequenas parcelas de terra. Ultimamente têm surgido mais oportunidades para estabelecer relações de cadeia de valor com tendência crescente para mercados mais formais e regionais -produção de cerveja, aves, etc.Que tipo de pessoa é o beneficiário mais provável de uma cadeia de valor?Os transformadores e produtores com mais probabilidade de triunfar são aqueles que têm um espírito empreendedor, vontade de comunicar, e a capacidade agrícola, financeira e de Don Seville é co--director do Laboratório de Alimentação Sustentável. Trabalha no desenvolvimento de parcerias entre as empresas e as ONG para orientar modelos comerciais que liguem produtores de pequena escala aos mercados modernos.UM CASO EXEMPLAR conhecimento para investir no acesso a esses novos mercados.E quais os que têm maior probabilidade de ficar de fora?Os que têm menos terras, que estão em zonas mais remotas, com menos capacidades, que sofrem a barreira da língua, sem acesso à irrigação nem a organizações agrícolas eficazes. Muitas vezes é necessário investimento para reforçar a capacidade dos produtores, remover obstáculos em termos de infra-estruturas, e edificar organizações intermediárias que possam ligar os pequenos produtores aos mercados.Quais os riscos mais prováveis da participação em cadeias de valor e qual a melhor estratégia para os gerir?Os riscos incluem entrar num mercado com poucos compradores, dificuldades técnicas relacionadas com algumas culturas -levando a taxas de desperdício mais elevadas -mudanças no mercado que provoquem a retirada de compradores, pressão sobre os preços reduzindo as margens de lucro, desconhecimento pelos agricultores da produtividade necessária para se poder ter lucro, e variabilidade climática. A gestão do risco inclui contratos formais que garantam um entendimento claro dos termos de troca, contratos e preços mais duradouros, fundos de seguro, irrigação para reduzir os riscos climáticos, investimentos de adaptação ao clima e diversificação de mercados.Vários elementos contribuem para o desenvolvimento e viabilidade das cadeias de valor. Um ambiente favorável combina políticas com uma formação adaptada para todos os actores, investigação específica e comunidades económicas regionais activas.N enhum consumidor dos países ACP virá comprar os seus produtos agrícolas no local de produção. Esta evidência demonstra até que ponto a intervenção do Estado é crucial para o desenvolvimento das cadeias de valor. Estradas, electricidade, etc., as infra-estruturas, da competência do Estado, são indispensáveis. Mas não só. Outra condição sine qua non para o desenvolvimento das cadeias de valor é a existência de políticas adequadas. Políticas agrícolas, fundiárias, comerciais, industriais, fiscais, monetárias, todos os elos são afectados pelas escolhas e pela acção do Estado, qualquer que seja a fileira. Quanto mais o Estado dá garantias (regime fundiário, acesso aos financiamentos, etc.), quanto mais assegura a transparência (dos preços no mercado), implementa políticas económicas e comerciais favoráveis (regime estável e equilibrado das taxas de câmbio, da moeda e das políticas fiscais, regulamentação bancária favorável sobre a fiscalidade comercial e empresarial, legislação sobre o emprego, execução de contratos, etc.), tanto mais favorece o desenvolvimento das cadeias de valor.As escolhas e as opções dos Governos determinam, muitas vezes, a sua competitividade. Um estudo recente sobre cereais, realizado no Zimbabué, recomenda que o Governo encontre um equilíbrio justo entre a protecção da indústria local e a promoção do comércio regional, em nome da soberania Com o colapso da indústria regional da banana, muitos agricultores de São Vicente viraram-se para o taro, o que provocou uma descida dos preços. Em busca de soluções para os seus problemas, os agricultores de três das principais áreas de produção de inhame juntaram-se para desenvolver uma cadeia de valor, com apoio da Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN), que acolhe a ECTAD. A CaFAN dá formação no âmbito da estratégia das cadeias de valor. Os agricultores aprenderam a aumentar o compasso entre as plantas para poderem obter maiores rendimentos. Também aprenderam a melhorar a embalagem. A CaFAN estabeleceu um acordo com a Solcaribbean, um fornecedor do mercado britânico, e os produtores locais, organizados em grupos, são há 4 anos parte integrante da cadeia de valor. O grupo de agricultores realiza a embalagem e a entrega, e a ECTAD coordena o envio por barco. Os produtores garantem bons preços por meio da manutenção da qualidade. Este inhame, que antes era vendido por apenas 0,18 € por kg, pode agora valer até 1 € por kg. O sucesso atraiu outros agricultores para o grupo, que é já constituído por 400 produtores. Existem planos para alargar esta estratégia à batata-doce e ao gengibre.alimentar. Os produtores e moleiros zimbabueanos concorrem com a África do Sul onde o acesso aos OGM é livre. Uma forma de concorrência desleal para eles, para quem o acesso aos OGM está severamente regulamentado. Os moleiros sul-africanos têm assim acesso a cereais 47% menos caros do que os zimbabueanos.Em alguns países, os Governos até tomaram a iniciativa de relançar um certo número de cadeias de valor. É o caso dos Camarões, onde o Governo se associou com os produtores, com a ajuda do Centro Internacional de Comércio (ITC) para relançar o sector do café -outrora um dos sectores de exportação mais dinâmicos do país -enfrentando agora sérias dificuldades devido a uma liberalização não regulada. O objectivo: criar uma fileira profissionalizada e sustentável, economicamente rentável para todos os actores, e reposicionar os Camarões num mercado mundial em expansão.A colaboração entre o Estado e o sector privado também pode ser muito benéfica para as cadeias de valor.No Uganda e na Tanzânia, por exemplo, os sectores público, privado e industrial trabalharam concertadamente para permitir o desenvolvimento da criação da perca do Nilo, uma actividade ameaçada pelas crescentes exigências em matéria de normas sanitárias da União Europeia, o grande importador. As autoridades dos dois países estabeleceram normas e critérios de qualidade, implementaram sistemas de controlo, legislaram com a colaboração de vários ministérios: Agricultura, Pescas, Indústria, Comércio, mas também Meio Ambiente. Actualmente, a cadeia de valor fornece um meio de subsistência para numerosas comunidades de pescadores. Na República Democrática do Congo (RDC), várias lojas de alimentos e supermercados de Kinshasa e da província do Baixo Congo (no Sudoeste) vendem produtos agro-alimentares com o rótulo \"Centro de Informação e Extensão Agro-Alimentar de Kimpese (CIVAK)\". Chickwangue (pão de mandioca), compotas, malaguetas em boiões, etc. Estes produtos, bem acondicionados, são obra dos estudantes do Instituto Superior de Técnicas Aplicadas em Química Alimentar (ISTACHA), a primeira instituição universitária agro-alimentar da RDC, criada em 2005. Este país, que se debate com uma enorme carência de indústria alimentar, importa, a preço de ouro, uma grande parte dos produtos de consumo corrente. Não obstante, não há falta de matérias-primas. Grandes quantidades de fruta e legumes apodrecem, por falta de conservação. Estes produtos são transformados pelos estudantes do ISTACHA em modernas instalações. \"A construção dum futuro alimentar colectivo na RDC é possível se cada um de nós criar o seu próprio emprego\", declara o padre Charles Kusita, fundador e Director-Geral da escola. Neste instituto, o programa dedica mais tempo à prática do que à teoria. Ao fim de três meses de ensino, os estudantes só recebem os seus diplomas depois de terem montado uma oficina de transformação agro-alimentar, que funcione adequadamente. Os estudantes podem escolher entre a transformação de farinhas e sucedâneos, frutos, leite, legumes, produtos de carne, aves ou peixe. A formação inclui uma componente de gestão, destinada a ensinar aos estudantes a voarem com as suas próprias asas. A presença do ISTACHA em Kimpese, cidade hortícola, é uma dádiva para os agricultores. \"Sei que com esta instituição tenho a garantia de escoar a minha malagueta\", diz Alain Lukebana, entusiasmado. Tal como ele, são muitos os agricultores que encontraram um canal para vender a sua produção. Os consumidores dos produtos do ISTACHA são geralmente citadinos. \"Algumas pessoas apenas confiam nestes produtos, sobretudo a chickwangue, porque são naturais e são bem embalados\", explica um vendedor de alimentos de \"Didier Chic\" em Matadi (a 365 km de Kinshasa). Héritier Lusadisu é um destes compradores \"Tenho mais confiança nestes produtos e compro-os para incentivar os produtores\", declara. Não satisfeito em desenvolver os laços entre os produtores e os consumidores, Charles Kusita também estimula a cooperação a plano nacional. No início de Abril, recebeu a visita do Ministro da Indústria que ficou impressionado com os seus produtos agro-alimentares. Segundo o Director do ISTACHA, os produtos agro-alimentares podem alimentar a província e Kinshasa com os seus 15 milhões de habitantes. \"É tudo uma questão de formação, de redes… e de políticas\", conclui.Alphonse Nekwa Makwalaseu \"pilar II\": quadro de melhoria das infra-estruturas rurais e da capacidade comercial de acesso aos mercados, que inclui um \"domínio estratégico\" de desenvolvimento da cadeia de valor e do acesso aos serviços financeiros.A Comissão Económica para a África (CEA) promoveu uma iniciativa destinada à criação e à promoção de cadeias de valor regionais para os produtos alimentares agrícolas estratégicos em África Nas Caraíbas, onde as importações constituem a base da segurança alimentar, o fortalecimento regional da agricultura é uma preocupação constante dos Estados, através do Programa de Transformação Agrícola Regional da CARICOM (Caricom Regional Transformation Programme for Agriculture). A batata-doce, a malagueta e o coco são as cadeias de valor que beneficiam de uma atenção particular à escala regional. \"Trata-se de atenuar a fragmentação do mercado agrícola regional africano\" jOSUÉ dIONÉQual o papel dos Governos e das políticas no desenvolvimento das cadeias de valor?Os Estados têm de definir e dirigir a visão. Num ambiente económico cada vez mais globalizado e competitivo, determinado pelos mercados, há a necessidade de adoptar uma estratégia abrangente de desenvolvimento e transformação da agricultura, e de incidir em todo o sistema agrícola e alimentar em vez de numa agricultura estreitamente limitada ao cultivo. Temos de passar de estratégias e programas específicos para as diferentes fases da cadeia de valor (cultivo, agro-indústria, comercialização, etc.), em separado e fragmentariamente, para uma perspectiva integrada de desenvolvimento de todas as fases da totalidade das cadeias de valor. Os Estados têm a responsabilidade de criar um ambiente institucional e regulador favorável ao investimento, e fornecer os bens e serviços públicos necessários (particularmente I&D, infra-estruturas, facilitação comercial, etc.) para estimular o investimento do sector privado e assegurar a rentabilidade deste último. As políticas devem visar a eliminação de todas as barreiras ao investimento e ao comércio. As políticas devem igualmente criar incentivos ao investimento, com eficiência crescente em todas as fases da cadeia de valor. São particularmente importantes códigos de investimento, políticas fiscais, políticas fundiárias, etc., que promovam a segurança e a rentabilidade do investimento privado.Qual a importância da integração regional para o desenvolvimento das cadeias de valor?Um dos principais obstáculos ao desenvolvimento da indústria e do agro-negócio africanos é a grande fragmentação dos mercados. A integração regional deveria resolver o problema da fragmentação dos mercados (54 países e mais de uma dúzia de agrupamentos sub-regionais) tendo em vista a concretização do potencial do comércio alimentar intra-africano. Em primeiro lugar, a integração regional deveria permitir criar economias de complementaridade entre as diferentes sub-regiões, especialmente através da cooperação regional, para desenvolver cinturas estratégicas de bens alimentares e agrícolas (por ex. milho, arroz, lacticínios, gado/carne, etc.), baseadas em vantagens comparativas de natureza agro-ecológica. Em segundo lugar, a integração regional deveria ajudar a criar economias de maior escala em todas as fases das cadeias de valor, especialmente nas fases de agro--indústria e agro-negócio, que muitas vezes requerem uma escala mínima para ser viáveis e rentáveis. Em terceiro lugar, a integração regional deveria criar também economias de coordenação vertical, através da redução dos custos de transacção entre os actores-chave dos sectores produtivo e de serviços pertencentes à cadeia de valor. Em quarto lugar, a ligação dos campos agrícolas ao mercado, tanto ao nível nacional como regional, pode ser também uma fonte importante de criação de empregos e receitas.Que papel devem ter as autoridades públicas na promoção da inclusão e da participação dos pequenos produtores nas cadeias de valor agrícolas?É óbvio que nem todos os actores das cadeias de valor têm o mesmo poder operacional e de negociação. Ajudar ao envolvimento dos pequenos agricultores em cadeias de valor implica facilitar e apoiar as organizações de agricultores e cooperativas a reforçarem a sua capacidade de participação. Requer também a garantia de que os pequenos produtores tenham acesso seguro a bens produtivos (especialmente à terra) e a insumos fiáveis e baratos. Nos anos mais recentes, tem-se assistido em África a um crescente investimento estrangeiro directo na terra arável, o que, em si, é positivo desde que traga consigo um investimento significativo e efectivo na agricultura africana. Todavia, muitos casos de aquisição de terra em larga escala através de acordos de investimento estrangeiro directo têm resultado em situações em que as comunidades locais e os pequenos agricultores visados não são envolvidos ou consultados, e acabam destituídos de direitos e bens. É também importante promover e fazer vigorar regimes contratuais inovadores (tais como agricultura contratual, esquemas de produção integrada e trocas de mercadorias) para ajudar a integrar os pequenos agricultores no desenvolvimento de cadeias de valor, ligando-os a empresas de agro-negócios.Qual o papel da UNECA no desenvolvimento das cadeias de valor?Desde 2003, a UNECA apoia com sucesso a Comissão da União Africana na defesa e na ajuda à operacionalização para o desenvolvimento de cadeias de valor alimentares e agrícolas coordenadas regionalmente, no quadro do Programa Integrado para o Desenvolvimento da Agricultura em África (CAADP) da NEPAD. Actualmente, estamos a trabalhar no alargamento de parcerias multi-institucionais com a COMESA e a ECOWAS (incluindo a FAO, o CTA e com forte interesse da UNCTAD e da UNIDO), para operacionalizar esta mudança de paradigma através de uma abordagem integrada da agricultura ao mercado para desenvolver cadeias de valor de produtos do milho, arroz e gado. Com base na experiência obtida nestes esforços piloto, pensamos alargar este trabalho a outros produtos alimentares e agrícolas estratégicos e a outras sub-regiões de África.   Aliança entre público e privado Devido à sua localização, a milhares de quilómetros de distância dos mercados-alvo, a indústria de papaia das Fiji tem nos custos de transporte e logística um poderoso obstáculo. Todavia, uma parceria público-privada achou uma forma de reduzir os custos de expedição quase para metade -e de duplicar as exportações.Normalização, a chave de novos mercados A Agência foi criada em 1999, sob tutela do Ministério do Comércio, para implementar a política nacional de normalização, certificação e qualidade. Cabe-lhe garantir tanto a qualidade dos produtos como a aplicação voluntária das normas pelos vários actores. Em 2007, Madagáscar decidiu actualizar as suas normas, com o apoio da UE, para promover a exportação de produtos de mercado, tais como líchias, café, cravo--da-índia, cacau, pimenta e baunilha. A lógica da \"abordagem orientada ao cliente\" foi privilegiada para melhor servir a política comercial do país. E há uma razão para tal: a liberalização em 1988 da economia alterou o cenário comercial do país, com uma herança de 20 anos de controlo estatal. Todos se tornaram operadores, sem o mínimo respeito pela qualidade dos produtos e muito menos pelas normas. As exportações acusaram o golpe: toneladas de contentores de produtos foram recusadas pelos importadores europeus, americanos e canadianos. Lembro--me de líchias mal acondicionadas que apodreceram no porto de descarga, detritos metálicos descobertos nas vagens de baunilha. Madagáscar esteve a ponto de perder a sua posição de primeiro produtor mundial de baunilha. As normas antigas tratavam sobretudo do acondicionamento de produtos, não mencionando a qualidade. Actualmente são muito mais exactas e há laboratórios de análise, como o Instituto Pasteur de Madagáscar (IPM), e o Centro Técnico Hortícola de Toamasina (CTHT), que efectuam controlos regulares.A adesão dos actores e a aceitação das normas são importantes. Para tal, a BNM criou, para cada produto, um comité técnico de normalização composto por actores a todos os níveis: produtores, consumidores, sectores económicos e científicos, administração pública. Também formamos os actores sobre as normas. Para aumentar as exportações, a agência promove nichos de mercado, desenvolvendo as marcas para que se destaquem no mercado. Houve uma altura em que os produtores cortavam o seu café para produzirem milho e arroz. Cabe à BNM convencê-los do interesse das culturas de mercado, respeitando as normas. Em Madagáscar, o grupo ECOCERT (organismo privado de controlo e de certificação biológica) emite a certificação para o mercado europeu. Temos país vários produtores cujos produtos (nomeadamente o cacau, o café, as especiarias e os óleos essenciais como o ylang ylang) têm uma certificação biológica.Em Madagáscar não temos uma cultura de normas e de qualidade, o que pode explicar-se pelos 20 anos de revolução socialista e controlo económico estatal que o país conheceu, que tornaram os cidadãos menos responsáveis. O essencial é a tomada de consciência de todos os actores envolvidos. Madagáscar tem necessidade de infra--estruturas e de um ambiente legislativo favorável, de transparência e de boa governação. Depois fica nas mãos dos operadores entrarem no jogo, pois a aplicação das normas agora é voluntária. Depende da sua vontade aumentar ou não a qualidade dos produtos e de desenvolver as exportações.Entrevista ","tokenCount":"12623"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0e222f9c2bbd7e1e6cc0540133ef2df9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3b9cfd9e-bfa5-4d10-9626-e5796014c193/content","id":"-609952335"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6207d9fb-1dc0-4b6d-8b0b-ea01f9779920","pagecount":"21","content":"Today, breeders perform genomic-assisted breeding to improve more than one trait. However, frequently there are several traits under study at one time, and the implementation of current genomic multiple-trait and multiple-environment models is challenging. Consequently, we propose a four-stage analysis for multiple-trait data in this paper. In the first stage, we perform singular value decomposition (SVD) on the resulting matrix of trait responses; in the second stage, we perform multiple trait analysis on transformed responses. In stages three and four, we collect and transform the traits back to their original state and obtain the parameter estimates and the predictions on these scale variables prior to transformation. The results of the proposed method are compared, in terms of parameter estimation and prediction accuracy, with the results of the Bayesian multiple-trait and multiple-environment model (BMTME) previously described in the literature. We found that the proposed method based on SVD produced similar results, in terms of parameter estimation and prediction accuracy, to those obtained with the BMTME model. Moreover, the proposed multiple-trait method is atractive because it can be implemented using current single-trait genomic prediction software, which yields a more efficient algorithm in terms of computation.Breeders often want to improve more than one trait simultaneously in their breeding programs and thus conduct various experiments. For example, Teixeira et al. (2016) reported that a breeding program in Brazil measured 41 pig traits obtained by crossing 345 F2 pig populations of Brazilian Piau × commercial pigs. To analyze this type of experiment, breeders implement one of the following two approaches: (i) they perform a univariate analysis (one trait at a time), therefore ignoring the correlation between traits that does not allow to improve either parameter estimates or prediction accuracy, or (ii) they perform a multiple-trait analysis, which may not only take into account the correlation between traits but may also significantly increase the computing intensity.Implementing first approach is valid when the correlation between traits is low or close to zero, but it is less desirable when the correlation between traits is moderate to strong. However, implementing the second approach is sometimes challenging-for example, when there are a large number of traits, and under these circumstances, breeders opt for the first approach. Furthermore, implementing the second approach is also challenging because early breeding programs start with at least 1000 lines that are evaluated in multiple environments, which complicates the analysis, as including genotype × environment (G × E) increases the dimensionality of the data considerably (Chiquet et al. 2013).As mentioned above, multiple-trait analysis improves parameter estimates and prediction accuracy. With regard to parameter estimates, Schulthess et al. (2017) found that multiple-trait analysis improves parameter estimates, while Calus and Veerkamp (2011) found modest improvement using multiple-trait analysis compared to separate-trait analysis for prediction accuracy; these authors also showed that the performance of multiple-trait analysis depends considerably on whether only some traits are missing in only some individuals or in all individuals. Jia and Jannink (2012) also showed evidence favoring multiple-trait analysis compared to single-trait analysis, finding that the genetic correlation between traits is the basis for the benefit of multiple-trait analysis. Jiang et al. (2015) later arrived at the same conclusion in favor of multiple-trait analysis. Montesinos-López et al. (2016) also found modest improvement in the prediction accuracy of multiple-trait analysis when comparing correlated traits to the analysis that assumes null correlation between traits. Along these lines, He et al. (2016) concluded that modeling multiple traits could improve the prediction accuracy for correlated traits in comparison to univariate-trait analysis. Schulthess et al. (2017) also found that multiple-trait analysis is better in terms of prediction accuracy than separate-trait analysis, pointing out that the multiple-trait model is better when the degree of relatedness between genotypes is weaker.There is evidence suggesting that even when traits are correlated, genomic-enabled prediction accuracy is not improved, as stated by Montesinos-López et al. (2017a) and as shown by Märtens et al. (2016), who compared multipletrait analysis to single-trait analysis and found no difference in terms of prediction accuracy. This issue was also documented by Oliveira and Teixeira-Pinto (2015) who proved this result by stating that, in the multivariate linear regression case (when the covariates in each equation are the same), even if the errors are strongly correlated, the multivariate model gives the same result (both point estimates and standard errors) as fitting individual regressions with ordinal least squares for each outcome, despite the level of correlation between the errors.As a breeding tool, genomic selection (GS) uses all available molecular markers (Meuwissen et al. 2001) to design genomic-assisted breeding programs and develop new marker-based models for genetic evaluation. GS provides opportunities to obtain higher rates of genetic gain than traditional phenotypic selection in less time and at a reasonable cost. For example, in animal breeding, GS allows animal scientists to select young animals early in life that do not have records, greatly reducing evaluation costs and generation intervals when compared to the traditional progeny test schemes (Schaeffer 2006;Boichard et al. 2016). In general, for traits that have a long generation time or are difficult to evaluate (i.e., insect resistance, breadmaking quality, and others), GS is cheaper and/or easier than traditional phenotypic selection because more candidates can be characterized for a given cost, thus enabling increased selection intensity. Hence, GS has a number of merits over traditional selection because it reduces selection duration and increases selection accuracy, intensity, efficiency, and gains per unit of time. In addition, it saves time and financial investment, along with producing reliable results (Rutkoski et al. 2011;Desta and Ortiz 2014). This enables faster development of improved crop varieties to cope with the challenges of climate change and the decrease in arable land (Bhat et al. 2016).Therefore, we propose an alternative method for analyzing multiple-trait and multi-environment data-one that takes into account the correlation between traits. This model will be useful for analyzing multiple-trait and multienvironment data because the linear predictor may include the following interaction terms: environment × trait, genotype × trait, and three-way interaction (environment × genotype × trait), assuming an unstructured variance-covariance matrix in the genetic and residual covariance matrices of traits and an identity matrix for the correlation matrix between environments.The proposed method consists of four steps. In the first step, we transform the original matrix of response variables into a matrix of response variables of the same dimension but between uncorrelated transformed traits using singular value decomposition (SVD), which is equivalent to using principal component analyses (PCA). This first step is performed ignoring all the information of the design effect and other covariates. In the second step, given that the traits are not correlated, we apply a single-trait analysis where we can take into account the design effect, along with the effects of genotypes, environments, genotype × environment interaction, and other covariates, if they are available. In the third step, we collect and put together all the parameter estimates of the single analysis, which are transformed in the fourth step to obtain the parameter estimates and/or predictions for the traits in the original scale of the multiple-trait and multiple-environment data. Our approach has the same goal as the canonical transformation method proposed by Thompson (1977), which involves using special matrices to transform the observations on several correlated traits into new variables that are uncorrelated to each other, which means that these new variables can be analyzed as single-trait analysis, but the results (predictions) are transformed back to the original scale of the observations (Mrode 2014). However, our method is different to the Thompson (1977) method since our approach directly decorrelates the matrix of response variables with the SVD, while the Thompson (1977) method transforms the variance of the response var(Y) = Σ t + R, such that QRQ T = I and QΣ t Q T = W, where I is an identity matrix and W is a diagonal matrix, of course assuming that Σ t and R are positive definite matrices and that there is a matrix Q. More details of this method can be found in chapter 6 of the book by Mrode (2014). A detailed example of the Thompson (1977) method is available in Appendix E, section E.1, in the book by Mrode (2014). The Thompson (1977) method has the inconvenience that if the (co)variances R and Σ t are unknown, the transformations mentioned above need to be applied at each iteration of the Henderson mixed model equations. For this reason, it's implementation is not straightforward using current univariate software.The advantage of the proposed alternative method is that the analysis can be performed directly using the current software for univariate genomic selection and prediction. However, it is important to point out that when the distribution of the traits has considerably departed from normality, the proposed method does not guarantee independence between the transformed traits, a key assumption for the successful implementation of the proposed model, since for non-normal traits lack of correlation does not imply independence. Also, the proposed method can be implemented to perform the analysis even when there are some missing traits per individual and some individuals are missing in some environments, as long as the level of unbalance is not strong.Since genotype × environment interaction is of paramount importance in plant breeding, the following univariate linear mixed model is usually used for each trait:where y ij represents the normal response from the jth line in the ith environment (i = 1, 2, …, I, j = 1, 2, …, J). E i represents the effect of the ith environment and is assumed as a fixed effect, g j represents the random effect of the genomic effect of the jth line, with g = (g j , …, g J )denotes the genomic variance and G g is of order J × J and represents the genomic relationship matrix (GRM) and is calculated using the Van Raden ( 2008) method as G g = ZZ T p , where p denotes the number of markers and Z the matrix of markers of order J × p. The G g covariance matrix is constructed using the observed similarity at the genomic level between lines, rather than the expected similarity based on pedigree. gE ij is the random interaction term between the genomic effect of the jth line and the ith environment where gE = (gE 11 , …, gE IJ ) T ~N 0; σ 2 2 I I G À Á , σ 2 2 denotes the variance of the interaction term of genotype by environment, and e ij is a random error term associated with the jth line in the ith environment distributed as N(0, σ 2 ), with σ 2 denoting the residual variance. This model is usually used for each of the l = 1, …, L traits, where L denotes the number of traits under study. Next we will present the multivariate version of model (1); for this reason, first we provide the notation for the matrix variate normal distribution, which is a generalization of the multivariate normal distribution. In particular, let the (n × p) random matrix, M, be distributed as matrix variate normal distribution denoted as M ~NM n×p (Η, Ω, Σ), if and only if, the (np × 1) random vector vec(M) is distributed as multivariate normal denoted as N np (vec(Η), Σ ⊗ Ω); therefore, NM n×p denotes the (n × p) dimensional matrix variate normal distribution, Η is a (n × p) location matrix, Σ is a (p × p) first covariance matrix, and Ω is a (n × n) second covariance matrix (Srivastava and Khatri 1979). vec(.) and ⊗ are the standard vector operator and Kronecker product, respectively.To account for the correlation between traits, all of the L traits given in Eq. ( 1) are jointly modeled in a whole multiple-trait, multiple-environment mixed model as follows:where Y is of order n × L, X is of order n × I, β is of order I × L, Z 1 is of order n × J, b 1 is of order J × L and contains the first interaction term genotype × trait, Z 2 is of order n × IJ, b 2 is of order IJ × L and contains the second interaction term genotype × environment × trait, and e is of order n × L, with b 1 distributed under matrix variate normal distribution as NM J×L (0, G g , Σ t ), where Σ t is the unstructured genetic (co)variance matrix of traits of orderwhere Σ E is an unstructured (co)variance matrix of order I × I, and e ~NM n×L (0, I n , R e ), where R e is the unstructured residual (co)variance matrix of traits of order L × L, and G g is the GRM described above. The Bayesian multiple-trait and multiple-environment (BMTME) model resulting from Eq. ( 2) was implemented by Montesinos-López et al. (2016).First, we provided a modified version of the original BMTME model proposed by Montesinos-López et al. (2016), and in the next section, we will provide the modified Gibbs sampler for this modified BMTME model.Outlined below is the Gibbs sampler for estimating the parameter of interest in the BMTME model. While the order is somewhat arbitrary, we suggest the following:Step 1. Simulate β according to the normal distribution given in Supplementary material (A.1).Step 2. Simulate b 1 according to the normal distribution given in Supplementary material (A.2).Step 3. Simulate b 2 according to the normal distribution given in Supplementary material (A.3).Step 4. Simulate Σ t according to the inverse Wishart (IW) distribution given in Supplementary material (A.4).Step 5. Simulate Σ E according to the IW distribution given in Supplementary material A (A.5).Step 6. Simulate R e according to the IW distribution given in Supplementary material A (A.6).Step 7. Return to step 1 or terminate when chain length is adequate to meet convergence diagnostics.The main differences between this Gibbs sampler and that given by Montesinos-López et al. (2016) are: (i) that this modified Gibbs sampler assumes an unstructured variance-covariance matrix for environments, while the original BMTME model assumes a diagonal variance-covariance matrix for environments, and (ii) that the original BMTME model used non-informative priors based on the Half-t distribution of each standard deviation term and uniform priors on each correlation of the covariance matrices of traits (genetic and residual). The modified BMTME model presented here assumes weak informative priors not based on the Half-t distribution of each standard deviation (details of the hyperparameters of the BMTME model are given in Supplementary material). The hyperparameters for the BMTME model were set similar to those used in the BGLR software (Pérez-Rodríguez and de los Campos 2014). The modified full conditional of this modified BMTME model, which supports the Gibbs sampler given above, is provided in Supplementary material. Next, we will describe the parameterization of the model given in Eq. (2) to develop the proposed alternative method that is based on SVD.Following Thompson (1977) and Ducrocq and Chapuis (1993), we define Q as a matrix of order L × L such that QΣ t Q T = D t , where D t is a diagonal matrix also of order L × L and QR e Q T = I t . The Q matrix always exists and can be calculated as Q = L T P, where P ¼ U e B À0:5 e U T e , where U e and B e are obtained by applying the SVD to R e ¼ U e B e U T e , while L T is obtained also by applying the SVD to PΣ t P T = LD t L T . Then, by applying a linear transformation to Eq. (2), we obtain:Then note that: where eandIt is important to point out that the full conditionals of b & Full conditional for b where e Σ b &ðlÞTherefore, the Gibbs sampler for the BMTME Thompson version should be:Step 1. Simulate β according to the normal distribution given in Supplementary material (A.1).Step 2. Simulate b &ðlÞ 1 for l = 1, 2, …, L according to the normal distribution given in Eq. ( 6).Step 3. Simulate b &ðlÞ 2 for l = 1, 2, …, L according to the normal distribution given in Eq. ( 7).Step 4. Then transform backStep 5. Simulate Σ t according to the IW distribution given in Supplementary material (A.4).Step 6. Simulate Σ E according to the IW distribution given in Supplementary material (A.5).Step 7. Simulate R e according to the IW distribution given in Supplementary material (A.6).Step 8. Return to step 1 or terminate when chain length is adequate to meet convergence diagnostics.The Gibbs sampler for the BMTME Thompson version is similar to the original modified Gibbs sampler except that steps 2 and 3 were replaced for univariate sampling for the transformed random effects (b 1 and b 2 ), which are back transformed in Step 4. The advantage of the BMTME Thompson version is that it allows sampling the random effects of b 1 and b 2 independently for each trait, which allows improving the speed of the Gibbs sampler because it can be parallelized. However, the remaining parameters (β, Σ t , Σ E , and R e ) are sampled exactly as the original Gibbs sampler.An alternative but only approximate method is to transform the matrix of response variables with SVD as Y = UDV T , where U and V are orthogonal matrices called the left and right singular vectors, respectively, of dimensions n × n and L × L, while D is a rectangular diagonal matrix of the singular values of order n × L (where only the first L values of D are positive while the rest are zeros). Therefore, the reparametrized model given in Eq. ( 2) can be rewritten as:where, and e * is of order n × L. Note that the parametrized model does not have the same conceptual definition as the original model (2), first, because β * is a random matrix and not an unknown constant matrix as the matrix of fixed effects, β, and second, because b à 1 , b à 2 , and e * are no longer independent. However, if we fix V as part of the subjacent data structure, and we suppose that Σ t = VD t1 V T and R e = VD te V T (they have a restricted parameter space, Lin and Smith (1990), and e * ~NM n×L (0, I n , D te ), where D t1 and D te are diagonal variance-covariance matrices of dimension L × L. It is important to point out that, under this approximate model, the (co)variance matrix for environment is assumed an identity matrix, Σ E = I I .To use the existing software, we replaced the distribution of transformed random effects b à 2 with b à 2 ~NM JI×L (0, I I ⊗ G g , D t2 ), where D t2 is another diagonal variance-covariance matrix of traits of dimension L × L. With this, the resulting model ( 8) can be estimated with the R package BGLR, which is appropriate for univariate analysis. From Eq. ( 8), it is clear that the parameter estimates and predicted values of the original model (Eq. ( 2)) without transformation can be approximated as:Steps for implementing the proposed BMTME_Approx modelStep 1: De-correlate the original traits with the SVD as Y = UDV T and use it as response variable Y * = UD = YV.Step 2: Implement model (1) but using one column at a time of the uncorrelated matrix Y * as the response variable. This means that a total of L single analyses are done with the model in Eq. (1).Step 3: With the output of Step 2, the predicted values can be calculated in terms of the transformed values withStep 4: Finally, with Eq. ( 12), we obtain the predicted values in terms of the original traits. Furthermore, with Eqs. (9)(10)(11)(13)(14)(15), we obtain the parameter estimates of the beta coefficients, β, random effects b 1 and b 2 , as well as the variance-covariance matrices of traits corresponding to traits in the first interaction term, Σ t1 , for traits in the second interaction term, Σ t2 , and the residual variance-covariance matrix of traits, R e . The R code for implementing this proposed BMTME_Approx model in BGLR is given in Supplementary material.For implementing the proposed BMTME_Approx model with random cross-validation, we will follow the four-step procedure exactly as described above, except for the first step, which is modified. Now, in Step 1, we will decorrelate the traits in the training data set (Y t ) with the SVD as Y t ¼ U t D t V T t , where the subscript t denotes that these matrices were estimated with the training data set. Then we transform the response variable into Y * = U t D t = Y t U t , and expand Y * with the number of rows that are the same size as the testing data set; the expanded rows should all be replaced with NA, to represent the missing values. The positions of the expanded rows with missing values will correspond to the testing data set. Once this is done, the remaining steps must be followed exactly as in the above procedure that is described for the full data set. Note that the dimension of the response variable matrix with the training data set has fewer rows than the full data set of response variables.It is important to point out that the BMTME model was built to estimate only one variance-covariance matrix of traits, Σ t , involved in the two interaction terms, genotype × trait and genotype × environment × trait. However, the BMTME_Approx model allows estimating a variance-covariance matrix of traits for each interaction term in which the traits are involved. The BMTME model is also able to estimate an unstructured variance-covariance matrix for the environments, Σ E ; this is not reported for the BMTME_Approx model because an identity matrix is assumed.First we provide the hyperparameters for the BMTME model:and R e ~IW(ν e = 5, S e = S e ); β 0 was obtained as the least square of each trait. The remaining hyperparameters S βt , S t , S E , and S e are given in Supplementary material. The hyperparameters for the BMTME_Approx were exactly the same to those of the BMTME, but for the univariate analysis, it were as those used in the BGLR software (Pérez-Rodríguez and de los Campos 2014). The proposed Gibbs sampler was implemented in the R-software (R Core Team 2018). A total of 60,000 iterations were performed with a burn-in of 20,000, so that 40,000 samples were used for inference. To eliminate potential problems due to the autocorrelation function (ACF), we considered a thinning of 5. The convergence of the MCMC chains was monitored using trace plots, ACF and Gelman-Rubin diagnostics. We provide weakly informative priors to implement the proposed models. It is important to point out that the proposed BMTME_Approx model only works for normally distributed traits. However, when there is considerable departure from normality, we suggest using independent component analysis (ICA) instead of SVD for transforming the matrix of response variables (Y) (see Supplementary material for its implementation).To test the proposed models and methods, we simulated multiple-trait and multiple-environment data using the model in Eq. ( 2). For this first data set, we used the following parameters: 3 environments, 3 traits, 200 genotypes, and 1 replication of the environment-trait-genotype combination. We assumed that β T = [13,10,5,12,8,7,11,9,6], where the first three beta coefficients belong to traits 1, 2, and 3 in environment 1, the second three values belong to the three traits in environment 2, and the last three belong to environment 3. We assumed that the GRM is known and equal to G g = 0.3I 200 + 0.7J 200 , where I 200 is an identity matrix of order 200 and J 200 is a matrix of order 200 × 200 of ones. The parameters used for building the GRM were chosen to provide a high-level relationship between lines (Montesinos-López et al. 2016).Therefore, the total number of observations is 3 × 200 × 3 × 1 = 1800, that is, 600 for each trait. Since a covariance matrix can be expressed in terms of a correlation matrix (R r ) and a standard deviation matrixr , with r = t, E, e, where r = t represents the genetic covariance between traits, r = E represents the genetic covariance matrix between environments, and r = e represents the residual covariance matrix between traits. For the three covariance matrices (r = t, E, e), we used R r = 0.75I 3 + 0.25J 3 , where J 3 is a matrix of order 3 × 3 of ones, and D 1=2 t = diag(0.9, 0.8, 0.9), D 1=2 E = diag(0.5, 0.65, 0.75) and D 1=2 e = diag(0.6, 0.42, 0.33). For the second data set, the parameters used in the simulation were: 13, 12.5, 12, 11.5, 11, 10.5, 10, 12, 11.5, 11, 10.5, 10.5, 10,10,11,11.5,12, 12, 11, 10,10.5], where the first seven beta coefficients belong to traits 1-7 in environment 1, the second seven values to the 7 traits in environment 2, and the last seven belong to environment 3.The matrix of the relationship between lines was generated as G g = 0.3I 200 + 0.7J 200 and was equal to the first simulation data set. Here the total number of observations is 3 × 200 × 7 × 1 = 4200, that is, 600 for each trait. For two of the three covariance matrices (f = t, e), we used R f ¼ 1:000 0:970 0:944 0:917 0:890 0:862 0:833 À 1:000 0:925 0:899 0:872 0:844 0:816 À À 1:000 0:875 0:849 0:822 0:794 À À À 1:000 0:825 0:798 0:772 À À À À 1:000 0:775 0:748 , that is, we assumed independence between the environments. It is important to point out that this second data set has a high genetic and environmental correlation between traits.The first real data set used for implementing the proposed model is composed of 309 double-haploid maize lines. Traits available in this data set include grain yield (GY), anthesis-silking interval (ASI), and plant height (PH); each of these traits was evaluated in three optimum rain-fed environments (EBU, KAT, and KTI). After editing, information from 158,281 markers was used. This data set was also used by Montesinos-López et al. (2016) and includes best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) obtained based on a mixed model analysis of individual trials of a first analysis.Here we present information on the second real data set used for implementing the proposed model. This real data set is composed of 250 wheat lines that were extracted from a large set of 39 yield trials grown during the 2013-2014 crop season in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico (Rutkoski et al. 2016). The traits under study were days to heading (DH), GY, PH, and the green normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Each of these traits was evaluated in three environments (Bed2IR, Bed5IR, and Drip). The marker information used after editing was from 12,083 markers, this data set also used by Montesinos-López et al. (2016); those interested in obtaining more details about this data set can consult this publication. The phenotypes of each trait are BLUEs obtained after a first analysis where they were adjusted by the experimental field design.This data set belongs to an experiment that used HTP wheat plant phenotyping conducted at Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, México. The data set is comprised of 976 wheat lines that were extracted from a large set of 1170 lines from the CIMMYT Global Wheat Program. The following traits were under study: GY, DH, red normalized difference vegetation index (RNDVI), green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI), simple ratio (SRa), ratio analysis of reflectance spectra chlorophyll a (RARSa), ratio analysis of reflectance spectra chlorophyll b (RARSb), ratio analysis of reflectance spectra chlorophyll c (RARSc), normalized pheophytinization index (NPQI), and photochemical reflectance index (PR). Each of these traits was evaluated in three environments (drought, irrigated, and reduced irrigation). After marker editing, information from 1448 markers was used. This data set was also used by Montesinos-López et al. (2017b, c). The phenotypes of each trait are BLUEs obtained after a first analysis where they were adjusted by the experimental field design.This data set belongs to CIMMYT's three elite yield trial (EYT) nurseries, consisting of 2505 lines of wheat, genotyped by genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). These were evaluated for GY, DH, and PH in five environments (BED_5IR, FLAT_5IR, BED_2IR, FLAT_DRIP, and LHT) evaluated in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, under bed and flat planting systems. The EYT nurseries were sown in 39 trials, each containing 28 lines and two checks that were arranged in an alpha lattice design with three replications and six blocks. The nurseries were evaluated for the three traits under study on a plot basis during 2014 (EYT 13-14), 2015 (EYT 14-15), and 2016 (EYT 15-16). We used BLUEs as observed values of the breeding lines resulting from adjusting for the corresponding experimental design. All the 2505 lines were genotyped using GBS (Elshire et al. 2011;Poland et al. 2012) at Kansas State University, with an Illumina HiSeq2500 for obtaining genome-wide markers. Markers with missing data >60% (minor allele frequency <5% and percentage of heterozygosity >10%) were removed, and we obtained 2038 markers, which were used for the analysis. Also, the traits used are BLUEs obtained after a first analysis where they were adjusted by the experimental field design in each trial.For testing the prediction ability of the proposed models, the BMTME_Approx model and the BMTME model, we implemented a type of cross-validation where all the traits are missing in some individuals and the information of some individuals is missing in some environments (that is, their lines and traits are missing), but in at least one environment there is information available on those individuals. We implemented a 20 random cross-validation scheme for all the data sets under study, with the exception of the HTP and the large EYT data sets, in which we implemented 10 random cross-validations. For the 20 random cross-validation scheme, in each partition we assigned 20% of the data to the testing set and the remaining 80% of the data to the training set, while for the 10 random crossvalidation scheme, we assigned 30% of the data to the testing set and 70% to the training set. The models were fitted with the information in the training data sets, and the prediction accuracy was evaluated with the testing data sets.The metrics used for reporting the prediction accuracy were the Pearson's correlation (Cor) and the mean square error of prediction (MSEP) obtained by averaging the information of the 20 (or 10) random partitions resulting from the testing data sets. The models were implemented in the R package (R Core Team 2018) and the proposed BMTME_Approx model can be implemented in the BGLR package of de los Campos and Pérez-Rodríguez (2014). On the other hand, the BMTME model was implemented in R with the model proposed by Montesinos-López et al. (2016).The phenotypic and genotypic information of the experimental wheat and maize data sets included in this study can be downloaded from the link http://hdl.handle.net/11529/ 10646 (Montesinos-López et al. 2016). This link includes phenotypic data on maize (Data.maize) and wheat (Data. trigo), as well as genomic data on maize (G.maize) and wheat (G.trigo).The HTP data and materials used in this study can be downloaded from the link given in Montesinos-Lopez et al. The results are described in two main sections: The first section presents the results of the simulated data sets, while the second presents the results of the real data sets. It is important to point out that we do not present results for the BMTME Thompson version because it is only a different reparametrization of the original BMTME model.First, we present the parameter estimates of the BMTME and the BMTME_Approx models. Table 1 shows that the beta coefficients of both models are similar. In general, the beta coefficients of the BMTME model are larger than those of the BMTME_Approx model, the smallest difference is 3% observed in environment 1 and trait 1, and the largest difference is 15.7% observed in environment 3 and trait 3. The variance-covariance matrix of traits (Σ t ) of the BMTME model is quite similar to the variance-covariance matrices of the BMTME_Approx model (Σ t1 , Σ t2 ). The variance-covariance components of the residual of both models are quite similar, with the smallest difference (1.6%) observed in trait 2 and trait 1 and the largest difference (33.7%) observed in trait 3 and trait 2. It is worth pointing out again that the BMTME and BMTME_Approx models are different; consequently, we cannot expect the exact same parameter estimates. Finally, when comparing the observed versus the predicted values for each trait using Pearson's correlation and MSEP, we observed that the BMTME_Approx model produced predicted values that are very similar to those of the BMTME model (see Table 1).With regard to prediction accuracy, Table 2 shows that the BMTME model was the best: In six out of the nine trait-environment combinations, it was superior to the BMTME_Approx model in terms of Pearson's correlation and MSEP. On average, the BMTME model was superior to the BMTME_Approx model by 0.94% and 0.88% in terms of Pearson's correlation and MSEP, respectively. From the results of these simulated data, it is evident that the BMTME_Approx model is very similar to the BMTME model in terms of prediction accuracy (Table 2).First, we present the parameter estimates of the BMTME and BMTME_Approx models. Table 3 shows that the beta coefficients of both models are similar, and in general, the beta coefficients of the BMTME model are larger than those of the BMTME_Approx model. The smallest difference is 5.15%, which is observed in environment 3 and trait 6, while the largest difference is 12.37%, observed in environment 1 and trait 5. The variance-covariance matrix of traits (Σ t ) in the BMTME model is very similar to the variance-covariance matrices of the BMTME_Approx model (Σ t1 , Σ t2 ). The variance-covariance components of the residual of both models are quite similar, with the smallest difference (0.48%) observed in trait 7 and trait 1 and the largest difference (27.38%) observed in the variance of trait 5. It is worth reiterating that, with the BMTME and BMTME_Approx, we should not expect exactly the same parameter estimates, as the models are different. Finally, when comparing the observed versus the predicted values for each trait using Pearson's correlation and MSEP, the BMTME_Approx model produced predicted values that were slightly better than those of the BMTME model (see Table 3). In terms of Pearson's correlation, the smallest  Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6   Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1   Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 difference in favor of the BMTME_Approx model was 6.73% observed in trait 6, while the largest difference, also in favor of the BMTME_Approx model, was 14.16% observed in trait 3. In terms of MSEP, the smallest difference was 13.81% in trait 1 and the largest difference was 19.34% in trait 5, both in favor of the BMTME_Approx model.Table 4 shows that the proposed approximate model, BMTME_Approx, was better than the BMTME model in terms of Pearson's correlation, as shown in 14 out of the 21 trait-environment combinations. However, in terms of MSEP, the BMTME model was superior to the the BMTME_Approx model, as exemplified by 12 out of the 21 trait-environment combinations. On average, in terms of Pearson's correlation, the BMTME_Approx model was better than the BMTME model by 7.24%, while in terms of MSEP, both models were, on average, almost identical.First, we compared the parameter estimates of the two models (BMTME and BMTME_Approx). Table 5 shows that the beta coefficients of the proposed BMTME_Approx model are all similar to those of the BMTME model. The variance-covariance matrix of traits (Σ t ) in the BMTME model is quite similar to the variance-covariance matrices of the BMTME_Approx model (Σ t1 ,Σ t2 ). When comparing the variance-covariance components of the residual of both models, we observe that 6 out of the 9 terms are not significantly different; however, the remaining 3 terms are quite different, as they belong to the covariance of trait PH with the other traits. Finally, when comparing the observed versus the predicted values for each trait using Pearson's correlation and MSEP, we see that the BMTME_Approx model is slightly better, since in Pearson's correlation, it outperformed the BMTME model in 2 out of the 3 traits and, on average, the BMTME_Approx model was 2.1% (for trait GY) and 1.4% (for trait ASI) better than the BMTME model. In terms of MSEP, the BMTME_Approx model was better than the BMTME model in 2 out of the 3 traits, and, on average, the BMTME_Approx model was 7% better (for trait GY) and 4.11% better (for trait ASI) than the BMTME model (see Table 5). In general, the parameter estimates and predictions are relatively similar in this data set.Next, in Table 6, we see that the proposed approximate model, BMTME_Approx, was better than the BMTME model in terms of Pearson's correlation, as shown in 5 out of the 9 trait-environment combinations. However, in terms of MSEP, the BMTME model was superior to the BMTME_Approx model in 7 out of the 9 trait-environment combinations. On average, the BMTME_Approx model   Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait1 Trait2 Trait3 Trait4 Trait5 Trait6 Trait7 Trait6 0.862   variance matrix of traits, and the symbol hat (^) denotes estimates of the corresponding parameters was better than the BMTME model by 11.72% in terms of Pearson's correlation, while conversely, the BMTME model was better than the BMTME_Approx by 37.94% (Table 6) in terms of MSEP.First, we compared the parameter estimates of the two models (BMTME and BMTME_Approx) and then their prediction accuracy. Table 7 shows that the beta coefficients of the proposed BMTME_Approx model are similar to those of the BMTME in 9 out of the 12 parameters; however, there are substantial differences in three of the beta coefficients corresponding to trait NDVI. The variance-covariance matrix of traits (Σ t ) in the BMTME model is significantly different from the variance-covariance matrices of the BMTME_Approx model (Σ t1 , Σ t2 ).When comparing the variance-covariance components of the residual of both models, it is evident that 9 out of the 16 terms are not notably different, while the remaining 7 terms are. These very different terms belong to the covariance of trait NDVI with the other traits. Finally, when we compared the models in terms of the observed versus the predicted values for each trait using Pearson's correlation and MSEP, we saw that the BMTME_Approx model was marginally better, and it was superior to the BMTME model for Pearson's correlation in 3 out of the 4 traits and, on average, 0.99% better for trait DH, 22.04% better for trait GY, and 17.16% better for trait PH. Furthermore, for MSEP, the BMTME_Approx model was better than the BMTME model in 3 out of the 4 traits and, on average, 18.88% better for trait DH, 48.85% better for trait GY, and 57.5% better for trait PH (see Table 7).When comparing both models in terms of prediction accuracy with only the testing set of the 20 random partitions implemented, Table 8 shows that the proposed alternative model, BMTME_Approx, was better than the BMTME model in 8 out of the 12 trait-environment combinations in terms of Pearson's correlation and in 7 out of the 12 trait-environment combinations in terms of MSEP. On average, the BMTME_Approx model was also better than the BMTME model by 2.1% in terms of Pearson's correlation and by 6.87% in terms of MSEP (Table 8). Cor and MSEP denote Pearson's correlation and mean square error of prediction, respectively, between the observed and predicted values. β denotes the beta coefficients, Σ t denotes the genetic (co)variance matrix of traits, Σ E denotes the genetic (co)variance matrix of environments, R e denotes the residual (co)variance matrix of traits, and the symbol hat (^) denotes estimates of the corresponding parameters The best predictions for each trait-environment combination are in bold a Traits: grain yield (GY), anthesis silking interval (ASI), and plant height (PH)In Table 9 we provide the parameter estimates of the HTP data set, which has 10 traits evaluated in 3 environments, with 976 lines evaluated in each environment. The estimates of the beta coefficients are reasonable since they are consistent with the sample average for each trait in each environment, which is equivalent to the least square estimates.Rather than reporting the variance-covariance of traits, we report the correlation between traits, which can be more useful, as it gives a better idea of the level of correlation between traits in the whole data set. Our proposed BMTME_Approx model estimates two variance-covariance matrices for the genetic part of the traits and one for the residual part of the traits; in this vein, we report two correlation matrices for the genetic part of the traits and one for the residual correlation of the traits. In the section \"genetic Cor and MSEP denote Pearson's correlation and mean square error of prediction, respectively, between the observed and predicted values. β denotes the beta coefficients, Σ t denotes the genetic (co)variance matrix of traits, Σ E denotes the genetic (co)variance matrix of environments, R e denotes the residual (co)variance matrix of traits, and the symbol hat (^) denotes estimates of the corresponding parameters a Traits: days to heading (DH), grain yield (GY), plant height (PH), and the green normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Each of these traits was evaluated in three environments (Bed2IR,Bed5IR,and Drip) correlation between traits\" in Table 9, the upper diagonal part gives the correlations between traits corresponding to the term genotype × trait, where we can observe that 33 (73.33%) of the 45 possible correlations were, in absolute values, >0.5. On the other hand, in the lower diagonal part of the genetic correlation section are given the genetic correlations that correspond to the three-way interaction term environment × genotype × trait. Here we can observe that only 16 (35.56%) of the 45 possible correlations are >0.5. In general, there is evidence of a reasonably high genetic correlation between traits in this HTP data set. In Table 9, the section on the residual correlation between traits shows that only 15 (33.33%) out of the 45 possible residual correlations are >0.5. This information indicates that the phenotypic correlation between the ten traits is more influenced by the genetic part than by the residual part. Finally, the \"prediction accuracy\" section of Table 9 shows the Pearson's correlation and MSEP obtained for the whole data set between the observed and predicted values for each trait. In general, all the observed Pearson's correlations are >0.86, with the exception of the RNDVI, GNDVI, and SRa traits, which had a Pearson's correlation <0.8.The prediction accuracies for the HTP data set are given in Table 10. The predictions reported were the average of the ten random partitions of the testing data set. Here we only report the prediction accuracy for the BMTME_Approx model since it is extremely difficult in terms of implementation time to run the BMTME_model due to the large data set. Table 10 shows that the best predictions in terms of Pearson's correlation were observed for trait DH, while the predictions for the rest of the traits in general were low. Also, in terms of Pearson's correlation, the best predictions were observed in the irrigated environment. On the other hand, in terms of MSEP for traits GY and DH, the best predictions were observed in the drought environment; however, there were no significant differences in terms of prediction accuracy between the remaining traits, since in all traits, the MSE was almost zero.In Table 11, we provide the parameter estimates of the EYT data set that has 3 traits evaluated in 5 environments, with 2505 lines evaluated in each environment. We found that the estimates of the beta coefficients are reasonable since they are consistent with the least square estimates.Here we also report the correlation between traits to have a better idea of the level of correlation between traits in the whole data set. Furthermore, we report two matrices of correlation for the genetic part of traits and one for the residual correlation of traits. In the section \"genetic correlation between traits\" in Table 11, the upper diagonal part gives the correlations between traits corresponding to the term genotype × trait, where we can observe that the correlation between PH and DH was the only one >0.5. On the other hand, in the lower diagonal part of the genetic correlation section, between traits are given the genetic correlations that correspond to the three-way interaction term environment × genotype × trait. Here we can observe that only the correlation between GY and PH was >0.5 (Table 11).In Table 11, in the section on the residual correlation between traits, we can observe that only the correlation between GY and PH was >0.5. Finally, in the \"prediction accuracy\" section of Table 11, we can observe the Pearson's correlation and MSEP obtained for the whole data set between the observed and predicted values for each trait. In general, all the observed Pearson's correlations are >0.89.The prediction accuracies for this large wheat data set are given in Table 12. The predictions reported are the average of the ten random partitions of the testing data set. Here we only report the prediction accuracy for the BMTME_Approx model; owing to the size of the data set, it almost impossible to run the BMTME_model. Table 12 shows that the best predictions in terms of Pearson's correlation were for trait GY, while the worst were for trait DH. At the same time, the best predictions for GY, DH, and PH in terms of Pearson's correlation were observed in environments BED_5IR, FLAT_5IR, and BED_2IR, respectively. On the other hand, in terms of MSEP for traits GY, DH, and PH, the best predictions were observed in BED_2IR, LHT, and FLAT_5IR, respectively (Table 12).The amounts of data that the breeding programs around the world are generating continue to increase; consequently, there is a growing need to extract more knowledge from the data being produced. To this end, multiple-trait models are commonly used to take advantage of correlated traits to improve parameter estimation and prediction accuracy. However, when there is a large number of traits, implementing these types of models is challenging. Therefore, it is necessary to develop efficient multiple-trait and multipleenvironment models for whole-genome selection in order to take advantage of multiple correlated traits. In this paper, we propose an alternative method for analyzing multi-trait data that could be useful for whole-genome selection in the context of an abundance of traits. Some advantages of the proposed method are: (i) it can be implemented in current genomic selection software that was built for univariate  analysis (e.g., BGLR, ASREML, package Sommer of R);(ii) it can be implemented with a large number of traits and, in general, with a large data set since this model is implemented in four steps; and (iii) this method can be more efficient in terms of implementation time because univariate analyses for each trait (step 2 of the procedure) are required for its implementation, which allows an implementation in parallel and with low dimensions compared to the BMTME model that models all the traits simultaneously and also (iv) decreases the probability of having collinearity and convergence problems, since when more correlated traits are added to the multivariate analysis, both problems increase (Schulthess et al. 2016).In Supplementary material, we provide the R code for implementing the proposed method. When the matrix of response variable (Y) shows a considerable departure from normality, the proposed BMTME_Approx model is expected to be inefficient due to the fact that uncorrelated traits do not imply independence for non-normal data. For this reason, under these circumstances, in Supplementary material we also provide a solution to this situation based on the ICA that transforms the original unnecessary Gaussian matrix of response variables (Y) into a matrix of independent variables (Y * ).Also, it is important to point out that the BMTME_-Thompson version is more efficient computationally than the original BMTME model since it allows sampling independently for each trait the random effects of b 1 and b 2 , which improves computational efficiency because it avoids sampling from huge multivariate normal distributions. More specifically, the dimensions of the full conditionals are L times smaller than the original BMTME model. Another advantage is that the BMTME_Thompson model is not an approximation to the BMTME model, since it is only a reparametrization of the original model, which allows obtaining exactly the same parameter estimates and prediction accuracy at a lower cost in terms of implementation time, since the sampling process of the full conditionals of the random effects of b 1 and b 2 is done individually for each trait.The proposed BMTME_Approx model takes advantage of the fact that optimal point estimates of any linear combination of the means and variances of the various separate analyses for each response variable can be obtained. Therefore, our proposed method uses a linear transformation of the separate parameter estimates to provide reasonable estimates of the beta coefficients (β), random effects (b 1 and b 2 ), and variance-covariance matrices (Σ t1 , Σ t2 , and R e ) for a multivariate model. However, although the proposed model is able to provide reasonable approximate parameter estimates for the multivariate model by doing a separate analysis for each trait, it is unable to provide estimates of the standard error for off diagonal elements in the variance-covariance estimates.Based on the results of the simulated and real data sets, we have reason to argue that the proposed BMTME_Approx model produces competitive predictions compared to those produced by the BMTME model, even though the parameter estimates resulting from the proposed BMTME_Approx model are quite different from those resulting from the BMTME model (mainly in the wheat real data set). However, the differences in parameter estimates between the BMTME and the BMTME_Approx models can be attributed to the fact that the BMTME_Approx model estimates two genetic variance-covariance matrices for traits (one for the interaction term genotype × trait and the other for the three-way interaction term environment × genotype × trait), while the BMTME only estimates one variance-covariance for both interaction terms. Also, in terms of prediction accuracies for simulated data set 1 (simulated with environments and correlated traits), the BMTME was better than the BMTME_Approx model, but in the second simulated data set, we observed that the BMTME_Approx (that assumes independence between environments and correlated traits) was better than the BMTME (that assumes correlated traits between environments and traits), which can be attributed to the fact that this second data set was simulated assuming independence between environments and correlated traits.It is also important to point out that the proposed BMTME_Approx model can be implemented when there are many traits. For example, in the HTP and Large EYT data sets where there are a large number of traits, the application of the BMTME model becomes almost impossible due to the fact that samples are extracted from a very large number of multivariate normal distributions, and the modeling process is performed jointly for all the traits and not separately for each trait, as in the proposed BMTME_Approx model. This is a key element for achieving an efficient estimation process in terms of implementation time. Additionally, the proposed BMTME_Approx model can be implemented simultaneously since the procedure for estimating the required parameters requires a separate analysis for each trait.Another point that we would like to highlight is that our proposed model is multiple-trait and multiple-environment but with the restriction that an identity matrix is assumed for the variance-covariance matrix of environments. However, even with this restrictive assumption in the variance-covariance matrix of environments, the model has the advantage of taking into account the interaction terms environment × trait, genotype × trait, and the three-way interaction environment × genotype × trait. Furthermore, it takes into account the correlated traits and can be implemented using conventional software for whole-genome prediction.The results of the simulated and real data sets show that the proposed alternative method produced results that are similar to those of the conventional multiple-trait analysis. For this reason, the proposed method is an attractive alternative for analyzing multiple-trait data in the context of a large number of traits. However, it is important to point out that the significant differences found in parameter estimates between the proposed BMTME_Approx model and the BMTME model can be attributed mainly to the fact that the BMTME_Approx model allows the estimation of two genetic variance-covariance matrices for traits, one for the interaction term genotype × trait, and the other for the term environment × genotype × trait, while the BMTME model only estimates one genetic matrix of variance-covariance for traits.","tokenCount":"8895"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6c4c8336a674958422c904db1036d0f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9a3f831e-f4c4-463f-99ff-07f9ceea418b/retrieve","id":"-533342976"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a5a66ba4-d502-4ddc-9c84-e0329e20ca0b","pagecount":"31","content":"La producci6n ganadera en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia es baja. siendo ésta b&sicamente un reflejo de la baja calidad nutritiva de los pastos naturales, consecuencia de los bajos niveles de fertilidad y acidez de los suelos. Sin embargo, dadas las condiciones topográficas (tierras planas y onduladas) y por las propiedades físicas de los suelos, las perspectivas para la explotaci6n bovina en esta regi6n son grandes, La Secci6n de Productividad y Manejo de Praderas del Programa de Pastos Tropicales del CIAT, con sede en el Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias ICA/CIAT, en Carimagua. está realizando una serie de estudios referentes a manejo y evaluaci6n de praderas con diferentes cargas animales y sistemas de pastoreo, así como el comportamiento de asociaciones entre gramíneas y leguminosas de las especies promisorias mejoradas, al igual que la introducción de nuevas prácticas en las sabanas nativas.Es necesario destacar que el verdadero valor de una pastura sólo puede ser medido por la producción animal que resulta de su utilización, bajo condiciones similares a las que serln usadas en la prlctica, De ah1 la gran importancia del presente ensayo donde se estudiarln diferentes cargas animales y sus interacciones con el sistema de pastoreo.La investigación que desarrolla la Sección de ProductiVidad y Manejo de Praderas tiene, entre otros objetivos, los siguientes:(1) determinar el potencial de producción animal de leguminosas promisorias asociadas con gramtneas bajo diferentes presiones y sistemas de pastoreo; y (2) determinar el manejo apropiado para lograr la persistencia y estabilidad de las especies componentes de la pradera.• En el presente informe se resumen las actividades desarrolladas en Carimagua como parte del programa de capacitación científica. La precipitación promedio es de 2.017 mm (Cuadro 2 y Apéndice) con épocas bien definidas, una lluviosa de Abril a Noviembre y una época seca desde Noviembre a mediados de Marzo. La temperatura, promedio anual es de 26'C con pocas fluctuaciones.El ensayo se estableció en un área de 37.5 ha, donde anteriormente se realizaron 3 experimentos con~. decumbens pero un periOdo de 7, 6, 5 años consecutivos, con tres cargas diferentes y estacionales.El suelo se preparó entre Mayo y Junio de 1981, para lo cual se utilizaron arado y doble pasada de rastrillo. La siembra se inició el 7 de Julio del mismo año con una densidad de siembra de 1 kg/ha de ~. decumbens y 2.0 kg/ha de Q. ovalifolium CIAT 350; la mitad de la semilla de leguminosa fue inoculada con Rh.izobium CEPA 1235 y, la otra mitad con CEPA 299. Simultáneamente a la siembra se fertilizó con Calfós (350 kg/ha); la fertilización de establecimiento se realizó (Octubre 1981) con SULPOMAG a razón de 200 kg/ha. Entre Abril-Mayo de 1982 se aplicaron 100 kg/ha de yeso (18-20 kg S/ha), como un subtratamiento (a excepción de un~ de las repeticiones de la carga media en todos los sistemas de pastoreo).Con fines de uniformizar la disponibilidad de forraje se sometió a pastoreo por un periodo de 45 dlas con cargas 1.5-2.0 an/ha en el mes de Mayo.A partir de Septiembre se sometió a pastoreo continuo iniciándose las evaluaciones con animales a partir de Diciembre de.1982.En el mes de Abril se hizo muestreo de suelo de 0-20 cm y de 20-40 cm de profundidad para su análisis respectivo; posteriormente se • aplicó fertilizante de mantenimiento 30 kg/ha de KC1.En el ensayo se utilizaron animales de 2 años de edad con un peso promedio inicial de 180-200 kg. Todos los animales se suplementaron con minerales y disponían de agua a voluntad. El pesaje de los animales se realizó cada 56 días sin ayuno previo.La medida del forraje disponible y la composición botánica de las praderas se realiza tres veces al año, utilizándose el m~todo de \"doble muestreo con doble rango\". Las muestra se combinaron y secaron a 60•C por 48 horas para determinar la materia seca.El diseño experimental consistió en bloques completamente al azar, con 3 tratamientos: pastoreo continuo, alterno y rotacional, con cargas de 1.15. 2.30 y 3.45 an/ha, respectivamente. con 2 -repeticiones. A los resultados obtenidos se les hizo un análisis de . varianza. Se utilizaron las ganancias diarias de peso por animal como variables dependientes y carga animal como fuente de variación. Las ganancias de peso promedio diario de los animales en los diferentes sistemas de pastoreo en~. decumbens asociado con D . ovalifolium se presentan en el Cuadro 3.La ganancia fue mayor en el sistema de pastoreo continuo, aunque los resultados no fueron estad1sticamente significativos (~< 0.05) entre los tres sistemas de pastoreo. La mayor ganancia de peso en este sistema se debió prObablemente a la mayor disponibilidad de forraje encontrada durante el periodo experimental en los potreros bajo este sistema. Como puede observarse en los Cuadros 4 y 5 la , , producción total de carne por animal, as; como la producción por hectárea (Cuadro 6). estuvo directamente relacionada con las gagancias de peso diario promedio. manteniéndose siempre en ventaja el sistema de pastoreo continuo en comparación al sistema alterno y rotacional.Puede observarse además que al aumentar la carga hasta 2.30 an/ha, la ganancia de peso en los sistemas de pastoreo continuo y alterno permaneció constante y en el sistema rotacional tendió a aumentar. Al incrementar la carga hasta 3.45 an/ha, la ganancia de peso por animal/día disminuyó (Figuras 1 a 4) en todos los sistemas de util ización.Estos resultados est&n de acuerdo a 10 encontrado por varios investigadores (Mott, 1966; Petersen.rt!l. 1965 y Paladi.nes, .. 1972l.   donde muestran que al aumentar el número de animales por unidad de área, a pal'tir de una carga determinada, la disponibilidad de forraje por animal disminuye y conID consecuencia disminuye la ganancia de peso.. . -~ .\" \", . -. .La aplicación de azufre no ha tenido un efecto significativo en la ganancia de peso, especialmente en el pastoreo continuo. En los sistemas de pastoreo alterno y rotacional, la ganancia de peso fue\" mayor cuando se aplicó azufre (Cuadro 3). Estos resultados se relacionan con el contenido de azufre en el suelo; es decir, los potreros fertilizados con.este nutriente tienen un mayor contenido de azufre que los no fertilizados (Cuadro 7) mejorando de .esta manera la calidad del forraje sobre todo del Q. ovalifolium (Informe CIAT 1981), como 10 demuestran los estudios de Lascano y Salinas (l) quienes reportaron que la aplicación de Mg y S, además de P, Ca y K en D.. -ovalifo1ium 350 ya establecido resulta en un aumento en forraje disponible, en la utilización de la leguminosa por el animal y en un contenido menor de taninos. As' mismo. mencionan el S como el elemento que principalmente afecta el valor forrajero de Q.ovalifolium ya establecido bajo las condiciones de Carimagua.La disponibilidad del forraje. as1 como la composición de las partes de la planta de las gram~neas y las leguminosas en oferta se observa en las Figuras 5•7.La mayor disponibilidad de forraje ocurrió en las cargas bajas; sin embargo, también ocurrieron las mayores proporciones de material muerto; esto puede ser consecuencia de una condición de subpastorea.En las cargas altas (3.45 an/ha) se observó una baja disponibilidad de -forraje en comparación a la carga media (2.30 an/ha) con y sin aplicación de azufre; esto se debe probablemente a un sobrepastoreo • Por otro lado se nota una mayor proporción de gramíneas que leguminosas en las cargas bajas, 10 cual puede deberse a la agresividad y competencia por parte de las gramíneas.  Por otro lado, es importante mencionar que durante el experimento hubo una variación estacional en la disponibilidad de forr~je, siendo mayor el rendimiento en el mes de Diciembre (1982) que el mes de Abril (1983). La variación en disponibilidad de forraje estuvo influenciada por la precipitación.Muchos investigadores señalan la importancia de las asociaciones de gramíneas y leguminosas en praderas tropicales, a fin de mejorar la dieta animal mediante la transferencia de nitrógeno de la legu~inosa a la gramínea acompañante, 10 cual se refleja en una buena calidad del forraje como ocurrió en el presente ensayo, en donde la proteína fue superior al 8% (Cuadro a) y los contenidos de calcio y fósforo fueron altos (Cuadros del Apéndice). De ahí que en este ensayo se obtienen ganancias de peso satisfactorias a pesar de la variación en la disponibilidad de forraje en las épocas secas.En forma general se ha podido observar en algunos potreros la incidencia del salivazo (Aeneolamia reducta) en ~. decumbens pero en forma localizada sin afectar la productividad animal. En el D. ovalifolium también se nota ataque de nematodos en la raíz sjn mayor importancia.-, . ' 9 CONCLUSIONES Y OBSERVACIONES .De los resultados preliminares a la fecha, se puede concluir que bajo los tres sistemas de pastoreo (continuo, alterno y rotacional), el pastoreo continuo dio los mayores rendimientos en cuanto'a producción por animal y por hectárea, respecto a los otros dos debido a una mejor disponibilidad de forraje., Al aumentar la carga hasta 2.30 an/ha la ganancia de peso fue constante en los sistemas continuo y alterno, aumentando en el sistema rotacional. Sin embargo al incrementar la carga hasta 3.45 an/ha la ganancia de peso/anima1/d1a disminuyó en los tres sistemas.Se pudo observar un efecto marcado de la carga animal sobre la producción y con posiCión botánica de la pradera; al aumentar la carga • disminuyó la disponibilidad de forraje. pero aumentó la proporción de leguminosa en la mezcla.Los resultados presentados aquí fueron preliminares y a medida que avance el ensayo se podrán obtener resultados más concluyentes.   . '.' .• . : .. Carga Carga an/ha 1 an/ha 2.30 1 1.15 2.30 2.30 3.45 Promedio 1.15 2.30 3.45 Promedie ------Kg/animal-------------------------Kg/ha------------------ -----------S(ppm)--------------- . .Efecto de los sistemas de pastoreo y de las cargas animal en el contenido de fósforo.---   ... ","tokenCount":"1602"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"826985407bed75351d2e0bcb2a26970d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5a0011f9-bef7-462d-addf-e5d14e8cbada/retrieve","id":"1121491344"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"54e49ef4-8e1e-48fc-bd46-04ae0a6225f7","pagecount":"2","content":"It has been demonstrated to be an effective, safe and potentially sought after fertilizer for a wide range of agricultural activities (based on scientific analysis, extensive field trials and farmer engagement).• It is a reliable source of nutrients and organic matter for improving farmer's soils.• It is already approved for use by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and is a registered trademark in Ghana.• It is produced through a process that safely handles and disposes of both human waste, collected from both household and public toilets (fecal sludge), and organic waste.• It is enriched with minerals, and is free of live microorganisms (pathogens) that could otherwise cause disease.• Production and sale of Fortifer ™ can be a profitable business.It is now being produced at a large, purpose-built fecal sludge recycling plant in Tema, through a public-private partnership.The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) combines the resources of 11 CGIAR centers, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and numerous national, regional and international partners to provide an integrated approach to natural resource management research. WLE promotes a new approach to sustainable intensification in which a healthy functioning ecosystem is seen as a prerequisite to agricultural development, resilience of food systems and human well-being. This program is led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a member of the CGIAR Consortium, and is supported by CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. In sub-Saharan Africa…• 80-95% of the population use onsite sanitation systems that require regular emptying.• Most wastewater is untreated and many countries lack detailed information on wastewater generation, treatment or use.• Fertilizer use is 1/20 of the average per hectare use in Asia, accounting for only 3% of global consumption.• The main expenditure for municipalities is waste management, even so significant amounts of waste remain uncollected.• Urban farms produce up to 90% of the fresh vegetables consumed in cities, and the majority of the vegetables produced are irrigated with polluted water from urban areas.In urban areas of Ghana, as much as 90% of human waste from toilets is discharged directly into the environment. Usually this is untreated, or only partially treated, and so results in contaminated coastal areas, waterways and land. At the same time, the majority of Ghanaian farmers are struggling with soils that are poor in nutrients and organic matter. Some use this human waste directly on their fields as a raw form of fertilizer with little or no prior treatment. This in turn poses potential health risks when the microbial contaminants (pathogens), within the untreated waste come in contact with food crop production and can cause illness and disease.Following over twelve years of research, an innovative solution has been developed, by the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and their partners, in particular SANDEC/EAWAG, which effectively answers these big challenges. Human waste from both household and public toilets is passed through a multistep process during which it is dried and then sanitized through composting. It is then further enriched and pelletized to create Fortifer ™ , a safe and effective organic fertilizer that has the potential to be highly competitive on the Ghanaian market.As pellets, Fortifer ™ is easier to handle and transport, which saves money, and less minerals are lost during application than with powder fertilizers. Because the Fortifer ™ pellets are compacted, lower volumes are needed compared to non-pelletized fertilizers with similar properties. There is also strong evidence to indicate that the pellets allow more gradual nutrient dispersal into the soil which could reduce the need for multiple applications in a growing season.Fortifer ™ is an opportunity for Ghanaians to achieve a number of positive results. Through its production and use, Ghanaians are able to:• reduce their reliance on imported fertilizers.• support local enterprise and keep the benefits within the country.• use portions of the revenues generated to improve sanitation in nearby cities and urban areas.• provide farmers with a product that is easily transportable, effective, and easy to apply. Production of Fortifer ™ within Ghana also creates new jobs, reduces public health risks, ensures a cleaner and healthier environment, enhances food security and supports the development of a green economy.There is strong potential for increasing the market share of locally produced, organic fertilizer in the Ghanaian market. Currently farmers in Ghana mostly use inorganic fertilizer. Even then the levels of fertilizer use in general are still very low in Ghana (12kg/hectare) compared with other countries (Kenya: 32kg/hectare) or the global average (90kg/hectare). High transaction and transportation costs which increase the overall cost of fertilizer appear to be the major reasons for Ghana's low fertilizer application levels.In Ghana, over 80% of existing total inorganic fertilizer demand is supplied by a few major importers. The market will be more diversified following the establishment of the country's first public-private enterprise geared specifically to innovatively processing and producing safe, effective and affordable fecal sludge-based fertilizer: Fortifer ™ . Through extensive, multiseason field trials it has been shown that Fortifer ™ is an effective option that successfully promotes the growth and yield of cash crops such as: okra, tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, lettuce, maize and rice, providing both nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Farmers engaged during the research process have also consistently stated their willingness to pay for a locally produced organic fertilizers such as Fortifer ™ .According to a 2014 market study, factors inhibiting farmers in Ghana from making more use of fertilizers include; high prices, lack of suitable credit offerings to secure the fertilizers when needed, and a lack of convenient places to buy fertilizer. Three key potential customer groups have been identified for Fortifer ™ in Ghana; farmers in organized groups, such as farmer-based organizations, farmers directly linked with the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority, and farmers in other managed irrigation schemes.fortifer ™ field trials with green pepper, valley view university, ghana. photo thor windham-wrightA new, large purpose-built fecal sludge recycling plant has been built in Tema to produce Fortifer ™ . This business represents a public-private partnership between the Tema Metropolitan Assembly and Jekora Ventures Ltd, a Ghanaian waste management business. This plant is able to treat 12,500 cubic metres of fecal sludge a year, which is equivalent to that generated by a population of 65,000 to 100,000. At the same time more than 700 metric tonnes of organic food waste will be processed. Together these two inputs will be used to produce 500 metric tonnes of safe, nutrient rich, compost that is high in organic matter, a year.Based on this structure and financial flows the Tema plant business is anticipated to break even within the first five years. It is understood that the money received by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly will be reinvested to improve sanitation in the area.Human waste collected from both household and public toilets is first sieved and then allowed to naturally dry out, first through filtration and then through evaporation. Any excess liquid goes through a sand filter (or another suitable treatment) before being released into the environment.The dry solids, which are rich in organic matter and nutrients, are then mixed with organic food waste. The decomposition of this mixture (co-composting) is then facilitated through a process of regular interval heaping and turning. This allows good aeration which aids the decomposition process. Crucially, the decomposition process also naturally generates heat which when well controlled reaches high enough levels to destroy any microbial contaminants (pathogens) that had been present in the waste. This effectively sanitizes the waste mix. Fortifer ™ meets the international safety standards set for composts by the World Health Organization (WHO). ","tokenCount":"1273"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/3427922068.json b/data/part_6/3427922068.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2dbbddcb1686a99e5e5008cf5dd79e3cdc82f3e8
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ad9648f652e4e30659a01593b1e6c727","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eb08c650-bbe6-43a7-964f-a4a2e10f581b/retrieve","id":"1656581757"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ef45c95f-4e59-4314-aac4-899bcd50bdc9","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: Precision land leveling using a stationary laser plane at the side of the field, a 4-wheel tractor pulled drag bucket equipped with a laser-guided and hydraulic controlled and system. Laser leveling allows field leveling with +/-1cm accuracy and leads to water savings (20-40%), increased yields 10-20%, better weed control and can also be used for field consolidation for improved mechanization. The technology was adapted and verified in Cambodia and Vietnam New Innovation: No Innovation type: Production systems and Management practices Stage of innovation: Stage 4: uptake by next user (USE) Geographic Scope: Multi-national Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Country(ies): • The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam • Cambodia • Thailand Outcome Impact Case Report: <Not Defined> Description of Stage reached: In Vietnam and Cambodia the technology has been extensively demonstrated and services are provided by government institutions. However, there only about 10-20 private sector contract service provisions established in each country. As of 2019, LLL was applied for about 4,000 and 3,500 ha in Vietnam and Cambodia, respectively.","tokenCount":"174"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/3429661399.json b/data/part_6/3429661399.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2b030d1c47cf30ceb11215d0dfa1b74d71a1b929
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bcff48e32b093a021386bccc0b3f9e1b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f890be9f-fb49-4d04-aeb4-e3414d116b8a/retrieve","id":"277508537"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"35d5b87a-1f10-4699-af93-6584a31f1cea","pagecount":"29","content":"Resultados de una encuesta a productores del centro (Junín) y norte (La Libertad)▪ Conocer cómo está afectando la crisis sanitaria a las actividades productivas y sociales de productores de papa en distintas zonas del país.▪ Mecanismo complementario para mantener contacto con los productores beneficiarios de proyectos del CIP y autoridades locales en el marco de las restricciones de movilidad actuales.▪ Información útil para ajustar actividades de los proyectos y planificar acciones futuras a distintos niveles. • Cultivo de papa en fase cosecha, almacenamiento y comercialización, más adelantado en Junín.• Tendencia a un menor volumen de cosecha debido a problemas climáticos y fitosanitarios, sin relación significativa con la crisis sanitaria o las restricciones a la movilidad \"La crisis sanitaria afecto a mis productores al tomarse las medidas de seguridad de salud, la quincena de marzo en plena floración de los cultivos, por las restricciones los productores no pudieron llevar el control de plagas y enfermedades de los cultivos el cual mermo la producción\"Campaña 2019-2020• Las restricciones de movilidad afectaron en mayor grado la posibilidad de contratar jornaleros• Algunos productores parecen haber compensado con mayor cantidad de días de mano de obra familiar (en La Libertad)Campaña 2019-2020• Notoria tendencia a precios más bajos en esta campaña y a una menor presencia de compradores.• Alta incertidumbre respecto a los canales de comercialización.\"La crisis viene afectando la venta al no poder trasladarse a otros mercados, en el mercado local hay excedente de las cosechas, y los precios están demasiados baratos, el cual perjudica a los productores económicamente.\"Campaña 2019-2020• Han habido restricciones para proveerse de alimentos, por escasez en los mercados y por precios altos.\"Desabastecimiento de algunos alimentos porque los comerciantes que transportan víveres de primera necesidad tenían muy restringido el pase, por parte de las rondas campesinas y también el precio de los alimentos es muy alto no alcanzaba la economía de las familias para comprar alimentos.\"• Preocupación en los actores de la salud sobre los efectos en indicadores de malnutrición de una dieta menos diversificada (anemia)\"Si pues, ahora las madres ya no compran alimentos nutritivos como hígado, sangrecita, bazo de res por lo tanto hay la preocupación por parte de nosotros el personal de salud que la anemia pueda aumentar debido a la crisis que estamos afrontando.\" (La Libertad)Campaña 2019-2020• Las ayudas han sido mas notorias en las zonas con mejor acceso, en zonas mas remotas no han llegado• Preponderancia de la canasta de alimentos sobre otros tipos de ayuda• Hay un riesgo elevado de una severa descapitalización de los productores \"Se les ha dado bono por parte del estado pero solo a las personas que no reciben Juntos y por parte de la municipalidad canastas de víveres de primera necesidad eso si se les brindo a toda la población.\"▪ Tendencia a menor intención de siembra para la próxima campaña.▪ Uso de mano de obra familiar en la mayoría de los caos.▪ Adquisición de insumos con recursos propios o de familiares cercanos.▪ Productores están tomando decisiones ahora respecto al aprovisionamiento de semilla.Campaña 2020-2021▪ La papa continuará siendo el cultivo principal en Junín.▪ En La Libertad hay intenciones de incorporar nuevos cultivos para complementar la escasez en los mercados y mantener la dieta diversificada.Campaña 2020-2021• Un alto porcentaje de productores han recibido asistencia técnica (vinculado a las zonas de los proyectos)• Comercialización, manejo del cultivo de papa e instalación de nuevos cultivos son temas prioritarios para el futuroDado lo avanzado de la campaña agrícola 2019-2020, la producción no se vio muy afectada directamente por la crisis.Alta demandas de asistencia técnica (aspectos técnicos y comerciales) para la próxima campaña.Tendencia a menor intención de siembra en la próxima campaña.Existe un riesgo elevado de una severa descapitalización de los productores.Se han identificado restricciones para proveerse de alimentos, por escasez en los mercados y por precios altos.Comercialización del cultivo mayormente afectada.Percepción de menores precios en la campaña 2019-2020 e incertidumbre en los canales de comercialización.Para la campaña 2020-2021, el reto era preservar la salud de los pequeños productores manteniendo la eficiencia económica de sus actividades productivas. Campana 2020-2021▪ Actividades agrarias como interés nacional y estratégicas para la seguridad alimentaria. ▪ Protocolo de ordenamiento de mercados y protocolos de sanidad para el sector. ▪ Acciones de vigilancia sanitaria en centros de abastos. Jornadas de desinfección en mercados, a nivel nacional. ▪ Mercados itinerantes, financiando el flete y el acondicionamiento de los mercados. ▪ Reprogramación de créditos del FondoAgroperú. ▪ BonoRural para más de 1millón de hogares rurales. ▪ Financiamiento Agrario Empresarial (FAE Agrario). ▪ Creación de empleos temporales.Medidas del sector público durante la emergencia","tokenCount":"755"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/3440875933.json b/data/part_6/3440875933.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1af1b81e7815a8e0e1824463af9f503393f1c658
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"61026617747043178c27aa8d0b161643","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/06eacaee-1d14-40e7-b87c-6bb9ad4f288e/retrieve","id":"413523326"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0455d5b8-4500-4e77-811d-524a2169c8aa","pagecount":"53","content":"A pesar de los avances en nutrición y seguridad alimentaria en los ultimos añós, estos problemas aún representan un desafío para los países en desarrollo, ya que una dieta adecuada todavía no es asequible para muchas personas. La desnutrición y el sobrepeso son dos lados de la malnutrición y coexisten en muchos países (doble carga de malnutrición). En el caso de los países Latinoamericanos, Guatemala tiene la tasa de malnutrición más alta y la cuarta más alta del mundo; casi la mitad de los niños menores de 5 añós están crónicamente malnutridos (WFP, 2016). Por otro lado, la obesidad afecta aproximadamente al 50% de las mujeres en edad reproductiva (Rameriz-Zea et al., 2014). La malnutrición tiene importantes consecuencias no solo en términios de perdida de capacidad intelectual y cognitiva en los niños, sino también en términos de costos económicos debido a la perdida de productividad (Martínez, R. y Fernández, A., 2007).El Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), junto con la Universidad de Florida, dentro del contexto del programa de Métodos y Métricas Innovadores para Acciones Agrícolas y Nutricionales (IMMANA) 1 , diseñó un proyecto de investigación para el desarrollo de nuevas metodologías para entender como los procesos de toma de decisiones dentro del hogar respecto al uso del tiempo y la asignación de ingresos a diferentes tipos de alimentos impactan la nutrición de varios miembros del hogar. Adicionalmente, el estudio explora como estas decisiones son afectadas por cambios en el ingreso y el acceso a información nutricional. Teniendo en cuenta que los procesos de toma de decisiones dentro del hogar son críticos para los resultados nutricionales de los miembros del hogar, pero que existe poca evidencia sobre como se toman estas decisiones, este estudio busca cerrar la brecha examinando explícitamente los procesos de toma de decisiones dentro del hogar y cómo estos se relacionan con los resultados nutricionales. Esperamos que los resultados informen el diseño e implementación de programas y políticas más efectivas para promover una mejor nutrición en las familias rurales.En este documento describimos el estudio, los instrumentos diseñados y el cálculo de los índices y métricos incluidos. Explicamos en detalle la metodología usada para la recolección y manejo de datos, las decisiones y ajustes hechos durante la fase de implementación y las lecciones aprendidas. Al explicar en detalle nuestra metodología, esperamos que este documento sirva como guía para futuros estudios.El documento se organiza de la siguiente manera. En la primera sección explicamos el diseño del estudio, en la segunda describimos los instrumentos de recolección de datos. En la tercera sección presentamos cómo usar la información recolectada, desde el proceso de manejo y limpieza de datos hasta la definición y cálculo de los métricos e índices que incluimos. En la cuarta y ultima sección proporcionamos algunas conclusiones breves y los proximos pasos a seguir en el proyecto.5 GuíaMetodológica 1. Diseño del estudio y recolección de datos 1.1 Descripción del proyectoLa nutrición es un resultado a nivel individual que está fuertemente influenciado por las decisiones a nivel del hogar y las normas sociales, incluidas las normas de género. La compra y preparación de alimentos son a menudo actividades a nivel del hogar; las compras de alimentos se hacen para alimentar a la familia o los miembros del hogar. Del mismo modo, la comida se prepara/cocina para la familia y a menudo los miembros del hogar se reúnen para comerlas. Sin embargo, las preferencias individuales influyen en qué alimentos se compran y cómo se preparan. Además, las decisiones tomadas en el contexto del hogar (ya sea individual o conjuntamente) influyen en los ingresos disponibles para la compra de alimentos, el tiempo disponible para la producción agrícola y otras actividades productivas generadoras de ingresos y para las actividades sociales o de cuidado/reproducción. Por lo tanto, la disponibilidad de alimentos está determinada por la producción propia y los ingresos disponibles para la compra de alimentos, los cuales están determinados al menos parcialmente por la cantidad de tiempo asignado por los miembros del hogar a las actividades de producción y generación de ingresos.Trabajos anteriores han identificado tres vías principales para ir desde la producción agrícola hasta la nutrición. Uno es a través de la producción propia; los alimentos son producidos y consumidos por el hogar. Una segunda vía es a través del ingreso; la producción agrícola se vende y los ingresos generados se utilizan para comprar alimentos. Y, un tercer camino, es a través del empoderamiento de las mujeres; esta vía, vincula el empoderamiento de las mujeres con los resultados nutricionales a través de su participación en la toma de decisiones sobre el uso de los ingresos, la mano de obra y los activos (Herforth y Harris 2014). También son posibles combinaciones de estas vías; algunos alimentos producidos en la granja, otros alimentos comprados con los ingresos de las ventas de la producción agrícola y una mejor nutrición lograda a través del empoderamiento de las mujeres.Sin embargo, este trabajo anterior no explora explícitamente cómo la dinámica dentro del hogar influye en las elecciones de alimentos y la nutrición general de los miembros del hogar. Este estudio busca abordar esta brecha centrándose en un entorno agrícola para comprender mejor las interacciones entre las decisiones dentro del hogar en torno a la asignación del uso del tiempo y los ingresos para lograr resultados nutricionales. Además, exploramos el papel de la información nutricional y el empoderamiento de las mujeres en la elección de alimentos.Los estudios sobre nutrición generalmente incluyen a las mujeres como actores claves. Ellas desempeñan un papel importante en el estado nutricional de todos los miembros del hogar. Son ellas quienes biológicamente, transmiten nutrientes a los niños desde su gestación hasta la lactancia y también, por los roles tradicionales de género, son ellas usualmente las que están encargadas de la mayor parte del cuidado y preparación de alimentos. No obstante, es importante reconocer que, dentro de los hogares, hay dinámicas entre padres y madres que afectan las decisiones que se toman GuíaMetodológica respecto al consumo de alimentos y la diversidad alimentaria. Así, los hombres también tienen un rol importante en el estado nutricional de la familia.Entre estos temas también hay sinergias y/o compensaciones. Por ejemplo, en una familia donde la mujer trabaja para obtener ingresos se puenden tener diferentes efectos. Un efecto potencial es que al aumentar el ingreso de la familia puede haber acceso a más comida (saludable) y así mejorar el estado nutricional de los miembros del hogar. Por otro lado, también es posible que el tiempo que las mujeres pasan trabajando fuera del hogar se traduzca en menos tiempo para trabajar dentro del hogar (actividades productivas y reproductivas). Además, en un hogar donde hay limitaciones de tiempo para que los miembros se dediquen a la preparacion de comidas saludables, ellos podrían reemplazar los alimentos caseros y saludables por alimentos rápidos y procesados, más convenientes en términos de tiempo, pero a menudo menos saludables en términos de nutrientes y aditivos. Este ejemplo ilustra la importancia del ingreso, pero también la relevancia del uso del tiempo en la nutrición del hogar. Adicionalmente, si examinamos esto, se refleja un sesgo sociocultural relacionado con el hecho de que las mujeres son percibidas como las responsables de la preparación de las comidas (y del cuidado de la familia), ignorando el potencial de los hombres para asumir más responsabilidad en las actividades de cuidado del hogar como lo es la preparación de alimentos. También ilustra la importancia de considerar la distribución del tiempo por parte de diferentes miembros de la familia en los estudios de nutrición y consumo de alimentos, a fin de comprender la dinámica que limita la posibilidad de que la familia esté bien alimentada.Finalmente, otro elemento importante en el consumo de alimentos en el hogar son las preferencias alimentarias. Aunque las normas socioculturales tienen un gran impacto en la dieta, también es importante tener en cuenta las diferentes preferencias a nivel individual y su relación con los ingresos y/o presupuestos disponibles para la compra de productos alimenticios.Con la mayor penetración de los mercados monetizados a las zonas rurales, muchos hogares agrícolas han cambiado la estructura de producción de sus fincas, de una más diversificada que proveía mayor valor alimenticio a la familia, a una basada en la mayor producción de uno o dos productos que generen mayor ingreso monetario para poder cubrir necesidades básicas de salud, educación de los hijos, compra de insumos, etc. Esto ha generado una transformación en las posibilidades de abastecimiento alimenticio de los hogares rurales, no solo por la disminución de la auto-sostenibilidad a nivel del hogar, sino a nivel de comunidades enteras que dependen del acceso a mercados para abastecerse de ciertos tipos de alimentos. Particularmente en comunidades remotas que basan sus ingresos en productos que no son comestibles, como el café o el cacao, puede existir mayor vulnerabilidad en términos de nutrición. Así, nuestro estudio se enfoca en hogares agrícolas.Este proyecto busca entender cómo las relaciones de género dentro del hogar --en aspectos relacionados con la toma de decisiones sobre el uso del tiempo y de los ingresos provenientes de cultivos agricolas y/o salarios-influencian la elección de alimentos. En otras palabras, analizaremos cómo los incentivos económicos, la información sobre nutrición adecuada, el uso de tiempo y las características del hogar interactúan para influenciar las elecciones alimentarias en los hogares. Ligado a este objetivo se han planteado las siguientes preguntas de investigación: GuíaMetodológica a. ¿Cómo son tomadas las decisiones alrededor del consumo de alimentos en el hogar y cuál es el rol de los hombres y las mujeres? b. ¿Cómo los incentivos económicos (precios de cultivos, salarios/ingresos) y la información nutricional impactan y/o están relacionados con la elección de alimentos? c. ¿Cómo interactúa el uso del tiempo con la dimensión de género para influenciar la nutrición en el hogar?Además, se espera que la información recolectada sea utilizada para diseñar programas de nutrición y políticas que promuevan una mejor nutrición en familias rurales.En el estudio incluimos varias métricas, índices y variables comunmente utilizadas en otros estudios de agricultura, pobreza y bienestar, y seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. También incluimos un índice de empoderamiento de las mujeres y dos medidas innovadoras sobre preferencias laborales y elección de alimentos. La Tabla 1 lista brevemente cada uno de ellos.Tabla 1. Listado de métricas e índices. Seguimos el proceso de aprobación ética del CIAT para garantizar el bienestar y la protección de los derechos humanos en nuestra investigación. Nuestra investigación incluye consentimientos GuíaMetodológica informados, asegurando la confidencialidad de los datos y la participación voluntaria de los encuestados.Se obtuvo el consentimiento informado de todas las personas entrevistadas. En nuestro caso, le preguntamos al hombre y a la mujer del hogar, es decir, a quienes se identificaron como los encargados de tomar la mayoría de las decisiones dentro del hogar. Ambos encuestados en el hogar acordaron individualmente ser entrevistados y proporcionar información, y el encuestador certificó con su firma que el consentimiento informado fue leído y los participantes dieron su aprobación para continuar con la encuesta (ver Figura 1). Si uno de los entrevistados no dio su consentimiento para realizar la entrevista, la entrevista no continuó y el hogar fue reemplazado por otro.Figura 1. Consentimiento informado de la encuesta.También aseguramos que nuestra investigación cumplía con las normas de Guatemala. En conversaciones con instituciones nacionales como el Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología Agrícola (ICTA), verificamos que el estudio no requería aprobaciones gubernamentales pues no afectaba la integridad física de los participantes (no hay toma de sangre ni ingesta de alimentos).Para llevar a cabo el estudio, seleccionamos dos sitios de estudio en dos regiones del país con marcadas diferencias de población en términos de su influencia indígena. Un sitio en el este, compuesto por los municipios de La Unión y Olopa; y otro en el oeste, que incluye los municipios de La Reforma y Nuevo Progreso. La zona en el oeste es notable por tener más comunidades indígenas, en su mayoría de origen maya. Se eligieron dos zonas diferentes para estudiar si las diferencias culturales tendrían un impacto en las prácticas dentro del hogar que afectan la nutrición. Ambas zonas tienen niveles de pobreza similares de alrededor del 60% (Banco de Guatemala, 2018) y la mayoría de los habitantes son principalmente productores de café. Se decidió centrar el estudio en productores de café para limitar el rango de variabilidad en la estructura productiva y, por lo tanto, tener una población más homogénea en este sentido. Por otro lado, y como se mencionó anteriormente, las áreas rurales que producen cultivos no alimentarios pueden ser más vulnerables en términos de GuíaMetodológica suministro adecuado de alimentos, especialmente si se encuentran lejos de una ciudad. Nos asociamos con Catholic Relief Services (CRS) ya que trabajan con estas comunidades implementando sus proyectos de Preparación para la Resiliencia (PAR) y Agricultura, Suelo, Agua (ASA). Esta cooperación facilitó nuestro acceso a las comunidades y la ejecución de nuestro estudio en las áreas mencionadas.Para cumplir con el propósito de este estudio y entender cómo las dinámicas intra-hogar de género influyen en la nutrición de los miembros de la familia, era necesario entrevistar a hogares donde haya, como mínimo, una pareja (hombre y mujer). CRS nos compartió el listado de productores adscritos a sus proyectos en ambas zonas. Un total de 443 hogares (146 en oriente y 297 en occidente), de los cuales se hizo una depuración inicial, excluyendo aquellos hogares donde no había pareja. También se excluyeron los hogares con un alto volumen de producción, pues nuestro interés es pequeños agricultores; y aquellos hogares ubicados en comunidades lejanas, ya que el tiempo de desplazamiento incrementaría los costos presupuestados. Esta depuración solo se hizo en Oriente pues contamos con el apoyo de uno de los técnicos que implementó los proyectos y tenía conocimiento de los participantes del mismo. En el caso de Occidente, no fue posible que los técnicos hicieran la depuración pues el número de productores y el tamaño de la zona son más grandes. Después de estos cambios, teníamos una lista de 396 productores (99 en el este y 297 en el oeste).Teniendo en cuenta que nuestra meta era llegar a un total de 250 hogares, 125 en cada zona --pues es un número que no solo se ajusta al presupuesto del estudio, sino que también permite hacer análisis robustos estadísticamente y pilotear los instrumentos y métricas en dos zonas distintas--, seleccionamos los 26 hogares faltantes en oriente aleatoriamente cuidando que fueran similares a los productores en las listas de CRS. Es decir, productores de café con áreas entre 1 y 5 manzanas. En el caso de occidente, de los 297 hogares seleccionamos 125 al azar. El grupo de encuestadores inició las visitas a estos hogares y cuando alguno de ellos no cumplía los requisitos o no quería participar en el estudio, escogimos aleatoriamente un reemplazo en el listado inicial de 297 productores.Teniendo en cuenta que no sería posible identificar la dinámica de género dentro del hogar entrevistando a una mujer sola o un hombre solo, en este estudio entrevistamos a ambos miembros de la pareja en el hogar que se identificaron como responsables de tomar la mayoría de las decisiones relacionados con la producción agrícola y doméstica, en general (por ejemplo, compra de alimentos, gestión de ingresos, variedad de cultivos a plantar, entre otros). Hombres y mujeres son entrevistados juntos, pero también individualmente. Esta es la razón por la cual nuestra metodología incluye cinco componentes: dos cuestionarios (un cuestionario del hogar y un cuestionario individual), mediciones de altura y peso de hasta tres miembros del hogar, y dos experimentos de elección (uno con respecto a las preferencias laborales y otro relacionado con las elecciones de alimentos).El cuestionario de hogar incluye los temas de disponibilidad de alimentos, seguridad alimentaria, gastos y actividades económicas del hogar, características de la vivienda y acceso a servicios de educación, salud y financieros. Este debe ser contestado, idealmente, por ambos respondientes de manera conjunta. Sin embargo, si uno de ellos no puede estar presente durante toda la entrevista del hogar, se puede continuar con un solo respondiente. Por otra parte, el cuestionario individual incluye información relacionada con la toma de decisiones agrícolas, las percepciones sobre la alimentación, GuíaMetodológica el uso del tiempo, el acceso a capital y la pertenencia a grupos. Este cuestionario tiene que ser respondido por cada una de las personas que conforman la pareja, sin excepción alguna.Las medidas de tamaño y peso se toman después del cuestionario del hogar, tanto el hombre como la mujer de la pareja principal, así como un niño mayor de 6 meses y menor de 5 años, para hogares donde hay un niño con estas características. El experimento de preferencia laboral se responde individualmente justo después del cuestionario individual. Finalmente, el experimento de elección de alimentos tiene dos partes. La primera parte se responde por separado y la segunda parte conjuntamente por la pareja.Cuando en el hogar seleccionado existe más de un núcleo familiar, es decir, dos parejas que se autoidentifican como principales, se seleccionó aquel núcleo que toma la mayor parte de las decisiones al interior del hogar, o el núcleo reconocido como el principal por los demás miembros del hogar.Para implementar el estudio contratamos a Khanti, una empresa encuestadora local con amplia experiencia en la recolección de datos socioeconómicos y cualitativos, así como también en la toma de medidas de talla y peso. Trabajamos con ellos en tres fases: 1) fase de ajuste de instrumentos, 2) fase de entrenamiento de encuestadores, y 3) fase de implementación.En la primera fase, ellos ajustaron los instrumentos al lenguaje local e hicieron una prueba piloto para identificar la duración de la encuesta. Después, planeamos una capacitación a supervisores de campo para explicarles la encuesta, los objetivos del estudio y discutir las actividades de logística y zonas de trabajo. Durante esta capacitación hicimos una segunda prueba piloto la cual nos permitió ajustar los instrumentos.La segunda fase se centró en capacitar a los encuestadores. Teniendo en cuenta que se entrevistaría a la pareja principal (hombre y mujer) del hogar, le pedimos a Khanti que cada equipo de encuestadores estuviera compuesto por un hombre y una mujer. Los hombres entrevistaron a los hombres encuestados y las mujeres entrevistaron a las mujeres encuestadas. Esta dinámica es importante para facilitar una mayor confianza y apertura de los encuestados y obtener más información y de mejor calidad. Una vez que los entrevistadores fueron seleccionados, realizamos un taller de capacitación durante nueve (9) días. En este taller, no solo explicamos los objetivos y la metodología del estudio a los encuestadores, sino que también revisamos en detalle cada pregunta de los cuestionarios, así como las acciones a tomar ante las posibles situaciones que podrían surgir en el campo. La capacitación terminó con la realización de una prueba de campo que sirvió como el tercer piloto de los instrumentos.Después del entrenamiento, empezó la fase de recolección de la información, la cual se realizó principalmente en papel. Sin embargo, cada encuestador tenía una tableta para digitar las encuestas GuíaMetodológica realizadas 2 (ver sección 3.1), y las versiones en papel fueron escaneadas para conservar un copia de seguridad.Al finalizar la digitación de las encuestas, se realizó la limpieza y verificación de calidad de la información. Dentro de este proceso, se generaron bases de datos por cada módulo con sus respectivos identificadores de hogar y respondiente, así como también el libro de códigos, el cual contiene el nombre de cada variable, su descripción y estadísticos descriptivos básicos (promedio y tasa de respuesta). La Tabla 2 resume las actividades de campo. Las herramientas de recolección de datos incluyen cinco tipos de instrumentos: cuestionario de hogar, cuestionario individual (para la pareja principal), medidas antropométricas, y dos juegos de elección. Durante la entrevista, primero completamos el cuestionario del hogar, luego tomamos las medidas antropométricas, después hicimos la entrevista individual y finalmente se realizaron los dos juegos de elección.Los cuestionarios de hogar e individual indagan sobre las características del hogar, la toma de decisiones en el hogar, la producción agrícola, el uso del tiempo y el consumo de alimentos. Las GuíaMetodológica medidas antropométricas, la estatura y el peso buscan proporcionar información nutricional sobre la pareja principal entrevistada y también sobre los niños entre 6 meses y 5 años de edad. Por otro lado, los experimentos de elección tienen dos propósitos principales: (1) para contrastar la toma de decisiones en la selección de alimentos de hombres y mujeres (individual y en conjunto) bajo diferentes escenarios de ingresos y alimentación, y (2) comprender las preferencias laborales de hombres y mujeres entre trabajar en la agricultura o en actividades domésticas y tareas de cuidado. Para analizar el vínculo entre las normas de género, el uso del tiempo y la toma de decisiones en el hogar en torno al consumo de alimentos, analizamos conjuntamente los datos de los diferentes módulos e instrumentos.En el resto de esta sección, describimos con más detalle cada uno de los cinco instrumentos de recopilación de datos, y cómo se implementaron según las instrucciones dadas a los encuestadores, así como cualquier sugerencia para futuros estudios que investiguen temas similares.El cuestionario del hogar incluye una lista de hogares, que detalla la información sobre cada miembro del hogar, su ocupación e ingresos. También incluye módulos para capturar información sobre disponibilidad de alimentos, seguridad alimentaria, gastos de los hogares, caracterización de las parcelas, fuerza laboral en actividades agrícolas, venta de cultivos y animales, ingresos no agrícolas, acceso a servicios, características de vivienda y participación en programas.Previos estudios y la prueba piloto permitieron identificar el flujo de las preguntas, cuáles módulos requieren más tiempo y concentración por parte de los entrevistados, así como también aquellos que pueden ser más sensibles y con alto riesgo de no respuesta. Por lo tanto, el orden en el que los preguntamos cambió después de la última prueba piloto. Desafortunadamente la versión de los instrumentos usados para recolectar la información no refleja dichos cambios en numeración de los módulos. A continuación, presentamos cada módulo en el orden en que fueron preguntados en el estudio.Este módulo busca registrar datos que:• Identifican al hogar y a la encuesta con un código único (el cual se recoge en las preguntas A01 y A02) además de los datos de contacto de la persona que realiza la encuesta. • Identifican los encuestadores y supervisores.• La duración de la encuesta.• La localización (ubicación geográfica) del hogar. Equipos GPS fueron usados para capturar las coordenadas de la vivienda del productor.La información contenida en este módulo permite el análisis demográfico para caracterizar a las familias encuestadas. Cubre preguntas sobre sexo, edad, nivel educativo, estado civil, ocupación, entre otros, de todos los miembros del hogar. En este estudio utilizamos la misma definición de hogar GuíaMetodológica utilizada para el Índice de Empoderamiento de las Mujeres en la Agricultura (WEAI), las cual establece que:Un hogar es un grupo de personas que viven juntas y toman comida de la \"misma olla\". Un miembro del hogar es alguien que ha vivido en el hogar al menos 6 meses, y al menos la mitad de la semana en cada semana en esos meses. Incluso aquellas personas que no son parientes consanguíneos (como sirvientes, huéspedes o trabajadores agrícolas) son miembros del hogar si han permanecido en el hogar al menos 3 meses de los últimos 6 meses y toman alimentos de la \"misma olla\". Si alguien se queda en el mismo hogar, pero no tiene que pagar ningún costo por la comida o no toma alimentos de la misma olla, no se consideran miembros del hogar. Por ejemplo, si dos hermanos se quedan en la misma casa con sus familias, pero no comparten los costos de los alimentos y cocinan por separado, entonces se consideran dos hogares separados. En general, si una persona permanece más de 3 meses de los últimos 6 meses fuera del hogar, no se considera miembro del hogar. No los incluimos incluso si otros miembros del hogar los consideran miembros del hogar. Algunas excepciones a estas reglas son: considerar como miembro del hogar: un recién nacido menor de 3 meses. Alguien que se ha unido al hogar a través del matrimonio hace menos de 3 meses. Los sirvientes, los huéspedes y los trabajadores agrícolas actualmente en el hogar y permanecerán en el hogar por un período más largo, pero llegaron hace menos de 3 meses. No considerar como miembro del hogar: una persona que murió muy recientemente, aunque permaneció más de 3 meses en los últimos 6 meses. Alguien que dejó el hogar porque contrajo matrimonio hace menos de 3 meses. Sirvientes, inquilinos y trabajadores agrícolas que se quedaron más de 3 meses en los últimos 6 meses, pero se fueron permanentemente (IFPRI y ARU, 2015: p. 3-4).Este módulo también asigna a cada miembro del hogar un identificador (ID), que será usado para responder muchas de las preguntas a lo largo de ambos cuestionarios. No obstante, considerando que otras personas (no miembros del hogar) pueden estar involucradas en las actividades del hogar, construimos los siguientes códigos generales:51-Todos los miembros del hogar 52-Hombre no miembro del hogar (pariente) 53-Mujer no miembro del hogar (pariente) 54-Hombre no miembro del hogar (no pariente) 55-Mujer no miembro del hogar (no pariente) 56-Gobierno u otra institución 57-Niños(as) presentesLa población de estudio incluye tanto indígenas como mestizos, si bien en los cuestionarios no incluimos preguntas sobre la etnicidad de cada miembro del hogar, tuvimos una pregunta sobre el idioma que hablan, la cual puede ser usada como proxy para determinar la pertenencia de cada persona u hogar a un grupo etnico indígena.Aunque en las zonas visitadas no hay multiplicidad de etnicidades, nuestros datos no permiten corroborar esta información pues no incluimos variables que nos permitieran identificar a los miembros del hogar. Sugerimos que en otros estudios sea incluida una variable de etnicidad para así poder explorar potenciales diferencias entre diferentes grupos. GuíaMetodológicaLas preguntas de ocupación solo fueron hechas para los miembros del hogar mayores de 10 años de edad pues esta es la mínima edad que usan los departamentos de estadística de Guatemala. Sugerimos que en otros estudios se ajuste la edad mínima de acuerdo con el contexto del país.Los ingresos en nuestro estudio no representan una medida de pobreza. Reconocemos que existen varios problemas en la recolección de datos de ingresos en áreas rurales y específicamente en la agricultura; por lo tanto, los datos de ingresos deben usarse con precaución para estimar los indicadores de pobreza/bienestar. La pregunta de ingresos se incluyó exclusivamente para tener un valor de referencia en el experimento de elegir preferencias laborales (ver sección 2.4). GuíaMetodológica Tabla 3. Instrumento de recolección de información para el HDDS.1. Ahora quisiera preguntarle sobre los tipos de alimentos que usted o cualquiera de los miembros de su familia comieron durante el día de ayer y en la noche. Luego, para calcular el indicador clasificamos los productos del listado de acuerdo a los grupos de alimentos establecidos en el HDDS tal como se muestra en la Tabla 5 y solo usamos la pregunta E04 (¿Su hogar consumió [...] ayer?)Tabla 5. Productos en el instrumento de este estudio agrupados de acuerdo al HDDS estándar.Pan blanco, pan dulce, galletas, tortillas de maíz, maseca, tamales de maíz, chuchitos, Incaparina en polvo, Incaparina líquida, mosh, avenas, harina de trigo (para pastelería, pancakes, etc.), atol de maíz, arroz, elote (blanco, amarillo, etc.), fideos, tallarines, coditos, pastas de toda clase, tostadas con guacamole, frijol, Tortrix, Ricitos, nachos, tamales colorados/negros.Otros posibles: Corazón de trigo, atol de masa, atol mosh, cereal, tortas de pan, vitacereal, maíz, arroz con cáscara, atol de arroz, café de cereales, pinol de maíz, arroz con leche Raíces y Tubérculos (Grupo B) Atole de plátano (en estado líquido), papas/yuca, plátanos.Otros posibles: Rábano, camote, atol de malanga, nabo.Tomate, cebolla, chiles (pimiento, jalapeño, chiltepe, etc.), repollo/lechuga, zanahoria, güisquil, pepino, remolacha, ajo, hierbas (hierba mora, berro, perejil, cilantro, hierbabuena, etc.), apio, arveja, brócoli / coliflor, ejotes, güicoy.Otros posibles: Ayote, cebolla con hojas, pacaya, loroco, ayotes, pacayas, hojas de frijol.Bananos/guineos, naranjas, piñas, manzanas, sandías, mangos, limones, aguacates, papayas.Otros posibles: Guayaba, lima, mandarina, limón fresas, papayas, toronja, sincuya.Carne, Pollo, Despojos (Grupo E) Carne de res sin hueso, carne de res con hueso, carne de cerdo sin hueso, carne de cerdo con hueso, vísceras, carne de pollo o gallina, embutidos (jamón, salchichas, chorizo, longaniza), chicharrones o carnitas de cerdo, tamales colorados/negros. Azúcar, panela o rapadura, miel, aguas gaseosas, jugos empacados o enlatados, helados/granizados, chocolate en barra (para bebida), chocolate en polvo (para bebida), dulces de toda clase, bolsitas o galguerías.Sopas en sobre o instantáneas (Maggi, Knorr, Malher, etc.), salsas (inglesa, natura, la chula, regia, etc.), consomés, sazonadores, ablandadores, sal, café (en grano, molido, instantáneo), tamales colorados/negros.Otros posibles: Salsa dulce, chiltepe, esplenda, gelatinas, canela, laurel, arroz con leche.En la sección 3.2.2 presentamos información más detallada sobre el HDDS, la metodología para su estimación usando la información recolectada y el tipo de resultados que se pueden obtener.Con las preguntas de este módulo se busca medir la prevalencia de la inseguridad alimentaria de los hogares usando la Escala de Acceso de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Hogar (HFIAS) (Coates, et al., 2007). Se debe tener en cuenta que las preguntas consideran la situación de todos los miembros del grupo familiar de manera conjunta y no hacen distinción entre adultos, niños o adolescentes. Por tanto, es imprescindible que la persona entrevistada responda en nombre de todos los miembros del hogar. Los detalles sobre esta escala y su cálculo los presentamos en la sección 3.2.4.El propósito de este módulo es estimar los gastos del hogar. Para ello, establecimos una lista de gastos en productos y servicios en tres temporalidades: semana pasada, mes pasado y últimos meses y preguntamos si el hogar había incurrido en dicho gasto. Entre los gastos incluimos transporte, salud, educación, ocio y construcción.Este módulo tiene la intención de capturar información sobre todas las parcelas que utiliza el hogar para actividades agrícolas y caracterizar brevemente la producción y los ingresos obtenidos por estas. Esto incluye la producción de cultivos y la cría de animales. También incluimos preguntas sobre el GuíaMetodológica trabajo familiar, para identificar los roles de los miembros del hogar en diferentes actividades del ciclo productivo, y los ingresos no agrícolas, como alquileres, negocios o remesas.También incluimos una pregunta para estimar el indicador de Meses de Aprovisionamiento Adecuado de Alimentos en el Hogar (MAHFP). Adaptamos el instrumento desarrollado por Bilinsky y Swindale (2010) en el marco del proyecto FANTA para estimar este indicador. Su herramienta original pregunta si el hogar no logró atender las necesidades alimentarias de todos sus miebros y los meses en que esto sucedió. En nuestro estudio, indagamos directamente sobre los meses más críticos en los que había escasez de alimentos o recursos en el hogar. Si hubo alguno, el entrevistado indicó qué meses y, de lo contrario, se marcó la opción 'ninguno' para indicar que en los últimos 12 meses no hubo mes de escasez. Hacerlo de esta manera no implica cambios en el cálculo del indicador; sin embargo, facilita la recopilación de información y optimiza el uso del espacio en la encuesta. La Tabla 6 muestra el instrumento para estimar el MAHFP estándar, mientras que la Tabla 7 muestra la forma en que preguntamos en este estudio. En la sección 3.2.3 presentamos la metodología para calcular este indicador y los resultados preliminares utilizando la información recopilada en nuestra población de estudio. Tabla 6. Instrumento de recolección de información para el MAHFP.Ahora quisiera preguntarle sobre el suministro de alimentos del hogar durante diferentes meses del año. Al responder estas preguntas, reflexione sobre los ultimos 12 meses, remontándose a este mismo periodo del año pasado.1. ¿Hubo algún mes dentro de los ultimos doce en los que no tuvieron suficientes alimentos para satisfacer las necesidades de la familia?ESCRIBA  El objetivo central de este módulo es obtener información sobre las características físicas de la vivienda, así como el acceso a diferentes tipos de infraestructura/servicios como escuela, centro de salud, etc. Estos datos sirven de insumo para estimar las condiciones de vida y niveles de bienestar del hogar, usando el Índice de Probabilidad de Pobreza (PPI) y la medida de Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas (NBI) del hogar. En la sección 3.2.5 explicamos estos indicadores y los pasos para calcularlos. GuíaMetodológica En nuestro estudio, distribuimos las 10 preguntas de la herramienta en el módulo con el que estaba relacionada. Por ejemplo, la pregunta 1 no fue hecha directamente, sino que se induce del módulo B sobre las características de los miembros del hogar. Las preguntas 2 y 3 sobre condiciones de la vivienda fueron incluidas en el módulo F del cuestionario del hogar, y las preguntas sobre activos en el módulo E del cuestionario individual.Este módulo captura las mediciones antropométricas (peso y talla) tomadas al hombre y mujer principal del hogar, así como también a un niño(a) mayor de 6 meses y menor de 5 años de edad, para hogares donde haya un niño con estas características. Cuando hay varios niños en este rango de edad, las medidas las tomamos para el menor de ellos. Usualmente en los estudios de nutrición, se toman las medidas antropométricas a mujeres y niños únicamente. En este estudio, también pesamos y medimos a los hombres con el objetivo de analizar cómo la antropometría de ellos está correlacionada con la de las mujeres y niños, y con el HDDS y/u opciones de comida.Cuando se recolecta información de peso y talla, los encuestadores deben estar debidamente certificados y capacitados en el uso de los equipos y los estándares establecidos para la toma mediciones antropométricas. En nuestro estudio, trabajamos junto a Kanthi para asegurar que los encuestadores tenían dicha certificación otorgada por el Instituto de Nutrición de Centroamérica y Panamá (INCAP) 4 .En este cuestionario entrevistamos a la mujer y el hombre que conforman la pareja principal del hogar separadamente. El objetivo principal es determinar su grado de empoderamiento usando una serie de preguntas que permiten calcular el Índice Abreviado de Empoderamiento de la Mujer en Agricultura (A-WEAI). En general, las preguntas abordan temas sobre la toma de decisiones productivas y el uso de ingresos; el acceso y la propiedad de recursos; la pertenencia a grupos sociales y económicos; y la distribución de tiempo en actividades domésticas y productivas. La mayoría de preguntas en el cuestionario individual usan el identificador (ID) asignado a cada miembro del hogar en el módulo B del cuestionario de hogar, así como también los códigos generales.Este módulo busca registrar datos que permitan: Identificar al hogar, la encuesta y el respondiente con un código único. Estos tres identificadores corresponden a los mismos registrados en el Módulo A del cuestionario hogar. Así, durante la fase de análisis se podrán combinar respuestas individuales con las características del hogar.  Documentar la presencia de otras personas duante la entrevista. Este es para recolectar información para construir variables de control sobre información sesgada que puede resultar por el hecho de que otras personas escuchen la entrevista.El propósito de este módulo es obtener información sobre los roles de hombres y mujeres en la toma de decisiones en torno a las actividades generadoras de ingresos. Todas las preguntas incluidas sirven para estimar el A-WEAI y, por lo tanto, corresponden al cuestionario prediseñado por el Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI). No obstante, algunas preguntas fueron adaptadas usando el lenguaje local con el fin de facilitar la comprensión de las mismas tanto para los encuestadores como para los entrevistados. Adicionalmente, se modificaron las opciones de respuesta de algunas preguntas; en lugar de usar categorías de respuestas predefinidas, usamos preguntas abiertas e identificadores individuales de miembros del hogar para luego clasificar las respuestas como las categorías de respuestas A-WEAI originales. La Tabla 9 presenta las variaciones entre las preguntas pre-diseñadas por IFPRI y la versión que usamos en el estudio. Estas modificaciones no generan ningún impacto negativo en la estimación de los indicadores e índices, pues igual permiten construir las categorías sugeridas por IFPRI; sin embargo, estos también nos permiten identificar a cada tomador de decisiones y sus características específicas que se han capturado en el módulo B del cuestionario de hogares.  En la sección 3.2.6 presentamos información detallada sobre el A-WEAI, la metodología para su construcción, sus alcances y algunos resultados de nuestro estudio.Este módulo recopila información para comprender los comportamientos sobre la dieta familiar. Incluye preguntas sobre la persona a cargo de preparar los alimentos, la satisfacción con la cantidad consumida, las diferencias entre los miembros del hogar en términos de patrones de alimentación, incluidas las preferencias/restricciones dietéticas y los horarios de comidas, y la asistencia a capacitaciones sobre alimentación saludable y prevención de enfermedades digestivas.La forma en que los principales tomadores de decisiones distribuyen su tiempo impacta significativamente el nivel de vida del hogar. Mayor tiempo dedicado a actividades productivas podría implicar un mayor ingreso en el hogar, pero también menos tiempo en actividades de cuidado, incluidas las actividades de preparación de alimentos y saneamiento, y como tal podría tener un efecto adverso sobre la nutrición. Es por esto que este módulo recoge información acerca de cómo el hombre y mujer principal del hogar distribuyen y usan su tiempo entre diferentes actividades productivas, domésticas y de ocio, entre otras. La información de este módulo es insumo para estimar el A-WEAI. Sin embargo, la forma en que la preguntamos difiere del instrumento prediseñado por IFPRI como se observa en las tablas 10 y 11. Dichos cambios fueron hechos para facilitar la entrevista y el manejo de los datos, y no representan ninguna dificultad para estimar el indicador.Tabla 10. Instrumento prediseñado por IFPRI para recolectar información sobre el uso del tiempo.Fuente: IFPRI (2013) GuíaMetodológicaTabla 11. Módulo D sobre asignación del tiempo en el cuestionario individual.Fuente: Twyman, et al. ( 2018)Tanto el acceso al crédito como a otros recursos productivos, han sido identificados como unos de los mayores limitantes de los hogares rurales para incrementar su productividad y mejorar sus condiciones de vida. Por lo tanto, en este módulo se captura información sobre préstamos y el nivel de endeudamiento de los hogares y sus restricciones para acceder a créditos, así como también sobre la tenencia de equipos agrícolas y activos del hogar. Los datos de este módulo son insumos para el cálculo de dos índices: el A-WEAI y el PPI.Dentro de los activos productivos necesarios para calcular el A-WEAI se requiere información a nivel individual sobre la propiedad de tierra agrícola, ganado grande y pequeño, aves de corral y peces, entre otros. Si bien en el cuestionario individual no incluimos estos recursos, tuvimos la pregunta en el cuestionario del hogar, la cual puede ser usada como proxy para determinar la propiedad de estos activos. No obstante, sugerimos que en otros estudios sea incluido todo el listado de recursos en el cuestionario individual, tal como propone IFPRI, para así poder explorar potenciales diferencias intrahogar entre el hombre y la mujer principal.Modificamos algunas de las categorías de preguntas y respuestas relacionadas con el acceso al crédito y al capital productivo para A-WEAI; en lugar de usar categorías de respuestas predefinidas sobre los propietarios, usamos preguntas abiertas e identificadores individuales de miembros del hogar para luego clasificar las respuestas como las categorías de respuestas A-WEAI originales. De esta manera, podemos relacionar las características demográficas que se han capturado en el módulo B del cuestionario del hogar, como la edad, la escolaridad, el estado civil, etc., de todos los propietarios/tomadores de decisiones. Además, en el caso de los activos productivos, el cambio permite identificar quién es el propietario y no solo la participación del entrevistado en la propiedad del GuíaMetodológica activo. Con esta información, además de calcular el A-WEAI, podemos comprender mejor la desigualdad de los activos y la riqueza dentro del hogar. La Tabla 12 presenta las variaciones entre las preguntas prediseñadas por IFPRI y la versión que utilizamos en el estudio.Tabla 12. Preguntas pre-diseñadas e implementadas en el estudio. El propósito de este módulo es obtener información sobre el acceso del hombre y la mujer principal del hogar al capital social. Esto es, la participación en grupos formales, informales o tradicionales. Además, la información de pertenencia a grupos es necesaria para calcular el A-WEAI.Este juego permite no solo analizar las preferencias laborales de hombres y mujeres entre las actividades agrícolas y las tareas domésticas, sino también identificar los salarios de reserva a los que puede haber un cambio en esas preferencias. Además, nos ayuda a comprender las normas de género y cómo los miembros del hogar deciden cómo usar su tiempo. GuíaMetodológica 3. Con base en la información registrada, se pregunta al encuestado la primera ronda, reemplazando los valores correspondientes en la pregunta. Si la respuesta es trabajo agrícola, marque con una 'X' en la columna \"Elección\" la letra 'A' como se ve en la siguiente imagen. Esperar la respuesta del entrevistado y seguir con la misma dinámica hasta que la respuesta cambie, es decir, que el encuestado prefiera las labores domésticas. En este caso, marcar con una 'X' en la columna \"Elección\" la letra 'B', como muestra el siguiente ejemplo, y pasar a la ronda 2. Es posible que el encuestado nunca cambie su preferencia, por esto, es indispensable continuar con la dinámica hasta terminar todas las filas de cada ronda antes de pasar a la siguiente. La única excepción es cuando la preferencia cambia antes de completar toda la ronda, como en el ejemplo presentado. En este caso no se debe seguir con esa ronda sino pasar a la siguiente hasta completar las cinco.El objetivo de este módulo es proporcionar información sobre las preferencias de alimentos que tienen los hombres y mujeres principales (con una restricción presupuestal). El experimento es realizado con el hombre y la mujer, por separado, y también con la pareja junta. Es importante resaltar que, durante el muestreo, aleatoriamente se seleccionó un grupo de hogares que escucharían una grabación con información nutricional. La grabación fue reproducida antes de iniciar el cuestionario individual y tenía el siguiente mensaje que es un resumen de la \"Olla Familiar\", la cual es la guía para una alimentación saludable en Guatemala (MSPAS, 2012):Para tener una buena alimentación debemos conocer los grupos de alimentos, cuáles son sus funciones en el cuerpo y como combinarlos entre todos. Para esto les voy a explicar los grupos de alimentos según la \"Olla familiar\". En la base de la olla se encuentran los alimentos energéticos, que son la tortilla, el pan, el arroz. Todos estos alimentos nos proporcionan energía. El siguiente grupo de alimentos está conformado por los protectores, que son las frutas y verduras, estos alimentos nos dan vitaminas y minerales que ayudan a proteger el cuerpo. El siguiente grupo de alimentos está conformado por los formadores, que son todas las carnes y los lácteos, estos alimentos nos proporcionan proteínas que nos ayudan a formar músculo. Arriba de la olla podemos observar las grasas y los azúcares, estas debemos consumirlas en poca cantidad. Entonces, para tener una alimentación adecuada y variada, debemos consumir un alimento de cada grupo. Por ejemplo, podemos consumir una tortilla que es un alimento energético, un huevo que es un alimento formador y hierbas que son un alimento protector. Así, logramos una alimentación, variada balanceada y buena. (Estrada, et al., 2018) GuíaMetodológicaEl experimento está compuesto por tres secciones y cada una de ellas tiene dos rondas. Las secciones corresponden a tres niveles de ingresos hipotéticos (50, 75 y 100 Quetzales), 6 mientras que las rondas se refieren al tipo de alimentos que se deben escoger. En la primera ronda, la elección es entre comidas (y bebidas) únicamente y en la segunda, se amplían las opciones incluyendo productos noalimentarios (de belleza y aseo personal, aseo de la casa y entretenimiento).Para implementar el experimento de forma individual se deben seguir los siguientes pasos:1. Establezca si los encuestados en el hogar escucharon la grabación o no con información nutricional. En el módulo A del cuestionario individual, hay una variable que identifica si el hogar recibió el mensaje. 2. Haga que el entrevistado elija al azar una de las tres tarjetas que contienen un ingreso hipotético para el primer conjunto de opciones. 3. Una vez el entrevistado elija la tarjeta inicia la primera ronda del experimento. Es decir, debe elegir cómo distribuir el ingreso seleccionado entre los alimentos de la Tabla 13. Una vez haya terminado esta distribución, él/ella debe redistribuir el mismo ingreso entre los productos de la Tabla 13 y también los de la Tabla 14, esto es, la segunda ronda del experimento. Es importante resaltar que la elección hecha entre solo alimentos es independiente de la elección entre productos que incluyen alimentos y otros artículos. 4. Cuando el entrevistado haya hecho sus elecciones, se le enseñan las dos tarjetas de ingresos restantes para que él/ella elija una. Después, repetimos el proceso del paso dos y finalmente, se completa el experimento cuando se han usado las tres tarjetas de ingreso.Para construir el listado de productos usamos como referencia la canasta básica de Guatemala, elaborada por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE). Esta canasta está compuesta por alimentos que cubren los requerimientos mínimos de energía, proteína y grasa para una familia de aproximadamente 5 personas (INE, 2018). Además, nos aseguramos de que los alimentos fueran relevantes para los sitios de estudio al considerar los patrones dietéticos, el poder adquisitivo, la disponibilidad y los precios a nivel local. Además de los alimentos, en un segundo momento incluimos también productos no-alimentarios, para ver cómo las elecciones cambian cuando el entrevistado tiene los dos tipos de opciones, alimentarios y no-alimentarios. Los listados finales están mostrados en las siguientes tablas: GuíaMetodológica Tabla 13. Alimentos.Tabla 14. Otros productos (no alimentos)Nota: Después de que el hombre y la mujer completan el experimento de elección individualmente, lo repiten juntos. Sin embargo, dadas las limitaciones de tiempo, el experimento de elección conjuntaAlimentos GuíaMetodológica solo incluyó el hipotético nivel de ingresos de 50 quetzales. De esta forma, para implementarlo, solo se debe llevar a cabo el paso 2 presentado en la versión individual.A continuación, se presenta un ejemplo que ilustra cómo se debe preguntar y registrar la información.Encuestador: Le voy a pedir que por favor elija una de estas tres tarjetas (para el ejemplo vamos a asumir que la tarjeta seleccionada es la de 75 quetzales)Encuestador: Ahora usted VA A IMAGINAR que no tiene NADA de comida DISPONIBLE en su casa y quiere comprar algunos productos para ALIMENTAR A SU FAMILIA EN UN DIA, con esos 75 quetzales. Entonces, usted va a despegar del cartel el producto que quiere y lo va a poner en su 'bolsita de mercado' (para el ejemplo asumamos que elige arroz) Este proceso se debe continuar hasta que el entrevistado haya distribuido los 75 quetzales. Después el encuestador debe volver a poner todos los alimentos y productos en el cartel y pedirle al entrevistado que elija una tarjeta de ingresos entre los dos restantes y empezará la nueva sección.Toda esta información se debe registrar en la hoja de elección tal como aparece en la siguiente imagen: El TIPO debe marcar con un \"X\" si es individual o conjuntaEn RONDA debe escribir el número de ronda. La ronda está compuesta por 1 y 2 y el nivel de ingreso como se puede ver en la imagen. 1 representa la ronda de comida y 2 representa la ronda de comida + productos. GuíaMetodológicaAhora vamos a llamar a su esposo(a) para que ustedes de forma conjunta hagan compras hipotéticas.Encuestador: Ahora ustedes VAN A IMAGINAR que no tienen NADA de comida DISPONIBLE en su casa y quieren comprar algunos productos para SU FAMILIA EN UN DIA. Ustedes tienen 50 quetzales para gastar. Van a despegar del cartel el producto que quieren y lo van a poner en su 'bolsita de mercado' (para el ejemplo asumamos que eligen arroz)Encuestador: ¿cuántas libras de arroz van a comprar? Entrevistado: 2 libras Encuestador: ¿cuánto les cuesta la libra? Entrevistado: 10 quetzales Encuestador: Entonces ustedes están gastando 20 Q. le quedan disponibles 30 Q. ¿Qué otra cosa va a comprar?Este proceso se debe continuar hasta que la pareja haya distribuido los 50 quetzales y después el encuestador debe volver a poner todos los alimentos en el cartel y agregar los otros productos (Tabla 14) para empezar con la última ronda.Entrega del cupón: Para agregar un elemento de elección real al experimento, también le dimos a la pareja un cupón para comprar alimentos y artículos no alimentarios en una tienda local, con la intención de que lo usen para comprar algunos de los artículos que eligieron durante el experimento. Al final del experimento, un cupón por valor de 50 quetzales fue entregado conjuntamente a la pareja. Esto aseguró que ambos conocieran el cupón y pudieran decidir juntos cómo usarlo (aunque dada la dinámica de poder dentro del hogar y/o la división de roles, esta tarea podría ser realizada por uno de los cónyuges u otro). Este cupón podría usarse para comprar alimentos y/o artículos no alimentarios en una tienda local autorizada, dentro de un período no mayor a 15 días desde la entrevista. También recopilamos información sobre las opciones compradas con el cupón en las tiendas locales. La siguiente declaración fue leída al dar el cupón a la pareja.\"Gracias por tomarse su tiempo y esfuerzo para responder a esta encuesta. Nos gustaría darle este cupón con un valor de 50 quetzales para comprar cualquier producto que elija en la tienda [NOMBRE]. El cupón tiene un plazo hasta [FECHA], después de esta fecha ya no es válido\".En este estudio, originalmente planeamos usar tabletas para recopilar datos, pero debido a los cambios de última hora en algunos de los instrumentos, específicamente los experimentos de elección y también la falta de espacio para escribir notas, lo cual era importante para que el equipo entendiera las ventajas y las desventajas de cada instrumento, se utilizaron encuestas en papel. La programación de las tabletas, utilizando el programa CSPro, finalizó después de comenzar la recopilación de datos y, por lo tanto, solicitamos a los encuestadores que ingresaran los datos en las tabletas al final de la fase de recopilación de datos. La programación incluía no solo verificaciones de consistencia sino también filtros y categorías para las variables. Esto permitió que el proceso de digitalización también fuera el primer filtro de calidad de la información. GuíaMetodológicaEl segundo filtro de calidad o limpieza de datos se llevó a cabo en un periodo de 3 meses. Durante este tiempo, cada sección de la encuesta fue revisada separadamente y luego se generaron bases de datos para cada módulo teniendo en cuenta el nivel al que se hicieron las preguntas. Por ejemplo, para el módulo C del hogar se crearon 5 sub-bases: a nivel de parcela (que cubre desde la pregunta C02 hasta la C06); a nivel de cultivo (pregunta C07 hasta C16); por miembro del hogar (pregunta C17 hasta C20); por cultivo principal (pregunta C21 hasta C25); y por hogar (desde C26 hasta la pregunta C32). Cada una de las bases cuenta con variables indicadoras de hogar y respondiente, y las del módulo C cuentan además con un identificador para la parcela. Estas variables, permiten unir módulos y manipular mejor la información para los respectivos análisis.Una vez limpios los datos y creadas las respectivas bases, se generó el libro de códigos. Este contiene información detallada de cada una de las variables incluidas: nombre de variable, descripción general y descripciones de categoría de respuesta. Para garantizar la confidencialidad de los participantes, toda la información de identificación se eliminó de las bases de datos.En el estudio incluimos varias métricas e índices comunes en estudios de agricultura, pobreza y bienestar, seguridad alimentaria y nutrición y empoderamiento de la mujer. En esta sección, explicamos detalladamente cada uno de ellos con especial énfasis en la metodología para calcularlos y algunos ejemplos del tipo de resultados que se puede generar. Primero, discutimos los indicadores relaciones con el estado nutricional (IMC, desnutrición crónica). Luego, los indicadores de seguridad alimentaria (HDDS, MAHFP, HFIAS), seguidos por los indicadores de pobreza y bienestar (PPI, NBI). Finalmente, presentamos el indicador del empoderamiento de la mujer en agricultura (A-WEIA).Las métricas que usamos para analizar los datos antropométricos fueron el Índice de Masa Corporal (IMC) para los adultos, y el Indicador de desnutrición crónica o retraso en el crecimiento para los niños entre 6 meses y 5 años de edad. El IMC permite valorar el estado nutricional de un adulto, es decir la desnutrición, el sobrepeso y la obesidad. Para su estimación se requiere el peso y la altura de cada persona. Para calcular el IMC se deben seguir los siguientes pasos:1. Calcular el promedio de las medidas realizadas durante el estudio, tanto de altura como de peso para cada individuo. 2. Convertir las medidas de longitud a metros. 3. Convertir las unidades de masa a kilogramos. (En nuestro estudio la información de talla fue recolectada en centímetros, y la de peso en kilogramos pues este es el sistema métrico de Guatemala). 4. Dividir el peso en kilos de cada individuo por el cuadrado de su talla en metros.La prevalencia de niños con retraso en el crecimiento en el oeste fue del 44%, mientras que la prevalencia de niños con bajo peso fue del 9%. En el este, uno de dos niños presentó retraso en el crecimiento y el 11% tenía bajo peso. (Cosenza, et al., 2019) El Puntaje de la Diversidad Dietética en el Hogar (HDDS) fue desarrollado por Swindale y Bilinsky en el marco del Proyecto de Asistencia Técnica sobre Alimentos y Nutrición (FANTA), con el fin de facilitar la recolección de datos sobre alimentos consumidos de una manera rápida, fácil de usar y a bajo costo. El HDDS mide la diversidad dietética del hogar como un proxy del acceso a alimentos en el hogar, es decir, que es una medida indirecta de la capacidad económica de un hogar para acceder a una variedad de alimentos (Swindale y Bilinsky, 2006;Kennedy, et al., 2013). El HDDS define la diversidad como el número de grupos de alimentos consumidos en el hogar en las 24 horas previas a la realización de la encuesta. Esta definición se basa en la consideración de que el consumo de grupos diferentes de alimentos implica que la dieta del hogar posee cierta diversidad en macronutrientes y micronutrientes. Así, el HDDS usa los siguientes 12 grupos de alimentos:1. Cereales 2. Raíces y tubérculos 3. Verduras 4. Frutas 5. Carne de pollo, despojos 6. Huevos 7. Pescado y mariscos 8. Legumbres, leguminosas, frutos secos 9. Leche y porductos lácteos 10. Aceites y grasas 11. Azúcar y miel 12. Alimentos diversos Para la estimación del HDDS, Swindale y Bilinsky (2006) desarrollaron un instrumento basado en preguntar si algún miembro de la familia consumió cada uno de los grupos de alimentos el día anterior. Las preguntas se dirigen al hogar en general y no a cada miembro de la familia. Aunque los grupos utilizados son un estándar, es posible utilizar una lista 'extendida', como hicimos en nuestro estudio, en la que los grupos están divididos. Por ejemplo, en lugar de tener una categoría de fruta, podemos Desnutrición (IMC <18.5) Normal (IMC 18.5-24.9) Sobrepeso (IMC 25.0 -29.9) Obesidad (IMC >30.0) GuíaMetodológica tener una lista de frutas comunes en los sitios de estudio. Esto no afecta el indicador, porque se puede reagrupar las frutas nuevamente para formar el grupo. 7Para estimar el HDDS basta con generar 12 variables dicotómicas, una para cada grupo de alimento, las cuales toman el valor de 1 si el hogar consumió algún alimento dentro ese grupo y cero en el otro caso. Y después, agregar dichas variables. El HDSS vendrá dado por:Donde j es hogar e i el grupo de alimentos. El HDDS toma valores entre 0 y 12. En la medida que el indicador tome un valor más cercano a 12, significa que el hogar tiene una dieta más diversa.Una vez estimado el puntaje por hogar, calcular el promedio de la población del estudio, el cual es el indicador:\uD835\uDC41ú\uD835\uDC5A\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC5C \uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC59 \uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC52 ℎ\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC60 (\uD835\uDC5B)Una de las limitaciones de esta medida es que solo permite obtener una medición a nivel de hogar y se desconoce la dieta habitual a nivel individual. Por otro lado, al ser un recordatorio de 24, la información recolectada es más precisa y de fácil procesamiento y análisis.La población estudiada consume 7.4 grupos de alimentos. En Oriente, este promedio es significativamente inferior a Occidente, 7.1 y 7.6 respectivamente. Si bien, el indicador nos muestra el número de grupos promedio consumidos, no nos dice nada acerca de qué tan adecuado es el valor obtenido. Por lo tanto, para clasificar los hogares, seguimos una metodología similar a la de Carbajal (2014) para determinar diferentes niveles de HDDS mediante el uso de HDDS promedio de los dos terciles más altos de HDDS. Es decir, el 33% de los hogares con el HDDS más alto tenían un puntaje promedio de 9 grupos de alimentos. El segundo tercil tenía un HDDS promedio de 7 grupos de alimentos. De esta forma establecimos las siguientes categorías: a. Adecuado: HDDS ≥ 9 b. Aceptable: 7 ≤ HDDS < 9 c. Poca variedad: HDDS < 7Siguiendo esta clasificación, el 46% de los hogares entrevistados tiene un HDDS aceptable. El 29.6% presenta una dieta poco variada durante el periodo de referencia y el 24.4% tiene un HDDS adecuado. (Lopera, et al., 2019) GuíaMetodológicaLos Meses de Aprovisionamiento Adecuado de Alimentos en el Hogar (MAHFP), desarrollado también en el marco del proyecto FANTA, es un indicador de impacto de acceso a los alimentos que permite capturar cambios en la capacidad del hogar para tener provisiones durante el año y además identificar los meses más críticos para ellos. (Bilinsky and Swindale, 2010).La guía 8 de implementación del indicador MAHFP sugiere realizar la recolección de los datos durante el período de mayor escasez alimentaria (por ejemplo, antes de la cosecha). Pues de esta manera se lograr identificar en forma más precisa los meses en los que hubo escasez de alimentos en el hogar. El periodo de referencia recomendado son los 12 meses previos al momento de la entrevista. Por tanto, se deben ajustar los meses según el momento en que se realice el estudio para que aparezca primero el mes en curso. Nuestra encuesta se realizó en noviembre y diciembre justo antes de la cosecha de café (un cultivo comercial), pero durante la cosecha de maíz y frijoles (cultivos alimentarios). Por lo tanto, no recopilamos los datos durante el período de mayor escasez de alimentos como se recomienda, pero capturamos meses de inseguridad alimentaria que corresponden a los meses anteriores a la cosecha de cultivos alimentarios.Para calcular el indicador, basta con restar de 12 el número de meses en los que el hogar no pudo satisfacer las necesidades alimenticias de la familia. Esto es:Luego, se calcula una media para todos los hogares que participaron en la muestra, incluyendo aquellos que no tuvieron ningún mes de escasez de alimentos:\uD835\uDC41ú\uD835\uDC5A\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC5C \uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC59 \uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC52 ℎ\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC60 (\uD835\uDC5B) Adecuado (HDDS ≥ 9 grupos de alimentos) Aceptable (7 ≤ HDDS < 9) poca variedad (HDDS<7 grupos de alimentos) GuíaMetodológicaEn los últimos 12 meses el 93.2% de los hogares entrevistados tuvieron algún mes en el que no hubo alimentos suficientes para satisfacer las necesidades de la familia.De acuerdo con el MAHFP, los hogares en promedio tuvieron 8.9 meses con acceso normal a alimentos para satisfacer sus necesidades. Esto implica que, en el año, 3 meses fueron críticos. Como se observa en la gráfica, dichos meses fueron abril, mayo y junio principalmente. Si bien este análisis sugiere que no hay diferencias en los meses más críticos entre las regiones oriental y occidental, existen diferencias por meses entre las regiones. (Lopera, et al., 2019)  El Indicador de Escala de Acceso de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Hogar (HFIAS) mide la prevalencia de la inseguridad alimentaria en los hogares. Este indicador también fue desarrollado por el proyecto FANTA y consta de tres dominios de preguntas de inseguridad alimentaria: 1) ansiedad e incertidumbre sobre el suministro alimentario en el hogar, 2) calidad insuficiente e ingesta insuficiente de alimentos y 3) consecuencias físicas. Cada pregunta tiene dos partes: ocurrencia y frecuencia. Las preguntas de ocurrencia preguntan si algunas de las situaciones planteadas, asociadas con la inseguridad alimentaria, ocurrieron en algún momento durante las últimas cuatro semanas (30 días).Por el contrario, las de frecuencia preguntan sobre el número de días en que ocurrió esa situación en el mismo período (Coates, et al., 2007). Todas las preguntas consideran la situación de todos los miembros del grupo familiar y no hacen distinción entre adultos, niños o adolescentes. Por tanto, es imprescindible que la persona entrevistada conteste en nombre del hogar y de todos sus miembros. Idealmente, las preguntas deberían dirigirse a la persona del grupo familiar que esté más relacionada con la preparación de los alimentos y comidas. La Tabla 15 presenta las preguntas incluidas en el instrumento para la implementación del HFIAS 9 y las agrupa de acuerdo al dominio.Tabla 15. Preguntas y dominios del Indicador de Escala de Acceso a la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Hogar (HFIAS) P7. En los últimos 30 días, ¿alguna vez no hubo absolutamente ningún tipo de alimento en su hogar debido a la falta de recursos para comprarlos?P8. En los últimos 30 días, ¿usted o algún miembro de la familia se fue a dormir por la noche con hambre porque no había suficientes alimentos?P9. En los últimos 30 días, ¿usted o algún miembro de la familia se pasó todo el día sin comer nada debido a que no había suficientes alimentos?Fuente: Autores. Adaptado de Coates, et al. (2007).Para calcular el HFIAS se deben seguir los siguientes pasos:1. Asegurar que los hogares donde no se presentó una situación de inseguridad alimentaria, es decir, respondieron 'no' a las preguntas de ocurrencia, tengan cero en las preguntas de frecuencia (Tabla 16).2. Calcular la variable de puntaje HFIAS por hogar, la cual corresponde a la suma de la frecuencia de ocurrencia durante las últimas cuatro semanas para las 9 condiciones relacionadas con la inseguridad alimentaria. El puntaje máximo por hogar es 27 (es decir, respondió '3=con frecuencia' a las 9 preguntas de frecuencia y el puntaje mínimo es 0). \"Cuanto más alto sea el puntaje, mayor es la inseguridad alimentaria (en lo que respecta al acceso) que experimentó el hogar\" (Coates, et al., 2007).3. Tabular el indicador HFIAS, que corresponde al promedio de los puntajes por hogar. Es decir:\uD835\uDC41ú\uD835\uDC5A\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC5C \uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC59 \uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC52 ℎ\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC60 (\uD835\uDC5B)Adicionalmente, la información recolectada permite estimar un indicador categórico llamado Estado de Prevalencia del Componente de Acceso de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Hogar (HFIAP). El HFIAP indica el estado de inseguridad alimentaria del hogar (en lo que respecta al acceso) al categorizar a los hogares en cuatro niveles:a. Hogares con seguridad alimentaria b. Hogares con inseguridad alimentaria leve c. Hogares con inseguridad alimentaria moderada d. Hogares con inseguridad alimentaria severa Los pasos para calcular el HFIAP son:1. Clasificar cada hogar dentro una de las categorías siguiendo las condiciones de la Tabla 16.Tabla 16. Descripción de la clasificación del Estado de Prevalencia del Componente de Acceso de la Inseguridad Alimentaria en el Hogar (HFIAP).Seguridad alimentaria (P1a=0 o P1a=1) y P2=0 y P3=0 y P4=0 y P5=0 y P6=0 y P7=0 y P8=0 y P9=0El hogar no experimenta ninguna de las condiciones de inseguridad alimentaria o solo experimenta el sentimiento de preocupación, pero muy pocas veces. El hogar reduce el tamaño de las comidas o el número de comidas con frecuencia y/o experimenta cualquiera de las tres condiciones más severas (falta total de alimentos, irse a la cama con hambre o pasarse todo el día sin comer), al menos una vez en las últimas cuatro semanas.2. Finalmente, se calcula el porcentaje de hogares para cada una de las categorías. Esto es la prevalencia del HFIA:\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC63\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC59\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC50\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC4E \uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC3C\uD835\uDC34 = \uD835\uDC41ú\uD835\uDC5A\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC5C \uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC52 ℎ\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC60 \uD835\uDC50\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5B \uD835\uDC50\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC4E \uD835\uDC56 \uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC52 \uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC3C\uD835\uDC34 \uD835\uDC41ú\uD835\uDC5A\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC5C \uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC59 \uD835\uDC51\uD835\uDC52 ℎ\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5F\uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC60 * 100Donde i corresponde a la categoría del HFIAP.Setenta y dos porciento (72%) de los hogares en nuestro estudio experimentaron una inseguridad alimentaria moderada o severa en el mes anterior a la encuesta (Octubre o Noviembre; categorías 3 y 4 en el gráfico). La zone de Oriente presenta significativamente niveles más altos de inseguridad alimentaria moderada o severa. (Lopera, et al., 2019) 14 El Índice de Probabilidad de Pobreza (PPI) fue desarrollado por la organización Innovations in Poverty Action (IPA) como una herramienta para medir la probabilidad de que un hogar tenga los gastos de consumo inferiores a una línea de pobreza dada. Este índice se basa en 10 preguntas sobre las características del hogar y la posesión de activos derivadas de la encuesta nacional más reciente de ingresos o gastos del hogar del país de estudio (IPA, 2018). Cada pregunta tiene asignado un puntaje mediante el cual se estima la probabilidad de que el hogar esté viviendo por debajo de la línea de pobreza. El PPI tiene una escala de 0 a 100, cuanto más alto, menor es la probabilidad de vivir por debajo de la línea de pobreza. Mientras que valores más cercanos a 0 revelan peores condiciones del hogar.Para el caso de Guatemala, la última versión del instrumento para calcular el PPI fue creado en 2016 y tuvo como insumo los datos de la Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida (ENCOVI) de 2014 10 .Una vez que se recopila la información, el primer paso para estimar el puntaje PPI es asignar a cada respuesta el número de puntos que le corresponden. El segundo paso es agregar esos puntos y el resultado es el puntaje PPI del hogar.Adicionalmente, con el PPI es posible estimar la tasa de pobreza de los hogares. Para hacerlo basta con convertir cada puntaje de PPI a la probabilidad de pobreza 11 , luego, sumar estos valores y el resultado dividirlo entre el número de hogares que participan en el estudio.Según los puntajes del PPI, el 96.4% de los hogares tiene alguna probabilidad de estar por debajo de la Línea de pobreza nacional y el 36% de los hogares tiene alguna probabilidad de estar por debajo de la línea de pobreza internacional (USD $ 1.90 por persona por día).Cuando la información es analizada por departamento, los hogares que pertenecen al departamento de San Marcos (zona occidental) muestran una probabilidad promedio de 60.2 por ciento de estar por debajo de la Línea Nacional de Pobreza. En el caso de la zona oriental formada por los departamentos de Chiquimula y Zacapa, la probabilidad fue del 70,6% y 55,9%, respectivamente.La medida de Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas (NBI) fue introducida por la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) como un método directo para determinar la pobreza de un hogar. Bajo este método, las NBI son clasificadas en cuatro categorías de acuerdo a la información GuíaMetodológica disponible en los datos de Censos Nacionales: acceso a una vivienda que asegure un estándar mínimo de habitabilidad para el hogar, acceso a servicios básicos que aseguren un nivel sanitario adecuado, acceso a educación básica y capacidad económica para alcanzar niveles mínimos de consumo (Feres y Mancero, 2001). Cada una de estas categorías tiene unos indicadores, presentados en la Tabla 17, que son usados para calcular la medida NBI. Las condiciones de satisfacción de estos indicadores varían por país y área (urbana y rural), en la tabla presentamos los usados en Guatemala para las áreas rurales.Table 17. Necesidades básicas y las condiciones de insatisfacción usadas en las áreas rurales de Guatemala. Hogares sin ningún sistema de eliminación de excretas o que no disponen de servicio sanitario.Asistencia de los niños en edad escolar a un establecimiento educativo i) Edad de los miembros del hogar ii) Asistencia a un establecimiento educativo Hogares con al menos un niño entre 7 y 10 años de edad que no asiste regularmente a un establecimiento educativo.Probabilidad de insuficiencia de ingresos del hogar i) Edad de los miembros del hogar ii) Último nivel educativo aprobado iii) Número de personas en el hogar iv) Condición de la actividad económica del jefe de hogar.Hogares cuyo jefe no tiene ningún nivel de educación y que tienen más de cuatro personas por miembro ocupado.Fuente: Autores. Adaptado de Feres y Mancero (2001) Para calcular la medición de la NBI, primero, cree una variable para cada necesidad básica que tome el valor de 1 si el hogar es insuficiente en esa necesidad y el valor de 0 en caso contrario. Esto permite identificar diferentes necesidades que caracterizan a la población de estudio, es decir, caracterizar la pobreza.El Índice Abreviado de Empoderamiento de las Mujeres en Agricultura (A-WEAI) fue desarrollado por el Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI) como una alternativa para medir el empoderamiento, la agencia e inclusión de las mujeres en el sector agrícola, de una GuíaMetodológica manera más eficaz que el WEAI 12 . Ambos indicadores, sin embargo, están construidos bajo las mismas premisas y por lo tanto son índices agregados que evidencian el grado en el cual las mujeres están empoderadas en sus hogares, además del grado de desigualdad entre mujeres y hombres dentro de un mismo hogar.El A-WEAI, al igual que el WEAI, está compuesto por dos subíndices: el Índice de los Cinco Dominios de Empoderamiento (5DE) y el Índice de Igualdad de Género (GPI). El primero refleja el porcentaje de mujeres que están empoderadas en cinco dominios: 1) decisiones sobre producción agrícola, 2) acceso y poder de decisión sobre recursos productivos, 3) control sobre el uso del ingreso, 4) liderazgo en la comunidad y 5) uso del tiempo. Además, para aquellas mujeres que no están empoderadas en estos cinco dominios, el 5DE refleja el porcentaje de indicadores en los cuales ellas han alcanzado suficiencia. El GPI, por su parte, refleja el porcentaje de mujeres cuyo empoderamiento es igual o mayor al de los hombres en sus hogares. Asimismo, para aquellos que no han logrado igualdad de género, el índice muestra la brecha de empoderamiento que necesita ser cerrada para que las mujeres alcancen el mismo nivel (Alkire, et al., 2012).Para estimar el A-WEAI es necesario tener la información presentada en la Tabla 11 desagregada por sexo en el mismo hogar. Para calcular la medida completa de A-WEAI, se debe entrevistar a los dos miembros de la pareja principal 13 (un hombre y una mujer) responsables de tomar las decisiones sociales, económicas y agrícolas del hogar. Estos hombres y mujeres principales del hogar suelen ser el esposo/esposa y su cónyuge. Sin embargo, otras relaciones también son válidas, siempre que haya un hombre y una mujer mayores de edad tomando las decisiones. Por ejemplo, una madre podría vivir con su hijo adulto, o un padre con su hija adulta. Nuestra muestra, sin embargo, solo está conformada por parejas, ya sea en unión libre o esposos. A continuación, resumimos la metodología para estimar el índice siguiendo la nomenclatura y las fórmulas de Alkire et al. (2012) 14Estimación del indicador y sus subíndices.Los dos subíndices que componen el A-WEAI son el 5DE y el GPI. El primero tiene un peso de 90%, mientras que el del GPI es 10%. Aunque estos pesos son arbitrarios y reflejan el énfasis en el Índice de los Cinco Dominios de Empoderamiento, considera también la igualdad de género como un determinante del empoderamiento (Alkire, et al. 2012).Los pasos para estimar el 5DE son:1. Generar una variable por cada indicador (\uD835\uDC3C \uD835\uDC56 ) de la Tabla 12. Control sobre el uso del ingreso -El individuo participa en la actividad, pero no se involucra o se involucra en muy pocas decisiones sobre el uso del ingreso generado por la actividad.-El individuo siente que no puede participar en la toma de decisiones relacionadas con salario, empleo y gastos mayores del hogar.Liderazgo Pertenencia a grupos -El individuo no es parte de al menos un grupo.-No hay grupos en la comunidad.1/5 Tiempo Carga de trabajo --El individuo trabaja más de 10.5 horas al día.Fuente: Autores. Adaptado de Malapit et al. (2015) Luego, \uD835\uDC3C \uD835\uDC56 =1 si la persona es deficiente en el indicador i. \uD835\uDC3C \uD835\uDC56 =0 si la persona es suficiente en el indicador i.3. Calcular el Puntaje de Deficiencia (\uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 ):\uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 = \uD835\uDC64 1 \uD835\uDC3C 1 + \uD835\uDC64 2 \uD835\uDC3C 2 + \uD835\uDC64 3 \uD835\uDC3C 3 + \uD835\uDC64 4 \uD835\uDC3C 4 + \uD835\uDC64 5 \uD835\uDC3C 5 + \uD835\uDC64 6 \uD835\uDC3C 6 Donde, \uD835\uDC64 \uD835\uDC56 es el peso del indicador I, (ver Tabla 12). El puntaje de deficiencia toma valores entre 0 y 1. Una persona que es deficiente en todos los indicadores recibe un puntaje de 1 mientras que el puntaje disminuye y alcanza el mínimo de 0 a medida que el número de deficiencias de la persona disminuye; un puntaje 0 indica que la persona no es deficiente en ninguno de los indicadores.4. Determinar el umbral de desempoderamiento (k):El umbral de desempoderamiento corresponde a la proporción de deficiencias ponderadas que una mujer debe tener para ser considerada desempoderada (Alkire, et al. 2012). Alkire, et al. (2012) sugieren un umbral de 20% (k=0.2). GuíaMetodológica Los pasos para estimar el GPI son:1. De forma similar al paso 5 de la estimación de 5DE, se debe cambiar el valor de \uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 por el valor de k si \uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 ≤ \uD835\uDC58. Este nuevo \uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 se denota como \uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 ′(\uD835\uDC58)Comparar los \uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 y los \uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 ′(\uD835\uDC58) de la pareja en cada hogar para determinar si hay desigualdad de género. Los hogares presentan desigualdad cuando la mujer está desempoderada (\uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 > \uD835\uDC58) y su \uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC56 ′(\uD835\uDC58)es mayor o igual que el del hombre principal en su hogar.2. Calcular la proporción de hogares con disparidad de género (\uD835\uDC3B \uD835\uDC3A\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC3C ):\uD835\uDC3B \uD835\uDC3A\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC3C = ℎ \uD835\uDC5A Donde h es el número de hogares clasificados como hogares con disparidad de género y m es el total de hogares con pareja de hombre y mujer en la población. En este estudio, usamos los do-files (códigos) de Stata publicados por IFPRI en su repositorio de información para preparar los datos y calcular los subíndices. Sin embargo, considerando que nosotros creamos identificadores (ID) para los miembros de hogar y usamos esos IDs como respuestas en las preguntas del A-WEAI, tuvimos que hacer adaptaciones a los códigos estándar.Otra modificación importante en nuestro estudio, comparado con los estándares del A-WEAI es que la propiedad de algunos activos (tierra agrícola, ganado y aves de corral) no se preguntó a nivel individual, sino que se capturó en el cuestionario del hogar. Esto implicó una preparación adicional de los datos.El puntaje del A-WEAI sugiere que las mujeres en nuestra muestra tienen un alto nivel de empoderamiento. No obstante, aproximadamente el 33% de ellas está desempoderada en al menos uno de los seis indicadores y en promedio, las mujeres no empoderadas tienen logros inadecuados en el 30.4 por ciento de los dominios. En el caso de los hombres, aunque el indicador de los cinco dominios sugiere que están empoderados (0.96), hay un número significativo de hombres en nuestra muestra están desempoderados (13.4%).En la mayoría de los indicadores, los hombres están relativamente mejor que las mujeres, excepto por el indicador de fuerza de trabajo, donde los hombres están significativamente más desempoderados que las mujeres. GuíaMetodológica Pertenencia a grupos es el indicador que hace la mayor contribución al desempoderamiento tanto de hombres como mujeres. Por otra parte, en el caso de las mujeres, la propiedad de activos aporta aproximadamente el 22% a su desempoderamiento (figura 3a), mientras que, en el caso de los hombres, este indicador es uno de los que menos contribuye, aproximadamente 3% (figura 3b). Acceso y decisiones sobre crédito, por su parte, es el tercer indicador que más aporta al desempoderamiento de hombres y mujeres.Figura 3a. Contribución de cada indicador en el desempoderamiento de las mujeres.Figura 3b. Contribución de cada indicador en el desempoderamiento de los hombres.El GPI muestra que alrededor de 71% de las mujeres tienen paridad de género con el hombre principal del hogar. Del 29% de las mujeres que están menos empoderadas que su contraparte masculina, la brecha de empoderamiento es 13%. (Muriel, et. al, 2019) Nuestro estudio es innovador en términos de vincular los temas de género, agricultura, seguridad alimentaria y nutrición. Utilizamos métodos innovadores (los experimentos de elección) y variables, métricas e índices bien conocidos para explorar estos problemas con más detalle. Este documento explica el diseño del estudio, los instrumentos de recolección de datos y el análisis de métricas e índices estándar. Los siguientes pasos incluyen análisis de datos más complejos para explorar las relaciones entre estas métricas y lo que juntos pueden decirnos acerca de cómo las relaciones de género dentro del hogar, especialmente las relacionadas con la asignación del uso del tiempo y las elecciones de alimentos, en los hogares agrícolas impactan los resultados nutricionales de los miembros del hogar. ","tokenCount":"12699"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c1f94f755f31ead59af5b33c20afb750","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/26d56653-bfcb-44e0-93fd-ba8ed79f4112/retrieve","id":"283947026"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6c924dec-cb3d-4672-96cf-4d74e6db3be3","pagecount":"1","content":"Colombia is the third largest potato producer in South America, but yield losses occur due to diseases and pests. The oomycete Phytophthora infestans is the causal agent of late blight, an important disease in potato crops worldwide. Potato production relies on frequent fungicide spraying, increasing production costs and eventually leading to crop abandonment. To better guide fungicide spraying in the field, the influence of weather on pathogen characteristics should be understood (1).In this study we try to i) investigate the correlation under field conditions of the weather variables and dispersal potential (number of sporangia) of the pathogen and with different cultivars varying in their resistance/susceptibility (if a correlation was significant, then we addressed how cultivar resistance and local variability of weather variables affect the correlation); ii) calibrate the GeoSimcast model including commercial crop data and iii) compare the current, observed fungicide application scheme with those predicted by the GeoSimcast model at different RHs.To achieve this understanding, we sampled the pathogen in twelve commercial potato fields in the province of Cundinamarca, Colombia. Disease samples were collected to estimate the number of sporangia. Fields were planted with different potato cultivars of varying resistance/susceptibility to the disease, and chemical management was performed according to standard agricultural practices. Using the climatic data, we also evaluated the potential non-linear effects of climatic variables and used this analysis to perform a forecast simulation (3). We also used the GeoSimcast model to estimate the number of fungicide applications required to control late blight in this region (2).Differences between cultivars were observed in the sporangia curves in the initial amount of sporangia (IAS) and the trend of the curve, also were correlates with the resistance of the cultivar. The relationship between climate conditions and sporangia production were depended on the relative humidity and minimum temperature on the day of collection and the day before. The number of applications suggested by the GeoSimcast model runs for 60% and 90% relative humidity and resistant cultivars was very different from the observed number of applications, suggesting that growers always assume optimal conditions for the disease and spray fungicides accordingly.This is the first study in Colombia to follow the weather variables in commercial and large potato crop fields. We understood the climate correlation with dispersal potential of the late blight pathogen in an important seed-producing area and we calibrated the GeoSimcast model for field conditions in El Rosal, Subachoque & Facatativa, Cundinamarca.","tokenCount":"400"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"034969785b295bde1ba69e498c759e6e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bab440e6-492f-48df-a9be-fad5559da49d/retrieve","id":"377487162"},"keywords":["Donini","Paolo Monneveux","Philippe","Executive Offi cer For CRP Management Salinas","Lilia","Executive Assistant Gómez","Félix","Research Technician Gómez","Walter","Research Technician Gruneberg","Wolfgang","Sweetpotato Breeder Geneticist Gutiérrez","Luis","Research Technician Gutiérrez","Raymundo","Agricultural Engineer","Intermediate Researcher Heider","Bettina","Plant Genetic Resources Specialist"],"sieverID":"20c38bd5-f8e1-4250-82b8-89320562e90b","pagecount":"76","content":"The International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIP) is a research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweetpotato, and Andean roots and tubers. CIP is dedicated to delivering sustainable science-based solutions to the pressing world issues of hunger, poverty, gender equity, climate change and the preservation of our Earth's fragile biodiversity and natural resources.Our vision is roots and tubers improving the lives of the poor. Our mission is to work with partners to achieve food security, well-being, and gender equity for poor people in root and tuber farming and food systems in the developing world. We do this through research and innovation in science, technology, and capacity strengthening.Financial indicators for CIP refl ect sound fi nancial stewardship. At the end of 2012 CIP showed yearon-year growth over the previous year. Moreover, CIP continued to implement streamlined and transparent administrative processes to be more accountable to stakeholders.On behalf of the board, I would like to thank CIP's donors, investors, and all CGIAR partners for their support. I also extend my appreciation to CIP's management and staff for their continued dedication to the organization and its important mission. At the time, World Food Prize Laureate Pedro Sanchez noted that \"CIP has taken leadership in assessing and realigning its program to meet the Millennium Development Goals, setting an example that can be followed by other Centers in the System\". We should take pride in our decision to align with the Millennium Development Goals but in doing so recognize that the factors underlying our decision were based in the fi rm understanding that our research will only remain relevant if it delivers the results required for the time.Today the world is focusing on Sustainable Development Goals. These include Economic Development, Social Inclusion, Environmental Sustainability, and Good Governance. The stories in this report demonstrate how CIP's research aligns with, and will continue to contribute to, the post-2015 global agenda that is emerging. You will discover how CIP's work on sweetpotato viruses has helped economic development in Africa and how CIP research is focused on improving incomes and gender equality in Bangladesh. You will also read how CIP scientist Roberto Quiroz has mapped climate change to mitigate the impact of pests and disease and plan for future sustainable potato production, while on CIP's Lima campus plumber Juan Palomino devised an innovative way to reduce our water consumption to improve our environmental sustainability. These stories and our success in building a smarter, stronger CIP governance structure reassure me that CIP has done well to align with the Sustainable Development Goals and deliver a more food-secure world.I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of our stakeholders, from the Heads of State, business leaders, and donors to the individual extension workers, laboratory technicians, and smallholder farmers who motivate and support us. We are also are grateful to the donors, policymakers, and other key partners who have challenged us. I would also like to recognize all of the researchers, staff , advisors, and leaders who have accepted the challenge to make the world more food-secure.We look forward to continuing our work together through another year and advance CIP's vision of roots and tubers improving the lives of the poor. Sweetpotato is an extremely important crop for this region's subsistence farmers, who produce over 7 million tons of sweetpotato annually. However, SSA faces a major limitation in sweetpotato production due to the cumulative eff ect of virus infection. In 2011, CIP launched a collaborative project with the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) to study the Pan African sweetpotato virome. Since then, the initiative has been evaluating the deep sequencing and assembly of small RNAs from fi eld-grown sweetpotato samples collected throughout Africa, to systematically and effi ciently identify virus genomes.The US National Science Foundation's Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fund this research project.There is a general lack of data and understanding of virus populations throughout Africa, even though such basic information is required to manage the spread and impact of these viral diseases. In order to identify sweetpotato viruses inThe central challenges of sustainable development are the tasks of ending extreme poverty and promoting economic development, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where food security remains a huge challenge for the millions of people who depend on agriculture for survival.the fi eld and understand the dynamics of virus distribution, the project carried out sample surveys, with the assistance of local collaborators across SSA in 2012, collecting more than 500 samples of sweetpotato for viral testing. The team collected samples at random every 5-50 km in Ethiopia, Guinea, Benin, Nigeria, and Tanzania. These samples were each tested for viruses.The most common potato viruses include the Feathery Mottle Virus (SPFMV) and the Chlorotic Stunt Virus (SPCSV). Understanding these viruses and their distribution patterns is crucial for eff orts to eliminate them from the fi eld. Crops such as sweetpotato are prone to virus infection because they are grown vegetatively -farmers sow plant cuttings rather than seeds -so diseases can easily spread from one generation to the next. The only way to eliminate viruses from infected plants is through a laborious, time-consuming process that involves a combination of heat or cryotherapy treatment with meristem tip culture, which involves using the ends of shoots or roots that contain the tissue that produces new cells. It is a process that has advanced little since its inception more than 60 years agoThe initiative that CIP is spearheading aims to develop an alternative method by cracking the RNA silencing code of diff erent viruses, which would enable scientists to add modifi ed RNA to a test tube and rid plants of viral infections through a simple, one-step process. \"It's like a plant vaccine, \" says Jan Kreuze, Principal Virologist at CIP. Viruses contain pieces of DNA or RNA (a complement of DNA) that fool the plant into copying and spreading them, causing diseases in the process. Plants can defend themselves against viruses using a type of RNA called small interfering RNA, or siRNA. The siRNA recognizes the viruses and destroys them by cutting their DNA or RNA into tiny pieces -a process called RNA silencing. However, the plant does not always win the battle, so CIP scientists are looking to fi nd ways to boost the plant's defenses through its RNA silencing mechanism.Kreuze is leading this innovative CIP research project, in collaboration with the Crop Research Institute of Norway. \"Basically we're going to add bullets, in the form of siRNA, to the plants' defense arsenal, \" says Kreuze. \"It's science fi ction right now, but if it works, then the lengthy, expensive cleanup process could be shortened from a year to a matter of minutes. \"The purpose of the CIP project is to use new knowledge of RNA and plant defense mechanisms to help plants fi ght off viral infections. Kreuze and his team will stimulate RNA silencing and Systemic Acquired Resistance, or SAR, in infected plants in vitro. The goal is to tip the delicate balance between the plant's RNA silencing mechanism and the virus's ability to avoid and suppress this mechanism, in favor of the plant.If successful, Kreuze and his team will produce 'kits' containing appropriate cocktails for diff erent sweetpotato viruses, which could be used to help sweetpotato subsistence farmers throughout SSA, and the rest of the world, to increase their harvests and improve their livelihoods. While the project is initially focusing on sweetpotatoes, a successful outcome could see the technique being applicable to a wide range of viruses and crops, meaning it could enrich the lives of millions of the world's poor and underprivileged.  and communication, and thereby increase the welfare of farmers with limited economic resources through the adoption of new technologies (the catalogue contains a directory of providers of quality tuber seed). CIP developed the improved varieties promoted by the catalogue in order to mitigate the eff ects of social and environmental change.The catalogue's launch came at an important time for Peru, a country where more than 600,000 families directly depend on subsistence farming and income generated from potatoes. In the Andes, potato is the principal crop for smallholders, and its commercialization represents US$ 500 million annually for Peru. New trends in the Peruvian and global potato markets, and access to the Brazilian market through the recently completed Inter-Oceanic Highway, as well as the ongoing search for processing varieties, have further increased the importance of the potato as a vehicle for development. The need to expand and diversify crop production is of growing importance for the economy.There has been a clear trend in supermarkets, both domestic and global, to demand a greater diversity of potatoes, better quality, and longer shelf life. There has also been a huge increase in demand for environmentally friendly products, and CIP developed the new varieties in the catalogue based upon models of sustainable agriculture without an increased need for agrochemicals. the catalogue should help to encourage farmers to focus on the production of indigenous varieties of potato currently in demand -both globally and domestically. At the same time, CIP's progress toward increasing the nutrient content (higher zinc and iron) of new potato varieties through biofortifi cation will reduce the likelihood of malnutrition across the Peruvian highlands.Varieties promoted by the catalogue range from CIP's Serranita, which is very resistant to late blight, to Pallay Poncho, which is popular with potato farmers in the south of the country for its fl avor and texture. The catalogue presents these potato varieties and their benefi ts and characteristics in detail, as well as those of ten other varieties. PMCA essentially involves all the players that make their living from the market chain, including public and private service providers (such as researchers, credit providers, development professionals and chefs) in a facilitated process to identify and exploit market opportunities. The approach consists of three phases, beginning with an R&D organizational phase to identify potential partners and carry out research on the market chain.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), iron defi ciency is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. In developing countries, half of the pregnant women and about 40% of preschool children are estimated to be anemic. Health consequences include impaired physical and cognitive development, increased risk of morbidity in children, and reduced work productivity in adults. In the Peruvian highlands, up to 60% of preschool children suff er the stunting eff ects of malnutrition, with iron defi ciency as the main contributing factor.CIP scientists are consequently focusing on adding nutritional value to potato through breeding, or biofortifi cation, as a way to improve health in poor communities where people cannot aff ord commercially fortifi ed foods and vitamin supplements. Interestingly, the bioavailability of iron in potato can be greater than in cereals and legumes due to the presence of high levels of ascorbic acid, which promotes iron absorption, and low levels of phytic acid, an inhibitor of iron absorption.Their eff orts are focused on identifying and breeding varieties that are rich in concentration and bioavailability.The potato is recognized as a key food staple, but its potential for combating malnutrition is not well known. \"In the Andean altiplano, where there is little access to meat, it is an important source of dietary iron, \" says Gabriela Burgos, who coordinates the Quality and Nutrition Laboratory at CIP. \"For example, in Huancavelica in the Peruvian highlands, women and children consume an average of 800 g and 200 g of potato a day respectively. So improving iron concentration and bioavailability in potato can have real impact in these areas. \"In 2006, as part of the HarvestPlus program, CIP started to screen the genebank's potato germplasm for micronutrients (Fe, Zn, vitamin C, and phenol). Initial screening of 579 native Andean landrace cultivars and 315 improved varieties showed a wide variation for iron and zinc concentration and a large genetic diversity that CIP could use in breeding programs. CIP breeder Walter Amorós explains: \"We selected a group of potatoes for their high levels of iron and we have done a series of crosses with them and studied the progeny. From a baseline iron content of 19 mg/k, after two selection cycles we've achieved levels as high as 35 mg/k. \" The future challenge is to combine these cultivars with CIP's advanced breeding lines that have disease and pest resistance, high yields and high acceptance from farmers and consumers for whom potato is an important component of their diet. Bangladesh through the exploitation at scale of the full potential of potato, sweetpotato, and targeted vegetables, as well as through the sale of planting materials. Shawkat Begum, CIP's Chief of Party in Bangladesh, is optimistic about the project's potential for improving the nutritional security and incomes of some of the country's poorest households. She is especially enthused about the impact it will have on her countrywomen, since CIP designed the project to be gender-responsive.The four-year project, which began in October 2011 aims to improve the incomes and nutritional security of more than 100,000 households by securing food availability through increased crop activity and ensuring better access through income generation, seed markets and through participatory gender-aware intervention strategies. The project also aims to off er more profi table and healthier uses of produced crops by adding value and building capacity and through the establishment of greater food system stability through yield stability, sustainable production systems, improved storage, and value chain resilience.Begum and her team are integrating adapted varieties, such as nutritionally rich sweetpotatoes, into local farming systems using disease-free planting material, teaching the farmers techniques to improve their crop productivity, and potato storage, and helping them to access new markets.While the project works with both men and women, several components are specifi cally for women. Bangladesh's unequal land inheritance laws and patriarchal society leave most rural women extremely poor and marginalized. Begum is all too familiar with the barriers her countrywomen face, but she is also well prepared to manage a project designed to strengthen capacities for innovative farming methods and increase their participation in value chains. She was born in the small town, Rangpur, in northern Bangladesh, and has two decades of \"It will be a challenge to reach our ambitious target of 100,000 households within four years, \" she observes, adding that it is important that they contribute to changes in attitudes to ensure that the enterprises they help women create continue after the project ends.Despite the demands of an ambitious start up, the project made great progress during its fi rst year, 2012, reaching approximately 5,000 men and women. This included 1,216 women that the project trained in sweetpotato vine multiplication, to grow the crop and sell vines as planting material. Participants learned about the sweetpotato's nutritional value -the varieties are rich in beta-carotene (a precursor to vitamin A) and iron -and that the plant's leaves are also nutritious. Sweetpotato-leaf curry has since become popular in the communities.\"I think that sweetpotato has a huge potential to contribute to the poorest households, since it can be grown in tiny plots and it doesn't require a lot of labor, \" Begum says. She explains that one group of landless women in Barisal, which the project trained in vine multiplication, earned approximately $130 per member over an eight-month period. The group generated this income from the sale of vine cuttings and sweetpotatoes -and spent the majority of their earnings on school supplies and milk for their children. Another group in Jessor began grafting tomato seedlings in the tiny spaces behind their homes, but after selling a couple of crops of seedlings, the women had enough money to rent a small plot of land where they now produce seedlings. They are now receiving advance orders, so the project will begin to provide the group with small business training.Begum claims that, \"Female participants have said that in addition to improving their household diets and providing income, their participation in project activities have earned them prestige and a new identity within their communities. \" She adds that the project includes a gender research component, the results of which CIP can use to improve project activities, and apply in the design of future projects.Rural women in Bangladesh, as is the case in many developing countries, are responsible for more than 50% of the food production and yet are often underestimated and overlooked in agricultural policies and strategies. Having recognized that increasing the role of women in agricultural production is essential for improving the nutritional status of families and generating greater levels of income in Bangladesh, CIP is committed to integrating a gender-responsive approach throughout the country. \"I am enthusiastic about the positive impact that we are having on the lives of local women, \" affi rms Begum, \"and I am very confi dent that this project will be gender transformative. \" Fortunately, beginning in 1971, CIP collected cultivars from many of these communities, which were conserved in in its earthquakeproof genebank in Lima. As a result of this eff ort, the Center is now able to return lost cultivars, disease free, to communities in a dynamic conservation cycle. This in turn leads to greater levels of biodiversity, increased social capital within the communities, and creates a relationship built on trust between CIP and rural farmers.Concerned farmer groups catalyzed the eff ort by appealing to CIP for help, which marked the beginning of the collaborative repatriation of more than 400 diff erent native potato varieties to various communities scattered across the Peruvian Andes. Rene Gomez, the native potato curator at the CIP's genebank, puts it simply, stating that, \"This is a restoration of diversity, which in turn leads to a restoration of productivity with increased social harmony. \"One of the fi rst communities to receive repatriated clean potato seed was San Jose de Aymara. CIP repatriated more than 200 accessions of lost potato lines to the community. Since then the community has experienced a great deal of development, and today they generate a healthy profi t by producing a wide array of diverse tubers.However, the repatriation of native potatoes provides more than economic benefi ts to those impoverished populations. As Janny van Beem, CIP's Head of Genetic Resource Acquisition and Distribution points out, \"The potato is sacred to Andean communities, and by repatriating lost tubers to these peoples, we are essentially helping them restore a sense of their cultural heritage. \"  accessions of oca, olluco, and mashua, to more than 50 communities throughout Peru. Rene Gomez explains that, \"CIP has helped create more than 12 community seed banks throughout the country where farmers can go to directly receive lost genetic lines. \" Once CIP has established these community seed banks, the communities manage and maintain them.A further benefi t to the communities in this cycle of restoration is that the cultivars they receive from CIP are all disease free. CIP treated all of the collected material accessions for viruses using the thermotherapy laboratory at the genebank. Returning the same cultivars to communities free of viruses and pathogens greatly helps the farmers, who in many cases lost those genetic lines as a result of viral diseases.Repatriation creates an environment of trust between communities and CIP, and when farmers receive tubers they thought they had lost, they are far more likely to trust CIP with other cultivars for future safekeeping. As van Beem puts it, \"repatriation leads to a dynamic cycle of conservation where rural farmers are more inclined to turn over new cultivars to the genebank for security. \" This greatly benefi ts the conservation eff orts of CIP. The reception of accessions from the same areas where they were once collected, and their comparison to older germplasm collections, will strengthen the scientifi c understanding of how the tuber landscape has developed over the past 40 years, and help scientists understand the eff ects of climate change on the development of tubers in these areas.The dynamic conservation of native varieties of potato eff ectively provides communities with the tools, knowledge, and social capital needed to improve their livelihoods. While bolstering social inclusion, the repatriation of lost lines of potato also holds huge potential for positive scientifi c and environmental results, and CIP will continue to ensure the success of such projects well into the future.Rwanda with a Sweetpotato Project consumption of orange-fl eshed sweetpotato (OFSP) in ten African countries. This project works to develop the essential capacities, products, and methods of mainly female sweetpotato farmers in Rwanda, to improve their income levels and social status within their respective communities.Rwanda has some of the highest sweetpotato production in Africa, with more than 80 kgs per capita produced annually. Women are the main growers of sweetpotato in Rwanda, and the crop has become increasingly important due to serious disease problems that currently aff ect cassava and banana. The Sweetpotato Superfoods in Rwanda Project promotes an eff ective public-private sector partnership that provides evidence that sweetpotato products can be profi table and enhance the value chain while increasing revenues for local farmers.In 2012, the project developed high-value sweetpotato value chains, and involved diff erent local partners and national institutions such as the Rwanda Agricultural Initially seen as a poor people's crop, sweetpotato gained acceptance with the introduction by CIP and RAB of new orangefl eshed varieties with higher yields and better taste than local varieties. The OFSP varieties are rich in B-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. Rwanda Super Foods Project supplies these varieties to RAB, which does seed multiplication through tissue culture and onfi eld rapid multiplication, and makes planting material available to cooperatives and other contracted farmers. \"The Kotemu cooperative in Rulindo district, for example, decided to give it a try, \" explains Kirimi Sindi, CIP's Impact Specialist at the Nairobi offi ce. \"While the cooperative members could take some home to feed their families, they also had enough to sell to Urwibutso (SINA) Enterprises, the main processor working with the project. Success is contagious and soon neighbors were asking for vines to plant. \" Encouraged by the results, the cooperative expanded its production and all members received a profi t from the sales. Kotemu members also learned how to process sweetpotato into bread, cakes, and doughnuts called mandazi. The Tuzamurane farmer group located in Rubugurizu village, Muhanga district, joined them. Initially reluctant to grow sweetpotato, the Young Women's Christian Association (an NGO contracted to work in the area) managed to persuade these groups to do so. In 2012, the farmers planted over 12 hectares and were able to harvest 700 kg of sweetpotato, 500 kg of which they sold to SINA. They hope to increase their profi t in the next season, with the planting of sweetpotato on a 25-hectare plot.CIP's SASHA project continues its work through training in production methods, and careful harvesting and storage practices, to avoid losses and damage during handling and to prevent rot. Since vines are in high demand, SASHA held training events in Rulindo and Muhanga districts in September 2012. These focused on how to build vine conservation tunnels to protect the vines from insects and aphids that spread diseases.In early November 2012, the Rwanda Sweetpotato Super Foods project in collaboration with SINA Gerard Enterprises, RAB, CRS, and its partners launched the \"Akarabo Golden Power Biscuits\", Rwanda's fi rst orange-fl eshed sweetpotato biscuits, which are rich in Vitamin A. Those tasty and healthy biscuits are now sold in supermarkets and local shops in Rwanda and neighboring countries. Only four Akarabo Golden Power biscuits provide 48% of daily vitamin A requirements of a child under nine years old, and 28% of a non-pregnant woman's daily needs, or 21% of an adult man's daily requirement.The Project has positive social impacts on a daily basis, and while gender inequality persists in many areas of Rwanda, women Climate change is expected to aff ect agriculture in general, but potato crops in particular are deemed more susceptible than others to the expected changes in temperature, radiation, water regimes, and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Contrary to a number of global studies that reported that increased levels of atmospheric CO2 benefi t potato production, CIP's research reveals evidence that long-term exposure to an enriched CO2 environment can bring about a partial stomatal closure resulting in a decline in photosynthetic rates.A rise in global temperatures as a result of climate change could signal a very real threat to potato production in the form of increased pests and diseases. According to Roberto Quiroz, CIP's Leader for Production Systems and the Environment, \"Major climate change factors likely to infl uence plant disease severity and the spread of pests include elevated CO2, heavy and unseasonal rains, higher humidity, drought, cyclones and hurricanes, and elevated temperatures. \"The CIP study also points out that genetic changes in pathogen population and higher infection pressure could increase the impact of diseases. Furthermore, temperature has a strong infl uence on insect development, reproduction and survival. While the longterm eff ects of increased vectors, pests, and pathogens are not altogether clear at this time, Quiroz argues that, \"It is absolutely vital to begin creating models and assessing the results beforehand in order to be prepared. \" To measure the potential consequences of climate change, researchers rely on modeling tools, and in the case of potatoes, a potato growth model is fed with present and prospective climate data and the results are compared. However, in developing countries such as Peru, where the weather station network is quite limited and the mountainous terrain results in microclimates, traditional climate change modeling is unfeasible. Quiroz and the team from CIP consequently used a groundbreaking approach to develop models using remote sensing and mathematical tools to obtain and generate daily weather data for complex landscapes where conventional linear corrections have failed. While this approach produced accurate models for potato growth, it also holds huge potential for application for climate change study in general.In Peru, farmers cope with frequent droughts, frosts, hailstorms or excess rainfall by planting an assortment of potato varieties and landraces. Climate change will result in increased severe weather events, and the models developed by CIP simulate the expected behaviors of a wide genetic diversity, including the native and commercial landraces and varieties planted in Peru to deal with climate change. CIP assessed these varieties under variable climate conditions to determine adaptation options for future climates. Recent studies based on local meteorological networks have evidenced a signifi cant warming since 1979 (0.32 -0.34 o Celsius per decade). CIP simulated the behaviors of several potato varieties at a number of diff erent sites with varied altitudes and climatic conditions, using a model to assess whether this warming trend had a signifi cant eff ect on potato productivity. The fi ndings were consistent with the warming trends and observation that there has been an upward migration of potato-based agriculture to higher altitudes.Quiroz's team speculates that this upward migration of the Andean agricultural frontier will encroach upon grasslands and peatlands. While moving potato production upwards is supported from the point of view of productivity, Quiroz pointed out that the feedback to the environment in CO2 emissions caused by converting grasslands into cropland must be factored into the equation. Wet grasslands and peatlands in the Andes are very rich in carbon content and the carbon molecules stored in those soils are likely to be released rapidly into the atmosphere as a result of crop production. The reality faced by poor farmers worldwide is that growing human populations create increased demands on the output per unit of land for crops and livestock. This exacerbates malnutrition and poverty and leads to a food production model that is environmentally destructive and unsustainable. These intensifi ed production systems employ continuous cropping methods, utilize few external nutrient inputs, and include the removal of fodder for livestock with limited recycling of nutrients and organic matter back into the soil. The result is the depletion of soil nutrients and organic matter, leaving barren lands and severe hardships for a great deal of poor farmers and those who depend on them.More than 20 years ago, CIP's Carlos Leon-Velarde realized that mixed crop-livestock systems can play a crucial role in improving the environmental stewardship and incomes Sustainable development cannot be attained without ensuring environmental sustainability, and this means fi nding green solutions that support economic progress. In 2012, an 18-year-old CIP research program on the dual-purpose qualities of sweetpotato -for production of both tubers of smallholders, and that better sweetpotato cultivation methods could improve the food security and diet of their families. Leon-Velarde and his colleagues at CIP recognized sweetpotato's potential as a remedial crop for such farmers because of its high productivity and low input requirements, while its usefulness for both food and feed (dual-purpose) makes it attractive in areas where land availability is declining.Leon-Velarde formed a dual-purpose sweetpotato team focused on utilization rather than breeding, and as this team incorporated diff erent management strategies for sweetpotato over the years, they began to increase the amount of foliage produced, and improved the quality of vines as animal fodder. The team tested diff erent cutting frequencies as well as several genetic materials from the collection at CIP's genebank, before they managed to defi ne an index of root to biomass to develop varieties that produce abundant vines while simultaneously maintaining good tuber productivity. Sweetpotato production takes approximately 150 days from planting to harvest, and if cropped for tubers alone, the plant will produce large amounts of roots, but relatively little vine and leaf material for fodder. However, Leon-Velarde's research revealed that if sweetpotato vines are cut 65 to 70 days after emergence, high quality fodder can be obtained. This fodder can be fed directly to livestock or stored in microsilos, and cutting does not aff ect the roots, so farmers produce the same quantity and quality of sweetpotato crops as usual.As CIP-led research into dual-purpose sweetpotato progressed, the team conducted studies throughout Peru and in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, and Papua New Guinea. Initially the team sought two partners in each country to conduct tests and analyze how increased foliage could improve the bio-economic situation of farmers in diff erent cultures and environments.Global research conducted by the team over the past fi ve years has consistently demonstrated evidence to support the hypothesis that dissemination of dualpurpose sweetpotato can help to improve the livelihoods of smallholders using mixed crop-livestock systems around the world. It could furthermore lead to a system of food production that is far less demanding on the environment. Dual-purpose sweetpotato farming therefore holds huge potential as an environmentally sustainable means of agricultural food production that allows farmers to produce more quality fodder for animal feed and crop fertilization without harming their tuber yields, while simultaneously easing the environmental strains on cropland.In Lima, water problems are always an issue. Because the city is located in a coastal desert, water supplies are limited, whereas demand has been growing for years. A steady supply of water ranks as a high priority for CIP's Lima headquarters.In 2001, the 60-meter well that supplies water for the agricultural research center was nearly dry. Only 70 centimeters of water remained, compared to 17 meters in 1989. Thanks to sustainable water management practices, the well's water level had been largely restored by 2012, and CIP's water usage decreased by roughly 50 percent from 200 m 3 to just over 100 m 3 .In 2001, when it looked as if CIP's well was going to be tapped out, the decision was made to dig the well 60 meters deeper. Juan Palomino, a plumber at CIP, came up with a proposal to reduce waste and increase recycling.Palomino realized that clean water was being lost due to ineffi cient pumps. Using techniques such as reverse osmosis, he helped set up a new system to recuperate wasted water and store it in a cistern to be used for irrigating CIP's fi elds. Today, nearly 80 percent of the water that Palomino's system recovers is clean water that was previously lost. The remaining 20 percent is recycled after usage in fi elds, air conditioning units, and other areas.\"In addition to the important scientifi c work done by the researchers, we in the administrative department try to do our part by conserving vital resources like water, \" says Palomino. This includes irrigating CIP's gardens and lawns after six o'clock in the evening in order to avoid water loss from evaporation.Inspired by the positive results of his water management project, Palomino attended a training course on how to construct solar panels, which was off ered at the Agrarian University of La Molina, located across the street from CIP's Lima campus. He subsequently built a pair of solar waterheating units, which he and colleagues tested in Lima and at CIP's Huancayo station. The panels are currently installed in the dormitories of CIP-Huancayo.In addition to conserving water and energy resources, Palomino has helped CIP'sInternational Potato Center • Annual Report 2012 39 researchers with innovative designs and construction for hydroponic, aeroponic, and drip irrigation systems. Palomino would like to install more thermal solar systems and is always looking for other ways to increase effi ciency.\"When we talk about sustainable agriculture and the preservation of our earth's precious resources, we cannot just look to the farmers, \" notes Palomino. \"It's important that we do our part too. \"Palomino built a pair of solar water-heating units. The panels are currently installed in the dormitories of CIP-Huancayo.         CEN CE CEN CEN CEN CEN CE CEN EN EN EN CEN CEN CEN CEN CEN CE CEN CEN CEN CEN CEN CEN   E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E   ","tokenCount":"5612"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ae6691cb5d106c79c81410790f332e2f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b7cb2f23-5698-46b7-8a9c-7bf1e0990c3d/retrieve","id":"-903470771"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"15f0bf11-91a7-472f-9ac0-bdcc2e5bad2d","pagecount":"25","content":"Commodities Livestock and meat exports after the drought in the SahelThis imbalance in the geographical distribution of livestock had created substantial export flows from the Sahelian zone to the deficit areas, consisting traditionally of live animals and, to a lesser extent, of dried meat. Exports of fresh meat had recently begun to assume some importance in Upper Volta and even more so in Chad.Exports of livestock and fresh or dried meat from the Sahelian countries in 1970 (excluding Senegal which suffers from a shortage of meat) were equivalent to 815,000 cattle and 1,245,000 sheep and goats, i.e. more than 1 million livestock units. This represented about 4% of the total livestock of the countries concerned: 6.5% for Mauritania, 4.5% for Niger and Chad. Expressed in tonnes, on the basis of a carcass weight of 160 kg. for cattle and 17 kg. for small ruminants (the generally assumed weight for export animals) Sahelian exports amounted to 150.000 tonnes of meat (carcass weight), consisting of 130.000 tonnes of beef and 20.000 tonnes of mutton.Although these exports were intended for the whole of the Guinean and Equatorial zones, the bulk of them went to a limited number of countries. In 1970, Nigeria and Ivory Coast absorbed some 60% of the market. Senegal, which imports sheep in large quantities from Mauritania, took third place with 15% whilst Ghana came fourth. Almost all the remaining Sahelian exports were destined for the countries of Central Africa (including Cameroon which is a net importer), whereas the volume of trade with the other countries on the West Coast was limited to a few thousand head.Livestock unitsLivestock and meat exports from the Sahel to deficit areas in 1970.Source: Ref. 15 Prior to the drought, therefore, the Sahelian countries supplied all the deficit areas in West and Central Africa. Additional supplies of fresh or canned meat were occasionally imported from overseas, particularly from France, to meet the demand of the wealthiest consumers. This was, however, a marginal phenomenon. Only one country, Zaire, purchased large quantities of fresh or canned meat outside the region, obtaining from the Sahel little more than half of its total meat imports (7,180 tonnes in 1970).The drought which struck the Sahel is generally considered to have lasted from 1968 to 1974. However, rainfall was not consistently low throughout that time. At the beginning of the period it fluctuated from low to normal, and then was consistently low during the three rainy seasons of 1971, 1972 and 1973. It was also during this later period that the cumulative effects of the drought took a dramatic toll on the herds, causing numerous deaths and leading livestock breeders to sell their immature males and even female breeding stock.It is difficult to estimate livestock losses due to the drought; only approximate figures can be calculated. Apart from the fact that no precise information is available in the Sahelian countries regarding the size of herds, the drought resulted in temporary or permanent population movements towards the wetter areas in the south, and it has proved impossible to identify or quantify these movements accurately. According to official estimates, the total number of cattle in the six Sahelian countries was only 15 million in 1973-74; compared to 21 million in 1970-71. Losses, which were in the region of 30%, are reported to have been very unevenly distributed. Mauritanian livestock was very severely affected, decreasing by over 50%, whilst in Niger losses came to 45%. Cattle losses were apparently only 12% in Upper Volta and Senegal, 30% in Chad and 34% in Mali (although losses in Mali appear to be overestimated).National estimates consistently report less severe losses of small ruminants, in the region of 15%. However, statistics for small stock are even less accurate than for cattle and estimates vary widely. Again, Mauritania was most seriously affected with losses estimated at 30% followed by Niger with 18% and lower figures in the other countries of the Sahel.In short, the total livestock units equivalent of cattle, sheep and goats appear to have decreased by 25 to 30% between 1970 and 1975. Losses came to more than 40% in Mauritania and just under 40% in Niger. Apparently, the herds began to increase again in 1975, and in several countries the number of small ruminants seems to have risen to the pre-drought level. Nevertheless, total livestock figures are still at a much lower level than in the early 1970s, due to serious cattle losses.Source: MiscellaneousThe decline in herd size and consequently in production potential, together with the efforts of livestock breeders to build up their herds after the drought, resulted in a decrease in offtake at a time when livestock and meat prices were rising steeply. To offset the shortage, the authorities decided in 1975 to ban livestock exports throughout the Sahel. In that year, official export figures fell by 40% below the pre-drought levels, but the overall impact of the export ban is difficult to assess because the volume of illegal exports cannot be estimated with any accuracy.It is likely, however, that there was a considerable decline in total exports of livestock and meat. The reduction in supply affected importing countries to varying degrees. In the first place, a role was played by the particular circumstances of each of the traditional trading partners: thus, for example, the sharp drop in Mauritanian livestock numbers seriously affected potential imports by Senegal. Secondly, given the new supply situation, demand from importing countries varied according to domestic economic conditions and the existence of alternative sources of supply. For example, Ghana was forced to withdraw almost entirely from the regional cattle trade while her meat imports fell dramatically. This trend was already evident before the drought and can be attributed to the country's difficult economic situation, accompanied as it was by price controls and currency restrictions which inhibited the development of trade. It was not until somewhat later that Nigeria began to import small quantities of fresh and frozen meat from outside the region. In 1976, these amounted to 6,000 tonnes, equivalent to 37,500 head of cattle. It is estimated however that meat imports could rise in a sort time to 80,000 tonnes in Nigeria, given to local pressure of demand.Livestock imports from the Sahel to the countries of Central Africa appear to have remained at 1970 levels, but imports of meat slumped first in Zaire, which now purchases nearly all of its meat outside the region, and more recently in Gabon. These two countries plus Congo imported almost 30,000 tonnes of fresh and frozen meat in 1976, compared to 20,000 tonnes in 1970 (19 200 and 13,350 tonnes respectively for Zaire). However, in 1976, less than 6,000 tonnes are estimated to have been supplied by the Sahelian region (Chad, Central African Empire, Cameroon) the remainder coming from countries in South Africa, Latin America and Europe. By comparison, these countries imported 13,000 tonnes of meat from the Sahel in 1970.Thus, existing trade patterns were shifted as a result of the drought. Whereas imports of livestock and meat prior to the drought came almost entirely from within the region, in 1976 the deficit countries were reported to be purchasing almost 40% of their total livestock and meat imports from non-Sahelian sources. For the countries of Central Africa, non-Sahelian imports were close to 60%, for Ivory Coast 48% and for Nigeria 15%. On the other hand, there were no imports from other sources to compensate for lower Sahelian imports in Ghana and Senegal: the total quantities imported declined considerably.Source: Miscellaneous.During the 1960s prior to the drought, meat prices rose at a rate of almost 3% per annum in the countries of the Sahel, due to the pressure of demand from importing countries. In 1970, meat prices ranged from 70 to 100 CFA francs/kg. in producing areas, and from 100 to 130 CFA francs/kg. in terminal markets. As a result of relatively high transport and marketing costs, wholesale beef prices increased steadily from the northern to the southern areas, reaching a high of 220 to 260 CFA francs/kg. in the coastal areas. Converted at official exchange rates, beef prices were 30 to 40 US cents/kg. in the producing areas and 100 cents in the most distant parts of the importing countries (80 cents in Abidjan). During the same period producer prices for beef (with bone) were 70 cents in the major exporting countries of the world (Argentina and Australia) and slightly over 100 cents in the USA and the EEC countries.At that time, West and Central Africa meat markets, which were closed, and protected from outside competition by high tariffs, enjoyed prices lower than those on the world markets, for a product which was actually of inferior quality. The existence of particularly low prices in Chad enabled that country to develop a comparatively large export trade in fresh meat, transported by air at high cost, not only to Gabon and Congo, but also to Zaire. This type of trade, which was justified by transport difficulties was exceptional, however. In most cases, livestock were exported on the hoof, the most economic mode of transport in view of inadequacies in the existing infrastructure. Livestock were also transported by rail in Ivory Coast and Nigeria. Some top-quality fresh meat was shipped from Upper Volta to Ivory Coast in refrigerated trucks, but the quantities involved dropped practically to nil because of transport difficulties.In the Sahel as a whole, the reduction in supplies led to a substantial rise in livestock prices, the magnitude of which is reported to have varied from country to country depending on local shortages and the pressure of demand by importing countries. The steepest estimated increases were in Mauritania and Niger, where by the end of 1976 beef prices were 3.5 to 4 times above the 1970-7l level. Price increases were less in Mali (up 100% from 1971 to 1976) and Upper Volta. In 1977, prices continued to rise at a lower rate in these two countries and stabilized or even declined in the rest of the Sahel.On the basis of 1976/77 price data and official rates of exchange, one kilo of beef cost over 100 US cents in the producing areas of the Sahel and 125 cents in the terminal markets. Meanwhile, export prices for beef on the world market began to drop in 1973/74, falling to less than 50 cents/kg. in 1975 and rising only to 60 cents in 1976 and 1977. However, these prices probably do not reflect actual production costs in the exporting countries, and for this reason the gap between world price levels and those in the Sahelian countries tends to be exaggerated.For the importing countries, prices doubled between 1974 and 1976 in Senegal and Nigeria, and these adjustments played an important role in maintaining a balance in the market. The rise in prices was less in Ivory Coast which imported second-quality frozen beef from Argentina and the EEC at less than 1,000 US dollars per tonne (c.i.f.). The governments of Central Africa subsidized meat imports from the Sahel in addition to importing lower-priced meats from outside the region.In 1975 import prices for Sahelian livestock ranged from 450 CFA francs/kg. cw in Senegal and Ivory Coast to 800 CFA francs in Nigeria, i.e. 1,800 to 3,200 US dollars per tonne. During the same period, the prices of beef on the US market, which is relatively independent of world market fluctuations and thus indicative of real import market trends, was 1,400 US dollars per tonne, while in the EEC the average price was 2,200 US dollars per tonne 2,800 US dollars in France).Source: Miscellaneous.Prices for beef in Western and Central Africa, which were previously low in comparison to world prices appear to have reached high levels as a consequence of the reduced Sahelian supply.It is difficult to evaluate the long-term impact of the imbalance which has occurred in West Africa markets. It is evident, however, that the traditional production system in the Sahel can no longer meet the growing demand for meat in the region. At the same time, the recent rise in livestock prices has provided a strong incentive for animal production, and prospects for stratification have become brighter. Yet, in the short-term, West African consumers will be forced to turn to the outside world and the regional market will be influenced directly or indirectly by world market fluctuations. This situation obviously gives rise to concern at a time when local prices appear to have risen to exaggerated levels. Thus, aware of the risks, Ivory Coast is reported to have revoked its policy of low-cost imports (estimated meat imports fell to 8,000 tonnes in 1977) in order to protect its own livestock industry.In spite of recent price rises, beef continues to be the cheapest meat in the region, which partly explains its predominance in the local diet. Although this pattern is consistent with traditional farming conditions, it contrasts with the world market situation where production costs for poultry, in particular, are lower than for beef. This fundamental fact tends to be obscured at the moment by the temporary slump in beef import prices. Nevertheless, poultry prices in West and Central Africa are two to three times higher than world market prices. Such a discrepancy was not very important as long as beef prices were low and the regional market was closed, but it gains in significance now that the region is obliged to diversify its sources of supply. The entire animal production sector is liable to be affected, and as a result a better adaptation of local production structures to market requirements will be necessary. During this period of economic fluctuations Mali's external trade position has worsened, with an increasing trade deficit. In addition to foreign donations, grain had to be imported commercially in 1973 and 1974 to offset the shortfall in the harvests. There were no cereal imports in 1975, but exports dropped and there was a substantial increase in the value of traditional imports, apparently due to a rise in prices. In that year exports covered only 31% of the value of imports (c.i.f.) compared to 60% before the drought. The situation improved in 1976 when cotton exports rose to 2.6 times their former level. This recovery is reported to have continued in 1977 when various factors contributed to a rise in exports: good cotton and groundnut harvests, a rise in groundnut prices and improved market conditions for agricultural products.Mali: Trade balance.Source: Ref. 7,8,10The deterioration of the net services position was more serious, since the deficit increased from 10,000 million Malian francs (MF) in 1970 to 47,000 million in 1976. In 1976, the overall deficit for goods and services was in excess of MF 56,000 million, i.e. almost 20% of the GDP. Shortterm capital movements also contributed to the deterioration of the balance of payments, the tendency being for the net outflows (an average of MF 11,000 million p.a. in 1975 and 1976) to exceed long term capital inflows. In fact, Mali was only able to balance its payments during the period under review thanks to unrequited transfers (essentially external aid) and increased external liabilities by the Central Bank.Although the deterioration in the position of external accounts began during the drought, the continued existence of this situation can be attributed to less stringent monetary and financial management.' In short, by the end of 1976 the Malian economy was ill prepared for the new difficulties it was about to encounter, as its external deficit had led to an increase in the debt of the Central Bank and strong inflationary tendencies were developing. However, a change occurred in 1977: domestic credit decreased from the second quarter onwards, the balance of payments is reported to have shown a surplus and the Central Bank's liabilities, fell by MF 10,000 million during the year. On the other hand claims on government continued to increase as a result of the persistent budgetary deficit estimated at MF 10,000 million in 1977. The government planned to reduce the deficit of MF 5,000 million in 1978.Agricultural production fluctuated in accordance with the unpredictable behaviour of the weather. Crops were seriously affected in 1973 and 1974, including paddy rice for which average yields are estimated to have fallen from 1 tonne per hectare in normal years to under 700 kg. The rice plantations most severely hit were those managed under rural development schemes and plots on traditional farms dependant on natural flooding, for which yields in a normal year are 1,000 and 500 kg/ ha respectively. Under the Office du Niger irrigation scheme, in which land is better protected against the vagaries of the weather, the best plantations produce 2 tonnes per hectare.The fall in the production of millet, the basic cereal crop, led to a serious food shortage, forcing Mali to call on external assistance and to import cereals (170,000 tonnes in 1973 to 235,000 tonnes in 1974) at prices 2.5 to 3 times higher than the domestic levels. Groundnuts exports dropped from 21,000 tonnes p.a. in 1971 and 1972 to 12,000 tonnes p.a. in 1973 and 1974.There was also a smaller drop in cotton exports.Agricultural production rose sharply during the 1974-1975 season, when the rains returned to normal, and reached record heights in the following years. In 1976, 34,000 tonnes of cotton and 30 000 tonnes of groundnuts were exported, as well as 36,000 tonnes of cereals. Production levels then fell again due to poor rainfall in the summer of 1977. The shortfall in the cereal harvest was estimated at 250,000 tonnes. Emergency international aid of 112,000 tonnes was recommended and the government had to start purchasing cereals again on the international market. The cotton harvest is reported to have decreased by 15%. It is reported that rainfall returned to normal in the summer of 1978.Source: Ref. 10, 13Apart from these short-term fluctuations, trends vary for the main agricultural crops Production of basic cereal crops has stagnated, while the output of other crops has increased, in some cases substantially. Between 1968 and 1977, for instance, cotton production rose by 200%; groundnuts by 50% and rice by 30%. The increase in the marketed quantities of these products was even greater, 170% in the case of rice and groundnuts. Only small quantities of traditional cereals are marketed, less than 10,000 tonnes in deficit years, and overall less than 10% of total production.Sources: Ref. 7, 10These figures may be explained by the fact that national agricultural development policy was originally directed towards the promotion of cash crops (cotton, groundnuts, rice). Not until 1972 did Mali extend its agricultural development policy to include subsistence crops, and it was only after the cereal shortages of 1973 and 1974 that schemes for developing millet production in low-rainfall areas were introduced. The maintenance of low producer prices was probably also instrumental in discouraging Malian farmers from producing more cereals than they required for their own needs.Mali has developed sugar cane production in the irrigated area of the Office du Niger, as well as tea production in the southern region. The expansion of these crops will lead to a reduction in food imports. Sugar cane production, originally planned to supply a sugar refinery with an annual throughput of 6,000 tonnes has recently been increased to supply a second sugar refinery with an annual throughput of 15,000 tonnes. In 1976, 25,000 tonnes of sugar were imported.Local processing of export crops has not been widely developed. Ginned cotton fibre is exported in raw form, and a large proportion of the residual production of cotton seed is exported or consumed in a raw state. The cottonseed milling capacity has been used very irregularly in past years, but now an additional milling unit is planned. About 50% of the marketed groundnut production was exported after shelling, while the remainder was milled for local consumption (oil) and for export (oil and oilcake). The opening of a second oilmill, which camp into operation at the end of 1976, will make it possible to process almost all the marketed groundnut production locally. It is planned to export the entire production of this new mill.According to official estimates, the number of cattle has dropped by more than 30% since 1970, whereas the drought had little effect on the number of small ruminants. Other sources (vaccination figures, local estimates) indicate that losses have in fact been less serious, with the number of cattle failing by no more than 15%. The semi-arid nomadic areas in the northeast have been affected most severely. According to official estimates, which are undoubtedly exaggerated, livestock losses in that region amount to 80%. On the other hand, herds have continued to increase in sedentary areas, particularly in the south where a 5% annual increase is reported.Marketed cattle production (official slaughtertngs plus estimated exports of livestock) accounted for almost half of total production in 1970, and was distributed between exports and domestic (urban) consumption at a ratio of 2 to 1. A decrease in marketed production of approximately 30% in 1974 only affected exports, which are estimated to have fallen to 122,000 head in that year and to 110,000 in 1975 and in 1976, as opposed to 200,000 head in the years before the drought. At the same time official figures for the number of cattle slaughtered have shown a tendency to rise. Marketed production of sheep and goats, which represents only a small percentage of the total, appears to be slightly higher than before the drought. In the period 1975-76, exports were estimated at 265,000 head (270,000 prior to the drought) and the numbers officially slaughtered for domestic consumption were given as 230,000 head (140,000 and 180,000 for 1970 and 1972).Sources: Ref.12, 15In short, whereas agricultural production rose to previous levels with the return of the rains, and in some cases even reached levels higher than before the drought, the livestock sector suffered more long-term damage due to the length of its production cycle. The situation has deprived the Malian economy of substantial exports earnings.Before the drought, legal sales of live animals were the biggest export item, closely followed by sales of cotton. The position has changed considerably since then: exports of live animals were at the same level in 1976 as in 1970-71, whereas total exports had risen twofold and cotton sales fourfold.These figures do not take account of illegal livestock exports, which were estimated to be equal in value to official sales in 1970-71 and appear to have increased still further since that time. These illegal exports obscure the actual role of livestock in export earnings, and also deprive the central treasury of tax revenue. If unauthorized sales are included, the share of live animals in total exports seems to have fallen less than would appear from a study of customs statistics alone.Increases in domestic livestock and meat prices, which were modest between 1967 and 1972, accelerated with the decline in supply.From 1972 to 1976, prices at Bamako rose on average by 20% p.a., with a 46% rise in 1975 and a 26% rise in 1976. There was a 10% increase in 1977. Between 1970 and 1977 meat prices rose to 2.3 times their earlier level, while food prices doubled Retail prices of dairy products in Bamako, which had remained stable until 1975, rose by 33% in 1976 and 50% in 1977. Actual market prices are consistently higher than the official prices charged by the Bamako Dairy Plant (ULB), which operates the only commercial network for collecting and processing milk in the country. Supplies in the Bamako region are insufficient to operate the ULB installation up to capacity-less than 1,000 litres are collected per day, whereas the processing capacity is 10,000 litres. For this reason, ULB also produces recombined milk and dairy products from skim-milk powder and butter oil donated by the World Food Programme.Retail prices in Bamako.The Malian economy is hedged about by an intricate series of controls. For agricultural crops, prices are fixed at the various stages of the production and marketing process, and marketing is con trolled by parastatal agencies. Input prices are also laid down by the authorities and marketing is the responsibility of the parastatal sector. Prices for agricultural equipment and insecticides, which were previously subsidized, are now fixed in relation to costs in most cases.There is also a variable subsidy for the purchase of fertilizers. Livestock and meat marketing has remained in the hands of the private sector, however, with producer prices and to a considerable extent retail prices, determined by market forces.Marketing arrangements for groundnuts and cotton have generally been satisfactory, but the rigidity of the OPAM-Cooperative system, which is responsible for the distribution of cereals, has resulted in the development of an \"unofficial market\" Information is available on \"unofficial\" prices at the retail stage from surveys conducted in Bamako, but little is known about this trade at the producer level. According to estimates made by the Club du Sahel, producer prices for basic cereals on the \"unofficial market\" are sometimes lower and sometimes higher than official prices. On average, therefore there would appear to be little difference between the two. At the final consumer stage, however, cereal prices on the \"unofficial market\" are always higher than prices charged by the cooperatives.In 1976-77 producer prices for agricultural products appeared rather low compared to international prices and those paid to producers in neighbouring countries. The beef/cereal price ratio was 15.6 in 1977, higher than in previous years when it remained level at about 12. The milk/cereal price ratio of 6.2 was also rising, as a result of the sharp increase in milk prices in 1976 and 1977. The beef/ milk price ratio has generally been in the region of 2 to 3 for the past few years. This low beef/milk ratio reflects a situation in which livestock breeding is based on cheap grazing and the dairy industry is not highly developed. By contrast, the beef/cereal and milk/cereal price ratios are higher than the norm.If these ratios reflected real production costs, it would be to Mali's advantage to concentrate on cereal production. However, cereal prices are fixed below the market-clearing level, while livestock prices reflect market forces and are in fact even forced up by higher external demand. Thus, these ratios actually reflect price distortions resulting from low, fixed prices for cereals. This pricing policy inevitably encourages Malian farmers to neglect cereal production in favour of more rewarding alternatives. In fact, the long period of stagnation in the production of basic cereals and the consistent growth in herd size until 1973 are likely to have been influenced by this price relationship.Price ratios in Mali. Prices paid to/by producers in Mali, 1976Mali, -1977. Price ratio trends in Mali.Simultaneously, prices of agricultural equipment expressed in output units increased and contributed to the deterioration of farming conditions: it took 1,100 kg. of millet to buy a plough in 1970/71, 1180 kg in 1973/74 and 1,350 kg. in 1977/78. In addition to the gap between prices of cereals and animal products, the disparity between prices of agricultural inputs and outputs has also tended to discourage Malian farmers from producing more cereals than they require for their own needs or modernizing their farms. Price ratios of agricultural equipment in relation to other outputs have also increased, though fertilizer/output price ratios have varied in accordance with subsidy policies. There appears to be a general trend of deterioration in farming conditions. Recent estimates made by the institute for Rural Economy even imply that agricultural production costs are greater than prices obtained by the producers.Substantial increases in livestock prices raised to record levels the price ratios of meat in relation to cereals and other agricultural products as well as in relation to potential inputs (oilcake, fertilizers, agricultural equipment). This has emphasized existing distortions in Mali's agricultural sector and strengthened the apparent profitability of livestock breeding. However, as in the past, this profitability reflects price relationships which are to a large extent artificial.","tokenCount":"4632"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5e95cca99c10bb241235b9a7b1c3cc0d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/542624a6-b3e7-4344-b827-f22aab0aeed9/retrieve","id":"2053898370"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1fb4b0be-d913-42ac-9712-9dcd7a96ad18","pagecount":"59","content":"The main text of this annual report summarizes progress made in 1992 in ILRAD's research programs on animal trypanosomiasis and tick-borne diseases and the socioeconomic and environmental impacts likely to result from improving their control. The report also describes ILRAD's research support activities and its cooperative research links and published communications with scientists working in national agricultural research systems in countries where these diseases are endemic. This report supplements information given in the ILRAD 1992 Annual Scientific Report and Highlights, which appeared earlier in the year. Africa's national agricultural research systems. A pilot study conducted in collaboration with Colorado State University and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation was initiated this year to investigate the ways in which improved control of trypanosomiasis is likely to affect different environments and the sustainability of small-scale livestock production systems. The Department of Cooperative Programs, Training and Information this year undertook a major review of its strategy and work plans to improve its capacity to support the transfer of technology from ILRAD to the national agricultural research systems of Africa and other developing regions. A major focus of this program's institution-strengthening was Sokoine University, in Tanzania, where a group of scientists is collaborating closely with ILRAD staff in several areas of research in tick-borne diseases and animal trypanosomiasis. The training courses this department supported in 1992 included two on use of advanced techniques for diagnosing trypanosomiasis, one given in French in Burkina Faso and the other in English at ILRAD. A third course on the Biochemistry of Protozoa was organized jointly with the University of Nairobi for participants from South America, Asia and Africa. Training activities at ILRAD are now more focussed under a recently appointed Education Officer. A record number of 40 Fellows undertook research at ILRAD during all or part of 1992 towards doctoral or masters' degrees.Tick-transmitted East Coast fever and tsetse-transmitted trypanosomiasis are diseases of cattle and other domestic ruminants caused by protozoan parasites. These two diseases have been largely responsible for retarding the development of livestock production and mixed livestock/crop farming in Africa throughout this century. Related tick-transmitted diseases and other forms of trypanosomiasis debilitate and kill domestic stock throughout the tropics and subtropics. To address these pressing animal health problems, representatives of several donor agencies and African governmental organizations together brought about the establishment of ILRAD.ILRAD is governed by an international Board of Directors comprising 12 members. In 1992, Professor O. Nielsen, from Canada, continued to serve as Board Chairman. Professor I. Månsson (Sweden) and Professor P. Doherty (Australia) retired after completing two terms of much-appreciated service to the Board. Dr. M.J. Turner (UK) and Dr. C. de Haan (Netherlands) were elected to fill the vacant Board positions.At the end of 1992, ILRAD staff in post comprised 42 senior scientific and administrative personnel, 9 long-term visiting scientists, 12 post-doctoral fellows, 22 research associates, 56 technical support staff and 276 general support staff. Staff turnover was balanced, with the departure of four core scientific staff and four long-term visiting scientists and the arrival of the same number of scientists. Two post-doctoral vacancies were still under recruitment at the year end and several new positions ILRAD's two broad objectives are to develop and apply (1) technologies that will strengthen and sustain existing livestock disease control measures for as long as possible, and (2) new, more sustainable methods of disease control, such as genetically resistant livestock and vaccines.ILRAD's general approach has been to develop through laboratory research a thorough, deep knowledge of the immune responses of livestock, to support epidemiology and immunization procedures, and to dissect the target parasites to the level of their molecules and genes to identify potential materials that can be used as the basis of vaccines.Vaccines are a more sustainable method of controlling disease than vector control using insecticides or parasite control using drug treatments, which have contaminative, drug residue or drug resistance side effects.T WO MAJOR SERIES OF EVENTS required additional attention from the Directors and staff of the Laboratory this year: the outcome of the Third External Program and Management Review of ILRAD, organized by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR, USA), and preparation of the Laboratory's program and budget proposals for the 1994-1998 five-year period.The External Program and Management Review team, commissioned by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC, Rome) of the CGIAR and led by Dr. John Vercoe (Australia), presented its report to the Chairman of ILRAD's Board of Directors in April. ILRAD management discussed its response to the report with TAC members in June. In October the full report was presented to members of the CGIAR at its annual International Centres' Week meeting in Washington, D.C.The report was generally highly supportive and favourable. It complimented much of ILRAD's work and predicted a productive future for the institute. Changes in the structure of ILRAD's research management-which the institute introduced in responseWomen's concerns must be addressed in research on livestock diseases because much of the farmwork in developing countries is done by women and also because women are usually the first members of a farm household to notice degradation of their environment. The expertise and opinions of women farmers are thus essential to any research designed to increase agricultural production while maintaining or enhancing the resource base on which agriculture rests.to an internally commissioned review conducted early in 1991-were judged effective in reinforcing staff productivity and accountability.The review panel commended the persistent high quality of ILRAD's research and management. It emphasized that ILRAD's scientific achievements have contributed much to understanding the nature and complexity of the agents that cause theileriosis (East Coast fever) and trypanosomiasis. Mention is made throughout the report of the range of materials and methods developed at ILRAD that will be essential for the ultimate control of these two important diseases.The review team expressed confidence that ILRAD will remain at the forefront of global livestock disease research. Nevertheless, to ensure continued strong support for the Laboratory as donor funding for research on Third World agricultural problems is declining, the panel recommended that ILRAD expand its research activities most likely to generate outputs that can be used in the near future by developing country scientists, policymakers and disease control agents. The panel stressed, however, that this move towards shorter-term, client-oriented research should not compromise ILRAD's long-term strategic research nor its responsibilities as an exceptional scientific resource for global and strategic research on tropical animal diseases.In a transmittal letter to the CGIAR, TAC expressed pleasure with ILRAD's strategic orientation and scientific achievements, while cautioning donor agencies against holding unrealistic expectations that ILRAD can find quick immunological solutions to controlling theileriosis and trypanosomiasis. TAC recommended that the CGIAR continue to give ILRAD strong support, particularly as the Centre already has many of the attributes TAC believes are necessary to conduct global and strategic research to improve livestock production.The external reviews of ILRAD and ILRAD's sister institute, the International Livestock Centre for Africa, based in Addis Ababa, contributed greatly to TAC's development of priorities and strategies for future CGIAR livestock research. In a draft statement to members of the CGIAR at International Centres' Week, TAC proposed an expanded global role for ILRAD, that is, to continue to conduct strategic research on the epidemiology and control of livestock diseases and on livestock genetics and to initiate research on livestock physiology and nutrition. The Chairman of the CGIAR subsequently established a donors' working group to consider the group's livestock research arrangements further and TAC revised and completed its draft strategy statement. Both planning groups are expected to produce reports and recommendations for discussion at the May 1993 meeting of CGIAR representatives.This year the CGIAR required ILRAD and the 17 other international agricultural research centres it sponsors to review their long-term strategic plans and to prepare medium-term (five- year) program and budget projections for review in 1993. To help prepare for these tasks, senior ILRAD staff beginning in 1991 helped to conduct a major review by Winrock International (USA) of the contributions livestock make to agricultural productivity and development in Africa. In the same period, ILRAD staff undertook reviews of advanced methodologies employed in research and control programs dealing with the parasite species Trypanosoma evansi (the cause of trypanosomiasis in camels), Theileria annulata (the cause of tropical theileriosis), Babesia (the cause of babesiosis, also known as redwater and tick fever), Anaplasma (the cause of anaplasmosis, or gall sickness) and Cowdria ruminantium (the cause of cowdriosis, or heartwater).This series of preparatory reviews was continued in 1992 to help determine future research priorities in the analysis and mapping of parasite genomes, in the development of computer models to predict the economic impacts of livestock diseases and use of alternative methods of controlling them, in development of computer-based decision-support systems to help researchers and disease control workers determine which disease-control strategies are optimal in given areas and conditions, and in studies of the biology of disease-causing parasites and the epidemiology of vector-borne livestock diseases.In an effort to match projected donor funding with the costs of research programs anticipated by each CGIAR centre, the CGIAR gave the centres target budget figures early in 1992. With input from ILRAD's senior scientific staff, the ILRAD administration prepared program, staffing and budget proposals at four levels, starting with the prescribed target of 11.1 million US dollars and including ambitious plans for new research initiatives and a funding request to pay for the building of an improved facility for research on novel vaccines based on genetically modified organisms. The Board of Directors approved the plans this year and the CGIAR will consider them for funding in 1993.I N THE NEARLY ONE YEAR that has passed since completion of the External Program and Management Review, ILRAD has adjusted emphases in program areas where this was recommended by the Review team. In the Trypanosomiasis Research Program, a recently appointed epidemiologist will coordinate the application of ILRAD tests by national agricultural research organizations in Third World countries where trypanosomiasis occurs. These tests include assays to diagnose trypanosomiasis, to determine the sensitivity of parasites to trypanocidal drugs and to detect the occurrence of genetic recombination in trypanosome populations. These improved tests will be used in development of computer-based models of trypanosomiasis and in the design of improved strategies for control of this disease.Other program staff continued in 1992 to search for biological weaknesses in the parasite that may be exploited in interventionsILRAD has continuously maintained links with advanced laboratories in industrialized countries to identify new research methods and important findings and to apply them directly to problems affecting livestock in developing countries, thus adding greatly to the rate of progress permitted by direct donor investment in the CGIAR institutions.designed to enhance the immune responses of host animals to trypanosome infection. In this area, studies were made to locate and identify trypanosome antigens that provoke immune responses, to discover the processes by which these antigens induce protective immune responses in the host, to locate the genes in trypanosomes that control the processes of cell division and differentiation, and to determine the parasite-host interactions that lead to the development of anaemia in the host.In research comparing the molecular genetics of cattle that are resistant and susceptible to trypanosomiasis, good progress was made this year in producing resource herds of secondgeneration N'Dama (resistant)-Boran (susceptible) crossbred cattle that segregate resistance genes and in identifying DNA markers to support the production and use of a map of the bovine genome. Substantial collaboration in trypanosomiasis research continued in 1992 with the International Atomic Energy Agency (Vienna), the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA, Addis Ababa), the African Trypanotolerance Livestock Network (Nairobi) and Africa's universities and agricultural research institutions.In the Tick-Borne Diseases Research Program, which is an expansion of the former Theileriosis Program, ILRAD continued to provide support to national disease control programs in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the use of live vaccines-which employ sporozoite forms of the Theileria parva parasite-to protect cattle against theileriosis. Research agreements with American and Australian laboratories to pool characterized materials derived from Theileria, Babesia, Anaplasma and possibly Cowdria parasites for use in diagnostic tests are under discussion. Such agreements open opportunities for further collaboration in research on parasite antigens that induce protective immune responses in their hosts and thus are candidate antigens for use in sub-unit vaccines. ILRAD scientists made major progress in 1992 in determining the molecular structures and bases of polymorphism of several previously isolated molecules of T. parva that offer promise as antigens for novel vaccines. Other members of this program are investigating optimal vaccine formulations and are designing strategies for the most effective presentation of the parasite antigens to the host immune system.Research activities in ILRAD's Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact Program were reviewed and restructured in response to suggestions by the External Program and Management Review Team. Three topics are now the main focus of this program: identifying constraints to the application of new disease control technology, determining the likely socioeconomic and environmental impacts of implementing improved livestock disease control, and making economic assessments of research areas likely to yield the greatest productivity returns. ILRAD's socioeconomic studies involve collaboration with ILCA andF UNDING FOR CGIAR research was considerably reduced in 1992, particularly in the research centres that focus on livestock. Program activities were maintained at ILRAD substantially through the availability of staff seconded from donor nations and through favourable exchange rates in the host country. The financial outlook for 1993 shows little prospect of improvement, however, and future reductions in the research programs are anticipated. ILRAD appreciates the financial support the donor nations have given and will continue to explore new funding opportunities.ILRAD is also grateful for the interest in its work expressed by visits to the Laboratory from distinguished donor agents, policymakers and scientists. The Honourable K. M'Mukindia, Kenya's Minister for Research, Science and Technology, was guest of honour at a reception for ILRAD's Board Members in April. In his speech and in discussions with Dr. Ole Nielsen, ILRAD's Board Chairman (pictured at left with the Minister), the Minister praised the institute's excellent educational program, which since 1978 has trained nearly 700 individuals from Africa and other developing countries. Of these, about 80 students conducted several years of advanced laboratory research towards M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees under the guidance of ILRAD's internationally recruited scientists, who together represent more than a dozen biological and socioeconomic disciplines.Dr. Visvanathan Rajagopalan, Vice President of the World Bank and Chairman of the CGIAR (pictured below, left), visited ILRAD in August. In an impromptu talk with 20 African Research Fellows working at ILRAD for their M.S. or Ph.D. degrees, Dr. Rajagopalan urged the students to 'stay in science': 'In the short term, many things will be more attractive; you must make a commitment to science. The spirit of enquiry is indispensable in science; it is even more indispensable to progress.'The erosion in core funding to ILRAD and other CGIAR centres is due to several factors, including the world recession, concerns other than agriculture taking first priority in many development agencies, and the opening of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Support for long-term basic research aimed at finding solutions to tropical agricultural problems is thus facing increasingly stiff competition. In spite of this, ILRAD and its many collaborating institutes in Africa and around the world remain committed to finding new ways of keeping tropical livestock-and the farm households that maintain them-healthy and productive.A.R. Gray Director GeneralT ICK-BORNE DISEASES of livestock cause economic hardships throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The major tick-borne diseases are caused by protozoan parasites: theileriosis is caused by Theileria parva, anaplasmosis by Anaplasma marginale, babesiosis by Babesia species, cowdriosis by Cowdria ruminantium and tropical theileriosis by Theileria annulata.The most economically important of these species in Africa is T. parva. The disease this parasite causes, commonly known as East Coast fever (and in some regions as Corridor and January disease), occurs in eastern, central and southern African countries. Most cattle that are susceptible to East Coast fever die from infection if not treated. Of the 63 million cattle raised in this region, an estimated 24 million are at risk from the disease.The brown ear tick, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, is the organism that transmits T. parva parasites between cattle as the tick feeds. The tick also takes up parasites from infected African Cape buffalo and passes them on to domestic cattle. Like several other wild species that are hosts to Theileria parasites, most infected buffalo show no signs of clinical disease.Most domestic cattle, on the other hand, suffer from infection with T. parva. The cattle most severely affected are highly productive taurine (Bos taurus) breeds from Europe, animals crossbred with these, and genetically improved indigenous zebu (Bos indicus) cattle moved from areas free of East Coast fever into endemic areas. Among indigenous cattle where the disease is relatively endemically stable, up to 50% of the calves exposed to T. parva die; in livestock herds first introduced to the parasite, 80-100% of animals of all age groups may die. ILRAD scientists estimated that East Coast fever killed 1.1 million cattle and cost the agricultural industry a total of US $168 million in 1989.The most common method used to control East Coast fever is the regular application of acaricides to keep cattle free of ticks.(Opposite) The protozoan parasite Theileria parva causes severe and often fatal disease in cattle in eleven African countries: Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia A brown ear tick (Rhipicephalus appendiculatus) on a blade of grass questing for an animal host on which to feed. This tick transmits Theileria parva parasites to cattle. Most cattle that become infected with these parasites develop East Coast fever and-if left untreated-die within a few weeks. The chief habitat of the brown ear tick is the savannah. Where climate, vegetation and host density suit their development, these ticks will heavily infest pastures and animals.This control method, however, is costly and potentially damaging to the environment. An alternative, `live vaccine', control method was developed several years ago. Cattle are infected with a stock of T. parva while simultaneously treated with an antibiotic drug to lessen the severity of the infection. After receiving this `infection-and-treatment' immunization, cattle are protected against subsequent infection with that parasite stock.This immunization, although a useful control method in many circumstances, has several drawbacks, in particular its use of live parasites, which must be frozen in liquid nitrogen to remain viable. In addition, immunized animals are generally protected only against the stock of the parasite used in the infecting dose. The focus of ILRAD's strategic research on tickborne diseases is to develop improved control methods, especially a safe, relatively cheap and broadly effective vaccine that will protect cattle against East Coast fever and lay the groundwork for better control of related tick-borne diseases.THE LIFE CYCLE of the T. parva parasite is complex. In both the tick vector and the mammalian host, the parasite develops through a series of different stages. When feeding on an infected animal, the R. appendiculatus tick ingests parasites of a form known as piroplasms, which infect bovine red blood cells. In the gut of the tick, the piroplasms undergo differentiation to sexual forms that fuse to form zygotes, which then differentiate into kinete forms. The kinetes migrate to the tick's salivary glands, where they differentiate into sporozoite forms. As the tick prepares to take a blood meal, these sporozoites are injected into the cattle along with tick saliva.In the animal host, the sporozoites attach to and enter lymphocyte cells of the bovine immune system. Within two to three days of invading the lymphocytes, the sporozoites develop into forms called schizonts. The infected lymphocytes grow larger and begin to divide. As each lymphocyte divides, the schizont inside it also divides, ensuring infection of each of the two daughter cells produced by the lymphocyte.In this manner, the lymphocytes that were initially parasitized expand rapidly and spread throughout the lymphoid system of the animal, giving rise to widespread destruction of cells of the host animal. In untreated, susceptible cattle, this usually results in an overwhelming infection of the lymphoid system and death within three to four weeks of infection.In the later stages of infection, some of the schizonts differentiate into merozoite forms. Upon rupture of the lymphocytes, the merozoites are released into the bloodstream, where they invade red blood cells. In the red cells, the parasites change into piroplasms, which are able to infect ticks, and this completes the life cycle of T. parva.The practice of regularly dipping or spraying cattle with acaricides to prevent tick infestation generally has proved effective in preventing the transmission of tick-borne diseases in Africa.The main disadvantages of this control method are its dependency on water, which is often scarce, the rising costs of acaricides, the difficulty in maintaining dip and spray infrastructures, the development of acaricide resistance in ticks, contamination of the environment and food by acaricides and their residues, and adverse effects of intensive tick control on endemic stability for tick-borne diseases. These problems have stimulated research into new and innovative disease control methods.I LRAD SCIENTISTS have spent considerable time over the last several years developing increasingly sophisticated laboratory procedures for identifying different species and stocks of Theileria, which are often indistinguishable when viewed using a light microscope. Success in protecting cattle in a given area against East Coast fever by administering the infection-and-treatment method depends on accurately identifying the parasite stocks that predominate in that area. Furthermore, by determining which T. parva strains occur in each area and how often the parasites infect their tick and mammalian hosts, epidemiologists are gaining a better understanding of how East Coast fever is spread and in what areas livestock are at risk.The tests developed at ILRAD include DNA-based diagnostic technologies and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, known as ELISAs, that identify parasite antigens or antibodies made against the parasites. ILRAD's diagnostic and epidemiological work has been greatly advanced in recent years by use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique to amplify defined stretches of DNA, as well as use of a variation of this technique known as the RAPD method (the acronym stands for `random amplified polymorphic DNA').In 1992, ILRAD staff sequenced the gene from different T. parva stocks that encodes the major surface antigen of sporozoites-a protein designated p67. The sequence appears not to vary among cattle-derived parasites, confirming that a vaccine based on this parasite antigen would be broadly effective. The sequencing work also revealed a 129-base-pair insertion in the gene encoding the antigen in two buffalo-derived stocks; the insertion is not present in cattle-derived stocks. Results of amplifying parasite DNA by PCR suggest that the additional DNA sequence in buffalo-derived T. parvamay prove a valuable marker in epidemiological studies.In collaboration with Washington State University (USA), antigen-and antibody-capture ELISAs were developed atThe African Cape buffalo is probably the definitive host of the most important Theileria species found in Africa. These animals invariably survive primary infections with Theileria parva and become carriers of this parasite.As a result of a reduction in buffalo and expansion of cattle populations on the continent, the latter are now the main domesticated hosts of the pathogenic Theileria species found in Africa.ELISAs for tick-borne diseases will facilitate epidemiological studies and disease surveillance in tropical countries. Use of the assays will also help scientists define disease challenge environments before testing novel vaccines in the field.ILRAD this year to detect infections with Anaplasma marginale. The two types of assays will prove useful in determining the true prevalence of the parasite in endemic areas. Similar assays are being developed for identifying Babesia bigemina infections in cattle.S TAFF MEMBERS conducting epidemiology studies of tick-borne diseases continued to help Africa's regional and national tick-borne disease control programs to determine the prevalence of East Coast fever in their countries and to immunize cattle using the infection-and-treatment method. ILRAD has provided most support to control programs on Pemba and Unguja islands of Zanzibar (Tanzania), in Zambia and in Zimbabwe, where good progress is being made in implementing the infection-and-treatment method of immunization.As part of an epidemiological study of theileriosis in Zimbabwe, 30 parasite isolates from different areas were characterized at ILRAD in 1992 using a panel of monoclonal antibodies and four DNA probes. Theileria taurotragi isolates were distinguished using an extrachromosomal element probe and a monoclonal antibody specific for T. tauratragi. Primers for PCR amplification, DNA probes and monoclonal antibodies were transferred to Zimbabwe during the year and staff from the Veterinary Research Laboratory in Harare were trained in the use of these reagents.With colleagues at Imperial College (UK), two mathematical models were developed in 1992 to investigate the dynamics of T. parva transmission to cattle by R. appendiculatus ticks. The impacts of two disease control methods-infection-and-treatment immunization and acaricide application-on the rate of transmission of infection were evaluated. In addition, criteria were developed for determining under what conditions control by vaccination should be implemented.A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT at ILRAD in 1991 was the completion of a physical map of the total genetic material of a stock of T. parva made using Sfi I linking clones. The map locates all the genes isolated from T. parva to date. Several of these genes are of major significance because their protein products may provoke protective immune responses in cattle. The map was used this year in molecular experiments to confirm earlier evidence that a sexual cycle-and thus genetic recombination-occurs in T. parva and helps to generate the wide variety of parasite strains found in the field. A variation of this linking clone strategy is being used to construct comparative physical maps of T. parva Boleni and buffalo-derived stocks. Such maps will give the researchers fingerprints of the different parasite stocks and disclose information about the relationships among closely related parasites.ILRAD's map of the genome of Theileria parva, completed in 1991, was the first complete restriction map made of the genome of a protozoan parasite.A VACCINE STRATEGY designed to protect cattle against T. parva must address several kinds of complexity: that of the different life cycle forms of the parasite, the different responses to the parasite made by the two main branches of the immune system-antibody and cell-mediated (T lymphocytes) responses-and the different abilities of individual animals to mount an immune response to infection.In light of so many variables, ILRAD scientists have adopted a rational approach to development of a vaccine against this parasite. This involves reproducing the disease experimentally in cattle, dissecting the immune responses to the parasite and identifying the parasite antigen(s) that induce `protective' responses. Genes encoding these antigens are cloned and sequenced and expressed in bacterial or mammalian cells to generate large quantities of recombinant protein. Alternatively, the gene may be incorporated in recombinant viruses or bacteria that can be used as live antigen delivery systems. The final strategy for expression will depend on the nature of the immune response to be generated by the candidate vaccine.ILRAD scientists have developed two strategies for controlling T. parvainfection in cattle. They are investigating ways of blocking the entry of sporozoite forms of the parasite into bovine lymphocyte cells to prevent the infection from taking hold and they are exploring ways to stop the rapid proliferation of schizont forms of the parasite that have invaded the lymphocytes.The T. parva antigen found to be the most promising candidate for vaccine material-designated p67 because its molecular mass is about 67 kilodaltons-occurs on the surface of sporozoites and has been found to be the same in all stocks of cattle-derived T. parva tested. This molecule is able to generate antibodies against it that prevent all or most parasites from entering lymphocyte cells.It is believed that the severity of East Coast fever depends largely on the numbers of sporozoite parasites that infect an animal. If the numbers of sporozoites are sufficiently reduced, the immune system of most animals is probably able to clear the infection with little trouble through activation of T lymphocytes that specifically recognize and cause the destruction of parasite-infected cells. The vaccination strategy being developed at ILRAD using the p67 molecule thus may not have to depend on complete elimination of sporozoite challenge, because a limited establishment of schizont parasitosis will generate T cells against schizont-infected cells (see below for further discussion of these T-cell responses).The immune system has evolved in vertebrate animals to protect them from invading pathogenic microorganisms. The extraordinary complexity of the immune system is rivalled only by that of the mammalian nervous system.By designing vaccines against important parasites such as Theileria parva, ILRAD is aiming not to devise new ways of attacking the parasites, but rather to enhance an animal's immune responses to them-to give the immune system a small push in the right direction.These electron micrographs show a sporozoite form of the Theileria parva parasite (top cell) attaching to and then entering a T cell of the animal host. As soon as the parasite has invaded the cell, a race begins between infection and host immune response. Domestic livestock usually lose the race because they cannot mount an immune response fast enough to control the parasites. Within three to four weeks, infected bovine lymphocytes proliferate abnormally, like the expansion of white blood cells in leukaemia. This kills the animal.In previous years, a recombinant form of the p67 antigen, NS1-p67, was expressed in Escherichia coli and produced in bulk quantity in collaboration with SmithKline Beecham (USA). The recombinant antigen was then inoculated into cattle at ILRAD and shown to protect them against subsequent challenge with T. parva.The recombinant protein gave rise to protective immunity in about 70% of immunized animals when administered in a saponin adjuvant. In 1992, a new adjuvant was evaluated that appears to enhance protective bovine immune responses to the p67 antigen.The gene encoding p67 has also been expressed in the baculovirus expression system. This insect cell system carries out post-translational modifications on the introduced gene product. In 1992, cattle were experimentally immunized with this recombinant p67 antigen, BEVp67, and subsequently challenged with a T. parva stabilate. The protection this immunization gave animals was similar to that provided by NS1-p67 using saponin.It appears from these results that the adjuvant augments the induction of protective immune responses to recombinant p67 in cattle. Future studies will focus on determining the minimum quantity of NS1-p67 required to induce protection against challenge both with stocks of the parasite used in the immunizing dose and with different parasite stocks.A SUCCESSFUL VACCINE must deliver parasite antigens to the immune system of the animal host in such a way that it stimulates protective immune responses. Delivery vehicles based on recombinant organisms have several advantages over conventional antigen delivery systems. Recombinant vaccinia viruses have been shown in several experimental systems to give rise to potent antibody and cytotoxic T-cell responses. A recombinant vaccinia virus was constructed in 1989 that incorporates the gene encoding the p67 sporozoite antigen of T. parva. In 1990, the recombinant virus was shown to produce neutralizing responses in rabbits, guinea pigs and cattle. Experimental results obtained in 1991 showed that neither the virulence of the parent virus of the recombinant nor the virus dose significantly affected the outcome of immunizations.Results of several experiments conducted in 1992 indicate that the available construct for the expression of T. parva p67 gene in cells infected with vaccinia virus is unsatisfactory. The antigen is expressed poorly on the cell surface. This may in part explain the low antibody levels generated in immunized animals. In 1992, an effort was made to generate new constructs to favour antigenprocessing mechanisms that would generate either antibody or cytotoxic T-cell responses. ILRAD scientists employed two strategies to induce antibody production, both of which involved constructing chimaeric (hybrid) p67 genes designed to give rise to expression of the antigen on the cell surface.Despite the complexities of the Theileria parva parasite and the immune responses of cattle to it, with ILRAD's demonstration that cattle can be protected against sporozoite forms of the parasites, a subunit vaccine for this parasite is now on the horizon.This light micrograph shows fibroblast cells infected at ILRAD with a recombinant vaccinia virus that gives rise to the expression of the p67 gene of the Theileria parva parasite.This virus construct has been modified to optimize the expression of p67 on the surface of infected cells. When inoculated into an animal, such infected cells should be able to provoke protective responses from an animal's immune system.An additional strategy to improve the immunogenicity of recombinant p67 vaccinia viruses has been to incorporate genes that encode immunomodulating molecules. The nature of immune responses is determined by the T-cell subpopulations involved and by the types of cytokines they produce. Cytokines are soluble factors that act as chemical messengers. Recent reports suggest that incorporating certain cytokine genes in the recombinant vaccinia constructs can influence the nature of immune responses to recombinant antigens. In 1992, a recombinant vaccinia was made that incorporates the bovine gene for interleukin 4, a cytokine that drives the immune response towards antibody production. This construct is being evaluated. Similar constructs will be made with the bovine genes encoding the cytokines interleukin 2, interleukin 6 and gamma-interferon. I T IS THE SCHIZONT form of T. parva that parasitizes host lymphocytes and causes them to proliferate excessively, leading to the development of disease. The death or recovery of an animal depends greatly on its ability to control the rapidly dividing infected lymphocytes. Several features of immunity to T. parva infection suggest that protective host responses mounted against challenge are directed largely at the schizont form of the parasite. Over the past decade, scientists at ILRAD have determined that these responses are probably mediated by T lymphocytes. Identifying the components of the parasite that induce these responses is a major area of research at the institute.ILRAD scientists have determined that the main 'effector' in cell-mediated immune responses against T. parva is likely to be a subpopulation of T lymphocytes known as cytotoxic T cells. Parasite-specific cytotoxic T cells cultured in vitro have been shown to kill schizont-infected lymphocytes.To define what factors are important for the generation of primary and secondary responses by bovine cytotoxic T cells, highly purified populations of T cells were employed in 1992 in co-culture experiments with T. parva-infected lymphoblasts. The analyses indicate that another subpopulation of T lymphocytes-helper T cells-play an important role in generating primary and memory cytotoxic T-cell responses. Future experiments will be conducted to define the signals that helper T cells give to cytotoxic T cells. These observations have highlighted the requirement for additional components in a cytotoxic T lymphocyte vaccine that will provoke helper T-cell responses.Despite the evidence that parasite-specific cytotoxic T cells can clear T. parva infections in cattle, observations made in 1992 indicate that some immune cattle are protected against challenge with T. parva through use of other mechanisms. Lymphatic cannulation experiments were performed in the year to investigate the nature of these alternative immune responses to the parasite. The experiments confirmed that a significantImmune events are small events, occurring at the molecular level. Their power lies in their orchestration. Because mobilization of cytotoxic and helper T cells would greatly enhance a vaccine against T. parva, ILRAD scientists are searching for the parasite antigens that provoke these responses.proportion of cattle immunized by the infection-and-treatment method do not deploy parasite-specific cytotoxic T cells upon challenge with the parasite. This phenomenon appears to occur most frequently in young cattle. These alternative mechanisms have become the focus of much research effort in the program.A DVANCED MOLECULAR and other biological techniques and much of the knowledge and expertise modern biological science has to offer will be needed to bring ILRAD's vaccine development research to fruition. The rewards will be lasting. Development of a novel vaccine against East Coast fever will lift a burden of animal disease from African farmers, enabling them not only to produce more food for themselves but also to generate more cash that can be used to improve their farms and lives. And because no broadly effective recombinant vaccine against a protozoan parasite has yet been developed, such an achievement would also be a major biological breakthrough, ushering in a new stage of human as well as veterinary preventive medicine.An ILRAD technician examines an autoradiograph of a DNA sequencing gel. Each lane of the gel corresponds to one of four bases that make up DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).The gene being sequenced here encodes a protein molecule of Babesia bigemina, a tick-borne parasite that causes the disease babesiosis (redwater) in Africa, Asian, Australian and South American cattle.This DNA sequence will be used to produce large quantities of the parasite protein it encodes. The protein will be employed in assays whose use will improve both the diagnosis of babesiosis and our understanding of how the disease is spread. (Opposite: bottom) Highermagnification electron micrograph of the same specimen.T RYPANOSOMIASIS occurs across more than a third of Africa. It is arguably the most important livestock disease on the continent. Like East Coast fever, trypanosomiasis is caused by infection with a protozoan parasite. In Africa, trypanosomes are usually transmitted to domestic and wild animals, as well as to people, by tsetse flies as they feed on mammalian blood. The wide occurrence of this disease in people and their livestock continues to retard agricultural and economic development on the continent.The tsetse fly occurs only in Africa. It transmits at least four parasite species-Trypanosoma brucei brucei, Trypanosoma congolense, Trypanosoma simiae and Trypanosoma vivax-that cause serious forms of trypanosomiasis in cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses. The fly also transmits two parasite species-Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Trypanosoma brucei gambiense-that cause human trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness.In parts of Africa and Asia, camels suffer from disease caused by Trypanosoma evansi, a trypanosome transmitted by biting flies other than tsetse. In large areas of Asia and South America, T. evansi also poses a threat to cattle, domestic buffalo and pigs. Trypanosoma vivax, which in Africa is transmitted by the tsetse fly, also exists in the absence of this vector in the Caribbean and South America. Non-tsetse-transmitted trypanosomiasis is a potential threat to livestock in many parts of the world.Thirty percent of Africa's cattle population, estimated to be 160 million, and comparable numbers of small ruminants are at risk from trypanosomiasis. Losses in meat production, milk yield and tractive power and the costs of running programs to try to control the disease are estimated at US$500 million each year. Ifresting on a twig of a tree.Tsetse flies occur across 36 countries and 10 million square kilometres of Africa. This tsetse belt includes regions with great potential for agricultural production on the continent. The risk of trypanosomiasis in much of this area precludes farmers from keeping cattle and small ruminants. This fact largely accounts for the continent producing only one-seventieth of the animal protein produced per hectare in Europe.lost potential in livestock and crop production is considered as well, the disease is estimated to cost Africa $5 billion a year. In addition, 50 million people are exposed to the risk of contracting human trypanosomiasis.The trypanosome parasites that cause disease in livestock and people also infect wildlife species, which are a source of infection for tsetse, which then infect domestic animals and people. Many wild animals tolerate trypanosome infections with no apparent ill effects. In humans and domestic livestock, however, such an innocuous relationship with the parasite has not evolved, and the pathogenic effects of infection are severe.For several days following infection with trypanosomes, animals show no signs of disease. One to two weeks later, susceptible animals develop intermittent fever and anaemia. In most endemic areas of Africa, cattle must forage daily for food and walk long distances for water. Bitten repeatedly by tsetse flies, they are also commonly infected with different kinds of trypanosomes. Under these stressful conditions, infected animals continue to deteriorate for months before dying.The life cycle of the trypanosome, like that of the Theileria parasite, is complex. In both the tsetse fly vector and the mammalian host, trypanosomes undergo a series of transformations into different forms. The tsetse fly ingests trypanosomes when it feeds on an animal infected by the parasite. In the fly, the parasites differentiate into several forms, culminating in the metacyclic form, which is able to infect mammalian hosts. When the infected fly next feeds, these metacyclic trypanosomes are injected into the skin of the host along with tsetse saliva. In the animal, the parasites differentiate into a form specially adapted to live in mammalian blood. These bloodstream parasites multiply by binary fission and enter the animal's lymphatic and blood circulation. As flies feed on animals infected with the parasite, the flies may take up blood containing trypanosomes, thus completing the parasite's life cycle.N ONE OF THE METHODS now available to control trypanosomiasis is ideal and no combination of methods is sufficiently efficacious and cost-effective to sustain small-scale livestock raising in much of the tsetse belt without close supervision. Drug treatment is the most widely used means of controlling the disease, but the drugs available are relatively expensive; furthermore, widespread use of the few drug compounds developed for trypanosomiasis has led to increasing parasite resistance to them.The disease can also be controlled by reducing populations of the tsetse vector. Infested areas may be sprayed with insecticides to kill the flies, but this pollutes the environment. Habitat hospitable to tsetse may be destroyed to rid areas of flies, but regeneration of vegetation frequently favoursreinvasion of reclaimed areas. Fly populations may be reduced to acceptably low levels by deploying tsetse targets and traps, but this control method is successful only in some ecological environments and only for some species of fly.The other main method used to control trypanosomiasis is to keep cattle of a few ancient African breeds, such as the West African N'Dama (Bos taurus), which are innately able to tolerate infection with trypanosomes. Use of these 'trypanotolerant' animals is perhaps the most attractive of the control methods available and has made livestock rearing possible in tsetse-infested areas. However, this disease control method also has important drawbacks. Levels of trypanotolerance are reduced in animals under stress, the amount of milk trypanotolerant cattle produce is relatively low and trypanotolerant animals raised in traditional farming systems are typically small and are therefore not ideal for draught work. Most importantly, few such animals are available. In spite of their importance in tsetse-infected areas where other livestock cannot survive, trypanotolerant cattle constitute only 5% of the cattle raised in countries where tsetse flies occur. In contrast, the humped zebu (Bos indicus) cattle, which are widespread in Africa, are susceptible to trypanosomiasis, and highly productive, genetically improved European (Bos taurus) cattle are extremely susceptible to the disease.The humpless N'Dama first appeared in Africa about 7,000 years ago. The innate ability of this breed to resist trypanosomiasis probably evolved during the long association between these cattle and trypanosome parasites.T RYPANOSOME POPULATIONS avoid elimination by the mammalian immune system by employing a defence mechanism known as 'antigenic variation'. Most animal hosts make immune responses to the first wave of invading trypanosomes by producing antibodies against antigenic protein molecules displayed on the surface of the parasites. The antibodies bind to these antigens, and this initiates a series of immune events that ends in the rupture and death of the parasites. However, before all the parasites can be eliminated, trypanosomes bearing a new surface molecule appear. While the immune system begins to produce antibodies against the new antigen, the second wave of trypanosomes multiplies rapidly, and before all parasites in the second wave can be destroyed, parasites appear displaying yet another molecular surface. This process continues, with the parasite population always keeping a step ahead of the host's immune system. Unable to keep pace, the animal's immune system becomes exhausted and the animal eventually succumbs. This remarkable parasite defence mechanism makes it unlikely that a conventional vaccine, which primes an animal's immune system against just one or a few antigens, will be broadly effective. With this in mind, ILRAD scientists are investigating other strategies for controlling the disease.C HARACTERIZING AND DIAGNOSING trypanosome infections is complicated by the existence of many species and subspecies of the parasite. More efficient systems for identifying trypanosomes are needed to make accurate diagnoses, to obtain sound epidemiological data and to optimize use of chemotherapy for trypanosomiasis.In 1992, ILRAD scientists cloned and sequenced the gene encoding an antigenic molecule used to diagnose T. congolense infections. To make improved diagnostics available for wider use, staff examined ways of labelling DNA probes that do not require use of radioactive materials. These probes are used to identify trypanosomes in the blood of mammalian hosts and the saliva of tsetse flies. Commercial kits for the non-radioactive labelling of DNA were evaluated for their ability to reveal trypanosomes present in crude samples prepared from infected tsetse and livestock. A kit using a digoxigenin/LumiPhos combination proved best able to detect the parasites. Once labelled with digoxigenin-11-dUTP, the probes are sufficiently stable to be used repeatedly for a year or longer. Protocols that employ locally available reagents and methods for linking this assay system with diagnostic PCR are now being investigated.Staff also successfully used the RAPD technique-which employs single short oligonucleotide primers of arbitrary sequence to amplify parasite DNA in the PCR-to generate genomic `fingerprints' that will enable them to distinguish among and within species of trypanosomes. One of the primers tested this year, ILo 525, distinguished the three important trypanosome subgenera and produced identifiable fingerprints for the different parasite populations within each subgenus.Individual isolates of the economically important and heterogeneous group of T. vivax parasites are known to differ in important respects, particularly in the severity of the diseases they cause, in their ability to infect laboratory rodents, in their requirements for cultivation in vitro and in their reactivity with repetitive DNA sequence probes. In a quest for simple and direct diagnostic methods with which to identify and characterize T. vivax parasites, the PCR method using arbitrarily selected oligonucleotides (AP-PCR) was employed this year. This relatively rapid and sensitive technique, which requires only small amounts of DNA, successfuly identified and discriminated among T. vivax parasites: three experimental primers gave polymorphic and reproducible DNA fingerprints for all 13 isolates tested.Scientists at Rockefeller University (USA) recently developed a technique for growing bloodstream and procyclic forms of T. brucei on agarose plates rather than in liquid media. This achievement promises to advance understanding of trypanosome genetics to a level comparable to that of yeast. After modifications were made to the system, ILRAD and Rockefeller staff this year successfully used it for maintaining bloodstream and procyclic forms of T. brucei and T. congolense stocks at ILRAD. T RYPANOTOLERANT CATTLE may control parasitaemia through molecular signals that cause the parasites to divide relatively slowly or to differentiate into non-dividing forms. To test this hypothesis, the genes that control parasite differentiation and the rate of parasite replication must be isolated and characterized for monitoring the interactions of their products with the host. Identification of such genes may also make it possible to develop ways of interfering with the gene products so as to control parasite proliferation in susceptible animals.Techniques currently used for identifying developmentally regulated genes incorporate several methods to enrich complementary DNA (generated from messenger RNA) specific to one life-or cell-cycle stage. All the techniques, however, have drawbacks. New systems have been developed for identifying these genes. The systems involve amplifying complementary parasite DNA in the PCR with short oligonucleotide primers of arbitrary sequence to generate fingerprints characteristic of the genes being expressed. When tested on T. b. brucei, this technique generated reproducible fingerprints with different primers; some primers, moreover, generated polymorphisms in the form of stagespecific amplifications. Using this approach, scientists this year readily identified genes expressed specifically in slender bloodstream, stumpy and procyclic forms.Little overlap exists between Africa's cattle-production and tsetse-infested areas except in regions of West and Central Africa where a few indigenous cattle breeds exist that are resistant to trypanosomiasis. D RUG TREATMENT for trypanosomiasis relies on three closely related compounds that have been widely used for more than 30 years. This has led to the development of drug resistance in some parasite populations. The aim of ILRAD's chemotherapy program is to develop biochemically based diagnostics that will rapidly quantify parasite drug sensitivity in the field. Such diagnostics will help maintain the long-term efficacy of the trypanocides now in use.African trypanosome populations are becoming resistant to the prophylactic drug Samorin®. Experiments conducted in 1992 in collaboration with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology indicate that Samorin is taken up by bloodstream forms of T. congolense by a membrane transport molecule. Both fluorescence and radiolabel uptake techniques gave similar results, with levels of drug uptake showing marked and consistent differences between populations differing in resistance to the drug. These techniques might provide the basis for a practical test that can be used to detect drug resistance in field populations of parasites. The information obtained in these studies will lay the groundwork for devising better ways to use the drugs in the field and for developing treatment strategies that militate against the generation of drug-resistant parasite strains.Transfection techniques now available allow foreign genes to be targetted to specific loci. This enables scientists to generate genetic crosses between trypanocide-resistant field isolates and laboratory generated transfected resistant parasites. This form of selection for recombinants offers new possibilitites in studies aiming to identify genes that control drug resistance. Because genetic exchange has already been demonstrated in T. brucei and because T. brucei transfectants can be selected in vivo, this parasite is being used as a model for the development of systems to select T. congolense recombinants.S EVERAL TRYPANOSOME MOLECULES with potential to protect cattle from trypanosomiasis were isolated and characterized in 1992. The gene for one of the most promising of the antigens, a 33-kilodalton enzyme (cysteine protease) of T. congolense associated with resistance to trypanosomiasis in cattle, has been cloned.Among the other promising trypanosome antigens under study in 1992 were the vacuolar ATPase enzyme, a casein kinase II protein, cytoskeletal proteins and two chaperone-like molecules. A major invariant antigen in cattle infected with T. congolense is a 69-kilodalton heat shock protein. The gene encoding this protein was cloned and sequenced and its gene expressed in the bacterium Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein will be used to study immunological responses of cattle to the molecule. L EARNING MORE ABOUT the complex interactions between hosts and parasites and their relationship to the development of disease will help scientists better understand how cattle generate immune responses to trypanosomes. This information may lead to the development of methods to manipulate those responses in ways that will block or inhibit parasite proliferation.Studies were continued in 1992 of the responses to infection made by bovine B cells, which produce antibodies against trypanosomes, and T cells, which effect and regulate various immune mechanisms, including aspects of antibody production.To study B-cell activation, bovine cytokines, and in particular growth factors such as interleukin 4 (IL-4), are required. To provide the bulk quantities of this cytokine needed for these investigations, the gene encoding IL-4 was expressed in E. coli and the recombinant protein used as an immunogen to raise polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies.Other bovine cytokine reagents important for the study of Tand B-cell responses-IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-2 and IL-6-have been obtained from outside sources. Some of these reagents were subcloned this year in riboprobe vectors. DNA probes, riboprobes and a set of specific primers for each cytokine were assembled to allow staff to study cytokine-specific gene expression.The genes encoding another important cytokine, bovine tumour necrosis factor α, in both trypanosome-susceptible Boran and trypanotolerant N'Dama cattle, were cloned and sequenced this year. Sequence differences between the two breeds will be further studied to determine if they represent PCR errors or polymorphisms. Work is in progress to express the gene encoding tumour necrosis factor α in E. coli to produce sufficient quantities of this cytokine for biological studies.Previous work has suggested that ineffective production of blood cells may be partly responsible for the development of anaemia in bovine trypanosomiasis. In 1992, ILRAD scientists examined bone marrow response during a T. congolense rechallenge infection in Boran cattle. The experiment produced quantitative evidence that there is a negative effect on erythroid development in the bone marrow of trypanosome-infected cattle.The anaemia of T. congolense infection in cattle is associated with a poor erythropoietic response. Erythropoietin is a hormone that stimulates red blood cell production. Two assays used to measure erythropoietin in human plasma were assessed for their ability to measure bovine erythropoietin in the plasma of calves made anaemic either by sudden blood loss or by a natural T. congolense infection. From 76 days following infection with T. congolense, the erythropoietic response in the calves waned, suggesting that the bone marrow was unresponsive to observed elevated levels of erythropoietin in the plasma. A DIRECT WAY to investigate the nature of trypanotolerance is to follow its inheritance in families of cattle for the purpose of, first, finding genetic 'markers' that are inherited with the disease-resistance trait and, ultimately, finding the gene or genes that control it. The breeding herd of trypanotolerant N'Dama available at ILRAD and the institute's unique ability to assess the responses of these cattle to parasite challenge under highly controlled and experimental conditions make such a genetic marker and mapping project feasible.ILRAD's bovine genetics project was begun in 1990. The first two steps were to produce large families of cattle that segregate the trypanotolerance trait and to begin to identify some of the estimated 200 markers evenly spaced along the 60 chromosomes of cattle that will be needed to identify genetic markers associated with disease resistance. When developed, such markers will be a useful tool for breeders working to increase the numbers of trypanotolerant livestock and for researchers attempting to identify populations of animals to be targetted for germplasm conservation. Perhaps most importantly, the markers will also serve as starting points in a search of the bovine genome for the genes that control the trypanotolerance trait.To produce the cattle needed for the mapping project, bulls from ILRAD's core herd of 10 trypanotolerant N'Dama were crossed with susceptible Boran cows in an accelerated breeding program that made use of embryo transfer expertise developed at ILRAD over the last several years. The cows were induced to produce more ova than normal. The ova were fertilized by artificial insemination and the embryos implanted in foster Boran mothers for gestation.To investigate the mechanisms in trypanotolerant cattle that prevent development of disease, ILRAD has produced a resource herd of animals cross-bred from susceptible Boran and trypanotolerant N'Dama cattle. DNA from these animals is being used to develop a linkage map of the bovine genome that may reveal the gene or genes that control the trypanotolerance trait(s).Below is a group of Boran surrogate mothers with their N'Dama × Boran offspring produced in 1992 using embryo transfer techniques on ILRAD's Kapiti Ranch.For the purposes of linkage analysis of genetic markers and genes controlling the trypanotolerance trait, ILRAD has produced four full-sibling first filial generation (F 1 ) families of N'Dama × Boran cattle from which to breed an F 2 generation segregating trypanotolerance. Two of the F 1 families were completed in 1991, with 29 and 36 animals born. At the end of 1992, the remaining two F 1 families comprised 11 and 9 calves, with five calves in utero in each family. Construction of the 160-member F 2 generation was begun in 1992. By the end of this year, a total of 38 F 2 animals were in utero and the first F 2 calves were born.A series of microsatellites-simple DNA nucleotide sequences that occur with a high frequency in the mammalian genome-and other genetic markers are being produced at ILRAD for the bovine genome map. A total of 16 microsatellite markers have now been characterized and their segregation followed in two large N'Dama × Boran families. No inconsistencies occurred in the pattern of inheritance. Polymorphic markers in specific genes were also generated in 1992.To identify population-specific DNA markers rapidly, two pools of genomic DNA were made comprising equal proportions of samples from ten N'Dama and ten Boran animals. Each pool was amplified using the PCR. One of the primers produced a pool-specific product in all Boran DNA amplifications and none in the N'Dama amplifications. Using this approach and randomly primed PCR, ILRAD scientists were able rapidly to identify a bovine subspecies-specific DNA marker.To make a consensus map of the bovine genome with sufficient marker density, the bovine genetic mapping community agreed at the XXIII International Conference on Animal Genetics to develop and test suitable markers using a common set of families. Two of these families, comprising 20 per cent of the global reference resource for the bovine map, are ILRAD's. The DNA obtained from these important resource herds are being mande available to the international livestockgenome-mapping community.A map of the bovine genome must be made before researchers can identify cattle genes that control resistance to disease, such as those that enable N'Dama cattle to tolerate infection with trypanosome parasites. ILRAD scientists are collaborating in the development of a bovine gene map with molecular geneticists worldwide, including staff at Texas A & M University (USA), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) and the Commonwealth Scientific, Industrial and Research Orgnanization (Australia).The first step in this project is to identify a set of a few hundred genetic 'markers' evenly spaced along the animals' chromosomes. Each marker is a fragment of DNA that varies in sequence among individual animals. The markers act as reference points in the genome: genes are inherited with markers that lie in their proximity; by following the inheritance of markers in families of genetically defined cattle, it is possible to determine what genes have been inherited in which animals. This information is used to develop a `linkage' map.The identification and subsequent dissemination of disease-resistance genes in cattle populations will provide the most robust and sustainable of disease-control options. After being introduced into a livestock population, the desired genes propagate themselves, thus reducing farmers' dependence on vaccines, expensive drugs and environmentally damaging insecticides. The international collaborative effert to map the bovine genome will thus greatly benefit livestock owners, consumers and the environment in developed and developing countries alike.I LRAD'S DISEASE RESEARCH programs are supported by a group of scientists investigating the factors responsible for the successful application of improved livestock disease control methods, particularly immunization, and the likely social, economic and environmental impacts that will result from improving animal health in traditional farming communities. Focussing at first on East Coast fever, this program has now broadened its scope to include investigations of African animal trypanosomiasis.I N COLLABORATION with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), ILRAD staff conducted a study in 1992 to calculate the costs of immunizing cattle against East Coast fever by use of the infection-and-treatment method. This pilot study, conducted at the Kenya coast, showed that farmers would profit from immunizing their genetically improved `grade'animals at a cost of US$25 for each animal. The benefits of immunizing indigenous zebu cattle, on the other hand, were judged insufficient to justify this cost. To make immunization of this dominant cattle type cost-effective, the immunization cost would have to be reduced or the farm-gate price of milk increased.(Opposite) Livestock significantly improve the stability of small-scale farm enterprises. On farms where both crops and livestock are raised, cattle supplement human muscle as power for pulling ploughs and transporting surplus produce to market. Cattle in poor countries exist on resources that cannot otherwise be exploited-they eat grass and shrubs and crop wastes rather than grain. Their dung is used as fuel, as building material, as fertilizer. Their milk is a major source of protein for the farm household. Hidesand surplus milk are sold to buy clothes and seed, to pay medical expenses and school fees.T O ASSESS THE ECONOMIC importance of a livestock disease and the probable results of bringing it under better control, researchers need to know where and how often the disease occurs and how it affects the economies of different livestock production systems. There is a paucity of such information regarding tick-borne diseases in Africa. The ILRAD program has thus investigated several computer models that might be used to predict the distribution and occurrence of tick-borne diseases in Africa. ILRAD staff and colleagues at the University of Oxford continued this year to develop models designed to predict the distribution of East Coast fever and its tick vector using discriminant analysis in a geographical information system.A model developed in collaboration with Imperial College, London, to predict the dynamics of theileriosis under specific conditions, was completed in 1992. Based on a differential equation methodology, this model accurately predicts the relationships in a cattle population among antibody prevalence, incidences of theileriosis and case-fatalities. Given that in Africa reliable data are generally available only for antibody prevalence and that data on disease incidences and case fatalities are needed to assess the impact of a disease, this modelling approach may prove particularly useful for assessing African livestock disease.ILRAD obtains digital data on important factors determining livestock diseases and their control (e.g., climate, vegetation and livestock and vector distributions) mainly from Africa's national agricultural research organizations, the United Nations Environment Program and satellites (the latter include remote sensing and geographical positioning systems). Information available only in map form is read into computers using a digitizer.The digital data is manipulated in a 486 microcomputer using the geographic information system computer software program ARC/INFO. Another program, IDRISI, is used to analyse the data. To conduct large-scale analyses, the data is transferred to a SUN workstation, which can handle much larger data sets and at a much faster speed. All of ILRAD's data are made available to Africa's national and regional research centres.T WO COMPUTER SPREADSHEET models are being developed by ILRAD, with consultancy input from A.P. Consultants of the UK, for assessing economic losses due to theileriosis and trypanosomiasis in African cattle and the economics of implementing alternative control strategies under different livestock production systems. One model provides analysis at a site/country level, the other at a regional level. The models were previously tested using theileriosis data from eastern and southern Africa.In 1992, the site/country model predicted that immunizing cattle against East Coast fever at the Kenya Coast would reduce economic losses in that region by 24 to 40% in indigenous zebu cattle populations and by 40 to 70% in genetically improved grade cattle. The immunization would yield increases in net income of 24 to 103% depending on which of a variety of alternative control strategies were employed.The two models were run to analyse the economics of trypanosomiasis in two countries, The Gambia and Zimbabwe. The site/country model estimated the annual losses in The Gambia and Zimbabwe to be US$400 thousand and 6.2 million, respectively. The models are being tested and modified further using data from three other countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Zambia and Central African Republic. On the basis of these analyses, ILRAD staff will develop inputs for the many other African countries in which the disease occurs. An estimation will then be made of the continent-wide economic losses caused by trypanosomiasis.A whole-farm-level simulation model-designated the Technology Impact Evaluation Simulator, or TIES-was developed jointly by ILRAD and Texas A & M University (USA). This model was used in 1992 to simulate the economic impact of controlling East Coast fever in grade and zebu cattle using the infection-and-treatment immunization method in conjunction with different acaricide application strategies. The latter involved reducing acaricide applications from their current intensity by as much as 75% following immunization. The model was run with data from two contrasting areas and livestock production systems in Kenya: large-scale farms in Uasin Gishu District in the Kenyan highlands and small-scale farms in Kaloleni Division at the Kenya coast.The results indicate that under all scenarios immunization is financially superior to applying present levels of acaricides. The most cost-effective control was gained by employing immunization while reducing present acaricide applications by 75%. In both areas, greater economic returns accrued from immunizing grade rather than zebu cattle.TIES proved a flexible model for assessing the financial rewards and risks of adopting new technologies on smallholder farms. The model can also be used to make farm-level comparisons of the benefits of employing alternative methods for controlling other livestock diseases.Studies of the social, economic and environmental impacts of improving control of livestock diseases in traditional farming communities helps to keep ILRAD's research targeted so that its outputs will ultimately produce the greatest benefits for smallscale farmers.Towards the end of 1992, a project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation was started to determine how improving control of trypanosomiasis under a wide variety of situations will affect the environment. The aim of the project is to provide guidelines for evaluating where, when and how trypanosomiasis control measures should be applied. This work will be carried out in collaboration with ILCA, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and national research centres throughout Africa.I LRAD'S OUTREACH ACTIVITIES fall under the Department of Cooperative Programs, Training and Information. The broad aim of ILRAD's cooperative activities is two-fold: (1) to advance understanding of the nature of important tropical livestock diseases by employing biological, socioeconomic and environmental data as well as materials and expertise from the countries in which the diseases occur and (2) to enlarge the human and technical resources available for agricultural research and disease control in those countries.Staff of this department and senior scientists from ILRAD's research programs make collaborative visits to Africa's national agricultural research systems to inform developing country scientists and policymakers of ILRAD activities and research results that might be exploited by national organizations responsible for livestock disease control. During these visits, collaborative research projects are initiated that accelerate research progress both at ILRAD and at the collaborating institutions.The department also coordinates the transfer of ILRAD's research findings and products to the institute's stakeholders. The latter include national governments, universities and research institutes; regional and international research organizations; and funding agencies and other organizations involved in livestock disease control. The following are some of the technologies being developed at ILRAD that will benefit these stakeholders.(1) New reagents for improved diagnosis of tick-borne diseases and trypanosomiasis.(2) Improved methods for characterizing parasite strains for use in infection-and-treatment immunization against ECF.(3) Improved procedures for breeding ticks and tsetse flies.(4) New in vitro assays for determining levels of drug resistance in trypanosome populations.(5) Novel genetic techniques for identifying trypano-tolerant cattle for conservation and wider exploitation.(6) Computer-based decision-aids for research and disease control organizations produced using empirical data on the development and epidemiology of tick-borne diseases and trypanosomiasis and the comparative merits of applying different methods to control these diseases.(7) Methodologies for identifying cattle populations that will benefit most from immunization against ECF. (8) Computer models for predicting the outcomes of applying new disease control strategies and technologies. (9) Economic models for assessing and comparing the costs and benefits of implementing various disease control methods.T R A I N I N G• CIRDES (Burkina Faso) on the immunogenetics of trypanotolerant livestock, assays to measure drug resistance in trypanosome populations, and methodologies to assess the economic importance and epidemiology of vector-borne diseases of livestock. • OAU/IBAR/ISCTRC (Nairobi) in defining optimal regional strategies for controlling animal diseases. ILRAD hosted two scientific workshops in 1929, which were attended by a total of 58 international scientists: `Modelling Vector-Borne and other Parasitic Diseases' and `Genome Analysis of Protozoan Parasites'. Discussions at these workshops served both to update ILRAD staff on current research in these areas relevant to the institute and to inform scientists working in developed countries about the current state of livestock disease control and research in Africa.Report, an annual ILRAD Highlights and a quarterly scientific newsletter, ILRAD Reports, in French as well as English and-in English only-an ILRAD Annual Scientific Report, an annual list of scientific publications produced by staff, one or two proceedings of international scientific meetings held at ILRAD, an annual Program and Budget document and a weekly Internal Newsletter distributed to all staff members and to the Board of Directors. This year the unit in addition gave editorial support to ILRAD's 1994-1998 Medium-Term Plan. All of the institute's publications are written, edited, designed and electronically laid out to cameraready stage in-house using a personal computer and laser printer. Translation and typesetting of French publications is contracted to a biomedical translation company in the USA.The annual report, annual highlights and quarterly newsletter are intended for a wide range of readers, with emphasis on scientists and policymakers in national agricultural research systems. ILRAD's annual scientific report comprises abstracts describing the aims and results of each research project conducted at the Laboratory during the year. This book and the annual list of staff publications are intended for scientists and highly technical staff working in areas related to ILRAD's research programs as well as for new ILRAD staff. ILRAD's readership comprises about 3,500 English and 500 French readers in developing and developed countries worldwide.Proceedings of the institute's international workshops are also intended mainly for a scientific readership. In 1992, ILRAD published papers presented at its May 1991 workshop, Recent Developments in the Research and Control of Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis and Cowdriosis (181 pages, ed. Tom Dolan), and at its November 1992 workshop, Genome Analysis of Protozoan Parasites (189 pages, ed. Subhash Morzaria). This year ILRAD also published summaries of papers given at a September 1991 workshop on Ticks and Tick-Borne Disease Control held in Kampala, Uganda (49 pages, ed. Tom Dolan). The Kampala meeting was the fourth in a series of workshops held since 1984 to discuss recent research findings in tick-borne diseases and to address problems encountered in their control. The workshop was organized jointly by ILRAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Inter-African Bureau of Animal Resources of the Organization of African Unity.Research topics covered in the four 1992 issues of ILRAD's scientific newsletter, ILRAD Reports:• Transfecting genes to understand the workings of protozoan parasites and the cells of their mammalian hosts in molecular detail. T HE ILRAD LIBRARY provides fundamental support for the institute's research by acquiring, organizing and disseminating information, most of it in the form of printed books, scientific journals and computer databases. The emphasis of the collection is on the livestock diseases ILRAD focuses on, African animal trypanosomiasis and tick-borne diseases, as well as veterinary medicine and the biochemistry, chemotherapy, cytology, epidemiology, genetics, immunology, molecular and cell biology and pathology of these diseases and their causative parasites.Journals form the main part of the Library's collection. In 1992, the Library subscribed to 162 specialized scientific journals, 25 monographic serials and 15 indexing or abstracting journals. A total of 261 books were received this year, bringing the total book stock to about 4,055 volumes. A Weekly Alert newsletter is produced and distributed to staff and other local libraries to highlight important new accessions in the Library.The Library also introduced access to several international agricultural and biomedical databases stored electronically on CD-ROMs (compact disks-read only memory). These include Current Contents on Disk (Life Sciences: 1991-present), CAB International Abstracts (1984-1991), Medline (1966-present), Science Citation Index, SESAME and Veterinary Science andAnimal Health (1973-1991). Use of a local area computer network (LAN) established in 1991 enabled scientists to conduct their own literature searches using office personal computers.Because the Library's extensive, up-to-date and highly specialized journal collection is unique in Kenya, its services are extended to staff from a variety of other local research institutes and from government departments and universities. In 1992, the Library received 104 reprint titles and supplied over 760 copies of reprints to researchers who requested them. The Library also made thousands of photocopies of journal articles for ILRAD staff and other libraries and undertook over 151 internal and 112 external literature searches for users. Staff helped strengthen the information services of national agricultural research systems through exchange of publications and interlibrary loans and by providing short-term practical training to 15 library students from Kenyan universities and research institutes.This year the Library borrowed 651 publications from libraries belonging to a cooperative research network in Nairobi, loaned out 759 journals to staff and 189 journals to outsiders and donated over 1,796 duplicate issues of journals and over 214 books to the network. More than half of the literature searches undertaken during the year were conducted for external users from African countries. ILRAD also supplied over 760 reprints or photocopies of scientific papers to scientists from all over the world, notably from India, the USA and countries of sub-Saharan Africa.The heart of any program of basic research lies in the publication of its results in internationally recognized and refereed scientific journals.A major activity of the ILRAD Library is to respond to requests for reprints of staff publications.ILRAD's publication output this year retained its high standards in both quality and numbers: of the 88 total publications published in 1992, 62 (71%) appeared in refereed scientific journals, 17 in proceedings of international meetings, and 9 in specialized books.A bibliographic list of the year's publications appears at the end of this annual report. As can be judged by the nature of these publications, ILRAD's research findings are of direct relevance not only to scientists conducting strategic research on specific animal diseases and their control but also to those conducting basic research in a wide variety of biological disciplines.I LRAD'S TSETSE UNIT establishes and maintains colonies of tsetse flies for research on trypanosome parasites. Trypanosomes normally pass through several stages of their life cycle in the tsetse fly. Although it is possible to maintain trypanosomes in vitro and to infect laboratory animals and livestock by injecting parasites into the animals, trypanosomes maintained and transmitted artificially differ from those transmitted naturally through the bite of an infected tsetse fly. Thus, a great deal of the trypanosomiasis research conducted at ILRAD requires trypanosomes that have developed in tsetse flies.Five tsetse breeding colonies were maintained at ILRAD in 1992. These were Glossina morsitans centralis, which originated from mainland Tanzania; two colonies of G. pallidipes obtained from different areas of Kenya; and G. brevipalpis and G. longipennis, also from Kenya.The colonies were fed five days a week using rabbits. A colony of G. fuscipes fuscipes, initiated in January 1992 with 500 wild puparia from Rusinga Island, Kenya, is now in an expanding phase. The five production colonies provided all the tsetse required for trypanosomiasis research at ILRAD in the year. The unit also supplied tsetse puparia to other research groups in Kenya and abroad.As well as maintaining tsetse colonies, staff members of the unit conduct research on tsetse flies as vectors of trypanosomiasis. Studies were conducted in 1992 to compare the rates at which two Kenyan populations of G. pallidipes are infected with Trypanosoma simiae: flies obtained from Nguruman, in the Rift Valley, were significantly more susceptible to infection than those from the Shimba Hills, at the coast. This difference in vector competence is likely to be partly responsible for differences in the epidemiology of simiae-trypanosomiasis in these two areas.In this electron micrograph, a trypanosome has anchored its flagellum (F) inside the proboscis (P) of a tsetse fly. The parasite waits here while it matures before it is injected into an animal along with tsetse saliva as the fly feeds on its mammalian host.Another study revealed that the virulence of T. simiae in pigs is not determined, as had been reported, by the species of Glossina transmitting the parasite. A study was also conducted to compare the rates at which G. m. centralis flies become infected when fed on trypanotolerant African buffalo and N'Dama cattle and trypanosusceptible Boran cattle, all infected with T. vivax. Infection rates in the tsetse were significantly lower when the flies were fed on the N'Dama cattle and buffalo than when fed on Boran cattle. Nevertheless, the trypanotolerant buffalo and N'Dama cattle, like the trypanosusceptible Boran cattle, may serve as reservoirs of T. vivax infection.T HE TICK UNIT supplies scientists with ticks and tick salivary glands infected with the sporozoite form of Theileria parva, which is infective for mammals. Theileria sporozoites can be obtained only by passage and development of the parasites in tick vectors.Rhipicephalus appendiculatus is the most important tick species in East Africa, where it is the principal vector of T. parva. Stocks of this species maintained at ILRAD include those from Muguga, Kenya; Ol Pejeta, Kenya; McIlwaine, Zimbabwe; Chipata, Zambia; and Entebbe, Uganda. Colonies of other tick species maintained at ILRAD include other Rhipicephalus species-R. evertsi, R. pulchellus and R. zambeziensis-as well as Amblyomma variegatum and Amblyomma gemma, vectors of Cowdria ruminantium, which causes heartwater, and two relatively benign Theileria species, T. mutans and T. velifera, as well as Boophilus decoloratus, vector of Babesia and Anaplasma, which cause redwater and gall sickness, respectively.Research was conducted in the year to optimize the feeding techniques used to produce infected ticks in vitro. The first report of feeding ixodid ticks to repletion in vitro was made by scientists at the Nairobi-based International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in 1991. They fed adult R. appendiculatus on an artificial Baudrache membrane to which tactile and olfactory stimuli had been added. In collaboration with ICIPE, ILRAD staff this year applied the technique to R. appendiculatus nymphs and succeeded in feeding up to 4,000 nymphal ticks on membranes in one experiment. The feeding apparatus was then improved; with further development, it may prove useful for maintaining and infecting ticks with pathogens. In another approach taken at ILRAD, skin membranes prepared from cattle and rabbits were used to feed all instars of Amblyomma variegatum. By providing the required stimuli, most species of ixodid ticks can probably be fed on membranes rather than animal hosts, thus saving both time and expense.A major research effort of the Tick Unit is to determine the factors that influence infection rates in ticks in order to maximize infection levels. Studies were conducted in 1992 to investigate how the nature of cattle infections affect infection rates in ticks.A linear relationship was observed early in the infection of cattle between parasitaemia in the host and infection in ticks. Fifty-eight per cent of tick batches that became replete on days 17 to 19 after infection of the host reached a T. parva abundance of 80 infected acini or more per tick-the level required to harvest T. parva sporozoites efficiently.This is a major improvement in tick infection rates: previously, only 5% of ILRAD's tick batches reached such high infection levels. It should now be possible to design a feeding system to produce large numbers of engorged ticks throughout the period in which cattle are most infective for ticks. This in turn should reduce the amount of work and numbers of cattle required to provide a continual supply of highly infected ticks for laboratory studies.T HE LARGE ANIMAL facilities on the ILRAD Farm, located next to ILRAD's laboratory, at Kabete, held about 350 head of cattle and 250 goats during 1992 that were allocated for research projects at ILRAD. Three rooms formerly used for maintaining small animals were converted in 1992 into a fly-proof isolation suite for cattle. A maximum of 16 calves under six months of age can be held in the new facility. The institute's ranch, Kapiti Plains Estate, located about 70 km from Nairobi, carried an average of 2,575 head of cattle during the year. The ranch supplied 385 cattle to the ILRAD Farm and sold 602 cattle to local farmers and butchers. Fewer calves were produced on the ranch this year due to withholding bulls from some breeding herds, which was necessitated by drought: 829 calves were born in 1992 compared with 1,061 in 1991.ILRAD's embryo transfer program continued to do well this year, with 77 calves born from embryos implanted in 1992: 8 of these were pure N'Dama calves, 14 pure Boran (including four sets of identical twins needed for immunological studies), 14 first-generation N'Dama-Boran crossbreds, and 41 secondgeneration crossbreds. A total of 259 viable embryos were collected from 68 donor cows in 1992. The majority of these embryos were implanted into foster dams or cryopreserved.T HE SMALL ANIMAL UNIT provides ILRAD's research and training programs with regular supplies of mice, rats and rabbits. In 1992, ILRAD continued to be self-sufficient in the production of all of these laboratory animals. To maintain genetic purity, all the major colonies were renewed in 1992 from colonies reared in isolation in the UK. The breeding unit also supplied mice, rats and guinea pigs to other research groups in Kenya, particularly those in university faculties and in departments of the Ministry of Livestock Development. ","tokenCount":"13393"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a096c12977129b7b6e5f5c50ce103a87","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9afbf27f-a116-4aa2-8d5e-f12720cb7f7d/retrieve","id":"-63616022"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af5352a1-6dad-4389-a856-2393211ae3bd","pagecount":"52","content":"Good animal health and welfare is requisite, and a key domain, for the sustainability of livestock. This domain comprises technical, social, ethical, economic and environmental aspects that are summarized below:> Animal health and welfare interact and support each other; freedom from disease is a substantial share of welfare and good care; as well, good management is a prerequisite for raising animals that are robust and resistant to disease.> Good animal health and welfare support the productivity of animals; sick or stressed animals under poor management grow more slowly and produce less.> Poor animal health and welfare threaten food security by reducing access to highly nutritious animal-source foods because of impaired productivity.> Poor animal health and welfare may also jeopardize the livelihoods of farmers and the economies of large producers.> Livestock systems with poor animal health and welfare are less efficient, draw more heavily on natural resources and emit more greenhouse gases per unit of produce.> In the One Health perspective healthy animals are less prone to spread zoonotic disease -including those with pandemic potential and food-borne pathogens. Also, well managed and healthy animals do need less antimicrobials.> Technical innovations and organizational improvements for better animal health are abundant, but unevenly distributed in the world. Research and development on animal diseases, for example, are far better resourced in high-income countries than they are in lower-and middle-income countries.> Regulations might not always be the best way to stop the mis-use and over-use of antibmicrobials or to improve animal welfare; capacity to enforce regulations and control compliance is weak in many countries. Instead, \"soft law\", such as guidelines, positive incentives and awareness campaigns, may be more effective at changing practices in some settings.Milk, meat and eggs are not just agricultural commodities. The underpinning and diverse animal production systems, along with their market and trade contexts mean that livestock contribute to multiple development outcomes. Besides contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, like poverty alleviation, food security and nutrition, health and wellbeing, gender equality, economic growth, responsible production and climate action, there are also strong social dimensions related to livestock.Therefore, the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock has taken on a Livestock Systemapproach to address the economic, social and environmental livestock issues. This is a broad and inclusive approach and this publication focus on the Animal health and welfare dimension, that in turn has an impact on other sustainability domains: Food and nutrition security, Livelihoods and economic growth, and Climate and natural resource use.There are multiple, and very different perspectives on the livestock sector around the world depending on geographies, economic setting, political and cultural traditions as well as the stakeholders´ role or relation to livestock systems. Sometimes there is a common view, but quite often there are different views or even controverses.The Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock was created in 2011 as a multistakeholder partnership that aims to foster dialogue, build consensus and support policy and practise change towards a more sustainable sector. The 121 member organisations represent the diversity of livestock systems and stakeholders and include public and private sectors, producers, research and academic institutions, NGOs, social movements and communitybased organizations, and foundations.In this publication the authors explore the diversity of livestock across the world…and highlight the synergies between good animal health and animal welfare and how those may positively impact animal productivity, economic growth and livelihood, human nutrition, food safety, reduction of the risk for zoonotic transmission, reduction of the need for antimicrobials, natural resource use efficiency, reduction of green-house gas emissions as well the adoption to climate change.I congratulate the authors of this report for showcasing the important role of animal health and welfare in livestock systems towards achieving the UN Sustainable Goals.Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock Preface Animal health and welfare for sustainable livestock systemsTrends and disruptors to livestock systems Over the last 30 years, the consumption of meat, milk and eggs in low-and middle-income (LMICs) countries has more than doubled (FAOSTAT, accessed 28/5/21). Population growth, urbanization, income gains and globalization continue to fuel the growth. Many people in LMICs do not have sufficient high quality protein in their diets (FAO et al., 2020); a problem that could be rectified through improved access to animal-source foods. Many in highincome countries (HICs), conversely, eat too much animal-sourced foods. Policies and information campaigns should promote healthy diets for all.Growing demand does also offer business opportunities for many livestock producers. Under a business as usual scenario, demand for meat in LMICs will increase (from 2012) by a further 40 percent by 2030 and by over 65 percent by 2050, according to the latest FAO projections (FAO 2018a). Livestock systems are increasing production to meet this demand and adapting to satisfy the changing food preferences of an increasingly affluent and urbanized population in a globalized economy.Such rapid growth in production and trade does not just mean opportunities -it also entails risks. Growth is not evenly distributed, with most occurring in intensive systems and with relatively little contribution from smallholder producers. The risks include concerns over food and nutrition security, livelihoods and equity, animal health and welfare and the environment.Livestock systems are also exposed to less predictable, disruptive influences, which are often more localized.Consumers in many HICs are becoming increasingly concerned over animal welfare, health and the environment and, based on a perceived risk that animal husbandry poses to these domains, several are moving away from animal-sourced proteins, towards more plant-based diets.Consumer demand tends to drive rapid innovation, creating new opportunities for expansion of the agri-food system. Cellular agriculture -where animal proteins and whole cells are generated in bioreactors -is developing quickly. It may be some time before replica meat cuts can be made economically, but alternatives to powdered milk, powdered eggs and ground beef for the agri-food industry seem already to be in reach.Emerging and re-emerging diseases can also disrupt livestock systems. The emergence and spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in 2004-5 and African swine fever in Asia more recently has called for adjusting production systems that includes improved biosecurity.The coronavirus disease  pandemic highlights the interrelationship between human and animal health. Most emerging infectious diseases in humans originate from wildlife. Livestock can serve as a bridge between wildlife and humans (which may be the case for HPAI). Or the infection can be directly transmitted from wildlife to humans (which is the case for Ebola and SARS, and likely for . These two transmission patterns underline both the importance of biosecurity (reducing the interface between wildlife and livestock and between humans and livestock) and the need to regulate the sale of wildlife at food markets. 07 1 Animal health and welfare for sustainable livestock systems Regardless of its origins the pandemic poses a threat to food security and has caused a shock to the production and marketing of animal-sourced foods, with disruptions to supply chains and the temporary disappearance of markets such as restaurants changing the patterns of demand. The medium-and possible long-term impacts of the pandemic remain to be seen.Climate change both affects livestock production and is affected by it. A changing climate affects the availability of feed and water, the prevalence of pests and diseases, and the suitability of land for grazing and growing fodder. Livestock systems are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for almost 15 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (Gerber et al. 2013). This means the sector can and must make an important contribution to reducing overall emissions. Countries committed to the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change are under growing pressure to mitigate livestock emissions. Practical actions for mitigation identified by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (FAO 2019a) include: improving the efficiency of livestock agri-food systems; strengthening the circular bio-economy; capturing carbon in livestock systems; striving for healthy, sustainable diets and accounting for protein alternatives; and creating incentives to reduce livestock emissions through appropriate policy and institutional reforms.Much progress has already been made in a number of countries, shifting livestock systems towards environmental sustainability. But much remains to be done.Photo: Karel Prinsloo -FAO Shaping the future of livestock Such trends and disruptors reveal the complexity and vulnerability of livestock systems, globally, and highlight concerns over their sustainability. Recognizing this, the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture chose the topic \"Shaping the future of livestock\" for its 2018 ministerial meeting in Berlin (FAO 2018). This was organized around four interlinked domains relating to sustainability: > Food and nutrition security > Livelihoods and economic growth > Animal health and welfare > Climate and natural resource use.The Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL/Global Agenda) has adopted this framework. The 2019 meeting of the Global Agenda, held in Manhattan, Kansas, in collaboration with Kansas State University, focused on the theme of \"Innovation for sustainable livestock systems\". Four papers, one on each domain, were commissioned to provide information to feed into the technical and policy debates. They were peer-reviewed before the meeting and have been further revised to reflect feedback during the meeting. The paper on the domain \"Animal health and welfare\" is the basis of this publication.The Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock is a partnership committed to the sustainable development of the livestock sector. It aims to builds consensus on the path towards sustainability and to catalyse practice change through dialogue, consultation and joint analysis. It brings together a wide range of stakeholders: the public and private sectors, producers, research and academic institutions, donors, NGOs, social movements and community organizations, and intergovernmental and multilateral organizations.This publication focuses on the issues, opportunities and risks in animal health and welfare that stakeholders face in relation to the sustainability of livestock systems. It identifies innovations and policies that may help them take advantage of the opportunities and manage the risks, while still ensuring sustainability in other dimensions: food and nutrition security, livelihoods and economic growth, and climate and natural resource use.Section 2 presents the diversity of livestock systems and outlines three broad livestock production systems: extensive, labour-intensive, and capital intensive.Section 3 focuses on animal health and welfare and consists of 5 parts:> A summary for policymakers to consider.> An introduction outlining the topic.> Issues, opportunities and risks: A brief description of the major issues facing the aspect under consideration, followed by outlines of the opportunities that stakeholders may consider and the risks that they may face.> Innovations: Some suggestions on promising innovations in the fields of technology, organization or policy that may take advantage of the opportunities or address the risks discussed earlier.> Implications for policy: Suggestions for policymakers to consider as they design policies that balance the various interests both within the livestock sector and beyond.Section 4 explores the potential synergies and trade-offs, pulls together the different trends and interests and explores the potential synergies and trade-offs between them.Section 5 contains the references used in this publication.Livestock agri-food systems are highly complex and diverse. It is not possible to generalize, nor to be exhaustive in coverage. The examples presented in this publication are necessarily selective and illustrative. Policymakers and practitioners should bear this in mind as they design solutions to the issues faced in their countries.While humanity relies on just a handful of animal species for the vast majority of its meat, milk and eggs, the world's livestock production is nonetheless stunningly diverse. Livestock are kept in a wide range of production systems and environments. Production systems can be intensive or extensive, large-or small-scale, and involve huge amounts of land, labor and capital -or very little of one or more of these \"factors of production\". Livestock are found in the most crowded of cities, in sheds containing thousands of animals, or grazing in high mountains, baking deserts and icy tundra.Livestock also play very different roles in the economy and society. Farmers and pastoralists who raise livestock mainly to feed their families have different concerns from those who sell to highly competitive, international markets. In moving towards sustainable livestock agrifood systems, we need to understand their diversity and the motivations of livestock keepers and other actors in the system, including those that operate upstream (such as genetics, feed and health services suppliers, for example), and downstream (for example aggregators, transporters, processors, distributors and retailers). It is also important to understand the public policy and institutional environments that confront the different actors across systems, regions and countries. Consumers, competitors and market conditions defined and framed by cultural and economic conditions all influence the sustainability of the sector in terms of the four domains discussed above. Understanding the production, distribution and marketing environments in which the sector operates in the different regions must precede the development of innovative solutions that can lead to sustainable livestock systems, globally.  We can broadly classify livestock systems (and agricultural systems more generally) in terms of the relative availability and cost of the classical production factors: land, labour and capital (Ruttan and Hayami 1984;Ruttan et al. 1980;Hayami and Ruttan 1971). For livestock systems, which include landless production, livestock biomass is more relevant than land area, so the land production factor is better represented by the average biomass of livestock per agricultural person than by agricultural land area. The density of the population engaged in agriculture represents labor and per-capita GDP represents capital.Using this approach, Steinfeld et al. (2018) defined three broad livestock systems (Figure 1).> Extensive systems use a lot of land but have low labor and capital inputs and generally occur in marginal habitats. They appear in Figure 1 as green to pale blue, generally representing pastoral and agro-pastoral areas.> Labor-intensive systems are typically smallholder farms with low returns and a surplus of labor, often constrained by scarcity of both land and capital. They are shown as dark blue to magenta in Figure 1.> Capital-intensive systems are usually associated with highly modified environments where land and labor inputs have been substituted by capital investment through intensification and mechanization. They are shown as red to yellow in the figure; the yellow areas typically being rangelands in higher income countries -therefore a hybrid of extensive and capital-intensive systems, with low inputs of labor.Two extensive livestock systems:Buffalos on rangeland, India and cattle herding in Uruguay Extensive livestock systems use small quantities of labor and external inputs. These systems are common in lightly managed areas that are unsuitable for crop production, therefore they do not compete with food crops. Extensive livestock systems here refer mainly to the dry rangelands of Africa and Latin America and to the steppes of Central Asia, where capital inputs are low. Livestock are often integral to the social fabric of societies living in these areas, so benefits extend well beyond food and livelihoods to fulfil many social and financial roles. Already living at climatic extremes (arid, semi-arid and cold environments), livestock keepers in these systems are vulnerable to climate change, with extreme weather and extended droughts cutting productivity, killing animals or making them ill. This type of livestockraising directly uses natural vegetation, but its relatively low productivity means that greenhouse gas emissions are fairly high per unit of output.In principle, grazing systems are closed: the waste products of manure and urine are returned directly to the system. If well managed, this does not present a burden on the environment. If degraded grazing systems are restored to health, they hold considerable potential to sequester organic carbon in the soil (Paustian et al., 2016;Lal, 2004).Labor-intensive systems are typically smallholder-based and occur mainly as part of mixed crop-livestock farms. As well as arable crops, such farms may include aquaculture and tree crops. They are typified by the smallholder systems of Central America, Africa and Asia. The majority of labor-intensive systems are family farms with a focus on producing staple foods for subsistence, with surpluses sold or exchanged locally. However, in some cases -such as smallholder dairy production in East Africa and South Asia -they are well organized and linked to national and international markets. Of about 400 million poor people who depend on livestock globally, most are in these systems. For such farming families, livestock are an important source of nutritious food and fulfil social and other functions, such as conferring status, payment of bridal dowries and supplying communal feasts. Livestock also provide an important source of food for people outside farming households, particularly dairy production in LMICs, where smallholders produce by far the largest share of the milk. They also ensure employment through associated agro-industries.If measured simply by yield gaps, livestock production in these systems is generally inefficient compared to extensive or capital-intensive systems (e.g., Herrero et al. 2013, Steinfeld et al. 2018). However, other efficiencies must be accounted for, particularly in relation to nutrient cycling, using crop residues, providing draft power and manure, and capturing carbon.Resource use in mixed farming is often highly self-reliant as nutrients and energy flow from crops to livestock and back. Where animals are kept for productive purposes, such as a closed system offers positive incentives to compensate for environmental effects, making them less damaging or more beneficial to the natural resource base.Capital-intensive systems mainly produce beef, dairy, pork and poultry products. In contrast to extensive systems and integrated crop-livestock systems, these systems are almost exclusively dedicated to food production, as a response to growing demand for animal protein domestically and for export. Intensive beef production is typified by the feedlots of the southwestern United States. Mega-dairy farms -which are highly mechanized and extremely productive -are also becoming more prevalent. Half of the milk in the United States of America comes from farms with over 1,000 cows, and this proportion is growing each year. Pigs and chickens in particular lend themselves to industrial production and are often produced under vertically integrated systems where a single large company controls all the production stages, from breeding to production (sometimes with the involvement of external growers), to processing and retailing. These systems are the mainstay in HICs but are becoming more prevalent LMICs as well, where they contribute to feeding growing urban populations. Few people are employed directly as farmers from these systems, but many consumers benefit from a regular supply of clean, affordable, nutritious food.Capital-intensive livestock systems are highly efficient despite relying on large amounts of inputs. In particular, feed is often grown far from where the livestock are kept. This can result in effects such as deforestation, the disruption of nutrient cycles, and pollution with pesticides and chemical fertilizers in feed-producing areas.Capital-intensive systems also include systems such European beef and dairy herds, whose production is largely grassland-based, but where investment in inputs such as animal health, genetics, housing and feed supplementation is still relatively high.Emission intensities are often relatively low in these systems, but with so many animals in such high densities, dealing with manure is a challenge and a major source of soil and water pollution. Capital-intensive systems use large amounts of antimicrobials and foster ideal conditions for the emergence of microbes that are resistant to available drugs and therefore hard to treat.These systems are more uniform in terms of the technology and practices than are mixed and grazing systems. They rely on externally sourced feeds that are nutritionally optimized to promote growth. For cattle, this means fattening the animals on grain-and oilseed-based feeds in feedlots during the last few months before slaughter. In intensive pork and poultry production, the animals are exclusively fed purchased feeds. Farmers also use selective breeding to optimize for size, high productivity (e.g., milk yield) and rapid growth. The animals are kept in controlled, confined settings, often indoors. Capital-intensive systems use large amounts of feed and other external inputs, but also produce higher yields per unit of input than do extensive or labor-intensive farming systems. Good animal health and welfare are central to sustainable livestock production as they promote high productivity, adequate animal care and the efficient use of natural resources.Good animal health and welfare can lower greenhouse gas emissions per unit of output. They reduce the need for antimicrobials and protect farmers and consumers from foodborne diseases and other zoonoses. They help ensure farmers' livelihoods and food security, and increase consumers' trust in the livestock sector. They support all four sustainability dimensions of livestock adopted by GASL (FAO 2018) and are relevant in all types of production systems.Reasons for not implementing good animal health and welfare practices may be due to a lack of resources, a lack of opportunity to develop the competence of producers or authorities, poor access to animal health services, traditions and cultural issues, or doubts about whether they contribute to increased profit. This section discusses four aspects of animal health: animal diseases, zoonoses and pandemics, food-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance; and the role of animal welfare.Huge range of diseases. A huge variety of diseases and other ailments afflict various forms of livestock. The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) lists 117 animal diseases, infections and infestations as being notifiable: 82 for livestock and another 35 for bees and aquatic animals (OIE 2020). These are the more serious problems; a host of other, less prominent afflictions also threaten the health and welfare of animals and the productivity of livestock systems.Diseases may be caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, prions. They may be magnified by poor management. Each has its own transmission mechanism: insects, ticks, mites, droplets, contaminated objects, feed, and so on. Some are highly contagious; others spread only slowly. Some are endemic to livestock populations in large regions; others are local in scope. Some have their origins in wild animals, which often provide a natural reservoir for reinfection (Jones 2014, Woolhouse 2005). For some, animals can develop immunity; for others, this is not the case. Some can spread like wildfire through a population, decimating stocks and destroying livelihoods.Prevention and treatment methods vary according to the disease in question. Animals that are well-fed and well-housed are less likely to fall ill (so animal welfare is a health consideration as well as an ethical one). Vaccines help animals resist diseases, while veterinary treatments aim to cure them. Some diseases (such as foot-and-mouth disease) exist as several strains, each requiring its own vaccine. That makes it very important to select the right type or combination of vaccines (Diaz-San Sequndo et al. 2017).Biosecurity measures aim to prevent the animals from becoming exposed to pathogens; however, they must cover all potential entry points, including animal movements, people and equipment involved in production, as well as feedstuffs (Dee et al. 2016). Different innovations are needed for different livestock systems, for example, to increase biosecurity, reduce occupational health risks, and prevent and control contagious diseases.In capital-intensive systems, biosecurity is usually very high and the risk of introducing contagious diseases is low. However, once an infection enters a farm it may spread quickly, causing production losses and fatalities, and requiring control and eradication measures. These may harm animal welfare and result in severe economic costs to the farmer. As most such farms are in HICs, there is likely to be little or no effect on food security. In small-scale extensive livestock systems in rural areas, biosecurity is generally low. Such farms often have several livestock species, which is a way for the farmer to mitigate risks.If such farms are affected by a disease, the impact on the individual farm may be severe, including livelihoods and food securityThe most challenging situation from epidemiological perspective appears on small-scale commercial farms with poor biosecurity in LMICs, as in the case with HPAI (FAO/OIE 2008).Contagious diseases may spread quickly on such farms, as well as to other farms through direct and indirect transmission, especially if they are in close proximity, as is often the case in urban or peri-urban areas. These farms are thought to be important for the emergence of new influenza viruses due to the contact risk with wild birds. The economic impacts can be devastating for individual farmers affected.Economic impact. The economic impact of diseases can differ widely. Some diseases have a debilitating effect on production, reducing productivity and output, or precluding livestock raising altogether. Others cause drastic drops in production, either through the disease itself killing animals (as with Newcastle Disease in poultry), or through widespread culls of livestock and trade restrictions imposed to try to contain the disease (as in the 2001 footand-mouth disease outbreak in the United Kingdom (Thompson et al. 2001)).A disease outbreak may not affect all actors in a livestock production system in the same way. In the 2013 outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in the United States of America, production losses were probably outweighed by price increases caused by the decline in supply (Schulz et al. 2015). Pig producers as a whole may actually have benefited, while those further down the chain -packers, processors, distributors, and retailers -experienced losses, and consumers paid higher prices for their pork. Price changes in one type of meat also affect the prices of other types of meat, influencing those food systems too. Veterinary services. These are mainly organized in four main categories: private practices, government services, in-house veterinarians working for large livestock companies, and research (in universities and pharmaceutical companies) and teaching. In HICs, individual private veterinary partnerships have been consolidating into larger, commercially owned companies. Professionals are often more attracted to small-animal practices serving petowners than to large-animal practices serving farmers. In many LMICS, veterinarians are scarce, especially in remote rural areas and in semi-arid regions with mobile pastoralists. While the number of agrovet vendors is growing, they are still rare in many areas.Animal health care companies produce pharmaceuticals, hygiene and diagnostic products, equipment and software. Some are (or have been) subsidiaries of companies focusing on human medicines; others are independent.Opportunities to control and reduce the risk of livestock diseases tend to fall into five categories: technology, breeding, organization, regulation and market.Technology. Better diagnostics make it possible to detect and treat diseases (including new diseases) more quickly and sometimes also directly at the farm. New vaccines and treatment methods improve control. Traceability measures (ear-tags, databases) make it possible to track an animal from birth to abattoir to the supermarket shelf. Information and communication technology can be used to ease disease reporting and response, and also to advise farmers in remote areas. It should be noted though that there is a general skewness in investment in research and new technologies in that far more is invested in animal issues relevant for HICs than those relevant for LMICs only.Breeding. It has been difficult to breed animals for resistance to specific diseases but some traditional breeds have valuable genetic traits that confer hardiness and more general disease resistance. It is important to raise these breeds in situ to maintain and further develop these traits, and to conserve their germplasm in gene banks.Organization. The organization of livestock keepers into interest groups, cooperatives and marketing groups makes it easier to manage the incidence of diseases. Allying with human health professionals, training and collaborating with traditional healers and community animal health workers, and the provision of mobile clinics make it possible to extend animal health services to more livestock keepers in underserved and remote areas.Regulation. Governments are becoming more aware of the need to control diseases, and they are becoming more adept at doing so. They impose biosecurity measures such as quarantines and movement restrictions, and order the culling of infected animals and the vaccination of animals surrounding an outbreak area.Markets. In HICs, the livestock industry is controlled by a few large actors at key stages in the value chain: animal genetics companies, feed suppliers, livestock processors, and supermarkets. A similar trend is taking place in LMICs. The powerful actors in the chain impose demands on and make requirements of producers in terms of product standards, health, biosafety and traceability. In these large complex systems, it is important that there is continued improvement in the balance between high production, animal welfare, and the use of other technologies like antimicrobials.Highly contagious, deadly diseases pose the biggest risk in areas with large numbers of livestock raised for subsistence. In Viet Nam, for example, an outbreak of African swine fever, first reported in February 2019, had by April spread to 24 provinces and cities, leading to the culling of nearly 90,000 pigs (FAO 2019). The transport of animals and their products over long distances and international borders increases the risk of diseases spreading rapidly within countries and across the globe. The costs of an infection may be huge. If African swine fever were to enter the United States of America, for example, it would cost the pork industry an estimated USD10 billion (Swine Health Information Center, 2019)Disease transmission is especially a risk during transport and at markets and water points.In LMICs, the introduction of purebred and crossbred animals that are poorly adapted to local conditions makes them more susceptible to diseases. Such animals may require greater investment in facilities, feed and medicines than hardy local breeds do.If there are not proper governmental compensation schemes in place, stamping out procedure (culling of infected livestock or livestock at risk) may destroy the economy and livelihoods of farmers and force them out of business. Hence, this may lead to livestock owners not contacting veterinary services. Instead they may sell or cull infected animals to gain some economic revenue.Efforts to clear infected animals from an area are often not completely successful. And if the clearance is successful, the remaining animals cannot develop immunity to the disease if an effective vaccine is not readily available. Both situations leave open the possibility that the disease may reappear and spread rapidly.Many diseases, especially those affecting the tropics and subtropics, still lack adequate control measures such as vaccines. Pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to invest in developing solutions to ailments where most farmers are poor and unable to pay for prevention and treatment. Universities and national and international research organizations are inadequately equipped or underfunded to fill the gap. As the climate changes, the distributions of diseases and their vectors (insects, ticks, mites, etc.) may also change. Diseases can be expected to move into new areas and into livestock populations that lack resistance or tolerance to them, and where livestock keepers and veterinary professionals lack the experience and resources to deal with them. Growing global trade in livestock may also facilitate the spread of diseases (FAO 2013).Globally, government veterinary agencies are often inadequately staffed and resourced, leading to a lack of inspections, lax enforcement and periodic outbreaks of animal and food-borne diseases. In many LMICs, effective veterinary medicines are in short supply, available only in a few locations, or prohibitively expensive for poor, small-scale producers.Medicines may be falsified, adulterated or out of date, and are sold by unregulated vendors. Many livestock keepers use the wrong dosages or apply the wrong medicines to treat their animals' diseases. Livestock owners often do not get advice about treatment from qualified veterinarians but more likely from suppliers such as the owners of agrovet shops and kiosk.Modern, high-yielding livestock breeds are the result of selection for specific traits, often with the use of biotechnologies. The use of artificial insemination means that a single male can sire a hitherto impossible number of offspring. This has dramatically reduced the risk of spread of sexually transmitted diseases and increased the speed of the genetic progress but has also narrowed the genetic base of some livestock breeds, especially dairy cattle, pigs and chickens and at some occasions contributing to the spread undesired genetic traits.About two-thirds of human infectious diseases are zoonotic (transmissible between animals and humans) and account for a significant global health burden (Woolhouse et al. 2005;Jones et al. 2008;Havelaar et al. 2015). Livestock serve as a reservoir for many of these zoonoses, but may also serve as intermediate hosts for zoonotic diseases that have originated in wildlife. The close contact between humans and livestock means that pathogens have ample opportunity to jump species barriers.Zoonoses such as brucellosis, leptospirosis, Rift Valley fever and Chikungunya are frequent in LMICs (Halliday et al. 2015). In HICs, such diseases are kept in check by various biosecurity measures and control or eradication programmes, except in cases where consuming products such as unpasteurized milk are popularized by misinformation, but in LMICs they are widespread in domestic animal populations and readily infect humans who care for or come into contact with animals or who consume poorly cooked animal products. Symptoms from such diseases may be un-specific and are thus often misdiagnosed or go untreated.Zoonoses with high epidemic potential -like various corona virus infections, Ebola, Zika and influenza -originate in wildlife. They may be transmitted directly to humans (Ebola), or via an intermediate host like pigs or poultry (influenza) or via an insect vector (Zika). Some of these zoonoses, primarily viruses, are highly contagious and do actually, like SARS-CoV-2 and influenza type 1, cause pandemics. Because humans do not have immunity to such novel zoonoses, they can spread rapidly across the globe -through human-to-human transmission aided by international travel, as well as the global trade in livestock and food of animal origin.The economic impact of zoonotic outbreaks is substantial: it is estimated that 6 major outbreaks of highly fatal zoonoses between 1997 and 2009 caused economic losses of at least USD 80 billion (World Bank 2012). The public-health restrictions imposed to control COVID-19 have caused massive economic losses worldwide.If the pathogen is novel (it has newly mutated or jumped the species barrier to humans), it is necessary and urgent to identify and characterize the causal organism, the disease symptoms and transmission methods in order to design control or eradication methods. For all pathogens tracing the source(s) of infection is of utmost importance.The COVID-19 outbreak has shown the risks of misleading information spreading rapidly via the internet and social media -as so-called \"infodemic\". This danger is magnified if governments themselves are a source of misleading information. Governments may also try to conceal information or restrict its spread in an effort to avoid criticism, preserve export markets, remain in favor with its electorate, or maintain public calm.For both epidemic and endemic zoonoses, control and containment measures in livestock are very much the same as for other infectious livestock diseases. However, zoonotic diseases -especially those that cause epidemics or pandemics -usually get more attention from the public and authorities, so more financial and organizational resources are put in place to control them. It is generally more cost-efficient to invest in surveillance and control of zoonoses in animals -\"at source\" -than in humans (World Bank 2012). The control of other infections in livestock may benefit from such resources, as in the case of HPAI.Widespread connectivity and the popularity of social media present both risks and opportunities to spread awareness and information.Pandemic and epidemic zoonoses. The public health risks of epidemic zoonoses may be considerable, as we have been reminded by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Pandemics may cause enormous human suffering and economic and social dislocation. This is worsened if the authorities initially try to conceal the nature and extent of the disease. Governments may be reluctant to impose restrictions (on livestock production and trade, and on human movements and social interactions) needed to control the disease. Efforts to do so may face substantial political, social and economic resistance. Social media may spread falsehoods, making it still harder to contain the disease.Apart from the public health risks, the risks related to zoonoses with pandemic potential are very similar to those of other non-zoonotic transboundary diseases. They include trade restrictions, direct production losses and indirect losses resulting from control measures, such as the culling of non-infected animals. These may result in severe effects on the producers' economies and livelihoods, especially in countries that provide little or no economic compensation for such losses. In LMICs, fighting pandemic zoonoses may harm food security. Livestock production may be stigmatized as a biohazard, as with pig production in Malaysia during the Nipah outbreak in the 1990s (Chua 2013). the background hazards of livestock keeping. This is especially the case if there are no dramatic effects on the livestock, just poor production performance, as with endemic brucellosis in LMICs.Other endemic zoonoses that pose risks to public health, but have little or no negative effect on animal health, are campylobacteriosis in poultry and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in cattle. For these diseases, farmers may have few incentives to take control measures, unless these are demanded by public health and food agencies, or by actors in the food value chain.For all types of zoonoses, farmers and their families in LMICs are often at most risk as they tend to live close to their livestock and have limited resources to contain the disease.Some of the most important food-borne diseases originate from livestock, for example campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis (Havelaar et al. 2015). This reflects the importance of animal health, welfare and management systems that prevent the spread of food-borne diseases. The burden of food-borne diseases is estimated at 33 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY), a similar magnitude to those of major communicable diseases HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (Havelaar et al. 2015). The highest burden falls on Africa, particularly on children below the age of five. There are also high economic and societal costs associated with food-borne diseases, including direct costs of the healthcare sector, as well as indirect costs such as absence from work, permanent or long-term disability, and premature mortality.An outbreak of a food-borne disease can trigger measures that disrupt the supply chain, such as the destruction of animal products suspected to be contaminated, the closure of abattoirs and processing facilities and food recalls. If consumers lose confidence that a product is safe, they stop buying it. Demand and prices fall, reducing income for everyone in that food system, from retailers back to livestock keepers and input suppliers.Food-borne diseases may originate in the animals themselves (see Zoonoses and pandemics above), or may be introduced during processing and marketing. Unhygienic slaughtering and processing facilities may contaminate meat and milk. Products may be poorly conserved, for example, if they are not adequately cooled during storage and transport. Products kept beyond their shelf life may become unfit for consumption. There are particular challenges in LMICs where the majority of poor people buy their food at local wet markets. At these markets there are food safety risks related to absence of cooling facilities, lack of clean and running water, and poor food hygiene. Traditional food chains are simple: they may have just one step (farmer sells direct to consumer) or even none (subsistence farmers consume what they produce). But the global consumption of animal-sourced foods is increasing (Steinfeld and Gerber 2010). Food chains have been getting longer and more complex: they have been turning into intricate webs with many stages in processing, and numerous actors in different locations each performing a separate task. Processed foods typically contain multiple ingredients, each of which must fulfil food-safety requirements. The risks of contamination have multiplied accordingly (Boqvist et al. 2018).While food-borne diseases mainly threaten consumers in LMICs, they also affect HICs.A scandal in Germany in 2019 involving sausages contaminated by listeria exposed shortcomings in both the processing factory and in the government system for inspecting such facilities (Schulz 2019). The European Union's ban on chlorine-washed chicken to mitigate campylobacter reflects concerns that it may compensate for poor hygiene standards both at production level and at processing. The ban has halted virtually all imports of chicken meat from the United States of America, where the process is generally used in chicken-processing plants (Schraer and Edgington 2019).Improving animal health will improve public health as healthy animals are less likely to carry and pass on zoonotic food-borne pathogens. Fewer contaminated food products on the market will boost consumer trust, increase access to markets for producers, and benefit them and other actors in the food system.The spread of supermarkets in LMICs is improving sanitary standards in the food-supply chain, as retailers introduce refrigeration and packaging and place strict quality controls on their suppliers (see Animal diseases above). Such requirements cascade back through the chain to producers. In many LMICs where the informal wet market is prevalent, guidance and recommendations to improve hygiene may improve hygiene, prevent cross contamination and storage, thereby improving food safety.Repeated, high-profile food scandals put pressure on retailers, processors and producers to improve their standards, and on governments to introduce and enforce more effective controls. New technology might facilitate tracing of food products in food borne outbreaks involving several countries. Social media can help spread information on outbreaks of food-borne diseases.As living standards improve, the consumption of meat, milk and eggs increase. Consumers thus face a larger risk of being exposed to diseases from these foods, especially in systems with poor animal health and management.While the shift towards supermarkets in LMICs promises to raise food-safety standards, it also carries the risk of larger-scale crises. Inspection and enforcement systems are not as robust as in HICs. A problem in the supply chain may lead to more widespread problems than in a marketing system dominated by small-scale, local, wet markets.As food chains are getting longer and more complex it becomes more difficult to trace food products associated with food borne outbreaks due to the large number of actors involved and because food products may be processed in several different countries. The challenges to monitor and control these complex chains also enables food frauds. One well known fraud is the \"horse-meat scandal\" in 2013, where beef burgers were found to contain undeclared horse meat (Food safety authority of Ireland, 2013).Increased livestock production may put more people at risk of exposure to both zoonotic and food-borne diseases if animal health and management is poor and biosecurity insufficient.Pathogens may be transmitted in various ways, including through direct exposure to excreta, unsafe foods, contaminated drinking water and poor personal hygiene. There may be food safety risks also associated with smallholder production for the same reasons mentioned above.Antimicrobial resistance Antimicrobials (antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals) and anti-parasitics are used in four ways in livestock keeping: to treat diseased animals (treatment ); to control the spread of a disease in a herd or flock (when a disease has been detected); to prevent the animals from becoming ill (prophylaxis); and to put in feed in low doses to enhance growth rates (growth promotion). In some farming systems, antimicrobials are mixed with the feed or drinking water for prophylaxis and growth promotion. However, the practice of using antibiotics for growth promotion is nowadays banned in many countries since it drives development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The regular use of antimicrobials for prophylaxis is also restricted in some countries.Bacteria and other microbes naturally develop resistance to antimicrobials. But this process is greatly enhanced through the extensive use -and overuse -of antibiotics and other antimicrobials in livestock production (as well as in human medicine). Hitherto effective antimicrobials used to treat major diseases of both humans and animals are becoming ineffective. The emergence of AMR is currently the greatest threat to progress made in human health and well-being as well as animal health, welfare and production over several decades. It has been estimated that AMR will contribute to millions of human deaths per year in the world and the production in the livestock sector in low income countries is at particular risk with an estimated livestock production loss of 10 percent by 2050, if the emergence and spread of AMR is not curbed (O 'Neill, 2016;World bank, 2017).To maintain the efficacy of antimicrobials, it is vital to reduce their use by limiting it to medically rational use. The livestock sector is a large user of antimicrobials and contributes significantly to the global pool of resistant microbes (Van Boeckel et al. 2015). Except for cases where farm workers have been infected with resistant bacteria from livestock, the importance of the sector as a contributor to resistant microbes to the human population as a whole is however not known (Tang et al. 2017). Even so, for the sake of maintaining the efficiency of antimicrobials for veterinary use, and to reduce the risk of transmission of resistance to humans, it is reasonable to reduce the use of antimicrobials in the livestock sector (e.g. Robinson et al. 2016). The availability of antimicrobials varies widely from one country to another, and from place to place within a country. In some locations, they are expensive and hard to find; in others, they are more affordable and easily available, even without prescription. There is also great variability in use between farming systems: most food animal antimicrobials are used in intensive poultry and pig systems (Van Boeckel et al. 2015).Countries differ considerably in their regulations on the use and supply of antimicrobials, as well as in capacities to enforce such regulations. Falsified and substandard drugs are common in many LMICs (Kelesidis and Falagas 2016). Also, the public awareness and attitudes towards the use of antimicrobials in the livestock sector varies.As awareness of the danger of AMR increases, governments are imposing greater restrictions on the types, amounts and uses of antimicrobials. The European Union, for example, banned the prophylactic use of antimicrobials in livestock in 2015. This has led to a drop in the quantity of such medicines used in the European Union (European Commission 2015, European Medicines Agency 2019). Globally, more countries are now banning the use of antimicrobials as growth promotors (OIE, 2019), which may lead to similar reductions in use in these countries.Antimicrobials are in several cases used to compensate for shortcomings in animal management. Investment in preventive animal health and animal welfare reduces the need for antimicrobials (Magnusson et al., 2019;FAO, 2020). Conversely, restricting the use of antimicrobials may force producers to upgrade their husbandry and biosecurity, vaccination programmes and standards of animal welfare.Despite a global trend with more regulations restricting the use of antimicrobials, substantial demand for such products may still exists from some large-scale producers.Compliance to these regulations may in some settings be poor and inspection services underfunded and understaffed. Also, veterinarians are in some jurisdictions allowed to sell antimicrobials to farmers; a practice that does not promote restrictive use (Magnusson 2020). Some veterinarians earn huge profits by dispensing large quantities of medication to livestock producers (Klawitter 2012;Hucklenbroich 2011). In some LMICs, antimicrobials are available from unregulated agrovet stores and kiosks, and are sold in the absence of professional animal health advice (Magnusson et al., 2021). Thus, they may be applied without a proper diagnosis, used to treat the wrong diseases or applied at the wrong doses. Falsified, substandard and expired drugs are also common (Kelesidis and Falagas 2016). All these problems may lead to inappropriate and excessive use of antimicrobials that drives the development of AMR.Concern about animal welfare has been growing strongly globally, for example regional strategies for animal welfare are now available across continents (e.g. African Union, 2017). For farm animals, welfare encompasses a broad range of issues relating to the health and well-being of livestock on farms, during transport and at slaughter.Livestock production in LMICs is dominated by smallholders. They typically devote much greater individual attention to their animals than is possible in larger systems. Welfare problems instead come from scarce feed and health resources, or an absence of knowledge, not an absence of care (Godfray and Garnett 2014;Abubakar et al. 2018). In large scale animal production, animal welfare challenges are related to confinement, behavioral restrictions, and extreme levels of production and intervention.Animal welfare considers the health, nutrition, housing and behavioral needs of animals, and how they are managed. It is linked to the pillars of sustainable agriculture (Broom 2010;Appleby and Mitchell 2018). FAO's vision for sustainable livestock production treats animal welfare as a priority (FAO 2018). The welfare of livestock and working animals directly relates to eight of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (Doyle et al. 2018; World Horse Welfare and The Donkey Sanctuary 2018; Keeling et al. 2019) Many livestock enterprises are responding to changing consumer preferences, including welfare sensibilities. Some can charge a higher price for products produced in a way that is mindful of animal welfare; or penalties for non-compliance to animal welfare standards may emerge. Better animal welfare may incur costs: it may be necessary, for example, to convert production facilities, replace equipment, reduce the number of animals, allocate more space per animal, or switch to alternative sources of feed. But it also brings benefits for farmers by allowing them to target higher-value markets and by cutting losses, wastage and animal mortality. It is often more environmentally friendly than conventional production. It is good for worker satisfaction too, as well as for occupational health, food safety and food security. These trade-offs need to be identified and managed, and synergies built upon.Sensitivity to and standards for animal welfare varies from one country to another. This may cause problems in trade. In 2011, for example, Australia temporarily banned exports of live cattle to Indonesia, its largest market, because of the lack of safeguards against the inhumane slaughter of animals (BBC 2011).The scope for improvements in animal welfare to enhance sustainability is huge. The connection between animal welfare and other components of sustainability means that welfare-focused innovation gains can be made at the same time as other sustainability improvements.Animal and human health and welfare go hand in hand. Poor animal welfare causes stress for animals and humans alike. It contributes to food-borne diseases caused by zoonotic bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter (European Food Safety Authority 2012). Improved welfare practices on farm and afterwards can improve productivity, meat quality and food safety, reduce risks to human health, and lead to economic benefits (Appleby and Mitchell 2018).During disease outbreaks, humane management of sick animals and culling for control can ease animal suffering and the psychological stress on the farming families and animal health workers (Hall et al. 2004, FAO 2009, Whiting and Marion 2011). As an example, the 2019 outbreak of African swine fever in parts of Asia saw the death and culling of almost five million pigs (estimates from December 2019, FAO, 2019), often not meeting international standards of animal welfare (OIE, 2019a).As animal welfare concerns increase, they influence consumer behaviour, government processes and international expectations. A failure to take these concerns into account could result in lower demand for livestock products, harming the viability of production systems.Without genuine improvement of animal welfare, many of the Sustainable Development Goals will not be realized (Euro Group for Animals 2018) and livestock systems, the people that rely on them, and the animals will suffer.In many countries there is a wide gap between regulation and implementation, which makes welfare improvements, specifically the phasing out of unacceptable practices, difficult to achieve. Commitment to implement changes, broad stakeholder involvement in the development of regulations, and investment to support changes in practices (e.g. through raising awareness, education, or developing skills) are ways that this gap can be narrowed.Short term vision for production poses risks to animal welfare when animals are in poor health and welfare but are still counted as 'productive'. Lame cows still produce milk, but yields eventually decline, and cull rates increase (Oltenacu and Broom, 2010); broiler flocks with high rates of digital dermatitis still can be used for meat, but the chances of Campylobacter contamination after slaughter are higher (Bull et al., 2008); working equids often continue to be used for work when chronically ill, creating significant, costly health issues to address that have long recovery periods (Pritchard et al., 2018). In these situations, proactive welfare interventions would reduce these long-term, high impact losses as well as enhance the welfare of the livestock involved, in both the short and the long term.Good animal husbandry and welfareClean and comfortable housing, nutritious feed, free access to clean drinking water, good air quality and optimal temperature are the basis for keeping animals healthy so they can remain free of stress and resist infection.Improvements in the availability of feed and water, veterinary medicines and services and farmers' education, and investments in transport, infrastructure, markets and slaughter facilities are making it possible to ensure animal health. Better access to markets and improved consumer awareness strengthen the incentives for farmers and processors to raise healthy animals and to improve hygiene and handling so they can sell livestock, meat, milk and eggs.Better knowledge of how diseases are transmitted makes it possible to reduce the risk of animals becoming ill and also prevent food borne diseases. Increased biosecurity measures are widely applied in HICs. They cover the management of animals and the movement of animals and humans within and between farms. Measures to prevent infection include avoiding livestock markets, using artificial insemination and embryo transfer for breeding, strict quarantine measures, limiting the mixing of young animals from different farms, reducing livestock-human interactions through increased automation of procedures such as milking, and preventing livestock from coming into contact with wildlife. Adequate biosecurity also implies good farm hygiene to prevent survival, multiplication and transmission of pathogens, including food borne diseases.Biosecurity measures are increasingly being applied in LMICs as a result of ambitions to increase productivity and demands from local supermarkets and consumers, government regulations, and the requirements of importing countries. In many countries, politics as well as economic pressures are forcing a shift away from small-scale and backyard livestockraising to large, more intensive production units where biosecurity is easier to implementthough a disease may spread rapidly if it gains access to the facility. The expansion of vaccination programmes in LMICs has the potential to protect more animals from infectious diseases, especially in remote areas. Promising approaches include mobile vaccination teams and clinics to serve pastoralists, and combining programmes to vaccinate nomadic pastoralists and their livestock (Shelling et al., 2007). Novel information and communication technology has the potential to improve reporting and response to outbreaks of infectious diseases, as well as providing livestock keepers with advice from qualified veterinarians.Changes in institutions may be just as important as improved technology in controlling diseases. Brucellosis in cattle is an example. This zoonotic disease was eradicated in Sweden in the 1950s based on the robust diagnostics available at that time (Cerenius 2010). This was made possible because communal grazing and mixing of herds were limited, engagement in farmers' organizations was strong, and the veterinary authority and service interacted closely with the farmers. These institutional factors made compliance with external biosecurity measures effective. The opposite conditions still apply in many countries where brucellosis is an issue (Plumb et al. 2013). In such cases, where animal productivity is generally low and where the disease is endemic and symptoms vague, farmers may be reluctant to invest in control measures such as vaccination. A lack of compensation for culled animals further increases resistance to control measures.The development and strengthening of institutions, both state and non-state, in such areas are vital to improving control of livestock diseases. Stronger groups of livestock keepers make it easier for government organizations and veterinary services to interact with larger numbers of local people, learn about their opinions and needs, and provide them with the information and services they require. It also makes compliance with disease-control measures more possible (FAO, 2020).Advances in technology are making it possible to detect and respond to livestock diseases more quickly. Improved testing and control have made it possible to eradicate diseases such as bovine brucellosis and porcine pseudorabies in the United States (USDA 2019a(USDA , 2019b)).For some diseases it is now possible to perform a rapid diagnosis on the farm itself. To be practicable, such tests must be cheap and quick. Currently, some \"pen-side\" tests and several basic laboratory tests are in common use in HICs.Information technologies, including cameras, image-recognition software and sensors in equipment and in the animals themselves make it possible to gather performance-related data. Sensors can monitor and manage the temperature, air quality and ventilation in housing, and the feed consumption of individual animals, making it possible to detect infections early (Shi et al. 2019). Acoustic sensors can detect an increase in coughing of pigs and calves (Carpentier et al. 2018) as an indicator of respiratory infection. Data collection and record-keeping can become more efficient, as in the Individual Pig Care approach, which combines systematic observation with electronic records (Pineiro et al. 2014, van Looveren 2013). New technology can also be applied to increase traceability within complex food chains, one example being blockchain technology (Antonucci et al. 2019).Smartphones, now common in most countries, offer the prospect of improved disease surveillance, especially for livestock-keeping in and around cities in LMICs (Roesel and Grace 2015). However, livestock production in the informal sector often escapes formal regulation, so conflicts of interest may arise when it comes to monitoring and surveillance. Smartphones may also be used to improve knowledge and awareness of diseases and their control among actors throughout the production system.The prospect of developing effective new antimicrobials for veterinary use is limited in the near future, as new antimicrobials will very likely be reserved for humans. In parts of Europe, restrictions on the use of antimicrobials, combined with better disease prevention, has significantly lowered the use of antimicrobials in the livestock sector, with no loss of productivity or profitability (Bengtsson and Wierup 2006). Such measures could be expanded and implemented elsewhere.The three intergovernmental organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) have agreed to collaborate in fighting AMR. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has also joined this effort (WHO; FAO; OIE UNEP, 2022).Other global initiatives are taken by the World Bank (World Bank, 2019) and the CGIAR has established an AMR-hub focusing on reducing the risks of AMR associated with agriculture in LMICs (CGIAR 2019).In several HICs it has been shown that it is possible to maintain good health and productivity when reducing the use of antimicrobials. In LMICs, a more medically rational use of antimicrobials would lead to lower use and may both improve animal health and increase productivity. Wholesalers, retail distributors, animal health professionals, livestock producers, policymakers, governmental agencies and academia must all strive to replace excessive and medically non-rational use of antimicrobials with good animal husbandry and disease-prevention measures.The applicability of solutions will depend on the setting. They may include (European Commission 2015):> Using only quality-assured medicines.> Not using antimicrobials as growth promotors and avoiding regular preventive use of antimicrobials.> Avoiding using highest priority, critically important antimicrobials for human medicine in livestock.> Using antimicrobials only based on a diagnosis of the disease by a veterinarian or other animal health professional and only for authorized indications.> Treating animals individually with the correct dose and duration, and avoiding the use of antimicrobials for group treatments, especially via feed.Reducing the administration of sub-therapeutic antimicrobials (as well as hormones or steroids) may mean that animals do not grow as quickly. This can be addressed through changes in feeding. Major feed companies are exploring custom blends that reduce dependency on medicated feed and improve digestibility and gut health. It should be noted that for some antimicrobials used for growth promotion and disease control, such as the ionophores, there has been no demonstration of selection for resistant bacteria of either animal or human importance.Enforcing strict compliance to withdrawal times (the time period between applying an antimicrobial and when the eggs, meat or milk may be marketed for human consumption) may incentivize a more limited use of antimicrobials. Effective monitoring and traceability along the food chain are needed to ensure this.The importance of the One Health approach has -since the global spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2004 when WHO, FAO and WOAH joined forces -been fully recognized. These three major global organizations dealing with agriculture and human and animal health have agreed to collaborate to deal with health threats at the human-animalecosystem interface; UNEP has also now joined this effort (FAO, OIE and WHO, 2010).The approach includes disciplines like food safety, public health, health economics, ecosystem health, social science and animal health. In the 1980s in the United Kingdom, an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle lead to a parallel outbreak of its human equivalent, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD ) in humans (Ducrot et al. 2008). Important aspects such as food safety, public health and the ability of the BSE agent to spread through the food and feed chains had been overlooked. It was only when the One Health approach was used that the disease's ability to spread, and the magnitude and severity of the epidemic were fully grasped. It is also widely acknowledged that the One Health approach is essential for successfully fighting the global AMR emergence (WHO, FAO,OIE UNEP 2022)The development of global standards is raising the bar for animal welfare, and welfareassessment programmes are providing the tools needed to evaluate compliance. The WOAH (previously OIE) has developed codes for the welfare of terrestrial and aquatic animals (OIE 2004), including dairy, beef, chickens, pigs and working equids, and for post-farmgate transport and slaughter for food and for disease control. The codes are scientifically based. Consensus among the WOAH's member countries supports their adoption and makes them inclusive and accessible to all involved (Sinclair 2016).Valid and reliable welfare indicators for sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, turkeys (AssureWel 2010, AWIN 2015) and broilers, laying hens, pigs, beef and dairy cattle (AssureWel 2010, Blokhuis et al. 2010), and working equids (Sommerville et al. 2018) have been well researched. While indicators need to be evaluated for different systems, particularly in LMICs, these tools allow comparisons to be made within and between systems and environments over time. These codes and indicators make it possible to gather evidence on animal welfare. Welfare labelling provides advice and information to the consumer, but it also comes with risks of mis-information, consumer distrust if not regulated, and can act as a barrier to trade (More et al., 2017).For example, in 2019, German supermarkets introduced a four-point labelling system for meat (https://www.haltungsform.de/) where 1 (\"Stallhaltung\" or stable management) is the lowest and 4 (\"Premium\") the highest score. A score of 4, for example, indicates that the animal has much more room than required by law and that it can go outdoors at least some of the time. Eggs sold in Germany have a coding from 0 to3 (where 0 denotes organic and 3 cage management; the opposite scoring system to meat). Some milk is marketed as \"Weidemilch\" (meadow milk) or \"Heumilch\" (hay milk), but these have no legally defined criteria (Verbraucherzentrale 2020). In addition, several environmental organizations have introduced their own certification and labelling schemes (NABU undated), and animal elfare groups have called for a compulsory, state-sponsored labelling scheme.Improving animal welfare often involves costs for the farmers. That means that farmers need incentives to improve welfare. This can happen if they get a better price or a more reliable market for their output. UpTrade (https://uptrade.org/) is a start-up creating incentives for smallholder goat farmers in Pakistan to improve traceability, feeding and health management. Meat Naturally (https://www.meatnaturallyafrica.com/) provides livestock keepers with training, equipment and market access, if they agree to preserve rangelands and produce quality meat products that are produced in a sustainable fashion.In both examples, organizations connect farmers with higher-value markets that require them to invest time and resources in improved welfare. Good animal feeding and integrated approaches to land use, such as silvopastoral systems, may improve feed efficiency, biodiversity, and human and animal welfare (Broom et al. 2013, Chará et al. 2018). They also permit the animals to behave in a natural way (Fraser 2008).Opportunities for integration of agroforestry and animal production systems may apply to both private and public lands, if managed appropriately.Healthy animals are more productive than unhealthy ones, so it is in the livestock keepers' interests to take care of their animals' health and welfare. However, it may not be obvious that an animal has a disease and in some cases the farmer may neglect optimizing the health and welfare of the animal for the sake of profit, despite lower productivity. Also, in some settings the farmers may be tempted to conceal an illness so animals can be sold or slaughtered.Governments have a wider responsibility for controlling disease. They are tasked with protecting other livestock keepers, the industry and consumers from the effects of disease. Measures such as culling, movement bans and quarantines may be unpopular but necessary.Governments are also responsible for protecting animal welfare. Governments must find positive incentives and practical, enforceable ways to ensure that animals are kept in a humane way. Public policy, however, is not solely the domain of government and different livestock sector actors; international organizations can also have roles to play in shaping the policy and institutional environment in which livestock systems operate. Policy instruments can take various forms -characterized as \"sticks\", \"carrots\", \"maps\" and combinations of these.> Command and control. Regulations, operating through legal instruments and generally with sanctions in the event of breach. These include bans, quotas, restrictions, licenses, permits and compulsory standards. This is the equivalent of a stick (punishment if you do not comply with the rule).> Direct implementation. This is where a government implements an activity itself.Examples are direct purchases of products, government-run extension services, and infrastructure such as markets, roads and ports owned and run by the government. This is the equivalent of the government pulling the cart by itself.> Taxation. Where the government imposes additional costs, such as taxes and levies, on activities in order to raise revenues, make the activity more costly and less attractive, or to cover the costs of providing services. It is a stick.> Cross-compliance. Regulation, where conditions are attached to direct payments at various points in the livestock and food system. This is a combination of a carrot (the promise of payments) with a stick (the reduction in payments if you do not comply with recommendations).> Support. Where the government finances an activity that it deems desirable. This includes subsidies, funding of initiatives, purchases of products and lower tax rates. It is a carrot.> The market. Where consumers' concerns filter back through retailers and processors to producers. This is a carrot, where you get rewarded for meeting the market's needs, combined with a stick, where you lose market share if you do not.> Soft law. In the form of guidance, recommendations on best practices, and voluntary standards from international organizations and other authorities, corporations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) or professional associations. This is like a map showing you the best way to get to a destination.> Information, education and research. This involves informing stakeholders in the value chain, from produces to consumers, about a topic. It may include information campaigns, training, guidelines, rating systems and networking, as well as research to generate information and new technologies. It is also a map.Some of these options are best suited to governments and other better to nongovernment actors, such as the private sector and NGOs. For example, groups of privatesector retailers (or a single larger retailer) can set quality standards that their suppliers must follow. NGOs can implement some types of activity themselves (such as organizing producers into groups), or can run information campaigns to raise awareness about an issue.Policy tools can influence the behavior of food system actors by impacting on supply and demand. Supply-side policy instruments act upon producers, processors and distributors by altering the conditions that determine prices and quantities supplied: quotas and subsidies, for example. Demand-side policy instruments affect the conditions of demand. Their role is largely under-explored within sustainable food policy. For instance, taxes on saturated fat are aimed at altering relative prices among food items; nutritional labelling aims at orienting consumers' choice.Controlling the movement of livestock and animal products is vital to prevent the spread of certain diseases, including food borne diseases. Such controls may be imposed routinely on international trade or on movements within a country -such as between areas where a disease is endemic to areas that are disease-free. They may also be imposed on a temporary basis in response to a disease outbreak. In imposing such controls, it is necessary to balance between biosecurity and economic considerations: while the restrictions may be in the best interest of society as a whole, they may be against the short term and local economic interests of some parties. A mix of economic incentives and regulatory enforcement must be struck in such cases.The financial barriers to innovations in animal health are often substantial. Economic margins are typically narrow in livestock production. New technologies must be economically viable, but companies have little incentive to develop them, and farmers to adopt them. Governments can address this problem by supporting the costs of developing a solution to a problem where the value to society exceeds the value to the marketplace. Such an approach may apply to innovation in vaccines, diagnostic tests, and other disease-control measures. A similar logic may apply to deploying existing technologies to control diseases, such as through vaccination programmes for livestock in LMICs.For infectious livestock diseases not affecting humans, a mixture of command-andcontrol and soft laws may be appropriate, depending on the disease, the scale of losses, and public health risks. In countries with weak veterinary services, there are few control options for common endemic diseases. Farmers can be motivated by soft laws to implement simple biosecurity and management measures to control the spread of these diseases. Where a disease is less common, or if it is new in an area, command-andcontrol may be more appropriate to control or eradicate the disease. A well-functioning veterinary service and collaboration across institutions and sectors are required for this.It may be possible to start with soft laws to encourage voluntary actions and reduce the disease prevalence, followed by command and control for the final eradication. Notably, international trade agreements based on WOAH-standards are important determinants in how a country handles a livestock disease -in the absence of measures a country may not be allowed to export livestock or livestock products to the global market.Managing zoonotic diseases is even more complex and requires collaboration across institutions and sectors. Command-and-control approaches covering both human and livestock health may be needed, especially for zoonoses with pandemic potential. HICs already use integrated control systems across animals, foods and humans but in LMICs controls are less effective and are not always integrated across the different sectors.Pressure from the public health sector to control zoonotic diseases in livestock is of particular importance for diseases showing few or no clinical signs in livestock, such as campylobacteriosis. In these cases, it may be difficult to motivate farmers using soft law, instead a combination of cross-compliance, the market and command-and-control may be more effective.Use One Health to control zoonotic and food-borne diseasesZoonotic and food-borne diseases are best tackled using a One Health approach.Resources should be allocated where they most reduce the risk of zoonotic and foodborne diseases. Interventions must be based on knowledge of the socio-economic situations of farmers, food business operators and consumers. A combination of crosscompliance and soft law approaches may work best.Improving animal husbandry and welfare is important for reducing the risks of zoonotic and food-borne diseases. Data on the occurrence of food-borne diseases and the disease burden in the human population are crucial to assess the costs and benefits of diseasecontrol measures in the livestock production and processing systems. Postharvest interventions are also required to reduce the risk of the pathogens surviving, multiplying and contaminating food. In HICs, efficient control and monitoring of targeted diseases are needed by well-functioning regulatory bodies using command-and-control, crosscompliance and market approaches. In low-income countries, such approaches are less likely to be useful; there, soft laws in the form of recommendations and guidance will probably be more effective.Not all governments have the capacity to impose command-and-control measures to restrict antimicrobial use, and overly harsh regulations could jeopardize the profitability and livelihoods of livestock producers. It also risks pushing antimicrobial use into a poorly regulated black market dominated by sub-standard products that are administered inappropriately. The cross-compliance approach also requires the capacity to enforce regulations, and the market approach relies on consumers demanding food produced without excessive use of antimicrobials. Such approaches will probably work only in HICs. Soft law -guidelines and persuasion -along with education and information, also has a place in HICs, but may be the only realistic option in LMICs.Efforts to improve animal welfare include both creating and raising minimum standards for welfare, and enforcing accountability to improve practices. These must cover all stages in the production cycle: on-farm, transport and slaughter. A combination is needed of command-and-control regulation (from government), and cross-compliance and soft law (from industry and the supply chain), whereby actors must achieve a level of welfare in order to sell their products.In many governmental and compliance systems, large gaps exist between policy, regulation and implementation. Policies that are not demanded by farmers or consumers but developed by experts and adopted in response to international pressure are especially likely to be ignored. Extension providers must be trained in animal welfare so they can guide producers. Industry actors and nongovernment organizations can often connect with farmers better than governments. Rather than imposing rules, dialogue is needed to raise awareness of animal welfare among producers and consumers.Animal health and welfare interact and support each other; freedom from disease is substantial share of welfare and good care and management is a prerequisite for raising animals that are robust and resistant to disease. Here we focus on synergies between animal health and welfare, and the other livestock sustainability domains.The flip side of synergies are negative externalities: where a decline or failure in one domain leads to problems in another domain. Examples abound. Lower productivity (livelihoods domain) threatens the food security of livestock keepers (and of the population as a whole) and may forces them to over-exploit the natural resources, spend less on maintaining animal health, over-use of antibiotics, and pay less attention to animal welfare.Improvements in animal health and welfare may theoretically lead to losses in other domains. Such negative interactions -trade-offs -are sometimes difficult to spot, and it can be hard to agree on what the right approach should be: should the animal welfare be sacrificed in order to boost output, or to guarantee food security?Animal health and welfare and Food and nutrition securityBetter food security, less food waste. Protecting animals against disease results in healthier animals that are more productive, and their meat, milk and eggs are less likely to be rejected for food-safety reasons.Better production, improved nutrition. Animal-sourced foods provide high value nutrients critically important for children and women at reproductive age. Such foods are scarce for poor people living in LMICs and healthy animals that produce well contribute to larger amounts of these highly nutritious foods.Rejecting food. Strictly enforcing food-safety regulations leads to rejecting food that is regarded to be unfit for human consumption, contributing to food wastage. There is thus a trade-off between concern for food safety and strictly enforcing regulations on one hand and the availability of food on the other. This may also have a negative impact on availability and accessibility of nutritious animal-sourced foods.Animal health and welfare and Livelihoods and economic growthProtecting the effectiveness of antimicrobials. In some settings, especially in intensive systems in emerging economies, animal health is maintained under an umbrella of antimicrobials. Thus, to implement other disease prevention measures not based on antimicrobials, and to use antimicrobials in a medically rational and responsible way, can reduce the risks of spurring the emergence of resistant microbes, which may pose a threat to animal health and productivity as well as to human health.Reducing the risk from zoonoses. Zoonotic diseases are common to both humans and livestock: indeed, the majority of infectious diseases in humans originates from the animal kingdom. Albeit the majority of these diseases originates from wildlife, livestock may serve as a bridge for transmission to humans and can serve as a reservoir for pathogens. Hence, controlling diseases in livestock can reduce the risk of infection in humans.Higher productivity. Animals that are healthy and can perform their natural behaviors are more productive, boosting incomes and economic growth. While controlling animal diseases may be costly in the short term, it pays off in the long term for livestock keepers and others in the value chain through higher productivity and greater profitability.Income rise and education. As incomes rise, livestock keepers become more able to afford animal health care and to ensure the welfare of their livestock. Better education, infrastructure and services also make it easier to maintain animal health.Addressing consumer concerns. Concerns about animal welfare are growing globally. Such concerns may reduce demand for animal-sourced foods in some markets; trigger policy changes by government and action by stakeholders in the livestock sector to improve welfare.Costs of controlling animal diseases. It can be very costly to control livestock diseases. Measures such as inspections, trade bans, quarantines and depopulation are very much \"command-and-control\" in nature. The costs fall on the individual livestock keeper unless they are compensated by the government or by insurance schemes.Rejecting food. As with above, strictly enforcing food-safety regulations can exclude certain producers from markets. There is thus a potential trade-off between concern for strictly enforcing food safety regulations on one hand and market access on the other.Costs of improving welfare. For infrastructure-heavy animal production systems, the cost of introducing welfare changes can be incredibly expensive for producers to implement. Such additional costs may take time or be difficult to recover though increased profits alone, and so may need a substantial timeframe for phasing in such industry-wide changes.Reduction of antimicrobial use. For many reasons, some livestock keepers make up for poor health management through the excessive use of antimicrobials. If a reduced use is not replaced by good animal health management, animal health and welfare may deteriorate.Lower animal welfare. Capital-intensive systems can restrict natural behavior in animals and can be accompanied with genetic selection that can compromise health and welfare.","tokenCount":"12871"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8ff81e0fb9a138bea40a6c45fac600cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/88dc62fd-1ee8-4d57-81b6-1dc7be699a51/retrieve","id":"1134387895"},"keywords":["Crop type mapping","spatial unit zonation","Yield Gap","Google Earth Engine","multi-source remote sensing"],"sieverID":"abe86a5c-d1e9-4d46-96e9-bed16eee3a57","pagecount":"35","content":"Addressing the limitations of scaling agronomic recommendations, which are usually confined to small areas, requires a spatial framework for characterizing production environments in a timely and costeffective manner.Characterization of production environments on a large scale is essential for targeted interventions, informed decision-making, and a sustainable solution for global food security (Cassman and Grassini, 2020).Yet, the scope of agronomic information derived from on-farm trials, field experiments and crop model simulations is mostly limited to small areas due to the high cost and time required to obtain the necessary input data (Ramirez-Villegas and Challinor, 2012;van Bussel et al., 2015;Beza et al., 2017) and the need to account for biophysical variability across different agricultural landscapes (Veldkamp et al., 2001). There are also challenges in capturing temporal variability in the production environment over different growing seasons. A spatial framework that can account for spatio temporal variability a corss cropland cohorts sharing similar biophysical attributes is essential to scaling out agronomic research for development efforts.A prominent spatial framework to characterize crop production environments is the climatic zonation scheme of the Global Yield Gap Atlas (GYGA-CZ;van Wart et al., 2013). Other examples include the Technology Extrapolation Domain (TED) framework (Edreira et al., 2018) This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d 4 (SRU) framework (Tamene et al., 2022). However, most past efforts remain too coarse, generic, and static for technology targeting in complex production landscapes and often involve subjective decisions when segmenting environments based on a limited number of variables. For instance, the GYGA-CZ focused on three climatic variables, overlooking important variation in edaphic factors and landscape characteristics inherent to smallholder production systems of sub-Saharan Africa (Vanlauwe et al., 2007;Amede et al., 2022). Moreover, existing frameworks are crop-agnostic, hence not able to inform targeting of crop-specific interventions and responses to environmental conditions (Porter and Semenov, 2005), and rely on expert opinion-driven matrix zonation, introducing subjectivity and limiting transferability across landscapes (Williams et al., 2008). They are also static and not able to capture inter-and intra-annual variation in environmental conditions, a key feature of rainfed crop production systems. Such limitations translate into products that are often too coarse and generic to guide research and development activities at the local level.Crop production in sub-Saharan Africa takes place in smallholder production systems characterized by small and fragmented farms (Giller et al., 2021;Headey et al., 2014;Fritz et al., 2015) and heterogeneous landscapes (Kassawmar et al., 2018;Tamene et al., 2022). Shifts in cultivated areas are also common over time (Bussel et al., 2015). Spatial frameworks for characterizing production environments in such contexts thus need to rely on up-to-date and fine-scale crop area distribution data (See et al., 2015;Bussel et al., 2015) and crop-specific and dynamic agro-ecological zonation schemes that can capture variations in the production environment. Given the diverse thermal, moisture, soil, and terrain requirements of different crops (You et al., 2009), data-driven spatial frameworks built upon multi-source and multi-thematic data can assist in the near real-time delineation of crop-specific agro-ecological spatial units (ASUs) that maximize the within-zone homogeneity while minimizing the number of zones required to cover a specific crop area.This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e dThe objective of this study was to introduce and operationalize a crop-specific and dynamic spatial framework for segmenting and characterizing heterogeneous and diverse crop production environments.The framework entails the prediction of crop area distribution and the delineation of ASUs through integrating high-resolution Earth Observation (EO) data and environmental data with ground observations. ASUs refer to homogeneous spatial units sharing similar biophysical conditions in which crop production technologies are likely to perform similarly. We assumed that (1) delineating the target crop type distribution area is required for crop-specific zonation to strike a balance between within-unit variability and the number of units required to cover the targeted crop areas, and (2) dynamic ASUs can capture time variant characteristics of rainfed crop production systems. This effort can benefit from the availability of high spatial and temporal resolution, as well as spectrally rich satellite images (e.g., Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2) and accessible cloud computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine.The proof of concept of our spatial framework was conducted for smallholder wheat production systems in Ethiopia. Wheat is of strategic importance to national food security in the country due to high import dependency (Silva et al., 2023, Tadesse et al., 2022;Senbeta and Worku, 2023). The crop is predominantly cultivated under rainfed conditions on fertile, loamy, black soils with high water-holding capacity (Falco et al., 2005), in highlands and mid-altitudes areas during the main rainy season spanning between June and November (White et al., 2001;Mersha, 2000). Technology targeting in the complex wheat production landscapes of Ethiopia can guide investments aiming to increase wheat productivity and resource-use efficiency in farmers' fields, which remain well below what is biophysically possible with improved agronomic practices (Silva et al., 2021). For this reason, the relevance of the newly introduced framework is discussed in the context of technology targeting in support of national food security and yield gap analysis.Yet, its applicability can be extended to other crops and production environments in a cost-effective way.This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e dA spatial framework integrating the broader agroecological context of the Ethiopian wheat belt was developed and operationalized in Google Earth Engine (Gorelick et al., 2017). The Ethiopian wheat belt denotes the cropland and non-cropland areas suitable for cultivation of rainfed wheat and of other similar crop types (Tadesse et al., 2022). Our data-driven framework comprises two-steps (Figure 2  Crop-type field data were collected during the 2021 and 2022 Meher growing seasons to train and evaluate models for rainfed wheat area mapping. A total of 1651 (1251 wheat fields and 400 fields of other crops) and 2927 (1747 wheat fields and 1180 fields of other crops) ground truth points were inventoried in 2021 and 2022, respectively. To ensure a balanced representation between wheat and other crops in the data sets and to reduce bias and model inaccuracy caused by class imbalance, additional ground truth points representing non-wheat areas were generated using a decision rule approach (Ghazaryan et al., 2018) for the 2021 Meher growing season. To that end, the composite Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (mean and maximum) and seasonal information (phase and amplitude) from Sentinel-2 NDVI data were extracted for all wheat ground truth points. Subsequently, criteria for wheat-specific characteristics, such as NDVI mean (0.53 to 0.6), peak (0.7 to 0.8), phase (0.35 to 0.56), and amplitude (0.5 to 1), were used as decision rules for discriminating between wheat and non-wheat points. Following this, 1000 random points were extracted from the 10-meter Digital Earth Africa cropland dataset (DEA, 2021), and the composite NDVI and seasonal information were extracted as for the wheat ground truth points. Random points with values within the specified wheat characteristics were removed, resulting in the identification of 516 non-wheat points.Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite images and derived variables were integrated with a variety of environmental data to predict the rainfed wheat area distribution (Figure 1; Table S1). Time series information including spectral bands, vegetation indices (e.g., NDVI), and spectral indices (e.g., greennessThis preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d index) derived from Sentinel-2 satellite images, and backscatter coefficients derived from Sentinel-1 satellite images between mid-June to late November, coinciding with the critical growth phases of rainfed wheat crops in Ethiopia, were considered. The fusion of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite images allows to address temporal gaps due to cloud cover in Sentinel-2 satellite images, thus facilitating the discrimination of wheat crop growth stages from those of other similar crop types (Ofori-Ampofo et al., 2021). Phenological information, determined by a 20% threshold for season start and 50% for season end, along with seasonal information, were derived from Sentinel-2 NDVI time series using the threshold approach for phenology (Jonsson and Eklundh, 2002) and harmonic transformation for seasonal parameters (Jakubauskas et al., 2001). This information allowed us to capture the different wheat growth stages (Lu et al., 2014) and the cyclical patterns (repetitive fluctuation) of environmental variables affecting wheat development (Ghazaryan et al., 2018; Jakubauskas et al., 2002). Climatic (mean monthly precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation), topsoil (organic carbon, pH, and texture), and topographic (elevation and slope) factors were also included as predictors to account for spatial variations in wheat crop phenology influenced by agro-ecological gradients (Blickensdörfer et al., 2022;Wang et al., 2019). All predictors were masked to the crop land mask (Zanaga et al.,2022) within the rainfed wheat belt (Supplementary Figure S1) prior to the model fitting.An ensemble of three machine learning algorithms commonly used for land cover and land use mapping (e.g., Bui et al., 2021;Li et al., 2023;Xu et al., 2018) were used to predict the wheat area distribution for the 2021 and 2022 Meher growing seasons. The models were fitted per growing season considering 70% of the ground truth points for model training and the remaining 30% for model evaluation. The machine learning algorithms included random forest (RF; Breiman, 2001), classification and regression tree (CART; Breiman et al., 1984), and gradient boosting (GB; Friedman, 2001). Results from the three algorithms were ensembled using a majority voting approach (Ahmed et al., 2023) This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d two or three algorithms were combined, resulting in a final ensemble wheat distribution map. The predicted wheat area distribution for the two growing seasons were then merged to capture general geographical patterns and trends in wheat cultivation over time in Ethiopia.A data-driven approach was adopted to delineate dynamic ASUs (Figure 1). Two analytical approaches were employed to understand the short-term variation and longer-term trends in ASUs. First, we established two sets of ASUs for the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons using year-specific features (Supplementary Table S1) which captured short-term variations in ASUs. Second, ASUs were developed using aggregated features over a period of seven years (2016-2022) to capture longer-term trends in the production environment.ASUs zonation relied on climatic, soil, topographic, and remote sensing data known to influence crop growth and development (Supplementary Table S1). Climatic variables included growing degree days (GDD), temperature seasonality, and aridity index as monthly averages over the growing season (see also van Wart et al., 2013). GDD was calculated by subtracting the mean monthly temperatures, derived from Muñoz Sabater (2019), from the wheat's base temperature of 2 o C (Simane, 1999). Temperature seasonality was calculated as the standard deviation of the monthly average temperature derived from Abatzoglou et al. (2018). The aridity index was calculated as the ratio of annual total precipitation (Funk et al., 2015) to total potential evapotranspiration (Trabucco and Zomer, 2018). Soil variables and topographic factors were included in the zonation scheme because climatically suitable zones may lack the necessary soil and topographic attributes for rainfed wheat cultivation. Soil predictors included pH, organic carbon, andThis preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d texture class (Hengl et al., 2021), and plant available water holding capacity estimated with the texture class-based estimation method (Grossman and Reinsch, 2002). Topographic features included elevation and slope (Farr et al., 2007). Remote sensing variables, including vegetation indices, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter, and seasonal information, were considered to capture the spatiotemporal variability in vegetation, thereby supporting a dynamic ASU zonation. We adopted a clustering approach for ASUs development, leveraging its capacity to handle multiple input variables, minimize intraclass variability, and mitigate subjectivity in class definition. This approach relies on measuring similarity using distance functions, where smaller distances indicate higher similarity within units (Cao et al., 2012;Xu and Wunsch, 2005). Two clustering approaches were employed. The pixel-based approach clusters individual grid cells based on their intrinsic values, hence capturing fine spatial patterns which are important for agronomic assessments at local level. Conversely, the object-based approach involves generating super-pixels, extracting their mean feature values, and clustering the extracted means. This approach thus allows the generalization of complex patterns, making it suitable for agronomic assessments across large scales.For pixel-based clustering, the variables presented in Supplementary Table S1 were extracted for the rainfed wheat belt (Supplementary Figure S1), followed by preprocessing and feature engineering with rescaling, normalization, multicollinearity analysis, and dimensionality reduction. Secondly, the proximity distance (Puzicha et al., 2000;Green and Rao, 1969 ) between variables was examined to gain insights into the data's internal structure. Thirdly, the optimum number of clusters (referred to as ASUs in this context) was defined based on the elbow method (Kwedlo, 2011), the silhouette coefficient (Kaufman and Rousseeuw, 2009;Rousseeuw, 1987), and the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC, Fraley and Raftery, 1998;Neath and Cavanaugh, 2012). The elbow method minimizes the total within-cluster sum of squares (WSS), and the This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d point at which the graph forms an elbow indicates the optimal cluster count (Brock et al., 2008). The silhouette coefficient gauges cluster quality by assessing data cohesion within clusters and inter-cluster separability, with a higher average silhouette width indicating better clustering (Tomasini et al., 2016). BIC balances the goodness-of-fit and model complexity, with the lowest value indicating the optimal number of clusters (Fraley and Raftery, 1998;Gao, 2010;Jones, 2011). Finally, pixel-based clustering was conducted with the WekaXmean clustering algorithm (Beckham et al., 2016;Arthur and Vassilvitskii, 2007), an extension of k-means clustering (Pelleg and Moore, 2000) in Google Earth Engine For object-based clustering, the initial step involved super-pixel segmentation of a time series of Sentinel-2 NDVI data spanning between 2016 and 2022. This segmentation was achieved through the application of the Simple Non-Iterative Clustering (SNIC) algorithm, an advanced variant of Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC; Mi and Chen, 2020). Super-pixel segmentation aims to create coherent grid cell groupings (Stutz et al., 2018), serving as objects for feature extraction in subsequent steps. This grouping of grid cells into super-pixels aims to capture higher-level information from satellite images by analyzing these objects as units rather than isolated grid cells. The mean values of the features used in pixel-based ASUs (see Supplementary Table S1) were then extracted within each super-pixel. An analogous procedure and algorithmic approach to that used for pixel-based clustering was then applied to establish the objectbased ASUs.The optimum number of ASUs were numerically labeled and are conditional on the clustering approach and data aggregation procedure. Thus, they may not represent the same spatial extent for two different clustering approaches. The evaluation and comparison of the two approaches, pixel and object, is explained in Section 2.4.This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e dThe accuracy of the rainfed wheat distribution maps generated by each algorithm and their ensemble was assessed using the overall accuracy (OA), the kappa index, and the producer accuracy (PA) and user accuracy (UA). Each algorithm's ability to generalize unseen data from different time periods was also evaluated. For instance, the three algorithms were trained using data from the 2021 Meher growing season and evaluated on unseen data from 2022 Meher growing season, and vice versa. National statistics on rainfed wheat harvested area (CSA, 2022;FAOSTAT, 2022) were also used to evaluate the crop area estimated with our approach against official statistics at regional and national levels.The validity and practical significance of both pixel-and object-based ASUs derived from features aggregated over the period 2016-2022 were tested using internal and external evaluation metrics. Internal evaluation included assessing between-unit separability using Kruskal-Wallis tests (Kruskal and Wallis, 1952) for selected input variables (Supplementary Table S1) and silhouette coefficients (Tomasini et al., 2016) to check within-unit cohesion and between-unit separability. External evaluation of ASUs relied on wheat yield data collected with crop cuts (n=1560) during the 2022 Meher growing season as external information, and a Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted using these data to assess statistically significant differences in wheat yield across ASUs.The similarity between pixel-and object-based ASUs, as well as the temporal scalability and dynamism of ASUs over time, were evaluated using proximity analysis (Puzicha et al., 2000) through pairwise distance measurements. The comparison between pixel-and object-based ASUs aimed to determine the similarity between pixel-and object-based ASUs, serving as a means of evaluating the accuracy and reliability of each approach and the extent they can capture similar spatial patterns in ASU delineation. Temporal scalability and dynamism aimed to evaluate whether ASUs could capture changes in the production This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d 13 environment over time. In this regard, we examined the stability and variation between ASUs derived from the single-year (2021 and 2022) and aggregated (2016-2022) datasets for both pixel-and object-based clustering. ASUs from single-year datasets were referred to as 'single-year ASUs', and ASUs developed from the 2022 dataset were used as examples of this type, while those from multi-year datasets (2016-2022) were labeled 'aggregate ASUs'. The distinction between single-year and aggregate ASUs enabled us to examine the dynamics of the delineated ASUs over time. The ASUs generated with the pixel-and objectbased approaches were then masked to the spatial extent of the rainfed wheat area predicted for Ethiopia (Section 2.2). Subsequently, cumulative probability distribution functions were developed to assess the distribution and changes of ASUs across the rainfed wheat belt and the rainfed wheat area over time in both clustering approaches.A distinct geographical pattern in the distribution of rainfed wheat areas, concentrated in the central region and expanding to the northern parts of Ethiopia, was evident in both growing seasons (Figures 3). The three algorithms reached high classification accuracies in the two growing seasons (OA > 90% and Kappa > 0.85), with the highest accuracy reported for gradient boosting in the 2022 growing season (OA = 97% and Kappa = 0.92; Supplementary Table S2). An OA of 88% for the 2021 growing season and 94% for the 2022 growing season was reported for the ensemble model (Supplementary Table S2). The algorithms also performed well in identifying wheat areas, with user accuracy of 92-96% and producer accuracy of 95-97%. The ensemble model generalizability assessment was achieved with an OA of 70% when trained on the 2021 data and tested on the 2022 data and an OA of 90% when trained on the 2022 data and tested on the 2021 data, hence being able to generalize unseen data from different growing seasons (Supplementary Table S2). Elevation, solar radiation, and precipitation were the most important features to map the rainfed This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d wheat cropland in Ethiopia (Supplementary Figure S2).The rainfed wheat cultivation area predicted with the model ensemble was 2.24 M ha in the 2021 Meher growing season and 2.50 M ha in the 2022 Meher growing season (Figure 3D). The predicted area overestimated the area reported in official statistics by about 13% in 2021 and 8% in 2022. Yet, there were considerable regional differences since the predicted wheat area was comparable to the reported wheat area in Oromia and SNPP regions, but consistently higher in Amhara region. For the Tigray region, the rainfed wheat area was consistent between the ensemble predictions and the official statistics for the 2021, but in 2022 no official statistics were available for model evaluation due to political instability in the region. The rainfed wheat area predicted with the model ensemble was closer to the reported wheat area in official statistics than the area predicted by the individual algorithms (Supplementary Figure S3).This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e dFigure 2 | Rainfed wheat cropland distribution for the 2021 (A) and 2022 (B) Meher growing seasons and for both growing seasons combined (C). Panel (D) displays the predicted wheat area estimated as the sum of the area of each grid cell (10m x 10m) by the total number of grid cells identified as wheat only in relation to official statistics at regional (CSA, 2022) and national levels (FAOSTAT, 2022) for the respective growing seasons. The wheat area distribution maps were produced with an ensemble of gradient boosting (GB), classification and regression tree (CART), and random forest (RF). The ensemble prediction corresponds to the rainfed wheat distribution obtained from the combination of all grid cells consistently classified as wheat by two or three algorithms. Wheat area distribution predicted by each algorithm is provided in Supplementary Figures S3.This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e dThree sets of ASUs were produced with both pixel-and object-based cluster approaches for the Ethiopian wheat belt, two were growing season specific for 2021 and 2022 and one was aggregated for the period 2016-2022 (Figure 4). Each set comprised 5 spatial units consistently defined through elbow, silhouette, and BIC metrics (Supplementary Figure S5) to ensure accurate landscape segmentation without oversimplification and excessive fragmentation. This process was informed by the pre-clustering examination of the underlying data structure, which revealed prominent clustering tendencies and distinctive patterns among the features (Supplementary Figure S4).The two approaches revealed similar spatial patterns in ASUs and exhibited both stability and dynamism in their spatial patterns between the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons (Figures 3 and 4). Considering the pixel-based approach, ASUs 3, 4, and 5 covered about 6%, 28%, and 21% of the rainfed wheat belt, respectively, and had a similar spatial pattern in both growing seasons, indicating stability in production environments over time (Figures 3A,3C). Conversely, ASU 2 covered a larger share of the rainfed wheat belt in 2022 (27 %) than in 2021 (14%) and the opposite was true for ASU 1 (39 % in 2021 and 24 % in 2022; Figure 3A). Regarding the object-based approach, ASUs 1, 3, and 5 exhibited similar spatial patterns over the two growing seasons (Figures 3B and 3D), but slight differences in area coverage between the seasons, especially ASUs 1 and 5 (Figure 4D). ASU 1 covered 24% of the rainfed belt in 2021 and 15% in 2022, while ASU 5 covered 20% in 2021 and 27% in 2022. ASU 3 covered approximately 15% of the rainfed wheat belt in both growing seasons. Conversely, ASUs 2 and 4 showed changes in spatial pattern over time (Figures 3B and 3D) but maintained nearly the same spatial coverage in both growing seasons, with the latter covering around 19% and the former around 21% of the rainfed wheat belt area (Figure 4D).Results from the aggregate pixel-based ASUs aligned in the geographic extent with ASUs of the two growing seasons for ASUs 2 and 3, but noticeable temporal changes in ASUs 1, 4, and 5. Meanwhile, ASUsThis preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d delineated with the aggregate object-based approach resulted in temporal stability for ASU 5 and 3 and temporal dynamism for ASUs 1, 2, and 4 compared with the ASUs of the 2022 growing season.Figures 3G and 3H depict the pixel-and object-based aggregate ASUs confined to the extent of the rainfed wheat area predicted for the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons, respectively. In the pixel-based aggregated ASUs, ASU 4 emerged as the primary environment for rainfed wheat cultivation (Figure 3G), covering about 65% of the rainfed wheat area (Figure 4C), closely followed by ASU 1, which covered 27% of the rainfed wheat area. In the object-based ASUs, ASUs 1 and 5 were the main environments for rainfed wheat cultivation, followed by ASU 4 (Figure 3H). ASUs 1 and 5 covered 43% and 38% of the rainfed wheat area, respectively (Figure 4D). Temporal dynamism between growing seasons was more evident with the pixel-based approach than with the object-based approach (Figures 4C and 4D). The rainfed wheat area covered with ASUs 1, 2, and 3 from the pixel-based approach was about 20% greater in the 2021 growing season than in the 2022 growing season. Such difference in area covered by different ASUs was less evident in the object-based approach. Large differences in area covered were observed between year-specific ASUs and the aggregate ASUs, independently of the clustering approach, indicating that aggregate ASUs were not able to capture year-specific variations in the production environment.In sum, dynamism in ASUs was less pronounced across the rainfed wheat beltthan t across the rainfed wheat area. This difference was due to shifts in the spatial patterns of ASUs over time, where an ASU might maintain its coverage but change its dominance within or outside the rainfed wheat area. Figures 4A and   4B illustrate these patterns for the wheat belt, while Figures 4C and 4D highlight the changes specific to the rainfed wheat area, emphasizing the varying impacts on ASU coverage and spatial distribution.Temporal dynamism is more pronounced in the pixel-based approach than in the object-based approach for both ASUs and for both thewheat belt level (Figures 3A-3D; Figures 4A and B) and the rain-fed wheat area (Figures 4C and D).This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d  This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d 20The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed highly significant variations in all features across pixel-based ASUs (Figure 5A) and object-based ASUs (Figure 5B), particularly for NDVI, GDD, pH, elevation, and aridity index. The differences were non-significant for temperature seasonality and PAWC (Figure 5B). The separability between ASUs in both approaches was also verified using wheat yield data collected in the 2022 growing season, revealing significant yield differences across ASUs (Supplementary Figure S6).Wheat yield variability between ASUs delineated with object-based clustering (about ~2 t ha -1 ) was found to be significantly different compared to those delineated with pixel-based clustering (about ~0.2 t ha -1 ).The clustering quality assessment revealed considerable cohesion and separation within and among ASUs, The similarity and complementarity between ASUs developed for different time periods with pixel-and object-based approaches is provided in Figure 6. Pixel-and object-based ASUs were mostly similar between each other, but there were also dissimilarities between some of them (Figure 5A). For instance, object-based ASU 1 had a high similarity with pixel-based ASUs 1 and 5, whereas object-based ASU 5 hadThis preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d a high dissimilarity with pixel-based ASU 5. All other pairwise comparisons of ASUs showed more modest levels of (dis)similarity.The similarity matrix revealed both stability and dynamism between the single-year 2022 and aggregate ASUs in the pixel-and object-based approaches (Figures 6B and 6C). Similarity between ASUs indicates stability whereas dissimilarity between ASUs indicates dynamism across time perspectives. In the pixelbased approach, most aggregate ASUs and single-year ASUs demonstrated a notable degree of stability, except for the observed slight dynamism between ASU 1 across time perspectives (Figure 6B). Conversely, in the object-based approach, only ASUs 1 and 5 showed strong stability between the two-time perspectives, while ASU 4 showed strong dynamism and ASUs 2 and 3 showed a slight dynamism. The analysis suggests that while there is stability between the aggregated and single-year ASUs, there are also specific ASUs (e.g., ASU 1 in the pixel-based approach and ASU 4 in the object-based approach) which are unstable across the time perspectives. This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e dASUs from the 2022 growing season and the aggregate ASUs. A log-transformation was applied to the original distance matrix to improve readability. A darker shade of blue denotes a stronger similarity between ASUs developed with different approaches, while dark red denotes the opposite.We used an ensemble machine learning approach relying on ground truth observations and remote sensing and environmental features to map the annual rainfed wheat distribution at high spatial resolution in Ethiopia. Our approach achieved an overall modeling accuracy of 88% in the 2021 growing season and 94% in the 2022 growing season and the predicted rainfed wheat area was comparable to that reported in official statistics at regional and national levels in two growing seasons (CSA, 2022;FAOSTAT, 2022).The proposed method can therefore be used to generate crop-specific area estimates under smallholder conditions, bringing important advantages over generic crop type distribution data that are not growing season specific (e.g., SPAM2020, You et al., 2024). The higher accuracy observed in this study compared to earlier studies (Eisfelder et al., 2024;Khatami et al., 2020;Delrue et al., 2013; ) can be explained by three main methodological aspects.First, we combined multi-source high-resolution satellite time series images from Sentinel-1 (i.e., radar images) and Sentinel-2 (i.e., optical images), including derived spectral and vegetation indices, as well as seasonal and phenological information, to discriminate rainfed wheat from other crops that have similar spectral signatures (Ofori-Ampofo et al., 2021;Orynbaikyzy et al., 2020). The combination of both images was shown to improve the classification accuracy in other studies as well (Eisfelder et al., 2024;Felegari et al., 2021;Inglada et al., 2016) likely due to better characterization of crop development and environmental cyclical patterns (Ashourloo et al. 2022;Al-Shammari et al. 2020;Ghazaryan et al., 2018; This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d Lu et al., 2014). Second, environmental data proved important to map the wheat area distribution in addition to remote sensing information as elevation was the most important feature driving the crop area mapping (see also Blickensdörfer et al., 2022;Liu et al., 2020). Finally, the ensemble machine learning approach outperformed the accuracy of the individual algorithms to predict wheat area as also shown in other recent studies (Walhazi et al., 2024;Ahmed et al., 2023;Mahajan et al., 2023;Sagi and Rokach, 2018;Pourdarbani et al., 2019).Representative and high-quality observational data is critical for model training and to ensure the transferability of our framework to other crops and production environments. Investments in data collection are thus required to build the data stack necessary to generate crop-specific and near real-time crop area distribution maps. Coordinated efforts to assemble geo-referenced ground data (Jolivot et al., 2021) or crowd-sourced data (Wu et al., 2023;See et al., 2013) can help generate the required information for crop type mapping. Assessing the area of applicability of the trained models will also remain important to evaluate where reliable predictions can be made (Meyer and Pebesma, 2021).The ASUs framework was employed to characterize wheat production environments in Ethiopia considering different clustering algorithms and spatio-temporal aggregation of the input data. Pixel-and object-based ASUs were similar in terms of their characteristics (Figure 6A) and spatial arrangement (Figure 4 A-F) and so was the consistency between single-year and aggregate ASUs (Figures 6B and 6C).Internal and external evaluation metrics demonstrated the reliability of the framework to segment production environments. For instance, ASUs 1 identified with pixel-based clustering captured topographic and environmental conditions associated with the highland regions of the Ethiopian wheat belt. These include elevated terrain, high vegetation index, ample plant-available water holding capacity, and lowThis preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d degree of temperature seasonality and low growing degree days.Our approach to develop ASUs balanced the trade-off between oversimplification and excessive fragmentation of production environments through the exploration of similarities between grid cells (Figure S3) and the data-driven definition of the optimum number of ASUs. As such, the ASUs were delineated such that climatic homogeneity within zones was achieved while minimizing the number of zones required to capture significant portions of the cultivated area of the target crop. The ASUs framework thus offered advantages over previous studies relying on matrix zonation derived from expert knowledge (e.g., Edreira et al., 2018;van Wart et al., 2013;Mueller et al., 2012;). Lobell (2013) highlighted the need to keep the spatial units small enough to minimize within unit climate variations but large enough to reduce the costs of data collection for yield gap analysis.Combining pixel and object-based approaches ensured spatial scalability that can be adaptable for characterization of production environments across spatial scales. Pixel-based ASUs unveiled spatial patterns at high resolution (Figure 4A-C), which could be suitable for agronomic assessments at local level (e.g., Stuart et al., 2016). Conversely, object-based ASUs resulted in coarser yet more interpretable ASUs (Figure 4D-F), hence offering opportunities for agronomic assessments at national to global level. This flexibility to generate high-resolution and coarser ASUs is an important feature of our data-driven approach, which can be attuned to the spatial scale most suitable to the analysis at hand. As shown in Figure 6A, pixelbased ASUs 3, 4 and 5 differed from their object-based counterparts, indicating these two approaches are not mutually exclusive. This distinction underscores the complementary of the two methods such that using both approaches leads to a more comprehensive understanding of the production environment.The delineated ASUs with both pixel-and object-based approaches were temporally scalable yet dynamic.There was a consistent agreement between aggregate ASUs and year-specific ASUs, which indicates similarities in longer-term and short-term variations in the production environments for rainfed wheat inThis preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e dEthiopia. Such agreement between different time perspectives is likely different in e.g., semi-arid environments with high rainfall variability, which remains to be tested in future. Yet, some of the ASUs (e.g., ASU 1 from pixel-based and ASU 4 from object-based approach) changed across time perspectives, indicating the ability of the framework to capture changes in crop production environments. Our findings thus address earlier concerns regarding the relevance of a temporally scalable framework for agronomic analysis (e.g., Sadras et al., 2015;Lobell et al., 2013).Wheat is a strategic crop for food security in Ethiopia, where farmers' yields remain well below what is biophysically possible with improved agronomic practices and import dependency poses a heavy burden on the national economy (Silva et al., 2023;Senbeta et al., 2023;Tadesse et al., 2022;Silva et al., 2021).Narrowing wheat yield gaps is therefore high on the agenda of national policies. The ASUs developed in this paper provide a first step to characterize Ethiopia's wheat production environments in the context of yield gap analysis for wheat in the country. The approach followed for ASU delineation offered spatial units grounded in relevant agro-ecological attributes, which could facilitate agronomic assessments of wheat productivity and resource-use efficiency across different spatial and temporal scales. For instance, pixel-based ASUs could support context-specific yield gap analyses (e.g., Stuart et al., 2016) or targeting fertilizer advisories across the rainfed wheat belt (Liben et al., 2024) for which short-term and localized environmental characterization is required. Conversely, object-based ASUs could support large-scale yield gap analyses aiming to inform food security and climate change assessments at supra-national level (Alimagham et al., 2024;van Ittersum et al., 2016). More broadly, the ASUs framework can also inform the tailoring of agricultural technologies to local contexts when combined with socio-economic data (Muthoni et al., 2017;Tesfaye et al., 2015), and the ex-ante evaluation of agricultural technologies across spatial scales (Andrade et al., 2019), among others.This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e dThe ASUs framework developed and tested in this study can be adaptable and transferable to other crops and regions with minor modifications. For instance, feature engineering will require crop-specific adjustments that are also context-specific when aiming to transfer the ASUs framework to other regions.This will be especially important for remote sensing-derived features (seasonal parameters and vegetation indices) and environmental data which are crop-and growing season-specific (Supplementary Table 1).Including time series information for time-variant features will remain important to ensure temporal transferability and capture inter-and intra-annual variations in the production environment. From a methodological standpoint, conducting pre-cluster data exploration and defining the optimum number of clusters in a data-driven way is required to avoid both oversimplification and hyper-segmentation of production environments, which could also be achieved using dynamic clustering algorithms (Zhang and Hepner, 2017). As clustering analysis is computationally intensive, cloud computing platforms like Google Earth Engine will be necessary. Finally, we recommend assembling data stacks with ground truth observations on crop type presence and measured crop yields to be able to generate accurate crop type maps and evaluate the performance of the clustering analysis in data-rich regions. Internal evaluation techniques based on dissimilarity analysis across the feature space would be recommended for data-poor regions (Hardy et al., 2011;Brun et al., 2007).We developed data-driven crop-specific, and time-variant agro-ecological spatial units (ASUs) that can  This preprint research paper has not been peer reviewed. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4915178 P r e p r i n t n o t p e e r r e v i e w e d","tokenCount":"6497"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"054ecfa43a6a145b63ace822b342aa3c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d161bbc9-f49d-462f-b1a3-74d6dbda1ad8/retrieve","id":"522596983"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4803020c-f561-4736-9a7a-4907fb3486e6","pagecount":"172","content":"In 1982 the world's human population was estimated to be 4.2 billion and increasing at a rate of approximately 2% per year. The highest growth rate is in Africa, where the population is estimated to be growing at 3.2% per year. There is, therefore, a continually increasing requirement for food on that continent. Although Africa's total food production is growing to meet the increasing demand, production has not kept pace with the expanding population (see Figure 1). Between 1965 and 1982, food production on the continent per person fell by approximately 12%, and even in the most productive regions total food production fell by 8% between 1969/71 and 1981/82. By contrast, from 1965 to 1982, food production rose by 6% in the Near East and by at least 49% in Asia. While Latin America and Asia have become almost self-sufficient in cereal production, Africa has become more and more dependent on imports and food aid. In 1963 Africa grew 96% of its cereal requirements; in 1985 it grew only 78%.One disease in particular, trypanosomiasis, has had profound adverse effects on the whole pattern of agriculture in Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa the disease is transmitted to domestic livestock by the tsetse fly and impedes livestock production directly and crop production indirectly. The tsetse fly occurs in most of the humid and sub-humid zones, an area totalling approximately 10 million square kilometres, or about half the non-desert area of Africa (Figure 2).Agriculture in Europe and most of Asia is based on mixed arable and livestock farming, with cattle providing people with protein in the form of meat and dairy produce, draught power for ploughing and transport, and fertilizer. Fields requiring a rest from cereal production may be used to grow fodder. In sub-Saharan Africa, livestock are integrated into crop farming only in the highlands of East Africa, which are too cool for tsetse, and in a few semi-arid regions, which are too dry for the fly. In the humid zones, livestock other than dwarf sheep and goats are sparse. In the sub-humid zones, livestock are at greatest risk from trypanosomiasis in the rainy season, during which stock farmers often entrust their cattle to nomadic pastoralists who move the animals to tsetse-free areas. Integration of crop and livestock farming throughout the year is therefore impossible. This separation of livestock and arable farming over much of Africa is a major barrier to agricultural development. Furthermore, of the 10 million square kilometres now infested with tsetse, some 7 million are thought to be otherwise suitable for mixed agriculture and livestock farming. Thus, in 1963, Africa's annual loss in meat production due to tsetse was estimated to be US$5 billion.Control of trypanosomiasis currently relies on protecting and treating livestock with trypanocidal drugs, control of the tsetse fly and, to a lesser extent, use of trypanotolerant livestock breeds, resistant to the pathogenic effects of the disease. These control strategies are frequently used in isolation. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that sustainable control of trypanosomiasis is more likely to be achieved by integrating the different control strategies.A.S. Peregrine Chemotherapy for trypanosomiasis in cattle, sheep and goats currently relies on use of salts of three compounds: isometamidium, homidium and diminazene. All three compounds are closely related chemically and have been available for at least thirty years. Although these drugs have effectively controlled the disease in the field, the prevalence of resistance to each of the compounds appears to be increasing. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop new compounds, chemically unrelated to those now is use. The development of new drugs, before drug resistance becomes a widespread problem, will help ensure the long-term productivity of domestic livestock in Africa.Chemotherapy for trypanosomiasis in human beings is beset with similar problems: a limited repertoire of compounds, resistance to the drugs, drug toxicity and protracted treatment protocols.In light of the current problems and limitations of chemotherapy for trypanosomiasis in domestic livestock and human beings, an international workshop was held at ILRAD in August 1989 to discuss research aimed at developing new trypanocides. Because of the scarcity of information on the phenotypic and genetic basis of drug resistance in trypanosomes, work on other protozoan parasites was also reviewed for its potential relevance to the development of new therapeutic agents and diagnostics for trypanocide resistance. The meeting highlighted areas of trypanosomal chemotherapy research in which developments are being made as well as areas where more research is required. The workshop underscored the necessity for collaboration between scientists of FIGURE 1. Graph showing per capita food production in Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa from 1961 to 1983. Source: Financing Adjustment with growth in sub-Sahara Africa 1986-90, World Bank, Washington D.C., 1986. FIGURE 2. Major cattle-production areas and tsetse-infested zones in Africa. There is little overlap except in the regions of West and Central Africa where trypanotolerant livestock are kept.Director General International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases P.O. Box 30709 Nairobi, Kenya ILRAD extends a warm welcome to you all. While here, I hope you will learn a little more about ILRAD and our research programs aimed at improved control of livestock diseases.I would now like to say a few words to introduce the program for this workshop on `Chemotherapy for Trypanosomiasis'. Trypanosomiasis remains one of the most important diseases of domestic livestock in sub-Saharan Africa and constitutes a major impediment to livestock production on the African continent. Outside Africa, trypanosomiasis poses a significant constraint to livestock production in both the Middle and the Far East and in some areas of South America. Human trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is still a significant disease in Africa, where the World Health Organization estimates that approximately 20,000 new cases are reported each year. Trypanosomiasis in South America, in the form of Chagas' disease, is also an important disease of human beings.On the African continent, in tsetse-infested areas, chemotherapy plays a vital role in maintaining and improving the production of domestic livestock. Chemotherapy ranks highly, alongside tsetse control and the use of trypanotolerant livestock, as a disease control measure. However, at present there are only a few drugs available for use as therapeutics and prophylactics against the disease and significant problems with drug resistance are being reported from many parts of Africa. Fortunately, the prevalence of significant resistance to some of the drugs appears to have remained low. The reasons for this are unclear. However, because there are so few drugs, there is an urgent need for development of new trypanocides, most especially drugs that are chemically unrelated to those currently on the market. Only this approach should overcome current problems with cross-resistance.A similar problem exists with drugs for human trypanosomiasis: there is only a small repertoire of compounds and many of the drugs currently in use often produce severe toxic side effects. All is not gloom, though, as I am sure we will be hearing later in this workshop: field trials with the compound difluoromethylorinithine, or DFMO, have shown that it may be particularly efficacious in the treatment of late-stage Trypanosoma brucei gambiense infections, most particularly those cases that are refractory to treatment with organic arsenicals.For these reasons, ILRAD two years ago established a chemotherapy research group. In addition to developing improved therapeutic strategies for combating drug resistance with the drugs currently available, the group has beenOverview of the chemotherapy research program at ILRAD A.S. Peregrine * , I.A. Sutherland † , L. Mutharia § , R. Jamnadass * , M.A. Gray ¶ , V. Codjia * , Y.O. Aliu ** , M. Mamman * , R. Silayo ‡ , G.D.M. d'Ieteren § § , S.K. Moloo * and N.B. Murphy * genetic basis of resistance to these drugs, on their mode of action and on their pharmacokinetics will greatly enhance our knowledge about how the drugs should be used in the field and how problems with drug resistance should be combated. Concomitant with this research is the development of field-usable techniques that will rapidly quantify resistance to each of the drugs. Such `diagnostics' would enable one to monitor the prevalence and level of drug resistance in a given area and to decide rapidly on the most appropriate therapeutic intervention to use. ILRAD's research activities on chemotherapy for trypanosomiasis therefore fall under the following eight broad topics.At present the only method available for screening parasites for resistance to trypanocides is treatment of experimentally induced infections in cattle or mice. Neither is an ideal system: many field isolates will not grow in mice and it is costly to purchase cattle and to maintain them in fly-proof isolation. Dr. R. Kaminsky has been examining the suitability of in vitro cultivation systems for this purpose and his work is discussed elsewhere in this volume.Earlier work has demonstrated that great variation exists in the period of prophylaxis afforded cattle by isometamidium chloride (Robson, 1962;Fairclough, 1963;Kirkby, 1964;Wiesenhutter et al., 1968). Results of studies undertaken to elucidate the reason(s) for this variation suggest that the period of prophylaxis afforded by isometamidium chloride is dose-dependent, independent of the level of metacyclic challenge, unaltered by the presence of infection at the time of drug administration, and principally dependent on variation in trypanosome drug sensitivity. The studies also showed that antigenic priming of the immune system did not occur in cattle on chemoprophylaxis. Therefore, there would appear to be no immunoprophylactic contribution to cattle maintained in such a manner (Peregrine et al., 1987(Peregrine et al., , 1988)).Development of improved therapeutic regimes for the drugs currently available forms an equally important part of research within this area. Workers on the Kenya coast have recently claimed that if isometamidium chloride is given intravenously it can eliminate infections that do not respond to treatment by the recommended intramuscular route (Dowler et al., 1989). Since this strategy would benefit livestock owners who cannot readily obtain diminazene aceturate, studies have been carried out in cattle using three clones of Trypanosoma congolense that span the entire spectrum of resistance to isometamidum. Although intravenous administration did eliminate fully sensitive infections at doses up to 1.0 mg/kg it was not efficacious in eliminating infections that expressed clinically significant levels of resistance. The apparent efficacy seen in the field may be due to other factors, such as acquired immunity.Other studies are under way to determine whether repeat administration of diminazene aceturate enhances the drug's therapeutic activity. Since diminazene has a half-life in excess of 9 hours, it has been suggested that this approach may enhance the drug's therapeutic activity (Baggot, 1978).ILRAD researchers are using well-characterized clones of T. congolense to determine the mode of uptake of isometamidium and the phenotypic basis of resistance to this drug. Uptake of isometamidium by sensitive clones of T. congolense, as determined by fluorescence spectrophotometry, has appeared to be an active process and to be energy dependent. Reduced uptake of isometamidium occurred in resistant clones and also appeared to be energy dependent. Fluorometry appears to be a reliable method for quantifying the level of isometamidium-resistance expressed by clones of T. congolense. Further studies are under way to determine the molecular basis of these observations.This area of research endeavours to gain a clearer understanding of the dynamics of drug resistance in the field. When ILRAD's chemotherapy program began, it was uncertain whether homogeneous expression of drug resistance occurred in any given stock of trypanosomes. Nine clones were therefore derived from a T. congolense stock (IL 2856), obtained from Burkina Faso, which expresses a high level of resistance to both diminazene and isometamidium in mice, an unusual phenotype. All clones were characterized for their sensitivity to diminazene and isometamidium in mice. Significant clonal variation in resistance to isometamidium was observed. However, compared to sensitive clones, all nine clones derived from IL 2856 expressed a high level of resistance to isometamidium. Diminazene sensitivity studies produced similar results, with significant clonal variation in expression of resistance. In addition, all clones expressed a high level of resistance compared to reference sensitive clones. Finally, isoenzyme variants for eight enzymes were determined for each of the nine clones: all expressed the same variants. These studies therefore showed that T. congolense clones derived from one stock and with an apparent homogeneous background can, in the absence of drug selection, express significantly different levels of resistance to both diminazene and isometamidium, and express high levels of resistance to both drugs (Peregrine et al., in press).To determine a possible genetic basis for resistance to isometamidium, nine clones (subclones) were derived from one of the aforementioned clones (IL 2856 clone 1). The nine subclones were characterized in mice for their sensitivity to isometamidium (Table 1). Seven of the nine subclones expressed a significantly lower level of resistance to isometamidium than the parental clone. Furthermore, there was significant variation in resistance among the subclones. This suggests that genetic control of this phenotype in T. congolense is unstable. The latter hypothesis is consistent with recent studies on the instability of isometamidium-resistance in stocks of T. congolense (Nyeko et al., 1989) and is currently under investigation.A final set of studies have focused on T. congolense IL 1180, a clone that expresses a high level of sensitivity to isometamidium. Over an 18-month period, a derivative has been produced in vivo that is 200-times more resistant to isometamidium than IL 1180. This derivative has been shown to be tsetse transmissible and to produce approximately the same infection rate in the gut, labrum and hypopharynx of Glossina morsitans centralis as IL 1180. The clone's tsetse transmissibility also appeared to be unaltered.The aforementioned IL 1180 populations are currently being used in a study to look for biochemical markers that correlate with expression of resistance to isometamidium. Preliminary results from two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analyses have shown that with increasing levels of resistance to isometamidium there are changes in the expression of certain proteins. Further work is under way to determine which, if any, of these proteins correlate with expression of resistance.Drug-resistant T. brucei brucei isolates have been examined at the DNA level for evidence of gene amplification. Initial experiments involved isolation of DNA from resistant and sensitive trypanosomes, restriction endonuclease di- 1.7 1.5-2.0 gestion, gel electrophoresis, Southern blotting and probing with total genomic 32 P-labelled DNA from sensitive and resistant isolates. Hybridization to an apparent extrachromosomal element was detected in tracks of undigested DNA from the resistant isolate. Further work has shown that this element is DNA, that the element occurs in the genome of sensitive T. b. brucei but is only found as an extrachromosomal-type element in the resistant isolate and that clones from this isolate also contain the element. In addition, presence of the element appears to coincide with expression of resistance because trypanosomes passaged in the absence of selection appear to have a reduced copy number of the element. The copy number appears to increase when drug selection is reapplied.DEVELOPMENT OF DRUG ASSAYS Aliu and Odegaard (1983) described an ion-pair extraction and high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) technique for measuring diminazene in the plasma of treated animals. Professor Aliu is currently at ILRAD to set up the technique and to determine the pharmacokinetics of diminazene in Zebu cattle. The data resulting from this study will be used in future experiments designed to examine whether repeat treatment regimes enhance diminazene's therapeutic activity. ILRAD is also in the process of setting up a cold HPLC technique for assaying isometamidium levels in cattle sera (Kinabo and Bogan, 1988). It is also collaborating with the University of Glasgow, Scotland, in the evaluation of an isometamidium enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that the University has developed. It is hoped that both techniques will be used to determine the pharmacokinetics of isometamidium in cattle.Several years ago the International Livestock Centre for Africa (Addis Ababa) established the headquarters for a Trypanotolerant Livestock Network in Nairobi. Members of this network have been studying the productivity of trypanotolerant livestock in a number of field sites across Africa. Use of the group's extensive data sets is helping ILRAD researchers to determine the absolute requirements for trypanocides by cattle in the different projects, the associated increase in productivity and whether drug resistance is a significant problem at any of the sites. Information from a project in Ethiopia indicates that there may be a significant problem with resistance to diminazene at that site. For this reason, field isolates have been obtained from that site and are currently being characterized for their drug-resistance phenotypes at ILRAD so that the project may be advised about the most suitable intervention to eliminate the current problem. Preliminary results indicate a high prevalence of resistance to diminazene.Training and Outreach form important parts of the chemotherapy program. Five students are currently working within the program. They are from Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania. Such training will help ILRAD form active collaborative programs with African universities and organizations involved in chemotherapy research. Such collaboration is of paramount importance because only an integrated pan-African trypanosomiasis chemotherapy program can ensure the long-term efficacy of the trypanocides currently in use.Workshop overview: recent developments in the chemotherapy of African trypanosomiasis S.L. Croft London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Keppel Street London WC1E 7HT, UK The first-line drugs for the treatment of malaria, leishmaniasis and African trypanosomiasis were developed over 30 years ago, whilst chemotherapy for Chagas' disease has only become available in the last 15 years. Therapies for all these diseases are blighted by problems of resistance, variable efficacy between strains or species of the causative organisms, toxicity, difficulty of administration or a combination of these factors. The recommended drugs used for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis remain melarsoprol, suramin and pentamidine (World Health Organization, 1979), and f or animal t rypanosomiasis , t he salts of hom idium, quinapyramine, diminazene, isometamidium and suramin (World Health Organization, 1979). However, the last decade has witnessed an enormous growth in our understanding of the biochemical and molecular processes of trypanosomes with the revelation of targets for the design and development of new drugs. Some of these will be described in this workshop along with recent developments in our understanding of drug resistance and new approaches to drug delivery.Any strategy to identify novel anti-protozoal drugs must take into account the metabolic differences between stages of the life cycle and that there is often a reduction in the complexity of metabolic pathways as parasites are bathed in a nutritional environment (Fairlamb, 1989). An extensive number of anabolic, catabolic and regulatory pathways have been identified in parasitic protozoa that offer chemotherapeutic targets (Fairlamb, 1989).Carbohydrate metabolism and energy production in the bloodstream forms of African trypanosomes are reliant upon glycolysis organized in a unique manner between a reduced mitochondrion, the cytoplasm and the glycosome (Opperdoes, 1987). This pathway is probably a target for suramin and forms the basis for several novel approaches (see A.B. Clarkson, P.A.M. Michels and F.M.D. Vellieux, this volume). The electron transport chain is a target in other protozoa (see J.F. Turrens, this volume), best illustrated by the naphthoquinones developed for the treatment of theileriosis and malaria (Hudson et al., 1985). Nucleic acid synthesis in trypanosomatids also has unique characteristics. These organisms, being unable to synthesize purines de novo, have evolved a special salvage pathway with enzymes that have a higher affinity for disruptive purine analogues than natural precursors. The bifunctional dihydrofolate reductasethymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS), an enzyme essential for the formation of tetrahydrofolate, a co-factor for the synthesis of pyrimidines, is the target for the antimalarials pyrimethamine and cycloguanil. Recent studies have characterized this enzyme in Leishmania (see S.M. Beverley, this volume), stimulating further drug design (Sirawaraporn et al., 1988). Nuclear and kinetoplast DNAdependent processes are inhibited by many standard trypanocides that intercalate (phenanthridines) or bind externally to DNA (diamidines) (Williamson, 1979). This may interfere with the functioning of DNA and RNA polymerases as well as DNA topoisomerases I and II (see T.A. Shapiro, this volume). The metabolic pathways of polyamine synthesis have been most productive in the last decade for the identification of new anti-trypanosomal compounds, such as eflornithine (DL-α-difluoromethylornithine [DFMO]) which is now in extensive clinical trials (see C.J. Bacchi, this volume). Interference with polyamine synthesis may explain the mode of action of established drugs, e.g., diminazene (Bitonti et al., 1986). Polyamines have a wide number of regulatory functions in cells, including, in trypanosomatids, the synthesis of specific thiols (see A.H. Fairlamb, this volume). Eflornithine is also active against Leishmania, Plasmodium and Pneumocystis carinii. The predominance of ergosterol rather than cholesterol in the membrane is the basis for the selective toxicity of antifungal agents in Leishmania and Trypanosoma cruzi such as amphotericin B and the azole and allylamine sterol synthesis inhibitors (see L.J. Goad, this volume). Microtubules, an integral part of the trypanosomatid pellicle, flagellum and mitotic nucleus, are sensitive to phenothiazines and inhibitors of microtubular disassembly such as taxol. Cellular regulatory and protective processes, many unique to trypanosomatids, are also important targets. The transmembrane proton pump in Leishmania, which regulates internal pH and nutrient uptake, is sensitive to tricyclic antidepressants (Zilberstein and Dwyer, 1984). The susceptibility of trypanosomatids to oxidant stress has also been exploited either by using drugs that produce toxic metabolites or radicals, or by lowering the defence mechanisms of superoxide dismutase or glutathione (there is little or no catalase). Current interest is focused on the novel intracellular thiol trypanothione, which has a protective and regulatory role in trypanosomatids (see A.H. Fairlamb, this volume).Biochemical studies have revealed many more potential targets, but there is one final area of cellular metabolism to be considered. The drug uptake process includes not only transport but also the intracellular metabolism, binding and distribution of a drug. This is critical for selective toxicity and for some trypanocides has been studied extensively (Hawking, 1963;Frommel and Balber, 1987). As far as is known, the antimalarials chloroquine and qinghaosu owe much of their selective toxicity to specific uptake by infected erythrocytes rather than any special disruption of a metabolic pathway (see S.R. Meshnick, this volume).Resistance is a major problem in the treatment of many infectious diseases and for malaria it has been the major stimulus for the discovery of new drugs. The detection, origins and mechanisms of drug resistance in parasitic protozoa will be discussed in the Workshop. The term `drug resistance' covers a wide range of phenomena, including host-related and parasite-related factors.Host-related factors that contribute to resistance include (1) pharmacokinetics, for example, poor distribution to infected tissues or intracellular sites or the variation in drug metabolism between individuals (e.g., mefloquine); and (2) immunological status, for example, the inactivity of pentavalent antimonials against diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis and the diminished activity of suramin, quinapyramine and DFMO (Bitonti et al., 1986) in animals with a suppressed immune system.Parasite-related factors that contribute to resistance include the following. (1) reduction in drug accumulation, described widely in trypanosomes for arsenicals (Hawking, 1963), diamidines, phenanthridines, acriflavine (Frommel andBalber, 1987) and DFMO in resistant T. brucei (Phillips and Wang, 1987), as well as for some anti-leishmanial compounds (see S.M. Beverley, this volume); (2) change in enzyme target, through either an increase in enzyme levels, shown by DHFR-TS in Leishmania resistance to methotrexate (see S.M. Beverley, this volume) and Plasmodium resistance to pyrimethamine (see J. Inselburg, this volume), or changes in enzyme affinity, as shown in P. falciparum DHFR-TS due to a single amino acid substitution (see J. Inselburg, this volume); (3) alteration in drug metabolism, that is, activities of cytochrome P450 and other detoxifying enzymes that have been reported to be higher in chloroquine-resistant strains of P. berghei (Ward, 1988), or, alternatively, failure to activate a prodrug, such as in metronidazole resistance; (4) increased metabolite production or retention, as reported in T. brucei, with increased levels of ornithine in resistant parasites competing with DFMO for ornithine decarboxylase (Bellofatto et al., 1987); and (5) use of alternative pathways to bypass the site of inhibition.The origins of parasite-related resistance may be (1) natural, as in non-susceptible strains with no previous exposure to drugs, such as tryparsamide-resistant T. rhodesiense isolated from animals (Dukes, 1984); (2) due to drug pressure/exposure; (3) due to cross-resistance, as has been extensively reported for trypanocides (Hawking, 1963;Frommel and Balber, 1987); or (4) mutagen induced. The origin of the resistance is important to the field worker, as is the provision of rapid tests for the diagnosis of resistance in isolates (see R. Kaminsky, this volume). Strategies to combat resistance rely on (1) prevention through correct chemotherapeutic regimens based on knowledge of drug pharmacology; (2) combination therapy, most advanced in malaria prophylaxis; and(3) reversal of resistance, which has recently been experimentally demonstrated for chloroquine resistance in human and rodent malaria (see D.J. Krogstad, this volume) using the calcium channel blocker verapamil (Martin et al., 1987) or the tricyclic antidepressant desipramine (Bitonti et al., 1988), which reduces the drug efflux. This approach has recently been extended to trypanosomatids and may be related to the presence of a multidrug-resistant gene (see I.B. Roninson, this volume).Drug delivery systems are designed to improve the therapeutic index of a compound by increasing efficacy through improved delivery to the site(s) of infection, protecting the drug from host metabolism, and decreasing drug toxicity to the host. There are two different types of delivery systems: sustainedor slow-release systems, designed to maintain a therapeutic drug level, and site-specific targeting systems. Sustained-release systems have been used for the prophylaxis of animal trypanosomiasis to reduce both frequency of dosing and local toxicity. Early studies by Williamson (1970) used a depot of a precipitated complex of suramin with other trypanocides. More recently, trypanocides, in particular isometamidium, linked to dextran have given protection against infection in animal models (James, 1978) and reduced local toxicity in cattle. Studies with biodegradable polymers are under way. Other systems have been developed for therapy and prophylaxis of malaria, leishmaniasis and gastrointestinal helminths.A large variety of delivery systems have been used in drug targeting, broadly classified as cellular, vesicular, particulate and molecular carriers. The presentations at this Workshop also discuss viral delivery (see S.J. Doxsey, this volume), more commonly associated with vaccines, and antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (see J.J. Toulmé and J. Goodchild, this volume), where the aim is intracellular targeting. The requirement for African trypanosomiasis is a carrier that can be retained in the circulation, avoiding the reticuloendothelial system, especially for T. vivax and T. congolense infections, and for the human disease, a carrier that can help a drug cross the blood-brain barrier. Studies initiated by Williamson et al. (1981) showed that daunorubicin required a covalently bound molecule carrier (bovine serum albumin) to show in vivo activity against T. rhodesiense (see J.B. Mitchell, this volume). A polyglutamic acid cis-platin complex was more effective and less toxic than free drug against T. congolense in mice. Drug targeting systems have been used for other protozoal infections, in particular visceral leishmaniasis where L. donovani parasites survive in the reticuloendothelial cells of the liver and spleen, cells which remove liposomes, niosomes and other larger particles from the circulation. Liposomes have been developed for other uses (see B.T. Rouse, this volume) and formulations containing amphotericin B and doxorubicin are in clinical trials for the treatment of systemic mycoses and cancer.The identification of a novel compound with exquisite selective activity is only the first stage in drug development. The pharmacological properties of the compound also require consideration to ensure optimum delivery and therapeu-Polyamines are small molecules universally required for growth and division by prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The most important polyamines in eukaryotes are putrescine, spermidine and spermine, which are believed to have major roles in cell division, differentiation and the maintenance of essential cell functions (Pegg, 1986). The molecular underpinnings of polyamine action are still shrouded, but it is clear that their presence (especially spermidine) is important for conformational regulation of DNA, elongation and initiation of protein synthesis and fidelity of translation. Polyamines appear to be essential for ribosome and transfer RNA (tRNA) structure and function, and exert dramatic control over proteins such as topoisomerases (Marton and Morris, 1987).Synthesis of polyamines is closely regulated, with the reactions catalysed by ornithine decarboxylase (Figure 1) and S-adenosyl-methionine decarboxylase emerging as the critical steps. Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) produces putrescine from ornithine; S-adenosyl-methionine decarboxylase (SAM DC) synthesizes decarboxylated S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM), which is the aminopropyl group donor for spermidine and spermine synthesis. Aminopropyl groups are transferred to putrescine and spermidine by spermidine and spermine synthases, respectively (Figure 1).Despite apparent similarities between mammalian and trypanosome polyamine pathways, subtle differences exist. Trypanosomes synthesize putrescine from ornithine via ODC, and spermidine from methionine and putrescine by way of SAM synthase, SAM DC and spermidine synthase (summarized in Bacchi and McCann, 1987). The origin of ornithine is unclear since Trypanosoma brucei brucei lacks arginase (J. Garofalo and C.J. Bacchi, unpublished), a major source of ornithine in mammalian cells. African trypanosomes neither synthesize nor contain significant levels of spermine. Many cells avidly transport polyamines, but African trypanosomes do not, unless prior depletion of intracellular levels has occurred (Bacchi et al., 1979(Bacchi et al., , 1983)). A key aspect of trypanosome polyamine metabolism is the presence of a unique spermidine-containing peptide, trypanothione (N 1 N 8 -bis [glutathionyl] spermidine), which serves as co-factor for glutathione reduction and hence is essential in protecting trypanosomes from free radical damage and other oxidant stress (Fairlamb, 1989).RELATIONSHIP TO CHEMOTHERAPY DL-α-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO; eflornithine) is an enzyme-activated inhibitor of ODC developed by the Merrell Dow Research Institute in the late 1970s. It is highly specific for ODC and exerts a time-dependent irreversible inhibition of the enzyme, becoming covalently bonded to the active site (Bey et al., 1987).In bloodstream trypanosomes, DFMO rapidly blocks ODC activity, reduces polyamine content and blocks DNA, RNA and protein synthesis while causing alterations in morphology of long slender forms, producing cells similar to intermediate and stumpy forms (Bacchi and McCann, 1987;Giffin and McCann, 1989). Despite the broad-reaching biochemical consequences of DFMO treatment, the drug is not overtly cytotoxic.In model T. b. brucei acute mouse infections, DFMO is curative when a 2% solution is administered continuously for three days (total dose: 5.3 g/kg/day [Bacchi et al., 1987]). Prolonged administration of DFMO (4% for four weeks) is curative in model central nervous system infections (Bacchi et al., 1987), but the total dose can be reduced significantly if combined with suramin (Clarkson et al., 1984).Because of the extensive clinical experience with DFMO as an antitumour agent, clinical trials on Gambian sleeping sickness were begun in 1981. DFMO proved largely successful, with greater than 90% of more than 400 patients responding to the drug, as defined by clearance of trypanosomes from blood and cerebrospinal fluid and a low incidence of relapse (Schechter and Sjoerdsma, in press). Most patients had failed to respond to one or more courses of treatment with melarsoprol (Mel B), and most had involvement of the central nervous system at the time treatment was begun. DFMO has recently been administered intravenously for two weeks (400 mg/kg/day, total dose) followed by 300 mg/kg/day per os (4 × 75 mg/kg/day) for four additional weeks. This regimen has proven superior to previous oral dosing protocols, with most side effects being minor and disappearing on cessation of drug administration. These studies are detailed in several reviews (Sjoerdsma et al., 1984;Schechter et al., 1987;Schechter and Sjoerdsma, in press).Despite the outstanding success of DFMO against disease caused by T. b. gambiense, the outlook for its use in treatment of East African sleeping sickness (caused by T. b. rhodesiense) is uncertain. In a limited number of trials in East Africa, various DFMO regimens, even those employing double the standard dose, have failed to cure some patients (S. Van Nieuwenhove, P. deRaadt, personal communications). It is becoming apparent from these initial studies that alternatives to single drug therapy with DFMO will be needed for East African disease.The surprising activity of DFMO against African trypanosomes has been the subject of considerable study. DFMO efficacy appears to centre on the following.(1) DFMO blocks antigenic variation, and a competent immune system is required to rid the parasites from the host (DeGee et al., 1983;Bitonti et al., 1988).(2) In contrast to the mammalian host, in which ODC half-life is less than 1 hour (Pegg, 1986), T. b. brucei blood and midgut forms have ODC which has a long (greater than 2 hours) half-life (Phillips et al., 1987;Bacchi et al., 1989). The main structural difference between host and parasite ODC is the lack of a 36 amino acid sequence (`PEST' sequence) on the C-terminal end of the parasite ODC, which is one factor associated with a high turnover rate in the mammalian enzyme (Phillips et al., 1987). The low turnover rate of the parasite ODC implies a low synthesis rate and this allows more efficient reduction of enzyme activity by DFMO for a longer time (Bacchi et al., 1989).(3) The spermidine-containing tripeptide trypanothione is unique to trypanosomatids (Fairlamb et al., 1985). It is the only substrate for trypanothione reductase and, in the reduced state, it functions to non-enzymatically reduce glutathione and maintain the redox balance of the cell. These reactions are detailed elsewhere in this volume (A.H. Fairlamb). DFMO treatment not only reduces spermidine content, but also reduces the levels of trypanothione and its intermediate, glutathionyl-spermidine (Fairlamb et al., 1987). The resulting stress on the capacity to detoxify free radicals should enhance parasite sensitivity to agents that produce free radicals, such as nifurtimox (Fairlamb, 1989).(4) African trypanosomes lack a reservoir of spermine, and appear not to synthesize it. They also lack the oxidative pathway necessary to convert spermine to spermidine (J. Garofalo and C. Bacchi, unpublished). The persistence of spermine in DFMO-treated mammalian cells and its catalytic conversion to spermidine (Pegg et al., 1986) may be one reason why DFMO has been largely ineffective as an antitumour agent when used in single drug therapy (Schechter et al., 1987). As noted, uptake of exogenous polyamines in T. b. brucei occurs at a rate much reduced from that in mammalian cells (Bacchi et al., 1983). Although DFMO treatment enhances polyamine transport, these factors collectively signal the inability of trypanosomes to sequester physiologically significant amounts of exogenous polyamines.In view of recent clinical trials in East Africa with DFMO, we have examined l4 clinical isolates (Uganda, Kenya and Mozambique) from the Kenya Trypano-somiasis Research Institute (KETRI) strain bank for susceptibility to trypanocides, using these strains as acute laboratory model infections (Bacchi et al., 1990). To summarize this work, seven isolates (50%) were moderately to highly refractory to DFMO in comparison to the standard test strain T. b. brucei Lab ll0/EATRO. Four of l4 isolates (21.4%) were moderately to highly refractory to melarsen oxide and Mel B. The levels of resistance varied greater than eightfold in some DFMO-refractory isolates and greater than threefold for the arsenicals. Since these strains had no prior contact with DFMO, the resistance attributed to DFMO is constitutive; two of the four arsenic-resistant strains were isolated from patients who had failed to respond to treatment with Mel B. Using the same experimental protocol, all the strains, with the possible exception of one, were susceptible to suramin, indicating that drug inefficacy was not due to sequestration of parasites in the central nervous system or other tissues inaccessible to the drug.Studies have begun to assess potential differences in polyamine metabolism between DFMO-sensitive and -resistant strains. ODC activity in sensitive and resistant strains was found to be similar, with specific activities of 40-60 nmoles CO 2 /mg protein/hour. Time-dependent K i values for DFMO (Bitonti et al., 1985) were similar in both DFMO-sensitive T. b. brucei EATRO 110 and in DFMO-refractory T. b. rhodesiense isolates (25-50 µM), indicating that differences in the ODC active site are probably not responsible for the lack of response to DFMO.Uptake of DFMO was similar in two sensitive and two refractory strains, in the range of 600 pmoles/mg protein/hour, when bloodstream trypomastigotes were incubated in vitro with ( 3 H)DFMO as in Bitonti et al. (1986). However, one refractory strain did exhibit a 60% reduction in DFMO uptake. Another potential mechanism accounting for resistance to DFMO may be the significantly increased accumulation of polyamines in bloodstream forms of two refractory isolates upon incubation in vitro with radiolabelled polyamines. Thus far, two of seven DFMO refractory isolates were found to accumulate polyamines at rates up to four times that of sensitive cells. These studies are preliminary and full details will be forthcoming in subsequent publications.As noted, four KETRI strains were refractory to melarsen oxide and Mel B. We began studies comparing sensitive and resistant strains in a trypanosome lysis assay based on that developed by Clarkson and Amole (1982): bloodstream forms are incubated in foetal bovine serum with various concentrations of arsenicals. Drug-sensitive isolates completely lysed within 15 minutes upon incubation in less than 20 µM melarsen oxide, while refractory strains withstood 30 minutes in 100 µM drug without lysing.Since Fairlamb and co-workers have demonstrated that trypanothione may be a primary target of arsenical drugs in trypanosomes (Fairlamb, 1989;Fairlamb et al., 1989), we began examination of total free thiol levels in resistant and susceptible strains using dithionitrobenzene. Refractory strains had a threefold increase in total thiol levels above those measured in sensitive strains (1-2 nmoles/10 8 cells), which indicates an increased ability to withstand arsenic-induced trypanothione loss and still maintain redox function (Fairlamb et al., 1989). However, initial analyses of trypanothione, glutathionyl-spermidine and glutathione, using high-performance liquid chromatography methodology and monobromobimane as a fluorescing agent (Fairlamb et al., 1989), indicated that the levels of these intermediates were similar in arsenic-resistant and arsenicsusceptible strains. These findings do not exclude trypanothione as a target for arsenical drugs, but do indicate the importance of further studies centring on spermidine content and the interconversion of oxidized and reduced trypanothione in arsenic-resistant strains.In these studies we have begun to examine the basis for resistance to DFMO and arsenicals observed in clinical isolates. Possible mechanisms of resistance to DFMO include reduced uptake of the drug and increased uptake of polyamines. Overproduction of ODC or significant lack of response of the enzyme to DFMO does not appear to be a factor in resistance in these isolates.Resistance to arsenicals is easily demonstrable by in vivo mouse testing and verification by lysis assay. The reason(s) for resistance is not yet apparent but may be based on the metabolism of trypanothione or the presence of additional thiol targets in these strains.Interaction of trypanocidal drugs with the metabolism and functions of trypanothione In mammalian cells, one of the primary means of defence against damage by oxidants and other toxic substances involves the tripeptide glutathione (γ-glutamyl-cysteinylglycine [GSH]) and its ancillary enzymes glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione-S-transferases. Trypanosomes and Leishmania are uniquely different from the mammalian host in that they do not contain glutathione reductase (Fairlamb and Cerami, 1985), an enzyme crucial to these processes. Instead, trypanothione (N 1 ,N 8 -bis [glutathionyl] spermidine; T[SH] 2 ) (Fairlamb et al., 1985), which is the principal low-molecular weight thiol in logarithmically growing trypanosomatids (Fairlamb, 1989), acts in concert with a flavoprotein disulphide oxidoreductase, trypanothione reductase (Shames et al., 1986;Krauth-Siegel et al., 1987), subsuming the role of GSH and glutathione reductase in maintaining the correct intracellular redox balance in these organisms. Similarly, current evidence suggests that, at least in Trypanosoma brucei and Crithidia fasciculata, the role of GSH and glutathione peroxidase in the removal of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and other alkylperoxides has been replaced by T[SH] 2 and trypanothione peroxidase (Penketh and Klein, 1986;Henderson et al., 1987a). Indirect evidence suggests that this may be the case in Leishmania species and T. cruzi as well (Penketh et al., 1987). Trypanothione and its precursor metabolite N 1 -glutathionylspermidine (Fairlamb et al., 1986) may also be involved in regulation of intracellular levels of unconjugated spermidine in C. fasciculata (Fairlamb, 1988b;Shim and Fairlamb, 1988). Whether this finding has any relevance to the medically important parasitic trypanosomatids is not clear at present. A summary of the overall metabolism and functions of trypanothione is illustrated in Figure 1 and the reader is referred to a number of reviews for more detailed information (Fairlamb and Henderson, 1987;Fairlamb, 1988aFairlamb, , 1989)).Trypanothione is synthesized from its precursor amino acids (ornithine, methionine, glutamate, cysteine and glycine) as illustrated in Figure 1. The biosynthetic pathway as far as GSH and spermidine is identical to that of mammalian cells, whereas the formation of trypanothione via the intermediate N 1 -glutathionylspermidine is unique to trypanosomatids (Fairlamb et al., 1986). Although these latter reactions do not appear to be inhibited by any of the existing trypanocidal compounds (Fairlamb et al., 1986), they clearly represent a potentially novel target for drug development.Two classes of trypanocidal drugs, the fluorinated analogues of ornithine and the diamidines, inhibit two rate-limiting enzymes in polyamine biosynthesis. Alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) selectively inhibits the first enzyme in the pathway (ornithine decarboxylase [ODC]; see C.J. Bacchi, this volume), FIGURE 1. Metabolism and functions of trypanothione, showing possible sites of action of trypanocidal compounds. The boxed insert illustrates futile redox-cycling' by nitro compounds (RNO 2 ) ultimately forming hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and hydroxyl radical (OH . ). BSO: buthionine sulfoximine, DFMO: difluoromethylornithine, R-As --O: melarsen oxide, MEL T: trypanothione-melarsen adduct, PUT: putrescine, SPD: spermidine, GSH and GSSG: glutathione and its disulphide, GSH-SPD: glutathionylspermidine, T(SH) 2 : dihydrotrypanothione, T(S) 2 : trypanothione disulphide, SAM: S-adenosylmethionine, dSAM: decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine, MTA: methylthioadenosine. Reactions 2, 5 and 7 are non-enzymatic; reaction 4, trypanothione peroxidase; reaction 6, trypanothione reductase. Reproduced from Fairlamb (1989). leading to a multiplicity of subsequent events, including: a decrease in trypanothione and other pathway intermediates (Fairlamb et al., 1987); an inhibition of macromolecular biosynthesis (Bacchi et al., 1983), including variant surface glycoprotein (Bitonti et al., 1988); and biochemical and morphological changes associated with differentiation to forms resembling the non-dividing short, stumpy form (De Gee et al., 1984;Giffin et al., 1986;Giffin and McCann, 1989). Two other factors have been implicated in the selective toxicity of DFMO to African trypanosomes: clearance by the host's immune system (De Gee et al., 1983;Bitonti et al., 1986b) and the prolonged half-life of T. brucei ODC (Phillips et al., 1987;Bacchi et al., 1989), with the presumption that T. brucei ODC turns over at considerably slower rates than the mammalian enzyme. Whatever the cause of selective toxicity, partial depletion of trypanothione per se seems unlikely to account for the rapid trypanocidal activity of DFMO in vivo. However, the pronounced synergism between DFMO and arsenical drugs (Jennings, 1988a(Jennings, , 1988b) is likely to occur by this mechanism (see below). Similarly, the report that Berenil ® or pentamidine inhibits S-adenosyl-methionine decarboxylase in T. brucei (Bitonti et al., 1986a) could explain the synergism between DFMO and diamidines (McCann et al., 1983).A wide range of anti-parasitic compounds are thought to be selectively toxic by means of oxidant stress, that is, by promoting the formation of reactive species of oxygen (superoxide, singlet oxygen, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals) or other radical species (Docampo and Moreno, 1984a, 1984b, 1986). For example, the nitrofuran drugs, nifurtimox and nitrofurazone, are thought to undergo `futile-redox cycling' by enzymatic 1-electron reduction of the nitro group with subsequent reoxidation in the presence of molecular oxygen to regenerate the parent drug and form superoxide (O 2 -; see boxed area, Figure 1). Superoxide and H 2 O 2 are maintained at low concentrations in trypanosomes by means of superoxide dismutase (Le Trant et al., 1983) and trypanothione peroxidase (Henderson et al., 1987a), respectively. However, if the parasite's ability to remove these compounds is exceeded, then hydroxyl (OH . ) and other radical species are formed by the Haber-Weiss reaction. The sulphydryl groups of glutathione and trypanothione serve as a non-enzymatic second line of defence; if swamped, radical damage to other vital cellular components such as DNA and membrane lipids will ensue. Although the identity of the parasite enzymes catalysing redox-cycling of these drugs has not been established, trypanothione reductase has weak nitroreductase activity with nifurtimox or nitrofurazone (Henderson et al., 1988). This observation has been exploited to rationally design a series of `subversive-substrates' (Henderson et al., 1988), as will be described below.The purification, properties and substrate specificity of trypanothione reductase have been reported for C. fasciculata (Shames et al., 1986;Henderson et al., 1987b) and T. cruzi (Krauth-Siegel et al., 1987), and recently, the gene for trypanothione reductase from T. congolense has been cloned, sequenced (Shames et al., 1988) and expressed in Escherichia coli (Sullivan et al., 1989).A partial gene sequence for trypanothione reductase from L. donovani has also been reported (Taylor et al., 1989). Comparison of the amino acid sequences for trypanothione reductase and glutathione reductase suggests a possible explanation for the pronounced difference in specificity for their disulphide substrates (T[S] 2 and GSSG, respectively). X-ray crystallographic studies on the binding of GSSG to glutathione reductase indicate that Arg 37 is in Coulombic interaction with the glycine carboxylate group of the GS-I peptide (the half of GSSG covalently bound to glutathione reductase during catalysis) (Karplus et al., 1989). In trypanothione reductase, where the substrate contains no Gly-I carboxylate, Arg 37 is exchanged for a Trp (Shames et al., 1988). This difference in substrate-specificity, together with the less discriminatory nature of substrate-binding in trypanothione reductase (Henderson et al., 1987b), has been exploited to develop a series of substituted naphthoquinones and nitrofurans. These `subversive substrates' not only inhibit reduction of trypanothione disulphide, but also act as redox-cycling agents producing O 2and H 2 O 2 , thus subverting the enzymes' normal anti-oxidant function (Henderson et al., 1988;Jockers-Scherubl et al., 1989). Computer-assisted molecular modelling will no doubt aid in further improvement of the trypanocidal activity of these and other inhibitors.2 ) has also been demonstrated to interact with the trivalent arsenical drug melarsen oxide to form a stable adduct (Mel T, Figure 1) (Fairlamb et al., 1989). When bloodstream forms of T. brucei are exposed to either melarsen oxide or melarsoprol in vitro, Mel T is the only arsenical derivative detectable in acid-soluble extracts of the cells. Thus, trypanothione would appear to be a primary target for these drugs, although the subsequent sequence of events leading to cell lysis is not yet understood. On the one hand, arsenicals could deplete T[SH] 2 by forming Mel T, which in turn competitively inhibits trypanothione reductase (K i = 9 µM), interfering with the protective functions of T[SH] 2 . On the other hand, T[SH] 2 could act to sequester arsenicals, thereby preventing them from binding to other target protein sulphydryl groups. Regardless of the correct interpretation of these observations, synergism between DFMO and arsenical drugs (Jennings, 1988a(Jennings, , 1988b) ) would appear to involve DFMO-induced depletion of T[SH] 2 .In summary, trypanothione and its related metabolism presents several novel and unique areas for drug development. A number of existing drugs, including DFMO, melarsoprol, the diamidines, nitrofurazone and nifurtimox, have inhibitory effects on different aspects of trypanothione metabolism and function, thereby offering a rational biochemical basis for understanding the synergistic activity between these apparently unrelated classes of drugs. The drugs in routine clinical use for the treatment of leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis have undesirable toxicity and the disadvantage that they must be administered parenterally. The urgent need for new, orally active chemotherapeutic drugs against these diseases has been highlighted in reviews on the chemotherapy of leishmaniasis (Berman, 1988) and trypanosomiasis (Gutteridge, 1985). Ideally, a drug is required that is inhibitory to some specific biochemical process unique to the parasite. In the search for effective new chemotherapeutic agents, attention has focused recently on antifungal compounds. These drugs are attractive because they have already undergone extensive toxicity testing, many can be administered orally, they have favourable pharmacokinetic properties and they are already commercially available, thus reducing costs of development.The antifungal drugs belonging to the azole and allylamine groups of compounds are effective because they are inhibitors of sterol biosynthesis. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by man, but in fungi the major sterol produced is the C 28 -compound ergosterol. The antifungal compounds are effective chemotherapeutic agents because the sterol pathway in fungi is considerably more sensitive to inhibition by these drugs than is cholesterol production in human cells. The imidazoles and triazoles (e.g., ketoconazole and itraconazole) are inhibitors of a cytochrome P450-dependent sterol 14α-demethylase. This enzyme catalyses the oxidative removal of the 14α-methyl group, which is an essential step in the conversion of the precursor, lanosterol, into the major fungal sterol, ergosterol (Mercer, 1984;Vanden Bossche, 1988). Inhibition of this enzyme causes a depletion of ergosterol and an excessive accumulation of unusual 14α-methylsterols in the fungal cell. It is considered that this change in sterol composition has adverse effects on membrane integrity and function, with consequent suppression of growth. The allylamines (e.g., naftifine and terbinafine) block sterol synthesis at the squalene epoxidation step, which is a necessary prelude to squalene cyclization to produce lanosterol, which is the first cyclic precursor of ergosterol (Ryder, 1988). In this case, the depletion of ergosterol is accompanied by a build-up of a large quantity of squalene, which again is believed to result in membrane disruption and inhibition of fungal growth (Ryder, 1988).Several studies have revealed that ketoconazole, an imidazole derivative, is active against Leishmania species. It inhibited proliferation of L. mexicana mexicana promastigotes (Berman et al., 1984), L. mexicana mexicana, L. tropica and L. donovani amastigotes in human and mouse macrophages (Berman, 1981(Berman, , 1982;;Berman and Lee, 1984) and L. donovani in golden hamsters (Raether and Seidenath, 1984). Its effectiveness in man was also indicated by successful treatment of cutaneous and mucocutaneous lesions (Urcuyo and Zaias, 1982;Weinrauch et al., 1983aWeinrauch et al., , 1983b)). Investigations on the sterol biochemistry of Leishmania have shown the locus of ketoconazole action to be the sterol biosynthetic pathway. Detailed analysis of the sterol composition of promastigotes of several Leishmania species identified the major sterols as ergosterol and ergosta-5,7,24(28)-trien-3β-ol, with the latter compound usually predominating, particularly in L. mexicana mexicana (Goad et al., 1984(Goad et al., , 1985a)). A number of other minor sterols were also identified, including lanosterol, a precursor of sterols found in fungi. From the sterol composition and results of labelling studies with (2-14 C)mevalonic acid, the sterol biosynthetic pathway shown in Figure 1 has been deduced (Beach et al., 1988), which closely resembles that operative in fungi (Mercer, 1984). However, promastigotes grown in a medium with added serum, or amastigotes cultured in macrophage cells, also contain a significant amount of cholesterol which is of exogenous origin from the serum or macrophages (Goad et al., 1984(Goad et al., , 1985a;;Beach et al., 1988).When L. mexicana mexicana promastigotes were exposed to ketoconazole, their growth was retarded and radioactivity from (2-14 C)mevalonic acid accumulated in a sterol fraction with the chromatographic properties of 4α-methylsterols which act as precursors to ergosta-5,7,24(28)-trien-3β-ol and ergosterol (Berman et al., 1984;Goad et al., 1985a;Beach et al., 1988). The main accumulating sterol was identified (Goad et al., 1985a) by 1 H and 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry as 4α,14α-dimethy lcholesta-8,24-dien-3β-ol. It was accompanied by smaller amounts of 4α,14α-dimethy lergosta-8,24-dien-3β-ol (obtusifoliol), 14α-methylcholesta-8,24-dien-3b-ol and 14α-methylergosta-8,24(28)-dien-3F\"Symbol\"b-ol (see Figure 1). Similar effects of ketoconazole on sterol synthesis have been demonstrated in several strains of Old and New World Leishmania species (Beach et al., 1988). The appearance of 14α-methylsterols was accompanied by a dramatic decrease in ergosterol and ergosta-5,7,24(28)-trien-3β-ol (Beach et al., 1988). Moreover, ketoconazole was also effective in blocking sterol production in L. mexicana mexicana amastigotes cultured in murine macrophage cells, again with accumulation of 4α,14α-dimethy lcholesta-8,24-dien-3β-ol (Berman et al., 1986). The ketoconazole-induced changes in sterol composition of Leishmania thus parallel those observed in treated fungi and reveal the susceptibility of the 14α-methylsterol 14α-demethylase to azole inhibition, presumably through the cytochrome P450 system. Similar effects on sterol biosynthesis and inhibition of growth have been demonstrated with the triazole antifungal, itraconazole, when tested against promastigotes of 36 strains of Leishmania (Beach et al., 1988), but fluconazole was much less effective. The anti-leishmanial activity of FIGURE 1. Sterols of Leishmania and postulated biosynthetic pathway. (1) Lanosta-8,24-dien-3b -ol (lanosterol); (2) 4a ,14a -dimethy lcholesta-8,24-dien-3b -ol; (3) 4a ,14a -dimethy lergosta-8,24(28)-dien-3b -ol; (4) 14a -methylcholesta-8,24-dien-3b-ol; (5) 14a -methylergosta -8,24(28)-dien-3F\"Symbol\"b-ol; (6) cholesta-8,24-dien-3b -ol (zymosterol); (7) ergosta-8,24(28)-dien-3b -ol (fecosterol); (8 itraconazole, together with inhibition of the sterol pathway, has also been demonstrated against amastigotes of L. mexicana mexicana (Hart et al., 1989).The antifungal compounds that inhibit sterol biosynthesis and have been tested against Leishmania are the allylamines. Terbinafine (SF86-327) effectively retarded growth of L. mexicana mexicana promastigotes and, as in fungi, inhibited squalene epoxidase, causing an accumulation of squalene and a decrease in the sterol content of the cells (Goad et al., 1985b;Beach et al., 1989). Naftifine and terbinafine were also active against growth of L. major amastigotes in human monocyte-derived macrophages (Berman and Gallalee, 1987).It is now becoming clear that Leishmania have a sterol biochemistry, and requirements for sterol to support growth, which are remarkably similar to fungi. The need for sterol during cell proliferation may be to fulfil two functions. The first is a `bulk' role for incorporation into newly formed membranes. In fungi it is suggested that the reduction in ergosterol and the appearance of abnormal amounts of 14α-methylsterols in response to azole treatment has a disruptive effect on membrane integrity and function. It is speculated that the 14α-methyl group of the accumulating sterols does not permit correct alignment of the sterol in the membrane for interaction with the fatty acyl chains of the phospholipid components (Bloch, 1983;Weete, 1987). The second need may be for small amounts of specific sterols with a C 24 substituent, such as ergosterol, to act in a `metabolic' role to stimulate some essential process(es) required for cell division. This would be analogous to the `sparking' or `synergistic' role played by ergosterol in yeast proliferation (Pinto and Nes, 1983;Ramgopal and Bloch, 1983;Rodriguez et al., 1985;Weete, 1987), where the sterol stimulates phospholipid synthesis (Kawasaki et al., 1985), polyphosphoinositol metabolism (Dahl and Dahl, 1985), and phosphatidylinositol kinase and protein kinase activities (Dahl et al., 1987).The potential value of ketoconazole for the treatment of Old and New World cutaneous leishmaniasis has been examined by a number of groups. Somewhat mixed results are reported, but treatments with a positive response (Urcuyo and Zaias, 1982;Weinrauch et al., 1983aWeinrauch et al., , 1983b;;Belazyoug et al., 1985;Jolliffe, 1986;Viallet et al., 1986;Dutz et al., 1987;Weinrauch et al., 1987;Saenz and Berman, 1988) outweigh the negative results (Weinrauch et al., 1983a(Weinrauch et al., , 1983b;;Dan et al., 1986;Jolliffe, 1986;Kubba et al., 1986) by about 2:l, although the fact that cutaneous leishmaniasis can often self-cure in a few months to a year indicates that caution is needed when interpreting data. One report has also indicated encouraging results using itraconazole (Dedet et al., 1986), but clinical trials with the allylamine terbinafine are awaited with interest.Some observations on the effects of ketoconazole on promastigote cultures and the sterol metabolism of amastigotes may be relevant to the apparent failure of some cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis to respond to ketoconazole treatment. First, the growth of some species (L. braziliensis and L. donovani) is somewhat more sensitive to inhibition by low doses of ketoconazole than is growth of others (L. aethiopica, L. major, L. tropica and L. mexicana mexicana). Strains of some of the less sensitive Leishmania species can be subcultured repeatedly in the presence of ketoconazole, in a medium containing serum, with growth rates about 30-60% of the untreated controls (Beach et al., 1988). The sterol composition is changed dramatically with a massive build-up of 14α-methylsterols and a significantly increased cholesterol content derived by absorption of the serum cholesterol from the medium (Beach et al., 1988). The normal sterols, ergosterol and ergosta-5,7,24(28)-trien-3β-ol, are reduced to just a few percent of the total sterol. It appears that these cultures may have adapted to use the accumulated 14α-methylsterols, perhaps in conjunction with the exogenous cholesterol, to meet the bulk sterol function in the membranes. The traces of ergosterol and ergosta-5,7,24(28)-trien-3β-ol still produced, or possibly the 14α-methylergosta-8,24(28)-dien-3F\"Symbol\"b-ol that accumulates, may be adequate to satisfy the `metabolic' role to sustain cell proliferation (Beach et al., 1988). It is possible that development of tolerance to sublethal concentrations of ketoconazole in leishmaniasis patients may occur and this needs to be considered as a possible explanation for treatment failures. A resistance to terbinafine has also been noted, in this case with a build-up of squalene in the Leishmania cells but with sufficient sterol still being produced, and supplemented by cholesterol absorbed from the medium, to maintain growth (Beach et al., 1989).The second point concerns the possible ability of the amastigotes to use sterols derived from the host macrophage. Analysis of the amastigote sterols of L. mexicana mexicana and L. braziliensis guyanensis showed that they had a rather different sterol composition from that of the promastigotes. Ergosterol and ergosta-5,7,24(28)-trien-3β-ol were much reduced compared to the promastigotes, while two C 29 -sterols, stigmasta-5,7,24(28)-trien-3β-ol and stigmasta-7,24(28)-dien-3β-ol, recognized as only trace components in promastigotes, appeared in substantial amounts (Borelli, 1987). Cholesterol and desmosterol (cholesta-5,24-dien-3β-ol), products of macrophage sterol biosynthesis, were present in amastigotes together with ergosta-5,24(28)-dien-3β-ol in L. mexicana mexicana and in addition ergost-5-en-3β-ol and ergosta-5,22-dien-3β-ol in L. braziliensis guyanensis.As indicated in Figure 2, it can be postulated that the latter three sterols can be produced by the amastigote using the desmosterol obtained from the macrophage. This transformation would not be susceptible to ketoconazole inhibition and could provide 24-alkylated sterols suitable to fulfil the `metabolic' role. Cholesterol obtained from the macrophage could then meet the `bulk' membrane sterol requirement and so permit the amastigote, in its host macrophage environment, to evade the toxic effects of ketoconazole.The epimastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative organism of Chagas' disease, have a sterol composition rather similar to Leishmania, with ergosterol and ergosta-5,7-dien-3β-ol as major sterols but with considerably enhanced amounts of the C 29 -sterols stigmasta-5,7,22-trien-3β-ol and stigmasta-5,7dien-3β-ol (Karn et al., 1969;Beach et al., 1986;Goad et al., 1989). Sterol biosynthesis in this organism is also very sensitive to azole compounds. Both ketoconazole and itraconazole inhibited the 14α-demethylation step, leading to a build-up of the precursor 24-methylenedihydrolanosterol and a decline in the C 28 -a n dC 29 -sterols (Beach et al., 1986;Goad et al., 1989). There was a coincident reduction in growth rate of the epimastigotes (Beach et al., 1986), and amastigotes in VA-13 cells (human diploid lung cells) did not survive ketoconazole (5 ng/ml) treatment (Goad et al., 1989). Both sterol synthesis and growth of epimastigotes were less sensitive to fluconazole treatment (Goad et al., 1989).These results with T. cruzi suggest that azoles may prove effective for chemotherapy, and indeed promising results are now appearing showing that ketoconazole and itraconazole are very active against T. cruzi infections of mice (Raether and Seidenath, 1984;McCabe et al., 1984McCabe et al., , 1986McCabe et al., , 1987)). However, there are reports of failure of ketoconazole against chronic murine Chagas' disease (McCabe, 1988) and a murine infection of T. brucei (Jennings, 1988). Terbinafine has been shown to inhibit proliferation of the epimastigote and amastigote forms of T. cruzi and, moreover, to potentiate the anti-trypanosomal activity of ketoconazole, thus pointing to the possibility of effective combined therapy with these drugs (Urbina et al., 1988). FIGURE 2. Suggested route for production of 24-methylsterols from desmosterol (13) in Leishmania amastigotes. ( 14) ergosta-5,24(28)-dien-3b -ol; (15) ergost-5-en-3b -ol; (16) ergosta-5,22-dien-3b -ol.HO HO 13 14 15 considerable skills in the culture of these organisms, which made our collaborative studies possible.Trypanosome alternative oxidase `We know a great deal and understand nothing.' This quote from a recent Trends in Biochemical Sciences book review is appropriate for an introduction to a discussion of mitochondrial function in African trypanosomes. The situation has improved, however, with the recent addition of a key finding: the role of coenzyme Q (CoQ) in the electron transport system of these mitochondria.Starting with this, we have reinterpreted a 25-year accumulation of data to draw a new picture of the metabolic processes in bloodstream-form trypanosome mitochondria.One of the most widely recognized peculiarities of bloodstream trypanosome biochemistry is the so-called glycerophosphate oxidase (GPO) system. This is responsible for the cyanide-insensitive respiration of African trypanosomes and is supposed to be unique to these cells. Another interesting feature is the mitochondrial differentiation that occurs during transformation from bloodstream to procyclic forms. The generally accepted outline is that tricarboxylic (TCA) acid cycle enzymes are synthesized and begin to function quite early during differentiation, but oxidative phosphorylation does not begin until later because it is dependent on the subsequent development of a functional cytochrome chain. Exactly how a partial TCA acid cycle is to function prior to the development of cytochromes, and to what purpose, is a problem that has not been addressed.A common error made in discussions of bloodstream-trypanosome mitochondria is the statement that they are physiologically inactive: the rate of respiration in bloodstream mitochondria is, in fact, fifty times greater than that in the cells of the mammalian host. The overall role of this respiration has been understood since Grant and Sargent (1960) first described what they called the α-glycerophosphate (glycerol-3-phosphate) oxidase system 30 years ago. A catalytic amount of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) is reduced to glycerol-3-phosphate (GP) by the NADH produced by glycolysis. This step is required for regenerating the NAD + needed to support the continued glycolysis upon which these cells depend. The DHAP used in the production of GP is catalytic because it is promptly reoxidized to DHAP. The reduction of DHAP by NADH occurs in the glycosome, a specialized microbody, and the reoxidation to DHAP occurs in the mitochondrion. This `GP shuttle' of electrons from the glycosome to the mitochondrion is shown in Figure 1. Although Grant and Sargent (1961) were not aware that the reoxidation of GP to DHAP occurs in the mitochondrion, they knew that at least two enzymes were involved: a dehydrogenase and an oxidase. Opperdoes et al. (1977) demonstrated that the reoxidation of GP occurs in the mitochondrion and Fairlamb and Bowman (1977) described the dehydrogenase as a typical FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide)-containing mitochondrial enzyme. A suggestion was made that the dehydrogenase and oxidase components are linked by CoQ (Meshnick et al., 1978). Results from our studies on inhibition of glycolysis suggested that inhibitors of respiration were CoQ analogues and thus acted as inhibitors by interfering with the transfer of electrons from the dehydrogenase to the oxidase (Grady et al., 1986b). The concept of CoQ involvement was partially derived from results of workers studying a plant system that was sensitive to similar inhibitors, notably salicylhydroxamic acid and related N-aryl hydroxamates (Rich et al., 1978). A conclusion by plant biochemists that the salicylhydroxamic-acid-sensitive system in plants was CoQ mediated was also speculative, but this role has recently been convincingly demonstrated (Bonner et al., 1986).We examined the role of CoQ in the trypanosome system because this was important for work aimed at interfering with its function as an approach to chemotherapy (Clarkson et al., 1989a). We confirmed an earlier observation (Folkers et al., 1983) that Trypanosoma brucei brucei contains CoQ 9 and determined the concentration to be 206 ng/mg protein. We showed that the redox state of this coenzyme is dependent on respiratory function in a manner consistent with it serving as an electron carrier between the dehydrogenase and oxidase components of the mitochondria. The action of salicylhydroxamic acid on the redox state of CoQ is consistent with interference in the reoxidation of this coenzyme after reduction by the dehydrogenase. Extraction of T. b. brucei with acetone to remove CoQ 9 inhibited respiration, which could be partially restored by the addition of CoQ 9 to the extracted cells. Dispersal of mitochondrial components by the detergent digitonin inhibited respiration and this could be partially reversed by liposomes, which provide a site for reassociation. Incorporation of CoQ into the liposomes enhanced this reversal. We synthesized an analogue of CoQ 9 that contains an unbranched alkyl chain in place of the 45carbon isoprenoid chain; we refer to this compound as decyl-CoQ. This substitution provides a degree of water solubility such that decyl-CoQ can be used in aqueous buffer to measure the activity of a ubiquinol oxidase independent of a dehydrogenase. Chemically reduced decyl-CoQ supported salicylhydroxamicacid-sensitive oxygen uptake in the absence of GP. Non-reduced decyl-CoQ relinked digitonin-dispersed components of the mitochondria, fully reversing digitonin inhibition of GP-supported respiration. From the findings reported above, we conclude that CoQ 9 links the dehydrogenase and oxidase components of the mitochondria. This defines the trypanosome terminal oxidase as an alternative oxidase. In contrast to what is generally assumed, the cyanide-insensitive respiratory system is therefore not unique to bloodstream African trypanosomes but is a conventional CoQ-mediated electron transport system, the only unusual feature being the terminal oxidase employed. We refer to this oxidase as the trypanosome alternative oxidase (TAO). We use the term TAO to replace GPO because GPO implies that the entire trypanosome respiratory system is unique, whereas TAO correctly identifies the only unusual feature of this respiratory chain.To provide a further comparison of the plant and parasite systems, we examined the effect of a wide range of compounds we had previously found to be inhibitors of parasite respiration (Clarkson et al., 1981;Grady et al., 1986aGrady et al., , 1986b) ) for their effect on the plant system (Clarkson et al., 1989b). Every class of compound that inhibited parasite respiration also inhibited the plant system, thus supporting the similarity of these alternative oxidases. However, the relative degree of inhibition among the inhibitors varied between plant and parasite. We had found that increasing the length of the alkyl side chain greatly increased activity against the parasite (Grady et al., 1986a(Grady et al., , 1986b) but this was not as important in the plant system. We concluded that the parasite and plant alternative oxidases are similar but the milieu, the inner mitochondrial membrane, of the two systems is different.Monoclonal antibodies were recently prepared against the alternative oxidase of Sauromatum guttatum (voodoo lily) (Elthon et al., 1989). These monoclonals also revealed the alternative oxidase of Neurospora crassa on Western blot analysis (Lambowitz et al., 1989). We performed a Western blot analysis of T. b. brucei mitochondria with these monoclonals and it showed a band at 36.5 kilodaltons, the molecular weight of both the voodoo lily and N. crassa alternative oxidases. Not only are the plant alternative oxidase and TAO functionally equivalent, but the structure of these enzymes is apparently very highly conserved. Other evidence indicates that the plant enzyme is a single polypeptide and ultrafiltration data support this conclusion for the parasite system. These similarities are especially interesting because the presence of an alternative oxidase has never before been reported in any protozoan or metazoan.As shown in Figure 1, the TAO provides a substitute for a cytochrome chain in transferring electrons from CoQ to molecular oxygen. In the general mitochondrial electron transport chain, the action of Complex I, that is, NADH dehydrogenase, is to transfer electrons to CoQ while concomitantly pumping protons from the matrix, thus creating an electromotive force across the inner mitochondrial membrane. This electromotive force is used by the oligomycinsensitive ATPase to generate ATP. In trypanosomes, the presence of an oligomycin-sensitive ATPase had already been demonstrated, although it had been presumed to be non-functional in bloodstream cells (Opperdoes et al., 1976). The presence of a partial TCA cycle had also been demonstrated by the cytochemical detection of NADH-dependent diaphorase activity in the mitochondria of intermediate and short, stumpy bloodstream forms (Giffin and McCann, 1989). Furthermore, intermediate and short, stumpy cells had been shown to be able to depend on a TCA cycle intermediate, α-ketoglutarate, as an energy source (Vickerman, 1965;Bowman et al., 1972;Flynn and Bowman, 1973), which implies the function of at least a partial TCA cycle. Through the use of the vital stain rhodamine 123, we were able to show that intermediate and short, stumpy cells generate an electromotive force and that this can be blocked by salicylhydroxamic acid or rotenone, thus indicating that the electromotive force is dependent on both Complex I and the TAO (Bienen et al., 1989). Furthermore, α-ketoglutarate-dependent motility is also blocked by rotenone and by salicylhydroxamic acid. Taken together, these results support the overall metabolic scheme shown in Figure 1.In summary, the demonstration that bloodstream trypanosome respiration is dependent on a CoQ-mediated electron transport system has led to a better understanding of African trypanosome physiology. These data, old data showing the presence of F 1 F 0 ATPase, other old data showing the ability of transitional cells to use TCA intermediates, and our rhodamine 123 uptake data have together produced a new picture of mitochondrial function. Based on this new picture, a better estimate can be made of the range of biochemical effects expected of chemotherapeutic agents that block the TAO. We also found a strong similarity among the TAO and the alternative oxidases of phylogenetically diverse cells. Perhaps the most interesting result is the potential of a better interpretation of both physiological and molecular biological data relating to the processes involved in parasite differentiation between mammalian and insect vector forms.  (Beaver et al., 1984). Chagas' disease in man initially presents as an acute form lasting 20 to 30 days, progressing into a chronic form after this period (Beaver et al., 1984). The acute phase can be treated with very toxic drugs (such as nifurtimox [Docampo and Moreno, 1984]) and may be fatal if untreated (Beaver et al., 1984). Once the disease becomes chronic, there is no effective treatment, and it is fatal after several years due to extensive damage to vital organs such as the heart, colon and brain (Beaver et al., 1984). Like most eukaryotic cells, T. cruzi has many characteristics in common with mammalian cells. A rational way to develop a non-toxic treatment against the parasite is to identify major differences in metabolic pathways between the parasite and the host and to develop inhibitors against these pathways.Energy metabolism is probably one of the best targets, since prolongation of a parasitic infection depends upon the parasite producing enough energy to propagate itself. Unlike other trypanosomes, T. cruzi depends upon cyanidesensitive respiration (i.e., a mitochondrial cytochrome electron transport system) for survival throughout its life cycle. As a consequence, the parasite is more efficient in obtaining energy from substrate oxidation and better adapted for living intracellularly in the host cells.Several differences in the mechanisms of energy conservation between T. cruzi and the mammalian host have been identified and may become useful targets for designing effective chemotherapeutic agents. This paper summarizes some of these differences between parasite and host that are shared among members of the genus Trypanosoma.As with most trypanosomatids, T. cruzi has a glycosome (Cannata and Cazzulo, 1984a) which contains most of the glycolytic enzymes (Fairlamb and Opperdoes, 1986). In the glycosome, glucose is oxidized to phosphoenol-pyruvate (PEP) through the same reactions described for glycolysis in mammals. After this point, there are several differences in energy metabolism between host and parasite. In mammals, subsequent to synthesis of PEP, the next reaction in the glycolytic pathway is catalysed by pyruvate kinase, an enzyme that is missing in several trypanosomatids (Fairlamb and Opperdoes, 1986). Even though this enzyme is present in T. cruzi epimastigotes, it has very low activity (Juan et al., 1976), and the relative contribution of this step to the process of aerobic glycolysis seems to be negligible (Cannata and Cazzulo, 1984a). Instead, most PEP is used by the enzyme PEP carboxykinase, producing oxaloacetate as the product (Cannata and Cazzulo, 1984a). Oxaloacetate is in turn the substrate of the glycosomal malate dehydrogenase, a reaction that requires NADH. This reaction is favoured by its low free energy (-8.1 kcal/mol) and the accumulation of NADH during the oxidative step of glycolysis. Thus, malate rather than pyruvate is the main product of glycolysis in these parasites, similar to what has been reported for other members of this genus (Fairlamb and Opperdoes, 1986).In mammalian cells, glycolysis leads to the formation of pyruvate, which is further oxidized to acetyl-CoA in the mitochondria by pyruvate dehydrogenase, producing NADH. Acetyl-CoA reacts with oxaloacetate to produce citrate, which is oxidized back to oxaloacetate in the Krebs cycle. During this process, NAD + is reduced in three different reactions and reoxidized by the respiratory chain. In T. cruzi mitochondria, most of the steps where NADH would be produced seem to be missing. The enzymes pyruvate dehydrogenase and α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase have not been detected in T. cruzi (Cannata and Cazzulo, 1984b;Adroher et al., 1988). The enzyme isocitrate dehydrogenase exists but is NADP + , rather than NAD + , dependent. However, the activity of several enzymes of the Krebs cycle are up to 25-fold higher in metacyclic trypomastigotes than in epimastigotes (Adroher et al., 1988), suggesting that parts of the Krebs cycle are operational and that their activity is required. In summary, the main product of glycolysis in T. cruzi (as well as in T. brucei) is malate rather than pyruvate, which upon entering the mitochondrial matrix is unlikely to be used by the Krebs cycle at the same rate as in the mammalian mitochondria.When malate enters the mitochondrion of T. cruzi, it may be dehydrated to fumarate (a reaction with an equilibrium constant very close to 1) if oxaloacetate (the product of malate oxidation) is not removed efficiently. The Krebs cycle may continue in reverse through the reaction catalysed by the enzyme NADHfumarate reductase. This enzyme is very active in both T. brucei procyclic trypomastigotes and T. cruzi, with activities comparable to the rate of oxygen consumption by intact cells (Table 1; Boveris et al., 1986;Turrens, 1987Turrens, , 1989)). The product of this enzyme is succinate, which can be oxidized efficiently in the respiratory chain back to fumarate through succinate dehydrogenase (Table 1). In addition, T. cruzi may secrete succinate, indicating that the product of the enzyme fumarate reductase has a dual role in the intermediary metabolism of these parasites. Through this enzyme, fumarate may be used directly as a substrate for energy production or as a sink of reducing equivalents (NAD[P]H), thus explaining how these parasites can either oxidize or accumulate and secrete succinate depending on their metabolic needs.The mitochondrial cytochrome electron transport system also presents some peculiarities when compared with the mammalian system. In trypanosomes with a functional electron transport system (i.e., T. cruzi and T. brucei procyclic trypomastigotes), oxygen consumption is insensitive to rotenone, suggesting that either the segment between NADH-dehydrogenase and ubiquinone is somehow different from mammalian mitochondria or that most oxygen consumption is dependent upon succinate oxidation rather than NADH oxidation. The second possibility may occur in intact cells since most of the NADH-producing enzymes of the Krebs cycle appear to be missing (see above) and an active fumarate reductase may keep producing succinate. However, studies using isolated mitochondrial fragments from either T. brucei or T. cruzi indicate that they do not oxidize NADH at significant rates (Boveris et al., 1986;Turrens, 1989). We proposed the scheme drawn in Figure 1 as a model respiratory chain for T. cruzi and T. brucei procyclic trypomastigotes, in which most of the reducing equivalents are channelled to fumarate, producing succinate, which in turn is oxidized by succinate dehydrogenase. We have recently reported additional data for T. brucei procyclic trypomastigotes using either intact or permeabilized cells, also suggesting that in intact cells succinate may be the major oxidizable substrate (Turrens, 1989).There is evidence that the mitochondrial membrane of trypanosomes contains an active NADH-dehydrogenase. The transcription product of a gene that may code for a subunit of NADH-dehydrogenase from maxicircles of T. brucei kinetoplasts has been isolated from different forms of the parasite (Jasmer et al., 1985;Feagin et al., 1986). Moreover, a NADH-dehydrogenase activity (determined as NADH-ferricyanide reductase) is present in T. cruzi (Boveris et al., 1986) (Table 1), but its specific function is not clear. The NADH-dehydrogenase may transfer electrons to the terminal electron donor of the NADH-fumarate reductase rather than to ubiquinone. If the enzyme fumarate reductase is vital for the life cycle of these cells, the inhibition of this enzyme should be trypanocidal. We tested several inhibitors of the NADH-fumarate reductase of Haemonchus contortus developed at Merck, Sharp and Dohme Laboratories and found six compounds (Figure 2) that were effective inhibitors of the enzyme in T. brucei procyclic trypomastigotes. These compounds were added to cultures of either T. cruzi epimastigotes or T. brucei procyclic trypomastigotes. Four of them were effective against both trypanosomatids (Table 2).The same inhibitors were tested on the electron transport chain of rat heart mitochondria, to see how specific they were against trypanosomes (Table 2). The experiments suggested that these inhibitors of NADH-fumarate reductase may be useful agents against trypanosomes, either in vivo or for blood banks. The mode of trypanocidal action of these drugs is under investigation. Some of the drugs may also inhibit the enzyme succinate dehydrogenase, thereby inhibiting cell growth by blocking succinate oxidation. Although more research is needed to fully understand the mechanism of aerobic glycolysis and energy conservation in T. cruzi, it is clear that there are significant differences with the well-characterized mammalian systems that are  In trypanosomes, as in all other members of the protozoan order Kinetoplastida examined, a unique form of metabolic compartmentalization is found. The majority of the glycolytic enzymes, responsible for the conversion of glucose into phosphoglycerate, are contained within a microbody-like organelle, called the glycosome (Opperdoes and Borst, 1977). It has been suggested that cells may use microbodies to sequester certain enzymatic systems when an obvious advantage can be gained (Borst, 1989). One example is enzymes that deal with toxic or reactive metabolites, such as peroxidase and catalase found in microbodies often called peroxisomes. Other examples are increasing the flux through a pathway by clustering its enzymes within an organelle or creating a special environment in a compartment of the cell to allow reactions that in the cytosol could normally not occur. These two latter advantages may have been the evolutionary force for the development of the glycosome. Glycolysis is a pathway of vital importance to trypanosomes, particularly of the genus Trypanosoma, comprising the well-studied parasites that are responsible for important diseases such as sleeping sickness and nagana. These parasites, when they live in the bloodstream of the mammalian host, are entirely dependent on the conversion of glucose into pyruvate for their energy supply. In this stage of the life cycle, they lack a functional Krebs cycle and the mitochondrial system for oxidative phosphorylation. Their dependence on an inefficient energy production is compensated for by an extremely high glucose consumption (Opperdoes, 1987). The sequestering of the glycolytic enzymes within an organelle most likely contributes to this high glycolytic flux by locally increasing the concentration of metabolites (Misset et al., 1986). Moreover, the capacity to maintain substrate concentrations, phosphate potential and redox state within the glycosome at levels different from those in the cytosol can significantly change the equilibrium state of some reactions. This is particularly the case under anaerobic conditions, when net ATP synthesis during the conversion of glucose into pyruvate and glycerol is made possible by the reversal of the glycerol kinase reaction as a result of the high concentra-tion of glycerol-3-phosphate and the low ATP/ADP ratio in the glycosome (Visser et al., 1981;Hammond et al., 1985;Opperdoes, 1987).The glycolytic pathway is a potential target for trypanocidal drugs for two reasons: first, because glycolysis is of vital importance for the energy supply of bloodstream trypanosomes, and second, because the glycolytic enzymes may be expected to have some structural features not present in the proteins of the mammalian host due to the large phylogenetic distance between trypanosomes and mammals (Sogin et al., 1986) and the unique cellular location of the enzymes in the parasite. The proteins are encoded in the nucleus, synthesized on free ribosomes and then transported into the glycosome (Clayton, 1987;Hart et al., 1987). This transport is not accompanied by any detectable processing of the polypeptides, indicating that a targeting signal has to be present in the structure of the mature protein.As part of our search for specific features in the glycosomal proteins of the parasite not shared by its host counterparts, we have purified all nine glycosomal enzymes involved in glucose and glycerol metabolism of T. brucei (Misset et al., 1986). Cytosolic forms that were found for two glycolytic enzymes-glyceraldehydephosphate dehydrogenase (cGAPDH) and phosphoglycerate kinase (cPGK)-have been purified as well (Misset et al., 1977;Misset and Opperdoes, 1987). In addition, the genes for several glycolytic enzymes have been cloned and sequenced. These include the genes for the glycosomal enzymes glucosephosphate isomerase (Marchand et al., 1989), fructose-biphosphate aldolase (Clayton, 1985;Marchand et al., 1988), triosephosphate isomerase (Swinkels et al., 1986), glyceraldehydephosphate dehydrogenase (Michels et al., 1986) and phosphoglycerate kinase (Osinga et al., 1985), as well as genes for two enzymes located in the cytosol, cGAPDH (M. Marchand and P. Michels, unpublished) and cPGK (Osinga et al., 1985), and also the gene for pyruvate kinase (S. Allert and P. Michels, unpublished), a glycolytic enzyme that is present only in the cytosol. The structural and functional properties of the purified enzymes, including their primary structures predicted from the gene sequences, were compared with each other and with those of the glycolytic enzymes of other organisms. The overall sequence similarity of the trypanosomal enzymes to those of other organisms is rather limited: the positional identity of the amino acid sequences varies between 38% and 57% for the different enzymes, regardless of whether the comparison is made with other eukaryotic organisms or with prokaryotes. As for the subunit composition, with the exception of hexokinase, most glycosomal enzymes have an organization comparable with the mammalian ones (Table 1). However, significant differences are found in the subunit masses: all Trypanosoma glycosomal enzymes, except triosephosphate isomerase, have subunits that are 1-5 kilodaltons larger than their cytosolic counterparts from other organisms (Table 1). These larger subunits are due to the presence of unique insertions or extensions of the glycosomal proteins (Figure 1). Furthermore, all glycosomal proteins except glucosephosphate isomerase are characterized by an excess of basic residues, which confer a very high isoelectric point (pI 8.7-10.0) to the proteins. These pIs are significantly higher than those of the cytosolic isoenzymes cGAPDH and cPGK (pI 7.9 and 6.2, respectively) and those reported for the corresponding enzymes of any other organism. Modelling of the amino acid sequences of three glycosomal proteins (triosephosphate isomerase, glyceraldehydephosphate dehydrogenase and phosphoglycerate kinase) into a three-dimensional structure, using the structural information of the homologous enzyme from other organisms, indicated that many of the additional charged residues form a particular spatial configuration in the proteins: two clusters of charges on the protein's surface separated from each other by a distance of 40 Å (Wierenga et al., 1987). This configuration may be common to all glycosomal proteins, because clusters of positively charged residues, specific for the T. brucei enzymes, could also be recognized in the primary structures of fructosebiphosphate aldolase and glucosephosphate isomerase, despite the overall neutral charge of the latter enzyme. In contrast, they were not detected in T. brucei's cytosolic enzymes cGAPDH, cPGK and pyruvate kinase (Figure 1). It has been proposed that these unique charged patches constitute the signal that directs the proteins to the glycosome after their synthesis in the cytosol (Wierenga et al., 1987). However, a serious objection arguing against this hypothesis is the observation that no charge differences exist between the glycosomal and cyto- solic phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) isoenzymes of Crithidia fasciculata (Swinkels et al., 1988), an organism related to T. brucei. Because the only major difference between these two proteins is a C-terminal extension, Swinkels et al. (1988) drew the conclusion that the topogenic signal should be located at the carboxy-terminus of that protein. Interestingly, a stretch of amino acids was found in the C-terminal sequence of the T. brucei glycosomal phosphoglycerate kinase with considerable similarity to a peptide in the N-terminal extension of glycosomal glucosephosphate isomerase. However, a search for similar peptides in other glycosomal proteins has not yet led to the unambiguous identification of a common, putative topogenic signal.The functional properties of most of the purified glycosomal enzymes have been analysed in detail (Misset et al., 1977;Cronin andTipton, 1985, 1987;Lambeir et al., 1987;Misset and Opperdoes, 1987;Marchand et al., 1989; M. Callens, A.-M. Lambeir, D. Kuntz and F. Opperdoes, unpublished). These analyses have shown that the kinetic parameters of some of the enzymes (glucosephosphate isomerase and triosephosphate isomerase) are very similar to those of their mammalian counterparts, whereas other enzymes (hexokinase, fructose-biphosphate aldolase, glyceraldehydephosphate dehydrogenase and PGK) display more unusual characteristics. This dissimilar kinetic behaviour may be attributed to the participation of residues in the catalytic process different from their mammalian counterpart, such as differences in residues either at the active-site, or in residues that may play a role in binding of the co-factors. Detailed knowledge of the three-dimensional structures of the glycosomal proteins will be required to interpret the kinetic differences between these enzymes and their homologues from other organisms.Analysis of the cell biology of trypanosomes has shown that glycolysis is of vital importance for the energy supply of these organisms. Moreover, most of the enzymes of the glycolytic pathway appear to be organized in a unique manner, that is, in a microbody called the glycosome. Further unravelling of the glycolytic process, using the approaches of enzymology and molecular biology, demonstrated that the glycosomal enzymes in T. brucei have a number of unusual structural and functional features. These features may be involved in the entry of the proteins into the organelle, in their functioning within the specific environment, or they may simply be the result of the large phylogenetic distance between these protozoans and all other organisms studied so far. Whatever their function and origin, these unusual features are potential targets for compounds that should specifically block the parasite's glycolysis without interfering with the pathway of the mammalian host's cell. A more detailed analysis of the special aspects of some glycosomal enzymes of T. brucei, by crystallographic methods, and examples of the design of selective inhibitors that should specifically interact with those aspects, are described by F.M.D. Vellieux (this volume).Protein crystallography and the design of new drugs against sleeping sickness F.M.D. Vellieux * , R.K. Wierenga † , H. Groendijk * , R.J. Read ‡ , M.E.M. Noble † , C.L.M.J. Verlinde * and W.G.J. Hol *Because X-ray crystallography can be used to determine three-dimensional structures of biomacromolecules at close to atomic resolution, this technique can be used for the rational design of drugs (Hol, 1986). To understand how this is possible, it is useful to consider a `rational drug design cycle' (Figure 1). Analysis of the three-dimensional structures of a well-chosen target protein complexed with several inhibitors will reveal their modes of binding. Computer graphics and theoretical calculations can be used to propose modifications of these inhibitors. Promising compounds are then synthesized and tested for inhibitory activity, and the three-dimensional structures of the target protein complexed to these new inhibitors are examined. In this manner, our understanding of the mechanisms by which inhibition takes place can be increased until we are able to obtain very selective inhibitors. We are using this approach for the design of new drugs against sleeping sickness.Sleeping sickness is considered by the World Health Organization to be one of the major tropical infectious diseases, and has been included in the United Nations Development Programme/World Bank/World Health Organization Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. The causative agent of sleeping sickness is a unicellular protozoan, Trypanosoma brucei, which is transmitted by the tsetse fly. When present in the bloodstream of the human host, the single mitochondrion of trypanosomes is inactive, and these protozoa depend entirely on glycolysis for survival. In trypanosomes, unlike other organisms, an essential part of glycolysis takes place in a peroxisome-like organelle, the glycosome (Opperdoes and Borst, 1977), in which nine of the glycolytic enzymes are sequestered (Table 1).The glycolytic enzymes can be purified by chromatographic techniques (Misset et al., 1986). Since interference with glycolysis will rapidly kill the parasites (Clarkson and Brohn, 1976;Fairlamb et al., 1977), the nine glycolytic enzymes have been selected as a target for protein-structure-based drug design.There are three general areas of possible interference with the proper functioning of the glycosomal enzymes in the trypanosome:  • prevention of entry into the glycosome, since these enzymes are synthesized in the cytosol and subsequently imported into the glycosomes (Hart et al., 1987) • prevention of assembly into multimers, since eight of the nine glycolytic enzymes function as multimers (Table 1) • inhibition of catalytic activity by blocking the active site Due to space limitations, we will refrain from discussing interference with the assembly of glycolytic enzymes in this short communication. To interfere with import of glycolytic enzymes into the glycosome, the topogenic signal for import must be known. The following are two hypotheses about this.(1) Glycosomal enzymes from T. brucei contain clusters of positive charges at their surface, or `hot spots', which are missing in the mammalian enzymes. These hot spots have been proposed to be the import signal into the glycosome (Wierenga et al., 1987b). Compounds designed as potential hot spot ligands were found to specifically inhibit the trypanosomal enzymes (Opperdoes et al., 1989), and crystallographic studies of glycosomal triosephosphate isomerase complexed with these compounds have been initiated to shed light on the mechanism of inhibition.(2) Recent sequence comparison studies have revealed the existence of a short fragment with significant sequence similarity in both the C-terminal extension of glycosomal phosphoglycerate kinase (gPGK) (Osinga et al., 1985) and in the N-terminal extension of glycosomal glucosephosphate isomerase (gPGI) (Marchand et al., 1989) (Table 2). Such a peptide sequence could be the signal that directs these two proteins to their biological compartment, the glycosome. This attractive hypothesis is supported by the presence of a C-terminal extension in phosphoglycerate kinase from the trypanosome-related Crithidia fasciculata, which contains a similar peptide sequence (Swinkels et al., 1988).The testing of these hypotheses will require an ingenious experimental set-up to overcome the problems created by the fragility of purified glycosomes.The third area of interference with trypanosomal glycolytic enzymes is selective inhibition of the catalytic mechanism. Crystallization of trypanosomal enzymes is quite difficult owing to the small amounts of material available. So far, our crystallization experiments have yielded useful crystals for three of the nine  (Read et al., 1987). For crystal form II, synchrotron radiation was essential to obtain data to 2.82 Å resolution. With these data, Read et al. (unpublished results) were able to solve the gGAPDH structure using the molecular replacement method (Rossman, 1972), with the structure of the similar enzyme from Bacillus stearothermophilus (Skarzynski et al., 1987) as a search model. The asymmetric unit of this crystal form contains six gGAPDH monomers, or 1.5 GAPDH tetramers having a total molecular weight of approximately 220 kilodaltons. While refinement of this crystal form is in progress, we are exploring possibilities of obtaining data for gGAPDH inhibitor complexes. In particular, we are using the very rapid Laue data collection method (Campbell et al., 1987) (in collaboration with Dr. J. Hadju, University of Oxford) to collect data for the form I GAPDH crystals. We were able to collect a partial 3.2 Å resolution data set using four film packs, and we are currently attempting to solve this gGAPDH structure using the molecular replacement method.Even in the absence of a fully refined structure, the amino acid sequence obtained by Michels et al. (1986) allowed us to make general statements concerning the type of molecules that may selectively inhibit the glycosomal enzyme. Comparison of the NAD binding site in GAPDH, using both human and T. brucei sequences (Tso et al., 1985;Michels et al., 1986), revealed that most residues in the neighbourhood of NAD are identical, except near the adenine binding pocket (Table 3). Thus, interesting candidates for the development of drugs targeted against gGAPDH would be NAD analogues suitably modified at the level of the adenine moiety.  (Wierenga et al., 1984). A total of 600 m gof protein were required to establish crystallization conditions and to solve the structure to 2.4 Å resolution (Wierenga et al., 1987a). Subsequently, 1.83 Å resolution data were collected using synchrotron radiation. The native gTIM structure is nearing the completion of its refinement, and has an R-factor of 19.3% for data between 6.0 and 1.83 Å resolution. The model comprises 286 water molecules, plus a sulphate ion bound in the active site of subunit 2. Following the development of a procedure to transfer crystals from the ammonium sulphate mother liquor to solutions of polyethylene glycol (Schreuder et al., 1988), inhibitor binding studies could be initiated. X-ray data for three inhibitors (D-glycerol-3-phosphate, D-3-phosphoglycerate and 3phosphopropionate) complexed with gTIM are now available. From these studies, a detailed picture of the binding mode of the inhibitors is emerging: each of these inhibitors contains a phosphate group that binds at the sulphate ion binding site, and recognition of the inhibitor by gTIM involves several hydrogen bonds with the enzyme (Figure 2). Also, the gTIM loop comprising residues 170 to 180 partially blocks the entrance of the active site cavity.With our current knowledge we are now able to use the gTIM structure to design inhibitors that extend out of the active site region. These inhibitors may allow us to bridge the active site with those surface residues that differ between mammalian and trypanosomal TIM (Table 4).This new generation of TIM inhibitors will be one step further in the path leading to new anti-trypanosomal drugs, since they should be more specific for the parasite enzyme. Drug resistance in African trypanosomes is only one of many possible explanations for the failure of treatment with trypanocides in the field. Even if drugs are accurately administered, it has yet to be shown whether the parasites have developed a degree of resistance to the drugs or whether the apparent `resistance' is due to other factors, such as the inaccessibility of trypanosomes in host tissues to trypanocidal drug concentrations. Detailed laboratory investigations on drug resistance have been largely restricted to experiments using mice. To maintain drug-resistant trypanosomes in vitro would facilitate detailed studies on the mechanisms of such resistance in the parasites. However, a number of difficulties and questions such as the isolation and initiation of in vitro cultures from mammalian hosts, the effect of in vitro cultivation on the stability of drug resistance, and the expression of drug resistance in vitro have to be solved before in vitro techniques can be used to study drug resistance in African trypanosomes.The low parasitaemias that usually occur in the natural host have been found insufficient to initiate Trypanosoma brucei brucei bloodstream-form cultures. Successful initiation of in vitro cultures required a minimum inoculum of 2 × 10 3 -1 × 10 5 trypanosomes/ml, separating parasites from mouse blood during a rising parasitaemia (Hirumi et al., 1977;Baltz et al., 1985). A novel technique for the successful initiation of bloodstream-form cultures has been applied by direct inoculation of a drop of infected blood into feeder-layer-containing culture wells (Zweygarth et al., 1989). Briefly, blood samples were aspirated with a 5 or 10 µl Eppendorf pipette and each was transferred into a well of a culture plate containing feeder-layer cells. The blood was deposited in a corner at the bottom of the wells. This technique has been improved so that it was possible to isolate T. b. brucei from pigs and cattle with low parasitaemias, undetectable in wet blood films, using feeder-layer cell cultures and axenic conditions (Zweygarth and Kaminsky, in press). After successful initiation of cultures, trypanosome populations were continuously propagated in vitro in a cell-free system (Kaminsky and Zweygarth, 1989b).Adaptation of any parasite to in vitro culture conditions is associated with a selection for a variety of parameters such as fast growth. Therefore, we investigated whether in vitro cultivation of trypanosomes changed their sensitivity to drugs. The susceptibility of a multidrug-resistant T. b. brucei stock was examined before and after in vitro propagation as bloodstream forms in the absence of any drug, and after full cyclical development in vitro.Therewasno significant change in susceptibility to diminazene aceturate, quinapyramine sulphate, suramin, Mel B or isometamidium chloride following in vitro maintenance (Kaminsky and Zweygarth 1989a; illustrated in Figure 1). These observations confirm earlier results showing that transmission of trypanosomes through tsetse flies did not change their drug sensitivity pattern (Gray and Roberts, 1971;Schonefeld et al., 1987).The next step towards the development of in vitro assays for the identification and quantification of drug resistance in trypanosomes was to clarify whether drug resistance can be demonstrated in vitro. T. brucei stocks with different drug susceptibilities to diminazene aceturate and isometamidium chloride were adapted to in vitro culture conditions. The effect of the drugs on the trypanosomes was investigated in vitro and compared with the drug susceptibilities in mice. Procyclic forms are not usually exposed to trypanocides; for in vitro drug testing, they nevertheless have several advantages over bloodstream forms: easy maintenance (no incubator and no CO 2 -enriched atmosphere required) and the possibility of direct isolation from tsetse flies. When procyclic forms were incubated for 48 hours at 27 °C with various concentrations of isometamidium chloride, the growth of trypanosomes was inhibited. The growth of the drug-resistant T. b. brucei stock CP 547 was less inhibited by isometamidium than that of susceptible stocks. However, growth of the resistant stock CP 2469 and clone 2469/cl 1 was inhibited in the same manner as that of susceptible stocks. Thus, procyclic forms do not seem to be suitable for the differentiation of drug-susceptible from drug-resistant trypanosomes.Growth inhibition, however, is a suitable parameter to distinguish between susceptible and resistant trypanosomes when the assay is applied on bloodstream trypomastigotes. Differences in diminazene aceturate-induced growth inhibition after incubation for 24 hours with various concentrations of drug can be demonstrated graphically (Figure 2). In the 24-hour growth inhibition, there were only minor differences in EC 50 values for isometamidium chloride. However, concentrations of 0.001-0.1 µg/ml inhibited susceptible and, to a lesser degree, drug-resistant stocks (CP 547 and CP 2469). Thus, differences in growth inhibition due to isometamidium occurred when trypanosomes were incubated with drug concentrations (0.001-0.05 µg/ml) below the EC 50 values (Kaminsky et al., 1989).T. b. brucei stocks that were propagated in vitro as bloodstream forms in the presence of drugs for a period of 10 days differed greatly in their viability. In contrast to susceptible trypanosomes, the drug-resistant stocks CP 547 and CP 2469 were propagated without loss of viability in the presence of 0.01 µg/ml diminazene aceturate or 0.0001-0.001 µg/ml isometamidium chloride. This long-term viability assay offers an alternative to the 24-hour growth inhibition assay, for it does not necessarily require feeder-layer-free culture conditions. However, if trypanosome isolates have been adapted to cell-free cultures, the 24-hour growth inhibition assay using bloodstream forms appears to be a rapid and reliable test to distinguish between drug-resistant and drug-susceptible T. b. brucei stocks (Kaminsky et al., 1989). The family Trypanosomatidae includes a number of parasitic haemoflagellates pathogenic to man and animals. Each of these protozoa has a single mitochondrion, which contains a unique type of DNA called kinetoplast DNA (kDNA; see Simpson [1987] and Ryan et al. [1988] for reviews on kDNA). This DNA is in the form of a single network of thousands of topologically interlocked DNA circles, a structure unique in nature.The complex nature of kDNA structure and replication creates an unusually high demand for topoisomerase activity. The topoisomerases are enzymes that can supercoil, relax, catenate, decatenate, knot and unknot circular DNA molecules (Maxwell and Gellert, 1986). Such enzymes undoubtedly function at several steps in the minicircle replication process, probably play an important role in maxicircle replication, and are likely to be involved in the division of double-size networks. In addition to these enzymatic functions, type II topoisomerases in the mitochondria of trypanosomes might have a structural role (analogous to the topoisomerase in the scaffold of mammalian nuclei [Earnshaw et al., 1985]), perhaps tethering replicating free circles to the network or constraining the network to one region of the mitochondrion. A type II topoisomerase has been purified from Crithidia fasciculata, a related kinetoplastid organism. On the basis of immunofluorescence microscopy, this enzyme localizes to two distinct sites at the periphery of the kDNA network (Melendy et al., 1988).In bacteria and higher eukaryotes, the function and the mechanisms by which topoisomerases act have been greatly clarified by inhibitor studies (Drlica and Franco, 1988). Certain antibacterial agents (Gellert et al., 1977) and a variety of intercalative and non-intercalative antitumour agents (Chen et al., 1984;Tewey et al., 1984a) stabilize a `cleavable complex' between the type II topoisomerase and its DNA substrate; a covalent protein-DNA adduct is trapped upon denaturation of the complex with sodium dodecylsulphate.To explore for a drug-sensitive mitochondrial type II topoisomerase in Trypanosoma equiperdum, freshly harvested trypanosomes in tissue culture medium were exposed to VP16-213 (for experimental details see Shapiro et al., 1989), a potent and highly specific inhibitor of eukaryotic nuclear type II topoisomerases (Chen et al., 1984). The DNA was purified and resolved by agarose-gel electrophoresis. To examine minicircle DNA, a Southern blot was probed with 32 P-labelled T. equiperdum minicircle DNA. Figure 1a, lane 1, depicts the normal distribution of DNA among the major components of the free minicircle pool (networks do not enter the gel); the predominant free forms are nicked or uniquely gapped circles (II), linearized circles (III) and covalently closed circles (I). VP16-213 perturbed this distribution, causing an increase in the mass of the free minicircle DNA population, most strikingly in the linearized form (Figure 1a, lane 7). These drug-induced linearized minicircles are protein-linked. If proteinase K treatment was omitted, the aqueous phase after phenol extraction contained essentially no linear forms (data not shown). Exonuclease treatment demonstrated that the protein trapped from the mitochondria of VP16-213treated cells is linked to both 5' ends of the linearized minicircles (data not shown).Live trypanosomes were exposed to various compounds known to affect type II topoisomerases in other systems. These compounds included inhibitors of gyrase (oxolinic and nalidixic acids) (Gellert et al., 1977), agents active against eukaryotic type II topoisomerases (the epipodophyllotoxins, 2-methyl-9-hydroxyellipticine, 4'-[9-acridinylamino]-methanesulphon-m-anisidine and acriflavine) (Chen et al., 1984;Riou et al., 1986) and novobiocin (which competes with ATP for binding to both prokaryotic and eukaryotic type II topoisomerases, but does not stabilize cleavable complexes [Hsieh and Brutlag, 1980]). The compounds were tested at concentrations reported to be effective against intact cells in culture or in animals. Like VP16-213 (Figure 1a, lane 7), the other inhibitors of eukaryotic type II topoisomerases promoted minicircle DNA-protein complex formation (Figure 1a, lanes 3 to 6). However, novobiocin or compounds known to generate DNA-protein complexes with gyrase (nalidixic and oxolinic acids) (Figure 1a, lane 2, and data not shown) did not cause significant cleavage of T. equiperdum minicircles. Recent studies have shown that some anti-trypanosomal drugs (including Berenil ® , Samorin ® , ethidium bromide and pentamidine), at concentrations of 10 µM or less, promote minicircle linearization. This suggests that the mitochondrial topoisomerases may be a target for these drugs.The sites of minicircle cleavage were mapped by digesting DNA samples from control or drug-treated cells with Bgl II (an enzyme that cuts minicircles once at nucleotide 345; see map, Figure 2). The linearized minicircles naturally Panel a. Lane 1: DNA from control cells, lane 2: from cells treated with nalidixic acid (400 m M), lane 3: from cells treated with acriflavine (50 m M), lane 4: from cells treated with 2-methyl-9-hydroxyellipticine (5 m M), lane 5: from cells treated with 4'-(9-acridinylamino)-methanesulphon-m-anisidine (6 m M), lane 6: from cells treated with VM-26 (100 m M), lane 7: from cells treated with VP16-213 (100 m M). Samples from cells treated with dimethyl sulphoxide or with drug solvent were identical to control DNA (lane 1).Panelb.Lanes1to7:BglII digests of DNA as described in Panel a (the autoradiograph was exposed for 3 hours). Lane 8: same as lane 1 except autoradiograph was exposed for 16 hours. Size markers are indicated. present in samples not treated with drug create a distinct pattern of bands (Figure 1b, lane 8; these bands are not detectable in the shorter exposure shown in lane 1). More complex patterns are generated by drug treatment (Figure 1b, lanes 3 to 7). As anticipated, digests of DNA from cells treated with compounds that do not generate linearized minicircles (nalidixic acid, Figure 1b, lane 2, and longer exposures) display only the natural ' cleavage pattern like that in lane 8. As has been reported for other cell types, and with purified nuclear type II topoisomerases in vitro, drugs of different chemical classes generate strikingly different cleavage patterns (Tewey et al., 1984b). Interestingly, within the resolution of agarose-gel electrophoresis, drugs appear to enhance the `natural' cut sites, perhaps by stabilizing type II topoisomerase at these preferred locations. Figure 2 is a map of naturally occurring and VP16-213-induced cleavage sites in T. equiperdum minicircles.Treatment of intact T. equiperdum with compounds known to be active against mammalian type II topoisomerases results in DNA cleavage after sodium dodecylsulphate lysis. Because minicircle DNA is present in the cleaved complex, the type II topoisomerase that has been trapped must be mitochondrial in origin. As is characteristic of the type II topoisomerase-DNA complexes that have been evaluated, the enzyme from T. equiperdum mitochondria binds to both 5 ends of the substrate DNA. Gyrase inhibitors, even at concentrations 25-times greater than those effective against Escherichia coli (Wolfson and Hooper, 1985), do not promote minicircle linearization or give evidence of type II topoisomerase inhibition. In terms of inhibitor susceptibility, the mitochondrial type II topoisomerase of T. equiperdum appears to resemble most closely the type II topoisomerase in the nuclei of higher eukaryotes, rather than gyrase, the type II topoisomerase of prokaryotes.Interference with mitochondrial type II topoisomerase activity can explain the well-documented effects of some of the anti-trypanosomal drugs on kDNA. For instance, a high proportion of trypanosomes that survive acriflavine treatment become `dyskinetoplastic'. Dyskinetoplastic cells retain mitochondrial membranes (Trager and Rudzinska, 1964), but the characteristic densely staining kDNA disc is absent on light or electron microscopy, and no DNA homologous to minicircle or maxicircle sequences is detectable (Riou and Saucier, 1979). Acriflavine promotes minicircle DNA/type II topoisomerase complexes (Figure 1a, lane 3), and is an inhibitor of isolated topoisomerase catalytic activity (Riou et al., 1986). It therefore seems likely that the genesis of dyskinetoplastic trypanosomes by acriflavine is mediated, at least in part, by inhibition of mitochondrial type II topoisomerase activity. As another example, ethidium bromide and the diamidines interfere at a very early stage, and preferentially, with the structure and replication of kinetoplast, rather than nuclear, DNA (Newton, 1974). The basis for this selectivity may reside in selective stabilization of minicircle DNA/mitochondrial type II topoisomerase complexes.The type II topoisomerase inhibitors will undoubtedly prove important in understanding the role of type II topoisomerases in trypanosomes and may also provide a much needed new approach to anti-trypanosomal chemotherapy. Chloroquine is an exceedingly useful antimalarial because it is relatively safe for children and pregnant women (Schlesinger et al., 1988). It is effective against all strains of Plasmodium vivax, P. ovale and P. malariae, and against many strains of P. falciparum (Krogstad and Schlesinger, 1987;Schlesinger et al., 1988). However, the value of chloroquine as an antimalarial has been compromised by the increasing prevalence of chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum. These strains are now prevalent in South America, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (Krogstad et al., 1988a). In this review, we examine the action of chloroquine against susceptible P. falciparum, chloroquine resistance in P. falciparum and the genetic basis of chloroquine resistance.Chloroquine is a diprotic weak base that raises the pH of acid intracellular vesicles in mammalian cells, as indicated by its two pK values (8.3 and 10.2) (Roos and Boron, 1981;Krogstad and Schlesinger, 1986a). Although Homewood et al. (1972) first postulated that chloroquine might act against plasmodia by raising vesicle pH, it has not been possible to test this hypothesis until recently.Using hypotonic shock, we labelled unparasitized red cells with fluorescein isothiocyanate linked to dextran, resealed these cells by restoring the osmolality to normal, and infected them with synchronous cultures of P. falciparum (Krogstad et al., 1985). The parasites grew at the same rate as synchronous cultures in normal red cells and had the same susceptibility (or resistance) to chloroquine in vitro. After incubation with these red cells, parasites containing vesicles labelled with fluorescein isothiocyanate/dextran were examined by spectrofluorimetry. This revealed that the parasite vesicle has a MgATP-dependent proton pump similar to that of mammalian acid vesicles. Spectrofluorimetry has also shown that the concentrations of chloroquine that inhibit parasite growth raise parasite vesicle pH within 3-5 minutes (Krogstad et al., 1985). These results suggest that chloroquine acts against the parasite by raising intravesicular pH. However, they do not establish whether the ability of chloroquine to raise parasite vesicle pH can be explained entirely by its properties as a diprotic weak base. To address this question, we have performed two types of experiments: measurements of parasite vesicle buffering capacity and measurements of 3 H-chloroquine uptake.The measurements of vesicle buffering capacity indicate that parasite and mammalian acid vesicles buffer a base equally well in the form of NH 4 Cl (a typical weak base). However, with chloroquine, the parasite vesicle buffers the base load 600-to 800-fold less well than the mammalian vesicle (Krogstad and Schlesinger, 1986b). Potential explanations for this apparent discrepancy include a chloroquine-concentrating mechanism that permits the parasite vesicle to concentrate more chloroquine than predicted by its properties as a diprotic weak base. We have tested this hypothesis by comparing the uptake of 3 H-chloroquine by parasite and mammalian vesicles with that predicted (by the pKs of chloroquine and the pH of the medium and the vesicle interior) (Roos and Boron, 1981;Krogstad and Schlesinger, 1986a). These experiments revealed a 600-to 800-fold greater concentration of chloroquine by the parasite than predicted (Table 1). Taken together, these observations suggest that the parasite vesicle has a chloroquine-concentrating mechanism that is absent from the mammalian vesicle, which accounts for its relative inability to buffer a base load in the form of chloroquine, and thus for the selective action of chloroquine against the parasite (including its low toxicity for the mammalian host). Recent studies performed in our laboratory indicate that subcellular preparations of membrane vesicles obtained from parasitized red cells concentrate chloroquine with an apparent K m of 21 µM for ATP and with an apparent V max of 2.3 pmols/mg protein/hour. These results indicate that it is possible to study the process of chloroquine accumulation by P. falciparum in a cell-free system.Studies by Fitch (1970) and others have shown that chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum accumulate less chloroquine than susceptible P. falciparum. However, the basis for this difference in chloroquine accumulation has been unclear. Our recent studies have shown that the resistant parasite has an efflux mecha- nism by which it releases chloroquine 40-to 50-fold more rapidly than the susceptible parasite (initial chloroquine efflux half-times of 2 versus 75-150 minutes) (Krogstad et al., 1987(Krogstad et al., , 1988a)). We believe that the process of chloroquine efflux is energy-dependent because it is inhibited by the removal of glucose or by the addition of vanadate (a broad-spectrum inhibitor of ATPases). In the parasite, the process of chloroquine accumulation is also energy-dependent, consistent with a need for ATP to run the MgATP-dependent proton pump that acidifies the parasite vesicle (Krogstad et al., 1985).The phenomena of chloroquine efflux and resistance in P. falciparum are remarkably similar to multidrug resistance (MDR) in mammalian cells (Fojo et al., 1985). Indeed, MDR mammalian cells (Chinese hamster ovary cells) handle chloroquine similarly to the resistant parasite, although the magnitude of the difference in the efflux rate is smaller (3-to 4-fold, rather than 40-to 50-fold). Chloroquine efflux is energy-dependent in both systems and is inhibited by several drugs with calcium channel-blocking activity (verapamil, diltiazem and TMB-8) (Krogstad et al., 1987). Indeed these agents and anti-cancer drugs (vinblastine and daunomycin) can reverse chloroquine resistance in both P. falciparum (Martin et al., 1987) and mammalian cells in vitro. However, none have yet been shown to be curative for resistant P. falciparum in vivo (Bitonti et al., 1989).The genetic basis of chloroquine resistance in P. falciparum is unclear. To address this question, a cross was performed recently between chloroquine-susceptible and chloroquine-resistant clones of P. falciparum. Linkage analysis and chromosome mapping were used to analyse the unique progeny derived from this cross, as in previous studies of pyrimethamine resistance (Peterson et al., 1988;Wellems, 1988). These studies revealed no evidence of linkage between mdr-like genes in the parasite and chloroquine resistance. Although amplification of mdr-like genes in resistant P. falciparum has been reported by other investigators (Wilson et al., 1989;Foote et al., 1989), it occurred in both susceptible and resistant clones derived from the aforementioned cross and was absent from four of the eight resistant clones. For this reason, we believe that a rapid diagnostic test to detect chloroquine resistance in P. falciparum cannot be based on a mdr or mdr-like probe at this time. Our preliminary studies with a test based on 3 H-chloroquine accumulation suggest that such a test can be performed within 2-3 hours and has a sensitivity to 0.1% parasitaemia (4 × 10 3 parasites per µl of blood).The action of chloroquine on P. falciparum is consistent with its ability to raise parasite vesicle pH. Several other antimalarials that inhibit parasite growth in vitro (quinine and mefloquine) also raise vesicle pH at the same concentrations. Chloroquine resistance results from an efflux mechanism, which is energy-dependent and remarkably similar to multidrug resistance in mammalian cells. Both resistances are inhibited or reversed by several calcium-channel blockers and by anti-cancer agents such as vinblastine.The antimalarial mechanisms of chloroquine and qinghaosu: relevance for trypanosomiasis S.R. Meshnick City College of New York 138th Street and Convent Avenue New York, New York 10031, USA Attempts to develop synthetic antimalarials began with Paul Ehrlich in the late 19th century. Chloroquine was developed during the Second World War and soon became the standard prophylactic and therapeutic agent. Chloroquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum, however, appeared and have now become quite common. This spurred attempts to develop other antimalarial agents, including qinghaosu (artemisinin), isolated from Artemisia annua, an ancient Chinese herbal remedy (for review, see Peters, 1987).We have been studying the mechanisms of action of both qinghaosu and chloroquine. We believe that qinghaosu acts via the generation of activated oxygen, and that chloroquine acts as a DNA intercalating agent. Since African trypanosomes are known to be sensitive to activated oxygen generators and to intercalators, studies on these antimalarials may serve as models for similar studies on anti-trypanosomal drugs. QINGHAOSU Activated oxygen species, including superoxide (O 2 -), hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and hydroxyl radicals (HO . ), are highly toxic substances that may mediate the toxic effects of a variety of pharmacological agents and of leukocytes. Since most aerobic cells normally encounter low levels of activated oxygen, they are equipped with a variety of defensive systems (Fridovich, 1986). These oxidant defences include superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase (Fridovich, 1986), and in trypanosomes, trypanothione peroxidase (Henderson et al., 1987). African trypanosomes and plasmodia are both exquisitely sensitive to activated oxygen. A variety of activated oxygen generators such as haemin (Meshnick et al., 1977), haematoporphyrin D (Meshnick et al., 1978a), menadione (Meshnick et al., 1978b) and quinone imines (Grady et al., 1984) have been shown to have anti-trypanosomal activity in vitro and/or in vivo. Other anti-trypanosomal agents, such as the arsenicals (Fairlamb et al., 1989) and certain bis-catechols (Meshnick et al., 1985), may act by inhibiting the oxidant defences of trypanosomes, namely, trypanothione and superoxide dismutase, respectively.Qinghaosu contains a dioxygen bridge that has been shown to be essential for its antimalarial activity. (The analogue deoxyqinghaosu, which has only a single oxygen bridge, has been shown to be inactive [Brossi et al., 1988]). Earlier work by Krunkai and Yuthavong (1987), showing that free radical scavengers antagonize qinghaosu and that oxidants potentiate it, suggested the participation of activated oxygen in the mechanism of its antimalarial activity.Our laboratory, in collaboration with laboratories at Oakland Children's Hospital and at Peking Union Medical Center, has accumulated several lines of evidence that qinghaosu is an oxidant antimalarial drug.First, qinghaosu acts as a classical oxidant in uninfected erythrocytes. Treatment of red cells with qinghaosu, but not deoxyqinghaosu, led to reductions in cell deformability that are characteristic of oxidant effects, and to an increased susceptibility to cumene hydroperoxide. Furthermore, qinghaosu but not deoxyqinghaosu caused reductions in reduced glutathione levels and increases in methaemoglobin levels, which are also characteristic of oxidant effects. These effects were greater in certain oxidant-sensitive red cells such as those containing haemoglobin AE or EE (Scott et al., 1989).Second, treatment of infected and uninfected erythrocytes with artesunate, a water-soluble derivative of qinghaosu, led to the production of thiobarbituricacid-reacting substances, which are a characteristic end-product of lipid peroxidation caused by the reaction of activated oxygen and unsaturated fatty acids. More thiobarbituric-acid-reacting substances were produced in red cells infected with plasmodia than in uninfected red cells (Meshnick et al., 1989).Third, ascorbic acid and reduced glutathione, two well-known antioxidants, antagonized the antimalarial effects of qinghaosu in vitro (Meshnick et al., 1989).The mechanism of action of chloroquine remains controversial. During the 1970s and 1980s, most studies suggested that chloroquine exerted its antimalarial effect by binding to haemin or by alkalinizing lysosomes (for reviews, see Fitch et al., 1984;Krogstad and Schlesinger, 1987). However, a great deal of data had accumulated in the 1950s and 1960s indicating that chloroquine acts via intercalation into DNA (for review, see Yielding et al., 1971).The sensitivity of trypanosomes to intercalators is well known. Indeed, the classic intercalator, ethidium bromide, was first developed as an anti-trypanosomal agent. Acriflavine is also an intercalator with well-known anti-trypanosomal activity (for review, see Meshnick, 1989).Our laboratory has shown that chloroquine binds to DNA in a salt-dependent manner. The K d varies from 27 µM to 2.6 mM, depending on the salt concentration. Unfortunately, the intranuclear concentration of chloroquine in treated malarial parasites is not known, but assuming it is 10-to 100-times more concentrated than the serum concentration, 0.03-1.0% of intranuclear binding sites may be occupied by chloroquine when a parasite is exposed to physiological concentrations (Kwakye-Berko and Meshnick, 1989).We have also now shown that binding of chloroquine to DNA may potentially affect DNA function. At concentrations as low as 20 µM, chloroquine prevents the formation of left-handed DNA helices (Z-DNA), a form of DNA believed to be important in gene activation.Both plasmodia and trypanosomes are sensitive to the toxic effects of intercalators and activated oxygen generators. Many of the techniques used to study the pharmacology of these drugs in malaria have not yet been applied to the study of anti-trypanosomal drugs. Such studies might aid in the development of new anti-trypanosomal agents.Department of Genetics University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois 60612, USASelection of mammalian cells for resistance to lipophilic cytotoxic drugs usually results in cross-resistance to many other drugs, which share little structural or functional similarity with the primary selective agent. The resulting cell lines are characterized by resistance to Vinca alkaloids, anthracyclines, epipodophyllotoxins, colchicine, taxol, puromycin, actinomycin D, trimetrexate, gramicidin D and some other compounds (Riordan and Ling, 1985). This phenomenon of multidrug resistance (MDR) is of particular significance in cancer chemotherapy, since it affects the response of tumour cells to some of the most commonly used anti-cancer agents. Multidrug resistance is associated with decreased intracellular accumulation of the drugs, due to increased energy-dependent drug efflux from MDR cells (Dano, 1973). In 1976 Juliano and Ling found that several MDR cell lines expressed an increased amount of a 170-kilodalton membrane glycoprotein, termed P-glycoprotein. The presence of P-glycoprotein(s) proved to be the most consistent marker of MDR cells, but the role of this protein in the phenotype of these cells remained unknown before molecular genetic analysis.In 1984 we found that two MDR Chinese hamster cell lines, independently selected with different drugs, contained commonly amplified DNA sequences (Roninson et al., 1984). These sequences included a transcribed gene, designated mdr, whose increased expression is specific to MDR cell lines (Gros et al., 1986c). Two genes related to the hamster mdr were detected in human DNA, but only one of these genes, called mdr1, was consistently expressed in different MDR human cell lines (Roninson et al., 1986). Gene transfer studies demonstrated that expression of the mdr1 gene was sufficient to produce the complete MDR phenotype in drug-sensitive cells (Gros et al., 1986a;Ueda et al., 1987). Furthermore, the phenomenon of preferential resistance to the selective agent, observed in some MDR cell lines, was shown to result from point mutations in the mdr1 gene, at least in some cases (Choi et al., 1988). The second human gene, mdr2, does not appear to provide resistance to lipophilic drugs upon transfer into drug-sensitive cells (Van der Bliek et al., 1988). In rodent cells, three mdr genes have been detected. Two of these genes appear to correspond to the human gene in their structure and ability to confer multidrug resistance; the third rodent gene corresponds to the human mdr2 (Ng et al., 1989).In an independent line of investigation, Riordan et al. (1985) have isolated cDNA (complementary DNA) clones of hamster P-glycoprotein. P-glycoprotein and mdr cDNA clones were found to cross-hybridize, indicating that P-glycoprotein was the product of the mdr genes (Ueda et al., 1986). Amino acid sequences of the human and rodent P-glycoproteins were determined by sequence analysis of mdr cDNA clones (Chen et al., 1986;Gerlach et al., 1986;Gros et al., 1986b). P-glycoprotein, encoded by the human mdr1 gene, is 1280 amino acids long and consists of two homologous halves (Chen et al., 1986). Each half of the protein includes a hydrophobic region with six predicted transmembrane segments and a relatively hydrophilic region, which contains consensus sequences for a nucleotide-binding site. The hydrophilic regions of P-glycoprotein share homology with a group of ATP-binding bacterial proteins, which include energy-coupling subunits of multicomponent periplasmic transport systems for the uptake of various metabolites. The highest levels of homology to P-glycoprotein are found in efflux-associated bacterial proteins hlyB and ndvA (Higgins et al., 1986;Stanfield et al., 1988). Homology with bacterial transport proteins and the presence of potential channel-forming membrane-spanning segments suggest that P-glycoprotein functions as an active efflux pump, responsible for the removal of drugs from MDR cells. The hypothesized efflux pump function of P-glycoprotein has received indirect confirmation from biochemical studies, in which P-glycoprotein was shown to bind drugs and to hydrolyze ATP in vitro (Cornwell et al., 1986;Hamada and Tsuruo, 1988). The role of nucleotide-binding sites in P-glycoprotein function was demonstrated by site-directed mutagenesis of human mdr1 cDNA. Both nucleotide-binding sites were found to be required for normal function of P-glycoprotein (B. Morse and I.B. Roninson, unpublished data).Analysis of mdr/P-glycoprotein expression in normal human tissues revealed relatively high levels of expression in the adrenal cortex, on the lumenal surfaces of the kidney, liver, colon, jejunum and pancreas, in capillary endothelial cells of the brain and testes, and in placental trophoblasts (Thiebaut et al., 1987;Sugawara et al., 1988;Cordon-Cardo et al., 1989). These expression patterns suggest that P-glycoprotein-mediated membrane transport may be involved in a variety of physiological processes. Such processes might include removal of potentially cytotoxic natural compounds present in the diet, maintenance of blood-tissue barriers, regulation of metabolite exchange between mother and foetus and transport of steroid hormones in the adrenal gland. In clinical samples of human tumours, high P-glycoprotein expression has been observed in many untreated tumours, which are known to be non-responsive to chemotherapy, as well as in treated tumours, where P-glycoprotein expression was often found to increase after treatment (Goldstein et al., 1989).Resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to chloroquine and other aminoquinolines was found to be associated with increased drug efflux (Krogstad et al., 1987). This efflux was reversible by verapamil, a drug known to reverse multidrug resistance in mammalian cells, suggesting that a similar mechanism may be responsible for chloroquine resistance (Martin et al., 1987). Recently, two mdr-like genes were isolated from the genome of P. falciparum (Foote et al., 1989;Wilson et al., 1989). The complete sequence determined for one of these genes showed identical structural organization and strong homology with mammalian P-glycoproteins (Foote et al., 1989). This gene was amplified in two out of five chloroquine-resistant field isolates of P. falciparum (Foote et al., 1989) and in one mefloquine-selected strain (Wilson et al., 1989). Gene amplification in these cases was accompanied by increased transcription of mdr. It remains to be seen if chloroquine resistance in the non-amplified isolates might be associated with increased transcription or structural changes in the mdr genes. Thus, P-glycoprotein-mediated active efflux appears to be a general mechanism for drug resistance in both protozoa and metazoa.Development of a molecular diagnostic test for multidrug resistance in cancer, based on detection of mdr1 messenger RNA (mRNA) or protein expression, represents the most immediate clinical application of the studies described above. More ambitious and long-term directions of clinical research involve the development of novel therapeutic strategies for prevention or reversal of multidrug resistance in cancer cells, and possibly also of drug resistance in parasites. One actively pursued strategy involves the use of chemical agents that inhibit P-glycoprotein function. Most of the known multidrug-resistance reversing agents appear to function as competitive inhibitors of drug binding and/or transport by P-glycoprotein (Akiyama et al., 1988). Initial clinical trials using P-glycoprotein inhibitors have been reported (Dalton et al., 1989), and the development of improved P-glycoprotein inhibitors is under way. Other approaches involve inhibition of P-glycoprotein function or selective destruction of MDR cells using monoclonal antibodies against P-glycoprotein (Hamada and Tsuruo, 1986;FitzGerald et al., 1987), and using modified antisense oligonucleotides complementary to mdr1 mRNA in an attempt to selectively inhibit mdr1 gene expression. Another potential therapeutic approach is based on introducing a constitutively expressed mdr1 gene into normal bone marrow cells of a patient prior to chemotherapy, with the aim of reducing bone marrow toxicity of lipophilic chemotherapeutic drugs.Multidrug resistance and gene amplification in cultured Leishmania: relevance to current and prospective chemotherapy S.M. Beverley Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Harvard Medical School 250 Longwood Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA At the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the Harvard Medical School, we have been investigating the occurrence, biochemical mechanisms, and genetic basis of drug resistance in laboratory stocks of the human parasite Leishmania major. We have focused primarily on drugs and their gene targets as model systems for these processes, including resistance to the antifolate methotrexate (MTX). The cellular target of MTX is the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS), an essential enzyme for nucleotide biosynthesis. MTX constitutes a model drug in the sense that MTX is far more toxic to humans than to Leishmania (Peixoto and Beverley, 1987). However, the success in designing anti-DHFR agents in other organisms such as malaria and bacteria and the extensive amino acid sequence divergence between L. major and human enzymes (Beverley et al., 1986) suggest that drugs directed against the leishmanial DHFR will be feasible (Sirawaraporn et al., 1988). Our studies of MTX resistance lead to the identification of the amplified DHFR-TS structural gene, showing that, somewhat paradoxically, studies of resistance can lead towards improved chemotherapy (even when clinical resistance is not a problem).There are at least three mechanisms by which resistance to MTX occurs in Leishmania (reviewed by Beverley et al., 1988):• amplification of the DHFR-TS gene, encoded on a segment of DNA termed the R region • decreased cellular MTX accumulation • amplification of a region of DNA termed the H region, which is completely distinct from the R region We have shown that these three mutations can occur independently or in combination in the same cell, indicating that the parasite has diverse mechanisms it can marshall to survive chemotherapeutic attack (Ellenberger andBeverley, 1987, 1989). Amplified DNA such as R or H occurs generally as extrachromosomal circular DNA, which can be readily detected due to a high copy number or unusual mobility properties in conventional or pulsed-field electrophoresis gels (reviewed by Beverley et al., 1988). Gene amplification has provided a convenient method for directly identifying and then working with a resistance locus as the absence of methods for genetic manipulations of trypanosomatid parasites has proven a formidable problem until quite recently.The H region was first observed in cells that also exhibited DHFR-TS gene amplification, and we were uncertain whether this DNA could independently mediate MTX resistance or was a non-functional segment of DNA that had merely been non-specifically co-amplified (Beverley et al., 1984). However, recent data from several other laboratories as well as our own indicate that this DNA indeed mediates drug resistance.The first clue emerged when it was shown that certain unselected laboratory stocks of the lizard parasite L. tarentolae contained amplified DNA (Petrillo- Peixoto andBeverley, 1986, 1988;White et al., 1988), which proved to be the H-region homologue of this species similarly amplified as an extrachromosomal circular DNA. Not all lines of L. tarentolae carried this amplification, but all that did had a resistance to MTX that was twentyfold greater than that of the other lines. This indicated that H-region amplification could confer MTX resistance. However, we were puzzled why a lizard parasite had become resistant to MTX. Because MTX is not often used other than in cancer chemotherapy, it seemed unlikely that L. tarentolae would ever have been exposed to this agent.Concurrent with these studies our laboratory had been selecting L. major for resistance to numerous drugs, and two of these had developed gene amplification that turned out to be amplification of the H region (Ellenberger and Beverley, 1989). The three drugs that resulted in H amplification-MTX, primaquine (PQ, an 8-aminoquinoline whose target is unknown in Leishmania) and terbinafine (TB, an allylamine inhibitor of squalene epoxidase)-shared no obvious structural or pharmacological similarity. When a variety of lines were tested, it was found that all lines containing H-region amplification were highly cross-resistant to MTX and weakly cross-resistant to PQ and TB.This observation of multidrug resistance suggested to us that the L. tarentolae had actually developed H-region amplification in response to an agent other than MTX. This situation seemed similar to the emerging story of multidrug resistance in tumour cell lines, in that overexpression of the mammalian multidrug resistance gene (often due to amplification) had been shown to lead to resistance to a spectrum of drugs, with no obvious structural or functional similarity, by causing decreased drug accumulation (reviewed by Gottesman and Pastan, 1988).Accordingly, we characterized MTX and folate transport in L. major promastigotes and then asked whether H-region amplification mediated decreased MTX uptake. The answer was clearly negative because the H-region amplified PQ-and TB-resistant lines were completely normal in MTX influx, accumulation and efflux properties (Ellenberger and Beverley, 1989). Verapamil, an agent that reverses multidrug resistance associated with gene amplification, had no effect on the MTX resistance of the H-amplified lines. We went on to show that the PQ-and TB-resistant lines did not exhibit increased levels of MTX metabolism, due to increases in the activity of a MTX hydrolase activity present in wild-type lines or other metabolic alterations (Ellenberger et al., 1989). Current data suggest that the form of multidrug resistance mediated by the H region is novel and distinct from that seen in other systems.The story at this point took an unexpected twist. Lines of L. mexicana selected for resistance to arsenite also contained an amplification of the H region; correspondingly, this line was cross-resistant to MTX (Katakura and Chang, 1989;Detke et al., 1989). We then showed that the H-amplified L. major lines described above were cross-resistant to arsenite as well (Ellenberger and Beverley, 1989), thereby implicating the H-region amplification in resistance to an astonishingly diverse group of compounds. Since arsenite has certain chemical similarities with trivalent antimonials, we investigated whether the H-region amplification could be involved in mediating resistance to these compounds. Figure 1 shows the results of preliminary studies of the primaquine-resistant PQ-R30 line, which bears high levels of H-region amplification; this line is significantly resistant to potassium antimony tartrate. Berman (1982) showed that clinical isolates resistant to trivalent antimonials were also resistant to pentavalent antimonials. It will be interesting to test whether H-region amplification mediates resistance to pentavalent antimonials, especially in the amastigote stage, and whether isolates clinically unresponsive to antimonials show H-region amplification.The potential association of H-region amplification and antimonial resistance is simultaneously a disturbing and exciting finding. Since natural isolates of L. tarentolae can exhibit H-region amplification, it is possible that natural isolates of human leishmaniasis also possess this amplification. Moreover, our studies show that Leishmania possesses a remarkable ability to amplify the H region locus de novo in response to drug pressure. At a broader level, the overall ability of the parasites to develop resistance by a plethora of mechanisms to every compound we have tested suggests that concerns over drug resistance will be as much a part of the development of a practical anti-leishmanial chemotherapy as they are of malaria control today.Our findings are exciting in that very little is known about either the true cellular target(s) of antimonials or the mechanisms of antimonial resistance. Analysis of the large collection of H-region amplifications in different species has allowed us to genetically identify this DNA as a resistance locus. Characterization of the molecules and mechanism of resistance encoded by the H region should prove informative to questions concerning both resistance and drug targets. As genetic methods emerge and become more powerful in Leishmania, we should be able to extend these studies to the far larger class of drug-resistance mutations not mediated by gene amplification. Pyrimethamine binds to and inhibits the dihydrofolate reductase activity of the essential, bifunctional Plasmodium falciparum enzyme dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS) (Ferone et al., 1969;Garrett et al., 1984). We have been studying pyrimethamine-resistant (Pyr R ) parasite mutants with the intention of understanding the mechanism(s) by which resistance is achieved and to find ways to design a more effective antimalarial. To do this, we have isolated and examined Pyr R mutants (Banyal and Inselburg, 1986;Inselburg et al., 1987), and have also determined the nucleotide sequence of the P. falciparum DHFR-TS gene (Bzik et al., 1987). We and others have further shown that specific amino acid changes, which arise from DHFR gene mutations, are found in P. falciparum Pyr R mutants (Cowman et al., 1988;Inselburg et al., 1988;Peterson et al., 1988). In the study reported here, we further examined the nucleotide changes associated with pyrimethamine resistance and found that parasites with such alterations often contained demonstrable changes in the electrophoretic migration of the chromosome that carries the DHFR-TS gene.P. falciparum parasites Honduras 1 (Pyr R ), FCR3 (pyrimethamine sensitive [Pyr S ]) and FCR3 Pyr R mutants D4, D5, D6, D7 and D8 were studied (Inselburg, 1983;Banyal and Inselburg, 1986).Polymerase chain reaction. Oligonucleotides for primers were derived from the DHFR-TS sequence of Bzik et al. (1987). The location of primers are indicated in Figure 1. The specific primer sequences are presented elsewhere (Gu et al., submitted for publication). The genomic DNA was amplified in a thermocycler (Ericomp, USA) using Thermus aquaticus polymerase (Perkin-Elmer Cetus, USA) according to the manufacturers instructions.DNA sequencing. Sequencing of amplified DNA was by the dideoxy-termination method using the modified T7 DNA polymerase, Sequenase (U.S. Biochemicals), as described by Higuchi et al. (1988).Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. P. falciparum chromosomes were prepared in agarose blocks containing approximately 3 × 10 8 parasites per ml, as described elsewhere (Gu et al., submitted for publication), and separated using contour-clamped homogeneous electric-field electrophoresis (Chu et al., 1986;Gu et al., submitted for publication). A pulse time of 11 minutes, an electric field strength of 4 V/cm and a total running time of 149 hours were used for chromosome separations in this report. The gels were stained with ethidium bromide (0.5 m g/ml).Southern blotting and probing of chromosomes. Separated chromosomes were transferred to Zeta probe membrane (BioRad, USA) using the Southern blot transfer method after sequentially soaking the gel in 0.25 M HCl at room temperature for 30 minutes and in 0.4 M NaOH at 4°C overnight. The transfer was done using 0.4 M NaOH. The blotted DNA was probed with appropriate 32 P-labelled DHFR-TS DNA. The 32 P-labelled probes were labelled by the random priming method described by Feinburg and Vogelstein (1983).We have examined the DHFR sequences in the Pyr R Honduras 1 strain, in several isolates of the original FCR3 strain and in five Pyr R mutants of FCR3: FCR3 clones D4, D5, D6, D7 and D8 (Banyal and Inselburg, 1986). FCR3 clones D4, D5, D6 and D7 were cloned, at intervals, from a culture to which progressively higher concentrations of pyrimethamine were added. FCR3-D8 was isolated as a clone after treating the culture from which FCR3-D7 was isolated with the mutagen N-methyl-N-nitro-Né -nitrosoguanidine and then growing the survivors in a culture to which had been added a higher level of drug. The results of the sequence analyses of the parasites are shown in Table 1. Only those nucleotides and amino acids that are different from the FCR3 sequence are shown.The original isolate of FCR3-D8, which was obtained from two DNA clones, is also shown (Inselburg et al., 1988). It differed from FCR3 at amino acids #54 and #223. The recent DNA sequencing of FCR3-D4, D5, D6, D7 and D8, using DNA amplified by the polymerase chain reaction method, indicated that each mutant differed from FCR3 at only amino acid #223. The originally sequenced FCR3-D8 clones were resequenced using the polymerase chain reaction amplification method and again showed the original two amino acid differences. We concluded that the extended in vitro cultivation of FCR3-D8 cells without pyrimethamine led to the selection of the mutant without change at amino acid #54. The mutation at amino acid #54 had been reported to reduce DHFR activity in mouse cells by several hundredfold (Howell et al., 1986). We have found that the new FCR3-D8 culture, unlike the original isolate (Banyal and Inselburg, 1986), had a detectable level of DHFR activity consistent with there having been a reversion at amino acid #54.We previously showed that FCR3-D7 contained a gene duplication and overproduced a DHFR-TS enzyme that had a lower specific activity (Inselburg et al., 1987). Our sequence analysis indicated that the amino acid sequence change in the FCR3-D7 DHFR sequence cannot explain its higher level of resistance than that of FCR3-D4, D5 or D6 and therefore must be related to some other change(s).The Honduras 1 DHFR differed from that of FCR3 at two amino acids: #16 and #108.We have examined the chromosomes of FCR3, FCR3-D4, D5, D6, D7 and D8 and Honduras 1. The wild type DHFR-TS gene is on chromosome #4. We found detectable chromosome changes in only the smaller chromosomes of some of the Pyr R FCR3 and therefore have shown only those chromosome separations. It was noted that there was no longer a structure the size of the FCR3 chromosome GTA * (Val) AAT(Asn) GAT(Asp) TGT(Cys) ACC(Thr) TTT(Phe) Honduras 1 GCA(Ala) AAT(Asn) GAT(Asp) TGT(Cys) AAC(Asn) TTT(Phe) FCR3-D4-D8 GTA(Val) AAT(Asn) GAT(Asp) TGT(Cys) ACC(Thr) TCT(Ser) FCR3-D8 † GTA(Val) AAT(Asn) AAT(Asn) TGT(Cys) ACC(Thr) TCT(Ser)* Nucleotides encoding amino acid (Bzik et al., 1987). † These sequence data are the same as those reported previously (Inselburg et al., 1988). However, FCR3-D8 cells grown in the absence of pyrimethamine have been found eventually to lose the mutation affecting amino acid #54.#4 in FCR3-D7 and FCR3-D8 (Figure 2). In FCR3-D8, a second small chromosome was also seen. We then used a 32 P-labelled, cloned DHFR DNA (Bzik et al., 1987) to probe the chromosomes of FCR3, FCR3-D7 and FCR3-D8 (Figure 3). The DHFR-TS gene in FCR3-D7 was in a chromosome that was larger than chromosome #4, while in FCR3-D8 the gene was in two chromosomes, one much smaller and one slightly larger than chromosome #4. Honduras 1 was missing structures the size of chromosome #4, #5 and #10. The higher levels of drug resistance shown by FCR3-D7 and D8, which have the same primary DHFR structure as FCR3-D4, D5 and D6, and the resistance of Honduras 1, therefore appears to be associated with changes in chromosome #4.We and others have now shown that a number of P. falciparum DHFR mutants exhibit the Pyr R phenotype. It has been suggested that a change of amino acid #108 was essential for the expression of pyrimethamine resistance (Peterson et  al., 1988). The Pyr R mutants we have described do not contain such a change.We also found that in three Pyr R mutants containing identical DHFR point mutations, an electrophoretically detectable change had occurred in chromosome #4, the chromosome on which the wild type DHFR-TS gene resides. We suggest that chromosome-size changes that contribute to either gene duplications or possible gene regulatory processes probably play an important role in the development of higher levels of pyrimethamine resistance in the parasite. In FCR3-D7 the duplicated genetic material resides on one electrophoretically separable chromosome. In FCR3-D8, DHFR coding sequences reside on two chromosomes. However, we must confirm that the FCR3-D8 culture was a pure cloned population since we previously found that the DNA content of FCR3 and FCR3-D8 were about the same, while the enzyme level of FCR3-D8 was measurably higher. The study of Pyr R mutants may provide an important approach to studying the formation of chromosome-size polymorphisms in malaria.We also noted that maintaining a pyrimethamine-resistant culture in the absence of drug (FCR3-D8) led to the selection of a parasite population with a diminished level of resistance. Similarly, some drug-resistance genotypes in bacteria are unstably maintained. Thus, control of pyrimethamine usage may eliminate a selective drug pressure that is required to maintain populations of some highly resistant organisms and may therefore restore its effectiveness in some areas where it is no longer effective in the treatment of malaria.Finally, the demonstrated affinity of pyrimethamine for DHFR has been the basis for explaining the mechanism of resistance. In preliminary studies that examined in vivo 3 H-pyrimethamine binding to the DHFR-TS protein, we found that the drug also becomes associated with other parasite and/or red blood cell proteins. It may prove worthwhile to consider the ability of other parasite proteins to titrate the drug as another mechanism of pyrimethamine resistance.This work was supported by US NIH Grant A1 20437 to J.I.Protein conjugates as trypanocide delivery systems Attachment of a drug to a macromolecular carrier system results in substantial changes in the mechanism of its interactions at the cellular level. Although a drug with a low molecular weight may enter cells by simple diffusion, the same drug attached to a macromolecular carrier, such as a protein, enters the cell only by endocytosis. Because endocytosis can be a cell-specific mechanism, this provides possibilities for targeting drugs to cells that will endocytose the carrier.In the design of such drug-carrier systems, it is important that the linkage is stable in plasma but is susceptible to hydrolysis in lysosomes of the target cells or organisms.The work discussed in this paper relates to the antitumour antibiotic, daunorubicin. This diffuses into mammalian cells (Peterson et al., 1980), whereas its macromolecular conjugates are endocytosed by tumour cells and lysed by lysosomal enzymes to release the drug within the cell (Trouet et al., 1982).The trypanocidal activity of daunorubicin is greater in vitro than that of any other drug (Williamson and Scott-Finnigan, 1975), yet in vivo it is completely inactive (Williamson and Scott-Finnigan, 1978). To investigate this unexpected difference, Brown et al. (1982) examined the distribution of daunorubicin and its metabolites in infected mice. They found that drug accumulates in trypanosomes and in the cellular components of the blood. However, as its concentration in the plasma declines, so also does its concentration in the trypanosomes. They also showed, by fluorescence microscopy, that daunorubicin reaches the nucleus of the trypanosomes in vivo but its concentration in this site declines rapidly, indicating that adequate concentrations of drug may not be maintained long enough in the organisms for the trypanocidal effect to be achieved (Brown et al., 1982).In attempting to prolong the exposure of trypanosomes to daunorubicin in vivo, Williamson et al. (1981) investigated the effects of coupling it to macromolecules, including the proteins bovine serum albumin (BSA) and ferritin. It seemed likely that these would act as true carriers because they would be expected to be endocytosed by trypanosomes (Brown et al., 1965;Langreth and Balber, 1975;Fairlamb and Bowman, 1977, 1980a, 1980b). Indeed, Fairlamb and Bowman (1980a) have suggested that suramin, though administered as the free drug, forms a complex with plasma albumin before being taken up by endocytosis from the flagellar pocket and subsequently released in secondary lysosomes. Williamson et al. (1981) prepared two different daunorubicin-BSA complexes. One, containing stable secondary amine bonds, was inactive; the other, with a labile glutaraldehyde-produced covalent linkage (D-BSAG), was active in vitro and retained its activity in vivo. It was, indeed, the first daunorubicin preparation to clear trypanosomes from the blood of infected mice for prolonged periods. (Daunorubicin linked by the same method [Hurwitz et al., 1975] to ferritin was also trypanocidal both in vitro and in vivo [Williamson et al., 1981]). Daunorubicin has also been covalently linked to BSA by hydrazide and oxime linkages, which are far more labile than the glutaraldehyde-produced linkages, and both these conjugates are inactive against trypanosomes in vivo (Hardman et al., 1983). This supports the hypothesis that the drug is not active while it remains coupled to its carrier. It must first be released from the conjugate before its trypanocidal activity is exhibited. However, if it is too readily released, presumably in the plasma, it will equally fail to exert its effects.Our investigations into the distribution of D-BSAG in Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense from infected mice provide information on the mode of action of the conjugate in vivo.After infected mice were given an intraperitoneal dose equivalent to 25 mg/kg daunorubicin, the subcellular distribution of free and bound daunorubicin in trypanosomes was determined (Brown et al., 1981;Golightly et al., 1983). The nucleus contained 85% of the unconjugated drug whereas the small particulate (lysosome) fraction contained 75% of the drug-protein conjugate. (Daunorubicin administered as free drug localizes, and is active, principally in the nucleus [Brown et al., 1982;Williamson et al., 1983]). We have also demonstrated that D-BSAG can be cleaved by enzymes contained in lysosomerich fractions of trypanosomes obtained from Percoll density gradients. So it appears that daunorubicin can be released from the conjugate in lysosomes and, once released, can reach its intracellular targets where it may exert its effects.In a series of tests we have compared the action of two covalently bound conjugates of daunorubicin and BSA, D-BSAG (dialysed for several weeks to ensure the removal of any free daunorubicin) and D-BSAS (a stable succinyllinked conjugate) (Arnold et al., 1983). When we looked at the effects on the ultrastructure of trypanosomes of exposure to various concentrations of free daunorubicin and the two conjugates for 4 hours in vitro (Golightly et al., 1986), we found that: (1) segregation of the nucleolus caused by 1 × 10 -7 M daunorubicin requires 1 × 10 -6 M D-BSAG; (2) complete nucleolar fragmentation results from 1 × 10 -6 M free drug but requires 5 × 10 -6 M D-BSAG; and (3) D-BSAS produces no detectable changes.When uptake of these same compounds was studied in vitro using fluorescence microscopy (Golightly et al., 1985), D-BSAG was observed to be taken up by the trypanosomes in a similar way to free drug but to a lesser extent and more slowly. Fluorescence in the nucleus, kinetoplast and lysosomes was observed in D-BSAG-treated trypanosomes after 3.5 hours, while free drug produced the same effect in only 15 minutes. (However, the conjugate was marginally more effective at inducing loss of infectivity in vitro [Golightly et al., 1988]). No fluorescence at all occurred in trypanosomes exposed to D-BSAS, indicating that this stable linked conjugate does not enter the organisms. It is not surprising, therefore, that this compound failed to affect the ultrastructure of the trypanosomes. In vivo doses of 10-30 mg/kg D-BSAG cleared trypanosomes from the bloodstream in 24-48 hours, but after a further 36 hours parasites reappeared in the bloodstream and multiplied normally (Golightly et al., 1988). Repeated dosing following initial clearance failed to clear parasites in the relapsed infection. The high toxicity of daunorubicin is a major problem of the use of this drug, and its toxicity is not diminished by binding to BSA or by using multiple dosing regimes.Multiple dosing of protein-bound drugs could lead to the development of hypersensitivity and this may influence the clinical applicability of proteins as carriers in drug-delivery systems. A `single shot' cure would be the ideal, but if multiple doses are required, it may be necessary to have a series of complexes involving the same drug bound to a number of different proteins.We are now attempting to exploit the fact that cells of the immune system have the ability to endocytose foreign proteins and are using this to target protein-bound drugs to the amastigotes of Leishmania, which develop in macrophages. We have tested several drugs against L. donovani in infected mice and obtained the following ED 50 figures: pentostam 65 mg/kg, daunorubicin 23.7 mg/kg and D-BSA 11.25 mg/kg. These results give a strong indication that there is a future for the use of protein conjugates as drug-delivery systems.Attachment of the drug daunorubicin to the protein bovine serum albumin by a labile (glutaraldehyde) linkage (D-BSAG) confers in vivo trypanocidal activity to a drug otherwise trypanocidal only in vitro. Experimental evidence supports a lysosomotropic mode of action: free drug can be cleaved from D-BSAG by isolated lysosomal enzymes of trypanosomes; and in trypanosomes from infected mice treated with D-BSAG, the drug-carrier complex is recovered largely from lysosomes while freed drug is in the nucleus. If the bonds between daunorubicin and the protein are either stable or too labile, the complex is not trypanocidal. In vitro, trypanosomes are damaged less by D-BSAG than by free drug. Against L. donovani in vivo the protein-bound form is the more effective, indicating that better targeting has been achieved. Protein binding does not diminish the toxicity of the drug in vivo.Contemporary chemotherapy requires efficient means of delivering drugs to target tissues so as to minimize toxicity. Drug targeting can either be achieved by coupling a tissue-specific ligand to the drug, or by using microreservoirs that are themselves targeted. Intelligent homing devices represent the ideal targeting strategy, but at present one must arrange for close encounters to occur so that binding may result. Currently, targeting drug-containing microreservoirs with antibody represents the most promising strategy, and our approach to this issue is to use liposomes for the purpose. Such antibody-targeted liposomes are referred to as immunoliposomes. Numerous methods can be used to prepare immunoliposomes (Wright and Huang, in press), but the method we developed and favour uses the N-hydroxysuccinimide ester of palmitic acid to acylate immunoglobulin (Ig) (Huang et al., 1980). The resulting hydrophobic antibody intercalates into the bilayers of liposomes. The achievement of optimal coupling stoichiometry must be ascertained for each antibody and type of liposome, but typically antibodies retain 20-30% of their binding activity and can be incorporated with high efficiency and stability into liposomes (Huang et al., 1982).Immunoliposomes for drug delivery can be prepared that exhibit a range of biological properties. To be effective in drug delivery, immunoliposomes must not only bind to target structures, but they or their contents must also be internalized and may need to be delivered to certain locations within the cell (Wright and Huang, in press). The latter activity is best achieved by controlledrelease immunoliposomes, particularly those designed to disrupt in the presence of particular microenvironments. The value of acid-sensitive controlled-release liposomes for drug delivery as well as their potential for gene therapy was recently reviewed (Collins and Huang, 1988).Drug delivery in vivo with immunoliposomes has many practical problems to overcome, of which avoiding uptake by the reticuloendothelial system (RES) and the constraints of anatomical compartmentalization are the most significant (Collins and Huang, 1988;Wright and Huang, in press). Methods to overcome both problems are rapidly being developed (Allen and Chonn, 1987). Certain locations in the body are less constraining, such as the surface of the eye (Norley et al., 1986) and the lung (Hughes et al., 1989). The latter site represents a potential target for immunoliposomes placed in the venous circulation since such vehicles contact the lung before they are subject to entrapment by the RES. We have developed a monoclonal antibody to an antigen gp112 (Kennel et al., 1988) found on murine lung capillary endothelial cells that can be acylated to make immunoliposomes that bind very effectively to the lung (Table 1). This binding occurs extremely rapidly (Table 2) and liposome components can be found in the lung seven days after their administration. Specificity of the reaction was shown in a number of ways. Accordingly, immunoliposomes targeted with Ig with no anti-lung activity failed to bind to the lung (Table 1) and the effect could also be blocked by pretreating animals with anti-gp112 ascites fluid but not by pretreating them with other antibodies (Hughes et al., 1989). Rather surprisingly, lung binding occurred within one minute after administration (Table 2). We also suspect that specific binding occurs only during the first few passes of immunoliposomes through the lung. Liposomes that do not achieve rapid binding are assumed to be entrapped by RES cells in various organs.As mentioned above, binding to target structures by immunoliposomes is a necessary, but not in itself sufficient, requirement for effective drug delivery.Conditions must be such that the entrapped drug will be released to effect therapeutic activity. To assess this possibility, we entrapped the anti-herpes virus drug acycloguanosine in immunoliposomes and determined if the formulation was any more effective at controlling a respiratory infection with herpes simplex virus than control drug alone or drug administered within untargeted liposomes. The results of two experiments attest to the superior efficiency of the drug-containing immunoliposome formulation (Table 3). Currently, we are optimizing conditions to achieve maximum therapeutic efficiency as well as attempting to endow liposomes with stealth characteristics so that their uptake by the RES is minimized and their circulatory time prolonged.The use of viral membrane fusion proteins in drug delivery S.J. Doxsey Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics University of California San Francisco, California 94143, USA A major obstacle in delivering molecules into cells is the barrier imposed by the hydrophobic plasma membrane. The membrane is not freely permeable to ions, solutes, proteins or nucleic acid molecules. In spite of this, enveloped viruses have evolved an elegant strategy for transferring their membrane-encapsulated genome into the cytosol of host cells. They accomplish this by inducing fusion between viral and cellular membranes. The virus thus serves as a `transport vesicle' for delivery of its contents into its host cell.After binding to the surface of their host cells, many viruses are taken up by the cell. The process of internalization is a constitutive cellular function: receptormediated endocytosis via coated pits and coated vesicles (Brown et al., 1983). The internalization pathway of Semliki Forest virus, which serves as a general paradigm for viruses with endocytic entry pathways (Helenius et al., 1980;Marsh and Helenius, 1989), is shown in Figure 1. Once inside the cell, the virus is delivered to an acid compartment, the endosome (Helenius et al., 1983;Marsh and Helenius, 1989). Exposure to the acidic environment triggers the viral-mediated fusion of endosomal and viral membranes. The fusion event results in the release of the viral genome into the cytoplasm and begins the infection process.In contrast to viruses that require low pH to fuse with target cells are those that display pH-independent fusion activity. These viruses can penetrate cells by fusing with the plasma membrane (White et al., 1983;White, in press). Regardless of pH dependence, the fusion of enveloped viruses with target cells represents an effective mechanism for introducing the viral contents into the cytosol.The membrane fusion activity of the enveloped viruses is a property of `fusion proteins' on their surfaces (Marsh and Helenius, 1989;White, in press). Some fusion proteins and their properties are listed in Table 1. They are generally integral membrane glycoproteins present as oligomers in the viral membrane. Multiple copies of these spike-like glycoproteins project from the membrane of the virion, the external spike comprising more than 85% of the protein mass. In many cases, proteolytic processing is required to produce the fusion-competent form of the molecule (Marsh and Helenius, 1989;White, in press). The best characterized spike glycoprotein to date, the haemagglutinin (HA) molecule of influenza virus, is schematically depicted in Figure 2.The mechanism by which the viral fusion proteins promote membrane fusion is currently a topic of great interest. Recent evidence suggests that more than one molecule is necessary for fusion in the case of the influenza HA (Doms et al., in press;Stegmann et al., 1989;Ellens et al., submitted for publication). In  the ectodomains of many fusion proteins, there is a stretch of several apolar amino acids that seem to be involved in membrane fusion and have thus been termed `fusion peptides' (White, in press). A mechanism has been proposed for haemagglutinin-mediated membrane fusion whereby the `fusion peptide' is inserted into the target membrane, perturbing the lipid bilayer and leading to fusion of the two membranes (Harter et al., 1988;Marsh and Helenius, 1989;Stegmann et al., 1989). This and other hypotheses are being tested (White, in press).Soon after the discovery of the fusogenic proteins of viruses, attempts were made to harness the fusion activity for artificial delivery of drugs and other molecules into cells (Doxsey et al., 1985;Celis, 1986;Schlegel and Rechsteiner, 1986;Helenius et al., 1987). Three general delivery strategies developed to exploit the viral fusion proteins are shown in Figure 3 (Helenius et al., 1987).The fusion protein can be expressed on the target cell (Figure 3a) or reconstituted into artificial lipid vesicles (virosomes, Figure 3c). Alternatively, intact virions can be used as fusogens to `bridge' the delivery vesicles and target cell (Figure 3b).To achieve efficient binding and increase the probability of fusion, the appropriate receptors must be present in high concentrations on the target membrane. Once bound, the delivery vesicle can be fused with the cell either by brief acid treatment (low pH-dependent fusion proteins) or by prolonged incubation at neutral pH (pH-independent fusion proteins). One advantage of using acid pH-triggered fusion proteins is that molecules are delivered rapidly and simultaneously into the cells. Each of the three strategies has limitations and none has emerged as an accepted routine method for efficient bulk delivery.However, they all have potential for specific applications.Some success has been achieved using intact viruses (usually pH-independent) as `bridges' to fuse delivery vesicles with cells (Celis, 1986;Schlegel and Rechsteiner, 1986). Since a separate fusogen is used, potentially any number of target cells and delivery vesicles could be employed in vitro. However, our experience with acid-dependent viruses (Semliki Forest virus, influenza) has been discouraging owing to the low efficiency of delivery when compared to the HA-expressing target cell system (see below).We have developed a method for the cytoplasmic delivery of molecules that uses target cells expressing the influenza HA molecule and erythrocytes as vesicular carriers (Doxsey et al., 1985;Ellens et al., 1989). Efficient surface expression of the cloned HA molecule has been achieved by viral infection or by establishing permanent cell lines (Sambrook et al., 1985;Whiley and Skehel, 1987) that have been optimized for efficient fusion (Ellens et al., 1989).Perhaps the single most important aspect of this technique is its high efficiency (Doxsey et al., 1985). We routinely deliver molecules to 80-95% of the cells in a monolayer. Up to 200 million copies of some proteins have been introduced into each cell. In addition, delivery is easily controlled, highly reproducible and not deleterious to the recipient cells. Using this approach, a variety of macromolecules have been delivered using both erythrocytes (Doxsey et al., 1985(Doxsey et al., , 1987) ) and liposomes (Ellens et al., 1989;Glenn et al., in preparation) as vesicle carriers.The utility of the technique for investigating biological problems has been demonstrated in several studies. We showed that delivery of antibodies to the clathrin heavy chain inhibited receptor-mediated endocytosis, thus providing evidence for a direct role for clathrin in endocytosis (Doxsey et al., 1987). Delivery of erythrocyte-encapsulated oligonucleotides complementary to HA RNA (antisense RNA [see J.J. Toulmé, this volume]) were shown to inhibit HA biosynthesis by 60% (S. Froshauer, personal communication).Liposomes have recently been used to introduce biologically active RNA into cells (Ellens et al., 1989;Glenn et al., in preparation). Following delivery of messenger RNA encoding an enzyme, target cells expressed 10 4 molecules per cell. If an RNA amplification vector was used (Xiong et al., 1989), expression levels were increased by two orders of magnitude. Efficient delivery of nucleic acids into cells should prove useful for expressing foreign proteins, for delivering antisense RNAs, and for examining the fate and effect of the delivered oligonucleotides. Finally, a similar approach has been used to implant lipids into defined domains of the plasma membrane to study the properties of the tight junction (Vanmeer et al., 1985(Vanmeer et al., , 1986)).The results using HA-expressing cells demonstrate the effective use of viral fusion proteins in the efficient delivery of macromolecules into cells and the utility of this strategy in studying a wide range of biological problems. The technique, however, is limited to the use of cells expressing high levels of fusogenic proteins.Viral fusion proteins reconstituted into lipid vesicles (virosomes) have the potential to serve as universal carriers for delivery of molecules into any cell containing the appropriate receptor. Recent advances in solubilization and reconstitution methodologies have facilitated the development of virosomes that have fusion properties comparable to those of the intact virions (Metsikko et al., 1986;Sechoy et al., 1986;Stegmann et al., 1987) A potential limiting factor in this strategy is that virosomes made by these reconstitution procedures are small (70-130 nm in diameter), so the number of molecules that can be entrapped and subsequently delivered is few. This may not be a problem if the delivered molecule is effective at low copy number (Eiklid et al., 1980) or if the effective concentration of a protein can be increased by delivering RNAs capable of self replication (Xiong et al., 1989). One advantage of the small virosomes is that they can be internalized by endocytosis and are capable of acid-dependent fusion with internal membranes (Stegmann et al., 1987). Targeting to specific cell types using antibody-bearing liposomes has met with some success (Loyter et al., 1986;B.T. Rouse, this volume) and could be applied to virosome technology. These and other results (Celis, 1986;Loyter et al., 1986) suggest that this approach is feasible and has potential for the future.Although the use of viruses to deliver toxins or drugs to trypanosomes in vivo is far from a reality, there is potential for such a strategy starting perhaps with cells in culture. Trypanosomes have been shown to internalize ligands by receptor-mediated endocytosis (Coppens et al., 1987;Webster and Grab, 1988) and thus possess the pathway for virus entry (see above). Virosomes could be targeted to molecules on the parasite cell surface that are invariant among different strains of trypanosomes and that are internalized along the endocytic pathway. Molecules that seem to fulfil these criteria have been found in the flagellar pocket of trypanosomes, such as the receptors for transferrin and low-density lipoprotein (Coppens et al., 1987(Coppens et al., , 1988;;Webster and Grab, 1988). If access through the narrow mouth of the flagellar pocket is a problem (Coppens et al., 1988), it may be possible to use pH-independent virosomes or to fuse acid-triggered virosomes at the cell surface by brief acidification of the extracellular medium in vitro. This approach could prove useful for studying cell biological problems of trypanosomes and for drug testing.Since viruses are natural shuttle vectors for transferring their genome into host cells, they have been exploited as vectors for introducing foreign genes into cells (Nichols, 1988;Varmus, 1988). This technology could be applied to the targeting of toxic molecules to trypanosomes by engineering vectors that contain genes encoding such molecules (Nichols, 1988;Varmus, 1988;Xiong et al., 1989). Furthermore, vectors could be engineered to contain nucleic acids that possess trypanosome-specific replication or splicing sites so they would be replication-competent only in trypanosomes. Vectors have recently been designed that do not produce infective particles, thus confining molecules to the targeted cells (Varmus, 1988). Although the success of such an approach is faced with the same difficulties mentioned above and others (Nichols, 1988;Varmus, 1988), it has potential.Antisense oligonucleotide analogues as therapeutic agents The site of action for most drugs is a macromolecule, usually a protein but sometimes a nucleic acid. Our ability to design drugs from first principles is limited by a poor ability to predict the interaction of macromolecules with other compounds. A striking exception is the interaction between nucleic acids by Watson-Crick base pairing which is the best understood and most predictable mechanism for molecular recognition and binding in biology.The first demonstration that this property might be a basis to predict therapeutically active compounds used an oligonucleotide complementary to Rous sarcoma virus RNA to inhibit its replication (Zamecnik and Stephenson, 1978). Messenger RNA (mRNA) can be inactivated similarly to limit gene expression. Although subsequent work on the therapeutic uses of complementary or `antisense' oligonucleotides has concentrated on viruses, the approach should be applicable to other types of infectious agents and to other clinical conditions where inhibiting the expression of a particular protein might be beneficial. As the sequence of the antisense oligonucleotides follows from that of the target RNA, this approach goes a long way towards rational drug design and, providing the target sequence is unique, should be highly specific.There are now sufficient examples in the literature to be sure that `hybridization arrest' does work in many model situations, but so far there are no published examples of its successful use in animals and it is not clear whether the present compounds have sufficient potency for therapeutic application. The object of the present paper is to consider the factors that determine the activity of antisense oligonucleotides and how they may be modified to increase their therapeutic potential. Reference to the original literature may be obtained in two recent reviews (Stein and Cohen, 1988;Goodchild, in press).Oligonucleotides may be grouped into three categories according to their mechanism of action.Passive oligonucleotides are conceptually the simplest but mechanistically may be the most diverse and the least understood. When hybridized to strategic regions of a messenger or viral RNA, they are presumed to block the action of ribosomes, spliceosomes and various enzymes or other factors that read or interact with the RNA. In mRNA, the capped end and AUG initiator codon are generally the most effective sites. For reasons that will be discussed later, the phosphate groups are often modified as shown in Figure 1.Reactive oligonucleotides carry a group such as an alkylating agent or free radical generator to cross-link or cleave the RNA irreversibly (Knorre and Vlassov, 1985). Little work has been reported on hybridization arrest with these derivatives. They may have advantage if activity is limited by dissociation of the RNA/oligonucleotide hybrid but are likely to be more toxic. The binding site on RNA is less critical with this category and the next than with the first.Activating oligonucleotides also lead to irreversible damage to the target RNA but do so by activating endogenous host cell factors such as ribonuclease H that cleaves the RNA strand of RNA/oligodeoxynucleotide complexes. This approach is limited in applicability by the requirement for the appropriate ribonuclease but it has been claimed that this is widespread. An advantage of this mechanism is that the oligomer is not degraded by ribonuclease H and so cat alyses' the cleavage of more than one equivalent of RNA whereas the chemically reactive oligonucleotides behave stoichiometrically. Ribonuclease H will accept phosphorothioate groups in the deoxy strand but not methylphosphonates and so the possibilities for modification are more limited in this case.The activity of an oligonucleotide should be governed largely by its ability to form the desired hybrid in the target cell. This will depend on chemical and biological properties of the oligomer as well as the nature and accessibility of the target sequence.Factors known to promote hybridization also increase antisense activity. These include increasing the length of the oligonucleotide, increasing the G-C content, attaching intercalating groups to shorter oligonucleotides or performing the assay at lower temperatures. In vitro, preannealing to the target RNA is generally not necessary for oligomers of chain length 15-20, which is encouraging for their use in vivo. Secondary structure within the target RNA can sometimes inhibit binding but usually only in the case of very stable structures or poorly binding oligomers.The oligonucleotide must be long enough to differentiate between RNA molecules but the chance of forming undesired complexes will also increase with length. A reasonable compromise is 12-20 nucleotides. Activity generally increases with length over this range, but to minimize the mass and cost of material for a therapeutic dose, the chain length should be as short as possible. Oligonucleotides probably enter cells by both pinocytosis and a cell surface protein-mediated mechanism. In culture, the intracellular concentration typically rises to about 10% of that in the medium. Degradation appears to be mainly by exonucleases and can take from less than 10 minutes to over 24 hours, depending on the cell. In attempts to increase cellular uptake, molecules are made more lipophilic with substituents that are either added to the ends or positioned so as to remove the negative charge from the internucleoside phosphates, such as the methylphosphonates introduced by Miller and Ts'o. These and other modifications to the internucleoside phosphates (shown in Figure 1) also increase resistance to degradation by nucleases. All of these phosphate modifications considerably increased activity against human immunodeficiency virus to give complete inhibition of replication at concentrations around 3 µM (Agrawal et al., 1988;Sarin et al., 1988). These derivatives are about as active in molar terms as AZT but have much larger molecular weights and so may require larger masses for therapeutic doses.Of importance for any therapeutic potential are the questions of toxicity and bioavailability. Even unmodified oligomers were found to be fairly stable at 37 C in whole blood from humans or rabbits. There was no sign of degradation in 2 hours and substantial amounts of starting material were left after 24 hours. After intravenous injection of labelled material to rabbits, clearance from the blood was rapid and label was found distributed fairly evenly in the organs where it was apparently degraded quite rapidly. After 2 hours, about 20% of the oligomer was found in the urine still largely intact.In mice, unmodified oligonucleotides as well as all those modified as shown in Figure 1 were found to have an LD 50 of about 160 mg/kg body weight. Rats were more resistant.There are probably three major problems that must be overcome for these compounds to be used clinically.• Activity must be sufficient that the required mass of these high molecular weight compounds does not become excessive. It remains to be seen whether any of the compounds under investigation are sufficiently active or whether it will be necessary to develop further generations. • Present solid support synthetic methods are rapid and highly efficient but the cost of these compounds is high due to the cost of starting materials. Currently, the cost for in-house syntheses on the gram scale is estimated at about US$4 per mg but this has been forecast to fall to US$0.04 over the next 5 years by a company involved in their production. • Renal excretion is very fast. It was recently reported by J. Walder at a meeting that this could be decreased considerably by covalent attachment of cholesterol.It is encouraging for therapeutic considerations that several diverse chemical modifications have resulted in increased activity that may make it possible to tailor these agents to the pharmaceutical requirements. For the goal of rational drug design, a mechanism of molecular recognition as predictable as Watson-Crick base pairing is certainly an appealing starting point.The formation of nucleic acid/nucleic acid complexes, based on the formation of double-stranded structures through hydrogen bonds between complementary nucleic acid bases, is highly specific. The association of a messenger RNA (mRNA) with a complementary DNA strand can block its translation. This was first used for gene identification (Paterson et al., 1977). It was also demonstrated that some prokaryotic genes were regulated by a similar mechanism: transcripts complementary to part of a mRNA (so-called antisense RNA) formed duplexes that prevented the synthesis of the encoded protein (Simons, 1988). The expression of numerous genes was then specifically turned off by artificial antisense RNAs equally well in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Green et al., 1986).Initially, it was proposed that antisense RNA (DNA) could act as a block to ribosome scanning or to ribosomal subunit binding. Subsequently, it was reported that only antisense molecules targeted to the 5' region of the mRNA (from the cap to the AUG initiation codon) were able to inhibit translation, owing to an unwinding activity associated with elongating ribosomes (Melton, 1985;Shakin and Liebhaber, 1986). However, in a few cases, antisenses complementary to the region downstream of the AUG induced specific inhibition of protein synthesis concomitant with a decrease of the target mRNA concentration. It was demonstrated that the regulation of the CII gene of bacteriophage λ by the antisense OOP RNA was due to the specific degradation of the RNA/RNA hybrid by Escherichia coli RNase-III (Krinke and Wulff, 1987). In wheat germ extracts and in injected Xenopus oocytes, RNase-H, an RNase that cleaves the RNA part of RNA/DNA hybrids, was shown to be responsible for the degradation of the target mRNA when antisense DNA was used (Cazenave et al., 1987).Synthetic oligonucleotides (oligos) are now easily available. Antisense oligos were successfully used in cell-free extracts, in micro-injected cells and in cultured cells (Toulmé and Hélène, 1988). However, their sensitivity to DNases and their limited uptake by intact cells led to the development of chemically modified analogues. A number of criteria should be fulfilled to tailor an antisense oligo (see Table 1).The specificity of the recognition of the mRNA target is due mainly to the length of the oligo: in a human cell, a single site will be hit by an oligomer 11-15 nucleotides long, depending on the sequence. The higher the affinity of the antisense oligomer for the complementary mRNA, the greater the efficiency of competition with the translational machinery. Lengthening the oligo results in increased affinity; however, this also reduces the uptake and can affect the specificity. Alternatively, removal of negative charges in the phosphate backbone or linkage to groups that will provide additional energy of interaction results in derivatives of higher affinity. An example of such molecules is provided by oligomers linked to intercalating agents (see below). A number of chemical modifications have been proposed to overcome the sensitivity of the natural oligomers to nuclease attack (see Table 1). Unfortunately, some of these modifications led to inactive antisense oligomers: α-oligomers did not prevent polypeptide chain elongation, although they did bind to the target sequence with good affinity, because α-DNA/RNA hybrids are not recognized as substrates by RNase-H.One way to increase the efficiency of the antisense molecules is to promote their uptake by intact cells in order to increase their intracellular concentration. Neutral derivatives are taken up more efficiently than negatively charged molecules (see J. Goodchild et al., this volume). In contrast, phosphorothioate oligomers are trapped in the plasma membrane and penetrate cells very slowly (Boiziau et al., unpublished results). Linking oligos to a polycation led to compounds that exhibited anti-viral properties in the nanomolar range (Lemaitre et al., 1987). Liposome encapsulation also led to improved uptake (Loke et al., 1988). Toxicity should be considered: most of the oligos exhibit sequenceindependent inhibition at high concentrations. This is well documented for phosphorothioate (Cazenave et al., 1989), acridine-linked oligos (Cazenave et al., 1987) and poly-(L)-lysine conjugates (Lemaitre et al., 1987). However, toxic doses are at least 100-fold higher than that required for specific inhibition. Cytotoxic concentrations depend on the oligomer length and sequence. With a view to therapeutic use, unmodified and phosphorothioate 20-mers were injected into mice: no effect was observed for up to 14 days at a dose of 40 mg/kg (Agrawal et al., 1988;Sarin et al., 1988).In trypanosomes and related parasites, gene expression involves discontinuous transcription followed by trans-splicing of a so-called mini-exon-derived RNA onto the major exon, giving rise to a sequence, thirty-five nucleotides long in Trypanosoma brucei, common to all mRNAs (Borst, 1986). Targeting this region with antisense oligos resulted in decreased, or even abolished, in vitro translation of T. brucei mRNA (Cornelissen et al., 1986;Walder et al., 1986).Oligos linked to an acridine derivative (2-methoxy, 6-chloro, 9-amino acridine) through a pentamethylene linker were shown to bind complementary RNA with a higher affinity than homologous unmodified ones (Toulmé et al., 1986). This was ascribed to stacking interactions between the dye and base pairs of the oligo/RNA duplex. Such modified oligomers, complementary to the T. brucei mini-exon sequence, were used both in cell-free systems and with procyclic trypanosomes in culture.Effect on in vitro translation. A complementary 9-mer linked at its 3 end to the acridine derivative (Acr-9Tb) was a more efficient inhibitor of translation in rabbit reticulocyte lysate than the homologous conventional 9-mer, 9Tb, or even than an unmodified 12-mer (Verspieren et al., 1987). The inhibition was specific: this oligomer had no effect on translation of Brome Mosaic Virus mRNA which do not contain the complementary sequence (Verspieren et al., 1988). In contrast, a complementary acridine-linked 6-mer (Acr-6Tb) induced no significant decrease of T. brucei protein synthesis.Trypanocidal activity. Addition of 100 µM Acr-9Tb to procyclic T. brucei induced drastic changes in both the morphology and the motility of the parasites, ultimately leading to cell death. This effect was not seen either with Acr-6Tb or with non-complementary acridine-linked oligomers. The unmodified 9Tb had no effect (Verspieren et al., 1987). Therefore, the trypanocidal activity of Acr-9Tb is due to the presence of a complementary sequence and of the acridine residue. This suggests that this activity arises from the formation of a specific complex with the mini-exon sequence. Besides increasing the affinity of the oligo for the target RNA, acridine was responsible for a longer lifetime of the molecule in the growth medium because it prevented it being degraded by 3' exonucleases. Moreover, the kinetics of uptake of Acr-9Tb were quicker than that of 9Tb (J.J. Toulmé, unpublished results).The inhibitory properties of antisense oligomers depend on the concentration of the oligo/RNA complex. This will be affected by chemical and physical characteristics of the oligomer (affinity, stability, uptake; see Table 1). It will also be affected by factors concerned with the RNA itself. Due to peculiarities (access and structure), not all the targets are expected to lead to equivalent inhibitory effects. We performed a detailed study on a series of unmodified oligos, 9 to 35 nucleotides long, complementary to T. brucei or T. vivax mini-exon sequences (Verspieren et al., manuscript in preparation). On the one hand, we measured their affinity for RNA by thermal elution of filter-bound complexes, characterized by Tc, the temperature corresponding to the mid-point transition. On the other hand, we determined their effect on protein synthesis in cell-free systems. For most of the oligos, Tc was related to their length, l, and to their G + C content, x. The amplitude of the protein synthesis inhibition, at a given oligonucleotide concentration, increased with (l + x) (Figure 1). However, a few oligomers had a low Tc as compared to ones for which the value of (1 + x) was similar. This resulted in a reduced antisense effect (Verspieren et al., unpublished results). All these oligomers were targeted to the 5' end of the mini-exon sequence, that is, a region containing modified nucleic acid bases (Freistadt et al., 1987). In particular, the presence of a modified adenine residue in the sixth position of the T. brucei mini-exon sequence did not allow efficient pairing of the opposite thymine, resulting in a weak complex. This was also  observed with T. vivax RNA, suggesting the presence of modified bases in the mini-exon of this parasite as well.The trypanocidal activity of Acr-9Tb was observed only at concentrations higher than 80 m M. Although the acridine derivative prevented attack by 3' exonucleases, the phosphodiester backbone could be cleaved by endonucleases. Efficiency of antisense oligos would be improved if analogues resistant to nuclease degradation were used. For this purpose, we focused on two different chemical modifications: phosphorothioate derivatives and a -oligomers (Figure 2). A 17-mer targeted to the coding region of the rabbit ß-globin gene did not block elongation of the polypeptide chain when the a -analogue (17a ) was used, whereas the phosphorothioate congener (17PS) was as efficient as the unmodified 17-mer (17PO) in wheat germ extracts and more efficient in micro-injected Xenopus oocytes (Cazenave et al., 1989). These results were explained by the Modified oligos (α-and phosphorothioate) complementary to the mini-exon of T. brucei were synthesized. An α-11-mer did not inhibit in vitro translation. This oligo might bind very weakly, as we failed to detect any signal by thermal elution of filter-bound complexes. Preliminary experiments performed with phosphorothioate derivatives (12-and 24-mers) did not indicate a trypanocidal activity of these oligos below 30 µM, the concentration at which a non-specific toxicity was observed. Therefore, these modifications did not result in the expected improvement.However, recently we demonstrated that an α-16-mer, linked to an acridine derivative, complementary to the AUG region of the rabbit β-globin gene, induced a specific inhibition of globin synthesis by a mechanism that remains to be determined (Boiziau et al., unpublished results). Therefore, it seems that more efficient antisense oligos could be obtained by introduction of multiple chemical modifications within the same molecule. In particular, linkage of cleaving (Verspieren et al., 1988) or photo-crosslinking reagents (Kean et al., 1988) to antisense oligos could lead to molecules that will permanently block translation of the target gene. Animal trypanosomiasis is one of the most important diseases hindering livestock production in Tanzania, where 60% of the country is occupied by savannah tsetse flies. Control methods include attack on the vector by insecticide application and/or selective bush clearance, and use of trypanocidal drugs for curative and prophylactic purposes. However, increasing costs of vector-control methods and fear of the deleterious environmental impact as a result of using these methods have led to increasing reliance on chemotherapy for the control of trypanosomiasis.Drug resistance is one of the most important problems when using chemotherapy to combat trypanosomiasis, since the number of drugs available for field use has remained limited. Monitoring the development of drug resistance is therefore important in trypanosomiasis control strategies relying on chemotherapy.The author has been involved in studies on chemotherapy for trypanosomiasis at the Central Veterinary Laboratory, Temeke, Dar es Salaam; the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Edinburgh, Scotland; and Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.At the Central Veterinary Laboratory we are interested in determining whether diminazene aceturate can retain efficacy when used over a prolonged period. This is a continuation of work started by E. Wiesenhutter on dairy farms in and around Dar es Salaam during the late 1960s. We found that diminazene aceturate appeared to induce no drug resistance even after many years of regular use on one particular dairy farm. However, surveillance of drug resistance in other areas of the country revealed cases of diminazene resistance.At the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, studies were carried out using rabbits to determine the efficacy of treating animals with diminazene aceturate at different stages of cyclically transmitted Trypanosoma congolense infections. It was shown that relapse infections occurred in some animals treated 8-10 days post-infection, when trypanosomal chancres were at their largest. The reason for the relapses and the relevance of this finding to bovine trypanosomiasis in the field need to be determined. Studies were also carried out on isometamidium prophylaxis in rabbits. These studies showed that the duration of prophylaxis appeared not to depend on the number of infective tsetse bites.The chemotherapy studies at Sokoine University have two goals: to isolate putative drug-resistant T. congolense stocks from the field and establish their sensitivities to diminazene aceturate and isometamidium chloride, and their pathogenicity. Studies have also been conducted with certain stocks on the stability of resistance. We found that drug resistance can be stable. For example, T. congolense ADRI was resistant to 70 mg/kg diminazene aceturate in mice and maintained this level of resistance after 50 passages in mice. Reports have shown that trypanosomes readily take up exogenous 1-acyl-snlyso-phosphatidylcholine (LPHChO) and rapidly hydrolyze it through endogenous phospholipase A 1 to form free fatty acids and glycerophosphocholine. At the same time there is a rapid transacetylation of the LPHChO by trypanosomal acyltransferase to form PHChO, which is incorporated into the membrane of the parasite. These two enzyme systems enable the trypanosome to acquire the bulk of its fatty acids and choline requirements by exogenous LPHChO. Thus, if an unusual fatty acid can be incorporated into the LPHChO, the effect on the trypanosome may be therapeutically beneficial.Trypanosoma brucei brucei (5× 10 6 /ml) were preincubated in filter-sterilized modified Eagle's 199 culture medium supplemented with 0.2 mM mercaptoethanol, 2 mM pyruvate, 0.01 mM hypoxanthine and 1% essential amino acids, in an atmosphere of 5% CO 2 -95% air at 37 C for 1 hour. Various concentrations of the fatty acids were added to the medium and incubated for another 1 hour. Trypanosome viability was determined by counting the number of motile parasites using a Neubauer haemocytometer. The EC 50 for each compound, defined as the concentration of the drug that reduces parasite motility to 50% after one hour's exposure, was calculated. In a further study using the more toxic fatty acids and LPHChO derivatives, time-dependent experiments were performed using the medium supplemented with 15% v/v horse serum.Among the C 20 polyunsaturated fatty acids, arachidonate (C 20 :4[n-6]) was the least toxic tested. The acetylenic analogue, eicosatraynoate, which is a potent inhibitor of arachidonate metabolism at the level of cyclo-oxygenase and lypoxygenase, had less effect than arachidonate. On the other hand, eicosapentaenoic acid (C 20 :5[n-3]), which is also an inhibitor of arachidonate metabolism via the cyclo-oxygenase pathway, showed a marked effect on trypanosome viability. A similar trypanocidal effect was seen for C 20 :3(n-3) against C 20 :3(n-6). Trypanocidal effects of the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids were also observed for the C 22 unsaturated fatty acids. Similar toxicities were observed for the corresponding methyl esters, thus suggesting that the trypanocidal action could not be accounted for by the detergent-like nature of the fatty acids since the methyl esters do not have polar heads. The pattern of toxicity may be related to preferential uptake of polyunsaturated fatty acids between the n-3 and n-6 series. The results with the n-3 LPHChO compounds showed that they also were potent trypanocides. When the LPHChO of the n-3 series were tested in medium supplemented with horse serum, the parasites died. Large numbers of families have been moved from northern Ethiopia to tsetseinfested areas of southwestern Ethiopia. Most of the new settlements, as well as the resident population, cannot undertake viable animal production, mainly due to health problems. Meat and milk supply is severely short.The principal animal health problems are trypanosomiasis, tick-borne diseases, fascioliasis and gastrointestinal parasites. There is, in addition, a serious shortage of feed during the dry season (7-8 months per year), during which productivity is reported to fall sharply. Hence there is a need to tackle this aspect along with health-related activities.The objectives of a proposed project involving Ethiopian universities, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Institute of Agricultural Research include controlling major health problems of farm animals, tackling the dry-season shortage of feed and improving the general productivity of the animals. The general strategy that will be adopted is to select communities for new settlers or local population settlements and to take full responsibility in these communities for animal health and production parameters.A source of funds has not yet been identified for this project but there is a possibility of obtaining financial support from the government and/or one or more non-governmental agencies. Involvement of bilateral and multilateral organizations as well as other outside sources would help project members obtain materials and supplies not available within the country. We hope to commence the project within the coming year.  To summarize effectively a meeting in which 20 papers have reviewed widely different areas of the chemotherapy of African trypanosomes, several other parasitic protozoa and some aspects of cancer is not possible without greatly detracting from the substance of the many excellent presentations. A few general impressions remain.The first part of the workshop, on trypanosome metabolism, clearly indicated how our improved understanding of biochemical pathways can lead to the identification of new targets and the design of new drugs. Some selectively toxic inhibitors have already been identified, although the new tools for rational chemotherapy-molecular biology, which can be harnessed to produce pure parasite protein, and X-ray crystallography and NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), which can define protein structure-have yet to be fully exploited. Many of the current lead compounds, for example the pyrazolopyrimidines and sterol synthesis inhibitors, were identified by a mixture of serendipity, intuition and an awareness of research in other fields, where an observation on the activity of one compound prompted a question which in turn led to a rational examination of related compounds. Because of differences in enzyme structure (e.g., dihydrofolate reductase), rate of enzyme turnover (e.g., omithine decarboxylase), subcellular localization (e.g., glycosome) or molecule (e.g., trypanothione), the targets for selective toxicity may vary. Yet these targets are frequently on pathways that interlink, suggesting possibilities for combination therapy, a strategy important for enhancing drug potency as well as circumventing resistance. It is evident from the workshop and from the current scientific literature that most of these studies have concentrated upon Trypanosoma brucei species and that knowledge of similar pathways in T. vivax, T. congolense and other trypanosome species pathogenic for domestic livestock lags behind.The mechanisms of drug resistance and cross-resistance in African trypanosomes are poorly understood. However, the use of molecular and biochemical techniques to study drug resistance in tumour cells and Plusmodium species has demonstrated the potential of these approaches. The workshop presentations on Leishmania and Plasmodium have shown that studies on resistance can also lead to an improved understanding of the mode of drug action and uptake, leading to improved drug design. This area of research is developing fast, although at present experiments appear to produce more questions than answers.The presence of a therapeutic level of a drug at the site of infection is a reflection of the pharmacological properties of the compound. The last section of the workshop discussed drug-delivery systems that are used to improve the in vivo activity of drugs with poor pharmacological properties. Regardless of whether the drug-delivery system was most useful for improving targeting to the infected tissue, to the parasites or to an intracellular biochemical target, it is clear that in relation to trypanosomiasis, this area of research is in the early stages and not all systems are suitable to the problems posed by this disease.The long-term objective of much of the research discussed at the workshop is the identification of a novel trypanocide. No doubt the rational/semi-rational approach will identify a selectively toxic compound with good pharmacological characteristics. However, the cost of drug development for most tropical diseases is not an economic proposition and progress will certainly require close cooperation among scientists, the pharmaceutical industry and international organizations. The identification of a drug with broader applications, such as 9-deazainosine, to treat African trypanosomiasis, Chagas' disease and leishmaniasis may prove a more attractive proposition for development. If a drug is already used clinically or has potential against a more profitable disease, the attraction would be even greater. Several drugs discussed at the workshop, including allopurinol, ketoconazole and difluoromethylomithine, fall into this category. It will be interesting to see whether the research on dihydrofolate reductase, trypanothione and DNA topoisomerase II, discussed at the workshop, will identify compounds with this broad anti-trypanosomatid spectrum of activity. Meanwhile, short-to medium-term advances are possible. Our understanding of the mode of action of new and established drugs should suggest combinations for clinical trial, and new formulations of established drugs should improve therapeutic levels and reduce local toxicity.The mood of the meeting was one of optimism and determination, reflecting the commitment of the participants. It provided an effective forum for exchange of information, ideas and addresses. Let us hope that the next decade fulfils the hopes raised by the advances of the last decade.","tokenCount":"31900"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"127b117b3cccb2a6952b271d8d42c0d7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0fbc9d38-efd0-4ca7-86da-5526257c0f8e/retrieve","id":"722435941"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"70a3b4d0-3ab0-459a-889b-3413c655afee","pagecount":"18","content":"Project descriptions and logframe (mtp 2005-07)Low-cost participatory methods developed to capture farm-scale information of land productivity (June 2005) Concept of site-specific development developed and clarified through reports, publications and conferences (Dec. 2005). 60 farming families in case studies benefit directly.Concept of weather insurance developed and included in proposaJ (Dec 2005). lndicator maps of vulnerability to natural hazards produced at regional, nationaJ and sub-nationaJ scaJe in 6 countries as part of GEF Ph 1 (Dec 2007).Vulnerability framework developed for policy-makers and included in WB methodology (Dec 2007). Our goal is to provide spatial information that enables better decisions about agricultura! land use change. Such information is derived from analyses at the local, regional and global scale and provided to individual farmers or the associations and organizations that work with and for them.Baseline and time-series data for subsequent analysis performed.  • Opportunities for improved genetic resource management defined for regions: The Homologue software has been released as Beta version. Homologue was developed jointly with the Tropical Fruits Project. The software defines the probability for any selected location in the tropics to exhibit climatic and soil conditions similar to thóse of locations that are known to have favorable growing conditions for specific crops of interest. ","tokenCount":"202"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e62b6915dd1912e76f09d5a5ca1570e7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/637643a6-07f6-4681-9cea-7b4d0a4cbf83/retrieve","id":"502415703"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b75db22b-1ca1-4bf2-8c3a-7c3d2e3bbc13","pagecount":"15","content":"TALIRI), Rose Loina (TALIRI) and Julius Bwire (TALIRI) Brigitte L. Maass (CIAT) and Ben Lukuyu (ILRI) Nairobi, Kenya: International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)The study on characteristics of livestock production system in particular feed related aspects was carried out in Handeni District, Tanzania using Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) developed by Duncan et al. (2012). Handeni District is one of the eight Administrative Districts of Tanga Region. Others include Korogwe, Muheza, Mkinga, Lushoto, Pangani, Kilindi and Tanga.The district lies within the latitudes 4°55 ' and 6°04' south and within longitudes 37°47 ' and 38°46'  east. It borders districts of Pangani and Muheza to the east, Korogwe and Simanjiro to the north, Kilindi to the west and Bagamoyo to the south. It is best accessed from the south by Chalinze -Segera tarmac road, and by tarmac roads from Korogwe in the North and Mkata in the east.Most of the land is used for crop production, livestock keeping, forestry, mining, and residency. Range/pastoral land 367,530 ha  Agricultural land 340,470 ha  Forestry reserve 132,000 ha Livestock keeping is the second important sector of the economy in the district, after crop farming and it is mostly done by pastoralists (Masai) and to the less extent by the Zigua. However, over 98% of livestock kept in Handeni constitute traditional/local breeds which are in very low potential in regard to production.The research team consisted of 6 researchers from Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI) -Tanga and 2 extension officers from Handeni (Appendix 1). The actual sites for PRA differed between villages (Table 1). The total number of participants was 86 (47 males and 39 females) and the interviewed farmers were 6 in each site. Average time taken per PRA and individual interview was 2.30 hours and 40 minutes, respectively. Selection of farmers for PRA was done by village extension officers and was purposively for livestock keepers and for individual interview were selected based on wealth category of farmers (small, medium and large farmers). Different observations were made during application of the FEAST tool in the study area, which include; Poor time management by farmers -it took long before they all assembled in the venue (about 45 min after the scheduled time) Differences in ethnicity lead to differences/variation/misunderstandings in prioritizing problems -Zigua people have few cattle so their problem priority differ with Maasai people who have large herds of cattle. Difficult to get actual/proper information from Maasai people -wrong information were given as they expected to be helped by telling. Some farmers don't understand Swahili language -translator from their group had to assist.  Over expectation by farmers -they need immediate solutions from their problems.  Farmers over participated (30 farmers)  Farmers vs pastoralists conflict existsFarm and household sizes averaged 12.5 acres and 7 persons, respectively (Table 2). Labour is available throughout the year and highly required during the cropping season. The average cost of labour per day is Tsh. 3,875/= and for cultivating one acre land is Tsh. 23,500/=. NB: 1acre = 0.4 haLarge farmers were characterized by having more than 150 acre in Kibaya and 200 acres in Sindeni, while a small farmer had less than 20 and 40 acres in Kibaya and Sindeni, respectively. (Table 3). Contribution of livelihood activities to household income is mainly from livestock with an average of 73% from all villages, however, agriculture shows to have minor but potential contribution at an average of 20%. Other activities such as labour, off-farm and business have minor contributions (Figure 1).Kibaya, Kichwang'ombe Sindeni, Misale Sindeni, Seza There are three cropping seasons in the area (Figure 2) named as 'Mwaka' or 'Masika' (long rains), 'Vuli' (short rains) and 'Kiangazi' (dry period). In some cases very short rains occur in some months known as 'Mchoo'.  Maize and beans are the most important crops grown in the area (Figure 3). The grown crops are used as a source of food and for income generation, and they are grown during the wet season. Land for cultivation is fairly available although much land is used for grazing animals. Irrigation is not practiced as there is no source of water for irrigation in the area. Land is used for more than one crop per year and fallowing is always practiced.  4). All livestock species are mainly used as a source of food and income, except for draught cattle and donkeys that are used to provide draught power. There were no major differences between the two sites on the proportions of households that own them and average number of animals per HH Other use of cattle, sheep and goats is for dowry purposes and it also includes provision of manure.  This could be due nature of production system (open grazing system with large herds) and the availability of AI service especially when animal have moved far during dry periods. The bull service is free and the ratio of bull to cow is 1:5.Milk productivity is very low (1.2 litre, per cow per day). Milk is usually sold and the price ranges from Tsh. 200 -600/=, however, reasonable amount of milk is left for home use (1 -10 litres per day). Prices of cattle ranges from Tsh. 80,000 -1,050,000/= depending on seasonality of the year i.e. higher after crop harvesting (July -December) and lower during crop cultivation (January -June).Grazing contributes the largest proportion on average of the feed based on a dry matter (DM) basis (85%), metabolizable energy (ME) (84%) and crude protein (CP) (84%) in the area throughout the year. Maize (Zea mays) -gluten with bran is the only used purchased feed resource by few farmers (25%) in the area and the average price is Tsh. 1600/= There is no fodder cultivation in the area, crop residues contribute to a lesser extent (14%) as feed source (Figure 4). Seasonality of feed availability has implications on feeds shortage in the area; high abundance is during long rains and less abundance during dry periods (Figure 5). Despite the fact that grazing is the main source for feed throughout the year, crop residues are important, especially in Sindeni-Misale. Feed processing and conservation is not practiced in the area, and crop residues are left in the field to be grazed by the animals later. The feed availability is always quite high after the main rainy season, except Sindeni -Seza. This might be due to high bush encroachment in the area than in other hamlets under study. There is no any cash/credit providers in the area and agro-vet inputs are available from local sellers at a distant area (about 10 km) away from the villages. However, the inputs are claimed to be very expensive. Extension staffs are available in the area and they are responsible for provision of advices in livestock production including prevention/control of livestock diseases.The major five problems in their descending order of importance as identified by farmers and their proposed solutions are given in table 6.Although some problem in livestock production exists in the area, the opportunities that might contribute toward improving livestock production include; Enough land for grazing which can also be used for forage cultivation  Availability of extension Staff to provide livestock services to farmers i.e. prevention/control and treatment of diseases and advisory services on farmers' group formation. Availability of milk processing industry in TangaThe exercise revealed that livestock keeping contributes much to the income of the farmers in the study area, therefore the following was concluded: Grazing contributes to the largest proportion of the feed, and although there are long periods of feed shortage, feed conservation is not a common practice. Long distance movement of farmers and their animal for searching feeds and water calls for immediate intervention overcome the situation. Low productivity potential of the animals is an implication of lack of knowledge/skills on general animal husbandry and/or feed shortage mainly due to seasonality.The following were recommended  There is a need for immediate interventions on feeds and feeding aspects. Farmers need to be trained on general animal husbandry. Government and other stakeholders are required to take an integrated approach to improve livestock extension services and provision of education to farmers through short courses, seminars, workshops. Collaborative efforts by government, farmers and other stakeholders to be done to overcome the problem of water i.e. by constructing dams within the area.","tokenCount":"1374"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5b73942f8bd456d3970578e53e55d2fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/39092c0c-3d4f-4800-b555-82e1170e5e0a/retrieve","id":"-1068783140"},"keywords":["CTA","Wageningen","Pays-Bas RÉALISATION: Sayce Publishing","Londres","Royaume-Uni"],"sieverID":"9c702239-683f-41e0-a38b-52f386e277a0","pagecount":"238","content":"Les révolutions de l'information L e s r é v o l u t i o n s d e l ' i n f o r m a t i o n Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (ACP-CE) Le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA) a été créé en 1983 dans le cadre de la Convention de Lomé entre les États du groupe ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique) et les pays membres de l'Union européenne. Depuis 2000, le CTA exerce ses activités dans le cadre de l'Accord de Cotonou ACP-CE. Le CTA a pour mission de développer et de fournir des services qui améliorent l'accès des pays ACP à l'information pour le développement agricole et rural, et de renforcer les capacités de ces pays à produire, acquérir, échanger et exploiter l'information dans ce domaine. Les programmes du CTA sont articulés sur quatre axes principaux : l'élaboration des stratégies de gestion de l'information et de partenariat nécessaires à la formulation et à la mise en oeuvre des politiques, l'encouragement des contacts et des échanges d'expérience, la fourniture d'informations sur demande aux partenaires ACP et le renforcement de leurs capacités en information et communication.LES HOMMES SONT DES animaux grégaires. Pris isolément, chacun d'entre nous est plutôt vulnérable. Seuls, nous serions condamnés à errer, nus et affamés, en quête de nourriture et de quoi nous désaltérer. Mais lorsque nous nous rassemblons, lorsque nous travaillons ensemble, nous pouvons faire des choses merveilleuses. Nous pouvons bâtir des cités, inventer de nouvelles façons de produire et de stocker de la nourriture, fabriquer des objets qui rendent notre vie plus confortable, édifier de grandes civilisations, construire des vaisseaux spatiaux pour conquérir la lune.Ce qui rend tout cela possible, c'est l'information et la communication. Deux personnes seront incapables de bâtir la plus modeste des maisons si elles ne savent pas ce qu'elles vont construire et si elles ne peuvent pas communiquer entre elles. Et ne parlons même pas d'une cité ou d'un vaisseau spatial ! L'information est un élément de base indispensable à toute activité de développement. Elle doit être disponible pour tous et accessible à tous, qu'il s'agisse d'information scientifique, technique, économique, sociale, institutionnelle, administrative, juridique, historique ou culturelle. Cette information n'est toutefois utile que si elle est disponible et accessible aux acteurs dans des formes et des langages adaptés, c'est-à-dire si elle est communiquée, si elle circule entre les différents niveaux d'utilisateurs avec des supports appropriés, si elle est échangée.La communication, qui couvre à la fois les champs de l'information et de l'éducation, s'applique à une grande diversité de situations, allant de la simple conversation entre deux personnes jusqu'aux médias les plus sophistiqués, de la mère qui apprend quelque chose à son enfant aux plus grandes bibliothèques et universités. Si l'on entreprenait d'établir la liste des différentes formes de médias, en commençant par la télévision, les journaux, le courrier électronique, les tableaux d'affichage, le téléphone, les apprentissages, les écoles… il faudrait remplir plusieurs pages. On dit que l'argent fait tourner le monde, mais c'est la communication qui augmente la vitesse de rotation (l'argent, c'est d'ailleurs une forme d'information, une information sur la valeur des choses).Sans communication, il n'y a pas de progrès possible. Pourquoi alors est-elle tellement ignorée dans le monde du développement ? De gigantesques institutions de recherche, dont le principal objet est de mettre au point de nouvelles techniques agricoles (c'est-à-dire créer de l'information) et les communiquer aux producteurs ruraux, relèguent la communication dans la corbeille à papiers. Sans communication, leurs découvertes restent inexploitées et accumulent de la poussière dans des armoires au lieu de créer du progrès et de la richesse. Les agences de vulgarisation (jamais très efficaces) ont été redimensionnées ou fermées, pour être remplacées par…, par rien, au fait. Quelquefois, les institutions se préoccupent davantage de leur propre développement que d'apporter à leurs usagers les services qu'ils sont en droit d'attendre d'elles. Les ressources potentielles des médias, pourtant capables de toucher les populations des zones rurales les plus reculées (grâce à la radio, aux commerçants, aux églises et aux mosquées) sont tout simplement ignorées.Heureusement, il semble que les choses soient en train de changer. Deux révolutions : la révolution démocratique des années 80 et 90 (et les vagues de restructuration et de décentralisation qui les ont suivies) et la révolution technologique qui est intervenue dans le domaine de l'informatique et des télécommunications ont éveillé, dans le monde du développement, un intérêt nouveau pour tous les aspects de l'information et de la communication.La communication pour le développement s'articule autour de trois grandes fonctions :• Apporter l'information utile aux usagers ; • Aider les usagers à accéder aux sources d'information ;• Faciliter l'instauration d'un dialogue entre les acteurs du développement.Apporter l'information utile aux usagers C'est le rôle traditionnel de la communication. Prenez, par exemple, un centre de recherche agricole. Il va identifier une nouvelle variété de manioc résistante aux parasites (voir l'article « Maîtriser la mosaïque du manioc en Ouganda », p. 169). Comment cette information va-telle être transmise aux producteurs et aux commerçants ? Comment inciter les producteurs à adopter cette nouvelle variété ? Il ne suffira pas de faire en sorte que les boutures soient disponibles en quantités suffisantes. Il faudra aussi former les agents de vulgarisation pour leur diffusion, assurer la promotion de la nouvelle variété à la radio, produire des fiches et des brochures d'information technique, mettre en place des parcelles expérimentales pour que les producteurs puissent observer concrètement la nouvelle variété. Il faudra aussi -et ce ne sera pas la tâche la plus simple -persuader les décideurs de donner la priorité à cette découverte et de consacrer des moyens à sa diffusion pour prévenir les pénuries et la famine.Naturellement, ces tâches n'incombent pas toutes aux seuls chercheurs. Des institutions spécialisées, des agences de vulgarisation, des imprimeurs, des stations de radio et bien d'autres acteurs vont intervenir dans le processus. Et c'est souvent là que se situent les lacunes : la principale est celle que l'on retrouve couramment entre la recherche de pointe et une vulgarisation sans moyens. Lorsque de tels décalages ne sont pas corrigés, les efforts de communication sont vains, les nouvelles variétés ne sortent pas du centre de recherche et les producteurs ne peuvent pas en bénéficier. Il ne leur reste plus qu'à mourir de faim.Il existe une pléthore d'informations sur le développement. Hormis le fait qu'elles soient difficiles à trouver en Afrique, elles sont souvent rédigées par des auteurs originaires des pays industrialisés. La librairie « Legacy » de Nairobi (Kenya) est l'un des rares endroits du continent où l'on peut se procurer une vaste sélection d'ouvrages relatifs au développement (Photo : Paul Mundy) Introduction ouvrages, les conférences ; cependant, ils peuvent de plus en plus y avoir accès par le courrier électronique, l'Internet et les CD-ROM. La demande paysanne, quant à elle, peut être désormais identifiée grâce à toute une gamme de nouveaux outils : recherche et évaluation participatives, processus de développement technologique qui associent les producteurs à tous les stades. Ces outils de communication sont essentiels pour que les chercheurs et les vulgarisateurs identifient les contraintes et les potentialités des agriculteurs et sachent comment les associer à la résolution de leurs propres problèmes.Faciliter l'instauration d'un dialogue L'évolution démocratique qui est apparue dans de nombreuses régions du monde depuis les années 80 a entraîné un vaste mouvement de décentralisation politique, économique et sociale. La population rurale, jusqu'alors anonyme et ignorée, a désormais un meilleur accès aux décideurs. Les producteurs sont en train de trouver des formes d'organisation collective qui leur permettent de faire pression sur le pouvoir pour obtenir des réponses à leurs problèmes. Avec l'appui d'ONG et de médias comme les radios communautaires, la population rurale est en train d'apprendre à exploiter ces ouvertures nouvelles.Les médias jouent un rôle clé dans ce domaine. Une station de radio ou un journal peuvent être des outils de « répression ou d'expression ». Une presse contrôlée par le pouvoir peut étouffer toute forme de discussion et perdre rapidement sa crédibilité. Une presse libre rend possible une expression plurielle et interactive. Elle peut favoriser la confrontation, le débat, la négociation entre les acteurs, identifier les blocages, promouvoir les initiatives intéressantes, véhiculer les idées nouvelles, recueillir les opinions, sensibiliser. Elle peut donner la parole à ceux qui ne l'ont pas : les femmes, les jeunes, les pauvres. Au-delà des radios et des journaux, d'autres outils de communication de proximité peuvent être mobilisés au niveau communautaire : les cassettes audio et vidéo, les boîtes à images, les outils traditionnels de communication, le théâtre, la musique, les récits, les marionnettes, les animations au niveau des marchés villageois.L'option de ce livre est de rendre compte d'expériences réussies, d'expliquer comment des individus ou des organisations sont parvenus à s'approprier les outils de communication pour améliorer les conditions d'existence des communautés rurales. Nous avons identifié une quarantaine d'exemples de ce type, en Afrique, dans les Caraïbes et le Pacifique. Nous aurions pu en citer bien davantage si nous avions disposé de plus de temps et d'espace. Si votre organisation n'est pas mentionnée dans cet ouvrage, n'en soyez pas froissé.Il est facile de réussir quand on dispose de beaucoup d'argent mais ce n'est pas le cas le plus fréquent. Nous avons donc essayé d'éviter de mentionner les grands projets, largement financés et appuyés par des équipes d'experts expatriés, les grandes ONG du Nord, les centres de recherche internationaux. Parmi ces organisations, beaucoup font un excellent travail de communication mais elles ne sont pas représentatives des pays en développement : elles représentent des îlots d'abondance dans un océan d'organismes sans ressources, sans soutien, sans personnel qualifié et sans équipement de qualité. Nous avons choisi de mettre en valeur quelques-unes de ces initiatives locales ou nationales qui parviennent à faire un bon travail de communication malgré leurs contraintes. Si elles y sont parvenues, pourquoi pas les autres ?puissantes organisations internationales ou de projets financés par des bailleurs de fonds extérieurs que nous avions décidés d'exclure de notre choix.Tout au long de nos missions sur le terrain, nous avons été impressionnés et inspirés par l'enthousiasme des interlocuteurs que nous avons rencontrés. Leur motivation et leur détermination sont remarquables, surtout si l'on considère qu'ils travaillent dans des conditions difficiles, avec des salaires plus qu'insuffisants et des moyens très limités. Malgré cela, ils sont à l'écoute de leurs publics, ils débordent de créativité, ils innovent en permanence, ils luttent pour la qualité.Naturellement, peu d'initiatives ont totalement atteint leurs objectifs. Les organisations que nous décrivons continuent à se battre contre de nombreuses contraintes : financements insuffisants, développements institutionnels incertains, manque d'équipements et de compétences. Les conditions économiques et sociales sont en mutation rapide et la technologie évolue encore plus vite. Pour certaines organisations, il est encore trop tôt pour savoir si elles réussiront dans leurs entreprises. En fait, un des organismes qui nous impressionnait le plus, le réseau d'information des terres arides (RITA ou ALIN en anglais -Arid Land Information Network), et qui avait accompli un travail remarquable de mise en réseau d'initiatives à travers toute l'Afrique sahélienne et l'Afrique de l'Est, faisait l'objet d'une restructuration profonde lors de notre passage (elle est toujours dans cette situation difficile au moment où nous écrivons ces lignes). Il a donc fallu renoncer à rendre compte de ses activités.Nous avons largement parcouru le paysage. Pour certaines des institutions, l'information et la communication constituent l'activité principale : les bibliothèques, les agences de presse, les médias. D'autres ont une orientation différente mais considèrent que l'information et la communication représentent une composante essentielle de leurs activités. Les organismes de recherche sont une bonne illustration de cette catégorie d'institutions (voir l'article « Maîtriser la mosaïque du manioc en Ouganda », p. 169, et la section « Réseaux de recherche », p. 191) et le cas de la bourse des matières premières agricoles du Kenya (voir l'article « Le cas du KACE », p. 143).Au début, nous avons sélectionné de façon prioritaire les institutions qui se consacraient exclusivement à l'agriculture. Mais nous nous sommes rapidement rendu compte qu'il était impossible de se limiter à la seule agriculture. Il n'y a pratiquement pas de stations de radio ou de journaux qui traitent exclusivement de sujets agricoles, bien qu'il s'agisse d'un thème essentiel en milieu rural. Les téléphones sontils « agricoles » ? Pendant notre périple, nous avons relevé des témoignages sur leur utilisation pour commander des engrais, des aliments pour le bétail, pour s'assurer de la disponibilité d'équipements, pour appeler des vétérinaires ou pour vendre des produits. S'il y a une technologie qui va transformer profondément le monde rural dans les dix ans à venir, c'est bien la téléphonie mobile (voir l'article « Il y a tellement de choses à dire… », p. 113).Face à cette variété de médias et leurs multiples usages, il aurait été très limitatif de se cantonner aux seuls médias « purement agricoles », comme les bulletins de vulgarisation, les revues et les réseaux de recherche agricole. Nous les avons couverts, bien sûr mais ils ne représentent vraiment qu'une petite partie du formidable capital d'information de ce qu'il est aujourd'hui convenu d'appeler « les systèmes de savoir agricole ».fondations et des organisations de solidarité ou de charité. Les populations rurales ne sont pas en mesure de payer certains services, même si elles les considèrent comme vitaux.Cette dépendance à l'égard des bailleurs de fonds est sans doute un indicateur de l'état de la communication dans les pays en développement.Oui, le soutien des bailleurs de fonds est nécessaire, et probablement pour longtemps encore. Mais il y a des risques de lassitude : certains partenaires peuvent se poser la question de l'opportunité de soutenir une station de radio ou une ONG pendant une année de plus.La réponse, c'est qu'il faut du temps. Pour réussir, les initiatives de communication impliquent des années d'investissement. Mettre sur pied une radio ou un journal, cela demande du temps, de la patience, des efforts et du savoir-faire. Les fermer et en ouvrir d'autres n'est pas la bonne solution, car il faudra recommencer à investir pour des durées peut-être encore plus longues. La difficulté consiste à parvenir à un sevrage progressif des dépendances extérieures tout en développant les capacités d'autofinancement ou en recherchant des solutions de financement alternatives durables.Une fois mis en place, les médias sont incroyablement polyvalents et peuvent être mobilisés sur toutes sortes de sujets. Prenez par exemple le programme radio du Kenya Tembea na Majira (voir l'article « Des feuilletons radiophoniques pour le développement », p. 13) : lorsque nous étions au Kenya, il abordait des thèmes comme les parasites des végétaux, la malaria et les femmes battues. Il passera ensuite à d'autres intrigues et à d'autres sujets.Pour survivre, les efforts de communication doivent s'inscrire dans la durée, créer, innover sans cesse. Diffuser le même programme vieillot semaine après semaine ou continuer à publier un bulletin que personne ne lit, ne présente pas d'intérêt. Il appartient aux professionnels de la communication de tendre l'oreille, d'analyser le contexte, d'assurer le suivi de leurs activités, d'être à l'écoute de leurs publics, d'encourager le feed-back, de s'adapter et d'innover. C'est la seule façon d'avoir un impact et de justifier le maintien des soutiens extérieurs.La communication rurale peut-elle être rentable et donc financièrement autonome ? La réponse est oui, au moins pour certains types de médias. Les exemples les plus éloquents sont les téléphones mobiles en Ouganda, les télécentres privés au Sénégal (voir l'article « Il y a tellement de choses à dire », p. 113) ou les services de messageries électroniques (voir l'article « Africa Online et l'initiative e-touch », p. 103). Certes, un investissement initial non négligeable est nécessaire (c'est vrai pour toute initiative de ce type) mais une fois que le système est sur pied et fonctionnel, il est hautement rentable et les ressources qu'il génère permettent de nouveaux investissements.Quelques journaux ruraux parviennent à couvrir une grande partie de leurs frais et pourraient parvenir à l'autosuffisance financière avec le produit de leurs ventes et la publicité. Cela est également vrai pour la radio et la télévision : publicité, patronage, ventes de services comme les communiqués et produits dérivés comme les tee-shirts ou les casquettes peuvent procurer des revenus complémentaires significatifs.Interview de paysans pour une émission radio au Ghana (Photo : Jacques Sultan)sensiblement réduits en plantant du napier autour des parcelles de maïs. Les foreurs du maïs sont attirés par cette herbe et y pondent leurs oeufs plutôt que sur le maïs. Et, lorsque ces derniers éclosent, ils sont pris dans un liquide gluant produit par le napier qui les retient jusqu'à ce qu'ils meurent. Contrairement aux vaporisations de produits chimiques que de nombreux agriculteurs utilisent pour lutter contre le foreur du maïs, l'herbe de napier est peu coûteuse et respectueuse de l'environnement. De plus, elle constitue un excellent fourrage pour les bovins, les moutons et les chèvres.C'est une bonne solution, mais comment être sûr que les paysans en entendront parler ? L'ICIPE a convaincu la Fondation Gatsby, qui a financé la recherche initiale, de soutenir la production d'une série de programmes radio sur le thème. L'AIC a écrit un scénario qui dit à peu près ceci :• Les villageois de Tembea na Majira se plaignent que leur rendement de maïs est en chute, même lorsqu'ils pulvérisent les insecticides préconisés. Ils en parlent à leurs conseillers agricoles qui font appel à des chercheurs de l'ICIPE.• Les chercheurs se rendent dans les champs des villageois et trouvent deux problèmes, le foreur du maïs et le striga, une sorte de mauvaise herbe parasite. Les chercheurs organisent un voyage d'études pour Wanjiku et son amie Grace Owino à la station de l'ICIPE à Kisumu pour qu'ils voient les résultats des recherches de leurs propres yeux.• Les deux femmes reviennent avec plein d'idées nouvelles, mais les hommes du village sont sceptiques : ils disent qu'elles sont juste allées se promener.• Les femmes décident alors d'expérimenter la nouvelle méthode. Les villageois suivent l'essai attentivement et sont finalement convaincus quand ils voient leurs pieds de maïs bien plus grands que ceux qui poussent dans des parcelles où l'on n'a pas semé de napier.Ce scénario s'étale sur une année entière, comme dans la réalité. Les émissions sont programmées de telle façon qu'elles épousent le calendrier cultural : labourage, semailles, sarclage et récolte constituent des moments de l'histoire. Certains personnages, comme les chercheurs, sont des personnes réelles. Cela permet de donner une touche d'authenticité au feuilleton et de s'assurer qu'il va être au coeur de la vie des auditeurs.Les deux autres trames dramatiques du feuilleton concernent directement les auditeurs. La malaria est la principale cause de mortalité des enfants de moins de 5 ans au Kenya ; or, cette maladie devient résistante à la chloroquine, le remède le plus répandu. Tembea na Majira encourage la destruction des endroits où les moustiques se reproduisent et montre comment faire : couper l'herbe, jeter les bouteilles et les boîtes de conserve qui peuvent conserver des eaux stagnantes où les moustiques pondent. Le programme incite les auditeurs à utiliser des traitements préventifs contre la malaria et surtout à installer des moustiquaires à leurs lits.La violence familiale est le troisième grand thème qui alimente les émissions. Les femmes battues et les mauvais traitements infligés aux enfants sont des phénomènes courants (bien que dissimulés) au Kenya, comme dans bien d'autres pays. Les auditeurs apprennent comment Juma, un des personnages de Tembea na Majira, bat son épouse Sipe, après une dispute. Il déclare qu'il doit le faire pour être respecté. Sipe le quitte et refuse de revenir au foyer, même si elle sait que cela signifie que Juma devra se soumettre à des « travaux de femmes » humiliants comme aller puiser de l'eau. Petit à petit, Tembea na Majira réussit à aborder au grand jour ce sujet particulièrement délicat et controversé.La fiction est un moyen de communication très puissant. Il évite d'avoir à dire aux gens ce qu'ils doivent et ce qu'ils ne doivent pas faire. À l'inverse, il sensibilise les auditeurs en montrant les différentes facettes d'un problème et leur permet de se faire leur propre opinion. Les messages sont subtils : bien qu'ils soient éducatifs, les émissions ne ressemblent pas à des cours. Les personnages parlent et plaisantent de leurs propres problèmes comme ils le feraient dans la vie.L'introduction de personnages bien typés permet d'exprimer des opinions diversifiées, de débattre, de trouver des compromis comme dans la vie. Les personnages sont complexes et fascinants : Wanjiku est une jeune femme intelligente ; Nanjala est l'épouse plus âgée, plus traditionnelle, qui craint d'être supplantée par Wanjiku. Sipe est intrigante et vindicative ; Juma est coléreuse mais prend bien soin de ses enfants ; le chef Moseti est un vieux coureur de jupons qui poursuit de ses assiduités Cheruto, l'assistante en santé animale, et ainsi de suite.Par dessus tout, l'histoire est distrayante. Des intrigues bien construites tiennent les auditeurs en haleine : ils vont sûrement écouter le prochain épisode pour savoir ce qui s'est passé.Tembea na Majira est un programme autosuffisant, qui rembourse ses coûts de production. Cela signifie qu'il pourra continuer tant que les auditeurs n'en seront pas lassés.Comment cela est-il possible ? Le gouvernement prend en charge les salaires, mais l'AIC doit trouver des ressources pour financer les coûts de production et de diffusion. L'AIC a un statut partiellement autonome : bien qu'il relève du ministère de l'agriculture, il est habilité à recevoir des subsides provenant de sources non gouvernementales. L'AIC et le Mediae Trust ont trouvé des soutiens financiers auprès des institutions de recherche et des projets à financement externe pour payer les coûts de production (environ e600 par épisode). Ils ont Il n'est pas possible de construire un programme radiophonique populaire et durable du jour au lendemain. Cela demande une programmation attentive, du personnel compétent et des ressources financières suffisantes pour aller de l'avant. Pour Tembea na Majira, le financement initial a été assuré par le ministère du développement international de Grande-Bretagne (DFID), qui a fourni les équipements, pris en charge la formation des équipes de l'AIC et soutenu les recherches initiales pour un programme pilote en langue kimeru.La formation et la coopération ont également joué un rôle essentiel. Des spécialistes en radio et en vidéo de Mediae Trust ont travaillé en collaboration étroite avec l'équipe de l'AIC pour programmer et concevoir les programmes, acquérir les équipements et les ordinateurs, démarcher les annonceurs et les mécènes pour couvrir les coûts de diffusion. Ils ont également négocié avec le gouvernement pour qu'il confère à l'AIC un statut semi-autonome qui l'autorise à collecter des ressources complémentaires auprès d'organismes non gouvernementaux. En 1996, lorsque la coopération britannique s'est retirée, l'AIC avait acquis les compétences et le capital d'expérience qui lui permettaient de voler de ses propres ailes. L'AIC produit maintenant l'ensemble de ses programmes en maintenant le partenariat avec Mediae Trust, qui continue à prospecter le marché des annonceurs et à trouver des mécènes.Les études d'audience sont importantes pour le programme, à double titre. Elles sont essentielles pour s'assurer que le programme est suivi par un large auditoire, ce qui permet d'attirer les annonceurs. Mais elles sont aussi (et peut-être surtout) importantes pour s'assurer que les thèmes traités correspondent bien aux préoccupations des gens et pour affiner leur programmation.Des études menées par des organismes indépendants ont montré que près de 5 millions de Kenyans adultes (environ 36 % de la population) écoutaient Tembea na Majira. Les chiffres peuvent être encore plus importants (6 millions d'auditeurs) lorsque le programme est diffusé juste après le journal de 21h. Il est actuellement diffusé à 20h avec un auditoire quantitativement moins important. Le changement d'heure de diffusion a été fait pour des raisons de coûts, mais au prix d'une chute d'audience. Les producteurs de la série espèrent trouver d'autres annonceurs pour revenir à la tranche horaire initiale, plus favorable.Le nombre d'auditeurs peut aussi varier selon les zones. À Meru, 48 % des habitants ont déclaré que c'était leur programme préféré, alors qu'ils sont 60 % à Kitale. À Nakuru, Tembea na Majira est en compétition avec une station locale très populaire. Ses performances ne sont « que de 20 % » de la population, chiffre qui ferait pâlir d'envie bien des producteurs ou annonceurs d'autres pays.La recherche a également joué un rôle essentiel pour bâtir le projet initial. En 1993, une équipe de l'AIC a conduit une étude sur les pratiques agricoles et les habitudes d'écoute de la radio dans quatre districts du sud du Kenya. Elle a découvert que 69 % des foyers possédaient un poste radio et que seulement 7 % n'avaient aucun accès à un récepteur. Cette étude a également permis d'identifier les thèmes importants pour les auditeurs, les formats de programmes qu'ils préféraient et les heures d'écoute les plus favorables.Cette recherche a débouché sur la production d'un programme en langue ki-meru, appelé Ndinga Nacio (Intéresse-moi). Ce programme est toujours programmé dans la grille de la KBC. Il a servi de pilote pour la programmation nationale de Tembea na Majira.L'unité vidéo de l'AIC cherche également une forme d'autonomie financière. Elle produit des documentaires et des programmes de formation à la demande de clients comme les agences de développement ou les ONG. Les productions les plus récentes ont porté sur l'embouche bovine, le stockage des cultures d'exportation après récolte, l'irrigation et les méthodes de recherche participative.Les vidéos sont exploitées de différentes façons. Quelques-unes sont destinées à appuyer la formation paysanne dans des centres de formation dans tout le pays et même dans d'autres pays africains. Certains programmes sont conçus pour déclencher une discussion parmi les participants à une formation. Ils proposent généralement des études de cas à partir de l'histoire d'un agriculteur ou l'exposé d'une situation. Après la projection, l'animateur invite les participants à analyser ce qu'ils ont vu et entendu. Après ce débat, le téléviseur est à nouveau allumé pour voir un nouveau programme, qui cette fois, expose les aspects techniques du même problème.D'autres programmes vidéo sont diffusés sur des téléviseurs communautaires installés sur les marchés, partout dans le pays. Des études ont montré que ces programmes avaient une forte capacité d'attraction : les gens qui se rendent au marché restent généralement pour regarder le programme vidéo.L'AIC et Mediae Trust ont également produit une série de programmes de formation sur les techniques de communication à l'intention des vulgarisateurs. Ces séries, produites en collaboration avec l'université de Reading et l'Open University en Grande-Bretagne, traitent tous les sujets relatifs à la communication : la communication interpersonnelle, l'organisation des visites sur le terrain, les démonstrations techniques, la prise de parole en public, l'animation de groupe, l'utilisation des aides visuelles… Le kit de formation comprend 6 cassettes vidéo et un manuel. Il a été exploité pour la formation de milliers de vulgarisateurs, au Kenya et dans d'autres pays. Il est également utilisé à l'Université de Reading pour initier les formateurs à ces techniques.Les vidéos de l'AIC répondent aux normes professionnelles. Les images sont excellentes, avec des gros plans parfaitement cadrés, des panoramiques et des zooms très maîtrisés et un montage nerveux. L'AIC utilise du matériel professionnel, ce qui permet la diffusion des programmes sur les antennes des télévisions nationales, comme leur exploitation en vidéo pour des petits groupes.Certains clients savent exactement ce qu'ils veulent. Ils viennent alors avec un scénario et un découpage technique déjà prêts. D'autres ont besoin de plus d'assistance. Les équipes de l'AIC ont une double qualification, en agriculture et en production audiovisuelle, ce qui leurApporter aux producteurs ruraux une information Jacques Sultan « Radio Benso, c'est notre radio, c'est la radio des paysans… » « La radio a changé notre vie. Elle nous a permis de nous sentir un peu au Mali. Avant, nous écoutions les radios de Côte d'Ivoire. Maintenant, nous pouvons nous tenir au courant de ce qui se passe chez nous, avoir des informations techniques sur la culture du coton, diffuser nos communiqués sur les antennes pour informer nos familles des événements importants, écouter la musique de nos villages. Radio Benso, c'est notre radio, c'est la radio qui parle des paysans ».Voilà ce que dit un auditeur de radio Benso, à Kolondieba, une des quatre localités de la région cotonnière, dans le sud du Mali, où une radio rurale communautaire diffuse ses programmes depuis début 1999. Il faut dire que la situation de ces paysans, principalement producteurs de coton, n'est pas toujours facile : leurs revenus sont très dépendants des variations des cours d'un marché mondial capricieux et leurs activités de production sont contrôlées par un opérateur puissant et omniprésent, la Compagnie malienne de développement des textiles (CMDT).Pour ces producteurs, l'information et la communication sont des outils stratégiques pour s'organiser collectivement, gérer en commun les facteurs de production, échanger leurs expériences, accéder aux informations techniques et économiques dont ils ont besoin, faire les choix les plus appropriés et défendre leurs intérêts. Les obstacles liés à la diversité des langues, à l'analphabétisme et à l'isolement de certaines associations villageoises rendaient l'accès à l'information et à la communication difficiles… jusqu'à l'arrivée des radios communautaires locales…Quatre radios sont ainsi nées à Kolondieba, Bougouni, Koutiala et Bla, avec l'appui financier de la coopération néerlandaise et le soutien technique de la La mise en oeuvre des radios a associé les communautés, les producteurs ruraux, les organisations paysannes et les partenaires locaux à toutes les étapes. Les projets ont été construits avec la population. Une campagne d'information et de sensibilisation a été organisée dans la plupart des localités couvertes par le projet de radio, sous la forme de réunions publiques au cours desquelles toutes les questions relatives à la création de la radio étaient débattues avec la population. Les radios sont autonomes. Toutes les activités des radios (personnels, programmes, ressources) sont gérées par des comités élus par la communauté : comité de gestion, comité de programmes. Le personnel est recruté localement, sur la base de critères précis : ancrage solide dans le terroir, maîtrise des langues locales, motivation et niveau d'instruction.La participation des communautés aux coûts de construction de la radio est une garantie de leur implication. Les communautés ont construit elles-mêmes les locaux de la radio en faisant appel à leurs propres ressources et à l'appui des partenaires locaux. L'intérêt des communautés était si fort que 9 mois après le démarrage du projet, les locaux devant abriter les stations étaient construits.Tous les agents ont été formés. L'ensemble des personnels des stations (techniciens, animateurs et producteurs) ainsi que les membres des comités de gestion ont suivi une formation de base encadrée par le Centre interafricain d'études en radio rurale de Ouagadougou (CIERRO) (voir p. 36). Le programme de formation couvrait l'ensemble des aspects du fonctionnement de la station : techniques de production, animation d'antenne, techniques de prise de son, exploitation des équipements, gestion administrative et financière de la radio.Les conditions de durabilité sont réunies. Le coût de fonctionnement des radios a également fait l'objet d'une étude afin de préparer la prise en charge économique autonome des radios par leurs seules ressources. Chaque radio dispose de deux comptes séparés dont l'un est exclusivement réservé au renouvellement des matériels. Des instruments de durabilité ont été mis en place : création de clubs d'auditeurs et d'associations des ressortissants des localités couvertes par la radio, contrats de prestations avec les partenaires locaux, publicité, avis et communiqués.Un mécanisme d'interactivité avec l'auditoire a été mis en place. Une étude sur les besoins en information des auditeurs a été entreprise dans chaque radio avec l'appui d'un consultant extérieur. Menée avec une approche participative, cette étude, à la fois quantitative et qualitative, a permis d'identifier les différentes catégories d'auditeurs, de connaître les conditions d'écoute de la radio (accès aux récepteurs, heures d'écoute, langues), d'inventorier les thèmes et genres d'émissions préférées en rapport avec les problèmes des auditeurs. Elle a également identifié les partenaires potentiels des radios, leurs besoins et leur disponibilité de collaboration.Un système de suivi-évaluation est en cours de réalisation. Un système de contact avec les auditeurs et de suiviévaluation de l'impact des programmes est progressivement mis en place dans les radios pour stimuler l'écoute et les discussions sur les programmes, recueillir les critiques, besoins, souhaits, demandes et pour accroître la participation des auditeurs à la conception, l'élaboration, la production et le suivi des émissions.Une formation spécifique sur le suivi et l'évaluation de l'impact des programmes doit être prochainement organisée par la FAO dans les quatre stations. Elle mettra en place des outils simples permettant aux radios de connaître l'audience des programmes, d'évaluer les changements observés dans les pratiques des producteurs après les émissions comportant des informations techniques et de mesurer les conséquences des programmes sur l'environnement socio-économique des localités, au niveau de l'agriculture, de l'élevage, de la santé de la gestion des ressources naturelles.FAO (Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture). Chacune d'entre elle couvre une population de près de 500 000 habitants et rayonne sur 100 km environ. Elles s'inscrivent dans le schéma directeur du développement de la radio du Mali.Après moins d'un an de fonctionnement au moment de notre visite, ces radios étaient déjà devenues un instrument très apprécié par les producteurs ruraux. Leurs grilles de programmes ont été élaborées en prenant en compte les besoins des auditeurs et les demandes des différents partenaires intervenant dans la vie de la radio (voir encadré 2).Les études préalables menées dans les villages couverts par les quatre radios ont montré que les thèmes les plus souvent demandés par les villageois sont les thèmes sociaux (éducation des enfants, délinquance juvénile, problèmes familiaux, relations hommes-femmes et parentsenfants, santé, grossesses non désirées), les thèmes portant sur les activités agricoles et pastorales (en particulier sur la culture du coton, du semis jusqu'à la commercialisation), les thèmes relevant de la culture locale (histoire des villages, musiques des terroirs, tradition orale…).Les horaires préférés par les auditeurs sont le matin, avant 8 heures, et le soir après 18 heures. L'écoute est beaucoup plus faible dans la journée, tout le monde étant occupé aux travaux des champs.Les auditeurs aiment leurs radios et manifestent une nette préférence pour les émissions enregistrées dans les villages avec leur participation directe et qui traitent de leurs problèmes immédiats ou qui mettent en valeur leur identité culturelle et musicale.« On aimerait que la radio parle de tout ce qui peut améliorer notre cadre de vie, la santé, l'éducation, ainsi que le développement de nos activités », dit une auditrice de radio Benso à Kolondieba. « Il faut que les programmes tiennent compte de nos heures de repos pour diffuser les émissions destinées aux femmes, c'est-à-dire vers 20 heures ». « Les jours de marché », dit un des animateurs de radio Kafo Kan à Bougouni, « la station est envahie par les paysans de toutes les localités des alentours qui viennent voir les équipements de leur radio, rencontrer les animateurs et apporter les communiqués qu'ils veulent diffuser sur l'antenne ».Les principaux partenaires des radios (administrations locales, services publics, ONG) disposent de tranches d'antenne qui leur sont réservées, où ils traitent de thèmes éducatifs, sociaux ou récréatifs. La CMDT, qui est le principal partenaire des radios, a organisé sur le« La radio est à l'écoute des auditeurs », dit Yaya Kone, directeur de Radio Kafo Kan à Bougouni ; « nous essayons d'aller au-devant des préoccupations de nos auditeurs. Nos animateurs ont des motos qui leur permettent d'aller sur le terrain et de dialoguer avec les associations villageoises, les femmes, les jeunes. Il arrive que les auditeurs contestent vivement la CMDT. Nous faisons alors écouter ces enregistrements à la CMDT en leur disant : voilà ce que les auditeurs pensent de vous. Qu'avez-vous à leur répondre ? »« Dans le village de Sido », dit encore Yaya Kone, « il y avait de gros problèmes liés à l'absence de maternité. Les gens attendaient qu'une mère soit décédée pour faire venir des partenaires de l'extérieur et obtenir une assistance ; ils ne savaient pas que la solution était entre leurs mains. Nous avons fait une émission publique sur la place du village, autour du thème, en organisant un jeu, des concours d'éloquence et des débats. L'émission publique a été très vivante et tous les aspects de la question ont été évoqués. Le concours d'éloquence a été remporté par un homme qui a dit un proverbe, dans un bambara formidable : si tu veux qu'on t'aide, tu dois commencer à t'aider toimême. Ce proverbe a ensuite servi pour faire un microprogramme diffusé par la radio. Maintenant, à Sido, les villageois ont commencé à cotiser pour bâtir leur propre maternité ».« Un des problèmes sérieux, ici, c'est la vente illicite du coton », dit Fagotoma Sare, directeur de Radio Uyesu, à Koutiala. « Il y a beaucoup de conflits liés à cela. Des associations villageoises nous ont demandé d'aborder ce thème dans nos programmes pour dénoncer ces pratiques injustes pour la collectivité. »terrain des groupes d'écoute de ses programmes (voir encadré 3), encadrés par les vulgarisateurs pour exploiter et approfondir le contenu technique des émissions qui sont surtout axées sur les différents aspects de la culture du coton. L'élaboration de la grille de programmes est un exercice difficile d'équilibre car il faut donner la parole à tous ces partenaires, tout en préservant la mission d'intérêt général de la radio.Un compagnon inséparable 1 « À partir des émissions de la CMDT, qui sont diffusées régulièrement sur les antennes des radios Mali Sud, les populations apprennent les techniques culturales, notamment l'utilisation des engrais. La radio fait aussi office de bureau de poste et de téléphone : grâce à elle, les populations communiquent entre elles à travers les avis et communiqués. Les populations utilisent la radio pour retrouver les choses perdues, volées, les animaux égarés ou pour informer parents et amis d'un événement important. La radio a changé la manière de travailler des communautés rurales. Elles se servent des informations de la météo diffusée sur les antennes pour préparer un voyage, par exemple. L'intérêt pour la radio se fait de plus en plus sentir et prend de plus en plus d'envergure. Cela se traduit par une augmentation du nombre des propriétaires de postes radio et une fidélité par rapport aux émissions préférées. La quasi-totalité des personnes interrogées déclarent avoir acheté leur poste FM après l'avènement des radios rurales de Mali Sud. Pour les populations, la radio est devenue un compagnon inséparable. » 1 Extrait de l'étude des besoins des communautés rurales des zones de diffusion des radios Mali Sud.Certains producteurs vendent directement une partie de leur récolte à un commerçant, souvent à des prix inférieurs au prix du marché, pour disposer d'argent immédiatement, avant la vente à la CMDT. Ces quantités ne sont donc pas comptabilisées dans la vente à la CMDT, qui retire pourtant du produit global de la vente les avances qui ont été faites pour l'achat des intrants pour l'ensemble de la production du village. La somme qui est finalement donnée aux associations villageoises pour être répartie parmi les producteurs est amputée du coût global des intrants. Ce sont donc ceux qui n'ont pas vendu illicitement une partie de leur production qui doivent payer les dettes de ceux qui ont été moins scrupuleux.« Ces émissions ont été très intéressantes », conclut Fagotoma Sare, « car elles ont permis une prise de conscience collective du problème. Nous avons diffusé des témoignages de producteurs qui ont reconnu avoir vendu illicitement une partie de leur coton et qui ont regretté de l'avoir fait. Nous avons fait un microprogramme sur ce thème : vous qui vendez votre coton illicitement, non seulement vous n'obtenez pas le prix au kilo que vous donnerait la CMDT, mais vous obligez la collectivité à payer vos dettes en intrants et vous créez la mésentente dans l'association villageoise ».« Nous apprécions particulièrement la façon dont sont faites les émissions destinées aux femmes », dit la représentante d'une association féminine à Kolondieba. « Elles posent bien nos problèmes. Même nos maris, qui sont les maris les plus bouchés, peuvent comprendre les messages qu'elles véhiculent ».Oumar Sangare, le coordonnateur du projet des radios du Sud Mali, dit que les femmes de Koutiala ne sont pas satisfaites de la place qu'elles occupent dans le comité de gestion de la radio. Elles ont l'intention de se présenter en force au moment du renouvellement de ce comité », ajoute-t-il, « car elles veulent que les programmes de la radio prennent davantage en compte leurs problèmes ».Une année seulement après leur lancement, on peut dire que ces quatre radios communautaires sont devenues un véritable laboratoire de la démocratie locale au Mali.Cela n'est pas toujours très facile car les intérêts des différents partenaires en présence sont quelquefois divergents, voire contradictoires. Il faut éviter les tentatives de récupération politique, maintenir un équilibre dans les grilles de programmes entre les principaux thèmes demandés par les auditeurs, donner la parole à chacun des groupes concernés (producteurs ruraux, CMDT, administration locale, services publics, ONG), encourager l'expression des jeunes et des femmes, jouer le rôle de médiateur dans les conflits et trouver des formats d'émission adaptés aux modes d'expression des paysans.Les radios rurales locales du Mali Sud sont sur ce chemin et bâtissent jour après jour la démocratie locale…Un schéma directeur pour le développement de la radio au Mali Le Mali a connu d'importants changements au cours des dix dernières années : la vie politique s'est démocratisée, le processus de décentralisation a été mis en place, l'État se désengage progressivement des activités productives, les organisations paysannes se structurent.Les médias ont également beaucoup évolué : la « parole citoyenne », longtemps bridée par un régime politique autoritaire, a été libérée en 1991 avec la chute du régime autoritaire et la promulgation de nouvelles lois dans le secteur de la presse écrite et audiovisuelle. Depuis, on assiste à une véritable explosion des médias, notamment dans le domaine de la radio, qui est un outil de communication particulièrement apprécié par les Maliens. Plus de cent radios locales de toutes sortes (associatives, communautaires, commerciales et confessionnelles) ont ainsi vu le jour, dans tout le pays, en milieu urbain comme en zones rurales, dans un grand bouillonnement d'initiatives mais dans un relatif vide juridique.Le gouvernement, pour tirer le meilleur parti de ces initiatives et associer ces nouvelles radios à un service public de radiodiffusion démocratique et homogène sur l'ensemble du territoire, a mis en place un schéma directeur du développement de la radio au Mali portant sur la période 1995-2014.Ce schéma est basé sur une étude des besoins de couverture géographique et démographique du pays et sur les disponibilités en fréquences de diffusion. Il vise l'implantation progressive d'environ quarante radios de proximité qui seront en mesure de proposer aux auditeurs des programmes qui répondent à leurs besoins d'information, d'éducation et de divertissement, qui utilisent les langues parlées dans les zones concernées et qui reflètent les valeurs culturelles locales.Comme cette mission ne peut pas être assurée par la radio nationale, qui n'en a pas les moyens, le gouvernement propose une délégation de service public aux promoteurs des radios associatives, communautaires et commerciales déjà existantes ou en projet, sur la base de l'acceptation de missions d'intérêt général dans le cadre d'un cahier de charges précis.En contrepartie, les radios partenaires de ce schéma directeur bénéficient d'un certain nombre d'avantages, au niveau de la puissance autorisée des émetteurs, de l'assistance technique pour l'achat et l'entretien du matériel de production et des réseaux de diffusion, de la formation du personnel, de la fourniture et de l'échange de programmes.Les quatre radios de la zone Mali Sud s'inscrivent dans ce schéma et préfigurent ce qui pourrait devenir le réseau des radios locales communautaires du Mali, partenaires du schéma directeur du développement de la radio.Jean Pierre Ilboudo, Responsable de projet, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO), Via delle terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome (Italie). Tél (39) 6 5705 6889 ; e-mail JeanPierre.Ilboudo@fao.org Oumar Sangare, Coordonnateur du projet radios Mali Sud, BP 1820, Bamako (Mali). Tél (223) 21 05 50• Le journal d'informations générales Les Echos, créé en 1989, est devenu le quotidien de référence au Mali ;• Le magazine Grin-Grin est un mensuel destiné au jeune public de 12 à 20 ans ;• Le journal Yeko est un premier mensuel de proximité décentralisé, publié à Ségou.Parallèlement, la coopérative Jamana a mis en place une série d'outils de production, de diffusion et d'animation : une maison d'édition, un atelier de composition et de publication assistée par ordinateur (PAO), une imprimerie, une librairie spécialisée dans les ouvrages en langues nationales et sur l'Afrique, un centre de documentation comportant des données sur l'histoire, l'économie, la sociologie et la culture des sociétés maliennes et africaines, ainsi qu'un atelier d'arts plastiques et une galerie d'art animés par de jeunes artistes maliens.Le Mali est un pays de forte tradition, au patrimoine culturel très riche, dont les principaux trésors se trouvent dans le monde rural, qui constitue plus de 80 % de la population.La coopérative Jamana a développé ses activités dans le monde rural. Elle s'appuie sur les principales langues nationales parlées dans le pays, soutient les programmes d'alphabétisation mis en place dans ces langues et apporte une réponse aux besoins d'information, d'expression et de dialogue formulés par les populations rurales.L'approche développée par Jamana est ouverte. Elle est basée sur trois axes stratégiques :• Les producteurs ne sont pas seulement à la recherche d'informations techniques sur l'agriculture, l'élevage ou la pêche mais ont aussi des besoins d'information dans des domaines très divers comme la santé, l'éducation, la nutrition, la gestion des ressources naturelles… ;• La population rurale est attachée à la valorisation de ses savoirs, de ses traditions et de ses richesses culturelles, musicales ou artisanales ;• Les communautés rurales veulent prendre part au débat politique et sont fortement demandeuses d'informations citoyennes sur les enjeux de l'évolution de la société malienne, la décentralisation, la gestion des affaires publiques… Pour répondre au mieux à cette demande dans sa diversité et toucher à la fois les personnes alphabétisées dans les principales langues nationales et les analphabètes, qui représentent 70 % de la population, la stratégie de communication de la coopérative Jamana s'est appuyée sur une combinaison de supports écrits et sonores adaptés à la situation de la population rurale, en veillant à ce qu'ils soient techniquement et économiquement maîtrisables. Jekabaara est donc en pleine expansion et rencontre une demande croissante du monde rural car les personnes alphabétisées en langues nationales sont de plus en plus nombreuses et il existe peu de productions écrites en mesure de satisfaire les besoins des néo-alphabètes.Le principal facteur limitant reste cependant celui de la distribution. La diffusion par des dépositaires individuels est hasardeuse, notamment en raison des difficultés d'acheminement et de récupération de l'argent des ventes. Plusieurs solutions alternatives sont actuellement étudiées par la coopérative Jamana, notamment la conclusion de contrats avec des ONG pour qu'elles assurent la diffusion dans leurs propres circuits avec, en contrepartie, des facilités d'acquisition des autres produits de la coopérative Jamana ou le renforcement de points de diffusion spécifiques en liaison avec les correspondants de Jamana sur le terrain et les radios de proximité (voir encadré 5).La radio reste, bien entendu, l'outil de communication le mieux adapté au monde rural et les Maliens en sont très friands. Avec la libération des ondes intervenue en 1991, la coopérative Jamana, qui avait été membre fondateur de la première radio libre du Mali, Radio Bamakan,  Des accords de partenariat et des contrats de coproduction sont passés avec les organismes associés aux activités de développement rural dans les différentes localités concernées. Par exemple, la radio Jamana de Koutiala (Radio Kujakan) a passé des accords de coproduction avec la CMDT pour traiter de toutes les questions relatives à la culture du coton, mais aussi à la santé, l'alphabétisation, l'eau potable, la protection de la couverture végétale, l'aviculture… Elle a aussi conclu des accords de partenariat avec le SYCOV (Syndicat des producteurs cotonniers et vivriers), les services publics, les ONG nationales et internationales, les projets, les associations féminines, les opérateurs économiques et les artisans.Les outils d'information, de communication et d'animation de la coopérative Jamana couvrent toutes les régions et utilisent les principales langues parlées dans le pays. Ils abordent de façon interactive les principaux thèmes intéressant la population, tant dans le domaine du développement rural proprement dit, que dans les secteurs de la santé, de l'éducation et de l'environnement. Ils sont particulièrement attentifs à encourager la citoyenneté, à valoriser le patrimoine culturel et à approfondir les questions intéressant les femmes et les jeunes.Radio Kené à Sikasso (Mali) (Photo : Jacques Sultan)Les enjeux pour les années à venir sont importants car la mise en place de la décentralisation ouvre de larges perspectives avec une forte demande en information et en communication.Pour relever ce défi, la coopérative Jamana a de nouveaux projets :• Des espaces d'animation et de discussion vont être mis en place autour des radios de proximité. Ils seront des lieux de débat sur l'évolution de la société malienne et constitueront des points de distribution des journaux en langues nationales et des autres productions de Jamana. Ils permettront aussi de faire remonter l'information vers la structure centrale pour améliorer le contenu éditorial des journaux, des magazines et des revues ;• Le journal sonore Sorofe et les radios de proximité vont collaborer plus étroitement. Les productions de Sorofe seront diffusées par les radios et les programmes des radios pourront nourrir la production du journal sonore ;• Les radios vont fonctionner en réseau. Elles seront progressivement dotées chacune d'un ordinateur afin de communiquer entre elles et avec la structure centrale par messagerie électronique. Dans une deuxième étape, elles synchroniseront certains de leurs programmes en lien avec la radio Bamakan à Bamako. Ce réseau servira également à la production de bulletins d'information locaux ;• Le système de production des journaux et revues va être amélioré en multipliant les correspondants locaux ;• Des contrats de collaboration sont en cours de négociation avec des partenaires importants comme l'Office du Niger ou le Programme de gestion des ressources naturelles. Ces accords vont permettre l'amélioration de la production mais aussi de la diffusion des journaux et documents en langues nationales ;  Le centre encourage et soutient la coproduction de programmes entre plusieurs stations membres du réseau, en organisant des ateliers de coproduction sur des thèmes comme la tradition orale, l'éducation à la citoyenneté, le droit en milieu rural, les relations de « cousinage » entre ethnies, la lutte contre les feux de brousse… L'initiative peut également provenir des radios qui proposent des thèmes de coproduction. Le centre apporte un appui pour la mise en relation des radios coproductrices et pour la réalisation des programmes.Les révolutions de l'informationUn atelier de coproduction débouche sur des campagnes radiophoniques dans 6 pays…Le droit en milieu rural est un thème crucial pour les producteurs ruraux, notamment sur les questions d'accès des femmes à la terre, d'héritage, de rapports entre cultivateurs et éleveurs… Un atelier de coproduction sur ce thème a été organisé au Sénégal en août 1999, dans le cadre du réseau des radios rurales locales d'Afrique, avec la participation de communicateurs, de juristes et de linguistes provenant de 6 pays (Bénin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Guinée, Mali, Sénégal).Diverses productions ont été réalisées au cours de l'atelier sous la forme de magazines et de microprogrammes sur différents thèmes : les cartes d'identité, les actes de naissance et de mariage, les droits des femmes dans le mariage et dans l'accès à la terre, l'état de droit… Leur diffusion, en plusieurs langues, dans les pays concernés a connu un succès considérable auprès des auditeurs qui ont découvert que les problèmes de droit se posaient dans les mêmes termes dans d'autres pays que le leur.Ces diffusions ont suscité un tel intérêt que, dans plusieurs pays, elles ont constitué le point de départ de toute une série d'autres productions qui vont maintenant enrichir le patrimoine commun de ces radios : des tables rondes et des magazines sur le mariage (et notamment sur les mariages forcés et les mariages précoces), le divorce, l'héritage, l'accès des femmes à la terre, les droits des femmes, l'accès à la justice, le règlement des conflits… Des organisations locales des droits de l'homme, des ONG et des magistrats se sont associés à ces initiatives.Les émissions sont traduites dans de nouvelles langues locales et certaines stations ont institué un service de questions/réponses en allant collecter dans les villages les questions que se posent les ruraux et en apportant des réponses à l'antenne avec la contribution de juristes et de spécialistes du droit.Une nouvelle rubrique, « Le droit et nous » est apparue dans les grilles de programmes des stations. Tous ces programmes peuvent bien sûr être échangés entre les stations par le biais de la banque de programmes du réseau.Tous les programmes ainsi coproduits sont mis à la disposition de l'ensemble des membres du réseau. Ils sont également exploités par d'autres partenaires du réseau tels que le programme Appui à l'instruction civique (APIC), qui produit des émissions éducatives, ou le programme Archivage de la tradition orale (ARTO) en lien avec le Centre d'études linguistiques et historiques par tradition orale (CELTHO), centre de l'OUA situé à Niamey (Niger).Elle a été mise en place pour aider les radios locales à acquérir du matériel de production, d'émission ou des pièces détachées. Elle a constitué un stock des équipements les plus courants et des principales pièces détachées ou de leurs équivalents qui sont achetés par le centre en gros, ce qui permet de le proposer à des prix compétitifs. Un système de fonds de roulement a été mis au point pour alimenter régulièrement le stock : toutes les radios qui versent une contribution régulière au compte de la centrale d'achat bénéficient d'une réduction de 50 % du prix du matériel et de la gratuité du coût du transport.Le site propose également à ses utilisateurs le carnet d'adresses de l'ensemble des membres du réseau et des partenaires, un calendrier des activités du réseau (ateliers de formation, de coproduction, manifestations et rencontres), un répertoire des liens et des moteurs de recherche intéressant les radios qui veulent exploiter les ressources de l'Internet, des outils pour faciliter la navigation, des documents d'intérêt général en ligne…Le réseau des radios rurales et les outils que constituent le centre audionumérique et la banque de programmes ouvrent des perspectives extrêmement intéressantes pour les radios rurales locales d'Afrique.Les services déjà offerts s'enrichiront bientôt de liens avec d'autres réseaux comme les banques de programmes radiophoniques de l'Institut Panos (voir p. 69), de Syfia, du CTA ou le réseau de femmes Anaïs. Des forums de discussion et d'échanges entre radios rurales sont également en perspective.Les coproductions constituent également un élément très riche du dispositif car elles permettent, sur chacun des thèmes abordés, la réalisation de véritables dossiers et la confrontation des expériences de chaque pays dans le domaine concerné.Avec ces nouveaux outils, les radios rurales locales africaines vont pouvoir sortir de l'isolement, accéder à une grande quantité de programmes en rapport avec les préoccupations de leurs auditoires, s'informer sur ce qui est fait dans d'autres contextes pour résoudre les problèmes quotidiens de la population, faire connaître leurs initiatives et leurs réussites à l'échelle de toute l'Afrique.Centre  L'originalité de la démarche du CESPA repose sur la capacité de ses « pédagogues audiovisuels » à intervenir à tous les stades de la chaîne de conception, production et diffusion des modules de formation audiovisuelle : diagnostic des problèmes posés, définition de la stratégie de communication éducative en collaboration avec l'ensemble des acteurs concernés, élaboration des scénarios, réalisation des documents vidéo, rédaction des documents d'accompagnement, expérimentation des séances de formation sur le terrain, formation des utilisateurs des modules.Une fois le thème défini, l'équipe du CESPA entreprend une enquête auprès des communautés rurales, des services techniques compétents, des organismes de recherche et des centres de documentation existants. Cette enquête permet de cerner les différents éléments du problème posé, d'inventorier les connaissances et les pratiques existantes dans le milieu et d'identifier les caractéristiques culturelles, économiques et sociales de la population à former.Sur cette base, l'équipe élabore un « livret » qui représente la synthèse des connaissances paysannes et de celles des techniciens. La confrontation de ces deux éléments permet de formuler des objectifs de formation pertinents et d'en structurer le contenu de façon appropriée.Les scénarios des documents audiovisuels de formation sont alors rédigés. Les tournages se font systématiquement en milieu rural, les paysans étant amenés à jouer eux-mêmes leur propre rôle dans les documents de formation. Après la postproduction, les documents vidéo sont testés et, si nécessaire, modifiés.Pour renforcer la production vidéo, des supports complémentaires sont conçus et réalisés : • Une cassette audio qui reprend les principaux éléments de l'apprentissage sous forme d'éléments sonores. La cassette est remise aux participants après la formation. Elle en constitue la mémoire sonore ;• Une boîte à images qui synthétise avec une série d'images fixes de grand format les principaux éléments du contenu de la formation. La boîte à images peut être utilisée comme support alternatif de la formation si la vidéo n'est pas disponible ;• Des affiches ou tableaux d'images, qui représentent des éléments visuels de sensibilisation et de discussion sur le thème et qui peuvent également être utilisés en complément des boîtes à images si la vidéo ne peut pas être diffusée.Un deuxième test permet de valider l'ensemble du « paquet pédagogique de formation paysanne ».   La Voix du Paysan sort de chez l'imprimeur le premier lundi de chaque mois. La direction du journal organise dans la foulée une conférence de rédaction au cours de laquelle sont programmées les missions de terrain des journalistes. Elles dureront d'une à deux semaines.Les reporters quittent Yaoundé par les transports en commun en direction des différentes régions du pays : forestière, côtière, sahélienne et hauts-plateaux.Cette descente au coeur des provinces leur permet de prendre le pouls du pays et de recueillir les doléances des villageois. « Très souvent, les journalistes se rendent en reportage sans thème préétabli et sans itinéraire précis. Ce sont leurs discussions avec les populations qui leur permettent de cerner les sujets sur lesquels ils vont enquêter », explique Bernard Njonga, directeur de publication du journal.La réalisation de chaque numéro du journal respecte néanmoins plusieurs axes d'équilibrage. Le premier concerne l'importance de la parole paysanne dans le numéro à paraître : est-elle suffisante ?La répartition de la couverture de l'information au niveau des régions est également un souci majeur : est-ce que le lectorat de chaque grande zone se retrouve dans le journal ? En effet, le paysan du Nord, en région cotonnière, n'a pas les mêmes préoccupations que celui du Sud (zone des grandes cultures) ou que celui vivant en périphérie des agglomérations qui réalise une agriculture périurbaine.La direction de La Voix du Paysan décide donc quelquefois de réaliser deux « à la une » pour certains numéros afin de satisfaire les attentes d'un lectorat hétérogène. Par ailleurs, un cahier régional consacré aux cultures forestières (café, cacao…) est souvent incorporé dans les exemplaires distribués dans les zones humides, du littoral jusqu'au Gabon. Un cahier « sahélien » est également inséré pour les populations du Nord du pays et du Sud tchadien.Le troisième axe d'équilibrage est relatif au contenu des rubriques. Les informations du mois doivent se répartir de manière assez équitable entre les articles d'information générale, de formation et de réflexion.En outre, le journal doit être suffisamment illustré (en assurant un bon équilibre entre photos et dessins) pour satisfaire les différents goûts du lectorat.Enfin, la rédaction fait aussi le compterendu des manifestations officielles et traite de l'actualité juridique et économique qui interfère dans la vie des agriculteurs.Au retour de leurs missions, les journalistes sont conviés à une deuxième conférence de rédaction au cours de laquelle ils relatent leurs périples, les problèmes dont ils ont pris connaissance, les initiatives paysannes qu'ils ont découvertes et les témoignages qu'ils ont recueillis. L'équipe discute et entérine les sujets. « Si on constate qu'un axe d'équilibrage n'a pas été respecté, des missions complémentaires de recueil d'information peuvent être demandées pour finaliser le reportage ou le dossier », explique Martin Nzegang.Cette deuxième conférence de presse sert également à faire l'évaluation du journal sur le terrain. Les journalistes ont pu apprécier l'impact du dernier numéro et font part de leurs commentaires au cours de cette rencontre avec la direction et leurs confrères.Ensuite, l'équipe se met à la rédaction des différents articles.Outre Pour répondre aux différentes demandes, La Voix du Paysan a également développé de nouveaux canaux de diffusion de l'information : deux recueils de fiches techniques ont été réalisés et tirés à environ 20 000 exemplaires ; des bandes dessinées ont, par ailleurs, été publiées (environ 5 000 épreuves) sur plusieurs cultures (café, cacao, tomate, palmier à huile, pastèque, etc.). « C'est un moyen de diffuser de l'information technique par un canal ludique », souligne Bernard Njonga.Enfin, des journées d'information thématiques sont organisées par le centre de documentation du SAILD (Service d'appui aux initiatives locales de développement), l'ONG qui sert de structure au journal. La dernière manifestation a porté sur la culture du champignon.L'identification des thèmes est réalisée avec les agriculteurs et les techniciens agricoles. Un public cible est constitué et convié à cette manifestation.Le coût de production au numéro s'élève en moyenne à 610 francs CFA (0,93 e). Il comprend les salaires, les frais de reportages (déplacement, logement, alimentation, etc.), les frais généraux, les charges de personnel et les coûts d'impression. Les charges de distribution représentent environ 80 FCFA (0,12 e) par numéro, soit un coût de revient total de 690 F CFA (1,05 e). Rappelons que le prix de vente en kiosque est de 300 F CFA l'exemplaire (0,46 e), ce qui représente moins de la moitié du coût de revient du journal.Le prix des abonnements est de 2 000 F CFA ou pour les paysans ? » ou cette lettre de doléances des paysans de Santchou adressée au Chef de la nation, Paul Biya et publiée par la rédaction.Retour sur les faits : en octobre 1997, les pouvoirs publics ont dissout la Soderim, une société de développement nationalisée de riziculture dans la région de Santchou. L'État voulait liquider la société d'un seul bloc mais les paysans désiraient acquérir les outils de production. À la suite du passage de la lettre de doléances des agriculteurs de la région, les pouvoirs publics ont fait machine arrière et ont permis aux exploitants agricoles d'acheter le petit matériel agricole à l'occasion d'une vente aux enchères.La volonté de sensibiliser les décideurs est manifeste : « Aujourd'hui, la cible du journal n'est plus exclusivement paysanne. Partant du constat que les décisions qui influencent la vie dans le monde rural sont prises en ville, le journal s'est ouvert aux citadins pour créer un courant d'échanges dont nous espérons qu'il permettra de sensibiliser les décideurs », explique Bernard Njonga qui considère, en outre, que le manque d'information des décideurs sur ce qui se passe dans les campagnes est un frein important au développement.Le tirage actuel du journal est de 30 000 exemplaires, dont 20 000 pour la version française du Cameroun et 4 000 pour celle en anglais. Les versions française et arabe tchadien destinées au Tchad sont tirées respectivement à 4 000 et 2 000 exemplaires : « notre objectif est de réaliser un tirage entre 100 000 et 150 000 exemplaires au Cameroun et au Tchad d'ici trois ans. Ce but est largement réalisable car nous estimons que le lectorat potentiel, rien qu'au Cameroun, s'élève à 2,5 millions de personnes », estiment les responsables du journal.Par ailleurs, une demande pressante se manifeste pour créer une édition en Centrafrique, au Gabon et au Congo Brazzaville. Certaines ONG ont demandé la permission de diffuser le journal dans les pays limitrophes. Ainsi, 75 numéros sont envoyés chaque mois en Centrafrique, 150 au Gabon et 50 au Congo.Les efforts de l'équipe du journal ont été récemment récompensés : le dernier sujet de l'examen probatoire (entre le BEPC et le baccalauréat) a été tiré d'un article du mensuel concernant la production et la commercialisation du cacao.En fin d'année 1999, La Voix du Paysan a reçu, par ailleurs, la reconnaissance de ses pairs en étant désigné meilleur journal de l'année 1999 par l'Association des journalistes de la presse écrite du Cameroun, à l'occasion de son assemblée générale de décembre à Douala.Diffuser un journal en milieu rural en Afrique s'apparente pour bien des éditeurs à un problème sans solution. Les messageries de presse privées ne distribuent que dans les grandes villes, les voies de communication en milieu rural sont souvent chaotiques et les services postaux sont loin de donner satisfaction en terme de délais et de sécurité des envois. Fort de ce constat, qui s'applique au paysage camerounais, les responsables de La Voix du Paysan ont développé plusieurs stratégies.Le journal a d'abord été distribué par Messapresse, une structure privée qui organise la diffusion de tous les journaux au niveau du pays : « cette première expérience fut un échec car cette structure ne livre les publications que dans les grandes villes alors que la vocation de notre journal est de parvenir en milieu rural. D'autre part, cette société ne transmet aucune information sur l'évolution et les habitudes du lectorat », souligne Bernard Njonga.Les responsables ont donc essayé de créer leur propre réseau de distribution en s'appuyant sur des correspondants identifiés en milieu rural qui participaient à la production et à la diffusion du journal. Mais, ces deux métiers sont différents et les résultats n'ont pas été probants.Ils ont alors changé une nouvelle fois leur fusil d'épaule et ont décidé de professionnaliser la diffusion. Des diffuseurs ont été formés commercialement dans les différentes régions du pays. Ils avaient vocation à distribuer tous les journaux de la place. Cette expérience s'est également traduite par un échec car les diffuseurs ont constaté que la commercialisation en milieu rural n'était pas assez rentable.La rédaction sensibilise aussi les pouvoirs sur les problèmes de flux de marchandises au niveau mondial et de sécurité alimentaire. Ainsi, lors de la crise de la dioxine en mars 99, La Voix du Paysan a publié un article sur le danger des produits congelés importés d'Europe. Les députés ont sorti l'exemplaire du journal en session parlementaire et contraint le ministre de l'élevage à prendre des mesures adéquates.Aujourd'hui, la rédaction est composée de 12 journalistes (quatre pour la version anglaise, quatre pour la version française du Cameroun, deux pour la version française tchadienne et deux pour celle en arabe). L'équipe compte également deux agents administratifs, un traducteur français-anglais, un chroniqueur pour la rubrique santé, trois personnes chargées de la diffusion, un coordonnateur des rédactions et un directeur de publication.Les pressions économiques qui pèsent sur les journaux confinent de plus en plus les journalistes à un travail de compilation d'information, de recherche sur l'Internet et de recueil d'information téléphonique. À La Voix du Paysan, rien de cela, les journalistes exercent leurs passions et reviennent à l'essence même de ce métier : faire du terrain pour recueillir des témoignages, donner des explications et ouvrir le débat.« Le matin, nous savons rarement où nous allons dormir le soir », dit Jean Armstrong, reporter à La Voix du Paysan. « Tu peux circuler en moto, en taxi, à l'arrière d'un pick-up, peu importe, tu montes dans le moyen de transport qui te permet d'arriver à destination ».« Il m'est déjà arrivé de voyager dans la malle d'une voiture », ajoute Martin Nzegang.La vie du journaliste à La Voix du Paysan n'est donc pas de tout repos mais ce qui compte c'est la satisfaction tirée de l'expérience. « Malgré les fatigues du voyage, le soir, quand tu te retrouves en milieu rural ou en forêt, tu puises ton oxygène, c'est comme une renaissance », souligne Jean Armstrong. « La discussion se poursuit tard dans la soirée, au coin du feu, avec les villageois et le lendemain tu repars plein d'images dans la tête ».Ce mode de production « in situ » implique une entière disponibilité de l'équipe. « Nous ne faisons pas de différence entre un dimanche et un lundi », témoigne Jean Armstrong. « Être journaliste à La Voix du Paysan, c'est un mode de vie ».« Plusieurs personnes se sont essayées à la rédaction mais elles ont compris que ce n'était pas leur voie. Certains journalistes peu scrupuleux ont également tenté d'imposer maladroitement des sujets ou des articles pour lesquels ils devaient se faire rémunérer. Nous les avons vite découverts et renvoyés », ajoute Bernard Njonga. Les producteurs ruraux, qui représentent la moitié de la population du pays, n'ont pas été préparés à ces changements. L'ANOPACI (Association nationale des organisations professionnelles agricoles de Côte d'Ivoire), structure faîtière qui regroupe les principales organisations paysannes dans toutes les filières de production, s'est donné comme objectif d'accompagner les paysans dans ces mutations.« Pour aider les producteurs à faire face à ces nouveaux défis », dit Sylvain Kouao, le responsable de la commission communication de l'ANOPACI, nous avons compris que l'information et la communication sont des facteurs déterminants. Actuellement, dans notre plateforme stratégique et dans notre plan d'action, nous sommes particulièrement attentifs à tout ce qui peut renforcer les capacités de négociation des producteurs, car nos adhérents doivent faire face à des situations nouvelles et mener des négociations difficiles avec tous les acteurs des filières. » « Qu'ils soient producteurs de coton, de café, de cacao, d'hévéa ou de produits vivriers, il leur est indispensable de disposer rapidement et régulièrement d'informations sur les prix, sur l'évolution des filières, sur l'état des marchés, sur ce que font les autres. C'est une question de survie… ».C'est cette réalité qui a conduit les responsables de l'ANOPACI à mettre en place un dispositif de communication capable de remplir trois fonctions principales :• Apporter aux responsables des organisations professionnelles de producteurs (groupements, union, coopératives…) des informations économiques, techniques et financières qui renforcent leurs capacités de négociation ;• Assurer une circulation de l'information entre les organisations de producteurs, les filières et les régions du pays ;• Faire connaître les positions de l'ANOPACI dans ses négociations avec l'État et les autres partenaires du secteur agricole sur les principaux enjeux du développement agricole et notamment sur les questions foncières, le financement des activités agricoles, la formation, la recherche, l'organisation des marchés et des prix.Le Professionnel Agricole est le principal outil de communication de l'ANOPACI. Il a vu le jour au début de 1999. C'est un bulletin mensuel, de 24 pages, tiré à 5 000 exemplaires, avec le soutien de la coopération française.Il est publié en français car il est essentiellement destiné aux responsables des organisations professionnelles agricoles, généralement francophones, qui en assurent la distribution dans chacune des organisations.« Au début, nous avons principalement axé la ligne éditoriale sur des dossiers d'information générale, sur la présentation des structures et des activités de l'ANOPACI, sur les nouvelles concernant l'état et l'évolution des différentes filières » dit Marie Josée Tafforeau, journaliste chargée de coordonner la rédaction du journal. « Dans chaque numéro, nous mettions également en valeur une expérience, une organisation ou un « homme du mois ».« Ensuite nous nous sommes orientés vers des numéros spéciaux consacrés aux principales filières : café, cacao, hévéa, élevage, crédits, vivriers… pour traiter plus en profondeur, sur les plans technique et économique, les informations sur ces filières, à partir de la matière première que nous collections auprès des organisations de terrain dans les différentes régions du pays. »« Mais très rapidement », ajoute Marie-Josée Tafforeau, « nous nous sommes trouvés confrontés à une forte demande de nos lecteurs qui voulaient des informations techniques sur toutes sortes de sujets : comment planter des caféiers, soigner un animal, utiliser les pesticides, installer un élevage de porcs, établir un compte d'exploitation ? Est-ce que la culture du tabac est plus rentable que celle du riz ? Comment lutter contre les maladies du maïs ? Comment constituer un dossier de crédit ? »Cet énorme besoin d'informations techniques et de conseils pratiques est évidemment lié au fait que les producteurs n'ont accès à aucune source d'information pertinente et qu'ils ne trouvent pas de réponses à leurs questions auprès des services de l'État, de moins en moins présents sur le terrain.Devant les bureaux de l'ANOPACI à Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) (Photo : Jacques Sultan)Le Professionnel Agricole a donc dû s'adapter à cette demande et il s'est rapidement enrichi de fiches techniques concrètes, simples et illustrées pour que les lecteurs puissent les exploiter directement dans leurs activités.Ces fiches techniques sont très appréciées par les lecteurs. Pour une utilisation plus fonctionnelle, le bulletin envisage de les publier sous forme de fiches détachables et d'en faire, par la suite, des collections qui pourraient être éditées à part et commercialisées.Les pages consacrées au courrier des lecteurs et aux indicateurs économiques du mois ont également été enriches, au fil des numéros, pour rendre compte des réactions et du besoin d'expression des lecteurs et les tenir informés de l'évolution des marchés dans les principales filières de production.« Aujourd'hui, nous avons gagné la première partie de notre pari », dit Séraphin Biatchon, le secrétaire général de l'ANOPACI. « En moins d'un an, le journal a été lancé, il commence à gagner en crédibilité, les articles sont de plus en plus approfondis. Le courrier que nous recevons de nos lecteurs nous encourage car ils nous disent que le journal est bien écrit et qu'il reflète fidèlement les préoccupations du monde agricole ivoirien…. Mais nous ne devons pas nous endormir sur ces lauriers car il nous reste des obstacles importants à franchir… » Il y a d'abord la distribution. Elle est principalement assurée par les onze organisations membres de l'ANOPACI, mais les recettes correspondantes ne remontent pas vers le journal, ce qui tend à indiquer qu'il n'est pas aussi bien distribué qu'il le devrait.« Si nous étions mieux distribués », ajoute Séraphin Biatchon, « nous pourrions tirer à 50 000 exemplaires : rien que dans le secteur du café et du cacao, ce sont 500 000 personnes qui sont concernées, 200 000 dans le secteur cotonnier, 25 000 pour le palmier à huile, etc. Nous devrions être le premier mensuel de Côte d'Ivoire ».Tous ces producteurs sont en effet des lecteurs potentiels du journal, directement ou indirectement, car il existe dans chaque village des personnes francophones et lettrées capables de donner les informations et lire les articles pour les non francophones. Mais comment les atteindre efficacement ? Des points de vente sont progressivement mis en place, à Abidjan et dans les principaux centres régionaux. Les structures du ministère de l'agriculture sur le terrain sont également des distributeurs potentiels, de même que certains opérateurs économiques comme la société Nestlé, avec qui un accord a été conclu pour assurer la distribution du journal auprès des planteurs de café et de cacao dans ses magasins et centres d'achat. En 2000, l'amélioration de la distribution sera le chantier principal de l'équipe du journal.Elle sera plus difficile à atteindre. Actuellement, chaque numéro revient à 3 millions de F CFA (environ 4 600 e) ; seulement 20 % de ce montant est récupéré en recettes liées à la vente des journaux et à la publicité. Le journal est pour le moment subventionné par son partenaire de coopération mais ses promoteurs souhaitent s'émanciper de ce soutien pour garantir leur durabilité et leur autonomie.Pour cela, plusieurs mesures vont être prises : passer à un rythme bimestriel, attirer davantage d'annonceurs pour augmenter le prix de vente du journal : passer de 300 à 500 F CFA (de 0,45 à 0, 70 e), améliorer la distribution et la vente et enfin, éditer et commercialiser les fiches techniques paraissant dans le journal.La remontée de l'information provenant du terrain est encore peu satisfaisante. « C'est une question de motivation des organisations membres de notre association », dit Sylvain Kouao. « Il faut favoriser un circuit fluide et informel de remontée de l'information car nous n'avons qu'un seul journaliste et nous ne pouvons pas, pour le moment, nous offrir un réseau de correspondants sur le terrain.« Par exemple, en ce moment, les fêtes de la fin du ramadan s'approchent. Je viens d'apprendre que le mouton que j'aurais vendu hier à 20 000 F (30 e) en vaut maintenant 26 000 (39 e). C'est une information intéressante pour tous ceux qui élèvent des moutons.« Il faut que les responsables des organisations paysannes membres de l'ANOPACI se mobilisent davantage pour récolter l'information auprès de leurs adhérents, au niveau local, et acquièrent le réflexe de transmettre rapidement les informations intéressantes, même de façon informelle et de prendre systématiquement des photos. C'est une culture à acquérir… » Mettre en relation l'offre et la demande « Les producteurs ont besoin d'informations spécifiques et rapides », dit Séraphin Biatchon ; « dans l'est de la Côte d'Ivoire, ils peuvent être en train de crouler sous des tonnes de régimes de bananes, alors que dans le sud la récolte n'a pas été bonne pour des raisons de pluies. On doit pouvoir mettre en rapport cette demande avec cette offre. Le producteur qui a 1 000 tonnes d'ignames dans son champ a besoin de trouver rapidement une solution pour les évacuer et les vendre. Il a aussi besoin d'être mis en rapport avec d'autres acteurs de la filière.« Pour trouver des solutions à cela », ajoute Séraphin Biatchon, « il faut aller au-delà du journal lui-même et trouver des formes complémentaires de communication, à travers une collaboration avec les radios ou les nouvelles technologies… »« Le producteur de café qui a une tonne de son produit à vendre doit savoir combien le café vaut à Abidjan et quelle est la tendance du cours pour décider s'il doit vendre ou attendre », dit Sylvain Kouao. « Et le même producteur doit avoir la possibilité de mettre en concurrence les producteurs de fertilisants pour obtenir le meilleur prix ou la meilleure qualité. Les éleveurs doivent pouvoir trouver une liste de transformateurs locaux, de transporteurs, de fournisseurs d'emballages. C'est particulièrement important dans des filières comme le porc où la concurrence est rude avec des produits subventionnés provenant de l'Union européenne ». « Aujourd'hui, pour vivre de sa production, pour en faire un vrai métier, il faut avoir accès à l'information ».Internet à la ferme ? « L'information du Professionnel Agricole est ciblée », dit Séraphin Biatchon, « mais elle n'est pas rapide. Elle est donnée tous les mois. Si j'ai besoin d'une information pour demain, ce n'est pas dans le Professionnel que je vais la trouver. Il faut des circuits plus courts ; il faut qu'elle soit disponible plus près de chez nous, au niveau des coopératives, des villages. La radio pourrait être un vecteur intéressant, mais la radio rurale n'est pas suffisamment développée en Côte d'Ivoire et les petites radios qui ont été créées ici et là ont des rayons d'action trop limités ».« Beaucoup de villages sont enclavés », ajoute-t-il. « Les producteurs sont soumis à des pressions commerciales des « pisteurs », qui viennent leur acheter leur production au bord de leurs champs. Ces producteurs ne connaissent pas les prix du marché. Ils se font complètement avoir. Et puis, ils ont besoin aussi, car nous sommes dans un pays très administré, de photocopies de documents, de cartes d'identité, de correspondances administratives, de devis, de factures…Toutes ces choses quotidiennes leur coûtent beaucoup d'argent car ils doivent aller dans une grande ville pour cela, payer le transport, le séjour, perdre du temps de production précieux et coûteux ».L'ANOPACI a décidé de s'attaquer à ce problème, en collaboration avec un cabinet-conseil sans but lucratif, Winrock, à travers le projet Internet à la ferme. Il s'agit, en fait, d'implanter un réseau de télécentres au niveau villageois pour offrir aux communautés, aux coopératives, aux groupements et aux individus, toute une séries de services : saisie et mise en page de textes sur ordinateurs, photocopie de documents, envoi de fax, utilisation du courrier électronique.Les télécentres permettront également d'avoir accès à des informations économiques, techniques et financières, à partir d'une banque de données constituée à Abidjan sur les principales filières de production, les circuits d'approvisionnement, de commercialisation, mais aussi d'informations sur la santé, l'éducation, l'environnement et de bénéficier de formations à distance.Enfin, ces centres permettront de faire remonter plus facilement les informations des organisations locales vers la rédaction du Professionnel Agricole qui pourrait en faire un traitement plus rapide.Le projet est encore au stade des études préalables. Les responsables de l'ANOPACI ne veulent pas brûler les étapes et étudient tous les éléments du problème, notamment les épineuses questions liées à l'absence d'énergie électrique dans de nombreuses zones rurales, à l'entretien et à la maintenance des équipements, ainsi qu'à la rentabilisation économique des investissements techniques.Un questionnaire a été envoyé à l'ensemble des organisations membres de l'ANOPACI pour déterminer leur intérêt pour ce dispositif. L'ANOPACI évaluera les résultats.Trois sites expérimentaux ont été identifiés dans des villages au nord, au centre et au sud du pays. La Banque africaine de développement a été approchée comme un partenaire potentiel du projet ; elle a marqué un intérêt certain car elle souhaite tester des sources d'énergie alternatives pour alimenter ce nouveau type de circuit de communication avec le monde rural.Depuis 1998, la Banque mondiale a appuyé la mise en place d'un système d'information sur les prix du café et du cacao. Ce système est basé sur un site Internet et une batterie d'ordinateurs permettant de relever, en temps réel, les variations des cours du café et du cacao et de les répercuter vers les producteurs à travers la presse quotidienne et la radio.Ce système s'appelle PRIMAC (Prix du marché du café et du cacao). Il est actuellement géré par la Caisse de stabilisation des prix (CAISTAB) en relation avec les structures publiques et certaines organisations de producteurs. Toutefois, cet outil n'est pas suffisamment performant et l'ANOPACI entend jouer un rôle actif pour l'enrichir et le valoriser. Celle-ci est en négociation avec la Banque mondiale pour récupérer les éléments techniques du dispositif existant et en élargir le champ en y associant les autres filières (et notamment le coton, le palmier à huile, l'hévéa, la banane, l'ananas) dont les associations de producteurs sont membres de l'ANOPACI.Avec Le Professionnel Agricole, les télécentres et le système d'information sur les prix, les producteurs de Côte d'Ivoire disposeront bientôt d'outils d'information et de communication performants qui les aideront à mieux affronter les défis de la mondialisation. Elles constituent pourtant 30 % des chefs de ménage et elles assurent un rôle essentiel dans la production vivrière, tant dans les travaux des champs que dans les tâches de transformation et de commercialisation des produits. Sans compter leur travail de mères, d'éducatrices et de responsables de l'alimentation familiale.Mais, pour que leur place dans le développement soit reconnue, elles savent qu'elles doivent d'abord compter sur leurs propres forces et s'organisent de plus en plus souvent en groupements, associations et coopératives. Ces groupements et associations s'investissent dans tous les secteurs de l'activité économique et sociale : agriculture, artisanat, transformation, commercialisation, alphabétisation, nutrition, santé, éducation et culture. En voici trois témoignages, extraits de la revue Paysannes Africaines.  La rubrique principale est constituée par des récits d'expériences.   La liste des problèmes environnementaux en Afrique de l'Ouest est longue. La population n'est pas suffisamment informée de cet état de fait et sans une pression de l'opinion publique, les gouvernements ne prennent pas en compte les problèmes environnementaux. La liste s'allonge jour après jour.Panos a également subventionné la production de manuels scolaires sur l'environnement dans plusieurs pays et en particulier au Niger et au Tchad, deux États particulièrement affectés par la désertification. Panos a fourni aux journalistes des équipements de reportage et a financé leurs frais de déplacement pour leur permettre de se rendre dans les zones sensibles et y effectuer des reportages ou y mener des enquêtes. Pour s'assurer que ces appuis iraient bien aux journalistes eux-mêmes, les subventions furent divisées en deux parties : l'une était destinée aux responsables des médias et l'autre aux journalistes qui devaient faire parvenir à Panos des copies de leurs articles ou de leurs émissions de radio pour prouver la réalité de leurs prestations.Résultat immédiat de ce programme : 12 heures d'émissions de radio, 48 articles et reportages dans la presse écrite dans chacun des pays concernés au cours de la première année. Le résultat induit a été encore plus important. Les responsables des médias commencèrent à réaliser l'importance des enjeux environnementaux et l'intérêt qu'ils suscitaient chez les lecteurs et les auditeurs : ils se rendirent compte que les articles sur l'environnement augmentaient la vente des journaux et incitaient les auditeurs à écouter les programmes.Panos ne jugea pas nécessaire de reconduire le projet à la fin de la première année en 1995 : les journaux et les radios assuraient désormais la couverture des problèmes environnementaux sans sollicitation extérieure. « Afrique Envi » avait semé la bonne graine et elle avait grandi. L'environnement était devenu un sujet important.Panos utilise actuellement une approche similaire pour améliorer la couverture d'autres thématiques négligées : les droits de l'homme, la démocratie et les femmes. Il assure la formation de journalistes, favorise leur accès aux informations relatives à ces sujets et subventionne leur couverture par les journaux et les stations de radio.De nombreux pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest sont déchirés par la guerre. Dans de telles situations, des dirigeants peu scrupuleux peuvent étouffer les dissidences ou jeter de l'huile sur le feu. Panos cherche les moyens d'utiliser les médias pour résoudre pacifiquement les conflits : en encourageant le dialogue, en renforçant l'éthique professionnelle, en militant pour l'indépendance des médias et en incitant à des changements législatifs qui facilitent la création de nouveaux journaux et de nouvelles stations de radio. De nombreux gouvernements africains se sont engagés dans des processus de décentralisation, en donnant de plus en plus de pouvoir aux régions et aux communes. Les collectivités territoriales, assure-t-on, sont plus proches des citoyens que des ministères éloignés dans les capitales ; elles permettent un fonctionnement plus souple et plus attentif aux besoins de la population. Mais la décentralisation, pour être efficace, doit s'appuyer sur un dialogue avec les populations locales. C'est une démarche difficile car la plupart des institutions locales ne disposent ni des moyens ni du savoir-faire pour faire circuler l'information et il n'existe que très peu de journaux locaux.Au Sénégal, Panos essaie de surmonter ces difficultés à travers une initiative qui s'appelle RESIDEL (réseau d'informations Internet sur la décentralisation et le développement local). Démarré en 1999, le réseau est soutenu par le CTA.RESIDEL organise un partenariat inhabituel entre le secteur public, les associations, les ONG et les médias. Le secteur public est essentiellement représenté par le ministère de l'agriculture, responsable de la sécurité alimentaire et l'ISRA (Institut sénégalais de recherche agronomique). Ces deux partenaires se sont engagés à fournir au réseau des informations technique dans leurs domaines de compétences respectifs.Le deuxième groupe de partenaires est formé par les associations de présidents de communautés rurales, les maires et les dirigeants des communautés rurales. Le troisième groupe est constitué d'ONG comme la Fondation rurale pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest (FRAO) et le Centre national de concertation et de coopération des ruraux (CNCR). Ces organisations ont accepté d'alimenter le réseau en informations relatives à la vie et aux activités des communautés rurales.Les médias constituent le quatrième groupe. Plusieurs journaux et radios communautaires ont accepté de diffuser les informations provenant du réseau vers leurs lecteurs et auditeurs.RESIDEL soutient la production de programmes radios et d'articles de journaux sur la décentralisation et le développement local. L'information produite est numérisée et elle peut être consultée sur le site Internet de Panos Dakar (http ://www.panos.sn) ou diffusée par e-mail.Après seulement quelques mois de fonctionnement, le réseau a récolté une quantité importante d'informations sur une série de sujets comme la décentralisation, le développement local, le financement du développement, le crédit, la transformation agroalimentaire, la protection des cultures, les feux de brousse, le reboisement, la construction des pistes rurales, la gestion des déchets, l'assainissement, le maraîchage périurbain, l'horticulture fruitière, la fertilité des sols, les banques de céréales, le code de la pêche, les petites entreprises, les impôts ruraux et le tourisme.Régulièrement alimenté par les acteurs du développement rural, le réseau constitue de plus en plus une ressource incontournable pour la décentralisation et le développement local au Sénégal.Nelson Magombo corrige un article : il se trouve qu'il traite de la privatisation de l'Office chargé de la commercialisation des produits agricoles dans son propre pays, le Malawi. Il ajoute quelques touches finales, puis appuie sur une touche de son ordinateur pour envoyer l'article à son rédacteur en chef.Gabu Amacha, le responsable ougandais du bureau en langue anglaise, lit l'article relatif au Malawi. Il se demande s'il est susceptible d'intéresser les lecteurs francophones et donc d'être traduit en français et finalement décide que non. Il se demande également s'il faut l'envoyer tout de suite ou attendre le bulletin économique du mardi ; il décide d'attendre jusqu'à mardi.Bienvenue à la PANA, l'Agence de presse panafricaine. Le bureau de Dakar fonctionne avec une efficacité tranquille, passant au crible les articles, les corrigeant et les envoyant aux journaux, radios et télévisions.  En 1993, l'Unesco commença à apporter un soutien à la PANA pour l'aider à s'adapter à cette nouvelle réalité et à se préparer à une privatisation progressive. En Octobre 1997, la PANA cessa d'être une institution intergouvernementale pour devenir une société privée, PANA Presse, dont les gouvernements devenaient actionnaires. Cette mesure devait permettre de vendre 75 % des actions à des groupes de presse, des banques, des sociétés de télécommunication, des ONG et des investisseurs privés. Les 25 % restants étaient transférés aux agences nationales de presse des pays membres.Pendant la même période, PANA Presse entreprit de professionnaliser ses activités opérationnelles, multipliant par vingt sa production, passant de 2 000 mots par jour en 1992 à 40 000 en 1996. Un réseau de correspondants permanents et de reporters locaux a été mis en place dans la plupart des capitales du continent. Cinq bureaux régionaux ont été établis, à Addis-Abeba, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lusaka et Tripoli. L'ouverture d'autres bureaux est prévue en Afrique mais aussi à Bruxelles, Londres, Paris et New-York.Elle est intervenue dans la même période dans les secteurs de l'informatique et des télécommunications. En 1983, la PANA utilisait essentiellement le télex pour envoyer et recevoir des nouvelles. L'utilisation des ordinateurs commença en 1990. Récemment, l'agence s'est dotée de nouveaux équipements informatiques et de logiciels de gestion de l'information sophistiqués. La mise en place d'un réseau spécifique par satellite était programmée mais entre-temps, l'arrivée d'Internet a offert des possibilités bien plus pratiques et bien moins coûteuses.Les sites Internet de PANA Presse (http://allafrica.com/panaenglish/ en anglais et http://allafrica.com/panafranais/ en français) proposent des informations actualisées tout au long de la journée.La PANA peut-elle être compétitive sur le marché de l'information ? Ses concurrents sont des agences très puissantes et sophistiquées en Europe et en Amérique. Mais la PANA a des arguments qui plaident en sa faveur : un engagement en Afrique, une connaissance incomparable des pays qu'elle sert et le plus important réseau de correspondants du continent.La PANA doit creuser sa niche en fournissant des informations de qualité, fiables et indépendantes sur l'Afrique. Elle pourra ainsi gagner de l'argent, attirer les investissements dont elle a besoin et devenir un élément incontournable du système d'information de ce continent vaste, complexe et en mutation rapide.PANA Presse, BP 4056, Dakar (Sénégal). Tél. (221) 241395/ 241410 ; fax (221) 241390 ; e-mail quoiset@sonatel.senet.net Si vous allez dans un supermarché pour acheter un paquet de soupe, le seul moyen que vous ayez pour savoir s'il s'agit d'une soupe au poulet ou à la tomate est de vous fier à l'image dessinée sur le paquet. Vous allez sans doute attraper la migraine en essayant de déchiffrer le mode de cuisson sur la boîte ? Dans ce cas, prenez donc une aspirine mais attention de ne pas vous tromper et de prendre un somnifère ou un cachet contre la constipation.Voilà une description à peu près fidèle si on veut comprendre ce que l'on éprouve quand on est analphabète. Dans tout ce que l'on apprend à l'école, la chose la plus importante est de savoir lire et écrire. Cela vous donne un accès au monde. Cela vous permet d'apprendre, de communiquer avec les autres. C'est un élément indispensable dans le monde actuel.Mais que se serait-il passé si nous n'avions pas appris à lire et à écrire ? Si nous n'étions jamais allés à l'école, parce que nos parents étaient trop pauvres ou parce qu'il n'y avait pas d'école dans les environs ? Ou si les enseignants avaient été tués à la guerre ? Ou encore si tous les livres et journaux étaient écrits dans une langue inconnue ? Voilà le quotidien de beaucoup de gens dans les pays en développement.L'instruction est une condition tellement élémentaire pour le développement qu'il est incroyable et triste de constater qu'elle occupe une si petite place dans les programmes des gouvernements et des agences de développement. Dans le monde, on estime que 876 millions de personnes, dont deux tiers de femmes, sont en état d'illettrisme. L'éducation ne représente qu'une petite fraction des dépenses militaires.Selon l'Unesco, le taux d'analphabétisme des adultes en Afrique subsaharienne varie entre moins de 10 % pour les hommes et environ 20 % pour les femmes au Zimbabwe et près de 80 % pour les hommes et 94 % pour les femmes au Niger.Aujourd'hui encore, la nécessité de promouvoir l'alphabétisation est d'une évidence accablante : les personnes alphabétisées trouvent plus facilement du travail et vivent plus longtemps que celles qui ne savent ni lire ni écrire ; les femmes alphabétisées se marient souvent plus tard et ont moins d'enfants mais ces derniers sont en meilleure santé ; les pays qui comptent une population alphabétisée sont généralement plus avancés que ceux où l'on trouve beaucoup de personnes sans éducation de base. La LABE articule son activité sur deux grands axes : la formation de formateurs en matière d'alphabétisation et l'appui à la production de documents de post-alphabétisation en langues nationales.On ne dispose pas de chiffres précis pour l'Ouganda, mais Patrick Kiirya, le directeur de la LABE, dit qu'environ 56 % des hommes adultes sont alphabétisés et 38 % des femmes. Avec une petite équipe, la LABE utilise une méthodologie en trois étapes pour joindre la masse importante de lecteurs potentiels. La première étape consiste à trouver des candidats pour devenir des « formateurs d'instructeurs d'alphabétisation » ou LIT (Literacy-instructor trainers). La LABE travaille avec 15 associations d'ONG en Ouganda qui regroupent de nombreuses organisations communautaires comme les groupements de femmes ou de jeunes (une de ces organisations est la MTEA, évoquée p. 85).Les groupements communautaires identifient les candidats aux fonctions de formateurs : un homme et une femme issus de chaque communauté. Les animateurs de la LABE se rendent dans l'association d'ONG pour dispenser à ces aspirants formateurs un cours d'une semaine portant sur les mécanismes de l'apprentissage chez les adultes, la pédagogie, les documents de formation, la traduction des documents dans les langues locales et l'organisation communautaire. Le conseiller agricole du district et les personnels d'encadrement des autres services publics contribuent à cette formation, ce qui garantit leur intérêt et leur engagement dans le suivi des opérations. Ce sont ces instructeurs qui prennent en charge la troisième étape : assurer la formation des villageois. Les cours sont délivrés deux soirs par semaine pendant deux heures, après les travaux des champs.Cette approche en cascade où la LABE forme des formateurs d'instructeurs, qui forment des instructeurs qui, à leur tour, forment les villageois, permet de toucher beaucoup plus de personnes qu'une approche classique basée sur un seul niveau de formation. En décembre 1999, on comptait environ 413 formateurs d'instructeurs (dont la moitié de femmes) et 1 296 instructeurs intervenant dans 677 cours d'alphabétisation dans 46 districts répartis dans tout le pays. Ces cours étaient suivis par près de 15 000 personnes (dont plus de 80 % de femmes).Au départ, les apprenants ont de grandes ambitions : lire les journaux ou devenir chef de village. Après quelques cours, les ambitions se redimensionnent. Les parents veulent être en mesure de lire les livres d'école de leurs enfants, comprendre ce qu'ils y apprennent et peut-être les aider à faire leurs devoirs. Les apprenants veulent pouvoir lire les affiches qui ont été disposées dans tout le village, remplir des formulaires pour une demande de prêt ou une vaccination au centre de santé, voter ou tout simplement écrire leur nom.Les agriculteurs veulent être capables de lire les instructions sur les boîtes de pesticides (bien que la plupart du temps elles soient formulées en anglais ou en kiswahili) ou calculer le bénéfice qu'il ont réalisé sur la vente de leurs récoltes. Les femmes veulent pouvoir écrire à leurs maris qui travaillent dans les villes. Les mamans veulent rester en contact avec leurs enfants, au pensionnat.Ce sont des objectifs ambitieux pour un cours bihebdomadaire. Naturellement, les progrès sont lents et pénibles. La motivation s'émousse. L'approche de la LABE tente de surmonter l'autre gros problème de l'alphabétisation en Ouganda : l'absence chronique de documents imprimés dans les langues parlées par les populations rurales. La plupart des livres sont édités en anglais ou en kiswahili mais ces langues ne sont pas bien parlées ni comprises dans beaucoup de zones rurales. Et demander aux villageois d'apprendre à lire et à écrire et, en même temps, de s'initier à une langue étrangère n'est pas raisonnable.Il y a aussi un autre obstacle à franchir : l'essentiel des documents d'information utiles aux producteurs ruraux sont édités en anglais mais dans un anglais scientifique ou technique, de surcroît. Il est donc nécessaire de passer par une double traduction : de l'anglais aux langues locales et du jargon technique à un langage accessible à tous.La LABE forme les formateurs d'instructeurs pour leur donner les moyens de faire ces traductions et de produire eux-mêmes les documents dont ils se serviront pendant leurs cours. Certains de ces apprentissages sont dispensés à l'occasion de la première semaine de formation.  Les formateurs ont besoin de matériel pour travailler. La LABE remet à chacun d'entre eux une boîte à idées et à outils pour faciliter leur activités de formation. Cette boîte comprend un manuel pratique de pédagogie, des enveloppes contenant des fiches, des cartes, des tableaux, des photos et d'autres aides visuelles pour l'apprentissage, une horloge en carton pour apprendre à lire l'heure, un guide d'évaluation de la participation des apprenants, des images destinées à déclencher l'écriture de récits, des jeux et des fiches de suivi.L'ensemble de ce matériel représente un appui pour des douzaines de leçons et il est fonctionnellement rassemblé dans une boîte qui peut facilement être transportée sur une bicyclette.Les organisations au niveau des districts et au niveau local font appel à l'aide de la LABE dans les zones non couvertes par les campagnes d'alphabétisation. La LABE répond à ces demandes en organisant des sessions de formation et en fournissant du matériel et des supports logistiques pour améliorer leurs compétences en termes techniques et en termes de gestion ou d'organisation. Chaque fois que cela est possible, la LABE identifie les partenaires potentiels qui peuvent apporter une assistance dans l'organisation de ces formations, ainsi que dans la recherche de financements, les évaluations participatives, la négociation et le plaidoyer.La formation est organisée de la même façon que les cours d'alphabétisation : la LABE forme des formateurs au niveau des districts, qui à leur tour forment des animateurs communautaires et des vulgarisateurs des services publics, qui poursuivent la chaîne en formant les membres des associations de base, les groupes traditionnels et les simples villageois.La LABE n'est qu'un des maillons de la lutte contre l'analphabétisme et l'illettrisme. En mobilisant uniquement ses moyens, cette organisation ne peut couvrir qu'une petite partie de la population de l'Ouganda. Mais son approche démultiplicatrice permet de toucher une population de paysans beaucoup plus importante que sa modeste équipe pourrait atteindre. La LABE constitue un exemple à suivre pour tous ceux qui veulent venir à bout du fléau de l'analphabétisme. La formation constitue une autre partie essentielle du travail de la MTEA. Elle intervient dans de nombreux domaines, de l'alphabétisation à la santé reproductive et des techniques agricoles à la gestion des entreprises. La MTEA propose environ cinq cours d'une à deux semaines par an pour une trentaine de participants par cours.Les formateurs peuvent être des vulgarisateurs, des spécialistes des services publics de santé, voire même des animateurs de la MTEA.Les formations se déroulent alternativement dans différentes localités pour permettre aux paysans, surtout aux femmes, d'y participer. Les associations membres désignent les candidats à la formation. À l'issue de celle-ci, ils doivent à leur tour former les autres membres du groupe. Quand ils ont acquis un certain niveau de compétence et d'expérience, ils peuvent être promus aux fonctions de formateurs à part entière. Ils sont maintenant plus de 120 dans ce cas, spécialisés dans différentes disciplines. La MTEA leur propose périodiquement des sessions de recyclage pour actualiser leur savoir et leurs compétences.La MTEA elle-même a développé les compétences de ses animateurs. La plupart d'entre eux sont polyvalents : ils peuvent répondre à de nombreuses questions relatives à l'agriculture et au développement rural. Cela leur confère une grande crédibilité vis-à-vis des personnes avec lesquelles ils sont amenés à travailler.Le succès de la MTEA s'explique largement par l'implication et la motivation de ses employés. En fait, le terme « employés » est impropre. Tous sont volontaires. Leurs frais sont pris en charge mais aucun d'entre eux ne perçoit de salaire. Ils ont tous leur propre occupation dans leurs champs ou ailleurs. « Certains groupes se forment du sommet à la base ; nous, c'est de la base au sommet que nous nous sommes constitués ». C'est de cette façon imagée que l'approche de la MTEA est décrite par un de ses animateurs.La formation des formateurs, l'accompagnement des ONG locales et la coordination des expérimentations et des démonstrations réalisées avec le concours des paysans figurent parmi les activités de la MTEA (Photo : Paul Mundy)Il y a toujours des problèmes et des défis à relever : « Ce n'est pas tous les jours dimanche », dit un animateur. L'équipe doit travailler dur pour réaliser son programme. Le suivi et la supervision des associations partenaires est une tâche particulièrement ardue, qui prend du temps et coûte de l'argent.Les membres de la MTEA doivent payer une cotisation annuelle de 20 000 shillings ougandais (environ 13 e) pour un groupe ou 1 000 shillings (0,67 e) pour un membre individuel. Le centre de ressources de la MTEA se trouve dans une petite pièce attenante, garnie d'étagères et pleine de tables de lecture et de chaises.Des livres, offerts par la LABE (voir p. 79) et BookAid (une ONG britannique) remplissent les étagères. Il y a des encyclopédies, des livres scolaires et universitaires, ainsi que des magazines comme Footsteps, un bulletin pratique sur le développement publié par « Tear Fund », en Grande-Bretagne. Certains livres ne sont pas forcément adaptés au contexte : bizarrement, on trouve plusieurs exemplaires des Principes de l'Océanographie, qui ne sera probablement pas le livre le plus demandé dans un pays enclavé comme l'Ouganda. Cependant, la plupart des ouvrages semblent très utiles et souvent consultés.Michael Bazira, qui gère le centre de ressources, explique que cette pièce est plus qu'une bibliothèque. C'est aussi l'espace où la MTEA organise une série de sessions de formation très animées sur des sujets pratiques comme la rédaction de lettres en anglais, la grammaire, la gestion des bibliothèques ou la gestion administrative. Michael espère obtenir la reconnaissance de ces sessions par le Bureau national des examens, afin que les stagiaires puissent obtenir des diplômes reconnus. Il espère aussi proposer des cours d'informatique en utilisant l'unique ordinateur (un peu poussif) de la MTEA.Le \"E\" de MTEA signifie « emploi ». Plusieurs participants aux cours de formation ont pu créer leurs propres activités, une école ou un élevage de volaille…C'est un succès appréciable en hommage aux efforts de cette organisation de base pour le développement. Des dispositifs de post-alphabétisation basés sur des formations techniques spécifiques sont théoriquement prévus autour de projets concrets comme la gestion de moulins, la transformation du beurre de karité, le petit élevage mais ils ne sont pas organisés de façon régulière.Les paysans alphabétisés n'ont rien à lire et ils se découragent car ils voient leur apprentissage initial se perdre.Face à cette situation, un groupe d'alphabétiseurs de la région a décidé de réagir en créant une association qu'ils ont appelée « Ratamanegré » (ceux qui ont la volonté d'arranger) et un centre d'information et de formation communautaire, basé à Tanghin Dassouri, dans le but de maintenir un environnement lettré en milieu rural, à travers un dispositif de collecte et de diffusion de documents écrits en langues nationales dans les villages.Ils ont ainsi constitué un fonds de documents écrits, en langues nationales : collection des principaux journaux en langue moore, livrets techniques sur l'agriculture villageoise, la gestion des petites unités économiques et les moulins, documents sur la santé, le planning familial, « Tous les documents que nous utilisons pour l'alphabétisation, pour la formation technique et pour la post-alphabétisation », dit Ablasse Zongo, le président de l'association, « nous pouvons maintenant les faire circuler de village en village grâce à un appui que nous a récemment apporté une ONG européenne, le GRAD (Groupe de réalisations audiovisuelles pour le développement) ».Cet appui a permis à l'association d'enrichir et de consolider son fonds de documents et surtout de fabriquer des caissettes en bois qui constituent de véritables bibliothèques itinérantes. Chargées sur des vélos, elles circulent de village en village.Cette initiative a été accueillie avec enthousiasme dans les villages car elle a permis de sortir de nombreux villageois néo-alphabétisés du découragement en leur fournissant un environnement lettré. Certains pouvaient faire plusieurs kilomètres pour ne pas manquer le passage de la bibliothèque itinérante.« Aujourd'hui, nous sommes mieux armés pour mettre des documents à la disposition des villageois », dit Ablasse Zongo. « Avec les ressources que nous avons obtenues, nous allons même construire notre propre local pour être plus indépendants et ne pas avoir à payer de loyer ».Les activités de l'association se développent. Le système d'échanges qu'elle a mis en place a également permis de recueillir plus systématiquement des textes produits par les villageois, en langues nationales (contes, récits, monographies villageoises…) et de les proposer, pour publication, aux journaux en langues nationales existants.« L'association des alphabétiseurs de Tanghin Dassouri et le centre d'information et de formation communautaire sont une initiative exemplaire qu'il faudrait faire connaître et multiplier dans tout le pays » dit Evariste Zongo, responsable de l'AEPJLN (Association des éditeurs et promoteurs des journaux et revues en langues nationales). L'AEPJLN a d'abord entrepris une campagne de sensibilisation des promoteurs des journaux en langues nationales pour leur montrer qu'ils pouvaient mieux répondre aux besoins d'information et d'expression du monde rural ; puis, elle leur a proposé une série de sessions de formation et de recyclage sur les techniques de collecte de l'information, de rédaction, de présentation et de mise en page, ainsi que sur la gestion des entreprises de presse. Ces formations ont eu pour effet une amélioration sensible du contenu éditorial et de la présentation des journaux.La plupart de ces journaux ont constitué des comités de rédaction qui associent des producteurs ruraux alphabétisés à la collecte de l'information, ce qui leur permet de se rapprocher de leurs lecteurs et de rendre compte des expériences locales et de la réalité des problèmes du terrain.« Ces bases étant acquises, nous sommes devenus plus sélectifs dans le recrutement de nos membres », ajoute Evariste Zongo. « Désormais, pour adhérer à l'AEPJLN et bénéficier de son appui, les journaux doivent satisfaire à un certain nombre de critères garantissant leur professionnalisme : mise en place et animation d'un réseau de correspondants, gestion d'un circuit de distribution, développement d'outils de gestion et d'administration du journal, régularité de publication… ».Sur le long terme, l'AEPJLN a entrepris de consolider la professionnalisation du secteur de l'édition en langues nationales à travers trois axes d'intervention : la distribution, l'encouragement à la création d'entreprises de presse et le développement de partenariats.C'est le principal problème de la plupart des journaux. Pour améliorer la diffusion, il est essentiel de mobiliser systématiquement les organisations disposant de structures décentralisées sur le terrain, jusqu'au niveau villageois : organisations paysannes, ONG, partenaires économiques du monde rural (sociétés cotonnières, banques, organismes de crédit rural, commerçants…).Les circuits d'alphabétisation seront particulièrement mobilisés. En effet, il existe dans chaque village un ou deux alphabétiseurs, qui sont volontaires, compétents et qui peuvent, comme à Tanghin Dassouri, assurer la distribution, jouer le rôle de correspondants locaux et distribuer d'autres documents intéressant les producteurs (brochures, livrets techniques, manuels, contes, récits…).Quelques journaux en langues locales soutenus par l'AEPJLN ENCADRÉ 9 Pour jouer ce rôle, les journaux ruraux doivent devenir plus professionnels et savoir s'organiser en groupes de presse capables de travailler avec l'ensemble des partenaires présents dans le monde rural, en fournissant à chacun la capacité de s'exprimer, tout en maintenant une ligne éditoriale indépendante (voir encadré 9).C'est le troisième axe d'intervention de l'AEPJLN. Les radios de proximité sont de plus en plus présentes en milieu rural. Elles constituent le complément naturel des journaux. Ces deux médias peuvent se rendre des services mutuels importants. Les radios peuvent assurer la promotion des journaux, informer sur leur contenu, indiquer les lieux de distribution, inciter les lecteurs à les acheter. Elles peuvent aussi proposer des revues de presse en langues nationales, organiser des émissions publiques, des tables rondes, des débats sur les thèmes des articles de la presse écrite pour consolider leur impact et prolonger oralement les débats qu'ils suscitent. « Est-ce vraiment honnête d'aller vers les paysans, de recueillir de l'information auprès d'eux, de la diffuser dans le monde entier et de les priver de cette information ? » demande Souleymane Ouattara, le journaliste responsable de l'Agence Syfia, un réseau spécialisé dans l'information agricole au Burkina Faso.« Tout au long de l'année », ajoute-t-il, « nous sillonnons les villages pour faire des reportages, conduire des enquêtes, recueillir des témoignages, mener des interviews portant sur les activités des paysans, leurs problèmes, leurs interrogations, leurs initiatives… Cette information, que nous recueillons souvent en langues nationales, nous la transcrivons en français et elle est répercutée, par notre agence, à une centaine de journaux qui la reprennent pour un lectorat généralement francophone.« Quelle est la part de cette information qui revient aux paysans, aux villageois, qui sont nos sources sur le terrain ? » Souleymane Ouattara répond à sa propre question : « elle est infime, parce qu'ils ne sont pas francophones et que les journaux qui reprennent cette information ne leur parviennent pas. Ce serait juste, pourtant, qu'ils sachent ce que l'on dit d'eux et comment d'autres paysans, ailleurs, trouvent des solutions à des problèmes qui ressemblent aux leurs. Mais comment faire pour que ce retour d'information vers les paysans puisse réellement exister ? » Avec Souleymane Ouattara, un groupe de journalistes africains, tous correspondants de l'Agence Syfia, ont fondé l'association JADE (Journalistes africains pour le développement) en 1994, pour trouver une réponse à ces questions et pour réfléchir ensemble aux problèmes liés à leur métier et à leurs rapports avec les populations rurales qui sont leurs principales sources d'information.Au Burkina Faso, les journalistes qui se sont engagés dans cette association ont tenté d'explorer, avec les paysans et les producteurs ruraux, des voies nouvelles pour apporter l'information dans les villages, la débattre et promouvoir des échanges, de village à village, de région à région, de pays à pays.Des paysans qui deviennent les producteurs et les gestionnaires de leur propre information : est-ce une utopie ?« Nous avons mené une première expérience à Tanghin Dassouri, un village situé à une trentaine de kilomètres de Ouagadougou. Dans ce village, un groupe d'alphabétiseurs a créé une association pour aider à la diffusion de l'information en langues nationales dans les villages voisins » (voir p. 89).Jacques SultanLes révolutions de l'information 98 L'équipe de Jade a proposé aux alphabétiseurs de choisir, dans le menu de la production mensuelle de l'agence Syfia, les articles qui les intéressaient plus particulièrement. Les thèmes ont été choisis en raison du retentissement qu'ils pouvaient avoir sur la vie quotidienne de la communauté, même si l'information avait été recueillie dans une autre région ou dans un autre pays, comme par exemple le droit de cuissage dans les écoles béninoises, les maladies porcines au Tchad ou l'excision au Mali.À partir de ces choix, les articles ont été traduits en langue nationale, en surveillant les contresens éventuels qu'une mauvaise traduction peut engendrer ; c'est une première façon de s'approprier le contenu de l'article. Le sujet a été ensuite exposé à des groupes de paysans, en langue nationale.L'expérience a été concluante. Les discussions qui ont suivi la lecture des articles ont été souvent passionnées car les thèmes abordés renvoyaient à des questions que les villageois se posaient, mais qu'ils n'avaient pas l'habitude de débattre directement en raison des blocages et les tabous sociaux ou culturels qu'il fallait surmonter. C'est plus facile quand le point de départ repose sur une réalité vécue dans un autre environnement ; c'est comme si on évoquait une réalité extérieure au village et le débat sur les problèmes concrets du village devient possible.Les discussions ont été enregistrées au magnétophone, puis diffusées sous forme de programmes par les radios locales. Les auditeurs ont accueilli ces programmes avec enthousiasme. Ils demandent la diffusion régulière de telles émissions qu'ils jugent particulièrement intéressantes parce qu'ils en sont les protagonistes et qu'elles permettent de débattre de problèmes cruciaux en partant de la façon dont ils sont vécus ailleurs.« Dans nos pays », ajoute Souleymane Ouattara, « il y a une véritable inflation de médias, surtout de radios en milieu rural. Malheureusement, cela ne va pas de pair avec une participation des gens, ni même avec la satisfaction de leurs besoins ».« Le tout n'est pas de créer des radio, ou des journaux », souligne-t-il. « Il faut aussi leur donner un contenu, et cet aspect est bien souvent négligé. Si nous avions sur place des gens capables de prendre en charge cette dimension, il est évident que nous aurions des radios qui parleraient aux gens et dans lesquelles ils pourraient se reconnaître ».« À Jade, c'est ce que nous voulons faire », conclut-il, « car nous sommes convaincus qu'on peut, avec des méthodes simples, former des paysans à faire de la bonne radio, de bons journaux. À partir du moment où ils sont alphabétisés dans leurs langues, ils ont déjà un acquis important. Il leur manque seulement des outils, une formation adaptée et un suivi. » Interview de paysans pour une émission radio au Burkina Faso (Photo : Souleymane Outtara, JADE)In La messagerie électronique est rapidement devenue un outil vital pour les organisations de développement. Une petite entreprise, avec seulement un ordinateur et une ligne de téléphone, peut signer un contrat avec Africa Online pour installer un cybercafé. Il y en a plus de 200 répartis dans tout le Kenya, y compris dans de petites localités comme Machakos, au sud-est de Nairobi.Ailleurs, on trouve aussi des télécentres, un peu partout en Afrique, qui proposent des services comme le téléphone, le fax, quelquefois le traitement de texte. Les propriétaires de ces centres dédoublent leurs bénéfices avec Africa Online qui fournit le logiciel, la connexion et assure le service commercial.Après un lancement réussi au Ghana, Africa Online a démarré son service « e-touch » au Kenya en juin 1999. Six mois plus tard, 30 000 usagers étaient enregistrés. Et les trois quarts d'entre eux étaient ce que James Ochola appelle des « usagers actifs », c'est-à-dire des personnes qui se branchent au moins une fois par semaine. Ce chiffre est en augmentation constante, à raison d'environ 1 000 personnes par semaine.Africa Online n'est pas un bailleur de fonds, ni une agence de coopération ; c'est une société commerciale, à la recherche de profits. « L'Internet est crucial pour l'agriculture », dit James Ochola. « Le Kenya est un pays agricole et les problèmes de l'agriculture sont souvent « Trente ou quarante visiteurs viennent ici chaque jour, pendant les périodes de vacances », dit Amina Nassolo, la responsable de la bibliothèque. Les jours de classe, plus de 60 élèves des écoles voisines viennent faire un petit tour pendant l'interclasse. La consultation des ouvrages dans les locaux de la bibliothèque est gratuite mais si vous voulez emporter un livre chez vous, Amina Nassolo vous demandera 2 000 shillings ougandais (environ 1,3 e), ce qui vous permettra de louer des livres pendant deux semaines, sur une période de trois mois.Pour atteindre les enfants qui ne peuvent pas venir jusqu'à elle, Amina Nassolo envisage de mettre sur pied un système de bibliothèque itinérante. Les enseignants feront une sélection de livres pour leurs classes et elle les mettra dans une boîte qu'elle enverra à l'école.Ce sont les ordinateurs qui attirent le plus l'attention des visiteurs. Il y en a huit en tout : deux dans la bibliothèque, un dans le bureau du directeur, et les autres dans une salle de formation. Le centre propose des services de photocomposition, des formations élémentaires à l'utilisation des ordinateurs, des traitements de texte et des tableurs, ainsi que des services de messagerie électronique et d'Internet.L'équipe d'animation du centre a appris à ne pas trop insister avec les visiteurs sur le rôle des ordinateurs. Le terme ordinateur intimide. « Il contient trop de savoir », dit Augustin Bazaale, le directeur du centre. Par contre, les agents du centre vont aider les visiteurs à résoudre leurs problèmes : par exemple, un calcul commercial, une question agricole ou un devoir d'écolier. C'est seulement alors qu'il sera possible de montrer comment l'ordinateur peut aider à trouver des solutions. C'est en excitant l'intérêt des utilisateurs qu'on les conduira à chercher à en savoir plus.  • Langues : Même lorsqu'il est pertinent, le contenu de la plupart des sites Internet (et les menus des programmes d'ordinateurs) sont dans une langue (l'anglais, le plus souvent) que beaucoup de personnes ne maîtrisent pas bien ou ne comprennent pas du tout.• Lieux d'accès : Il n'y a pas assez d'espaces d'accès à l'Internet (comme les cybercafés ou les télécentres communautaires) où les gens pourraient se rendre pour utiliser un ordinateur. Ils sont très rares dans les villages d'Afrique, en raison de l'inexistence d'équipements de base comme l'électricité ou les routes.• Masse critique : Même si vous avez une adresse e-mail, qui allez-vous appeler ? Comme pour le téléphone, il y a une masse critique d'usagers en deçà de laquelle il n'est pas rentable d'avoir une adresse e-mail.• Connexions : Les lignes téléphoniques sont lentes et peu fiables, bien que l'on observe des changements depuis que les gouvernements autorisent les investissements privés dans les systèmes nationaux de téléphonie.• Coûts : Les ordinateurs sont chers, hors de portée de la majorité des populations des pays en développement. Il en va de même pour les tarifs d'abonnement et de consommation téléphonique. On peut toujours trouver des soutiens matériels ou financiers pour équiper des télécentres mais les consommables et la maintenance demeurent des problèmes. Comment les ordinateurs seront-ils réparés lorsqu'ils tomberont en panne ? Où trouvera-t-on des cartouches de rechange pour les imprimantes ? Et comme les ordinateurs sont coûteux, ils nourrissent toujours la convoitise des voleurs. extérieurs comme l'initiative Acacia, du Centre international de recherche sur le développement (CRDI), l'Union internationale des télécommunications, le British Council et l'Unesco.Que se passera-t-il lorsque les financements extérieurs se tariront ? Le centre génère quelques ressources en fournissant divers services comme le téléphone, le fax, la messagerie électronique, la consultation d'Internet, le traitement de texte. Les sessions de formation et les photocopies peuvent également rapporter un peu d'argent, de même que l'accueil d'ateliers pour une clientèle extérieure. Il y a une demande potentielle importante émanant des services publics locaux, des écoles, du centre de formation des maîtres situé non loin de là et de l'hôpital. Malgré cela, il est clair que les nombreuses activités du centre ne pourront pas continuer sans un soutien financier extérieur, qu'il provienne de l'État ou de partenaires de coopération. Le comité local suit les activités du centre avec enthousiasme et Augustin espère que cela se traduira par un soutien financier effectif.Qu'en est-il de l'impact du télécentre sur les zones rurales voisines ? Il est encore un peu tôt pour dire si l'objectif que s'est assigné le centre de lutter contre la pauvreté en renforçant les potentialités des communautés locales a été atteint. Il est indispensable qu'il y parvienne s'il veut conserver ses soutiens extérieurs mais, dans tous les cas, l'expérience accumulée par le centre de Nakaseke constitue une référence importante pour toutes les initiatives futures destinées à permettre aux populations rurales d'avoir accès à l'information.Augustine Bazaale, Project Manager, Nakaseke Community Centre, Nakaseke (Ouganda). E-mail abazaale@avumuk.ac.ugDans les pays développés, le téléphone est considéré comme un acquis. Il n'en va pas de même dans les pays en développement : les services téléphoniques dans de nombreux pays d'Afrique sont épouvantables. Et de surcroît, les coûts, surtout pour les communications    la source du Nil. Elle utilise la nouvelle ligne téléphonique fixe de sa boutique pour passer ses commandes et recevoir les appels des détaillants de la région.Dans la même rue, Aggrey Wettaka, un vétérinaire du magasin de luxe « Superchic » a donné le numéro de son portable à ses clients : des éleveurs de volaille installés dans les faubourgs de la ville. Ils l'appellent pour des conseils ou pour lui demander de venir contrôler la santé de leurs élevages.Erik van Veen raconte une histoire à propos de Busia et Menaba, deux villes de la frontière entre l'Ouganda et le Kenya : MTN a installé un relais pour couvrir les besoins de la ville de Busia. Mais une trouée dans les collines voisines permet aux habitants de certains quartiers de la ville de Menaba d'accéder à un faible signal de téléphone. Il raconte que toutes les personnes de Menaba qui possédaient un portable se retrouvaient au sommet de la colline où le signal était plus puissant et proposaient des prestations téléphoniques payantes aux gens. Quand MTN a installé une station à Menaba, elle a vendu 300 abonnements dès le premier jour.Beaucoup de personnes, du côté kenyan de la frontière, ont acheté un téléphone portable pour profiter du signal des relais installés en Ouganda.« Les abonnés de MTN ont des origines très diversifiées », dit Erik van Veen. « Cela va des ministres aux commerçants, en passant par les personnes qui travaillent dans le secteur officiel ou informel, les grands-pères et les étudiants ». La plupart des appels sont de nature commerciale, notamment dans le secteur informel très important. Environ 70 % des possesseurs de téléphone sont des hommes, même si on observe depuis peu une nouvelle mode du téléphone portable chez les jeunes femmes, en particulier les étudiantes.Dans les pays comme l'Afrique du Sud ou le Swaziland, les personnes qui n'ont pas les moyens de s'offrir un téléphone individuel se regroupent pour acheter un portable. « Mais cela n'existe pas en Ouganda », dit Erik van Veen. « C'est peut-être une séquelle de la guerre récente : les gens ne se font pas confiance ».Certaines personnes tirent leurs revenus de la location de leur téléphone aux autres en monnayant les appels. Cependant, cela devient de moins en moins courant en Ouganda car il est facile d'acheter un portable d'occasion.Les téléphones restent trop coûteux pour les petits agriculteurs. Toutefois, il leur arrive d'en louer un pour une communication particulièrement importante.En règle générale, on peut dire que le téléphone stimule l'activité économique en milieu rural. Il est plus facile de trouver un débouché pour une production ; les réseaux de commercialisation deviennent plus transparents et plus rapides ; il est plus facile d'avoir accès aux intrants au moment voulu. Au bout du compte, tout cela pourrait avoir des retombées positives même pour les populations les plus défavorisées. Il y a de toute évidence un enjeu énorme pour le développement de ces services, en Ouganda comme ailleurs. Gulu, la plus grande ville du nord du pays « dispose d'environ 20 lignes de téléphone fixe, » dit Erik van Veen. Kisoro, à l'extrémité sud-est de l'Ouganda et à la frontière de l'instable Rwanda (mais très consommateur de téléphone), dispose d'une seule ligne fixe, « qui marche de temps à autre ». Observatoire Économique des Télécommunications d'Afrique, www.telecom-plus.sn/observatoire/Obtcp.htmDes moyens de communication corrects peuvent induire des changements importants dans les conditions de vie des producteurs ruraux en Afrique. Et il semble bien que le téléphone portable soit en train d'en faire la démonstration.Erik van Veen, Sales and Marketing Manager, MTN Uganda, UDB Towers, Plot 22, Hannington Road, Kampala (Ouganda).Tél. ( 256   L'association est elle-même structurée de façon à permettre que la voix des adhérents de la base soit entendue. Elle a été fondée en 1992 comme une structure centrale avec des démembrements au niveau des districts. Ses responsables se sont rendu compte que, de la sorte, ils ne parviendraient pas à établir un contact avec les paysans au service desquels ils étaient supposés travailler. En conséquence, en 1997, avec l'aide de la coopération danoise (DANIDA), l'UNFA s'est transformée en une fédération de 60 organisations juridiquement indépendantes, constituées au niveau des districts. Une famille de paysans paie une cotisation de l'ordre de 1 500 shillings ougandais (environ 1 e) pour appartenir à une de ces organisations.Trois instances régissent désormais l'UNFA. Le conseil des paysans, composé de trois délégués de chaque organisation membre, est l'organe de décision suprême. Pour assurer une représentation équilibrée, au moins un délégué de chaque organisation doit être une femme. Les membres du conseil n'hésitent pas à exprimer leurs points de vue : il leur arrive souvent de rejeter ou d'amender les propositions avancées par le comité exécutif de l'UNFA ou par le secrétariat. Un comité exécutif national de 11 membres est élu par le conseil des agriculteurs et dirigé par un président. C'est le conseil d'administration de l'UNFA, en quelque sorte.Un secrétariat exécutif central, à Kampala, aide le comité à mettre en oeuvre le programme. Il comporte 34 agents dont 13 techniciens et gestionnaires. Ils ont en charge l'administration, l'information, le service d'appui-conseil, la commercialisation, le genre, le crédit et la comptabilité. La troisième partie, qui représente près de la moitié du magazine, est consacrée à des informations techniques. Ainsi, le numéro de décembre 1999 contenait des recommandations sur l'élevage porcin (en réponse à une lettre de lecteur), des informations sur l'analyse économique d'un élevage de volaille, des recettes pour le séchage des fruits et des légumes en vue de leur conservation, des conseils sur la culture du manioc et de l'arachide, une rubrique sur l'élevage des lapins, etc.Les bureaux de l'UNFA à Kampala (Ouganda) (Photo : Paul Mundy)Couverture du numéro de décembre 1999 de La Voix du PaysanLes articles sont rédigés par les équipes de l'UNFA et un journaliste professionnel pigiste. Ils veillent à ce que la couverture géographique du pays soit assurée : chaque numéro met en valeur un district différent. L'équipe s'y rend pour recueillir des interviews et des témoignages et pour prendre des photos.Le magazine encourage les lecteurs à s'exprimer. « Les agriculteurs envoient des articles qu'ils ont écrits eux-mêmes. Lorsqu'ils contribuent à La Voix du Paysan, ils contribuent aussi à l'UNFA globalement », dit Jane, bien qu'elle ajoute que ces articles nécessitent souvent un gros travail de réécriture. Un choix de lettres des lecteurs est publié en page 3 et certains numéros comportent également un questionnaire que les lecteurs doivent remplir et renvoyer à la rédaction. « Le comité éditorial est très attentif à ce feed-back », dit Jane Batte. « Les lettres contiennent souvent des demandes de reportage sur des thèmes spécifiques et l'équipe de rédaction fait tout ce qu'elle peut pour satisfaire ces demandes ».Lorsque La Voix du Paysan a été lancée, il y a neuf ans, elle était distribuée gratuitement aux membres de l'association. Le magazine était tiré à 7 000 exemplaires et distribué à travers des comités dans chaque paroisse du pays. Ceci prit fin en même temps que l'assistance financière de DANIDA en 1998. Depuis, l'UNFA tente de donner une autonomie financière au magazine.Une source de revenus est constituée par les ventes. Le magazine est désormais vendu 700 shillings (0,46 e). Cela ne couvre que partiellement les frais de production.L'obligation d'acheter le magazine a un inconvénient important : la diminution du nombre de lecteurs, qui a entraîné une chute du tirage de 7 000 à 3 000 exemplaires. Mais cela a aussi des avantages et notamment celui de contraindre l'équipe de rédaction à produire un magazine plus attractif et plus en rapport avec la demande des lecteurs. « Quand nous trouvons un paysan qui est prêt à consacrer 700 shillings à l'achat du magazine, cela nous encourage beaucoup car c'est la preuve de son utilité », dit Jane Batte.La publicité est une autre source de revenus. Un industriel spécialisé dans la fabrication de tuyaux en plastique est un annonceur habituel du journal ; parmi les autres annonceurs, on trouve des fournisseurs d'équipements comme les pompes, les moulins, les glacières, une usine d'égrenage de coton ou une société à la recherche de producteurs de piments pour l'exportation.La quantité d'annonces publicitaires est très variable. Certains numéros peuvent en contenir plusieurs pages et procurer des ressources équivalentes à des milliers d'euros, d'autres n'en contiennent presque pas. Le coût des annonces publicitaires est également très variable. Jane Batte explique que les rédacteurs pourraient trouver beaucoup d'annonceurs s'ils se déplaçaient personnellement pour aller prospecter les clients potentiels mais ça prend trop de temps. Ils ont essayé de passer par une agence spécialisée, qui a recommandé de relever les prix, mais qui n'a trouvé aucun client.Comme pour les autres publications destinées à des publics ruraux, la distribution est un véritable casse-tête. Vous ne pouvez pas (encore aujourd'hui) acheter un exemplaire de La Voix du Paysan chez un vendeur de journaux : « courir après les vendeurs pour récupérer l'argent de la vente est très difficile », dit Jane Batte. Le magazine est un excellent outil de promotion ; l'UNFA en distribue un certain nombre d'exemplaires gratuitement ; par ailleurs, quelques organisations ont souscrit un abonnement.Mais la plus grande partie du tirage est vendue à travers les organisations membres. Les coordonnateurs de districts viennent régulièrement à Kampala pour des réunions ou des sessions de formation. Ils prennent à cette occasion un paquet de journaux et les ramènent chez eux. Ils encouragent les organisations locales à vendre le magazine en les autorisant à prendre une commission de 200 shillings (0,13 e). Ils doivent remettre le reste du produit de la vente à l'UNFA.Qui achète La Voix du Paysan ? « Beaucoup de femmes, mais aussi des hommes, sont encore analphabètes », dit Jane. « Ce sont en général les hommes qui achètent le magazine ». Les paysans qui assurent des fonctions de formateurs sur le terrain reçoivent un exemplaire du magazine ; cela leur permet de trouver des informations qu'ils pourront utiliser dans leur travail de formateur.De nombreuses organisations membres de l'UNFA éditent des bulletins en langues locales pour leurs adhérents. En général, il s'agit d'un bulletin ronéotypé et agrafé de trois ou quatre pages. On y retrouve quelquefois des articles provenant de La Voix du Paysan et traduits dans les langues locales. L'information peut ainsi atteindre un public plus vaste que les seuls lecteurs de La Voix du Paysan.En avril 1999, le département de l'information de l'UNFA a organisé une session de formation sur la gestion de l'information et de la diffusion pour 74 personnes provenant des organisations membres. Peu d'entre elles ont par la suite produit leur propre bulletin. Cela montre qu'il y a encore du chemin à parcourir pour que les 90 000 paysans de l'association aient un accès régulier à une source d'information écrite.Quel est l'intérêt des paysans à dépenser 1 500 shillings pour adhérer à l'UNFA ? Une des principales motivations est que cela leur ouvre l'accès aux conseils et à la formation. Les paysans peuvent demander aux formateurs de proximité sur le terrain, également appelés « relais de vulgarisation paysan », des conseils pour résoudre tel ou tel problème. Si le « formateur-relais » domine le sujet, il peut le résoudre directement, proposer une mini-session de formation ou organiser une démonstration ou une expérimentation, à laquelle les paysans non membres seront invités. Si le formateur-relais n'a pas suffisamment d'éléments pour répondre à la demande, il s'adresse au coordonnateur de district pour qu'il assure lui-même la formation ou le conseil.Les révolutions de l'information 126Si la réponse n'existe toujours pas à ce niveau, le coordonnateur de district saisit le service « Suivi Conseil » de Kampala qui mettra à disposition un spécialiste ou un chercheur pour effectuer la prestation de formation.Tous les ans, en juillet, l'UNFA organise une foire agricole à Jinja, dans le centre du pays. La foire de 1999 a regroupé plus de 30 exposants représentant des sociétés commerciales, 23 organisations paysannes et 10 institutions gouvernementales. Elle a attiré plus de 80 000 visiteurs. La foire a une excellente image : en 1998, le président Museveni l'a honorée de sa présence et il a remis un taureau au lauréat du concours d'élevage bovin.L'UNFA produisait ses propres programmes radio mais elle les a interrompus car c'était trop coûteux et de nombreux paysans se plaignaient de la tranche horaire inadaptée. Une nouvelle approche est désormais privilégiée. Il s'agit d'encourager les paysans à se constituer en groupes d'écoute pour écouter collectivement les programmes de radio relatifs à l'agriculture et au développement rural. Après la diffusion du programme, les auditeurs discutent de l'émission et envoient leurs observations écrites au siège de l'UNFA. La même approche peut être utilisée avec des audiocassettes produites par l'UNFA sur des sujets spécifiques comme la production du café ou de la banane. Les groupes peuvent emprunter les cassettes au bureau de l'association au niveau du district, les écouter collectivement et faire parvenir leurs réactions à l'UNFA.Le lobbying est une autre stratégie mise en oeuvre par l'UNFA pour servir les intérêts de ses adhérents. C'était même, à l'origine, une des raisons qui a motivé la création de l'association. C'est le comité exécutif qui assure la responsabilité de cette activité. Les efforts entrepris dans ce domaine ont porté leurs fruits. En voici un exemple. La décision du gouvernement d'interdire l'importation de semence de taureau en raison de la maladie de la « vache folle » en Europe a fait l'objet d'interventions de l'UNFA. Depuis le début de 1999, le gouvernement a partiellement suspendu cette mesure, permettant ainsi aux éleveurs ougandais de continuer leurs efforts d'amélioration de leur filière.Les agriculteurs ont cependant encore beaucoup à apprendre en matière de lobbying ; ils ne sont pas encore aussi efficaces que l'association des transformateurs ou celle des exportateurs agricoles, qui représentent les grands propriétaires produisant pour l'exportation. Toutefois, l'UNFA est potentiellement très puissante car les petits paysans qu'elle représente sont beaucoup plus nombreux et constituent un élément vital de l'économie du pays.Le financement de l'UNFA constitue sans doute son talon d'Achille : une grande partie de ses ressources proviennent encore du financement de DANIDA et son activité fait l'objet d'une assistance de conseillers danois. Il est indispensable pour l'UNFA, si elle veut rester une organisation forte et représentative des agriculteurs d'Ouganda, qu'elle trouve les moyens de se sevrer de cette dépendance extérieure.Uganda National Farmers Association (UNFA), Farmers Centre, Plot 27 Nakasero Road, PO Box 6213, Kampala (Ouganda).Tél. ( 256 La FONGS produit aussi des vidéos. Fin 1999, trois vidéos avaient déjà été réalisées : deux sur la culture du riz et une sur les activités des organisations membres de la FONGS. Elles sont réalisées par des prestataires professionnels extérieurs et diffusées par la télévision nationale.La formation est une composante importante des activités de la FONGS : de 1985 à 1990, elle a formé des centaines de formateurs dans chacune de ses organisations membres sur des sujets comme l'agriculture, l'élevage et la gestion des organisations. Mais une évaluation, entreprise en 1991, a relevé que les formateurs n'étaient pas d'une grande efficacité. En conséquence, la FONGS a modifié son approche pour s'appuyer davantage sur les potentialités de chacune de ses organisations membres. Un programme d'échanges de formation et d'appui (PFEA) a été mis en place pour permettre à chaque organisation de demander aux autres de mener des sessions de formation dans leurs champs de compétences respectifs.Un bulletin préparé par une organisation membre de la FONGSLes membres de la FONGS collaborent étroitement avec les vulgarisateurs des services de l'État. Comme dans le cas de l'UNFA en Ouganda, les équipes de la FONGS prennent en charge les moyens et la logistique et les vulgarisateurs apportent leurs compétences techniques spécialisées.Pour améliorer la disponibilité de l'information dans tout le pays, la FONGS est en train de mettre en place 11 centres de documentation, un dans chaque région, plus un centre à vocation nationale. Elle développe également les échanges d'informations par messagerie électronique en s'appuyant sur les nombreux télécentres équipés d'ordinateurs que l'on trouve maintenant un peu partout au Sénégal.La FONGS est partie prenante à un processus particulièrement intéressant et original de restructuration de la recherche agronomique au Sénégal. Habituellement, ce sont les chercheurs ou les décideurs politiques qui choisissent les thèmes et arrêtent les modalités de la recherche. Les chercheurs conduisent leurs expérimentations, développent de nouvelles techniques et les transmettent aux agents de la vulgarisation qui, à leur tour, forment les paysans. Il arrive bien souvent que les chercheurs se concentrent sur des sujets qui présentent un intérêt scientifique pour eux mais qui n'ont aucune utilité pratique pour les producteurs.Le Conseil national de concertation et de coopération des ruraux (CNCR), une organisation faîtière regroupant la FONGS et 8 organisations paysannes, a décidé de prendre cette question en mains pour inverser les choses. Les paysans, à travers le CNCR, décideront par eux-mêmes les thèmes prioritaires de recherche et commissionneront les chercheurs de l'Institut sénégalais de recherche agronomique (ISRA) pour les mettre en oeuvre. Ceci confère à la FONGS et aux autres organisations paysannes un rôle de poids : elles s'assurent que leurs intérêts sont pris en compte en maîtrisant, au moins en partie, les programmes de recherche.Ce système est proche de ce qui est développé en Europe ou aux États-Unis, où les organisations de producteurs agricoles sont relativement puissantes. Dans l'État de l'Iowa, par exemple, l'association des producteurs de soja consacre une part des cotisations de ses adhérents au financement de recherches qui les concernent directement. Les chercheurs de l'université leur soumettent des projets de recherche pour financement.Le CNCR est en train de peaufiner cette approche et, si elle réussit, elle constituera un modèle pour la recherche agronomique dans d'autres pays africains.Comme l'UNFA en Ouganda, la FONGS est très dépendante d'une assistance technique extérieure. En termes de ressources propres, elle génère environ 20 à 25 millions de francs CFA par an (30 à 40 000 e), à partir des cotisations des adhérents et d'autres revenus. Mais la plus grande partie de ses ressources proviennent d'un consortium d'ONG européennes, coordonnées par SOS Faim.Pour atteindre une indépendance véritable et pérenniser ses activités, la FONGS doit progressivement réduire la part des ressources qui provient de ses partenaires extérieurs, en développant des activités de services rémunérés, comme la formation, et en recrutant davantage de membres. Mais son indépendance financière à long terme ne sera acquise que lorsque ses membres deviendront plus solides. Et cela dépend aussi de la capacité de la FONGS à dynamiser ses activités et à développer ses capacités d'autofinancement.FONGS, BP 269, Thiès (Sénégal). Tél. ( 221) 951 1237 ; fax (221) 951 2059 ; e-mail fongs@telecomplus.snDans les villages du Sud Mali, tous les ans, au mois de novembre, au moment des premières pesées du coton, le calcul de ce qui est dû à chaque producteur est établi, en retenant le montant des intrants que chacun a prélevés. Et c'est à ce moment qu'apparaissent les conflits : les quantités indiquées dans les cahiers des producteurs ne sont pas les mêmes que celles qui sont consignées dans le cahier du secrétaire de l'association villageoise ; des intrants ont été comptabilisés mais n'ont pas été livrés ; certains producteurs n'ont pas noté les intrants qu'ils ont reçus ou les sous-évaluent.Dans de nombreux villages de la zone cotonnière du Sud Mali, les paysans ont constitué des associations villageoises pour gérer collectivement la production de coton, s'approvisionner en intrants, accéder au crédit et commercialiser la récolte. Ces associations ont été créées à l'initiative de la Compagnie malienne de développement des textiles (CMDT), l'organisme semi-public chargé de la production cotonnière au Mali.Tous les ans, les intrants nécessaires à chaque producteur sont distribués par l'association villageoise. Les seuls outils de gestion dont l'association et les paysans disposent sont le cahier du secrétaire de l'association, qui indique les quantités livrées à chaque producteur, et le cahier du producteur où il reporte ces indications. Les conflits sont presque inévitables.Les autres ressources générées par les associations villageoises (rémunérations pour la collecte du coton, commercialisation et stockage des céréales, gestion du crédit) ne sont pas non plus gérées de façon efficace ni transparente, ce qui encourage les détournements et les malversations.Il arrive enfin bien souvent que les producteurs contractent des crédits auprès des banques, à travers les associations villageoises, pour des montants importants, sans connaître leurs capacités réelles de remboursement et qu'ils se retrouvent dans l'impossibilité de payer leurs dettes.L'insuffisance des outils de gestion des associations villageoises crée un climat de suspicion en leur sein, décourage les initiatives des producteurs et conduit à des baisses de production quelquefois très importantes.La responsabilité de cette situation n'est pas à mettre systématiquement sur le compte des dirigeants des associations villageoises mais plutôt sur l'absence d'outils de gestion appropriés et un effort d'alphabétisation insuffisant pour permettre une véritable maîtrise de ces outils.Pour une gestion transparente de l'argent des paysans L'arrivée des centres de gestion rurale a changé beaucoup de choses dans le fonctionnement des associations villageoises et dans les modes de gestion communautaire.Les centres de gestion rurale ont été mis en place en 1992, à l'initiative d'une organisation populaire d'épargne et de crédit en milieu rural (Kafo Jiginew) et de la Compagnie malienne de développement des textiles (CMDT), avec le soutien de la coopération française.Il s'agissait de favoriser une plus grande autonomie des organisations paysannes par la maîtrise de leur gestion et d'obtenir une transparence des comptes, base de la confiance entre les membres des associations villageoises. L'approche du projet a consisté à impliquer les associations villageoises dans la conception, la gestion et le suivi des centres, y compris dans leur financement, pour répondre à la demande réelle des producteurs. Cette démarche visait à favoriser une appropriation du système par les paysans et une pérennisation du dispositif.L'autre originalité de l'approche mise en place réside dans le fait qu'il s'agit d'un service payant pour lequel l'association villageoise doit faire une démarche volontaire d'adhésion et satisfaire à des critères d'éligibilité.Les centres proposent aux associations villageoises qui le souhaitent, les services de conseillers en gestion qui les aident à mettre en place un système comptable adapté à leurs besoins et transparent. Les conseillers assurent également le suivi de la comptabilité de l'association et aident à la préparation d'un compte rural qui fait l'objet, chaque année, d'une restitution publique à travers une assemblée générale des producteurs. Les secrétaires et les comptables des associations villageoises reçoivent une formation pour poursuivre l'activité de façon plus autonome.« Ina cogo nyena » (en français « Tu es venu à temps ») 1 … C'est le nom que les villageois de la zone de Kignan ont donné à leur centre de gestion rurale. Il faut dire qu'en 1994, lorsque le centre de gestion a été mis en place, la production avait chuté de plus de 50 %. Les producteurs ne percevaient plus leurs revenus du coton depuis 2 ans en raison du surendettement de l'association villageoise de Kignan et de son incapacité à faire face à ses dettes. Il en allait de même dans la plupart des autres associations villageoises de la zone.Avec l'arrivée du centre de gestion et la reprise en main des comptes de 60 associations villageoises sur la centaine que compte le secteur, la production a progressivement repris, les dettes ont été épongées et, en 1999, la production de coton atteignait le chiffre record de 973 tonnes. Le centre appuie maintenant la gestion de 60 associations villageoises sur la centaine que compte le secteur ; il a bâti ses propres locaux et les a équipés avec un investissement de 5 millions de F CFA.La confiance est rétablie ; désormais les producteurs maîtrisent la gestion de leurs activités et sont capables d'envisager des investissements éducatifs, sociaux et sanitaires.Il existe un centre de gestion pour environ 40 associations villageoises, qui sont représentées dans le conseil d'administration des centres. L'adhésion des associations villageoises est volontaire. Elle est soumise à deux conditions : les associations candidates doivent accepter la vérification complète de leurs comptes et doivent payer une cotisation dont le montant est calculé en fonction du volume de coton commercialisé. La CMDT incite à l'adhésion à ces centres en remboursant une partie importante de la contribution par le biais d'une prime donnée aux associations adhérentes, pour chaque tonne de coton produit.Les cotisations sont destinées à rémunérer le conseiller et à financer les frais de fonctionnement du centre : déplacements du conseiller (une moto et du carburant), achat des documents de gestion.Une campagne d'information et de sensibilisation a été organisée et la mise en place des centres de gestion a été progressive. Il fallait en effet surmonter la méfiance des producteurs, qui craignaient que cet outil ne soit un moyen de contrôler leurs activités. Par ailleurs, certains responsables d'associations villageoises, qui redoutaient de voir leurs comptes vérifiés par des personnes de l'extérieur, avaient tendance à freiner la mise en place des centres de gestion.La transparence des comptes et l'amélioration de la gestion ont eu des effets importants : diminution des conflits et des suspicions, disparition des irrégularités comptables, réduction des mauvaises créances et meilleure gestion des crédits. Les associations peuvent effectuer leurs investissements en toute liberté et maîtriser leurs frais généraux. Le renforcement de leur situation financière leur procure une capacité de négociation accrue. Par ailleurs, la production de coton a augmenté, de même que les ressources des paysans.Les centres de gestion continent à se multiplier. À la fin de 1999, on comptait 23 centres, couvrant environ 1 000 des 4 500 associations villageoises recensées dans 5 régions CMDT. L'objectif est de couvrir 1 900 associations d'ici la fin 2001 et 2 500 en 2003.Plusieurs mesures sont programmées pour garantir la durabilité des centres de gestion. Des unions régionales de centres sont en voie de constitution ; chacune de ces unions sera assistée par un centre régional d'appui. Une fédération de ces unions régionales aura pour tâches de programmer l'implantation de nouveaux centres, d'assurer les relations avec les partenaires, de mobiliser les compétences externes et de mettre en place un système de suivi-évaluation. Les partenaires de la filière, comme la CMDT, les organisations paysannes, les chambres d'agriculture, les banques et les établissements de crédit, seront associés à toutes les étapes.Des outils d'information et de communication seront mis en place ou renforcés pour accompagner l'évolution des centres, organiser des campagnes de sensibilisation, rendre compte des expériences de terrain et donner la parole aux producteurs et à leurs associations. Les responsables du projet de gestion rurale se sont rendu compte que si l'information parvenait bien aux dirigeants des associations villageoises (présidents et secrétaires), elle n'était pas systématiquement répercutée au niveau des producteurs dans les villages et que l'information dont disposaient les paysans sur le fonctionnement du système n'était pas suffisante. Par ailleurs, le changement de rythme d'implantation de nouveaux centres et les objectifs quantitatifs du projet impliquent la mobilisation de moyens plus systématiques d'information et de communication.Deux vecteurs principaux ont été identifiés : un support interne, le journal des centres de gestion rurale et un support plus ouvert sur l'ensemble de la population rurale, les radios de proximité des différentes régions concernées.Intitulé Yeelen (la lumière, en bambara), le journal a vu le jour en octobre 1999 et paraît 4 fois par an. Son tirage est de 3 000 exemplaires en bambara et de quelques centaines en français. Il est distribué gratuitement aux associations villageoises membres du centre de gestion et servira également à sensibiliser les villages qui n'ont pas encore adhéré. Le contenu éditorial du journal est essentiellement fourni par les membres des centres de gestion dont la contribution est sollicitée. Le premier numéro apportait une information concrète sur la vie des centres de gestion : comment ils ont été créés, quels ont été les principaux obstacles rencontrés pour leur mise en place et quels sont les premiers résultats. Les articles s'appuyaient essentiellement sur des témoignages des acteurs des centres (conseillers en gestion, responsables des centres régionaux d'appui) ou des responsables d'associations villageoises. Une page était réservée aux activités du centre de formation. Le deuxième numéro traitait de la mise en place des nouveaux centres régionaux d'appui.Les radios de proximité sont nombreuses dans les différentes zones de production cotonnière et elles constituent le support idéal pour apporter une information directe à l'ensemble de la population rurale sur l'utilité et le fonctionnement des centres de gestion, en faisant appel à des techniques vivantes et interactives de production : émissions publiques villageoises, reportages sur l'impact des centres de gestion sur la production et le revenu des paysans, témoignages, débats, information sur les mécanismes et techniques de fonctionnement des centres. Le recours à la radio permettra à la fois d'informer et de sensibiliser les associations villageoises sur la démarche des centres de gestion et leur intérêt à y adhérer, et de mieux apprécier l'opinion des producteurs, utilisateurs finaux du système. Des contacts ont été pris avec l'ensemble des radios de proximité des différentes régions concernées pour négocier des accords de partenariats et le traitement régulier des thèmes de la gestion rurale sur les antennes des radios de Mali Sud (voir l'article « Apporter aux producteurs ruraux une information de proximité », p. 21).Fousseini Coulibaly, Centre régional de Sikasso, Sikasso (Mali). Tél. ( 223 prirent conscience de la réalité et changèrent leurs méthodes de travail. D'abord, ils commencèrent à utiliser des approches « participatives » où les paysans (et non les organismes de développement) définissaient eux-mêmes leurs propres besoins et planifiaient les changements de leurs pratiques agricoles en fonction de leurs compétences et de leur savoir. Les organismes de développement devaient jouer un rôle d'animateur plutôt que de professeur : au lieu de dire aux paysans ce qu'ils devaient faire, ils les accompagnaient dans la recherche et la mise en oeuvre des innovations qu'ils avaient eux-mêmes conçues. Toute une gamme de méthodes participatives ont été mises au point pour aider les agriculteurs à identifier les problèmes, construire les solutions, assurer la mise en oeuvre et le suivi de leurs activités.Ensuite, les organismes de développement ont commencé à promouvoir le concept d'agriculture durable basée sur les ressources locales : variétés traditionnelles, compost et engrais disponibles localement et ainsi de suite. Cette approche avait de nombreux avantages : elle permettait de réduire le niveau des intrants que les paysans avaient à payer et elle limitait les effets nocifs des pesticides et engrais chimiques. Cependant, il existait peu d'animateurs communautaires capables de promouvoir cette nouvelle approche participative. La plupart des vulgarisateurs provenaient des écoles d'agriculture où on leur avait appris les méthodes descendantes classiques. Il fallait donc à la fois conceptualiser toutes les nouvelles idées en matière de participation et d'agriculture durable et former les agents des ONG à leur mise en oeuvre.Neuf mois après la première réunion, le groupe qui avait conçu le programme de formation originel se retrouva à nouveau. Le projet avait circulé, il avait été largement discuté et amendé. Il était temps de faire un pas supplémentaire. Le groupe examina une idée qui avait été formulée pendant la réunion précédente : il fallait aller au-delà de la simple conception d'un programme de formation. Il fallait profiter de cette opportunité pour mettre en commun les initiatives des différentes ONG locales en matière d'agriculture durable afin que les expériences des uns et des autres puissent être partagées et profiter à tous.Les ONG travaillent souvent de façon isolée. Elles apprennent beaucoup en développant leurs propres activités mais elles n'ont pas souvent l'occasion d'échanger leurs expériences. Cet état de choses est apparu comme une évidence pour les membres du groupe. Ils décidèrent donc de lancer une association qui favoriserait les échanges entre toutes ces ONG. Un comité de pilotage a été désigné, comprenant un membre provenant de chacun des pays représentés. Ce comité, appuyé par une équipe légère de coordination (une personne et demie) accompagna la création de l'association PELUM.La construction se poursuivit prudemment pendant deux années et en octobre 1995, 30 délégués représentant des ONG de la région lancèrent l'association PELUM avec comme devise « faciliter la formation et bâtir un réseau pour une gestion participative et écologique de la terre en Afrique orientale et australe ».La force et le potentiel de l'association reposent sur les groupes de travail nationaux, composés de tous les membres de chaque pays. Le président de chacun de ces groupes représente le pays au sein du conseil d'administration de l'association. Les réunions du conseil, Les ateliers sont une part importante des activités du réseau et ils sont très appréciés par ses membres. Chaque année, l'association mène une enquête auprès de ses membres pour identifier leurs besoins prioritaires. Sur cette base le programme d'ateliers est établi pour l'année. Quatre à sept ateliers sont organisés chaque année. Ils durent d'une à trois semaines. Ils se déroulent dans différents pays et sont en général accueillis par une organisation membre de l'association. À titre d'exemple, des ateliers ont été organisés sur des thèmes comme le suivi participatif, la gestion de l'information, les techniques d'animation, la production de matériel didactique et la gestion intégrée des terroirs.Les participants sont invités à venir à l'atelier avec leurs propres expériences sur le sujet pour les échanger avec les autres. Des intervenants extérieurs apportent les connaissances complémentaires nécessaires. Des exercices pratiques sont organisés pendant l'atelier lui-même pour permettre aux participants d'appliquer concrètement ce qu'ils ont appris.Comme les ateliers sont organisés par les membres de l'association elle-même, il ne s'agit pas d'activités limitées dans le temps. Au contraire, les ateliers contribuent à la consolidation de l'association en construisant un réseau toujours plus cohérent, pierre après pierre. Le défi qui reste à relever est l'amélioration de la surveillance et du suivi du réseau. L'objectif à long terme reste d'encourager la production de matériel pour satisfaire le marché potentiel créé par l'association. Par exemple, quelqu'un qui produit un ouvrage sur le suivi participatif en Ouganda sera assuré de voir cette publication distribuée dans toute la sousrégion et pas seulement en Ouganda. Le magazine de l'association Ground Up était au départ un simple bulletin interne. Le premier numéro a été publié en 1999. Il contient des articles sur l'agriculture durable, donne le calendrier des programmes de formation et informe sur les nouveaux titres des publications.En novembre 1995, les membres de l'association du Zimbabwe se sont réunis pour discuter des meilleures façons de mettre en oeuvre le programme de formation mis au point par l'association. Des représentants de l'université ainsi que des services de vulgarisation du gouvernement ont été associés à cette rencontre.« Comment ce programme peut-il être enseigné par nos organisations de base ?», se demandait à haute voix un des participants. « Chacune de nos associations pourrait réaliser une partie du programme mais aucune d'entre elles n'a les compétences nécessaires pour le mettre en oeuvre dans son intégralité ». « Vous avez trouvé ! » s'exclama un autre participant. « C'est exactement ça ! Si chacun d'entre nous en prend une part, la part qu'il maîtrise, alors, ensemble, nous pouvons assurer l'intégralité du programme de formation ».Et c'est ainsi que naquit l'idée de « l'école sans murs ». Comme pour l'association elle-même, l'idée du collège, basée sur un partage des savoirs, fit l'objet d'un suivi méticuleux et de nombreux débats. Des responsables de formation provenant des organisations participantes affinèrent le programme. Une mission se rendit dans toutes les organisations pour identifier leurs compétences respectives et décider qui couvrirait chacun des aspects du programme. La direction de l'organisation mit au point une stratégie de développement pour le collège et discuta de son organisation. Les aspects pratiques d'hébergement et de restauration furent également discutés dans un comité spécialisé.Au moment où elle fut lancée, l'école PELUM du Zimbabwe comprenait des ONG nationales et communautaires, des départements des deux universités et des éléments des services nationaux de formation et de vulgarisation. Les premiers étudiants entamèrent un cycle de cours intercalaires en 1998. Un groupe provenant des organisations fondatrices vint aider à défricher le terrain et à aplanir les difficultés de démarrage. La deuxième promotion démarra dès le début de l'an 2000.Un numéro du magazine Ground UpIl y a maintenant dix ans qu'une poignée de personnes firent les premiers pas dans la constitution de l'association PELUM. C'est encore une organisation très jeune mais elle a déjà fait beaucoup dans le domaine de l'échange de l'information. Désormais, la priorité consiste à renforcer le réseau pour permettre à l'information de circuler plus facilement. Cette échéance permettra à l'association de jouer un plus grand rôle de lobbying et de défense de ses membres. Beaucoup poussent l'association à adopter cette stratégie rapidement et notamment les partenaires de coopération. Toutefois, PELUM résiste à ces pressions et s'engagera dans cette voie seulement lorsqu'elle disposera de tous les éléments pour le faire avec des chances de succès.L'association PELUM a tiré un certain nombre de leçons, souvent douloureuses, de son expérience. En voici quelques exemples :• Avoir un programme conjoint comme objectif est une bonne façon de garantir le bon fonctionnement d'un réseau ;• Avancer avec prudence permet d'impliquer les membres au maximum. Mais il faut aussi que la réalisation du programme progresse.C'est une question d'équilibre entre la nécessité d'aller de l'avant et l'objectif à long terme, qui est de maintenir des liens forts entre les membres de l'association ; En 1992, les choses commencèrent à changer. Le gouvernement commença à lever les restrictions et à libéraliser le marché des produits agricoles. La plupart des offices de commercialisation furent abolis et les paysans, pour la première fois, avaient la liberté de négocier euxmêmes le prix de leur production.Mais à qui allaient-ils vendre ? La suppression des offices de commercialisation avait laissé un grand vide dans la filière des matières premières. Les producteurs pouvaient toujours proposer leur récolte aux marchés locaux, mais des centaines d'autres paysans qui avaient cultivé les mêmes produits étaient aussi en train d'essayer d'écouler leur production. La seule alternative était d'attendre l'arrivée du camion de l'entreprise de transformation locale qui chargeait leurs sacs et leur donnaient le prix qu'elle avait décidé de leur donner.Adrian Mukhebi alla au Zimbabwe et vit comment fonctionnait le ZIMACE, une nouvelle bourse des matières premières agricoles. Il en revint très impressionné et convaincu que le moment de mettre en place de telles structures au Kenya était venu.Le cas de la KACE     L'ITDG utilise les systèmes de mesure traditionnels pour assurer le suivi des épidémies, des sécheresses ou de la sécurité (les vols de bétail sont fréquents). Les équipes de projets combinent le système de « nombre de pattes » et de « couleurs » pour d'autres informations comme le niveau des précipitations, les taux de malnutrition à partir des données des centres de santé et les épidémies, afin de construire une image globale de la situation du district. Ces éléments sont essentiels pour prendre les bonnes décisions comme, par exemple, l'organisation d'une campagne de vaccination d'urgence ou pour gérer les conflits entre groupes rivaux. L'équipe de l'unité a diffusé l'information sur les expérimentations vers une centaine d'autres éleveurs de poulets. Trois critères de sélection de l'information à diffuser ont été définis :• Est-ce que l'usage de la plante améliore la production ?• Est-ce qu'elle a des effets secondaires indésirables ?• Est-ce que les éleveurs qui ont expérimenté la plante continuent à l'utiliser ?Quel dosage des plantes médicinales devait être utilisé pour être introduit dans l'eau de boisson des volailles ? L'équipe de l'unité a défini un dosage type pour chaque plante mais il était donné à titre indicatif et non pas comme une norme obligatoire.La plupart des éleveurs utilisent des hangars grillagés avec des sols couverts de « bagasse » (le résidu d'extraction des cannes à sucre). Les oiseaux disposent d'abreuvoirs automatiques alimentés par un réservoir placé au-dessus des hangars. Ce système permet de distribuer les médicaments à tout l'élevage en même temps : il n'y a qu'à les répandre dans l'eau du réservoir et chaque oiseau est traité en buvant. Les résultats sont impressionnants : en 1994, l'unité a rendu 544 visites à 55 élevages qui produisaient plus de 450 000 poules pondeuses, pour une production totale de 43 millions d'oeufs par an. Ils ont également visité plus de 2 000 élevages de poulets de chair, qui ont produit près de 6 millions de poulets. En plus de cela, l'unité s'occupe également de canards, de pintades et de dindes, en quantités moins importantes.Dans le passé, les forêts constituaient un espace de sécurité contre la sécheresse, la guerre, les troubles sociaux, les cyclones ou les mauvaises récoltes. Elles sont aussi parties intégrantes de la culture de Lauru, où la terre et la forêt sont étroitement associées.    Une des 24 équipes qui constituent l'ENDA s'occupe d'édition « ENDA éditions ». Cette unité publie environ 10 livres par an, en anglais et en français, sur tous les sujets couverts par l'ONG.Les paysans de Luwero, au nord de Kampala, ont été les premiers à remarquer cette mystérieuse maladie en 1988. Des taches jaunes apparaissaient sur les feuilles du manioc et stoppaient leur croissance. Les feuilles tombaient et quand les paysans retiraient les tubercules de terre, ils ne trouvaient rien à manger.Les conseillers agricoles suspectèrent d'abord l'acarien vert du manioc mais les chercheurs trouvèrent le vrai coupable : la mosaïque du manioc, une maladie transmise par un virus connu partout en Afrique, mais qui, jusque-là, n'avait pas provoqué de dégâts sérieux. Cette fois-ci pourtant la situation était grave. Près de 2 000 hectares de plantations de manioc étaient dévastés par la maladie en 1988. Transporté par les aleurodes, le virus se répandait de façon régulière vers le sud à raison de 20 km par an environ, décimant la deuxième culture vivrière du pays. En 1999, le mal s'était répandu dans tout le pays et continuait sa progression vers les pays voisins.Le manioc représente environ 30 % de la nourriture consommée par les Ougandais, juste après la banane. Les paysans constatèrent qu'ils ne pouvaient rien contre le virus. Toutes les variétés locales étaient affectées. Ils abandonnèrent le manioc pour se tourner vers d'autres cultures comme la patate douce. Dans le district de Kumi, dans l'est du pays, les producteurs avaient planté plus de 30 000 hectares de manioc par an en 1986-88 ; en 1992, ils n'exploitaient plus que 5 000 hectares. Au point culminant de l'épidémie, en 1996, la production de manioc de l'Ouganda avait chuté de 80 %, passant de 4 millions de tonnes à 500 000 tonnes par an.L'effondrement de la production de manioc entraîna la famine dans son sillage. En 1994, environ 3 000 personnes moururent de faim dans l'est et le nord de l'Ouganda. Des jeunes filles furent contraintes à des mariages précoces parce que leurs parents avaient besoin de la dot pour acheter de la nourriture. On rapporte même des cas d'échange de jeunes filles contre du manioc.L'organisation nationale ougandaise de recherche agricole (NARO -National Agricultural Research Organization) était sur la sellette. Il fallait trouver une solution rapidement. Le Dr William Otim-Nape, un virologiste qui dirigeait l'équipe du NARO chargé du manioc et des chercheurs de l'Institut des ressources naturelles (NRI) en Grande-Bretagne se lancèrent dans un programme intensif de recherche. Ils rassemblèrent des contributions financières provenant de plusieurs bailleurs de fonds dont le Centre de recherche pour le développementpour le riz ou le blé). L'inconvénient, c'est qu'une tige de manioc peut produire seulement environ six boutures, à l'inverse des centaines de semences produites par une plante de riz ou de blé. Cela signifie que multiplier les boutures nécessaires pour planter un champ de manioc prend beaucoup de temps.Heureusement, les chercheurs du Centre international d'agriculture tropicale (CIAT), en Colombie, ont mis au point une méthode de culture du manioc à partir d'une toute petite partie de la tige contenant un seul noeud au lieu des nombreux noeuds nécessaires pour une bouture standard. En utilisant un local avec un taux d'humidité appropriée, il a été possible de faire pousser plus de plantes à partir d'une simple tige, ce qui a permis d'accélérer la multiplication des variétés résistantes.Les recherches avaient fait clairement apparaître que les nouvelles variétés pouvaient être affectées par la maladie si elles étaient plantées dans des petites parcelles isolées : le virus pouvait simplement se disperser à partir des variétés atteintes dans les environs, submergeant les plantes nouvelles malgré leur potentiel de résistance. Il était donc nécessaire de planter ces nouvelles variétés sur de grandes superficies.Mais pour cela il fallait organiser une vaste campagne d'information des producteurs et multiplier les boutures.Les chercheurs du NARO firent appel aux services de la vulgarisation pour apporter une assistance dans ce domaine. Les responsables de l'agriculture de chaque district furent invités à coordonner le programme manioc. La Fondation Gatsby apporta un soutien financier pour permettre la formation des vulgarisateurs par les chercheurs en fournissant les moyens de transport et les indemnités. C'est ainsi que fut créé le réseau national des producteurs de manioc (NANEC -National Network of Cassava Workers).  Bienvenue au secrétariat de la revue africaine de recherche agricole. Margaret Ssonko et ses collègues travaillent dur sur le prochain numéro de cette publication, une des rares revues scientifiques consacrées à l'agriculture en Afrique. Ils sont heureux de prendre quelques minutes de leur temps pour nous expliquer comment fonctionne le journal.La publication des travaux des chercheurs africains constitue un problème majeur.   Les étudiants sont toujours très occupés dans la cour lorsque nous quittons les locaux de la revue. Pour obtenir leurs diplômes et contribuer au développement de leurs pays, ils doivent accéder aux travaux des chercheurs qui travaillent dans le domaine de l'agriculture. La Revue africaine de recherche agricole y contribue.Adipala Ekwamu, Editor-in-Chief, African Crop Science Journal, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Makarere University, PO Box 7062, Kampala (Ouganda). E-mail acss@starcom.co.ug Tenywa, J.S., Adipala, E., Latigo, O.M., Joubert, G.D., Okuri, P. et  Il n'est donc pas étonnant de constater que les réseaux de recherche sont appréciés dans les pays en développement. Mais pour autant, leur mise sur pied et leur fonctionnement ne sont pas toujours évidents : cela demande de la part de chaque membre un engagement fort et de la ténacité. Heureusement, le développement de l'informatique, de la messagerie électronique et de l'Internet offre de nouveaux outils de communication pour mieux gérer et coordonner les réseaux.La plupart des pays en développement ont comme point commun leur dépendance vis-à-vis de l'agriculture. Un autre est la complexité des problèmes que les producteurs ruraux ont à résoudre. Une véritable armée de maladies et de ravageurs prospèrent sous les climats tropicaux. Lorsque la sécheresse sévit et que les sols sont épuisés, peu de variétés végétales pourront augmenter leurs rendements ; l'élevage du bétail produit des résultats dérisoires en termes de lait et de viande. Sécheresses, inondations, érosion, déforestation et désertification menacent la production agricole. La faiblesse des capitaux, de l'offre de crédits, des routes, des marchés n'incitent pas les agriculteurs à investir dans leurs entreprises ni à commercialiser leurs productions.Cela signifie-t-il qu'il faille investir davantage dans la recherche agricole ? Oui, et d'autant plus que les études récentes ont montré que l'investissement dans la recherche produit des résultats spectaculaires, en termes de rendement donc d'augmentation de la production et des revenus des producteurs.Mais cela ne signifie pas qu'il existe suffisamment de ressources financières à cette fin. La recherche agricole est une activité coûteuse qui, malheureusement, attire peu d'investisseurs dans la plupart des pays en développement. Les gouvernements ne peuvent pas (ou ne veulent pas) y consacrer leurs ressources.Une solution à ce problème consiste à mettre les ressources en commun. Malgré leurs différences, les pays des grandes régions présentent de nombreuses similarités. Le groupe des pays du Sahel, de la Mauritanie au Tchad, cultivent les mêmes végétaux, élèvent les mêmes types d'animaux, ont des écosystèmes comparables et sont affectés de la même façon par la sécheresse et la désertification. C'est également vrai des pays d'Afrique orientale, australe, ainsi que pour les îles du Pacifique et des Caraïbes.Partager les ressources est particulièrement intéressant pour les petits pays insulaires des Caraïbes et du Pacifique. Un pays qui ne compte que quelques centaines de milliers d'habitants ne peut pas espérer disposer d'un institut de recherche totalement équipé avec des chercheurs de haut niveau ; mais en groupant leurs ressources, une douzaine de pays de ce type peuvent mettre en place une institution de recherche de haut niveau. Les programmes de recherche peuvent être mis en oeuvre par des groupes d'institutions nationales, par des consultants provenant d'organisations comme la GTZ ou par des centres internationaux de recherche. L'AVRDC (Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center) met en oeuvre le programme de recherche du SACCAR sur les végétaux en Tanzanie, alors que l'IITA (Institut international d'agriculture tropicale) coordonne les travaux des associations de recherche sur le manioc et la patate douce au Malawi.Les mécanismes d'échange d'informations sont assurés par des bulletins, comme l'Agriforum de l'ASARECA ou Coraf Action, des revues scientifiques comme le Zimbabwe Journal of Agricultural Research, soutenu par le SACCAR, des publications et des rapports.Depuis peu, des sites Internet ont fait leur apparition dans ce paysage. Le CORAF et le SACCAR ont les sites les plus complets, avec des informations sur les associations, la consultation en ligne de leurs bulletins et les adresses des réseaux. Il est clair que les ressources de l'Internet permettront d'aller beaucoup plus loin : listes de distribution aux membres des réseaux par courrier électronique, sites à accès limité pour permettre l'analyse, l'exploitation et la publication de données réservées à des groupes de chercheurs, liens avec d'autres sites intéressants, envoi de projets d'articles pour recueillir des commentaires avant leur publication, conférences électroniques pour débattre des grands problèmes. Le CORAF comme le SACCAR ont des projets pour développer ce type d'activités.Ces réseaux ne sont pas seulement destinés à coordonner les travaux des chercheurs. Ils couvrent également deux autres fonctions essentielles : d'abord, ils permettent aux décideurs de débattre de problèmes communs et de partager leurs pratiques et leurs expériences ; Mais, dans les petites institutions, les lieux isolés et les petits pays, il n'y a pas assez de ressources pour payer de nombreux spécialistes. Les structures de communication ont bien souvent des moyens limités et des équipes réduites à une ou deux personnes.Une solution à ce problème consiste à sous-traiter certains aspects qui peuvent nécessiter des équipements coûteux à des organismes extérieurs, comme la production vidéo ou l'impression de documents écrits, par exemple. Cette solution est naturellement préconisée par les projets de développement de courte durée financés par des partenaires extérieurs, qui bien souvent mobilisent des sommes importantes pour financer des services extérieurs, mais ne voient pas l'intérêt de bâtir une compétence technique interne pour les prendre en charge.Certaines institutions plus permanentes, comme les ministères de l'agriculture ou les agences de vulgarisation, doivent gérer avec précaution des budgets limités. Ils ont donc intérêt à disposer d'équipes de communication très polyvalentes et capables de prendre en compte avec compétence toute une gamme de tâches.Cela signifie qu'il faut assurer leur formation en conséquence : production vidéo, mise en page de documents, recherche et gestion de l'information, informatique, etc. Cela signifie également qu'ils auront besoin de l'assistance de spécialistes pour assurer leur formation, leur donner accès aux informations et les conseiller à la demande.Le système des ALO de l'IRETA est une référence dans ce domaine. Les ALO sont des généralistes : ils savent faire un peu de tout. Mais ils devraient pouvoir faire appel à des équipes spécialisées comme celle du service des médias électroniques de l'IRETA, par exemple. Et l'IRETA devrait être en mesure de leur offrir des formations régulières pour actualiser leurs compétences.fonder son action sur les besoins des usagers et non pas sur les services que l'on est en mesure de rendre. Sur cette base il s'agissait d'identifier quelle institution ou quel projet était le plus en mesure de répondre à chacun des besoins répertoriés. Cela signifie travailler pour un objectif commun, avec une vision stratégique.Le démarrage n'a pas été facile. Tous les participants ont senti qu'avec cette démarche, ils avaient quelque chose à gagner et quelque chose à perdre. Chaque institution souhaitait être dans la position du pilote ; personne ne voulait être un passager anonyme. Mais après une semaine, au cours de laquelle un état des lieux a été fait, sans masquer les renoncements que cela impliquait pour les uns ou les autres, des possibilités d'aménagements ont été explorées. Cette analyse a permis aux huit professionnels de l'information présents à l'atelier de proposer un schéma de fonctionnement pour une véritable collaboration entre les institutions et projets. Ce modèle de coopération a résisté à l'épreuve du temps.Au cours de la toute première réunion du SCAINIP, la décision fut prise de se consacrer à des tâches concrètes et utiles, seules garantes de succès. La première priorité était de disposer d'une meilleure maîtrise bibliographique des documents relatifs à l'agriculture dans la région Pacifique. Il s'agissait, en fait, de savoir quels documents étaient disponibles, s'ils avaient été publiés, ou s'ils étaient demeurés sous forme de « littérature grise » (comme les comptes rendus de séminaires ou les rapports de recherche), où ils pouvaient être trouvés et comment en obtenir une copie. C'est ça, la maîtrise bibliographique. Un des premiers objectifs a été de se décentraliser pour mieux servir les usagers, les agriculteurs des différents pays. En 1981, une équipe scientifique avait été installée dans chacun des 12 pays concernés et le nombre de professionnels était passé à 57.En 25 années d'existence, le CARDI a dû faire face à une série de défis. Il s'agissait, entre autres, de parvenir à coordonner et à gérer une équipe de chercheurs éparpillés dans une douzaine de pays, d'améliorer les services rendus aux agriculteurs, de trouver les fonds nécessaires à la recherche et, en même temps, de poursuivre une série de programmes de recherche qui apportent des réponses concrètes aux problèmes des producteurs ruraux.L'organisation et la gestion du CARDI ont connu des modifications périodiques. Un virage important a été pris en 1987, lorsque le service de formation et de conseil pour le développement agricole et rural des Caraïbes (Caribbean Agricultural Rural Development and Advisory Training Service) a été intégré dans le CARDI. Ce service avait été créé en 1978 pour aider à résoudre quelques-uns des problèmes chroniques des petits exploitants agricoles dans la zone est des Caraïbes. Il s'était notamment donné comme objectif d'aider ces petits fermiers, qui pratiquaient une agriculture de subsistance, à créer de véritables exploitations agricoles.Au lieu de cibler une zone géographique spécifique, le programme d'adaptation et de transfert du CARDI s'est concentré sur l'amélioration de cultures spécifiques. Des groupes de travail constitués par des chercheurs, des vulgarisateurs, des producteurs, des organismes de crédit ou de commercialisation et des consommateurs ont été mis en place pour garantir une production quantitativement et qualitativement fiable. Un de ces groupes de travail a permis d'organiser les agriculteurs de Niévès pour la production de fruits et de légumes destinés à un hôtel cinq étoiles. Une autre équipe a aidé les producteurs de Saint-Vincent à exporter des tubercules et du gingembre au Royaume-Uni. Tous ces groupes tiraient leur efficacité de leur capacité à maîtriser tous les stades de la production (plantation, récolte, commercialisation) pour satisfaire des demandes spécifiques.Le CARDI maintient le cap sur cette approche. Contrairement à de nombreux instituts de recherche à travers le monde, qui se focalisent sur les aspects scientifiques de leurs activités et ont tendance à oublier leurs « clients », le CARDI met l'accent sur les aspects commerciaux de l'agriculture et aide les agriculteurs à trouver des réponses adaptées pour vendre au mieux leurs productions dans un environnement économique en mutation rapide. La plupart des éditeurs de ces publications sont des ONG, des agences des Nations unies ou des organismes de développement qui veulent s'assurer que l'information qu'ils produisent est largement diffusée et qui n'ont pas l'obligation de rentabiliser leurs investissements comme c'est le cas des maisons d'édition commerciales. Michel Loots, qui gère le projet de bibliothèques pour l'humanité, leur demande l'autorisation de copier leurs documents qui sont numérisés et indexés en Roumanie (où les coûts sont moins élevés). Ceci permet au projet de produire et de vendre les CD-ROM à des prix défiant toute concurrence.Pour plus d'information, voir www.humanitycdrom.org","tokenCount":"29310"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"73d2698307f8c65bf1b03faa9cd1bd62","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f748f073-2611-4577-9e2e-88bb42ad92ff/retrieve","id":"1572210860"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0fed2af8-7c89-462b-bb03-ca5b3c5fb331","pagecount":"11","content":"African smallholders should adopt climate-smart agriculture to make a sustainable transition towards cleaner, circular and more productive food systems. Farmers must play a key role in that process. However, the adoption and diffusion of climate-smart technologies have been slow. Here, a crosssectional econometric analysis using primary data on sustainable farming practices in the cereallegume farming systems of Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania is applied to analyse the drivers and intensity of innovation adoption. Socio-economic barriers reduce adoption intensity among marginalised farmers, and proper incentives are needed to overcome them. Business links between technology-ready smallholders and small-to-medium enterprises must be created to enable the uptake and scaling-up of innovations and the development of industrial application models. Such results can support the design of evidence-based strategies for the sustainable transformation of production systems. While national climate policies already include climate-smart agriculture as an adaptation blueprint, policy makers need empirical evidence to support large-scale adoption. This research is an innovative contribution to that effort. It uses a unique household dataset where data is scarce; it considers the impact of smallholders' conditioning factors on technology climate-smartness level; and it estimates the correlations among a wide range of practices, agro-ecologies and geographical contexts.The global food production system faces many challenges. Due to increases in world population, food demand is projected to double over the next fifty years (Alexandratos and Bruinsma, 2012). Climate change is expected to affect food production and stress the natural resource base upon which agriculture depends (IPCC, 2014). This is particularly true in Sub-Saharan Africa, where a fast-growing population and diffuse food insecurity are coupled with environmental degradation, resource depletion and smallholder vulnerability (Li et al., 2019).African agriculture systems require transformation to respond to such challenges. They must expand their production capacity while minimizing their environmental impact. As with other sustainability transitions, technological innovation plays a critical role in the development policy agenda for Africa (Mwalupaso et al., 2019). Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can help by increasing productivity and food security while enhancing farming systems' resilience, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon (FAO, 2013;Asfaw and Branca, 2018 ).CSA has been widely promoted as an integrated cleaner production approach encompassing resource extraction minimization through increased use efficiency and reduced waste, residue valorisation and recycling, diminished air emissions and soil fertility losses and energy savings (Athira et al., 2019;Hens et al., 2018;Mwalupaso et al., 2019). For example, mulching and use of cover crops guarantee permanent soil cover, reduce resource losses caused by evapotranspiration and soil erosion and improve residue re-use by reducing emissions from burning; rotating or intercropping cereals with legumes increases production thanks to nitrogen fixation and reduced incidence of pests and diseases; organic fertilisation enhances systems circularity and waste recycling; minimum soil disturbance increases organic carbon and moisture, reducing yields' vulnerability to rainfall variability and declining soil fertility. Such technological, environmental and economic benefits have been widely reported (Adegbeye et al., 2019;Branca et al., 2013;Godfray et al., 2010;McIntyre et al., 2009).Farmers face multiple climate-related risks (e.g., rainfall variability, declining groundwater tables, heat stress and droughts) and adopt CSA packages (e.g., crop diversification, stress-tolerant seed varieties, minimum tillage) to simultaneously tackle such risks and exploit all possible adaptation benefits. For example, conservation agriculture (combined crop rotation, mulching and minimum tillage) has been widely promoted in Africa (Hobbs et al., 2008). Empirical studies have found that the adoption of multiple CSA technologies, as a method of portfolio diversification, enables increased yields, income and poverty reduction (Khonje et al., 2018;Maguza-Tembo et al., 2017;Wainaina et al., 2017). Others have identified a link between the number of practices combined into a technology package and that package's climate-smartness level, measuring CSA adoption intensity as proxied by the number of practices adopted simultaneously (Aryal et al., 2018;Teklewold et al., 2013).As users of such eco-friendly innovation packages and controllers of production processes, farmers play an important role in the agriculture sector's required transition towards sustainable development and circular economy. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such as farmer cooperatives or individual service providers, can act as change agents encouraging the uptake of CSA technologies in cases where their business models offer scaling-up and industrial application mechanisms (Groot et al., 2019). However, the adoption and diffusion of CSA technology in Africa has been slow. Farmers are constrained by technological, socio-economic and institutional barriers, ineffective policies and the absence of proper incentives (Arslan et al., 2015;Long et al., 2016Long et al., , 2019;;Partey et al., 2018;Senyolo et al., 2018).This work investigates the drivers of adoption of cleaner agriculture production at the smallholder level. It answers the following questions: do interrelationships between single CSA practices in technology packages exist; what socio-economic, physical and environmental factors can drive farmers' adoption of cleaner production technologies; and what is their impact on the adoption intensity of the technology packages selected?We consider cereal-legume smallholders' production, which is key to food security in sub-Saharan Africa. We choose Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa 1 and Tanzania as case studies because in these countries: (i) the agriculture sector makes similar contributions to national economic wealth; (ii) smallholders' production systems perform poorly and require investments to promote sustainable changes; (iii) climate-smart agriculture has been introduced but requires appropriate policy measures for scaling-up and industrial application.Our results provide an important contribution to the existing body of literature, especially in terms of applied research and implications for enterprises and policymakers. They support the design of evidence-based strategies for the sustainable transformation of African smallholders' farming systems through the diffusion of cleaner climate-smart production technologies. Novel features of the analysis are described in what follows. We use a large and unique collection of household survey data that refers to a set of nine production practices adopted within a sample of 2,218 households. Given the scarcity of data about on-farm cleaner agriculture production practices in the study areas, this adds value to the research. It also allows us to provide more robust evidence for policymakers and expanded information about the options for scaling-up and industrial applications. Following Aryal et al. (2018), Makate et al. (2019) and Teklewold et al. (2013), we measure CSA adoption intensity, acknowledging the link between the number of practices combined into a technology package and its climatesmartness level. However: (i) we use a fractional regression econometric model (instead of a multinomial logistic one, as in previous studies) where the dependent variable is continuous (rather than categorical), allowing us to better capture the heterogeneity of farmers' choices regarding practices 2 ; (ii) we conduct a cross-sectional analysis comparing four countries and different agro-ecologies, and estimate the correlation among a wider range of cleaner production practices and geographical contexts than has previously been considered in the literature; (iii) we thoroughly factor the effect of local context on farmers' choices into the analysis through interaction terms that combine the country-group categorical variable with economic, human and social explanatory variables, under the hypothesis that the relationship between such regressors and the climate-smartness of technology packages depends on the national context (instead of simply using explanatory variables indicating the geographical location); and (iv) we do not factor technology packages into the model as exogenous aspects, but rather identify them empirically through pair-wise correlation coefficients among single practices at household level.The paper is structured as follows. A description of the research approach and study areas, including information about the cleaner farm production practices considered in the analysis, is presented in section 2. Data and methodology are presented in sections 3 and 4, respectively. Results are illustrated and discussed in section 5. Conclusions are reported in section 6.This work looks at climate-smart agriculture practices adopted in the maize/millet-legume cropping systems in semi-arid and subhumid agro-ecological zones and various climates: warm desert (Ethiopia), tropical savannah (Tanzania), humid sub-tropical (Malawi) and temperate (South Africa). The list of practices is summarised in Table 1 and described in what follows.Improved agronomy includes practices such as the use of cover crops, the adoption of improved seed varieties, and the introduction of legumes as rotational (or intercropped) crops with maize and other cereals. Cover crops lead to higher yields due to decreased on-farm erosion and nutrient leaching, and reduced grain losses due to pest attack. Improved varieties increase yields because of their tolerance to heat and pests. Crop rotations and intercropping enhance soil fertility, reduce incidence of pests and diseases, and enrich nutrient supply to subsequent crops, leading to increased crop yields (Branca et al., 2013). Integrated nutrient management includes practices that promote the use of fertilizers, organic inputs and biological resources, reduce nutrient mining and maximize nutrient efficiency (Vanlauwe et al., 2010). Tillage management relies on minimum soil disturbance practices such as zero tillage, which are expected to reduce soil erosion, organic substance oxidation and fertility loss (Rusu et al., 2009). Residue management is implemented through the retention of crop residues on the soil surface (mulching). It enhances water infiltration and protects soils from sealing and crusting caused by rainfalls. Tillage and residue management-based systems are rich in soil organic carbon, and are characterised by overall soil fertility higher than that of conventional systems (Scopel et al., 2004). Enhanced water management can help farmers make more water available to crops and use it more efficiently (Vohland and Barry, 2009). Tied ridging and planting pits involve creating a series of micro-catchment basins in a field which can retain surface runoff, reduce water and soil erosion, and harvest and store rainwater (Wiyo et al., 2000).Smallholders' agriculture is a key sector in the countries studied. It accounts for 31% of GDP in Ethiopia, 29% in Tanzania, and 26% in Malawi; and employs 66% of national work force in Ethiopia, 68% in Tanzania, and 72% in Malawi (World Bank, 2018). In South Africa, despite agriculture's limited contribution to GDP (less than 5%) and employment (about 6%), smallholders play an important role in food production and livelihood creation, as about 13% of agricultural land is managed by approximately 2.6 million small family farm units (Pienaar and Traub, 2015).Common aspects of smallholders' farming in the study areas include limited adoption of climate-smart cleaner production practices compared to traditional, low-productivity agricultural techniques; and high susceptibility of farm production to weatherrelated events. In Ethiopia, minimum tillage has been introduced to address soil erosion, improve soil fertility and enhance sustainable crop production, but adoption is still minimal (Mesfin et al., 2011). In Tanzania, the adoption of zero-tillage and mulching is low, because these are perceived as risky new approaches (Kassie et al., 2013). In Malawi, conservation agriculture is implemented on less than 2% of cultivated land (CIAT and World Bank, 2018). In South Africa, the adoption of conservation practices is prevalent on commercial farms, but limited among smallholders. Smallholder farming in these countries is characterised by inadequate soil conservation practices, with consequent soil erosion and fertility depletion; shortened fallow periods; removal of plant residues from crop fields for animal fodder; low access to agricultural inputs and extension services support; and diminishing crop yields (Calzadilla et al., 2014;Liebenberg, 2015). This exposes smallholders to climate change impacts. In Ethiopia, crop production shortfalls are mostly attributed to climate erratic rainfalls and increased frequency of drought periods, e.g. the El Nino-induced droughts in 2015 and 2016 (Asrat and Simane, 2017). In Tanzania, farmers are experiencing the adverse impacts of climate change, including poor crop yields, reduced water availability, and increased occurrence of crop and livestock pests and diseases (Rwehumbiza, 2014). In Malawi, increased frequency of droughts and floods, along with high temperatures, are already posing further challenges to low-productivity smallholder farming and heightening the risk of seasonal food insecurity (Asfaw et al., 2014). In South Africa, droughts followed by high rainfall have led to widespread disease outbreaks (Thornton et al., 2014).This study uses data collected through a field survey conducted during January-February 2018 at seven sites in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa. Information about the following has been collected: smallholders' socio-demographic and economic profiles; improved agriculture practices and seed systems adopted; climate change-related aspects (perception, adaptation and coping strategies); membership in agricultural associations and access to extension and advisory services; and access to agricultural inputs and credit.A total of 2,218 households were surveyed (615 in Ethiopia, 653 in Malawi, 348 in Tanzania and 602 in South Africa). The sample size was defined using the following Cochran's sample formula:where: Z represents the standard deviation of the 95% confidence interval characterizing a normal distribution; p is the estimated proportion of households adopting maize-legume/millet-legume cropping systems; q is equal to (1 e p); and e denotes the desired level of precision, which is represented by the margin of error. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to obtain efficient and consistent estimates of the target population: first, the relevant population of farmers adopting target sustainable agriculture practices in each country was identified 3 ; second, clusters representing lower administrative units (districts and wards) were selected 4 ; third, households were randomly selected for interviews. Farmers interviewed showed different adoption levels depending on the specific practice considered and the country-case (see Fig. 1) 5 . Source: own elaboration.3 For each country-case study, the relevant population of farmers has been identified using the areas where maize-legume and millet-legume cropping systems are predominant, based on experts' opinion and secondary data available from local censuses. 4 The lowest administrative units are 'districts' in Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa, 'wards' in Ethiopia. 5 It would be interesting to analyse the drivers of adoption and the specific technology contribution with reference to the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture (food security, adaptation and mitigation) separately. However, data limitations exist. We will explore this topic in the future if additional data becomes available.We apply a fractional regression model to estimate the effect of socio-economic and environmental independent variables on CSA adoption intensity (dependent variable; see section 4.2). Farmers' decisions to adopt single or multiple CSA practices are discrete and should be analysed using qualitative choice models. Univariate logit or probit econometric models defined for each practice might generate biased estimates, since they assume independence of the error terms related to different practices, whereas farmers may choose to implement a combination of technologies, and their decisions to adopt a specific practice could depend on the adoption of other techniques (Aryal et al., 2018). Furthermore, separate econometric models do not emphasize the interrelationships among different CSA practices, and do not consider common drivers of simultaneous adoption. Use of censored normal regression (e.g. Tobit model) was also excluded, because its application is not appropriate when data are defined only in the unit interval (in our case, the dependent variable ranges between 0 and 1): observations at the boundaries of a fractional variable are natural consequence of individual choices, and not of any type of censoring (Calabrese, 2012). We therefore opted for a fractional response model, which is used when the outcome of interest is a variable that takes on all possible values in a unit interval (Mullahy, 2015;Royston and Sauerbrei, 2008).The fractional regression is a model of the mean of the dependent variable y, which ranges in the interval 0 y i 1 and is explained by a vector 1*K of explanatory variables x ≡ (x 1 , x 2 , …, x k ). The population model is:  where G (.) is a known function satisfying 0 G(z) 1 for all z 2 R.In equation ( 2), b can be consistently estimated by non-linear least squares (NLS). Heteroscedasticity is likely to be present in this model, since Var (y i | x i ) is unlikely to be constant when 0 y i 1 (Papke and Wooldrige, 1996). NLS estimates, heteroscedasticityrobust standard errors and test statistics are obtained using STATA software and a quasi-likelihood estimation procedure.The log-likelihood function is given by: lnwhere: lnL is maximized; N is the sample size; y i is the dependent variable; and w j denotes the optimal weights. The functional form of G (.) considered in the present study refers to a probit model and is equal to:where x j are the covariates for individual j, and F is the standard normal cumulative density function.CSA adoption intensity, i.e. the rate of simultaneous adoption of practices, is the dependent variable of the econometric model. It is bounded between 0 (no adoption of CSA practices) and 1 (simultaneous adoption of all CSA options considered here). Many farmers adopt several climate-smart practices simultaneously (Fig. 2), confirming the existence of complementarity among single practices.The existence and type of such associations have been verified through pair-wise correlation coefficients that measure the level of correlation among different practices. The correlation can be weak (coefficient range is 0.1e0.3), moderate (0.3e0.5) or strong (above 0.5). As shown in   complements rather than substitutes. Farmers adopt CSA packages to enhance synergic factors affecting crop productivity (soil fertility, water availability and climate variability).The independent variables used in the econometric model, together with their measurement units, are described in Table 3. The descriptive statistics are shown in Table 4.Households' demographics provide information about the gender, age and education level of household heads. Descriptive statistics indicate that sampled farmers are mostly male, middleaged (39e57 years) and have a primary education. Ethiopia shows the highest percentage of male household heads (92.4%), followed by Tanzania (84.5%), Malawi (73.5%) and South Africa (50.2%). Malawian and South African farmers are more educated than those in Ethiopia and Tanzania. In general, male and educated household heads are more willing to adopt new technologies (De Janvry et al., 1991;Holden et al., 2001).The second group of variables includes households' physical assets: size of cropland used; ownership of livestock (measured using Tropical Livestock Units 7 ); use of chemicals; and other assets, combined in an index built through a Multiple Correspondence Analysis 8 . The effect of households' physical assets on technology innovation adoption is expected to be positive, due to households' improved management capacity (Mwangi and Kariuki, 2015). Farmers use less than 5 ha of cropland in all country-cases except South Africa, where they use 40 ha on average. Tanzania has the highest asset index level, followed by Malawi, Ethiopia and South Africa. Tanzanian farmers are more engaged in livestock production.The third group of variables includes households' economic assets, namely income, credit availability and subsidy access. The effect of households' economic assets on technology innovation adoption is expected to be positive, because economic resources allow for investments in innovative agriculture techniques.  (Abdi and Valentin, 2007).Tanzania has the highest level of on-farm monthly income (195.2 USD). Ethiopia and Malawi show the highest proportion of farmers accessing credit (35% and 28%, respectively). Access to input subsidies is low in all country-cases except in Tanzania, where about 66% of farmers can benefit from incentives to purchase agricultural inputs.The fourth group of variables includes households' human and social assets: number of family members, membership in farmers' associations, and access to extension and advisory services. Information access and association membership positively influence technology adoption and innovation (Chowdhury et al., 2014). Malawi has the highest proportion of farmers who are members of interest groups (26.8%), while Ethiopia has the highest rate of farmers accessing extension services (38.9%).The last group of variables captures households' environmental contexts: agro-ecological zone (semi-arid or sub-humid); and climate variations, proxied by households' perception of changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme climate events such as floods, droughts and erratic rainfalls. Households in semi-arid areas and farmers perceiving changes in weather and climatic patterns are more willing to adopt CSA practices (Deressa et al., 2011;Elum et al., 2017;Masud et al., 2017).Interaction terms can be introduced to deepen understanding of the relationships among the independent variables considered in the model. They indicate non-causal associations and are used when an independent variable is expected to have different effects on the model outcome, depending on the value of another independent variable included in the same equation model (Cox, 1984). A three-step process was adopted to define the interaction terms included in the present analysis: (i) the set of potential interactions merging each regressor with the country-group variable was defined; (ii) the existence of the interaction was detected using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA); (iii) only the interactions whose results were statistically significant were introduced into the model. Here, we defined interactions combining the country-group categorical variable with the economic, human and social assets explanatory variables (the only groups found to be statistically significant in the ANOVA), under the hypothesis that the relationship between such regressors and CSA adoption intensity differs across countries.Given the number of explanatory variables and the crosssectional nature of the sample, the adoption estimation model presented in the study might have been affected by multicollinearity and endogeneity problems.Multicollinearity exists when one predictor variable in a regression model can be linearly predicted from the others with a substantial degree of accuracy (Farrar and Glauber, 1967). We used the variance inflation factor (VIF) and the condition number test to detect multi-collinearity among explanatory variables. We can exclude the possibility of multicollinearity problems because: the condition number is lower than 30 9 ; all explanatory variables have a tolerance higher than 0.2 or 0.1 10 ; VIF is lower than 5 11 . Endogeneity arises when an explanatory variable (such as income) may be jointly determined by the decision to adopt a practice. Following Davidson and MacKinnon (1993), we used the Durbin-Wu-Hausman augmented regression test to detect endogeneity problems. The test is formulated by including the residuals of each endogenous right-hand side variable in the original regression model. First, we specified the potential endogenous variable (income) as a function of all the other exogenous variables and a defined instrumental variable (income diversification). Second, we estimated the fractional regression model using the residual terms obtained from the previous stage. Income residuals were not found to be statistically significant, confirming the consistency of the estimator (see supplementary material). However, we have not been able to analyse other explanatory variables potentially affected by endogeneity (e.g. access to extension and advisory services) because of the difficulties encountered in selecting proper instrumental variables. This means that potential endogeneity problems might persist in the estimated model.In this section, we present and discuss the analytical findings of econometric model estimation (see regression's coefficients reported in Table 5). We discuss only the explanatory variables that were found to be statistically significant in the regression output.Male-headed households show higher adoption intensity than female-headed ones. This is not surprising, because women in Africa often suffer from social and cultural discrimination, have lower education levels and face constrained resource and service access (Pender and Gebremedhin, 2007). Household heads' age is found to positively influence the level of adoption intensity. This is consistent with previous studies showing that older farmers have more knowledge and experience, allowing them to benefit more from technology than younger ones (Mwangi and Kariuki, 2015).Household heads' education level also positively influences adoption intensity. This supports earlier analyses showing that a higher level of education can stimulate households' resource use consciousness and ability to receive, decode and understand information about technological improvements (Guarini et al., 2018).Farmland size does not influence adoption intensity. This implies that both small and large farms may strategically adopt CSA options, and that other farm characteristics drive the adoption of specific strategies to cope with climate change.There is a positive relationship between livestock rearing and adoption intensity. This confirms that mixed crop-livestock systems, considered the backbone of smallholder production in many developing countries (Herrero and Thornton, 2010), are important to climate change adaptation. Improved grazing management might produce manure that could be used to benefit crop production through organic fertilisation, which could then reduce the use of chemical fertilizers (Sumberg, 2002). The positive effect of crop-livestock systems is mainly linked with CSA packages where 9 The condition number is computed by finding the square root of the maximum eigenvalue divided by the minimum eigenvalue of the matrix. If the condition number is above 30, the regression may have severe multicollinearity (Belsley, 1991).10 Tolerance is equal to 1 e R 2 j , where R 2 j represents the coefficient of determination of a regression of explanator j on all the explanators. Tolerance of less than 0.20 or 0.10 and/or a VIF of 5 or 10 and above indicates a multicollinearity problem (O'Brien, 2007). the use of organic fertilizers is key. Livestock activities might conflict with climate-smart practices based on crop-residue use (i.e. mulching), however, as they represent an immediate source of animal feeding.Use of chemicals positively affects adoption intensity. Indeed, many CSA practices require adequate chemical levels to have beneficial effects on crop yields. For example, herbicides are used jointly with minimum tillage, and integrated pest management complements other soil management strategies (Heeb et al., 2019).Households' access to external economic resources like credit and subsidies affects adoption intensity. Results show that access to credit increases CSA intensity in Tanzania and Malawi 12 , but decreases it in Ethiopia. The impact is not statistically significant in South Africa. Additional economic resources stimulate investments in innovative production practices in Malawi and Tanzania (Simtowe and Zeller, 2006). The results for Ethiopia may be explained by the agricultural credit systems in the country-cases. National statistics show that in Ethiopia, only 5% of total credit is directed to the agricultural sector, while in Malawi and Tanzania, the percentages rise to 24% and 10% respectively (FAO, 2019).Where credit is severely constrained, farmers use it to implement conventional practices more intensively. Access to input subsidies is positively related to CSA intensity in Tanzania and South Africa. This result is not surprising given the complementary use of improved seeds and chemical inputs in most CSA packages.The number of household members determines the increase in adoption intensity. Since household size is considered a proxy measure of labour availability, this result confirms that larger households have the capacity to overcome constraints related to time-consuming CSA practices, e.g. weeding when minimum tillage is practiced (Rusu et al., 2009).Access to extension and advisory services has positive effects on CSA intensity in Ethiopia. This is in line with our expectations given the role of extension activities in knowledge and information dissemination. Ethiopia has recently invested massively in a public agricultural extension system, which is the largest in Africa (Berhane et al., 2018). Extension agents represent a link between innovators and users, facilitating technology access at the farmer level. Households exposed to innovation-diffusion programmes are more aware of the benefits of CSA, are stimulated to adopt what they have learned and can even influence other farmers in the area (Genius et al., 2013). Access to extension services is negatively related to adoption intensity in South Africa. This result could be due to the low quality of services provided to sampled households, as confirmed by our survey. 12 The interaction effect depends on the other covariates and can have different signs for different observations, making simple summary measures of the interaction effect difficult (Ai and Norton, 2003). Considering the present study, the results should be interpreted as follows: the positive effect of credit access is greatest in Tanzania (-0.104 þ 0,151 ¼ 0.047) followed by Malawi (-0.104 þ 0,188 ¼ 0.084) and South Africa (-0.104 þ 0,170¼ 0.066).Households' location affects adoption intensity. The relations between socio-economic and environmental factors become more complex if we consider local context (Laureti et al., 2014). Households located in arid or semi-arid agro-ecological zones (such as in Ethiopia) adopt more climate-smart intense technology packages. CSA includes many water-harvesting and conserving techniques (e.g. mulching, cover cropping, minimum tillage, tied ridging, planting pits) which are more effective in dryland areas, where low rainfall and high evapotranspiration often limit crop productivity.Perception of climate-related extreme events such as floods, droughts and erratic rainfall increases adoption intensity. This is not surprising given the expected positive effects of CSA technology in supporting climate change adaptation (Grothmann and Patt, 2005).This paper starts from the premise that climate-smart agriculture is a path African smallholders should follow to transition towards a cleaner production food system. As in other sustainability transitions, technological innovation plays a critical role. Here, a cross-sectional econometric analysis is applied to primary data on sustainable farming practices in the cereal-legume farming systems of Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania.Results have shown that adoption intensity of innovation technology packages is higher: (i) in semi-arid agro-ecological zones and in climates where water availability may be limiting; (ii) where there is a perception of increasingly frequent extreme events and erratic rainfall patterns due to climate change; and (iii) in mixed crop-livestock systems. Simultaneous implementation of CSA practices can sustainably improve farm productivity and be a strategy for adapting to multiple risks and potential weather shocks. However, CSA fails to achieve its full potential due to low levels of adoption among smallholders and SMEs' difficulties in scaling up innovation.A twofold approach should be implemented. On one side, adoption barriers for marginalised farmers must be removed. Investments are needed to promote effective education and quality extension programs, which should prioritize female-headed households, young farmers and mixed crop and livestock systems. Access to inputs and financial resources should be improved through promotion of both formal (e.g., rural financial institutions) or informal (e.g., village loan and saving groups) credit opportunities and appropriate infrastructure and marketing channels for inputs. Development of labour markets will lift the labour scarcity constraint and ease the adoption of labourconsuming innovation technologies. Investments in generating and disseminating weather-related information among smallholders are expected to improve climate perception and overall CSA adoption. On the other side, business and contractual links between technology-ready smallholders and small-to-medium enterprises must be created to permit the scaling-up and development of the industrial model. This will be enabled by greater availability of scientific and practical evidence about CSA technologies, partnerships between enterprises and researchers, and farmers' field trials and demonstrations.Large-scale adoption of CSA technologies will create the societal changes needed to foster sustainable development in Africa.However, investments, policies and action plans should account for the drivers and limiting factors of technology adoption. They should be evidence-based and tailored to specific geographical contexts, accounting for the structural, socio-economic and agroecological heterogeneity of the farming sector. SMEs involved in scaling-up and developing industrial applications require appropriate information about their potential clients' expected responses. Research and extension services can also help SMEs acquire new knowledge and skills, which they can then share with their customers. More applied research is therefore needed to expand the base data, especially where information is scarce, and to allow comparisons like the one presented here.Improvement of overall socio-economic conditions should create a favourable practical and regulatory environment for SMEs to develop an industrial model for CSA. To this extent, national policies to cope with climate change already include CSA as adaptation strategy. The Ethiopia National Adaptation Plan aims at improving food security through increased climate-smart agricultural productivity. The South African National Climate Change Strategy identifies CSA as a possible adaptation method. Alternative farming systems based on improved and diversified crop production and using appropriate water management technologies are identified as priorities in the National Adaptation Programmes of Action of Malawi and Tanzania.Strategies to increase adoption intensity should consider common geographical and climatic traits at the national level, but also evaluate local business models. Incentive measures, such as providing ecological compensation to adopters or giving them opportunities to access climate-related financing, will encourage farmers to adopt CSA practices.","tokenCount":"5179"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"39824acc917beca97199efc60d994d10","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/440309e8-b870-4a79-9dde-c464553c7c15/retrieve","id":"-1731526691"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bb722a0d-cdd4-45ad-a283-362b761d4450","pagecount":"14","content":"Dairy and horticulture products are major food consumption items in Kenya; hence their safety is a concern for consumers, the food industry, and the regulatory agencies. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) defines food safety as all those hazards, whether chronic or acute, that may make food injurious to the health of the consumer (FAO and WHO, 2003). The most important food safety concern in Kenya is foodborne diseases resulting from microorganisms (Oloo, 2010). The products from dairy and horticulture are among the most important implicated food vehicles of foodborne diseases (Tournas, 2005). Many pathogens can contaminate dairy products and cause disease and death, such as Brucella, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, Shiga toxin producing Escherichia, coli and Shigella (Gould, 2014). The common moulds associated with horticulture products spoilage include: Botrytis, Alternaria, Sclerotinia, Colletotrichum, Rhizopus, Phomopsis, Ceratocystis, Geothrichum, Cladosporium, Rhizoctonia, Phytophthora, Perenospora (mildew), Bremia, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium and Mycosphaerella (Tournas, 2005).Food safety is a 'public good' concern for any country. Furthermore, increasing trade in food products among many countries results in food safety issues being shared across borders, creating global public \"goods\" and \"bads\" (Laurian, 2006). Examples of globally shared food safety risks include acute risks such as microbial pathogens, and chronic risks, such as those arising from pesticide residues or mycotoxins. Food safety is addressed as a global public good through private sector efforts, institutional innovations such as the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO), and trade capacity building efforts to improve food safety management for developing country exports (Laurian, 2006).Frequent public intervention at national level to ensure food safety arises from several public good characteristics. Individual producers or firms of dairy and horticulture products may be unwilling to adequately control a food safety hazard (externality), and therefore the public sector may be needed to enforce controls or to make supporting infrastructure investments. However, although food safety is increasingly a public good, there is likely public underinvestment in it. This is because directing public good investments for greatest national benefit will require an understanding of the potential benefits and costs both within and across borders. Motivation for such investments in public goods may come about through advocacy by civil society organizations using instruments such as budget and expenditure tracking. Budget and expenditure tracking is an important way of promoting transparency and can be used for advocacy purposes.The purpose of this brief is to present an approach that can be used to track government budgets on food safety in Kenya. The brief demonstrates how the methodological approach is used to track budgets on dairy and horticulture food safety at national and county levels in Kenya starting from the financial year of 2015 to year, 2018. The methodology was adopted from the work of Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Donor Network working group. It presents the three main steps for tracking financial investments in food safety. The SUN Donor Network developed a common methodology to increase accountability and improve the tracking of external development assistance resources aimed at addressing under-nutrition. The three-step approach has been piloted in Sierra Leone for tracking public expenditure on nutrition (see Jones, 2016).In this brief we demonstrate how to track expenditure on food safety. Two categories of food safety investments are considered: food safety-specific and food safety-supportive expenditures.The food safety-specific category contains expenditure measures that provide direct support to food safety (disease control, laboratory services, extension, etc.), while the food safety-supportive category contains expenditure measures that provide indirect support to the sector and affect rural development at large (education, health, environment and infrastructure). Food safety is mainly determined by quality assurance measures, which can encompass a variety of different and complex interventions (Bokeloh et al., 2009). According to FAO and WHO (2003), the following categories can be considered when it comes to food safety and quality: food regulations and standards, and food control and inspection services. When conceived in this way, the classification of expenditure aims to propose indicators that are as relevant as possible from a food safety perspective.The national budget data was obtained from the Ministry of Finance and National Treasury website while the county budgets were obtained from the respective county government websites. The five target counties were: Laikipia, Murang'a, Nairobi, Nakuru and Nyandarua.Identifying food safety activities has two components-identifying the food safety related activities that national and county governments carry out (by line ministries) and identifying how expenditures on these activities are recorded.Two strategic documents were used to develop the initial impression of what the national and the county governments are doing:The National Food and Nutrition Security Policy (NFNSP)-Specifically, chapter 3 of NFNSP 2011 addresses food safety and quality. From this document, three implementing state departments were identified as carrying out activities that have a positive impact on food safety in Kenya:• State Department of Agriculture The World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Industrial Development organization (UNIDO).Categorization of activities identified in step one as food safety specific or sensitive was done on a county by county basis because the design and objectives of various departments at the county level differ significantly. In some counties two or more departments are combined while in others they are separated.Food safety specific activities directly target unsafe food as their primary objective through initiatives such as improved laboratory services, disease management and control. Food safety sensitive activities indirectly target unsafe food through addressing one or several of its underlying causes, such as education, public, environment, infrastructure, etc. These underlying causes are commonly associated with unsafe food, but also lead to myriad problems beyond unsafe food. As such, activities targeting the underlying causes of unsafe food are also contributing to other nonfood safety related outcomes.  Weighting each food safety sensitive activity individually can be highly complex. It rapidly faces challenges in terms of attribution (can you attribute or isolate an improvement in food safety status to a particular activity?) and data availability (not only on the breakdown of expenditures by activity but also on the breakdown of food safety status outcomes and outputs). To track donor spending on nutrition, the SUN Donor Network methodology also evolved in a similar direction (Jones, 2016). It first attempted to generate a detailed breakdown of projects to allocate a portion between 1% and 100% of expenditure to nutrition. However, after an extensive exercise, they concluded that using 25% (with the provision for 50% and 75% where justified)was most feasible and realistic. This would make the exercise replicable annually and also more transparent, as it was easy to get lost in assumptions and criteria when understanding why a particular percentage was chosen. Following this experience from SUN group, the approach to track dairy and horticulture food safety expenditures at the country and county level will uniformly apply 10% for all food safety-sensitive activities and 100% for all specific food safety activities (Table 3 and 4). This follows an extensive consultation with the key informants from the target counties. In a situation where a budget item is sensitive to both dairy and horticulture, the stakeholder agreed to allocate 5% for each sector to avoid double counting. Borrowing from the pilot work done by SUN in Sierra Leone, the three-step approach calls for expenditure on food sensitive activities to be weighted less than expenditure on specific activities to reflect that food safety is not their sole objective (Jones, 2016). based budgeting, the tracking can be repeated in future and will be comparable over time.However, most of the target counties have limited breakdowns of budget information relating to dairy and horticulture food safety programmes and therefore explains the limited availability of data.","tokenCount":"1281"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"60e4e824f57991c29386103e8d8c398c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5cf0b72d-5a6f-4c59-82bc-423159c40b62/retrieve","id":"-243285019"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dbc8e197-0ee1-4866-8426-3496fe22e6e3","pagecount":"4","content":"There is a need to know more about how grain legumes are used -and what is their importance • in the nutritional status of people living 'in the humid t.ropics. This is a very l : arge t.ask but. is basic to defining the goals of quality improvement in the grain legumes.General. ly one• would attack the problem of determining • the nutritional role of any food by conducting a nutritional •survey or by examining the results of available surveys. Such surveys should indicate what foods are eaten, the level of average daily consumption for each food, seasonal variation in eating pattern and. from chemical analysis, the average daily (or seasonal) intake ofprotein~ calories, vitamins' and minerals. Comparing such data with recognized nutritional needs (and with clinical evidence for malnutrition) gives indication of the nutritional deficiencies of the diet and thus how th~ diet may be improved.A continuing effort in the GLIP Biochemistry sub-program is to study nutritional data from surveys made in the humid tropics and to estimate from these the importance of grain legumes in the diet and how improving grain legumes in terms of yield, protein content and protein quality will raise the nutritional status. Reliable data on dietary consumption in West Africa are rather limited. To date there have been collected surveys from Western Nigeria done by the Food Science and Applied Nutrition Unit of the University of Ibadan and reports from surveys done in Ghana, the Ivory Coast and East Africa. All these suffer from lack of quantitative information on consumption and on chemical analysis of the foods actually eaten. This collection of information \\vill continue and should be abetted by the IDRC Netlvork to study cowpea utilization in West Africa, of which IITA is a part.On the basis of available information, it may be estimated that legumes (especially cowpeas) account for up to 80% of total dietary protein intake for adults and are virtually the only source of protein for many children in West Africa. Yet they are usually grown only as subsidiary crops to be relied on during the \"hungry seasons\" of the year 1vhen the staple foods such as cassava and maize are unavailable or very expensive. Cowpeas form less than 5% of -total daily food intake and are• consumed in combination with other foodstuffs as maize, rice or plantain. They are also roasted and eaten as snacks and are made into 'a paste and used as sauce. As a flour, cowpeas are used for making fried balls (akara) or steamed bean paste~~oin-moin). In addition, locust beans form important flavorings for soups. Pigeon peas, broad b~ans and lima beans ate consumed to a ~uch lesser extent.The lllPSt significant role legumes can play in tropical nutrition would be to supply high quality protein to children. The predominant infant food to to which children' are, . . . . eaned is usually a starchy gruel of the main staple, nearly devoid of protein. Solid foods, usually mashed forms of the adult diet, gradually displace the starchy gruels. The excessive bulk characteristic of adult diets in this region is a problem for growing children since they cannot consume enough of the food to meet their nutritional requirements. The problem has been intensified by the practice that children are not given meat at an early age because it was thought that this would predispose them to stealing when they grow up or that meat caused worms in children. Although this notion is fast disappearing as education and economic levels rise, cowpeas could still be the least expensive way to provide essential nutrients to the growing child. Even in combination with the traditional weaning starchy gruels, cowpeas could be a very good starter diet for the child.Amino acids likely to be limiting in Nigerian meals are tryptophan and threonine in garri; isoleucine in yam, rice and cassava meals; and methionine and cystine in all the foods (Cf. Table 1). Although it is desirable that at least one-third of total dietary protein should be of animal origin, a composite of soybean and ogi (the traditional weaning diet) would be a low-cost source of essential amino acids. This combination results in higher concentration of total protein, amino acids, energy and other essential nutrients in the diet. \"Soy ogi\", a commercial product formulated for infants and now marketed in Nigeria, has been analysed in our laboratory and found to contain three times the protein of normal ogi, 16 times the lysine and about three times the sulfur amino acids. It would have great supplementary effect for lYSine, threonine and isoleucine. Although data for the energy, vitamins and mineral content of the product are not available, it is most likely that their concentration in 'soy-ogi' would to a certain extent follow the trend of the amino acids. It will be important to follow the acceptance and use of such blended food products by the people in Nigeria~In addition to Simple processed foods which may be develope-d and distributed in urban areas, tqere is a need to look at other legumes that are grown in rural areas in the household garden or near the community compound. It is known that there is a considerable number of these and, as a group, they may playa significant role in providing protein in the diet. As with all the other foods, there is a need to analyze these legumes in the form they are eaten, so as to obtain a better estimate of the limiting essential amino acids and other limiting nutritional factors.Legumes are clearly superior to root crops and cereals as producers of protein. Table 2 summarizes the best current estimates of crop yield obtainable with improved varieties and good (but not necessarily optimal) management. Crop duration is taken as those days during the growing season; if seed mature during the dry season when nothing else can be planted) these days are not counted. Values of average pz'otein content are those determined for these materials grown at IITA. Amino acid score' s, an estimate of protein quality, are based on FAO data and recent FAO/WHO recommendations for reference protein. Protein productivity is then calculated as: yield x protein content x AA score crop duration Soybean has by far the highest potential for protein production, but lima beans are above average. By considering the factors which limit protein pr~duction (e.g. crop yield, protein quality), priorities may be set for the improvement of these and other grain legumes of importance as protein sources in the tropics. Chick pea (8) Velvet bean (9) Mung bean Root croE!.(1) Yam (2) Sweet potato (3)  ","tokenCount":"1095"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3eef8a9ddd6d2874f4602a7a36902d8f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/74fab8ff-7e2a-45df-a544-900d3fd1fd7e/content","id":"1356140504"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"92c1d925-ca16-4604-b0f5-9ed924471128","pagecount":"38","content":"The Cereals Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) is mandated to enhance farm productivity and increase incomes of resource-poor farm families in South Asia through the accelerated development and inclusive deployment of new varieties, sustainable management technologies, partnerships and policies. The project is being implemented by the CGIAR institutions of IRRI, CIMMYT, IFPRI, and ILRI and supported by USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Dry seeded rice (DSR) is becoming an attractive option for farmers as it has a much lower labor requirement than manually transplanted rice. Labor for transplanting rice has become scarce and costly because laborers are shifting from agriculture to industry, public works, and services. DSR can be readily adopted by small farmers as well as large farmers, provided that the required machinery is locally available (e.g., through custom hire). Best practice involves using a 2-or 4-wheel tractor-drawn drill to seed in rows in nontilled or dry tilled soil, as for wheat. Because the soil is not puddled, DSR also has a lower water requirement for crop establishment.DSR can be grown on the same soils as puddled transplanted rice, which typically range from sandy loam to heavy clay.Good land leveling helps ensure high yield and reliable production of DSR. This is best achieved using laser-assisted land leveling. A level field allows planters/drills to place seed more precisely and enables more uniform irrigation, leading to a uniform crop stand and improved weed control and nutrient use efficiency. Leveling also helps to reduce irrigation water application.DSR can be sown into soil tilled as for wheat (\"conventional tillage\") or into nontilled soil (\"zero tillage\"). The decision on whether or not to cultivate the soil depends on sitespecific factors, such as the need for leveling and the risk of rodent attack.Land leveling using laser guidance i) Conventional tillage (CT): The soil should be cultivated to a depth of 5-10 cm to achieve a fine enough tilth for good seed-to-soil contact as for wheat. Depending on soil type and field conditions, this might involve 1-2 discings followed by 1-2 runs of a tyne cultivator and a planking.ii) Zero tillage (ZT): For ZT-DSR, existing weeds should be killed by a nonselective herbicide such as glyphosate or paraquat (see Table 3 for application details). In situations where weed infestation is not uniform, the herbicide can be applied as a spot treatment rather than a blanket application. Both glyphosate and paraquat can be applied 2-3 days before sowing. Apply glyphosate when weeds are actively growing and not under stress. If weeds are under moisture stress, a light irrigation should be given before herbicide application for a better weed kill.Don't apply paraquat if perennial weeds are present. In such situations, apply glyphosate.-Use clean water and a plastic container to make spray solution as herbicides bind with suspended soil particles and metal surfaces (e.g., iron bucket)-Use a multiple-nozzle boom fitted with flat-fan nozzles for full coverage (see later)Many of the inbred varieties and hybrids bred for puddled transplanted rice have also been found suitable for DSR. Shorter duration varieties or hybrids are preferred to reduce the irrigation requirement and to enable timely planting of wheat after the rice harvest. However, shorter duration cultivars are not necessarily an advantage where inadequate drainage is the primary factor preventing timely wheat planting. The inbreds and hybrids suitable for DSR in the Eastern GP are given below.(see Seeding in nontilled soil (ZT-DSR)Seeding with strip tillage using a PTOS (\"power tiller-operated seeder\"-a seeder with tiller powered by a 2-wheel tractor)Guidelines for DSR in the Eastern Gangetic Plains of IndiaFor precise seeding, rice should be drilled using a multicrop planter fitted with an inclined-plate seed-metering mechanism (see photo), and with the ability to drill both seed and fertilizer simultaneously. DSR can also be sown with a conventional seed-cum-fertilizer drill with a flutedroller seed-metering mechanism; however, the seeds will not be spaced evenly and a higher seed rate is required to avoid seed breakage. The inclined-plate seed-metering mechanism also provides the opportunity to use primed seed as there is no problem of seed breakage in contrast with the use of fluted-roller seed metering.Seed drills with inverted-T tines are suitable for seeding into both tilled and nontilled soil.There should be good coverage of the seed with soil to prevent desiccation and predation by rodents and birds. Therefore, it may help to use chains or flaps behind the tines.For ZT-DSR, when no or only anchored residues of the previous crop (e.g., wheat) are retained, the same multicrop planter can be used for seeding if fitted with suitable tines (e.g., inverted T, as commonly provided on multicrop planters in India). However, if loose or bulky crop residues are present on the soil surface (e.g., mungbean, loose straw), the Turbo Happy Seeder should be used.Coverage of seeds with soil using chains or flaps DSR being sown into residues using the Turbo Happy SeederSeed-cum-fertilizer drills for 2-wheel tractors are now also available in India, commonly attached to a power tiller. These drills are available with inclined-plate seeding mechanisms, and sowing can be done in a single pass with full tillage or strip tillage (achieved by removing at least 50% of the rotor blades and aligning the remaining rotor blades so that they till a narrow strip in front of the seeding tines, with the curved ends angled towards the sowing line). No prior tillage is needed. The new seed-cum-fertilizer drills/planters for 2-wheel tractors are an improvement on the \"power tiller-operated seeders\" (PTOS) that have been available for some time. The standard PTOS has a seed box but no fertilizer box, and a fluted-roller seeding mechanism.Crop being sown by a seed-cum-fertilizer drill with inclined-plate seeding mechanism, using full tillage, powered by a 2-wheel tractor. Tillage and seeding are done in a single pass.Key check 4.-Use certified seeds -20-30 kg/ha (with inclined-plate seeding mechanism)-35-45 kg/ha (with fluted-roller seeding mechanism)Seed quality greatly influences germination rate; therefore, it is recommended to use certified seeds. A seed rate of 20-30 kg/ha (using good-quality seeds with more than 95% germination) is optimal for DSR with a row spacing of 20 cm sown with a multicrop planter. Under good establishment conditions, the rate can be at the lower end of the range. However, where there is risk of reduced establishment due to factors such as suboptimal leveling, waterlogging, or seed predation, the seed rate should be at the higher end of the range. There is no yield penalty for sowing at higher rates up to about 50 kg/ha. The seeding depth for rice is critical and the rice should be sown at 1-2 cm, and definitely not deeper than 3 cm. Seed treatment with fungicides is recommended to manage diseases such as loose smut, flag smut, root rot, collar rot, and stem rot. For this, a weighed quantity of seed is soaked in water treated with fungicide (tebuconazole-Raxil Easy ® at 1 mL/kg seed, or carbendazim-Bavistin ® at 2 g/kg) for 24 hours. The volume of water used for soaking is equivalent to the volume of seed. The seeds are then removed from the fungicide solution and dried in the shade for 1-2 hours before sowing.Where soil-borne insect pests (e.g., termites) are a problem, seed treatment with an insecticide is beneficial [imidacloprid-Gaucho 350 FS ® at 3 mL/kg), alone or in combination with tebuconazole-Raxil Easy ® at 0.3 mL/ kg seed)]. The combination treatment will protect the seed from both soil-borne fungi and insects. The use of imidacloprid, or in combination with tebuconazole, is also suitable for treating dry seeds. Mix the chemicals in 15 mL water/kg seed.Key check 5.-Avoid basal dose of urea -Use a minimum of three splits of N fertilizer a. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and zinc (Zn)The N fertilizer requirement varies depending on variety from 80 to 120 kg N/ha (Table 3). The requirement for other fertilizers is P 2 O 5 at 60 kg/ha, K 2 O at 60 kg/ha, and ZnSO 4 at 25 kg/ha. The nitrogen dose for CT-DSR can be reduced by 25% by green manuring-this involves growing Sesbania (Dhencha) and incorporating it 2-3 days prior to sowing DSR. All fertilizer except urea (N) should be applied at sowing. Compound fertilizers (DAP or NPK formulations) should be placed in the soil at the time of sowing using the seed drill. If Zn is not applied at sowing, it can be applied as a foliar spray (0.5% zinc sulfate and 1.0% urea) 30 days after sowing (DAS) and at panicle initiation (PI), which occurs approximately 3-4 weeks prior to heading. The remaining nitrogen should be applied as urea in three or four splits, evenly spaced, starting 2-3 weeks after sowing and with the last split at PI. Apply N prior to irrigation. Use of the leaf color chart (LCC) to determine the N fertilizer requirement enables more precise N application according to the crop requirement, and often results in a reduction in the amount applied while maintaining yield. The standardized LCC developed by IRRI (photo below) is five inches long, made of high-quality plastic, with four color shades from yellowish green (No. 2) to dark green (No. 5).For high-yielding varieties/hybrids, N application should be based on a critical LCC value of 4. Dry seeded rice often suffers from iron deficiency when grown on lighter soils (sandy loams and loams), and the deficiency is worse in low-rainfall seasons. The symptoms generally appear during the early vegetative stage in the form of yellowing, stunted plants, and seedling death. The crop should be sprayed with 1% ferrous sulfate solution as soon as the symptoms appear (with repeat applications after a week if the symptoms persist). For severe symptoms, try to keep the field flooded/saturated for a few days at the time of ferrous sulfate application. If iron deficiency symptoms appear later during crop growth, they may be due to cereal cyst nematodes-check the roots for galls to determine whether this is a likely cause. If galls are present, avoid using this field for DSR in the future.Key check 6.-Keep the soil in the seed/root zone moist during establishment -Keep the soil close to saturation from the start of heading to the start of grain fillingThe goal of irrigation management is to minimise the use of irrigation water while maintaining yield because of increasing water scarcity and/or the high cost of pumping groundwater. Rice does not need to be continuously floodedfor good growth and yield. It can be grown with periodic irrigation, allowing the soil surface to dry for a few days between irrigations. However, if the soil becomes too dry too often, the rice crop will suffer and there will be a loss of yield. Therefore, irrigation needs to be managed carefully.The irrigation requirement for DSR depends very much on the weather and the soil type. The lighter (less clayey, more sandy) the soil, the more frequently it will need irrigation in the absence of adequate rain.DSR needs an assured water supply for the first 3 weeks after sowing for good establishment. When DSR is established in hot and dry conditions, the next 1-2 irrigations are required at intervals of 3-5 days to keep the soil moist in the root zone. During the active tillering phase, that is, 30-45 DAS, and the heading to grain-filling stage, the topsoil (0-15 cm) should be kept close to saturation, with irrigation applied as needed. At other stages the topsoil can be allowed to become drier, but never to the degree that the leaves show signs of rolling (no longer flat) in the early morning. For clayey soils the appearance of hairline cracks on the soil surface is a general indication of the need to irrigate.Punjab Agricultural University has developed a simple, cheap instrument (tensiometer) for helping farmers to decide when to irrigate. The tensiometer is filled with water and installed in the soil with the ceramic tip at 15-20 cm depth. As the soil dries, it sucks water out of the tip into the soil and the water level in the tube drops. When the level drops from the green to the yellow band, it is time to irrigate to ensure that the soil does not become so dry that the rice crop would suffer.Weed management is usually the biggest challenge for successful production of DSR. A much larger range of weeds occurs in DSR than in puddled transplanted rice, and, if uncontrolled, the degree of infestation can be great enough to reduce rice yield to zero. There are three broad classes of weeds-grasses, broadleaves, and sedges. Note that the weeds must be actively growing at the time of herbicide application, so, if the soil is dry, an irrigation will be needed prior to herbicide application. This method has great potential for reducing weeds in DSR because of the 2-month fallow period between wheat harvest and rice sowing. This technique is also helpful in managing weedy rice, which is an emerging problem in lowland rice in the Eastern Gangetic Plains.A wide range of herbicides is available for controlling weeds (Table 3). All herbicides need to be mixed with water prior to application. Clean water should be used, as muddy water reduces herbicide efficacy. Spray tanks, booms, and nozzles should be cleaned properly with clean water after use. Chemicals should not be mixed together unless recommended, as this may reduce their effectiveness on weeds and/or be harmful to the rice plants. Chemicals should always be applied at the recommended rate.Uniform application of the spray across the entire field is needed to avoid \"misses\" (costly follow-up hand weeding needed) and overspraying (waste of costly chemicals).The best way of achieving this is with a multinozzle (e.g., three) boom with flat-fan nozzles and slightly overlapping spray patterns at the soil surface. The overlap is achieved by holding the boom at the right height (approximately 50 cm) above the target (for preemergence, the soil surface is the target, and for postemergence, weeds are the target, so the boom should be 50 cm above the top of weeds).Use of multinozzle boom for herbicide application All herbicides and pesticides are dangerous. Proper safety precautions should be followed. These include  Wearing gloves, a breathing mask, and goggles when handling neat (undiluted) chemicals and when spraying  Wearing protective clothing while spraying (e.g., made from washed fertilizer bags).These herbicides are used to kill existing vegetation prior to rice sowing under ZT-DSR. Glyphosate (1.0 kg a.i./ha or 1% by volume) and paraquat (0.5 kg a.i./ha or 0.5% by volume) are recommended. If fields are infested with perennial weeds, use glyphosate, not paraquat.Boom height for desired spray pattern with slight overlap at ground level to avoid \"misses\"Protective clothing for spraying-in the lower photo, the clothes are made from washed fertilizer bags.Key check 7.-Ensure that the soil is moist before applying preemergence herbicide -Apply irrigation 24 h after postemergence herbicide application if the soil is not moistThe choice of herbicide depends on the types of weeds, and no single herbicide can control all weeds in the rice crop. In many situations, the best method for effective weed control is application of a preemergence herbicide (1-3 DAS, before the weeds and rice emerge), followed by a postemergence application 15-25 DAS. This will typically involve the use of pendimethalin or oxadiargyl as preemergence followed by a postemergence application of bispyribac-sodium or azimsulfuron or bispyribacsodium plus azimsulfuron. However, in cases where the preemergence herbicide is missed (e.g., due to rain) or fails (e.g., due to management errors, such as soil too dry at the time of spraying), early herbicide application at 15 DAS should be made based on types of weeds present.Don't allow water stress after application of postemergence herbicidePhysical weed control consists of removing weeds by hand (manual weeding) or by machine (mechanical weeding).It is practically and economically impossible to control weeds solely by hand weeding because of labor scarcity and rising labor wages. However, one or two spot hand weedings are strongly recommended to remove weeds that escape herbicide application, to prevent weed seed production and the accumulation of weed seeds in the soil. Mechanical weeding can be useful in reducing labor use in weeding. Motorized cono and other hand weeders are available in the region and can be included as part of integrated weed management.Hand-operated weeder for in-row weed control in DSR (front and back views)Retention of crop residues on the soil surface in zero-tillage systems also helps to suppress weeds.Cereal cyst nematodes tend to be a problem on lighter soils, more so in drier years. The problem initially appears as small patches of stunted growth, reduced tillering, and pale green-yellowish plants. The problem is likely to be exacerbated by continuing to grow nonflooded DSR in the same field. It is better to avoid growing DSR in fields where nematode problems begin to appear.The common insects and pests of rice in the region, and chemicals for controlling them, are listed in Table 4.   Eclipta prostrataOxalis corniculata  ","tokenCount":"2803"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8fe798d8448b56287bdaf9624d3e4419","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b4f65a53-5d19-424b-9ab6-797995d35519/retrieve","id":"1433972579"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a358fee2-aa06-485f-8269-a16b5e6f686a","pagecount":"15","content":"Cassava (Manihof esculenta Crantz) is the third múst important food crop in southeast Asia, where it is usually grown by smaHholders in margina1 areas of sloping or undulating land. Farmers grow cassava because lhc crop wiJI tolerate long dt)' periods and poor soils, and will produce rcasonable yields with minimum inputs. Most farmers realize, however, tha! cassava production 00 slopes can cause severe erosion, whi1e production without fertiHzer or manure ínputs wiH Jead to a gradual decline in soil productivity. Current production pracl1ces may lhus not he suslaÍnable.Research has shown that cassava yields can be maintaíned for roany years with adequate application of fertíHz.ers or manures~ and that there are various ways ro reduce erosiono Adoptíon of erosion control practices, however, has been minimal as fanners generaUy se\\! Uttle shot1-tenn benefits~ whiJe ¡n¡tía1 costs of establishíng tbese practlces may be substantiaL (n order to enhance the adoption of soH conservíng practlces and lmprove the sustajnahilíty of cassava productíon uooer a wide range of socio~economic and bio-physicaJ conditions, a farmer participatory research (FPR) approach was used lo develop not unly the most suitable soil conservation practices, but airo lo test new cassava variet;e', fertilization practice. and cropping syslems lha! tend 10 produce grealer soort-tenn benefits. The FPR methodology was initially developed in 2,3 sites each in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and China. Th.methodoJogy ¡neludes the conducting ofRRAs in each site, farmer evaluation of a wide range of practices shown in dernonstration plots, FPR trials with fanner-selected treatments on their own fietds, tield days with discusslons to selee! lbe best among the testOO practíces, scaling-up uf selected practices to larger fields, and farmer participatot)' dissem¡nation to neighbors and neighboring cornmunities. Based on the results of these tríaIs.. farmers in the pilot sites have readily adopted better varieties, fenilization and intercropping practicesj and many farmers nave adopterl the planting of contour hedgerows to control erosiono In the seeond puase of this Nippon Foundation supported project, the farmer participatot)' approach fur technology development and di.semination was further developed in abou! 30 pilot sites e.ch in Thailand, Vietnam and China. Fanners were generally very interested to participate in these trials. Afier becoming aware of the seriousness of erosion in their cassava fields. they have shown a willingness 10 adopt simple but effective practíces to reduce erosion while at the sarue time obtaining short~term benefits from the adoption of new varieties and other improved practices. The testing by faOllers on their own fields of new cassava varieties and fertilization practices in addition to soil conservation practices was found to be of crucial importance for the adoption of more sustainable production practices. The resulting increases in cassava yields in Thailand and Vietnam over the past ten years have increased the annual gross income of cassava farmers by un estimated 200 million US dollars. KEYWORDS: eassava, erosion control. farmer participatory research (FPR) and extension (FPE), Thailand, Vietnam. impact assessment.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is usually grown by smallholders in upland areas with poor soils and low or unpredictable minfall. (n the nortbeastem and easlern regions of Thailand, ca,sava is often grown on genlle slopes, but in the northem par! of Vietnam it is grown on sleep slopes; in both cases, soil erosian can be serious. Since most cassava fanners are poor, Ibey do nol apply mueh fertilizers lo cassava and Ibis may load lO a decline in soil fertility wnich in tum causes low yields. Past researeh by Kasetsart University has shown Iba! cultivation of cassava may cause lWice as mucn soil erosion as that of mungbean, and Ibree times as mueh as thal caused by maiz.e, sorghum and peanu! (Puttacharoen el al., 1998).Researeh on erosion control practices indicate that soil losses due to eros ion can be markedly reduced by varíous agronomic practices combined with simple soil conservation practices. This ineludes agronoroic practices sueh as minimum or zero tillage, mulching, contour ridging, intercropping, fertilizer or manure applícatíon, and planting at c10ser plant spacing. Soil conservation practice, ¡nelude terracing, hillsíde ditohes and planling contour hedgerows of grasses or legumes. Bul lhese lalter practices are .eldom adopted by farmers because Ihey m.y nol be appropriale for Ihe spetific circumslances of Ihe farmers, ei!her trom an agronomic or a socio-economic slandpoint (Howeler,200 1).Since 1994, Ihe Nippon Foundation in Tokyo, Japan has supported !he project \"Integraled Cassava-based Cropping Syslem in Asia: Farming Practicos lo Enhance Sustainability\". It has developed and used farmer participalory researeh (FPR) and Extension (FPE) me!hodologies. MATERJALS AND METHODS l. Firsf Phase(I994-1998) The frrst phase of!he project was conducted in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and China. The projeel was coordinated by CIA T and implemeoled in collaboration with research and extension organizatíons in eaeh of!he four eountries. During an inilial training eourse on farmer participatory research (FPR) methodologies, each countries designed a work plan to implemenl !he projee!. The steps in the proeess, !Tom diagnosing !he problem lo adoption of suilable solutions, are shown in Figure l. The oulslanding feature of Ihis approaeh is !hat farmers participate in every step and maker all importan! decisions. a. Pilol slle se/eellon Suitable pilot sites were pre-seleeled in arcas where cassava is an importan! crop, where i! is grown 00 slopes and eros ion is a serious problem. Delailed information ob!ained tbrough Rapid Rural Appraisals (RRA) in each site have becn reported by Nguyen The Dang el al. (1998) and Vongkasem el al. (1998), Table I is a summary ofinformalion obtained trom RRAs' conducted in several pilot sites in two countries. The delailed information from eaeh site can serve as baseline data lo monitor progress and evaluale the ¡mpacI of newly adopted lechnologies. Afier conducling !he RRAs, Ihe mosl suitable pilol siles (villages or subdislricts ) were selecled lo work with farmers in Ihe development and dissemination of new varíelies and production practicc,.  TIte demonstration plots were established by researeh organizations ofboth eountries in areas not too far from the pilot sites. Tltey had many alternative trealments, sueh as the applieation of ehemieal fertilizers, green manures, closer plant spaeing, intereropping with different erops and eontour hedgerows of different grasses or legume speeies. Farmers from the seleeted pilot sites visiting these demonstration plots were asked to diseuss and seore the usefulness of eaeh !realmen!. Tltey seleeted 3-4 suitable treatments which they eonsidered most useful for their own fields. Table 2 shows !hat farmers from different sites have different priorities and thus rank options quite differently. In both the demonstration plots and FPR erosion control trials on farmers' fields, a simple methodology was used to measure soil loss due to erosion in eaeh trealment. Plots were laid out earefully and exaetly along the eontour on a uniform slope; it is important that runoff water does not enter the plots either from above or from the sides. Along the lower side of eaeh plot a diteh was dug and eovered with plastic; small holes in the plastie allowed runoff water to seep away. while eroded sediments remained on !he plaslic, 111ese sedimenls wcre collected and weighed monthly or at leasl 2-3 times during Ihe cropping cyele. After correcting for moisture content, Ihe amouo! of dry soil los8 per hectare was ealculated for eaeh treatment. 111is simple me!hodology gíves both a visual as well as a quanlitative indícatíon of !he effectivene~s of!he various practices in controlling erosion (Howeler. 2001(Howeler. , 2002;;Watananonta el al., 2003).A fler farmers had decided lo conduct FPR trials, researchers and extensionisls discussed lhe trials with !he collaboratíng farmers, such as !he types of trials aud lhe lreatments to be tested; project staff helped farmers establish !he trials and províded !he necessary materials. During Ihe crop scason. researcbers and extensionists visited !he farmers severa! times to discuss and solve their problems. At time of harvest, collaborating fanners and project staff harvested all !he cassava Irials together, recorded the data on yield and soil loss from every !realment, wbich were then presented to the participating farmers and others interested. 111e meeting then discussed the results of eaeh trial and seleeted the best treatments, ei!her for adoption or for retesting in next year's trials (Howeler, 2001;Watananonta, el al., 2003).2. Second Pbas. (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003) 111e secoud phase of!he project was implemented by five researeh and extcnsion organizations in 111ailand, six in Vietnam and !hree in China (Table 3). During Ihis second phase, the emphasis shífted from development and use of farmer participatory researcb (FPR) methodologies to farmer partícipatory extension (FPE) in order to reaeh more farmers and aehieve more widespread adoption. These inelude activitíes such as:Fanners from a new site visit a village where !he project had been conducted before and where new leehnalagies had already becn adopted.Local officials .nd fanners fram the village and surrounding communities were invited to evaluate eaeh treatment in !he FPR trials, includillg the rool yield and the amoullt of soil sedimeots eroded from eaeh plo!. In lhis way, the farmers learned .nd oblained infonnation lO make decisions abaut technologies suitable for Iheir own conditions. They !hen discussed and planned for action in the following year. c. Dislriel level jie/d days 111e purpose of tbese large-seale field days was to disseminate the selected technologies to nearby villages and sub-districts. During the fi.ld day, !he experienced farmers shared Iheir knowledge with other farmers.Al Ihis level, approximately 1,000-1,500 fanners and offieials from nearby provinees were invited to alteud the tield day. Reporters from newspapers and television stations were also invited in order to report !he project activities through !he wider mass media.Initial courses were organized by CIAT to traio project staff in FPR methodologies. Addition.1 courses were organized lo train local extension workers and key farmers in cassava tecbnologíes and farmer participatory appro.ches. Furthennore, CIA T a1so supported the training of trainers in advanced courses abroad.Firsl Phase (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)  TP=fanner traditional practice \" Cassava: fresh roots; peanut: dry pods ') Priees: cassava (C) doog 500/kg fresh roo!. peanut (P) 5OO01kg dry pods IUSS ~ approx. 13.000 dongAfter having selected the most promisiog vaneties and production practices from FPR trials, farmers generally Iike to test sorne of these on small areas of their produclion fields. making adaptalions if necessal)'. Sorne practices m.y look promising on small pIOIS, bul are rejected as impr,clic.l when applied on larger areas; Ihis may be due lO lack of sufficient planting material (Uke vetiver gras.) or lack ofmarkels for selling the proclucts (like pumpkin or lemon grass). Also, to be effective, hedgerows need to follow Ihe contour rnther preciseIy; olberwise !bey can cause seríons gulley erosion by channeling runoff water to Ibe lowest spol. Con tour hedgerows also force farmers lo plow .Iong the contonr, which is more dlffieull and more eostly; moreover it makes planling in neal straight Unes, using ligh! strings as a guide, impossible. Thus, Ihere are vel)' practical reasons why farmer. may be reluetanl to adopt sorne of these soil conservalion praclices. Table S shows Ibe particular technologies Iba! farmers had adopted in the two countries at Ihe end of Ibe first phase of th. project. . Since the objective of the second phase was to achieve widespread adoption of more sustainable production practices by as large a number of farmers as possible, it was necessary to markedly expand the number of pilot sites and to develop farmer participatory extension (FPE) methodologies to disseminate the selected practices and varieties to many more farmers.Whenever the project extended to a \"new\" site, the process outlined aboye was re-initiated, Le. an RRA was conducted, interested fanners visited demonstration plots andJor made a cross-vÍsit to an already established site, they conducted FPR trials, discussed results and eventualIy adopted those varieties or practices they had selected as most suitable for their own conditions. Table 6 shows the number and types of FPR trials conducted in Thailand and Vietnam during the second phase of the project.While initialIy farmers were mainly interested in testing new varieties, fertilization, intercropping and eros ion control practices, during !he later part of!he project they also wanted to test the use of organic or green manures, weed control, plant spacing and even leaf production and pig feeding. During !he five years of the second phase of the project a total of 922 FPR trials were conducted by farmers on their own fields. Tables 7 to 10   The following fanuer participatory extension methods were found to be very effective in mising fanuers' interest in soil conservation, in disseminating infnnnation abou! improved varieties and cultural practices, and in enhancing adoption of soil conservíng practices: ¡, Cross~visitsFanners from new siles were u5ually laken lO visit older sites that had already eonducted FPR trials and had adoPled sorne soil conserving technologies. These cross-visits, in which farmers from the older site could explain their re.sons for adopting new technologies was a very effeetive way of farmerto-fanuer extension, Afler these cross-visil', farmer. in SOrne new sites decided to adopt sorne teehnologies immedialely, while olhers decided lo conducl FPR tríals in their own fields first In both cases, the \"FPR teams\" of the various collaborating institutions, logefuer with provincial, district or subdistrict extension staff, helped fanuer. lo establish the trials, or they provided seed or planting malerials required for Ihe adoplion oflhe new technologies.At time of harvesl, field days were organized al Ihe site in order lo harvesl the trials and discuss Ihe resulls. Farmers from neighboring villages were usually invited to participate in these ti.ld days, lo evaluale eaeh trealmenl in the various trials and lo discuss the pros and cons of the various practices or varíeties tested.In a few cases, large fi.ld days were also organized with participation of hundreds of neighboring fanuers, school children, local and high-Ievel officíals, as well as representatives of the press and TV. Th. broadcasting or reporting about Ihese events also helped lo dis.eminale the information abaut suitable technologies. During Ihe field days fanuers explained the results of Iheir own FPR trials lO the other vísiring farmers. whilc extension pamphlets and booklcts about the fannor-selected technologies were distríbuled.Research and exlension staff involved in lhe projeet had prevíously participaled in Traíníng-of-Traíners courses in FPR methodologies, including practical training sessions wilh farmers in some of Ihe pilol sites. While sorne participanls were initially skeplical, most course participanls OOcame ve!')' enthusiastic about Ibis new approach once Ihey slarted warking more closely wilh [anners,In additíon, 2-3 key fanners from each site togelber wilh Ibeir local extension agenl were inviled lO participate in FPR training courses. The objective was lo Icaro about the various FPR methodologies, the basics oC doing experiments as well as Ihe implementation of commonly selected technologies, such as setting out contour lines or the planting, maintenance and mulliplication of hedgerow species, By spending several days together in these courses, lhe fanners and exlensionisl got to know eaeh other well, and they were encouraged to form a local \"FPR team\" to help other fanuers in their community conduct FPR trials or adop! the new lechnologies, iv, Community-based self-help groups Realising that effeetiv. soil conservation praclices. such as planting of eontour hedgerows, can bes! be done as a group, farmers from sorne sites decided lo fonn their own \"soil conservation group\", These community-based self-help groups are similar to \"Land Care units\", Ihal have been very effective in promoting soil conservation in the Philíppines and Australia. Subsequently, the Dept. of Agrie. EXlension in Thailand encouraged farmers lo sel up these groups as a way of organizing Ihemselves, lO conducl FPR trials, to implem.nl !he selecled practices, and to manage a rotating credit fund, from which members of Ihe group can borrow money for production input.. Thus, by 2003, a total of 21 \"Cassava Dovelopment ViIlages\" had been set up in Ihe pilo! siles in Thailand. Each group needed lo have al leasl 40 members, elect five officers to load Ihe group, and establísh their own bylaws about membership requiremenls, election of officers, use of!he rotating fund, etc. The formation of Ihese groups helped to decide on eolleclive action and to streng!hen the community, while people gained confidence and the group beeame more self-relian!. When necessary, the group could request help from local or nalional extension services, obtain information abOUI certain produetion problems, or get plantíng material of vetiver gress or other species for hedgerows or greeo manures. Sorne groups started tbeir own vetiver grass nurseries to have planting material av.nable when needed.After conducUng their own FPR trials, or after a cross-visit to ano!her village where those trials were being conducted, farmers often decided to adopt one or more technologies on Iheir production fields with !he hope of increasing yields or income and protecting the soil from further degradalion.In Thaíland, practically all of the cassava area is now planted with new varieties and about 75% of farmers apply sorne chemical fertilizers (TIDI, 2000), although usually not enough nor in Ihe tight proportion. As a result of Ihe FPR fertílizer tríals, farmers slarted to apply more K, while Ihe official fertilizer recommendation for cassava was changed from an NPK ratio of 1: 1: 1 to 2: 1 :2. Afier trying various ways of controlling erosion, most farmers selected the planting of vetiver grass contour hedgerows as the most suitable. By the end of 2003, about 1,038 farmers had planted a total of 1.63 million vetiver plants, corresponding lo about 145 km of hedgerows (Howeler et al., 2003a(Howeler et al., , 2003b;;2004., 2004b, 2005;Vongkasem el al., 2003).In Aug 2002 a partícipatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) was conducted in four pilot sites in Thailand where the projee! had becn initiated at least four years carlíer. Using focus group discussions and participatory evalustion methodologies, data were collecled on the extent of adopUon of the variaus teclmologies snd the reasons for adoption or non-adoption. Table 11 shows thal new varieties had becn adopted in 100% oftbe eass.va growíng areas in all four siles. Application of ehemical fertilizers vatied from 79-100\"10, vetiver hedgerows were planted in 22-55% ofthe cassava area, green manures in 0-50\"10 snd intercropping was nol adopted at all, mainly due to lack of labor for managing intercrops. Figure 2 shows how the number of farmers in the pilot sites adopting various soil conservation measures inereased year after year, inilially mostly in Thailand bUI subsequenlly also in Vietnam.Data in Table 12 indicate that adoption of soil conSt'TValion practices in all sites in Vietnam increased yields, ranging from 13.5% in 2000 lO 23.7% in 2002. As a resull of the adoption of soil conservation practice., gross in come, both per ha and per household, also inereased very markedly over time. Results from both FPR trials and on-stalinn research also indicate that the beneficial effect of cónlour hedgerows in tcrms nf inereasing yields and decreasing erosion increased over lime (Howeler el al., 2005). This is mainly because the planting of contnur hedgerows, almost independenl of Ibe species us.d, wíll resul! in natural terrace farmation, which over time reduces the slope and enhances water infiltration, lhus reducing runo!f and erosiono Well established hedgerows also become increasingly more e!feetive in trapping eroded soíl and fertilizers. Unfortunat.!y, most FPR eros ion control tría!s are conducted for only 1-2 years al !he same site, so farmers do no! quíte appreci.te lhe increases in beneficia! e!feets that result over time. This, coupled with !he fael !hat planting and maintaining hedgerows requires additional labor (and sometimes monoy for seed or plantíng materíal), wbile hedgerows take sorne land out of production and have initiaUy Iiule beneficial e!fect on yield, has bampered the more widespread acceptance and adoption of !hese soil wnservation practices.  Table 13 shows in more detail how Ihe adoptíon of varíous teehnologies increased over time in one commune in Pbo Yen disldct of Thai Nguyen provinee where Ibe projeet firsl started working in 1994, Sinee 1995 farmers have conducted FPR trials on new varieties, more balanced fertílization, íntercropping, and erosion control. After sorne years of testing farmer. initially adopled new varíelies and intercropping in small areas of Iheir land. This was followed by beUer fertilization and erosion control; Ihe laUer was adopted by only a sm.U numbor of farmers as mosl cassava fields in !he commun.are on gentle slopes or on lerraced land. It is elear Ihal the adoplion of ncw tcchnologies increased yields significantly, of both the local variety Vính Phu and the new varíeties, mainly KM 95-3 and KM 98-7. The gradual ¡nereases in yield, from 8.5 tilla in 1994 to 36.8 tilla in 2003 was accompanied by an increase in area planted using new technologies, resulting in aboul a 20-fold increase in nel ineome and marl<ed improvements in the livelihood of farmers in Ihis cornmune. Table 14 surnrnarizes the extent of adoption of new cassava technologies in FPR pilot sites in 15 provinees of Vietnam in 2003 and the resulling inerease in gross income due to higher yields obtained. Allhough balanced lertilization produced Ihe greatest yield íncrease, il was not adopted over a very wide area. New variet;es were most widely adopted resulting in the greatest increase in gross income. Th. total annual increase in gross ¡ncome due to adoption of new teehnologies in the FPR sites was estimated at 1.67 million US dollars or $72.92 per household.  ,---,-,-_ _ -:-: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .:.:ho\"' u:::s\"' eh\"' o\"' ld:::,:...,:(\"' h\".)' ::--pe-r\"éac:::téCíc' ::é-e' In order lo delermine more precisely tbe effecl of !his project on adoptíon of new technologies, an impact assessmenl was made by an outsid. consultant. He organized foeus group discussions and collecled data !fom funoers in eight representative project sites, four sites in Thailand and four in Vietnam. as well as from fanners living wi!hin !O km of those sítes, who had not participated in the projeel. Table 15 shows the percent of households (out of 767) who had adopted varíous teehnologies. New varíeties were adopted 1 by nearly all cassava farmers in !he eíght sites in Thailand and by 70% of farmers in Vietnam; tbe use of chemical fertilizers had been adopted by 85-90% of households in the eight sites in eaeh eountry; intercropping by nearly 60% of households in Vietnam, bUI by only 13% in Thailand. Conlour ridgíng was adopled by aboul 30% of households in bo!h Vietnam and ThaHand, while contour hedgerows were adopted by 23% of households in Thailand and 25% in Vietnam; in Thailand these hedgerows were almosl exclusively vetiver grass, while in Vietnam mos! farmers preferred!'he planting of Tepnrosia candida or Paspalum alratum, as tbese are easier to plan! (from seed) and can also serve as a greco manure and animal feed, respectively. Thus. it is clear that adoption of specific practiccs varies from site 10 site, depending on local condilions and traditional practices. Table 15 also indicates tha! !'here were highly significant dífferences in tne adoption of almosl all Ihe lechnologies between participating and non-partícipaling fanners (wi!h Ihe exception of eontour ridging and Ihe use of ehemieal fertilizers in Vietnam), witb participating farmers having a greater extenl of adoplion Ihan non-participaling farmers. In!his case, \"participants\" were defined as farmers who had conducled al leasl one FPR trial andlor had participated in an FPR training course, while \"nonparticipants\" fiad done neither, bul may have attended a fanoer field day organized by Ihe projeet. lt can be sceO thal new varielies and the use of ehemical f.rtilizers were readily adopted by both participants and non-participants, while adoption of soil eonservation practices and intercropping was botb less widespread and largely Iimited to participating fanners. This c1early points lo !'he diffículty of achieving spnntaneous and widespread adoption of soil conservation practices.But how docs adoption of !hese new technologies transl.te inlo higher yields and ineome? Figure 3 shows tbe eassava yields tbat farmers repnrted before and after !he projeet, eorrespnnding more or less to the second phase of tbe project, or from 1999 to 2003. In Thailand !'he yields of participating fanners inereased from 19.4 to 25.3 tlha (33%), while yields ofnon-partícipating fanners increased from 15.5 to 20.3 tlha (31%); in Vietnam project participants inereased yield from 13.7 to 282 t'ha (106%) while non-partieipants increased !heir yields from 14.3 to 23.9 IIha (67%) (Lilja el aL, 2005). Thus, in bolh countries yields inereased very markedly, but these inereases were grealer for participants than for non-participants, especially in Vietnam. For eomparison, Figure 3 also shows Ihe íncrease in yield for Ihe whole country, as reported by f AO during approximately tbe ,ame time periodo Yields for the whole of Vietnam are considerably below those reported by the farmers in !'he foeus groups; bul Ihe yield I Planted Ín 50% or more of the farmer' s total cassava area inereases are similar lO Ihose reported by Ihe non-participanls. In Thailand Ihe initial yields in Ihe country were similar lo those of non-participating fanners, bul after-project yields were much bigher for participants as well as nearby non-participanlS Ihan for Ihe country as a whole. This indicates Ihal participating fanners benefited mos! from !heir experiences bul Iha! nearby fanners also benefited indirectly from the project.  iipercentages may total more than 100 % as households can adopt more tilM one type oftechnology simultaneously Significan! diITerenccs between participants and non-participan!.: * 1'<=0.10 .. P<=().05 * *' P<=O.OI l'Leve) of significance in this case refers to differences between participants and non-partícipants in terms of the categorical distribution. 001 the adoption tevelsTable 16 shows lbat during the past len years the average cassava yield. in both countríes increased; tbis increase was 5.62 tlha in Thailand and 6.05 tlha in Vietnam. The increased yields resulled in annual increases in gross income received by fanners of abaut 203 million US dollars in the two counlrie., and aboul 325 million US dollars in aH of Asia. In addition, fanners in Thailand received higher priees due lO Ibe h;gber slarch contenl of the new variel;es. Thi. was achieved nol only by Ihis projeel, bUI by the collaboralive eITort of many researehers, extensioni.!s, faclory owners and fanners, with Slrong support from national govemments.","tokenCount":"4285"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cafb7fa12f7a84c6924c98e7eb7b47a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6bad578d-9a27-4702-9d15-388dd847f06d/retrieve","id":"1999144921"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1829efb7-07a4-4a7b-aded-304ea282133b","pagecount":"78","content":"i ii iii (data and maps computation related to number and location of livestock keepers), Liston Njoroge and Pamela Ochungo (country-level analysis), Abisalom Omolo (value of production by system and species), Stanley Karanja (livestock in household income), Mwai Okeyo and Julie Ojango (yield gap analysis), Anjani Kumar and Dhiraj Singh (India data and analysis), Mohammad Jabbar (Bangladesh data and analysis) Nicholas Ndiwa and Wachira Theuri (human nutrition), Eunice Kariuki, Tezira Lore, John Dawson (editing). The report also benefited from the inputs of Ade Freeman,The purpose of this report is first to provide evidence of the role of livestock in rural livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia 1 . Further, the report aims to identify opportunities for investments that build on that evidence and hold promise for improving and sustaining the livelihoods of smallholder livestock producers and their rural communities in developing countries. This analysis is presented in order to support the decision making of those public and private development investors, and policy makers, for whom improved rural livelihoods is a key objective.The report is presented in two parts. Part 1 comprises summaries of in-depth analysis of key issues central to the role of livestock and rural livelihoods, each of which brings together a wide range of available data to inform the topic. Part 2 then uses the information generated and presented in Part 1 and through a conceptual framework for guiding pro-poor livestock investment, identifies the key value chains or livestock systems and regions that are demonstrated by the evidence to offer livelihood opportunities, and some initial description of best bet types of interventions.Part 1: Key Elements of Livestock LivelihoodsThe ongoing Livestock Revolution (Delgado et al. 1999(Delgado et al. , 2001) ) has been characterized by acceleration in demand for livestock products in developing countries due to increasing incomes, creating new opportunities for rural producers to participate in income-generating livestock enterprises, thereby building improved livelihoods. Strategic investment has the potential to greatly assist this process.Targeting such investment is difficult, given the great heterogeneity in the production systems delivering livestock products, in the natural resource base on which they depend, and in the political, market and technology environments in which they operate. Therefore, investment in livestock-mediated livelihood opportunities should be guided by the best knowledge available, applied strategically. The knowledge required for that targeting revolves around several central issues:-Where are the rural poor located, particularly those who depend on livestock for livelihoods?-How important is livestock to their livelihoods and communities, including human nutrition?-What is the value of production by smallholders of livestock, and what are the main constraints to that production?-Where are the greatest market demand opportunities to drive increased livestock production and incomes?This part of the report presents, in summary form, the findings of six separate studies that address these questions, focusing on the regions which many donors and development agents regard as the most critical for reaching the poorest, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In each case, a range of data are used to address the issues at hand: national-level statistics such as that available from FAOSTAT and other sources, spatial data from public GIS databases, and case study or survey data. In line with the questions above, the report is accordingly laid out as follows 2 For each of these topics a detailed study report is available. Contact s.staal@cgiar.org for a copy.Central to any pro-poor investment in livestock development is to actually target the poor, particularly those that depend on livestock for livelihood, identifying where and in what types of systems they and their communities are found. This analysis was designed to provide that targeting. The study (Kariuki and Notenbaert) sought answers to three questions:• How many livestock keepers are living on less than US$ 2 per day in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (here considered as India and Bangladesh)? 3 • Where are they living (by region and by production system)?• What percentage of the poor do they represent within the production system? The livestock production system classification used was that developed by ILRI (Kruska et al. 2003, based on Seré andSteinfeld 1996), simplified into four main types:• Arid/semi-arid pastoral systems;• Mixed humid/subhumid, including rainfed and irrigated systems in those zones; • Mixed temperate/tropical highland, including rainfed and irrigated systems in those zones; • Other, including sparsely populated forest and coastal areas, and urban areas.The populations living within those production systems were extracted from regional population density datasets (Deichmann 1996;Hyman et al. 2000), and income data were obtained from World Bank statistics. Estimates from an internal ILRI expert consultation were used to set the proportion of poor people in each system who were livestock keepers.Figure 1 and Figure 2 show the geographical spread of poor livestock keepers, for all types of livestock, 4 in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, respectively (blue, low density; red, highest density). Table 1 shows the absolute number of livestock keepers living below US$ 2 per day, by region and subregion. The figures show that of over 900 million poor livestock keepers, over 600 million are found in South Asia, mostly in India. Sub-Saharan Africa has over 300 million poor livestock keepers, concentrated in East and West Africa, with fewer in Southern and Central. Table 2 and Table  3 present data for each system in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, respectively, disaggregated by subregion. Table 4 and Table 5 show the percentage of the poor keeping various livestock types, by production system. Western Africa % of regional system total % of regional totalEast Africa % of regional system total % of regional total Southern Africa % of regional system total % of regional total 149,668 3,196,499 8.8 1.0 9,841,515 27.2 3.2 15,172,487 42.0 4.9 7,939,166 22.0 2.6 Mixed Humid 218,654,066 21,105,176 9.7 6.8 120,976,220 55.3 39.1 44,141,626 20.2 14.3 32,431,  South Asia India % of regional system total % of regional total Bangladesh % of regional system total % of regional total  The data indicate that mixed humid systems contain relatively more poor livestock keepers than other systems, in both South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. However, Table 4 shows the high relative importance of livestock to the poor in all rural systems. Which criterion should be used, then, when targeting investment -absolute numbers of poor, or system-based poverty rates? What other criteria should be considered? Further data are needed on spatial and temporal distribution of crops and livestock and on the numbers, location and characteristics of vulnerable poor livestock keepers in order to enable finer geographical targeting of livestock interventions.The next section looks more specifically at how livestock can contribute to household incomes in resource-poor communities.Livestock contribute to the livelihood strategies of the poor and the food insecure in many ways (Roland-Holst et al. 2007) and their products and services can be a significant component of national output. However, there is a dearth of knowledge about the relative contribution of livestock to total household incomes across regions, species and production systems. The study (Nzuma and Baltenweck) therefore aimed, using a review of individual case studies in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, to answer a number of related questions, including:• What is the total household income for livestock keepers (US$/year)?• What is the share of income from livestock production in total household income? • What variations exist according to type of production system and species kept?The study of 92 cases considered the contributions to incomes of dairy cattle, small ruminants and poultry in three broad system categories -mixed crop/livestock, pastoral and other. On average, livestock production accounted for close to 40% of total household income across all livestock production systems (Figure 3), species (Figure 4) and regions.   Pastoral production systems showed the highest contribution of livestock to household incomes (55%, Figure 3) (Otte and Chilonda 2002). Livestock production generates roughly half of the household income in the pastoral areas of Kenya (Barrett et al. 2003), and pastoral communities in Ethiopia, Niger and Burkina Faso derive over 80% of their incomes from livestock. The 33% average contribution of livestock to household incomes for mixed crop/livestock systems (Figure 3) masks a wide variation according to the type of livestock kept and the extent of market participation of different categories of livestock keepers. On the whole, however, household incomes were higher in the pastoral systems case studies (average US$ 2,315) than in the mixed crop/livestock systems (average US$ 984).With regard to species, dairy, as a component of mixed crop/livestock systems, contributed the highest share of household income at 70% (Figure 4), with an average income of US$ 958. Poultry was the next highest proportion of income at 50%, but gave the highest household income (range US$ 2,207 to US$ 6,837). Though from only two case studies, the results show the potential contribution that poultry can make to reducing rural poverty if a commercial system can be maintained. By contrast, the two small ruminant studies in India (local breed sheep and goats) showed the lowest contribution to household income (1% and 13%), although the small sample size from both these and the poultry cases renders inferences difficult.The next section considers another important role of livestock in poor communitiesas a vital element of human nutrition.Livestock keeping is critical for many of the poor in the developing world, often contributing to multiple livelihood objectives (Randolph et al. 2007), including improved household food security. The study (Nzuma and Randolph) evaluated the role of livestock in human nutrition, using data 5 for sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia for various livestock product categories, through consideration of the following questions:• What is the per capita consumption of livestock products in the study areas?• How much energy (calories) and protein do livestock products contribute to human diets? • What is the relative importance of various livestock products in human diets?• How much malnutrition exists in the study areas?• What are the nutritional benefits of animal-source foods?Per capita consumption of livestock products (dairy, beef, poultry meat and eggs, small ruminant meat) in the study areas is shown in Figure 5, with Bangladesh and Central Africa consuming the least, and India and East and Southern Africa the most. Overall, consumption is low (compare with the United States, 404 kg/person/year consumption of livestock products). Figure 6 and Figure 7 show energy and protein intake from livestock products in the study areas. As Table 6 shows, most energy is derived from crop products, with livestock products constituting a smaller source of energy per unit consumption. However, and importantly, they are rich in protein (right column, Table 6) and other micronutrients.    Source: FAOSTAT data When considering the contribution of livestock products to human diets, it is important to bear in mind the nutritional characteristics of the various products (Figure 8). Beef and small ruminants provide most energy and protein per kilogram consumed, but also involve a longer production cycle and so are generally less frequently available for consumption (from own production) compared to poultry (meat and eggs) and dairy products.  Looking next at consumption patterns in the subregions under consideration, two broad categories emerge. In Eastern Africa and South Asia dairy products alone account for the large majority of the livestock products consumed. In the other African subregions dairy products represent less than half the total, and fall behind \"other\" products (pork and bush meat etc.) in Central Africa. Small ruminant meat makes a minor contribution in all subregions. Figure 9 shows the considerable variations by country. Those countries in which consumption of livestock (especially dairy) products is high are often those with dry climates and less potential for crop production. Animal-source foods are able to combat a range of nutritional deficiencies, particularly when consumed as a component of a diverse diet that includes plantsource foods (Randolph et al. 2007). They are energy dense and are good sources of protein and micronutrients, and therefore moderate increases in their consumption in undernourished populations can provide critical nutritional benefits without crossing the threshold of significant risk for chronic disease. Animal-source foods are excellent sources of essential micronutrients such as iron, zinc, calcium, riboflavin, iodine, vitamin A and vitamin B 12 , and many nutrients are better absorbed from animal-source than from plant-source foods. Addressing micronutrient deficiencies in children is particularly important, as the impact of undernutrition on physical capacity and cognitive development is established early in life, with substantial long-term effects on human capital development and productivity (Leroy et al. 2007).Livestock keeping and production can therefore be a key component of food-based strategies that allow people to take responsibility for the quality of their own diet through the production and consumption decisions that they make, thereby contributing to human well-being and sustainable development (Leroy and Frongillo 2007).Having considered the prevalence of smallholder livestock keepers across the developing world, and the roles that livestock can play in household income and well-being, the next section analyses value of production as a factor in investment targeting.The relative importance of different livestock species varies by country and production system. Alongside other types of information, a better understanding of the value of production (and therefore importance) of livestock products would help target investments, both in terms of species and regions. The study (Omolo and Notenbaert) sought to contribute to the understanding of the economic potential of different species by calculating the value of production of selected species (cattle, poultry and small ruminants) across different regions and production systems.For the four production systems considered, differential productivities were assumed, with the mixed humid/subhumid as a reference (100%):• Arid/semi-arid pastoral systems: 70%;• Mixed humid/subhumid, including rainfed and irrigated systems in those zones: 100%; • Mixed temperate/tropical highland, including rainfed and irrigated systems in those zones: 120%; • Other, including urban: 70%.The first step in this broad-brush analysis was to use a geographic information system (GIS) to calculate numbers of animals per country and production system (FAO 2007;Kruska et al. 2003). Country-level productivity estimates were extracted from FAOSTAT and weighed by the above productivity figures. In a second step, the animal numbers were multiplied with the resulting productivity estimates (per system per country) and prices to come up with a value of production of the animals present. 7   Figure 10 and Figure 11 show livestock densities for the species under consideration in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, respectively. Figure 12, Figure 13 and Figure 14 show spatial variations in value of production for cattle, small ruminants and poultry, respectively, in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Table 7 gives values of production for each system and species in each region.High cattle densities in eastern and some parts of western Africa High poultry densities in West Africa      Although broad-brush, the results of the study enable comparison of the economic importance of species and production systems in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Most of the value of production in sub-Saharan Africa was derived from cattle (55%), followed by poultry (25%) and small ruminants (20%). In South Asia these proportions were 61%, 21% and 18%, respectively, giving a similar pattern. In both regions the arid/semi-arid zone contributed most to value of production (57% in sub-Saharan Africa, 69% in South Asia), though the mixed temperate/tropical highland system was of much greater relative importance in sub-Saharan Africa.Turning to subregional consideration of species, some interesting features emerge. In sub-Saharan Africa discrepancies between poultry density and value reflect variations in productivity and price. In West Africa, for example, poultry density is high (Figure 10) but value of production is comparatively low (Figure 14) due to lower productivity and prices in that region. Sudan displays an opposite pattern with low densities yet high value of production. Throughout South Asia, the generally low value of production of poultry is striking (Figure 14).For cattle, there is broad convergence in sub-Saharan Africa between cattle density and value of production (Figure 10 and Figure 12). A similar pattern is found in South Asia (Figure 11 and Figure 12). Small ruminants in West Africa display a pattern similar to poultry, with high density but relatively lower value of production. In South Asia there is a high density of small ruminants in eastern India and Bangladesh (as for cattle). Throughout South Asia value of production for small ruminants generally coincides with the pattern of density.In the next section, an analysis of productivity gaps is undertaken to identify areas where investment could close gaps between current and potential production.Within sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, livestock support the livelihoods of vast numbers of small-scale producers who face formidable challenges in improving the scale and efficiency of production and the quality of their products. The study (Mwacharo et al.) was undertaken to identify differences in productivity for key livestock species -dairy and beef cattle, poultry and small ruminants -in the primary livestock production systems in sub-Saharan Africa (West, East and Southern) and South Asia, in order to help identify investment priorities.Three types or breeds of livestock were studied: indigenous genotypes; exotic genotypes, often introduced to improve productivity; and crossbreeds of various types. Information gathered from a literature review was used to derive the productivity gap for key livestock species and genotypes -i.e. the difference between the mean highest and lowest observed levels of production (e.g. of milk) in a specific production system (e.g. arid/semi-arid, humid/subhumid).From analysis of the data three main factors were identified that might account for the productivity gaps, namely differences in animal husbandry practices, genotype and production system. Looking first at dairy cattle, some examples will be given to illustrate a wide-ranging study. Figure 15 shows lowest and highest (light and dark shading) milk yields for crossbred cattle for three regions of sub-Saharan Africa. The highest potential to increase milk production was observed in East Africa (over 300%). This productivity gap can be attributed to different animal husbandry practices, given the similarity in genotype and production system.  Figure 16 compares milk yields for the three genotypes across production systems in Southern Africa (light and dark shading indicate minimum and maximum for each category). Type x gaps are due to differences in animal husbandry practices (see Figure 15); type y gaps, across different breeds in the same production system, can be attributed to differences in genotype; and type z gaps are due to differences in production system (for the same genotype). Figure 17 presents data for South Asia (synthetics = hybrids). The difference between the observed minimum and maximum levels of milk production for each genotype in different regions, and the production levels achieved in commercial ranches, indicate that the genetic potential of most genotypes is not being realized in smallholder settings, and there is considerable potential in all regions to increase yields with adoption of improved genotypes and better animal husbandry practices. The highest potential to increase milk production was observed in East Africa in crossbred animals (Figure 15). In West/Central Africa the potential was greatest for purebred indigenous cattle, and in Southern Africa for exotic cattle. In South Asia, results indicate that it is possible to more than double milk production from indigenous and crossbred animals with targeted intervention, with due attention given to nutrition and animal health care.Similar exercises were performed for poultry, small ruminants and beef cattle, and examples will be given for each. For poultry, data on egg production and pullet weight at maturity were collated. In both sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, low input-output backyard scavenging systems predominate, and are a critical household source of income and high-quality proteins (Spadbrow 1997;Gueye 1998). Figure 18 gives the example of pullet weight under difference systems and for different genotypes in Southern Africa. Broadly similar patterns were identified in all regions, with productivity gaps of varying sizes indicating potential for improved meat and egg production in both commercial and backyard systems.Poultry is a promising sector for nutrition and poverty alleviation, as modest initial capital investment can act as the first step on the ladder of capital accumulation (Todd 1999). For indigenous genotypes, selective breeding, improved management, supplementary feed and disease control can significantly improve both meat and egg productivity. The commercial sector, with its wealth of human, technical and financial resources, could be a catalyst in promoting backyard poultry production as a practical and viable option for poverty alleviation.For small ruminants, production and reproduction data were collated from studies in West, East and Southern Africa. Small ruminants are highly suited to low-income households in marginal environments, given their low feed and capital requirements, their ability to utilize a wide range of feed resources and their adaptation to prevailing conditions (Devendra 2002;Holst 1999). With the reduction in average landholding sizes due to increased human population and increased competition for animal feed resources, small ruminants are expected to play a bigger role in sustaining livelihoods in the future.The potential to increase small ruminant meat and milk productivity was found to be high in sub-Saharan Africa. This was clearly demonstrated by data from the East African region. Where environmental conditions and management standards are conducive, exotic and crossbred genotypes could more than triple milk and meat productivity, as demonstrated in FARM-Africa's Dairy Goat Development Project in Eastern Kenya (Peakock 2008) and in cases in Tanzania (Mtenga and Kifaro 1993). The climatic conditions in West Africa on the other hand are not conducive to optimal performance by exotics and crossbreeds, favouring only the best-adapted indigenous breeds, which offer a high potential for meat productivity.For beef cattle, production and reproduction data were again assembled for sub-Saharan Africa, where both production and consumption have increased significantly over the last decade (Tambi and Maina 2005), though growth in beef production per animal has lagged. Most production takes place in arid/semi-arid environments where crop production is risky due to unfavourable climatic conditions. Productivity gaps were most marked among indigenous breeds. Factors contributing to low production efficiency included prolonged calving intervals and low weaning weights among calves. Offtake rates (ratio of animals slaughtered to total herd) varied considerably, and there was significant potential for increased offtake in many areas, for example by vertical integration of pastoral and commercial production systems.The results above provide some evidence of which types of technology barriers constrain productivity of smallholder livestock producers, which may or may not translate into identification of the intervention which may best increase productivity. To further investigate this issue, some modeling was conducted to explicitly compare likely outcomes from alternative livestock interventions to improve productivity. Unlike crops, livestock not only produce products such as milk or egg, but also reproduce and grow in numbers and lead to herd growth, some of which can be sold. Measuring productivity in this larger context thus requires a multi-year approach due to long reproductive cycles in the case of cattle, and also requires a herd model. Further, a combined productivity measure of different products (milk and cattle offtake for example) require a composite measure, the easiest of which to use is simply the monetary value.As an example in a key value chain, a dynamic modelling approach was used to explore the effect of alternative productivity intervention strategies on the lifetime productivity of dairy cattle. We used RUMINANT, an individual-based, dynamic model in which performance depends on genetic potential of the breed and feeding (see Herrero et al 2002). We then used results of the individual simulations in the herd model of Lesnoff (2007) under different assumptions related to animal health and also reproductive management (calving interval). The model parameters and assumptions were based on data from smallholder dairy farms in the highlands of Central Kenya.The herd model, run over a 20 year period with a starting herd of 100 animals, generates annual value in $ output. Two sets of values were generated: value of milk production only, and value of milk+value of herd growth/offtake. See table 2.1 below for details on the parameters and assumptions used to compare Poor and Good status of each type of intervention. Additional simulation parameters 1. Initial Herd size = 100 animals (the final herd size depends on the simulated parameters such as mortalities) 2. Simulation period = 20 years to achieve steady state 3. Price of a litre of milk = US $ 0.3 4. Prices of cows = US $ 800 5. All results are based on annual out puts (milk and animals) per herd Figure 2.2 shows results for annualized value of milk offtake only for comparative management scenarios. In each case, good nutrition and poor nutrition outcomes are compared to good or poor animal health and reproductive management. So for example, in the figure B represents the incremental drop in value of offtake due to poor reproductive management, campared to good reproductive management, under good and poor feeding scenarios. D represents an additional incremental effect due to interactions when both reproduction and animal health management are poor. Figure 2.3 describes the same analysis, but in this case combining value of offtake of milk plus herd growth.  In order to achieve some overall perspective of the potential impacts of each type of technology intervention, given the complexity and interactions of the effects of those interventions, it was necessary to make pairwise comparisons of the change in value for each possible combination. For example, the effect of good feeding vs poor feeding can only be evaluated by comparing those feeding regimes under every other combination of poor vs good genetics, animal health and reproduction management. One thus can arrive at a range of outcomes, and a mean outcome in terms of value of offtake.These values are illustrated in Figure 19 and Figure 20 below. In both cases, the highest gains are generally related to animal health interventions that reduce mortality in calves and adults. Due to survival of more females, and females entering into lactation over time, this translates into both higher herd milk yield and higher herd growth. The primary difference between the two figures is that improving feed has a higher impact when milk yield only is considered. This is as expected, given that improved feeding can stimulate rapid yield responses from some animals.The two figures can be interpreted as short term and long term benefits from dairy technology interventions, and provide some guidance as to what the potential impacts may be from investment to reduce technical constraints to dairy production. In terms of on-farm interventions, the analysis demonstrates that as generally recognized, short term gains can be achieved relatively simply and quickly through feed improvement, the outcome dependent somewhat of course on the other determinants. The analysis however also makes clear that over the long run, intervention in animal health will have greater cumulative benefits.  Investment in livestock may provide a pathway out of poverty for millions of people in developing countries. Targeting such investment requires a careful appraisal of current value chains and identification of those areas where investment might prove most beneficial. Central to returns on investment are the market opportunities driving demand for the resulting products.The study (Njoroge et al.) therefore sought to answer the following questions:• What are the dominant livestock value chains for smallholder farmers in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia? • For each region, in which countries is livestock value chain investment likely to have the highest impact on targeted communities? • What are the potential interventions that should be appraised to assess their feasibility?Production and consumption trends were derived for beef meat, chicken meat, fresh milk and small ruminant (sheep and goat) meat. 8 For each, the following main points were observed:• For beef production, annual growth rate was highest in East Africa (5.8% during [2000][2001][2002][2003] though the growth in domestic consumption was slower (2.1%) (Figure 21). Beef consumption remains lowest in South Asia. • Production and consumption of chicken meat showed positive growth in all regions, especially India, though actual consumption levels in South Asia remained lower than for West and Southern Africa, but comparable to East and Central Africa. In West Africa, faster growth in consumption has been satisfied in some countries by importation of chicken meat (Figure 22). • Milk production increased in all regions apart from Central Africa; production growth considerably exceeded growth in milk consumption in East Africa (Figure 23). Current consumption levels vary considerably but are highest in East and Southern Africa and in India. • For small ruminant meat, growths in production and consumption were most marked in East Africa and Bangladesh (Figure 24) in the earlier period 1990-1999, but flatter since, and consumption is generally low in all regions.Trends in population increase, per capita income growth and urbanization were also analysed, as they are important drivers of changing demand for livestock products (Delgado et al. 1999). Growth rates of per capita income (over 5% per annum in all regions) were generally higher than population and urbanization growth rates, as well as being higher than growth rates for production and consumption of livestock products, indicating a possible \"latent demand\" for such products (Figure 21-Figure 24).  Turning next to consideration of opportunities for import substitution 9 (thereby saving foreign exchange and encouraging the domestic industry), certain regions show high levels of importation relative to domestic production, particularly for chicken meat and milk products (Table 8), though the potential for increased domestic production may be severely limited by technical and resource constraints, such as incidence of animal disease, lack of feed resources, limited tradition of livestock husbandry practices, poor veterinary services and deficient transport and market infrastructure.  Barrett 2001). Reasons include unavailability of a reliable, profitable market and low levels of available surplus product (due to low production or high consumption levels within the family unit). Exceptions include milk marketing in Kenya and parts of India.Based on consideration of the data gathered, and the factors outlined in this summary, opportunities can be identified for subregional interventions in particular value chains in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. These opportunities are summarized in Table 9. In conclusion, while the analysis here is preliminary only and gives little consideration to the many production constraints, it does enable some identification of the locations, products and market areas where value chain investment has the potential to contribute to the livelihoods of smallholders specifically and to economic, social and personal well-being more generally.In the previous sections, data and analysis were summarized that laid out a range of issues to be considered in a livestock development strategy that was aimed at positive outcomes in the poor. In this final section, we integrate some of those data results, and use a matrix of data to identify those Value Chains that offer the best opportunities to achieve pro-poor outcomes in rural communities through investment in livestock development in the short to medium term.The approach uses a set of analytical filters that combine market potential, likelihood of impact at scale on the poor, and supply constraints. The data and information used is a combination of the quantitative data summarized in the preceding sections, and expert knowledge generated through several group and teleconference discussions of senior ILRI staff, including participants from South Asia, East, Southern and West Africa. The approach is illustrated in Figure 25. The aim of this filter is to differentiate value chains by their potential for demand-driven growth in the livestock species/commodity in question over the medium turn. We have used three distinct measures or indicators of potential: Domestic demand: trends in national consumption of livestock products, driven in turn by real income growth, urbanisation and changes consumption habits. In most cases, this will be the largest source of demand.Import substitution: market share of imported livestock products, which represent potential market for domestic products if they can be enabled to compete in price, quality, form.Regional and international exports: potential, based on deficits elsewhere, to export livestock products. Regional markets may be more feasible due to lower standards and transactions costs. Although these opportunities often receive the highest policy priority, they generally offer limited opportunities given difficulty of compliance with quality and safety standards.There are two main elements of this analytical filter, which aims to assess which livestock value chains will have most direct impact on the poor, particularly rural poor livestock keepers (as opposed to poor consumers, or those involved indirectly in value chains).Numbers of and role of rural poor: absolute number of rural poor who may be potential beneficiaries, and some understanding of proportion of them who are livestock keepers.Ability of the poor to sustainably participate in future market growth: a somewhat subjective measure that is based primarily on likely structure of production in foreseeable future. Economies of scale, local factor values and resources, and species/breed mix will determine whether smallholder producers are likely to be able to compete, or whether the future lies mostly with industrial, large scale and capital-intensive producers.The other determinant to participation is the nature of the supply chain: verticially integreated chains that have high standards of quality and safety will provide fewer opportunities for smallholders. Markets that are mostly local, informal, with few standards, will offer larger opportunities.In many cases, particularly where large import shares are observed, there are strong technical reasons why increased domestic supply of particularly livestock products is constrained, which sometimes manifest in high levels of risk that preclude sustained investment. In many cases, these may not be easily overcome by available development interventions or research approaches in the foreseeable future. This filter aims to differentiate those that face apparently insurmountable challenges from those for which options appear available. The constraints revolve around:Disease challenge: zones where certain animal diseases constrain increased production, and for which few solution appear on the horizon.Feed resources: zones where available local resources significantly constrain intensification or expansion.By combining some measures to represent these analytical filters, some Key Target Value Chains can be identified that have the following characteristics -Good market growth opportunities -Some potential for poor people to participation in that growth The value chains as addressed in this section are defined as a combination of a) a region of SSA or South Asia, and b) a species/breed of livestock kept by the poor. The synthesis in Part 1 on Market opportunities, (see Table 9: Opportunities for targeting value chain interventions in sub-Saharan Africa and South AsiaTable 9, page 38) highlighted the opportunities across the range of regions and species that were addressed by the data.Based on the data and expert knowledge, we have chosen five value chains to address in detail, applying the Analytical Filters above, and then highlighting most promising types of interventions. These are:Before we describe the selected Value Chains of interest, it would be useful to briefly examine those that were not selected, and clarify the reasons for that.West Africa is a huge importer of dairy products (imports are about equal to domestic production in volume -99.9%), and would on the face of it present good opportunities for import substation. However, in the coastal areas where the milk deficit is highest, there are very strong technical and other factors that limit increases in production. Foremost are fierce animal disease challenges that constrain use of cross-bred or improved dairy cattle (trypanosomosis and dermatophilosis, etc), as well as high temperature low-altitude settings. Over the long term, research on disease control and genetics may overcome these barriers to some degree, but in the medium term the prospects are limited.Again, this would seem to present a good opportunity for import substitution, with imports of chicken meat double the volume of regional production. However, in much of Central Africa grain production is limited and availability of low cost feed materials is very low. As a result, most economic poultry production is limited to scavenging backyard systems, which have little potential for intensification. In the medium term imports from grain-rich parts of the world will continue to out-compete local production. Where grain is available, larger scale commercial poultry enterprises are likely to out-compete smallholders.While there are some excellent success stories in South Asia on smallholder intensive poultry, for example in Bangladesh, the expert consensus is that large scale industrial production is rapidly taking over the market, leaving little opportunities for smallholder producers. Due to the success of industrial poultry production, market-oriented backyard village poultry has virtually disappeared in many parts of the sub-continent. However, in marginal areas and the East rural poultry production is still widespread. There have been attempts at introduction of small-scale intensive production (200-500 birds) and although successful in some areas it has failed in others, mainly because of competition from the large-scale industrial sector. There will nevertheless be some opportunities locally for small scale commercial production, including cross-bred chickens in less developed regions.Smallholders participate to an important degree in these systems and markets, particularly where pastoral systems dominate. However, the largest opportunities, both locally and in export markets regionally and internationally, are seen to lie with ranchers and large scale producers who can meet the disease control and quality requirements, and the volume requirements imposed by the markets. Where smallholder producers can be empowered to take advantage of the formal market infrastructure, there will be opportunities in some areas.The majority of farming households and a considerable proportion of landless households keep dairy animals, generally in small herds with 2-5 adult females.Both cattle and buffaloes are popular with the latter being more numerous in the North and the West of the sub-continent. Feeding is based mainly on crop residues from private farmland (fodder crops are limited in regional distribution and contribution) and common resource grazing. However, the availability of open-access land has declined considerably in many areas. Concentrates are fed by only a very few larger scale farmers. Milk is the main output and marketing, both through formal and informal channels is widespread. The family is the main source of labour with women often being responsible for managing the animals. The quality of available marketing options often determines production intensity with higher levels of production in areas with good market access. In India slaughter of cattle is banned in nearly all states but meat from buffaloes is marketed to some extent. Dung is used as a fertilizer or as fuel (and sometimes traded especially near urban centres). Draft power is still widely used in the less mechanized eastern regions while tractors have replaced bullocks in most other areas.  Dairy markets in India and Bangladesh are largely informal (estimated over 80% in India), and will likely remain so for decades. This limits the access of producers to formal markets, and while that continues, the high transactions costs in informal markets may pose barriers. Legal and social barriers to slaughter of cattle reduce value of production.Inadequate inputs and services, including genetics, remain a significant barrier, and where it has proved successful, cooperative development has only partially met the challenge.For cross-bred cattle, 67% gain from low of 1200 kg to 2000kg are observed in mixed farms. However, some indigenous breeds can reach 3000kgs on farm. Higher yields are seen on institutional farms.Buffalo are likely to be the target dairy species, due to a) ability to utilize low quality roughage and b) no ban on slaughter raises the value of meat, including for buffalo meat exports (recently as high as $600M from India to SE Asia, etc) • Feed efficiency will be key issue, due to the aggregate constraint of feed resources in a largely Arid/Semi-arid subcontinent -so will need to reduce animal health interactions • Continued high food prices are likely to generate crop supply response, which will increase availability of crop residues • Despite the success of the cooperative Anand model in such areas, that has had limited penetration elsewhere. Alternative approaches need to be considered that a) are more closely aligned to the growing formal private sector, and b) build on the dominant traditional sector.Public-private approaches to supply of genetics and veterinary services will be crucial.Existing technology: Improved genetics: 15%; health: 5%; nutrition: 40% Formal market access: 25% Good delivery of inputs: 30% New technology: Sexed embryos: 30% Dairy production systems in East Africa vary considerably, from extensive systems with indigenous cattle (limited external inputs where animals are mainly grazed either on own land but usually on communal land, with little feed supplementation) in the semi arid areas to more intensified systems in the Highlands where access to markets is also good. In these latter systems, crossbred or exotic cattle are stall-fed with feeds being brought to them, including fodder (grown on-farm or purchased) and supplements (for example purchased concentrates). In between these two extremes, farmers practice semi-intensive systems where animals are grazed only part of the day and/or the year depending on feed availability. Average herd sizes vary from one to five cows in the most intensive systems, up to 10 in the extensive systems.Labour is mainly provided by family members, although intensive dairy is labour intensive and may require hiring external labourers, therefore creating employment opportunities. In extensive systems, milk is mainly consumed by the household, due to low production levels coupled with limited market opportunities. On the other hand, a high percentage of the milk production is sold in intensified systems, and manure is highly valued and used as fertilizer on crops. Growth and Market Opportunities Domestic market: % annual consumption growth rate. 2.8% Import substitution: % imports of domestic prod: 1.7%• East Africa exhibits a strong growth opportunity, due to strong domestic demand for local products and in future potential exports.Imports present little competition in a market that is mostly for fresh milk due to traditional tasks, with which they can only compete with difficulty. • Great regional differences in consumption levels (high of 100kg/capita milk consumption in Kenya, about 1/5 of that in Tanzania), suggests opportunities for regional trade Pro-Poor Potential Millions of poor keeping dairy cattle: 1.1 million Value of dairy production: 4,290 million US$/year Millions of poor in the region under $1US per day: 68 millionThe figure of 1.1 M only includes farmers currently having dairy cattle. In the humid and temperate mixed systems of East Africa, there are about 24 M poor farmers keeping local or beef cattle, and in some area upgrading some of those herds to dairy would be profitable for some of them. As in South Asia, dairy markets in East Africa are largely informal, and will likely remain so for decades. This limits the access of producers to formal markets, and while that continues, the high transactions costs in informal markets may pose barriers.Inadequate inputs and services, including genetics and feed (quality), remain a significant barrier, and where it has proved successful, cooperative development has only partially met the challenge.Potential productivity gains (dairy cattle): For cross-bred cattle, milk production can be multiplied by 3, from low of 644 kg to 2657kg (mixed farms in temperate/highlands).• Because much of the most favourable highland areas and already populated with dairy, additional production may come from dryer areas.To do this sustainably, this will require cross-breeds being produced by farmers in more remote areas producing the calves, which are then sold to farmers in mixed systems. A market and services systems to support this would be required.AI services, particularly the provision of cross-bred semen in appropriate zones, will need to be dramatically improved and sustained.There may be some opportunities to produce a more appropriate crossbred cows for smallholders by using the Brazilian Gir (instead of European breeds), but this would need careful targeting.In the most intensive areas, feeding relies on crop residues and planted forages, while in more extensive areas natural forages are utilized. Strategies for improving feeding will thus be location specific, but will require both improve quality/quantity of roughage and increased access to lowcost and high quality concentrate.Relative Potential Gains from Interventions Existing technology: Improved genetics: 20%; health: 25%; nutrition: 30% Formal market access: 30% Improved delivery of inputs: 40% New technology: Sexed embryos: 30%The region's agroecological zones ranging from the humid coastal zone to the dry Sahelian zone roughly define an increasing gradient of dependence on ruminant livestock for livelihoods. At the tip of this gradient, in the Sahel rangelands of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal, keeping livestock in extensive pastoral systems (about 5 cattle/km 2 ) is the main land use form and main livelihood for millions of people who depend on them for meat, milk, transport, manure, as a store of wealth and source of societal prestige. For the latter reasons, households in the pastoral system use all available household labour to continue to build their herd sizes irrespective of the condition of the animals (50 cattle/hh of 6 is common). In climatically favourable years, pastoralists produce and market excess young bulls but during drought, poorly performing cattle of all sexes and ages are sold. However, some of these young bulls do not head directly to terminal markets and instead provide replacement stock for traction and fattening operations in the adjoining crop-livestock systems of the Savanna zones. In the latter, average households of 11 persons own 2-4 bulls and plant up to 5 ha of farmland to cereal and legumes using both household and hired labour. Availability of crop residues in this system enables farmers to maintain the bulls in very good to excellent body conditions through supplementary stall-feeding within homesteads. Though this practice is primarily aimed at keeping the bulls fit to provide traction, it ultimately not only yields heavier animals for the beef market (when the bulls are retired from traction) but also pools manure for return to farmlands at the beginning of each planting season. Commercial ranching with stall fed beef production is an emerging trend in the Northern Guinea Savanna (NGS) in Nigeria. Increased intensification of crop production will provide new fodder supply. Livestock marketing opportunities are enormous in response to the demand for meat in the urban areas primarily in coastal cities; and this occurs through well-developed although costconstrained cross-border trade in live animals. Income from sale of livestock is controlled by the head of household. Men milk the animals while women market the milk and manage the income mainly to buy food for the household.    improving market supply chains, coordination and market information finishing/fattening may be targeted at peak periods, Eids etc, however, market premium is high and expected to continue milk marketing / supply may provide small added valueLivestock is a key part of southern Africa's agricultural economy. Cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and poultry are the predominant species. The livestock economy is characterized by two largely distinct production systems: large-scale commercial and semi-subsistence farming.The large-scale commercial farming sector comprises large-scale farms under registered title. These are well developed in some parts of the region, particularly in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, to a lesser degree in Botswana and limited in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and the rest of the southern Africa region. In contrast, most livestock production in the communal sector remains semi-subsistence. This sector is mainly characterized by extensive low-input production systems. Chronically poor nutrition and poor husbandry methods result in low reproduction rates, high mortality rates and low off-take. Cattle are valued as much for their outputs -draft power, transport, milk, manure, meat -as for their cash sale value. Goats and sheep are commonly maintained for food (meat and milk) and smaller cash needsto be sold or slaughtered when school fees or medication need to be paid, or for household expenditures.Goats, and to a lesser extent sheep, form the small ruminant herd. Unlike the cattle sector, small ruminants are produced almost entirely in the traditional sector with the exception of Namibia and South Africa where a few commercial flocks exist. Average flock sizes range from 5 -100. Goats are mostly reared on small farms in the drier parts of the country. Within these grazing areas, management is minimal and the natural resources are subject to continuous grazing resulting in a fragile natural resource base and increased degradation. Bush encroachment is widespread, reducing crop/livestock productivity and the carrying capacity of rangeland. Markets and processing for small stock are less developed than for cattle. Goats are mainly slaughtered or sold locally, contributing significantly to local food security either through meat provision or cash from sales. Use of fodder and other inputs is minimal. Southern Africa small ruminant meat (mutton) Growth and Market Opportunities Domestic market: % annual consumption growth rate. The data available from FAO, etc, indicate negative per capita consumption of -3.1 %.Import substitution: % imports of domestic production: 16.1%• Apparently declining per capita consumption rates may reflect economic turmoil in some countries in the region (Zimbabwe) as well as rising prices for small ruminants.Imports remain a relatively large share of regional consumption, suggesting good opportunities for import substitution.Millions of poor keeping small ruminants: estimates 21.2 million in the case of goats, and 7.1 million in case of sheepValue of small ruminant production: $ 132 million annually in case of goats, and $ 262 million annually in the case of sheep.Millions of poor in the region under $1US per day: Some 40 million people in the region live under $1 per day.• There are tens of millions of very poor people in the region, a situation which has deteriorated in recent years due to political/economic turmoil in some countries.Goats are particularly important for the poor, some 21 million of whom are estimated to keep them in the region. While sheep production overall is higher value, sheep are often kept by ranchers, rather than resource-poor farmers.Smallholders dominate the production of goats, with in some cases increasing stratification, with smallholders producing young animals that are sold to close-to-market feedlots • Small ruminants are particularly important for women, who often own small stock rather than large ruminants. Small ruminant ownership allows the building of private assets that are inflationproof, and grow only using locally available feed materials and family labour. Sale of small ruminants can finance children's school fees, emergency family health needs, or investment in small enterprises.In Southern Africa, the significant number of male family members who migrate for wage labour opportunities increases the importance of goats as assets in the hands of women.Smallholder goat production is very competitive compared to large-scale production, due to use of low cost local crop by-products and natural forage, and family labour, as well as public land. Supply Constraints Genetics: Lack of improved indigenous sires, and systems to supply them.Animal health: PPR, and pre-weaning mortality Nutrition: Under-nutrition of breeding femalesIn the case of small ruminants, control of breeding is sometimes problematic. Where that can be achieved, lack of improved indigenous stock is a constraint. The gap relates to both lack of systems to breed improved stock, but also systems to manage the maintenance and delivery of those genetics sustainably.High pre-weaning mortality is a significant problem for herd growth and thus profitability, and PPR (peste de petit ruminant) is a threat.Linked to that pre-weaning mortality is undernutrition of breeding females. In general, inadequate feed for females and young animals is a key barrier, and may be responsible for the large observed productivity gap (see graph above).Main constraints are thus linked to the interaction of poor feeding and heath. Market/Institutional constraints; Inefficient output markets, and poor access to services.Small ruminant producers typically rely on itinerant traders or weekly markets to sell their stock, and may often have poor bargaining power, leading to low prices received. Formal animal health and other services are often minimal to non-existent.Supporting the market and institutional environment Much of the strategies described above focus on the relative technical options for sustained productivity growth in market-oriented smallholder systems.Without these as a central and sustainable element, other development interventions are unlikely to have the desired impact. Some other considerations to the above strategies which should not be overlooked, and may in some parts be under emphasized however, have to do with wider institutional and value considerations. These should be addressed during more in-depth value chain analysis.Value addition, and employment along the value chain: The level of value addition along value chains may differ greatly, and where important can in themselves form part of the rural employment strategy. For example in South Asia milk is traditionally processed in a labor-intensive manner into a wide variety of products by cottage processors, while in East Africa, most milk is consumed in liquid form, although still employing many as traders, vendors.Interventions that build on value addition potential are likely to generate employment beyond the farm.Formal and traditional markets: A related issue is the dominance in the key value chains described above of local markets, where products reach end consumers in raw or traditionally processed form, with little or no implementation of cold chain or modern supply chain processes. These are also the markets that most poor producers and poor consumers depend on. Because these are likely to remain the dominants markets in SSA and S Asia for years to come, development strategies that work with and through these important markets are likely to be able to capture larger market share for foreseeable future. Market strategies focusing solely on formal, mostly urban, markets may be limited by demand for some time to come. Recognizing nevertheless that the trend is toward more formal markets, there are working models of interventions that enable traditional market players to improve product quality and standards to better compete and bridge the gap to formal markets, and possibly link to regional markets. Policies that regulate products and standards may have to be addressed simultaneously.Collective action: Although in each of the value chain strategies above, some form of farmer organization is mentioned, when one examines the livestock development experience critically, the success of collective action has been mixed at best. A few well-known success stories (Operation Flood, etc) tend to overshadow the failures or limited successes that tend to be the pattern in most cases. At the same time, some form of institutional mechanisms that empower smallholder producers to increase their capacity for innovation, access to knowledge and services, and improve their market position, are essential. The message seems to be to continually re-examine existing models and seek new models that are more closely tied to private sector, demanddriven incentives, and balance realistically farmer's own capacity with the need for professional business service providers, while always aiming at increased producer capacity in the long run.The key value chains selected through the analysis are focused on ruminants, with emphasis on those systems where smallholders can compete and benefit. There are good reasons to consider poultry systems in some areas and cases. However, in the opinion of those involved in this analysis, including experts from SSA and South Asia, the prospects for smallholder poultry development are either a) strongly limited by economies of scale which set in once a shift from backyard to more commercial systems is taken, b) limited in income potential if maintained at the backyard level, and so not a meaningful vehicle for rural poverty reduction.Among the strategies, small ruminants may present the strongest areas of opportunity for rural women, who typically are able to own and manage those species, and apparently capture much of the returns.The production and development strategies described above are a combination of a) productivity enhancing interventions, and b) risk mitigating interventions.In the case of dairy, important productivity gains are available, which necessarily need to be complemented by risk mitigation components to sustain them. In the case of beef and small ruminants, risk and loss reduction is central to income generation outcomes, and to overall productivity in the long run.Across all dairy systems: Genetic improvement may be a key intervention and opportunity in dairy systems, compared to other species. This is due to availability of systems for delivery of genetics, and also the manner of close farmer management of breeding. Opportunities exist from tailoring and implementing existing technologies and systems, or new ones from sexed semen, synthetic breeds. Sustainable supply of cross-breed genetics remains a major challenge across countries.For both beef and small ruminant systems, a key area of intervention lies in the interaction of animal disease and nutrition, particularly among breeding females and young animals. This is key to both increasing herd growth through reduced mortality, but also to faster individual animal weight gain through stronger young stock -the two central elements of herd productivity.Recognizing the increasing importance of larger, more specialized and commercial livestock production even in the poorest countries, the analysis identifies several opportunities for linking smallholders to those, both in the context of production of young stock for more specialized systems. These include production of cross-bred dairy heifers in marginal areas in East Africa, and supply of feeder calves across the livestock gradient in West Africa, for feeding operations close to urban demand centres. Capturing these opportunities will require a shift from typical livestock development efforts that simply channel smallholders into the usual supply chain, and instead enable them to serve these specialized niches for which requirements may not be fully understood, or for which markets may not be developed.","tokenCount":"9399"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fd014c75ed5e2cad2e599832930af250","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7f64aa62-646f-4b78-ba27-b6b1e9620d29/retrieve","id":"1655165899"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2fc313f2-8f76-4c91-9908-f6584a89134f","pagecount":"14","content":"In Nicaragua, dairy and beef production is often the most important household income source. Several factors, however, limit the participation of small scale cattle farmers in cattle value chains. The quantity of milk produced by small scale farmers is usually low, characterized by high seasonal fluctuations in availability and prices, with markedly reduced production levels during the dry season, and often of poor quality. Income from beef production is low, with cash income mostly coming from selling steers at weaning age with hardly any value addition.Several factors including the feeding systems being based on low quality feeds, lack of adequate on-farm infrastructure, inappropriate and unhygienic milking practices, low genetic livestock potential, and absence of collective investment in cooling systems on the farm and for transportation, are responsible. Cattle are usually sold or exported as live animals, and only about 40% to 50% of milk production is processed; with most small scale industries focusing on fresh cheese, cream, milk sweets and other dairy products for local consumption. Only the large scale plants produce Ultra Heat Treated (UHT) milk. Moreover, considerable volumes of milk are sold on-farm and consumed raw, particularly by low-income consumers. In addition, links of individual cattle farmers to associations, and ultimately to buyers, are often weak. This limits not only the flow of information on product quality, but also establishment of quality-based incentive systems that benefit both farmers and buyers. Most of the products traded are produced by many medium to low-scale processors and have minimal compliance with food safety standards. From the consumers' angle, access to high-quality, protein-rich food (like dairy products) is often limited for many households in both urban and rural areas. Lastly, livestock production has long been an important cause of natural habitat and biodiversity loss in the region.The principle long term focus of the L&F CGIAR program in Nicaragua is to improve the competitiveness and incomes of small and medium cattle farmers in Nicaragua through creation and strengthening of sustainable dairy and beef value chains, to increase access to high-quality animal source products for poor consumers, and diversify products for national and regional markets.The main anticipated impacts and outcomes are: More specifically, the program will aim at: a) Improving farm/household/production by:  Enhancing uptake of improved technologies including forages (grasses and legumes) adapted to drought and poorly drained soils, pasture management, silvopastoral systems and genetically improved cattle. It is assumed that farmers will implement improved innovations to increase productivity and apply sound resource management, leading to increased milk and beef production per animal. The focus will be on promoting better feeding strategies throughout the year and reducing productivity fluctuations between the wet and dry seasons.  Improve beef and milk quality through better feeding, hygiene, and processing techniques.  Improving income, particularly for women, through higher productivity and enhanced benefits of ecosystem services including carbon credit sales and certification.  Improve farmers' competitiveness in the value chains.  Increasing employment at processing plants and collection/distribution centres. b) Increasing landscape/natural resource integrity through: Promoting better use of soils and ensuring higher biodiversity regeneration.  Promoting high energy use efficiency and technologies leading to lower Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, with a particular focus on methane and nitrous oxide.  Generation of evidence to promote the adoption of best practices for sustainable livestock farming and increase awareness among legislators, donor community, and the general public. c) Improving the processing of dairy products through: Promotion of better application of quality and food safety standards.  Improving relationships between value chain actors. d) Improving the marketing of dairy products through:  Enhancing diversification of production for supply niches and export markets.  Promotion of value addition through payment for ecosystem services including benefiting from carbon credits markets. e) Development of stronger institutions through: Enhancing stronger inter-institutional alliances, Research for Development (R4D) and innovation platforms, knowledge potential, and improved articulation with national and regional policies.  Building of formal linkages amongst different value chain actors. Dairy products are important dietary components for consumers from all social strata.  Increasing per capita income and low per capita milk consumption levels in Nicaragua present great potential to increase consumption of higher quality processed dairy products.  Improving overall performance of the value chain provides a unique opportunity to improve income generation across the value chain, while enhancing product quality for consumers.  Increased focus on exporter certification and enforcement by regional importers (for instance El Salvador and Mexico) offers a good incentive to farmers and processors to improve and uphold quality standards.  The regional market of the Caribbean Basin countries constituting an estimated population of about 150 million consumers is a key driver of the dual purpose cattle value chain development.  High-quality raw milk is the basic input for a large variety of higher value dairy products that can be profitably produced with local identity (for instance cheese).  Improved and well-managed pasture and silvo-pastoral systems are attractive economic and environmental alternatives, especially due to their Carbon accumulation potential and capacity to recover degraded areas.  Payment for ecosystem/environmental services (PES) offer good potential of compensation and rewards from different final users at local, national and global levels.  The private sector is increasingly aware of the potential of measures such as carbon credit purchases and direct interventions in their supply chains.  Capital and knowledge aimed at small producers and industry enterprises to increase competitiveness and to improve productivity and added value will be available.  Compensation schemes based on carbon credits and other ecosystem services have the potential to improve farmer livelihoods. Insufficient resources available to enhance value chains for instance the lack of appropriate credit products, or low farmer accessibility of inputs like improved seed due to high prices. Extreme weather events given that we are focusing on locations where a significant number of the poor are vulnerable to environmental shocks.  Government distortional investments aimed to increase production and improve farms.  Increased supply of high value products that may not be consumed by rural and urban low income earners.  Sustained increase in productivity might be achieved at the expense of natural resource integrity.  Weak enforcement of government policies aimed at sustainable agriculture.  Dysfunctional incentive mechanisms for farmers to adopt best practices.We identify four main pathways to impact for the livestock and fish CGIAR program in the dual purpose cattle value chain (Figures 1-4):1. Strategies to increase production and consumption of quality beef and dairy products. 2. Sustainable access to pasture, forages, seed and genetic materials. The first impact pathway involves increasing production and consumption of quality beef and dairy products which ultimately leads to better nutrition and health status of consumers, particularly poor consumers. Several strategies are envisaged. First, development of innovative approaches to influence enforcement of dairy and beef quality control policies and developing low cost traceability systems, will enhance stricter adherence to quality control regulations and eventually lead to higher quality beef and dairy products supplied to the market. Second, enhancing the development of milk and beef quality schemes and farmers' increased access to technical services will not only enable farmers to access quality control schemes and adhere to quality control regulations but will also lead to increased access technical production and marketing services. Farmers' increased access to production and marketing services will lead to increased productivity, increased production, and to increased supply of high quality dairy and beef products. Besides, as farmers improve their access to technical services, they will increase their nutritional awareness which will further drive significant changes in household nutrition and health status. Last, developing innovative strategies for emergence of sustainable milk and beef collection points will enable more farmers to participate in formal markets and thereby lead to overall increased milk and beef supply in the markets. Key actor in this pathway will include: municipal governments, collection centres, transporters and input suppliers. The second impact pathway entails ensuring farmers' sustainable access to pastures, forages and genetic materials. Its envisaged ultimate outcomes to include increased milk and beef production, increased household income from dual purpose cattle production, and increased household asset ownership. By facilitating the development of innovative forage production and supply strategies, the livestock and fish program will enable farmers and technicians to access information regarding feed ration formulation, especially from locally sourced ingredients, input suppliers and farmers to access improved pasture and forage seeds, which should eventually lead to farmers keeping healthier and more productive animals. Similarly, developing innovative breeding strategies for dual purpose cattle will lead to two major changes in knowledge attitudes and practices. First, input suppliers and farmers will access better and improved genetic material and then famers will acquire better breeding information and knowledge. Both of these changes will become important to farmers' increased access to improved dual purpose breeds which will translate into increased ownership of dairy and beef cattle with high productive potential. The third impact pathway will involve the design of innovative institutional arrangements to improve overall value chain coordination and performance. It is envisaged that increase in milk and beef production, increase in household income from these two products and the overall improvement in Nicaragua beef and dairy sectors will be the ultimate outcomes. However, central to this impact pathway will be the development of sustainable beef and milk marketing arrangements through farmers organizing in groups and traders and services providers operating as legal associations/ organizations. These will emerge from having innovative contractual arrangements between actors, development of innovative marketing models, and existence of innovative models for farmers' increased access to inputs and services. Intermediate results of these arrangements will include service providers getting organized under various multi stakeholder (platforms that will not only include farmer organisations and the private sector, but also government agencies, NGOs, Agricultural research institutes, universities), and producers enjoying better access to inputs and services; producers, traders and processors entering formal business agreements and eventually allowing more farmers to access formal and organized markets; and value chain actors accessing credit services through MFIs and banks linked to these associations. The second route will involve the development of feasible arrangements to increase value chain actors' access to finance and credit services. Once these are fully developed, actor associations/ groups will be linked to them for easy access to services. Lastly, through developing strategies to increase the capacity of stakeholder institutions to lobby for the cattle subsector, stakeholders will actively advocate for government's increased prioritization of the beef and dairy sub-sectors. Enhanced prioritization of these sub-sectors will be an important precursor of creating an enabling environment for increased investment in the sectors.The last pathway focuses on promoting the use of eco-friendly and superior innovations. The pathway ultimately leads to reduced household poverty levels, improved nutrition and health, and increased natural resources integrity. The program will therefore focus on: 1) enhancing the development and adoption of technologies and good practices and 2) enhancing the development of strategies to promote market based incentive mechanisms to manage natural resources. The first major entry point will involve NGOs and private organizations promoting: improved dairy and beef value addition technologies and the use of biogas and farmers colearning production innovations. It is presumed that there will be improved uptake of improved innovations, leading to improved productivity without necessarily compromising the integrity of natural resources, higher production of beef and dairy products and eventually increased income and consumption of dairy and beef products. The second strategy will involve the promotion of and use of carbon credits and other payment for ecosystem services schemes, then to high biodiversity and better status of natural resources. The ultimate outcome will be reduced emissions of Green House Gases (GHG) in the program focal areas. ","tokenCount":"1942"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c99c27b2721b40bd146e2f7790584489","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4450a76d-66bc-4c6a-bd37-ef8c581325f5/content","id":"-149241290"},"keywords":["allopolyploidization","DNA microarray","gene expression","heterosis","hexaploid wheat"],"sieverID":"57f425e9-5711-41bd-a535-7cf2b8e753f9","pagecount":"11","content":"Allopolyploidization is an important evolutionary event in plants, but its genome-wide effects are not fully understood. Common wheat, Triticum aestivum (AABBDD), evolved through amphidiploidization between T. turgidum (AABB) and Aegilops tauschii (DD). Here, global gene expression patterns in the seedlings of a synthetic triploid wheat line (ABD), its chromosome-doubled hexaploid (AABBDD) and stable synthetic hexaploid (AABBDD), and the parental lines T. turgidum (AABB) and Ae. tauschii (DD) were compared using an oligo-DNA microarray to identify metabolic pathways affected by the genome conflict that occurs during allopolyploidization and genome stabilization. Characteristic gene expression patterns of non-additively expressed genes were detected in the newly synthesized triploid and hexaploid, and in the stable synthetic hexaploid. Hierarchical clustering of all differentially expressed and non-additively expressed genes revealed that the gene expression patterns of the triploid (ABD) were similar to those of the maternal parent (AABB), and that expression patterns in successive generations arising from self-pollination became closer to that of the pollen parent (DD). The non-additive gene expression profiles markedly differed between the triploid (ABD) and chromosome-doubled hexaploid (AABBDD), as supported by Gene Ontology (GOSlim) analysis. Four hundred and nineteen nonadditively expressed genes were commonly detected in all three generations. GOSlim analysis indicated that these non-additively expressed genes were predominantly involved in \"biological pathways\". Notably, four of 11 genes related to sugar metabolism displayed elevated expression throughout allopolyploidization. These may be useful candidates for promoting heterosis and adaptation in plants.Allopolyploidization results from the interspecific or intergeneric hybridization and multiplication of more than two sets of genomes, and is a common and critical event in plant evolution (Soltis et al., 2007;Leitch and Leitch, 2008). The widespread occurrence of allopolyploidization in plants suggests that it provides an evolutionary advantage through speciation and environmental adaptation (Wendel, 2000;Doyle et al., 2008;Soltis and Soltis, 2009). Specifically, the compatible merging of diverged genomes leads to functional differentiation of duplicated genes (Blanc and Wolfe, 2004;Buggs et al., 2011) and thereby generates novel gene networks and the formation of new traits, which are stably maintained in the descendants of allopolyploids (Osborn et al., 2003;Chen, 2010;Miller et al., 2012). The \"genome shock\" resulting from the introduction of distinct genomes, and subsequent \"genome tuning\", which is required for the stable maintenance of homoeologous genomes, introduce a broad range of genetic and epigenetic responses, such as chromosome deletions, rearrangements, transposable element activation and epigenetic modifications (Pikaard, 1999;Comai et al., 2000;Wendel, 2000;Ozkan et al., Edited by Koji Murai * Corresponding author. E-mail: yogihara@yokohama-cu.ac.jp 2001; Adams et al., 2003;He et al., 2003;Kashkush et al., 2003;Osborn et al., 2003;Wang et al., 2004;Buggs et al., 2011;Ng et al., 2012;Shi et al., 2012).Allopolyploidization proceeds via two main mechanisms: hybridization of unreduced gametes, and chromosome doubling in somatic cells (Stebbins, 1947;Hegarty et al., 2008). The former process was first reported by Karpechenko (1927), who observed that fertile plants among intergeneric hybrids of Raphanus sativus (2n = 2x = 18) and Brassica oleracea (2n = 2x = 18) were allotetraploid. Chromosome doubling was detected in interspecific hybrids between Primula verticillata (2n = 2x = 18) and P. floribunda (2n = 2x = 18), which spontaneously produced branches that contained tetraploid cells, as is found in P. kewensis (2n = 4x = 36; Newton and Pellew, 1929). Although overall gene expression has been examined in two systems, one involving crossings between autotetraploids for the production of allotetraploids using Arabidopsis (Wang et al., 2006) and the other involving genomic doubling after interspecific hybridization with cotton (Rapp et al., 2009), systematic comparisons of overall gene expression patterns during the process of allohexaploidization have been limited (Hegarty et al., 2006;Chagué et al., 2010;Qi et al., 2012).Common wheat, Triticum aestivum (2n = 6x = 42, genomic constitution AABBDD), originated about 10,000 years ago through two successive allopolyploidization events. The first involved hybridization between the wild relatives Aegilops speltoides (2n = 2x = 14, SS ≑ BB) and T. urartu (2n = 2x = 14, AA), and occurred about 0.5 million years ago. The resultant tetraploid, T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides (2n = 4x = 28, AABB), was domesticated (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccum) and hybridized with wild goat grass, Ae. tauschii ssp. strangulata (2n = 2x = 14, DD), generating T. aestivum (Kihara, 1944;Feuillet et al., 2008). Common wheat is therefore a useful model for studying the process of allopolyploidization leading to the generation of allohexaploids. The use of wheat to study allopolyploidization is also advantageous because hybridization between allotetraploids (AABB) and goat grass (DD) to obtain a synthetic allohexaploid (AABBDD) is relatively simple. Furthermore, a number of synthetic allohexaploid wheat lines that were generated by selfpollination and have been stably maintained for over 50 years are readily available.Several studies have examined genome-wide events in newly formed hexaploid wheat lines. For example, using a 17-K feature microarray, Pumphrey et al. (2009) found that 16.2% of transcripts (134/825) displayed non-additive expression in a newly generated allohexaploid wheat, while Chagué et al. (2010) reported that 7% of transcripts (3,853/55,049) on the Affymetrix GeneChip Wheat Genome array were expressed non-additively in newly formed wheat allohexaploids. Notably, the observed expression patterns were stable in both lines and between generations. Using the Affymetrix GeneChip Wheat Genome array, Akhunova et al. (2010) also documented that 19% of transcripts showed non-additive expression. More recently, Qi et al. (2012) used two nascent allohexaploid wheat lines that shared the same diploid parental genotype to identify genes with altered expression and found that 2.8% to 5.5% of genes represented in the Affymetrix GeneChip Wheat Genome array showed non-additive expression, which could be classified based on the transgenerational heritability and inter-line conservation of expressed genes. Although global gene expression patterns during allopolyploidization in wheat have been studied, only early generations of allohexaploids were analyzed. Furthermore, the allohexaploid lines were generated using cultivated wheat tetraploids with different genotypes as maternal parents (Feuillet et al., 2008), and no studies have examined genome-wide gene expression profiles in hybridized triploids (ABD). In addition, the direct relationship between gene expression changes during the different stages of interspecific hybridization, including genome doubling during allopolyploidization, and those that occur during genome stabilization after successive self-pollinations using the same combination of parents, remain unclear.Here, in an attempt to better understand the genomewide changes in gene expression that occur during allopolyploidization and genome stabilization, we examined the global gene expression patterns in the seedlings of newly formed synthetic triploids and of their chromosome-doubled and stable allohexaploids, which were stably maintained through self-pollination for 13 generations using the same combination of parents. We used a 38K oligo-DNA microarray (Agilent Technologies) to investigate the molecular basis of heterosis for biomass production in the vegetative stage (Tang et al., 2011). Gene expression levels in synthetic polyploids were compared with midparent values (MPVs) averaged from the parental species to determine the non-additively expressed gene expression patterns. Using this approach, we identified several changes in the non-additively expressed gene expression patterns, especially those of genes involved in sugar metabolism, that occur during allopolyploidization and genome stabilization of T. aestivum.Plant materials and growth conditions Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccum (accession no. KU124, AABB) and Ae. tauschii ssp. strangulata (accession no. KU2074, DD) were used to generate allopolyploids. Global gene expression profiles among the newly generated synthetic triploid (ABD-S 0 ) and its doubled hexaploid (AABBDD-S 1 ), stable synthetic hexaploid (accession no. KU-221-13, AABBDD-S 14 ), T. turgidum ssp. dicoccum, and Ae. tauschii were compared (Supplementary Fig. S1). The first generation of the synthetic hexaploid KU-221-13 was produced in 1959 by the late Prof. Tanaka (Kyoto University) by crossing KU124 (AABB) and KU2074 (DD), and was self-pollinated for 13 generations at Kyoto University. Plants of the S 14 generation of KU-221-13 (AABBDD-S 14 ), KU124 (AABB) and KU2074 (DD), which were provided by the National Bioresource Project (NBRP; Laboratory of Crop Evolution, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University), were analyzed in the present study. To duplicate the original allopolyploidization event, we generated new synthetic lines by crossing KU124 (AABB) as the female parent with KU2074 (DD) as the pollen parent to generate the triploid (ABD-S 0 ). Triploid embryos were rescued 2 weeks after pollination and were cultured in petri dishes containing half strength Murashige and Skoog culture medium (Inagaki et al., 1998) in a growth chamber maintained at 20°C with a 12-h light/12-h dark cycle (5000 lux). The S 1 generation of allohexaploid plants (AABBDD-S 1 ) was obtained by the self-pollination of colchicine-treated (0.2% (w/v) in a 2% (v/v) DMSO solution) triploid plants (ABD-S 0 ). All plants were grown in a growth chamber maintained at 22°C and 40% relative humidity, with a 16-h light (6000 lux; 64,560 fc) and 8-h dark cycle. For RNA extraction, triploid seeds without embryo rescue and colchicine treatment were used.Total RNA was extracted in triplicate from two-leaf seedlings using a Plant RNeasy Mini Kit (QIAGEN) according to the manufacturer's method. Extracted RNAs (500 ng) were labeled using an Agilent Low RNA Input Fluorescent Linear Amplification kit (Agilent Technologies) with cyamine 3-cytidine 5C-triphosphate (CTP) for hybridization with a 60-mer oligonucleotide microarray comprising 37,886 probes (Kawaura et al., 2008). Each hybridization treatment was independently performed in three biological replicates. The hybridized microarrays were scanned using a DNA microarray scanner (Agilent Technologies) and signal intensities were detected from the obtained digital images using Feature Extraction software (Agilent Technologies).Fluorescence intensities were analyzed with GeneSpring GX software (v12.6; Agilent Technologies). Raw data sets (raw signal intensity > 1.0 threshold) were transformed to log scale (base 2). Normalization of the signals to the 75th percentile for all arrays and to the median for all probes was performed with GeneSpring. Weakly hybridized probe spots were stringently removed from the analysis using a cut-off value for the raw signal intensity in all microarray slides of < 20%. Low-quality hybridizing probes, which were identified based on their detection P-values determined using GeneSpring GX (v12.6), were also removed. Mid-parent values (MPVs) between T. turgidum (AABB) and Ae. tauschii (DD) were estimated in silico by averaging the expression values across the treatments, with the ratio of T. turgidum and Ae. tauschii data set as 1:1 (Chagué et al., 2010;Pumphrey et al., 2009;Rapp et al., 2009). Similarities in gene expression patterns between lines were estimated using Pearson's correlation coefficient, as described by Eisen et al. (1998). For the comparison of the two parental lines, Welch's t-test (P < 0.01) was applied to detect expression differences between the two lines using GeneSpring GX (v12.6). To control for multiple testing errors, the false discovery rate (FDR) of Benjamini and Hochberg (1995) was employed and controlled the FDR below the level of 0.05. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for determining non-additive gene expression profiles based on the Benjamini and Hochberg multiple testing correction procedure to control the false discovery rate (FDR = 0.05). The hybridization data obtained from the oligo-DNA microarray analyses were deposited in the NCBI Gene expression Omnibus (GSE54398).Gene ontology was analyzed using the original sequences of microarray probes, which were obtained from the NBRP KOMUGI database (http://www.shigen.nig. ac.jp/wheat/komugi/). ORF regions were predicted using getORF (version 1.5, Jemboss Package), and the estimated peptide sequences were assigned to gene ontology categories using Interproscan (5-44.0) with the Pfam database. GO annotations were determined by BLASTx searches (v.2.2.26.) of barley (http://mips.helmholtzmuenchen.de/plant/barley/), rice (TIGR rice mcu v7, http:// rice.plantbiology.msu.edu/), Brachypodium (Gramene, http://www.gramene.org/) and sorghum (Gramene, http:// www.gramene.org/) using threshold E-values of < 1E-50, < 1E-20, < 1E-20 and < 1E-10, respectively. For KEGG pathway analysis, the original sequences of microarray probes were assigned to rice pseudomolecules (TIGR BLASTx, E-value < 1e−20); the obtained IDs were converted to RAP IDs using the RAP-DB ID converter (http:// rapdb.dna.affrc.go.jp/tools/converter), and the genes were mapped to KEGG pathway Oryza sativa japonica (RAPDB) databases.Real-time quantitative RT-PCR For cDNA synthesis, 1 μg total RNA was incubated for 5 min at 65°C with 10 mM Oligo-(dT)20 and dNTPs. Reverse transcription (RT) was then performed with the ReverTra Ace enzyme (Toyobo) for 1 h at 42°C, after which the reaction mixture was heated for 5 min at 96°C to inactivate the enzyme. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed for six randomly selected genes in each hierarchical cluster. cDNA was amplified using 1× SYBR Premix Ex Taq II (Takara) in a 20-μl reaction mixture using the following conditions: denaturation for 10 s at 95°C, followed by 40 cycles of 10 s at 95°C and 30 s at 60°C. The threshold cycle (Ct) of the primary amplification curve was used for calculations.The quantity of each product was normalized to that of the actin gene (Ning et al., 2013). Each qPCR was independently performed for at least two biological replicates.Global gene expression levels of the synthetic polyploid lines (ABD-S 0 , AABBDD-S 1 and AABBDD-S 14 ) as well as their parental lines AABB and DD were analyzed using a 38K-oligonucleotide microarray for common wheat (Kawaura et al., 2008). Two-leaf stages were chosen for RNA extraction to facilitate comparison with data from previous work (Tang et al., 2011). To determine transcriptome divergence in allopolyploids, we introduced MPV as the control: if allopolyploidization has no effect, a given gene in the allopolyploid might be expressed equally to the average of its parents (MPV), and would be defined as an additively expressed gene; on the other hand, a non-additively expressed gene would display a value different from the MPV. Non-additive gene expression for three synthetic polyploid lines, a synthetic triploid (ABD-S 0 ), a synthetic hexaploid (AABBDD-S 1 ) and a stable synthetic hexaploid (AABBDD-S 14 ), was evaluated (Supplementary Fig. S2). The chromosome numbers of ABD-S 0 , AABBDD-S 1 and AABBDD-S 14 were confirmed by observing chromosomes in root tip cells (data not shown). Among the three synthetic polyploids, 3,799 transcripts exhibited non-additive gene expression profiles with levels more than two-fold higher and lower than MPVs. Since each generation of synthetic wheat showed characteristic expression profiles, gene regulation was substantially altered in the interspecific hybrid and subsequent chromosome doubling, and stabilized during successive self-pollination.  To evaluate the overall gene expression patterns in the progenitor and synthetic lines, 20,802 of the 37,886 probes selected by quality control and 3,799 nonadditively expressed genes were clustered using a hierarchical clustering method (Figs. 1 and 2). The overall expression patterns of the detected genes among the three synthetic and progenitor lines are shown in Fig. 1A and  C. Although the gene expression pattern in ABD-S 0 was similar to that of the maternal parent AABB, the pattern in the synthetic line AABBDD-S 1 was closer to that in DD than to that in AABB. Notably, the gene expression pattern of AABBDD-S 14 was relatively close to that of the pollen parent DD (Fig. 1A). The same trends were also observed in the expression patterns of non-additively expressed genes (Fig. 1B).The observed profiles of differential gene expression were supported by the MPVs between the tetraploid (AABB) and diploid (DD) lines (Fig. 2). The MPVs of all expressed genes were closer to the gene expression levels in AABBDD-S 14 than to those in ABD-S 0 and AABBDD-S 1 (Fig. 2A). In contrast, the overall expression levels of non-additively expressed genes in S 0 (ABD) were closer to the MPVs than were those of the hexaploids S 1 and S 14 (Fig. 2B). These data also suggested that the gene expression profile in the triploid line (ABD) initially resembled that in AABB (the maternal parent), but became closer to the MPV during successive pollinations, and that the cluster of non-additively expressed genes also changed after allopolyploidization.Gene expression patterns of non-additively expressed genes were classified into six major groups based on comparisons with the MPV (Fig. 2B). These groups were designated as clusters A to F. The relative expression patterns and MPV of non-additively expressed genes among three generations are shown in Fig. 3. The 821 genes in cluster A were specifically up-regulated in ABD-S 0 . The 943 genes in cluster B showed down-regulation in AABBDD-S 1 . The smallest cluster, C, includes nine genes, which were up-regulated in all three generations; their expression level gradually increased from ABD-S 0 to AABBDD-S 14 . The 1,305 genes belonging to the largest cluster, D, showed down-regulation in ABD-S 0 compared to MPV and up-regulation in the two hexaploids S 1 and S 14 . The expression level of the 40 genes in cluster E gradually increased from ABD-S 0 to AABBDD-S 1 compared to MPV but was similar to MPV in AABBDD-S 14 . The 681 genes in cluster F were up-regulated only in AABBDD-S 1 . Relatively fewer expressed genes in the parental lines tended to be affected. To verify the microarray data, we performed real-time RT-PCR for one randomly selected gene from each of the six clusters (Supplementary Table S1). These six genes showed nonadditive expression in at least one of the allopolyploid generations. Actin was used as a control for quantification. The expression levels of these six genes determined by real-time RT-PCR were consistent with the microarray results of the selected genes (Fig. 3), suggesting the reliability of the microarray data.To gain insight into heritability of the expression over generations, the numbers of non-additively expressed genes identified in the three synthetic generations, ABD-S 0 , AABBDD-S 1 and AABBDD-S 14 , were compared (Fig. 4). Among the 2,276 non-additively expressed genes detected in ABD-S 0 , 1,469 (64.5%) were not found in the other two generations, indicating that the genes were specifically expressed in the first generation. Similarly, 1,444 (67.7%) non-additively expressed genes found in AABBDD-S 1 were generation-specific, whereas only 26 (3.9%) of 668 non-additively expressed genes in AABBDD-S 14 were generation-specific. A total of 419 genes were non-additively expressed in all three synthetic generations. Taken together, these results suggest that for most of the non-additively expressed genes, their differential expression was not sustained throughout successive pollinations.To identify the functional categories of the genes non-additively expressed during the hybridization and genome doubling, genes that were expressed specifically in the ABD-S 0 and AABBDD-S 1 generations were analyzed by the Gene Ontology (GOSlim) classification method. GO annotations of the microarray probes were compared with those of four reference organisms, barley, Brachypodium, sorghum and rice, whose GO data were obtained from the Gramene database (http://www. gramene.org/). The proportion of annotated probes corresponding to biological process and cellular component categories on the wheat microarray was similar to those of Brachypodium, sorghum and rice. Probes corresponding to genes related to molecular function were similarly represented among the wheat microarray and four reference species (Supplementary Fig. S3). The GO annotation analysis suggests that the wheat microarray is representative of the functional categories and relative proportions of genes found in the four reference species. Therefore, we categorized the non-additively expressed genes that were specifically expressed in the ABD-S 0 and AABBDD-S 1 generations within the biological process, cellular component and molecular function categories.The classifications of the non-additively expressed genes in each of the three categories markedly differed between the two generations (Fig. 5). For example, up-regulated genes grouped as \"response to abiotic stimulus\" were the most abundant in the \"biological process\" category in ABD-S 0 , but were the least abundant in AABBDD-S 1 .The \"ribosome\" and \"structural molecule activity\" groups contained the most genes in the cellular component and 5. Gene ontology classification (GOSlim) of non-additively expressed genes that were specifically expressed in S 0 (A) and S 1 (B) generations of the synthetic polyploids. Relative ratio of number of genes belonging to each category is shown against the expected value. Dark-and light-colored bars are down-and up-regulated genes, respectively. molecular function categories, respectively, in ABD-S 0 , but were only minor groups in AABBDD-S 1 . Similar trends were found among the down-regulated genes, although fewer differences in the GO classification patterns between generations were observed (Fig. 5).To characterize non-additively expressed genes that were commonly detected after hybridization between the tetraploid and diploid lines, we performed GOSlim analysis for the genes identified among the three synthetic generations. Approximately 11% (419/3,799) of the non-additively expressed genes were commonly found in all three generations and could be divided into five groups based on their expression patterns over successive generations (Fig. 6A). In the first group, 69.5% (291/419) of the non-additively expressed genes showed up-regulation compared to MPV in all three generations. In the second most abundant group, which comprised 28.2% (118/419) of the genes, down-regulation was observed in the S 0 generation, whereas up-regulated  expression was detected in the two allohexaploid generations. Genes that were consistently down-regulated in all three generations represented a minor fraction (1.9%) of the total genes, while genes with the other two expression patterns only represented 0.2% of all genes (Fig. 6A).We further categorized the non-additively expressed genes found in the two dominant expression profile groups using GOSlim. In the first group, genes categorized as 'metabolic processes' in the GO biological process category, 'intercellular' and 'cell' in the GO cellular component category, and 'kinase activity' in the GO molecular function category were most overrepresented (Fig. 6B). In the second group, genes categorized as 'metabolic processes' and 'regulation of gene expression epigenetic' in the GO biological process category, and 'catalytic activity' in the GO molecular function category, were overrepresented. The genes categorized into the GO cellular component category tended to be enriched compared to the other two categories (Fig. 6B). These data suggest that genes related to metabolism and cellular processes are more highly regulated during allopolyploidization and genome stabilization.Since ploidy levels had effects on growth vigor and starch content in A. thaliana (Miller et al., 2012), genes for starch and sucrose synthesis were surveyed. On the basis of KEGG pathway classification for starch and sucrose metabolism (KEGG: dosa00500), expression patterns of eleven of the 20,802 genes in the microarray related to sugar metabolism were analyzed during allopolyploidization (Fig. 7). Four genes displayed elevated expression levels in all generations of allopolyploidization (ABD-S 0 , AABBDD-S 1 and AABBDD-S 14 ). These four genes encode glycosyltransferase (Os08g0327100, EC:2.4.1.43), βfructofuranosidase (Os02g0106100, EC:3.2.1.26), fructokinase (Os08g0113100, EC:2.7.1.4) and β-glucosidase (Os03g0749300, EC:3.2.1.21). Stimulation of sugar metabolism due to increased expression of these genes may enhance heterosis in allohexaploids.Gene regulation during allohexaploidization in common wheat Drastic changes of gene expression patterns are frequently observed in allopolyploids produced by interspecific hybridization rather than in autopolyploids (Birchler et al., 2003;Wang et al., 2006). We systematically examined the genome-wide gene expression profiles in seedlings during the allohexaploidization of wheat. We are interested in the molecular basis of heterosis in the vegetative growth stage to increase biomass production. Therefore, we have focused on the transcriptomics in the seedlings of allopolyploid wheats. The two parental lines of the synthesized allohexaploids (AABB and DD) showed markedly diverged gene expres-sion profiles, as in the reported case of wheat (Chagué et al., 2010;Qi et al., 2012) and other plant species such as cotton (Rapp et al., 2009) and Arabidopsis (Wang et al., 2006). In addition, the gene expression profiles of the triploid (ABD-S 0 ), its nascent hexaploid (AABBDD-S 1 ) and the synthetic line (AABBDD-S 14 ) showed a number of notable differences from those of the parental lines and MPVs. Relatively higher numbers of non-additively expressed genes, which deviated from the MPV, were detected in the S 0 (2,276; 10.9%) and S 1 generations (2,134; 10.3%), whereas markedly fewer such genes were found in the S 14 generation (668; 3.2%) as shown in Supplementary Fig. S2. The observed gene expression profiles strongly suggest that genome shock (McClintock, 1984) occurred during the early stages of allopolyploid hybridization and chromosome doubling (Ozkan et al., 2001), and that subsequent genome stabilization events reduced non-additively expressed gene expression during successive self-pollinations (Chagué et al., 2010;Qi et al., 2012). Although numerous non-additively expressed genes were detected in the S 0 generation (ABD-S 0 ), the overall gene expression in this line was closely correlated with that of the maternal parent (AABB; Fig. 1). Our analyses also indicated that the effects of the pollen parent (DD) gradually increased during successive generations, as the gene expression patterns of the stabilized synthetic hexaploid (AABBDD-S 14 ) were relatively close to the MPV (Fig. 2A). These findings suggest that gene regulation system(s) that specifically suppressed expression of the pollen parent genome were active in the triploid line (ABD-S 0 ), and that the suppression of these genes was relieved and/or weakened in the chromosomedoubled hexaploid line (AABBDD-S 14 ). Transcriptome shock in the triploid was also reported in flower buds of Senecio (Hegarty et al., 2006), in which amelioration occurred after genome duplication rather than drastic changes of overall gene expression after amphidiploidization. This discrepancy between transcriptomes in two newly-generated hexaploids might be due to the tissues examined (young seedling vs. flower bud) and/or genome constitutions (Hegarty et al., 2006(Hegarty et al., , 2008)). Preferential suppression of either genome usually takes place in interspecific hybrids and their amphidiploids (Wang et al., 2006;Flagel et al., 2008). Although sudden reunification of divergent genomes may induce genome instability (Adams et al., 2003;Wang et al., 2004;Doyle et al., 2008;Buggs et al., 2011), hybrid-or allopolyploidy-induced incompatibilities may be \"settled\" by gene expression modulation through chromatin modifications (Osborn et al., 2003;Chen et al., 2004;Ha et al., 2011), transcription factors (Barbash et al., 2003;Shi et al., 2012) and/or RNA interference in the selfing progeny (Wang et al., 2006;Ng et al., 2012). Our comparison of the genome-wide gene expression patterns between a synthetic triploid line and its genome-doubled allohexaploid and stable hexaploid lines has revealed changes arising from hybridization, genome doubling and genome stabilization during allopolyploidization. Since gene expression profiles in hybrid wheats are still unclear, further investigations are needed to clarify the mechanism(s) for gene regulation of allohexaploid wheat.Shuffling of gene expression patterns in newly synthesized hexaploid wheat Approximately two-thirds (> 60%) of the non-additively expressed genes detected in the triploid (ABD-S 0 ) and its nascent hexaploid (AABBDD-S 1 ) were generation-specific (Fig. 4), indicating that the regulation and expression of non-additively expressed genes markedly differ between the two lines. The results of the GO classification analysis of non-additively expressed genes in each generation support this speculation (Fig. 5). Among up-regulated genes, those related to stress responses, carbohydrate metabolic processes and plant structure were the most abundant annotated during the hybridization process (ABD-S 0 ), but their abundance diminished after chromosome doubling (AABBDD-S 1 ). Similar changes in the expression profile were observed for down-regulated genes. These patterns of genome regulation in allohexaploids, which have not yet been reported in wheat, support the idea that interspecific hybridization leads to \"genome shock\" when the genomes of different lines are introduced, and that chromosome doubling induces \"genome tuning\", which affects genome regulation among homoeologous genomes.The comparison of non-additively expressed genes among the three generations of the synthetic triploid (ABD-S 0 ), nascent hexaploid (AABBDD-S 1 ) and stable hexaploid lines (AABBDD-S 14 ) revealed that 419 genes were commonly expressed. The 419 genes represented 18.4%, 18.7% and 67.7% of the differentially expressed genes in each generation, respectively, and approximately 70% of the genes were up-regulated in all three generations (Fig. 6). Nearly all of the remaining genes (approximately 28%) were also up-regulated in a later generation (hexaploid stage; Fig. 6A). The proportion of common non-additively expressed genes between two hexaploid generations was slightly lower than that reported in synthetic wheat allohexaploids (Chagué et al., 2010), but were equivalent to those of Qi et al. (2012). It should be emphasized that our data were used to identify non-additively expressed genes that were expressed throughout three generations: an interspecific hybrid (ABD-S 0 ), its chromosome-doubled derivative (AABBDD-S 1 ) and a stable allohexaploid (AABBDD-S 14 ). These genes may be good candidates for promoting hybrid vigor (Birchler et al., 2003;Miller et al., 2012) and improving fitness and selective adaptations (Wang et al., 2004(Wang et al., , 2006;;Doyle et al., 2008). GO analysis of these genes (Fig. 6) indicates that although those in the 'metabolism' and 'cellular process' categories tended to be overrepresented, the candidate genes are dispersed among diverse GO categories and play various roles in allohexaploid wheat. Furthermore, gene expression profiles related to sugar metabolism were surveyed, based on the KEGG pathway classification. Four of eleven genes that regulate the sugar metabolism were up-regulated in all three generations examined, ABD-S 0 , AABBDD-S 1 and AABBDD-S 14 (Fig. 7). Increased sugar and/or starch content due to ploidy and hybridity effects has been correlated with heterosis (Korn et al., 2008;Miller et al., 2012). Based on these studies, we suggest that a sugar-related mechanism is a candidate pathway to give rise to heterosis in allopolyploid wheat (Fig. 7). Since several more underlying mechanisms, such as cis-trans interactions (Tirosh et al., 2009;Ng et al., 2011), epigenetic regulation (Madlung et al., 2002;Ni et al., 2009;Shen et al., 2012), transposable elements (Kashkush et al., 2003;Kraitshtein et al., 2010;Yaakov and Kashkush, 2011;Zhao et al., 2011) and small RNAs (Ha et al., 2009;Kenan-Eichler et al., 2011), seem to control allopolyploidy-regulated gene expression, further studies, especially on the mechanisms of up-regulation of genes for sucrose metabolism, are needed to determine the key roles and functions of the identified candidate genes in relation to increasing hybrid vigor and adaptation in wheat (Ng et al., 2012).","tokenCount":"4833"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"862e8c8d41ec4c9941837a1de6f2485e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/07bbcd72-0225-4db7-8276-c4245fb3323d/retrieve","id":"1035640336"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31ebaac5-8267-4a62-ac72-31096b7755c6","pagecount":"21","content":"Objective. T o promote an active participation of CGIAR Centers in rur<: development processes at different ecoregions in Tropical Latín America (TLA)Ouputs. CGIAR Centers improve their support to local and national organizations operating in rural areas of different ecoregions to implement research and development. CGIAR centers, rural development organizations and national networks actively exchange methods products and experiences, and implement join research activities on ecoregional issues. Rural development organizations working in regions different than TLA benefit from the experiences and expertise developed in TLA Gains. A regional Network (The Ecoregional Network) linking organizations and people in Latín America related with conservation and rural development, serving as a mechanism to exchange information as a forum to analyze issues of common interest and as a tool to implement joint work among countries. Monitoring and evaluation approach and methods available to make assessments in different fields (organization, projects, sustainability). Joint initiatives on natural resources and sustainable development monitoring under implementation with partner organizations.Routine operation of the Eco regional Network. lnstitutional assessment tools tested and validated. Regional workshops to share experiences and extract lessons continued, as well as the publication of the workshop findings.2000 Routine operation of the Ecoregional Network. Project monitoring and evaluation training . Case studies on n~tural resources and sustainable development monitoring published. Development and validation of institutional assessment tools started. Organization of a regional workshop to share experiences and extract lessons on innovative funding mechanism for rural development processes. Publication of workshop findings.       • Ecoregional Network operational and active• Collaboration with at least 3 ecoregional consortia• Partnerships developed in at least 3 strategic ecoregional issues*• Reports from the • Participation in other planning, review and evaluation activities -*Ecoregional issues: Relevant issues for every ecoregion. These issues are identified annually by the Programme and added to this list. To avoid dispersion the list of ecoregional issues will not exceed 5 issues. For 2000, the list of ecoregional issues •includes:• analysis and synthesis of landscape and ecoregional units • project and impact assessment • sustainable use of biological diversity • stakeholder-based approaches to resource management at the watershed (local) scale • upscaling processes PREGUNTAS:Who will lead the upscaling process? Ecoregional? 1 '• The network has over 2550 members and organizations in Latín America and sorne European countries that receive and exchange information related with the management natural resources and rural development. About 60 networks have been identified that receive and distribute REDECO information. The work of the Net is combined with a Web page, where all information arriving from the different members and organizations is recorded. The page constitutes a highly useful tool for the dissemination of information to our different members and users.• Preparation of the Memories (PDF) Workshop for exchange and lessons learned of initiatives of rural development and the management of natural resources led by communities in Latín America (Cali, Colombia, February 2000). The Ecoregional Network of Tropical Latin AmericaThe Ecoregional Programme aims to (1) contribute to the fluid diffusion of CIAT investigative products to intermediate and end users, and (2) channel the received feedback from these to the Centre. In other words, the Programme is part of the interface between CIAT and its partners and beneficiaries.The Programme works with an ecoregional approach, that is, subdividing tropical America into a number of relatively homogeneous regions in biophysical terms.Thus the Programme concentrates on deterrnined topics, to find answers on the thematic specificity of the investigation and of many externa! organisations. Greater emphasis is placed on those areas that are of common interest to different ecoregions.Networking is a fundamental tool for the Programme, which already collaborates with various networks. However, no network existed containing those with whom the Program needs to interact. Thus the Programme proposed structuring a net specifically oriented towards that sector: the Ecoregional Network.The main aim is to serve as an interface between CIAT and its non-scientific audience (development projects and related organisations). Another aim is to serve all types of organisations of tropical Ame rica that carry out projects of sustainable rural development (such as integration of conservation and development). The Network will afford these projects an effective mechanism to:• Diffuse and exchange information of general interest,• Exchange experiences,• Diffuse resulting investigative information of the specialised centres (national and international) of the region , • Support the work of these centres starting with the demands that emerge from fieldwork, and • Analyse and debate conceptual and operative questions that are important for their work.These aims are based on the hypothesis that the operation of effective mechanisms of the types mentioned will give the organizations and projects access to a group of experiences, lessons, tools and concepts that will help them improve their performance and increase their impact on rural development.Membership is extended to include:• Organizations carrying out projects and activities of sustainable rural development (governmental, non-governmental organisations, grass-roots organisatíons, internationals, etc.), • Projects in the field of sustainable rural development in tropical America, emphasising • both conservation and development, • Diffusion/extension structures of the national organisations of agricultura! investigation and of conservation and use of natural resources, and • Diffusion/extension structures of the lnternational Centres of agricultura! investigatíon and natural resources that are active in the region .The Network seeks to integrate the organisations and people linked in sorne way to the sustainable development of Latín America.To date, the Network has 2550 receivers of electronic mail distributed throughout Latín America (about 90%) and sorne beyond (10%).Additionally, 60 networks have been identified that redistribute the messages of the Ecoregional Network.Work is based on three mechanisms that the Ecoregional Programme coordinates:1) Diffusion and exchange by electronic mail, 2) A site with deposited information accessible through Internet (Website), and 3) Working documents.The CIAT Ecoregional Program facilitates this exchange, which consists of regular message sending by electronic mail with information on:• Useful products for development: methodologies, publications, lessons learned, experiences, etc. • Events: courses, conferences, congresses, workshops, etc.• Diffusion of Projects' information, financing opportunities, vacancies, etc.• Applications for information. • Other.The Website is http://www.redeco/org.The site works as a deposit of technical information (methods, alternatives, tools, case studies, work documents, etc.) that can be and is updated and is important for the Net audience. This information is generated by the members/users of the Net but above all by CIAT projects.These are a collection of technical and conceptual documents related with the activities in the field of rural development (methodologies, case studies, lessons leamed, new alternatives, technological proposals, etc.). These documents do not usually qualify for scientific publications but are important for the good performance of projects. Publications are kept in electronic format at net site ftp://gis.ciat.cgiar.org/redecoDescriptive mechanisms are organised by ecoregion and theme using work groups within the Ecoregional Network, in arder to improve the compatibility of the work.At the moment, Thematic and Geographical Groups exist:Thematic:• Monitoring and Evaluation • Humid and Coastal Zones • Agroforestry • Protected Areas Geographical:• Hillsides Honduras • Hillsides Nicaragua • Hillsides Colombia 6.Activities 2000• An Ecoregional Directory has been elaborated-the Directory of Members of the Net. At the moment it contains complete information of about 560 people in the Region (name, position, institution, postal box and physical address, telephone and fax, electronic address and area of interest or of work).• List of members by country in Access database. This list includes all members inscribed in the Ecoregional Network. At present there are 2550 members for the majority of whom we have information on country, institution, and electronic mail.• Exchange by electronic mail is maintained with the 2550 members/users of the Net. A daily message is sent.• The Website of the Ecoregional Net was designed and launched. This site is updated weekly. http://www.redeco.org• Publication (PDF) proceedings of the Workshop of Exchange of Experiences and Lessons Learned lnitiatives of Rural Development Led by Communities in Latín America. This is available on the REDECO home page < http://www.redeco.org >• Publication (PDF) \"Finding the Way\" -a practica! guide for organizing and executing autoevaluation processes of projects centered in sustainability. lt is available on the REDECO Web page at < http://www.redeco.org >","tokenCount":"1331"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f6a209b9a167b905b02f216bf0b394c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/709c91f4-789c-4e31-9bc9-1ad3988a4c10/content","id":"-710857884"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4ca00ccd-e974-4abf-8b9d-e0beb3807b17","pagecount":"26","content":"La practica de sembrar variedades, resumen lfneas o hlbridos resistentes al ataque de insectos y su subsecuente efectividad en la reducci6n de las poblaciones de i:Jlagas y las correspondientes perdidas de cosecha, esta bien documentada para varios cultivos agrlcolas y especies insectiles.El desarrollo de muchas de estas variedades resistentes ha sido el resultado de o ha sido facilitado por ( 1 ) muchos alias de estudio de las plagas insectiles, (2) el desarrollo de tecnicas para criar los insectos masivamente, infestar artificialmente la especie cultivada y seleccionar el germoplasma de la especie (ode sus especies silvestres afines) para resistencia y (3) la aplicaci6n exitosa de los metodos apropiados de mejoramiento genetico para incrementar la caracterlstica de resistencia, a traves de ciclos sucesivos o generaciones de mejoramiento (Guthrie, 1974(Guthrie, , 1980)).Los componentes basicos necesarios para identificar o desarrollar' • germoplasma con resistencia o niveles mas altos de resistencia que las variedades cultivadas actualmente utilizadas por los agricultores/productores incluyen:( 1) Una colonia de la especie insectil que exhibe el vigor y la vitalidad de la poblaci6n perjudicial dentro del area geografica que se encuentra afectada.(2) La capacidad para criar masivamente la especie en forma eficiente, incluyendo la instalaci6n para la crianza masiva, personal adiestrado, dietas naturales, ''merldicas''(mezcla de ingredientes naturales y sinteticos) o definidas y los procedimientos de crianza y envases.(3) Recursos germoplasmicos que son representativos de la variabilidad genetica dentro del cultivo, especies estrechamente relacionadas o ambas cosas.(4) Metodos para una infestaci6n artificial uniforme.(5) Metodos para evaluar el dal'\\o resultante o la ausencia de dal'\\o en las plantas sujetas a una infesta-ci6n deliberada (escalas de valora-ci6n para determinar clases o categorras de resistencia o susceptibilidad).(6) Selecci6n para determinar si existen niveles adecuados de resisten-Cia dentro de tipos agron6micos deseables (equlvalentes o mejores que las variedades actualmente cultivadas) y un esquema efectivo de selecci6n y mejoramiento genetir.o, establecido para mejorar ya sea los niveles de resistencia o las caracterfsticas agron6micas de los materiales \"mejorados\".Este boletfn presenta las tecnicas de-introducci6nsarrolladas en el CIMMYT y empleadas durante las ultimas seis anos para la crianza efectiva en escala masiva y la infesta-ci6n eficiente con tres taladradores del tallo del mafz: Diatraea saccharalis Fabricius, taladrador de la cana de azucar (TCA), D. grandiose/la Dyar, el taladrador sudoccidental de mafz (TSOM) y D. lineolata Walker, el taladrador neotropical del mafz (TNM), para evaluar y mejorar la resistancia de las plantas hospedantes en mafz y en sorgo. El complejo Diatraea sp. es el grupo mas importante de taladradores del tallo que atacan al mafz, al sorgo y a la cana de azucar en Mexico, AmericaCentral y Sudamerica. Algunas de la tecnicas descritas han sido adoptadas par en-tom6logos que trabajan con otras espe-Figura 1. Estados del ciclo de vida de DiatrBBa saccharalis Fabricius. cies de cultivos y de insectos dentro de iniciativas de selecci6n y mejoramiento genetico en otras partes del mundo. Hay otras tecnicas que muestran ser prometedoras para el aumento de la eficiencia de la crianza masiva e infestaci6n.Estas tecnicas incluyen el establecimiento de la colonia de insectos y la provi-si6n de las requerimientos basicos para una eficiente crianza masiva. Estos ultimas se centran en la instalaci6n donde se haga la crianza, dietas, cajas y procedimientos para las varios estados del ciclo de vida ilustrados en las Figuras 1 a 3.Se presenta un metodo para la infesta-ci6n uniforme y eficiente en el campo, junta con una descripci6n de las escalas de valoraci6n usadas para evaluar el dano resultante y una ayuda en la identificaci6n de genotipos resistentes.Para establecer y mantener colonias saludables y vigorosas del taladrador del tallo del marz Diatraea sp., se siguen las normas establecidas y recomendadas por entom61ogos que han desarrollado marces resistentes a taladradores del tallo (Davis, 1976; Guthrie et al., 1982), que tambien han sido probadas en experiencias bajo las condiciones del CIMMYT.El mantenimiento de la colonia puede ser logrado mediante el reemplazo completo y peri6dico de la colonia, seleccionando para aguante de campo mediante la sujeci6n de los insectos a una genera-ci6n en plantas cada cinco o seis generaciones o cruzando adultos de la colonia de laboratorio con adultos silvestres (Guthrie   y Carter, 1972; Guthrie et al., 1982). Las colonias y taladradores del CIMMYT son mantenidas en una condici6n vigorosa mediante el uso de uno o mlls de estos procedimientos aLmenos cada 1 0 generaciones. lnstalaci6n para la crianza. La instala-ci6n que se utiliza en el CIMMYT para la crianza es una estructura poco costosa y simple, que satisface los requerimientos bllsicos para la crianza de insectos. Tiene cuartos separados para infestar las dietas, crianza de las larvas, emergencia de los adultos, puesta de los huevos e incuba-ci6n, en los cuales se controlan la temper atu r a, la humedad relativa y el fotoperfodo. Tambien hay llreas para la preparaci6n de dietas, lavado de los utensillos y almacenamiento de equipo y provisiones. Ademlls, hay refrigeradores y congeladores grandes para almacenar los ingredientes de las dietas y un pequeno taller para hacer, modificar y mantener el equipo de crianza necesario.La dieta. Singh (1977) enumera ocho dietas que han sido usadas con exito para criar taladradores de Diatraea sp.: dos para D. grandiose/la y seis para D. saccharalis. Davis ( 1976) da una dieta que ha sido usada exitosamente para la crianza masiva del TSOM durante mas de 1 5 anos. De • hecho, esta dieta fue la base de las dietas comerciales para el TSOM que actualmente se pueden adquirir de Bioserv, Inc.Para criar las especies de Diatraea en el CIMMYT, se usan dos dietas (vease Pagina 19). Baja las condiciones de nuestra planta fisica para la crianza, estas han da-Diatraea lineo/ata do mas alta producci6n de insectos que las dietas comerciales disponibles u otras Figurll 2. Estados del ciclo de vida de Diatra.a tineolata Walker. publicadas en la literatura. Las diferencias basicas entre nuestras dietas y otras son ( 1) que nosotros tenemos que usar mas inhibidores microbianos para mantener la dieta en buenas condiciones par la dura-ci6n del ciclo larval y (2) que nosotros agregamos polvo de panojas de maiz esterilizado (panojas verdes recolectadas antes de la dehisencia del polen, secas, molidas y esterilizadas en autoclave). La adi-ci6n del polvo de panoja acrecienta el establecimiento larval, acorta el periodo larval y trae coma resultado pupas mas grandes y pesadas. Guthrie et al. ( 1969) obtuvieron respuestas similares con el uso de polen coma alimento cuando estudiaban la importancia del polen del maiz en la sobrevivencia de Ostrinia nubilalis.  (Guthrie et al., 1965;Reed et al., 1972).Figura 4 . Un hierro marcador caliente se usa para perforar la tapa ciel recipiente para crianza . Un cautfn se usa para derretir la malla dentro de las tapas.Diatraea grandiosella-SWCB Figura 5 . Envases para criar TNM y TSOM vistos de arriba.T ados estos envases pueden usarse eficientemente en un programa de crianza. El tipo de envase esta determinado par el tamano de la operaci6n de crianza, el costo y la cantidad de ma no de obra disponible y el costo, la disponibilidad, la posibilidad de reusarlos y la durabilidad de un envase dado, asf coma par la especie de taladrador que se esta criando . Par ejemplo, la experiencia ha demostrado que las copas plasticas para jalea no son apropiadas para la crianza de Diatraea sp. en Mexico yen Surinam (Van Dinther y Gossens, 1970) y Ostrinia furnacalis en Filipinas, porque las larvas perforan las copas y escapan .Los envases usados comunmente para la crianza de taladradores del tallo del mafz son platos circulares de plastico con tapas bien ajustadas, con dimensiones generalmente de 1 5 a 30 cm de diametro y 7 a 10 cm de profundidad (Guthrie et al., 1965;Reed et al., 1972) . Usualmente se perfora la tapa y se le acomoda un cedazo fino de bronce de 60 mallas o menos (Reed et al., 1972). En el CIMMYT hemos encontrado que la manera mejor y mas facil de pegar el cedacito es perforar la tapa con un hierro caliente (Figura 4). Despues, usando un cautfn se funde el cedazo con el plastico derretido de la tapa, lo que provee un sello permanente . El area superficial de la secci6n con cedazo debe fijarse de acuerdo con la especie que se este criando y las condiciones de crianza (cantidad de dieta par recipiente, temperatura y humedad relativa mantenidas en las cuartos de crianza). Para larvas de Diatraea grandiose/la, que tienden a entrar en letargo si la dieta se reseca mucho, nosotros usamos tapas con 64 cm2 de cedazo. Para D. sacharallis, que tienden a entrar en letargo si la dieta se reseca mucho, nosotros usamos tapas con 64 cm2 de cedazo. Para D. sacharallis, el letargo no es un problema, pero sf lo es el crecimiento de moho en la dieta; par lo tanto es deseable un ambiente menos humedo dentro de la caia y nosotros usamos tapas con 1 21 cm2 de cedazo. En las Figuras 5 y 6 se ilustran recipientes para crianza con larvas.Las cajas y las tapas son desinfectadas lavandolas en una soluci6n Mikro-Quat (4 70 ppm i. a. de desinfestante cuaternario) y sometiendolas enseguida a una ex-posici6n por 1 0 minutos a luz ultravioleta antes de echar la dieta fresca en ella.Estados Adultos. Los adultos son transferidos diariamente de las jaulas para la emergencia (Figura 7) a jaulas para la puesta de huevos (Figura 6). Estas consisten de cilindros de malla de alambre (malla No. 5 para TSOM, malla No. 4 para TCA que pone masas mas grandes de huevos) cuyas paredes se cubren con un entubado de balsa de plastico de 8 milesimas de pulgada de grueso, coma substrata para la puesta de huevos. La jaula se coloca sabre una lamina de plastico con perforaciones de 1 mm , que cubre una almohadilla de al-god6n mojada con agua de la llave. Los adultos pueden tomar el agua a traves de las perforaciones, pero no pueden depositar los huevos a traves de ellas ni en la almohadilla de algod6n humedecida. Las especies de Diatraea tienen una tendencia marcada a depositar los huevos de manera intensa en la almohadilla de algod6n; si no se evita que lo hagan tales masas de huevos se desperdician y son diffciles de remover y utilizar. Un cedazo de 20 a 30 mallas podrfa cumpliar la misma funci6n y volver a ser utilizado si se hiciera de un metal o una fibra inoxidable .La almohadilla de algod6n tambien sirve para mantener una humedad relativa alta dentro de la jaula de puesta de huevos. Esto parece ser crftico para la maxima puesta de huevos con las especies de Diatraea, particularmente con el TCA. Para la mejor puesta de huevos las condiciones a mantener dentro de los cuartos para puesta de huevos son: 95% o mas de humedad relativa y temperaturas fluctuantes (controladas por relojes registradores) de 25 y 20 ° C (dfa y noche) para el TCA y el TNM y 28 y 23°C para el TSOM. En Mexico las procedimientos de crianza y manejo de la colonia Figure 6 . Envases usados para criar el taladrador de la cana de azucar, vistas de arriba .., .\\ I Flgur11 7. Adultos de TSOM en una jaulii para emergencia.Figure 8 . Jaula para puesta de huevos con la producci6n de masas de huevos de un dfa.interrupciones frecuentes en el servicio electrico, no permiten mantener fotoperfodos regulares constantes . Nuestros estudios han indicado que la puesta total de huevos no es afectada por el fotoperfodo de manera que las luces se apagan en los cuartos para puesta de huevos, cuando no hay nadie trabajando en ellos.Las jaulas y el substrato para la puesta de huevos, se escogieron porque son simples, baratos y faciles de construir y de cambiar. El entubado de plastico se compra en grandes rollos para acomodar en tres tamanos basicos de jaulas: 35 x 90, 25 x 90 y 15 x 40 cm. Del rollo se cortan simplemente secciones del largo apropiado a la altura de la jaula. Estas se deslizan sobre los cilindros de malla de alambre, se dobla y se mantiene apretada contra la malla con unos cuantos pedazos de cinta adhesiva. Los adultos cuelgan de la malla de alambare y depositan los huevos en el plastico a traves de los espacios en la malla. El numero de adultos colocados en una jaula se calcula con base en 1 mariposa por 1 0 cm2 de area superficial. Esto permite espacio suficiente para que las mariposas hembra depositen sus huevos con un mfmino de interferencia por parte de otras.Las jaulas son cambiadas diariamente (Figura 10) removiendo el cilindro de plastico cargado de huevos y reemplazandolo por uno nuevo. Si las luces se encienden unos 1 5 a 30 minutos antes de entrar al cuarto de puesta de huevos, las mariposas se calman y se convierten en inactivas. Esto ayuda a minimizar los escapes de adultos mientras se cambian las jaulas.Una jaula para puesta de huevos alternativa y una tecnica para el manejo de adultos del TSOM han sido desarrolladas recientemente por Davis (1982). Sus ventajas son menos manipuleo de adultos y una mayor facilidad en la remoci6n de la lamina de puesta de huevos. Estados de Huevo. Los cilindros de plastico cargados de huevos, se abren longitudinalmente para formar una lamina y luego se les recorta en tiras de cerca de 1 0 cm de ancho. Las masas de huevos son separadas del substrata plastico, pasandolas mediante un movimiento de adelante atras sabre una plancha de metal con un borde semi-afilado (Figura 11 ). Es esencial que las masas de huevos esten en la superficie externa de la tira de plastico o seran aplastadas en lugar de hacerlas saltar. La lamina de metal se manta sabre un marco rodeado de un recipiente de plexiglas que dirige las masas de huevos a un recipiente recolector abajo. Este procedimiento es util s61amente si las infestaciones van a ser hechas con larvas recien emergidas. La remoci6n de las masas de huevos no es esencial, ya que las larvas emergeran de las masas de huevos que no son removidas del substrata (Davis, 1982). Sin embargo, ofrece las siguientes ventajas: a) No se necesita comprar un substrata para la puesta de huevos, especialmente procesado; la mayorfa de los programas de crianza que usan papel encerado, compran papel kraft decolorado encerado humedo 30/45 (Guthrie et al., 1965;Davis, 1982). Las razones para el uso de papel encerado especialmente procesado, fueron para perforar discos con masas de huevos cuando las infestaciones solfan ser estandar y para una mejor emergencia de larvas de las masas de huevos. En Mexico hemos observado una reducci6n en la emergencia de larvas de las masas de huevos, cuando se us6 papel encerado comercial coma substrata para la puesta de huevos. Esto dej6 de ser un problema desde que cambiamos a plastico. b) Se obtienen masas de huevos puras, las cuales facilitan la incubaci6n y el manejo de las larvas recien emergidas, en la preparaci6n de la mezcla larval para las infestaciones de campo. La remoci6n de las masas de huevos de un substrata para la puesta de huevos, pesado y voluminoso, Flguni 9. El aparato de rodillo facilita cortar los tubas para las cajas de posture de huevos de taladrador.Flguni 10. Las jaulas se cambian diariamente, removiendo el cilindro de pl&stico repleto de huevos y reemplaz6ndolo por uno nuevo. Figura 11. Remoci6n de las masas de huevos del suostrato pl6stico. Las bandas se jalan hacia atr6s y hacia arriba contra el borde semi-afilado. Flgur• 12. Las masas de huevos son colocadas en un recipiente de pl6stico para su incubaci6n hasta el estado de cabeza negra.aumenta en importancia con la distancia entre el sitio de crianza y el lugar de la in-festaci6n y el aumento en tamaf\\o de la operaci6n de crianza . Cientos de miles de huevos de insectos pueden ser transportados o enviados por correo en una cajita u otro envase muy pequef\\o.cl En comparaci6n con perforar discos o recortar las masas de huevos de las laminas de puesta de los huevos , hacerlos desprenderse del plastico es cuando menos 10 veces mas rapido y facil.Las masas de huevos son colocadas en recipientes de plastico (Figura 1 2) e incubados hasta el estado de cabeza negra. En este estado pueden se almacenadas en un refrigerador (a 10° C) hasta por cinco dfas sin que se afecte la emergencia o bien se les puede dejar que emerjan para infestar dietas o plantas en el campo .Larvas. En el CIMMYT, larvas recien emergidas de las especies de Diatraea se usan para infestar la dieta para mantener o aumentar la colonia de laboratorio . Usando una brocha de pelo de camello, las larvas se transfieren de los recipientes donde han emergido. Aproximadamente unas 250 se colocan en cada recipiente, que contiene cerca de 1.3 kg de dieta .Davis y Oswalt (1979) usan con el TSOM una mezcla larval de granulos de olote de mafz repartida por una maquina, para infestar copas de jalea llenas de dieta, antes de taparlas . Nosotros tambien usamos una mezcla de larvas y granulos para infestar dietas con gusano de la mazorca del mafz o elotero (Mihm, 1982) y gusano cogollero (Mihm, 1983). Sin embargo, dado que se necesitan niveles reducidos de inhibidores microbianos en las dietas que usamos para las especies de Diatraea, se notaron problemas crecientes de contaminaci6n microbiana cuando la dieta fue infestada con mezclas de larvas y granulos.Las cajas infestadas se mantienen en los cuartos para crianza con temperaturas de entre 20 y 30 ° c y 60 a 70% de humedad relativa, dependiendo de que tan rapidamente se necesitan las larvas para las infestaciones en el campo. A 3 ° C se obtienen las primeras pupas en 20 dias y a 20°C en 35 dias. Si fuera necesario, larvas casi maduras pueden almacenarse a 1 5 ° C por varias semanas, deteniendo su desarrollo.Estado Pupal. Por varios anos se us6 en el CIMMYT m6dulos de pupado de papel corrugado, similares a los descritos por Reed et al. ( 1 9 7 2), en la producci6n del TCA . Debido a que no se conseguia papel corrugado con menos de tres repliegues por pulgada y las larvas del TSOM y del TNM son muy grandes coma para caber en las camaras del m6dulo, las mismas no se usaron con estas dos especies. Eventualmente, la falta de disponibilidad del papel corrugado, impuls6 la prueba de la producci6n de pupas del TCA con y sin m6dulos para la conversi6n en pupa. Como los resultados no mostraton diferencia significativa, no se continu6 con su uso para TCA; esto tambien trajo coma resultado una menor contaminaci6n microbiana de los envases de crianza . Dentro de los tres o cuatro dfas despues de la aparici6n de las primeras pupas, estas son extraidas manualmente de las cajas y las porciones de dieta, Figura 1 3. Este procedimiento se repite una o dos veces hasta que se haya recolectado entre el 80 y 90% de las pupas potenciales. La extracci6n de las pupas sigue siendo una de las partes de trabajo mas intenso dentro de nuestros esfuerzos de crianza, pero parece estar dictada por la biologia de las especies tropicales de tatadradores Diatraea. Durante seis al'\\os de crianza, los taladradores han mostrado siempre una conversi6n asfncr6nica en pupas, la que ocurre durante un periodo de 1 0 o mas dias . Los entom61ogos que crian especies de taladradores de la zona templada, se economizan este esfuerzo extra ya que la conversi6n en pupa es mas sincr6nica. Flgur11 15. Larvas de D. sscchsrslis estlm listas para ser mezcladas con grllinulos.Despues de la extracci6n, las pupas seponen en recipientes que luego son colocados en el fondo de las jaulas para la emergencia de adultos (Figura 14) . El recipiente con las pupas se remueve todos los dfas, los adultos que hayan emergido se sacuden dentro de jaulas para la puesta de huevos y se vuelve a colocar el recipiente con las pupas. Las temperaturas para el desarrollo de las pupas oscilan entre 20 y 30 ° C, dependiendo de la rapidez con que se desea la emergencia de adultos. La humedad relativa se mantiene siempre a 95% 0 mas, simulando las condiciones de humedad del sitio natural de conversion en pupa dentro del tallo de una planta de mafz en desarrollo.Las infestaciones artificiales con taladradores del tallo del mafz, fueron hechas usando masas de huevos (Davis, 1976;Guthrie, 1982) por casi medio siglo, hasta que Mihm y sus colegas en el CIMMYT, desarrollaron las tecnicas del bazooka y la infestaci6n con larvas en 1976 (lnforme del CIMMYT, 1977). El uso de esta tecnica y sus ventajas para ser usada cuando menos con 11 especies de lepid6pteros plaga ha sido descrita en detalle por Ortega et al, 1980;Wiseman et al., 1980;Mihm, 1982y Davis, 1982. Masas de huevos del taladrador, listas para emerger, se transportan al campo para la mezcla y la infestaci6n. Para el TCA y el TNM las masas de huevos se ponen dentro de una caja pequena de plastico, sujeta en su lugar mediante piezas pequenas de unicel dentro del envase estandar de plastico para crianza. Como las larvas de estas especies son fuertemente y positiviamente fototacticas, es importante que se las mantenga en la oscuridad durante la incubaci6n final y la emergencia de las larvas. Si se les expone a una fuente de luz, tienden a agruparse, producir seda y formar montones (ilustrados en la Figura 1 5) los cuales son diffciles de dispersar cuando se trata de lograr una mezcla uniforme de larvas y granulos.Con el TSOM, las masas de huevos se colocan en una caja de plastico a la que se le ha acomodado bien un cedazo de alambre en el fondo, Figura 16. Estas larvas no son tan fuertemente fototacticas positivas, pero sf hidrotacticas y esta caracterfstica se usa para separar las larvas de la capa de masas de huevos sin nacer. Se coloca una toalla de papel humedecida en el fondo de la caja externa y las larvas se arrastran a traves del cedazo hacia la fuente de humedad. Si no se hace esto, las larvas tienden a quedarse en la capa de masas de huevos sin brotar.Lmf huevos que no han brotado, pueden ser separados de las larvas removiendo rapidamente la caja interna y sacando con una brocha las pocas larvas que aun se arrastran sabre ella antes de hacerla a un lado o bien colocandolos en un recipiente cilfndrico de plastico vacfo, para su incu-baci6n posterior. Si algunas larvas no se han dispersado de la capa de masas de huevos, se las separa de la misma echando \\as masas de huevos en una toalla de papel. Despues de unos pocos minutos, las masas se echan dentro de otra toalla y las larvas que se arrastran por la toalla pueden ser transferidas a una botella mezcladora con una brocha o golpeando ligeramente.Se agrega una pequena cantidad de granulos de olote de mafz al recipiente cilfndrico de plastico y las larvas son mezcladas rotando suavemente la caja. La mezcla de varias cajas de emergencia se acumula en una botella de plastico grande (2 a 20 L), dependiendo del numero de larvas y de plantas a ser infestadas. Despues de mezclar prolijamente, se constata la concentraci6n contando varias entregas de muestra del bazooka. Si la cantidad de granulos se registra, se puede hacer una serie de diluciones facilmente, hasta que se logre el numero de larvas deseado por Diatraea grandiosel/a-SWCB Figura 16. Envase con mesas de huevos en el estado de cabeza negra, listos para infestaci6n de campo . Figura 17. Plantas siendo infestadas con D. grandtosella. Figura 18. lnfestaci6n durante la l\\ntesis. descarga. Un metodo alternativo para preparar la mezcla de larvas y granulos si las masas de huevos no se remueven de los papeles para dep6sito de los huevos, ha sido descrito por Davis y Williams ( 1980) .En el CIMMYT nosotros infestamos rutinariamente todas las especies de taladradores con alrededor de 30 a 40 larvas por planta, aplicadas en 3 a 4 pasadas sucesivas con cerca de 1 0 larvas por entrega. Nuestros datos (Cuadro 1) indican que tres descargas por planta da una uniformidad aceptable. Es posible una uniformidad mayor, pero no justifica el tiempo y el esfuerzo para pasadas adicionales .Cuadro 1. Variaci6n de planta a planta en el numero de taladradores de la cana de azucar, con aplicaciones sucesivas de larvas usando bazookas. Para reducir a un m1nimo la variaci6n que puede ser usada por la persona que hace la infestaci6n, diferentes personas pasan por la secci6n del vivero durante las diferentes pasadas.En el CIMMYT, para infestar mafz simulando el ataque de la primera crfa (Figura 17), se realiza la infestaci6n en plantas en el estado de seis a ocho hojas completamente expandidas durante la antesis (Figura 18); se infestan las axilas de la hoja en el nudo de inserci6n de la mazorca y de una arriba y otra abajo de la mazorca; en el caso del sorgo, esto se realiza echando la mezcla en la panfcula. Cuando se hacen las infestaciones de segunda camada, debe tenerse cuidado de no golpear las plantas durante unos pocos minutos, de tal manera que las larvas tengan tiempo de fijarse por sf solas a la planta.La evidencia de la utilidad y adaptabilidad de esta tecnica, viene de SU rapida y amplia adopci6n para el manejo de varias especies de lepid6pteros plaga en varias especies vegetales (Davis y Oswalt, 1979; Davis y Williams, 1980; Hall et al., 1980;Wiseman et al., 1980).Figura 19. Plantas que muestran reacci6n susceptible (izquierda) a resistencia intermedia (derecha) a TSOM.En el cuadro 2 se enumeran las escalas evaluaci6n del daiio de calificaci6n y cuantificaci6n del dano, usadas para categorizar el comportamiento de las plantas (resistentos o susceptibles) despues de la infestaci6n en el campo o en el invernadero. En la Figura 1 9 se ilustran plantas que van desde susceptibles, hasta medianamente resistentes.Para evaluar la resistencia a la comedura de la hoja (hecho por las primeras crisalidas de la mayorfa de las especies de taladradores), la mayorfa de las entom61ogos usan escalas estandar de uno a nueve (Guthrie et al., 1965;1960;Davis, 1980;Dolinka et al., 1973;Ortega et al., 1980).La resistencia a la comedura en la vaina y en el cuello de la hoja (usualmente hechas par crisalidas tempranas de la segunda camada de larvas de taladrador) tambien es evaluada usando una escala con clases uno a nueve (Guthrie, 1982).  La resistencia a la taladradura del tallo se evalua contando las cavidades, donde una pulgada de dano al tallo es igual a una cavidad (Guthrie, 1982), el numero de entrenudos danados o el numero de huecos de salida por planta (Peairs, 1977;Hershey, 1978). El recuento de las panojas quebradas, las plantas acamadas como resultado del daf\\o causado por el taladrador al tallo del mafz o ambas cosas, tambien se hace ocasionalmente Chiang y Hudon, 1976).La resistencia al daf\\o de la mazorca se evalua por el dano a los granos, la cantidad de olotes perforados y el dano al pedunculo (Galt, 1977;Grier y Davis, 1980). Ocasionalmente se registra el porcentaje de mazorcas colgantes y es de importancia especialmente si el marz se cosecha a mllquina.en este boletrn para la crianza masiva y la infestaci6n eficientes, han mostrado ser adaptables a otras especies de cultivos y plagas y tambien a la selecci6n y mejoramiento dentro de iniciativas en otras partes del mundo. El objetivo final en la apli-caci6n de estas tecnicas dentro de cualquier programa de crianza en masa e in-festaci6n eficientes, es identificar genotipos resistentes para su uso inmediato o para identificar los genotipos (plantas) mils resistentes para su uso en el programa de mejoramiento genetico. Variedades con una resistencia mejorada, pueden servir como uno de los principales componentes en los esfuerzos por manejar las especies de Diatraea u otras especies de plagas y sus poblaciones. Cita corrects: Mihm, John A. 1984. T6cnicas eficientes para la crianza masiva e infestaci6n de insectos, en la selecci6n de las plantas hospedantes para resistencia a los taladradores del tallo del mafz Diatraea sp.Centro Internacional de mejoramiento de Marz y Trigo, El Bat6n, M6xico.(CIMMYTI es una organizaci6n intemacional sin fines de lucro que est6 dedicada a la investigaci6n cientifica y al adiestramiento. El CIMMYT, cuya sede central est6 en M6xico, estA comprometido en un programa de in-vestigaci6n a nivel mundial para mafz, trigo, triticale y cebada con 6nfasis en producci6n alimentaria en parses en desarrollo. Este es uno de los 1 3 centros internacionales sin fines de lucro que est6n involucrados en la in-vestigaci6n agrfcola y adiestramiento, patrocinados por el Grupo Consultivo para la lnvestigaci6n Agricola Internacional (GCIAI). El GCIAI est6 apoyado por la Organizaci6n de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentaci6n y Agricultura (FAO), el Banco Internacional para la Reconstrucci6n y el Desarrollo (Banco Mundial), y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo IPNUDI. El GCIAI cuenta con 50 parses donadores, organizaciones internacionales y regionales y fundaciones privadas.El Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Marz y Trigo (CIMMYT) recibe ap0yo de varies fuentes incluyendo las instituciones de ayuda internacional de Arabia Saudita, Australia, Canad6, Dinamarca, Espana, EUA, Filipinas, Francia, India, lrlanda, Jap6n, M6xico, Noruega, los Parses Bajos, Reino Unido, Republics Federal de Alemania, Suiza y del Centro Australiano para la lnvestigaci6n Agricola Internacional, la Comisi6n Econ6mica Europea, la Fundaci6n Ford, el Banco lnteramericano de Desarrollo, el Banco Internacional para la Reconstruc-ci6n y Desarrollo, el Centro Internacional para el Desarrollo de la lnvestigaci6n, la Fundaci6n OPEC para el desarrollo Internacional, la Fundaci6n Rockefeller y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo. La responsabilidad de esta publicaci6n es s61amente del CIMMYT.","tokenCount":"4920"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5ed4724241259e5a6d61eab16abfad82","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://ciat-library.ciat.cgiar.org/Articulos_Ciat/Digital/SF391.S9_1975_1976_5wine_publication_1975-1976_Animal_pathology_section.pdf","id":"54240170"},"keywords":["1'","'''","'r'","' n\"' Il!\"'''w' i! \" 'n","' f'F\"'_\"C \"_~~\\~~\"\"_~~~'~_\" \"\"\"","'h\"","r\"L' 1","1\"","'i","' til","--)"],"sieverID":"2437eb9a-342b-48e3-b9c0-6b587ed90ccb","pagecount":"10","content":"Pothology Se-ctH'lt'i Arumal Heolth Progrom --CIAT aportado oereo 67-13 Col! ColombHl (5 A ) Ji Evén though fout ond movth d¡seo5e (fMD) IS o ma¡ot economlc thfC<lt ta cornmercml plg f(¡rmea In cndemlc crea'S IIHie ¡nformahoo 15 aval!able conccfnlng the f>othogel\"'esa of toe dlseose In $Wine Thl5 paper deSCribes hl~to¡ogll,:;ol cb~rvQh<)()s mode dvnng bQth noturol ond experlmentol dl$e(lss eplsodes In ColomblO A relotlón'ihlp 15 sU9geste<f between these fq\"ldlngs ond the clmJemlology of the dlse-ose The nofuro! dl~O$e A totol of 19 sWlne necropsles wcre performed 00 three forros where fMD hod beco o:::onf,tmed The Jmpact cE the dlsease 0\"1 the!>e forms In 5hown by the follow1ng 'dato Al! Wére breeder-fotterHog operatlons Death$ from 011 causes Ir, the fmt rnonth of the flnt outbreok (VoUey O subtype 01) were 82 of 270 P¡9s 11' 1 the second outbrem: (olso Vollee O subtype 01) decths In the flrst two we-eks numbered 36 ef 200 p'gs SIX SO\\.\\O$ obCt'ted The th,rd ovtbreak (Vcllee A svbtype A27) .... 05 the most severe In an opembao totallmg 1 093anlf1\\ols 307 éeoths frorn 011 cov~ occorroo In the 4. manths from the 5hlft ef the outbreok ene lOS (etusas were oborted Twe/'lty-four deoths (foftenen) OCC<Jrrecl ¡wlthm 48 hOlJfs ef the start of the out break : Toble 1 shows the age and sex of necropsutd ammols hssves from all orgon $ystemi were systemot,cclly eollected fer study 11'110% Isotomc boffered formal In, embedded m paroffln cut at 5 to 6,; thtt;kne!.S 000 rovtlnely stomed w¡th haernr:itoxylln otl:d eO$It1 $;x;c!O! stOlliS such 05 van Glesan PAS ol1d 'Ion ?-KQ~ '>Vere ured when neceSSQty fohle 2 shaws the arder of prevolence of mternal leSIOI1$ followlog rnlcroscoplC exam¡notlf'\" foor or the ommah thct ¿Ied oc ... tely In the thlrd outbreak hod r.egmentol necrot¡zmg le$ron$ In'lolvlns the coronory artery UlfS voseulor ¿omage relareó ta the FMDV cavld not be found descnbcd 11' 1 the revlewed Itterotvre NecrOSIS of the myocardlum ond somchc mU$de wos stnklrg in mO$t coses e,Xomtned LeSlons In the ]Iver were of the corolo;:: fadure type The pancnlOS af 4 of the <lfilmols exomlned showed regresslon of OClnor cells los$ of the cotd I.ke orrengelT'enr end 1 droplc degenerabon af sorne Islet cells Notable In the serle$ of necrormes performed In the HHra outbre<lk was the absence of externol FMD leslons /O two of the fotteners thot I d,ed lhe experimental dlscose A¡t experlmer'lt wos deilgned to de&cnbe s.equent,ully the porÍlolog!cal mlcroscoFIlC chat'\\ges In PI!)S tf'loculoted wlth a fl/;~1d stWI11 of ViruS (Valley O subtype 01) In the f¡eld outbrec:':' concerned musde ¿estrucJlon wOs the mO$t charóclenstlc reoture A group of 15 cnlmah {2 months 014 average welght 20 pound$}wc.s randomly tllvrde:d Into 5 $vbgrovps of 3 The time lOtervol ¡or kdllng t'i,e sub-'groups was. 1 4 7 14 ond 30 doys post-lnfedlOn All on¡meh were lr\"Joculoted In the blceps femora wlth approxlmafely 1 000 mouse mtrapentoneal1y Luso/mi of vlrvlent Virus Flve (5) Pl9s served as eontrQIs ilssues colleded f(W hafo!og¡col examlnarlon compllted 011 01'900 systems They were tteoted OM prccésscd os descrlbed Ir! prev lau~ cOSes Wlfh few excephans It Can be ~l{1 thot the oppeoronce oí gross tesrons calnclded w¡th rhe rlse ItI body tcmpcratl,ll'e Most pJgs shcwed chnll::al $19(1$ of FM three doys post-1nfectlcn H1Stologlcolly X t , _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .. ..,-f myacordlol tCSIOns were found 10 :2 O<Jt uf 15 moculoted an¡mah {13 3%} Somotlc mv~de neerOllS JO 1 (6 6%}The dlfferenC4 In prevalence of myocotd,ul ond ~omot¡C muscle ¡ ¡\"sI0m between the natural d;se<lse (84 2 ond 63 2%) ond the expenmentol dl~ose (13 3 ond 6 6%) reqvfrc'S explonotlon An IntereSftng posslbdlty eo\",ld bt' thG~ the dl$tnbutlon of I leslons betwee . ., i!p,the]laf ond musde tlssve (;ould relote to ! $12:e one perhaps frcqveney of the chollengmg dase af vlrulenl' vIrus Thl$ 10 turn could relate ro the epldemlologlcal clrcumstonces or an outbreok Persans respon$lble for dl!>eose sVfvelllance 10 countrles free from foot (lOO mouth shoU'!d note thot Three amlTloh w(!re tlecrops1ed 1 Jnu~ for hlstologl<;:al studJes I were fl)o::ed In 10% bvHered formolu'l processed by standard technlqves and stal\",ed wlth haematoxylm ond eOSln Sectlons or the lorge mtestme were also sftllned wlth Warth1n-Starry sdver Impregnahon technlgve S:nQII omOunts of mucOSG cnd foeees trom the colon were suspended In <lrops of physlOjog:c $Chne ond vlewed by dork-freld mlGroscopy roeco! S'Tlears from slck c:nd n;:cropsled cnlmols we~e stclned by Grom lGlemso ond corbol fuchs.!'\\ Cdonlc contents were submlued for cultlVorlOl'í Ot splrochcetes V¡brlO coh 000 ScltnOl'lello ; otgl1nlSms ---¡ lorg6 l'Hghly motd .. splflxhoefe-s were abundan!\" In the mvcosal scraplngs ond colo\";lc contents exommed fewer 5.'Tloller I hghtly coded ó<gcnJSIT,$ resembhng Vlbno coll were olso observed $tolnei1 'oecol smeon IDowed-\"üiii'be-rs (.Ir fOlntly stalned gmm-negctlve large 5pm~j(::huefes The serpenbne shape of the orgcnlsms wa$ heHer deílred when sh::lnea wüh Glemso and carbal fvchsln Bolantldlum co11 wos repeatedly obse:rved In ¡taiMa smeors -HIStologlC leslO!\\$ In the colon and coecum were charcetenze-a by hyperem,o ond edema of the mueoso, w¡th desq\\Jomoted eplthehel ond réa blood cells free In the lumen larga 5pIrOchaetes coo\\d be s¿.en Inrermlflgled wltn mucus und ceil\\Jlar de:brls on the surfcce of the mucoso Ond    The l$olotlOfl of the serotype po\"\"no 15 COimdered to be of eptdemJolog1col Importonce In re (Jt~oo to the oborhons I Infertlllty ond st¡lIbltths In SOW$ Oh ónfected preml5eS 0$ well as neonato! mortaltty In Pl91chThe rerotype Icterohoemorrhagloe has b<:en reSponsable fOl' In ¡hese two orgClr1S con be h~ted as subcopsvlor ,hocmorrhogc fU!-.,l..lor necrosIs cnd Il'Itertl,lbwaf hoemorrhoge ond (!edema In the bdncys ond foco! neCrO$15 Jn the I¡~er$ wlln ¿¡noc l'Otlon of hep<:::tocytes seen In fetvseS obortcd ot the ,f:l'ld of th!! gestohor. penod h»ue seeJlons from sU5pcded kldncys ore S!:lmed WJth ¡Worth¡n Storry CM examifled m¡crox:op¡eolly lE poslt¡ve feplO$plro$ ore obs.?rved In the bordermg eplthellUffi of prox-Ima~ convoluted rubules as we!l os ifl :he lumen , Rodenh tropped In Infecfed fHggcrleS hove been fovnd octmg os corners of !wo serotypcs. Seven Sla:nn$ oí the s.erotype Icterohoetnorrh<.rglOe (lnd ane ot the serolypc Pomono hove been E¡oloted from the kldne>s of the brown rot (Rottus norvegJ-cus) -foble 1 glVcs on account of appro>nmote monctary losses due lo td:)OrhOm m on mfecícd P'99cry As ¡t con be seen loue:>Typll'le wos done by Dr H D¡kken      ! organlsms to be susceptible to kanernycin. chlorao\" phenieol neomycine aod nitrOf\\JI'áúa. and resistant to penieillin streptomycin, tetracyelins and amp1cillinTwo hamaters were inoeulated intraperitóneally with ¡ 2 mI of a light!:. snigeiloides suspension The lanimals died 1 and 3 days post-inoculation lesions 1 at neeropsy vere charaeterized by peteehiae 1n serosal j 8urfaces gastritis and enteritis !he gram-negat1ve :rod was recovered from intestinal contenta in both ! CBses !he outbrenk was eontro11ed one week after the first symptoms nppeared !he concentrate as well as the contaminated bone meal were immediately vithdrawn fram consuroptton Sick animnls seemed te regpond well te 1 thc palllstive treatment instituted for all the group ; the firs t day I Fifteen gilta out of 30 develóped haernorrhngtc 'diarrboea and 3 died oí acute haemorrhlgie anaemia !caused by blecding uleers Haemorrhagic diarrhoea as ¡seen in sIl affected animals is not a known festure of ¡b. shigelloides infeetións in man Taking iota account Iclinlcal signa and necropsy findings the pessibility I exists that thts group ot York-Shire gilts were de ... ","tokenCount":"1220"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0f3d5e3cb0d17407ea5b2be6df7af1c5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e7892c61-480a-419c-b8c5-d284a6aaa038/retrieve","id":"656990051"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a9ac0c52-b657-4729-a950-eb0764a20041","pagecount":"26","content":"CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.orgWe would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/ funders.Below, we describe key concepts and zoom in on those that are most relevant to the aims of Mitigate+ in terms of gender, youth, and social inclusion.All elements and activities in a specific geographically defined area that relate to production, processing, distribution, preparation, and consumption of food. Food systems need to meet many aspirations (e.g., consumption, income, public health) of different people and are essential in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals.A food systems approach values the interconnectedness of food system elements and addresses several elements simultaneously in order to improve economic, social, and environmental conditions in both urban and rural areas and achieve development outcomes such as food security and low emissions. Since every food-related actor and process is part of a food system, a food systems approach transcends different sectors, value chains, and stakeholder groups.Gender analysis refers to the identification of differences between men and women with respect to their vulnerabilities, assets, capacities, constraints, and opportunities using quantitative and qualitative methods. In an intersectional gender analysis, the analysis is expanded to include other social factors such as age and ethnicity and how they \"intersect\" with gender as well. This is important because people's opportunity space is shaped by multiple social factors. In order to identify vulnerable social groups, intersectional analysis is key because \"different forms of intersectionality can layer disadvantage upon disadvantage, resulting in multi-faceted discrimination\" [1].Gender research was defined by the CGIAR Consortium in its 2011 gender strategy as research in which the main focus is on gender and gender relations. A distinction is usually made between gender-responsive (sometimes also called gendersensitive) and gender-transformative research (also referred to as strategic gender research).Gender-responsive research (GRR) aims to respond to the needs of men and women, and other socially marginalized groups, with the aim to diminish rather than exacerbate any existing gender disparities, but it does not purposefully address the root causes of inequality. GRR is informed through gender analysis.Gender-transformative research (GTR) is action research that acknowledges that research itself has the ability to transform society -\"both through the process and the results of research\" [2]. GTR addresses the root causes of gender inequality across different scales and generates evidence on both the process and the results [3]. \"Doing GTR\" requires personal reflexivity of researchers and the formation of a shared contextualized understanding of the gender change objectives. GTR is participatory by default and informed by a deep intersectional gender analysis [3].Mainstreaming gender in (CGIAR) research refers to the use of the analysis of gender differences to inform the entire research cycle: targeting, priority setting, research design, implementation, research adoption/use, monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment (Consortium gender strategy, 2011). To ensure that gender was mainstreamed in the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs), a fixed percentage of budget needed to be allocated to gender across research portfolios.In essence, gender-transformative change (GTC) refers to change toward more gender equality. GTC is often conceptualized as a process consisting of three dimensions:(1) building agency, (2) changing unequal power relations, and (3) changing discriminatory structures [4]. GTC processes address both formal and informal structural barriers to equality such as norms, laws, regulations, and policies and practices. \"GTC emerges from critical consciousness and a normative understanding of equality as being beneficial to human beings and their flourishing\" [5].Gender-transformative approaches (GTAs) aim to catalyze GTC through the removal of structural barriers to allow for more equality. The Joint Program on GTAs for Food Security, Improved Nutrition, and Sustainable Agriculture from FAO, IFAD, and WFP [6] lists the following characteristics about GTAs:{ Seek to remove structural barriers to gender equality and challenge the distribution of resources and allocation of roles and responsibilities between men and women;{ Help understand, reflect on, challenge, and change rigid gender norms and roles, unequal power dynamics, and discriminatory social structures;{ Aim to foster more equitable gender relations within households, communities, and organizations and improve the position of women in society;{ Facilitate dialogue, trust, and behavioral change at multiple levels (individual, household, community, systems/institutions);{ Use participatory and experiential learning methodologies;{ Recognize that women often experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination; and { Explicitly engage with men and boys as allies for change and advocates for gender equality.Transdisciplinarity is about collaboration across disciplinary and categorical boundaries, bringing diverse forms of knowledge together to address complex problems. With a transdisciplinary approach, different (including marginal and localized) standpoints are referenced next to dominant frames. A transdisciplinary approach to gendertransformative research provides an opportunity to extend scientific collaboration to those without formal training and includes collaboration between biophysical and social scientists. It aims to meaningfully share and learn from local knowledge to ensure that local realities and needs are at the core of gender-transformative initiatives. As such it creates a space where 'scientific rigor meets societal relevance'.This Research Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems aims to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food systems (FS) and to increase carbon capture in four focus countries. The Initiative (M+) will work through five pathways or Work Packages (WPs) to achieve this goal (Box 1). M+ believes that its efforts toward its primary goal of decreasing GHG emissions and increasing carbon capture should contribute to gender equality and social inclusion. The opposite, reinforcing or exacerbating gender and other social inequalities, should, consciously and actively, be avoided. The Initiative will adopt and promote gender-transformative and transdisciplinary approaches to address the foundations of gender inequality and unequal power relations.This strategy document will { Detail how, within M+, we conceptualize gendertransformative change and other key terms and concepts.{ Provide guidance to the M+ team regarding -Our current position in terms of GEYSI -climate mitigation research (Where are we now?).-Our aim regarding GEYSI -climate mitigation research (Where do we go?).-Design and implementation of GEYSI country plans.{ Identify human resource needs in terms of GEYSI, and design and implement a capacity-strengthening strategy accordingly.M+ aims for FS transformation toward low emissions and emphasizes the importance of adopting a systems approach. While moving toward low-emission food systems is the key focus of the Initiative, the desired transformation encompasses additional sets of values and objectives. M+ acknowledges that food systems are underpinned by power relations, and that changes to FS have the potential to perpetuate or exacerbate inequalities and injustices across scales, between countries and regions, and within countries on all levels ranging from the national to farm or household. The transformation M+ is seeking is toward national and local low-emission food systems, in which all women and men can build viable and climate-resilient livelihoods for themselves and their children without compromising other people's or future generations' abilities to do so. It will be essential to address the inequities and injustices currently inherent to food systems. This is as much a moral obligation as a practical issue.M+ conducts research on interventions and innovations that will contribute to landscape-level climate resilience of FS actors, particularly of vulnerable groups such as (women) smallholder farmers. These innovations will aim to improve efficiencies along food value chains for higher returns to value chain actors and allow for economic diversification for risk reduction and job creation, specifically for young people and women. However, the objective of the research goes beyond simply improving the financial returns of FS innovations. FS actors need to be able to develop as humans, secure their own and their family's well-being, and improve their quality of life.Gender inequalities and other forms of inequality compromise FS actors' ability to access health services or education; to produce and consume tasty, culturally preferred, and nutritious food; to enjoy green spaces and leisure time; to be safe; and to make important decisions, etc. In other words, they compromise FS actors' agency and well-being. Gender inequalities and other forms of inequality can also compromise FS actors' capacity to participate in and contribute to lowemission FS development. This, in turn, limits innovation, the development of solutions, as well as their implementation and scaling. Because of this, innovation and transformation that address FS actors' differentiated needs, aspirations, and realities need to be an important focus of a research program aimed at supporting the development and implementation of low-emission FS solutions.{ Addressing inequality and power dimensions when doing research on FS development helps ensure that low-emission development projects and programs have the tools needed to achieve equitable outcomes and generate livelihoods, governance, and ecosystem cobenefits.{ Improving equality and inclusion can be instrumental for achieving other and related outcomes as outlined in M+ Theory of Change. Through the development of data, evidence, and tools together with national, sub-national, and local partners for better reporting.By locally supporting low-emission FS solutions or innovations through a Living Lab approach, optimizing co-benefits to beneficiaries and generating evidence on what works, where, and why.By supporting national partners, including government, in creating enabling environments for scaling low-emission FS innovations.Through engagement and advocacy globally and nationally.Inequalities across different scales and domains (Where are we now?)Climate change is interrelated with global patterns of inequality: the poor and the most vulnerable sectors of society suffer disproportionally from climate-change-related impacts [7].Vulnerability to climate change and the capacity and opportunity to benefit from climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts tend to be different for different social groups across geographies. To enable all people to benefit from climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, attention needs to be paid to the following four dimensions [8]:1. Participation in decision-making across different levels.Women, young people, and marginalized groups often lack a voice to express and advocate for their specific needs and opportunities. This can be within their own household but also on higher levels such as the community or national level.2. Work burden. Work burdens, especially for women, are likely to increase as a direct result of climate change. The adoption of climate-smart and low-emission technologies might also add to workloads.Women tend to have limited access because household resources such as land, labor, and income are often controlled by men. In specific contexts, young people or other social groups might face similar restrictions.or other social groups can come together and work toward common goals can be a vehicle to increase their power, voice, and agency and enable them to better cater to their specific needs.When engaging in community-level action research or other participatory processes, it is important to understand the social makeup of the community and to be informed about different social groups and their status and influence in the community. Assets, for instance, often influence social status and bargaining power in the community and thus people's ability to participate and benefit from community actions [9]. \"Elite capture\" -working mostly with and in the interests of the wealthier sections of a community -is a real risk and should be avoided.Women's and men's agency is determined by individual factors but also by contextual factors on a community level. Institutional and normative structures -the local normative climate -shape the sense of agency women and men have, and their opportunities in life [10].Normative rules and assumptions about who can occupy specific roles along the value chain obscure or prevent specific social groups such as women from engaging in value chains or obtaining financial benefits from their value chain participation. Women who attempt to explore new nodes within value chains or shift to new value chains may face pushback. When women do participate in value chains, they tend to be involved in lower value work than men, which often also involves more drudgery.National policies often fail to address and challenge the many structural barriers impeding social equality, including gender equality. Addressing both informal (social norms and practices) and formal (policies and institutions) barriers is critical to improving social equality [7].Analysis of agricultural policy documents (e.g., national agricultural policies and national agricultural development plans) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) found that mentions of women and gender are increasing.For the NDCs, more than 90% of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean included gender [7]. Mentions tended to be superficial though and policy discourse seldom matched actual measures and action. Women's limited participation in international climate decision-making policy processes was one of the problems identified [7]. Other social groups such as young people or indigenous people might face similar lacks of representation.In 2022, the CGIAR GENDER platform, in collaboration with various stakeholders, formulated a learning agenda on gender-responsive climate-smart agriculture (CSA). Although presented as one of three pillars of CSA, only 17 relevant publications on mitigation were identified and included in this review. Consequently, mitigation was identified as one of the eight knowledge gaps. This research gap was formulated as follows: \" Understanding the social, economic, and environmental costs of mitigation options for women and men, and ensuring women are not left out of mitigation strategies [11].The under-researched status of the nexus on climate change mitigation and gender equality, and youth and social inclusion, presents a mandate to M+ to develop and design appropriate research and generate evidence accordingly.Our vision is that low-emission food systems benefit FS actors on the ground, irrespective of their gender, age, geography, ethnicity, or any other social dimension. Our research for low-emission FS development is responsive to the different needs of people and social groups and provides entry points to address the structural barriers underlying gender and other social inequalities. Our contributions to strategizing and policymaking for low-emission FS development promote inclusivity. We amplify the voice of marginalized social groups and strive for active participation and representation of all.Mission (Where do we go?) M + supports low-emission FS development, reducing inequalities of different nature and across scales within food systems as reflected in the SDGs (Box 2). To this end, M+ will employ rigorous local gender and social analysis to guide investment in and the scaling of mitigation solutions. M+ aspires to employ gender-transformative approaches in its place-based research to examine, challenge, and change the underlying causes of gender inequality, including genderblind or discriminatory legislative and policy frameworks. Additionally, M+ adopts a transdisciplinary approach to bridge the divide between biophysical and social science and between different forms of knowledge, acknowledging and appreciating new and local perceptions and needs.Priority research topics for M+ are the following: { Potential of and pathways for CSA, and specifically mitigation, to be transformative for women: developing evidence-based strategies to enhance transformative potential of CSA, including bridging gender gaps, collective action, strengthening women's voices in policy processes, capacity development, and infusing diverse gender-transformative approaches.{ Catalyzing multi-dimensional policies and multi-sectoral coordination to promote gender-responsive CSA, focusing on mitigation: understanding information needs of policymakers and effective ways of policy engagement and multi-sectoral stakeholder processes.{ Climate financing models for gender-responsive CSA: developing and adapting models for inclusive financing for mitigation that can advance women's empowerment and gender equality.{ Mitigation: understanding the social, economic, and environmental costs of mitigation options for women and men, and ensuring women are not left out of mitigation strategies. WP 1 intends to investigate and identify novel alternative lowemission strategies in food systems, based not only on the size of emissions but also on their availability and feasibility, including but not limited to costs, and then work with national planners to co-develop strategies for their realization.One WP 1 research question addresses social equity and participation specifically in sectoral and governance contexts (Annex 1. Table : Research question per WP and plan of research). This is an ethical as well as a strategic decision, because we believe that decisions arrived at with broad participation and that address social inequity will be more efficiently and effectively implemented while also promoting equity (the 3E approach) [13].Political economy analysis is one of the key methodologies identified in the proposal to address this question. Political economy seeks to understand how power, wealth, and resources are distributed and how this distribution affects societal outcomes such as economic growth, income inequality, social welfare, and public policy. It explores the interactions between government, markets, and society, and the way in which political and economic forces shape each other. Through a political economy lens, WP 1 aims to gain insights into how decisions are made, how power dynamics affect decisions and their outcomes, and how public policies can be designed to promote economic growth, social welfare, and political stability.It is important to integrate a gender lens into these analyses.Although political economy deals with questions around power, and therefore power analyses are usually included, gender (as intersected with other social variables) as a dimension of power is often ignored. \"Giving voice to marginalized people\" is a key function of \"good\" system governance [14], and it is therefore important for M+ to support this objective. A prerequisite for this is to understand social differentiation in both governance institutions and the population at large, and then apply it in the context of WP 1 to the planning process addressing the devised low-emission strategies in food systems.An important entry point for this and for associated strategizing and development of GEYSI workplans and activities is the country profiles that WP 1 is developing for all four focus countries. These country profiles synthesize data on national FS GHG emissions per sector and/or value chain; illuminate trends in terms of food production, trade, and consumption and in land use among other things; and will also propose several low-emission pathways. The country profiles serve as a first basis, together with the NDCs, to rally national stakeholders to a discussion of transition pathways toward low-emission food systems, allowing them to voice their interests and concerns, which should then lead to co-development and implementation of the innovative strategies.In the development of these profiles, it is then essential that data be disaggregated for gender when possible, that gender and social inclusion trade-offs be made explicit, and that opportunities for gender-transformative change be identified and described. WP 1 also sees opportunities for carrying out more localized case studies in the focus countries to examine specific GEYSI issues in relation to low-emission FS development. Results and lessons from studies can inform multi-stakeholder processes and shed light on specific needs in terms of policy or support. These studies will be developed and implemented from the last quarter of 2023 onward.The MSP and other policy-making processes in which the M+ teams will engage nationally are not neutral; cultural values and gender norms as well as power strategies tend to be (overtly or covertly) institutionalized. Drawing attention to the marginalization of certain groups and fostering action to promote their inclusion and empowerment might not always be welcomed by all national stakeholder groups. Collecting and presenting data on structural marginalization of specific social groups and the identification of possible negative effects of low-emission FS \"solutions\" on such groups remain an ethical obligation of the WP 1 and M+ team at large, but we will have to navigate these waters consciously and carefully.WP 1 formulated two connected impact pathways. The first one focuses on developing tools for planning for lowemission development. M+ will co-design, develop, and test the developed tools and protocols for emissions reduction actions covering social, economic, and biophysical aspects of food systems together with stakeholders. WP 1 emphasizes that it is paramount to \"understand the distribution of impacts (burdens and benefits) of alternatives on women and youth to better manage trade-offs and strategize for social equity\" and envisages the development of specific tools toward this goal. An existing method developed by CGIAR that can support \"thinking through\" the gender and social inclusion implications of emission reduction actions, ex ante and together with stakeholders, is \"GenderUp.\" It is likely that, in the process of thinking through, specific evidence gaps regarding distribution and trade-offs will be identified, which will allow for targeted action to address these research gaps.The second impact pathway of WP 1 focuses on strengthening the capacities of local and national stakeholders to implement FS mitigation plans. Although much of the capacity strengthening will be around technical aspects of (measuring) mitigation, issues around social inclusion and (gender) equality are likely to play a role related to implementation. It is important to adequately identify these issues and respond to them on a case-to-case basis.To enable adequate action and response to GEYSI issues in the framework of WP 1, it is paramount that GEYSI expert knowledge and experience be available to the WP 1 team. At the very minimum, staff need to be able to identify areas where potential GEYSI issues might arise as relevant, so they can refer this to a WP 1 external GEYSI expert. Ideally, however, this expertise will be integrated into the WP 1 team.To strengthen the WP 1 team's capacity to identify and signal GEYSI issues, training will be useful and is recommended for 2024. One option for building in the habit of considering GEYSI issues in strategizing low-emission actions is to use the above-mentioned method GenderUp since it includes sensitization on gender and social equality and assesses a concrete and relevant low-emission option at the same time.The GEYSI workplan for WP 1 for 2023 is detailed in the table below. How can improved predictions and scenarios be used to enable decision-making at sub-national and national levels to inform policies and measures, better manage trade-offs between specific social groups (e.g., women, indigenous groups, youth, and other socioeconomic groups), and support implementation?2. How can integrated assessment models be iteratively improved as tools to guide GHG mitigation actions and decisions, particularly by incorporating development trajectories and mitigation actions into forecasts of GHG mitigation and considering other co-benefits, while differentiating for gender and other relevant social factors?Only the first of two impact pathways mention GEYSI. This impact pathway focuses on building rigor into the evidence, tools, and methods and emphasizes the need to differentiate trade-offs for different social groups (gender and other).The GEYSI priority for WP 2 will be to ensure that all data collection and analysis efforts where GEYSI possibly plays a role (usually whenever research subjects are human) are differentiating for gender and other factors deemed relevant to the topic. For example, in relation to estimating agricultural GHG emissions and identifying mitigation options at the country level, a survey is planned. This survey will contain details on crop and animal management for which it will be essential to differentiate between women and men in terms of management and preferences. It is essential that a gender expert be involved in the development of both the survey content (questions) and the logistics (sampling strategy, composing the enumerator team, planning, etc.). Analyses will need to differentiate accordingly, and differentiated findings should be included in publications.Currently, there are no GESI experts within WP 2 and this expertise will need to be sourced from elsewhere when needed. Ultimately, it would be best to build this expertise into the WP 2 team. Training on gender-responsive research would be one option. For 2023, WP 2 envisages no primary data collection.End-of-initiative outcome End-of-initiative outcome Currently, only one indicator measures progress in the GEYSI impact areas (Table 1). This indicator measures the number of women & youth benefiting from relevant CGIAR innovations.In the proposal it was elaborated as: \"\"Diversification of production offers scope for both smallholder and female employment, provides higher returns to land and labor, and scope for income diversification, while shorter growing cycles may soften seasonal liquidity constraints -all of which support poor rural households.\"In WP 3, additional indicators on diversity, equity, and inclusion are developed to support monitoring, evaluation, and learning in the Living Labs for People. ","tokenCount":"3940"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9b5af84047ce8a4b268c1d5ef2a7efb2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/25d691e0-fbe7-4b79-9dee-1695770bb7a3/retrieve","id":"-777549130"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"499a268f-fb40-4efa-8da4-093967dc6c56","pagecount":"90","content":"Los autores Chwizʉn'hasi. aukweyka. Ko'ko rebori anukukwey rebunna. Azi nisi kinkumaye ema zajuna ichu uman minmuchukwey neika powruse'ri. gugin reguwa anugwe rigun ankusinhey/ apa' pa' chey zuna kujwasi. gugin reguwa anugwe rigun ankusinhey/ zarigungwaba ke' uwari. gugin reguwa anugwe rigun du rekusi / chey gow awi swukwa. gugin reguwa: anugwe rigun durekukusi / ingwi yow. chuka azuna chuka azanu neikasin yow winpuri una. kujuna zarisi ,tima chwi . warin arukun nunge mayose awiri octubrese'. zajuna ichu du ankakusi. gunamu nikamu winawuya agrosavia zanu neika aburu angawi uwari ka'se jwasun gwasi na ni. zajuna aburu ibinna du ankawi. zajuna chow achukweyka. gugin reguwa ichu zarisi. zanun nuga awiri antakumey zuna , jewu jwin. tiki anpesi unge. 56 rinisi zoya zarisi akweyka /78 jwia anzarika anawaki nunge pari azuray| ichu anina /du akusa akwari peti kwa ananuga jwe jwena naku nanungwa si na ni. ema ichu bunachuzey zayun azunari ikuse du kunariza ni . chwizunna dibuju bunna emey kawin mezanukwa. Niwingunamʉsʉya gʉ'gʉ awesi gakʉnamʉ jwasu neika . ʉ. Duni yamu. Emey kawi kʉwa seykwa.Correo: ajoselop33@gmail.comOrcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8520-6950Ingeniero agrónomo de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, magíster en Planeación Socioeconómica de la Universidad Santo Tomás, sede Bogotá, doctor en Ciencias Sociales, Niñez y Juventud de la Universidad de Manizales y del CentroInternacional para la Educación y el Desarrollo Humano (cinde) y posdoctor en Calidad de Vida del Programa Universidad-Comunidad (Unicon) de la Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina. Sus áreas de estudio son juventud rural, calidad de vida rural, educación rural, desarrollo humano, desarrollo rural integral y políticas públicas. Se ha desempeñado como docente e investigador en la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad Santo Tomás, en la Escuela de Administración de Negocios (ean) y en la Universidad Libre, sede Cali. Además, ha sido profesor invitado en el doctorado en Psicología Positiva de la Universidad de Palermo, Argentina. Actualmente se desempeña como docente de la Universidad de Cundinamarca en la maestría en Ciencias Ambientales y es docente e investigador en la maestría en Extensión y Desarrollo Rural de la Universidad de Pamplona, Norte de Santander. También ejerce como director ejecutivo del Centro de Estudios para la Calidad de Vida, la Educación y el Desarrollo Humano Rural (cedru S. A. S.). Es articulista y evaluador de artículos científicos relacionados con sus áreas de interés en revistas indexadas, nacionales e internacionales y de Colciencias en Colombia. Es expresidente de la Sociedad Colombiana de Planificación (scp) y miembro de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología Rural (alasru).Correo: yizquierdo@agrosavia.coOrcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0436-9067Mujer indígena arhuaca, madre, esposa y lideresa de la comunidad de Ikarwa en los Besotes, Valledupar. Ingeniera industrial, con maestría en Gestión Pública y de Gobierno, máster of Science in Project Management, estudiante de doctorado en Estudios Interdisciplinarios sobre Desarrollo-Cider en la Universidad de los Andes. Se desempeñó como jefe de la oficina de cultura de la alcaldía de Valledupar. Actualmente, se desempeña en agrosavia como Coordinadora de Semillas para Seguridad Alimentaria en los Territorios.Adriana Patricia Tofiño Rivera atofino@agrosavia.co Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7115-7169Ingeniera agrónoma y magíster en Recursos Fitogenéticos Neotropicales de la Universidad Nacional, sede Palmira, con doctorado en Ciencias Agrarias, énfasis fisiología vegetal de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá.Investigadora PhD Senior de agrosavia que se ha desempeñado en las redes de innovación de Hortalizas y Raíces yTubérculos con investigaciones en producción sostenible y fitomejoramiento. Ha participado en el registro de seis variedades de yuca para Colombia y dos variedades de fríjol biofortificado para el Caribe seco. También se ha enfocado en investigaciones sobre bioprospección de plantas aromáticas de clima cálido. Ha trabajado además en investigación y docencia universitaria en recursos fitogenéticos neotropicales, fitopatología y fisiología vegetal, biotecnología y procesos sostenibles de producción de cultivos biofortificados, hortalizas, raíces y tubérculos.Correo: yrozo@agrosavia.coOrcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4723-478XIngeniera agrónoma de la Universidad de Cundinamarca con maestría en Planeación Socioeconómica de la Facultad de Sociología de la Universidad Santo Tomás de Bogotá y candidata a PhD en Estudios Territoriales de la Universidad deCaldas. Tiene experiencia en el trabajo con comunidades rurales, caracterización de sistemas de producción y líneas base. Actualmente se desempeña como investigadora máster de la Red de Hortalizas del Centro de Investigación Palmira de la Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria.Correo: erochel@agrosavia.coOrcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7888-6073Ingeniera de producción agrícola y agrónoma y magíster en Práctica Pedagógica de la Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander. Es profesional de Transferencia de Tecnología del Centro de Investigación La Suiza, Sede Cúcuta (Departamento de Norte de Santander) de agrosavia, donde además de sus actividades en el componente de extensión, tiene experiencia en el trabajo con comunidades rurales e indígenas a través de metodologías participativas y análisis de redes sociales.Cuenta con publicaciones en temáticas relacionadas con los sistemas productivos de frijol, cacao, cebolla, entre otros.Correo: dagomez@agrosavia.co Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6067-7596Ingeniero catastral y geodesta de la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas (Bogotá) y magíster en Ciencias -Meteorología de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (sede Bogotá). Es investigador máster senior del Centro Investigación Tibaitatá (Mosquera, Cundinamarca) y de la Red de Innovación de Cultivos Permanentes de agrosavia, donde se desempeña en el área de agroclimatología, enfocando su trabajo en análisis del riesgo agroclimático y climatología aplicada a la agricultura (procesamiento y análisis de información climática). En la actualidad cuenta con publicaciones en temáticas relacionadas con análisis del entorno biofísico y climático enfocado a la agricultura.Chwizʉn'hasi. Azi nisi kinkumaye ema zajuna ichu uman minmuchukwey neika powruse'ri.• Azi azano uwari se inari :gumusinu • Du mezanu kweika se inari • Zamu arwayun zanu se inari • Zari uwa se inanukwa pinzunai neika• Du kawi andumari zoriza zamu • Pinna juna asukweyka • Zajuna ingu awarin neika reneikumana uya kuchu.• Zamu aninay ingwety apaw kunari neika.• Anzunusi ingwi kin me zari.• Du se kunari akweika ima ni achwun gwasi.• Zamu reyu neika se kunanukwa• Paperi akumana neika bunna ikusin nanungwa.• Xingwi uga gowga kutow aukwa kawa ankunnikumey uwa.  Zakʉnchosi niwi kunsʉkʉnʉ ʉnki´tasi ichʉ Zarisi chwi awkwasi ikʉ zu´kunsamusé tá.chwizunhasukwa bunna 5. pinna juna ichu zana kawa agrosaviazey neika jwa ku'si. Ema jwa kusi neikari mamu awiri amia jina powru umuriwa zanu winnari jwa winukusana ni .. iniciativa AgriLAC Resiliente Cesar.Foto: Adriana Patricia Tofiño Rivera nikamu ankawi anazoyaki annugabari ananchori uwari , azi nisi timasin kanikwuyano uwari ichu zarisi aukwasirigun nari wingow una, ingu diwun kaweikari anugwe rigun nikamu unkawi aukwey kawaba ta,ichu uman du kuzanikundi uwari . ingun eigwi neikari jwa kusa, du ankakusa zajuna nanun nuga emey awi uya winzariga riwiana neika nenun aburu gawi kase jwasungwasi .. emey anawi ingi ti anpunsi zwein nugari emey kawi chwizuna ni emy awarey chwizuna. (chwizunhasukwa bunna 5).Azi nisi kinkumaye ema zajuna ichu uman minmuchukwey neika powruse'ri.Ka Be du nanunno uwari se inanukwa anugwe rigun ankusinhey 1 gugin reguwa anugwe rigun ankusinhey/ apa' pa' chey zuna kujwasi.ema ankunikumey rimaseykumana neika naba tari , inu zarika awun me juri nanundi ka mamuse du kawin azari se kunariza nani, , kwa nanu nundi azuna naba chey gow neki awaki nukukwa name , atinkunu neki anugaba , murundwa anugaba neki gow awaki nukukwa name amu se awkwey zunnin azari waka uwaba zun gawkwey nariza ni. Emey anawi gun rimaseykuma ayey ankeykumana neika nanungwa nari.Ema zakuse gwa uweykari, iniki emi kwey uwari mowga naba renikwa uwa ni. Andin awiri okaku, ema andin zanu keiwu neikari sein zare keiwu zunna aukwa kawiza na ni, ema gun nunay kawi aukwey ka nanundi anikwuyaba ta, mamuse gwugaba ta , jumu zanamu mikunari kagumusin renusi.Ema dumusi aukwa nunay kawi narizuna ri , bbemaneki awkwey kwa neikari , in une nun ne awuki kase wamu sa awkwey kawa neika ri , ingu emey kwa gun anugwe si warunhamu kawa gun nundi , kunkuna, jirigaka , kanu anugay pranta anusi, nunay , jewu , je , gey , buntikunu, , muññu , birakoku , awiiri aju kagumu nanun nuga., aroma zuna ko regawi awkwa… (Ministerio de Cultura, 2016).iwa arukun nuga winazasikumey uweri du me zari kwukari, dume zari kwey awiri azi me zanu nari nanukwari ema kagumusin ema zakusin dikin renusi, be a gun yow niwekawaki un kundi yow inu iku pinna kwey uwa du arunkwa neikari , kagumu chow achwi nari keiwuri in une nun ne awunki meza sisa aukwa kuchu na ni . emey uwame aburu angawi aukwari sumu kujuna neika ni. Binzari neki zeyzey kagumu a zanungwasi, , uman kinki neikari em ainu anzarisi unge , bona angwasi… (Comunicación personal, Karen Zapata, 2022).gugin reguwa anugwe rigun ankusinhey/ zarigungwaba ke' uwari.mamu neikari amia winnaba nikamu awi igunamusuya neika ni, amia jinase gun uman du kawi nikamu awiza nari gun neri, ayei kawi anchunhey igwety nunay iniki awekuma uweri be zarikukwey mikunanunno keykumey uwa ni, ananugwa kwa ,,, (Comunicación personal, Adalberto Torres, 2022).ema anzarisi zweikweykari anikwuyaba ta nariza , kunsamu se' inusi.ema gun niwi andumari aukwa kutu abunna na nunno, chwey angawi unge chow achwi, bunsi ki zakusa awiri atugeku nenun kapin awi, chey anbori , chey anisi awiri uya ananika awi neri nunai kawi nikamu ankawi ukumuya (CIT, 2016).emey anuwarunhun nusi gakunamu kunsamu neika ikuzeyri.Jiwu ri iwa iniki kwuya tosukwey kwa za zaku nunna ni, , emey awi anugwe umuta kwey aukwa kujunin azunna ni, emey anawi jwi zu jwi timbiro kumu anisi kwakuma awi nareri, yow inu antakua una ni, kaweyka, awun kwa ingu kweika, emey awi ingwety zamu nunay du kawi aukwa kujunin ingwety diwun diwun dumusukwey kawi azari zoyana ni.emey anawi keiwu zamu neika pranta gow awi a kanikwuyaba ta nari gugu awekumey nanungwa nari chokumey zoyana ni, pranta neikari zakuse najunna se unana ni. (Barros, 2001, p 135)\".gugin reguwa: anugwe rigun durekukusi / ingwi yow. chuka azuna chuka azanu neikasin yow winpuri una.Aburu anugwe jinasin angawi jwi rekupasi ukumuyari ema anzasari ukumuya ni, ema kagumuse , yow inu pinna kwey uwa sirigun , chey angow unge , emey awi kase winkuya jina nenun wamu isa akwa name tikun rigay izasana ukumuya ni.Sanusí andimasay anukumun nunari umante azuna powruse zanu iku neika , agunkuya , bemay neki renosi zori andin kwa okaku dikin regow uwa ni, niwi niwimukuma awaki nuga, , kagumu , kun, je, buntikunu , ananuga, kagumu, zari zuna, gey, kwimagwe, camasa, jewu zu buru, , wiwi zaniga, pinna zari uwa yow, ema kagumuse kununna. Niwi ema kagumuri niwi nari kawi chuka azuna neika ni, dikin iniki awkwey niwi kunari. inune nun ne awunki (CIT, 2016, p. 125).anikwuyai nikamu anugwe rigun neika neikari ema makeiwa renikwa na'ba anikwuya ni , uya neikari chei angawi aukwa neika neikari uwarey gu'gu' awekumuyin .peiku amia kiwichana takun zoyana, kaku anugwe neikaseri kun bia ankeiwu eigwi annasizani kuyana , ema kun bi , kanu abeisi , uraku gawi , ey anuyeki kun bin nuseri de azuna ai keiwu nokwana emey anawi keiwu umuta neki nanu nari anugwe nari aukwey nariza ni azri keiwu arunhana ni (Barros, 2001, p. ).Zarika aukwa neikazey nary tima chwukwa.tiwa antakumuyin -makeiwa muru min nunge mayo timase.kujuna zarisi ,tima chwi . warin arukun nunge mayose awiri octubrese'. ananuga jina zamayun pana unge awiri buntikunu umun zanunge .inosi zanun nuga awiri antakumey zuna , jewu jwin.imunu eygwi, nabari tima febteroseri aburu angawi ukumey keywu nani, ey anuweri marzo pari azurai ri, manunka iku nankuraseri marzoseri kari ku annikun nuga ni azi ne jewu wanu ne nanunki niwi kanikwuya ni, ei anawundi bema neki bona awiza ni, ey anawi eimi pari inusi keiwu ichu kwa bema neki azariga ni. jewu jwin zuneri zamuya jinari ingu diwun yai me zanukwa ni, bema ananuga neki , sisio, sekunu , isu, , buntikunu , eyma yowkuchusin ankunbumanukwa kawa ni (Comunicación personal, Juan Sebastián Izquierdo, 2022).kwi winukunuga winzamay , peiku zamuya wi ni , isu awiri guacharaka keiwi chwizani si.tiki anpesi unge.powru iku neika se winwasuyeri , ema tiki anpesa keiwu uweri yow inu antakuma uwa ni, sisiori peiku anzamuya ani gwi nari isu anakun pana awiri kunkunun monu anakanun pana awi zoya ni, angeygwi keiwu yeikari buntikunu gwi unzun anawuyasin gwi nari sisio peiku annikunpuma ni , muchei neki anzamay ajua tiki jwim zamaya kwa kuzagichun zun . kwi kunga jima uyanke zun kwuyari winzamuya antakuma uwa ni, diwun keiwu anyun pari zoya ni jewu wanu nun keiwu angwa neri.monu zamuya ni, gwacharaka kinkumey, siseku, neikari tiki zunge zamuya ni, emari du kawi antakuma uwa ni, be sisiori llewu wanungwa nari neri eimari du iri tina yeika ni chuka azari zamay, iwa ki jewu wanunga neri ikunhari diwun yeika ni \"(Comunicación personal, Dwiawin maku Zalabata, 2022).rinisi zoya zarisi akweyka /78 jwia anzarika anawaki nunge pari azuray| ichu zayuna bunachuzey azunari punzunay powruse azarina ni , ema neikari umuriwa ,birwa ,awiri nabusimake .. ema neikari 80 jwia kuwarunhakumey.uya winuwa jinari diwun diwun awi sekunuse gukwey kau nari awiri du kawi anika awiza du kukusa una ni (chwizunhasukwa bunna 8).Azi kinki kawi wazwenno kunsamu nunaba ta ichu Ziti jwasi zweykwa nundi Iku'se nunaba ta chwizunhasukwa bunna 8. gunamu zajuna zariga neika powru umuriwa zanu.ema agachunhanase'ri azi kaho zi kuchunku ki no azafi se inanun nuga ni. Foto: Adriana Patricia Tofiño Rivera kunsamu neikari ingwety nikamu azey azey winukununa ni , cherwazey aikunu amiazey aikunu ema chey bunhasukwaba'ri:Kanu kwa inu neki bona awi itinsa awaki nungeri amia eymake nayamu neki kaho narizani, imunu eygwi antakukwey anzunge, tima menguante nabari antaka ukumuya ni wamu ikumu nangwasi, bechu zarika aukwa wertan iniki neki naku nungwasi, zamu iniki neki kubonu nari bonungwasi (Comunicación personal, Karen Zapata, 2022). emey anawi, iwa abiti iku nanun neikari anugwe naba du kawi aukwey kawi chey kapunkuya naba. Ema nikungwa neikari ankunnikumey atarigun zanusin nari anchunna ni, amia kumu ankasi aukwari ingwi yow rekwuya kumu kasi nanukwa ni, awiri igwi powru kumu kasi (Alejandra Izquierdo, 2020). yow warunkwa neikari , ema zamu zajona awizari, zarikukwari mayo awiri octubre azariga ni , emey anawi tima chwun nusi zarisi akwari zajuna corpoica zi kasa 39 neika tokumuya ni.Je idosi akwari magerase ta ukumuya ni, be 78 jwia zungeri antakukwey kawungwasi, ichu awiri in nanun nugari tima min nunge ukumuya ni, iwa inayun nugabari uman aziki nika uwa ni uman du kau nari (Carrera-García et al., 2012).Ichu naba kuwarunhakumaki nugari , tima chwi awi , amuka zanunge,, wamu ikumu nanungwasi, be tima min nunge kwa inayun nunge zarikundi awu sekunuse guya , ya tima wakun nugame, iwa makeymuru nekuri zamu uman sekunuse anguya kawi chwizunna un, , inu zarisi akwari tima chwukwa ingu amukuna ni.ikuse winukanikwuyaba ta,nanundi tima antakumey zoyai kaseri ema boriza ni winya jwasuya ni, zarisi , abeisi , sekunu, etc tima min nari kwa tima abiti nabari uman du neika izuna ni (Mera Andrade et al., 2017).Ichu ini azuna neikari iku chey kapunkuyai du kunariza ni, eima juna zamu nanun nugari ema ni , in , batata, ammu, ñame, irokwu , col, sibolla , ajua nenun, ichu neika caupí gadul, etc, emey awi anzori uwaba ayei andebori prantanu cacao awiri cafe.   ichu anina /du akusa akwari peti kwa ananuga jwe jwena naku nanungwa si na ni.nikamu riwi ukumey anzoyana ba ansekunariri , powru iku arhuaco neikari ga' ankungawi ,ankunsin'i ka du akusi jwe jwena ananuga naku nungwasi .. emey awi anzarika anawi nungeri uyanke twire ankeikumanari zajuna ankurebasa ukumuya na ni (chwizunhasukwa bunna 10 y chwizunhasukwa bunna 11). ey anuweri, powru ema zarisi akwari ema wasuyun: rimasey awungwa nungeri ankasa awkwa in une nun ne ungeki redanun neki nuku nariza ni, zeyzey kuzari zoriza ni, zeyzey , awiri binzari neki zeynari me zari , em aka niwekawun nugamme , inu anika uwari twigwi ataka uwa ni , ugunkuya zamusin (Comunicación personal, Jesús Torres, 2022).Emanabari, powru iku jwi si neikari ema yun niwi anzarisi akwuya neikasin zun akwuya ni prantanu, irokwu, Maranga,ñame, in,ichu , cacao, awiri kuñu. Ema zamu neika sigin agungwa nari sinamusin ukumuya ni, iwa ichu cacao awiri caferi ankungeysi umun ukumuya ni (CIT, 2016).Powru iku neikari jwi ipunari ikunha iniki winukujunuya ankungunamusukwey nanungwa nari , powruse, awiri ingwi yow powruse , uya anawi nabari aburu angawi aukwa nenun kunariza nani ankapinsin, iku se kununabata ri, eima neikari pinna tasi , ankurimasay , iku ananun nuga diwun diwu neika awiri powruse kanikwuya ba ta (CIT, 2016).ichu anina /du akusa akwari peti kwa ananuga jwe jwena naku nanungwa si na ni.zayun bunachuzey azunasin ichu bunna du mi kunanukwa nunno. ichu zayun bunachuzey azuna ri hierro mowga kununa ni ajua ichu gwasi kineki , emey anawi injokwu ichusin jugeri rekwuya nabari du mikunakukwa ni.ema ichu bunachuzey zayun azunari ikuse du kunariza ni . Anukuchori nabari ema agrosavia se anchunhungwa nari kununa ni , powru zanun nugaba ta nari kuwarunhey ukumana ukumungwa,. Emey anawi ikusin powru anugay neikasin ankunnugweri nari ingwi uman du kawi zamu nariza achunkwey nikungwasi , ayunu nari zweykwey nikun gwasi, ey anuweki ema andumari zwein nugaba ankuchwi nabari iniki unu akweyna isekunun ukumaki nugin ,ingu nikamu amiasin nenun antakumukwey name ema chey ingu apaneika dumusukwa naba awiri isekunanukwa naba… (Fchwizunhasukwa bunna 19).ema neykari , sumu rigawiana neikari sumu amia akumana chow agachu neika, inurino izuna , bemay pari arukunno iku , kwa kogi kwa bema neki, awiri bunsi kwa twikawa neki, ema anzari zoyabari sumu wamikumey anzoya anuwabari , diwun diwun zanisi zari, chuwizananmukwey , wamu ikumey , inu mikunana tana awi, wamu neika kawa akuma anawiri ikunha kumu zanamuri anayuri zori . emey anuweki uman kinki renisi zoyari amia nanun nuga neika ni, uya winnari nikamu awekumukwey neki kahu nari, ingu chey kapunkuyaba ,agunkwuya, agunsi,cominsaria,sakuka, ema iku neika. Zory zweikweyka renisi zweyn nuga , awiri pinnazey naba amukanun nuga. , nikamu anugwe nari mamuse wesun nuga , ikunha sey ankunchwi zorizuna amia iku naba , ema juna sanusiri chwewase zun aukwey kawi rebunna nunna (Izquierdo, 2020) (chwizunhasukwa bunna 20 y chwizunhasukwa bunna 21).Foto: Adriana Patricia Tofiño Rivera chwizunhasukwa bunna 20. sakuka winderwuna windermasay anchori awiza nanungwa. a. aurora izdo asoanei kureguga awiri alcira izdo amisi,gumusinu awiri zari zweingwa nari agaguna , b. awiri zirkunawia trr zakuka umuriwa zanu.ema ichu bunachuzey zayun azunari ikuse du kunariza ni . chwizunna dibuju bunna emey kawin mezanukwa.ayei mamu si rigaguna zajuna kubekumuyin So'Iku amia gaysunu i'ngwi tutu isun nusi .Niwingunamʉsʉya gʉ'gʉ awesi gakʉnamʉ jwasu neika . ʉ.agrosavia: dumari uwa Colombia kurigatasi, nunaba , pinzunai riwi, ingwety kurigamiri , … ema neikari sumu azarunkwa neika ni. Chwizanu nunay nikamu akumuya , ema zamu anisi awiza du umun kukumukwey nariza tasi ,.. renisi zwein gwasi.AgriLAC Resiliente: Azi nenun ne awunki azurin zweikwa naba, dikin nariza awiri ankubasi ankundumari uwa, america latina awiri caribe, ema jinasin nikamu reveci , niwikujuri uwa kurugekungwasi , zamu gukwa naba , zamu a azari bunna ingu ana yunsi powru azun uwa du akusi kumu ankasi , twire ankei ema agrosaviasin ankundumari. Ema powru cesar ema 2022 , seri apugena una ema iku si, ingwi canasta bori una , ichu , in , arroz awiri batata naba nunay kawi rebori.Anteras: Inuki, chwerwazey reneikua kwa reneikuya cherwazey kanuzey, uya neikari reneikuya naba kudumana uwa ni.Autopolinización: eygwi du kukusi , du kawi sekunari , flor inusi naba pinna kunari ajua kanu bona aukin, reyukumey naba renisi. Eymey anawi ha kingwi reneika awungwa ni , ema neikari uman uwa ey kawu akumey narizuna du nariza ni, ajwa kanu muchey kunariza neki ku neki.Biofortificación: iniki ikumana . ikuse kundumanun nuga , ema ankubori zoyai ingwety kanu uya dizunna , emey anawi gucha niwi muchiza uman du kuzanika awiza ni ,uman gey zoyay gucha minmuchi .Cultivos transgénicos: Inikisin reneikun gwakumana neikari ayei nunay kawi nakun nuga , uya neikari ingu maquina nusi uwaba nukamu kurigamina anawi , zarikungwa nari ,ananugase pari neika neki , iniki igu kawa , kwa ajua kun zarikukweyna, emey anawi ingwi eygwi abiti dumari akwa kuregusi , ema iniku idori du kukusi naba zun iasekununa ni,.Fecundación: renisi . emari ikunha reneisi naba ema akutu siku ,cherwazey sin, amia siku kinkuma unge amiase kununa , emey aawi cherwazey awiri amiazeysin ingwi annika anawi keiwi nunge ingwi kanu annusi kawi kwakumuya ni , imunu eygwi azarika awiri inay pana unge.Fontagro: Ema mieri neikari ingwi dikin nanukwey neika, ema zamu bori zoyaba neika america latina ayaba awiri España . ema agrosaviasin winunkurimaseyna nari, eima paperi akumana nari jwi ekupa una,ichu anei azunaiku america awiri cariwe winkuya, uyari ema ankurimasay uman du nariza kuretasi nabari , uman kumu aankasukwa takukwey nisi , uman gunu ihagaka uweku precio azunaba awiri uman karusi gukweyna iniki azuna nanun nuga. Ema kagumuse Colombia ichusi dumusuya ni gey akwaba. Dumanungwa nuneika ema kurigatasi chwizanu nunay neika ikuzey,. Ikunha winwaseyna anchunna agrosaviasin powru zanun nugay neikasi nunai kawa ankungunamusi snsm, ajua abiti nanun nugari , kawu akumey zoriza juri kakusiza nariza ni ,uyari bema powru amaseykumanundi nikamu awi aukweyka awiri kwey aukweyka niwi kanikwuyaba ta uzori , uyari iniki zana ankujwasi,ema juna neikari iniki pinna waseykwey kunariza winawi awun nuga arekwera zunai nikamu awun nuga nenun, wamu i kumana kwa wamu ikuma aukwey kawa ikunha kwa apowruse awiri ingwi yow aju iku , anugwe naba .KolFACI: nunaykawi dumanungwa nari anpekumey , gungwazey nari,ema corea awiri latinoamerica , atarigun zanu nanun nuga kolfaci , rimasay nari ankubexkumey ema agrosaviasin nunai kawi dumusi paperi ema pinna juna hichu nanun nuga ema wiwi zanika awiri ku zanika awi antakumey zwein nuga, ema kugi 2026 se,ey awiri ,ingwi nanun nugeikari ema ichu pinna juna nanun nuga,ema costa caribe colombiana aguekasin, ema dumukumun nukun guasi ayei niwikanikwuya neika yina iku pinna winanun nugeika ema gukweyna dumusi ingwety powru anugay neika.Pistilo: Akumana. Emari kunachu itinsuya nanun nuga reneikuya jinazey ni, uyari bukuna kununa ni ingu botella nari kawi, ey anawoi jwasia neika iminuga.Rigunsi: Gugin renosi nunay kAwi anchunhey niwikanikwuyaba ta.Du kukusi wamu ikumey zweyn nuga , sey ankunchwi nanu nugeyka gugin anchunhey anugwe naba.Anzasari dikin neika tasi ka se niwekawun nuga , ey awiri ajway zaqnu guamu niwekurekumana dikin riwari.Zhátukua: Mamusin sey ankunchwi se ankunari anugwe naba ta.Azi kinki kawi wazwenno kunsamu nunaba ta ichu Ziti jwasi zweykwa nundi Iku'se nunaba ta Duni yamu.Eima winguwa jina sumu kuchu zeyzey winazari duni alcaldía kuyun nuga, pinna neika iku zu sakuku , emey anawi , ema asonei,zakuku tairona zanu paperi neika ID 1001513, obtaining tolerant bean varieties-KOLFACI kplfaci zunaba jwisin winazasari, awi pinna nari zamu aniga neika anpesun nuga ID 1002408. ","tokenCount":"3629"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0180c94a45a24322d940bae0a41d6a51","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0a95d6ac-e438-446e-932d-4447b701f4c3/retrieve","id":"218654040"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9867e86-0f12-425c-9c7b-a3c5c178e05e","pagecount":"67","content":"and Ukraine. IPGRI's mandate is to advance the conservation and use of plant genetic resources for the benefit of present and future generations. IPGRI works in partnership with other organizations, undertaking research, training and the provision of scientific and technical advice and information, and has a particularly strong programme link with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Financial support for the research agenda of IPGRI is provided by the Governments of Australia,The European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR)Within the framework of ECP/GR, a meeting on maize genetic resources was organized in Rome 28-29 May 1996. The objectives of the meeting were:• to discuss the needs and the opportunity to establish a European Maize Database and to consider the offer made by the Maize Research Institute 'Zemun Polje' in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to host and maintain the database; • to discuss the project prepared by the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA, France) in response to the second call from the European Community on the conservation, characterization and collection of genetic resources in agriculture with the aim \"of constituting a European core collection from the different national collections of maize landraces\". The project involves seven European countries, all members of ECP/GR (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain); • to consider other opportunities for collaboration in Europe within the area of maize genetic resources. The meeting was attended by 21 participants from 16 countries, FAO and IPGRI (see list of participants, Appendix I). Thomas Gass, ECP/GR Coordinator and Director of IPGRI's Regional Office for Europe, welcomed the participants and asked them to introduce themselves briefly. Prof. R.H. Ellis was elected Chair of the meeting. He presented the objectives of the meeting and its agenda, which was adopted by the participants.Thomas Gass ECP/GR Coordinator, IPGRI, Rome, Italy Thomas Gass summarized the historical background of the Programme, underlining its catalytic role in increasing the flow of information among its members. He pointed out the new context of Phase V of the Programme, particularly the importance of the preparatory process for the International Conference on Plant Genetic Resources to be held in Leipzig, Germany, 17-23 June 1996. He described the new structure of ECP/GR as modified at the fifth meeting of the Technical Consultative Committee held in Nitra, Slovak Republic, September 1995. The Programme now consists of ten broadly focused networks within which activities are carried out by standing working groups or through ad hoc actions.Given the absence of a formally established ECP/GR maize working group, the possibility of ensuring the continuity of activities which would be undertaken in the area of maize genetic resources further to the present meeting was discussed. T. Gass explained that this type of meeting illustrated the flexibility granted by ad hoc activities, which would allow a satisfactory follow-up of the progress made. He indicated to the participants that the Steering Committee of ECP/GR will decide by the end of Phase V (end of 1998) which Working Groups will be maintained, closed or possibly established. of material. Most of the private seed compagnies also maintain genetic resources (inbred lines, synthetics, populations and research material).A total of 1236 populations and synthetics were intensively studied between 1983 and 1993 in the framework of the Programme Populations Sources (PPS). This material includes 270 local landraces and 64 synthetics originating from France, the others mostly from European countries. The programme was carried out by Pro-Maïs, an association including both public and private breeders, in collaboration with six INRA laboratories. A high degree of intrapopulation variability was found among temperate accessions for agronomic traits and isoenzymatic polymorphism. A methodology based on RFLP analysis for the development of a core collection is being established, based on the 270 local landraces populations originating from France, which have been fully characterized. All accessions are now regenerated yearly by all partners. A coordination role is played by the INRA laboratory in Montpellier where these resources are stored for medium-and long-term conservation. The collection now comprises 920 landraces from the temperate countries, 100 from the Carribean region and 410 large basic accessions (synthetics, composites).Additionally, 4600 inbred lines are stored and regenerated by two INRA maize laboratories in Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Martin-de-Hinx.Peter Goertz presented the national situation in relation to the breeders' needs. With 1.5 million ha in cultivated area, maize is an important crop in Germany. Genetic resources are conserved in two major genebanks:• the largest collection is maintained at the Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben (1273 accessions, fully evaluated); • a small collection of 53 accessions is held by the Institute of Crop Science, Federal Research Center for Agriculture (FAL), in Braunschweig. Passport data are available from both genebanks. Additional research or breeding collections are kept by the Institute of Plant Breeding of the University of Höhenheim, in Stuttgart; the Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture, in Witzenhausen, and the Bayrische Landesanstalt für Pflanzenbau, University of Weihenstephan.Several national private seed companies have an active maize breeding programme but the accessions kept in the genebanks are scarcely used for applied breeding, owing to a lack of knowledge about their breeding value. More prebreeding work at the level of genebanks and accessibility of data to the current maize breeders are required for better utilization of these collections.Georgios Evgenidis stressed that the development of maize cultivation in Greece, at the southern limits of the European 'corn belt', was made possible thanks to modern irrigation techniques and the introduction of hybrids, but the production costs remain high. Because of their low productivity, the traditional landraces were rapidly replaced by the highly productive American dent corn hybrids. Attempts to rescue old landraces started in the mid-1960s. Collections are maintained at the Cereal Institute of Thessaloniki (71 accessions) and at the Gene Bank, which was founded later and established in the same area (184 accessions). Characterization of these landraces is not complete yet and no evaluation has been carried out so far. The collections also include 110 foreign populations from different countries obtained from other international institutes. This material constitutes a source for new hybrids.Loek van Soest reported on the maize collection held by CGN, the Dutch multicrop genebank. The collection includes only material of species Zea mays and consists of 488 accessions, with only one landrace from the Netherlands. The original collection of approximately 1000 accessions was rationalized by excluding hybrids (90), inbred lines (140) and material received from other genebanks including CIMMYT, Mexico and the Institute for Agrobotany, Tapiószele, Hungary. The maize collection has the status of a working collection. Nearly 60% of the accessions are landraces, including some unique material collected in Pakistan in 1976 and1981. The whole collection is regenerated and available to users. The accessions are characterized for a set of 15 agromorphological traits, according to a minimal descriptors list developed by CGN with the advice of private breeding firms. The passport data and available characterization data are documented in GENIS (GENetic Resources Information System), the data information system of CGN. However, the requests for material are very low; since 1987 only 73 accessions have been distributed.Zygmunt Królikowski gave a general report of maize collections in Poland, where it is grown mostly for cattle feed. Part of the local material was lost after World War II owing to population migrations. Collecting in the region of Krakow provided the highest number of landraces.Maize germplasm collections are kept by two stations of the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR): long-term storage in Radzikow and short-term storage at Smolice. The collection is regenerated according to the age, quality and viability of seeds. A number of requests for seed are received from different countries, for purposes ranging from breeding and evaluation to very basic research. At IHAR, the genetic diversity of the germplasm is studied through isoenzyme polymorphism.Silas Pego indicated that since 1975, the Portuguese Plant Germplasm Bank (BPGV) has been carrying out systematic germplasm collecting and was able to save most of the Portuguese landraces of maize, together with the other minor components of the traditional agricultural systems. The conservation activities undertaken by BPGV proved providential given the tremendous genetic erosion which took place during the last 20 years. This erosion, together with the considerable drop in maize area in the same period, is seen as a consequence of the implementation of the Community Agricultural Policy (CAP). Mr Pego stressed the socioeconomic and environmental implications of the change from polycropping to monocropping systems in Portugal, particularly the negative impact on small farmers.In the framework of its commitment as the IPGRI Maize Base Collection for the Mediterranean Region, the BPGV holds a total of 6632 maize accessions, comprising landraces (1740, out of which 1166 are already characterized); breeding materials and inbred lines (4526) and genepools (366). Three catalogues with the data of 900 accessions already characterized will be published during summer 1996.Mr Pego stressed the role of breeding as the natural bridge to fill the gap between conservation and utilization, and the urgency of building up a prebreeding programme which should contemplate germplasm enhancement, preliminary evaluation from a breeder's point of view, and the need for developing new methodologies for a first prebreeding approach.Marcel Avramiuc reported on the status of the maize national collection of Romania. The collection comprises 11 239 accessions distributed among the Suceava Genebank (3188 accessions) and six other institutions. The Suceava Genebank is the only institution involved in medium-term conservation. The other institutions keep field collections for research and breeding purposes. The maize germplasm is evaluated using standardized descriptors; however, only Suceava Genebank uses the complete list of IBPGR Descriptors for Maize. Since 1989 the genetic resources in Romania are documented in a database using SIRAG, an application of FoxPro. In the national maize collections, half of the accessions are documented for passport data and conservation data, and less than 50% of characterization-evaluation data are computerized.Jesus Moreno-Gonzalez described the collections of maize landraces in Spain.• The Spanish Centre of Genetic Resources (CRF) in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and the germplasm bank of the Mision Biológica de Galicia (MBG) in Pontevedra conserve the collection obtained through the first classification of maize races in Spain: 462 accessions were analyzed and recombined to form a collection of 49 races and subraces. Mr Moreno-Gonzalez also introduced the National Coordination Project on Maize Genetic Germplasm which involves the abovementioned collections. The objectives are to compile an inventory of all national accessions and to identify duplicates; to regenerate the accessions with low seed viability; to characterize maize samples based on secondary morphological and important agronomic traits; and to establish dissimilarity groups in order to form a core collection in each of the specific collections of CIAM, MBG and Aula Dei.Bozena Ryšavá referred to the presentation of Z. Stehno for the historical background of the maize collection in the Slovak Republic and added that characterization data are recorded according to the National Descriptor List Species Zea mays L. The list comprises 19 passport descriptors and 115 evaluation descriptors and taxonomic codes are also provided.The maize collection is held by Zeainvent, the recently privatized research station of Trnava. It includes 134 regional populations of Slovak origin, 32 hybrids from domestic breeding, 102 varieties and 1362 inbred lines of various countries of origin. Further detail on the research work carried out at by Zeainvent can be found in the section Review of National Collections.Asuman Oguz reported on the maize genetic resources activities in Turkey. Landraces have been collected since 1964, mainly from the Black Sea and Marmara Region of Turkey. The national maize collection totals 1159 accessions including 1135 populations from Turkey and 24 research materials. Collecting is still a priority to fill gaps, especially in the regions of Turkey which have never been visited for collecting. The documentation system uses dBase (dBase 3+, dBase 4, dBase for Windows) and records passport data, storage data and evaluation data. Characterization of accessions started in 1995. At present 812 accessions are almost completely characterized for 22 agronomic and morphological characters. The characterization of these accessions is expected to be completed by 1997.Richard Ellis indicated that there are no conservation activities on maize in the UK. Most information is in the hands of the private sector and thus not easily accessible. Varieties are imported from France and Germany principally. Interest in maize as a forage crop has increased greatly recently.Mr Radovic stressed the importance of maize in Yugoslavia. The maize Gene Bank today maintains 5466 accessions, including 2178 local cultivars and 3298 introduced genotypes from 40 countries. Material is rejuvenated on a regular basis in the experimental fields of the Gene Bank in Zemun Polje, Belgrade. The IBPGR Descriptors for Maize are used for characterization, evaluation and documentation. The documentation system is computerized under Access v.2.0. The material is stored under medium-term conditions. Local material is given priority research attention, as being unique and unrecoverable. Now considered as national wealth, this material was collected from 1960 to 1990 from all agroecological sites and therefore the collection might be considered complete. The classification of local populations through taxonomic and agronomic analysis identified 16 major agro-ecological groups, confirmed recently by the numerical taxonomy method. Each group (ecotype) has distinctive common characters, which could be used as different donors in the maize breeding programmes.Utilization of local germplasm by breeders could be enhanced. To reduce a great number of accessions to a manageable proportion, the development of a core collection has been proposed.The status of maize genetic resources in Europe D. Jelovac Maize Research Institute 'Zemun Polje', Belgrade, F.R. YugoslaviaIn preparation for the meeting and to provide a rapid appraisal of the status of maize collections in Europe, a questionnaire was sent out to all participants before the meeting by the Maize Research Institute 'Zemun Polje'. D. Jelovac presented a synthesis of the results. To cover all European countries, the data received in reply to the questionnaire were complemented where necessary with data from the Directory of European Institutions Holding Crop Genetic Resources Collections published by FAO/IPGRI in 1995. Results are presented in Table 1 (European Maize collections).A total of 71 801 maize accessions were recorded for 22 European countries, ranging from material of local and introduced origin to samples that have undergone breeding. They include local populations, populations obtained through exchange, synthetic populations, composites and inbred lines from domestic and foreign sources. A high proportion of duplicates is to be expected between the European collections.D. Jelovac pointed out that there were more than 20 000 accessions for which the type of material was not defined. However, this high number is because only general figures were available for Russia and Ukraine.When a classification is given, the terminology used is heterogeneous and sometimes inaccurate, e.g. for the notions of synthetic and composite populations, local variety, local population, landrace. The term \"research material\" may cover any other category. In the perspective of the establishment of a common database, the highest priority would be to identify the material type in a nonambiguous manner and to decide which material should be included in the database.The level of documentation of the collections varies widely from one national collection to another, although it can be assumed that this level is usually higher for small collections and for samples of local origin. The IBPGR Descriptors for Maize are widely used. Some countries use lists established at national level (Czech Republic) or regional level (e.g. Bulgaria, using the COMECON descriptors lists). D. Jelovac noted that the molecular descriptor level is not documented presently.The level of software compatibility is satisfactory. Most national collections have computerized data. In spite of the variety of softwares used (dBase III, IV, V, Excel, FoxPro, Access, Oracle, SAS, Widas -see Table 1) they all have compatible export formats (dbf format). Data exchange could be easily performed between the existing systems.The FAO World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources (WIEWS/PGR) J. Serwinski FAO, Rome, Italy A database report presenting the European collections of maize recorded in WIEWS was distributed to the participants. The database was updated for the publication of the fourth edition of the Directory of European Institutions Holding Crop Genetic Resources Collections in 1995. The \"metadata\" (i.e. not at accession level) contained in the database showed some differences with the results given by the questionnaire, confirming the necessity to define accurately the material considered. It was also noted that the FAO database records all accessions, local or introduced, and that, in the context of a crop-specific database, emphasis is sometimes on local material. The Programme Populations Sources (PPS) was carried out from 1983 to 1993 to conserve temperate populations and synthetics and to enhance the knowledge of this material and therefore its value for breeders. The total number of 1236 accessions includes 270 local landraces and 64 synthetics from France. For all these populations, evaluation data were documented under dBase and analyzed with SAS.In complement to the PPS programme and in view of establishing a national core collection, the 270 local French populations were more thoroughly studied for different traits and also documented in dBase: passport data, phenological, morphological and ecogeographic traits were recorded. For some populations, further characterization was based on RFLP techniques which proved superior to isoenzymes to discriminate between populations.Use of the database:• passport data are freely available, but breeding results are restricted to breeders participating in the programme. They should be made available within a few years. Only the information concerning the French local landraces is freely available; • most of the descriptors correspond to the IBPGR Descriptors for Maize; Boyat indicated that the data selected for inclusion in the European database could easily be transferred under Access and possibly be loaded on the Internet.Boyat also outlined a project for the constitution of a European Core Collection, due for submission in June 1996 in response to the second call from the European Programme on the Conservation, Characterization, Collection and Utilization of Genetic Resources in Agriculture (see details in Review of National Collections).Drazen Jelovac introduced the documentation system for maize genetic resources developed by the Maize Research Institute 'Zemun Polje' along two different approaches:• germplasm conservation, covering all classical genebank activities including characterization, evaluation and multiplication, with all stages being documented; • germplasm utilization, in relation to the existing prebreeding programme on local material. Jelovac presented the screens of the database system, which was recently transferred under Access. The relational database contains tables for passport data (including photographs of the accession when available), collection data, characterization and primary evaluation, further characterization and evaluation.The descriptors are recorded over a period of 3-4 years and the average value is entered in the general table. However, it is also possible to look up data on a year by year basis.Jelovac's presentation raised the following discussion issues:• the notion of access to data versus availability of the material;• the need/possibility of providing data recording the experimental conditions for the measurement of each trait; • the need to specify the difference between characterization data (independent from agronomical value) and evaluation data (for direct application).Zdenek Stehno indicated that the documentation system for plant genetic resources is standardized at the national level. All crop databases use the same software, EVIGEZ, based on FoxPro v. 2.5 for DOS. The maize database comprises three parts: passport data, characterization and evaluation data, genebank management data. Data are linked by a unique national accession number.Further to the regional and national presentations, the motivations for the establishment of a European Maize Database (EMDB) were discussed by the participants. The national reports showed a wide variety in the status of collections and a rather low level of activity by the national programmes. Given this situation, it was necessary to address the basic questions: why, and for whom to establish a database. Two approaches were considered:• \"conservation-oriented\" database: established to keep a record of all collections/genebanks with priority given to passport data; in this case, issues such as the uniqueness of the material would be predominant. Characterization and evaluation data could be included to serve further prebreeding activities, further research such as gene mapping or further collection of material; • \"use-oriented\" database: while maintaining data on all accessions, emphasis is on making valuable maize genetic resources available to the international community (breeders/researchers) directly linked to prebreeding activities. Characteristics such as combining ability and inbreeding status, ecogeographic adaptation, agronomic traits, resistance to biotic and abiotic factors must be well documented.It was noted that to guarantee their source of funding, genebanks are often bound by political requirements to prove that the conserved material is being used. Thomas Gass also pointed out that the aspect of application to agriculture is an important criterion for approval of projects at the EU level. It was agreed that the usefulness of the database is to be regarded as highest priority.Specific aspects of maize also were mentioned: the demand for maize genetic resources is very different from that of other crops such as wheat or potato. The interest in wild relatives is not very relevant and their use in breeding systems of maize is low. The experience of the Dutch Genebank, for instance, shows that the number of requests for maize are much lower than for most of the other crops maintained by CGN.To help in the assessment of the users' needs, P.G. Goertz gave a general overview of maize in Europe, stressing the economic importance of this crop and highlighting breeders' views of the situation. Maize was introduced into Europe at the beginning of the 16th century, and is now grown in almost all European countries. Regarding cultivation area, Europe comes before the USA with 25 million ha for silage and 15-20 million ha for grain production. Three major environments or 'subregions' can be identified in Europe for the cultivation of maize: northern (silage), central (grain) and southern (grain). Almost all varieties have in common the fact that they are sown annually from hybrid seed, which has high economic implications. Over 600 000 t of seeds are sown per year. The genetic variability of maize in current farmers' fields is narrow.The immediate economic value of an accession is sometimes very low. For the breeder, the value of a collection lies in the following questions:• what can the collection contribute toward solving the problems of current maize growing? • what is the breeding value of each accession?• are the accessions available and under what conditions?The information needed at the accession level by a breeder includes ecogeographical data, kernel texture, value for grain or forage, heterotic patterns, quality traits (for food, feed or industrial use), major simple inherited traits (e.g. root lodging), resistance to biotic and abiotic factors (drought, salinity, resistance to pests and diseases).In conclusion, P.G. Goertz identified four major needs for collaboration on maize genetic resources:• long-term germplasm conservation, regardless of its current agronomic value or potential application to agriculture; • identification of accessions that are particularly valuable for their agronomic characteristics (in relation to farmers' needs); • establishment of a common prebreeding programme (e.g. ProMaïs in France), covering the three major agro-ecological European subregions listed above, and close interaction with worldwide prebreeding activities, particularly the Latin America Maize Project (LAMP)/CIMMYT, which involves 11 Latin American countries and the United States (objective: \"evaluation of over 12 000 landrace collections and identification of elite landrace varieties\"); • the United States Germplasm Enhancement -Maize Project (US GEM) involving 21 companies and 34 cooperators in the public sector (objective: \"introgression of some elite LAMP landrace collections into their source materials\").The establishment of the European Maize Database was also discussed in the light of the information given by Armand Boyat on the European project to be submitted by France in June 1996 in response to the second call from the European Programme on the Conservation, Characterization, Collection and Utilization of Genetic Resources in Agriculture. This project involves seven European countries, all members of ECP/GR: France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain. It aims to constitute a European core collection, following the model used for the building of the national core collection, with the following steps:• choice of descriptors in order to build up a common database for the 3000 or more European landraces (primary and secondary descriptors to be collected and recorded into the database); • definition of a restricted collection at country level, based on passport, phenological and morphological data. This step would be carried out at national level to make use of the good knowledge of this material by national breeders and because of the high total number of accessions. It would be impossible to study all accessions in the same locations and avoid important genotype x environment interactions. This step should reduce the number of accessions to about one-third and allow the identification of a 'restricted' collection which would be further studied as follows: • molecular characterization of the restricted collection through RFLP techniques: study of DNA neutral polymorphism to reveal relevant genetic structure among populations and to build the European core collection on allelic richness; • evaluation of the European core collection according to the criteria needed by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in a common multilocal network.The project would contribute to the conservation of genetic resources in the most cost-effective way and allow access to exchangeable resources from other countries. Maize genetic resources would be conserved under the responsibility of each country to manage its own resources rather than by a highly centralized management. This would also help to avoid the duplication now prevailing between collections of the different countries. Efforts would be set on the accessions of the European core collection which would be the primary target for exchanges. This approach could easily be extended to any new country wishing to access the European core collection.The project raised great interest and it was agreed by the participants that there is no conflict of objectives between the creation of a European Maize Database and this European project, since they address different levels: the latter is restricted to prebreeding activities on local landraces whereas the common database would include all types of maize genetic resources. It was also noted that if the European project were adopted, a good level of coordination would be necessary to ensure its complementarity with the EMDB and an efficient dissemination of information at national and international levels.Recognizing that the centralization of data would facilitate their management and improve collaboration between the genebanks throughout Europe, the participants agreed that the establishment of a European Maize Database would contribute to meeting the needs listed above.Objectives of the EMDB The objectives of the EMDB were summarized as follows:• to identify a unique and complete set of accessions usable in prebreeding activities, including local material and material collected worldwide, when its conservation cannot be guaranteed in its original area; • to enable rationalization of the collections and so prioritize conservation activities; • to provide a digest of European collections for worldwide use. It was unanimously agreed that these data would be made freely available to all interested users.Drazen Jelovac reminded the meeting of the willingness of the Maize Research Institute in Belgrade to host and maintain the EMDB, indicating that the maintenance of the maize database would be a contribution in kind of Yugoslavia to ECP/GR.The offer of the Maize Research Institute in Yugoslavia to establish and maintain the European Maize Database was formally and gratefully accepted by all delegates and the following session was dedicated to the practical aspects of its implementation.The first step was to define the type of material to be entered in the database in a nonambiguous way to ensure consistency of the data provided. A technical discussion led to the adoption of the following definitions for categories of material inspired and modified from the IBPGR Descriptors for Maize (item 2.11: population type, renamed here \"accession type\" to avoid ambiguity). Remark: genetic stocks or mutants should be included under 1, 4 or 5 and indicated in a \"special value\" field using a standard symbol.Reference was made to the list of standard 'multicrop' passport descriptors prepared jointly by FAO and IPGRI in response to the general need for better standardization of crop databases. This list, still in draft form at the time of the meeting, served as a working document. The participants suggested a few modifications to make it more appropriate for maize, resulting in the version given below.• Institute code (C 6) Code of the institute where the accession is maintained (consisting of 3-letter ISO country code plus number) using INST.DBF institute code as provided by FAO/IPGRI • Accession number (C 12) This number serves as a unique identifier for accessions and is assigned when an accession is entered into the collection. Once assigned this number should never be re-assigned to another accession in the collection. Even if an accession is lost, its assigned number is still not available for re-use. Letters should be used before the number to identify the genebank or national system (e.g. IDG indicates an accession that comes from the genebank at Bari, Italy; CGN indicates an accession from the genebank at Wageningen, The Netherlands; PI indicates an accession within the USA system) Bearing in mind the fundamental objectives set for the EMDB, i.e. its usefulness to breeders and the rational management of collections, the choice of relevant descriptors was discussed at length. Final agreement was reached on the following characters:• earliness (recorded by numbers of days to silking, done at the country level); • kernel type: colour/texture (cf. IBPGR Descriptors for Maize);• specific traits such as resistance to stress and diseases (cf. IBPGR Descriptors for Maize). It was agreed that coding rules (numeric/alphabetical scales) would be defined and forwarded to all participants by the database manager (see below).The database manager will accept data sent in any of the following formats: ASCII, .dbf or .xls.The data will be provided in English.If accessions have already been identified as duplicates, the data sent for inclusion in the EMDB should be restricted to one accession.The following workplan was accepted:• Database structure: by the end of June 1996, a draft structure of the database will be elaborated by the EMDB manager, D. Jelovac, and sent to all participating members for approval and comments. In case of disagreement between members, the final decision concerning the structure to be adopted remains the responsibility of the database manager. It was also decided that the final definition of the database structure should not be finalized before October 1996, to allow for the integration of any major outcomes of the Joint EGDS-ECP/GR workshop to be held in Budapest, Hungary on the theme 'Central crop database, tools in plant genetic resources management'. • The official call for data will be sent by the database manager in November 1996.• Provision of data (via the national focal point for maize): each country gave a tentative schedule as indicated below:• October 1996: Czech Republic, Portugal (complete catalogues will be published very soon and the equivalent set of data can be sent immediately), Slovak Republic; • January 1997: Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy (existing data), the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Turkey; • February 1997: Romania; • March 1997: Greece; • January 1998: Italy (new data not processed yet).• By March 1997 all data should have been received and merged in the EMDB.No data are to be expected from the United Kingdom where the collections are all of external origin.If the project is accepted, a meeting of the partners will be followed by a wider meeting including the complete group of the present ad hoc meeting, to be organized early 1997. It was noted that the project would provide an excellent model for further and wider collaboration in making maize genetic resources useful.1The meeting made recommendations to the Steering Committee of ECP/GR that a second meeting on maize genetic resources be held once the EMDB is implemented. The objectives of this second meeting would be to focus on rationalization for enhancement of utilization and prebreeding issues.The Recommendations were reviewed and approved by the participants. The group expressed its thanks to the organizers of the meeting and to the Chair, Prof. Richard Ellis.The maize situation in Austria W. Kainz Bundesamt für Agrarbiologie, 4020 Linz, AustriaIn Austria the cultivated area for maize totals 270 000 ha including 170 000 ha for grain and about 100 000 ha for silage production.The cultivation of maize increased substantially after World War II from west to east, owing to topographic and climatic conditions, and the introduction of short-period varieties resulting from maize breeding.Since maize is a relatively new crop, Austria is rather poor in maize landraces: At present the Genebank maintains plant samples in hermetically sealed glass containers or vacuum packages made of laminated aluminium foils at -18°C and 5-6% grain moisture contents. The active collection is preserved at +6°C and approximately 50% air humidity. Database management of the preserved collections is carried out by a computer centre. The collection is enriched and studied according to the following scheme: The collection has been constituted in several steps. At the beginning of the existence of the institute as a gene resource centre in 1977, the first step was the gathering of plant collections all over the country (at the former institute of introduction in Sofia and other local breeding centres). The second step was the exchange of material with other genebanks and the third step is illustrated by the collecting expeditions for local varieties and old cultivars in the country.The collection now includes the following material: At the time of initial acquisition of the material a single reproduction was carried out, aiming at getting enough seeds for long-term preservation. The descriptions were made according to the international COMECON descriptors (the economic organization of the former socialist countries) during three consecutive years. The data obtained were submitted to the computer centre.Up to the present, two types of descriptors with different coding systems have been used, which is still a problem for database standardization: until 1985, the descriptors came from the 1977 edition of the COMECON list; since 1985, from the 1984 edition of COMECON list. As a result the information obtained might concern different characteristics.Collecting and study of the local corn populations is of great importance in Bulgaria. Owing to the great activity of the Institute of Maize in Kneja in 1950-54 and 1956-57, over 1000 samples were collected from 80 regions in the country. Later they were used as the basis for the national corn programme. Since 1979 several expeditions have been carried out and it is now considered that the major part of the corn population present in the country has been collected. This activity is still ongoing but it is getting more and more difficult to find true local landraces, as during the last 30 years the main corn production in Bulgaria was based on hybrids.At present the collection includes approximately 1000 local varieties and old cultivars, all undergoing thorough testing and studying.Inbred lines: most of them originate from the Bulgarian landraces. Some are recognized foreign lines which have been preserved, such as C103, Mo17, B73. The remaining lines are characterized by valuable breeding parameters and some are approved as possessors of specific genes (Wx, sh, Su, O 2 ). Synthetics: all synthetics established in Bulgaria, and others from USA, Europe, Asia. Foreign landraces: exotic germplasm. Bulgarian landraces and populations. Slovak region suitable for maize growing. The collection was transferred to this institute and has developed intensively since then. • During the 1970s and 1980s, the documentation system on plant genetic resources was developed at RICP Prague. After its completion, the data on maize collection were included in the system for a high percentage of accessions. • In 1989, construction of the genebank in RICP Prague was completed and the genebank started its activity. Since then a large part of the maize collection has been transferred to the medium-term storage facility.Period 2• Since 1993 the above activities have continued in the Czech Republic.• The data are maintained with the documentation system EVIGEZ in RICP Prague. The system and data for Slovak collections are available also from RICP Pieštany. Seed samples are still stored in the genebank in Prague. They will be kept there until the opening of the Slovak Gene Bank in RICP Pieštany.• For the future we intend to prepare a 'safety-duplication system' between the Czech and Slovak maize collections, as for other groups of genetic resources.The base for the Czech maize collection will be the original material from the Czech part of the former Czechoslovakia and the most valuable parts of the collection gathered by the RIM Trnava. The Czech genebank will be responsible for the Czech maize collection.A collection of maize genetic resources should be re-established in the Czech Republic in view of the safety-duplication programme and also because maize breeding takes place in the country. The growing area of maize in the Czech Republic is not negligible. Within the last five years, maize was cultivated for silage on 275 000-340 000 ha and grain maize occupied 26 000-34 000 ha.The seed samples maintained in the Czech genebank consist of 106 populations and local cultivars, 30 cultivars and 846 research materials (mostly lines). In total 982 samples are stored in the Czech genebank. Among them 627 accessions represent material of local origin. The accessions are kept as a part of the active collection. Seeds are dried down to 6-7% moisture content and maintained under a permanent temperature of -5 o C. The containers are glass jars with vapourproof lids containing silica gel.The database is managed by our own user software -EVIGEZ, based on FoxPro 2.5 (DOS) -and is divided into three parts:• passport data: up to 33 descriptors can be registered;• characterization and evaluation data can be recorded for up to 110 descriptors using a 1 to 9 scale, according to the national descriptor list published in 1986; • genebank management represents the third part of the database. All three parts are linked mutually by the national accession number, the unique identification of the accession.Passport data are available for 1402 accessions (1165 lines, 102 cultivars and 135 populations). All data are available from the database and selected passport descriptors were published in the Catalogue of Crop Genetic Resources in Czech and Slovak Collections -Volume II -Other Crops -Prague, 1995.Evaluation data have been registered for 1352 accessions, but only selected characters have been evaluated according to the national maize descriptor list. Maize is one of the major crops in France with 3.3 million ha for grain and silage production. Its success is mainly due to the introduction of early hybrids at the beginning of the 1960s into new areas. Extension toward northern European regions is due to the very good forage value of maize silage and the high productivity of this crop. INRA played a very important role with the creation of the first early flint inbred lines from local populations: F2 and F7 originate from the Lacaune landrace. Private and cooperative breeding companies have developed this activity, and more than 25 of them are presently working to create the future new inbred lines and hybrids. Pro-Maïs is the major association of public and private maize breeders, where scientific exchanges are numerous and lead to collaboration in research programmes.Local populations are no longer grown in France but were collected before extinction and stored as genetic resources to preserve genetic diversity and genetic progress for future agriculture. A cooperative programme focusing on these populations was developed, starting in 1983, between six INRA laboratories and most of the Pro-Maïs members, with the financial support of French ministries. This programme illustrates the importance of these resources for breeders, even if their utilization may be the result of a very long process. Two types of material can constitute genetic resources: populations (heterozygous status) managed by an INRA laboratory in Montpellier, and inbred lines (homozygous status) managed by several laboratories and institutions. Maize is not of European origin, so only ex situ conservation will be considered.In the same time and as for other species of economic importance, a 'Charte Nationale des Ressources génétiques' is being elaborated in France to define the commitment of all partners -public institutions, private companies and associations -for the conservation of genetic resources. This charter intends to give a general and coherent framework, to help the research work on genetic resources and to develop the economical aspects and value of these materials. A specific charter will be specially dedicated to maize.The programme carried out in France from 1983 to 1993 under the name Programme Populations Sources (PPS) is intended to conserve temperate populations and synthetics, to gain a better knowledge of this material and to enhance its value for breeders (Gallais et al. 1992). Out of 1236 accessions, 270 local landraces and 64 synthetics originated from France, others mainly from European countries.Conservation. All populations are regenerated on the basis of 200 full-sib ears per population, in an annual programme. The participation of INRA laboratories and Pro-Maïs members allows the high total cost to be acceptable to everyone. J. Dallard (INRA, Montpellier) is the coordinator of this network. All accessions are kept in ex situ conditions. For long-term storage, a sample of 600 kernels is stored in a freezer at the INRA Station in Mauguio. For security, a second sample is stored elsewhere. For utilization, 10 samples are kept in a cold room at the INRA Station in Mauguio (5°C, about 40% RH). Recently, we improved the conditions of seed conservation to extend the term of conservation to 20-25 years and to reduce the cost of genetic resource conservation. Seeds are dehydrated to a relative humidity of the maize kernel close to 7% in special dehumidification equipment for 2 months. Seeds are stored in laminated aluminium foil packets containing 600 kernels.The variability of temperate local populations and synthetics was studied on both the per se evaluation of agronomic traits and the analysis of isoenzymatic polymorphism. This study showed a large intrapopulation variability for these characters (Lavergne 1988;Lefort-Buson et al. 1991;Garnier-Géré 1992). However, the analysis of their hybrid combining ability on three complementary testers for grain production and on two complementary testers for silage production showed that these populations could not be easily classified into groups of specific combining ability (Lavergne et al. 1991;Garnier-Géré 1992; DGAP-INRA Groupe Maïs et Pro- Maïs 1994). Results and data collected on these populations for per se and combining ability have been recorded in a database only accessible to the members of the evaluation network.To optimize the use of combining ability results on populations, 32 pools with a very large basis were developed on utilization criteria (earliness, combining ability, grain or silage utilization). Some pools contain only populations, other have been crossed with elite hybrids to improve their agronomic value, mainly for a better tolerance to lodging at harvest. Pools were evaluated for per se and combining ability values in a multilocal net. Eight pools were selected on both S 1 family and topcross progenies value during a recurrent cycle of selection and can be used as a new source of genetic variability by breeders. Results showed that a large intrapopulation variability may be difficult to use for the identification of some specific traits. Within the framework of a European programme, two pools were developed from populations having high ability value to produce semolinas of great size (hominy) and were crossed with inbred lines (Boyat et al. 1994).Some exotic material has been studied for its usefulness to broaden the genetic variability of temperate maize germplasm in northwest Europe. Dosage effect between exotic and temperate material was studied. Even if estimates of genetic variance for earliness, height and yield traits were higher in a pool than in the pool x elite germplasm, the latter has a higher breeding value based on the predicted genotypic mean of the selected population.Estimation of the proportion of exotic material in the exotic x adapted crosses using isoenzymatic allele indicates no significant deviation due to the mild selection (Gouesnard et al. 1996). Nearly 100 populations from the Caribbean countries are also managed and stored in the cold room in Montpellier. Some of these materials are used to improve insect tolerance.The PPS programme showed that management of a great number of accessions is an expensive and demanding task. Moreover, it is difficult to evaluate all these accessions each time a new problem is submitted to the breeders. So it becomes important to have a new strategy to manage genetic resources in several steps by means of a core collection. Such a collection is comprised of a limited number of accessions representative of the whole variability existing in the complete collection. For a researched new trait, the evaluation can first be done on the core collection. In a second step, the group from which one favourable identified accession is representative can be more deeply investigated. In the same way, regular regeneration of populations can be done only on the accessions of the core collection; the other accessions would be submitted to a long-term and low-cost conservation system.A methodology for the development of a core collection is going to be developed based on local landrace populations originating from France. These 270 populations have been more precisely described than during the PPS programme with all the populations in two locations.Phenological, morphological and ecogeographic traits have been recorded to constitute a database to be used during the structuring and sampling phases of the constitution of the core collection. In the same time a new methodology has been developed to apply the RFLP technique of neutral nuclear polymorphism analysis to populations. The first results show a higher total diversity for RFLP in comparison with isoenzymes, and the similar population differentiation for isoenzymes and RFLP. However, RFLP proved clearly superior to isoenzymes to reveal a relevant genetic structure among populations (Dubreuil and Charcosset 1996). Using such a tool to evaluate genetic diversity would be a powerful way to use the strategy of maximization of allelic richness for the constitution of a core collection (Bataillon 1994;Brown and Schoen 1993).The situation observed in France on 270 local landraces can be easily extended to the 3000 populations of European Union countries. There is a general agreement to preserve genetic resources in the cheapest way and to have access to exchangeable resources from other countries. A European core collection would be a useful way to meet this general request. First, maize genetic resources would be preserved under the responsibility of each country to manage its own resources and not by a highly centralized management. This would also avoid the redundancy presently existing between the collections of the different countries. Efforts would focus on the accessions of the European core collections and exchanges would primarily deal with the core collection for a very specific demand. This approach could be extended easily to any new country wishing for access to the European core collection.The major steps of such a European programme would be:• To have descriptors of the populations in order to build up a common database for the 3000 or more European landraces; primary and secondary descriptors would have to be collected and recorded in the base. • Passport, phenological and morphological data would be used by each country to define a restricted collection in the same way as a true core collection. This step can be done by each country on its own resources because of the good knowledge of this material by national breeders and because of the high total number of accessions. Indeed, it would be impossible to study all accessions in the same locations and avoid (genotype x environment) interaction. This restricted collection is necessary to reduce the number of accessions to about one-third, for the next step.• A restricted collection would be studied for DNA neutral polymorphism by RFLP technique to reveal relevant genetic structure among populations and to build the European core collection on allelic richness. • The European core collection would be evaluated for the criteria needed by the Common Agricultural Policy, in a common multilocal network. Such a programme is being outlined by J. Dallard and will be submitted next month to the European Programme on the Conservation, Characterization, Collection and Utilization of Genetic Resources in Agriculture (RESGEN).Numerous inbred lines are described in several databases in France:• inbred lines produced and maintained by INRA laboratories;• inbred lines exchanged with public research institutes all over the world;• inbred lines from private breeders and foundation seed companies.Out of the 4600 inbred lines described in French databases, only a few (about 20) are really accessible without restriction and can be considered as true genetic resources. For the others, an agreement on limited use is needed. For INRA inbred lines, Agri-Obtentions requires that the users acknowledge INRA as rights owner and that they agree:• to use the material exclusively for research programmes;• not to release it to anyone in France or abroad;• not to reproduce it for commercial purposes. Besides these two centres the following organizations maintain maize germplasm:• Institute of Plant Breeding, University of Höhenheim, Stuttgart;• Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture, Witzenhausen;• Bayrische Landesanstalt für Pflanzenbau, Universität Weihenstephan. These institutions use their collections mainly for research or applied breeding. The germplasm conserved consists mostly of populations, composites, synthetics or inbred lines.Several German landraces of maize were cultivated by farmers until hybrid seed was introduced, such as Chimgauer, Gelber Badischer Landmais, Pfarrkirchner or Schindelmeiser. The Gelber Badischer Landmais (GBL) is still on the national list of varieties and is also sold to farmers.Although maize is a major crop in Germany (1.5 million ha), few activities have been undertaken so far to utilize the genebank accessions for applied breeding.Besides the state institutes mentioned above, several national private seed companies have an active maize breeding programme where a wide range of breeding material is undergoing systematic improvement with the objective to create new competitive maize hybrids for the European maize-growing areas. Through these operations a wide range of the genetic variability in maize is planted annually in the breeding nurseries, but up to now very few collections from the German genebanks have been used for this breeding work because very little is known about their breeding value for modern breeding. This can only be corrected if much more prebreeding work is undertaken with the genebank collections and such data are made accessible to the current maize breeders.  Information about Greek landraces is lacking. According to Trifunovic (1978) corn was first cultivated in the year 1576 in the Ionian Islands and from there spread to the Balkan Peninsula. We can be sure that in the following centuries many races were imported from different countries, mainly by seamen. For example the name arabositos, which predominates today for corn, means \"wheat from the Arabs\" and perhaps indicates some importation from the Near East (Syria, Egypt, etc.). Of course the importation of corn from America came first. Therefore we can assume that interracial hybridization must have taken place in the Balkans. Mangelsdorf (1952) says that interracial hybridization has been an important factor in the evolution of maize. This is because natural selection operating in a man-made environment tended to preserve the heterozygote and to eliminate the segregates which approach homozygosity. Thus maize under domestication is potentially, and no doubt actually, a self-improving plant. He concluded that distinct, more or less stable varieties or races evolve in the isolation of separated regions. Taking into account that these landraces were grown for many years under various stresses, such as drought conditions, low nitrogen input, weed and insect competition, we may find in that kind of collection an abundant source for tolerance to environmental stresses. This will be particularly useful now, because of the trend for sustainable agriculture.The way to achieve this aim is not so easy. First these materials must be characterized; then the known (or new?) race to which they belong must be identified. This work is important for reducing collections as much as possible and making the procedure easier for the following stages of evaluation and exploitation of materials. A lot of work has to be done in Greece and it will take many years, but we are sure that it is worth trying.A. Verderio Istituto Sperimentale per la Cerealicoltura, Sezione di Bergamo, Italy Maize is the most important crop in Italy with an acreage of 1.2 million ha for grain and silage production. The largest corn area (80% of the total) is located in the Po Valley, in alluvial soils and irrigated lands. The environmental conditions of this area are very favourable to maize growth: 45° latitude N; 2800°F GDD (growing degree-days); growing season from April to October; average rainfall 600-1200 mm; excellent or good irrigation water availability; excellent or good soil fertility; high air humidity. Drought stress and virus pressure are the main factors controlling yield stability.High-input crop management is adopted for soil tillage, irrigation, fertilizer, herbicides, mechanical equipment and drying machines. The average yield is currently about 10 t/ha and is still improving. The modern single-cross hybrids, their fast replacement and genetic improvement play the most important role in this scenario.The 6/700 FAO maturity class hybrids (70% of the total acreage) are the fullseason materials for Italian environment. M edium season 5-400 FAO class hybrids (25% of the market share) are adopted in areas subject to drought stress and in cool pre-alpine high plains; early materials find some use in second crop or in marginal soils.The basic germplasm of the hybrids currently grown in Italy does not differ from US Corn Belt hybrids and US ancestral varieties; genetic contribution from local-European or 'exotic' germplasm is very limited.Hybrid seed replaced the local varieties between 1948 and 1960. During this period a lot of landraces or improved populations were collected before extinction.There is no coordinated programme for maize genetic resources in Italy. The main maize germplasm collection is stored at the Experimental Institute for Cereal Research, Maize Station of Bergamo.The Germplasm Institute (Istituto del Germoplasma) of the National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale del Germoplasma, C NR) located in Bari, with specific responsibilities and mission for Triticum spp. and plant germplasm of interest to Mediterranean agriculture, stores some 600 maize landraces from collecting missions in the Mediterranean area.The following i nstitutions belonging to the University or to the district government also hold small collections including local varieties, landraces and research materials:• Institute of Plant Breeding and Agriculture Research \"N. Strampelli\"-Lonigo; • Department of Botany and Genetics, University of Piacenza;• Department of Plant Breeding, University of Bologna;• Ente di Sviluppo Agricolo per il Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The collection originated from the former Foundation for Agricultural Plant Breeding (SVP). The original collection of approximately 1000 accessions was rationalized excluding hybrids (90), inbred lines (140) and material received from other genebanks including CIMMYT, Mexico and the Institute for Agrobotany, Tapiószele, Hungary. The maize collection has the status of a working collection in the CGN system and receives less emphasis in the genetic resources activities. Detailed information on the collection has been published by van Soest and Boukema (1995).The collection includes only material of species Zea mays and consists of 488 accessions. The origins and number of accessions according to population type are presented in Table 1. Nearly 60% of the accessions are landraces including the 179 accessions collected during the Pakistan expeditions in 1976 and 1981 (Hashmi et al. 1981). This material is rather unique and probably only duplicated in the genebank at Islamabad, Pakistan. The value of this material for maize cultivation in northwest Europe is limited, because of its late flowering and subsequent late maturity. The number of cultivars and research material is rather low (Table 1).Maize was an important crop in the Netherlands before the last world war, but only two Dutch cultivars; Baanbreker (1941) andNoordlander (1938), are found in the collection. VC 150 is the only Dutch landrace in the collection. Most likely it originated from an old landrace of the province, Gelderland. Goudster (1952) and Foliant (1953) are developed from inbred lines from the old landrace Van Platte Mais. The 42 landraces from Portugal have been collected in the mountains and were previously used in a breeding programme for cold tolerance. The French landraces are from different localities, mainly in the southern parts of France including the Pyrénées.In general each accession is rejuvenated by collecting ears of at least 100 plants. Seeds are directly drilled in April in the field. During April and May, the maize seedlings are covered with a plastic layer to stimulate early growth. The distance between the rows is 75 cm and after thinning, the between-plant distance is 25 cm. Pollination is conducted by hand, in general crossings between neighbouring plants. The crossing system used results in at least 100 crosses within each accession. After pollination the ears are wrapped in paper bags. Around October, 100 ears of each population are collected and threshed during the winter. All 488 accessions have been regenerated and are available to potential users.During the growing season and after the harvest the accessions are characterized for a set of 15 agromorphological traits. For this purpose CGN developed its own minimal descriptor list with the advice of private breeding firms in the Netherlands. A list with the set of characters and the number of accessions characterized is presented in Table 2. The collection has not yet been evaluated for pests and diseases or quality traits.  Silks: anthocyanin colouration of 93 1-3-5-7-9Total number of characterized traitsThe accessions are documented for passport data in GENIS (GEnetic Resources Information System), the data information system of CGN (van Hintum 1989).As shown in Table 1 the country of origin of 63 accessions and the population type of 171 accessions is not known. The 5075 characterization data of the 15 agromorphological traits (Table 2) are included in GENIS and can be made available to potential users.All seed-processing and storage facilities meet internationally recognized standards. The collection is stored in a cooler compartment at 4°C (medium-term storage) and in a deep-freeze compartment at -20°C (long-term storage). Dried seeds are stored in laminated aluminium foil bags.Since 1987 only 73 accessions have been distributed to a limited number of users. CGN supplies 100 seeds of each accession.Plant Breeding Station, IHAR (Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute), Smolice, Poland Maize is a crop with great adaptability and variability. This plant is an important crop in Poland as a grain and silage for cattle feeding, although the country is not typical for maize growing.Maize was introduced to Poland in the 18th century from the Balkans. Before the Second World War it was grown in the southeastern part of the country where climatic conditions were suitable.After the Second World War when part of the Nation was moved from east to west, farmers also moved local maize populations to the new regions. Part of that material was lost under the circumstances. Only a small part of it was collected in a proper way by breeders. The biggest amount of local populations was found in the village Wawrzenczyce near Krakow. This material was described and used as a source of genes for breeding.In the breeding programme we use different germplasm and divide maize resources into the following categories:• native open-pollinated populations, flint and dent type;• improved open-pollinated populations introduced in the early 1930s from the USA; • direct introduction and adaptation of US germplasm after the Second World War; • hybrids containing some US and European germplasm;• synthetics developed by breeders;• material developed from programme Early by Late.More than 85% of the hybrids released by the Polish national programme in the last decade contain our germplasm.Our collection contains hundreds of accessions. The number of accessions held in short-and long-term storage is presented in Table 1. During the last decade we replied to a number of seed requests for these accessions, distributing a number of samples to different countries (Table 2). This germplasm was requested for numerous purposes ranging from breeding and evaluation to very basic research.This germplasm is kept in two storage chambers: one for long-term storage in IHAR Radzików and the other for short-term storage at Smolice.  It is necessary to regenerate the accessions to meet the seed requests because of the relatively low number of seeds kept in storage and the poor germination of seed after long-term storage. The accessions to be regenerated are chosen according to the age, quality and viability of seeds.Several approaches are taken in this work including early vigour, resistance to lodging, Fusarium sp. and estimation of yielding ability (Tables 3, 4, 5).    Maize was introduced in Portugal after Columbus and became a traditional crop responsible for the agricultural revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries in the Portuguese northwest. This region is particularly mountainous, with some good pieces of flat land along the valleys, but most of the farmlands follow the sources of water. For centuries farmers selected the best adapted landraces and built up an agricultural polycropping system which, besides a set of minor crops, was composed of two major components: maize (bread) and vineyards (wine).Since 1975, the Portuguese Plant Germplasm Bank (BPGV) has been carrying out systematic germplasm collecting and was able to save most of the Portuguese landraces of maize, together with the other minor components of the traditional agricultural systems. This proved to be providential. In fact, during the last 20 years, a tremendous genetic erosion took place that can be summarized in the following table : Evolution of maize germplasm utilization during the last 20 years in Portugal. Together with this genetic erosion, both in maize and other related crops, a considerable drop in maize area has occurred: from 350 000 ha in 1975 to 250 000 ha in 1996. In this same time, we went from a position of producing 50% of our food needs in 1975 to only 25% in 1996.The reason for this big transformation is found in the Community Agricultural Policy (CAP) which has been focusing in a productivist model of monocropping, highly mechanized agriculture. In fact this political strategy almost destroyed the traditional Portuguese agricultural polycropping systems and put out of business 500 000 small farmers in these past 10 years. This transformation in a small country with 10 million people gave rise to a set of hard consequences:• a strong genetic erosion, not only in maize, but also in all related crops, as well as a set of diversified horticultural plants; • a serious social problem with the movement of rural families to the sea border, looking for jobs and shelter in the big cities and thus creating a national housing problem; • an environmental disruption, since the farmer was himself a component of the ecological equilibrium making the balance between the forest and the farming fields; • a national problem of forest fires each summer with growing financial support going to the building up of a small army of firemen, together with their physical structures and professional means.It is our opinion that the CAP policy suffers from a philosophical handicap of not understanding the role of small farmers in a place like the Portuguese northwest. It does not recognize that this type of farmer combines four activities, all of them in favour of general society: food producer, genetic resources curator, environmental protector and forest fireman. And since the CAP and the society in general do not recognize this specificity, the farmer has been paid only as a food producer and as such, cannot compete with the best arable soils down in the valley. So he has been pushed into bankruptcy.Portugal still does not have a formal national programme for genetic resources. Its resources are evenly distributed by an array of public and private institutions. However, most of its ex situ genetic resources are located at Braga, stored in the Portuguese Plant Germplasm Bank (BPGV) which is a public institution belonging to the regional services (DRAEDM) of the Ministry of Agriculture.The BPGV was born in the 1970s within the maize breeding station (NUMI) and since then grew to its present status of major germplasm bank of the country. Together with maize, BPGV brought to its attention all cultivated crops, aromatic and medicinal plants and is still expanding the range of crops with total accessions of 11 212 covering 80 species. Regarding maize and in its duty of 'IPGRI Maize Germplasm Bank for the Mediterranean Region', the BPGV holds the following collection: It is expected that early this summer the new building facilities of the BPGV will be inaugurated and among a set of laboratories equipped with modern technologies for both conservation and evaluation, it will house:• a 120 m 3 cold-storage room for long storage conservation at -20ºC, and • a 60 m 3 cold-storage room for medium-term conservation ranging from -2 to 10ºC. The same building will house, in independent structures, the maize breeding station (NUMI) which will have for its own service two extra cold storage rooms of 60 m 3 each, for medium-term conservation at 4ºC. Three catalogues with the data of 900 accessions already characterized will be issued and distributed this summer.Since its very beginning BPGV has been working side by side with the maize breeding programme. All the collaborative experience of NUMI/BPGV supports the idea that conservation and breeding should work together, if possible side by side in a place where breeders and curators can continuously discuss their own specific problems and tasks.From this experience, some populations received as accessions at the BPGV were immediately chosen by the breeders to undergo population improvement and were put at the farmers' disposal for production under the form of improved pollinated varieties. In the same way, the discussion of the descriptors has been a permanent issue stressing the two main descriptors breeders want most and that are still missing: inbreeding depression and combining ability.To fill this gap between conservation and utilization, that is to say between curators and breeders, we want to stress the urgency of building up a prebreeding programme which should consider:• germplasm enhancement • preliminary evaluation under a breeder's point of view • the need for developing a new and, if possible, easily implemented methodology for a first prebreeding approach. It is our aim to keep going in the direction of filling up this gap between conservation and utilization, keeping in mind that breeding is the natural bridge between them and that the real utilization is that by farmers and/or industry.We consider that this effort is not only useful and necessary for the economic use of genetic resources, but also for the support of the germplasm banks themselves.The national maize collection of Romania comprises a total of 11 239 accessions distributed as follows:• 3188 accessions held by the Suceava Genebank;• 8051 accessions held by six other institutions.The composition of the maize germplasm collection is: for indigenous cultivars, a total of 8079 accessions consisting of 3550 landraces, 1587 hybrids, 2759 inbred lines, 26 breeds, 80 mutants and 77 synthetics.The introduced cultivars consist of 3160 accessions including 103 old forms, 40 hybrids, 2790 inbred lines, 4 breeds, 35 mutants, 50 synthetics and 138 other forms.Although several institutions in Romania hold a large amount of maize germplasm, only the Suceava Genebank assures the conservation of germplasm up to the recommended standard, namely in medium-term storage (for the time being). The other institutions have mainly field collections.The main purpose of these collections is to preserve material for breeding use. The maize germplasm, as part of these collections, is evaluated using standardized descriptors. Being breeders, many maize collections holders are interested only in certain characters and then they do not use some of these descriptors. The Suceava Genebank is the only institution in Romania which has as objectives the collecting, evaluation and conservation of plant genetic resources. For maize germplasm evaluation the whole descriptors system provided by IPGRI is used at Suceava.Since 1989 the Romanian agricultural research institutes and stations have computerized the documentation of their collections using microcomputers and adequate softwares.At Suceava Genebank the information system is grafted onto the old system keeping the documentation specific to each activity in the bank. The new information system was designed to coexist with the traditions of the old system, that cannot be ignored. Since 1992 the Genebank Computing Office is equipped with an AT286 microcomputer and a matrix printer. The data of our collection are stored in a database using a programme package SIRAG, created with FoxPro.The information concerning the preserved genetic material is divided into three groups: passport data, conservation data and characterization/evaluation data.In Romania, at the national level, 50% of maize accessions are entered into the database with passport and conservation data. For Suceava Genebank, more than 90% of this work is complete. While the material is being studied characterization/evaluation data are entered. Completion of these data, both for the Genebank and for the other institutions, is below 50%.Centro de Investigaciones Agrarias de Mabegondo, La Coruña, Spain Maize was first cultivated in Spain immediately after the second trip of Columbus (Brandolini 1969). Following that time, several maize types from different locations in America were introduced into many different regions in Europe. Nevertheless, a unique species, Zea mays L., has been widely cultivated throughout Europe. Diversification of maize has become very large in the world during the long period of cultivation. The diversification likely occurred because of (a) the different origin of the introductions, (b) the selective pressure of environments where maize has been cultivated, (c) the growing conditions and techniques utilized in the different regions of Europe, (d) the screening criteria of farmers to choose maize types for distinct purposes and (e) the active trade and exchange of maize seed, which favoured intercrossing and recombination.Although maize has been cultivated in Spain from the beginning of the 16th century, the crop was not spread over all regions until some years later. For example, maize was not regularly grown in Galicia, the northwest of Spain, until the second half of the 17th century (Perez-Garcia 1982). From that time onwards, the traditional summer cereal crop of the region, millet (Panicum miliaceum L.), and also other winter cereals were progressively replaced as maize cultivation extended from the coast to the inland and highland areas, following the rivers. The speed with which maize was extended was fastest in the coastal areas and slower as it moved to areas 400 m asl (Perez-Garcia 1982). Table 1 gives cultivation data based on records of rural churches and monasteries.Maize hybrids have been adopted extensively in South and Central Spain since the 1950s, but their adoption occurred in the north much later. Even now, about 30% of the maize-growing area of Galicia is still cultivated with local varieties. The limitations of cold temperatures in the area and the small holdings fragmented into many smaller plots might be responsible for the delay in adopting new technology and extending the area of cultivation for maize hybrids. The progressive substitution of the local varieties risks their definitive extinction. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out actions for conserving the old landraces with the double purpose of (a) avoiding the loss of a rich and variable germplasm which otherwise might cause the so-called 'genetic erosion ', and (b) being able to incorporate this germplasm into active breeding programmes as sources of specific traits, e.g. early vigour, cold, drought and pest tolerance, disease resistance, specific fatty acid and starch components. Surveys and collections of maize for breeding purposes started in northern Spain in the late 1920s. Collections for conservation and variability studies started later, in the 1950s.The following collections are worth mentioning:The work carried out by Professor Sanchez-Monge (1962) is a very complete and accurate study in which 462 accessions from all over Spain were analyzed. Seventeen races of maize for grain and three for popcorn were identified. In addition, 32 more groups that included intermediate characteristics between the main races also were identified as subraces. Characterization was based on some morphological traits of the plant, ear, cob, kernel and tassel, and on counting the number of chromosome knobs.Accessions belonging to the same group were recombined to form a collection of 49 races and subraces. This collection is conserved in the Spanish Centre of Genetic Resources (CRF), Alcalá (Madrid) and in the germplasm bank of the Mision Bilógica de Galicia (MBG) at Pontevedra. The method of conservation was hand-pollination with at least 200 plants. Some inbred lines were derived from this material (e.g. EC21 from the Gallego race).The MBG is a breeding station which has been working on maize since the late 1920s. Two periods can be distinguished in this station: (1) since its creation until the early 1960s, when the introduction of maize accessions came mainly from North Spain, but also from North America, e.g. the Longfellow landrace. Reputed early inbreds such as the EP1 were derived from northern Spanish early material. Part of the material from this time was lost; (2) the second period extends since the early 1970s until now. New accessions have been collected mainly in Galicia, but also have been introduced from other parts of Spain and North American Universities.Some 420 accessions are presently conserved in cold storage at 0-4ºC and 45-55% relative humidity; 220 out of the 420 were collected in Galicia. Characterization of part of this material based on morphological data of plants and ears was carried out by Ron and Ordas (1987) and Ordas et al. (1994).The Centro de Investigaciones Agrarias de Mabegondo (CIAM) collected maize local varieties from the north of Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country) in the 1970s and 1980s. More than 95% of the accessions were of the flint endosperm type. Several inbred lines have been developed from this material and are presently used in an active breeding programme. Crossing of the flint germplasm from North Spain by dent endosperm types from the US Corn Belt has shown a high level of heterosis (Moreno-González 1988a, 1988b). Two expeditions (1977 and 1982) to collect accessions in the region were partially funded by the IBPGR/FAO. Duplicated accessions collected in these expeditions were sent to the germplasm bank in Bari and the CRF at Madrid. A representative sample of the CIAM collection composed of 86 local varieties was studied to (1) assess the genetic variability, (2) define a morphological system of classification and (3) establish relationships between the classification groups and the climatic conditions of the area from which the varieties were collected. Morphological and isoenzyme traits were used for the characterization and grouping of the varieties (Llauradó and Moreno-González 1993;Llauradó et al. 1993). Populations were grouped by the degree of dissimilarity into four distinct subracial groups related to four geographically and climatically defined areas. Three levels of discrimination based on morphological traits were found to separate the populations. Level 1 included earliness and plant size, level 2 earThe history of the collection of genetic resources of maize in Czechoslovakia (regional populations and varieties) started in the Plant Production Research Institute (PPRI) at Pieštany. A group of PPRI workers had collected regional populations with the help of agricultural schools and training centres.After the foundation of the Maize Research Institute in Trnava in 1962, the seed material of regional populations was transferred there. Each sample was registered, numbered and the grower's precise address recorded. The study of the collected seed material of regional populations was carried out in a research programme. After a 3-year evaluation in trial plots, the results were elaborated by Husárová (1967).In 1969, varieties were taken over from the Laboratory of Genetics in Lednice where up to then the assortment had been only collected and partially used by Mostovoj. The remaining part of the assortment of the varieties was acquired by the institute through importation or personal contacts. The varieties were described by Javorek (1964). As from the mid-1960s, both homozygotic and heterozygotic genetic resources were studied by Polerecký and Piovarèi. Their work on genetic resources is documented by a considerable number of samples. The less fertile regional populations with specific characteristics, long used for growing in certain agro-ecological conditions, were exchanged for higher-yielding varieties and hybrids, leading to unrecoverable loss of suitable genes. The aim of maintaining genetic populations is to preserve them for the future in a genetically unchanged form. Therefore, after a thorough study, the sample is stored. The task of conservation is to restore the germination of the stored sample. This part of the work is technically most demanding and brings along the highest risk of damaging the stored sample of genetic resources.The genetic resources are evaluated according to the \"National descriptors list, species Zea mays L.\" (Ryšava and Nešticky 1986) and the \"Methodology for the national descriptors list species Zea mays L.\" (Ryšava et al. 1987). The descriptor list has been conceived for the filing of data resulting from genetic resources studies during many years.The basic data are expressed directly or alphanumerically. In the descriptive part, the one-digit value expresses the state of the descriptor of a morphological trait according to the legend or the level of a biological trait ranging from 1 to 9. The overall description consists of a passport part (19 descriptors) and a characterization part (115 descriptors). A part of the descriptor list consists of codes of the corresponding taxonomical names.The genetic resources of Zeainvent are as follows:After a 3-year evaluation, samples are selected in the genebank and are multiplied in 2-row plots with a row length of 5.6 m and an inter-and intrarow distance of 0.7 and 0.2 m respectively. In the plots, the seeds are produced by technical isolation. Both male and female inflorescences are isolated. Female inflorescences are pollinated with a pollen mixture. After drying and evaluation, the seeds are kept in long-term storage.For the multiplication of heterogenetic resources (varieties, regional populations), an effective size of a population is to be taken into account:where Nf = number of female plants Nm = number of male plants.The effective size of a population affects two important processes: selfpollination and drift. For the maintenance and restoration of germination, 200 plants sown in 10 rows are used. In the time of pollination, they are technically isolated: tassels in even rows and silks in odd rows. It is important that each genotype be equally represented in a population. For the multiplication of hybrids, both male and female components are used. Upon flowering, female sexual organs are isolated on the female components, and they are pollinated with pollen from female plants.In Zeainvent, the genetic resources have been studied from the viewpoint of both morphologically and economically important traits and characteristics, and some of them also have been evaluated from the breeding point of view.• Inbred lines from Slovakia, used in breeding for quality. The assortment is constantly completed. • Inbred lines of foreign origin, used in breeding for quantity. The given material has been obtained from multilateral cooperation and is constantly completed. • Inbred lines used in breeding for quality. Zeainvent has at its disposal special genetic resources:• genetic resources for the change of architecture/geometry of plants • dwarfing mutant for lowering of plant height: br 2 , rd, ct • mutant with an altered leaf angle: lg 1, lg 2 , lg 3 • genetic resources with an altered chemical composition of vegetative matter • gene mutant bm 3 (brown midrib) for a lowered lignin content and a higher content of nitrogenous matter in green matter • genetic resources with an altered chemical composition of kernels• high protein • endosperm mutants: opaque-2, floury-2 (increased lysine and tryptophane content) • gene mutants wx (waxy endosperm) and ae (amylose extender)quantitative changes of starch in the kernel endosperm • genetic resources used in the food and canning industry• sweet corn mutants with genes su 1 and su 2 (sugary endosperm) and sh (shrunken)Heterozygotic genetic resources: Regional populations and varieties were collected and evaluated in 1964-67. The harvest was carried out with the help of agricultural schools. The assortment is constantly completed and is described on the cards of genetic resources. The seeds are kept in long-term storage.After registration, a hybrid and its components are included in the genebank; passport and descriptive cards are produced and the seeds are kept in long-term storage.Synthetic populations are resources with certain characteristics (content, etc.).Recently, scientists and breeders of the world have given more attention to extensive materials. If suitable gene donors are not found in the present collections of present cultivars, it is necessary to look for them in the older materials and in the wild relative species. Breeders do not collect these materials themselves; rather, they rely upon the existing collections. But the material collected in small collections cannot sufficiently represent the variability of a species. Therefore for a successful choice of a starting material it is desirable that large collections with materials from the total area of the species expansion be created (Ladizinski 1989). Genetic resources would be only items if no information were available about them to breeders and scientists in research institutes and other users (van Soest 1985). The required characteristics of genetic resources must be evaluated and documented is a way that enables breeders to use them in breeding programmes (Srivastaya and Damania 1989). The International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR, now International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, IPGRI) has stressed the importance of both passport data and individual identifiers and basic data concerning the sample origin for a long time. Well-organized databases are indispensable if they contain data covering the needs of curators, breeders and researchers (Williams 1989).Work on genetic resources of maize in Zeainvent is part of the work on genetic resources in Slovakia. This work is coordinated by the Plant Production Research Institute at Pieštany. The passportization and description of the genetic resources of maize have been made according to the national Descriptor List (Ryšava et al. 1986).At present, the following materials can be found in Zeainvent: • 134 regional populations of Slovak origin;• 32 hybrids resulting from domestic breeding;• 102 varieties;• 1362 inbred lines of various countries of origin.The characteristics studied can be reclassified according to other descriptor lists, e.g. CIMMYT, IBPGR (1991) or UPOV. approaches. The first one is based on the classification of the agro-ecological groups; the sixteen main groups could be considered as sixteen core collections.The second is a breeding approach, i.e. a creation of core collections on the basis of combining ability of populations. For instance, by testing 900 populations with three different testers, three groups of populations with a high heterotic expression have been acquired, which could be considered as three core collections. If this approach is justified in practice then the complete variability could be classified into several core collections. Future work should be based on studies of genetic diversity at cellular or molecular level, accompanied by the identification of gene alleles useful to maize breeding.The first step to solving these problems is to create the database system recording the maize germplasm as it will provide better communication and cooperation among European countries.","tokenCount":"13754"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"59ebb0cc32168839792e95f239fb4abd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/81a456f4-9a99-422d-b221-65f5bc452d87/retrieve","id":"-259959158"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"48cbec0e-bc77-4ce4-a97f-74ccb389fb4c","pagecount":"4","content":"Researchers working under the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture led Cassava Weed Management Project (IITA-CWMP) are uncovering techniques for management of weeds in cassava farming systems.Results from the project indicate that increasing the population of cassava from 10000 stands per hectare to 12,500 stands per hectare can control weeds in cassava. At 12,500 stands per hectare, farmers are advised to plant cassava at 1m X 0.8m. Also ridging controls weeds better than planting on flat, according to findings from the project.The results of the agronomic data were shared during the week-long annual review and planning meeting and Steering Committee meeting held 27-30 March 2017 at IITA in Ibadan.Apart of the use of best-bet agronomic practices, the project has also screened and narrowed down some new environmentally friendly herbicides for weed control in cassava farming systems that will be advanced for onfarm trials this year.At the annual meeting of the IITA-CWMP, the Project Leader, Dr Alfred Dixon, remarked, \"We are optimistic that the key findings from our research will help farmers to tackle the problem of weeds in cassava, with the view of having more yield. \"Declaring the meeting open, Dr Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General, Partnership for Delivery, said the goal of the project was to take off drudgery due to weeding in cassava farming systems.\"I am happy that this meeting will share findings that will impact positively on weed control, \" Dr Dashiell said.Grown on about 7 million hectares, cassava is a major staple in Nigeria and it has transited from a food security crop to a cash crop. However, yield per ha of the root crop is about 8 tons per ha or less than half the amount realised on research stations. One of the major factors affecting the yield of cassava is weeds. Most of those involved in weeding are women and children, who often times skip classes to assist in weeding in Nigeria.In 2014, the Cassava Weed Management Project was conceived to address the problem of weeds in cassava. The 5-year project which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is exploring diverse weed control methods including the use of simple motorised implements, use of safe and environmentally friendly herbicides, and the use of best-bet agronomic practices.Lawrence Kent of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said the findings of the project would contribute to improvement of cassava with positive impact on women and children who bear the burden of weeding in cassava. Seed sector professionals have said that businesses selling improved varieties and high quality cassava stems for cultivation could help African farmers significantly raise their productivity. This will mean more Naira from the same land, inputs and effort. The benefits of this raised productivity will be enjoyed by all the stakeholders across the value chain in a sustainable way.This was part of the resolutions from a national stakeholder conference on cassava seed system organized by the project, \"Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System\" (BASICS) that was held at the Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan last week Thursday.The meeting, which reflected on the experiences of BASICS in 2016 and refined the project plan for 2017 and beyond, brought together national and international researchers, academics, policymakers, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and farmers to a roundtable.Making the case for urgent need for all the stakeholders to work towards a sustainable seed system in Nigeria, Hemant Nitturkar, Project Director for BASICS, reminded the participants that Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world with a production of about 54 million tons, but its yield per hectare of cassava roots is about 8 tons, less than half of the realizable yields of more than 20 tons per hectare. Researchers say one of the factors responsible for the low yield of cassava is the low adoption of clean and healthy seeds of improved varieties of cassava by farmers.\"We have to start with the right planting material and nurture it with good agronomy and weed management practices. Each of these three components has the potential to raise the productivity of cassava by 30 percent. If we do not improve our practices in seed, weed and agronomy, we are incurring a lost opportunity of about 200 billion Naira annually from each of the three issues, \" he explained.BASICS is commercially piloting two distinct pathways of seed delivery. In one, called Village Seed Entrepreneur (VSE) model, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Benue and with National Roots Crop Research Institute (NRCRI), in Abia, Imo, Cross Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, the project is helping develop a network of 130 community based seed enterprises. These VSEs will source certified stems of improved varieties of cassava from NRCRI and IITA to multiply and sell to the farmers in their vicinity. This way, the farmers will not have to go far to source quality stems for planting. In the second pilot called Processor Led Model (PLM), in partnership with Context Global Development, the project is working with large processors of cassava who will then make available quality stems to their outgrowers with a buy back arrangement for the roots produced.Slow and low multiplication ratio has been a key constraint in cassava seed system. The project is piloting a new technology called Semi-Autotrophic Hydroponics (SAH) for vastly rapid seed multiplication. Once this technology from Argentina is adapted and perfected in Nigeria by the Project, it is expected to have a significant impact on the ability of early generation seed businesses to quickly bring suitable varieties within reach of farmers. The project is also working with National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) and Fera of UK to improve the quality certification system in Nigeria.Lawrence Kent, a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the aim of the Project is to build an economically sustainable seed system that is profitable both to the sellers of quality stems and to the farmers who purchase and plant those stems. He encouraged all to create reusable bridges to continuously link technology developers with farmers through business oriented approaches, like the one being implemented under BASICS.  The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative held training workshops in Tanzania and Nigeria on agronomy data management and barcode labelling as part of efforts to enhance efficiency in data collection, collation, and administration. The objectives of the training workshops were to understand the principles of database management and how these are applied in ACAI, how ACAI database is fed through mobile/web based tools, the importance of 'identifiers' in database management, and to learn how to assign 'entity identifiers` through barcode labelling.The training held in February and March 2017 provided participants hands-on training on how to use the new Open Data Kit (ODK) tools to conduct data collection and to upload to the project platform immediately.It also provided opportunity for the harmonization of data collection tools and data requirement of the project.It will be recalled that in the past, agronomy trials data were collected using both field books and old open data kit (ODK) forms, which was tedious and time consuming.More so, the collected data were easily mixed up or duplicated because there were no clearly assigned unique identity (label with the barcode) of the field, trial, plots, treatment, and plants.Due to increased number of trials over the country with time, the need to clearly label and identify each attribute with barcodes became pertinent and instant. This then reinforced the importance of the agronomy database management and barcode labelling system training At the end of the training, participants were able to assign unique entity identifiers of the fields, trials, treatments, plots and plants and trace them back during data collection. After the visit, Dr Jalloh expressed great satisfaction over the effective implementation of field trials despite the challenges of the increasingly varying weather in Tanzania. He noted that the scheduled planting trials were timely with a potential to contribute towards finding appropriate solutions to the challenges of the varying rainfall situation in the country. Dr Mkamilo on behalf of the Tanzania team thanked Dr Jalloh for his support in the overall project implementation in the country, and particularly for sharing his experience and mentoring young technicians during the tour. He added that this experience would be invaluable to the young team who will certainly put it into good use.Dr Jalloh (left) and other researchers on an ACAI trial field in Tanzania Dr Christian Witt has taken over oversight role for ACAI project at the Gates Foundation from Lawrence Kent who chaperoned the development and approval of the project as well as its first year of implementation. Dr Witt has 20 years' experience in plant nutrition and soil nutrient management in the tropics as well as considerable experience in strategy development and grant management in agricultural research and development. He also has vast experience in facilitating science-based solutions and cooperation among public and private sector partners. On behalf of the Principal Investigator, Dr Bernard Vanlauwe, and the entire ACAI team; the Project Coordinator, Dr Abdulai Jalloh thanked Lawrence for midwifing the ACAI project and also welcomed Christian.This newsletter is produced by the Cassava Weed Management Project in collaboration with the ACAI and the BASICS projects. Advisers: Drs Bernard Vanlauwe, Alfred Dixon, Abdulai Jalloh, Hemant Nitturkar, and Friday Ekeleme.Editor: Godwin Atser (g.atser@cgiar.org)The international body of root and tuber crops, International Society of In his foreword, Dr Sanginga stated that weeds have become one of the most notorious constraints to agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa and were undermining the gains made through crop improvement.Emphasizing that weeds limit the ability of resource-poor farmers to expand their farm sizes and expose them to ailments such as back aches; the Director General stated that the weed album is an imperative resource material that would help in weed identification for all stakeholders.Chair of the 50th Anniversary Committee, Dr Kwesi Atta-Krah, praised the IITA Cassava Weed Management Project for revising the book and making it relevant. He described the book as an empowerment tool for scientists and students of weed science. Prof Ekeleme, Principal Investigator of the Cassava Weed Management Project and co-author of the third edition of the weed album stated that the book, as a repository of weed knowledge. would go a long way to benefit schools and higher institutions where agriculture is taught.The 381-paged new edition which was produced with funding support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has better digital photographs, two additional parts on weed seedlings and fallow species that appear as regrowth in arable and plantation crops.To get a copy, please send a mail to: Ezinne Ibe, e.ibe@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"1761"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bdbd3a4f0e2d880c99bbd2bf3101833c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/09692504-3b2b-4ca9-9ace-9bb7085d785e/content","id":"-1979942696"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b654fcd3-5acf-4797-826e-6862dd8a52c9","pagecount":"14","content":"Maize is rapidly replacing traditionally cultivated dual purpose crops of South Asia, primarily due to the better economic remuneration. This has created an impetus for improving maize for both grain productivity and stover traits. Molecular techniques can largely assist breeders in determining approaches for effectively integrating stover trait improvement in their existing breeding pipeline. In the current study we identified a suite of potential genomic regions associated to the two major stover quality traits-in-vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and metabolizable energy (ME) through genome wide association study. However, considering the fact that the loci identified for these complex traits all had smaller effects and accounted only a small portion of phenotypic variation, the effectiveness of following a genomic selection approach for these traits was evaluated. The testing set consists of breeding lines recently developed within the program and the training set consists of a panel of lines from the working germplasm comprising the founder lines of the newly developed breeding lines and also an unrelated diversity set. The prediction accuracy as determined by the Pearson's correlation coefficient between observed and predicted values of these breeding lines were high even at lower marker density (200 random SNPs), when the training and testing set were related. However, the accuracies were dismal, when there was no relationship between the training and the testing set.Recent studies have highlighted the potential of maize stover as an important source of fodder in livestock farming systems globally 1-4 . Crop residues provide major feed resources for livestock in low and middle income countries (LMCs). In India, maize is now the third most important crop after rice and wheat, and it is cultivated on over 8.7 million ha with 24.0 million ton of grain produced at an average yield of 2.6 tha −15 . Most of the increase has been recorded in non-traditional maize growing areas where it is grown as an irrigated crop for commercial purpose during the dry season. In these areas, maize is largely replacing sorghum, an important dual-purpose crop. The stover of sorghum is highly valued by livestock keepers and fodder traders 6,7 . Given the prevalent fodder shortage in India, maize stover would need to substitute for the loss in sorghum stover 8 . Increases in maize area have also been reported in East Africa, where there is a similar need to look into the fodder value of maize stover 2,9,10 . However, breeding programs focused on maize improvement primarily in regions of South Asia are directed largely towards grain improvement with diminutive focus on stover traits.Improving the quality of maize stover has been addressed through conventional breeding strategies 8,11 . However, simultaneous improvement of stover and grain in maize would require repeat phenotyping for both grain yield and stover quality traits substantially increasing the conventional breeding costs and time per cycle. With the advent of molecular markers, maize breeding programs across several regions had made a paradigm shift and incorporated marker based technologies for various trait improvements in the breeding pipeline particularly due to its advantages with high throughput efficient selections and cost reduction of the breeding processes. With the advancements in molecular marker systems, the identification of candidate genomic regions that have significant effects on fodder quality, and deployment of these regions through breeding has become more feasible. Earliest reports for Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping for stover quality traits dates to 1997 12,13 . Several studies have since identified various QTLs for different silage traits in maize [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . In an attempt to resynthesize the information on stover quality Truntzler et al. 23 conducted a meta analysis on the combined results of 14 such studies in maize,and identified regions (QTLs) with significant importance and smaller confidence interval on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9 for digestibility traits and cell wall component traits. In addition, studies with candidate genes had also identified specific regions associated with digestibility and/or cell wall synthesis on chromosomes 9, 4, 3 and 1 using a limited set of maize 24 lines. However, QTL mapping approaches are often restricted by the limited recombination in the mapping population, that are widely different from the once observed in natural population 25 and hence often have narrow applicability. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) is another powerful molecular tool for crop improvement, which has been successful in identifying genomic regions for plant height, root traits, flowering time and a range of disease resistance traits [26][27][28] . GWAS studies on stalk strength and stalk components have also been reported in maize [29][30][31] . GWAS on maize stover digestibility traits (IVOMD, NDF and ADF) have also been studied previously 32 on a panel of 296 maize test crosses, that had revealed several significant genomic regions particularly on chromosome 3 (bin 3.05) and chromosome 9 (bin 9.08). However, validation of these genomic regions in an independent population or panel, and also with in the working germplasm of the breeding program is an important pre-requisite for their integration in marker assisted breeding. In addition, the loci identified for these complex traits often explained only a small portion of the observed phenotypic variation, which often restricts their applicability in breeding program 33 .Reduction in the cost of genotyping and use of high-throughput genotyping facilities, has paved the way for deploying genomic selection strategies in routine breeding programs. Genomic selection has been widely practiced in animal breeding 34 and is being utilized successfully in plant breeding as well [35][36][37] . However, successful integration of genomic selection with the breeding pipeline circumventing the need for conventional selection is determined largely based on the cost and time involved in phenotyping the trait as well as the genotypic prediction accuracy between the testing set and training set 38 . Prediction accuracy as determined by the correlation between the breeding value and the genomic estimated values of individuals, varies with different parameters 39 . Trait complexity and the degree of similarity between the training and testing sets are two such factors that determine the accuracy of prediction. Zhang et al. 40 reported moderate to high accuracies when training and test populations were related. Morgante et al. 33 further suggested that the accuracies can often go low in cases where the actual loci affecting the traits are far fewer than the molecular markers used and if large epistatic interactions are involved in a trait. Prediction accuracies are affected by the genetic architecture of the trait, marker densities, minor allelic frequencies and population relationships 41 . In this context the current study focused on (i) identifying genomic regions for two major stover quality traits through GWAS in an independent association panel and (ii) determining if a genomic prediction approach could be followed to identify non-phenotyped lines with good stover quality traits.Variability for stover quality traits in association mapping panel. Phenotypic distribution for the two traits (IVOMD and ME) in the panel was close to normal (Fig. 1a,b). Mean and ranges observed for the two stover quality traits is presented in Table 1. Significant variations were recorded among lines for both the traits across the panel (P = 0.006 for IVOMD and 0.007 for ME). IVOMD ranged from 46.50 to 59.30% with a mean of 52.32% and ME ranged from 6.65 to 8.75 Mj kg −1 with a mean of 7.60 Mj kg −1 . Broad sense heritability for the entries ranged between 0.22 and 0.23 for the two traits.Genome-wide association mapping. The population showed a high LD decay of 4.0 Kb at r 2 of 0.2 and 11.6 Kb at r 2 of 0.1 (Fig. 2). Identification of significant SNPs for IVOMD and ME was based on the Mixed linear model (MLM) fitted using population structure(Q) and relative kinship (K) as it had the best fit Q-Q plot (Fig. 3a,b). SNP associations identified were corrected for structure using ten principal components cumulatively accounting for close to 80% of the variation (Supplementary Fig. 1). For the study we used a threshold of P < 1 × 10 −4 , as a multiple testing correction like Bonferroni correction was too stringent for identifying any SNP association in this study. A large number of SNP associations at P value < 0.001 were observed for both the traits, however, the most significant associations (P value < 1 × 10 −4 ) were detected amongst 9 SNPs for IVOMD and ME across the genome. Phenotypic variance explained by these individual SNPs identified for IVOMD ranged between 3.2 and 4.0% and the allelic effects ranged from -0.45 to 0.55. The phenotypic variance explained by these highly significant SNPs associated with ME ranged between 3.2 and 4.9% and the effects ranged from − 0.08 to 0.09 (Table 2). In addition, a lower threshold (P value < 1 × 10 −3 ) was used for comparison of the SNPs from this study with the results with several previous studies on digestibility traits in maize (Supplementary Table 1a and b). A large proportion of significant SNP associations identified for ME in the current study were common or congruent (within 1 Mbp) to the associations identified for IVOMD. Among the identified SNPs with P value less than 1 × 10 −3 (163 SNPs for IVOMD and 63 SNPs for ME), a large number of SNPs were found on chromosome 2, 3 and 6 for IVOMD and on chromosome 2 and 6 for ME (Supplementary Table 1a and b). These SNPs were clustered within one or two bins in each chromosome. The highest number of SNPs for IVOMD and ME were found on bins 2.04-2.05 and 6.01 (Fig. 4). SNPs with the lowest P value < 10 −5 were found on chromosome 2 (bins 2.05 and 2.09), 5 (bin 5.06), 6 (bin 6.01) and 7 (bin 7.02-7.04) for IVOMD with P value < 9.3 × 10 −5 and on chromosome 1 (bin1.01), 2 (bins 2.05 and 2.09), 3 (bin 3.09), 5 (bins 5.00 and 5.06) and 7 (bins 7.03 and 7.04) for ME with P value < 9.5 × 10 −5 . While significant SNPs were identified for IVOMD across the chromosomes (1-10), the study could not detect any significant SNPs for ME on chromosome 10 (Fig. 5a,b). These significant SNP associations and their allelic effects along with their physical position are detailed in Table 2.Genomic prediction for stover quality traits. The primary training set for the genomic prediction estimation, involved the phenotypes from a set of 276 elite breeding lines from the working germplasm of the program, and the test set comprised of DH lines derived from the elite breeding crosses of the program. After excluding the SNPs based on the filtering criteria across the genotypic datasets of training and test set, a total of 156,884 SNPs were used to estimate the genomic breeding values. In addition, the SNP dataset was further subdivided into a varied number of marker densities (500, 1000, 3000, 50,000, 10,000, 50,000, 100,000) to determine the prediction accuracies at different marker densities. The sub-sets of the genotype for the different marker densities were made at least twenty times and the prediction accuracies averaged over these iterations. For comparison, genomic predictions were also estimated for the selected DH lines by using the association mapping panel set as a training set.    2).To validate the prediction accuracy of the genomic selection, 100 DH lines were sampled from the test population based on the two extremes of the predicted values (top 5% and bottom 5%) for the stover traits, IVOMD and ME. The entries selected with in the top 5% matched across both the traits evaluated with an exception of only 4 entries with 2 entries each that had high IVOMD predictions but moderate ME predictions and vice versa. However, for all further estimations, these four entries were considered within the high phenotype groups for both IVOMD and ME. Based on these predictions, the set of 100 lines selected were test crossed and phenotyped for the two stover quality traits. The observed phenotypic value of IVOMD and ME ranged from 50.02 to 54.88% and 7.19 to 7.91 Mj kg −1 , respectively with a broad-sense heritability of 0.54. Descriptive statistics of testing set is presented in Table 1. Prediction accuracy was estimated based on the Pearson's correlation coefficient between predicted/estimated and observed phenotype across both high and low groups and also across the group for both the traits. Correlation coefficient between predicted and observed values for both the traits were high and significant across the group (r = 0.46 for IVOMD and ME) (Table 3). The prediction accuracies with in the high group of both the traits was substantially higher (r ~ 0.50), however this relationship was dismal within the low group of entries (Supplementary Table 3 and Fig   densities selected at random, starting with low followed by higher densities were also estimated for both the traits across the groups, i.e. from a low marker density of 200 SNPs to a high marker density of > 100,000 SNPs. These results indicated that while prediction accuracies improved from low marker density to high density (0.42 to 0.46), they did not vary substantially at different densities and were largely similar (Table 3). In addition, the prediction was also done at different marker densities for the select 100 DH entries using the association mapping panel as a training set and also by combining the association panel and the primary training population (breeding lines) dataset. Based on the commonality with the testing set and filtering criterion a set of 127,623 SNPs were filtered out for the predictions. These marker datasets were further subdivided to varied marker density (200 to 127,623 SNPs) dataset for prediction. The prediction accuracy was high (r = 0.32 to 0.43) and comparable at different marker densities with training set comprising of both the breeding lines and entries from the association mapping panel (Table 3). These accuracies obtained were also comparable to that obtained when the training set comprised solely of the breeding panel. However, these accuracies were very low (r = 0.11 to 0.02) at all marker densities when the training set comprised of only entries in the association panel (Table 3).  Sustainability for marginal and poor livestock holders can be achieved by ensuring the availability of feed throughout the year 4 . Crop residues of cereals-the by-products after harvest of the primary product (grains), are emerging as the major alternative to feed resources in developing countries where feed demand is steadily increasing while the availability of natural resources, particularly arable land and water, is declining 42 . Crop residues do not cost additional input such as water, land, etc., as crops are invariably grown for the harvest of grain 4 . Among the cereal crops, maize, which is grown throughout the year in tropical climate, has a very high demand and potential to be a successful dual-purpose crop. Most of the maize breeding programs of south Asia largely focus on improving grain yield-under optimal conditions with reduced losses under various biotic and abiotic stress conditions. However, global increase in demand for fodder has created an impetus for breeders to concentrate on ways of whole plant multiple trait improvement, concomitantly targeting food, feed and fodder improvement.Considerable progress has been made in detecting and exploiting genetic variations in stover fodder quality in maize. Screening of many of the released and pipeline hybrids of maize for stover quality has resulted in the identification and preferential promotion of dual-purpose hybrids across the globe, including USA 43 , Mexico 44 , Ethiopia and Tanzania 9 , South Africa 45 and South Asia 8,32,46 However, targeted breeding for these dual purpose (grain and stover) maize would entail additional phenotyping and increase in cost of the breeding pipeline, a major bottleneck for whole plant improvement for multiple traits. Use of molecular markers circumventing the need for additional phenotyping could support breeders in early selections of genotypes with superior yields and stover quality. Genomic prediction/selection approach could also help breeders design population improvement schemes for simultaneous improvement of multiple traits and complete multiple selection cycles within the time period conventionally used for improving a single trait [47][48][49] . However, applicability of GS model for trait of interest and/or reliability of the results of an association mapping for integration in breeding pipeline needs a deeper assessment. Two stover quality traits IVOMD and ME were selected for this study, as they are considered two of the most desired traits of stover quality and a small improvement in these traits can positively impact animal productivity 50 . We reviewed the previous association mapping studies and identified a suite of associations that co-localize for both the traits and address their wider applicability and integration into the maize breeding pipeline. In addition, we attempted to assess the applicability of the genomic prediction model for these traits in the current breeding pipeline.  The set of entries used as the association mapping panel consisted largely of tropical germplasm from across South Asia. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay of this set was high (4.0 Kb at r 2 of 0.2 and 11.6 Kb at r 2 of 0.1) and was similar to that observed in previous studies on tropical germplasm 27,32,51 . The low LD decay as seen in the current study further suggests that the panel is diverse, and hence the use of higher number of SNPs should provide a good resolution. The current association study used 181,768 SNPs for the association mapping. The association tests in our study were corrected for both structure and kinship. First 10 principal components used to correct for structure in the current analysis explained close to 81% of the variation. Considering the bonferroni corrected P value was too stringent to identify significant SNPs, a lower threshold of P value < 1 × 10 −4 was used as a cut off for identifying potential SNPs. A set of 64 SNPs for ME and 163SNPs for IVOMD were identified for both the traits (P value < 1 × 10 −3 ) through single locus MLM approach.The two stover quality traits are reported to be highly correlated 8,32,52 and as expected most the identified putative SNPs in the current study for the two traits co-localized suggesting a common genetic control. Identifying genomic regions contributing to the traits could greatly increase their applicability and ease of integration in mainstream breeding. A large number of significant SNPs identified clustered on chromosome 2 (11 SNPs at bin 2.04) and chromosome 6 (11 SNPs at bin 6.01). The bin 2.04 has been identified previously to contain QTLs for several fodder quality traits in maize (IVOMD, NDF, ADF, ADL) [21][22][23][53][54][55][56] , while Meta QTLs and cell wall digestibility traits have also been reported on bin 6.01 23 . These regions have also been found to be associated with gene models contributing to proteins involved in various cell wall components. The gene model GRMZM2G479018 (bin 2.04) associated with a SNP (S2_39751613) was found to encode for ABC like transporters. These proteins are associated with transport of lignin precursors from cytoplasm through plasmalemma and sequestration in vacuoles in Arabidopsis 57 . Lignin an important component of plant stem cell wall reduces the enzymatic degradability of biomass and cell wall polysaccharides in the rumen 58,59 . The study also identified SNPs (S6_2043652 and S6_35895666) on bin 6.01 associated with gene model (GRMZM2G035741) encoding G protein beta subunit, WD 40 repeat and BRI1-KD interacting protein 130 (GRMZM2G035741) that phosphorylates G protein for sugar signaling. Role of G protein and WD 40 repeats in cell wall biogenesis has been reported in earlier studies in Arabidopsis 60,61 .Another hot spot with clusters of SNP for IVOMD and ME was observed on chromosomes 3 (bin 3.09) and 4 (bin 4.1). QTL for cell wall composition and neutral sugar component of cell wall, glucose and ferrulic acid have been identified previously on bin 3.09 62 . A meta QTL for cell wall digestibility traits has also been reported 23 on bin 4.1. This region was also identified to harbor QTLS for ADF and NDF 53 .The highest variation among the putative SNPs along with the lowest P value was accounted by SNPs on chromosome 2 (bin 2.05 and 2.09), chromosome 5 (bin 5.06) and chromosome 7 (bin 7.03 and 7.04) across both the traits IVOMD and ME. QTLs have been found for various cell wall component digestibility traits such as ADF, NDF and IVDMD on bin 2.05 56 and meta QTL for cell wall traits was reported in this region 23 . QTLs for p-coumaric esters (PCA) involved in lignin biosynthesis have also been reported in this region. Meta QTL for cell wall component and digestibility traits have also been reported 23 on bin 2.08-2.09, bin 5.06, bin 7.03 and 7.04. Bin 7.04 has also been found to harbor QTLs for cell wall digestibility traits ADF and NDF 53 . QTLs for cell wall component arabinose (7.03) and Klason lignin (bin 7.04) has also been reported previously 62 on chromosome 7. Arabinoxylon is responsible for cross linking of lignin with ferulate bridges and is known to contribute to the reduced rumen degradability of maize cell walls 63,64 . In addition to these, three of the identified putative SNPs on chromosome 9 (bin 9.07) (S9_151819648, S9_151654313, S9_152760384) and one on chromosome 3 (bin 3.05) (S3_149247409) co-localized (within 1 Mb) to the identified SNP for IVOMD from the previous study 32 . These SNPs are co-localized to the regions coding for the enzymes protein phosphatase and urate hydroxylase, involved in signal transduction. This region on chromosome 9 (bin 9.07) has also been previously identified as a major hotspot region for cell wall components and digestibility in a meta-analysis study 23 . While several significant associations were detected in the current study, most of these associations for the traits observed had minor effects and were associated with low phenotypic variance. Previous studies have also identified a large number of minor effect QTLs for forage quality 23 in maize restricting the use of SNPs in breeding programs. Further, the need of repeat phenotyping of such traits with low heritability can often unsettle the breeding pipeline and substantially increase the cost of the breeding program. Hence, genomic selection strategy might be the best possible approach for their rapid improvement.Trait heritability, relationship between the training and testing set, variability for the trait of interest in the training population are few of the major factors determining success of genomic selection 41 . In the current study, the training set exhibited substantial variation (P < 0.0001) and good repeatability (h 2 > 0.50) for the two traits, IVOMD and ME. In addition, as GWAS did not identify any major regions for deployment, the use of genomic prediction strategy for these traits might be an effective way of improving the trait. To understand the applicability of whole genome predictions for these traits, a set of 1026 DH lines derived from 10 bi-parental breeding crosses from the program were used as the prediction set. The genomic selection model was trained based on two different training sets (i) The first training set consisted of 276 test crosses of active breeding lines from the Asia program, that included the founders of the DH lines and (ii) the second training set consists of the association mapping panel used in the study comprising diverse inbred lines.Based on the predicted trait values using the first training set consisting of the test crosses of the active breeding lines, a set of 100 inbred lines were selected (top and bottom ranking) and evaluated for the traits IVOMD and ME. The correlation between the observed phenotype of the selected lines of the testing population and the corresponding predicted high phenotype of those lines was significantly positive. The level of prediction accuracy in the present study was similar to or higher than the level for several agronomic and disease traits in other studies reported earlier [65][66][67][68][69] . Moreover, the success of prediction of traits through genome-wide genotyping depends on various features like marker density relative to the population's effective size, persistence of LD in the breeding material, etc. [70][71][72] and similarity of the training and test set. In the current study, the parental lines of the crosses used for developing the DH populations were also part of the breeding lines involved in the training set indicative of the close similarity of the training and test sets.To determine if similar prediction accuracy could be achieved when the training set was unrelated to the test set, the association mapping panel, which is more like a diversity panel, was used as a training set to predict the performance of the selected DH lines. The results clearly showed poor prediction accuracies in this scenario, when there was no relation between the training and test set. However, the prediction accuracies improved when the training set constituted a combination of both the breeding lines and association panel. Further, the prediction accuracies were comparable to the results obtained when the training set comprised solely of the breeding lines. Relationship between test set and training set in a genomic prediction model affects genomic selection 73 . The highest prediction accuracies were found when training data represented the whole population and had a strong relationship to the test data 74 , while low prediction accuracies for genomic selection have been reported with less related individuals in the training and test population 75,76 . Besides relationship between training and test set, marker densities also affect in the prediction accuracies 39 . Considering these the prediction accuracies were also repeated with a suite of marker densities (200 to 100,000 SNPs) chosen at random from the total high density SNP markers. The average prediction accuracies as determined by Pearsons correlation coefficient across the different marker densities were comparable indicating that markers at lower densities could predict for these traits in a test set with accuracies similar to those obtained from higher densities across the three training sets. Zhang et al. 41 found for less complex traits the increase in marker density could reduce the prediction accuracy, while for complex traits increased marker densities increased the prediction accuracy which stabilized after certain marker densities. However, in our study we did not find any significant differences in prediction accuracies at marker densities.These preliminary leads in predicting fodder quality phenotype in bi-parental populations from prediction equations trained on an independent panel suggest that (i) the genomic selection approach could be effectively used to improve the two major stover quality traits in maize breeding populations; and (ii) that the approach could also be used as an effective tool of selecting parents for breeding starts for fodder quality trait improvement from the existing maize repositories without the need for extensive phenotyping. Further, good prediction accuracies for these traits even at low marker densities suggests that tailoring the current breeding program to integrate stover quality as a trait of interest might not be difficult.The study presented several significant SNPs for in vitro organic matter digestibility and metabolizable energy. The suite of SNPs identified co-localized to several QTLs previously reported, indicating their suitability for use in breeding programs. Hot spots with cluster of SNPs had been identified on chromosome 2 and 6 for both the traits, that would be interesting to further investigate. However, considering the traits are associated with several minor effect QTLs each accounting for low phenotypic variance, incorporating genomic selection in breeding programs in Asia to improve this trait seems to be the most optimum strategy. Good prediction accuracies between the training and testing sets for the two traits of interest even at a low density of markers as detailed in the study, further supports its use for improving stover quality.Germplasm. Three different sets of germplasm were used in generating experimental datasets in the current study, including an association mapping panel comprising 424 maize lines, a training set for genomic prediction that was constituted using a set of 276 Asia-adapted breeding lines from the working germplasm of the CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat improvement Centre)-Asia breeding program, and a testing set for genomic prediction that comprised a set of untested 1026 double haploid (DH) lines derived from ten biparental breeding crosses that were genotyped and their breeding values estimated. A brief description of three set of germplasm is presented below.Association mapping panel. An association mapping panel was constituted that comprised of 424 diverse maize inbred lines sourced from CIMMYT maize program (371 sub-tropical/tropical lines), Purdue University, USA (15 temperate lines) and the Maize and Millets Research Institute (MMRI), Pakistan (38 sub-tropical lines). The panel was test-crossed with a CIMMYT tester line with high general combining ability (CML451) and phenotyped for two key stover quality traits-in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and metabolizable energy (ME) during post rainy season of 2013. This panel was also used as a secondary training set for predicting the performance of 100 DH lines selected for the two stover traits (IVOMD and ME).Primary training set for genomic prediction. Phenotypic and genotypic datasets from 276 advanced stage maize inbred lines from the working germplasm of CIMMYT Asia maize breeding program were used as a primary training set in the genomic selection model for the two stover quality traits (IVOMD and ME). Lines involved in the study were Asia-adapted advanced elite breeding lines that originated from the sub-tropical and tropical maize breeding program of CIMMYT and being currently actively used as parental lines of several breeding crosses.Testing set for genomic prediction. A set of 1026 double haploid (DH) lines derived from ten elite × elite biparental crosses were used as the testing set. The founder lines of these 10 DH populations were part of the primary training set used for prediction. These untested DH lines were genotyped using genotype-by-sequencing (GBS) platform and the breeding values for the two major stover quality traits were estimated using the model trained on the training set with > 150,000 random SNPs across the genome. Based on the genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs), a sub-set of 100 DH lines was selected (50 high ranking and 50 low ranking) from the 1026 DH lines. Considering the two traits were highly correlated, there was little discrepancy in the selection, with only 4 entries not consistently falling under high IVOMD and high ME criterion. Two of these entries each had high IVOMD value but moderate ME values and vice versa. However, for the all estimation purposes these entries were considered in high groups. The selected 100 DH lines were planted as replicated trials and phenotyped for the two stover quality traits at Hyderabad during 2014 post Rainy season. Prediction accuracies were estimated at different marker densities based on the correlation coefficient between the predicted values and the observed phenotypic values on those 100 DH lines for the two stover quality traits.Experimental design. Test-cross progenies of association mapping panel and the primary training set were planted using alpha-lattice design with two replications during the spring seasons of 2013 respectively at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) campus, Hyderabad, India. Each entry was planted in a 4-m long plot with a plant-to-plant spacing of 20 cm and a row-to-row spacing of 70 cm. Prior to planting, 60 kg nitrogen (N) ha −1 in the form of urea, 60 kg phosphorus ha −1 as single super phosphate, 40 kg potassium ha −1 as muriate of potash and 10 kg zinc as zinc sulfate were applied as a basal dose. The second and third doses of N (each 30 kg ha −1 ) were side-dressed when plants were at knee-high and at tasseling stage, respectively. Pre-emergence application of pendimethalin and atrazine [both at 0.75 kg ha −1 active ingredient (a.i.), tank mixed] were used to keep the crop weed-free at early growth stages. Standard agronomic and plant protection measures were followed throughout the cropping period to prevent from biotic or abiotic stress affecting the stover quality. At the maturity stage after harvesting of the cobs, five representative plants were selected from each plot for stover quality analysis.Based on the predicted values (GEBVs) for the two stover quality traits, a subset of 100 DH lines was selected out of 1026 DH lines. Test-crosses of these 100 DH lines were then planted in two replications at ICRISAT campus, Hyderabad, India following a similar design as detailed earlier during post Rainy season of 2014. The recommended agronomic practices were followed for a good crop stand. At maturity stage, five representative plants per plot were harvested for stover quality analysis.Phenotyping for stover fodder quality traits. Five whole plants were sampled from each of the plot in the experimental trials and processed for the various stover quality traits. The analysis for IVOMD and ME was done at the Livestock Nutritional Laboratory, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at ICRISAT campus using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), calibrated against conventional laboratory analyses. The NIRS instruments used were FOSS Forage Analyzer 5000, 6500 and XDS with the software package WinISI II. The procedure for analysis of maize stover samples for these quality traits using NIRS has been described in detail in Vinayan et al. 32 .All the three set of germplasm (AM panel for GWAS, training set of 276 elite lines and 1026 DH lines from biparental crosses as prediction set) used in the current study were genotyped using the GBS platform 77 at the Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. A total of 955,690 SNPs were generated through GBS v2.7 and the SNPs were filtered for the analysis, based on the method described by Suwarno et al. 78 with slight modifications. A call rate of > 0.85 and minor allelic frequency (MAF) > 0.05 criteria resulted in a set of 181,768 SNPs for association mapping analysis. Marker density for association mapping panel was one SNP per 11.604 kb. Structure of the association panel was determined using principal components, wherein the SNPs were further filtered based on a call rate of 0.9 and MAF < 0.1. In addition, Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) pruning based on adjacent markers was also carried out. This criterion resulted in a set of 55,807 SNP markers for principal component analysis.To train the genomic model for the two traits, the genotypic dataset from both training set (276 breeding lines) and a prediction set (1026 DH lines) were combined and later filtered using a call rate of 0.9 and MAF of 0.1. This filtering criterion resulted in a set of 156,884 SNPs, which were then used to predict phenotypes of 1026 DH lines derived from 10 bi-parental breeding crosses, based on the marker effects obtained from the training sets. The study also used the association mapping panel as a secondary training set and the testing set comprised of 100 DH lines for estimating the prediction accuracies. For this purpose, the filtered genotyping dataset estimated from the primary training set, association mapping panel and DH lines were merged. Based on the commonality a final set of 127,623 markers were then used for the prediction. In addition, to the whole set of random markers (156,884) used for prediction, SNP marker densities of 200, 500, 1000, 3000, 5000, 10,000, 50,000 and 100,000 SNPs were also used to estimate the breeding value of the 100 DH lines.A linear mixed model was used for the analysis of the stover quality traits using the web handle META-R developed by CIMMYT 79 , where Y ijk is the trait of interest, µ is the mean effect, R i is the effect of the ith replicate, B j (R i ) is the effect of the jth incomplete block within the ith replicate, G k is the effect of the kth genotype and ε ijk is the error associated with the ith replication, jth incomplete block and the kth genotype. The effects of block, replicate and genotype were considered random to estimate the best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) which were used for the analysis. Single location heritability of the trials was computed using the genotypic variance estimates ( σ 2 g) and single location residual ( σ 2 ε) asmarkers and association mapping panel phenotypes were corrected for population structure and kinship following a single locus mixed linear model (MLM) (G + Q + K) following the efficient mixed-model association expedited (EMMAX) variance component approach 80 . The additive model was used for the analysis and the missing genotype values were set to 0. The kinship matrix used as covariates were treated as random effects. Manhattan plots were plotted using the − log 10 P values of all SNPs in the model and Quantile-quantile plots were plotted using the observed − log 10 P values and the expected − log 10 P values. A suite of significant SNP associations was observed from the analysis. These significant associations were then used to look for congruence with results from previous studies. The associated SNPs were considered co-localized if found to be in close proximity (within 1 Mbp) to the previously reported SNP for the trait 81 . The analysis were carried out using SNP and Variation Suites v8.6.0 82 . In addition, the gene models with the putative SNP associations were identified from maize GDB genome browser at http://www.maize gdb.org (B73 RefGen_V2) and their respective protein were obtained from Uniprot genome browser at http://unipr ot.org.Genomic predictions were done following genomic best linear unbiased prediction (G-BLUP) method 83 . The primary training set comprised of phenotypic and genotypic datasets of 276 CIMMYT Asia-based breeding lines, and the prediction set comprised of 1026 DH lines derived from 10 bi-parental crosses involving Asia-adapted elite breeding lines. The GBLUP model used here was where Y represents the trait IVOMD and ME, µ is the model intercept, g represents the vector of the genotypic values for the genotype and e is the residual. The GBLUP method computes a genomic relationship matrix and from that computes the \"Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Predictor\" (GBLUP) of additive genetic merits by sample. The genomic relationship matrix G is estimated as where W represents the centered genotype matrix and pi represents the allele frequencies. The genotypic relationship matrix was estimated for each marker density and missing genotype data was recorded as 0 (the major homozygous allele). The Expectation-Maximization (EM) and Efficient Mixed Model Association (EMMA) algorithm was used for predicting the performance of the unpredicted lines. All the predictions were done on SNP and Variation Suites v8.6.0 82 . Based on the GEBVs of the DH lines estimated using the full set of 156,884 SNPs, a sub-set of 100 DH lines were subsampled. The test crosses form these lines were evaluated for the two traits to obtain the observed phenotypic value. The prediction accuracies were estimated as simple Pearson's correlation coefficient between estimated breeding values and observed breeding values. Further, the prediction accuracies were re-estimated for these selected 100 DH lines at different marker densities. In addition, for comparison of prediction accuracies when a diversity panel is used in the breeding scheme, predicted values for these 100 DH lines were also estimated using the association mapping panel as the training set. The predicted values for DH lines were estimated by sampling genotype dataset at designated marker density 20 times. The correlation coefficients across these 20 samples for each marker density were then averaged following Fisher Z transformation as described by Alexander et al. 84 .,","tokenCount":"6523"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"075589b73b8e17bcaa3dfff6dd6d0208","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1900d0a6-fc38-4bd0-8539-51124208204f/retrieve","id":"-1973455474"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a9f76599-4711-46d1-9cad-fe7869c2dd2b","pagecount":"1","content":"A part of standardized SLiM template for \"Community-based breeding program for goat in North Ethiopia.• Unique integration between descriptive data on SLiM options and GIS data on socio-ecological context.• Tested spatial extrapolation domains based on typologies of socio-ecological context.• It provides stakeholders with multiple entry points to view and evaluate SLiM options in context and visualize potential areas for scaling.• Its design is open for continuous improvement and customization.• Continue tool development in 2020.• Deliver capacity development and facilitate uses for stakeholders in Ethiopia, Tanzania and elsewhere in 2021.• The online feature of GeOC4SLiM would support a wider applicability beyond 2021.","tokenCount":"101"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"11238bc8fd6f863d94c225d4357609f0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a354e84a-3c74-419a-9e8a-5a4215bdc037/retrieve","id":"597170026"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cfb7a471-2820-455e-a560-ccb37b84bd59","pagecount":"25","content":"limate change, locusts, global price volatility, and COVID-19 have placed the Kenyan food system under strain in recent years. These external drivers disrupt the capacity of the food system to operate productively and supply healthy foods at all times. A resilient food system can withstand and recover from these shocks and adapt to changing conditions. As shocks become more prevalent with the changing climate and a rapidly evolving global environment, building food system resilience has become increasingly important. Part 4 addresses food system resilience in general and presents several financial solutions to boosting the resilience of smallholder farmers in particular.The Kenyan food system has gradually become more resilient over the past 20 years. Chapter 10 presents the results of input-output modeling to measure food system resilience. Food system resilience is linked to its sophistication and diversification. As such, production sectors with more downstream linkages (that is, to processors, manufacturers, or retailers) and more diversified systems help build food system resilience. From the policy standpoint, developing market linkages (that is, value chain development) and promoting diversification can be promising avenues to build food system resilience. However, this brings to the forefront the challenge of simultaneously diversifying and intensifying agricultural production. Small producers, who are often the most vulnerable to shocks, may need other measures, such as insurance, to de-risk their production.Insurance can help build resilience for small producers and protect them against risks that on-farm practices, technologies, and diversification cannot (for example, severe drought). However, as Chapter 11 indicates, traditional indemnity-based insurance can be expensive to scale because in-person visits are needed to assess damage. Digital solutions can enable alternatives, such as index-or picture-based insurance. However, insurance products cannot be onesize-fits-all and must address the varying needs of farmers, herders, women, the poor, and the non-poor. Insurance should also be bundled with other interventions, as it is not a silver bullet.One example of bundling insurance, discussed in Chapter 12, is riskcontingent credit (RCC). RCC is insurance bundled with credit, whereby loan repayments are essentially insured for farmers facing climate risk. Such a solution overcomes the problem of risk rationing in credit markets and solves liquidity constraints to adopting insurance (as discussed in Chapter 11).Chapter 12 shows that RCC can increase credit uptake and has potential to scale up but is hindered by a lack of reliable yield data. The public sector can play a supporting role by promoting large-scale data collection so that researchers can better estimate yields nationwide.In sum, Part 4 discusses several issues related to food system resilience in Kenya. Creating more diverse production systems and promoting more value chain linkages can help build climate resilience for the food system. At the farm level, innovative financial products can help de-risk production while also supporting more intensified production. However, these solutions cannot be pursued in isolation, and must also work in unison with enhancing productivity through on-farm technology adoption (Part 3) and ensuring production meets the demand for healthy diets (Part 2).food system includes all elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation, and consumption of food, and the outputs of these activities, including socioeconomic and environmental outcomes (HLPE 2017). Thus, a food system links society and nature (Blesh and Wittman 2015). Resilience is \"the ability of people, households, communities, countries and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth\" (USAID 2018). Applied to food systems, resilience is defined by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) as the ability to withstand major shocks and stressors emanating from climate/weather, conflict, disease, external economic shocks, and other sources, which, if not prevented or mitigated, would delay, or limit economic progress, transformation, prosperity, and self-reliance (AGRA 2021). In this sense, resilience of a food system may be considered a system property that plays a critical role in its sustainability (Jacobi et al. 2018), thus ensuring sustained food security. This chapter adopts this definition with the objective of assessing the resilience of Kenya's food system and its components using systemwide metrics. Specifically, we use a production approach based on input-output linkages.A consensus emerging across the globe is that building resilient and sustainable food systems is crucial to ensuring sustainable economies and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Africa Agenda 2063 goals (AGRA 2021). However, ongoing and recent shocks to food systems emanating from climate change crises such as droughts, famines, floods, and locust invasions, as well as civil conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic, are delaying the progress made in achieving these targets. For this reason, building the ASSESSING THE RESILIENCE OF KENYA'S FOOD SYSTEM: A PRODUCTION APPROACH John M. Ulimwengu, Juneweenex Mbuthia, and Lensa OmuneChapter 10 resilience of food systems to endure such constant shocks becomes even more important. It also requires coordination and partnership at every level of the system, to ensure the system's efficient functioning.Over the years, Kenya has taken big strides in building the foundations needed to transform its food system and boost household food resilience. Article 43 of the Constitution of Kenya recognizes the basic human right to freedom from hunger. To achieve its food and nutrition security aspirations, Kenya seeks to transform the agriculture sector in line with its commitments to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), the SDGs, the Big Four Agenda, and, by extension, Medium-Term Plan III of Vision 2030. Vision 2030 identifies agriculture as a key sector to transform the economy, given its significant contribution to GDP (Figure 10.1). This important contribution further confirms the need to strengthen synergies between agriculture and Kenya's economy. When agriculture grows, its extensive linkages with the off-farm stages of the food system and nonfarm sectors expand employment and livelihoods in the rest of the economy (AGRA 2021).The policy framework for the implementation of agricultural transformation includes the Agricultural Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS) 2019-2029 as well as a short-term National Agriculture Investment 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 4 2 0 0 5 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 7 2 0 0 8 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 3 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5 2 0 1 6 2 0 1 7 2 0 1 8 2 0 1 9Annual growth (%)Agriculture, forestry, and shing value added GDP Plan (NAIP) for the period 2019-2024. The ASTGS and the NAIP are premised on a transformed, vibrant, commercial, modern, and equitable agriculture sector to achieve complete food and nutrition security by 2030, and to sustainably support economic growth. The framework has identified three overarching targets, closely aligned with global (SDGs), regional (CAADP, Agenda 2063), and national (Big Four Agenda) aspirations. The first target is to increase small-scale farmer, pastoralist, and fisherfolk incomes in line with SDG target 2.3. The second is to increase agricultural output and value added, directly derived from CAADP's target of annual agricultural GDP growth of 6 percent.The third, increased household food resilience, aligns with the Big Four Agenda commitments of 100 percent food and nutrition security. CAADP is a policy framework for stimulating production and bringing about food security among the populations of Africa. It was launched in 2003 under the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security. In 2014, African heads of state and government adopted the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated African Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, in which they recommitted to the principles and values of CAADP and set ambitious targets in five broad areas (enhancing agricultural investment, ending hunger, reducing poverty, boosting intra-African agricultural trade, and enhancing resilience of livelihoods and production systems). The member states track and monitor their progress on commitments through Biennial Review reports. Kenya signed to the CAADP Compact in July 2010, thereby forming the basis for its NAIPs and sector transformation strategies.The current 10-year CAADP tracks seven key commitment areas: recommitment to the CAADP process; investment finance in agriculture; ending hunger; eradicating poverty through agriculture by 2025; boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services; enhancing resilience to climate variability; and enhancing mutual accountability for actions and results. Figure 10.2 shows Kenya's progress relative to its peers on five of these commitment areas, drawing on the 2021 Biennial Review report (AU 2022).Notably, Kenya lags on most of the commitment areas. However, the country shows five key areas of strong performance: 75 percent of youth engaged in new job opportunities in agricultural value chains; a 63.2 percent reduction in postharvest losses for national agricultural commodities; a 100 percent budget allocation of the total (CAADP 2015-2025) requirement for social protection for vulnerable social groups from the government budget; a 109.8 percent increase in agricultural value added per agricultural worker; and a 126.7 percent increase in agricultural value added per hectare of arable land.The 2021 CAADP Biennial Review report maps its indicators to the five Action Tracks of the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit. Figure 10.3 presents the change in the performance indicators between the Biennial Reviews of 2019and 2021(AU 2020, 2022)).Figure 10.3 shows that, with respect to the indicators under Action Track 1 of the UN Food Systems Summit, 10 countries were on track in 2019 compared with only 5 in 2021. On Action Track 2, the numbers had fallen from 15 to only 6. The results suggest that Kenya, like most African countries, has not made significant progress in transforming its food system to ensure wealth creation, food and nutrition security, poverty alleviation and prosperity, and resilience and sustainability. The momentum created by the UN Food Systems Summit is therefore an opportunity to substantially improve on implementation of the CAADP agenda.Despite progress made in transforming the food system in Kenya, it remains fragile and vulnerable to climate shocks such as drought and changes in rain patterns, as most of its production is rainfed. In recent years, agricultural production has faced a desert locust invasion in the northern, eastern, and central zones; drought; delayed short and long rains; and the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused disruptions in every component of the food system. Indicators suggest that, even before the pandemic, undernourishment and food insecurity were on the rise (Figure 10.4).The UN Food Systems Summit 2021, through its Action Tracks, underscored the need to have food systems that can maintain functionality, recover from the adverse effects of shocks and stresses, and build back better, and thus that are more resilient to future shocks (UNFSS 2021). Resilience is thus critical at all stages (both upstream and downstream) of the food system.  Resilience is notoriously difficult to measure yet the concept is gaining steam among development partners and policymakers because it captures not just the ability to \"bounce back\" so much as to \"bounce forward\" after a shock alters a system. The need to build such resilience drives many development interventions, drawing on a breadth of disciplines, including ecology, medicine, and psychology (Holling 1973;Walker et al. 2004Walker et al. , 2009;;Fleming and Ledogar 2008;Béné 2012).A multitude of practical approaches to measuring resilience, using different types of data, have thus been developed in the past decade. One of the most prominent is the Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis II (RIMA-II) methodology developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which, along with its predecessor RIMA, has been implemented in some 15 African countries to estimate households' ability to maintain well-being in the face of shocks (FAO 2016). The RIMA/RIMA-II approach has gained considerable momentum and has been incorporated into the monitoring and evaluation of resilience-building efforts under the CAADP agenda.RIMA-II estimates a resilience capacity index at the household and location/ community level that can be used to rank households and identify the least resilient. First, factor analysis is used to construct four pillars (interventions) that are expected to contribute to overall resilience, based on a larger set of underlying variables. Second, structural equation modeling is used to estimate resilience capacity as a latent variable, based on the pillar values and on outcome variables, usually reflecting food security. The resilience capacity score generated for each household is standardized so that values fall between 0 and 1, with higher scores indicating greater resilience capacity. Not all current resilience metrics measure system resilience, which requires accounting for the interdependence of food system components. In other words, a metric for food system resilience cannot be implemented unless the food system is defined as a network of connected components working together to achieve the desired outcome.This chapter focuses on assessing the resilience of the food system in Kenya. We use the production approach of Leontief, whereby an economy is described through a set of specialized production units. Each of these units relies on the flow of inputs from its suppliers to produce its own output, which in turn is routed toward other downstream units forming a production network (Carvalho and Voigtländer 2014). Hence, a shock affecting only a particular node along the chain can propagate throughout the economy and shape the network outcomes. Such shock propagation will ultimately affect the main outcome of the food system, which is food and nutrition security.Following Barzel and Barabási (2013) and Barzel, Liu, and Barabási (2015), we model the food system as a network of N sectors whose activities are interconnected. Given the interdependence of sectors, the network effective state can be characterized using the average nearest-neighbor activity, as follows (Barzel, Liu, and Barabási, 2015):where s out = (s 1 out , ... , s N out ) T is the vector of outgoing weighted degrees,T is the vector of incoming weighted degrees, andThe slope of the network effective state, which determines the system resilience, is given by:Equation 2 can be rewritten as:where 〈s〉, S, and H represent three characteristics (density, symmetry, and heterogeneity) of the system adjacency matrix A ij . It follows that the resilience index (β eff ) dependence on the network density 〈s〉 indicates that a denser network has a large β eff . The system heterogeneity in the s in and s out is captured by H = ο in ο out /〈s〉, where ο 2 in and ο 2 out are the variance of the marginal probability density functions P(s in ) and P(s out ) of in and out weighted degrees, respectively. Finally, the symmetry between s in and s out is given by S= (〈s in s out 〉)/(ο in ο out ) , which is the in-out weighted degree correlation coefficient.To help understand how food systems can be more resilient, Piters and colleagues (2021) subdivide resilience capacities according to five phases of a shock/stressor scenario that we group in three: (1) anticipation and prevention, which relate to the phase prior to the occurrence of any shocks, (2) absorption, which plays the largest role during the occurrence of a shock, and (3) adaptation and transformation, which are most relevant in the aftermath of the shock and influence the recovery toward post-shock food and nutrition security. They then define four properties of system resilience building:• Agency-the means and capacities of people to mitigate risks and to respond to shocks;• Buffering-resources to fall back on in the face of shocks and stressors;• Connectivity-the interconnection of and communication between actors and market segments; and• Diversity at different scales and in different places, from production to consumption and from farm level to regional diversity.The metrics derived from Equation 3 fall under \"connectivity\" and \"diversity\". Connectivity refers to the nature and strength of the interactions between the various components of a given food system. It follows that maintaining and building connectivity helps build resilience and guard against negative outcomes (Love et al. 2020). As Piters and colleagues point out, improved connectivity in agricultural value chains improves a food system's capacity to respond to shocks and stressors and is an essential contributor to adaptation and transformation capacities. Regarding diversity, evidence suggests that resilient systems are diverse systems, as the loss of one resource may be compensated by another (Levia et al. 2020;Benton et al. 2021). For example, Piters and colleagues report that more diverse farming systems have greater capacity to absorb the effects of shocks and stressors, and this capacity stabilizes food supplies throughout value chains to consumer markets.We use Kenya's input-output tables (IOTs) compiled by IFPRI for 2003, 2013, and 2019(IFPRI 2021). IOTs describe transaction flows within an economy for a given period; they involve sales and purchases between producers and consumers and reconcile the supply and use of goods and services. Each IOT illustrates flows between final and intermediate sales and purchases of industry outputs or those of product outputs. The actual I-O analysis, also referred to as \"inter-industry analysis,\" measures the relationships between various sectors in the economy. We extracted food systems by adding every other sector to food sectors with a non-zero interaction with food sectors. This allows us to avoid the bias of truncated food systems where the food system is analyzed outside of the overall economic system. For example, we know that fertilizer, which is in the chemicals sector, is a key ingredient in the primary production component of the food system. In another example, the transport sector is important to the food system when it facilitates the movement of raw materials and intermediate and final outputs to markets. Further, the processing sector is vital to the food system since it demands raw materials and intermediate goods and supplies final products to the food system. In the latter case, looking specifically at maize farming, maize is supplied to flour processing firms and in turn these firms sell animal feed as a byproduct from the processing activity to the food system. Hence, analyzing food system resilience without these sectors will likely lead to biased results. Table 10.1 presents key characteristics of Note: Density describes the portion of the potential connections in a network that are actual connections. A \"potential connection\" is a connection that could potentially exist between two \"sectors\"-regardless of whether it actually exists. It is estimated as the ratio of actual connections over potential connections, which is equal to nx(n−1)/2 for a network of n sectors. A sector's clustering coefficient measures how close its neighborhood is to a complete network in terms of the relative density of links in its neighborhood. Kenya's food system for periods for which we have IOTs. Figure 10.5 provides visual representations of the system in different years.The increased number of sectors could be explained partly by the new government that came into place in 2002 and the subsequent bold structural and economic reforms as elaborated in the Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) covering the 2003-2007 period that paved way toward the adoption of Kenya's Vision 2030 in 2008. The ERS was anchored in three key pillars-namely, restoration of economic growth, rehabilitation, and expansion of infrastructure; equity and poverty reduction; and improving governance. Examples of the reforms include-but are not limited to-the introduction of free primary education; reforming the public transport sector, especially by tightening rules and regulations for minibus operators and by reconstructing roads; and improving efficiency and productivity in the coffee, pyrethrum, sugar, and cooperative subsectors. The government also took several measures to improve the business environment and stimulate production, including enhancing the tax incentives first introduced in 2003/04, which included duty waivers on capital goods, industrial plant, and equipment. The incentives largely attracted firms to export promoting zone firms (OECD 2007).Overall, the ERS entailed the adoption of a growth strategy based in the sectors that would generate employment most rapidly and that would provide more income-generating opportunities for the poor. The sectors identified included agriculture, tourism, trade and industry, ICT, forestry, and mining (Kenya, Republic of Kenya 2007).Our findings suggest a slow but gradual increase of Kenya's food system resilience from 2003 to 2019 (Figure 10.6). Despite this, the system remains fragile and vulnerable to shocks, which are tending to occur more often, reversing gains from the increase in resilience. Examples of shocks include climate shocks, crop diseases, the COVID-19 pandemic, the global oil crisis, and the recent Russia-Ukraine conflict. Of the three drivers of system resilience derived above-namely, density, heterogeneity, and symmetry-it appears Resilience index that heterogeneity may explain the substantial increase in resilience in 2019 compared with 2003 and 2013. A dense food system can be understood as a web with integrated strings, which makes it more resilient compared with a sparse food system (see Figure 10.7). In the economic literature, network density also reflects economic diversification. As Usman and Landry (2021) point out, there are several ways of measuring economic diversification, including variety-, quality-, and output-based approaches. This chapter uses the variety-based approach (number of connected nodes), which measures the diversity of economic activities regardless of their quality.There is evidence of a significant relationship between density in particular industries and the ability to withstand shock (Brown and Greenbaum 2017). Exploring the extent to which a less concentrated meat processing sector in the United States would be less vulnerable to the risks of temporary plant shutdowns, Ma and Lusk (2021) find that, when each plant in the industry faces a chance of shutdown equal to 10-30 percent, a more concentrated packing sector performs better than a diffuse or sparse packing sector in ensuring a relatively high level of output. Using fixed effects models, Brown and Greenbaum (2017) examined the influence of industrial diversity and concentration on unemployment rate stability in Ohio counties between 1977 and 2011. Their results indicate that counties with more diverse industry structures fare better during times of national or local employment shock.In the case of Kenya, the economy lacks diversification in terms of exports, imports, markets, and value addition to its products, and hence relies on exporting primary commodities and importing high-value goods. Specifically in terms of product diversification, coffee, tea, spices, and cut flowers still dominate Kenya's exports, at 29 percent. This implies that the country is still far from diversifying its exports, even with Vision 2030, which seeks to make the country globally competitive and prosperous through massive investments in critical international trade infrastructure and improvements in the quality of exportable commodities (that is, tea, horticulture, coffee, apparel and clothing, and vegetable oils).Our findings suggest that the country experienced an increase in diversity from 2003 to 2019 (see Figure 10.7), but Kenya still needs to address its limited economic diversification. As pointed out by former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, \"We know that economic diversification is good for growth. Diversification is also tremendously important for resilience\" (Usman and Landry 2021, 1).In addition to containing interconnected nodes (sectors), heterogeneous systems are characterized by links of different types. Heterogeneity of a system also reflects the sophistication of its sectors; for example, a food system that manages to produce oil, alcohol, animal feeds, and biofuel is more sophisticated and resilient than a system that produces only maize. Economic sophistication is defined as the ability to produce complex products that require specific skills and tacit knowledge embedded in labor (Arif 2021). A key component of a country's growth process and ultimately its resilience is an increase in this \"sophistication\" of the country's production, which may evolve either through an increase in the quality of previously produced goods or through a move into new, more complex products (Anand, Mishra, and Spatafora 2012). Rodrik (2007) notes that countries that can produce and export more sophisticated goods grow faster. According to Hausmann and colleagues (2021), economic growth is driven by diversification into new products that are incrementally more complex and less ubiquitous.Figure 10.8 presents food system heterogeneity in Kenya from 2003 to 2019. Kenya's economic sophistication has been low, given that the largest share of the economy's output is from primary agriculture, which does not require special skills or advanced technology. The heterogeneity index is the highest in 2019, after a significant decrease between 2003 and 2013. If the 2019 trend is sustained, this will show that Kenya's food system has become more complex.However, the increase in the heterogeneity index in 2019 may be explained partly by the adoption of technology in the country, especially in the implementation of Vision 2030, whose main objective is to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income country with a key role for science, technology, and innovation (Kenya, Republic of Kenya 2007).While sectors and their interactions are the building blocks of a food system, the types of relationships that the interactions represent play a significant role in the system dynamics. Indeed, understanding the nature of the interaction between two sectors is important to capture system resilience. In particular, symmetry is a crucial attribute that determines the resilience of a food system. This has practical implications that have not yet been fully explored, nor systematically exploited by network practitioners (Sánchez-García 2020). Acemoglu and colleagues (2012) have shown that aggregate volatility is observed from sectoral idiosyncratic shocks only if significant asymmetry exists in the interactions between sectors. Crowcroft (2015) points out that a symmetric network, with sectors offering as well as demanding resources, maximizes diversity. Similarly, symmetric interactions amplify network heterogeneity. One example would be the interaction between maize and energy sectors, where the first supplies maize to the second to produce biofuel, which is then used by the first sector to power equipment used in its production process. In the case of Kenya's food system, the symmetry index in 2003 was 0.236 (see Figure 10.9); it reached 0.399 in 2013, but decreased by 12 percent in 2019.The food system resilience index and its components discussed above are all systemwide metrics that highlight how input-output linkages play a crucial role in transmitting shocks between economic actors (Carvalho et al. 2020). However, the \"central\" sectors are the ones responsible for the amplification of idiosyncratic shocks (Contreras and Fagiolo 2014). There are various measures of system centrality, depending on how connected a given sector is (degree centrality) or how far on average it is from any other sectors in the system (closeness centrality), or how crucial a given sector is in connecting other sectors (betweenness centrality). This chapter uses the eigenvector centrality developed by Bonacich (1987) to identify central sectors. This is also called the \"influence measure\" of centrality, whereby sectors are relatively more central in the system if their neighbors are themselves well-connected sectors (Carvalho 2014).Table 10.2 presents the top 10 central sectors with their respective centrality measure. Because of constant changes in the IOT nomenclature, it is impossible to follow the dynamics of each top central sector from 2003 to 2019. However, using 2003 as a reference period, some relevant trends can be observed. For example, meat and dairy, along with poultry, have consistently been among the top 5 while beverages and tobacco have gone from the top spot in 2003 to Symmetry index number three in 2019. It is worth noting the appearance of accommodation and food services in first place in both 2013 and 2019. This sector includes hotels, restaurants, and fast food. Given their role, the top 5 or 10 central sectors should be the targets of policies aimed at building a resilient food system in Kenya.As part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Kenyan government, in addition to setting a daily curfew from 8 pm to 4 am, prohibited all public gatherings and in-person meetings, and bars and restaurants remained closed (only allowing takeaway) (GAIN 2021). Therefore, we implemented an extreme scenario assuming that these COVID-19-related restrictions took out the entire accommodation and food services sector. More specifically, the simulated shock corresponds to the removal of the sector from the 2019 food system. As Table 10.3 shows, the impact is felt in all types of interactions across the food system-those incoming (in degree) as well as those outgoing (out degree). The values of these interactions are also affected. It goes without saying that, if no mitigation measure is implemented, such an impact will ultimately reduce system production and eventually food and nutrition outcomes. With respect to incoming transactions, the most affected are construction, finance and insurance, information and communication, wholesale and retail Defined as the ability to maintain an acceptable level of the desired outcome despite stressors or shocks, resilience is inherently a dynamic concept-which makes it difficult to measure. Still, the concept is gaining interest among development partners and policymakers because it also captures the ability to bounce forward after a shock alters the system. To make matters more complicated, the resilience of a system is not a mere sum of the resilience of its components. As Cerqueti, Ferraro, and Iovanella (2019) point out, system disruption depends on the magnitude of the shock and its propagation across the system because of the interconnectivity of its components. This chapter, drawing on the ecological and engineering literature, has used systemwide metrics to measure food system resilience and its components. We used a production approach based on input-output linkages. Our results suggest that the resilience of a food system is driven by its density, heterogeneity, and symmetry. In economic terms, this means that economic diversification (more food sectors) and sophistication (high-value food sectors) are the main drivers of a resilient food system.There was a sharp decline in Kenya's food system resilience between 2001 and 2003, followed by a slow but gradual increase from 2003 to 2019. These resilience dynamics were driven mostly by loss of density and symmetry. Overall, though, the country's food system density increased from 2003 to 2019. The symmetry index reached 0.351 in 2019, up from 0.236 in 2003. As Carvalho (2014) points out, central production sectors-those with more direct or indirect downstream interactions-are relatively more important in determining aggregate system volatility. We identified and ranked these central sectors for each period. Frequent changes in the IOT nomenclature mean we could not properly analyze the dynamics of each top central sector from 2003 to 2019. Nonetheless, given their role, the top 5 or 10 central sectors should be the targets of policies aimed at building a resilient food system in Kenya. Waha and colleagues (2018) have demonstrated that diversification plays an essential role in ensuring food security and stabilizing food production in Africa. Other research (such as Jones, Shrinivas, and Bezner-Kerr 2014) shows clear relations between farming diversity and food security, and a linkage to nutritional diversity, but conclusions on how market orientation influences the relationship vary (Sibhatu, Krishna, and Qaim 2015). This suggests the need for incentives to promote diversification while intensifying production systems. Households may still be limited in their ability to diversify because of soil, labor, input, or land constraints or because of their remote location without access to extension services that provide support for new crops or crop management techniques (Waha et al. 2018).Given the critical role of livestock in supplying food of animal origin, Vision 2030, which is Kenya's development blueprint, identifies this as one of the eight priority sectors within its economic pillar, with various programs for the period 2018-2022. These include the Livestock Production Program, the Smallholder Productivity and Agroprocessing Program, and the Pastoral Resilience Building Program (Kenya, Republic of Kenya 2018).Overall, to reinforce, maintain, and improve sectors' interconnectivity for increased system resilience, a systemic policy approach is needed to prevent the build-up of vulnerabilities and reduce exposure to shocks. Such a policy should cover relevant institutions, infrastructures, regulations, and markets.As many have suggested before, what is required to build a resilient food system in a country such as Kenya is a fundamentally different model of agriculture based on diversifying farms and farming landscapes, optimizing biodiversity, and stimulating interactions between different sectors for a sustainable healthy diet for all. Together, a varied and balanced diet, a wide range of crops and foodstuffs, and a diverse system of production and distribution make for a more resilient, stable, and healthy food system (EC 2020).Finally, the concept of a food system is very appealing because it emphasizes connectivity and interdependence of activities, actors, and institutions to achieve a sustainable healthy diet for all. This calls for coordination and partnership at every level to ensure the whole system functions efficiently and yields the expected outcomes. In this, the development of food system modeling frameworks is critical in integrating the complex interactions between food, ecology, economy, and society, to provide evidence on trade-offs when diversifying food systems to improve their resilience (Hertel et al. 2021). This will require substantial investments in building statistical systems that capture the main participants in a food system along with related operations and connections.","tokenCount":"5411"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c2262708acd25931d82d99e68dd49df9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/e44caed7-7590-4fca-a035-8307c25eeb90/content","id":"258326805"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bda83df8-29c5-4c16-9c96-ac92c3c656b1","pagecount":"16","content":"The increasing frequency of climatic risks, such as flood, drought, heat and cold waves, is causing significant loss of farm productivity and income in agriculturally dependent communities. Timely availability of reliable information on weather conditions, agro-advisories, and market information can help to minimize losses in agriculture. This paper presents a scientific and integrated approach to identify areas of high agriculture vulnerability to climate change and availability of ICT services for dissemination of CSA information in the vulnerable areas. This study was illustrated for India where the majority of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods, and this sector is highly vulnerable to climate change. The study presents four regions: i) high agriculture vulnerability and low ICT services, ii) high agriculture vulnerability and high ICT services, iii) low agriculture vulnerability and low ICT services, and iv) low agriculture vulnerability and high ICT services. This methodology, which is simple, uses available data, and is easy to apply, can be useful to prioritize locations for climate-smart interventions, mode of CSA information dissemination using ICT services, and increase coverage of agro-ICT services through development of ICT services in the locations where climate change impact is high and ICT services are very low. This study also showed that there is a need to improve the quality of existing climate information and agro-advisory services in the climate risk-prone areas.Agricultural production is often volatile due to external factors, such as weather, insect/pests, diseases, and input/output prices. Recently, increasing climatic risks in agriculture are causing serious distresses to farming communities across the world (Hansen et al. 2018;Falco et al. 2018;Knox et al. 2012). It has been well documented that agricultural production could be significantly impacted owing to increases in temperature, changes in rainfall patterns, and incidence of extreme climatic events, such as floods, droughts, and heat/cold waves (Aggarwal et al. 2018;Khatri-Chhetri et al. 2017). Furthermore, agriculture in its different forms and locations remains highly vulnerable to climatic variability, which is a major factor of interannual variation in food production (Ray et al. 2015;Howden et al. 2007). Given the impacts of climate change on agriculture, enhancing farmers' capacity to manage climatic risks can be an important adaptation strategy in agriculture and allied sector, such as processing units, livestock, fisheries, etc.Depending upon food production systems and locations, there is a large array of adaptation and mitigation options to address climate change and variability in agriculture. Adaptation options that sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience to climatic stresses, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are known as climate-smart agricultural (CSA) technologies, practices, and services (FAO 2010). Broadly, CSA focuses on developing resilient food production systems that lead to food and income security under progressive climate change and variability (Vermeulen et al. 2012, Lipper et al. 2014). In many locations, change in crop and livestock management practices, use of new farm technologies, and change in land use patterns help to adapt climatic risks in agriculture. These practices include use of improved climate resilient seeds, crop nutrients and water management practices, changes in tillage practices (such as conventional to minimum tillage), change in sowing time based on climate information, etc. (Howden et al. 2007;Dunnett et al. 2018). A recent study shows farmers' preferred technologies generally depend on total annual rainfall and that the choices are largely around rainwater harvesting, crop insurance, laser leveling, and fodder management (Khatri-Chhetri and Aggarwal 2017). Similarly, many climatesmart agricultural practices can potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions without compromising food production (Sapkota et al. 2018). However, farmers often lack access to updated information on several CSA technologies, practices, and services that are available to them in the market. Availability of timely information on weather forecasts, value-added agricultural advisories, such as climate information-based input use and crop management practices and market information, empowers farming communities in tackling climate and market risks in agriculture (Magawata 2014;Shaik et al. 2011;Singh and Meena 2012).The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as cell phones, televisions, radio, and internet services, is an emerging field for dissemination of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies, practices, and services to the rural farmers. Several studies also indicate that ICT-based climate information and agro-advisory services can help farmers to make better in-season crop management decisions, choice of technology, and marketing strategy (Ospina and Heeks 2012;Kumar and Singh 2012;Mittal et al. 2010). However, reliable and economical ICT services are crucial for the dissemination of CSA information to the rural agricultural communities. In addition, the role of ICTs is not confined only to disseminate CSA information, rather it has reduced the costs of gathering, processing, and decision making along with disseminating timely information that helps farmers to mitigate climate and associated risks. For example, timely information of monsoons, which is provided by weather forecasting agencies, would help farmers to take decision to sow in the right time to cope with rainfall related uncertainties particularly in rain-fed areas (Raghuvanshi et al. 2018;Dinesh 2016). Customized agro-advisories, which are usually offered by service providers, often supply very detailed information for crop management to mitigate climate related agricultural risks on a case by case basis.In developing countries particularly, where timely access to CSA information is limited by several factors, including available flow of information through reliable channels, ICT has incredible potential to improve agricultural productivity (World Bank 2017). Along with disseminated by ICT services, the CSA technologies and practices would be more accessible by farmers, particularly by small and marginal, if they are linked and promoted within the government's ongoing agriculture development programs (FAO 2017). Policies and programs that are focused on sustainable agricultural development, water conservation, crop insurance, etc., have potential to integrate CSA activities.Targeting ICT-based climate information and agro-advisory services for climate change adaptation requires a systematic assessment of agricultural vulnerability to climate change and variability, availability of ICT services and farmers' access to them. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of ICT-based climate information and agro-services and farmers need, there is little evidence in targeting locations where agriculture is highly vulnerable to climate change and availability of ICT services are major constraints. Information about the type and coverage of ICT services in the climatic risk prone areas can help to design climate information-based agro-advisory services suitable to the local farmers (Tall et al. 2018). Some studies show that the rate of CSA adoption and food security status are high in the locations where farmers have access to the advanced climate services (McKune et al. 2018;Huysen et al. 2018). Therefore, assessing where climate information services are required and which ICT tool can be used to disseminate climate information-based agro-advisories can help in shaping future initiatives for climate risks management in agriculture.This paper presents a scientific and integrated approach to identify areas of high agriculture vulnerability to climate change and availability of ICT services for dissemination of CSA information in the vulnerable areas. This study was conducted in India where the majority of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods and where this sector is highly vulnerable to climate change (Pathak et al. 2012;GoI 2018). Many studies also show that climate change could reduce a significant amount of farm income (>20%) in the country (Burgess et al. 2014;Aggarwal 2008). The objective of the study, therefore, is to present a methodology of identification of hotspots for climatic risks in agriculture and coverage of ICT services by illustrating for India. The hotspots include locations where agriculture vulnerability to climate change is very high with limited access to ICT services. This paper presents four regions: i) high agriculture vulnerability and low ICT services, ii) high agriculture vulnerability and high ICT services, iii) low agriculture vulnerability and low ICT services, and iv) low agriculture vulnerability and high ICT services. This methodology can be used in the climatically risk prone areas for targeting broad geographical regions for dissemination of CSA information and to enhance ICT-based agro-advisory services to minimize climate change impacts on agriculture.There are many scientific studies that cover a range of agriculture vulnerability to climate change analyses in India and South Asia (Thornton and Gerber 2010;Mani et al. 2018;Lal 2019). A comprehensive analysis of agriculture vulnerability to climate change conducted by Rao et al. (2013) considers a wide range of bio-physical and socio-economic indicators (e.g., land use/land cover, climate data, natural disaster, e.g., flood, cyclone, drought, etc., water availability, poverty, landholding, transport network, access to market, etc. 1 ) at district level. This study used a dataset provided by Rao et al. (2013).On the basis of the relative agriculture vulnerability to climate change, all districts in India were categorized into five classes: very high, high medium, low, and very low vulnerability. Out of the 572 rural districts (Census 2001) the first 115 districts fall into the very high vulnerability category, while the next 115, 114, 114, and 114 districts fall into high, medium, low, and very low vulnerability categories, respectively. These 572 rural districts boundaries were adjusted 2 with the present administrative boundary of 622 rural districts (Census 2011) without modifying the existing vulnerability classes. Subsequently, these 622 districts were taken for further analysis excluding urban districts where agriculture is very limited. The exclusion of urban districts where ICT services are very high helps to minimize errors in hotspot analysis.The growth rate of the telecommunications sector in India is significantly high and from 2011 to 2018 wireless phone service has increased from 34% to 58% in rural India (TRAI 2011, 2018). This study uses the latest available census data of India (2011) for the hotspot analysis. In the first step, the percentage of rural households that have access to radio, television, cell phone, and computer with internet was calculated for each district. In the second step, the percentage access to selected ICT services in a district was ranked compared to all the districts of India. Similarly, all four selected ICT services were ranked as per their availability compared to all districts of India and mean of the four ranks were taken as the composite rank of access to ICT services for a district. In the third step, this relative rank of access to ICT services was classified in five classes equally: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high with cutoff relative rank values of 125, 250, 375, and 500 for further analysis.A hotspot analysis was conducted by overlying agricultural vulnerability (very high, high, medium, low, and very low) to climate change with access to ICT services (very high, high, medium, low, and very low) using geographic information systems (GIS). This provides a spatial relationship between the degree of agriculture vulnerabilities and access to ICT services at district level. At district level, a particular climatic risk and presence of ICT services were taken into account to explore the different scenarios and opportunities of using ICT existing services to promote CSA technologies and services, including land use planning and watershed management. Furthermore, mode of ICT services in the very highly and highly vulnerable rural districts were analyzed on the basis of the number of users in the districts. For better understanding, the very high to high vulnerability districts were combined together as 'high' category and the medium to very low vulnerability districts were combined as 'low' category. This study also uses rural income poverty level (% of population under poverty line) at the district level to identify people's purchasing power of ICT services. Districts were identified as the hotspots where agriculture vulnerability to climate change is high, access to ICT services is low, and poverty level is high. Finally, we estimated cost of climate information and agro-advisory service provision through cell phone to the hotspot areas. Current service charge per farmer per season was used to calculate cost of cell phone-based agro-advisories. This cost was obtained through the survey of current ICT-based climate information and agro-advisory providers in different locations of India. Figure 1 presents a systematic methodology of a hotspot analysis used in this study.A household survey was conducted to identify farmers' access to different sources of ICT services, reliability of information received, and usefulness of weather information and agro-advisory services in agricultural management decision making. This survey was conducted in 2017-2018 with 2671 randomly selected farmers in five randomly selected climatically highly vulnerable states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) and 12 hotspot districts in the states. Farmers were asked about the reliability and usefulness of four major sources of ICT services (cell phone, television, radio, and internet). For reliability, this study used a five-Fig. 1 Flowchart of methodology: assessment of agriculture vulnerability and ICT services point Likert scale, where 1 = unreliable, 2 = somewhat reliable, 3 = fairly reliable, 4 = very reliable, and 5 = fully reliable. Similarly, the five-point Likert scale for usefulness includes, 1 = not useful, 2 = somewhat useful, 3 = fairly useful, 4 = very useful, and 5 = fully useful.Agriculture vulnerability assessment results show that out of 622 districts, 124 fall into very highly vulnerable in 15 states, while 122 are in highly vulnerable categories in 19 states of India (Fig. 2). In these districts, 30.3% and 23.5% of India's (rural districts) farmers live in very highly and highly vulnerable zones, respectively. The highly vulnerable to climate change districts constitute more than 50% of India's farmer population. Among the highly vulnerable states of India, Rajasthan has the maximum number of farmers (10.3%) followed by Maharashtra (7.2%), Uttar Pradesh (7%), and Madhya Pradesh (6.3%). In India, out of 179 million rural households, 47.5% has access to cell phones, while 35.4%, 19.2%, and 0.8% have ownership of television, radio, and computer with internet access, respectively. Data shows that the majority of the districts in all rural districts in central India lack ICT services and fall into the very low to low access to ICT services category (Fig. 3). In 447 districts in India, where cell phones are a primary source of ICT service, covers more than 80% of farmers (primary occupation is cultivator). Out of these 447 districts, 246 fall under high climate vulnerability categories. Coverage of ICT services such as television and radio were in second and third rank in the districts. Table 1 presents a number of districts and farmers in the hotspot districts in highly vulnerable states of India. A large number of hotspot districts with high vulnerability and low access to ICT services are located in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Fig. 3 Relative ranking of access to ICT services in the rural districts of India Gujarat, and Bihar where the majority of the population depends on agricultural activities for their livelihoods.Districts that are low vulnerability and have comparatively lower access to ICT services are mostly concentrated in the states of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. The 240 districts with low vulnerability and high access to ICT services are primarily in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, and spread over in the other 26 states. The districts that are having better access to ICT services in the high vulnerability areas have more access to cell phones.This study has analyzed the major climatic risks in the hotspot areas across India. Three major climatic risks: uncertainty in rainfall, drought probability, and increase in temperature (minimum and maximum) are mapped in Fig. 5. There are several other factors like flood or saltwater intrusion which are also important in this context; however, due to lack of data on regionspecific future climatic variability, we restricted our analysis to only rainfall and temperature related uncertainties. July rainfall, which is a deciding factor for production of Kharif (monsoon) crops, is projected to decrease in 74 hotspot districts, mainly in Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka (Revadekar and Preethi 2011;Venkatraman 2014).  Fig. 5 Mode of ICT services in the very highly and highly vulnerable districts CSA information about weather-based crop advisories, water management, and drought resistant crops, including crop insurance, can help millions of farmers to minimize drought related climatic risks. About 118 hotspot districts will experience an increase in minimum/maximum temperatures, mainly in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujrat, and Uttar Pradesh. Promotion of CSA technologies and practices such as stress tolerant verities, water conservation practices, and pest/disease control, related to agro-advisories can help to minimize temperature change related stresses. To identify the preferred mode of ICT access to deliver climate information-based agroadvisories, spatial correlation analysis was done between climate risks and preferred mode of ICT (Fig. 5). Results show that access to mobile phone is relatively high in these hotspot districts compared to other ICT services.This study assessed farmers' access to ICT-based weather information and agro-advisory services in 12 hotspot districts in five states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Utter Pradesh) of India. Figure 6 presents farmers' response on access to ICT-based climate information and agro-advisory services, reliability and usefulness of the information. In many hotspot districts, farmers' current access to ICT-based weather information and agroadvisory services was very low. Among the ICTs, television and cell phone were major sources of weather and agro-advisory services. Results also show that reliability of currently available weather information and agro-advisory services were low. A very limited number of farmers believed that current ICT-based information services were useful for making better management decisions in agriculture. Reduction of agriculture vulnerability to climate change is one of major objectives in agriculture sector development. Therefore, provision of climate information and agro-advisory services depends on the hotspot categories. In areas where vulnerability to climate change is high with low access to ITC services (category 1), the first priority should be to increase access to ICT services through development of ICT infrastructure and supply of ICT services. The second step should focus on provision of ICT-based climate information and agro-advisory services based on agricultural production systems in the areas. In high vulnerability and high access to ICT services areas (category 2), focus should be on developing climate information-based agroadvisories and providing it via the most covered ICT services, such as cell phone, television, and radio. Low vulnerability to climate change and low access to ICT services areas (category 4) may also need improvement in access to ICT services to promote new agricultural technologies and practices with less focus on climate risks management. For farmers located in the best case scenario (low vulnerability to climate change and high access to ICT services), the provision of ICT-based climate information and agro-advisory services can help them to manage agricultural inputs (water, seed, fertilizer, and energy) in better ways to get maximum benefit of good climatic conditions.This study estimated the cost of climate information and agro-advisory services in the hotspot districts and use of climate information and agro-advisories. These cost calculations are not only useful for state level ministries of agriculture but also private ICT service providers who provide climate information and agro-advisory services, agriculture insurance companies who provide information about agriculture insurance schemes, agriculture input suppliers who can provide information about available technologies, and so on. Current average cost of climate information-based agroadvisory services was US$ 2.5 per farmer per cropping season, which include information about weather forecasts, sowing dates, water and nutrient efficient management practices, residue management, disease and pest control, market prices and trends, and relevant government schemes. The total estimated cost is US$ 62.5 million for ICT-based agro-advisory services in the highly vulnerable districts, where cell phone is the primary choice to access information. Figure 7 presents an estimated cost of cell phone-based ICT services in the hotspot districts across India. Total cost per district ranges from <1 million to 2.3 million US$. This cost of ICT services was mapped with current level poverty in the hotspot districts. Many hotspot districts in Northern India (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh) include a large number of poor farmers, who have low purchasing power of ICT services as well as ICT-based agro-advisory services. The dissemination of ICT-based climate information and agro-advisory services in these areas may need large government supports. The estimated cost of ICT services for nine districts that are very highly vulnerable with high poverty and better ICT access is US$ 3.25 million/cropping season for cell phone-based advisories. For 56 districts that are highly vulnerable districts with high poverty the cost is US$ 33.69 million/cropping season.This study observed that a large number of farmers lack access to reliable ICT services in many climatically vulnerable districts across India. This study shows that cell phone coverage is highest followed by television and radio. Farmers' access to cell phones has also been rapidly increasing recently. Development and supply of cell phone-based climate information and agro-advisory services can cover a large area of farming communities across the India. This ICT service can encourage local farmers to form a group in social media to share experiences, including new technologies, practices, and market information. Apart from traditional methods where government or service provider acts as a knowledge provider, farmers' groups can exchange information through smartphones and benefit mutually without any external support.Apart from cell phone-based agro-advisories, mass media, such as television and radio, could be used effectively to provide weather information and agro-advisory services to the farmers (Purushothaman et al. 2003;World Bank 2017;Ajayi 2019). Using success stories of local farmers who have adopted CSA technologies and experienced significant benefit would be encouraging to farmers' communities. In very remote areas, where farmers' communities do not have much access to cell phone networks or cannot afford television, provision of weather information and agro-advisory services through radios would be very effective. This service can include information on CSA technologies and practices, farmers' success stories, and market information and links. Recent in agricultural knowledge, communication technologies, and the ability to analyze a large database can help to generate more customized weather information-based agro-advisory services to the farmers. However, current agro-advisory services lack the use of such information and technologies to generate context-specific agro-advisory services. Artificial intelligence (AI)-based agro-advisory systems are well established in many developed countries (Umadikar et al. 2014;ICRISAT 2018;Reddy et al. 2018).A two-way information flow model can be highly useful to address more localized climate risks and agriculture production related farmers' problems. Figure 8 presents a basic structure of the prototype for two-way information flow to improve the existing weather information and agro-advisory service system. The prototype consists of an artificial intelligence (AI)enabled server with the capabilities to recognize and extract information from input image and text to provide advisories, database from field (crop, management practices, etc.) through mobile app, database from agencies (weather, efficient technologies, etc.) verified by a panel of experts, input from remote sensing sensors, field scouts/progressive farmers, and enrolled beneficiaries.Conceptually, the server collects data from the field through mobile apps to create profiles of farmers to provide customized advisories throughout the lifecycle of the crop under consideration. A combination of different methods can help to collect crop management practices, monitor crop health, insect/pest and disease outbreaks through image recognition system. On the basis of the information that is provided from the field to the server, an AIbased system analyzes the inputs and generates advisories based on the provided information. Systematically, the process is being monitored by the panel of experts for quality control and upgradation for better decision making. In due course, a larger area, including the present study area, will be monitored with the inputs from sensors onboard satellites/UAV/drones for early warning of any disease or insect/pest outbreak. Addressing climate change impacts on is a special challenge that needs efficient of resources and information to strengthen farmers adaptive capacity to climate change and variability. Many climate change adaptation and mitigation related policies and programs focus on implementation of climate-smart practices, technologies, and services to cover large agricultural areas and populations. This study presents a methodology to highlight/ target broad geographical regions for designing and implementing ICT-based climate information and agro-advisory services. This methodologywhich is simple, uses available data, and is easy to applycan be useful to prioritize locations for climate-smart interventions, mode of CSA information dissemination using ICT services, and increase coverage of agro-ICT services through development of ICT services in the locations where climate change impact is high and ICT services are very low. This study also showed that there is a need to improve the quality of existing climate information and agro-advisory services in many locations. Similarly, use of particular types of ICT services and coverage can play a crucial role while prioritizing dissemination of climate information and agro-advisory services in the targeted locations and population. This analysis needs to be followed by further examination of the socio-economic characteristics of agriculture dependent communities to design suitable climate information and agro-advisory services and ICT for disseminating them.","tokenCount":"4064"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ad03426f2d21a82b55f4f1505b5bb463","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8375324-af9d-4fd8-8f9b-607b3265aa35/retrieve","id":"-2046556637"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"074edf5a-bc8b-4543-a28d-c8ffb2178029","pagecount":"96","content":"The team benefitted from access to the data results from an earlier (Asia region) urban food system survey jointly carried out by the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. The team would also like to thank other colleagues who provided leads to other published or grey literature that offered valuable insights or examples. A previous review of some of the pertinent literature conducted by Emilie Cassou was also consulted and utilized for this paper.The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ILRI or any of the individuals or institutions that were consulted during its preparation.But every day, billions of people eat without knowing if their food is safe and every year hundreds of millions of people fall sick, and hundreds of thousands of people die from unsafe food.It is estimated that around 600 million people worldwide suffer from foodborne disease, resulting in 480,000 deaths each year, with most cases occurring in low-and middle-income countries. Food hazards and foodborne diseases cost these countries a combined total of USD 115 billion each year.The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) -a CGIAR centre -has been at the forefront of studying the complex landscape of unsafe food practices in low-and middleincome countries; and with governments and other partners, developing solutions to ensure healthy, safe and nutritious food for all.Most of the meat, milk, eggs and fish produced in developing countries is sold in traditional, domestic markets lacking modern infrastructure and escaping effective food safety regulation and inspection. But these informal markets also provide livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people generating jobs and income.In recent decades, ILRI and partners have had substantial success in developing new approaches to improve food safety in these informal markets. These approaches involve working with national and local authorities to create an enabling environment, providing training and appropriate technologies to value chain actors, and most importantly, assuring incentives are in place for better practice by food producers, handlers and consumers. The challenge now is to invest in further experimentation of intervention models and sharing of experiences on what works and what does not in the different settings of low-and middle-income countries. This work is being tackled by the new CGIAR Initiative on One Health and the current portfolio of food safety research at ILRI. This report, commissioned by ILRI and the CGIAR Initiative on One Health, builds on the work done in the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health and other bilateral programs of food safety at ILRI to understand food safety issues in domestic, largely informal and traditional, markets. The report proposes a radical reframing of how we look at food safety in low-and middle-income countries as well as who needs to be involved. It also recommends a change in direction and the recognition of the informal sector if we are to tackle the enormous food safety health and economic burden in developing countries.We are very pleased to share this groundbreaking report with the wider food safety research community.Appolinaire Djikeng, director general, ILRI FOREWORD 7.or many low-and middle-income countries, the topic of food safety first emerged on their development agendas as a trade and market access issue. Considerable resources have been deployed to align country regulations with international standards and build management systems to comply with trade partner requirements, especially those of highincome countries. The track record on these interventions is relatively good and many low-and middle-income countries have achieved a margin of success in exporting higher value, food safety-sensitive products, including fish, meat, and fruit and vegetables.In recent decades, incrementally greater attention has been given to concerns about food safety in the domestic markets of low-and middle-income countries, including the potential repercussions for public health, consumer trust and food market development, and the wider connections between food safety and the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most of the emphasis of recent food safety interventions has focused on central government regulatory and surveillance capacity; that is, developing a functional 'food control' system built around a modern food law, inspection and enforcement of regulatory requirements, accredited laboratories for product testing, and the application of both national and international standards.Progress in building up the capacities and outreach of such domestic 'food control' systems has varied greatly. While most upper middle-income countries appear to be on a trajectory towards effectively managing emerging food safety risks, this is much less evident among low and lower middle-income countries. Assessments of food control systems in low and lower middle-income countries generally point to many common weaknesses, including the absence of a comprehensive national policy related to food safety, the fragmentation of institutional responsibilities among leading agencies, and major deficiencies in systems for generating and interpreting data related to food safety hazards and food borne disease (FBD).With limited budgets and suitably qualified and experienced personnel, food control agencies have typically had to be very selective in many of their regulatory or advisory efforts, concentrating, for example, on medium or larger food manufacturers, elements of the so-called 'modern retail', and rural areas dominated by commercial farms or better organized smallholder farms. Most of the development assistance support and most initiatives sponsored by the private sector in the domestic food safety space have focused on these players and on upgrading central government regulatory capacities.While this growing attention to domestic food safety is a welcome development, most existing initiatives have a significant policy blind spot and/or implementation gap. They lack adequate attention to, and a coherent strategy for, effectively tackling food safety challenges in the informal sector. This paper demonstrates that:• THIS IS A FUNDAMENTAL (AND NOT A MINOR) ISSUE. While low-and middle-income countries have a hybrid food system structure, combining different types of actors and channels, most of these food systems feature very low levels of concentration, widespread informality, and a preponderance of micro and small players. Fragmentation and informality are especially common in relation to the domestic market distribution systems for nutrient-rich fresh foods (including fish, meat, and fruits and vegetables) which are estimated to be the leading sources of FBD in most countries. For many, if not most, low-and lower middle-income countries, unsafe food in informal channels probably accounts for a large majority of the FBD attributed to marketed foods.• THIS IS A LONG-TERM (AND NOT A TRANSITIONAL) ISSUE. Over time, as food systems evolve, we will see increased levels of formalization and consolidation and likely reduced numbers of very small-scale food business operators. Yet, a future state in which the formal components of the food system are dominant is at least a decade or two away for many low-and middle-income countries. Across many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and emerging Asia, small traditional shops still account for 70-90% of grocery retail sales, while community markets and other informal channels account for similar proportions of fresh produce retail sales. The so-called 'supermarket revolution' has not materialized or has stalled in many countries.• THIS INVOLVES A BROAD SET OF (WIDELY OBSERVED) PROBLEMS AND CONSTRAINTS. Large numbers of empirical studies highlight common weaknesses in the food safety knowledge of informal sector operators, the relatively poor environmental conditions under which many of them operate, the limited or nonsustained application of good hygienic and safe food preparation practices, and the resulting high incidence of microbiological, chemical and/or contaminants in the foods they sell. In most cases, these informal food business operators lack both the capacity and the incentive to make pertinent investments or changes to their practices. Further, some of the pertinent risks are largely outside of their own control, related to environmental health conditions and/or developments in primary agricultural production.• MOST CURRENT APPROACHES ARE MAKING LITTLE HEADWAY IN TACKLING THESE PROBLEMS.Governments in low-and middle-income countries can be characterized as 'weak regulatory states' in general. Furthermore, centralized 'food control' agencies tend to have little contact with the informal sector. In the absence of effective and regularized outreach, the typical approach has involved periodic harassment of informal sector vendors and applying punishments against food processors who do not comply with regulations. This approach sends a signal to the general public that the government is 'doing something' to protect them. Yet, in practical terms, this rarely results in safer food. More promising have been interventions to raise awareness of informal food operators about safer practices and to equip them with low-cost technologies. However, most such programs have proven difficult to scale and nearterm gains have not be sustained without re-enforcing measures and complementary investments. Very few low-and middle-income countries are applying a more holistic approach. Overall, practitioners in this field are at a cross-roads. There is growing recognition of the problem, yet a lack of understanding or consensus on 'what works', even 'what might work better'.This paper provides a synthesis of the empirical evidence regarding food safety in the informal sector and regarding ongoing initiatives to address (at least aspects of) the problem. However, its main contributions may be more in terms of the perspectives it provides, both conceptually and in outlining a revised approach for moving forward.For many, if not most, low-and lower middleincome countries, unsafe food in informal channels probably accounts for a large majority of the FBD attributed to marketed foods 10. New directions for tackling food safety risksThere is an evident need to reframe the problem statement when it comes to food safety in low-and middle-income countries. Why is unsafe food such a pervasive problem in the informal sector? Why do informal food operators not employ better food safety practices? There are two standard responses to these questions.One is that the players lack the requisite awareness about food safety hazards and the basic knowledge about approaches and practices to prevent these hazards from entering their businesses and the overall food supply. We can call this the awareness and knowledge deficit. The other explanation relates to alleged gaps in regulatory and other official oversight systems, on paper and/ or on the ground. This we call the regulatory or food control deficit. Both factors are relevant, yet a broader perspective seems warranted.The paper contends that the status of food safety measures among informal food business operators can be seen to reflect the interplay of two core sets of factors. First, the incentives for enterprises, and food handlers therein, to implement and maintain improved food safety practices. These incentives alter the balance between the costs and benefits for the enterprise of implementing or not implementing these practices. Incentives may be shaped by markets, regulations, social pressures, ethical norms etc. Second, the capacity of food enterprises, and food handlers therein, to implement improved food safety practices. Here, factors both internal (for example, the condition of the enterprise's physical establishment and level of human capital) and external (for example, the physical environment in which the enterprise operates, access to potable water and availability of training resources) to the enterprise are relevant. The paper's conceptual framework emphasizes the need to address both the incentive and capacity deficits in tandem in order to get tangible and sustainable improvements. In many cases, one may need to look well beyond dedicated 'food safety interventions' to firm up incentives and capacities.RECASTING THE PLAYERS: Part of the problem in addressing the issue of unsafe food in low-and middleincome countries stems from a failure to recognize the specificity of enterprises engaged in the informal sector.Seeing the informal sector as a homogenous cluster of players leaves little room for differentiated policies or strategies that recognize the different circumstances surrounding distinct types of operators. Certainly, many enterprises share core economic characteristics, including ongoing commercial vulnerability, and operate with the harsh realities of not being registered. At the same time, however, distinctive types of enterprises face quite different situations when it comes to the incentives to enhance their food safety controls and/or their capacity to do so; in turn, they will likely be more (or less) amenable to influences from regulatory agencies, food consumers and/or formal sector enterprises.The paper makes distinctions between three types of informal food enterprises: (i) traditional retail vendors (including community market vendors and small store/ kiosk operators); (ii) traditional food processors (including small animal slaughter units and micro food processors); and (iii) informal food service operators (including street vendors of prepared foods and alleyway restaurants). Contrasts are made among these in terms of their typical numbers, registration status, rate of enterprise turnover, mobility, operating environment, foods handled, clientele and engagement with regulatory authorities. Based on these considerations, we find potentially considerable differences in both the food safety risk profiles of these players and the likely scope for interventions. This kind of exercise is useful for thinking about priorities and the feasibility of different solutions.The setting for possible interventions is not some homogeneous rendition of a 'developing country'. There are vast differences among countries in terms of their size, per capita income, administrative capacities, conditions of physical infrastructure, food consumption patterns etc., as well as the current prominence of the informal sector. The paper re-introduces the concept of a 'food safety life cycle' and contrasts the main dynamics in food safety management and the relationship (or gap between) food safety management needs and actual capacities among low, lower-middle and upper-middle income countries. We surmise that the gravity of the informal food sector food safety problem differs significantly across the food safety life cycle, as does the likely feasibility of various strategies, policy instruments and programs.For example, upper middle-income countries will tend to have much greater financial and administrative resources and much better physical market conditions to address food safety concerns among informal enterprises. Furthermore, the scope of the problem might be much smaller there because of the more advanced formalization of the food system and, likely, the greater opportunities for people to exit/transition away from informal food vending or processing and enter the wider labour market.The incremental or even accelerated formalization of food enterprises could well be feasible in these settings with transitional costs (and social tensions) being relatively manageable.The situation is entirely different for countries transitioning from low to lower-middle income status and among the countries traversing the lower middle-income phase of economic development.Here, changing demographics and diets and other factors are potentially adding to the food safety risk problems they face. While informal sectors remain dominant, formalization is only incipient and central government, letPre-bought fresh milk in a fridge in a milk shop in Roadblock, Eldoret, Kenya -ILRI/Kabir Dhanji 12. New directions for tackling food safety risks alone sub-national, capacities for food safety management remain highly underdeveloped. This would seem to be the hotspot where the nexus of problems and constraints trumps prevailing capacity as well as prevailing ideas on what to do. For these countries, a passive approach or simply pursuing 'business as usual' comes at a great cost.RECASTING THE IMPLEMENTATION AGENDA: The current model, if one can refer to it as such, is not working and cannot be expected to work. A very different approach is called for here.The top-down focus of efforts to build food safety capacity in low-and middleincome countries has largely failed when it comes to the informal sector. The most appropriate locus of action for efforts to enhance food safety controls in the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries is at the municipal level, where most of the potential interfaces between government and informal food operators (of all kinds) occur. While recognizing that national legislation may be needed to empower municipalities to implement food safety controls within their jurisdiction and to unlock the needed resources, the predominant focus of efforts to build food safety capacity specifically needs to be at the local level. That being said, technical guidelines and backstopping from central government agencies will likely be necessary for many cities to move on this agenda more effectively.Multisectoral action: Many significant actions needed to improve the safety of food in informal markets lie outside the typical purview of food safety controls and related capacity-building efforts per se. These include access to potable water and sanitation, business registration, urban planning and the infrastructure of public markets. For this reason, efforts to enhance food safety controls in the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries need to be integrated with complimentary areas of action by municipalities, including those targeting food insecurity. In many cases, the most effective and sustainable interventions will not be dedicated to 'food safety' but rather multisectoral strategies pursuing multiple goals; for example, the interfaces between food safety and nutritional security, environmental health, the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) agenda and urban upgrading. At the municipal level, this calls for firmly mainstreaming food safety into urban planning and into approaches to deliver improved municipal services.Strategy mainstreaming: India is one of the few lowand middle-income countries which have incorporated informal food enterprises into their national vision for a healthy and safe food system. For countries not expecting to follow this example, it is difficult to see how the informal sector will be effectively incorporated into national food safety strategies. An alternative, and perhaps more realistic approach, is to focus on strengthening the food safety dimensions within the emerging visions being articulated for 'healthy and sustainable cities' to ensure that food safety is mainstreamed within approaches and structures for urban food governance. This may be a way to maximize synergies across multiple public policy objectives and their implementing institutions through urban food policies, programs and investments.Differentiated solutions: Ubiquitous solutions to the food safety problems of informal food markets are unlikely to be effective. Rather, there is a need to recognize the distinct challenges and opportunities that distinct subsectors of the informal sector present, design food safety interventions accordingly, as well as recognize the prevailing challenges and weaknesses of particular low-and middle-income countries. It is necessary to address incentives and capacity deficits in tandem (this often requires more complex or synergistic interventions) and to calibrate actions with what is likely to be feasible given prevailing financial and administrative resources and other factors. The paper presents different sets of interventions likely to be appropriate and feasible vis-à-vis the three sub-categories of informal food business operators in different socio-economic settings, distinguishing interventions seeking to strengthen incentives for improved practices and those aiming to improve internal or external capacities.Concentrating interventions on individuals is neither likely to be feasible at any reasonable scale nor especially effective in bringing about sustainable changes. Whether the issue is inducing behavioural changes amongst informal market players, attempting to enforce regulatory provisions and/or implementing a process of incremental formalization, it may be essential to mobilize and utilize collective action among groups, associations or clusters of (informal) food market actors. While researchers and practitioners have drawn attention to the merits of collective action in circumstances of potential conflict between informal players and governments, it is essential to better engage formal or informal groups of actors in the design and implementation of multi-sectoral programs as a means of applying social pressures on players, and to compensate for both market failures and the limited reach of governments. Practitioners will need to develop strategies for effectively operationalizing, in the context of informal food markets/distribution channels, the World Health Organization's notable principle that food safety is a 'shared responsibility' (among consumers, businesses and governments).Rebalancing carrots and sticks: Strict enforcement of regulatory provisions is unlikely to be effective vis-àvis informal sector food operators. Rather, gradual and continuous enhancements in food hygiene and other practices are more likely to help secure the ongoing viability of informal operators. Municipalities must see financial penalties as a last resort, rather than a source of much-needed revenue. While shutting down businesses and harassing street vendors might convey a message of 'seriousness' about food safety to the public, these measures tend not to result in sustained safer food in the marketplace. What may be needed instead is a wholesale change in the official mindset vis-à-vis the informal sector and in the mix or balance of regulatory versus facilitative municipal functions. Food officer bonuses could be tied to the numbers of food safety-compliant vendors or food processing enterprises, rather than to the number of fines issued. And, as many officials need to be positioned as food safety advisory officers as those designated as inspectors or regulatory agents. Food safety must become an area of attention not only for the few individuals who happen to have the occupational designation of 'food safety officer', but also for planners and officers working on matters related to logistics, land use zoning, commerce, water and sanitation, and overall public health.The applied research and operational agenda: With respect to the research agenda moving forward, attention needs to focus on piloting and evaluating integrated interventions directed at specific sub-sectors of the informal sector. Experimentation of individual parts of the jigsaw puzzle, for example training, raising consumer awareness and/or assessment of willingness to pay or receptivity to certification schemes, do little to test the practicability and/or impact of such interventions. This requires that researchers engage with municipal governments and that real on-the-ground interventions across multiple facets of the food (safety) problem are implemented and evaluated. In undertaking such investigations, attention must be given to the ways in which both the incentives and capacity of informal food enterprises are enhanced and likely to be maintained beyond the timeframe of the intervention itself.Where the approach we propose above is already being tested (for example, as with elements of the 'Eat Right India' program), it is important to closely monitor how these developments are playing out. Such innovations present critical 'testing grounds' of the decentralized, multisectoral and/or facilitative actions that are needed in low-and middle-income countries. Thus, it is important to identify the challenges these approaches face in their implementation and/or in achieving sustained changes in behaviour across distinct contexts. While care needs to be taken in generalizing these experiences, lessons need to be drawn for low-and middle-income countries more generally.To more broadly operationalize the agenda outlined above, it would be beneficial to develop guidelines for how national governments/agencies can best facilitate effective municipal actions with respect to food safety, especially in the context of the informal sector in its various forms, as well as the legal and resourcing frameworks needed to facilitate and operationalize more effective municipal food safety controls. Important here is how municipalities can integrate efforts to promote enhanced food safety with other public health and environmental health interventions and/or policies and program relating to urban planning. Here, it could be beneficial to work through national and international networks of cities, especially those which are already endeavouring to mainstream food system matters into their urban planning, governance and development strategies. It will be important to strengthen the involvement of food safety practitioners and those with experience working with informal food system operators in such networks. uring the past decade, there has been increasing recognition of the importance of food safety in low-and middle-income countries. Among other things, this has been spurred by improved estimates of the global public health burden of foodborne disease (FBD) (Havelaar et al. 2015), better understanding of the economic costs of unsafe food in rapidly changing food systems (Kristkova et al. 2017;Jaffee et al. 2019), and the devastating public health and/or commercial consequences of major instances of food contamination or fraud (see for example, Pei et al. 2011;Tarantelli 2017;Freitas et al. 2017). This recognition has led to more attention on how the promotion of safer food could contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including those pertaining to poverty reduction, alleviation of hunger, ensuring good health, promoting decent work, and building sustainable communities and cities (Grace, 2017).For many years, food safety has been on the development agenda primarily as a trade and market access issue.Considerable resources have been deployed to align country regulations with international standards and build management systems to comply with trade partner requirements, especially those of high-income importing countries. For most developing countries, far less attention has been given to mitigating food safety risks in domestic markets-and this is illustrated by the underdevelopment of many technical capacities and services. While efforts to tackle emerging domestic market challenges have increased in recent years, many countries are finding that their incremental development of food safety controls is lagging the growing need for effective food safety measures which is accompanying important dietary and demographic changes (Jaffee et al. 2019;Randolph 2021;Unnevehr 2022).Buying eggs from a Hanoi street vendor -ILRI/Stevie Mann 15.The situation varies somewhat from country to country, although most low-and lower middle-income countries tend to feature low levels of concentration, widespread informality and a preponderance of very small players in their food systems. Fragmentation and informality are especially common in relation to the domestic distribution systems for high-nutrient fresh foods (including fish, meat, fruits and vegetables), which are leading sources of foodborne disease (FBD) in most countries. The logic follows, and it will be estimated below, that a large proportion of the burden of unsafe food in the developing world is connected to deficiencies in capacities and incentives for managing food safety risks within the informal sector.If this contextualization is true, then we have a serious conundrum. Most of the emphasis of recent food safety interventions has focused on central government regulatory and surveillance capacity; that is, developing a functional 'food control' system built around inspectorate teams, laboratories, and the application of both national and international standards. In the domestic setting, the primary targets of such efforts have been medium and larger food manufacturers, elements of so-called 'modern retail', and areas dominated by commercial farming.Yet, what about the vast numbers of small and micro enterprises and individual vendors who are preparing and distributing a major proportion of the food bought and consumed by urban residents? Are we expecting the emergent food safety controls to trickle down to impact or incentivize changes among informal sector players? Alternatively, are we simply expecting the informal sector to downsize and eventually disappear as countries advance through and eventually graduate from low-or middle-income status?Both propositions are of doubtful validity. It is questionable that a regulatory solution can be at the forefront of efforts to tackle food safety risks in the informal sector. Central government agencies lack the tools and outreach to address the problem; most of the on-the-ground interfaces between informal sector players and government agencies occur at the local or municipal level. And, for most low-and middle-income countries, the informal sector will not disappear anytime soon. This sector is a manifestation of many converging factors in these countries related to living standards, job opportunities, urban geography, regulatory systems, agrarian structures etc. And, for many urban consumers, there remains a strong preference for sourcing their food from informal sector players, based upon considerations of affordability, accessibility, variety, flexibility and personal trust.Development and food safety practitioners have contended that the issue of food safety in the informal sector of developing countries has been largely neglected (Roesel and Grace 2014;GFSP 2019). In terms of both directed policy attention and resource mobilization, this is probably true. Still, during the past decade there have been an array of bottom-up interventions targeting informal sector players, typically aiming to increase their food safety awareness and knowledge. While including some innovative design features, overall, the results from these efforts have been modest and generally neither scalable nor sustained (Grace et al. 2019). They also do not seem to have had a lot of influence on broader public policies or public spending in relation to food safety (Randolph 2021).The policy and practitioner communities are at a crossroads in relation to food safety management in the informal sector, yet even the alternative directions are not especially clear. There is an evident need to reframe the problem set and the menu of potential solutions. That is the aim of this paper. The paper argues that the broad lexicon of 'informal sector' and 'developing countries' is not helpful in tackling the problem as it combines quite different types of players (and risk profiles), operating in a variety of very different settings. Distinctions are needed better to discern what is and is not possible to do, and what actions should be prioritized and are most feasible in different contexts. The paper goes on to argue that the most significant impacts on food safety in the informal sector can be achieved through actions not at the national level but more at the level of local/municipal governments. It is at this level of government that institutions for collective action among food operators can be most effectively mobilized and leveraged, improvements can be made in prevailing incentives and capacities to manage food safety along value chains, and synergies can be realized with other critical development objectives, including16. New directions for tackling food safety risks those related to nutrition and improved access to water and sanitation.The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 explains why the challenge of unsafe food in the informal sector is not going away despite structural changes within food systems and interventions which have been addressing unsafe food in other segments of such food systems. Then Section 3 summarizes the current evidence on the nature and scale of the food safety problem within informal food distribution channels of developing countries and poses an estimate of the magnitude of the FBD burden associated with this. We then attempt to reframe the food safety challenge conceptually in Section 4 by defining the problem as a dual deficit of capacities and incentives, by drawing distinctions among different types of informal food sector players and by re-iterating that the 'developing country' playing field for potential interventions is highly diverse (rather than homogeneous). Section 5 then provides a summary of the limited food control capacities of some national governments and provides insights into the state of municipal-level food safety engagement in one major region-Asia. Section 6 contrasts two broad strategies for addressing informal food actors, namely exclusion and incremental formalization. Then, Section 7 examines a range of approaches which have been applied to tackle the food safety capacity and incentive deficits found in informal distribution channels and what is known about their efficacy. The final section draws conclusions and lays out an agenda for action.A stall owner attends to a customer at a wet market in Hanoi -ILRI 18. New directions for tackling food safety risks O ne way of approaching the informal sector food safety conundrum is to see it as essentially a transitional issue, not warranting dedicated policy attention or targeted programs. This would stem from a perception that the problems could be minimized or resolved because of the formalization and consolidation of developing country agri-food systems, the increased outreach and effectiveness of national food control systems, and/or the capacity and 'good practice' spill-overs gained from interventions focused on export competitiveness and compliance with trade partner requirements. In other words, the informal sector will inevitably shrink in size and importance and the higherlevel capacities being built at national or industry levels will readily manage the residual food safety problems which might endure. Below we consider the grounds for this optimistic (or passive) case.Economic development brings about changes to food systems, including to their patterns of organization. There has been speculation (and even expectation) that changes in the structure and organization of domestic markets in low-and middle-income countries will quickly and substantially shrink the size and importance of the informal sector and at the same time give rise to enhanced food safety management capacities. The implication here is that food safety systems will naturally evolve over time within the private sector; it is just a matter of patiently waiting for these to emerge.Part of this expectation came from the growing importance of supermarkets in countries which had already seen mass urbanization (such as Latin America) and/or that had reached upper middle-income status. This so-called 'supermarket revolution' (Reardon et al. 2003;Reardon and Hopkins 2006;Humphrey 2007) implied the inevitable consolidation of retail markets and the formalization of value chains via the procurement systems and standards applied by the dominant retail businesses (Reardon et al. 2008). This process was expected to occur in waves, spreading from region to region and involving a sequenced progression of product lines (Reardon and Minten 2019). Growing supermarket dominance was projected first for processed foods, then staple commodities which could be bought in bulk and ultimately for fresh produce. The supermarkets' cost advantages and greater capability to manage quality and food safety problems in their supply chains, paired with the better shopping experience they offered to consumers, were expected to marginalize traditional retailers (Reardon et al. 2007).The 'supermarket revolution' was expected to bring more than the formalization and consolidation of food retail. In parallel, some countries were seeing increased foreign direct investment (FDI) by multinational businesses in their food manufacturing and food service sectors (Reardon 2015;Barrett et al. 2022). The expectation was that such companies would apply the food safety management systems they had already perfected in their home countries. Thus, deep and accelerated patterns of structural change in domestic food markets could accelerate the enhancement of food safety controls in middle-income countries. In turn, this transformation would reduce the number of food business operators that would need to be inspected by regulatory authorities, diminish capacity gaps between businesses within the food sector, and promote the wider use of company brands and private standards to signal and govern food safety.The penetration of supermarkets and the globalization of food manufacturing and food service has not, however, progressed with the rapidity that was widely predicted, for example in Africa and significant parts of emerging AsiaThe penetration of supermarkets and the globalization of food manufacturing and food service has not, however, progressed with the rapidity that was widely predicted, for example in Africa and significant parts of emerging Asia (see, for example, Nickanor et al. 2021). Even where supermarkets have gained more traction, their sales tend to be dominated by processed foods. As will be illustrated below, market fragmentation and informality remain the norm in relation to fresh foods that are important nutritionally for many countries and often the leading sources of FBD in low-and middle-income countries.The emergence of supermarkets in many regions is not tending to marginalize traditional food distribution and service channels (Yuan et al. 2021). Rather, there are numerous examples where supermarkets and traditional food retailers co-exist and co-evolve in a complementary manner. Also, it is not entirely clear how much the food safety practices in the 'modern' sector are spilling over to the informal sector. Even where supermarkets have gotten a foothold in markets for fresh produce, their procurement systems have not necessarily deviated much from the systems employed by traditional market vendors. Thus, a major part of their supply continues to come from primary or secondary wholesalers rather than being directly sourced from farmers. For example, see Yuan et al. (2021) for China.Figure 1 provides an illustration of the hybrid food system which continues to prevail in most low-and middle-income countries. The relative size of the 'modern', 'traditional' and 'informal' sub-systems varies from country to country, although the 'modern' segment still represents a minority share of the domestic food systems in most, if not all, low-and lower-middle income countries. The 'modern' segment's share is larger for most upper middle-income countries, although not necessarily for high-nutrient, food safety-sensitive fresh foods.In many low-and middle-income countries, the informal sector continues to predominate in the handling, processing,-and marketing of many foods. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 85-95% of the market demand for food was serviced by informal markets at the beginning of last decade (Tschirley et al. 2010), with this proportion expected only to decline to 50-70% by 2040. Surveys across southern African conducted by the African Food Security Urban Network found that some 70% of lowerincome households normally source foods from informal outlets (Crush and Frayne 2011;Battersby and Watson 2018). Hannah et al. (2022) found that, in the secondary cities of Kenya and Zambia, open-air markets continue to be the dominant source of consumer fruit and vegetable purchases, with most meat purchases either occurring in these markets (Zambia) or in small traditional shops (Kenya). Wanyama et al. (2019) found supermarkets to be of no importance in servicing the poor in Nairobi and Kampala. In many African cities, street foods also account for a very significant proportion of daily food intake, both among adults and children (Steyn et al. 2013). 1   The persistence of traditional markets is also found throughout emerging Asia. In Indonesia, a large survey of households in secondary cities found that, despite a relatively rapid expansion of supermarkets, traditional small grocers and community markets continue to account for most food expenditure and an especially large proportion of vegetables, meat and fish purchases. At the same time, semi-permanent stands remain relatively important sources of fruit and vegetables meals consumed outside of the home (Minot 2014;Minot et al. 2015). In 2020, supermarkets and hypermarkets accounted for only 7% of retail grocery sales in Indonesia, with traditional grocers accounting for 78% and convenience stores 15% 2 . While the share of supermarkets in food expenditures has been growing in Vietnam's largest cities, this remains relatively small and is primarily accounted for by purchases of processed foods. Nationwide, traditional outlets still accounted for 92% of grocery retail sales in 2019 (based on data from Euromonitor International), while only in Vietnam's richest city do modern retail outlets account for more than 15%In many low-and middleincome countries, the informal sector continues to predominate in the handling, processing, and marketing of many foods 1) Among low-and middle-income countries globally, it has been estimated that some 2.5 billion people eat street food daily (Fellows and Hilmi 2011).2) Based on data from Euromonitor International and reported in USDA (2022).20. New directions for tackling food safety risks of grocery sales. The predominance of traditional outlets is even greater for fresh perishable foods. In Hanoi, for example, more than 90% of consumer spending on fruits, vegetables, meats and eggs still occurs in traditional outlets, with community markets being, by far, the most important locale. Hanoi has 454 such markets, located in nearly every residential neighbourhood (Umberger et al. 2017) 3 . In recent years, there has been a major exodus of European food retail chains from parts of developing Asia as they have had difficulty competing with local players, both formal and informal 4 .In low-and middle-income contexts where supermarket penetration is greater, evidence suggests that this has been complementary to rather than serving to displace community markets and other traditional vendors. For example, even in China where supermarket penetration is relatively high in major urban centres, community markets continue to be the most significant source of fresh foods (Si et al. 2019). In many situations, consumers continue to give preference to traditional markets when purchasing fresh produce due to wider product variety, greater freshness, flexible pricing, proximity to place of 3) Traditional shops and outlets still account for 85% of India's retail (packaged) grocery sales, although a recent study projects that this might decline to 70% within the next five years due to the emergence of e-commerce and other alternative channels (McKinsey and Company 2022). 4) For example, Auchan, Tesco, Ahold, Metro and Carrefour have either wholly or mostly wound down their supermarket operations in Asia, especially outside of China. In Africa, there has also been some international chain retreat from major markets. For example, South Africa's Shoprite has withdrawn from Nigeria and Kenya. Source: Adapted and modified from Teftt et al. (2017) work or home and the social interactions that take place 5 . This is despite the relative neglect and dilapidated state of many traditional markets. At the same time, in many urban settings, the competition faced by traditional market vendors is arguably less from supermarkets than from itinerant street vendors.The consolidation hypothesis envisions large companies and other so-called 'lead firms' applying proper food safety measures and pressuring, if not aiding, both their suppliers and downstream distributors to do likewise. The 'food control' hypothesis is complementary to this. Processes of consolidation and formalization would seem to be compatible with regulatory solutions to food safety problems. To date, the bulk of attention, by governments, donors and technical agencies, with respect to domestic food safety in low-and middle-income countries has focused on strengthening central government capacities to implement regulatory solutions, supplemented by efforts to increase scientific and other information. Pursuit of a functioning 'food control' model has stemmed from the recognition of the ways in which food markets may 'fail' in the context of food safety (see Box 1).In this endeavour, emphasis has been placed on strengthening public institutions and facilities (for example, laboratories), updating legislation (guided by and often directed at harmonization with international standards), implementing food safety certification and accreditation, building human capital and facilitating the application of core operating principles (for example, relating to risk analysis and food emergencies). Ostensibly, this approach aims to replicate the structures and practices employed in high-income countries today. The bulk of capacity strengthening has occurred at the level of central ministries and agencies. 5) See Farina et al. (2015) for Brazil; Nickanor et al. (2019) for Windhoek, Namibia;Wertheim-Heck et al. (2015) for Vietnam; and Yuan et al. (2021) for China. Skinner (2019) refers to studies in multiple African countries highlighting the persistently strong role of informal markets in cities where supermarkets have emerged.Assuring the safety of food is challenging in any context, especially given the propensity of markets to fail in the context of the intrinsic information and incentives-related problems associated with foodborne hazards (see, for example, Henson and Traill 1993;Antle 2001). Many foodborne hazards are imperceptible to the consumer, making it difficult to judge the safety of a product at the point of purchase, prior to consumption and even once the food has been eaten. Further, consumers may lack information on how the product was produced and handled, with this posing potentially more problems as supply chains become longer and less personal. In such contexts, consumers often make food choices using visual cues that may be imperfectly related (at best) to the safety of the product. The result is that markets often send weak and/or perverse incentives to suppliers to make the necessary investments to enhance the safety of the food they sell, and businesses will tend to compete based on other criteria, including price and quality characteristics that are immediately visible to the consumer.Such market failures provide a prima facae case for governments to regulate food markets (Henson and Traill, 1993) including the establishment of legal limits on microbiological, chemical and/or physical contaminants, mandating certain food safety practices, requiring the implementation of food safety management systems, etc. The impact of such regulatory actions is dependent on the enforcement actions of government and on the ability and readiness of food operators to comply. In the context of weak regulatory capacity on the part of government and where the commercial viability of food businesses is precarious, the propensity of food businesses to upgrade their food safety controls is likely to be muted.The 'food control' model places considerable emphasis on the proclamation and enforcement of regulations related to the premises and practices of all food system actors. Widespread compliance with these regulations is not expected to be fail proof but it should help to prevent most potential incidences of harmful hazards entering the food chain. Even in the best of circumstances, regulatory enforcement is challenging, and governments need to rely on voluntary compliance by most private enterprises in their own efforts to service clients, protect their brand or image and operate efficiently. Things are especially challenging in transitioning economies.The circumstances associated with many enterprises and vendors in the informal sector are not conductive to effective (or sustained) regulatory oversight. Informal markets for food tend to be characterized by high rates of entry and exit of businesses, with large numbers of enterprises competing for consumers, predominantly based on price (Maloney 2004;Webb et al. 2013;Kok and Balkaran 2014). Lacking formal registration and with little or no engagement with the financial sector, enterprises struggle to access start-up and/or working capital, except perhaps from informal money lenders. Lacking formal title to the location where they operate, many of these enterprises frequently change their location (see, for example, Contreras et al. 2020). As a result, the rate of business failure in such markets tends to be high, with many informal enterprises struggling to grow (Grimm et al. 2012).Where businesses engage with government officials, too often this is to limit or control their activities, usually in the context of corruption and bribery (see, for example, Sharma and Biswas 2020; Owuor 2020). In the traditional food markets that service large proportions of developing country populations, and especially the poor, any notions of food safety control are based more on visual cues, personal trust and experience than on official systems of regulation (see, for example, Rheinlander et al. 2008;Cardoso et al. 2014;Owusu-Sekyere et al. 2014).'Food control' seems to be something of a misnomer when applied in these contexts. Here, formal food safety institutions have little sway. There is thus a wide chasm between top-down regulations and efforts to build centralized capacity on the one hand, and traditional structural patterns and operational conditions on the ground. Often, the institutions charged with food control lack an explicit policy vis-à-vis the traditional or informal food markets and/or a credible and effective strategy for operationalizing such a policy where this does exist. Where efforts are made to regulate food safety, this tends to focus on larger formal sector businesses that account for the minority of the food supply, especially when it comes to supplying the poor and near poor.The 'food control' model places considerable emphasis on the proclamation and enforcement of regulations related to the premises and practices of all food system actors 23.Contrary to the bleak picture above, is it not the case that many low-and middle-income countries have been relatively successful in dealing with 'especially challenging' food safety issues in relation to their agrifood trade? Could this experience not help to inform strategies and approaches for tackling food safety problems domestically and in relation to the food access of their poorer populations? This does not seem to be the case and the disconnects with the circumstances and possible solutions in the informal sector seem to be especially great.Historically, food safety did primarily appear on the international development radar screen as a trade and market access issue (Jaffee et al. 2019). Thus, compliance with food safety regulations in international markets was seen as a problem to be addressed as part of efforts to enhance the trade competitiveness and performance of low-and middle-income countries (Unnevehr 2015). Analytical attention and development assistance were centred on identifying the impact of high-income country food safety requirements on low-and middle-income country exports (see, for example, Feed the Future Innovation Lab 2019; Suanin 2022) and how best to tackle the compliance challenges faced by low-and middle-income countries, both at the level of national governments and export enterprises (van Veen 2005). Instances of importing countries imposing restrictions because of concerns about prevailing food safety controls, in particular exporting countries (Calvin et al. 2002) and/ or high levels of border rejections (UNIDO 2015), gave food safety in the context of trade high visibility among policymakers.Evidence on the impact of food safety on trade pointed to the potentially significant and rising costs of inaction, both to low-and middle-income country governments and strategic export sectors therein, and bilateral and multilateral donors. In response, significant resources have been devoted to strengthening regulatory oversight, upgrading infrastructure, modifying production practices and supporting the adoption of improved product quality and supply chain management systems in the exportoriented industries of low-and middle-income countries (STDF 2018;GFSP 2018). Many of these interventions have been successful at enhancing food safety control capacity in key export sectors, contributing to a pattern of increased low-and middle-income country exports and international market share for many higher-value, food safety-sensitive products, including fish, spices, nuts, fruits and vegetables (Henson and Jaffee 2006).There have been expectations (or at least hopes) that efforts to establish rigorous food safety controls in export value chains would 'trickle down' to the domestic market, for example through updating of regulatory systems, enhancing the supply of skilled and experienced personnel and/or upgrading of food safety infrastructure (for example laboratories). There have been efforts, similarly, to identify instances where donor investments in food safety capacity-building for exports have generated 'spill overs' to domestic markets. To date, evidence of any 'trickle-down' or 'spill overs' is both limited and anecdotal at best (Bourquin and Thiagarajan 2018).Export industries which have targeted high-income country markets have typically had to comply with exacting food safety requirements, which can be both technical and documentary in nature, to meet the requirements of regulators and/or customers in destination markets (Henson and Jaffee 2008). There is little or no demand to comply with comparable food safety requirements in the domestic markets of low-and middle-income countries.-Not only will suppliers be unlikely to gain competitive advantage from doing so, but the associated costs could erode their competitiveness in the context of markets where price competition is intense. -Admittedly, the management systems associated with system-based food safety requirements, such as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) and traceability, can yield appreciable economies of scale and scope in the context of consolidated or well-coordinated value chains (World Bank 2005). This is far from the typical structure of domestic food markets in low-and middle-income countries, however, which tend to be highly fragmented and are not conducive to such system-based approaches to food safety management.The combination of rapid food system consolidation, the progressive development of official food safety controls and lessons gained from relatively successful food safety interventions for exports would seem to bode well for the effective control of food safety hazards in low-and middle-income countries. Yet this is not how the drama is playing out in many, if not most, low-and middle-income countries. The persistence of traditional and informal food market segments, and actors therein, does not conform to this narrative. It is not obvious that the strengthening of centralized official controls will have great impact, especially in the context of weak regulatory institutions and the continued dominance of the informal sector. While the incremental formalization and consolidation of domestic food systems will likely enhance the incentives for private actors to enhance their food safety controls (in part because they will become more regulatable), as well as boosting their capacity to do so, this will take time. In low and lower middle-income countries, this process may take decades to play out.The disconnect between top-down food safety control system interventions and the structural realities of hybrid food systems on the ground has not gone unnoticed. As long ago as the 1990s, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) drew attention to the distinctive food safety challenges associated with the informal sector and provided support for several initiatives, including those focused on improving hygiene and preparation practices among street food vendors in various cities (summarized in FAO 2003). Somewhat later, researchers associated with the Consultative Group for Interanational Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and others zeroed in on food enterprises and handlers servicing Asia's and Africa's urban poor (see, for example, Roesel and Grace 2014). They and others generated evidence regarding the origins and types of various food hazards and set about implementing interventions seeking to improve the food safety awareness, knowledge and practices of small-scale food processors, abattoir operators and market vendors.Most of the tested interventions to date have involved the demonstration of how low-cost technologies could be effective in managing certain food safety risks. The resources made available for many such programs were modest, hindering parallel investments to upgrade physical infrastructure and strengthen prevailing With some few exceptions, it is not clear that such bottom-up initiatives have had much impact on public food safety policy or spending 25.6) Jaffee et al 2019 highlight distinctive areas of emphasis among low, lower-middle and upper-middle income countries with respect to food safety policy, strategy and regulation, risk assessment, risk management, information/communication and education.institutions, or the ability to maintain or re-enforce support over many years. While these interventions have significantly increased our understanding about the underlying problems and constraints, evaluation studies (see, for example, Alonso et al. 2018;Grace et al. 2019) indicate their practical impact has been relatively modest and/or raise questions about whether they are scalable or sustained. In addition, with some few exceptions, it is not clear that such bottom-up initiatives have had much impact on public food safety policy or spending. Importantly, for the most part, they have not endeavoured to engage elements of the formal food control system.The harsh reality is that the policy and practitioner communities presently sit at a crossroads with respect to how to achieve significant and sustained improvements in food safety in low-and middle-income countries, and more specifically, what to do vis-à-vis the large informal sector. Neither turning away from the issue nor waiting for gradual improvements to emerge along with incremental structural changes appear to be desirable options. For many low-and middle-income countries, time is not 'on their side'. Instead, for many countries, there is a reasonable expectation that the food safety situation will worsen rather than improve in the coming years as the capacity to manage food safety continues to lag the growing incidence and consumer exposure to foodborne hazards.Many low-and middle-income countries are experiencing rapid and profound changes in their agri-food systems stemming from urbanization, demographic shifts and rising incomes, among other things (Bene et al. 2019;van Berkum and Ruben 2021). Especially among growing urban populations, dietary patterns are rapidly extending beyond traditional starchy staples towards increased consumption of animal products, fruits and vegetables and ultra-processed foods (see, for example, Baker and Friel 2014;2016;Baker et al. 2020). With urbanization has also come the greater reliance of consumers on purchased foods (as opposed to self-provisioning), increased out-of-home eating and a trend towards longer supply chains (Crush and McCordic 2017). Collectively, these factors tend to increase the range and incidence of foodborne hazards encountered by consumers, meaning that food safety management systems need to develop and adapt.As illustrated in Jaffee et al. (2019), most low-and middleincome countries are at a stage in a food safety 'life cycle' in which there is a widening gap between food safety management needs, on the one hand (reflecting ongoing processes of economic development, dietary change, urbanization and agri-food system transformation), and prevailing capacities to implement and maintain food safety controls, on the other. This 'gap' is both common and persistent as countries transition from low to (and through) lower middle-income status. As countries transition to (and through) upper middle-income status this gap tends to narrow as food system formalization and consolidation progresses, and as administrative and technical food safety capacities are enhanced. The phenomenon of a food safety 'life cycle' also suggests that the food safety situation of countries across the lowand middle-income spectrum varies significantly and that the priorities for attention and the feasibility of different solutions will also tend to vary 6 . More on this in section 4 below.Grilled fish for sale in Muang Phu Khoun Market, Laos -ILRI/Susan MacMillan 27.Comprehensive national or multi-country studies on the safety of food distributed through traditional, informal channels in low-and middle-income countries are generally lacking. However, evidence from smallscale or localized surveys of food and/or pertinent food operators broadly point to low levels of food safety awareness among food handles, poor hygiene and/or food preparation practices, deficit operating conditions, and worrying levels of food contamination.Many surveys in low-and middle-income countries have found low levels of food safety knowledge among food handlers, including street food and market vendors (see, for example, Sibanyoni et al. 2017;Mwove et al. 2020;Nkosi and Tabit, 2021;Letuka et al. 2021;Sirichokchatchawan et al 2021) and micro and small food processors (see, for example, Edia-Asuke et al. 2014;  Mallhi et al. 2019; Prakashbabu et al. 2021) 7 . By way of illustration, the majority of food vendors, restaurant workers and food processor workers in Hanoi surveyed by Tran et al. (2018) lacked knowledge of proper food preparation procedures and contamination prevention measures. Siddiky et al. (2022) found low levels of knowledge of foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistance among chicken vendors in Dhaka's traditional markets. In Kenya's Kiambu County, Mwove et al. (2020) found that some 93% of street food vendors had never received any training on food safety hygiene and safety. Finally, Samapundo et al. (2016) found that virtually no street food vendors in Ho Chi Minh City were aware of the importance of foodborne pathogens and only a minority had knowledge of proper food storage and temperature controls.Compounding limitations in food safety awareness, many market and street vendors and small-scale food processors operate in poor environmental conditions (see, for example, Khairuzzaman et al. 2014;Bormann et al. 2016;Loukieh et al. 2018;Ibrahim et al. 2021). Broadly, this reflects the fact that traditional community markets in many low-and middle-income countries have not been upgraded for decades and lack proper sanitation and waste disposal facilities, or municipal authorities have taken actions to actively disincentivize or even actively exclude informal food enterprises (see, for example, Roever 2014; Khairuzzaman et al. 2014;Cardoso et al. 2014). As for examples, Cortese et al. (2016) found that all street food vendors in Florianopolis, Brazil, had no access to a running supply of water. Similarly, Samapundo et al. (2016) observed that most market vending stalls in Ho Chi Minh City had no direct access to water and were in locations that lacked protection from sun, wind and dust.Where food handlers do have access to water, this is often non-potable. For example, Onyango et al. (2019) found that the water used by street food vendors in Kisumu County, Kenya was contaminated with Staphyloccoccus aureus. The implication is that, even where food handlers broadly follow good food handling practices, this does not prevent food from being unsafe. As an example, Oguttu et al. (2014) found that, although street food vendors in Tshwane, South Africa, generally followed good hygienic practices, the unavailability of potable 7) For a more comprehensive review see, for example, Skinner (2016).28. New directions for tackling food safety risks water and broader lack of proper infrastructure led their ready-to-eat chicken to be commonly contaminated by faecal and environmental contaminants.One study (Rikolto et al. 2020) describes the common situation in one Asian capital city where only 60 of the more than 400 traditional community markets have been upgraded in recent years: \"Degradation is widespread; waste and wastewater collection and treatment does not meet the required capacity; the supply of clean water is insufficient; the risk of inundation and poor drainage is high; equipment for business does not meet food safety; fire protection doesn't meet practical requirements; meat has not been stored in cold containers; exposure to the environment; vendors leave fresh meat and processed ones next to each other; no record on product origin; wastes are thrown directly to the floor and sidewalks. The infrastructure conditions and practices suggest a high risk of microorganism contamination to fresh agriculture product, especially meat. Especially in the summer when it is hot and humid, microorganism such as Norovirus, Salmonella, E. coli bacteria are in favourable conditions for growth, spoiling the meat and causing foodborne illness.\"This description is probably applicable in most cities in low-and middle-income countries.The interplay of low awareness, poor operating conditions and weak incentives (see below) often translate into poor food safety practices by informal sector food handlers (see, for example, Adane et al. 2018;Choudhury 2011;Ababio and Lowatt, 2015;Johnson et al. 2015;Sezgin and Sanher, 2016;Cortese et al. 2016;Arora and Mogra, 2019;Mwove et al. 2020;Huynh-Van et al. 2022). Mallhi et al. (2019) found that very few of the workers in Lahore-based abattoirs and butcheries they surveyed used protective clothing during meat handling and nearly all stored meat at room temperature. Some 95% of the school food handlers in South Africa surveyed by Sibanyoni et al. (2017) had never used sanitized utensils or cutting surfaces while cutting raw meat. Numerous studies of street vendors in low-and middle-income countries provide evidence of the widespread handling of food (and money) with bare hands, use of non-disposable plates, cups and cutlery, preparation of food on unsafe surfaces and storage of food under ambient conditions (Skinner 2016).For many micro and small food processors and vendors, their poor food safety practices are a direct consequence of the day-to-day realities of being informal enterprises that operate in a challenging commercial and regulatory environment. Thus, in a bid to minimize costs, attract customers that are looking to minimize price and make at least a minimal operating surplus, businesses often procure the cheapest raw materials, frequently that are low quality and/or contaminated with foodborne pathogens (see, for example, Apaasongo et al. 2016;Tortoe et al. 2013;Alimi 2016). Further, to keep costs to a minimum, vendors often save food from one day to the next, even though they lack appropriate storage facilities (see for example, Kok and Balkaran 2014; Loukieh et al. 2018).In many cases this reflects the fact that there is an excess number of vendors relative to the number of customers. These food vendors are also attracted to areas with maximum human traffic, even though they may be exposed to dust and vehicle exhaust fumes, lack access to water and are subject to harassment by police and other authorities (Roever 2014). A further consequence is that, even where food handlers are more aware of the hazards associated with food and the nature and importance of appropriate handling practices, this does not mean that they are applied in practice on a day-to-day basis, for example as they 'cut corners' in order to save time and money (see for example, Unusan 2007;Kok and Balkaran 2014;Hossen et al. 2020).Of course, consumers are not purely passive actors in their exposure to unsafe food, they can take actions to protect themselves through their food choices, food preparation practices etc. Yet, many types of food safety hazards cannot be effectively recognized by consumers when making food choices and even after consuming the food (Henson and Traill 1993). There may have insufficient awareness about food safety and find it difficult to reliably differentiate more from less safe food 8 .The empirical evidence on consumer appreciation of food safety is mixed and suggests significant variation countryto-country and according to socio-demographic factors such as education, age and income (Peng et al. 2015;Nguyen et al. 2018;Odeyemi et al. 2019;Bukachi et al. 2021;Liguouri et al. 2022). For example, several studies in Nigeria found most consumers of street foods to be unaware of the associated health risks (Ezekiel et al. 2013;Alimi et al. 2016). Conversely, a 2019 survey of the social concerns of households in major cities of Vietnam found food safety to be the number one concern, far outpacing pollution, social service and education access, amongst other issues (Indochina Research 2019). Foods generally considered the 'most unsafe' by Vietnamese consumers are meat, vegetables and fruit, with decidedly lower proportions of consumers identifying fish and processed foods and very few identifying eggs or dairy products 9 . When it comes to the specific hazards associated with food, however, there is compelling evidence that consumers misperceive the risks they face. In many countries, for example, consumers are most concerned about chemical residues in their food although microbial pathogens normally pose a more significant health risk (Petrescu et al. 2020).Several studies have been undertaken of the 'willingness to pay' of consumers for safer food in low-and middleincome countries (see, for example, Radam et al. 2007;Magrhaby et al. 2013;Alphonce and Alfnes 2016;Ortega and Tschirley 2017;Wongprawmas and Canavari 2017;Hoffman et al. 2019). In such surveys, consumers frequently express a willingness to pay extra for food that is safer, often in the context of foods that are 'certified' and/or labelled as such (see Akerele et al. 2010;Akinbode et al. 2011;Ifft et al. 2012;Lagerkvist et al. 2013;Owusus-Sekyere et al. 2014;Alimi et al. 2016;De Groote et al. 2020;Otieno et al. 2017). Practically, however, affordability and convenience tend to dominate the choices of consumers, with the most valued quality attributes being appearance, freshness and taste. Further, the sub-set of consumers that are willing and able to pay a premium for certified 'safe' food are commonly held back by their lack of understanding of specific labels and/or their lack of confidence in the integrity of the oversight systems which govern the sourcing, labelling and distribution of such foods 10 . 8) Trusted sources of food safety information vary among countries and consumer groups, yet in many developing countries, there is remarkably low trust in information provided by official agencies and the most trusted information is that provided by friends and family (Lloyds Register Foundation 2021). 9) These perceptions broadly align correctly with the food safety risks associated with meat and vegetables but probably not fruit (which is less risky), fish (which may be quite risky) and eggs (where a specific problem of antimicrobial residues applies) (Wertheim-Heck and Spaargaren 2016). 10) See the discussion of this topic in relation for China (Ma and Qin 2009;Yin et al. 2010) and Vietnam (My et al. 2017;Vagneron et al. 2018).In the context of informal food markets, relatively little is known about the influence of concerns about food safety on food choices and related behaviours. The limited studies that do exist, however, suggest the dominant use of visual cues (such as the appearance of the food handler and their surroundings) and/or frequenting the same vendor to avoid unsafe food (see for example, Badrie et al. 2004;Akinbode et al. 2011;Owusus-Sekyere et al. 2014). For example, in a survey of consumer perceptions of the safety of food sold by street vendors in Lesotho (Letuka et al. 2021), the most used indicators were whether the vendor's stall was clean and tidy, whether the environment around the stall was clean, and the use of clean utensils. Similarly, Rheinlander et al. (2008) found that consumers in Kumasi, Ghana, judged the safety of a street vendor based on social and normative norms such as 'neatness', 'tidiness' and being 'orderly'. Further, interpersonal trust played a major role, such that they tended to frequent the same vendor(s). At the same time, price and accessibility played a more dominant role in their choice of street food vendor rather than food safety. More generally, it is evident that consumers manage concerns about food safety alongside more dominant factors driving their choices, including convenience, product freshness and cost 11 . As a whole, this evidence suggests that, in informal markets, food safety is a minimal driver of consumer behaviour, while the cues that consumers do use may be a partial indicator, at best, of the safety of the food being chosen.Evidence from many localized studies indicates that such poor practices, unhygienic operating conditions and the use of low-quality ingredients, among other factors, result in high levels of microbial pathogens in food produced, processed and/or handled by informal food processors and vendors (see for example, Cardoso et al. 2014;Odwar et al. 2014;Johnson et al. 2015;Jahan et al. 2018;Contreras et al. 2020;Salamandane et al. 2021). To illustrate, high levels of microbial pathogens have been found in street-vended salads and gravies in Johannesburg (Kubheka et al. 2001), salads and traditional fermented foods in Ghana (Mensah et al. 2012), and chicken in Guatemala (Jarquin et al. 2015). Further, a series of surveys (summarized by Rikolto et al. 2020) conducted in and around Ho Chi Minh City found that nearly 60% of meat samples taken from small manual slaughterhouses failed to meet microbiological standards, and that nearly 75% of meat samples taken from the city's traditional markets were contaminated with antibiotic-resistant Salmonella strains. These same studies found that 40% of lettuce and herb samples were contaminated with lead and arsenic, while 40% of other green vegetable samples had unsafe microbial pathogen levels. These are not outlier examples. Evidence from many other locations points to a similar (or greater) incidence of unsafe food in traditional channels and amongst informal food business operations 12 . This is not to imply that larger (and better regulated) formal sector enterprises and distribution channels in 11) See the discussion of consumer strategies in Vietnam (Wertheim-Heck et al. 2014), China (Si et al. 2018), Nepal (Thapa et al. 2020) and Kenya (Blackmore et al. 2021).12) Mixing dense human populations and animals often translates into high biosecurity risk in developing country cities. For example, a long-standing preference for purchasing warm meat has resulted in large movements of live animals to Vietnamese cities and their slaughter in close vicinity to residential areas. Each day, some 150,000 chickens are moved, sold and slaughtered in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. On an annual basis this translates into 55 million chickens. Many of these are channelled through live bird markets. Research in Vietnam and elsewhere has shown that such markets play a significant role in the ecology and zoonotic transmission of avian influenza (Fournie et al. 2012).Consumers that are willing and able to pay a premium for certified 'safe' food are commonly held back by their lack of understanding of specific labels and/or their lack of confidence in the integrity of the oversight systems which govern the sourcing, labelling and distribution of such foods low-and middle-income countries are devoid of food safety challenges. Even in more advanced food safety systems, lapses occur and can be the cause of significant FBD. For example, one of the world's largest ever outbreaks occurred in South Africa in 2017. This outbreak was linked to a contaminated ready-to-eat meat product manufactured and sold by a major meat processor (Tchatchouang et al. 2020). A total of 216 deaths were recorded, while the estimated human and economic cost of the outbreak was estimated at United States dollar (USD) 537 million (Olanya et al. 2019).Further, some studies have highlighted circumstances where food sold through formal sector marketing channels is at least no safer than that sold by the informal sector. For example, Roesel and Grace (2014) reported that levels of microbial pathogens were lower in poultry bought from live bird markets in Mozambique than from formal sector abattoirs. Further, they found that the microbiological quality of beef from a typical small slaughterhouse in Kenya was little different to beef from an improved mechanized slaughterhouse selling to supermarkets. Likewise, studies in Thailand (Minami et al. 2010), China (Zhu et al. 2014), Mexico (Regalado-Pineda et al. 2020) and Malaysia (Shafini et al. 2017) found significant levels of Salmonella contamination in chicken sold in both supermarkets and traditional markets. Other studies suggest much lower levels of food safety awareness and poorer practices in micro and small rather than among medium and large food enterprises 13 .Unfortunately, no reliable data are available on the incidence of FBD in low-and middle-income countries that is attributable to foods sold by informal enterprises. Given the small scale and fragmented nature of informal sector enterprises and the lack of active systems of surveillance, deriving reliable estimates of the importance of the informal sector in specific countries is problematic. Further, while sporadic outbreaks of disease where the informal sector is implicated do occur, these are rarely investigated in a robust manner. As a result, any attempt to make judgements as to the importance of the informal sector in the overall incidence of FBD are inevitably based on a process of piecing together disparate information and data. We can consider the following factors or assumptions:• First, estimates of the overall incidence and burden of FBD in low-and middle-income countries. The most authoritative source of these data is the Foodborne Disease Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG). Of the estimated 600 million cases of FBD globally in 2015, 53% were in low-and middle-income countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa; thus, around 318 million cases (Havelaar et al. 2015).• Second, estimates of the role of different types of foods in the incidence of FBD. This work started under FERG (Hoffmann et al. 2017) and continued later with more specific attention to animal source foods (Li et al. 2019) and to the role of heavy metals and other natural toxins (Gibb et al. 2019). Estimates indicate that animal-based foods and fruit and vegetables collectively account for the majority (and sometimes a large majority) of total cases of FBD. The pace of change in diet with ongoing economic development is thus relevant to the evolving exposure of consumers to food safety risks.• Third, a certain proportion of FBD arises from nonmarketed food, with this mostly taking place in rural areas in the case of subsistent or semi-subsistent households.Here, FBD mainly arises from microbiological or chemical contaminants, some of which are naturally-13) For example, in a survey by Kahindi (2016), micro-enterprises with 1-10 employees were found to recognize less well the potential benefits of food safety systems, be less likely to provide pertinent training to staff and managers, follow industry guidelines for assuring safety measures applied by their suppliers, have staff wearing uniforms and regularly washing their hands, and to promptly discard contaminated food. Some 45% of the surveyed microenterprises applied no food safety system at all, while this passivity was very rare among small, medium and larger enterprises. 33.occurring (for example, mycotoxins) and/or result from cross-contamination between animals and plants, or improper storage or food preparation practices. Food shared or bartered within rural communities may also be a factor here. In urban areas, non-marketed foods generally account for only a small proportion of food consumed.• Fourth, account needs to be taken of the share of traditional and informal marketing channels in the supply of food in general and especially foods that are a major source of FBD. In urban areas of low-and lower middle-income countries, such channels may account for 60-80% of the market-procured food of consumers, while in upper middle-income countries, it is generally 50% or less (see, for example, Crush and McCordic 2017; Young and Crush 2019).• Finally, assumptions need to be made about the relative riskiness of the formal versus informal food sectors in terms of the incidence and levels of foodborne hazards, including the extent to which these are mitigated by the actions of consumers (for example, through cooking) prior to consumption. While there are examples where the safety of foods supplied by formal and informal market channels is broadly similar (see above), more frequently, food supplied by informal enterprises presents a greater food safety risk, for all the reasons discussed above.Considering these data and considerations, crude estimates can be made of the proportion of FBD in low-and middle-income countries that can potentially be attributed to the informal food sector (Table 1). We estimate the FBD burden share attributable to the informal sector in two ways: first by factoring in subsistence-oriented production/consumption, recognizing that some proportion of own-produced and consumed food in rural areas is contaminated by naturally-occurring toxins or by improper hygienic or cooking practices, and second, by only considering unsafe marketed food. Regarding marketed food, the estimated FBD burden attributed to the informal sector is higher across all country income groups than its estimated share of marketed sales. This reflects three factors; the continued dominance of the informal sector in the supply of food safety-sensitive foods (including animal-based foods, fruit and vegetables etc.), its outsized role as a source of ready-to-eat foods in the form of street food vendors, and the higher incidence of unhygienic conditions and/or unsafe practices in the informal sector.Importantly, Table 1 is only intended to provide indicative 'order of magnitude' estimates of the proportion of the food safety problem in low-and middle-income countries that can be attributed to the informal sector; we recognize that the structure of marketed production and the significance of subsistence production/consumption does vary across these countries. However, even if the share of the formal sector in some countries is higher than the norm for their level of income, the overall picture presented by these estimates is that issues related to unsafe food in the informal sector cannot be considered a minor problem. For many, if not most, low-and lowermiddle income countries, unsafe food in informal channels probably accounts for a large proportion of the FBD attributable to marketed foods. The implication is that concentrating attention on enhancing the capacities and regulatory reach of centralized food safety agencies may have little impact on the safety of food, especially highernutrient fresh foods.34. New directions for tackling food safety risksVegetables and fruits for sale in Quelimane Market, Mozambique -ILRI/Stevie Mann 35.T o understand better how to proceed in addressing the food safety problems in the informal sector, it is useful to articulate why the problems exist and to go beyond the notions of a homogenous 'informal sector' and homogenous 'developing country' context.Why is unsafe food such a pervasive problem in the informal sector? Further, why do informal food enterprises not employ better food safety practices? There are two standard responses to these questions. One is that the players themselves lack the requisite awareness about food safety hazards and the basic knowledge about approaches and practices to prevent these hazards from entering their businesses and the overall food supply. This we can call the awareness and knowledge deficit. The other explanation relates to alleged gaps in regulatory and other official oversight systems, on paper and/or on the ground. This we can refer to as the regulatory or food control deficit. A combination of low awareness of potential problems among the food actors and limited administrative tools and personnel among regulators does not bode well for safe food outcomes. Yet, we approach the prevailing situation as reflecting somewhat of a broader range of capacity and incentive-related constraints.Food safety is the outcome of the collective behaviour of enterprises and the environment in which they operate along the food value chain, from the manufacture and distribution of agricultural inputs, through production, processing and distribution, to ultimate consumption. Thus, improvements in the safety of food require changes in behaviour and/or improvements in the operating environment of food enterprises. The implication is that the burden of FBD in low-and middle-income countries results from the actions of large numbers of enterprises and food handlers therein. In looking at how most effectively to improve food safety, therefore, the focus needs to be on how best to improve controls within these enterprises. Why do they do what they do? What prevents them from applying more appropriate practices and/or operating in an environment that is more conducive to safer food? Further, how might these impediments be more effectively removed?The status of food safety measures in food enterprises can be seen to reflect the interplay of two core sets of factors. First are the incentives for enterprises, and food handlers therein, to implement and maintain improved food safety practices. These incentives alter the balance between the costs and benefits for the enterprise of implementing or not implementing these practices. Second is the capacity of food enterprises, and food handlers therein, to implement improved food safety practices. Here, factors both internal (for example, condition of the enterprise's physical establishment and level of human capital) and external (for example, physical environment in which the enterprise operates, access to potable water and availability of training resources) to the enterprise are relevant. Each of these dimensions is briefly discussed in turn.The incentive for food enterprises to adopt enhanced food safety practices will, everything else being equal, reflect the benefits and costs for the enterprise of doing so. These costs and benefits will be both economic/ commercial (for example, the impact on the enterprise's profitability) and social (for example, the reputation of the enterprise and its standing within the community). Three key factors will play a role here: • The regulatory system in which the enterprise operates, notably the practices that the enterprise is required to adopt (and the associated costs of implementation) and the actions that might be taken should the enterprise fail to comply (including fines, seizure of property and loss of customers due to reputational losses);• The degree to which the markets in which the enterprise operates reward the adoption of enhanced food safety practices (reflecting consumer demand for safer food and propensity to show loyalty towards and/or36. New directions for tackling food safety risks pay a premium to enterprises providing food perceived to be safer); and• Social pressures for enterprises to apply appropriate practices and/or to supply safe food, including from other vendors and the wider community where the enterprise operates.In many low-and middle-income countries, regulatory capacity is weak, both at central and decentralized levels, as will be illustrated in Section 5. The resources allocated to enforce regulatory requirements among micro and small enterprises tends to be quite limited, especially in relation to the sheer size of the informal sector and the multitude of enterprises operating there. The consequence is that most informal sector enterprises are virtually untouched by regulators (at least when it comes to food safety). The implication is that regulatory incentives to adopt enhanced food safety practices are generally missing or muted at best.A key question is whether market-based incentives can motivate enterprises to upgrade their food safety controls in weak regulatory contexts. This depends upon several factors, including whether consumers are sufficiently aware and concerned about food safety, whether they are willing and financially able to pay for foods that are safer, and whether they can reliably distinguish more from less safe foods or, at a minimum, distinguish better from worse food handling practices. The literature reviewed above suggests that, in many low-and middle-income contexts, market-based incentives are likely to be weak and/or misdirected.To provide market-based incentives for the adoption of better food safety controls, private systems of food safety governance, for example in the form of certification and/ or labelling that aim to provide more reliable visual cues of safer food for consumers, have been trialled in low-and middle-income countries. Most of these efforts, however, have focused on the formal sector (including supermarkets and larger branded food businesses). At the same time, experiences with private governance of food safety in high-income countries suggests that such initiatives are generally employed where regulatory systems are strong, such that private standards and systems of certification build upon regulatory norms (Henson and Humphrey 2010). The efficacy of private governance of food safety in weak regulatory contexts is largely untested.The third and perhaps more promising potential source of incentives to upgrade food safety controls in food enterprises comes from social pressure. Even within the informal sector, which is frequently characterized as being 'disorganized', relations exist between vendors, such that operators may wish to be seen by others to 'do the right thing' and/or may feel pressure to adopt the practices of others in their community, for example religious or other social leaders. Further, in many informal markets, systems of organization exist in order, for example, to control the entry of vendors to prevent over-supply, deal with conflicts between vendors and/or between vendors and their customers, ensure common trade practices etc. The role of market queens in managing traditional markets The capacity of food enterprises not only determines their ability to implement and maintain enhanced food controls, but also the costs entailed in making the necessary upgrades to physical infrastructure and equipment and/ or changes in operating procedures. Critical here are the scale of the upgrades required (which will reflect the gaps between the prevailing and desired food safety controls) and the financial, human and technical resources of the enterprise. Also, the ability of the enterprise to access necessary external resources, including finance, technical expertise and advice, training, appropriate technology and equipment. Both public and private sector entities can play a critical role in the availability of these external resources.A second critical factor influencing the capacity of food enterprises to implement enhanced food safety controls is the external infrastructure and environment in which they operate. This can include the suitability (for example, by the side of the road versus a dedicated food market) and state of repair of the physical surroundings, access to potable water and sanitation. In situations where food enterprises operate in unsanitary conditions, it will likely be impossible for enhanced food safety controls to be implemented and/or maintained, whatever the capacity of the enterprise itself.Finally, the capacity to implement effective food safety controls on the part of an individual food enterprise will be influenced by the value chain in which it operates. Thus, there may be only limited actions that an enterprise can take to ensure the food it sells is safe if appropriate controls have not been taken by upstream actors from which it procures raw materials and other inputs. An example is contamination with mycotoxins, which can result from inappropriate storage but that largely cannot be mitigated by the actions of downstream actors.The upgrading of food safety controls by enterprises, rather than being a discrete event, is an ongoing process involving step-by-step improvements and adjustments in response to changing incentives, availability of resources, changing in environmental conditions etc. Thus, the food safety controls that prevail at any point in time will reflect the interplay of incentives and capacity. In turn, this will be influenced by the characteristics of the enterprise and the external infrastructure and environmental conditions under which it operates, in the context of the characteristics of the enterprise, the value chain in which it operates and its physical surroundings, the value chain it which operates, and the regulatory system as it interfaces with the enterprise.Recognizing the interface between incentives and capacity, four broad scenarios can be defined with respect to the enhancement of food safety controls within the informal sector (Figure 2). In practice, of course, there are not four distinct segments, but rather incentives and capacity will vary along a spectrum of strength. Thus, while for analytical simplicity it may be helpful to think of informal food enterprises lying in and/or moving between particular quadrants, in reality there will be a wide variation in the blend of incentives and capacity and what matters is the balance between the two.The prevailing situation in the informal sector of many low-and middle-income countries is a situation of low incentives and low capacity (L-L in Figure 2). Enterprises in this context are in a low-level food safety trap. Thus, they have minimal capacity to enhance their food safety procedures, except for virtually costless actions such as handwashing if the local environment permits access to water. At the same time, there is little or no incentive to change their practices, except, again, if they are virtually costless.There may be only limited actions that an enterprise can take to ensure the food it sells is safe if appropriate controls have not been taken by upstream actors from which it procures raw materials and other inputs 38. New directions for tackling food safety risksThe aim of policies and programs should be to shift the situation from the red to the green quadrant of Figure 2; from a very low-level equilibrium to a higher level one.In this cell, informal enterprises have access to the necessary internal and external resources and operate within a conducive external environment to upgrade food safety controls and have the incentive to do so even if the required upgrades come at an appreciable cost. How to set that process in motion and at scale is the fundamental challenge. Packages of interventions are needed which simultaneously enhance incentives and capacity for informal food enterprises to implement and maintain enhanced food safety controls. These might include efforts to train informal food operators and upgrade public infrastructure (such as markets or sanitation) paired with the enhancement of regulatory systems within municipalities, raising consumer awareness, certification of food handlers who enhance their food safety practices and/or promotion of other visual cues such as badges or uniforms.The remaining two quadrants in Figure 2 represent misalignments of incentives and capacity and they are unlikely to be sustainable. When incentives are weak but capacity is high (L-H), enterprises have the capability to enhance food safety controls but little or no incentive to do so (or continue to do so). access to potable water and/or improved sanitation and waste management) remain poor 14 . These limitations could prevent the enterprises from acting on enhanced incentives or very quickly to curtail this market as buyers come to realize that even the well-intentioned vendors cannot effectively compensate for the risky physical environment in which they operate. Thus, it is important to avoid driving up incentives to implement enhanced food safety controls if informal food enterprises lack the capacity to respond; the impact of such interventions, if anything, will be to drive informal operators out of business through a process of induced structural and and/ or formalization. The message once again is the need for food safety interventions to be implemented as packages that simultaneously address incentives and capacity.The discussion here illustrates the importance of addressing capacity and incentive-related deficits in parallel and assuring synergies between efforts to improve internal capacities (and incentives) and external ones.Training vendors to regularly wash their hands has no value if the available water sources are still contaminated.Upgrading market infrastructure and training market vendors in improved hygienic practices will collectively have little payoff if a large proportion of the produce sourced into that market has already been contaminated by multiple hazards. Even as we place enterprises at the 'centre of the storm', the range of necessary solutions may have to cover interventions in the physical environment and at other links in the supply/value chains in which they operate. Of course, one potential solution to this complex situation is to promote the accelerated turnover and formalization of enterprises, such that the marketplace becomes populated by better resourced, better located and more knowledgeable players and who are servicing a clientele which is more willing and able to pay for safer food. Inevitably, however, this comes at a significant social cost if this strategy is pushed very quickly. We will return to this later.Part of the problem in addressing the issue of unsafe food in low-and middle-income countries stems from a failure to recognize the specificity of enterprises engaged in the informal sector. Seeing the informal sector as a homogenous cluster of players leaves little room for differentiated policies or strategies that recognize the different lived realities of enterprises and their operators. Certainly, many enterprises share core economic characteristics, including ongoing commercial vulnerability, and operate with the harsh realities of not being registered. At the same time, however, distinctive types of enterprises face quite different situations when it comes to the incentives to enhance their food safety controls and/or their capacity to do so; in turn, they will likely be more or less amenable to influences from regulatory agencies, food consumers and/or formal sector enterprises.For simplicity, we distinguish among three types of informal food enterprises:• Traditional retail vendors: community market vendors and small stores/kiosks etc.• Traditional food processors: micro food processors, small animal slaughter units etc.• Informal food service vendors: street vendors of prepared foods, micro/alleyway restaurants etc.Each is discussed in turn below.Even as we place enterprises at the 'centre of the storm', the range of necessary solutions may have to cover interventions in the physical environment and at other links in the supply/value chains in which they operate 14) This is like situations where poor farmers who cannot afford inputs get certified as 'organic' suppliers of commodities and are promised (modest) price premiums for supplying particular buyers. Where parallel efforts are not made to improve the productivity of such farmers, the impacts of the interventions are often ephemeral as the price premiums wane with greater supply as little or no capacities of the farmers have been enhanced.Very large numbers of traditional retail vendors and enterprises are found in most cities of low-and middleincome countries. For a small city, the number could be in the thousands, while in medium and larger cities there could be more than 10,000 such actors. Many of these enterprises could be registered in some way. Most undertake their business on a continuous basis in the same location. These enterprises operate with minimal or low capital or fixed equipment, although some shops might have small storage or cooling units. Most of these enterprises operate in a 'public place' (such as a market or on a street with an address). Traditional stores will mostly sell non-perishables foods, many of which are packaged (although packaging may be broken for small lot sales).Conversely, many market vendors sell perishable food including fruit and vegetables, meat and fish. With respect to food safety, the availability of water and sanitation, and the immediate environmental conditions, are more important in the context of enterprises operating in community markets. Kiosks will generally source packaged foods from both small and large processors, directly or via intermediaries, while market vendors might have varied sourcing arrangements and will generally procure foods unpackaged. Thus, traditional kiosks might be comparatively low risk operators, while market vendors could be associated with multiple food safety risks from source, intermediation, their own hygienic and other practices, and local environmental conditions. For all these enterprises, regularized consumers (based on convenience and personal trust) might account for the bulk of sales.There are likely to be fewer traditional food processors in most cities of low-and middle-income countries. Perhaps there will be a few dozen in smaller cities, up to a few hundred in medium or larger cities. While some of these enterprises will be registered, these will probably be the minority. These enterprises will operate from a fixed location which may or may not be safe from anThe availability of water and sanitation, and the immediate environmental conditions, are more important in the context of enterprises operating in community marketsBeef and pork sellers in Maputo's traditional market -ILRI/Stevie Mann 41.environmental health perspective. This will generally be a private location, not in a market or along a pedestrian road. These processors will have some fixed equipment. The business may be a full or part-time occupation for the owner, with the number of employees varying from a few up to 10 or so. These enterprises will tend to compete based on lower price for the product or service they offer. These enterprises might not directly interface with the final customer but rather sell their output to a retailer or food service operator. Food safety risks may stem from the use of contaminated inputs (for example animals or cereals) or unsafe ingredients (for example unapproved additives), from prevailing environmental conditions, and/or from poor production and/or unhygienic practices.Large numbers of informal food service vendors are commonly found in low-and middle-income countries, numbering in the thousands in small cities and 10,000 or more in medium and larger cities. Almost all these enterprises will be unregistered. Both street food vendors and informal restaurants may aim to operate in the same location, although while the former are mobile, the latter work in a static location. Both may directly interface with regular and irregular customers. Informal food service vendors generally have very limited fixed equipment, usually being restricted to a cart or stand, basic cooking equipment and/or utensils. In this sub-sector, the rate of business turnover tends to be higher than in other informal food sub-sectors due to an over preponderance of operators, low profitability and/or periodic regulatory crackdowns. While price competition tends to be intense, some non-price competition may play a role, for example due to location and/or real or perceived quality of the food. The physical surroundings in which these vendors operate and their access to public utilities may vary yet are often poor. Food safety risks may stem from contaminated ingredients, environmental conditions and food preparation and hygienic practices. Use of non-food grade food additives and cleaning substances may also occur. Some foods may be prepared off-site (usually at home) and/or stored and reused from one day to the next.The above stylized typology of the informal food sector in low-and middle-income countries, while based on broad generalizations, brings out important insights for the design, prioritization and implementation of interventions. For example:• Itinerant and/or sporadic food service vendors are likely to present very high food safety risks.At the same time, the significant rate of turnover of these enterprises and intense price competition are likely to make any upgrades in food safety controls problematic. Large-scale interventions will likely be required, for example involving spatial clustering to address environmental conditions and some form of registration to enable any form of regulation. Both operator and consumer education about food safety will be beneficial.• Small slaughterhouse and community market vendors of perishable foods tend also to be associated with high food safety risks. However, their fixed location and greater continuity of action likely makes it easier to implement interventions aimed at enhancing food safety controls. Examples might include systems of inspection and regulation, improvement of environmental conditions, training and certification.• Micro-level food processors likely present a more moderate level of food safety risk, although there may be instances of high risks for some more perishable products. At the same time, interventions directed at this sub-sector will be hindered by the fact that most enterprises are not registered and are geographically dispersed. The motivation for these enterprises to upgrade their food safety controls, especially if they do not interface directly with consumers, is likely to be minimal.• Traditional food retail stores and kiosks selling packaged food will tend to present modest food safety risks that relate mainly to local environmental conditions or poor food storage arrangements. Targeted interventions, for example subsidies for the installation of refrigeration, could be beneficial, although a challenge will be the large number of operators needing to be impacted. The incentives for these enterprises to make any further form of investment in upgraded food safety controls is likely to be limited.These simple distinctions point to sub-sectors of the informal food sector where there is a higher or lower priority for intervention, based on the associated food safety risks, and the scope to undertake such interventionsFood safety risks may stem from contaminated ingredients, environmental conditions and food preparation and hygienic practices 42. New directions for tackling food safety risksgiven the associated motivations to upgrade food safety controls and the capacity to do so. This is summarized in Figure 3.The forgoing discussion has highlighted the importance of breaking down the 'informal sector' into its constituent sub-sectors when considering the nature and level of food safety problems. Thus, if workable solutions that achieve appreciable and sustainable improvements in food safety are to be implemented, it is necessary to diagnose why operators within specific sub-sectors do what they do (and do not do what we would like them to do). In turn, this means we need to recognize their characteristics and operating conditions and tailor interventions to fit them.Table 2 provides a summary of what these various sub-sectors of the informal food sector look like in low-and middle-income countries.For example, municipal regulation of food safety (and associated systems of inspection, enforcement and other forms of incentivization) tend to be easier to implement and more effective where enterprises are more limited in numbers and rates of turnover are relatively low, operate in a fixed location and/or are registered in some way. Micro food processors, small slaughterhouses, informal food service operators and small food kiosks partly fit this characterization (Table 3). Conversely, street food vendors, for example, display few if any of these characteristics, such that municipal regulation is likely to be of limited utility.  We should not be casting the setting for discussions about the need and scope for food safety interventions as some homogeneous rendition of 'developing countries'. There are clearly vast differences among countries; for example, in terms of size, per capita income, administrative capacity, level of urbanization, food consumption patterns and conditions of physical infrastructure. As suggested in Section 3, there are also important differences in the position of the informal sector in national food systems and the likely prominence of informally distributed foods in each country's burden of foodborne disease. While the earlier discussion suggested that most informal sector enterprises currently operate in the dreaded L-L capacity and incentive domain, this may not be entirely correct. For example, in upper middle-income countries, oneThe evidence generally shows that FBD and the incentives for enhancing food safety management capacity vary systematically with the level of economic development 44. New directions for tackling food safety risks might commonly find large numbers of informal food enterprises positioned in or on the borders of the L-H or H-L quadrants. This situation may make it somewhat easier to achieve, within a modest amount of time, a wider shift in the direction of the H-H quadrant.While food safety represents major challenges and opportunities for all countries, the (relative) prominence of issues and their specificity vary significantly among countries. The evidence generally shows that FBD and the incentives for enhancing food safety management capacity vary systematically with the level of economic development. In earlier work (Jaffee et al. 2019), we introduced and applied the concept of a food safety life cycle, tracking changes in the strength of incentives and capacity for safer food and the relative economic burden of FBD across four categories of countries; these more or less conform with the common situations for low, lowermiddle, upper-middle, and high-income countries. The shape of the life cycle is illustrated in Figure 4 and a brief description of the four categories (or stages) follows this.In most low-income countries, where many food safety problems are emerging, both the supply of and demand for safe food remain underdeveloped and traditional concerns about national and household food security remain paramount. Often, the process of diet transformation has barely commenced, or is found only in very isolated urban clusters. The diet predominantly consists of starchy staples that are produced domestically. Much food is produced relatively close to the point of consumption and undergoes limited transformation before reaching households. The predominant FBDs come from microbiological pathogens that result from limited access to clean water and improved sanitation and naturally-occurring toxins, such as mycotoxins. Domestic market drivers or incentives for safer food are often weak. In these settings, food safety controls tend to be rudimentary, with instances of more developed systems tending to be geographically concentrated and focused, for example, on high-income consumers. For higher value exports, oases of strong food safety management capacity, usually built around a limited set of lead firms and designated 'competent authorities', may emerge but these tend to be divorced from domestic systems.  Transitioning stage: Countries entering lower middleincome status have a broader range and steeply accelerated exposure to food safety hazards. For these countries, diets are rapidly transforming beyond starchy staples and towards a wider array of plant and animalsource foods. In addition, more foods are consumed outside of the home. As populations become increasingly urbanized, the distances between food production and consumption tend to increase, and as supply chains elongate, they also tend to involve a growing number of processes and intermediaries. At the farm level, the intensification of production often involves increased use of agricultural chemicals, veterinary drugs and so forth. Food imports, including of perishable foods, often increase. As a result, domestic consumers are exposed to new foodborne hazards of a microbiological, chemical and physical nature.During the transitioning stage, agri-food value chains begin to evolve, although the emergence of the formal sector and more organized value chains tends to be geographically concentrated, predominantly in urban areas. Most domestic markets continue to be served by the informal sector. The modern retail sector gradually emerges, but with a focus on urban markets for packaged processed foods. Overall, food safety controls remain underdeveloped. Where there are centres of enhanced food safety capacity, these predominantly serve export and urban middle-class markets. Very quickly, the domestic regulatory apparatus becomes overwhelmed by the rising range and incidence of foodborne diseases. And, because government administrative systems change slowly, it is common to see existing food safety controls used ineffectively.The slow rate of evolution and development of food safety controls through the transitioning stage reflects the weak incentives for investment across the public and private sectors. The polity is slow to respond to the growing burden of foodborne diseases. This largely reflects the fact that existing systems of surveillance are inadequate, such that the scale and rate of change in the prevalence of foodborne disease is largely unknown.There is little incentive to allocate scarce public resources to address a problem whose impact is largely invisible and predominantly affects the politically weak (for example the poor). Furthermore, market-based incentives are also largely missing, except amongst urban elites. While consumer awareness and concerns about food safety grows (along with increased social media attention) and some consumers are willing to pay extra for food they perceive to be safer, most consumers continue to be value rather than quality focused in making their actual food purchases. This, and the credibility of 'safe food' claims, inhibits private investment in enhanced food safety management systems.The modernizing stage is characterized by the increasingly rapid upgrading of food safety management systems across the public and private sectors. As a result of administrative change and public investment, regulatory systems become more effective at establishing and enforcing minimum food safety standards, and at promoting and facilitating food safety management systems upgrades in the private sector. More effective surveillance systems also cast light on the burden of FBD, helping the problem gain recognition and making the benefits of upgrading food safety management systems more apparent. Simultaneously, the public administration of food safety becomes more efficient and able to respond to the needs and demands of stakeholders. All these changes foster greater trust within the population in the ability of the agri-food system to deliver safe food (Lloyds Register Foundation 2020).The modernizing stage is also characterized by profound and often rapid restructuring of agri-food value chainsThe modernizing stage is also characterized by profound and often rapid restructuring of agri-food value chains. Formal sector enterprises come to dominate, in both urban and rural areas, and the modern retail sector expands and extends into smaller urban centres and rural areas Modern retail comes to play a more dominant role beyond processed packaged foods, including in the fresh produce and fresh and semi-processed animal product sectors. The food service sector begins to emerge and, at later phases of modernization, expands rapidly in urban areas. At the same time, the branding of foods becomes more widespread and even the dominant basis of food marketing and consumer choice. As businesses become better organized, both as individual enterprises and collectively across sectors, they can exert greater pressure on the government to take actions to enhance public food safety management systems 15 .Overall, in the modernizing stage, the significant enhancement of food safety management systems translates into a decline in the burden of FBD. The rate of decline reflects the appropriateness, efficacy and efficiency of the enhancement of food safety controls. At the same time, the direction of this investment will reflect the relative magnitude of market-based and/or political incentives. Everything else being equal, we might expect that the role of market-based incentives will become relatively more important as consumers become more aware of the potential hazards associated with the food they eat. Furthermore, we might expect that the 'voice' of middle and eventually low-income consumers will get louder, through both market and political channels, such that a greater proportion of investment in the enhancement of food safety capacity will be directed at the supply of foods to poorer parts of the population.The post-modern stage relates to high-income mature economies. The storyline there falls outside of the scope of this study.Everything else being equal, we might expect that the role of marketbased incentives will become relatively more important as consumers become more aware of the potential hazards associated with the food they eat 15) They also face market pressure to improve the safety of the products they sell, as consumers become more aware of foodborne diseases and have increased ability and willingness to pay for food they judge to be safer. At the same time, suppliers begin to differentiate their products in the eyes of the consumer based on food safety. Thus, broader application of good agricultural practice (GAP), good manufacturing practice (GMP) and hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) is observed, driven by proactive businesses that now yield the private gains necessary to incentivize innovation in the food safety management systems they employ.How does all of this relate to the present study? The gravity of the informal sector food safety problem differs significantly across the food safety life cycle as does the likely feasibility of various strategies, policy instruments and programs. Upper middle-income countries will tend to have much greater financial and administrative resources and much better physical market conditions to address food safety concerns among informal enterprises. Furthermore, the scope of the problem might be much smaller there because of the more advanced formalization of the food system and, likely, the greater opportunities for people to exit/transition away from informal food vending or processing and enter the wider labour market.The incremental or even accelerated formalization of food enterprises could well be feasible in these settings with transitional costs (and social tensions) being relatively manageable.The situation would seem to be entirely different for countries/settings transitioning from low to lower-middle income status and among the countries traversing the lower middle-income phase of economic development.Here, changing demographics and diets and other factors are potentially adding to the food safety risk profile; while informal sectors remain dominant, formalization is only incipient, and central government, let alone sub-national capacities, for food safety management remain highly underdeveloped. This would seem to be the hotspot where the nexus of problems and constraints trumps prevailing capacity as well as prevailing ideas on what to do. For these countries, a passive approach or simply pursuing 'business as usual' would come at a great cost. Many such countries could be a decade or more away from a situation in which the food system is more substantially formalized and vertically coordinated. For them, a passive (or simply reactionary) approach to unsafe food in the informal sector will likely result in a much higher public health and economic burden of unsafe food for years to come. This, however, is not inevitable and there are opportunities to change course. We return to that theme later in the paper.One more thing when considering the setting for interventions related to food safety in the informal sector: we need to recognize that the locus for regulatory, facilitative or any other action will normally NOT be at national level. Rather, it is at the level of local and especially municipal governments. Typically, only municipal government agencies or locally based departments of national ministries interface with informal enterprises on a regular basis. This suggests that efforts to build the food safety capacity of higher levels of government could have little or no impact on the incentives for informal sector food enterprises to upgrade their food safety controls. It is only when the formal sector begins to predominate, as in some upper middle-income countries, that centralized government capacity becomes the greatest priority 16 .Pulling the themes together, it is evident that there is a need to: (i) combine attention to incentives and capacities; (ii) combine interventions which tackle those dimensions both internally to and externally of the informal enterprises; (iii) prioritize interventions vis-àvis the types of informal enterprises which are high-risk yet also more highly accessible; (iv) differentiate the settings in which problems are arising and opportunities are presenting themselves; and (v) move away from the notion that central agencies can potentially implement a coherent set of interventions vis-à-vis the informal sector.We explore the various elements of this prescription for more effective and sustainable food safety interventions in low-and middle-income countries below.16) That is beyond putting in place the legal instruments necessary to give municipalities the regulatory authority over food safety within their jurisdiction.48. New directions for tackling food safety risksStreet vendor in Hanoi, Vietnam -ILRI/Vu Ngoc Dung 49.n this section, we draw attention to capacity deficits commonly found in domestic food safety control systems in low-and middle-income countries.Before examining the status of food safety capacity in lowand middle-income countries, it is important to recognize the limitations these countries face in their overall public sector governance. The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators (Kaufmann et al. 2010), for example, show how low-income countries especially, but also lower middle-income and upper middle-income countries too, are limited in their ability to design and implement sound policies. One indicator, 'government effectiveness', captures perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies. Out of a possible score of 100%, low-income countries average 15%, lower middle-income countries average 33%, and upper middle-income countries average 46% (Figure 5). On average, high-income countries score 87%. Low-and middle-income countries also have low scores for regulatory quality, control of corruption and the rule of law. Broadly, therefore, it is fair to characterize most low-and middle-income countries as 'weak regulatory states'; countries that have highly constrained abilities to formulate and implement policies and regulations to govern economic activities, including food safety, within their jurisdiction.Undertaking a broad assessment of food safety capacity in low-and middle-income countries is hampered by the lack of a standard set of indicators that can be applied to contexts where there is a paucity of data and food markets are predominantly informal in nature 17 . For some low-and middle-income countries, detailed assessments have been undertaken of public food safety controls, for example using the FAO/WHO Food Control Assessment Tool 18 . However, many of the findings are not conducive to quantification or cross-country comparisons and/ or the results are not in the public domain; the results of such formal assessments are often considered to be politically sensitive and/or there are fears that they will reveal weaknesses in the efficacy of food safety controls to trading partners.The limited assessments of food safety capacity that are available highlight how countries at similar levels of economic development tend to show many common weaknesses and common areas of strength. For example, a series of recent food control assessments carried out by the FAO in lower middle-income countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia found common situations in terms of 19 :• 50. New directions for tackling food safety risks many standards, yet a lack of clarity on their voluntary versus mandatory nature; and (iv) the categorization of food businesses on the basis of size and market orientation (i.e. domestic versus export) rather than on considerations of risk.• Institutional arrangements: (i) Fragmentation of institutional responsibilities among lead agencies/ ministries with often weak coordination due to overlapping mandates or gaps; (ii) weak coordination or delegation of functions between central agencies and those at sub-national level and significant limitations of manpower and other resources at the sub-national level; and (iii) fragmented systems for laboratory testing, which typically do not function as a network and therefore do not yield broader inferences on food safety.• Data to inform priorities and decisions: (i) Research from different disciplines often use different samples and methods, making it difficult to analyse results in an integrated way; (ii) the lack of coordination among agencies inhibits the aggregation of data monitoring food safety hazards or illness outcomes; and (iii) while there are some in-depth studies on specific industries or hazards, research tends not to link up with broader changes in the food system and therefore cannot generally inform forward-looking policy-making.Each of these deficiency dimensions represent especially strong barriers for coherent and effective public action visà-vis the informal sector. For example, consider the lack of coordination and proper delegation between central agencies and those at the sub-national level. This typically translates into situations where municipalities either lack the legal authority to act or lack the requisite human, financial and technical resources and guidance to act effectively. Data concerning food safety hazards and how and where these enter informal food distribution channels tend to be The most recent data suggests appreciable variation in the strength of mechanisms for multisectoral collaboration to respond to food safety emergencies (Figure 6). Some 60% of low-income countries are rated as having 'little or no capacity', and most of the remaining countries in this category having a rating of two. The situation is more varied among lower middle-income countries: while most countries have a rating of two, nearly 20% have a rating of three, which is generally considered to be the threshold for satisfactory capacity. Most upper middleincome countries have at least a satisfactory rating, with more than a third having a rating of four or five.With respect to surveillance systems to detect and monitor foodborne diseases and food contamination, all low-income countries have a rating of 'little or no capacity' (Figure 7). A significant proportion of both lower and upper middle-income countries have a less than satisfactory rating. For example, 75% of lower middle-income countries and 44% of upper middleincome countries have a rating of one or two. A broadly similar pattern is seen about mechanisms for the response and management of food safety emergencies (Figure 8), although with upper middle-income countries exhibiting lower levels of capacity on average than for surveillance systems to detect and monitor foodborne diseases and food contamination.A particular weakness in the already limited data on the food safety capacity status of low-and middle-income countries relates to the informal sector. One data set that is potentially useful in this regard, however, is that provided by the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) framework of the World Organization of Animal Health 22 .21) Other international organizations have developed self-assessment tools to enable countries to assess and benchmark their food safety control capacity. For example, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) developed a tool enabling countries to self-assess using scales rating their strengths and weaknesses in relation to various technical capacities as well as the available funding and human resource cadre for managing food safety (IICA 2008). Multiple countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have applied this tool although the results are not available in the public domain. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has periodically undertaken surveys to gauge country 'quality infrastructure and institutions', including those related to metrology, standardization, certification and testing. Its 2015 report on food safety capacities across 66 countries was mostly based on 'yes/no' evaluations on whether countries had food safety laws, policies and entities to perform certain food safety-related functions (UNIDO 2015).    While the focus of the PVS assessment of countries is on veterinary services, these data are useful because of the importance of these services for the management of food safety with respect to animal-based foods; these are often the riskiest foods and account for a significant share of the FBD burden of foods sold through the informal sector in low-and middle-income countries. Of the 38 critical competences in the PVS framework, six are important for the management of the safety of animal-based foods in the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries.Each is assessed on a five-point scale from one ('little or no capacity') to five ('very high level or capacity or application of best international practice').The results of the PVS assessments of low-and middleincome countries are reviewed in detail in Jaffee et al. (2019), including prominent distinctions among categories of countries and an illustrative mapping of 'capacity gaps' 23 . To illustrate the variation in critical capacities for food safety controls for animal-based foods in low-and middle-income countries, Table 3 provides data for selected countries. Most low and lower middleincome countries are assessed to have inadequate capacities in many of the displayed functions; scores of one and two that are highlighted red and yellow, respectively. Even among low-income countries, however, there are outliers of enhanced capacity, for example in the case 23) This earlier analysis also considered functions which would be primarily important for food safety in the formal sector, including quarantine and border controls, regulation of veterinary drugs, laboratory infrastructure and quality assurance, animal traceability, and certification of animals and products. 54. New directions for tackling food safety risks of Ethiopia and its pertinent operational funding and its oversight of the operations of abattoirs. In contrast, all the upper middle-income countries in Table 3 have attained at least minimally satisfactory capacity in most or all the six core functions, although, again, there are some notable exceptions.The last column in Table 3 draws from the work of Li et al. (2019) that took estimates from FERG and attributed the burden of FBD to animal-based foods. A strong correlation can be observed between the PVS assessment of the six core capacities and the FBD burden. Countries with low or very low capacity have a higher FBD burden in comparison with countries both within and beyond their income group. This implies that under-investment in capacity to manage the safety of animal-based foods in low-and middle-income countries is costly in public health terms 24 .The data discussed above provide a fragmented picture as to the status of food safety capacity in low-and middleincome countries. Further, their focus is very much on centralized capacity within these countries, with little or no consideration of food safety controls at the level of municipalities. This omission is problematic given that it is typically at the local government/municipal level that regulatory and other authorities interface with the informal sector. Thus, if we want to know the prevailing status of capacity to manage food safety within the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries, it is to municipal governments we must look. Unfortunately, however, this is an area where literature is scarce. While there is a quite plentiful body of prior research on municipal government in low-and middle-income countries, this most frequently addresses issues like urban planning, tending only to engage with the informal sector when it comes to planning issues such as location/relocation, provision of basic infrastructure and services (see, for example, Meyer and Auriacombe 2019; Tan and Teaihagh 2020).To gain some insights into the food safety control capacity at the level of municipalities in low-and middle-income countries, we draw upon results of a joint World Bank/ FAO survey of Asian cities conducted in 2019 (reported on in Acharya et al. 2020). This survey covered 170 cities across 21 countries within East, Southeast and South Asia. Survey respondents were drawn from a wide variation of cities in terms of size and national per capita income 25 .24) The correlation between a broader set of PVS capacities and the burden of FBD is mapped out for several dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa in Jaffee et al. (2021).25) The survey sought to characterize and benchmark the overall engagement of cities on food-related matters from primary production through aggregation and distribution, and on through to matters related to consumption, dietary quality and food waste management. City representatives were asked about their perceptions of various food-related challenges and opportunities for their cities, and the mandates available to their cities to act on various issues. They were also asked about the portfolio of policies, programs and regulations which are applied, and the leading and secondary constraints inhibiting these actions and/or their effectiveness.Even among low-income countries, however, there are outliers of enhanced capacity, for example in the case of Ethiopia and its pertinent operational funding and its oversight of the operations of abattoirs 55.The survey found that in most Asian countries, municipal authorities have an important yet often unrecognized role in addressing emerging food safety risks. Often, it is municipal departments that are responsible for the inspection and oversight of wholesale and retail markets and food businesses and vendors, and the reporting of FBD among the urban population. However, these functions are often under-resourced. Municipal food safety units commonly focus their day-to-day efforts on policing the limited pool of larger formal sector food enterprises, and otherwise react to food safety outbreaks and other negative events with a 'firefighting' modus operandi. As argued in Acharya et al. (2020), with growing recognition of the public health and commercial costs of unsafe urban food, municipalities now need to invest more, and more smartly, in food safety capacity, to focus more on preventive rather than reactive measures, and to place as much effort on enabling and facilitating improved food vendor and provider practices as on enforcing regulatory infractions.Over 65% of the respondent cities indicated that unsafe food in the informal sector is either a 'highly significant' or 'moderately significant' problem. This proportion is higher than the concern expressed for unsafe food in the formal sector, which around 50% of the respondent cities recognized to be a problem. With respect to both the formal and informal sectors, however, there appears to be a considerable gap between concern about food safety and practical actions. An illustration of this can be seen in Figure 9, which contrasts the state of action in multiple areas across city size categories. With a few exceptions, only a minority of cities are actively engaged in actions to manage food safety despite having the legal/ administrative mandate to do so. Thus, approximately 40% of cities across all size categories indicated that they are taking significant action to manage food safety overall. With respect to the traditional/informal sectors specifically, the planning of wet markets remains a significant area of focus only for most small cities, while the upgrading of public markets remains a significant activity for less than 40% of medium and larger cities. The licensing of restaurants and micro, small and mediumsized enterprises or zoning of street vendors is undertaken by less than one-third of cities in all three size categories.Respondents were asked about obstacles to their city's deeper engagement on matters related to food, including food safety. Weaknesses in prevailing (national) laws and city mandates appear to be less significant obstacles (Figure 10) than financial and human resource constraints, weaknesses in the pertinent physical infrastructure, the presence of large numbers of unregistered operators, and limited public awareness about or engagement with food safety and other issues.As a result of the weaknesses in food safety regulatory capacity observed in low-and middle-income countries, and especially as regulatory systems interface with the informal sector at the municipal level, the incentives for enterprises to upgrade food safety controls tend to be minimal. For example, Singh et al. (2018)  The over-emphasis on the upgrading of centralized food regulatory systems can have significant and unintended consequences for the informal sector and the food safety controls it employs. Thus, to the extent that regulatory controls impose significant costs on formal sector enterprises, for example where the financial and other costs of non-compliance are significant, these can act to disincentivize informal enterprises from formalizing. This has been observed, for example, in the case of food safety regulation in the Brazilian meat sector (Azevedo and Bankuit 2019). Perversely, therefore, in this context, less onerous food safety rules can be associated with a decline in informality. Also, where fines and/or unofficial payments (in the form of loans, confiscation of goods etc.) are high, and given the larger and formally registered enterprises are more able and willing to pay, such payments can act to enhance the competitiveness of the informal sector vis-à-vis the formal sector.  I n this section, we examine two key approaches to addressing unsafe food in the informal sector. We start with one unfortunately common approach, which aims to solve the problem by driving informal enterprises out of business. This rarely 'works' and, even when it does, it often results in a lowering of food access and affordability for large numbers of urban residents, in turn generating demand for the re-emergence of informal food vendors. We next examine different ways in which interventions have sought to impact the sector, framing these in relation to the concepts laid out in Sections 3 and 4 above.In food safety management, one of the elements of good practice is to have an overarching policy framework, laying out core objectives, operating principles, and institutional responsibilities. This framework may be provided in a national food law and/or through some type of strategic or planning document. With the help of development, trade and other partners, many low-and middle-income countries now have such a framework in place. Yet, most such frameworks devote little or no specific attention to the challenges associated with traditional food distribution channels and the informal enterprises therein. In most low-and middle-income countries, therefore, there is no distinctive vision and/or set of approaches which might be applied to address the specific challenges faced in efforts to boost food safety controls in the informal sector. For many low-and middle-income countries, the implicit (and sometimes even explicitly stated) solution to the 'backwardness' of the informal sector and the food safety risks it presents is to hasten its demise. This is achieved by rendering informal enterprises illegal, evicting businesses from their place of operation, raising their operating costs through harassment and/or confiscation of goods and assets, and demanding bribes (Kamete 2007;Resnick 2017;Resnick et al. 2019;Steel et al. 2014). Further, by neglecting the upkeep of infrastructure, such as markets, necessary for the proper functioning of these enterprises, this inaction has increased the food safety risks these enterprises pose. During the past decade, new laws banning street food trading have been passed in multiple countries (see, for example, Young and Crush 2020). Indeed, some countries have gone so far as to make the purchase of food from informal vendors an offence.A news database maintained by Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) found that, over a three-year period, there were more than 50 cases of significant eviction of street traders across major cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America and ongoing harassment of vendors in other locales (Roever and Skinner 2016). Where bans or evictions are not a common occurrence, restrictive licensing has frequently been applied to 'bring order' to situations which otherwise could not be properly monitored or regulated. A rich literature documents many such cases and the adverse consequences, for informal food enterprises and the (predominantly poor) consumers they serve (see for example, Roever 2014; Brown and Roever 2016;Roever and Skinner 2016;Owuor 2020). This literature is dominated by case studies involving informal street vendors. There is far less systematic analysis of policies and practices with respect to informal market vendors, food processors and/or restaurant operators (exceptions include, for example, Kazembe et al. 2019;Skinner and Watson 2020). It does seem, however, that there is somewhat greater tolerance of these sub-sectors of the informal food sector in many cities of low-and middleincome countries, except where concerted efforts are being made to 'modernize' city business districts or neighbourhoods and/or where hygiene, health or other 'campaigns' have included the targeted removal or relocation of informal food enterprises (see for example Maharaj 2015) 26 .Repressive approaches to root out the informal sector from the cities of low-and middle-income countries are increasingly seen as ineffective at best, and more likely harmful to those who operate food businesses and their families, and to urban food security, especially for the poor (Young and Crush 2019;2020). Forcing informal food enterprises to cease their operations does not suppress the reasons why they emerged and operate in the first place. Thus, such actions often simply drive informal enterprises to relocate and/or present opportunities for new enterprises to emerge and fill the commercial and/ or physical spaces that are created. The overall lesson is that efforts that recognize the value of the informal food sector and provide support for the progressive upgrading of enterprises, including the food safety practices they employ, are likely to be far more successful. Of course, this will not happen overnight; as such, there needs to be both more realistic expectations of the pace of change and rather more patience.An alternative to repressing the informal sector is to promote its gradual formalization, for example though provisions for registration/licensing, application of fees/taxes, development of peer support and monitoring networks, and stepwise application of product standards and process or facility regulations. In 2015, the International Labour Organization embraced formalization efforts through its Recommendation 204 27 . This recommendation emphasizes the need for an appropriate legal and regulatory framework and for the provision of incentives to ease the transition to the formal economy. Simplified registration, and tax assessment and payment systems can reduce the costs of transition, while the incentives to formalize are cast in terms of improved property rights and potentially improved access to infrastructure, business services, education and skill programs, and/or access to public procurement and other markets. There are several critical elements here for improvements in food safety controls.With the literature focusing more on street foods than other types of informal food enterprises, there is relatively little documentation of experience in the formalization of food enterprises. Although not specific to food, a recent 26) Such 'campaigns' have been particularly common following changes in local administrations or in the lead up to major (sports, cultural, diplomatic or other) events (see for example, Steinbrink et al. 2011). 27) https://www.ilo.org/ilc/ILCSessions/previous-sessions/104/texts-adopted/WCMS_377774/lang--en/index.htmreview (OECD 2020) highlights numerous examples from among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other countries of measures to facilitate fairly and effectively the transition of microenterprises from informal to formal status. Particular attention is given to efforts that: reduce the costs of business entry and streamlining business registration; diminish the financial, fiscal and regulatory burdens placed on (newly) registered companies; improve enterprise access to finance and business development services; enable registered companies to become eligible to participate in public procurement; and facilitate ways in which information technology/digitization services can improve the ways that microenterprises operate.Three examples specifically related to food safety in micro and small food businesses are noteworthy. One comes from the United Kingdom. In 2005, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) introduced a 'Safer Food Better Business' (SFBB) program targeting very small food catering, restaurant and take-away operators in London. The approach centred on getting these operators to incrementally adopt the basics of proper hygiene and safer food preparation and storage. Diagrams and videoswere created in multiple languages to illustrate safer practices at the microenterprise level. The operating philosophy was to 'engage and enable' the targeted operators rather than the traditional regulatory approach of 'enact' and 'enforce'. A review of the scheme's initial implementation found that most enterprises adopting the practices also improved their overall business by reducing waste, improving procurement practices etc. Over the years, the SFBB program has continue to evolve in order to cover a broader set of clients and services, including residential care homes, child minders etc. A second and historic example comes from Singapore. In the 1960s, around 40,000 hawkers plied Singapore's streets and riverside selling food and other lowcost goods and services (Henderson 2010;Lee et al. 2020). This activity gave rise to serious food safety and environmental concerns. To tackle this problem, a licensing and inspection scheme was introduced but this failed to address the major problems. The decision was made to move food vendors from the streets and to relocate them into clusters in so-called hawker centres that were built by the government. By the late 1970s, some hawker centres had been built, with an additional 59 constructed by the early 1980s. These centres were located to ensure convenient access and adequate levels of business for the vendors. Most hawker centres combined market stalls and a cooked food section. Vendors were required to comply with public health guidelines. Hawker centre inspectors were deployed to enforce these guidelines. These efforts, however, were less successful than envisaged, leading the government to undertake a public health campaign tied to the hawker centres. Incentives for improved practice were adopted, first through a system of graduated fines tied to violations and later through the introduction of a grading system. Existing and new vendors were subsequently required to complete a hygiene course prior to starting business.By the 1990s, some of the hawker centres were 20 years old and in poor physical condition. In 2001, the government allocated Singapore dollars (SGD) 420 million to undertake infrastructure improvements under the Hawker Centre Upgrading Program. Some centres were completely rebuilt and most acquired central freezers and cleaning areas. By 2014, 109 centres had been upgraded, accommodating some 6,000 vendors. With the development of additional town centres in the city-state, another 20 hawker centres have been or are in the process of being built.Today, hawker centres continue to have loyal local customers and to be well integrated into community life, while some have become significant tourist attractions 28 . Surveys among Singaporeans continue to show that hawker centres are the preferred out-of-home eating site for most consumers. Improvements have occurred over time in vendor hygiene conditions and practices. While in 2006, 77% of the licensees earned an 'A' or 'B' rating, this proportion rose to 99% by the end of 2018. The process of formalizing and upgrading street food vending has been both extended and multi-stage, yet it ultimately has been highly successful.The third example is contemporary. Since 2020, India has been implementing a Scheme for the Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises. This program combines common infrastructure, skills training, advisory services and subsidies to defray certain investments. During its first year of implementation, some 3,500 applications were approved and more than 50 'common incubation centres' were created. This formalization scheme is a small part of a much wider strategy now being 28) Singapore's hawker centres fall under the responsibility of the country's National Environment Authority (NEA). NEA sees its mission as being 'to develop and maintain hawker centres as vibrant, communal spaces, offering a wide variety of affordable food, in a clean and hygienic environment'. Here, the NEA's role covers overseeing stakeholders, developing and implementing policies for the hawker sector, maintaining the infrastructure of centres and developing new centres in line with population growth and shifts. The NEA also manages the assignment of tenancies, setting rents, issuance of licences and public relations. This unified responsibility within a single agency has proven to be effective.62. New directions for tackling food safety risks applied to India to 'engage and enable' a broad range of stakeholders to 'ensure safe and wholesome food for human consumption'.Led by the Food Safety and Standards Authority for India (FSSAI), the 'Eat Right India' program combines attention to food safety and healthy eating. It applies a graded approach to upgrading by different types of enterprises (Nemur et al. 2019). For large food businesses, FSSAI applies a traditional regulatory approach involving regular inspections, product testing and sanctions in the event of non-compliance. Among small and medium enterprises, efforts focus primarily on capacity building and hygiene ratings to promote self-compliance (Kathuria et al. 2020). Among micro and informal businesses, FSSAI applies a cluster approach, working with groups or associations of operators, or those which are co-located to improve common infrastructure, provide training etc. Vis-à-vis the last two categories of players, FSSAI sees its role more as helping to raise practice standards rather than sanction non-compliance. It recognizes the impossibility of applying a traditional regulatory approach to India's nearly 13 million traditional grocers/kiosk operators and an even greater number of community market vendors. While the broad vision and a set of guidelines are provided from central agencies, most of the action is expected to occur, and to be financed, at the state and municipal levels. India's attempt to mainstream informal food vendors and businesses in the country's vision for safer food and healthier diets is progressive and probably represents a unique example within low-and middle-income countries. Other countries have passed distinctive legislation to protect the rights of informal business operators and have come up with a few specific interventions targeting them, but most lack a holistic vision for the support and evolution of this (large) segment of their food systems.Wheat flour for sale in Quelimane Market, Mozambique -ILRI/Stevie Mann 63.A recent delivery of fresh milk at a shop in Majengo, Turbo, outside of Eldoret, Kenya -ILRI/Kabir Dhanji 64. New directions for tackling food safety risks I n this section, we examine the record of interventions which can be construed as addressing either capacity or incentive-related constraints in relation to the informal food sector.As outlined earlier, numerous studies have highlighted how enterprises, and handlers therein, within the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries have low awareness of food safety and predominantly employ poor food handling practices. This research often points to the need for raising awareness on food safety, education and training of food handlers. Training of food handlers is indeed a very common intervention, although the evidence suggests that such an intervention alone rarely achieves sustained changes in behaviour or safer food. Without pairing such interventions with efforts to enhance incentives, the provision of training will, under the best of circumstances, only partially shift an enterprise or vendor from a state of L-L to a state of L-H in Figure 2.There is evidence that, done right, training can enhance the knowledge and awareness of food safety risks and appropriate practices and procedures among food handlers. For example, improvements in food safety knowledge were found in studies by da Cunha et al.(2014) for street food vendors in Santos City, Brazil; Bas et al. (2006) for food handlers in hospitals in Turkey; Al-Shabib et al. (2016) for food handlers at a university in Saudi Arabia; Campbell (2011) for street food vendors in Johannesburg, South Africa; and Choudhury et al. (2011) for street food vendors in Assam, India. Multiple studies have also found that food safety training can positively affect the attitudes of trainees about safe food handling practices. For example, in a study of street food vendors in Haiti, Samapundo et al. (2016) found that training had a significant positive effect on food safety appreciation and a propensity to take actions to manage food safety.Improved knowledge, however, does not always translate into safer food practices that are maintained over time. Some studies find statistically significant changes in behaviour (for a review, see Kwoba et al. 2023), yet these tend to be minor, partial, or time-bound, demonstrating the limitations of training alone 29 . For example, Singh et al. (2016), in a study of street food vendors in India, shows that training resulted in only partial behavioural change and that this was insufficient for vendors to meet minimum food safety standards. In a study of hospital food workers in Turkey (Acikel et al. 2008), self-reported jewellery and watch wearing declined after training but other behaviours went unchanged. Importantly, the frequency of colonies of enteric pathogens growing on the hands of vendors was unchanged after training.Other studies have shown no significant change in the behaviour of food handlers because of training alone. A review of 253 such studies, mostly conducted in low-and middle-income countries, found that in more than half of the cases training resulted in 'no proper translation of knowledge' into attitudes or practices (Zanin et al. 2017). The overall conclusion of this review was that transformative behavioural change was rare. Insfran-Rivarola et al. ( 2020) reach a similar conclusion in their systematic review of documented experience.The unsurprising conclusion is that training is a necessary but insufficient condition for behavioural change among food handlers. However, significant and sustained behavioural change requires much more than providing knowledge and even practical know-how, as well as29) It should be noted that, while several studies have undertaken 'before and after' assessments of knowledge and/or practices of informal food handlers, few examine longer-term sustainability by revisiting the subjects of the interventions at an appreciable time in the future.incentives to make such changes. Insights from the behavioural sciences, including social psychology, marketing and behavioural economics, have potential relevance for designing food safety training programs and other interventions that are effective at changing the behaviour of food handlers (see, for example, Hoffman et al. 2019). Unfortunately, however, interventions directed at enhancing food safety practices in low-and middleincome countries still rarely address both incentives and the capacity to make and sustain enhanced food safety controls.There are many other realms of economic activity in developing countries in which micro or other informal businesses play prominent roles (see Box 2). For some, concerns for human and/or environmental health arise from the knowledge and practices of these entities and the inability of public agencies to effectively monitor their actions and enforce applicable regulations. Useful lessons might be drawn from interventions in these areas for application in the domain of food safety.Box 2. Fostering behavioural changes: insights from other sectors Robinson and Yoshida (2016) provide an overview of selected interventions targeting informal medicine sellers in several African countries. Being more accessible and cheaper than formal providers, these businesses account for a large proportion of the medicines and treatments provided in these countries. Health concerns arise due to the limited knowledge of sellers, their potential sale of fake or poorly manufactured drugs, and the common tendency to provide customers with the drugs or treatments they request even if these may not be appropriate for the patient's condition. As with food safety, there are serious information asymmetries associated with the informal sale of medicines and a need for customers to rely upon personal trust for making purchase and use decisions. In the case of malaria drug sellers in Nigeria, community organizations played a critical role in tracking local area vendors, selecting sellers to serve as trainers and conducting follow-up visits to observe practices and apply social pressure on those not following recommendations. These actions were re-enforced by public awareness campaigns. An evaluation of this intervention found a large positive impact on seller practices, especially with respect to recommendations of the correct dose of antimalarial drugs. In Ghana and Kenya, a different approach sought to change the status of medicine dealers from independent actors to members of a franchising network. This combined training, distribution of better quality-managed products and the branding of drug sales and other treatments.The results were uneven. The social standing of the vendors improved, yet some franchisees continued to stock non-approved drugs and purchase from other wholesalers. Franchise network owners found it difficult to costeffectively monitor the many franchisees. The continued viability of these schemes seemed to depend upon either project grant funding or public subsidies.A second area of experience from other sectors relates to curbing environmental pollution arising from the operations of informal businesses. In low-and middle-income countries, informal sector activity commonly includes pollution-intensive activities such as leather tanning, textile-dyeing, charcoalmaking, metalworking, brickmaking and some forms of food processing. In most cases, a direct regulatory enforcement approach is not feasible due to limited fiscal and technical resources and a popular sentiment favouring economic activity over environmental protection. Blackman (2000) explores the mixed pattern of experience targeting the practices of traditional 66. New directions for tackling food safety risks Given the importance of economic and social incentives to change behaviour, one promising approach to improving food safety in the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries may be to involve consumers and peers in monitoring the behaviour of food handlers. One way to do this is to raise awareness among consumers and empower them to make demands of food handlers, shifting social norms surrounding a given behaviour. Efforts to raise the food safety awareness of consumers are discussed below. Some interventions have combined food handler training, the issuance of certificates to successful trainees and support for peerto-peer monitoring. These studies (some of the better documented studies are summarized in Table 4) show that certificates can be useful in deterring harassment from local regulatory officials, while peer-to-peer monitoring helps to bring some continuity to improved practices. The issuance of training certificates also better enabled participants to receive trading licences from the pertinent authorities. Noteworthy here is that such interventions occurred in the context of local regulatory systems that had at least some engagement with informal food enterprises.In one of the studies cited in 4, the benefits from the intervention were short-lived (Grace et al. 2019). Among butchers in Ibadan, the improved knowledge imparted by the intervention was seemingly not reinforced through subsequent support and/or regulatory action by the municipality, and the butchers themselves did not purchase replacements for the basic equipment provided to them under the project (for example, rubber boots, aprons and carts). The nearby municipal abattoir fell into further disrepair. Five years after the intervention, a larger modern abattoir with set butchery stalls was built through a public-private investment. Yet many of the trained butchers did not move to this new facility because of the higher fees charged and its distance from their traditional customers, even though the environmental conditions were more conducive to better food safety controls 30 .brickmakers in four Mexican cities. Among other things, he finds: (i) that solutions must entail relatively low cost measures on the part of the producers (with higher cost measures typically requiring heavy subsidies to induce adoption); (ii) private sector-led initiatives may prove to be more successful and sustainable as they may better engage the enterprises and attract more public sympathy and other outside support than top-down bureaucratic initiatives; and (iii) enforcement of regulations depends critically on peer monitoring (facilitated by local organizations), together with citizen complaint mechanisms.A third area relates to occupational health and safety (OHS) among micro and small enterprises. Across many countries, the available evidence points to a much higher incidence of accidents and other harmful events among employees of such enterprises, and especially those where physical (i.e. 30) The study documents the subsequent events including the violent clash between officials and the butchers in 2018 when an attempt was made to forcibly shut down their operations in the vicinity of the old abattoir. Tests on meat produced by butchers still operating in that location displayed microbiological quality which was worse than pre-intervention, 10 years earlier.67. In the Assam milk case in Table 4, follow-up interviews and tests done two years after the training had concluded found that the trained farmers had achieved greater growth in production than untrained farmers, and generally were applying better hygienic practices (Lindahl et al. 2018). The training received by the farmers and the improved practices they implemented as a result probably contributed to reductions in the incidence of mastitis among their cows. However, the training did not translate into safer milk: there was no difference between the trained and untrained farmers in terms of the presence of zoonotic pathogens or antimicrobial residues in their milk. Further, the trained farmers actually had a higher incidence of aflatoxin (and that was above legal limits) in their milk. Factors beyond producer and vendor hygiene practices, probably related to environmental conditions and the quality of animal feed, were critical in influencing the microbiological and chemical safety of the milk farmers produced. Thus, even a more comprehensive intervention such as this, which combines efforts to enhance capacity and incentivize improved food safety practices, appears insufficient in that it does not simultaneously address issues in the wider environment and upstream in the value chain.68. New directions for tackling food safety risksThe informal sector, in general and specifically with respect to food, is frequently characterized as unorganized (and even disorganized), reflecting the multitude of small and unregistered enterprises, intense market competition and a rapid rate of enterprise turnover, given high rates of market entry and exit (Darbi et al. 2016). It is increasingly recognized, however, that there is often a significant degree of cooperation between informal enterprises, which can be both explicit or implicit (Young and Crush 2019), and that informal institutions, for example in the form of trust (Humphrey and Schmitz 1996), play a key role in the way the informal sector is organized and operates (Odera 2013). These more general observations regarding the potential for cooperation within the informal sector suggest efforts to engender organization between informal food enterprises may play a role in enhancing food safety controls.In many low-and middle-income countries, operators of informal food enterprises have come together to form associations that vary widely in their organizational structure and modus operandi. For example, Bhowmik (2010) and Hummel (2017) review examples of street vendor associations in numerous countries, most commonly in Latin America but also in parts of Africa and Asia. Many traditional food markets are governed or influenced by market committees or associations which typically set rules that may limit entry, manage the activities of members, provide a mechanism to solve disputes etc. Many of these organizations are funded through a fee paid by members.In the literature, much of the attention is given to how well collective action works to address grievances, especially related to the exclusionary policies and practices of government.  et al. 2016) or less formal systems of self-regulation (see Pena 2020), or as a reaction to actions by government (as in the case of Taiwan as described below). In all cases, however, the government has a role in supporting the legitimacy and role of such associations, recognizing that they not only give a more prominent voice to the needs of informal food enterprises, but also make the job of regulating these enterprises easier.It is increasingly recognized, however, that there is often a significant degree of cooperation between informal enterprises, which can be both explicit or implicit 69.Collective action has also proven to be important among informal enterprises in other sectors. For example, Yang et al. (2018) provide examples suggesting that the creation of cooperatives and associations by informal recyclers (i.e. trash pickers) has proven to be effective. The strengthening of these cooperatives and group networks can facilitate transfer of knowledge regarding proper waste handling and processing, related regulations and laws, environmental protection, sanitation, hygiene and health. Such cooperatives have served to legitimize the work as a public service. In some countries, these cooperatives have combined into larger regional or national movements. In Pune, India, the Solid Waste Collection and Handling Cooperative includes some 1,500 members servicing 200,000 households. In Brazil, Coopamare is one of the most successful cooperatives and the country has one of the largest and best-established national movements of waste pickers. Integration of the informal sector with its formal counterparts could improve waste management while also addressing serious health and livelihood challenges. Progress in this direction has been made in several Latin American countries.In many low-and middle-income countries, traditional markets continue to play a major if not predominant role in the distribution of fresh foods. In many cases, these markets were established many years ago and, where physical buildings have been established, these are often poorly managed and maintained. Poor hygienic conditions, inadequate sanitation measures and improper waste disposal are very common features of these markets. Major cities often have hundreds of these markets, which are managed by the municipality or by sub-contracted entities; private ownership and management is much less common.The upkeep, let alone modernization of traditional markets has been an area of neglect in the municipalities of many low-and middle-income countries. While guidelines were issued for 'healthy traditional markets' some time ago (FAO, 2003;WHO, 2006), and numerous pilot interventions aimed at market upgrades have been implemented, the initial momentum has not been maintained. Few low-and middle-income country governments have adopted a national policy for the upgrading and modernization of traditional markets, provided guidelines for municipalities in the management of such facilities and/or earmarked necessary public resources. As a result, most efforts to upgrade markets are more ad hoc and often based on limited project interventions that target one or a few facilities in individual cities. There are minimal documented lessons learned to further guide such efforts and prevent past mistakes from being repeated.The few examples of concerted efforts to upgrade traditional markets in low-and middle-income countries, however, provide useful case studies of the benefits that are (or are not) forthcoming, including in the management of food safety. One notable example is Indonesia. Since 2007, the Indonesian government has displayed a commitment to improving the functioning and competitiveness of traditional markets. Early upgrades were focused on Jakarta and other Javan cities. In 2015, however, the government issued national technical standards for traditional markets and, from 2016 onwards, has encouraged and partially funded upgrades of markets on other islands. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of, and lessons learned from, these efforts to upgrade traditional markets have not been well-documented.Some researchers contend that these efforts have focused too heavily on infrastructure upgrades and relatively little on the strengthening of market management, the organization of market vendors or ensuring improved quality management functions (Purwanti 2017).Another interesting country case study is China. Around 2000, the Chinese government initiated a drive to modernise agri-food supply and logistics, hoping to eliminate the perceived inefficiencies of the traditional market system. Its Nong Gai Chao program aimed to convert traditional markets into supermarkets in multiple large cities. In turn, the intention was that urban farmers' markets would be closed and support would be provided to leading agro-enterprises to accelerate supermarket development. The implementation of the program, however, proved to be problematic due to the high cost of conversion and the continued preference of consumers for traditional markets. Indeed, many of the converted markets experienced heavy financial losses.In response to these problems, several major cities changed course, essentially refocusing on upgrading the shopping environment of wet markets to emulate the conditions of supermarkets. Yuan et al. (2021) document the experience of this in Nanjing where, between 2007 and 2014, substantial resources were deployed to upgrade 293 traditional markets. Plans laid out in 2017 called for the upgrading of an additional 230 wet markets. In addition to basic infrastructure upgrades, the renovations included central air-conditioning, WiFi hotspots, transaction information screens and systems for food traceability. Since 2011, every new residential building complex has been required to include a traditional market. Recent surveys of consumers still find a gap between the cleanliness and ambient conditions of the upgraded markets and supermarkets, which they otherwise utilize, yet those conditions are generally far better than those prevailing pre-renovation 31 .Recently, the WHO issued updated guidelines for 'healthy traditional markets' highlighting key elements and operating principles as well as a logical sequencing for upgrading initiatives (WHO 2021). Comprehensive programs to upgrade large numbers of traditional markets in most low-and middle-income countries, however, are neither administratively nor financially feasible. Certainly, a national framework and attendant guidelines would be beneficial. However, this does not negate the need for cities to undertake a strategic review of traditional31) In China, the fate of traditional markets became a major news item in the context of COVID-19 and the alleged connections with live animal sales at the Wuhan market. Although most traditional markets do not sell live animals, and especially live wildlife, awareness of the importance of these markets and the need to improve their hygienic and biosecurity conditions has grown, both among policymakers and the population at large. markets to determine if and how they should remain a part of the urban food landscape. This includes identifying markets that require major and most urgent upgrades, and determining which markets need to be rezoned for other purposes, for example given their incompatibility with broader plans for transport, economic development etc. Phased upgrading strategies should go beyond physical infrastructure and utilities (including potable water, sanitation and electricity) to include institutional innovations, vendor training and hygiene certification, and programs to trace back produce and secure supplies from 'safe' sources.Beyond organized traditional markets, informal food enterprises in low-and middle-income countries frequently operate in unorganized conditions, for example by the side of the road, where there is minimal access to utilities and there is little or no segregation of food handling from traffic, human activities etc. Achieving effective food safety controls in such contexts is nearly impossible.The management of such activities is a key challenge for urban planning in many municipalities, especially in the face of rapid urbanization. Efforts to control informal food enterprises have been most prominent in the case of street vendors, including providers of street food and sellers of fresh foods, including fruit and vegetables, meat and fish. In many countries, the economic and cultural role of street food vending is well recognized, together with the role this plays in food security and nutrition (Cardoso et al. 2014). Yet, uncontrolled or unregulated street vending also poses challenges for city residents, workers and officials. Ultimately, a balance is needed between ensuring the rights of individuals to work and earn a livelihood, the preservation of public space for multiple uses and users, and the safeguarding of public health, whether this relates to food safety or a clean physical environment.In many cities of low-and middle-income countries, street food vending is illegal and the primary interactions between vendors and city officials occur through periodic crackdowns or displacements. This undermines the viability of these informal enterprises, with vendors striving to avoid displacement rather than focusing on ways in which to enhance the commercial performance of their businesses, and does little to enhance their food safety controls (Apaasongo et al. 2016;Batreau 2016).Arguably, a better solution is to recognize the legitimacy of informal food vendors and to upgrade their location and organization in a manner that balances the need for urban planning and control and their role as a source of livelihood and food for the poor. Where attempted, this has been implemented in multiple stages and involved official agencies from across multiple sectors including health, environment, urban planning, commerce and public health. As with the earlier example from Singapore, these efforts have typically involved the relocation of street food vendors to dedicated and better managed sites. We illustrate with examples from Taiwan and India.The Taiwanese example comes from Hsinchu City. This involved two cases of registering and relocating streetThe location of the market, on a public space near the traditional street vending sites, enabled the players to retain the social, commercial and cultural networks which had been developed over timeBuying dried fish at Central Retail Market in Tamale, Ghana -ILRI/Jo Cadilhon 72. New directions for tackling food safety risks vendors to publicly built market centres (Weng and Kim 2016). One of these processes was successful, the other not. The successful case involved vendors in and around Zhu Lian Street. In 1999, the Zhu Lian vendors numbered about 500, some of whom were registered while others were simply condoned by government or were totally undocumented. More than half of these vendors were members of the Hsinchu Street Vendors' Union (HSVU), an association formed many years earlier to protect the rights of street vendors and to act as a bridge between the vendors and city government.In the late 1990s, the decision was made to relocate street vendors into a new public market building located nearby.After the city failed to find a private concessionaire, the HSVU took on that role and undertook several investments to enable the market to better serve the needs of the vendors and their customers. A low concession fee helped to ensure the profitability of the venture for the union. Vendors were segmented based upon their willingness to contribute to the market's upgrading and the length of lease they would sign for their booths. Some vendors, instead of signing leases themselves, became sub-leasers to those with longer term leases. Some 250 vendors relocated to the market, offering customers a wide variety of competitively priced products. The location of the market, on a public space near the traditional street vending sites, enabled the players to retain the social, commercial and cultural networks which had been developed over time. To this day, the Zhu Lian market building remains fully occupied and remains a vibrant part of commercial life in Hsinchu City.The less successful case involved relocation from the Guan Dong Open Air Market to an indoor market. As with Zhu Lian, the new market building was located nearby and a participatory process was used in its design. In this case, however, the market was administered by a government agency which had difficulty applying existing laws in a flexible way that best incentivized vendors to relocate. with accompanying infrastructure and services, would seem to have great potential for the upgrading of food safety controls, especially if program implementors are able to establish these hubs near where vendors were formerly operating. Forced relocations to more distant locales have proven to be a more problematic approach elsewhere 32 . Further, there is evidence that, within certified hubs, the knowledge of vendors is enhanced and that they generally comply with guidelines, such that standards of food hygiene are improved (Nemur et al. 2019).As described above, too often initiatives aimed at enhancing the safety of food in informal markets in low-and middle-income countries have focused on the training of food handlers without considering the incentives needed to bring about significant and sustained behavioural change. Where regulatory food safety systems are weak, as is the norm in most informal food market contexts in low-and middle-income countries, enterprises will only be incentivized to enhance their food safety controls if there is market-based pressure to do so. This implies that consumers are aware of the potential risk associated with the foods they buy, are sufficiently concerned about these risks, are willing and able to pay a premium for foods they judge to be safer, and have a reasonably reliable ability to distinguish less from more safe food. Thus, efforts to upgrade the food safety practices of informal food enterprises need to be implemented in contexts where there is established market demand for safer food, or themselves implement efforts to upgrade the practices of food vendors and promote consumed demand for the foods these vendors produce and sell.Engaging consumers constructively in processes to promote improved food safety practices is challenging, 32) Two examples of this come from the mid-sized Indonesian cities of Jogyakarta and Solo (Taylor and Song 2016). In both cases, the initial media attention was quite positive, emphasizing the benefits of removing street vendors from public places. However, most vendors returned to the streets after being relocated to upgraded market sites. While the new sites offered objectively better infrastructure for food preparation and storage, for parking and for sanitation, they failed to attract and retain clientele. The reasons for this included the low connectivity between the markets and pedestrian circulation routes and the markets' low visibility from the street and poor integration with their surroundings. A further example is provided by Grace et al. (2019) that document the relocation of butchers to a modern facility in Nigeria that acted to undermine previous efforts to enhance hygiene practices through training and certification of handlers.74. New directions for tackling food safety risks and this may especially be the case vis-à-vis the informal sector whose comparative advantage often stems from its ability to provide food at a lower cost than formal sector enterprises. As reviewed above, there is minimal evidence that consumers in informal markets are aware of the food safety risks associated with the food they buy and/or are able and willing to pay more for foods they consider to be safer. The challenges with generating and maintaining market incentives for informal food enterprises to upgrade their food safety control are, therefore, all too obvious. To make things worse, even where they appreciate the food safety hazards they face, poor consumers are often reluctant to act on their concerns; for example, by rejecting certain foods or by voicing their concerns, especially in a social market setting where they have longstanding contacts and relations with particular vendors.Even if consumers lack specific information on the hazards in the foods they eat, this does not mean that they cannot or do not employ a range of strategies to reduce their own exposure to food safety hazards. For example, Si et al. (2018) found that some consumers in China avoid fresh produce with a 'too perfect' external appearance and pay attention to the seasonality of production to reduce their exposure to pesticide residues. They then thoroughly wash, boil or cook the produce they buy as a way of reducing their risks further. The same consumers also buy certain higher-priced foods from retail outlets that they trust. Likewise, consumers making purchases in community markets in Vietnam (Wertheim-Heck et al. 2014), Nepal (Thapa et al. 2020) and Kenya (Blackmore et al. 2022) were found to shop strategically, zeroing in on suppliers who they knew personally or cooperatives about which they had reliable information.More formalized approaches to engage and empower consumers vis-à-vis informal food distribution areEven where they appreciate the food safety hazards they face, poor consumers are often reluctant to act on their concernsA market in Son La Province, Vietnam -ILRI/Hung Nguyen 75.uncommon and, where these have taken place, are typically limited to small-scale pilots and/or evaluative trials (for a review, see Hoffman et al. 2019). An exception is the Eat Right India initiative implemented by the FSSAI (see also above), which not only engages formal and informal food enterprises to improve their food safety practices, but also embraces consumers. A broad range of initiatives are being implemented to strengthen the contributions that consumers can make to better food safety outcomes. In 2017, the FSSAI launched an interactive educational on-line portal to convert 'all food purchasers into smart, alert and aware consumers' (FSSAI 2021;Nemur et al. 2020). The portal uses food safety display boards showing practices that food business operators must follow, and provides contacts for consumers to provide feedback, raise queries and make complaints. At the same time, partnership programs are being implemented to promote improved food safety in schools, workplaces, hospitals and houses of worship, and within the railway system.More generally, an increasing number of municipalities in low-and middle-income countries (see, for example, Wang et al. 2023) are applying systems of hygiene ratings to gauge the status of food service outlets, to require that these ratings be displayed for consumers, and to link higher (or lower ratings) with reduced (or increased) regulatory inspection. Such systems have been shown to be effective in incentivizing food business to implement and maintain improved food safety practices, predominantly in high-income countries (see, for example, Jin and Leslie 2003; Wong et al. 2015), although some questions have been raised about their efficacy as a food safety indicator ( Barysheva 2020;Kovacs et al. 2020).India is one low-and middle-income country that has implemented a hygiene rating scheme, working through state governments and involving accredited third-party auditors. The depth of implementation of the FSSAI's hygiene rating scheme, however, remains limited, with only 14,122 food establishments having been certified under the hygiene rating scheme as of March 2022 (FSSAI 2022). It is important to recognize, however, that the hygiene rating scheme is relatively new and remains voluntary. Further, there are some states that have implemented the rating system quite widely, for example Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. In Tamil Nadu, the hygiene rating system has been implemented both among larger food service establishments and small food business operators (FBOs). Among the latter are very small restaurants as well as child and mother care centres. The state of Gujarat has been strongly promoting the hygiene rating system among consumers as a way of generating their demand for this information. To date, some 2,200 establishments have been hygiene rated. To incentivize adoption, entities which get a 'five-star' rating are exempted from mandatory regulatory inspection for a period of two years.Voluntary certification schemes are another market mechanism that provide a potential signal to consumers when a product has been produced and delivered with more rigorous food safety controls.  Otieno and Nyikal 2017). A challenge here is that, in many contexts, it is consumer organizations that are most trusted for the information that they provide. These are weak or absent, however, in most low-and middleincome countries and where they are active their focus is generally not related to consumer protection in informal markets.One area where municipalities in low-and middleincome countries can potentially have significant impacts on food safety is food provision in institutional settings 33 . Such settings usually fall under the direct control of the municipality, such that these institutions can be mandated to act, negating the need for market-based incentives altogether. Also, institutional catering often provides food to vulnerable groups of the population, including younger children, seniors and those who are sick. One example is school restaurants and canteens. However, while an appreciable number of low-and middle-income countries have regulations pertaining to food safety for school meal programs (Global Child Nutrition Foundation 2019), it is evident that food safety standards can be wanting. Indeed, there appears to be minimal consideration of food safety in the design and implementation of school feeding programs in many parts of the world (on Africa, for example, see ncreasingly, food safety is recognized not only as a major public issue, but also of great development significance for low-and middle-income countries.The significant, although inadequate, investments by bilateral and multilateral donors, and by national governments is testament to this. Much of this investment, however, has been misdirected. There is a tendency to see the food safety problem as one of gaps in capacity of national government agencies to identify and diagnose FBD and to regulate the agri-food sector. While important, this is far from the epicentre of the key problem. In most low-and middle-income countries, most food still originates in the informal sector, which remains predominantly beyond the reach of the regulatory focus and capacity of the state.There is some evidence that key international players in the food safety landscape are waking up to this problem, at least in recognizing the continuing role of the informal sector in the supply of food and needing to be tackled if the incidence of FBD is to be reduced. For example, the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022-2030 (WHO 2022), in its Strategic Objective 1.4 on 'strengthen compliance, verification and enforcement', states:'Additionally, traditional food markets and informal street food settings should also be included under the scope of food controls to ensure these settings have adequate hygiene and sanitation infrastructures and measures in place to meet food safety and public health requirements.'  Food safety is an issue of science and technology, but also of behaviour. For this reason, emphasis has been put in this paper on the intersections between incentives and capacity in escaping from the low-level food safety trap seen in the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries. The safety of food is a consequence of the actions taken along food value chains from production through to consumption. Operators, including in the informal sector, must know what they need to do to ensure the food they supply is safe, and have the capacity to do these things, but also to be incentivized to take these actions. Too often, the focus of interventions is on the capacity side of the equation only (for example,38) The WHO has established guidelines for promoting safe and healthy food in traditional markets in Europe (WHO 2021). However, these adopt a very traditional regulatory approach to 'traditional markets', which may be at least partially populated by informal sectors. Thus, there is a major focus on regulation and risk-based inspection and enforcement, as well as improvement of basic infrastructure and the training of food handlers. Arguably, these guidelines are not applicable to the context of low and lower middle-income countries.training of food handlers) and/or the efforts made to enhance incentives miss the informal sector altogether (for example, upgrading of national regulatory systems).Substantive and sustained improvements in food safety within the informal sector will only happen when both incentives and capacity to implement enhanced food safety controls are shifted in tandem.Significant actions needed to improve the safety of food in informal markets lay outside the typical purview of food safety controls and related capacity-building efforts. These include access to potable water and sanitation, business registration, urban planning and infrastructure of public markets. For this reason, efforts to enhance food safety controls in the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries need to be integrated with complimentary areas of action by municipalities, including those targeting food insecurity (Moragues-Faus and J. Battersby 2021). In most cases, the most effective and sustainable interventions will not be dedicated 'food safety' ones, but, rather, multisectoral interventions pursuing multiple goals. This has been the direction of interventions in India, combining attention to better nutrition and improved safety, and linking those agendas with interventions to increase access to improved water and sanitation services (Morse et al. 2020). This approach needs to be adapted and replicated elsewhere. At the municipal level in low-and middle-income countries, this calls for firmly mainstreaming food safety into urban planning and into approaches to deliver improved municipal services. Food safety must become an area of focus not only for the few individuals who happen to have the occupational designation of 'food safety officer', but also for planners and officers working on matters related to transport, land use zoning, commerce, water and sanitation, and overall public health 39 .In discourse on the informal sector in low-and middleincome countries, both in general and with respect to food safety, there is a tendency to treat enterprises as if they are all the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are stark differences, for example, in the size and characteristics of the informal sector between lowincome, lower middle-income and upper middle-income countries. Further, above we distinguish three key subsectors of the informal sector that differ substantively in their structural characteristics, operating conditions and market engagements, and the level of food safety risk they are likely to pose. Ubiquitous solutions to the food safety problems of informal food markets are unlikely to be effective. Rather, there is a need to recognize the distinct challenges and opportunities that distinct sub-sectors of the informal sector present, and to design food safety interventions accordingly. Table 5 provides some examples. While primary attention in the literature has focused on street vendors, perhaps due to their visibility and to the frequent conflicts which occur between them and local authorities, the scope for targeted and effective interventions is probably much stronger vis-à-vis community market vendors and micro/ small-scale food processors that have a fixed location. The upgrading of food safety premises and practices amongst mobile players, including street food vendors, is likely to be very challenging, except where a well-planned and transparent clustering program can be implemented.Recognizing that food safety is as much a behavioural as a scientific and technical issue when it comes to the actions of those who produce, process and handle food, the scale and nature of incentives need to be at the centre of the engagement between (municipal) government and informal sector enterprises. Strict enforcement is unlikely to be effective; indeed, this has been recognized even in the context of the formal sector of industrialized countries, as the case of the UK discussed above illustrates. Rather, an approach of gradual and continuous enhancements in food hygiene practices is more likely to secure the Efforts to enhance food safety controls in the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries need to be integrated with complimentary areas of action by municipalities, including those targeting food insecurity 39) Skinner and Haysom (2016), Crush and Riley (2019) and Giroux et al. 2021 highlight that informal food channels are generally not integrated into urban policy. Also, see the papers in Cabannes and Marocchino (2018) for a broader coverage of ways of integrating food-related matters into urban planning.80. New directions for tackling food safety risks ongoing viability of the informal food sector, which is recognized to be critical for the food security of the urban poor in low-and middle-income countries, and sustained improvements in food safety. Achieving this in practice, however, likely requires a wholesale change in the role and ethos of municipal enforcement. Officials engaged in the inspection of informal food enterprises need to be positioned more as extension officers than the food safety police. Municipalities must see financial penalties as a last resort, rather than a source of muchneeded revenue.Concentrating interventions on individuals is neither likely to be feasible at any reasonable scale nor especially effective in bringing about sustainable changes. Whether the issue is inducing behavioural changes of informal market players, attempting to enforce regulatory provisions, or implementing a process of incremental 81.formalization, it may be essential to mobilize and utilize collective action among groups, associations or clusters of (informal) food market actors. Researchers and practitioners have drawn attention to the merits of collective action in circumstances of potential conflict between informal players and governments, but it seems essential to better engage formal or informal groups of actors in the design and implementation of multisectoral programs and as a means of providing social pressures on players, to compensate for both market failures and the limited reach of governments.When it comes to consumers, there are obvious public health benefits from greater awareness and knowledge of the risks associated with food. Thus, ongoing campaigns aimed at highlighting critical behaviours, on the part of commercial food handlers and consumers themselves, are important. We should not expect, however, dramatic, and sustained changes in the food choices and behaviours of poor consumers, whose main motivation is feeding their family on a minimal income. Rather, such changes will be a slow and gradual process requiring sustained efforts by municipal and national governments. Also, do not expect market-based incentives to play a very significant role in inducing large and sustained changes in the operations of informal food enterprises. Economists argue persuasively that markets fail in many ways when it comes to foodborne health risks, and that regulatory action is almost always needed to secure a minimal level of food safety. Further, historic experiences from today's industrialized countries show how it took actions by governments to deal fundamentally with pervasive poor food handling practices.As noted earlier, the Eat Right India program not only engages formal and informal food enterprises but also embraces consumers. Although not explicitly stated as such, this approach represents a coordinated and multipronged attempt to operationalize the WHO's framework that sees food safety as a 'shared responsibility' between government, consumers and business, and applies this in a way which cuts across both the formal and informal segments of the food system. The mainstreaming of informal food vendors and businesses as part of the country's vision for safer food and healthier diets is progressive, and arguably represents a unique example amongst low-and middle-income countries. Certainly, other countries have passed distinctive legislation to protect the rights of informal business operators and have implemented some specific interventions targeting the informal sector, but most lack a holistic vision for the support and evolution of this critical segment of their food systems. How India's experiment plays out warrants careful attention, especially considering the relatively diverse administrative and operating conditions which are encountered when implementing such programs. In the coming years, we will want to understand better what works and what does not in effectively operationalizing the 'shared responsibility' ethos in markets and channels involving large numbers of small and micro informal enterprises.While it would certainly be desirable for other low-and middle-income countries to adopt an approach that is comparable to that of India, it is likely unrealistic to expect many such countries to have the capacity and/ or political will to implement a national holistic strategy which mainstreams informal food enterprises. Perhaps a more realistic approach is to strengthen the food safety dimensions within the emerging visions being articulated for 'healthy and sustainable cities' to ensure that food safety is mainstreamed within approaches and structures for urban food governance. Further, in so doing, to maximize synergies across multiple public policy objectives and their implementing institutions through urban food policies, programs and investments. In other words, it may be more practical to tackle the factors contributing to unsafe food in the informal sector, not as a trickledown dimension of national food safety strategy, but as one of the prominent inter-connected features of urban food systems in transition. Approached in this way, the solution set might very well start with and/An approach of gradual and continuous enhancements in food hygiene practices is more likely to secure the ongoing viability of the informal food sector, which is recognized to be critical for the food security of the urban poor in low-and middle-income countries, and sustained improvements in food safety 82. New directions for tackling food safety risks or extend beyond traditional 'food safety measures', including multi-purpose infrastructure, institutions and relationships.In some cases, making progress will also require a mindset shift on the part of municipal leaders and technical field and enforcement officers. Some may recognize the role of informal food markets in current livelihoods, but not their contributions to food security, urban resilience and the overall urban economy. Alternatively, they may see all the latter contributions as temporary, to be fulfilled by more modern players and institutions in the near future. Their perspectives of the sector may be primarily negative, with its 'disorganized' nature inconsistent with visions for a more modern city.A multi-stakeholder dialogue may be needed to lay out a more inclusive vision for pursuing a healthy and sustainable urban food system. More fertile soil on which to pursue multisectoral programs which tackle both food safety and other closely related challenges may be among those cities which are already participating in national or interventional networks of cities endeavouring to mainstream food matters into urban planning and governance.To strengthen the food safety dimensions within the emerging visions being articulated for 'healthy and sustainable cities' to ensure that food safety is mainstreamed within approaches and structures for urban food governance approaches, focused on municipal governments and nurturing collective action, however, represents a major challenge for low-and middle-income countries. This is not the predominant approach to the enhancement of food safety controls in these countries, either by national governments or by the bilateral and multilateral donors assisting them. Admittedly, we do see examples of more innovative approaches, such as in India as discussed above, but these remain the exception rather than the rule. Implementing such approaches for many countries will likely be challenging. Municipal governments, especially in low and lower middle-income countries, have limited capacities and tend to implement policies and programs within operational silos, as and when resources are available. Engagement between national and municipal governments also tends to be limited, at best. Guidelines are needed to garner the attention and direct the efforts of municipalities with respect to food safety in this context of their overall responsibilities when it comes to urban planning and management.With respect to the research agenda moving forward, attention needs to focus on piloting and evaluating integrated interventions directed at specific subsectors of the informal sector. Experimentation of individual parts of the jigsaw puzzle, be it training, consumer awareness-raising and assessment of willingness to pay or certification schemes, for example, do little to test the practicability and/or impact of such interventions. This will require that researchers engage with municipal governments and that real on-theground interventions across multiple facets of the food safety problem are implemented. In undertaking such investigations, attention must be given to the ways in which both the incentives and capacity of informal food enterprises are enhanced and likely to be maintained beyond the timeframe of the intervention itself.In sum, the 'new directions' for tackling food safety risks in the informal sector of low-and middle-income countries involves: (i) a different, more localized locus of interventions; (ii) interventions which are multi-sectoral and less commonly dedicated solely to food safety; (iii) efforts to simultaneously address capacity and incentiverelated deficits; (iv) giving greater priority to sub-sets of players who are rarely the primary targets of interventions, and to applications of collective action amongst them; (v) transforming most local regulatory agents into enabling, if not advisory, agents; (vi) differentiating the approach taken and the priorities adopted depending upon core structural and other dimensions of the setting; and (vii) ultimately, searching for ways to operationalize the concept of 'shared responsibility' in the context of the informal and traditional sector.Guidelines are needed to garner the attention and direct the efforts of municipalities with respect to food safety in this context of their overall responsibilities when it comes to urban planning and management84. New directions for tackling food safety risks","tokenCount":"31214"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"07d8415003354aa2a733984640d63d72","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/24b0bb4d-cd54-4a0c-b2a3-c77536290c50/retrieve","id":"-229697737"},"keywords":["Productivity","land","water","irrigation","typology","water scarcity","Ethiopia"],"sieverID":"e56f894c-c537-4b95-a18f-44d6bed7c81e","pagecount":"33","content":"The performance of smallholder irrigation schemes are challenged by several factors: among which water insecurity and low land and water productivity are the main ones. This paper evaluates the on-farm management of nine smallholder irrigation schemes from four regional states in Ethiopia. The schemes are diverse in several aspects and we clustered them into three typologies: Modern, semi-modern and traditional. Indicators such as land productivity (LP), crop water productivity (CWP) were used in evaluating performances. Data input to the target indicators was collected through household survey, field observation, measurements (canal water flow monitoring), literature review and focus group discussion (FGD). The result illustrates apparent variability of LP among schemes; scheme typology and reaches. The lowest value of LP was estimated for the traditional schemes and inter-scheme variation was also notable. For example for onion, the value for LP ranged between 7.13 and 14.55 tonnes/ha. For tomato the range was even wider: 0.9-10.29 tonnes/ha. Meki scheme showed the highest land productivity for onion and tomato with the magnitude of 14.55 and 10.29 tonnes/ha respectively. For irrigated cereals (maize and wheat) LP values showed a similar trend as for vegetables. For example the LP value for maize range between 0.65 and 3.92 tonnes/ha and for wheat the range was narrower (0.6 and 1.56 tonnes/ha). Generally these values are less than the values reported as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regional average suggesting the need to address yield limiting factors in smallholder schemes in Ethiopia. Water productivity by water supplied at field levels (WPf) for cereals was generally on the lower side; it is somewhat on the higher side for vegetables compared to observations from SSA. Schemes and reaches with higher land productivity do not necessarily shows higher WPf. Modern schemes and head irrigators have usually higher land productivity but low water productivity. The opposite holds true for the traditional irrigation and tail irrigators. The traditional schemes and tail irrigator normally suffer from water shortage and most often practicing forced deficit irrigation and also select crops with low water requirement. Hence they save water while trying to minimize impact on the yield through crop selection. Implicitly future direction of improving smallholder irrigation need to acknowledge this reality and put efforts to save water on head irrigators and increase land productivity under traditional and tail irrigators and promote sustainability and equitable share of water in smallholder irrigation. Probably alternatives such as valuation of water and a consumption-based water charge need to be taken into account in efforts to discourage over irrigation and enhance equitable water management by smallholders. It is also important to note that smallholder water management decisions are complex and so are the values for their performance indicators. Therefore, any development efforts dealing with smallholder irrigation need to disentangle and understand this diversity and ensure interventions are context specific.Introduction 12.1. Location and farm characterization 2 2.2. Data identification and acquisition methods 4 2.3. Irrigation typology building and data analysis 5Results and discussion 73.1. Land productivity of major irrigated vegetables and cereals 73.2. Gross and net value of production based on all irrigated crops 11 3.3. Irrigation water productivity for major crops 13 4. Synthesis of key challenges and entry points to addresses issues of on farm irrigation performance 19Tables Table 1: On-farm management features of the study irrigation schemes  Land and water are the two important but scarce resources for agricultural development and globally these resources are shrinking (CPWF 2007). Schultz et al. (2005) suggested that the largest proportion of the required increase in agricultural production would have to be realized from already cultivated lands through intensification (e.g. through irrigation). CPWF ( 2007) suggested that while it is possible, with good management, to treat the symptoms of water scarcity, it is also possible, with bad management, to create water problems in areas of abundance. As such, enhancing productivity of irrigated lands remains one of the key approaches to meet ever increasing demands for food and fibre.In contrast to the popular perception, closing the yield gap is not only about increased infrastructure to enhance water abstraction and delivery. There is ample evidence suggesting the need to integrate practices of soil nutrient replenishment and high yielding varieties into optimum water allocation and change in cropping pattern (Drechsel et al. 2015).In this context, on-farm water management targeted at narrowing-down yield gaps refers to practices that involve optimum and timely water application and those enhancing plant water uptake (Rockström and Barron 2007).Although households on schemes might have many things in common (e.g. governance), decisions made at farm household levels are divergent and could be the potential sources of information to enhance productive uses of water (Lempériere et al. 2014). Farm households make decisions regarding the selection of crops, and the allocation of labour, inputs and capital with due considerations to the constraints they face and the opportunities they want to use. But also the decision is influenced by many exogenous factors. For example in many large scale communal irrigation schemes serving smallholders, there are possibilities that government policy and market circumstances influence the crop choice of farmers (Yami 2013).Smallholder irrigation schemes in Ethiopia are generally characterized by poor on-farm water management practices and hence poor performances (Derib et al. 2011;Van Halsema et al. 2011;Eguavoen et al. 2012). The poor on-farm water management emanates from both excesses and insufficient allocation of resources that enables optimum and timely water supply and also plant water uptake. Putting it differently, inappropriate irrigation scheduling, non-uniform on-farm water distribution, wrong duration of irrigation, etc. are some of the factors contributing to poor on-farm water management. Farmers' lack sound knowledge on on-farm water management, particularly on how much to irrigate and when to irrigate (as they tend to over-irrigate as long as water is available) results in water shortages and conflicts in other parts of the schemes. This also means on-farm water management places direct costs on scheme level performance.Irrigation enables the abstraction of more nutrients from the soil. This needs to be replenished to maintain soil fertility and sustain productivity. Numerous scholars argue that poor soil nutrient replenishment is one of the chief causes of yield gaps [nutrient limited yield gaps (Erkossa et al. 2011;Alemu et al. 2010)]. Contrastingly emerging evidence also suggests that many intensively managed smallholder irrigation schemes in Ethiopia are over applying fertilizer. Implicitly smallholder irrigation systems are trapped in a manifold situation (both for water and nutrient). Smallholder irrigation schemes are acquired, used and managed in various ways (Derib et al. 2011;Awulachew et al. 2005;Eguavoen et al. 2012). Production systems, land and water rights, as well as their accompanying social dynamics, are not homogeneous and subtly influence on-farm management and performance. This calls for better understanding of these between and within diversity through empirical evaluation of indicators (Van Halsema et al. 2011). In the present study, we focus on land and water productivity and their concurrence across reaches and schemes, and the implications for equity and sustainability.The present study is based on nine irrigation schemes located across four regional states of Ethiopia (Figure 1). The study sample schemes were selected using criteria such as representativeness for different scales (large, medium and small) and managed by smallholders; crop types, agro ecology (e.g. altitude range 1500-2725 masl). Salient features of the schemes related to on-farm management are summarized in Table 1. All study schemes are located within a range of 2-30 km from main roads and have diverse soil texture. Clay to clay loam and sand and loamy are major texture of the soils. Onion (Allium cepa L.) tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and pepper (Capsicum annuum) are major high value vegetable crops grown in all the schemes. Staple cereal crops, such as maize (Zea mays) and wheat (Triticum aestivum), are also cultivated in most of the study schemes. Perennial crops are not common with the exception of Gelana and Hare schemes where coffee (Coffea arabica), ensete (Ensete venticosum) and banana (Musa species), respectively, are commonly grown. Meki scheme has the largest mean land holding size followed by Koga.The lowest land holding sizes were recorded for May Nigus and Gelana (Table 1). The common field water application technique is furrow, but from field observation it was apparent that the skill of farmers in deciding the length and depth of furrow is different. In some cases furrow irrigation was recently introduced (e.g. Gelana); therefore farmers lack experience, while in other schemes the practice is well developed (e.g. Meki scheme).  1.Hare weir and diversion have the same source of water (Hare river); however their headworks are different. Hare weir have a permanent diversion weir, while Hare diversion have a temporary diversion structure; hence the two were considered as separate schemes.The number of indictors are developed to assess on farm performance of irrigation (e.g. Molden et al. 1990). The indicators to evaluate on farm performance of irrigated agricultural systems are hence related to yields, economic value of agricultural produce, water consumed per unit of produce, yield per unit of water used, etc. However, indicators of on-farm performance are not necessarily results of the quality of water management, but are also affected by other elements of the production process (Bos 1997). The following performance indicators were selected from literature to answer the questions related to the on-farm management (Bos 1997;Dejen et al. 2012;Van Halsema et al. 2011;Malano and Burton 2001).Land productivity for major crops (land productivity) (tonnes/ha): The yield of major irrigated crops per unit area of land is an important indicator of on-farm management (Bos 1997). Estimating yields is often a difficult exercise during a diagnosis study even if one wants to know them with, say a 20% margin of error (Lempériere et al. 2014). However, there is no better way than collecting the information from the farmers as direct measurement on many schemes has implication for cost. So, for this study, yields were estimated from data of the household survey, and values on productivity were validated with similar studies across regions. Irrigation land productivity indicator can be represented by equation 1 below, where by LP stands for land productivity, Y is yield of the major crop in kg and A is the area under major crop in hectare (ha).Gross value of production (GVP, USD/ha): This is the total annual value of agricultural production received by farmers per unit area of irrigated land (Malano and Burton 2001). The value of agricultural production received by farmers is at the local markets. Here this was determined based on the household survey data and the computation of the GVP can be represented by Eq 2 below: where GVA is gross value of production in USD, and A is area irrigated in ha.Irrigation water physical productivity (IWPP, kg/m 3 ): Enhancing water productivity is a major concern both globally and locally (Haileslassie et al. 2009). Water productivity is particularly important in areas of water scarcity. Excess water supply and wastage are the main causes of low agricultural water productivity. Low water productivity may also result under water shortage conditions if the stress is to the extent to significantly affect yields. For the study schemes, water shortage in some parts and over-supply in others are major observations. It is important to understand the position of different schemes and reaches within schemes, their level of productivity, and benchmark of those performing well (Malano et al. 2004). IWPP can be represented by equation 3 below where IWPP stands for irrigation water physical productivity; Yj stands for yield of crop j and IWJ stands for irrigation water supply to crop j for the given area. Alternatively water lost as evapotranspiration (ET) can be also used to estimate water productivity (eq 4) where WPet stands for water productivity for evapotraspired water, ETj stands for evapotraspired water for crop jIrrigation financial water productivity of major crops (IFWP-USD/m 3 ): A recently emerging concept is the economic water productivity of irrigation schemes. This approach is more relevant in areas where the major purpose of irrigation is more cash income and food security than food self-sufficiency. This is also more relevant in irrigation schemes under multiple cropping systems. It helps to aggregate values of production of different crops and compare different schemes under different cropping system by converting to similar unit. IFWP can be represented by equation 5 below, where IFWP is as defined above, Vj stands for value of crop j and IWJ stands for irrigation water supply to crop j. Irrigation water supply to each of the individual crops was estimated based on consultation with sampled farmers on their irrigation schedules for each crop. The farmers tell the interval of irrigation, duration of application and area under each crop. However, they cannot reasonably tell the rate of application [(Q,(Eq6)].Sampling, irrigation strata and data acquisition Following identification of indicators, a household survey tool, checklists for transect walk and discussion with key informants were developed. The questionnaire covered the size of land holding, major crops, input types and quantities, productivity, irrigation frequencies and length of growing period and farm characteristics. This was also suggested by Van Halsema et al. (2011) for evaluation of on-farm management. Smallholder farmer-managed irrigation schemes are heterogeneous and thus there are arguments that analysis would give better insights if a scheme is disaggregated into reaches; head, mid and tail (Şener et al. 2007). In this study we used this approach to stratify each of the study schemes as head, mid and tail irrigators based on their physical location within the schemes. Approximate boundaries were drawn between these clusters and about 10 plots were randomly selected for each reach (total 30 plots per scheme). The households who own each of the targeted plots were considered as sample for the household interview. The questionnaire was then administered during January-February 2015 targeting 2014 production season.In addition to the household survey, FGD was used to gain in-depth information on specific topics from farmers and extension workers. Groups consisting of 5-10 farmers were considered for the FGD. Bio-physical data related to the on-farm management, on-site determination of soil textures, landholding sizes of sampled farmers, irrigation supply at the farm inlets, and on-farm water distribution uniformity, were also recorded in transect walk. To estimate the sample plot areas GPS was used, and taping was made around the farm plots. For the water supply and on-farm water distribution, we collected data on water flow at the inlet of the plots. Float method was used for discharge at the inlets of the plots. Data on depth and width of the canal for a known canal length was measured repeatedly and then Eq 6 was used to calculate the discharge. The total volumes of water applied to the plots were determined by equation 7.Where D is the depth of water in the canals, W is the width of the canals, L is the length of the canal reach considered to be advanced by the float, T is the time needed by the float to advance the distance L, m is metres and s is seconds.The above equation will provide only a single event value of discharge. Discharges were monitored twice a day to capture fluctuations. Therefore to estimate the total volume of water used for irrigation (TIW) we multiplied the average discharge (Qa) with total number of irrigation events (nr) per season and duration of irrigation event (du) as illustrated in Eq 7 below.TIW=Qa*nr*du (Eq7)Smallholder irrigation schemes in Ethiopia are customarily classified into traditional and modern schemes based on the types of water source or the physical infrastructure for water acquisition, conveyance and distribution or both. (Yami 2013;Dejen et al. 2012). For typology building, a comprehensive and inclusive approach-whereby seven criteria were considered-was followed. Water source, water abstraction method, conveyance, distribution, flow control, on-farm application and institutions were the criteria considered for clustering the schemes as traditional, semi-modern and modern. Several methods of assigning weights for the criteria are proposed. In this study, participatory approach whereby experts involved in data collection process were consulted to assign weight to each indicator on consensus basis was followed. The final results on the rank are presented as mean of all grades on the criteria. While a scheme is classified as modern based on water abstraction structures, it might fail to meet the expectation due to poor water distribution, inequity and low productivity. On the other hand, there are cases where traditional schemes performed better than those classified as modern on mere consideration of headwork. Seven major criteria were identified to determine the typology of schemes. For each of these criteria, a weightage is assigned (out of 10) based on its relative importance. Then the condition of each scheme was evaluated against these criteria and graded on a scale ranging from 0 to 10 by a group of experts (data collectors and other experts) from IWMI. Accordingly irrigation systems of this study are categorized into three namely: modern systems, semi-modern systems and traditional systems. We fixed the weighted grade scales of the schemes and the schemes were classified based on the fixed grades (Table 2).As indicated in Table 2, one scheme came up to be modern, five schemes to be semi-modern and three schemes to be traditional. Figures 2-5 present land productivity of common crops by schemes and by typology. We focused on two clusters of major crops grown in the study schemes: Vegetables (onion and tomato) and cereals (maize and wheat) and also presented the overall land productivity for different crops in terms of their financial value. These crops are not all grown at a specific irrigation scheme, there are some crops commonly grown at one scheme, but not at another. Variation in land productivity for observed crops was apparent. Land productivity for onion ranged between 7.13-14.55 tonnes/ha -1 , while for tomato the range was wider (0.9-10.29 tonnes/ha -1 ). Meki scheme showed the highest land productivity for onion and tomato with the magnitude of 14.55 and 10.29 tonnes/ha -1 respectively (Figure 2 and 3). Both values were very close (onion 13.9 and tomato 11.2 tonnes/ha -1 ) to observations by Van Halsema et al. (2011). Although this value for onion at Meki was on higher side when compared to the national average indicated by Ethiopian Investment Agency (EIA) which is 10.2 tonnes/ha -1 in 2012, and also by Abdissa et al. 10.5 tonnes/ha in 2011.This was lower than SSA and global average. Yields of onion at Megech, May Nigus and Wukro are much lower. The yield of tomato at Meki scheme is 10.29 tonnes/ha -1 , which is higher than the national average for tomato (7.83 tonnes/ha -1 ). However, the yields at May Nigus, Wukro, Waro and Gelana are much lower than the national average. The question is also to understand whether these yields are water, fertilizer or variety limited.As Meki irrigation scheme is located closer to the major market, Addis Ababa, 135 km away, farmers practice intensive irrigation and thus a combination of better agronomic practices, better access to inputs and markets, and climatic factors might explain the reason for higher productivities of Meki scheme. In view of the prevailing overirrigation and unbalanced nutrient application, it is obvious that the irrigation schemes are performing much lower than the regional and global average. The study showed that the very low yield, particularly at Wukro scheme (e.g for tomato), is primarily due to water stresses. There is an intense competition for water at the Wukro scheme between the head and tail users, particularly throughout low river flows. During field visits, it was confirmed that the serious level water stresses had caused significant loss of yields.  Figure 3: Land productivity for tomato across sample study schemes (tonnes/ha).Figure 4 and 5 depict land productivity for maize and wheat respectively. Similar to variability in productivity of vegetables, variations is also observed across schemes for cereals. The recorded values of productivity range between 0.65 and 3.92 tonnes/ha -1 for maize and 0.6 and 1.56 tonnes/ha -1 for wheat. The highest value was recorded at Meki for maize and Koga for wheat. Average maize yield in SSA is about 2 tonnes/ha -1 , and the national average of Ethiopia is also 2 tonnes/ha -1 . Maize productivity at Meki and Megech are almost about twice of the national average. Hence land productivity at Meki scheme is adequately high for most of the crops with the exception of wheat compared to the other schemes as well as the national average yields of these crops.On the other hand, wheat crop productivity is highest at Koga scheme followed by May Nigus. Wheat is the major irrigated crop at Koga due to favourable climate condition and suitable soils. The irrigation schemes cropping pattern is also influenced by the government food self-sufficiency policy during the project design period. The average wheat yield in Ethiopia from 2004 to 2011 was 1.68 tonnes/ha -1 , which significantly lags behind other major producers in Africa such as Kenya and South Africa (FAO 2013). While the yield at Koga is nearly similar to the national average, the yields at the other schemes stand very low (Figure 5). According to CAB (2009), the SSA average land productivity for wheat is also nearly 2 tonnes/ha -1 . The land productivity for wheat at schemes Wukro, Meki and Waro (Figure 5) remained below 1 tonne/ha -1 (less than 50% of the SSA average. The largest productivity obtained in this study at Koga (1.56 tonnes/ha -1 ) is also less than the average for SSA.Generally a number of biophysical and socioeconomic factors exert constraints on crop yields, resulting in yield gaps that can be tackled with adequate agricultural input and water management. In view of a prevailing yield gaps, particularly for vegetables, the result here suggests the potential that irrigated crop can contribute to food and nutritional security in Ethiopia. In addition to the differences in yield gaps between the two clusters of major irrigated crops, farmers' choice to grow cereals or vegetable has implication on land productivity and water productivity.  Cereals (maize and wheat) are more common crops across all schemes. However, except at Koga and to some extent at May Nigus and Wukro schemes, these two crops are mainly grown during the rainy season, and hence little irrigation is used to supplement rainfall. Particularly at Koga scheme wheat is the major irrigated crop during the dry season covering over 80% of the irrigated area. This means the point of land productivity between cereals and vegetables when viewed from water, fertilizer input perspectives has contrasting implication and thus, to be conclusive, further analysis in terms of value added and water productivity is needed.To closely examine variation in land productivity among irrigation typologies land productivity was aggregated by irrigation typology for the two major crops: maize and wheat (Figure 6). Accordingly, the productivity of maize does not show significant variation among typologies unlike for wheat (Figure 6). Productivity is highest for the modern scheme (Koga) followed by semi-modern and traditional typologies. The question is also why the difference for maize productivity among scheme typology is not strong and why it does for wheat? Discussion with experts in the field suggests that this could be also partly due to attention paid by different national and international research institutes. The above observation of land productivity differences across schemes and typologies is just an aggregation to some extent. To see variability within schemes Table 3 shows the average land productivity for different reaches. From Table 3, it can be noted that the yield generally decreases from the head to tail reaches for many of the schemes. Some exceptions also exist where yields in the middle reach are higher than those at the head. These are observed for instance at May Nigus (for onion) and at Gelana (for tomato). These are actually not related to water supplies, but could be accounted for to soil variability. Particularly at Gelana scheme, the head reach is so hilly (>15% slope) and the water quickly runs down the furrows and field channels resulting in serious soil erosion. For many of the study, irrigation schemes trends in yield variations across the reaches as schemes are strongly related to head-middle-tail competitions for water and inequity levels. For instance, assessment of the water delivery system indicated that the competitions for access to water and inequity levels are high at Meki, Wukro and Megech schemes. In each of these schemes, tail users are the most disadvantaged ones in terms of water delivery. It can be noted that at each of these schemes, yields of crops declined from head to tail (Table 3). On the other hand, at Koga and Waro schemes, the water delivery is reasonably equitable across reaches. As such, differences in yield were not remarkable across reaches. Hence, the conclusion is while other factors could contribute to yield differences across reaches, what is observed here is mainly correlated to magnitude of variations in access to water over reaches. This means also addressing yield gap is not only about dealing with inputs as discussed above. Adjusting social components such as equity through proper organizational arrangement is important to consider. While the GVP in USD/ha is more useful as it is related to land which is limiting, total household production in USD can indicate the general economic situation at a scheme. The average gross and net values of household production for each scheme are shown in Figure 7. These are based on incomes from all irrigated crops. It shows that both the gross and net household production values are highest for Meki scheme. Higher values of household production do not necessarily imply higher land productivity of irrigated crops, but could imply larger landholding sizes. Of course the highest values of gross and net household production at Meki scheme are the combined effects of both higher land productivity as was already determined and larger land holding sizes. So this indicator tells the wellbeing (the income) of average households without due consideration of the productivity levels. It is also interesting to note the relative amount of the production costs and the net household incomes. While for all the schemes, the production costs are less than the net incomes, Megech is the exception at which the production costs are higher than the net income. At Megech, farmers use either communal or private diesel engine pumps to pump water from the river. Fuel costs and maintenance costs of pumps, including spare parts, are the major costs of production. This tells that diesel pumping schemes can be justified by growing cash crops, with good market access and adequate technology support services. A recent study by Gebregziabher et al. (2016 in press) suggests that pump based irrigation for below certain irrigable land is not financially remunerative.However, gross and net values of productions per hectare of land is a more important indicator to assist efforts to maximize benefits per unit of land cultivated in multi-crop situation. Obviously land is a limiting resource and thus a closer observation on the gross and net value of production per unit area gives better insight. Figure 8 shows the average net values of production derived from all irrigated crops/ha of land/year. Crop selection and markets play significant role to affect the value of production/ha. The net value of production per hectare is highest for Gelana scheme, probably due to large coffee production in the scheme. Net output per hectare at Meki scheme stands as the second highest. Results indicate that land productivity, values of total household production and net values of production per hectare of land perform adequate and better for Meki scheme, which can be attributed to crop selection, better access to technology and better market access, all of which better financially justify the use of diesel engine pumps. Waro, being a traditional scheme has the third highest net value of production per hectare, better access to water, suitable soils and market access are the factors. The lowest net production values were recorded for Wukro and Megech schemes. For Wukro, the main attributer is water stress and competition for water, while for Megech the main reasons are the operation and maintenance costs of pumps and limited market access.The net output per hectare of land for all irrigated crops (by values of crops at local price) was also then aggregated by typologies in order to enable better and logical comparison (Figure 9). It was observed that semi-modern irrigation schemes had the best net output values per hectre of irrigated land. The reason for better value of production is not straight forward due to the complex nature of the factors affecting the agricultural production system. But the overall lesson here is that modern irrigation does not necessarily imply higher values of production per unit of land or per family. Several factors other than the water supply system, such as crop selection and agronomic practices, agro-climatic condition, soil type and fertility, access to inputs, condition of irrigation water availability, market chain, etc. affect the value of gross and net productivity per household and per unit of land. Hence performance evaluation of irrigated agriculture, particularly at farm levels, needs to combine water management and other equally important elements in the production process. Crop selection plays a major role for the higher value of production in the semimodern schemes in this case. Major crops at the semi-modern irrigation schemes are either high value vegetable crops (Meki, May Nigus and Wukro) or annual crops (coffee or fruits) at Gelana and Hare weir. Wheat being the major irrigated cereal crop and specialized at the modern scheme (Koga), the yield and value of production is by far lower.Crop selection in public irrigation schemes are very often affected by government policies and priorities. For example, when the Koga irrigation scheme was initiated in the early eighties, food self-sufficiency was the apriority and the road to the main market centre was not well developed. Thus in the feasibility study of the scheme wheat and maize constituted the major cropping pattern and farmers start producing what they were advised to produce. The question is whether food self-sufficiency or food security focused irrigation is water productive and sustainable. As part of this work, we asked farmers whether they do irrigation for food security or food self-sufficiency or both. The result illustrates that there is little specialization for food self-sufficiency or cash income. The majority of the farms in the study schemes were focusing on both. The major driver for these variations can be associated with access to market and land holding size. For example in Meki irrigation schemes, which is about 100km from the capital and crossed by a highway connecting the capital and Hawasa, a significant proportion of farmers (63%) responded as cash oriented, whilst in south Wollo where land is fragmented and rain fall is less reliable, significant proportion of farmers (50%) responded that the purpose of irrigation is mainly food self-sufficiency. According to a widely accepted definition from the Food and Agriculture Organization, food security is achieved when \"when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life\". In contrast, food self-sufficiency is defined as being able to meet consumption needs (particularly for staple food crops) from own production rather than by buying or importing. There is a longstanding debate as to whether food selfsufficiency is a useful strategy to achieve food security. Supporters of this proposition argue that relying on the market to meet food needs is a risky strategy because of volatility in food prices and possible interruption in supplies. The opposing view is that it is costly for a household (or country) to focus on food self-sufficiency rather than producing according to its comparative advantage and purchasing some of its food requirements from the market. From the angle of productive water use recent attention is to high value crops such as vegetables and fruits despite a more water demand. Thus in view of conserving water while achieving food security, it is important that government policy support the transition of smallholder irrigation systems to high value crops.Irrigation water is generally limited or mismanaged in all irrigation schemes and water scarcities in the whole scheme or part of a scheme are among the major challenges constraining agricultural production. Hence, management of irrigation water should aim at increasing the yield (production/value) per drop of water (Haileslassie et al. 2009).Water productivity can be determined based on water delivery at different locations within the irrigation system. For instance, water productivity determined at the headwork (head of the scheme), at the tertiary canal offtake or at the field levels in canal irrigation systems will be different due to unavoidable conveyance, distribution and on-farm application water losses (Dejen 2014).Water productivity can also be determined based on water supply or water demand (potential ET). Water productivity based on ET depends basically on climatic factors affecting ET, and it has less significance for water management under water scarcity as it assumes sufficient water supply which is optimum (CPWF 2007). However, water productivity based on water supply can significantly vary from one scheme to another, because it depends on the nature of irrigation water supply, type of water conveyance system, on-farm water management, scheme water use efficiency, etc. Water productivity indicators can give a clue about the entry point for efficient and productive uses of water.In this study, water productivity (WP) was determined based on both water supplies at field level and ET (demand) in USD/m -3 to compare the difference across commodities and schemes (Figures 9 to 10). Comparison of water productivity based on field supply (WPf) with that of water productivity based on evapotranspiration (WPet) provides a useful idea of the on-farm water losses during irrigation of each crop. For instance, for onion (Figure 9), Meki, May Nigus and Megech schemes have WPf values less than WPet values for all crops, showing that the field water application is higher than the ET demands. On the other hand, at Wukro scheme WPf is higher than WPet which indicates field water stress. The same is true for tomato crop at Wukro, Gelena and Waro schemes (Figure 10). For wheat (Figure 11), the WPf is higher than the WPet which indicates field water supply lower than ET demand. Similarly for maize (Figure 12), the WPf is less than WPet at Hare weir, Hare diversion and Gelana schemes. Generally at Wukro and Gelana schemes, and to some extent Waro and Hare (weir and diversion), farmers practice deficit on-farm supply. Particularly Wukro and Gelana schemes have significant head-tail reach water delivery inequity and competition for water, with head users are significantly over-supplied, while tails are generally under-supplied. The irrigation practice at these schemes particularly in the middle and tail reaches is generally deficit irrigation. There is generally large variability in the WP values across schemes.The WP values reported here are in many case lower than the global values and but there are also cases that complement the findings of the present study (Maurya et al. 2014). While WPf for cereals at the schemes is generally on the lower side, it is somewhat on the higher side for vegetables. For instance, the average WP of tomato is reported to vary between 0.20 and 0.31 USD/m 3 at two irrigation schemes (Tono and Dorongo) in Ghana (Mdemu 2008). WPf for tomato in this study varied between USD 0.23/m 3 and USD 1.12/ m 3 .    For the common cultivated crops across the study schemes (maize and wheat), water productivity (WPf) was aggregated by typology (Figure 13 and 14). Similar to the value added by irrigation, water productivity decreased from modern to traditional typologies for wheat; while it increased from modern to traditional typologies for maize. The WP values for semi-modern and traditional schemes for maize are almost the same and higher than that for modern (Koga). The comparatively low WP for maize at Koga is probably due to excess on-farm water delivery and less specialization of maize at the scheme. The WP values obtained for the two cereals are low even compared to SSA. Molden et al. (2007) state that typical water productivity figures for wheat is 0.5 kg/m -3 in low-performing irrigation systems and 0.2 kg/ m 3 in rain-fed SSA. The WPf values obtained in this study for wheat varied from 0.11 to 0.17 kg/m -3 , which is by far low. Improving land productivity through intensification of water saving strategies would help to improve water productivity.Figure 13: Physical water productivity in kg m -3 field supply by typology.Figure 14: Economic water productivity USD m -3 of field supply by typology.In addition to WP for individual crops, the total WP at headwork was aggregated by typology (Figure 15). The WP is higher for the traditional typology and is lower for the modern typology. These can be mainly attributed to the supply of irrigation water (non-reliability of the water diversion, control and distribution). The temporary structures for water diversion and distribution do not allow adequate and equitable water distribution, which occasionally cause shortages particularly during low flow in the rivers; as such water is generally in deficit at these schemes. Deficit irrigation with acceptable yield reductions in these schemes combined with lower water diversion resulted in higher total water productivity in the traditional typology. Lower water productivity at Koga (modern typology) is mainly due to excess water diversion at the headwork and the main irrigated crop type. The relative irrigation supply (RIS) which is the ratio of diverted to required flow at Koga is 1.9 and 3.4 for seasons I and II respectively, and the type of crop grown (wheat) which has lower value compared to vegetables. Note that land productivity is relatively low for traditional irrigation schemes, while having high total WP. Hence, enhancing land productivity can result in higher WP; however it cannot ensure it due to several other factors. One of the factors that can significantly affect the productivity of the field supplied water is the relative location of the fields in the scheme; head, middle, tail (Molden, Gates. (1990). This is due to the fact that the location of the farmers' fields will determine their level of access to water and efficiency of water use and hence agricultural production, particularly in gravity irrigation systems. The water supplied to sample fields in the head, middle and tail reaches of the schemes along with the total values of agricultural productions needs to be determined for this. The total values of production for sample farmers were collected with the household surveys. The water supplied to sample fields in the head, middle and tail reaches were determined by combining household surveys on farmers' irrigation practices and field measurements. The reach water productivity for each scheme is shown in Table 4. There were apparent variations in WP across reaches. Variations in water productivity across reaches does not only relate to the general consensus that tail users are more efficient in their water use. While tail users are more efficient, the reductions in yields due to water shortages play an equal role in WP values. Tail users can be more water productive provided the water stresses are within acceptable limits, and sometimes farmers have smart ways of dealing with water scarcity, for instance through crop selection. Tail farmers at May Nigus scheme, for instance, grow crops that are less water intensive (mainly legumes). These crops can be grown with less volume of water compared to vegetables (onion or tomato); however, their financial outputs are lower. For the individual schemes, reach water productivity (Table 4), tail farmers are generally more water productive (WPf) than head users. The exception being at Megech scheme where head productivity is higher than tail. This is reasonable because in this scheme water is pumped from a river and there are occasions where the river flow cannot reach the tails. In order to create temporary water storages, groups of farmers block the river flow using sand bags and materials like soil and stones there by creating a pool from which they pump. This ultimately causes critical water stresses to the tail users, drying up the river during low flows, and leaving them at a risk of losing their harvest. WP at Wukro is highest for the middle reaches, primarily due to serious water stress in the tail parts when the river flow is totally stopped by head users, which causes series yield losses at the tail. The average total field water productivity (WPf) (value of irrigation water) of all the schemes were then determined for each reach (Figure 16). The average WPf increased from the head to the tail reaches. This was also observed from the water productivity of individual schemes. Most of the schemes under consideration have significant excess diversions at their headworks and the losses are in the distribution system and mainly in the head and middle reach fields. Although tail reaches have the lowest total value of household production, they produce it with much less water. Regardless of large inequity levels and water stresses at the tail ends, farmers are able to cope by using different approaches of their own, such as crop selection, better on-farm water management, and hence higher water productivity as discussed earlier.Water productivity in SSA and in some parts of Asia is generally low compared to other regions. Kadigi et al. (2012) state that WP for water consumed in agriculture ranges from USD 0.05 to 0.90/m -3 , with the majority of observations in the range of USD 0.10 to 0.20/m -3 . Savoskul et al. (2003) found that water productivity calculated on the basis of three major crops (cotton, wheat, rice) in Syr Darya in Central Asia is 0.11 USD/m -3 . Average total economic water productivity for SSA ranges between 0.1 and 0.3 USD/m -3 (Demeku et al. 2011). The total WP values obtained for the schemes under consideration are comparable. The question then is whether higher WP implies higher farmer benefits, short-term economic progress and equity?Higher water productivity does not ensure higher economic return for farmers, at least in the short term. This is the case as evidenced by analysis of land and water productivities for traditional schemes and tail irrigators. Higher land productivity does not ensure higher water productivity (modern irrigation) and vice versa (traditional irrigation). Smallholder farmers are more interested in their economic return from their plot of irrigated land, and higher yield per drop of water is not of big interest to them. There is no incentive for fairness for saving irrigation water, and irrigation water prices are not well set or does not exist in many cases. Kumar and van Dam (2010) state that the main considerations involved in analysing WP in the west are in reducing the amount of water required to produce a unit weight of crop, but this is not the concern in many developing economies like in Asia, where land use intensity is already very high in many regions. Higher WP would be more important in the schemes considered in this study if there were appropriate irrigation water pricing in place and water costs were set so as to discourage excess deliveries. 4. Synthesis of key challenges and entry points to addresses issues of on farm irrigation performanceIn the preceding section empirical values illustrating on farm irrigation performances based on the most commonly used indicators such as land productivity; water productivity and gross value of output across three scale in interactive way were presented. Based on these findings the following sections will summarize key challenges and opportunities to address them.i. Low land productivity: As observed from empirical evidences presented earlier land productivity of crops is generally low. There is greater variability among schemes and within schemes as displayed by analysis at schemes level and by irrigation reaches. The lowest value of land productivity is estimated for the traditional schemes. Achievable yield reported by the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR 2004) for many varieties of maize, for example, is 200% higher than the values recorded here with and among scheme variation. The gaps for vegetables are even greater. This indicates the potential of irrigation commodities to contribute to food and nutritional security if the major yield limiting factors are properly addressed. Major contributors to yield gap, in addition to the over-application of water (in modern and many semi-modern typologies) and under-application (in traditional typologies and tail reaches), involve a lack of adequate knowledge of agricultural extension and limited access to improved seeds (DCG 2009;IFPRI 2010) and the injudicious management of fertilizer.Suitable methods of irrigation, direction of furrows (irrigation), amount of application, duration of application, irrigation scheduling, uniform on-farm water distribution techniques, etc. are some of the skill gaps identified in discussions with farmers. This is basically what drives over-application of water in many cases and this is accounted for the dominant poor on-farm water management leading to non-uniformity of distribution along farms, water losses and under supplies. Farmers manage their irrigation water by themselves in many cases and they get very limited practical training on on-farm irrigation. So, adequate training on on-farm irrigation water management practices, including crop based duration of irrigation, field application rates, irrigation scheduling, on-farm water application methods, method of on-farm uniform water distribution, etc. are crucial for more efficient and sustainable irrigation management. The next important thing to consider is factors that help to convert the depleted water to beneficial outputs. These involve better quality seed, fertilizer and proper pest and disease control. The seed supply system in Ethiopia is generally not well developed and in some cases it lacks transparency. In almost all studied irrigation schemes, farmers indicated that limited supply of seeds particularly for vegetables is seen as a major concern limiting productivity of farmers. Formal, transparent and wellestablished seed supply system can significantly improve farmer outputs.Nutrient depletion is one of the major attributors to low productivity in Ethiopia, and nutrient limited productivity gaps are well established. As such, the fertilizer input rate is a major aspect of on-farm management. Data on the rates of fertilizer use were collected from household surveys and focus group discussions. Average fertilizer inputs at each scheme for different crops was determined. Fertilizer inputs for Meki and May Nigus schemes are significantly higher than at any other scheme for all the major crops and also well above the blanket recommendation rate. A simple partial factor productivity (PFP) and agronomic efficiencies analysis indicate that fertilizer application is in transition for Ethiopian smallholder farmers: i.e. in contrast to widely recognized low fertilizer inputs (Haileslassie et al. 2005;Haileslassie et al. 2006), high rate of application is emerging in intensively managed irrigation systems such as Meki. Drechsel et al. (2015) indicated the typical values of PFP for N is 40-90 and for P is 75-200 for cereals. Lower values suggest less responsive soils or over application of nutrients, while higher values suggest nutrient supply is limiting agricultural productivity. Accordingly, our estimated values of the PFP for maize for both N and P were lower than the typical values for modern and semi-modern typologies, showing over application of fertilizers. However, for the traditional schemes, the PFP values for both N and P are higher and lie within the typical ranges of PFP. This suggests that the yield at the traditional schemes could be limited by nutrient availability. On the other hand, for wheat the PFP for both N and P are lower than the typical ranges of PFP for all the schemes. Hence, either fertilizer is over applied or the soils are less responsive to nutrient supply for wheat. Although these arguments need further analysis, it is important to understand that the trend has both environmental and economic implications if not well addressed and the research system should pursue context-specific water and fertilizer optimization.ii.Low physical and financial water productivity: Improving water productivity of irrigation scheme is one of the Ethiopian government strategic directions in relation to smallholder farmers. In principle, higher water productivity agriculture means higher outputs per unit of water input. As illustrated in this work this does not always hold true. Schemes for higher land productivity does not necessarily shows higher WP. The situation as indicated in this report is contrasting. Modern schemes and head irrigators have usually higher land productivity, but low water productivity. The opposite holds true for the traditional irrigation and tail irrigators. The reason for this is that modern schemes and head irrigators usually over irrigate and thus elevate the denominator of the WP. The traditional schemes and tail irrigator normally suffer from water shortages and most often practicing deficit irrigation and also select crops with low water requirement. Hence they save water while trying to minimize the impact on the yield through crop selection. Partly this could be accounted for by the fact that water is a free commodity and farmers do not consider water as an economic good as they do not pay for it. This also means future direction of improving smallholder irrigation needs to acknowledge this reality and make efforts to save water on head irrigators and increase land productivity under traditional and tail irrigators as the road to sustainability and equitable water allocation.iii. Head-tail water access disparity: Inequity in water distribution across reaches is a serious challenge in almost all the schemes except at Koga (modern typology scheme). In semi-modern and traditional schemes head reaches are generally over supplied, while tails are undersupplied. It is evident that the water productivity in the head reaches is lower in many cases due to excess application. Tail irrigators are observed to have higher water productivity, although their total return is lower as indicated earlier. Water stresses at the tails in the schemes considered are serious, often causing major loss of production. There are often differences in crop selection between the head and tail irrigators. This urges aggressive intervention in the areas of optimum water application; the need to strengthen the governance including irrigation water user association and also support in maintenance of irrigation schemes. A better insight in the water cost and recovery can help with determining charges.","tokenCount":"8320"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2c310b791d07f40b5aae514fe88f0261","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3f8602b0-5339-45fc-bdb5-b5613c1f4ffe/retrieve","id":"1198490581"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"123a29a0-5631-4f13-bc23-59d62c1d27bd","pagecount":"27","content":"Reproduction of LUCID Working Papers for non-commercial purposes is encouraged. Working papers may be quoted or reproduced free of charge provided the source is acknowledged and cited.Most rural households in semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa practice mixed crop-livestock farming (Kristjanson and Thornton 2004). Under the subsistent mode of economy with abundant land, crop-livestock farmers have survived on consuming direct produces from crops and livestock, while balancing allocation of natural resources for producing them. In areas where infrastructural development and the introduction of education have transformed livelihoods from a subsistent mode to one more involved in monetary economy, need to earn cash has tremendously increased from both crop-livestock and off-farm activities, as lifestyle changes. Such development is often accompanied by increase in scarcity of land for extensive grazing, as population increases and more land is allocated exclusively for profitable crop production. This process of rapid intensification does not take into account the social and environmental considerations needed to ensure long-term sustainability of these new means of production. There is need to ensure sustainable intensification 1 and economically profitable integration of crop-livestock farming to meet welfare and environmental goals for people in such a system. But would crop-livestock diversification patterns always evolve in economically profitable and in environmentally sustainable ways under rapidly changing socioeconomic circumstances? At meso-level studies, it has been suggested that population pressure would promote automatic technological intensification of crop-livestock systems (Bourn and Wint 1994). On the other hand, real intensification processes could take more complicated and diversified ways at micro-levels, often far from autonomous, depending on initial agroecological and socioeconomic conditions, as well as on policy, institutional and technological options available at a particular location (Williams et al., 1999).One of the factors that make crop-livestock evolution pathways unpredictable is that different types of crops and animals may play distinctive functions in dynamic processes, while African farmers practicing mixed farming on their crop-livestock portfolios (Williams et. al.,1999). For example, subsistent, exotic and commercial varieties have different economic returns and are attached to different management incentives for intensification. Different types of varieties may, furthermore, interact in complicated ways. If successfully integrated, crops and livestock would not only contribute to higher productivity and income through mutually providing inputs (manure/crop residues) but also better environmental management. Some combinations of economically high-return crops and animals may be welfare enhancing, but if practiced extensively without integration, such combinations might be environmentally unsustainable. In such a case, some interventions to ensure both welfare and environmental goals are required.Very few empirical studies to investigate socio-economic aspects of crop-livestock diversification patterns have been carried out. An attempt to present an intensive case study based on household-level survey data collected through complete enumeration of a community in Rift Valley of Kenya which has been experiencing the following phenomena is made:[1] perceived needs for alternative income sources due to population increase/education [2] perceived serious environmental degradation due to overgrazing of indigenous animals [3] introduction of new technologies (fruits, exotic, crossbreeds cattle, dairy goats) This case study provides empirical evidences on conditions suitable for promoting sustainable crop-livestock production to meet both welfare and environmental goals. This Working Paper addresses the following research questions:(1) do different crop/livestock types have different levels of economic returns, intensification, and management incentives? (2) what are the dominant crop-livestock diversification patterns from an integrated perspective?(3) what are the implications of these crop-livestock diversification patterns on welfare (income) and environment (through better management)? ( 4) what policy interventions can make crop-livestock diversification patterns profitable and sustainable?Section 2 explains the backgrounds of the study. Section 3 describes differences in economic returns, intensification level and management incentives attached to different crop/animal types, and examines correlations between different activities. Section 4 identifies the dominant crop-livestock diversification patterns and investigates their implications on welfare and environment. Section 5 summarizes the findings and makes some suggestions for policy interventions.Section 2.1 defines the agroecological, socio-economic and institutional conditions of the study area. Section 2.2 describes the perceived needs for crop-livestock intensification and environmental concerns and describes drivers of development and introduction of new technologies while Section 2.3 outlines the research methods.Kerio Valley is in Keiyo district along the Basin of Kerio River which flows northwards to Lake Turkana, in Rift Valley Province (see Figure 1). The valley is spanned by three agro-ecological zones. The highlands (>2,500-3,000 m) lies in the west, the escarpment (1,300-2,500 m) on the intermediate, and the lowland, or the Valley floor in the east (1,000-1,300 m) (Muchemi et al., 2002;Iiyama 2006;SARDEP 2002).The Keiyo District highlands have always been exposed to market opportunities due to proximity to Eldoret in Uasin Gishu, which is part of what used to be called the \"white highlands\" and where Keiyo people used to seek employment on the white settlers\" farms until the 1960s-1970s.In contrast, before the early 1970s, it was considered unviable to do farming in the valley due to lack of permanent sources of water and cattle rustling with neighbouring communities. People had initially settled sparsely along springs or streams (Mizutani et al., 2005). People slowly started to settle in the Valley floor, and especially after construction of the tarmac road in 1985.Institutions, such as churches and non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) stimulated development initiatives, by training villagers on management skills and providing capital and infrastructure such as water tank projects.The ILRI-JICA conducted a survey on randomly selected households from three agroecological zones between December 2004 and January 2005 in Rokocho sub-Location (Mizitani et al., 2005). When designing the survey for the 2006 research, the Rokocho valley community was visited again for a more intensive study.Rokocho sub-Location is in Kibargoi Location, Soy Division, Keiyo District. It is at an altitude of 1,000-1,600 m (SARDEP, 2000b) and receives an average of 700-1000 mm of rainfall. It is warm for most part of the year with temperatures rising to between 22 and 31˚C. The Iten-Kabarnet tarmac road that traverses the sub-Location in a North-South direction is fed by several small roads. Other infrastructure such as Rokocho Primary School, the KVDA (Kerio Valley Development Agency) branch and the Cheptebo Africa Inland Church (AIC) conference centre. Most springs in the escarpment supply water for domestic and livestock use. There is need for tap water to reduce the long hours the residents have to queue to get water during dry seasons.Land tenure system in Rokocho Valley up to the highlands is customary. Land principally belongs to each of the sub-clans. Clan land is sub-divided into extended families by the clan elders, and family land further sub-divided into parcels to nuclear families. Land in the highlands from the escarpment, to the upper part of the valley has long been sub-divided into extended families since the 1930s. while that in the lower parts of the valley started being sub-divided into families in1978, after more people started migrating from the highlands and the escarpments to settle in the Valley.Traditionally, land is owned by males who also only inherit land and other property. Land sub-division has resulted in individual family members having very small pieces of land. This has led to families determining age at which individuals may inherit land. Those that are not likely to inherit land are expected to buy land elsewhere.Even under the customary land tenure system, individual rights to ownership of plots have been well recognized. Purchase and rental contracts of plots are common. While individual rights to land and boundaries have been well recognized, land could be used as open grazing areas for the whole clan members, it is only marked with posts or stones. Overlapping of the tenure was not a big problem when there was low population and fewer households were engaged in intensive agriculture. But as population increased, sub-divided plots became smaller and smaller. Educational needs necessitated sale of livestock and cultivation of cash crops. Fencing started in 1978 and became more obvious after the 1990s leading to reduced communal grazing. Owners of fenced plots demand high compensation for damage caused by livestock straying from neighbours plots. This has discouraged households from keeping large herds of indigenous livestock, and shift to intensive livestock management with exotic animals.The customary land tenure system in Rokocho has not inhibited individualization /privatization of land. However, livelihood changes have led to fencing of open areas, which may lead to conflicts between intensive farming and extensive grazing.A number of families produce crops and keep livestock as a way of diversifying their income sources. It has been observed in other communities that farmers who diversify their means of production have better income than those who do not (Olson et. al., 2004). This study analyzed the causes of maintaining livestock for diversification in support of livelihoods in Rokocho.People started to settle in the Valley after mid-1970 after cattle rusting and wild animals had been eradicated. Infrastructural and educational development in the 1980s accelerated migration to Rokocho and population growth. More development came especially after construction of the tarmac road in 1985. The trend was enhanced by construction of the AIC pipeline in 1986, construction of the community water tank by SARDEP in late 1990s and establishment of training centres by the two agencies and the World Vision.The pastoralist way of life depended on extensive grazing of large number of indigenous animals, supplemented by production of drought-resistant crops. The soils in the lower parts of the Valley were seriously eroded and barren due to overgrazing. But as population grew and sub-divided family land became small, it became necessary to shift grazing land to grow crops. Infrastructural and educational developments gradually transformed the lifestyle of the inhabitants, and substantially increased cash demand to meet educational needs. It became increasingly necessary for the households to adopt alternative farm activities to yield higher economic values from smaller land both for crops and livestock, without environmental costs.Development agencies tried to introduce fruits to meet both welfare (to augment income) and environmental (to promote tree planting) goals. Exotic animals are recommended and introduced by development institutions because they have higher production per animal, requiring less area for grazing, thus reducing over-grazing. Fruits were introduced by AIC and initially adopted by few farmers in Kamelgoi after 1986. SARDEP and AIC trained farmers in horticulture production after 1996. Dairy goats were introduced by AIC after 2000.A questionnaire designed to capture variables in aspects of livelihoods diversification by households was administered on all the 177 households in the three villages that make the Rokocho Valley community (high-return or subsistent crop and livestock activities, as well as aspects of intensification). For livestock, information was collected on number, types, gross income, cost of animals, how they were acquired and where they are grazed (Iiyama 2006).Section 3.1 shows livelihoods portfolios of the surveyed households while Sections 3.2 and 3.3 describe differences in economic returns, intensification levels, and management incentives per crop/ livestock type. Section 3.4 examines correlations between areas planted with certain types of crops and ownership of particular type of livestock.The main activities as sources of income in Rokocho sub-Location are off-farm, crop production, and livestock farming. An attempt is made to arrange households from higher total gross income and categorize them into the income quintile groups (Table 3.1.1). Within Rokocho sub-location, income levels are substantially different between households in Rokocho sub-Location. Higher income groups derive substantially higher income from all of the off-farm, crop and livestock activities. Contributions of each activity to the total gross income are not significantly different between the groups, except crop income. Off-farm income accounts for 47-59%, crop income for 11-33% and livestock for 15-25% on average. In Kerio River Basin, households plant various kinds of crops categorized as follows:(a) Drought-resistant crops such as indigenous varieties such as sorghum, millet, and cassava. (b) Staple crops such as maize, beans, cowpeas, green grams, groundnuts.(c) Fruits such as mangoes, pawpaws, citrus, bananas, avocadoes. (d) Commercial crops such as wheat, potatoes, carrots, mostly grown on plots in highlands.Economic returns and intensification levels by crop types are compared. In processing the data, it turned out difficult to compare yields in weights between each crop variety, because the units of measurement are different between grain (kg) and fruits. Yields were estimated in Kenya shillings by multiplying the number of measurement unit with unit price of a particular crop to standardize the unit for comparison. Where different types of crops were inter-cropped on same plots, it was difficult to accurately calculate the amount of inputs (manure, fertilizer, labour) allocated for each crop type. In such a cases, the households were asked what percentage of the plot is devoted to a particular crop type and the quantity of manure and fertilizer inputs were estimated according to the proportions. It was not possible to differentiate labour inputs allocated to each crop in the same plots. Among the 177 households in Rokocho sub-Location, 18% plant drought-resistant crops, 57% staple food crops, fruits 51%, and only 5% plant commercial crop mainly on registered plots that some households inherited in the clan land in the highlands. On average, staple food crops uses most of the land (2.30 acres) followed by fruits (1.67 acres), commercial crops (1.56 acres) and drought-resistant crops (0.99 acre). In terms of yield in Kenya shillings, commercial crops yields the highest income followed by staple food crops, fruits, and drought-resistant crops. While commercial crop also earns the highest income per acre, fruits earn more per acre (KES 27,342) than staple food crops (KES 13,484). Most (20%) of the drought-resistant crops and 46% of staple food crops are consumed at home while only 10-11% of fruits and commercial crops are consumed by self. Fruits and commercial crops earn higher revenue (cross income) in Kenya shillings per acre than drought-resistant and staple food crops.Very few households in Kerio River Basin use either organic manure or inorganic fertilizer on crops, while those planting commercial crops, mainly on plots in the highlands, apply some chemical fertilizer. On average, fruits receive more manure (761 kg, or 462 kg/acre) than the other crop types, though this amount might be too low. Some studies suggest that an annual application of 5-6 t/ha (3-3.6/acres) of manure resulted in higher yields of maize in Kenya (cited in Bationo et al., 2004), but staple food crops receives little (5.5 kg/acre) manure in the study area. Most plots with staple food crops are far away from homesteads in the lower parts of the River Basin. When we asked why manure application on staple food crops is so low, local people said that they believe the soil is still fertile enough while others said that another reason may be that their plots are too far away from homesteads and too large to apply manure.Different crop types are associated with different economic returns, levels of intensification and different management activities. Drought-resistant crops are mainly planted for subsistent purpose while staple food crops generates income and food security. While staple food crops have high economic return in yield (KES), they are rather planted extensively in larger areas without any inputs because of the reasons given above. In contrast, fruits and commercial crops are intended for market and planted for commercial purpose. Though little, manure is more likely to be applied to fruits, usually planted on homestead plots, from livestock owned by households.  While indigenous cattle are freely grazed on open areas, owners of exotic and crossbreed cattle supplementary feed for nutrition. Money spent per TLU on dairy goats should be overvalued (because a dairy goat is calculated as 0.11 TLU, the amount spent per animal could be a tenth of that in TLU), but even so, dairy goats require intensive inputs than the local ones.Exotic and traditional animals have different economic returns as: (a) Exotic: more productive asset to produce cash flow from milk (b) Traditional: saving or asset to be easily liquidated in time of needs While exotic animals may be kept for maximizing income, indigenous livestock are kept in semi-arid rural Africa not necessarily to contribute to income flow, but for security reasons to counter risks (Ashley and Nanyeenya 2005). Households may attach different values to exotic and traditional animals, and adopt different management such as: (a) Exotic: investment in quality….intensive semi-zero grazing, more external inputs (b) Traditional: investment in quantity…extensive open grazing, less external inputs Intensive management of animals also have some implications on crop intensification. Dung of extensively grazed traditional animals is difficult to be collected, therefore rarely recycled as organic manure. Manure from animals kept within own plots are easily collected and applied to crops planted on plots nearer to bomas. Understanding implications of differences in management incentives between animal types should be important in evaluating sustainability of crop-livestock livelihoods evolutions and on economic returns on welfare.The previous two sub-Sections have examined the adoption and management of particular crops/ animals by households. It is likely that there may be some patterns of adopting particular combinations of crop-livestock activities, as most African agro-pastoralist diversify their crop-livestock activities. Adopting a particular crop type (subsistent/commercial) could be associated with the adoption of a particular animal type (traditional/exotic). There may be high correlations between particular crop activities and ownership of certain animal types. As such implications of crop-livestock activities on welfare and environment, not as mutually independent activities but as particular diversification patterns with distinctive economic/management incentives should be investigated.Before investigating such patterns, correlations between particular crop/animal types are observed Crop-livestock portfolios are defined as how households allocate land to particular types of crops and which particular types of animals households own. The variables include the ratios of land devoted to particular types of crops, total land used, the ratios of particular animal types held in total TLU, and total TLU, and are standardized into the same units. Table 3.4.1 shows a correlation matrix of standardized z-scores of the variables representing crop and livestock portfolios.The ratio of land with drought-resistant crop is negatively correlated with land with staple food crops (-0.185) and fruits (-0.308). This shows that households devoting proportionally larger parts of land to drought-resistant crops are less likely to practise intensive horticulture and staple food crops cultivation. The ratio of land with staple food crops is highly negatively correlated with fruits (-0.589) positive with total land used (0.254), percent of indigenous cattle in total TLU (0.197), and total TLU (0.250). The ratio of land with fruits is positively correlated with percent of exotic and crossbreed cattle in total TLU (0.237). In comparison, households engaged more in fruits tend to keep improved breeds of livestock intensively, while those devoting more land to staple food crops tend to use more land extensively and to own more indigenous livestock. The ratio of exotic and crossbreed cattle in total TLU are negatively correlated with those of indigenous cattle (-0.324) and sheep/goats (-0.235). The ratio of indigenous cattle in total TLU is negatively correlated with that of sheep/goats (-0.442), but positively with total TLU (0.322). The ratios of land with commercial crop and of dairy goats in total TLU do not have any correlation with the other variables. The finding on correlations suggests that, rather than independently dealing with variables representing engagement in each crop/livestock type, it is better to look at them in an integrated manner, by creating a new set of variables without losing information contained in the original variables. Furthermore, for later regression analyses on welfare and environment, we should have fewer and simpler variables which are uncorrelated one another.Section 4 looks at crop-livestock diversification patterns and their implications on welfare and environment from an integrated perspective.We define \"crop-livestock diversification (CLD)\" patterns as particular combinations of certain crops and animal types adopted by households. As seen in Section 3, different crops/livestock types have different economic returns and levels of intensification, as well as management activities. If combined, some crop-livestock activities may be of simple diversification or of more integrated systems. According to van Keulen and Schiere ( 2004), \"diversification occurs where components such as crops and animals co-exist rather independently on-farm. Their combination reduces risks, but their interactions are minimal. Nutrient flows are rather linear, (this form of mixing does not involve recycling of resources to a significant degree). Integration occurs where the components of the farm are interdependent, (where animals providing dung while consuming crop residues) (van Keulen and Schiere 2004, also citing Savadogo 2000).The economic profitability and sustainable environmental integration of CLD patterns are analysed and leads to the following questions:(1) What are dominant CLD patterns?(2) What are the level of integration and intensification?(3) What are the implications of particular CLD patterns on income levels or welfare? (4) What are the implications of particular CLD patterns on the environment?Capital asset endowments of households, (human [labour, education] and financial capital [land, labour]), and access to off-farm income would substantially affect the decisions by households to choose profitable livelihood strategies (Freeman and Ellis, 2005) as well as to undertake resource-conservation measures (Reardon and Vosti 1995;Barrett et al., 2002, Tittonell et al., 2005). Along with capital asset variables and access to off-farm income. It is assumed that different CDL patterns could have different implications on welfare and the environment through different economic returns and management activities attached to particular crop/livestock types. For example, staple food crops have high economic returns, but households have few incentives to intensify and integrate them with animal production, applying only little manure. In contrast, horticulture is profitable and owners are more likely to apply animal manure to fruits intensively, potentially leading to better environmental consequences. The hypothesis here is that different CLD patterns would affect income levels and resource management, along with variables representing capital asset endowments of households (labour, education, etc.), and access to off-farm income.In order to extract a new set of variables representing crop-livestock diversification patterns from the independent crop-livestock portfolio variables, principal components analysis was employed. Principal component analysis is a multivariate analytical tool used to describe the variation of a set of multivariate data in a set of uncorrelated variables, each of which is a particular linear combination of the original variables. The object of the analysis is to see whether the first few components account for most of the variation in the original data. If so, they can be used to summarize the data with little loss of information. A reduction in dimensionality is also desirable in simplifying later analyses (Everitt and Dunn 2001).Because the variables representing crop-livestock portfolios have different units (%, acres, TLU), they were converted into standardized z scores (Table 3.4.1). Two criteria: (1) retain just enough components to explain some specified, large percentage (between 70-90%) of the total variation of the original variables, (2) exclude those principal components whose values are less than the average or 1 for this case, as the components are extracted from the correlation matrix (Everitt and Dunn 2001) were used when choosing the number of components. An attempt is made to interpret each principal component from factor weights over 0.5 in absolute values, or less if deemed necessary.Table 4.2.1 summarizes the result of principal components analysis. Five principal components were extracted from the original crop-livestock portfolio variables, and explain 71.19% of the total variations of the data. Each of the five principal components are interpreted as follows:-.[1] Component I: More Staple Crop, Less Fruits, More Indigenous Cattle This component accounts for 19.96% of the total variance for the original variables. The variables, percent of staple food crops and percent of indigenous cattle, have high positive weights (0.775, 0.643), while percent of area with fruits has a negative weight (-0.663). This suggests that households with a higher score for this component may be more specialized in extensive staple food crop production and in extensive grazing of indigenous cattle, but not engaged in fruits production.[2] Component II: Less Drought-resistant Crop, More Exotic Animals, More Fruits This component accounts for 15.83% of the total variance for the original variables. The ratio of exotic and crossbreed cattle in total TLU (0.676) and total land used (0.534) are highly positive, while percent of area with drought-resistant crops (-0.601) is negative. Although it is less than 0.5, percent of area with fruits is 0.388, higher than those for the other components. Households with a higher score for this component may be more specialized in intensive management of improved cattle breeds, integrating with fruits production.[3]Component III: Less Indigenous Cattle, More Land, More ShoatsThis component accounts for 13.52% of the total variance for the original variables. The ratio of indigenous cattle in TLU is negative (-0.643), while total land used is positive (0.491). The ratio of shoats in TLU is 0.477, while the ratio of area with fruit is negative (-0.450). This implies that households with a higher score for this component may diversify their livelihoods into more cultivation and into grazing of sheep/goats, but not necessarily in integrated ways, while not owning indigenous cattle.[4]Principal Component IV: Less Shoats, More Drought-resistant Crop This component accounts for 11.24% of the total variance for the original variables. The ratio of sheep / goats in total TLU and total TLU are negative (-0.615, -0.390). The ratio of drought-resistant crop is positive (0.542) while that of area with commercial crop is moderately positive (0.361). Higher scores for this component suggest that households have few sheep and goats and are engaged more in drought-resistant crop cultivation.[5]Principal Component V: More Dairy Goats This component accounts for 10.64% of the total variance for the original variables. The ratio of dairy goats in total TLU is highly positive (0.915). Households with a higher score for this component are more likely to adopt dairy goats. The determinants of total gross income, total gross crop income, and total gross livestock income are estimated here. Total gross income includes total off-farm income (regular, casual, remittance), total gross crop income (for drought-resistant, staple food crops, fruits and commercial crops, revenue (KES), not excluding labour and inputs costs), and total gross livestock income (for traditional and exotic animals, revenue (KES) from milk and from selling animals, not excluding labour and medical/ veterinary costs). The independent variables representing household characteristics to indicate capital asset endowments [such as labour, knowledge] (age, gender dummy, education year of the head, participation years in farmers group, minute distance to a local training center [AIC], and Adult Equivalent [family labour]), off-farm income dummies (regular, casual, remittance), along with the factor scores for the five principal components are included. Because the five principal component scores are uncorrelated, they can be included without worrying about multi-co linearity, which might happen if the variables representing crop-livestock portfolios independently were included.The results are shown in Table 4.3.1. The selected independent variables explain the variances in the total gross income (53%), total gross crop income (36%), and total gross livestock income (46%). Among the household variables, age and education years are significantly positive with total gross income and livestock income. This suggests that more experienced and educated people get higher total and livestock incomes. Years in participating in activities of a farmers group is positive for total gross crop income and total gross livestock income. It probably means that exposure to knowledge through participating in activities of a farmers\" group is more likely to contribute to earning higher livestock incomes. Moved dummy is positive on total gross livestock income. The effect of having stayed outside the areas (mostly in the highlands or the neighbouring districts) is less straightforward to interpret. One possible explanation is that those owning many animals but having stayed in areas where land was getting scarce decided to move to settle in the Kerio River Basin in search for grazing areas. Labour by adults resulted to positive total gross income, suggesting more labour ability contributes to intensive engagement in agricultural activity by households.Among the off-farm income dummies, regular off-farm and casual income dummies positively affect the total gross income and total gross crop income levels. Off-farm income accounts for 50% of the total gross income and higher income casual and crop income are more important for lower income groups (Iiyama, 2006), because they do not keep enough livestock. Remittance dummy is positive on total gross crop income but negative on total gross livestock income though at 10% significance level, which is difficult to interpret at this stage of the analyses.Among the principal component score variables, component I (more staple crop and indigenous cattle, less fruits) is significantly positive for total gross income and total gross livestock income, but not on total gross crop income. Component II (more exotic cattle, less shoats, more fruits) score is significantly positive at 1% for all the total gross income, total gross crop income, and total gross livestock income. Component II contributes to livestock income through exotic animals and crop income, probably through better integration, in comparison to component I with staple food crops and indigenous animals. Component III (less indigenous cattle, but more land used with more sheep and goats) is positive for crop and livestock income. Component IV (less shoats and less TLU) is significantly negative on total gross livestock income. It is likely that they own fewer animals. Component V (dairy goats) is significantly negative for all the total gross income, total gross crop income, and total gross livestock income. This may be because goats are more likely to be adapted by low income groups rather than their decreasing low incomes.Overall, along with household / homestead specific variables and with off-farm income dummies, crop-livestock diversification patterns seem to significantly affect income levels or welfare status of households. Principal Components II and III significantly increase total crop and livestock income levels, while Component I increases total and livestock income.As indicated in Section 2, fencing and manure application are indirect indicators of crop-livestock intensification in Kerio River Basin. Fenced plots are mainly used for intensive farming and rarely for extensive grazing. The use of manure in live fences has made the Valley greener, increased the number of trees and improves soil fertility (Iiyama 2006). However, it is virtually impossible to measure changes in greenness at the household levels because the study area is too small to be applied by high-resolution GIS data (NDVI).Environmental implications of certain crop-livestock diversification were evaluated by assessing their associations with fencing and manure use (ex. Clay et al., 2002;Tarawali et al., 2002). The two types of fences (barbed wire and live-fence [planting thorn trees and bushes]), and application of manure are used as indirect indicators.Of the 177 households in Rokocho 44% have more than one plot fenced with barbed wire while 18% have more than one plot fenced with live-fences. Manure from own animals or from neighbours was used by 46% of the households. A logistic regressions analysis was carried out on fencing and manure (ex. Freeman and Coe, 2002;Place et al., 2002;Stall et al., .2002). The independent variables (household/homestead characteristic variables, off-farm income dummies, and principal component factor scores) are the same as previous analyses of OLS estimations on determinants of incomes. The estimates are correct in predicting measures by 78.5% for barbed wire fencing, 81.35% for live fencing and 84.7% for manure use.For barbed wire, age, education years of the household head, and Components II (exotic animals and fruits) and IV (less sheep and goats) are significantly positive, while casual off-farm dummy and Component I (staple food crops, indigenous cattle, less fruits) are negative. This suggests that households with old and educated household heads owning few indigenous animals and engaged in fruit and exotic animal production more are likely to fence their plots with barbed wires than those engaged in staple food crops with indigenous cattle. For live-fence, gender dummy is significantly positive, while Component III (less indigenous cattle, more shoats, more land) is negative. This implies that male-headed households are more likely to fence their plots with thorn trees than those with less indigenous cattle but with more sheep and goats. While households with a higher score for Component III own some exotic and crossbreed cattle than indigenous cattle, they have little desire to fence their plots, probably because of being engaged in staple food crops production, but rarely in horticulture For manure, Adult Equivalent, regular off-farm income dummy, and Component II (more exotic animals, more fruits) are significantly positive, while Component I (more staple crop and indigenous cattle) is negative. Households with a higher score for Component II that tend to plant fruits on their homestead plots with live-fence, and keep exotic and crossbreed cattle that are more likely to be managed with zero/semi-zero grazing in enclosed homestead plots. Therefore, it is easier for households to collect and apply manure on fruits from within the homesteads. In contrast, households with a higher score for Component I rarely use manure on staple food crops, despite owning many indigenous cattle. Indigenous cattle are more likely to be extensively grazed on open areas, therefore their manure is difficult to collect.In summary, Component II are associated with better resource management through better crop-livestock integration which could have favourable environmental implications. However, while components I and III enhance diversification into staple food crops with indigenous animals, they do not seem to integrate their crop-livestock activities to improve the environment, at least by their low use of manure and fencing. Both components I and III devote more land to staple crops and less to fruits. Fruits cannot independently contribute to income without animals. On the other hand, the combination of exotic animals with staple crops may be economically a high-return pathway, but has little incentives for households to integrate them which might ultimately lead to better environment management.After reviewing the crop-livestock activities separately and independent activities, an integrated perspective was used to evaluate implications of crop-livestock diversification patterns or intensification/integration pathways on welfare and environment. It gave us better insights on crop-livestock evolution processes in the study area.First, fruits are often associated with intensive management of more exotic animals and more manure use. This combination has an inherent management incentive for mutual intensification. Fruits are more likely to be planted on fenced homestead plots. Exotic animals are semi zero-grazed within own plots because they have high economic values, therefore their dung is easily available for applying to fruits. This combination of exotic animals and horticulture can be interpreted as an integrative crop-livestock intensification pathway, It improves the welfare of the community and is environmentally sustainable. Yet, so far, the quantity of manure application to fruits is too low while few inorganic fertilizers are used. For example, animal manure production by zero-grazed cattle in Kenya is 1-1.5 t per animal (Strobel, 1987cited in Bationo et al., 2004). Use of manure should be encouraged for sustainable horticulture.Second, the pathways of staple food crops with indigenous cattle or shoats have high economic returns, but do have few incentives to integrate their activities for potentially good environmental impacts. Many households say they do not apply manure because the plots are often far away from the homesteads. Traditional animals are extensively grazed on open areas because they have low outputs, including little manure. Because staple food crops is both a source of income and for food security, it is not recommend to shift to horticulture, before assessing profitability of horticulture against that of food crops. Therefore, it is essential to sensitize households to integrate crop-livestock activities for better manure management.Economic gains from fruit trees can be achieved after some years because fruit trees do not start bearing soon after planting. It may also take some time and expertise for farmers to integrate them to livestock. Introduction of improved breeds may be faced with various constraints (Conelly 1998). Dairy goat pathway is associated with lower incomes, while they have potentially better economic returns than indigenous cattle and shoats. It is possible that lower income groups can incorporate dairy goats relatively easily than exotic-crossbreed cattle. The selection of crop and livestock activities may need to be compatible with household needs on food security/income and their initial management capacity. A recommendation is to integrate crop-livestock activities through sensitization. Sustainable crop-livestock livelihoods evolution can be successful only if come with appropriate support on technology transfer and environmental education.","tokenCount":"5966"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c91e84a695e9397a6efaf3f33e98b91d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/04d827ab-fa98-4bfc-b297-4c2d50625ad7/content","id":"-363355591"},"keywords":["biofortified wheat","zinc deficiency","wheat blast","Bangladesh","South Asia"],"sieverID":"779ee9c7-d7ce-4f5c-b46a-66238520b7bd","pagecount":"17","content":"For the first time in history outside of Latin America, deadly wheat blast caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT) emerged in the 2015-2016 wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) season of Bangladesh. Bangladesh, a country in South Asia, has a population of nearly 160 million, of which 24.3% are classified as poor. Consequently, malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency are highly prevalent, particularly among school going children and lactating women. Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), with the technical support of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, has developed and released a new wheat 'BARI Gom 33' . The new wheat is a zinc-enriched (Zn) biofortified wheat, resistant to the deadly wheat blast disease. 'BARI Gom 33' provides 5-8% more yield than the check varieties in Bangladesh. Rapid dissemination of it in Bangladesh, therefore, can not only combat wheat blast but also mitigate the problem of Zn deficiency and ensure income for resource-poor wheat farmers. Importantly, a large portion of the current wheat area in India and Pakistan is vulnerable to wheat blast, due to the similarities of the agro-climatic conditions of Bangladesh. As wheat blast is mainly a seed-borne disease, a rapid scaling out of the new wheat in Bangladesh can reduce the probability of MoT intrusion in India and Pakistan, and thereby generate positive externalities to the food security of more than 1 billion people in South Asia. This study explains the development process of 'BARI Gom 33'; the status of malnutrition in Bangladesh, and the possible economic gain from a rapid scaling out of 'BARI Gom 33' in Bangladesh. A few policies are recommended based on the discussions.It is projected that the population of the world will be 9.1 billion in 2050 [1] from its 2018 level of 7. 53 billion [2]. This rapid increase in population may worsen the current food security situation. At present, one in every nine people in the world (a total 815 million) are undernourished [3], and 2 billion people are suffering from hidden hunger due to micronutrient deficiency [4]. It is projected that to ensure food security of the burgeoning population by 2050; it is imperative to increase the net food supply by 70% [1]. As poor nutrition intake is responsible for 45% of deaths of children under 5 years of age every year [3], and 25% of children are suffering from stunted growth [3], it is essential to ensure the supply of micronutrient-enriched food to defeat the problem of hidden hunger across the globe.While it is imperative to supply more food and more micronutrient-enriched food, the recent spread of lethal crop diseases has been continuously creating severe threats to food security. For example, the emergence of wheat stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) in Australia [5,6], the re-emergence of wheat stem (or black) rust in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula [7], maize lethal necrosis (MLN) in Kenya [8] and the spread of fall army worm in Africa [9] and its recent spread in India [10], have all threatened global food security. The emergence of the deadly wheat blast in Bangladesh in the 2015-2016 wheat season is the most recent addition to such threats [11][12][13][14].In February 2016, wheat blast emerged in Bangladesh, for the first time in history outside of Latin America. This deadly wheat disease can destroy wheat yield by up to 100% in extreme cases [15]. Even the application of fungicides cannot completely control the disease [15]. In the 2015-2016 wheat season in Bangladesh, wheat blast affected nearly 15,000 ha, or 3.5% of the total 436,817 ha of wheat cropland, and reduced wheat yield by 5-51% in the affected fields [11]. The disease emerged again in the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 wheat seasons [13,14].The emergence of the wheat blast in Bangladesh has generated severe threats to the food security of more than a billion people in South Asia. A recent study [13] warned that out of a total of 40.85 million ha of wheat cropland in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, nearly 7 million ha (17.1%) is vulnerable to wheat blast. Currently, wheat in India and Pakistan is the major staple food [16], and the choice of wheat as a food item has been gaining popularity in Bangladesh, which is the second major staple after rice [17]. Regarding international trade, India is a net exporter of wheat, Pakistan is almost self-sufficient, and Bangladesh is a net importer of wheat [18]. As it is projected that the population of South Asia will increase to 2.29 billion by 2050 from 1.74 billion in 2015 [2], South Asia needs to increase wheat production by 2.25% every year to meet the growing demand of the burgeoning population [16]. Currently, 14.7% of the total population in South Asia are already extremely poor [2]. A possible spread of Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT) from Bangladesh to India and Pakistan and a reduction of wheat production due to the spread of wheat blast would generate severe negative impacts on the food security and poverty situation in the entire region. Conversely, a reduction of the problem of wheat blast in Bangladesh can generate significant positive outcomes in South Asia. The successful mitigation of the wheat blast problem in Bangladesh could reduce the wheat blast threat to India and Pakistan, two of the major wheat producers and consumers in South Asia.With the aim to find a long-term sustainable solution to combat wheat blast, Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, has developed and tested 'BARI Gom 33' , a new wheat variety. After multilocation national level trials, and screening against wheat blast in 2016 and 2017 under field and laboratory conditions in Bangladesh (Jashore), Bolivia (Instituto Nacional de Innovacion Agropecuaria y Forestal; INIAF), and in the USA [United States Department of Agriculture-USDA-ARS (Agricultural Research Service) Laboratory, Maryland], the variety was confirmed resistant to wheat blast. Moreover, the new wheat is moderately resistant against Helminthosporium leaf blight and leaf rust diseases, common wheat diseases in Bangladesh [19]. The new wheat also provides 5-8% more yield than any check varieties under normal condition. Finally, the new wheat is also zinc enriched (40-45 ppm zinc) in the grains with a zinc advantage of 7-8 ppm over local varieties [19]. On October 11, 2017, in the 93rd National Seed Board Meeting, the Bangladesh National Seed Board approved 'BARI Gom 33' as a new variety to release. 'BARI Gom 33' carries 2NS segment for blast resistance, which is evident from the marker analysis.Importantly, the new wheat 'BARI Gom 33' is a zinc-enriched (Zn) biofortified wheat with 32.09 and 50-55 ppm zinc without and with soil application of ZnSO 4 . The Zn trait of the new wheat can have a significant positive impact on the nutritional status of Bangladeshi consumers. Of nearly 160 million people in Bangladesh, 24.3% are living below the national poverty line. In addition to the problem of visible hunger, hidden hunger in the form of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency are highly prevalent in Bangladesh. For example, currently 36% of children under 5 years of age in Bangladesh are stunted, and 31% of married women aged 15-19 are undernourished [20]. Alarmingly, mostly due to iron deficiency, 92% of infants aged 6-11 months in Bangladesh suffer from anemia [21]. It has been estimated that due to massive undernutrition, Bangladesh is losing labor productivity worth US$ 1 billion yearly [22]. The damage in the human body due to micronutrient deficiency in childhood is irreversible. The rapid upscaling of the zinc-enriched 'BARI Gom 33' could significantly contribute to combatting massive undernourishment in the country and to developing quality human resources, which is the fundamental ingredient of the economic development of a nation. Rapid dissemination and adoption of this new wheat in Bangladesh, therefore, can combat two pressing problems: malnutrition and wheat blast.This study is organized as follows. Section \"Micronutrient deficiency scenario: global and Bangladesh\" presents the Zn deficiency scenario at the global and Bangladesh level. Section \"The major syndromes of Zn deficiency in humans\" includes the major symptoms of Zn deficiency in the human body. Section \"The breeding procedure of Zn enriched and wheat blast resistant variety 'BARI Gom 33'\" explains the breeding process of 'BARI Gom 33' , and section \"Potential economic benefits of biofortified and blast-resistant wheat variety 'BARI Gom 33'\" presents the potential economic benefits and losses of the dissemination of the new wheat. Finally, last section includes conclusions and policy implications.The advent of the \"green revolution\" in the 1960s, mainly in the form of the expansion of high-yielding, semi-dwarf, irrigation-and fertilizer-responsive wheat and rice across the globe, remarkably improved food availability, and thereby the food security status of the world. For example in 1961, the total cereal production in the world was 876.9 million metric tons (MMT), with 128.9 kg availability yearly per capita. In 1970, total cereal production reached 1.2 billion MMT, which was 36% more than the 1961 level, reaching the availability level at 138.5 kg yearly per capita [18]. In 2017, total cereal production in the world reached nearly 3 billion MMT with yearly per capita availability of more than 147 kg. Consequently, despite the total population of the world increasing by 148% from 3.03 billion in 1960 to 7.53 billion in 2017, the absolute number of the undernourished population in the world has declined from 18.6% in 1961 to 10.6% in 2015.Despite success in combating visible hunger, hidden hunger in the form of micronutrient deficiency is still highly prevalent, particularly in the developing countries of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, more than 2 billion individuals in the world are suffering from micronutrient deficiency, such as zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) [23,24]. Worldwide, about 20% of deaths of children under 5 years of age are solely attributable to vitamin A, Zn, Fe, or iodine deficiency [25]. Such micronutrient deficiency emerges when the intake of minerals and vitamins is too low to sustain health and development [26]. To fight hidden hunger in developing countries across South Asia and Africa, where cereals and tubers, such as rice, wheat, maize, and sweet potatoes, are the major food items, researchers and policymakers are increasingly opting for biofortified cereals. Biofortification is the idea of breeding crops to enhance their nutritional value, such as enhancing vitamin A, iron, and zinc in the crops, which can be done through different agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or applying modern biotechnology [27]. Under this initiative, a total of 13 crops across the globe were biofortified and released in 20 countries [28]. The biofortified crops are banana, bean, cassava, cowpea, Irish potato, lentil, maize, pearl millet, pumpkin, rice, sorghum, sweet potato, and wheat [28]. By 2018, these crops had been released in 19 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, DR Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Syria, Uganda, and Zambia [28].Bangladesh is one of the major beneficiaries of the green revolution. In 1970, total cereal production of the country was only 16.9 MMT, and in the entire 90s, the country often faced the problem of food shortages. By 1990, the total cereal production of the country reached nearly 28 MMT, and by 2017 it was 53.3 MMT. Bangladesh is now almost self-sufficient in rice production and has not faced any severe food shortage problems since the 1970s. The number of undernourished people who are in absolute hunger in Bangladesh has drastically reduced due to the availability of grain. In 2000, out of a population of 132 million, 34.3% were extremely poor, whereas in 2016, of 163 million, 12.9% were extremely poor. However, even today, because of micronutrient deficiency, 41% of the children under 5 years of age are chronically undernourished and therefore stunted; one-third of children from 6 months to under 5 years of age are anemic; and 24% of the women in Bangladesh are underweight [24]. Due to productivity loss, the estimated overall costs of this is US$ 1 billion per year [24]. As rice and wheat are the major food items in Bangladesh, the government has been trying to enhance the adoption and dissemination of biofortified rice and wheat. The first biofortified Zn enriched rice 'BRRI Dhan 72' was released in Bangladesh in 2016, and in 2017, the second biofortified crop, the Zn enriched wheat 'BARI GOM 33' was released.The essential micronutrients for the human body are iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), iodine (I), selenium (Se), calcium (Ca), fluorine (F), and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, and C [29]. By using data on diet and bioavailability, studies estimated that at least one-third of the population in the world has Zn deficiency, particularly children [30,31]. Among them, every year approximately 450,000 children under 5 years of age face death due to Zn deficiency [32]. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a 31% Zn deficiency across the globe [33]. A study [34] found that underdeveloped nations suffering from Zn deficiency face a high rate of mortality, due to childhood diarrhea and pneumonia [35]. Zn is particularly prominent in the male prostate gland and semen.The National Institutes of Health, USA [36] recommended daily intakes for people [37] (Tab. 1), according to age, sex, and growth stage of males and females. Zn deficiency is categorized as the fifth leading cause of various diseases worldwide. It was estimated that about 800,000 deaths among children below 5 years of age occur annually due to Zn deficiency, which includes 176,000 deaths from diarrhea, 406,000 deaths from pneumonia, and 207,000 deaths from malaria, mainly in South East Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Africa [27,38] (Fig. 1).In South Asia, including Bangladesh, more than 26% of the population have inadequate Zn intake. As a result, people are suffering from various diseases, particularly due to Zn deficiency in early childhood [39,40]. Zn is an \"essential\" trace element for everybody to remain alive. Similarly, plants and animal also need a specific amount of Zn in their various growth stages. Women and children are the most vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies. The scenario in Bangladesh was also exposed in the National micronutrients status survey 2011-12 [41] (Fig. 2).Generally, people in Bangladesh depend on staple cereals (mainly rice and wheat) for the majority of their dietary energy, and essential micronutrients such as Fe, Zn, I, Se, Ca, F, and vitamins. Among the micronutrients, Zn plays the most significant role in the human body. A survey conducted by the International Center for Diarrhoeal Source: [37].Disease Research, Bangladesh (Icddr, b) [41] reported that preschool age children (up to 59 months) and nonpregnant and nonlactating women (15-49 years) face a 50% Zn deficiency in Bangladesh. Dietary intake with low Zn concentration and a lack of a diversified diet are the major contributors to Zn deficiency [42,43]. In developing countries (including Bangladesh), diets are based on cereals' grains, and cereals are poor in Zn. Amelioration of cereals' grains with Zn is, therefore, a vital worldwide challenge [44]. Genetic biofortification (plant breeding) and agronomic biofortification (application of fertilizer containing Zn) are two of the most significant agricultural approaches to increasing Zn concentration in cereals' grain [45][46][47].Additionally, through the breeding program, newly developed Zn enriched genotypes could accumulate a sufficient amount of Zn if Zn is available in soils. On the other hand, grain of wheat is generally intaken after milling. However, during the milling process, the bran and embryo parts of seeds, which are enriched in Zn, are removed; the part (endosperm) which are used in the human diet has a low concentration of Zn [48,49]. Therefore, it is important to enrich the Zn concentration in the endosperm of the cereal grains through biofortification. Scientists around the globe are trying to improve Zn and Fe concentrations in endosperm by using molecular genetic approaches [50,51]. Fig. 2 Micronutrient deficiency in Bangladesh (percent of the surveyed population). Source: [41].Many people in South-East Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa are zinc deficient [23,39]. Among them, women and children are the most vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies and are unaware of their condition. The seven most common Zn deficiency indications are described below.Zn is needed to conserve the immune function of the human body [52]. It is the active element for the growth of T cells, as a protective function of cell membranes, and also helps to differentiate the white blood cells which are essential to ward off disease. Zn prevents apoptosis disease (involuntary cell-death) through killing dangerous bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. It also plays a key role in a slew of hormone receptors and a structural component of proteins to preserve health and steadiness of mood.Persistent diarrhea is a major public health concern, which occurs mostly due to weakened immunity that is caused by a Zn deficiency. Two million children in developing countries every year have diarrhea, due to colds and other bacterial infections [53]. Supplementation of Zn for babies older than 6 months has been found effective to control diarrhea disease [54].Zn is undeniably essential for growth and neuropsychological function. Low Zn levels are linked with several disorders in infants that persevere into adulthood [55,56]. Chinese findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that a Zn supplement in daily food provides just 50% of the recommended daily allowance [56]. The investigation also found that Zn is best absorbed with a proper balance of other nutrients from food. Consequently, it is imperative that individuals be in contact with a physician to ascertain Zn deficiency status, for proper human growth and neuropsychological function.Chronic stress causes adrenal fatigue, and leads to Ca, Mg, and Zn deficiencies; this raises histamine levels in the human body [57]. Zn is a key micronutrient that maintains histamine levels. Zn deficiency sanctions more histamine, which surrounds tissue with fluids; as a result, surplus histamine promotes allergy symptoms such as a running nose, sneezing, hives, etc.Battling adrenal fatigue is a common health concern, and Zn deficiency is associated with hypothyroidism. An ignored aspect of Zn deficiency is thinning hair and alopecia [58]. Consequently, hypothyroidism causes hair loss due to the limitation of the thyroxine hormone, and since Zn supplementation could improve thyroxine in the human body, this would also result in decreased hair loss [58].First observed 70 years ago, leaky gut (intestinal permeability) can cause a slew of autoimmune diseases, skin disorders, allergies, nutrient malabsorption, and thyroid problems [54]. Zn supplementation has been found to clinically help resolve the intestinal permeability alterations of leaky gut in Crohn's patients [59].Leaky gut causes various skin diseases such as skin rashes. These types of symptoms are absent under sufficient Zn supplementation [55]. It is thus confirmed that Zn is an essential micronutrient for the human body. Its deficiency is associated with seven common diseases such as frail immunity, diarrhea, poor neuropsychological function, allergies, thinning hair, leaky gut, and acne or rashes. The daily recommended amount of Zn could be achieved through biofortified foods or medicine.Researchers in Bangladesh are working with the HarvestPlus program in collaboration with different national and international organizations and have already developed four biofortified rice varieties by using a breeding approach, although Zn concentration ranged from 19.60 to 24.60 ppm in the rice. Similarly, BWMRI [previous name: Wheat Research Centre of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI)] have been working closely with CIMMYT to develop and deploy biofortified wheat varieties since 2013. As an output of the collaborative research, Bangladesh released the biofortified wheat variety 'BARI Gom 33' (before releasing named: 'BAW 1260') in 2017 (Fig. 3) [60]. Under multilocation trials (farmers' fields) the average yield was recorded at 3.97 to 4.5 t ha −1 , with a high yield potential of 6.04 t ha −1 (at the research trial). It possesses 2NS translocation, which indicates a good level of tolerance against wheat blast and is enriched with 50-55 ppm Zn.The variety 'BARI Gom 33' was selected from the CIMMYT international nursery through the conventional breeding procedure. CIMMYT developed the cultivars through a simple cross between two kinds of wheat such as 'Kachu' and 'Solala' . 'Kachu' is a 'Kauz'-derived high-yielding wheat variety carrying 2NS segment for partial blast resistance. 'Solala' derived from a CIMMYT's prebreeding cross involving the durum wheat derivative of T. polonicum with a long spike (CMH74A.630/SUPER X//CIANO T 79/3/IRENA) [60]. The simple cross derived F 1 s were planted in El Batan, Mexico during 2010, and the F 2 populations of about 2,000 plants were grown in Cd. Obregon, Mexico. The best plants with good leaf rust resistance were selected and bulk harvested. The F 3 and F 4 bulks of about 400-800 plants were grown and plants resistant to yellow rust and leaf rust in Toluca and Cd. Obregon, respectively, was bulked. F 5 bulks of about 800 plants were grown in Toluca during the 2012 crop season, with yellow rust and Septoria tritici blotch resistant plants harvested, and individual head-rows made. Visual selection of plump and bold grains from individual heads were advanced to Cd. Obregon as head-rows. The head-rows were evaluated in small plots with repeated checks for agronomic characteristics and resistance to leaf and stem rusts at Cd. Obregon. Best performing F 6 head-rows exhibiting resistant to rusts, superior agronomic performance, and bold and plump grain types were analyzed for Zn and Fe concentrations, initially with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer and then with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) analysis at the Waite Analytical Services Laboratory, Australia. Grain protein percentage and grain hardness were measured using the near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) assay at the CIMMYT Wheat Quality Laboratory [60]. The F 6 fixed lines were advanced to first yield trials grown with alpha-lattice-Latinized design with three reps, two checks, and 28 entries in each trial at Cd. Obregon, during the 2013-2014 crop season. The chelated form of Zn fertilizer was applied to optimize and homogenize available soil Zn and to reduce soil Zn heterogeneity at Cd. Obregon experimental station. Agronomic data on days-to-heading, maturity, plant height, and agronomic attributes were recorded for all entries. Yield potential of 'Kachu' / 'Solala' (sisters) ranged from 5.9 to 7.7 t ha −1 with an average yield of 6.6 t ha −1 in Mexico. Considering grain Zn and grain yield, 'Kachu' / 'Solala' was phenotyped in five artificially managed environments in Cd. Obregon [60]. On average, about 5% yield superiority was found across five environments and in late-sown heat environment, where continuous heat stress occurs during the crop growing season and higher terminal heat stress towards the end of the crop season. This environment replicates most of the mega-environments (ME) of the five types of environments in South Asia including Bangladesh, the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of India and Nepal. Based on the performance from Mexico, 'Kachu' / 'Solala' was included in the fourth harvest plus yield trial (HPYT) trial, and was distributed to national partners in South Asia including Bangladesh, and evaluated during the 2013-2014 crop season. This entry showed good performance across locations for grain yield and 6-8 ppm Zn increment over local checks and bold grain size (50 g TGW).The adoption of new agricultural technology, including improved seeds, is seldom instantaneous [61]. For one, the new technology needs to be available to farmers to be potentially adopted. A new variety needs to have its seed bulked up, often initiated only after its formal release. Furthermore, technology adoption is a complex process influenced by a large number of factors [62,63], including risks and uncertainties about proper application, suitability with the environment and farmers' expectations [59]. As a result, the adoption process can be slow [64] and may fail in the absence of strong public support and extension services.Being selected from the fourth HPYT in the 2013-2014 season, the entry was evaluated from the Zn-enriched wheat yield trial in Gazipur (ME 5) and Dinajpur (ME 1) station of BARI. This line had an exceptional phenotype, good grain yield and better adaptation with high grain Zn content. Hence the entry advanced to the preliminary yield trial (PYT) in the 2014-2015 season with the accession number BAW 1260 (presently BARI Gom 33). Mean yield of 'BAW 1260' over a local check ('BARI Gom 24') was about 8% and 5% higher in timely and late planting conditions, respectively. Thus the entry was promoted to advanced yield trial (AYT) in the 2015-2016 season to evaluate in five different BARI stations across the country where mean yield was again higher than the check at 6% and 15%, respectively. In 12 different sites of the adaptive trial, 'BAW 1260' was found to have the highest yield (6.04 t ha −1 ) in Dinajpur with a trial average yield of 3.97 t ha −1 . In the participatory variety selection (PVS) trial, farmers' overall score at physiological maturity stage was the highest for 'BAW 1260' (Fig. 4). Farmers chose this genotypes for its longer spike and higher expected yield, although it ranked second after harvest score. However, 'BARI Gom 33' ('BAW 1260') was the highest preferred genotype over locations in Bangladesh [60].Wheat blast was mainly native to Latin American countries [11,12,[65][66][67]. However in 2016, the disease emerged in Bangladesh, and approximately 15,000 ha land was affected (3.5% of the total 0.43 million ha of wheat area), with yield loss ranging between 5% to 51% [11,65]. The disease reappeared in the following two seasons (2017-2018 and 2018-2019 wheat seasons). However, the disease severity was comparatively low (yield loss was about 5-10% and 1-5%, respectively) (Tab. 2, Fig. 5) [11,12,60,65,67,68]. Since wheat blast was reported for the first time in Bangladesh in 2016 [11,12,65], there is a possibility the disease will spread in South Asian countries particularly India, Pakistan, Nepal, and China [69,70]. As a result of this first incidence of wheat blast in South Asia, the international plant pathologies community and the governments of these countries Fig. 4 Farmers' preference scores for different traits of seven selected wheat genotypes including 'BARI Gom 33' applying a participatory varietal selection method during the 2016-2017 season. PH -plant height; TH -tillering habit; SL -spike length; DI -disease incidence; MD -maturity days; EY -expected yield; OS -overall score; GC -grain color; GS -grain size; GW -grain weight; BP -black point; YS -score on yield basis; GY -grain yield. Data source: [60].Tab. 2 Comparative status of wheat blast incidence in Bangladesh in the 2015-2016, 2016-2017, and 2017-2018 wheat seasons. Adapted from [65]. Meherpur, Jhenaidah, Chuadanga, Jashore, Kushtia, Bhola, Faridpur, Rajshahi, Rajbari, Natore, Tangail, Jamalpur, Cumilla began to develop short, medium, and long-term strategies to limit the spread of the disease as well as turn their attention to sustaining wheat production in this region to face the lethal disease [14,68,71]. Scientists and policymakers in the region took several initiatives in collaboration with CIMMYT, ACIAR, and the USA for the development of a wheat blast resistant wheat variety. A comprehensive breeding program was undertaken to identify sources of resistance to wheat blast and their deployment adapted wheat genotypes in collaboration with CIMMYT/ACIAR. A precision phenotyping platform (PPP) has been established at Jashore for large-scale screening against wheat blast with support from CIMMYT and ACIAR. During the 2017-2018 wheat season, about 5,000 germplasm were received from CIMMYT and had been screened against wheat blast, and some resistant genotypes have been identified. In the meantime, the genotype 'BARI Gom 33' was found to have a good level of tolerance against wheat blast and was released as a variety in 2017.The outbreak of wheat blast occurred in the 2015-2016 season in Bangladesh when 'BARI Gom 33' was in AYT at Jashore, and interestingly this entry had no blast infection, which attracted the breeders for the potential of a blast-resistant wheat variety. The Jashore location was found favorable for wheat blast according to 3 years of data of the wheat blast trials. Ten elite wheat varieties/lines were tested in the location, and all varieties/lines showed varying levels of resistance and susceptibility to the disease. Among them, seven lines were graded as resistant, six moderately resistant, seven moderately susceptible, and the remaining five as highly susceptible. Borlaug 100, and 'BARI Gom 33' showed a resistant reaction, while 'BARI Gom 26' displayed a highly susceptible reaction. The resistant variety 'BARI Gom 33' was found with 1.8% disease severity, while the most susceptible variety 'BARI Gom 26' observed about 91.7% (Fig. 6) [65].This entry was further evaluated for the wheat blast in \"foreign disease-weed science research unit\" of USDA-ARS, Frederick, USA, Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF), Bolivia and RARS, Jashore, Bangladesh. Disease severity was estimated using standard 0-100 scale and the modified Cobb scale. The greenhouse screening with the inoculated condition in the USA resulted in the wheat blast score 11.1%, whereas it was found at 4.4% in Bolivia in field conditions, but no wheat blast infection was found in Jashore, Bangladesh. End-use tests were conducted at the CIMMYT wheat cereal chemistry laboratory. Interestingly, this entry showed strong and balanced gluten, which is recommended for South Asian flatbread (\"chapatti\"). Grain hardness was classified as hard to semihard with protein contents of 11.8% to 12.5% in grain and 10.3% to 11.8% in flour. The dough development time was above 2.0 min, and the mixographic type was more than 3.0 in a scale of 1 to 5, indicating good dough mixing properties and suitability for making flatbread (chapatti) as well as yeast-leavened bread.As 'BARI Gom 33' is a blast resistant, Zn enriched wheat that can provide 5-8% more yield than the checks, rapid deployment of this wheat can solve the pressing twin problems of Bangladesh: wheat blast and Zn deficiency [72]. To accrue the benefits of 'BARI Gom 33' , the new wheat should be disseminated as soon as possible, at least primarily in the currently wheat blast affected districts of Bangladesh. A speedy seed multiplication and dissemination process needs external supports. This is because, in the normal seed multiplication process, the new wheat may reach the hands of farmers in 4-5 years, given that agricultural technology adoption is a complex activity, and a large number of factors can affect the adoption process [73][74][75]. This is because new agricultural technologies are often correlated with risks and uncertainties about proper application and suitability with the environment, and farmers' expectations [64]. As a result, the adoption process can be slow [58], and the entire adoption process may fail in the absence of public supports and extension services. Strong external support, however, can speed up the seed multiplication and dissemination process.In Fig. 7, possible adoption scenarios, the corresponding gains, and the counterfactual dead-weight losses are presented linking to the adoption of 'BARI Gom 33' , assuming the new wheat adoption will begin in the 2018-2019 wheat season. Under the assumption of a 30% maximum adoption rate in all cases, we have developed three distinct adoption pathways considering a logistic adoption function. In Case 1, the adoption Tested wheat genotypes against wheat blast Fig. 6 Elite germplasm screening against wheat blast under the artificially inoculated condition. Adapted from [65].will start in the year 2019, the maximum adoption rate will be achieved by 2033.In such a case, the total economic gain will be equivalent to area a+b+c (Case 1; Fig. 7). Conversely, area a+b+c will be the total dead-weight loss under the assumption of the zero adoption. In Case 2, the adoption will start in the year 2026, and the maximum adoption rate will be achieved by 2040. In such a case, the total economic gain will be equivalent to area b+c (Case 2; Fig. 7). In Case 2, the dead-weight loss will be equivalent to the area a (Case 2; Fig. 7). In Case 3, the adoption will start in the year 2031, and the maximum adoption rate will be achieved by 2045. In such case, the total economic gain will be equivalent to area c (Case 3; Fig. 7), and the dead-weight loss will be equivalent to area a+b (Case 3; Fig. 7).The emergence of the wheat blast in Bangladesh has generated severe threats to the food security of millions in South Asia. As wheat is the principal staple food of Pakistan, and the second most important staple food in India, a possible spread of the wheat blast from Bangladesh to India and Pakistan and a reduction of wheat production due to wheat blast would generate severe negative impacts on the food security and poverty situation in the region. Conversely, successful eradication of the wheat blast disease in Bangladesh can generate significant positive externalities in South Asia. With an aim to find a long-term sustainable solution to combat the wheat blast and Zn deficiency in Bangladesh, the BWMRI, in collaboration with CIMMYT, developed and tested 'BARI Gom 33' , a new wheat variety. After multilocation national level trials and screening against wheat blast in 2016 and 2017 under field and laboratory conditions, it is confirmed that the new wheat is the first blast resistant wheat in the world. Moreover, the new wheat provides 5-8% yield gain, and it is Zn enriched in the grains with zinc advantage of 7-8 ppm over local varieties. The dissemination of 'BARI Gom 33' will significantly contribute to combat the existing massive undernourishment of Bangladeshi households and consequently reduce the loss in labor productivity worth of US$ 1 billion, which stems from the massive undernourishment.As under the existing dissemination process, it will take 4-5 years for the new wheat to reach the hands of farmers, and as a delay in deploying the new seeds can generate net loss, this study strongly urges external technical and financial support to speed up the dissemination process of 'BARI Gom 33' in Bangladesh.  ","tokenCount":"5567"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1781fb36ecf60775b5c6c4f85efc4f43","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ae0d0fec-2763-4723-adae-0ccc9331ebbf/retrieve","id":"-1283148660"},"keywords":["CUADRO N2","2 3","Rendimiento e::","Kg/parcela de 42 familias Grupo"],"sieverID":"4eae06af-f744-4c5b-880e-d219b9a11de0","pagecount":"93","content":"25 25 25 25 de progenitores y progenies F 1 25 2.1.1 Evaluaci6n de los progenitores 25 2.1.2 Evaluaci6n de las Progenies r 1 27 2o1.1.1 En Camara 2.1o1.2 En CamDO 2.2 Metodolog1a utilizada en la inoculaci6n del hongo 2.2.1 Prueba de Camara 2.2.2 Prueba de Camno 2. 3 Correlacion entre Pr11eba de Campo y Canara 27 27 28 28 28 30 2.4 Analisis de regresi6n Padre-progenie 30 2.5 Disefio Experimental 30 Resultados y Discusi6n 33 1. Resistencia general a nivel de camara •33 2. Resistencia a P. infestans a nivel de Campo 44 Conclusiones Recomendaciones Resumen Literatura citada Apendice. 52 54 55 56 63 INDICE DE CUADROS CUADRO N9. :l.c Clones diploides cultivados seleccionados per su resistencia a P. infestans~ CUADRO NQ. 2. Plan de cruzamientes de clones diploides seleccionados para resistencia horizontal a P. infestans g CUADRO N2. 3 Escala usada para la evnluaci6n de folla-Pag . . 22 23 je afectado per E• infestan~ 26 CUADRO N2. 4 Analisis de Variancia generalizado para el Disefio Bloques al Azar. 32 CUADRO N2. 10. Reslunen de cruzamientos diploides S .. ste-netemu~ y resistencia obtenida a P. in -~~en la poblacion. 34 CUADRO NU 11 Analisis de Variancia de 42 familias resistentes a Po infestans a nivel de cama ra. (Datos transformados a vaiores Arco-seno). CUADRO NQ 12 Analisis de variancia entre £amilias depapas diploides a nivel de Camara (Datos 36 transformados a valores Arco-seno)o 39 CUA.DRO N2. 13. Analisis de variancia de regresi6n Padre-Progenie de papas diploides para resisten cia a P. infestans a nivel de camara 41 CUADRO NQ. 1t~. Componnetes geneticos entre Padre-progenie 42 Pag. CUADRO N~ 15. Resumen de cruzamientos diploides stenotomum y resistencia obtenida a P. infestans en la µoblaci6n 44 CUADRO N£ 16. Analisis de variancia de 42 familias de pa pas diploides resistentes a P. infestans en Campo 45 CUADRO N9-19. Analisis de variancia entre familias de na ... -~ pas diploides resistentes a P. infestansen Campo 47 CUADRO N9. 20 Analisis de variancia de Regresi6n Padre-Progenie de papas diploides resistentes a P. inf esta.ns en Campo.FIGURA N~ 2. Familias de cruzamientos de progenitores f emeninos medianamente resistentes con ma Pag.37 chos de diferentes niveles de resistencia 37.FIGURA N~ 3. Familias de cruzamientos de progenitores femeninos resistentes con machos de dife rentes niveles de resistencia.FIGURA NQ 4. Familias de cruzamientos de progenitores femeninos altamente resistentes con machos altamente resistentes. en el cultivo de la papa.Apareci6 simultaneamente en Norte America y-Europa, causa£ do la mayor hambruna de Irlanda en los afios 1845 -1846.Walker (69), Howar (24)Q Desde entonces, la herencia deresistencia a P. infestans en papa ha sido estudiada porvarios autores. Los resultados alcanzados por ellos no -~ siempre son concordantes~ esto se debe a que usan diferen tes fuentes de resistencia , diferentes razas del pat6geno, y propablemente a diferentes criterios en la selecci6n de las progenies como res.istentes o susceptibles.La amplia literatura existente, demuestra que la resistencia puede ser debida a la presencia de una serie de once g~ nes CR-genes) derivadds de Soianum demissum los que son dominantes sobre el recesivo susceptible, heredandose indepe£ dientemente de acuerdo a las Leyes de Mendel; y por un nfune ro indefinido de genes menores cuyos efectos parecen ser adi ti vos, heredandose en forma poligenica de tal manera que protegen a la planta contra muchas razas del hongo.-2-Muchos estudios sobre el mecanismo de resistencia, protec-ci6n, y herencia de resistencia para crear variedades resis tentes a P. infestans se han• desarrollado con S. Tuberosum Subsp. tuberosum, S. tuberosum. Subsp -:-andigena~ hibridosde Tuberosum con S. demissum.Muy poco se ha hecho con las especies diploides Phureja ~ Stenotomun. El amplio range de diversidad genetica~ el vas to reservorio del valorabla potencial del grupo stenotomum ampliamente mantenido por la f ormaci6n de gametes 2 n via FDR; la herencia disomica, lo cual simplifica muchisimoel estudio de herencia de resistencia y los gr~des atributos tales como: Resistencia a Phyfoohthora infestans, Marchitez bacteriana (Pseudomonas solanacearum), alta calidad proteica, resistencia al nematode del nudo (Meloidogyne in-c6gnita), ha motivado a realizar el presente estudio cuyos objetivos son:1. Anali sis de la nasis\"tencia horizontal an un grupo de papas cultivadas diploides (Solanum stenotomum Juz. et Buk).2. Comprobar en lo posible la eficiencia de los metodos de camara y campo para medir la resistencia horizontal a Phytophthora irfestans Mont De Bary.El concepto de resistencia,\"horizontal fue introducido por Vartder Plank (66) y definido coma la resistencia uniformemente distribuida contra todas . las razas del patogeno.Ha sido llamada tambien resistencia de campo, resistencia parcial,resistencia general, resistencia no especifica, resistencia poligenica; caracterizada por que pese a que laplanta presenta lesiones en su follaje, aquellas son relati vamente pocas, su expansion y esporulacion es eseasa. Robinson (47), Guzman (16), Niederhauser et al (44), Mastembroek (37), Black (3).Casi todala literatura encontrada sobre la herencia de resi~tencia horizontal, expresa que dicha resistencia es heredada poligenicamen~e. Pocos informes tratan de identificar el n\\lmero de genes involucrados.Muller, citado por Clark (7), atribuyo que la resisten cia a Phytophthora infestans era heredada por factores multiples.Stevenson et al (58) oruzando dos cultivares con resistencia general, encontraron que todas sus progenies fue ron mas resistentes que el testigo.Concluyen que la resistencia a P. infestans en varieda des cul tivadas es heredada como un car•acter recesivo, probablemente controlado por genes multiples, es decir, heredado cuantitativamente.Mas tarde Stevenson et al (59) establecieron que la inmunidad de las progenies de §.:_ demissum no se hereda co mo una sola unidad como se cre!a, sine que estaba controlada por factores multiples.Esto no fue determinado por las proporc1ones geneticas halladas en las poblaciones segregantes, sino ~or la -reacciO..Tt de las 11.neas cercanas con S. demi s sum a diver sas razas fisiol6gicas.Black (1) explica que la resistencia a las razas A, B, C,parece estar controlada pdr gener mayores, pero ademas de estos factores, estaban presente muchos genesmenores que modificaron la resistencia de variedadessusceptibles y resistentes.Posteriormente, Black (2, 3) dice que una serie de genes menores, asociados con caracteristicas morfol6gicas yfisiologicas de la planta, modifican la expresi6n delsistema de genes mayores y asi determinan el grado de susceptibilidad en fenotipos susceptibles y la extension de necrosis en unos resistentes.Asf mismo, Black et al (4) establecen que la resistencia horizontal es presumiblemente controlada por unaserie de genes menores o sistema poligenico, los cuales le dan proteccion parcial contra todas las razas especializadas del hango.Rugo.tf. ~~ al. ( 50) expresan que la resistencia al P.inf estans se debe a la presencia de genes mayores y genes menores; es decir, que las efectas de unos modifican a los efectos de las otros y visceversa.Castronovo (6) afirm6 que genes multiples o modificadores estan presentes en diferente ntimero y combinaciones en cada uno de los clones progenitores, permitiendoles transferir resistertcia y sUsceptibilidad a sus descendientes eh similar proporcion.Toxopeus (63,64) ha establec1do que el grado de resistencia general del material estudiado par~ce ser gobe~ nado por una serie de genes menores. As1 mismo, expr~ sa que algunas de las progenies de cruzamiento entrecultivares altamente resistentes ,muestran una transgr~ sion positiva.Graham (13) estudio la herencia de resistencia parcial a razas 1, 2, @, 4 de P. infestans en S. verrucosum (2n = 24), concluyendo queen esta especie el nivelde resistencia es heredada en una forma cuantitativa.Posteriormente, el mismo autor en 1963, analiz6 la reacci6n a la raza 1, 2j 3, 4 de progenies F 1 , F 2 , F 3 de cruzamientos entre clones resistentes y susceptibles de dos especies mexicanas S. bulbocastanum y S.verrucosum, lleg6 a concluir que la resistencia de cam po fue de naturaleza cuantitativa.Malcolmson et al (33) observando el desarrollo y espo-rulaci6n de P. infestans en hojas de variedades y pl~ tulas de papa en las pruebas de progenies mostraron que la resistencia de campo fue heredada en una manera poligenica, aunque ciertas lineas expresaron virtualinmunidad en dos generaciones de progenitores suscepti bles x resistentes, esto sugiere factores complementarmos en los progenltores.Mastembroek (37) e~presa queen_ la resistencia de campo probablemente muches factores geneticos estan involucrados, parte de los cuales pueden ser independientes, otros dependientes o estrechamente ligadas, algunos pueden tener efectos pleiotr6picos. Sin embargo, se noto que dos de los treinta progenitores usados en un esquema de cruzarniento dio un orden de progenies los cuales fueron mas resistentes que aquellos otr?s veintiocho, y esto lleva un bajo nivel de habilidad combinatoria general.Tai et. al (60) estudio los datos de un cruzamiento dialectico completo colectado de varies afios. Todas las plantulas de treinticuatro cruzamientos fueron in£ culadas con 4,000 zocaporas/ml.     . . 2 (s ) x 13 CAR) 37 12 (AR) x 13 (AR) 3 (s ) x 14 (AR)  Mas del 0% pero menos del 10%  = Es la medicion media de la pro genie = Es la medici6n del padre = Es la regresi6n de Y. sobre x.  Ademas, e .  BloquesError  .. s:::•n 0. 5.. s:::•n rO 10.µ ... ._-i 'rl.   Familias ~e cruza~ientos de progenitores femeninos res1stentes con machosde diferentes niveles de resistencia..::t camara y el grupo de familia AR x AR a nivel de campo, que alcanzo el menor grado de ataque a P. infestans.5. La heredabilidad en el sentido restringido fue de 13.43por ciento para la prueba de camara y de 3o29 por ciento para la prueba de campo.6. Se encontr6 correlaci6n estadistica significativa entr•e prueba de campo y prueba de camara, lo que sugiere que ambos metodos seran eficientes en la seleccion por resistencia a P. infestanso Considerando al metodo de ca mara como para una evaluaci6n de grandes poblaciones de plantulas de papa.VI. REC 0 MEND AC I 0 NE S Se encontr6 que en la prueba de camara, y en la prueba decampo la resistencia horizontal a ~• infestans fue debida a la accion genetica no aditiva (Dominancia y epistatica).Existen grupos de familias como: MR x R; MR x AR; R x AR y AR x AR, que tuvieron el mas alto porcentaje de resistencia a P. infestans en camara y el grupo.de familia AR x AR, que alcanzo uh grade; de resistencia a P. infestans en campo.Cuadro NQ s. NG.mere de plantulas sobrevivientes (S. stenotomum) al Tizon tcrd1o (P. infestans) raza comun(1, 4) a nivel de .# CIP, Lima -Peru. camara.        ","tokenCount":"1687"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"afb961ab5ac88373e7bb70c5ac3447f9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d4ce03be-911b-4e1a-8b2d-7ef25ac3445d/content","id":"-1884816966"},"keywords":["Triticum aestivum","Blumaria graminis","Field survey","Host reaction","Disease"],"sieverID":"b987902b-b591-4fc3-84a0-7aa87c2f3350","pagecount":"7","content":"Wheat diseases remains the major constraint to wheat production across Pakistan, including rusts and powdery mildews. Although significant attention is given to rust diseases, powdery mildew is a less considered diseases so far, mainly due to lack of information on the prevalence across Pakistan. Surveillance for powdery mildew status assessment was conducted across Pakistan during three wheat crop seasons i.e., 2015-2016 to 2017-2018. A total of 437 fields (from 63 districts) were surveyed in 2016, 480 fields (from 69 districts) in 2017 and 294 fields (from 34 districts) in 2018, revealing a high prevalence of powdery mildew in the northern Himalayan parts of Pakistan. Powdery mildew was more severe during 2018 followed by 2017, while it was the minimum during 2016. In Sindh province, none of the 253 fields surveyed over three years, had powdery mildew, while in Punjab the disease was absent in more than 98% fields. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the disease was detected in 17% fields, while in Kashmir the disease was present in only 11% of surveyed fields. In Gilgit-Baltistan, the disease was detected in four fields from three surveyed districts. Among the five provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, powdery mildew was a major problem in Northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir. Among the cultivated varieties surveyed, severe infestation (>40% severity) was observed for wheat varieties Galaxy-2013, PS-2005, Faisalabad-2008, Shahkar and some local lines. Future wheat improvement programmes must be encouraged to consider resistance to powdery mildew, particularly for lines to be cultivated in the Himalayan region of Pakistan.W heat being the most important food crop of Pakistan, remains the strong component of national food security. High wheat production in Pakistan is threatened by wheat diseases, particularly rusts and powdery mildew. Both rusts and powdery mildew are obligate parasites causing important wheat diseases like leaf/brown rust (LR) caused by Puccinia triticina, yellow/stripe rust (YR) caused by P. striiformis, stem/black rust (SR) caused by P. graminis f.sp. tritici and powdery mildew (PM) caused by Blumeria graminis f.sp. tritici. Although several efforts have been made to assess the prevalence of rusts on wheat varieties, limited information is available on the distribution of powdery mildew in various wheat growing regions of Pakistan. and early 1990's, prevailing in many wheat fields, with further sporadic prevalence associated with favorable climatic conditions. During early 2000 the disease prevailed again wherever the wheat is cultivated in the country in humid and sub-humid areas (Rattu et al., 2009). Powdery mildew of wheat has also worldwide distribution and is especially important in areas with cool and dry climates, including China, Europe, and South America (Dubin and Duveiller et al., 2011). It was considered as devastating disease in northern Europe where cool and mild climate prevails, leading to damage of grain yield and quality (Morgounov, 2012). The disease occurs more frequently in wheat growing areas with a moist environment. The disease is favored by cool and humid weather with optimal temperatures ranging from 15 °C to 18 °C and with relative humidity ranging from 75-100%. Such conditions are more prevalent in the northern Himalayan region of Pakistan. The growth of pathogen is negatively affected by temperatures above 25°C, leading the disease progression to slow down as the growing season progresses into the hotter months (Leath and Bowen, 1989). In recent decades, this disease is becoming of more importance even in areas with warmer and drier regions because of intensive production with higher plant densities, replacement of long by semi dwarf varieties, nitrogen fertilizers, and irrigation (Cowger, 2016). The high prevalence at the time of grain filling or earlier could lead to impart substantial losses on wheat crop.Commercial yield losses due to powdery mildew in Western Europe are usually below 10%, with the maximum 20% losses in the United Kingdom. The reported yield losses in North Carolina ranged between 5-17%, generally 10 to 15% in Russia but sometimes reaches up to 35%, up to 62% in Brazil, and 30 to 40% in China under severe epidemics (Mehta, 2014). The yield reductions of higher than 40% are unusual, but infections at early stage may lead to the complete loss of seedlings or tillers ultimately failing to produce seeds (Cunfer, 2002). In areas of high disease prevalence, the disease may impart significant yield reductions, which needs to be controlled to avoid economic losses.Various practices including agricultural and chemical controls have been utilized to reduce the effect of diseases, but increasing production costs, polluting the environment and encouraging the speedy evolution of new pathogen races (Hardwick et al., 1994;Parks et al., 2008;Ryabchenko et al., 2003). Host resistance is the only cost effective and economical way to restrict the disease (Huang et al., 2000;Huang and Röder, 2004). Genes conferring resistance against powdery mildew are known as Pm genes. Sixty Pm genes have been identified, formally named as Pm1 to Pm50, and some other temporarily designated genes (McIntosh et al., 2012;Mohler et al., 2013;Xiao et al., 2013). Wheat genetic background narrowed with the passage of time by selecting high yielding wheat varieties with more homogeneous genetic backgrounds throughout the world, and replacing highly variable landraces leading to unpredicted challenges in resistance breeding ( Johnson, 1992;Gupta et al., 2010;Muhammad et al., 2011;Karsai et al., 2012). The effectiveness of these powdery mildew resistance genes has been reduced with the passage of time owing excessive deployment of single resistance genes with race-specific nature (Xiao et al., 2013). Therefore, it is mandatory to continuously identify and transfer new and effective sources of powdery mildew resistance into improved wheat germplasm to counter the continuous evolution of virulence in powdery mildew pathogen. However, it could only be attained to identify the relative prevalence of powdery mildew across location of Pakistan in major wheat growing regions and the status of various wheat varieties grown in the powdery mildew hot spot regions.In the past, breeding programmes in Pakistan has little consideration to utilize powdery mildew resistance in improved genetic stocks and thus genetic improvement of wheat varieties against powdery mildew was limited. This was mainly due to little information on distribution of the disease and the regional risks of epidemics across Pakistan. During the present study a countrywide surveillance effort was made to (i). identify the relative distribution of powdery mildew across the country and (ii). assess the status of powdery mildew infection on various wheat varieties grown in powdery mildew prone areas.Wheat powdery mildew surveillance was carried out in major wheat growing areas of Pakistan during the year 2016, 2017 and 2018 (Figure 1). The surveillance was carried out in mainly farmer fields and to some extent at research institutes and stations, all under natural field conditions. Surveillance activities were carried out from March to July starting from southern part of the country and ending in the north, spanning mainly from heading to grain filling duration. A total of 1211 fields were surveyed during the three years from different locations of Pakistan. Evaluation of disease was based on foliar infection. For scoring powdery mildew, two parameters were taken in consideration i.e., host reaction and disease severity, which was recorded on leaves of each wheat variety in a field (Ali and Hodson, 2017). Modified Cobb scale (0-100 scale) was used to estimate disease severity and percentage of infected tissue of plant in a field (Peterson et al., 1948), while considering the overall field infestation.The surveillance data was analysed in MS Excel and in R-statistical environment. The disease status was analysed in relation to provinces, districts and host varieties. The geographical distribution of the powdery mildew across various geographical locations and different hosts was analysed based on its relative prevalence as a function of geography and host.Surveillance of powdery mildew disease allowed to measure the relative importance of disease at regional and country level. An overall low powdery mildew was detected in the southern half of Pakistan, while its prevalence was high in the northern Himalayan regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.Surveillance enabled to assess the relative distribution of powdery mildew across locations and the status of different varieties in different geographical regions. Surveillance was carried out in 63 districts during 2016, 69 districts during 2017 and 34 districts of Pakistan during 2018 (Table 1 and Figure 2). A total of 1211 wheat fields were surveyed during three years. In AJK 27 fields, Baluchistan 4 fields, Gilgit-Baltistan 15 fields, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 516 fields, Punjab 396 and Sindh 253 fields were surveyed over three years (Table 2).  The powdery mildew incidence and severity varied over the two years, across provinces and districts. Significant levels of powdery mildew were observed at most of the locations in northern KP surveyed during 2018 followed by wheat season of 2017, however, a lower disease pressure was observed during 2016 (Table 3). A total of 51 fields out of 1211 fields had a high disease pressure with a powdery mildew severity score of 40 and above (Table 4). In 2016, 8 fields were recorded with high powdery mildew severity out of total 437 field surveyed. While in 2017, 13 fields were recorded with high powdery mildew severity out of 480 fields and during 2018, 21 fields were recorded with high severity out of 294 total fields surveyed (Table 3). In AJK, three fields in Hattian Bala and Muzzafarabad districts were recorded with high powdery mildew severity in 2016 and 2017. In KP, the maximum numbers of fields with high disease severity was observed in district Mansehra (10 fields), followed by Dir Lower (9 fields) and Dir Upper (8 fields) over three years. In Gilgit-Baltistan, in five fields powdery mildew was detected with only one field with high severity. The number of fields with high disease severity in other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ranged from one to five. In Punjab, powdery mildew severity was observed in Rawalpindi, Bhakar, Mandi Bahaudin, Hafizabad and Chakwal districts, while in Sindh none of the field was infected with powdery mildew disease (Table 4).Powdery mildew incidence varied on different hosts across different locations. The disease was observed on many varieties in KP, where wheat fields with varieties PS-2005, Shahkar and some unknown lines were observed with high disease severity over three years. In 2016 and 2017 high disease was observed on Galaxy-13 along with some local lines, while on Faisalabad-08 and PS-2008, the disease was observed only during 2016. The maximum numbers of infected fields were recorded for Galaxy-13 followed by Shahkar. In AJK and Punjab, only some local and unknown varieties were recorded with powdery mildew (Table 5). Powdery mildew is an important disease of wheat and cereals with a worldwide distribution, but the disease is of significant importance in regions with dry and cool climatic conditions, including China, Europe, and the Southern areas of South America (Dubin and Duveiller et al., 2011). In recent decades, this disease is becoming more prevalent even in areas with warmer and drier climates because of extensive use of nitrogen fertilizers, intensive production with higher plant densities, and irrigation (Cowger et al., 2012). Its global frequency remained stable over time, but increased by 10% in the last 10 years in Central and Eastern Europe (Morgounov et al., 2012). Relatively cold environment and high humidity favors disease development ( Jones and Clifford, 1983;Wiese, 1987), which was the case in the present study, the disease was more prevalent in cold and humid areas.Powdery mildew was dominated in the cool areas of Pakistan, particularly the Himalayan region, which could be attributed to the prevalent weather conditions, which favors successful establishment of the disease. Temperature ranging between 12°C to 20°C with average temperature of 16°C in wheat season would result in damaging epidemics of powdery mildew (Te-Beest et al., 2008). Our results are also in broad agreement with previous reports of the optimal temperature which suggested range for mildew between 15°C and 22°C ( Jones and Clifford, 1983;Wiese, 1987). On contrary, the disease was absent in the warmer areas of Sindh and Punjab.Only in Rawalpindi division, powdery mildew was observed with few locations which could be attributed to the favorable microclimate developed during rainfall in vigorous crops with high fertilize application (Cowger et al., 2012).High rain falls enable to maintain desirable humidity for powdery mildew infestation, which occurs in the Himalayan regions of Pakistan, creating good conditions for powdery mildew development. This high humidity is also absent in the southern part of the country, resulting in low powdery mildew infestation ( Jones and Clifford, 1983;Wiese, 1987). Thus, in the northern part, the prevalent high humidity and cold climate would be responsible for the onset of disease (Ali et al., 2009). Seasonal variability in temperature and humidity could result in differential onset of various diseases (de Vallavielle-Pope et al., 2012). Powdery mildew dominated in cold regions all the three years, with a slight increase in frequency of powdery mildew during 2017 as compared to 2016. This seasonal variability in the Himalayan region could be attributed to the cool and mild climatic conditions of the area.This study concludes that wheat powdery mildew is emerging as potential threat to high yielding of wheat especially in northern part of the country.The disease incidence fluctuated oven the surveyed years. No disease was observed in the Sindh and was absent at maximum locations in Punjab because of the relatively high temperature during wheat season in those areas. The disease incidence was also low in southern KP, while in Northern KP and AJK where cool and humid climatic conditions prevail, the disease was more prevalent. Severe infestation was observed on some wheat varieties i.e., Galaxy-2013, PS-2005, Faisalabad-2008, Shahkar and some local lines, mainly deployed in those areas. The information should be considered while breeding wheat for genetic resistance against major diseases, particularly in breeding programmes for northern part of the country.","tokenCount":"2276"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"578becd9be76f9221e78ae905c791b92","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/10975d25-7a13-43ba-8a5f-d50670237942/retrieve","id":"-761608281"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0afaf6a6-3731-4c7b-bb79-bcc499767519","pagecount":"28","content":"ILCA's research focuses on representative livestock production systems in the highlands, the arid and semi-arid zones, the subhumid zone and the humid forest belt. Estimates of current livestock numbers and annual production in these different ecological zones are given in Table 1, based on data from a wide range of sources recently analysed by ILCA scientists. These figures, indicating the multiple uses of livestock in tropical Africa, have a bearing on ILCA's systems-oriented research strategy. For instance, in the semi-arid, subhumid and highlands zones, where ox-ploughing is used for subsistence farming, animal traction appears substantially more important than is commonly appreciated. And animal traction, transport and manure production are likely to become even more important in future with the rise of fuel and fertilizer prices.The diverse goals of livestock production in Africa point to a research strategy based on an understanding of entire production systems, rather than focused on one or another livestock commodity. This broadly based approach continues to be a central aspect of ILCA's research programme. By the end of 1980, a wealth of data had been collected and the production systems under study were broadly understood, while ILCA's research methodology, with emphasis on relevance to the needs of farmers and livestock producers, had produced a number of improvement packages which were being introduced through ILCA's field programmes with demonstrable success.The headquarters complex, begun in 1976, was completed and officially inaugurated by the Ethiopian Head-of-State in October 1980. The complex, on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, consists of offices, laboratories, a documentation centre, conference rooms and a herbarium, together with a hostel and staff accommodation, dining facilities, technical buildings and workshops.Support for ILCA's research programme was further enhanced in 1980 by the installation of a HP 3000/III computer at headquarters. ILCA's computer will support all research, documentation and administrative activities; during its initial installation phase, it has been used primarily for research data processing.ILCA's library and documentation centre continued a programme of steady expansion in 1980. By the end of the year, non-conventional documents had been collected on microfiche from government documentation centres, universities, agricultural stations and other institutions in nine African countries, with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Normal library acquisitions brought the total collection to about 20 000 documents on microfiche, 18 000 books and 450 specialized periodicals. ILCA's cartographic and printing facilities were also developed in 1980, with a major expansion of printing capacity, and laboratory facilities were established for plant, soil and animal feed analysis.Principal field research sites were operating in 1980 in Debre Zeit and Debre Berhan in the Ethiopian highlands, in the arid and semi-arid zones of central Mali around Niono, in Nigeria's subhumid savanna zone around Kaduna and at Ikenne and Fashola in the humid forest belt near Ibadan. Additional sites were located in the pastoral areas of Kenya, Botswana and Ethiopia, where traditional livestock production systems are under the influence of livestock development projects. As of the end of the year, ILCA's professional staff at headquarters and in the field stood at 71. The most important agricultural system in the African highlands is smallholder farming, with livestock providing traction for crop production, transport, milk, meat, manure for fuel, and a source of subsistence at times of crop failure. The relative importance of these roles varies in different highland areas: in the Ethiopian highlands, traction and manure are the most important livestock products.ILCA's research in the highlands is centred on two field stations and the surrounding farming areas near Addis Ababa. Research and experimental work continued in 1980 at Debre Zeit, focusing on 6 research farms under ILCA management and 20 participating farmers who have adopted improvements designed by ILCA but manage their farms independently. Work at Debre Berhan focused on 16 research farms. In both areas, surveys also continued on control groups of 42 outside farmers in the same agricultural zones.ILCA's improvement package consists of improved farming practices, seeds and fertilizer which make it possible to produce subsistence food crops in a smaller area so that forage production can be introduced to support crossbred dairy cows. The main subsistence crops at Debre Zeit are teff (Eragrostis tef), wheat and horse beans; at Debre Berhan, which is higher, teff is replaced by barley. Food crop yields at Debre Zeit were lower in 1980 than in 1978 and 1979, due to late rains and subsequent flooding. Nevertheless, yields of participating farmers averaged 35% higher than those of outside farmers, and yields on the research farms averaged 80% higher than those of the control group, as shown in Table 2. The overall gross margin per ha for all food crops averaged EB 568 (US$ 277) for participating farmers, compared with EB 500 (US$ 244) for outside farmers.At Debre Berhan, considerable frost damage occurred in 1980, as in 1979, and harvested yields were well below expectations. In 1981, attention is being focused on ways to reduce damage from frost.Participating farmers at Debre Zeit planted about 37% of their crop lands under forages in 1980, generally reducing the area under pulses. Teff continued to be the most important single crop, accounting for about 50% of cultivated land. Forages included oats/vetch mixtures and fodder sorghum. Yields were affected by flooding, but were still good on research farms, averaging about 7 tonnes dry matter per ha for the oats/ vetch mixture. Green matter samples appeared promising on the participating farms during the growing season, but the farmers cut their forages for hay and left them in the fields until after the teff harvest and so field losses were substantial. More research is required to synchronize hay making and teff harvesting, especially in years with late rains.Most of the crossbred cows kept by participating farmers at Debre Zeit completed their second lactations in 1980. Adjusted annual milk yields for the second lactation averaged 2 398 litres per cow, a substantial increase over adjusted annual yields averaging 1 714 litres per cow during the first lactation.Production trials of annual and perennial forages and selected food crops continued in 1980 at both stations. Crop research activities were supported by contributions of seeds from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and potato cultivars from the International Potato Centre (CIF). As in previous years, annual forage varieties proved more productive than the perennials, with oats/vetch mixtures the most successful. However, annual forage seed supplies are inadequate, so research is continuing to identify more productive perennial varieties. Vetch seed, in particular, is currently too expensive for most smallholders, so the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) is studying ways to increase vetch seed yields in cooperation with ILCA.Forage and cereal crop trials were initiated in several locations in Ethiopia under an agreement between ILCA and a number of government research and development agencies.Research on improved animal traction was intensified in 1980 at both stations under a cooperative agreement with the IAR, the Arsi Rural Development Project (ARDP) and the Debre Zeit Junior College. Cooperative traction trials are being conducted on different soil types, with different implements and with different breeds and crossbreeds of oxen in several parts of the country. In addition to this joint project, ILCA continued with its own traction research, evaluating different cultivation systems using improved implements.Dairy cows were also used for traction on research farms at both stations with promising results.A long-term study of the biological and economic efficiency of cow traction was begun at Debre Berhan in 1980, based on 32 cows, with half used for traction as well as milk production and half for milk production only.Experimental work is also being carried out at Debre Zeit and Debre Berhan using crossbred oxen with improved implements to drain waterlogged land. Local oxen are not strong enough for this work. Seasonally waterlogged areas which could be brought under production with low-cost drainage techniques are typically much more fertile than the upland slopes which have been cultivated regularly, often for centuries. These bottomlands account for roughly 6% of the African highlands, and a much higher proportion of the total cultivated land.Food and forage crop yields in 1979 and 1980 on drained bottomlands were encouraging. Average annual yields over the two years are given in Table 3 for a number of crops which were planted at Debre Zeit on land drained by different methods Dwarf sheep and goats in the humid zone subsist on the limited grazing, browsing and scavenging available around the villages, and most animals are fed some household scraps. However, the availability of scraps varies throughout the year with the food supply of the human population, as reflected in figures on scrap feeding given in Table 6. The quantity of household residues available may set an upward limit on the number of animals which can be maintained under present management conditions. For animals in new production situations, scientists from ILCA and the University of Ibadan have tested the use of hyperimmune PPR or rinderpest serum followed by vaccination 10 days later. This approach has eliminated the reaction to the vaccine among trial animals at the research stations. In 1981, research will also focus on the pneumonias, which cause considerable losses in new production situations as well as under traditional village conditions. These diseases pose complex problems because a number of different factors contribute to their incidence.The initial reaction of local villagers to animal health measures introduced by ILCA has been enthusiastic. In fact, farmers from surrounding areas appear to be sending their sheep and goats to the villages where ILCA is working, resulting in a substantial increase in the local small ruminant population. According to customary stock-sharing agreements, outside farmers must give half the offspring to the villagers who look after their animals, but this arrangement is still more profitable than raising sheep and goats under the high disease risks prevalent elsewhere.ILCA's animal feeding trials have shown that grazing on grass/legume mixtures is inadequate during the 2 to 5-month dry season. Growth rates are not maintained even when pressure on pastures is reduced by the regular offtake of males and excess females. As an alternative to traditional conservation methods to increase fodder availability during the dry season, ILCA is investigating the possibility of interplanting food crops with perennial browse species which would provide the necessary supplementation after the cropping season.Food crops in this area are normally planted for 4 or 5 years, followed by 4 or 5 years of fallow.ILCA is planting fodder shrubs set close together in widely spaced rows between food crops, according to the alley cropping system currently under study at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) at Ibadan. During the years of food cropping, the leaves from the browse plants are used as mulch. By retaining moisture and returning nutrients to the soil, this practice appears to have a positive effect on food crop yields. Then during the fallow period, a grass/legume mixture is interplanted with the shrubs and the leaves provide a valuable supplement for animal feeding.The productivity of several browse species is being tested under local conditions, including Leucaena leucocephala and Glyricidia sepium. Although these plants cannot be used as the sole diet of small ruminants because of their toxicity, they can provide a valuable dietary supplement when other feed is in short supply. Preliminary trials with Glyricidia have yielded an average of 400 g of leaf per plant, with 21 % crude protein and 66% in vitro digestibility. Given present planting densities, this would result in production of 2 to 3 tonnes dry matter per ha during the dry season.The subhumid zone of West and Central Africa represents one of the largest underutilized agricultural resources on the continent, lying between more densely populated areas to the north and south which are both dependent on imported food supplies. Bush clearing and tsetse control measures are making the area increasingly attractive for expanded cropping and livestock production. Due to its strong potential for increased milk and meat production, the subhumid zone has become a particularly important focus of ILCA's research programme.Traditional farmers in the subhumid zone cultivate cereals, particularly sorghum and maize, as well as grain legumes, and in the wetter areas, some root crops. Although they keep a few sheep and goats, mainly for home consumption, most of the livestock in the region are raised by Fulani pastoralists, who concentrate on cattle production. Traditionally, the Fulani have followed an annual transhumant cycle, bringing their herds slowly into the subhumid zone from the north during the dry season when the tsetse population is retreating, and moving quickly back north at the onset of the rains. More recently, partially as a result of government tsetse eradication programmes, the Fulani have been staying for longer periods in the subhumid zone and increasingly settling.In 1980, intensive research and innovation testing focused on 20 settled Fulani households in two livestock production areas in northern Nigeria, Kurmin Biri and Abet. Although soil and climatic conditions in the two areas are similar, agricultural production is more intensive at Abet and the sizeable farming population provides better market outlets for livestock products. Thus, development strategies are likely to be different in the two areas.The central focus of ILCA's research has been on increasing milk production through improved dry-season feeding, as nutritional deficiencies at this time of year have been identified as the most important constraint on productivity. Production levels under traditional management were monitored in 1980, and the effects of feeding small quantities of cottonseed cake to selected classes of animals were measured. Possibilities for introducing fodder legumes into the cropping system were also investigated.The Fulani households in the two study areas subsist largely on milk from their herds, ranging typically from 80 to 100 White Fulani (Bunaji) cattle, while at the same time cultivating limited areas of sorghum and maize. Milk offtake under traditional management is low. At Kurmin Biri, daily offtake per cow in milk averaged 0.74 litres from July 1978 to June 1980, with a maximum monthly average of 1.27 litres per day and a minimum of 0.36 litres. Offtake rises rapidly with the onset of the rains, peaks in the middle of the rainy season and then declines steadily, following the decline of protein in the grasses.Calving rates under traditional management averaged 53% in the two areas over 236 cowyears. Some seasonality of calving was observed, with peaks in October and March/April. Birth weights averaged 20 kg, ranging from 13 to 27 kg. During the first 3 months, when nutrient intake is almost entirely from milk, calves born during the wet season were heavier on average than those born during the dry season, but from 3 to 6 months this trend was reversed, so that at 6 months calves born during the dry season were marginally heavier. This pattern reflects seasonal forage availability, but it may also partially be due to compensatory growth and disease factors.At 6 months, calf weights under traditional management averaged between 55 and 60 kg, giving an average weekly growth rate of 1.3 kg. Calf growth rates at the National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), where calves are bucket fed and given supplementary concentrates, suggest a potential 6-month weight of at least 100 kg, while at the Kachia Breeding Ranch, where calves suckle but cows are not milked, calf weights at 6 months average about 80 kg. Calf growth rates under traditional management start to drop below the rates recorded at Kachia at about 3 months.In 1980, participating Fulani herd owners in the two areas supplemented half of their lactating cows with 1 kg of cottonseed cake daily during the dry season. The milk offtake of the supplemented cows was substantially higher than that of the cows subsisting on natural grazing alone, though offtake for both groups followed a similar curve. A more detailed analysis of the productivity of cows paired at the time of calving showed that the offtake of those fed cottonseed cake was about 75% higher than that of those who received no supplementation, as shown in Table 8. Calf birth weights and growth rates were also recorded for a smaller sample. The calves of supplemented dams appeared to perform better, but the differences were not significant, probably due to the small sample size. These relationships are being examined further in 1981. The returns in terms of milk offtake alone were not sufficient to cover the cost of the cottonseed cake. However, the supplemented cows were 15.76 kg heavier on average at the end of the dry season and showed greater oestrus activity. Further evidence will be collected on increased fertility, calf survival and growth in order to assess the full economic effects of supplementation.Given the limited availability and high cost of purchased concentrates, however, long-term improvements in animal feeding are more likely to be based on the introduction of forages into the cropping cycle. If the Fulani are to be encouraged to plant forage crops, research is required on the agronomic aspects of forage introduction and on the local land-tenure situation.The emphasis in 1980 was on interplanting a fodder legume, Stylosanthes hamata cv. Verano, with the staple sorghum and maize crops. At Abet, interplanting was considered an appropriate strategy because of labour constraints, and S. hamata was chosen because of the locally available seed supply.Food crops are normally planted for 3 or 4 years on a plot, followed by 3 or 4 years of fallow. Stylosanthes was interplanted during the last year of food cropping at the time of the first weeding. In the first year, 1 270 kg dry matter of fodder were produced per ha. Food crop grain yields were reduced by about 10% due to interplanting, but residues were not significantly affected. However, controlled experiments have revealed a sharper decrease in grain yields when legumes are undersown earlier in the cropping cycle.At Kurmin Biri, considerable land is available and the government assists Fulani farmers with mechanized seedbed preparation. Thus, in this area, Stylosanthes could be planted in pure stands, and good yields were achieved in the first year.The next concern has been to assess how well fodder legumes persist in subsequent cropping seasons, so that a ley farming system can be established based on a rotation of fodder and cereal crops. Stylosanthes reseeded itself and produced much higher yields in the second year, and yields for the third year also look promising. Further experimental work is under way to evaluate various intercropping strategies. After the first season, 40 additional farmers in the two study areas approached ILCA to ask if they could begin planting fodder legumes in 1981.However, if cropping is to be established on a permanent basis, the settled Fulani pastoralists require secure tenure to their land. At present, they have only temporary users' rights. In 1980, ILCA researchers analysed land disputes in the area from court records over the previous 20 years, to assess the importance of conflicts between the Fulani and the local arable farmers. Disputes over land tenure and conflicts over crop damage by livestock do not appear to have increased over the years, and one-third of all court cases due to crop damage were between arable farmers and did not involve the Fulani.Land tenure systems among the Fulani were also investigated. Though a traditional land-use system exists, tenure rights need to be clarified and strengthened, and a tenure system needs to be developed which includes both pastoral and arable farming groups. Further research is being conducted on these topics in 1981.ILCA's field research programme in the arid zones of West Africa, based at the western edge of the Niger River Delta, concentrates on two livestock production systems which are representative of systems widely practised throughout the Sudano-Sahelian region: a transhumant pastoral system focusing on cattle, sheep and goats, and an agropastoral system based on rainfed millet and livestock production.Early work indicated that cattle productivity in these systems is limited primarily by available animal feed supplies, with disease incidence interacting with inadequate nutrition. Among sheep and goats, however, pasteurellosis was shown to be a significant cause of mortality, and research on a new vaccine is now being carried out by the Malian Laboratoire Central Vétérinaire.Livestock production strategies of transhumant herdsmen are based on the annual rainy season and the flooding of the Niger Delta. Livestock are moved to upland Sahelian pastures in June at the onset of the rains and back to the delta plains in December with the recession of the floodwaters. Between these two seasons of relative wellbeing, the herds undergo periods of severe stress as they pass through the heavily overgrazed zone d'attente at the edge of the delta.A long-term trend towards increasing grazing pressure was revealed during ILCA's initial research work in the area by comparison of aerial photographs taken in 1852 and 1975. A lowlevel aerial survey was carried out in October 1980, at a time when grazing pressure was acute in the zone d'attente while the transhumant herds were waiting to enter the delta when the flood waters receded. The pattern of local grazing pressure around the delta was shown clearly in cattle stocking levels observed during the survey.A comparison of the proportions of degraded or bare land observed in 1975 and 1980 is given in Table 9. The earlier observations were made at the end of a severe drought, when ground cover was particularly poor. The much lower proportion of degraded land observed in 1980 reflects the situation after several years of good rains and demonstrates the remarkable regenerative capacity of the natural Sahelian vegetation. The maintenance and improvement of pasture productivity are considered crucial in terms of the long-term viability and ecological balance of the production system. ILCA's earlier experimentation with pasture improvement through the introduction of grass and browse species and scarification and fertilization of natural pastures indicated that neither approach is appropriate for widespread introduction: no introduced species was identified which performed better than local varieties under the harsh conditions of the Sahel, and fertilization and scarification proved too expensive in terms of the value of increased production achieved. Thus, attention has focused on modest improvements in productivity achieved through improved management of the natural vegetation.Grazing trials have indicated that significant increases in dry matter yields can be obtained well into the dry season by a system of intensive grazing early in the wet season, though the quality of the herbage, in terms of crude protein content, is not improved. Grazing pressure during the dry season after the annual grasses have dropped their seed has little effect on subsequent productivity. Dry matter and protein production of Sahelian pastures under three grazing regimes are shown in Figure 1. The crude protein content of the grasses in percentage terms was almost identical during the rainy season, but varied slightly at the end of the dry season.Results are averages over a 3-year period; stocking rates varied, but averaged about 4 ha per TLU (250 kg).  Similar improvements in pasture productivity were achieved on the Niger floodplains under a system of rotational grazing, as shown in Table 10. Stocking rates were heavier in this area, averaging about 1 ha per TLU.Although ILCA's experimental work has shown clearly that pasture productivity can be maintained, and even improved, under a system of rotational grazing, the introduction of grazing controls in the transhumant livestock production system will only be possible under a system of territorial organization which guarantees exclusive users' rights to specific groups of livestock producers. In 1980, ILCA specialists analysed land-use patterns in the study zone, based largely on the interpretation of photographs from high-altitude aerial surveys. ILCA field workers also conducted extensive surveys of existing territorial organization, based primarily on interviews with leaders of local transhumant groups. Traditional groupings have been identified which can be more clearly defined and strengthened to serve as a basis for the introduction of grazing controls and possibly other management innovations. By the end of 1980 land-use patterns had been analysed for about half of the delta area and two-thirds of the Sahel rangelands, while half of the delta had also been covered by ground surveys.A detailed cattle productivity survey, which was initiated in 1978, was completed at the end of 1980, with results to be analysed in 1981. This survey was designed to reveal the effects of several factors on animal productivity, including ownership patterns, management strategies, seasonal variations and several characteristics of the animal population, such as age, health and parturition status. One finding was the high calf mortality rate, averaging from 20 to 35%.Animal nutrition and growth studies have indicated that livestock production on natural pastures is not generally limited by the amount of dry matter on offer, but by the level of available crude protein. Data collected by ILCA in Mali confirm the importance of crude protein availability : 42% of recorded variation in cattle weight gain was found to be due to variation in crude protein intake, while only 2% was due to variation in the intake of digestible dry matter. A further 56% was attributable to the interrelationship of crude protein and digestible dry matter intake, reflecting an increased level of palatability and digestibility at the season when crude protein content is high.Opportunities to increase the level of crude protein available to transhumant livestock are likely to be based on the more efficient use of local browse species. ILCA's analyses have shown that the leaves of local browse plants contain from 3 to 25% crude protein, averaging about 12 to 18%. Possibilities for increasing the productivity of browse by various harvesting regimes have been investigated, and improvements have been achieved by lopping at the end of the dry season, as shown in Figure 2.ILCA's approach to research on social-territorial organization and pastoral development is depicted in Figure 3. This strategy has been adopted by the Mali Government, resulting in a special project agreement signed by ILCA and the Office du Développement de I'Elevage de la Region de Mopti (ODEM) in October 1980. ILCA will help identify at least four pastoral production units which will serve as the focus of development efforts in the delta and adjacent areas of the Sahel. ILCA will later participate in the evaluation of this project and will train six government officers in the research techniques which have been devised. If these efforts are successful, they will serve as the basis for a much wider development programme.Sedentary farming, based on rainfed millet and livestock production, has grown rapidly in recent years, and is now one of the most important production systems in the Sahelian region. ILCA scientists have conducted broad surveys of farm households throughout the study zone in Mali, while focusing attention on about 100 households in five representative villages.Millet is grown in fields around the villages, and livestock are maintained largely on natural grazing. Given limited and unreliable rainfall, cropping practices are strongly geared towards minimizing risk. Nearly all households keep cattle, sheep and goats: work oxen comprise a substantial proportion of household herds, while other livestock are kept largely as a form of investment.Research in 1980 focused on animal productivity levels and associated nutritional factors, and techniques were refined for assessing feed intake from natural grazing. It was found that a substantial proportion of the diet of small ruminants is provided by browse, but browse is much less important for cattle: goats spend approximately 87% of their daily feeding time browsing and sheep about 74%, but cattle only about 4%.  Preliminary results indicate the effects of nutrition on fertility among cattle, but not among sheep and goats. High preweaning mortality rates were recorded for small ruminants, however, averaging 35% for goats and 30% for sheep, due partly to inadequate nutrition and partly to pasteurellosis and other diseases. Nutritional stress is particularly important among work oxen, which tend to be in poorest condition at the onset of the rains when traction requirements are greatest. In March, a 300 kg bovine consumes on average 37 MJ of energy a day from natural pastures, while daily energy requirements are of the order of 58 MJ, indicating a serious shortfall.The main focus of ILCA research in 1980 was on possibilities of overcoming such shortfalls in animal nutrition through the introduction of forage crops. Earlier work revealed that labour would be a constraint on planting forages in pure stands, so introduction has been based on interplanting with the staple millet crop. After initial trials with a number of fodder legumes, research has focused on cowpeas (Vigna unguicuiata), particularly for dry-season feeding to work oxen. The first introduction of the most promising cowpea variety increased average dry matter available for animal feeding from 945 to 1600 kg per ha. The effects of interplanting on millet grain and straw yields appear to vary widely, depending on rainfall levels over the cropping season; these relationships are currently the subject of further experimentation.It is estimated that 2.7 kg of cowpea haulms provide sufficient daily supplementation for a 300 kg bovine. The best variety produced 195 kg dry matter of haulms per ha when interplanted with millet at a density of 8% of the plant population, thus providing 72 days of supplementation. In one of the study villages, 100 ha of millet were interplanted with cowpeas at this density, providing 61 days of supplementation for the village herd of 119 cattle. ILCA researchers are also assessing the impact of increased millet production on human nutrition.These initial results have stimulated interest among other villagers, so that in 1981 the areas intercropped with cowpeas will be expanded and planting densities increased. ILCA scientists will study the impact of improved feeding regimes on the traction capability of work oxen and the productivity of sheep and goats. Research in Kenya has focused on formulating an appropriate, cost-effective methodology for identifying and following trends in rangeland ecology, animal productivity levels, economic performance of ranches and pastoral production units, and the social organization and production strategies of livestock producers. At the request of the Kenya Government, ILCA's early work covered the commercial, company and cooperative ranches which together account for over half of total development expenditures under the KLDP. In 1980, data were analysed on herd dynamics and financial performance from a sample of 10 of these ranches, selected from a wide range of production environments.Ranch managers were found to vary widely in terms of training and experience, but performed best when they enjoyed relative autonomy. All but one of the ranches were stocked well below their potential carrying capacity, as determined by ILCA ecologists, but stocking was uneven, and watering points and other central areas on some ranches were overstocked. Most cattle on the ranches were of the East African Zebu type, but herds were slowly being upgraded with Boran and Sahiwal sires. Bull/cow ratios ranged from 1 :4 to 1 :70, with an overall average of 1:35. Data available from 1973 to 1979 indicated a trend towards decreasing bull/cow ratios which implies improvements in breeding management. The proportions of steers in ranch herds dropped substantially over the study period, while the proportion of mature cows increased slightly, reflecting a shift of emphasis from fattening purchased immatures to building up breeding herds. In spite of production policies formulated under the KLDP, it proved difficult to purchase immature stock for fattening due to drought and reduced livestock numbers in the traditional breeding areas.Calving rates over the period ranged from 52 to 83% on individual ranches, while mortality rates ranged from 4 to 24%. Recorded disease incidence differed widely according to production zone, whereas calving and mortality rates on all the ranches showed the effects of a 4-year drought which peaked in 1976.In 1978, the emphasis in ILCA's research activities shifted to the group ranches which are being developed in traditional Maasai and Samburu pastoral areas. These ranches have been adjudicated and ownership vested collectively in the traditional users of the land. As an attempt to vest land rights in pastoral communities, the group ranches in Kenya have aroused widespread interest.Data collected from 1977 to 1979 at Elangata Wuas group ranch were analysed in 1980.Information collected on rangeland vegetation and stocking rates indicated that productivity will be uncertain in the long term unless controls on stocking are introduced. Given the low and highly variable rainfall in the area, the ranch is already fully stocked relative to its longer-term carrying capacity, yet no viable mechanism exists to limit further herd growth.Large numbers of animals, representing a substantial proportion of total holdings, are sold or traded every year. Net offtake, however, is only a fraction of reported sales, as most transactions are between ranch members. A survey of group ranch members indicated that innovations which are relatively easy to implement, such as dipping and the use of improved sires, are appreciated and readily adapted. However, any proposed improvement requiring major changes in the production system will be more difficult to implement.As in many other pastoral societies, substantial variation exists among Maasai households on Elangata Wuas, particularly in terms of livestock holdings. Table 11 shows the ranges of observed values for a number of factors. This variability implies that a relatively large sample of households would be required to obtain significant information about the ranch population as a whole. The extreme variability of livestock holdings also has important development implications, though sharing mechanisms partially alleviate the effects of the wide discrepancies in wealth. Fully 25% of the households at the time of the survey had an average of only 6 cattle and 9 sheep and goats not enough to meet their subsistence needs-while the wealthiest 25% of households had an average of 203 cattle and 123 sheep and goats.The results of early work in Kenya have made it possible to sharpen the focus of current activities. Present research is based on a network covering three Maasai group ranches.Olkarkar and Merueshi group ranches were established under Phase I of the KLDP, but Olkarkar has received more than twice as much development funding. Mbirikani group ranch has only recently been adjudicated and has not yet received any funding. Thus the three ranches, which are similar in many other respects, represent a continuum in terms of development inputs.Human and livestock populations have been assessed on the three ranches and settlements and infrastructure demarcated. Detailed ecological maps have also been completed.Households have been stratified into three classes based on the ratio of household size to livestock holdings, and random samples have been selected from each class for intensive studies.Table 11. Observed variation among households on Elangata Wuas group ranch. Livestock sales over 1 year 0 to 100% of holdings (median : 15%)A study was also undertaken in 1980 in a Maasai area where land is being adjudicated and group ranches set up prior to the formulation of development plans. A demographic profile has been made of the human and livestock populations of this area, livestock movements have been described and locally recognized territorial units demarcated. Data on traditional land use are being collected on a regular basis from a sample of 30 households.A comparative marketing survey was initiated in 1980 in two districts, and in 1981 it is being expanded to include a third. Finally, a study of the use and potential of browse was carried out in 1980 at four sites, focusing on Tarchonanthus camphorates, a common invading shrub which is used seasonally as browse by local livestock producers.Within the framework of the Ethiopian Government's Rangelands Development Project (RDP), ILCA carried out research in 1980 on the Afar pastoral production system in the northeastern lowlands. A baseline survey was completed, covering approximately 5 500 km 2 of the project area, where a varying Afar population of 4 000 to 11 500 households keeps cattle, sheep and goats and a smaller number of camels. Useful data were collected on soils, rainfall, vegetation, human and livestock populations and management practices, and detailed maps were prepared. The survey report was completed in early 1980 and submitted to the Ethiopian Government, and an ongoing research programme was established, funded jointly by ILCA and the RDP.The critical resource in the Afar livestock production system is feed. Though surface water is adequate, pasture production, and thus animal and human nutrition, are limited by low and erratic rainfall, ranging from 600 to less than 250 mm a year eastwards down an altitude gradient. Social organization is not well developed above the household level, which has important implications for the organization of government administrative and development activities. Critical pressure on the system has increased in recent years with the gradual incursion of Oromo farmers into the higher-rainfall hill areas in the west, and the productivity of remaining pastures may also be decreasing due to heavy overstocking in periods between droughts. The Afar are no longer self-supporting: they rely increasingly on food provided through famine relief programmes and in periods of particular stress large numbers of livestock and people may die.A preliminary assessment of the production system, based on the data collected by ILCA, suggests that the present development project, aimed at improving the traditional pastoral system, may prove inadequate. If the Afar are to survive in their hostile and increasingly limited environment, a major reorientation of their production system may be required. ILCA research is designed to assess the potentials and constraints of the present system and to suggest alternatives for future development.A research network was organized in 1980, based on 54 representative production units in six separate groups from all the major clans of the study area. Each of these groups is being followed by a resident enumerator. An ecological assessment was carried out using previously established transects, and a system was established to collect meteorological data throughout the area. Information is being collected on basic range and animal productivity levels, carrying capacities, utilization patterns, offtake levels, trade links, decision-making patterns and human nutrition factors. Land-use studies are to focus on the hill areas which have traditionally been crucial for Afar survival during periodic droughts in the lowlands. As these areas are increasingly taken over for cultivation by the Oromo, the development project has concentrated on improving pastures in the lowlands through spate irrigation, but it is not known how this effort should best be organized or whether it will be adequate to support the Afar population and their herds.Once the Afar research network was established and operating, attention was turned to the most important pastoral component of the RDP, the southern rangelands area. Here an initial study was carried out, focusing on a population of approximately 30 000 pastoral Borana households who keep cattle, sheep and goats and smaller numbers of camels and horses in a savanna plateau area of about 95 000 km 2 . With annual rainfall ranging from 500 to 700 mm, this underutilized rangeland represents one of the best remaining pastoral areas in Africa. In contrast to the Afar region, feed resources are plentiful, but their utilization is limited by scarcity of surface water. In contrast to the Afar, the Borana are a highly organized pastoral society, divided into well defined groups based on access to one or more deep wells, which are the only sources of water during the dry season.Interventions introduced under the RDP during the past 4 years have centred around the construction of rain-fed ponds which extend the grazing period in wet-season areas and thus reduce the pressure on pastures around the permanent wells. This has been supplemented by an animal disease control and vaccination programme, the construction of access roads and the development of a ranch where excess livestock may be sold. An initial assessment indicates that the present project approach is essentially correct, but more detailed information on the traditional production system and on project impacts is required if long-term trends are to be anticipated and possible problems corrected.A meteorological network was set up in 1979, a basic research model has been developed and a comprehensive data gathering system has been initiated. Information is being collected on human demography, household economics, livestock productivity and management, herd and flock structures and social-territorial factors. Special surveys cover well utilization and organization, animal disease, livestock sales and offtake, and human nutrition levels, particularly as they relate to peak labour requirements.An essential aspect of ILCA's programme in the northeastern and southern rangeland areas is the integration of research and development activities, based on close cooperation with the RDP. The programme is still at an early stage, but objectives and target systems have been clearly defined and data collection networks are well established.In 1970, the Botswana Government launched a comprehensive Tribal Grazing Land Policy (TGLP) designed to develop the country's livestock industry. The First and Second Livestock Development Projects were initiated under the TGLP, and the government asked for ILCA's assistance in project evaluation and livestock development monitoring.An ILCA country representative works closely with government officials responsible for planning and implementing livestock development programmes. He is supported by other ILCA scientists, who visit Botswana and advise the government on various aspects of the project. In 1980, the government agreed to contribute to ILCA's operating costs in the country for that year and to cover 80% of the full costs in subsequent years.Two types of activities have been initiated in Botswana. A comprehensive programme of implementation monitoring is carried out in cooperation with government officers to provide a continuous review of the progress of various project components. In addition, government field staff review project impact on a regular basis to evaluate the effects of development interventions on the livestock production sector.The implementation monitoring programme, which the ILCA country representative helped design, is based on guidelines and formats for planning annual work programmes and semiannual reports on the progress of project components. The rate of project implementation has been slow, but the monitoring system has helped pinpoint responsibilities for delay and identify administrative weaknesses in the implementation process.The review of project impact includes regular assessment of range conditions, livestock productivity and ranch economic performance. Two major considerations in designing the programme have been to ensure its cost-effectiveness and long-term continuity. In 1980, ILCA scientists and government officers reviewed past range ecology studies in detail and introduced important modifications to improve the quality of data collected and broaden the coverage to include all the major ecological zones of the country. Range condition score cards already in use were modified and standardized to ensure the compatability of data collected by all government agencies. Initial ecological surveys were carried out by government in 1980 in several commercial ranching areas in order to determine potential carrying capacity and range conditions. Results were communicated to extension staff who could then advise ranchers on appropriate stocking rates.Two sets of simplified formats have been developed by government and ILCA staff to record data on livestock productivity and ranch economic performance. Each ranch-owner records his operations in a herd register, while government field staff use another set of formats to build up an extension file on each ranch. Besides providing feedback to government on the progress of development efforts, the information collected is of immediate use to extension staff in clarifying the input-output situation and technical and financial performance of the ranches. These formats were tested in the field, modified and distributed for general use in 1980. ILCA has helped supervise data collection in the field and will subsequently help develop computer programmes for data storage and analysis. Serious overstocking has already been identified on ranches developed under the First Livestock Development Project and proposals have been made for introducing stock limitations in the area. An evaluation of the potential milk and beef production of Sahiwal cattle was completed at the end of 1980. Productivity data were analysed from five herds, including Sahiwal, Ayrshire, Small East African Zebu and Boran cattle and Sahiwal/Ayrshire crossbreds of varying percentages. The herds were kept across a wide range of production environments and management levels, with production objectives varying from primarily beef to primarily milk production and different levels of emphasis in between.Examination of environmental and genetic parameters indicated that the formation of composite breeds is a promising approach to producing cattle adapted to the major ecological zones and production systems of tropical Africa. Composites should include an optimum percentage of the highest performing Bos indicus breeds, such as the Sahiwal, to achieve adaptability to the production environment, combined with Bos taurus breeds which have a high response capability for milk and beef production. Suggestions were presented for specific composite breeds in each of the environmental situations for which data were analysed. The primary objective would be to synchronize the formation of a composite breed with the natural environment in which the herd is to be maintained, including climate, nutrition, disease and parasite conditions, with the level of management which is technically and economically feasible, and with specific production goals. There are strong indications that the optimum contribution by a Bos indicus breed would be at least 25% in all of the environments covered by the study.A similar study was initiated in 1980, focusing on the Boran breed. Eleven breeders were identified throughout Kenya who had maintained production records on their Boran herds over a number of years. Over a 6-month period, components of these record sets were copied and abstracted and analysis began at the end of 1980. This study will provide considerable information on performance traits of Boran and their crosses with many other breed types under a range of management levels and ecological conditions.ILCA's survey of trypanotolerant cattle, sheep and goats in West and Central Africa, completed in 1979, suggested that the productivity of these breeds may be much higher than previously assumed relative to other indigenous types. Further research, and in some cases wider utilization, were called for. In 1980, further comparative studies were planned in a network covering Benin, Togo, the Gambia, Senegal, Gabon, Zaire, and Congo, where national authorities will record essential data from large numbers of animals with technical coordination by ILCA. In addition, ILCA personnel will support data analysis and the interpretation of results.ILCA and ILRAD scientists were also engaged in trypanotolerance research in 1980 in Kenya, focusing on Sahiwal x Ayrshire cattle, which are considered susceptible to trypanosomiasis. The study covered a breeding herd of 800 females consisting of two breed types: 2/3 Sahiwal-1/3 Ayrshire and 1/3 Sahiwal-2/3 Ayrshire. The animals are kept on a commercial dairy ranch in an area under low trypanosomiasis challenge, carried by two tsetse species, Glossina pallidipes and G. austeni.Periodic examinations of blood specimens revealed the presence of T. congolense and T. vivax. Animals were treated selectively with trypanocidal drugs, based on measurement of packed cell volume (PCV) in the blood. Samples were taken from each animal in the breeding herd 4 or 5 times a year, and any animal with a PCV of 25% or less, later modified to 29% or less, was treated with Berenii (Dimanozone aceturate).When data collected over a 6-year period were analysed, using the incidence of treatment to indicate infection, it was shown that animals which had received more treatments in the past required fewer treatments subsequently. This pattern was established at a high level of statistical significance and was shown to be independent of the animals' ages. Because of the intervals between treatments, any residual prophylactic effect of the drug was discounted. These results provide significant evidence of acquired tolerance to trypanosomiasis.Turning to genetic factors, it was found that the 2/3 Sahiwal animals generally required only half the number of treatments as the 1 /3 Sahiwals, or an average of 0.6 doses per year compared with 1.4. The heritability of PCV values, as indicators of trypanotolerance, was also demonstrated. Information was assessed from 36 sires, each represented by 16 daughters. PCV values were measured 5 times throughout each of the 2.3 calving intervals recorded for each daughter. The heritability of average PCV values throughout an interval was 0.160.08. As animals with PCVs of 29% or less were being treated with trypanocides, it is possible that heritabilities of PCV values are higher among trypanotolerant livestock in West and Central Africa in situations where drugs are rarely used.ILCA's first application of herd-level mathematical modelling demonstrated the potential contribution of such models to the preliminary assessment of research and development options. A simulation model developed at Texas A & M University was applied to the evaluation of beef cattle production potential in Botswana. While the model proved well suited to certain types of analysis, including comparative evaluation of different animal genotypes in large-scale herding situations, a different formulation is needed to address such issues in most African production situations. For instance, a major fraction of the African bovine population is held in semi-arid areas where annual variability in forage supplies is a key factor determining long-run herd productivity. Additionally, the typical herd in Africa is small relative to the size of commercial production units in North and South America for which the Texas A & M model was principally intended.Thus, ILCA scientists have developed a herd-level simulation model which is particularly suited-with a minimum of modification-to a broad range of production situations in tropical Africa. The model is time dynamic, stochastic and non-optimizing, and treats simulated animals as individual entities. The parameters used to describe the functions representing the various biological processes are drawn from the relevant literature, modified as needed by observations from particular production systems. Thus, the model is data based where possible and also modularized so that alterations and refinements can be made relatively easily. It was put in operation in 1980 on the computer facilities at ILCA headquarters.An important feature of the model is that it provides the user with an array of policy options so that herd performance can be studied under a variety of management regimes. These policy options allow for the simulation of common husbandry practices, such as breeding and weaning at different ages and seasons. Additionally, options can be specified with an adequate degree of detail relating to the management of the herd as an economic unit. On the input side, the model allows for the purchase of animals. Furthermore, a range of supplements can be provided for increasing meat and milk production or for strategic reasons, such as improving the survival of the breeding herd during extended feed deficit periods. On the output side, milk and meat offtake can be regulated, as well as the sale of surplus animals over and above a planned herd size, within the constraints of the available resource base.Initial applications of this model to production systems covered by ILCA's research programme in Botswana, Nigeria and Mali have indicated its validity and utility in screening a range of potential interventions.","tokenCount":"8401"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e17e549e7253d0516853b0e32f8902f8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/416d2d81-31c5-4ba1-a920-86f8f4c55656/retrieve","id":"-1626049761"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2526b678-7791-4ab6-a542-3cf3a646299b","pagecount":"31","content":"SAPLING is one of the One CGIAR initiatives under the RAFS research area. SAPLING contributes to transforming livestock sectors in seven target countries (i.e., Vietnam, Nepal, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali) to make them more productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable. To support this transformation, SAPLING has three main pathways: 1. Co-creation and -delivery of sustainable productivity-and resilience-enhancing innovations that are expected to go to scale with the up-front involvement of demand and scaling partners. 2. Generation and communication of evidence that can influence policies and investments to support transformation. 3. Capacity building of partners to use the innovation packages and evidence to drive change. (https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/17-sustainable-animal-productivity-for-livelihoodsnutrition-and-gender-inclusion-sapling/).A range of different interventions or innovations have been proposed for implementation in the SAPLING countries, sites and values chains. As time and resources are limited, there is a need for prioritization. To help decide on which innovations to focus for further research, implementation and the scaling readiness process, it is important to gain insight on the potential positive and negative impacts of the proposed innovations. Therefore, an ex-ante tradeoff analysis was conducted.This report presents the results of the tradeoff analysis for the dairy and poultry value chains in Kenya, which was part of a broader exercise covering a total of 14 value chains in the seven SAPLING countries (Table 1). It captures expert opinions on possible positive and negative impacts of livestock innovations along five different sustainability dimensions or domains: productivity, profitability, environment, human condition and social impacts. In each country and for each value chain, innovations were defined during the initiative stakeholder and inception meetings. SAPLING country leads and consultants translated these innovations into expected practice changes (Annex 1). They further compiled a VC-specific list of topical experts on livestock health, animal genetics, animal nutrition, livestock markets, policy analysis, natural resource management, gender and livestock, who were sent an invitation to participate in an online trade-off scoring exercise.An on-line survey (in Google forms) was carried out for each of the 14 VCs, capturing expert opinions on possible positive and negative impacts of livestock innovations along different dimensions (or domains) based on the sustainable intensification assessment framework (SIAF) including productivity, profitability, environment, human condition and social impacts (Musamba et al., 2017).The productivity domain is critical in capturing productivity both in cropping and livestock systems. Respondents were asked to keep the following three key indicators in mind when scoring the interventions: animal productivity, whole-farm productivity and variability of production. In terms of productivity, we thus consider not only animal productivity (birth rate, growth rate, milk production, health) but also whole-farm productivity (including trees, cash and food crops). In addition, we consider lower variability of production (seasonal and interannual) as a positive outcome. Innovations which increase the outputs of the farm and/or reduce the seasonal and annual variability would thus score higher.Here we refer to the profitability (i.e., net returns) of agricultural activities for the producers and other actors along the value chain. Furthermore, consider the likelihood of generating return to investment, enhancing market participation, and creation of employment on-farm and/or along the value chain. Innovations likely to deliver greater monetary profits and create employment would score higher.Here we refer to the natural resource base (e.g., soil, water, biodiversity), the environmental services provided by the natural resource base (e.g., nutrient provision, water-holding capacity, genetic diversity), and the degree to which agricultural activities impact the natural resource base and environmental services. Consider impacts the innovation would have on biodiversity (including agrobiodiversity), water availability and water use, land use, vegetation and soil health, and greenhouse gas emissions per unit of product. Innovations which lead to lower environmental impacts would score higher.Here we refer to the welfare of individuals. Key indicators to consider are access to sufficient and nutritious foods, food safety and hygiene. Innovations which lead to better access to safe food and increased food and nutrition security would score higher.Here we refer to social interactions and the enabling environment. Key indicators to consider are women control over income and resources, equitable gender labor requirements and youth participation in, and benefit from livestock. Innovations which increase equity and opportunities within communities or value chains would score higher.   Before sharing with the potential respondents, the survey was evaluated by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and translated into French for Mali and Vietnamese for Vietnam. In each country, a consultant was hired to support the process.Of the 446 experts (85 women, 362 men), 177 (33 women, 144 men) responded, with respond rates varying between 16% and 72% and no difference between female and male respondents (Table 3). The 177 experts who responded provided for a total of 206 data points across the 14 value chains, some responding for more than one value chain. In spite of several reminders to the potential respondents, the objective of at least 20 respondents per value chain was not always reached (Table 4). In Kenya, 18 experts scored the proposed dairy VC interventions, while 4 scored poultry VC interventions. Tables 5 and 6 give insight into the institutional background and expertise of the respondents. Some findings on the institutional background of the respondents:• 36% is working in research (international, national research organizations, academia), with stronger representations in Vietnam, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. Academia is particularly strongly represented in Uganda. • 32% is part of local or national government, with similar proportions in all countries, except for Nepal with a strong representation. • 19% is from private sector, mainly in East Africa (Uganda).• Farmer organizations are very poorly represented (only in Kenya and Mali). Some findings on the expertise of the respondents:• Almost all respondents have expertise in animal production: 28% in animal genetics (especially in East Africa), 19% in animal health (especially in Asia and Uganda), 39% in feeds & forages (evenly distributed). • Respondents with expertise on Livestock & Environment came mainly from Tanzania, Uganda and Mali. • For the different livestock value chains 16% were experts on beef (TZ and UG), 36% on dairy (East Africa and Mali), 19% on pigs (UG) and 3% on poultry (mainly ET). • Expertise on business models was mainly present in Uganda.• On Gender & Equity, expertise was quite evenly distributed over the countries with about 10% of the respondents.The responses of experts were analyzed, collated and summarized as follows:• The scores \"large negative impact, small negative impact, no change, small improvement, large improvement and \"I don't know\"\" were translated into numbers, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 and \"blank\" respectively and linked to a color scale. • For each value chain, the scores were aggregated per innovation (see Annex 2 for details).• To be able to better compare the results per value chain type (dairy, beef, small ruminants, pig, poultry), the innovations were reformulated (summarized for different types of innovations) and \"grouped\" (See Annex 3). • As the result of a review process, the innovations formulated in 2022 were (partially) reformulated for almost all value chains. To the extent possible, the initial innovations were reallocated to the revised ones and a reassessment was done along the five dimensions.The results of the analysis were shared with stakeholders during Theory of Change (ToC) refinement workshops. These workshops were organized in each of the countries and brought multiple stakeholders together with the aim to validate the Theory of Change and the innovations. The scores were reviewed and in some cases refined by the workshop participants. In addition, the implications of the expected impacts across the different dimensions were discussed. If deemed necessary and feasible, innovations were refined to avoid expected negative trade-offs. In the case of uncertainty about the scores or clear knowledge gaps, ideas for follow-up action or research were elicited.Table 7 presents the summary of the results of the expert scores. In general, the implementation of the proposed innovations is expected to have a positive impact on productivity, profitability, and human welfare, particularly in terms of access to nutritious food, food security, and hygiene. The effects on the environment and social dimension are also expected to be mostly positive, albeit limited (e.g., Kenya dairy vc). Additionally, capacity development initiatives are anticipated to have a positive impact across all dimensions. When considering specific value chains, the small ruminants value chain innovations are projected to yield the highest gains in productivity, economic benefits, improvements in human conditions, and social outcomes. In terms of environmental gains, the small ruminants value chain in Ethiopia is expected to experience the highest benefits, this in contrast to Mali.Innovations for poultry value chains are expected to have the lowest impact. Pig value chains, overall, show the lowest environmental gains.Identified knowledge gaps include limited access to financial guarantees, which hinders progress in implementing innovations. Moreover, there is a lack of integrated climate smart technology packages and livestock insurance schemes.The following sections zoom into the Kenya dairy and poultry value chains and present:• the average scores per (type of) innovation for the different dimensions, both for the initial and the reformulated innovations • knowledge gaps in terms of innovations and dimensions • proposed innovations to address knowledge gaps and expected low or negative impacts • Training on business models is expected to have a positive impact on productivity, income and social parameters, but less on human condition and in particular environment where some respondents mentioned a negative impact.• Biophysical interventions (reproduction management and AI) are expected to have a positive impact on especially productivity and to a lesser extent income.knowledge are expected to be limited, with particular low values for environment; some respondents mentioned a negative impact. Nine revised innovations were bundled into two innovation packages. To the extent possible, the original innovations of 2022 were reallocated to the revised ones and a reassessment was done along the five dimensions with the following results.• IP1, Institutional and business models for integrated delivery of technologies, knowledge, and services to enhance profitability of dairy enterprises, is expected to have a moderate positive impact on productivity and income, human condition and social aspects, and a small positive impact on environment. • Digital herd recording and genomic analysis to identify tropically adapted dairy breed types, to be promoted as part of technology package, was not directly related to the original innovations and could therefore not be assessed. • Co-developed herd health plans delivered by retooled and entrepreneurially oriented animal health (AH) service providers, was not directly related to the original innovations and could therefore not be assessed. • Novel forages and feed innovations packaged and appropriately delivered to end users, was not directly related to the original innovations and could therefore not be assessed.• Models for integrated delivery of technology packages, inputs, and services used by value chain actors to disseminate technology packages, is expected to have a moderate positive impact on productivity, income and social aspects, less on human condition and only a small positive impact on environment. • Suite of digital decision support tools that facilitate decision making by value chain actors and enable value chain linkages, is expected to have a moderate positive impact on productivity, less on income and social aspects, much less on human condition and only a small positive impact on environment. • Innovative financing options that facilitate scaling of proven innovations, is expected to have a moderate positive impact on productivity and income, much less on social aspects and human condition and only a small positive impact on environment.• IP2, Participatory approaches for evidence-based planning and monitoring of dairy sector development, is expected to have a small positive impact on productivity, income, human condition and social aspects, and only a small positive impact on environment. • Stakeholder-led and data-driven dairy sector development planning, is expected to have a small positive impact on all dimensions. • Value proposition for investors, was not directly related to the original innovations and could therefore not be assessed. • Data platform for tracking sector development, is expected to have a moderate positive impact on productivity and income, human condition and social aspects, and a small positive impact on environment. Proposed innovations that can address the biggest knowledge gaps:• Digital extension: This innovation focuses on utilizing digital platforms and technologies to extend agricultural knowledge and information to farmers, providing them with access to timely and relevant guidance and support. • Business models and service delivery: Innovation in this area aims to develop and implement effective business models that enhance service delivery to farmers, ensuring efficient access to inputs, information, and support. • Innovations related to improved forage quality, feeding, calf rearing, and young stock management • Innovation 10: This refers to synchronized artificial insemination (AI) services and the use of data platforms for collecting and disseminating information. These innovations aim to improve breeding practices and provide access to valuable data for informed decisionmaking.Additional suggestions on innovations:• Developing personalized solutions tailored to individual farmers' needs and knowledge levels. Economic assessments, including cost-benefit analysis of dairy production.• Investment in research and innovations for increased productivity • Fodder production and conservation techniques • Training on business models is expected to have a (moderate) positive impact on income, productivity, human condition and social parameters, but less on in particular environment where some respondents mentioned a negative impact.• Biophysical interventions (breeding, reproduction management and AI, and feeds) are expected to have a positive impact on especially income and productivity, and in the case of feed innovations in particular on human condition and social parameters. • The impact of value chain interventions are expected to be limited, except for a strong positive impact on productivity for improving market linkage and with particular low values for environment for input supply and service delivery where some respondents mentioned a negative impact. Four revised innovation packages were defined. To the extent possible, the original innovations of 2022 were reallocated to these and a reassessment was done along the five dimensions with the following results.• IP1, Integrated and market-oriented strategies and approaches to enhance smallholder chicken keepers' access to improved poultry packages, is expected to have a strong positive impact on all dimensions, especially on social aspects. • IP2, Approaches for enhancing animal source food consumption in school feeding and promotion of poultry products consumption in rural areas, was not directly related to the original innovations and could therefore not be assessed. • IP3, Women and youth-focused business models for multiplication and delivery of improved technologies (IP1-3) and other services to enhance sustained adoption of poultry innovations, is expected to have a strong positive impact on productivity, a little less on income, human condition and social aspects, and only a small positive impact on environment. • IP4, Platforms, policies, and technical capacities for enhancing the competitiveness and inclusiveness of smallholder poultry value chains, is expected to have a strong positive impact on productivity and income, less on human condition and social aspects, and only a small positive impact on environment.  Locally adapted breeds lead to improved adaptability to local conditions and improved productivity and profitability. Increased rearing of locally adopted breeds. Reduced mortalities, reduced cost of production, increased profitability. Increased participation of women and youth in chicken rearing.Increased availability of locally adapted breeds lead to improved productivity and profitability.Increase in availability and access of locally adapted chicks for rearing. Increase in the number of women and youth farmers rearing chicken due to easy access to chicks. Reduced mortality of locally adapted chicks. An increase in the supply of both meat and eggs. 5. Moving to semi-intensive production (community-based groups, access to inputs & services, access to credit) Smallholder men and women farmers have adopted more efficient and effective production systems, have access to credit and are willing to invest in poultry business for higher incomes. Increase in the number of farmers engaging in commercial chicken production. Increase in inclusivity and participation of both women and the youth in chicken production due to access to factors of production such as inputs and credit. Increased commercialization of chicken rearing. 6. Aspects of commercialization -business skills, gender equity & involvement of youth, private sector engagement, collection / aggregation hubs Gender equitable commercialization of poultry includes quality marketing standards (e.g., price related to quality, value-added processing etc.). Increased number of farmers joining the formal markets. Increased number of women and youth in commercial chicken production. Increased sales and profits for the farmers. Reduced mortality rates.The CGIAR Research Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING) is working in seven countries focusing on livestock value chains to package and scale out tried-and-tested, as well as new, innovations in livestock health, genetics, feed and market systems. SAPLING aims to demonstrate that improvements in livestock productivity can offer a triple win: generating improved livelihoods and nutritional outcomes; contributing to women's empowerment; reducing impacts on climate and the environment. Its seven focus countries are Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam. SAPLING forms part of CGIAR's new Research Portfolio, delivering science and innovation to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.","tokenCount":"2818"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"94db4fb7e7a674dbb6c67b2b85e433df","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eef02b0d-1b2b-4348-8c3f-530979d053b4/retrieve","id":"1624747656"},"keywords":["Bipolaris sorokiniana","disease management","resistance breeding","spot blotch","wheat"],"sieverID":"44d8c9ee-cd36-42a2-9935-10e03dee86b2","pagecount":"11","content":"Spot blotch (SB) caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana (teleomorph Cochliobolus sativus) is one of the devastating diseases of wheat in the warm and humid growing areas around the world. B. sorokiniana can infect leaves, stem, roots, rachis and seeds, and is able to produce toxins like helminthosporol and sorokinianin. No wheat variety is immune to SB; hence, an integrated disease management strategy is indispensable in disease prone areas. A range of fungicides, especially the triazole group, have shown good effects in reducing the disease, and crop-rotation, tillage and early sowing are among the favorable cultural management methods. Resistance is mostly quantitative, being governed by QTLs with minor effects, mapped on all the wheat chromosomes. Only four QTLs with major effects have been designated as Sb1 through Sb4. Despite, marker assisted breeding for SB resistance in wheat is scarce. Better understanding of wheat genome assemblies, functional genomics and cloning of resistance genes will further accelerate breeding for SB resistance in wheat.Spot blotch (SB) caused by the hemibiotrophic fungus Bipolaris sorokiniana (teleomorph Cochliobolus sativus) syn. Drechslera sorokiniana, syn. Helminthosporium sativum is the most devastating disease of wheat grown in warm and humid areas. In Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of India, Bangladesh and Nepal, B. sorokiniana appears in a complex with Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Died.) Drechs. (anamorph Drechslera tritici-repentis (Died.) Shoemaker) responsible for tan spot (TS) and is commonly known as Helminthosporium leaf blight (HLB) (Duveiller et al., 2005). Occurrence of SB is more frequent in the humid and warmer wheat growing areas of South Asia (SA), Latin America and Africa (He et al., 2022) (Figure 1). Globally, the disease appears in approximately 25-million-hectare (mha) areas, out of which 10 mha areas are present in EGP. Besides, wheat grown under subtropical lowland of Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina in Latin America, Tanzania, rainfed areas of Zambia and Madagascar in Africa provides congenial environments for SB (van Ginkel and Rajaram, 1998). Under favorable conditions, the disease may cause yield loss of above 50% (Sharma and Duveiller, 2004), with an average yield loss of 15-20% in SA, and yield loss in the farmer's field reported up to 16% in Nepal and 15% in Bangladesh (Villareal et al., 1995;Saari, 1998;Duveiller, 2002).B. sorokiniana causes a typical symptom of light brown colored lesions of oval or oblong to elliptical shape on leaves, sheath, nodes or glume of its host plants. Size of the lesion gradually increases, then partial to whole leaf may become chlorotic, turning brown and drying up (Figure 2). The pathogen transmits through infected seeds, stubbles and soil, and secondary infection may take place through air. Other than SB, B. sorokiniana is also responsible for seedling blight, common root rot, head blight and black point in wheat (Al-Sadi, 2021). No positive association was found among spot blotch, root rot and black point in wheat, indicating that different mechanisms of host resistance exist in different plant parts (Conner, 1990). Cross infection between different species is rarely reported; one such example is isolates collected from wheat root were able to infect barley (Valjavec-Gratian and Steffenson, 1997). A number of articles have been published pertaining to pathogen biology, disease management, breeding and molecular aspects, including genome sequence of B. sorokiniana, gene/QTL mapping, marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection. The present work aims to summarize the most important findings, especially those reported in recent years, in the area of SB management in wheat.The pathogen produces olive brown mycelia and light grayish colonies on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium at early stage, which turns into black at later stage. Conidia are brown colored, elliptical, straight or curved multiple celled with 3-9 septa tapering at the ends, measuring 10-28 × 40-120 µm (Acharya et al., 2011). Variability under natural conditions among the B. sorokiniana isolates is sufficiently high (Sultana et al., 2018). Bipolaris sorokiniana is the asexual stage of the pathogen, which multiplies mostly through conidia. Its sexual stage has not been reported in natural conditions except in Zambia, due to a lack of sexual compatibility between the opposite mating (A, a) types. Under controlled conditions, sexual spores of B. sorokiniana were isolated from barley (Zhong and Steffenson, 2001) and recently from wheat in Bangladesh (Sultana et al., 2018).The fungus can produce toxins like helminthosporol and hydrolytic enzymes that trigger pathogenesis. Prehelminthosporium is the most abundant and active compound produced by B. sorokiniana, which damages membrane permeability and affects mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and chloroplast photophosphorylation (Kumar et al., 2002). A necrotrophic effector gene ToxA interacts with the susceptibility gene Tsn1 in wheat to initiate disease development (McDonald et al., 2017). ToxA was initially identified in P. triticirepentis and then in Parastagonospora nodorum, but molecular evidence indicated that the gene in the former was acquired from the latter through horizontal gene transfer (Friesen et al., 2006). ToxA was found in B. sorokiniana populations from Australia (McDonald et al., 2017), USA (Friesen et al., 2018), India (Navathe et al., 2019b) and Mexico (Wu et al., 2020), with various occurrence frequencies, from 10.2% in Mexico to 86.7% in USA.Molecular markers may be useful to detect the pathogen on wheat plants before the appearance of visible symptoms, as well as on alternative hosts and volunteer plants. A sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) marker SCARBS 600 was developed to diagnose B. sorokiniana (Aggarwal et al., 2011). Alternatively, DNA sequence of ribosomal internal transcribe spacer (ITS), b-tubulin gene and translational elongation factor 1-a (EF-1a) can also be used to diagnose this pathogen, as did in a study to detect B. sorokiniana in volunteer plants in China (Sun et al., 2015). Using universal rice primers (URP), Aggarwal et al. (2010) successfully grouped 40 B. sorokiniana isolates from different geographical origins of India. High level of genetic diversity among the isolates from Brazil and Mexico was reported using UPR markers (Mann et al., 2014).Draft genome sequences of eight virulent accessions of B. sorokiniana from India, Australia, USA and China are currently available (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/data-hub/genome/?taxon= 45130). A highly virulent isolate BS_112 (GenBank accession number KU201275) from India has a genome size of 35.64 Mb and 10,460 genes were predicted with an average gene length of 435-545 bp and gene density of 250-300 genes/Mb (Aggarwal et al., 2019). A phylogenetic analysis was carried out among 254 isolates of B. sorokiniana with global origin using gene sequences of ITS, TEF-1 and GAPDH, and the results indicated the presence of a broad and geographically undifferentiated global population (Sharma et al., 2022).Bipolaris sorokiniana initially has a biotrophic phase represented by the epidermal invasion and fungal hyphal growth, followed by the necrotrophic phase in the mesophyll cells (Kumar et al., 2002). The germinating conidia penetrates the cuticle and epidermis of wheat plant with the help of an appressorium at its germinating tube, getting entered mostly through the anticlinal cell walls. The levels of sesquiterpene molecule 'prehelminthosporol' increases in the extracellular matrix of the cell at the site of apposition, helping pathogen to intrude further into the cell (Jansson and Akesson, 2003).The first toxin compound known to confer virulence to B. sorokiniana was named 'Victoxinin' and the second one was 'sorokinianin'. Another toxin isolated and characterized was 'bipolaroxin', which was again structurally a sesquiterpene and had a role in pathogenicity and host selectivity (Jahani, 2005). Helminthosporol was found to enhance the susceptibility of genotypes like Sonalika and CIANO T79. However, it is important to note that helminthosporol and its derivatives are not solely responsible for deciding the susceptibility of a genotype. A multitude of other factors like cell wall apposition, cuticle thickness, leaf anatomy, pathogen specificity, host defense responses etc., are also involved in the pathosystem, making both resistance/ susceptibility of the host and virulence/avirulence of the pathogen (Ibeagha et al., 2005;Jahani et al., 2014).For initial invasion, B. sorokiniana produces various cell wall degrading enzymes like glucosidase, cellulases, pectinases, xylanase. Endopolygalacturonase (EPG) loosens the cell wall by cleaving a-(1!4) linkages of the homogalacturonan, an important constituent of the middle lamella of the cell wall (Ridley et al., 2001;Janni et al., 2008). To protect the host cell from EPG, plant cell produces polygalacturonase inhibiting protein (PGIP), which elicits the defense response of a plant by accumulating oligogalacturonides (Ridley et al., 2001). PGIPs have a proven role against the fungal colonization in many dicot species as well as wheat plant against Bipolaris (Kemp et al., 2003).Generally, temperature between 16-32°C enables SB development (Acharya et al., 2011), and in Indian subcontinent, the disease predominantly spread when temperature exceeds 26°C as it favors heavy sporulation (Chaurasia et al., 2000). Teleomorph develops in a range of 16-24°C with the optimum temperature of 20°C and can survive up to seven months under natural conditions in Zambia; while the anamorph can survive sufficiently large range of temperature from 4-36°C (Duveiller and Sharma, 2009). High temperature and high relative humidity enhance disease severity, SB outbreak in Brazil occurred when the leaves remain wet for >18 hrs in a day with a mean temperature of >18°C (Reis, 1991). In EGP, leaf wetness period >12hrs due to rainfall or dew coinciding with high temperature and humidity are believed to favor the onset of infection (Duveiller et al., 2005). In addition, delayed sowing of wheat due to the rice-wheat cropping system causes yield loss due to terminal heat stress (Hasan et al., 2021;Narendra et al., 2021); besides, high residual soil moisture and increased duration of leaf wetness due to foggy weather can also increase the disease severity (Duveiller, 2004;Duveiller et al., 2005). The waterlogged condition due to flooding in the Ganges belt sharply declines the conidia viability, and B. sorokiniana conidia isolated from soil after August, the monsoon month with high rainfall, becomes non-pathogenic (Pandey et al., 2005). This in turn implies that seeds might be the main source of inoculum in EGP.SB is a polycyclic disease with the initial sources of inoculum being contaminated seeds, infected soil, straw, volunteer plants and secondary hosts. B. sorokiniana has a large host range, and more than 65 graminaceous hosts have been identified in China (Chang and Wu, 1998). Among the cereals, hexaploid wheat and barley are most common hosts, along with durum and emmer wheat, triticale, oats, rice, rye, maize, pearl millet, foxtail millet and several grass species like Phalaris minor, Agropyron pectinatum, A. repens, Festuca spp. (Gupta et al., 2017). A list of plant species that harbors B. sorokiniana is given in Table 1. The three most common species, Setaria glauca, Echinochloa colonum and Pennisetum typhoids act as a natural harbor of B. sorokiniana in EGP (Pandey et al., 2005). In rice-wheat cropping system, rice plants may serve as a host for the pathogen (Acharya et al., 2011); but in eastern India the source of primary inoculum is still debatable, with infected seeds and weeds being the most probable inoculum sources (Neupane et al., 2010).Management of SB through resistant varieties is the most economical and environment-friendly approach, which, however, is compromised by a lack of highly resistant varieties. Under this circumstance, cultivation of resistant varieties may be supplemented with other strategies like adjusting sowing time and fungicides application to reduce the SB severity in disease prone areas. Details of these strategies are described below.Seed treatment is always useful to avoid the introduction of additional inoculum. Seed treatment with carboxin or thiram can effectively reduce the load of primary inoculum, especially for seeds with more than 20% infection rate (Mehta et al., 1992). However, seed treatment alone cannot guarantee low spot blotch infection in field (Singh et al., 2014) and foliar fungicidal application is often indispensable. Triazole fungicides like propiconazole, tebuconazole, flutriafol, iprodione, prochloraz, and triadimenol are effective in SB management, e.g., application of Opus (epoxiconazole) significantly reduced the disease severity and maintained it below 10% (Sharma and Duveiller, 2006). In addition, application of Carbendazim and Azoxystrobin has also shown efficacy in controlling the disease (Navathe et al., 2019a). Applying both seed treatment and foliar spray can further reduce the disease, especially when the latter is conducted twice, e.g., upon the appearance of initial infection symptom and 10-20 days later (Singh et al., 2014;Navathe et al., 2019a). Systemic fungicides are more effective than contact fungicides, but the recommended dose should be strictly followed to avoid the emergence of resistant pathotypes against fungicides.Despite its effectiveness in SB management, fungicidal application increases the cost of cultivation and brings environmental hazardousness. An estimated cost of 153.5 million AUD including application cost is required for fungicides to control wheat diseases in Australia (Murray and Brennan, 2009). Besides, excessive use of systemic fungicides may lead to changes in pathogenic virulence and development of resistance against fungicides. Fungicide resistance has been reported for leaf blight related pathogens P. tritici-repentis causing tan spot (Sautua and Carmona, 2021). This is due to the directional selection on pathogen population for resistant pathotypes.Poor nutrient management is reported to be associated with higher SB infection (Sharma and Duveiller, 2004). Appropriate nitrogen application reduces SB infection, and balanced application of nitrogen along with phosphorus and potassium can further reduce SB severity (Sharma et al., 2006a). Exogenous use of silicon significantly reduces SB severity by increasing the incubation period of the pathogen in wheat (Domiciano et al., 2010). Similarly, application of silver nanoparticles significantly reduced SB infection in wheat, with the induced lignin deposition in vascular bundles (Mishra et al., 2014).Crop rotation is an effective practice for minimizing the primary inoculum load of B. sorokiniana in wheat, and the rotation systems of wheat-rice, wheat-oat, wheat-sunflower, and wheat-soybean may be adopted instead of wheat monoculture. Crop rotation provides time to decompose the infected stubble in the field, which helps in improving soil health. Crop residue burning reduces inoculum load up to 90%; but is associated with environmental hazardousness. Alternatively, tillage can be adopted to minimize the load of primary inoculum from the infected stubble. But this may delay the sowing of wheat crop particularly in rice-wheat cropping system, exposing wheat to SB conducive conditions. Zero tillage, minimum tillage or use of happy seeder are alternatives to traditional tillage practices in rice-wheat cropping system (Acharya et al., 2011). Zero tillage facilitates the sowing 10-15 days earlier which helps in escaping the terminal heat stress and results in yield gain by 10-25% in EGP (Joshi et al., 2007c;McDonald et al., 2022). Early sowing is effective in reducing SB, subjected to selection of suitable variety for early sowing as 1) the genotypes must have capacity to tolerate high temperature at early crop growth stage; 2) proper management of foliar blight diseases; as sometimes higher leaf bight incidence was observed upon early sowing due to high residual moisture and humidity (Duveiller, 2004). Therefore, judicial selection of resistant variety is required to minimize the trade off in yield gain by early sowing and higher incidence of leaf blight. In a study, PBW 343, HUW 234 and HUW 468 were found suitable for growing under zero tillage practices (Joshi et al., 2007a).Growing resistant variety is the most effective method of managing crop disease. It is noteworthy that commercial varieties are moderately resistant to susceptible, and such varieties could be heavily infected under SB conducive environment. An early study by Sharma and Dubin (1996) showed increased resistance using multiline mixture resulted in reduction of area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) up to 57% and increased yield up to 8.6% than the component lines. Evaluation of wheat germplasm under different agro-climatic conditions has led to the identification of resistant genotypes. Genotypes SW 89-5193, SW 89-3060 and SW 89-5422 were resistant with 3.9, 2.6 and 3.5% reduction in grain weight, respectively, due to HLB, compared to 33% and 27.6% loss in susceptible cultivars BL 1135 and Sonalika, respectively (Sharma et al., 2004a). Sharma et al. (2004b) reported that SW 89-5422, Yangmai-6, Ning 8201, Chirya 7, Chirya 1 and CIGM90.455 were HLB resistant. These genotypes have been used in developing resistant lines. Furthermore, increasing the level of resistance in new varieties will be  effective in managing SB in disease prone areas. Near immune line has been developed from the crosses between resistant genotypes (Kumar et al., 2019); yet further field evaluations are needed to confirm the stability of their resistance as well as their performance in other traits for possible release as varieties.Quantitative nature of SB resistance is predominantly reported in wheat (Singh et al., 2018;Bainsla et al., 2020;He et al., 2020), but reports are also available for major gene(s) governing SB resistance. Single dominant gene was postulated in the resistant genotypes Chirya 3 and MS#7 when they were crossed with common susceptible parent BL1473 (Neupane et al., 2007). Likewise, single dominant gene was reported in the resistant genotype DT 188, whereas digenic dominant resistance was reported in the lines E5895, HD 1927 and Motia (Adlakha et al., 1984). More genes were estimated in other resistant varieties, e.g., 2-3 genes in Gisuz, Cugap, Chirya 1 and Sabuf (Velazquez-Cruz, 1994), and three genes in Acc.8226, Mon/Ald and Suzhoe#8 (Joshi et al., 2004b). Populations in these two studies have already began to show a pattern similar to polygenic segregation, implying that most resistant sources are governed by multiple genes with minor effects, which increases the chances of deriving transgressive segregants in the progenies (Singh et al., 2018;He et al., 2020). The magnitude of heritability (h 2 ) for SB resistance varied greatly in different studies, e.g., from 0.21 to 0.64 in Sharma et al. (2006b) and 0.85 to 0.89 in He et al. (2020), whereas most studies exhibited moderate to high heritability, providing a good opportunity to select resistant genotypes in breeding programs.Quantitative disease resistance slows down the disease development by increasing the latency period, though, does not always show a clear-cut difference from qualitative resistance conferred by gene-for-gene interaction (Krattinger and Keller, 2016). Most of the QTLs for SB resistance were detected using bi- parental mapping population (Table 2), and four major QTLs have been designated as Sb1 through Sb4. Sb1 was mapped on chromosome arm 7DS, being co-located with Lr34 (Lillemo et al., 2013) that has been cloned and encodes an ABC (ATP binding cassette) transporter (Krattinger et al., 2009). Sb2 was detected on chromosome arm 5BL (Kumar et al., 2015), and proposed to be the same locus earlier mapped as QSb.bhu-5B in Yangmai 6 (Kumar et al., 2009). Later, Sb3 was identified in a winter wheat resistant line 621-7-1, being located on chromosome arm 3BS flanked by the markers Xbarc133 and Xbarc147 (Lu et al., 2016). Recently, Sb4 was detected and fine mapped on chromosome arm 4BL flanked by the markers YK12831 and YK12928 (Zhang et al., 2020). Besides, a necrosis insensitivity gene tsn1 was mapped on 5BL associated with ToxA insensitivity, and selection for genotypes with tsn1 may confer resistance against B. sorokiniana isolates with ToxA (Navathe et al., 2019b). Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have been widely performed to detect SB resistance QTLs in wheat. In a study using 566 spring wheat landraces, Adhikari et al. (2012) reported four genomic regions on 1A, 3B, 7B and 7D that were associated with SB resistance. One of the markers, wPt-1159 on 3B, was also associated with resistance to powdery mildew, yellow rust and grain yield (Crossa et al., 2007), and thus could be more useful in breeding. A GWAS on 528 spring wheat landraces with global origin reported 11 significant markers on chromosomes 1B, 5A, 5B, 6B and 7B with phenotypic variation explained (PVE) ranging from 0.14 to 5.80% (Gurung et al., 2014). Recently, 25 significant marker-trait associations (MTA) were identified in a panel of 301 Afghan wheat lines, being located on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 1D, 2B, 2D, 3A, 3B, 4A, 5A, 5B, 6A, 7A, and 7D with PVE ranging from 2.0-17.7% (Bainsla et al., 2020). Major challenges are faced by wheat breeders due to most identified QTLs/MTAs are of minor effects and have no diagnostic markers. Till date, diagnostic markers are available only for Sb1 (Lr34) (Krattinger et al., 2009) and tsn1 (Faris et al., 2010). A list of QTLs/ MTAs for SB resistance is shown in Table 2, and an integrated map indicating major genes, QTLs and MTAs on different wheat chromosomes is shown in Figure 3.Association of SB resistance with plant height and heading date has been well established, with high stature and late maturity often associated with low SB severity (Singh et al., 2015;He et al., 2020). This is mostly due to disease escape mechanisms; though, the possibility of tight linkage of Rht and Vrn genes with SB resistance genes cannot be ruled out (Zhu et al., 2014;He et al., 2020). Nevertheless, such linkages can be broken, as early and short lines with good SB resistance have been identified in some studies (Joshi et al., 2002;Sharma and Duveiller, 2004;Joshi et al., 2007d). Such early lines are especially important for SA, where terminal heat stress and SB are major yield constraints.Leaf orientation influences the plant micro-climate, particularly temperature and humidity, through regulating evapotranspiration, and germplasm with erect to semi-erect leaves often showed good SB resistance (Joshi and Chand, 2002). Leaf tip necrosis associated with SB resistance serves as a good morphological marker (Joshi et al., 2004a). Stay-green (SG) genotypes are photosynthetically more active under biotic and abiotic stress conditions, and a positive correlation of SG with SB resistance was reported (Joshi et al., 2007b).An integrated map showing genes and QTLs for SB resistance and their flanking markers (green color). Roy et al. 10.3389/fpls.2023.1098648 Frontiers in Plant Science frontiersin.org wheat, having great potential to contribute to SB resistance breeding in near future.Spot blotch is a disease of concern in warmer wheat growing areas of South Asia, Latin America and Africa. Most of the commercially grown cultivars are moderately resistant to susceptible and are subjected to significant yield losses under conducive climatic conditions. An integrated disease management strategy involving cultural practices, chemical control, resistant cultivars, etc., is needed to combat the disease. In addition, modern biotechnology brings new tools for the rapid and efficient development of resistant cultivars in wheat.","tokenCount":"3624"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"545961fa54fe4217236b03043f2d5234","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/df7ca4b2-e2ee-469f-985c-7b4d0cdb0267/retrieve","id":"-1464434646"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9327470d-c860-4f82-81d9-64155e471ed1","pagecount":"13","content":"CCAFS and the CGIAR research Centers provide cutting-edge research on global climate change, agriculture and food security. CCAFS also has the objective to support Capacity Enhancement (CE) through improvements to:1. Researchers' capacity to generate knowledge on climate-smart food systems, adaptive capacity and rural livelihoods under climate change; 2. Decision-makers' capacity to demand, critique and use this knowledge effectively to work out policy options, and to evaluate and adjust these policy options and related actions; 3. Decision-influencers' access to information (Climate Futures definition).CE includes the development of skills and knowledge, dissemination of information, education, empowerment and behaviour change. A particular focus is empowerment of underrepresented groups including women. These activities are undertaken across much of the developing world, defined into the regions, East Africa, West Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and South Asia (and to a lesser extent the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, Central Asia and Global).CCAFS has no specific targets for spending or performance on CE, and there is no formal reporting procedure for CE. Reported activities in 2011, 2012 and 2013 include CE outputs, and some reported outcomes and case studies also include CE.CCAFS is scheduled for an external evaluation in 2015 by CGIAR's Independent Evaluation Arrangement (IEA). As part of the internal preparation for this evaluation, this report provides the findings of an evaluation of CCAFS Capacity Enhancement activities.A method was developed iteratively with CCAFS to best capture the CE outputs, outcomes and case studies from reports across a number of categories, for the three years, 2011, 2012 and 2013. A draft report was submitted on 30 th September 2014. This final report presents updated results based on CCAFS comments. The approach was:1. Review each report in turn; 2. Identify the activities with CE outputs. These were defined as those with at least one Researcher, Decision Maker or Decision Influencer partner and including at least one deliverable which may be described under a CE category (defined in Table 2); 3. Construct a database; 4. Copy across and enter key data on CE outputs from reports. Due to large data volumes this task was undertaken by three Climate Futures staff with assistance from a CCAFS staff member; 5. Verify and clean data; 6. Analysis of CE outputs; 7. Review CE outcomes and case studies from each report; 8. Synthesis and reporting.Table 1 shows the reports analysed for the review.   We have confidence that results are as accurate as reasonably possible with reporting style differences across Centres, Regions, Themes and Units by year, high data volumes and time constraints.  Other highlights: 2,106 people were trained on long-term programs, of which 996 were women and 1,110 men;  32,725 people were trained on short-term programs, of which 18,591 were women and 14,134 men;  there are 74 CE case studies, reaching at least 3,000 stakeholders. Outcomes: there were 16 outcomes with significant CE components;  The capacity of over 8,000 rural women leaders in managing climatic risks was strengthened in India and Nepal;  A broadened genetic base of crops to empower farmers for climate change adaptation was created through crowdsourcing -benefiting 5,000 farmers in India;  The capacity of African national and regional meteorological institutions was strengthened to serve the needs of smallholder farmers. Case  Capacity was enhanced with three partner groups. For those activities containing at least one CE output, the proportion of stated partners were: Researchers, 33%; Decision makers, 48%; Decision influencers, 19% (Figure 5);  The number of partners benefiting from these CE outputs were:Researchers, 299; Decision makers, 435; Decision influencers, 166 (Figure 6);The number of partners, by type, benefiting from these CE outputs were:   CCAFS is undertaking an extensive breadth of Capacity Enhancement activities across a number of regions and themes. These benefit a wide range of audiences through a variety of outputs and communication channels. Workshops were the most widely used CE output. Decision makers were the most widelybenefiting partner category.CE outputs rose from 2011 to 2012, then fell slightly in 2013. As reporting styles changed across the three years 2011, 2012 and 2013, it is not known whether this influenced the recording and reporting of CE outputs, nor is it certain whether robust conclusions about annual trends may be drawn.To accurately track and fully understand the extent of CE outputs, we recommend strongly that a more formal system be established. Pro-forma reporting outputs, similar to that used in 2012, would best allow consistent and accurate information to be gathered and compared.This audit of capacity enhancement activities shows how capacity enhancement has been mainstreamed into the work of all Themes, Regions and Centers within CCAFS, with documented positive outcomes for research and policy partners. Moving forward into Phase 2, CCAFS will fully align capacity enhancement activities within Flagship and Regional impact pathways, so that capacity enhancement activities contribute directly and coherently to CCAFS outcome targets and CGIAR-wide intermediate development outcome targets. CCAFS will also ensure that capacity enhancement activities are captured within the planning and reporting system in Phase 2, to improve monitoring and evaluation.","tokenCount":"834"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/3986689328.json b/data/part_6/3986689328.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f8abdac898e1aae7e1ccdbc8d7a66a36","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5805da3e-8a99-4dce-8abb-87b88030d08d/retrieve","id":"-1670970490"},"keywords":["• P662 -5","2","1 Governing Shared Landscapes OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report"],"sieverID":"9b2b9149-019d-43a7-8d43-8dee467942e7","pagecount":"5","content":"PIM researchers developed a toolkit to facilitate and strengthen a Multistakeholder Dialogue Platform to guide design and implementation of the Intergovernmental Authority for Development of the Horn of Africa's cross border Biodiversity Management Programme in Kenya-Somalia, delivering biodiversity and livelihood benefits to local communities and benefitting roughly 3,000 farmers.At the Kenya-Somalia border, the Tana-Kipini Laga Badana bushland and seascape area is prone to political instability and conflicts related to natural resources. Its remarkable ecosystems, home to several endangered species, are threatened by unsustainable exploitation triggered by lack of regulations and low levels of institutional support. In 2014, this area was selected as a demonstration site for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development of the Horn of Africa (IGAD)'s regional Biodiversity Management Programme (BMP) funded by the European Union ([1], [2]).At the onset of the project, the lack of trust among stakeholders of different countries (Kenya/Somalia), levels of governance, clans, and community groupings was identified as an impeding factor. In 2016, the project started to use a multistakeholder policy dialogue (MSP) toolkit developed by PIM, aimed at creating space for trust building and community participation in decision making. The use of this approach led to improved understanding of the local knowledge and socio-cultural links between people and nature and highlighted the need for an inclusive spatial Lamu County land and seascape plan and for a mutually agreed cross-border governance mechanism. Annual MSP workshops were organized with government officials, NGOs and local community leaders [3]. MSP partners developed action plans implemented with technical support from PIM/World Agroforestry researchers.The MSP activities have resulted in significant advances in site-specific conservation plans. The Community Development Management Plan for the Hanshak Nyongoro community conservancy [4] (77,896 hectares with a population of 16,000 predominantly engaged in agriculture, pastoralism and fishing) has been developed in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Services and the NGO Northern Rangeland Trust, with secured funding for 2016-2020. The Northern Rangelands Trust reports an increase in wildlife numbers (Topi, Giraffe, Tana River Mangabey and Plain Zebra) and less human-wildlife conflict in the area. A road map for re-establishing the Laga Badana National Park in Somalia has been set up.The MSP approach has also led to development of biodiversity-based value chains which provide diversified livelihoods options, thereby contributing to improved coexistence and peace among local communities. For instance, honey and horticultural crop production have been strengthened through water harvesting and setting up honey processing facilities.Finally, the MSP activities have influenced the design of the second phase of the BMP (starting in 2021) [5], with a proposal for transboundary management plans to safeguard border-crossing wildlife and inclusion of lessons learned through the MSP [6] into IGAD's regional policies on biodiversity management.• https://www.worldagroforestry.org/output/bmp-newsletter-issue-1Part II: CGIAR system level reporting• 677 -Community Development Management Plan for Hanshak Nyongoro community conservancy, Kenya (https://tinyurl.com/2qqpbl5s)At the Kenya-Somalia border, the Tana-Kipini Laga Badana bushland and seascape area is prone to political instability and conflicts. Its remarkable ecosystems and endangered species are threatened by unsustainable exploitation triggered by low levels of institutional support.In 2014, this area was selected as a demonstration site for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development of the Horn of Africa (IGAD)'s regional Biodiversity Management Programme (BMP) funded by the European Union ([1], [2]). The BMP aims to enhance governance for natural resources and people and establish collaborative trans-boundary management of protected areas. World Agroforestry is the implementing agency for the Kenya-Somalia site.At the onset, the lack of trust among stakeholders of different countries (Kenya/Somalia), levels of governance, clans, and community groupings was identified as an impeding factor. In 2016, the project started to use a multistakeholder policy dialogue (MSP) toolkit developed by PIM, including landscape analysis, policy dialogues, and capacity and livelihoods needs assessments. This approach led to improved understanding of the local knowledge and socio-cultural links between people and nature and highlighted the need for an inclusive spatial Lamu County land and seascape plan and for a cross-border governance mechanism. Annual MSP workshops were organized with government officials, NGOs and community leaders [3]. MSP partners developed action plans, implemented with technical support from PIM/World Agroforestry researchers.As a result, the Community Development Management Plan for the Hanshak Nyongoro community conservancy [4] has been developed in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Services and the NGO Northern Rangeland Trust. The Northern Rangelands Trust reports an increase in wildlife numbers and less human-wildlife conflict in the area due to continued community participation in the conservancy's governance. A road map for re-establishing the Laga Badana National Park (Somalia) has been set up.The approach has also led to development of biodiversity-based value chains providing diversified livelihoods options, thereby contributing to improved coexistence of communities. For instance, honey and horticultural crop production have been strengthened through water harvesting and setting up honey-processing facilities. The rainwater harvesting technologies adopted through the MSP have been picked up outside of the project zone.In addition to facilitating effective implementation of the BMP Phase 1, the MSP activities have influenced the design of the BMP Phase 2 [5], with a proposal for the development of transboundary management plans to safeguard border-crossing wildlife and inclusion of lessons learned through the MSP [6] into the IGAD regional policies on biodiversity management.","tokenCount":"856"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/3988782201.json b/data/part_6/3988782201.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"302eeba75b449df0889d4bad05c789d6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc573f0e-8a12-4f01-a5ac-1d4ce4cf1ea6/retrieve","id":"-1061858970"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bc67298b-a903-41ef-8887-c3de491e3ca0","pagecount":"126","content":"CI AT is a nonproftt o rganization d evot ed l o the agricul tu ral and cco nomic development of the lowland tropics . The Gove rnm ent of Colombia p rovtdes su ppon as ho st count ry fo r CIAT and fu rnishes a 522•hectare farm near Cali for CIAT's heaclquarters. Co ll aborative work with the Institu to Colombiano Agropecuario (IC A ) is carn ed out matnl y at i ts Experimen tal Centers at Turipaná and Car imagua . CIAT IS financed by a num ber of donors represented In the Consultat ive Gro up for International Agricu ltu ral Research . Ou ring the eurrent year these do nors are t he United States Agency for International Deve lopment (USAIO) , the Roc ke f eller Foundation , the Ford Fou nd atio n, the W .K . Kellogg Foundation . t he Canadlan International Developrn ent Agency (CIOA), the Internati o nal Bank for Reconstruction and Development liBRO) through the International Development A ssociation (IDA), th e Interamerican Developmen t Bank OSo) , the United Nations Environment Programme, the M inistry of Overseas Oev elopment o f the Unlted Kin9d o m an d the governments of Australia , Belglum, the Federal Republlc o f German y , the Netherlands and Sw i tzerland . In addi tion , special projec t funds are supplted by variou s of the aforerne n ti o ned en titi es plus the Internation al Development Research Cent re flORC) o f Canada . In/ormal ion and co nelus_on s reported h erein d o not necessarily re fl ec t the p oslti on of any of the afore m ent loned agencies , foundations or governments. Damage caused by herbicides Diuron (preemergcnce applications) Diuron (postemergence appli ca tion s) 2,4-D or 2,4,5-T Paraquat Butylate Atrtl.zine Kcy for identifying so me cassava diseases Key for id emifying sorne C3ssava pests 5 122 FIELD PROBLEMS IN CASSAVA J. c. Loza no• A. Be llotti a nd A. van Sc hoo nhoven * • R. Howe lcr* J.OolI * D. Howell dnd T. Bates*'\"\" K responH in und cuhure K response in fieldThe cult ivation of cassava (Maniho t escufenta Cr antz) has increased considera bl y as a result of I he in crease in I he world's populatio ll, l he sca rcit y of ot her sources o f nutritiona l energy, and ils hi~h potcntial prod uctio n of carbohydrates per su rfaee unlt. Ncverth clcss , although il has been relative ly easy lo obta in yields o f around 50 to ns/ ha a l ex pe ri men tal centers and in so me commercial opcra tions, worl d figures for cassava prod ucti on average only 10 (o ns/ha. There are many factors tha t infl ue nce cassava production, (he sa me as in an y o ther crop; bul diseases and pe ~>ls, nutritiona l dcfici cncie'ii a nd p lanl IOxici lY , rcsult ing from lhc misusc of hcrb icidcs, affect prod ucllon considcrably.Pl;.nt patholuglst. cntolllologists, soil SCll'nOS¡ and w ccd con trol spC<:.:i¡¡hst. rcspectivcly, a{ the Centro In{erna ciunal de AgriClI1tura Tropie,JI (CIAT) , CaH . ColombiaThe inform ati o n ava il abl e a t prescnt un d iseases, insee ls and problems of a ph ys iologi cal nature is ge neral ly quite limited. Descripti o ns of Ih e sy mptoms of attack by the differ e nt pathogenic agents and phys iolog ica l problems are even sc:arcer. Man y problems occurring in cassava •grow ing areas pass unnoliced ar are a ttributed 10 pa lhoge nic agenls thal are nal fo u nd in lhose areas o r 10 c limatic and edaphic conditio ns tha l have nOlhing to do wilh Ih e ca use o f the pro bl em. The inadverten t lOlrodu cti o n of a palhogen or pest and failure to recognize ils polenlial importancc can cause considerable economic losses.Th is manual describes some diseases and pests that attack cassava , as well as the sympto ms induced by nutritional deficiencies and d amage resulting fro m the misuse of herbicides. In add itio n, so me reco mmendations for control are given.Cassava ¡s attacked by more than 30 bacter ial, fungal , viral, viruslike and m ycopla smal agents . Discases affeCling cassava cause losses in crop establishment. lessen normal plant vigor, reduce phOlosynthetic capac,ity. or cause p re• o r postharvest rool roto Some pnhogens attack only the stalk, which is the normal propagation material, ¡nduelng tissue necrosis. They may al so invade the vascular system, causing no visible damage bUl constituling prímary sources of ¡nfeelian in the plantations. Olher P31hogen s altack foliar tissues and the tender parts o f the sla lk , causing spots, blight, defoliation, wilting, dieb ack and hyp ertro phies (exaggerated elongation or proliferati on of buds and internodes). Others attack only rOOl tissue a nd the basal, woody pan o f the stem, causing preharvesl rool roL Oamage is charac• teri zed by a sudden yellowing accompanied by wilting and sudden defoliation. These symploms may occur al any stage of plant growth, gcncra ll y during periods of heavy , prolongcd ra ins.Rece ntly harvested cassava rooLs may be affeeted by soft or dry rOL shon ly after they have been harvested. Although Ihis appears to be a ph ysiologieal•palhogen ie effee t, it is frequenlly eorrel ated wilh and aecelerated by meehan ical damage lO the rOO IS, which occurs during harvesting.Altho ugh effecti ve , absolu tc control of all cassava diseascs is im pos.sible on a com mcrcial scale, the folJ owing general reeom• mendations are suggested in ordcr to keep plantation~ rclatively disease free .1 . Selecllll c so il carefully; it should be lighl, well dralncd and nol very high in organic ma tter. Do no l plant cassava on soils previ ousl y covered by woods or planted lO forest a nd o ther pcrenn ial erops. In th ese cases, grow a cereal crop (ma ize, sorghu m, etc.) before plantíng cassava.2. Use sound agronom ic pract;ees: prepare the 50;1 well, install a good drainage syste m and plant on rid ges when rainfa ll ís high (more th an 1,200 mm/y r, approx imately) or soil is heavy.3. Use cl ea n \"seed \" only. Try to produce or seleet planting materia l o nly fro m disease•free plantalions and planls.4. Handle plan tí ng material earefuJly , avoiding meehanica l damage during its prepara tíon and planting. Treat this materia l with a disi nfesta nt fungie idc , su ch as thiram, chloro neb or pe NB (pentachloron itrobenzene), immersing the cu tt ings fo r 3 minutes in a 3 perecn! suspe nsion of the commercial product in water (ap proximately 2,000 ppm a.i.) . Th is trealmen t should prevent damage caused by soil • borne pathogens.adequale distanee between pl an ts according to the variety used . Plan t a t lile beginning of the rain y season to assure good germ in a tion and erop establishmen t. Eliminate weeds, wh ich may act as hosts for pathogens.6. Do no l use machinery or lOo ls that ha ve been used on other plantations cspecially where there is bacteria! blight 0 1 perm it workers from oth er farms 10 vis it the plantat ion .7. ROlate cassava wilh a cereal (mai ze or sorghum) for a period of no less than six monlhs if indices o f rool rol are higher ¡han 5 percent. Improve ¡he drainage.8. BUfn debris from previous cassava erops; do not leave old plant debris after the land has been prepared. 9. Avoid damage to roo t5 during ha rvesting; pack r oot5 carcfu lIy in adequa te packing material.10. Se\\ \\ or process the harvested product immediately; otherwi se , harvest on \\y what is 10 be 50\\d, processed or used. Bacterial stem rot (Erwinia sp.)Sheets of infected plants wilt; the disease is charaClerized by a pu nge nt, 50ft 5tem 101 or discoloration of the woody Portian of the pla nt. On the stem sur face, th ere are hales made by in sects (Anas lrepho spp.), which appear tO be lhe vector s lhat spread the bac teria. These holes are easy to distinguish by the traces of dry latex ex udaled afler {he Slem has been perforated. Di 5eased cull ing5 used ror plantingdo nOI alwaY5 germinate; and ir they do, ptants are 5IUn ted w ith a small number of thlck root5. Always This is an Ameri can discase lhat has al 50 beco recorded in Africa (Ivo ry Coast) . Thc discase is caused by a virus that has becn transm itted only by mcchanical mean s and is spread by the use of cu ttings fr am diseasl'd plants. The symploms are characlcri slic af all masaies, con sisting primarily in the presence of ye llowish arcas in lhe leaf bladc and the stunling af disease d plan ls. In general th e ycllow ish arcas are nol well defined as in African mosaic ; otherwi se, the sy mptoms are quite similar. The~c sym pto ms may also be con fus ed with severe altacks of thrip5 in suscepti ble cul tivars (see corresponding scction in chapter on insects). Use disease-free cu ltings only; all diseased plants shou lc.l be removed and burn cd.T hi~ d iscase occurs only in limilcd arca> of Brazil an d Vl'nl'zuelJ. . Because of il s rcd uccd incid en ce, ilS cconOllllC Importan ce is II mll ed . Th c sy mptom s of th e di,ease al e characlerized by yc llowing or (h e vc ins a nd leafcu rling. The di sea)e ca n be lra nsmitlcd mech an ical ly o r by graflin g; morco vcr . aJl cUlli ngs lakc n fro m inrectcd mat erial prod.ucc diseascd plan ls. ro crad icalC Ih is d lscase, all planl) wllh suspi ci o us sy mploms shou ld be eliminal cd. Alwa ys ~I SC d isease-fr cc plan ling mal cri al.Vein yel lowing and lelf t i\" cu, ling Two symp10tn$ ty\" ical of leaf Itein mON ie Witches'-broom (caused by a mycoplasm)This disease has becn recorded in Braz.il , Venezuela, Mexico and in the Amazonian region o ( Peru. A1though jts incidcnce is low, the percen tage of d iseased plants in affccted plantations is much highe r than in the o thcr diseases ca uscd by the American \"iruses. There are several types of sy mpto ms, probably du c to different races or biotypes o f the causa l agent. Amons them, lhe mosl im portant are (1) plan ts that show slunt ing and ex cessi ve prol iferat io n of branehes ; shoo ts have sma lt Icaves and shortened inter nodes, with out sh owi ng distortion o r chl orosis; (2) proliferation of sh oo ts from lhe cu tti ng ; these are generally weak but grow without showing a ny oth er visible symp lom o f being affecled ; (3) only a few wcak and stu ntcd shoo ts ger minate from the cutting; they never reach normal size. Plan ts affectcd by the mycopl asmJ gcnerall y prod uce up to 80 perec nt less th an healthy plants. As lhe disease is transmi tt cd mech ani call y a nd through lh e use of cuttings take n fro m diseased plants, their eli minatio n is indis pensable for its contro l. Always use disease•free material for pla nting. This is one of (he most common diseases in cassava. It almost alwa ys occurs in plantat ions Jocated in areas wilh high temperatu res. When the crop is more (han five month s old, the disea se is mo re wid esprea d and severe , de pending upon the suscep tiblity of th e cult ivar. The disease is characterized by angular, uniforml y brown spots on both sid es of the leaf; the margin s of the spots are well defined and dark. On the undersurface of the leaf, the spots ha ve a graylsh olive cast due lo (he presence of the frui ting bodies of (he ca usal agent. Al limes, accardíng to the susceptibili ty of the cultivar, thert is an indefinite yellowish halo aro und the lesio ns. As the disease advances, the affected leaves beco me yellow, dry and fall. Susceptible cultivars can be severely defoliated al the end of the rai ny season. Use resi stam or lolerant cultivars if possib le. Th is disease appears whcrc brown leaf spot is preval ent; in co ntraS[, thi s Icaf spot is large and without well-defin ed borders. Each spot may cover one fifth or more of the leaf lobe. The same as brown leaf spot , it is a uni for m brow n in color but with a grayish center on tlle undcrs id e of the Ica f duc lO the presence of fungal frui ting bodies. Thc general appearan ce of this leaf spo t di sease is simi lar to tha t causcd by Phoma sp . (Phy/Josticta sp .), neverthelc ss, Icsions caused by Phoma sp. have conccntric rings on lh e up per leaf su rfacc. The palhogen ca n ca use heavy defoliation in susceptib le cultivars, the severi ty of Ihe disease is greater whcn the plants are more than six mont hs old . Pl an t resistant or tolerant cu!tivars if possib le.This di sease is com mo nly foun d in humid , coo ler cassava• grow ing areas and causes defoliati o n in suscept ib le culli vars. Lesions are small, circular to angular , white or yellow ish brown; tney are sunken fro m both Si des , redu cing the thi ckness of th e norm al leaf blade 10 ab out one halL The lesions on th e undersurface of the leaf often have a diffuse-colorcd bord er thal looh like ao irregu lar viol et-brown line surrounded by a yellowish halo. The center of the spo ts may have a grayish, velveIy appearance dur ing th e fructification of the palhogcn, w hich occurs mainly on ¡he underside of the leaL Plant resistant vari et ies if ava ilablc. This diseasc appears duri ng lhe rainy scason wh cn the temperaturc is less than 20°C; il cau ses sevcre dcfoliati o n in susceptibl e cultivars and occasionall y dieb ack or total death of the plant. The spots are large and brown in color; they do not have well-defined margins and are localed near the típs or edges of the labes or aloog lhe mídríb or majn vej ns. In iti ally , the upper surface of the tes íons presents concentric rí ngs, fo rmed by the fru iting bodies (pycnidia) o f Ihe fungu s. Old les ions resembre lesions produced by C. vicosoe .. ince their concentric rings are wash ed off by the rain . Dr. 'lil e un dersid e, there are no pycni dia so the lesions are da rk brown in color. Ve jns and ve inlets beco me necrosed, form ing black thre ad s that radiate from the lesi ons. Thc fungus invades the leaf, then the pet íole and the green pan s of the stem, causi ng defol iat ion. dieback or to tal deat h of the plant It spreads to the stem , starti ng from cankcrs lhat for m toward s the base of the petio le of lhe affected leaf. In coo ler arcas , alw ays plant resistan t o r highly tolerant cultivars on ly.This is a disease that has been described only recently; it causes considerable losses in planlaliom where suscep tible cuh ivars are used . The disease can be recognized by Ihe exaggera led elonga tion o f lhe stem inte rnodes. The affeeted stem is thin and weak; diseased plants are mueh taller and/or weaker Iha\" heallhy ones. On the green part of the ste m, the pctioles and ¡he leaves , deformation s assoc iated with th e formarion of cankers can be found. These lens• shapcd cankers are found along the midrib s or main veins, in the petioles or in the st em. There is occasional dieback and partial or tOlal necrosis of lh e blade , which rC5uh s in considerable defolía • tion . The discase ís most severe during Lhe rdiny season . As il may be spread by the use of cuttings tak en fr om in(ected planutions, clean \"seed\" should always be used. Resistant cultiva rs should be planted if possibl e. This disease occurs during lhe dry season, being more prevalent on lower leaves. It is characteri zed by the presencc of yellowish leaf spots. Initially, a white mycelium grows a n the lea f surface ; affected cells turn yellow, forming indefinite pale yellow iesians. Within these Icsions. there are areas of ne crosed tissue. which form different-sized, pale brown angul ar spots. Symptoms can be confused with certaln lypes af damage caused by in secl s a nd sp id er mites. The disease is con sidered la be of minar impartance in yield reduction. L. _________________ ':i.\",._ leaf spots on upper 1.i1f $urf~.5ix species of ru st pathog ens have been reco rded in cassava, loca li zed in different pans of {he world. Nevertheless, th e ;r inciden ce and sever ity are !ow. It seems lhat so rne species of rust occur on ly in tempera te zone s where the disease is most sevcrc towards the end of the rain y seaso n; oth er species are prevalent during the hOI, dry sea son. The d isease is characteri zed by the formation of pustul es on (he ve;ns, petioles or green stems. Th e stem, whiC.h is normally used for propagalion ma terial In ca ssava, is auacke d by palh agcns o f woody perenn ials. The affected tissue i5 generall y a different colo r from health y ti ssue, especiall y around the vascul ar str and s or pith area . At firs t , the epiderm is may shaw superficial rol; later, fruiting bodies of the pathogen may appear. These bodies vary in form , co lor , size, ele, according to the species of pathogen. The occurrence of th is rOl is more no ticeable al the end of the rainy season a nd in cuttings that have been stored undcr eonditions of hi gh relalive hum idi¡y for period s of more than 1 S days. AII wo und s cau sed by insee ts o r by laboren. leave (he plant pred isposed la th e occurrcn ce o f lhese di seases. Avoid pl anting \" seed\" with sympto ms of any di seas e.Infected propagating material (various pathogens)Cen.ain pathogens (causal agents of bacterial blight, bacteria! stem rot, superelongati on , v¡ruses, viruslike organ isms and mycoplasma) translocate sys temi ca\\\\y in the vasc ular or cortical sy stem and superfic ially from th e stem of diseased pl ant s, wi thout producing any visible symptoms in -th e tissue they invade. When thi s material is used for cuttings, the resultant p\\ants deve\\ op symptoms characteristic of me diseases that thcse pathogens cause and co nstitu te a focus for secondary infection. Sin cc the maturc (Iignified) pan of the !.tem does nal generally present any sy mp• toms of ¡nfeetion , the sy mptoms of these diseases must be 'ooked fo r towards [he upper part of the plant and ge nera\\\\y du ring th e rainy seaso n when they are more noticeable . Never use pla nting material taken from plantations wh ere these diseases have been observed . Ph y toph th ora dre chsleri, Pythium sp., etc.Cert31 n fungi or (he soil lhal ca use rool rOl during the rainy season are widespread in heavy, poorly draincd so ils with a high organic malter co nten l. Pl1ylophlhor(j drechsleri is th e most co mmon and impor tant. T hese pa thogens atlack yo ung or mat ure planls, espcdal ly when (he y are near dr,linage dit ches or in poorl y drained soil5. T hey cause suddcn wi lti ng, se vcrc defo lialion a nd 50 ft roO I 101 . Roots exud ale a pungent, watery ¡iq ui d an d deco m• pose co mpl e tely. Se lect a suit ablc soil for cu lt iva ting cassava and u ~e good agronom ic practices .Rosellinia neca trix, Armi//aria me/lea, Fomes /ignosus, etc .Certain species of fungi cause considerable rool rol dur ing [he rainy season, but only when cassava has been planted immed iate ly after forest clearance or after woody perenn ial species. Among these pathogens, Rosellinia necalrlx is the most important. The di~ease induced by thi5 pathogen is ca ll ed \"black rot \" beca use of (he charac teri stic. black color of the infected tissues. Ca nk er like rOOI Jesions are also formed . To avoid lhis group of diseases ca used by palhogens of woody perenn ial species, it is necessary to rotate with nonsusce ptible crops (cerea ls) before plaCl(ing cassava . These diseases are generally found a IiUle before harvest or at harves ling. Infected crops initially present-in zones or patches-yellow ing, then wilting, and finally defoli ation and dieback. Rotate with cereal s and use good cultural practices.Postharvest root rot (physiological and/or pathogenic causes)Cassava rools generally d eleri ora le a few da ys aftel Ilarvcstmg. Th is deterio rall on seems lo be relatcd 10 tll e cu ltivar 's suscep tiblli ty lo deterio ralio n and 10 damage tha t the roOls suffer during harvesting. ROOls of ,\"o me cul tiva rs d cteri o rale rapid ly, whercas tll osc oC ot hers rema in m good condili on fo r several days . Roo ts with no mechani ca l damage rcma in soun d lo nger, cven wllcn Ihe cul tiva r is su sceptib le to d eterio ration . Th e cau ~es of deterioration have no l becn dClermin cd yct; bUI il seems th at deleriorarion is a resull of ph ysiologica l and /o r pa.thol og icdl cffce rs, taking pl ace during harvesting o r immediatcly afl crwards .Two dt'9rHS of ponhal\"Ylt$l deterioration as compared w ith Ih. control Intllrnll posIhal\"Yest root rotCassava is attacked by a largc number of miles aod insects, sorne of which cause co nsiderable economic losse s. Since cassava is a long-cycle eraD, the continl,lcd application o ( insecticid es for pest co ntrol would be very co st ly. It should be kept in mind that cassava has (he ca pac ity to recover (rom pes! altack when cl imati c condil ion s are favorab le, es pec ially duriog the rainy scaso n.Th e best control is to ma intain a low in cidence of pests. T he following measures are reco mm ended to achieve this:,. Use di sease-free planting materia l.2. Use cult ivars that are resis Lant or tole rant lo pests.3. Do nOl plant in soils that are highly infested with insects or post pone planling until the po pul ation is 3'i lo w 3'i po ssib le .4 . Do not destroy natural enemies or peSI ~. When pesticides are applied , pests as well as lheir parasites a nd predators are ki lled , increasi ng th e number of harmful ¡nseets . Thereforc, selective pesticides should be used -Le. , Thur ;ci de (Bactflus r/wringiensis) against the casssava hornwormor nes ts of paper wasps (Pofisres sp.) ean be placed ne ar (he erop to prey on larvae.5. Apply insceticides on ly when damage is severe and th e planl is in no cond ition to recover withouL the aid or this measure. The in sec ticide sho uld be selcctivc.6. Observe qUJ,rantine measures to avoid intro ducing pests to zancs where they are nol found .Mites (Mononychellus tanajoa, Tetranychus urticae, Oligonychus peruvianus)Mite'.i are di'.itributcd worldwide. Severa l specic' .i allack Ca ssava, fre quentl y during the dry season, caus; ng com iderab le da magc. o. perul/ianus normali y a ltac ks the lower and intermediate Icaves. On the under side of the lea ves, there are whitish spots along the center and lateral leaf vejns. Th ese spats are webs spu n by the fema le, under which she lays her eggs and the larvae and nymphs develop.On (he upper leaf surface . they appear initiall y as yeliowish spots , which lurn brown.Cultivars tolerant to miles have been found. Miles can also be co ntrolied by using methamidophos, dime lho ate, or othe r organophosphoro us insecti cides al commercial rates of applj• calion.OligonychU$ perUVliJnus damage 10 leav8$ Thrips (Frank/iniella williamSi, Corynothrips stenopterus, Caliothrips mascu/inus) Seve(al species atlack cassava, principatl y in the Americas. The most important is F. wifflomsi, which damages th e growi ng points o f the plant. Leaves develop abnorma!\\y; young \\eaves are distorted and deformed, wilh irregular yellow spots. Brown cpidermal wounds are found on the green portian of the stem; intemedes are usually shortened. The grewing poi nts sometimes die, thereby ¡nduelng growLh ef lateral shoots, which can be attacked with equal ~everity, giving .ln appearanee of witches'•broom. Outbreaks of rhrips are more frequ ent during dry periods, causing losses of up to 25 percenl. Best co ntrol is obt.lined through the use of resistant cultivJrs. Systemic insecticides such as dimethoate (160 ee .l .i ./ha) or th iameton (113 ce a.i.{ha) give goad control. Thi s insect is generally cons idered as the most important pest of cassava in (he Americas. Hi gh populations can defali ate large plantat ions in a short time. Whcn defo liati o n occurs in (he ¡nitial ph ase of erop development, yields are reduced and young plant s ma y die. Th e ash -co lored female is no cturnal ; she oviposils her IiRht Rreen eggs fr eely o n (he te af surface. Larvae vary a great deal in color (yello w, gree n, bl ack, etc .), reach ing a size o f 10 ta 12 cm befare migrating to the soil , where they form d H :slnut brown or bl ack pupac. Grea test incidence generally occ.urs al the beginni ng o f the rainy seaso n, bul outbreaks are sporadic aod ma y be absent for severa l year s. Sound agronomic practices (weed control, goo d la nd prepara tion) redu ce pop ula tio ns. Egg parasiti sm by Trichogromma spp . reduces popu lations, and the paper wasp (Polisres sp.) is the most impor tant larva l predator. Effect ive control can al so be ob tained by spray ing bacter ial su spensio ns of 80cillus lhuringiens;s. Ch emical control (Icad arsena te, trichlorron) is effe ctive against th e larvae bu t should be avo id ed sincc the bene fici a l insects tha t ex ercise biol ogical co ntrol are dcstroyed .  --------------~-, Shoot fijes (Si/ba p endu/a, Carpa/anchaea cha/ybeal This pesl, fou nd onl y in ¡he Americas , can damage terminal shoots, resulting in a reduction of plant growth. The adult fly is dark, meta!!ic bl uc in col or ; cggs are ovi posited ameng unexpanded Icaves in the gro wing points or in 5mall cavities made by the ovi positor in lile plant ti ssue . Arter hatching, the larvae lu nnel in the young plant t issue and evenlUall y ki li lhe growing po int. Several wh itish lar vae may be fo u nd in lhe affec ted growing po int , w herc there is ge nerally a yellowish Of brow n ex uda te. The dea th of th e growi ng point retards no rmal growth and induces lhe forma tio n o f new side ShOO1S rhat may al50 be attacked . Yo ung plants are more susceptib le; damage lo older plants proba bly has no effect on yiel d. Since heaviest infestations occur al the begin ni ng o f the rainy season , planting should be programmed so l hat initial crop grow th takes place when shOOL fl y pop ulations are low. Larvac are diffi cul t l o control, but systemic organoph os phorous insl:,-ti cides, such as diazinon, di methoate, methamidophos , mo nocrotop hos and dicrotophos, can be used ar comm er ciaJ ratcs of applicatio n.Thi S fly has been frequently reported as artacking the cassava frujl, causing no economic losses; neverthel ess, it can al50 ca use severe damage lo [he stems, The aUack on the stem occurs l Oto 20 cm below the growing po int, leaving a smatl en trance or exir hol e. The female, which is ye llow in color, oviposits in rhe stem tissu e near the tipo Upon hatching, the ye llow ish white larvae bore their way into [he pith region. A bacter ia l pa th ogen (see \"bacterial stem rol\") has been found in associatio n with the larvae ; (rom this association asevere stem rot results. A wh ite latex exuda te is ahen seen nowing from the larval tunnel. Heavy atlacks may cause lhe death of lhe growing POiOl, thus retarding growth and inducing the (ormation of la teral shoo ts. This bacteria• ¡nsect assoc iation can reduce yields, as we ll as the quali(y of the propagation material coming (rom affected plants. Although methods of control are still in the experimental phase, it can be achieved through the use of resistant cultivars and systemic insecticides such as fenthi o n.Whiteflies fAleuro trachelus sp., Aleurothrixus sp.,Whitefties have becn recorded in th e Ameri cas, Africa a nd certai n parts of As ia. Oirect damage due lO feed ing is nOl reported; bul high popu lations may cause yellow ing and drying of th e lower leaves of th e plant. Adult whiten y populat ion s can be detected by shak ing the growing po ints of the pla nts, wh ich disturbs the adu lts in to flight. Pupae and nymphs are foun d on [he undersides of [he lower leaves. The presen cc of a sooty mold is commo nl y fo und in association with whitefl y attac k. High populatio ns usually oceur in lhe rain y scaso n. Bemisia tabaei is a vector of the African mosaie disease (see correspond ing section of chapter on di seases), which causes heavy yie ld losses in Africa and Asia . $incc thi s disease does not ex ist in (h e Am ericas, the im portance of the whitefly on Lhis conlinent i5 mi ni mal. Fo r its control the fo llo wing insecti ci des are suggested: dim ethoate (2 50 to 400 ce/ ha) , demc to n or cicroto phos (400 10 600 ce/h a), o( phos phamidon (250 LO 400 ce/ha) .The grubs, whose adult stage is a beetle, attack the cullings and raots of the cassava plant. Vario us species have been recorded in many cassava •growing areas of the wo rld . The presence of the se larvae can be detected when the soB is bei ng prepared fo r pla nting. Darnage is charac terized by the destruction of the bar k of Ihe cuttings and the presence of tunnel s in the wood y part. These cu trings may rOl and die. When young plants (1 to 3 month s) are a u acked , lhey sudden ly wilt and die . The larvae also fc ed on Ihe bark of the basal part of lhe slem , generally in the zon e imme• diately belo w lhe soi\\. The larvae are wh ile Wi lh black heads and reach up to 5 cm in length. They ca n generall y be fo und aroun d th e cutling or (oots of Ihe affected pla nt. Thc mosl effective contro l is obtained using aldr in (1.5 kg a .i.fha) and carbofuran (0.9 g a.i./plant), applied to the 50il, right u ndcr lhe cutting.White 9rubs aUackin9 cassava rootsThere are severa l spec ies of CU[wOrm5 that altack cassava. These can be gro uped inlo the foHowing ca legories:The bJack CU(Worm (Agro tis ipsifotl), which feeds on Ihe basa l pa rt ofthe ste m near ¡he surface of the 50i l, leaves lhe plan ls Iy ing on the ground. The larvae are greasy gray fa brown in color, wllh fainl , ligh ter s¡ripes.These cutwo rms c!imb lhe sle m, feeding o n the buds and foli age; lhey may also glrd le lhe st em , causing (he upper part of ¡he planl te wilt and die . The larvac of the south er n armyworm Prodema eridania have been reco rded causing thi s type of damage in man y cassava-growi ng areas. They are dar k gray to black in co lor, with lateral yellow stri pes.These remain in the soil , feedi ng o n lhe root$ aMd underground pa((s of the stem . They cause damage to you ng plan ts (k ill ing up to 50 percent), making it neceS5ary 10 replant. Although rh e attacks may occu r sporadicall y, they are more frequen l when c.as~va has be en planted ah er mai ze:. Al! th esc larvae can be con trolled by using poi son bai ls ( 10 kg sawdusl, 8 to 10 li ters water, 500 g sugar or mo lasses, and 100 & tr¡chlorron fo r 1/2 to 1 ha) . For underground cutworms, applica-l¡om of aldrin or carbofuran around lhe cu ttings can be effewve.Many inseet spec ies feed o n (he stems and branehes of cassava plants, causin g considerable da mage. These ste mbo rers are distr ibu ted worldwide; but th ey are partícular ly im por ta n! in the Amer icas, wh ere lh ey cau se sporadic or loca li zed damage. Most stemborers are th e larval stage o f Col eoptera (Coelosternus sp. and Lagochirus sp.), Lep idoptera (PhYCloenodes 'ip.) and Hyme noptera .Th e larvae vary In size and sha pe, depending on the speeies; some reach a size of 30 mm in length. Th e larvae are usu al ly white, yello w or tan in color and can be found tunnelin g through (he aerial part of (he plan 1. The stems and branehes may brea k because of the win d or be reduced lo sawdust. Duriog dry perio ds, affected branches may lose their leaves and dry up; whe n the infesta líon is severe, the plant s may die. A ste mborer attaek is very easil y detected by the presence of excre ta, sawdust a nd exudate, e)ected fro m burrows made by th e insect in the infested branches, and which can be found o n the site of in(e station or o n th e ground, ju sl under th e pl ant. Control with pesticides is impractic al sin ce ir is difficult to kili the larvae ¡nslde the stems. Populalions can be reduced by removing the infe stcd parts or plants and burning rhem. Always use d iseasc•free cuumgs for pl anting. Several speeies of seales atl.aek cassava stems; but except for \\ocalized incidencc , they do nol seem 10 cause significanl reducti ons in yields. They ge nerall y att ack weak plants . The allac k on ¡he stem by A. olbLls can cause leaves to ye llow and fall. When damage is severe, lhe Slem is complelely covered with sea les, plant grow th is st unted, the stems may dessicate, caus ing plant mortalil y. Sorne species attack th e leaves. Neverthe\\ ess, the greate st damage seems 10 be relaled 10 [he loss of propagation mat er ial: th e germination of heavily ¡nfecled cuttings is grea lly reduced ; and when they do germinate, the rOOIS are poorly developed and th e ir qual ity, reduced. Heaviesl ou tbreaks occu r du ring dry period s, becoming worse durin g prolonged periods of droughl. Mosl effec li ve control is obtai ned by using di sease•free cuttings and by removing and burning infested plants to prevent later di sse minati o n. Chemical control during plan! grow lh can reduce ils incidence (oxydemetonmethyl , mal athio n, at 0.1 pe rce nt) . Lace bugs (Vatiga manihotae and Vatiga spp.)Lac.e bugs ha ve been reporled at,tack ing cassava in se veral So uth and Cen tral American countrie~. In Co lo mbia [he speci es V. munihotoe ha s been recorded, but losses due lO thl s ¡nsect have nOI been de term incd yet. Adults are gray in color and are approx imately 3 mm long. The whilish nymph s are sli ghtly smaller, both adult s and nymphs are found in large quantit ies on th e undersides o f leaves. Damaged leaves have small ycJlow spots Ihill later lurn reddi sh brown, resembling mite damage. Considerable damage can be done lo all the folia~e of one planl. Tcrmi tes have becn fou nd a ll.Jck ing cassava in me tropical low lands. They f eed on propagatían material (cunings) , on rOOls, o r on growi ng plants. In general the establishment of a plantati on can be scvere ly a(fec led by term ite a ttack , aboye all wh en it oceur\" during prolonged dr y periods. Far th ei, control, [he use of resid ual pe sticides 5uch as aldrin, di e ldrin or chl ordane is reco mmend ed.Leaf•cutting ants {Atta sp., Acromyrmex sp.J Several species of ants can defo lia te a plantation rap idly whe n a large number of worker ants invade it. They cut semicircu lar pi eces of leaves, whi ch they ¡hen carry to th e ir nes ts; in heavy a ttacks, even th e b ud s are removed . OUlbreaks u sually oceu r duriog the fir!.! mo nths of crop growlh, but th e ir effec t o n yield is not yer kn o wn. Th eir nests can usually be seen easil y because of the pil es o f dirt d epo sited around the e ntrance holes. Insecticides are t he mos t effect ive mean s o f COnlrol. A nlS can be destroyed in t he nes t by fumigatin g wilh carbon di sulfide, sulfur smoke or arsena tes . Ald rin (in po wder), blown into t he nest; or heptac hlor , di eldrin , BHC and aldrin (in solution). appl ied in or around lhe nest, al50 give good resul ts. Gran ular mirex , spread aJong the ant trails leading to the nests, is carri ed into Ihe nest by Ihe aots, gi ving e ffecti ve co otrol al so.Gal! midges (Cecidomyiidae) Severa l specie s of ni es that induce galls on cassava have been recorded in the Americas. Thesc small flies are gene rall y found on the leaf uppersurface where they lay their eggs. Th c larvae cause abn orma l ce ll growth, form ing galls. The gall s, found on the upper lea f surfacc , are yellowi sh grecn ro red in color, na rrow al Ihe base and oftcn curved. Whcn the gall s are o pe ned, a cy lindri ca l lu nnel with the la rva in sid e can be see n. Gal l mldges are generall y o f ti ule cconomic importance and th ereforc do nor require control. Neverthcless, thcre ha ve bee n cases of rclarded grow th when Iherc are sevcrc ou tbrcak s in you ng plants (2 lo 3 months). To redu ce their incidcncc, infeCled Icaves shou ld be colleclcd and dcs lroycd at weck ly inl ervals.Ahhough cassava i5 frequently grown in poor soils, it can shaw a high response lo f ert ili l.ati on . Deficiencies of major elements do nOl a1ways result;n easily noticeable symptoms, rather they are reflected in reduced growth and yields. As a re sult, many farmers never realile the exi sten ce of these deficiencies. Among the major elem ents, potassium deficiency is the most camman, even in soi l5where olher erops do nol respond to potassium fertilization.Cassava al 50 seems to be very sensitive to magnesium and sulfur c1eficlencies.Among the minor el em ents, zinc deficiency is th e mo st camman in alkalineas well as in sorne aeje! 50il s. Cassava may shaw a nega tivc response to liming in aeid so il s due to th e effe cI of inducing zinc deficien,y . The effe ct of ol her mino r eleme nt deficiencies is less frequ ent bu t can be ex pected in soils with a high pH or in very sa nd y soils.Cassava genera ll y adapts welllo ac id soil .. , bUI it is sensitive lo sa linity or a lkalinity. Nevenhel ess, th ere are cultivars with a hi gh degree of tolerance lO salinilY; in this case, lhe selection o f toleran t cultivars is the best solution to this problem. alNitragen deficic ncy signifi cantly red uces plant growth and production, bUl there are no dearly d isti ngui sh able sympto ms.The pho tograph sh ows cassava p lan ts growi ng in san d with di ffere nt levels (ppm) of N in a nutritive so lution . Stunting of plan ts occurrcd at low leve ls of N, bul there was no ty pical yc llow ing, whi ch is a sign of N dcficiency in other crop s. The ncxt photograph shows t he poor grow t h of cassava in the absc nce of N (foregro und). as compared with vigorau s growth in rhe presencc of N (back ground).Nitragen deficiency in cassava is na l as common as in o ther crops, but jt can be faund in infer ti le soil s such as o xisols o r ulti so ls. In these soi ls, the appl icat ion of N should be moderate (onl y 50 to 100 kg!ha) si nce prod uction is lowered if N is app lied in excess . App lications sh ould be made a l plan ting and thc n 2 , 3 or 4 months la te r. Nor mal N level s in u pper Jeaves are from 5 to 5.5 perce nt for the leaf bJ ades and 1.5 percent for [he pc t iolcs . Th is deficiency i5 camma n in oxisols and in volcanic ash soils.It can be corrected by band applications of fertilize r with a high percentage of solubl e P, such as tri ple o r simple superphosphate , or by inco rporation of less sol uble P fertili zcrs such as basic stag or rack phosphate. Rack phosphate is a good source of P in very ac:id soils. AII P 50urces should be app lied to the soil al the mament of pl anting. Normal P levcls in upper Jeaves are from 0 .25 10 0.50 pereent for th e lea f blades and 0.1 2 to 0. 15 pe recnt for the petiolcs. Potassium is one of the most ¡mportant elements a ffect ing production. The deficiency o f this element reduces height, withou t producing definite foliar symploms (see photo). Pla nts with a K defic iency generall y have narrow and fewer robes . The lower pho tograph ShOW5 ¡he poor grow th o f plants due to K defici ency (foreground), as compared with normal growth in the absence of this deficiency (background) . lntermedi ate levels af application (100 lO 200 kg K 2 Os ¡ ha) o f po tassium chloride or su lfate are recommended; the latter source is preferab le in sulfurdeficien t 50i15. High appl ica tio ns o f K may resu lt in lower yields due l O chl ori ne tox icity (ir KCI is used) or to induced magnesium defi ciency. Potassium sho uld be band a ppli ed at pla nt ing and two to three months thereaft cr. No rmallevels of K in the up per leave s are from 1.2 [O 1.8 percenl for the leaf lobe and fr om 2 to 3 pereent for rhe petioles.Magnesium deficiency resuhs in growth reduction 3nd jn tervenal yeJJ owing of the lower Icaves. The ye llowing begins tawards the lip of the Icaves or the edges, advanc ing towards me center. later th e Icaves die (see photos) .Cassava is suscept ible lo Mg defi cienci es in soil s whe re ather craps may not respond to Mg ; high rates af K may also induce deficiency of this elemenl. Magnes ium may be appli ed by incorpor ati ng it into the soil as MgC0 3 or MgO (20 to 50 kg Mg/ha), or band applications of 10 to 40 kg Mg/ha as MgS0 4 _ Magnesi um sulfate is prefc l' dble in sulfur •deficient so ils . Zinc deficie ncy produces white or ye ll ow spots on the upper leaves (see top ph010) an d yellowing and deformalion of the youngest, recently for med leaves. Necro ti c Sp0 15 may appear on lowcr leaves (see lower pho to) . The color and shape of the spots vary accord ing to the cu ltivar. Cassava is very susceptib le to Zn defici ency, which occurs most fr equent ly in soils with a high pH ; bUI it is also found in soils with a low pH. Li ming these soils may redu ce yield s scriously becausc of the ind uct ion of Zn deficiency . Zn deficie ncy beco mes worsc with a high application of P. Zin c shou ld be band applied to th e so il atleve ls of 5 10 10 kg ln/ha as l nO or Zn50 4 . 11 may al so be app licd lo Icaves with 1 or 2 percenl solutions of Zn50 4 , or lh e cuttings may be im merscd in I 0'-2 percen t suspensions of lnO.Normal Zn level s in the upper leaves range from 50 10 60 ppm fa r Icaf bl ades. $ymptams a f l n defi cicncy are gencrally observcd when the level of thi s element is under 20 ppm.Copper dc fi ci cn cy is not vcry co m mon in cassava. II prod uce~ whi, c <¡pols o n ¡he upper leave s {'iee upper photol, and recenlly emerged Icaves are defo rm ed (I owcr photo) . Symp toms are si milar lo those presentcd for Zn dcficiency, except Ihat ¡he Icaves are l es~ yellow.Copper deficic ncy is comm on ly fa und in soil w jth a h igh organ lC malter con tent and al 50 In so il \" wilh a high pH. lt can be corrcetcd by leaf spra y, b y app lying copper sul fa te to the soi l) o r sub me rging cu ttings in a 50lu lion of th is com pound . Normal Cu level \" in the upper Icaves are ap proxim atcly 6 (O 12 ppm for the Icaf bladc.Iro n de fidcn c:y is charactcrized by the. pr esence of a ycllowish orangc colaring on (he upper Icaves (sce photos), lhe yc ll ow ing being rather uni fo rm over t he cntire leaf arca. This deficiency is nal com mon in cassava, bUI il does occu r in soi ls with a high pH, in sandy so ils, ar in soils wilh a high organ ic maller conlent. Deficiency may be ind uc ed by li ming a r exccss application s of Mn. l ron shou ld be appl ied by leaf aspcrsion wi th a 1 lO 2 pe rccnt solu ti on of FCS04 ar iron che/a tes. Iron che lates may also be applied lo (he soi l, bul th cy are only effcctive in rel ativel y high concentrations . Normal Fe levels in Icaves range fro m approxima tely 100 'o 200 ppm .The sy mptoms of Mn deficiency are si milar lO Ihose for Fe de• ficiency: uniform yellowing o f al! (he lcaves , begin ning aL the edges of the !ea f blade (see ph010S).Manganese deficiency is rare, bul j t can o ccur in so tls wlth a high pH or in organic soils. I l can be con ,•ctcd by leaf aspers!on of MnS04 or by band applic.ations of MnS04 or MoO.Normal Mn levels in leaves (ange fro m 50 l a 150 ppm .Soroo deficiency is rare and clear sy mowms ha ve nol becn round ('ice pho los ). h is mast co mmon in alkaline soHs and ca n be corrected by applying borax or other sod ium borales (\\ to 2 kg Bt ha) to the soi\\ or b y leaf aspersion o f th esc compounds. Normal B levels in the leaves are approximatcly 15 to 40 ppm. 100Baran toxicity is characterized by th e presence o f wh ¡te spOIS or necrosis of the lowe r leaf edges (scc ph otos) , e~p ecia ll y 10 young pla nts. It is Yc ry co mmo n wh en th cre has been an exccssive or nonu niform appli ca tlon of B fcnili zcrs. Plants generally reco ve r.The use o f herbi cides in cassava ca n replace in¡tial weed ings tha l th e erop requ ires lo elimi na te weed co mpeti t ion du ri ng lhe fi rst week s of developmen t an d thus reach max imum pradu et ivity. Th ere are many facto rs that affect the effec tiveness and sefectivity of weed •k ill ers in an y crop.In the case o f cassava, ma ny preemergenee and postemergenee pro du cts ha ve been fo und to be sele ct ive when they are employed prope rly ; nevertheless, thcre are case s in whi ch herbi cid es cause erop d amage. The most frequen t are as fo ll ows:l. An overdose beca use of (aílure to rea d the label carefull y, poor cal ibration o f equip ment, or an er ror in weighi ng or in calcu l3t ing the quantily of the producl lO be added lo lhe sprayer.2. The utili z.ation of a product o r a (ate o f apphca tion na l re ca mmend ed far light 5a i1 5. The sarne [ale sha uld nal be used for all ty pe5 of soil. Wh en the organic maner conten t ;s low and /or the 50 ;1 te nds to be sandy loam or sandy , the rate has to be reduced.3. Thc utili zati on o f a sprayer contamina ted with athe r herbicid es.The herb icide grou p that most comma nl y ca uses thi s type of problem is the \" harman e\" herb ic ides su ch as 2 ,4 -D; 2,4,5 -T; picloram and dica mba . T hese pradu cts are utilized a grea r deal in gramineous cro ps and in pastures. They ca n cause damage wh en th e sa me spra yers are used fo r broad-Iea fed crop s unl ess the sprayers have bee n w3shed well .4. Volatdlza lion of herb ic idc,>. So me \"hormone•• herblCldes are formulated as esters, which range from in lnmed iJlcl y lo highl y volatile. Wh en applie d to gra mineo us ero ps or in pa<;t ures near eassava plan tat io ns, the vapors ffiay a rfeel Ihe taller.5. Dri ft. If an hc rbicidc th at is nonselee llve 10 eassava is app lied lo anolher erop nearby. the \\Vind Olay carry the sp ra y, eau sing damagc 10 the caSSilV3.6. The teaehing of herbi eides. Sorne prce mergenee herbic id es main tain their sclee livity d ue LO the raet thal the y rema in in chc fi rs l few eentimelers oF the soil and are nOI in direet eontaet wit.h ¡he roo ts; however, shou ld heavy ra ins oecur , rhey can be leached to the zone of the roa ts, causing da mage . This oee urs onl y in light soils and with rcl at ively solu bl e produets .7. A poo rly directed pos lemergenee applieat io n. Ca ssava doc , nal to lera le mueh leaf eont ac t with any postemergence herbicl de. There fore , recornmenda tio ns indicate thal th e poste mergence appliea tion should be dirceted al lhe wceds, avoid ing as much co ntac t with the ero p as possib le. If thi s js nol done, da mage can be caused.8. The use of con tamlllJt ed pro du cts. Although infrequcnt, there have bee n ca ses wherc insecticides, fu ngi cides anu fertilizers are contam ina ted with herb ic ides because they are all Slore d logether In th e same warehou se. Besides, when pest icides are no! kept in thcir origina l packi ng, th ey can be confused with olher agricu ltural products.9. The aecumula tion o f incorporated preemergcnce herbicides . The constructi on of bed s or rid ges fo r plant ing wi ll increase th e con centratio n of sorne incorporaled herbicides; a:. a result, whcn ¡he cuuings are plant ed, th cre \\Viii be Meas where there is a relative ove rdose of the product. Thefe is ver y l inle to do that \\ViII stimula te erop reca vefy , l he besl lhing t o do is to wait. and see ir the era p reCQver::.. Cassava will generally rerove!\" as lon g as damagc is Il ght. Fert ili zaríon is suggested for lhis purpose. I f th e damage is due lO horman e herbic idcs or poorl y dlreCled pos lemergence applicdtíons, ¡rrigalion can be u sed if lhe ~o il 1$ dry; but ir t he damagc i5 caused by a soi l-applicd herbicide, il Is best nOl 10 ¡rrigale since this wil l on ly cau se more damage.T his hcrbicide is rccom mended for wccd control in cassava becau se il is normalty seJectivc . h can , however , cause yellowing and /o r necrosi s of the lower [caves when an overdosc is used (two or three times more (han th e reco mme nded rate ) o r whe n il is applicd in l¡ght so ils. The yell owing and n ecro sis begin al Ihe teaf edges and lhe vein s; norma lly l he cro p recavers. The symplo ms of li nu ron and fl uometuron would be Ihe same bccausc they bclong lO lh e sam e chcm ical grou p . This lu:rbicide, recommendcd in direcled pos leme rgence applications, can cause dea th of Ihe sprayed leaf li s~ue , result ing 111 defoliation and bhghl of ¡he sterns in ¡he sprayed area, Th ls symplom ¡s due la ¡he deslruct;on of ¡he cell chlorop last. This damage is caused when the producl has been poorly sprayed; nevertheless, (h e herbicide affe cts cnl\\, Ihe tissue ¡hal comes in contaCI wi¡h ¡he spray.This prod ucl is recommendcd when th ere are wc eds of th e fa mtl ies Cyperaceae or Gramineac; it;5 normally sc lect ivc . Whcn an Qverd ose is applicd in light soi ls or when il is incorporatcd ","tokenCount":"9448"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2aed9b0879d5ec7092520ecd25e1a3a1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2e1ac8ce-bda8-4af3-b5e0-259efad7eaa0/retrieve","id":"1820748186"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"75091f19-4299-42ce-837d-6e732bac902f","pagecount":"33","content":"Una información más amplia sobre este proyecto se encuentra en Chuzel y Muchnik, 1993.2 Para mayor información sobre los componentes tecnológicos desarrollados ver Gottret et. al, 1997. Para poder hacer un uso eficiente y efectivo de los recursos para la investigación y desarrollo (I&D) en agricultura, las actividades de I&D deben estar bien enfocadas. Los fondos invertidos deben verse reflejados en el desarrollo de tecnologías apropiadas a las necesidades de los usuarios, y de esta manera, se debe maximizar el número de usuarios que adopten la tecnología. Los estudios de adopción e impacto tiene varios propósitos (Gottret y Henry, 1994). Los dos usos más importantes de estos estudios son: (1) los resultados de estos estudios proveen información útil para re-ajustar y re-enfocar el desarrollo y transferencia de tecnología, lo cual es de importancia especial para los científicos y extensionistas; y (2) los resultados de estos estudios también dan información sobre el retorno a los recursos invertidos, lo cual es altamente relevante para los administradores y donantes. El análisis de este documento se basa en el trabajo de caracterización de la agroindustria de almidón agrio en el Departamento del Cauca, Colombia (Gottret et. al 1997) y busca integrarlo con los objetivos de (1) determinar los niveles de adopción de la tecnología, (2) analizar los factores que influyeron en la adopción, (3) profundizar en las razones que tuvieron los procesadores para (no) adoptar las tecnologías de procesamiento, y (4) estimar el impacto económico del cambio tecnológico.El Departamento del Cauca esta situado en el sur occidente colombiano sobre la costa Pacífica. Este departamento se caracteriza por tener una población multiracial y pluricultural, en donde conviven etnias indígenas (Guambianos y Paezes, entre otros), negra, mestiza y blanca; cada una de estas etnias con su propia identidad cultural. A lo largo de la carretera panamericana que atraviesa este departamento y une a Pasto con Popayán y Cali, se encuentra establecida la agroindustria del almidón de yuca. Esta agroindustria esta formada por pequeñas a medianas unidades de procesamiento llamadas comúnmente \"rallanderías\". Sin distingo de etnia o cultura, un tamaño significativo de la población rural del departamento deriva sus ingresos directa o indirectamente de esta actividad agroindustrial.La extracción de almidón de yuca empezó en los años cuarenta como una actividad doméstica realizada por las mujeres con equipos manuales caseros, utilizando el producto como ingrediente en la preparación de productos de panadería. Durante los años cincuenta, la extracción del almidón se convierte en una agroindustria netamente artesanal con el fin de satisfacer una demanda local. La primeras innovaciones mecánicas se introducen en esta agroindustria durante la década de los sesenta.Durante los años ochenta esta agroindustria empieza a atraer el apoyo institucional, a través de ONGs. De esta manera, CECORA en 1985 empieza a apoyar la cooperativa de procesadores que ya existía en esta época. SEDECOM y CETEC en 1987 realizaron una investigación con el objeto de mejorar el proceso de extracción del almidón de yuca, el cual detecta deficiencias en el proceso. En 1989 esta iniciativa de las organizaciones locales, atrae el interés de organizaciones internacionales. De esta manera, se inició un proyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo para la producción y transformación del almidón de yuca entre CIRAD-SAR y el CIAT, con el apoyo financiero del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Francia (MAE). El objetivo de este estudio fue de apoyar el desarrollo del sector de producción de almidón de yuca en Colombia, enfocando el esfuerzo hacia los pequeños y medianos procesadores y productores de yuca. 1   El proyecto de desarrollo se enfocó principalmente hacia el mejoramiento de la calidad del producto final, al aumento en la eficiencia del proceso, y en menor grado al manejo de las aguas residuales generadas durante el proceso. La tecnología mejorada de procesamiento que fue generada y transferida por el proyecto incluye los siguientes componentes: (1) Mejoramiento tecnológico de la maquinaria y equipos tradicionales utilizados en el proceso de extracción de almidón; (2) Introducción del sistema de sedimentación por canales para reducir las pérdidas de almidón, mejorar la calidad del producto, y aumentar la eficiencia del proceso, al permitir un procesamiento continuo; (3) Cambios en la distribución de la maquinaria y los equipos de manera que se aprovechen las pendientes naturales del terreno, estableciéndose de esta manera un sistema de gravedad; (4) Estudios de investigación hacia el mejoramiento de la calidad del producto; (5) Prueba e introducción de nuevas variedades mejoradas de yuca, adaptadas a la zona, con características deseables para la transformación del almidón; y (6) Sistemas de manejo y tratamiento de las aguas residuales para proteger el medio ambiente y las fuentes de agua. 2Para obtener la información necesaria para evaluar la adopción y el impacto del Proyecto de Investigación y Desarrollo (1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996), se utilizó una combinación de cinco instrumentos de recolección de información:1.Recopilación de información secundaria en informes y documentos del proyecto de investigación y desarrollo.Encuesta formal estructurada de caracterización de la agroindustria de almidón agrio de yuca y adopción de tecnología, dirigida a todas las unidades de procesamiento del Departamento del Cauca (n=208). 3Evaluación visual de la tecnología de procesamiento utilizada en todas la unidades de procesamiento del Departamento del Cauca (n=208). 4Encuesta formal estructurada sobre costos de procesamiento y adopción de tecnología, dirigida a una sub-muestra de las unidades de procesamiento del Departamento del Cauca.El tamaño de esta sub-muestra se estimó con el método de muestreo aleatorio estratificado, con un error máximo permitido de 0.20 y un nivel de confiabilidad del 80%. De esta manera se estimó una muestra de 54 encuestas, repartidas por estrato del la siguiente manera : 20 encuestas para el nivel tecnológico bajo, 20 para el nivel tecnológico medio, y 14 encuesta para el nivel tecnológico alto. 5 La información sobre costos de procesamiento y rentabilidad por nivel tecnológico, obtenida mediante esta encuesta, permite determinar los ingresos que perciben los procesadores por nivel tecnológico. Esta información es utilizada en este estudio para estimar el impacto económico del proyecto a nivel de procesador.Cinco sesiones de grupo focal con procesadores de los tres niveles tecnológicos. Estas sesiones se hicieron con cinco objetivos específicos : (a) identificar los problemas y limitantes que enfrentan actualmente los procesadores, (b) priorizar las necesidades de investigación, desarrollo y fomento con los procesadores, (c) profundizar en forma cualitativa las razones que tuvieron los procesadores para (no)adoptar las tecnologías mejoradas de procesamiento, (d) conocer la organización y gestión interna de las unidades de procesamiento; y (e) evaluar en forma cualitativa el trabajo de las instituciones y el impacto social que ha tenido el desarrollo de la agroindustria en la región.En cuanto al proceso de lavado, se puede apreciar en una primera etapa del cambio tecnológico el paso del pelado y lavado manual a la lavadora de cargue frontal. Este paso del lavado manual al lavado mecanizado se debió principalmente a la falta de mano de obra y con el objeto de aumentar la capacidad de producción (producir mas y más rápido) y de disminuir las pérdidas de yuca y poder lavar la yuca pequeña. En una segunda etapa se cambio de la lavadora de cargue frontal por la lavadora de cargue lateral, la semi-continua y la continua, todas estas desarrolladas por los constructores de maquinaria de la zona con apoyo institucional. Las razones para este cambio se observan en el Cuadro 1 y son principalmente aumentar la capacidad de producción, mejorar la calidad del almidón y trabajar mas comodamente.El cambio tecnológico en el proceso de colado ha tenido dos etapas. En una primera etapa, los procesadores cambiaron del colado manual con lienzos a la coladora mecánica de cuatro apoyos.Las razones para este cambio fueron principalmente las de aumentar la capacidad de procesamiento y procesar más rápido. Además, los procesadores mencionaron que esto les permite reducir la demanda de mano de obra en el proceso. Este es un proceso que se dio en forma expontánea en la zona donde no hubo intervención de las instituciones. Por otro lado, en una segunda etapa los procesadores cambiaron la coladora de cuatro apoyos por una coladora de semi-eje o colgada, la cual fue desarrollada por los constructores de maquinaria de la zona con apoyo de las instituciones.Además, diez procesadores (5%) cambiaron la coladora de cuatro apoyos por la semi-contínua, la cual también fue desarrollada por los constructores de maquinaria de la zona con apoyo institucional. De acuerdo con con los datos que se presentan en el Cuadro 4, las principales razones que dan los procesadores para este cambio son las de aumentar la capacidad de producción y disminuir los costos de mantenimiento de la máquina por el menor desgaste de las balineras. Adicionalmente a estas dos razones, los procesadores en las discusiones de grupo focal y en la segunda encuesta mencionaron que el uso de estas coladoras mejoradas también mejora la calidad del almidón ya que se reduce la contaminación del almidón.Por otro lado, durante los últimos cuatro años los procesadores están realizando el proceso de \"recolado\", utilizando recoladoras oscilatorias. Este es un proceso que se realiza a la lechada después de que pasa por el proceso de colado para recoger las impurezas y el afrecho que pasan durante este proceso y quedan en el almidón. El principal motivo para realizar el recolado es para mejorar la calidad del almidón.Tradicionalmente la sedimentación del almidón se realiza en tanques, los cuales se llenan con la lechada y se dejan mas o menos por un día hasta que se asienta el almidón en el fondo de éstos. Un mejoramiento tecnológico en este proceso es la construcción de canales, por los cuales pasa la lechada y se sedimenta en el fondo. En el Cuadro 4 se puede observar que la principal razón que dieron los procesadores para construir estos canales es para aumentar la capacidad de procesamiento. Otras razones son las de mejorar la calidad del almidón, trabajar mas cómodamente y reducir costos.Los resultados de la segunda encuesta muestran que el 71% de los que construyeron los canales lo hicieron para mejorar la calidad, y que el 29% fue para aumentar el rendimiento (conversión raíces de yuca a almidón). Sin embargo, una vez construidos los canales, las principales ventajas que encontraron fueron el aumento el la capacidad de procesamiento, el mejoramiento de la calidad, el aumento en la eficiencia de extracción de almidón, y la reducción de la mano de obra.Otras ventajas que encontraron uno de los procesadores fue la reducción en la contaminación de las aguas residuales. Una de las desventajas que encontraron los procesadores fue la pérdida de la mancha. Por esta razón, algunos procesadores construyeron otros canales adicionales para recuperar la mancha.Adicionalmente, en las sesiones de grupo focal con los procesadores de nivel tecnológico alto (aquellos que adoptaron los canales de sedimentación), se profundizó mas sobre estas ventajas y desventajas de los canales de sedimentación. Los procesadores consideran que los canales de sedimentación mejoran la calidad del almidón de dos maneras : (1) la mancha sale con el agua por lo que no es necesario el proceso de desmanchado, el cual es necesario cuando la sedimentación se realiza en tanques, y durante el cual es casi imposible eliminar toda la mancha;(2) cuando se maneja bien la velocidad con la cual fluye el agua, ésta se lleva la fibra que puede haber quedado en el almidón durante el proceso.Además, la sedimentación en canales permite seleccionar el almidón por calidad. Los procesadores han encontrado que en los tres primeros canales la calidad del almidón es mejor. En cuanto a la capacidad de procesamiento, esta se aumenta ya que no es necesario parar el proceso cuando se llenan los tanques, por lo que se puede trabajar en forma continua y el trabajo es mas descansado. El aumento en la eficiencia de conversión de yuca en almidón se debe en parte a la eliminación del proceso de desmanchado en el cual se pierde almidón. Los procesadores indicaron que con los tanques de sedimentación se lograba sacar alrededor de un kg. de almidón por cada 5.2 kg de raíces de yuca, en cambio, con los canales logran tasas de conversión de alrededor de 1 kg de almidón por cada 4.7 kg de raíces de yuca. En cuanto a la contaminación de las aguas residuales, los procesadores creen que esta se disminuye con el uso de los canales debido a que el agua esta menos tiempo estancada por lo cual no se alcanza a bajar mucho el PH del agua (el agua no llega a acidificarse mucho).Entre los procesadores que no adoptaron esta tecnología, las principales razones fueron : (1) Falta de recursos económicos para invertir en la construcción de los canales.(2) Falta de capital de trabajo, lo cual hace que no esten interesados en aumentar su capacidad de procesamiento. (3) Falta de espacio en la unidad de procesamiento para construir los canales y les da lástima tumbar los tanques que tienen construídos actualmente. (4) Aunque creen que los tanques pueden mejorar la calidad del almidón, esto solo se da en los primeros canales y en el resto la calidad es menor. Además, el almidón de los primeros canales se mezcla con el resto y la calidad no e mejor que la que ellos obtienen en tanques y el precio que reciben es el mismo. (5) Falta de asesoría en como construirlos y las ventajas que estos ofrecen.Un cambio tecnológico que se ha venido dando en los últimos ocho año es la distribución de la maquinaria y equipos en gravedad, aprovechando de esta manera la pendiente del terreno. En el Cuadro 4 se puede observar que la principal razón para adoptar esta tecnologías es la de trabajar mas cómodamente y reducir la mano de obra necesaria en el procesamiento. En las sesiones de grupo, los procesadores opinaron que esta distribución de la maquinaria también aumenta la seguridad industrial, ya que el trabajador se mueve por el lado contrario al que se encuentran las correas y motores. Además, los procesadores opinan que esta tecnología permite aumentar la capacidad de procesamiento ya que se acelera el proceso. Los procesadores que adoptaron esta tecnología han encontrado que esta tiene la desventaja de que aumenta el uso de agua en el proceso. Los procesadores que conocen esta tecnología pero no la adoptaron lo atribuyen a la falta de recursos económicos, y a que el terreno donde esta construida su unidad de procesamiento no se presta para esto ya que se requiere cierta pendiente en el terreno y un movimiento de tierras sería muy costoso.En cuanto al proceso de secado, se cambio el secado en celdas o paseras (cajas de madera) por el secado en pisos de cemento, y posteriormente, se añadió el plástico negro. Este cambio tiene la ventaja de que el almidón se seca más rápido, aumentándose así la capacidad de procesamiento. Además, esto reduce la mano de obra ya que se evitan el tener que extender y guardar el almidón varias veces. El plástico negro tiene la ventaja adicional de que facilita la recogida del almidón y ayuda a mantener el almidón mas limpio durante el proceso de secado, mejorando la calidad del producto.El primer paso para poder analizar los procesos de adopción de tecnología es definir claramente cuales fueron las tecnologías difundidas a los usuarios de un determinado proyecto y que se considera como adopción de tecnología. Para el caso del \"Proyecto Integrado de Investigación y Desarrollo para la Producción y Transformación del Almidón de Yuca\", las tecnologías mejoradas de procesamiento que se han desarrollado y recomendado en los últimos ocho años de trabajo institucional con la agroindustria de almidón de yuca en el Cauca, se pueden agrupar en tres categorías : (1) tecnología tradicional local sobresaliente, recomendada por las instituciones;(2) tecnología desarrollada localmente con apoyo de las instituciones; y (3) tecnología mejorada introducida por las instituciones.Existen dos componentes de tecnología tradicional sobresaliente que fueron recomendadas por las instituciones : El uso de la variedad \"Algodona\" para procesamiento y el uso de tanques de fermentación recubiertos de madera. Estas recomendaciones se basan en estudios que se hicieron sobre la influencia de la materia prima y el proceso de fermentación en la calidad y poder de expansión del almidón. En estos estudios se identificó que la variedad tradicional \"Algodona\", la cual ha venido siendo utilizada por los procesadores, da un almidón de muy buena calidad en cuanto a la capacidad de expansión se refiere. Por otro lado, los estudios sobre calidad mostraron que cuando el almidón se fermenta en tanques recubiertos con madera, el tiempo de fermentación puede ser reducido de 30 a 15 días, sin afectar la calidad del almidón. Esta disminución en el tiempo de fermentación se debe principalmente a que la madera mantiene el inóculo de las bacterias, acelerando el proceso de fermentación.Entre las tecnologías desarrolladas localmente con apoyo de las instituciones se encuentran principalmente las tecnologías relacionadas con el desarrollo de maquinaria mejorada. Una evaluación sobre la forma en que esta maquinaria fue desarrollada y difundida, muestra que existen dos constructores de maquinaria en la región (uno en Mondomo y otro en la vereda de La Agustina). Estos dos constructores de la región han sido los que han venido desarrollando y difundiendo esta maquinaria mejorada. Sin embargo, los investigadores y extensionistas de las instituciones han trabajado en forma colaborativa con estos constructores de maquinaria, apoyándolos en el diseño, construcción y evaluación de esta maquinaria mejorada. Dentro de estas tecnologías se encuentra el uso de lavadoras y coladoras mejoradas, el uso de un repasador para realizar un segundo rallando, lo cual aumenta la eficiencia de extracción de almidón, y el uso de una recoladora oscilatoria que mejora la calidad del producto.Otra tecnología que puede considerarse dentro del grupo de las desarrolladas localmente con el apoyo institucional, se refiere al uso de la mezcla de la variedad tradicional \"Algodona\" con la variedad mejorada \"Raya 7\". En la evaluación de las variedades locales y mejoradas para el procesamiento se encontraron tres variedades mejoradas con buenas características para este uso : MCOL 1684, MBRA 383, y la Catumare 523-7 (llamada localmente \"Raya 7\"). Esta última es una variedad lanzada en 1986 en los llanos orientales por CIAT e ICA pero que se diseminó espontáneamente en el Departamento del Cauca. Esta variedad tiene un alto contenido de materia seca (superior a 35%) y se comporta bien en las zonas bajas del Departamento del Cauca (hasta 1200 msnm). Debido a que la variedad local \"Algodona\"solo se produce en las zonas altas, tiene un menor contenido de materia seca y un mayor precio en el mercado; los procesadores han ajustado las recomendaciones a sus necesidades. La información existente parece mostrar que un ajuste interesante que han hecho los procesadores es la mezcla de variedad \"Algodona\"con \"Raya 7\". Debido a que en la actualidad no existe una variedad que tenga un rendimiento alto, buen contenido de materia seca y que a la vez de un almidón con buen poder de expansión; los procesadores mas innovativos han venido realizando una mezcla de variedades. De esta manera, mezclan una variedad que da una muy buena calidad de almidón (la variedad local \"Algodona\")De estas unidades de procesamiento, todas utilizan canales para la sedimentación del almidón y 11 tienen su maquinaria y equipos distribuidos en gravedad. En cuanto al uso de maquinaria mejorada, 17 (53.1%) utilizan lavadoras de cargue lateral y semi-continuas mejoradas, 18 (56.3%) utilizan repasadoras, 19 (59.4%) coladoras de semi-eje o semi-continuas mejoradas, y 10 (31.3%) utilizan recoladoras oscilatorias. Además seis de estas unidades de procesamiento (18.8%) realizan algún tipo de tratamiento a las aguas residuales.En cuanto al uso de las variedades recomendadas para procesamiento, en el Cuadro 3 se puede observar que 52.4% de los procesadores están utilizando la variedad \"Algodona\"y 26.4% procesan la variedad \"Raya 7\". Además, 19.7% de los procesadores están mezclando la variedad \"Algodona\"con la variedad \"Raya 7\". En todos los casos, el porcentaje de procesadores que están utilizando estas variedades recomendadas aumenta con el nivel de tecnología de las unidades de procesamiento.En esta sección del estudio se analizará con mayor detalle las características de los procesadores que adoptaron las tecnologías mejoradas de procesamiento de almidón de yuca versus los que no lo hicieron y los factores externos que influyeron en el proceso de adopción.Los objetivos de este análisis son: (1) comprender mejor el patrón de adopción de las tecnologías mejoradas de procesamiento de almidón agrio de yuca en el departamento del Cauca en Colombia e identificar los factores que afectan la respuesta de los procesadores hacia las nuevas tecnologías; y (2) determinar la relación entre la adopción de tecnología y la forma de comercialización de la producción, la facilidad de acceso a los mercados, el tipo de mano de obra utilizada, las características de las unidades de procesamiento y del procesador, y el acceso a apoyo institucional. Este tipo de análisis es útil para las personas encargadas de hacer las políticas de manera que puedan desarrollar y difundir mejor las nuevas tecnologías. Si se pueden identificar los factores que caracterizan los procesadores que no adoptan tecnología, es posible que se pueda modificar los sistemas de investigación, desarrollo y fomento para permitir un mejor cubrimiento de este segmento de la población. Por otra parte, si se pueden distinguir las diferencias entre adoptores de tecnología y los que no la adoptan, se pueden determinar más eficazmente los efectos de la tecnología en la distribución de ingresos y el empleo.Con base en el análisis de la sección anterior se puede establecer que existen tres categorías de tecnología que se pueden analizar. Por una lado se analizarán los factores que influyen en la adopción de tecnología tradicional local sobresaliente recomendada por las instituciones, para lo cual se analizará los factores que influyen en la decisión de procesar la variedad tradicional \"Algodona\". Para el análisis de los factores que influyen en la adopción de tecnología desarrollada localmente con apoyo de las instituciones, se analizará la adopción de maquinaria mejorada. Finalmente, se analizará los factores que influyeron en la adopción de canales de Proyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo de la producción y transformación de yuca para la obtención y comercialización de almidón agrio de yuca Proyecto de Desarrollo de Agroempresas Rurales, CIAT http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/agroempresas/espanol/inicio.htm Página 10 de 33 sedimentación y la distribución de la maquinaria y equipos en gravedad, lo cual permite analizar la adopción de tecnología introducida por las instituciones.La literatura contiene varios estudios que buscan determinar las características de los productores que adoptan o no la tecnología, y los factores que influyen en el proceso de adopción de tecnología (ej. Colmenares, 1975;Gerhart, 1975;Cutie, 1976;Demir, 1976;Gafsi y Roe, 1979;Garcia et. al, 1983;Caswell y Zilberman, 1985;Rook y Carlson, 1985;Rahm y Huffman, 1988;Harper et. al, 1990;Zepeda, 1990;Lin, 1991;y Green y Ng'ong'ola, 1993 ). Los factores comunmente mencionados en estos estudios son la disponibilidad de crédito, el acceso a información y asistencia técnica, el tamaño y tenencia de la finca, las características del productor (edad, años de educación formal, experiencia, etc.), y la disponibilidad de mano de obra, insumos e infraestructura adecuada. En general la adopción de tecnología no ha sido relacionada con factores relacionados a la facilidad de acceso a mercados ni al rol de las organizaciones de productores y procesadores. Para realizar estos análisis, se utilizó un modelo que simula la curva logística de adopción (ver Apéndice), el cual se estimó con una sub-muestra de los datos obtenidos mediante la encuesta formal estructurada de caracterización de la agroindustria de almidón agrio de yuca y adopción de tecnología, y la evaluación visual de la tecnología de procesamiento utilizada. Para esta estimación se utilizaron solamente 145 observaciones, las cuales corresponden a las plantas que están operando actualmente. En el resto de las plantas la primera encuesta no pudo realizarse en forma completa.Este modelo se estimó primero con todas las variables que se considera que pueden influir en la decisión de adopción, las cuales se listan a continuación :Variables Relacionadas con la Facilidad de Acceso al Mercado : Distancia de la unidad de procesamiento a la carretera panamericana y forma de comercialización del almidón.Variables Relacionadas con el Tipo de Mano de Obra Utilizada : Porcentaje de la mano de obra que es femenina o que son niños y porcentaje de la mano de obra que es contratada.Variables Relacionadas con las Características de la Unidad de Procesamiento : Forma de propiedad y forma de tenencia de la unidad de procesamiento.Variables Relacionadas con las Características del Procesador : Edad, años de experiencia manejando una unidad de procesamiento, años de educación formal, dedicación a otras actividades productivas o trabajo como asalariado, dedicación a la producción de yuca, porcentaje de ingresos que provienen del procesamiento de almidón, y afiliación a la organización de productores y procesadores de yuca.Variables Relacionadas con el Acceso a Apoyo Institucional : Acceso a asistencia técnica y acceso a crédito.Los resultados del análisis de regresión logística se presentan en el Cuadro 4. Debido al ruido producido por el número de variables utilizadas en las estimaciones, los resultados muestran un En cuanto al tipo de mano de obra utilizada, en el Cuadro 5 se puede observar que éstas variables son las que mas contribuyen a explicar la adopción de maquinaria mejorada. De esta manera, los procesadores que cuentan con un mayor porcentaje de mano de obra femenina y/o niños tienenProyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo de la producción y transformación de yuca para la obtención y comercialización de almidón agrio de yuca Proyecto de Desarrollo de Agroempresas Rurales, CIAT http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/agroempresas/espanol/inicio.htmPágina 12 de 33 una probabilidad menor de adoptar maquinaria mejorada. Cabe notar que este tipo de mano de obra esta altamente relacionada con el porcentaje de mano de obra familiar, y por lo tanto, una mano de obra mas barata que disminuye los incentivos para adoptar maquinaria en el procesamiento. Aún mas, los procesadores que tienen una mayor porcentaje de mano de obra contratada son los que tiene la mayor probabilidad de adoptar maquinaria mejorada, la cual les permite disminuir sus requerimientos de mano de obra y disminuir sus costos de procesamiento.El modo de tenencia de las unidades de procesamiento no tienen una influencia importante en la adopción de tecnología. Sin embargo, se puede notar que hay una mayor tendencia de adoptar maquinaria mejorada entre los procesadores que son dueños de su unidad de procesamiento, lo cual es bastante lógico.La característica del procesador que mas influye en la adopción de tecnología es su vinculación a COAPRACAUCA. Se puede observar que la probabilidad de adopción aumenta significativamente entre los procesadores que son miembros de la Cooperativa. Por ejemplo, la probabilidad de que un procesador utilice al variedad \"Algodona\" aumenta de 61.2% a 94.2% si éste es miembro de la Cooperativa. Igualmente, la probabilidad de que adopte maquinaria mejorada o canales de sedimentación, aumenta de 29.2% a 50.8% y de 1.6% a 5.2%, respectivamente, si el procesador es miembro de la Cooperativa. Dentro de este grupo de variables, se puede observar que la edad del procesador esta inversamente relacionada con la adopción de las variedades recomendadas para procesar. Por otro lado, la adopción de maquinaria esta directamente relacionada con la edad del procesador, lo cual se puede explicar por el mayor poder económico que tienen los procesadores mas viejos. Sin embargo, la adopción de tecnología mejorada introducida por las instituciones es mayor entre los procesadores con mas años de educación formal, lo cual normalmente ha sido un indicador del interés por la innovación tecnológica.Finalmente, los resultados de las estimaciones muestran que la adopción de tecnología mejorada de procesamiento, contrario a lo que se podría pensar, no ha estado influenciada por el acceso a asistencia técnica y crédito. Como se pudo ver en la sección de fuentes de difusión de tecnología, este ha sido mas bien un proceso de difusión de procesador-a-procesador, donde los procesadores que han tenido acceso a asistencia técnica directa ha sido mas bien bajo (sólo 9.6% de los procesadores dicen haber recibido asistencia técnica). Por otro lado, los procesadores que han adoptado las innovaciones tecnológicas lo han hecho, en su mayoría, con fondos propios. Sólo el 14.9% de los procesadores dicen haber recibido crédito para el procesamiento de yuca. Sin embargo, en las discusiones de grupo focal, los procesadores que no adoptaron la tecnología lo atribuyen en parte a la falta de recursos económicos, lo cual no significa necesariamente que no existan líneas de crédito, sino que los intereses son altos, los plazos muy cortos, y el acceso a estos créditos por parte de los pequeños procesadores es limitado.Los objetivos de esta sección son : (1) estimar los beneficios económicos del proyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo para la producción y transformación del almidón de yuca en el Departamento del Cauca, Colombia;(2) estimar la distribución de estos beneficios entre productores de yuca, procesadores de yuca y consumidores de almidón agrio de yuca;(3) presentar la opinión de los procesadores de yuca sobre el trabajo institucional; y (4) evaluar el impacto social de la agroindustria en la región de acuerdo con los procesadores de yuca.Para estimar los beneficios económicos y su distribución entre los diferentes grupos de interés (objetivos 1 y 2) se utilizará un modelo de excedentes económicos para el caso de mercados verticales tomado de Alston et. al (1995;pp.246-251). Para poder estimar este modelo es necesario conocer las cantidades producidas y los precios de los productos en los diferentes niveles de la cadena productiva. En el Cuadro 6 se presenta la evolución de estos precios y cantidades para el periódo 1988-95. Además, es necesario medir el cambio tecnológico en términos de reducción en costos y conocer la curva de adopción. Con base en los resultados de las encuestas en la Figura 1 se presenta la curva de adopción de la tecnología en términos del número de unidades de procesamiento mejoradas (tecnología alta), las cuales no existían antes del inicio del proyecto, y el porcentaje de la producción en unidades de procesamiento mejoradas.Por otro lado, en el Cuadro 7 se presentan el factor de conversión de raíces de yuca a almidón y los costos de las unidades de procesamiento por nivel de tecnología. Estos datos muestran que la tecnología mejorada de procesamiento aumenta la capacidad de producción, de 82.6 TM/año a 205.6 TM/año (149%), y disminuye los costos de procesamiento en un 7% (de $Col 719 a $Col 669 por /kg de almidón producido). Para la estimación del modelo se utilizó una elasticidad de oferta de raíces de yuca de 1.0, la cual permite abrir la economía de la región y de esta manera la entrada de yuca de otras regiones del país. En la actualidad la mayoría de la yuca procesada en la región es producida en el Departamento del Cauca (70% de acuerdo con una encuesta realizada por el entonces Programa de Yuca del CIAT), sin embargo, el 30% entra de otras regiones del país e inclusive del Ecuador (Gottret et. al, 1997). También se utilizo una elasticidad de oferta de almidón de yuca de 1.0 (Gottret et. al 1994), y una elasticidad de demanda de almidón agrio de yuca de -2.2 (FINANCIACOOP, 1990y Henry, 1995).En el Cuadro 8 se pueden observar los beneficios estimados por grupo de interés en pesos colombianos de 1996 (1US$ = 1000 $Col aproximadamente). Estos resultados muestran que todos los grupos se han beneficiado con el mejoramiento tecnológico a nivel de procesamiento de almidón de yuca. Por un lado, los productores se han beneficiado con una mayor demanda por su producto y un aumento bajo de las raíces de yuca. Por lo tanto los productores estan vendiendo mas a un mejor precio. Los procesadores también se han beneficiado ya que a pesar de que el precio de su producto ha disminuído por el aumento en la oferta del producto, ellos están vendiendo mas y produciendo a un menor costo. Los procesadores, a pesar de que el precio de venta de su producto ha disminuído, han disminuído sus costos de procesamiento en una mayor proporción, lo cual se reflejada en un aumento en sus ingresos. Por otro lado, la industria que consume el producto también se ha beneficiado del mejoramiento tecnológico ya que esta comprando mas almidón a un menor precio. Finalmente, la sociedad se ha beneficiado con un aumento en los ingresos de 25,280 millones de pesos colombianos (25.3 millones de US$ aproximadamente). Si se considera que este proyecto costó alrededor de 8,870 millones de pesos colombianos (8.9 millones de dólares), se calculan unos beneficios netos de 16,410 millones de pesos colombianos con una tasa interna de retorno de 80%.Cuando se estiman los beneficios de un cambio tecnológico es importante tener en cuenta que éstos son sensibles a cambios en los parámetros utilizados. Para evaluar el grado de sensibilidad a las elasticidades de oferta y demanda utilizadas, el modelo se estimó con cambios del 20% en estos parámetros. Los resultados se presentan en el Cuadro 9. Estos resultados muestran que los beneficios totales para la sociedad cambian en un 30%. Además, se puede observar cambios significativos en la distribución de los beneficios entre los diferentes grupos de la sociedad. En general, se puede observar que cuando la elasticidad de oferta de los productores o procesadores disminuye, es decir que reacciona menos a los cambios en precios, el porcentaje de los beneficios totales que llega a este grupo aumenta. En el caso de los consumidores también se puede observar que al disminuir su elasticidad de demanda, el porcentaje de los beneficios totales que percibe este grupo de la sociedad disminuye.Por otra parte, durante las sesiones de grupo se preguntó a los procesadores de los diferentes niveles de tecnología acerca del impacto que ha tenido esta agroindustria en el desarrollo de la región. Los procesadores de nivel tecnológico bajo opinaron que esta agroindustria compra la yuca a los productores de la región a un precio justo, sin engañarles en el peso, y que ha a los productores les queda más fácil vender la yuca en las unidades de procesamiento de la zona ya que no tienen que pagar el transporte para sacarla a otras zonas. Además, opinaron que el procesamiento de yuca da empleo a los habitantes de la zona.Los procesadores de nivel tecnológico medio opinan que la agroindustria ha generado empleo en la región no solo para el procesamiento, pero también en la producción de yuca y para los transportadores, lo cual se ha visto reflejado en el mejoramiento del nivel de vida de la población. En las palabras de uno de los procesadores \"la agroindustria de la yuca le ha dado a la población plata para mejorar sus viviendas, para comprar fincas, conseguir transporte y... hasta para tomar trago.\" Esta opinión es compartida por los procesadores de nivel tecnológico alto, los cuales consideran que la agroindustria genera empleo y de esta manera contribuye a mejorar las condiciones de vida de la población de la zona.Entre los efectos negativos de la agroindustria para la calidad de vida de la población, los procesadores mencionaron el problema de contaminación del medio ambiente, lo cual aunque ellos opinan que no los afecta directamente, esta afectando la región donde viven. Los procesadores piensan que es necesario que se implemente el tratamiento de las aguas residuales, pero opinan que esta es una decisión de tipo económico ya que tratar el agua cuesta y actualmente no tienen los recursos para hacerlo. Por esta razón, aunque se sienten apenados cuando la gente de la comunidad les dice que ellos ensucian el agua, ellos solo estarían dispuestos a tratar el agua si :(1) todos los procesadores participan y decide un manejo común de las aguas, ya que actualmente conocen muy poco sobre los métodos de tratamiento de aguas residuales, y (2) se diseña un sistema de tratamiento de bajo costo, acompañado con créditos a largo plazo e intereses bajos, junto con la asistencia técnica. Por otro lado, los procesadores de nivel tecnológico bajo no estan consientes de este problema y opinan que el agua de desecho se va a la cañada y no los perjudica.Los análisis y resultados discutidos en este documento generan un conjunto de conclusiones e implicaciones. Como se mencionó en la primera sección, este tipo de estudios tiene diferentes objetivos para diferentes audiencias. Por lo tanto, las conclusiones seran tratadas de acuerdo con las audiencias para las cuales esta información es útil.Los resultados muestran claramente que la ubicación geográfica de las unidades de procesamiento es importante para su desarrollo tecnológico ya que las plantas mas aisladas han tenido una adopción significativamente menor. Estas plantas se encuentran alejadas de la fuentes de insumos, información, tecnología, crédito, mercados; y la mayoría trabajan con mano de obra familiar. Si en el futuro se espera tener algún impacto en los ingresos de estos procesadores, significativamente mas pobres, se necesitaría dirigir esfuerzos adicionales hacia este grupo con tecnología apropiada e intervenciones institucionales y de mercadeo. De esta manera, se necesitarían recursos adicionales de los científicos, extensionistas y de las instituciones.La importancia de la integración con los mercados y consumidores también es evidente. Además de influenciar positivamente la adopción de tecnología, esta integración beneficiaría tanto a los consumidores como a los procesadores. De esta manera, se podría lograr un mejor equilibrio entre la oferta y la demanda, mejorar la calidad del producto, disminuir los márgenes de mercadeo, contribuir a la estabilización de los precios, y disminuir los precios al consumidor en el medio plazo. En cierto grado esta integración ha ido mejorando con la existencia de la Cooperativa, la cual esta en contacto permanente con el mercado, pero su participación en el mercado es todavía muy pequeña (la Cooperativa comercializa actualmente el 5% de la producción de la zona), por lo que esta integración puede mejorarse aún mas. Además, las otras zonas mas aisladas necesitan de una intervención similar. Por lo tanto, es necesario una intervención institucional fuerte para trabajar con organizaciones de productores y procesadores en actividades de mercadeo.Un aspecto de interés es el tema de la mecanización versus la mano de obra familiar.Especialmente en las unidades de procesamiento mas pequeñas y aisladas, el costo de oportunidad de las mujeres (y niños) es bastante bajo. Las intervenciones basadas en la mecanización pueden disminuir la involucración de las mujeres en este sector económico, lo cual podría tener un efecto negativo en el bienestar de los hogares. Por lo tanto, la intervenciones futuras en actividades de investigación y desarrollo tienen que prestar una atención especial al rol del género en la introducción y transferencia de tecnología.El crédito no parece haber sido tan importante para la adopción de tecnología en el pasado de acuerdo con los análisis de este documento. Sin embargo, esta conclusión debe ser tomada con precaución ya que en las sesiones de grupo focal, los procesadores indicaron el crédito como uno de sus principales problemas. Hasta el momento no es tan claro si el problema es de crédito operacional o de inversión, o si el problema es de disponibilidad de crédito en sí o de las condiciones del crédito. Sin embargo, la condiciones de crédito actuales implican un nivel de riesgo significativo. Por lo tanto, si se considera que la adopción de tecnología implica un nivel de riesgo mayor, el riesgo adicional del crédito puede ser demasiado alto, especialmente para los procesadores mas pobres. Este aspecto debe ser estudiado y analizado en mayor profundidad. Si en el futuro se desea ofrecer mayores facilidades de crédito, el tipo de crédito y el acceso a éste debe ser apropiado a las diferentes condiciones de los usuarios.El análisis de impacto económico muestra que la inversión en investigación y desarrollo tiene una tasa de retorno significativa. Inclusive si se considera que los costos estan subvalorados ya que no toman en cuenta los costos de otras acciones en la agroindustria (los costos se inflaron en un 20%), una tasa de retorno a la inversión en investigación mayor al 30% es significativa. Esta información sirve para justificar que invertir en el desarrollo de la pequeña agroindustria rural es una buena inversión para lograr el desarrollo de las área rurales. Este análisis muestra que a pesar de que los recursos se invirtieron a nivel de procesamiento, los productores también se vieron beneficiados con una mayor demanda por su producto. Por lo tanto, se puede concluir que los proyecto integrados benefician a todos los grupos de la cadena productiva, y que el grupo de los mas pobres, los productores de yuca, también han sido beneficiados.El análisis cuantitativo de impacto no incluye una evaluación sobre los efectos en el medio ambiente. Sin embargo, la información cualitativa muestra que los procesadores están consientes del efecto negativo de la agroindustria en la contaminación de las aguas residuales. Por lo tanto, esta información debe recibir una atención particular en la planeación de futuras intervenciones en investigación y desarrollo tanto para las personas que diseñan las políticas para el sector como para los científicos y las instituciones de desarrollo.Aunque es evidente que los estudios de adopción e impacto generan información útil para diferentes audiencias, una última recomendación sería que los proyectos que integran la investigación y desarrollo en producción, procesamiento, y mercadeo, no deben incluir las actividades de impacto y evaluación como una actividad aislada, sino como otro elemento que debe ser integrado a éstos proyectos. Esta integración con las actividades de evaluación puede mejorar significativamente la eficiencia y efectividad de los recursos invertidos en investigación y desarrollo.El trabajo de campo para este estudio se realizó gracias al esfuerzo conjunto de CETEC, CIAT, CIRAD, Corpotunía, y la Fundación Carvajal y a la financiación de CIRAD-SAR y el CIAT. Un agradecimiento muy especial a Carlos Chilito, William Cifuentes, Freddy Alarcón, Juan Pablo Bedoya y Ricardo Ruiz por el esfuerzo que pusieron en el trabajo de campo. Además, un agradecimiento a James Garcia y Norbey Marin por su ayuda en el procesamiento de los datos, y a Staley Wood por su asesoría en la estimación de los beneficios económicos. Finalmente, un reconocimiento muy especial a todos los procesadores de almidon de yuca del Cauca que colaboraron con su tiempo a este estudio y sin los cuales este no hubiera sido posible. Sin embargo, los autores son responsables por cualquier error u omisión.Cuadro 1. Razones que dieron los procesadores para realizar los cambios tecnológicos, según encuesta de caracterización de la agroindustria de almidón agrio de yuca y adopción de tecnología (n=208) Figura 1. Curva de adopción de la tecnología en términos del número de unidades de procesamiento mejoradas y porcentaje de la producción en unidades mejoradas.Fuente: Encuesta formal estructurada de caracterización de la agroindustria de almidón agrio de yuca y adopción de tecnología, Mayo-Junio 1995. Cuadro 7. Costos de procesamiento y rentabilidad de la unidades de procesamiento de almidón agrio de yuca. En la literatura econométrica se pueden encontrar metodologías apropiadas para investigar el efecto de las variables explicatorias en variables dependientes dicótomas (ver Amemiya, 1973). Los módelos de respuesta cualitativa más comunes encontrados en la literatura son el modelo de probabilidad lineal (MPL), el modelo lógistico (logit model), y el modelo probabilistico (probit model). Para los objetivos de esta sección del análisis se utilizará un modelo que simula la curva logística de adopción.Si consideramos el siguiente modelo probabilistico lineal, donde: Y = 1si el procesador adopta la tecnología, Y = 0 si el procesador no adopta la tecnología, y X i son el grupo de variables explicatorias de los factores que afectan la adopción de tecnología.En este modelo la expectativa condicional de Y i dado X i , puede ser interpretado como la probabilidad condicional de que un evento ocurra dado X i ; lo que nos da la probabilidad de que Y i = 1 dado X i . Por lo tanto, E(Y i |X i ) nos da la probabilidad de que un procesador adopte una nueva tecnología dadas sus características X i . Si suponemos que E(µ) = 0, para obtener estimadores sin sesgos, tenemos la siguiente expresión:Ahora si consideramos P i como la probabilidad de que Y i = 1 (esto es, que el procesador adopte la tecnología), y 1-P i como la probabilidad de que Y i = 0 (esto es, que el procesador no adopte la tecnología), entonces, por definición de la expectación matemática, tenemos Comparando (2) con (3), podemos igualar esto es, la expectación condicional del modelo (1) puede ser interpretado como la probabilidad condicional de Y i .Debido a que la probabilidad P i debe estar entre 0 y 1, se tiene la siguiente restricción esto es, que la expectación condicional, o la probabilidad condicional, debe estar entre 0 y 1. Debido a que el mayor problema de los modelos lineales de probabilidad es el de que los YProyecto integrado de investigación y desarrollo de la producción y transformación de yuca para la obtención y comercialización de almidón agrio de yuca Proyecto de Desarrollo de Agroempresas Rurales, CIAT http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/agroempresas/espanol/inicio.htm Página 32 de 33 estimados, que son probabilidades condicionales, no están entre 0 y 1, el siguiente modelo lógistico (Hosmer y Lemeshow, 1989) fue seleccionado para este estudio, el cual satisface las anteriores condiciones.Realizando una transformación logarítmica de la ecuación 6, la siguiente ecuación es estimada: donde L i es el logit, término que viene de la función logística.Una vez estimado el modelo y conociendo los parámetros estimados (β 0 y β i ), es posible estimar la probabilidad de que un agricultor con las características X i adopte la tecnología. Despejando P i de la ecuación (6) tenemos:Las elasticidades de la probabilidad de adopción con respecto a cambios en los factores que afectan el proceso de adopción (δP i X i /δX i P i ), se derivan de la siguiente forma: donde ξ yi es la elasticidad de la probabilidad de adopción con respecto al factor i.Las variables independientes (X i ) utilizadas enla estimación del modelo fueron las siguientes:Variables contínuas:X 1 = porcentaje de la mano de obra que es femenina o que son niños X 2 = porcentaje de la mano de obra que es contratada X 3 = edad del dueño de la unidad de procesamiento X 4 = años de experiencia manejando una unidad de procesamiento del dueño X 5 = años de educación formal del dueño de la unidad de procesamiento X 6 = distancia a la carretera panamericana Variables dummy:X 7 = forma de propiedad de la unidad de procesamiento (0 = individual) (1 = asociativa o cooperativa) X 8 = forma de tenencia de la unidad de procesamiento (0 = propia) (1 = arrendada) X 9 = otras actividades productivas (0 = el dueño se dedica a otras actividades productivas o es asalariado)(1 = el dueño solo se dedica al procesamiento de almidón de yuca)X 10 = forma de comercialización del almidón (0 = el procesador vende su almidón a un intermediario)(1 = el procesador vende su almidón directamente a la industria que lo consume)X 11 = productor de yuca (0 = el procesador no produce yuca) (1 = el procesador es también productor de yuca)X 12 = ingresos (0 = el procesador recibe solo parte de sus ingresos del procesamiento de almidón de yuca) (1 = el procesador recibe todos sus ingresos del procesamiento del almidón de yuca) X 13 = crédito (0 = el procesador no recibió crédito para producir almidón de yuca)(1 = el procesador recibió crédito para producir almidón de yuca) X 14 = asistencia técnica (0 = el procesador no recibió asistencia técnica para la producción de almidón de yuca) (1 = el procesador recibió asistencia técnica para la producción de almidón de yuca)X 15 = socio (0 = el procesador no es socio de la cooperativa) (1 = el procesador es socio de la cooperativa)","tokenCount":"7894"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"44e45a3203ec77567ead7699d2c8894a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/16aa54ee-64a7-4d29-8346-882eda46a73a/retrieve","id":"-1409983361"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6bbc3230-a54e-47f7-a042-a03f01151893","pagecount":"14","content":"Se ha l ogrado el establ ecimi ento ue las especies forrajeras más promisorias (con excepción de Stylosanthes capitata)) par a los Llanos Orientales y zonas similares mediante poblaciones iniciales de menos de 1000 matas/ha. La aplicación l ocalizada en la mat a del fe rtil i zante inicial r educe el problema de malezas durante la etapa de establecimiento. Se l ogró illla cobe rtura compl eta en l a mayoría de las especi es en menos de nueve meses y los potreros estuvieron listos para pastorear en menos de illl año. Se ahorra mano de obra y semilla y se reducen los riesgos mediante el sistema.En illla nueva etapa de la investigación, se esi:á aprovechando la filosofía de s iembras ralas junto con la de l abranza mínima ó cero para reducir aún más los costos y el riesgo ue la erosión dur ante l a etapa de est ablecimiento. Una remoción de l a sabana con escardillos ha resultado en un buen establecimiento de la mayoría de las especies a un costo bajo y sin peligro de erosión . El uso de herbici das en el control de la vegetación nativa también ha resultado eficiente en el establecimiento de Brachiaria hurnidicola, Desmodiurn ovalifoliurn y Pueraria phaseoloides sin necesidad de labr anza.Andropogon gayanus (621), Panicum maximuro,Pueraria phaseoloides, Desmodium ovalifolium (350), Stylosanthes capitata (1078) y Zomia latifolia (728), a razón de 1000 nmtas/ha (3.16 m entre matas sembradas en cuadro).Inicialmente se fertilizó únicamente un área de aproximadamente 0.1 m 2 alrededor de cada mata con rangos desde 0.5 gm hasta 9.0 gm de P 2 0 S y O gm de 1.5 gm de K 2 0 (Cuadro 1). El fósforo y el potasio afectaron las especies estoloníferas en el número y la longitud de estolones producidos en un corto plazo (figuras 1 y 2). La producción de semilla de ll. gayanus y !:. maximum también fué afectada por el P y K (Cuadro 2). La invasión por estolones fué tan rápida para ~. radicans que para Diciembre 1977 cubría completamente el área intermedia.La invasión fué menos rápida para ~. humidicola. El crecimiento inicial de B. decumbens fué vertical y el desarrollo de estolones más lento. El híbrido de Cynodon produjo numerosos estolones largos, pero de muy poco vigor.De las leguminosas, !:. phaseoloides fué la mas agresiva cubriendo totalmente el área en ocho meses. Después de un pastoreo los tallos quedaron bien anclados al suelo, fOnrullldo así nuevas plantas . D. ovalifolium sufrió un fuerte ataque de hOl~ligas arrieras y su desarrollo inicial fué más lento, pero alcanzó a cubrir todo el área en menos de un año. La semilla de ~. capitata tuvo baja germinación y no produjo resultados confiables. Para ~nyo 1978 (nueve meses después de la siembra), solamente~. capitata, ~. decumbens, ~. ovalifolium y ~. lat ifolia no habían cubierto el área entre matas (figura 3). En un año, . o(bs l :l S especies con excepción de ~. capitata, cubrían el terreno en su t ot:ll idad sin presentar problemas de malezas.Estrategía lógica del sistema Los Oxisoles de las sabanas del trópico húmedo son de tan baja fertilidad que se mantienen libres de malezas durante varios meses, después de una preparación tradicional. Fertilizando solamente una pequeña área alrededor de la planta madre se crean condiciones óptimas para su superdesarrollo sin estimular el crecimiento de malezas. Desde el momento de la siembra hasta que los estolones cubran la mayoría del área, no se hace la fertilización intermedia. En el caso de ~. gayanus y ~. maximum, que producen semilla a finales del año y se disemina por medio del viento durante el verano, la fertilización intermedia se hace antes de las primeras lluvias para que las p1ántu1as tengan taniliién condiciones favorables para su desarrollo y compitan ampliamente con las malezas que puedan allí prosperar, Los tratamientos para el área intermedia se presentan en el Cuadro 3.Cabe anotar la importancia de no sobrepreparar el terreno intermedio, el cual debe presentar una superficie rugosa para evitar la erosión y retener la semilla depositada por el viento. Esto se observa claramente en la Figura 4. Los surcos de ~. gayanus que parecen sembrados así, corresponden a un pase con escardillos para dar rugosidad al terreno. La figura S presenta el aspecto de estas p1ántu1as dos meses después de las primeras lluvias.Como la población inicial es de sólo 1000 matas/ha, la mano de obra para semb rar con material vegetativo es del orden de un jornal/ha y menor cuando ,'''' hace con semilla. Así como la inversión inicial es baja en términos de mano de obra, semilla y fertilizante en la mata, los riesgos son menores.Es de anotar que aunque la cantidad de fertilizante total aplicado es la misma, la inversión es más segura, ya que sólo se fertiliza el área intennedia cuando el establecimiento está asegurado.Comparado el sistema de siembras ralas con métodos tradicionales, estaría en desventaja por el tiempo transcurrido hasta el establecimiento. Sin embargo, su diferencia no es muy acentuada, especialmente en el caso de especies agresivas como son ~. hunlidicola ~. radicans;y de ~. gayanus donde la excesiva producción de semilla en el verano permite un rápido desarrollo una vez entran las lluvias.En Carbnagua se adelantan trabajos que permiten el establecimiento mediante poblaciones ralas de leguminosas y/o gramíneas, con otros métodos de control de sabana como el control químico, la quelna, el uso de varios implementos agrícolas de labranza mínima para r educir costos aún más ~ darle la posibilidad al pequeño agricul tor, de aumentar su capacidad de establecer pastos en términos de tiempo e inversión requerida. También se estudia la posibilidad de densidades menores para~. gayanus y de otros patrones de distribución de las plantas madres para mayor eficiencia. Parece conveniente sembrar por hileras de aproximadamente seis metros entre sí, cruzando la di rección del viento de verano y con una dosis de semilla para asegurar una pl anta cada 1-2 metros en la hilera.AlgW135 especies son suficientemente agresivas para invadir sobre sabana nJ tlva fertilizada después de ser establecidas en Wla franja angosta de  -Efecto de P y K en la longitud de estolones después de 90 días de sembrado por material vegetativo de tres especies de graTIÚneas . El promedio de longitud (en cm) de los cuatro estolones más largos/mata, en el mejor tratamiento, se muestra en paréntesis . Carimagua 1977. K 2 0 G/MATA Figura 2. -Efecto de P y K en el número de estolones de más de 1 y 2 metros de largo después de 90 días de sembrado por material vegetativo de tres especies de gramíneas . Figura 3.-El porcentaje de cobertura logrado por nueve especies sembradas a 1000 matas/ha, nueve meses después de sembrado.,• \",• -,• -, t : v• .' , ~<f\\'. • ~ l' I '>,\"\"h\"\" , Figura S.\" La poblaci ón nueva mos trada en l a Figura 4, dos meses después.• 1 -., -. ","tokenCount":"1151"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9c504ab1bb6849094fb1f1670449e3d7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/af4814fd-cebe-4cde-8a13-0364a4c2dff6/retrieve","id":"749616256"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2c775916-a586-421e-ab74-31db3ab4e98b","pagecount":"2","content":"The increasing scale, complexity and productivity of livestock systems leads to the production of more food and could create pathways out of poverty by creating opportunities for youth and other sections of the population to engage in the food business. But rapid, unplanned and underregulated development creates unwanted local effects such as pollution, loss of food heritage and exclusion of women from formalising value chains. For consumers, safety and health is often their biggest issue. The World Health Organization recently estimated the health burden from unsafe food as comparable to that of malaria, HIV-AIDS or tuberculosis and most of this falls on people who earn low and middle incomes and buy fresh, risky food from traditional or wet markets.• Prioritisation of foodborne disease risks in OHRECA priority countries: we still lack validated information that allows us to prioritise risks in countries of interest. We have a risk assessment protocol that is reasonably robust but requires personnel for desk work, fieldwork and sample.• Understanding One Health implications of the bushmeat/wildlife meat chain: there is currently a lot of concern over the implications of wildlife meat chains, which appear to be rapidly increasing in Africa and Asia. This is driven both by demand from locals for cheap, available protein and increasing demand from richer urban populations who see exotic food as a status food.Unfortunately, consumption of wildlife has been associated with several disease events including anthrax, Ebola and COVID-19. ILRI has limited experience in this area but has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN Environment Programme. There is also a new CGIAR COVID hub under discussion.  • Impact at scale: ILRI has projects focussing on impact at scale in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Vietnam, Cambodia and India. These have some commonalities in approach in that they all attempt to address market vendors, enabling environments (mainly government support) and consumer demand. They are at different stages and have taken different approaches. OHRECA will explore opportunities for supporting supplementary activities within these projects in priority countries-Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Uganda-to boost their impacts. Priority will be given to desk-based reviews, valueadded activities such as additional diagnostics or secondary data analysis from previous projects or those activities which foster south-south learning.The informal food sector often sells wild animals harvested in unsustainable ways. We will address the role of the ecosystem and animal health in assuring safe food. Transdisciplinary research activities will be prioritised for they have a better chance of providing better insights.We expect to generate better evidence on the multiple burdens of unsafe food and device strategies of how to address these challenges.The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is a non-profit institution helping people in low-and middle-income countries to improve their lives, livelihoods and lands through the animals that remain the backbone of small-scale agriculture and enterprise across the developing world. ILRI belongs to CGIAR, a global research for development partnership working for a food-secure future. ILRI's funders through the CGIAR Trust Fund, and its many partners, make ILRI's work possible and its mission a reality. Australian animal scientist and Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty serves as ILRI's patron.You are free to use and share this material under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence .One Health Centre in Africa ","tokenCount":"542"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c76c1879de3ce6044dc2f921ff072263","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2d54ae91-9c86-41c1-859a-523e362e2c2a/retrieve","id":"1588820399"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ad762f03-3735-45d3-9f5e-bcb2d44e3105","pagecount":"31","content":"Building Systemic Resilience against Climate Variability and Extremes (ClimBeR) is a Climate Resilience Initiative of CGIAR which aims to transform the climate adaptation capacity of food, land, and water systems in the Philippines and 5 countries in Africa (Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, and Zambia) and Latin America (Guatemala).Through the ClimBeR initiative, CGIAR aims to create gender-sensitive and innovative financial mechanisms, while incorporating science that combines climate information, credit, and insurance, to build resilience among agriculture actors across the value chain while recognizing that while innovative technological interventions are critical, the enabling social, institutional and governance environment drives the transformative process. ClimBeR also seeks to identify the links between climate change and human security in order to decrease the risk of conflict and displacement.ClimBer initiative is introduced to countries through inception meetings and workshops and attended by identified potential national partners and collaborators. The inception workshop in the Philippines was held on December 06, 2022 in Quezon City and was attended by about 50 participants from the government and non-government organizations. This event served as a launch of the initiative in the Philippines paving the way forward for collaboration and partnerships to fulfill the initiative objectives for a more climate change resilient agriculture in the Philippines. This document reports the highlights of the event, the discussions and next steps.This inception workshop aimed to:• introduce the initiative, its objectives, current activities and anticipated results• present proposed research agenda to Philippine agencies related to the enhancement of gender and social equity, the identification of climate security risks, and the de-risking of agricultural commodities and value chains critical to the well-being of small producers • discuss and interact with project partners and stakeholders through panel discussions • identify potential research activities to strengthen the program in the Philippines, and clarify roles and responsibilitiesThe ClimBer Inception Workshop was attended by 53 participants from the following agencies:Department of Agriculture (DA) What is the relevance of \"climate security\" in the Philippines?Francisco 'Pancho' Lara Jr.Jon, in his opening remarks, emphasized the climate challenge that the world is currently facing. Typhoons, floods, drought, high temperatures are among the detrimental impacts brought about by climate change. Yet these challenges, with the right perspective, become great opportunities. He presented the goal of ClimBeR, which is to transform a community into a climate-resilient rice-based agriculture through climate adaptation capacity on food, land and water systems to be able to cope up with the climate challenge. ClimBeR will also increase the resilience of small-holding farming systems.ClimBeR adheres to the concept of transformative adaptation. To be able to sufficiently respond to climate challenges, we have to move from incremental to transformative change. And with the so-called system transformation that engages different actors to work together in achieving system change, root causes of vulnerability to an event can be tackled and identified.Huge efforts have been made over the years in terms of climate adaptation and mitigation, but with the on-going challenges, the approach shall be escalated to enabling the social, institutional and governance environment to a transformative process. This includes inter-and transdisciplinary approaches, wherein experts from different disciplines are working collectively and at same time establishing meaningful partnerships in bringing change.The Primary CGIAR Impact Area: Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Focal countries: Guatemala, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Gambia, and the Philippines Proposed areas of work: Social equity encompasses gender and youth to identify the work that needs to be done and likewise guide the efforts being initiated in addressing vulnerability, discrimination, opportunities, and inequalities. In embarking the transformative adaptation process, there would always be winners and losers, some are better positioned than others. There are working areas that benefited the wealthier and male farmers, and those benefited less are poorer, and often female farmers. Social equity lens unpack the courses of vulnerability against growing inequalities. It also heeds with the sustainable development goal of the government which is 'No one left behind'.To ensure scaling and transforming agricultural systems and make it climate resilient, ideas and theories shall be translated into practice. Social Equity Framework is being proposed in realizing this goal.Jon ended his presentation with images of Jig-saw puzzles, that represent the disciplinary areas of work, and/or the different components of the ClimBeR initiative, which requires working and fitting together to achieve better outcomes. Each piece has a critical role in the formation of a climate resilient community. Giriraj began his discussion by saying that accelerated efforts for adaptation imposed by the government in many parts of the world for climate resilience. Hence, there are still gaps that need to be addressed, which includes: a) weak governance and b) power imbalance across all levels (national to community levels).Governance for Resilience or the Work Package 4 of the ClimBeR initiative, is looking at bringing a multi-level polycentric governance, considering what innovative tools that will help in shaping multi-scale, multi-level, and multi-sectional thinking, and also ensuring local adaptive capacities through local adaptation programs that can be initiated in different countries, like the Philippines.This initiative is represented by four pillars: a.Improving coordination -communicating with stakeholders, understanding gaps in adaptation, reviewing the adaptation innovations that have implemented, and making the existing procedures transformative b.Enabling responsiveness -anticipating reactions to climate-risk severities; promoting short-term adaptive response through disaster mitigation c.Facilitation planning -includes long term adaptation investment priorities and working with partners like NEDA, listening to voices of local levels, bringing top-down climate uncertainties and identifying root causes of vulnerabilities.Champions of Change -involving the stakeholders to be Ambassadors for ClimBeR; bringing the local communities to come up with local adaptation programs.  *Timeline for these activities to be completed is 2022 -2024.The esteemed panelists provided insights on what they thought about the interventions and on-going efforts happening in the Philippines, and how these lessons can be adopted. NEDA is the premiere socio-economic body of the government. They do macroeconomic forecasting, policy analysis and research, conduct policy reviews, and provide high level advice to policymakers. In terms of disaster reduction and management, they are leading the post rehabilitation recoveries and plans at national and regional levels, and local government units as needed. Giriraj Amarnath (ClimBeR): How often NEDA reviews program policies? How does NEDA achieve and target strategies? Ms. Narcie Tanchiatco (NEDA) NEDA does not directly deal with local communities, yet we take part in the preparation of a 6-year framework (Philippine Development Plan) that guides the development on the sub-national level hoping the LGUs use it for their local development plans. Regional Development Council (RDC) is the link for the national and local approach. Giriraj Amarnath (ClimBeR): How do you see the collaboration of PhilSA with ClimBeR? What are the possible contributions and opportunities? Dr. Gay Jane Perez (PHILSA)As mentioned, one of the flagship programs of PhilSA is the Satellite Data Mobilization which includes the national, LGUs, civic societies, private sectors, and academe. Works on several key developmental areas 1. Access to historical (decade-worth) of data. From space, get access to comprehensive coverage -global and local scale, wherein we are able to analyze and better understand the changing climate. 2. Assess the impacts of climate change, both the natural and manmade environment by using satellite images in assessing damages brought by drought, flood, and other related hazards. We can use this as a basis for recovery and response. 3. Space data are also used to improve the scales of the models like sub-seasonal forecasts which can contribute in the early warning systems Giriraj Amarnath (ClimBeR): How does DA bring the bottoms up approach, since most initiatives follow a top-down approach?Ms. Bess Lim (DRRM)By enabling the farmers to provide data and inform the DA of their needs. These data are collated and analyzed and brought to national level wherein new policies can be crafted. Also, part of DA's strategic plan is to empower the farmers, provide them skills through training, and give them access to information and networks.Sid Lucerio (Climate Change Commission, CCC): Are the science-based tools of DA accessible to the public?Ms. Bess Lim (DRRM)These tools are currently under development, but the products can be accessed by request, like iFarm, where the following databases are accessible: planting/harvesting, damages/losses, rehab and recovery, and disaster risk reduction management and information system.Nikko Macalintal (DA): Given the technologies, interventions and approaches, how can we envision the new governance system? Gaps and challenges?Ms. Narcie Tanchiatco (NEDA)Building resilience means strengthening the capacities of the local communities by making them more accountable with the devolved functions and services including agriculture. With the strengthened capacities, they can advocate more of their needs which can be elevated to regional or even national level. This can be considered in policy making, and even in proposing legislative measures in the congress.Karl Salibio (ATI): Where do we place training as the knowledge management component of this activity (ClimBeR)?ClimBeR has a series of training activities and knowledge products that will be delivered during the course of the program. IRRI, CIAT and other centers will come up with a workplan for 2023 including the capacity building efforts in the next two years. There will be opportunities of transferring the tools and technologies to IRRI and national institutions.Francisco Communities and Climate Action through Digital Solutions\" -aims at developing a seasonal agro-advisory and climate insurance-based portal Figure 3 shows a flowchart on how information was derived using the ACAP-Bicol portal. Using the data from PAGASA, stage of the crop/ crop calendar, given a certain scenario, real time recommendations can be generated tailored-fit to the crop. Additionally, vulnerable areas under the changing climate can also be identified using this portal. ACAP-Bicol will be turned over to DA this 2022, and among the next steps include the extension of this initiative to other regions, not only for rice but also for other crops.Dr. Alice Laborte put emphasis on the tremendous amount of data that are readily available and can be utilized under this initiative. Effort needed is to convert these data into actionable information, identify the gaps, to help the farmers, and also the policy makers to make farming more resilient.The following are other CGIAR Initiatives and projects in Asia that can be aligned with ClimBeR: a.Asian Mega Deltas (AMD) -uses high resolution imageries to map current and possibly future land use patterns, looking at the deltas that are most affected by salinity. b.Philippine Rice Information System (PRISM) -satellite based information system, co-designed and co-developed by IRRI and PhilRice and was institutionalized at PhilRice since 2018. It provides monthly and seasonal data for rice area using Sentinel 1-A, crop calendar data, and mid-and end-season forecasts on yield using crop models. Moreover, PRISM also provides information on areas at risk due to typhoons by producing a map of rice areas along the tropical cyclone that are most likely to be affected, and a map of rice areas that are affected after the typhoon event. These data were submitted to the DA for planning and further decisions. A map of floodprone rice areas is illustrated in Figure 4. It shows rice areas that are frequently affected by typhoons over the years (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020). Information like this is very important in targeting appropriate technologies and adaptation options, such as identifying flood tolerant varieties suitable in the area. c.Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) -reduces the greenhouse emission in rice production. It uses GIS and participatory research to determine the suitability of this technology to target locations. d.Climate Related Risk Maps and Adaptation Plans (CS Map) -collaboration with the provincial and regional stakeholders in Vietnam. It uses GIS and Remote Sensing (RS) technologies in determining climate related risks in developing adaptation plans. This project was already institutionalized in Vietnam. The insurance payment is under the IBIZA project wherein farmers can apply for insurance if they anticipate heavy rainfall in the area. They are not using the climate forecast in PAGASA.Mylene Claudio (CCC) on the Assessment of the information generated from the projects were actually used by the recipients.Jane Girly Balanza (CIAT) DA is using the outputs of PRISM in terms of harvest projection and decision making. At the regional level, partners were capacitated on how to use the data, like comparing the yield generated from PRISM with PSA data and identifying areas that needed to be targeted; PhilRice also used PRISM data to identify areas where seeds can be distributed as part of RCEF.For the ACAP-Bicol, a beta-testing activity will be conducted that would include a feedback mechanism as a validation tool to improve PAGASA's forecasts. 14 AMIA villages in Bicol are using the ACAP data, and the beta testing will be very helpful to determine if they are giving the exact recommendations to farmers. For the Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA), the outputs are used for the commodity invested planning to identify what are the vulnerable crops and which crop/s to be invested. IIRR and IRRI, through the ClimBeR initiative, are collaborating to advance the design and implementation of ClimBeR in the Philippines with IIRR's long-term presence in Guinayangan, Quezon and Ivisan, Capiz. This project will cover a period of 2 years, from Nov 2022 to Dec 2024. A special site in General Emilio Aguinaldo, Cavite will also be initiated to establish 6-10 coffee nurseries in Brgy. Narvaez and Dalusag. IIRR will support the ClimBeR objectives by establishing proof of concepts building on past and current community programs in Guinayangan and Ivisan in the Philippines. Moreover, it will support the enhancement of the knowledge in the areas of resilience, equity and inclusiveness, and women's empowerment based on the past efforts on climate adaptation.The overall goal of the IIRR-ClimBeR program is to generate further evidence on how small farms contribute to more sustainable and resilient food systems. The specific objectives and the methodologies to be used are shown in Table 4. To address issues on climate security and identify evidences of climate conflict pathways in the Philippines, additional research is needed with the help of leading group of experts in the country.  Climate security issues in the Philippines include limited supply or source of water, hot temperature, and inequitable distribution of assistance by the government, and adverse impact of climate to livelihood, which increases the number of poor people, hence forcing people/community to join the other side.One adaptation measure is to ensure better water management by promoting projects that would store rain and flood water that can be used for irrigation and the like. Other measures are, increasing the income as well as construction of a common facility that will shelter the community during very hot temperatures. For the inequitable distribution of assistance, governance can be possibly handled by LGUs. Possible avenue for research is to look at involving the community in organizing and identifying different climate risks.ECOWEB is a non-government organization that dwells on development and humanitarian programs. One important strategy that the agency has been implementing for the past years is the ABABACOCOFA, which stands for Abaca, Banana, Bamboo, Coffee, Coconut, and Falcata. This focuses on Conflict and Climate Resilient Commercial Crops. Based on the analysis of their studies, there are 4 major social problems in Mindanao namely, poverty, strained social relations, poor governance and environmental degradation. Environmental degradation is eventually linked with issues on climate change.The key strategy of ECOWEB to address these rising issues is sustainable livelihood by helping people develop cash crops along with food crops, coming up with the idea of conflict resilient crops. Many communities in Mindanao are fighting over important crops like coconut, coffee and abaca resulting in livelihood and displacement conflicts. In this project, we have discovered that conflict resilient crops are also climate resilient crops. It is very important to determine these crops to achieve sustainable livelihood. Most of the conflicts are being handled by Regional Field Offices, but there is no particular office mandated to address issues on climate change. The Legal Comment from Ms. Alyssa Tan (DA-IAD)Tawi-tawi is starting to experience adverse impacts of climate change, they are not usually hit by environmental catastrophes, yet recently they were hit by typhoons that caused casualties, damages to livelihood and infrastructures. Integration of climate measures with national policies to address issues on climate security is very important. Climate security is also food security, and agriculture and food are the gateways for peace in the Bangsamoro region.Dr. Adam Savelli (CIAT): Are there climate change action programs on mitigation and adaptation that are disrupted by conflicts and the potential to happen in the future?Mr. Cariño Antequisa (ECOWEB)Ms. Saturnina Halos (DA-CRAO)ECOWEB introduced a modified abaca fiber equipment to farmers but then soldiers suspected and arrested these farmers of supporting armed groups due to the presence of abaca in their homes (which were also found in NPAs households during one of their raids).The government relocated people in landslide-prone areas due to operations in the military, which put them in a vulnerable situation when a typhoon hit the area.No work has been done in BARMM because they consider themselves independent from DA.Can data tools be used to mitigate climate security risks in the Philippines? Presenters: Adam Savelli (CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security -ClimBeR) Maureen Anthea Lacuesta (International Alert Philippines)Adam Savelli, ClimBeR WP2 Lead (CIAT), together with Ms. Maureen Lancuesta, Lead of the Critical Event Monitoring and Early Response Network Program at International Alert (IA), introduced some of the data tools used to mitigate climate security risks in the Philippines. Mr. Savelli also moderated the discussion.There are several important data tools used to monitor climate, weather and security conditions. Hence, there is also an underlying challenge in integrating and turning these available data into climate action. Under CGIAR, a decision tool called Climate Security Observatory (CSO) was developed to provide stakeholders with climate security analyses. On the other hand, International Alert has also developed observational and real-time mitigation tools in addressing conflict and security issues particularly in the Bangsamoro region.Ms. Maureen Lancuesta began her presentation by providing a brief overview of their organization. International Alert is a peace-building organization that focuses on solving the root causes of conflicts. They have issued publications on analyzing trends on conflicts in Bangsamoro. Among their key strategies include extensive research, issuebased dialogues, constituency and capacity building to LGUS, academe, and private sectors. In several years of research, they found out that there are four (4) resilient markers of fragility or the predominant causes of conflict:a. presence of rival holders or the armed groups; b.shadow economy in the form of illegal use and trade of drugs and firearms; c.issue in property rights including land and resources; and d.vulnerability brought by pandemic (recent observation)To address these continuing issues in Bangsamoro, IA developed platforms that are evidence-based, participatory, solution-oriented, conflict-sensitive and interoperable in nature. The platforms and their corresponding descriptions are listed in Table 7.Table 7. The interoperable platforms developed by International Alert Philippines.CA is a subnational conflict monitoring system that tracks incidence of conflicts and its causes in Bangsamoro region. Outputs are published reports that aim to contribute in policy development strategies and peace-building approaches through relevant and reliable conflict data. Data sources are from PNP reports and media, and will be validated by a multi-stakeholder group. This will be sorted as violent and non-violent conflicts, and further analyzed in terms of its severity and magnitude.Visualization is through tables, charts and graphs which will be disseminated to government agencies, LGUs, private sectors and academe.Achievement: Helped informed advocacies on national legislations on land use and anti-discrimination, and also other peace-process issues; helped in the formation of Indigenous People's code; contributed on conflict development plans, zoning and physical framework plans, solid waste management plans; as well as addressed gender-based violences.CEMS monitors real-time data through SMS and high-frequency radiobased reports that captures conflict incidences and tensions in the area.The objective is to be able to have a quick and context-specific response to tensions and critical events.Achievement: Adam Savelli introduced the Climate Security Observatory which is the key output of CGIAR's Climate Security team (CST). He also provided a brief walkthrough of the betaversion of CSO in Kenya which is targeted to be launched in the first quarter of 2023. The CGIAR's CST aims to address the knowledge gaps between climate and security by aligning evidence from the fields of climate, land, and food systems science with peacebuilding efforts, and inform peacebuilding initiatives to ensure climate action is climate-security sensitive. To achieve this, CSO was developed as an evidence-based decision support tool helping researchers, policy makers, local communities, stakeholders, development humanitarian peace building practitioners working at the intersection of climate, peace and security to understand and respond to these hazards.There are four (4) key questions that CSO needs to answer:1. How does climate worsen the root causes of conflict? 2. Where are the areas that are most vulnerable to climate security risks? 3. Who are the vulnerable groups that need to be targeted for programming and interventions? 4. What needs to be done to break the cycle of climate and conflict?To be able to answer these research questions, a number of analyses and approaches have been consolidated (see Table 8). It's a mixed-method analysis based on machine assisted literature review and expert knowledge gained through workshops, key informant interviews and fieldwork.Information gathered was discussed and validated. Additional details will be included in the initial results.A quantitative analysis that gives insights into the underlying structure of the climate, conflict and socio-economic system. Identify all the potential links within the climate security nexus.A quantitative analysis which aims to quantify if and how nutrientrelated variables channel the effects of climate variability into violent conflicts.A quantitative analysis which identifies hotspots of climate hazards, and socio economic vulnerabilities.Used GIS with public available data. Sample map showing confluence of various socio-economic vulnerabilities overlaid with conflict occurrences and hazards is shown in figure 5.A quantitative analysis that aims to explore the gaps by employing an online mapping approach relying solely on social media as an alternative way for wider public engagement.Use tweets from twitter app on climate & conflict (in Kenya).Assess the extent to which climate policies are engaged with climate security.Identify and understand climate security risks and how these risks can be addressed.  Pedro highlighted the role of CGIAR in supporting the national government in the creation of evidence-based and climate rationale for the development of Climate Finance proposals. Figure 6 shows the inter-linkages of climate finance within different work packages of ClimBeR to guarantee micro and macro finance to support agrofinance systems. This will also focus on Climate Security Investment planning. These activities will be implemented across the six (6) priority countries including the Philippines. Adam Savelli, on the other hand, explained in detail the methodology on Climate Security Investment Planning (CSIP). The goal of CSIP is to ensure international climate finance organizations extend their reach in countries, communities and even households that have been impacted by climate and security risks. Figure 7 captures the step by step procedure on how CSIP is implemented.  Co-Lead)The presentations shared in this inception workshop clearly show that there are existing programs and activities that can be utilized and adopted by ClimBeR to address key issues on climate change. There are data and geospatial tools available that can help in targeting critical adaptation areas and what has to be done. Looking at the livelihood and farming systems under the threat of climate change, voices from the bottom are very critical, which also connects to proper representations of equity.Partnership is very important, the role of the government, from barangay to national level, the communities, as well as the private sectors. Policy implications and policy decisions also have significant roles in supporting the livelihood of the farmers around rice-based systems to ensure agriculture viability. Climate security and climate finance and external contributions are indeed important factors to consider in the adaptation and mitigation measures against the changing climate.Jon Hellin in his closing remarks mentioned that the presentations, the panelists and the interaction from the audience captured synergy on how we can work effectively together. To be able to achieve climate resilient agriculture in the Philippines, we need the contribution of everyone and the different national agencies. Another important area is the mutual respect identifying the work that needs to be done to make the Philippines a climate-resilient country.","tokenCount":"4000"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"307a833736444c068da2411677f22fb6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cef9efa8-1b3e-4076-bfea-f1122b99f9bd/retrieve","id":"-1934682935"},"keywords":["banana","hedges","FarmDESIGN model","multi-objective optimization","operating profit","Pareto-optimal","synergies","trade-offs"],"sieverID":"4048c95c-8090-470c-b9ef-8b01e21606e7","pagecount":"21","content":"Bananas on smallholder farmers in the African Great Lakes region are often pruned to illuminate shorter understory intercrops, reducing overall farm profitability. The impact of this practice on environmental and nutritional indicators are not known. This study determined the effect of this practice on operating profit, protein yield, soil organic matter (SOM) balance, and nitrogen input; and the management options for optimal performance of the intercrops. Alternative scenarios for improving soil nutrient balances of the system were also explored. Data from an experiment intercropping bush beans with banana at three leaf pruning levels (i.e., retaining all, seven, and four leaves) was used as the input for the multi-objective optimization FarmDESIGN model. Retention of four functional leaves mimicked a worst-case scenario observed on farms. Banana and bush bean monocrops served as controls. The model maximized operating profit, protein yield, and SOM, and minimized nitrogen input. Nutrient input scenarios in which (i) farmyard manure was only applied at planting (business as usual ('BaU')); and 'BaU', was combined with (ii) hedges, (iii) inorganic fertilizers, (iv) hedges and goat manure, (v) hedges and inorganic fertilizers, (vi) inorganic fertilizers and goat manure, and (vii) hedges, inorganic fertilizers, and goat manure, were also explored. Severe banana leaf pruning reduced profitability, SOM, and protein yield, although it's less nutrient demanding. In contrast, the \"un-pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\" and \"sole banana crop\" had a higher profitability, SOM balance, and protein yield, whereas they demand more soil nutrients. No profound improvements in operating profit, SOM balance, and protein yield occurred for 'BaU', while hedges resulted in mild improvements. Profound improvements in all objectives occurred with the addition of the inorganic fertilizers, while goat manure resulted in a high SOM balance and N input. For 'BaU' and hedges, \"severely pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\" dominated the optimal solution set for improving farm performance. In contrast, when the inorganic fertilizers and/or goat manure was introduced, \"un-pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\" and/or \"sole un-pruned banana crop\" were the optimal solutions. The study confirms severe leaf pruning to negatively impact profitability, while the more profitable un-pruned crop options are unsustainable without external input of nutrients. Thus, investments in external inputs are crucial for a sustainable banana-intercrop system. The FarmDESIGN model made the trade-offs and synergies in this complex intercrop system explicit, thus was also helpful for field-level decision making.Banana (Musa spp.) is an important food and income crop across a wide range of agroecological zones and cropping systems in the African Great Lakes region (AGLR) [1]. This region produces about one third of the world's banana production [1]. The crop provides 30-60% of food energy requirements for over 70 million people [2,3] in this region that comprises of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.The AGLR is characterized by a high population density, with the highest population densities of 435 and 499 inhabitants per km 2 , respectively reported in Burundi and Rwanda [4]. About 70-90% of the population in this region is employed in agriculture as smallholder farmers [5][6][7][8]. This high population density and heavy dependence on agriculture has resulted in small and fragmented farms characterized by declining soil fertility. For example, farm landholdings in banana producing areas of Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern DR Congo have been reported to vary between 0.5 and 2 ha [5]. To compound the problem of small and fragmented farm sizes, and declining soil fertility, external inputs such as manure and inorganic fertilizers are not widely used in the region [9]. For example, in Uganda in 2013, only 2.8% of the land under key crops received fertilizers (accounting for 30 kg ha −1 of fertilizer on the fertilized soils), with banana accounting for 25% of this land area [10]. Moreover, previously important cultural practices for managing soil fertility, and pests and diseases, such as crop rotation, agroforestry, shifting cultivation, and fallowing, are no longer feasible or optimally practiced due to the small farm sizes and more intensive farming systems [11,12]. van  Asten et al. [13] report soil infertility as one of the major constraints to banana production in the region. Searching for sustainable nutrient management options that do not compromise other production objectives is thus critical. Farmers commonly intercrop banana with other annual crops, including legumes in a bid to optimally use the available land and mitigate possible risks [12,14,15]. The incorporation of food and/or fodder legumes within banana fields has been reported to increase land and resource use efficiency of smallholder banana farms; suppress weeds; and minimize risks related to climate change and pests and diseases [15][16][17][18]. Similar observations have been reported for legume intercrops with other crops such as maize, cassava, and agroforestry trees [19][20][21][22]. Intercropping with legumes may also be a strategy to offset soil fertility depletion [17,23]. McIntyre et al. [24] observed some legume intercrops (Canavalia ensiformis, Mucuna pruriens and Tephrosia vogelii) to exacerbate banana nematode root and corm damage, while weevil larvae-linked corm damage did not significantly change. McIntyre et al. [24], however, observed no significant yield effects on banana and an increase in land use efficiency. In a recent study, [18] observed a decline in the severity of bean foliar diseases, Septoria brown spots, and angular leaf spot under banana shade. A high functional biodiversity and interaction between crop species has also been reported to enhance agroecosystem sustainability [25]. However, the integration of annual crops in banana fields across several landscapes in the AGLR has been hampered by the shading effect from the banana leaf canopy. As a coping strategy, farmers often prune banana leaves to allow for light penetration to the shorter understory crops [18,26]. Leaf pruning has been reported to reduce the productivity of the banana crop [26,27] and overall economic efficiency of the intercrop [18]. This practice additionally enhances the risk for spreading Xanthomonas wilt (XW) of banana, a key constraint to banana production in the AGLR [28]. Given the negative effects of leaf pruning and the associated risk of spreading XW disease, leaf pruning could undermine the benefits associated with a high level of functional biodiversity.Several empirical experiments have been conducted to understand the effect of banana leaf pruning and intercropping with different legumes in the region [14,18,26]. These studies have mainly focused on the effect of farmer's practices on productivity and profitability of the system. However, other potential environmental objectives that support system resilience, productivity, and the nutritional objectives given the production constraints were not assessed. For example, though integration of legumes in this system are primarily aimed at meeting household nutritional needs, they are anticipated to offset the soil nitrogen depletion through biological nitrogen fixation in the system. Understanding the trade-offs and synergies associated with the management of the banana-bush bean intercrops is crucial for generating relevant recommendations for improving the system. Exploring such objectives through empirical experiments can, however, be challenging and/or require observations over longer time frames. Environment related objectives are also knowledge intensive, and as such are often ignored or difficult to conceptualize, especially by resource-poor smallholder farmers. Farm models can overcome limitations associated with conceptually dealing with multiple and complex objectives simultaneously, and they have been widely used to explore new technologies, management options, innovations, and new scenarios [29][30][31][32][33][34].This study compliments the above empirical experiments on banana canopy management to integrate legumes. This study used the FarmDESIGN model to: (i) Identify the effect of farmers' practice of banana leaf pruning to integrate legumes on multiple production objectives (i.e., operating profit, nitrogen input, protein yield, and soil organic matter balance (SOM)), (ii) identify potential optimal banana-legume system configurations for the above production objectives, and (iii) explore the performance of potential scenarios for improving the nutrient balance of the system.This study used data from a field experiment conducted at the Institut National d'Etudes et Recherches Agronomiques (INERA), Mulungu research station, in South Kivu Province in the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), as input for exploring trade-offs and optimization of banana-leaf-pruning and -legume intercropping options using the FarmDESIGN model. INERA is located at 02 • 20.042 S, 028 • 47.311 E, and at 1707 m above sea level. The soils are Andosols with a pH of 8.5 (1:2.5 soil: water extract), soil organic matter (SOM) of 4.9%, total N of 0.25% (using salicylate method [35]), 126 ppm of Phosphorus (P), 1921 ppm of exchangeable Potassium (K), 2386 ppm of exchangeable Calcium (Ca), and 1411 ppm of exchangeable Mg. The Mehlich 3 extraction method [36] was used for the extraction of P, K, Ca, and Mg. The site receives 1500 mm of annual rainfall distributed over two seasons (February-May and September-December). Banana production is in South Kivu, and the entire east African Great Lakes region is dominated by smallholder farmers. For example, on average 0.48 ha of land has been reported in the smallholder systems in Burundi, eastern DR Congo, and Rwanda [37]. Bananas in this region are cultivated as a permanent crop and predominantly intercropped to optimally use the available land [38], with beans, coffee, cassava, taro, sweet potato. Leafy vegetables, yams, and agroforestry trees [13].The on-station experiment was conducted between December 2009 and March 2012. The detailed field experiment is described in Ocimati et al. [18]. The experiment comprised seven treatments; a bush bean monocrop, banana monocrops at three leaf pruning levels, and bananas at three leaf pruning levels intercropped with bush beans. Each treatment was replicated four times in a randomized complete block design. The leaf pruning treatments were applied to increase the amount of light reaching the bush bean crop, and included: Retaining all, seven, and four fully expanded functional green leaves per plant. The 'all leaf' treatment had on average nine leaves, while retention of four-leaves mimicked the severe banana leaf-pruning scenario often observed on farmers' fields in eastern DR Congo.Sole banana (subjected to the three leaf pruning regimes) and legume plots served as controls. The legumes were introduced under banana plants in the 3rd, 9th, 15th, 21st, and 27th months after banana planting, which corresponds with the onset of the rainy seasons. A common cooking east African highland banana cultivar in the area, 'Barhabesha' (genome AAA) was planted at a spacing of 2 m × 2 m and a common bush bean cultivar (Phaseolus vulgaris L, cv. MLB49) were used in this study. Aboveground biomass (dry weight basis) and yield for two banana cropping cycles and five consecutive legume crops were measured over a three-year period, and mean yields over a one-year period were computed (Table 1). The cultivation costs, e.g., labor and cost of inputs, were also recorded. Farmyard manure (22.5 Mg ha −1 ) was only applied at planting, and the crop residues were retained and recycled within the plots. No additional external inputs were applied on the fields. The computer-based FarmDESIGN model overcomes the limitation in comprehending complexity of farming systems by coupling a multi-objective optimization algorithm to generate a large set of Pareto-optimal alternative farm/field arrangements to a static bioeconomic farm balance model that evaluates productive, economic, and environmental farm performance [39,40]. Alternatives are Pareto-optimal when they do not perform worse than any other alternatives for all the objectives [40]. The model, based on the decision variables, e.g., land allocation and management decisions, simultaneously maximizes or minimizes different objective functions to generate alternative farm configurations, making the trade-offs and synergies between objectives explicit [29]. Based on the Pareto ranking criterion [41], configurations that do not violate the constraints and perform equal to or better for at least one of the objectives (i.e., are non-dominated) are retained [40]. These configurations receive rank 1 and form the trade-off frontier. Through repeating the process, other solutions are assigned lower ranks 2, 3 . . . , until all solutions in the set are assigned a rank (Figure 1). From the trade-off frontier solutions that perform better than the original configuration for all objectives can be assigned a superior rank \"0\". The model visualizes trade-offs and synergies between the different objectives in solution spaces, leading to an increased knowledge on the interactions between the objectives and the diverse agroecosystems [40].making the trade-offs and synergies between objectives explicit [29]. Based on the Pareto ranking criterion [41], configurations that do not violate the constraints and perform equal to or better for at least one of the objectives (i.e., are non-dominated) are retained [40]. These configurations receive rank 1 and form the trade-off frontier. Through repeating the process, other solutions are assigned lower ranks 2, 3…, until all solutions in the set are assigned a rank (Figure 1). From the trade-off frontier solutions that perform better than the original configuration for all objectives can be assigned a superior rank \"0\". The model visualizes trade-offs and synergies between the different objectives in solution spaces, leading to an increased knowledge on the interactions between the objectives and the diverse agroecosystems [40].Figure 1. An illustration of a Pareto-based ranking for a solution space of two objectives U1 and U2 that are maximized. The green and blue circles are rank 1 and Pareto-optimal solutions, while the yellow circles with ranks 2 to 4 are not Pareto-optimal. The Pareto-optimal solutions with rank 0 (blue circles) outperform the original farm configuration (red square) for all objectives (Source: Groot et al., [40]).The FarmDESIGN model consists of a large array of various interrelated components including: The biophysical environment, socio-economic setting, crops and their products, rotations, animals and their products, on-farm produced manures, imported inputs (e.g., fertilizers, manures, herbicides), buildings, and equipment [40]. It computes farm resource flows and balances of SOM, carbon, N, P, K, and other soil nutrients through and from a farm. In addition, farm and household labor balances, household nutrition, economic results (e.g., operating profit, household budgets) are calculated on a yearly basis [34,40].The current study is, however, based on a single field with two crop species, thus a simpler conceptual model (Figure 2) of the field was developed. This field conceptual model was comprised of the soils (biophysical environment), the two crops (banana and legume) that interacted among themselves and the management of the crops (pruning of banana leaves, intercropping or monocropping), and fields (e.g., manure application) (Figure 2). The field components are influenced by the crop management practices, the environment and socio-economic factors such as prices, input, and labor costs. that are maximized. The green and blue circles are rank 1 and Pareto-optimal solutions, while the yellow circles with ranks 2 to 4 are not Pareto-optimal. The Pareto-optimal solutions with rank 0 (blue circles) outperform the original farm configuration (red square) for all objectives (Source: Groot et al., [40]).The FarmDESIGN model consists of a large array of various interrelated components including: The biophysical environment, socio-economic setting, crops and their products, rotations, animals and their products, on-farm produced manures, imported inputs (e.g., fertilizers, manures, herbicides), buildings, and equipment [40]. It computes farm resource flows and balances of SOM, carbon, N, P, K, and other soil nutrients through and from a farm. In addition, farm and household labor balances, household nutrition, economic results (e.g., operating profit, household budgets) are calculated on a yearly basis [34,40].The current study is, however, based on a single field with two crop species, thus a simpler conceptual model (Figure 2) of the field was developed. This field conceptual model was comprised of the soils (biophysical environment), the two crops (banana and legume) that interacted among themselves and the management of the crops (pruning of banana leaves, intercropping or monocropping), and fields (e.g., manure application) (Figure 2). The field components are influenced by the crop management practices, the environment and socio-economic factors such as prices, input, and labor costs. The performance of the above field system was explored without any additional external inputs (i.e., business as usual, 'BaU') and with alternative improvements for addressing the soil nutrient balances. For all input scenarios, in addition to N input from farmyard manure and crop residues, symbiotic, non-symbiotic N fixation, and atmospheric N deposition were considered [42]. The different input scenarios are described below.(i) Business as usual ('BaU'): This scenario benefitted only from farmyard manure applied at planting and crop residues returned to the soil. No additional external inputs were added during the three-year period of the banana crop; (ii) hedges ('H'): Border/alley hedge crops rich in N and/or K were explored as an alternative for nutrient recycling within the system. The hedge species used in the model are calliandra (Calliandra calothyrsus) and tithonia (Tithonia diversifolia). Calliandra and tithonia have been reported to be good sources of N and K [43][44][45] that are often limiting in banana systems; (iii) inorganic input source of N, P, and K ('I'): The model was allowed to choose between different inorganic input sources so as to bridge input gaps in the system; (iv) a combination of the two hedge species and inorganic input ('H' + 'I'); (v) a combination of the two hedge species and goat manure ('H' + 'M'); and (vi) a combination of the two hedge species, goat manure, and the inorganic inputs ('H' + 'M' + 'I').The full set of objectives, decision variables, and constraints used are outlined in Table S1 and were used as described below.Objectives: Four objectives, operating profit maximization, N input minimization, soil organic matter (SOM) balance maximization, and protein yield maximization are explored in this study. Operating profit and increasing access to protein in diets are important objectives for smallholder farmers in the study region, with beans integrated within banana primarily to meet their protein needs. Nutritional yield of proteins is determined as the number of adults that can obtain 100% of their recommended daily reference intake (DRI) per year [46] from a ha of land planted with the crop(s) of interest. SOM, N, P, and K balances are crucial for supporting the productivity of the system. For example, K and N are, respectively, required in large quantities by the banana crop [47,48].Decision variables: The decision variables used for the explorations included land allocation to the seven banana-bush bean intercrop treatments (described in the section 'field experiment') and two hedge crops (calliandra and tithonia); crop product destinations; five different inorganic fertilizer options and their respective amounts; and manure from goats. The edible crop products were all assumed to be sold while crop residues were returned to the soil as mulch. The fertilizer options included NPK (17%N, 17%P and 17%K; 0.8 US$ kg −1 ), calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN; 26%N; 0.5 US$ kg −1 ), diammonium phosphate (DAP; 18%N, 46%P; 0.78 US$ kg −1 ), muriate of potash (MOP; 61%K; 0.78 US$ kg −1 ), and urea (46%N; 0.65 US$ kg −1 ). The manure from goats (0.11 US$ kg −1 ) is included as a cheaper alternative external source of N, P, K, and SOM. The amount of manure was varied between 0 and 8 Mg ha −1 . Thus, generated solutions can include various sources of nutrients, either the more expensive inorganic fertilizers and/or the cheaper manure, and/or the trimmings from hedge crops to find optimal combinations. Constraints: Constraints were set to ensure that solutions utilized the full area and did not include combinations with worse nutrient balances of N, P, and K (Table S1). The K balance for the treatments with extreme banana leaf pruning, i.e., bananas with four leaves-bush bean intercrops ('B4i') that served as the starting point for all optimizations, was negative (−131 kg ha −1 yr −1 ), while the N and P balances were positive (Table 2). The K balance for 'BaU' and hedges were constrained to a minimum of −131 kg ha −1 yr −1 , whereas for the other soil nutrient input scenarios that could offset the nutrient balances was set to be greater than 0. The total amounts of the different fertilizers applied were constrained between zero and amounts slightly above the nutrient requirement for bananas based on the main nutrient supplied by the fertilizer type. These rates were based upon recommended fertilizer rates of 100 kg ha −1 yr −1 of N, 30 kg ha −1 yr −1 of P, and 200 kg ha −1 yr −1 of K for East African highland bananas [49]. NPK, CAN, and urea were targeted at attainment of the soil N needs and were, respectively, allowed to vary to a maximum of 700, 400, and 300 kg ha −1 yr −1 of fertilizer input. DAP was aimed at P while MOP was aimed at K supply, and the two were, respectively, constrained to a maximum of 70 and 500 kg ha −1 yr −1 of fertilizer input. Input data: Input data for the FarmDESIGN model were obtained from the field experiment, local markets, FarmDESIGN repository, and other secondary data. Input data obtained from the empirical experiment included crop yields (kg ha −1 yr −1 ) (Table 1); cultivation costs (combining cost of labor, seeds, and other inputs, Table 1); and the soil nutrient levels. The price of bush bean grains and bananas in the market was 1.00 US$ kg −1 and 0.15 US$ kg −1 , respectively. Values available in FarmDESIGN and secondary literature were used for obtaining other environmental variables such as deposition and fixation of nitrogen; nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and dry matter content of the crop residues; and the organic matter decomposition rates. The HarvestPlus food composition table for Central and Eastern Uganda [50] and the USDA food composition table [51] were used to determine the nutritional compositions for the two crop species. Nutrient contents available in literature were used for calliandra and tithonia [44,45]. Variable yields have been reported for calliandra (7 to 55 Mg ha −1 ; [43,52,53], and a modest yield estimate of 20 Mg ha −1 was used for calliandra, while a yield of 25 Mg ha −1 was used for tithonia [54]. For the goat manure, nutrient levels (1.36%N, 0.06% P and K) from on-farm experiments in Uganda [55] with similar settings to the current study area are used for the model.In all explorations, the practice of intercropping banana plants having four leaves with bush beans (i.e., treatment 'B4i') served as a starting point. The model was set to generate 1000 alternative solution sets over 2000 iterations. The optimization aimed at searching for improvements relative to the current farm configuration [40]. The model simultaneously explored to achieve the set objectives. The model was separately optimized for the six scenarios; (i) 'BaU', (ii) 'H', (iii) 'I', (iv) 'H' + 'I', (v) 'H' + 'M', and (vi) 'H' + 'M' + 'I' to improve the soil nutrient balances. The model outcomes (solution spaces) from the different runs were compared with each other. From the solution spaces, Pareto-frontier configurations that performed better than the original configuration for pairs of objectives (marked \"0\" in Figure 1 above) were examined and plotted to simplify the output and to make the trade-offs and synergies between the objectives explicit. The model trends were also examined for the allocation of land to the treatments and hedges with respect to the objectives.Table 2 shows a comparison of the seven banana-bush bean intercrop treatments for 'BaU' prior to optimization. As expected, the highest N input was obtained in the legume plot followed by the intercrops, with N input in the intercrops increasing with leaf pruning levels. N balances were higher in the bush beans followed by the banana with four leaves-bush bean intercrop. N balances generally increased with the leaf pruning levels for both the intercrops and sole banana crop. Lower balances occurred for intercrops in which seven and all leaves had been retained compared to their corresponding monocrops. Soil K balances were only positive for the bush bean monocrop ('Bb'). Higher protein yield and SOM balance occur for the intercrops, though this declines with subsequent leaf pruning levels. In contrast, the sole banana crops outperform the intercrops in terms of operating profit, suggesting a trade-off with N input, protein yield, and SOM balance.Model exploration for the scenario business as usual ('BaU', without extra inputs) resulted in configurations that are superior to the original field configuration (legume intercropped with bananas having four leaves) only for operating profit and N input (Figure 3). Lower performances relative to the original field configuration are observed for protein yield and the SOM balance (Figure 3b-f). Soil K balance was also negative for the system. Thus, improvements in the system for these objectives and K balance are not feasible and viable through only re-arranging the field components as in 'BaU'. Compared to other scenarios, 'BaU' had the lowest levels for N input, and this could have limited model explorations.Profound improvements in model explorations and overall performance of production objectives compared to 'BaU' occurred across all the input scenarios, except for the use of hedges ('H') (Figure 3). The 'BaU' and 'H' scenarios had small clouds of solution sets, with the hedges often performing more poorly than 'BaU' for some objectives (Figure 3, Table 3). Overall, scenarios with inorganic input performed better for operating profit, protein yield, and N input, while those with manure had the highest yields for SOM balance. For example, the maximum operating profits varied between 4810 and 5085 US$ ha −1 yr −1 for input scenarios with inorganic fertilizers compared with 3279 US$ for 'BaU', 3385 US$ for hedges only, and 4298 US$ for the combination of hedges and manure (Table 3). The minimum N inputs varied between 162-186 kg for inorganic inputs compared with 170, 176, and 474 kg for 'BaU', hedges, and hedges with manure, respectively. The combination of hedges with manure generally had the greatest N input. With exception of 'BaU' and 'H' (protein yield between 17 and 25 persons ha −1 yr −1 ), protein yield increased to a maximum of 31 persons ha −1 yr −1 from 23 persons ha −1 yr −1 (Figure 3b,c,e; Table 3). Zones of tradeoffs and synergies were visible in the clouds and frontiers of the alternative solutions across the different scenarios. For 'BaU' and 'H', where the supply of soil nutrients is low or limiting, the model appears to include more diversity of land uses, while less diverse solutions are generated for the other input scenarios (Figure 4). FarmDESIGN modelled alternative banana-bush bean intercrop field intensification configurations (represented by dots) for different pairs of objectives (a-f) for six different nutrient input scenarios The objectives include: minimizing soil nitrogen (N) input (kg ha −1 y −1 ); maximizing operating profit (US$ ha −1 y −1 ), protein yield (persons ha −1 y −1 ), and soil organic matter (SOM) balance (kg ha −1 y −1 ). The input scenarios include: (i) Business as usual, i.e., no supplementation ('BaU'); supplementation with (ii) live hedges (H); (iii) inorganic N, P, and K sources ('I'); (iv) 'H' + 'I'; (v) 'H' and goat manure ('M'); and (vi) H' + 'I' + 'M'. The circles (for the 'BaU' and 'H' + 'I' + 'M' scenario) and triangles (other scenarios) represent the original field configuration (i.e., intercrop of bush beans with banana pruned to four leaves). Table 3. The range of the different production objectives achieved in the exploration using various scenarios for soil nutrient improvement in a banana-bush bean intercrop in eastern DR Congo.   for all solutions arranged in order (ascending from low to high) of production objectives i.e. operating profit (a,e,i,m,q,u), nitrogen (N) input (b,f,j,n,r,v), protein yield (c,g,k,o,s,w), and soil organic matter (SOM) balance (d,h,l,p,t,x), for six different nutrient input scenarios. The input scenarios include: (i) Business as usual, i.e., no supplementation ('BaU'); supplementation with (ii) live hedges ('H'); (iii) inorganic N, P, and K sources ('I'); (iv) 'H' + 'I'; (v) 'H' and goat manure ('M'); and (vi) 'H' + 'I' + 'M'. Treatments 'B9m', 'B7m', and 'B4m' depict banana monocrops in which all (on average 9), seven, and four leaves have been respectively retained; 'B9i', 'B7i', and 'B4i', respectively, stand for bush bean intercrops with banana having all, seven, and four leaves retained; 'Bb' a bush bean monocrop; 'Cal' a calliandra hedge; and 'Tit' a tithonia hedge.For the 'BaU' and hedge ('H') scenarios, low operating profit is associated with a higher relative area for bananas having four leaves-bush bean intercrop ('B4i') (Figure 4a,e), while land was predominantly allocated to the intercrop bananas having all leaves retained with bush beans ('B9i') for the other input scenarios (Figure 4i,m,q,u). At high operating profit levels, the model allocated land to a combination of banana with seven leaves monocrop ('B7m'), bush bean monocrop ('Bb'), and 'B9i' for the 'BaU' scenario (Figure 4a), whereas it was to 'B7m', 'B9m' (banana-all leaves monocrop), and 'Bb' for the 'H' scenario (Figure 4e). For the inorganic input ('I', Figure 4i) and combination of 'H' with goat manure ('M') (Figure 4q), the model increased land allocation to 'B9m', while for scenarios combining 'H' with 'I' (Figure 4m) and 'H', 'M', and 'I' (Figure 4u), the share for 'B9i' increased with increasing operating profit. For 'H' + 'I' and 'H' + 'I' + 'M', low amounts of calliandra ('Cal') and tithonia ('Tit') hedges are observed at lower levels of operating profit.A low N input for the 'BaU' scenario was mainly associated with sole banana crops with seven ('B7m') or four ('B4m') leaves (Figure 4b). In contrast, a higher relative land area was allocated to 'B7m', 'B9m', and 'Bb' for the 'H' scenario (Figure 4f), 'B9m' and 'B9i' for the 'I' (Figure 4j) and 'H' + 'M' (Figure 4r) scenarios. The 'H' + 'I' and 'H' + 'I' + 'M' scenarios had a high land allocation to 'B9i' (Figure 4n,v). At high N input, 'BaU' was mainly associated with 'Bb' and 'B9i', 'H' with 'B4i', 'B7i' (intercrop of banana having seven leaves with bush beans), and 'Bb', and 'B9i' was associated with scenarios that had I as one of the input options.Land allocation with protein yield varied across the input scenarios. A low protein yield was predominantly associated with treatment 'B7m' in 'BaU' (Figure 4c), and 'B7m' and 'B9m' for 'H' (Figure 4g). For 'I' and the combination of 'H' with 'M' (Figure 4k,s), a low protein yield was mainly associated to the banana monocrop 'B9m', while the remaining scenarios (Figure 4o,w) were mainly associated with 'B9i'. At high protein yield, large allocations to the bush bean monocrop ('Bb') occurred for scenarios 'BaU' (Figure 4c) and hedges (Figure 4g). Treatments 'B9i' for 'BaU' and 'B4i' and 'B7i' for hedges were also important for a high protein yield. In contrast, 'B9i' predominates for the other input scenarios at high protein yield (Figure 4k,o,s,w).For the scenario 'BaU', a low SOM balance was associated to treatments 'B7m', 'B7i', and 'Bb' (Figure 4d) while to treatments 'B7m', 'Bb', and 'B9m' for the 'H' scenario (Figure 4h). For the 'I' (Figure 4l) and 'H' + 'M' combination (Figure 4t), more land was allocated to 'B9m' at a low SOM balance, while it was allocated to 'B9i' for 'I' + 'H' (Figure 4p) and 'H' + 'M' (Figure 4t). At high SOM balance, most of the land is allocated to 'B4i' for 'BaU' (Figure 4d), a combination of 'B4i', 'B7i', and 'B9m' for hedges (Figure 4h), and 'B9i' for other scenarios (Figure 4l,p,t,x).Figure 5 presents the relationship at the Pareto frontier, i.e., ranks \"0\" and \"1\" in Figure 1, between the four production objectives, i.e., minimization of N input, maximization of operating profit, protein yield, and SOM balance. Apart from the interaction between N input and SOM balance in which a more synergistic relation occurred, zones of trade-offs and synergies were both visible for the interactions between the remaining objectives (Figure 5). The 'BaU' and hedge scenarios consistently had a smaller window of opportunity for exploration, resulting in smaller solution spaces and dismal levels of operating profit, protein yields, and SOM balance (Figure 3a, Figure 5a-f). A moderate performance was observed for a mixture of hedges with goat manure while options with inorganic fertilizer as a nutrient source had larger solution spaces and more robust increases in operating profit, protein yield, and SOM balance. N input, that was minimized, was relatively low (170-198 kg ha −1 y −1 ) at the Pareto frontier for the 'BaU' scenario and moderate (196-311 kg ha −1 y −1 ) when hedges were used for supplementing nutrients. N input for the inorganic input varied between 161 and 558 kg ha −1 y −1 . Goat manure had the worst performance for N input (that was minimized), with high N input values varying between 473 and 639 kg ha −1 y −1 .Figure 5. Plot of the Pareto-optimal frontiers of the FarmDESIGN solution spaces presenting interactions between four production objectives (a) to (f) for 6 input scenarios for improving in the performance of a banana-bush bean intercrop. The objectives include: Nitrogen ('N') input (kg ha −1 y −1 ; minimized), operating profit (US$ ha −1 y −1 ; maximized), protein yield (persons ha −1 y −1 ; maximized), and soil organic matter (SOM) balance (×10 3 kg ha −1 y −1 ). The input scenarios included (i) inorganic fertilizers ('I'), (ii) calliandra and tithonia hedges ('H'), (iii) a combination of inorganic fertilizer and the hedges ('H' + 'I'), (iv) a combination of goat manure and the hedges ('H' + 'M'), and (v) a combination of the inorganic fertilizers, hedges, and goat manure ('H' + 'I' + 'M'). Figure 6. The allocation of land to alternative treatments (i.e., banana-bush bean intercrop management options) along the rank \"0\" Pareto frontiers of different production objectives and input scenarios. (a-f) are input scenarios and respectively denote no additional input after banana establishment ('BaU'), planting hedges in part of the land as a source of manure ('H'), addition of goat manure ('M') and 'H', application of inorganic fertilizer ('I'), a combination of 'H' and 'I', and a combination of 'H', 'I', and 'M'. Along the x-axis, 'N', 'O', 'P', and 'S' are the interacting production objectives, and respectively, denote N input, operating profit, protein yield, and soil organic matter balance while 'B9m', 'B7m', and 'B4m' are, respectively, banana monocrop treatments in which all (on average 9), seven, and four leaves have been retained. Treatment 'B9i', 'B7i', and 'B4i' respectively stand for bush bean intercrops with banana having all, seven, and four leaves retained; 'Bb' a bush bean monocrop; 'Cal' a calliandra hedge; and 'Tit' a tithonia hedge.Figure 6 shows the allocation of land for different field management scenarios at 3 points (left, middle, and right) along the rank \"0\" Pareto frontiers of the plots in Figure 5. Solutions along the rank \"0\" Pareto frontier outperform the original farm configuration for all production objectives. The allocation of land between the treatments/management options along the rank \"0\" Pareto optimal frontier profoundly differed from one input scenario to another for the interactions between the four-production objectives. For the 'BaU' scenario, the model predominantly allocated the available land (87-97%) to cultivation of an \"intercrop of the severely pruned banana crop with bush beans\" at the rank \"0\" Pareto frontier of the interactions between all the production objectives (Figure 6a). In the hedge-only scenario, land was split up between a range of treatments, with the largest allocation to the \"intercrop of severely pruned banana crop with bush beans\" (Figure 6b). When hedge plus goat manure (Figure 6c) or inorganic fertilizer (Figure 6d) is used, the model predominantly allocates land to a combination of an \"un-pruned banana monocrop\" and \"un-pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\" at the rank \"0\" Pareto frontier across all objectives. Differences in the levels of land allocated to the treatments are, however, observed between the production objectives for the two input scenarios. For example, for the interaction between N input and SOM balance ('NS' in Figure 6), 56-91% was allocated to \"un-pruned banana monocrop\" for the hedge-goat manure input scenario compared with 79-100% to the \"un-pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\" for the inorganic input scenario. The model did not allocate land to any of the hedges, in the hedge-goat manure scenario. For the hedge-inorganic fertilizer (Figure 6e) and hedge-goat manure-inorganic fertilizer (Figure 6f), respectively, 57-100% and 88-100% of land was assigned to \"un-pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\" across the production objectives.The FarmDESIGN model has been used to unravel complexities at farm level through the determining of trade-offs and synergies between farm objectives and exploring windows of opportunities for improving farm performance. In the current study, the model was applied at field level to address complexities associated with the management and the interaction in a banana-bush bean intercrop. Complexities in this system arise from the difficulties in measuring environment and nutrition related objectives that are often subtle to farmers and seldom a concern. The computer based FarmDESIGN model explored the trade-offs and synergies for alternative banana-bush bean intensification/management options as a basis for identifying the most economically viable and environmentally sound management alternatives. The model also explored different input scenarios for addressing soil infertility, a major limitation of banana production systems in the AGLR.The pruning of banana leaves to integrate legumes profoundly reduced the operating profit and SOM balance of the system, whereas N input in the system reduced with increasing leaf pruning. Reduction in operating profit and SOM balances with increased leaf pruning can be attributed to the reduced photosynthetic capacity that affects overall growth and development and fruit filling. Leaf area of the banana crop has been reported to be positively correlated to bunch weight and overall performance of the crop [56,57]. Ocimati et al. [18] reported leaf cutting to integrate legumes to result in an economically inefficient system despite a higher agronomic efficiency for a moderately pruned banana crop. An increase in N input with increasing levels of leaf pruning can be attributed to (i) increased vigor of the bush bean due to higher access to light and higher biological nitrogen fixation, and (ii) a reduction in nutrient uptake/demand with increasing banana leaf pruning levels. A profound reduction in root growth and nodulation with a subsequent depression in biological N fixation in legume spp. has been reported due to shading [58][59][60]. Bloom et al. [58] reported a higher allocation of dry matter to shoots when light is limited, leading to poor root and nodule development. The reduced uptake by the banana crop can be attributed to a reduced root mass associated with leaf pruning [61]. This is further supported by the fact that the N, P, and K balances in the soil increased with increasing leaf pruning levels.Model exploration without extra inputs ('BaU'), i.e., re-arranging the field components alone and addition of hedges only offered a smaller solution space for improving the performance of the banana system in the studied farm for most objectives. In contrast, explorations with scenarios that included the addition of inorganic fertilizer and goat manure profoundly improved the performance of the system for most of the objectives explored. This suggests that soil nutrients are a major limiting factor for the banana-bush bean system. The dismal performance of hedges is possibly because they mainly help in nutrient recycling [62]. Furthermore, hedges reduced the total area that could be allotted to the banana and the legume crop. The scenarios with inorganic N, P, and K sources outperformed the other input scenarios for operating profit (maximized), protein yield (maximized), and N input (minimized). This can be attributed to a relatively lower cost of, and the ease to adequately fulfil, the multiple nutrient requirements of the system through the inorganic sources. In contrast, goat manure led to a very high N input and SOM balance. The goat manure had a low K content (i.e., 0.06%). Soil K is the most limiting nutrient for banana production [47,48] and the east African highland bananas are, for example, reported to be more sensitive to potassium deficiency than other factors [48]. Thus, large amounts of goat manure are needed to bring soil K to sufficient levels, leading to above optimal levels of N input. In/contrast, the amount of carbon in the goat manure was high. The N input ranges for all the input scenarios (162-735 kg ha −1 yr −1 ) were higher than the recommended blanket rate (i.e., 100 kg ha −1 ) for east African highland banana systems in Uganda [63] but are in agreement with recommendations for high yielding banana plantations (i.e., 300-450 kg N ha −1 ) elsewhere [64,65]. More recent studies (e.g., [47,48]) show better responses of the east African highland banana to higher levels of N, P, and K (i.e., 150-400 N, 50 P, and 250-600 K). The N input values from the FarmDESIGN model in this study are thus within the acceptable range for the banana crop.Land allocations to treatments across the input scenarios were strongly influenced by the availability of soil nutrients and the nutrient demand of the crops. For the 'BaU' scenario, when all solution spaces are considered, a combination of treatments were selected, with a higher allocation to the \"severely pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\", and \"sole bush bean crop\" at lower operating profits, while a \"moderately pruned bananabush intercrop\" and/or \"un-pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\" at high profitability (c.f. Figure 4). This corroborates the findings of [18] that recommended intercropping bush beans within moderately pruned and un-pruned banana plants based on their high agronomic and economic efficiencies. However, the rank \"0\" Pareto frontier solutions in the 'BaU' input scenario (c.f. Figure 6) were dominated by the severely pruned banana-bush bean intercrop, suggesting that more profitable options such as moderately-or un-pruned banana intercrop with bush beans to either be unsustainable without the addition of external inputs. It is important to note that, unlike [18], who based their conclusions on the agronomic/economic efficiency only, the current study sought to optimally and simultaneously address multiple (i.e., economic, nutrition, and environment) production objectives. The selection of the \"severely pruned banana crop\" at the rank \"0\" Pareto frontier as described above, is potentially because of the low nutrient uptake arising from a reduced banana root mass. In contrast, a sole un-pruned banana as a monocrop or intercrop would demand a higher amount of nutrients, resulting in a more rapid soil nutrient depletion and in the long run a total collapse of the system in the absence of external nutrient addition. Improving the performance of the banana systems will thus necessitate the addition of external input.The hedge scenario also had a similar distribution of treatments when all solution spaces were considered. However, unlike 'BaU' that had land predominantly allocated to the \"intercrop of severely pruned banana and bush beans\" at the rank \"0\" Pareto frontier, the hedge scenario had land allocated to multiple treatments including \"moderately pruned and un-pruned banana intercrop with bush beans\". This suggests an increased availability of inputs, arising from the recycling of the pruned hedge biomass and N-fixed by the hedges. Hedges could thus potentially improve nutrient balances on smallholder farms. Planting hedges along the boundaries of homesteads to secure and beautify homes and around fields/farms as demarcations is a common practice in the study region. Nitrogen fixing and N-rich hedges with high biomass production ability have been reported to potentially improve soil fertility [62,66]. These hedges could also be a good source of fodder for integrating zero-grazed livestock; and improving on-farm nutrient recycling on smallholder farms. They can also be used as mulch or green manure, reducing wind and water erosion on these smallholder farms. Hedges are also known to harbor natural enemies of crop pests and increase agrobiodiversity within farms [67]. Calliandra is reported to be beneficial for rehabilitation of erosion-prone areas and lands exhausted by agriculture, providing shade for other partially shade-tolerant trees and crops, fixing N through its symbiotic Rhizobium bacteria and root fungus, and improving soil through its high N-rich leaf biomass yields and well-developed lateral rooting system [43]. It is reported to be compatible with crops having both extensive fibrous roots and deep roots, thus being suitable for hedgerow boundaries [43]. Positive effects of tithonia on subsequent rice and maize crops have also been reported [68]. Tithonia is common in the study region, growing wildly, as a hedge or weed on farms. Enlightening farmers on the potential benefits of hedges could increase their role in nutrient recycling within these production systems.The scenarios that supplemented nutrients through the addition of inorganic fertilizers, goat manure, or a mixture of both predominantly allocated land to the \"intercrop of unpruned\" and/or \"a sole un-pruned banana crop with bush beans\". This contrasts with the 'BaU' and hedge scenarios, in which solutions with \"severely pruned banana-bush bean intercrop\" dominated. This supports the fact that nutrient availability is a major constraint to the banana intercrops systems in the study region. This further suggests that improving the performance of the banana intercrops systems in the region requires a judicious investment in external inputs Trade-offs and synergies were visible between the objectives at the Pareto-optimal frontiers. Synergies occurred between N input and operating profit, suggesting that both could be improved simultaneously. Synergies were also observed for operating profit and protein yield when input scenarios contained hedges. The observed synergies could be attributed model limitations discussed below. Trade-offs were profoundly visible between the other interactions of the objectives. Strategies to manage these trade-offs will be crucial and may be more dependent on farmers priorities and access to resources. For example, a resource-endowed, market-oriented farmer may be willing to invest more in external inputs to increase his profitability, with the contrary holding true when a farmer is producing predominantly for home consumption.The FarmDESIGN model improved the robustness of the empirical experiment and unraveled the relations between production objectives (i.e., operating profit, N input, protein yield, and SOM balances), constraints, and decision variables, which would have been challenging to explore using the empirical experiment only. The model generated numerous rank \"0\" Pareto-optimal alternative farm configurations with varying input and output (i.e., outcomes of the production objectives) combinations, giving a large set of alternatives that farmers can choose from. It also made the synergies and trade-offs between the objectives explicit. Knowledge of the trade-offs and synergies with environmental and nutritional objectives are especially very crucial given that they are often ignored or unknown to farmers and difficult to measure. The model could thus be useful in facilitating discussions between extension and/or research staff with farming communities to support and improve farm decision making with respect to achieving different farm objectives within production constraints. However, the high variability within farms in terms of access to land, inputs, and other production resources; environmental and socio-economic conditions and production objectives could limit or complicate the uptake of model outcomes in this study. To overcome this, grouping farms within landscapes into more homogenous groups based on the above variabilities will be helpful for targeting and tailoring model outcomes. This grouping can also take into perspective other potential production constraints such as access to labor, inputs, and farmer production objectives. For the banana intercrop system, gender roles, especially ownership and decision making with respect to the component crops, could also hinder the implementation of model outcomes. For example, in eastern DR Congo where this study was conducted, women are responsible for the cultivation of the legume components under banana, grown mainly to meet food security and nutrition needs within the household, whereas men are often responsible for the banana crop that is often grown mainly for income. Implementation of model outcomes will thus require mutual decision making and agreements within households with respect to management of the intercrops and use of the returns from the crops. Successful model implementation at both the household and community level will thus require co-redesigning of the systems with several iterations with all the relevant stakeholders, especially the farmers and extension staff. Co-redesigning will ensure relevance of the redesigns and foster ownership, adoption, and success of model outcomes. The model also has a high input data demand. On smallholder farms, the accuracy of model outcomes could be hampered by the poor culture of record keeping. Strategies for improving data collection on smallholder farms and subsequent storage will thus be crucial for supporting decision making based on this and other similar tools. Available literature and databases, e.g., on nutrient composition tables [50,51], are also suitable inputs sources for the FarmDESIGN model. Important to note is that the FarmDESIGN model is static, and as such, does not automatically adapt crop yields to management practices like increased fertilizer levels [40]. The model thus did not reflect potential yield increases and the accompanying potential incomes that could have arisen from the improved soil nutrient balances associated with the input scenarios in this study. Factoring nutrient response curves to capture the effect of fertilizers through linking the model to existing algorithms for nutrient responses is recommended for more robust outcomes.Severe pruning of banana leaves (e.g., to four leaves) is a common practice on smallholder farms aimed at using the limiting land to intercrop shade-sensitive crops to meet income and nutritional needs. This study has shown that severe banana leaf pruning reduces profitability, which is one of the primary production objectives of smallholder banana farmers in the AGLR. An intercrop of either moderately pruned or un-pruned bananas with bush beans is more profitable, but not optimal for multiple production objectives, especially the environmental objectives. Improvements in banana-bush bean intercrop systems are stifled, resulting in lower profitability, protein yield, and SOM balance when no or limited external inputs are added. For example, in the absence of additional external nutrient inputs (i.e., 'BaU' scenario), the intercrop of the \"severely pruned banana crop with bush beans\" is predominantly picked at the rank \"0\" Pareto frontier as the superior/optimal solution set for all production objectives, despite being less profitable. Minor improvements occur when hedges are introduced. Profound improvements with wider solution spaces occur when external nutrient inputs (inorganic and organic fertilizers) are used, allowing for the more nutrient demanding un-pruned banana crop in a sole or intercrop state to be grown with improvements in performance of multiple production objectives. Thus, the addition of external inputs is crucial for improving the performance of the banana intercrop systems for all objectives sustainably. Nitrogen fixing fast-growing hedges could form a good bridge between the 'BaU' and the input dense scenarios for the resource constrained farmers. The FarmDESIGN model was very suitable for: Exploring trade-offs and synergies between the objectives; and identifying Pareto-optimal field configurations","tokenCount":"8321"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"88910ab2e96b5fb748e2c0bc4dbb3ae5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7ac40b62-b535-4f11-bb83-c54a8cb2cb1c/retrieve","id":"-554241975"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"deaa08f7-9e05-46c7-8c17-657b331a4407","pagecount":"1","content":"Las gramíneas del género Urochloa tienen el mayor potencial de IBN (60-90%). Los fertilizantes, el estiércol y la orina son las principales fuentes de nitrógeno del suelo (amoniaco y amonio).El óxido nitroso es un GEI 300 veces más contaminante que el dióxido de carbono.1. Los exudados de las raíces de las plantas inhiben el proceso de nitrificación.2. Los compuestos se almacenan de forma natural en el suelo.3. Y mantienen el suelo fertilizado con valiosos nutrientes, útiles para otros cultivos.2. Estos compuestos son transformados por microbios del suelo en nitrito.3. Durante ese proceso se libera óxido nitroso a la atmósfera.4. Otros microbios lo transforman en nitrato, que se lixivia a las fuentes de agua subterránea.¿Cómo funciona la Inhibición Biológica de la Nitrificación (IBN)?Consulte nuestras publicaciones: https://bit.ly/TropicalForages_pub CONTACTO Jacobo Arango j.arango@cgiar.orgLa Alianza de Bioversity International y el CIAT es parte de CGIAR, una alianza mundial de investigación para un futuro con seguridad alimentaria dedicada a reducir la pobreza, mejorar la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional y mejorar los recursos naturales.Este trabajo está autorizado para su uso bajo la licencia Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) 2022-10-25. Diseño: JL Urrea (Alianza/CIAT).","tokenCount":"189"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b0dcf1c78dd62134a2d043f6868742c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ddd966d4-9e17-459a-9304-c68ecc336fba/retrieve","id":"-765882990"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"db09ca87-1433-4a42-8c5a-1730bcc261ca","pagecount":"302","content":"for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in ACP countries. It provides access to information and knowledge, facilitates policy dialogue and strengthens the capacity of agricultural and rural development institutions and communities.CTA operates under the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is funded by the EU.products, project appraisal and evaluations. His commodity expertise includes cotton, cashew, sisal, oilseeds, grains, fruits and vegetables, beverages, fishery and meat products. From 1996-2003 he worked as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) National Expert in food technology, training entrepreneurs and trainers and helping them set up small enterprises that achieve high quality production and a cleaner environment. Since 2004 he has been a consulting food technologist with the Small Industries Development Organisation, involved in training, promoting/ supporting SMEs to invest in agro-food processing and ensuring the produce quality and safe food products. He sits in various national and private advisory bodies on food and agro-industry. He is Director and Chairman of Traceability (T) Ltd, a private company that is involved in traceability and quality issues for the food industry.Vincent, with over 20 years experience in the fisheries and food sectors. He has studied and worked in Canada, Japan, Taiwan, UK and the Caribbean.He has an M.Sc. in fisheries from the University of Hull, has worked in the UK on product development and modified atmosphere packaging and was also involved in fish storage trials for the EU/Qualpois project. He has represented St Vincent and the Grenadines at numerous fisheries fora and is an FAO/ DANIDA/USFDA certified trainer of trainers in HACCP. As well as conducting numerous workshops on food related topics and HACCP he has co-authored a publication on Caribbean pelagic fisheries. He currently works as the Operations Manager for an Agro-processing company in St Vincent.Centre (TCC), of the College of Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and provides leadership in achieving the vision and mission of TCC as a centre of excellence for research and innovation, technology transfer, consultancy and entrepreneurship. She has over 26 years' professional experience in teaching, R&D and consultancy in Nutrition and Food Technology with a passion for development, monitoring and evaluation of innovative systems for the promotion of sustainable healthcare and industrial and socio-economic growth and mentoring young scientists and engineers. She has expertise in design and transfer of: freely of their time to assist in its preparation and publication. We would particularly like to record our thanks to Jenessi Matturi at CTA for her support, encouragement and constructive ideas, to Mathew Whitton for the illustrations, to John Wegrzyn, Dave Harcourt and Tony Swetman for reviewing the draft publication. We also wish to thank the following smallscale industrialists in Africa, and the Caribbean for sharing their experiences of the problems and successes of operating their oil processing enterprises and, in doing so, contributing to the success of others:• Eugenia Akuete, CEO, Naasakle Ltd, PO Box 841, GP, Accra, Ghana.• Mr Akwasi Baah Aful, Sekyere East Oil Mills, c/o PO Box 5, Asokore, Ashanti Region, Ghana.• Mr and Mrs Christopher Mutayoba, CRM Investment, Bahari Beach, PO Box 5522, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Tel: +255 713414047.• Mr Benoît Kpodjinou, Tchégbonvo Enterprise, Djomon, Avrankou, Benin.• Mr Mambea Bakari Kachema, TFDK Traders, PO Box 66, Itigi Singida, Tanzania. Tel: +255 26 254300 Cel: +255 754 820989.• Mr Robert Akwasi Kwakye Nketia, Raktia Holding Ltd, Adakogyakye, PO Box 5999, Kumasi, Ghana.• Mr Robert Tovizounkou, Kpodjava Enterprise, BP 58 Pobè, Ikpinlè, Adja Ouèrè, Benin.• Mr Simon Nasuilah Yuda, Jembe Oil, PO Box 7383, Tegeta Kibaoni, Dar es Salaam Tanzania. Tel: +255 756 147739.• Mr Thomas W. Bello, Golden Web Company Ltd, GIHOC Factory Complex, Lake Road, Chirapatre, PO Box AH8520, Ahensa, Kumasi, Ghana.• Mr Tovizounkou Aimé, Titi l'Ope Enterprise, BP 58 Pobè, Ikpinlè, Adja Ouèré, Benin.• Mrs Antoinette Sounadja, Chairman Elavagnon Group, S/C Gendehou C. Albert, BP 10 Zandjanando, Agonli Cove, Zou, Benin.• Mrs Martha Nero, c/o the Post Office, The Point, Owia, St Vincent.Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the following companies, organisations and publications for giving permission to use the following information:   In most ACP countries, cooking oil has a high demand and a high added value, which makes it a suitable product for small-scale processing operations. The high added value means that a relatively small amount of oil can be produced to earn a reasonable income. The common types of cooking oil that are processed at a small scale are shown in Table 1.1.Scales of business operation can be defined using numbers of employees and level of investment as shown in Table 1.2. There are four scales of businesses: micro-enterprises, small-scale enterprises, mediumscale enterprises and largescale manufacturers. This book describes the important aspects of running a micro-, small-or medium-scale cooking oil business. These aspects include finding and developing suitable markets, preparing a feasibility study, selecting equipment, choosing a site and setting up the premises.Details are also given of the different technologies that can be used for extracting cooking oils; methods of processing and quality assurance, and managingCooking oil Speciality/ non-food oil Almond ✔ Argan ✔ 1 and financial losses, and to prevent the growth of moulds, some of which can produce poisons that contaminate the crop. In addition, there can be unpredictable supplies and large variations in prices for the raw materials. This is because crop yields vary considerably according to the weather, rainfall patterns, and plant diseases.Control over raw material supplies is one of the most important factors that affects the ability to continue production and the profitability of an oil processing enterprise.Other factors that were identified by a researcher in Tanzania are summarised in Case Study 1.1.Sunflower oil production has great potential in Tanzania because of the availability of the raw material and the growing market for sunflower oil in the country. SMEs that are involved in sunflower oil production have the challenge to increase production of good quality, safe oil for consumers who are becoming more health conscious. The challenges to increased performance of enterprises include:• Availability of affordable credit for financing investment and working capital.Enterprises need to upgrade their technology, but also to improve the equipment, layout and plant sanitation.• Fluctuating production of sunflower seed affects its availability. This is because production is rain-dependent and hence raw material prices fluctuate with changes in seed availability, also affected by competition from buyers that export the sunflower seeds.• There is a need for training in production management and quality assurance to ensure the quality and safety of products. There is also a need for better training of enterprises in business planning and marketing.• The quality and availability of packaging materials is a challenge. At present, products are packaged in generic (common) plastic containers that have many other uses. There is need to customise the packaging to create a brand identity for each of the producers.1Cooking oil is one of relatively few foods that is traded internationally on a large scale. Worldwide production of cooking oils has increased dramatically in the last 50 years, but the biggest increases have been from temperate crops, where economies of scale have favoured the competitors of ACP producers: Brazil and the USA are the world's main soya producers, Canada and EU countries produce rapeseed, and Malaysia for oil palm in vast plantations. In the face of this competition, small-scale farmers and modestly sized estates in ACP countries find it difficult to compete.Tropical crops such as coconut, sunflower and groundnut now have about half of  The socio-economic benefits of the mills are also significant:> A typical mill employs ten people on a permanent basis and three temporary workers with an average monthly income that is two and a half times the rural average.> The mills offer a ready cash market for sunflower crop. A typical mill buys several thousand dollars worth of sunflower per year from six hundred and fifty farmers.> Other beneficiaries are schoolchildren who collect bottles for recycling, fuelwood suppliers, and (local) maintenance workshops that repair the mills. These amount to a further twenty five beneficiaries, earning several hundred dollars per year from a mill.> Benefits accrue to the community through cheaper oil of high quality.Typically the sunflower oil is cheaper than the refined blended oils produced by the major four oil companies. It is estimated that several thousand dollars worth of benefits are shared between an average of 732 households per mill, through lower costs (From Whitby and Sunga (1995) in Annex B).• The enterprise is among the largest producers of palm oil because of its production capacity and the quality of the oil it produces. In addition, it helps to alleviate the problem of unemployment because it uses a lot of manpower in the region.• The Oil Mills Co-operative was originally a collection of eighty women who processed palm oil using laborious traditional oil extraction methods. In the District Assembly's efforts to enhance palm oil production, increase productivity, and increase income generation for women, it sought technical and financial assistance for the women through technology upgrading and credit provision. An NGO came to their aid.• The business is recognised as the best producer of palm oil in the town because of its high production capacity and the quality of oil that is produced. In addition, it helps alleviate the problem of unemployment because it uses a considerable proportion of manpower in the region.If government policies are designed to increase oil consumption and improve the nutritional status of rural populations and low-income households, or to improve incomes to farmers, they are more likely to support small-scale processing. For various reasons, large-scale centralised oil producers cannot or choose not to supply low-cost oil to rural areas. This may be because of higher transport costs for oil distribution; the costs of refining and packaging the oil make it too expensive for rural or low-income households; or a high demand from urban supermarkets and/or export buyers who are willing to pay the higher prices. In this policy environment, small-scale oil producers can compete effectively to meet the demand from rural consumers for low-cost unrefined oil. This is because they have lower transport costs for moving crops to rural or peri-urban oil mills, reduced packaging and marketing costs by selling oil directly to local consumers or supplying retailers in re-usable oil drums. Large numbers of small-scale oil producers also create a more competitive market for crops, which benefits farmers' incomes and may encourage them to expand crop production. The availability of locally produced oilcake by-products also stimulates animal, milk and egg production, which can help improve the nutritional status of rural populations and/or increase incomes to farmers.Improved small-scale oil processing can therefore increase the availability of oil in the diet and generate income in rural areas.Some countries have centralised and controlled agricultural marketing policies and pricing structures, which are designed to protect the incomes of poor farmers. However, if farmers are obliged to sell their crops to a marketing parastatal, this can increase the price of raw materials to oil processors because of the additional transport, storage and administration costs. In some cases this can make processing unprofitable, especially if the price of cooking oil is also state controlled.Some oil processors confuse marketing with selling, but the two are very different. Marketing is deciding what to do to meet customers' needs and how to make a product more competitive. Selling is the action that results in a customer buying a product (e.g. taking telephone orders or visiting shops and taking orders, delivering to customers, selling from a factory shop, or bidding for a government supply contract).Good marketing paves the way for successful selling by making a customer ready to buy a product.A simple definition of marketing is:'Seeing your product as your customers see itand doing something about it to make more money' or:'The management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements while making a profit'The first definition emphasises the importance of getting to know what customers need, whereas the second definition emphasises that marketing is an ongoing process, rather than something that is done when a business first starts (see also Griffith (2002) in Annex B for further information). The marketing process is summarised in For most small-scale oil processors, the retail and food service markets are likely to be the most important in the majority of ACP countries. Within each segment in Table 2.1a, there are sub-divisions that may have different and specific needs. For example, in the retail sector, customers for oil may include owners of shops, managers of supermarkets, or street vendors who sell oil.For these customers, the marketing factors may include the quality of the oil, size of the pack, attractiveness of the label and value for money. However, the final consumers' perceptions are not just about price and quality, but may also include convenience, health or nutrition (Case Study 2.1). Producers should decide which factors are special for their product and emphasise these on the label or in their product promotion.Retail consumers (Table 2.1b) are often women who buy oil to prepare family meals. However, women from different social or economic groups may have different requirements for a particular type of cooking oil, they may require a specific type or size of container, or have a maximum price. Hence they may buy oil at specific types of outlets: more wealthy urban consumers may use• In Tanzania there are indications of rising consumer demand for sunflower oil due to the growing health consciousness of consumers.Most of the consumers go for oil that is fresh and free from chemicals and other contaminants (i.e. pressed and filtered oil).• Their main selling point is that consumers believe their oil to be high quality.• The company has no established marketing plan but takes pride in the fact that it is well-known in the Ashanti region and people travel from around Asokore to buy their quality products either on wholesale and retail basis. They also sell to schools and individual consumers who visit the factory.supermarkets located in large urban centres. These women may prefer to buy oil in larger bottles and use it over a period of time.Women who have less disposable income, especially in rural areas, may buy a small bag or sachet of oil when they can afford it from a village shop or at weekly markets. Here, price is a main factor. In some countries, poorer people also buy oil from street vendors or hawkers who buy the oil in bulk and sell it in individual bags or ladled into customers' own containers. Although only a small proportion of people may buy oil each week, and the amounts that they buy are small, their large numbers in many ACP countries mean that the market size can be large (see also Table 2.4, market size).Consider having both a premium brand and a budget brand of oil to meet different consumer needsIn the food service sector, urban and peri-urban cafés, fast-food takeaways, restaurants and hotels are likely to buy oil in bulk, and price and reliable deliveries are more important than an attractive label when choosing a supplier. Other food service customers include producers of fried street foods (Fig 2 .2) who may buy small amounts of oil each day. Their large numbers and wide geographical spread in towns, along main roads and in villages, means that this segment could be a large potential market for cooking oil producers. In institutional markets, the segments may include people who buy oils to prepare foods in schools, in meals for patients in district hospitals, or for soldiers in military barracks. These customers are often professional buyers either at the institutions or at government ministries, and orders may be won by a competitive tendering process. The main factors of interest to these buyers are that they require oil to be delivered in bulk, at a low price, and with a proven ability to meet delivery requirements. Oil processors should therefore take these factors into account when deciding if this is a market sector that they can successfully target. Similar considerations apply to food company buyers (e.g. from bakeries) who buy oil as an ingredient for their products. Again, low price and the ability to meet bulk delivery requirements on time are their main requirements.The company has been aggressive in marketing a range of its products and now has 5% of the vegetable oil market in Ghana. It sells to a number of individuals and large national and multinational companies both in Ghana and exports to other African countries, the EU and the US, for food processing, pharmaceuticals and soap making.Mr R has a wide range of customers such as market women who retail the oil, local restaurants, paint producers, schools and individual households. He also sells to other oil refineries that blend the soybean oil with either groundnut or coconut oil for shallow frying in restaurants.Mr B runs the only oil refinery in Kumasi and as a result offers services to other local oil processors that request refining of crude palm oil, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, sunflower oil, groundnut oil and shea butter. He has a good strategic marketing plan that is constantly being reviewed to make the company competitive.The company produces unrefined soybean and groundnut oils for both the local and West African markets.90% of groundnut oil and 80% of palm kernel cake are sold to the European Union.The marketing consultant worked with the management and the Board of Directors to develop a comprehensive marketing plan that has strategies and targets for short, medium and long term periods.The only by-product that has a large market as human food is the oilcake produced after groundnut oil extraction. This is used by bakers to make groundnut flavoured biscuits, and as an ingredient in soups and stews in some ACP countries. All oilcake by-products are used as a component in animal feeds, including poultry rations and cattle feed. They are usually sold to animal farmers, either in sacks or in bulk without packaging. Other by-products from coconut oil production are shown in Chapter 6, Fig. 6.3, and by-products from palm oil processing are described in Chapter 4, Section 4.5. The sale of byproducts can be very important and in many small businesses these sales make the difference between profitability and losses.Market research is the process of identifying the most suitable market segments for a cooking oil business, and these may be within a local community or further afield. Many small-scale processors can identify local customers' needs by talking to them informally, but they find it more difficult to identify the needs of customers who are outside their community. To do this, processors need to gather information, both on the needs of the different types of customers and also on competitors. Getting this information involves conducting a market survey and also getting information from written sources, such as newspapers or trade reports (see also Section 2.4).There are market research companies in many ACP countries that are able to do this type of work, but it is better for producers to do it themselves. This is because they will then properly understand their customers' needs, who are the competitors, and how the markets for oil actually operate. If necessary, processors can get assistance from advisers or university marketing staff on how to conduct a market survey (see Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Section 3.3).A market survey is used to get information about who will buy the oil, when, where from, how much and for what price. Surveys can also be used to get detailed information on the quality that customers expect from the oil they buy. A convenient way of doing it is to use simple questionnaires (Tables 2.2and 2.3) to ask a selection of people for their views on:1) The product and its quality, and2) Market size and value 2 .Product quality: Questions can focus on what are the things that customers like or dislike about existing products (either those of competitors or a producer's own products) or samples of a new product that a producer has made. The results of this type of survey can be analysed by adding together the numbers of answers such as 'very good', 'bad' etc. In the example in Table 2.3, the answers show that 65% of people (17 plus 22 out of 60) found the colour of the oil to be good or very good, 43% (24 plus 2 people out of 60) did not like the taste of the oil, with some commenting that it tasted rancid (see Annex A) and 35% (21 out of 60) thought that the oil was too cloudy. Half of the people interviewed did not think the quality of the oil was good value for money. Results like these show that a potential market exists for a product having a better quality, or a similar quality that has a lower price.A different set of questions is needed when assessing the size and value of a market for a particular product. The numbers in each category in Table 2.4 are from official statistics and the amount of oil that each group of customers would buy is an average of the information from interviews with 50 households. Low income households preferred to buy oil twice per month in 100 ml amounts, whereas mediumand high-income households could afford to buy one-litre bottles of oil every fortnight. A realistic starting point for a small-scale producer is 5% of the calculated demand, which would result in sales of nearly 300 litres per month.The following are examples of markets that were described by small-scale oil processors in a number of ACP countries:• In Tanzania, the enterprise produces sunflower oil in 1-litre and 5-litre containers, and more rarely in 20-litre containers that are demanded by groceries to dispense in small units of 50 -100 ml to customers. The main sales outlets are groceries, wholesalers and individuals. Many of the customers collect their supplies at the factory gate. As yet there are limited threats from sellers of imported brands of oil. The clientele of this enterprise have the confidence that it produces pure sunflower oil, which is its main selling point.• The company produces a variety of different oils and oil blends for both local and international markets.• The market for sunflower oil is attractive in Dar es Salaam, especially among middle class people who associate the oil with health improvement. Buyers of the product are both retailers and wholesalers.The owners believe they are able to reach 10% of the sunflower oil market in Dar es Salaam and hope this will increase as they get more experience in the market.• The group sells 540 litres of groundnut oil per month. Of this, about 320 litres are sold by the group members at the local market and about 210 litres are shipped to wholesalers in nearby markets at Bohicon, Abomey, Dassa, Dantokpa and Porto-Novo. Besides oil, the group also sells groundnut cake in these markets.• The enterprise sells 1100 barrels of palm oil, each having a capacity of 200 litres, per year. The oil is sold to the wholesalers in Nigeria and in closer markets at Ikpinlè, Pobè, Sakété, Porto-Novo and Takon. Partly this is for cooking oil and partly for cosmetic companies in Nigeria.• For many years the company has been aggressive in marketing its products and now has about 2% of the soybean oil market and 4% of the soybean cake market in Ghana. The company has plans to expand its business and increase its revenue by establishing a refinery.• Demand is very high and for this reason, there is no competition between different palm oil producers. The enterprise sells 850 litres of palm oil per year in nearby markets. Oil is also sold to wholesalers in Nigeria.• The company has not embarked on any advertisements or promotions, but relies on the quality of their product for their promotion. The products are sold in markets in Ejura, Agona and Asokore, with the Ejura market being used by buyers from Burkina Faso and Togo. The premium quality palm oil is sold to marketers who package it for supermarkets and for export; the medium quality is sold for local cooking oil and the low-grade oil is sold for soap making.• Part of the production is for the cooking oil market in Benin and Nigeria.Another part is used by cosmetic companies in Nigeria to make soap.The enterprise also sells other products like palm nuts to palm kernel oil producers.• The company has a large distribution network and sells on a wholesale basis to the armed forces, hotels, restaurants, shops, schools and hospitals.When interviewing retail or wholesale customers, market survey questions may include for example:• Which types or groups of consumers buy oil from you?• Which groups buy most oil?• Which types of consumer pay the best prices?• What characteristics do these groups of consumers share?• Are there other similar groups of consumers that you know about?• Have you considered selling to these other groups? If not, why?• What do people currently buy? (i.e. what are the competitors doing?)The more people that are interviewed in a survey, the more accurate is the information, but a balance is needed between the time and cost of interviewing large numbers of people and the accuracy of the data obtained.As a guide, 50-75 interviews should produce good information about the market for a product in a particular area.Considering the information from market surveys on both product quality and market size and value enables an oil processor to make decisions about the way the business will operate to meet customers' needs. For example:1. Who will be your customers (e.g. businesses, institutions, private individuals)?This allows decisions to be made on creating a product that has the flavour,Interviews were held with 16 hotel and restaurant owners in the town and 10 (62.5%) said they would buy the oil at the stated price. Their demand for oil (per owner per month) was between 11 litres and 25 litres with an average of 14 litres per month. Using a telephone directory we found that the total number of hotels and restaurants in the town and surrounding areas was 148. Then we calculated the total demand for oil by multiplying:(Total N o owners) x (% who said they would buy oil) x (average demand per month).This gave us the following demand = 148 x 0.625 (or 62.5%) x 14, which equalled 1295 litres of oil per month.colour etc. required by the customers, developing an attractive package (packaging type and label design) and suitable oil quality. This also helps decide the types of advertising and promotion to use to reach the intended customers.2. What are the average income levels of your intended customers and the amounts of oil that they buy each month?An idea of the importance of oil in total family expenditure allows decisions on setting a suitable price (pricing is described in Chapter 7), and producing and supplying a uniform quality product in the amounts required (deciding the size of the packs). It also allows decisions on the amount of production required per month, leading to decisions on the size of equipment required.Where are your customers located (e.g. urban, rural, which towns, near to the production site?). This allows decisions on the geographical locations of sellers you choose to use or where to locate new sellers, the distribution methods to use and who will do the distribution. It may involve deciding how to negotiate with wholesalers, retailers, distributors, hotel and restaurant owners etc. who will sell the product (e.g. what to offer them that is better than their current supplier).It is important to note that the success of an oil processing business is very site-specific, and other market-related information that may be important includes:• Amounts of oilseeds already produced and who produces them (estates or smallholder farmers), is there an under-supply or over-supply of crops?• How easily can customers be reached by road or rail or across borders?• The amount of oil already available, including imported oil, products from large factories, small expellers in provincial towns and home production. Is there any under-utilisation of existing processing facilities or are there any processing constraints?• How oilseeds are currently used, including the importance of other products (such as soap, cosmetics and biodiesel) and the amounts of oilseeds that are used by these producers.• The effects of government policies, including subsidies, controlled prices, taxes, import restrictions and exchange rates, and the effect of any proposed or likely changes in policies.When information about who are the main customers, where they are located and how they buy their oil is added to information about the quality and price that consumers expect, the result is known as the marketing mix. This is often described as the '4Ps' -Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Examples of components in a marketing mix are described in Fig. Marketing involves putting in place systems that will make consumers believe that they are buying something special that meets their needs.It also means supplying the right amount of product at an acceptable price at a place and time when they want to buy it.The development of a marketing strategy is not a single exercise that is done when a business starts. It should be continually monitored, to see if planned sales are taking place and the expected customers are actually buying the product. The strategy should be constantly reviewed to improve it or even to change it completely.Decisions by processors on how to sell their products, and to whom, are part of the marketing strategy. The simplest form of selling is from bulk containers into customers' own containers, or sales of packaged oil from a small 'factory shop' at the front of the processing unit. These methods can also result in the lowest cost for consumers, and may give a high profit for producers.Alternatively, a processor may make one range of oils that is sold in attractive bottles to wealthy urban consumers and another that is sold in drums to bakers or restaurants. Whatever type of sale is envisaged, it is necessary for processors to understand the market in which they operate and know the way in which products move through the market and gain value (see also Fig. 2.4).Each market segment may require different types of distribution: for example, in urban areas a processor may be able to supply supermarkets and shops directly from the factory, or use a wholesaler/distributor to supply more distant retail stores. Similarly in the food service sector, 'fast food' takeaways are mainly found in large urban centres, whereas hotels, restaurants and lodges are found in urban and peri-urban areas, or in rural areas that have tourist developments. These are often supplied by specialist wholesalers. In rural areas, retail distribution is via wholesalers or traders who transport oils to rural towns (together with all other goods that are sold in village shops).The owners of village shops and kiosks then visit the rural towns to buy stock, often using public transport. The method of distribution therefore also affects the type of packaging that is suitable for the different customers (e.g. bottles or bulk drums of oil).Products increase in price each time they are handled by a distributor or trader, and a price mark-up of between 10% and 25% can be expected at each stage (see Fig. 2.4). As each seller requires a profit for handling, stocking or transporting the foods, it is clear from Fig. 2.4 that the less direct routes from producer to consumer result in substantial increases in the cost of the product.Other points to note are that a producer's profit may be lower when supplying institutional buyers or wholesalers that have control over a large part of the market. Distributors may add a higher percentage than other groups to account for the high transport costs in most ACP countries, whereas street traders and kiosk owners usually have the lowest profit of any group.  The types of promotion that are available to oil producers are as follows (in order of cost, with the cheapest first):• Personal contacts.• Feature articles in newspapers, magazines and trade journals.• Free samples or special promotions in retailers' shops.• Posters and leaflets.• Signboards.• Participation in trade fairs.• Adverts in newspapers, magazines and trade journals.• Adverts on radio and television.The types of promotion that are selected are different for each market segment. For example, rural customers are unlikely to have access to television, radio or to newspapers. Posters or signboards in villages and special leaflet promotions in village shops are likely to reach more people. In urban retail markets, personal contacts with shop and supermarket owners, cooking demonstrations using the oil, free samples or in-store promotions may be more effective. If a radio, television or printed advertisement is considered, it is important that it addresses each of the following questions:• Who do you want to see or hear the advert? (use different adverts for different target groups).• How will you attract their attention? (e.g. bold colours or photographs on printed materials, a catchy tune on radio or television, or using a well-known musician).• What do you want them to learn about the product or the company? (e.g.what is new, different or special? Is there a special low price offered for aCustomers buy the oil with their own containers. The producers store their processed oil in plastic containers while awaiting retailers and wholesalers.Villagers visit the oil mill and Mrs L measures out the oil into the bottles that they bring.limited time, a prize competition etc.?).• Where will they see or hear it? (e.g. at home via newspaper or radio, or reading posters in shops).• When is the best time for them to receive the message? (e.g. before or after pay day).• What do you want them to do next? (e.g. if you want them to buy the product, tell them where, if you want them to contact the company, tell them how to).The appearance of a package is the first point of contact between a retail consumer and the producer, and it is therefore part of the marketing strategy (this is less important in other market segments (Table 2.1) where bulk packaging is used). For retail sales, processors should decide on the image that they wish their products to have, and this is largely due to the type of packaging selected (see also Chapter 3, Section 3.5). The label is a very important way of creating an image. It not only gives information, such as what type of product it is and how it is used, but through the design and quality of printing it also gives an image of the product to both the retailerThe following are examples of promotion used by small-scale oil processors in a number of ACP countries:• They often participate at trade fairs and this is probably their major effort to advertise their product. It appears the driving force for participation at trade fairs is to be able to sell their products and become better known.• Once, in 2008, the enterprise sponsored a local football tournament and results were not bad because there was a message to many more customers that they were producing high quality sunflower oil.• Currently they depend on door-to-door promotion to retailers.• The company paid for posters to be printed advertising its products. These are on display in all the retailers in the town.and the final consumer. For example a well-designed label (Fig. 2.5) can convey an impression of high quality or a reliable company. In contrast, a poorly produced label can suggest low quality, lack of care in its production or a cheap product that is only eaten by people who cannot afford to buy anything better. In view of the importance of labels, producers should pay the highest price that they can afford to obtain the best possible quality of label.In general a simple, uncluttered image on the label is better than a complex design. The brand name or the name of the company should stand out clearly.If pictures are used, they should be an accurate representation of the product or its main raw material. An example of a simple label design is shown in Fig. 2.5.Colour can be used to produce either a realistic picture (full colour printing)or blocks of one or two bold colours to emphasise a particular feature. Care is needed when choosing colours as they are culturally very significant and can have a direct effect on peoples' perceptions of the product. For example in some areas, browns and greens are associated with 'nature' or a natural product, and can convey an image of health and good quality. In others, bright oranges and yellows can either mean excitement, or cheap, low quality products.A 'logo' helps consumers to identify products and make them recognisable among those of competitors. This logo is used on all products in a producer'sAnytown,The World 500 mlIngredients:Groundnut oil best before:range and helps to develop a brand image. When products are displayed in retail stores alongside those of competitors, including imported brands, the package and particularly the label has to compare favourably with the others before consumers will choose it.If first-time buyers are attracted by the package and enjoy the product, they will continue to buy the same brand and develop a loyalty to it provided that it has a consistent quality and it is affordable and considered to be value for money. These repeat buyers are essential to build up sales of a product.In some ACP countries there are legal requirements on the design of the label and the information that is included (Chapter 5, Section 5.9). The following information is the minimum required on oil labels in most countries:• Name of the product.• The ingredients (i.e. type of oil). Normally nothing is added to the oil (see Annex A).• Name and postal address of the producer (to allow consumers to return the product to the manufacturer in case of problems).• Net volume of oil in the pack.• A 'best-before' or 'sell-by' date (Note: 'Best-before' date means that the oil is safe to eat after this date but may have changes to its flavour. 'Sell-by' date is an instruction to retailers to take the product off the shelves after this date).In addition, the producer may wish to include storage information or instructions on storage after opening, examples of recipes in which the product can be used, or a bar code for sales in larger supermarkets. To obtain a bar code, the producer should register with the local office of the organisation GSI (further information at www.gs1.org/barcodes/need_a_bar_code).Professional designers or graphic artists may be located at universities, art schools or in commercial agencies, and where they are affordable they should be employed to produce a range of ideas for a label. These can then be discussed with the Bureau of Standards or other relevant government department (e.g. Department of Health) to ensure that they comply with food regulations, and then with a printer to obtain quotations before a final decision is made. Most printers require a minimum print-run of several thousand labels and great care should be taken to check the design for errors before printing, as these would be very costly and time consuming to correct after the labels have been produced.Many oil processors fail to realise how important it is to develop a good relationship with customers and to develop a good reputation for looking after them. There is no point spending money trying to get new customers if the existing ones are dissatisfied. The main concepts of customer care are:Every oil processor should recognise that their customers are the most important people in their business.A business will only survive if its customers are satisfied with the product and the service and come back for repeat purchases.To achieve this, oil processors must develop attitudes, ways of thinking and actions that reflect the importance of their customers, and they must focus on satisfying their customers' needs. For example:• Talk to customers and find out what they like and dislike about the level of service you provide.• Develop customer-orientated attitudes so customers feel valued when you deal with them.• Make sure that all actions taken by your staff reinforce the idea that 'the customer comes first' or 'the customer is king'.The two most common complaints by customers are that a processor supplied oil that did not meet the agreed specification, or that the delivery was not on time. All complaints should be dealt with efficiently, promptly and fairly; if a complaint is handled properly the customer is likely to respond positively and feel that their complaint has been taken seriously.When a complaint is dealt with fairly, it can turn a problem into a benefit, and help develop customer loyalty.Satisfied customers may also tell others about the treatment they have received and so generate new customers (and of course the opposite is true: if customers are dissatisfied with the way their complaints are handled, they may tell others not to buy from this processor again).A dissatisfied customer is many times more likely to tell someone about poor service than a satisfied customer will talk about good service. The following are examples of methods used by small-scale oil processors in a number of ACP countries to take care of their customers:• Feedback is mainly from customers, and is mainly to compliment them on the quality of the oil. Except for a few customers who complain of the 'sunflower' flavour. The enterprise consulted with experts on how to eliminate this, and now the problem has been reduced substantially.• They are quite flexible and willing to respond to customers' needs. At present, they pack oil in 5 and 20 litre plastic containers, which are the most popular among retail customers. Occasionally, 1 and 2 litre packs are needed.• The company maintains a very strategic close relationship with its customers. They regularly visit them and discuss how to serve them better.This close relationship and discussions on what could be done to achieve a win-win situation has helped a lot in maintaining a low rate of payment defaulters.• Because of the high quality of oil, trust has been established between the enterprise and the wholesalers, and they deposit funds in advance before getting the product.The actions of competitors are critical to the success of an oil processing business. If a new producer starts up in business, it is unlikely that the competitors will do nothing: for example, they may react by offering loyalty bonuses to retailers who continue to promote their products, or introducing special offers, reduced prices, or increased promotion. An oil producer should therefore be constantly aware of the changes that competitors make to their businesses in response to his or her actions and take steps to deal with the changes as they occur.Oil processors should recognise that there are different types of competitors:producers that make different kinds of oil are known as type competitors, whereas different manufacturers of the same type of oil are brand competitors. The strategy for dealing with competitors is different in each case. For example, when competing against different types of oil, a processor may want to emphasise differences in flavour or provenance (e.g. organic, non GM etc.), or health benefits (see Annex A) of his or her products compared to those of competitors. However, take care with health claims; they must be substantiated. When competing against brand competitors who make the same type of oil, a more attractive label and/or price may be more effective. This is known as product differentiation and it involves finding something different about a product that will make customers buy it in preference to those of competitors. This can also involve additional benefits or services to customers, such as free delivery to shops or a special discount for regular orders. This will help to distinguish an oil processor from competitors and help to develop customer loyalty (see also 'Customer Care', Section 2.6).• The company has good relationships with customers by keeping in touch often and keeping customer complaint records. The owner said: \"I believe that the customer is always right and I always try to ensure good customer relations\". He is able to keep customers by producing and supplying high quality oil, timely deliveries and affordable prices.A convenient way for an oil processor to compare his or her business to those Visit trade fairs and talk to other producers and their customers.Look in trade journals, manufacturers' association magazines and newspapers for information about the market and the activities of competitors.• The main competitors in the market are local brands. There are also other imported palm oils that are sold cheaply and hence tend to be a threat to their products, especially among low-income customers. As a strategy to compete, the company had to slightly lower the price of their products.• The demand for palm oil is very high. For this reason, there is little competition between different producers and they can all sell everything they produce.• In 2008 the company cautioned the government to be careful of large imports of oil from South East Asia that could create unfair competition for the local market. This, as predicted, has adversely affected local edible oil processing and marketing in Ghana and more widely in West Africa. • The main competitors of Mr B's company include multinational companies such as Unilever and he is aware that he cannot compete with them when it comes to packaging, so he sells oil in bulk containers of 20 litres or more for repacking in stores.When the SWOT analysis is completed, an oil processor should be able to answer the following questions:• Who is producing similar products and where are competitors located?• What is the quality and price of their products compared to mine?• What can I do to make a product that is better than those of competitors?• What are competitors likely to do if I introduce a new product?• Why would customers want to change in my product?• What offers or incentives do competitors give to retailers or other buyers?• Can I offer anything better?It is important to be honest and realistic when doing these evaluations.Producers should remember there is no benefit in developing a view that is too optimistic, even if it convinces the bank, because it could mean that the business is unable to reach its targets and has to re-plan and re-finance, or worse still it cannot make the planned sales and income, and is forced out of business.• Their major strengths are their physical location and their ability to produce good quality palm oil and palm kernel oil using high quality crops. Their weaknesses are due to being managed as a cooperative, which poses a number of difficulties with production, credit management and maintenance of equipment. They do not have unified pricing and marketing strategies and are always at the mercy of wholesalers and retailers who dictate prices for their products.• The strengths of the business are the readily available supply of good quality crops and the new machinery. The weaknesses are the everincreasing price of electricity and fuel which makes competition against imported oils ever more difficult.• The location of the oil mill is in vicinity of a sunflower growing area and has a plant with adequate capacity, although they have not managed to fully utilise it yet. However, two weaknesses are being far from their major markets and the uncertainty of electricity supplies that affects production.• The location of the plant in the vicinity of the target market (i.e. middleand high-income consumers) is its main strength.Many small-scale processors who were interviewed for this book complained about the activities of competitors. For example, they considered that some competitors use underhand practices to win customers, make false allegations, or make substandard products to increase their profits. It is difficult in a book of this type to describe in detail the ways in which small businesses can compete effectively and honestly but, in summary, the following actions can assist genuine small-scale processors:• Develop good relationships with customers, treat them with respect and deal with them honestly. Agree contracts with retailers/wholesalers and crop suppliers.• Deliver what is promised and on time.• Do not make false claims in promotional materials. Prepare a product guarantee that is written on the label and accept liability for any substandard products.• Do not spread rumours about competitors.• Find out from customers and trade associations what competitors are doing and saying.• Identify competitors' strengths and weaknesses and use this information to be 'one step ahead' of them.Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Sections 4.1-4.7.By developing good relationships with customers and 'staying above' any arguments with competitors, a small-scale processor is likely to continue the business and make it grow. Customers will ignore false information and may even pass on information about competitors' dishonest activities that can benefit the business. ✔ Consider all types of markets for cooking oils (retail, food service industry, institutions and other food businesses).✔ It is important that your products, methods and places of selling, prices and types of promotion match your intended customers.✔ Pay as much as you can afford for an attractive package and label.✔ Always take account of competitors, but do not let them distract you from your own business aims.✔ Decide what makes your product different to those of competitors and emphasise the benefits in your product promotions.✔ Prepare a marketing plan to guide the development of your business.✔ Choose your retailers or distributors carefully and check to make sure they are doing their jobs properly.✔ Always put the customer first and focus on meeting their needs.✔ Keep in regular contact with customers and make sure they are satisfied with your products and service. The following tips were provided by successful oil processors in ACP countries: ✔ Choose a location that has good road access. If electrical supplies are not reliable make sure you have enough money to install a generator. ✔ Select a building that has enough space for workers to move around easily and not get in each other's way. ✔ Seal up any cracks in walls and floors and ensure that all windows and doors are insect-proof. ✔ Seek advice to find the best sources of equipment and packaging.✔ Do not buy equipment that is too large if your sales are low. It is better to start small and increase the production capacity later when sales increase. ✔ Train operators to use equipment safely.✔ Read Sections 5.1-5.4, and 6.1 in Volume 1: Opportunities in Food Processing -setting up and running a small food business.Details of the location and construction of food processing units, together with information on the provision of services are given in Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Sections 5.1-5.3. In this section, the specific requirements for oil processing facilities are described in more detail.• The enterprise is owned by Mr. K a former civil servant turned entrepreneur, who is also the sole director. It employs 20 workers and a manager who has 20 years' experience as a businessman. It started operations in 2002 processing sunflower seeds, with the seedcake by-product being sold as animal feed. He started the new business because of the success of other oil millers in the region, the presence of good varieties of sunflower, and a growing demand both locally and from other regions in the country. It took him 3 years to realise the investment from conception of the idea to start-up. At present, they have under-utilised capacity that they wish to optimise, but raw material supplies are limited.• The enterprise producing sunflower oil is owned by Mr. Y who is the sole director of the company. The idea of starting an edible oil plant resulted from a search for income generating activities. The fact that sunflower oil prices were ever increasing on the market encouraged him to try this area of processing. It took about a year to make the idea implementable and the business started in January 2009. It is located 30 km north of Dar es Salaam and has three full-time employees. Funds for the investment were raised from sales of farm produce, another business that he undertakes. • The enterprise is a private owned family business, with Mr. and Mrs. M as the shareholders. It is located 8 kilometres from the centre of Dar es Salaam city. It is a micro-business started in 2003, after the wife had attended a food processing course conducted by the Small Industries Development Organisation. The idea lived with her for at least two years, but once she had training she decided to start at a very small scale. With a ram press she can process a bag of sunflower seeds per day (in 8-10 hours) that yields about 18 litres of crude sunflower oil.• Mr R is the owner and production manager of the oil mill. He is a Chartered Accountant by profession and while offering financial services to small-and medium-scale food processing businesses, he realised that small-scale oil processing was lucrative but there were very few practitioners. He studied the market and established his oil processing business in 1997. He realised that vegetable oil extraction and soap making are two major income generating activities for women in rural communities, but using traditional technologies is labour intensive and economically not viable. He therefore established a 500 kg/day oil processing business, which was later increased to two metric tonnes per day.• Six years after conceiving the idea, the farm was established by the owner, who is a management consultant with a non-governmental organisation. • Mr B, the Managing Director, offers advice to those who want to go into an oil processing business: they must start at a small scale and grow; they must produce good quality products, competitively priced and delivered in a courteous and professional manner; they must secure for investors an optimum return on their invested capital; they must create an environment where staff are provided with the opportunity to develop their maximum potential; and the company should contribute to the welfare of the community in which it operates.• The oil processing plant was set up in 1995 by an American NGO in collaboration with two Ghanaians. The cooperative had eighty members (60 women and 20 men) and has been in operation since then producing palm oil and palm kernel oil. The founding members received financial support for the building and equipment from the NGO through the Agricultural Development Bank and they were trained by the Technology Consultancy Centre. The Association was registered with the District Assembly as a farmer-based organisation in 2004 to benefit from micro-finance schemes.The cooperative was well managed until one of the founder members died and the other travelled overseas. This created a lot of anxiety since none of the group members felt competent enough to take up the management of the organisation. This resulted in a decrease in membership and currently the cooperative has about 50 workers who work independently using the common production facilities with their own capital.The best location for an oil mill is determined in part by the following factors:• Closeness to the source of crops.• Closeness to customers for both oil and oilcake by-product.• Cost of transport.• Local availability of services (especially electricity and equipment maintenance workshops).Many processors choose to locate their production facilities in a rural area close to the source of crops. This has advantages because bulky raw materials do not need to be transported long distances, which is less expensive. Also, the level of rent, cost of land and labour are generally lower in rural areas, and there may be more buyers of oilcake for animal feed compared to urban centres.However, these benefits need to be balanced against a number of disadvantages of a rural location. In particular the often poor quality of rural roads may create difficulties for:• Access to markets and the cost of distributing oil (e.g. dry season access only, especially if urban customers are the main market (Chapter 2, Section 2.2)).• Ease of access for production staff (poor public transport, long distances down access roads).• Damage to products, especially if glass containers are used for oil, due to potholes.• Increased costs of supplies of spare parts for equipment and other materials.In addition, the provision of services in rural areas is often substandard or intermittent. Electricity is required for some types of oil processing equipment, and if this is not available or reliable, there are additional costs of a generator plus the cost of transporting fuel to operate it. These are additional expenditures that would be less likely in an urban location. There are also potential marketing disadvantages of processing in a remote area, but these depend on the degree of customer contact required. For example, supplying customers through wholesalers can be handled from a remote processing plant, whereas direct sales to urban customers require a closer and more frequent contact. For the above reasons, many oil processors choose to set up their operation in a peri-urban area or rural growth centre in order to obtain the benefits of ease of access, closeness to buyers of animal feeds that use oilcake, closeness to urban customers for oil, better provision of services and maintenance workshops, and lower costs than urban locations.• The oil mill is established on an acre of land 10 kilometres from Kumasi which makes it strategic for selling to market women and schools in the city.• The choice to locate the plant 35 km from Dar es Salaam was very strategic. It is easy to transport the product to hotels on the beaches north of Dar es Salaam and also to cater to the growing number of middleto high-income customers who are concentrating in the corridor to Bagamoyo 64 km north of Dar es Salaam.• The enterprise is located on a farm and the main activity is production of palm oil from an oil palm plantation of 152 hectares. The enterprise also produces 'cake timber' by mixing palm kernel shells and palm fibres with mud to be sold as fuel, and the culture of oil palm trees.• Initially the oil mill was set up in an old government shoe factory that was leased out when the government Industrial Holding Companies went bankrupt. As the company grew bigger, the management bought 4.5 acres of land on the outskirts of Kumasi to set up its refinery in 2007. Now it operates at two premises: the old factory which has a capacity of 50 metric tonnes of crude oil per day and the refinery which has a capacity of 10 metric tonnes per day.• The main activity is the production of palm oil from its 20 Ha palm oil plantation. Mr K. inherited the plantation from his father and expanded it to include the processing plant in 1996.• The location for the plant was selected because it is close to a lake, as palm oil production requires a lot of water.Although very small oil processing enterprises exist in some areas, operating from the family home, for most businesses there are a range of features that are needed in an oil processing unit, which means that a special building is required. The features required in all food processing buildings are described in Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Section 5.1, and this section outlines the type of facilities that required for oil processing.In general, a building for oil processing should have enough space for all production to take place without congestion, and for separate storage of crops, packaging materials, oil and oilcake byproduct (Fig. 3.1). The investment should be appropriate to the size and expected profitability of the enterprise, to reduce start-up capital, the size of any loans and depreciation and maintenance charges (see Chapter 7). A summary of the design and construction features of a small oil mil is given below.  Fibre-cement roof tiles offer greater insulation against heat from the sun than galvanised iron sheets do. It is particularly important to make working conditions more comfortable when processing involves heating, for example in preparing groundnut flour, or heating oil to remove water. Alternatively, heating oilseed flour or oil can be carried out on a covered veranda to minimise problems of heat in the processing room. Panelled ceilings should be fitted to prevent contamination of products by dust falling from roof rafters, and there should be no gaps or holes in the ceiling that could allow rodents or insects to enter the room.All internal walls in the processing room should be rendered or plastered so that there are no cracks that could harbour insects. High-level vents in walls, screened with mesh to prevent insects, allow heat and steam to escape and encourage a flow of fresh air through the processing room. The lower area of walls (to at least one metre above the floor), which is most likely to get dirty, should be either painted with waterproof white gloss paint or tiled with glazed tiles. In some ACP countries there is a legal requirement for specified internal finishes and this should be checked with the Ministry of Health, Bureau of Standards or other appropriate authority.Flying insects can readily contaminate products and windows should therefore be fitted with mosquito mesh. This allows them to be left open and provide a flow of air through the room. Normally doors should be kept closed, but if they are used regularly there is again a tendency for them to be left open with similar consequences of insects entering the room. Thin metal chains or strips of material that are hung vertically from the door lintel deter flying insects while allowing easy access for staff. Alternatively mesh door screens can be used. Rodents are a particular problem because they feed on stored crops or oilcake, and all storeroom doors should therefore be close-fitting and kept closed.The floors of processing rooms and storerooms should be constructed using good quality concrete, smooth finished for easy cleaning, and without cracks that could harbour insects. The material should ideally be non-slip to prevent operators slipping in any spilled oil, and should not absorb oil (e.g. industrial glazed tiles).All electric power points should be placed high enough above the floor so that there is no risk of water entering them when washing the floor or equipment. Ideally, waterproof sockets should be used. It is important to use each power point for one application and not plug multiple machines into one socket, which risks overloading a circuit and causing a fire. Some types of oil extraction equipment require a three-phase power supply and this should be installed by a competent electrician, with the load evenly balanced across the three phases.Large amounts of water are required for some types of oil processing (e.g. palm oil and palm kernel oil) and a guaranteed supply is necessary. Where water is not piped, such as when a processing unit is located in a rural area, it is necessary to set up a supply for the unit (Fig. 3.2). The different areas required for oil processing are shown in Fig. 3.1, and different stages in a process should be physically separated wherever possible. The layout shows how the raw material moves through the process and through the room without paths crossing, to reduce the risk of crosscontamination from crops to the product. The types of equipment required for oil processing are described in Chapter important to describe the specific application for which the equipment is to be used, and to specify the size (capacity or throughput), single or three-phase power supply, and the number and types of spares required.The company produces 20 -40 tonnes of unrefined oil per day and has the capacity to refine 25 tonnes of oil a day. However, due to irregular supplies of crude oil the refinery produces 10 tonnes of refined oil per day.Currently the company has a crushing capacity capable of producing one metric tonne of crude oil per day during the peak soybean season using six expellers. However, the installed capacity is three metric tonnes per day. It is operating below capacity due to inadequate raw material supplies and the high cost of electricity to run all the machines.They produce 110 kg of crude soybean oil and 850 kg of cake a day from 1000 kg of crop. Due to the irregular supply of soybeans the factory may produce for only four days a week.All types of oil processing require basic equipment such as buckets, tables and scales to handle, weigh and prepare raw materials. Wooden tables are cheaper than metal ones, but they are more difficult to keep clean. If wood is used it should be covered in a sheet of thick plastic, aluminium or a 'melamine' type surface, and wooden legs should be painted with gloss paint for easier cleaning. Scales are needed to weigh crops, oil and oilcake by-product. Ideally, two sets of scales should be used: one set of small battery-operated or mainspowered electronic scales (0-5 kg with an accuracy of +/-1g) to accurately weigh bottled oil, and a second set of mechanical scales (0-50 kg with an accuracy of +/-200g) for larger amounts of crops and oilcake. It is also possible to calibrate scoops, jugs or other measures, so that they contain the correct quantity of material when filled level with the top. In production operations, scoops are faster than weighing, but operators should be carefully trained to ensure consistent measurements.Because of the risk of causing rancidity in oils (Annex A), copper, brass or iron fittings, including nuts, bolts, washers etc., should not be used in any equipment that is in contact with the oil or crop. Only food-grade plastic, aluminium or stainless steel should be used. The principles of hygienic design and methods of construction for food processing equipment are described in Chapter 4 and in Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Section 5.3.• Membership of trade associations has enabled the owner to share experiences between producers, and gives the possibility to purchase equipment together at reduced cost.• The owner of the enterprise is a member of the cooperative of village agricultural producers. This association has allowed him to participate in meetings to exchange experiences among producers. He also benefits from the group purchasing equipment at reduced cost and from exchange trips.There is a limited range of packaging materials that can be used to package oils in ACP countries. At the smallest scale of operation, oil processors may sell oil into customers' own containers or package it into sealed or tied polythene bags. These packs do not withstand damage if oil is to be transported to wholesalers or retailers. Glass or plastic bottles and pots are more rigid and fully sealable. Glass bottles are available in countries that have a glass-works, or an established import system.Because they are heavy and bulky,   In many ACP countries small-scale processors have to use recycled glass bottles to pack their oil. It is very important that bottles are inspected as they may have been used to store liquids such as kerosene or even pesticides. Any suspect bottles must be rejected. The next step is to wash the bottles with a detergent, either by hand or using a rotary bottlebrush (Fig. 3.6). • There is a system for packaging oils into 5-and 10-litre bottles or 25-litre drums.• The enterprise has limited capacity to influence which packaging material it uses, but so far the containers that are available have been satisfactorily used to contain and market the product. The choice of packaging materials is limited because there are only a few manufacturers of containers in the country, who mainly sell generic types that are used by many processors -not only those making food but also others who produce chemicals such as disinfectants, detergents and paints. These are plastic and contain 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 or 20 litres. The choice of size depends on the market requirements for the oil. • They package refined oils into 1, 2, 5 and 10 litre bottles as well as 25-litre oil drums.• Mr S said: \"Good quality packaging for oils is a challenge in West Africa.There is no industry producing printed polythene containers and no glass bottles. These materials are bought in Nigeria or Ghana. The same thing is true of packaging equipment. The problem we have is the quality of old bottles, which can break easily\".A bottle washer (Fig. 3.7) is used to rinse detergent from the bottles. They are inverted over vertical pipes that are welded or soldered onto a larger base pipe, which is connected to a water supply. Bottles or bags are filled by hand at a small scale, using funnels to increase the speed of the operation. A higher filling rate can be achieved using a plastic or stainless steel bucket or tank that is fitted with several taps to allow simultaneous filling by different operators. It is important that the taps have 'gate' 'ball' or 'butterfly' type valves (Fig. 3.8) and not domestic taps, which are more difficult to clean properly.Filling by hand relies on the judgement of the operators to consistently fill the correct volume. Dispensers (Fig. 3.9) contain a piston that measures out the same amount of liquid into each container and so these do not rely on the operators' judgement. Small versions may be available at pharmacies in capital cities, but equipment to dispense larger volumes may need to be imported. Plastic bags are either tied into a knot by hand or using a simple applicator for adhesive tape (Fig 3 .10). These methods do not fully seal the bag and there is a risk of oil leakage. A better seal is obtained using a heat sealer, fitted with a broad heating bar to produce a wide (3 -5 mm) seal (Fig 3.11). These machines heat and press the two edges of a plastic bag to melt and weld the two layers together, thus fully sealing the bag. It is important that there are no smears of oil on the inside of the bag where the seal is to be made, as this will prevent a proper seal from forming. The sealer should have a thermostat to adjust the sealing temperature, and an adjustable timer to control the time of heating. Glass bottles can be sealed with one of a number of different types of caps.Metal caps include Crown caps or Roll-On-Pilfer-Proof (ROPP) caps (Fig. 3.12).Hand-operated Crown cappers (Fig. 3.13) consist of a die that is placed over a metal cap on a bottle. The cap is sealed in place either by striking the capper with a hammer or lowering two handles that force the cap onto the bottle.ROPP sealers (Fig. 3.14) press the sides of the metal cap into the glass thread to form the seal. Alternatively, bottles can be sealed with corks using a corking machine (Fig. 3.15). When the lever is lowered it squeezes the cork and pushes it into the bottle neck, where it expands to form a tight seal.  Small plastic pots can be sealed using a foil or plastic lid that is heat sealed onto the rim of the pot. Push-on lids for small pots are generally not sufficiently leak-proof and are not used to package oils, but the clip-on lids of bulk (15 -20 litre) plastic pots are suitable.✔ Choose a location that is close to the supply of crops and maintenance engineers. Ideally it should also be close to your customers.✔ Make sure that the size of the oil mill is appropriate for your intended scale of production. Leave enough space around equipment for easy access and cleaning.✔ Ensure that the walls, floors and insect proofing are up to standard. ✔ Make sure that there is an adequate electricity supply and get a backup generator if it is not reliable.✔ Take time to select equipment that is the correct size for your intended production.✔ Do not forget to order spare parts to avoid downtime.✔ Find out what types of packaging are available and select ones that have a low cost but are attractive to the intended consumers. The following tips were provided by successful oil processors in ACP countries:✔ Prepare crops correctly before extracting the oil and ensure that there are no metal or glass fragments in the raw material. ✔ Make sure all workers are trained and understand exactly what they are doing when operating oil extraction equipment. ✔ Establish an equipment maintenance system to avoid stoppages.✔ Visit local engineering companies. They may be able to make or repair equipment for you. ✔ Check with the people who buy your oil whether they want it to be refined.read Sections 2.1-2.4 in Volume 1 Opportunities in Food Processing -setting up and running a small food business.Oils can be extracted from a wide range of oil-bearing seeds, nuts and fruits but many are not suitable for cooking. Some contain poisons or unpleasant flavours and these are used for fuel or paints. Others such as castor oil need very careful processing in order to make them safe. Such oils are not suitable for small-scale processing. Oils from other crops such as maize, cottonseed and soybean, are extracted using solvents that dissolve the oil. This method of extraction is also not suitable for small-scale operation, due to the high costs of sophisticated equipment, the need for solvents that may not be easily available, and their risk of causing fire or explosions. These technologies are only economic at a large scale. Details of some oil-bearing crops that are suitable for small-scale extraction are given below and summarised in Table 4.1, and their range of uses and oil contents are shown in Table 4.2.Other names Derived from Suitable for small-scale processingThe kernel of the argan nut (Argania spinosa)Avocado oil -The fruit of the avocado (Persea Americana). The crops that are suitable for small-scale oil extraction described in this chapter include avocado, coconut, groundnut (peanut), mustard, olive, palm, palm kernel, safflower, sesame, shea nut, soybean and sunflower. The methods used to extract oil from these crops are described below.There is considerable variation in the oil content of crops.  All oilseeds, nuts and fruits require some form of pre-treatment. Oilseeds and nuts should be dried, most commonly by sun drying. Proper drying is very important and the moisture content must be lowered to a level that prevents the growth of moulds, generally in the range of 5 -15 % moisture. Adequate drying is particularly important in the case of groundnuts and coconuts as they are susceptible to the growth of moulds that produce poisons (see aflatoxins in  All raw materials contain oil in oil-bearing cells that have to be ruptured to release it. The different extraction technologies are:• Hot water flotation.• Ghanis.• Pressing.• Expelling.These are described in detail below.This is a simple traditional technology that is used to extract oil from fresh oil palm fruits, coconuts, olives, marula nuts and shea nuts. The equipment that is used for different crops is described in Section 4.5. The grated or pulped material is squeezed through cloth to produce a 'cream', and the residue is rinsed with water and squeezed again. The cream is then placed in a large pan with water and allowed to simmer over a low fire or heater. The oil slowly separates and floats to the surface where it is skimmed off. After filtering through fine cloth to remove traces of plant material, the oil is dried by heating it in a pan, which boils off all traces of water.Shelled groundnuts, sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, palm kernels and shea nuts are roasted and then ground to a flour by pounding. The mass is then mixed with water and simmered, allowing the oil to float. It is skimmed off, filtered and dried as above.These traditional methods are time consuming and inefficient in fuel use. Extraction efficiencies are low, mainly due to inefficient pounding and grinding, which leaves oil trapped in cells that are not broken down. However, despite the limitations these simple traditional processing methods continue to be used because the cost of equipment is low.The ghani is normally associated with the Indian sub-continent but it has also been used in Africa as described  much easier to empty the cage. An alternative to using a screw is to pump a hydraulic jack (e.g. a lorry jack) to move the pressure plate. Higher pressures can be obtained using the hydraulic system, but it is important to design the press so that the hydraulic jack is below the press (i. In Mr and Mrs M's operation, the crude oil is either filtered and packed without further treatment, or it is heated with salt, followed by washing and drying to produce semi-refined oil, and then packed. The ram press consists of a long lever that moves a horizontal piston inside a cage as shown in Fig. Oil expellers may be described as an extension of the screw press and ram press technology, which are designed to operate on a continuous basis. A rotating screw (or 'worm'), can be hand-driven at a very small scale, but most commonly it is motor driven. The screw pulls the raw material from a hopper into the barrel where the seed is broken down and pressure is gradually increased as it moves through the barrel. Oil passes through narrow slots in the barrel and press cake is discharged from the end. The barrel is slightly tapered and the pitch of the rotating screw gradually decreases towards the exit end of the cage. This design increases the pressure and shear forces on   Expellers may be operated in either a cold pressing or hot pressing mode.When used for cold pressing, the incoming seed is not pre-heated and the oil can command a premium price in specialised markets due to its superior flavour. The cake remaining after oil extraction may also be more valuable as a high quality animal feed or, depending on the type of crop, for human use (see Table 4.2). However, the amount of oil produced by cold pressing is lower than from hot pressing. Careful consideration is required of the economics of reduced yield versus the higher value of the oil and oilcake. When hot expelling, the raw material is heated to 60 -100 o C, which ruptures cells and so increases oil yields. However, hot expelling results in the presence of more gums in the oil, making it unsuitable for culinary use without further refining.The cake remaining after hot expelling may also have a lower value. One option is to link two expellers: the first produces high quality, high-value culinary oil by cold expelling. The cake is then fed to a second expeller for hot expelling to extract more oil.• The business operates from the owner's homestead. It is small and does not have much machinery. It has a small expeller that was imported from China. The machine was set up with a trial run by a local technician.Through experience, there have been quite a few modifications to the machine and other facilities to ensure that productivity is good. Current plans are to buy a complete oil mill that would expand production and improve operational efficiency, and possibly improve product quality.• The Company has two seed cleaners, six oil expellers each with the capacity to produce 1000 kg of cake per hour, five 500-litre oil tanks and a 500 kg per hour feed mill for poultry and animal feed production. Theyhave not had the need to install more storage tanks because most of the oil is produced to order.The crude oil extracted by flotation, pressing or expelling contains a suspension of fine pulp and fibre from the plant material with small quantities of water, gums, resins, colours and bacteria which make it darker and cloudy.Prior to sale, crude oil must be treated to remove these contaminants by clarifying the oil, either by allowing it to stand undisturbed for a few days and removing the upper layer, or by using a clarifier to produce a crystal clear product. It is also very important that all moisture is removed, as this will hasten the action of micro-organisms or naturally occurring enzymes that cause the development of rancidity and off-flavours (see Annex A -rancidity).At the simplest level, the oil is left to stand for several days in a tank fitted with a drain valve in the base. Water and cellular material (often known as foots) settle out. The foots are drained off and the oil is filtered through muslin or fine cotton bags. The bags should be sterilised after use by boiling for 10 -15 minutes and fully dried by hanging them in the air (not on the ground or on bushes). This simple gravity filtration is slow and is only suitable for micro-scale production.In small-scale oil production, a steel (or less desirably aluminium) pan is placed directly over a heater to remove water from the oil. The most appropriate type of heater depends on the cost and availability of different fuels in a particular area. In urban centres, gas or electricity are the preferred options because there is no risk of contamination of products by smoke or fumes. They also provide more controllable heating than pans over open fires. In rural areas, these may not be available or the electricity supply is not sufficiently reliable, and other types of fuel (e.g. charcoal or kerosene) may have to be considered.In palm oil processing, the waste material is often made into fuel (see Case Study 6.10). Generally, wood is not favoured because of the contribution to increased deforestation and the risk of product contamination by the ash. At a larger scale of operation, the oil may be treated in a clarifier that consists of a drum or tank heated by a heater or a fire. The oil is boiled, which drives off any water, and destroys enzymes and bacteria. The treated oil is then allowed to stand and the foots are removed, followed by filtration as described above.The use of a clarifier involves a considerable fire risk and it is very important that the drum has a lid to prevent the oil catching fire, but with a hole in the lid to allow steam to escape. A typical system is shown in Fig.  Hounhouigan)The oil is heated to boil off traces of water and destroy bacteria. When these impurities are removed the shelf life of oils can be extended from a few weeks to several months, provided proper storage conditions are used. Small-and medium-scale producers rarely fully refine their oils. The characteristic flavour and odour of traditionally made oils is preferred by local consumers in many cases. Large-scale producers carry out several stages of treatment to produce a standard oil that has a bland flavour, and is crystal clear with a long shelf life. Some or all of the following treatments are used:• Neutralising.• Bleaching.Other treatments, such as winterising, de-odourising and de-gumming are not used at a small scale because the technology is too complex and expensive.In larger operations, degumming is normally done using phosphoric acid or citric acid. Gums, proteins and trace metals precipitate out from the oil and are removed.Crude oils may contain free fatty acids (FFAs) that develop due to oxidation and result in off-flavours. The chemistry involved is described in more detail in Annex A. They are neutralised by adding a carefully controlled amount of caustic soda (or 'lye'). The amount added is critical: too little does not neutralise all FFAs and too much causes a loss of oil yield. Efficient neutralisation depends on accurately determining the amount of FFAs in the oil. This requires setting up a small laboratory or sending samples for analysis.The measurement of FFAs is described in Chapter 5, Section 5.7. After mixing the caustic soda thoroughly in the neutralisation tank, the mixture is allowed to stand and settle out. The water phase is drawn off from a valve in the base of the tank.Some oils that are too dark in colour can be bleached by the addition of small amounts of commercial bleaching earths or activated carbon powder. After bleaching the oil should be filtered.This chapter concludes by examining in greater detail oil extraction from the eleven crops that are most commonly processed by small-and mediumscale enterprises in ACP countries, namely: avocados, coconuts, groundnuts (peanuts), mustard seeds, olives, palm fruits, palm kernels, safflower seeds, sesame seeds, shea nuts and sunflower seeds.Avocado is also known as butter pear or alligator pear, or palta or aguacate in Spanish. This is a valuable crop that is cultivated in tropical and subtropical  To produce coconut oil, the fibrous husk is removed, the nut is then split and the white 'meat' is removed. It is either used fresh, or it is dried to make copra by sun-drying or using a simple copra kiln that is fired using coconut shells or husks. Fresh coconut meat has an oil content of 32 -35% with a moisture content of approximately 50%. After drying to copra the moisture content falls to 6 -9% with a consequent rise in oil content to 65 -70%. It is very important that copra is dried rapidly to a low moisture content to avoid mould growth and the risk of aflatoxin contamination. In addition slow drying would allow the development of free fatty acids, which means that the oil requires refining and neutralisation with caustic soda.Maximum yields are 9 tonnes of copra per ha, from which 6 tonnes of oil can be extracted. Coconut oil has a high percentage of saturated fatty acids, a high melting point (22 -26°C) and does not easily become rancid (see Annex A, rancidity for further details). It is used for cooking, for cakes and pastries and also to make high quality soap.Coconut oil can be made from finely-ground fresh coconut meat using a traditional hot water flotation method (Section 4.3). The oil is produced in this traditional way in the Pacific islands and in West Africa. Small hand graters are widely used to shred coconut (Fig. 4.12). It has been found that the size and shape of the serrated edge of the grater can have a considerable influence on oil yields, with finer particles producing higher oil yields. Small powered graters are used in many coconut-growing countries, often in local markets where the grated coconut is sold to customers for domestic use. The oil has a taste that is particularly preferred, but its shelf life may be less than oil produced using improved methods. A dozen or so small family-based cottage enterprises still produce oil. Mrs N explained the process that she had learned from her mother, who in turn was taught by her mother. Dry coconuts are split and the white meat is removed. This is grated on a locally made grater; a sheet of metal that has been punched with a pointed tool to provide a large number of sharp perforations. The grated coconut is then mixed with an equal volume of water and strained by squeezing it through the same grater to sieve out coarse particles. The liquid is left to stand overnight often with the addition of lime juice, which helps the oil to separate. The upper creamy, oil-rich layer is skimmed off and then boiled for an hour or more to remove all traces of water. When cool the oil is packaged into clean re-cycled 750ml rum bottles.Mrs N processes 100 coconuts per month to produce about 5 gallons (23 litres) of oil. The oil has a ready market with housewives who use it for cooking and salad dressings. Some of the oil is re-packaged into smaller bottles by traders for sale to tourists who recognise its beneficial effects as a skin lotion.•  Groundnuts can be stored safely when the relative humidity of the storage room is 60% or lower. One metric ton of unshelled nuts can produce around 265 kg of oil and 410 kg of oilcake. Groundnut oil is extracted either by pressing or at larger scale using expellers.When using screw presses, the nuts are first shelled, roasted (Fig.  The oil can be left standing for 3 or 4 days to allow small particles to settle or it can be filtered in a filter press (Section 4.4). Finally, the oil is heated to remove traces of water and contaminating micro-organisms.At larger scale, an expeller is used. Some groundnut shell needs to be added to the coarsely milled nuts in order to provide more frictional 'bite' to the revolving screw. This assists the passage of flour through the expeller and generates the required pressure.It should be noted that the cake remaining after pressing can have a high value as a food, whereas oilcake remaining after expelling is only suitable for animal feeds, due to the higher temperatures involved, which damage the quality of the cake.Mustard seed has long been used as a spice. Mustard plants (Fig. 4.17  Fruits range from 1 -2.5 cm in length depending upon the cultivar. They are either harvested green or left to ripen to a purple or black colour. Olive pulp contains 60 -70% oil depending on the cultivar. Typical yields are 1.5 -2 kg of oil per tree per year. Olive oil is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps. The oil has high levels of monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants such as vitamin E and carotenoids (Annex A). These properties are thought to contribute to its claimed health benefits.There are a number of recognised grades of olive oil which command different prices:• Extra-virgin olive oil is obtained from the fruit by pressing without the use of heat or chemical treatment. It should have a maximum FFA content of 1% and a high organoleptic score (colour and flavour measured using a taste panel).• Virgin olive oil is produced by pressing without the use of heat or chemical treatment. The organoleptic score is slightly lower and levels of 2% FFAs are allowed.• Refined olive oil -the oil has been chemically treated to remove strong flavours and neutralise FFAs. Refined oil is commonly regarded as lower quality than virgin oil. • Extra-virgin olive oil and virgin olive oil cannot contain any refined oil.• Olive oil -a blend of olive oil (85%) and virgin olive oil (15%). The olive oil component is refined and should have a maximum FFA content of 1.5%.• Light oil -not legally defined but contains a low % of virgin oil.• Olive pomace oil -oil extracted from the residual pomace by solvent extraction and blended with virgin olive oil.Olives must be treated with care when harvesting and not subjected to pressure, heat or bruising, and the use of shallow containers is recommended.Damaged fruit quickly starts to ferment, which results in defective oils. Fallen fruit, picked from the ground, should be regarded as second grade and processed separately. The fruit should be moved as quickly as possible to the mill to avoid fermentation. The fruit should also be kept as cool as possible.After sorting to remove defective fruits, stems, twigs and stones the olives are washed to remove sand or soil.Traditionally the fruits are ground in large stone roller mills. These consist of two or three heavy stone wheels which roll slowly around a granite bowl as shown in Fig. 4.18. Such mills are simple to use and maintain, release the oil in larger droplets and due to their slow action, which generates little frictional heat and produces oils with less bitterness. Stone mills are however costly to buy, difficult to clean, only work on a batch basis and have high labour costs. A hammer mill contains a series of swinging metal arms that pulverise the fruits. Disc and hammer mills have the advantage of greater throughput and lower labour requirements than stone mills. Both however generate more frictional heat that may affect the final oil quality, and both may produce an oil and water emulsion which makes the separation of oil more difficult. The next stage is slow mixing, often called 'malaxation'. The ground pulp is slowly mixed for 20 -40 minutes by a spiral blade that rotates in a horizontal trough. This allows minute droplets of oil to coalesce into larger drops. This is a vital step in the process and the time of mixing is very important: longer mixing times result in improved oil yield and flavour due to the pick up of minor flavour components by the oil. However, over-long mixing results in more oxidation that reduces the shelf life of the oil.The time used thus depends on the skill and experience of the mill owner.The ground olive paste is then pressed either in a screw press or more commonly in a hydraulic press. It is very important that good housekeeping rules are enforced to ensure that the press and all press mats are well cleaned to avoid the risk of rancidity in the pressed oil. The crude oil leaving the press contains water that must be removed. At a small scale this is done by simply allowing the mixture to stand in a tank. The water and vegetable matter settles out and can be removed. Increasingly, continuous centrifugal separators are now used. These are similar to cream separators used in small-scale dairies and the spinning action separates the lighter oil from the water. Finally, the olive oil is filtered using a filter press that removes any fine suspended matter. At large scale the pomace remaining after pressing is treated by solvent extraction to remove the final traces of oil, but this technology is not suitable for small producers.Oil palms have two main varieties: the African palm (E. guineensis) and the South American palm (E. oleifera). Both have been crossed to give a large number of hybrids. The plants need a temperature of 24 -28°C to grow and are therefore confined to the zone between rainforests and savannahs, or moist grasslands having annual rainfall of 1500 -3000 mm and a dry season not exceeding three months. These conditions are found between 13° north and 12° south of the equator and below altitudes of 50 metres above sea level. Wild oil palms begin to fruit after 10 years and do not give a full crop for about 20 years. Cultivated palms begin fruiting after four years, reaching their peak after 12 -15 years, and continue bearing fruit for 40 -50 years.The oil palm produces large, tightly-clustered bunches of fruits that may weigh up to 40 kg on mature palms. Each bunch can have up to 4000 eggshaped fruits, each 3 -5 cm long and 2.5 cm in diameter. The fruit consists of a thin skin, an orange/red pulp and a hard nut containing a single kernel.Three types of fruits are distinguished depending on the thickness of the shell around the kernel: aura has a shell thickness of 2 -8 mm, tenera 0.5 -3mm and pisifera, which has no shell. These are shown in Fig. 4.19. Wild and semi-wild trees are mainly of the aura type; high-yielding varieties are a cross between aura and pisifera and produce fruits of the tenera type. Oil palm fruits contain two distinct types of oil: red palm oil which is extracted from the fleshy fruit layer, (or mesocarp), and white palm kernel oil which is extracted from the kernel. Palm oil and palm kernel oil have very different chemical and physical properties and they are described separately in this section. The fruit pulp contains 40 -62% oil, and palm kernels contain 46 -48% oil, which is chemically similar to coconut oil. Yields are more than 6 tonnes/ha, which make the oil palm the highest-yielding oil plant. Typically, for tenera fruit, 100 kg of fresh fruit yields 21 kg of red palm oil and 6 kg of palm kernel oil. In West African oil palm growing countries, red palm oil is an important food ingredient, and the colour and taste of the oil from the traditional aura variety are preferred to those of the hybrid tenera variety. The taste of oil produced by traditional methods is also better preferred. In Benin, Cameroon and Nigeria about half the palm oil is produced in the traditional way, and in Ghana and Sierra Leone the amount is even higher at 70 -90%.Palm kernel oil is semi-solid in temperate climates due to its high level of saturated fatty acids (Annex A). The fatty acid composition means that it has a good resistance to oxidation and heat at prolonged high temperatures.This makes it an ideal oil for shallow or deep frying on its own, but it is not recommended for inclusion in deep frying oil blends because it causes foaming. The presence of natural anti-oxidants in the oil gives a longer shelf life to fried products. It is also used in shortenings (bakery fats) and for margarine and ice cream production. Palm oil and palm kernel oil can both be separated into a liquid 'olein' fraction and a more solid 'stearin' fraction by crystallisation at controlled temperatures, but this is a technology that is only suitable for large scale plants and is not small-scale operation.Palm oil is extracted from the fleshy fruit pulp around the kernel. It is generally recommended that the fruits should be processed within 24 hours of harvesting because fruit enzymes start to produce FFAs that reduce the commercial value of the oil. It is interesting to note, however, that smallscale producers in Ghana leave the fruits to ferment for several days before processing. The reasons for this are not clear; it may be the flavour imparted by FFAs is preferred or that separation of the flesh, using a pestle and mortar is easier.Crude, un-refined, palm oil is orange or red in colour due to its high ß-carotene content, which is a source of Vitamin A. This makes palm oil of considerable nutritional importance in those ACP countries where Vitamin A deficiency is prevalent.The processing of palm fruit involves:  After sterilisation, the fruits are stripped from the bunches. At a small scale, this is done by beating bunches with poles or by tumbling them in a revolving drum fitted with baffle plates. The next step in the process is to pound the fruit to break up oil bearing cells and help release the oil. At this stage the kernels are released and collected separately. At a small scale, pounding is carried out using heavy wooden pestles and mortars. This is extremely hard work, and motorised systems are now more commonly used (Fig. 4.21). These consist of a revolving cylinder with a shaft fitted with arms or hammers. An auger moves the fruit through the machine. Traditionally, extraction starts with shelling the nuts, which used to be done using stones or a pestle and mortar to crack the kernels. This has now largely been replaced by mechanical shelling using a palm kernel cracker (Fig. 4.22).With the exception of the diesel engine, all equipment in the factory was locally built by the Technology Consultancy Centre of the Kwame Nkrumah University. The main equipment is a manual press and a combined palm fruit digester and hydraulic press driven by a diesel engine. The process involves removing fruits from the bunch, sorting and boiling them, and feeding them to the combined digester and press to extract the oil. The oil is boiled with spices to enhance its taste and remove water. The fibre still contains some oil after digesting and pressing. It is covered with thick cloth for some days and then pressed using the manual press. This oil is of lower quality and it is sold to soap manufacturers. Palm kernels are processed using a kernel cracker to break the kernel. This is winnowed manually or separated with clay solution and the kernel is roasted and milled using a corn mill. The oil is extracted using a manual press.   The oil is also very stable due to the presence of natural antioxidants (Annex A).Oil is extracted from cleaned sesame seed either by hot water extraction at a micro-scale, by pressing or at a large scale using an expeller.   The fruits (Fig. 4.24) are spherical and 3 -5 cm long and have a thin shell enclosing a dark brown nut embedded in a sweet yellowish-green pulp. The nuts contain a butter-like yellow to ivory coloured edible fat known as shea butter. The average yield per tree is 15 -20 kg of fresh fruit. 100 kg of fresh fruits produce approximately 40kg of dry kernels containing 40 -54% fat.As well as being used as cooking oil, shea butter is widely used in traditional medicine as a decongestant, an anti-inflammatory and a healing salve. It is used as an alternative to cocoa butter in chocolate, and in cosmetics as a moisturising lotion for hair and skin and the main ingredient in traditional black soaps. In recent years there has been much interest in shea butter for cosmetics marketed under the Fair Trade banner.Typically, shea nuts are first washed several times in clean hot water to remove any mould growth. They are then sun dried and after drying any blackened nuts are removed as these may contain aflatoxins. The nuts are cracked and coarsely pulverised in a hammer mill. The crushed nuts are roasted in a pan for about 30 minutes, and after cooling for 10 -30 minutes they are milled, either by pounding in a pestle and mortar or more commonly using a mill.The resulting paste is mixed with cold water to give a smooth, uniform dough.More water is added and slowly the oil and water emulsion begins to break down and the fat rises to the surface. At this stage hot water is added which melts the fat and allows the oil to separate. Finally cold water is added, mixing is continued and the solid fat gathers on the surface and is removed. The crude shea butter is heated to boil off the remaining water and solid residues settle to the bottom of the pan. Finally the oil is filtered through a cloth filter.The butter is then placed in moulds where, after cooling, it solidifies into blocks. Shea butter is an important fat in Burkina Faso, Mali and some other West African countries, where its special taste is highly regarded.The application of expellers to shea butter production is being examined in Ghana for larger scale production. A quantity of shell has to be added to the powdered kernels to provide a 'frictional bite' to the expeller screw (see also groundnut processing). supported by international and local development agencies is a good example of a private industry/local community partnership helping to alleviate poverty. The improved system uses:• A mill, dedicated only to shea processing.• A mechanical nut cracker.• A motorised kneader.• A mechanical roaster.The same group of women, working the same hours, are now able to process 18 tonnes of nuts, yielding 6 tonnes of butter a month (an increase in butter yield to 33%). Their company now markets its shea butter mainly to the US and the project plans over the next year to disseminate the improved technology to many more groups of women eventually assisting up to 700 people in 35 communities.  Argan oil is produced from nuts of the Argan tree (Argania spinosa) that grow wild in semi-desert soil and once covered much of North Africa. They are now endangered and protected, and only grow in south-western Morocco.Because of this small and specific growing area, Argan oil is one of the rarest oils in the world. It has been used traditionally as culinary oil with a nutty taste and also in cosmetics, particularly as a treatment for skin diseases. The Sunflower seed from these areas is soft and with a good oil content.However, over the few years of operation there has been a serious problem with the quality of the seeds.kernels. Approximately 30 kg of nuts are sufficient to produce one litre of oil. Traditionally, the nuts are processed in a similar way to shea nuts, and at a small scale the kernels are roasted, ground and cold-pressed in mechanical presses. The roasting contributes to the distinctive nutty flavour of the oil.The residual thick brown paste has a flavour similar to peanut butter, and is sweetened and used as a dip with bread. Fruit residues are used as cattle feed and nut shells for heating.Castor (Ricinus communis) is indigenous to East Africa but has a worldwide distribution in warmer regions. Most cultivated varieties are short-lived dwarf annuals 60 -120 cm high, but a large proportion of castor seeds (also known as beans) on local markets in ACP countries is obtained from wild or semicultivated plants. Yields of castor beans are 0.5 -1 tonne per ha, but they have a high oil content (35 -55%) and are suitable for small-scale processing. The oil is used for a variety of technical purposes but not as a cooking oil because the seeds contain a highly toxic substance, ricin, which is lethal in amounts as small as half a grain of sand.Cotton seed (Gossypium sp) is a textile plant that is mainly cultivated for its lint. However, the seed contains 15 -25% oil and produces a protein-rich oilcake, which is used as a protein supplement for cattle. The relatively low oil content of the seeds requires solvent extraction and the costs of both solvent extraction and refining make this crop unsuitable for small-scale operation.Maize (Zeamays L or corn in USA) is a starch plant, but the high oil content of the germ allows maize oil to be a byproduct of the starch manufacturing industry, and it is extracted on an industrial scale using solvent extraction.Marula nuts are processed in a similar way to shea nuts or in screw presses, and produce Marula oil that has a light yellow colour and a nutty aroma. It is traditionally used in cosmetics, as cooking oil and as a meat preservative and is becoming more important commercially as a cooking oil in Southern Africa.Other less common oil yielding plants that are suitable for small-scale processing include a large number of wild plants that may have local importance in ACP countries, including:• Babassu (Orbignya oliefera) originating from Brazil, and Cohune (Orbignya cohune) from Central America, are palms that have kernels that contain 60% oil, which is similar to coconut oil.• Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) is cultivated for its fibre, but is also used as a spice and to produce oil for paints.• Neem (Melia azadirachta L.) has seeds that contain 45% oil, which is mainly used for soap and medicinal uses.• Niger seed (Guizotia abyssinica) is produced in India and Ethiopia and produces an edible oil.• Physic nut (Jatropha curcas or Purgier) has an oil that is mostly used for soap making.✔ Select the correct method of processing for your crop that produces oils that meet the consumers' requirements. The chapter describes methods for Argan, avocado, coconut, groundnut, mustard seed, olive, palm, palm kernel, safflower, sesame, shea butter, soybean, sunflower.✔ Decide whether to buy equipment from local engineering companies that can then repair or maintain it, or whether to buy imported equipment.✔ If buying second-hand equipment, check if spares are available.✔ Check suppliers and manufacturers websites for equipment manuals.✔ Train workers to operate oil extraction equipment safely and using the optimum conditions to extract the most oil.✔ Have a maintenance plan for equipment and make sure there are enough spares.   The following tips were provided by successful oil processors in ACP countries:✔ Consistency is the key to good product quality. Understand how to control the process to make consistent products. Know the control points in your process. ✔ Quality can only be achieved and maintained through hard work and commitment. ✔ Ask yourself, is this product good enough for my customers?✔ Do not compromise on the quality of raw materials.✔ Maintain your quality standards because once customers are lost, you cannot get them back. ✔ Know the potential risks to your product and make sure you have systems to reduce the risks as much as possible. ✔ Do not forget quality assurance in the storerooms and during distribution. ✔ Know the food laws and take advice to make sure you comply with them.✔ Teach staff to do simple checks on the quality of crops and products.✔ Properly clean the equipment and the processing room each day.✔ Personal hygiene should not be compromised. Provide clean uniforms, toilets and washing facilities.✔ Read Sections 4.1-4.3, 6.1-6.6 and 10.2 in Volume 1: Opportunities in Food Processing -Setting up and running a small food businessThe quality of cooking oil is important for several reasons: the oil must of course be safe to eat; it must meet legal standards; and it must also meet consumers' ideas of good quality and value for money. Quality is therefore one component of the marketing mix (Chapter 2, Section 2.4). Laws that relate to the quality of foods in general are described in Opportunities in Food Processing Volume I (Section 6.3). There are also specific laws for cooking oils that are described in Section 5.9. Producers who wish to export their products must have in place quality assurance systems that meet international standards. The quality standards for bottled oils for export are also higher than those for crude oil. The standards are described in detail by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Annex B) and details may be available from the government's export promotion or export development ministry or the Bureau of Standards.Both the consumers' view of quality and legal quality requirements mean that oils must be safe and made to the same standard time after time.To achieve this it is necessary to have a Quality Assurance (QA) system.Research for this book has shown that many small-scale oil processors do not have such a system in place; instead problems with quality are simply solved as they arise. This approach does not ensure consistent product quality, and any failures in processing may pass un-noticed and lead to faults in the product.It is much better to identify where problems might occur and have a QA system in place to prevent them before they arise, rather than trying to correct them afterwards. Not only will this ensure uniform quality products, but the producer also saves money and the image and reputation of the business are protected. This chapter describes the steps needed to set up a QA programme in an oil processing unit.The main quality factors for cooking oil are colour, clarity, taste/flavour and odour. Correct colour and clarity are mainly due to proper clarification after the oil has been extracted. The flavour and odour of oil depend on the type of raw material used and the extent of rancidity (see Annex A). Oil is also notorious for picking up foreign odours and flavours from materials stored nearby. The crude oil produced at a small scale is not usually refined to remove flavours and colours. It is therefore important to produce high quality oil that has no hint of rancidity or off-flavours and odours. This can be done by: 1. Control over raw material quality (buying good quality crops and storing them in a clean dry storeroom away from materials that could cause offflavours or odours).2. Control over processing (use crops on 'first-in-first-out' basis, only prepare enough crop for the day's production and do not store partly prepared crops, use correct processing conditions) and 3. Control over packaging and storage (clarify the oil as soon as possible and store it in clean containers, pack oil in containers that are clean and dry, fill containers as much as possible to limit the contact of oil with the air, store the oil in a cool dark storeroom).Many producers think of quality assurance as simply testing their products (which is quality control), but a QA programme is much wider than this and should include the following components:• Raw material inspection.• Process control and the correct operation of equipment.• Operator training and hygiene.• The condition of the building and routine cleaning programmes.• Product quality.• Correct fill weights and sealing of packs.• Control over storage and distribution.These are described in the following sections.• The following experiences of quality assurance were provided by oil processors in different countries:• The enterprise produces 500 litres of sunflower oil daily. The unit does not have a big laboratory, but is able to conduct simple tests and standardise the product quality to ensure that there is minimal variation in oil quality.• To ensure the quality of its oil, the enterprise receives assistance from the government supported programme for assistance to agriculture and its suppliers.• There is a small quality control lab at the factory. The oil they produce has an acceptable quality apart from a slight beany odour. Issues of quality control are not quite strong, but they are making efforts to improve the situation.• The mill has good prospects to enter a larger market if they continue to institute strict measures to ensure the quality and safety of products.• Quality assurance of raw material is based on elementary knowledge gained through experience and the training they got from technicians who installed the press.• The oil mill owners are eager to improve the quality of their product and have it certified by the national Bureau of Standards, a process they have initiated.• Quality assurance is their key word because the company produces for particular local and niche international markets that will not compromise on quality. Products for export into European countries are subjected to very strict European quality assurance.• \"We do not compromise on quality because that is our trademark\". Not only are they particular about the quality of the final product, but also about the quality of crops, water, packaging materials and the whole manufacturing process. \"We have our own laboratory where the quality of the crops and products are analysed and samples are also sent to independent laboratories\". Since the Standards Board also certifies them, they conduct random quality checks on products.• In the Pacific region, a consultant who provides training and support to small food processing enterprises said \"I make every effort to work towards Codex standards in each enterprise. I give a form to all processors There are many different types of QA systems, to ensure safety and quality, but the main one for small-scale oil processors is the HACCP system, which is outlined below. Others that are used by larger companies include Total Quality Management and ISO 22 000 systems and these are mentioned briefly below.In most ACP countries, the law requires that food processors produce safe foods in a hygienic way, and there are serious penalties for those who contravene hygiene and food safety legislation (see Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Sections 6.3-6.5). Heating the oil and the low water content of oil reduces the risk of bacterial food poisoning almost completely. The most important risk is from moulds that can grow on nuts or seeds that are not fully dried, which produce a poison called 'aflatoxin' (Annex A). The safety of cooking oils can be assured by using a management method known as the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. Many small-scale oil processors think that HACCP systems are not necessary, or not possible because they are too difficult or too expensive for them. However, in many ACP countries HACCP is demanded by the local Bureau of Standards or by institutional or commercial buyers of cooking oils. It is also required by most oil importers.Hazard analysis is used to identify anything in the oil production process that is potentially harmful. This includes ingredients, storage conditions, processing conditions packaging, and actions by staff that may affect product safety or quality. A HACCP plan allows potential hazards in a process to be identified, assessed, and controlled or eliminated. In oil processing, potential hazards include poisons such as aflatoxins in the oilseeds, pesticide residues or physical contaminants (such as dead or living insects, excreta, hair from rodents, metal fragments or glass) that if eaten could harm consumers. A HACCP plan sets the tolerances that are allowed for each hazard. It also defines the criteria that are to use as an aide memoir to set up formal cleaning procedures. We have also found that countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the west coast of the USA are tolerant to new processors even though they do not yet meet the Codex/HACCP codes\". needed for an acceptable product and the controls that are needed to achieve the required quality.The system is based on monitoring 'critical control points' (CCPs). These are points or stages in the process where a loss of control would result in an unacceptable risk to food safety or quality. The system also defines the actions that need to be taken when the results of checks on CCPs are outside pre-set limits (see Table 5.1). HACCP is used at each stage of an oil extraction process, and includes raw materials, processing, storage and distribution. Implementing a HACCP scheme involves the following stages:1. Identify the potential hazards that could threaten a consumer and assess the level of risk for each hazard (this assessment should be made by people who have a high degree of expertise and experience in oil processing).2. Identify the CCPs that are needed to control the hazards to assure safety. A 'Decision Tree' (Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Section 10.2) can be used to help decide on the CCPs.3. Devise target levels and limits for each CCP (Table 5.1).4. Establish procedures to monitor the CCPs, either using chemical tests or visual observations. 5. Decide the corrective actions that are needed when a result for a CCP is outside the limits.6. Finally the system should have procedures to verify that HACCP is working correctly and record-keeping procedures to document the system and review it.It should be clear who has the authority to make decisions in the HACCP scheme and who is responsible for checking that correct actions are taken and properly recorded. This is not just the responsibility of the owner or manager, and a QA system should be developed with the process workers so that everyone is clear about each other's role in the system (for example, in the absence of the owner, one staff member should have the authority to stop production in the case of a serious quality problem). Records should include for example, the frequency of testing and the criteria that show whether a product is satisfactory; cleaning procedures (what is cleaned, how and when it is cleaned, who cleans it and what with) and records of workers' illness or infections. Further details are given in references in Annex B.To develop a HACCP system, most small-scale oil processors need assistance and advice from professionals, including staff at a Bureau of Standards or a university food science department who have experience of the product and the process. This type of assistance can also be provided by some manufacturers' associations.To ensure that safe, high quality oils are consistently produced, the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) is used by larger companies in some ACP countries. The aim is to understand all aspects of the process, to put controls in place, monitor performance and measure the improvements. In outline, a TQM system covers the following areas:• Purchasing and control of raw materials (including crop specifications, auditing 3 suppliers, crop inspection, storage and stock control).• Process control (including critical control points in a HACCP scheme, hygienic design of the building and equipment to minimise contamination, cleaning schedules, recording production data, sampling and testing methods).• Premises (including methods of construction to minimise contamination, maintenance, waste disposal).• Personnel (including training in correct processing, personal hygiene, clothing and medical screening).• Product quality standards for non-safety quality issues, monitoring of quality before distribution (including types of inspection to check quality against specifications, packaging checks, what to do with sub-standard products or customer complaints).• Distribution (including methods to reduce damage to oils throughout the distribution chain, traceability to the day of production and product recall procedures).The benefits of a TQM system are more cost effective production (by 'getting it right first time'); reduction in wasted materials; consistently meeting customer needs, which results in increased customer confidence and sales and fewer customer complaints; improved machine efficiency and increased production capacity. The system also results in better trained staff and their heightened awareness and commitment to quality. It shows regulatory authorities that the producer has a commitment to high quality products.3 Audits are the regular systematic collection of information to monitor the ability of suppliers to meet agreed standards or delivery requirements.Larger-scale oil producers and those wishing to export their products should meet the international standard for food safety management systems (known as ISO 22 000), which was developed from an earlier standard (ISO 9001) in 2005. ISO 22 000 specifies the requirements for a food safety management system that include: 1) communication with customers and suppliers to ensure that all safety hazards are identified and controlled at each step in the supply chain; 2) management procedures that ensure effective safety systems are operated and incorporated into the overall management activities of the company; 3) the use of HACCP principles and prerequisite programmes (PRPs) that include good manufacturing practice, good hygiene practice and good distribution practice; and 4) proper environmental and waste management systems and health and safety in the working environment. Further details of TQM and ISO 22 000 are given in the references in Annex B.This section describes the quality checks that should be made on crops, and methods to prevent contamination. Crops should be harvested when fully mature, as they then contain most oil and it is more easily extracted. Underripe materials give a lower yield of oil and are more difficult to process.Over-ripe fruits are easily bruised and this allows enzyme action and bacterial growth, which reduces the oil yield and causes rancidity. Maturity is judged with experience, by the colour and size of the raw materials. Raw materials must also be in good condition because any deterioration leads to a rancid, unpleasant flavour in the oil. The processor should check that the crops are of the correct quality for processing and reject those that are not suitable. Case Study 5.4 shows an example of a quality specification for a crop.It is not possible to improve the quality of raw materials by processing them.Poor quality raw materials reduce the yield and quality of oils.The main contaminants found in oil-bearing crops are:• Foreign material (soil, weed seeds, stalks, stones, string, leaves, metal or glass etc.).• Infestation by dead or living insects, excreta, hair from rodents or feathers from birds.• Mould growth/aflatoxin production.• Chemical residues (e.g. insecticides, fertilisers).• Oil or grease from vehicles or machinery.Seeds and nuts in particular should be cleaned using a sieve to remove soil, sand and grit, which would not only contaminate the oil but also rapidly wear out the equipment. Leaves, stalks, seeds from other plants and stones should be picked out using an inspection table and small and/or lightweight contaminants are removed by winnowing. A well-designed QA programme prevents these contaminants from entering the crop or discovers and removes them before it is processed.Careful inspection by properly trained staff to sort out substandard materials before money is spent processing them is one of the most cost effective methods of ensuring a uniformly high quality in the final product.The more people that examine the raw materials the greater the level of control.Most small-scale processors buy their crops from farmers or local market traders, and therefore have little control over the way in which the crop is grown, harvested, stored or transported. Poor quality crops are one of the most common problems facing processors, especially immature crops or those that are contaminated. A great deal can be done to improve quality standards if processors discuss with farmers the quality they require in their crops and why this is important (see contracts with farmers in Chapter 6, Section 6.3).Contract arrangements with farmers allow greater control by processors over the quality of their raw materials.Transport operators are paid by the weight or volume of goods carried, and they do not suffer financially if the quality or safety of the crop is compromised.Crops are often transported with other non-food goods that may cause contamination by oil, grease, metal fragments or wood splinters. Crops can also easily absorb odours from kerosene or diesel fuel and fumes, and care should be taken to ensure that these materials do not come into contact with crops.However, the power of traders and middlemen sometimes makes it difficult for processors to introduce control measures, and a better option is for processors to collect crops directly from the farmers using their own vehicles. Alternatively, they should use contracted hauliers' vehicles that have been inspected to make sure that they are clean and well maintained (Case study 5.2). Most crops are loaded into sacks for ease of handling during transport, but the quality of reused sacks is often not checked and may be a source of contamination.Control over the quality of crop containers is part of a QA scheme, and it is preferable for processors to supply good quality sacks or field boxes for collecting crops, and possibly to employ a member of staff to check, fill and weigh containers on the farm at the time of collection.• The palm fruit bunches are harvested from their own plantation or they are purchased from neighbouring plantations. In the case of purchased bunches, the enterprise organises harvesting in collaboration with the owners to ensure that only fully ripened bunches are harvested. This ensures the quality of raw materials and hence the quality of the oil.• Their policy is to produce high quality oil and oilcake for human and animal consumption, and this requires good quality raw materials. The particularly if the processor is willing to offer a premium price for higher quality crops.In contract growing of crops, QA checks (in addition to the ones described above) can be used to ensure correct application of chemicals during in an ultra-modern analytical laboratory that is randomly checked by the Most crops must be harvested when they are fully mature to give the best yield of oil. Some farmers harvest their crops too early because they need to generate an income as soon as possible, or they fear theft from the fields.However, immature crops increase processing costs because of lower oil yields. The moisture content may also be too high because the crops are not properly dried, which again allows moulds to grow and risks contamination by aflatoxins. Additionally, mould growth on a few seeds or nuts can quickly lead to infection and loss of a whole batch. If possible, the processor should work with farmers as part of a contract arrangement to specify and/or supervise harvesting at the correct stage of maturity, and also control onfarm post-harvest processing to properly dry crops and to reduce the risk of contamination. During initial inspection of crops, it is important that the processing staff are trained to remove any discoloured or mouldy pieces as these are likely to contain aflatoxins and would also lead to off-flavours in the oil. They should also remove all leaves, insects and other materials that could contaminate the oilcake after oil has been removed. Processors may wish to draw up standards for the quality of their raw materials and an example using shea nuts is given in Case Study 5.3. This is likely to be more detailed than standards used by a small-scale processor, but it gives an indication of what can be included.The fat content should be 45% minimum.Total unsaponifiable matter should range between 1% -19%.Free fatty acid content should all not be more than 3%.Peroxide Value should not be more than 15 meq/kg fat.Aflatoxin content: 4µg/kg maximum. The kernels must be free from micro-organisms likely to develop under normal conditions of storage and free from substances produced by microorganisms in quantities sufficient to present health risks. Kernels shall not contain any substances originating from micro-organisms in amounts that may represent a health hazard. They should contain not more than 1 x 10 3 colonies for total viable count and not more than 1 x 10 2 colonies for yeast and mould count.The product should be picked, handled and packed in accordance with Good Agricultural Practices, CODEX CAC/RCP 6 (1972), recommended international code of hygienic practice for tree nuts; and CODEX CAC/RCP Packaging:Kernels must be packed in containers that preserve the hygienic, nutritional, technological and organoleptic qualities of the product. Containers mustThe different types of processing for oilseeds, nuts and oil-bearing fruits are described in Chapter 4. The stages of grinding seeds or nuts to a flour or pulping fruits require quality checks to ensure that uniform flour, pulp or pieces are prepared. For flours, the main QA control point is conditioning the flour by heating it with a small amount of water. The temperature and amount of water should be carefully controlled: if the temperature is too high, the material dries out and the oil can be damaged; if the material is too moist the oil yield is reduced. In practice, the checks are made by feeling the flour -it should not be too sticky (i.e. too wet) and it should not easily fall apart (i.e. too dry). This requires experience of the material by operators, and although be made from materials that do not transmit to the product any toxic substance, nor any odour or undesirable flavour.When kernels are packed in bags of jute or polypropylene, these must be clean, sound, free of insects and sufficiently strong and properly sewn or firmly sealed so as to ensure sufficient protection of the kernels during storage, handling and transport. The materials must be devoid of chemicals not acceptable in bags used for packaging food nuts.Bags should be labelled in conformity with the General Standard for the Labelling of Pre-packaged Foods (CODEX STAN 1-1985 (Rev. 1-1991)) in addition to the following specific provisions:Each bag of shea kernels shall be written or printed clearly and indelibly with a non toxic ink with the following information:• Product name: the product name should be 'shea kernel'.• Name and address of the producer and registered trade mark of producer or packer.• Net weight (kg).• Batch code.• Country of production.• Year and month of harvest.• Required storage conditions.this type of testing is subjective, experienced workers can be very accurate in their assessment. The material can also be checked by analysing the moisture content (Section 5.7).When processing using an expeller, the operating conditions (mainly A record should routinely be kept of the yield of oil from the process, and this should be compared to the yield that could be expected from a particular crop. Yield is calculated as follows:Yield of oil = Weight of oil extracted x 100Weight of crop processed Calculation of oil yield for production control is described in Chapter 6, Section 6.4 and Table 6.1, and examples of typical yields of oil from different crops are given in Table 6.2.• The oil is filtered and quality is assured through maintenance of cleanliness and regular checks to ensure that the filter press is in good condition.• Production of high quality oil is the hallmark of Mr K. He does this by ensuring the use of high quality crops and attention to detail during processing. For example, he makes sure that the expeller setting is correct and that the oil temperature is not too high during boiling to drive off the water.• There is no formal system in place to check the quality of the products, but workers ensure that raw materials are always in their best condition before processing.Once the oil is extracted and processed, it should be packaged in suitable containers. In view of the factors that cause rancidity described in Annex A, and the need to contain the oil without leakage, suitable containers for oil include: 1) fully-sealed glass or plastic bottles, preferably made from coloured glass or plastic, or clear bottles that are kept in the dark using a cardboard box; 2) metal oil cans, where the metal is tin-coated to prevent oil from reaching the iron of the can; or 3) glazed ceramic pots that are sealed with a cork and wax stopper. Plastic bags should only be used for temporary packaging (e.g. to allow consumers to carry oil to their homes).Care should be taken to properly clean oil containers if they are reused. A film of old, rancid oil on the inside of an empty container quickly makes fresh oil go rancid. The containers should be properly dried after cleaning to remove all traces of moisture. If correct packaging and storage conditions are not used the shelf life of the oil is reduced from many months to as little as a few days or weeks.Oilcake should be dried to prevent mould growth and stored in a cool dark place to prevent rancidity of the oil remaining in the cake. It should be protected from insect and rodent attack using the same methods as those used for the raw material.It is essential that the building is correctly constructed (see Chapter 3, Section 3.2 and Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Section 5.1). Routine monthly inspections should be made to ensure that floors and walls have not developed cracks, and that windows and ceiling panels are intact and in place.This should be part of the job description for a member of staff, who should tick off each check against a written checklist. A supervisor or owner/manager should ensure that the checks are done properly.Good sanitation in an oil processing unit and good hygiene by operators are essential to produce high quality oils. QA procedures include proper cleaning of equipment and processing rooms, washing hands, and removal of wastes as they are produced. Together, a manager and processing staff should develop a cleaning plan and personal hygiene rules that ensure safe production. The law in some ACP countries requires processors to monitor the health of workers. If staff report a stomach illness or skin infection, it is important not to penalise them, otherwise they will hide a problem in order to be paid. They should be transferred to other jobs that do not allow direct contact with the raw material or the product (see also Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Section 10.3).The manager should make sure that all staff are trained and know their own hygiene and cleaning responsibilities. There should be sufficient cleaning materials and equipment, and sufficient time for staff to properly clean machinery and processing areas after production has finished. Cleaning schedules should be drawn up and workers should know their cleaning responsibilities within a cleaning plan and the manager should take overall responsibility to ensure that cleaning is done to the correct standard. If animal or insect infestation is found it should be treated immediately using traps or approved poisons, but the best approach is to prevent infestation from occurring by proper cleaning. Care should be taken to ensure that recesses behind machines, ledges and window sills are also properly cleaned. Using brightly coloured brooms, brushes and cleaning cloths ensures that bristles or cloth fragments can be seen and removed easily, thereby preventing contamination of the product or oilcake.Cleaning should not be regarded as something done as quickly as possible at the end of the day. It should be a planned and costed activity.Where by-products are to be sold, they should be collected and stored in a separate storeroom (Fig. 3.1). If they are not sold, by-products and any wastes should be placed in bins with lids and not piled on the floor. Processors should have a management system in place to remove them from the building as they are produced, rather than letting them accumulate during the day. These materials should never be left in a processing room overnight.QA systems should be developed to monitor the types and amounts of crops, product, and packaging materials that are in storage and the time that they remain in storage. Records kept by storekeepers are described in Chapter 6, Section 6.8.Stores should be cool, dry, regularly cleaned and protected against insects and rodents. Mobile racks or steel shelving are easy to inspect and assist stock rotation.Correct stock rotation is needed to maintain the quality of materials and prevent unnecessary wastage due to deterioration of crops and to maximise profits. Weekly checks should be made on both products and raw materials. Stock rotation of products is easier to operate using date coding, and in most ACP countries oils legally require a 'best before' date (see Section 5.8). Producers can also use a date stamp on packages to identify the date of production. Control of product quality does not end when the product leaves the processing unit and manufacturers should monitor and control the distribution methods to retailers and discuss with them the best ways of storing and displaying the products.The quality of crops and oils can be assessed by sensory methods (observation or tasting), or by chemical tests. For crops the sensory methods include assessing the hardness of oilseeds to see how dry they are and visually checking for mould growth. For oils the sensory quality can be assessed by examining the oil for clarity, checking the colour against colour charts to make sure it is within the correct range, and tasting the oil to detect any off-flavours, rancid taste, or to ensure that it has the required characteristic flavour. Details of methods that are used to do controlled sensory analyses are given in references in Annex B.The following chemical tests are suitable for small-scale processors because:• They are relatively simple to use.• They are sufficiently accurate for QA purposes.• They do not require sophisticated or expensive equipment.• They do not require a high level of skill.• They are relatively inexpensive.Measurement of the moisture content of oilseeds or nuts is useful to ensure that they are within the correct range for extracting the maximum yield of oil. It is measured by drying a known weight of finely ground or chopped crop until it does not lose any more weight. The test requires accurate scales, a thermostatically controlled oven and a laboratory desiccator. The method is as follows:1. Accurately weigh (to +/-0.001 g) three 2 g samples into small dishes and place them in an oven at 104-105 o C for one hour 2. Remove, put into a desiccator to cool and re-weigh Although there are test kits for aflatoxins that are available commercially, they are expensive and require some scientific knowledge to use them properly.Small-scale processors should therefore periodically send samples of crops to a laboratory for aflatoxin analysis. For routine QA to screen for the presence of aflatoxins in crops, a hand-held ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 365 nm can be used to scan nuts and seeds. Any that contain aflatoxins glow with a greenish-gold fluorescence under the light. The lights are available at a reasonable cost. However, this is not an analytical method for detecting aflatoxins because the compound that produces the light is actually kojic acid rather than aflatoxin. So while the method is useful for screening crops because it will show if aflatoxin is present, it should be noted that fluorescence can also occur if there is no aflatoxin present (a 'false positive' result).This test is a measure of the development of rancidity in oils, and can be used to assess whether the oil is fresh or too old. There is a chemical method to measure free fatty acids (FFAs) that is relatively simple once a person has been trained to use it. It requires basic laboratory equipment and access to some specialist chemical reagents. If the skills, equipment or reagents are not available, the processor should send a sample of the oil to a commercial or government laboratory and request to have an Acid Value test done.The laboratory equipment required is as follows: a 25 ml pipette, a 1 -2 ml pipette, a pH meter or pH test-strips, an accurate measuring scale (+/-0.01g), a 50 -100 ml burette and two or three 100 -200 ml glass beakers and flasks. Procedure 1. Mix 25 ml of diethyl ether with 25 ml of ethanol and 1 ml of 1% phenolphthalein solution.2. Neutralise the solution with 0.1 M sodium hydroxide.  The method is as follows:Precaution: the test solution is dilute acid, which causes skin irritation.Gloves must be worn to do the test.1. Add a small amount of solid reagent to a test bottle using a plastic spoon and add 2 drops of reagent solution using a plastic dropper. Swirl to dissolve completely.2. Add 1 ml of cooking oil using a plastic dropper and add 4 ml of test reagent solution using a third plastic dropper. Close the bottle and shake for 1 minute.3. Add 4 ml of the next test solution using a dropper and then add 2 drops of solution to develop a colour change (mixed liquid is dark blue). Close and shake the bottle up and down 10 times.4. Add 0.5 ml of the final test solution using a syringe, close and shake the bottle up and down 10 times, and observe the colour. If it changes to a turbid, white colour, stop the test and read the result (N o 1 in Table 5 The method needed to measure moisture content of oils is not suitable for use by small-scale processors and samples should be sent to a laboratory with a request for their moisture content determination using the Karl Fischer method. A simple check for moisture is to splash some oil onto a hot-plate. If it spits, there is moisture present.There are a number of other types of analysis that can be done on cooking oils, and overseas oil importers might request these. They include the density and refractive index of the oil, its melting point, colour, Iodine Value, Saponification Value, Hydroxyl Value and a measurement of unsaponifiable matter (Table 5.5). None of these tests are suitable for small-scale processors to do themselves and if they are required, samples should be sent to a reputable analytical laboratory for them to be done.Long-term preservation of cooking oils depends on preventing rancidity by controlling the amount of air, heat and light that can come into contact with the oil during storage. The type of package that is used and the conditions of storage and distribution/display are the main factors that are used to give the required shelf life. It is important that packaging, storage and distribution are each included in a QA system.Glass bottles, preferably coloured glass that is sealed with an airtight cap, are the preferred containers for cooking oils. Glass bottles may contain splinters, cracks, or bubbles in the glass, or strings of glass across the interior. They therefore need checking more carefully than other types of packaging to prevent these defects causing serious harm to consumers. Staff who check bottles should be fully trained to look for faults and they should only work at inspection for 30-60 minutes at a time to maintain their concentration.The dimensions of glass bottles are also more variable than other types of packaging and it is important to check that containers have the correct capacity and that the neck is properly formed to allow the cap to fit. It is also necessary to find the heaviest empty container to use in check-weighing. If bottles are re-used, they should be thoroughly washed and completely dried, and inspected by visually inspecting them and smelling them to ensure that they do not contain any residues, before filling with oil. Glass is a foreign body hazard. A glass breakages procedure should be devised as part of a QA plan to manage breakages effectively and provide assurance that no glass fragments can enter the product.The check-weight is the weight of the heaviest container plus the weight of oil when the bottle is filled. In most ACP countries it is an offence to sell an under-weight or undervolume product, and over-filling the bottles means that a producer is giving product away. The capacity of a bottle can be found by weighing a dried container, filling it with distilled water and re-weighing it. The difference in weight is equivalent to the capacity in millilitres of water. However, because oil is sold by volume, the check-weight needs to be converted to volume using the density of the oil. The density of oil can be measured using a hydrometer (Fig. 5.Note: the density of oil varies with each type of oil and the temperature at which the density is measured. The range is from 0.91 to 0.93 g/ml at temperatures of 15 -25°C, compared to water, which has a density of 1.00 g/ml. It is therefore important that the readings taken using a hydrometer are all at the same constant temperature. Ideally, the temperature of the oil should be controlled by immersing the sample container in a thermostatically controlled water bath.Oil has a lower density than water and the volume of oil should be calculated as shown in Table 5.3. During production a random sample of bottles should be checked for fillweight using a check-weighing scale (see also Opportunities in Food Processing Volume I, Section 6.6). At the same time the label should be checked to ensure that it matches the product inside, and that the use-by date and batch code numbers are correct.Lower cost alternatives to glass are plastic bottles but these should not be re-used. There are fewer potential quality problems with plastic bottles, and routine QA checks are mainly to make sure that they contain no foreign bodies, such as insects or dirt. Some micro-scale producers sell oil in polyethylene bags, but these do not offer protection to the oil against light, heat or air and can only provide a short shelf life. They are acceptable for small quantities of oil that will be used by the consumer within a few days, but they are not suitable for distribution and retail display. Apart from visual examination, the procedures and equipment for testing plastic films are likely to be too expensive for most small processors and for the majority of faults the only remedy is to return the film to the supplier. Further information can be found in packaging textbooks described in the bibliography (Annex B).Value is added to the oil at each stage of processing and a product has gained most of its final value by the time it is packaged. Any losses of packaged product cause the greatest financial loss to the processor. Great care should therefore be taken in handling packaged oils.Oil may be stored in bulk containers away from light and sources of odours, but it is advisable to pack it in retail containers as soon as possible so that it does not deteriorate before it goes on sale. Bottles of oil should be stored in lightproof cardboard boxes on pallets in a storeroom. The storeroom should be cool and dark with a good ventilation to maintain a flow of air and with protection against insects and rodents. The cardboard boxes also protect bottles of oil from damage during transport, when they are distributed to sales outlets. Checks should be made to ensure that retailers and other customers sell the oil before its 'best-before' date.In most ACP countries there are laws governing the setting up, registration and operation of food processing businesses, including oil mills. Failure to follow the law may lead to punishment by the authorities or forced closure of the business. However, legal requirements vary in different countries, and the information below is given for guidance only. Cooking oils are defined by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as follows:Edible vegetable oils are foods that are obtained only from vegetable sources.Virgin oils are obtained, without altering the nature of the oil, by mechanical procedures, (e.g. expelling or pressing), and the application of heat only. They may have been purified by washing with water, settling, filtering and centrifuging only.Cold pressed oils are obtained, without altering the oil, by mechanical procedures only, (e.g. expelling or pressing), without the application of heat. They may have been purified by washing with water, settling, filtering and centrifuging only.Oils have voluntary compositional standards defined by the CAC, which may be used by commercial buyers to specify the quality required (Table 5.4). Alternatively the chemical and physical characteristics of oils may be used by larger buyers to specify quality (Table 5.5). In both cases, the tests required to make these measurements are not suitable for small-scale oil processors to perform in the factory and the tests should be done at a university or commercial laboratory. The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) reference number for each test is shown in Tables 5.4 and 5.5 so that this can be specified when ordering tests to be done by the laboratory.The colour, odour and taste of each product should be characteristic of the oil, and be free from foreign or rancid odours and tastes.Matter In most ACP countries, the Bureau of Standards or the equivalent organisation produces lists of permitted colours, stabilisers, preservatives and other additives that can be added to foods. Any chemical that is not on these lists cannot be used. There are also maximum levels set for each additive in specific foods and lists of foods that are able to contain specified preservatives. The only additives that can be added to cooking oils are permitted colours and antioxidants to reduce rancidity and extend the shelf life. The permitted levels of different types of antioxidant are shown in Table 5.6. However:There is no reason for small-scale oil processors to include colours or antioxidants in their products if they are produced correctly. Contaminants, including herbicides, pesticides, other agri-chemicals and poisonous metals such as arsenic and lead, have maximum permitted levels in specified foods. Copper and iron promote rancidity and have maximum levels in oils that are intended for export (Table 5.4) and some ACP countries may also apply these to locally sold products.When prosecutions of food companies are analysed, a large percentage often relate to 'technical' breaches of the law because a label is incorrectly designed. It is therefore in the processor's interest to involve the local Bureau of Standards or other appropriate body at an early stage of label design.This avoids problems with prosecution and expensive re-design after labels have been printed. There are general labelling requirements that describe the information that must be included on a label (Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Section 6.4), but in many countries there are also very detailed laws concerning some or all of the following aspects:• The use of words such as best before and sell by• Positioning of the name of the food, the best-before or sell-by date and the net weight (they must all be in the same field of vision when a customer looks at the label)• Visibility of information and the ability of customers to understand it (including the relative print sizes of different information)• Claims and misleading descriptions, especially about health-giving or tonic properties, nutritional advantages, diabetic or other medicinal claims• Specifications of the way in which certain words, such as flavour, fresh, vitamin etc., can be used. This is a complex area and professional advice should be sought from graphic designers who are experienced in label design, or from a Bureau of Standards or other appropriate organisations.This legislation aims to protect customers from being cheated by unscrupulous manufacturers (e.g. being sold underweight packs of food). The laws require the amount of food that is declared on the label as the net weight (the weight or volume of product in a pack) to be the same as that which is actually in the pack. However, it is recognised that not every pack can be filled with exactly the specified weight or volume because both machine-filling and hand-filling of containers creates some variability. There is therefore 'Average Weight' legislation that allows some variability in weights or volumes within specified limits, and processors should check with the Bureau of Standards to see whether this is in force in their country. If it is not, all bottles should be slightly over-filled (e.g. by 1%) to ensure that there is no risk of prosecution.A label can be used to make claims about the health benefits of a food, but such claims are illegal if there is a risk that they could give false or misleading information. Nutrition information on a label may also include a list of vitamins, but claims that are not allowed include those that say a food is 'wholesome', 'healthy', or can 'cure disease'. Packaged oils should show the name and address of the producer, and the type of product on the label. A date mark (use-by date) is required if products are expected to have a shelf life of less than 12 months.Laws relating to food production premises and the staff who handle foods are among the most widely enforced in most ACP countries. Guidelines on the design and construction of premises and hygiene of operators should be consulted before submitting a new processing facility for inspection and certification. These guidelines should be rigorously enforced to ensure that safe, high quality products are produced. In summary the laws are concerned with the following aspects of health, hygiene and sanitation:• Processing that is carried out in unsanitary conditions or where food is exposed to the risk of contamination• Equipment (which must be able to be cleaned and kept clean)• Persons handling food and their responsibilities to protect it from contamination should be defined The Codex standards for storage and distribution of oils (Table 5.7) are advisory, but they are a sensible standard for oil processors to aim for. There is no legislation in most countries on the conditions for storing and transporting oils, but it is in the oil processors' interest to maintain temperatures as low as possible, without using refrigeration, and to store the oil away from sources of odours.  ✔ Check all raw materials to ensure they have the required quality.✔ dentify control points in your process to assure product quality. Do not forget storage and distribution.✔ Develop routine cleaning programmes and ensure they are properly done.✔ Develop routine methods to assess product quality. Decide which ones can be done at the oil mill and which ones need to be done at a laboratory. ✔ Know the laws that affect your products.✔ Ensure that production methods are suitable for making products that are legal.✔ Make sure your labelling meets legal requirements.✔ Seek advice from the Bureau of Standards or similar organisation if you are not sure on any aspect of quality assurance.  The following tips were provided by successful oil processors in ACP countries:✔ Start small, get the experience and capital and then expand.✔ Use only good quality raw materials.✔ Be ready to delegate duties to others and play a supervisory role.✔ Build good relationships with your staff.✔ Employ skilled workers or train your staff to bring them up to standard.✔ Make workers feel part of a team, they will be more responsible, and pay Opportunities in Food Processing -Setting up and running a small food businessOil processing can be a highly competitive business, and good production planning and management are needed to control product costs, maintain output and increase profitability (see also Chapter 7, Section 7.2). The main considerations in production planning are:1. Calculating the required production rate to meet the anticipated demand for oil.2. Finding sufficient amounts of raw materials that have an acceptable quality and price to meet production requirements. Planning is essential, not only when a business is being set up, but also for daily operation.Good production planning makes the best use of people, materials and equipment.It also helps the entrepreneur to:• Think ahead about the business to prevent problems arising during its operation.• Avoid 'bottlenecks' in the process, or running out of raw materials or packaging.• Predict the growth of the business and decide what actions are needed to increase production to achieve it.• Know if the production plan will allow a business to make profits in the future. Some small-scale oil processors fail to adequately plan their production. As a result, production may have to stop because of a lack of spare parts to fix a broken machine, or running out of labels or bottles. In the authors' experience, these failures in production planning are the most important reason for a business to operate below its expected capacity, which can have serious consequences for profitability. For example, the following sequence of events can take place:• Production stoppages cause low production rates, which mean that the fixed costs (see Chapter 7, Section 7.1) become a relatively large proportion of total costs.• The business simply does not make enough products, and hence does not receive sufficient income, to cover fixed costs and make a profit, or even to pay the bills (i.e. production falls below the break-even point (Chapter 7, Section 7.3).• The producer may react by increasing the price for products to generate more income -but the product then becomes over-priced and uncompetitive.• In extreme circumstances the producer reaches credit limits with suppliers, who refuse to supply inputs, and the business fails.The questions below illustrate some of the planning decisions that need to be taken in an oil processing business to prevent these types of problems and maintain production above the break-even point.1. What are the expected sales for next week or month? 2. What production will be needed to meet the expected orders? 3. Are enough stocks of raw materials and packaging available for next week's or next month's production and are they of the correct quality? 4. Are the equipment and utilities ready for the expected production levels? 5. Are enough trained workers going to be available, or should extra workers be hired for the week? Each of these aspects is described in more detail below.Sales people gather orders from customers, and the manager should ensure that they discuss with production staff the amounts of oil required each week to meet the orders. Then production staff draw up a production plan showing how much product should be made during the next few days or weeks. The production manager can then arrange for the necessary amounts of crops, packaging and labour to be available to meet the orders (Fig. 6.1). Clearly, the more notice that can be given of anticipated sales, the easier it is to plan the production.This process not only allows managers to plan the production levels for the near future, but also to monitor long-term trends. Sales staff should discuss the popularity of products with retailers and customers (see market surveys (Chapter 2, Section 2.3)), to find out whether demand for a product is increasing or decreasing. By doing this, they can get an idea of future sales trends. This type of information allows the owner or manager to draw up long-term production plans to cope with expected changes in demand -e.g. by investing in larger equipment to allow higher production rates.The need to secure a supply of raw materials, often for a full year's production, can be a significant problem, and is always a large investment by an oil processor. It may require careful negotiations with farmers or other crop suppliers, such as cooperative marketing agencies, parastatal organisations or seed merchants. Ideally, there should be strong, trusting relationships between suppliers and oil processors, which bring a number of benefits to each:• There is reduced uncertainty in both the costs to the processor and income for the farmers.• Reduced buying costs, compared to buying from wholesale markets (or for micro-scale producers, from retail markets).• Better production planning and cash flow management because of guaranteed raw material supplies, which may sometimes be paid for in instalments as they are used throughout the year.• Better understanding by farmers of processors' quality requirements to give an assured supply of high quality raw materials.• Increased incomes to farmers from guaranteed sales of crops.The most important component of any agreement with farmers is the price offered by the processor for the crops. A number of arrangements are possible:for example, in contract growing schemes, the processor sets a fixed price and the farmers have a guaranteed income. However, under this type of contract farmers do not benefit if the market price rises. If prices rise, farmers may renege on an agreement and sell their crop to the highest bidder. In contract processing schemes, the processor buys a proportion of the crop at a fixed price and the remainder belongs to the farmer. This places the risk with the farmers (they may not be able to sell their crop), but it also gives them the opportunity to get the full market price for part of their crop. It may be necessary for a processor to have this type of agreement with several farmers to be able to obtain enough crops for the required production level.For any type of agreement to be effective, both parties must keep their side of the arrangement, and this requires a high level of trust and understanding • Mr and Mrs M grow at least 20% of their own sunflower seeds that are needed and with other purchases there is adequate supply of sunflower for the enterprise.• Due to financial constraints, it is quite burdensome to keep a stock of seeds.Therefore the effect of fluctuating prices during the year could sometimes increase production costs substantially. Future arrangements may involve farmer contracts to ensure that the crops have a more average price that will not be painful to the enterprises, but will also give the assurance of sustainable supply.• (In Malawi) operating at a level of 10 batches per day, 106 kg/day of groundnuts are needed, and assuming a 5-day week and year-round processing, the annual requirement will be 25,440 kg of crop. The supply of raw material and the market for the product are the two key factors involving external players that are critical to the success of the enterprise.All efforts should be made to have some degree of control over the supply of raw materials, by agreeing a supply contract so that groundnuts can be purchased monthly. Groundnuts are harvested once a year and if a whole year's supply has to be purchased at one time, then a larger loan will be needed which may make the business unprofitable. An accessible supply throughout the year, either from smallholder farmers or a centralised marketing agency, is preferable. But it is essential to obtain an agreement to secure regular supplies before starting the enterprise. (From Potts and Machell (1993) in Annex B)• The main raw material is sunflower seeds that are purchased locally. They prefer the soft black varieties, which are rich in oil and easy to extract. Seeds are procured packed in jute or sisal bags.• The company has the capacity to produce a number of oils from seeds and nuts and has a big export market, with possibility of expansion on its 4.5 acres if land. Its main weakness is the low asset base, which makes it difficult to stock up on raw materials for many months' production.• Procurement of both raw materials and packaging materials is done on a need basis. There are no contractual arrangements as yet.• The enterprise uses sunflower seed of high quality from Dodoma, Singida and Iringa. This is the reason for producing high quality oil. Nonetheless, availability of sunflower seeds is limited and this contributes to the low capacity utilisation of the facility.• According to the owner, the ability to identify quality raw materials is his main strength and the sunflower variety Serene is the most sought after as it is rich in oil.• The seeds are supplied in 60-70 kg bags and on average each bag yields 18 litres of filtered oil.• The enterprise produces 25 barrels (5000 litres) of palm oil per day during periods of high production. During this harvest season the fruits ripen quickly, hence the high levels of oil production. After this period production falls gradually and in this period of downtime in the rainy season the enterprise produces food crops (maize, cowpea, groundnuts, cassava).• There are no contract agreements with suppliers of raw materials.Processors visit nearby villages to purchase palm fruit bunches. The company processes all varieties of oil palm but prefers palm fruits that have small kernels that give the highest yield of oil.The main packaging options for cooking oil are glass or plastic bottles (PET with polythene caps) for retail sales, metal cans or drums for wholesale or institutional customers, or plastic bags at a micro-scale of production (see also Chapter 2, Section 2.5). This is reflected in the costs of packaging that were reported by processors who were interviewed for this book: some reported packaging costs to be as low as 5% of total production costs, whereas others reported the cost to be 20-30%. In many ACP countries there are difficulties in securing reliable supplies of packaging materials. To overcome this some processors keep large amounts of stock to protect themselves against failure in supplies that would lead to production stoppages. These large expenditures may cause cash flow difficulties because cash is tied up while stock that has already been paid for is waiting to be used. Smaller enterprises may buy packaging materials in small quantities more regularly to overcome cash flow problems. However, this is a more expensive way of buying than bulk buying.There is also a constant risk of production stoppages if a supplier runs out of materials and stocks cannot be quickly replaced. The problem of how much stock to hold can be partly addressed by adequate financing that is available in phases to meet planned shortfalls in cash flow, and by periodically buying materials in bulk. • The filtered oil is packed in plastic 'gallons' and the press cake is packed in sisal or polysacks. The latter are normally reused bags.• Packaging is a big headache and they have tried to get special plastic oil bottles but there are no local suppliers. They have also tried to import directly but the minimum order is too large. Instead they now use plastic drinks bottles, which are attractive with the new label they have designed.There are two factors that control the amount of oil that can be produced each day to meet the sales demand: the production rate (or throughput) of the equipment or process, and the yield of oil.Throughput is the amount of crop processed per hour.Yield is the amount of oil extracted per kg of crop.The throughput determines the time required to process a given weight of crop, and it depends mainly on the size of the equipment (Chapter 3, Section 3.4) and the efficiency of work organisation. When planning the process, it is necessary to calculate the capacity of each piece of equipment needed to achieve the planned production rate. Decisions include whether to buy a single large machine or several smaller ones to achieve the planned capacity. The production rate also depends on the yield of oil from the crop. The method for calculating the yield is shown in Table 6.1. Typical yields of oil from different crops are shown in Table 6.2, but processors should conduct trials Using shea nut as an example, the yield of shea butter (kg of fat extracted per kg crop x 100) is either 15-45% using traditional methods of extraction or around 60% using improved methods (Table 6. with their own equipment and procedures to find the range of oil yields that they can expect to get. Knowing the yield, the data from production trials then allows processors to calculate the amount of crop that should be used each day to meet target sales of oil. The method is shown in Table 6    The figure for the production rate is important in all subsequent planning.Every effort should be made to ensure that it is as accurate as possible by checking all assumptions carefully. In particular, the number of assumed working days may fall if there are regular power failures or other production stoppages.The production rate is also used to decide the number of packages that are required each day, the number of workers and their different jobs. Using shea butter packed into 100g packages as an example, the number of packs required per day is found as follows:Amount produced (kg) = 21.5 = 215 packs Net weight in pack (kg) 0.1These calculations are used to see whether it is possible to extract and package sufficient oil with the available staff in the time required, whether it is possible to build up stocks of products (e.g. by the operation of more shifts to meet any increase in demand), or whether it is necessary to employ more staff to meet the anticipated demand.The mill is able to process 40 bags of sunflower seed per day. This yields about 800 litres of oil.The plant is able to produce 360 litres a day through a single shift.The enterprise produces 100 litres of palm oil per day during periods of high production when the fruits ripen quickly. After this the production falls gradually. During the period of downtime which is the rainy season, the enterprise devotes its time to other food crops and the production of palm wine.They have very large storage facilities for both seeds/nuts and spent cake.The store can hold over 3,000 hundred kilo bags of groundnuts and other oilseeds as well as thousands of bags of spent cake. The company also has eight 500-litre oil tanks.Nearly all oil processing results in losses of material. Different types of oilbearing fruits, seeds and nuts have different levels of wastage and it is necessary for an entrepreneur to do trials to calculate the actual amount of wastage experienced with the particular crop varieties and with the particular processes that are being used. Since losses have a significant effect on the total cost of production, they should be monitored and the process should be managed to ensure that they are as low as possible.The main ways in which losses can be reduced include contracts with reliable suppliers to ensure low levels of poor quality raw materials, and well-managed production using trained staff and quality assurance procedures to reduce wastage. This is especially important during later stages of processing when the extracted oil has a high added value. Feedback from small-scale oil processors shows that raw material costs represent a significant proportion of total production costs (mostly between 50-80% although some producers reported 10-30%). Raw material costs therefore have a significant effect on the profitability of the business. It is important to ensure that materials are checked for the correct quality and quantity upon delivery. Details of quality assurance checks are given in Chapter 5, Section 5.4.Most crops are purchased from suppliers either fresh (e.g. palm fruits, olives or coconuts) or already dried (oilseeds and nuts). Therefore the processor knows the weight of crop (minus any losses) that is available for processing.An exception is where a processor buys fresh crops and dries them for storage.For example, coconuts are often bought fresh and dried to make copra for later processing. The amount of dried crop can be calculated using the method shown in Table 6.4.Solids content (100 -moisture content) (%)Coconut before drying 50 45 55 27.5 (55% of 50 kg) After drying there is no loss of solids (only water is removed) and the moisture content has been reduced to 4%. Therefore the solids content has increased to (100 -4) = 96% and this still equals 27.5 kg of solids Copra after drying ? 4 96 27.5Therefore:The weight of product after drying (the yield) = (100/96) x 27.5 = 28.6 kg Table 6.4. Calculating the yield of copra after drying coconutsThe main by-product from oil processing is oilcake, and most types of oilcake are used as animal feeds (either poultry rations or a component of ruminant feeds) or as fuel. Groundnut oilcake can also be used as a food ingredient provided that it is not scorched by overheating during processing (Chapter 4, Section 4.3). It is used for example as an ingredient in biscuits, snackfoods and traditional soups. The nuts from shea, palm fruit and olives can be used as fuel, and the hulls from sunflower seeds can be used as chicken litter. In Benin, fibres and palm kernel shells are mixed with mud to get a 'cake timber', which is used as combustible fuel for cooking the palm fruit (Fig. 6.3). There are many uses for coconut byproducts as shown in Fig.Fig. 6.3. 'Cake timber' -a waste product from palm kernel oil processing that is used as a fuel (Photo from J Hounhouigan) Fig. 6.The amounts of by-products vary according to the type of crop being processed and the yield of oil, but they can amount to large quantities of material that must be disposed of. An example in Table 6.5 shows the weight of by-products produced from a unit that processes 120 kg of groundnuts per day for 20 days per month. The income from sales of by-products can be very important to the profitability of an oil mill (Chapter 7, Section 7.2), especially groundnut oilcake, which has a higher value as a food ingredient than other types of press cake.Oil extraction rate (%) Oil (In addition to cooking oil, used in margarine, biscuits, soap, shampoo, cosmetics, hair oil, explosives, plastics, resins, rubber substitutes, safety glass manufacture, lubricants and fuel) Press cake (Used for animal feed from copra, or food and animal feed from fresh material) (Used for briquettes, furniture, glue, cups, ladles, sugar moulds, handicrafts, charcoal, tar, fuel, activated carbon filters. The coconut water is used for beverages and vinegar production Fig. 6.4. Uses for coconut by-productsThe characteristics of an oil processing business vary greatly according to whether the venture is undertaken by individual households, farmers/farmer groups, rural communities or urban dwellers, traders, women, or formal established co-operative societies. Each group has different access to funds, transport, information, skills and communications. All of these considerations influence the cost, size and complexity of the business.The following experiences of managing a small oil mill were provided by processors in different countries:• Day to day operation and management of the enterprise rested with the directors, who also direct and carry out marketing. The enterprise is a member of the Tanzania Food Processors Association, although they have yet to reap many benefits through their membership because the Association needs strengthening to attract more members who can contribute to it sustainably.• Provided a technology is viable and sustainable…the particular technology is often a neutral factor in the subsequent success or failure of the enterprise. From our experience, it would appear that other factors, such as the form of ownership, business management, marketing expertise and the location of the enterprise, are often more critical areas than the technology itself. (From Reeve (1995) in Annex B)• Day to day management of the mill is vested in a manager, but major decisions are made by the owner/director.• The owner is an experienced farmer and has opted to diversify and add value to his farm produce, which he used to sell to the market as unprocessed seeds. His vision is to combine farm oilseed production and processing, and in this way he has high spirits, wanting the oil mill to grow into a major business in the future.Managing an oil processing enterprise means having full control over what is happening in the business and the capacity to view the enterprise as a whole.The manager's responsibilities include different aspects of the overall running of the business; for example:• Staff recruitment and training.• Purchasing raw materials and equipment.• Planning finances, financial management.• Managing the production and sales staff.• Preparing production and marketing plans.•Planning for future developments.• The group is located in the centre of Benin and has 22 members, with a majority being women producing groundnut oil, groundnut cake and local soap.• The owner of the palm oil company was previously a quality control officer in a public palm oil enterprise. He started his own business five years after the inception of the idea, and has been operating for six years.• The company employs forty workers (29 male and 11 females) with a seven-member board of directors. It also engages qualified auditors, solicitors, registrars and bankers. The board of directors makes long-term decisions about the company while the management team makes routine daily management and production decisions.• The operation of the production facility is by collective responsibility and the cooperative's 50 workers operate independently with their own capital and pay less than 0.5% for the use of the facility. This is a major weakness because access to credit is difficult and this affects the volume of products obtained. Also, the lack a unified marketing body affects their pricing and prices are determined by the wholesalers and retailers.• With business development and financial training and strategic thinking, cooperatives can work as an entity to manage their business as individuals with collective liability, access credit, upgrade technology and engage in group marketing.At the smallest scale of operation, where the business owner works on site and supervises a few workers, there is often little differentiation in the roles that each person has in the business, and each worker can do all the different jobs. Owners or managers decide which production tasks workers will do throughout the day, and do all the other work themselves (e.g. accounts, sales etc.). However, once the size of the business increases, it is better to give specific roles and responsibilities to different people. This not only increases the efficiency of the operation, but also enables people to specialise and develop their skills in a particular area. As the business grows, there may be further differentiation of jobs (e.g. specialised training to operate and maintain an oil expeller).Manpower (or 'human resource') planning means making decisions on the present and future staffing needs of the enterprise. Larger companies have a systematic approach to recruiting and training employees, which has substantial benefits in creating a skilled and committed workforce. Such an approach is also likely to benefit small companies, but requires the owner or manager to develop company policies and terms of employment, as described in Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Section 4.6. Opinion is divided among small-scale processors as to whether it is a good idea to employ friends and relatives (Case Study 6.5). Although friends and relatives can usually be trusted, they may not have the best skills for the job. • The enterprise employs only three persons and the directors; hence there is not any elaborate workers' plan. Recruitment was based on the level of education and the ability to take instructions and perform the required tasks.• Previously the enterprise had no formal recruitment procedures. The owners employed family members and friends who may or may not have had the right expertise. This has now changed and recruitment is done by advertising the positions, conducting interviews and offering the job to the most suitable applicant. As a result, the company now has a qualified technician, an experienced manager and a trained workforce.The company employs only literate staff that have secondary school certificates. Both men and women are given equal opportunity. All employees are entitled to annual, sick and maternity leave. • Over 60% of the workers have a minimum of secondary school leavers' certificate, 20% are either polytechnic or university graduates and the remaining staff are unskilled. Many of the workers were recruited from the community with family members in the managerial positions.• The company recruits people irrespective of age or educational background, provided they are ready to work.• Most of the labour force is recruited locally and given in-house training. This way the firm is able to have an employment package that reduces labour migration. Occasionally the labour force is given vocational training and other benefits are medical care and a food allowance.• Workers are recruited based on their level of knowledge of oil production.The enterprise has 15 permanent workers and 10 occasional workers.• The enterprise is run as a family business; hence the operators are family members who are trained on the job. The business does not have a business plan except for a daily operations plan, which are just guidelines given to the operators.• The company has a seven-member Board of Directors and employs fiftyfive workers (20 male and 35 female). The factory manager, accountant and production manager are family members.• Currently, in Mr and Mrs M's business the enterprise employs three workers on a full-time basis. Occasionally casual labour is hired for tackling specific assignments.There is a widespread and serious problem in many ACP countries to identify and retain skilled and reliable staff for oil processing businesses at all scales of operation. Although many universities and other institutions now offer training in food science, and hygiene courses are available in many government and privately-run institutions, qualified people tend to seek employment in larger companies where the benefits and salaries are better.Small-scale processors therefore continue to find it more difficult to find suitable staff and to retain their employment (Case Study 6.6).In oil processing, each day's work initially involves preparation of the raw materials and then move through processing to packaging in a sequence of stages:Sorting > Crushing > Pressing (or expelling) > Heating > Filtering > Bottling.It is therefore important to organise production to ensure that the necessary inputs are available at each stage when they are required. It is possible to have all workers doing the same type of activity throughout the day, but it is often more efficient to allocate different jobs to each worker as the day progresses.A convenient way of planning this is to draw an Activity Chart (Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Section 10.1). This shows the type of work that is done each hour during the day, the number of people involved with each activity and the sequence of work that individuals do during the day. For example, this can be done using three teams of people; at a typical small scale of operation, this would involve two people per team, although the number of people in each team can be changed depending on the scale of production.Staff in one team are engaged in preparing raw materials for processing (e.g. sorting, crushing and heating oilseeds) for 2-3 hours to produce sufficient material for a day's production. Once they have finished this work they can assist with heating the oil and filling it into containers. There are two teams involved in pressing: team N o 1 presses batch N o 1 while team N o 2 prepares batch N o 2 and so on throughout the day, alternating the work so that the press is in constant use. This level of staffing is reduced if an oil expeller is used instead of batch pressing (see Chapter 4) because only one person is required to load crop into the expeller and monitor its operation. An activity chart is useful for assessing the time required to complete each stage of the process and for thinking through the problems that are likely to occur. It can also be used as a basis for training in each job and it should be constantly reviewed to optimise production efficiency.The role of the supervisor is to organise the work for all the staff, including cleaning and maintenance duties. This person should also keep records of daily production schedules, staff attendance, amounts of oil and oilcake produced, amounts of stock, and amounts removed from stock (see Section 6.8). In very small operations the supervisor may also be responsible for sales of oil and oilcake if they are sold from the production unit. In other situations, a salesperson has responsibility for promotion of products, keeping records of sales, collecting cash from sales and giving it to the manager on a regular basis.Depending on the particular ACP country, labour costs can be a relatively low proportion of total production costs. Oil processors interviewed for this book reported labour costs to be between 12% and 30% of total production costs, although one producer reported it to be as low as 2%. Many owners of small oil processing businesses refuse to train their staff because they are worried that experienced or skilled staff will ask for higher pay or will move to a competitor. These attitudes are short-sighted and could eventually cause the business to fail. As in other aspects of running a business, the owner or manager should have a wider view of where the business is heading and what is needed to get it there. To be successful, a business needs well-trained staff that are motivated to work for the company.Staff development is an important aspect of business planning, and the owner should be willing to invest in employees.There are different types of training, but all should build up in a systematic way, developing skills, knowledge and attitudes that are relevant to the job. 'On the job' training can take two forms: it either involves the new employee working immediately in his or her normal job under the supervision of more experienced workers, or secondly the employee can do different jobs to gain experience of the whole operation. If staff are trained to do different jobs, the business has greater flexibility to deal with absenteeism, holidays etc. Case Study 6.6 illustrates some experiences with staff training and motivation.Further information is given in Fellows, Battcock, Azam-Ali and Axtell (1998) in Annex B.A successful business of any size has workers who feel rewarded and are willing to work for the company because they have a future in it.Staff gain satisfaction from their jobs if they receive reasonable pay and have good working conditions. Management methods should motivate them so that they enjoy their work. Well-motivated staff have limitless potential in their individual jobs, and improve the overall productivity of the enterprise. Managers should therefore devise ways of motivating staff and improving job performance. Examples of staff benefits identified during interviews with oil processors include:• Competitive salaries and regular review of salaries, prompt pay and extra rewards when the business does well.• Paid overtime.• Paid leave and holidays.• Interest-free and flexible loan facilities for school fees, funerals, rent and other family needs.• Free meals, lunch allowance or food allowance.• Staff discounts for products.• Sick pay and sick leave, hospital and health care benefits, paying medical bills, medical examinations 4 , or a proportion of salary held for medical support costs.• Uniforms, aprons, head scarves and work clothes provided.• Toilets and washing facilities with hot water.• Transportation to work or transport allowance.• Representation or attendance at staff meetings.•Gestures such as a small birthday present to improve staff morale.Motivation is an important part of staff development and encourages employees to achieve their highest level of performance.Even the lowest paid worker needs a sense of security, recognition and belonging. The terms and conditions of employment vary widely in ACP countries but, as a minimum, managers should give permanent workers contracts of employment. They should encourage a sense of status and pride at all levels to help employees identify themselves with the business. Further details of employment contracts are given in Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Section 4.6.• Staff benefits are built up with the basic pay, and include food and transport allowance.• The director manages the enterprise and decides the remunerations.Workers are provided with a glass of milk and midday meal, and other benefits are determined from time to time, based on performance.• Although members of the cooperative group are not paid for their labour, they benefit from the mutual aid provided by the group and financial contributions in the event of a death or other family problems.• The workers have individual/personal health insurance and social security.• Workers are recruited based on their level of knowledge in oil production.The enterprise has 30 permanent workers and 180 occasional workers.They benefit from help and support from the enterprise when they need assistance (e.g. for illness, family ceremonies or deaths).• The workers have health insurance, social security, prescribed annual and sick leave and consolidated salaries that include food, clothing and transport allowances.• The workers automatically receive assistance with food during the production season and sometimes get payday advances when they are in trouble (illness, death in the family etc.). As the owner is a traditional healer, the worker receives almost free treatment for illnesses.• The workers enjoy benefits including sick and annual leave, paid holidays, health care benefits when needed, food allowances and a good welfare scheme.Every entrepreneur has a responsibility to provide a safe and healthy working environment. Many, but not all, ACP countries have laws concerning the health and safety of workers and the safety of equipment. But even if legislation does not exist, the consequences of accidents and illness arising from poor working conditions are far greater than any difficulty in ensuring safety.All staff should be properly trained to carry out potentially dangerous operations.It is important to have a regular maintenance programme for oil processing equipment that would be dangerous if a failure occurred.Unsafe working conditions can also arise due to poorly designed workplaces (e.g. lack of adequate lighting, poor ventilation, slippery floors or steps due to oil spillages) and unsafe actions (such as interfering with safety guards or working double shifts without rest periods). These are all the responsibility of the manager or owner.Simple safety precautions reduce the chance of accidents, and enhance the good name of the company. This increases the confidence of customers in its products, and improves the working conditions and productivity of the staff. Fewer accidents also reduce production losses, repair costs, extra costs of training new staff and medical bills. Simple precautions are listed in Table 6.6. A major cause of accidents is improper adjustment and maintenance of equipment, such as poorly aligned drive belts on machinery, removal of guards over drive belts, use of incorrect spare parts, or failing to use the correct• The management insists on safety measures to ensure the safety of both workers and machinery and equipment.• We emphasise that boiling the oil is dangerous and the workers should take special care and wear protective gloves. tools for the machine. Temporary electrical installations are one of the most frequent causes of injury and include:• Use of electric cables without proper insulation.• Lack of protective covers on switches, fuse-boxes etc.• Use of un-earthed equipment.• Unauthorised additions to circuits resulting in overloading and fire risk.• Bridging over fuses.All electrical fittings should be installed and maintained by a competent and qualified electrician.In the event of an electrical fire, the electricity should be turned off at the main switch and the fire either smothered with a damp cloth or put out using sand or a fire extinguisher.Water should never be used to extinguish an electrical fire.There is also a potential risk of fire and/or burns when conditioning some types of oilseeds and groundnuts, and when heating oil to remove moisture before packaging (Chapter 4). The heater and the containers are both hot and should be handled carefully using heat-resistant gloves. Oil should not be heated to a temperature that is significantly above 130 o C during processing, and it should never be allowed to reach its smoke point (see Annex A), above which it could catch fire and cause damage to facilities or injure operators.Ensure that only trained staff enter the premises and operate the machines.2. Prevent staff wearing any loose clothing (e.g. ties, un-buttoned or longsleeved shirts) that could become caught in running machines. Provide them with overalls.3. Do not allow staff to start a machine unless they know how to stop it. 4. Only one person should operate a machine at any one time.5. Make the layout of machinery logical, and leave sufficient space around it so that there are few chances for operators to get in each other's way.  8. Use charts hung on the wall near each machine to show safety precautions. 9. Ensure that guards are fitted and in place over all moving parts of a machine and alert staff to machines that appear to be standing still when running at high speed. 10. Never allow staff to clean, adjust or lean over moving machinery. 11. Do not allow them to leave a running machine unattended.12. Encourage operators to report any loose parts on a machine. 13. Do not allow staff to work with equipment that is defective. Put a note on any machine that is under repair saying 'DO NOT TOUCH'. 14. Do not allow anyone to touch inside electric equipment while it is connected.15. Regularly check the cables of electrical appliances to ensure that outside covers are not broken and wires are not exposed.16. Prevent staff from running inside a building. 17. Immediately clean up any oil on the floor using sawdust, sand, husks etc. 18. Clean the building each day.19. Have a first aid box containing sterilised dressings, cotton wool, adhesive plasters and bandages. In many ACP countries, the law requires every factory to have one. 20. Make sure that there is at least one working fire extinguisher and a fire blanket. Ensure that everyone knows what to do in the event of a fire. Table 6.6. Safety tips for oil processingMachine breakdowns reduce the output from an oil mill and increase production costs. Lack of maintenance is one of the most common reasons why small-scale oil processors have machinery breakdowns. Poorly maintained machines are also a potential hazard to operators, reduce the yield of oil, and can contaminate products with metal fragments. Proper maintenance ensures that machinery operates correctly and safely, and prolongs its life; so reducing capital and operating expenditure. Most small-scale processors do not have a programme of planned maintenance, preferring instead to rely on the maxim 'if it is not broken, don't fix it'. Some engineers agree with this and regard planned maintenance as unnecessary. They believe that it is cheaper to allow equipment to break down and then repair it. Others consider that it is cheaper to stop production on a regular basis and replace parts before they wear out.On balance, it is probable that the costs and benefits of planned maintenance depend on the availability of spare parts and the speed at which repairs can be done by a competent local mechanic or workshop, as well as the value of the spares that have to be held in stock.As a minimum, managers should monitor the state of equipment that is likely to wear out. As experience of the rate of failure accumulates over the years, they should buy spare parts or have the machine serviced when the failure of a part is anticipated.A summary of the spares and maintenance requirements of oil processing equipment and the cleaning required is shown in Table 6.7. The following actions are needed to put preventative maintenance into practice:• Identify priority machinery where components wear out more frequently (e.g. bearings in oil expellers or screw presses).• Write a clear description of the procedures and standards of work expected of machine operators and maintenance workers (such as lubricating, tightening bolts, making adjustments etc.) on a daily, weekly and monthly routine maintenance plan.• Organise a schedule and train staff to implement maintenance plans.• Prepare a maintenance budget.• Record inspection results, analyse the records and evaluate the frequency of • maintenance required.• Update procedures and standards on a continuous basis.Maintenance and spares records (Figures 6.5 and 6.6) should be used to provide information on the performance of equipment. Records help to ensure that maintenance costs are included in the cost of running the business, and to plan purchases of spare parts, making sure they are available when required. There are three sets of basic records that should be kept by the owner of an oil processing unit: 1) financial records, 2) those that relate to the production of the products and 3) sales records. Financial and sales records are described in Opportunities in Food Processing Volume 1, Section 7.4 and in Chapter 7.The section below describes production records that are commonly kept. The uses of these records are inter-related and are described in more detail in • Repairs on locally purchased equipment are usually done within days but repairs on imported equipment take a long time. For example, within a few months after the installation of the one million Euro oil refinery, the filtration system developed a fault that has taken a long time to fix.• This has caused the company a huge loss because of stopped production.The loans have to be repaid, workers salaries have to be paid and taxes must be settled. This has put a lot of strain on the company and they are hoping production will pick up again. • Facilities available for production include a screw press and cloth filter press that were bought from China and installed by local technicians, who also provide an on-call repair and maintenance service. In addition the oil tanks were fabricated locally.• The new refinery was installed by Italian consultants. Although manufacturing engineers abound in Ghana, the foreign consultants were engaged because the loan criteria require that equipment must be purchased from an EU country and installed by the supplier.• The frequent breakdown of processing equipment is a major challenge for the company. inputs to a business, keeping records is an investment of time and money and the benefits must outweigh the costs.There is no point in recording information for its own sake and records must be used if they are to have any value. This means that the owner or manager must understand why the information is collected and what it can be used for. Similarly, the time and effort spent in keeping records must be related to the scale and profitability of the business.While it is true that some successful entrepreneurs keep all the information in their head and do not keep written records, no-one else can help run the business during times of illness or absence. Some examples of the value and costs of keeping records are shown in Table 6.8.• Management of stock is supported using stock control ledgers.• They ensure that they do not keep stock for a long time in storage, and they follow the principle of first-in-first-out stock control.• They have very good accounting and financial control. They have a computerised accounting system with debtors' and creditors' records, and debt collection is rigorous.• With their training in book keeping they are now able to keep records and make projections. They also keep good records of raw materials, production costs and stocks of oil and have engaged an accountant who prepares their quarterly and annual financial reports.• She normally keeps records of production costs and sales to work out her profit. She also keeps records of debtors to recover outstanding debts. This might need several visits but most of the time she is able to collect the money without a problem.Accurate records allow:• Detailed knowledge about the operation of the business. Accurate information is essential and this means that staff who are required to collect information should know its value and why it is being collected. This should be part of the induction and training when new staff learn their job.The oil mill owner should employ people who have the skills and aptitude to do the work, but should also put in place a system of checks against theft to ensure that one person does not have responsibility for a whole area of business activity. For example the person who is responsible for keeping records of purchases should be different from the person who records use of materials or levels of stocks. The owner or manager should also ensure that all records are kept up to date and the arithmetic is checked for accuracy. There The companies that assisted in the preparation of this book ranged in size from 3 to 30 permanent employees, with some employing up to 180 temporary seasonal workers. The businesses varied greatly in their productivity and there was no straightforward relationship between the number of employees and the amount of oil produced each day. The efficiency of the processes in the different businesses therefore varied considerably.Improving efficiency in a process involves reducing wastage of time, materials and space, or unnecessary movement of foods, staff or equipment.The companies provided details of the types of activities that they have employed to improve their productivity as follows:• Improved efficiency (e.g. lowering operating costs, reducing idle machine time and reducing waste).• Better procedures for buying materials.• Reducing losses of raw materials.• Improved decision-making and communication.• Increased output by minimising equipment breakdowns and reducing other causes of lost time.• Improved organisation, better staff morale and co-operation.The layout of a production unit is another factor that can affect efficiency. When deciding where to fix permanent machinery, care should be taken to plan the layout to allow for a flow of product through the process, sufficient space to avoid congestion and to ensure safe operations (see Fig. In order to assess whether improvements to productivity are taking place, it is necessary to measure and record amount of materials, labour used etc. These figures can then be used to calculate for example:• Actual usage of raw materials per kg of product.• Cost of packaging per kg of product.• Labour costs per kg of product.• Energy used per kg of product etc.Any changes that are introduced to a process can then be assessed in terms of these costs to make sure that they have improved the productivity of the process. Productivity can also be improved by increasing the amount of production for the same costs or by reducing production costs -for example by changing the design of the product, changing raw materials suppliers or work organisation.The cost of electricity, fuel and water was reported by processors to be 9-30% of total production costs and transport was between 19 and 27%. The main reported problem is interruption to the supply of electricity, which can stop processing altogether. If services are likely to be inadequate or unreliable, steps should be taken to find alternatives (e.g. a borehole for water, diesel powered machines or a backup generator). Ideas that can reduce energy consumption and save processors money include:• Switching off lights and electrical equipment when they are not being used.• Solar water heating (e.g. to pre-heat water to wash equipment).• Building in the flexibility to use alternative energy sources when installing new equipment so that it can use the most environmentally suitable and cost-effective fuels.• Use energy-efficient stoves and roasters. Using oil processing wastes or fuel from local briquette makers rather than fuel-wood (Table 6.9).• Use local suppliers of raw materials that can be delivered by animal cart, bicycle or head loads, rather than using a vehicle to collect them. Similarly, make as few journeys as possible to deliver products to wholesalers or retailers.Coconuts Husks, sunflower cake Fuel, filling material, polishing material, fibre for animal feed Table 6.9. Uses for by-products from oil crops NB: oilcakes that contain high levels of protein are too rich to be fed directly to animals. They should be mixed with starchy and fibrous materials in feedstuffs to be properly digested by animals. Handbooks on animal husbandry provide detailed information on how to prepare animal feeds using oilcakes as ingredients.Companies reported different methods of increasing efficiency by reducing wastage (Case Study 6.10).Case Study 6.10: Improving productivity, reducing wastage and using byproducts• Packaging materials are purchased from wholesales in advance to avoid shortages that would disrupt production. Bulk purchasing has helped to reduce production costs.• The company runs two shifts as a means of increasing production, maximising input of skilled labour and reducing the downtime of machinery.• There are developed links with feed manufacturers and cattle keepers who collect the husks for making animal feed compounds, and the soap stock from cleaned oil is used for soap-making. As such there is no pollution from the unit and all wastes are properly disposed of.• The main by-products of the mill are seed cake that is readily sold as animal fed and husks that are used as mulch by gardeners. As regards plant sanitation, the company abides by the national food laws and municipal regulations for waste disposal.• The company generates 30% of its energy through the use of bio-fuel generated from waste produced during processing.• Poultry farmers and feed mill owners buy the oilcake for animal feeds.• The oil palm stalks and waste from winnowing are used for composting and the compost is used as organic fertiliser in the oil palm plantation. • Factory waste is disposed off just as domestic waste. The main waste is the oilcake from groundnut, copra and palm kernel but all these are sold to poultry farmers and animal feed producers all over the country. Waste water is directed into the main drain. Disposal is not a major problem yet, but it could be in future because the Environmental Protection Agency is implementing strict disposal legislation.• Waste palm materials are used to make compost, which is used as organic fertiliser for the oil palm plantation. Palm nuts are crushed, sorted and then sold to producers of palm kernel oil. The fibres that remain after oil extraction are mixed with a portion of the mud to make fuel that is sold in the local market.• In order to improve the productivity of his plantation, the enterprise owner fertilises the trees after weeding. The types of fertilisers are compost made from a mixture of palm grape stalks, wastes from winnowing and animal waste.• There is a good use of palm kernel shell, which is used for firing the boiler.• There is hardly any waste from the oil processing unit. Poultry and piggery owners buy the oilcake. Waste water is disposed off in the main drain without treatment. The company is aware of the environmental regulations and they do their best to adhere to them.✔ Use sales information to plan daily and weekly production.✔ Have long-term plans for changes to production levels.✔ Predict the growth of the business and decide what actions are needed to achieve it.✔ Think ahead about the business to prevent problems arising during operation.✔ Carefully plan production to ensure: 1) adequate supplies of raw materials and packaging are available, 2) sufficient numbers of trained staff are available and 3) all machinery is serviced and in working order.✔ Avoid 'bottlenecks' in the process, or running out of packaging.✔ Consider making agreements with both suppliers and buyers to assist production planning.✔ Think carefully before employing friends and relatives. Select the best people for the job that you can afford.✔ Carefully plan work for all staff to maximise their productivity.✔ Train staff so that they can work to a high standard without supervision.✔ Motivate and reward staff to gain their loyalty and deter them from leaving.✔ Ensure that the oil mill is safe for workers and that all machinery has guards that are in place.✔ Have a regular maintenance programme for all machinery and equipment.✔ Keep production records and use them to improve the process.✔ Invest in ways to save energy and reduce water consumption.✔ Develop ways of improving the productivity of both staff and machines. Please use this space to write your own notes on Chapter 6. The following tips were provided by successful oil processors in ACP countries:✔ Have sufficient money available to buy crops during harvest to process throughout the year. ✔ If you don't have much capital, start small. ✔ Do not rely solely on loans; have your own money too.✔ Do not take money for personal use out of the daily takings, have an allowance instead. ✔ Check the cost of producing your product whenever there are changes in the price of raw materials, electricity or other costs. This will help you decide when you need to raise your prices. ✔ Keep records of all expenditure to reduce your tax bill.✔ Book-keeping should be carried out every day.✔ Motivated workers contribute to profits.✔ All activities, including quality assurance and cleaning, are a cost, so keep a record of everything. ✔ Get advice from an accountant who is familiar with tax laws.✔ Read Sections 7.1-7.5 and 8.1-8.2 in Volume 1: Opportunities in Food Processing -Setting up and running a small food business.Financial calculations are important both when starting an oil processing business, to find out whether it is likely to be profitable before making an investment, and also during the operation of the business to monitor performance. This chapter examines the aspects of financial management that are relevant to oil processing businesses. Further details are given in Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Sections 7.1 -7.5 and 8.1 -8.2.The first step towards operating a successful oil processing business is to find out whether the idea is feasible, and if necessary to convince financial backers (friends, family members, banks or shareholders) to support the idea. A feasibility study is used to find out about the different components of the proposed business (see Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Section 3.1). When this information is written down, it is known as a business plan (Table 7.1). To make sure that funding is sufficient, the initial financing should be based on a detailed feasibility study that takes all costs into account. Case Study 7.1 illustrates the value of conducting a thorough feasibility study before getting started.Background to the business Name, address and contact numbers of business owner, type of product proposed. Any relevant experience of the owner.Overview of the type(s) of market for the cooking oil and oilcake, estimated present and potential demand, market segments that will be targeted, competitors, proposed market share. The main assumptions that have been made.Site, factory layout and facilities Location of proposed unit and conditions at the site. Building plans and construction work required, construction timetable. Description of plant layout and service requirements (power, water, fuel etc). Any environmental impacts (by-product use, disposal of any wastes produced, air/water pollution etc).Plant and equipment Proposed production capacity, sources and costs of equipment, production inputs (raw materials, packaging), other equipment (e.g. vehicles, office equipment etc). Plan and timetable for commissioning machinery.Production and administration staff (number of people and skills required) and training to be given. Staff recruitment plan/timetable.Production plan, marketing plan Production rates to meet identified demand, advertising and promotion to be done, distribution methods, sales outlets, projected increase in demand.Cost of site, equipment and buildings, working capital, (total investment cost), total production costs, sources of finance, cash-flow analysis, balance sheet, profitability calculations (rates of return, break-even analysis, risk analysis). • Their business plan is very patchy, and it has not been done professionally.Nor is it based on in-depth market research. Nonetheless, they have attempted to improve it over time and the current one is their third attempt.• Although the enterprise has a business plan, it is not a detailed one that could be used for the various production and marketing activities. They sometimes consult with experts to assist them to shape and develop the plan.• To remain competitive, the company developed strategies such as pursuing rigorous quality standards, preparing for production in advance, and identifying new export markets for one of their main product lines which has great potential in the West African sub-region, Europe and America.• As an accountant, the owner has developed a business plan for forecasting, a marketing plan and production plan. He has also prepared about the market, the availability of raw materials and likely increase in profit.• The processors have obtained training that has helped the group to prepare a business plan, which is yet to be followed. The management seeks to establish contacts with oil palm producers and markets to ensure a profitable business.• It is a registered limited liability company established in 2000. The company has a business plan that is due for revision in 2010.The rate of return (ROR), also known as return on investment (ROI) or sometimes the yield, is the ratio of money gained or lost on an investment compared to the amount of money invested, usually expressed as a Clearly, the higher the rate of return the better the investment.Technical data on equipment (throughput and yield of oil and by-products) should be combined with costs and prices to find the net income stream. This can highlight any obvious financial problems and it can be used to calculate the pay-back period (i.e. how long it takes to recover the initial investment).The payback time for a loan needed to cover the initial capital investment is This information can also be used to calculate the financial rate of return, which an investor can use to compare other investment options. Another measure of whether the business is worth investing in is the net present value, which allows a comparison of the income from different projects to be made.These different measures can be used either in combination, or separately, depending on the size and nature of the investment. A sensitivity analysis is also important. This means that the cost and income should be recalculated, using different values for anything that is not precisely known (e.g. the number of days per year that processing can take place), or for others that are highly variable (e.g. raw material costs that may be affected by pests or the weather). The purpose of a sensitivity analysis is to anticipate as accurately as possible the costs and income before the investment decision is actually made and later to monitor the impact of changes (e.g. a sudden increase in the cost of fuel or electricity).Weaknesses of the business include inadequate capital to procure sufficient raw materials to last the season, and limited availability of supplies of good quality sunflower seed due to competition from other big buyers who also export seeds.Whether it is a good investment depends on local conditions. While a profit and loss statement and margin of safety are useful indicators, they cannot guarantee success. In the end, a decision has to be made based on the available information, and only when the enterprise is up and running will the actual situation be known. (From Potts and Machell (1993) in Annex B)Start-up costs ( The cost of equipment for oil processing is higher than many other types of food processing. The move to small-scale production using manual or motorised oil presses, or to an expeller for higher rates of production, involves significant expenditure. Additionally, working capital is needed to cover the cost of new packaging and several months' supply of crops. There are also other start-up costs such as conducting a feasibility study and preparing a business plan, obtaining licences and health certificates. This usually requires additional finance in the form of a loan.The fixed and working capital should be calculated to find out whether the entrepreneur's savings (known as the owner's equity) are sufficient to start the business without a loan. Where a loan is needed, it is likely that the funds will be required at intervals as the business develops, and these should be planned for when arranging a loan or discussing the business proposal with potential investors. Many small-scale processors in ACP countries do not wish to deal with banks because of the generally high interest rates, but some positive experiences were reported by businesses during research for this book (Case Study 7.4).The following examples were provided by oil processors in different countries:• The enterprise is profitable, although often there are constraints in obtaining operating finance (loan). Banks are the only probable source, but the high interest rates limit the owners' desire to take on loans. First you have to work out the capital cost to set up the enterprise, then the running costs and monthly income. This will enable you to establish if you need a loan, and if so how much and when. A secure building that is rodent-proof and completely screened is required. A cost of US$ 1360 was estimated for a new building in Malawi and, for smallholder farmers or women's groups, a loan may be needed for this level of investment.It is essential to make these estimates before deciding whether to set up an enterprise, whatever the size. While it is only a theoretical calculation at the beginning, it can give a useful indication of whether it will be profitable and to what extent the enterprise can cope with unfavourable changes in conditions, such as increased raw material costs. (From Potts   and Machell (1993) in Annex B)• Due to the good financial history of the company they were able to obtain a half a million dollar loan from the African Development Bank guaranteed by the Ghana Government at 30% interest. This loan was used to recapitalise the factory and buy more stock.• The operational funds are provided by the owner. He has not sought bank credits. • The owner has financed the business mainly through his own funds.However, he has also obtained credit from a savings and credit cooperative, which he has managed well. He has not accessed bank loans, but does not see any obstacle if they were needed; only the high interest rates are scaring him.• The company's aggressive expansion policy to increase production capacity as well as add value to its products resulted in the establishment of a 10 metric tonne per day capacity oil refinery plant in 2007 with loan facility from Ghana/Italian Government Assistance for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.• The enterprise was equipped with its own processing unit funded from the sale of its products.• In 2004 they acquired a loan of US $400,000 from the African Development Bank guaranteed by the Ministry of Agriculture for expansion and technology upgrading.• In order to increase production, the entrepreneur has received loans from financial institutions. These funds allowed him to acquire processing equipment and land to set up palm plantations. He will ensure gradual payment of these loans with interest.• Members of the board are all professionals -accountants, solicitor, business administrator, financial consultant, etc. The company keeps all the necessary financial records and receives financial advice from its financial consultant on a regular basis. Due to their good financial recordOnce an oil processing business has been set up and is in production, there are two types of operating (or running) costs: those that have to be paid even if no production takes place, known as fixed costs, and those that vary with the amount of oil produced, known as variable costs. These costs are described in more detail in Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Section 7.1 and examples of each are shown in Table 7.3. It is advisable to keep fixed costs as low as possible to increase profitability. In the example in Table 7 they were able to access a large loan in 2007 at 15% interest with a twoyear grace period. This loan was used to establish the new production facility to increase production and to improve the packaging to compete favourably with imported products.• Individual entrepreneurs have taken loans ranging from US$20 -2,000 to increase production and buy raw materials.• When the cooperative company has a debt, the individual workers who have money lend to the company, after which the company compensates them by not charging a processing fee until the amount lent is repaid. The following production costs were reported by oil processors in different ACP countries:• Due to low throughput, the costs of production are high and the business is therefore challenged by competition from cheap imported oils.• The major cost was raw materials (over 50% of total costs). Energy cost is also substantial.• They also grow their own sunflower seed to reduce the costs of raw materials, but need to investigate whether this production is more costeffective than buying seed to arrive at a decision on which alternative is best.• Raw materials and packaging materials constitute the major production costs; with seeds being 70% of the total cost of inputs and both would account for about 80-90% of costs. Reducing costs is a challenge as limited capital makes it impossible to buy bulk raw materials when in season and prices are low.• Groundnuts are bought from wholesalers and represent 79% of the total cost of processing. The price varies throughout the year depending on the availability of the nuts. Other costs for transport and processing materials are 21% of total costs because members of the group donate their time for processing.• Overall, the cost of soybean raw materials in relation to production is about 10-15% depending on availability.• Raw material costs for palm fruit are 69% of total production costs, transport is 19% and labour is 12%.• To overcome the problems of high crop costs during the lean season, the company stocks up during the bumper season in October to December, but the amount of money needed to purchase large volumes limits the amount that can be stocked.• Palm fruit bunches triple in price outside the period of abundance in the harvest season from December to March.• Palm fruit is 54.5% of total production costs, although it varies over time depending on the availability of the bunches.• The packing materials for refined oil are more expensive and depending on the size of bottle, up to 10% of the production cost is in packaging.Overall, the cost of raw materials is about 15-30% of production costs depending on their availability. The months of April to July are particularly difficult because of increased prices.• Transport of crops represents 27% of total production costs and labour is 19%.• The most commonly used packaging for the crude oil is tanks or drums that are transported to the refinery for further processing, and the oilcake is stored in 50 kg bags that are sold to poultry farmers. So little is spent on packaging at this stage and it is estimated to be 5% of total production costs.• Most of the family members are skilled/professionals. The salary budget is over 30% of the cost of production.• Remuneration for workers constitutes 20% of the total cost of production.• Labour contributes to about 2% of total production cost.• Utilities and transport together account for less than 10% of total costs, with transport accounting for over half of this. To reduce transport costs, plans are underway to acquire their own vehicle.• The cost of electricity went up by over 100% in the last year, and coupled with continuous power-outages, this has increased the cost of production by more than 30%.• The company has access to utilities such as safe drinking water, liquid petroleum gas and electricity, but recently these are sometimes not very reliable and have become very expensive. They take a sizeable amount of the production cost (approximately 15%).• Fuel is about 9% of production cost and the group believes that by replacing the diesel engine with an electric motor to drive the combined digester and hydraulic press, the fuel cost would be reduced. To save on the cost of fuel, biomass in the form of fibre and kernel by-product, are used for fuel. A long-term strategy is to invest further in the use of biomass fuel.Income from the sales of oil and by-products should exceed the total costs of production in order for a business to make a profit. Details of income are shown in • They view the business as being very profitable, and it would be even more lucrative if they were able obtain raw materials more cheaply and if power supplies were stable. They are able to sell all their production on a cash basis at the moment.• Initially, profits from the sale of products were shared between group members. In 2006, the group president suggested that profits should be reinvested to ensure the maintenance of facilities, payment of debts and strengthening the purchasing power to buy raw materials. This led to misunderstandings within the group and it ceased activity.• The entrepreneur makes periodic financial analyses of his production to ensure the profitability of his business.• Using profits from the sale of its products, the enterprise grew from using a manual press to a motorised press and the owner could increase its working capital, which permits him to store the oil for periods of scarcity before selling, so increasing his profit.• This company like many local industries has had their profit margins reduced considerably in the last two years. In spite of these financial obligations, creditors do not pay on time while others do not pay at all.These do not help but they hope conditions will change for the better in 2010.• The cost of production rises when palm fruit is out of season in December and January. This affects their profit margins since they have no control over the price of the products. Processing is profitable in March when fruit is in season.The simplest way to set a price for oil and by-products is to add on a percentage for the owner's profit (the profit margin) to the total production costs. However, the size of the profit margin (and hence the price of a product) can be a difficult decision. The price should allow the producer, the distributors and the retailers to each make an adequate profit. It is also essential to take account of the prices of competing products. Setting a price is therefore influenced by the amount of competition, the type of market, and the demand for the product. It is particularly important to know whether an enterprise is critically dependent on one buyer and whether it is able to influence the price for the oil. Examples of pricing decisions in different types of markets (Chapter 2, Section 2.2) are as follows:Enterprises that sell to less wealthy retail markets or supply ingredients to commercial or institutional buyers may have little flexibility in setting the price for products. This is because these customers look for a low price as the main factor in their decision to buy from a supplier. Selling oils to consumers in more wealthy retail markets allows greater pricing flexibility because sales are influenced by factors other than price (e.g. presentation and packaging).If there are few competitors and a strong demand, a processor has more flexibility in setting the price, and can decide the price that the market will bear. More commonly, there is strong competition either from other producers or imported oils, and competing products determine the price that can be set.In countries where the price of cooking oil is controlled or where there are significant imports of cheap oil, the processor has little control over the price of oil. In this situation, it is likely that the sales of oilcake will be the deciding factor in determining the overall profitability of an oil processing business.Accurate costing of the products is therefore a key factor to make sure that the income is sufficient. This should not be regarded as an academic paper exercise, but should be done carefully to find out:• Whether the income will be sufficient to cover all business costs and produce a profit.• If the product can match the prices of the competitors.• If, where, and how, savings can be made to reduce costs.Details of different methods for costing a product to determine its price are described in Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Section 7.3.When the price of the oil has been set, the income is calculated as follows:Income = Selling price per unit x number of units sold.The gross profit is the difference between the income and operating costs, and net profit is the amount remaining after tax. A profit and loss statement (Table 7.5) summarises the income, expenditure and gross profits or losses. It is used to plan the finances of a business over several years. This is useful to find out whether a loan should be taken out in stages as a business develops. Note: In the first 3 years the profit = 10% of income and 11% of costs, which is low for a viable production unit, and an increase in production is advisable. This level of profit is vulnerable to problems in raw material supply, decreased sales, or equipment breakdowns. The situation improves once the loan has been repaid after year 3.Processors should not consider the net profit as their own income -it belongs to the business.Profits belong to the business and owners should take a salary that is recorded as a business expense. A common cause of business failure is when an owner takes large amounts of cash from the business (e.g. to pay for a wedding or other family occasion) because this disrupts the cashflow of the business.Profits should be used to develop the business by, for example, funding advertising or promotion, developing new products or improving the skills of workers. While it is reasonable for owners to increase their salaries if the business is doing well, this should be a carefully considered decision that does not affect the performance of the business.The three essentials to managing profitability involve:1. Maintaining, or preferably increasing, income from sales by setting correct prices for products.2. Controlling, or preferably reducing, costs.3. Maintaining a positive cashflow so that the business can always meet its costs and obligations. This requires accurate bookkeeping.Profitability also depends on having other aspects of the business operating successfully, such as marketing and sales (Chapter 2, Section 2.3) and production planning (Chapter 6, Section 6.1).The main costs for oil processors are raw materials, labour and power charges (Case Study 7.7). Of these, the raw material costs are the most important and these can be controlled in a number of ways:• Bulk purchase of crops during the harvest season when prices are lowest.• Buying directly from farmers rather than from traders, preferably using a company-owned vehicle for transport.• Fixing prices for crops through contracts with farmers.• Price incentives to encourage farmers to supply high quality crops.• Owning own farm or plantation.Other methods of cost control include:• Minimising debts and maximising credit.• Planning the work of production staff to ensure that they are fully occupied throughout the day, and training them to maximise their output and productivity.• Keeping records of each type of expenditure and relating these to the amounts of products that are sold. This allows processors to identify cost reductions that result from any changes in the efficiency of material usage that are introduced.• Monitoring oil yields (Chapter 6, Section 6.4) by direct measurements to identify actual losses and opportunities for improvement.The profitability of an enterprise also depends on the productivity of the workers and equipment. Motivated workers with a loyalty to the business have the potential to greatly increase productivity (see Chapter 6, Section 6.6).Good stock control that maintains minimum stocks but ensures continued production is important. It is also important to keep records on process yields (Chapter 6, Section 6.4) because reductions in yield due to careless workers negatively affect profitability. Finally, some types of oil processing use a lot of energy for heating. This energy must be used efficiently to minimise costs.• In Tanzania, packaging contributes 30% to costs of production; the rest (70%) is contributed by raw materials. A reason for growing their own sunflower was to reduce the cost of raw materials, which varied from season to season depending on the level of production in the country.• The company has generally been efficient in managing its debtors and suppliers. There have not been any delayed payments so far and they have paid income tax regularly.• To reduce costs of raw materials and transportation, the enterprise owner has a palm plantation of 20 Ha of improved and local varieties of Tenera palms.A cashflow forecast shows whether there is sufficient cash available to operate the business and an example is given in Table 7.6. Further details are given in Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Section 7.4)Case Study 7.9: Product pricing, income and profitability• The quantity and quality of the crop will vary each year depending on the climate and pricing of the oil and oilcake should be regularly reviewed to ensure that changing circumstances and costs are taken into account.(From Potts and Machell (1993) in Annex B)• Information was given that the enterprise is lucrative and is making a profit. This was attributed to the recent increased consumer demand for sunflower oil, which is regarded as good for health.• Income from the sale of palm oil is 65% of total income and sales of palm kernels are 25%. The balance is from sales of wastes as fuel.• The owner installed oil storage tanks that allowed him to keep the oil for periods of scarcity in order to increase his profits from a higher sale price. • Oil processing is a lucrative business in Ghana but to be competitive the company has to carve a niche in the market by producing good quality products and constantly being innovative.• The way the money is managed -the loan, the income and profit (or loss) -needs to be agreed, and also how this will be checked.  The data in Table 7.6 shows that production costs are just below the income received, thus allowing a small increase in the balance carried forward month on month. This assumes that costs do not rise, and that all products and byproducts are sold at the anticipated prices each month. The financial situation improves considerably once the loan has been repaid in Year 3.In summary, some of the areas where oil processors tend to go wrong are:• Treating profits as their income, instead of paying themselves a salary.• Failing to calculate the cost of products or price products correctly, so they do not make a profit.• Poor record keeping, so they do not know if they are operating profitably.• Over-spending or having a loan that is not repayable.• Having too many debtors or not enough creditors. Debtors are people or other businesses who owe money to a processor. This usually happens where the processor sells oil with a period of credit before the customer pays. During this time the purchaser owes the processor the money and is therefore a debtor. Creditors are the businesses or people who provide goods on credit. That is, they allow the processor time to pay rather than paying immediately the goods are received.Analysis of accounts is done regularly, but the major interest is in the profit and loss statements.The enterprise makes a periodic financial analysis of its production to ensure the profitability of its business. This is a public company limited by shares and it has a comprehensive business action plan which was used to source a €1.0M loan/grant facility from the European Union through the Italy/Ghana partnership. The company also has a clear strategic plan, which is described in annual reports, and the accounts are prepared to inform shareholders. These reports clearly state the company's vision for the subsequent years, the business scene in the country, the operating results and share value and dividend.Bookkeeping should be regarded as an integral part of each working day and not as an 'extra chore'. All enterprises should keep financial records that allow easy analysis either by the owner or an accountant. Accurate record keeping is needed to successfully price a product, keep control over production costs and cashflow, and meet the requirements of local tax authorities. To calculate the profitability of the business, a processor also needs to know the level of assets in the business (e.g. cash, machinery, stocks of materials etc.) and any liabilities (loans, creditors, taxes owed, etc.). These figures should be recorded using a balance sheet (see Opportunities in Food Processing, Volume 1, Section 8.2).Remember: the better the records, the easier the accountant's job is and the lower their bill.   The backbone and arms of oils can be split into fatty acids by enzymes named lipases, which are naturally occurring in the crop that contains the oil, and are present in digestive juices. Glycerides can also be split by an alkali, and this reaction is the basis for the production of soap.The fatty acids in oils can also be 'saturated' (known as SFAs or Sats), 'monounsaturated' (known as MUFAs or Monos) and 'poly-unsaturated' (known as PUFAs or Polys). The types of fatty acids that are found in an oil or fat depend on the type of crop (Fig. A2) and whether it has been selectively bred to achieve a particular ratio of fatty acids. Some crops are bred to contain high levels of MUFAs or PUFAs (e.g. some types of safflower oil have up to 78% MUFAs). These oils are therefore commonly called 'unsaturated' oils. Others, such as coconut oil, contain higher levels of saturated fatty acids and these are commonly called 'saturated' oils. It is the difference in the amounts of these different fatty acids that give cooking oils their different qualities. These include their suitability for frying, their shelf life and susceptibility to rancidity, and their nutritional value (Note: In deep fat frying applications, oils such as coconut and palm kernel oil should not be blended with other oils such as palm, soya, rapeseed due to foaming). When the temperature of oils is lowered below their melting point, they form crystals as they become solid fats. The size and shape of the crystals depend on how quickly the temperature is lowered, the purity of the oil, and any stirring while the oil is cooled. These crystals give the different textures to solid fats. Fats can also change between different crystal shapes, from one to another, without melting (known as polymorphism). These changes produce more stable fat crystals and are important for solid fats, such as shea butter and cocoa butter, where the crystals contribute to the texture. It is changes to crystals of cocoa butter that sometimes produce the white 'bloom' on the surface of chocolate. The smoke point is the temperature at which cooking oil begins to break down to form glycerol and fatty acids. On further heating, the fatty acids are driven off and the glycerol is broken down to 'acrolein' to form a bluish smoke above the oil, and is extremely irritating to the eyes and throat. The smoke point is also the temperature at which the flavour of the oil changes and the nutritional value begins to be lost. When fats and oils spoil they produce unpleasant tastes and odours, in chemical reactions known as rancidity. This is very important in all types of food processing, where very small amounts of rancid fat can make a food inedible. It is particularly important in cooking oils, because the product becomes unsaleable. Different types of cooking oils go rancid at different rates, with the ones that contain more unsaturated fatty acids spoiling faster than those that contain more saturated fatty acids. For all oils, the factors that cause rancidity are as follows:• Air.• Heat and light.• Metals (especially copper, brass and iron).• Moisture in the oil.There are two types of rancidity: one type is caused by chemical reactions that are accelerated by air, heat and light and metals (known as oxidative rancidity) and the other (known as hydrolytic rancidity) is caused by moisture, plant material or dust in the oil. The plant material contains enzymes that can break down the oil and both dust and plant material can be contaminated with bacteria or moulds that produce similar enzymes. Moisture in the oil allows the enzymes to act and break down the oil to increase the levels of fatty acids and cause rancidity. Generally, oxidative rancidity is a slower process that can take place when the crop or the extracted oil is stored under incorrect conditions. Hydrolytic rancidity can occur much faster if the oil is not filtered to remove plant material, or heated to destroy micro-organisms and enzymes and to remove moisture.To prevent rancidity, processing and storing oils and fats should therefore take place as follows:1. Ensure that crops are properly dried and stored in a dark place at a constant temperature.2. Process the raw materials quickly to reduce the time available for rancidity to take place.3. Ensure that none of the processing machinery that can come into contact with the oil is made of iron, copper, or any alloys made from these metals (e.g. bronze, brass). Ensure any repairs or brazing do not contain copper or brass. Use only steel (preferably stainless steel), aluminium or plastic.4. Filter the oil after extraction.5. Heat the oil to remove moisture and destroy enzymes and bacteria before packaging it.6. Package the oil in airtight, lightproof and moistureproof containers, and ensure that the packs are properly dried before filling them. Do not use packs or containers that have iron or copper in them. Reused oil containers should be thoroughly cleaned because a film of old oil inside a container will rapidly cause fresh oil to go rancid.7. Store the packaged oil in a dark place at a constant temperature, which should be as low as can be achieved without refrigeration.By following these guidelines, a processor can make cooking oils in which rancidity is slowed (but not stopped altogether) to give a shelf life of many months before the unpleasant rancid tastes develops.The oilcake should be dry to prevent mould growth and stored in a cool dark place to prevent the oil remaining in the cake from going rancid. It should be protected against insects and rodents using the same methods as are used for the raw material.Hydrogenation is a process used to make liquid oils into solid fats (i.e. to make unsaturated fats more saturated). The solid fat, known as 'shortening', is used in many processes, especially baking. Also, more saturated fats have, because of their structure, a greater resistance to development of rancidity and hence a longer shelf life or fry life. However, the conversion of oils to shortenings is not a suitable business for small-scale oil processors in ACP countries. Oil processors should however be aware of these products because they may be competing products in sales to bakeries and other food manufacturers (see also nutritional and health importance below).Oxidative rancidity can be slowed by the use of chemicals known as 'antioxidants'. There are several types used by the food industry, including BHT 5 , BHA 6 , Vitamin E, Vitamin C and TBHQ 7 . However, it is not necessary for small-scale cooking oil producers to have the additional expense of using antioxidants because:Well-made cooking oils have the required shelf life without any additives.Some herbs and spices, such as cloves, rosemary, oregano, sage and vanilla also have antioxidant properties. But because these are strongly flavoured, they are not suitable for use in general-purpose cooking oils, but there may be small specialist markets for flavoured oils in some ACP countries. These herbs also protect oils against rancidity in any recipes that use them.5 Butylated HydroxyToluene 6 Butylated HydroxyAnisole 7 Tertiary-ButylHydroQuinoneOils and fats contain more than twice the calories of carbohydrate or protein (nine calories per gram compared to four calories per gram). This makes cooking oil a valuable source of concentrated energy, which is important in many ACP countries where the diet consists mainly of grains and legumes.Without oil, infants and the elderly on these diets may not be able to eat enough food to get all of the calories they need to avoid weight loss or malnutrition.Fats and oils also have an important role in the taste and texture of foods, and without them many foods are more difficult to eat and are less enjoyable.A small amount of fat in the diet is also necessary for our bodies to properly absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as Vitamins A, D, E and K. Some types of fatty acids, known as Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, cannot be created by the body and must therefore be eaten in fats and oils in foods. These are therefore known as essential fatty acids.However, too much fat in the diet also has important nutritional consequences: eating too much fat contributes to obesity, which can result in diabetes and heart disease. The risk from cancers of the colon, prostate and breast may also be increased by eating too much fat. The degree of saturation of oils is also a factor and highly saturated oils can cause artery hardening and heart disease. These health concerns over eating high levels of saturated oils have encouraged the use of alternative, more unsaturated oils.Rancid fats contain peroxides and other chemicals that may promote the formation of cancers but this has not been studied extensively, and they may also cause hardening of the arteries and heart disease. Hydrogenated oils contain trans-fatty acids, which have also caused health concerns: specifically, trans fatty acids raise the level of 'bad' cholesterol, reduce the level of 'good' cholesterol in the blood, which increases the risk of heart disease.At high temperatures (e.g. during frying) oils break down to form a chemical known as acrylamide, which is potentially carcinogenic. Acrylamide has been shown to produce various types of cancer in mice and rats, but studies with humans have so far failed to produce consistent results. Lower temperature frying at a maximum of 180 o C rather than at 190 o C has been shown to reduce the formation of acrylamide. To fry effectively, the oil to food ratio has to be increased from 6 parts oil to 1 part food to 10 parts oil to 1 part food. If this is not done, the oil cools too much to ensure good frying results.The markets for cooking oils are described in Chapter 2, Section 2.2. In ACP countries, the main use is as an ingredient in many different types of meals prepared in the home or in institutions. However, increasingly in some countries, cooking oils are also used for frying foods either by the growing number of 'fast-food' outlets in urban areas, by roadside snackfood producers (e.g. fried banana or plantain chips) or in restaurants and hotels. Frying oils are therefore a potentially large market for small-scale oil processors.The selection of the types of oils used for frying depends on a number of factors, but the main one is stability against rancidity, both during storage (to give the required shelf life) and for frying for long periods (to give a long 'fry life'). Good quality frying oil should:• Have a low melting point and a high smoke point.• Have a low viscosity.• Not foam or produce gums in the fryer.• Have a bland flavour.• Be low in saturated and trans-fatty acids.• Have a long frying life.• Be low cost.The type of fried product also affects the oil: products that are coated with batters or breading accelerate the breakdown of the oil. Blended vegetable oils (e.g. maize, sunflower and groundnut oils, with or without animal fats), were used previously, but the link between saturated fats and heart disease has resulted in them being replaced with hydrogenated oils. However, health concerns about both saturated and trans-fatty acids in partly hydrogenated oils have more recently prompted food manufacturers and fast-food operators to use more unsaturated oils, such as rapeseed and sunflower oil that have the required frying properties. A blend of refined sesame and rice bran oils is also used, but large scale frying operations still use palm olein for frying because it is cheaper and longer lasting.Competition for ACP oil processors who wish to supply commercial fryers also comes from imported oils that are made from refined oil. There are three basic steps that are used for refining cooking oil, but this type of refining is not suitable for small-scale oil processors: first degumming with phosphoric or citric acid is a pre-treatment prior to neutralisation for many oils; the oil is neutralised to remove free fatty acids by mixing it with caustic soda. The neutralised oil is then bleached to remove the colour using chemicals such as Fullers earth and activated carbon. Finally, the bleached oil is filtered and deodourised using steam under a high vacuum. The resulting refined oil is transparent, odourless and colourless.A wide range of refined oils is made from palm oil and these are likely to be the main imported oils that compete with locally produced cooking oils. These oils are resistant to rancidity and have good flavour stability, which produce a long frying life and product shelf life. Most of these oils have citric acid added as a processing aid, which becomes depleted over time as it scavenges trace metals and reduces the development of rancidity.Some types of moulds produce a variety of toxins (poisons) when they grow on cereals, groundnuts, nuts and oilseeds. Mould growth usually takes place because of inadequate drying of the harvested crop and/or humid storage conditions. Groundnuts are particularly susceptible if they are stored in their shells because inadequately dried nuts can easily become mouldy, but they remain unseen. Methods to correctly harvest and store crops are described in Chapter 4, Section 4.2. In general, the toxins produced by these moulds cause chronic illnesses that may result in cancer or liver damage. The most important types are named aflatoxins, and the optimum temperature for their production is 30 o C; so they are most commonly found in tropical and sub-tropical regions. The most toxic is aflatoxin B 1 , which is often fatal. Once aflatoxins are in the crop, they cannot be destroyed by processing and they pass into both the oil and the oilseed by-product. It is therefore essential that processors use proper quality assurance methods to control the risks of aflatoxins in their raw materials (see Chapter 5, Section 5.4).• Whitby, G. and Sunga, I., '    • Masiero Industrial S.A., P.O. Box 218-219, Jan Sao Paulo, Brazil. Pre-press expellers. • Oil processors who can obtain assistance from a small business advisory service or an international development agency can access to the Internet.The following websites have useful information on oil processing and good links to other sites:• www.fao.org/inpho has details of oil processing equipment and manufacturers around the world.• Fair Trade organisations seek greater equity in international trade. They contribute to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to producers in developing countries, and securing the rights of marginalized producers and workers. Fair Trade organisations support producers, raise awareness and campaign for changes to the rules and practice of conventional international trade. For those who wish to start a small business, food processing offers good opportunities to generate income based on locally available resources. However, there are many pitfalls on the road to success. As an entrepreneur, you need not only technical know-how, but also a variety of business skills and excellent customer care. These aspects are covered in Volume 1 of this series, \"Setting up and running a small food business\", which should be read together with this book.This manual concentrates on running a small-scale cooking oil business and covers important aspects such as production, processing, quality control as well as marketing, packaging, branding and customer care. Advice on how to plan and manage finances is also provided. Each chapter contains tips for success and a useful checklist of the important things that every entrepreneur should address.This book is the result of a collaborative effort by practitioners who support small-scale food processing in developing countries.Other titles in the series include:> Setting up and running a small meat or fish processing enterprise > Setting up and running a small flour mill or bakery > Setting up and running a small-scale dairy processing business > Setting up and running a small fruit or vegetable processing enterprise.9 789290 814788 ISBN 978-92-9081-478-8","tokenCount":"41793"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c240a4cbe3dc72a28daa2261c602c941","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ada70cfe-4d40-4aab-92cc-88bf3c80ad8f/content","id":"1821662834"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d52444e7-393c-44f7-a2bb-8b878cdf4434","pagecount":"5","content":"In Ethiopia there are two cropping seasons: meher (May-September) and belg (February-April) The meher cropping season is the main season that produces more than three-quarters of the nation's total cereal output (USDA-FAS, 2008). Although some wheat is produced in the belg season, most is produced in the meher season, and wheat rust is a major problem during this season. Because of the severity of the problem, the rust early warning and advisory service (EWAS) was started as a pilot in 2015 and transitioned into a more operational system in 2017. To assess the impacts of the EWAS, we collected information directly from the intended clients, i.e., wheat farmers, using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed and pretested during September and October 2020. The survey questionnaire can be found in Annexure A. In addition, we conducted an opinion survey of agricultural extension agents using a simple questionnaire (Annexure B) and conducted targeted focused group discussions (FGDs) using structured questions (Annexure C), mainly to examine the opinions of the agriculture extension officers and officers at the Federal and Regional Bureaus of Agriculture on the usefulness of the EWAS. Finally, during November and December 2020, we deployed our trained enumerators to collect information from nine districts in the Amhara region: Basoliben, Motta, Wonberima, Burie, Lay Gaint, Misrak Estie, Mekiet, Wadila, and Debay Telatgin; and eight districts from the Oromia region: Arsi Robe, Hitosa, Gedeb Assosa, Dodola, Sinana, Agarfa, Ginir and Golocha. The selected districts are all important wheat-producing districts in Ethiopia. Historically, the Amhara region is more prone to yellow rust outbreaks, while the Oromia region is prone to outbreaks of both stem rust and yellow rust. Oromia represents a high-potential wheat-production area, with probably stronger connections than Amhara to research, extension, and inputs. Amhara is also an important wheat production area, but probably has weaker connections to services and inputs. The survey we deployed thus provides us with an opportunity to examine the relative importance of wheat yellow rust and stem rust in Ethiopia and to compare contrasting wheat production systems. Based on the sampling frame, the initial target was to interview 76 farmers from each district, resulting in a total of 1,275 farmers from 17 districts. However, at the end of our survey, we had collected information from about 1,017 farmers. The location of the sampled farm households by district is presented in Figure 1. We collected information on the demographic composition of the sampled households, occupation of the household members, housing conditions, social networks, access to infrastructure, wheat crop management information from the 2019 and 2020 meher seasons, the major biotic and abiotic stresses of wheat including yellow rust and stem rust, the actions of the wheat farmers based on whether or not they received early warning messages and whether or not they applied fungicides. We also asked farmers to evaluate the early warning messaging service. We collected plot-level information on wheat crops: at the time of data collection, the 2020 meher season wheat was still in the field, so only the yield and production information from the 2019 meher season wheat is available in our data.To estimate the approximate economic benefits of the early warning messaging service, we asked the sampled farmers directly what they perceived to be the yield benefit from receiving the messages. The sampled farmers replied to our question in the form of a percentage gain such as <25%, 33%, 50%, or >50%. In calculating the economic benefits of the EWAS, however, we treated the reported yield benefit of >50% as the same as the reported yield benefit of 50% for ease of calculation. Our approach to calculating the economic benefits of the EWAS is subjective but aims to give an initial impression of the potential benefits of the EWAS. Using this information, we calculated the economic gain of the early warning messaging service as follows:!\" # = %\" # × ()* +,-.#(1) !/0 # = !\" # / 2ℎ456 789:4 9; <=$/?@ (2)Where EVi in Eq. ( 1) is the equivalent yield gain calculated as the reported yield gain %\" # multiplied by the actual yield (kg/ha) in 2019. Finally, the equivalent monetary gain !/0 # from the early warning messaging is calculated as %\" # divided by the price of wheat in US$/kg. In this study, the exchange rate between the US$ and the Ethiopia birr is set at US $1= 37.461 birr (Exchange Rate U.K. 2021).In this report, data are mostly presented in a simple descriptive tabular format. We have also employed inferential statistics, such as the Ordinary Least Square (OLS), probit, multinomial and multivariate probit, two-part model estimation procedure, and Poisson regression analysis to elucidate the opinions of the farmers on the severity of rust, on whether or not the early warning service was beneficial, and finally, on whether or not they would like to purchase the early warning services. In the econometric estimation process, we have mainly used education, experience, family composition, and district of the households as the independent variables.To triangulate findings from the household survey, data was collected from development agents at the kebele (sub-district) level using a separate questionnaire. To assess changes at the institution level, focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with federal and regional institutions. The FGDs were made with purposively selected federal and regional institution representatives and experts who had a direct responsibility for guiding high-level decision-making and/or providing expert advice and/or services for crop production and protection. The institutions involved in the focus group discussions were the Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Oromia Region Agriculture Bureau, Amhara Region Agriculture Bureau, and CGIAR centers. In terms of responsibility, individuals involved in the group discussions were directors, bureau/division heads, researchers, and experts. The list of the participants is given in Table 1. The group discussions compared the situation before 2014 and after 2015 and were based on structured guiding questions on the detection and monitoring of rust epidemics, planning for fungicide purchase and wheat rust management, communication of rust incidences from federal to regional institutions and development agents and farmers, and major rust management practices. The discussants forwarded their views freely on the questions presented, and after listing all the ideas forwarded, those points agreed by all the participants were recorded as the final views of the group. Since the wheat rust early warning advisory service started in 2015, the guiding questions were designed to compare crop protection/rust management practices, processes, capacity, and policies over two periods: 2010-14 (before) and 2015-2020 (after) the rust early warning advisory service began.","tokenCount":"1087"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dc3cf5ced730dbfd9a161d787357ba92","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2ce10d20-fca9-4dc6-8e94-8a6b537696a7/retrieve","id":"579751717"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3db4ba57-f2f0-4044-85d2-0b41dd00809d","pagecount":"9","content":"VIAJE en COMÚN Desarrollo de capacidades sobre la Agricultura Sostenida Adaptada al Clima (ASAC) en Centroamérica para fortalecer las políticas y la toma de decisiones para las acciones de adaptación y mitigación del cambio climático.Para la microcuenca de Santa Isabel, se utilizó el escenario de 450,000 US$ de inversión, En la tabla 1 se aprecian las actividades asignadas por costo para la microcuenca de Santa Isabel. Criterios para iniciar el proceso de priorización de prácticas ASAC:Este paso permitió perfilar un grupo de medidas que están acorde a realidades socioculturales, ambientales, económicas, político-institucionales y de educación e información. Bajo cada dimensión, cada grupo de trabajo tuvo una lista base de ejemplo de preguntas guía que permite la evaluación de las prácticas a través de dichas dimensiones.Resultado 4+ Prácticas con mayor puntaje según criterios propuestosEl listado inicial de 8 prácticas fue identificado teniendo en cuenta el contexto geográfico y climático. Posteriormente evaluado acorde a los criterios de selección. Véase en tabla 2.Tabla 2. Prácticas con mayor puntaje según criterios propuestos. 2) KoBoToolbox (Registro de información de cultivos en base de datos digital).3) 5Q (Cultura de monitoreo para toma de decisiones).Tabla. 3 Reporte beneficiados por mensajes de texto por país. ","tokenCount":"197"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..62b336defa3f1e77bb37ded0aed8a6cc0bb44078
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e964c4ad5c28eea6e933b985f00b7f60","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3c47e1f4-c68b-423c-b3ba-3b844d418fc5/retrieve","id":"-2102363975"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8acf0cfe-fd64-4d45-b649-7a717fe7d5c4","pagecount":"13","content":"Genética y citogeneticamente la yuca es uno de los cultivos menos conocidos. En los últimos aftas se han acumulado conocimientos en muchos otros aspectos pero se puede profundizar un poco más en lo relacionado a su genética y citogenética lo cual podría ser de gran ayuda en el mejoramiento genético del cultivo. Este artículo presenta un resumen de los conocimientos a cerca de la genética, citogénetica, descripción de la estructur~ floral, hábito de floración y técnicas de hibridación de la yuca.Las plantas que producen flores se pueden dividir en tres grupos de acuerdo con su sistema de mejorami.ento. En el primer grupo están las especies que se autopolinizan. Para estas especies las plantas i~ dividuales dentro de una población son homocigotas en 1~ mayoría de los locus. Entre los rasgos más importantes estan una poca disminución del vigor oriGinado por el efecto de consanguinidad y de que una vez una planta llega a ser homocigota es ta se puede propagar indefinidamente por medio de semilla s.in ningún cambio en su es tru~tura genética .El s egundo método incluye cultivos que tiene n polinización cruzada. Para cada planta se mantiene un alto grado de heterocigosis. La consanguinidad origina una marcada pérdida del vigor . En mucho s casos varios mecanismos tales como la auto incompatibilidad fisiológica, monoecia, ~ioecia, proto gini~ y protandría han evolucionado para dar origen a la polinización cruzada.Tercero, algunas especies son intermerlias estre auto-polini7.ados y de polinización cruzada . La polinización cruzada ocurre cuan~o los medios que la favorecen e~tán presentes aunque la autopolinizacióri también ocurre frecuentemente. Generalmente la consanguinidad no causa mucha perdida de vigor.La yuca pertenece a la segunda c ategor ía. Los conocimientos que hay sobre esta mate ria indican que la yuca es altamente heterocigota . Esta conclusión, se basa principalmente en dos criterios. Primero, cuando se presenta autopolinización hay una drástica reducción del vigor en sus progenies hasta tal punto de que muchas plantas no pueden sobrevivir más de una generación de autopolinización (Ka~•!a no et al,l978). Segunda, la segregación que se observa en los caracteres morfológicos y en otros rasgos, cuando se cruzan dos clones distintos,es muy amplia indicando así que los genes son heterocigotes en muchos locus.Genética y Citogenética de la Yuca.Todos los cultivares de yuca asi como las especies silvestres hasta ahora estudiadas tienen un número de cromosomas de 36 (Graner, 1935;• Perry, 1943;Hartman, 1973;Nassar, 1978) .Usualmente el número básico de cromosomas en la familia de las Euforbiaceas es de ocho y el cincuenta por ciento de las especies es poliploide. Hagoon et al (1969) estudiaron el complemento ciomofomico del paquiteno para un-cultivar de yuca. En base a la morfología de lo s cromosomas determinaron un idiograma del juego haploide de cromoso~~s. Identificaron seis juegos de cromosomas duplicados y tres tipos de cromosomas nucleares con lo cual catalogan a la yuca como poliploide. A partir de las diferencias presentes en los otros cromosomas y de la morfología de los cromosomas nu cleares concluyeron de que esta especie es más alopoliploide que auto~ poliploide . Umanah y Hartman (1973) comparando lo s kariotipos de M. esculenta y ~1. glaziovii encontraron similitudes morfolÓgicas , especialmente en su-longitud media, rango de longitudes, posición del centromero y número de satélites. Consideraron el kariotio de naturaleza asimétrica, lo cual es una característica de las especies más avanzadas de sde el punto de vista evolutivo. Las anormalidades meióticas no son escasas. Estas consisten principalmente de cromonomas demorados en su desplazamiento hacia l os polos durante la anafase,bivalentes mal orientadas y de a•normalidades en la segunda división meiótica (Moh, 1966). Sin embargo, estas ocurren solamente en un porcentaje muy bajo y tienen poco efecto en la fertilidad.Las aberraciones relacionadas con la florac ión en un cultivo de propagación vegetativa tal como la yuca es de esperarse que sean comunes puesto que la flora.ción y la producción de semillas no ejercen ninguna función en la propagac ión normal de este cultivo. La esterili dad ma~c ulina es común y esta puede ser de dos tipos: que las flores ahorten antes de alcanzar madurez o cuando la s flores maduran pero las anteras no producen polen (Ka\\• lano et al. 197 8) .Sin embargo la gené tica de la esterilidad masculina n;;-hasido aún estudiada.-Los estudios genét i cos en yuca han s i do hasta ahora más bien escasos debidos en parte a la dificultad de conformar un ~squema de cruzamiento que se ajuste a cualquiera de los diseños sistemáticos comunmente utilizados. Los dist intos cultivares varían mucho en el número de frutos y en la época de floración. AÚn más, la posible naturaleza poliploide de l a yuca complica las interpretaciones.As{ mismo, se han identificado genes marcadores para tr es caract~ r{sticas. Estudios hechos por Graner (1942) y Jos y Hrishi (1976) demostraron que l a segregación presentada por los caracteres ancho y angosto en lo s lóbulo s de la s hojas es tán controlados por un so l o gene. Aunque la edad y el ambiente afectan la anchura del lóbul o los cultivares se pueden ubicar fácilmente en cua lquiera de estas dos clases. Los resultados indicaron que los lóbul os angostos son dominantes y los anchos, r eccsivo s .La coloración roja y verde de las venas de las hojas también ha sido usado como un gen marcador, pero el número de genes que la controla a~n no ha sido estudiada (Kawano et al, 1978). tinalmente, Graner (1942) estudiando la coloración de las raíces encontró que el color oscuro es domiñante sobre el blanco.Estudios preliminares de varios caracteres agronómicos y resistencia a insectos han indicado que estos están controlados por muchos genes. La resistencia a la enfermedad del mosaico africano (CMD) fué reportada por Doughty (1958) y Jennings (1970) como de naturaleza multigénica. Esto fue luego confirmado por Hahra y Hot..rland (1972) en evo::.luaciones con cerca de 10.000 plantas segregantes y 72 familias. La resistencia mostra da en un cruce dialélico fué• también de naturaleza recesiva y de una her~ dabilidad de aproximadamente del 60% (Hahn et al, In Press). Un poco mis tarde, Jennings (1976) estudiando la resistencia-al mosaico africano (CND) y a la enfermedad del veteado oscuro (CBS) observó que en ambos casos la resistencia es heredada predominantemente de una manera aditiva aunque no hay dominancia significativa para la res:ilstencia al mosaico africano (CMD). La resistencia a la bacteriosis de\\ la yuca (CBB) ha sido mostrado en forma tentativa de que es controlada por muchos genes actua~ do en una forma aditiva (CIAT, 1978). También experimentos de campo han mostrado que existe resistencia multigénica no espec{fica.de nna raza y que debe ser utilizada en programas de mejoramiento (CIAT, 1979).Características tales como rendimiento total por planta, Índice de cosecha (proporción entre el peso de raíces y el peso total de la planta), materia seca de la raíz, deterioro de las raíces después de la cosecha han mostrado un alto coeficiente de regresión entre progenitores y progenies, indicando así un efecto aditivo de los ge nes para tales rasgos ( CIAT, 1975( CIAT, , 1976)). El contenido de HCN en las raíces parece que est~ regulado por un gen recesivo menos complejo (Hal-::1, !:.!:_al, In Press). Hábito de . Floración y Estructura de la Flor La yuca es una especie monoica que posee flores estamin:tdas y pi~ tiladas en la misma inflorescencia.La floración siempre ~stá acomp~ nada con la ramificación del tallo, de tal manera que los cultivares que no ramifican, no florecen. Las plantas florecen preferencialmente durante los días cortos del año (Jenning s . 1970). Sin embargq el efecto de la temperatura y su interacción con la duración del día no ha sido aún bie n documentada. La s flores masc ulinas son terminales y lGs feme ninas se encuentran en la parte basal de la inflorescencia , El hábito de floración es protogineo, es decir, las flores femenina:> abren una o dos semanas antes de las masculinas. Est e es un mecanismo que favorece la exogamía. Generalmente en la misma inflore scencia se encuentran pocas flores femeni nas y muchas masculinas (Fig. 1).En la flor femenina el perianto es pental~bulado y el pistilo pr~ senta un anillo basal (Fig. 2). El ovario es trilocular, esférico con un estigma e~ forma de cabeza con tres lóbulos. En cada lóculo hay un óvulo penduloso, anatropo con una rafe ventral y el micrópilo dirigido hacia arriba. En la punta del tegumento interno se forma un tejido sua ve, la carúntula, que cubre el óvulo.Las flores masculinas tienen el perianto en forma de copa con cinco lóbulos imbricados que circundan un disco glándular de 10 lóbulos (Fig. 3). Las anteras están distribuidas en dos niveles, en la parte interna cinco anteras pequenas con filamentos cortos encurvados hacia el centro y cinco más largas con filamentos sobresalientes. Los estambres pequeftos están opuestos a los lóbulos del perianto mientras que los más grandes alternan con estos. Las anteras están adheridas en la parte dorsal de cada filamento y se abren en ranuras longitudinales. El polen sale de las anteras 2 a 2.1/2 horas antes de que las flor e s abran y la dehiscencia total finaliza muy pronto, generalmente antes de que la flor abra totalmente. Los granos de polen son grandes, esféricos y muy poca cantidad en cada saco. El polen es pegajoso y aparentemente la polinización se lleva a cabo por los insectos. El polen seco permanece viable por cerca de seis días {Chandraratna y Nanayakkara, 1948).El tamafto r e lativamente grande de las flores junto con la manoecia y protoginia presentes en la yuca hacen que la polinización controlada sea fácil. Generalmente las flores femeninas y masculinas de la misma rama nunca abren simultáneamente pero si es común que flores tanto femeninas como masculinas de diferentes ramas de la misma planta florezcan al mismo tiempo. Esto ocurre generalmente en las horas del medio día (Fig. 2 y 3 ).Con un poco de práctica y basados en el color y forma de la flor es posible predP.c ir qué flores femeninas abrirán en el mismo día. Un método má s efectivo es desprender uno de los pétalos de una . flor que aún no esté abierta. La presencia de una go ta de néctar en la base del pétalo indica que la flor abrirá el mismo día (Fig. 4).Cuando se van a efectuar las polinizaciónes las flores escogidas para ello se cubre n con bolsas de tela (20x25 cms) en la mañana del día que se va a reali zar el cruzamiento con el objeto de protegerlas de polen extrano de s pués de que abran (Fig . 5). Las flore s masculinas próximas a abrir en ese mismo día se colectan por la mafiana y se depositan en frascos de plástico o de vidrio identificando el nombre de la variedad ( Fig. 6). Dentro del frasco éstas abrirán en las horas del medio día.La polinización se lleva a cabo descubriendo las flores femeninas y frotando suavemente las anteras con el polen sobre el estigma (Fig. 7). Con una flor masc ulina se pueden polinizar tres femeninas. Luego de esto las flores polinizadas se identifican con tiquetes en los cuales se anota el cruzamiento, la fecha y el número de flore s polinizadas ( Fig. 8). Las flores femeninas que no han abierto al momento de hacer la polinización se eliminan con el fín de evitar posteriormente confusiones con las que han sido polinizadas.La informaciÓn de todos los cruces de un día se tabulan en un formato y más tarde se pasa a un sistema de tarjetas 3 x 5. De esta manera se pueden organizar los cruces primero por padre femenino y después por el recíproco s iguiendo un Órden alfabético para cada p~Ís y el número del clon. Esta información se puede pasar fácilmente al computador para tener fácil acceso a la información de las hibridaciones y más que todo para una mayor organización.Las flores polinizadas se pueden cubrir inmediatamente con una bolsa de tela o papel o bien dejarse descubiertas (Fig. 9). En las flores que se dejan sin cubrir después de polinizar, el porcentaje de frutos formados frecuentemente disminuye y además parece que no• hay mucha contaminación en las flores que se dejan a libre exposición (Ka• . . mÍ:lO ~ al, 1978). Sin embargo después de dos semanas los frutos se deben cubrir para prevenir ataque de la mosca de• la fruta y también para recoger las semillas cuando los frutos abran. Los frutos alcanzan su madurez a los tres meses después de la poliniz2ción. El fruto es globular de un diámetro aproximado de dos centímetros y con seis alas muy delcadas y angostas ( Fig. 10). La c5psula es •dura y con tres 1~ culos cada uno de los cuales contiene una semilla ( Fig. 11). Las se millas son elípticas, de color negro o gris o de ambos. La cubierta gr uesa y dura.Las semillas se empacan en sobres peque~os identificando lo s padres, fecha de cosecha de los frutos•, número de semillas y el código del cruzamiento (Fig. 12). Con respecto a las condiciones Óptimas de almacenamiento de la semilla de yuca hay muy poca información. Bajo condicio nes ambientales de laboratorio, la germinación disminuye •drásticamentedespués de dos aüos..,)Martín y Rubertc (1976) encontraron sin embargo que e l almacenamiento en seco ( en cloruro de calcio) en condiciones de l aboratorio produce buena germinación aún después de almacenar las semillas más de dos a~os. Estas condiciones de almacenamiento fueron superiores al almacenamiento a 3-4°C. En el IITA, Nigeria (liTA, 1979) en estudios de germinación de semillas que han sido almacenadas por ~s de siete af'!.os a 5°C y 60 % de humedad r e lativa, no s e encontró ninguna diferen cia en la viabilidad de las semillas e ntre O y 7 afios de edad .Durante la germinación la radícula sal e a traves del micr6p i l o y ori gina las raíces, a ~u vez el hipocotilo se encurva y se alarga permitiendo asi, que los cotiledones emerjan de l a semilla.Se ha sugerido una temperatura alternada de 25°/35 °C como una de las mejores condiciones para l a germinaci6n de semilla de la yuca. Los resultados indican que con estas temper a turas se obtienen mejores resultados para las semillas que han sido almacenadas en diferentes períodos que para una temperatura Óptima constante de 35°C (Ellis y Roberts , 1979).   ","tokenCount":"2397"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4118968341.json b/data/part_6/4118968341.json
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+++ b/data/part_6/4118968341.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7afcc3ecaf50ea1591c027910ec71b3e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a26da6ae-af0d-4519-ab6f-e877914d138b/retrieve","id":"-964700159"},"keywords":["cassava","erosion","extension","farmer participation","research","vetiver","Thailand"],"sieverID":"b551ec67-ecc8-44ea-9e74-7699bcb1082f","pagecount":"1","content":"Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the third most important food crop in southeast Asia and the most important upland crop in the northeast of Thailand. The crop is usually grown by small-holders in marginal areas of sloping or undulating land. Most farmers realize, however, that cassava production on slopes can cause severe erosion, while production without fertilizers will lead to a gradual decline in soil productivity.In order to enhance the adoption of new varieties and improve the sustainability of cassava production under a wide range of socio-economic and bio-physical conditions, a farmer participatory research (FPR) approach was used to evaluate promising cassava germplasm, and to develop effective soil conservation practices, balanced fertilization and cropping systems that tend to produce greater short-term benefits. This FPR project, funded by the Nippon Foundation from 1994 to 2003, started initially in only 2-3 sites (villages) each in China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, but later expanded to about 32 sites in Thailand, 35 in Vietnam and 33 in southern China. By the end of the project, new high yield and high starch varieties had been adopted in nearly 1 million ha (98% of cassava area) in Thailand, 100,000 ha (40%) in Vietnam and 36,000 ha (10%) in China, benefiting at least 800,000 cassava farmers. The new varieties and improved agronomic practices adopted by farmers resulted in a gradual and substantial (2.6 t/ha) increase in cassava yields in Thailand as well as a significant increase of 4.2 t/ha in Vietnam from 1994 to 2002. In both countries cassava has become on important vehicle for rural development and has given farmers new hope for a better future.","tokenCount":"270"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4132161489.json b/data/part_6/4132161489.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9122517ecb194204cadd98bba3e3775c61f18901
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"17f46f8d2dd8db4b9c059b9245355872","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b0534ba1-4477-46e8-b33a-617a6515ae34/content","id":"-49716722"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1543861c-515d-4cbe-ae21-c04f3fbd9395","pagecount":"50","content":"CIMMYT, www.cimmyt.org) es una organización dedicada a la capacitación e investigación científica, con financiamiento Internacional, sin fines de lucro y con sede en México. El CIMMYT trabaja con instituciones de investigación agrícola en todo el mundo para mejorar la productividad, rentabilidad y sostenibilidad de los sistemas de maíz y trigo para agricultores pobres en las naciones en desarrollo. Esta es una de las 16 organizaciones de la alimentación y el medio ambiente conocidas como Centros de Future Harvest (www.futureharvest.org), que se encuentran en todo el mundo y realizan investigaciones en colaboración con agricultores, científicos y formuladores de políticas para ayudar a mitigar la pobreza e incrementar la seguridad alimentaria, a la vez que protegen los recursos naturales. Estos centros son apoyados por el Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIARwww.cgiar.org), entre cuyos miembros figuran cerca de 60 países, fundaciones privadas y organismos regionales e internacionales. El apoyo financiero para la agenda de investigación del CIMMYT también proviene de otras fuentes como fundaciones, bancos de desarrollo y entidades de los sectores público y privado.El Consorcio para la Información Espacial del CGIAR (CSI, http://www.spatial-info.org) surgió de la colaboración entre los centros del CGIAR y el programa Global Resource Information Database, del Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente, Arendal, Noruega (GRID-Arendal), con el fin de promover el uso eficaz de los sistemas de información geográfica (GIS) en el desarrollo agrícola internacional. El Consorcio crea mecanismos para estandarizar los conjuntos de datos en el CGIAR, compartir metodologías y soluciones, y facilitar la colaboración entre los centros; además sirve como plataforma para unir esfuerzos en la investigación agrícola internacional con base en los GIS, a nivel local, regional y mundial. El núcleo de miembros es de 10 instituciones.El CGIAR estableció el Servicio Central de Asesoría del CGIAR sobre la Propiedad Intelectual (CAS) en 1999 (http://www.cgiar.org/isnar/cas/), para facilitar el intercambio de experiencias y conocimientos entre los centros del CGIAR y proporcionarles la asistencia de expertos en asuntos relacionados con la propiedad intelectual.CIMMYT-CGIAR 2002. Derechos reservados. Las opiniones que se expresan en esta publicación son responsabilidad de los autores exclusivamente. Las designaciones o denominaciones empleadas en la presentación de materiales en esta publicación, no implican la expresión de ninguna opinión, ya sea por parte del CIMMYT o de sus organizaciones patrocinadoras, en torno al estado jurídico de cualquier país, territorio, ciudad o zona, ni de sus autoridades, ni en relación con la demarcación de sus límites o fronteras. El CIMMYT promueve el amplio uso de este material, con la sola condición de que se reconozca la fuente.La información es un bien público clásico. El hecho de que una persona haga uso de la información no afecta las aplicaciones que puedan darle otras personas. En una sociedad que se globaliza cada vez más, el acceso y los análisis basados en la apertura incrementan los conocimientos y el entendimiento, y contribuyen a mejorar el bienestar social general. El sector público, más que el privado, invierte en la recolección de información primaria, ya sea mediante censos, percepción remota o encuestas orientadas a catar el bienestar general. La mayoría de esta información (aunque no toda) permanece en el dominio público. Sin embargo, el sector público no ha invertido lo suficiente en el proceso que vincula la producción de datos (la mayoría de los cuales se hallan en las instituciones de ese sector) con el análisis de los mismos. Esta falta de inversión ha dado un espacio institucional a la iniciativa del sector privado en el cotejo y generación de bases de datos, productos de datos, y software analítico y de obtención de datos. Si bien es cierto que una mayor aplicación de los derechos de propiedad intelectual a los anteriores productos ha fomentado el vínculo entre la oferta y la demanda de información, esto también ha creado incertidumbre respecto a la propiedad de los datos y la posibilidad de que se restrinja el acceso a éstos, lo cual, a su vez, ha llevado a las instituciones del sector público a tener ciertas reservas en cuanto a su distribución ilimitada.La creciente demanda de los conjuntos de datos multinacionales y mundiales, la expansión de la cobertura de los acuerdos comerciales sobre la propiedad intelectual, en particular el Acuerdo sobre los Aspectos de los Derechos de Propiedad Intelectual relacionados con el Comercio (TRIPS, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement) y el rápido avance de la tecnología de la comunicación y de las bases de datos (a menudo sin distinción clara entre software e información), han intensificado la necesidad de hacer más transparente la aplicación de los derechos de propiedad intelectual. Esto se aplica a los productores, usuarios y patrocinadores de datos e información. La Fundación Rockefeller desde hace algún tiempo ha operado en el área de la aplicación de las leyes de patentes a la biotecnología agrícola, a fin de asegurar que estas útiles investigaciones se puedan emplear en el mundo en desarrollo.La conferencia y este informe sobre la aplicación de cuestiones jurídico-legales en el área de la información ambiental y agrícola por el CGIAR-CSI (Consorcio para la Información Espacial), el CIMMYT y el CG-CAS (Servicio Central de Consultoría sobre la Propiedad Intelectual), extienden estos aspectos al área del flujo de información a nivel internacional y dan la pauta para realizar una primera evaluación e iniciar la concientización del público respecto a este importante tema. La comunidad mundial dedicada a la investigación agrícola y la protección del medio ambiente depende del flujo libre de información y, para garantizar este flujo en el futuro, debe trabajar dentro del expandido ámbito de los derechos de propiedad intelectual, en el que la transferencia de datos debe ir acompañada por licencias que permiten su uso. Estos requisitos atañen de manera particular a las entidades que patrocinan la recolección de datos y el desarrollo de productos, y que desean asegurar que los derechos de la propiedad intelectual no obstaculicen el libre flujo de la información en la que invirtieron.El CGIAR, el CIMMYT y el CAS han dado un primer paso fundamental hacia evaluar la aplicación de los derechos de propiedad intelectual en la recolección, cotejo e intercambio de información geoespacial. Es cierto que estas aplicaciones evolucionarán y posiblemente lleguen a ser aún más restrictivas. Por tanto, la comunidad internacional de investigación agrícola tiene la responsabilidad de tratar de entender la aplicación de los derechos de propiedad intelectual en su obra y trabajar dentro de este entorno cambiante para mantener un medio de investigación vigoroso y abierto.John K. Lynam, Director Asociado, Programa de Seguridad Alimentaria, Fundación Rockefeller.El mundo del manejo de los recursos naturales y la investigación agrícola depende cada vez de los métodos de desarrollo e investigación basados en los análisis integrados de datos. En esos análisis resultan fundamentales las disciplinas y fuentes de información que se emplean junto con herramientas basadas en software, como los sistemas de información geográfica (GIS), el análisis de imágenes y los modelos de simulación, pues es bien sabido que esas herramientas tienen una gran necesidad de datos, lo cual obliga a los usuarios a tomar datos de diversas fuentes. En este proceso suelen surgir interrogantes respecto a la propiedad y calidad de los datos, y la confiabilidad de los productos.En las actividades del Laboratorio de GIS y de Modelamiento del CIMMYT, uno de los autores (Jeff White) empezó a notar que las instituciones colaboradoras esperaban que el intercambio de datos fuera acompañado por acuerdos de transferencia. También en las labores colaborativas y contratadas del Laboratorio surgieron preguntas acerca de la propiedad del código del software y el uso permitido de las herramientas comerciales. Al tratar estos asuntos, surgió la oportunidad para el recién fundado Servicio Central de Asesoría (CAS) del CGIAR de colaborar con el CIMMYT en la revisión de los temas de la propiedad intelectual en el contexto del uso de la información espacial. Dado que una revisión de esta índole podía interesar a un gran número de investigadores, especialistas de desarrollo y administradores, se tomó la decisión de efectuarla con el patrocinio del Consorcio para la Información Espacial (CSI) del CGIAR.En un taller realizado durante la reunión denominada \"Aplicaciones geoespaciales en apoyo de la agricultura internacional sostenible\" (Geospatial Applications to Support Sustainable International Agriculture, GASSIA) celebrada en el Centro de Datos USGS EROS, en Dakota del Sur, Estados Unidos, se usó un borrador del manuscrito como material informativo. Además de las preguntas y comentarios de un grupo entusiasta e interesado de 40 participantes, hubo cinco expertos que dieron sus puntos de vista acerca de temas específicos:• George Cho (Universidad de Canberra, Australia). Abogado, profesor y autor del libro Geographic Information Systems and the Law (Los sistemas de información geográfica y la ley) (1998; John Wiley &Sons).• Laila Aslesen (Servicio Nacional de Cartografía, Noruega). Abogada y coordinadora del grupo de expertos para 40 entidades europeas de cartografía (Eurogeographics).• Sheree Westell (del bufete jurídico Taylor Joynson Garret, Reino Unido). Abogada especializada en tecnologías de la información.• Santiago Borrero (Director General del Instituto Geográfico \"Agustín Codazzi\", Colombia). Geógrafo y presidente del Comité Directivo de la Infraestructura Global de Datos Espaciales (GSDI Global Spatial Data Infrastructure)• Paul Uhlir (Director, Programa internacional de Información Científica y Técnica, Academias Nacionales de Estados Unidos). Abogado y experto en el acceso a la investigación del sector público.El taller ofreció la oportunidad única de evaluar las inquietudes y niveles de entendimiento entre los posibles lectores y de beneficiarse de los aportes del grupo de expertos. El valor de estos aportes se reflejó en nuestra decisión de disminuir el énfasis en la responsabilidad legal y en las políticas de protección y difusión de los datos generados por los gobiernos.Este proceso confirmó nuestra sospecha de que el primer borrador contenía demasiados detalles para ser fácilmente legible. Por tanto, se omitió parte de la información, la cual está disponible en el sitio web del CAS. 1 Para suplir ese hueco, existe la posibilidad de que se desarrollen módulos de capacitación que profundicen en temas específicos (por ejemplo, en el almacenamiento de registros de laboratorio o la elaboración e implementación de contratos para el desarrollo de conjuntos de datos o de software).Los autores desean expresar su gratitud a la Fundación Rockefeller, en especial a John Lynam, por apoyar la investigación inicial y la correspondiente publicación, así como también a los cinco expertos que participaron en el taller GASSIA, por su aporte entusiasta, y a los organizadores de GASSIA, por su asistencia. Shawn Sullivan, asesor en la propiedad intelectual en el CIMMYT; hizo contribuciones muy importantes sobre los conceptos legales.Los autores agradecen al Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi de Colombia (IGAC) por los esfuerzos dedicados a producir la traducción al español del original de este documento en inglés, particularmente a Dora Inés Rey Martínez, Secretaria Ejecutiva del Comité Permanente Regional para la Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de las Américas (CP IDEA) y coordinadora de la Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales del IGAC; a Ana María Palacino, profesional del IGAC para el tema de infraestructuras de datos; y a Alexandra Granados Medina, traductora. Asimismo, expresan su reconocimiento a Alma McNab, redactora-editora del CIMMYT, por la extensa revisión y edición del manuscrito en español.Por último, deseamos subrayar que este manual es una herramienta de concientización, no un recurso de consulta jurídico-legal. Los lectores tendrán que decidir, con base en su buen juicio, cuándo determinado aspecto puede resolverse a través del sentido común y cuándo es necesario solicitar asesoramiento jurídico-legal.Roger A. Longhorn, Victoria Henson-Apollonio y Jeffrey W. White1 Este material aparece en el sitio web de CAS.Capítulo 1. IntroducciónLa información espacial, la información geográfica o los geodatos -o el término que se prefieraes, antes que todo, \"información\". El intercambio de información entre personas o instituciones suscita preguntas específicas acerca de su propiedad, uso autorizado, uso futuro y calidad implícita, entre ellas:• Si un laboratorio compra un conjunto de datos de puntos de referencia para crear un mapa interpolado, ¿conserva el vendedor los derechos sobre los datos trazados en el mapa?• ¿Cómo dar acceso amplio a una gran base de datos, fruto de 25 años de trabajo, sin perder el control legal sobre ella?• ¿Tiene algún significado legal la frase \"sólo para usos no comerciales\"?• ¿Es posible proteger un nuevo algoritmo de software a fin de generar regalías en el futuro?• Como usuario de datos o software de \"fuente abierta\", ¿cuáles son mis derechos y responsabilidades?• Si los mapas o conjuntos de datos contienen errores sustanciales, ¿son los proveedores legalmente responsables del daño o pérdidas que éstos acarreen?En este documento se examinan conceptos de la propiedad intelectual y otros aspectos legales relacionados con los sistemas de información geográfica (GIS, geographic information systems) que se utilizan en el manejo de los recursos naturales y la agricultura. Entre los temas abordados figuran los derechos de autor, las patentes, la protección legal de las bases de datos, la confidencialidad y la privacidad de la información, las licencias y la responsabilidad legal. El objeto de esta obra es brindar un manual introductorio que ayude a guiar las actividades cotidianas de las personas que efectúan investigación en el manejo de los recursos naturales y la agricultura.La evolución del campo de los aspectos legales relacionados con los GIS es acelerada y, actualmente, están bajo consideración diferentes acuerdos internacionales y leyes nacionales que afectarán el uso de los datos espaciales y el software con el que se manejan. Un aspecto clave de estos acuerdos es cómo hacer respetar los derechos de los propietarios sin eregir barreras que impidan el flujo de datos e información procesada, tan necesarios para la investigación en el manejo de los recursos naturales y la agricultura.Al leer este documento, las reacciones iniciales pueden ser: \"¿por qué tanta preocupación?\" o \"esto es muy complejo, así que trataré de ignorarlo\". A pesar de que los aspectos legales relacionados con los GIS son complejos y están en continua evolución dentro del mundo de la tecnología de la información y el comercio internacional, nosotros pensamos que el manejo adecuado de la propiedad intelectual es factible y fundamental para la buena ciencia. En cualquier proyecto bien llevado, las fuentes de datos y de herramientas siempre se monitorean, al mismo tiempo que se respetan los derechos de las personas o instituciones, en particular en relación con sus esfuerzos creativos. Las actividades de investigación nunca deberían interrumpirse debido a desacuerdos que podrían haberse evitado mediante el diálogo abierto y el registro de las fuentes de datos o las licencias de software.Aunque nuestra atención se centra en temas legales, el lector debe recordar que el propósito de las leyes es expresar las normas políticas y morales de la sociedad. Lo ideal sería que los investigadores basaran sus decisiones y acciones en lo que es correcto desde una perspectiva ética o de las políticas, y luego descubrieran que éstas reflejan lo que las leyes permiten. Como la mayoría de los investigadores están de acuerdo en algunos principios morales básicos (por ejemplo, que el trabajo arduo debe reconocerse y que la investigación debe conducirse con el debido cuidado para evitar errores o resultados incorrectos), debería ser sencillo lograr un consenso sobre el uso de la propiedad intelectual. Ahora bien, pueden presentarse situaciones en las que se tiene el derecho legal a usar los datos o el software, pero no se usan porque las consecuencias morales o políticas pesan más que los posibles beneficios de ese uso.Quizá el mensaje más importante de este manual sea la necesidad de entender claramente cómo la protección de propiedad intelectual del software o los datos puede afectar la colaboración o transferencia de un producto. En la mayoría de las situaciones, este entendimiento debe asentarse por escrito en un acuerdo aceptable a todos los interesados.El Apéndice presenta una lista básica para manejar la propiedad intelectual y los aspectos legales relacionados con la información y herramientas de software requeridas o creadas por los investigadores de un proyecto, en especial si en él participan entidades internacionales. El sitio web del CGIAR-CAS ofrece a los lectores acceso a otras listas y materiales de referencia.Este manual no pretende sustituir la orientación jurídico-legal. Cuando los lectores tengan problemas específicos relacionados con una licencia o contrato, se les insta a consultar con expertos que estén familiarizados con el tema y que tengan experiencia en la jurisdicción geográfica en cuestión, dado que las leyes varían de un país a otro.Propiedad intelectual. Se considera propiedad intelectual todo resultado de la actividad creativa del hombre en la industria, la ciencia o el arte. Las leyes otorgan derechos sobre la propiedad intelectual básicamente de dos tipos (WTO, 2001):1. Los derechos de autor, y otros afines a éstos, que protegen las obras artísticas y literarias.2. La propiedad industrial (incluidas las patentes, el diseño industrial y el secreto industrial), protegida a fin de fomentar la innovación, el diseño y la creación de nuevas tecnologías y las marcas registradas y los nombres o títulos geográficos (por ejemplo, \"Champagne\" 2 ), protegidos por razones económicas.El término \"dominio público\" con frecuencia se usa para indicar que algo se puede obtener gratis, pero en un contexto jurídico-legal el término indica que no hay restricciones ni derechos de propiedad sobre el producto. Si alguien tiene derechos de autor sobre un producto, este hecho debe ser explícitamente dado a conocer. Los materiales con derechos de autor y los inventos patentados pasan a ser del dominio público cuando la protección expira o las leyes la revocan. Cuando un software es del dominio público, quiere decir que nadie tiene derechos de autor sobre él. Nótese que un software originalmente del dominio público puede ser modificado y que es posible que se le otorguen derechos de propiedad intelectual al individuo que lo modificó. De igual forma, a los generadores de nuevos productos de datos derivados de algún material de dominio público se les otorgan los derechos de autor sobre esos productos. Sin embargo, estas modificaciones no afectan, en ningún caso, la propiedad intelectual del producto original.Debido a que normalmente la información de dominio público puede obtenerse a bajo costo o gratis, hay pocos incentivos para comercializar los datos de dominio público. No obstante, tales datos pueden procesarse o volverse a formatear y los productos resultantes pueden comercializarse. En esto se basan los negocios que dan valor agregado a los datos de dominio público, para después vender el resultado, y que han mostrado un rápido crecimiento en el mercado de información de Estados Unidos desde hace algunos años.\"Los datos del sector publico\" son aquellos generados por una entidad pública. Pueden ser del dominio publico o estar fuertemente protegidos, dependiendo de las políticas institucionales o gubernamentales correspondientes. La definición de qué tipos de organizaciones pertenecen al sector público varía según el país y la época, ya que estas entidades asumen nuevas funciones en respuesta a los cambios de políticas y la reorganización.El hacer del conocimiento público es el acto de permitir al público el acceso a la información. Esto no elimina los derechos de propiedad intelectual, pero reduce la posibilidad de obtener posteriormente una patente. Para obtener una patente en jurisdicciones con períodos de gracia, como EUA, puede pasar hasta un año después de que el producto fue hecho del conocimiento público.Fuente abierta y \"copyleft\". El término \"fuente abierta\" (open source) se refiere al código fuente del software de computadora, sin importar el sistema operativo, lenguaje o aplicación, e implica que cualquiera puede acceder al código. Sin embargo, esto no significa que el código esté disponible en forma gratuita o sea del dominio público. El concepto fuente abierta también se aplica a los contenidos, tales como documentación, datos y libros. 3 La mayoría del material de fuente abierta está disponible bajo licencia, como por ejemplo, la Licencia Pública General GNU, 4 también conocida como \"copyleft\", o sus variantes. 5Las personas que reciben materiales de fuente abierta tienen derechos similares a los de la persona que los creó, pero las licencias impiden que el receptor restrinja el uso futuro de estos materiales. Una cláusula clave en tales licencias da al receptor \"permiso legal para copiar, distribuir y/o modificar\" el material, ya sea software o datos. La mayoría de las licencias de fuente abierta para software prohíben que un receptor solicite una patente sobre el software, a menos que dicha patente permita que todas las personas lo utilicen sin restricción.Las licencias de fuente abierta implementan el \"copyleft\", que es la renuncia formal del autor a ciertos derechos que existen automáticamente bajo el \"copyright\" (derechos de autor). Declarar que la información o el software tiene \"copyleft\" no es lo mismo que ponerla en el dominio público, porque los autores siguen conservando ciertos derechos, como el de requerir que se reconozca su autoría cuando se utilice el producto.Freeware, software libre y shareware. Por lo general, el término \"freeware\" se refiere al software cuya redistribución está permitida, mas no su modificación; por tanto, su código fuente rara vez se suministra. El usuario tiene \"licencia libre\" para usar el software, pero éste no le pertenece.De acuerdo con la Free Software Foundation (Fundación de Software Libre) (2002), \"en el caso del software libre...se otorga permiso para que cualquiera lo use, copie o distribuya, ya sea con o sin modificaciones, gratis o con remuneración. Esto significa que el código fuente debe estar disponible\". 6En el caso del \"shareware\" (software compartido), las personas son libres de redistribuir copias con la estipulación de que quien haga uso continuo de la copia, debe pagar los derechos de la licencia.No todas las formas de protección, en especial de la información espacial, tienen igual importancia en la comunidad de desarrollo agrícola y protección ambiental. Las más importantes son los derechos de autor, la protección de las bases de datos, las patentes, el secreto industrial y las marcas registradas. Cada uno de estos temas se presenta brevemente y se examina más a fondo en capítulos posteriores. El Cuadro 1 resume los principales mecanismos de protección de propiedad intelectual.Los derechos de autor otorgan ciertos derechos a los creadores de obras artísticas y literarias; tales como libros, dibujos y pinturas. El concepto se ha ampliado para abarcar programas de computadora, mapas, imágenes y bases de datos. El derecho a controlar el uso de una obra creativa es principalmente económico, aunque los autores también tienen derechos morales, por ejemplo, el derecho a reclamar la paternidad literaria y oponerse a que en una obra se hagan cambios que podrían lesionar su reputación. En la mayoría de los sistemas nacionales, el autor retiene el derecho moral, aunque los derechos económicos hayan sido reasignados. Al igual que en otras clases de derechos de propiedad intelectual, los derechos económicos de propiedad suelen ser asignados al empleador, especialmente cuando se trata de \"obras hechas por contrato\", concepto que aparece en algunas leyes nacionales de propiedad intelectual (derechos de autor) o en contratos, para evitar la ambigüedad respecto a la propiedad.Los derechos de autor protegen la forma en que se expresa una idea, concepto, método o fórmula, mas no la idea misma. Las leyes nacionales hacen valer los derechos de autor y permiten al propietario de una obra iniciar un proceso legal contra cualquier persona u organización que contravenga sus derechos (esto se llama infracción o violación). A fin de hacer cumplir estas leyes, en algunos países existen organismos nacionales, como las autoridades aduaneras, que están autorizados para asistir a los titulares de los derechos de propiedad intelectual. Las leyes nacionales que protegen los derechos morales y económicos de los propietarios de los derechos de autor deben acatar los términos de los tratados internacionales y regionales que regulan la propiedad intelectual. En la actualidad se proponen nuevos tratados o enmiendas que permitirán tomar en cuenta los cambios en la naturaleza de la información y la tecnología. Muchos cambios recientes a los principios de los derechos de autor tienen que ver con los \"derechos afines\", incluidos los derechos a la versión electrónica de un manuscrito o a una base de datos. Un aspecto problemático de estos derechos es si el hecho de hacer valer rigurosamente los derechos de autor (lo cual favorece a las sociedades ricas en conocimientos) puede afectar a las naciones en desarrollo al obstaculizar el flujo de información científica, tan necesaria para el desarrollo sostenible (Chapman, 1998).Para las personas que trabajan con información espacial, los derechos de autor son un medio fundamental de proteger la propiedad intelectual. Los científicos y educadores generalmente pueden utilizar material protegido por derechos de autor, debido a la excepción vigente en EUA y a otras similares en Europa, basadas en la Convención de Berna, que permiten el \"uso comúnmente aceptado\". Sin embargo, este uso no permite que se copien o se transfieran a terceras partes grandes cantidades de material protegido por los derechos de autor.  (WIPO, 2001a), que establece los derechos de autor y otros derechos afines, no otorga protección automática de derechos de autor para las bases de datos. Hay estipulaciones especiales respecto a \"colecciones\" como las enciclopedias y las antologías, las cuales \"…por razón de su selección y adaptación de contenidos constituyen creaciones intelectuales...\" (Convención de Berna, Art. 2), y las obras individuales en una colección pueden generar sus propios derechos de autor. No obstante, para las bases de datos, la Suprema Corte de EUA (en la decisión de Feist 7 ) y las altas cortes de Europa han dictaminado que sólo se pueden proteger mediante los derechos de autor las bases de datos cuya creación haya requerido un aporte intelectual. Por tanto, no se pueden proteger con derechos de autor aquellas que se producen sólo con el \"sudor de la frente\", es decir, con un gran esfuerzo o cantidad de dinero, pero sin creatividad.No obstante, se reconoce que las bases de datos del tipo \"sudor de la frente\" representan un aporte científico y económico significativo, y todos los países de la Unión Europea ahora cuentan con leyes específicas que rigen la protección de las bases de datos (Hugenholtz, 2001). Es probable que otros países decreten protecciones similares, pero, como se plantea más adelante, existe la inquietud de que tal protección pueda restringir excesivamente el uso de tales bases para propósitos educativos y de investigación.Patentes, patentes de innovación y modelos de utilidad. Las patentes otorgan al inventor un monopolio temporal para explotar su invención. Esto se da bajo la presunción de que la sociedad entera se beneficia cuando las nuevas invenciones se dan al conocimiento público, pero que a la vez, los investigadores o inventores necesitan un reconocimiento o estímulo por dar a conocer al público sus hallazgos. De esta forma, el estado sanciona el monopolio por un período específico, generalmente de 15 a 20 años. Dos de los tratados internacionales más importantes que abordan el tema de las patentes son:1. La Convención de París para la Protección de la Propiedad Industrial, 1883-1979(WIPO, 2001b)).Las estipulaciones especiales de patente dentro del Acuerdo Aspectos de la Propiedad Intelectual Relacionados con el Comercio (TRIPS), 1995 (WTO, 1995).Por lo general, se puede solicitar protección de patente para una invención, con base en (Cho, 1998):• La innovación, es decir, la invención debe ser nueva 8• La invención, es decir, el producto debe ser el resultado de un proceso de invenciónNo debe ser obvia, ya que \"una invención obvia no puede ser innovadora\" y pueda obtener mayor protección, por ejemplo, por medio de una patente,. Para los usuarios y creadores de información espacial o software, este riesgo puede resultar inaceptable.Marcas. Una marca registrada es cualquier signo representado en forma gráfica y utilizado para distinguir los bienes y servicios de una empresa, generalmente, una organización o negocio. En la Convención para la Protección de Propiedad Industrial de París, muchos artículos protegen a los propietarios de marcas registradas, marcas de servicio o nombres comerciales, asegurando así el uso exclusivo de dichas marcas. Las marcas registradas pueden ser muy valiosas, pero suele requerirse la inversión de mucho tiempo y dinero para establecer un vínculo entre la marca y la empresa. El periodo de protección para una marca registrada es por lo común de 7 a 10 años y la protección es renovable, sujeta a pago de cargos adicionales.El uso, incluso inconsciente, de una marca registrada ajena puede acarrear consecuencias graves.El interés principal de los investigadores agrícolas es evitar el mal uso de las marcas registradas. Antes de que a un producto se le asigne nombre, se deben consultar los registros de marcas para asegurarse de que el nombre propuesto no infringe una marca ya existente.Otras formas de propiedad intelectual. Entre los otros tipos de propiedad intelectual cubiertos por los principales tratados; figuran los diseños industriales, los derechos de los fitomejoradores, las indicaciones geográficas que identifican que un bien se originó en determinado lugar y los diseños de equipos de circuito integrado. Es posible que en el futuro aparezcan nuevos tipos de derechos de propiedad que protejan propiedades como los conocimientos tradicionales, pero éstos no se consideran en este documento.Responsabilidad en torno a la información y las licencias. Sin importar como esté protegido el propietario de datos geoespaciales o de herramientas de software afines, cualquiera que crée, use o divulgue información y herramientas, o servicios basados en datos y herramientas, encara ciertas responsabilidades legales. Cho (1998) resalta los siguientes riesgos legales relacionados con los geodatos y los GIS:• El no obtener derechos de propiedad intelectual.• Responsabilidad por infringir los derechos de propiedad intelectual, intencionalmente o no, incluso por no controlar el acceso a los geodatos o herramientas, lo que facilita el uso ilegal de éstos por terceras partes.• El no establecer quién es responsable de datos o herramientas de GIS defectuosos (incluidos los modelos, métodos y servicios basados en esos datos y herramientas).• Responsabilidad por infringir la obligación de confidencialidad o privacidad.• Incertidumbres jurídico-legales de contratar a otros (outsourcing) para realizar tareas relacionadas con la recolección, procesamiento y divulgación de geodatos, ya sea por o para una dependencia gubernamental o una empresa privada.Existen factores que pueden reducir la responsabilidad, por ejemplo, cuánto cuidado se tuvo en el desarrollo de un producto o servicio, cuánto se cobró y si se declaró la exclusión de garantías. Las licencias que proporcionan esta información, son un medio importante para limitar la responsabilidad, pero los tribunales generalmente fallan en contra de las personas o entidades que intentan negar toda responsabilidad.Protección de datos para asegurar la privacidad personal. El vincular los datos descriptivos a datos precisos de ubicación es la clave de muchas formas de análisis espacial. Pero cuando los sitios se vinculan fácilmente a las identidades de individuos o sus propiedades, existe la posibilidad de que se viole la privacidad personal. El uso ilegal o injustificado de información personal es un problema grave que las leyes multinacionales están tratando de resolver. El requisito típico para usar los datos personales es que dichos datos se obtengan con consentimiento y sólo se tengan durante el tiempo que requiera el uso autorizado.Un ejemplo. Para ilustrar la facilidad con que la propiedad intelectual y otros temas legales afines pueden permear un proyecto que utiliza un GIS, consideremos un mapa sencillo de ubicación de sitios, límites del distrito, ríos principales y precipitación anual (la última es una superficie interpolada) como se muestra en la Figura 1.Figura 1. Ubicación de los sitios de investigación del Rice-Wheat Consortium en la parte norte-centro de la India y regiones adyacentes.Los datos de puntos representan sitios localizados con unidades del Sistema Global de Posicionamiento (GPS) principalmente durante jornadas de monitoreo de cultivos, realizadas por el Consorcio Arroz-Trigo (Rice-Wheat Consortium, RWC) del CGIAR. 10 Los datos los recibió el CIMMYT en hojas de cálculo de diferentes formatos. En muchos casos, las descripciones de los sitios se completaron adaptando los sitios a la información de los reportes de las giras que se obtuvieron del Internet. El técnico del GIS también corrigió errores obvios de posicionamiento. Algunas preguntas que habría que considerar:• ¿A quién pertenece el conjunto de datos espaciales ahora? ¿Al Consorcio Arroz-Trigo o al CIMMYT? ¿Permiten las leyes compartir la propiedad?• Algunos de los puntos se vinculan a granjas identificadas por el nombre del dueño. ¿Qué derechos tienen los agricultores en relación con el conjunto de datos?Los ríos Indo y Ganges se ubicaron usando datos de la publicación ESRI Data and Maps 1998. Las instrucciones aparecen en la cubierta interna de la colección de CD-ROM (sin un acuerdo de licenciamiento formal) y contienen la declaración: \"El archivo de Ayuda (.hlp) de Windows en el CD-ROM contiene más información acerca de los datos, incluyendo escalas apropiadas para los derechos de despliegue y redistribución. Por favor revise esta información antes de redistribuir los datos\".Al buscar el término \"redistribución\" y otros similares en el archivo de Ayuda, no se encontró información sobre la base de datos de los ríos principales. Por tanto:• ¿Podemos concluir con seguridad que está permitido redistribuir los datos de los ríos?• ¿Importaría que el CIMMYT usara sólo una pequeña parte del conjunto de datos?En el CIMMYT se calculó la precipitación anual partiendo de un informe con 12 capas de totales mensuales, proporcionado por una segunda parte quien, a su vez, produjo los datos mensuales con base en registros mantenidos a largo plazo por terceras partes.• El dato anual, ¿es lo suficientemente novedoso para que el CIMMYT tenga todos los derechos de propiedad intelectual?• ¿Qué derechos de propiedad intelectual tendría otro grupo si repitiera esta operación y obtuviera resultados similares?• El hecho de que las interpolaciones se hayan dado con un método exacto (que ajusta la superficie de precipitación exactamente mediante el valor de cada punto observado) o con uno inexacto (que asume que el valor de cada punto puede tener un intervalo de error), ¿afecta los derechos de propiedad intelectual de los datos calculados mensualmente?Los límites del distrito se basaron principalmente en el conjunto de datos de fronteras de Deichmann (1996), que no mencionaba derechos de autor o licencia para su uso. Cerca de 25 líneas fronterizas se editaron manualmente para acomodar cambios recientes en el distrito. La actualización la realizó un consultor contratado por el CIMMYT para dar soporte general de GIS.• Los datos del distrito, ¿son lo suficientemente \"nuevos\" para constituir una propiedad intelectual nueva?• Si así fuera, ¿quién es el dueño de esa propiedad intelectual, el CIMMYT o el consultor?Finalmente, el mapa, como se presenta en este documento, se reprodujo en un archivo de imagen jpeg (Joint Pictures Expert Group).• ¿Cuánto reduce este medio simplificado los conflictos en torno a los derechos de propiedad intelectual, en comparación con, por ejemplo, mostrar un mapa mediante un servidor de mapas del Internet, donde las capas de datos se pueden consultar pero no descargar (bajar)?Aparece en el sitio web de CAS un examen más profundo de este caso.¿Qué saben los investigadores acerca de la propiedad intelectual? En el taller sobre aspectos jurídico-legales especiales, celebrado el 28 de mayo de 2002 utilizando el marco de trabajo del taller GASSIA, se plantearon a los participantes tres situaciones que ilustran el uso de propiedad intelectual en el GIS, en una prueba llamada \"miedo, incertidumbre y duda\" (fear, uncertainty and doubt, FUD). 11 A continuación aparece un breve resumen de los resultados:• Más de la mitad de los 16 participantes tenían ideas erradas acerca del control de propiedad intelectual sobre el Mapa Digital del Mundo (DCW), base de datos principal de los datos espaciales globales, y otro 40% no conocía con certeza los derechos de distribución de esos datos.• Cerca de la mitad de los participantes no estaban seguros si podían publicar un conjunto de datos incorporando datos tomados de Landsat 7 o ENVISAT (en el futuro). Había falta de conocimiento de la política de acceso a los datos y de publicación para estas importantes plataformas de sensores remotos.• Cerca de la mitad pensaba que los revisores tendrían acceso a las bases de datos usadas en publicaciones científicas, lo cual no es necesariamente el caso, por ejemplo, cuando algunos datos se adquirieron bajo términos de licenciamiento estrictos.• Sólo el 30% estimó que los co-investigadores conocían las normas de propiedad intelectual aplicables en sus países de origen.• Sólo el 25% dijo considerar los temas de propiedad intelectual al formular un proyecto y otro 25% declaró que nunca habían tomado en cuenta estos temas en la etapa de planeación de un proyecto.• Dos terceras partes reconocieron que pagar por el acceso a los datos no confiere necesariamente ningún derecho de propiedad sobre esos datos -es decir, que esto depende de los términos de la licencia o el contrato.• Existe confusión en torno a los datos de dominio público, tanto a su adquisición como su uso o re-uso.• La mayoría de los encuestados expresaron incertidumbre o poco conocimiento de las posibles restricciones de exportación para su software, modelos y/o productos de datos.• En general los encuestados entendían los diferentes grados (y costos) de la protección de propiedad intelectual asociados con las patentes y con los derechos de autor, pero no sabían que el software (o los modelos) patentado(s) puede obtenerse gratis bajo los términos de una licencia de fuente abierta.• Dos terceras partes de los encuestados estuvieron de acuerdo en que la cláusula de \"alcance de uso\" en las licencias de software y suministro de datos era muy importante.Aunque el enfoque de este documento es la información espacial, los investigadores deben saber que los temas de la propiedad intelectual están ganando importancia en la ciencia y la industria. El Dr. Lester Thurow, profesor de economía y administración en el Instituto de Tecnología de Massachusetts, anota que (1997): \"Los cambios fundamentales en el panorama tecnológico y económico están haciendo que el sistema actual de derechos de propiedad intelectual no sea funcional ni efectivo…La habilidad y el conocimiento se han convertido en el único medio de mantener una ventaja competitiva a largo plazo. La propiedad intelectual es fundamental para el éxito económico de las empresas modernas…\" Así:• Es esencial saber cómo operar dentro de los regímenes actuales de propiedad intelectual para poder generar tecnologías agrícolas y de manejo de recursos naturales más productivas, sostenibles e innovadoras.• Los investigadores tienen la responsabilidad de publicar sus resultados científicos originales y también los derechos sobre su uso. Los aspectos de propiedad intelectual pueden afectar la distribución de sus productos.• Los principios básicos de la protección de la propiedad intelectual se debaten en todo el mundo con el objeto de ajustar los regímenes legales de propiedad intelectual para que respondan a las nuevas oportunidades y retos que presentan las tecnologías de información.El término \"derechos de autor\" (copyright), que en un principio se refería literalmente al \"derecho de copiar\" las obras literarias de un autor, pretendía estimular la publicación de obras escritas. Los derechos de autor eran puestos en vigor obligando a las casas editoriales a obtener el permiso de los autores para re-imprimir su obra. Estos derechos proporcionan un beneficio público a un bajo costo para los ciudadanos y funcionaron razonablemente bien hasta que los avances en la reproducción digital empezaron a permitir hacer copias de alta calidad a un costo muy bajo. Desde entonces, para proteger sus productos, los propietarios de derechos comenzaron a adoptar medidas drásticas, algunas de las cuales violan indiscutiblemente derechos ya establecidos como el de uso legal por ciertos usuarios. Como anota Richard Stallman (2000), fundador del proyecto de fuente abierta GNU: \"lo que alguna vez fue una norma para regular la industria editorial, se ha convertido en restricción para el público al que se pretendía servir\".Los derechos de autor protegen \"obras literarias y artísticas… incluida toda producción en el dominio artístico, científico y literario, cualquiera que pueda ser el modo o forma de (su) expresión, ya sean libros, panfletos u otros escritos\" incluidas \"las obras de dibujo, pintura, arquitectura, escultura, grabado y litografía;…ilustraciones, mapas, planos, croquis y obras tridimensionales relacionadas con la geografía, la topografía, la arquitectura o la ciencia\" que estén fijas (publicadas) en un medio tangible (Convención de Berna, 1971). La definición de \"obras\" se ha ampliado significativamente en las últimas décadas, a medida que las nuevas tecnologías ofrecen formas aún más diversas y eficaces de expresar las ideas. Normalmente estas obras deben ser, por naturaleza, originales y creativas. Un simple recuento de hechos, sin importar cómo se expresan, no califica automáticamente para se otorguen derechos de autor. Bajo el Artículo 4 del Tratado de Derechos de Autor de la WIPO de 1996 y del Artículo 10 del TRIPS 1995, los programas de computadora se consideran obras literarias (ver el capítulo 5).Los derechos de autor otorgan ciertos derechos de protección a los propietarios de una idea, fórmula, modelo, método o teoría original (las obras literarias mencionadas antes), pero estas obras deben ser \"…fijadas en alguna forma material\" (Artículo 2, Convención de Berna, 1971). A diferencia de las patentes, que protegen conceptos o ideas que se han desarrollado hasta un nivel práctico, los derechos de autor protegen sólo la forma de expresión, no las ideas en sí.La duración de la protección de los derechos de autor varía según el país. La Convención de Berna (Artículo 6) y el TRIPS (Artículo 12) estipulan la protección vitalicia del autor, más 50 años, como mínimo, pero muchos países especifican un término igual al tiempo de vida del autor más 70 años. Cuando se trata de obras de varios autores, el término de protección se mide a partir de la muerte del último autor sobreviviente (Artículo 7). Bajo el Acta de Derechos de Autor de EUA de 1976, las obras anónimas, seudónimas y las \"obras realizadas por contrato\" 12 se protegen durante 75 años a partir de su primera publicación o durante 100 años desde el año de su creación, lo que ocurra primero.Dos derechos de protección importantes, otorgados al propietario de los derechos de autor, son el control de la reproducción, que prohibe que se copie la obra, y el control de la traducción. Una traducción adquiere sus propios derechos de autor, pero éstos no pueden infringir los derechos anteriores del propietario -es decir, la traducción debe ser autorizada por el propietario y debe reconocer sus derechos de autor en la obra original.Por lo general, el propietario de derechos de autor no necesita registrar formalmente el material para ser protegido (WIPO 2000a). Sin embargo, el registro legal puede ser importante en las acciones legales por demandas de violación a los derechos de autor. Los detalles del cumplimiento de estos derechos también pueden afectar la facultad del propietario para defender sus derechos. La mayoría de países ya no requieren que aparezca la marca de derechos de autor (\"copyright\" o ).Algunas obras antiguas que portan la marca de derechos de autor () pueden ser ya del dominio público debido a la expiración de la protección; otras obras pueden portarla pero, de hecho, no reúnen lo necesario para ser protegidas. Un ejemplo del último caso es el de una obra que consiste en simples listados de datos, posiblemente en forma de cuadros, y cuya compilación no exigió ni originalidad ni creatividad (ni sudor de la frente, en algunas jurisdicciones) según lo dictaminado por un tribunal.La violación a los derechos de autor ocurre de tres formas:1. La violación deliberada: cuando el acusado utilizó copias, sin autorización, en una forma que viola el uso comúnmente aceptado.2. La violación por coadyuvar: cuando el acusado, con conocimiento de causa, habilitó a otra persona para que infrinja los derechos de autor.3. La violación delegada o indirecta implica que, a pesar de que el acusado no cometió directamente una violación ni habilitó a otro a cometerla, tenía el derecho y la competencia necesaria para supervisar la violación (por ejemplo, por ser empleador o supervisor de una obra) y, además, un interés económico directo en la violación.Las penas por violación de derechos de autor bajo las leyes estadounidenses pueden ascender hasta los 100,000 dólares. Los procesos jurídicos por violación de derechos se pueden ejecutar en contra de investigadores y sus instituciones. El riesgo de que haya violación delegada o indirecta se incrementa en proyectos que involucran muchas organizaciones que operan bajo diferentes jurisdicciones legales, reglamentos y culturas de propiedad intelectual.A medida que incrementa el número de obras digitales y que obras originales se transcriben a formatos digitales, se pueden publicar, es decir, copiadas y transmitidas, a un costo mínimo y sin conocimiento ni control del autor o propietario. Esta facilidad de abuso ha socavado los principios básicos de los derechos de autor y ejecución para hacerlos valer, lo cual ha llevado a los interesados a reclamar una protección legal más fuerte. El Acta de los derechos de autor del milenio digital de EUA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act, DMCA) prohibe muchas acciones que no se consideran violaciones en otras leyes que reglamentan los derechos de autor. Cabe resaltar que los habitantes de otros países enfrentan incongruencias similares a ésta.Los investigadores que crean o utilizan información espacial necesitan entender los principios básicos de la protección de derechos de autor, incluyendo las posibles consecuencias de violaciones y aspectos específicos relativos a la protección de bases de datos.En muchos proyectos, hay más de un propietario de derechos de autor que suministra datos (ejemplo, Figura 1). Un investigador agrícola puede tener acceso a una base de datos de suelos protegida con derechos de autor de una empresa privada, mientras que los límites del terreno (parcela) que se usan en la investigación provienen de un organismo gubernamental. 13   Se requieren ambos grupos de datos para recolectar los datos relacionados con el crecimiento de las plantas y para analizar y presentar los resultados. Es posible que una fuente permita que se utilicen sus datos de forma gratis o a bajo costo, o los datos pueden ser del dominio público. Los datos restantes pueden ser propiedad privada o estar bajo el control de un organismo gubernamental que actúa bajo un régimen fuerte de recuperación de costos. Es posible que apliquen las estipulaciones respecto al uso legal, 14 dependiendo de la cantidad de datos que use el investigador, o que haya excepciones especiales para el uso no comercial de parte de los investigadores y educadores. Ahora bien, puede ser que las estipulaciones apliquen según las leyes nacionales de un proveedor de datos pero no las del otro, lo que complica los intercambios de datos a través de las fronteras. La mejor manera de resolver estos aspectos es levantando un inventario cuidadoso de las fuentes de datos y de la propiedad intelectual correspondiente. En el sitio web de CAS aparecen instrucciones detalladas sobre cómo llevar a cabo este inventario.Las bases de datos digitales no están explícitamente protegidas por los derechos de autor bajo la Convención de Berna. El Tratado de derechos de autor WIPO de 1996 (WIPO 1996a) extiende estos derechos para que abarquen \"…las compilaciones de datos (bases de datos)\" como \"creaciones intelectuales\" pero esta protección no cubre los datos mismos, dado que no se consideran el resultado de un proceso creativo.Las estipulaciones de derechos de autor en el Acuerdo WTO TRIPS (Artículo 10.2) brindan cierto grado de protección a las bases de datos. Se ha propuesto un Tratado de Protección de Bases de Datos WIPO (1996), el cual, de aprobarse, extendería la protección de derechos de autor a dichas bases.Las normas de los derechos de autor permiten que en algunos casos se haga uso de una obra protegida, como si fuera del dominio público. En el Acuerdo TRIPS y el Artículo 10 (Ciertos Usos Libres de Obras) de la Convención de Berna se definen estas excepciones (denominadas usos o prácticas \"comúnmente aceptados\"). El Artículo 10 establece lo que constituye una práctica comúnmente aceptada en el uso de algunos tipos de obras, incluidas las bases de datos:1. Se permite citar una obra que ha sido publicada, siempre que la cita sea compatible con la práctica comúnmente aceptada y que la cantidad de material citado no exceda lo justificable según el propósito por el cual se cita.2. Son las leyes nacionales o los acuerdos entre las naciones suscritas a la Convención de Berna, las que deben permitir que se haga uso justificable de una obra \"para ilustrar publicaciones, radiodifusiones o grabaciones visuales o de sonido, con propósitos didácticos, siempre y cuando tal uso sea compatible con la práctica comúnmente aceptada\".3. Cuando las obras protegidas se utilicen de acuerdo con lo estipulado en el Artículo 10, la fuente y el nombre del autor deben publicarse junto con el material citado.De esta manera, la política oficial respecto al uso comúnmente aceptado modera la capacidad de los derechos de autor de reprimir la expresión. Infortunadamente, no existen pruebas absolutas que permitan identificar lo que constituye un uso comúnmente aceptado. Los tribunales estadounidenses emiten opiniones sobre casos individuales y no es recomendable hacer extrapolaciones de un caso a otro. Eisenschitz y Turner (1997) resumieron las excepciones principales a los derechos de autor que constituyen un uso comúnmente aceptado, permitido por las leyes de la Unión Europea, como sigue:• La copia para uso personal.• La copia para uso científico, didáctico u otro uso privado.• La copia de archivos y copia con propósitos del privilegio bibliotecario.• Las exenciones con propósitos educativos y (otras) reproducciones gráficas.En caso de un supuesto uso ilegal de materiales protegidos por derechos de autor, la mejor defensa radica en alegar que se trató más bien de un uso comúnmente aceptado. No obstante, la aplicación de esta defensa puede ser especialmente difícil en el caso de las bases de datos de hechos. Como lo declara Cho (1998): \"Reproducir hechos sin copiar la expresión ni la disposición de los mismos no constituye una reproducción de una parte sustancial de la obra\". Sin embargo, en los tribunales no es fácil separar los hechos de \"la expresión de los hechos\". Incluso en EUA, donde las leyes de derechos de autor hacen referencia expresa al uso comúnmente aceptado, los tribunales deciden, en cada caso, si un infractor puede emplear el uso comúnmente aceptado como defensa.Las bases de datos que utilizan los científicos pueden ser del dominio público, estar protegidas como compilaciones por los derechos de autor según la Convención de Berna, por las leyes de bases de datos o como secreto industrial, y ser accesibles por medio de licencias. Existe un gran debate sobre los medios considerados apropiados para proteger las bases de datos, en el que el deseo de compensar las grandes inversiones en la compilación de hechos se opone al reconocimiento de que una simple compilación no es patentable ni susceptible de ostentar derechos de autor.El Artículo 5 del Tratado de Derechos de Autor de la WIPO de 1996 y el Artículo 10 del acuerdo WTO TRIPS de 1995, extienden esta protección a \"las compilaciones de datos (bases de datos)\", por ejemplo, \"las compilaciones de datos u otro material, accesibles ya sea en computadora u otra forma, las cuales en razón de la selección o disposición de sus contenidos constituyen creaciones intelectuales y deberán protegerse como tales. Esta protección, que no se extiende ni a los datos ni al material en sí, no viola ningún derecho de autor ya existente sobre los datos o el material mismo\".Así, estos dos tratados amplían formalmente la definición de las obras protegidas, contenida en el Artículo 2 de la Convención de Berna. Sin embargo, la definición de lo que constituye una compilación, en el caso de las obras literarias, es similar a la de la Convención y no se aproxima a la definición de base de datos dispuesta en la Directiva de Protección de Bases de Datos de la Unión Europea.Linne (2000) declara que: \"Por ley, el gobierno federal de Estados Unidos no puede adquirir derechos de autor sobre las bases de datos, pero los vendedores particulares que divulgan información gubernamental sí pueden. Por lo general, los científicos pueden utilizar material protegido por los derechos de autor debido a la excepción por ser un 'uso comúnmente aceptado' en los Estados Unidos o a excepciones equivalentes en Europa\".Con objeto de proteger la inversión en las grandes bases de datos y armonizar las desiguales leyes nacionales en Europa, la Unión Europea adoptó una directiva en 1996 en la que se autoriza una nueva forma de protección legal para bases de datos (Comisión Europea, 1996). Desde entonces, la directiva ha sido convertida en ley nacional o incorporada a las leyes existentes en los países de la Unión Europea (Hugenholtz, 2001). Debido a su alcance y al énfasis sobre los derechos de los inversionistas, esta es, probablemente, la iniciativa legislativa más importante, entre las que afectan a los usuarios de la información espacial, de los últimos años. He aquí parte de lo que estipula la directiva:• Esta protección no se basa en las extensiones de los derechos de autor o de las patentes; más bien representa un derecho único o sui generis (es decir, \"de su propio género o clase\").• La directiva protege \"las bases de datos, cualquiera que sea su forma\", y una base de datos se define como \"una colección de obras independientes, datos u otros materiales dispuestos de forma sistemática o metódica, y accesibles de manera individual por medios electrónicos u otros\". (La protección no se extiende al software usado para hacer o acceder a las bases de datos.)• La protección es \"…para el creador de una base de datos que demuestre que hubo una inversión cualitativa y/o cuantitativa considerable, ya sea en la obtención, verificación o presentación de los contenidos para prevenir la extracción y/o la re-utilización del total o de una parte significativa de los contenidos de esa base de datos, evaluada cualitativa y/o cuantitativamente\".• La extracción se define como \"…la transferencia temporal o permanente de todo o de una parte sustancial del contenido de una base de datos a otro medio de cualquier forma\" y los medios de re-utilización se definen como \"…cualquier forma de poner a disposición del público todo o parte sustancial del contenido de una base de datos mediante la distribución de copias, el alquiler, la transmisión en línea u otras formas de transmisión\".• En vez de apegarse al concepto del 'uso comúnmente aceptado', la directiva prohíbe \"…la extracción repetida y sistemática y/o re-utilización de partes insustanciales de…..la base de datos….. que vaya en contra de la explotación normal de dicha base o que perjudique los intereses legítimos del creador de la base\".• Los usuarios pueden extraer o re-utilizar una parte sustancial del contenido de una base de datos para propósitos privados o para \"…propósitos de ilustración en la enseñanza o investigación científica\" y con la condición de que la fuente se indique y el volumen de copias que se produzca sea el justo para lograr un propósito no comercial.• La duración de la protección de una base de datos según el derecho sui generis es de 15 años. Cualquier cambio sustancial en el contenido de una base de datos, como las adiciones, omisiones o alteraciones que requieren una gran inversión, puede hacer que la base de datos modificada amerite un nuevo período de protección. 15• Las bases de datos que \"…por causa de la selección o disposición de su contenido, constituyan una creación intelectual propia del autor\" siguen estando protegidas por los derechos de autor. No se necesita otro criterio para establecer que una base de datos amerita protección, pero cabe recordar que la protección de derechos de autor no se extiende al contenido de una base de datos y, por tanto, \"…no se viola ningún derecho existente sobre los contenidos mismos\".• En una cláusula de reciprocidad, la directiva declara que sólo aquellos países que ofrezcan una protección semejante a los ciudadanos de la Unión Europea, recibirán este nuevo nivel de protección dentro del Área Económica Europea.Muchas personas están de acuerdo en que los derechos de autor y las patentes brindan poca o ninguna protección a los contenidos de las bases de datos y que las inversiones de los grupos que reúnen grandes bases de datos, merecen alguna forma de protección que regule el copiado y la redistribución a gran escala de esos datos. Sin embargo, la directiva de la Unión Europea ha recibido muchas críticas de parte de mucha gente que alega que esta protección favorece de manera excesiva a los grandes proveedores comerciales de bases de datos a expensas de las comunidades educativas y de investigación. Además, la creación de un derecho sui generis les ha provocado una gran inquietud, pues sostienen que los derechos de autor y las patentes han resistido la prueba del tiempo y que resulta peligroso introducir una clase totalmente nueva de protección sin un proceso de consulta y deliberación mucho más amplio. La directiva también se aparta de lo establecido en el sentido de que automáticamente asigna los derechos a los inversionistas, no a los creadores. Por otra parte, los críticos sugieren que al extender el periodo de protección después de cada actualización de una base de datos, la directiva de hecho autoriza una protección perpetua que contrasta con los límites de tiempo fijados por los derechos de autor y las patentes. Otro motivo de inquietud es que la directiva utiliza descriptores tales como \"parte sustancial\", \"propósito no comercial\" e \"inversión sustancial\", que tendrán que ser interpretados con base en las decisiones emitidas a la vuelta del tiempo por los tribunales, tal y como ha sucedido en el caso de términos como \"práctica comúnmente aceptada\", que ha provocado muchos litigios en torno a los derechos de autor.En parte como respuesta a esta directiva, la WIPO presentó una propuesta de un Tratado sobre la Propiedad Intelectual respecto a las Bases de Datos en 1996 (WIPO, 1996b) que generó un enorme desacuerdo entre los diferentes grupos de la comunidad de la información, que aún está por resolverse.Debido al gran volumen de investigación internacional que es realizado por, o mediante, instituciones localizadas en los países miembros de la Unión Europea, es fundamental que los investigadores sepan que el derecho sui generis ya está vigente, y que muchas bases de datos espaciales pueden tener tal protección, sin que el proveedor inmediato esté consciente de su alcance o de sus posibles implicaciones.También existen mecanismos legales como los contratos y medidas técnicas como la codificación que protegen las bases de datos. Un contrato \"…es un acuerdo entre dos partes, en el que esas partes especifican los términos. … (el contrato) puede utilizarse para prevenir el uso sin autorización de las bases de datos por las partes que lo acuerdan\" (Linne, 2000).Los contratos legales se usan desde que se crearon las primeras bases de datos electrónicas en línea para proteger la información médica, las patentes y otros datos científicos. Los contratos se utilizan para controlar el acceso a muchas de las grandes bases de datos de información espacial, como las creadas por las entidades nacionales de cartografía o por los vendedores de imágenes de satélite.Los contratos tienen inconvenientes como los siguientes: \"(1) un alto costo administrativo debido a que los términos tienen que negociarse con cada usuario o proveedor de datos, en particular cuando se trata de datos compilados de muchas fuentes y (2) los contratos no pueden evitar que otras personas usen la base de datos sin autorización porque sólo obligan a las partes que establecieron el acuerdo\" (Linne, 2000). El primer inconveniente se ha resuelto mediante el uso de licencias en línea denominadas \"click to use\" (aceptación de los términos al presionar el botón del mouse); el segundo problema es mucho más difícil de solucionar.Los métodos tecnológicos como la codificación también pueden regular el uso de las bases de datos, pero resultan costosos y complicados de implementar tanto para los vendedores como los usuarios. La Agenda Digital de la WIPO (WIPO, 1990), que se centra en el comercio electrónico en las áreas de la información y, particularmente, de la propiedad intelectual, describe el uso de esos métodos. En EUA, el Acta de los Derechos de Autor del Milenio Digital (DMCA) promulga las estipulaciones del Tratado de los Derechos de Autor de la WIPO, 1996 (Artículo 12) que prohíbe \"…la remoción no autorizada de información sobre la gestión de derechos electrónicos\" de cualquier obra protegida. Más adelante, el DMCA estipula que el publicar información que pudiera llevar a la eliminación de los mecanismos de protección, constituye una falta penada con severos castigos.Existe otro mecanismo, denominado 'marca digital', que si bien no brinda protección per se, permite modificar los datos en muchas bases de datos grandes, en una forma fácil de detectar, para lograr una identificación confiable de la fuente, incluso cuando los datos se copian a un nuevo medio o a otro software. Las 'marcas digitales' pueden incluir la manipulación de dígitos no significativos para crear patrones fácilmente identificables o la inclusión de registros con datos ficticios (Isenberg, 2002).El Mapa Digital del Mundo (DCW), 16 elaborado por el ESRI, es una base de datos de información geográfica en formato de vector derivado del Mapa Vector Nivel 0 del gobierno estadounidense (VMAP-0). El ESRI ha mejorado el mapa y su control de calidad, aumentando así el valor agregado. En la caja misma que contiene el \"Mapa Digital del Mundo del ESRI, para uso con el software ARC/INFO\" aparece en letra menuda la siguiente advertencia a los usuarios potenciales: si el usuario no \"…está de acuerdo con los términos y las condiciones aquí estipuladas, entonces el ESRI no le otorga licencia para utilizar la base de datos\" y la caja deberá devolverse sin abrir. Entre los usos permitidos figuran:• Instalar los datos en un servidor.• Hacer una copia de respaldo.• Modificar los datos o unirlos a otros conjuntos de datos.• Vender, comerciar o distribuir copias impresas (en papel) de la base de datos, o partes de ésta, siempre y cuando se reconozca el ESRI como fuente.Los usos prohibidos son:• Vender, alquilar, transferir, etc., los datos a terceras partes sin licencia.• Deducir el proceso de generación del producto del ESRI a partir del producto mismo (es decir, sin utilizar el software del ESRI).• Vender, comerciar o distribuir los datos en otras formas digitales (incluyendo formas derivadas).• Quitar u ocultar cualquier aviso de derechos de autor, propiedad o marca registrada del ESRI.El documento manifiesta claramente que se trata de \"una licencia y no un acuerdo de venta\". En otras secciones se especifican la duración del acuerdo, las garantías, los reglamentos de exportación y otros detalles.La base de datos Información Terrestre de Nueva Zelanda (Land Information New Zealand, LINZ) proporciona sus datos de encuesta terrestre en línea (LINZ, 2001) mediante el pago del costo de distribución y permite la redistribución de los mismos sin costo adicional. LINZ se reserva los derechos de autor, pero la propiedad intelectual de cualquier modificación u obra derivada pertenece a la persona que añade valor a los datos originales. Así, aunque LINZ opera bajo el régimen de \"derechos de autor de la corona\" (control de derechos de autor del gobierno), proporciona datos en el formato original sin buscar obtener ganancias económicas de los productos derivados.En contraste con los derechos de autor, que se centran en las formas de expresión, las patentes protegen las invenciones útiles. Las patentes están reguladas bajo los términos de la Convención de París para la Protección de la Propiedad Industrial, 1883-1979(WIPO, 2001b) ) y la Sección 5 del Acuerdo TRIPS (WTO, 1995). El TRIPS establece que las patentes deben tener un período de protección de al menos 20 años \"a partir de la fecha de solicitud\" (Artículo 33). Las patentes deben solicitarse, siguiendo procedimientos estrictos, a las entidades designadas para tal función en cada país. Las solicitudes suelen presentarse por medio de agentes de patentes que conocen bien dichos procedimientos. Los agentes también están capacitados para dar su opinión acerca de la probabilidad de que una solicitud sea aprobada, después de investigar si existe información publicada que podría contradecir la afirmación de que la invención es nueva o no obvia.Existen tratados, como el Tratado de Cooperación de Patentes (PCT) y el Tratado de las Leyes de Patentes (PLT), que simplifican los procesos de solicitud, búsqueda y análisis que anteceden la obtención de una patente. Las solicitudes nacionales deben presentarse en la oficina de patentes de cada país, excepto donde existe un sistema regional, como la Organisation de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI) en los países francófonos de África. 17 El costo de presentar una solicitud oscila entre unos cientos de dólares y más de 10,000. Los honorarios por mantenimiento pueden incrementar el costo y, si se da el caso, la defensa de una patente puede llegar a costar millones de dólares (Barton, 2000). Dado que las patentes dan el derecho de entablar una demanda por violación de las mismas, los costos de una posible defensa deben tomarse en consideración antes de decidir si solicitar o no una patente, y dónde solicitarla.Las patentes se solicitan no sólo para generar beneficios económicos y restringir el uso de los elementos patentados, sino también para asegurar el control de propiedad intelectual sobre técnicas, modelos y herramientas nuevas que, una vez protegidas, pueden ser proporcionadas de manera más manejable al público y a otros investigadores. Las patentes pueden proteger el marco conceptual que respalda una propiedad intelectual que ha sido reconocida como útil por la \"reducción a la práctica\". El peligro para las instituciones de investigación es que se le otorgue la patente de un elemento indispensable para su investigación, a una organización que permite el acceso sólo a quienes pagan los costos de la licencia correspondiente.Las patentes se adjudican después de que las investigan y examinan expertos empleados o contratados por las autoridades nacionales o regionales de concesión de patentes. La validez de una patente depende de la habilidad del examinador, la honestidad de los inventores y la destreza con que se prepara la solicitud. En los últimos años, ha habido fuertes protestas en contra de patentes que podrían afectar a millones de usuarios de información y de los equipos y servicios de la tecnología de comunicación. Algunas patentes fueron invalidadas posteriormente a fin de poder volver a examinarlas o apelar, o en casos civiles, para detectar si los requerimientos de patente fueron satisfechos. Otras fueron invalidadas por no haber pasado las pruebas de utilidad e innovación; y otras más fueron rechazadas por causas técnicas, es decir, porque se descubrió que había invenciones anteriores que eran similares o que la innovación ya había sido usada, vendida o dada a conocer al público, antes de que la solicitud fuera presentada.Cuando se viola una patente, por lo general el único remedio es entablar una demanda civil o administrativa; esto contrasta con la violación a los derechos de autor, que puede acarrear también castigos penales, o con la violación de confidencialidad y el uso sin licencia de un secreto industrial, que se consideran delitos en la mayoría de jurisdicciones.Una pregunta clave que deben plantearse las instituciones de investigación agrícola y su personal, especialmente en relación con la información espacial, es si las herramientas, métodos y modelos de software son patentables en sus jurisdicciones legales. Si así fuera, entonces existe la posibilidad de que estén patentados productos utilizados en sus investigaciones, que pertenezcan a terceros. Existe también la opción de solicitar protección de patente para los productos de investigación generados por una institución o por su personal. En el capítulo 5 se trata más a fondo el tema de las patentes de protección de software.El sistema de patentes se creó para proteger la invención de productos y procesos. Los sistemas de patentes en algunos países, como Estados Unidos, otorgan patentes para proteger los métodos comerciales, práctica no permitida en sistemas como el de la Unión Europea. El debate actual se centra en dos aspectos: (1) si se deben permitir tales patentes y, si así fuera, (2) cómo regular mejor el proceso por el que se otorgan, en vista de que actualmente se conceden patentes para muchos métodos que parecen obvios.El gobierno estadounidense apoya el concepto de patentar los métodos comerciales; un fallo de los tribunales en 1998 (State Street, 1998) encontró que \"…tales patentes expresan la aplicación práctica (resultado útil, concreto y tangible) de la tecnología, esencia misma de la innovación\". Un Informe de la Oficina de Patentes de Estados Unidos (USPTO, 2000) concluye: \"La administración de la Oficina de Marcas y Patentes de Estados Unidos (USPTO) se compromete a examinar cabalmente estas solicitudes para asegurar que siga habiendo crecimiento e innovación en esta importante área\". En diferentes acuerdos internacionales; el gobierno de Estados Unidos ha presionado a sus socios comerciales para que esclarezcan las leyes de propiedad intelectual que protegen las patentes de métodos comerciales, incluidos los algoritmos de software.Durante el proceso de consulta anterior a los intentos actuales de crear una Patente Comunitaria de la Unión Europea, los 19 países de la EPO, que examina las solicitudes de patentes de algunos países europeos, votaron a favor de permitir las patentes \"…en todos los campos de la tecnología\", incluyendo los métodos y el software (Fox, 2000). De acuerdo con algunas fuentes en la EPO, esta oficina ya ha aprobado algunas solicitudes de este tipo de patentes. En febrero de 2002, la Comisión Europea publicó la propuesta de una directiva que permitiría las patentes de software (Comisión Europea, 2002). El documento ha sido objeto de muchas críticas 18 y aún no está claro en qué terminará esta iniciativa.Si se busca el acrónimo \"GIS\" en la base de datos en línea de la Oficina de Marcas Registradas y Patentes de Estados Unidos, 19 se revela el predominio de los sistemas de información geográfica y sus herramientas afines en la literatura de las patentes. En el Cuadro 2 se presentan ejemplos tomados de esa lista y de patentes en campos relacionados, como el procesamiento de imágenes, el Sistema Global de Posicionamiento (GPS) y el diseño de base de datos. A continuación se examinan algunos ejemplos.La Patente número 6,240,360 de Estados Unidos fue otorgada a Sean Phelan el 29 de mayo de 2001, para proteger un \"sistema de computadora que identifica fuentes locales\" (Figura 2). El resumen describe un sistema para la transferencia de datos espaciales desde un servidor a una computadora remota, con base en la información de la ubicación suministrada desde un dispositivo remoto:Se solicita al servidor del mapa ( 11), un mapa del área de la computadora del cliente (10). La computadora del cliente (10) solicita la información relacionada con el lugar de interés desde un servidor de información ( 12). La información es superpuesta sobre la imagen del mapa en la posición correspondiente a la ubicación del lugar de interés sobre el mapa. El servidor de información (o \"superposición\") ( 12) puede contener detalles de, por ejemplo, hoteles, restaurantes, tiendas, etc., asociados con las coordenadas geográficas de cada lugar. El servidor del mapa ( 11) contiene datos del mapa, incluyendo los datos de coordenadas que representan las coordenadas espaciales de al menos un punto sobre el área representada por el mapa.Los números se refieren al dibujo incluido en la solicitud de patente (véase la Figura 2). Esta patente pertenece a Multimap.com en el Reino Unido, que, según informes, intenta hacer cumplir una patente británica similar. 20   Existen varios algoritmos de compresión de datos que están patentados. El formato de imagen GIF usa la compresión LZW, protegida por patentes de propiedad de Unisys e IBM. El software que permite la manipulación de los formatos GIF debe incluir una licencia de Unisys. El software de fuente abierta evita el uso de GIF para que no se tenga que obtener la licencia (Anónimo, 1999). Entre otros algoritmos de compresión están MrSID (LizardTech, Inc.), basado en tecnología con licenciamiento del Laboratorio Nacional de Los Alamos, y Enhanced Compression Wavelet 2.0 (Earth Resourcing Mapping, Inc.). En la actualidad, estos dos algoritmos son objeto de un caso de litigio por violación de patentes. 21   La Tecnología de Despliegue Flexible (PDT) de IDELIX Software Inc., extiende las posibilidades de despliegue del software GIS tradicional al suministrar herramientas de \"magnificación en contexto (del modo actual del sistema)\". A medida que el usuario mueve un \"lente\" sobre la pantalla, la imagen aumenta. Las patentes para esta tecnología están pendientes. 22   Garmin Corp., uno de los principales fabricantes de unidades de GPS y productos afines, posee una patente para la \"localización de usuario a usuario\" que viene en sus radios de doble vía. La patente protege unos dispositivos portátiles que combinan las tecnologías del GPS y de la radio para permitir que tales dispositivos transmitan posiciones a otros dispositivos de ese tipo, así como un método que muestra la ubicación de un dispositivo en la pantalla de otro dispositivo portátil. Garmin Ltd. y sus subsidiarias poseen 67 patentes estadounidenses y cerca de 100 solicitudes pendientes. La directiva respecto a los derechos de autor para software de computadora de la Unión Europea (Comisión Europea, 1991), exige que los estados miembros protejan los programas de computadora con derechos de autor como obras literarias, según los términos de la Convención de Berna. El término \"programas de computadora\" abarca también el material de diseño, incluido el código fuente. La directiva estipula también que un programa de computadora se protege si \"…es original en el sentido de que es una creación intelectual propia del autor\" y que no se debe aplicar ningún otro criterio. La protección cubre la expresión de cualquier forma del programa de computadora, pero no las ideas ni los algoritmos en que éste se basa.En algunas jurisdicciones, por ejemplo, en Estados Unidos, se permite que los programas de computadora se patenten. Como se vio en el capítulo 4, la Oficina Europea de Patentes (EPO) permite patentes de software, pese a que no existe un marco legal que las apruebe en forma explícita; en otros lugares, todavía se discute esta práctica. Esto podría afectar el uso de programas de computadora por parte de personas que trabajan en el sector de la información espacial porque la protección se extiende a las ideas, fórmulas y métodos en que se basa el código de la computadora, no simplemente al código en sí, como es el caso de la protección de los derechos de autor.El hardware de computadora se patenta fácilmente, pero por lo general se considera que los programas de computadora \"…están dentro de la prohibición general en contra de los esquemas, planes y otros tipos de información intelectual\" (Cho, 1998). Las patentes para software ahora son comunes en el sistema de patentes de EUA, pero el Artículo 52 (2) de la Convención Europea de Patentes (EPC) excluye específicamente al software de la lista de invenciones patentables. El presidente de la EPO calculó que para fines de 1997de (Basinski, 2001) ) ésta había \"emitido (permitido) cerca de 20,000 patentes para programas de computadora\"; no obstante, un intento por eliminar la restricción sobre software de la EPC fracasó en el 2000 (Sayer, 2000).Es posible proteger el software por medio de los derechos de autor prácticamente sin costo y durante largos períodos de tiempo (70 años o más). En contraste, las patentes ofrecen protección por períodos más breves (de 15 a 20 años) y son costosas de obtener y defender. En vista de lo anterior, es lógico preguntar por qué los desarrolladores de software están tan ansiosos de patentar su producto.Cabe recordar que los derechos de autor protegen las formas de expresión, pero no las ideas. Esto significa que un tercero no puede copiar el software directamente, pero sí puede utilizar las ideas contenidas en el software para crear otro software de función parecida, e incluso usar la misma lógica en algoritmos complejos. En contraste, hasta las ideas subyacentes están protegidas por completo por las patentes. Por tanto, un investigador podría patentar un software que implemente métodos, procedimientos o procesos novedosos, por dos razones:1. La política del investigador o de su empleador es tratar de capitalizar los fondos de investigación y un software o método patentado se puede explotar para generar utilidades.2. Una vez patentado el software, el propietario de la patente puede decidir distribuir el software libremente bajo términos controlables por medio de licencias, incluso de tipo \"fuente abierta\". Esto protege a otros miembros de la comunidad de investigación y a los beneficiarios de la investigación, evitando que tengan que enfrentar más adelante elevados cargos en caso de que algún innovador menos generoso desarrolle software o procedimientos similares y decida cobrar a todos los usuarios por su aplicación. Este tipo de estrategia se conoce comúnmente como \"patente defensiva\".La decisión respecto a si se solicitará protección de patente también dependerá del régimen legal del país en cuestión y de la política de acceso a información del instituto.Otros temas legales relacionados con el uso (o mal uso) de la información espacial incluyen:• Proteger la confidencialidad comercial u organizacional.• Asegurar la privacidad de datos (confidencialidad personal) de personas o grupos.• Acatar las leyes nacionales sobre la exportación o importación de datos o productos de información.• Entender e incorporar términos apropiados de licenciamiento.• Manejar la responsabilidad civil relacionada con datos, información y productos de software.Estos temas pueden interactuar entre sí o con los temas de propiedad intelectual antes tratados.Considere las diversas normas institucionales y/o nacionales que podrían afectar la recolección de información espacial de muchos propietarios de datos, el análisis de datos utilizando modelos y aportes de otros investigadores, o la publicación y distribución de mapas creados mediante un sistema de información geográfica. En este capítulo se examinan los temas de confidencialidad y privacidad; la responsabilidad y el licenciamiento se tratarán en capítulos posteriores. Las leyes que regulan la importación y exportación de ciertos tipos de información y software varían drásticamente según las jurisdicciones nacionales y, por tanto, están fuera del alcance de este documento.Un método que se puede utilizar para proteger la propiedad intelectual es sencillamente mantener en secreto la mayor cantidad de información posible acerca del producto, proceso, técnica, modelo o método que se desea proteger. Antes de que existieran los regímenes de patentes, los secretos eran una de las pocas formas de protección que los inventores podían utilizar.La confidencialidad. La confidencialidad de la información no surge automáticamente. Una comunicación de cualquier tipo tiene que ser claramente identificada como \"confidencial\". La protección de confidencias se regula mediante estipulaciones legales diferentes a las que protegen las ideas. El derecho angloamericano protege los secretos (Cho, 1998) por medio de acciones legales por violación de la confianza. Las leyes en la mayoría de países consideran que hay violación de confianza si una persona recibe información \"en confianza\" y la revela a un tercero. Casi todo puede protegerse, desde las fórmulas industriales hasta las listas de clientes. Los requisitos principales son que la información debe ser \"…secreta, o ser una entidad discreta y comprobable\" (Cho, 1998). La información no necesita ser expresada en forma material, ya que la verbal se protege igual que la escrita. La protección de información confidencial o del secreto industrial ahora está más estandarizada y puede aplicarse a nivel internacional, como resultado de las estipulaciones del TRIPS (Sección 7) referentes al tema.Para mantener la confidencialidad de las comunicaciones electrónicas, incluya una sencilla declaración de confidencialidad al comienzo o al final de cada mensaje. Un ejemplo de una declaración que comúnmente se adjunta a los mensajes de correo electrónico es:Los vendedores de información espacial y herramientas GIS suelen imponer restricciones de confidencialidad a los compradores por medio de cláusulas incluidas en las licencias para el uso de datos o software. Tales cláusulas le permiten al comprador usar los datos o herramientas (software o modelos), pero le prohíben revelar ningún detalle a terceros. Estos términos son exigibles por medio de las leyes de contrato. Los investigadores deben saber que aun si un tercero utiliza información confidencial de manera inconsciente, puede resultar responsable, dependiendo de cómo accedió a la información (o si accedió a ella pese a que debería haberse imaginado que era confidencial).Un investigador que trabaja en proyectos en los que participan personas residentes en diferentes naciones debe tener conocimiento de todas las cláusulas de confidencialidad contenidas en los documentos del proyecto o en los acuerdos financieros relacionados con programas más extensos. Si en el grupo de investigación participan instituciones o equipos de investigación de diferentes países o jurisdicciones legales, se deben introducir en los acuerdos del proyecto términos contractuales que podrían usarse más adelante para establecer violación de confidencialidad en caso de que la información sea mal usada, de manera ya sea consciente o inconsciente.Por lo general, una ley contra la competencia desleal protege el secreto industrial (WIPO, 2000). La protección de estos secretos en el ámbito de las redes digitales actuales depende grandemente de medidas tecnológicas como la codificación y el control logrado mediante contraseñas (password). Una vez que un secreto industrial es robado y puesto en el Internet, es difícil que los tribunales determinen si dicho en el secreto había un elemento \"secreto\", como se expresa en el Artículo 39 (2-a y 2-c) del TRIPS:Las personas naturales o jurídicas tienen la posibilidad de prevenir que cualquier información que esté legalmente bajo su control sea revelada, adquirida o usada sin su consentimiento, por un tercero, de manera diferente a las prácticas comerciales honestas, siempre y cuando dicha información:(a) sea secreta, en el sentido que no es…comúnmente conocida ni fácilmente accesible a personas que pertenecen a los círculos que normalmente manejan este tipo de información, (b) tenga valor comercial precisamente por el hecho de ser secreta, y (c) haya sido sometida, para mantenerla en secreto, a medidas razonables (bajo las circunstancias), por la persona que tiene control legal de la información.(Para el propósito de esta estipulación, la frase \"de manera diferente a las prácticas comerciales honestas\" se refiere mínimo a prácticas como la violación de contrato o de la confidencialidad, o la inducción a esta violación, e incluye la adquisición de información secreta por terceras partes que sabían -o que, por grave negligencia, no trataron de averiguar-que tales prácticas eran necesarias para la adquisición de la información.)Cualquier persona que participe en investigaciones agrícolas que generan información con valor comercial debe estar consciente de sus responsabilidades en relación con el secreto industrial. La información se considera un secreto industrial si (1) el propietario toma medidas razonables para mantener la información en secreto o si (2) la información tiene un valor económico potencial o real precisamente por no ser pública (Selzer y Burns, 1999). Así pues, no toda la información confidencial constituye un secreto industrial, pero ambos tipos de información se pueden proteger.En ocasiones surge un problema especial cuando un empleado deja una organización para \"Este mensaje puede contener información legalmente privilegiada y se envía de forma confidencial y exclusiva al destinatario. El contenido no deberá divulgarse a otra persona que no sea el destinatario. Por tanto, se informa a cualquier receptor no autorizado que debe mantener esta confidencialidad y avisar de inmediato al emisor que hubo un error de transmisión.\"trabajar en otra, pues lleva consigo información confidencial o un secreto industrial sólo por el hecho de haber colaborado en su creación o porque lo usó en su trabajo. En estos casos, los empleados y las instituciones deben reconocer sus derechos y responsabilidades, y debería haber políticas establecidas como el incluir acuerdos y formularios de no-revelación y confidencialidad en los contratos de empleo, y quizá hasta en los proyectos.Las personas que trabajan en el manejo de los recursos naturales o en la investigación agrícola, suelen pensar que normalmente su trabajo no invade la privacidad de nadie; sin embargo, registros aparentemente inofensivos de los gastos, prácticas agronómicas o límites de propiedades de las fincas son considerados, desde una perspectiva jurídico-legal, datos personales, en especial según las leyes europeas de privacidad más recientes. Por lo general, los países con leyes sobre datos personales exigen que se tomen medidas administrativas encaminadas a (1) informar a la persona o personas afectadas acerca de qué tipo de información se está recolectando, por qué, cómo y con qué propósito, y (2) registrar las bases de datos que contienen esos datos personales. El no cumplir con estas medidas de protección puede ocasionar una acción penal, como lo estipula el Acta de Protección de Datos del Reino Unido, 1995.Para evitar la necesidad de tales controles, una opción válida es no utilizar la verdadera identidad de cualquier persona que de una u otra manera podría ser identificada por medio de la investigación. El Instituto Nacional de Ciencia Estadística de EUA 24 está creando un sistema para el Servicio Nacional de Estadística Agrícola de ese mismo país 25 que permitirá difundir datos sobre el uso de químicos agrícolas, que fueron recolectados mediante las encuestas geográficas, y al mismo tiempo proteger la identidad de los agricultores (Karr et al., 2000;2001;Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, 1994).Enseguida reproducimos la política de privacidad de información que promueve el Comité Federal de Datos Geográficos de EUA (FGDC, 1998) para proteger la información personal contenida en las \"bases de datos geo-espaciales\":• Cuando se recoge información personal en forma directa, la entidad recolectora deberá informar a las personas en el momento de la recolección acerca de:◊ por qué está recolectando la información y su autoridad legal para hacerlo, ◊ cómo se usará la información y cómo se protegerá su confidencialidad, integridad y calidad, ◊ las consecuencias que acarrea el suministrar o negar la información solicitada, ◊ cómo corregir la información personal cuando ésta no posee la calidad suficiente para garantizar su uso cabal, ◊ que pueden optar por quedar en el anonimato y que tienen derechos de compensación; además, se les suministra el programa de eliminación de registros de la entidad recolectora (es decir, las fechas en que se desecharán los datos recopilados).• La información personal se adquiere y se utiliza únicamente en formas que respeten la privacidad del individuo, y se recoge sólo si es necesaria para apoyar las actividades actuales o proyectadas.• El personal de la entidad recolectora debe tener conocimiento de las implicaciones de privacidad de la tecnología GIS.• Los controles técnicos y administrativos se usarán para proteger la confidencialidad y la integridad de la información personal, incluyendo el evitar la alteración o destrucción de la información recogida o vinculada a las bases de datos geo-espaciales; en lo posible, esta información debe ser precisa, oportuna, completa y útil para los propósitos que se adquiere y utiliza.Estas políticas son aplicables a cualquier entidad estadounidense que reúna información personal y constituyen un modelo excelente para las políticas que protegen la privacidad.Dada la incertidumbre que existe acerca de lo que cubren los derechos de autor y otras formas de protección, las licencias siguen siendo uno de los mecanismos más comunes que se emplean para proteger los productos de software y de datos. Por ello, es fundamental que los investigadores, en su papel de usuarios y posibles productores de software y de datos, conozcan los diversos tipos de licencias que existen y la terminología que en ellas se utiliza.La gran mayoría de las licencias para paquetes de software comerciales contienen varias páginas de especificaciones escritas en letra pequeña. Por ejemplo, el Acuerdo Principal de Licencias de ESRI (MLA) 26 consiste en 11 artículos con muchas sub-secciones, además de un cuadro y sus correspondientes notas explicativas, que se resumen a continuación:1. Definiciones.2. Derechos de propiedad intelectual y reserva de dominio.3. Concesión de licencias (cubre las licencias normales, y las de prueba y de evaluación).4. Alcance de uso (usos permitidos y no permitidos).5. Mantenimiento.6. Duración y condiciones de abrogación.7. Garantías limitadas y exclusión de garantías (3 sub-cláusulas).8. Derecho de corrección y limitación de responsabilidad legal (2 sub-cláusulas).9. Indemnización por violación (3 sub-cláusulas).10. Estipulaciones generales (con 11 sub-secciones).11. Acuerdo total y enmiendas.12. Un cuadro que explica el alcance del uso y muestra qué tipos de licencias son aplicables a cada producto (tanto software como datos) incluido en la línea de productos ESRI.Otro Acuerdo de Licencias de Datos del ESRI 27 contiene 15 cláusulas referentes a los usos permitidos y no permitidos, los derechos de redistribución para conjuntos de datos derivados, la noconcesión de garantía por calidad, la limitación de la responsabilidad y las restricciones para la exportación.El usuario tiene la oportunidad de leer las licencias para software o datos descargados de un sitio Web antes de acceder al producto de información. En el caso de los productos empacados, la licencia generalmente viene impresa dentro de la caja que contiene el software o los datos. La mayoría de vendedores dan a entender al usuario que por el solo hecho de destapar la caja del software, ya han aceptado los términos de la licencia. Estas licencias, denominadas de tipo \"shrink wrap\" (en que se aceptan los términos automáticamente al romper el sello del empaque), han sido objeto de demandas en varios países, con distintos resultados. Se puede perder mucho tiempo y dinero en pleitos de vendedores contra compradores que defienden su derecho a rechazar o devolver el software aun después de haber abierto el empaque del producto. En Estados Unidos, los tribunales han fallado a favor o en contra de la validez de los términos de las licencias \"shrink wrap\" o \"click to agree\" (aceptación automática de los términos al presionar el botón del mouse, en el caso de los productos en línea), debido a que ha variado su interpretación del Código Comercial Uniforme (UCC) que contiene las leyes comerciales de ese país (Myers, 2000). Un aspecto clave en esta controversia es que hay que establecer en qué momento el comprador tuvo la oportunidad de ver los términos a los cuales supuestamente accedió, en relación con el momento en que el producto fue adquirido o usado por primera vez. 28   Los investigadores que ofrecen sus datos bajo otras condiciones diferentes de las del dominio público, necesitan analizar muy bien para qué se utilizarán esos datos y qué términos de licenciamiento son los más adecuados para lograr ese propósito. Si se integran datos de diferentes fuentes en el resultado final, hay que considerar con mucho cuidado los términos de licenciamiento de cada producto. Desafortunadamente, son pocos los compradores de software o paquetes de datos que leen las licencias minuciosamente y que, por tanto, entienden las condiciones legales que regulan el uso del producto. Por otra parte, se requiere tener cierto conocimiento de la terminología legal utilizada en el texto de la licencia para poder comprender las ramificaciones del acuerdo.Dos temas importantes incluidos en las licencias son los \"usos no permitidos\" y los \"derechos de redistribución para conjuntos de datos derivados\" (por ejemplo, en el Acuerdo de Licencias de Datos del ESRI, descrito anteriormente). La mayoría de estos acuerdos prohíben la transferencia de datos a terceras partes que no poseen la licencia. De gran importancia es que estas limitaciones de los derechos de redistribución pueden ser críticas en el caso de los \"conjuntos de datos derivados\", dado que se adquieren datos externos al proyecto de investigación que luego son integrados a los datos recogidos durante la investigación. Estos derechos deben analizarse muy bien al comienzo, aunque sea a un costo adicional, ya que es indispensable averiguar si esas limitaciones existen.En el caso de datos y herramientas accesibles a las instituciones educativas, generalmente hay una cláusula que indica que el producto sólo puede usarse o difundirse para \"propósitos no comerciales\". Este concepto aparece también en los acuerdos de licenciamiento de muchas bases de datos espaciales accesibles al público (pero que no son del dominio público), como las del proyecto del Mapa Mundial en una escala de 1:1 millón y de las bases de datos nacionales de los diferentes países que participan en la Infraestructura Mundial de Datos Espaciales (Global Spatial Data Infrastructure, GDSI). Una institución educativa que utilice un mapa de base topográfica como material didáctico no tiene que preocuparse por esta restricción, a diferencia de un científico que adquiere datos similares y los usa para completar un proyecto de investigación comercial; éste enfrenta un problema muy diferente e incluso podría incurrir en una violación de la licencia.Por consiguiente, aunque las fuentes externas de datos al parecer proporcionan al investigador un acceso más fácil, gratis o a bajo costo a información espacial indispensable para su investigación (para propósitos de análisis espacial) o para la publicación de sus resultados finales, éste debe estar al tanto de los términos y condiciones de todas las fuentes externas que utilice, a menos que los datos sean oficialmente del dominio público.También debe estar consciente de que puede perder el derecho a utilizar software o datos que ya pagó, al empezar a utilizar nuevas versiones de esos productos ofrecidas por el mismo proveedor, dado que algunas licencias restringen el uso de las versiones anteriores. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las licencias de software no imponen esa restricción al usuario ni al comprador original, aunque siguen vigentes todos los términos iniciales de adquisición (Jenness, 2001).La Licencia Pública General GNU tiene por objeto asegurar el acceso libre al software y a los datos. El \"copyleft\" es cuando se reclama el derecho a cancelar intencionalmente la exclusividad inherente en las obras protegidas por derechos de autor, según las condiciones y términos de los mismos. Cualquiera puede copiar o distribuir la obra original -u obras derivadas de ésta, que hayan sido debidamente atribuidas-pero todas las copias están sujetas a los mismos términos y condiciones que la obra original. Por lo general, los términos del software con copyleft impiden que los que redistribuyen el software agreguen restricciones durante la redistribución, aunque hayan modificado el software original antes de redistribuirlo. De esta forma, el software con copyleft sigue siendo \"software libre\" aunque sea modificado. El Proyecto GNU aplica copyleft a casi todo el software que produce, porque su meta es darle a todos los usuarios la libertad implícita en el término \"software libre\".Para aplicar el copyleft a un programa, los investigadores necesitan usar términos específicos de distribución, que pueden expresarse de diferentes formas. El sitio Web GNU 29 contiene mucha información referente a los distintos tipos de licencias de fuente abierta, además de material informativo acerca de todo el movimiento de fuente abierta.Si un investigador o institución desarrolla un programa nuevo para el que desea incentivar el uso, lo mejor es crear el producto nuevo como \"software libre\" (lo contrario del \"shareware\") que todo el mundo pueda redistribuir o cambiar, según los términos de la Licencia Pública GNU. Para hacer esto, simplemente adjunte al programa el aviso que aparece enseguida, al comienzo de cada archivo de fuente, para comunicar que queda excluido de la garantía. Debe aparecer en cada archivo, como mínimo, la línea referente a los derechos de autor, un marcador que indique donde encontrar el aviso completo y la información necesaria para comunicarse con el autor del programa.El siguiente resumen de algunos aspectos relacionados con las licencias puede ayudar a los investigadores a tomar conciencia del valor de las licencias y de los términos básicos que deben incluirse al crear una licencia o al celebrar un acuerdo de licencia (Comisión Europea, 2001): Usted debería haber recibido una copia de dicha Licencia junto con este programa; si no fue así, solicítela a la Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place-Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.• Los términos de licenciamiento no están respaldados por los tratados internacionales de ppropiedad intelectualropiedad intelectual ni por las leyes nacionales de propiedad intelectualppropiedad intelectualropiedad intelectual en la mayoría de los países desarrollados. Su uso es más bien regulado por las leyes de cada nación (mediante mecanismos como la protección de la privacidad, la protección del consumidor y consideraciones de seguridad nacional, o lo que constituye un uso apropiado, según lo define la licencia misma).• Si usted desea reclamar derechos de propiedad intelectualpropiedad intelectual, esto debe quedar claramente establecido en la licencia. Enumere los derechos que reclama y afirme el hecho de que los reclama. Incluya en los productos (ya sean software o datos) cláusulas de confidencialidad que prohíben revelar la propiedad intelectual.• Existen varias licencias de fuente abierta que le permiten renunciar a ciertos derechos específicos asociados con la protección de propiedad intelectualpropiedad intelectual (por ejemplo, cláusulas de copyleft) sin dejar de controlar cómo debe usarse o redistribuirse dicha propiedad.• Las licencias pueden ofrecer distintos niveles de protección en diferentes jurisdicciones legales e, incluso, para diferentes tipos de productos y servicios en un mismo país.• Existe mucho más experiencia (en el campo jurídico-legal) con el licenciamiento de software que con el de datos, en especial datos digitales accesibles vía el Internet.• Examine las cláusulas de terminación de la licencia y enumere los eventos específicos que podrían ocasionar tal terminación, algunos de ellos en forma automática.• Analice las cláusulas de uso y redistribución con mucha atención -por ejemplo, el número de copias que se le permite hacer al comprador original, el uso en redes o en sistemas autónomos, cualquier cargo adicional por soporte a sistemas en red, pagos de actualización (si se proyecta alguna) o uso para propósitos comerciales versus educativos.• Se debe tener conocimiento de que existen cláusulas defensivas que eximen al proveedor de cualquier responsabilidad por las diferentes formas de pérdida o daño que pudieran ocurrir al usar el software o los datos, ya sea por deficiencias del producto o el mal uso que le dé el usuario final.• Hay que saber también que los términos de las licencias dependen de las leyes de la jurisdicción en la que se venda el producto y que quizá sea necesario satisfacer ciertos requisitos jurídico-legales especiales -por ejemplo, que la licencia debe estar en cierto idioma-para que ésta tenga validez. En el caso de software o de datos publicados en -línea, esto puede ser muy problemático, pues entran en juego las leyes de impuestos (sobre las ventas o el valor agregado), reglas de comercio electrónico vigentes en el lugar (por ejemplo, el reconocimiento de firmas digitales), leyes de control de exportación e, incluso, leyes sobre el control de divisas.Casi todo trabajo humano que ofrece un producto o servicio al público, ya sea en venta, por contrato o gratis, genera una responsabilidad civil. En la actualidad, existe en muchos países un gran cúmulo de leyes referentes a la responsabilidad en torno al software de computadora. La responsabilidad con respecto a los datos es un fenómeno mucho más reciente, en términos tanto de los estatutos decretados y los casos ya resueltos en los tribunales. Aunque las leyes varían de un país a otro, en general puede existir responsabilidad por los datos, en cuatro renglones:1. Por errores en la ubicación representada, debido a fallas en la medición y manipulación de datos.2. Por errores (aunque sean inconscientes) al representar datos que estaban libres de errores en su forma original, por ejemplo, cuando se presentan datos de manera gráfica, utilizando una escala incorrecta, lo cual confunde al usuario.3. Por daños causados al usuario por haber hecho uso incorrecto o inapropiado de los datos (o del software en un sistema integrado), que el proveedor podría, o debería, haber evitado (en opinión de los tribunales).4. Por violación de los derechos de autor u otros mecanismos de protección de la propiedad intelectualpropiedad intelectual.La responsabilidad se clasifica en tres categorías muy amplias (Westell, 1999a y c; Klinkenberg, 1997):1. Responsabilidad del contrato (o por violación de contrato); incluye la violación de garantías tanto expresas como implícitas.2. Negligencia.3. Responsabilidad del producto (o por violación de la obligación reglamentaria, según lo establecido por las leyes relacionadas con la protección al consumidor).Existe negligencia cuando se ocasiona daño, pérdida o perjuicio porque un proveedor no ha tenido cuidado a un grado considerado razonable, según la norma comúnmente aceptada en situaciones similares. Lo que constituye un grado razonable de cuidado en muchas situaciones, ha sido definido en los estatutos y por los tribunales. Entre los defectos que conllevan tal responsabilidad figuran las fallas de diseño y la mala fe al representar un producto con objeto de facilitar su comercialización (por ejemplo, hacer creer a los posibles compradores que un servicio o producto dado es apropiado para cierto propósito, cuando en realidad no lo es). En algunos casos, los tribunales han declarado negligentes a los creadores y a los usuarios de mapas, pero son tan raros esos casos que esto no es causa de gran preocupación.En algunas jurisdicciones, ni el costo de software o datos, ni la pérdida puramente económica puede reivindicarse bajo la reclamación de negligencia. Las que sí están cubiertas son las pérdidas por muerte o perjuicio a terceros y daño a la propiedad privada, , además de las pérdidas económicas ocasionadas por lesiones físicas o daño a la propiedad física (Westell, 1999b). Según las leyes estrictas de responsabilidad del producto o de violación de la obligación reglamentaria en algunos países, se exige que el usuario demuestre que el producto es inherentemente peligroso.No es necesario que la parte perjudicada demuestre que hubo una acción inadecuada de parte del productor, y la responsabilidad puede extenderse más allá del productor de los datos a cualquiera que actúe en su nombre, por ejemplo, la persona que importa o distribuye el producto.La responsabilidad en el caso de la información espacial suscita muchas dudas porque suele ser difícil establecer si los datos están completos o son precisos y confiables, para poder incluirlos como \"términos específicos\" en un contrato de venta. Es fundamental especificar la naturaleza del producto de datos hasta donde sea posible, a fin de que los posibles usuarios sepan (1) para qué fueron recogidos los datos, (2) para qué se usaron en un comienzo, y (3) para lo que no sirven, aunque es probable que esta lista no sea completa. El hecho de proporcionar \"metadatos\" (descripciones de la naturaleza y las fuentes del producto en cuestión) adecuados puede reducir la responsabilidad civil.Cabe señalar que en lo que se refiere a limitar la responsabilidad, es posible que haya un conflicto de intereses básico entre las partes que negocian los contratos. Por lo general, las personas que desean contratar un producto o servicio, esperan que en el contrato se asiente de manera explícita el propósito del producto o servicio y que se garantice que éste se ajusta al propósito expuesto. En contraste, el proveedor del producto o servicio trata de reducir al mínimo las declaraciones específicas de aptitud del producto o servicio, y así disminuir su posible responsabilidad. En un informe del ESRI sobre la publicación de software de GIS, que se puede aplicar también a la publicación de información espacial, se aconseja lo siguiente (ESRI, 1995):• Poner la exclusión de garantías en las pantallas de ingreso (para acceder a software o a bases de datos) y en los manuales de usuario, en la que se asienta lo que se sabe realmente acerca de las características del software o los datos (por ejemplo, precisión, oportunidad, fuentes),, pero se declara que no hay garantías. Añadir notas que indiquen dónde se pueden verificar los datos.• Tener cuidado con la fraseología de los materiales publicitarios o de comercialización, para evitar que se usen como pruebas en su contra, en caso de que un tribunal llegara a declarar que dichos materiales fueron creados con intención de engañar.• Añadir leyendas que señalen que los datos presentados siempre deben revisarse, que esto es responsabilidad del usuario y que la información está sujeta a cambio. A,demás, incluir notas sobre los cambios realizados. Revelar todas las incertidumbres y peligros que se sabe podrían surgir al usar el software o los datos.• Advertir a los usuarios que deben solicitar la ayuda de expertos si requieren consejo respecto a acciones específicas; exigir que los usuarios firmen acuerdos en los que aceptan todo lo anterior.• Adquirir una póliza de seguro de cobertura amplia para protegerse contra cualquier reclamo de responsabilidad.Estos son consejos sabios para el proveedor de un producto o servicio, pero es probable que una persona que desee contratar ese producto o servicio no esté conforme con ellos, ya que son, en realidad, intentos de rechazar cualquier responsabilidad.Tanto las personas que se dedican a la investigación agrícola como las instituciones que las emplean, deben reconocer que siempre existen dos perspectivas cuando se trata de asegurar un producto o servicio, de calidad. Como se acostumbra en estos casos, hay que solicitar consejo legal antes de celebrar un contrato (mediante la firma u otra expresión de acuerdo con los términos de licenciamiento) o crear licencias propias para publicar los resultados de investigación, no importa el nivel de control de propiedad intelectualpropiedad intelectual que se pretenda.Por último, cabe subrayar que es posible que un investigador publique software, datos e informes en el dominio público, sin proteger la propiedad intelectualpropiedad intelectual ni reclamar utilidades económicas,, y que, de todas maneras, sea considerado legalmente responsable del producto o servicio en cuestión. Sin embargo, la experiencia sugiere que en el caso de servicios de información espacial que llevan el aviso de exclusión de garantías y son ofrecidos a bajo costo, o gratis, por un organismo de investigación del sector público, el riesgo de que se le responsabiliceEn los capítulos anteriores, los temas se examinaron con base en los distintos componentes tecnológicos, es decir, se examinó la propiedad intelectualpropiedad intelectual en relación con las bases de datos y el software como entidades discretas. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las actividades que utilizan información espacial se dan en el contexto de un proyecto, ya sea de una sola institución o unidad de investigación, o con la participación de muchos grupos de investigación.En un proyecto, se suele especificar, ya sea en el plan de trabajo, el memorando de entendimiento o el contrato, (1) a quién pertenecerán los productos del proyecto;(2) los usos correctos de los productos intermedios o finales, y (3) la renuncia a cualquier responsabilidad (dentro de lo razonable). Un acuerdo bien redactado es una excelente forma de asentar lo que se espera de un proyecto (sin importar las leyes aplicables) y asegurar que se satisfagan todas las políticas institucionales, en especial cuando más de una institución participa en el proyecto. Además de especificar los objetivos, metas y actividades del proyecto, debe incluirse una descripción completa del trabajo que se realizará con la información espacial y estipular de manera explícita cómo se manejarán y se presentarán los informes sobre los datos y el software.En el caso de los datos, hay que asegurar que existan expectativas claras respecto a la calidad, los usos permitidos y la propiedad de todos los datos que se utilicen. Cuando un investigador desee publicar algún documento a partir de datos o mapas que fueron producidos gracias a su propia labor, una institución puede otorgarle los derechos de propiedad por un período de tiempo limitado (por ejemplo, un año), sin perder la propiedad. Con este mecanismo se evita el tener que hacer promesas vagas (por ejemplo, que los datos se liberarán \"después de haberse publicado\") y se asienta que la propiedad pertenece a la institución, no a los investigadores.Siempre se debe dedicar particular atención a proporcionar y mantener los metadatos. El dar una descripción clara de los datos fuente y de los productos es una parte básica de una buena investigación y, además, tiene la ventaja de que obliga a los investigadores a examinar la documentación fuente, incluyendo el uso permitido y la calidad de los datos.En cuanto al software, el tema más controvertido suele ser la propiedad del software que se desarrolla en un proyecto. Hay que tener en cuenta que con el GIS y sus herramientas, la distinción entre el desarrollo de software y el simple uso de una aplicación, tiende a desaparecer por el uso de macro-lenguajes o programas especializados de manipulación de datos. Cuando existen dudas respecto a si el software desarrollado en un proyecto será sólido o si será entregado a tiempo, se pueden incluir en el plan de trabajo, las acciones explícitas que deben utilizarse para ensayar versiones preliminares (beta) del software, según criterios antes establecidos por las partes. No obstante, cabe señalar que los proyectos de software suelen exceder los límites de tiempo y presupuesto (Standish Group, 1995).La precaución principal que hay que tener con los acuerdos escritos es que las condiciones y la terminología permitidas varían de un país a otro. En los tribunales de Estados Unidos, se le da énfasis a la intención del contrato, así como a establecer a sísi las condiciones del mismo son demasiado severas o restrictivas, en tanto que las cortes de otros países generalmente se apegan de manera estricta a los términos del contrato. Al revisar un plan de trabajo o un contrato, los siguientes puntos merecen consideración:• ¿A quién pertenecen los datos o la información? ¿A quién pertenece (en el sentido económico) la información surgida de la investigación? ¿Quiénes están autorizados para revelar porciones específicas de los datos al público (por ejemplo, para su revisión o para desarrollar o monitorear las políticas gubernamentales)?• ¿Quién es el responsable de los datos, en caso de que resulten ser de mala calidad o se haga mal uso de ellos? ¿Han sido debidamente exentos de cualquier responsabilidad los participantes del proyecto?• ¿Qué soluciones legales existen para resolver las disputas que puedan surgir en torno a temas como la propiedad, el uso permitido y la responsabilidad?• Cuando se trata de buscar soluciones legales, ¿cuál jurisdicción legal tiene prioridad?• Si los datos o productos de software son para vender, ¿es esto congruente con las políticas de recuperación de costos de las organizaciones investigadoras, ya sean públicas o privadas? El hecho de cobrar por el producto, ¿viola alguna de las licencias de los datos o el software que se utilizarán en el proyecto?• La terminología empleada para describir la adquisición de datos, ¿facilita el uso que se les dará a éstos en la investigación?Uno de los objetivos principales de este documento es evitar conflictos relacionados con el uso de software o información espacial, pero la historia nos enseña que hasta los planes mejor trazados, pueden generar malentendidos. Por tanto, todos los acuerdos deben contener estipulaciones que regulen la resolución de cualquier disputa que pueda surgir en torno al contrato. Existen cuatro maneras de resolver estos conflictos:1. La mayoría de los conflictos se pueden resolver mediante el diálogo oportuno y abierto. Los participantes en un proyecto deben reunirse con frecuencia, pues las reuniones son un medio excelente para resolver problemas o asuntos que podrían causar conflicto.2. Muchos contratos requieren que las partes traten de resolver sus conflictos, antes de entablar un proceso jurídico-legal, por ejemplo, recurriendo a la mediación,, en la que una tercera parte neutral, (el mediador) ayuda a las partes a encontrar una solución viable. Como la mediación no es obligatoria para las partes,, si la parte agraviada no queda satisfecha con el resultado, puede buscar otras soluciones.3. El litigio es una manera de forzar la solución de un conflicto. Usualmente, la jurisdicción legal donde se entabla el litigio, es el país en donde radica una (o más) de las partes, o donde se llevaron a cabo la mayoría de las actividades del proyecto. Cuando se entabla un litigio, las partes quedan expuestas a un gran número de incertidumbres, dependiendo de la naturaleza y la calidad del sistema judicial donde se realice el proceso, el cual suele resultar mucho más costoso y problemático de lo que se piensa.4. En el arbitraje, las partes acuerdan aceptar la decisión de una tercera parte neutral. A diferencia de lo que sucede en el litigio, el árbitro (o árbitros) puede seleccionarse con base en su experiencia. Cuando el arbitraje se desarrolla en un solo país, se siguen los procedimientos normales estipulados en las leyes que regulan los contratos. Cuando se desarrolla en el ámbito internacional, pueden efectuar el arbitraje organismos como la Cámara de Comercio Internacional o alguna entidad privada. 30 Cabe señalar que este proceso puede tomar mucho tiempo y ser tan costoso como el litigio,, en especial cuando se da en más de una jurisdicción legal.Las colaboraciones internacionales presentan una gran variedad de complicaciones, debido a que tienen que aplicarse políticas y leyes que a veces se oponen entre sí. Como se señaló en secciones anteriores, los principios básicos de propiedad intelectualla propiedad intelectual son semejantes en los distintos países, pero los detalles de las leyes que regulan los derechos de autor, las patentes y los contratos fluctúan sustancialmente. En cuanto a los derechos de autor, los puntos que hay que tener en cuenta son: (1) si el criterio del \"sudor de la frente\" es válido como base para reconocer la protección,, y (2) qué criterios definen lo que constituye un \"uso comúnmente aceptado\". En el caso de las patentes, vale la pena recordar que un producto debe haberse patentado en la jurisdicción en donde se entabla un proceso jurídico-legal. Asimismo, cabe señalar que las interpretaciones de la patentabilidad del software, o de los algoritmos del software, varían muchísimo, y que, en algunos casos, se han otorgado patentes aún cuando las leyes parecían prohibirlas.Se ha polarizado mucho la situación en el caso de la protección de las bases de datos. Dado que sus leyes se apegan a la Directiva de la Unión Europea de 1996, todos los países miembros de esa Unión ofrecen una protección fuerte. Aunque otras naciones están considerando el establecimiento de leyes semejantes a las de la UE, existe en general una gran oposición a este tipo de protección, lo cual sugiere que muchos países establecerán mecanismos de protección menos rigurosos.Aunque lo ideal sería contar con políticas uniformes, aplicables en todo el mundo, hay que recordar que la diversidad existente en las leyes de los distintos países, refleja diferencias fundamentales entre sus culturas, historias y políticas económicas. Si bien los tratados que fomentan la globalización del mercado parecen estar reduciendo algunas de estas diferencias,, no es seguro que lleguen a tener un gran efecto. Frente a este panorama tan incierto, los planes de trabajo y los contratos, asentados por escrito siguen siendo los mecanismos más seguros para esclarecer ciertos temas, como por ejemplo, a quiénes pertenece la propiedad intelectual y qué usos se le puede dar a éstapropiedad intelectual.Los proyectos internacionales que manejan información espacial presentan otros problemas, además de los ya descritos. Las representaciones de las fronteras internacionales (es decir, entre países) pueden ser contenciosas y el representar una frontera de forma inapropiada, puede tener repercusiones graves, en especial para los empleados de gobiernos que están en conflicto. Además de tratar de representar las fronteras de la forma más correcta posible, los investigadores deben, cuando sea pertinente, calificar las posiciones de ciertas fronteras como \"en disputa\" o \"inciertas\". La Unidad de Investigación de Límites Internacionales mantiene una base de datos de las fronteras que se puede consultar en caso de duda. 31 Otra forma de prevenir este problema consiste en incluir las exclusiones de garantía pertinentes (ver el recuadro) en todos los mapas o conjuntos de datos.Los investigadores también deben averiguar si ciertas actividades están permitidas, en especial cuando éstas se efectúan cerca de zonas de conflicto. Los mapas a gran escala a veces son considerados \"secreto militar\" y el uso de unidades de GPS en algunas zonas está restringido. En los últimos tiempos, Estados Unidos ha tratado de controlar la distribución de imágenes comerciales de satélite de muy alta resolución de las regiones donde sus fuerzas militares están activas (Nardon, 2002).31 Para acceder a la base de datos y a una amplia serie de documentos y vínculos relacionados con las fronteras internacionales, ver http://www-ibru.dur.ac.uk/ Ejemplo de una declaración de exclusión de garantías por el posicionamiento de fronteras Las designaciones empleadas y la presentación del material en este mapa no suponen ninguna expresión de opinión por parte de [nombre de la institución] o de sus organizaciones patrocinadoras e institutos respecto al estado legal de cualquier país, territorio, ciudad o zona, o de sus autoridades, ni acerca de la delimitación de sus fronteras o divisiones.Las aplicaciones de los sistemas de información geográfica en la agricultura y el manejo de los recursos naturales dependen fuertemente deen los datos y herramientas de software con que cuentan las instituciones del sector público. Sin embargo, las políticas respecto al acceso a la información de los gobiernos varían mucho, tanto entre naciones como entre estados federados como los de Estados Unidos (Cuadro 3). También las instituciones públicas, incluidos los organismos internacionales, varían mucho en las formas de compartir la información.Cabe recordar que el \"dominio público\" es un estado legal y que todo lo que es del dominio público está libre de los derechos de autor. Sin embargo, no toda la información del sector público es del dominio público y, de hecho,, en algunos países o jurisdicciones legales, ni siquiera es fácilmente accesible. El acceso a esta información en algunos casos está regulado por leyes constitucionales y, en otros, por un elemento inherente a la cultura de información que predomina en el gobierno.El Acta de Libertad de Información (FolA, 1996) de Estados Unidos suele servir de modelo en otros países. Las estipulaciones básicas del Acta son que las instituciones federales deben suministrar información a cualquiera que la solicite, con las excepciones necesarias para proteger la confidencialidad o la seguridad nacional. La información debe suministrarse en un período de tiempo razonable y el proveedor sólo puede recuperar los costos de copiar la información, no el costo de su adquisición. 32 Es verdad que los usuarios de la información espacial se han beneficiado mucho con la FolA; no obstante, el principal motivo de ratificar el Acta fue crear un mecanismo que permitiera identificar y hacer públicos los abusos de poder (por ejemplo, en relación con los derechos humanos y civiles) por parte del gobierno federal.Cuadro 3. Ejemplos del uso de datos o de las políticas de propiedad de entidades dedicadas a recopilar datos o a la cartografía, en diferentes países. En Europa, existe en la actualidad un extenso debate en torno al acceso y explotación de la información del sector público. Unos de los problemas principales es cómo definir qué es el sector público y qué es la información del sector público (Longhorn, 2002). Es posible que nunca se lleguen a establecer definiciones que sean aceptables para todos, dados los diversos tipos de gobiernos y de culturas de información, y en vista de los problemas prácticos causados por la falta de una infraestructura de información en muchos países.Cabe señalar que el sector privado se dedica cada vez más a la recolección, el procesamiento y la diseminación de datos -incluso de datos científicos-que muchos consideran del sector público (Linne, 2000). Sin embargo, los datos tienen un precio, no debido a los sistemas de propiedad intelectualpropiedad intelectual,, sino más bien a las políticas de los gobiernos, la industria y de muchas instituciones educativas y de investigación, de los sectores tanto público como privado. Toda información tiene un costo y alguien tiene que asumirlo; de lo contrario, ésta no se recogería. El debate en torno a la información del sector público se centra en quién deberá pagar este costo y de qué manera (Weiss, 2002).Algunas organizaciones de investigación ahora están en proceso de establecer políticas más restrictivas referentes a la diseminación de los resultados de la investigación, mediante el mecanismo legal de la protección de los derechos de autor. Existe un debate de grandes proporciones acerca de la publicación de los resultados científicos, debido a que ahora ciertas políticas restringen la divulgación de información en la comunidad científica. Esto obstaculiza la revisión de manuscritos y la reproducción de resultados experimentales por otros investigadores e impide que los científicos aprovechen los resultados de otros y los incorporen en sus propios proyectos.Se pueden encontrar listas detalladas de estas recomendaciones en el sitio web de CAS (www.cgiar.org/isnar/cas).1. Mantener un registro (cuaderno) de laboratorio o de proyecto para documentar:• Las fuentes de datos, los datos creados y los avances.• El software usado o creado.• Toda transferencia de datos y software entre grupos o instituciones de investigación.Este registro debe indicar quién hizo qué y cuándo; además, debe ser periódicamente actualizado y guardado con copia de respaldo.2. Leer los acuerdos de licencia cuando se adquieran paquetes de software o se acceda a fuentes de datos. 2. 3. Mantener un archivo físico con todos los acuerdos de transferencia de datos y software. 3. 4. Mantener metadatos con referencias a todos los acuerdos de transferencia de datos y software. 4. 5. Usar un acuerdo de transferencia de software o datos para documentar los términos de cualquier intercambio; revisar que los términos del acuerdo de distribución no contradigan otras licencias (por ejemplo, de datos provenientes de terceras partes). 5. 6. Almacenar en forma segura todos los datos (primarios y secundarios) por un período mínimo de 10 años después de terminado el proyecto (según varios códigos de prácticas sanas). 6. 7. Si fuera necesario rastrear conjuntos de datos a través del tiempo, considerar la inclusión de \"marcas digitales\" que permitan al propietario identificar los datos, aunque hayan sido modificados muchas veces. 7. 8. Cuando se manejen datos que incluyan información personal (por ejemplo, nombres de personas o sus propiedades), explicar el propósito de la recolección de datos a los individuos encuestados y establecer una política clara para disponer de los datos al final del proyecto. Otra opción es manejar los datos de modo que las identidades de las personas no sean registradas (por ejemplo, asignándoles números de identificación). 8. 9. Antes de asignarle nombres a los productos, en especial de software, realizar una búsqueda para detectar si ya fueron registrados nombres similares.","tokenCount":"19988"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cf563cec8f5da103ce3c1d2e47d79146","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/252aaab1-5e66-4f0f-8b35-212250ff2615/retrieve","id":"1811088848"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"26f196fa-c509-4024-8aef-1a22a4d4db10","pagecount":"1","content":"\"Life has changed for better today. Unlike that of the previous days today, I am a different person; and have changed a lot from who I was years before. I tried a number of things to improve myself but failed to succeed in many of them. Finally, I found agriculture as most fitting for me to improve myself. However, before starting work with a project called Improving Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers (IPMS), which is the best school in my life, I had no idea about the profitability of the agricultural sector. Rather, I considered it as an occupation for only uneducated people\". That was a testimony by Solomon Ayalew, one of the IMPS project beneficiaries from Alamata Woreda of Southern Tigray Zone.The IPMS is a five year project of the Ministry of Agriculture that has been implemented by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The project is funded by Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency (CIDA). The main goal of the project is to contribute towards improving agricultural productivity in the nation through assisting market oriented agricultural development.Solomon says that the IPMS project which was started to be implemented in his locality five years ago has brought tremendous changes in his life. \"The project is not only improving my life but has also has become a motivating factor for me to work hard for more success,\" he says.Solomon told The Ethiopian Herald recently during the experience sharing workshop at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) that the project has transformed his lives in many different ways. He joined the project at the time when he was struggling to improve livelihood. The IMPS project has also enabled him to change his dream into reality. Currently, he is engaged in various fruit and coffee trees growing.Before joining the project, the idea of planting Mango or Avocado for commercial purposes did not come to his mind. However, after he attended a training offered by the project Solomon started to ponder over the idea of becoming successful by growing fruit trees and coffee. \"I only knew that Mango was an edible fruit but I never imagined of growing it and benefiting from it. However, the technical supports provided and the field visits organized by the project made him change his mind and then started to grow fruit trees. Now Solomon grows mango, avocado, papaya and coffee trees. At present he has 500 mango and 5,000 papaya and other types of fruit trees planted over ten hectares of land from which he is expecting to collect a high yield.Misku Abba Faris is another beneficiary of the IPMS project from Jimma zone of Oromia State. Misku, 39 and a mother of six also lauds the benefit of the project. She was trained by the project at Kilole Farmers' Training Centre in Guma Woreda on how to fatten sheep. According to her, the training has helped her to get the basic knowledge on how to fatten sheep within short period of time. \"Before I had got the training it used to take me more than a year to fatten a sheep. \"Currently it only takes me three to four months time. Now sheep fattening has become a simple task for me, thanks to the training,\" she said.According to Misku who is also a housewife, IMPS opens an eye of women particularly those who are economically dependent on their husbands. It helps them to think out of the box, according to her.The intervention by the project has positively changed her both in terms of thinking and economic status and helped her to contribute a share to the betterment of her family. Now, she is making income from the sales of sheep. Apart from the training, the IMPS also provided beneficiaries with improved breeds of sheep. Misku has received five improved breeds of Bonga sheep with which she managed to improve her life and that of the entire family.The skills she acquired is growing and her income is increasing from time to time. The lifestyle of the family is also improving. She earns money by selling sheep every three months. As a result of her success she has become an inspiration for her neighbours. \"Some women in my neighbourhood are approaching me for advice. I am happily sharing them all what I know and also encouraging them to start their own income generating activities to be economically independent like me,\" Misku explained.The project also panded itself to the Amhara State for a similar purpose of enabling smallholder farmers to produce market oriented products and thereby to improve their livelihoods. Wolde-Gebrel Gebre-Kiros is one of the beneficiaries of the IPMS project in Amhara State. He has been engaged in banana development since 1996 E.C.Before he joined the project he had spent over 35 years of his life in Sudan for goose egg. Meanwhile, he returned back to his motherland Ethiopia 10 years before and started thinking on how to improve his life. Finally, he decided to start growing banana in the forest area of his locality. Three years later he got the chance to get the support of IMPS project.According to Wolde-Gebrel, he has been supplying banana to the market since 1998 E.C. If it was not for lack of road access banana development is so rewarding in the area. According to him, Metama's weather condition is too hot to keep bananas for sometimes in the store before being provided to the market or consumed. He is struggling to overcome the situation and exploit the untapped potential in banana development in the area.Currently, he has seven hectares of land covered with banana tree from which he expects at least 100 quintals of banana for the market in eight months. His income is growing from time to time during the last harvest season alone, he earned over 100,000 birr from the sale of banana. \"Now thanks to the IMPS project, I am leading stable and modern life. I have managed to engage in other income generatingWoldeGebrel G/Kiros schemes to enhance my financial capacity,\" he says adding that he has a plan to participate in bigger investment projects.IPMS has also been providing supports in the areas of modern bee keeping, poultry, nursery development.The project has a medium term purpose of strengthening the effectiveness of the government's efforts of improving the agriculture sector. Thus, Since 2005, IPMS Project has been working with its partners and has facilitated numerous interventions in participatory market oriented development. There is now a significant volume of lessons and experiences learned so far from the project and will be of relevance to the wider research and development community.These lessons and experiences may also be of importance and timely for the scaling out and scaling up envisaged in the Growth and Transformation Plan that it would emphasizes the role of smallholders in the commercialization of Ethiopian agriculture. The IMPS experience-sharing workshop was organized jointly with the Ministry ofAgriculture and the IPMS project office. Over 130 participants drawn from national, state and district levels representing the Ministry, farmers, the private sector, civil society, research institutions, universities, and other development agencies attended the experience sharing meeting.The workshop also discussed commodity value chain interventions in the areas of livestock and crops Exhibitions held on the occasion showcased interventions on specific commodity value chains. Crosscutting issues such as knowledge management, capacity development and gender were also discussed.","tokenCount":"1222"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4151441303.json b/data/part_6/4151441303.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8aafc125f56b202f5b87619113e22c78","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/66c4e9ae-800f-4972-ae8c-a596ad14c67e/retrieve","id":"-1227746117"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b5f5d47c-484c-43e4-9b38-30191e442b5b","pagecount":"52","content":"Programme (NPGRP) and Dr Reda Rizk, National Coordinator of PGR in Egypt, and Mr. Alhosni, Agricultural Researcher in Oman. They found the time to prepare a suitable programme, to guide the visiting specialist to the villages, to draw attention to many significant details and to exhaustively discuss the results in order to make this mission a success within a relatively short time. They are herewith warmly thanked for their efforts.Every farmer visited was most eager to offer technical details and to exchange viewpoints regarding banana varieties and management. The skill and inventiveness in farming practices under sometimes difficult circumstances was impressive. The readiness of scientists to provide all relevant information should particularly be acknowledged. Contact with farmers and researchers was therefore most instructive and helpful.Suzanne Sharrock, Germplasm Conservation Scientist at INIBAP has been monitoring the entire undertaking with great attention and care. Florence Malafosse should be thanked for her help in the final layout and printing of this report.Finally, I am grateful to the Director of INIBAP, Dr Emile Frison for having offered this unique opportunity to learn more about banana diversity in the Middle East. It is hoped that the present report meets expectations and will be of help in making decisions regarding the future of banana cultivation in the countries visited.The International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) organized a survey of banana diversity in the Middle East in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).The idea of the survey was first proposed by Dr Mahmud Duwayri, Director of Agricultural Production and Protection Division at FAO, member of the Board of Trustees of the International Plant Genetic Institutes Resources (IPGRI) and took place from the 26 th February to the 20 th March 2002.Three countries were visited in the following order: Jordan, Egypt, Oman (The full programme is provided in Annex 1). The mission Team changed according to the country visited and consisted of the present report's main author, Dr Edmond De Langhe, with the respective principal collaborators: However, some banana cultivars apparently have been grown in this region since many centuries. This raises at least the following questions, with the consequent research subjects:(1) How did the farmers manage to make these cultivars reasonably productive? Are these bananas found only on restricted sites with a favourable microclimate, or are they grown under various traditional irrigation conditions? A closer look at the adapted growing techniques is required;(2) How important is the genetic diversity of these bananas? In a given region, the diversity in banana cultivars can be generated: (a) by regular and successful introduction of new cultivars; (b) by secondary diversification (somatic mutation) of an originally modest number of cultivars; (c) by a combination of these two processes.Both possibilities (a) and (b) call for sufficient historical/botanical insight in order to evaluate the current reality and to plan any efficient survey.Literature will almost invariably explain that the Arabic term for the banana, i.e. mauz, comes from the Sanskrit moc(h)a, and that the plant was therefore somehow introduced from India in the Middle East and further West and South, by Arab traders during pre-Islamic times. This scheme became the implicit base for the commonly held assumption that all the banana cultivars in Africa (and later on in America) must have come from India.Recent investigations, however, point to the strong possibility that most traditional cultivars in humid tropical Africa have their origin much farther in the East, in Eastern Indonesia and around (De Langhe and de Maret 1999). India was nevertheless at the origin of the rather drought resistant ABB cultivars in the Middle East and Northern Africa, whereby Arab and/or Persian traders would have played a key role in the past.It should be noticed that the Sanskrit term moc(h)a is applied in the ancient Indian texts (the Mahabharata for example) for the banana flower, or at the most the whole female/male bud, but neither for the fruit nor the plant, for which the name kadalii (and in some texts rambha) was used.According to Dr Reda Rizk, the collaborator to this mission in Egypt, the derivation 'mocaàmos or muz' is unlikely because the latter terms are phonetically very different. He recalls the possibility that these names may be linked to that of the prophet Musa (Ca. 1200 B.C.) who was born in Egypt and joined the exodus with Israeli people to the land of Palestine. He also refers to the option that the name may have a Roman origin. Indeed, the name 'Musa' adopted by Linnaeus for the entire genus may have been derived from Antonius Musa (63-14 B.C.) who was physician to the first Roman Emperor, Octavius Augustus.Consequently, the origin of the names 'mauz/mos/muz' and of 'musa' still seems to be a subject for further investigation by linguists. 5 It is equally intriguing that the term mosa designates the pseudostem of Ensete ventricosum 6 in Omotic, a language group in S.W. Ethiopia (Shigeta 1990). The farmers there still keep a very long tradition of cultivating Ensete for many purposes, a tradition which was probably common to many Southern Cushitic speaking people all over East Africa (from the Ethiopian highlands down to the south) before Christian era (BCE). Contacts between this area and the Arab world thus may have been instrumental for the shift \"mosa ==> mauz\" in designating a banana-like plant, even before the advent of the edible banana. Linguists could thus elaborate on the supposed connection in a very different perspective 7 .In the context of the present report, it can be concluded that the Arabic term \"mauz\" does not necessarily point to an Indian origin of the banana cultivars as a whole to the West of that subcontinent. And that it became applied only to those cultivars that were 'at some time' introduced in the Middle East by Arab traders.Speculations on how the banana was introduced in the African continent do include a theory (popular in the early 20 th century) of its move along the southern coasts of the Arab subcontinent, and then across the Red Sea into Africa. This could be called 'the pre-Sabean route'.Because of the very dry conditions in that zone, more humid periods in the past would have been required for this 'operation' to have been feasible. But current knowledge of paleo-humid phases seriously precludes such a possibility. By 5000 before present (BP -or 3000 BCE) Southern Arabia was covered by a savannah at the most, and bananas cannot subsist in such an environment in non-irrigated conditions. Only if the ingenious irrigation practices in Mesopotamia and around at that time had existed in this region, could the hypothesis have a chance. There exists evident vestiges of elaborate irrigation systems in the zone (e.g. in present-day Yemen) but they are of more recent times (3000 BP). And any period after 5000 BP apparently witnessed increasingly drier conditions. 8 The 'pre-Sabean route' should therefore be considered as a very remote/minimal possibility, and alternatives should be looked for, when it comes to explaining the existence of the traditional banana cultivars in humid tropical Africa.Between 3000 and 1500 BP, the southwest of Arabia and the African region on the opposite side of the Red Sea were witness of the Sabean civilization. Agriculture was very important and organized and included extensive irrigation.The classic theory of the 'Sabean route' would have it that the Sabeans (sensu largo), by their contacts over the sea with India and beyond, played the key role in the introduction of banana and other Asian crops (Asian yam and taro for example) to the African continent.For ecological reasons however, the theory can not hold in the case of the Plantain cultivars which dominate in the rainforest zone: they cannot survive a long dry season, and certainly not a series of cold nights (less than 10°C). If traders found an interest in shipping the suckers, transporting them over the Indian Ocean, and delivering these 'goods' on the ports of the East African coast, the ecological problem persists. The hinterland of these coasts is dry (along Somaliland and Kenya) and the more humid mountain slopes far away.The case of the East African Highland AAA bananas, so popular in the Great Lakes Region, is more intriguing. These cultivars thrive at altitudes of 1000-1700 masl, provided they benefit from regular humidity. The existence of such cultivars in Ethiopia has been regularly reported orally to the author of the present report. They would even be growing in Yemen, in association with the coffee trees, according to the same sort of reports. It can of course be argued that these cultivars may as well have been introduced in more recent times from the South, the Great Lakes region 9 . Perhaps a study of whether or not they have some sort of cultural significance in these areas could solve the question.The remaining hybrid cultivar-groups, i.e. the ABB, and the 'AAB-other-than-Plantains' are of particular interest in the present context. They are more resistant to physical strain and some of these cultivars can grow in various ecologies, from lowland to high up in the hills. The chances that they were introduced with success in the Middle East and Northern Africa during the Sabean period and later, are real. Murdock (1959) brought forward the hypothesis that banana, taro and Asian yam were introduced from Indonesia by ancestors of the Malagasy, who would have visited the African east coast as well. The first archaeological traces of settlement in Madagascar date from around 500 Anno Domino (after Christ) and bananas would thus have reached the African continent at about the same period. The hypothesis was supported by Simmonds  (1962) who suggested that the bananas reached the continent after a first settlement in Madagascar. It still is the most widely accepted theory. The very low diversity in AAB Plantain as well as in AAA East African Highland bananas in Madagascar is a major difficulty for this theory (De Langhe et al. 1994).The unique diversity of the Plantains in rainforest Africa seems to have been generated ad hoc and should therefore have needed a considerable time there, probably more than two millennia. The new hypothesis that Plantains may have been introduced from eastern Indonesia by 3000 B.C. is based on botanical deductions from linguistic schemes that explain the development of the Malayo-Polynesian languages in South-East Asia/Pacific (De Langhe and de Maret 1999).The point of an Arabic influence on banana diversity in the Middle East and in Africa seems to become clear from the above review of theories, which appear to be complementary rather than conflicting.While it progressively becomes evident from archaeological research that Arabian navigators operated in the Indian Ocean much more than two millennia ago, they may not have been in close contact with the Austronesian ancestors who would have introduced the Plantains and the East African Highland bananas to Africa.But the Arabian tradesmen, moving on the northern side of the ocean, could certainly have been instrumental in the diffusion of the cultivars that originated in India and still are important there. These are mostly AAB-and ABB hybrids.The survey mission was therefore not only interested in the identification of cultivars, but tried to find an answer to the two following questions:* From what period on could the hybrids have been diffused over the Middle East and northern Africa? * Could the Arabian tradesmen, during their contacts with farmers in Africa, have been sufficiently interested in the already existing Plantains and East African Highland bananas to introduce these to the Middle East and Egypt?The results of the survey led to the following conclusions:1. No botanical trace could be found of banana cultivation since remote times. Such cultivation would have generated at least a moderate amount of somaclonal variation among the once introduced cultivars from India, but this is not the case. The survey team got the impression that introduction of AAB and ABB cultivars relied on temporal opportunities and individual initiatives, and that some cultivars may at places even have disappeared for some time and been re-introduced later. The situation of the commercial AAA Cavendish cultivars is clear: these have been introduced during the last century and received by farmers with rapidly growing success. 2. No members could be found of the banana subgroups AAB Plantain and AAA East African Highland banana. This is not surprising, considering the rather narrow ecological conditions under which they can be maintained for a long period in traditional farming conditions. If some of these cultivars ever have been introduced 'from the South', they must have disappeared without leaving any (historical) trace. 10 This situation prompts the survey team to come to the practical conclusion that a scope for introduction and selection of banana germplasm definitely exists in the visited countries.On the one hand, farmers appear to grow some banana cultivars in relatively nonsophisticated conditions.On the other hand, the commercial bananas, such as those belonging to the 'Cavendishgroup', have found their place in the region during the 20 th century. But this undertaking, backed by strong and appropriate agricultural research, calls for an important input in sophisticated techniques, and the risk of unproductive harvests is real in most cases. This system is not readily accessible to the small/moderate scale farmers.This initial glance at the reality leaves the observer with an ambiguous impression regarding the future economic status of banana production. The two components of the impression are:-Commercial bananas do have a future in the region, but their cultivation is confined to very sophisticated agriculture (commercial plantations on selected sites; sprinkler irrigation and fertigation; programmed timing of interventions and treatments supported by crop-growing/micro-environment simulation models; etc.) -Traditional bananas have no future because they do not fit into the increasingly popular/accessible intensive agricultural/horticultural systems.There is a risk that this impression could lead to the conclusion that traditional banana cultivars in this region do not deserve any further attention. Collection and conservation of local germplasm would not be of regional interest and would thus rather have to rely on opportunities and facilities offered by international involvement. And yet:Some considerations 1 Banana gardens and banana fields have a very beneficial impact on micro-environment.They not only have a local buffering effect on climatic changes, but also play a basic role in soil conservation (in both physical and chemical terms). The fact is well-known and needs no substantiation in the present report. 2 Less well appreciated is the fact these garden and groves do not require much care (a) if the plants belong to locally adapted varieties and (b) once the gardens/groves have The survey confirmed the existence of two broad categories of farmers with respect to banana cultivation: those who can afford investment for high performance, and those who are faring less well and who consequently cannot rely on banana for a regular income.The major constraints to commercial banana crop growth differ from country to country: water shortage in Jordan, salt-loaded water in Oman, labour requirements in Egyptwhere the presence of the bunchy top virus calls for regular observation of each plant, in addition to the usual management.The attractive commercial Cavendish cultivar 'Williams' is quite demanding regarding these constraints and is thus not so accessible to the second farmer category. The other major commercial Cavendish, the 'Grande naine', produces less perfect bunches but is also more adaptable to less intensive management.It is in such configuration that the future of banana cultivation may depend on what these farmers really can afford in terms of adapted cultivars and hybrids and consequent management load.Some of the recommendations formulated per country in this report are addressing this problem. In more general terms, and in the light of what was already argued regarding the better prospects for banana breeding at the national level, it should be of interest for economists to investigate and to evaluate the potential of improved traditional bananas for small-to-moderate income farming systems in the region. Ayoub, specialist in research on the olive tree, and is reproduced in Annex 2. The review stresses the current difficulties in irrigation which discourages farmers from cultivating bananas at the levels they used to manage. The rare exceptions are mostly the farms relying on artesian wells. Highlighted is also the need for small scale farmers to grow cultivars which are less demanding in terms of water demand.Farms were visited in the two representative villages of Al Kafrin and Al Rama. The team (Salam Ayoub and Edmond De Langhe) was joined by Mr Tariq Al Idwan, an horticulturist at the South Shouna station who is in close contact with the farmers and familiar with many aspects of banana cultivation in Jordan.In both villages no other cultivars than those belonging to the AAA Cavendish subgroup could be detected. If AAB's and ABB's were ever cultivated, they have disappeared. It should be noted that the system of home gardens (or backyards), where traditional bananas are generally seen in many tropical and subtropical areas, does not exist, at least in these two villages.Three Cavendish cultivars were observed:-'Balady', the Dwarf Cavendish which was said to have existed since long in Jordan. The name covers that concept, just as it is in Egypt and perhaps elsewhere in Arabic speaking countries. The cultivar is progressively being replaced by the following two, but is frequently used as a border row, protecting the field from weeds and wind (photo 1). The latter effect can be questioned since the plant is so short. The much taller but still vigorous AAB 'Mysore', with its regular bunches, attractive fruits and resistance/tolerance to many diseases, looks a serious replacement candidate here, but its resistance to winter conditions should be tested; -'Paz', a taller sport not unlike 'Grand nain', and of which the origin could not be traced.The name could mean \"a kind of eagle\" but the present reporter remembers having noticed the same name for a Cavendish in western Mediterranean, where 'paz' could be Spanish ('peace'); -'Grande naine', pronounced 'Grandnain' as in many American countries, is the well known commercial cultivar (photo 2). It was rather recently introduced (from Israël among others) and is rapidly becoming important through in vitro propagation and with the help of private nurseries. Somaclonal variation was observed in at least one case: a slightly taller plant resembling the 'Williams' (photo 3).The banana plants are generally well managed and average production is estimated at about 25 t/ha. One case was noticed where grasses -instead of dicotyledons-were invading the soil and where efficient clean weeding was not being practised: stolons were not eliminated and even more aggressive invasion could be predicted.A multispan greenhouse was visited, where originally in vitro propagated 'Grande naine' plants formed an impressive and homogenous population (photos 4, 5). Such a sophisticated system has the advantage of producing good bunches over a longer period of the year.The climate in the South Jordan Valley is subject to a sometimes quite pronounced wintertime for several months, thus seriously compromising the formation of bunches with market value. For open field cultivation, farmers therefore have adapted the planting time and method in a judicious way for getting a maximum of good bunches at rather restricted periods, with fluctuations in prices as a result. In spring time, they plant large maiden suckers with peepers attached, and the latter will assure the production (photo 6). Indeed, the large biomass protects the meristems from cold night effects at this time of the year. In a second period, around September, small suckers are planted, which can rapidly grow out before the coming winter. Irrigation is practised from March to September. The winter conditions are the main reason why banana cannot be productive in the north of the Valley, where blackening is caused by frost.One can conclude that commercial banana cultivation in Jordan, if it relies on the current Cavendish varieties, cannot have a great future, even with the skilled farmers met by the team. Introduction of the variety 'Williams' is unlikely to improve prospects, since this cultivar is even more demanding.Production will remain mostly oriented to the supply for the capital. But since bunch quality is not optimal, at least for much of the year, the question arises if alternative germplasm could better meet the climatic stress. Some AAB-and ABB cultivars produce reasonable bunches with local market value elsewhere in the tropics, and they have the advantage of being far less demanding for management in open field cultivation. Moreover, several recently produced hybrids seem to become even more convenient alternatives, because producing good quality fruit.It is recommended that agricultural research in Jordan should give the necessary attention to the introduction, selection and assessment of hybrids and AAB/ABB cultivars that should be able to produce attractive bunches and fruits over a longer period of the year. Some of these may well require much less water and thus assure a more regular supply to the markets with a significantly improved 'cost/benefit' ratio.The need for a special effort to stop any further deterioration of the general situation is very clear. One of the measures could be the introduction of alternative banana cultivars which would be more resistant or tolerant to the said stresses.Participatory research on banana is conducted in the Jordan Valley by the Agricultural Research Station of South Shouna, located in the southern part of the valley near the King Talal Dam (photo 7). It could be argued that the few existing local cultivars in Jordan do not require a field collection at the station. However, the absence of such a collection seriously hampers any efforts by farmers and scientists to improve banana cultivation by introducing suitable cultivars from abroad. It is almost impossible for a research station to access internationally available germplasm if it is not able to refer exactly to the local cultivars and thus introduce similar cultivars with higher performance or better adaptation to physical and biological stresses.Uncontrolled introduction of germplasm is harmful per se, and direct introduction of any so-called promising cultivars at the farmer's level is too much the subject of speculation as to its performance.Moreover the present survey was faced with the difficulty of exactly identifying cultivars in the rural areas because grown under various ecological and management conditions. The same cultivars can only be adequately identified when grown in the same field and under the same management conditions.Facilities for in vitro maintenance and conservation for Musa do exist at the Genetic Resources Unit of the NCARTT. A National Committee on Plant Genetic Resources was established as an outcome of the National Seminar on Plant Genetic Resources of Jordan held in 1994 under the auspices of the NCARTT and the IPGRI-WANA Regional Office. Private nurseries for bananas are active and the team visited one of them, which is run in excellent conditions (photo 8). Consequently, the safe introduction and distribution of banana germplasm should present no major problem.It is therefore recommended that a national field collection for bananas be established with the following three objectives:1. Field conservation and planned trials of any cultivar grown by farmers in the country; 2. Access to the INIBAP Transit Centre (ITC) for the introduction of suitable cultivars and hybrids; 3. Operational interaction via INIBAP with the international banana research community.The national field collection. Tasks of the survey mission Banana cultivars had been the subject of a systematic taxonomical study several decades ago (Tackholm 1954). The identified specimen were planted in a field collection at the El Kanater Agricultural Research Station, in the Delta region. The collection was maintained over the years and still provides reliable reference material. Relative shortage of funds for work on Musa at the station has inevitably caused some recent deterioration and Services were considering a transplantation to ARC at Caïro, under the supervision of the National Plant Genetic Resources Programme (NPGRP). In effect, and almost immediately after the present survey took place, the accessions have been transplanted in a field collection genebank at El Qaliobia.It was agreed that the survey would start with a systematic observation of this collection, and use the results as reference for all further taxonomic work in the rural areas.The composition of this collection is as follows 13 The classification had been developed before the now widely applied classification system in AAA, AAB, etc. (Simmonds and Shepherd 1955). In the current classification, all of the Cavendish varieties belong to the AAA group, the Plantain is a special AAB subgroup, while the 'Sapientum' falls into the groups AAB, ABB and even some AAA.It was made clear that several accessions are not -or are no longer-cultivated by farmers.The survey mission thus had the tasks: 1. To identify the accessions at El Konater according to the current classification; 2. To assess their actual presence in the farms over the country.Since the accessions were represented by lines with several stools, or even blocks for some 'Cavendish', most of them could be identified. The process went in two steps: assessment of the genomic group (AAA, AAB, etc.) by using the Shepherd-Simmonds list of critical characteristics (Simmonds and Shepherd 1955) followed by the tentative cultivar identification.Turned out rapidly to be an ABB with the typical plump male buds, bract colours (rich pink all over the inside), the closed petiole canals and the closely clasping petiole bases on a pseudostem without the 'acuminata'-blotches (photos 9, 10). Further study of the flowers and the fruits enabled its classification as a ABB Ney Mannan (see Annex 4). 'Sindhi' was later on found in many farms, especially in the south, under various local names. Its origin is obscure but indications are provided further on in the text sub 'The cultivars in rural areas. 'Sindhi' 14 .The plants were clearly ABB's but no bunches were observable at the time. Many 'Baradika' at the nearby Mansour Amer farm allowed for the cultivar to be identified as a ABB Pisang Awak (photos 11, 12). Baradika (also 'balalaika') has been introduced around the early 20 th century as a wind-breaker for the Cavendish plantations (Tackholm 1954), and examples of this function were noticed afterwards on many farms.This is the AAB Mysore (photos 13, 14, 15). The plant is said to have been introduced during the reign of King Mohammed Ali, hence the name. But this name was not noticed on the many farms where the cultivar is grown. Nomenclature for the plant at farm level was erratic or non-existent. Adoption of the name 'Mohammed Ali' as the representative of Mysore in Egypt is therefore recommended.The accession is in a poor state at the collection 15 . Only one stool with a reasonably developed bunch led to the tentative identification of the accession being the AAB Silk. The plant was not found elsewhere on the farms.Both are clearly AAB Mysore with the densely packed oblique-to-pendulous bunch and the characteristic pink dorsal side of the midrib on younger leaves. These names were not noticed on any farm. The plants are supposed to have been introduced from India 'at some time'. Both names contain the phoneme 'valsh' which is strikingly reminiscent of the Tamil-Dravidian generic name 'vazhai' for bananas.This is the AAA 'Red banana'. The plant did not exist on the farms visited and no farmer seems to be aware of it.The collection has no accession of this cultivar, or it may have been lost. What was called 'Senari' at the Mansour Amer farm turned out to be again the AAB Mysore (photo 16).The station must at one time have tried to sort out the synonyms among these accessions; witness the large blocks per accession. The results of that assessment are no longer available 16 .Cursory observation led the mission team to suggest that Poyo = Maghrabi while the Williams looks somewhat sturdier. 'Valery' and 'Grandnain' had recently been transplanted and no study was possible. 'Chiketa' was not present. 'Maghrabi' was said to have been introduced from Morocco in the early 20 th century. The supposed difference between these cultivars is the subject of a rather worldwide confusion. The regular appearance of mutants in size makes the problem worse.It is recommended that a comparative study for morphology and agronomical performance be effected at least on the group 'Maghrabi-Williams-Grandnain'. Such assessment would be of great help in clarifying the situation at the farmer's level. It would also allow for a standardization of Cavendish cultivars at the national level 17 .Regarding the nomenclature, it is suggested that the collective name 'Giant Cavendish' should be dropped, since most of these accessions are taller than the classical 'Giant'.Hindi is the typical Dwarf Cavendish. It is the most widespread banana cultivar since a long time in Egypt, together with its name 'Hindi'. 'Basrai' is a problem. At the station collection, 'Basrai' is in all evidence the extra Dwarf Cavendish. But, while the cultivar was not observed in rural area, many farmers would apply the name of 'Basrai' for what clearly was the Dwarf (and not the extra Dwarf). Since the extra Dwarf is of no economic importance, the name 'Basrai' should be avoided 18. 1. The mission team tried in vain to reconcile the AAB and ABB accessions with the cultivar descriptions by Tackholm (1954). As explained in the next comment, the 'Plantain' could not be observed. As for the AAB 'Mysore' and the two ABB's, the rather confused descriptions of the 'M. sapientum' make any identification hazardous 19 . It is recommended to consider the classification by Tackholm as of historical value only 20 .17 These cultivars are well represented in the north of Egypt, especially 'Williams' and 'Grandnain'. Nurseries are providing plantlets from in vitro propagated plants. Some farmers, when thus introducing so-called 'Williams' are faced with a mixture of different sizes. The unavoidable consequence of all this confusion is that about every farmer has his own opinion on the discriminate characteristics. 18 The accidental appearance of extra Dwarf mutants among Hindi cannot be avoided, however. But the farmers are very keen on what is productive or not, and would rule out these off-springs. 19 In effect, the Tackholm description is open to several interpretations. Regarding the 'M. paradisiaca Plantain' some characteristics such as \"stem 4-10 m; leaves bright green; red or violet bracts; calyx white; thick yellow (fruit) skin\" are rather pointing to an ABB. The \"persistent lanceolate bracts\" and \"angled fruits\" are indeed characteristic of the AAB Plantain. But ABB fruits can be considered as 'angled' as well. About the bract persistence, there is the strange statement for the next described cultivar (M. sapientum), that it is \"very close to the preceding but male flowers and bracts deciduous\". Yet that variety is said by Tackholm to have three races, one of which manifestly being the AAB 'Mysore' (reddish midrib, and reference to the Indian name 'champa') and another one being the AAA 'Red Banana'. 20 However, the paper offers a wealth of information on bananas in Egypt in the past. Its chapter on the presumed presence of Ensete in Egypt in remote times looks quite convincing.2. The AAB 'Plantain' was not observed, neither in the collection nor at any of the many farms visited afterwards. The Tackholm suggestion that 'Senari' was a 'Plantain' may have been caused by the great confusion around the name 'Plantain' at the time. In many regions over the world, 'Plantain' stood for the lose concept of \"starchy bananas, to be cooked\". Most ABB cultivars are indeed starchy, and 'Senari' was the name used at one farm for the ABB cultivar 'Sindi'. It could also be the reason why Sindhi (ABB Ney Mannan) was classified as a 'Plantain' in the collection. Since, Simmonds (1959) has clarified this situation and the name 'Plantain' is applied nowadays only for the restricted AAB Plantain subgroup, dominating in the African rainforest and also frequent in Kerala State (India). 3. The following cultivars of the collection were not observed elsewhere: AAA 'Red Banana'; 'Ambel'; 'Valery'; 'Chiketa'.The observations at the El Konater collection and in rural area led to the conclusion that the following cultivars are rather common and traditional 21 :AAA Cavendish 'Hindi', AAB 'Mohammed Ali', ABB's 'Baradika' and 'Sindh'. The AAA 'Williams' and 'Grandnain(e)' are more recent, but are replacing the 'Hindi' wherever economically feasible.The following adapted determination key is suggested for use in Egypt:Survey report 17 21 Traditional in the sense that they have been cultivated in Egypt at farmer's level for about a century. 'Hindi' and perhaps 'Sindhi' may have a longer history. 22 Male bud touching the soil at advanced fruiting stage 23 In theory, the 'Williams' should be slightly taller than 'Grandnain(e)' but standardized delivery of the correct cultivars is necessary for the distinction to become practical. The actual 'Grande naine' should have a number of persistent bracts at the proximal end of the male bud. 24 I.e. the AAB Mysore in the international nomenclature; 25 But the dorsal face of midribs can show a faint bronze tinge. 26 The pedicel bases on each hand are more or less merging, thus producing a more or less large 'cushion'. 27 Pedicel bases remain distinct 28 For a determination in broader ABB diversity context, see Annex 5. The cultivars in rural areas Some general facts can be found in Annex 3 prepared by Dr Reda Rizk.The team visited the farms along the entire Nile Valley and in the western part of the Delta region. Afterwards, Dr Rizk completed the observations with visits to the rest of the Delta and north Sinaï. On the map of Egypt (page 21) which figures at the end of this report, Dr Rizk has plotted the places where the ABB ('Baradika'; 'Sindhi') and AAB ('Mohammed Ali') were found. The Cavendish cultivars are ubiquitous.The Dwarf Cavendish 'Hindi' seems to have been cultivated since a long time in Egypt, at least for much more than one century. This is probably the reason why it is sometimes called 'Baladi' , meaning \"original/native\" or \"of the country\". But Baladi was also used for a non-Cavendish AAB or ABB cultivar, as appears from reading the Tackholm (1954, p. 553) paper. The name was indeed noticed by the team for 'Sindhi' (ABB 'Ney Mannan') between Luxor and Assiut. It is recommended that the term 'Baladi' be avoided for any banana cultivar. 29 During the 20 th century, 'Hindi' has been progressively, but not completely replaced by 'Williams' and 'Grandnain' in northern Egypt (especially the Delta region). The latter two cultivars were introduced to Egypt respectively in 1980 and 1982. They rapidly spread through the country because of their excellent performance, the large bunch with longer fingers, the excellent taste and high tolerance to transportation. 'Williams' and 'Grande naine' are planted on a wide scale, for example at a large farm placed at the west of the Delta at al-khattaba (Mahmoud Salem farm). This farm has its own nursery.'Hindi' still represents about 70% of the total banana cultivation in Egypt and remains most popular in the south (along the Nile valley and on islands) because of its better resistance to cold nights. 30 .As for 'Maghrabi', this cultivar was introduced from Cameroon in 1922 by a farmer and its diffusion is rather scattered through the country, from Essna to the north, with some concentration at Al Qaluobia and Al Monefia.The Cavendish is the commercial banana par excellence. The farmers interested in its cultivation demonstrate great skill in selecting the proper soils, and in planting/ maintaining the fields. Control of banana bunchy top virus is optimal, and symptoms are very rare 31 . However, their cautious attempts at replacing the robust 'Hindi' by the more productive, but also more demanding 'Williams' are handicapped by the failure of private nurseries to provide reliable planting material. This 'Williams' plant material comes from in vitro propagated plantlets and is therefore highly priced. But the mission team noticed more than once on the resulting Williams fields, a notable proportion of other Cavendish sports -perhaps somaclonal variants generated in vitro -thus depreciating the intended upgrading effort.18 Banana diversity in the Middle East 29 The term is rightly used with several crops for the truly local varieties and landraces of old tradition, with their specific 'niches' and local names (Dr Zeid, pers. comm.). The name has not very much sense in the case of the banana cultivars. It is also applied in Jordan for the Dwarf Cavendish. 30 Temperature gradient is higher in the south, while it is buffered in the Mediterranean climate of the north. 31 The mission was of some help here, by showing the emergence of the disease at the ultimate stage of a fruiting plant, when no new leaves are formed. The male bud in such case will develop bracts with green tips that tend to curl outwards.In the mean time, the AAB and ABB cultivars discussed hereunder proved to be more resistant or tolerant to drought and diseases than the Cavendish ones.Also called 'Balalaika' or 'Balika'. 'Baradika' has no origin in the Arabic language. It could be derived from the words such as \"paradise\" or \"paradisiaca\". Taekholm and Drar (1954) mentioned \"Paradise banana\" in their taxonomic treatment of banana in Egypt. The robust plant is said to have been introduced in the north as a windbreak for the Cavendish plantations and striking examples were indeed noticed there by the team.After the survey, Dr Rizk observed the cultivar over the whole Delta area and in North Sinai 32 . The fruits are sold on the market at about half the price of a Cavendish banana. Important stocks for sale were found by Dr Rizk on the markets of Damietta (North), El Gharbia (middle of Delta), and Giza (Caïro) which seems indeed to indicate that the cultivar has a longer history in the northern Egypt. The fruit is consumed raw by lower income people. The pulp is mixed with other fruits and milk and/or sugar, to make a compound of high nutrient value especially for the children. A similar compound is available as a juice in coffee shops.The plant is known to be remarkably resistant to many physical and biotic stresses, and needs but minimal care 33 . This, together with the windbreak advantage, constitute the potential for this cultivar to become competitive with Cavendish in marginal growth conditions. In effect, the team found a monoculture of 'Baradika' on a farm south of Luxor (photo 17). The farmer explained that the limited labour necessary for maintenance made the banana income competitive with 'Williams'. On another farm, the cultivar was hardly present, and said \"to be there for the view and the shade\".Somaclonal variation could be observed on a farm in the village Dar-es-Salam, to the west of Qena. At least one plant showed shorter fingers with some wax on the pericarp, but still the merged pedicel bases, forming the \"cushion\" (photo 18). Judging from the exploration results, the cultivar 'Baradika' is rare, if not absent, further to the south.In contrast with 'Baradika', this cultivar was not observed in the north 34 , while its presence increases along the Nile Valley from north to south, and certainly from Essna on. The name 'Sindhi' was not recorded by the team beyond the El-Kanater station. No other specific name was noticed either, except for 'Balady' in one case, in a village along a primary irrigation canal north of Luxor, where it was said to have been planted after the construction of the Aswan Dam. Most farmers, when asked from where they had the plant, pointed to \"family or friends in the south\".The Head of the agricultural station of El-Kanater, Dr Ahamed El-Kader, reported his impression, gained from several conversations with farmers on this matter, that 'Sindhi' may well have been introduced from Sudan at a more or less remote time. The name 'Soudani' is indeed applied by scientists in Egypt for this cultivar.It is interesting to note hereby that AAB 'Ney Mannan' has been reported in tropical East Africa, at least in Tanzania, among several ABB cultivars 35 (Evers 1991). All these ABB's would be able to grow well in the area of Sindhi. Moreover, both the 'Ney Mannan' and the 'P. awak', and perhaps 'Bluggoe' have been observed in Oman during this mission.Perhaps the cultivars in Yemen could provide the key to this intriguing configuration, which seems to be confined to Arabic influence since many centuries.The cultivar is grown for various purposes such as: local consumption, shade, protection of the residence (photo 19). It is the only banana found in some villages (photo 20).The cultivar was observed on widely separated spots along the Nile Valley, and according to Dr Rizk, is also present in the Delta region (at El Daqahlia). It is more frequent around Luxor, where it seems to have been introduced \"from farm to farm\", perhaps starting with the Island of Armand 36 . It is the ubiquitous cultivar on the famous \"Banana Island\" on the Nile, where its biomass is most impressive (photos 21, 22). At this spot, the names 'Mos kawi' and 'Mos cati' (lemon) are used for the cultivar, and these names are also applied at Al-Qaloubia farms.In the absence of a consistent nomenclature, the survey team recommends the adoption at national scale of the name 'Mohammed Ali', with the representative accession under that name at the El-Kanater collection.The plants are huge on the very fertile alluvial soils of the Delta region and of the islands of the Nile River. The fruits are much more attractive than those of 'Baradika' (= 'P. awak') 37 . The plant is quite resistant to diseases, and its compact, cylindrical bunches are ideal for transport on trucks. This cultivar deserves considerably more popularity. It is recommended that 'Mohammed Ali' be tested, at least as a wind-break instead of 'Baradika', and perhaps even as an alternative to the Cavendish wherever felt appropriate. Its more intensive cultivation on reasonably fertile soils could indeed mean a better income (compared to the Baradika) for the farmer on the local markets.Research on diversity in the future. RecommendationsThe review of the results of the mission during the debriefing session with Dr Zeid, led to the following general conclusions on desirable research in the future.Standardization of the nomenclature in the 'Williams-Grandnain-Maghrabi' complex, through a comparative morphological study of the involved accessions on the El-Kanater field collection plus representative accessions with the same name from INIBAP. The study should produce the reference cultivars for further propagation via governmental and private nurseries.Broadening the spectrum so as to assess the possibility of upgrading the quality of the existing cultivars. Several \"sports\" of the ABB 'Pisang awak' are of better organoleptic quality (e.g. some accessions at the ITC from Thailand). In a first phase, the new accessions could be propagated and delivered at moderate scale to interested farmers. In a second phase, farmers could select the economically feasible accessions , which would then enter the intensive delivery stage via the nurseries. These initiatives involve a close collaboration between the NPGRP in Egypt and INIBAP, whereby the most convenient cultivar candidates would be identified, and the follow up be agreed upon.Beyond these suggestions the recommendations regarding specific issues, as they figure on the present text, are hereby recapitulated:Survey report 211 To consider the classification of Egyptian bananas by Tackholm as of historical value only, and to adopt the identification and classification established in the present report (cf. 'Identification at the El Kanater collection', under 'Additional comments').2 To adopt the name 'Mohammed Ali' as a standard name in Egypt for the cultivar AAB 'Mysore' (cf. 'Identification at the El Kanater collection').The survey had been prepared down to the last detail by Mr Abdul-Aziz Al-Harthy and Ing. Abdullah Alhosni, the latter being the guide and collaborator for the entire visit programme. Banana diversity in Oman has been explored in its essence with this survey, effected in a very short time. However, the survey team has the impression that a number of remote villages deserve a special visit in the future in order to cover the entire spectrum of diversity.An important collection with 31 accessions was planted in 1997-1998 and has been maintained since, at the Agriculture research station of Salalah (see Table 4 of Annex 4).A second collection exists at the Royal Diwan Farms (the Al-Rubat Farm) north of Salalah, of which most of the accessions have been duplicated at Salalah.The collections reflect the great interest in banana culture, especially in the Dhofar region. Relevant research has been carried out, focusing on the main production problems, which relate to irrigation and soil/plant management. Most farmers are observing the methods which were recommended on the basis of that research.The most striking feature of these collections is that they include a large number of introductions from the Comoro Islands, Zanzibar and India (the latter at the station at least). They are probably unique for collections at the national scale. It is recommended that INIBAP enters into an exchange of accessions of international versus national interest 38 .With the exception of 'Red banana' the Salalah collection does not include the cultivars discussed in a short publication on the performance of bananas in Oman (Viswanath et al.,  1997): 'Malindi', 'Bashri', 'Somali', 'Fard', 'Red banana', 'Naggal'. The first three belong to the AAA Cavendish subgroup. 'Malindi' could be the Dwarf Cavendish 'Hindi' in Egypt, but 'Bashri' is certainly not the Dwarf Cavendish 'Basrai' in India because it is very tall. 'Somali' would be a Giant Cavendish probably introduced from that country 39 . 'Fard' and 'Naggal' are discussed further on in the present report.Both the collections consist of rows with at least 10 plants per accession. The collection at the station was observed in detail (photo 23), while the Royal Diwan collection was rather rapidly visited, due to shortage of time. Consequently, the hereunder reported identification is principally based on the observation results at the station, and completed for a limited number of accessions with the additional checking at the second collection.During the visit to the collections, the team was guided by Ing. Anwar Ahmed Bait Hadhil, Fruit Researcher at the station, and strengthened by the most valuable presence of 22 Banana diversity in the Middle East 38 Several cultivars in the Comoro Islands have never been reported elsewhere. During the 80s, and on the initiative of the french institute CIRAD-FLHOR, a number of these cultivars was duplicated at the Musa field collection in Guadeloupe. Some of these have since then entered the INIBAP-ITC and it seems worth the effort to complete the ITC in exchange with cultivars that may be of interest in Oman, as this report explains in this chapter. 39 The mission did not found the opportunity to visit these cultivars on the farms.Dr Gamaleldin, Senior Fruit Engineer at the Royal Diwan, who had initiated the field collection efforts.Review of the accessions (list on Annex 4, Table 4) 40 .1-3. Cavendish cultivars. They looked to conform to the international standard classification. 4. 'Mbo' (Zanzibar). The accession is a typical AAB 'Horn Plantain'. 5. 'Moongil' (India). Is the same AAB 'Horn Plantain', the only of the sort reported in India (photo 24). 6. 'Sawara' (India). AAA 'Red Banana'. 7. 'Poovan' (India). The fruiting plants were not sufficiently developed for reliable identification, but both the name and the faint red midribs point to AAB 'Mysore'. 8. 'Ney Poovan' (India). Is not the typical AB 'Ney Poovan': plant stature looks triploid; the bunch resembles that of a AAB 'Mysore'. A 'Mysore' with green/yellow midribs has been reported in Tanzania, with the names 'Kipukucha' and/or 'Kipakapaka' applied there to the AB 'Ney Poovan' as well (Evers 1991) 41 . 9. 'Nendran' (India). ABB 'Ney Mannan', which is also grown by farmers in Oman. It is not the AAB 'French Plantain' as the name suggests 42 . 10. 'Kunnan' (India). A semi-dwarf ABB and perhaps the ABB 'Kunnan' (photo 25). 11. 'Abu Bakar' (from local farm, Salalah). ABB 'Ney Mannan' 12. 'Bombay Green' (from same local farm, Salalah). AAB 'Mysore' without doubt. The adjective \"green\" may point to the transient mutant with green midribs at the time of its introduction. 13. 'Borabayi'. Tentatively AA diploid, but no bunch available. The accession 'Barabay' at the Guadeloupe collection was also introduced from the Comoros, but is an ABB 'Bluggoe' 43 . The accession No. 13 does not show any of the typical ABB characteristics. 14. 'Sugar Banana'. ABB 'Pisang awak' sport. The adjective \"sugar\" could point to a sport with dessert quality of the fruit, as with several 'P. awak' sports in Thailand. No ripe fruits were available. The possibility should be checked because of the great potential of this vigorous plant 44 . 15. 'Red Banana'. AAA 'Red Banana'. 16. 'Kalckito'. AAB 'Silk', judging from the splitting pericarp on ripening fingers on one plant, as well as from the name ('Kolikutta' is the 'Silk' in Sri Lanka) 45 . 17. 'Mdzodji'. AAB 'Pome'. A hardy plant, common as a dessert cultivar in southern India, in Brazil, where it is called 'Prata', and in Australia, with the confusing name 'Lady's Finger' 46 .Comments:1 The collection at the Agricultural research station of Salalah, in conjunction with the Diwan collection, is quite representative of the bananas grown in the Indian Ocean area, i.e. the countries around-and the islands in the ocean. It is the only collection of these types of bananas 56 . It is highly recommended to consider the possibility of the collection getting a regional status, and to take the proper measures for such effort in close collaboration with INIBAP.2 The collection is beginning to suffer from insufficient maintenance: soil fertility is not well restored and soil protection (with mulch for example) is lacking. Some demanding accessions are poorly growing and at least one of them has disappeared altogether ('Samba'). Shortage in funds at the station was said to be the main reason. The Batinah region, i.e. the coastal zone to the N.W. of Muscat, is dry during most of the year and faces a water-supply problem. Drip irrigation has been progressively introduced since a decade. Large farms dominate, but banana cultivation is relatively rare 58 .A clear overview of the banana culture in the Dhofar was prepared for the mission by Ing. Anwar Ahmed Amur Bait Fadhil, Fruit Researcher at the station and is reproduced in Annex 4. The region benefits from the monsoon, due to its geographical configuration, and is humid during a major part of the year. The spectrum in farm-size is broad, and banana cultivation is widespread. The banana plantations are very well managed and look healthy.The banana bunchy top virus has so far not been detected. Problems with nematodes (Radopholus) were reported.As is explained in the Annex, water salinity is the main problem. The soils do have a pH of around 8.5 and research for adapted application of chemical fertilizers has been carried out with some success. Still, and during the conversations with the mission team, it was made clear that manure is very helpful. An alternative practised by the farmers is to add a massive dose of fertile soil from the wadi's (photo 28).All these measures, together with the regular maintenance of the field, mean an important input for the farmer. But the results obtained so far were and still are very promising.The future of banana cultivation in the Dhofar is not assured, however, as it heavily relies on interventions at the governmental level. Prospects are not evident in that respect, and farmers do not feel encouraged for expansion/intensification. Import from abroad forms the major part of the banana consumption in urban sectors. The price of these imported bananas turns out to be surprisingly low, and thus highly competitive with the local production. A banana ripening-packing factory, which was established during recent years, had to be abandoned due to lack of sufficient governmental support. Yet, the will at the local level to develop the cultivation is clear, and is expressed among others by the recent development of a marketing board, with participation of farmers and various shareholders.A more protective policy by the Government seems to be of the essence in this matter.Research on bananas at the agricultural station of Salalah had been developed quite successfully in recent years, but is presently facing some funding problems. Close collaboration with research work on the Royal Diwan farms is partly alleviating the burden. Communication with the international banana research community needs serious improvement. The mission recommends the development a of regular contact with the INIBAP, starting with the reception of INFOMUSA and other newsletters and reports produced by this network.Regarding the diversity, and with the exception of the Cavendish 'Williams', the cultivars in the rural areas are the result of random introductions over the centuries. Previous introductions may even have disappeared since. Given the main problems: salinity, water shortage (in Batinah) and nematodes, the systematic introduction of candidate-cultivars and hybrids that are more resistant/tolerant to these stresses is recommended.The Dwarf Cavendish dominates by far the plantations. Efforts are presently produced via participatory research to replace the cultivar by the semi-dwarf 'Williams'. The higher productivity and the cylindrical bunches of 'Williams' would certainly make the production in the Dhofar more competitive. The cultivar is however more demanding to the farmer and needs some encouragement (vide above paragraph 'General').The cultivar has different local/Indian names, but the most common seems to be 'Fard' (meaning \"duty\"?) in the Dhofar. It has been noticed by the survey team as a windbreak on several farms. The cultivar is quite popular, which is explained by the presence of many labourers and entrepreneurs of Indian origin since a long time. The fruits are therefore in some cases higher priced than the (Dwarf-) Cavendish ones. Although less yielding, the 'Mysore' plantations need less care (limited to no fertilisation and almost no pruning). This matter calls for a statistical study regarding supply/demand and resulting income predictions.The cultivar is rare compared to the previous one. In the Batinah area, the name 'Negal' (a common name in India, cf. 'the Negal god') was noticed on the Galeb farm (village Birkha). The said farm had a consistent plantation with this cultivar (photo 29). Even drip irrigation has been applied since several years. The fruit is considered as a dessert banana on the local markets. The name in the Dhofar is 'Green Omani' and the fruit is cooked.At the same Galeb farm in Batinah, a single stool was shown on a garbage corner. The pseudostems were impressive and the pendulous bunch with large fingers (distinct broad apex) led to the tentative identification that this is a ABB 'Bluggoe' rather than the 'Ney Mannan' (photo 30). The cultivar was observed nowhere else, and is apparently not known in the country. It is suggested to introduce it in the Salalah field collection in order to verify its taxonomical status by comparing it to other ABB's.Judging from the general impression gained by the mission during its visit to the collection and the farms, it can be stated that:* The existing cultivars in rural areas are reasonably well adapted to the local ecological and market conditions: Dwarf Cavendish and 'Williams' for major commercialization, 'Fard' (AAB 'Mysore') for additional (local) commercialisation and 'Negal' for local consumption and/or limited commercialisation; * The cultivars are very well managed and the plants in general, healthy looking; * the stress caused by dry periods and by nematodes, although not noticed during the visits, calls for broadening the diversity spectrum with resistant cultivars or hybrids that produce similar bananas. While nematode resistance has been for many years a target in banana improvement programmes, resistance to drought or to salty water is hardly on the agenda. Leaving the research stations and farmer with the only alternative to introduce and to test cultivars with comparable morphology and fruit quality. This could be a solution for AAB and ABB bananas, of which it is known that some of them are grown under rather severe conditions.During the debriefing session with the scientists at the Agricultural research station of Salalah under the chairmanship of Ing. Mussam Ahmed Tabook, Assistant Director General of Agricultural Development in Dhofar (Ministry of Agriculture), the following recommendations were submitted:1. To upgrade the status of the field collection at Salalah to that of a regional collection in consultation with INIBAP 59 ; 2. To augment the currently narrow spectrum of Cavendish-, AAB and ABB cultivars by introducing comparable accessions from INIBAP that are resistant/tolerant to water salinity, to water stress, to nematodes, or to any combination of these qualities;3. To prepare and to implement, in collaboration with INIBAP, the provision to the ITC of a number cultivars which originally came from the Comoro Islands, and which are of potential interest to banana breeding in general; 4. To definitely identify the taxonomy of cultivars which could not be determined with certainty by the mission (they are designated with a question mark on Table 3) 5. To complete the collection with the local cultivars under the names as they figure in the present report, in order to verify their presumed identity; 6. To develop a further regular contact of the Salalah agricultural station with INIBAP, starting with the reception of INFOMUSA and other newsletters and reports produced by this network.The survey team hereby puts forward the general recommendation that programmes for selection and genetic improvement of the banana should from now on devote much more attention to drought/salt water resistance/tolerance than in the past. Banana cultivation in irrigated conditions in a large number of countries throughout the zone stretching from North-and Sahel Africa in the West, to N.W. India in the East would amply benefit from such an effort. The areas planted with banana are distributed over Egypt especially in the Delta and Nile valley. The new reclaimed land in the Sinai and the western desert were planted also with banana.Many farms have their own artesian wells that are used for banana irrigation, and the technology is presently applied in the new reclaimed lands.Annex 4: Banana in Dhofar region, Sultanate of Oman","tokenCount":"9594"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b7f7fc1317d12b3f7302f7cdcbb2d1fd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1115895a-c1ac-44ad-9a97-92fa4e5370fb/retrieve","id":"818541993"},"keywords":["• P662 -5","2","1 Governing Shared Landscapes OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report"],"sieverID":"119b0387-fff3-415f-b42c-49340eb01d87","pagecount":"5","content":"One of the reasons that India remains home to the world's largest concentration of rural poverty is the \"governance gap\" -the weakness or absence of institutions for democratic engagement from village to district levels.For the past three decades, the NGO Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) has worked to nurture the growth of democratic institutions to spur collective action for restoring the health of local ecosystems, revitalizing the productivity of degraded landscapes and, ultimately, strengthening the resilience of rural communities. Under the Promise of Commons initiative, FES and partners are engaged in a bold agenda that targets 30 million acres of common lands to be brought under community governance in 90,000 villages. Since 2014, Collaborating for Resilience (CoRe) is assisting FES in implementation of multistakeholder dialogue, institutional strengthening, and systematic learning to support scaling of local governance improvement processes [1].One of the outputs of this collaboration is the Multi-Actor Platform (MAP) Design Guide, developed by CoRe with PIM support to assist practitioners in building multistakeholder platforms at district and block (district subdivision) levels [1] [2] [3] [5]. This guide answers practitioners' practical questions, such as \"How do I go about organizing and facilitating MAP implementation?\" and \"What are the most common obstacles or challenges I might confront along the way, and how can I respond to these effectively?\" CoRe trained the FES field teams in using the guide to promote, adapt, and replicate inclusive MAPs. CoRe guidance on MAP design has been adopted across six states (Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh). After an initial workshop in April 2018 during which key challenges were identified, periodic dialogue sessions allowed field teams to reflect on the progress of MAPs in their districts, share best practices and report on emergent themes and priorities. This adaptive learning approach resulted in continuous improvement of the guide. In addition, local stories and testimonials of outcomes from use of the guide are being developed.Following a virtual Partners Exchange workshop, which brought together forty-five organizations across eight states in July 2020 [1] [3] [4], FES initiated activities to share CoRe guidance on MAP design with a network of partner NGOs, including over 50 field practitioners [3].Thanks to these activities, the MAP process is on its way to being scaled up for successful strengthening of local governance of land restoration in India.For the past three decades, the NGO Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) has worked to nurture the growth of democratic institutions to spur collective action for restoring the health of local ecosystems, revitalizing the productivity of degraded landscapes and, ultimately, strengthening the resilience of rural communities. Under the Promise of Commons initiative, FES and partners are engaged in a bold agenda that targets 30 million acres of common lands brought under community governance in 90,000 villages. Since 2014, CoRe is assisting FES in implementation of multistakeholder dialogue, institutional strengthening, and systematic learning to support scaling of local governance improvement processes [1].One of the outputs of this collaboration is the Multi-Actor Platform (MAP) Design Guide, developed by CoRe with PIM support to assist practitioners in building multistakeholder platforms at district and block (district subdivision) levels [1] [2] [3]. CoRe trained the FES field teams in using the guide to promote, adapt, and replicate inclusive MAPs and the guide was tested across six states (Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh). After an initial workshop in April 2018 during which key challenges in MAP building were identified, periodic dialogue sessions allowed field teams to reflect on the progress of MAPs in their districts, share best practices and report on emergent themes and priorities. This adaptive learning approach resulted in continuous improvement of the guide. In addition, local stories and testimonials of outcomes from use of the guide are being developed.Following a virtual Partners Exchange workshop, which brought together forty-five organizations across eight states in July 2020 [1] [3] [4], FES initiated activities to share CoRe guidance on MAP design with a network of partner NGOs, including over 50 field practitioners, in Odisha, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh [3].Thanks to these activities, the MAP process is on its way to being scaled up for successful strengthening of local governance of land restoration in India. Early indicators of this scaling include MAP processes contributing to statewide adoption of data-driven land use restoration planning tools in Odisha State and expansion of the MAP approach to support more inclusive subdivision-level planning processes from the initial pilot block to a total of 8 blocks in Rajasthan State [1].","tokenCount":"748"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fcab928a678915230b86a668e65c0526","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/031f5c71-2bc1-46de-8ec0-b22573af4031/retrieve","id":"862298182"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"389582a6-760b-458e-bc57-762afe1c9505","pagecount":"25","content":"this set of assumptions, 471-781 additional head of stall-fed cattle would be slaughtered in 1990 than in 1980. The urban market for beef in the Mandara Mountains could, therefore, absorb about half to three-quarters of the annual stall-fed cattle output (1,000 head) of a credit program that extended 1,000 stall-feeding loans per year by 1990. 13/  1. A common perception among officials in developing countries is that marketing agents charge unjustifiably high prices and receive unduly high profits, to the detriment of consumers (Harrison et al., 1974;Riley and Weber, 1983). Government officials rarely appreciate the functions that marketing agents perform, including assembly of geographically dispersed foodstuffs and livestock products, transportation from production zones to centres of demand, storage, and product transformation. Marketing margins, which are often high in developing countries, are perceived to reflect windfall profits rather than normal returns, high transactions costs, and real transport, handling, storage and interest costs. Empirical evidence of livestock marketing costs in West Africa (Staatz, 1979;Josserand and Sullivan, 1979;Herman, 1983;Holtzman et al 1980) and in East Africa (Reusse, 1982;Evangelou, 1984) generally demonstrate that butcher and trader returns are not excessive, given high real marketing costs, significant risks, and the high opportunity cost of capital.2. In attempting to protect consumers of livestock products from allegedly exploitative \"middlemen,\" developing country governments often impose price controls at different levels of the marketing chain (Bekure and McDonald, 1985). These prices do not usually allow marketing intermediaries adequate margins within which real costs can be met and a reasonable return on capital, labor and management can be obtained. Price controls, if effectively enforced, typically induce disincentives to produce and market agricultural and livestock commodities. Low or negative returns in markets with controls encourage diversion of supplies to markets where enforcement is lax. Parallel markets emerge, as in Tanzania (Ferris and Stokes, 1976;Sullivan, 1984) and Uganda (FAO, 1980), in which livestock and meat prices are well above price ceilings, and supplies available at artificially low prices are often rationed. Supplies may even be shipped to foreign markets, leaving insufficient quantities and lower quality produce in local price-controlled markets, as in Tanzania in the 1970s, or imports discouraged from traditional suppliers in the case of Ghana in the late 1970s (Sullivan, 1984). By altering the price discovery and determination process, developing country governments may inadvertently exclude certain groups of consumers from obtaining adequate supplies of wholesome and nutritious foods, although the intent of such interventions is quite different.3. In the Mandara Mountains of northern Cameroon, government administrators have attempted to protect consumers of beef from rising prices by enforcing retail price controls in urban areas. Officials perceive beef prices and butchers' profits to be too high, to the detriment of consumers. The control prices have been set at low levels in urban areas, encouraging urban butchers to slaughter low quality animals from the Diamare Plains, an adjacent livestock surplus region, rather than well-fleshed, locally available stall-fed cattle. Slaughter of locally produced stall-fed cattle is common in rural areas of the Mandara Mountains where retail meat prices are not controlled.4. This paper will examine urban butchers' procurement and slaughter practices under the distorting influence of retail price controls in northern Cameroon. An analysis of the costs and returns to butchering and retailing at urban markets will demonstrate that slaughter of stall-fed cattle is generally unprofitable at urban markets where price controls are enforced. This finding has important implications for policy-makers in northern Cameroon, where a World Bank funded project has promoted expansion of stall-feeding. As oil revenues and demand for beef have declined in recent years in Nigeria, which absorbed an estimated 15% of stall-fed cattle offtake from the Mandara Mountains region in 1980, it becomes increasingly necessary to tap the growing urban markets in Cameroon. This will require removal or relaxation of the retail price controls, so that urban butchers can acquire the locally produced, higher quality stall-fed cattle for slaughter and retail the beef at an acceptable return.5. The Mandara Mountains region of northern Cameroon is one of the more environmentally, agriculturally and ethnically diverse regions of West Africa (Campbell, 1981). It is located in the semi-arid tropics between the latitudes of 10° and 11.5°. This falls within the Sudano-Sahelian belt, a zone which is wetter and more highly vegetated than the Sahelian zone lying to the north. The climate of the region is characterized by a six-month rainy season (May through October) and a six-month dry season (November through April). Figure 1 shows the location of the Mandara Mountains region in northern Cameroon, as well as three geographically distinct zones: the mountains, the plateau, and the plains. The mountainous zone, where stall-feeding of cattle is concentrated, comprises approximately one-third of the land area of the region, which totals 7893 sq. km. Agriculture in the mountains is rainfed, terraced and intensive; holdings are generally less than 2 ha and agricultural and livestock production are highly complementary and well integrated (Holtzman, 1987).6. The Mandara Mountains are bordered by Nigeria to the west and the Diamare Plains of northern Cameroon to the East. The Diamare Plains are populated by Fulani graziers and their cattle herds. This cattle surplus region supplies the Mandara Mountains region with 30% of its slaughter cattle, which are typically old and infertile cows, as well as over 75% of the bull calves for stall-feeding enterprises. The large cattle markets of northern Cameroon, located in the Diamare Plains, attract cattle from as far away as Chad and traders from other regions of northern Cameroon as well as Nigeria. During the past several decades trade cattle have flowed from east to west, reflecting interregional and international cattle price differentials.7. Survey research findings show that one in four households (26%) stall-feed cattle in the mountainous zone of the Mandara Mountains region (Holtzman, 1982). There were approximately 13,000 stall-fed cattle in the Mandara Mountains in 1980. 1/ Mixed farmers stallfeed cattle for two to three years on cut and carried forage, dried and stored grasses, and agricultural by-products before sale or slaughter (Boulet, 1975;Holtzman, 1987). The long enclosure of cattle relative to intensive, dry season feeding enterprises in other parts of Africa (Serres, 1969;Thomas and Addy, 1977;Wardle, 1979;Thomas-Peterhans, 1982;White, 1986) is based in part on traditional social practice (see paragraph 9), but has also evolved out of practical need. The mountainous areas of the Mandara region are permanently cultivated; the somewhat incohesive soils on hilly and sloping land are prone to erosion and declining fertility. Cattle enclosure during the growing season is necessary in permanently cultivated areas to prevent crop damage. It allows for capture and composting of manure, which is spread on fields in order to improve soil structure and fertility. Stall-fed cattle are also typically enclosed during most of the dry season, particularly during the second year of feeding, in order to minimize exertion and weight loss. Manure is also collected in the stall during the dry season. Economic analysis of returns to stall-feeding demonstrates that about half of the net benefits are in the form of additional grain production resulting from manure application (Holtzman, 1987). Increasing commercialization of stall-feeding 9. Cattle stall-feeding has a strong basis in traditional social practice. Producers often slaughter finished bulls at the annual post-harvest festival (November-December) or in celebration of the Marai (January-February), the festival of the bull, which is held once every two to three years in villages of the dominant ethnic group, the Mafa. Beef from slaughtered cattle is customarily distributed to the extended family or to friends. This practice helps to cement social and political relations within the village and between neighbouring villages. 10. Before the 1970s few stall-fed cattle were sold, and most finished animals were slaughtered by producers in their villages so that beef could be distributed in accordance with customary social practice. By the early 1980s many farmers had begun to raise cattle for commercial sale, selling their bulls to local cattle traders or rural butchers. 2/ Cattle price inflation in West and central West Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s induced many producers to sell stall-fed cattle on the hoof or at least some beef from slaughtered stock in order to acquire cash for reinvestment in cattle. 3/ Producers also use revenues from cattle and beef sales to pay taxes, buy clothing and other consumer goods, and make discretionary purchases.11. Expansion of smallholder stall-feeding of cattle has been promoted through a pilot credit scheme funded under a World Bank assisted project. This project extends loans to producers for the purchase of bull calves and supplemental feedstuffs, such as rice bran and cottonseed cake. The project introduced the technology of supplemental feeding to reduce cattle weight losses during the long dry season. Producers in the Mandara Mountains typically store grasses and agricultural by-products, such as peanut leaves, sweet potato and cowpea vines, and sorghum stalks and leaves, for dry season feeding. Before the project, however, they had no experience in feeding concentrates such as rice bran and cottonseed cake. 12. The stall-feeding scheme has been implemented through a Cameroonian parastatal, Fonds National de Development Rural (FONADER). FONADER intended to extend 2,000 loans for two-year feeding by the fifth year (1983) of the project, but it fell short, extending only 1,330 loans. The credit scheme aimed eventually to extend 1,000 loans per year so that 2,000 loans would be outstanding at any one point.13. The credit program was initially implemented with an incomplete understanding of broader livestock subsector and policy issues. The potentially negative consequences of cattle export restrictions and retail price controls on beef sales were not fully appreciated. Export restrictions increase the risks of cattle trade with Nigeria, as there are potentially high costs of being caught and paying fines. This has the effect of increasing returns to cattle smuggling. Prices for well-fleshed trade cattle are also higher across the border in Nigeria than in northern Cameroon. Nigerian border markets such as Mubi are well attended by cattle traders who assemble well-fleshed cattle for shipment by truck to the heavily populated urban markets of southern Nigeria. Given the strong demand across the border which has diverted supplies to unintended (foreign) markets, Cameroonian traders are able to offer producers premium prices for stall-fed cattle. Retail price controls have also constrained urban slaughter of locallyproduced stall-fed cattle whose higher quality beef is more costly than range-fed animals trekked in from an adjacent region, the Diamare Plains. As will be demonstrated in the following sections, urban butchers cannot profitably slaughter stall-fed animals as long as price controls are enforced.(i) Characteristics and seasonality of cattle slaughter at Mokolo 14. Detailed information was obtained from wholesale butchers at weekly markets in Mokolo, Soulede and Ziver about cattle slaughter over a seven month period in 1980-81 (see Table 1). Mokolo is the major urban market and Soulede and Ziver are nearby rural markets. Cattle carcasses were weighed weekly at Mokolo on the busiest market day (Wednesday), and monthly subtotals are shown in Table 2 for the period September 1980-March 1981. 15. Several of the characteristics of cattle slaughter at Mokolo are quite striking. First, 65% of all the cattle slaughtered at Mokolo were females, principally old cows. These cull cows are acquired at the lowest possible price per kilogram, and the quality of their beef is inferior to stall-fed bulls. Second, it is surprising to note that the Mokolo butchers slaughtered only 34 stall-fed cattle (4.3% of 795 head), given the prevalence of stall-feeding by farmers in the villages around Mokolo. Ninety-five percent of all cattle slaughtered at Mokolo were range-fed animals; 83% were acquired in another region, the Diamare Plains, and at such markets as Gazawa, and Meme. Third, cattle attain their maximum carcass weights and hence liveweights from October through December, after having grazed on the fresh, protein-rich grasses during the rainy season and while pasture is still relatively abundant. Beginning in January carcass weights fall off steadily until June, reaching annual lows when pasture is extremely scarce. 4/ 16. A final striking characteristic is that cattle prices per kilogram (carcass weight plus offals) are lowest in October and November and rise progressively during the dry season, beginning in December. 5/ The factors responsible for this trend are that: a) cattle liveweights and carcass weights decline steadily during the dry season; b) slaughter cattle supply contracts in the area around Mokolo and in the cattle markets of the Diamare Plains as the dry season progresses; and c) demand for beef remains relatively strong during the most of the dry season in rural areas. 6/ Rural butchers also compete with town butchers for the limited supply of locally available slaughter cattle, bidding up prices in the process.  Source: Survey of butchering and retailing.(ii) Sources of urban slaughter cattle supply 17. The butchers at Mokolo, Mora and Koza, the three principal towns of the Mandara Mountains region, depend heavily on the cattle markets of the Diamare Plains for their supply of slaughter cattle. These urban butchers procured about 75%, or 2,485 of the 3,313 cattle they slaughtered in 1980, in the markets of the Diamare Plains. It is also estimated that approximately 1,100 head of the 2,000 cattle slaughtered in regional towns other than Mokolo, Mora and Koza were procured in the Diamare Plains. Summing across the two subgroups, approximately 5,300 head of cattle were slaughtered by urban butchers in the towns of the Mandara Mountains region in 1980, of which 3,580 head or about two-thirds were acquired in the markets of the Diamare Plains (see Table 3). The remaining third was obtained from the Mandara Mountains regional extensive herd and from producers of stall-fed cattle. Nearly 1,500 head were taken off the regional extensive herd for slaughter by urban butchers, but only 230 or 4.3% of the 5,300 head slaughtered in towns were stall-fed animals. In contrast to urban butchers, rural butchers procure far larger numbers of stall-fed cattle for slaughter (1,595 of which 590 on the hoof and 1,005 \"on the rail\"). Cattle and beef flows into, within and out of the Mandara Mountains region are depicted in Figure 2.(i) Administered prices 18. In the larger towns of the Mandara Mountains region, such as Mokolo, Mora and Koza, two grades of beef are weighed and sold by the kilogram: beef with bones and beef without bones. The control prices in 1980-81, when the average exchange rate was 240 FCFA = US$ 1.00, were 300 FCFA for the former and 350 FCFA for the latter. The filet, tongue, head, hooves, and skin are not sold by the kilogram but rather in their entirety. The offals are cut up and sold in small unweighed piles at higher prices per kilogram than beef with bones.19. The determination of retail beef price ceilings is left to the jurisdiction of prefectoral administrations in northern Cameroon, who set prices independently of one another and disregard regional supply and demand factors in the process. As shown in Table 4, retail price controls are set at a higher level in the towns of Maroua, Garoua and Yagoua than in the principal towns of the Mandara Mountains. Price controls are also less vigorously enforced in the towns outside the Mandara Mountains. Yet cattle prices, which are unregulated in the markets of northern Cameroon, are lower in the markets of the eastern half of northern Cameroon (Maroua and Yagoua) than the markets of the western half (Mandara Mountains).   22. While beef prices at Mokolo (and the larger towns of Koza and Mora) were maintained artificially low by price controls, retail prices for beef with and without bones at Soulede, Tourou and Gazawa, which were not controlled, were roughly double those at Mokolo when averaged over the six-to-seven month period. Prices continue to trend upward from March through June at these markets, as slaughter cattle supplies remain constricted and farmers and herders are reluctant to sell cattle in poor condition. Once the rains become regular and the condition of livestock improves by July, more and better conditioned cattle are offered for sale by herders, who need to buy grain and pay for seasonal agricultural laborers (see footnotes 4 and 5 for the basis of these statements).23. Enterprise budgets are a useful tool for gauging the profitability of agricultural and livestock marketing activities. Cost and net return data are sensitive and need to be obtained in a skilful way. This study used periodic, structured informal interviews with Mokolo butchers to elicit information on costs of procuring cattle for slaughter and of providing marketing services. Gross returns were calculated from beef quantity (carcass weight) and retail price data obtained by weighing carcasses at slaughterhouses and beef purchased by consumers.   5, the average net return for butchering and retailing of range-fed cattle which were acquired at an average price of 39,513 FCFA is approximately 1,600 FCFA per head. This return is divided between the wholesale butcher and his apprentices. The average return to the wholesale butchers' labor and management is 1,000 FCFA per head, which is only 2.5% of the average acquisition price paid for range-fed cattle. 27. Net returns to the labor, management and capital of the wholesale butcher and to the labor of the apprentices average 3500 FCFA per stall-fed bull, of which 2500 FCFA is a return to the wholesale butcher's labor and management. Each of the seven principal wholesale butchers at Mokolo slaughters an average of no more than six head of stall-fed cattle per year. Given an average net return of 2500 FCFA per head of stall-fed cattle, the wholesale butchers earn 15,000 FCFA from slaughtering the stall-fed bulls. 28. The average rate of return to slaughtering stall-fed bulls is higher than that to slaughtering range-fed cattle, reflecting the experience and good judgement of the Mokolo butchers, who respond to the opportunity to procure these cattle at low prices per kilogram liveweight during the immediate post-harvest period (October-December) of abundant supply. The Mokolo butchers report that these opportunities arise infrequently during other periods of the year; no slaughter of stall-fed cattle was observed after the month of December. Cattle traders and rural butchers, whose offer prices are not constrained by retail price controls, are able to offer higher prices than urban butchers, who must sell most of the carcass at 300-350 FCFA per kilogram. Therefore, it is important to note that Table 5 illustrates the maximum return urban butchers are able to earn when opportunities arise to procure stall-fed cattle at low cost. At average acquisition prices of 350 FCFA per kilogram paid by rural butchers at Soulede, returns to urban slaughter of stall-fed cattle are negative.(iii) Annual return to labor and management 29. By combining returns to slaughtering stall-fed cattle and range-fed cattle, the annual net return to labor and management in slaughtering the 237 range-fed and stall-fed cattle is 246,000 FCFA or $1,025 (US$ 1.00 = 240 FCFA). Wholesale butchers earn a net return to labor and management of 984 FCFA per day. 8/ This return is higher than the average peak agricultural season wage rate of 300-500 FCFA per man-day, but it is somewhat less than the salary of a primary school teacher, who earned 30,000 FCFA per month in 1980-81, or a daily wage rate of 1200 FCFA. The butcher's return is significantly lower than the remuneration of a secondary school teacher or civil servant.30. Although some policy-makers are quick to charge that urban butchers and other marketing agents earn excessive profits, our empirical findings show that they earn an acceptable but rather low return for slaughtering cattle. In order to compete successfully in urban butchering and retailing enterprises, butchers must be skilful in judging the returns a live animal will bring once it is slaughtered. They must also provide capital and absorb the risks of mortality or forced slaughter and sale when trekking range-fed cattle from distant markets such as Gazawa to Mokolo. 9/ These risks are quite high during periods of nutritional stress and inadequate water supply, particularly during the hot dry season (February-April).31. The short and long-run effects of both maintaining and relaxing retail price controls on urban slaughter of stall-fed cattle have important implications for the expansion of stall-fed production in the Mandara Mountains. In the short-run, removing, or at least increasing the level of controlled retail prices in urban areas would allow urban butchers to compete with rural butchers and cattle traders for the higher quality locally raised animals. This should result in higher prices for stall-fed cattle, thereby benefitting producers. Many urban consumers are willing to pay higher prices for beef. This is demonstrated by the considerable numbers who attend secondary markets near urban areas in order to buy higher quality beef which is retailed at prices well above the maximum retail price enforced in urban areas. Consumers in Mokolo complain about shortages of beef, particularly during the late dry season and early rainy season. This is precisely the period when high cattle acquisition prices per kilogram and the relatively low retail ceiling prices on the sale of beef induce urban butchers to slaughter fewer cattle. Thus, the overall result of controlling prices at artificially low levels is that production is restricted while demand remains unsatisfied.32. By removing price controls and allowing urban butchers to bid competitively for stall animals, more of the estimated 6,000 cattle taken off the regional stall-fed herd each year would likely be sold for urban slaughter. If 10% of the 1980 urban beef supply had come from stall-fed cattle, for example, 487 more stall animals would have been slaughtered (adding to the 230 head actually slaughtered). The potential short-run effect of relaxing price controls on urban butchers' procurement practices would likely stimulate commercial production of stall animals in the Mandara Mountains.33. In the medium to long-run, removing retail price controls would provide opportunities for stall-fed cattle producers and butchers to satisfy the expanding demand for beef in urban areas in the Mandara Mountains. Demand for beef can be projected for 1990 by using 1980 estimates of urban and rural beef consumption, and by assuming likely ranges for key variables such as income elasticity of demand for beef and rates of population and per capita income growth for urban and rural areas. Increase in beef consumption can be projected using the following simple formulation: d = pop + (n * y), where d = the percentage change in consumption of beef between 1980 and 1990, and pop = the percentage change in population between 1980 and 1990, and n = the income elasticity of demand for beef, and y = the percentage change in real per capita income between 1980 and 1990. Relative prices are assumed to remain constant over the 1980-1990 period. 10/ 34. For the purposes of this analysis, urban areas include 10 percent of the population of the Mandara Mountains region, and rural areas include the remaining 90%. It is assumed that the urban population will grow at an average annual rate of 5% during the 1980s and the rural population at the rate of 2%. The income elasticity of demand is assumed to fall in the 0.6-1.0 range for urban areas and 0.2-0.5 for rural areas. 11/ Real per capita income growth is first assumed to be 2% and then 5% per year for both urban and rural areas.35. Projected incremental beef consumption in urban areas, expressed in metric tons and stall-fed cattle equivalents in Table 6, is an additional 510-844 metric tons of beef by 1990. if this additional demand were met entirely by slaughtering locally produced stall-fed cattle, then 2,523-4,174 additional bulls would need to be slaughtered by 1990. The demand estimates also show that an additional 917-1,861 metric tons of beef will be consumed in rural areas of the Mandara Mountains region by 1990. If incremental rural demand were satisfied solely by slaughter of stall-fed cattle, an additional 4,534-9,204 animals would have to be slaughtered by 1990. This is unlikely to occur, since approximately half of the regional rural population resides outside of stall-feeding production zones, which are found in the mountains and the piedmont, and slaughter of stall-fed cattle is uncommon in these plateau and plains areas. 12/ a Lower and upper bounds on the income elasticity of demand for beef are used in projecting demand. Higher estimates for the urban areas reflect greater purchasing power and hence the ability to make discretionary purchases. The lower estimates for rural areas are based upon expenditure data obtained from a sample of 52 households in two villages near Mokolo.b Incremental beef consumption is calculated using 1980 estimates of beef consumption in rural and urban areas as a base.c The incremental beef consumption is converted to stall-fed cattle equivalents by using the average weight of the four quarters plus offals (202.2 kg.) for stall-fed cattle slaughtered at Mokolo.d The urban population comprises 10% of the regional population, and urban areas absorbed 5300 head of cattle in the base year of 1980. Estimated urban beef consumption was 671 metric tons in 1980. The rural population is the remaining 90% of the regional population, which absorbed an estimated 3488 metric tons of beef in 1980.36. While demand for stall-fed beef in the Mandara Mountains region will expand under reasonable sets of assumptions, pricing policies will play an important role in assuring that increased demand is satisfied. If only 4.3% of incremental demand for beef in urban areas in 1990 were satisfied by slaughtering stall-fed cattle, only 142-235 additional stall animals would be slaughtered. This scenario assumes that the 1980 market share for stall-fed animals is maintained in urban areas in the future, due to continued enforcement of retail price ceilings which are set below market-clearing levels. If retail control prices were relaxed or removed, it is likely that far more stall-fed cattle would be acquired by wholesale butchers for urban slaughter. Another scenario is that the cattle-surplus Diamare Plains would supply 70% of urban butchers' incremental needs in the Mandara Mountains reflecting the same Plains' proportion of 1980 slaughter. It is further assumed that the remaining 30% of incremental slaughter is divided equally between locally produced stall-fed and range-fed animals. Under37. Presently, urban butchers in the Mandara Mountains procure about two-thirds of their slaughter cattle from another region, the Diamare Plains. These animals are inferior in quality to locally available stall-fed bulls. The premium that consumers are willing to pay in rural markets for stall-fed beef is evidence of a preference within the region for the high-quality local beef. The slaughter of so many old cows in urban areas, whose beef is tough and less preferred than the beef of stall-fed cattle, is in large part the result of restrictive pricing policies.38. Artificially low retail beef prices provide urban butchers with incentives to procure low grade cattle for slaughter at low prices per unit liveweight. The retail price and slaughter data and estimates of butchers' costs at Mokolo show that urban butchers are unable to earn acceptable returns from slaughtering stall-fed cattle, except during the immediate post-harvest period when slaughter cattle are relatively abundant. They cannot afford to pay producers attractive prices for stall-fed cattle in competition with rural butchers and cattle traders.Although policy-makers are quick to allege that marketing agents earn excessively high profits, the empirical research results show that urban beef prices and annual returns to urban butchers are relatively low. Returns are comparable to an extension agent's salary and slightly lower than the annual earnings of primary school teachers in Cameroon. In light of the skills required and risks undertaken, urban butchers' returns do not appear unduly high.39. Retail price controls have the perverse effect, therefore, of limiting urban slaughter of higher quality stall-fed cattle in the Mandara Mountains region. Urban markets are not allowed to be viable marketing alternatives for producers of stall-fed cattle as long as restrictive pricing policies are in force. This is reflected in survey results showing that few stall-fed cattle were slaughtered in urban relative to rural markets. Yet the urban areas, which are characterized by higher per capita incomes and population growth rates than rural areas, are potentially attractive outlets for large numbers of stall-fed cattle. Demand projections clearly show the potential of urban areas for absorbing greater numbers of stall animals through 1990 (Holtzman, 1982). If retail price controls were relaxed, stall-fed cattle could not only satisfy much of the incremental expansion in urban demand for beef in the late 1980s and 1990s but would probably substitute at least in part for existing sources of local urban supply. Paving of the Mokolo-Maroua road in 1983 reduced transport costs and time for the 78 kilometer trip, making feasible slaughter of stall-fed cattle in Mokolo, transport of fresh beef to Maroua, and sales of high quality beef in a much larger urban agglomeration (population of about 80,000 in 1980). The far greater purchasing power of Maroua relative to towns in the Mandara Mountains region is partly reflected in retail beef prices being 33-50% higher.40. The adverse effects of retail price controls on the urban beef supply in the Mandara Mountains have important implications for the promising World Bank funded stall-feeding credit scheme as well as lessons for other fattening schemes like it. The economic viability of this project could be undermined by failing to raise or remove retail price ceilings. Retaining price controls will limit regional absorptive capacity, necessitating increased rural slaughter and export of surplus stall animals to Nigeria. Given the decline in oil revenues, devaluation of the naira, and persistent balance of payments difficulties, Nigeria's potential for absorbing more stall-fed cattle will be limited in the medium-term. As a result, getting prices right within the Mandara Mountains region will play a very important role in determining the success of expanded stall-feeding and the tapping of alternative (urban) markets.1. This estimate is based upon survey findings of average household size and the proportion of households that stall-feed cattle; human population estimates, and Livestock Service estimates of the cattle population in the Mandara Mountains region.2. Traders trek cattle across the border to Nigerian markets, where butchers and long distance traders pay a premium for well-fleshed animals. Twenty-eight percent of a sample of 272 stallfed cattle were sold on the hoof by producers during 1977-1981. The other 72% were slaughtered by producers who reserved some or all of the beef for traditional distribution and household consumption. In 26% of the sample cases, no beef was sold. Producers sold at least one quarter of the carcass from slaughtered bulls to other villagers, including local butchers, or to buyers from neighboring villages in 46% of the cases. In 35% of the sample, producers sold three quarters or more beef from the carcass.3. This inflation was fueled in part by the rapid growth of the Nigerian economy following the petroleum price hikes of the 1970s which were accompanied by accelerating urbanization and increased incomes. Retail price data for beef from Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, show average annual appreciation of 496 in real terms between 1970 and 1981.4. Although slaughter data were not collected by the author in Mokolo after March 1981, data collected by the lycee in Mokolo for the 1976-1981 period show lowest carcass weights in June.5. Although cattle prices are lowest per kilogram in the October-December period, live animal prices are highest at this time. Cattle are in good condition after the six-month rainy season, and their higher liveweights offset low prices per kilogram, resulting in seasonally high live animal prices.6. Farm families dispose of income from sales of crops such as sweet potatoes and peanuts as well as cash remittances earned in off-farm dry season employment in urban areas outside the Mandara Mountains (in northern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria).7. The butchers' apprentices buy parts of the carcass from the wholesale butcher on one-day credit and retail the beef. Two apprentices working with one butcher each earned 300 FCFA per animal.8. Butchers report working five days a week for fifty weeks of the year. 9. Butchers generally procure at least two range-fed cattle for slaughter at the market of Gazawa per trip to spread costs. Purchases on credit are rare. Hence, they require at least 60,000-70,000 FCFA as working capital.10. Despite what is discussed subsequently, it is relevant to point out that a relaxation or outright removal of price controls will have an effect on the projected figures and that it is likely beef consumption will be somewhat lower than projected. Theoretically, the lower projections could also partly result from lower priced meats which could substitute for beef although relative prices remain constant or stable (Editor's note).11. Arc expenditure elasticities of demand estimated for a sample of 52 rural households were 0.51 between middle and high income households and 0.15 between low and middle income households.12. It is important to note that incremental demand for beef in rural areas will be 2-2.2 times the incremental demand for beef in urban areas by 1990, even though the projected ranges of population growth and income elasticity of demand are lower for rural areas than for urban areas. The reason for this is that the regional rural population is nine times larger than the urban population.13. A third scenario for urban areas, representing a very optimistic possibility, would be for urban butchers to meet 50% of the incremental demand for slaughter stock by procuring stallfed animals. This scenario could only be realized if retail price ceilings were above free market price levels or removed entirely. Under this scenario urban butchers could slaughter an additional 1,573-2,602 stall-fed animals by 1990. By removing price controls, urban markets could offer as much potential for expanded slaughter of stall-fed cattle as rural areas by 1985 and 1990. It is also important to note that increasing rural demand for beef will also increase demand for stall-fed cattle by 1990.","tokenCount":"5616"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ed94856a8377d91d4aef7a88d2ae5c07","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dab7ffd3-02af-4688-ae47-8cd332194dff/retrieve","id":"897578201"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f4337630-65b8-423f-9523-35465873eb79","pagecount":"9","content":"To better understand:• Diversity of women's involvement in agriculture• Different needs at different points in the value chain, e.g.,• Producers • Processors • Traders • Input and transport suppliers• How to improve women's performance to upgrade their position in the chain• How to measure women's economic empowerment, its objective and subjective dimensions• Gender dimensions of agriculture policies• What we mean by empowerment: the ability to make strategic life decisions and to act on them Move beyond production to support women at all node of the agricultural value chain Identify off-farm entrepreneurial and wage work agricultural options for young women especially early school leavers and young married women Provide \"bundled services\" for agri-entrepreneurse.g., access to credit, business development training, and transport services Provide women with access to phones, digital apps, and digital financial services to build connections to e.g., agricultural extension information (e.g., varieties, diseases, sowing schedule, weather conditions), market information, and mobile moneyBuilding transport and market linkagesUses extension system to ease market constraints for smallholders, including many women.The project works with village-based extensionists who serve as aggregators to bulk produce (primarily vegetables) and secure transport to market, manage the sales, and provide payment to the producers. Operations are managed using a mobile app to manage information on crop quantities, prices, and sales.Participants save time and money transporting their produce to the nearest market using Loop services. Participants report higher earnings when using the services. Similar programs could be developed to provide other crops and livestock services to ease other constraints of access and infrastructure.HelloTractor (Nigeria)• Uses an Uber TM model to help smallholder farmers in Nigeria overcome the cost and loan fees for tractor hire and purchase. It has raised $3 million in seed funding from USAID and other sources and sold over 1,000 tractors to farmers in Nigeria. • A mobile app, connects tractor owners -many of whom will be women --with nearby farmers who request tractor service via SMS text messaging. • To increase women's well-being (e.g., food security, income, health) • To increase women's performance in the chainTo strengthen women's ability to make strategic life choices and put those choices into actionRecognize women as farmers, processors, and traders, enabling their participation in farmer fields school, lead farmer programs, agricultural associationsIntentionally design programming to strengthen women's benefits from market integration by analyzing and reducing genderbased constraints in access to productive resources and services ","tokenCount":"395"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4200560691.json b/data/part_6/4200560691.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"25bb6944a0c6442029c4768f00fd59f0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a3282c27-6175-4544-a8d2-a58fbe999cab/retrieve","id":"516793534"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0b5fb6e5-9799-4bac-a993-dfa3d9fd320d","pagecount":"25","content":"The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa project (AICCRA) working through CCAFS, intends to make CGIAR-led cutting-edge science practices/technologies/tools available throughout Africa; especially in Sub-regions extremely vulnerable to climate change. The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a network of 150 universities in 38 countries spanning the whole African continent is a partner in the AICCRA project. RUFORUM's contribution in the AICCRA project is focused on mobilising African universities, create awareness and enhance the use of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Climate information services (CIS) knowledge and products developed by the CGIAR Centres and other research institutions engaged in CSA and CIS. Enhancing the use of CSA and CIS involves capacity, knowledge and technology audits at national and institutional level, mobilise CGIAR and other research centres to provide CSA and CIS knowledge, technology and skills and training of faculty to deploy the CSA and CIS products in training, research and outreach. Knowledge transfer and capacity building activities therefore form the central part of RUFORUM's participation in the AICCRA project.RUFORUM undertook a national and institutional scoping study to identify gaps in CSA and CIS in Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Further, the study focused on review and compilation of an inventory of existing academic programmes & courses related to CSA / CIS and the potential resource persons in the universities. The study revealed that CSA clusters vary from one country to another, but the dominant ones include Land Restoration and Agroforestry system (LRA) as the priority area number one, followed by Crop diversification CD, Water Harvesting and Management-Small scale irrigation (WHM) and Livestock & Aquaculture Management-LAM. The team thus, through consultation with different stakeholders identified seven (7) priority areas for the development of training materials to create awareness and build capacity at the university level. The initial steps were taken to identify resource persons and the drafting of course outlines and course materials where feasible.RUFORUM organised the first workshop in Nairobi Kenya in July 2022 to develop and refine of CIS/CSA training materials to be used across the RUFORUM Network. The Nairobi workshop focused on 7 modules as shown below.# Modules 1 CSA and CIS-oriented technologies and extension strategies 2 Cost-effective renewable energy and biogas production, 3 improve policy review and coordination and strengthen local, national and regional institutions to support implementation of CSA and CIS 4 Climate information service and real-time agricultural data 5 Crop-livestock aquaculture integration 6 Nutrients and water management in crop production.7 Indigenous and local trees based agroforestry systems involving*The Dakar-Senegal Workshop was a follow on engagement that envisaged to work on additional courses identified from West Africa which complete the modules already developed during the last meeting organized by RUFORUM.The meeting brought on board other west African countries beyond the core countries to facilitate the spill over action and application through the university system.The workshop was held in Dakar Senegal October 11 -14, 2022.The overall objective of workshop was to elaborate additional Climate Smart Agriculture and Climate Information System Relevant Modules for Staff, Students, and other stakeholdersThe specific objectives of the workshop were:The meeting was designed to 1. Elaborate five additional modules developed as courses content to complete the 7 already developed during the meeting in Nairobi 2. Harmonize structure of different courses to be delivered using a map of the targeted actors, 3. Harmonize way forward on the implementation through the testing of curricula, 4. Develop a common roadmap for the operationalization for the actors embarked in the process 5. Design and enrich the format of training materials to be adopted for the universitty community and next users; and, Workshop Welcome -Prof. Daouda Kone• Arrival and Registration of the participants -Selasi Weto, WASCAL.• A brief description of the meeting and presentation of the agenda -Prof. KONE Daouda.• Welcomed participants and acknowledged the representation from various countries who have come to support the people of West Africa on the issue of Climate Change.1. Dr. Florence Nakayiwa, Dep. Exec. Secretary, RUFORUM• Greetings from Prof. Adipala (Exec. Secretary, RUFOROM).• Recognized all participants present.• Impacts of the AICCRA programme on all sectors of the economy.• Universities are tasked to impact knowledge throughout the communities.• Universities should impact generational knowledge on the impacts of climate change and the concept of CIS and CSA.• The practical in their action.• Stressed on the important collaboration with WASCAL on this project.• Wished us a fruitful deliberation.• Welcomed participants to RUFORUM AGM in Harare.• Thanked everyone for being here and being committed in this programme.• AICCRA is about connecting things, partners, not about creating new knowledge, but accelerating action and impact.• Training modules should be beneficial to every student, staff and communities on the continenttargeting 1.5 million farmers. • Every partner should work to achieve this goal while using best practices of climate smart agriculture.• Experience from Countries outside West Africa, like Ethiopia is helpful to the WASCAL.• Demonstrate to the donor how AICCRA benefited the entire African continent and not just the target countries.• Appreciated the role of the Universities collaborating with WASCAL.• Thanked AICCRA for the excellent leadership in climate smart agriculture and information service in Africa.• Appreciated RUFORUM for good leadership and partnership and opportunity to team up for joint effort for delivering AICCRA programme. • Reiterated that this is as a result of the commendable achievement of the CGIAR project.• Assured AICCRA that WASCAL and RUFORUM cherish partnership and network that goes beyond Africaa true work of AICRRA for adopting and sharing information on CSA. • Seven (7) modules have already been developed to help Universities to effectively impact the society.• Confident in the quality and diversity of international partners and stakeholder to develop curricula on CSA and CIS. • Students and staff will be aware of and be at easy to talk about CSA.• Curricula on climate change and environmental issues that fits the purposeidentification of gaps.• Curricula that train students as fast and as effective as possible.• Thanked all for the presence in this meeting. • How to disseminate of results and information to the 100,000 participants?• Integrate 50% of the contents in the university curricula. What will be the methodology?• Integration in already existing programmes or stand-alone programmes?• Integration with already existing programmes will be at the mercy of these programmes.• AICCRA perspectives and orientation on CSA and CIS into University Curricula.• Gender mainstreaming and empowerment activities (at least 30 % for female to access the course modules)• AICCRA phase one is 3 years (closing in 2023)• We have to show that there is success (outcome) from the partnership for the World Bank to renew its support to the activities • The need to have a strategy for implementation.• Consider institutional and administrative engagement and strategies.• WASCAL should focus on innovating strategies to enhance the uptake of the concepts by students.• RUFORUM is ever ready to coordinate for experts in CIS and CSA to be involved for students to develop interest in these concepts.Group Photo at the end of the opening Ceremony with participants including the regional Coordinator of AICCRA, Dr Robert Zougmoré (second on the first row from the leff) and the representative of WASCAL Governing Board (Prof Issakha Youm, 2 nd from the right on the first row)• Climate change is a cross cutting issue for our economies.• On behalf of RUFORUM and WASCAL universities he welcomed participants to Dakar in Senegal.Group Photo after the visit of the VC, Prof Mbaye (3 rd from the right) to the participants Overview of the meeting in Nairobi -Prof. Majaliwa • Details of each session clearly elaborated.• Discussion on the 300-slide detailed content.Overview of the meeting in Nairobi -Prof. Betty Ezati • Human resources to be first in key success factors.• Power analysis, those behind the scenes… where do universities belong in terms of influence line?• How do we get to influence the processes of policy formulation and implementation?• Need to think of short-term training for policy advocacy.• We have good policies but not accessibleawareness creation through technology. • The issue of biogas and fertilizer production are important.• Need to work with partners already working on similar modules.• Upscaling from farmer level to PhD level.• Need to relook at the learning objectives.• Provided comments for consideration in stating learning outcomes and other aspects of the module.• Need to reflect on the documentation to polish it better.➢ Linked to SDGs and national priorities. • Suggested a number of adjustments for improving the layout of the module contents.• General content and order of the sessions.• To include drought related content.• Revisit the target audience.• Collapse session 5 into other sessions.• Review learning outcomes and merge some.• Need to realign the contents. • Possibly do away with objectives.• Revisit the write up for consistency and make adjustment on grammar.• Focus on specific species of crops, livestock and aquaculture.• Session on 'biotic and abiotic stresses' was proposed to be a stand-alone module. • Update on AICCRA perspectives and orientation on CSA and CIS into University curricula11h30-12h00• Discussion on AICCRA perspective on CSA and CIS into University Curricula• All participants 12h00-13h00• Overview on the meeting in Nairobi (status of curricula developed)• Majaliwa 13h00-14h00• Health break • 14h00-15h00• Discussion on the meeting in Nairobi• 15h00-16h00• Curricula development: from idea, need assessment until the implementation and evaluation• 16h00-17h00• Discussion on AICCRA perspective on need assessment until the implementation and evaluation• 17h10-17h10• Closing and way froward for the next day • Arrival and Registration of the participants • Welcome of participants 9h10-9h30• Recap of day 1 and feedback from participants• Dr Amposah Williams• Policy documents and advocacy Dr Portia Adade Williams STEPRI -CSIR 10h00-10h20• Discussion on Policy document All participants 10h20-11h00• Renewable energy -water resources and agriculture nexus under climate change11h30 -12h00• Discussion on Renewable Energy-Water resources and Agriculture nexus under climate change• All participants 12h20 -12h30• Presentation of module on Disaster risk management in crop production livestock and aquaculture WASCAL• Prof Agboka Komi,• Director WASCAL Togo 12h30-13h00• Discussion on module on Disaster risk management in crop production livestock and aquaculture WASCAL• All participants 13h00-14h00• Lunch break • Selasi 14h00-14h30• Module pest and diseases management in crop, fish and livestock production• To be identified 14h30-15h00• Discussion on pest and diseases management in crop, fish and livestock production• To be identified• Discussion on the meeting in Nairobi • Arrival and Registration of the participants • Welcome of participants 9h10-9h30• Recap of day 2• Dr Amposah Williams• Commentary/Presentation on the approach to the Training of Trainers at the university level Curriculum Expert TBI 9h:30-13h00• Refined Curriculum • Improvement areas-presentation• Curricula developers 13h00-14h00• Health Break • Selasi 14h00-16h00• Refining Curricula on soil-carbon sequestration and crop• 16h00-16h30• Artificial Intelligence -Tool for climate and crop Production • Prof Maïssa Mbaye• Discussion• 17h00-17h30• Roadmap validation • Recap of day 3 on the way to visit • Dr Amposah Williams• Departure for visit in the field o show case on the use of CSA and CIS• 13h00-14h00• Lunch• 14h00• Visit to Gorée (optional)•","tokenCount":"1821"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4236497782.json b/data/part_6/4236497782.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7add2af88d31719a2c4ee47876302f3f5f349919
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9cb432597eaeb2cb4d850e6d1851d379","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6246a93f-5d03-44a1-a462-7904e15c1f7f/retrieve","id":"1309918723"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba2686a9-485f-4bc5-8c2e-c261570d65b5","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: The Crop Ontology web site has been redeveloped using a graph database called NEO4J, along with an Elastic search based index, and a CMS. NOE4J is used by several ontology tools like the Ontology look up service of EMBL-EBI, or by Stanford University for labelled property graph. Ontologies are downloadable in RDF or in Excel. New Innovation: Yes Innovation type: Other Stage of innovation: Stage 3: available/ ready for uptake (AV) Geographic Scope: Global Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Description of Stage reached: The graph based web site was publicly released in November after a round of user tests. This web site is used by a group of 32 curators to publish crop specific ontologies. The new web site provides improved curation and display features.Name of lead organization/entity to take innovation to this stage: CIAT (Alliance) -Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT -Regional Hub (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical)Names of top five contributing organizations/entities to this stage: <Not Defined> Milestones:• 2.1.5. 2020 -Communities of Practice around geospatial data, socioeconomic data, ontologies, data-driven agronomy, livestock data, and crop modeling establish CoP networks across CGIAR and produce outputs addressing key constraints in data and analytics.","tokenCount":"198"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4249432763.json b/data/part_6/4249432763.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..592fe7e65831868278e8c3e45b95ad67adf3cab6
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0fcaf2d3bc417e38d1ba8ffc5226db0e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc8abfca-5924-484b-b5f3-798aac7042be/retrieve","id":"1048166466"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4a91d8df-2543-4ef0-8453-174e7dcf17b4","pagecount":"4","content":"Traditional livestock systems in tropical Africa, in particular cattle, contribute to a nutritious and diverse diet of poor households through meat and milk. In addition, they provide draft power for transport and field work and manure for fertilizing fields. Moreover the value of cattle involves the benefit in savings and security (STEINFELD, 1988). However, cattle diseases like African animal trypanosomosis (AAT) impose a serious constraint on the livelihood of cattle farm households (BUDD, 1999;SWALLOW, 1999;AFFOGNON, 2007). The research activities of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in the cotton zone of West Africa aimed at improving the management of the disease. As in many natural resource management projects, one component had been the extension to deliver a new technology to farmers (ZILBERMAN AND WAIBEL, 2007). In case of ILRI's research project the outreach activities correspond to the provision of information material in local language as well as the demonstration and practice of correct treatment. In particular, ILRI promoted the concept of rational drug use as a strategy to avoid inadequate application of trypanocides and minimize the development of pathogens' resistance (AFFOGNON, 2007). The objective of this paper is to measure the impact of ILRI's activities on farmers' disease knowledge and management practices after the end of the research activities, but before the scalingup of the research outputs generated by the project. Hence, the study serves as a baseline to appraise the immediate effect of livestock research activities on knowledge, measured by knowledge test score. This outcome variable is a composite variable including scores allocated to (i) knowledge about trypanosomosis itself (like signs and causes), (ii) curative treatment knowledge and actual control actions in case of trypanosomosis occurrence and (iii) preventive treatment knowledge and actual preventive strategies applied. In total, all points from the three categories above are summed up and all knowledge categories are calculated in percentage of the maximum possible score. Generally, in order to infer the impact of an intervention on individual outcome, it is necessary in project design to create a suitable comparison group among a large group of non-participants, which is identical to the participating group, except in the attitude of treatment assignment. Given that all farmers in the research villages got access to information, there arises a problem of selective placement. To overcome the problem of selection bias, the propensity score matching (PSM) approach is applied.The project villages in the region of Kénédougou, a zone split across south-eastern Mali and southwestern Burkina Faso, were revisited from October to December 2007. The household head, i.e. the decision maker, who is responsible for livestock production and animal health management, was asked to take a specific knowledge test about trypanosomosis and its control. In total, data from 508 cattle farmers were included in the analysis. Matching on the probability of participation, given all observable treatment-independent covariates, solves the problem of selection bias. Given that the propensity score is a balancing score, the probability of participation conditional on observables will be balanced such that the distribution of observables will be the same for both participants and non-participants. The idea is to determine the probability of participation in the program for every respondent in the sample, take a pair of participants and non-participants, who are identical in their participation probability and measure the difference in their outcome performance (ROSENBAUM AND RUBIN, 1983). In short, unbiased impact estimates can be obtained in three steps: (i) chose a binary response model with appropriate observable characteristics to predict the probability of participation; (ii) estimate the performance difference between treatment and control group according to selected matching methods that minimise the difference in observables of both groups; and (iii) analyse the effect of unobservable influences on the inference about impact estimates. Based on the implementation of these steps, the following results can be obtained.Based on a logit model to predict the probability of participation given observable characteristics capturing all relevant differences between participants and non-participants, Table 1 presents the differences in knowledge score between matched program participants and controls. Although, the knowledge level in general is very low, ILRI's research activities contribute to a significant improvement in farmers' knowledge about the disease and its control. According to the three chosen matching algorithms, the highest increase in knowledge score can be identified in the second category of curative know-how, followed by the third category of preventive knowledge and activities. Hence, the program improves both treatment of infected animals and preventive measures to avoid cattle falling sick with AAT.Due to the self-selection process of farmers, unobservables factors, like their intrinsic motivation, specific abilities or preferences might have an influence on the participation decision. Therefore, the robustness of impact estimates to hidden bias is analysed with the help of Rosenbaum's bounds (ROSENBAUM, 2002). Table 2 presents the upper bounds on the significance-level of treatment effect estimates for different impact levels of unobservable influences. Overall, robustness results produced by Rosenbaum's bounds are quite similar. However, kernelbased matching produces the most robust treatment effect estimates with respect to hidden bias especially in the category of preventive knowledge and action as well as in the fourth class were all points are summarised. Matched pairs might differ up to 100% ( =2) in unobservable characteristics, while the impact of participation on preventive knowledge as well as on total knowledge would be still significant at a level of 5% (p-value = 0.023 and p-value = 0.0144, respectively).γ eNevertheless, it has to be considered that these sensitivity results are worst-case scenarios, although they indicate information about uncertainty within the matching estimators of treatment effects (ROSENBAUM, 2002).Propensity score matching allows measuring the short-term impact of a natural resource management project on farmers' knowledge and practice of trypanosomosis control. Due to the quasi-experimental design of the intervention, PSM is effective to produce adequate counterfactuals and hence, robust treatment effect estimates. Common to all three matching algorithms, the strongest effect of the program is on the curative knowledge of AAT and subsequent adequate control decisions. Moreover, significant advancements in preventive strategies are also observable. Overall, the research project has been effective to increase farmers' knowledge and to improve their practices. Therefore, it can be recommended to provide farmers with access to diverse control inputs and know-how about their integrated use.","tokenCount":"1034"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8265f02eba3330620e0228ceac9c20f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3c504dbb-d489-4fdc-94cf-2cc3c0f1320a/retrieve","id":"1978938649"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9fc898ff-b169-4d91-aa8f-5db2b1fed7ec","pagecount":"11","content":"Blue foods play a central role in food and nutrition security for billions of people and are a cornerstone of the livelihoods, economies, and cultures of many coastal and riparian communities. Blue foods are extraordinarily diverse, are often rich in essential micronutrients and fatty acids, and can often be produced in ways that are more environmentally sustainable than terrestrial animal-source foods. Capture fisheries constitute the largest wild-food resource for human extraction that would be challenging to replace. Yet, despite their unique value, blue foods have often been left out of food system analyses, policies, and investments. Here, we focus on three imperatives for realizing the potential of blue foods: (1) Bring blue foods into the heart of food system decisionmaking; (2) Protect and develop the potential of blue foods to help end malnutrition; and (3) Support the central * Corresponding author. 473Debates and decisions about food systems are predominantly focused on agriculture and livestock. In contrast, blue (also known as aquatic) foodsfish, invertebrates, algae and aquatic plants captured or cultured in freshwater and marine ecosystemsare often neglected (Bennett et al., 2021). Yet blue foods play a central role in food and nutrition security for billions of people and may become even more important as the world seeks to create just food systems that support the health of people and the planet (HLPE, 2014;Bennett et al., 2018;FAO, 2020;Hicks et al.;Golden et al., 2021).To ensure blue foods continue to make a significant contribution to global food systems, governments need to incorporate them in their food-related decision-making. In 2020, the UN Committee of World Food Security High Level Panel of Experts called for a transformation of the food system, moving \"from a singular focus on increasing the global food supply through specialized production and export to making fundamental changes that diversify food systems, empower vulnerable and marginalized groups, and promote sustainability across all aspects of food supply chains, from production to consumption\" (HLPE, 2020).As we argue in this paper, evidence is growing that when properly understood and managed, many blue foods are profoundly suited to these food system transformations.To make a case for integrating blue foods into global food system Fig. 1. Overview of blue food benefits and challenges and the three areas of policy action identified in this paper that would help realize the potential of blue foods to contribute to sustainable, healthy, and just food system outcomes. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)decision-making, we draw on the findings of the Blue Food Assessment (BFA; http://bluefood.earth) and related work. The BFA was the first global assessment of the benefits of and challenges facing blue food systems based on the work of over 100 scientists from more than 25 institutions. Its first five (out of nine) papers and a summary report were published in September of 2021. In February 2021, the BFA authors were invited to submit a policy brief to the Scientific Group supporting preparations for the 2021 U.N. Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). Here we present three policy action domains to assist national-level government decision-makers to realize the potential of blue foods in improving food system outcomes (see Fig. 1). These policy recommendations should not be seen as all-encompassing. Instead, they are an entry point into making blue foods part of food system transformations.The blue food portfolio is highly diverse. More than 2500 species of marine and freshwater animals, plants, and algae are found in human diets (Golden et al., 2021;Thilsted et al., 2016). Blue food systems are supported by a wide range of ecosystems, cultural practices and production modalitiesfrom large-scale trawlers on the high-seas to small-scale fishponds integrated within agricultural systemssupporting access to nutritious food for communities through global and local markets alike (Short et al., 2021). This diversity supports resilience that can help local food systems withstand shocks (Troell et al., 2014;Béné, 2020;Love et al., 2021;Hertel et al., 2021), as exemplified during economic transitions in fishing communities (Cline et al., 2017) as well as in COVID-19 pandemic responses (Stoll et al., 2021;Ferguson et al., 2022). Blue food diversity offers many possibilities for governments and communities seeking to build food systems that are healthy, sustainable, just, and locally adapted.Blue foods are a cornerstone of good nutrition and health. Many of them are rich in bioavailable micronutrients that help prevent maternal and infant mortality, stunting, and cognitive deficits. Blue foods can also be a healthier animal-source protein than terrestrial livestock: they are rich in healthy fats and can help reduce obesity and non-communicable diseases (Golden et al., 2021;Thilsted et al., 2016). In many parts of the world, blue foods are more accessible and affordable than other animal-source foods and offer benefits beyond health alone (Ryckman et al., 2021a(Ryckman et al., , 2021b)). For example, aquatic plants, including seaweeds, commonly found in the diets throughout the Asia-Pacific region hold the potential to provide both a nutritious and low-carbon source of food.Blue foods often have smaller environmental footprints than many other animal-source foods (Gephart et al., 2021a). However, across a diverse sector, the details matter: greenhouse gas emissions and wildlife and biodiversity impacts can be quite high for some blue food systems, such as bottom trawling or aquaculture systems that are poorly sited or poorly managed (Gephart et al., 2021a;Naylor et al., 2021a). For example, many fisheries, especially those targeting small pelagics, and aquaculture systems, like bivalves, carp, and tilapia, offer climate footprints comparable to or smaller than that of chicken, the most efficient terrestrial animal-sourced food, with the potential to be improved further (Gephart et al., 2021a). Unfed aquaculture (such as seaweeds and filter-feeding shellfish) also has the potential to improve water quality and create habitat for biodiversity (Naylor et al., 2021a).Blue foods are important to livelihoods in many vulnerable communities. The FAO estimates that the livelihoods of about 800 million peopledirectly and indirectlydepend on blue food systems (FAO, 2012), mostly in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture. These systems produce a wide variety of blue foods, supporting healthy diets and resilience in the face of climate change and market fluctuations. Blue foods can also be an essential part of cultural heritage and socio-economic practices (Johannes, 1981;Ban et al., 2019). Coastal and riparian Indigenous Peoples, from the Arctic to the Amazon, have traditionally had the highest per capita aquatic food consumption rates in the world (Bayley, 1981;Cisneros-Montemayor et al., 2016).To capitalize on the potential of blue foods, decision-makers must address significant challenges. Wild capture fisheries, both marine and freshwater, need to be better valued (Sumaila, 2021), managed (Hilborn et al., 2020;Melnychuk et al., 2021) and rebuilt (Sumaila et al., 2012;World Bank, 2017) as many fish stocks have become severely depleted and some technologies have high environmental footprints. Although the aquaculture sector works towards more sustainable practices, increasing feed demand is putting pressure on the environment and resource systems through overfishing, deforestation for feed crops and intensification of agricultural production (Gephart et al., 2021a;Naylor et al., 2021a;Cottrell et al., 2018). Intensification of some types of aquaculture can concentrate nutrient pollution and exacerbate risks associated with pathogens and high dependence on antibiotics (Naylor et al., 2021a;Henriksson et al., 2018).Environmental stressors limit blue food production and climate change will increasingly affect the health and productivity of fish stocks and aquatic ecosystems (FAO, 2018) with implications for food security, livelihoods and economies worldwide and especially in wild-capture fisheries in Africa, East and South Asia, and Small Island Developing States (Tigchelaar et al., 2021;Golden et al., 2016). Aquaculture growth will also be directly and indirectly affected by climate change (Ahmed et al., 2019). Other kinds of pollution, from agricultural nutrient runoff to plastics, further threaten productivity and the safety of foods harvested from polluted waters (Bank et al., 2020;Garrido Gamarro et al., 2020).Like all food systems, blue food systems are beset by inequities. Wealth-generating activities are often favored over those critical to nutrition and health, livelihoods, and culture (Hicks et al.;Österblom et al., 2020;Cohen et al., 2019;Brugere et al., 2021;Zhang et al., 2022). The aquatic resource management systems, knowledge, and rights of Indigenous Peoples and traditional small-scale fisherfolk have often been undermined or overlooked in fisheries, water management and ocean governance (Ratner et al., 2014). Although men and women participate in blue food value chains in roughly equal numbers (FAO, 2020), their roles, influence over value chains, and benefits can be highly unequal (Wabnitz et al., 2021). Progress toward gender equality is critical for development of more equitable and efficient blue food systems (Hicks et al.;Lawless et al., 2021).Blue foods are globally the most traded food productsfor developing countries, net revenues from trade of blue foods exceed those of all agricultural commodities combined (Gephart and Pace, 2015;Sumaila et al., 2016;FAO, 2018). However, global supply chains are complex and often opaque, making it difficult or impossible for buyers to ascertain environmental impacts and human rights abuses in production (LeBaron, 2021). In some places harvesting and trade of fish for high monetary-value global markets have undermined production that is important for local food security and livelihoods (Hicks et al., 2019).There is every reason to expect that total demand for blue foods will grow substantially in the years aheadnearly doubling by 2050 as population and incomes increase, and as attention toward healthy and sustainable food expands (Naylor et al., 2021b) with growth in supply primarily expected to come from aquaculture (Ratner et al., 2014). If produced responsibly, blue foods have essential roles in ending malnutrition and in building healthy, nature-positive and resilient food systems, including for people living on lands marginal for agricultural production (particularly forests, wetlands and small islands), many of whom are Indigenous (Azam-Ali et al., 2021). Realizing that potential, however, will require that governments are thoughtful about how to develop those roles. Here, we focus on three central imperatives for policymakers:1. Integrate blue foods into decision-making about food system policies, programs, and investments, to enable effective management of production, consumption and trade, and the interconnections with terrestrial food production; 2. Understand, protect and develop the potential of blue foods for ending malnutrition, fostering production of accessible, affordable nutritious foods; and 3. Support the central role of small-scale actors, with governance and finance that are responsive to their diverse needs, circumstances and opportunities.Blue foods are deeply interconnected with the rest of the food system in diets, in supply chains, and in the environment (Cottrell et al., 2018). Aquatic and terrestrial foods appear on the same plate and are often substitutes for each other in household food choices. Capture fisheries provide feed inputs for aquaculture and livestock; terrestrial crops provide feed inputs for aquaculture. Excess nutrients from agriculture and aquaculture can pollute rivers and cause coastal dead zones, undermining fisheries; cultivation of filter-feeding fish and seaweeds imply removal of nutrients and, if properly managed and scaled, can help protect ecosystem health. Genetic advances in crops and livestock have had positive spillover effects on aquaculture through selection and breeding and through improvements in nutritional performance and feed efficiency (Naylor et al., 2021a).Yet blue foods are generally ignored in food system discussions and decision-making (Bennett et al., 2021). Compared to terrestrial agriculture systems, blue foods receive limited attention in development assistance outside of Asiawith the consequence that the potential role of fish, shellfish and aquatic plants in human nutrition and health in many developing regions remains underfunded. Blue foods also tend to be left out of food system policymaking at the national level (Koehn et al., 2021). Ministries or agencies dedicated to capture fisheries and aquaculture tend to manage them as a natural resource, with a focus on economic interestsproduction and trade (Bennett et al., 2021). In many countries, the result is that both fisheries and aquaculture are managed with an emphasis on high monetary value, export-oriented production. That orientation is reinforced by the market and naturally favors investments in innovations and enterprises that offer the highest financial return. Critical welfare functions are often neglected; indeed, fisheries agencies often lack the mandate to address the potential contributions of blue foods to food security and public health, to livelihoods and communities, and to cultural traditions and diets (Hicks et al.;Österblom et al., 2020;Cohen et al., 2019).When fisheries and aquaculture are siloed and managed primarily to maximize revenue or rent within sustainable limits, policymakers overlook opportunities for advancing nutrition, sustainability, resilience, and livelihood goals. They also, often unwittingly, create new trade-offs among these goals. For instance, fisheries that have sustained communities for generations are in many developing countries exposed to overexploitation by distant water fleets or out-competed in the market by large volumes of inexpensive farmed fish. Farming of species that could reduce nutrient deficiencies often remains undeveloped because management and investment are directed to high-revenue products, often for export markets. Evidence also shows that small-scale fishers and fish farmers who are central to local diets, livelihoods and community resilience often lose access to key land and water resources to large commercial concessions (Cohen et al., 2019). Bringing blue foods into food system decision-making thus requires integrated governance, systematic inclusion in policy, and a fundamental change in the way we think about blue foods. Specifically, governments could:Governments could create organizational structuressuch as a food policy council, a national food strategy or even a ministry of foodthat can govern, or align governance, across the entire food system, managing synergies and trade-offs in production, consumption and trade (Candel and Pereira, 2017;FAO, 2014;Meijers and Stead, 2004) (see Box 1). Ministries of agriculture and of fisheries typically focus on productiongenerally on increasing volumeand revenue, and often are captured by entrenched interests. Integrated food policy-making across inter-connected terrestrial and aquatic food systems could manage the disparate interests of producers, consumers, and other stakeholders for improved nutritional, environmental, economic, and social outcomes. It could, for example, manage production and consumption to encourage markets for more nutritious species (see Section 3.2). It could also expand the capabilities of small-scale producers, through investment and allocation of resource rights to support livelihoods and community resilience (see Section 3.3). More broadly, it enables policy to make blue food governance actions within the frame of food system outcomes, and to ensure blue foods are fully included in all food system policies. It is worth noting that experiences with implementing coordinative food structures and procedures in several countries have shown that doing so is important but not necessarily sufficient for achieving improved food system outcomes (Candel and Pereira, 2017;Farmery et al., 2020): development of a resonating policy frame (see next recommendation) and sustained political leadership are key (Candel and Pereira, 2017;Meijers and Stead, 2004).At the most basic level, integrating blue foods into food system decision-making recognizes that fisheries and aquaculture should themselves be managed as food systemsthey should be managed to deliver society's goals for nutrition, health and equity, as well as for economics and sustainability. Government policy and management should embrace all aspects of the blue food sectorincluding fisheries and aquaculture production, distribution, exports and imports, and consumption.Promoting a systems approachas emphasized in the food and nutrition strategy of the Pacific Community amongst others (Davila, 2020) means that governments can ensure nutrient-rich aquatic foods are available and affordable to those for whom they are most important, both nutritionally and culturally. A food systems approach will allow policy-makers to work across the value chain to identify and address the many threats to blue food supplies, from overfishing to pollution to waste and loss in harvesting, processing and distribution (see Section 3.2). It can build a system that is just, ensuring equitable participation in production, accessibility for consumption, and broad representation in decision-making. By managing blue foods as a system, governments can create policies and incentives across the value chain to shift both production and consumption to species and technologies that have lighter footprints and to foster diversity in production systems (Sections 3.2 & 3.3).Looking at the whole system also enables governments to make public investments where markets fail. Private investment often goes to blue food systems and enterprises that offer high short-term financial returns. Governments can allocate public funds to help develop innovations and investments in fisheries and aquaculture enterprises that may offer lower returns or higher short-term risk, but have long-term nutrition, livelihoods, and sustainability benefits, with a stronger focus on creating the right business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises that can take those innovations to the scale needed (Box 3).To realize this vision, governments would need to collect data that enable good decisionsincluding data that permit monitoring of fisheries and supply chains, that capture the vital diversity of species that are produced and consumed, that survey the demographic diversity of participants in the sector, and that reflect the frequently profound heterogeneity in consumption across different regions of the country and between different socio-cultural groups (Bennett et al., 2021;Needham and Funge-Smith, 2014). They would also need to redesign policies to enable and incentivize the capabilities of key actorsfrom producers to consumersto adopt transformative practices in the food system as a whole, in value chains, and in the places where they live (Bush et al.) (see Section 3.3).To be effective, structural reforms need to be followed by policy inclusiongovernments could integrate blue foods into the policies that regulate, guide and support the food sector. For example, government strategies to meet the Right to Food (Fakhri, 2020) -a component of the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rightscan embrace the potential of blue foods to offer accessible, affordable sources of key nutrients and better ensure that interventions, including from energy and agriculture, do not further erode access to blue foods (see Section 3.2). Dietary guidelines could include the nutritional contributions of different blue foods, to help consumers understand their value for addressing nutrient deficiencies and obesity, diabetes and coronary disease. Safety net programs for children and pregnant and lactating women could also include blue foods, as fish can be a rich source of essential micronutrients for vulnerable populations, helping to prevent stunting and cognitive deficits (Golden et al., 2021). In sub-Saharan Africa, numerous pilot programs are underway to bring nutrient-rich fish and fish powder to school meals (Ahern et al., 2021) (Box 2). Improved access to blue foods can also be catalyzed via integration with food assistance programs, as exemplified by two long-standing programs on the U.S. West Coast that connect low-income consumers to regional fisheries and aquaculture producers (Koehn et al., 2020). Policy inclusion should pay particular attention to and support food systems and food sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples (Levkoe et al., 2017).Including blue foods in policymaking for the food system allows governments to better manage the interconnections between terrestrialThe small pelagic fisheries of the African Great Lakes region illustrate the opportunities of bringing blue foods into food system policymaking. These fisheries produce large volumes of affordable, micronutrient-rich food traded throughout the region, but they have traditionally been given low priority for investment and management because they are seen as having low economic value. However, scientific and policy dialogues on food and fisheries are starting to include these species. For example, the Malawi Department of Fisheries recently developed a Management Plan for usipa (Usipa, 2018) (Engraulicypris sardella), a small pelagic species harvested in large volumes from Lake Malawi. The plan recognizes its importance to Malawi's food and nutrition security as its first guiding principle, and includes objectives not only to sustainably manage the resource but also to research post-harvest dynamics to reduce loss and improve handling and storage. The inclusion of fisheries in Malawi's National Agriculture Investment Plan (Malawi Government. Nation, 2018) provides the political framework for developing fisheries policy in step with broader food systems policy, across issues of climate change, gender, food safety, and strategic investment. Future research could assess how specific fisheries and aquaculture production systems (such as usipa fisheries) contribute to food and nutrition security for vulnerable populations, so that specific investments and policies can effectively protect and enhance those contributions.School meal programs offer a powerful means of improving nutritional outcomes, cognitive development, and educational performance of school-going children and adolescents, particularly when they incorporate nutrient-dense animal-sourced foods (Ahern et al., 2021). Additionally, they offer opportunities to create co-benefits by generating local livelihoods, promoting gender equity, and enhancing sustainable production practices when they include culturally appropriate, locally produced and processed ingredients. Several examples from around the worldincluding Odisha State in India (USAID Advancing Nutrition, 2021), multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Ahern et al., 2021), and California in the United States (Koehn et al., 2020) have shown that fish and fish by-products (processed into fish powder) can be an affordable and acceptable way to increase the nutritiousness of school meals. In Odisha, India, introduction of fish products in school meals has been paired with development of local aquaculture and fish drying facilities, creating economic opportunities for the women's cooperatives that run them (USAID Advancing Nutrition, 2021). In Cabo Verde, quotas for the supply of local products from small-scale fishers and support for fishing and fish farming organizations have strengthened the capacity of local supply chains to sustainably supply safe fish products for school meal programs (Ahern et al., 2021). The emergence of a global School Meals Coalition (https://schoolmealscoalition.org/) following the UN Food Systems Summitwith commitments from over 50 countriesoffers an opportunity to further promote inclusion of blue foods in school meals in context-specific and culturally appropriate ways.The proliferation of diverse, freshwater aquaculture supply chains in Bangladesh in recent decades illustrates the potential for blue foods to meet domestic demand, improve food and nutrition security, and reduce rural poverty (Golden et al., 2016). This \"hidden aquaculture revolution\" has involved hundreds of thousands of small-to medium-scale actors along the supply chain, acting independently and in response to urbanization, growing incomes, and rising fish demand. Approximately 94% of the fish produced in freshwater aquaculture in Bangladesh is directed towards domestic markets and is not traded internationally. Although mostly small-scale, freshwater aquaculture systems have become increasingly intensive and commercial in their operations (Ahmed et al., 2019). Aquaculture growth and its contribution to food and nutrition security in Bangladesh have resulted from public investment in infrastructure, a positive business environment for small-and medium-size entrepreneurs, and 'light touch' government control over the type of systems and species produced (Golden et al., 2016). and aquatic food systems (Cottrell et al., 2018). That includes the regulation of agricultural and inland aquaculture runoff and other land-based pollution that can undermine inland and coastal fisheries and marine aquaculture, such as nutrients that cause coastal dead zones and toxins that can compromise food safety. Governments can also better manage the allocation of crops and fish to competing usesfor food or feedand support the development of a circular economy in which wastes or by-products from one part of the food system are used as feed inputs to another (Campanati et al., 2022).Many blue foods contain high concentrations of bioavailable minerals and vitamins, essential fatty acids (in particular EPA and DHA), and animal protein (Thilsted et al., 2016) globally, humans derive roughly 8% of zinc and iron, 13% of protein, and 27% of vitamin B12 from blue foods (Golden et al., 2021). Blue foods can therefore make key contributions to diet-related health challenges. They can reduce micronutrient deficiencies that lead to disease; improve heart, brain and eye health by uniquely providing omega-3 fatty acids; and replace over-consumption of less healthy red and processed meats (Golden et al., 2021). The micronutrient contributions of blue foods are especially important for childhood development, pregnant women and women of childbearing age (Kawarazuka and Béné, 2011;Bogard et al., 2015;Starling et al., 2015) and can reduce nutritional inequities for girls and women (Golden et al., 2021).Not all fish are nutritionally equal. For example, a single serving of small indigenous species in Bangladesh, eaten whole, contributes more than five times as much vitamin B12 as a single serving of tilapia fillet (Golden et al., 2021;Brugere et al., 2021). Which blue foods are on a plate, in what form matters as well as how much (Golden et al., 2021;Hicks et al., 2019). Yet, blue food policy often considers blue foods only as a protein source, which neglects the nutrient diversity of fish (in terms of micronutrients and fatty acids) and excludes the contributions of aquatic plants altogether. In the Bangladesh case discussed below (Box 3), for example, growth in (farmed) fish consumption has led to an increase in total protein consumption but an apparent decrease in consumption of certain micronutrients, highlighting the challenge of balancing high nutrient content provided by small native fish with employment and revenue generation offered by tilapia and pangasius production (Bogard et al., 2017). Adopting a nutrition-sensitive approach to aquaculture and fisheries, rather than just a production focus, can address these issues (Bennett et al., 2021;Thilsted et al., 2016;Gephart et al., 2021b;Robinson et al., 2022).In many countries, ministries manage blue foods for their wealthgenerating benefits, focusing policy on high economic-value blue food production, often for export. Such a focus risks undermining the critical welfare functions of blue foods by neglecting the nutritional characteristics, livelihood contributions, accessibility, and cultural patterns of blue food consumption (Bennett et al., 2021;Hicks et al.;Thilsted et al., 2016;Brugere et al., 2021;Hicks et al., 2019). Nutrient-dense blue foods are regularly exported from nutritionally vulnerable countries to serve either as a high-quality product for wealthy consumers or to be reduced to fishmeal to feed farmed fish for high-income countries (Isaacs, 2016). Orientation towards export markets affects not only coastal and riparian populations, but also inland communities who have historically depended on richly nutritious dried or smoked fish transported from the coast (Gordon et al., 2013).The quantity, quality and safety of blue food supply are threatened by food loss and waste (amounting to 35% of fish harvested globally (FAO, 2020)), management failures (including overfishing and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing), environmental degradation, and climate change (FAO, 2018). It is estimated that declines in marine fish catch over the next three decades could subject an additional 845 million people (11% of the world's population) to vitamin A, zinc, or iron deficiencies (Golden et al., 2016). Though all of these pressures occur globally, their effects are highest and most strongly felt in tropical and low-income countries with high dependence on blue foods for nutrition and health, livelihoods and income (Tigchelaar et al., 2021;Golden et al., 2016).Finally, blue food policy misses opportunities to support nutrition goals when it fails to address unequal distribution of the benefits from blue food systems or the concentration of power (Brugere et al., 2021). Women in particular are underrepresented in policies and decision-making (Hicks et al.;Lawless et al., 2021;Udo and Okoko, 2014). Where gender equality is lacking, blue foods are less affordable (Hicks et al.) and blue food waste and losses are greater (Kaminski et al., 2020). To manage blue food systems for the benefit of nutrition and health, governments could:The Right to Food states that everyone is entitled to adequate, accessible, and safe food, that corresponds to their cultural traditions in a fulfilling and dignified manner (Fakhri, 2020). A Right to Food means that governance of and investment in blue food systems should seek a balance between economic opportunities and local rights to food provisioning (Bennett et al., 2021;Hicks et al.), aiming to sustain and innovate with the full diversity of species, production and harvest methods, product forms and distribution channels in mind (Golden et al., 2021). Recognizing the Right to Food requires taking a food systems approach in which nutrition, sustainability, climate-resilience and equity can be considered together (see Section 3.1) and which ensures all actors are represented, including through engagement with grass-roots and civil society organizations (see Section 3.3) 1,5 . Recognizing the food rights of Indigenous Peoples who harvest aquatic foods is of particular importance, whether such Peoples have Nation status or not. At a national level, blue foods could explicitly be included in food and nutrition policy (see Section 3.1) 1,8,53 . Internationally, it would be beneficial to position blue foods as a vital food source in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, health national adaptation plans (HNAPs), and other international efforts to alleviate malnutrition (Bennett et al., 2021).To ensure that the nutritional potential of blue foods serves to improve the health and diets of nutritionally vulnerable people, governments could recognize and sustainably harness the diversity of local blue food nutritional profiles, preparation methods and dietary practices (Golden et al., 2021).Managing capture fisheries to optimize for nutritional benefits (Robinson et al., 2022), not just for maximum sustainable yield, would allow governments to uncover opportunities to diversify fish production without increasing pressure on existing stocks (Golden et al., 2021;Bernhardt and O'Connor, 2021). Aquaculture development could foster the sustainable production of native small fish species that can supply context-specific nutrient needs. For example, mola, a fish species from the Gangetic floodplains, can easily be produced in homestead ponds and offers 80 times more vitamin A than commonly farmed silver carp (Brugere et al., 2021).By evaluating exports and licenses to distant water fleets, governments could better ensure they do not compromise nutritional goals. In some cases (e.g., Namibia) retaining just a small portion of current exports could meet local nutrition goals (Hicks et al., 2019), though this requires infrastructure to support equitable distribution and access to blue foods locally (see Section 3.3).Public health policies and investments focused on reducing malnutrition would be more effective if they included blue foods in programs to address the specific nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women, young children and the elderlywith appropriate consideration of food safety and pollutantsas was done with the introduction of dried small fish powder in Myanmar to support children's health (WorldFish, 2020) (see Box 2).To ensure that blue foods important for nutrition are available, accessible, and affordable, we urge governments to take steps to reduce losses in the system.Estimates of post-harvest losses are hindered by poor assessments but are recognized as significant, with macro-level estimates ranging from 29 to 50% (FAO, 2020;Kruijssen et al., 2020). Efforts to reduce such losses can be implemented across value chains, particularly at processing and transportation stages for lower-income countries, and at marketing and consumption stages in higher-income countries (Hodges et al., 2011). Improved processing methods can additionally preserve and concentrate nutrients and increase availability and also improve nutritional quality (Siddhnathet al., 2020). The Usipa fishery of Malawi (Box 1), for example, could significantly decrease post-harvest quantity and quality losses by 54% at the processing stage through increased access to basic education and technology such as solar dryers (Torell et al., 2020;Nagoli et al., 2017), additionally enhancing nutritional contributions to distant consumers by concentrating their micronutrients for transport (Siddhnathet al., 2020).In many places, better management of capture fisheries through harvest controls or spatial restrictions, for example, can restore fish stocks and increase yields (Hilborn et al., 2020;Melnychuk et al., 2021;Anderson et al., 2018). Better regulation of economic development in rivers (dams), floodplains, riparian, coastal, and ocean ecosystems can help protect blue food production and reduce risks to food safety (Niane et al., 2015;de Oliveira Estevo et al., 2021).Fisheries and aquaculture policy is more effective if it also anticipates and adapts to the loss of nutrients resulting from climate change (FAO, 2018;Tigchelaar et al., 2021). Governments could consider nature-based solutions like mangrove and seagrass restoration and restorative aquaculture that can help strengthen the resilience of aquatic ecosystems (Gattuso et al., 2018;Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2019). Coral reef restoration methods, for example, are actively being piloted in island states like Barbados (Brathwaite et al., 2022) and elsewhere. Additional climate adaptation options are context-specific but include shifting to offshore fish stocks (McDonald and Torrens, 2020), devising climate-smart agreements for transboundary resources (Oremus et al., 2020) and investing in climate information systems, including early warning systems for extreme events (Cinner et al., 2018;Turner et al., 2020). For example, a study in Timor-Leste found that Fish Aggregation Devices could provide a cost-effective alternative food supply for rural communities that otherwise rely on coral reefs impacted by anthropogenic change (Tilley et al., 2019). Place-based responses to climate change are particularly important for Indigenous Peoples whose cultures and identities are closely linked to their local environments (Whitney et al., 2020).Participation in activities along the value chain is often socially differentiated; for example, men dominate blue food production and women blue food processing (Weeratunge et al., 2010). Governments thus need to collect data on what roles, from fish producers to post-harvest processors, traders, and consumers, different groups in society hold and why (Bennett et al., 2021). When divisions of labor exist because of unequal opportunities to participate across the value chain, they are likely to result in distributional and nutritional inequities (Udo and Okoko, 2014). Investments to address the drivers of unequal opportunities, such as through strengthening women's empowerment, are known to lead to improvements in outcomes for women and their families. For example, in Zambia, strategies to remove underlying structural barriers that prevent equitable outcomes, such as unequal norms and attitudes, increased women's participation in production processes, and their control over resources (Wabnitz et al., 2021;Kaminski et al., 2020;Cole et al., 2020). Governments need to ensure the full diversity of actors (Short et al., 2021), across social groups, including gender, class, and ethnicity, and along the value chain and scale of production, are fairly represented in decision-making processes (Hicks et al.) (see Section 3.3). In addition, governments should recognize subnational differences in nutritional vulnerability and blue food access (O'Meara et al., 2021) in national policy and align subnational policies and instruments with nutritional goals.Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture (SSFA) have been marginalized in dialogues about sustainable and equitable food system transformation, despite being central to it in many contexts (Bennett et al., 2021;Cohen et al., 2019). SSFA play a key role in supplying nutrition and supporting local economies in many countries. They produce more than half of the global fish catch and contribute over two-thirds of blue foods destined for direct human consumption (FAO, 2020), with the potential for lower environmental footprints (e.g., lower fuel use than in large-scale operations (Gephart et al., 2021a)). In addition, the value chains that process and sell their products support about 800 million livelihoods, half of which are women (FAO, 2020;FAO, 2012). SSFA produce a high diversity of aquatic foods. This diversity underpins healthy diets, and resilience in the face of shocks, climate and market changes (Ferguson et al., 2022;Hicks et al., 2019;Gephart et al., 2021b;Bennett et al., 2020;Campbell et al., 2021). SSFA also contribute to intra-regional trade, especially in smoked and dried products, which can have more direct impacts on food security and poverty alleviation than the globalized system (Béné et al., 2010).SSFA worldwide face a growing range of threats and challenges, including resource over-exploitation, habitat degradation, poor political representation, market-driven competition for resources (e.g., patterns of trade and foreign fishing), assumed links between informality and illegality (Song et al., 2020), climate change (Monnier et al., 2020), and shocks such as the current COVID-19 pandemic (Short et al., 2021;Bennett et al., 2020;Farmery et al., 2021). Cumulatively, SSFA are being 'squeezed out' of the spaces they occupy on the land-water margins by other more powerful sectors, such as tourism, residential and industrial land use, oil and gas exploration, industrial fisheries and aquaculture (Cohen et al., 2019). Within SSFA, inequitable access to resources and opportunities and limited gender and social inclusion are key threats. Indigenous Peoples whose lands and waters have been colonized by others, and whose harvesting activities tend to be small-scale, continue to be marginalized by public policy. Finally, pervasive data and monitoring limitations pose major challenges to understanding the status of SSFA (Pauly and Zeller, 2016) as a lack of data leads to underestimating SSFA contributions, marginalizing SSFA in policy and decision making, and aggregated and categorical data fail to represent the diversity of SSFA actors and benefits.Governments and policies predominantly focus on industrialized, large-scale fisheries and aquaculture that generate production volume, profit, and foreign exchange revenue, leading to a lack of voice and support for SSFA (Cohen et al., 2019). One reason for this persistent neglect is that policy makers struggle with the diversity, dynamism and perceived informality of SSFA and their associated cultures (Hicks et al.). Most policies affecting the sector make unrealistic assumptions that SSFA are a homogenous group limited to producers (Gelcich et al., 2018;Johnson, 2006). In contrast, the sector is extraordinarily diverse along many dimensions (Short et al., 2021). Successful transformations of SSFA require placing this sector at the center of national sustainability, human development and food security strategies, creating initiatives that support the capabilities of the diverse SSFA actors. Supporting the viability of SSFA would require governments to:Inclusion of SSFA in decision-making is essential to enable more adaptive governance mechanisms and policies that build on the strengths of the diversity of SSFAs, acknowledge the cultural importance and specific roles of blue foods for diverse actors and steer food systems towards a more equitable distribution of blue food benefits. In South Africa, a national policy specific to small-scale fishers was enacted that recognized the sector's role to livelihoods and food security and proposed mechanisms to promote these contributions including support for infrastructure, subsidies and training (Sowman et al., 2014).Women are greatly underrepresented in policy and decision making even though they make up half of the workforce in SSFA globally (Harper et al., 2020). Recent efforts to improve gender equity in blue food policy have tended to adopt a narrow focus on women, overlooking men or gender relations (Lawless et al., 2021). Such a narrow focus risks exacerbating inequities by placing the blame, or burden for change, on women (Hicks et al.;Bank et al., 2020;Gattuso et al., 2018). Blue food policy development therefore not only needs to involve more input and leadership from women, but also should take a gender transformative approach to improving intersectional equity in SSFA (Hicks et al.;Lawless et al., 2021;Cole et al., 2020).Indigenous coastal and riparian People tend to be more blue-food dependent than the wider population in the countries they live in (Bayley, 1981;Cisneros-Montemayor et al., 2016). They also have proven systems for food system governanceincluding knowledge systemsthat, if recognized and supported, could enable the 'decolonization' of their food systems (Coté, 2016). As access to traditional food sources has been lost, adoption of unhealthy diets based on processed foods has led to high rates of diet-related non-communicable diseases (Kuhnlein and Receveur, 2003;Hawley and McGarvey, 2015). Thus, by supporting Indigenous Peoples food (and wider) sovereignty claims, governments could contribute to transformative health benefits in these communities and nations.To realize the many benefits of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, governments could support and strengthen multi-stakeholder initiatives that have SSFA at their core (Cohen et al., 2019), including organizations of fish workers, harvesters and producers at global, regional, and national levels such as the World Forum of Fish harvesters and Fishworkers (WFF), the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), the African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFishNET), and the International Collective in support of Fish Workers (ICSF).Securing the future of SSFA requires adaptive action that supports their capabilities to deliver both market and non-market societal benefits (Bush et al.) (see Box 3). Positive environmental outcomes, for example, require engagement of SSFA actors to co-produce knowledge, forge strategies for sustainability and climate adaptation, and participate in and lead environmental restoration, conservation and adaptation efforts (Cinner et al., 2018).Governments can realize the potential of SSFA to contribute to sustainable development by creating space for them in plans to expand agricultural, and industrial aquaculture and fisheries sectors (Cohen et al., 2019;Cisneros-Montemayor et al., 2019). Using public and private regulation and financial mechanisms would enable SSFA actorsincluding Indigenous Peoplesto (re)gain control over the resources, rights, skills and knowledge necessary for environmentally resilient and socially equitable production and trade (including insurance, credit, and market mechanisms to buffer against extreme events) (Short et al., 2021).Governments have the opportunity to allocate and enforce land, water and labor rights to SSFA through user rights-based systems, creation of preferential access areas, coastal and inland land use zoning, or other measures (Allison et al., 2012). To support the roles of SSFA in creating livelihoods and resilient and equitable food systems, governments could also provide capital, through public and private financial mechanisms that empower rather than undermine SSFA actors (Pomeroy et al., 2020). In the case of Indigenous Peoples, recognition of their collective sovereign rights is the key starting point (Bennett, 2018).For many SSFA producers, it will be crucial to find pathways for sustainable intensification (to increase output and production efficiencies while reducing negative externalities (Belton et al., 2020a)) or expansion of their operations or for diversification into other SSFA products or other sources of livelihood (Finkbeiner, 2015). To that end, government investment in research and development, together with facilitation of access to venture capital, could support innovation in species/production systems that are of high value for nutrition, livelihoods, and justice. Governmental support may also be needed for the development of complementary livelihoods, which are often critical to continued participation by SSFA actors, their control of the resource base and its sustainability (Hanh, 2021).Costs, trade-offs, and potential environmental and social impacts of sustainable intensification and diversification should be carefully considered, and diversification should be proactively designed and monitored (Belton et al., 2020a;Hanh, 2021). To this end, efforts should be made towards the better integration of different data types and sources and enabling the effective and timely access and use of data by relevant actors. Investment is needed in monitoring systems for catch, effort, production and consumption, and in national surveys of engagement in SSFA which are fully gender-inclusive, and reflect intersections of gender, age and ethnicity (Basurto et al., 2017). Promotion of research and development aimed at technological solutions for data collection, storage and communication/accessibility barriers would effectively support these needs.Governments, in particular low-income food insecure nations, need to be able to regulate the activities of large corporate actors and trade to protect the rights (e.g., labor rights, human rights, right to food) of SSFA workers (Allison et al., 2012), to ensure that terms, conditions, and revenues from trade are transparent and fair, do not impact on local food security, and where needed retain high nutritional value products for local consumption (Said and MacMillan, 2020). Regulation should consider the potential trade-offs and linkages between nutritional and economic value of resources (Hicks et al.; Crona et al.). Well-designed regulatory mechanisms will establish transparent processes, monitoring systems, and accountability mechanisms to ensure traceability and visibility of social impacts (Brugere et al., 2021). Market-based approaches that encourage actors to add value to products through processing, marketing or certification need to carefully consider trade-offs in economic, social, environmental, and public health outcomes (see Section 3.1).Governments could also explore opportunities to support \"alternative\" systems based on short supply chains for products with strong local identities and local, decentralized production and processing (Levkoe et al., 2017). Diversity, deeply embedded in these food systems, could be supported by policies mandating or incentivizing local retention of SSFA products to ensure food self-sufficiency, for example, the development or control of local markets and school feeding programs (Love et al., 2021;Ahern et al., 2021).Blue foods have vital roles to play in the transformation of the global food system. By bringing blue foods into the heart of their food decisionmaking, governments could better value, manage, and rebuild the entire terrestrial and aquatic food system by creating organizational structures or cooperation that integrate blue foods fully into food policies, budgets, and programs. By recognizing the Right to Food, states could harness the nutritional diversity of blue foods in ways that ensure the equitable distribution of blue food production and consumption. By empowering and supporting the millions of small-scale actors in fisheries and aquaculture who produce, process, distribute and trade most of the food we eat, states can unlock a vibrant, sustainable, healthy, and equitable blue food economy. Recognizing and acting upon the potential role of blue foods in all dimensions of food policy would be a clear win for the 2021 U.N. Food Systems Summit and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.While governments and their agencies play an important role by setting objectives, programs, regulations, laws and funding priorities, government policy alone is insufficient to drive transformative change (Moberg et al., 2021). (Blue) food system transformation will require a simultaneous and synergistic shift of government, market and financial institutions to enable the adoption of just, sustainable, and nutrition-positive practices (Bush et al.). Meanwhile citizens, civil society organizations, and academics play an important role in articulating values and goals, outlining possible futures, spurring and informing actions and holding institutions accountable. The BFA offers a handful of briefs for non-government actors (http://bluefood.earth/policy) but more work is needed to further elaborate new levers for change that can overcome key challenges and trade-offs in (blue) food systems.Even though the diversity of blue food species and systems offers opportunities for health, sustainability and resilience, not all blue foods will inherently contribute to these outcomes (Farmery et al., 2021;Belton et al., 2020b) and many challenges around social and environmental impacts, as well as resource management, remain to be addressed. As outlined in Section 2, negative environmental externalities of blue food production include overfishing, habitat change, biodiversity loss, nutrient and chemical pollution, disease spread and related antibacterial and antimicrobial resistance, and greenhouse gas emissions (Gephart et al., 2021a;Naylor et al., 2021a;Mariani et al., 2020). Blue food futures must be examined in the context of the limitations imposed by human stressors such as climate change, as substantial contribution of blue food to people will likely be conditioned on effective climate mitigation (Tigchelaar et al., 2021). While it's beyond the scope of this paper to provide a comprehensive set of policy recommendations addressing all blue food challenges, these issues need to be addressed if expansion of the sector is to contribute to multiple sustainable development outcomes.In wild-capture fisheries, improved management to sustain and rebuild stocks can have important co-benefits with carbon emissions and fishery livelihoods, but can be costly (Gephart et al., 2021a;Costello et al., 2020). In aquaculture, effective spatial planning and site regulation will be essential for the environmental success of the sector, as is addressing sustainable feed use and composition (Gephart et al., 2021a;Naylor et al., 2021a). While there has been considerable progress in feed conversion ratios and efficiency of marine resource use in the past few decades, growing demand for fed fish will continue to put pressure on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Innovations to improve feed conversion ratios, feed ingredient use, use of by-products and novel aquafeeds are actively being developed (Gephart et al., 2021a;Naylor et al., 2021a;Cottrell et al., 2020), but often beyond the reach of smallholder producers of low-value species. This highlights a need for innovation in public and private financing, governance, and capacity building in addition to technological innovation (Section 3.3).Finally, when making decisions about blue food futures it is critical to evaluate potential trade-offs across food system goals (Cohen et al., 2019;Farmery et al., 2021;Crona et al.). For example, use of novel aquaculture feed ingredients to reduce environmental impacts can reduce the nutrient density of farmed fin fish (Sprague et al., 2016). Climate adaptation strategies addressing the technical challenges of climate impacts can create or exacerbate socioeconomic disparities, as exemplified by the expansion of shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh (Paprocki and Huq, 2018). An increased emphasis on blue foods for domestic food and nutrition security could reduce government revenues from blue food exports and allocation of fishing rights. In short, policies and actions to promote blue foods will require a food systems approach that examines nutrition, health, equity, justice, economic and environmental outcomes and trade-offs across land and sea.","tokenCount":"7887"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"59d40d78177ba153216fab534847330d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6a97405f-6f0c-4c31-8b66-18beda81ec3e/retrieve","id":"619659993"},"keywords":["Nutrition","agriculture","income","diversification","food markets","farming systems"],"sieverID":"3066e2ba-c7f6-4fbb-b28d-fb2ffcb98d61","pagecount":"46","content":"in 1975, provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. IFPRI's strategic research aims to foster a climate-resilient and sustainable food supply; promote healthy diets and nutrition for all; build inclusive and efficient markets, trade systems, and food industries; transform agricultural and rural economies; and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is integrated in all the Institute's work. Partnerships, communications, capacity strengthening, and data and knowledge management are essential components to translate IFPRI's research from action to impact. The Institute's regional and country programs play a critical role in responding to demand for food policy research and in delivering holistic support for country-led development. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world.The potential for agricultural development to reduce poverty in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) is long established; the potential for agricultural development to reduce malnutrition much less so (Headey and Masters, 2021). Most nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs have been implemented only at small scale (Ruel et al., 2018); crop diversification seems weakly associated with dietary diversity of farm households (Jones, 2017;Sibhatu and Qaim, 2018), and research on food markets and food environments more broadly is very limited for rural populations in LMICs (Headey et al., 2019). This study therefore agnostically seeks to assess support for three stylized strategies for improving agri-food systems for better diet quality in four sub-Saharan countries.The first such strategy we consider is one we term the income/wealth strategy, whereby low incomes or wealth are assumed to be the main constraint to improving healthy diets, because nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables, and animal sourced foods (ASFs) are more expensive sources of calories than starchy staples (Headey and Alderman, 2019) and because global and regional evidence shows that the vast majority of LMIC populations cannot afford healthy diets (FAO et al., 2022b;Headey et al., 2023;Hirvonen et al., 2020). Facing severe income constraints, poor people consume very high levels of starchy staples (i.e., cheap calories), but switch to more nutrient-dense calories as income/wealth increases (Subramanian and Deaton, 1996).While income fundamentalism is contentious in the nutrition literature (Alderman et al., 2015;Vollmer et al., 2013), there is certainly growing support for this view given influential new evidence on diet affordability problems. The 2022 State of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report estimated that roughly 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet (FAO et al., 2022a). Using more granular household expenditure and food price data from national surveys in four East African countries, Headey et al. (2023) find that 70-90 percent of households cannot afford the EAT-Lancet diet. Yet as income grows, income elasticities reveal that African households do indeed spend more on ASFs and fruits, suggesting consumers will purchase much more of these foods than they will purchase additional starchy staples when incomes increase, though preferences for pulses, nuts, and vegetables are often much weaker (Choudhury et al., 2019;Colen et al., 2018;Headey et al., 2023). Moreover, while most healthy foods usually have high income elasticities, so too do many unhealthy, highly processed foods like sweetened beverages and snacks dense in sugar, fat, or salt (Colen et al., 2018). The income fundamentalist view may be partially correct, but income growth has still produced unbalanced diets and elevated obesity and non-communicable disease risks throughout LMICs (Popkin et al., 2020).The second strategy for improving diets that we consider is the farm-level diversification strategy, which involves encouraging poor people to produce nutrient-dense foods, and appreciate their healthfulness, so that they can then eat those foods (or sell them for income gains that can then be used to buy other healthy foods). This approach assumes that consumers face both accessibility problems -in terms of low income and actual limited physical access to healthy foods in local markets -and nutritional knowledge constraints. Enhanced Homestead Food Production (EHFP) strategies, of the kind developed by Helen Keller International (HKI) in the late 1980s and 1990s, typically combine agricultural extension for nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables and small-scale livestock (mostly poultry) with nutritional knowledge interventions to raise caregiver awareness of the nutritional benefits of consuming these foods, and women's empowerment interventions to improve their control of key nutritional resources (Haselow et al., 2016). Encouragingly, program evaluations of these interventions have often found some dietary improvement and reduced micronutrient deprivation (Dulal et al., 2017;Iannotti et al., 2009;Murty et al., 2016;Olney et al., 2009;Osei et al., 2017;Osei et al., 2015;Schreinemachers et al., 2016;Talukder et al., 2010;Tesfamariam et al., 2018). However, this approach has an obvious theoretical and practical limitation: farm-level diversification for subsistence consumption is only likely to improve diets marginally because smallholders are far too constrained by land, labor, and capital limitations to produce sufficient nutrient-dense foods to close healthy diet gaps (and those gaps are large). Moreover, survey evidence from Africa suggest that consumers already purchase the vast majority of their nutrient-dense food consumption from markets, even in rural areas (Sibhatu and Qaim, 2017). Observational evidence also suggests weak associations between farm-level crop diversity and household diet diversity (Jones, 2017;Sibhatu and Qaim, 2018), though livestock production may be more strongly associated with consumption of ASF products, especially dairy (Choudhury and Headey, 2018;Hoddinott et al., 2015;Kabunga et al., 2017).A third and emergingly popular approach is one that might be termed the strengthening food environments strategy. This much more nascent strategy assumes that food environments -the interface where people interact with the wider food system to acquire and consume foods -are influential in shaping dietary choices. However, while there is currently rapid growth in this research in LMICs, a 2020 scoping review found 70 studies on food environments in LMICs, but none in low income countries, and very few focused on rural populations (Turner et al., 2020). Poor food environments can refer to high or variable prices of nutrient-dense foods, limited diversity of foods, low quality of available foods, food safety, as well as packaging, marketing and advertising. This complexity makes food environments difficult to measure, especially at scale. Defining food environments in rural areas can also be challenging because of the varying or even shifting importance of consuming products from one's own farm, from one's neighbors, and from different kinds of markets and food vendors (Headey et al., 2019). Empirically, a major challenge is measuring food environment characteristics at scale. National \"household\" surveys rarely contain much information on food environment characteristics, and what data is collected (e.g. through community survey instruments) is rarely analyzed.In this study we aim to provide several novel contributions to the literature on foods systems and diets.First, while most studies focus on one of the strategies above, we try to assess empirical support for these strategies in a comparative framework, by attempt to run a fair \"horse race\" between alternative models. Such an approach comes with caveats. Conceptually, we do not claim that experts in any field unequivocally support a specific strategy to the exclusion of other strategies. Empirically, the fairness of the horse race may be limited by what can be measured in either household survey or geographic information systems (GIS) databases. Practically, whether policies derived from these strategies can cost-effectively improve dietary outcomes is a separate question we do not address, albeit one of great practical importance.Second, we study the determinants of diet quality using a new household dietary deprivation index that compares actual household consumption of different food groups to recommended food intake levels (Pauw et al., 2023); in this case using the EAT-Lancet healthy reference diet (Willett et al., 2019). This index is a significant improvement over alternative measures like the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) or Food Consumption Score (FCS), because although it still captures the importance of diversity of food groups, it additionally incorporates quantitative data on the gaps between actual consumption and recommended consumption.Third, unlike many analyses of the determinants of diets and food environment characteristics in urban areas in a given country or specific municipality, ours is a multi-country study, focusing on low-income countries that are still predominantly rural, and still heavily dependent on agriculture and underlying agro-climatic conditions, which may in turn shape local farming systems and food environments more broadly.The remainder of this study is structured as follows. Section 2 describes our data and empirical approach. Section 3 presents our results, while Section 4 provides a brief summary of our key findings.The dataset for this analysis combines multiple rounds of LSMS-ISA surveys from three African countries: Ethiopia (2015, n=1738), Nigeria (2012, 2015, 2018;n=5353), and Tanzania (2012, n=5885). 1 These surveys rounds were selected on the basis of availability of key agri-food system indicators, as not all LSMS-ISA rounds contain necessary indicators, particularly on food environment characteristics like market access.The outcome variable of our empirical analysis is a new dietary measure, termed the Reference Diet Deprivation (ReDD) index (Pauw et al., 2023). The ReDD index relates observed household diets to an ideal reference diet to construct a population-level, adjusted gap measure of household diet quality. The aggregate ReDD index is composed of three indicators that reflect the incidence, breadth, and depth of diet deprivation across multiple, nutritionally essential food groups. The first indicator is a headcount rate that gives the share of the population that is deprived in at least one of these food groups. The second indicator is the average deprivation share of the food-group-deprived persons, while, for each food group, all persons within a household are considered deprived, if the household consumes less than the reference intake for that food group. The third indicator is the average deprivation gap across all food groups, with a food group gap being calculated as the difference between the reference intake and the observed consumption amount (that is set equal to zero if a households' consumption exceeds the reference intake). The aggregate ReDD index is obtained by multiplying these three indicators, such the aggregate index falls within a range of [0,1], with higher numbers indicating greater deprivation. 2 An aggregate ReDD index equal to zero would suggest consumption of a fully healthy diet, while an index equal to one would suggest a diet that exclusively consist of (unhealthy) discretionary foods and hence lacks any nutritionally required food groups. 3   The approach underlying the ReDD index construction is methodologically similar to, and draws motivation from, the Multidimensional Poverty Index developed Alkire and Foster (2011) where the \"dimensions of deprivation\" of the ReDD index are the essential food groups considered. 4 In this study we elect for these food groups to correspond to the EAT-Lancet healthy reference diet 1 See the following website for more details: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/lsms/initiatives/lsms-ISA#8 2 To ease interpretation of our regression results below, we multiply the ReDD index values by 100. 3 In the index's default setup (which is used in this study), equal weights are assigned to all food groups, because these food groups are all important for a healthy diet. 4 For methodological details, see Pauw et al. (2021). (Willet et al., 2019). This international reference diet is designed to meet most people's nutritional requirements and reduces the incidence of diet-related non-communicable diseases (such as cardiovascular diseases, type-two diabetes, and colorectal cancers), and preventable overall mortality. This reference diet (summarized in Appendix 1) consists of a balanced mix of 21 plant-based and animal-source food categories that belong to six major food groups (when aggregating cereals and stary roots and tubers into starchy staples), plus non-required, added sugars and other discretionary (and partly unhealthy) foods such as sugar-sweetened beverages, snacks, and condiments. We use this diet for convenience of comparisons across countries, but note that it remains controversial in terms of cultural acceptability, appropriateness for malnourished LMIC populations, and even its ability to achieve micronutrient adequacy (Beal et al., 2023). Moreover, even if imperfect, this diet is still far healthier than the typical diet currently consumed in LMICs (Headey et al., 2023;Sharma et al., 2020). Further details of the diet and the construction of REDD based on this diet are provided in Appendix A.The ReDD index has three useful properties. First, since it measures deprivation at the level of the household, it recognizes that, even when national food supplies are adequate, there is inequality in the access and utilization of food (Barrett, 2010). Second, as a multidimensional (or multi-food group) diet deprivation measure, the ReDD index captures multiple aspects of diet quality in that it incorporates elements of both nutrient (in)adequacy and (a lack of) dietary diversity, in addition to dietary energy. Third, whereas dietary diversity scores are categorical indicators (e.g. the Household Dietary Diversity Index, HDDI), the information content in the ReDD index is much richer in that it incorporates information both on whether a food group is consumed and the quantitative extent of consumption shortfalls. Among the households in our dataset, the correlation between the ReDD index and HDDS is negative as expected, but only equal to -0.29, most likely because many households will have at least consumed small amounts of nutrient-dense foods in the past week, thus obtaining a high HDDS but still falling far short of meeting the EAT-Lancet reference targets for nutrient-dense foods. The HDDS alone is thus quite limited in the information it conveys as an overall indicator of diet quality as compared with the ReDD index.We also tested a more traditional set of farming system classifications developed Dixon et al. (2001) and updated by Dixon et al. (2020). Dixon et al. (2020) define a farming system as \"…a population of farm households, generally of mixed types and sizes, that as a group have broadly similar patterns of resources, livelihoods, consumption, constraints and opportunities, and for which similar bundles of development strategies and interventions would be appropriate. Often, such systems share broadly similar agroecological and market access conditions.\" (p. 10) Key considerations in distinguishing farming systems include access to agricultural resources, resource endowments, and access to agricultural services. Dixon et al. (2020) identify 15 distinct farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa, 10 of which are represented in the LSMS samples from Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania (listed in Figure 2 and Appendix 2). While some degree of heterogeneity within farming systems is inevitable (e.g., farm types and sizes, variations in soils), these designations add a dimension of variation in our explanatory variables not captured by national boundaries. As described in the following section, we control for several specific key characteristics of production and marketing environments and use the binary farming systems indicators as added controls to assess robustness across regression specifications.We had few specific hypotheses related to these farming systems, except that more pastoral systems in Eastern Africa would likely be associated with higher consumption of dairy products and perhaps other animal sourced foods.Following the discussion in the introductory section, we seek to test three distinct strategic perspectives on improving dietary quality in low-income rural settings, first controlling for basic household characteristics, and then adding wealth, farming characteristics and food environment factors.Household characteristics (H) include household size, the age dependency ratio, age of the household head and whether the household head has completed primary school or secondary school relative to no education.Wealth (W) is measured as a simple count of the number of key assets owned that is comparable across surveys and countries. We construct our count of household assets as the sum of indicator variables for roof material (excluding grass), floor material (excluding mud, dirt, straw), cooking on a stove, wall material (excluding grass and mud), and ownership of a flush toilet, radio, tv, bike, car or motorcycle, and internet access (for a maximum of 10). We exclude assets such as livestock, which are potentially direct sources of food, to clarify our analysis of the determinants of dietary deprivation.Farming characteristics (F) include number of crops grown and the number of livestock types owned.Agri-food environment characteristics (A) include having a market in the survey community and (when available) the distance to the market, travel time to major cities, local population density (to capture local urbanization and market \"thickness\") and the night lights intensity index to proxy for local economic development (Henderson et al., 2009). Our expectation is that better access to markets, and more urbanization and development should be associated with better dietary quality. Some specifications also include binary indicators for farming systems to address additional unobserved individual characteristics of production environments.In terms of the regression analysis, our core specification is thus:Equation ( 1) states that REDD (Y) for household i in country j, observed in survey round k, is a function of:and \uD835\uDEFE\uD835\uDEFE \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC56 , \uD835\uDEFE\uD835\uDEFE \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC56 , \uD835\uDEFE\uD835\uDEFE \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC56 are dummy variables for country, survey round and farming system, respectively.We estimate this equation by pooled ordinary least squares (with country-specific results included for comparison in Appendix 4). We test the specification with and without the farming systems indicators since these partly developed from other food environment type indicators (such as market access and length of the growing period). We also note that in order to facilitate inter-country comparisons, as well as to allow some degree of non-linearity, we break these independent variables into terciles and include indicators for the 2 nd and 3 rd terciles (measured against the excluded 1 st tercile). Lastly, to maximize the available regression samples in the face of numerous missing observations, we employ \"Missing-Indicator Method II\" from Jones (1996), outlined in Appendix 3.Table 1 describes rural household characteristics by country. Dietary deprivation is highest in Tanzania and Ethiopia, where the diet deprivation index average exceeds 60%, but substantially lower in Nigeria (43%). There are clearly many households in all three countries with very poor diets (close to 100). Interestingly, however, the household dietary diversity score does not show the same variation across countries: Tanzania and Nigeria have very similar HDDS values despite Tanzania having much worse dietary deprivation than Nigeria. Moreover, the better quality of the diet in Nigeria is consistent with Nigeria having a much higher mean asset count (5.41 assets) compared to Tanzania (3.11 assets) or Ethiopia (just 1.53 assets). This suggests there is indeed value in incorporating food group quantities, not just counts, into household dietary indices.There are some demographic differences of note (a high dependency ratio in rural Ethiopia), but household sizes are fairly large in all countries, on average. Secondary school completion is notably low in rural Ethiopia (5%), but somewhat higher in rural Tanzania (27%) and rural Nigeria (33%). The ReDD index is a composite index that incorporates the consumption shortfalls for the six required food groups, illustrated by country in Figure 1 in percentage terms relative to healthy diet standards. The patterns of shortfalls in consumption by food group are consistent across countries, with the smallest gaps in the consumption of staples and substantial gaps in the remaining -more nutrient-dense -food groups.Source: Authors' calculations from LSMS-ISA surveys, various rounds: Ethiopia (2015), Nigeria (2012,2015,2018), and Tanzania (2012).Table 2 summarizes data describing each country's observable key agri-food system characteristics: length of growing period, rural population density, travel time to a major city, distance to market, number of crops grown and number of livestock species owned, with these last two variables measured at the household level and all other variables measured at the community level. The two household level variables on number of crops and livestock species also have smaller samples sizes because they only apply to farm households.The length of the growing period (LGP) is an important indicator of both the number of staple crop harvest that could be grown, but also water availability for fruit and vegetable production. The average LGP is not very different across countries, but there is large variation within countries, as from a maximum of roughly 300 days per year to just 41 days per year in Ethiopia, 75 in Nigeria and 126 in Tanzania. Thus, LGP is best captured by farming system indicators. Travel time to cities is much larger in Tanzania and Ethiopia compared to Nigeria, yet the distance to the nearest market is similar across all three countries. Market density, as indicated by the presence of a market in the community is somewhat greater in Ethiopia, where this is true for 46 percent of households compared with less than 40 percent of households in Nigeria and Tanzania. Figure 2 illustrates mean levels of ReDD for each farming system. Dietary deprivation also varies widely by farming system. Irrigated systems exhibit the lowest level of dietary deprivation (42.5), while mixed maize and highland mixed systems exhibit the greatest levels of deprivation (61.7 and 61.3, respectively).Source: Authors' calculations from LSMS-ISA surveys, various rounds: Ethiopia (2015), Nigeria (2012,2015,2018), and Tanzania (2012).Table 3 provides pooled cross-country results for equation (1). 5 Diet quality suffers in larger households with older heads and higher proportions of children and elderly. Primary education of the household head improves diet quality relative to no education, but surprisingly, secondary education has no statistical association with diet quality.In regression 2 in Table 3 we compare middle and upper asset terciles to the omitted low asset tercile category. There is a moderately strong negative association with dietary deprivation. On average, households in the middle tercile category (in the fully-specified model) have a 2.5 lower deprivation index score while the high asset score households have a 3.7 lower deprivation index. Figure 3 underscores this result, illustrating the non-parametric association between diet quality improvements with greater asset ownership. The result seems mostly linear, with the very poorest households have deprivation scores of about 60 compared to 40 for the richest households. Source: Authors' calculations from LSMS-ISA surveys, various rounds: Ethiopia (2015), Nigeria (2012,2015,2018), and Tanzania (2012).In regression 3 we add the two farm diversification variables, the number of different crops grown and the number of livestock species owned. Crop diversification, conditional on this specification (and in particular, conditional on livestock diversification) has no statistically detectable effect on dietary deprivation. In contrast, diversity in livestock holdings has a much larger and increasing marginal reduction in dietary deprivation.Column 4 introduces our agri-food system characteristics. The associations between diet quality and market access are clear. The existence of a community market has a small but statistically robust association with reduced deprivation. The tercile with the longest travel time to cities has a marginally significant association with greater dietary deprivation, suggesting the longest travel times to cities is moderately harmful to diet quality. Yet, there is weakly suggestive evidence that moderately distant households fare worse than the farthest, suggesting the latter may have adapted to remoteness.Our three indicators of market access (existence of a community market, distance to major markets, and travel time to cities) appear together in these specifications. Running specifications (not shown) of the model in Table 3 that include these three indicators one at a time and then together yields similar results to those in regression 4 (the only difference being that the high vs low comparison for distance to markets loses significance when distance is included separately). The most robust of these three indicators remains the existence of a community market, though the effect size is small.We interpret rural population density as a proxy for market density and find small but statistically significant and increasing marginal improvements in diet quality in the most densely populated communities. From a resilience perspective, these findings underscore the community-level contribution of market access to households' capacity to absorb shocks to their food system. Regression 6 adds indicators for each farming system, to capture system-specific effects beyond those controlled individually. These farming system indicators remain jointly significant (F = 10.25, P = 0.000).Figure 4 provides a nonparametric counterpart to these results, demonstrating rapidly increasing deprivation for travel times to cities up to approximately 100 minutes. Households with the longest travel times to cities demonstrate some improvements in diet quality -a counterintuitive result possibly reflective of their greater need for self-sufficiency, or greater livestock ownership and higher animal sourced food consumption; indeed, Figure 5 shows a sharp spike in the numbers of cattle owned among more remote households. Individually, this spike in cattle ownership occurs at similar levels in both Nigeria and Tanzania, while Ethiopia exhibits a more gradual increase in cattle ownership as a function of travel time to cities. In Figure 4 we also find strongly increasing deprivation among households residing farthest (in kilometers) from cities. This sharp upturn reflects the experience of approximately the farthest 10 percent of the sample households.Source: Authors' calculations from LSMS-ISA surveys: Ethiopia (2015), Nigeria (2012,2015,2018), and Tanzania (2012).Source: Authors' calculations from LSMS-ISA surveys: Ethiopia (2015), Nigeria (2012,2015,2018), and Tanzania (2012).In regression (5) of Table 3 we specify all these sets of explanatory variables together. There are some changes in coefficients -wealth associations weaken marginally, for example -but mostly it seems that different kinds of factors influence dietary deprivation independently. Finally, regression (6) adds farming system characteristics that are, by construction, partially correlated with other variables such as market access and population density. Intriguingly, compared to the omitted agro-pastoral groups, several farming system characteristic categories have statistically significant coefficients. Humid lowland tree crop households have much more dietary deprivation than the agro-pastoral base, while highland perennial and pastoral households have much less deprivation. Joint F-tests of country indicators and of farming system indicators in column 6 of Table 3 are both statistically different from zero.We thus find evidence in support of at least some aspects of all three stylized strategies for improving diet quality outlined above. Yet, within these categories, we find both non-linearities and differences within categories. For example, within the production diversity category, we find stronger contributions of livestock than for crop diversity in reducing dietary deprivation. While jointly significant, individual dimensions of agri-food systems vary in their significance.The summary diet deprivation index aggregates the degree of deprivation across major food groups. While that broad view of dietary quality is our core focus, it is additionally informative and potentially more conducive to policy recommendations to consider the predictors of consumption gaps for individual food groups. Table 4 uses the fully-specified model in equation (1) for each major food group. Among household controls, age of household head is consistently associated with increased deprivation, with the only exception being dairy. Education has weak associations with food group specific deprivation. In contrast, households with more assets substantially reduce percentage shortfalls across all food groups. These associations are highly non-linear for fruits, dairy, proteins, and oils/fats -food groups typically found to have especially high income elasticities of demand. These results are broadly consistent with recent studies from sub-Saharan Africa showing high income or wealth elasticities for animal sourced foods and fruits (Colen et al. 2018;Choudhary et al. 2017;Headey et al., 2023). Figure 6 underscores the effect of asset accumulation in reducing consumption shortfalls relative to healthy diet standards across food groups.The results for crop diversification differ across food group outcomes. We find significant and increasing marginal benefits of crop diversification for consumption of vegetables, fruits, and proteins; yet the results suggest a possible tradeoff between those groups and dairy. However, livestock diversity has a large and increasing marginal association with dairy consumption, and a more modest association with protein consumption. This result is consistent with previous studies from East African countries especially (Rawlins et al., 2014;Hoddinott et al. 2015;Kabunga et al. 2017).Associations for community markets are quite modest, being somewhat important for consumption of proteins and fruits, but not strongly associated with other deprivations. (It is not clear why presence of a community market would increase deprivation in dairy.) There are likewise positive and negative coefficients associated with distance to markets. Remoteness from cities is associated with lower vegetable and oils/fats consumption. Higher rural population density appears to increase stress on the supply of staples, but the associated market density has beneficial effects for the consumption of more perishable goods such as fruits in particular. Night light intensity is also associated with more fruit consumption, but curiously is also associated with reduced consumption of vegetables. Even conditional on this specification, indicator variables for farming systems remain jointly significant for consumption adequacy of each food group. Many of the coefficients on farming systems are very large in magnitude and individually significant. For example, systems with more rainfall -such as highland perennial, maize mixed, root and tuber crops -have much higher fruit consumption. Pastoral systems have much higher dairy consumption than even agro-pastoral, and several systems have much lower dairy consumption than the omitted agro-pastoral group. However, pastoral systems also have much lower vegetable consumption. In short, there seems to be very large variations in consumption of specific food groups across farming systems, the patterns are largely to be expected, especially at the extremes of very dry livestock-intensive locations (pastoral, agro-pastoral) and very wet agro-ecologies conducive to fruit production or foraging. This also implies that spatial market integration for these perishable foods is likely very poor in rural Africa.The direct role of asset accumulation in supporting household resilience to shocks is well established. The results above, as well, suggest an indirect contribution of asset accumulation to household resilience via the clear positive effect of assets on diet quality. As asset ownership dominates crop diversification as a driver of dietary quality. Thus, any positive determinants of asset accumulation contribute indirectly to improved diet quality. The question then is what are the drivers of asset ownership?We address this question by repeating our previous empirical strategy, now with asset ownership as the dependent variable (Table 5). 6 Larger households with a smaller proportion of working age adults, and older heads with at least primary schooling have greater wealth. The result for crop diversification is weakly suggestive of a small negative association with wealth, possibly reflecting on balance the condition of subsistence farmers.Among our spatial agri-food system characteristics, access to a community market has a small but robust and positive association with wealth. We also find a robust and increasing marginal negative effect of travel time to cities on wealth, potentially reflecting the improved off-farm employment opportunities that come with proximity to cities. The effect of distance to markets (conditional on the existence of a community market) is unclear, with a small positive association for moderately distant households relative to the closest ones, yet a small and negative effect in the fully-specified model. We also find that higher rural population density is associated with less wealth -perhaps a reflection of land constraints -while greater intensity of night lights intensity is associated with more household wealth (clearly a potential artifact of reverse causation). And again, even conditional on observed aspects of the agro-food environment, household controls and crop diversification, indicator variables for farming systems remain jointly significant. This paper presents exploratory analyses of the determinants of diet quality in four African countries using a new and improved measure of household diet deprivation. We assess these determinants from the perspectives of wealth accumulation, production diversification, and key characteristics of the agri-food environment and of African farming systems more generally. What do conclude? First, we find solid support for the role of wealth in supporting diet quality, consistent with other studies of either household income elasticities or child dietary patterns and their associations with household wealth (Choudhury et al., 2019;Colen et al., 2018;Headey et al., 2023). Clearly, poverty is a root cause of poor diets in Africa, as recent healthy diet affordability studies document (Headey et al., 2023).Second, we find some support for livestock diversification but not crop diversification. The weak association between crop diversification and diet diversification is consistent with recent reviews of this literature (Jones, 2017;Sibhatu and Qaim, 2018), although those reviews under-emphasize the potential for livestock diversification to influence farm household diets, particularly dairy consumption. A substantial number of studies now show that cow ownership is Africa is a strong predictor of dairy consumption, while study from Ethiopia also shows that there may be community-level spillovers of dairy production on consumption (Headey et al., 2019). Efforts to diversify incomes and diets among farm households should therefore consider livestock interventions. Indeed, a well-known study of asset-building poverty reduction interventions in six countries found that livestock grants were generally highly effective at raising incomes (Banerjee et al., 2015).Third, access to markets or cities seems to have relatively modest associations with diet quality. One study form Africa that looked at remoteness, urbanization and child dietary diversity reached the same conclusion (Headey et al., 2018), and also found evidence that rural-urban diet quality differences were primarily driven by differences in wealth and other socioeconomic status indicators. Thus, it may be that improving markets or food environments in rural areas, without improving household incomes or wealth, will only lead to modest improvements in dietary diversity.Fourth, at the farming system level it still seems that agro-ecological conditions matter, at least at the extremes of lower rainfall systems where livestock is important for both livelihoods and diets, and higher rainfall systems that allow greater fruit consumption. Connecting this fact to the weak associations between diet quality and market access indicators leads to the conclusion that food markets in rural Africa are often poorly integrated with each other, leading to spatial disparities in the availability and affordability of different foods, especially perishable foods. Conversely, if markets were integrated and food group preferences were similar over space (perhaps a strong assumption), then farming systems would not be strongly predictive of diet patterns and deprivation. This is only a conjecture, but it is a conjecture consistent with the stylized facts presented above. Further research should document food market integration more rigorously and extensively at the commodity level. This work has some important limitations. Although we use a much improve dietary deprivation measure, household consumption data have limitations from a dietary perspective, such as inadequate information on food consumed away from home, recall biases and quite high measurement error. Some LSMS-ISA surveys have food lists that are relatively short compared to true population of different foods consumed in Africa's diverse food environments. These surveys, and the community level GIS data we attach to them, also offer limited indicators of the quality and characteristics of rural food environments. For example, the LSMS-ISA contains distance to the nearest food market or presence in a community, but that by itself is far from a complete picture of food access since affordability, availability (across seasons) and food safety and quality may also influence consumption patterns. More granular work on rural food environments is still needed in Africa. Finally, this is an ecological analysis of factors associated with household dietary quality, and we do not claim that these associations are causal.In summary, dietary quality is very poor in sub-Saharan Africa. Strategies to address this problem should focus on poverty reduction and asset building, including through livestock programs that can also improve animal-sourced food intake, especially if integrated with nutritional education. From a dietary perspective, however, \"market access\" and rural food environments more broadly, remain poorly understood. We do not yet have adequate indicators of the quality of rural food environments, how those environments influence food choices, and what scope there is for food environment interventions to improve diets. These issues are therefore an important area for novel research.   ","tokenCount":"5789"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"93e4a693e76aefc5b864e294295953a8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b779faaf-591b-49bf-978d-f40da36a1ce1/content","id":"-1899500257"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d68107b5-697a-4427-a426-aaa649e938af","pagecount":"16","content":"Human efforts to produce ever-greater amounts of food leave their mark on the environment. Persistent use of conventional farming practices based on extensive tillage, especially when combined with removal or in situ burning of crop residue, have magnified soil erosion losses and the soil resource base has been steadily degraded. Another direct consequence of farmers' persistent use of traditional production practices is rapidly increasing production costs; the costs of inputs such as improved varieties and fertilizers continue to increase and farmers make inefficient use of them. Despite the availability of improved varieties with increased yield potential, the potential increase in production is not achieved because of poor crop management systems. Nowadays, people have come to understand that agriculture should not only be high yielding, but also sustainable. Conservation agriculture (CA) has been proposed as a widely adapted set of management principles that can assure more sustainable agricultural production. Conservation agriculture is a broader concept than conservation tillage, a system where at least 30% of the soil surface is covered with crop residues after seeding of the next crop. In CA, the emphasis not only lies on tillage components but on the combination of the following three principles:1. Reduction in tillage: The objective is to achieve zero tillage (i.e., no tillage at all); however, the system may involve controlled tillage seeding systems that do not disturb more than 20-25% of the soil surface. 2. Retention of adequate levels of crop residues and soil surface cover: The objective is the retention of sufficient residue on the soil to:• protect the soil from water and wind erosion;• reduce water run-off and evaporation;• improve water productivity; and• enhance soil physical, chemical, and biological properties associated with long-term sustainable productivity.3. Use of crop rotations: The objective is to employ diversified crop rotations to:• help moderate/mitigate possible weed, disease and pest problems; • utilize the beneficial effects of some crops on soil conditions and on the productivity of the next crop; and • provide farmers with economically viable options that minimize risk.These CA principles are applicable to a wide range of crop production systems from low-yielding, dry, rain-fed conditions to high-yielding, irrigated conditions. However, applying the principles of CA will be very different in different situations. Specific and compatible management components such as pest and weed control tactics, nutrient management strategies, rotation crops, etc. will need to be identified through adaptive research with active farmer involvement.Conservation agriculture has been promoted as an agricultural practice that increases agricultural sustainability and is associated with the potential to lessen greenhouse gas emissions. There are, however, contrasting reports on the potential of CA practices for C sequestration (i.e., the process of removing carbon dioxide, CO 2 , from the atmosphere and depositing it in the soil).The global carbon cycle consists of a short-term biochemical cycle, superimposed on a long-term geochemical cycle. Annually, human activities distort both cycles by emitting 8.6 Pg C (petagram, 10 15 grams, or 1 trillion kg). Of this emitted C, 3.3 Pg C is absorbed by the atmosphere and 2.2 Pg C is absorbed by the ocean (Figure 1a). In the last 150 years, CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere have increased by 31%. The soil C pool comprises two components: (1) The soil organic carbon (SOC) pool (2) The soil inorganic carbon (SIC) pool Agricultural activities mainly affect the SOC pool. In addition, soil C degradation leads to important soil quality losses and poses a threat to both agricultural production systems and food security. Ensuring net removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil (soil carbon sequestration) increases the sustainability of farming systems.The N on earth consists mainly of a pool of nitrogen gas in the atmosphere and a pool of N that cycles among biota and soil in the form of nitrate (NO 3 -), nitrite (NO 2 -) and ammonium (NH 4 + ) (Figure 1b). Human activity has doubled the N transfer from the atmosphere to biologically available pools (mainly through industrial N fixation) with associated increased emission, transport, reaction and deposition of trace nitrogen gases such as nitrous oxide (N 2 O), nitric oxide (NO) and ammonia (NH 3 ).The global C and N cycles are connected. Decomposition of soil organic matter releases CO 2 into the atmosphere and ammonium (NH 4 + ) into the soil, and when ammonium is not taken up by micro-organisms it is oxidized under aerobic conditions to nitrate (NO 3 -) (Figure 1b). This process, called nitrification, consists of two steps. Ammonium, when not taken up by micro-organisms, reacts with oxygen to form nitrite (NO 2 -), which is followed by the oxidation of these nitrites into nitrates (NO 3 -).When the oxygen status of the soil changes, nitrification is inhibited and the denitrification process reduces nitrate (NO 3 -) to nitrite (NO 2 -), nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), and dinitrogen (N 2 ). In soils, nitrification and denitrification can occur at the same time, and there are even micro-organisms that can oxidize NH 4 + / NO 2 -, and reduce NO 2 -/NO 3 at the same time. N 2 O is a gas contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The contribution to global warming of the most important biological greenhouse gasses are 70%, 23%, and 7% for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O), respectively.Carbon uptake in crops occurs through photosynthesis and enters the soil as a residue of above-or belowground biomass. The dead organic material is colonized by a variety of soil organisms, which derive energy for growth from the oxidative decomposition of complex organic molecules. During decomposition, about half of the C is mineralized and released as CO 2 . There are four sources of CO 2 emissions in agricultural systems:• Plant respira on • Oxida on of organic carbon in soils and crop residues • Use of fossil fuels for agricultural machinery such as tractors and irriga on equipment • Use of fossil fuels in the produc on of agricultural inputs such as fer lizers and pes cides.Soils can also be producers of CH 4 , e.g., wetlands or rice cultivation.Carbon levels in soil are determined by the balance of inputs, as crop residues, and C losses through organic matter decomposition. Management to build up SOC requires increasing the C input, decreasing decomposition, or both.The C input may be increased by:• Intensifying crop rota ons • Reducing llage and retaining crop residues • Op mizing agronomic inputs such as fer lizers, irriga on, pes cides, and liming.The decomposition of C may be decreased by:• Altering llage prac ces • Including crops with slowly decomposing residue in the rota on.Following an improvement in agricultural management practices, soil organic carbon will gradually approach a new steady state. Estimates of the time required to reach the new steady state range from 20 to 40 years to 50 to 100 years.The C and N cycle are linked through the reservoirs in crop and soil organic matter. Nitrogen can enter the soil from the atmosphere through dry and wet N deposition, fertilizers/manures and N fixation. The N content in the soil can be reduced by processes like ammonia (NH 3 ) volatilization and emission of denitrification products (N 2 , N 2 O, NO). Mineral N in the soil can also be used through the N uptake of the crop. The crop residues will add to the organic N pool. This organic N from decaying plant and animal residues is converted into inorganic mineral forms, leading first to the formation of ammonium (NH 4 + ), in a process called mineralization. The opposite happens when ammonium is taken up by micro-organisms and reprocessed to organic N (immobilization). These two processes are continuously changing the mineral N reserves in the soil. In instances of excessive wetting, mineral N (particularly NO 3 -) may leach beyond the reach of the crop's roots (leaching, Figure 1b).Nitrogen dynamics in agricultural systems are very much influenced by the large quantities added as N fertilizers. Nitrogen supply to soils increases productivity and biomass accumulation in the short-term. Therefore, increased N input levels have been perceived as a strategy to favor soil C sequestration. However, N application as fertilizers implies CO 2 emission costs, due to production, packaging, transport and application of the fertilizers. Additionally, increases in soil organic matter may accelerate N dynamics and thus emission of N 2 O, a greenhouse gas. In summary, N affects the net greenhouse gas balance in four ways:1. CO 2 is released from the energy and fossil fuels required for intensive produc on of N fer lizer 2. Crop yield changes as a func on of the N applica on rate 3. Increased use of N fer lizer can cause a decline in soil pH. This calls for the use of agricultural lime, produc on of which is also energy-intensive and CO 2 yielding 4. N 2 O emissions vary with llage prac ce and as a func on of the N applica on rate.The increase in soil organic carbon in cropping systems depends on the input and characteristics of organic material added to the soil and its decomposition by micro-organisms. Organic matter is the principle C substrate for soil micro-organisms. Upon mineralization, some of the C in the organic material is used for growth and maintenance, while the remainder is respired as CO 2 and returns to the atmosphere. Factors regulating decomposition are:(1) Climate (2) Chemical constraints related to soil biota resources (3) Physical proper es of the soil (4) Biological regula on through interac ons between macro-and micro-organisms.Research has shown that plant material decomposes most rapidly in soils with a relatively large volume of pores with neck diameters of 15-60 m. As decomposition proceeds, resource quality changes: the substrates which assimilate readily are rapidly metabolized whereas resistant compounds such as lignin substances tend to accumulate.Nutrient element deficiency at any stage of decomposition may limit microbial activity and thereby block nutrient release. The nutrient lacking is most often N.Soil macrofaunal activity has been found to contribute to both macro-and microaggregate formation. In particular, earthworms, ants, and termites ('ecosystems engineers') ingest a mixture of organic matter and mineral soil favoring residue incorporation into the soil and thus contribute to aggregation levels. Earthworms' casting promotes the creation of stable organic-mineral complexes with reduced decomposition rates and favors soil stability if allowed to dry or age. Soil macrofauna also play an important role in microaggregate formation. During gut transit, organic materials are intimately mixed and become encrusted with mucus to create nuclei for microaggregate inception.In conventional systems, there is a direct impact (physical abrasion by tillage and absence of residue cover) and indirect impact (habitat destruction by tillage) on soil macrofauna leading to absent or very low populations. This explains why soil macrofauna populations are generally greater under CA compared to conventional systems. The greater biological complexity under CA implies that macrofauna partly regulate decomposition by microbial biomass, and favor biogenic aggregate formations.Macroaggregates are gradually bound together by temporary (i.e., fungal hyphae and roots) and transient binding agents. These temporary binding agents (i.e., microbial-and plant-derived polysaccharides) gradually decompose into fragments (particulate organic matter or POM) which, when coated with bacteria and fungi mucilages, become encrusted with clays. This process results in the creation of microaggregates-withinmacroaggregates (Figure 2). It is occluded intraaggregate particulate organic carbon (iPOM C) in soil microaggregates which constitute the main mechanisms for long-term soil C sequestration in agricultural soils.Microaggregates-within-macroaggregates constitute relatively stable and secluded habitats for microorganisms. Macroaggregate turnover under low level disturbance conditions in CA is slow enough to allow fine iPOM C to be predominantly stabilized in free and intramicroaggregates. Conventional systems alter this process. Aggregate turnover occurs as an aggregate is formed, becomes unstable and is eventually disrupted. Disturbances such as tillage or dry-wet cycles enhance macroaggregate turnover which prevents the formation of new microaggregates-within-macroaggregates and the protection of fine intra-aggregate particulate organic matter (iPOM) in these microaggregates. Tillage disrupts macroaggregates exposing coarse iPOM C to microbial attack and preventing its incorporation into microaggregates as fine iPOM C. Soil organic carbon differences found between CA and conventional systems are mostly explained by iPOM C protected in microaggregates due to drastic differences caused by tillage disturbance (Figure 3).The slower turnover of microaggregates-withinmacroaggregates in zero tillage allows greater protection of coarse POM and greater stabilization of mineral-bound C decomposition products in the microaggregates-withinmacroaggregates.C sequestration in soil, C storage in crop residue and CO 2 emissions from farming activities should be considered together to evaluate the mitigation capacity of different farming activities to atmospheric CO 2 . To include farming activities, estimates must be made of energy use and CO 2 emissions for primary fuels, electricity, fertilizers, lime, pesticides, irrigation, seed production, and farm machinery. The largest contribution CA makes to reducing CO 2 emissions associated with farming activities is through the reduction of tillage operations. However, while enhanced C sequestration will continue for a finite time, the reduction in net CO 2 flux to the atmosphere, caused by reduced fossil fuel use, can continue indefinitely, as long as the alternative practice is continued and could more than offset the amount of C sequestered in the soil in the long-term.Conservation agriculture can also reduce CO 2 emissions by saving irrigation water. Irrigation contributes to CO 2 emissions because energy is used to pump irrigation water and, when dissolved, calcium (Ca) precipitates in the soil, forming CaCO 3 and releasing CO 2 to the atmosphere. The use of residue in zero tillage systems elevates the soil moisture content, potentially saving irrigation water.Soil organic carbon stocks can be measured directly with soil samples or can be inferred via soil CO 2 emissions. When measuring SOC in soil samples, the following factors have to be taken into account:(1) Bulk density (2) Depth of sampling.Bulk density can be affected by tillage practice. Higher values for bulk density have been reported under zero tillage. Therefore, if we sample at the same depth for CA and for conventional tillage, a greater mass of soil will be taken from the zero tillage soil. This could increase the mass of SOC in the zero tillage soil and could exaggerate the difference in SOC between the two systems. An equivalent soil mass should be taken, when the entire topsoil is not sampled and there are significant amounts of SOC situated beneath the lowest sampling depth.Tillage practice can also influence the distribution of SOC in the profile with higher soil organic matter (SOM) content in the surface layers with zero tillage than with conventional tillage, but a higher content of SOC in the deeper layers where residue is incorporated through tillage. Therefore, it could be necessary to adjust the depth of sampling. To account for possible differences in root distribution and rhizodeposition between management practices, the entire soil profile should be sampled.Changes in soil C can, in principle, be inferred from continuous measurements of net ecosystem CO 2 exchange between the land surface and the atmosphere, provided other C additions or losses (e.g., harvested grain) are properly taken into account. Measurements of CO 2 emissions have been confined mainly to the period after tillage events. However, at a seasonal level, the CO 2 fluxes are also slightly greater for conventional tillage compared to CA.To better understand the influence of the different components comprising CA (reduced tillage, crop residue retention, and crop rotation) on SOC stocks, we will discuss the effects of each of these components.The influence of reduced tillage on SOC stocks still seems unknown. Results are often conflicting. In many studies, SOC levels under zero tillage were significantly different from SOC levels under conventional and reduced tillage, whereas SOC levels under conventional and reduced tillage were not significantly different. The mechanisms that govern the balance between increased or no sequestration after conversion to zero tillage are not clear. Although more research is needed, some important factors can be distinguished:(1) Diff erences in root development and rhizodeposits: Crop root-derived C may be very important for C storage in soil. Zero llage can produce greater horizontal distribu on of roots and greater root density near the surface. (2) Baseline C content:The eff ec veness of C storage in zero llage is reduced and can be nega ve when the baseline SOC content increases. It can be speculated that old depleted soils have more poten al to sequester carbon compared to young soils rich in carbon. Soils that have lost SOC through soil erosion have a high poten al to gain SOC when converted from conven onal llage to zero llage.(3) Soil bulk density and porosity:Physical proper es appear to determine whether or not the use of zero llage prac ces will enhance C storage by increasing physical protec on of SOC. Pores with a neck diameter between 15 and 60 μm seem to result in rapid decomposi on of the C within. (4) Climate:Management impacts are sensi ve to climate in the following order from largest to smallest changes in SOC: tropical moist > tropical dry > temperate moist > temperate dry. Hence, the eff ects of llage on soil carbon tend to be smaller or nega ve in cold-temperate soils. Clima c condi ons that infl uence the plant and soil processes driving soil organic ma er dynamics infl uence the impacts of agricultural management on SOC storage. The processes involved are:1. The breakdown of SOM following cul va on 2. The forma on of aggregates in soils a er a change in llage prac ce 3. The increased produc vity and C input with the implementa on of a new cropping prac ce (5) Landscape posi on and erosion/deposi on history:Most of the available studies on C sequestra on in diff erent management systems have been conducted on small research plots. In general, these are situated on small, level por ons of agricultural fi elds to minimize confounding eff ects. However, this does not allow the study of the interac on of other factors on changes in SOC. Landscape posi on and erosion/ deposi on history play a signifi cant role. Landscape posi ons that had a low SOC stock in the past due to past erosion generally show gains in SOC. Posi ons with large SOC stocks due to deposi on show losses a er 15 years of zero llage. ( 6) Subop mal condi ons at the farm level:Research is mostly undertaken on plots that are managed in ideal condi ons. This is not always the case in farmers' fi elds. Agricultural produc on and farmers' decisions are aff ected by mul ple constraints and natural resource management is tackled at the farming system level, in many cases leading to sub-op mal plot management, par cularly when produc on resources are scarce. These subop mal condi ons could lead to a delay of 2-5 years in the SOC build-up period.An increase in moisture conservation related to CA practices can result in the possibility of growing an extra cover crop right after the harvest of the main crop. Cover crops enhance soil protection, soil fertility, groundwater quality, pest management, SOC concentration, soil structure and water stable aggregates. Cover crops promote SOC sequestration by increasing the input of plant residue and providing a vegetal cover during critical periods. The inclusion of a N 2 -fixing green-manure crop is, however, only feasible in regions without a prolonged dry season (Figure 4).CA can increase the possibility for crop intensification due to a faster turnaround time between harvest and planting. Crops can be planted earlier and in a more appropriate planting time. Moreover, new crops can be introduced since the actual growing period can be increased or yet another crop can be planted right after harvest of the main crop. The increased input of C as a result of the greater productivity due to crop intensification can result in increased C sequestration.The effect of crop rotation on C sequestration can be due to increased biomass C input, because of the intensified production, or due to the changed quality of the residue input. Crop rotation is more effective than monoculture systems in retaining C and N in the soil.Crop residues are precursors of the SOM pool.The decomposition of plant material to simple C compounds and assimilation and repeated cycling of C through microbial biomass with formation of new cells are the primary stages in the humus formation process.Returning more crop residue is associated with an increase in SOC concentration.The rate of decomposition depends not only on the amount of crop residues retained, but also on soil characteristics and the composition of residues (i.e., the soluble fraction, lignin, hemic cellulose and polyphenol content).The combined eff ect of minimum llage, residue reten on and crop rota on on soil organic carbon stocks Conservation agriculture is not a one-component technology but the product of the cumulative effect of all three components from which it is comprised. However, applying these three components is not always easy. In more arid areas, competition for residue is extremely high and farmers struggle to keep sufficient residue on the soil. Reducing tillage without sufficient residue retention can lead to tremendous soil degradation.The crop intensification component will result in an added effect on C storage in zero tillage systems. But, to obtain an accumulation of SOM there must not only be a C input from crop residues but a net external input of N, e.g., including a N-fixing green-manure crop in the crop rotation. Conventional tillage can diminish the effect of a N-fixing green-manure crop either because the N-input can be reduced by soil mineral N release or the N can be lost by leaching (NO 3 -) or in gaseous forms (via NH 3 , volatilization or denitrification) due to SOM mineralization stimulated by disc plowing. Hence, intensification of cropping practices, by the elimination of the fallow and moving toward continuous cropping is the first step towards increased C sequestration. Reducing tillage intensity, by the adoption of zero tillage, enhances the cropping intensity effect. In studies of greenhouse gasses in CA, CO 2 is the most studied gas. However, we should consider the net result of fluxes for all three major biogenic greenhouse gasses (CO 2 , N 2 O, and CH 4 ) on radiative forcing, which is essential for understanding agriculture's impact on the net global warming potential. Increases in SOM, can increase N cycling in soil which leads to larger emissions of N 2 O, as nitrification is stimulated. As a result, more NO 3 -will be formed in the soil, but when anaerobic micro-sites are formed, reduction of N 2 O or N 2 will be reduced which will increase the N 2 O/N 2 ratio. However, zero tillage with residue retention improves soil structure compared to conventional tillage, so fewer anaerobic micro-sites will be formed. More research is needed to determine how the emissions of N 2 O and NO are really affected.Better aeration of the soil as a result of increased soil organic matter content and the resultant increased aggregation stability will inhibit denitrification and stimulate oxidation of CH 4 . Converting natural soils to agricultural soils reduces their capacity to serve as a sink for CH 4 . However, soil as a sink for CH 4 is far less important than as a source for N 2 0.The technical potential of CA for C sequestration has been established in the previous sections. In the following section, we will discuss the economic potential of CA for C sequestration considering the profitability and the cost of C sequestration, and the prospects for widespread adoption. Generally, the off-site public benefits of CA exceed the on-farm private benefits. It should be noted that the profitability of CA varies widely, depending on the characteristics of farming systems, local markets and institutions, and relevant agri-environmental policies. The cost of production and labor use may increase under CA, at least initially, but the gross margins and returns to labor are larger than under conventional tillage. For example, the reduction of field operational costs and the higher returns in yield mean that CA practices have a higher relative profitability compared with conventional tillage, in diverse farming systems, climates, and regions.There are relatively few studies on the cost of C sequestration. However, it seems that C sequestration through improved crop system management is competitive with non-agricultural C sequestration (with C prices between USD $10-25 per ton).Carbon markets offer the potential of additional income for farmers including, under certain conditions, smallholders in developing countries. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol provided both the framework and the stimulus for carbon trading (Figure 5). The CDM allows industrialized countries to invest in emission reductions wherever it is cheapest globally. Although the price is low, this offers another potential source of income for farmers, and may provide added incentive for the adoption of C sequestration technology. By reducing their CO 2 emissions, farmers would not only work more sustainably, but also receive additional income in return. Emission trading and carbon creditsManagement of the majority of soil C lies in the hands of the farmers, pastoralists, and forest managers whose decisions are determined by multiple goals. The major potential for CA as a climate mitigation strategy is based on its related agronomic and economic productivity gains.As described earlier, the additional private benefits from adoption of CA are generally substantial, even without market or subsidy payments from C sequestration. Conservation agriculture has the win-win combination of being a soil and water conservation technology that can also increase productivity in most cases. For instance, higher yields are the result of better soil quality, especially in the topsoil. Increased aggregation and soil organic matter at the soil surface lead to increased water and nutrient use efficiency, as well as reduced soil erosion. The increased production profitability can be the major driving factor for farmers to implement CA and the soil carbon sequestration strategy, and thus, go beyond ineffective and expensive direct incentives.Conservation agriculture appears to generate attractive private and social benefits, as well as improve yield stability and the productivity of inputs. As it is clear that there are many benefits linked to the adoption of CA, we could wonder why the adoption rates are not faster.There are a few reasons that deserve discussion:(1) Compe ve demands on resources at the farm level, such as crop residues, can cons tute serious bo lenecks to CA implementa on, especially in semiarid rainfed agriculture areas where there is a high demand to use crop residues for purposes other than leaving them in the fi eld (e.g., for animal feed).(2) The smallholders are very diverse, with a variety of characteris cs. This slows down the adop on of new produc vity-enhancing technologies.(3) Many poor smallholders are risk averse and avoid introducing new prac ces with the perceived addi onal risk to household food security. (4) Smallholders have li le access to fi nancial capital for new equipment or the purchase of inputs such as herbicides.(5) When farmers rely on family or shared labor, o en the workers lack the understanding of CA even if the farmer does have a good apprecia on of its principles and prac ces. (6) Some mes the farmers themselves lack educa on and thus are excluded from some of the knowledge streams which provide informa on about CA. ( 7) Small scale itself can be a constraint for the effi cient u liza on of much CA farm equipment.It is unlikely that complex, multi-component technologies such as CA can be successfully scaled up through traditional linear models of research and extension. Instead they require the development of innovative systems to adapt technologies to local conditions. For this purpose, decentralized learning hubs within different farming systems and agro-ecological zones are being developed. In these hubs, intense contact and exchange of information is organized between the different partners in the research and extension process. Through research and training, regional CA networks are established to facilitate and stimulate research and the extension of innovation systems and technologies.The hubs are directly linked to the strategic science platforms operated by the international centers and national research institutes to permit the synthesis and global understanding of CA, and its adaptability to different environments, cropping systems and farmers' circumstances.Because SOC responds dynamically to management, a policy to promote C sequestration presupposes the maintenance of the practices, which promote the accumulation of organic matter. Once the switch to zero tillage is made, it is best not to return to conventional tilling. However, tillage systems are rotated for various reasons, including optimizing yields and managing pest and disease problems. It has not been tested in the field, but simulation models show that changing the management from zero tillage to conventional tillage within monoculture systems reduces soil C content. The tillage events result in loss of soil C, with an increased CO 2 emission after tillage. In the longer term, the effect of a single tillage operation on SOC content in fields that have been under zero tillage for an extended period seems to differ between soils with different properties.Currently, the global area of land under cultivation has been strongly degraded. Crops require ever-increasing inputs to maintain yields. Conservation agriculture is a cropping system characterized by both short-term maximization of crop production as well as by potential long-term sustainability. Important gaps still need to be addressed if CA is to be used as a strategy for C sequestration. For the developing world and the more tropical and subtropical areas, information is lacking on the influence of tillage and crop rotation on C storage. Most studies have been conducted at the plot level, and more holistic research at the farm level, including agro-ecosystem constraints, is needed, as well as total C sequestration budgets at the regional and global levels.Although C sequestration is questionable in some areas and in some cropping systems, CA remains an important technology that improves soil processes, controls soil erosion, and reduces tillage-related production costs. Global food security, global environmental preservation, as well as farmer-level increased livelihood, should be the main goals of a sustainable farming system.Govaerts, B., Verhulst, N., Castellanos-Navarrete, A., Sayre, K. D., Dixon, J., Dendooven, L., 2009 Conserva on agriculture and soil carbon sequestra on: Between myth and farmer reality. Cri cal Reviews in Plant Sciences, 28:3, 97-122.","tokenCount":"5048"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"539efedee9b97a946ed6822341cdfe2f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1087af23-a074-40f6-9ca5-2f52537a70d3/content","id":"1960938984"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"baa4e426-72ed-4539-8323-c9561aba47c9","pagecount":"21","content":"SolariX is a compendium of DnA sequence tags from the nucleotide binding site (nBS) domain of disease resistance genes of the common potato, Solanum tuberosum Group tuberosum. the sequences, which we call NBS tags, for nearly all NBS domains from 91 genomes-representing a wide range of historical and contemporary potato cultivars, 24 breeding programs and 200 years-were generated using just 16 amplification primers and high-throughput sequencing. The NBS tags were mapped to 587 NBS domains on the draft potato genome DM, where we detected an average, over all the samples, of 26 nucleotide polymorphisms on each locus. The total number of NBS domains observed, differed between potato cultivars. However, both modern and old cultivars possessed comparable levels of variability, and neither the individual breeder or country nor the generation or time appeared to correlate with the NBS domain frequencies. Our attempts to detect haplotypes (i.e., sets of linked nucleotide polymorphisms) frequently yielded more than the possible 4 alleles per domain indicating potential locus intermixing during the mapping of NBS tags to the DM reference genome. Mapping inaccuracies were likely a consequence of the differences of each cultivar to the reference genome used, coupled with high levels of NBS domain sequence similarity. We illustrate that the SolariX database is useful to search for polymorphism linked with NBS-LRR R gene alleles conferring specific disease resistance and to develop molecular markers for selection.The common potato (Solanum tuberosum Group Tuberosum) was created in Europe. It has gone through considerable genetic bottlenecks, including the initial selection for adaptation to long-day prior to its first cropping in continental Europe 1 as well as the epiphytotics of late blight in 1845-47 and wart around 1910 (reviewed in Ross 2 ). Remains of first domesticated potatoes from Lima, Peru, were dated to 7,000 B.C. 3 . This Andean gene pool holds diploid, triploid, tetraploid and pentaploid varieties 4 . When compared with its Andean relatives, the European potato has a much narrower genetic base. The European potato owes its outstanding role as a worldwide popular staple food to two characteristics-its ability to produce high yield independent of the length of the day in many regions and its (ever expanding through breeding) resistance to late blight, cyst forming nematodes, wart (Synchytrium endobioticum), and several devastating viral diseases.The defensive response of plants to pathogens is mediated through the protein products of resistance genes (R genes). To prevent yield losses resulting from disease susceptibility, it is essential that cultivars used in potato crop production contain disease resistance alleles. The European potato's disease resistance is the result of at least 110 years of (pre-) breeding work to introgress R genes from wild and native cultivated genetic resources. One systematic approach at introgressing new resistances was made by R.N. Salaman, who added resistance to late blight 5 . This marked the start of a series of introgressions 6 and the development of new, resistant cultivars until present 7,8 . A common breeding scheme has been to cross a Group Tuberosum parental cultivar with a genebank accession of tuberous Solanum, either wild or domesticated, selected for a specific disease resistance. This is then followed by several rounds of backcrossing and selecting for individual, resistant progenies that also show other desirable characteristics of the Group Tuberosum parent. In potato, the total number of successful introgressions via crossing is not known, there may be from dozens up to over one hundred. Once stably introgressed, an R gene will be maintained in the breeding pool, and the number of different resistance alleles accumulated would increase with every new generation of potato cultivars. Potato breeding and selection has lagged behind other crops due to the complexity of this tetraploid, heterozygous plant. As such, characterizing the repertoire of R genes to facilitate development of disease resistant varieties is of great significance. R1 was the first R gene characterized for resistance to late blight 9 resulting from Salaman's introgression work dating back to 1909 5 . R1 resides on an insertional, introgressed locus of the Group Tuberosum potato 10 . The R1 resistance allele has been found to be present in the genomes of multiple Group Tuberosum clones, which include some contemporary commercial potato varieties 11 .As most R genes contain both nucleotide-binding site (NBS) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domains, conserved motifs from both NBS and LRR domains have been efficiently employed to identify the majority of plant NBS-LRR R genes [12][13][14][15][16] . Jupe et al. 13 , using close to 50,000, 120-mer biotinylated RNA oligos, enriched fragments putatively containing NBS-LRR domains from the genomic DNA of one Group Tuberosum cultivar and detected a total of 755 R genes containing NBS and LRR domains. They allocated 704 of these to the 12 established potato chromosomes and 51 to unanchored superscaffolds.Jupe and colleagues' 13 755 R genes refer to the potato's current, publicly available sequenced genome (version 4.03) of the diploid (doubled monoploid) S. tuberosum Group Phureja clone (clonal cultivar) DM 1-3 516 R44 15 . The homozygosity of this clone provided ease in sequencing of its genome. Group Phureja has been claimed to be a close relative of the tetraploid potato not only by taxonomy 17 but also by genomic fine structure (Andean; Group Andigena and European; Group Tuberosum 13,15 ). Nonetheless, despite their close taxonomic relationship, the Group Phureja genome still differs somewhat from the Group Tuberosum genome. The individual used for sequencing, clone DM 1-3 516, may represent a rather small section of the whole genetic variability within the ancient cultivated potatoes comprising Group Phureja. S. phureja was, in fact, considered in pre-molecular taxonomy treatments as a separate species 4 .Gene duplication has been considered to play an important role in the expansion of the R gene family. R genes are largely organized in clusters, also known as multiple-copy R loci that contain variable numbers of gene copies. Copy number variations differ on the cluster as well as the species level 12,18 . The majority of NBS-LRR R genes in the DM genome occur stacked in clusters, where complete (putatively) functional genes alternate with incomplete ones. This is seen as a source of variation and a plant's reservoir for producing new functional R alleles via frameshift recombination and DNA repair processes 19,20 . Consequently, not only the number of R alleles, but the number of R genes may vary, even at cultivar level within a species 21 .Recent high-throughput DNA sequencing methods open workable ways to elucidate the genetic diversity within the genepool of a single species. We employed Illumina HiSeq-2000 technology to mass-sequence highly conserved, characteristic 200 to 480-base pair (bp) fragments of the NBS domains of R genes, which we denominate NBS tags. These NBS tags were enriched from genomic fragments in a method similar to the NBS profiling of van der Linden et al. 16 -i.e. PCR amplification using a small number of priming oligonucleotides that target extremely conserved motifs of the NBS domain of R genes. These conserved motifs together with nearby highly polymorphic sequences, were used to efficiently survey the R gene pool for 91 genomes comprising both historical and contemporary potato cultivars. We detected in total 587 distinct NBS domains on the DM genome, 576 of these corresponded to NBS-LRR loci as laid out by Jupe et al. 13 and 11 are additional. We provide the collection of the identified NBS domains of R genes on our SolariX website. This expands the current knowledge of the variability of potato R genes to a cultivar level resolution.Our experimental questions were:1. Is it possible to detect and (with Illumina HiSeq-2000 technology) distinguish individual R genes carrying NBS and LRR domains by inspecting NBS tags enriched via a small set of PCR primers that target conserved sections of the NBS domain? If this question can be answered positively, then: 2. How many NBS-LRR R genes can be detected, by this method, within the genepool of S. tuberosum Group Tuberosum? 3. Can individual alleles of R genes be distinguished through variations in sequences within their corresponding NBS tags and can we determine how many alleles there are? 4. Can specific patterns be discerned from how these R alleles are distributed across the groups of germplasm that are represented in the experimental materials (clones of different ages, generations and breeders)? 5. Can the NBS tagging method be used to efficiently discover R alleles responsible for specific resistances and can it be used to create selection markers for these alleles?capture of nBS domains of the R gene pool using a limited number of pcR primers. Design of PCR primers for the P-loop, Kinase-2 and GLPL motifs of the NBS domain. The goal was to define a minimal set of primers that would amplify, out of genomic DNA, the maximum number of individual R gene alleles. The primers were chosen to be complementary to one of the highly conserved P-loop, Kinase-2 and GLPL motifs within the NBS domain of R genes (Fig. 1a). To design degenerate primers that could cover, as broadly as possible, the sequence diversity of the NBS domains of R genes present in the potato genome, tblastn searches across all 438 NBS-LRR R genes (the most current annotation at that point) mapped by Jupe et al. 12 on the 12 established DM v 3.4 chromosomes for sequences of the NBS domain was performed. This returned 435 distinct nucleotide sequences, which were aligned, grouped by the similarity of their sequences and visually compared to pinpoint polymorphic positions within each of the three NBS-motifs. The highly conserved GLPL motif neighbors the highly polymorphic LRR domain of an R gene. Our primers targeting GLPL were chosen to allow for extension of the newly formed nucleotide chain from the NBS into the LRR domain (minimum 60 nucleotides) in order to include parts of the variable sequence, consequently increasing the individuality of the amplified fragment and the chance of unambiguous read mapping. Originally, we designed 24 PCR primers using degeneracy at individual nucleotides to match the sequence diversity across all 435 NBS-LRR loci on DM v 3.4. The functionality of these 24 primers was then verified by PCR on genomic DNA as a template. Fifteen of these 24 primers, as well as the NBS5 primer of van der Linden et al. 16 that yielded abundant amplicons, were finally selected for the experiment (Table 1). As will be demonstrated further down, these in total 16 primers covered virtually all (complete and incomplete) R genes of the DM genome that carry at least one of the three NBS domain-specific motifs.Potato cultivars and breeding clones used in SolariX. Ninety-six genomic DNA libraries were obtained from registered, modern as well as historical cultivars, advanced concurrent breeding clones, experimental cross populations segregating for disease resistance, and the wild non-tuberous Solanum caripense (CRP, for details see \"Materials and methods\"). The samples were obtained from a variety of European countries (Fig. 1b). Care was taken to include samples of the majority of original European potato breeding stocks, as is indicated in Table 2. Live samples of potato cultivars and breeding clones were kindly provided by European breeders and a genebank.Five libraries, out of the 96, represent bulked DNA of disease resistant or susceptible segregants from our mapping populations. These were the progeny libraries in the following: For the tetraploid potato population MT 22 ( M; cv. MF-II, T; cv. TPS67) segregating for R gene resistance to late blight, three libraries of progenies pooled by their distinct phenotype of resistance were included. As an outgroup, four libraries of diploid CRP were included, parental genotypes C1 (late blight resistant) and K4 (susceptible) and progenies Crp_pool_R and Crp_pool_S comprising either 10 late blight resistant (by the phenotype) or 10 susceptible individuals of a segregating CK progeny 23 .Targeted amplification and sequencing of genome-wide fragments containing NBS domain motifs. The 16 NBS-motif primers were then used for targeted amplification in all 96 libraries after digestion with a 4-cutter restrictase and ligation of adapters as indicated in van der Linden et al. 16 (see \"Materials and methods\" and Fig. 1c). In an initial linear PCR the NBS-motif primers were applied exclusively, allowing for enrichment of fragments containing NBS domain motifs. For subsequent exponential PCR the same NBS-motif primers were applied together with restriction site-specific adapter primers covering all restriction enzymes. PCR with all 16 primers was successful on all 96 DNA libraries, and per library, a single pooled sample containing the amplicons Table 1. Degenerate primers for selective PCR amplification of sequence tags from NB-LRR (Nucleotide Binding site and Leucine Rich Repeat) domains of R (Resistance) genes in the potato genome Primer nucleotide sequence and individual annealing temperature for optimal amplification results. I*-the Illumina adapter for MiSeq sequencing: TCG TCG GCA GCG TCA GAT GTG TAT AAG AGA CAG. The universal adapter primer for Illumina MiSeq was: GTC TCG TGG GCT CGG AGA TGT GTA TAA GAG ACA GAC TCG ATT CTC AAC CCG AAA G. Prior to any analysis of the sequencing data, an in silico annotation of the NBS domain within R genes was required to demarcate the regions that we had targeted for amplification and sequencing. Of the 704 NBS-LRR genes in the updated list by Jupe et al. 13   2b), confirming the specificity of the NBS-capture protocol. Within R genes, NBS domains had substantially higher length normalized read coverage than the non-NBS domains. The non-NBS domains did have some marginal coverage as compared to non-R genes, indicating that short stretches of the adjacent LRR domain were also sequenced. When we evaluated the fraction of bases with read coverage in the different regions, we observed substantially higher sequenced fractions in NBS domains of R genes (Fig. 2c).Sequence read coverage statistics in NBS domains. Details on the NBS domains detected per cultivar can be seen in the Supplementary Table S1. The average length of the continuous portions (overlapping reads) of the NBS domains sequenced by us was 396 bp while the average length of the entire annotated NBS domain per gene was 824 bp. Nonetheless, multiple portions per domain were often sequenced (the Supplementary Table S1) and thus, the average fraction of the NBS domain that was sequenced was 0.86 (Fig. 2c). The sequenced portions of NBS domains had an average of 275-fold coverage per bp. Although most domains were covered by a substantial number of reads, there was variation in the read coverage between the 587 NBS domains. The number of mapped reads per domain, averaged among the 96 libraries, ranged from 0.006 reads per bp in the NBS domain of  13 and 11 additional, see section \"Additional NBS domains detected\") had mapped reads in at least 70 of the 96 libraries (Fig. 2d). An exception was ST4.03ch10:50,899,413-50,899,568 in gene RDC0001NLR0240, a gene in R gene cluster 71, with read coverage in only 42 of the 96 cultivars.Extent of the NBS domains captured for each cultivar. Most cultivars had almost all NBS domains detected, having at least one sequence read mapped to it (Fig. 2e). On average, 584.9 out of all 587 NBS domains were sequenced per sample. The lowest number of domains, 575, was obtained with cultivar 354.00.5 (a breeding clone from INRA Comité Nord). This could have been due to insufficient sequencing depth as only 1,990,294 reads were sequenced in this library. Additional NBS domains detected. We detected 11 NBS domains not recorded in Jupe et al. 13 , indicated in Supplementary Tables S1 and S2 as NB_GTP_1 through NB_GTP_11 (where NB refers to Nucleotide Binding site and GTP refers to Group Tuberosum Pool) followed by the PGSC gene number. Each of these NB_GTP harboring loci, located in genes not previously designated as resistance genes, was represented by a substantial number of mapped reads that were found to contain NBS domains with our DM-specific NB-ARC HMM search. Further confirmation was obtained with a tblastn search for the P-loop, GLPL, and Kinase-2 motifs (from Jupe et al. 12 ) in these regions. To determine if the genes had partial or complete NBS-LRR sequences, mast 24 was used to detect all NBS-LRR motifs (published in Jupe et al. 12 ), and NLR-Parser 25 was used for classification of the gene. We found only 1 out of the 11 genes to be complete. The remaining 10 were partial NBS-LRR genes. In addition, 8 were classified as CC-NBS-LRR (CNL) proteins (Supplementary Table S2).Variation detected in the samples (cultivars). A total of 1,475,836 polymorphisms relative to the DM genome were detected with Freebayes 26 in the NBS domains across all 96 samples (see \"Materials and methods\"). On average, 15,573 polymorphisms per sample were counted. Breeding clone 354.00.5 (INRA, Comité Nord) had with 7,326 the lowest number of polymorphisms, while Coquine (Grocep) had with 20,326 the highest number of polymorphisms. This appears to be associated with the total sequencing depth, as was also seen with the total number of detected loci. For a comparison of the extent of polymorphisms present across all cultivars, without the influence of the effects of sequencing depth, a list of sites within NBS domains that had at least tenfold coverage in all 96 libraries (i.e., no library possesses < 10 sequence reads at the genomic position) was used (Fig. 3a). The average number of NBS domain polymorphisms per cultivar was 4,637. The cultivar with the least number of polymorphisms was Celtiane with 4,328 while the sample with the highest number of polymorphisms was Crp_pool_S with 6,247. The number of polymorphisms among the tetraploid potato cultivars ranged from 4,328 to 5,100 and did not differ substantially from the average. The wild diploid C1 and K4 and pools of their cross progenies, Crp_pool_R and S, had a noticeably higher number of polymorphisms detected (5,948-6,247).Figure 3b shows the distributions of number of polymorphisms per 100 bp (at positions within NBS domains that had at least tenfold coverage in all libraries) over the different NBS-LRR R gene clusters for the 96 libraries (We used the numbering of R gene clusters according to Table S2a in Jupe et al. 13 ). Details on each cluster's number of NBS domains, total NBS domain lengths as well as the average number of polymorphisms per 100 bp, can be found in the Supplementary Table S3. NBS domains of genes that do not belong to a cluster, singletons, (\"-\" in Fig. 3b) had an average among the 96 libraries of 4.67 polymorphisms per 100 bp. This is close to the average of 4.53 for all the positions evaluated. Among the clusters with at least 100 bp of at least tenfold coverage in the NBS domains for all libraries (Fig. 3b, black boxplots), cluster 29 had the highest number of polymorphisms with an average among the 96 libraries of 7.83 while cluster 68 had the lowest with an average of 0.74 polymorphisms. The clusters with less than 100 bp lengths of at least tenfold coverage in the NBS domains for all libraries are unlikely to capture the true extent of the number of polymorphisms in these regions and were not considered (Fig. 3b, grey boxplots).The comprehensive resource of variants detected in the 96 cultivars within the NBS domains has been made available on the SolariX website at www.cibiv .at/Solar iX (Fig. 4). After registration, one may download the IUPAC code DNA sequences representing the variants found in a cultivar of interest for any annotated NBS domain (Fig. 4a). In addition, polymorphic sites in NBS domains can be visually compared across all 96 cultivars, together with information of read coverage support for each nucleotide (Fig. 4b). We expect that this may facilitate the search for particular resistance alleles in individual cultivars (we include some examples in this manuscript).Testing the possibility to detect individual NBS alleles. An attempt was undertaken to identify individual biological alleles (haplotypes) per cultivar. With variant calling using FreeBayes, multi-nucleotide polymorphisms (MNPs) or complex polymorphisms could be identified whenever proximal alleles were on the same read. To extend the analysis beyond individual reads, the variants determined by FreeBayes were used for phasing, i.e. to determine the linkage of variants in assembled reads, within NBS domains using HapCompass 27 . We found that increasing the specified ploidy number beyond 4 resulted in increased haplotypes found. NBS domains of single genes within the genomic library of a single cultivar showed from four up to twelve alleles, thus exceeding the maximum number of four possible in a tetraploid. In Fig. 5, we show the average read coverage (Fig. 5a) and the average number of unique haplotypes found (Fig. 5b) for 13 cultivars at each of the 38 NBS domains on chromosome XII when ploidy was set at 12. No clear trend appears to be present between the read coverage and number of unique haplotypes found.This made us suspect that we had an issue of \"mixture loci\", where the regions of interest based on the reference genome actually contained reads from different loci. There were two potential causes of this. Firstly, the DM reference genome differs to an unknown extent from the Group Tuberosum genome of the cultivated varieties we sequenced. It is possible that reads obtained from regions present in the cultivars, but not represented in the reference, map to alternative best hit positions in the DM genome, thus artificially increasing the ploidy at the mapped regions. Secondly, the substantial sequence similarity of the NBS domains across the R genes, a consequence of multiple duplication events in the expansion of NBS-LRR R genes 28,29 , could cause mis-mapping of reads when sequenced sections of NBS domains are not unique. The issue of read mis-mapping is exacerbated in NBS-LRR clusters with high copy numbers and high sequence similarity. Therefore, it is possible that a locus is assigned reads originating from other loci.Mis-mapping that results from a combination of high NBS domain sequence similarity and short read lengths (the read length of HiSeq-2000 was 100 bp) could be addressed with longer sequence reads (such as MiSeq; read length, 300 bp), from which sufficiently long sections of NBS domains can be identified, that are distinguishable from other NBS domains of high sequence similarity. Re-sequencing of 6 cultivars or pools of progenies, TPS67, MF-II, poolM, poolT, poolS and clone R2 (late blight resistance differential 9 ), was conducted specifically at a region on chromosome IV using a MiSeq sequencer (Illumina) to obtain paired-end reads of 300 bp each. Sequencing depths ranged from 1.18 to 9.47 M. The MiSeq reads were mapped with NextGenMap 30 at default parameters, as was with our HiSeq reads. This involves local alignment of the read with a required minimum mapped length of 0.5 fraction of the read-length and a required minimum 0.65 fraction identity between the mapped read portion and the DM genome. The mapping criteria are based on fractions of the read length and therefore account for proportional increases in number of polymorphic positions when evaluating longer genomic regions with the MiSeq reads. Despite longer read lengths, the percentage of reads mapped ranged The distributions of number of polymorphisms per 100 bp (y-axis), at positions within NBS domains that had at least tenfold coverage in all libraries, over the different NBS-LRR R gene clusters (x-axis) for the 96 libraries. *Lengths of each cluster (shown in brackets in the x-axis labels) were computed by the sum, for all R genes assigned to the cluster, of the lengths of regions within NBS domains that had at least ×10 coverage in all of the 96 cultivars. Clusters with less than 100 bp of at least ×10 coverage in NBS domains of all cultivars have boxplots shaded grey, as the short stretches evaluated in this comparison are unlikely to capture the true extent of the number of polymorphisms in these regions.  from 60.6% to 64.8%, which were much lower than those obtained in our HiSeq data. We did observe that the sequencing base quality scores at the ends of the MiSeq reads dropped drastically, especially so for the 2nd read of the pair, which could have contributed to the lower mapping rates.Although we anticipated that longer reads would allow for better distinction between highly similar NBS domains, we found an increase in the percentage of reads that mapped to multiple locations from an average of 22.23% of the mapped reads in the HiSeq libraries of the 6 cultivars to an average of 33.56% of the mapped reads in the MiSeq libraries. In addition, mapped reads having a mapping quality of greater than 20 decreased from an average of 27.03% of the mapped reads in the HiSeq libraries to an average of 10.03% of the mapped reads in the MiSeq libraries. The DM reference represents a rather small section of the whole genetic variability within the cultivated potatoes, and the greater percentage of unmapped reads as well as decrease in mapping qualities in our MiSeq data suggests considerable sequence divergence between the Group Tuberosum cultivars to the reference. Further examination of the unmapped reads, for a single MiSeq library (MF-II), using a blastn search to the NCBI nucleotide database revealed that 62.88% of the 648,960 reads had a significant blast hit (e value smaller than 1e-5) in either the Solanum genus (7.72%) or the tetraploid species Triticum turgidum (emmer wheat, 44.24%) to mostly nucleotide sequences representing R genes (Supplementary Figure S1). The unmapped reads therefore could contain novel R gene content that is currently absent from the DM genome. In fact the DM genome remains incomplete, with improvements still ongoing. This provides strong evidence that insufficient representation on the reference genome was a greater issue than short read lengths and high sequence similarity.Inferring genetic similarity between cultivars. If certain genomic regions in our sequenced varieties lack representation on the DM genome, and reads from these regions map to alternative best hit positions, the variation of coverage of sequence reads obtained in the NBS domain per R gene (read coverage frequency, RCF) may be useful as a measure of divergence of a certain variety to the reference genome, DM. We hypothesized that the percentage at a single domain, out of all reads obtained for a cultivar could be informative, to some extent, about the genetic diversity. This approach implicitly allows us to utilize the copy number variations of R genes within clusters, which we expected to differ even on the cultivar level. Therefore, the absolute numbers of reads at the individual NBS domains of a cultivar were represented as a percentage of the total reads mapped to all NBS domains obtained for this cultivar (i.e. the sum of RCF values of the 587 NBS domains equals 1 in each cultivar library). These normalized figures, we termed NBS domain RCF vectors, were then used to calculate the Euclidean distance between all pairs of cultivars. A dendrogram of hierarchical clustering using the Euclidean distance and a compressed heat map of the read frequencies by NBS domains of R genes of every cultivar is shown in Fig. 6, details can be seen in the Supplementary Fig. S2. The four libraries of our outgroup taxon, S. caripense, consisting of parental C1 and K4 and two pools of cross progenies (Group Y in the Figure ), form a clearly distinct cluster distant to all potatoes, as was expected. The five libraries representing parents and some progenies of population MT (Group X) also clustered together showing only minimum distances. Overall, all potatoes were distributed across two major branches, one containing 21 cultivars (Fig. 6, Reichskanzler-Performer) and the other 71 (Sinora-Ibis). The first branch containing 21 cultivars shows two distinct subbranches, one containing Reichskanzler, Irga, Bryza, and the other the remaining 18 cultivars. The second, rightmost potato branch in the dendrogram holding 71 cultivars shows two sub-branches that branch off further into several less distant groups. We selected several cultivars whose age, purpose of creation, or country of origin was distinct, to elucidate various attributes of the potato's pool of R genes. These groups of cultivars (Figs. 6 and S2, Table S4) were 'a': 6 individuals registered before 1930 (1,810-1,929), 'b': 6 late blight resistance differentials (ca 1950-1970), 'c': 4 cultivars released 1972-1975 in Germany and Poland, 'd': 9 contemporary cultivars registered by seven breeders between 1999 and 2011 in four countries, and 'e': 2 cultivars (Shepody and Magnum Bonum) of (partially) American descent. Magnum Bonum was selected by J. Clarke in the UK from a cross of (the American) Early Rose × Paterson's Victoria, and Shepody was selected in Canada (www.europ otato .org/). As can be seen from Figs. 6 and S2 and Table S4, the old cultivars of group 'a' fall into several distant clades indicating their large diversity. An exception are Ackersegen and Jubel at a minor distance, they originate from the same breeding program (Böhm, Germany), although their pedigrees (as indicated in the European Cultivated Potato Database; www.europ otato .org/) are quite different.The peculiar distribution of the late blight differentials (group 'b') across the dendrogram seems to reconstruct the lines how these clones were created; R1 was found first, followed by R2 and R3, while R5, R8 and R9 were developed in later years when new sources of late blight resistance had become accessible 9,31 .The modern cultivars of groups 'c' and 'd' mainly do not share the same subgroups in the dendrogram indicating that certain levels of diversity may have been maintained over the generations and programs of potato breeding.Magnum Bonum and Shepody (group 'e' , in part American descent), are interspersed among the European cultivars confirming the common origins of these breeding pools. One hundred years lie between the two cultivars-Magnum Bonum was registered in 1876 and Shepody in 1980-but nonetheless, the relative read frequencies at their NBS domains do not seem to divert very much (Fig. 6). Shepody is in a small cluster together with the UK clones R2 and R3, and Magnum Bonum forms the base of a neighboring cluster holding the modern cultivars Eurotango, Nicola, Coquine, MF-II and TPS67. MF-II is of Indian descent, which originated in breeding stocks created by the UK based W. Black and co-workers in the early 1900s and which may therefore share the same specific genetic background.Using the SolariX database to efficiently discover R alleles responsible for specific resistances: can it be used to create selection markers for these alleles?. In an approach alternative to the detection of biological alleles (which was not unambiguously possible), we continued to base our analyses on individual polymorphisms and searched for candidate SNPs indicative of the specific disease resistances present in our experimental plant materials. For the two groups of libraries M, T, poolM, poolT, poolS and C1, K4, Crp_pool_R, and Crp_pool_S, we searched for polymorphic nucleotides that were in differential states within the disease resistant vs. susceptible parents and pools of progenies.The late blight resistance originating in the parental genotype C1 was previously mapped in the CK population 23 to the CRP homolog of potato chromosome IX. All polymorphic positions on chromosome IX from the Illumina HiSeq sequence data were therefore analyzed for the conditions that the resistant parent C1 and the pool of resistant progenies Crp_pool_R had a shared SNP allele and that this allele was absent from the susceptible parent and pool of susceptible progenies. Such SNPs should be covered by a minimum of 10 mapped reads, and the numbers of reads covering the reference and alternative allele detected should fit the expected ratios (tested by chi-square tests for goodness-of-fit) according to the genetic model applied. A series of 46 SNP sites fulfilling these conditions were detected, exclusively across the genome region holding the R gene clusters 63 to 66. Seven of these candidate SNPs occurred within a narrow section of 445 bp at chromosomal positions 59,553,212 to 59,553,656 bp within the NBS domain of R gene PGSC0003DMG402020585 (cluster 64). This was the biggest collection of intra-gene occurrence of putative resistance-associated polymorphisms and therefore, we selected it as a promising candidate and designed locus-specific PCR primers for amplification of a fragment to cover most of the P-loop, Kinase-2 and GLPL motifs. The genomic positions of the primers were 59,553,177 (primer 2020585_F; TGT TCC GTT CTT TCT CTT GC) and 59,553,855 bp (primer 2020585_R; CAT TCC ATT GGA CCA GAG AG) on DM v 4.03 chromosome IX. The sole 696-bp PCR product obtained with these primers was Choice of a SNP and development of a molecular marker for resistance originating in parent C1. Information obtained upon digestion with two restriction enzymes was useable to distinguish resistant and susceptible progenies in the CK population. The resistant parent C1 was heterozygous at a single nucleotide positioned at 59,553,259 bp (relative to the DM genome) at a locus within R gene cluster 64. Paradoxically, all late blight susceptible progenies shared a cutting site for TaiI (Thermo Fischer) with the resistant parent C1, neither the susceptible parent K4 nor any of the resistant progenies showed this feature. After digestion of the same PCR product with DdeI (New England Biolabs) targeting a neighboring SNP at position 59,553,275 bp, this digestion pattern was observed again suggesting that the two CAPS (Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Site) markers originate in the same haplotype. Therefore, visualization of both TaiI or DdeI digestion products of CRP DNA amplified by the aforementioned primer pair can serve as ad hoc CAPS markers for the selection of resistant and susceptible progenies from this genetic background. Progeny giving a PCR product that is cut neither by TaiI nor DdeI are likely to be late blight resistant.Verification by Sanger sequencing. PCR with the above described primers was applied on template genomic DNA of the parents, the two pools, R and S, and an additional 71 individual CK progenies of our mapping CRP population (30 possessing a resistant and 41 a susceptible phenotype as observed in multiple bioassays with virulent isolates of P. infestans, from Nakitandwe et al. 23 ). The fragments were subjected to Sanger sequencing (LGC Genomics, Berlin, Germany) and yielded analyzable 596-bp sequences. All fragments shared the same Table 3. SNPs showing patterns proportional to late blight resistance in S. caripense (CRP). Test for association of the late blight resistance phenotype (as determined in multiple bioassays by Nakitandwe et al. 23 ) with SNP haplotypes on PCR fragments of genomic DNA amplified using site-specific PCR primers on CRP parents (C1; heterozygous for dominant late blight resistance, K4; susceptible), pools representing 10 resistant or 10 susceptible progenies, and 71 individual progenies (30 late blight resistant, 41 susceptible). The PCR primers pinpoint a conserved stretch of R gene locus PGSC0003DMG402020585. The fragment was Sangersequenced. The first nucleotide of this locus (position on fragment, 001) maps to position 59,553,199 bp on potato chromosome IX. The locus is a member of R gene cluster 64 which also holds a late blight resistance gene isolated from S. venturii 53 . † SNP as observed on Sanger-sequenced fragments PCR-amplified from C1, K4, and CK progenies, 'Pool_R' and 'Pool_S'; pooled DNA samples of 10 resistant or 10 susceptible CK progeny individuals that were randomly chosen, Resistant progeny, Susceptible progeny; total of 30 individual CK segregants possessing a late blight resistant phenotype and 41 susceptible segregants, respectively. ‡ C1; late blight resistant parent (K4; susceptible parent) of CK population (cross of C1 and K4, S. caripense, 2n = 2x = 24), § number of individual samples tested (in total 75) where resistance phenotype and SNP genotype were in disaccord with the rule (e.g., genotype C/T when the rule was T for resistant individuals among the progenies), ¶ position of SNP as observed on the Illumina Hiseq-2000 data (closest to those detected on Sangersequenced fragments, left columns). For the R gene locus on chromosome IX shown here, the best coincidence of SNPs as found on Sanger sequenced fragments out of nine loci investigated (see Results) was obtained. However, this locus is distant from the region where the resistance was mapped (Nakitandwe et al. 23 ). sequence containing 15 polymorphic single nucleotides that segregated in association with the resistance phenotype. The pattern of these SNPs relative to the status of late blight resistance of the individual parents and progenies indicated good but not perfect association (Table 3). Frequently, the resistant C1 was heterozygous and the susceptible K4 homozygous, whereas this pattern was unexpectedly reversed in the progenies, the resistant offspring having the homozygous haplotype corresponding to the susceptible parent. One exception was the SNP at the fragment's position 397. Parent C1 had genotype C, the pool of resistant progenies and all 30 resistant CK individuals tested were heterozygous CT, whereas parent K4, Crp_pool_S and all 41 susceptible CK progenies were homozygous T. Hence, even for this SNP the peculiar genotype of C1 (homozygous C instead of an expected heterozygous CT) was not in accordance with the suggested by the 1:1 segregation of all cross progeny for resistant/susceptible phenotype. Moreover, the SNPs detected on the Illumina sequence data differed from those of the Sanger data (Table 3). We aligned all fragments whose sequence was determined by the Sanger method via a blastn search onto the DM v 4.03 genome. This returned nine separate R gene loci on chromosome IX with (considerable) sequence similarity of 88 to 92% along uninterrupted stretches of 473-593 bp of our fragments. Therefore, we examined all nine regions for the occurrence of SNP positions in the mapped NBS-tags of C1, K4, Crp_pool_R and Crp_ pool_S. This was done by comparisons of the 15 individual SNP positions on our Sanger-sequenced fragments with SNP positions as detected on the mass sequencing data. Unfortunately, none of the nine candidate sites on the genome models perfectly matched the structural patterns of the SNP positions as detected by Sangersequencing (Table 3, rightmost column).Search for markers of two R genes conferring resistance to late blight in the MT population. The Illumina sequences obtained for the five libraries of the MT population parents and three groups of MT progenies representing distinct resistance phenotypes were subjected to the same approach used for population CK data (described above). Two unknown major dominant genes for resistance to late blight segregate in the MT population, one originates in MF-II, chromosome XI, and the other in TPS67, chromosome IV 32 and their phenotype of resistance can be distinguished upon the interaction with differential isolates of P. infestans. Many clustered SNPs within NBS domains of R genes on chromosomes IV and XI were detected. The largest number of clustered SNPs displaying the segregation pattern expected for a dominant R gene originating in TPS67 was found in several NBS domains on cluster 16, which also holds the closest DM sequence relative to the R2 late blight resistance gene of the Black et al. 9 series. As an example, seven adjacent SNPs were found in the NBS domain of PGSC0003DMG400011525 that display the haplotypes MF-II; 0, TPS67; 0, 1, poolM; 0, poolT; 0, 1, and poolS; 0 (where 0 represents the reference nucleotide/allele of the DM genome and 1 represents an alternative nucleotide) and hence suggested the segregation of a single factor (denominated '1') from parent TPS67 in accordance with the phenotype of resistance. A total of 86 SNPs across 45 NBS domains of R genes in 13 clusters on chromosome IV displaying this pattern of segregation and potential association with the resistance gene of this parent were detected. Cluster 16, the cluster of NBS-LLR R genes that harbors the original gene R2, alone had 36 SNPs across 18 NBS domains, one of these within PGSC0003DMG400032572, the closest DM sequence relative to the R2 gene. Likewise for chromosome XI, 171 clustered SNPs across 61 NBS domains of R genes in 13 clusters or singleton NBS R genes were found in the NBS-capture data that suggested co-segregation with a resistance gene from MF-II. The experimental elaboration of these candidate SNPs and loci is in progress.An in-depth analysis was conducted for the parents of the AB mapping population comprising 250 individuals from the cross: Alegria x Baltica. Cultivar Alegria inherits resistance to PVY in a qualitative, dominant fashion suggesting the action of a single R gene, and selection for this resistance with molecular markers could thus facilitate breeding for PVY resistance. From framework genetic mapping (Supplementary Methods S2), the PVY resistance was found to be in linkage with all four chromosome IX markers used; STI057, STI002, STI014 33 and STM1021 34 and not with any marker on any other chromosome (Fig. 7). Hence, we examined our Illumina sequence data of both parental cultivars, Alegria and Baltica, for polymorphisms on chromosome IX that could segregate in association with the PVY resistance of Alegria. We expected the Alegria PVY resistance allele to be in simplex state, according to the 1:1 segregation pattern of resistant and susceptible progenies in the AB population. We looked for polymorphic sites within every NBS domain that were covered by at least 20 reads and that contained SNP alleles that occurred in parent Alegria at a frequency of 0.25 (verified by a Chi-square test) but were absent in Baltica. PCR primers (containing a mismatch nucleotide at position 3′-1, see \"Materials and methods\") for four of the polymorphic sites that corresponded to these conditions were designed and applied on the parental and progeny DNA. The results were integrated into the genetic map of cv. Alegria. With these additional markers, it was possible to assess the position of the PVY resistance to be in the vicinity of, or within clusters 64 (containing the prominent locus Tm-2 for tomato mosaic virus resistance) to 66 (holding the potato homologous locus of tomato Sw-5 for resistance to tomato spotted wilt virus). Consequently, the specific NBS domains of the tomato Tm-2 and Sw-5 homologous potato loci in the DM v 4.03 reference genome were used as models to design 14 PCR primers for the selective amplification of these specific NBS domains (Supplementary Table S5) on the map of chromosome IX enriched with additional markers (Supplementary Tables S6 and S7). These primers were applied on Alegria and Baltica DNA and the fragments amplified were cloned and subjected to Sanger sequencing. The resulting 349 sequence reads were aligned with NextGenMap at default parameters to the DM v 4.03 to verify their exact position on chromosome IX and to search for polymorphic nucleotides of Alegria relative to Baltica. All Sanger reads mapped to chromosome IX of the DM reference. 109 out of 173 and 111 out of 176 reads from Alegria and Baltica respectively mapped within R genes of clusters 64-66. When comparing regions of the genome where both Alegria and Baltica Sanger reads mapped, we found 190 polymorphic positions where Alegria reads contained a SNP allele, with at least 2 supporting reads, that was not observed in the Baltica reads. 15 were within R gene singletons, 32 were not within R genes and 143 were in R genes from clusters 64 to 66. Seven of the 14 original PCR primers targeted SNPs with a predicted restriction site (compare Supplementary Table S5; primers with restriction enzyme information). We applied these primers to the parents and all progenies of the AB population and treated the amplicons with site-specific restrictases to search for informative CAPS markers. All seven primers produced segregating markers and we included these into the genetic map of Alegria. Among them, the CAPS marker chr09_11PagI was of all markers closest to the map position of the PVY resistance (Fig. 7). This marker originated in cv. Alegria and was in simplex state and in coupling phase, 6 cM away from the putative, simplex PVY resistance. The marker is located in RDC0001NLR0230 of cluster 66. The map location of the PVY resistance was deduced from the performance of all individual AB progenies in replicated resistance trials. The semi-quantitative nature of these trials rendered the interpretation of results regarding the presence or absence of a single, qualitative resistance factor somewhat dependable. Therefore, chr09_11PagI was proposed as a marker to select for the PVY resistance inherited by cv. Alegria.Possibility to detect and count NBS-LRR haplotypes using NBS locus tags. We were able to detect NBS domains of up to 587 R genes using selective amplification by PCR and high-throughput sequencing. Thus, a total of just 16 primers were sufficient to develop a comprehensive inventory of virtually all NBS domains of the NBS-LRR R genes in the DM genome. Altogether, three hundred million reads were obtained from 91 distinct cultivars and were mapped to 587 NBS domains of the reference genome. The amount of information that can be currently drawn from this data, however, is limited due to apparent mis-mapping and consequently, intermixing of the individual fragments to an unknown extent. This was evident from the numbers of haplotypes inferred for the NBS domains evaluated that frequently exceeded the maximum of four individual haplotypes (alleles) for a single domain and cultivar. A likely source for the multiple haplotypes observed per domain is the copy number variations of R genes in clusters that can differ even at accession level 21 . As proposed by Michelmore and Meyers 35 , tandemly repeated genes within a cluster are unstable because of a high degree of sequence similarity resulting in relatively frequent unequal crossing-over. This leads to further duplications and deletions. The observed differences in read mapping percentages are likely due to the varying divergences between the sequenced cultivar or sample and the reference DM genome. Correct mapping of R gene fragments (that are largely similar due to the high levels of sequence conservation among their NBS domains) to a genome that may be considerable different remains challenging. Our attempt to increase the level of individuality of sequenced fragments via obtaining fragments that include larger parts of variable, non-conserved sequence of the target genes and generating longer sequence reads proved to be ineffective. Thus, the most important means for achieving accurate allocation of sequence fragments should be the provision of high-quality reference genome(s) of the common potato, S. tuberosum Group Tuberosum.What are the numbers of potato NBS-LRR R genes?. Improvements to the potato's reference genome, based on the whole genome sequence of S. tuberosum Group Phureja doubled monoploid clone DM1-3 516 R44 are still ongoing. Our work began on DM version 3.4 although we continued and based our final analyses on v 4.03, and an advanced version 4.04 has been issued in 2016 (https ://solan aceae .plant biolo gy.msu.edu/). The detection and annotation of NBS-LRR R genes has evolved in parallel. Jupe et al. (2012) 12 counted 438 such loci for DM v 3.4 which we used for the design of our NBS-capturing PCR primers. Jupe et al. 13 increased the number of NBS-LRR R genes of the potato DM genome to a total of 755, of which 704 were allocated to positions on the twelve chromosomes. The existence of NBS domain-associated motifs is a precondition for our method of detecting such loci by PCR with primers targeting the NBS domain. We detected in our study 576 of the 704 NBS-LRR loci established by Jupe et al. (2013). Although we did not detect an NBS domain in 128 of the 704 R genes, 703 genes had read coverage in at least one cultivar, indicating that they were not completely absent from all our 96 genome libraries. Additionally, we found 11 previously unestablished regions on the DM genome containing an NBS domain. Thus, the number of putative NBS-LRR R genes on the 12 chromosome models of DM v 4.03 has been increased by 11 and the number of NBS domains detected by our NB-tagging method was 587. The high level of sequence similarity among the NBS-LRR domains was a challenge in our project. Our approach was based on mapping of the individual reads to a reference genome, DM v 4.03. Mismapping of reads can occur when the reference is too different from the genome that was sequenced. Reads that originate from genomic sequences that are not represented on the reference are incorrectly mapped to the next most similar location in the reference. In addition, ambiguity in mapping comes about from multiple equally divergent (with respect to the read being mapped) locations on the reference, which render the distinction of the true location impossible. We believe the DM v 4.03 reference genome may not adequately represent the genomes of our cultivars and this is based on three observations-First, DM is a (mono) haploid of a genotype that has a rather limited allelic diversity and it is derived from potato Group Phureja which may not share all features with Group Tuberosum genotypes. Second, we observed that on average 23% of the mapped reads were not properly paired; this were pairs that, when mapped on the genome, either had an incorrect orientation, were not within a reasonable distance or the pair members even mapped to separate chromosomes. Thirdly, libraries sequenced with 300 bp paired-end reads (obtained on an Illumina MiSeq) showed substantially lower mapping rates and confidence (mapping quality scores) than the libraries with 100 bp paired-end reads (sequenced on a HiSeq-2000). The unmapped reads were found to have significant best blastn hits in resistance genes in the Solanum genus and the wheat Triticum turgidum. This suggests that novel R gene content is currently absent from the DM genome.A relatively useful approach presented in Fig. 3a, where the total numbers of polymorphic sites are compared among all 96 DNA libraries, provides a measure of estimating genetic similarity. Unrelated sequence fragments, although sharing roughly similar sequences, will have polymorphic sites at different positions. When fewer non-related sequence reads are present (for example in an inbred, less heterozygous genotype derived from a narrow genepool), fewer such reads can be accidentally assigned together on the same loci and the resulting number of polymorphic sites tends to be reduced. The group of seven libraries showing the smallest numbers of polymorphisms and hence indirectly presenting reduced genetic variability (Fig. 1c, left tail, 4,328-4,376 SNPs per library) contains four modern cultivars (registered between 1997 and 2011), two concurrent (after 2010) breeding clones and only one historical late blight differential clone (R1, published in 1953 9 ). Today, potato breeding still depends on pedigree schemes where a relatively small group of elite cultivars are intercrossed. The continued repetition of this scheme over decades, where the genomes of the same parents and grandparents are repeatedly reshuffled, might lead to an enrichment of advantageous alleles while undesired alleles are steadily selected against, thereby leading to an overall reduction of genetic variability.Another approach at indirectly estimating the genetic variability was the analysis of Illumina read coverage frequencies (RCF) per individual NBS domain of an R gene across the genome libraries (Figs. 6 and S2). This approach allows us to utilize the copy number variations of R genes within clusters. RCF (a numerical criterion) is certainly less precise for assessing the extent of genetic variability of R genes within a genepool compared with the frequencies of true biological alleles. However, the genetically closely related individuals in our data set (the CRP complex and the MT parents and progenies, respectively) clustered closely together by their RCF patterns. CRP, the outgroup species distant to the potato, formed a separate group by its RCF features (Figs. 6  and S2), similar to its distinct level of polymorphic sites (Fig. 1c). MF-II, a clone of Indian descent, and TPS67, Neotuberosum, are within the same narrow group of 20 cultivars (including Magnum Bonum, registered in the UK in 1876, to Baltica, Germany, 1997, and three pools of MT progenies, Figs. 6 and S2), this underlines further, the relative narrowness of the Group Tuberosum R genepool. The continued introduction of individual R alleles and additional R loci (compare R1, 10 ) did not change the frequencies of particular features within the genetic code of NBS R genes. The Irish cultivar Lumper that survived the 1845-47 late blight calamity, which wiped out significant parts of the early potato's phenotypic diversity shares the frequencies of major conserved R gene motifs with Innovator (bred at HZPC, NL, registered in 1999), Amanda (Solana, DE, 2006), Irys (IHAR, PL, 1975)  or Fabiana (Germicopa, FR, 2008). Therefore, we postulate the potato's NBS R gene family remained relatively homogeneous over two centuries throughout a wide range of cultivars from many countries and breeders. This is consistent with findings of high synteny, even on the genus level, of the sub-families of NB-LRR R genes between the genomes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Heinz 1706 and the DM potato reference, with differences only in smaller cluster sizes in the tomato 36 . The presence of self-incompatibility and the polyploid nature may have supported the maintenance of the common potato's genetic plasticity. Genetic variation underlying specific disease resistance traits concerning individual biological alleles at individual R loci, such as those comparatively few that have been introgressed from wild and native cultivated sources over the past one hundred years, could not be made visible with the NBS tagging method presented.Using the SolariX database to create selection markers for R alleles responsible for specific resistances. We tested two approaches-in the first, SNPs associated with a resistance were determined by matching expected ratios for allele frequencies in both parents and progenies within mapping populations (CK, MT) and in the second, potential SNPs within the region where a resistance maps to were determined by allele frequencies solely in the parents (population AB).For the CK population of CRP segregating for a single late blight resistance factor, we found markers that have considerable predictive power to assess a progeny's resistance status. However, the individual locus and allele encoding the late blight resistance could not be detected. CRP is a relative of the potato and tomato, it has a larger genome size (1.2 billion bp, as determined by flow cytometry) and it may have structural differences. Therefore, mapping the NBS-LRR gene fragments from CRP to the DM genome, based on best similarity fit, would inevitably produce inaccuracies. Information on the haplotype responsible for the resistance is certainly intermixed with information on other, unrelated loci that share similarity by their sequence.For the potato population MT (such as for CK) segregating for two independent, dominant late blight resistance factors, we detected many loci at which groups of SNPs indicated potential co-segregation with the resistance phenotype, based on their allele frequencies. This was not unexpected, as the two parental genotypes M and T (such as parents C1 and K4 of the CK population) should possess many more distinct R alleles than merely the two responsible for their resistance to late blight. The challenge is to precisely locate those polymorphisms that are truly associated with the late blight resistance. This may be achieved by designing PCR primers specific for every individual SNP and testing MT parents and progenies for the presence or absence of markers or by fine-mapping the resistance using many more MT progenies.Further refinement of our method to combine high-throughput sequencing of longer (several thousand instead of several hundred nucleotides) DNA fragments generated with targeted amplification to capture the true biological alleles of the NBS-LRR R genes with mapping to advanced versions of appropriate reference genomes or, alternatively, reference genome-independent methods, as has been done for an R gene in the wild diploid potato relative Solanum americanum 37 , might however provide more straightforward ways to investigate the diversity of plant resistance genes.The methodology to retrieve molecular markers for the PVY resistance segregating in the AB population differed from the CK method described above inasmuch as it relied on direct information about individual SNP sites retrieved from the Illumina reads of this population's parents, cultivars Alegria and Baltica. In a search that involved both AB parental information and the DM reference genome, individual SNPs were found that could be used to design CAPS markers for selection of resistant segregants. Again, the markers obtained were linked to, but not directly located within, the responsible putative R locus. This apparent imprecise targeting of the resistance locus was owed to the high redundancy of the NBS R genes in the potato genome and to the dependence of the method on the DM reference genome.The SolariX compendium (https ://www.cibiv .at/Solar iX/, European Nucleotide Archive Study ID PRJEB83917) provides a useful resource of the common potato's R genepool, for nearly all NBS domains on the DM genome. The presented variability may exceed the true genetic diversity due to inadvertent mis-mapping of highly homogeneous NBS tag reads because of the extreme levels of NBS sequence similarity and insufficient representation on the DM genome. For high-resolution analysis of individual cultivar-specific genomes more expensive methods such as SMRT RenSeq 37 may be appropriate.Molecular markers for selecting specific resistances can be developed based on the SolariX database if methods allowing for more precise results are less economical or unavailable.plant materials. Eighteen European potato breeding institutions and the GLKS gene bank at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Germany, kindly provided tuber or leaf samples. In total 96 samples consisting of 6 historical and 69 contemporary potato cultivars, 8 breeding clones, 6 R gene differentials for the detection of specific races of Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight 9,31 , 2 parental accessions of the wild species S. caripense (H. & B. ex Dun.), here referred to as CRP, and 5 pools of progenies from two mapping populations representing distinct classes of disease resistance were selected for the experiment (Supplementary Table S4). The materials represent up to 26 European and 3 American, original as well as present-day, potato breeders and their corresponding (sometimes interrelated) genetic stocks that have been developed across 10 European and 2 North American countries since the second half of the nineteenth century until present. The mapping populations of biparental crosses were created to study, in separate, the genetic source of resistance to Potato Virus Y (PVY); population AB (a cross of cultivars Alegria and Baltica) and two sources of resistance to late blight; population MT (a cross of tetraploid cultivars MF-II and TPS67, a representative of the Neotuberosum developments; Plaisted 1987) and population CK (diploid S. caripense; C1 x K4). Population AB samples and results on virus resistance were provided by NORIKA, Germany. Population MT 22,32,38 is a cross of potato groups Tuberosum and Neotuberosum [39][40][41] segregating for two different major, dominant factors of resistance to late blight. Population CK 23,42 resulted from a cross of a late blight-resistant and a susceptible individual of the wild, diploid, non-tuberous CRP, a distant relative of the potato and tomato.Design of primers for amplification of R gene-specific sequence tags for Illumina sequencing. Primers were designed for three conserved motifs of the NBS domain of major R genes namely, P-loop, Kinase-2 and GLPL 43,44 present within all 438 NBS-LRR R gene sequences in the potato DM v 3.4 reference genome as reported in Jupe et al. 12 . The sequences of these three NBS motifs were grouped by similarity across all 438 loci. For each high-similarity group, specific degenerate primers were designed. Thus, according to their ability to amplify from genomic DNA in tests, a total of fifteen primer pairs, seven specific for the P-loop, three for the Kinase-2, and five for the GLPL motifs (Table 1), and in addition the NBS5 primer from Van der Linden et al. 16 , were finally chosen for our PCR enrichment of NBS containing genomic fragments across all 96 varietal DNA libraries (Table 1).Isolation of R gene fragments for Illumina HiSeq-2000 sequencing and profiling of NBS domains. Total genomic DNA was extracted according to van der Beek et al. 45 with modifications by Park et al. 46 . After digestion using TaqI, MseI, RsaI, HaeIII and AluI restrictases, adapters for PCR 16 were ligated to the fragments. All five digestion-ligation products per varietal DNA library were pooled and 1 µl of a pool was used for each of the 16 primer-specific PCRs. For the initial linear, target-specific amplification, the reaction contained 4 µl of 5 × HOT FIREPol Blend Master Mix (Solis Biodyne) amended with 7.5 mM MgCl 2 and 2 µl of 0.1 µM NBS domain-specific primer (Table 1) in a total 20-µl volume. Conditions for the linear PCR followed van der Linden et al. 16 and annealing temperature settings were specific for each primer. Subsequently, for the exponential PCR 20 µl of a master mix containing 2 µl of 10 µM NBS domain-specific primer, 2 µl of 10 µM adapter primer and 4 µl of 5 × HOT FIREPol Blend Master Mix (Solis Biodyne) with 7.5 mM MgCl 2 and 12 µl water were added to the linear PCR product to give a total volume of 40 µl. All PCR products were cleaned using the NucleoSpin 96 PCR Clean-up kit (Macherey Nagel). The products of all 16 NBS domain-specific PCR primers per varietal library were pooled to obtain in total 96 libraries for sequencing. To estimate the fragment size distribution within each sample, we used the High Sensitivity NGS Fragment Analysis Kit (Advanced Analytical) on a Fragment Analyzer (Advanced Analytical). We had the libraries prepared and HiSeq-2000 (Illumina) sequenced by GATC Biotech AG (Germany). In brief, for library preparation, the PCR products were randomly fragmented, ligated to library-specific indices including Illumina primers and adapters and then gel purified to obtain fragments in a range of 200 to 480 bp. These 96 indexed libraries were joined into four sequencing superpools each consisting of 24 libraries, and run on the sequencer optimized for 100-bp paired-end sequencing. isolation of R2 like fragments and Illumina Miseq sequencing. Whole genome DNA of MF-II, TPS67, MT_pool_M, MT_pool_S, MT_pool_T, and the R2 late blight resistance differential (compare Table S4) was used. Profiling of NBS domains was made with the R2 gene-specific PCR primers given in Table 1 (bottom part). Fragments were amplified as for the HiSeq sequencing described above, applying individual annealing temperatures as indicated in Table 1. The resulting PCR products were loaded onto agarose gels, run, and the range corresponding to 200 to 600 bp-fragments was cut out and used further. PCR products of each clone or library were pooled and barcoded with the Nextera XT kit (Illumina), according to the instructions. The barcoded samples were then cleaned using AMPpur beads (Agilent) according to the Illumina library preparation manual. The libraries were quality checked on an Agilent 2,100 Bioanalyzer. The amount of DNA was determined with PicoGreen dye (Thermo Fisher Science) and adjusted to 4 nM. A 10-µl volume per library was transferred to a new reaction tube and all samples were thoroughly mixed together. From this pool of libraries for MiSeq sequencing, 5 µl were mixed with 5 µl 0.2 N NaOH and incubated according to the library preparation manual (Illumina MiSeq reaction kit v. 3). Finally, after dilution to 12 pM, a 600-µl sample, together with 5% PhiX as internal control, was loaded onto the MiSeq sequencer and run for 2 × 300 bp using the standard settings.Annotation of NBS domain locations in the DM genome. The nucleotide sequences of the 704 most up-to-date NBS-LRR R genes on chromosomes 1 to 12 for DM v 4.03, as annotated by Jupe et al. 13 , were translated to obtain all possible open reading frames, of at least 200 amino acids (aa), using sixpack from EMBOSS v 6.6.0 47 . From the HMMER3 (v 3.1b1) software suite 48 , hmmsearch3 was used to detect NBS domains, using the NB-ARC 2. Paired unmapped reads (both reads do not map to the DM genome): a. The reads were first merged using PEAR v0.9.6 (paired end read merger tool) 52 . We found 14% of these had no blast hit while 9% of these had a blast hit to a Solanum species and 76% to Triticum turgidum. b. If pair was not merged in (a), the reads were concatenated one after another to obtain a longer sequence.The second read was reverse complemented before concatenation. We found 31% of these had no blast hit while 6% of these had a blast hit to a Solanum species and 47% to Triticum turgidum. c. Some of the reads were 'discarded' by PEAR when they had too many Ns. Reads that were made up of a long string of Ns were filtered from these discarded reads (52%), and the remaining reads were used individually for a blastn. We found 11% had no blast hit while 3% had a blast hit to a Solanum species and 13% to Triticum turgidum.European Nucleotide Archive ENA, accession no. ERP086266 and study id PRJEB83917. The SolariX project can be found at www.cibiv .at/Solar iX.","tokenCount":"10679"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"402764dcaba345cc9c659aca56caef0d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3fa9b2a5-bf79-4a68-97a7-82f4b2344788/retrieve","id":"-1188409313"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"03686928-3710-400c-b2d2-0e1b5d4c1101","pagecount":"232","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) -a member of the CGIAR Consortium -develops technologies, innovative methods, and new knowledge that better enable farmers, especially smallholders, to make agriculture eco-efficient -that is, competitive and profitable as well as sustainable and resilient. Headquartered near Cali, Colombia, CIAT conducts research for development in tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. www.ciat.cgiar.org CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by the 15 research centers that are members of the CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. www.cgiar.org CIAT leads the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which brings together the world's best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science, and Earth System science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture, and food security.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia:An overview for decision-makers achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) has improved the resilience of countries over time, reducing the disaster risks. Also, climate change could already be affecting the intensity and frequency of climatic disaster events in some countries.With the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) shortly to begin, and a new disaster risk reduction framework to be agreed upon globally, a brief overview of key statistics, issues and changes over the past 45 years is timely. This overview will highlight the progress made along with the challenges faced by the region.In recognition of this, the current paper provides a review of natural disasters and their impacts in Asia and the Pacific by disaster type, subregion and level of development. The first section looks at the occurrence of natural disaster events. This is followed by an analysis of fatalities and economic loss in sections two and three respectively. The short-term consequences of natural disasters on the economy are also mentioned. The final section briefly discusses aspects regarding exposure and vulnerability of countries in Asia and the Pacific. In the past decade alone, a person living in Asia-Pacific was twice as likely to be affected by a natural disaster as a person living in Africa, almost six times as likely as someone from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 30 times more likely to suffer from a disaster than someone living in North America or Europe (ESCAP: 2013). News reports on natural disasters in the region has been ceaseless.Since 1970, the region has been hit by more than 5000 disasters causing more than two billion fatalities and affecting the lives of more than six billion. The worst disaster in terms of loss of life occurred in 1970, when Cyclone \"Bhola\" struck Bangladesh and caused a storm surge that killed 300,000 people and affected 3.6 million more. Around twenty years later when a more severe cyclone struck the same region in Bangladesh, 138,000 people died and 15 million people were affected, becoming the second largest storm with respect to fatalities, though notably less people died due primarily to disaster risk management efforts in the country.Cyclone \"Nagis\" killed a similar number of people in Myanmar in 2008. Storms and floods are annual events in some parts of the region. The Philippines is often devastated by typhoons, including the Super Typhoon \"Haiyan\" in November 2013 which killed over 6,000 people and displaced approximately 4 million people (NDRRMC: 2014).Earthquakes and tsunamis have wrought devastation over the period, with some of the worst events being the 1976 Great Tangshan Earthquake which killed almost 242,000 people in China, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami that killed over 220,000, and, more recently, the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake that killed almost 20,000 people and affected the lives of around 369,000.There are many social, economic and environmental factors that determine the vulnerability, exposure and impact of a disaster on people or a country. Over the past 45 years, the region's population has almost doubled from 2.2 billion in 1970 to 4.3 billion in 2014. Cities have expanded with the migration of people from rural areas in search of livelihoods and opportunities, with 47.7 per cent of the population of Asia-Pacific now living in cities compared to only 25.9 per cent in 1970.Often the poor and the most vulnerable settle in hazardous areas such as flood plains or along fault-lines because the land is more affordable or it is the only land available in densely populated areas. Over time, vulnerable populations' exposure to disasters has increased.Likewise, economic development has been rapid in many countries of the region. As economies grow, so does the value of the infrastructure and assets that could potentially be destroyed by a disaster. These assets are increasingly located on land exposed to hazards due to a lack of available space and rapid development, and thus potential economic exposure has also increased over time.Other changes over the past 45 years should also be considered as possibly affecting statistical trends. Disaster events are now more regularly and accurately recorded than they were in 1970. The progress towardsFrom 1970 to 2014, the world reported a total of 11,985 natural disaster events, of which 5,139 (or 42.9 per cent) took place in Asia and the Pacific (Figure 1.1). Floods and storms were the most frequent in the region, accounting for 64 per cent of the total number of such events reported between 1970 and 2014. This was followed by earthquakes and tsunamis (12 per cent) and landslides (6.9 per cent) (Figure 1.2).South and South-West Asia witnessed the largest number of natural disaster events with 1,652 cases reported. South-East Asia and East and North-East Asia also reported over 1,000 events. The Pacific and North and Central Asia had significantly lower numbers of reports (Figure 1.3). Disasters have been reported with increasing frequency in all parts of the region since 1970. However, the numbers of reports on natural disaster events are diverging among ESCAP subregions (Figure 1.4).The number of hydro-meteorological disasters quadrupled from 37 per year in 1970-1979 to 146 per year in 2000-2009, while reports of geophysical natural disaster events substantially increased as well during the same period (Figure 1.5). Floods and storms, the most frequent events recorded in Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersBetween 1970 and 2014, more than 2 million people died, accounting for 56.6 per cent of the total deaths in the world due to disasters (Figure 1.7).The impact and susceptability of Asian and Pacific countries to disasters is evident when considering the total number of people affected. Over 6 billion people in the region have suffered from natural disasters, accounting for 87.6 per cent of the global total. Among the fatalities in the region, 45.5 per cent were from earthquakes and tsunamis, as can be seen in Figure 1.8, while storms accounted for 36.8 per cent. Floods and droughts were not the deadliest natural disasters but have affected the largest number of people over the last 45 yearsIn Asia and the Pacific, a significant number of people lost their lives from natural disasters over the past 45 years. As mentioned earlier, the region was only hit by around 43 per cent of the disasters experienced globally, but the impact of these disasters in terms of lives lost was notable.  Southeast Asia, with 203 million hectares of forests, accounts for 5.2% of the global total. Expansion of large-scale commercial crops is a significant driver of deforestation in the region, especially as food grain prices rise and oil palm cultivation grows to meet the rising demand for biodiesel. In the early 2000s, about 3 million hectares of peat land in Southeast Asia hadGreenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and land use change are the region's major contributor to global climate change.Southeast Asia offers many low-cost opportunities for greenhouse gas mitigation in the land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, demonstrating the greatest potential for reducing global emissions (by about 40% in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, andVietnam for 2000-2050). The IPCC also reported that the potential for technical mitigation in agriculture was highest in Southeast Asia among all other regions in the world.Improving forest and agricultural land management is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Southeast Asia. ADB is encouraging countries to conserve forests, reduce land degradation and restore peat lands, and is helping them prepare for Managing land use and forests for carbon sequestration and gain access to climate financing, or incentives such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), in exchange for improved management practices.Through loans and technical assistance, ADB helps countries maximize opportunities to secure people's livelihoods from climate impacts, plus supplement incomes with new sources of revenue from carbon sequestration. In the region, ADB will collaborate with other donors to implement innovative initiatives such as the Forest Investment Program (FIP) and carbonneutral transport corridors in the Greater Mekong Subregion, support preparation of additional projects for the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility of the World Bank, and implement readiness projects on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD).The deltas represent a range of development from the Tonle Sap floodplain and Irrawaddy River, with limited irrigation and lower populations, to the densely settled, intensively farmed Red and Chao Phraya deltas, producing two or three crops a year. The Red, Mekong and Chao Phraya deltas have highly developed irrigation infrastructure (dykes, levees and canals to divert and retain water), but they all suffer water shortages in the dry season. For example, in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, more than 80% of dry-season flows are diverted for irrigation, resulting in local water shortages and seawater intrusion.Rice is the major crop; the deltas produce almost half of the GMS's rice. Although it is likely to remain the dominant crop, some deltas are beginning to grow a wider range of produce. For example, only 60% of land in the Chao Phraya Delta is now planted with rice; one million hectares (Mha) of alternative crops, mainly sugarcane and cassava, are grown, primarily for export. In the Red River Delta, 40% of land produces non-rice crops in the winter. The byproducts of rice farming support large herds of cattle, buffalo, pigs and poultry.The deltas support extensive marine and inland capture fisheries, as well as rapidly expanding brackish and freshwater aquaculture. The Mekong Delta accounts for 70% of Vietnam's aquaculture production and 63% of its marine capture. The Tonle Sap floodplain is particularly important because of its productivity and link to the inland fisheries of the Lower Mekong Basin, including Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. Here, inland capture fisheries dominate; and aquaculture is minimal.Lowland plains and plateaus make up a quarter of the GMS and house 64 million people. Apart from sparsely populated northern Cambodia, population densities are moderate and poverty is widespread. The plains and plateaus represent a development trajectory from the forests growing in northern Cambodia through the partially irrigated extensive agriculture of the Isan Plateau to the highly irrigated Central Thai Plain.Agriculture is mostly rain-fed, although annual rainfall is generally low. Lowland plains and plateaus produce a quarter of the GMS's rice, mostly in the wet season. In the dry season, farmers supplement wet-season rice by grazing livestock on the rice stubble, planting a second crop of irrigated rice, or growing irrigated sugarcane, maize, legumes, pulses or cassava. Large livestock herds of cattle and buffalo graze the plains and plateaus. Cattle are progressively replacing buffalo due to mechanization and dietary preferences for beef.Large-scale plantations of oil palm, rubber, eucalypt, sugarcane, cassava and other industrial crops are increasing on the plains and plateaus. For example, by 2007, Lao PDR had granted concessions to 123 large plantations covering 165,794 ha. Sixty percent of these were located in the lowland plains of central and southern Lao PDR.Wild-catch fishing on inland rivers, lakes and reservoirs is important to rural populations, especially in Cambodia, Lao PDR and northeast Thailand. However, experts fear hydropower developments on the Mekong and its major tributaries will disrupt migrations of species on which people in Lao PDR and Cambodia depend. Thailand and Myanmar, meanwhile, have reported increases in fish production in recent years. These are a consequence of improvements in managing aquatic resources, such as restoring and rehabilitating damaged environments, and restocking lakes and reservoirs.There is minimal infrastructure on the plains of north and northeast Cambodia but all other GMS countries have invested heavily in irrigation; Cambodia, too, has ambitious plans to install irrigation infrastructure. Thailand's Chao Phraya Basin is highly developed with two large water These dramatic production rises have come at an environmental cost. According to the Greater Mekong Environment Outlook, land degradation affects between 10 and 40% of land in each country in the GMS (Figure 1). Forest loss, agricultural intensification and overgrazing (in Yunnan) are the main causes for this. Changes to artificial landscapes associated with farming activities have disrupted vital natural services by reducing the capacity of ecosystems to contain floods, control erosion and limit damage from pests.Agriculture is the largest user of water in all countries in the GMS, consuming between 68 and 98% of total withdrawals. By altering natural flow regimes, irrigation development has affected fish populations and wetland habitats. Resulting dry-season water shortages have increased competition for water, especially in intensively-irrigated areas such as Vietnam's Red and Thailand's Chao Phraya deltas. Hydropower schemes planned for the Mekong, Salween and Irrawaddy rivers will disrupt natural flows further, with implications for farming and fisheries. Blocking migration paths with dams, for example, prevents fish reaching spawning and feeding areas.The GMS comprises five agroecological zones that have common farming systems and are subject to similar geographical constraints and risks. The zones are not rigidly defined, but provide a helpful way to discuss agricultural systems at a regional scale.The Tonle Sap floodplain and mega-deltas of the Red, Mekong, Chao Phraya and Irrawaddy rivers represent around 8% of the total GMS land area, but house over a third of the total population, some 86 million people. Rural population densities are high, and each delta hosts a major city. These cities offer opportunities to farmers, providing markets through demand for horticultural crops and meat, and alternative income sources. The deltas are the rice bowls of the countries, but are nearing full production, with problems of intensification, flooding and high population density. Erosion in the coastal uplands is exacerbated by flash flooding along short, steep coastal rivers. The sandy, low-fertile soils of the coastal strip make it hard for farmers to maintain productivity. Urban and agricultural pollutants reduce water quality in nearshore environments close to densely populated parts of Vietnam and Thailand. Pollution and the destruction of mangrove and coral habitats have affected fish stocks in the shallow waters fished by small-scale fishers.Over half of the GMS is hills and mountains. These uplands support 85 million people, of whom 46 million live in Yunnan, China. Two agricultural systems exist: intensive farming of highly productive, densely populated upland river valleys; and shifting cultivation and livestock grazing of sparsley populated forested terrains. This distinction is likely to remain, as large tracts of the forested uplands are steep, with poor, infertile soils. The boundaries between the two will shift as degraded soils return to forests and new lands come into production.Intensive farming takes place on upland plains and in river valleys, which are often terraced for growing rice. The subtropical climate gives way to temperate conditions at altitude, enabling a wide range of plants to grow. Major food crops include rice, maize, vegetables, wheat and cassava. Important cash crops are vegetables, flowers, tobacco, coffee, sugarcane, tea, rubber, pepper, fruit trees, cocoa and mulberry. Farmers supplement irrigated wet-season rice with dry-season crops of faba bean, wheat, oil seed rape or sugarcane. They also raise livestock semi-intensively. Partial irrigation supports some cash crops including tobacco, vegetables and coffee. Using groundwater to irrigate coffee plantations in Vietnam's Central Highlands has depleted water supplies.Traditionally, upland farmers derived their livelihoods from shifting or 'swidden' cultivation, livestock farming and by growing a limited number of cash crops. In forested upland areas, two swidden systems endure. 'Established' entails farmers cultivating trees, annual crops, cereals and legumes on a rotational basis, while 'pioneering' or 'slash and burn' involves clearing land and growing monoculture crops of cereals and legumes. The latter requires long fallow periods of 8-10 years, but with increasing population pressure this has decreased to 1-4 years, resulting in erosion and declining soil fertility. Upland fishing is insignificant economically but provides valuable protein to communities.Concerns about sustainability, the desire to locate populations in areas where services exist and various political and security issues have led all governments to introduce programmes to resettle ethnic minorities and eradicate shifting cultivation. These policies have prompted the expansion of permanent upland agriculture, often in unsuitable areas. Commercial plantations of rubber, timber and oil crops are also increasing, particularly in southern Yunnan, northern Lao PDR and parts of Myanmar. Wild-sourced timber remains an important economic sector in the uplands of Myanmar. A relatively high proportion of forest cover remains in the uplands, but it is shrinking. Rates of loss are high in Myanmar and Lao PDR but have stabilized in Yunnan and Vietnam, where replanting programmes have increased tree cover.Intensive upland farming causes catchment-wide soil erosion. This decreases soil fertility and overloads waterways with sediment. Inle Lake in Myanmar has shrunk in length from 56 to 15 kilometers (km) during half a century. Plantations also prompt high soil erosion rates unless the understory is maintained.storages and thousands of small dams and reservoirs. Around one-third of this 2.4 Mha command area is on the Central Plain. In Isan, several large hydropower-irrigation schemes and some 20,000 smaller schemes service an irrigable area of 1.4 Mha. Serious water shortages in both basins in the dry season prompt conflicts between urban, industrial and agricultural users.Irrigation has expanded in Myanmar since the 1980s and now covers a quarter of the cropped area. Large-scale schemes are concentrated in Sagaing, Mandalay and Bago provinces. Smaller river-pumped, reservoir, river diversion and private village-based schemes make up the rest.In Lao PDR, more than 4,000 small to medium-sized schemes pump water from rivers. This irrigation infrastructure covers 190,000 ha during the wet season and 136,000 ha in the dry season. The government aims to double the irrigated area by 2020.Lowland plains have been largely cleared for agriculture in Thailand and Myanmar, with the remaining native vegetation limited to higher, steeper land. Significant stands of forest remain in northeast Cambodia and southern Laos. These could potentially be converted to farmlands. However, poor soils are widespread, access to water is limited and the remaining forests have significant conservation value.Narrow coastal plains rising rapidly to coastal ranges of 500 to 2,000 m make up 10-15% of Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, and over a third of Vietnam. Coastal rivers tend to be short and steep, with small watersheds.Coastal zones exhibit a range of agricultural systems, from paddy rice to rain-fed field crops (legumes, cassava, sugarcane and peanut), tree crops (fruit, nuts, eucalypt for paper pulp, jatropha and rubber), intensive cattle and pig farming, plus vegetable production. With farm sizes small and grazing areas limited, there has been a shift towards raising livestock intensively in combination with growing crops. Small-scale irrigation of rice and vegetables using rivers and groundwater takes place on the floodplains of coastal rivers. Plantations account for a quarter of the cropped area.The coastal zones of all countries are important for capture fisheries, with annual landings estimated at 2.2 million tonnes (Mt). Marine fishing is mostly restricted to the shallower parts of coastal shelves. Large numbers of small-scale artisanal fishers catch multiple species, but large-scale commercial fisheries are dominated by non-local and foreign investors.Overfishing has prompted a consistent decline in the catch per unit effort. Marine-and brackish-water aquaculture is limited in non-deltaic coastal areas but there are opportunities for developing specialized culture systems in the cleaner waters along exposed coastlines.Significant areas of forest remain in coastal parts of Myanmar and Cambodia but rates of deforestation and mangrove clearance are high.Little natural forest cover remains in Thailand, as a result of conversion to plantations since the early 1900s. Significant areas of forest remain in Vietnam but logging and thinning have taken their toll.Southeast Asia's agriculture is changingAgriculture in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is shifting from traditional subsistence to modern commercial farming. Countries in the region are following a path of intensification, specialization, increased agrochemical use and mechanization, at varying paces. Agricultural production has increased steadily during the past 20 years, as a result of farmers adopting 'green revolution' technologies. Trends observed in the more developed nations, such as Thailand and China, are likely to emerge in less developed countries in the future.Population growth, social change and global trade will drive more changesIn the next 20 to 30 years, agriculture will be shaped by a complex mixture of social, economic and environmental pressures, with climate being just one of many factors contributing to change. Food production trends will primarily be influenced by: increased demand prompted by rising populations and dietary changes favoring meat and vegetables; urbanization, offering farmers opportunities to diversify but also putting pressure on water supplies; unpredictable global trends such as fluctuations in oil and food prices, plus the recent global economic crisis; and global investment and trade, particularly China's increasing imports and investment in plantations. Fisheries will also be affected by changes in river flows due to hydropower and irrigation developments.Scientists predict that climate change will affect the GMS only moderately in the period to 2050. The changes forecast include rising temperatures and some seasonal shifts in rainfall, with wetter wet seasons and longer, drier dry seasons. Beyond 2050 the rise in temperature will speed up and sea-level rise will accelerate to reach at least one meter (m) above current levels, posing a great threat to farmland in the coastal and delta regions. Climate forecasts are highly uncertain, so governments must take action to build resilient communities that can cope with unforeseen circumstances. People's capacity to adapt to change is closely linked to wealth, diversification of income sources, education and access to infrastructure and technology. Promoting broad-based agricultural development to lift deprived rural communities out of poverty is probably the most effective adaptation strategy available.Using water efficiently is the key to future food security Much of the agricultural land in the GMS is prone to floods, droughts or both. Agriculture, urban centers and industry will increasingly compete for water needed to maintain aquatic ecosystems, while climate change may increase the uncertainty of water availability. Around 75% of crops are rain-fed. In many areas, irrigation is not technically or economically feasible, so improving water management is essential. Using conservation farming techniques, plus harvesting and storing run-off on farms, can achieve this. Public irrigation schemes often perform well below their potential due to inappropriate design, operation and maintenance, and improving their performance and flexibility must be a priority. A comprehensive assessment of groundwater potential and use in the region is urgently needed.  The greatest threats to capture fisheries is the alteration of river morphology and hydrology caused by hydropower projects, the excavation of channels to aid navigation, and the extraction of ground and surface waters for irrigation. Physical barriers constraining the migration of fish species will result in sudden failures of components of the fishery. Plans for cascades of dams, as proposed for the Nam Ngum tributary to the Mekong River, for example, could be catastrophic for this tributary's fishery diversity and productivity. Similarly, the plans for 12 hydropower dams on the mainstream Mekong River would \"fundamentally undermine the abundance, productivity, and diversity of the Mekong fish resources\" (ICEM 2010).Other threats include fragmentation of the river and floodplain fisheries (with resultant loss of connectivity); habitat destruction or change; overfishing and aggressive, unsustainable fishing methods, such as explosives; exotic fish populations; water pollution; changes in water flows and levels through dam releases; and climate change mitigation for other sectors (such as large-scale irrigation projects).There is a tendency to blame unplanned and unwanted events in the region's capture fisheries on climate change, even when other causes seem more likely. Climate change is becoming a scapegoat for shortcomings in more conventional fisheries management. Consequently, climate change presents an opportunity to use vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning as a force for concerted and integrated management of LMB fisheries in ways which address all threats in an integrated way.Although aquaculture is seen as a way to offset declining capture fisheries, a number of development trends are adding pressure on the region's aquaculture systems.Pollution and increasing demand for water during the dry season, for example, has the potential to constrain aquaculture development, particularly in the Mekong Delta. At the same time, it is expected that the increase in dams will result in increased dry season water flows, which would be advantageous for aquaculture.The use of pesticides and drugs in the more intensive systems are of concern to the region's aquaculture. Their use may be affected by certain diseases becoming more virulent as a result of changed conditions, such as increased temperatures.In the shorter term, existing threats to the basin's natural systems are more important than the threats from climate change-although addressing existing threats will increase long-term development, agrarian changes, and trends in labor are considered local drivers. The sector is also influenced by direct foreign investment and international market demand for some commodities such as bio-fuel, rubber, and animal feed.Food demand in the region will continue to rise as populations grow and diets change -higher consumption of fruits, sugar,and oils, for example, will induce changes in the agricultural sector.National agriculture policies can have far-reaching impacts on the sector, such as those supporting and promoting a specific commodity. In the past decade, Northeast Thailand has been fundamentally modified by support for rubber plantations and development of the rubber industry. Thailand is now the number one rubber producer in the world.The urbanization process has a major effect on rural development bringing centralization of markets, services, and seasonal and permanent migration of agriculture labor to cities. Urbanization also leads to conflict for landuse as agricultural areas are swallowed up by expanding settlements, industrial zones, and infrastructure.The LMB is one of the most active regions in the world for hydropower development. The development of extensive networks and cascades of hydropower reservoirs will have far reaching impacts on agriculture in the region. Already, competition for water in the dry season between farmers and electricity producers is a significant concern.Alongside expected climate changes, the basin is undergoing significant socio-economic and physical changes affecting livestock production, consumption, and livelihoods. Increasing household incomes have led to greater domestic demand for livestock-derived products. Globalization, and corresponding growing links to global markets, is promoting competition and subsequent pressure for domestic production.The high human and livestock populations, number of livestockraising households, and the nature of production in the basin contribute to emerging infectious disease risks, notably zoonoses. Outbreaks and endemic diseases are major production and public health concerns.Mechanization and the introduction of higher-productivity genotypes has had varied levels of success impacting yields, costs of production, and disease risks. Increasing concern over and investment in food safety and quality assurance is driving regulatory changes. Agricultural policy and policymaking processes vary widely at sub-national, national, and regional levels but environmental concerns are gaining more weight. At the same time, transparency and associated issues of good governance remain a challenge.Growing conditions are diverse, from the mountainous areas of Lao PDR and the Central Highlands in Vietnam to the lowland plain in the Mekong Delta. Farming systems range from traditional shifting agriculture dominated by upland rice through industrial plantation, including smallholder intensive rice farmers. Rainfed agriculture dominates with rainfed rice the main crop, representing 75% of agricultural area. Around 50% of the rice is produced in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, followed by Northeast Thailand (around 30% in 2003). Vietnam and Thailand are among the five main rice exporters in the world. Other commercial crops such as maize, soya, or cassava are of growing importance and mostly rainfed.Similar patterns can be highlighted across countries with the spread of commercial crops and the emergence of commercial agriculture. Maize is found across all countries, while cassava is already farmed in Thailand and the Vietnamese Central Highlands and is now starting in Lao PDR and Cambodia. Sugarcane is mostly found in Northeast Thailand, with this region accounting for more than 70% of the LMB planted area. The expansions of commercial crops and industrial plantations of rubber, coffee, and eucalyptus are driven by market demand and foreign investment. In the future, demand for bio-fuel (soya, maize, and sugarcane), animal feed (cassava), and starch (cassava) is likely to rise and the demand for rubber and sugar will continue to be strong, also driven by local conditions. In the Vietnamese Central Highlands, for example, the degradation of soil and ground water resources and the lack of rural labor have contributed to a shift from coffee to rubber plantations.Over the long term, the LMB's agricultural transition from subsistence to commercial and industrial systems can have positive implications for the alleviation of poverty and the provision of food security. However, in the short to medium term, the commercialization of agriculture poses significant threats to the security of the rural poor due to linked natural system degradation, the lack of alternative livelihoods, low labor mobility, loss of land tenure, and higher market prices for food.Losses in agricultural production due to climate change and other factors will have varied effects depending on the roles that men and women take in production. For example, if women hold primary responsibility for livestock production, losses in that area may affect their income generation. Women are often involved in labor-intensive tasks such as planting and tending crops, so their workload is likely to increase. Also, there is discrepancy along gender Subsistence-based systems are inherently integrated with natural systems. These systems tend to be more diverse and complex and a failure in one component can be substituted by another. Consider, for example, the different circumstances of two production systems: one intensively farmed pigs and the other subsistence use of wild pigs. The risks of major productivity losses or cost increases are great in the intensive pig farm if, for example, (i) the price of commercial pig fodder changes, (ii) there is a rapid outbreak of disease, or (iii) there is a heat wave that farm facilities are not designed to accommodate. The subsistence-based system is more resilient because: (i) it is not dependent on fodder, (ii) wild pigs are more resistant to disease outbreaks, and (iii) wild pigs are able to move to cooler habitat in heat wave conditions. Similar comparisons can be made for subsistence capture fisheries and aquaculture or harvesting of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) compared to industrial crops.within the basin to its full extent for producing paddy rice and other crops. Commercialization of agriculture has led to the expansion of cash crops, including several tree crops such as rubber, coffee, cashew, fruits, and fast-growing species for pulp and paper. In many areas, commercial plantations have replaced subsistence food crops often involving forest clearing.Other cash crops including cassava, soybean, and sugarcane have expanded rapidly through improved yields and increased area under production.The Mekong region's forested landscape has been transformed for agriculture and other developments. In the last 35 years, close to one-third of forests have been lost and at current rates little more than 10-20% of original cover will remain by 2030. Large connected areas of \"core\" forest-defined as areas of at least 3.2 km 2 of uninterrupted forest-have declined from over 70% in 1973 to about 20% in 2009 with negative implications for the species they sustain (WWF 2013). Deforestation and linked agricultural expansion are the main causes of land degradation in the region affecting between 10 and 40% of land in each country (UNEP and TEI 2007).During the past two decades, change in farming and natural systems has accelerated due to a wide range of infrastructure developments in particular relating to roads, power facilities and irrigation. For example, GIS analysis by the Mekong River Commission suggests that there are 15,000 to 30,000 dams or full stream impediments to natural flow throughout the basin. Hydropower dams exist or are planned for all of the region's main rivers. As of 2008, some US $10 billion was invested in Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) transport projects, of which 90% was devoted to roads (ADB 2008). The GMS countries are Cambodia, the People's Republic of China (specifically Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Transport developments have contributed significantly to poverty reduction in the region, providing access to markets and opening more land for habitation and use.Economic expansion and demographic shifts are transforming the economies and environment of the region at a pace and scale never before experienced. This trend brings expanding employment opportunities but also carries risks, for example, in terms of increased exposure to price shocks, natural resources degradation, and growing inequities.The basin supports around 65 million people, some 80% dependent on agriculture and natural resources for their subsistence and livelihoods. All countries of the region have groups and families that remain chronically poor, or are vulnerable to falling into poverty and food insecurity. They are acutely sensitive to adverse weather events such as floods and droughts, as well as to degradation of the natural environment.An important crosscutting issue is the differentiated impacts of climate change on women, children, and vulnerable groups. Rural communities and households in the basin are not homogenous entities. Disparities exist in terms of assets, access to services and resources, and income opportunities. These considerations are a central focus of rural poverty assessments, yet they require even greater prominence in climate change assessments because existing social disparities are exacerbated as a result of climate shocks. Vulnerable and disempowered groups in the LMB are more affected by negative climate change impacts and have less capacity to adapt to those impacts.Agriculture is a dynamic sector in the LMB. The production of the major crops has doubled in the last 20 years. The increase in production reflects an intensification of production with higher yields. New areas for cultivation are opening in Lao PDR, the Vietnamese Central Highlands, and Cambodia while the arable land in Northeast Thailand is now decreasing.lines concerning access to the information required in a changing climate: it is often only men who participate in agricultural extension programs, for example.A critical issue is ecological sustainability. The shift to commercial agriculture has meant more intensive cultivation of land, clearance of forestlands, increased application of fertilizers and pesticides, and large irrigation diversions. Natural resources are the foundation of rural welfare. The degradation of water supplies, soil erosion, and loss of access to NTFPs all have negative welfare impacts.Livestock production systems in the basin range from traditional smallholder practices to large, highly productive commercial enterprises. Traditional systems are small-scale, using lowintensity, low-input, and low-output approaches. They typically raise stock of local genetics and have limited market orientation. They contribute well over 90% of total numbers of producers in rely on fish products from small water bodies and streams in the uplands. These fish, which inhabit the cool clear waters of upland forests, look particularly vulnerable to a wide range of pressures, including climate change.Over the past 30 years, the Mekong's aquaculture sector has boomed, providing livelihoods to hundreds of thousands of households. The latest production estimates of around 1.9 million tonnes are now similar to the production levels from the capture fisheries and looks set to surpass capture fisheries over the next few years. Much of this production (1.6 m tonnes) is from intensive catfish culture (particularly Pangasius spp) and shrimp farms and is destined for export. Traditionally, many aquaculture systems have been dependent on the capture fisheries for wild-caught juveniles for culture and low-value fish for feed. However the development of hatcheries and the increased availability of commercial fish feeds throughout the LMB have reduced this dependence on wild resources.Semi-intensive and extensive aquaculture systems often include a significant proportion of wild fish in the harvests. A wide range of indigenous species are cultured in the LMB. A number of exotic species are also cultured, often in polycultures with indigenous fish. In the Thailand part of the LMB, tilapia is the most commonly cultured fish (41%) followed by clarias catfish, (26%), barbs (11%), snakeskin gourami (7%), and giant freshwater prawns (6%). In the Delta, aquaculture production is dominated by pangasids (1.6 million tonnes/year) followed by tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon), although production there is now facing environmental and economic constraints.Current trends in aquaculture include a reduction in use of low value fish for fish feed, an increase in the use of hatchery-reared juveniles, and the culture of 'new' fish species/strains such as 'tub tim' fish (Oreochromis spp). As LMB countries become wealthier, the demand for diverse and inexpensive fresh fish is increasing. It is unlikely that the capture fisheries, no matter how well-managed, would be able to keep pace with this demand. The disappearance of some fish species from the capture fishery (e.g. Oxyeleotris marmorata) and the growing market acceptance of exotic fish such as tilapia are creating opportunities for aquaculture. The sector therefore looks set to continue to grow, generating wealth and creating new livelihood opportunities for rural people.Much of this aquaculture expansion has resulted in new areas being utilized for aquaculture. This is certainly true of the coastal region where large areas of mangrove and/or rice fields have been converted to shrimp farms. Large freshwater wetland areas considered suitable for the expansion of inland aquaculture also exist. However, environmental constraints are starting to affect aquaculture production and diseases and water quality issues are increasingly affecting production in intensive culture systems. Any increased costs of farmed fish resulting from climate change adaptation measures could have a serious indirect effect on poorer people's diet where no other obvious animal protein alternatives exist.Natural ecosystems within and outside protected areas are under pressure throughout the Lower Mekong region. Healthy natural systems are a foundation for the development and wellbeing of livelihood systems and are essential in building resilience in communities and across economic sectors. They are critical to food security. Even households that have moved beyond a marginal existence and possess productive assets, such as irrigation infrastructure and farm machinery, have much to lose from reduced access to healthy natural systems and resources.the LMB and over 50% of total production. These systems dominate the higher-elevation forested and more sloping ecozones and typically are associated with low-income, vulnerable households. Women, the elderly, and children are often responsible for household livestock, providing them with an important source of cash income and increased social standing.In Gia Lai, for example, women take the lead role in raising pigs because this activity normally occurs around the home. Climate changes that result in lower pig productivity and higher mortality may reduce the income earning potential of women. Pigs are also an important form of savings and an asset intimes of emergency. Loss of these assets may reduce the capacity of women to provide food for their family in times of scarcity. Small-and medium-scale commercial operations are most vulnerable and have limited capacity to adapt.Capture fisheries and aquaculture are vitally important for food and for the livelihoods.Mekong communities have the highest per capita consumption of fish in the world -up to 50 kg/head/year in some parts of the basin.The basin's capture fisheries are crucial for food security. The LMB's freshwater fishery is the world's largest, producing some 2.1 million tonnes per year (close to 22% of the world's freshwater fish yield). The region also has a substantial coastal fishery producing 0.5 million tonnes per year. This catch of fish is supplemented by about 0.5 million tonnes per year of other aquatic animals (for example, freshwater shrimps, snails, crabs, and frogs).With 781 known species, it is home to the second highest fish biodiversity in the world after the Amazon River. Virtually all fish species have a commercial value. The small-scale mud carp, for example, is of huge importance for fish paste production in several Mekong countries. The biodiversity and productivity of the fishery is linked inextricably to the annual flood pulse and the diverse range of natural habitats it maintains -as well as some artificial habitats such as rice fields and reservoirs. Although the fishery is very productive, there are serious declines in the stocks of certain species, including some of the giant fish species. In addition, the average size of some species is reducing, suggesting stocks are being over-fished and changes to habitats are affecting life cycles.Despite the seasonal abundance of fish, many households remain desperately poor-and with few other livelihood opportunities, a decline in the Mekong capture fishery would be catastrophic for them.The fishes of the small streams in upland areas of the Mekong Basin are often overlooked by fisheries scientists, as their contribution to total fisheries productivity is modest. However, as other hunting options decrease, an increasing number of upland households nowTowards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersNTFPs make a significant contribution to national and local economies in the region and can make up over 30% of the income of individual farming families. Crop wild relatives (CWRs), often forgotten by all except crop researchers, are important as a source of genetic material for the improvement of existing crops, including the development of resistance to disease and extremes of temperature and drought. Protected areas now represent the last vestiges of the original plant and animal assemblages of the region and, for many NTFPs and CWRs, the only areas where they grow in the wild.The four countries of the LMB-Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam-have established one of the largest protected area systems in the world. Those systems include more than 116 protected areas in the LMB covering 16% of the basin's land area. In Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Thailand, the protected area systems cover well over 20% of national land area.Most of the significant remaining forest areas and upper watershed areas of the LMB are contained within these protected areas. All the protected areas and linked natural areas of forest and wetlands are of increasing importance as an essential part of healthy productive farming ecosystems-increasing as populations grow and as access to arable land diminishes.Around 90% of the basin's protected areas have communities living within them-and most are experiencing growing populations. More than 25% of the region's protected areas is used for agriculture, 30% for grazing, 30% for fisheries, and 90% for hunting, gathering, and extraction.In addition, protected areas in all countries except Thailand are open for major infrastructure development such as hydropower schemes, roads, mining, plantations, and tourism facilities.An enabling environment plays a critical role in the advancement of DRR and CCA in the Asia-Pacific region. Its importance in achieving a more integrated implementation of CCA and DDR is illustrated in Figure 1, which adopts a risk-based approach to adaptation in order to harmonize DRR and CCA as much as is practicable and desirable. This is regardless of whether the initiatives are at community of national level. But at national level, governments in particular have the important responsibility of ensuring a strong enabling environment, as well as benefiting from that enabling environment when undertaking CCA and DDR measures themselves.As indicated below, a critical aspect of the enabling environment and a foundation for knowledgeable decision making is to have access to relevant hazard information. Thus national meteorological and hydrological services have an important role to play ensuring access to reliable and long-term natural resource data. Assessment of future risksEnhancing integration between climate change adaptation and disaster risk management for poverty reduction.• Opportunities for high-level policy dialogue between donors and governments to identify entry points? • Have the benefits of taking action been demonstrated (to help find entry points for adaptation projects)? • Is addressing underlying vulnerability and livelihood resilience serve as a priority adaptive measure? • Are there integrated legal, policy and institutional frameworks, including across region? • Are existing platforms to implement into national government plans (e.g. Poverty Reduction Strategies NAPAs and UNFCCC process, National Platforms, etc.) being used effectively?• Has financial/business case for adaptation in national budgets been made? • Are Planning and Finance Ministries involved in mainstreaming? • Access to external funding sources for disaster risk reduction and adaptation? • Are alternative financial mechanisms, such as insurance, credit schemes or the private sector promoted?• Do network/institutions strengthened/build coordination at different scales and provide support networks? • Is there a single coordinating body at national level with responsibility for policy, decision-making, regulation? • Does political leadership promote lasting political momentum toward integration? • Are there mechanisms for coordination/integration that target specific development themes?• Has climate modelling capacity been enhance (emphasis on investment in regional initiatives)? • Is risk information applied to land-use planning as a tool for adaptive disaster risk reduction? • Have appropriate options that consider risk over different timescales been identified? • Investment in personnel with the skills to act as 'translators' of science? • Does assessment integrate climate and hazard data with socio-economic data?• Have forums for communication between science and local agencies/communities been created? • Are there continuous/updatable monitoring systems?• Is there good spatial/temporal climate data?• Are all existing data sources used efficiently?• Is existing local capacity used to initiate, strengthen and implement adaptive measures? Is local capacity and awareness being built through education? • Do local risk aversion solutions take climate change into account (potential role for traditional practices)?The responsibility of government to ensure a strong enabling environment is of critical importance to communities since this is where most CCA and DRR activities are focused.Communities will see more value in pursuing an integrated approach if it is already reflected in national and sectoral development policies and plans. Communities will benefit from a more coordinated and harmonized approach that is consistent across all government agencies. Governments can help ensure that communities are equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills required to support decision making and implementation, and have access to proven technologies which are consistent with their needs and values. Few et al. (2006) have used examples from Mexico, Kenya and Vietnam to provide insights into how a more integrated approach to DRM and CCA can contribute to sustainable poverty reduction and other development outcomes. The main emphasis in the analysis was placed on institutional capacity as well as on constraints and opportunities within the policy process.Figure 2 summarizes their findings in terms of commonalities in enabling factors in the implementation of integrated DRM, CCA and poverty reduction. The findings highlight the importance of incorporating livelihood resilience, information packaging, communication, coordination, financing and supporting an enabling environment. Few et al. (2006) also show that a key step in demonstrating through operational work that DRR addressing climate change is possible and beneficial is to find relevant entry points that can showcase how action is feasible and worthwhile, building on current capacity. These entry points can also be used to show how benefits can be linked to current vulnerabilities and to high-level policy goals such as poverty reduction strategy targets and the MDGs.Environmental and health impact assessments are effective entry points for intersectoral cooperation on DRR and CCA. As they are typically high policy priorities, assessments and activities designed to enhance food, water and human security also provide useful entry points as all are sensitive to climate change and are usually important dimensions of natural disasters. Holistic but practical and locally-focused approaches, such as an ecosystem-based planning, also provide excellent opportunities to promote the integration of DRR and CCA.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersOther relevant entry points include:• Engineering design studies for infrastructure;• Visioning activities, at community to national level;• Multi-hazard risk assessments such as development of integrated coastal management plans; • Local government strategic planning; • Midterm and final reviews of projects; • Preparing work programmes of high-level national coordinating institutions;• Preparation of integrated national policies, legislation or progressive development strategies; • Development of capacity building strategies, including both top-down and bottom up strategies such as those designed to strengthen community capacity for promoting integration of DRR-CCA into development at the local level; and • Sourcing funding (internal or external) for projects designed to reduce vulnerabilities and enhance resilience.The World Bank's Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Projects provide lessons learned, best practices, recommendations, and useful resources for integrating climate risk management and adaptation to climate change in development projects, with a focus on the agriculture and natural resources management sectors. They are organized around a typical project cycle, starting from project identification, followed by project preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Each note focuses on specific technical, institutional, economic, or social aspects of adaptation.CARE has also developed the Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA) methodology, based on a framework of \"enabling factors\" for CBA (Dazé et al., 2009). CARE's approach to CCA is grounded in the knowledge that people must be empowered to transform and secure their rights and livelihoods. It also recognizes the critical role that local and national institutions, as well as public policies, play in shaping people's adaptive capacity. By combining local knowledge with scientific data, the process builds people's understanding about climate risks and adaptation strategies. It provides a framework for dialogue within communities, as well as between communities and other stakeholders. The results provide a solid foundation for the identification of practical strategies to facilitate community-based adaptation to climate change.It appears that pinning down the required regional enabling environment for the practical integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in Asia and the Pacific is very challenging. Two enabling factors that could foster DRR and CCA integration at the regional level. These are (a) the political commitment and awareness of regional intergovernmental organizations and (b) the regional policy and institutional mechanisms related to DRR and CCA. CSA 120 BClimate change does not mean throwing out or reinventing everything that has been learnedAs a starting point, it is important to recognize that responding to climate change does not mean throwing out or reinventing everything that has been learned about agriculture and rural development. Instead, it requires a renewed effort to tackle wider and well-known challenges. Many of IFAD's programmes are implicitly or explicitly designed to increase the resilience of smallholders and poor communities to shocks, which are often weather-related. A coherent response to climate change requires continued emphasis on, for example, country-ledThis article was drawn from previously published material entitled Climate-smart smallholder agriculture: What's different? by Elwyn Grainger-Jones and Per Rydén. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.frame for further significant climate impacts. This is especially important in agriculture, where most of the main staple crops are already being grown at their temperature threshold. For many regions, despite the fact that science is yielding clearer projections (e.g. drought in North Africa), traditional project appraisal has often discounted such future project risks. Of foremost concern is the need to avoid 'maladaptation'-project design that exacerbates vulnerability-for example, facilitating habitation in a flood plain or low-lying coastal area.These risks need to be understood in the context of the complexity of people's interaction within their communities and with landscapes and ecosystems. Embracing such complexity certainly adds to the effort involved in policy and project design, but can lead to better (and often simpler) solutions. The range of tools and approaches available to map risk and vulnerability at the community and landscape level is increasing rapidly. For example, better spatial analysis supported by geographic information systems can identify how investments or management practices in some parts of a landscape or watershed can produce benefits or reduce negative impacts in other parts, to provide 'connectivity' of hydrological systems or wildlife habitat.Uncertainty regarding climate impacts is no reason for inaction. New downscaled climate models provide opportunities to reduce uncertainty in local vulnerability assessments, particularly where there is concurrence among global climate models in some regions (Wilby and Fowler, 2010). Information can be gathered, for example, on day-and night-time temperature increases, water availability, shifts in vegetative cover and soil fertility. Where uncertainty remains, there are many 'no regrets' actions that can have significant development benefits under a range of climate scenarios. A key immediate priority is to help communities build resilience to withstand a range of potential shocks while also adjusting to longer-term climatic trends where these are clearer. Most of the examples presented in this paper are useful in maintaining agricultural production with or without climate change-for example, diversifying household food production, enhancing agricultural extension services, promoting better crop diversity and biodiversity, integrating farming and agroforestry systems, and improving post-harvest management to reduce losses in terms of quantity and nutrient content (UNSCN, 2011).This deeper appreciation of interconnected risks should drive a major scaling up of successful 'multiple-benefit' approaches for sustainable agricultural intensification. Over the last few decades, a wide range of approaches has been developed that typically maximize the use of natural processes and ecosystems, reduce excessive use of external inorganic inputs, enhance the diversity of production and tailor production intensity to the capacity of the landscape, and use a mix of traditional and new technologies (see Figure 1).There are many examples to choose from. Terracing or bunding prevents soil loss through erosion and water flooding, and thereby loss of soluble nutrients, while allowing water retention. Minimum or zero tillage, coupled with crop rotation and the application of manure, compost or mulching, and the fallow system can improve soil structure and fertility and build up organic matter in the soil and its water-holding capacity. Adding manure to the soil supports a mixed system of livestock/crop production that diversifies risks across different products. This also implies a development, community-based natural resource management, gender awareness, targeting of poor rural people, dealing with land tenure issues, improving access to financial services and markets, increasing sustainable productivity, and institutional and human capacitybuilding. It remains essential to promote good governance and to both empower farmers and recognize the relevance of their traditional and indigenous knowledge in addressing issues such as climate variability, and the differences between women's and men's knowledge and roles in responding to climate change. As set out in Toulmin (2011):The root of smallholder vulnerability lies in the marginalisation of farmers, pastoralists and other rural groups in power and decision-making. This is a fundamental problem for smallholders everywhere, and a consequence of their large numbers, weak and costly organisation and consequent very limited political power.But beyond regular development best practice, what really is different about climate-smart smallholder agriculture? This paper sets out three major changes, responding to climate change, in how government and donor support to rural development-and smallholder agriculture in particular-is practised. In summary, project designs need to reflect a different context, in which vulnerability assessments, opportunities for payment for environmental services (such as emissions reductions) and greater use of climate scenario modelling are likely to alter the balance of activities and the way these are implemented. In many cases, this will lead to morerapid scaling up of successful approaches that have already been piloted in various ecosystems, such as agroforestry, sustainable land management and conservation watershed management, but in a way that is fully cognisant of potential climate impact scenarios.Project and policy preparation need to be based on better risk assessmentProject and policy preparation need to be based on deeper risk assessment, with a better understanding of interconnections between smallholder farming and wider landscapes. Climate change is now changing the context quickly enough for us to have to think about it in project design. It is a 'threat multiplier' for smallholders, increasing existing livelihood threats and vulnerabilities, rather than an isolated specific risk:• Climate change will magnify traditional risks. Historical averages can no longer be relied on since climate change is increasing variability, the range of extremes and the scale of volatility and risk. For example, historical drought or flooding frequency is no longer a straightforward guide to the future.• There will be new sources of risk beyond the traditional ones, such as sea-level rise and glacier-melt impact on water supply. Smallholder farms will need to increase their general resilience to withstand currently unidentified direct and indirect shocks. New opportunities for greenhouse gas emissions reduction rewards and carbon financing schemes can bring their own risks-for example, if poor people were to remain without access to emissions reduction rewards as a consequence of social exclusion and limitations on land-use rights.• The impact of a changing climate on long-term trends needs to be better understood over time. Although predictive capability will increase with new data and enhanced decision-support tools, climate uncertainty will continue to be a challenge. While impacts are already being felt, they will worsen increasingly in the years to come. Many project investments are expected to have a lifespan of 20 or more years, well within the time system of crop rotation-production of both food crops and fodder crops-which reduces risk at the farm level and often improves family nutrition. Agroforestry is another integrated system that combines trees with agricultural crops and/or livestock. The trees can in themselves be a source of income depending on the species. They can also serve to improve soil quality through nitrogen fixation (if they are legumes) and capture nutrients from deep in the soil (making them available through leaf litter), in addition to creating a more favourable microclimate. Better management of grazing land or pasture can also increase soil carbon content and productivity. Rotational grazing or a combination of stall feeding and grazing, based on fodder crops and limiting the dependence on grazing, can result in increased productivity in the livestock sector, combined with a build-up of carbon stock in the rangelands.Figure 1. Approach, primary impacts and multiple benefits.Approach:• Maximum use of natural processes and ecosystems CSA 619The need to transform agricultureBy 2050 approximately 70% more food will have to be produced to feed growing populations, particularly in developing countries. Agriculture is already causing increased conversion of lands and placing greater pressure on biological diversity and natural resource functions than ever before. As climate change causes temperatures to rise and precipitation patterns to change, more weather extremes will potentially reduce global food production.Agriculture is rapidly evolving to address these drivers of change, for instance through irrigation, fertilizers and the provision of better germplasm for higher productivity and improved products. In many less developed parts of the world, increased production has occurred through the expansion of agricultural lands rather than through intensificatio. At a global scale, both intensification and extensification are currently having a significant negative effect on the environment; depleting the natural resource base upon which we rely.This article was drawn from previously published material entitled Making Climate-smart agriculture work for the poor by Henry Neufeldt and Patti Kristjanson. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makers and climates of the tropics and subtropics, some practices are more appropriate to humid conditions (e.g. rice management), to drylands (e.g. grassland restoration, drip irrigation or to slopes (e.g. terraces, contour planting).All the practices shown in Table 1 address food security and lead to higher productivity, but their ability to address adaptation and mitigation varies. In most cases food security improvements will also raise the adaptive capacity of farmers, but there can be trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation goals. For example, if not carefully planned, the production of biofuels could lead to competition with crop production and negatively affect adaptation and food security.Many climate-smart agricultural practices can be integrated into a single farming system and will provide multiple benefits that can improve livelihoods and incomes. However, there are practices that cannot be integrated because they impact upon other elements of the farming system. For example: the timing of a practice may lead to labour constraints; high investment or maintenance costs may exceed the capacity of asset poor farmers; and competition for crop residues may restrict the availability of feed for livestock and biogas production. Identifying these constraints is important to developing economically attractive and environmentally sustainable management practices that have adaptation and mitigation benefits.What should be done to overcome the challenges to introducing climate-smart agriculture?Provide an enabling legal and political environment with an overarching national plan, appropriate institutions and effective and transparent governance structures that coordinate between sectoral responsibilities and across national to local institutions.Improve market accessibility to enhance incomegenerating opportunities provided by agroforestry. This can be done through improving infrastructure or more locally through establishing cooperatives that pool resources to access markets. As shown above, one of the most effective ways to reduce a farmer's vulnerability to climate change is through improving their income. In comparing benefits derived from agroforestry in Kenya, Thorlakson (2011) found that market access played a key role in improving household incomes.Involve farmers in the project-planning process. Farmers' input should be used to ensure development projects target what is most relevant to local communities and be designed to accomplish agreed goals in the most effective way within the local context.Improve access to knowledge and training. This has been shown to significantly improve farmers' willingness to plant more trees for multiple purposes. Kiptot et al. (2006) showed that farmer to farmer dissemination provides a potential alternative mechanism for the spread of agricultural technologies and Thorlakson demonstrated that educational farm visits to successful management practices can increase adoption rates.Introduce more secure tenure. This can have a significant effect on farmers' willingness to invest in their land and improve productivity. Norton-Griffiths (2008) showed that amongThe need to reduce the environmental impacts while increasing productivity requires a significant change in the way agriculture currently operates.'Climate-smart agriculture' has the potential to increase sustainable productivity, increase the resilience of farming systems to climate impacts and mitigate climate change through greenhouse gas emission reductions and carbon sequestration.Climate-smart agriculture can have very different meanings depending upon the scale at which it is being applied. For example, at the local scale, it may provide opportunities for higher production through improved management techniques such as more targeted use of fertilizers. At the national scale it could mean providing a framework that incentivizes sustainable management practices. And at the global scale it could equate to setting rules for the global trade of biofuels. It is not clear how actions at one scale may affect the others.For smallholder farmers in developing countries, the opportunities for greater food security and increased income together with greater resilience will be more important to adopting climate-smart agriculture than mitigation opportunities. For intensive mechanized agricultural operations, the opportunities to reduce emissions will be of greater interest.Opportunities for climate-smart agriculture to mitigate climate change, improve resilience to climate impacts and increase food security/livelihoods Table 1 shows just some of a range of practices that are consistent with climate-smart agriculture in smallholder systems as well as in line with the AU-NEPAD Agriculture Climate Change Adaptation-Mitigation Framework. While most of these are applicable to all regions What is climate-smart agriculture?Agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, resilience (adaptation), reduces/removes greenhouse gases (mitigation), and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals.Food insecure farmers find it hard to innovate and invest in better management systems when they are fully occupied finding sufficient food to survive.Many climate-smart agricultural practices incur establishment and maintenance costs and it can take considerable time before farmers benefit from them.Access to markets and capital are key constraints for resource-poor farmers, and limit their ability to innovate and raise their income.• Intercropping with legumes Many schools of thought in the literature give different insights and perceptions on climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA 2008) defines climate change as a long-term shift in weather norms (including its averages). It can be seen for a given place and time of year, from one decade to the next, as a change in normal climate (i.e. expected average values for temperature and precipitation). Climate change can be caused by: 1) natural variability, i.e. it is a normal part of the Earth's natural variability, which is related to interactions among the atmosphere, ocean and land, as well as changes in the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth; and 2) human-induced change, especially the greenhouse gases resulting from natural phenomenon and the burning of fossil fuels which releases gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.Even a slight increase in temperature across a country or a region will increase the overall temperature of the world for the next centuries. The United Nations Environment Programme is based on the premise that \"climate change is the defining challenge of our generation and it is no longer relevant to discuss whether or not our climate is changing, but rather, how fast changes will occur\" (UNEP 2009). The National Climatic Data Centre reports that atmospheric concentrations of both natural and man-made gases have been rising over the last few centuries. Due to its increasingly unpredictable and alarming impacts on the environment and production and encourage development of agro-industry plantations. Agricultural production offers potential for long-term development and sustainable rural income (MAFF 2011d). Agro-industrial plantations of rubber, cassava, sweet potato, sugarcane and oil-palm have been established in ELC areas in 16 provinces. Based on national agricultural statistics, the agricultural sector's share in GDP by 2010-end (at constant 2000 prices) was about 29 percent (MAFF 2011a). Even though Cambodia encounters less natural disasters per annum than its neighbouring countries, its limited adaptive capacity makes it particularly vulnerable to the impacts of global and regional climate change (Arief and Herminia 2009). Historically, the country has suffered many natural disasters including the drought in 2002 (419 people affected) (Khun 2002), floods along the Mekong River in 2000 (347 deaths) (MOWRAM 2010), storms and the after-effects such as flash floods (e.g. cyclone Ketsana in 2009 which left 43 dead). These disasters caused loss of life, destroyed social infrastructure and severely damaged agricultural production in rural areas (Khun 2002).Agricultural areas, especially the Tonle Sap Plain and areas along the Upper and Lower Mekong Rivers are affected by floods for several months every year. The flooding of the Mekong River is a vital part of the natural cycle. Monsoon rains flow down to the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers and swell the Great Lake to about four times its dry season size (MRC 2002). For one to four months, the lowlands around the Tonle Sap Lake and the Upper and Lower Mekong areas are inundated with water. This ecological phenomenon is an important source of water and nutrients for soil fertility for agriculture and for fisheries biodiversity. These impacts complement farmers' annual food production and food security. Flash floods occur in areas around the Tonle Sap Lake, the Mekong River and its tributaries, often with devastating consequences for agricultural crops, livestock and fisheries, transport and infrastructure, housing and health. Such floods reportedly cause agricultural losses of USD100 to 170 million each year (RGC 2009). The estimated total damage and loss caused by Typhoon Ketsana in 2009 was about USD132 million (damage of USD58 million and loss of USD74 million); 14 out of 24 provinces suffered damage and destruction, and most of the affected districts are among the poorest in the country. Figure 1 shows Cambodia wetland area (left) and the extent of flood damaged paddy (right). human beings, climate change is now universally acknowledged as a global issue which requires all countries to work collectively to mitigate the problem under bilateral, regional and international frameworks.Cambodia has frequently suffered catastrophic damage from natural disasters, notably drought, flood, storm and after-effects such as flash floods (e.g. cyclone Ketsana in 2009), particularly in the many rice producing provinces in the Tonle Sap Lowlands and along the Mekong River. The majority of the rural poor rely on the regularity of the wet and dry seasons, especially for crop farming, which affects all aspects of their lives from income generation, consumption, nutritional status, education and health (RGC 2002b: 42). The agricultural sector is especially hard hit by natural disasters; not only crops, but infrastructure, buildings and equipment are destroyed. Given that the agricultural sector is a key contributor to the national economy, the impact of natural disasters reverberates beyond its confines. The Strategy for Agriculture and Water (SAW 2007: 6) highlights natural disasters as one of nine major factors that pose potential threat to Cambodia's agriculture and water sectors (TWGWA 2007).Cambodia is located on the south-western part of the Indochina peninsula, between 10° to 15° north latitude and from 102° to 108° east longitude. It is bordered by Thailand to the west and north, Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east and south, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. Cambodia is a low lying country and rich in water resources. The Mekong River supplies surface water to the eastern part of the country while the Tonle Sap River Basin supplies the central and western parts. Farmers cultivate rice in both dry and wet seasons. The rice cultivated area has expanded annually over the last two decades. Average rice yield in 2008 was reportedly about 2.2 tonnes per ha in rain-fed or non-irrigated areas and 3.2 to 3.5 tonnes per ha in irrigated areas (MOWRAM 2009). MAFF data record that the average rice yield in 2010 was about 4.2 tonnes per ha in the dry season and 2.76 tonnes per ha in the wet season (MAFF 2011a:19). Most agricultural areas are rain-fed. Farmers still rely on rain-fed agriculture and grow one crop per year. The average annual rainfall is 2000-3000 mm in the Mountainous area, 4000 mm in the Coastal area and 1400-1600 mm in the Plains area (Khun 2002).Rice, maize, cassava, soybeans and mung beans are the main crops grown in Cambodia. Given the country's fertile soils, vast arable land and plentiful water resources, there is great potential to increase rice production. Rice is the staple food accounting for 68-70 percent of daily calorie intake (Mak 2004) and is important for national economic development. Government, the private sector and donors have provided new varieties of high-yielding rice seed, fertilisers and extension services to help train farmers in new technologies and methods to increase rice productivity (Hegadorn 2011). Efforts are being made to diversify crop As illustrated in Figure 2, Cambodia's agriculture was seriously damaged by drought during 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998 and 2004. The 1997 socio-economic survey of the Ministry of Planning reports that about 36 percent of Cambodia's population was living below the poverty line (RGC 2002b). The World Bank reports that the overall poverty line for Cambodia in 2007 had decreased to 30.1 percent from 34.8 percent in 2004(World Bank 2009: 27). This reflects the relationship between drought and poverty; in 2010 approximately 20,661 ha of crops were reportedly destroyed by drought, flood and insect infestation (MAFF 2011b: 18).Rice farming is significantly affected by drought, which mostly occurs in the middle of the wet season (known as the \"small dry season\"), and flood, especially at the end of the wet season (mid-October to mid-November). Such events happen almost every year in the major rice producing provinces of Prey Veng, Takeo, Kompong Cham, Kompong Thom, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Siem Reap provinces.Successive droughts in 1997 and 1998 did not allow farmers to recover from the initial blow. As a result they suffered great hardship, went hungry, fell (deeper) into poverty, became sick or even died. Farmers said:Agriculture is the primary source of income for the poor rural population (RGC 2002b: 37). Food insecurity and under-nutrition, due mainly to low yields and the staple diet of rice and fish, is prevalent in all rural and some urban communities (TWGAW 2007: 21). A recent report from the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) reveals that the poorest groups of people are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (MoE 2011: 1). This underlines the imperative to scale-up efforts to increase farmers' adaptive capacity to climate change.Cambodia is a signatory of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The National Climate Change Committee, established in 2006, serves as a policy-making body and coordinates the development and implementation of policies to address climate change issues.Recognising that climate change is a global issue and requires individual and collective effort to adapt or mitigate its impacts, Cambodia's government has developed comprehensive regulations and policies aimed at addressing climate change issues. The government's NAPA framework is to guide the coordination and implementation of adaptation initiatives through a participatory approach and build synergies with relevant environment and development programmes. This policy prioritises a number of main projects related to climate change Agriculture, infrastructure and human life can be seriously damaged by flood and flash floods. The Mekong River Commission (MRC), under three IPCC emission scenarios (A1B, A2 and B1), projected that rainfall will increase during the wet season but remain unchanged or lower in the dry season. This will create more flooding in the central agricultural plains, which are already vulnerable to flooding and drought (MRC 2010: 6-8). Since Cambodia relies mainly on the agricultural sector, serious decline in agricultural production could lead to more poverty and slow down national economic growth.Frequent natural disasters, particularly flood and drought, have hit Cambodia over the last decade. Temperature has climbed steadily from one decade to the next. The MRC calculated that the average temperature in Cambodia increased by 0.8°C from 1960 to 2005; the rate of increase per decade was about 0.20 to 0.23°C in the dry season and 0.13 to 0.16°C in the wet season (MRC 2010). Based on these estimates, it is projected that the mean temperature will have risen by 0.3 to 0.6°C by 2025, 0.7 to 2.7°C by 2060 and 1.4 to 4.3°C by 2090 (Figure 2). The expected warming will be more severe from December to June. Under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emission scenarios A1B, A2 and B1, it is expected that Cambodia's annual average rainfall will have increased by 31 percent by the 2090s (MRC 2010).The temperature in some provinces has increased in the last few years and some crops have been affected. For example, in a discussion with local farmers on the past and present temperature, it was mentioned that: Resultant of efforts by government, local people and the authorities, the implementation of agricultural technologies and especially government policy to promote rice production and export, the production of rice and other main crops continues to improve. Meanwhile, recognising the importance of the water sector to agriculture sector development, the national policy on water resources in 2004 emphasises the development of water reservoirs to store water as well as catchment management to help prevent floods and mitigate the impacts of natural disaster (RGC 2004: 6). In the strategic development plans for agriculture and water resources implemented in 2007 (SAW), the government sets out its clear long term vision to ensure safe and accessible food and water for all Cambodians, reduce poverty, and contribute to economic growth, while ensuring the sustainability of natural resources (TWGAW 2007). The strategy also takes into consideration the conservation of critical ecosystems and biological diversity, the protection of irrigation, rivers and lakes from agro-chemical contamination, the protection of watersheds against degradation, and the appropriate action to be taken in response to climate change and variability (TWGAW: 12).Sustainable forest management and sustainable forest resource use is prioritised in the government's forest reform policy (RGC 2002c). Areas of denuded forest have been re-planted through tree planting programmes and other events where two to five million tree seedlings were provided to local people. Meanwhile, community forestry is being strengthened; the number of Forestry Communities had increased to 510 by the end of 2010, covering a total area of 467,884 ha (MAFF 2011a: 4). Sustainable forest management will ensure adequate forest resources for multiple benefits such as domestic consumption, fish sanctuaries, watershed protection, natural resources reserves, biodiversity and endangered species conservation and drought and flood prevention (TWGFE 2007: 2).Cambodia has continued to develop and strengthen institutional capacity in both government agencies and community organisations to understand the impact of climate change on agriculture, forestry, fisheries, livestock, animal and human health, improved the country's capacity for long-term adaptation and resilience to climate change, and integrated these considerations into sectoral planning at all levels.The area of the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) found in Vietnam includes both the Delta and the Central Highlands, two distinct regions of importance to the country's economy and culture. The results of the USAID Mekong ARCC Climate Change Impact and Adaptation Study indicate these regions will experience pronounced changes under future climate conditions related to: significantly higher temperatures, changes in the extent and distribution of rainfall, and sea level rise (SLR).• Annual mean temperature will rise by 3°C with daily maximum temperatures exceeding 40°C in some years; expected ramifications include significant decline in crop yields, reduced livestock productivity, and loss of NTFPs• Annual rainfall will increase in the Vietnam portion of the LMB with wet season rainfall increasing up to 20% in the Central Highlands; the increased rainfall will cause widespread flooding during already wet periods with associated effects such as landslides, loss of crops, and reduction in yield• Relatedly, extreme rainfall events and associated flooding will occur more often. For example, in the Central Highlands, the number of large rainfall events (exceeding 100 mm/day) is expected to double in frequency compared to baseline occurrenceIn provinces such as Kien Giang, Bac Lieu, and Ca Mau where seasonal salinity intrusion is common, salinity control infrastructures (embankments and sluice gates) have been developed to protect and maximize rice production in freshwater areas. With increasing SLR, these areas will be more affected by saline intrusion possibly requiring a shift in the cropping system and cropping calendar and a switch to brackish water aquaculture.As outlined above, SLR will also affect the duration and amplitude of the delta flood regime. Extreme flooding events or early flooding in August has been known to affect the harvest of the second wet season rice crop. Rice production will be increasingly affected by excessive flooding in the tidally inundated areas and through longer flooding periods. These adverse impacts could affect all three cropping seasons.Climate change related impacts to the Mekong Delta's fishery include increased temperatures, fluctuating salinities, and excess flooding. Increased temperatures can result in compromised water quality within aquaculture ponds. Increased flooding during the rainy season will require higher pond embankments and increased farm construction and maintenance costs. Flood events can also result in dramatic swings in salinity levels, negatively affecting shrimp production.The Central Highlands of Vietnam is a dynamic agricultural region, with both traditional systems based on rainfed rice farming and a more recent industrial agriculture based on rubber, cassava, maize, sugarcane, and robusta coffee production.Coffee production in the Central Highlands is mostly concentrated in Gia Lai and Dak Lak Provinces, which are well suited to coffee growing as a result of climate and soil conditions.During the past decade, the planted area of irrigated rice, maize, cassava, and sugarcane has also been expanding in provinces such as Gia Lai and Dak Lak. In Gia Lai Province, for example, the area planted with cassava has grown by about 13% per annum for the last 10 years. A similar rate of growth is found for maize (10% p.a.). These trends are the result of growing market demand and higher prices for commercial crops.Both the industrial and traditional agricultural systems of the Central Highlands will be vulnerable to changing climate factors. Significant increases in daily maximum temperatures (for example, up to 5°C higher during the wet season in Gia Lai), as well as changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events will have significant implications for all livelihood sectors. Rainfall in the 3S basin is predicted to increase during the wet season by 11%, and decrease by as much as -10% during the dry season. Crops such as rice and robusta coffee will face severe threats from high temperatures during their growth cycle. Increased temperatures will also induce higher water demands particularly during the dry season, which is projected to get even drier in the future. Without adaptation, crop yields will be notably affected; for example, significant areas in the Central Highlands are predicted to be less suitable for cassava, robusta coffee, and rubber culture by 2050 assuming continuation of current agricultural systems and practices.• Meanwhile, dry season months will generally become drier, prolonging water stress; in the Delta, for example, drought will occur 80% of the years in April compared to 60% under baseline conditions• The compounded effects of SLR and increased rainfall throughout the LMB catchment during the wet season will result in annual floods of significantly greater depth and duration in the Delta.The delta encompasses several distinct agro-ecological zones including freshwater alluvial wetlands along the upper portion of the Mekong's distributary channels; acidic peatlands to the west and east of the Mekong channels; and mangroves and saline coastal areas to the south. These three zones drive some marked differences in crop types and calendar in the delta. For example, in the freshwater zone, intensive triple rice crop farming is prevalent, while along the saline coastal zone, an annual rice-shrimp rotation is more common.The Mekong Delta flood regime SLR and increasing average flood volumes along the Mekong mainstream will increase the depth and duration of average floods in the Mekong Delta. Large areas of the delta that were historically rarely or never flooded to depths of 1.0 m and 0.5 m are projected to be regularly inundated to these levels. Maximum flood depths are projected to increase by over 1.0 m with the highest increases along the South China Sea coastline.The culmination of increasing average flood flows and SLR will significantly alter the flooding regime of the delta as described below:• Approximately 19% of the total delta area (600,000 ha) that historically was rarely or never flooded to a depth of 1.0 m will experience floods at this level or greater for four or more days during an average flood year.• The area of the delta that is rarely or never flooded to a depth of 0.5 m or greater during an average f lood year will change significantly -from nearly 60% to only 10% of the total delta area (1.9 million ha to 300,000 ha).• There will be a sharp increase in the area of the delta that is inundated to 0.5 m for over 121 days from 75,000 ha to close to one million ha.• During an average flood year the area of delta flooded to over 1.0 m depth will increase from 45% to 57% under projected climate conditions -an increase of over 650,000 ha.As SLR increases in the future, some areas of the delta that were not previously affected by salinity intrusion will become so, particularly during the dry season from January to April. Such a change will require the use of saline-tolerant rice varieties or a reduction in rice production from three to two rice crops per year. Without saline-tolerant varieties, rice yields could decrease by almost 50% in the case of mild saline water intrusion.• Housing: Location and design should maximize natural ventilation and minimize exposure to extreme events.• Production planning and offtake: Reducing inbreeding, earlier weaning, and strategic offtake plans can increase resilience of livestock systems.• Access to markets: Improved access to input and output markets and producer organizations would reduce input costs, increase prices received, and reduce price volatility.Aquaculture-due to its diversity of systems, scales of production, inherent manageability, and control of environments-potentially offers more scope for adaptation to climate change than capture fisheries. Adaptation strategies for aquaculture may include:• pond aeration to mitigate the effects of increased temperature;• on-site water storage to reduce the risks of reduced water availability during the dry season;• re-use of pond water also for water conservation and to mitigate the release of effluents to the environment;• strengthening of embankments to protect against flooding will be necessary for ponds in many areas;• diversion canals may also have to be dug to channel water away from vulnerable pond areas; and• more climate-friendly systems, (e.g., tiger shrimp/crab production in mangrove replanted areas of the delta), should be utilized and promoted more widely.Regardless of the livelihood sector, successful adaptation will require flexibility and a diversity of approaches to adapt to shifting conditions.The ongoing industrialization of crops in the hill terrain of the Central Highlands has resulted in negative environmental consequences such as erosion and reduced soil fertility. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events that is projected for this region will only exacerbate these issues. Rainfall events larger than 100 mm/day are projected to double in frequency by 2050 in Gia Lai, for example, resulting in more flooding in narrow upland valleys, increasing erosion and landslides, and the washing out of crops.Meanwhile, expansion of the number of farmers raising fish in small ponds and rice fields in the Central Highlands will likely continue as wild fish catches decline due to hydropower development. However, weather events such as droughts and flash flooding may present farmers with challenges for maintaining infrastructure and stocks as these extreme events continue to become more frequent.Livestock concerns include compromised productivity of both small-scale and commercial pig systems due to increasing temperatures. Reproduction rates and natural disease immunity will decline as the animals are stressed due to factors such as water shortages and lack of suitable ventilation. Flash flooding will affect cattle production due to herd loss and increased spread of disease.Adapting the agriculture sector to climate change in both the Mekong Delta and Central Highlands will involve a mix of strategies, possibly including:• Strengthening the resilience of both rainfed and irrigated rice-based systems through adoption of improved varieties and better management practices and reducing vulnerability to extreme climate events. This could include the use of specific varieties to mitigate the impact of flooding and extreme heat, as well as varieties that are tolerant to saline water.• Adopting/improving water efficiency and water management practices (water harvesting, small-scale irrigation, etc.) in drought-prone areas such as in the Central Highlands in order to alleviate the impacts of water shortages.• Improving soil fertility and soil management of both cash and subsistence systems such as improved erosion control techniques and intercropping.• Promoting agricultural diversification and mixed farming systems to mitigate current reliance on monocultures.The improvement of livestock development and resilience to climate change falls into five broad strategies:• Nutrition: The quality and quantity of feed production, storage, and the nutritional balance of diets needs to be increased to reduce undernourishment.• Disease resistance: Internal resistance needs to increase to reduce the threat of disease through improvement of nutritional status, body condition, and vaccination levels. It also requires improved biosecurity to prevent the movement of diseases onto and off farms and to reduce the risk of pathogens entering the herd or flock.The fishing sector is vital to Vietnamese prosperity and important to all nations bordering the South China Sea. China, Thailand and Vietnam, accounted for 80 percent of world fishery production in 2008 and 50 percent of fishery export value. In 2009, Vietnamese fisheries accounted for 6 percent of gross domestic profit. In 2010, 7.4 percent of economically active people were engaged in fishing, the second highest percentage worldwide after Fiji. Vietnam rose to the position of the fifth largest exporter of fish and related products between 1998 and 2008 when the catch was valued at nearly US $5 billion. A flourishing aquaculture industry rather than increases in offshore capture fisheries explains much of its rise. In 2007, aquaculture production surpassed capture fisheries. Pangasius, a catfish species and marine and freshwater prawns comprise the majority of exports in this sector.Vietnam's capture fishing grounds are vast. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) grants nations the right to declare an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles from an established coastal baseline over which it has exploitation rights to all natural resources. Vietnam's EEZ encompasses more than 1 million square miles, including 3,000 islands and 2000 species of fish: 130 have high economic value.findings have significant negative implications for Vietnam. Northern migration of economically vital fish stocks into waters claimed by China is an emerging security concern. Climate change will also deplete aquaculture yields. Global aquaculture is concentrated in the world's tropical and subtropical regions, with Asia's inland freshwaters accounting for 65 percent of total production. In Vietnam, freshwater, coastal and offshore open water are all suitable environments for aquaculture. However, aquaculture production is concentrated in the Mekong River Delta where sea-level rise and associated surges are causing harmful saline intrusion into brackish and freshwater hatcheries. Extreme weather events such as floods damage aquaculture farms by displacing water, spreading disease, and destroying infrastructure (Table 1).While peer-reviewed physical science identifies likely fish stock migration in the South China Sea, the socioeconomic implications of these changes have not been examined. The Notre Dame Global Adaptation index (ND-GAIN) compares a country's level of vulnerability to climate change to its readiness to deal with these impacts. As the 77th most vulnerable country and the 63rd least ready of 177 countries in the index, Vietnam faces significant challenges but there is also room for optimism that Vietnam can increase its readiness.Vietnam has moderate capacity to adapt to climate change given its status of economic development, relatively good governance a part of which is some climate change adaptation planning in the federal level. However continued reliance on declining fisheries may reduce Vietnam's moderate adaptive capacity with serious negative implications for economic development and food security.It is hard to overstate Vietnamese reliance on fisheries. A comprehensive study by Malone et al. (2008) of the importance of fisheries to national economic and food security ranks Vietnam as the most sensitive country in the World. This study ranks Vietnam as 24th in the world in terms of relative national economic vulnerability specifically to climate change-driven impacts on capture fisheries.These findings alone should send a resounding warning to Vietnamese policymakers about the need to rapidly develop adaptive measures to maintain the viability of fisheries. However,Based on a range of models, it is likely that future tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) will become more intense, with larger peak wind speeds and heavier precipitation associated with increases of tropical sea-surface temperatures.Coastal areas, including the heavily-populated Mekong megadelta region, will be at greatest risk due to tidal surges and sea level rise.Progressive acidification of ocean waters destroys corals and their dependent species. Vietnam has a limited reef system but fish species migrate northward from the fragile Coral Triangle reef system.Shifts in ranges and changes in algal, plankton and fish abundance are associated with rising water temperatures, as well as related changes in salinity, oxygen levels and circulation. Eighty percent of the world's fish stocks are overfished or at maximum capacity. This situation is especially evident in the South China Sea where coastal fishing grounds have been depleted to 5-30 percent of their unexploited stocks. Consistent with this trend, unsustainable fishing practices have been confirmed in local areas within the Vietnamese EEZ. A large amount of the over withdrawal can be attributed to the incursion of foreign fishing vessels. Declining yields have been exacerbated by environmental destruction of many kinds including that associated with tsunamis and cyclones. These stressors limit Vietnam's options for maintaining food security and could increase the likelihood of international clashes over fishing rights. Worldwide, climate change-driven changes in the distribution of sea life are expected in every marine ecosystem. New scientific analytical approaches are improving our understanding of the magnitude and extent of these effects. A meta-analysis of studies on range shifts of ocean aquatic species in the Journal Science by I. Ching et. (2011)   fishers who already live in conditions of poverty are facing an evolving political system where economic reform is removing social safety nets associated with the formerly centrallyplanned economy. This economic adjustment suggests that conditions will likely worsen for the rural poor including subsistence-level farmers and fishers before they get better.It is reasonable to conclude that shifts in the distribution of species associated with warming of the oceans will have the greatest impact on the food security of poor (or artisanal) fishermen. These fishermen use boats, often without motors or navigational technology, which have a range of only a few miles offshore. The waters closer to the Vietnamese coastline are warming at an higher rate so that fish stocks are moving further out to sea, possibly beyond the range of artisanal fishermen. Another concern is that every major typhoon destroys an increasing number of small fishing boats and homes faster than they can be replaced.As noted, aquaculture has become an increasingly important source of livelihood for ethnic minorities, particularly the Thai, Tay, and Sedang, three of the 54 distinct ethnic groups recognized by the Vietnamese government. Households belonging to ethnic minorities are generally poorer than those of ethnic majorities. A 2011 survey found that reliance on aquaculture was a significant factor in Vietnamese minorities' vulnerability to poverty.Vulnerability is defined as exposure to climate change, systemic natural resource resilience, degree of dependence of the national economy upon social or economic returns from fisheries and the extent to which adaptive capacity offsets.Depletion of the fisheries and resulting economic damage may be a \"push-factor\" for migration. For Vietnamese people, expected income differentials and the anticipation of better public services are contributing factors to inter-provincial migration from rural to urban areas. For example, poor fishers in Ca Mau Province are reacting to loss of income resulting from a decline in off-shore fisheries by migrating to other provinces. The proportion of overall migration to urban centers is quite large. Population concentrations in urban areas are more susceptible to natural disasters such as typhoons.Malone The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) encompasses the major part of Lao PDR and its diverse physiographic regions including the northern highlands, which are the uplands extending through northern Lao PDR, northern Thailand, and Myanmar; and the Annamites, a high mountain range which forms much of the border between Lao PDR and Vietnam. The LMB portion of Lao PDR also incorporates significant stretches of alluvial plains along the Mekong mainstream, as well as the ecologically unique areas known as Siphandone (literally \"four thousand islands\") and the Khone Phapeng Falls that are situated just upstream of the border between Lao PDR and Cambodia.• Due to the topography of the region, with both mountainous areas and floodplains, extreme climatic events that involve storms and heavy rainfall above 100 mm per day will increase the threat for lowland rainfed rice, maize, cassava, and sugarcane. Climate suitability was found to be lower for these crops by 2050 as a result of projected increases in precipitation.• Maize yields are expected to decline by 5.3% compared to the 2010 baseline. However, maize production remains a limited percentage of the agriculture sector in Central Lao PDR and this change in yield will not drastically affect the sector.• Cassava and sugarcane will be threatened by increases in precipitation and higher incidences of extreme climatic events although sugarcane will be less affected by waterlogging compared to cassava. Rubber will benefit from higher rainfall due to a shortened drought period, although some decline in suitability is expected within this region• Fisheries in Central Lao PDR will be affected by increased temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns. Migratory white fish may be impacted by the loss of suitable refuge pools due to higher temperatures and decreased precipitation during a portion of the dry season. Higher temperatures will affect the water quality of aquaculture ponds while increased flash flood events will decrease stocks and impact pond infrastructure.• Livestock impacts include reduced reproduction and immunity due to heat stress, and secondary impacts related to decreased fodder availability. Increasing flood events will accelerate the spread of disease and herd loss. In Central Lao PDR, smallholder cattle/ buffalo systems are most vulnerable to temperature. The effects of an incremental increase in temperature will be limited as stock will gradually become accustomed to high temperatures. But extreme temperatures ('snaps') may have direct impacts on animal value, productivity, and resilience to disease. Threat will be accentuated on heavy soil prone to waterlogging. High Key findings include the following:• The central and northern Annamites region of Lao PDR will experience some of the largest relative increases in precipitation that are projected for the LMB; more precipitation during the traditional growing season will impact crops through increased flooding, waterlogging of soils, and higher incidence of fungal disease and pests.• Large rainfall events (greater than 100 mm/day) will occur more frequently. In Khammouan Province, for example, such events will increase in frequency from once every 2.5 years to once every 2 years. This increase in large-event frequency will intensify costs and damages related to associated calamities such as flooding and landslides.• Daily maximum temperatures will rise by roughly 2°C to 3°C in Lao PDR with higher increases to the south; in Champasak Province, for example, the average daily maximum temperature will rise from 33°C to 36°C. During the more extreme years, temperatures are expected to exceed 44°C. This increase in both average and extreme temperatures will have potentially devastating impacts on crops, livestock, and human health.Khammouan Province in Central Lao PDR is projected to experience some of the largest relative increases in precipitation within the LMB with annual precipitation increasing by 8-18%.Monthly precipitation is projected to increase for all months in Khammouan except during January and February. Relative increases in rainfall will be highest during the months of April, May, and September with a >20% increase in monthly precipitation. In terms of absolute values, this equates to an additional 28 mm, 73 mm, and 74 mm for April, May, and September, respectively. Annual rainfall in Khammouan is projected to increase by 335 mm (2,610 to 2,945 mm/yr).The projected changes in the timing and extent of rainfall in Central Lao PDR will present challenges to livelihood productivity such as changing seasonality and an earlier start to the growing season; increased exposure to risks such as flooding, landslides, and waterlogged soils; and the potential for heightened spread of disease.In Khammouan, there will be a positive shift of 2°C in average daily maximum temperatures throughout the year. The increase will be more pronounced, however, during the growing season. For example, during July and August daily maximum temperatures for a typical year are projected to hover around 30°C under climate change compared to around 27°C under baseline conditions. During extreme years under climate change, temperatures will occasionally exceed 40°C during this same period in the growing season.The vulnerabilities of the main crops cultivated in Central Lao PDR are related to effects from extreme rainfall events and increased precipitation, as well as increased temperature (Table 1). In Khammouan Province, for example, the farming system in upland areas will be strongly affected by the increase in rainfall and extreme events, lowering yield and increasing rates of erosion. Lowland areas will face higher incidences of floods and associated damages. The recent development of cassava culture will likely stop as the province will be less suitable for its cultivation and a shift of crop cultivation will probably be required. in pest occurrence and crop disease. A general decrease in suitability is predicted for Robusta coffee in southern Lao PDR.• Cassava culture will face waterlogging if planted on soil that does not drain well and maize crops will have reduced yields due to heavy rainfall at the end of the crop season.The crop yield model estimated a drop in yield in Champasak of about 5.5% compared to the baseline resulting in a decrease of 2,000 tonnes of maize at the provincial level.• Livestock may see reduced reproduction rates and immunity due to heat stress, and increased spread of disease and herd loss due to increased flood events.Adapting the agriculture sector to climate change in Lao PDR will involve a mix of strategies, possibly including:• Strengthening the resilience of both rainfed and irrigated rice-based systems through adoption of improved varieties and better management practices and reducing vulnerability to extreme climate events. This could include the use of specific varieties to mitigate the impact of flooding and extreme heat, as well as the shifting of cropping calendars to avoid harvest during periods of high rainfall.• Improving soil fertility and soil management of both cash and subsistence systems such as improved erosion control techniques and intercropping.• Promoting agricultural diversification and mixed farming systems to mitigate current trends of reliance on monocultures.The improvement of livestock development and resilience to climate change falls into five broad strategies:• Nutrition: The quality and quantity of feed production, storage, and the nutritional balance of diets needs to be increased to reduce undernourishment.• Disease resistance: Internal resistance needs to increase to reduce the threat of disease through improvement of nutritional status, body condition, and vaccination levels. It also requires improved biosecurity to prevent the movement of diseases onto and off farms and to reduce the risk of pathogens entering the herd or flock.• Housing: Location and design should maximize natural ventilation and minimize exposure to extreme events.• Production planning and offtake: Reducing inbreeding, earlier weaning, and strategic offtake plans can increase resilience of livestock systems.• Access to markets: Improved access to input and output markets and producer organizations would reduce input costs, increase prices received, and reduce price volatility.province and cassava culture has expanded in recent years. Crops in Champasak Province will face threats from increased precipitation (+175 mm/yr) and temperature (+2.5°C mean annual temperature) that will affect several crops' yields. Farming systems in the province for both smallholder and commercial plantations will face radical changes in terms of climate suitability in their production systems.Under baseline conditions, average maximum temperatures along the Mekong corridor in southern Lao PDR range from roughly 30°C to 32°C during the growing season. Under climate change, we can expect an increase in wet season temperature of about 3°C. Growing season temperatures will therefore approach 35°C on a more routine basis, which will result in significant stress on agricultural crops and other livelihood systems.Climate change threats and sectoral vulnerabilities in Southern Lao PDR • Irrigated rice is cultivated by 20% of the farmers in this region and this crop will face a critical period at the end of the dry season, with a significant increase in temperature.Lowland rainfed rice will also face increased temperatures; especially early wet season rice. Crop yield modeling estimated a decrease in yield of about 5.6% for Champasak, corresponding to a drop of more than 11,000 tonnes of the annual provincial production.• Robusta coffee, traditionally cultivated on the Bolaven Plateau, will face serious threats with extreme temperatures above 36°C occurring throughout the year. Coffee will also face the threat of more frequent storms with heavy rainfall that may lead to flashfloods. The combined effect of increased precipitation and temperature may lead to an increase  The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) encompasses the major part of Cambodia including the globally unique Tonle Sap Lake and associated floodplains; the 3S Rivers Basin, an important tributary network that drains into the Mekong; and the plains of Mondulkiri Province that border Vietnam in the southeastern part of the country.The results of the USAID Mekong ARCC Climate Change Impact and Adaptation Study indicate that Cambodia will experience pronounced changes in rainfall and temperature patterns by 2050 with significant ramifications for ecosystems, and communities and the livelihoods that support them.• Annual daily maximum temperatures will rise by roughly 2°C to 4°C in Cambodia with higher increases during certain months of the year.• Eastern Cambodia provinces such as Mondulkiri will experience some of the largest increases in temperature projected for the LMB with significant impacts on agriculture, livestock and fisheries, and non-timber forest products (NTFPs); more precipitation during the traditional growing season will also impact crops through increased flooding, waterlogging of soils, and higher incidence of fungal disease and pests.decline in soybean's climate suitability by 2050. Cassava culture will also be threatened by flooding and increased rainfall and subsequent waterlogging that reduces yield and facilitates the spread of disease.• Increased temperatures will affect both dry and rainy season rice crops and, coupled with an increase in rainfall, the decline in yield is estimated to be about 3.6% in Kampong Thom. This equates to reductions of output of up to 15,000 tonnes of rice in the province compared to the 2010 baseline. Increases in temperature will also affect soybean culture, leading to a drop in yield. The increase in rainfall and temperature will reduce the suitable areas of rubber, which has recently expanded in the province.• Subsistence fishing is a critical source of food security in the Tonle Sap and surrounding floodplains, even if fishing is not a household's principal activity. Commercial fishing (including aquaculture) as a primary or secondary activity is common amongst many households. Higher temperatures will likely affect the productivity of both capture fisheries and aquaculture in the Tonle Sap region. Loss of dry season refuge pools in hydrologically connected rice fields, and reduced water quality in aquaculture ponds are primary concerns.• Livestock may see reduced reproduction rates and immunity due to heat stress, and increased spread of disease and herd loss due to increased flood events.The average daily maximum temperature in Mondulkiri will rise from roughly 31°C to 36°C during the dry season month of April. In more extreme years, dry season temperatures may exceed 44°C. The increase in both average and extreme temperatures will have potentially devastating impacts on crops, livestock, and human health.Monthly precipitation is projected to increase for all wet season months in Mondulkiri, with a particularly significant increase of almost 70 mm expected for the month of October (Figure 1). Meanwhile, a reduction in rainfall is projected for the dry season months of December through April. Overall, annual rainfall in Mondulkiri is projected to increase by 173 mm (1,943 mm/yr to 2,116 mm/yr). However, the expected seasonal distribution of the rainfall will result in two distinct phenomena consisting of increased flooding during the wet season, and extended drought during the dry season. More than 75% of the daily maximum temperature will be above the optional zone for lowland rainfed rice.More than 50% of daily maximum temperatures will be above 35 o C in March and Aprill affecting irrigated rice.Extreme maximum temperature higher than 35 o C will occur during soybean crop growth.Flood prone area around the Mekong and Tonle Sap Lake in the southwestern part of the province. Monthly precipitation increase of 18% in September will result in increased waterlogging.Decrease in water availability will be between 4% and 10% during the crop growth period.• Large rainfall events will occur more frequently, particularly during the already wet rainy season. The projected rainfall in the 3S Rivers Basin, for example, will increase by 11% during the rainy season while decreasing by 3-10% in the dry season. Cambodia in general is dominated by lowland plains and plateaus; increased frequency of large storms will result in more flooding and related costs, especially in low-lying areas such as the extensive floodplains surrounding Tonle Sap Lake including southern and central parts of Kampong Thom Province.• The projected changes in the timing and extent of rainfall in Cambodia will present challenges to livelihood productivity such as increased waterlogging of crops during the growing season, e.g. affecting lowland rice, soybean, and cassava; and increased livestock exposure to disease and flood-related population loss, e.g. affecting scavenging chickens, and smallholder cattle and buffalo. Extension of drought at the end of the dry season will impact the availability of critical fisheries habitat components such as refuge pools for migratory fish; and will reduce water quality in aquaculture ponds. Additional heat stress during the dry season will impact the productivity of NTFPs such as false cardamom, wild orchid, and rattan.Tonle Sap Lake and the surrounding floodplains are affected by strong seasonal inundation patterns; during the wet season the lake historically expands to roughly 15,000 km 2 , while during the dry season it shrinks to approximately 2,500 km 2 . This dynamic influences livelihoods in surrounding provinces; flooded rice fields during the wet season serve as an important small-scale fishery and provide a vital cash source to rural households. As the lake shrinks during the dry season, crops are grown for subsistence and cash. Additionally, the culture of fish in cages in Tonle Sap Lake is one of the oldest aquaculture systems known in the world and is of critical importance to local livelihoods. The downstream multi-species migration from Tonle Sap to the mainstream Mekong also supports the commercially important bagnet fishery, which is of great significance to the region's economy.Kampong Thom Province is located adjacent to Tonle Sap Lake and is affected by flooding in the southern and central parts of the province. Rice, soybean, and cassava are the most vulnerable commodities there due to increased temperature and higher incidences of floods under future conditions. Lately, there has been an expansion of rubber cultivation in both industrial concessions and smallholder farms in Kampong Thom, which will also likely be significantly impacted by future climate conditions including higher temperatures and increased rainfall. The main threats and vulnerabilities for crops in Kampong Thom are outlined in     Adapting the agriculture sector to climate change in Cambodia will involve a mix of strategies, possibly including:• Strengthening the resilience of both rainfed and irrigated rice-based systems through adoption of improved varieties and better management practices and reducing vulnerability to extreme climate events. This could include the use of specific varieties to mitigate the impact of flooding and extreme heat, as well as the shifting of cropping calendars to avoid harvest during periods of high rainfall. • Improving soil fertility and soil management of both cash and subsistence systems such as improved erosion control techniques and intercropping. • Promoting agricultural diversification and mixed farming systems to mitigate current trends of reliance on monocultures.The improvement of livestock development and resilience to climate change falls into five broad strategies:• Nutrition: The quality and quantity of feed production, storage, and the nutritional balance of diets needs to be increased to reduce undernourishment. Increasing frequency of storms>100 mm/ day. Precipitation above 500 mm per month in October. Increased precipitation may damage crops and create waterlogging in lowland areas that are more exposed.Decrease in soil water availability will be between 18% and 20% during the crop season creating water stress.Increase in maximum temperature will fall between 12% and 17% compared to baseline conditions during growth period. More than 50% of the maximum daily temperatures will be above the optimal zone for rainfed rice.Around 15% of the days will be above 35 o C during the growth cycle of cassava.Dry season (March to May) will have more days above 35oC as daily maximum temperatures with temperature increase of 17% in May.Higher maximum temperature in the rainy season will limit yield. This might be a stress for soybean in the case of the early wet season crop in April or May.The vulnerabilities of the main crops cultivated in eastern Cambodia are related to effects from storms and increased precipitation, as well as higher temperatures and decreased soil water availability during periods of the year (Table 2).• Crop yield modeling estimates a decrease of 3% in rainfed rice yield in Mondulkiri, or about 1,114 tonnes per year for the province. The climate suitability modeling showed a decrease in suitability for all the crops assessed in Mondulkiri; particularly the industrial crops including cassava, rubber, coffee, and soybean. This could potentially strain the expansionary trend of commercial agriculture in the province and impact on opportunities for the improvement of livelihoods. Decreases in crop suitability in eastern as well as the majority of Cambodia will affect significant areas available for many crops including rubber.• Fisheries in eastern Cambodia will be affected by increased temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns. Migratory white fish may be impacted by the loss of suitable refuge pools due to higher temperatures and decreased precipitation during a portion of the dry season. Higher temperatures will affect the water quality of aquaculture ponds while increased flash flood events will decrease stocks and impact pond infrastructure.• Livestock impacts include reduced reproduction and immunity due to heat stress, and secondary impacts related to decreased fodder availability. Increasing flood events will accelerate the spread of disease and herd loss.  • Disease resistance: Internal resistance needs to increase to reduce the threat of disease through improvement of nutritional status, body condition, and vaccination levels. It also requires improved biosecurity to prevent the movement of diseases onto and off farms and to reduce the risk of pathogens entering the herd or flock. • Housing: Location and design should maximize natural ventilation and minimize exposure to extreme events. • Production planning and offtake: Reducing inbreeding, earlier weaning, and strategic offtake plans can increase resilience of livestock systems. • Access to markets: Improved access to input and output markets and producer organizations would reduce input costs, increase prices received, and reduce price volatility.Due to its diversity of systems, scales of production, inherent manageability, and control of environments, aquaculture potentially offers more scope for adaptation to climate change than capture fisheries. Strategies for the fisheries sector include:• Pond aeration to mitigate the effects of increased temperature;• On-site water storage to reduce the risks of reduced water availability during the dry season;• Strengthening of embankments to protect against flooding will be necessary for ponds in many areas; and • Construction of diversion canals to channel water away from vulnerable pond areas.Regardless of the livelihood sector, successful adaptation will require flexibility and a diversity of approaches to adapt to shifting conditions.Food and nutrition security concerns in a changing climate Nutrition-sensitive food systems have the potential to be climate-smart. While evidence of effective climate change interventions is still limited, there is already a good understanding of how diets and the environments in which food choices are made can be better managed in response to weather extremes and price volatility. Climate-smart actions which support nutrition entail a focus on diverse, high-quality and healthy diets. Solutions lie in the diversification of agricultural and non-farm production systems, the mitigation of climaterelated stresses on crop and livestock quality, food value-chain investments to retain nutrients and reduce perishability (including greater efficiency in post-harvest storage, processing and transportation), enhancement of diet quality through more informed consumer choices, and the buffering of purchasing power in the context of supply and price shocks.The Global Panel recommends six major policy actions to governments:1. Include diet quality goals within adaptation targets proposed for climate action.2. Diversify agricultural investments, factoring in the local realities of ecological suitability and comparative advantage.This article was taken from a longer article entitled Climate-smart food systems for enhanced nutrition prepared by the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Enhanced Nutrition and released in September 2015.Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.3. Support greater food system efficiency so that outputs per unit of water, energy, land and other inputs are optimised and the footprint of agriculture and non-farm activities are better managed to meet both food demand and higher-quality diets.4. Integrate measures to improve climate change resilience and the nutritional value of crop and livestock products along the value chain, from production to marketing.Protect the diet quality of the poor in the face of supply shocks and growing food demand.6. Promote the generation and use of rigorous evidence on appropriate investments along food value-chains which are resilient to climate change and also deliver positive dietary outcomes and support improved nutrition.By 2100, it is anticipated that up to 40% of the world's land surface will have to adapt to novel or partially altered climates (Williams et al 2007). Global agricultural production could fall by 2% per decade through to 2050 (based on projections of staple grain yields and livestock output), at a time when global food demand will be increasing by 14% each decade (IPCC 2014). The largest growth in demand will be occurring in low income countries, which are likely to be most negatively affected by losses in food quality and quantity through the value chain. Indeed, a growing number of projections consistently suggest that climate change will bring improved conditions for agriculture to high-latitude regions, while many parts of the tropics and sub-tropics will experience less favourable conditions and falling yields, particularly of wheat, maize and rice (Zabel et al 2014;IPCC 2014;Muller and Rovertson 2014;Piontek et al 2014). This already appears to be happening. Maize and wheat yields would have been higher in some of the world's key production zones if climatic parameters had not shifted in the past two decades. For example in China and Brazil, maize yields would be 7% to 8% higher today had climates been stable, while wheat yields in Russia would be 14% higher (Lobel et al 2011).Besides affecting food supply, climate change may also affect diversity and nutritional value. Changes in temperature, rainfall and crop and animal disease environments will affect agricultural outputs in different ways (Kang et al, 2009;Wheeler and von Braun 2013). In general, nutrient-rich foods that are currently in short supply in many low-income settings are particularly susceptible to water constraints, pests and diseases, and temperature fluctuations (Rosenzweig 2001). The principal sources of essential micronutrients are animal-based foods, including milk, meat, eggs and fish, as well as vegetables, fruits and pulses (WHO 2013). Fruits and vegetables are very sensitive to damage and are more perishable than grains or tubers after harvest. Livestock productivity (the source of foods that are critical to young child growth and cognitive development) also tends to be impaired by lack of water and adequately nutritious fodder, as well as by heat and livestock diseases.Recent research has also suggested that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may reduce the nutrient content and/or quality of various staple crops, making them less inherently nutritious (Myers 2014). If this holds across a wide range of staple foods, the potential degradation of nutrient composition would have a negative impact on nutrient adequacy among the poorest consumers.How crop and livestock production adjusts to changing local patterns of rainfall, temperature and seasonality will strongly influence food systems and the food environment for consumers in the decades ahead. As a result, there is growing recognition of the need to assess impacts of climate change through a nutrition lens, which requires a global focus on healthy diets, \"in particular on the quantity, quality and diversity of food\" (FAO and WHO 2014). Healthy diets, which provide adequate, safe, diversified and nutrient rich foods, are an essential building block for physical growth and cognitive development in children (Black et al 2008). The nature of diets is influenced not only by policies relating to food production, but also by actions that affect market and trade systems, food transformation, and retail and consumer purchasing power. When policymakers consider how to mitigate climate change impacts on the food environment, they need to explore the potential for policy intervention across all domains of the food system (Global Panel 2014).Climate change is expected to have particular impacts on the diets of poor populations in low and middle income countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (Black et al 2013).Countries in these regions have significant numbers of people who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, and who already carry a huge burden of malnutrition (FAO and WHO 2014;Black et al 2008;Muller et al 2011;Roudier et al 2011;Knox et al 2012;Muller et al 2014). Lower yields, combined with population growth, urbanisation, poverty reduction and hence rising food demand in those regions, will likely put upward pressure on food prices and reduce the accessibility of healthy diets for the poor-including smallholder producers who are often net purchasers of food. While food is not the only determinant of poor nutrition, diet-related health and nutrition problems represent a major burden on the social and economic development of countries in these regions, with millions of children too short for their age, tens of millions of women of reproductive age suffering serious deficiencies of vitamins and minerals, and hundreds of millions of children, adolescents and adults now overweight or obese (the incidence of which is increasing rapidly in low and middle income countries) (Black et al 2013;Global Burden of Disease Study 2013;IFPRI 2014).It will be a challenge for countries with an existing high burden of malnutrition to improve nutrition in the context of climate change. This is because policy actions are required across the food system. They include the need to increase domestic food production efficiencies, diversify agricultural and value-chain portfolios, enhance engagement in agriculture and food trade (local, regional and global), and establish well-functioning safety nets that protect the purchasing power of the poor in both rural and urban settings. In addition, priority needs to be given to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with food processing technologies used in food transportation, storage, and marketing, facilitating private sector investments that will protect food supplies for all consumers, and promoting greater consumer understanding of the environmental implications of food choices (by highlighting otherwise hidden costs of production, processing and distribution).There are many public health interventions that are known to be effective in tackling various forms of malnutrition including child stunting, maternal anaemia, or iodine deficiencies among school aged children (Bhutta et al 2013). However, there is a growing global consensus that these interventions alone will not be enough to address current levels of global undernutrition (IFPRI 2014). Nutrition-sensitive food systems which can address underlying determinants of malnutrition along the chain from food production, through marketing and processing, to retail also need to be promoted (Ruel and Alderman 2013).However, the empirical evidence base on 'what works' in adapting and enhancing food systems to cope with climate change is still limited, largely because evidence of how much and how fast climates are changing is relatively recent. Governments the world over must prioritise rigorous assessment of how climatic conditions are evolving locally, and the effectiveness of policy and programmatic attempts to make various elements of the food system more resilient to actual and projected changes. A strong evidence base on innovation along the entire value chain is urgently needed. But policymakers do not need to wait for new evidence before taking action to enhance, sustain and diversify their production systems and diets. There are already numerous examples of ways in which food systems can be made more resilient to present day threats. For example, researchers have been actively developing and promoting the use of drought tolerant strains of staple crops such as wheat and maize, salt tolerant and faster maturing variants of rice, heat tolerant strains of livestock, and pest-resistant legumes (such as peanuts) (CIAT 2015;Mottaleb et al 2012;Thornton and Herrero 2014). Ongoing research seeks to reduce on-field and post-harvest losses arising from moulds and diseases, while work on nutrition-sensitive value-chains seeks to promote nutrient conservation and/or nutrient fortification through processing (Gelli et al 2015). Other researchers seek to increase the nutrient content (vitamins and minerals) of staple and non-staple crops by making them more nutrient-dense, which often carries benefits for the vitality of the crop plant itself as well as for end consumers (Global Panel, 2015;Welch and Graham 2004).Underlying all such adaptation and mitigation-focused research is an understanding that just producing more food in coming decades will not be sufficient to meet demand, protect supply, or enhance diets (African union 2014). Greater efficiency, diversification and a focus on quality are all needed to meet the multiple goals that hinge on more nutritious and more sustainable food systems as a whole. Thus, nutrition-enhancing policy interventions need to include not only the diversification of agricultural production, but also improved marketing and trade that supports access to nutritious foods and the commercial development of nutritious food products and their consumption (more diverse diets). Indeed, greater attention is needed for the diversification of, and enhanced resources efficiencies in, all forms of non-farm livelihood activity. In other words, rural households should have the ability to invest their time and resources in activities that reflect their competitive advantage across different incomeearning opportunities (Barrett et al 2001).Actions to protect consumers from food price volatility by improving marketing and storage efficiencies as well as investments in targeted safety nets that are able to smooth consumption through periods of crisis would be essential. Attention in food price policies to incentives that can encourage greater availability and accessibility of nutrient-rich foods to all consumers could also have potential value.The Global Panel suggests six major areas of policy action which can be both climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive:In the past few years, climate-smart agricultural initiatives have been promoted in Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, and Indonesia aimed at supporting food system adaptation to, and mitigation of, impacts of climate change (FAO 2013). So far, those actions have focused on raising agricultural productivity and incomes, adapting and building resilience to climate change, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Pye- Smith 2011). A key opportunity is to explore the potential of these and similar initiatives to improve nutrition.Crop diversification using locally adapted varieties is widely promoted as a strategy that can support the adaptive capacity of most food systems (IPCC 2014;Thornton et al 2011;Muller 2013;Waha et al 2013;Davis et al 2012). Some programmes have begun to build resilience to weather variability into farm production systems. For example, the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme in Bolivia has used indigenous knowledge related to climate change adaptation to support the introduction of varieties that can be grown at higher altitudes if necessary. That intervention has supported a transition from almost exclusive potato production to a more diversified portfolio that includes fruit tree production, which has increased market penetration for smallholders. Similarly, the promotion of agroforestry systems in the Sahel has the potential of bringing multiple benefits to smallholders, including nutritional gains achieved by growing non-traditional trees that are resilient to drought and heat, such as Adansonia digitata or Baobab, whose leaves and fruit offer many high-quality nutrients, and Vitellaria paradoxa, which provides fruit during the lean period for consumers (IFAD 2014).Crop and animal diversification generally enhances dietary diversity (Torheim et al 2004;Jones et al 2014). Diet diversity represents a fundamental aspect of dietary quality since the consumption of multiple types of foods typically reflects a higher quality diet that is more likely to meet consumers' nutrient needs (Bhutta et al 2013). However, recent trends show global convergence towards homogenous diets. This makes the global food supply more susceptible to threats such as pests, diseases, and weather shocks which are likely to increase as a result of climate change (Khoury et al 2014).Thus, growing a wider diversity of crops and livestock and adopting more pest, disease, drought and/or heat tolerant varieties can support climate-resilient agriculture while also facilitating consumer diversity (if those foods reach markets at prices affordable to the poor).Policymakers should promote diversification of both products and means of production (actively supporting incentives for farmer innovation and investment), rather than maintain a long-standing reliance on a narrow range of agricultural outputs that are sensitive to conditions over which smallholders have limited control.Enhancing diets requires going further than producing more of the same. Even higher output of existing agricultural commodities produced in conventional ways will not suffice to enhance nutrition, nor will it be enough to achieve climate adaptation. Greater efficiencies are needed, along with greater diversity, to improve the resilience of food systems. The adoption (as locally appropriate) of no-tillage/green mulch cropping, fine-tuned spot irrigation and enhanced water control, calibrated applications of fertiliser, rotation with nitrogen-fixing ground crops and innovations in integrated pest management can greatly improve output efficiency per unit of inputs (whether it be water, crop nutrients or energy) (FAO 2013). These practices also contribute to reducing greenhouse gases per unit of food.Heterogeneity in production systems needs to be taken into account when seeking efficiency gains. Staple foods must be enhanced, in terms of seed quality and how they are cultivated, to maintain yields under changing climate and to be more resilient to pests and disease. For nutrient-dense non-staples, such as animal source foods and vegetables, the promotion of enhanced varieties/species may be possible but resource efficiency along the supply chain (conservation, processing, and packaging) is where most attention is needed. Protection and enhancement of biodiversity can also promote heterogeneity in less-traditional forms of agricultural output. For example, in Ethiopia the Humbo Assisted Natural Regeneration Project has focused on restoring almost 3,000 hectares of biodiverse forest cover which, according to the World Bank, has resulted in income generation for smallholders who now sell agroforestry products, such as honey and wild fruits (World Bank 2014).Livestock production presents an important opportunity to improve nutrition in low-and middle-income countries. There is strong evidence that consumption of animal source foods (meat, fish, dairy products and eggs) is associated with improved physical growth of children and cognitive development (Speedy 2003;Murphy and Allen 2003). While livestock production is often resource-intensive (in its high levels of consumption of water and other natural resources), and contributes to climate change through greenhouse gas production, greater efficiency in production systems can reduce the number of animals kept, while enhancing quality and output per unit (Friel et al 2009;Herrero et al 2013;Gonzalesz et al 2011;Pradere 2014;Thornton and Herrero 2010). For example, the use of improved feed supported and implemented by the East African Dairy Development programme of HeiferInternational improved milk quality and supply (among 179,000 smallholder producers in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya), as well as access to new markets through the formation of Dairy Farmer Business Associations, while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Thornton and Herrero 2010;Jonsson 2012).At the same time, reducing production and consumption of meat, particularly red meat, in high-income countries would help improve health and mitigate the global impacts of climate change. (McMichael et al 2007). The policy challenge in low-income settings is to encourage both improved livestock productivity (efficiency in the conversion of water and feed into food, as well as reduced carbon footprint) and greater consumption of animal source foods by nutritionally-vulnerable groups. The challenge is to promote these aims without establishing a trend towards consumption levels of meat and dairy that are characteristic of high-income populations who suffer significant levels of diet-related chronic diseases and obesity (Delgado 2003;Bene et al 2015).Policymakers should promote resource use efficiency across the food system, including the reduction of food waste. It is estimated that one-third of food produced for global human consumption is lost or wasted. Most of the waste in low-income countries food occurs during the early and middle stages of the food supply chain (Gustavsson et al 2011) and is mainly caused by financial, managerial and technical limitations in harvesting techniques, storage and cooling facilities, infrastructure, packaging and marketing systems (Affognon et al 2015). A recent review found that up to 25% of maize harvested in low-income countries is lost post-harvest. This could be decreased to about 6% with the adoption of innovations for mitigation of post-harvest losses and investments in infrastructure (Affognon et al 2015). The losses rise for perishable crops, such as vegetables and fresh fruits, where up to 40% of crops do not reach the consumers (15% with interventions).Other actions are needed to reduce the costs and economic viability of innovations in food storage (longer shelf-life and reduced perishability), processing (aimed at retaining nutrients and quality of products), marketing, and also lowering carbon emissions associated with value-chain activities wherever possible. In other words, decision-makers should prioritise actions that remove constraints and facilitate smoother operations for producers, processors, wholesalers, retailers and consumers across the entire food system. This includes greater attention to efficiency in resource use in non-farm rural activity.Rural households in low-income countries are typically no longer only engaged in farming. As labour and product markets continue to link remote regions of low-income countries with economic hubs of activity in high-income nations, the share of total income deriving from agriculture is declining outside of rural areas with high productivity in high-value commodities. This means that off-farm operations, which may include working for brick kilns, mining for minerals, factory work, or charcoal production, can both contribute to climate change and to incomes used to diversify food purchase choices.More recently, initiatives focused on renewable energy have been used to increase efficiency and reduce carbon footprints along the value chain, from irrigating fields (Burney et al 2010) to drying and cooking food (Davies and Davies 2009;Wentzel and Pouris 2007). These innovations have the benefit of being responsive to the climate change agenda while simultaneously enhancing food systems in ways that support improved diets and nutrition.Recent research suggests that climate change may affect not only people's capacity to produce crops in certain parts of the world, but also impair the nutritional content of those crops as well (Myers 2014). Certain crops, including maize, peanuts, beans, and rice (Bebber et al 2013), that are less resistant to water or heat stresses are more likely to be damaged or contaminated by pests, disease and moulds, with repercussions on food quality as well as food safety (Rosenzweig 2001;Tirado et al 2010). Natural toxins produced by fungi (mycotoxins) can be highly carcinogenic to consumers, and are also increasingly linked to immune suppression in infants and impaired linear growth of children, which contributes to the heavy global burden of child stunting (Groopman et al 2014).Current international initiatives in crop breeding are already integrating properties for resilience and nutrition, for instance through new bean varieties which are climate (heat) resilient and more nutritious. Researchers have recently identified a variety of beans that show strong tolerance to temperatures 4°C higher than the range that beans can normally tolerate (CIAT 2015). National agricultural research policies should embrace this integrated goal, pursuing their own research on local crops and animal species and adapting international seed and animal stocks to expected local conditions.Protecting nutrients in the food supply and increasing resilience to climate change beyond productivity requires a focus on reducing post-harvest losses, enhanced storage (to protect food safety and quality of products), improved infrastructure (roads, information systems, refrigeration) that can reduce losses of high nutrient perishable goods, as well as interaction with the private sector. Engagement with the private sector is necessary to enable a successful promotion of efficient energy use in food processing and packaging, and campaigns to encourage less post-consumer food waste, which can be high in low-income settings, particularly in areas where processed packaged foods represent an important part of the diet.In addition, more efficient market infrastructure and stronger food safety regulations can also contribute to mitigating pest, disease and mould threats (Wagacha and Muthomi 2008;Hell and Mutegi 2011).Support for new and adaptive research is urgently needed on ways to enhance and protect the nutrient content of agricultural products in the context of climate change. This includes agronomic research to improve and retain nutrients in foods important to nutritionallyvulnerable populations, but also support for technological innovation in food processing, storage, packaging and transportation.Climate and economic shocks increase the volatility of food prices. When prices are high or uncertain, consumers typically respond by protecting their intake of major staples and then substituting other foods in the diet to make the most of what their purchasing power will allow them (Cornelsen et al 2014). The experience of major food price shocks of the past 15 years or so has shown that in most cases, the purchase and consumption of nutrient-rich foods, such as fruit, vegetable and meat and/or dairy products, declines in the face of a rising share in total consumption of foods that simply provide energy in the form of calories. Numerous studies have captured this standard household response to price shocks around the world, from South-East Asia in the late 1990s (Skoufias et al 2012) to South America (Ianotti and Robles 2011), Africa (Mason et al 2011)  Improved marketing and distribution systems are critically important to help reduce supply variability, but so too are price policies and social protection systems that can buffer effective demand and smooth consumption among the poorest consumers (Barrett 2008). Time-bound and targeted (rather than universal) food price subsidies can support consumption levels of the nutritionally vulnerable. Making rural credit more easily accessible to the poor and longerterm conditional cash transfers linked to health and education can also provide a buffer against the vagaries of prices that go hand-in-hand with climatic anomalies. That said, price and trade policies aimed at consumer protection should be informed by the potential for unintended side-effects which can distort markets and trade patterns, as well as dampen the supply response to high prices because of lower producer prices.While it is critical to protect intakes and enhance diet diversity of the poor rural populations in time of shocks, many low-income countries are also witnessing an increasing urbanisation and a growing middle class (Tschirley et al). These trends significantly increase the demand for food, particularly for meat, fish and processed foods (Delgado 2003), which can lead to stressed food systems, high emission of GHGs, and the potential increase of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) for consumers. These trends need to be taken into account to provide availability and accessibility of food in the near future that is both nutrition-smart and climate-smart. As a consequence, a rebalancing of policy and investments from staples to nutrient-dense non-staples would be required (Pingali 2015).Supply-side and food price shocks are likely to increase with climate change. Policymakers should support a diversification of production systems as well as products produced (incentivising innovation, including the adoption of more nutrient-dense commodities), while strengthening the resilience of food systems, from production through marketing to consumption, to withstand extreme variability of climatic conditions and an erosion of nutrient quality of foods moving up the value chain. This will need to include both public research and commercial investment in storage and transportation technologies to reduce the perishability/ extend the shelf-life of nutrient-dense foods and promotion of more diverse dietary choices that incorporate nutrient-rich substitutes to common staples. Targeted protection of consumer demand through safety-nets that buffer purchasing power among poor and vulnerable populations, including public procurement of nutrient-dense foods for meals in educational and health institutions is also critical.Greater awareness should also be promoted among consumers of the environmental, as well as economic, costs of production, processing, distribution and sale of various foods.Commercial companies are already seeking to protect consumer prices and shareholder profits from expected climate change-related impacts on natural resources (water, yields, and nutrient content) and climatic shocks that can disrupt both supply and distribution of commodities and processed food inputs. The public sector can play a role in educating and influencing consumer food choices in this wider context of system vulnerability.There is a growing literature on the impact of climate change on agriculture supported by better data, more advanced mathematical models, and increased computational power essential to forecast complex models. But there is a need to generate more evidence on how agriculture can deliver positive nutrition outcomes in various settings to better support decision makers. That is, research investment is needed to understand the dynamics that explicitly link investments in agriculture and desired outcomes in nutrition. There are nonlinearities in such relationships, and policymakers need greater evidence-based support for policies that promote agriculture and nutrition. Such policies typically rely on a combination of innovation, technology adoption, and changes in consumers' demand. However, more attention is needed to identify the range of interventions that are possible, and their cost effectiveness, so that policy makers can focus on optimising benefits in a context of limited resources.A key aspect of a forward-looking climate change agenda, therefore, is the generation of novel forms of rigorous evidence on 'what works' from a policy perspective that is focused on nutrition-smart food systems. The research community must prioritise knowledge gaps in this important policy area. They include the validation of individual metrics of diet quality and climate change impacts, as well as research that enhances understanding of system-wide causal dynamics along entire value-chains from production to consumption.This will require governments and international donors to support high quality research that a) empirically elucidates the mechanisms through which climate change will affect each link in the food value chain, separately and collectively, and b) measures the effectiveness of a range of food policy interventions for promoting agriculture, marketing and processing efficiencies, improved consumer choices, dietary quality and enhanced nutrition outcomes. Most of this research will require multidisciplinary tools and collaboration among scientists, industry specialists and government policymakers. Such a commitment to integrating different disciplinary and sectorial domains will support a novel focus on the two-way processes that link global and local food system outcomes.National commitments to global target-setting development goals should include necessary metrics relating to food system enhancements that are amenable to policy action. The collection and sharing of data will help support of national government and global development goals.About half of the world's population is at risk of being undernourished due to rising food demand and a potentially compromised supply as a result of climate change by 2050 (Dawson et al 2014). But the worst case need not materialise.Policymakers can make a significant difference to outcomes in the coming decades by adopting a pro-nutrition lens while protecting and promoting agriculture in the face of climate change. While evidence of effective climate change actions remains scarce there is ample evidence already of how to enhance diets and food systems in the context of weather shocks and price volatility. Effective solutions lie in the diversification of agricultural investments, the mitigation of climate-related stresses on crop and livestock quality, greater resource use efficiency along value chains, and protecting diet quality in the face of supply and food price shocks. In other words, climate-smart actions which support nutrition means focussing on diverse, high-quality, healthy diets.The six major policy actions recommended to governments by the Global Panel are:1. Include diet quality-enhancement goals within the adaptation targets that they propose for global climate action. Upcoming global meetings will encourage governments to define nationally determined contributions to the target-setting agenda, including identifying metrics to be used to monitor progress. The more governments that include food system, diet and nutrition related issues in the climate change dialogue, the more focused policymakers will be on linking climate-smart actions with nutrition-smart metrics. The two must proceed in unison.2. Diversify agricultural investments based on ecological suitability and comparative advantage, such that a greater variety of production systems are supported, extension programmes are sufficiently varied and at scale to meet the needs of both large and small farmers, crop and livestock production is not limited to a few potentially vulnerable agricultural outputs, and required inputs of high quality are available to all.3. Support greater food system efficiency, so that agricultural outputs per unit of water, energy, land and other inputs are optimised and the carbon footprints of agriculture and non-farm activities are better managed to meet both food demand and higher-quality diets. This means rebalancing research and value-chain investments towards production and distribution systems that make more nutrient-dense foods available to all, and provide a greater understanding of value-chain and non-farm activities as sources of income for the rural poor. Efficiency gains should span the whole value chain, focusing on post-harvest losses, and be supported by priority investments in applied research that generates evidence on the cost-effectiveness of alternative production-to-consumption scenarios. New technology transfer and open data goals framed by the post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda should include commitments to free dissemination of public research.4. Integrate measures to improve climate change resilience and nutritional value by adapting crop and livestock sources of important nutrients, and their production systems, to the anticipated impacts of climate change in the form of pests, diseases, weather-related shocks, and price volatility. The building up of resilient and nutritious food systems which go beyond food production, to include enhanced storage and marketing, reduced food waste, and enhanced consumer choices, while seeking greater efficiencies throughout.5. Protect the diet quality of the poor in the face of supply shocks and growing food demand. This can be done by the establishment of robust, targeted social protection programmes, transitory consumption-smoothing interventions, enhanced access by the poor to credit, food market information, and enhanced nutrition knowledge on which to base appropriate choices. Improving the quality of diets is central to addressing all forms of malnutrition.6. Promote the generation and use of rigorous evidence on investments along food valuechains that are resilient to climate change while also delivering positive dietary outcomes. While evidence is accumulating on how climate change affects food production and consumption, more is needed to guide evidence-based policy making that will effectively link actions across all food system domains. Coherent research focused on policies through which different elements of climate change may have impacts on food systems, and on the cost-effectiveness of alternative actions in agriculture, marketing, processing, retail and consumer support that could offset such impacts is essential. Diet quality indices and other food system metrics should be included as part of climate-related target-setting agendas and in related surveillance systems which are established to monitor changing conditions and the effectiveness of policy responses.Agreement: what it means for food and farming• The Paris Agreement opens the door for more adaptation and mitigation in the agriculture sector• Countries must take urgent action to reduce emissions from the agriculture sector in order to limit global warming below 2 degrees C.• Funding and political will are needed to support developing countries to implement their plans to combat and adapt to climate change in the agriculture sector Protocol. The Paris Agreement aims to limit the increase in global average temperatures to \"well below two degrees C\" and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C, and will come into force in 2020. Food security and agriculture are not overlooked in the Paris Agreement. In fact, the collective outcomes of COP21 offer many opportunities for action on food and farming-to be seized by the global agriculture community.Food security, food production, human rights, gender, ecosystems and biodiversity are explicit in the Agreement• The preamble of the final agreement text makes specific reference to \"the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change\".• The preamble also refers to human rights, gender, ecosystems and biodiversity, all issues that are central to agriculture. The preamble also \"recogniz[es] the importance of the conservation and enhancement, as appropriate of sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases referred to in the convention\" which makes mitigation in agriculture possible.• Article 2.1 of the agreement outlines its \"aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty\". This includes actions for \"increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production\".The ambitious 1.5 degree C target offers some hope for farmers and food security• The Paris Agreement aims to limit global temperatures \"well below\" two degrees C, and pursue a 1.5 degree target. As outlined by Campbell (2015), the debate between a 1.5 or two degree C target means different future scenarios for agriculture.• For example, staple crops maize and wheat both show a trend towards greater yield losses at two degrees C than 1.5 degrees C.• If global warming can be limited to 1.5 degrees, this will also produce fewer climate extremes than a two degree C temperature rise. This is good news for farmers in the tropics, as they will be on the frontline of heatwaves, droughts, floods and cyclones.On the whole, country commitments to reducing emissions will not limit global temperature rise to two degrees • The text also notes that \"much greater emission reduction efforts will be required\" than what have already been put forward.A 1.5 degree C target demands urgent mitigation in agriculture sector• As noted by Campbell (2015) a 1.5 degree C target will require even more mitigation effort from the agriculture sector than a two-degree target. But even with a two degree C target, by 2050 we will likely run out of viable options for reducing emissions from the industrial, transport and energy sectors.• Reducing emissions from agriculture will be imperative as it will be impossible to stay within either a 1.5 or two degree C target if agriculture does not contribute to emissions reductions.Countries want to take action on adapting agriculture and reducing emissions from farming-but funds are not yet there • Considerable finance is needed for agricultural adaptation and mitigation by Least Developed Countries (LDCs)-in the order of USD 5 billion annually (Richards et al. 2015). This sum, which may be an underestimate due to the small sample, is much higher than current commitments to climate funds for agriculture and is at least ten percent more per year than multilateral climate funds spent on agricultural projects in the last decade.• It remains unclear exactly how developing countries will be supported to implement their INDCs.• The Paris Agreement commits developed countries to set a new collective financing goal of at least USD 100 billion per year, \"taking into account the needs and priorities of developing countries\" (para 54), but does not include binding requirements on financial contributions by individual countries.• The Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) are entrusted to administer support for developing countries, particularly to implement national adaptation plans and actions• It remains to be seen if there is sufficient political will to move from business as usual to necessary action, and if countries will channel the much needed funding to where it is needed.There is no binding requirement for countries to implement their intended contributions, but much emphasis on cooperation and public investment• The decision text of the Paris Agreement does not put pressure on countries to implement the INDCs, but rather encourages countries to develop and share them, and collectively take stock of progress in 2018 (para 20), particularly in relation to progress against the 1.5 degree C target (para 21).• The INDCs cover adaptation as well as mitigation, and the Paris Agreement recognises that different countries will need different balances to meet poverty reduction and development goals.• Countries will submit new INDCs every five years, and are encouraged to enhance action ahead of 2020. \"Voluntary cooperation\" between countries, including through technology transfer and capacity building, is a major theme of the Agreement.• The Agreement emphasises the need for all countries to support science and research, \"strengthening scientific knowledge on climate, including research, systematic observation of the climate system and early warning systems, in a manner that informs climate services and supports decision-making.\" (Article 7).Issues related to agriculture are being discussed in a slow-moving parallel process under the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), a process initiated in 2014• Now is the time for countries and observers to prepare their submissions on agriculture to SBSTA. In SBSTA discussions held in parallel to COP21, discussions were on issues relating to agriculture. The resulting SBSTA conclusion notes the two agricultural workshops that took place in June 2015, and the two that are scheduled for June 2016, and decides to discuss the workshop reports at its upcoming sessions in May and November 2016.• Countries and observers to the UNFCCC have until 9 March 2016 to make submissions on the identification of adaptation measures, and identification and assessment of agricultural practices and technologies to enhance productivity in a sustainable manner.• The SBSTA will work on a report to be presented at its November 2016 meeting, which will form the basis for a decision on agriculture, for example a possible work programme, at the SBSTA 45 in Morocco.The Paris Agreement opens the door to further work on agriculture between now and 2020, when the agreement takes hold. This is the chance for the global agriculture community, including CGIAR, to step up and drive action:• Support countries to implement INDCs in agriculture and food systems, via robust technical and institutional options, prioritization and metrics, and approaches for reaching scale. This includes helping Parties 'take stock' of progress on limiting emissions from all sources in 2018.• Engage with the adaptation committee and LDC expert group to ensure modalities to recognize adaptation efforts can recognize adaptation in agriculture.• Engage with the Paris Committee on capacity building, which will look at critical gaps and areas for action. It could also become a platform for agreeing to a common accounting methodology for agriculture, which is currently missing.• Make submissions to the SBSTA 44 call on adaptation measures for agriculture, and assist Parties in reaching a consensus and plan for progress on agriculture.• Contribute to the agriculture, food system, forestry and land use chapters of the IPCC's 6th Assessment Report (AR6), and assist with the IPCC's special report on agriculture and food security ahead of AR6.• Give solid technical contributions to countries' applications to GCF and GEF to undertake actions on adaptation and mitigation in agriculture.• Facilitate dialogue to coordinate action across sectors, particularly between forestry and agriculture and across the food-energy-water nexus, including biofuels.• Bring agriculture into key UNFCCC forums, including the technical process on adaptation and the Lima work programme on gender.• Establish partnership mechanisms that countries can invest in for equitable and efficient technology transfer and capacity building.• Invest in public-private-civil-society initiatives linked to the UNFCCC, such as the 4/1000 Initiative.• Act as a scientific partner to non-state actors who wish to implement or scale up climatesmart agriculture. For example, CGIAR will help develop metrics and track progress of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development's work on climate-smart agriculture.• Support countries in preparation of the next round of INDCs and their low greenhouse gas emission development strategies due by 2020 -ensuring strong agricultural components in both.The convenient truth of addressing climate change while promoting healthFeeding the world sustainably and promoting good nutrition and healthMore than half of the world's 7 billion people is affected by a form of malnutrition. Despite the abundance of food supplies, there are still 795 million persons that go hungry every day (FAO, IFAD, WFP 2015). This affects their ability to work, it negatively impacts the development of their children, exposes them to illness and leads to premature deaths. Approximately 24 percent of children under five years of age are stunted (UNICEF, WHO World Bank 2015). The health of two billion people is compromised by nutrient deficiencies and 1.9 billion adults are overweight or obese (WHO 2015). Climate change has a negative impact on food and nutrition security and the health of millions of vulnerable people, particularly poor women and children. According to the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), if current trends continue, it is estimated that an additional 1-3 billion people will be affected by water scarcity and 200-600 million will suffer from hunger by 2080 particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. The global food system will be further challenged over the coming decades with increases in the human population, changes in diet, climate change and greater demands on energy and water resources (Godfray et al. 2010). Between now and 2050, the world's population will increase by one-third and most of the additional 2 billion people will live in developing countries. Rapidly urbanizing areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia could become potential food insecurity hotspots (FAO 2009). Changes in dietary patterns towards more production and consumption of meat and animal products present a set of complex challenges for climate change mitigation, for agriculture, for health and for achieving food and nutrition security (FAO 2009;Tirado et al. 2013;Tilman and Clark 2014). Meat and animal products provide important sources of proteins, minerals and vitamins but overconsumption is associated with an increased risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, type-2 diabetes and certain types of cancer (Bouvard et al. 2015;Wellesley, Happer and Froggatt 2015).Projections show that feeding a world population of 9 billion people in 2050 would require raising overall food production by some 60% (FAO 2012). High food output achieved in the past has placed great stress on natural resources. The agriculture sector specifically is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Agriculture, forestry and associated land use and land use change contribute to 20 to 30 percent of the total anthropogenic GHG emissions (Tubiello et al. 2014;2015). The expansion of livestock and biofuel sectors plays a major role in deforestation and land degradation and contributes to climate change. Other GHG emissions stem from fossil fuel use in the field as well as from across the whole food system continuum, such as food transport, storage, cold chains, processing, and food loss and waste. Furthermore, globally about one-third of food produced for human consumption per year is lost or wasted. (Gustavsson et al. 2011;Vermeulen et al. 2012).Although health is one of the three main aims of the original UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) (article 1) in 1992, on equal level with natural environment and economy, it has been neglected by the climate discussions ever since. Safeguarding food production is part of the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC (article 2), yet health, food security and nutrition considerations are weak (food security and health) or absent (nutrition) within the current narrative of the UNFCCC Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action.The challenge today is to sustainably improve nutrition and health through implementation of coherent policies and better coordinated actions across all relevant sectors, strengthening, preserving and recovering healthy and sustainable food systems (FAO, WHO 2014).The Rome Declaration on Nutrition, adopted by Member States at the FAO, WHO Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) recognizes the need to address the impacts of climate change and other environmental factors on food security and nutrition, in particular on the quantity, quality and diversity of food produced, taking appropriate action to tackle negative effects (FAO, WHO 2014).The ICN2 commitments offer a unique opportunity to address the impacts of climate on nutrition and to promote the co-benefits of sustainable and healthy dietary patterns to health and the environment. fundamental values such as: establishing a culture of healthy living, embracing equitable solutions, supporting universal food security; encouraging active citizenship to steward natural resources and transparency (DGAC 2015). These values need to be incorporated in the health, nutrition, food, education, agriculture, water, energy, transport and environmental sectors as well as taken into account when establishing robust and transparent private and public sector partnerships.Enhance sustainable food systems by developing coherent public policies from production to consumption and across relevant sectors to provide year-round access to food that meets people's nutrition needs and promote safe and diversified healthy diets. Since food systems have become increasingly complex and strongly influence people's ability to consume healthy diets, coherent action and innovative food system solutions are needed to ensure access to sustainable, balanced and healthy diets for all. Special attention needs to be paid to the promotion of breastfeeding: it provides safe and nutritious food all year-round for infants and young children. Breastmilk is the ideal food under all circumstances but can be particularly beneficial in times of emergencies due to its availability, affordability and safety. Breastmilk is a natural and renewable food that involves no packaging, transportation or fuel to prepare and therefore contributes to environmental sustainability (UNICEF 2015). The ICN2 Framework for Action recommendations, adopted by the FAO and WHO member states, propose policy options and actions to be implemented. Agreement on shared principles of sustainability in promoting healthy diets is needed (FAO, WHO 2014).Promote sustainable production and consumption in food systems and agriculture. This concept refers to the integrated implementation of sustainable patterns of food production and consumption, respecting the carrying capacities of natural ecosystems. It requires consideration of all the aspects and phases in the life of a product, from production to consumption, and includes such issues as sustainable lifestyles, sustainable diets, food losses and food waste management and recycling, voluntary sustainability standards, and environmentally-friendly behaviours and methods that minimize adverse impacts on the environment and do not jeopardize the needs of present and future generations (FAO,UNEP 2014). A practical way to realize this concept is to upscale the use and entrench into relevant policies, Ecosystems Based Adaptation approaches (EBA) to food production, and link these to sustainable value chain processes such as clean energy powered food processing in a continuum (UNEP 2012).Nutrition-sensitive climate adaptation and mitigation has many co-benefits for both health and the environment. Address food and nutrition security in the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action Plans (NAMAS). A combination of nutrition-sensitive, climate-smart strategies and technological development, nutrition-smart investments in the agriculture and food sectors but also in social protection, education and community-based disaster risk reduction areas can contribute to ensure food and nutrition security in a changing climate (Tirado et al. 2013). Policy coherence needs to be ensured through institutional and cross-sectoral collaboration.Adopt a multi-sectoral approach and good governance. Reaching and sustaining food and nutrition security in a changing climate requires a multi-sectoral food system approach involving nutrition, agriculture, health, trade, education, water supply and sanitation and social protection, as well as taking into account cross-cutting issues like gender equality, governance, and state fragility.Farmers, businesses and governments around the world report growing impacts of climate change on agricultural production and food security, and are trying to find ways to adapt to change. The chance to measure these real-life experiences and efforts against new science is extremely useful, but rare. Released during 2013 and 2014, the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers the first opportunity since 2007 for us to appraise the global scientific consensus on climate change drivers, impacts, adaptation and mitigation.The briefing note starts with where we are as concerns climate change in the 2010s, then looks ahead 15 years to impacts and adaptation in the 2030s, before touching finally on the 2050s and beyond.2010s: How climate change is affecting today's food securityUntil recently, the impacts of climate change have been understood largely as a problem for of future, that will benefit from advance planning. A key finding of AR5 is that climate change impacts on food security are happening now. Moreover, these impacts are not evenly distributed -tropical areas that are most exposed to increasing climate risks are also home to a large proportion of the world's food-insecure people.Climate change has impacts on all aspects of food security. Evidence is now clear that climate change is affecting food security for everyone, particularly for poor people. AR5 does not quantify the overall impact of climate change on current food security, as the task is too difficult. Food security at national and individual levels depends fundamentally on how much food is produced, but also on distribution, affordability and a host of additional factors, such as culture and health. Climate change affects availability of food, access to food, utilization of food and stability of food supplies over time.Impacts of climate change on crop yields are already evident across several regions of the world, as AR5 reports with high confidence. Although positive impacts are observed in some high latitude areas such as northeast China and the UK, globally negative impacts are more common. There is medium confidence that climate change has a negative impact on net global yields of maize and wheat. By contrast, for rice and soybeans, impacts of climate change on current global yields are small.Climate change is affecting the current abundance and distribution of freshwater and marine fish harvests. Globally, warmer water species have increased as a relative contribution to catches by at higher latitudes. For example, in the well-studied northeast Atlantic, abundance of key species is shifting polewards, associated with rapid rises in sea temperatures in recent decades. Meanwhile subtropical species have decreased. These changes have negative implications for small-scale coastal fisheries in tropical countries, which employ the majority of people working in capture fisheries. Their food security is negatively impacted via smaller catches and lower incomes.Recent price spikes for food have been related to climatic extremes in major production areas. Several periods of rapid increases in international food prices have occurred since 2007, affecting consumers who are linked into international food markets. Price increases result from multiple factors, including competing demand among human food, animal feed and biofuels, but it is evident price spikes often follow extreme climate events, which have become more likely as a result of climate trends. Poor consumers spend a greater proportion of their incomes on food, and thus suffer the greatest negative impacts of food price rises.Climate change has impacts on the nutritional quality and safety of food. Cereals grown in elevated carbon dioxide show a decrease in protein and micronutrients, but ozone has the opposite effect. Thus, it is clear that climate trends directly affect nutrition, but there is not yet any confidence in predicting nutritional outcomes for consumers. The key food safety issue for plant-derived foods with climate change is mycotoxins (poisons from fungal infections, for example in stored maize). In temperate and cooler tropical regions, mycotoxins may increase with rising temperatures, but in the hotter tropics mycotoxins may be eliminated as temperature surpasses thresholds for survival of the pathogen. Looking forward to the 2030s-a realistic planning horizon for many farmers, governments and businesses in the food sector-AR5 anticipates increasing impacts of climate change on agriculture and food. Adaptation becomes increasingly important. Chapter 7 of WG2 defines adaptation as \"reductions in risk and vulnerability through the actions of adjusting practices, processes and capital\", and notes that adaptation is as much about institutional change as technical change. The many adaptations that farming systems can undertake in the next couple of decades need to respond not only to climate risks, but to other pressures on food such as growing populations and increasing per capita consumption. Small-scale producers will be hardest hit by climate change and will need considerable support to adapt.Climate risks will continue to multiply threats to poor producers in rural areas. Rural areas will continue to be home to the majority of poor people for at least the next few decades, even as population growth is higher in urban areas. Livelihoods in rural areas will continue to be in sectors. For small-scale fisheries, key interventions might include occupational flexibility, switching target species, restoring degraded habitats, developing early warning systems, strengthening infrastructure such as ports and landing sites, establishing insurance schemes, and improving responsiveness to rapid change in fisheries governance.2050s and beyond: Longer-term outlook for food security and agricultural livelihoodsBy the 2050s, global population will have risen to around 9 billion people and societies will have undergone further shifts in urbanization, aging, diets and wealth distribution. AR5 makes it clear that it is from the 2050s onwards that climatic impacts on food security will be unmistakable, particularly in the context of societal change and increasing demand for food. Tropical regions will experience the greatest negative effects-and small-scale crop, livestock and fisheries producers will face the greatest challenges of adaptation.International food price rises due to climate change are very likely by 2050. Taking multiple climate impact studies into account, AR5 concludes that it is very likely that changes in temperature and precipitation, ignoring the effects of elevated carbon dioxide, will lead to food price increases of 3-84% by 2050. Furthermore, crop demand is expected to rise roughly 14% per decade until 2050 due to rising populations and changing diets and demographic patterns, placing pressure on prices of all foods.Agriculture in tropical countries will continue to be most consistently and negatively affected by climate change. A synthesis of projections of crop yields across regions estimates an average decline by 2050 of 8% for Africa and South Asia for all crops. Wheat, maize, sorghum, and millets will be worse affected than rice, cassava, and sugarcane. Also by 2050, at least half the cropping area of most African countries will have climates that are outside current experience in the country. In the Indo-Gangetic Plains, half of the wheat-growing area, one of the world's great breadbaskets, may be under heatstress by the 2050s. In general, the length of the growing season and suitability for crops is likely to decline in all tropical farming systems where moisture availability or extreme heat rather than frost is the limiting factor.For local warming of 4°C or more, there will be limits to adaptation and significant risks to food security. For crops, which are far better studied than livestock and fisheries, recent studies confirm several findings reported in AR4, including that all crop species and varieties are likely to experience yield declines with local warming of more than 3°C, even with benefits of higher rainfall and carbon dioxide. For local warming of more than 4°C above pre-industrial levels, the ability of farming systems and natural ecosystems to adapt is severely compromised, with or without adaptation, posing major risks to food security.Tropical fisheries yields may decrease by up to 40% by the 2050s, and small-scale fisheries will be hit hardest.Projections based on continued high levels of emissions (SRES A1B scenario) suggest a decrease of up to 40% in fisheries yields in the tropics by 2055, compared to yield gains of 30-70% at high latitudes. Research also suggests that the flexibility of large-scale commercial fisheries, for large part dependent on agriculture, while climate risks to agriculture are expected to increase. Greater exposure to climate risk, without insurance, leads small-scale producers to:(1) prefer low-risk, low-return subsistence crops over high-risk, high-return cash crops (2) be less likely to apply fertilizer or other purchased inputs and (3) defer adoption of new technologies. Together these responses will increasingly reduce both current and future farm profits, and thus increase food insecurity among already poor rural populations. Increasing climate change impacts on livestock include quality and quantity of feed, and heat and water stress. Pasture provides more than half of animal feed globally, but estimating impacts of climate change on pastures is difficult due to the complexity of grassland ecosystems. Temperature is another important limiting factor for livestock. Highly productive animals have higher metabolic heat production and less tolerance of high ambient temperatures. Heat stress has impacts on both productivity and animal welfare. Climate change will also alter the water resources available for livestock.Multiple adaptations are possible in livestock production, and these largely build on longterm experience in managing climate risks. Key adaptations for small-scale producers include matching stocking rates with pasture production, switching to more suitable breeds or species, managing the age structure of herds differently, adjusting water point usage to altered patterns of forage availability, managing diet quality, more effective use of silage, pasture rotation, fire management, changing the balance of cropping and livestock in farming systems, migratory pastoralist activities, and interventions to monitor and manage the spread of pests, weeds and diseases. Combinations of adaptation actions will tend to work better than single interventions.Changes in water quantity and quality will result in significant changes in fisheries and aquaculture. Changing precipitation, affected groundwater and river flows, sea level rise, melting glaciers and ocean acidification are all expected to have consequences for capture fisheries and aquaculture. For example, mollusks, which comprise 24% of global aquaculture production, will be negatively affected by the impacts of ocean acidification on shell formation. Extreme climatic events are anticipated to have major impacts on low altitude coastal aquaculture, while marine fisheries will suffer more lost working days due to bad weather.Key adaptations for aquaculture include improved feeds, breeding for heat tolerance and acid-tolerance, improved site selection, and water use planning that is integrated with other example in terms of their spatial range, means that they will be better able to adapt and take advantage of changing fisheries.Uncertainties around future vulnerability of human and natural systems tend to be even larger than uncertainties in regional climate projections. To date, policy-makers and scientists have weak understanding of the socio-economic factors that determine how vulnerable people, farming systems and ecosystems are to climate change. Improving the accuracy of downscaled climate projections to sub-national levels will help adaptation actions, but tacking vulnerability may be even more important. Factors identified by the AR5 summary for policy makers as influencing vulnerability include \"wealth and its distribution across society, patterns of aging, access to technology and information, labour force participation, the quality of adaptive responses, societal values, and mechanisms and institutions to resolve conflicts\".Interactions between water resources and agriculture will be increasingly important as climate changes. AR5 notes that changes in precipitation will be important for the future of agriculture at sub-national levels, but that projections at local scales are uncertain. Changes in intensity, frequency and seasonality of precipitation, alongside sea level rise and glacier melting, will affect groundwater and river flows. Impacts on fisheries, aquaculture and livestock as well as crops are anticipated, and increases in demand for water will need to be offset against demand from other sectors. For example, one study estimates a 20% increase in demand for water by cattle in Kgatleng District, Botswana by 2050.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersA major consequence of climate changeClimate change affects food and nutrition security and further undermines current efforts to reduce hunger and protect and promote nutrition (Easterling et al. 2007;Confalonieri et al. 2007;Costelo et al. 2009;Nelson et al. 2009;FAO, 2008a;UNICEF, 2007;WHO, 2008;Parry et al. 2009;UNSCN, 2010). Additionally, undernutrition in turn undermines the resilience to shocks and the coping mechanisms of vulnerable populations, lessening their capacities to resist and adapt to the consequences of climate change.Climate change will increase the risk of hunger and undernutrition over the next few decades and challenge the realization of the human rights for health and adequate food (UN, 2010; Caesens et al. 2009). Climate change will affect nutrition through different causal pathways that impact food security, sanitation, water and food safety, health, maternal and child health care practices and many socioeconomic factors (Easterling et al. 2007;Confalonieri et al. 2007;Costelo et al. 2009;Nelson et al. 2009;FAO, 2008a;UNICEF, 2007;WHO, 2008;Parry et al. 2009;UNSCN, 2010).With a likely change in the patterns of climate-related extreme events, such as heat waves, droughts, storms, heavy precipitation and floods (Meehl et al. 2007) and increased risks of disasters (UNISDR, 2008), vulnerable communities and households will suffer serious setbacks etc.) that might thus be diverted from the cultivation of food crops (FAO, 2008a). Food availability may subsequently be reduced, leading to shortages on markets and associated food price increases (FAO, 2008a).The realization of the right to food can be compromised both by inadequate climate change mitigation strategies (Tirado et al. 2009) and by the failure to implement these strategies (Caesens et al. 2009). Sustainable and appropriate solutions need to be urgently explored, tested and implemented for climate change mitigation strategies that do not harm food and nutrition security.in terms of food and nutrition security (Easterling et al. 2007;FAO, 2008a;Tirado et al. 2010a).The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) fourth assessment report (AR4) concluded that undernutrition linked to extreme climatic events may be one of the most important consequences of climate change due to the very large numbers of people that may be affected (Confalonieri et al. 2007).Climate change negatively affects food availability, conservation, access and utilization and exacerbates socioeconomic risks and vulnerabilities. Climate change is expected to further reduce food productivity and to make production even more erratic in regions where agricultural productivity is already low (Parry et al. 2009). With local production declining and probable disruptions caused by climate hazards, income generating opportunities and purchasing power will decrease for vulnerable populations. At the same time, decreases in production could lead to price increases for staple crops of 25 to 150% by 2060 (Parry et al. 2009). According to the IPCC AR4, if current trends continue, it is estimated that 200-600 million more people will suffer from hunger by 2080 (Yohe et al. 2007). Calorie availability in 2050 is likely to decline throughout the developing world resulting in an additional 24 million undernourished children, 21% more relative to a world with no climate change, almost half of which would be living in sub-Saharan Africa (Nelson et al. 2009;Parry et al. 2009).Climate change negatively affects nutrition through its impacts on health and viceversa.Climate change has an impact on water availability and quality, sanitation systems, food safety and on waterborne, foodborne, vector-borne and other infectious diseases (Confalonieri et al. 2007;FAO 2008b;Tirado et al. 2010b) which eventually both increase nutritional needs and reduce the absorption of nutrients and their utilization by the body. The impacts of climate change on nutrition and health will further aggravate the effects of the HIV pandemic, reducing the workforce dedicated to agriculture and the food supply (UNEP and UNAIDS, 2008). This is a great concern considering that most of the populations affected by HIV depend on agriculture for their livelihoods (Gillespie and Kadiyala, 2005). Climate change will also put further strain on the already heavy workload of women with negative impacts on their ability to provide proper care to infants and young children, heightening the risk of undernutrition (CIDA 2002;Crahay et al. 2010).The poorest and most vulnerable, including women, children and marginal communities are also at greatest risk to suffer from the potential impacts of climate change (WFP et al. 2009). This is due to their high exposure to natural hazards, their direct dependence on climatesensitive resources, and their limited capacity to adapt to and cope with climate change impacts (WFP et al. 2009). Smallholder and subsistence farmers, pastoralists and artisanal fisherfolk in particular will suffer complex, localised impacts of climate change (Easterling et al. 2007).Mitigation is critical to limit impact of climate change on food security and nutrition in low and middle income countries in the future. However, mitigation strategies should not increase food and nutrition insecurity.For example, biofuel production can have a negative impact on food production and nutrition (FAO, 2008a). Biofuel production requires large amounts of natural resources (arable land, water, labour,A combination of action on climate change adaptation and mitigation supported by research and technological development can reduce the threats to food and nutrition security. A revitalized twin-track approach has been proposed to address the impacts of climate change on food and nutrition security (FAO 2008a;Tirado et al. 2010). Track one consists of direct and immediate nutrition interventions and safety nets. Track two consists of a broader multisectoral approach, which mainly involves sustainable and climate resilient agriculture and rural development, health and social protection schemes, risk reduction and management plans and community approaches addressing the most vulnerable among others (FAO 2008a;WFP 2009;Tirado et al. 2010).Since the effects of climate change all are extremely location specific, international and national stakeholders should work to ensure that technical, financial, and capacity-building support reaches local communities (Nelson et al. 2009). They should promote communitybased and needs-driven approaches, and encourage community participation in national planning processes. • Integrated farming systems exploiting the synergies of horticulture, aquaculture and small livestock rearing to reduce waste and expenses on agricultural inputs and increase food production diversity; and• Improved household food production and livelihoods (i.e. diversification of household food production for self-consumption, to improve the nutritional quality of the family diet).In addition, education, communication for development and social marketing strategies that strengthen local food systems and promote cultivation and consumption of local micronutrient-rich foods; research and development programmes for the breeding of selected crops and livestock with enhanced nutritional quality; and improved post-harvest management (food storage, transformation, handling and processing) to reduce losses in terms of quantity and nutrients content also contribute to nutrition security (UNSCN 2010).Agricultural policies must go beyond staples and increase the availability and affordability of a diverse range of nutritious food (vegetables, fruits, animal and dairy products, small fish, under-utilized nutrient-rich indigenous foods, etc.). Agricultural policies should be pro-poor by enhancing and sustaining people's ability to procure and use the amount and variety of food required to be active and healthy. Policies must also be gender-sensitive: the majority of small-scale farmers are women, who are balancing their childcare responsibilities and farming every day. Particular attention should be given to strategies reducing workload of women taking into account the repercussions on the nutrition and care of children  2008;FAO 2008b;WHO et al. 2009). Greater emphasis needs to be placed on protecting the health of particularly vulnerable groups, more particularly young children, pregnant and lactating women. The critical role of the nutritional status of adolescent girls and of women prior to conception and interpregnancy intervals needs to be specifically addressed and has rarely been mentioned. Rural communities and urban areas with high levels of maternal and child undernutrition, as well as communities with high infectious disease burdens from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV deserve specific attention.  (Horton et al. 2009;Bhutta et al. 2008). These high-return interventions would improve family nutrition practices and supplement foods and micronutrients provided by families, whether through market purchases or through home production (SUN 2010). These evidence-based direct interventions to prevent and treat undernutrition include:• Promotion of good nutrition and hygiene practices, such as breastfeeding, complementary feeding for infants beyond six months of age, improved hygiene practices including handwashing, and deworming programs;• Micronutrient supplementation for young children and their mothers (e.g. periodic Vitamin A supplements and therapeutic zinc supplements for diarrhea management);• Provision of micronutrients through food fortification for all (e.g. salt iodization; iron fortification, etc.);• Therapeutic feeding for malnourished children with special foods, including the prevention or treatment for moderate undernutrition and the treatment of severe undernutrition (\"severe acute malnutrition\") with ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) (Horton et al. 2009;SUN 2010) Sustainable, climate-resilient and nutrition-sensitive agricultural developmentAgriculture is fundamental to reducing global hunger and, along with the health and carebased approaches, is integral to improving nutrition outcomes worldwide (UNSCN 2010).Climate change instils greater urgency to find more sustainable, resilient and efficient ways of producing, trading, distributing and consuming food. Producing more food does not necessarily lead to a better access to food or to an improved nutritional status of those who need it most (Sheeran 2010). In Kenya and in the Philippines, for example, the adoption of cash crops expanded food supply and doubled the household incomes of small farmers, but 2006 studies showed that children's energy intake increased only from 4 to 7 percent, and that child undernutrition was little changed (Hawkes and Ruel 2006).Climate-resilient agriculture should be nutrition-friendly and health-promoting, as part of a broader nutrition-sensitive agricultural development framework. Agriculture can sustainably contribute to improving dietary diversity and nutrition by supporting, among others (UNSCN 2010):• Agricultural extension services promoting better crop diversity and biodiversity for improved nutrition;• Integrated agro-forestry systems that reduce deforestation and promote the sustainable exploitation of nutrient-rich non-wood forest products, in particular in areas with traditional agro-forestry knowledge;instance as a result of the destruction of crops or the interruptions of supply channels). These perturbations can have an important impact on the growing urban and peri-urban populations, in particular the poorest and most vulnerable living in precarious conditions in slums, with no access to social protection or safety nets. Young children, adolescent girls, and pregnant and nursing women in rural, urban and peri-urban areas should receive specific attention.With increasing risks of climate-related disasters, there is a need to better protect those who are already food and nutrition insecure by developing nutrition-sensitive disaster risk reduction strategies and risk management practices. There is a reservoir of important indigenous and traditional knowledge in hazard-prone communities. Policy-makers and practitioners should capitalize upon this existing knowledge and promote the positive local risk management and coping strategies. In line with the Hyogo Framework of Action (2005) (UNISDR 2005), key areas would be: participatory, nutrition-focused risk assessments and risk reduction plans; effective nutrition surveillance and early warning systems, coupled with early response mechanisms; disaster preparedness for effective response to adverse hazard events and capacity to address nutrition emergencies; contingency planning and stockpiling emergency nutrition supplies; building resilience of food and nutrition insecure communities to disasters. The potential of innovative micro-insurance schemes targeting food and nutrition insecure households should be further explored. Quality climate risk and early warning information should be accessible to communities (with a special focus on women), to decisionmakers and to humanitarian stakeholders at all levels. These stakeholders should improve their ability to prepare for and respond to disasters and food and nutrition crises, should be ready to cope with increased demand for support. Innovative examples of climate risk management have already been developed, and could be scaled up and replicated. One example is the Livelihoods, Early Assessment and Protection (LEAP) software application developed in Ethiopia, which allows users to quantify and index the drought and excessive rainfall risk in a particular administrative unit. The software monitors this risk and guides early emergency responses and the scaling up of the Ethiopian Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) (Hazell et al. 2010).Climate change mitigation measures need to be put in place urgently in all the sectors, in order to reduce the impacts of climate change on food and nutrition security. The agriculture sector substantially contributes to greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide and therefore offers a significant potential for mitigation. Mitigation strategies in the agriculture sector should be pro-poor and sustainable while avoiding compromising food and nutrition security (FAO 2008a;Tirado et al. 2010;CGIAR 2009).Many mitigation opportunities in this sector can enhance the adaptive capacity and sustainability of systems contributing to development (CGIAR 2009).The LMIC require a tailored support to address the challenge of investing more in agriculture and ensuring food and nutrition security for their populations, strengthening the resilience of their food production systems to climate change, whilst also reducing emissions from agriculture. Mitigation measures that bring co-benefits in terms of enhanced food productionDroughts or others climate-related shocks frequently force poor families to resort to negative coping strategies (for instance reduction of the quality, safety and quantity of their meals, reduction of the expenditures on health and education, sale of productive assets, etc.) (WFP 2009). These coping strategies generally increase the risk of undernutrition (WFP 2009), in the short-or medium-term and women and children are the first to be affected. Social protection programmes are powerful instruments to link risk reduction and immediate protection measures with efforts to build long-term resilience amongst the most vulnerable groups (Davies 2008), more specifically young children and their mothers. Given the critical role that women play in the nutrition of children, transfers should be delivered through gendersensitive mechanisms.Short-term emergency or seasonal safety nets can avoid irreversible losses in human capital, reduce the incidence of negative coping mechanisms and protect the family's access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food. Food and cash-for-work programs prevent poor farmers from selling off their few productive assets during crises, thereby protecting development gains. Social cash transfers, generally delivered by governments on a permanent basis, can help poor families to reduce their vulnerability and may also directly influence nutritional status. Conditional cash transfer programmes in Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua decreased stunting rates by 7, 10 and 5.5 percentage points respectively (Adato and Hoddinott n.d.). Labour-based productive safety nets and pro-poor insurance schemes can allow poor farmers to protect their productive assets and to gain access to investment opportunities that they would otherwise miss. School-based approaches (school feeding programmes, school gardens, nutrition education, etc.) can support child nutrition through improved diets, food and nutrition education and provide a platform for addressing child health. When children are reached during the critical period between conception and 2 years of age, the irreversible and intergenerational effects of undernutrition can be hindered. Later in life, school-based approaches may support child nutrition through improved diets, food and nutrition education and provide a platform for addressing child health.Empowerment and social participation within climate-resilient and nutritionsensitive community-based developmentEmpowerment and social participation of women and other vulnerable groups is necessary throughout the decision-making, planning and implementing processes. Investments for community food and nutrition security should (WFP et al. 2009):• Target strengthened legal rights and equal access to resources for both women and men;• Support responsive institutions grounded in the local context;• Expand and improve livelihood options;• Support gender dynamics, gender equality and girls' education;• Enhance local capacities by building on local, indigenous and traditional knowledge with institutions at all levels; and• Create a restored, diversified natural resource base and ensure that populations have the capacities and means for a sustainable management of their natural resources.In addition to a rural focus, attention has to be given to urban and peri-urban areas. The food supply in urban and peri-urban areas can be put at stake by climate change hazards (for Special efforts are needed to raise awareness on nutrition and climate change among decision-makers and policy-makers, to strengthen national capacities, to bridge the gaps between sectoral institutions. At international level, there is a need for nutrition policy coherence and cooperation to eradicate undernutrition in all its forms (FAO 2008a;Tirado et al. 2010) including both under and overnutrition. Stakeholders involved in the UNFCCC climate change discussions should draw on support from related international fora and initiatives, such as the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement, the Committee on World Food Security, the UN High Level Task Force on Global Food Security, the REACH partnership and the International Health Partnership. There is still a gap between affected communities and the national and multilateral debates. It will be necessary to better link the local-level voices, experiences and expertise to the national and international climate change agendas, for adaptation and mitigation to succeed.Climate change directly affects food and nutrition security, undermining current efforts to address undernutrition, one of the world's most serious but least addressed socioeconomic and health problems. A combination of nutrition-sensitive adaptation and mitigation measures, nutrition-smart investments, increased policy coherence, and institutional and cross-sectoral collaboration can address the threats to food and nutrition security from climate change.Nutrition-sensitive adaptation and mitigation measures should be integrated with development strategies and programmes. Changes in policies, institutions and governance will be needed to facilitate this intersectoral approach (FAO 2008a;Tirado et al. 2010). Placing people and human rights at the centre of strategies to adapt to and diminish the effects of climate change can enhance thedevelopment and implementation of climate-resilient policies.A rights-based approach engages the rural, peri-urban and urban stakeholders most vulnerable and affected by climate impacts as active participants in this process.Adato, M. and Hoddinott, J. (eds) Non-dated. Conditional cash transfers in Latin America: a magic bullet to reduce poverty? Washington, DC: IFPRI and access, nutrition and health in LMIC should be further tested and scaled up. These strategies include for instance agro-ecological food production systems, integrated agroforestry and silvo-pastoral systems, or low-emission stove technology for burning local biomass fuels, which can reduce the risk of acute respiratory tract infections in young children (FAO 2008a;FAO 2006;Wilkinson et al. 2009).Mitigation strategies that aim to reducing the carbon foot print from the whole food sector through sustainable food production and food consumption and waste reduction should be explored and encouraged (EC 2009;Friel et al. 2009;UNEP 2010). Recognition that climate change mitigation strategies can have substantial benefits for food and nutrition security, health and climate protection offers the possibility of policy choices that are potentially both cost effective and socially attractive.There is a need for additional investment to address the new challenges posed by climate change on food and nutrition security in low and middle income countries. Existing and emerging Climate Funds should be mobilized to support nutrition-focused adaptation actions and target in priority women and children in communities most at risk of undernutrition. National adaptation plans should ensure adequate budgetary allocations and incorporate the appropriate actions to address nutrition problems. Climate Funds and others private investments should support as well climate change mitigation measures that bring nutrition co-benefits. Better nutrition strengthens communities and local economies and contributes to the achievement of other development and adaptation objectives.A number of policy, institutional and governance issues have considerable influence on food and nutrition security. Reaching and sustaining food and nutrition security in a changing climate requires a multi-sectoral approach involving agriculture, health and social protection.There are also important links to education, water-supply and sanitation as well as to crosscutting issues like gender equality, governance and state fragility. Nutrition outcomes are good impact indicators for each of these sectors.The cross-sectoral nature of nutrition and the potential negative implications of climate change mitigation actions on nutrition call for increased policy coherence, institutional and cross-sectoral collaboration, at local, national and international levels. Mechanisms that ensure this policy coherence between development, adaptation and mitigation objectives should be explored and implemented at all levels.Effective cross-sectoral planning and solutions should be facilitated by joint efforts among communities and local stakeholders, governmental and public agencies, the United Nations agencies, civil society, private sector and academia, and by developing partnership mechanisms at all levels. It is necessary to strengthen the capacities of the various stakeholders involved in direct nutrition interventions, food production and access, social protection systems and also to improve their ability to prepare for and respond to disasters. Planned adaptation is essential to increase the resilience of agricultural production to climate change. Several improved agricultural practices evolved over time for diverse agro-ecological regions in India have potential to enhance climate change adaptation, if deployed prudently. Management practices that increase agricultural production under adverse climatic conditions also tend to support climate change adaptation because they increase resilience and reduce yield variability under variable climate and extreme events. Some practices that help adapt to climate change in Indian agriculture are soil organic carbon build up, in-situ moisture conservation, residue incorporation instead of burning, water harvesting and recycling for CSA 638 Since climate variability manifests in terms of deficit or excess water, major emphasis was laid on introduction of water saving technologies like direct seeded rice, zero tillage and other resource conservation practices, which also reduce GHG emissions besides saving of water.Community managed custom hiring centers are setup in each village to access farm machinery for timely sowing or planting. This is an important intervention to deal with variable climate like delay in monsoon, inadequate rains needing replanting of crops.To cope with climate variability, ICAR/CRIDA has developed district level contingency plans for more than 400 rural districts in country.Operationalization of these plans during aberrant monsoon years through the district/block level extension staff helps farmers cope with climate variability.The Use of community lands for fodder production during droughts/floods, improved fodder/feed storage methods, feed supplements, micronutrient use to enhance adaptation to heat stress, preventive vaccination, improved shelters for reducing heat/cold stress in livestock, management of fish ponds/tanks during water scarcity and excess water are some key interventions in livestock and fishery sector.Automatic weather stations at KVK experimental farms and mini-weather observatories in project villages are established to record real time weather parameters such as rainfall, temperature and wind speed etc. both to issue customized agro advisories and improve weather literacy among farmers. Farmers in the villages traditionally grow local varieties of different crops resulting in poor crop productivity due to heat, droughts or floods. Hence, improved, early duration drought, heat and flood tolerant varieties are introduced for achieving optimum yields despite climatic stresses. This varietal shift was carefully promoted by encouraging village level seed production and linking farmers decision-making to weather-based agro advisories and contingency planning.Rainwater The lessons we presented in this report suggest a few elements that should generally be part of any effort to develop climate services at a national scale that seek to serve smallholder farmers.First, involve farmers in the co-design, co-production and co-evaluation of climate services.Evidence from the case studies suggests that needs can be quite context-specific, varying even from one village to the next. What appears as an intuitive initial step-asking end users what they need-is often overlooked. However, giving farmers an effective voice requires more than an initial needs assessment. The informed and sustained engagement of farmers throughout the design, production, delivery and evaluation is needed in order for information products and services to evolve with experience, changing needs and changing capability of climate and other relevant sciences. It means valuing farmers' perspectives; and providing opportunities for engagement with researchers so their requirements can be informed by science, and the provision of services can be informed by their evolving requirements.This article was drawn from previously published materials entitled Scaling up climate services for farmers: Mission possible -Learning from good practice in Africa and South Asia by Arame Tall, James Hansen, Alexa Jay, Bruce Campbell, James Kinyangi, Pramod Aggarwal, and Robert Zougmoré. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article fo complete reference to the original article.local needs throughout the lifespan of the climate services project or programme. Assessment and reassessment should be part of the initial design and be integrated throughout the process of climate services development, particularly including giving farmers an effective voice, and communication approaches to reach more remote farmers. Assessing climate services fulfils at least three purposes. First, it can foster legitimacy and accountability by providing a formal mechanism to capture users' needs and feedback. Second, it informs the iterative process of improving and tailoring climate services to evolving local needs. Third, the resulting evidence of the costs and benefits of climate services can be used to build a case to governments and donors for continued and perhaps increased investment.Finally, proactively engage, and target the needs of, the most vulnerable and marginalized, particularly women, from the onset. The vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate risk is a major motivation for much of the recent interest and investment in climate services. Yet the challenges that lead some segments of rural populations to be more vulnerable also tend to make it more difficult to benefit from institutional services, including climate services. In the cases included in this study, the most vulnerable tended to be resource-poor, female and lower caste farmers, marginalized by the boundaries of their own community's sociocultural norms, and invisible to many outsiders. In order to build the resilience of farmers equitably, it is important to proactively target women and other marginalized farmers in the various steps of the design and delivery of climate services programmes, and ensure that they are represented in institutional and governance arrangements.These five guidelines map out an integrated approach for designing, producing, communicating and evaluating climate services for smallholder farmers. Working with rural communities to integrate their knowledge into production of climate services is at the heart of the co-production effort. Doing this at scale requires efficient mechanisms to engage legitimate representatives of smallholder farmers, and to capture and map farmers' evolving needs.Second, establish partnerships that bridge the gap between climate, agricultural research and farmers. The co-production of climate services requires sustained interaction and engagement of all parties (climate, research and end users). It has become clear that new institutional arrangements for salience will be required, expanding the boundary of climate service production to both agricultural research and farmers themselves. When end-users' climate service needs are elicited, this often reveals significant gaps between their needs and the information and services that are routinely available. Filling those gaps requires climate expertise for example to: downscale climate information to a scale that is relevant to rural communities, improve prediction skill, or extend prediction to include agriculturally-important variables such as onset or cessation of the rainy season or the distribution of dry and wet spells. However, meeting farmers' needs also involves integrating climate information and agricultural expertise to produce predictions of climate impacts on agriculture, and farm management advisories. While national meteorological services (NMS) have the expertise to produce raw weather and climate information, national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) are generally in a better position to translate this information into advice and support for farmers. Strong partnerships between national meteorological and hydrological services (repositories of climate knowledge at the national level) and national agricultural research and extension services (repositories of agricultural knowledge and extension support in country) are therefore a pre-requisite to producing information and services that are tailored to farmers' needs. Where such partnerships are not yet formalized, brokering partnership enabling sustained dialogue and is essential to the success of climate services that target farmers. We draw out examples of how case studies attempted to foster these partnerships, but the case studies reviewed do not provide enough evidence about their success, or factors that may limit their success, to address this important issue within the report.Third, exploit scalable communication channels to reach \"the last mile.\" Once tailored products are developed, the next challenge is to communicate widely to ensure the products reach the majority of farmers in the country or target region. As the case studies reviewed in this report illustrate, a wide range of communication channels can be used to deliver climate-related information and advisories, and to collect farmer feedback. Our experience, and assessment of the literature and case studies, suggest that expanding access to climate services for smallholder farmers is best accomplished through a combination of leveraging the reach and costeffectiveness of ICTs (e.g. SMS, rural radio, voice recordings, call services); and working through trained staff of boundary organizations (agricultural extension, NGOs, communitybased organizations, agri-business) and farmer facilitators who can facilitate the face-to-face dialogue that is needed to deal with the complexities of seasonal climate information.Evidence indicates that two-way communication between farmers and climate serviceproviders is essential, regardless of the communication channels used (Jost 2013; Stigter and Winarto 2013).Fourth, continuously assess to improve quality of service delivery. To ensure that climate services respond to evolving end-user needs and reflect the changing nature of the sciences involved, projects and programmes need to keep assessing adherence of provided products toAs the cases reviewed in this report detail, reaching large numbers of farmers with climate services that are relevant, usable, credible and valued by end users is \"Mission Possible\" -but not without challenges. The eight good practice lessons summarize some of the ways in which experiences on the ground are addressing the tenacious challenges to providing climate services that are useful for smallholder farmers in the developing world. The case studies that support these lessons also provide evidence that this endeavour is possible, although challenging. Overcoming the challenges will require collaboration across communities and across disciplines, as well as enabling institutional frameworks within which such collaboration can take place at the national and sub-national levels, towards the production and delivery of end-user relevant climate services. Helping countries establish frameworks for climate services, which enable such collaboration across institutions and their associated ministries, is an urgent priority and perhaps the most difficult challenge.This report has offered five potent guidelines gleaned from good practice across Africa and South Asia to address the challenges to scaling up climate services for farmers, and guide the efforts of future programmes aiming to support agricultural decision-making through climate information services (see figure 1 on earlier page). These guidelines map out an integrated approach for designing, producing, communicating and evaluating climate services for smallholder farmers.In a world of exacerbated climate variability and uncertainty, with the greatest impacts anticipated in areas of Africa, Asia and the developing world, equipping and the most vulnerable communities with climate information and advisory services to anticipate climaterelated shocks and changes becomes an urgent priority.Jost The general messages of the realities of climate change in relation to land tenure are not different form the principles of progressive land policies now widely recognized and promoted by international development agencies. These include the provision of secure land rights under a diversity of forms of tenure, including the recognition of customary rights and the devolution of responsibilities for land registration and management to more local levels; promoting land access for disadvantaged groups including women and indigenous peoples; upgrading of tenure and infrastructure in urban informal settlements; improving equality in the distribution of land; decentralized management of natural resources and inclusive frameworks for stakeholder involvement and management of conflicts; encouragement of equitable rental markets to improve supplies of land; and better governance in land administration, in particular to ensure equitable access to and good use of public land. On the other hand there will clearly be a need for more effective land use regulation in at risk areas which is likely to constrain overall land availability leading to requirements to accelerate provision of land access and secure land and resource tenure elsewhere. In practice however, the relatively high costs of resettlement or compensation for loss of land, and of tenure regularization on a massive scale, coupled with the likelihood of climate change impacts on tenure insecure people in at risk areas may lead governments to neglect questions of tenure development, especially where these are led by market based mechanisms. This will involve development of better legal frameworks for the regulation of these programmes, including achieving better coherence across countries land and forest policies, and developing agreed standards and monitoring arrangements for carbon emissions mitigation which properly address questions of land and resource ownership and access.Actions to ensure group titling in forest areas, or in areas where there is already a diversity of legitimate public and private interests are important recognition of secure rights of access and prior consultation and participation for indigenous peoples in forest area management are important first steps, prior to the wider development of these schemes.There is a need for targeting of all these measures on women, indigenous groups and other social groups at particular risk because of poverty, weak access or restricted access to land and natural resource assets, existing exposure to natural and other hazards, and limited adaptive capacity.Given the likely increases in mobility, migration and land competition in many areas as a result of climate change, and the fact that the poor are likely to be disproportionately affected by climate change there is a general need to strengthen the governance arrangements over land based natural resources on which the poor and vulnerable depend, in addition to specific measures targeted at women and indigenous groups. This means not only paying attention to lands issues in climate change mitigation planning but ensuring that land tenure and land use management have central places in sustained efforts to improve the governance frameworks for both rural and urban development in the context of climate change.In responding to these critical problems, a number of specific land tenure and land policy issues which have emerged from the discussion of the land dimensions of issues in climate change adaptation are listed below:Tenure security issues: providing security through a diversity of forms of tenure, (not only provision of freehold rights through) including granting formal recognition to customary and informal rights; granting tenure security to groups, village communities, producer associations and other collective bodies where appropriate, including for indigenous groups; utilizing low cost methods of land survey and registration; devolving responsibility for documentation of land rights to local bodies; moratoriums on evictions without resettlement or fair compensation, and improved legal remedies against evictions and forced removals; gendered approaches incorporating opportunities for women to register land and joint spousal rights; priority access to home area resources, and negotiated frameworks for access to valuable seasonal and fallback resources for pastoralist and other mobile groups.Improving land access for the poor: making existing land redistribution programmes work more effectively; better use of government land and eliminating corruption in access to public land; equitable liberalization and regulation of rental markets to encourage land supply and provide greater certainty on both landlords' and tenants' rights; land release schemes in resettlement areas; programmes to guarantee access to household plots and home gardens for the poor; proactive programmes for land access for women and vulnerable groups.security of vulnerable groups. As a result it is not enough simply to promote a positive land policy response to the risks associated with climate change. What is needed is a more systematic integration of land policy with climate change adaptation planning.In general terms we consider that there will be a need for tenure policies which provide both a) greater security in land and property rights so as to consolidate and extend people's control over land and natural resource assets and provide incentives for good environmental stewardship, and b) for greater flexibility to accommodate changes in land use and settlement patterns so as to provide clear options for people in the anticipated contexts of greater demographic mobility provoked by climate related threats to human settlements and livelihoods. These two elements of security and flexibility are both important considerations in current land tenure policies and we believe they are not in contradiction.On the basis of the foregoing discussion of the land dimensions of climate change impacts, this paper identifies three critical problems which land policy needs to address, which cross cut the range of at risk areas in developing countries.i) The need to address land use and settlement issues in areas facing significant direct risks from climate change, notably low lying coastal areas, including cities and river deltas, and particularly in those areas at serious risk in South Asia. There is a need for both:a. provision of secure rights for households to plots of land in safe areas and secure access for local communities to their immediate environments to create incentives for upgrading of infrastructure and for effective natural resource management; and b. action to facilitate resettlement in preparation for the large scale displacement resulting from sea level rise and more frequent storms surges and high impact disasters, including inventories of current settlements and available land, documentation of informal rights, assessment of land suitability and climate hazard risks, and action to improve land availability and allocation.To a high degree both these types of measure will involve increasing the capacity of land administration systems.ii) The need for accelerated provision of secure tenure arrangements which can enhance households and communities existing capacities to adapt to the impacts of climate change on livelihoods and food security production. This will involve rolling out low cost programmes of tenure regularisation and formalisation on both a household and community basis (according to available capacity and existing customary practice) especially in areas of the semi-arid and sub-humid tropics likely to suffer impacts on food production or facing growing land competition. These measures need to incorporate strengthening of natural resource tenure through group titling or joint management frameworks involving local communities, the state and other natural resource users.Tenure security and natural resource management innovations need to be accompanied by measures to strengthen community capacity for resource management and ensure the uptake of appropriate management techniques and productive technologies. Once again these types of measures will require increases in public capacity for delivery.iii) Measures to protect the poor and vulnerable from loss of livelihood resources and develop the opportunities available for them to gain direct benefits as a result of climate change mitigation measures, in particular avoided deforestation / reforestation and biofuels be supported by appropriate legislative frameworks (such as the Codes Rural and Chartes Pastoral in West Africa) and incorporate institutional frameworks for participatory governance of natural resources, conflict management, and capacity building and technical support to user groups. Moreover cross border frameworks for land and natural resource access will be needed to address the mobility and migration of affected groups on a regional scale.Land and carbon mitigation: Although carbon emissions mitigation is not strictly part of adaptive planning, the poor need to adapt not only to climate change but also to the spread of Carbon emissions mitigation measures, including the development of avoided deforestation, carbon offset forestry schemes, and the spread of biofuels, all of which risk undermining existing land rights and reducing land access for poor and vulnerable groups. The lands issues involved in these developments need to be pursued within the coherent policy frameworks which also include planning for climate change adaptation and ongoing poverty reduction. Carbon forestry requires legislative frameworks which take account of land tenure and land access issues, and there is a need for \"robust cross scale institutional frameworks\" to ensure that market based mechanisms for climate mitigation meet equity and development objectives, within which land and property rights are a central concern. Agricultural land use change and forest preservation by local communities themselves, for instance the adoption of intensive agroforestry schemes should be included as eligible activities for carbon finance, and procedures for local communities and small farmers to gain access to payments for forest conservation, afforestation and reforestation need to be simplified.The above recommendations are based on what we already know about climate change and its likely impacts. Accordingly, they are rather broad. However specific land policy measures and integration of land policy action with wider adaptive planning will need to take place at national and sub-national levels, according to specific sets of climate change impacts and bearing in mind existing legal and institutional frameworks. Consequently there is a need for continuing research to inform improved adaptive planning. Here we outline the major areas for further research on these topics.Regional impact modeling: insufficient work has been done to run and refine existing climate change impact models to understand the likely land use impacts at regional and sub-regional scales in the developing world. The priority should be modeling of short and medium run impacts, based on existing emissions and projections of future emissions in subsequent decades, which as knowledge and techniques improve should allow for growing confidence about the probable scale of impacts. This in turn is an essential basis for understanding the land use and possible land tenure impacts and policy implications for specific countries and social groups, and the scale and pace at which land policy related measures need to be integrated into wider adaptation planning.Country and area studies: in depth using 2050 impact scenarios; existing land policies, tenure systems, institutional and governance frameworks, available land for new settlement and productive activities, demographic features and the links with national adaptation plans, strategies and capacity issues, focused on priority areas:i. Profiles and analysis of areas facing significant risk to human occupation and settlement including the institutional arrangements for adaptation and mapping of informal land rights and settlements, climate related hazard risks and available land for resettlement:• due to the direct impacts of sea level rise and changes in flood regimes in low lying coastal areas and river deltas, including urban areas, and in small island states);Strengthening the negotiation position of the poor: legal literacy and empowerment;advocacy and intervention by government and civil society organizations to facilitate poor people's access to land distribution schemes and land markets; reducing fees and transaction costs in access to land administration institutions; capacity building for community and residents associations and farmer organizations to play active roles in adaptation planning.Land and natural resource information: improved inventories of land occupation in urban and rural areas including the informal sector; improved analysis and mapping of natural hazard risks for informal settlements; better inventories of land available for resettlement or temporary relocation.Land policy is one key element of adaptation planning, therefore in addition to improving and climate proofing\" land policies themselves, land policy measures, including land inventories, tenure regularization, resettlement, and improved land use regulation in at risk areas need to be more fully integrated with NAPAs (National Adaptation Programmes of Action) at national and sub-national levels. In turn adaptive measures need to be more effectively mainstreamed into national development policies and poverty reduction strategy frameworks and into government and international agency planning as a whole, which needs to deliver funding to priority adaptive actions, at a scale and pace commensurate with the evolution of the human need. Note that priority land policy actions for adaptation to climate change are unlikely to be different in essence from land policy's own priorities. However, climate change risks create new demands in terms of the scale and pace of action (e.g. to deliver tenure, security, land for resettlement, squatter upgrading, comprehensive land inventories) prioritization of particular geographical areas and social groups.In this context of national and regional adaptive planning:Integrated land and water resource management: while action is needed to conserve water resources and improve soil moisture availability at farm level, water resource availability needs to be assessed and programmes for water management introduced at a variety of territorial scales, including river basins, rural watersheds major cities and informal settlements and irrigation schemes. Resettlement and new land allocation should be accompanied by establishment of water supplies and allocation of water rights, and land and natural resource management, for instance of pastoral groups, musts include access to and management of water resources. Producers and residents groups can also form a basis of water user associations. There is significant potential in organization of region wide collective action and advocacy to secure funding and technical for simple water harvesting and storage technologies, including cisterns collection of run-off and community construction of small-scale dams, as demonstrated by recent programmes in Northeast Brazil. Where water pricing is involved this should to discriminate against vulnerable groups unable to afford the charges. Water rights and water resource management will be particularly important for irrigation schemes subject to diminishing water supplies, which may require substantial reorganization and re-engineering to remain productive under changing conditions.Special programmes for land and natural resource tenure in semi arid areas subject to climate change: including pastoralist custodianship of rangeland areas, territorial plans for water resource management, formalization of reciprocal arrangements between pastoralist groups, agro pastoralist and settled farmers (including leasehold arrangements to accommodate possible emergence of new agricultural areas e.g. in parts of the Sahel which may experience temporarily increased rainfall and \"greening\") by building on and extending existing local conventions. The action required goes beyond land and natural resource tenure which needs toTowards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersStepping up to the challenge: Facing global climate change and food securityThere are several complex and interrelated challenges and barriers to achieving global food and nutrition security in an increasingly variable climate. Without urgent action for mitigation and adaptation, the world faces more loss and damage and this will further threaten the productive capacity and long-term viability of smallholder farmers.The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tells us in stark terms that climate change is impacting food security now and that it is no longer a hypothetical future scenario. It is also accepted that the negative effects of climate change are projected to affect communities that have the lowest capacity to adapt, yet have the highest need to increase production, in order to secure food and nutrition security (Vermeulen 2014).The report states that increases in climate extremes exacerbate the vulnerability of food insecure populations and anticipates increasing impacts on agriculture and food systems. In the future, the possibility of localized warming of more than 4°C (above pre-industrial levels) will severely compromise the ability of agriculture and ecosystems to deliver food and • as a result of changes breakdown of existing production and livelihood systems due to temperature rise, and changes in precipitation and water availability with implications for tenure/management/governance systems and possible migration (e.g. the Sahel, Southern Africa, Northeast Brazil, Southern Andes).ii. Areas which are important targets for emissions reduction, avoided deforestation, carbon sinks and mitigation (Amazon and Congo basins biofuels expansion in Brazil; oil palm and tropical forest in Indonesia/Malaysia)Climate proofing land policies: Assessments could be conducted of existing land policies and policy development processes on a country or regional basis (linked to regional and sub-regional development organizations and focusing on countries most at risk) to determine how effectively they can cater for climate change related risks and how they may need to change. The coherence of land policy with related areas including agricultural, forest and environmental management policies is a key concern.Thematic research to inform specific aspects of adaptation planning: As a result of the analysis of possible land related climate change impacts, we have also identified a number of areas for thematic research in different regions from which important cross-country lessons for adaptation planning might be learnt:• How land policy can facilitate mobility and resettlement in climate change affected regions (including cross border land and territorial policies; negotiated frameworks for inter-group conflict reduction territorial governance).• Water management in affected regions including changing patterns of demand and supply, existing institutional arrangements, water rights and water pricing, the potential role of collective action and civil society organisations, and impact = adaptation scenarios for water supply and drainage in informal urban settlements and for irrigation schemes likely to be affected by accelerated glacial melt and changing flood regimes.• Land access and climate change mitigation: research the position of small farmers and forest communities in relation to forest management, carbon storage, energy production and biofuels development and alternative land uses, with a view to improving the opportunities and mechanisms by which the poor in developing countries from low carbon economic development.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersBiased and discriminatory practices surrounding women's access to land and other natural resources is a key driver of inequality. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, farm yields could increase by 20-30% and that global hunger could be significantly reduced as a result (FAO 2011). But while gender discrimination in agricultural policy and practice must be tackled, this cannot be achieved by targeting women as instruments for boosting yields.More thoughtful attention must be afforded to interrelated issues of power, social structure and relations that define interactions between women and men (Bernier et al. 2013). Social analysis must become much more comprehensive-and it must be active analysis, whereby policy-makers and service providers themselves internalize the challenges. Because adaptation decisions depend on opportunities governed by the varied and complex interplay of social relations, institutions, organizations, and policies (Perez et al. 2014), it is imperative that our understanding of inequality in agriculture advances.Given the potential for improvement, how do we lock in guarantees that inequality (and particularly gender-based inequality) is addressed in policy formulation and implementation? On the cusp of 2015, we have emerging and long-existing paradigms such as climate-smart agriculture, agroecology and sustainable intensification that pay little more than lip service to the need for balancing household and community decision-making power and delivering services, incentives, resources and rewards equally to women and men. For example, what approaches do we take to ensure equal access to climate and agriculture information and advisory services? How do we best address gender gaps through frameworks such as the Voluntary Guidelines to support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security (FAO 2004)-or through national legislation, good practice protocols or social and environmental safeguards that will drive good practice and raise standards?What have we learned from employing social learning approaches; improving farmer field and business schooling; building collectives and local institutions and connecting farmers with village savings and loans associations? What are the dividends for farming communities when there is transparent and accountable governance at local levels that considers their needs and understands the risks they take? What are the demand-driven models that work? Participatory methods are a proven success and approaches such as participatory scenario planning thus become crucial. This form of planning breaks through orthodox approaches, as it puts communities and service providers in control of generating knowledge-providing opportunities to address inequitable service delivery in the process (CARE 2012). It allows the consideration of indigenous knowledge and carries considerable advantages as relationships between environmental services -even with adaptation -and this will pose significant risk to food and nutrition security. Considering that food insecure small-scale producers will be the most adversely affected by climate change, it becomes obvious that policy and practice will need to move in their favour.In 2015, governments will aim to agree on a new sustainable development framework that includes a set of longer-term Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a future climate change agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and a post-2015 framework to address disaster risks. Collectively, these processes provide a unique opportunity to fundamentally shift course towards global and national climate-resilient development pathways. Whether these actions promote food and nutrition security in the face of climate change will be one of the key benchmarks in assessing success -six issues below will be critical to this.Key Issues:1. Scale up proven action and practice;2. Ensure equitable outcomes for women;3. Give decision-making power to farmers;4. Enhance nutrition security, not just food security;5. Make mitigation an opportunity for, rather than a threat to food security;6. Support markets and value chains for low income producers and consumers.One of the greatest challenges we face is how to ensure increased investment in sustainable, productive, equitable and resilient agriculture, through climate finance and agriculture finance.Just meeting projected increases in demand for agricultural products will require significant levels of private and public investment. However, adaptation to climate change within the agricultural sector entails additional costs. These have been estimated at USD 7 billion per year to 2050 (Nelson et al. 2009), USD 11.3 -12.6 billion per year in the year 2030 (Wheeler and Tiffin 2009) and a cumulative USD 225 billion to 2050 (Lobell et al. 2013).Policy-makers and investors, from multilaterals to bilaterals to the private sector and beyond, must find better ways to reach the poorest and most vulnerable, who invest more time and effort in securing food and nutrition for their families than most people in the world. It is farmers, fisherfolk and pastoralists who develop the most enduring solutions, so it is logical that new investments should link with these proven approaches. How can we do this? What are the roles of different institutions, from local to global levels, in connecting finance with farmer-led good practice -and what are the models of cooperation required? Given the IPCC's most recent findings, how do we get a bigger share of climate finance, including private finance, into adaptation -particularly adaptation driven by the world's poorest producers?Take technology transfer, for example. This is an inherently unequal process whereby one party provides solutions to another. How can we move to genuine co-generation of technologies?Where and under what circumstances is \"transfer\" of hardware or scientific knowledge absolutely necessary? How can we support capacity-building for technology application and south-south cooperation to ensure that approaches and technologies are sustainable and equitable, in the sense that they are delivering positive outcomes for the poorest?for Enhanced Action, the subsequent Warsaw Conference, a series of ministerials during 2014 and the UN Secretary General's Climate Summit in September 2014. While more than 100 countries have made pledges, few include mitigation actions in agriculture, even though there are considerable opportunities, as detailed for example in the UNEP 2013 Emissions Gap Report. As a sector, mitigation measures in agriculture could make up between 6.5-25% of the overall contribution necessary for closing the current gap between business-as-usual emission levels and levels that meet the goal to stay below a 2°C (ideally a 1.5°C) temperature increase (UNEP 2013).A key challenge for governments, farmers and the private sector is to undertake mitigation actions that enhance rather than reduce food security, particularly for poor producers and consumers. Which actions might be \"best bets\" and what policy support can provide the best incentives? Many actions to improve resilience and adaptation result in mitigation benefits; in some contexts, key actions that deliver for both mitigation and food security include improved pasture management, increased nutrient and water use efficiency and increased use of trees and perennials on farms. It is important to note that poor smallholder farmers are insignificant contributors to carbon emissions and they should not be obliged to reduce emissions as a precondition of financial or technical support. Some techniques appropriate to their circumstances can enrich the carbon stored in their farming landscape-how can we work with these farming communities to enable them to develop these techniques while not compromising the priority of their realization of food and nutrition security?Maximizing climate investments in agriculture to ensure sustainable economic growth offers opportunity. But what financial services and risk management options are available for small-scale producers? How do we ensure they are accessible and that there is inclusive access to finance and markets?Value chains represent a critical lens by which we can understand how a product moves from producer to customer. This perspective provides an important means to understand commercial and socioeconomic relationships, mechanisms for increasing efficiency, and ways to enable business to increase productivity and add value. Additionally, it provides a reference point for improvements in services and the business environment. There are significant opportunities for pro-poor initiatives that build resilience to climate change, while linking small businesses with markets. Value chains sit at the core of high-impact and sustainable initiatives that can improve productivity, competitiveness, entrepreneurship, and small and medium enterprise growth. The productivity and efficiency of agricultural value chains are thus essential for the success of rural economies and to the incomes of the poorest. What kinds of investments in value chain development can deliver increased returns to the primary actors -the smallscale producers who are often the poorest and most vulnerable?How can we build on good practice in value chain development that increases socioeconomic equity and protects and enhances environmental integrity and natural resource bases? With climate change and weather extremes now the \"new normal\", how do we ensure that value chains and market engagement work plays a more central role in risk management for vulnerable farming communities? communities, local authorities, ministry officials and meteorological officers are brokered, often for the first time. How can we ensure innovations such as these are brought to scale?Giving decision-making power to farmers needs to extend beyond generation of knowledge on the farm. How do we develop the capacity and profile of farmers' groups to effectively engage in well-informed agricultural (and related) policy processes that facilitate demand-driven technologies that address climate change and food security? What more can be done to ensure compliance by all development actors with formal and customary law that is designed to protect the most marginalized and poorest? Both statutory and customary rights to lands, territories and resources, including indigenous genetic resources, which local communities have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired, must be upheld if meaningful decision-making power is to rest with farming communities.And because women and girls are disproportionately affected by inadequate nutritionespecially in the global South (particularly in the context of crises) -the need for rightsbased and empowermentbased approaches to food and nutrition security becomes acute.Women effectively translate enhanced knowledge into improved nutrition outcomes.Compelling evidence from Bangladesh, for example, demonstrates that child stunting can be reduced by up to 4.5% with approaches that address the empowerment and capacities of women (Smith et al. 2012). With this in mind, how can interventions be planned so that they are nutrition specific or sensitive, and so that every effort is made to reduce chronic malnutrition, one of humanity's greatest challenges?There are also significant agronomic adjustments and adaptations that can be promoted to improve nutrition outcomes. Among the crops identified by CGIAR research centers as having particular potential to achieve positive nutritional outcomes in a warming world are cassava, bananas, barley, cowpeas, lentils, and millet (Thornton 2012). Home gardens, including the cultivation of micronutrientrich vegetables like orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, and the keeping of small livestock are examples of agricultural interventions particularly accessible to women and likely to enhance household nutritional outcomes. So what kinds of investments and policy adjustments are required to advance the uptake and scale out of these approaches, which are at the same time climate and environmentally sensitive, nutrition positive and gender transformative?Make mitigation an opportunity for, rather than a threat to food securityThe UNFCCC encourages all parties to come forward with voluntary mitigation pledges for 2020 under the Copenhagen Accord. Political impetus has grown through the Durban Platform chapter 3Landscapes and ecosystems services under pressure  CSA 659The links between agriculture and climate change have been well documented (major reviews cited in Beddington et al. 2011), and agriculture must play a major role in global efforts to address both adaptation and mitigation. But including climate change objectives requires new approaches to agricultural development that more explicitly address ecosystem health and resilience, and action and impacts that can be realized at scale. This introduction briefly summarizes those agriculture-climate change links and the implications for 'climate-smart' agriculture, and then taps the experience of integrated landscape initiatives to propose a 'climate-smart landscape' approach that will be elaborated in the rest of the article.This article was drawn from previously published materials entitled From climate-smart agriculture to climate-smart landscapes by Sara J. Scherr, Seth Shames and Rachel Friedman. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.emerged in 2010, the development of this idea and use of the term itself, has been led by international institutions, particularly the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank (FAO 2010;Bank 2011). The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has provided leadership to the international research community as the idea has matured (Nelson et al. 2010;Moorhead 2009;Vermeulen 2010).While newly framed as a concept for the climate change and agricultural development communities, climate-smart agriculture includes many of the field-based and farm-based sustainable agricultural land management practices already in the literature and in wide use, such as conservation tillage, agroforestry, residue management, and others (Campbell et al. 2011;Bleker 2011;FAO 2010;Bank 2011;Milder et al. 2011;Pye-Smith 2011). Most of the focus of climate-smart agriculture has been on the implementation of these field and farm practices, and the ways that they can be improved in the context of a changing climate. Many others are engaged in the discourse on agricultural practices for climate change adaptation and mitigation, but without using the climate-smart terminology (Easterling et al. 2007;Smith et al. 2007;Delgado et al. 2011;Lal et al. 2011;Scherr and Sthapit 2009).However, climate-smart agriculture requires actions beyond the farm scale. One element of FAO's definition is 'adopting an ecosystem approach, working at landscape scale and ensuring inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation' (FAO 2010). In the World Bank's version, climatesmart agriculture includes 'integrated planning of land, agriculture, fisheries, and water at multiple scales (local, watershed, regional)' (World Bank 2011). Yet while landscapes are clearly considered a key component of the climate-smart conceptual framework, there have been few efforts to elucidate the mechanisms to implement climate-smart landscapes.Parallel to development of the climate-smart discourse has been the emergence of integrated landscape management as an organizing framework for action and policy within the agricultural development and conservation communities (LPFN 2012;Scherr and McNeely 2008). Integrated landscape management approaches work deliberately to support food production, ecosystem conservation, and rural livelihoods across entire landscapes. These are known under various terms including ecoagriculture, landscape restoration, territorial development, model forests, satoyama, integrated watershed management, agroforestry landscapes, and the ecosystem approach to managing agricultural systems, among many others. While differing somewhat in focus, all of these landscape approaches have five elements in common (Table 1).1) Landscape interventions are designed to achieve multiple objectives, including human well-being, food and fiber production, climate change mitigation, and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services2) Ecological, social and economic interactions among different parts of the landscape are managed to seek positive synergies among interests and actors or reduce negative trade offs3) The key role of local communities and households as both producers and land stewards is acknowledged 4) A long-term perspective is taken for sustainable development, adapting strategies as need to address dynamic social and economic changes 5) Participatory processes of social learning and multi-stakeholder negotiation are institutionalized, including efforts to involve all parts of the community and ensure that the livelihoods of the most vulnerable people and groups are protected or enhanced (Pye- Smith 2011) Climate change and agriculture Climate change will influence crop distribution and production and increase risks associated with farming. Crop yields have already experienced negative impacts, underlining the necessity of taking adaptive measures (Lobell et al. 2011;Nelson et al. 2010). While a few areas, mainly in temperate latitudes, may experience improved conditions for production, globally, climate change is expected to reduce cereal production by 1% to 7% by 2060 (Parry 2007). There is also substantial variation in likely impacts by crop, irrigated versus rain-fed agriculture, and geographic region (Nelson et al. 2010). At least 22% of the cultivated area under the world's most important crops is projected to experience negative impacts from climate change by 2050, with as much as 56% of the land area in sub-Saharan Africa (Campbell et al. 2011). Impacts may be relatively small up to 2050, but are expected to become progressively worse in the second half of the century (Easterling et al. 2007). Beyond the changes in crop production and yield associated with climate change, there are other areas that require adaptation efforts. Climateinduced water scarcity from changes in temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall could lead to increased competition within the agriculture sector and with other sectors (Hanjra and Qureshi 2010). Moreover, addressing this and other challenges would require modifying physical infrastructure, such as irrigation systems and altering the design and location of storage facilities (Hanjra and Qureshi 2010;Antle and Capalbo 2010). Increased risk from flood and droughts, and shifting fire regimes all pose additional threats to agricultural production (Falbon and Betts, 2010;Peterson et al. 2011). Uncertainties in climate regimes could also influence how farmers make decisions, and whether they invest in necessary inputs and resources for their land.Meanwhile, roughly 30% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from land use (Smith et al. 2007). An estimated 18% come from land use change (primarily deforestation) and another 10% to 12% from crop production (soil erosion and tillage, nitrogen fertilizer, and paddy rice cultivation). Livestock production (from animal digestion, feed production, manure management, and forest cover loss) contributes about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly half of the agriculture sector's emissions, from enteric fermentation and land clearing (Smith et al. 2007).Land use represents the largest climate mitigation potential in many countries. Indeed, only land-based carbon sequestration efforts currently offer the possibility of large-scale removal of greenhouse gases (GHG) from the atmosphere, through photosynthesis and carbon sequestration in soils and perennial plants. Agricultural soil carbon accounts for 89% of the technical sequestration potential, representing an estimated potential of between 5.5 and 6 gigatons of CO 2 emissions per year, which roughly equals agriculture's total yearly contribution to global emissions (Smith et al. 2007). Significant sources of emissions reductions include improved feed systems and manure management, more efficient fertilizer use, reducing deforestation and wetland conversion, and restoring degraded lands (Smith et al. 2007). Changes in land management and land use may also moderate local and regional climate through changes in albedo, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and temperature (Desjardins et al. 2007). Moreover, within agriculture, many adaptation measures have significant mitigation co-benefits. For example, increasing soil organic matter improves adaptive capacity by increasing soil water holding capacity and soil fertility, while also sequestering carbon (Falbon and Betts 2010).As research and policy links between climate change and agriculture have advanced, 'climatesmart agriculture' has emerged as a framework to capture the concept that agricultural systems can be developed and implemented to simultaneously improve food security and rural livelihoods, facilitate climate change adaptation and provide mitigation benefits. Since itClimate-smart landscapes are comprised of a variety of field and farm practices, in different land and tenure types, that support both adaptation and mitigation objectives. These practices include soil, water and nutrient management along with agroforestry, livestock, husbandry, and forest and grassland management techniques (FAO 2010;Scherr and Sthapit 2009;Branca et al. 2011;Nkonya et al. 2011;TerrAfrica 2010).Building soil organic matter is critical for increasing agricultural resilience to climate change. Minimal tillage and using cover crops and crop residues enhance the organic matter stored in soil, while also supporting biological processes and nutrient and hydrological cycling (Milder et al. 2011;Hobbs and Govaerts 2009). Farming with perennials that develop root and woody biomass can substitute for an annual tillage regime, providing year-round ground cover and retaining organic matter and water in soil. Transition from annual crops to fields of perennials has been estimated to increase soil carbon by 50 % to 100 % (Glover 2010). Soil is the third largest carbon pool on earth's surface, and so maintaining and enhancing this stock is essential for mitigation efforts (Scherr and Sthapit 2009).More efficient management of water, a resource threatened by climate change, is also critical for reaching the adaptation and livelihood goals of climate-smart agriculture. Best practices for irrigation, water-harvesting technology, and terrace or contour farming systems can contribute to improved water-use efficiency and conservation (Milder et al. 2011).Incorporating the shifts in hydrologic regimes and water availability due to climate change into the design and management of water systems will enhance adaptation (Falbon and Betts 2010). Particularly in semi-arid and arid regions, where water resources are already a concern, investment in irrigation increases production, reduces variability, and may spur additional investment in agriculture (Nkonya et al. 2011). Improved design, construction processes and water delivery mechanisms can greatly reduce the very high GHG emissions associated with conventional irrigation systems.Employing integrated nutrient management principles, such as green manures, planting nitrogen-fixing crops, and incorporating livestock manures into the soil, decreases the amount of nitrogen lost to runoff and emissions of nitrous oxide. Applying these management principles can serve adaptation needs by improving soil quality, while also decreasing farmers' costs and dependence on outside inputs. Organic farming and use of non-synthetic inputs, can increase the amount of carbon and nitrogen retained in the soil by 15% to 28% and 8% to 15% respectively, simultaneously reducing the costs of inputs for farmers (see Milder et al. 2011).Agroforestry, the use of live fences or intermingled crops and trees, is another strategy to achieve climate-smart objectives. Agroforestry and tree crops increase resilience of local communities by providing a diversity of fruits, nuts, medicines, fuel, timber, nitrogen-fixation services, fodder, and habitat. Furthermore, these economically useful trees and shrubs can reduce soil erosion and maintain higher levels of biomass than annually tilled crops (through extended growth periods and root systems), also storing more carbon (Milder et al. 2011).Livestock management strategies are particularly critical for climate-smart agriculture. Improved pasture and grassland management, including rotational grazing, regenerate vegetation and restore degraded land which will be critical for climate change resilience. They also contribute to mitigation through carbon sequestration in deep-rooted vegetation and soils. For better manure management, converting manure to biogas provides the added benefits of an alternative energy source with fewer negative health impacts from cooking, heating, and lighting. Improved feed mixes and nutritional supplements can decrease methane emissions; however this is more feasible at larger scales of operation.Incentives to protect natural forests and grasslands include certification payments for climate services, securing land tenure rights and community fire control.Climate-friendly livestock production requires rotational grazing systems, manure management, methane capture, improved feeds, as well as an overall in livestock reduction numbers.Perinnial crops like grasses, palms and trees maintain and develop their root system, capture carbon, increase water infiltration and reduce erosion.Agricultural soils can be managed to reduce emissions by minimizing tillage, reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizers, preventing erosions, increasing organic matter content and adding biochar.Degradation cost livelihood assets and essential watershed functions, restoration can be a win-win strategy for addressing climate change, rural poverty and water scarcity.The integrated landscape approach offers a strategy to achieve climate-smart agriculture objectives at scale and in all its dimensions. Through climate-smart agricultural landscapes, important synergies for agricultural production, climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as other livelihood and environmental objectives, can be generated through coordinated action at farm and landscape scales (Figure 1).The next section describes the key features of integrated landscape management as they relate to climate-smart objectives.Climate-smart agricultural landscapes operate on the principles of integrated landscape management, while explicitly integrating adaptation and mitigation into their management objectives. The third important feature of climate-smart landscapes is management of land use interactions to enhance adaptation and mitigation. Stakeholders and planners must identify, negotiate and manage the impacts of different land uses and management on other land uses and users in the landscape. Active monitoring and management can reduce conflicts and generate synergies that help sustain stakeholder engagement in landscape management. The main benefits of this focus on landscape interactions are: (1) to enhance field-level benefits of climate-smart practices, (2) to secure ecosystem functions, and (3) to enhance the effectiveness of climate mitigation efforts.Intentional planning of the spatial arrangements of landscape elements can enhance fieldlevel results (Lovell et al. 2011). Agricultural productivity is impacted by the land uses surrounding farms, where field margins, riparian buffers, and forest edges can harbor pest predators or beneficial insects (Harvey 2007). For example, forest fragments adjacent to agricultural land uses increase and stabilize pollination services (Ricketts et al. 2008).Agricultural nutrients and sediment can be managed to protect downstream fisheries, while upstream crop, livestock and forest production can be managed to improve the timing and flow of water for irrigation downstream. Methane from livestock wastes may be used to replace fossil fuels in local agro-processing facilities.Natural and semi-natural habitats, such as riparian areas, woodlands and wetlands, can be sited and managed to provide ecological connectivity for water and nutrient flows, and improve habitat conditions for wild plant and animal species and beneficial microorganisms. As climate change intensifies, connectivity of wildlife habitats and hydrological resources will become increasingly important as an adaptation strategy (Bernazzani et al., 2012;Millar et al. 2007).Agricultural production practices need to support, rather than block, this connectivity. Largescale rainwater harvesting can be designed to provide water for domestic household and environmental uses, as well as for irrigation. Animal and human disease control requires effective agricultural waste and water management across the watershed.In addition to its importance for climate change resilience, managing land use dynamics across the landscape is critical for terrestrial mitigation efforts. Perhaps the land use interaction ofTo implement climate-smart agricultural landscapes with the features described above (that is, to successfully promote and sustain them over time, in the context of dynamic economic, social, ecological and climate conditions) requires at least four institutional mechanisms: multi-stakeholder planning, supportive landscape governance and resource tenure, spatially-targeted investment in the landscape that supports climate-smart objectives, and tracking the multiple dimensions of change to determine if social, economic, ecosystem and climate goals are being met at different scales.A second feature of climate-smart landscapes is a high level of diversity. This includes land cover, land use, and species and varietal diversity of plants and animals. Diversity has several climate mitigation and adaptation functions: (1) to reduce risks of production and livelihood losses from erratic and harsh climatic conditions;(2) to utilize areas of the landscape strategically as emergency food, feed, fuel, and income reserves; and (3) to sustain minimally disturbed habitats within the landscape mosaic that also serve as carbon stocks.Diversity of land uses and species can reduce ecological risks associated with homogeneous crop cover, in terms of pests and diseases and vulnerability to unexpected weather conditions. Improving genetic diversity on farms, by increasing the number of different crops grown or the number of varieties of the same crops, also provides important climate adaptation and risk management benefits (Baily and Purcell 2012;Lipper et al. 2010). Crop genetic diversity improves the chances that some varieties will be suited to shifts in temperature, precipitation, and salinity regimes caused by climate change (Jackson et al. 2010). Moreover, having a portfolio of diverse food and income sources, from crops, livestock, trees, and non-cultivated lands can cushion households and communities from climatic (and other) shocks (Ureta et al. 2012;Bernazzani et al. 2012).Livelihood resilience of households and communities can also be enhanced through access to diverse sources of food, feed and employment during episodes of adverse climatic conditions. Wild plant species in farms, forests, savannahs and wetlands contribute significantly to the diets of many of the poor in developing countries, and these food sources, particularly the 'famine foods' such as wild greens, tree fruits, and roots, play an important role in supplementing diets during periods of climate-induced scarcity (Bharucha and Pretty 2010). Species commonly used as food and feed reserves are hardier, have better (or in situ) storage characteristics, or lower demand for purchased inputs. Communities and local authorities can allocate lands for community and local district grazing reserves. Bush meat found in forests and fish from freshwater and coastal resources can be important sources of protein when climate disrupts agricultural systems.The dominant farming systems today involve annual plant species. Maintaining other types of land cover throughout the landscape, such as perennial grasslands, woodlands, forests, or wetlands improves ecological resilience in terms of watershed functions and habitat for wildlife important for local livelihoods, tourism or biodiversity conservation. Maintenance or expansion of land area in these types of perennial systems is also one of the most effective ways to sequester carbon and reduce emissions from the landscapes (Scherr and Sthapit 2009).most prominent concern in the climate community is that between agriculture and forests within the context of efforts to develop Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programs. Strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation that seek to sustain forest cover inherently require participation of farmers and other stakeholders in agricultural systems. Specific on-farm agricultural practices sequester relatively small quantities of GHG compared to forest conservation. However, when agriculture and forest development are linked together as part of an integrated landscape livelihood strategy that highlights food security, adaptation, livelihood and other environmental objectives, overall deforestation and GHG emissions can be reduced more effectively and sustainably (Shames et al. 2011).Opportunities and challenges for integrating adaptation and mitigation in tropical agricultureAddressing the global challenges of climate change, food security, and poverty alleviation requires enhancing the adaptive capacity and mitigation potential of agricultural landscapes across the tropics. However, adaptation and mitigation activities tend to be approached separately due to a variety of technical, political, financial, and socioeconomic constraints. Many tropical agricultural systems can provide both mitigation and adaptation benefits if they are designed and managed appropriately and if the larger landscape context is considered. Many of the activities needed for adaptation and mitigation in tropical agricultural landscapes are the same needed for sustainable agriculture more generally, but thinking at the landscape scale opens a new dimension for achieving synergies. Intentional integration of adaptation and A growing body of literature addresses the management practices that can be used to enhance the adaptive capacity or mitigation potential of tropical agricultural systems (e.g., FAO 2010FAO , 2013;;Wollenberg et al. 2012b). Adaptation options include a wide set of approaches designed to reduce the vulnerability and enhance the adaptive capacity of agricultural systems to climate change. These options include engineering solutions that deal with climate-related risks, breeding for different environmental stresses, developing early warning systems, and establishing crop insurance systems. They also include a range of farm management practices (such as soil and water conservation practices, crop diversification, and improved tillage practices) that make agricultural systems more resilient to climate change, diversify farmer livelihoods and ensure the continued supply of ecosystem services (Howden et al. 2007).Mitigation options for agriculture, in contrast, are generally divided into three broad categories of practices: (1) activities that increase carbon stocks above and below ground; (2) actions that reduce direct agricultural emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides) anywhere in the lifecycle of agricultural production; and (3) actions that prevent the deforestation and degradation of high-carbon ecosystems to establish new agricultural areas (Smith et al. 2007;Wollenberg et al. 2012b).When adaptation and mitigation goals are pursued separately in agricultural systems, as is often the case, tradeoffs may occur over different temporal or spatial scales (e.g., Rosenzweig and Tubiello 2007;Verchot et al. 2007;Smith and Olesen 2010). For example, efforts to promote agricultural productivity of individual farms by increasing the use of agrochemicals couldmaintain crop yields in the face of climate change, but result in greater overall GHG emissions (Kandji et al. 2006). Conversely, the promotion of fast-growing tree monocultures or biofuel crops for mitigation purposes may enhance carbon stocks, but potentially reduce water availability downstream and decrease the land available for agriculture (Huettner 2012).The consideration of tradeoffs across multiple temporal and spatial scales is critical since some tradeoffs will manifest themselves immediately, while others may show a time lag. For example, the use of conservation agriculture (which consists of practices that minimize soil disturbance, maintain permanent soil cover, and diversify crop rotation (Hobbs 2007) often reduces agricultural yields over the short term (3-5 years) but results in greater productivity and carbon sequestration over the long-term (Rusinamhodzi et al. 2011).Potential tradeoffs between adaptation and mitigation activities can often be minimized, and sometimes even avoided, through integrated landscape level planning, an approach that considers adaptation and mitigation goals along with other dimensions such as food security, biodiversity conservation, and poverty alleviation (Biesbroek et al. 2009;Sayer et al. 2013;Scherr et al. 2012). For example, projects that aim to sequester carbon in forest plantations can potentially minimize potential impacts on water and biodiversity by establishing diverse, multispecies plantations of native species, minimizing the use of heavy machinery and pesticides in plantation establishment and management, and locating plantations on degraded lands (Brockenhoff et al. 2008;Stickler et al. 2009).Several management strategies hold particular promise for simultaneously achieving adaptation and mitigation benefits at the plot and farm scale (Table 1). For example, soil conservation practices and the use of conservation agriculture, such as the incorporation of mitigation activities in agricultural landscapes offers significant benefits that go beyond the scope of climate change to food security, biodiversity conservation, and poverty alleviation. However, achieving these objectives will require transformative changes in current policies, institutional arrangements, and funding mechanisms to foster broad-scale adoption of climatesmart approaches in agricultural landscapes.Agriculture lies at the crossroads of climate-change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The agricultural sector is currently responsible for an estimated 13.7% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Tubiello et al. 2013) and is also a key driver of deforestation which contributes an additional 7-14% of global emissions (Harris et al. 2012;Hosonuma et al. 2012). At the same time, climate change will have significant negative impacts on many agricultural communities, particularly smallholders and poor farmers who have limited capacity to adapt to adverse shocks, further exacerbating global poverty and food insecurity (Howden et al. 2007;Morton 2007). Thus, both mitigation efforts to reduce GHG emissions and adaptation measures to maintain crop yields are of global significance.Achieving significant progress on both mitigation and adaptation in the agricultural sector will contribute to the success of several multiple international policy initiatives. Mitigation is critical for meeting the overall goal of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere (United Nations 1992) and, in particular, for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation (i.e., through REDD+; Wollenberg et al. 2011) Despite the growing recognition of the need to pursue mitigation and adaptation goals in agricultural systems and the current high profile of agriculture and climate change in international policy discussions, most adaptation and mitigation efforts continue to be approached in isolation from each other. Pursuing these activities separately, however, limits the potential to take advantage of synergies and to minimize tradeoffs across actions designed for either adaptation or mitigation benefits. It also leads to potential inefficiencies in the use of funding, and prevents an integrated management approach to agricultural landscapes which could both address climate issues and ensure the provision of food, water, and other ecosystem services (Scherr et al. 2012;Sayer et al. 2013).In this article we highlight the opportunities for obtaining synergies between adaptation and mitigation activities in tropical agricultural landscapes and explore how agricultural systems and landscapes can be designed and managed to achieve these synergies. We also identify some of the key scientific, policy, institutional, funding, and socioeconomic barriers to achieving these synergies, and provide preliminary insights into how these barriers can be overcome. We focus our discussion on tropical agricultural systems because these have a higher mitigation potential than temperate systems (Smith et al. 2008;Hillier et al. 2012) crop residues, use of composts, and minimum tillage, can increase organic carbon in soils, improve soil moisture, and reduce erosion during extreme weather events (Hobbs 2007;Delgado et al. 2011). The incorporation of trees in farms through agroforestry systems increases soil carbon stocks and above-ground biomass, while providing shade for protection from rising temperatures, diversifying farmer income and reducing financial risk (e.g., Verchot et al. 2007;Matocha et al. 2012). Most of these \"climate-smart\" practices that address both adaptation and mitigation goals are already well known and promoted under the banners of Conservation Agriculture, Agroforestry, Sustainable Agriculture, Evergreen Agriculture, silvopastoral systems, sustainable land management, EcoAgriculture, or best-management practices (McNeely and Scherr 2003;Hobbs 2007;FAO 2010;Garrity et al. 2010), but wider adoption of these practices is needed.In many cases, it is possible to enhance both the adaptive capacity and mitigation potential of different agricultural systems and landscapes by changing the suite of management practices used. In annual cropping systems, changes from conventional tillage practices and high agrochemical input to soil conservation practices can convert the system from one that either provides only adaptation or mitigation benefits or neither types of benefits, to one that provides both adaptation and mitigation benefits, for instance if more water is captured or if a permanent soil cover increases soil organic matter (Figure 1a). For example, the adoption of conservation agriculture can lead to significant increases in yields of maize, sorghum, wheat, and other crops (up to 20-120% higher than those in conventional agriculture; Kassam et al. 2009), due to increased soil fertility, nutrient availability, and water availability. In addition, these systems have been shown to have a higher adaptive capacity to climate change (particularly reduced vulnerability to drought) than conventional systems because their soils have higher infiltration rates and greater moisture-holding capacity; Kassam et al. 2009). These systems can also increase carbon sequestration at soils, albeit at a slow rate and not in all situations: Baker et al. (2007) estimated that crop rotation systems in conservation agriculture accumulated 11 tons of carbon per hectare after 9 years.In perennial cropping systems, such as coffee or cocoa, the inclusion of a diverse, well-managed shade canopy and appropriate soil management practices can similarly confer both adaptation and mitigation benefits (Figure 1b). Maintaining a diverse shade canopy of multifunctional trees in cocoa systems helps maintain soil organic matter and soil fertility, improves the stability of cocoa production, diversifies farmer livelihoods by providing sources of timber, fruits and other non-timber products, and provides ecosystem services at the landscape level (Tscharntke et al. 2010;Somarriba and Beer 2011;Somarriba et al. 2013). Cocoa agroforestry systems also maintain high levels of plant biomass and soil carbon storage, providing mitigation benefits. For example, traditional cocoa agroforestry systems in Central America have 117 ± 47 Mg/ha of total carbon in the soil and above-ground biomass, and accumulate between 1.3 and 2.6 of Mg C/ha/year in above-ground biomass annually (Somarriba et al. 2013).There are significant opportunities to pursue adaptation and mitigation goals simultaneously in tropical agriculture and to adopt integrated landscape approaches that contribute to climate-change goals, food security, ecosystem service provision, and other goals. While there is no one general formula for capturing synergies between adaptation and mitigation, their joint consideration in landscape planning, research, technical support, government policies, and funding mechanisms would significantly help to achieve this goal. A renewed and strengthened commitment to sustainable agriculture, conservation agriculture, agroforestry, and other best management practices for agriculture, as well as an increased focus on integrated landscape management, would help to promote tropical agricultural systems and landscapes that have enhanced adaptation and mitigation potential, while contributing to food security, poverty alleviation, and biodiversity conservation across the tropics.Practices that primarily confer adaptation benefits   The landscape approach is a promising concept for managing natural resources on the one hand and promoting rural livelihoods and addressing poverty reduction on the other. Poverty does not only originate at farm level. It stems from a combination of different factors, such as access to land and water resources and rights of use over their use, the accessibility of markets and services, and policy constraints. et al. 2006;Frison et al. 2011). The increased biomass can also enrich soil fertility and improved water retention, leading to greater resilience to climate extremes.• The conservation and regeneration of trees and restoration of degraded forests will also increase carbon stocks and may reduce the pressure on adjacent natural ecosystems, leading to a decline in emissions. An increased diversity of trees allows for more overall biodiversity in the landscape. It also creates and favourable light and moisture conditions and contributes to the regeneration of soils nutrients which makes the forest more resilient.• Similarly, trees on farms or agroforestry systems can contribute to mitigating climate change as they tend to sequester greater carbon quantities than agricultural systems without trees. The trees have important functions, including shading crops, erosion control and nutrient cycling and can prevent crop destruction act by acting as buffers against storms. By providing a means for diversifying incomes, the trees provide a type of insurance if there are crop failures.• Similarly, holistic management of grassland ecosystems and controlled grazing allows for the regeneration of degraded vegetation and soils. This creates a significant opportunity to sequester carbon in the soils and increase biomass and biodiversity through perennial grasses, shrubs and trees. Well managed grasslands provide other important benefits, such as increased water infiltration and retention and improved nutrient cycling.• At the farm level, there are opportunities to increase productivity and carbon sequestration through conservation agriculture. Conservation agriculture combines zero or minimum tillage with crop rotations and cover crops or mulch. It enhances biomass byAfter a major earthquake in 2005, the Pakistan Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority executed, in collaboration with FAO and with funding from the Swedish International Development Agency, a multisectoral project to implement the livelihood component of the rehabilitation plan. The control of hydrogeological hazards through collaborative watershed management at the village level, which was carried out in 17 watersheds was a key activity of the project. In each watershed, project implementation followed a landscape approach that combined landslide stabilization, improved natural resources management (particularly forests and trees) and the enhancement of agricultural production. In each watershed, the steps followed in project implementation were: watershed delineation; damage assessment and Participatory Rural Appraisal; the establishment of an integrated watershed management and land use plan; the implementation of prioritized activities; and capacity building. By following the landscape and participatory approach, the project has built local resilience to cope with the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. Although floods in July 2010 again created significant damage in the region, communities supported by the project were well prepared to cope. Flood damage in the project watersheds was comparatively low because of the protective function of the introduced forests and trees. Thanks to the project, the communities have gained confidence in their own ideas and skills and feel responsible for the positive changes in their environment, agricultural innovations and improvements in their livelihoods. Through the Watershed Management Committees, they are now organized and have a voice to request technical assistance and support from line agencies and donors.Making the sustainable livelihoods of local communities the centre piece of each landscape intervention is crucial. Practical experience in the past 30 years indicates that land and forest management to protect natural resources needs to take the needs of local people into consideration. For example, efforts to manage forests for conservation are likely to fail if local people do not benefit (e.g. through ecotourism) and have no other livelihood options than to encroach on forest land and convert it to other uses.A landscape approach should involve all relevant stakeholders in land use decision making. This includes all farmers and stakeholders that depend on their landscapes. This principle is at the core of sustainable livelihood approaches focusing on poverty reduction interventions that empower the poor to build on their own opportunities and support their access to assets which form part of the wider landscape. People with more assets are more likely to have greater livelihood options and can pursue their goals. Policies and institutions can influence the access to such assets, helping rural communities to stabilize or even enhance their livelihoods. A strong asset base is particularly important when people and their livelihoods are exposed and become more vulnerable to shocks or seasonal changes, which are expected to increase with climate change.Increased droughts, floods, heavy rains or other adverse climatic conditions will have negative impacts on people's lives. A strong asset base helps to buffer these impacts. It is an essential pre-requisite for establishing resilient livelihoods and strongly contributes to the adaptive capacity of rural communities.Adaptive capacity applies to both human systems and natural ones, referring to \"their ability to adapt, i.e. to adjust to climate change, including to climate variability and extremes; prevent or moderate potential damages; take advantage of opportunities; or cope with the consequences\" (Kuriakose et al. 2009, p.9). The greater biodiversity found in managed heterogeneous landscapes is better able to buffer disturbances and maintain ecosystem services.Land use systems and landscapes need to protect and produce a variety of different ecosystem services simultaneously to be resilient and adapt to a changing climate.By taking a landscape approach and applying climate-smart agriculture, there are many ways of increasing mitigation and adaptation opportunities on the farm, in the community and throughout the ecosystem while sustainably increasing and intensifying productivity. Below is a list of activities that can help accomplish this:• Conserving valuable ecosystems, such as wetlands and peat lands, which perform important regulatory services and constitute very large carbon sinks, should be given special attention and integrated in a multifunctional landscape and land use system. Production systems and ecosystems with a high degree of agricultural biodiversity can produce more biomass compared to monocultures and increase carbon sequestration in biomass and soils (Tilman private sector to embark on initiatives that promote low-carbon growth and are based on an efficient use of natural resources and social inclusion ( UNEP 2011). With regards to agriculture, green growth involves increasing food security (in terms of availability, access, stability and utilization) while using less natural resources (FAO 2011b).The landscape approach supporting the adoption of climate-smart agriculture and improving livelihoods and food security. To achieve the needed levels of growth an integrated landscape approach is required to manage the diversity of land uses across the landscape, as well as the interactions of the different land uses and components. Among the different land uses, there will be synergies and trade-offs and these need to be carefully evaluated and managed. Concerted efforts are required to manage the synergies and trade-offs between building the resilience of the ecosystems and livelihoods and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. Climate-smart agriculture integrates efforts to increase food production sustainably and optimize productivity with efforts to strengthen the resilience to climate change and variability and reduce agriculture's contribution to climate change (FAO 2011c). Numerous experiences and best practises that can contribute to reaching the objective of climate-smart agriculture already exist and are well tested and are mentioned. These practices are vital for producing food, feed, fibre and energy, supporting food security, building resilience to climate change and other shocks, and mitigating climate change. These practices, which tap into the synergies between mitigation and adaptation, and support and restore the multiple functions and dynamic nature of agricultural systems and landscapes, should be scaled up to landscape level and further replicated.Climate-smart agriculture is applicable to multiple levels. It covers practices and technologies at the field and farm level and involves working with communities over a much wider area, such as watersheds and ecosystems. Although many examples already exist of successes and benefits of climate-smart practices, there is still work to be done to improve technologies, policies and institutions to move from single objective production to the implementation of the types of multiple objective systems needed today. The breakthrough towards a broad application of climate-smart natural resources management will require a change in our thinking about agricultural production and in the related institutional structures that will make this transformation a reality.Building and restoring the locally-adapted integrating trees and shrubs in and around the fields. Conservation agriculture increases tolerance to changes in temperature and rainfall occasioned by extreme climate events such as droughts or flooding.• Careful management in livestock systems, which involves such practices as the circulation of nutrients and manure management, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Composting solid manures can produce useful organic inputs to increase soil fertility.• By integrating different energy production options , including fuel wood production, biogas and solar energy, into the farming system greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced and decrease pressure on forests. Integrated food-energy systems tend to be relatively well-adapted to climatic variability because of their diversity and flexibility, especially when soil and water conservation, water harvesting and agroforestry are integrated into the overall system.• Integrated aquaculture-agriculture offers diversification that comes from integrating crops, vegetables, livestock, trees and fish and can impart stability in production, efficiency in resource use, lower energy use and conservation of the environment. This is achieved by the adoption of agro-industrial technologies (such as gasification or anaerobic digestion) that allows maximum utilization of all by-products, and encourages recycling and economic utilization of residues.• The cumulative effects of many farms employing such practices across the landscape are significant.There are many examples of concrete interactions between different elements within landscapes. Sustainably managed landscapes with a mosaic of different land uses can be the foundation of a well-functioning ecosystem with a high biodiversity. In such landscapes, species are more likely to complement each other and better occupy the area over time and space (Loreau et al. 2003). The interaction and migration of species across different habitats and the spillover of organisms from undisturbed habitats, such as natural forests, to agricultural fields often has beneficial effects. For example, there is much evidence that in structurally complex landscapes natural pest control is higher and crop damage is lower than in less complex landscapes (Thies and Tscharntke 1999).To optimize these multiple benefits, the trade-offs among different options must to be considered carefully. In many cases, the economic value of environmental services and external costs (environmental damages) and the direct or indirect benefit for land user groups tend to be underestimated. According to estimates, the vast array of ecosystem services that provide clean water for people have a net value of 4500 USD/ha/year in developed economies and 50-400 USD/ha/year in developing economies (Smith et al. 2006). Entrepreneurship and innovation can play an important role in tackling trade-offs between development and environment. They also generate positive externalities that can be employed to promote social empowerment. As such, private investment and entrepreneurship can ensure financial sustainability after upfront public sector investments have ended. For this reason, publicprivate partnerships are an important element in sustaining the social and cultural aspects of sustainability. Among other things, these partnerships can help return decision-making powers to farmers and contribute to 'green growth'.The concept of 'green economy', strongly advocated at the recent United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro (UNCSD 2012), provides many options for the capacity for governance over resources and landscapes, enhancing social organization, and improving infrastructure and support services are among basic requirements for bringing about the desired results.We already have a good understanding on how agriculture can be part of the solution to climate change and build the needs of adaptive capacity in agricultural systems and landscapes. The need for transition to climate-resilient, low-emitting production systems involves all land management systems in a given landscape. Climate-smart agricultural measures and policies have to be seen as key components of national regional and local climate change strategies. The recognition of the multiple dimensions and purposes of natural resource use and management and the interactions between human land use, management practices and natural resources require greater consistency across all land use sectors where implementation of climate-smart agriculture should play a critical role. • Undertaking analyses of water use and distribution at the landscape level in light of changing trends in rainfall patterns to inform the design of sustainable agricultural production and processing systems Examples of multiple-benefit responses to adaptation challenges.... contd.Potential ground-level multiple-benefit investments design they are integrated systems of plant nutrient management. These approaches are knowledge-intensive and heterogeneous. They need to be adapted to local circumstances, requiring significant knowledge support at a time when extension services are often lacking the resources required to support smallholder farmers and farmers in marginal areas.The following table provides a brief menu of some of the interventions being implemented or likely to be implemented in IFAD-supported programmes. These are described according to key areas for smallholder adaptation to climate change, but all activities typically generate multiple benefits. It is important to note that they are provided solely as examples, since communities are the principal drivers of investment options. The list does not include the potentially larger set of actions at the policy level to support and stimulate the uptake of these ground-level activities.Greater demand for multiple benefits from policies and investment in rural areas is likely to create new demands for evidence, metrics and monitoring. The yield impacts of the sustainable agriculture approaches discussed above have been well documented. Less well documented, although scientifically intuitive, are the impacts on emissions, soil health, biodiversity and climate resilience. Many case studies have been developed, although there is scope for greater synthesis to document the multiple benefits of such approaches. This may be required if smallholders are to successfully make the case for a greater share of current and future environment (and climate) finance; for instance, further technical groundwork will be needed on the measurement and metrics of emissions impacts of diverse approaches.  Where the land is greener:There are numerous positive experiences that contribute to sustainable land managementbut this wealth of information is often not tapped, and commonly not even recognised. The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) is a network and a methodology with the aim of sharing this valuable knowledge to improve livelihoods and the environment. Forty-two promising case studies were recently documented and analysed in a global overview book entitled 'where the land is greener' ( WOCAT 2007), from which a consolidated list of policy points were drawn. This paper highlights some of these conclusions and policy points.This article was repackaged from a previously published source entitled Where the Land is Greener -Experiences Contributing to Sustainable Land Management by Gudrun Schwilch, Hanspeter Liniger, Daniel Danano, Sudibya Kanti Khisa and William Critchley. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original publication which contains the case studies and an indepth analysis through editors note published in 2007. These materials are being included in this sourcebook to draw attention to early efforts to document conservation technologies, most of which remain relevant today.An overarching lesson is that prevention or mitigation are generally more cost-effective than rehabilitation. Other lessons learned can usefully be broken down by agroecological characteristics: in dry areas, investments in water harvesting and improved water use efficiency, combined with improved soil fertility management, should be emphasised to increase production, reduce the risk of crop failure, and lower the demand for irrigation water. In humid areas, long-term investments are required to maintain soil fertility and minimize on-site and off-site damage caused by soil erosion. Conservation measures leading to increased soil organic matter and thus carbon sequestration represent a win-win scenario: land resources are improved at the local level and at the same time a contribution is made to the mitigation of climate change.A useful distinction can be made among agronomic, vegetative, structural and management measures. Agronomic measures, such as manuring / composting and crop rotation can easily be integrated into daily farming activities. They are not perceived as an additional 'conservation' burden, as they require comparatively low inputs and have a direct impact on crop productivity. Many vegetative measures are both traditional and multipurpose: agroforestry systems have conservation effects through e.g. ground cover, but can also be directly useful for production of fodder, fruits, nuts, fuelwood and timber, as well as for nitrogen fixation. Successful SWC associated with intensive and diverse smallholder agroforestry systems can in some areas result in 'more people, more trees'. Where vegetative measures compete with crops for nutrients, water and land, and are not directly productive (e.g. vetiver grass lines and windbreaks), the vegetation needs to be carefully managed, e.g. through pruning. Structures are hardly ever adequate on their own, and commonly involve high investment costs. Thus, terraces on steep slopes need to be complemented by agronomic and vegetative measures. The greater cost-effectiveness of agronomic and vegetative measures and their additional benefits such as soil cover, soil structure and soil fertility improvement means that they should be given priority over structures. Management measures are especially important on grazing land (e.g. area closure). More than half the technologies presented by WOCAT (2007) are combinations of various agronomic, vegetative, structural and/or management measures. Whether overlapping, or spaced over a catchment/landscape, or over time, such measures tend to be the most versatile and the most effective in difficult situations. They support each other and often address multiple degradation types. • There are no 'silver bullet' ways of improving SLM. The ecological, social and economic causes of degradation need to be understood, and technologies need to be responsive to change.• Concerted efforts to standardise documentation and evaluation of SLM technologies such as soil and water conservation (SWC) are needed, especially in the light of the billions of dollars spent annually on implementation.• SLM/SWC approaches also require long-term commitment from research and policy organisations, in order to allow joint learning, monitoring and evaluation, and adaptation.• More attention should be given to local innovations rather than focusing on projectbased implementation of standard technologies.• Prevention and mitigation of degradation are less costly and should be prioritised over rehabilitation.• Further research is needed to quantify and value ecological, social and economic impacts of SWC, both on-site and off-site, and to develop methods for the valuation of ecosystem services.• The enabling environment to support SWC investments should build on people's and nature's capacity, not overlooking indirect measures such as credit, market opportunities, legislation and security of land use rights.• SWC may require heavy investment costs beyond the capacity of land users, but direct material incentives should only be considered to overcome initial investments and where environmental improvements and social benefits are likely to be realised only in the long term.The productivity of some 23 per cent of all usable land has been affected by human-induced soil degradation (UNEP 1997; Oldeman et al. 1990). Land users and soil and water conservation (SWC) specialists have a wealth of knowledge related to land management, improvement of soil fertility and protection of soil, water and vegetation resources, but the implementation of good practice still lags far behind: much knowledge about potential improvements is poorly documented and thus inaccessible both to other practitioners, and to those concerned with analysis, evaluation and dissemination. From case studies to policy points A compilation of 42 case studies, each describing a technical intervention (from traditional to innovative) in conjunction with a specific implementation approach (from project-promoted to spontaneously), has recently been published by WOCAT (2007), including a thorough analysis, solid conclusions and practical policy guidance. The policy points deriving from these case studies reflect 'what' needs to be done to improve how money is being spent for improved land management and environmental protection, whilst improving the livelihoods of people in rural areas, rather than 'how' it can be achieved. Similar compilations have been produced at national level in Bangladesh and Ethiopia.Most SWC efforts have been made on cropland, and out of 42 technologies presented by WOCAT (2007), 36 are applied under rainfed conditions. Although poor irrigation practices and associated problems (e.g. salinisation) are widespread, measures for the sustainable use of irrigated land have not yet been adequately identified and documented. Only three cases are concerned with grazing land, and none with forest land. Despite the fact that the livelihoods of many rural people are based on livestock production and are often located in dry and marginal areas, SWC investments are insufficient, in these locations and often hindered by common property problems.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersThe WOCAT (2007)  The documented case studies span a wide variety of different approaches: about two thirds of the technologies are implemented under a project, while the others are based on local traditional systems, and individual initiatives. Two thirds of the case studies relate to smallscale farming systems. 31% are associated with subsistence farming. There are a number of preconditions for success, including a focus on production aspects, security of access, longterm commitment and investment, participation of stakeholders, capacity building, and a willingness to draw on human resources: people's knowledge, creativity and initiative. The analyses made clear that local innovation and traditional systems offer at least as much potential as project-based SWC experimentation. SWC requires long-term commitment from national and international implementation and research institutions. Here a clear strategy and partnership alliances are needed to sustain results beyond the project life-span.Three quarters of the 'SWC' cases analysed are directly related to increasing productivity and/ or farm income, with conservation coming in as a spin-off, so it is essential to identify the scope for conservation in parallel with economically-driven change. Generally, it is assumed that SWC implies high investment, but there are examples of conservation agriculture which are both cost-and timesaving. However, costs and benefits are difficult for contributors to assess and may not be free from bias.The establishment of an enabling environment is extremely important in the promotion of SWC, emphasising the 'pull' (motivation), e.g. better marketing channels or secure access to land, as well as the 'push' (enforcement), e.g. SWC legislation and national campaigns. Opportunities need to be seized that connect SWC with emerging environmental prioritiesespecially carbon sequestration (by increasing soil organic matter), biodiversity, conservation, watershed management and ecosystem service provision. Ways of recognition and payment for these services need to be further explored to justify SWC investments. In Kenya, \"more people mean more trees\". Against all the conventional wisdom, small scale farmers around Mount Kenya are planting a multi-purpose tree called the \"Silky Oak\" (Grevillea robusta), often along farm boundaries or on terrace risers, occasionally scattered in cropland. The ancient forest may have disappeared, but a new agroforestry landscape has been created.In Australia, sugar cane farmers have started harvesting their cane without burning it and simultaneously spreading the separated residues, leaving a dense mulch cover, the so called green cane trash blanket. The advantages: less greenhouse gas produced, improved biodiversity in the soil, and eroded sediment no longer pollutes the Great Barrier Reef.Source: WOCAT (2007) Economically, SWC pays back investments made by land users, communities or governments. Agricultural production is safeguarded and enhanced for smallscale subsistence and largescale commercial farmers alike, as well as for livestock keepers. Furthermore, the considerable off-site benefits from SWC can often be an economic justification in themselves.From a policy perspective, investment in rural areas, natural resource management and sustainable land use is a local concern, a national interest, and a global obligation. SLM has to be a core pillar of any rural development and agricultural policy, or investments in poverty reduction based on improving agriculture's performance may fail. Stronger representation of SLM concerns in national high-level policy documents such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers needs to be achieved (Bojö and Reddy 2003). Given the political dimensions of SLM (Hurni et al 2006), global environmental problems require international coordination. A major challenge (and opportunity) at all levels will be to learn from properly documented and evaluated experiences on SLM and SWC and apply this learning in current and future efforts towards sustainable management of natural resources.Authors: Gudrun Schwilch (gudrun.schwilch@cde.unibe.ch), Daniel Danano (ethiocat@ethionet.et), Sudibya Kanti Khisa (skhisha@yahoo.com), William Critchley (wrs.critchley@dienst.vu.nl), Hanspeter Liniger (hanspeter.liniger@ cde.unibe.ch) By: Overseas Development Institute (ODI) 203 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NJ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7922 0300 Web: odi.org Email: nrp@odi.org.uk URL link to the original paper: http://www.odi.org/publications/1981-land-greener-experiences-contributingsustainable-land-management 2007The problems of land degradation are complex and so are the solutions. Effective SWC depends on suitable technologies and approaches, and on flexibility and responsiveness to changing complex ecological and socio-economic environments. It is therefore important to understand the ecological, social and economic causes of degradation, to analyse what works and why, and how to modify and adapt particular technologies and approaches to locally specific circumstances and opportunities. Valuation of the ecological, social and economic impacts of SWC, both on-and off-site, is urgently necessary, as is the development of methods for the valuation of ecosystem services. This, and the further development of tools and methods for knowledge exchange and improved decision support, should be undertaken jointly with land users, scientists from different disciplines and decision-makers.It is commonly assumed that enough is known about SWC technologies, and that it is just a question of applying them. However, adaptations to technologies and approaches are often necessary to match them to locally specific social, political, economic and environmental circumstances and opportunities. Measures often need to be combined to become cost-effective. Evidence has shown that adaptations of local innovations often perform better and are more readily integrated into a land use system than introduced 'standard' SWC technologies. Direct material incentives have a limited role and good enabling environments have to be in place (e.g. land policy).The cases presented by WOCAT (2007) demonstrate the value of investing in rural areas. Ecologically, SWC technologies can effectively combat land degradation. But a majority of agricultural land is still not sufficiently protected, and SWC needs to spread further. Beyond soil erosion and water loss, potential ecosystem benefits include regulation of watershed hydrological functions-assuring base flows, reducing floods and purifying water supplies-as well as carbon sequestration, and preservation of biodiversity.Socially, SWC helps to improve food security and reduce poverty, both at household and national levels. It can also support social learning and interaction, build community spirit, preserve cultural heritage, and counterbalance migration to cities.Ethiopia is one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa most seriously threatened by land degradation, and addressing this problem has been consistently identified as a major priority in virtually all national strategies and policy documents. Land degradation has posed an acute challenge to rural livelihoods and threatens the integrity and function of ecosystems of national and global significance. There is a close relationship between land degradation, drought, crop failure and malnutrition in Ethiopia.The government of Ethiopia, with donor assistance, has recently designed a Country Partnership Program for Sustainable Land Management in Ethiopia (CPPSLM) with the aim of conserving and restoring landscapes of national and global ecologic, economic and social importance through the adoption of sustainable land management policies, practices and technologies. CPPSLM adopted WOCAT tools for its knowledge management system. Its components include: institutional strengthening, scaling up of best practices, developing a land monitoring system and establishing program coordination and management. The scaling-up of best practices will be based on a compilation done by EthioCAT (Ethiopian Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies) of 52 technologies and 28 approaches common in Ethiopia. Emphasis is placed on cost-benefit analysis, especially given the time needed for a return on investments.Climate change will be an important driver of genetic erosion in the future. It will both threaten the survival of individual species and affect the way different elements of biodiversity interact in food and agriculture ecosystems. These interactions provide \"services\", such as pollination, soil fertilization and the natural biological control of plant and animalThis was drawn from an article entitled Climate Change and Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.suited to new growing conditions may need to be introduced. In the livestock sector, this sort of substitution has already begun. In some drought-prone areas of Africa, pastoralists are switching to raising camels instead of sheep and goats.The increased use of biodiversity for food and agriculture, particularly soil microorganisms, also has the potential to mitigate climate change by reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Harnessing local biodiversity can maintain the health of forests and the fertility of agricultural soils, both of which are important carbon sinks. It can also reduce the need for nitrogen-based fertilizers, a major source of greenhouse gases, and other energy-intensive commercial inputs.Projections suggest that by 2055 climate change will cause the dramatic decline of the important genetic resource wild vigna (related to the African staple cowpea, an important and inexpensive source of protein) from its current distribution and genetic diversity.(Source: A. Jarvis et al.)There is an urgent need to determine the distribution of biodiversity for food and agriculture both in the wild and in the fields and assess its vulnerability to climate change. Matching biodiversity distribution mapping with different climate change scenarios is a basic requirement for countries to develop conservation strategies. Information is also needed about the biodiversity held in national and international gene banks. The potential to harness this biodiversity to cope with climate change remains untapped, largely due to a lack of information on the characteristics of the genetic diversity conserved and their performance in the field. Global information systems that can store and manage this data and make it accessible to researchers, breeders and farmers are essential.This information and analysis needs to be integrated into future reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And the panel's climate change data and projections need to be incorporated into FAO's global biodiversity assessments. Rural communities have the largest stake in developing strategies to cope with climate change, and understanding how they are currently using biodiversity to cope with climate change should be the basis for future actions. Men and women farmers, pastoralists and fisherfolk and their local institutions need to be given access to information about climate change and the ways locally available biodiversity can help them adapt.Access to agricultural biodiversity will determine whether a given strategy is feasible. Governments must ensure that rural communities have access to the biodiversity they need. Especially important will be global exchange mechanisms that can ensure every country has access to genetic resources for food and agriculture and that can guarantee the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use.pests and diseases, that are essential for food production. Smallholder and subsistence farmers and pastoralists will be the hardest hit by disruptions in these services.This irreversible loss of biodiversity will have serious consequences for global food security. If coordinated efforts are taken at the national and international levels, biodiversity can be conserved and harnessed to help food and agriculture adapt to climate change.What is at stake?The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that a significant number of species will be at risk of extinction as the global mean temperature increases. Of particular concern are relatives of major crops surviving in the wild. Crop wild relatives are already under severe threat due to habitat loss and environmental degradation. Climate change, which may make their remaining habitats unsuitable for their survival, may drive them to extinction.Research by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research based on distribution models (see maps overleaf) of wild relatives of three staple crops of the poor-peanuts, cowpea and potato-suggests that by 2055 16-22 percent of wild species will be threatened by extinction.In some areas, food is still gathered from the wild. Genetic erosion represents an immediate threat to the well-being of rural communities. Loss of genetic diversity can also have serious long-term consequences globally. Plant wild relatives may contain the genes for traits that could be used to breed new crop and forest varieties that can meet the challenges of climate change.Livestock breeds and fish with limited geographic distribution may also face the risk of extinction because of climate change and the increased frequency of natural disaster (droughts, flooding, major storms) associated with it. For example, tilapia, a fish species vital to the food security of millions, originated in areas of Africa where the impact of climate change is expected to be extreme. Loss of genetic diversity in tilapia subspecies, many of which can only be found in African lakes and rivers, would decrease the breeding options for this species worldwide.Researchers and local communities need to reach into the planet's vast genetic reservoir to breed new plants and animals that will thrive in a warmer world and meet the food requirements of an expanding population. For many smallscale and subsistence farmers, adapting to changing conditions may be difficult. The rate of climate change suggests that in many instances locally available genetic diversity will be unable to adapt quickly enough to survive. In these cases, collecting and conserving the threatened diversity will be crucial. Crop varieties or species better Key Facts Biodiversity and organic agriculture: An example of sustainable use of biodiversityBiodiversity from organic agriculture Organic farmers are both custodians and users of biodiversity at all levels:• Gene level: endemic and locally adapted seeds and breeds are preferred for their greater resistance to diseases and resilience to climatic stress;• Species level: diverse combinations of plants and animals optimize nutrient and energy cycling for agricultural production; and• Ecosystem level: the maintenance of natural areas within and around organic fields and the absence of chemical inputs create habitats suitable for wildlife. Reliance on natural pest control methods maintains species diversity and avoids the emergence of pests resistant to chemical controls.This article was drawn from previously published material entitled Biodiversity and Organic Agriculture: An Example of Sustainable Use of Biodiversity by of Nadia El-Hage Scialabba. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.Organic agriculture manages locally available resources to optimize competition for food and space between different plant and animal species. The manipulation of the temporal and spatial distribution of biodiversity is the main productive \"input\" of organic farmers. By refraining from using mineral fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, pharmaceuticals and genetically modified seeds and breeds, biodiversity is relied upon to maintain soil fertility and to prevent pests and diseases.Organic practices such as crop rotations and associations, cover crops, organic fertilizers and minimum tillage increase the density and richness of indigenous invertebrates, specialized endangered soil species, beneficial arthropods, earthworms, symbionts and microbes (FiBL 2000). Such soil biodiversity enhances soil forming and conditioning, recycles nutrients, stabilizes soils against erosion and floods, detoxifies ecosystems and contributes to the carbon sequestration potential of soils.Rotation of crops in organic systems functions as a tool for pest management and soil fertility. This, together with inter-cropping, integrated crop-tree-animal systems, the use of traditional and underutilized food and fodder species and the creation of habitats attracts pest enemies and pollinators and decreases the risk of crop failure across the agroecosystem. Agricultural biodiversity is conserved and developed through the regeneration of locally adapted landraces and the improvement of genotypes of many plant varieties and animal races near extinction (IFOAM 2000).The maintenance of vegetation adjacent to crops and plant corridors are common in organic systems, providing alternative food and refuge for many insect predators, wild flora, birds and other wildlife. The absence of pesticide drifts and herbicides and onfarm integration of natural habitats (e.g. productive perennial plants, hedgerows) and other structures (e.g. stepping stones and corridors for migrating species) attract new or re-colonizing species to the area. Ultimately, the diversity of landscape and wildlife attracts people in the form of ecotourism, providing an important source of off-farm income (McNeely and Scherr 2001).While there is clear evidence that climate change is altering the distribution of animal and plant pests and diseases, the full effects are difficult to predict. Changes in temperature, moisture and atmospheric gases can fuel growth and generation rates of plants, fungi and insects, altering the interactions between pests, their natural enemies and their hosts. Changes in land cover, such as deforestation or desertification, can make remaining plants and animals increasingly vulnerable to pests and diseases. While new pests and diseases have regularly emerged throughout history, climate change is now throwing any number of unknowns into the equation. Climate change is a global problem that is affecting every single country.Global cooperation therefore is required to respond to it.However, given the nature of plant pests and animal diseases, more localized or regionalized strategies will be needed to be effective. Investments in early control and detection systems, including border inspections, will be key to avoid the higher costs of eradication and management. Coordinated research, including programmes related to climate change and food security from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, will be needed to improve the range of options available to countries.International trade and traffic spread transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases and alien invasive aquatic species. Countries take measures to keep new diseases and pests out. Such measures may hinder the free flow of goods and should therefore be scientifically justified and be as limited as possible in their effects on trade. New uncertainties and possibilities of introduction caused by climate change have the potential to increase these regulations and their effect on trade.The containment of some pests and diseases may not be feasible because, for example, they are spreading too fast. New farming practices, different crops and animal breeds, and integrated pest management principles must be developed to help stem their spread. Governments may need to consider the introduction of biological control agents or new pest-or disease-resistant crops and breeds.Governments need to strengthen national animal and plant health services as a top priority. They need to focus on basic sciences, such as taxonomy, modeling, population ecology and epidemiology. Governments should also consider how to better consolidate and organize their national animal and plant health services since they are often fragmented across different ministries and agencies. Bluetongue disease is a devastating infection of ruminants that has historically been confined to southern Europe along the Mediterranean. However, since 1998, northern Europe has had increasingly warm weather and some midges that carry the virus that causes bluetongue have moved north. Changing temperatures have also allowed new, more populous insect species to transmit the disease, which has enhanced its spread.Bluetongue's biggest impact may be felt among cattle farmers; many countries will not accept meat exports from countries where bluetongue occurs.Some of the most dramatic effects of climate change on animal pests and diseases are likely to be seen among arthropod insects, like mosquitoes, midges, ticks, fleas and sandflies, and the viruses they carry. With changes in temperatures and humidity levels, the populations of these insects may expand their geographic range, and expose animals and humans to diseases to which they have no natural immunity.Other climate changes can create more opportunities for vector-borne diseases. In pastoral areas, for instance, drier conditions may mean fewer watering holes, which will increase the interaction between domesticated livestock and wildlife. Increased interaction between cattle and wildebeest in East Africa could lead to a serious outbreak of malignant catarrhal fever, a highly fatal disease for cattle, since all wildebeest carry the fever virus.Aquatic animals are also vulnerable to emerging climate-related diseases, particularly since their ecosystems are so fragile and water is such an effective disease carrier. A fungal disease called the epizootic ulcerative syndrome recently expanded to infect fish in southern Africa due in large part to increases in temperature and rainfall levels.Pests and diseases have historically affected food production either directly through losses in food crops and animal production, or indirectly through lost profits from insufficient cash crop yields. Today, these losses are being exacerbated by the changing climate and its increasing volatility, threatening food security and rural livelihoods across the globe.Developing countries with a high reliance on agriculture are the most vulnerable to today's changing patterns of pests and disease. Hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers depend solely on agriculture and aquaculture for their survival. As rural farmers struggle to produce food, poor people in nearby urban areas are left to contend with less availability in addition to higher food prices. National economies will also suffer as new pests and diseases either reduce agricultural products' access to international markets or incur higher costs associated with inspection, treatment and compliance.Plant pests, which include insects, pathogens and weeds, continue to be one of the biggest constraints to food and agricultural production. Fruit flies, for instance, cause extensive damage to fruit and vegetable production and, as the globe's temperatures continue to increase, are finding more areas to call home. Controlling such pests often requires the use of pesticides, which can have serious side effects on human health and the environment. This is particularly true for poor rural people, who cannot afford to use the less toxic compounds or to own proper application or safety equipment.Climate change may also play a role in food safety. A growing number of pests and diseases could lead to higher and even unsafe levels of pesticide residue and veterinary drugs in local food supplies. And changes in rainfall, temperature and relative humidity can readily contaminate foods like groundnuts, wheat, maize, rice and coffee with fungi that produce potentially fatal mycotoxins.The effects of climate change on livestock and fisheriesThe possible effects of climate change on food production are not limited to crops and agricultural production. Climate change will have far-reaching consequences for dairy, meat and wool production, mainly arising from its impact on grassland and rangeland productivity. Heat distress suffered by animals will reduce the rate of animal feed intake and result in poor growth performance (Rowlinson 2008). Lack of water and increased frequency of drought in certain countries will lead to a loss of resources. Consequently, as exemplified by many African countries, existing food insecurity and conflict over scarce resources will be exacerbated. The following sections provide an overview of the effects of climate change on both livestock and fisheries.This article was drawn from previously published materials entitled Livestock and climate change by Antonio Rota, Chiara Calvosa, Delgermaa Chuluunbaatar and Katiuscia Fara. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.Water:Water scarcity is increasing at an accelerated pace and affects between 1 and 2 billion people. Climate change will have a substantial effect on global water availability in the future. Not only will this affect livestock drinking water sources, but it will also have a bearing on livestock feed production systems and pasture yield.Land use and systems changes As climate changes and becomes more variable, niches for different species alter. This may modify animal diets and compromise the ability of smallholders to manage feed deficits.Changes in the primary productivity of crops, forage and rangeland Effects will depend significantly on location, system and species. In C4 species, a rise in temperature to 30-35° C may increase the productivity of crops, fodder and pastures. In C3 plants, rising temperature has a similar effect, but increases in CO 2 levels will have a positive impact on the productivity of these crops. For food-feed crops, harvest indexes will change, as will the availability of energy that can be metabolized for dry season feeding. In semi-arid rangelands where the growing season is likely to contract, productivity is expected to decrease.As temperature and CO 2 levels change, optimal growth ranges for different species also change; species alter their competition dynamics, and the composition of mixed grasslands changes. For example, higher CO 2 levels will affect the proportion of browse species. They are expected to expand as a result of increased growth and competition between each other. Legume species will also benefit from CO 2 increases and in tropical grasslands the mix between legumes and grasses could be altered.Rising temperatures increase lignifications of plant tissues and thus reduce the digestibility and the rates of degradation of plant species. The resultant reduction in livestock production may have an effect on the food security and incomes of smallholders. Interactions between primary productivity and quality of grasslands will require modifications in the management of grazing systems to attain production objectives.In some places there will be an acceleration in the loss of the genetic and breeding):cultural diversity already occurring in agriculture as a result of globalization. This loss will also be evident in crops and domestic animals. A 2.5° C rise in global temperature would determine major losses: between 20 and 30 per cent of all plant and animal species assessed could face a high risk of extinction.Ecosystems and species display a wide range of vulnerabilities to climate change, depending on the imminence of exposure to ecosystem-specific critical thresholds, but assessments of the effects of CO 2 fertilization and other processes are inconclusive.Local and rare breeds could be lost as a result of the impact of climate change and disease epidemics. Biodiversity loss has global health implications and many of the anticipated health risks driven by climate change will be attributable to a loss of genetic diversity.1 Globally, livestock products contribute approximately 30 per cent of the protein in human diets (Gill and Smith 2008), and this contribution is only expected to increase (FAO Stats).2 The effects of rising temperatures vary, depending on when and where they occur. A rise in temperature during the winter months can reduce the cold stress experienced by livestock remaining outside. Warmer weather reduces the amount of energy required to feed the animals and keep them in heated facilities (FAO 2007b).In pastoral and agropastoral systems, livestock is a key asset for poor people, fulfilling multiple economic, social and risk management functions. The impact of climate change is expected to heighten the vulnerability of livestock systems and reinforce existing factors that are affecting livestock production systems, such as rapid population and economic growth, rising demand for food (including livestock) and products, 1 conflict over scarce resources (land tenure, water, biofuels, etc). For rural communities, losing livestock assets could trigger a collapse into chronic poverty and have a lasting effect on livelihoods.The direct effects of climate change will include, for example, higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, which could translate into the increased spread of existing vectorborne diseases and macroparasites, accompanied by the emergence and circulation of new diseases. In some areas, climate change could also generate new transmission models.These effects will be evident in both developed and developing countries, but the pressure will be greatest on developing countries because of their lack of resources, knowledge, veterinary and extension services, and research technology development. 2 Some of the indirect effects will be brought about by, for example, changes in feed resources linked to the carrying capacity of rangelands, the buffering abilities of ecosystems, intensified desertification processes, increased scarcity of water resources, decreased grain production.Other indirect effects will be linked to the expected shortage of feed arising from the increasingly competitive demands of food, feed and fuel production, and land use systems. In a recent paper, Thornton et al. (2008) examined some of the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on livestock and livestock systems. These are summarized in Table 1.Livestock can play an important role in both mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation measures could include technical and management options in order to reduce GHG emissions from livestock, accompanied by the integration of livestock into broader environmental services. As described in the section below, livestock has the potential to support the adaptation efforts of the poor. In general, livestock is more resistant to climate change than crops because of its mobility and access to feed. However, it is important to remember that the capacity of local communities to adapt to climate change and mitigate its impacts will also depend on their socio-economic and environmental conditions, and on the resources they have available. Livestock (and human) health: Vector-borne diseases could be affected by: (i) the expansion of vector populations into cooler areas (in higher altitude areas: malaria and livestock tick-borne diseases) or into more temperate zones (such as bluetongue disease in northern Europe); and (ii) changes in rainfall pattern during wetter years, which could also lead to expanding vector populations and large-scale outbreaks of disease (e.g. Rift Valley fever virus in East Africa).Temperature and humidity variations could have a significant effect on helminth infections.Trypanotolerance, an adaptive trait which has developed over the course of millennia in sub-humid zones of West Africa, could be lost, thus leading to a greater risk of disease in the future.Changes in crop and livestock practices could produce effects on the distribution and impact of malaria in many systems, and schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis in irrigated systems.Heat-related mortality and morbidity could increase.Adapted from Thornton et al.,2008.The Committee on Climate Change (2008) adopted an approach of identifying three routes for abatement potential in relation to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by agriculture:• lifestyle change (i.e. less reliance on products with a high carbon cost associated with their production);• changing farming practice; and• using new technologies.These are discussed in turn on the next page.This article was drawn from previously published materials entitled The potential for mitigation of GHGs in livestock production systems by Margaret Gill, Pete Smith, and J. M. Wilkinson. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.Ariel Lucerna 2015 meat, confectionery and soft drinks (Arnoult 2006). The result would be a decrease in the demand for livestock products, especially those with relatively high concentrations of saturated fat. This suggests that a decrease in production would be more likely in terms of dairy systems than meat production. The relatively stable consumption of animal products in recent years, despite health recommendations and lobbying by environmental groups suggests, however, that such a change is unlikely unless the costs of livestock products to the consumer are considerably increased.Another way in which demand might be influenced, however, is through the reduction in food waste. There are strong policy incentives for moving to a 'zero-waste' society, which could help to decrease the current level (5% to 13%) of avoidable or partially avoidable food waste associated with livestock products (DEFRA 2008).As with food waste, there is significant scope for decreasing the 'waste' associated with low on-farm productivity. Improvements in production efficiency all have the potential to decrease the carbon footprint of livestock production as illustrated in Figure 2. The basic principle throughout is that animals emit methane (ruminants) and produce manure which results in release of further methane and N 2 O (all livestock) from the day they are born to the day they die: all of these emissions will be attributed to production. Emissions per unit of product can thus be decreased either by increasing the efficiency of the animal production system itself or by direct action on the route of emissions (e.g. through feed or by using new technologies such as methane or N 2 O inhibitors). The potential mitigation which is still to be captured from improved productivity is obviously dependent on the basal level of productivity and is greater in developing countries as illustrated by Smith et al. (2008). The impacts of improved genetics, fertility and health all contribute to reducing the number of animals required to meet a steady demand for animal products, while the issues of feed, manure and grazing management are rather more complex and will be considered separately below. Attention has been drawn to the high 'cost' of livestock products in terms of broader environmental impacts for the last decade or more (e.g. Brown 1997;Steinfeld et al., 2006). In recent times, the focus has been on the 'cost' in terms of GHG emissions as discussed earlier.At a global level, these concerns have not stemmed the increasing demand for livestock products, especially in those countries where meat and milk have until recently made relatively small contributions to total daily human food consumption (Steinfeld et al. 2006).Global consumption of meat is projected to increase from 201 Mt in 1997 to 334 Mt in 2020.Similarly, global production of milk is projected to increase from 445 to 661 Mt in the same period (Delgado 2005).A relatively high proportion of these increases reflect trends in China and India, which mirror the trends in food consumption in the dietary changes which occurred in Western Europe, North America and Australasia in the first half of the 20th century (Grigg 1999). When forecasting future trends, therefore, it is worth noting both the impact of health messages (links between animal fats and diseases in humans) and the divergence between regions as noted by Grigg (1999). In the UK, animal protein accounted for a steady percentage of total dietary protein between 1993 and 2003 (Figure 1; FAOSTAT 2008) compared with the increase in percentage of animal protein consumed in China over the same time period.Figures for meat consumption by species are given in Table 1, showing the dominance of monogastric species in terms of both production and consumption. Interestingly, while poultry meat forms a smaller percentage of meat production at a global level (31% compared to 48%), the ratio of production of ruminant to monogastric meat is similar to that in the UK (FAOSTAT 2008). In recent years, the number of ruminant livestock in the UK has been declining in response to changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (change from payments per head of livestock to payments on an area basis). This contributes to decreasing GHG emissions appearing in the UK inventory, but unless demand changes, the impact on global GHGs will depend on the carbon cost associated with the production system used to produce the imports to replace domestic consumption.The typical UK diet is higher in saturated fat and sugar than recommended by official dietary guidelines and Arnoult (2006) undertook a modelling exercise to explore what changes in dietary components would best achieve the recommended diet. If consumers were to comply strictly with UK health recommendations, and at the same time minimize changes in their dietary preferences to do so, there would be decreases in the consumption of milk and milk products (particularly cheese), carcass  Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersMitigation through management of feeding, manure and land useOne area that receives considerable attention (particularly from the media) is manipulation to decrease methane emissions from enteric fermentation. Research on methane was common in the 1960s when various ruminant researchers tried to decrease methane production as a means of achieving increased feed conversion ratios (unit of feed in: unit of product out), since eructation of methane represents a loss of energy to the animal. Both the amount of digestible nutrients ingested and the composition of the diet were found to be major factors governing methane production (Blaxter and Clapperton 1965). More recently, equations have been developed by Yates et al. (2000). These equations demonstrate that increasing the energy density of the diet (e.g. by increasing ratio of concentrates to forage) decreases methane production per unit of digestible energy ingested. Increasing energy density also increases productivity, thereby also contributing to decreased carbon per unit of product.The composition of livestock diets can also affect the amount and ratios of nitrogenous components excreted in manure (Paul et al. 1998), providing another route by which livestock feed can influence GHG emissions. One recent study (Misselbrook et al. 2005) has looked at the potential of increasing the tannin level in diets to decrease the rate of release of N 2 O, but the net benefit is likely to depend on the composition of the manure and the ambient conditions.The different rations offered to livestock can change in composition and in efficiency of utilization in a number of ways, but with many individual feed components being imported, complexity will also be added by changes in the availability of ration components.One of the uncertainties associated with the potential benefits to net GHG emissions of increasing land under pasture, is the uncertainty associated with losses of N 2 O from fertilizer or manure. The key principle is to maximize the uptake of nutrients by the pasture plants.Factors such as the amount of manure applied (Scholefield et al. 1993) and the intensity of grazing (Ryden et al. 1984) are known to influence nitrogen leaching and were included in a model developed by Hansen et al. (2000) to compare organic v. conventional farming. However, due to lack of data, such models are not yet at a stage of development though to be able to deal with all the processes involved.Smith et al. (2008) estimated the potential of a range of land management practices to mitigate GHG emissions, identifying restoration of organic soils, management of cropland and grassland as having particularly high potential, though there are issues associated with permanence and saturation of the carbon sink (Smith 2005). The key principles in this respect are to avoid loss of carbon from the soil and to manage the application of nutrients in fertilizers and manure to maximize uptake by plants. In terms of soil, the type of soil is closely associated with the amount of carbon it contains and there is a huge variability across the UK with Scotland holding around a half of the organic carbon content of soils in Great Britain (Bradley et al. 2005). Recent research has shown that there is little change in soil carbon under permanent pasture (Hopkins et al. 2008), with the major changes being related to changes in land use (Smith 2008). Soil monitoring networks exist across Europe, but they are unable to detect changes at a level of use to policy-makers (Saby et al. 2008). There is, therefore, considerable research activity in predicting changes in soil carbon in response to land-use Improved productivity through breeding, fertility and health. In the case of the UK dairy herd, the same quantity of milk was produced in 2005 from a million fewer animals than 20 years earlier, because average annual milk yield per cow increased from 5000 to almost 7000 l, a 2% increase per year. Garnsworthy (2004) calculated that the total methane (t/year) associated with the production of one million litres of milk from cows producing 9000 l/cow per year was just over 50% of the methane which would be associated with cows producing 6000 l/cow per year, taking into account the differing nutritional requirements and the concentrate intake and neutral detergent fibre concentration of the least cost ration formulated to meet the requirements. The same principles apply to whether the increased productivity is due to health, fertility or breeding, provided that the emissions associated with feeds are accounted for.Recent modelling studies in the UK by Genesis-Faraday (Genesis-Faraday Partnership 2008; Jones et al. 2008) have indicated that past selection for production traits such as growth rate, milk production, fertility and efficiency of feed conversion has resulted in decreases in GHG production per unit of livestock product of about 1% per annum. These have been greatest in those species in which the greatest genetic gains have been achieved-poultry, dairy cows and pigs. The authors predicted that the trends are likely to continue in future at least at the rate achieved over the past 20 years. Genetic improvement is continuous and cumulative, and the technology is readily transferable via selected germplasm. There are economic incentives to use improved breeding stock, so reductions in GHGs are likely to be achieved without major changes in current farming practices-at least in nonruminants. The adoption of routine determinations of efficiency of feed conversion in ruminants could produce acceleration in both rate of genetic gain and reduction in GHG emissions per unit of product, provided that the information was incorporated in indices of breeding value.While breeding has resulted in increases in milk yield per cow year-on-year, fertility has decreased. Garnsworthy (2004) estimated the impact of fertility on GHG emissions, through the construction of a model, which linked changes in fertility to herd structure, number of replacements, milk yield and nutrient requirements to GHG emissions. He reported that replacements contributed up to 27% of the methane and 15% of the ammonia attributed to dairy cows in the UK. Improving fertility would lead to decreased numbers of replacements required, with a consequent significant decrease in GHG emissions.The impact of disease on livestock productivity is highly variable between countries dependent on the incidence of endemic diseases, and between years on the incidence of infectious diseases, particularly when these are associated with the culling of animals. Since the carbon costs are directly associated with the impacts on productivity, economic frameworks such as that developed by McInerney et al. (1992) could be used to explore the likely impacts of different diseases. An added complication for livestock disease, however, is that climate change is also likely to impact on the incidence of disease, as seen for example, in the recent incidence of Bluetongue virus in the UK (Gale et al. 2009).Attention needs to be drawn to the distinction between decreasing numbers of livestock associated with increased productivity, and decreasing numbers in response to policy changes.In the former, similar levels of domestic demand can be met, while the latter situation may lead to increased imports, which may have higher or lower associated GHG emissions, depending on the relevant production systems.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersHuman nature dictates that there will always be more media interest in the potential large wins of new technologies to solve problems rather than in the more mundane approaches of improving management efficiencies, but the reality is that both approaches need to be pursued to deal with both the urgency and the scale of the need to reduce GHG emissions. If neither approach is shown to be delivering sufficient reductions from the livestock sector, the pressure to decrease meat consumption will continue to increase. However, such a pressure ignores another major challenge of the 21st century that of increasing the amount of food produced at a rate sufficient to meet the growing demand.change (e.g. ECOSSE; Smith et al. 2007c), but this knowledge is not yet at a stage at which it can be incorporated into the national inventory for the UK. The potential advantages in decreasing net carbon emissions of changing land use from arable to grass are thus challenging to estimate at the farm level, and cannot yet be captured in the metrics used by policy-makers. Thus while more land under pasture is a clear winner in terms of decreased GHG emissions from soil, grazing the grass leads to methane emissions, and the loss of arable land has implications for food security.Discussion in the previous section and in Figure 2 has highlighted the close relationship between opportunities to decrease GHG emissions from livestock and those to increase productivity. Many evolving technologies being developed to increase productivity will thus also have a beneficial effect in terms of the indirect contribution of livestock to GHG emissions. This section will concentrate on technologies that focus primarily on direct emissions, i.e. on decreasing the emission of methane and N 2 O.Attempts to find ways of inhibiting methane production in the rumen have been made for over 30 years (e.g. Czerkawski and Breckenridge 1975), with interest rekindled more recently, particularly in New Zealand where the large numbers of ruminants make a significant contribution to the country's GHG emissions (Judd et al. 1999).Apparently significant successes in decreasing methane production have been achieved in experiments in vitro or in single animal feeding trials (e.g. Lopez et al. 1999;McGinn et al. 2004) but these have not proved to be robust when applied to a variety of feeding regimes and some methods such as the use of ionophores are banned in the European Union. Research is continuing in New Zealand using a variety of approaches co-ordinated through the Pastoral Greenhouse gas Research consortium (PGgRc 2009). Such research needs to adopt a systems approach, however, since Hindrichsen et al. (2006) reported a negative correlation between enteric methane production v. methane released from the slurry of cows offered forage-only diets compared to those offered forage supplemented with concentrates. The potential benefits to the cattle and sheep industries globally of finding a compound that would reduce methane production without decreasing productivity or increasing methane and N 2 O emissions from manure and that could be applied in pastoral systems with low labour inputs are huge. The challenge is that ruminants evolved 40 million years ago with a pre-gastric digestion system to enable them to feed on cellulose, with methane produced as a by-product (Van Soest 1994) and there is no advantage per se to that ecosystem of avoiding methane production.Less attention has been paid over the years to technologies for controlling the emission of N 2 O, since the benefits that would accrue at first inspection, appear to be purely environmental. However, nitrification inhibitors have been used in New Zealand to promote early season herbage growth (due to soil nitrogen retention over winter). Solving this problem should be easier than trying to adjust the ecological balance within the rumen and indeed research at the scale of individual urine patches has shown very significant reductions (PGgRc 2009). Inhibitors showing particular promise for inhibition in pasture-based systems are: dicyandiamide and 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate.Livestock producers have traditionally adapted to various environmental and climatic changes by building on their in-depth knowledge of the environment in which they live. However, the expanding human population, urbanization, environmental degradation and increased consumption of animal source foods have rendered some of those coping mechanisms ineffective (Sidahmed 2008). In addition, changes brought about by global warming are likely to happen at such a speed that they will exceed the capacity of spontaneous adaptation of both human communities and animal species. livestock numbers-a lower number of more productive animals leads to more efficient production and lower GHG emissions from livestock production (Batima 2006); (iii) changes in livestock/herd composition (selection of large animals rather than small); (iv) improved management of water resources through the introduction of simple techniques for localized irrigation (e.g. drip and sprinkler irrigation), accompanied by infrastructure to harvest and store rainwater, such as tanks connected to the roofs of houses and small surface and underground dams.The agriculture market could be enhanced by, for example, the promotion of interregional trade and credit schemes.Unmitigated climate change will, in the long term, exceed the capacity of natural and human systems to adapt. Given the magnitude of the challenge to reduce GHG concentrations in the atmosphere, it is imperative to receive the contribution of all sectors with significant mitigation potential. Agriculture is recognized as a sector with such potential, and farmers, herders, ranchers and other land users could and should be part of the solution. Therefore, it is important to identify mitigation measures that are easy to implement and cost effective in order to strengthen the capacity of local actors to adapt to climate change. The livestock production system contributes to global climate change directly through the production of GHG emissions, and indirectly through the destruction of biodiversity, the degradation of land, and water and air pollution. There are three main sources of GHG emissions in the livestock production system: the enteric fermentation of animals, manure (waste products) and production of feed and forage (field use) (Dourmad et al. 2008). Indirect sources of GHGs from livestock systems are mainly attributable to changes in land use and deforestation to create pasture land. For example, in the Amazon rainforest, 70 per cent of deforestation has taken place to create grazing land for livestock. In general, smallholder livestock systems have a smaller ecological footprint than large-scale industrialized livestock operations.Mitigation of GHG emissions in the livestock sector can be achieved through various activities, including:• Different animal feeding management.• Manure management (collection, storage, spreading).• Management of feed crop production.The contribution the livestock sector can make to the reduction of emissions varies. Possible mitigation options include (FAO 2008b):Improvements could be made to livestock efficiency in converting energy from feed into production and losses through waste products can be reduced. Increasing feed efficiency and improving the digestibility of feed intake are potential ways to reduce GHG emissions and maximize production and gross efficiency, as is lowering the number of heads. All livestock practices-such as genetics, nutrition, reproduction, health and dietary supplements and proper feeding (including grazing) management-that could result in improved feed efficiency need to be taken into account.The following have been identified by several experts (FAO 2008;Thornton et al. 2008;Sidahmed, 2008) as ways to increase adaptation in the livestock sector:Changes in livestock practices could include: (i) diversification, intensification and/or integration of pasture management, livestock and crop production; (ii) changing land use and irrigation; (iii) altering the timing of operations; (iv) conservation of nature and ecosystems; (v) modifying stock routings and distances; (vi) introducing mixed livestock farming systems, such as stall-fed systems and pasture grazing.Many local breeds are already adapted to harsh living conditions. However, developing countries are usually characterized by a lack of technology in livestock breeding and agricultural programmes that might otherwise help to speed adaptation. Adaptation strategies address not only the tolerance of livestock to heat, but also their ability to survive, grow and reproduce in conditions of poor nutrition, parasites and diseases (Hoffmann 2008). Such measures could include: (i) identifying and strengthening local breeds that have adapted to local climatic stress and feed sources and (ii) improving local genetics through cross-breeding with heat and disease tolerant breeds. If climate change is faster than natural selection, the risk to the survival and adaptation of the new breed is greater.Removing or introducing subsidies, insurance systems, income diversification practices and establishing livestock early warning systems-as in the case of IFAD-supported interventions in Ethiopi, and other forecasting and crisis-preparedness systems-could benefit adaptation efforts.Working towards a better understanding of the impacts of climate change on livestock, developing new breeds and genetic types, improving animal health and enhancing water and soil management would support adaptation measures in the long term.There is a need to improve the capacity of livestock producers and herders to understand and deal with climate change increasing their awareness of global changes. In addition, training in agro-ecological technologies and practices for the production and conservation of fodder improves the supply of animal feed and reduces malnutrition and mortality in herds.Efficient and affordable adaptation practices need to be developed for the rural poor who are unable to afford expensive adaptation technologies. These could include (i) provision of shade and water to reduce heat stress from increased temperature. Given current high energy prices, providing natural (low cost) shade instead of high cost air conditioning is more suitable for rural poor producers; (ii) reduction of Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersThe composition of feed has some bearing on enteric fermentation and the emission of CH 4 from the rumen or hindgut (Dourmad et al. 2008). The volume of feed intake is related to the volume of waste product. The higher the proportion of concentrate in the diet, the lower the emissions of CH 4 .Improving the management of animal waste products through different mechanisms, such as the use of covered storage facilities, is also important. The level of GHG emissions from manure (CH 4 , N 2 O, and CH 4 from liquid manure) depends on the temperature and duration of storage. Long-term storage at high temperatures results in higher GHG emissions. In the case of ruminants, pasture grazing is an efficient way to reduce CH 4 emission from manure because no storage is necessary. It is possible not only to mitigate GHG emissions but also to create an opportunity for renewable energy.One of the major GHG emission contributions from livestock production is from forage or feed crop production and related land use. Proper pasture management through rotational grazing would be the most cost-effective way to mitigate GHG emissions from feed crop production.Animal grazing on pasture also helps reduce emissions attributable to animal manure storage.Introducing grass species and legumes into grazing lands can enhance carbon storage in soils.Lowering the consumption of meat and milk in areas with a high standard of living is a shortterm response to GHG mitigation.  The brief also reflects the consensus of 19 concerned international and regional agencies.This article was drawn from previously published materials entitled Fisheries and aquaculture in our changing climate by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersHealthy aquatic ecosystems are critical for production of wild fish and for some of the 'seed' and much of the feed for aquaculture. The productivity of coastal fisheries is closely tied to the health of coastal ecosystems, which provide food, habitats and nursery areas for fish. Estuaries, coral reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds are particularly important. In freshwater systems, ecosystem health and productivity is linked to water quality and flow and the health of wetlands.The stocks of small schooling fish like anchovies and sardines found in schools in the ocean are highly sensitive to changes in ocean conditions. These small pelagic fish are a basic food for millions and are often processed into fishmeal and used to feed cultured fish, as well as poultry and pigs.Coastal ecosystems that support fisheries also help protect communities from the impacts of natural hazards and disasters. Mangroves create barriers to destructive waves from storms and hold sediments in place within their root systems, reducing coastal erosion. Healthy coral reefs, sea grass beds and wetlands provide similar benefits. Climate change imperils the structure and function of these already stressed ecosystems.Adaptation measures are well known by managers and decision makers, but political will and action is often lacking.To build resilience to the effects of climate change and derive sustainable benefits, fisheries and aquaculture managers need to adopt and adhere to best practices such as those described in the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, reducing overfishing and rebuilding fish stocks. These practices need to be integrated more effectively with the management of river basins, watersheds and coastal zones.Aquaculture of herbivorous species can provide nutritious food with a small carbon footprint. Farming of shellfish, such as oysters and mussels, is not only good business, but also helps clean coastal waters, while culturing aquatic plants helps remove wastes from polluted waters. In contrast to the potential declines in agricultural yields in many areas of the world, climate change opens new opportunities for aquaculture as increasing numbers of species are cultured, as the sea encroaches on coastal lands, as more dams and impoundments are constructed in river basins to buffer the effects of changing rainfall patterns, and as urban waste demands more innovative disposal.l Oceans are the earth's main buffer to climate change and will likely bear the greatest burden of impacts.l Oceans removed about 25% of atmospheric carbon dioxide emitted by human activities from 2000 to 2007.l Oceans absorb more that 95% of the sun's radiation, making air temperatures tolerable for life on land.l Oceans provide 85% of the water vapour in the atmosphere, and these clouds are key to regulating climate on land and sea.l Ocean health influences the capacity of oceans to absorb carbon.Coral reefs are degrading with increasing water temperatures and acidification of the oceans, and are growing more sensitive to the threats of over-fishing, pollution, poor tourism practices and invasive species. This will affect the quantity and type of fish available to coastal communities in developing countries and small island states.Ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries and coastal management are required. These approaches recognize the need for people to use coral reefs for their food security and livelihoods while enabling these valuable ecosystems to adapt to the effects of climate change, and to reduce the threats from other environmental stressess.The build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is changing several of the features of the earth's climate, oceans, coasts and freshwater ecosystems that affect fisheries and aquaculture. Air and sea surface temperatures, rainfall, sea level, acidity of the ocean, wind patterns, and the intensity of tropical cyclones are all changing. The impact of climate change on aquatic ecosystems, and on fisheries and aquaculture, however, is not so well known.Climate change is modifying the distribution and productivity of marine and freshwater species and is already affecting biological processes and altering food webs. The consequences for sustainability of aquatic ecosystems for fisheries and aquaculture, and for the people that depend on them, are uncertain. Some countries and fisheries will benefit while others will lose-the only certainty is change and decision-makers must be prepared for it.It is clear that fishers, fish farmers and coastal inhabitants will bear the full force of these impacts through less stable livelihoods, changes in the availability and quality of fish for food, and rising risks to their health, safety and homes. Many fisheries-dependent communities already live a precarious and vulnerable existence because of poverty and their lack of social services and essential infrastructure. The well-being of these communities is further undermined by overexploited fishery resources and degraded ecosystems.The implications of climate change for food security and livelihoods in small island states and many developing countries are profound.Fisheries, aquaculture and fish habitats are at risk in the developing world Deltas and estuaries are in the front line of climate change. For example, sea level rise and reduced river flows are causing increasing saltwater intrusion in the Mekong delta and threatening the viability of catfish aquaculture. This industry produces about 1 million tonnes per year, valued at $1 billion and provides over 150,000 livelihood opportunities, mostly for women.Investments are urgently needed to mitigate these growing threats, to adapt to their impacts and to build our knowledge of complex ocean and aquatic processes. The overarching requirement is to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gasses -the primary human driver of climate change. Fisheries and aquaculture need specific adaptation and mitigation measures that:• improve the management of fisheries and aquaculture and the integrity and resilience of aquatic ecosystems • respond to the opportunities for and threats to food and livelihood security due to climate change impacts, and • help the fisheries and aquaculture sector reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Fisheries and aquaculture contribute significantly to food security and livelihoods, but depend on healthy aquatic ecosystems. These contributions are often unrecognized and undervalued.• Fish (including shellfish) provides essential nutrition for 3 billion people and at least 50% of animal protein and minerals to 400 million people in the poorest countries.• Over 500 million people in developing countries depend, directly or indirectly, on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods.• Aquaculture is the world's fastest growing food production system, growing at 7% annually.• Fish products are among the most widely traded foods, with more than 37% by volume of world production traded internationally.• Move to environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient fishing and aquaculture practices.• Eliminate subsidies that promote overfishing and excess fishing capacity.• Provide climate change education in schools and create greater awareness among all stakeholders.• Undertake assessments of local vulnerability and risk to achieve climate proofing.• Integrate aquaculture with other sectors.• Build local ocean-climate models.• Strengthen our knowledge of aquatic ecosystem dynamics and biogeochemical cycles such as ocean carbon and nitrogen cycles.• Encourage sustainable, environmentally friendly biofuel production from algae and seaweed.• Encourage funding mechanisms and innovations that benefit from synergies between adaptation and mitigation in fisheries and aquaculture.• Conduct scientific and other studies (e.g. economic) to identify options for carbon sequestration by aquatic ecosystems which do not harm these and other ecosystems.• Consider appropriate regulatory measures to safeguard the aquatic environment and its resources against adverse impacts of mitigation strategies and measures.Implementing adaptation and mitigation pathways for communities dependent on fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic ecosystems will need increased attention from policy-makers and planners. Sustainable and resilient aquatic ecosystems not only benefit fishers and coastal communities but also provide goods and services at national and global levels, for example, through improved food security and conservation of biodiversity.For fishers, fish farmers and coastal peoples in the front line of climate change, for example, residents of low-lying developing countries and small island states, key actions should include securing resources to:• Fill critical gaps in knowledge to assess the vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture to climate change. • Strengthen human and institutional capacity to identify the risks of climate change to coastal communities and fishing industries, and implement adaptation and mitigation measures. • Raise awareness that healthy and productive ecosystems, which arise from well-managed fisheries and aquaculture, and careful use of catchments and coastal zones, are a crosssectoral responsibility. Fisheries and aquaculture need to be blended into national climate change adaptation strategies. Without careful planning, aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture can potentially suffer as a result of adaptation measures applied by other sectors, such as increased use of dams and hydropower in catchments with high rainfall, or the construction of artificial coastal defences or marine wind farms.Mitigation solutions reducing the carbon footprint of fisheries and aquaculture will require innovative approaches. One example is the recent inclusion of mangrove conservation as eligible for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) funding, which demonstrates the potential for catchment forest protection.Other approaches to explore include: linking vessel decommissioning with emissions reduction funding schemes, finding innovative but environmentally safe ways to sequester carbon in aquatic ecosystems, and developing low-carbon aquaculture production systems.Many capture fisheries and their supporting ecosystems have been poorly managed, and the economic losses due to overfishing, pollution and habitat loss are estimated to exceed $50 billion per year. Improved governance, innovative technologies and more responsible practices can generate increased and sustainable benefits from fisheries. The current fishing fleet is too large to catch available fish resources efficiently and therefore consumes more fossil fuel than necessary. Reducing fleet overcapacity will not only help rebuild fish stocks and sustain global catches, but can substantially reduce carbon emissions from the sector.Increasing investment in fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic ecosystems is an investment in the 'liquid assets' of adaptation. Aquatic ecosystems play a crucial role in buffering and distributing climatic shocks, whether from storms, floods, coastal erosion or drought.Investment in aquatic science is fundamental-investment in knowledge of aquatic ecosystems, in the complex biological and chemical processes that determine the ocean carbon cycle, and in knowledge of the currents and eddies that generate hurricanes. Equally important is an understanding of the ways that people cope with and adapt to living in a changing climate, and how their institutions and livelihood systems have evolved to maintain resilience to future change in aquatic ecosystems.Investment in awareness is also essential, from the local council considering a seawall to policy-makers considering fuel subsidies. Awareness is crucial for the millions who will lose their farms to the sea and need options and alternatives for their own investments and those of their local communities.Vulnerability and risk assessment can inform these decisions; technologies and education can offer alternatives. Applying best practices in natural resources stewardship and governance is a 'no regrets' pathway, generating current and future benefits, increasing resilience of aquatic ecosystems and economies, and often reducing emissions.What Can We Do Now?• Implement comprehensive and integrated ecosystem approaches to managing coasts, oceans, fisheries, aquaculture; to adapting to climate change; and to reducing risk from natural disasters.  River-dependent Asian fisheries, such as in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Pakistan, are also vulnerable to climate change as the abundance and diversity of riverine species are particularly sensitive to climatic disturbances.Now accounting for 45 percent of global seafood consumption, aquaculture production will continue rising to meet future demand. Here, climate change offers new opportunities. Production in warmer regions will likely increase because of better growth rates, a long growing season and the availability of new fish farming areas where it was once too cold.Aquaculture development opportunities will increase in some areas. This is particularly significant in tropical and sub-tropical regions, such as in Africa and Latin America.At the same time, extreme weather events such as floods and cyclones could damage fish farms. In cool and temperate regions mollusc and salmon farms will be adversely affected by warming as the fish will not be able to survive algal blooms and new pathogens caused by higher temperatures.Adaptation strategies should be based on an \"ecosystem approach\", defined as a comprehensive and holistic approach to understanding and anticipating ecological change, assessing the full range of consequences, and developing appropriate management responses.In support of such an approach, ongoing study of the climate change phenomenon and its impact on the fisheries ecosystem will be crucial.Although a relatively small contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, there are certainly areas in which fisheries and aquaculture have a responsibility to limit such emissions as much as possible. Decreasing carbon dioxide emissions will also improve the aquatic ecosystems' ability to respond to external shocks. For example, eliminating inefficient global fleets and fishing practices would reduce fuel needs; increasing efficiency of aquatic farms would decrease water and energy use; and reducing post harvest losses as well as increasing waste recycling will shrink the sector's carbon footprint.Providing the best possible conditions to assure food security-quantity, access, use and timing of supply-calls for responsible management and governance. The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and relevant international plans of action can be used as a basis for action. Eighty percent of the world's freshwater fisheries are in Africa and Asia. Parts of both continents will experience greater warming than the global annual average, resulting in less rainfall and lower lake levels. Already lake levels are dropping, mainly because people are using more water.The oceans in the tropics and mid-latitudes will be less productive but, by contrast, cold water oceans will see greater productivity. Many fish cannot tolerate swift rises in temperature. Fish distribution patterns will change, with the strongest and most rapid change to fish stocks at the edges of their species' range.Species, particularly those with shorter life spans, will change the timing of their life cycle. Some plankton species will bloom earlier, resulting in mismatches between the early life stages of fish and their prey, and therefore declines in abundance.Coral reefs are habitat for many of the world's marine species. Climate change threatens them in two ways: it causes coral reef bleaching and destruction while increased ocean acidity interrupts calcification. Corals cannot easily move into higher latitudes because there are no suitable surfaces where they can develop.Fisheries and aquaculture play a crucial role for food supply, food security and income generation. Some 42 million people work directly as fishers and fish farmers, with hundreds of millions more engaged in associated activities-the great majority in developing countries. Fish exports boost foreign currency earnings-particularly important in developing economies. In fact, aquatic foods are the most widely traded foodstuffs, outpacing agricultural products.Fish is a major source of protein in many poor people's diets, which are often dominated by starchy staples. Fish comprises about 20 percent of animal protein in the diets of over 2.8 billion people -and can reach 50 percent in the world's poorest regions, notably Africa and South Asia, and up to 90 percent in small island developing states and coastal areas.Impacts of climate change will affect fisheries-and aquaculture-dependent people as production and marketing costs increase, buying power and exports decrease and dangers from harsher weather conditions rise. Small fishing communities in some areas will face greater uncertainty as availability, access, stability and use of aquatic food and supplies diminish and as work opportunities dwindle.Developing countries are at greatest risk. In sub-Saharan Africa, Angola, Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone are the most vulnerable countries. Semi-arid and with significant coastal or inland fisheries, they export large quantities of fish. Earnings from fish exports can be equivalent to 50 percent of the cost of their food imports.Most of the people who work in small-scale fisheries are from developing countries. If fish distribution changes due to global warming, fishers with their small boats will be unable easily to follow the fish to new fishing grounds. These coastal populations also are threatened by more frequent storms and sea level rise.• Fisheries employ more than 200 million people worldwide -98 percent from developing countries.• Small-scale fisheries support 99 percent of fishers but produce less than 50 percent of all fish.• Aquatic products provide at least 50 percent of animal protein and minerals to 400 million people from the poorest African and South Asian countries.• Countries most vulnerable to fisheries-and aquaculture-related climate change include those in West and Central Africa, northwest South America, and Southeast Asia.Examples from around the world Widespread adoption of adaptation and mitigation strategies that will reduce the vulnerability of farming, fishing and forest communities depends on investment and advances in the three themes described above. The following sections describe a selection of the wide range of available strategies.We do not need to wait for the uncertain conditions of the future to evolve-the climate today is already having significant negative impacts on the lives and livelihoods of poor people around the world. Indeed, droughts and floods are far from new phenomena, and farmers have developed various ways of coping with them, and other weather extremes, over the centuries. But poverty limits options, and the risk that the climate presents to agriculture plays a significant part in keeping farmers, and their families, in poverty.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makerstechnologies that agricultural research has produced-indeed, in some cases it could provide the 'missing link' that has limited their adoption so far.Incorporating CRM into agricultural systems is the drive behind the fourth theme of the CCAFS Challenge Program, 'Adaptation pathways based on managing current climate risks'. Research will address knowledge gaps, for example those related to targeting, package design, institutional challenges to implementation at scale, and the implications of advance information. The aim is to incorporate CRM into agricultural development strategies, and ensure that the necessary climate services and support are in place.An agrometeorology project in MaliMali's national meteorological service launched a project some 25 years ago to provide climate information to rural people, especially farmers. The project was the first in Africa to supply climate-related advice directly to farmers, and to help them measure climate variables themselves, so that they could incorporate climate information into their decision making. Over the years, the project has evolved into an extensive and effective collaboration between government agencies, research institutions, media, extension services and farmers. Today, more than 2000 farmers are participating. Climate information is collected from diverse sources, including the World Meteorological Organization, the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development, the national meteorological service, extension workers and farmers themselves. It is then processed and provided at three levels -seasonal forecasts, forecasts for the next 3 days, and 10-day bulletins that include information on the state of crops, water resources and weather conditions, as well as crop health issues, pastoral issues and agricultural markets. Data collected by the national meteorological service, as well as farmer testimonies, indicate significantly higher yields and incomes up to 80% higher for participating farmers. Farmers feel they are exposed to lower levels of risk and are therefore more confident about purchasing and using inputs such as improved seeds, fertilizer and pesticides.Index insurance is insurance that is linked to an index, such as rainfall, temperature or crop yields, rather than actual loss. This approach solves some of the problems that limit access to traditional crop insurance in rural parts of developing countries. One key advantage is that transaction costs are lower, making index insurance financially viable for private-sector insurers and affordable to small farmers. The most common application so far is the use of an index of rainfall totals to insure against drought-related crop loss. Payouts occur when rainfall totals over an agreed period are below an agreed threshold that can be expected to result in crop loss. Unlike with traditional crop insurance, the insurance company does not need to visit farmers' fields to assess losses and determine payouts; instead it uses data from rain gauges near the farmer's field. As well as reducing costs, this means that payouts can be made quickly -a feature that reduces or avoids distress sales of assets. There are now several examples of index insurance in use around the world, including in India where it has been scaled up and is now bought by hundreds of thousands of farmers through both private sector and public schemes. ILRI is currently trialling an index-based livestock insurance scheme in Kenya, to protect against drought-related mortality during the short rain/short dry season spanning October 2009 to February 2010.Without the back-up of insurance, small-scale farmers can lose everything if there is a weather 'shock'. To survive, they will probably have to sell any assets they possess, such as animals or farming tools, and when it is over they will be in a much worse position than they were before. The impacts of an extreme weather event can therefore last much longer than the actual event.But even if the weather is favourable, the threat of possible bad weather is enough to limit growth. Poor farmers often choose not to invest in new technologies and opt for less risky but also less profitable crops, even when climate conditions are good. In addition, the climate risk limits their access to credit, because lenders know there is a high chance of default on the loan. So even if they wanted to invest in inputs to improve their farming system, they would probably be unable to. Although a weather shock may happen only one year in five or six, the threat limits growth in all years. This is the climate-poverty conundrum, and it has been one of the most intractable problems limiting development. It has also clearly limited the uptake of agricultural innovations. Climate change will only add to the problem, and if the conundrum is not addressed, significant development reversals look very likely.The emerging discipline of climate risk management (CRM) may hold some answers. CRM advocates the systematic use of climate information in planning and decision making at all levels, use of climate-informed technologies that reduce vulnerability to weather variability and uncertainty, and climate-informed policy and market-based interventions that transfer risk from vulnerable populations. CRM not only offers protection against the impacts of bad weather, but also opportunities to capitalize on favourable weather. It is applicable across climate-sensitive sectors, including health and water resources as well as agriculture and food security, and across all levels, from national adaptation plans to household coping strategies.Feeding climate information into climate-limited livelihood systems holds a great deal of promise to improve the resilience of these systems. A handful of projects have turned this promise into reality. In Mali, the national meteorological service has been providing climate information to farmers in the form of forecasts and related advice for over two decades, and the farmers have also learned to monitor the weather themselves to improve their decision making. Results are significantly higher yields and higher incomes compared with nonparticipating farmers.A broad range of tools and options come under the CRM umbrella, some familiar, others new. Index-based insurance is one of the newer options that could help transfer the climate risk from vulnerable populations to financial markets. Several pilot projects have demonstrated its feasibility, and there is currently a lot of interest in this approach. There are however some significant challenges to its widespread deployment which need to be addressed. For example index insurance, and many other CRM tools, depend on quality climate data that are currently often lacking, or not easily accessible, in developing countries.Climate forecasts are an important CRM tool, and as climate science advances and they become more skilful, they offer great potential to help farmers manage the climate risk. Seasonal forecasts in particular are potentially very useful, but they currently seldom reach poor farmers in a useable form, and within a comprehensive package of information and support. Planning for the season ahead could be vastly improved; and the uncertainty that all forecasts contain could be managed with a tool such as index-based insurance. In other words, farmers prepare for the higher likelihood scenario, and insure against the lesser likelihood scenario.Mainstreaming CRM principles into livelihood strategies will help farmers cope with weather variability and uncertainty. And coping with such variability today inevitably paves the way for adapting to climate change tomorrow. CRM is a natural complement to the climate-responsive seen as an asset not a problem. Irrigation with untreated, partly treated or diluted wastewater has environmental and health risks, but farmers use it because it is a reliable source (often the only source) throughout the year, and it often reduces or eliminates the need for fertilizer, among other reasons. IWMI is carrying out research in Pakistan, Ghana, Vietnam and Mexico, under a CPWF project, to reduce or eliminate the health risks and help policy makers and planners balance the needs of small farmers with the health of people and the environment.A CPWF project led by IFPRI, Food and Water Security under Global Change, is working to understand the impacts of global change on agriculture and water resources at the global, national and river basin levels, to assess the effects of global change on water and food security in vulnerable rural areas of Africa, particularly rural Ethiopia and South Africa, and to identify adaptation measures that reduce the impacts of global change on these communities. The results will provide policy makers and stakeholders with tools to better understand, analyse and inform policy decisions for adaptation to global change.In many situations, improved management of water requires not only actions by individual farmers but collective efforts to improve stewardship of this shared resource. Such approaches, requiring the empowerment of local rural institutions, are not easy to replicate on a large scale, but research done by IWMI suggests that 'irrigation management transfer' can be done.Similarly, ICRISAT has successfully promoted an integrated approach to watershed management in India and other Asian countries and is now beginning to transfer the innovation to Eastern Africa. An assessment of the impact of this approach in one watershed in India indicated that from 1998 to 2003 the use of new technologies, combined with traditional methods, almost doubled the incomes of small farmers, raised groundwater levels by 5-6 metres, expanded green cover from 129 to 200 hectares and more than doubled agricultural productivity.Drought-tolerant maize for AfricaDrought already reduces global maize yields by as much as 15% annually, and this looks set to worsen with climate change. To counter this, scientists from CIMMYT and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) are working with national partners in sub-Saharan Africa to develop drought-tolerant maize varieties. So far, more than 50 such varieties have been developed, and are being grown on a total of about one million hectares. The success of this work is partly the result of a novel breeding method, in which hundreds of small farmers take part in testing the new varieties.Rice is also at risk in Africa as the climate changes. New Rice for Africa, or NERICA, may help.Resulting from the work of the Africa Rice Center and its national partners, NERICA varieties combine the high productivity of Asian rice with the ability of African rice to tolerate harshSouth Asia Drought Monitor is an evolving drought monitoring tool developed by IWMI. It uses freely available satellite data to monitor ground vegetation as an indication of drought progression. Reporting in near real time, the system currently covers Afghanistan, Pakistan and western parts of India. With further improvements, including building in weather forecasts, this could provide an effective early warning system for droughts, allowing early action to reduce impacts. Farmers in West Asia and North Africa, inhabiting some of the driest regions on earth, have for hundreds of years practiced water harvesting. This involves diversion of scarce rainfall from large areas into small parcels containing crops and trees. International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) scientists are studying traditional systems for water harvesting, with the aim of helping refine and disseminate them more widely. In Syria, for example, mechanized construction of traditional micro-catchment ridges has permitted the expansion of water harvesting in degraded rangelands. Meanwhile, the WorldFish Center is working in sub-Saharan Africa to help develop governance systems to guide water harvesting at the watershed level.Water storage-from groundwater, through soil moisture, small tanks and ponds, to small and large reservoirs-is going to be increasingly important for rural communities dealing with water scarcity, shorter rainy seasons and increasingly erratic precipitation patterns. Small, multipurpose reservoirs offer a particularly valuable adaptation option. The Small Reservoirs Project, a Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) project led by IWMI, is developing tools to help planners and stakeholders, particularly farming families, develop economically and environmentally sustainable small multi-use reservoirs and institutions for their communities.Wastewater is already used for food production in many resource-poor environments. As other water sources become less reliable and demand for food increases, wastewater will soon be rotations. As well as reducing erosion and improving soil structure and soil-water dynamics, this approach also saves on labour, time, fuel and machinery wear. The combination of reduced soil disturbance and increased retention of crop residues also results in increased carbon storage (sequestration). A good example of the effectiveness of conservation agriculture is the rapid spread of 'zero tillage' technology in South Asia's rice-wheat systems.Promoted by a regional consortium with assistance from CIMMYT and IRRI, the technology has been rapidly taken up so that close to half a million farmers in India, Pakistan and other countries of the region now apply this technology on more than 3.2 million hectares, with economic benefits so far estimated at US$147 million. The Quesungual slash and mulch system provides another example. Developed under a CPWF project led by CIAT, this alternative to non-sustainable slash and burn is proving a success with resource-poor farmers in Honduras, Nicaragua and Colombia. Meanwhile, ICARDA is helping to test, validate and promote conservation agriculture practices in Syria, Iraq and Central Asia.Combining market orientation with soil rehabilitation, ICRISAT has developed a dryland farming system called the 'Sahelian eco-farm', which can multiply farmers' net income by a factor of six. Drought-tolerant, nitrogen-fixing trees such as Acacia species are planted to rebuild the soil, and high-value fruit trees, vegetables and herbal crops are intersown in the field. The leaf litter as well as decaying roots add organic matter to the soil and also reduce wind erosion and increase water infiltration. Small amounts of fertilizer complement the organic matter, and crop yields are boosted substantially.Applying normal doses of fertilizer is too expensive for most farmers in the Sahel. The use of organic matter, in the form of livestock manure and crop residues, is effective, but supplies of these materials are often limited. A more economical alternative, developed by ICRISAT, is to apply small quantities of inorganic fertilizers in the hole where seed is sown, a practice called 'micro-dosing'. Practiced by thousands of farmers in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Zimbabwe, micro-dosing helps crops mature more rapidly, yield 50-100% more grain, and escape the worst effects of drought.Managing pests and diseases of the future CIP scientists have also developed models to predict changes in range and biology of several insect pests of potatoes as the temperature rises. With a 2-3°C rise, the highly damaging potato tuber moth, for example, is expected to extend its range about 400-800 km north in the growing conditions. Varieties for rainfed uplands are already being grown on 200,000 hectares across 30 African countries. Farmers are particularly interested in early maturing NERICA varieties, which permit more intensive cropping and tend to escape intermittent droughts occurring at critical stages in crop development.With rising sea levels, flooding of coastal farmlands presents a real risk for farmers. Today in Southeast Asia, harvest losses related to flooding have an estimated annual value of US$1 billion. Rice is the only cereal crop that can withstand any degree of submergence, but most varieties die if fully submerged for more than 3 days. IRRI researchers and collaborators recently identified a rice gene called Sub1A, which allows plants to survive completely submerged for up to 2 weeks. The 'waterproofing' trait has been transferred into a popular rice variety in Bangladesh, and the improved version is giving high yields while protecting harvests against flooding.Capitalizing on successful results in developing rice tolerant to submergence and soil salinity (another condition expected to worsen as a result of climate change), IRRI has established a research consortium that is addressing the impact of climate change on rice production in all its complexity. Working from the local to global scales, the consortium relies on crop improvement, with the aid of molecular techniques, while also examining the impact of climate change on ecosystem resilience, pest dynamics and other factors.Among the world's most naturally hardy food crops are barley, cassava, millet and sorghum, which are widely grown in dry climates. These and other naturally tolerant crops contain a wealth of useful genes for plant breeders. Researchers at ICARDA, for example, are developing varieties of barley that mature earlier, and thus escape drought. Meanwhile in Africa, mechanisms behind the drought tolerance of cassava are being investigated by IITA and the Generation Challenge Programme. Researchers at ICRISAT have isolated genes for the socalled 'stay-green' trait in millet and sorghum.Researchers at CIAT have succeeded in breeding drought-tolerant common beans after nearly a quarter century of research. The new beans yield 600-750 kilograms per hectare under severe drought, roughly double the maximum yield that Latin American farmers get from commercial varieties under the same conditions.Conservation agriculture is based on minimal soil disturbance (reduced or no tillage), combined with organic matter retention (returning crop residues to the soil) and diverse cropTowards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersDeveloped by ILRI and partners, fodder banks offer a feed management option particularly useful through scarce periods due to drought, for example. The 'bank' consists of a small area enclosed by a fence and planted with legumes such as Stylosanthes. A farmer uses this 'bank' as she would a larder or pantry, drawing on it when fresh food (green grass) is not available for her animals.As a result of overgrazing, cutting of shrubs and trees for fuel and removal of vegetation, valuable rangeland species are being replaced by less valuable species unpalatable to livestock. Researchers are looking for suitable replacement species that can provide fodder as well as help to rehabilitate degraded rangelands. ICARDA has successfully introduced several shrubs and drought-tolerant species, such as Atriplex and Acacia species and spineless cactus. Diversification of dairy products. Diversification of products can help increase the resilience of production systems. In some countries like Syria, the number of intensive dairy production systems has increased in recent years. Farmers process their own milk, mainly into yoghurt and local cheese, rather than selling it as fresh milk at a low price. Improving quality, shelf-life and marketability of these dairy products is critical for the farmers to respond to market standards on food safety and hygiene. ICARDA is working with these dairy farmers to help them improve both their processing and marketing skills.Through the CPWF, WorldFish is studying collective approaches to fish culture on seasonal floodplains in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Mali and Vietnam. The research seeks to understand how communities exposed to dramatic environmental variation adapt their livelihood strategies and design institutions that govern access to areas that are dry land in some seasons and under water in others. Developing locally appropriate fish-culture technologies and understanding the conditions for collective action to support them are first steps in developing adaptation strategies on these and other floodplains.WorldFish scientists have developed a participatory diagnostic and adaptive management framework for small-scale fisheries. This is being used to examine how fisherfolk are vulnerable to the compounding effects of multiple stresses in fishery systems, as well as exogenous economic, social and environmental drivers, and how they cope with them. The framework is currently being applied in two contexts: in tsunami-affected fishing communities in the Solomon Islands, where fisheries are already under a range of stresses, including overfishing, and face new threats such as climate impacts on coral reefs; and in the Niger River basin, which has a long history of vulnerability to drought and reduced river flow.WorldFish is working with Malawi's Fisheries Department to help farmers diversify into aquaculture. Farmers set aside a small amount of their land for fish farming. Fish are fed maize northern hemisphere, and also 100 metres in altitude in tropical mountainous regions. Moth activity will also increase, and lifecycle time will shorten.An ILRI project aims to build and test a predictive model that defines the relationships between climate change, land use and cover change, social systems and ecological disturbance on the distribution of tsetse flies and African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness across Kenya. The information produced will directly affect on-going tsetse control programmes and make a substantial contribution to understanding broader patterns of human-environment impacts, disease emergence, transmission, prevention and control, and future risk.Ascochyta blight is the world's most important chickpea disease. Caused by the fungus Ascochyta rabiei, favourable conditions for its spread are wet weather and mild temperatures.Traditional landrace varieties are highly susceptible, but ICARDA breeders have developed a range of elite lines that are moderately to highly resistant. These form a major component of a low-cost IPDM package to control the disease, which also includes use of high-quality seed pretreated with fungicide, crop rotation (to avoid fields with infected debris), delayed sowing (to ensure that humidity is low when plants are most vulnerable), weed control, more widely spaced plants (therefore less humidity within the plant canopy), and chemical fungicides used judiciously. However, climate change may mean that breeders have to return to the laboratory. Current improved varieties are only resistant in the early growth stages, which coincide with wet and mild weather when blight might occur. In the dryland regions where chickpea is grown, rain has normally been highly unlikely later in the season, but this could now change, requiring responses in the IPDM package.Not only the geographical distribution of diseases, but also virulence is expected to change under a changing environment. Scientists at the Africa Rice Center are studying the effect of climate change on the virulence of blast and bacterial leaf blight in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.Local breeds of livestock are often tolerant to temperature extremes and can remain productive even on degraded rangeland. They are therefore likely to cope better with climate change than exotic breeds. Breeding programmes are therefore focusing on improving specific traits (e.g. milk yield, growth rate) in local breeds. To facilitate this, ILRI, ICARDA and their partners have developed a new approach called community-based participatory breeding. First, the community identifies specific breeding objectives. The entire community flock is then used as a single breeding pool to improve the target traits. Participatory breeding projects have been implemented in Ethiopia, Mexico, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.increasing vagaries of climate through improved crop production practices. The adoption of these practices will be stimulated by linking their dissemination with complementary investments in climate forecasting, and building linkages to other projects that have either a humanitarian relief focus or are involved in the development of input and product markets. Key interventions include: (1) building local institutions and demand-led rural service provision;(2) strategies and decision-support tools for managing smallholder assets, including livestock; and (3) participatory development of new technologies for natural resource use under variable rainfall.WorldFish has developed a framework for rehabilitating coastal livelihoods and communities following disasters. Building on lessons learned following the tsunami off Aceh in 2004 and an earthquake off the Solomon Islands in 2007, the rehabilitation framework stresses diversifying coastal livelihoods instead of just restoring practices of the past. It seeks to address the root causes of vulnerability and so build resilience in coastal communities that will enable them to cope with future threats and seize future opportunities.A CIP project called ALTAGRO is working in the high altitude regions of Peru and Bolivia, one of the poorest areas in the world and characterized by high weather variability and uncertainty.The project takes a systems approach that embraces both farming and non-farming activities.It represents a model for rural development based on a comprehensive view of sustainable agriculture, which encompasses the economic, biophysical, socio-cultural and environmental aspects of market-oriented development. Capacity building includes work with school children to introduce science-based concepts on climate change and variability to future farmers.Reducing methane emissions from rice systems Irrigated systems provide much of the world's food, but also produce greenhouse gases from chemical reactions between the water, fertilizers, soil bacteria and the plants themselves. Rice fields are often extensively flooded and produce significant amounts of methane. However, some simple changes in water regime can reduce emissions without yield losses. IRRI has demonstrated this in field experiments in the Philippines and beyond. Alternative wetting and drying replaced continuous flooding of rice fields, and farmers were able to see that yield was not reduced, and that water was used much more efficiently.Nitrous oxide is produced by microbial action on nitrogen compounds which are usually added as fertilizer. Fertilizers are important for improving yields, but additions are generally highly inefficient, leading to emissions. The key is to increase nitrogen use efficiency by the plants, and there are various ways to do that. Fertilizer best management practices are based on the principle of 'right source, at the right rate, at the right time, and with the right placement'. A tool to help with this has been developed by CIMMYT researchers, which uses hand-held infrared sensors that measure how much nitrogen fertilizer farmers need to apply in their bran and household leftovers, while manure from goats, chicken and rabbits helps fertilize the ponds. In addition to using water from the ponds to irrigate maize fields (the traditional crop) and vegetables such as cabbage and tomatoes in their garden during the dry season, farmers grow cash crops like bananas and guava around the banks of their ponds. They use the water from the ponds directly or utilize the effect of seepage to provide moisture for their crops. Pond sediments make great fertilizers. Farmers produce some 1,500 kilograms of fish per hectare per year, providing high-quality protein for their families. The net farm income of adopters exceeds that of non-adopters by 60%, and their farms are also some 18% more productive than traditional ones during times of drought, increasing farm resilience and food security.Tilapia is one of the most widely farmed fish species in the world. Research has shown strain differences in tolerance to saline environments, and WorldFish scientists have begun to exploit this capacity to develop salt-tolerant strains.Forests of the Congo Basin. A large adaptation project led by CIFOR is undertaking research in the forests of the Congo Basin. It aims to develop adaptation strategies in the Congo Basin forests without jeopardizing the integrity of these forests to ensure the continuous provisioning of ecosystem goods and services vital for household livelihoods, national development and economic growth of the region.Agroforestry systems are attractive land management practices that span both adaptation and mitigation objectives. Tree-based systems have some obvious advantages for maintaining production during wetter and drier years: trees are less susceptible than annual crops to weather variability and extremes like droughts or floods. Tree-based systems also deliver products such as fruits, fodder, fuel wood and timber. At the same time, they store significant amounts of carbon, in trees and soil. By adding trees to their systems, farmers are actively adapting to weather variability and uncertainty, and contributing to mitigation of future climate change.One of the most promising agricultural systems in the face of climate change is the complex forest garden. This approach, promoted by the World Agroforestry Centre, combines a wide range of crops, trees and animals in a flexible production system that offers economic as well as climate resilience. These systems make efficient and effective use of water and nutrients, and are adaptable as species viability changes with changes in the climate. Carbon storage in forest gardens is similar to levels in some natural forests, so they effectively address both mitigation and adaptation.Building adaptive capacity in Zambia and Zimbabwe. ICRISAT is involved with a project that seeks to improve incentives and opportunities for households to cope with and adapt to the Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersKenya is providing government officials with environmental data covering an area of 19,000 square kilometres to guide a comprehensive effort to rehabilitate degraded agricultural land in the watersheds that feed Lake Victoria.ICRISAT is assembling the elements of a biofuels initiative designed specifically to benefit the poor in regions facing the threat of desertification. One of the initiative's components consists of new varieties of high-sugar sorghum, which can be grown for ethanol production. Since sorghum produces grain and fodder as well, the new varieties should help address the foodfeed-fuel dilemma. In addition, sweet sorghum is well adapted to drought-prone environments, requiring only a seventh of the amount of water required for sugarcane, another biofuel crop. maize and wheat crops. Meanwhile, CIAT scientists are studying a chemical released from the roots of a forage grass which triggers a process called biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). This process slows the conversion of nitrogen compounds into nitrous oxide. If scientists succeed in isolating the genes responsible for BNI and can introduce it into other crops, the results could be truly revolutionary. Researchers at CIMMYT are seeking genes for BNI in wild plants related to wheat.Deforestation is a hugely complex issue, and reducing and reversing it requires action at many different levels, from global policy to local empowerment and diverse technologies that promote sustainable forest management. CIFOR is working across these levels to come up with solutions. Informing the policy debate, so that post-2012 agreements include REDD schemes that are equitable and provide benefits to communities, is a major area of focus. Providing information and tools that stakeholders need to bring about change is also high on CIFOR's agenda. For example, certification schemes that guarantee forest products are from sustainably managed forests are already helping small forest managers and communities identify and protect biodiversity across millions of hectares of tropical forests. Lowering greenhouse gas emissions from livestock systems. There are many ways to reduce emissions from livestock systems, according to ILRI. Feeding better quality diets to ruminants reduces methane emissions, and can be facilitated with improved fodder technologies such as improved pasture species and use of legumes. Manipulation of rumen microflora and use of feed additives are also effective. Switching livestock species or breeds allows replacement of many low-producing animals with fewer but better fed animals, thus reducing total emissions while maintaining the supply of livestock products.Soil carbon sequestration involves adding as much carbon as possible to the soil, and offers the biggest win-win mitigation-adaptation opportunity from farming systems. Conservation agriculture is one very effective approach; agroforestry is another. For example, the Quesungual slash and mulch system, developed by CIAT under the CPWF, is improving soils and livelihoods in South America. Annual crops and pastures are grown alongside replanted native forest vegetation. Management involves no burning and zero tillage. More than 6,000 farmers who have adopted the system during the last 10 years have more than doubled crop yields.Mangroves not only provide critical ecosystem services (including the provision of a nursery area for many juvenile fish, trapping sediments and preventing coastal erosion) but are also important sinks for carbon dioxide. Through a WorldFish project, Solomon Island researchers and government officers are being trained on the issues and opportunities associated with carbon credit trades, and the quantification of mangroves' contribution to carbon sequestration.Researchers at the World Agroforestry Centre have devised and are applying a new technique in Eastern Africa that assesses soil conditions, including carbon stocks, with a high degree of accuracy. Involving the use of satellite imagery and infrared spectroscopy, the technique is much cheaper than on-the-ground verification. Using this technology, a team of scientists inEcosystems affect the climate and play an important role in adaptation to climate change. However, climate change affects ecosystems, their functions and the many benefits and services they provide to people along with the ability of ecosystems to regulate water flows and cycle nutrients. As these services are eroded, the implications of the impacts will be felt by people, communities and economies throughout the world. Climate change adds a further pressure on many ecosystems and people already negatively impacted by pollution, deforestation and land degradation. Loss of the services that ecosystems provide is also a significant barrier to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.Adaptation strategies involve a range of actions, including behavioural change, technical or hard engineered solutions such as the construction of sea defences or risk management, and reduction strategies such as the establishment of early warning systems. There is also a growing recognition of the role that healthy ecosystems can play in increasing resilience and helping people to adapt to climate change through the delivery of the range of services that play a significant role in maintaining human well-being.This article has been culled from a longer and comprehensive article entitled Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation: compilation of information. Details of the original article is to be found in the source box towards the end of this article.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersApproaches that involve the services that biodiversity and ecosystems provide as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change are known as ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation. The underlying principle is that healthy ecosystems can play a vital role in maintaining and increasing resilience to climate change and in reducing climate-related risk and vulnerability. Examples of such approaches include flood defence through the maintenance and/or restoration of wetlands and the conservation of agricultural biodiversity in order to support crop and livestock adaptation to climate change.Studies and reviews of ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation indicate that although the theoretical concept of ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation is fairly recent, practical approaches to adaptation that utilize the services of healthy ecosystems have been implemented in various guises by different communities for some time. These include approaches to deal with climatic variability developed by pastoralists and measures to reduce the effects of natural disasters.The role of ecosystems in adaptation is relevant to, and can be applied at, many levels, such as the regional, national, subnational and local levels, and in all regions. Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation are found to be most appropriately integrated into broader adaptation and development strategies, complementing, rather than being an alternative to, other approaches.Ensuring healthy ecosystems is already an integral part of many adaptation strategies.Examples include integrating ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation into relevant strategies, including national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs), flood control, disaster risk reduction planning and biodiversity strategies. Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation also seem to be receiving increased attention in a policy context. Despite the fact that some initiatives did not start out as adaptation projects, there is evidence of the application of such approaches as a part of national and local adaptation portfolios.Organizations, including many of the Nairobi work programme partner organizations from both the environment and development sectors, are engaged in research and implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation. Many Nairobi work programme partner organizations have made action pledges, outlining activities such as promoting the development of tools and methods for ecosystem-based adaptation, disseminating information and implementing pilot or demonstration projects. A number of collaborative initiatives are being taken forward to enhance knowledge and provide guidance to support the implementation of ecosystem-based approaches.As part of an adaptation strategy, approaches that integrate healthy and intact ecosystems can deliver a number of benefits, including the following:(a) Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation are widely applicable at different spatial and temporal scales. This means that there is potential for considering ecosystem-based approaches in many circumstances;(b) Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation have the potential to reduce vulnerability to a broad range of climate and non-climate stresses. Such approaches have been shown to be effective for adaptation across sectors, contributing to livelihood sustenance and food security, sustainable water management, disaster risk reduction and biodiversity conservation;(c) Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation may be more cost-effective and accessible by rural or poor communities than measures based on hard infrastructure and engineering. Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation can be particularly important to poor people, who are often the most directly dependent on the services that ecosystems provide;(d) In addition to providing support for societal adaptation to climate change, ecosystembased approaches to adaptation also provide for the possibility of multiple economic, social, environmental and cultural co-benefits. Approaches such as forest conservation or restoration of degraded wetlands can also contribute to climate change mitigation measures. Such win-win outcomes could also help to avoid maladaptation.The information reviewed for this compilation demonstrates that ecosystem-based adaptation is still a relatively new scientific field of endeavour, but that it is rooted in longstanding approaches applied by communities locally in response to episodic and/or long-term climate change. The science and knowledge base is emerging and demonstrates the benefits of such approaches, with case studies from both completed and ongoing projects providing useful evidence for the further evaluation and assessment of effective implementation. A wide range of organizations in multiple areas (conservation, development, disaster management) are engaged in implementation, including developing tools to aid the implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation.As demonstrated by the range of case studies and knowledge products, projects on ecosystembased approaches and/or with relevance to ecosystems address a broad range of climate change impacts, including drought, floods, storms, and ecosystem productivity and resilience.Lessons learned from the case studies illustrate the advantages of integrating ecosystembased approaches within adaptation and development strategies in order to deliver a range of co-benefits that provide cost-effective opportunities to achieve multiple objectives relating to climate change, development and biodiversity. The case studies also demonstrate that ecosystem-based approaches are widely applicable to and particularly accessible by the most vulnerable communities. Other findings point to the importance of ensuring broad participation and learning from lessons learned from past interventions.The case studies also identify a number of challenges to the implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation. These include circumstances that require a more engineered or technical response. Other challenges include ecosystem services being overlooked, misunderstood or ignored in adaptation planning.While there is experience in the use of ecosystem-based approaches in the context of adaptation activities, improved and additional information about ecosystem interactions and practical guidance could help to enhance implementation.The second CBD AHTEG on Biodiversity and Climate Change, convened in 2008-2009 to provide scientific and technical advice and assessment on the integration of the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into climate change mitigation and adaptation activities, described ecosystem-based adaptation as \"the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.\" Such approaches to adaptation \"use the range of opportunities for the sustainable management, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems to provide services that enable people to adapt to the impacts of climate change\" (Convention on Biological Diversity).\" The principle is that such approaches aim to maintain and increase the resilience and reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems and people in the face of the adverse effects of climate change. Further developing the evidence base for ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation would help to enhance understanding of ecosystem interactions and the economics of ecosystembased adaptation. Outcomes would need to be monitored and evaluated. The further development of networks to build capacity and share information and experience would also be helpful.The following might be considered to enhance ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation at all levels:(a) Targeted awareness-raising, both within the adaptation community (regarding the value of ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation) and within the areas responsible for ecosystem management (regarding the importance of adaptation);(b) Capacity-building;(c) Further research;(d) Development of guidelines, tools, principles, etc.;(e) Activities to enhance collaboration and coordination between relevant organizations, including among the Nairobi work programme partner organizations, for example:(i) Identifying the pool of expertise and organizations that are best suited to support ongoing activities related to ecosystem-based adaptation in the fields of science, policy and implementation;(ii) Identifying Parties' needs and ways in which countries can be supported when implementing activities;(f) Increasing collaboration on activities related to ecosystems and adaptation between the three Rio Conventions, especially at the national level.There is a growing recognition of the role that healthy ecosystems can play in increasing resilience and helping people adapt to climate change through the ongoing delivery of the range of services that help to maintain human well-being.(a) Coastal defence through the maintenance and/or restoration of mangroves and other coastal wetlands to reduce coastal flooding and coastal erosion;(b) Sustainable management of upland wetlands, forests and floodplains for the maintenance of water flow and water quality;(c) Conservation and restoration of forests to stabilize land slopes and regulate water flows;(d) Establishment of diverse agroforestry systems to cope with increased risk from changes in climatic conditions;(e) Managing the spread of invasive alien species that are linked to land degradation and that threaten food security and water supplies;(f) Managing ecosystems to complement protect and extend the longevity of investments in hard infrastructure;(g) Conservation of agrobiodiversity to provide specific gene pools for crop and livestock adaptation to climate change;(h) Establishing and effectively managing systems to ensure the continued delivery of the services ecosystems provide that increase resilience to climate change, for example through protected areas.• Personal safety Climate stress and diminishing natural resources• Degradation of natural resources and measures for mitigation• Saving soils at degradation frontlines: Sustainable land management in drylands• Soil biota and biodiversity: The 'root' of sustainable development• Join the 4% initiative -soils for food security and climate• Ten truths about conservation agriculture and smallholder farmers• Effects of conservation agriculture on soils and natural resources The degradation of natural resources is discussed in view of global trends concerning the achievement of the millennium development goals. At present, more than 800 million people suffer from chronic malnutrition-a number which hasn't changed over the past years (FAO 2006). Degradation is in this context understood as the reduction of the productive potential of a resource, i.e., either a decrease in qualitative terms or a quantitative decrease in the availability of the resource.Nearly all of the soils under agricultural use show signs of degradation. This is obviously more severe in the tropics and has more dramatic impact than in moderate climate zones. However, the processes and consequences are in principle the same. Most visible signs for these degradation processes are increasing wind and water erosion and, as a result, disturbed water balances. Erosion, falling ground water tables, drying rivers or floods are only symptomsThis article was drawn (after editing sections to shorten them) from previously published materials entitled Degradation of natural resources and measures for mitigation by Theodor Friedrich. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.soils are increasingly compacted and do not allow the precipitation water to infiltrate completely and replenish the groundwater reserves. Excess water instead is led away through drainage channels without making proper use of it. Agriculture is increasingly part of the problem since most agricultural soils are, as a result of intensive cultivation, compacted and degraded and left with only a limited infiltration capacity. Forest areas are converted into agricultural land. The result of these developments is an increase in flood disasters (DBU 2002).Climate change with increasing temperatures and less reliable rainfall will further aggravate the water problems in agriculture in many regions of the world. Problems can be expected even with the total yearly precipitation remaining the same, if the trend for less but more intensive rainfall events continues and the infiltration capacity of the soils is exceeded for each event. This seems to be the case more often in recent years (Met Office 2005).Besides soil as qualitative resource, the available land area is also an important factor for agricultural production. Land is also a limited resource and in some areas the available land for agriculture is already overexploited. In addition, there is a constant loss of agricultural land for non agricultural use, such as urbanization and road construction. This loss is estimated in countries with developing economies, excluding China, at about 1.3 million ha per year (Alexandratos, 1995). To this loss has to be added the land lost due to severe degradation and salinization.Agricultural production goes along usually with a decline in biodiversity. Diverse plant societies are replaced by single crops. Traditional varieties are replaced by a reduced number of high yielding breeds as a result of intensification. The use of modern production inputs leads further to a decline in micro flora and fauna. This is not only a matter of imaginary values but has also repercussions in production. Natural balances are disturbed and beneficial organisms are not anymore available to control pest populations, which leads to an increase in the use of agrochemicals ending in a vicious circle. The availability of nutrients and hence the efficiency of fertilizer use is affected by a decline of soil micro flora and fauna, leading to an increased use of fertilizer (Sprent 2007). An increased and rich biodiversity therefore can be of economic value in agricultural production (Bullock et al. 2001).Climate is not really a resource and hence cannot degrade. However, agriculture is more than most other production areas heavily depending on climate. Any change of established climate patterns will therefore have a direct impact on agriculture. Since agricultural production practices have adapted to existing climate regimes over extended time periods, any change will create problems. This can be compared to a degradation process. As the latest IPCC report has clearly stated, not only is the climate changing, but the causes of the changes are not of natural origin but manmade (IPCC 2007). Agriculture is part of the process since about 40 per cent of land surface are under cultivation and human use (FAO 2006). The above mentioned degradation processes and deforestation have released major amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Climate change is on one side characterized by a change in average temperature. This can have positive or negative repercussions. On the other side, the precipitation is affected, with varying regional trends. There will be winners and losers of climate change, but any change will require adaptation by changing production practices and will hence result in investment costs. More serious, however, is the trend to higher climate variability and less caused in many cases by soil degradation. Particularly important in this respect is the decrease in soil organic matter, and as a consequence, a decrease in soil life and the loss of soil structure. Intensification of agriculture has led, particularly with progressing mechanization, to an intensification of soil tillage. In combination with a decreasing input of organic matter, this has resulted in a reduction in soil organic matter.Nearly all agricultural soils of the world show signs of degradation. Most visible indicators are increasing wind and water erosion and as a result disturbed water balances. Erosion, falling ground water tables, drying rivers or floods, however, are only symptoms of soil degradation.Particularly important in this respect is the decrease in soil organic matter and subsequently a decrease in soil life and the loss of soil structure. Intensification of agriculture has led, particularly with progressing mechanization, to an intensification of soil tillage. This in combination with a decreasing input of organic matter led to a reduction in soil organic matter in some cases of dramatic dimension.For example, the organic matter content of black chernosem soils in the Siberian steppe declined to half the original value since the beginning of cultivation. Depending on climate and soil, the loss of organic carbon in cultivated soils is 53-493 g/m² (Rusalimova et al. 2006). Organic matter levels of below 2 per cent are common on cultivated agricultural soils. The result, besides a bad soil structure, is also reduced fertilizer efficiency (Pell et al. 2004). The mineralization of soil organic matter in the tropics is more dramatic than in temperate climates.In the intensively cultivated plains of northern India, soils have an organic matter content of less than 0.1 per cent (PDCSR 2005). Increasing fertilizer rates do not lead to any yield increase under these conditions (Aulakh 2005). The global assessment of soil degradation demonstrates signs of soil degradation on all agriculturally used soils worldwide. The degradation is more advanced in tropical regions and leads to more dramatic consequences than in temperate climates (FAO 2000). However, the processes and results are the same everywhere. Agriculture, based on intensive soil tillage, leads to a reduction of the productive potential of soils, which becomes visible as structural degradation and leads finally to desertification (Shaxon and Barber 2003). This biological and physical degradation goes along with a chemical degradation. Increased leaching of nutrients leads to a depletion of nutrients in degraded soils. This causes a negative feedback in the way that nutrient poor soils have a reduced capacity to build up soil organic matter, even if organic material is supplied. For a recovery of such degraded soils, a balanced supply of mineral nutrients and organic matter is required (Probert 2007).Water is one of the most important resources for agricultural production. Agriculture accounts actually for about 70 per cent of the total consumption of available blue water (FAO 2002). With the actual trends in water consumption the demand for blue water will exceed the available resources in 2025 (Ragab and Prudhomme 2002). An important reason for the expected water shortage is not only the increasing demand but the careless use and waste of this precious resource. Wide landscapes are sealed by construction. Open can become a serious problem for crop establishment. Also, incorporation of heavy crop residues into the soil can tie up soil nitrogen which then is not available to the crop. In wet soils, incorporation of organic matter can lead to undesired anaerobic fermentation zones.While many of the so far mentioned techniques are beneficial for both, soil and water resources, there are also a large number of techniques focusing particularly on water consumption, especially under irrigated farming conditions. Significant water saving can be achieved with technical irrigation practices, especially with drip irrigation. This technology has been simplified and there are low cost applications available which are within the economic reach of small farmers in developing countries ( WOCAT 2007). However, the surface irrigation is still the most widespread irrigation technique worldwide, in many cases with very low efficiency (FAO 2002a). But also surface irrigation can be improved by special preparation of the fields resulting in significant water savings. The micro-levelling of the soil surface with laser technology can result in water saving of up to 50 per cent compared to traditional farmers' practice. In traditional rice growing water saving of up to 70 per cent was reported. In the meantime, laser levelling carried out by contractors in India even for small farmers are accessible and economically feasible (Jat et al. 2006). In conventional tillage based agriculture, the laser levelling has to be repeated every 3-5 years.A further water saving technology which is actually promoted in the Indo Gangetic plains of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh is the bedplanting with irrigation furrows between raised beds instead of basin irrigation, flooding the entire field. This practice has been successfully introduced in rice and wheat crops. Water saving of 26 per cent in wheat and 46 per cent in rice has been reported with yield increases of about 6 per cent (RWC-CIMMYT 2003).The so far mentioned examples of resource conserving technologies all have advantages and disadvantages and are as isolated technologies not universally applicable. However, combining these technologies can create synergy effects which eliminate the disadvantages while retaining or even enhancing the advantages.It was estimated that the global extent of CA cropland in 2008/09 covered about 106 M ha (7.5% of global cropland) (Kassam et al., 2009). In 2013 it was about 157 M ha (11% of global cropland), representing a difference of some 51 M ha (some 47%) over the five year period (Table 1). CA in recent years has become a fast growing production system. While in 1973/74 CA was applied on only 2.8 M ha worldwide (Figure 1), the area had grown to 6.2 M ha in 1983/84 and to 38 M ha in 1996/97 (Derpsch, 1998). In 1999, worldwide adoption was 45 M ha, and by 2003 the area had grown to 72 M ha. In the last 10 years CA cropland area has expanded at an average rate of around 8.3 M ha per year, from 72 to 157 M ha. Since 2008/09, the rate of change has been about 10 M ha, showing the increased interest of farmers in the CA farming system approach, mainly in North and South America and in Australia, and more recently in Kazakhstan with large farms, and in India and China with small farms, where large increases in the adoption of CA are expected and indeed are occurring.With the introduction of zero tillage in the early 1970s in Brazil, a new concept of agriculture was developed, named \"direct seeding into straw\" (plantio direto na palha), which is now growing world wide under the name of conservation agriculture (CA), using exactly these synergy effects. The concept had already been described by visionary people dating back to the early 1940s (Faulkner 1945, Fukuoka 1975). But only in Brazil it was extensively introduced into the agricultural practice accompanied by scientific investigation (Derpsch 2001).reliable weather conditions. This kind of change affects agriculture dramatically. Rainfall events are less reliable and less frequent but often with higher intensity. Also the temperature variations are more extreme (Met Office 2005). Any agricultural production system will suffer from these less reliable weather conditions.Another interesting technique for soil conservation is controlled traffic farming using permanent tram lines.For this system, all the machines on a farm need a standardized track width which allows using always the same tram lines. These areas will never be cultivated again.The soil between the tram lines results in a better structure and free of any compaction, while the heavily compacted tramlines provide better trafficability and traction (RWC-CIMMYT, 2003).During the history of agriculture a large number of resource conserving practices has been developed and recorded. This has even led to the creation of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) as an institution. WOCAT has collected an impressive amount of conservation technologies, mostly focussing on soil and water conservation ( WOCAT 2007). Many of these traditional techniques tried to resolve a specific problem by physical means. Erosion, for example, is considered a problem.. Traditional erosion control tries with the 30 per cent soil cover to protect the soil surface physically from the impact of wind or water erosion by reducing the speed of the erosive medium. Also terraces and contour lines attempt to reduce the speed of surface run-off water limiting the erosive effect. Terraces, on the other side, have the disadvantage of being cost and labour intensive in their creation and they are often obstacles for agricultural mechanization ( WOCAT 2007). Unresolved is the further loss of water, which has to be removed as surface water from the terraces. This leads often to gully erosion downhill. To make use of this water, further investment in collection and storage structures is required ( WOCAT 2007).Zero tillage practice is also considered as resource conserving technology. It leads to a reduction in the use of fuel and time inputs in production and further to an effective erosion control (Baker et al. 2007). Even more important is the reduced mineralization of soil organic matter under zero tillage which facilitates the capturing and storage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the soil (Reicoscky 2001). In the long term, this leads to improved soil structure and increased water infiltration capacity of soils (DBU 2002). In addition to this zero tillage leads to a reduction in unproductive evaporation of soil water resulting in water savings of 15-20 per cent compared with conventional soil tillage (PDCSR 2005). On the downside, zero tillage can, as isolated technology, lead to problems with weed control and soil compaction.Another resource conserving technology, independent of zero tillage, is direct seeding, particularly where it replaces the transplanting of small plants as, for example, in rice. Many rice growing areas are changing from traditional puddling and transplanting to direct seeding technologies. This saves labour, time, fuel, and water (PDCSR 2005). But also direct seeding as isolated technology leads to new problems with weed management and surface crusting (RWC-CIMMYT 2003). The use of green manure cover crops and crop residues as surface mulch does not only protect the soil against erosion. In case of legume cover crops, they can also lead to significant nitrogen supply of up to 200 kg.ha-1 depending on the growth conditions. This can lead to a 50-75 per cent reduction in the nitrogen fertilizer needs (RWC-CIMMYT 2003).Mulching with crop residues also reduces the evaporation of soil water resulting in water savings of 30 per cent (Bot and Benites 2005). Mulch covers on the other side require special equipment for seeding, without which they is in Australia and New Zealand, corresponding to 36% of the cropland and some 10.6 M ha (7% ) is in Asia, corresponding to 3% of the cropland in the region. Some 8.4 M ha (5%) of the total global CA area is in the rest of the world, comprising 5.2 M ha in Russia and Ukraine, 2.0 M ha in Europe and 1.2 M ha in Africa, corresponding to about 3%, 3% and 1% of their total cropland respectively.CA represents the core components of a new alternative paradigm and calls for a fundamental change in production system thinking. It is counterintuitive, novel and knowledge and management intensive. The roots of the origins of CA lie more in the farming communities than in the scientific community, and its spread has been largely farmer-driven supported by development-oriented agriculturalists. Experience and empirical evidence across many countries has shown that the rapid adoption and spread of CA requires a change in commitment and behaviour of all concerned stakeholders. Since 2008/09, the number of countries where CA has been adopted and being promoted has increased from 36 to at least 55 in 2013 as shown in Table 1. However, several countries where CA is known to be practiced are not included in Table 1. These include Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in Asia, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Cameroon in Africa, and Denmark and Sweden in Europe. Further, the area of CA systems based on perennial crops or mixture of annual and perennial crops that is not included in the total CA area reported in this paper is on the increase in many countries in all continents. These CA systems involve plantation crops such as oil palm, cocoa, rubber, tea, coffee, coconut; orchards and vines such as olive, fruit and nut trees, grape, kiwi; pastures; and agroforestry. Thus the CA areas reported in this paper are conservative estimates.The growth of the area under CA has been especially significant in South America where the MERCOSUR countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) are using the system on more than 70% of the total cultivated crop area. More than two thirds of no-tillage practiced in MERCOSUR is permanently under this system, in other words once started the soil is never tilled again.As Table 2 shows some 66.4 M ha (42%) of the total global area under CA is in South America, corresponding to some 60% of the cropland in the region, and some 54 M ha (34%) is in the USA and Canada, corresponding to 24% of the cropland of the region. Some 17.9 M ha (11%) Water, plants, structures, and stewardshipSustainable land management practices focus on the following:Water. They make every drop count. Instead of relying on irrigation water brought in from elsewhere, they capture, store, and channel what little rain does fall and make sure it is not immediately lost again through evaporation and surface runoff. Rainfall can be captured on roofs, in catchments, in recharge wells, etc. and directed into fields or into ponds for use later. There are many such rainwater harvesting technologies. In Spain and Tunisia, farmers harvest water upstream and divert it into their fields. One such scheme increased the amount of water available to crops from 300 mm to 500 mm a year. A recharge well in Tunisia captures floodwater from sporadic heavy rains and feeds it into an aquifer for storage.Light-footprint irrigation technologies save water. Drip irrigation delivers small amounts of water to crops through hoses laid on, or just below, the surface.Plants. Trees, crops, grasses, or a combination of these are vital to fight desertification. Roots hold soils together; litter on the surface allows water to infiltrate. Trees provide shade and shelter, and ground cover breaks the impact of raindrops. But what plants to grow? One possibility is nitrogen-fixing crops in rotation with other crops. Some legumes require little water and can be eaten (as in the Chilean project sites) or used for livestock fodder (in Turkey and Morocco). They can also be ploughed under to enhance soil fertility and structure, benefiting other crops (e.g. olives and almonds in Spain).Elsewhere, it might be better to plant or preserve drought-resistant shrubs or trees. Largescale afforestation can stabilize hillsides (documented in Cape Verde). Trees that protect the soil can also produce fuelwood (in Botswana) or fruits. Indeed, multipurpose use of landscapes is vital for sustainable land management.Plant biodiversity is a natural extension of this. In Mexico, a community-led project included planting of agave (used to make drinks) in combination with grasses, shrubs, and trees-a panoply of plants serving many purposes.Plants can form a living, durable barrier to heavy wind, rain, or floodwater. Planting dense rows of jatropha can prevent gullying on steep slopes in Ethiopia, for example.10 Strips of aloe vera, agave, olive trees, or saltbush (Atriplex) also make for effective plant barriers.Sometimes it is necessary to move earth in order to control erosion. In the loess plateau in China, farmers built up terraces over a period of 5-10 years and reinforced them with appleNetwork: CDE researchers were founding members of WOCAT, a network of soil and water experts committed to documenting and sharing good practices of land use. Initially focused on conservation, they eventually developed the holistic concept of sustainable land management. This means using land resources-including soils, water, plants, and animals-to produce goods that meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the longterm productive potential of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions. soil crusting, salinization, and other processes gradually render soils infertile. Twelve million hectares of fertile land are lost to desertification every year-three times the size of Switzerland.If we do nothing, desertification could ultimately jeopardize our ability to feed ourselves.Desertification occurs in dryland areas, which cover 40% of the Earth's land surface. Despite their relative fragility, dryland ecosystems are home to two billion people. They include Mediterranean shrublands where olive and fruit trees grow, African grasslands with their pastoralists, the Great Plains of North America, and the Eurasian steppe where herders still tread the Silk Road. What unites them is the scarcity, infrequency, or unpredictability of rainfall.Communities living in dryland areas are capable of stopping degradation and reviving healthy soils. Sustainable land management gives them the means. It turns the threat of desertification into opportunities: they can improve their productivity with minimal use of artificial inputs, increase biodiversity, create carbon sinks, maintain picturesque landscapes that attract visitors, and more.CDE researchers have pioneered efforts to gather, document, assess, and share practices of sustainable land management through WOCAT (Box 1). Many of the land use practices have been refined over generations by everyday land users who are experts at efficiently harnessing nature's productive power, even under austere natural conditions. Growing drought-and fire-resistant fruit trees within rotational grazing systems is one example.The researchers have recorded this vital knowledge, assessed its impacts on ecosystems and human well-being, and made it available for use by anyone anywhere.Recently, CDE experts collaborated in a far-reaching five-year project, known as DESIRE, to study the impacts of sustainable land management technologies (and participatory ways of selecting technologies) in diverse dryland environments. The project studied 17 sites in 13 countries, from around the Mediterranean to as far away as China and Mexico. A followup project, called CASCADE, focuses on the potential of these practices to prevent sudden, irreversible degradation in Mediterranean drylands (Box 2).Sustainable land management varies from place to place, but generally involves the following:Each community faces a unique set of challenges. Our approach thus begins by bringing together key stakeholdersland users, local authorities, and others-to set their sustainable land management goals and decide how to achieve them. The goals might include reducing soil erosion and improving farm income. In two workshops, separated by a documentation phase using the WOCAT format, participants identify their problems (e.g. low productivity due to soil• We must tackle dryland desertification. It erodes productive soils and the livelihoods of 2 billion people. It destroys biodiversity, increases natural-disaster risks, contributes to population displacement, emits greenhouse gases, and threatens global food security.• Sustainable land management offers a solution. It empowers rural communities in drylands, enabling them to halt or reverse desertification, increase production of food staples and livestock, improve incomes, preserve biodiversity and carbon sinks, maintain attractive landscapes for tourism, and more.• Our tools help land users assess and select sustainable land management practices. This enables the informed, responsive, locally anchored stewardship that is needed to combat desertification.• Funding and social support for land users practising sustainable land management should be maintained and expanded at every level. These land users protect and enhance public goods that benefit us all.The risks of inaction on desertification are grave, while the opportunities of action are great. Inaction can lead to an accelerating cycle of lost productive land, biodiversity decline, natural disasters, population displacement, and rising carbon emissions.The solution is to stabilize or increase production of staple grains and grass-fed livestock, protect resilient plant species, empower rural communities, and keep carbon in soils. A continuous effort is needed to properly care for dryland ecosystems, always seeking a balance between people's needs and nature's ability to replenish itself.We may be the cause, but we are also the cure Sustainable land management is needed to prevent, halt, or reverse desertification in many dryland areas. Fragile ecosystems have evolved over centuries or millennia. Leaving them alone to return to their \"natural state\" is largely illusory and risky. A deforested dryland landscape that has been farmed for generations is unlikely to revert to wild forest if it is abandoned -it is more likely to turn into (fire-prone) badlands. Informed, responsive, locally anchored stewardship is needed to help nature flourish in a mutually beneficial way.Not long ago, most people farmed for a living and were intimately aware of their reliance on healthy soils. While our awareness of the importance of soils may have changed, our ultimate dependence on them has not. Sustainable land management is a wise investment in the present and the future.Even in relatively well-off European countriesespecially those with drylands (e.g. Spain, Portugal, Greece) -people are concerned about being able to produce enough food nationally and regionally.Sustainable land management helps preserve that ability, and the many other ecosystem services of healthy soils. Rural communities that practise this form of land use maintain public goods that benefit everyone. They deserve to derive a fair living and a sense of pride from their work.trees. Fences woven from branches (in Turkey), stone checkdams, and rock walls trap soils, reinforce terraces, or buttress plant barriers.Tying everything together is the stewardship of drylands. Crops must be harvested and rotated. Barriers and terraces need upkeep. Pests and plant diseases must be kept in check. Forests need thinning to cut fire risks. Soil fertility and moisture levels require monitoring. In Tunisia and Italy, livestock keepers graze their animals only in certain areas, allowing other areas to recover. That prevents overgrazing, protects or even enhances soil health, and produces valuable milk and meat. Because two-thirds of drylands are used for grazing, this holds immense potential.Stewardship also includes no-till, a relatively new technique. This avoids ploughing; instead it uses special equipment to inject seeds directly into the soil. That preserves the soil cover and encourages water to infiltrate. It also keeps carbon in soils and out of the atmosphere, and costs less than conventional tilling due to labour and fuel savings. At sites used for cereal crops and orchards in Chile, Spain, and Greece, it reduced surface runoff and evaporation by over 50%.Rural exodus: should I stay or should I go? Soil health is the result of a duet between people and nature. It requires locally anchored individuals and communities who tend the land, manage cycles, and respond flexibly to natural variations. So the exodus from many dryland areas is a pressing concern. It is easy to understand why people want to leave: job opportunities seem better elsewhere, and farming and herding may be low status work. Young people are especially drawn to cities. At the sites documented, over half the land users relied on off-farm employment for more than half of their income. They were more interested in using sustainable land management practices to increase their profits or to get subsidies than because they were worried about the environment or wanted to beautify the landscape.More than anything, this highlights the need for national governments, regional bodies (e.g. the EU), and the private sector to provide adequate financial and social support (e.g. education) to dryland communities. Public awareness campaigns are needed to champion their work. By saving soils from desertification, they are doing nothing less than preserving life-support systems on behalf of everyone.Current CDE research shows how land users often provide the last defence against catastrophic shifts in drylands, in which an environmental threshold is crossed (perhaps triggered by a fire or landslide) and a whole landscape rapidly degrades. It is much more cost-effective to invest in community-based prevention efforts than to restore landscapes already lost to degradation and desertification.The findings and recommendations in this brief stem largely from the EU-funded DESIRE project (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012). CDE experts were key collaborators in the project, in which researchers and local stakeholders jointly identified, documented, and assessed use of sustainable land management practices to fight desertification in drylands. In all, the application and impacts of 30 practices were documented in 17 dryland study sites (3,000 km2 of land in total). They were found to improve water management, reduce soil and vegetation degradation, improve land users' livelihoods, and have favourable long-term cost-benefit ratios (Schwilch et al. 2012 Soil organisms contribute a wide range of essential services to the sustainable functioning of all ecosystems by acting as the primary driving agents of nutrient cycling; regulating the dynamics of soil organic matter, soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission; modifying soil physical structure and water regime; enhancing the amount and efficiency of nutrient acquisition by vegetation; and enhancing plant health. These services are not only essential to the functioning of natural ecosystems but also constitute an important resource for the sustainable management of agricultural systems.Soils are one of the most poorly researched habitats on earth. Although not generally visible to the naked eye, soils are among the most diverse habitats and contain some of the most diverse assemblages of living organisms. The soil is one of nature's most complex ecosystems: it contains thousands of different organisms, which interact and contribute to the global cycles that make all life possible-the life support systems. Nowhere in nature are species so densely packed as in soil communities. For example, a single gram of soil may contain many millions of individuals and several thousand species of bacteria. Soil biota also includes the roots that grow in the soil and interact with other species above and below ground.The species numbers, composition and diversity of a given soil depend on many factors, including aeration, temperature, acidity, moisture, nutrient content and organic substrate. However, the number and types of organisms vary from one system and environment to another and this is strongly influenced by land management practices.Agricultural practices, including forestry, have significant positive and negative impacts on soil biota. An integrated management approach to agriculture should, inter alia, enhance the biological efficiency of soil processes with a view to optimizing soil productivity and crop production and protection.There are many cases in the literature demonstrating beneficial and negative effects of management practices on soil biological activity and its impacts on agricultural productivity and agro-ecosystem sustainability.For example:• Earthworms, termites and other burrow-building soil organisms enhance soil productivity by mixing the upper soil layers, which redistributes nutrients, aerates the soil and increases surface water infiltration.• Worldwide, soil is being lost at a rate 13 to 80 times faster than it is being formed. It takes about 500 years to form 25 mm of soil under agricultural conditions, and about 1000 years to form the same amount in forest habitats. The value of soil biota to soil formation on agricultural land worldwide has been estimated at US$50,000 million per annum.• Biological nitrogen fixation, the process by which some micro-organisms fix atmospheric nitrogen and make it available to the ecosystem, offers an economically attractive and ecologically sound means of reducing external nitrogen inputs and improving the quality and quantity of internal resources. Recent estimates indicate that global terrestrial biological N 2 fixation ranges between 100 and 290 million tonnes of N per year, of which 40-48 million tonnes per year is estimated to be biologically fixed in agricultural crops and fields.• Soil organisms maintain critical processes such as carbon storage, nutrient cycling and plant species diversity.• Soil biodiversity plays a role in soil fertility, soil rehabilitation and nutrient uptake by plants, biodegradation processes, reducing hazardous waste and control of pests through natural biocontrol.• Soil organisms enhance crop productivity through:-recycling the basic nutrients required for all ecosystems, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium;-breaking down organic matter into humus, hence enhancing soil moisture retention and reducing leaching of nutrients; and -increasing soil porosity and hence water infiltration and thereby reducing surface water runoff and decreasing erosion.• Ecologically, the soil biota is responsible for regulating several critical functions in soil.Excessive reduction in soil biodiversity, especially the loss of keystone species and/or species with unique functions may have cascading ecological effects leading to the longterm deterioration of soil fertility and the loss of agricultural productive capacity.Why 4%?A '4%' annual growth rate of the soil carbon stock would make it possible to stop the present increase in atmospheric CO 2 . This growth rate is not a normative target for every country but is intended to show that even a small increase in the soil carbon stock (agricultural soils, notably grasslands and pastures, and forest soils) is crucial to improve soil fertility and agricultural production and to contribute to achieving the long-term objective of limiting the temperature increase to +1.5/2°C, threshold beyond which the IPCC indicates that the effects of climate change are significant. This initiative is intended to complement the necessary efforts to comprehensively reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.This article was drawn from previously published materials entitled Join the 4% initiative soils for food security and climate. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersWhat is the added value of the 4% Initiative?The 4% Initiative aims to develop practical measures on the ground that benefit crop and livestock farmers, the first victims of land degradation, and more broadly for the whole world population. This is a multi-partner initiative involving, in its first stage, all existing partnerships on soils and all stakeholders around two main strands of action:• A multipartner (state and non-state actors) program of action for better management of soil carbon in order to combat poverty and food insecurity, while contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation by:the implementation of agricultural practices at local level and management of environments favourable to the restoration of soils, to an increase in their organic carbon stock and to the protection of carbon-rich soils and biodiversity; -the implementation of training and outreach programs to encourage such practices;the financing of projects to restore, improve and/or preserve carbon stocks in soils;the development and implementation of public policies and appropriate tools;the development of supply chains of soil-friendly agricultural products, and so on.• An international research and scientific cooperation program called Soil carbon and food security focused on four complementary research themes:study of mechanisms and assessment of the potential for carbon storage in soils across regions and systems; -performance evaluation of best farming practices for soil carbon and their impact on other greenhouse gases, on food security and on other regulation and production services;support of innovation and its promotion by appropriate policies; -monitoring and estimating variations in soil carbon stock, especially at farmers level.Joint action by all stakeholders should help attract new funding to the agricultural sector for adaptation to climate change, food security and emission mitigation, and encourage the implementation of adapted development policies and tools.This initiative also aims to strengthen existing synergies between the three Rio Conventions the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Committee for Food Security (CFS), the Global Soil Partnerphip (GSP), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all which will be adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. Desertification, climate change and loss of biodiversity can either interact to pose a threat or, on the contrary, to help bring appropriate solutions to sustainable development. The principles of the 4% initiative will fully support the World Soil Charter (1988/2015).The objective of this Initiative is to encourage stakeholders (state and non-state actors) to get involved in a coordinated effort.Follow-up to the initiative: the initiative's partners will share the actions they commit to undertaking and the results achieved through a platform. Exchange of views and stocktaking meetings will be held regularly in order to organise the follow-up to this initiative.One priority: agricultural soils to ensure food securityOne simple fact:• Soil degradation poses a threat to more than 40% of the Earth's land surfaces and climate change is accelerating this rate of soil degradation and threatening food security.• Disastrous consequences for food security and family farmers.Our capacity to feed 9.5 billion people in 2050 in a context of climate change will depend in particular on our ability to keep our soils alive. The health of soils, for which sufficient organic matter is the main indicator, strongly controls agricultural production. Stable and productive soils affect the resilience of farms to cope with the effects of climate change.Primarily composed of carbon, the organic matter in soils plays a role in four important ecosystem services: resistance to soil erosion, soil water retention, soil fertility for plants and soil biodiversity. Even small changes of the soil carbon pool have tremendous effects both on agricultural productivity and on greenhouse gas balance.Maintaining organic carbon-rich soils, restoring and improving degraded agricultural lands and, in general terms, increasing the soil carbon, play an important role in addressing the three-fold challenge of food security, adaptation of food systems and people to climate change, and the mitigation of anthropogenic emissions. To achieve this, concrete solutions do exist and need to be scaled up.One vision: The 4% Initiative: soils for food security and climateThe 4% Initiative aims to improve the organic matter content and promote carbon sequestration in soils through the application of agricultural practices adapted to local situations economically, environmentally and socially, such as agro-ecology, agroforestry, conservation agriculture and landscape management.• The Initiative engages stakeholders in a transition towards a productive, resilient agriculture, based on a sustainable soil management and generating jobs and incomes, hence ensuring sustainable development.• Thanks to its high level of ambition, this Initiative is part of the Lima-Paris Action Agenda and contributes to the sustainable development goals to reach a land-degradation neutral world.• All the stakeholders commit together in a voluntary action plan to implement farming practices that maintain or enhance soil carbon stock on as many agricultural soils as possible and to preserve carbon-rich soils. Every stakeholder commits on an objective, actions (including soil carbon stock management and other accompanying measures, for example index-based insurance, payment for ecosystem services, and so on), a time-line and resources.• The Initiative aims to send out a strong signal concerning the potential of agriculture to contribute to the long-term objective of a carbon-neutral economy.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersHow to contribute?• Governments and local authorities can undertake to:implement training programs for farmers and agricultural counsellors which aim to enhance organic matter in soils; -establish adapted public policies and tools in particular to land tenure and sustainable soil management; -support financially development project that helps to develop carbon sequestration; -develop policies to supply agricultural products promoting sustainable management of soils through public procurement, where appropriate.• Development Banks, Donors and private foundations may:adopt an ambitious goal for development projects facilitating the dissemination and implementation of agricultural practices to increase, stabilize the rate of organic matter in the soil and preserve carbon-rich soils; -finance development projects, research projects, trainings or the implementation of MRV systems.• International research can develop the four above-mentioned strands of action.• Private companies may undertake to:encourage the supply of products resulting from practices which are beneficial for the soil carbon, as they do against deforestation; -engage in soil rehabilitation projects.• Farmers' and Food Producers' organizations can contribute to and encourage the adoption of new practices to store a larger amount of carbon while increasing soil fertility and resilience, in collaboration with research and NGOs.• NGOs will have a key role to play in identifying, adapting and facilitating the dissemination of these good practices and ensuring that they meet producers' expectations, in collaboration with research and farmers' organizations. There are growing numbers of smallholder farmers throughout the developing world who are successfully implementing conservation agriculture practices adapted to specific local conditions and existing crop and livestock production customs. As a result, farmers are using a wide variety of reduced tillage techniques and various means to protect soils with organic ground covers. It is clear conservation agriculture, like all agriculture practices, offers no single \"silver-bullet solution\" that satisfies every farm condition. The constraints and availability of natural resources, local climatic conditions, socio-economic policies and other factors all have a role in shaping a farmer's approach. However, conservation agriculture offers unique and critically-needed solutions to many of the challenges all farmers face, requiring us to make every effort to develop its full potential.A rigorous scientific understanding of the success factors involved in conservation agriculture for smallholder farmers is only now being established. Consequently, much of the evidence a 10 cm depth). SOC levels are similar at 20-30 cm depths for both systems. Models indicate that total SOC under conservation agriculture could be 10-30% greater than for conventional tillage. (Robert, et al. 2001) • A meta analysis of 67 long-term agriculture experiments that compared soil carbon sequestration rates between no-till and conventional tillage practices found that the transition from tillage to no-till practices could continually sequester an average 480 kg C/ha/year over a period of 15-20 years until the SOC levels reach a stable equilibrium. (T. West and W. Post 2002).• Ratan Lal, the Director of the carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State University has reported that the SOC levels of natural ecosystems have been significantly depleted by historical land misuse and poor management of soils. Lal notes that if farmers adopted \"recommended management practices\" that include conservation agriculture with no-till farming, residue mulching, cover cropping, crop rotations, appropriate use of both organic and inorganic fertilizers and other related land stewardship techniques, approximately 100 to 1000 kg C/ha/year could be sustainably sequestered until a new equilibrium level of SOC is achieved over a 25-50 year period. (Lal et al. 2003) Truth # 2: A combination of education and site-specific analysis will help balance competing uses for crop residue.• An International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) study of the dual use (soil conservation vs. livestock feed) of crop residues in Niger indicated that the nutrient content of some crop residues is unevenly distributed throughout the plant segments (e.g. stalks, stems, panicles, etc.). In such crop residues the lower structural biomass has very little nutritious value as livestock feed. It is believed that for some crops (e.g. millet), nearly 40% of total residues could be more valuable in contributing to overall farm productivity and farmer income if used as ground cover for soil conservation that increase crop yields rather than as fodder for livestock. (Powell and Fussell 1993) • The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Systemwide Livestock Programme's analysis of the economic trade-offs between using crop residues for ground cover mulches or for fodder in West Africa found that optimum returns were possible with varying levels of crop residue retention across different locations and crop varieties. In some cases the majority of residues should be used for soil cover and nutrient recycling; in other cases using a majority of residues for fodder provided farmers with the highest return. (IITA et al. 2011) • In some communities, farmers protect their crop residue mulches from free grazing livestock by discussing the importance of organic ground cover for crop productivity with village governing organizations and their neighbors. In some areas community selfgovernance groups prohibit free grazing livestock practices, resulting in residues being retained for mulch. (CA-SARD project. CA Cases from Tanzania.)• Farmers have cultivated livestock fodder crops on field contours and set aside areas and then harvested these crops as 'cut and carry' feed for corralled livestock. These practices have resulted in crop residues being available for use as mulch and enabled farmers to effectively collect manure for use as organic fertilizer. (Bolliger et al. 2006) that demonstrates conservation agriculture's potential for this group of farmers is drawn from a limited number of sub-scale development initiatives and underfunded research by scientific institutions and civil society organizations.We do not have all of the answers but there is no question we need more public and private sector support for research in this area. There are many promising signs that investing in conservation agriculture practices will lead to improved farmer livelihoods, increase food security and enhanced local and global environmental quality. Examples of how it is being successfully implemented, and the scientific research that is providing solutions to key issues, are discussed in the following overview of conservation agriculture's basic truths and their applicability to smallholder farmers.Truth # 1: Smallholder farmers who adopt integrated conservation agriculture practices can realize a higher return on investment in terms of labor savings, net income and improved soil quality.• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) studied nearly 5,000 smallholder farmers who adopted conservation agriculture practices in four different regions of Tanzania and Kenya following their participation in farmer field schools. Farmers who adopted conservation agriculture substantially reduced their labor inputs while also improving their crop yield from 26%-100% or more over a period of three to ten years. Farmers who used appropriate direct seeding equipment (e.g. a manual 'jabber') could plant a field of 0.4 hectares in three or four hours as compared to conventional tillage where three people working with hand hoes needed an entire day. (Shetto, at al. 2007) • With conservation agriculture's reduced labor and time requirements for planting new crops, farmers are better able to sow seeds during the optimal planting 'window.' Studies indicate that for each day that seeding is delayed past the optimal planting period, harvested crop yields can be reduced by 1-1.5%. (Olaf Erenstein 2009)• With the encouragement and support of the Ministry of Agriculture and several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), many smallholder farmers in Ghana have replaced their reliance on traditional 'slash and burn' cultivation methods with no-till and crop residue mulching practices that include the use of herbicides to control weeds. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Crop Research Institute conducted field surveys of farmers in 30 different villages to determine the relative labor requirements of the two systems. These surveys found that the overall family labor inputs were 27% lower for those farmers who adopted conservation agriculture and their maize crop yields were 57% greater than those achieved by farmers who continued to rely on slash and burn practices. (J. Ekboir 2002)• The World Food Programme's (WFP) Purchase for Progress (P4P) program has reported that participating Nicaraguan smallholder farmers' adoption of conservation agriculture practices has enabled them to reduce their production costs by 40%. (Ken Davies, WFP/ P4P Coordinator. 2012)• The carbon sequestration potential of conservation agriculture practices is variable.However, many studies have shown that soil organic carbon (SOC, aka carbon) levels under no-till are much higher in the first 10 centimeters of topsoil than in soils under conventional tillage (e.g. approximately 75% higher at a five cm depth and 40% higher at Central America, P4P provides conservation agriculture extension services to participating farmer organizations. One element of this training induced N-fixing bean varieties to women farmers in Guatemala. By adding these legumes to their intercropping and crop rotation practices, the farmers improved the nutrition of their diets, introduced an additional source of income from the sale of these beans and naturally produced N fertilizer for their fields. (WFP. P4P January Update 2011.)• CARE International's Hillside Conservation Agriculture Project (HICAP) in Tanzania encouraged participating farmers to cultivate N-fixing cover crops (e.g. pigeon pea, lablab and cowpeas) that could be harvested for sale as starter seeds to other farmers. The HICAP project also facilitated seed distribution to farmers in the area to support FARMER Field Schools and demonstration plots. (CARE HICAP Project Annual Report to HGBF. 2012.)Truth # 5: Many smallholders who adopt conservation agriculture experience increased crop yields.• Long-term conservation agriculture field research in Mexico demonstrates that conservation agriculture practices for maize and wheat production consistently achieved higher yields over conventional practices from the first year onward. In the initial year of the study conservation agriculture maize and wheat yields were respectively 20% and 33% greater. Conservation agriculture yields for both crops were particularly better during drought years when conservation agriculture's enhanced soil moisture retention properties had a positive impact on grain production. (Erenstein, et al. 2008.) • Immediate crop yield improvements were achieved by farmers participating in CARE International's farmer field school demonstration project in Tanzania. These farmers had an average yield grain of 87% over the conventional control plot yields in the first year.(CARE International HICAP Project report to HGBF, 2012.)Truth # 6: Conservation agriculture's focus on soil health, reduced erosion and an emphasis on crop diversity reduced the exposure of smallholders to crop failures.• Long term field research by CIMMYT indicates that zero tillage with retention of residues significantly improves soil moisture levels and enables crop yields that are far greater than those from conventional practices during extended dry periods. (Verhulst, et al. 2011.) • The Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT-TSBF) led a multi-institutional research study of mixed crop-livestock systems in Mozambique that evaluated smallholder intercropping of maize with pigeonpea and cowpea legumes. This intercropping practice provided farmers with improved surface cover of their fields, valuable N-fixing soil inputs, increased resilience to low rainfall conditions and better food security. (Rusinamhodzi, et al. 2011.) • Ghanaian farmers surveyed by CIMMYT affirmed that they benefited from reduced risks as a result of their adoption of conservation agriculture. (Ekboir, et al. 2002.) Truth # 3: Diverse varieties of cover crops, crop rotations and substantial residue retention can reduce reliance on herbicides.• As farmers gain experience in growing cover crops that control weeds, weed pressures can be reduced. Ground cover residues and green manure crops can also suppress weed infestations in later years to a level that enables farmers to use a fraction of the herbicides that were originally needed. (Steiner, et al. 2012.) • In lobg-term field trials in Malawi, CIMMYT researchers found that the use of cover crops and green manures over a period of seven cropping seasons could control weeds without the need for further applications of herbicides. (Bram Govaerts 2012.)• Multi-year crop rotations with different plant varieties have significantly reduced the need for herbicides to control weeds. A study in Iowa of Low External Input (LEI) farming practices compared conventional two-year corn/soybean rotations with three-and four-year rotations of corn with N-fixing crops. The study found that over a four-year period the longer rotations significantly reduced the need for herbicides (i.e. by 76% and 82% respectively) and synthetic fertilizers (i.e. by 59% and 74% respectively). The rotational crops' allelopathic biochemical and ground cover competition properties may explain the superior weed control results. (M. Leibman, et al. 2008.) Truth # 4: Efforts to identify crops adapted to local conditions, building capacity of farm organizations and improving smallholder access to key inputs are gaining traction. Truth #10: Smallholder farmers themselves must participate as partners in the research, development and demonstration efforts to advance conservation agriculture adoption.• In the early 1990s, most maize and wheat farmers in the Yaqui Valley of Mexico were burning their crop residues. With the technical assistance of CIMMYT and other agricultural development organizations' field demonstrations of raised bed maize cultivation methods, improved irrigation techniques and mentoring support, in the span of one decade nearly all farmers had changed their practices and now retain their residues for soil conservation purposes. (Vehulst, et al. 2011.) • In the span of forty years, Brazil has undergone a remarkable transition from relying on traditional and conventional tillage practices to today's condition where it is a major agricultural producer with 75% of cropland under no-till or reduced tillage. While this transformation substantially relied on innovating and expanding large scale farming operations, it also included adoption by hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers. This farming revolution was accomplished with strong and persistent support from government and private sector investment in developing techniques, technologies and cropping practices to promote soil fertility and control erosion while producing profitable agricultural outputs. These efforts included focuses research programs, development and commercialization od no-till technologies, extensive field training and other initiatives. (Bolliger, et al. 2006.) With long term investment, and a commitment to research, innovation, and developing a supportsystem to encourage the adoption of conservation agriculture, it is clear ther developing world can transform its approach to farming to be more productive and more sustainable for current and future generations.Truth # 7: Investing in conservation agriculture requires a long-term commitment to achieve widespread adoption.• In Brazil, conservation agriculture is well-established practice, but it took a tremendous commitment first by early adopters, and then by government and extension agents to encourage widespread adoption. Local land user clubs were invaluable to changing farmers' mindsets by promoting the concept and helping each other in their conservation agriculture adoption efforts. The most innovative conservation agriculture farmers continually share their knowledge of best practices with their neighbors. They also share modifications to direct seeding equipment adapted to local soil crop residue conditions. (Bolliger et al.;Elsevier. 2006;and Ribiero, et al. 2007.) • Catholic Relief Services' (CRS) conservation agriculture development project in Zimbabwe has been a multi-year effort to introduce farmers to conservation agriculture practices and support their adoption. An initial 650 farmers adopted conservation agriculture practices in the first year (2004/2005) and 54,416 farmers were practicing conservation agriculture at the end of five years. (Mutsindikwa, et al. 2011.) Truth #8: Plants use synthetic fertilizer more efficiently when combined with conservation agriculture practices.• A team of soil scientists assessed the efficiencies of improved crop yield gains with inorganic fertilizer inputs when applied to soils with higher levels of organic carbon. The study team concluded that \"for efficient nutrient utilization, inorganic fertilizer must be combined with organic matter, water harvesting, conservation agriculture and controlling soil erosion in site-specific integrated soil fertility management strategies.\" Their recommendations clearly identify the important role of conservation agriculture practices enabling smallholder farmers to maximize the benefits of their use of synthetic fertilizer inputs. (Bationo, et al. 2006.) • In the absence of conservation agriculture, if fertilizer use is stopped (because of lack of availability or affordability), production levels will likely fall, soil quality will not have been improved, and farmers will still lack the skills needed to sustainably build soil health to achieve long-term productivity. (Dorward, et al. 2008;and Jayne et al. 2009.) Truth #9: Investment in farmer organizations helps farmers develop the skills and confidence to encourage and support the adoption of new practices like conservation agriculture.• Cooperative groups of local farmers convincingly demonstrate best practices and serve as mentors to their peers. They are also better able to finance, purchase and share tools, exchanged improved seeds and agree to follow livestock management programs that protect residues and cover crops for uses that improve soil health and crop yields. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines CA as follows:CA is a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop production that strives to achieve acceptable profits together with high and sustained production levels while concurrently conserving the environment. CA is based on enhancing natural biological processes above and below the ground. Interventions such as mechanical soil tillage are reduced to an absolute minimum, and the use of external inputs such as agrochemicals and nutrients of mineral or organic origin are applied at an optimum level and in a way and quantity that does not interfere with, or disrupt, the biological processes. CA is characterized by three principles which are linked to each other, namely:• Continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance;• Permanent organic soil cover; and• Diversified crop rotations in the case of annual crops or plant associations in case of perennial crops (FAO 2007).This article was drawn from previously published source entitled Degradation of natural resources and measures for mitigation by Theodor Friedrich. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.Editors note: This article though published in 2007, provides a good overview of a wide range of conservation technologies including a discussion of its relevance to climate change.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersThe above described synergy effects have positive impact on productivity, efficiency of input use as well as on environmental effects and economic profitability of the production system. Soil erosion is reduced to a level below the regeneration of soil. In some cases, the soil is literally growing. Under humid temperate conditions the soil growth rate can amount up to 1 mm per year for 30 to 50 years, until the soil organic matter level reaches a new balance (Crovetto 1999). Depending on the supply of organic matter and climate conditions the increase of soil organic matter can reach 0.1-0.2 per cent per year. Soil structure is improved, soil volume available to root growth is increased, providing access to more soil nutrients and improving the fertilizer efficiency (Bot and Benites 2005). Continuous macro pores in the soil increase the water infiltration and hence the absorption capacity of soils during heavy rainstorms. This can be instrumental for the reduction of flood risks (DBU 2002).The increased water infiltration contributes also to a recharge of the aquifer which is of particular importance for regions with falling ground water tables (PDCSR 2005). In view of the regular floods during the monsoon season in India and Bangladesh, during which large volumes of fresh water are lost without making use of them, and at the same time falling ground water tables in these regions, it would make sense to increase the infiltration capacity of the actually sealed rice soils by changing the cultivation practice. A better water infiltration does not only improve the availability of groundwater in a watershed, but also the water quality. Since the excess water is channelled in macro pores, it does not leach the soil. In addition the effectively reduced soil erosion provides for less fertilizer and pesticides being washed into surface waters. Watersheds with a wide application of CA report better water quality and reduced costs for the treatment of drinking water (Bassi 2000, Saturnino andLanders 2002).The increased organic matter levels under CA also provide for better water retention capacity of the soil. For each percent of soil organic matter 150 m 3ha-1 of water can be stored in the soil. Loss of soil water is further reduced and in general water savings of 30 per cent under CA are reported compared to conventional cropping systems under similar climatic conditions (Bot and Benites 2005).The visible increase of soil life and of fauna above the soil surface under CA can be taken as an indicator for an increased biodiversity of this cropping system. As a result, the ecosystem is more stable and less susceptible to pest attacks. This is also noticeable in a long term decline in pesticide use under CA (Saturnino andLanders 2002, Baker et al. 2007). Also higher fertilizer efficiency results last but not least from the increased soil life and is equally reflected in a long-term decline of fertilizer needs (Saturnino andLanders 2002, Derpsch 2005).Climate change is becoming increasingly important for agriculture. Extended drought periods and heavy rainstorms are becoming common features of the weather not only in the tropics (Met Office 2005). CA can help to adapt to these changing and less stable climatic conditions. The increased water infiltration allows soils to absorb most of the rain water even during extreme rainfall events, reducing the risk of erosion and flooding (Saturnino and Landers 2002). Increased organic matter levels and a better rooting environment in the soil improve water holding capacity of the soils and the ability of plants to survive during drought periods.CA has the longest tradition and highest adoption rates in the southern cone of Latin America.In Paraguay, the area under conservation agriculture exceeds 50 per cent of the total agricultural land (Lange 2005). Also in Brazi,l about 50 per cent of the agricultural land is under CA. CA is further common in the USA and Canada. But also Australia, Central Asia, China, India and southern Africa have increasing areas under CA. Practical experiences with CA farming exist from areas close to the polar circle down to the tropics and for nearly all crops, including vegetables, roots and tubers. Despite the reduced tillage, CA must not be mistaken as low intensity agriculture. The same and often even higher yields can be obtained as in highly intensive conventional agriculture.While the principles of CA are not new, the simultaneous application is creating the above mentioned synergy effects. Zero tillage reduces the mineralization of soil organic matter. In addition to this, the soil habitat remains undisturbed and soil life can develop in quantity and quality better than on tilled soils. Vertical continuous macro pores as created by earthworms or roots are not destroyed and remain as drainage channels for rainwater into the subsoil. By not disturbing the soil, the weed seed bank in the soil does not receive the stimulation for germination. This can be perfected even during the seeding process by furrow openers with minimum soil movement allowing the \"invisible seeding\". The permanent soil cover protects the soil surface from wind, rain, sun and from drying out.In addition, the mulch suppresses the germination and growth of weeds, provides habitat for beneficial fauna and feed for the soil life and hence the substrate for the creation of soil organic matter. Allelopathic or other repellent effects of specific covercrops can be used for weed and pest management. The treatment of the mulch cover therefore is part of the weed management under CA. For this purpose, a knife roller is used to roll down and break covercrops and weeds without cutting them completely. Black oats (Avena strigosa), treated during the milky grain stage with a knife roller dies without the need of herbicides or desiccants. The mulch cover created by the knife-rolled black oats crop is so dense and has allelopathic effect that it inhibits any weed growth. Provided that during the seed process no soil is exposed to sunlight, a crop can be grown in this cover without the need of any further weed control (Friedrich 2005).Crop rotation is of particular importance with regard to zero tillage and permanent soil cover. Different crop species with different root systems explore different soil horizons and hence increase the efficiency of the use of soil nutrients. In addition, a diversified crop rotation is beneficial for avoiding pest and weed problems. When designing the crop rotation, it is important that the entire growth period is used by growing some crop, if only for cover.Also the other previously mentioned resource conserving technologies can be integrated into CA with beneficial complementarities. Direct seeding of rice facilitates the integration of the rice crop into a CA system with permanent zero tillage. The mulching reduces the problems of surface crusting and weeds. Controlled traffic farming is an important element of CA in mechanized farming, especially in humid climates where traffic in the field during crop protection or harvest operations cannot always respect the optimal soil conditions. In CA, it is particularly important to avoid compactions and wheel-tracks created by heavy machines, since those would oblige subsequent tillage operations which would destroy the structure built up in years of zero tillage. Surface irrigation requires some special care with the mulch management under CA. On the other hand, the effect of laser levelling remains longer under CA since the soil surface is not disturbed after the levelling. Even bed planting systems can be adapted for CA using permanent beds. This reduces the costs for the bed establishment and leads automatically to a controlled traffic system without the need of satellite guiding technology. Yield variations between dry and wet years are less pronounced under CA than under conventional farming practice (Shaxon andBarber 2003, Bot andBenites 2005).In addition, agriculture can also help mitigate climate change by reducing the emissions of green house gases into the atmosphere. Since 40 per cent of the world's land surface is under agricultural use, the contribution of agriculture to climate change mitigation could be significant. CA can reduce the emissions of fossil fuels compared to conventional agriculture by up to 60 per cent (Doets et al. 2000). In addition to this , the use of fertilizer and agrochemicals can be reduced in the long term by 20 per cent.CA would change the rice soils into a more aerobic environment without permanent flooding, which would reduce the methane emissions (Belder 2005;Gao 2006). Similar effects can be achieved for nitrous oxides as a result of changes in the nitrogen fertilizer and the soil water management. Suitable selection of fertilizers and placement in the soil can reduce the emissions also under conditions of zero tillage (Izaurralde et al. 2004;Gao 2006).The actual degradation of natural resources is also a consequence of agricultural land use and as a result urges for changing the actual practices. The combination of several resource conserving technologies results in synergy effects leading to a sustainable, resourceenhancing agriculture which allows at the same time high productivity and profitability. This kind of agriculture is expanding under the term conservation agriculture. Besides being resource enhancing, productive and profitable, CA also helps in facing the challenges of climate change in agriculture and can contribute to mitigate against climate change. Technologies for CA exist globally but locally, the availability of suitable equipment and adapted knowledge may still be lacking being an obstacle for a more rapid adoption. Climate change, in combination with the expanding human population, presents a formidable food security challenge: How will we feed a world population that is expected to grow by an additional 2.4 billion people by 2050? Population growth and the dynamics of climate change will also exacerbate other issues, such as desertification, deforestation, erosion, degradation of water quality, and depletion of water resources, further complicating the challenge of food security. These factors, together with the fact that energy prices may increase in the future, which will increase the cost of agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer and fuel, make the future of food security a major concern. Additionally, it has been reported that climate change can increase potential erosion rates, which can lower agricultural productivity by 10% to 20% (or more in extreme cases). Climate change could contribute to higher temperatures and evapotranspiration and lower precipitation across some regions. This will add additional pressure to draw irrigation water from some already overexploited aquifers, where the rate of erosion rates due to climate change will result in lower productivity. Additionally, Hugh Hammond Bennett suggested that without conservation of natural resources, environmental problems such as accelerated erosion could negatively impact society and threaten national security (USDA NRCS n.d.).• Population growth and the development of new, stronger economies, such as those of China and India are increasing the demand for world resource s. By 2050, the world population is expected to increase by 2.4 billion people, and as the economies of countries with large populations improve, even more pressure will be put on the world's agricultural systems. This increased demand for resources coupled with climate change could threaten the potential to achieve food security.• Key world agroecosystems that rely on significant amounts of irrigation water are being threatened because water resources are being depleted, a result of water use exceeding water storage replacement. Since irrigated systems have, on average, double the yields of non-irrigated systems, the depletion and salinization of these key world resources results in additional pressure to increase agricultural productivity.There is a close relationship between climate change, limited global water and soil resources, population growth, and food security. As climate change impacts the world's soil and water resources, it threathens to negatively impact food production (i.e., decrease food production and/or food production potential). As the climate changes, conservation practices have the potential to help us achieve maximum sustainable levels of food production, which will be essential to efforts to feed the world's growing population. Good policies / practices for air, soil, and water conservation will contribute to positive impacts on air, soil, and water quality; soilproductivity; and efforts towards achieving and/or maintaining food security. These good policies / practices for air, soil, and water conservation (or a lack of policies / practices) will contribute to negative impacts on air, soil, and water quality; soil productivity; and efforts toward achieving and/or maintaining food security.Positive impacts on water quality, soil quality, and air qualityEffects of best policies / practices for air, soil, and water conservation that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptationReview of the scientific literature shows that the size of the world population is projected to increase with time and that climate change is likely to continue to impact soil and water resources and productivity over time. water recharge is lower than the withdrawal rates. These and other water issues exacerbated by climate change present a serious concern because, on average, irrigated system yields are frequently double those of non-irrigated systems.The yields of non-irrigated systems could also potentially be reduced due to these stresses. Since there is a direct relationship between soil and water conservation practices and maintaining and/or increasing productivity, the research suggests that without the application of the best soil and water conservation practices, it will not be possible to maintain the productivity levels that are needed to feed the additional billions of people the world is expected to have by 2050. A sound scientific approach that applies concepts in agronomy, soil science, and conservation will be needed to maintain sustainable and productive agricultural systems for stable food security.With so many large population centers of millions of people who need a steady supply of food, a supply that comes from agricultural fields, ranches, and other agro-ecosystems that could significantly be impacted by climate change, it is becoming increasingly accepted that systems maintain/increase agricultural productivity. Hugh Hammond Bennett, who has been called \"the father of soil conservation,\" once said, \"From every conceivable angle-economic, social, cultural, public health, national defense-conservation of natural resources is an objective on which all should agree\" (USDA NRCS n.d.). Bennett's contributions were part of a larger effort to develop a scientifically sound conservation system, a system that today could serve as a framework not only for climate change mitigation but also for climate change adaptation.This document is an overview of the science on conservation practices that could potentially be used to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Following is a list that summarizes some basic principles based on a review of peer-reviewed scientific publications. We recommend that these principles be considered, discussed, and even modified as new findings are brought to light that can be used to improve conservation. Meetings of professional scientific societies provide opportunities for scientists, conservation practitioners, consultants, farmers, and the general public to get together to share ideas and could be great forums for discussing the principles summarized in this document.This review of current science strongly suggests that the future of the planet's food security will depend on how water and soil resources are managed today and in the future. These challenges can be met by maximizing soil and water conservation to develop sustainable systems essential to mitigate climate change and adapt to it.From conducting a review of the scientific, peer-reviewed literature, we have identified the following major world challenges related to soil and water conservation:• Climate change is occurring, and the implementation of sound conservation practices will be key for each country's health, social stability, and security. There are a large number of peer-reviewed publications that report on the effects of a changing climate. The potential role of conservation practices in contributing to food security is shown in figure 1, which illustrates the relationship between climate change, soil and water resources, and food security.• Extreme weather events are creating environmental problems, accelerating the rate of erosion, and threatening agricultural production needed for food security. Increases in • Due to anticipated impacts from climate change, deforestation, erosion, depletion of water resources, and other environmental problems, as well as potentially higher fuel prices, which could impact agricultural inputs, food security will increasingly become a concern in the coming decades.This could become an even greater concern if extreme events, such as droughts or floods, or even extreme pest or disease outbreaks (e.g., blight, a potato disease that contributed to the infamous potato famine in Ireland) begin to occur in systems that are already stressed.It has been reported that GHGs emitted into the atmosphere by human activities have increase radiative forcing and caused an increase in the global mean temperature of approximately 0.74°C (1.33°F) over the past century. In terms of soil conservation, expected consequences of future climate change include changes to soil erosion rates and associated water quality problems, as well as the need to adjust the conservation planning process to meet continually changing rainfall intensities. It is important to apply conservation practices to conserve water quantity and quality (e.g. practices that have higher water-use efficiencies and/or that reduce off-site transport of soil and agrochemicals to water bodies). The threat of climate change, together with other concerns, could contribute to a global problem that will impact food security and resource availability if we do not act to prepare ourselves. Some of these concerns that can interact with climate change and extreme weather events are desertification, deforestation, depletion of groundwater resources, higher energy costs, plant diseases, and population growth and higher demand for food production. It is clear as we look ahead to the next four decades that we need to maximize agricultural production, due to the continuously growing food demand that comes with world population growth, while maximizing soil and water conservation. chapter 5Social protection and services responding to climate shock• Social protection and its linkage to agriculture• Linking climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on reducing poverty have been met by many countries, yet many others lag behind and the post-2015 challenge will be the full eradication of poverty and hunger. Many developing countries increasingly recognize that social protection measures are needed to relieve the immediate deprivation of people living in poverty and to prevent others from falling into poverty when a crisis strikes. Social protection can also help recipients become more productive by enabling them to manage risks, build assets and undertake more rewarding activities. These benefits spread beyond the immediate recipients to their communities and the broader economy as recipients purchase food, agricultural inputs and other rural goods and services. But social protection can only offer a sustainable pathway out of poverty if there is inclusive growth in the economy. In most lowand middle-income countries, agriculture remains the largest employer of the poor and is a major source of livelihoods through wage labour and own production for household consumption and the market. Poverty and its corollaries-malnutrition, illness and lack of education-limit agricultural productivity. Hence, providing social protection and pursuing agricultural development in an integrated way offers synergies that can increase the effectiveness of both.  Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersMost countries, even the poorest, can afford social protection programmes that could be of significance in the fight against poverty. Spending on such programmes has been low relative to GDP. For more comprehensive programmes, financing may require difficult expenditure choices. Donor support will be essential in the short-to-medium term for maintaining programmes in some countries. Yet, mobilizing domestic fiscal resources from the outset are important in principle and to establish a politically and financially sustainable basis for social assistance programmes. Pilot programmes and careful monitoring and evaluation can help start the policy dialogue needed to build a national consensus on the nature, scale and financing of social assistance within a country.Social protection programmes are effective in reducing poverty and hunger. In 2013, social protection helped lift up to 150 million people out of extreme poverty, that is, those living on less than $1.25 a day. Social protection allows households to increase and diversify their food consumption, often through increased own production. Positive impacts on child and maternal welfare are enhanced when programmes are gender-sensitive or targeted at women. This is especially important because maternal and child malnutrition perpetuate poverty from generation to generation.Increased food consumption and greater dietary diversity do not automatically lead to improved nutrition outcomes. Nutritional status depends on a number of additional factors, including access to clean water, sanitation and health care, as well as appropriate child feeding and adult dietary choices. Thus, for social assistance programmes to improve nutrition outcomes, they must be combined with complementary interventions. Numerous agricultural interventions, such as home gardening and small livestock breeding, can also contribute to improving nutrition.The livelihoods of most poor rural households in the developing world are still based on agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture. Many of these farmers live in places where markets-for agricultural inputs and outputs, labour, and other goods and services such as credit and insurance-are lacking or do not function well. The uncertainties of weather, particularly with accelerating climate change and the lack of affordable insurance, are at the heart of the vulnerabilities of households dependent on agricultural livelihoods.The time horizon of vulnerable agricultural households is reduced because they focus on survival. As a result, they are especially prone to adopt low-risk, low-return agricultural and other income-generating strategies, and may seek to obtain liquidity or diversify income sources in casual labour markets. For similar reasons, households may underinvest in the education and health of their children, as well as adopt negative risk-coping strategies such as distress sales of assets, reducing the quantity and quality of food consumption, begging or taking children out of school, and exploiting natural resources in an unsustainable manner.Although the shares of people living in poverty and extreme poverty have declined over the past three decades, the numbers remain high, with almost one billion people considered extremely poor and another billion poor. Extreme poverty has fallen substantially in many regions, especially in East Asia and the Pacific as well as in South Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, little progress has been made and almost half the population is extremely poor.Extreme poverty is disproportionately concentrated in rural areas, and the rural poor are more likely to rely on agriculture than other rural households, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. It is the poor's reliance on agriculture for their livelihoods and the high share of their expenditure on food that makes agriculture key to poverty and hunger alleviation interventions.Why is poverty so persistent?Poverty often begins with poor nutrition and health, especially in early childhood: the poor become trapped in vicious circles of hunger, poor nutrition, ill health, low productivity and poverty. Economic growth, especially agricultural development, has been essential for driving down poverty rates. However, even with economic growth, the struggle to escape from poverty is often slow as growth may not be inclusive. For some groups, such as children and the elderly, economic growth may bring little relief or come too late to prevent deprivation and lasting disadvantage.The pathway out of poverty is difficult. In addition, many non-poor households are vulnerable to poverty when faced with shocks of one kind or another. These shocks cause many households to fall below the poverty line because they suffer large income losses and do not have sufficient savings to buffer the shocks. Such shocks typically have long-lasting negative impacts on the poor.Social protection encompasses initiatives that provide cash or in-kind transfers to the poor, protect the vulnerable against risks and enhance the social status and rights of the marginalized-all with the overall goal of reducing poverty and economic and social vulnerability. Social protection includes three broad components: social assistance, social insurance and labour market protection. Social assistance programmes are publicly provided conditional or unconditional cash or in-kind transfers or public works programmes. Social insurance programmes are contributory programmes that provide cover for designated contingencies affecting household welfare or income. Labour market programmes provide unemployment benefits, build skills and enhance workers' productivity and employability.Social protection programmes have expanded rapidly over the past two decades. Throughout the developing world, about 2.1 billion people, or one-third of the population, receive some form of social protection. There is wide variation among regions, with coverage lowest in the regions where poverty incidence is highest. This report focuses on social assistance, by far the most common form of social protection in the developing world.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makers or households. While targeting can be an effective instrument for reducing poverty and inequality, efficient implementation is key and depends largely on institutional capacity.Most social assistance transfers are designed to cover the cost of a minimum basket of food consumption; so, if additional impacts are sought, then transfer levels should be increased accordingly. The available data show a wide variety of transfer levels, with many countries providing average social protection transfers to beneficiaries several times greater than the poverty gap (at $1.25 a day), while in many of the poorest countries transfers are well below what it would take to close the gap.Just as important, perhaps, are the timing and predictability of transfers. Beneficiary households will spend irregular lump sum transfers differently than they would predictable and regular transfers. If transfers are not regular and reliable, it is difficult or households to plan and smoothen consumption over time, and thus move towards sustained change in the quantity and quality of diets. Moreover, regularity and reliability increase the time horizon of beneficiary households, allowing them to manage risks and shocks more effectively and thus avoid \"negative\" coping strategies and risk-averse production strategies and, instead, increase risk-taking in more profitable crops and/or activities. Regular and reliable payments increase confidence and creditworthiness, while reducing pressure on informal insurance mechanisms.Targeting criteria have strong implications for the demographic characteristics of beneficiary households, such as age of adults and children, which condition the impact of the programme. Households with more available labour, for example, are in a better position to take advantage of the cash for productive investments, in both the short and longer run.Women and men use transfers differently. Many social protection programmes target women because research shows that giving women greater control over household spending leads to greater expenditures on food, health, education, children's clothing and nutrition. In addition, studies show that the impacts of transfer programmes vary with gender. For example, women and men may not invest in the same type of livestock: women generally focus on small animals while men focus on larger livestock. Transfers also impact men and women, and boys and girls, differently in terms of labour allocation and time use.The nature of the local economy also shapes the type and extent of the prospective productive impacts of cash transfer programmes. In some rural areas, low population density, illiquid markets, low levels of public investment and inadequate public infrastructure can pose particularly binding constraints and make in-kind transfers more effective. Where markets are more developed, the effects of cash transfers on livelihood strategies tend to be stronger. The importance of market conditions varies with available factors of production.Social protection can positively influence the investment decisions of poor households. It helps households manage risk. Social protection provided at regular and predictable intervals can increase predictability and security for agricultural households, partially substituting for insurance and providing a crucial source of liquidity. A growing body of evidence shows that social assistance programmes not only prevent households from falling into deeper poverty and hunger when exposed to a shock but, by helping the poor overcome liquidity and credit constraints and manage risks more effectively, it also allows them to invest in productive activities and build assets. The evidence shows that social protection fosters more investment in the education and health of children, and reduces child labour, with positive implications for future productivity and employability. When well implemented, social protection can also facilitate increased investment in farm production activities, including inputs, tools and livestock, as well as in non-farm enterprises. Even relatively small transfers help the poor overcome liquidity and credit constraints and provide insurance against some risks that deter them from pursuing higher-return activities. The evidence is clear that transfers also foster greater inclusion by facilitating poor households' participation in, and contribution to, social networks, which help households cope with risk and play a supportive role in the social fabric of communities.Social protection does not reduce work effort. But it does give beneficiaries greater choice, and many shift time previously dedicated to casual agricultural wage employment of last resort to own-farm work or non-farm employment. Taken together with the increase in farm and non-farm production activities, social protection strengthens livelihoods rather than fostering dependency.Social protection has positive impacts on local communities and economies. Public works programmes can provide important infrastructure and community assets and, when designed and implemented properly, contribute directly to the local economy. Cash transfers increase the purchasing power of the poor, who demand goods and services largely produced in the local economy. Moreover, such additional income contributes to a virtuous circle of local economic growth. Complementary programmes may be necessary to reduce supply-side constraints, thus preventing significant price rises and increasing the real-income and production impacts of the programme.Not all programmes are equally effective, and their impacts can vary greatly, both in size and in nature. Even among programmes that appear quite similar, for example cash transfers for the poor, differences in programme design and implementation can lead to very different outcomes. For example, targeting households with fewer adults of working age will have implications for labour impacts on livelihoods.Social protection programmes generally have objectives that define the intended beneficiaries. How well programmes can achieve their objectives will depend, among other things, on how well they reach their target group. Social protection programmes use a combination of targeting methods to deliver larger and better transfers to selected individualsCredit constraints are a major barrier to agricultural investment. Relatively little credit is allocated to agriculture and many agricultural producers are credit-constrained. In many countries, addressing credit market failures-through special programmes, credit guarantee schemes and specialized banks-is a priority. Nearly all Asian, Latin American and Caribbean countries, and a majority of African countries, are taking measures to facilitate the provision of credit to the agriculture sector.Directly targeting the poorest with (micro) credit has proven difficult. There is increasing evidence that, on its own, microcredit is not sufficient to help poor households exit poverty or to improve their welfare as measured by consumption, health, education and women's empowerment.Lack of adequate markets is an important limiting factor on agricultural growth and rural development. So-called institutional procurement programmes (IPPs) promote rural development by creating a market for small family farm produce. Interventions that link social assistance with institutional demand also typically focus on supporting poorer small family farmers who are constrained in their access to resources.Brazil was the first country to develop an institutional food procurement programme by connecting development of guaranteed demand for small family farm produce with a food security strategy. The Brazilian experience is being adapted to the African context through the Purchase from Africans for Africa programme. Home-grown school-feeding programmes, sometimes building on the Purchase for Progress (P4P) programme of the World Food Programme (WFP), are an example of IPPs that are popular in many countries.A fundamental operational issue to be addressed in bringing the sectors together is targeting interventions. The experience of several countries shows that single or unified registries or unified targeting systems are particularly useful if several programmes have overlapping objectives and target populations.While the effectiveness of specific programmes is served by better targeting, this need not contradict the universal provision of some form of social protection to all vulnerable people when they need it to avoid long-lasting harm from external shocks.• Social protection programmes reduce poverty and food insecurity. Effective targeting and adequate transfers are important determinants of success. Social protection contributes to higher incomes and food security not only by ensuring increases in consumption, but by enhancing a household's ability to produce food and augment income.Notwithstanding its proven effectiveness, social protection alone cannot sustainably move people out of poverty and hunger. Agriculture and social protection are fundamentally linked in the context of rural livelihoods. Poor and food-insecure families depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods, and make up a large proportion of the beneficiaries of social protection programmes. Stronger coherence/between agriculture and social protection interventions can help protect the welfare of poor, small-scale agriculturalists, helping them manage risks more effectively and improve agricultural productivity, leading to more sustainable livelihoods and progress out of poverty and hunger.However, relatively few agricultural interventions are coordinated or integrated with social protection programmes. Developing synergies is an opportunity, but also a necessity, because of the difficult public expenditure trade-offs implied by constrained government budgets. It is not only imperative to help the poorest meet basic consumption needs, especially when they are unable to work, but such help is itself a foundation for gradual improvement of the livelihoods of the poor. Leveraging public expenditures on agriculture and social protection programmes in support of each other not only furthers this transformation, but also strengthens agricultural and rural development.A continuum of options exists for bringing together and better coordinating social protection and agricultural interventions and policy. These options range from stand-alone, sectorspecific social protection or agricultural programmes, which are designed to bring the two together in integrated results in both sectors, to joint programmes in which formal interventions of both types are brought to bear on specific target populations, and to sectoral interventions that are aligned to maximize complementarities and reduce contradictions.Approaches can be combined or sequenced in a variety of ways.Input subsidies, in particular fertilizer subsidies, have regained widespread popularity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, especially following the sharp increases in food prices and fertilizer costs in 2007-08. Insofar as input subsidy programmes contribute to greater food security through greater availability and lower prices of staple goods, they also benefit the poor, and are aligned with and contribute to the objectives of social protection policies and programmes. But, in general, such programmes neither target nor reach the poor.Fertilizer subsidy programmes absorb a large part of government agricultural budgets in many countries. Linkages of these single \"stand-alone\" input programmes with social protection could include improving the reach of input subsidies to the poorest households by, for instance, improving targeting and/or adjusting the size and type of input packages to the specific needs of the poorest small family farmers. Targeting the poorest is best achieved through input packages designed to meet their actual needs. Another option is to combine these programmes with social cash transfer programmes that provide the poorest beneficiaries with the additional liquidity needed to pay for the \"unsubsidized\" part of the input.• Programmes targeted at women have stronger food security and nutrition impacts.Programmes that are gender-sensitive, reduce women's time constraints and strengthen their control over income enhance maternal and child welfare. This is especially important because maternal and child malnutrition perpetuate poverty from generation to generation.• Social protection stimulates investment in agricultural production and other economic activities. Social protection enhances nutrition, health and education, with implications for future productivity, employability, incomes and well-being. Social protection programmes that provide regular and predictable transfers promote savings and investment in both farm and non-farm activities, and encourage households to engage in more ambitious activities offering higher returns.• Social protection does not reduce work effort. But it does give beneficiaries greater choice, and many shift time previously dedicated to casual agricultural wage employment of last resort to own-farm work or non-agricultural employment. Taken together with the increase in farm and non-farm production activities, social protection strengthens livelihoods instead of fostering dependency.• Social protection has virtuous impacts on local communities and economies. Public works programmes can provide important infrastructure and community assets and, when designed and implemented properly, contribute directly to the local economy. Cash transfers increase the purchasing power of beneficiary households, who demand goods and services, many of which are produced or provided in the local economy by non-beneficiary households.Complementary programmes may be necessary to reduce production constraints to prevent inflation and maximize the real-income and production impacts of the programme.• Social protection, by itself, is not enough to move people out of poverty. As poor households typically face multiple constraints and risks, joint, coordinated and/or aligned social protection and agricultural programmes are likely to be more effective in helping poor households move out of poverty in a sustainable manner.• There are clear opportunities to leverage social protection and agriculture programmes to further rural development. Developing synergies is an opportunity and also a necessity because of constrained government budgets. It is imperative to help the poorest meet basic consumption needs, especially when they are unable to work. Such help can itself become a foundation for gradual improvement of the livelihoods of the poor. Given that the majority of the rural poor depend largely on agriculture, agricultural interventions are needed to overcome structural supply-side bottlenecks holding back growth. Leveraging public expenditures on agriculture and social protection programmes in support of each other not only furthers this transformation, but also serves to strengthen agricultural and rural development.  1. Addressing the drivers of vulnerability (i.e. factors making people vulnerable to harm).2. Building response capacity (laying the foundation for more targeted actions).3. Managing climate risk (reducing the effects of climate change on resources/livelihoods).4. Confronting climate change (highly specialised activities, such as relocating communities in response to sea level rise).While DRR measures typically fall under the middle two categories of building response capacity and managing climate risk, they can fit into every category of the adaptation continuum, addressing drivers of vulnerability (e.g. diversifying livelihood strategies in flood-prone areas) as well as confronting climate change (e.g. reducing the risk of glacial lake outburst floods).In seeking to reduce vulnerability to hazards, the disaster risk management community implements a variety of measures which support adaptation in two ways: (1) through reducing climate-related disaster risk, and (2) in offsetting the long-term implications of climate change. For example, with regards to the latter point:• reforestation (a key 'DRR' measure) will lessen the impact of a flood, but will also offset long-term soil degradation and help control local temperature and rainfall.• improvements to the health sector in developing countries will help safeguard health in times of flood and where there is lack of clean, safe drinking water and increased numbers of mosquitoes as a result of climate change.• better management and conservation of water resources in a region of vulnerability will offset drought and moderate longer-term water scarcity.In the same way that DRR supports adaptation, measures more typically associated with adaptation to climate change such as addressing the impact of glacial retreat or salt water intrusion onto agricultural land, will support DRR through reducing long-term vulnerability and influencing development potential.With similar aims and mutual benefits, the relevance of DRR to the design and implementation of adaptation policies and measures cannot be over-emphasised. As Sperling and Szekely state, 'To be effective, efforts to respond to the exceptional challenges posed by a changing climate must build on and expand the existing capability of disaster risk reduction, and should not be undertaken in isolation from this wider agenda' (Sperling and Szekely 2005). The disaster risk management community not only has transferable, practical experience in addressing hazards, it also has strong and well-established local and regional institutions which are currently lacking in the field of adaptation.in dealing with. Clearly, the climate change and disaster management communities need to work together in addressing these issues. If climate change adaptation policies and measures are to be efficient and effective they must build on and expand existing DRR efforts. And if DRR approaches are to be sustainable they must account for the impact of climate change.To date, the climate change and disaster management communities have operated largely in isolation from each other. This situation must change as a matter of urgency. Between 2008 and 2009, governments are negotiating under the UNFCCC on the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, to begin in 2012 (referred to as the 'post-2012 framework'). Climate change adaptation is one of four pillars of this framework. DRR must be a key component of the adaptation pillar if an effective, sustainable approach to adaptation is to be achieved.This paper is primarily aimed at climate change and disaster risk management policy/decision makers at local, national and international levels. Its purpose is to raise awareness of the similarities and differences between climate change adaptation and DRR, to highlight the benefits of a more integrated approach to these issues, and, ultimately, to increase the level of strategic co-ordination between the climate change and disaster risk management communities. This could result in the following benefits:1. Reduction of climate-related losses, through more widespread implementation of DRR measures linked with adaptation.2. Increased effectiveness and sustainability of both adaptation and DRR approaches.3. More efficient use of financial, human and natural resources.In section 1, we describe similarities and differences between adaptation and DRR. In section 2, we discuss the rationale for adopting a more integrated approach to adaptation and DRR. In section 3, we propose recommendations to improve co-ordination and collaboration between the climate change and disaster risk management communities at all levels.Similarities Similar aims The IPCC defines climate change adaptation as: 'An adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climate stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits benefit opportunities'.Disaster risk reduction can be defined as: 'The broad development and application of policies, strategies and practices to minimise vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout society, through prevention, mitigation and preparedness' (Twigg 2004).While their scope and specific interests may differ, adaptation and DRR have very similar aims in terms of seeking to build resilience in the face of hazards. They both focus on reducing people's vulnerability to hazards by improving methods to anticipate, resist, cope with and recover from their impact. In so doing, climate change adaptation clearly focuses on climaterelated hazards, such as floods, droughts and storms. The disaster risk management community has a long history of dealing with such events, and therefore a wealth of experience relevant to adaptation.Importantly, both adaptation and DRR seek to build resilience to hazards in the context of sustainable development. Climate change adaptation requires the re-shaping and re-designingTowards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersDRR is strongly associated with present day conditions. Since the 2001 Marrakesh Accords, adaptation also acknowledges existing conditions as its starting point (although there is still a misconception regarding the relevance of adaptation to present day conditions). Tanner states, 'The basis for adapting to the future climate lies in improving the ability to cope with existing climate variations (Tanner 2007). By improving the capacity of communities, governments or regions to deal with current climate vulnerabilities, for instance through existing DRR activities, their capacity to deal with future climatic changes is likely to improve.In the policy debate on climate change there has been growing recognition of the importance of adaptation, and within this, the need to improve the capacity of governments and communities to address existing vulnerabilities to current climate variability and climatic extremes. This development has taken place in parallel to the shift from disaster management to disaster risk management, which is adopting a more anticipatory and forward-looking approach (Thomalla et al. 2006). Climate change adaptation and DRR, therefore, have merging remits and highly significant converging political agendas. Hazard types Climate-related, or 'hydro-meteorological' hazards only represent one type of hazard dealt with by the disaster management community. The full range of hazards that DRR can encompass includes natural (e.g. geological, hydro-meteorological and biological) or those induced by human processes (e.g. environmental degradation and technological hazards). Therefore, DRR expands beyond the remit of climate change adaptation (see Figure 1).Similarly, climate change adaptation moves outside the realm of most DRR experience, to address longer term impacts of climatic change such as loss of biodiversity, changes in ecosystem services and spread of climate-sensitive disease. These issues are typically positioned at the far end of the WRI's adaptation continuum, and are less likely to be addressed by the DRR community.Both the climate change and disaster risk management communities must recognise that adaptation and DRR have these more exclusive elements, to avoid perpetuating the erroneous view that all adaptation and DRR is the same. However, recognition of exclusive elements should not detract from efforts to develop a more integrated approach, as the majority of adaptation and DRR measures have mutual benefits, offsetting both climate and disasterrelated risks.Time scale Thomalla observes that much of the difference between adaptation and DRR relates to a different perception of the nature and timescale of the threat: Disasters caused by extreme environmental conditions tend to be fairly distinct in time and space (except for slow-onset or creeping disasters like desertification) and present a situation where the immediate impacts tend to overwhelm the capabilities of the affected population and rapid responses are required. For many hazards there exists considerable knowledge and certainty about the event characteristics as well as exposure characteristics based on historicalNon-structural measures refer to policies, knowledge development/awareness and methods and operating practices, including participatory mechanisms, which can reduce risk and related impacts. These non-structural measures are well placed to serve both a DRR and a climate change adaptation agenda. The dynamism associated with training and awareness-raising means that people and institutions can apply skills and knowledge in different circumstances as they emerge. For example, awareness-raising as a component of an early warning system to cope with current flood risks is well placed to form an effective basis under a different future flood scenario.Both climate change and disaster risk management communities recognise and accept that the poor are disproportionately affected by hazards. This is due to a lack of access to the means by which they can improve their resilience, whether this is in economic, social, physical, or environmental terms. So for both adaptation and DRR, poverty reduction and sustainable natural resource management are essential components of reducing vulnerability to hazards and climate change (Thomalla et al. 2006).In seeking to increase poor people's resilience to climate change and disasters, enabling local communities to participate in adaptation and DRR decision-making is crucial. Such an approach has long underpinned community-based disaster risk management. This approach must also underpin adaptation efforts, if adaptation is to be effective at the local level where impacts are most acutely felt.Addressing underlying risk factors is critical for effective poverty and vulnerability reduction.Underlying risk relates to the interaction of a range of factors including globalisation processes, demographic trends, economic development and trade patterns, urbanisation, discrimination and limited local and national government capacity, which have an impact on exposure and vulnerability to hazards. In this context, all local and global issues that change risk patterns and increase vulnerabilities are relevant to adaptation and DRR (Sperling and Szekely 2005).In principle, both adaptation and DRR aim to address such macro-level influences. However, in practice, perspectives on underlying risk do not yet go deep enough into the social, economic and political realms where risk is generated for the poor and most vulnerable. As such, a shared challenge for the climate change and disaster risk management communities is ensuring that adaptation and DRR commonly address root causes of risk, not merely symptoms.It is increasingly recognised that adaptation and DRR must be integral components of development planning and implementation, to increase sustainability. In other words, these issues need to be 'mainstreamed' into national development plans, poverty reduction strategies, sectoral policies and other development tools and techniques. At the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in 2005, governments agreed to adopt a mainstreamed approach to DRR. To date there has been no such formal international-level agreement on mainstreaming adaptation. However, in 2005 the Commission for Africa made a significant recommendation that 'donors make climate variability and climate change risk factors an integral part of their project planning and assessment by 2008'.In seeking to mainstream adaptation and DRR, both communities are faced with mainstreaming-related dilemmas. For example, an emerging problem is 'mainstreaming fatigue'. Mitchell and Collender suggest that mainstreaming fatigue 'must … be tackled by creating positive and recognisable goals, and avoiding replication with other parallel processes' (Mitchell and Collender 2007).Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersStructural measures refer to any physical construction to reduce or avoid negative impacts of hazards, including engineering measures and construction of hazard-resistant and protective structures and infrastructure. Under a DRR initiative based upon present and historical experiences, there is a greater likelihood that design limits for structural measures, such as flood embankments, will not be adequate in the face of climate change. Similar issues could be faced when considering changes in the frequency and severity of storms, drought, and other climate-related phenomena, including sea-level rise. Initiatives focused on climate change adaptation are more likely to design structural measures with consideration for new, predicted impacts. Signs of convenience experiences. Most impacts of climate change, meanwhile, are much more difficult to perceive and measure, since the changes in average climatic conditions and climatic variability occur over a longer period (Thomalla et al. 2006).DRR focuses on reducing foreseeable risks based on previous experience, whereas adaptation originates with environmental science predicting how climate change will be manifested in a particular region over a longer time period. Consequently DRR is more likely to struggle to integrate risks that have yet to be experienced, whereas this is a core component of an adaptation strategy with its focus on shifting environmental conditions (Few et al. 2006). However, according to Sperling et al, DRR is increasingly incorporating scientific advances and consequently is gaining a longer-term perspective (Sperling and Szekely 2005). Indeed it must, if DRR measures are to be sustainable in the face of climate change.Building resilience is a basis for both DRR and climate change adaptation. However, for DRR the emphasis is on determining existing capacity so as to anticipate, resist, cope with and recover from the impact of hazards. 'Traditional knowledge' on such matters is therefore an important starting point for developing DRR strategies. However, 'traditional knowledge' may be limited in its effectiveness at dealing with an exacerbation of existing problems, or with 'non-traditional problems', such as those to be experienced for the first time through climate change. A blend between traditional knowledge and an understanding of the projected impacts of climate must be sought. Adaptation refers to adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects or impacts. It refers to changes in processes, practices, and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change.Estimates of likely future adaptations are an essential ingredient in impact and vulnerability assessments. The extent to which ecosystems, food supplies, and sustainable development are vulnerable or \"in danger\" depends both on exposure to changes in climate and on the ability of the impacted system to adapt. In addition, adaptation is an important policy response option, along with mitigation. There is a need for the development and assessment of planned adaptation initiatives to help manage the risks of climate change. CSA 524The environmental science basis, from which climate change adaptation is emerging, means that adaptation largely focuses on shifting environmental conditions. Without such a strong environmental perspective and background, DRR is more likely to also consider and address social, physical and economic factors. Furthermore, through its inter-disciplinary analysis of conditions across all these categories, the disaster risk management community is more capable of recognising the wider constraints that determine vulnerability. This may account for why the adaptation community tends to place strong emphasis on developing hazard forecasting and early warning systems, whereas DRR, by its nature, extends beyond disaster preparedness measures alone.The following table highlights the key differences between DRR and climate change adaptation measures and approaches (some inevitable generalisations are made). The table also indicates where there are signs of convergence between the two disciplines.yet they tend not to take into account risks associated with climate variability and change.Inclusion of climatic risks in the design and implementation of development initiatives is necessary to reduce vulnerability and enhance sustainability.Current knowledge of adaptation and adaptive capacity is insufficient for reliable prediction of adaptations; it also is insufficient for rigorous evaluation of planned adaptation options, measures, and policies of governments. Climate change vulnerability studies now usually consider adaptation, but they rarely go beyond identifying adaptation options that might be possible; there is little research on the dynamics of adaptation in human systems, the processes of adaptation decision-making, conditions that stimulate or constrain adaptation, and the role of non-climatic factors. There are serious limitations in existing evaluations of adaptation options: Economic benefits and costs are important criteria but are not sufficient to adequately determine the appropriateness of adaptation measures; there also has been little research to date on the roles and responsibilities in adaptation of individuals, communities, corporations, private and public institutions, governments, and international organizations.Given the scope and variety of specific adaptation options across sectors, individuals, communities, and locations, as well as the variety of participants-private and publicinvolved in most adaptation initiatives, it is probably infeasible to systematically evaluate lists of particular adaptation measures; improving and applying knowledge on the constraints and opportunities for enhancing adaptive capacity is necessary to reduce vulnerabilities associated with climate change.1. Climate change cannot be totally avoided.2. Anticipatory and precautionary adaptation is more effective and less costly than forced, last-minute, emergency adaptation or retrofitting.3. Climate change may be more rapid and more pronounced than current estimates suggest. Unexpected events are possible.4. Immediate benefits can be gained from better adaptation to climate variability and extreme atmospheric events.5. Immediate benefits also can be gained by removing maladaptive policies and practices.6. Climate change brings opportunities as well as threats. Future benefits can result from climate change.Adaptation here is taken to be a human intervention to address the effects of climate change, and does not include the autonomous response of the ecosystems themselves, for example an increased net primary productivity in many species due to the increased levels of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (IPCC 2001b).Adaptation options and their implementation are thus strongly dependent on institutional capacity in the region or country. Specifically, institutional capacity includes both financial and human resources as well as the political will to address the adaptation options for climate change. Such political will can often be related to the national current and future socioeconomic development and the current extent of the country's exposure to climate change.The potential for adaptation is more limited for developing countries, which are projected to be the most adversely affected.Adaptation appears to be easier if the climate changes are modest and/or gradual rather than large and/or abrupt. Many of the adaptation options can not only address climate change Adaptations vary according to the system in which they occur, who undertakes them, the climatic stimuli that prompts them, and their timing, functions, forms, and effects. In unmanaged natural systems, adaptation is autonomous and reactive; it is the process by which species and ecosystems respond to changed conditions. This chapter focuses on adaptations consciously undertaken by humans, including those in economic sectors, managed ecosystems, resource use systems, settlements, communities, and regions. In human systems, adaptation is undertaken by private decision makers and by public agencies or governments.Adaptation depends greatly on the adaptive capacity or adaptability of an affected system, region, or community to cope with the impacts and risks of climate change. The adaptive capacity of communities is determined by their socioeconomic characteristics. Enhancement of adaptive capacity represents a practical means of coping with changes and uncertainties in climate, including variability and extremes. In this way, enhancement of adaptive capacity reduces vulnerabilities and promotes sustainable development.Adaptation to climate change has the potential to substantially reduce many of the adverse impacts of climate change and enhance beneficial impacts-though neither without cost nor without leaving residual damage.The key features of climate change for vulnerability and adaptation are those related to variability and extremes, not simply changed average conditions. Most sectors and regions and communities are reasonably adaptable to changes in average conditions, particularly if they are gradual. However, these communities are more vulnerable and less adaptable to changes in the frequency and/or magnitude of conditions other than average, especially extremes.Sectors and regions will tend to adapt autonomously to changes in climate conditions. Human systems have evolved a wide range of strategies to cope with climatic risks; these strategies have potential applications to climate change vulnerabilities. However, losses from climatic variations and extremes are substantial and, in some sectors, increasing. These losses indicate that autonomous adaptation has not been sufficient to offset damages associated with temporal variations in climatic conditions. The ecological, social, and economic costs of relying on reactive, autonomous adaptation to the cumulative effects of climate change are substantial.Planned anticipatory adaptation has the potential to reduce vulnerability and realize opportunities associated with climate change, regardless of autonomous adaptation. Implementation of adaptation policies, programs, and measures usually will have immediate benefits, as well as future benefits. Adaptation measures are likely to be implemented only if they are consistent with or integrated with decisions or programs that address nonclimatic stresses. The costs of adaptation often are marginal to other management or development costs.The capacity to adapt varies considerably among regions, countries, and socioeconomic groups and will vary over time. The most vulnerable regions and communities are those that are highly exposed to hazardous climate change effects and have limited adaptive capacity.Countries with limited economic resources, low levels of technology, poor information and skills, poor infrastructure, unstable or weak institutions, and inequitable empowerment and access to resources have little capacity to adapt and are highly vulnerable.Enhancement of adaptive capacity is a necessary condition for reducing vulnerability, particularly for the most vulnerable regions, nations, and socioeconomic groups. Activities required for the enhancement of adaptive capacity are essentially equivalent to those promoting sustainable development. Climate adaptation and equity goals can be jointly pursued by initiatives that promote the welfare of the poorest members of society-for example, by improving food security, facilitating access to safe water and health care, and providing shelter and access to other resources. Development decisions, activities, and programs play important roles in modifying the adaptive capacity of communities and regions, impacts but could also provide \"win-win\" option for other problems, such as wetland degradation (IPCC 2001b). Adaptation options are often limited by our state of scientific knowledge. However, implementing these options, especially the \"win-win\" options, is often a function of political and governance decisions rather than of the state of scientific knowledge (Finlayson 1999).Adaptation options should be considered within overall frameworks for sustainable development and should not conflict with the wise use of wetlands. However, given the inertia in some wetland species and functions, the development of adaptation options may not result in rapid responses (Gitay et al 2001). In addition, there is also likely to be institutional inertia.For example, implementation of management plans may be on a ten-year cycle, and that could affect the planning and implementation of adaptation options.Monitoring of adaptation options should be considered to be an essential feature so that the overall adaptive framework, which should be responsive to the changes being observed either as a result of the adaptation measures or some other factors, can be modified as needed. In this sense the framework for adaptation and mitigation options illustrates the extent of connections that exist between wetlands, their goods and services, and various pressures, including that of climate change.In Vietnam, synergies between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction have been increasingly recognised, as most disasters in the country have their origins in weather and climate. It is estimated that 70 percent of the Vietnamese population are exposed to risks from such hazards. Many social protection instruments are also already being delivered on a large scale, meaning that systems or mechanisms are already in place and can be modified to take account of climate risks.According to the Social Protection Strategy of Vietnam 2011-2020, social protection aims to target vulnerable groups including the poor and those affected by natural calamities, including climate hazards. Social protection in Vietnam already includes some activities that support disaster risk reduction, such as access to health services, support during disasters and an agricultural insurance pilot.In Vietnam's National Strategy for Disaster Mitigation and Management to 2020 articulates that 'measures for disaster mitigation and management must be compatible with measures for poverty reduction and natural resource protection, so that development can be equitable and sustained'. By introducing a national Community Based Disaster Risk Management Program in 2009, the Government also recognises the importance of awareness raising, risk assessment and planning, capacity development and small-scale mitigation for the most at-risk communities.Opposite you can see examples of how different social protection modalities could be used to address some of Vietnam's most pressing climate change impacts. These impacts are interacting with non-climate pressures such as environmental degradation, deforestation, industrialisation and modernisation of agriculture, population growth, and urbanisation. For particular vulnerable groups, the impacts of climate change are also linked to underlying inequalities related to factors such as gender, discrimination, illiteracy, language, and governance.• More intense precipitation and shifting rainfall seasons; unseasonal rain, leading to more irregular floods, landslides and drought• Extreme events; change in intensity, seasonality and geography: drought, floods, typhoons, wildfires Adaptation to climate change requires thinking and acting beyond immediate needs to address tomorrow's challenges; but for Vietnam's poorest communities, forward planning and long-term livelihood adaptation is often a luxury that they cannot afford.The Government of Vietnam and its development partners already have policies and programs with some degree of integration. There is also a growing body of global experience to learn from and to help guide integrated approaches to both policy and programming. This Learning Series offers an outline of the concept of climate responsive social protection and presents the rationale and recommendations for further development of this approach in Vietnam. This rationale is supported by case studies and examples from Vietnam and around the world.Social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction all seek to mitigate risks faced by the poor and provide support so that individuals, communities, institutions and ultimately societies can better manage shocks and stresses in both the short and long term.Providing immediate social protection provides 'space' for poorer households to address the longer term impacts of climate change. At the same time the longer term focus of integrated approaches means that there is less chance that gains from social protection will be eroded by extreme events or slower changes that impact livelihoods. There are also practical arguments of improved cost-effectiveness and efficiency for integrating social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction approaches.The integration of social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction is known as adaptive or climate responsive social protection. Climate responsive social protection is an integrated approach for reducing the socio-economic vulnerability of poor people, and enhancing overall resilience amongst at-risk populations. It requires understanding of the interlinked nature of the shocks and stresses that poor people face and the potential synergies to be gained from bringing disciplines together.Globally, social protection is being recognised as essential in attempts to scale up disaster risk reduction, and a number of countries around the world are acknowledging the importance of integrating the three approaches; some at a national planning level, some through implementing individual programs. International organisations and multilateral and bilateral donors such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank, and the UK Department for International Development, have also released policies, strategies or position papers encouraging integration of the concepts.For Vietnam, a nation where development is jeopardised by climate change and disasters, and where inequality prevents households most at risk from climate change from accessing resources for adaptation, the question is whether resilience can be fostered at all without an integrated approach.Evidence shows that the more projects integrate social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, the more likely they are to improve the livelihoods of poor people.• Globally, social protection mechanisms are progressively being identified as important modalities for achieving and scaling up disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. • In Vietnam, synergies between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction have been increasingly recognised, as the shocks and stresses people face are becoming more and more intertwined. The importance of considering how social protection can support goals related to climate change has been noted. • There is already a degree of integration in Vietnam's social protection and climate change strategies and policies. Further integrating the approaches will require a long-term vision of resilience, yet immediate measures can be taken to strengthen existing social protection modalities for long term resilience.Opportunities and Challenges for integrating social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.As outlined opposite, some existing government and non-government social protection programs are already supporting climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction goals. Specific opportunities and challenges for how two key existing social protection schemes could be adapted to better support climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction goals are provided below.Advantages: Provides pay out when major shocks occur and can encourage farmers to invest in agricultural production as it reduces risk. Developing weather-based indexes will also increase overall knowledge and understanding of the risks of major weather related shocks in Vietnam.Challenges: Improving access amongst the most vulnerable groups exposed to weather based livelihood shocks is important. The pay-out process also needs to be streamlined to prevent households from taking up negative coping strategies while they are waiting for payment. The program needs to become financially sustainable for insurers and the government.Opportunity 2: Public works programs through geographically targeted poverty reduction and development programs (Programs 135 and 30A)Advantages: Public Works Programs can provide guaranteed income during lean work periods as a social protection mechanism. Schemes can then be scaled up following emergencies and scaled back down afterwards to prevent negative coping strategies to support DRR. By linking existing Public Works Programs to DRR and CCA objectives, infrastructure to support community resilience can be built (such as irrigation canals, mangroves or sea walls), and training undertaken to build more resilient livelihoods.Challenges: Public Works Programs need to support cash transfers, rather than food or in kind transfers, to better promote adaptation goals. This needs to be reliable and set at a level high enough to support adaptation goals. All infrastructure needs to be resilient to climate change, and a broader definition of 'work' is required to incorporate training and other community assets that could support adaptation.Analysis for integrating social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in Vietnam:• Social protection, CCA and DRR already have strong government buy in and receive good levels of funding (compared to other countries in the region).• A number of development partners are already implementing integrated programs.• National policy for each of the three disciplines already have some level of integrated language and objectives. An array of existing national social protection mechanisms already have elements of CCA and DRR incorporated.• The people and Government of Vietnam are generally well aware about the need to address climate change which should help improve acceptance for programs that incorporate social protection, CCA and DRR.• There is limited awareness in country about the benefits of integrated social protection, CCA and DRR approaches.• Sea level rise leading to inundation, erosion and salt water intrusion• Increased temperature, increased hot days, higher levels of humidity• Increase in frequency and length of heatwaves• For climate sensitive crops, livestock and aquaculture: loss, reduced yield and quality, market disruption, heath stress, increased and new animal/plant pests and diseases, invasive species• Disruption of non-farming livelihoods that depend on agriculture: construction, handicraft, small business, commodity trading, seasonal labour, food processing, garment making, etc.• Reduced income, loan and debt repayment• Damage or loss to livelihood and non-livelihood assets• Reduced mobility, potential displacement or need for resettlement• Temporary or long term water, food, electricity, telecommunication shortages or disruptions• Degradation and depletion of natural resources and ecosystems: water, land/soil, biodiversity, forest, and air• Weakened ecosystem services (pollination, water purification, soil formation, carbon storage, biodiversity)• Increased mortality and diseases, psycho-social and other health-related stress, decreased labour productivity• Malnutrition (protein decrease in crops) and food security (food access, utilisation and price stability)• Disruption to health (including family planning), education and social protection servicesPossible climate responsive social protection responses of protection at the local, regional, and national levels to support climate vulnerable people. This will require an overarching multi-stakeholder commitment to invest more resources in populations that are poor and with low capacity to manage climate hazards and livelihood stresses. It will also require senior level buy in and prioritisation of resilience initiatives.Currently there is limited integration and coordination in terms of planning and programming between the ministries in Vietnam responsible for social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. A harmonised approach to planning and programming will require investment at a national and local level so that policy experts and practitioners in government become more versed across all three fields. Effort will be required to facilitate co-operation and joint planning processes and to design harmonised approaches.Social protection policymakers and practitioners need to integrate planning for climate change impacts and plan for a higher frequency and severity of disasters. Social protection mechanisms should consider built-in feedback loops with early warning systems to determine how climate change will impact existing schemes through direct and indirect impacts like food price volatility, food insecurity and migration. Assets developed through social protection schemes like public works need to be 'climate smart' and built for increased resilience.At a national and local level, policymakers and practitioners working to support climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction will need to consider how existing or new social protection initiatives can facilitate their goals. This will require an expanded perspective of risk and understanding that current vulnerability reduction can build adaptive capacity to be called upon in times of future risk.Across all three fields, policy makers and practitioners in Vietnam should consider how social protection programs can be designed to allow coverage to be rapidly expanded and retracted during and after disasters and shocks. Achieving scalability requires targeting, registry, and payment systems that can identify, enroll, and make transfers to additional eligible participants as well as funding arrangements that can mobilise adequate resources on short notice.A livelihood-oriented approach in all three fields will support enhanced resilienceImproving the resilience of vulnerable populations in Vietnam will require a greater focus on livelihoods across social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation planning and program implementation. The bulk of existing social protection funds are not spent on livelihood supporting mechanisms whereas disaster risk reduction spending has also been heavily geared towards infrastructure spending and awareness raising. Providing livelihood training programs to the poor and climate vulnerable will be particularly important.• Local level governments require better understanding of how to integrate CCA and DRR at a local level.• Important coverage gaps exist for women, and people from ethnic minorities to accessing existing social protection and climate change adaptation schemes and services.• Training gaps exist in terms of linking people to fast-changing labour needs which could help people adapt away from climate sensitive livelihoods in climate vulnerable areas.• Improving access amongst women, people from ethnic minority communities and people living in climate vulnerable areas to existing social protection mechanisms will have immediate returns in terms of improving resilience.• Cost efficiencies can be achieved by integrating CCA and DRR into existing social protection initiatives.• Lessons have been learnt from public works schemes, cash programming and agricultural insurance in Vietnam that could be used to develop larger scale and better initiatives.• Linking differing programmatic approaches could significantly improve resilience, for example, climate resilient livelihood techniques training could be linked to existing microfinance schemes to improve access amongst the poor and to enhance outcomes.• Reorienting social protection towards improving resilience amongst the poor will require a reprioritisation of social protection funding.• Coordinating the disparate ministries that oversee the varying aspects of social protection, CCA and DRR at a national and local level will be required.• The cost of social protection, CCA and DRR are all likely to increase as the impacts of climate change take hold.• Providing integrated programming will be hard in the northern mountain region where social protection services are already difficult to implement.• Incorporating the three approaches will require skilled policy and program staff who understand each approach and can identify opportunities for integration.Integrated approaches to social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction programming are becoming essential for supporting resilience to climate change. In Vietnam, where there are already strong social protection mechanisms in place that can be adjusted to meet the objectives of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, there are also economic efficiencies to be realised through integration. Integrating the approaches will require a long-term vision of resilience, embedded into national policy, budgets and programs. Yet even at a local level, efforts can be made now to integrate approaches and enhance longer term resilience amongst communities at risk from the impacts of climate change.The increasing impacts of climate change and the interlinked nature of shocks and stresses to livelihoods amongst the poor will require more formal, forward-looking and systematic formsA renewed focus on supporting poor and at risk populations with a particular emphasis on womenThis will require a detailed mapping of how geographical climate impacts overlay on existing mapping of poverty and inequality patterns. Integrated programming to support resilience will require an understanding of (i) how climate change is likely to affect a geographic area; (ii) which physical, natural, or institutional assets and livelihoods need to be strengthened; and (iii) how programs and processes can be designed to best empower the most vulnerable to participate and gain benefit. Their needs to be a particular focus on how to better include vulnerable women and people from ethnic minorities in program design and implementation as they are presently the most at-risk groups to both poverty and climate change.Monitoring and measuring impact, with an aim of reducing dependency on social protection through improving resilienceGlobally there is limited empirical research related to integrated programming approaches. To ensure that initiatives are working, robust monitoring and evaluation should be built into programming design. Most importantly, integrating programming that seeks to support resiliency will need a clear definition of resiliency with clear objectives built into every initiative. Tracking improvements in resilience capacity is important to ensure that individuals, household and communities are ultimately being supported to a point where they no longer require support.World Climate change has several implications for human security especially given its wide-ranging impacts on critical livelihood sectors and on communities with the least capacity to adapt. While women are important actors in managing natural resources and environmental change, it is also important to focus on the complex questions about how different social groups experience vulnerability to climate change. Both biophysical and social vulnerability have implications to economically poor and socially excluded women and men that shape their livelihood strategies. Climate change is superimposed on existing vulnerabilities. However, given that access and management of environmental resources are socially constructed (Masika et al 1997;UNEP 1995), it is fair to assert that women and men experience vulnerability to environmental change differently, and hence, environmental degradation will have different impacts on women and men.Adapting to climate change will require a broad range of efforts, incentives, resources, commitment and active interventions throughout most parts of society. Women should be at the centre of adaptation programmes because they are a particularly vulnerable group Gender-sensitive responses will require more than the collection of disaggregated data illustrating differential impacts on women and men (if available). They will require an in-depth understanding and rigorous analysis of existing inequalities and gender power relations between differently positioned women and men, and of the ways in which climate change exacerbates these inequalities and relations (Brody et al. 2008;Verma 2001). For these reasons, it is important that women actively and equitably participate in policy and decision-making processes within their household, community and national and international institutions (both customary and statutory), so that their knowledge, contributions, agency and work are valued and their capacities, confidence and voice are boosted and enhanced. One important lesson in advancing gender issues and analysis is the importance and critical difference between gender awareness, gender promotion and gender analysis. Not all the same actors, approaches and methods may be involved in creating greater awareness of the importance of gender and climate change adaptation issues, actively promoting it, or scientifically and systematically analysing the differentiated impacts, resilience and adaptation strategies of women and men (Verma 2001). Gender awareness and advancement of gender issues and equity is needed from actors from all different disciplines, institutions, organisations and contexts.\"Women play very crucial role in climate change adaptation and mitigation, even though their contribution is overlooked or less acknowledged. Many of their works related to natural resources management are contributing to mitigation actions. Whereas, women perform many activities for the well being of their family members, which simultaneously can be regarded as well designed adaptation practices.Women adopt diverse and intense household resource-use strategies to cope with food deficit situations, especially during lean seasons and natural disasters. They intensify their efforts in homestead production and seek non-farm production options for the well-being of the family. Moreover, women perform some infrastructural development to conserve the soil and water and also to avoid floods by building embankments which presumably make a large contribution to the efforts required to confront climate risks.\" (Baten and Khan, 8:2010)However, gender analysis requires rigorous, in-depth technical skills of analysis, as in any other field. As well, efforts must be made to ensure rigour, depth and further strengthening of technical capacity in this emerging field. In-depth gender analysis cannot be a mere 'add-on', a box to check off, or a rapid method of \"doing gender\"-not if it is to accurately reflect women's and men's complex gender realities in the face of climate change (ibid.). At the same time, gender awareness and promotion is critically valuable for political and environmental action, for creating gender-positive action that makes a difference, for challenging genderbiased and blind discourses and inequities, and for changing research and development agendas in gender-positive directions.It is also worth remembering that women are not a homogenous category, that they are differentiated by age, class, caste, marital status, life-cycle positioning, ethnicity, profession, etc., in ways that affect, shape and magnify or reduce their vulnerabilities, risks and coping strategies. For instance, women are more acutely vulnerable to climate change because of limited access to resources and decisionmaking power if they are of lower caste, poorer economic class, heads of households (both de jure and de facto), younger in early stages of marriage, and young girls in times of disasters and economic crisis, etc. Women of lower castes are sometimes disadvantaged in terms of status, have limited access, control and ownership of resources, and are excluded from decision-making at community level and disaster preparedness planning (Leduc and Shrestha 2008). Women and young girls forced to migrate are also exposed to multiple vulnerabilities, including the risk of rape and trafficking (discussed earlier). Women and men tend to perceive different risks as important and attribute different meanings to material realities and environmental changes (Moore 1993) and the experiences they face due to socially constructed roles, responsibilities and identities.Women are often the managers of natural resources with knowledge and skills that are critical for sustaining the environment. They are at the frontline of coping and adapting to climate and other critical drivers of change. Although they are often excluded and under-represented in decisionmaking institutions and policy processes regarding climate change, women are active because of limited access, control and ownership over resources, unequal participation in decision and policy making, lower incomes and levels of formal education, and extraordinarily high workloads. On the other hand, women need to be at the heart of adaptation efforts because of the significant roles they play in agriculture, food security, household livelihoods and labour productivity. Within these critical roles, women have valuable knowledge, skills and agency in managing natural resources and are often at the front-line of adaptation to climate change in the context of high rates of men's out-migration. Thus, women provide a central opportunity for promoting sustainable mountain development.Furthermore, adaptation efforts will also have to address the full range of challenges and opportunities related to gender inequities, including cultural, economic, social, political, health and environmental issues. The latter factors are very relevant to resilience and adaptive capacity (UNEP 2009;2010). Among the critical factors that can assist in gender sensitive adaptation are increased access and ownership of land, micro-credit directed to women, water, livestock, storage facilities, agricultural inputs, markets, education and green technology. These must all be culturally appropriate, socially acceptable, responsive and practical for women's needs (Devendra and Chantalakhana 2002;Hussain 2007;UNEP 2009;2010;Shackleton et al. 2010;Sijbesma et al. 2009). It is critically important to spend the time necessary to factor into development research and action the approaches that focus on women's demands, concerns, experiences, priorities and needs. Women who take part in action-oriented research often have a clear sense of what they need to adapt better to changes in their environments, climate and livelihoods (Mitchell et al. 2007). Moreover, innovative strategies need to be grounded in mountain and culturally specific realities, needs and aspirations (Khadka et al., forthcoming).According to a recent report on gender and adaptation to climate change, women \"have been experiencing changes to the weather that have affected their lives, and are adapting their practices in order to secure their livelihoods. They might not be aware of all the possible adaptation strategies, of all the ways to overcome constraints to the ones they are using, but they certainly know their present situation best and have an urgent list of priorities to secure a livelihood in the face of the new challenges\" (Mitchell et al. 2007:14). For instance, these needs include initiatives, trainings and exposure exchange visits on appropriate and culturally specific crop diversification, adaptive agricultural practices, post-harvesting approaches, innovations in animal husbandry and alternative livelihood practices). To reduce the vulnerability of women, and increase the capacity of society as a whole to adapt to a changing climate, women will have to be central in the coming decades if sustainable adaptation strategies are to be implemented.agents who have developed locally adapted, appropriate and sustainable coping strategies and responses within the scope of limited access to resources and disadvantageous gender power relations.Given that both vulnerability and climate change are socially constructed, contested and gendered concepts (Denton 2002) and are further shaped by discourses that often \"suspend\" and ignore gender issues, it is important to \"dig down and pull up the deep roots of the discourses that frame gender and climate politics\" (MacGregor 2010:236). In this regard, it is also critical to highlight the ways in which certain concepts of knowledge, culture and power relations will shape institutional discourses, ideologies and practices of development and the everyday practices of women and men to manage their environments and natural resources (German et al. 2010).Imagine what is possible if climate change policies and initiatives actively address dominant and often gender blind discourses and the power relations that shape much of gender inequality throughout out the world. Envision the possibilities if we actively work against the gender \"evaporation\" that more often than not tends to take place when we attempt to gender \"mainstream\" or integrate gender issues in the face of limited resources, political will, commitment and systematic approaches (Verma, forthcoming). Imagine what is possible if women are given due recognition and are included in development and policy processes as strategically important development actors in their own right.There is little doubt that women as agents and adaptors to climate change are key to sustainable adaptation in mountain regions. To reduce the vulnerability of women and increase the capacity of society as a whole to adapt to a changing climate, women must be central in sustainable adaptation strategies to be implemented in the coming decades, and if valuable context-specific adaptation strategies are to be given the chance they deserve to provide hope for the future.The differential effects of climate shocks on men's and women's well-being and assetsDisparities exist between men's and women's access to and control over key assets. Rural women in developing countries generally have fewer assets and rights than do men; they are more vulnerable to losing their assets and rights due to separation, divorce, or widowhood; and they have less access to capital, extension services, inputs, and other resources related to agricultural production. Nevertheless, women's asset holdings often have positive effects on important development outcomes, including household food security and human capital formation. Consequently, helping women gain greater access to and control over key assets can increase resilience of households and communities to climate change.A review of the literature suggests that considerable differences exist in the ways that climate change and climate shocks affect men and women in the areas of agricultural production, foodThis was repackaged from the original article entitled Gender, Climate Change, and Group-Based: Approaches to Adaptation written by Julia A. Behrman, Elizabeth Bryan and Amelia Goh. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.health and development. In times of stress, as in the case of climate shocks, women often reduce their own food intake or sell assets, such as jewelry or livestock, to ensure their household's food security, while men seek additional income-earning opportunities. The differential impacts on women's and men's physical health are not clear in the literature, apart from one study suggesting that the indirect effects of malnutrition put women and children at higher risk of contracting diseases in postdisaster situations. There is limited evidence of the differential impacts of climate-related events on men's and women's physical, psychological, and emotional health, but women often report more psychological and emotional distress following climate shocks.Climate variability increases the scarcity of basic household resources, such as water, fuel, and fodder, and in turn increases women's workloads in terms of the time and the energy required to source, collect, and carry these resources to meet household needs. The additional time devoted to this single activity is also likely to have negative impacts on the longer term health and well-being of women and girls, and can erode their economic opportunities to participate in education, training, and income-earning activities. Natural resource scarcity precipitated by climate change may also increase conflicts over available resources. Evidence is still patchy, but better methods and approaches to investigating the impact of climate change on human security and conflict are being developed. It is likely that climate-induced migration of men in search of work has consequences for both men and women, albeit in different ways.The immediate impact of climate-related disasters such as hurricanes and floods on individuals is determined by their ability to evacuate to safety in time. Sociocultural factors, such as social norms that prevent women from moving freely in the community or learning to swim, and access to information, such as early warning systems, determine who survives natural disasters. Women tend to be more vulnerable and have less access to resources, assistance, and support than do men in the aftermath of extreme climate events.security, human health, natural resources, conflict and migration, and natural disasters. The gender-differentiated impacts of climate change are neither straightforward nor predictable. They vary by context and are mediated by a host of sociocultural, economic, ecological, and political factors.In terms of agricultural production, increasing climate variability tends to lower agricultural production and has different impacts on women's and men's well-being and assets, including land, livestock, financial, and social capital. The extent to which crop losses result in asset and livelihood losses for both women and men depends on the context, as well as on men's and women's household roles and asset holdings. Increasing climate variability causes both women and men to invest more time and labor in agricultural production, but women's workloads tend to be heavier because of their additional domestic commitments. Women, however, have less access to agricultural technologies and inputs, which puts them at a disadvantage in adapting to climate change impacts.The literature suggests that climate change may also affect men's, women's, and children's food security differently, but women and children are often more affected in terms of their Women and men differ, that much is obvious. But many of the ways in which society treats men and women differently-such as division of labour, access to credit, decision-making power, ownership of land, opportunities for education and many others-are social constructs rather than biological facts. Those differences can change, and can change swiftly. The development community has embraced these ideas and explored ways to transform perceptions of gender roles, but more upstream research has been slow to move beyond seeing gender as the biological differences between men and women.For that reason the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has made the need to understand and transform gender dynamics in relation to climate change one of its most important priorities. Given that women make up 40% of the agricultural labour force in low-income countries, and are largely responsible for household food security, transforming gender perceptions and norms is indeed critical for smallholder adaptation to climate change.This article was drawn from the original article entitled Gender and climate change: Enabling people to reach their full potential in adapting agriculture to climate change distributed by CCAFS Coordinating Unit. Refer to the source box towards the end of this article for a complete reference to the original article.The first four sets of questions will help to fill evidence gaps in current and planned CCAFS research, while the fifth will encourage researchers to undertake gender-differentiated assessment of proposed solutions.\"Many of the ways in which society treats men and women differently... are social constructs rather than biological facts.\"The expert group identified a need for new gender-climate change focused research methods and capacity building in CCAFS target regions. A collaborative effort with FAO gender experts led to the development of training guidelines on Gender and Climate Change Research in Agriculture and Food Security for Rural Development. The CCAFS-FAO guide, also available in French and Spanish, contains practical advice for field researchers to help them document the differences between men and women and also explains why gender-sensitive approaches are so important for initiatives aimed at enhancing adaptive capacity to climate change. Equipped with the guide and training in gender-sensitive participatory research methods, CCAFS collaborators (and others) are going into the field better prepared to thoughtfully and equitably engage both women and men. These approaches allow researchers and community members to reach a more nuanced understanding of the various adaptation and mitigation options that are best suited to the needs of different kinds of people facing a wide range of environmental and other changes.Paying attention to gender, as the training guide suggests, can reveal surprising ways in which a minor change can help women. For example, during a CCAFS study in Kaffrine, Senegal, it emerged that while men like to get weather forecasts from rural radio stations, women prefer to receive the information through more personal contact. Forecasts on the radio continue, but in addition the local agricultural extension agent now brings information from meteorologists directly to local women farmers. Results show that farmers who took these forecasts into account-whether from the radio or from a personal contact-were better able to plan for the season ahead and increase their productivity.Research has shown that women often grow 20-30% less food than men for their efforts, the cumulative impact of all the ways in which societies treat women differently. If this gender gap were eliminated, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) estimates that total agricultural output in developing countries would increase by 2.5-4%, which could reduce the number of hungry people by 12-17%.The need for a rapid and wholesale transformation of gender relationships is urgent. Biology is not destiny. That much ought to be obvious too.As input to this planning process, CCAFS convened a group of leading experts to identify key research questions related to gender and climate change.• How might women and men differ in the effects of long-run climate change, how might their adaptation options and strategies differ (as individuals, in households and in communities) and how do their capacities to adapt differ?• What causes and characterises gender differences in vulnerability to weather-related risks, and how might properly targeted information help women and men to manage such risks?• What institutional arrangements would offer appropriate gender-specific incentives to reduce carbon footprint, and can these institutions be made more equitable with respect to gender?• How do the options for dealing with climate change differ for men and women and at different spatial and temporal scales, and how do gender relations and control over resources affect decisions over which adaptation and mitigation portfolios are adopted?• What can be done to address the different needs of women and men facing the challenges of climate change?CCAFS The participants were presented with a preliminary literature review and asked to add their knowledge and experience to supplement anything that was missing. In addition, QUNO presented the working hypotheses that underpin our work and approach for comment and refinement.This report summarizes the five main topic areas addressed during the two days of rich discussion, following a sequence that broadly reflects the flow of conversation:'Formal' and 'informal' innovation systemsParticipants debated the value of viewing SSF innovation systems as distinct from more 'formal' agricultural innovation systems.2 A consensus was reached that there is less a strict dichotomy than a continuum between 'informal' and 'formal' innovation systems, but that there is still value in focusing attention on the less formalized end of the spectrum, as alternative conceptions of innovation need to be represented in policy discussions on innovation in agriculture. Importantly, focusing on SSF innovation does not exclude collaborative research efforts. Participants emphasized the synergistic relationship between 'formal' and 'informal' innovation systems and the importance of institutionalizing SSF innovation within the public sector in particular. 'Collective innovation' between public sector scientists and SSF innovators involves the cross-fertilization of knowledge, synthesis and validation of research results.Participants agreed that, while acknowledging the dangers of oversimplification, more 'formalized' institutions and organizations engaged in agricultural innovation, including both public sector and private industry research and development efforts, tend to be more marketorientated and commodity-based. Outputs of innovation processes are generally protected using IPR, with their value framed in terms of economic benefits: either to individual farmers (in the case of the public sector), or to the corporation (in the case of private industry). This perspective discounts outputs that are more intangible and difficult to quantify but benefit communities and societies at large.SSFs continually innovate by experimenting on-farm and adapting to changing conditions. The meeting discussed the many different forms this can take. It may involve technical and/or institutional change and extends well beyond the enhancement of genetic diversity, encompassing farm income diversification strategies, new management practices, as well as new ways of organizing and sharing information.One example of institutional innovation was cited where farmers actively involved in on-farm conservation are pushing to become a legal entity so that they may be eligible to share in the benefits arising from the use of plant genetic resources housed in the International Treaty's Multilateral System. An example of technical innovation was cited where women farmers, in developing novel food processing and preservation techniques, are contributing to local food security and nutrition.Innovation as a process happens through networks. It is informal, social and cumulative in nature as individuals and communities build off one another and strategically adapt new tools and techniques to suit their particular circumstances.The group agreed that the definition of innovation is significantly broader than what is conventionally considered, i.e. the development of particular technologies that can be scaledup and widely disseminated to farmers. Outcomes are often not as easy to quantify or commoditize as they are with newly developed varieties.Many participants emphasized that it is important to consider the power dynamics at play in defining what is considered innovation, and upon what criteria decisions are made to support certain kinds of innovation. Innovation where it is easier to capture economic benefit, for example where it contributes to market growth, is more often supported than innovation where economic value is harder to assign, such as in the case of a mixture of landraces 1. SSF innovation in practice: what does it look like, who is involved, and the dual nature of private gain and public goods that may be generated through SSF innovation.2. Drivers of SSF innovation, how these drivers may differ from those of 'formal' sector agricultural innovation systems and what that means for creating an enabling environment for the former and partnerships between the two;3. Building bridges and facilitating equal relationships among various actors engaged in agricultural innovation;4. How conventional policies put in place to foster innovation in agriculture may impede SSF innovation, and what alternative policies may contribute to a more supportive, enabling environment for SSF; and SSFs' innovative capacity and recognize its value to the international community, including any critical points of leverage.In May 2015, QUNO (Quaker United Nations Office) convened a small expert consultation in Geneva to discuss small-scale farmer innovation systems.The event brought together 19 participants from 12 countries, including some people in Prolinnova network. This attached report brings QUNO's synthesis of what was discussed over the two days.Additional crosscutting themes that came up throughout the two days included:• The importance of farmers' informed participation in policy processes;• The need to communicate strategically with bodies engaged in overlapping areas of interest, given the multi-faceted and often intangible value of SSF innovation;• The tension between the push to scale-up innovation to achieve broader impact or spillover effects from investment and the highly-localized nature of SSF innovation;• The general orientation of institutions and organizations engaged in agricultural development towards innovation that is quantifiable;• The 'projectization' of research and development investment;• The increased involvement of the private sector in agricultural research and the diminishment of the public sector both in terms of resources and its embrace of marketbased solutions; and• The need to reposition the public sector to better reflect the public interest including food security, poverty eradication and the support of SSFs as innovators providing direct and indirect benefits locally and globally.The final section of this report documents research gaps identified throughout the consultation and QUNO's next steps.Who innovates?The meeting recognized that SSFs live close to the land and have an important role in understanding ecosystem complexity. Women play particularly important roles in on-farm experimentation, conservation and with nutrition. Indigenous and local communities' dynamic knowledge systems are particularly valuable for facilitating innovation. While not all farmers may be innovators within their communities, many have the capacity and potential to become innovators with confidence building nurturance and space for their voices to be heard. It was noted that many SSFs will rapidly integrate innovation from colleagues and fellow farmers into their own agricultural practices.in research and extension services. The shrinking public sector and influx of public-private partnerships and 'philanthro-capitalists' has led to a shift in focus away from the public interest and those most in need to market-based solutions for those with the ability to pay.Correlated with this shrinkage is the 'projectization' of public investment in agricultural development, wherein short-term funding is allocated to specific projects and small islands of success are achieved, rather than institutionalized and sustained support for farmer-led research. This has also had a chilling effect on more basic, upstream agricultural research. Donor-driven projects, whether public sector or philanthropic, tend to have a short timeline and need to demonstrate quantifiable impacts very quickly. Donor recipients must prioritize the development-specific outputs that can be scaled-up and out ('spillover effects') rather than processes for building capacity to innovate. Participants discussed how this is generally not conducive to supporting SSF innovation, which is understood to include conservation and development of agrobiodiversity and local knowledge systems over the long-term, and requires social capital and capacities that take time to foster.A vibrant public sector (to match the now robust private sector engagement and investment) has an important role to play in supporting SSF innovation.Participants discussed the reasons why SSFs innovate, highlighting that drivers are contextspecific and can affect individuals and communities differently. Farmers are both proactive and reactive, responding to both negative pressures and positive opportunities. A few participants highlighted farmers' curiosity and propensity for experimentation, something frequently underestimated due to the assumption that farmers only make changes in response to external pressures. SSFs generally innovate in order to address needs at the individual and community level, rather than for the explicit purpose of scaling-up innovations to higher levels.Participants identified five main motivations for farmers to innovate: (1) environmental pressures and climate change, (2) the need for livelihood improvement and food security at the household and community levels, (3) new market opportunities, (4) cultural and spiritual values ascribed to sustainable use and management of the land, and ( 5) personal attributes such as pride and curiosity, social recognition and the desire to avoid relationships of dependency. The first two motivations are push factors (for survival), the third is a pull factor (for opportunity) and the last two are neither, which raises interesting questions regarding how on-farm innovation may be nurtured as opposed to incentivized.There may be significant overlap between what drives farmers, public sector researchers and scientists and private industry stakeholders to innovate. Nevertheless, consensus was reached that SSFs have a uniquely broad set of motivations for pursuing new ways of doing things on-farm.Private industry actors are driven to innovate by access to new markets, consumer demand, new technologies and IPR (pull factors). Public sector actors may have broader social and ecological goals driving innovation such as poverty alleviation and ecosystem resilience (push factors), although public investment in agricultural innovation has been in decline over the past several decades. There is a risk that the interests of industry stakeholders dominate and 'capture' development goals within the context of public-private partnerships. 'Philanthrocapitalists' may be driven by altruistic motives but also tend to be market and output orientated, focused on achieving quantifiable impact.beneficial over generations, or a variety or species with no known monetary value. It is the latter where the public sector becomes critical, because it is in the public interest to support this kind of innovation and there is unlikely to be a market-based incentive for private investment. SSF innovation also often builds upon and reinforces cultural and spiritual values associated with the land, which are also not reflected in market values.Farmers themselves are not only private actors supporting local food security and rural livelihoods but also key players in the provision of public goods in the areas of health, nutrition and agroecosystem resilience.A few participants highlighted that SSFs' innovations do not necessarily, or in all cases, lead to improvements in local food security conditions or ensure environmentally sustainable outcomes. An example was cited of farmers combining four to five types of pesticides in a novel approach to increase the range of crops' resistances that negatively affected soil and water quality in the area. The criteria that SSFs use for deciding what is considered good innovation may be expanded through interaction with other knowledge systems. Supporting SSF innovation should be understood as one important avenue for pursuing positive social, economic and ecological outcomes, but insufficient by itself.Additional measures need to be in place to incentivize farmers' contributions to providing public goods and actions taken that serve the public interest.Participants debated whether and how SSF innovation can be scaled-up and out to other farming communities. It was recognized that 'technology packages', or combinations of specific outputs from either SSF or more formalized innovation processes, generally have a short half-life and may not be appropriate outside of the locality in which they were developed. On the other hand, new and better ways of doing things developed in one area may in some cases benefit others in similar climates or socio-political contexts.It is ambiguous whether policies geared towards scaling-up or exporting SSF innovations benefit both the SSF innovators themselves and SSFs in other areas. Site and region specificities were mentioned as a challenge in themselves in terms of scaling up local innovations. While a lack of consensus was reached on this point, it was highlighted that principles rather than practices can be exported widely without the risk of disseminating innovation that does not suit the specific needs and contexts of other communities. Borrowing principles from the fields of agroecology and natural resource management most relevant to SSF innovation will be useful to further inform this discussion.The shrinking public sector was brought up repeatedly throughout the consultation, and was flagged as a core issue at the outset. The public sector was identified as part of a strategy for increasing recognition of farmer knowledge, expertise and capacity and further fostering that capacity. However, the public sector is itself under pressure to take on a role more traditionally associated with that of the private sector-generating revenue for operating funds, reducing risk for private sector investment, promoting commercialization and market-driven investment the value would be assigned to the particular variety rather than the full breadth of diversity from which it was developed. The value in farmers' varieties, which are often mixtures, is their diversity and their adaptability over time rather than their uniformity and stability-qualities less easily quantified and commercialized. It was noted that some IP tools such as collective marks or geographical indications might be better suited to serve collective interests of SSFs.Fostering genuine collaboration and 'co-production' of knowledgeThe consensus was that scientists and researchers need to actively support farmer-led research and experimentation, strengthening informal systems rather than formalizing them. Farmers and researchers need to be kept on an equal footing when integrating knowledge systems.New institutional frameworks that facilitate power sharing and trust building are essential.Capacity must be built among scientists and researchers from the 'formal' sector to work within a more collaborative research framework towards the genuine co-production of knowledge.They must be open to new epistemologies outside of their training and be prepared for genuine interaction and exchange.Governance of, or control over, collaborations or innovation platforms must be at least equally in the hands of SSFs. The meeting agreed that prerequisites for this include SSFs' capacity for self-organization, capacity to resolve tensions within both partnerships and their own communities, confidence, and awareness of the interests and relative positions of other actors. Mutual respect, trust, communication and recognition of others' perspectives, worldviews and values were identified as tenets of equal partnerships. In particular, a lack of trust on the part of farmer-innovators towards other individuals and organizations hinders collaboration. To this end, the imperative that academic researchers receive innovators' consent to publish information on novel products and practices was emphasized.Intermediaries are needed to facilitate bridge building and the co-production of knowledge. Such a measure can help to ensure that collaborations are equitable and translate knowledge and ideas among parties. It was suggested by one participant that 50% of attention and resources in research and development initiatives needs to be dedicated to communication and translation of research processes and results, both literally (different languages) and figuratively (adapted to different contexts). The remaining 50% should be dedicated to the research and development effort itself. This emphasis on communication was echoed throughout the consultation.A revitalization of public sector research is also needed to bridge innovation systems. Public sector researchers working in participatory plant breeding already recognize the value of local knowledge systems. It was highlighted by several participants that public sector agricultural research undertaken by international agricultural research centres (CGIAR centres) and national agricultural research systems (NARS), if substantially reassessed and restructured, could be complementary to SSF innovation.Participants emphasized the need for SSFs to be engaged and have their voices heard within local, national, international and institutional policy making processes. The meeting noted that donor-led interventions (e.g. the G8 Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)) encouraging the adoption of hybrid-seed, fertilizers, credit provision and the commercialization of agricultural production in general are happening without the consultation of the supposed beneficiaries: small-scale farmers themselves.The drivers of innovation naturally influence the outcomes of innovation processes. Participants underscored how differences in motivations between those of farmers and 'formal' sector actors (including actors from the public sector, private industry and publicprivate partnerships) present challenges for bridging innovation systems.Participants discussed how bridges can be built between farmers and public and private institutions and organizations. The conversation centered on how formal and informal innovation systems may be bridged while recognizing a power imbalance between them.The biggest hindrance is that innovation discourse within both international institutions and national innovation strategies does not adequately recognize the innovative capacity of SSFs. The predominant logic is that agricultural innovation happens off-farm and in the hands of 'professional' breeders and scientists. SSFs' capacities to innovate are often underestimated. The focus of innovation strategies remains on raising farmers' capacities to receive and implement new technologies, rather than fostering the capacity to innovate on their own behalf to overcome specific local challenges. Collaborative efforts between innovation systems have typically involved bringing farmers' innovations into a more formalized innovation system for the ends of scaling up commercially viable 'successes'.At the same time, 'professional' breeders and scientists often lack the capacity to work directly with farmers and co-create knowledge in equal partnership. It was highlighted during the consultation that those who are considered experts often have a harder time making paradigm shifts than farmers or others who work directly with farmers. The consequence is that even when farmers are included in innovation platforms convened by 'formalized' institutions and organizations, their knowledge and innovative capacity is undervalued and unequal power dynamics are perpetuated. Innovation policy does not generally recognize SSF innovation, and by extension, does not take the broader range of drivers and motivations influencing SSF innovation into account.The top down approach also leads to a lack of information on the SSF side, which can hamper meaningful SSF participation. The meeting discussed how SSFs frequently lack access to information about the various initiatives to improve agricultural production in their country.Information on seed and fertilizer may be available through projects funded by donors, but SSFs are not offered a range of choices or even information about the possible negative effects of the choice being presented.Another challenge is that the outcomes of on-farm experimentation are often more difficult to quantify and assign economic value to, which is a cornerstone of conventional agricultural development efforts. Some of the benefits of SSF innovation are intangible, such as contributions to cultural heritage, while others may not have a commercial value today but are important for the future, such as genetic diversity. SSF innovations often do not meet the conditions for IP protection: SSF innovation is often a collective rather than an individual effort and assigning individual property rights may be incompatible with local customary laws. Different worldviews concerning the value of land and natural resources must be bridged.As an illustrative example, in the case of plant variety protection, a variety must be distinct, uniform and stable to qualify for protection. Even if a farmer's variety could meet the criteria,UPOV is focused on a particular model of agricultural innovation-one where scientists breed new varieties and farmers adopt them-ignoring the dynamics of farmer seed networks and on-farm breeding. Farmers conduct extensive on-farm field trials and often integrate 'modern' varieties of seed into their diverse mixtures. One participant explained that while on-farm breeding and seed exchange may not be impeded directly through the application of PVP to 'formal' sector breeding outputs, this model locks-in and reinforces the particular view that plant breeding is done by professional breeders for the benefit of farmers as passive recipients. This paradigm is then reflected in other policies and research priorities, such as the availability of funding for ex-situ conservation and 'formal' sector research efforts compared with on-farm conservation and farmer-led research. The G8 Alliance also requires a country to adopt UPOV 1991 to be a recipient of funds under the Alliance, thus complicating national multi-stakeholder dialogue on whether or not this is an appropriate legal instrument for the country or if any modification (e.g. exempting certain areas, crops or populations) is desirable.International trade agreements that push for strengthened national patent systems in addition to the implementation of UPOV 1991 may restrict farmers' seed saving and on-farm breeding.It was suggested that patents might have a more direct negative impact on SSF innovation and exacerbate existing power imbalances between SSF breeders and 'formal' sector breeders.Participants also discussed the effect of increased market access on SSF innovation. New market opportunities may drive one type of innovation-the development of new commercial products-but do not encourage or support innovation that provides both private gain for the SSF and global public benefit for which they receive no remuneration. On the contrary, farmers are encouraged to participate in export-oriented or cash crop economies in lieu of more diversified farming systems hosting both inter-and intraspecific diversity. This is not the optimum outcome from a global food security perspective. Both agrobiodiversity and diversified farming systems are of vital importance to global food security, yet this value is not reflected in market prices. Innovative SSFs are essentially subsidizing global welfare without incentives or external support.Participants highlighted that historically, farmers have benefited in the short-term from export-driven policies, such as subsidies for particular crops, until markets become saturated and crash. Farmers have incentives to alter production practices to suit national priorities, and it becomes difficult to diversify production once incentives are in place. Monocultural production practices are vulnerable to price volatility and environmental stresses such as the influx of new pests and diseases. The loss of agrobiodiversity at all levels, along with the erosion of associated local knowledge systems and farming practices, impedes future agricultural innovation both on and off the farm. This diversity can never be recovered.Lastly, policies that are developed without whole systems in mind pose challenges to SSF innovation. One participant highlighted a case where an effort to subsidize organic fertilizers for the benefit of SSFs incited a mass importation of organic fertilizers from outside the country, which then had a negative impact on prices for supplying farmers. Policies need to be developed not only in consultation with SSFs but with stakeholders from different sectors, and with an appreciation of the interconnectedness of agriculture, environment, health and economic policy spheres.Participants discussed key elements of an enabling environment and types of policies most supportive of SSF innovation. An enabling environment for SSF innovation requires: farmers' active participation in the development of policies at all levels, recognition of farmers' land and resource rights and the institutionalization of farmer-led research within agriculturalWhere innovation policy meets SSF innovationThe question of scale arose in relation to how policies affect SSF innovation. Some participants suggested that SSFs' experimentation and innovation, which meets immediate local needs and is not scaled-up and out to other communities, does not often come into direct contact with national and international level policies pertaining to IP, market access or other incentives for encouraging investment in agricultural research and development. That is, farmers' activities at the smallest scale often continue both unimpeded and unsupported by existing policies for fostering innovation in agriculture. On the other hand, farmers' innovations that get scaled-up are more likely to face challenges relating to the uniformity demanded by international markets and transaction costs associated with meeting industry standards.However, it was recognized that any national policies that put negative pressure on informal seed systems, agrobiodiversity at all levels, diverse farm management practices or local knowledge systems may impede SSF innovation, irrespective of scale. The unintended consequences and trade-offs arising from policies focused on encouraging agricultural innovation (as conventionally defined) have not been the focus of policy debates. The meeting agreed that there is a need for greater understanding and awareness of these consequences and trade-offs.National policies formulated in accordance with multilateral treaties or other institutional obligations are rarely crafted in consultation with farming communities, and these may in some cases negatively affect farmers' freedom and capacity to innovate both now and in the future. There are multiple stakeholders involved, often with contrasting interests. Participants also emphasized the importance of grassroots movements in protecting the interests of farmers, and of public research institutions in supporting farmers' movements. SSFs must have the space to participate in policy making through consultation, as well as the capacity to mobilize through social movements and political action to create new space. Farmers' mobilization and active participation in policy discussions at all levels is essential.It was agreed that farmers' lack of land tenure and/or other territorial rights (or lack of clarity on these rights) can greatly affect their ability to respond to both challenges and opportunities.National seed policies and other regulations that require standardization and certification of seed varieties or other products may impede SSF innovation. National registries require plant varieties to be homogenous, which farmers' varieties are not. Labeling requirements may in some cases restrict the distribution of new products by placing too much of a burden on farmers in the form of transaction costs. Participants gave examples of how certification and procedural costs have constrained innovation pathways. One example was cited of a farmer innovator who missed an opportunity to launch her soap business because of the long timeframe required for certification.The relationship between intellectual property rights (IPR) and SSF innovation is far from straightforward. It was suggested that national plant variety protection (PVP) legislation developed in accordance with UPOV (the primary multilateral institution for establishing a PVP system) does not presently appear to affect poor and marginalized SSFs' breeding efforts. Participants did however discuss how UPOV might be impeding SSF innovation indirectly.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makers with nutrition and culture and have great potential to raise public awareness of the value of SSF innovation, helping to shift the discourse within international fora.Supporting innovation fairs and awards were recognized as an important strategy for increasing public recognition of SSF innovation. Policy makers are invited to see the kind of innovation being developed on-farm and farmers can share innovations amongst themselves.Fairs have helped to raise awareness that farmers are highly capable of breaking new ground and farmers receive valuable social recognition for their expertise. Awards offer opportunities to commercialize successes and scale them up and out, although it was noted that such awards recognize only certain types of SSF innovation (often in line with government priorities) and give only individual recognition.Supportive policy measures may include others that incentivize the production of farmers' varieties such as direct subsidies or tax exemptions for production, public procurement of local varieties, or anti-competition laws constraining the market power of larger firms. These alternatives were not discussed in-depth, but are consistent with the broader conversation on creating an enabling environment for SSF innovation-focused on raising recognition of the value of agrobiodiversity and the diversity of small-scale farming systems themselves.The final topic discussed was how to strategically integrate the concept of SSF innovation into national level policies and into the policy discourse within international fora.Mainstreaming the concept of SSF innovation into the discussions and decisions of international fora working on innovation policy, intellectual property, trade, food security and nutrition will require finding strategic points of entry. Participants identified international bodies, conventions and protocols most relevant to SSF innovation. Participants are currently engaged in a wide range of international policy fora, highlighting the benefit of creating a common understanding of SSF innovation systems with which to carry forward into these negotiations.The connections between SSF innovation and traditional knowledge, food security, nutrition, cultural heritage and climate change adaptation need to be made more explicit in policy discussions. The complementarity between the concept of SSF innovation and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the International Treaty) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) were discussed at length. In particular, there is significant overlap between the concepts of SSF innovation and Farmers' Rights (Article 9 of the International Treaty), and mainstreaming the concept of SSF innovation may aid attempts to domesticate the Treaty. In addition to this, the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol was recognized as an opportunity for national governments to incorporate SSF innovation into their national innovation policies, whilst the WIPO Development Agenda may also represent an underutilized avenue for mainstreaming the concept of SSF innovation.Choice of language is important. The term 'innovation' was recognized as a buzzword garnering significant international attention, which could be used strategically to raise awareness of, legitimize and valorize the work of SSFs onfarm. However, participants suggested that the language used to discuss SSF innovation systems should not be radically divorced from existing language used by the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), the provisions of the CBD on customary use of and traditional practices associated with biodiversity (Article 10.c) and the International Treaty provisions on Farmers' Rights (Article 9).The IGC influenced the language used in the Nagoya Protocol to the CBD, which may represent research and development organizations. Characteristics of supportive policies in general are those that:• Encourage the active maintenance and development of local crop varieties;• Recognize the value of local knowledge systems and capacity of farmers to experiment and innovate to adapt to changing conditions;• Help farmers organize; and• Provide the technical support and space for farmers' participation in agricultural research endeavors.Legal recognition of farmers' land and resource rights was flagged as a prerequisite for SSF innovation. Only when rights are recognized and enforced may farmers enter into truly equitable partnerships with formal sector institutions and organizations. It was highlighted by one participant that recognition as a legal entity is also necessary for sharing in the benefits arising from the use of genetic diversity and local knowledge. Another participant highlighted that local protocols and regional laws recognizing farmers' rights can be useful in gaining their acknowledgement at higher levels. Yet another highlighted how the court system in Mexico is recognizing indigenous communities' rights to receive prior informed consent for access to genetic resources. Using a rights-based approach to support SSF innovation may be a powerful tool for national governments implementing other policies conducive to SSF innovation.Many participants emphasized the importance of funding farmer-led research initiatives.Farmer-led research supports on-farm experimentation, promotes agrobiodiversity conservation, development and management and social justice and is a major driver of SSF innovation. Providing space and a mechanism for direct access to funding ensures that local people can decide on their own research priorities and set their own agenda. Outside actors may support the establishment of a farmer committee with a funding mechanism, capitalized by different funding sources including national governments and donor organizations interested in supporting SSFs in diverse agroecosystems with different compositions of genetic diversity, species diversity and management practices. This type of support will reinforce existing innovation networks and draw out those who require initial support to participate.There was wide agreement that resources need to be put towards building capacity to innovate and strengthening knowledge systems rather than capturing innovations and knowledge.Alternative types of IPR regimes may support SSF innovation. Registries for farmers' varieties are in place in India, Thailand and the Philippines that recognize farmers as breeders, unlike UPOV. In India, the registration of farmers' varieties has spurred on-farm conservation initiatives but generally the group was not aware of any in-depth analysis of impact.Alternative seed certification schemes and registries that do not force standardization and uniformity upon informal seed systems may be more supportive of SSF innovation, validate farmers' experimentation and breeding, and help protect against misappropriation of resources and knowledge.The establishment of agrobiodiversity conservation areas or protected landscapes supports SSF innovation. The designation of special areas may increase recognition of the public good aspect of the resources and environmental and public health services that SSFs provide, and encourage the active and dynamic maintenance of the inputs to innovation processes in the future. Formally recognized areas also increase opportunities for coordination among SSFs and create a space for the creation of tools for benefit sharing, the use of collective trademarks and the establishment of micro-enterprises and ecotourism ventures that generate income. The Potato Park was recognized as one such success, but there need to be more of these.The formal recognition and celebration of cultural heritage may be another way to support SSF innovation. Support for local food movements, culinary traditions and the establishment of UNESCO intangible heritage sites for local crop diversity link agrobiodiversity conservation a critical entry point for this work because it is a timely moment for the concept of SSF innovation systems to be included in national governments' implementation of the Protocol.It was recognized that Geneva-based organizations governing trade (WTO, which also administers the TRIPS Agreement) and intellectual property (WIPO), as well as the UPOV Convention, hold more weight than the International Treaty and the CBD and Nagoya Protocol. Provisions for protecting Farmers' Rights, Traditional Knowledge and Access and Benefit Sharing have relatively weak enforcement compared with the TRIPS Agreement and the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), for example. International agreements without compliance mechanisms have less leverage to encourage their implementation into national law. It will be critical to find entry points to mainstream SSF innovation in the discussions on innovation in agriculture taking place at the WTO and WIPO. With growing membership and its common link to aid, UPOV is also a Geneva-based organization to be monitored.There is also a need to influence the discourse used within national innovation committees. It was highlighted that in the absence of alternative visions of innovation in agriculture, the OECD and World Bank exercise disproportionate influence over national innovation policy. The language used by these institutions reflects their understanding of agricultural innovation as a system (i.e. beyond a conventional technology transfer perspective.) They promote innovation platforms that bring together cross-sector multi-stakeholder groups to develop innovation strategies. They do not, however, address the unequal power dynamics within groups and the innovative capacity of SSFs is not recognized. Hundreds of millions of rural families are trapped in a cycle of hunger, poverty and low productivity that causes unnecessary suffering and impedes agricultural development and broader economic growth. Breaking this cycle requires actions in two complementary domains: social protection and growth in the productive sectors of the economy. As agriculture remains the most important productive sector for rural people in many developing countries, linking social protection with agricultural development is a potentially powerful means of breaking the cycle of rural poverty.Many developing countries increasingly recognize that social protection measures are needed to relieve the immediate deprivation of people living in poverty and to prevent others from falling into poverty when a crisis strikes. Social protection can also help recipients become more productive by enabling them to manage risks, build assets and undertake more remunerative activities. These benefits spread beyond the immediate recipients to their communities and the broader economy as recipients purchase food, agricultural inputs and other rural goods and services. consumption decisions determine the levels of household income, savings and investment. These, in turn, link households to markets through the sales and purchases of food, inputs, labour and other goods and services. These household and market activities, in turn, influence the stock of physical and financial household assets, allowing them to accumulate in good times or requiring them to liquidate assets to survive.Social protection programmes and agricultural interventions influence household decisionmaking processes at several different points. Social protection measures, such as cash or in-kind transfers, can directly enhance the human resources and productivity of recipients by enabling them, for example, to consume healthier diets, access appropriate medical care and take advantage of educational opportunities. By relaxing credit and liquidity constraints, social protection transfers can enable households to invest in new and more productive activities and to build assets and enhance resources. When transfers are regular and predictable, they can enable recipients to undertake investments that may otherwise be too risky. Formal social protection measures can relieve pressure on informal insurance mechanisms and social reciprocal networks under stress.As social protection measures change the production, consumption and entrepreneurial activities of recipient households, these activities will have spillover effects on the local economy by stimulating demand for local goods and services. At the same time, agricultural interventions can promote productivity growth by addressing constraints that limit poor households' access to land and water resources, inputs, financial services, advisory services Social protection measures will help break the cycle of rural poverty and vulnerability, when combined with broader agricultural and rural development measures. This introductory chapter provides a conceptual framework that highlights the linkages among social protection, rural household consumption and production, and poverty alleviation. It focuses on rural poverty and emphasizes the importance of agriculture and agricultural development as the primary pathways out of poverty for millions of family farms. It briefly introduces concepts related to social protection and summarizes related recent trends in low-and middle-income countries.Subsequent chapters review evidence regarding social protection and agriculture. Although few studies have directly examined the linkages between social protection and agriculture, many rigorous impact evaluations have been conducted on social protection programmes in rural contexts. These provide a robust body of evidence on three key issues: (i) the effectiveness of social protection measures in alleviating deprivation and food insecurity among the poor, (ii) the extent to which social protection enhances the productive potential of poor agricultural households, and (iii) the extent to which the benefits received by programme participants generates incomes that can \"spill over\" into the local economy and community.The report evaluates the factors that contribute to the heterogeneity of programme impacts and discusses what they imply for programme design and how agricultural policies can be tied in with social protection programmes more directly. It concludes with a discussion of policy and governance recommendations.Social protection measures can also ease the economic and social dislocations that accompany economic growth and agricultural transformation, reducing social and economic inequalities, promoting decent work and fostering inclusive and sustainable growth. But social protection can only offer a sustainable pathway out of poverty if there is growth in the economy. In most low-and middle-income countries, agriculture remains the largest employer of the poor and is a major source of livelihoods through wage labour and own production for household consumption and the market. Poverty and its corollaries-malnutrition, illness and lack of education-limit agricultural productivity. Hence, addressing social protection and agricultural development in an integrated way offers synergies that can increase the effectiveness of both.Linking poverty, social protection and agricultureFigure 1 illustrates the conceptual linkages among rural poverty, social protection and agriculture. It begins with a stylized rural household at the centre that makes decisions about what to produce and consume based on the initial quantity and quality of livelihood resources the household controls or has access to and the expected revenue from multiple economic activities, as well as private and public transfers. Household livelihood resources are often described as comprising five types of assets/resources: physical, human, social, financial and natural. Physical assets for a typical rural household engaged in agriculture may include land, machinery and livestock. Human resources include the health, nutrition and education status of all family members, which together determine the family's ability to work and earn incomes. For many poor households, human resources are their main source of income. Social resources refer to networks-such as reciprocal friendship and kinship ties, funeral and savings associations, producer groups and other community groups-that enable the household to manage risk and engage with the wider community. Financial assets include household savings and access to formal and informal sources of credit. Natural resources relate to the quality and stability of the natural environment, such as soil, water and climate conditions.For most rural households, especially small family farms, production and consumption decisions are closely intertwined, with the family providing most of the labour used on the farm, and consuming part of the output for its own needs. These household production and  and markets. Such interventions to ease supply-side constraints are also needed to help transform increased local demand due to social protection into local economic growth, rather than inflation. In this sense, agricultural interventions and social protection are complementary, meeting people's basic needs and enabling them to take advantage of opportunities to become more productive, while also facilitating market-based activities, thus creating a virtuous circle of human well-being, agricultural growth and economic security. Often, poverty and other core reasons for vulnerability must be dealt with before more impact-oriented adaptation efforts can be effective. In other cases, however, vulnerabilityoriented efforts can be conducted concurrently with more impacts-oriented initiatives. In our data set, 65 percent of the examples that we have characterized as addressing the drivers of vulnerability also included activities that more directly focused on impacts associated with climate change.However, because climate change effects are not taken into account, some interventions at the left of the continuum run the risk of maladaptation. For example, while diversifying agricultural livelihoods typically reduces vulnerability and strengthens resilience, diversification efforts that introduce crop varieties that cannot withstand increased drought conditions could undermine development gains over the longer term if droughts become more frequent. Likewise, while coping capacity can be critical for surviving short-term dangers, repeated coping may undermine long-term adaptation.We find that activities that address the foundations of vulnerability frequently are located in projects that were termed \"serendipitous\" adaptation in Section II. However, some of these efforts are incorporated into cases of discrete adaptation work, frequently in combination with activities that fall elsewhere on the Figure 1 continuum.In this zone of the continuum, adaptation focuses on building robust systems for problem solving. These capacity-building efforts lay the foundation for more targeted actions and frequently entail institution-building and technological approaches familiar to the  Our framework makes a key point: rather than draw a sharp distinction between adaptation and development, we instead place them on a continuum. This enables users to better understand the overlap between efforts, and should allow policymakers and funders more latitude in designing and implementing adaptation programs.Two roughly distinct perspectives inform how people approach the challenge of adaptation: one focuses on creating response mechanisms to specific impacts associated with climate change, and the other on reducing vulnerability to climate change through building capacities that can help deal with a range of impacts. The first approach uses understood impacts as a starting point for distinguishing between adaptation and \"normal\" development. However, making this distinction can be technically and conceptually difficult and has been critiqued for neglecting the real causes of vulnerability. A more vulnerability-focused approach, on the other hand, starts by targeting the underlying factors that cause climate change to be harmful (Ribot 1995). Such an approach may fall outside the mandate of climate change policies, and can also appear massive in scope.In practice, of course, many instances of adaptation fall between the extremes of vulnerability and impacts foci: actions are taken with a specific type of impact in mind, but nevertheless involve activities with more general benefits in reducing vulnerability. One way of framing this diversity is as a continuum between \"pure\" development activities on one hand and very explicit climate change measures on the other.Figure 1 represents one way of mapping out adaptation efforts-that is, actions undertaken to limit the harm associated with climate change. On the left-hand side of the continuum, the most vulnerability-oriented adaptation efforts overlap almost completely with traditional development practice, where activities take little or no account of specific impacts associated with climate change, and have many benefits in the absence of climate change.On the far right, highly specialized activities exclusively target distinct climate change impacts, and fall outside the realm of development as we know it. Their benefits will materialize only in the event of climate change. In between lies a broad spectrum of activities with gradations of emphasis on vulnerability and impacts. The continuum can be roughly divided into four types of adaptation efforts (from left to right):At the left end of the spectrum, activities are fundamentally about bolstering human development. These activities focus on reducing poverty and addressing other fundamental shortages of capability that make people vulnerable to harm, regardless of whether the stressors that can lead to harm are related to climate change. Example activities include livelihood diversification efforts, literacy promotion, women's rights initiatives, and even projects that address HIV/AIDS.Very little, if any, attention to the specifics of climate change is paid during these interventions; these activities buffer households and communities from the effects of climate change simply because they buffer them from nearly all sources of harm. Many of these activities are capacitybuilding activities that strengthen individuals' abilities to take action. One capability often fostered is the ability to \"cope,\" or take short-term action to ward off immediate risk from climatic events (e.g., taking shelter to survive a storm, or saving enough food to survive a drought).risks that are clearly outside of historic climate variability, and have little bearing on risks that stem from anything other than anthropogenic climate change. For example, communities that relocate in response to sea level rise mainly fall into this category, as do many responses to glacial melting. Radical or costly policy and technological approaches that address unprecedented levels of climate risk also belong in the highly targeted category. Few of these approaches have been seen to date, but efforts in the Himalayas to prevent harms from glacial melting, and Australia's overhaul of water allocation rules after six years of drought probably are signs of things to come.Because measures that are highly targeted at climate change impacts do not address nonclimate change challenges, they tend to require new approaches that fall outside of the relatively well-understood set of practices that we might think of as a development \"comfort zone.\" This level of innovation usually takes the form of a discrete effort, and is often both costly and fundamentally challenging to cultural and political norms. After all, even with the clearest, most certain climate predictions in hand, it isn't easy to decide to leave the island where your family has lived for generations, or to accept that the land your community has farmed for centuries is becoming too dry to sustain agriculture. Moreover, initiatives that relocate whole groups of people or that launch large, untested engineering endeavors come with large price tags that require a high level of political will.As such, many measures in this continuum zone take on an extreme or \"last-ditch\" quality, and many people, quite rightly, wish to avoid them. This is one reason we see so few activities from this category in our set of examples. A more important reason, however, is that, at least for the moment, climate change effects and \"normal\" climate variability are difficult to disassociate. Therefore, we see more adaptation approaches that address climate change and other sources of risk together using a CRM approach. Given the current state of climate change, highly \"impactstargeted\" activities also require long-term planning, since the most clearly distinguishable impacts of climate change are still years or decades from being felt in many places.However, it is also clear that the need for highly impacts targeted climate change action can in many cases be reduced by the success of other types of adaptation efforts, and by work to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. We can think of the boundary on the continuum between Managing Climate Risk and Confronting Climate Change as a threshold that moves right if greenhouse gas mitigation and climate adaptation are successful, shrinking the scope of impacts-targeted action needed. To the extent that climate adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation fail, the threshold moves left, expanding the scope of impacts-targeted activity, since the direct affects of climate change will be felt more directly by more people. This is not to say that climate change-specific action can be avoided entirely. Science shows us with increasing precision that we are already \"committed\" to a certain amount of global warming, which has direct implications for many people in many places. Places such as Nepal are moving forward with proactive planning for some specific eventualities. That these instances remain relatively few indicates that society will need more than climate predictions to prompt proactive planning for those consequences of climate change that will be most unique and potentially most difficult to address.It is important to emphasize that the continuum presented in Figure 1 describes a set of approaches to adaptation, not the specific circumstances or the type of impact faced. The continuum categorizes adaptation efforts according to whether vulnerability or impacts are emphasized in the approach taken. Most other frameworks for analyzing adaptation have development community. Examples include the development of communications systems and planning processes, and the improvement of mapping, weather monitoring, and natural resource management practices.These activities may have many benefits other than adaptation to climate change, but they typically occur in sectors more directly relevant to climate change than literacy, women's rights, or HIV/AIDS efforts. Though climate change information does not play a central role in the work, awareness of climate change is a reason for prioritizing it over work in other areas.Activities that build response capacity may map to any of the models identified in Section II. Many are development activities to which an adaptive function was ascribed only after the fact, but many such activities are also incorporated into discrete adaptation efforts. Adaptation initiatives that must contend with high levels of uncertainty will often have resilience-building activities that fall into this category.With building response capacity, the extent to which activities are targeted toward specific impacts is limited, either by limited ability to predict expected impacts or by limitations on other capacities needed for highly targeted action. For example, in Rwanda, efforts to \"climateproof\" hydropower production hit a roadblock because of uncertainty as to whether climate change will bring more or less rainfall. Adaptation efforts are moving forward by strengthening hydropower operations in general, with the expectation that these strengths will help the power sector adapt to specific effects of a changing climate, whatever they may be. In the meantime, more reliable power production helps to address numerous non-climaterelated needs in Rwanda.When adaptation efforts focus more specifically on hazards and impacts, an important framework for action is provided by the concept of climate risk management (CRM). CRM refers to the process of incorporating climate information into decisions to reduce negative changes to resources and livelihoods (Hellmuth et al. 2007). This framework accommodates the fact that often the effects of anthropogenic climate change are not easily distinguished from the effects of events and trends within the historic range of climate variability. The CRM approach encourages managing current climate-related risks as a basis for managing more complex, longer-term risks associated with climate change (UNDP 2002).Use of climate information distinguishes the CRM approach from typical development efforts, though the success of CRM may have strong development implications and vice-versa. Many disaster-response planning activities fall into the CRM category, as do many technological approaches (e.g. drought-resistant crops). Climate-proofing projects most often fall into this category, though many discrete adaptation projects also focus on CRM. In the dry lands of Kenya, a CRM approach is being used to prepare for future droughts, which are expected to intensify as climate changes.The success of CRM depends heavily upon the availability of climate information, and is enhanced when climate change predictions can be made with relatively high certainty and precision. If adaptation initiatives plan too concretely based on risk assessments that turn out later to have been inaccurate, investments may be wasted, and maladaptation could result.For a small set of examples of adaptation in our review, actions taken focus almost exclusively on addressing impacts associated with climate change. Typically, these actions target climate Lower levels of capacity necessitate greater investment in addressing underlying sources of vulnerability (i.e., adaptation efforts more to the left of the continuum). Higher certainty regarding climate change prediction enables efforts to more directly target specific impacts (i.e., on the right of the continuum). However, it is important to note that neither of these drivers has a linear relationship to how closely adaptation efforts may target a specific impact. For example, in a case where storm risks are very well understood, a CRM approach may be impossible if basic communications infrastructure does not exist. In this case, the broader capacity building involved in creating the communications infrastructure would be an adaptation priority, even though information may exist that could support more impacts-targeted efforts.Notably, the type of impact does not always drive the response taken. A country or community faced with a given change in climate can select from among a range of responses. For instance, as coral reefs die off from ocean warming, coastal communities may be more exposed to storm surges. One response may be to build artificial reefs to mitigate surges-an activity that would fall on the right of the continuum. Conversely, building more permanent and robust housing and infrastructure may enhance the resilience of coastal communities while fitting a broader set of development needs-placing it more centrally along the continuum. Taking a response from the far left of our continuum, broad capacity building may be needed to equip the affected communities to make the appropriate choices for facing these and any other consequences associated with climate change.It seems likely that other factors, such as the specificity, severity, and immediacy of an impact, as well as people's perceptions of risk and access to information, may play a role in determining the appropriate extent to which interventions should target specific impacts.Further exploration of such factors is needed to better understand when to home in on specific impacts and when to build more broadly applicable capacities.distinguished among efforts based upon sectoral divisions, impacts addressed, ecosystem characteristics, or the scale (location, national international, etc.) of the intervention. It is also important to emphasize that, as befits a continuum, the lines between the categories are blurry. As such, it is often difficult to decide whether a given activity is best described, for example, as building response capacity or managing climate risk. In truth, there is much more variation in the extent to which an activity may target a specific climate change impact than can be described with four zones. However, we believe we have characterized four roughly distinct possible relationships between an adaptation effort and a specific impact associated with climate change.The typology developed here does not attempt to rank the different types of adaptation; rather, it simply attempts to describe present adaptation efforts in developing countries. The typology also should not be thought of as a series of stages over time, with highly targeted climate change activities as the ultimate goal. (In fact, the need for highly targeted climate change activities is something we would all like to avoid, to the extent possible.) It is clear, however, that addressing vulnerability drivers, building response capacity, and managing climate risk do augment one another. There are many examples where adaptation initiatives incorporate elements of two or three of these approaches.Placing individual instances of adaptation along this spectrum is at best an inexact science. However, as Figure 2 illustrates, we find the bulk of the experience to date focuses on the \"messy middle\" of building capacity and managing climate risk, where adaptation is neither wholly focused on climate change impacts nor completely oriented toward the underlying drivers of vulnerability. Approximately one-fifth of the cases studied fall into the vulnerability drivers category; they are essentially \"pure\" development activities. Quite likely, our study substantially underestimates the extent of adaptation underway as a result of this type of intervention, given the many similar efforts not yet labeled \"adaptation.\" Conversely, very few instances of highly climate change-specific adaptation measures have been recorded. What determines the type of adaptation activity? Two factors appear to predominate in shaping the characterization of an adaptation response: the existing capacity of those responding and the certainty of information about climate impacts.  7. Global research and learning programmes have also contributed to CARE's approach to CBA. For example, in 2012, the Adaptation Learning Programme for Africa (ALP) produced a brief about using multi-stakeholder learning events as a mechanism for participatory sharing, and interpretation of, climate information and forecasts-Decisionmaking for climate resilient livelihoods and risk reduction: a participatory scenario planning (PSP) approach.8. ALP also adapted the original CBA 'flower' diagram (see figure 2) to emphasise the use of climate information, and the uncertain nature of climate risk, in guiding project/community decision-making as the critical distinguishing features of adaptation work.learned over the past few years. The most notable of these resources are described below to show how our approach has developed through time. • promotion of climate-resilient livelihoods strategies• disaster risk reduction strategies to reduce the impact of hazards on vulnerable households• capacity development for local civil society and government institutions• advocacy and social mobilisation to address the underlying causes of vulnerability.was, and continues to be, an extremely popular practitioner tool. The approach provides insights into the complex array of climatic, environmental, social, economic and political factors that determine people's vulnerability to climate change. This information then enables the community, project staff, partners and policy makers to target resources and interventions where they are needed most.3. CARE published its CBA Project Toolkit in 2011. This is a step-by-step guide to designing, implementing and monitoring CBA projects. It includes a set of project standards and proposed milestones and indicators to help practitioners plan activities and track the progress made in building adaptive capacity. These resources reflect the fact that adaptation is a dynamic process that involves mapping the assets and conditions that must be in place for communities to manage current climate variability as well as adapt to longerterm climate change.Although  Delivering of all four strategies and all levels of the CBA framework is crucial for building adaptive capacity effectively and sustainably.Adapting the overeaching components of 'climate information' and 'managing risk and uncertainty' helps to focus community project decisionmaking around preparing for, and managing, future climate change risks, despite their uncertain nature.Participatori and rights-based approaches can help to ensure the adaptation outcomes are effective and sustainable.They also help to ensure that project activities do not exacerbate existing inequalities and vulnerabilities, and that they fulfill the needs of the most vulnerable groups.External partners working with a community, for example providing resources and knowledge, are often a key factor in a successful CBA project.Working with existing civil society networks and platforms can facilitate the local to national-level advocacy requirements of CBA projects (usually around adaptation planning, financing of context-specific topics such as land rights for women or other marginalised groups.CBA is not something that communities do alone -it is a multi-level approach to adaptation that puts vulnerable people and their priorities first, but action is required at all levels (household, community, local and national).Regardless of context, CBA projects must ensure that they are working on all four CBA framework strategies, at all levels, so that project outcomes are effective and last beyond the project lifetime. If one strategy is neglected, all other activities could be negatively affected.The use of climate information in guiding project/community decision-making is the critical distinguishing feature of adaptation work, as opposed to 'sustainable development' practice in general. Without regular on-going access to good-quality and locally relevant climate information, communities and other stakeholders are unable to adequately plan for, or respond to, the impacts of climate change.If communities and stakeholders are aware of the uncertain nature of predicting future climate risks, they can focus on building and maintaining flexible, proactive and responsive adaptation processes and activities.Inequality in access to rights, resources and power lies at the root of poverty and vulnerability. Neither can be reduced effectively without taking action to understand and address these inequalities.By using gender, and other types of power and vulnerability, analyses in CBA projects, we can help to ensure that adaptation outcomes are more effective and sustainable, and do not reinforce or exacerbate existing inequalities.Generating adaptation strategies together with communities and other local stakeholders improves the uptake and sustainability of the process because communities develop a strong sense of ownership and their specific priorities are met.As a minimum, project activities should promote the equal participation of men and women and, ideally, meets lasting transformative change in gender relations as part of building the adaptive capacity of the whole community.The critical importance of sourcing and communicating good quality and accessible climate information in adaptation projects relies on building relationships with external partners who hold this information. Facilitating participatory multi-stakeholder workshops, as promoted in the Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP) approach, can create mutual interest in sustaining a lasting relationship between communities and service/information providers.Similarly, private sector or local/national government partnerships can strengthen and increase the impact of CBA activities by providing services, and financial or political support, to influence the wider enabling environment. However, external partners may leave their own interests and priorities. Partnerships can only succeed when these priorities overlap well with those of the communities.Rather than trying to create 'CBA-specific' advocacy networks or processes, identify existing civil society organisations whose priorities integrate well with those of the communities. Developing mutually beneficial relationships will help to strengthen the collective voice and increases the impact of the project's advocacy efforts.CBA projects can establish strong partnerships with local and national government agencies, which can provide support for communities' adaptation priorities, build local technical capacity, and include adaptation in development, budgeting, agricultural extension on disaster risk reduction (DRR) plans and processes.Through embedding community-level adaptation priorities into existing plans, structures and institutional mechanisms, the impact of the project is expanded and strengthened. This formal recognition of CBA priorities can help ensure the sustainability of multi-level relationships and information channels beyond the lifetime of a project.Since 2009, when CARE first developed its Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) framework, significant progress has been made in terms of refining CARE's practice of CBA. The regional case studies and global learning shared in this paper have highlighted some of these developments in the approach. This section aims to consolidate lessons learned, in order to move forward in CARE's understanding of CBA and to inform the current process of updating our key climate change tools and resources for practitioners.The case studies demonstrate that there is no one single model of good practice for CBA projects. The climatic, environmental, social, economic, and political context surrounding a community determines the design, implementation and possible outcomes of CBA processes and activities. However, looking across the examples shared in this paper, and our programme portfolio as a whole, some key lessons about what works well, across many different contexts, have emerged. NB: This paper does not include an exhaustive list of good practices, but highlights those most prominent in CARE's projects. Further documentation and assessment of CBA projects is required to fully identify and evaluate all such emerging good practices. To summarise CARE's learning on good practice in CBA and some possible implications for practitioners involved in CBA, we have identified some key lessons learned (see following table).Delivering on all four strategies, and all levels, of the CBA framework is crucial for building adaptive capacity effectively and sustainably. Adding the overarching components of 'climate information' and 'managing risk and uncertainty' helps to focus community/project decision making around preparing for, and managing, future climate change risks, despite their uncertain nature. Regardless of context, CBA projects must ensure that they are working on all four CBA framework strategies, at all levels, so that project outcomes are effective and last beyond the project lifetime. If one strategy is neglected, all other activities could be negatively affected. The use of climate information in guiding project/community decision-making is the critical distinguishing feature of adaptation work, as opposed to 'sustainable development' practice in general. Without regular and ongoing access to good-quality and locally relevant climate information, communities and other stakeholders are unable to adequately plan for, or respond to, the impacts of climate change. If communities and stakeholders are aware of the uncertain nature of predicting future climate risks, they can focus on building and maintaining flexible, proactive and responsive adaptation processes and activities.Participatory and rights-based approaches can help to ensure that adaptation outcomes are effective and sustainable. They also help to ensure that project activities do not exacerbate existing inequalities and vulnerabilities, and that they fulfil the needs of the most vulnerable groups. Inequality in access to rights, resources and power lies at the root of poverty and vulnerability. Neither can be reduced effectively without taking action to understand and address these inequalities. By using gender, and other types of power and vulnerability, Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia:An overview for decision-makersCBA is not something that communities do alone -it is a multi-level approach to adaptation that puts vulnerable people and their priorities first, but action is required at all levels (household, community, local and national). The development, application, and sharing of effective participatory tools and approaches in CBA can help to build the capacity of local actors and promote the continuation of adaptation activities and processes after the lifetime of the project. Facilitating relationship-building between targeted communities and various relevant stakeholders, in participatory and mutually beneficial training activities and capacity-building processes, helps to ensure the continuation of activities after the project ends. All four of the above lessons learned demonstrate the critical role of working with multiple stakeholders at all levels to successfully build the adaptive capacity of communities and their wider national context. Participatory and community-based tools, such as CARE's Community Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (CVCA), Village Visioning tool, Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP), and the Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation, Reflection and Learning (PMERL) manual, also contribute to the process of capacity-building and promote the local ownership of adaptation planning.Refining CARE's CBA approach CARE's CBA tools and resources are in the process of being updated to reflect these emerging lessons on good practice. Our experiences in CBA have also revealed some issues that are missing from, or need to be better integrated into, our existing set of tools and resources. The main issues identified, and outlines of how we hope to address each issue, are summarised in the following table.Although it is relatively easy to engage women, in terms of CBA project participation, it is much more difficult to effect long-term and structural change in gender relations, and women's empowerment outcomes at household, community or national levels. Integrating CARE's gender continuum and Women's Empowerment Framework approaches into CBA project design, to prioritise strategies that can effect lasting transformative change in gender analyses in CBA projects we can help to ensure that adaptation outcomes are more effective and sustainable, and do not reinforce or exacerbate existing inequalities. Generating adaptation strategies together with communities and other local stakeholders improves the uptake and sustainability of the process because communities develop a strong sense of ownership and their specific priorities are met. As a minimum, project activities should promote the equal participation of men and women and, ideally, create lasting transformative change in gender relations as part of building the adaptive capacity of the whole community.External partners working with a community, for example providing resources and knowledge, are often a key factor in a successful CBA project. Working with existing civil society networks and platforms can facilitate the local to national-level advocacy requirements of CBA projects (usually around adaptation planning, financing or contextspecific topics such as land rights for women or other marginalised groups). The critical importance of sourcing and communicating good-quality and accessible climate information in adaptation projects relies on building relationships with external partners who hold this information. Facilitating participatory multi-stakeholder workshops, as promoted in the Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP) approach, can create mutual interest in sustaining a lasting relationship between communities and service/information providers. Similarly, private sector or local/national government partnerships can strengthen and increase the impact of CBA activities by providing services, and financial or political support, to influence the wider enabling environment. However, external partners may have their own interests and priorities. Partnerships can only succeed when these priorities overlap well with those of the communities. Rather than trying to create 'CBA-specific' advocacy networks or processes, identify existing civil society organisations whose priorities integrate well with those of the communities. Developing mutually beneficial relationships will help to strengthen the collective voice and increase the impact of the project's advocacy efforts.Communities are able to integrate their context-specific adaptation plans into formal government plans and processes.The development, application, and sharing of effective participatory tools and approaches in CBA can help to build the capacity of local actors and promote the continuation of adaptation activities and processes after the lifetime of the project.Principles A, D and E of the proposed Joint Adaptation Principles (outlined in section 3,3) directly promote CBA as a mechanism for generating and implementing equitable and pro-poor adaptation policies, activities and planning. CBA projects could use this framework to engage and influence national government to better integrate CBA into national level plans.Facilitating relationship-building between targeted communities and various relevant stakeholders, in participatory and mutually beneficial training activities and capacitybuilding processes, helps to ensure the continuation of activities after the project ends.All four of the above lessons learned demonstrate the critical role of working with multiple stakeholders at all levels to successfully build the adaptive capacity of communities and their wider national context.Participatory and community-based tools, such as CARE's Community Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (CVCA), Village Visioning tool, Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP), and Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation, Reflection and Learning (PMERL) manual, also contribute to the process of capacity-building and promote the local ownership of the adaptation planning.adaptation tools and approaches is primarily around socio-economic analysis, with an assumption that natural resources will be adequately considered as part of this process. CARE is a member of the Ecosystems and Livelihoods Adaptation Network (ELAN) that seeks to promote the integration of sound ecosystem management with socio-economic approaches to climate change adaptation. The network is working on a position paper to establish the foundation of such an integrated approach.The processes of building adaptive capacity and adaptation planning can be expensive. Gender equality and women's empowerments:Although it is relatively easy to engage women, in terms of CBA project participation, it is much more difficult to effect long-term and structural change in gender relations, and women's empowerment outcomes at households, community or national levels.While much progress has been made on integrating climate information into decision-making, many challenges remain in terms of access to, and usability of, such information for the poorest or most vulnerable groups, as well as around effective communication and the dissemination of information.Rural communities directly depend upon natural resources and on the products and services provided by healthy ecosystems. However, the focus of CARE's existing adaptation tools and approaches is primarily around socio-economic analysis, with an assumption that natural resources will be adequately considered as part of this process.The processes of building adaptive capacity and adaptation planning can be expensive. They require consistent government/partner support and necessarily need to effectively involve vulnerable and marginalised groups, which adds additional cost and challenges.Since building adaptive capacity is a continuous process of understanding, planning for and responding to an uncertain changing climate, we need to better reflect this in our tools and resources.Integration into general development practices: Practitioners have mentioned that climate change adaptation is often misunderstood as 'yet another development sector', and not seen as a critical risk affecting all development work.fuel, and fodder (as previously discussed), women may prioritize community-level investments in domestic water supplies, such as rainwater collection or other types of community water storage, and alternative energy sources, such as biomass, biogas, solar power, improved stoves, and battery-operated lamps. Moreover, given women's domestic workloads, including caring for children, the sick, and the elderly, they are likely to prefer community-based adaptation strategies that allow them to stay close to home. The literature on collective action and participatory development suggests that communitybased adaptation depends on the ability of communities to work collectively through social networks to manage the risks of climate change. Some of the preconditions of successful community-based adaptation include well-defined rules that conform to local conditions (for example, those dealing with the appropriation and provision of resources, conflict resolution, monitoring mechanisms, and sanctions for violators of the rules). Moreover, external agencies must recognize the right of communities to organize, and local organizations should have strong linkages to other supporting institutions and governance structures, such as agencies and organizations involved in economic development, social protection, and risk management.Another important principle for effective collective action is that all members of the group participate in decisionmaking and rule-setting. In practice, however, the extent to which the needs, interests, and priorities of all members of the community are incorporated depends on local power structures. Several other factors may also affect the success of collective action depending on the local context, including group size, the heterogeneity of group members, and the adaptability of the institution to change.While lessons from the literature are useful in guiding community-based adaptation, climate change may complicate collective action by introducing new shocks into communities or by intensifying existing ones. For example, communities may use collective action to build resilience to drought that occurs every decade but may be unprepared for severe droughts that occur more frequently than that. In addition, collective adaptation requires locationspecific information on anticipated climate changes and appropriate responses, which may not be available in many communities. In many cases, climate change may introduce a considerable degree of uncertainty that complicates collective decisionmaking.The broader impact of community-based adaptation ultimately depends on who is able to participate. Given a growing body of evidence indicating that climate change and climate shocks differentially affect men and women, gender should be an important consideration in the adaptation process. The literature indicates that adaptation is an inherently \"political\" process that produces \"winners\" and \"losers.\" The scope of participation may differ among members taking part in community-based adaptation. In many contexts, women lack access to the assets necessary for participation, such as land, financial capital, information, or social capital. Women, especially from poor households, are also more likely to face time constraints that limit their ability to participate.The literature also points to gender differences in setting priorities through group-based approaches to adaptation. Women often have greater responsibility for household food production and preparation, whereas men have greater involvement in market-oriented production. Thus, women may prioritize community-based strategies that promote long-term food and nutrition security, such as community-level projects, trainings, and facilities focused on food storage and preservation or the development of community gardens with micronutrient-rich food. Similarly, given women's focus on household consumption of water,PAR is generally applied within social learning contexts, where multiple actors collectively construct meanings (problem definition, objectives) and work collectively toward solutions (Maarleveld and Dangbégnon 1999;Pretty and Buck 2002). Lewin, a pioneer of action research, describes the PAR process as \"a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action, and fact-finding about the result of the action\" (Lewin 1946; see also Figure 1). Iterative cycles of organizational or community-level action and reflection make change processes more robust and effective by ensuring that systematic learning and sharing take place, by fostering continuous adjustment of actions to align them with agreed-upon objectives, and by empowering the actors themselves to learn and adapt. PAR combines two primary activities: research and a facilitated process of social learning guided by a shared vision or set of goals to be achieved.CSA 649 B for a wider audience (the \"research\" in PAR). The uniqueness and complementarity of these different approaches will therefore remain apparent to many readers as they move through different sections of the guide. It will also be apparent in the way in which PAR and action research teams are discussed-namely, as distinct yet interdependent entities in the change process. For an illustration of how the research and the action are related to one another over time, see Figure 2. This separation of research from action should not be taken as something endorsed by the authors; it is simply a didactic means to illustrate the role of research within a PAR process. In practice, researchers should move seamlessly between their roles as participants in a change process (facilitation, empirical research, or partnership) and in more reflective, analytical work about the change process itself. The boundaries between these two \"layers\" are therefore fuzzy. One of the greatest challenges researchers face is to understand this \"seamlessness\" between research and action-and to move beyond the tendency to either lose themselves in \"development\" cycles or undermine the continuity or attention given to PAR by failing to drop their own research agendas.In addition to differentiating PAR from action research, it is important to differentiate PAR from participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and from participatory research (PR). PRA is a set of analytical tools that enables villagers to do their own analysis of the realities that affect them, with a view to making use of such information. It is therefore not a comprehensive approach to enabling change, but may be employed within a change process to identify problems (for example, participatory mapping as a tool for participatory diagnosis of degradation \"hotspots\"), to establish baselines, or to identify constraints and opportunities (for example, periods within annual labour calendars when there is room for accommodating more labourintensive activities). Participatory research, on the other hand, is research that is conducted as an equal partnership between external \"experts\" (generally, scientists) and members of a community. For research to qualify as participatory, it should be characterized by a reciprocal appreciation of each partner's knowledge and skills at each stage of the project, and research outcomes should be useful to the community. In this respect, PAR could be considered one form of participatory research. However, PAR tends to be much broader than participatory research in its iterative nature and, therefore, in its ability to enable more far-reaching change (social or system-wide transformation, rather than just the testing of technologies).It is often assumed that PAR is a tool that is useful only for solving local-level problems and social issues. However, PAR may be carried out within research and development organizations as a process of institutional change, by policymakers who are interested in taking an adaptive approach to policy implementation, or by local communities as they seek solutions to common problems (German and Stroud 2007). It may also be used to enable biophysical solutions to work better by ensuring that diverse value systems are considered, and by facilitating an adaptive approach to change (Hagmann 1999;Hagmann and Chuma 2002). German and Stroud (2007) differentiate between participatory action research (PAR) and action research (AR). According to them, PAR is about \"getting change to work,\" while AR is about \"understanding the nature of change processes and distilling lessons of use to a wider audience striving to solve similar problems elsewhere.\" Whereas PAR aims to empower the actors themselves to identify key development bottlenecks and to experiment with different approaches for addressing and ultimately breaking through bottlenecks, AR enables a better understanding of the key elements to successful processes of development and social change.Differences between participatory action research, action research, and conventional research are summarized in Table 1.This Reference Guide makes no such differentiation, as it combines the three \"learning approaches\" in the PAR process. However, it is useful to understand that the action research team has a set of unique roles relative to the other stakeholders involved in the change process as a result of its interest in distilling general lessons from specific change processes Actors in a charge process (farmers, leaders of organizational change, policy-makers, urban residents).Derive lessons for the global community on how to solve certain types of problems Extractive (monitoring the performance of scientific indicators, impact assessment, process documentation) and interactive PAR methods.Researchers with an interest in 'process' (how transformationoccurs); change agents interested in deriving generalizable lessons.Characterize current or future situations and trends.Extractive (a large body of methods derived from diverse social and biophysical sciences)Researchers: At times, change agents will also turn conventional research either for inputs (i.e. technologies) or to evaluate the impact of change process they facilitated. The successful application of PAR in the past to solve problems in complex socio-ecological systems (Colfer 2005;Hagmann and Chuma 2002) and to facilitate institutional change (Elliot 1991;Hagmann 1999) makes many of the lessons and approaches readily applicable to climate change adaptation. However, it is important to also distil the features of PAR that make it uniquely suitable and those that limit its applicability to climate change adaptation. Key features of climate change and adaptation likely to shape the application of PAR include:• Climate change is a slow variable, with changes playing over the medium to long term While many of these characteristics are not unique to climate change, they interface in important ways with the PAR methodology. Perhaps the biggest weakness of PAR derives from the mismatch between \"slow variables\" (climate change, adaptation) that play out over long time frames, and the short-term thinking that often characterizes human decision-making (Holling and Meffe 1996). The long time scales over which the impacts from climate change are manifest, and over which \"adaptations\" may be evaluated, limits human capacity to respond to the appropriate stimuli (see, for example, Abel and Langston 2001). On the other hand, if PAR is viewed not only as a tool for solving particular climate-related problems, but as a tool for fostering sustained learning and adaptation over time through partnerships between at-risk communities, government institutions and other actors, it becomes a tool which (together with its corollary, adaptive management) is uniquely suitable to climate change adaptation. It is the ongoing and capacity building nature of action research processes that make it appropriate in the context of ongoing climatic change and variability. The benefits of PAR for addressing challenges related to complexity and nested levels of socio-political organization are similar: prescriptive solutions are unlikely to work, requiring an adaptive approach to change that builds upon successes and failures in charting a more desirable future.As for the limited predictability of climate change and limitations in local and scientific knowledge, PAR can strengthen understanding by building upon the complementarities of local and scientific knowledge and fostering a more nuanced understanding of systems. These complementarities may cover aspects such as what is observed (content), what matters (motivation), and time and space dimensions (scale) (DeWalt 1994). Scientific knowledge tends to be stronger at deriving understanding at larger spatial scales, while local knowledge is often stronger at understanding the particularities of a given location. Regarding temporal dimensions, local and scientific knowledge each have their strengths in observing change over longer time frames. However, scientists may be able to predict future climatic change better, while communities tend to be more versed in historical change and how to deal with uncertainty based on their own experience with past climatic changes and related adaptive strategies-as well as their understanding of what worked and did not work, and why. While PAR may be beneficial in bringing these two bodies of knowledge together around a common problem, it is important to recognize that ultimately it is the characteristic of humility that enables an effective partnership between scientists and local communities. Within PAR, it is Furthermore, failure to ensure local ownership of the process, and to place the nexus of power and decision-making squarely in the hands of the intended beneficiaries, subjects it to abuse:At its best, the process can be liberating, empowering and educative, a collegial relationship that brings local communities into the policy debate, validating their knowledge. At its worst, it can degenerate into a process of co-option of local communities into an external agenda, or an exploitative series of empty rituals, imposing fresh burdens on the community's time and energy and serving primarily to legitimize the credentials of the implementing agency as 'grassroots oriented'.This challenge and the abuses it gives rise to led, earlier on, to attempts to classify participatory research into different forms (Biggs 1989). Figure 3 depicts the inherent tension that tends to exist in participatory research between science quality on the one hand and improved development on the other-a tension that more often than not tends to result in contractual and consultative modes of research.In PAR, the same tension exists, but efforts to put communities squarely in control of the process mean that the process tends to lead to an emphasis on development impact over research per se. The challenge is always there for researchers to ensure rigour in the learning process and distill findings or lessons of wider relevance (Box 1)-and thus leverage the potential of PAR in informing wider communities of practice. Effort to put communities in control of the change process has created a certain discomfort among those in the long-established conventional or empirical research tradition. This has caused some to question the validity of action research and PAR. The questions often asked include, \"How can one derive general lessons about change from happenings within a specific context, given the cultural, institutional, and ecological particularities of each setting?\" \"How can claims to validity be supported when there are no bearings to hold methods constant through time?\" Some authors claim it is simply a matter of keeping one's ''intellectual bearings in a changing situation'' (Checkland and Holwell 1998:13). These authors suggest that claims to validity require a ''recoverable research process based on prior declaration of the epistemology in terms of which findings count as knowledge will be expressed'' (Checkland and Holwell 1998:9). In other words, one cannot engage in change without prior declaration of the scope of research and how it will be carried out. Elements of this process include prior declaration of an area of concern, a framework of ideas, and a methodology (Checkland 1991;Checkland and Holwell 1998). An area of concern is a topic around which the research is organized -in this case, processes or strategies for enhancing people's adaptability to climate change.The broader framework of ideas may include a conceptual understanding of the deficiencies of current practices, support services and policies on adaptation to climate change, and/or a set of guiding values (e.g. equity, sustainability) known to be deficient in current practice. It may also be a body of theory informing change (i.e. property rights and collective action theory, political ecology, ecosystem theory). As the effectiveness of change is largely determined by the actors themselves, the above authors would probably be comfortable with locally established aims and participatory evaluations of the change process as evidence of its effectiveness. Researchers with a more conventional approach to scientific validity may require research questions and hypotheses to be clearly stated up front and held constant, lessons to be derived from cross-site or cross-case comparison (within one or more sites), and conventional research to validate claims of effectiveness of the change process.Team building and partnershipTeam building and partnership are essential to initiating change, as they set stronger foundations for all that follows. The basic objectives and requirements for team and partnership building are similar. The main purpose is to establish the conditions required to ensure the future success of the project, to put in place an effective team composed of individuals with complementary skills and establish a set of sensitized and committed partners. It is also useful for becoming more familiar with one another-key motivating factors, strengths, weaknesses and complementarities-and to build rapport. This helps to highlight the interdependence of different team members or partners. Team and partnership building should not be seen as a one-off activity; rather, it is a continuous process that requires active management as the project evolves. Given this involvement of multi-institutions with different agendas and expectations, there was need to ensure good coordination and strong partnerships amongst these organizations.The first step was to identify the purpose of partnership building activities, which was to create platforms for collaboration and to identify roles and responsibilities for each organization (so as to ensure that there were no overlaps in roles that could cause conflict among the implementing partners and to identify areas of complementarity). The process of establishing partnerships involved:1. Holding start-up meetings and workshop where the goal and objectives of CAMPFIRE were clearly outlined and agreed upon. 2. Defining roles and responsibilities of each organization, as follows: DNPWLM − Ensure that statutory regulations relating to wildlife use are adhered to; WWF −Provide advice and assistance to rural communities on ecology and wildlife management, and economic and financial management; CASS − Socio-economic research; policy and institutional analysis (baseline surveys, monitoring impacts on rural communities); ZIMTRUST −Assist communities and rural district councils in strengthening their management skills and developing local institutions for wildlife management; CA − Lobbying and advocacy on behalf of communities; and MLGRUD −Advise partners on local government policies and practices; audit and supervise district authorities involved in wildlife management.3. Nominating an institution that would actively manage and coordinate programme activities (in this case, the CA). 4. Developing a strategy to facilitate continuous feedback among all partners, covering mechanisms such as seminars and policy roundtables to keep everyone up-to-date. 5. The feedback for a set the tone for a continuous process of adjusting roles and responsibilities as necessary, as well as bringing in new partners that are identified as relevant to addressing identified challenges.Outcomes included a shared vision of what CAMPFIRE aimed to achieve and how the goal and objectives of the programme would be achieved; clearly defined roles and responsibilities of each partner; supportive working relationships among the partners; and complementary contributions from different areas of expertise, leading to CAMPFIRE being hailed internationally as a success.It is important to note that there is a distinction between building a team and building a partnership. They are two sets of activities involving different individuals or groups, although often using a similar set of approaches. An action research team is a core team made up of researchers and development practitioners. While they may share a set of overarching objectives related to the collaboration, their aims and responsibilities differ from those of institutional partners. The action research team is mutually responsible for the implementation of the PAR process and ultimately accountable for the outcomes and success of the project. Its composition will reflect the main aim of the project: a balance between development practitioners and researchers with teamwork abilities and who master a number of facilitation and analytical tools. A partnership, on the other hand, is an explicit agreement, written or not, that a team establishes with an individual, group or organization to whom a role has been recognized in the implementation of the project. The process of partnership building helps to define this role, as well as the conditions under which it will be implemented.It must be noted that subsequent steps of the PAR process will contribute to team building and development of partnerships. Participatory action planning, for example, will help identify roles and responsibilities much more clearly and monitoring and evaluation will help to improve the performance of teams and partnerships.Core activities or processes within team and partnership building include:1. Engaging individual team members and partners. The facilitator must take a lead role in calling others to the table, clarifying the aims of the partnership and consulting them on their interest in being engaged, but not impose his or her own interests or views. This helps to build trust, minimize suspicions by clarifying aims and clearing any doubts, and increases the chances that team members or partners will come to the table with a positive attitude.2. Meetings and workshops, which are useful for:• Developing a common understanding of the background of team members (academic, working experience, level of knowledge of the PAR process, strengths and weaknesses) or partners (mandate, modes of working, what they can offer and would like to achieve through the PAR process);• Ensuring that people are at the same level of understanding of PAR, by conducting refresher meetings with the team and at community level;• Exploring differences in work style, which can help to transform points of misunderstanding into opportunities for building complementarities among diverse individuals (e.g. using personality tests);• Understanding the importance of working as a team, challenges that can be faced and approaches for dealing with challenges;• Agreeing on roles and responsibilities for team members/partners;• Holding brainstorming sessions on ways to facilitate change; and• Planning.3. Regular feedback and reflection meetings to jointly evaluate progress relative to what was planned and distill lessons that can be used for moving forward.4. Regular team/partner interactions, which may include:• Social gathering and outings to build team rapport; or• Joint activities in the field to build a common understanding of the PAR process as it unfolds.Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makersThe primary aims of mobilization are:• To engage larger numbers of people in the change process• To take stock of the variability and complexity of the society or set of stakeholders, and find ways to consult and meaningfully engage marginalized groups within communities For mobilization to be effective, it is important that there is transparency of aims, and equal opportunity for all stakeholders to participate and express their opinions. This does not mean that the entire community or all stakeholders must be present before starting to plan, but that all have been informed and given the opportunity. Mobilization often entails identification of local institutions or civil society actors who are respected by the community and considered effective in mobilizing them, given their established track record and trust engendered in them by others. It is important at the same time to ensure that politically, economically or socially marginalised groups are not left out of the process, which often requires active attempts to identify and engage them during the mobilization process.The dynamic nature of the mobilization process, which must be responsive to local social norms and responses, makes it difficult to summarize into a series of steps. Common elements to the mobilization process, however, include the following:• Formal correspondence (often written) with administrative authorities in an area where the project wishes to operate, if outside organizations are new to the area, as a means to enhance buy-in, ensure the project's legitimacy or avoid future misunderstandings.• Informal visits to the area-including to government authorities at diverse levels, organizations with current activities related to the topic, and people with knowledge of the area and of previous interventions, in order to:-Learn more about the history and context;-Identify any latent conflicts between different social groups or regarding the topic;-Present the project to potential participants or supporters; and/or -Solicit advice on how to best enter local communities or engage certain stakeholder groups.• Informal visits to communities to inform people of the project and mobilize different social groups to attend a first meeting, through a combination of visits with local leadership (traditional and government authorities) and informal visits with social groups who may not attend unless otherwise encouraged (e.g. the youth, women, the very poor, marginalized ethnic groups).During and/or following the initial stages of team-building, the next stage generally involves contacting communities and other stakeholders. Often there are protocols that should be followed when entering a community for the first time, such as contacting local leadership to inform them of the aims of the project and seek permission to engage with community members. A process of community and stakeholder mobilization should then be initiated. This is a process through which participants in a PAR process become interested and get selforganized and motivated to work together toward a common goal. It is also a process through which marginalized members of a community are tactfully consulted and engaged in the change process. It must be noted that subsequent steps of the PAR process will contribute to mobilization and the definition of this common goal.Box 2. Partnership building in the CoFCCA project, CAR/DRC (CoFCCA Team)Since CIFOR, as a research institute, does not have the expertise required to support the implementation of all the activities identified by beneficiary communities, certain technical responsibilities are entrusted to development partners. The first step is to draw up partnership agreements with the latter through negotiations on the nature of their involvement with the project managers and with the aforementioned communities.In the Ndima Nzaso forest, Central African Republic, and in Mambasa and Kisangani in DRC, negotiations entailed the following steps:Step 1 - Step 2 -Explanatory visit to identified partners.Step 3 -Exploratory workshop with all the partners. During this workshop, each partner selected activities to support and the type of assistance, e.g. provide equipment, expertise, funding or proximate monitoring.The supporting partners came together to focus on given activities and decide on their scope (e.g. grow X number of hectares of cassava per village), the breakdown of roles (Who is to do what?), responsibilities (Who is responsible for the success of what?) and also to draw up an action plan (What? When? By whom? With whom? How?).Step 4 -Each partner worked out the terms of the partnership agreement with the CofCCA project. This meant that each partner had to define the partnership goals, intended activities, expected outputs and impacts for the beneficiaries, implementation schedule, roles and responsibilities of each party, and the related budget. The preliminary terms of the agreement were then amended by each of the parties until a consensus was reached.It is important to start the PAR process by grounding the process conceptually: Where are we starting from and where are we headed? Assessing where we are starting from can be done using three tools: the context study, the diagnosis and the baseline study. Understanding where we are headed is done through facilitating stakeholders to conceptualize the change they would like to see. An important tool for this is visioning.The context study presents a picture of the system, including collection of information on the past and present state of interactions among stakeholders, actors and their environment. This enables the orientation and adaptation of future management actions. It enables the external CSA 649 D• Community-wide or multi-stakeholder meeting to:-Raise people's awareness of the project, its objectives and expected approach;-Solicit their permission and interest to work with them, and clarify what their roles might be;-Mobilize their future inputs and involvement; and-Inform them about the next steps, and solicit advice and inputs.• Introduce the idea of village or stakeholder representatives, jointly identify the qualities and behaviours of good representatives, and agree on the way in which these representatives would be selected (including use of established criteria) and monitored.• Partnership building.By: Laura A. PAR is research oriented toward problem solving or overcoming obstacles to achieving a goal.The context study contributes significantly to the identification of the main issues to be solved or concerns to be managed. Yet solving a problem means combating its causes. The identification and analysis of factors which generated the problem or which contribute to sustaining it become a fundamental step towards the resolution or the mitigation of the problem. The participatory diagnosis can enable actors to identify the superficial and underlying, direct and indirect, proximate and remote causes of the identified problems (see Box 1). On the other hand, some approaches to diagnosis involve looking for alternative paths to reaching the goal (Mitroff 1997) or emphasize building on existing strengths in achieving collective goals (e.g. appreciative inquiry) instead of focusing only on the perceived problems.The diagnosis or baseline constitutes an important step in PAR in the sense that it enables the production and consolidation of basic knowledge of the issue being addressed, as well as its socio-economic, institutional and ecological context. It facilitates the achievement of the following objectives:1. To characterise the specific aspects of the issue being addressed by the project, and define the relevant project interventions. This characterisation will enable the definition of the complexity of the problem and identification of its key components, through which change can be better thought through.Box 1: Preliminary and participatory diagnostic in the Boeny Region, Madagascar (ACCA Madagascar team)A participatory diagnostic was carried out in Boeny in 2008 using local reflection groups (LRG) composed of some 20 farmers, together with local authorities. The goal was to bring out farmers' perceptions of climate change, identify the impacts these changes have had on the agricultural system, identify strategies currently employed to reduce vulnerability to climate-related disturbance and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies. The 20-person LRG was divided into two groups by gender. A manual was provided to ensure that the discussion focused on pre-selected themes with questions such as: How do farmer perceive climate change? How are identified changes observed/affirmed? How do they measure the effects? What actions have been adopted in the past to reduce vulnerability to the effects of climate change? With what results?A report-back session enabled a comparison to be made between the information produced by the two groups and to ensure a participatory process. The diagnostic showed that farmers clearly identify the following two major vagaries of climate:• Progressively shorter rainy seasons, which since the 1970-1980 reference period have gradually declined from 6-7 months to 2-3 months; • Overall increase in temperature.Changes in rainfall have led to serious changes in rice cultivation schedules and in crop yields. Although three cropping seasons are still possible in this part of northwestern Madagascar, with vary asara (rainfed rice cultivation, from October -March), vary atriatry (rainfed rice cultivation with supplemental irrigation, February -July) and vary jeby (a flood-recession rice crop from February -June), ricefield productivity has declined by nearly 50%. Yet, in some irrigated areas, a fourth rice crop is grown -a fortunate outcome of the drop in rainfall.Breaking down the results of this preliminary participatory diagnostic into social stakes and challenges inspired the construction of a collective vision.facilitator to get a better understanding of the complexity of the site or the system. It gives the internal facilitator an integrative view of all data and enables an improved understanding of the needs and problems to be solved. Equally important, by identifying existing conflicts or tense socio-political relations, it may play a key role in avoiding potentially volatile cultural and political stumbling blocks in the facilitation process.The context study presents unquestionable advantages to the facilitator, some of which are:• A clearer, broader and more integrated view of the entire situation in the site;• Increased capacity to determine the focal parameters to follow;• Increased capacity to establish the causal relations between apparently independent facts; and• Identification and preliminary analysis of the focal problems.The methodology used for the context study will depend very much on the main objective of the PAR project. However, it involves identification and analysis of diverse parameters, including biophysical, socio-economic and political characteristics of the site or the system, with emphasis on aspects directly linked to the focus of the project.The context study is extractive research, insofar as it is initiated and carried out by an external facilitator/researcher with the aim of having a better understanding of the situation of the site. Usually, traditional questionnaires, participatory mapping and other standard data collection protocols are used. Secondary data collection and literature reviews should form part of the context study. However, this method proves limited vis-à-vis the complexity of the situation met in the field, and alone is insufficient in giving the facilitator adequate understanding with which to adapt to unpredictable and complex situations.The context study is best carried out in an interactive way, using tools borrowed from participatory methods or a set of criteria and indicators (C&I) as an investigation framework.The participatory context study informs external facilitators about the complexity of the site and protects against avoidable errors based on ignorance of the local context. It also allows local actors to gain access to outsiders' knowledge and provides an opportunity for developing a shared understanding of local concerns, issues and challenges of concern to different groups. This approach also offers an opportunity for the less powerful actors to participate in the identification and analysis of their problems/concerns and in the definition of activities to be carried out, thus helping to stimulate local ownership of interventions.No option is exclusive and it is ultimately the combination of several factors, including the knowledge of the site or system, means available and priorities which determine the methods to adopt. Often, facilitators have difficulty in deciding the depth or the level of detail of the study at this stage. It is important to note that the optimal level of accuracy is a matter of common sense and practice. Too much detail may make this phase time consuming and inefficient, for most of the information collected is neither analyzed nor utilized in decisionmaking. On the other hand, it may be difficult with some groups to encourage them to go beyond very mundane issues to imagine a better future. At the end of this phase, the facilitator and actors together will have already constituted a set of potential problems to be addressed.It is important to sort out which of these falls in the line of the project and which ones will need to be tackled by partners. The objectives of this step can be defined as follows:1. To build consensus on the general orientation of change desired by all partners involved in the project.2. To help develop a mutual understanding of alternative pathways through which the desired change can be achieved.3. To support group reflection on possible actions that can help in realizing targeted changes.Here, we will look at three tools: visioning, definition of boundary partners and the results chain.In visioning, there is always a risk that visions that are too broad, long-term or unrealistic are developed by participants and therefore of little use in planning. The facilitator must therefore consistently frame questions so as to focus on the topic at hand-namely, what a future will look like if people have learnt how to adapt to climate change. He or she can do this by making use of the output from the diagnostic phase to focus or narrow down the visioning exercise around key challenges or opportunities identified. Visioning also frequently requires explicit efforts to surface and aid in reconciling conflicts of interest, and often involves a lot of effort to negotiate different visions of the future by various stakeholders with divergent interests (see Box 2 for an example of how visioning has been used to resolve stakeholder conflicts). It can also help conflict to be avoided by facilitating the formulation of visions about the future in which complementarities or synergies among divergent sets of interests are identified. In this step, there is always a risk of ending up with a formula for change that is founded on a false consensus, obscuring points of difference that can ultimately undermine the project's success. Expert facilitation skills are therefore required to overcome this challenge.The process of visioning change can be summarised in the following key steps: 1. Call together a village or stakeholder meeting in a common location. Break the group up into smaller groups based on the prior stakeholder analysis (carried out during the diagnostic phase), which should have surfaced different interest groups related to the challenges or opportunities associated with climate change. These local stakeholders 2. To foster a common understanding of the issue and its causes, and initiate the process of awareness-raising and mobilization of local actors.3. To select priority communities or groups from the population that the project will target.The identification of resource persons should also be included as one of the objectives of this step.A good diagnosis is not easy to carry out; however, it is crucial for the success of a project. Very often the causes and the consequences are so closely intermingled that it is difficult to elucidate them. Actors are so entangled in their situation that they cannot easily solve problems on their own. Thus, facilitation by a third party can be instrumental. Facilitation of a participatory diagnosis requires both common sense and technical skills. There are several ways of doing diagnosis, and the choice should depend on the topic (e.g. climate change vulnerability). At the beginning of the process, it is important to identify an entry point so as to enable the discussion to start from somewhere. This might include an analysis of historical events experienced as a result of climate change, or changes in resources and livelihoods due to climate change. Another possible entry point is the discussion of a (possibly idealistic) vision of the future and of how climate related threats are obstacles to reaching that vision (see next section for details). If the resource and livelihood entry points have been selected, the steps in Table 1 can be followed.Table 1. Example of steps in participatory diagnosis.Step 1. Discuss the different aspects of climate change observed.2. Discuss the impact (directly or indirectly) of current climate related threats on resources, livelihood and activities (the positive and negative impact of climate change) as well as possible impact of future climate change.3. For each considered type of climate related threat, discuss the factors that make the certain social groups more vulnerable than others or that increase the negative consequences.4. For each type of threat, discuss factors that help different social groups to cope. During the diagnostic and visioning processes, the facilitator of each group discussion should actively take note of all the change variables or criteria mentioned in their interaction with the group they are facilitating. They need to carry these variables into the subsequent step, and actively check whether the interests of the interest group they facilitated have made their way into the shared vision that will be developed, and the associated action plans. Without this active role, the more powerful actors may dominate the planning process and the separate visions of the different interest groups can easily get lost.3. Return to plenary, and ask the different groups to present their visions. After all visions are presented, facilitate a process for the larger group to come up with a jointly agreed vision. If there are clear incompatibilities in the different visions or they are completely different and cannot be merged, they need to be considered separately. After the visions have been merged, all the facilitators of the different groups in Step 2 must make sure that the interests expressed by their respective groups have been adequately captured or at least debated in the process of developing a vision.Step 2 should then present the change variables (or criteria) identified (Box 3) and ask the participants to comment on them and reconcile any that are at odds with one another. If it is recommended to eliminate some of these, the original proponents must be convinced of this decision before doing so.5. Facilitate discussion on how the identified criteria will be operationalised, measured and tracked. The following questions may be useful for this purpose: \"For [criterion X], how The identification of simple criteria and indicators (C&I) was carried out by local facilitators with the support of external animators. Five focus groups were organized, each made up of about fifteen people from four large villages. They were: youth, women, Fulani (or Peulh), pygmies (Medjang) and local elites. In each focus group, tools such as word association and discourse analysis were used to develop a common understanding of sustainable forest management (SFM) and human well being (HWB) and build an ideal vision of the future. The method consists of enabling people to articulate their hopes, build awareness about their hopes and empower them to realize it is possible to achieve them (Wollenberg and Buck, 2000). These hopes are set as main objectives. The next step was to identify conditions to be fulfilled in order to reach these objectives. Conditions identified are criteria (and sometimes indicators). For each criterion, it is possible to elaborate one or a set of indicators and verifiers 1. Each social group was asked to distribute 100 points among the selected C&I. C&I were then ranked according to their cumulative weight, the most important C&I for the entire community being those with the highest total weight.groups may often have gender dimensions, but many times are strongly differentiated by their level of vulnerability, livelihood systems (e.g. farmers, herders) or their specific interests around climate change.2. Ask the different groups to visualize their desiredfuture situations when the problems resulting from climate change (as identified in thediagnostic phase) have been solved. You can do this, for instance, byasking the following questions: \"If you travel to the future, towards the end of the project and the project has had incredible success in solving the problems identified in the diagnostic phase: and practices. These key persons or organizations that the group or project will interact with directly and seek to influence are called \"boundary partners,\" a term borrowed from the Outcome Mapping approach (Earl et al., 2001). During the phase of conceptualizing change, it is important to understand the desired roles of these partners and how these can be manifested.Identification of boundary partners can be done following the visioning exercise, in the same meeting. Once the vision has been defined and possible actions have been identified, the group can discuss: \"Who else's help do we need? Who do we need to influence? What do we expect from them so that the vision can come true?\" Through this exercise, the group might find that some of the identified partners brought into the PAR team rather than being seen as external partners.The results chain is a tool that is borrowed from \"Results-Based Management\" approaches. It is also part of the impact pathway approach (Douthwaite et al. 2007), which we re-visit in the section on Impact Assessment. It helps to conceptualise change by clarifying the relationship between inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts or the end goal. It can be adapted to local contexts by using appropriate vocabulary. Its use is especially justified in complex situations where influence over boundary partners is necessary to achieve the vision. In this case, changes in the behaviour, relationships and practices of boundary partners are some of the outcomes that must be articulated (among other intermediate stages which must be reached in order to achieve other types of impacts). Table 2 can be utilized as a tool for developing a results chain with stakeholders. The output column could be omitted in cases where the group does not plan to produce any intermediate product from the action.Baseline studies allow the starting point of a changing situation to be assessed using parameters relevant to the issue at hand. These parameters need to be observable, unambiguous, reliable and measurable.  It is important to realize that different social groups have different priorities. In some cases, the team may wish to ask the different groups to give weights to the different criteria (see Box 4). This will help to capture the priorities of different stakeholder groups, and to explore whether the change process is proving to be beneficial to different social actors. If it is discovered that this is not the case, these differentiated indicators become the basis upon which new actions aimed at meeting the needs of these social groups may be justified.It is also important to note that generating a vision is a critical and often challenging task. While there is disagreement on whether the visioning process should identify visions that are realistic or expressions of the ideal, it is clear that one must move from the generic / ideal to the specific / real at some point in the visioning and planning process. Facilitating a process in which expressed visions are realistic is challenging. It can be done by careful questioning by the facilitator to probe deeper into past experience, and to verify whether emerging proposals are realistic and achievable. Alternatively, visions are left as expressions of the ideal and the identification of more concrete targets during the planning process used to support achievable plans of action.In some cases, such as when experimenting with new agricultural practices, the relationship between actions and expected changes is very simple. In other cases, such as when considering more complex adaptation strategies such as early warning systems or integrating climate change adaptation into local development plans, the change process is much more complex. In order for such strategies to reduce the vulnerability of the community or system under consideration or to increase its adaptive capacity, behavioral changes are required for a number of key persons or organizations. In order for the vision to become possible, participants in a PAR process must find ways to encourage them to take actions or change their behaviors Identification of desirable change variables and indicators and verifiers that will help assess whether these have been met, has the following advantages:• Enables participants to express what a concept related to an end goal (e.g. \"sustainable management of resource X\") means for to those involved in a change process • Enables participants to assess performance against predefined targets • Enables facilitators or participants to monitor impacts of management interventions and record change • Provides guidelines for action towards the end goal through the identification of best practices • Enables participants to adapt management strategies based on what is learned from the above process economic, human and natural (Endamana and Etoga 2006;Aldrich and Sayer 2007), we advocate an approach more focused on the specific problems to be solved. The way to achieve this is to conduct the baseline analysis following the steps of context analysis, participatory diagnosis and stakeholder visioning-when the scope of change is clearly identified.The methodology for measuring the baseline situation of key indicators will depend on the specific indicator and standard norms of scientific rigor. For example, to measure the level of revenue from agriculture, standard household surveys instruments would be utilized. If measuring the baseline level of soil fertility, soil analyses would need to be conducted. If assessing the frequency of conflict, more qualitative methods may be required, such as identifying relevant indicators (e.g. of conflict prevalence, intensity or forms) through consultation of community members and finding ways to quantify these. For examples of participatory and project-based baselines, please refer to Boxes 5 and 6, respectively.In 2007, CIFOR was designated by WWF to manage conflicts associated with local opposition to forest concessionaires involving some 74,000 hectares. Being a site previously unknown to CIFOR facilitators, a multidisciplinary team was established to conduct a diagnostic survey of the area. A 5-day field trip was planned to establish contact with actors at various levels (concessionaires, administrative and traditional authorities, civil society and leaders of local associations), discuss the objectives of the project and to seek their support. A second field trip, of three weeks' duration, led to the characterization of the site through a context study. The site, made up of about fifty villages, was divided into 4 areas based on cultural identity, each one formed by many villages and surrounding hamlets. In each area, discussions were held by calling together focus groups of villagers and loggers, men and women, youth and adults, dominant ethnic groups and pygmy minorities -jointly and separately, according to the objectives. Various domains were explored:• Socio-cultural context: Identification and analysis of stakeholders, resource access rules and land tenure, the structure of power and decision-making, and social capital in the form of collective action; • Socio-economic context: Economic activities, economically important resources and their use, marketing, and socio-economic infrastructure; • Socio-ecological context: Ecosystems dynamics and their causes; the spatial layout of resources and land uses; and the socio-cultural and economic importance of each ecosystem for different actors.This context study was followed by a participatory diagnosis of conflicts, conducted through multistakeholder workshops in each area and analysis of findings among the facilitation team, as follows:1. Identification of stakeholders and objects of conflict; 2. Listening exercise, giving the opportunity to each party to the conflict to formulate and express their grievances freely, and to propose solutions; 3. Discourse analysis following/during each event on reality of logging and how it affects each actor; 4. Identification of points of convergence and divergence among the actors in conflict, and key points for further negotiation; 5. Identification by each group of a set of criteria and indicators of good forest management; 6. Negotiation of perceptions and determination of a set of consensual criteria and indicators.The baseline was then designed to understand the current status of negotiated criteria and indicators. This would later serve as the basis for later evaluating the project's success in fostering good forest management and, as a consequence, resolving conflicts. progress toward impacts. In the following sections, we will use the word indicator to refer to both intermediate outcomes and impacts (e.g. conditions described in the vision). The identification of these parameters is an important exercise which starts during the participatory visioning (where local indicators are identified), and continues through teambased planning exercises in which specific targets as well as gaps in local monitoring are identified. As mentioned above, these gaps could be due to the need to verify outcomes and impacts for a broader audience using more empirical research methods or to help explain a wider set of phenomena (either how these are affected by the change process, or instead constrain it). Project-based monitoring can also help to capture the effect of the project on a set of values of primary concern of the project or donors rather than local communities, such as equity or sustainability.1. Participatory baselines Once indicators are identified in the process of conceptualizing change, participatory baselines are carried out. This may be done qualitatively in the same meeting, or through field-based measurement (in some cases with the support of the research team, either to assist in research design or in data collection). Wherever possible, the community should be encouraged to identify local indicators that they can measure on their own. Baselines for qualitative indicators may be established on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 the maximum expression of a desired state and 1 the minimum expression or worst case scenario. At the baseline stage, participants are asked to discuss where they think they are at the present time. Different individuals will have a different perception due to their unique circumstances, and if possible different stakeholder groups should be encouraged to set their own baselines. Figure 1a illustrates a baseline based on 5 qualitative indicators, and Figure 1b illustrates the results of two subsequent participatory monitoring sessions (after key stages of implementation).It is important to carefully consider indicators to be monitored, given the cost and time that must be invested in tracking the performance and evolution of these indicators over time and conducting final impact assessments. While some authors propose generic approaches to monitoring, for example to observe changes in the various forms of capital-social, physical,  Action research is not a substitute for conventional or empirical research. At different stages of the PAR process, it may be necessary to collect data using conventional research methods to inform the change process or more widespread sharing. Empirical research may be used in two primary ways-as an input to change, and to measure impact of the PAR process.Deeper analysis of the system can aid in system diagnosis and the identification of points of leverage for catalyzing change; informing decision-making by stakeholders involved in a change process; informing facilitation strategies of research teams; or supporting evidencebased policy making.• Systematizing local knowledge through social scientific methods in order to: (i) make highly specialized or localized knowledge available to a broader community; (ii) support multi-stakeholder negotiations either by identifying inconsistencies in the knowledge of different stakeholders (and the need to clarify causal processes), or by ensuring that common local understandings on cause and effect are actively integrated into decision making processes; (iii) identify \"proven\" solutions to similar problems embedded within local knowledge; or (iv) illustrate its utility vis-a-vis outsiders unaccustomed to the value of local knowledge.It is important to note that while empirical research conducted during the diagnostic phase is often used to inform preliminary interventions, the timing of such knowledge inputs often cannot be anticipated. Challenges may emerge during the course of a change process that require more formalized knowledge or data collection techniques. Having flexible budget lines can enable research teams to be responsive to such emerging needs, in addition to being a fundamental component to an evolving, indeterminate change process.Core processes for empirical research involve standard data collection techniques for different social and natural science disciplines, as well as strategies to ensure that empirical research findings are utilized to inform ongoing change processes. The former may include any number of tools, from spatial analysis to botanical plots, soil chemical analyses, market chain analysis, household surveys, focus group discussions, and use of historical data to anticipate future trends. What is most critical is that any empirical research carried out be clearly linked to the PAR agenda and not just an academic exercise-particularly when involving communities who may become fatigued through high demands on their time in the absence of any concrete benefits. This may be done by giving involved stakeholders the opportunity to clarify \"critical uncertainties\" (unknowns that are otherwise crucial to decision-making), and by clearly thinking through how the information will be used to support decision-making by stakeholders involved in change processes or by policy-makers.When a project has the objective of deriving lessons for a wider audience beyond the research site, the main purpose is often to illustrate that a particular approach to change works well and to distill lessons about what to do and not to do when seeking to enhance local adaptive capacity in the face of climate change. Yet how does a project substantiate claims to bringing impact or to enhancing adaptive capacity? Simply stating that an approach works will not provide sufficient justification to an audience considering applying lessons learnt or approaches as part of standard institutional practice. How does the approach perform relative to current institutional practice? What are the benefits, and at what cost to human and financial resources are they achieved? On what basis will your arguments gain credibility for this broader audience? The answer to these questions often lies in doing two things: (i) systematically documenting the change process, and monitoring how local and scientific indicators perform as the approach was adaptively managed and adjusted over time; and (ii) formal impact assessments to demonstrate impacts emanating from the change process.The primary aims of formal impact assessments are:• To find out if objectives have been met and expected outcomes achieved, and identify factors which may have hindered full achievement of these outcomes;Empirical research can be instrumental for:• Strategizing interventions most likely to work by identifying problems important to local residents, environmental \"hot spots\" (where on the landscape problems are most extreme), social conflicts, opportunities (i.e. local institutions respected by most parties) or other important guiding parameters• Making variables visible to farmers, raising awareness and mobilizing their interest in finding solutions-for example through use of satellite imagery to illustrate landscape changes over time;• Bolstering political commitment to a new approach-for example, impact assessments to illustrate the relative merits and demerits of different approaches to supporting local adaptive capacity;• Providing data to mediate disputes, back evidence-based policy decisions or provide \"policy targets\" through an empirical understanding of a system;• Empowering communities to question the actions of more powerful actors (Box 1);• Monitoring change through use of scientific indicators to complement local indicators; or Since this problem can be partially addressed through policies regulating the location and density of Eucalyptus on or near farm boundaries, empirical research was undertaken to assess soil chemistry, soil moisture and maize yields near boundaries of Eucalyptus and other species perceived by farmers to be harmful to crops. Identification of significant negative impacts on crop yields or thresholds (specific distance from tree lines at which negative effects rapidly decline) would both be useful for guiding policy. While the former would provide a justification for a policy intervention in the form of restrictions on species or planting locations, the latter would provide a clear design principle for such interventions (i.e. species X not to be planted within Y meters of farm boundaries).While this was the theory behind the research, one farmer living next to the Sakharani Mission and \"hosting\" an empirical research experiment used the clear visual evidence of reduced yields near the Sakharani boundary to support his interests. He requested the District Forest Officer to visit his field, see the outcomes of the experiment, and demand for land use change by the Mission in the form of substitute species compatible with adjacent cropland. Clearly, such experiments can have both intended and unintended outcomes for livelihoods, learning and social justice.should focus on project \"influence\" rather than \"impact\", as multiple variables, actors and drivers often come to play in producing outcomes and impacts. The long time over which change often plays out-particularly in the case of adaptive capacity in the face of \"slow\" climate change variables-necessitates measurement of intermediate stages along the impact pathway or results chain (e.g. outputs and outcomes), which are defined during the stage of conceptualizing change. Outcome mapping is specifically designed to capture such intermediate stages of influence, such as attitude and behavioral change (Earl et al. 2001). Some adaptive collaborative management practitioners refer to such pathways as \"plausible causal connections\" (Colfer, pers. communication). The broader literature on impact assessment should be consulted when designing such studies, as this was not the subject of methodological innovation by the authors.In the case of PAR applied to climate change, the main parameters or variables expected to change might include:• The adaptive capacity of local actors, as evidenced by anticipatory and reactive efforts to prepare and respond to extreme events;• More horizontal and vertical sharing of knowledge and information on climate change and adaptive strategies;• The capacity of institutions to support adaptive capacity of local actors, as evidenced by the evolution of institutional mandates and policies; resources allocated to supporting adaptive capacity; and changing knowledge, attitudes and practices of policy makers and service providers; or• Improved capacity of all stakeholders to learn from the past (e.g. actions or policies that have strengthened or undermined local adaptive capacity) and anticipate the medium-term consequences of today's decisions prior to taking action.If \"before and after\" comparisons are made, baselines will be required against which subsequent changes are measured. As it is often difficult to predict the nature of changes that will occur through a PAR process, it is difficult to know which baseline data is most important. The tendency is to collect much more information than that which is actually useful, resulting in a tiring and overly \"academic\" process for local communities and other stakeholders. This problem can be ameliorated by using the visioning and planning processes of local stakeholders to identify the key parameters likely to change-and systematically measure these variables before initiating change (through participatory baselines or empirical research). Additional variables can be included based on researcher understanding of the broader system and how it constrains or enables change in the variables of interest to local stakeholders. Variables of importance to donors or the broader audience of action research outputs should also be considered, such as the impact on household incomes, and variables related to equity and environmental outcomes. Some common variables in the case of climate change might include:• Proxies to assess preparedness or adaptive capacity (for example, monitoring the performance of local indicators) see box 2;• To be able to substantiate changes observed as a result of project interventions, and identify factors determining and inhibiting change;• To systematically test hypotheses about \"what works in practice\" in terms of supporting adaptive capacity;• To be able to assess the sustainability of outcomes and adaptive learning processes beyond the project cycle.Impact assessments are designed following standards of academic rigor to:1. Control \"enumerator bias\" (the influence the researcher may have on information provided by interviewees), for example by bringing in external enumerators;2. Identify the right kinds of variables (unambiguous, measurable and relevant to the ultimate goals of the approach being tested);3. Establish a \"counterfactual\", or evidence for what would have occurred in the absence of any intervention; and 4. Facilitate capture of both intended and unintended outcomes.Enumerator bias can be controlled by ensuring that those collecting data about the project's impact are not project personnel, and by openly guaranteeing the confidentiality of information obtained from interviewees (so they feel more comfortable expressing themselves on sensitive topics). The rapport established between project personnel and the project's stakeholders may hinder the ability of project personnel to gather unbiased information about people's perceptions about the project, while confidentiality ensures them that their name will not be used in association with the information given-enabling them to speak freely. \"Before\" and \"after\" comparisons are important for assessing impact of project interventions, and involve comparing baseline data with data gathered following PAR interventions. Yet \"attribution\" remains a problem, as changes could have been induced by any number of intervening variables other than the PAR process. Counterfactuals are therefore necessary to determine which changes occurred as a direct result of the PAR process, and which occurred as a result of other contextual factors. They generally require a comparison of outcomes achieved \"with\" the project and \"without\" the project, for example comparing the situation within project villages and in non-participating villages.Generally, articulation of an impact pathway (Figure 1) and being able to plausibly establish connections between different stages of that impact pathway (from inputs to activities, activities to outputs, and so on) is also required to understand the causal pathways through which changes occurred. Furthermore, it is increasingly recognized that impact assessments (Here, risk refers to the degree of likelihood that the changes associated with that stage of the impact pathway will not be achieved.)Past climatic events will have affected different households or social groups differently, depending on their individual and collective adaptive capacities. The outcomes of past extreme events can be used as a means to reflect with stakeholders on factors that led to different outcomes for different households or groups (Why were some households or communities highly vulnerable, and others less so?). These factors known to lead to different outcomes become the variables used to operationalize adaptive capacity. They might include levels of household savings (financial capital or in the form of livestock and trees for ready sale in an emergency), the presence of protective infrastructure or social mechanisms for pulling together and sharing scarce resources in an emergency, or the effectiveness of government responses in different locations. These variables then become objects of change, while also being used to evaluate project outcomes by measuring them before and after PAR interventions.Please note that these variables may be assessed irrespective of whether there is another extreme event during the project period.It is important to recognize that PAR facilitators and action researchers will face challenges, even if the above steps have been closely followed. Creativity and peer support will be helpful in overcoming these and other challenges as they emerge. However, it is useful to be aware of a few of the most common challenges, and how these have been overcome in real life. This section was written for this purpose.One of the most common challenges to PAR facilitators is motivating and sustaining interest of stakeholders involved in a change process. This includes motivating people to take action; sustaining interest over long periods or during prolonged diagnostic and planning phases; motivating partners while also managing their expectations so that more is not promised to them than what can actually be delivered; and institutionalizing the PAR or change process so that it can be sustained in the absence of project personnel.CSA 649 FBy: Laura A. • The extent to which government institutions and local actors anticipate the medium-term consequences of today's decisions prior to taking action, as evidenced by concrete cases where this has been done during the PAR cycle and outside formally facilitated events.Examples of specific methods and tools that may be used to evaluate impacts are summarized in Table 1. Strategies that can be used for motivating and sustaining interest of actors involved in a change process include the following:1. Ensuring a common vision with widespread buy-in. If all stakeholders have internalized and identify with the vision driving change, the likelihood that they will stay engaged is much higher.2. Ensuring early successes. Stakeholders will be more likely to continue investing time and experimenting with new ways of achieving agreed objectives if they have been successful in achieving something collectively in the early stages of a PAR process. This means that the easiest targets that bring clear social benefits should be prioritized early on in a PAR process.3. Combining short-term and long-term benefits. PAR processes aimed at tackling complex problems, particularly those that play out over the long run, will face the challenge of sustaining interest of stakeholders. It is therefore important to start with activities that are more likely to bring concrete benefits over the short and medium term.4. Collectively defining rules for sharing responsibilities and benefits. This involves transparent negotiation and communication of what is expected of different stakeholders and how benefits will be shared. It is necessary for sustaining stakeholder interest in the PAR process. When such rules have been negotiated by the participants themselves, it helps to ensure that plans are realistic-namely, that benefits are sufficiently high to sustain people's investment of limited time and energy. It also helps ensure that expectations of them are communicated and realistic, and that there is fairness in decision-making. Rules should, however, be backed up by appropriate sanctions to discourage stakeholders from breaking the agreed rules.5. Ensuring transparency and clear lines of communication among all stakeholders. All decisions should be openly negotiated and communicated, in order to generate a common understanding, minimise mistrust, and create opportunities to scrutinize decisions made by others.6. Clearly communicating the importance of PAR activities to a wider audience beyond the pilot site. In cases where PAR is being conducted to learn lessons for a wider audience, it can be motivational for everyone to know that site-level experiences are contributing to the global knowledge base on how to address similar problems elsewhere. Sharing credit with partners and local communities during the dissemination stage can also go a long way in sustaining interest in PAR.7. Having an \"exit strategy.\" From the planning stage, the research team should be clear about its strategy for devolving facilitation and leadership roles-and the skills to execute these effectively-to local communities or other stakeholders involved in the change process. This will help ensure that the PAR process does not come to an abrupt end when the project ends or donor funds dry up (Box 1).Another common challenge faced by PAR facilitators is the complex web of power relations which shape patterns of participation, communication, decision-making, and ultimately benefits capture. There will always be actors that are more powerful than others, posing challenges to the facilitator and to other actors who may lose interest if their concerns are not taken into consideration. Power dynamics shape interactions between local communities and outside actors, as well as patterns of communication and participation within local communities themselves (Box 2). One of the more common challenges is keeping more powerful actors engaged in a change process, particularly if they anticipate few benefits or fear that their current position of privilege will be challenged. This is a problem of both Box 1. Where to after withdrawal of external facilitation? (Adapted from Kozanayi, 2003) This case study is about a three-year project in Chivi District, southern Zimbabwe, facilitated by a University department and partner government and non-governmental organisations. The project aimed to improve rural livelihoods by identifying, testing and promoting technical and other options for more efficient and equitable use of common property resources, within a micro-catchment area of about 4.5km² in size. Findings from context studies were used to identify entry points for the research project. High on the list of community needs was the desire to increase agricultural productivity in dryland crop fields through improved soil and water management practices.A wide range of tools were used to facilitate various processes. The tools included:• Farmer exchange visits for sharing ideas and experiences External facilitation played a significant role and a number of projects were established in the village. These projects included soil and water conservation in both common property and individual plots; the expansion of an irrigated garden project; establishment of a micro-credit scheme; indigenous tree planting and management; and democratizing district by-laws through dialogue between district authorities and local communities. Considerable success appeared to have been achieved on these interventions during the presence of external facilitators.As a result of increasing economic and political decline in the country, external facilitators withdrew prematurely from field sites. The various projects ran out of steam following the withdrawal of external support. A visit to the field site by one of the researchers two years after withdrawal of external facilitators revealed that most of the projects were no longer operational. The lack of an exit strategy and gradual hand-over of leadership contributed to the collapse of the various initiatives. In addition, introduction of material incentives (e.g. immediate rewards for participation in projects) in the early stages of the project may have given a false picture of active participation and success.Withdrawal of such incentives translated into the withering of participation by local people. A lesson learned from this is that it is advisable not to introduce incentives up front, but later on as a result of participants' own initiatives, and to ensure an exit strategy is designed and put into effect at the planning stage.Box 2. Elite capture of project benefits: The Okiek case in South-western Kenya (E. Ontita)In a bid to protect forest resources from unsustainable uses, the Kenyan government has moved to resettle the remaining forest-dwellers to agricultural lands outside of protected areas. Since 1975, a resettlement project has worked to resettle the Okiek, a hunter-gatherer group residing in forests in the South-West Mau region. The land adjacent to the South-West Mau Forest is agro-ecologically high potential and much sought after by agriculturalists. More culturally savvy than the Okiek, these agriculturalists quickly learnt they could pose as Okiek and 'hijack' benefits of the resettlement scheme. Individuals from these other ethnic groups have managed to trick or manipulate government officials to settle them on land otherwise meant for the Okiek. With much of the land set aside for the Okiek running out, and many Okiek households remaining unsettled, they have remained in the forest -leading to the failure of the resettlement project. A more consultative process that explicitly sought to identify local stakeholder groups would have differentiated those with customary tenure over forest areas from other groups and avoided elite capture of project benefits. The Okiek case is an illustration of how projects can be used strategically by certain groups to further their interests -at times at the expense of other groups. Formal stakeholder analyses and more consultative development projects can help to overcome these challenges.• Develop grassroots governance instruments to govern relationships within and among stakeholder groups. Once diverse stakeholder groups are identified and planning processes are underway, it is generally necessary to have clarity on how project resource and decisionmaking will be governed. This might include: (i) developing governance bodies or instruments; (ii) establishing \"rules of the game\" clarifying how decisions will be made, how responsibilities and benefits will be distributed within and between groups, and to ensure diverse groups comply with agreements (Box 5); (iii) building \"soft skills\" and awareness among weaker and stronger groups to level the playing field and foster mutual respect; (iv) providing negotiation support to proactively resolve tensions related to alternative visions and strategies for change and identify opportunities for mutual gain;(v) planning activities of particular interest to diverse groups, to accommodate diverse needs; or (vi) making equitable benefits the focus of all development efforts by drawing attention to who benefits or is disadvantaged by changes envisioned (during planning) or undertaken (during monitoring).• Leadership training. One way of managing power relations and ensuring the sustainability of PAR processes catalyzed by outside actors is to build local leadership capacity on issues external actors and local elites. Another common challenge is the formation of new local elites that often occurs through external interventions or efforts to empower local actors. Yet power dynamics also play out within research and development teams, for example when contributions from junior team members are undervalued or they are given the most onerous tasks, or where certain disciplinary views are imposed at the expense of others. Good facilitators will be able to navigate through this web of influence to help level the playing field-empowering weaker actors to articulate their interests, or tactfully keeping more powerful actors from dominating.A few strategies are particularly helpful in dealing with power dynamics. These include:• Empowering weaker actors in parallel with efforts to secure elite involvement. Projects may incorporate explicit strategies to empower weaker actors to participate effectively in processes that affect them while not losing the participation of local or external elites whose involvement is necessary to effect change. Weaker actors often need activities tailored to their unique needs in overcoming barriers to their effective participation, while awareness creation among more powerful actors is often needed for them to recognize their interdependence with other stakeholders. Local or external elites can be given symbolic titles or roles to openly acknowledge their influence, while carefully ensuring they do not dominate key decision processes (as seen in Box 3). For example, local government actors can chair meetings, but facilitation roles for substantive tasks can be handled by the project team to ensure these more powerful actors do not have too much influence on the discussions and outcomes.• Develop a comprehensive understanding of local and external stakeholder groups. Prior to initiating change, it is important to understand the diversity of actors within local communities and their interests vis-à-vis the envisioned change, so they can be systematically consulted at all stages of PAR (diagnosis, visioning, planning, monitoring). The same may be said for external stakeholders critical to the change process. Generally, a combination of formal stakeholder analysis and informal observation (only achieved through the project having a strong presence on the ground) is most effective in ensuring that all relevant groups are identified and their interests understood. Once identified, these groups are actively involved into the diagnostic and planning phases (for example, by ensuring each group is represented in decision fora and in monitoring) so as to understand how different groups are affected by the PAR process as it unfolds. During planning, negotiation support is often required to reconcile divergent interests (Box 4).In Mafungautsi, one of the key ACM interventions was to empower marginalized groups (women, the poor, and those from minority ethnic groups) through various strategies such as training. With time, these individuals gained confidence and began to take a lead in meetings in which resource management issues were being discussed. After some time, the facilitators (the ACM team) realized that the local elites, initially active, had stopped coming to the meetings. The team devised a strategy for deal with this problem: acknowledging the elites openly for their crucial role in addressing the problem, and honoring them -for example, by asking them to give an opening address during meetings and resource management functions. This served as an incentive for them to continue taking an active role during meetings and activities, while also shifting roles toward greater empowerment of women, the poor and minority groups.Box 4. Negotiation support to reconcile divergent views and identify opportunities for mutual gain: The case of the Sakharani Mission, Lushoto, Tanzania (L. German)As mentioned above, during a participatory watershed diagnosis in Lushoto, Tanzania, farmers identified negative effects of boundary trees as a priority problem. As seen in earlier case studies, one of the key stakeholders identified by farmers for boundary tree management was the Sakharani Mission. In 1946, the mission bought land and established high-value trees and crops. Eucalyptus trees were planted in 1970 to secure the farm boundary from encroachment, and neighboring farmers had noticed negative effects of these trees on their cropland and springs. This was the main reason that multi-stakeholder negotiations were pursued between Sakharani and the three neighboring villages.The first step following participatory watershed diagnosis consisted of visiting the Mission to convey the concerns of farmers to the Mission's farm manager. This visit was instrumental in moving multistakeholder negotiations forward in two ways. First, watershed problems had only been diagnosed in the minds of smallholder farmers, failing to capture the views of other land users like Sakharani.These preliminary meetings were instrumental in highlighting concerns that the Mission had with regard to land use practices of neighboring households. These included the destruction of tree seedlings from free grazing livestock and decline in the Mission's water supply from upstream land use practices. Given the impartiality expressed by the facilitators for the concerns of the Mission in addition to those already expressed by neighboring farmers, the farm manager began to view the dialogue as an opportunity rather than a threat.A second outcome of this preliminary stakeholder consultation was to enable the farm manager to make suggestions on how the multi-stakeholder engagement itself would be facilitated. The farm manager was asked to contribute his suggestions on the date and venue for the meeting and the agenda. Contributions to the meeting's agenda included the inclusion of local leaders from neighboring villages and efforts to de-polarize the concerns of each party. The latter led us to develop materials for initiating dialogue that emphasized the commonalities rather than the differences in the interests of each stakeholder.While the first two concerns were the main reason for approaching the Mission, the new concerns raised by the Mission were also included as farmers' concerns. As these had been identified in the watershed exploration (but not in the context of community-Mission interactions), this was a fair representation of reality and the common concerns of both parties. By emphasizing shared concerns rather than polarized interests, the table helped set the stage for collaborative dialogue. The proposed meeting with other stakeholders was now seen as an opportunity by the farm manager to dialogue with his neighbors toward more optimal natural resource management for the benefit of both parties.related to representative governance and equity. Capacity building can move beyond one-off trainings to a \"culture of change\" by building observations on leadership and governance into monitoring and adjustment activities in ways that are not threatening.Strategies might include identification of characteristics of effective leadership at the planning stage, selecting leaders according to these criteria and monitoring their performance with them directly, or by focusing on areas of improvement rather than failures.• Ensure PAR is focused not only on bringing change \"out there\" but also within teams. This may be done by: (i) using outcome mapping to plan performance targets for the team, and monitor performance during implementation; (ii) encouraging flexibility and experimentation in the facilitation / action research process itself; (iii) focusing on lessons learning not only on changes occurring \"out there\" but on the facilitation process itself (if PAR is facilitated by the project team); and (iv) formulating governance instruments or \"rules of the game\" at project team level, including decision-making processes (such as transparent planning and budgeting processes), behaviors (equal participation, sharing of arduous tasks, sharing of leadership roles and credit) or values (mutual respect).Scientists are clear that climate change is happening, and that it is due to emissions of greenhouse gases produced largely by industrialised countries (IPCC 2007). Those likely to be worst affected are the world's poorest countries, especially poor and marginalised communities within these countries. Ironically it is these poor countries and people who have contributed least to the problem of climate change, because of their very low greenhouse gas emissions, but who will suffer most from its consequences. Even if emissions are severely curbed, climate change will still occur. The industrialised countries have accepted they have a responsibility to help poor and vulnerable countries to adapt (UNFCCC). However, until recently, most adaptation efforts have been top-down, and little attention has been paid to communities' experiences of climate change and their efforts to cope with their changing environments. Poor communities already struggle to cope with the existing challenges of poverty and climate shocks, but climate change could push many beyond their ability to cope or even survive. It is vital that these communities are helped to adapt.International climate change negotiations, multilateral and bilateral agencies, donors, and international governance and financial institutions such as the World Bank are paying increasing attention to adaptation and how best to help people to adapt. More and more funding is available for adaptation. However, until recently, most efforts to help countries adapt focused on national planning and top-down approaches based on climate change modelling. Remarkably little attention has been paid to the ways in which poor people have been coping with climate variability and extremes for decades.Community-based adaptation to climate change is a community-led process, based on communities' priorities, needs, knowledge, and capacities, which should empower people to plan for and cope with the impacts of climate change. As Tanner et al. and others in this issue point out, climate change is only one of a range of natural, social, and economic problems that may face poor people (such as unemployment, the prices of food and other essentials, commodity prices, drugs, gambling, community conflict, and health). So it is unlikely that interventions focusing only on climate-related risks will reflect community priorities.CBA needs to start with communities' expressed needs and perceptions, and to have poverty reduction and livelihood benefits, as well as reducing vulnerability to climate change and disasters. In practice, CBA projects look very like 'development as usual' and it is difficult to distinguish the additional 'adaptation components'. For example, in a drought year, we cannot divide water storage measures undertaken by local communities into those initiated as a response to 'normal' climate variability, and those initiated as a response to climate change. However, the difference is that CBA work attempts to factor in the potential impact of climate change on livelihoods and vulnerability to disasters by using local and scientific knowledge of climate change and its likely effects.CBA may start by identifying communities in poor countries that are most vulnerable to climate change, or these communities may themselves ask for assistance (Kelman et al., this issue). It may also follow on from work with communities to cope with a disaster, such as severe flooding.International In this overview paper to the issue, we describe how community-based approaches to climate change have emerged, and the similarities and differences between CBA and other participatory development and disaster risk reduction approaches. Whilst CBA is a relatively new field, some lessons and challenges are beginning to emerge, and we analyse these, drawing on the experiences contained in the collection of articles for this issue. Many of the articles are concerned with natural resources, reflecting the preponderance of submissions we received in this area. However, climate change will affect many other aspects of communities' lives, and we would urge practitioners working in other sectors, such as human health and urban areas, to share their experiences of community-based adaptation.Climate change refers to short-, medium-, and long-term changes in weather patterns and temperature that are predicted to happen, or are already happening as a result of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. These changes include a higher frequency of extreme weather events such as drought and floods, as well as greater unpredictability and variability in the seasons and in rainfall. Overlying this increased variability are expected longer-term changes, such as temperature and sea-level rises, and lower (or in some cases higher) rainfall.Why are poor people most vulnerable to climate change?Poor countries and communities are more vulnerable to climate change because they tend to be located in geographically vulnerable areas, such as flood-prone Mozambique, droughtprone Sudan, or cyclone-prone Bangladesh, and in more vulnerable locations. For example, the slums and informal settlements surrounding many developing country cities are usually sited on land prone to landslips or to flooding and river bank erosion. Wealthy people, commerce, and industry can afford to situate themselves on safer land.Many poor communities are heavily dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods. Smallholder farmers have much experience of adapting to their complex, diverse, and riskprone environments. However, farming is now becoming even more difficult and risky because of greater unpredictability in the timing of rainy seasons and the pattern of rain within seasons, making it more difficult to decide when to cultivate, sow, and harvest, and needing more resources to seize the right time for planting, and to maintain crops and animals through dry spells. Heat stress, lack of water at crucial times, and pests and diseases are serious problems that climate change appears to be exacerbating. These all interact with on-going pressures on land, soils, and water resources that would exist regardless of climate change (Jennings and McGrath 2009).down to the same thing-the security and wellbeing of people's lives, livelihoods, and assets (Oxley 2009). There is increasing recognition that, for many communities facing frequent hazards, poverty, disasters, and climate change adaptation are closely linked and cannot be viewed in isolation from one another.This points towards the need to find practical ways of integrating DRR, livelihoods, and climate change adaptation. Christian Aid, for example, has developed a climate risk cycle management approach to development planning which builds on the expertise and experience of existing DRR and livelihoods programmes, using existing tools wherever possible. In the model, predictable risks are anticipated, long-and short-term risk reduction activities are integrated into livelihood development, and the time spent in emergency or rehabilitation is minimised (Figure 1).These integrated frameworks are still largely untested and there are likely to be challenges in handling the array of factors to be considered, as well as in encouraging the different support institutions needed to tackle vulnerability to work together. Participatory methods for CBA Many of the participatory tools used in CBA (see Table 1) will be familiar to DRR and development practitioners, but other innovative approaches are being developed for communities, development workers, and scientists to co-learn about climate change and adaptation, as well as for working with particular groups such as children (Tanner et al., this issue). Incorporating climate change information CBA work needs to incorporate information on climate change and its impacts into planning processes. This includes:• scientific information (e.g. long-term predictions from climate change models, seasonal forecasts, information on trends based on data collected at nearby weather stations); as well as• local knowledge about trends and changes experienced by communities at a local level and strategies these communities have used in the past to cope with similar shocks or gradual climatic changes.Both these sources contribute to an understanding of risk. Climate change science cannot say for certain, for example, how much rainfall a particular area will receive over any given timebut it can give some guidance on the probability that rainfall will increase or decrease and to what extent. CBA builds in this notion of risk and uncertainty into activities, with the aim of building communities' resilience to both current climate variability and future climate change.The lessons from disaster risk reduction (DRR) work are of tremendous value for climate change adaptation, because climate change is likely to change the magnitude, frequency, and timing of extreme events such as flooding, landslides, and storms, as well as generate new disaster events. Disaster risk reduction is likely to be the entry point for communities suffering from severe shocks as a result of short-term climate variability (Christian Aid 2009). Many of the papers in this issue use a participatory DRR framework (e.g. Tanner et al., Warrick, and Gaillard and Maceda). Although different approaches and frameworks for participatory DRR exist, all involve working with local people to understand the types of hazards they face (e.g. earthquakes, droughts, floods, pests and diseases, human diseases), the factors which make them vulnerable to these hazards, and their causes. These together give an indication of how 'at risk' communities are and which groups are most vulnerable. They also help communities consider what capacities they have for reducing vulnerability, and aim to empower communities to take action themselves to reduce the risks they face.Many organisations working with local communities to reduce poverty and disaster risks are now trying to incorporate the effects of climate change into their work with communities. Kelman and Mercer (this issue), for example, describe a disaster risk reduction framework developed with communities to facilitate DRR planning in small island developing states (SIDS), such as Papua New Guinea. They then show how the framework can be adapted to take into account the likely effects of climate change by drawing on external scientific information such as downscaled climate projections and satellite images, as well as local knowledge of hazards and vulnerabilities. Taking into account these longer-term impacts is one of the key differences between DRR and climate change adaptation. In Ghana, for example, communities developed mental models showing drivers and effects of climate change (Tschakert and Sagoe, this issue). During this process, they reinforced and expanded their own knowledge of climate change, with the input of external agents. In Indonesia, Climate Field Schools followed a participatory 'learning by doing' approach to help farmers increase their knowledge of climate change and observe climatic parameters themselves, such as rainfall, to help guide farming activities (Christian Aid, this issue). Sherwood and Bentley (this issue) describe a similar process in the Andes.Children can be very effective communicators of climate change causes and effects. They often have a better understanding of the science of climate change processes than adults in the community, through school lessons, and can draw out the implications for local livelihoods. Plush (this issue) shows how videos, produced in a participatory way by children, can be a powerful means of raising awareness of climate change and its impacts, especially where literacy rates in the community are low. In this case, the children were first taught about climate change using locally available materials (although Plush notes that there is a severe lack of material that is not too technical, or related to the urban mitigation context). They then used this knowledge to develop questions and carry out filmed interviews with other community members, to give a clear picture of the impacts of climate change at the local level.Although it is important for communities to understand the drivers and processes of climate change, Warrick (this issue) warns of the dangers of disempowering communities, giving them a sense that they cannot take action to deal with climate change, even though they have often been dealing with highly variable climates for many years. To avoid this, she suggests discussing climate change in the context of how people have already responded to climate stress, how this has changed over time, and on communities' own capacities to adapt.Several papers in this issue look at ways in which familiar participatory tools can be adapted to document local knowledge about climate changes. For example, rain calendars were used in Malawi to analyse changes in rainfall over the past five years (Awuor and Hammill, this issue) whilst seasonal analysis charts showed changes in the seasons in West Bengal, India over a similar timescale (Christian Aid, this issue). Climate timelines in Sudan were used to record extreme weather events and temperature trends over the past 30 years (Christian Aid, this issue).In the absence of historical local weather data, the memories of older community members are often the only source of information on climate trends (Berger et al., this issue). Where scientific data are unlikely to be available, one way forward may be to strengthen local people's ability to collect their own data (Sherwood and Bentley, this issue).The science of climate change and predictions regarding future changes have a key role to play in adapting to climate change. Finding ways of making scientific data accessible to communities is crucial if they are to adapt and remain in control of the CBA process. There are potentially many different kinds of information that would be useful for community planning, such as remote sensing observations, satellite pictures, downscaled climate scenarios, and seasonal and long-range weather forecasts. Where these are available, communities need to learn how to interpret them. Christian Aid (this issue), for example, describe how participatory  Although CBA is a very recent development, a number of lessons and challenges are already emerging, around the availability and credibility of climate change information and data, the quality of participatory processes in CBA, scaling up, and monitoring and evaluation.Good information on which to base climate change adaptation is vital, but it is not always available, accessible, or credible.Christian Aid (this issue) highlight the difficulties communities often experience in accessing climate change data that they can use in planning. Whilst climate models can help identify which parts of the world are more likely to be physically vulnerable, these predictions are often at a geographic resolution or timescale which are of little use to local communities. Better climate change models, which can make predictions that are more relevant for communities, are urgently needed.There are also problems with weather forecasts. Meteorological stations are often woefully under-resourced and understaffed, data are not computerised, and data which would be useful for farmers are not collected. Jennings and McGrath (2009), for example, point out that the vast majority of analyses of meteorological records and climate model data focus on mean annual temperature and precipitation change rather than the timing of rains and intra-seasonal rainfall patterns, which are of much more interest to farmers.Where data are available, communities are often not able to access them, for example, because they lack Internet access, or the data are not passed from meteorological departments to other government departments which can make use of them, such as agriculture. Finally, communities often have little confidence in the data.Access to reliable, appropriate forecasts is essential in meeting the challenge of greater unpredictability and increased hazard events, and meteorological departments need to be strengthened to meet this need. Ideally, scientific data should be verified against local data, so that the scientific information has credibility with users (Christian Aid, this issue).Whilst communities often have little confidence in the reliability of information from scientists, scientists are often equally reluctant to trust local knowledge, which they regard as subjective and lacking in rigour (Gaillard and Maceda, this issue). However, in the absence of weather records and climate change data, CBA may be largely dependent on local knowledge of past climate trends for forecasting future trends.climate forecast workshops were held in Zimbabwe, in which forecasts for the coming season, expressed in terms of probabilities rather than firm predictions. were explained to farmers, and then downscaled using farmers' own historical rainfall data.Many of the papers in this issue consider how to integrate scientific and local knowledge so as to build on the strengths of each. Although this can present challenges, several papers suggest ways of bridging the gap between local communities and scientists (e.g. Gaillard and Maceda).Participatory ways of documenting, prioritising, and sharing risk reduction and adaptation approaches are important if CBA is to fit with community priorities, and build on existing practices or those used in the past, for example traditional rice varieties which have better salinity tolerance than more recent varieties (Berger et al., this issue). Commonly mentioned on-farm adaptation options include diversification of the crops grown, changes in farming practices, better water management, and food storage. In extreme cases, for example, where droughts are likely to be of such magnitude that crops can no longer survive, then alternative livelihood strategies, or even migration may need to be explored.There is much scope for approaches which encourage the sharing of adaptation practices. Sherwood and Bentley (this issue), for example, describe an approach to climate change adaptation in the Andes, in which farmers learn through visits to other farms and through experimentation. As farmers learn and take action at the farm level, the focus shifts to collective actions, such as sharing responsibility for collecting weather data, and implementing soil and water conservation measures.Baumhardt (this issue) describes how farmers made videos of the adaptation activities they found most useful, which were then screened in nearby villages with which they did not have contact. Whilst the videos were an important communication tool for raising awareness of adaptation options, there are likely to be differences in abilities to adopt adaptation measures, and additional support will often be needed if local people are to make these changes.Molina et al. (this issue) describe how children in the Philippines developed theatres, songs, and dances to communicate the potentially destructive impacts of hazards such as flooding and river bank erosion, and were effective advocates for risk reduction activities, such as tree planting.Gaillard and Maceda (this issue) describe how communities in a flood-prone part of the Philippines created extraordinarily detailed, scaled three-dimensional models of their area, made from local materials such as cartons and paper, which they used for disaster risk reduction planning. They used the models to identify important areas for livelihoods, e.g. fishing and hunting grounds, areas prone to different types of flooding (river, tidal), different households, the material of their house (which affects how robust the houses are), household inhabitants, and the most vulnerable people in the community, e.g. young children, elderly people, pregnant women, and those with disabilities. They then identified local resources to deal with hazards, e.g. boats, vehicles, and then planned disaster risk reduction activities, e.g. meeting points, evacuation routes, and shelters. The information from these models can also be input into GIS systems for use by local government or scientists (subject to the communities' permission), and can easily be updated.practitioners called 'Sharing our concerns' (Absalom et al.), which was published in PLA (then PLA Notes) in 1994. This statement is essentially an ethical code for participatory practitioners, and with a few amendments, it has stood the test of time. We have also included here an extract from an article in a more recent issue, PLA 54 (Rambaldi et al. 2006) on practical ethics for participatory development practitioners.Honest critical reflection-of the sort exemplified by Warrick (this issue)-is essential if CBA practitioners are to learn from each others' experiences. For example, what happens when, as Warrick cautions, climate change is not seen as a priority in communities, where a highly Gill (1991) compared rainfall patterns recorded by Nepali farmers using rainfall calendars with the 'real' data recorded at the nearby weather station, and found a remarkably good fit when comparing modal rainfall. A more recent study was able to match farmer perceptions of changing timing and character of seasons against meteorological records and get a fit good enough to show that farmer analysis needs to be taken seriously (McGrath, pers. comm.). However, several authors (e.g. Warrick) note that, when analysing longer term trends with communities, more recent events tend to overshadow more distant ones, and this needs to be taken into account when trying to extrapolate from past trends.Many communities use traditional systems to forecast the coming season. Sherwood and Bentley (this issue) describe how farmers use wind patterns, cloud formations, the position of rainbows, and animal behaviour to predict the coming season. Berger et al. (this issue) describes a traditional weather forecasting system called Litha, based on lunar cycles, and used by communities in southern coastal in Sri Lanka to predict rainfall patterns, and the best time to plant crops. However, there are fears that these traditional systems will become less effective as climate change impacts increase. Berger et al. observe that in recent years, the Litha system has been falling out of use, although whether this is because it is less effective or because scientific weather forecasts are more reliable is unclear, and this would merit further investigation.CBA activities demonstrate a variety of types and degrees of participation (see Table 2 for one typology). Participatory tools are sometimes used as a way of collecting local information about vulnerability and climate change to be used and analysed by outsiders (e.g. the case described by Wong, this issue). Often the priorities and interests of outsiders override those of communities, and there is still a lot of 'doing to' communities, rather than communities taking charge. Experience from many different fields, including those relevant to climate change adaptation, such as natural resource management and soil and water conservation, shows that if adaptation is to be effective and sustainable, it must draw on the knowledge and priorities of local people, build on their capacities, and empower them to make changes themselves. In this overview, we have argued that communities, scientists, and development workers need to learn, analyse, and plan action in partnership, but that communities need to be in the driving seat.This has wide-reaching implications for professional behaviour, attitudes, and mindsets, and for institutional cultures and structures. Sherwood and Bentley (this issue), for example, point out that people-centred, community-based issues are in conflict with dominant professional behaviour and with dominant institutional designs. Outsiders are facilitators and co-learners, not 'teachers' or 'experts'. Participatory processes need time to develop and they need flexible funding. They do not fit with the pre-determined calendars, budgets, and outputs demanded by government and other organisations.The way in which adaptation activities are funded may be of help here. Poor nations argue that, as wealthy nations have caused the problems of climate change, any international funding streams for adaptation activities should be used as recipient countries and communities see fit, and that such funding should be more stable and long-term than development funding, which is subject to the conditions and priorities of donors. This provides an opportunity for flexible, long-term funding of participatory community-based adaptation processes.In the rush to go to scale to respond to climate change adaptation and to spend newly available funds, there is a danger that, as with PRA in the 1990s, participatory CBA approaches will be abused and misused. At the end of this issue, in 'Reflections on practical ethics for participatory community-based adaptation,' we have reproduced a statement by a group of People participate by answering questions posed by extractive researchers using questionaire surveys or similar approaches. People do not have the opportunity to influence proceedings as the findings of the research are neither shared nor checked for accuracy.People participate by being consulted and external people listen to views. These external professionals define both problems and solutions, and may modify these in the light of people's responses. Such a consultative process does not concede any share in decision-making, and professionals are under no obligation to take on board people's views.People participate by providing resources, for example labour in return for food, cash, or other material incentives. Much on-farm research falls into this category as farmers provide the fields but are not involved in the experimentation or the process of learning. It is very common to see this called participation, yet people have no stake in prolonging activities when the incentives end.People participate by forming groups to meet predetermined objectives related to the project which can involve the development or promotion of externally initiated social organization. Such involvement does not tend to be at early stages of project cycles or planning, but rather after major decisions have been made. These institutions tend to be dependent on external initiators and facilitators, but may become self-dependent.People participate in joint analysis which leads to action plans and the formation of new local institutions or the strengthening of existing ones. It tends to involve interdisciplinary methodologies that seek multiple perspectives and make use of systematic and structured learning process. These groups take control over local decisions and so people have a stake in maintaining structures or practices.People participate by taking initiatives independent of external institutions to change systems. They develop contacts with external institutions for resources and technical advice they need, but retain control over how resources are used. Such self-initiated mobilization and collective action may or may not challenge existing inequitable distributions of wealth and power.  Monitoring and evaluation (MandE) of CBA activities will also be a challenge. Good CBA should be truly participatory and devolve much of the decision-making down to the community level, but this makes any centralised reporting or evaluation activities more difficult to coordinate. This is an important issue, because it is the responsibility of industrialised nations to help poor countries adapt to climate change, so some means of evaluating the effectiveness of funded CBA programmes is required. But any move towards centralised tracking and evaluating systems must be sure not to lose sight of the need to facilitate genuine participatory processes that empower communities to adapt to climate change in ways which address locally identified priorities.Whilst CBA is focused on the community level, it cannot be carried out in isolation from events and activities occurring at other levels, for example:• CBA is affected by the services and support available (or more often not available) at district and national levels, for example, long-range weather forecasts, downscaled climate scenarios, satellite images, information on weather forecasting, and agricultural and other extension services, and the ability of support organisations to integrate their activities.• Some adaptation activities have spill-over effects on other communities, for example, if one community builds a dam to cope with drought, this will affect communities lower down the river. Wong (this issue), for example, describes how communities participated in transboundary river water governance in Burkina Faso and Ghana, which allowed for coordination and advance warning over the flow of water.• Policy makers at district, national, and international levels need to know how communities are being affected by climate change, and to understand and respond to communities' priorities and needs. This might be through participation in 'invited' spaces, such as through participatory scenario development workshops (Bizikova et al. this issue), or through advocacy by communities (e.g. Plush describes how videos produced by children influenced policy makers in Nepal), or by communities organising and putting pressure on powerful local actors (Dodman, Mitlin, and Rayos, unpublished abstract).Some CBA approaches explicitly build in a multi-level approach. Action Aid, for example, uses participatory vulnerability analysis (PVA), which starts by assessing vulnerability at the community level, but this feeds into the district, national, and international levels. They argue that there are multiple determinants/causes of vulnerability, and many of these fall outside individuals or communities. Hence analysis of vulnerability must go beyond the individual to micro-and macro-level political processes. Similarly, Practical Action have been developing a framework for understanding, analysing, and addressing the multiple factors-lack of resources; fragile livelihoods; hazards; climate change; political marginalisation; and, weak institutional support mechanisms-that contribute to vulnerability in an integrated and holistic manner (Pasteur 2009).variable climate is regarded as 'normal', or where climate change impacts are not yet evident, even though scientists are confident that there will be serious impacts? What happens when an external organisation's focus and funding does not match the priorities raised by communities? Without the flexibility to address communities' real concerns, it is difficult for the process of adaptation to be community-driven.Difficulties with the concept of 'community'Whilst CBA focuses on 'the community', it is very important to be aware of differences in priorities, needs, vulnerability, and capacities within communities. Tanner et al., for example, show that there are marked differences in perceptions of the importance of different hazards by age and gender in the Philippines. Men, as the farmers in these communities, highlighted agricultural hazards such as pests and drought, whilst women were concerned with social hazards (gambling, drugs), and children had the most awareness of environmentally unsound livelihood practices and global environmental problems.Different sections of the community also vary in their capacity to undertake adaptation activities. Women are particularly badly affected by the combination of climatic and environmental stresses, but their particular needs and wishes for adaptation are less likely to be heard or acted upon (Jennings and McGrath, 2009) (see Box 1). Children are affected by both current and future climate change impacts, yet their voices are rarely heard or considered in climate change adaptation activities (Plush, this issue).In many National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), agriculture and forestry feature heavily as priority projects. However, McGrath and Jennings (2009) point out that, in Malawi, women prioritised a crèche, family planning, access to loans, credit, training, and free healthcare over support for agriculture. They argued that without childcare and support to start up small enterprises, they could not make adaptation changes.Wong (this issue) highlights the dangers of ignoring intracommunity power differentials when planning adaptation activities. Local chiefs ensured that their family members were included as community representatives, excluding the voices and interests of poorer farmers from decision-making processes. Even though the project made special efforts to ensure gender balance, planned adaptation activities were both poverty insensitive and served to reinforce existing power inequalities.Many articles in this issue use participatory approaches in a differentiated way to capture the perspectives of different groups. Some make particular efforts to ensure that more vulnerable households, and vulnerable individuals within households, are included, for example, the participatory modelling process described by Gaillard and Maceda, giving the opportunity to ensure that the voices of those people are heard. Less is said, however, about analysing power relations within communities, and how differences in needs and priorities can be reconciled. We need to keep asking: Who benefits? Who loses? Who is empowered? Who is disempowered?Box 1: Looking within the community Climate change impacts have different effects on women and on men and have been well attested in many places. The need to find water as well as firewood and fodder is a well-known reason for girls to be kept out of school, and male migration has been linked to the spread of HIV and AIDS. In Nepal, increasing crop failure has increased the strategy of men migrating. Women are left alone to look after families yet with the least access to resources to be able to adapt. They have less access to cultivable land to grow food and have to find water, wood, and fodder. Any worsening of livelihood options has to be made up in physical labour, one of the few resources women control. So to compensate for the decline in food production, women are doing more daily waged labour. This is often extremely onerous -such as portering construction materials -and badly paidwomen are paid only three-quarters of what a man would earn for the same work.The theory and practice of CBA are still in their infancy. Both are likely to grow very rapidly, however, as needs increase as a result of intensifying climate change impacts and as interest in and support for adaptation grows at national and international levels.Although funding is increasingly available for adaptation activities, simply providing poor country governments with more money does not mean that it will reach the poor and those who are most vulnerable to climate change, let alone increase their ability to adapt. Such communities are often marginalised, remote, and receive limited services and little support from their governments even when they are able to articulate what support they need. Reaching these hundreds of millions of people and supporting their genuine participation in any decision-making about resource allocation for CBA will be an immense challenge for any international or national programme or funding mechanism focusing on adaptation.Whilst CBA initiatives are increasing in number and information sharing on these activities is developing, translating these activities and documentation into improved policy responses and scaled up CBA initiatives worldwide remains a challenge. Power structures are at the heart of climate change vulnerability and it is important to find ways to allow poor vulnerable people to influence policy and be heard in key policy arenas, such as the UNFCCC negotiations.To be successful, community-based adaptation programmes will need to ensure that communities are able to participate in identifying priorities, both local and regional, and in planning, implementing, monitoring, and reviewing adaptation. Such programmes should provide support and link communities to relevant decision-making institutions. They will also need to build the capacity of local organisations and local governments to enable them to effectively take part in decision-making processes.CBA draws on a number of different fields, including disaster relief work, community development work, and climate science. These different areas of knowledge and expertise often employ different languages and concepts, and there is still much work to be done in developing a common understanding and language, and sharing experiences and good practice.Continuing to document CBA processes in an honest and critical way is very important, both to improve practice and to share experience in little-documented areas, such as incorporating climate change adaptation into health policy. You will find a list of resources on CBA, including websites, later in this issue. Other important opportunities for experience-sharing include the International Conferences on Community-Based Adaptation (see Box 2), and the two-day Development and Climate Days event, held each year during the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC. This event has a dedicated CBA session to share information on CBA with negotiators and observers at the international climate change negotiations. CBA practitioners can also benefit from the rich literature that is available on participation.The second and third International Conferences on Community-Based Adaptation were held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in February 2007 andFebruary 2009. This will become an annual event at which practitioners, policy makers and researchers can share information on methodologies for CBA, upscaling CBA, communicating CBA, CBA in different ecosystems, funding for CBA etc. The next will be held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in February 2010.The conferences involve field visits to CBA projects in different ecosystems and regions so people can see CBA activities on the ground.Adaptation to climate change entails changes in processes, practices or structures, either autonomous or planned, to minimize potential damage or to take advantage of opportunities associated with climate change. Effective adaptation strategies should reduce present and future vulnerability and may include changes in institutional or individual practices in response to perceived changes, coping strategies, or proactive actions taken by various actors to capitalize on new opportunities (Huq and al. 2003;DFID 2004). Key concepts that will help to standardize language in the area of climate change adaptation include:Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia: An overview for decision-makers influence in some way-or are explicitly aimed at enhancing adaptive capacity-must be continually questioned and refined, based on learning.Adaptive management is an approach for enhancing the capacity to learn and adapt by enabling managers to accommodate uncertainty and minimize risk and vulnerability. It is a process by which people adjust their strategies of management in order to anticipate or adapt to changes (Wollenberg et al. 2000). The approach is \"based on the recognition that the management of natural resource is always experimental, that we can learn from implemented activities, and that natural resource management can be improved on the basis of what has been learned\" (Borrini-Feyerabend et al. 2000). Adaptive management acknowledges that management of complex systems must take into account human dimensions and their interactions with natural systems (Lee 1993; see also Box 1). The linear or static management of such perpetually changing systems, as exemplified by the continuous application of a strict management plan, cannot enable the achievement of expected results. \"Plans rarely work as originally conceived, and successful management requires regular feedback\" (Colfer 2005:3). It is necessary to develop an iterative, adaptive model of natural resource management or change, capable of integrating in a conscious way the uncertainties and surprises that inevitably arise, and one that may be readily adjusted or renewed through learning and capitalizing on lessons. Adaptive management is recommended in situations that require that management actions be taken while knowledge on the impact of those actions is inadequate. PAR is a fundamental tool for enabling adaptive management in the context of climate change.Adaptive collaborative management (ACM) is an approach to adaptive management that explicitly acknowledges the partial nature of knowledge, be it the implicit knowledge applied by resource users in the management of complex socio-ecological systems or the explicit knowledge codified in disciplines and books. This implies reaching a shared understanding among stakeholders that everyone's knowledge base is only partial (including that of the more \"educated\" outsiders), that no one is able to predict outcomes with certainty, and thus that the group's actions are by definition experimental. It is therefore also important that the stakeholders who will directly bear the consequences of such experimentation are empowered to weigh the risks, and only take on those risks they are willing and able to bear. For more information on the ACM approach, see Colfer (2005), Kusumanto et al. (2005) McDougall et al. (2009) and Ruitenbeek and Cartier (2001). For more information about the relevance of ACM to climate change adaptation, see CIFOR (2008).Participatory action research (PAR) is a reflective process of progressive problem-solving led by individuals working with others to improve the way they address issues and solve problems. PAR is generally applied within social learning contexts, where multiple actors collectively construct meanings (problem definition, objectives) and work collectively towardNatural resource management is characterized by its extreme complexity, due to the diversity of natural and human systems. Thus, on the same space, the following could co-exist:• A diversity of resources, goods, and services filling a multiplicity of social, cultural, economic, and ecological functions; This complexity means that attempts to control variables may often lead to unpredictable outcomes, requiring a more flexible approach to management.Adaptation: This consists of adjustments in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.Adaptive capacity: This is the ability of a system to adjust to change (including climate variability and extremes) to moderate potential damages, take advantage of opportunities, or cope with consequences. This capacity depends largely on one's access to assets (natural, human, social, physical and financial), and how well these assets are utilized. Those with higher adaptive capacity are often able to recover or adapt to new conditions. Greater adaptive capacity means the ability to cope with and/or reduce levels of exposure and sensitivity.Vulnerability: This is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of change, including climate variability and extremes. It is understood as a function of exposure (the character, magnitude and rate of climate change and variation to which a system is exposed), sensitivity (structural factors that either heighten or lessen the impact of exposure, such as land tenure), and adaptive capacity.Coping capacity: This refers to the means by which people or organizations use available resources and abilities to face adverse consequences that could lead to disaster. In general, it involves managing resources, both in normal times as well as during crises or adverse conditions. The strengthening of coping capacities usually builds resilience to withstand the effects of natural and human-induced hazards.Over the generations, African farmers have acquired detailed knowledge and skills that have enabled them to adapt to variable climate and extreme climatic events of the past. However, the more intense and frequent occurrence of extreme climatic events, together with population increase and mobility, is rendering some of these adaptive strategies inadequate. The high frequency of extreme events means that those impacted often do not have adequate time to recover and accumulate assets or resources for use during subsequent difficult times. There is hence a need to strengthen these strategies and support the development of better ways of managing the anticipated impacts of climate change. Vulnerability in Africa results from high levels of exposure (a highly variable climate), high sensitivity (from heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture, limited access to information on climate predictions, lack of secure access to resources, and social disruptions of various cause6) and limited adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity is in turn compromised by limited economic resources, low levels of technological and infrastructural development, erosion of local knowledge systems, limited incentives to invest in (long-term returns from) land, poor governance, and mismanagement of resources.Little is known about how and at which speed climate change will affect the various functions, goods, and services rendered by ecosystems, and how these, in turn, will influence human systems and adaptive capacity. The large number of political, social, economic, and ecological factors that individually or collectively influence climate change adaptation makes the management process full of uncertainty and complexity. Yet, despite lack of complete knowledge and information on these processes, decisions must be made on their management. The best approach, consequently, will be to prepare ourselves to live and deal with surprises and uncertainties by treating each management strategy as an experiment and an opportunity to learn. Dealing with novel situations therefore requires the capacity to learn and adapt, and to accept one's knowledge as partial. Peterson et al. (1997) argue that even climate change policy could benefit from taking an adaptive approach. Considering the uncertainty surrounding climate change, not only management systems but also policies that \"layers\" are therefore fuzzy. One of the greatest challenges researchers face is to understand this \"seamlessness\" between research and action-and to move beyond the tendency to either lose themselves in \"development\" cycles or undermine the continuity or attention given to PAR by failing to drop their own research agendas.In addition to differentiating PAR from action research, it is important to differentiate PAR from participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and from participatory research (PR). PRA is a set of analytical tools that enables villagers to do their own analysis of the realities that affect them, with a view to making use of such information. It is therefore not a comprehensive approach to enabling change, but may be employed within a change process to identify problems (for Actors in a charge process (farmers, leaders of organizational change, policy-makers, urban residents).Derive lessons for the global community on how to solve certain types of problems Extractive (monitoring the performance of scientific indicators, impact assessment, process documentation) and interactive PAR methods.Researchers with an interest in 'process' (how transformationoccurs); change agents interested in deriving generalizable lessons.Characterize current or future situations and trends.Extractive (a large body of methods derived from diverse social and biophysical sciences)Researchers: At times, change agents will also turn conventional research either for inputs (i.e. technologies) or to evaluate the impact of change process they facilitated.solutions (Maarleveld and Dangbégnon 1999;Pretty and Buck 2002). Lewin, a pioneer of action research, describes the PAR process as \"a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action, and fact-finding about the result of the action\" (Lewin 1946; see also Figure 1). Iterative cycles of organizational or community-level action and reflection make change processes more robust and effective by ensuring that systematic learning and sharing take place, by fostering continuous adjustment of actions to align them with agreed-upon objectives, and by empowering the actors themselves to learn and adapt. PAR combines two primary activities: research and a facilitated process of social learning guided by a shared vision or set of goals to be achieved.It is often assumed that PAR is a tool that is useful only for solving local-level problems and social issues. However, PAR may be carried out within research and development organizations as a process of institutional change, by policymakers who are interested in taking an adaptive approach to policy implementation, or by local communities as they seek solutions to common problems (German and Stroud 2007). It may also be used to enable biophysical solutions to work better by ensuring that diverse value systems are considered, and by facilitating an adaptive approach to change (Hagmann 1999;Hagmann and Chuma 2002). German and Stroud 2007 differentiate between participatory action research (PAR) and action research (AR). According to them, PAR is about \"getting change to work,\" while AR is about \"understanding the nature of change processes and distilling lessons of use to a wider audience striving to solve similar problems elsewhere.\" Whereas PAR aims to empower the actors themselves to identify key development bottlenecks and to experiment with different approaches for addressing and ultimately breaking through bottlenecks, AR enables a better understanding of the key elements to successful processes of development and social change (Ibid.). Differences between participatory action research, action research, and conventional research are summarized in Table 1.This Reference Guide makes no such differentiation, as it combines the three \"learning approaches\" in the PAR process. However, it is useful to understand that the action research team has a set of unique roles relative to the other stakeholders involved in the change process as a result of its interest in distilling general lessons from specific change processes for a wider audience (the \"research\" in PAR). The uniqueness and complementarity of these different approaches will therefore remain apparent to many readers as they move through different sections of the guide. It will also be apparent in the way in which Actors: Communities or other stakeholders driving the PAR process Tools: Facilitation, participatory monitoring and evaluation example, participatory mapping as a tool for participatory diagnosis of degradation \"hotspots\"), to establish baselines, or to identify constraints and opportunities (for example, periods within annual labour calendars when there is room for accommodating more labour-intensive activities). Participatory research, on the other hand, is research that is conducted as an equal partnership between external \"experts\" (generally, scientists) and members of a community. For research to qualify as participatory, it should be characterized by a reciprocal appreciation of each partner's knowledge and skills at each stage of the project, and research outcomes should be useful to the community. In this respect, PAR could be considered one form of participatory research. However, PAR tends to be much broader than participatory research in its iterative nature and, therefore, in its ability to enable more far-reaching change (social or system-wide transformation, rather than just the testing of technologies). Furthermore, failure to ensure local ownership of the process, and to place the nexus of power and decisionmaking squarely in the hands of the intended beneficiaries, subjects it to abuse.At its best, the process can be liberating, empowering and educative, a collegial relationship that brings local communities into the policy debate, validating their knowledge. At its worst, it can degenerate into a process of co-option of local communities into an external agenda, or an exploitative series of empty rituals, imposing fresh burdens on the community's time and energy and serving primarily to legitimize the credentials of the implementing agency as 'grassroots oriented'. This challenge and the abuses it gives rise to led, earlier on, to attempts to classify participatory research into different forms (Biggs 1989).Figure 3 depicts the inherent tension that tends to exist in participatory research between science quality on the one hand and improved development on the other-a tension that more often than not tends to result in contractual and consultative modes of research.In PAR, the same tension exists, but efforts to put communities squarely in control of the process mean that the process tends to lead to an emphasis on development impact over research per se. The challenge is always there for researchers to ensure rigour in the learning process and distill findings or lessons of wider relevance (Box 2)-and thus leverage the potential of PAR in informing wider communities of practice.Effort to put communities in control of the change process has created a certain discomfort among those in the long-established conventional or empirical research tradition. This has caused some to question the validity of action research and PAR. The questions often asked include, \"How can one derive general lessons about change from happenings within a specific context, given the cultural, institutional, and ecological particularities of each setting?\" \"How can claims to validity be supported when there are no bearings to hold methods constant through time?\" Some authors claim it is simply a matter of keeping one's ''intellectual bearings in a changing situation'' (Checkland and Holwell 1998:13). These authors suggest that claims to validity require a ''recoverable research process based on prior declaration of the epistemology in terms of which findings count as knowledge will be expressed'' (Checkland and Holwell 1998:9). In other words, one cannot engage in change without prior declaration of the scope of research and how it will be carried out. Elements of this process include prior declaration of an area of concern, a framework of ideas, and a methodology (Checkland 1991;Checkland and Holwell 1998). An area of concern is a topic around which the research is organized -in this case, processes or strategies for enhancing people's adaptability to climate change. The broader framework of ideas may include a conceptual understanding of the deficiencies of current practices, support services and policies on adaptation to climate change, and/or a set of guiding values (e.g. equity, sustainability) known to be deficient in current practice. It may also be a body of theory informing change (i.e. property rights and collective action theory, political ecology, ecosystem theory). As the effectiveness of change is largely determined by the actors themselves, the above authors would probably be comfortable with locally established aims and participatory evaluations of the change process as evidence of its effectiveness. Researchers with a more conventional approach to scientific validity may require research questions and hypotheses to be clearly stated up front and held constant, lessons to be derived from cross-site or cross-case comparison (within one or more sites), and conventional research to validate claims of effectiveness of the change process.The successful application of PAR in the past to solve problems in complex socio-ecological systems (Colfer 2005;Hagmann and Chuma 2002) and to facilitate institutional change (Elliot 1991;Hagmann 1999) makes many of the lessons and approaches readily applicable to climate change adaptation. However, it is important to also distill the features of PAR that make it uniquely suitable and those that limit its applicability to climate change adaptation. Key features of climate change and adaptation likely to shape the application of PAR include these:• Climate change is a slow variable, with changes playing over the medium to long term;• \"Adaptive capacity\" can best be assessed over long time scales;• The predictability of climatic change is limited;• Local and scientific knowledge10 on climate change and its impacts are inaccurate and/or incomplete;• Nested levels of socio-political organization and response influence sensitivity and adaptive capacity; and• There is a complexity (of climate change impacts, solutions).Understanding of ENSO as a driver of climate variability led to advances in forecasting at a seasonal (i.e. ≥ 3-month) lead time (Glantz 2001;Cane et al. 1986;Zebiak et al. 2014). A study by Cane et al. (1994), who showed that ENSO-related Pacific sea surface temperatures were more strongly correlated with maize yields than with seasonal total rainfall in Zimbabwe, stimulated interest in applying seasonal forecasts to smallholder farming in the developing world. A strong and highly visible El Niño event in 1997/98 prompted a surge of effort around the use of seasonal forecasting for smallholder agriculture in the developing world. The advent of seasonal forecasting expanded the lead time of farmer-relevant information that is routinely available into the climate variability timescale, and contributed to the current global interest in climate services. While the longer timescales associated with climate change may influence some farm decisions, they appear to be more relevant to institutional and policy decisions (e.g. plant breeding programmes, market development, investment in infrastructure) that influence options and incentives for farmers.Farmers are best served by a combination of historic and monitored information, and a seamless suite of prediction that ranges from sub-daily weather to at least seasonal forecasts. Figure 1 illustrates the types of early actions that a farmer is able to take at different points in the agricultural calendar, in response to information at different timescales. Short-term weather forecasts are experienced frequently enough that farmers can quickly develop an intuitive understanding of their accuracy, and rules of thumb for applying the information to management. As we go from weather to climate timescales, agricultural decisions tend to become more context-and farmer-specific, the information becomes more uncertain and hence more challenging to use, and therefore communication challenges and the scope of services required increase. These services may include translating raw climate information into predictions of agricultural impacts or management advisories, training, assistance with planning and organizing response mechanisms, and evaluation and feedback processes to continually improve information products and services. Although farmers out of necessity have a good intuitive understanding of climate variability, training is needed to enable farmers to understand quantitative and graphical presentations of probabilistic climate information. To be useful, raw climate information such as rainfall and temperature must be translated into impacts and management implications within the system being managed. While this is often done through subjective expertise or intuition, quantitative methods to translate historic, monitored and predicted climate information into predicted impacts on agricultural systems  appropriate and sustained engagement with users to understand their needs, to involve them in co-design and co-evaluation of information products and services, and to develop effective communication mechanisms. Most of all, a climate service needs to be responsive to end-user needs. While \"weather\" and \"climate\" represent distinct timescales, our use of \"climate services\" incorporates and expands on established weather information services that target agriculture. The atmosphere varies on a continuum of timescales, from sub-daily weather events to long-term climate change. These timescales of variability are often defined in terms of the dominant factors that drive them, and by extension, the source of predictability (table 1). \"Weather\" refers to environmental conditions at a given time, and is predictable at a maximum lead time of about two weeks. \"Climate variability\", on year-to-year to decadal timescales, is influenced by interactions between the atmosphere and its underlying ocean surface, such as those associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the tropical Pacific. At the long-term extreme of the continuum is \"climate change\" associated with natural and anthropogenic changes in the chemical composition and heat balance of the global atmosphere.Climate-sensitive agricultural decisions also have a range of time horizons (table 2; Meinke and Stone 2005). Farmers typically need a combination of historic observations, monitored information through the growing season, and predictions at a range of timescales. To be useful, the timescale of information should match the planning horizon of particular management decisions. Relevant timescales for farm decision-making range from daily weather forecasts, to seasonal prediction, to climate change; but seldom exceed two decades. The field of agrometeorology has a long track record of research and applied work on delivering information and management advisories to farmers, based on monitoring and forecasting at the weather timescale (Stigter et al. 2013). ","tokenCount":"123511"}
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+{"metadata":null,"keywords":null,"sieverID":"d4749d31-35ac-4b43-a126-482359891a11","pagecount":"0","content":"3. ldentificaci6n de razas de piricularia con 40 variedades; siembras sema­\nnales. \n4. Evaluaci6n del material por resistencia a helmintosporiosis. \n5. Evaluaci6n del material por resistencia al ail.ublo de la vaina. \nCampo \n1. Ensayos de rendimiento en secano, con ocho variedades en dos distan­\ncias de siembra (30 y 60 cm entre surcos). \n2. Selecci6n de 954 llbeas segregantes (F2-F 7 ) bajo condiciones de seca-\nno. \n3. Ensayo comparativo de variedades y lfheas promisorias introducidas, \nbajo condiciones de riego (16 variedades y llbeas; cuatro repeticiones). \n4. Ensayo comparativo de variedades bajo condiciones de riego (ocho varie­\ndades, ocho repeticiones). \n5. Primer Vivero Internacional de Rendimiento para América Latina con va­\nriedades precoces, 1977 (VIRAL-P). \n6. Primer Vivero Internacional de Rendimiento para América Latina con \nvariedades tempranas, 1977 (VIRAL-T). \n7. Producci6n de semilla genética y básica de ocho variedades comerciales. \nIRGA. Estaci6n Experimental de Arroz. Cachoeirinha. Rro Grande do Sul \n(condiciones de riego) \n1. Camas de infecci6n para la evaluaci6n de variedades y llbeas segregan­\ntes F 3-F7 por su resistencia a piricularia. \n2. Poblaciones segregantes F 2 de 112 progenies. \n3. JarMn de germoplasma (500 materiales introducidos y seleccionados por \nel Programa). \n79 \n4. Ensayos preliminares de rendimiento (25 l!heas; dos repeticiones). \n5. Ensayos avanzados de rendimiento con dos niveles de N (40 Y 60 kg/ha) \n(16 lrneas; cuatro repeticiones). \n6. Ensayos bioclimáticos y épocas de siembra (26 variedades). \n7. Vivero Internacional de Rendimiento para América Latina con varieda­\ndes precoces, 1977 (VIRAL-P). \n8, Vivero Internacional de Rendimiento para América Latina con varieda­\ndes Tempranas, 1977 (VIRAL-T), \n9, Ensayo regional de variedades (10 variedades), \n10, Purificaci6n y producci6n de semilla de las llheas promisorias P 790, \nP 793 Y P 798, \nUEPAE/Pelotas. Convenio EMBRAPA(UFPEL. Rro Grande do Sul (condiciones de \nriego) , \n1, Ensayo bioclimático de adaptaci6n de variedades con tres fechas de \nsiembra, \n2, Ensayo regional con 10 variedades, cuatro niveles de N (O, 30, 60 Y 90 kg( \nha). \n3, Ensayo avanzado de rendimiento (16 variedades; tres repeticiones), \n4, Poblaci6n segregante F 2-F 3' \n5, Estudio de interacci6n de variedades, herbicidas y niveles de nitrógeno, \n6, Respuesta del arroz de riego a diferentes niveles de Ca y Zn, \n7, Dosis y épocas de aplicación de N en diferentes variedades, \n8, Influencia de los métodos y las densidades de siembra sobre la producci6n \nde arroz. \n80 \nARGENTINA \nINTA, Estaci6n Experimental Agropecuaria (EEA) de Corrientes \nArroz de Riego \n1, Producci6n de semilla de las variedades Fortuna INrA y Bluebonnet 50 \nINrA en lotes de 7 y 9 hectáreas, respectivamente. \n2, Multiplicaci6n de semilla básica de la lihea IR 841-63-5-18 en un lote de \n4 hectáre as. \n3. Primer Vivero lnternacional del Añublo de la Vaina para América Lati­\nna, 1977 (VIA VAL) . \n4. Primer Vivero lnternacional de Rendimiento para América Latina con va­\nriedades precoces, 1977 (VIRAL-P). \n5. Primer Vivero lnternacional de Rendimiento para América Latina con \nvariedades tempranas, 1977 (VIRAL-T). \n6. Ensayo comparativo de rendimiento de nueve líheas promisorias y dos va­\nriedades comerciales. \n7. Purificaci6n de semilla de las variedades Fortuna INTA y Bluebonnet 50 \nINTA Y de la lrnea IR 841-63-5-18. \n8. Multiplicaci6n de semilla de cuatro líheas promisorias. \n9. Ensayo de fertilizaci6n de la lrnea IR 841-63-5-18, con N y P205' \n10. Ensayo de insecticidas para el control del gorgojito de agua. \n11. Red Oficial de Ensayos Territoriales (ROET); 15 variedades de viveros \noficiales y particulares, con inscripci6n provisional o definitiva. \n81 \nPARAGUAY \nMinisterio de Agricultura y Ganadería, Programa de Arroz, Asunci<'ln \nPromoción Agropecuaria S,A. en Arroyos y Esteros (Arroz de riego) , \n1. Prueba regional de variedades introducidas (14 del CIAT,17 de Brasil \ny siete de Argentina), \n2, Ensayo regional de rendimiento de 12 variedades. \n3. Producci6n comercial de arroz de las variedades CICA 6, CICA 4, CICA \n7 Y CICA 9 (extensión total de 500 hectáreas). \nBOLIVIA \nCentro de Investigación Agrfc_ola Tropical (CIAT), Santa Cruz \nSubestación Experimental en Portachuelo (arroz de secano) \n1. Ensayo comparativo de variedades y/o lrneas introducidas (10 del IRRI, \ncuatro del CIA T, tres de Estados Unidos y una local), \n2. Multiplicaci6n de semilla básica de Bluebonnet 50 y CICA 6. \n3. Influencia de las densidades de siembra sobre la producción de arroz \n(cinco densidades y cuatro variedades). \n4. Sistemas de aplicaci6n de insecticidas para el control de plagas en Blue­\nbonnet-Sel. \nAgencia de Extensión, San Pedro (arroz de secano en finca de agricultor) \n1. Ensayo regional de variedades (10 delIRRI, cuatro del CIAT, tres de \nEstados Unidos y una local). \n2. Ensayo sobre transferencia de tecnologfa, comparando cuatro tecnolo­\ngras en tres variedades, \n82 \nEstaci6n Experimental Agrfcola de Saavedra (arroz de secano) \nl. Multiplicaci6n de semilla de seis l:!heas promisorias (cuatro del IRRI y \ndos del CIAT). \n2. Comparaci6n y adaptaci6n de variedades (18 variedades: 10 del IRRI, cua­\ntro del CIAT, tres de Estados Unidos y una local). \n3. Vivero Internacional para Barrenadores del Tallo del IRR! (IRSBN). \n4. Evaluaci6n de 10 lfneas del mRI y tres testigos locales por su tolerancia \na la sequfa. \n5. Vivero Internacional de Piricularia del IRRI (IRBN). \n6. Vivero Internacional de Rendimiento para América Latina con varieda­\ndes de secano, 1977 (VIRAL-S). \n7. Control qurmico de insectos (barrenadores, chupadores, comedores de \nfollaje y chinches). \n8. Estudios de asociaci6n de marz-arroz con cinco métodos de siembra. \n9. Transferencia de tecnologfa (cuatro tecnologfas con tres variedades). \n10. Densidades de siembra (cinco densidades con cuatro variedades). \n11. Sistemas da control de malezas. \nPERU \nCentro Regional de Investigaci6n Agropecuaria II (CRIA II l. Chiclayo \nEstaci6n Experimental Agropecuaria de Vista Florida (arroz de riego; transplantel \nl. Ensayo Uniforme de Rendimiento (24 l:!heas y seis testigos). \n2. Ensayo Preliminar de Rendimiento (33 lftleas y siete testigos). \n3. Lfneas de observaci6n (415 l:!heas procedentes de 11 cruzamientos). \n83 \n4. Colecci6n y evaluaci6n de germoplasma (104 variedades precoces en estu­\ndio). \n5. Generaci6n F 1 (en evaluaci6n 63 cruces simples, triples, mdltiples y \nretrocruces) • \n6. Material segregante F 2-F 5 \n- 48 poblaciones F2 , 16 en F 3 Y 11 en F 4; \n- 6136 l!heas F 5 tipo Indica; \n- 391 l!heas F 5 de tipo Indica/J ap6nica. \n7. Vivero Internacional de Observaci6n del IRRI, 1977 (IRON). \n8. Observaci6n de variedades nacionales e introducidas. \n9. Estudios de identificaci6n, biologra, poblaciones y control de insectos \nminadores (Hydrellia) y chupadores (Sogatodes y Orthezia). \n10. Evaluaci6n de las introducciones por resistencia a piricularia. \n11. Control qurmico de piricularia. \n12. Comparaci6n de variedades a la edad de transplante y época de siembra. \n13. Control de malezas: evaluaci6n de herbicidas; comparaci6n de dosis y \népoca de aplicaci6n. \n14. Fertilizaci6n: respuesta varietal al nitr6geno; fuentes y épocas de apli­\ncaci6n del nitr6geno. \n15. Producci6n de semilla básica, registrada y certificada de variedades \ncomerciales. \nUniversidad Nacional Pedro Ruiz Gallo \n1. Vivero Internacional de Salinidad y Alcalinidad para América Latina, 1977 \n(VIOSAL). \n2. Reacci6n varietal a la salinidad (55 liheas del Programa Nacional). \n84 \nApéndice 5. Selecciones más promisorias de los viveros del IRTP de los ensa­\nyos de los programas. \nVIVEROS DEL IRTP \nBRASIL \ns. Goiania \nCNPAF \nIURON/77 \nCAP IVA RA \nIURYN/77 \nVIRAL-S/77 \nAGROVET \nVIRAL-P/77 \nVIRAL-T/77 \nIRON/77 \nb. Csmpinss \nVIRAL-P/77 \nVIRAL-T/77 \nc. Porto Alegre \nVIRAL-P/77 \nVIRAL-T/77 \nARGENTINA \nCorrientes \nVIRAL-P/77 \nVIRAL-T/77 \nVIAVAL/77 \nNl!mero de llbea o seleccidn \n- 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 16, 30, 42, 57, 79, 91, 97, \n104, 105, 106, 107, 114, 127, 128, 129, 130 \n- 2, 4, 7, 19, 21, IAC 25 \n- 1, 2, 6, 9, IAC 25 \n- 2, 5, 10 \n- 1, 2, 3, 5, 12, 15 \n- 17, 24, 26, 46, 47, 48, 54, 6~, 68, \n69, 70, 74, 85, 86, 89, 96, 97, 194, \n291, 308, 309, 315, 336 \n- 3, 8, 9, 10 \n- 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, 15 \n- 4, 9 \n- 5, 6, 11, 15 \n- 1, 2, 4, CICA 7 \n- 6, 9, 11, 12, 14, Bluebonnet 50 \n- 11, 12, 13, 19 \n85 \nBOLIVIA \nPERU \nSaavedra \nIRBN \nIRSBN \nVIRAL-S/77 \na. Vista Florida \nIRON/77 \nIRBN/77 \nb. Unive rsidad \nVIOSAL/77 \n- Infecci6n moderada \n- Baja infestación \n- 6, 11, 14 \n- 21, 22, 24, 39, 64, 71, 74, 84, 89, \n101,138,157,172,216,217,246, \n304, 364. \n- En multiplicación de semilla para \npruebas futuras en tres localidades \n- 1, lO, 11, 12, 18, 23, 25, 32, 34, 36 \nENSAYOS DE LOS PROGRAMAS \nBRASIL \nCampinas \nRiego \nSecano (con severa sequra \nen el estado de máximo \nmacollamiento ) \n- P 899-55-6-4-6-1B, Bg 90-2, CICA 9, \nIR 2307-84-2-1-2, P 899-55-5-2-3-1B, \nP 899-55-6-4-5-1B \n1. Variedades altas (se recobrará y producirá semilla de las selecciones \nNo. 14, 15, 50, 53, 54, 85, 104, 130, 138, 149, 153 e IAC47 (testigo) \n2. Variedades enanas (muy bajas pero con tolerancia); selecciones No. 30, \n31, 32, 69, 70 Y 92 \nPorto Alegre (IRGA) - P 798-B4-4-1T, P 790-B4-4-1T, \nP 793-B4-38-1T \nARGENTINA \nCorrientes - IR 841-63-5-18, P 791-16, CICA 9, \nF ortuna INTA, Bluebonnet 50 INTA, \nYerua P.A. , Taipero P.A. \n87 \n\n","tokenCount":"1473"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3a587f5cbade344ff806d123e753b540","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4c235a06-04ab-4a49-8c11-8a7061763f7b/retrieve","id":"-902686879"},"keywords":["P730 -Activity 1.2.3: Breeding Schemes","P728 -Activity 1.2.1: Genomic Tools Development and Application","P731 -Activity 1.2.4: Field Recording Tools Development OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report"],"sieverID":"33ef1c77-dd76-4cff-b24c-3cb00f505027","pagecount":"5","content":"Crossbred bulls were introduced into the Tanzanian national artificial insemination (AI) program for the first time, a dramatic shift from previous practice of providing only exotic, purebred semen to dairy farmers. Under the ILRI-led African Dairy Genetic Gains program, genomic and phenotypic data gathered from cows and bulls, combined with digital performance monitoring, has shown that crossbreeds are more productive, adapted to local conditions and require less feed to produce more milk than purebred cows in Tanzanian smallholder farming systems.The African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG) program is an International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)-led investment by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) that has developed and successfully tested a multi-country genetic gains platform using on-farm performance information and basic genomic data to identify and provide superior cross-bred bulls for artificial insemination (AI) delivery and planned natural mating to smallholder farmers in Africa.In 2019, more than 100 Tanzanian crossbred bulls were evaluated for genetic merit; of these the top 3 were introduced into the Tanzanian national AI program, and the next top 10 sold for natural mating. This marks a big shift in attitudes and practices where previously only 100% exotic sires were used for AI. Repeated back-crossing of crossbred offspring to exotic sires often results in animals that are not well adapted to local conditions.The recruited AI bulls are among thousands of crossbred bulls and cows selected in key dairy sites in Tanzania based on their ability to produce high milk yields and their resilience to endemic diseases and other environmental stresses. Approximately 62,000 cows and bulls of different ages are registered under the platform, and the productive performance of 14,733 cows is being monitored on-farm monthly.Performance recording agents are using a mobile open data kit (ODK) application to record milk production, weight and body measurement, health and feeding of animals on smallholder farms in the project areas. The compiled data is evaluated by ADGG researchers and shared back to farmers through private sector partner, iCow, along with training and feedback on better herd management practices to raise the productivity of dairy animals.A sample of 4,933 registered animals were genotyped, with results used to identify breed-types and determine relationships among animals in the population. The evaluated milk productivity of animals in the genetically linked population was used to rank the animals according to performance. The overall data gathered show that crossbred bulls and cows are better adapted to local environments than exotic purebreds and can be more productive with proper feed and herd management.Tanzania is the first country in the region to begin reaping the benefits from this innovative combination of genomics and ICT tools to identify and rank bulls and cows. This is a key step towards the stated aim of ADGG to contribute to enhanced dairy production in Tanzania and to improve the livelihoods of millions smallholder dairy farming households.• http://tinyurl.com/uukqop3• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OmwkiK5Or4&feature=youtu.be ","tokenCount":"474"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d01b8682fa3e613a656a3b2be5be0953","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/db6cc6fc-eacd-46e6-b67d-4414952e1867/retrieve","id":"535379669"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"868f91a2-0c9c-4ebf-8e06-660fa4473b68","pagecount":"2","content":"Big data has the potential to solve development problems cheaper, faster, and more effectively CONTACT Andy Jarvis Director Decision and Policy Analysis Research Area (CIAT) Flagship Leader for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)From food insecurity and malnutrition, to climate change and environmental degradation, big data is already helping accelerate the development of robust responses to some of the most pressing challenges of our time. It is transforming the world of genomics and crop breeding, and revolutionizing disciplines from climate modelling to agronomy. It is helping refine policies and improve lives.The smart, and effective use of data will be one of the most important tools for achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Big data represents an unprecedented opportunity to find new ways of reducing hunger and poverty, by applying data-driven solutions to ongoing research for development impact.The ultimate goal of the CGIAR big data Platform is to harness the capabilities of big data to accelerate and enhance the impact of international agricultural research. This six-year initiative (2017-2022) will provide global leadership in organizing open data, convening partners to develop innovative ideas, and demonstrating the power of big data analytics through inspiring projects.Provide support to CGIAR and partners to fully comply with open data / open access principles, to address technical and organizational challenges, and to enable researchers to strengthen data analytical capacity and develop practical, big data-driven use-cases in a coordinated way.Bring together big data practitioners in partnership with global private sector brands, local startup companies, universities, and others, in spaces that will encourage interaction and produce innovative new ideas to solve development problems.Create opportunities for pilot projects that solve core development challenges and help scale them out. It will employ big data analytics and ICTs to leverage open data across disciplines to deliver information to farmers, monitor the state of agriculture and food security in real time, and inform critical national, regional, and global policies and decisions.Transforming rural livelihoods with the power of informationData-driven climate adaptation could revive rice yields in Colombia and beyond Scientists at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) are applying big data tools to pinpoint strategies that work for small-scale farmers in a changing climate. CIAT's big data scientists analyzed many years of rice production and climate data to solve the declining rice production puzzle in Colombia:Researchers applied big data analytics to agricultural and weather records in Colombia, revealing how climate variation impacts rice yields.These analyses identified the most productive rice varieties and planting times for specific sites and seasonal forecasts. The recommendations could potentially boost yields by 1-3 tons per hectare.The tools work for multiple crops and landscapes, wherever data is available.The CGIAR Big Data Platform is seeking ambitious partners in the public and private sectors with an interest in the potential of big data to accelerate and enhance the impact of international agricultural research. We invite you to be part of this exciting initiative to solve core development challenges, climate-proof agricultural development, and ensure global food security.To find out more about big data and the Platform please visit: http://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/cgiar-platformfor-big-data-in-agriculture","tokenCount":"509"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d8cc295f5553120775d454319a0f6927","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/84fe746d-af5b-4b6c-a7a7-b0788258d509/retrieve","id":"342195670"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"83fe60a4-14ba-4e04-87c9-6b74a840633f","pagecount":"4","content":"Land in the Ethiopian Highlands is facing intense degradation. This often leads to loss of biodiversity and a reduction in services derived from ecosystems. A number of initiatives have been put in place by the Government of Ethiopia and others to restore degraded ecosystems. However, the biggest challenge is to ensure that such interventions are sustainable.Researchers from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), in collaboration with local partners, are working to identify incentives that can support farmers in adopting long-term conservation approaches. The project will also assess the bene ts and trade-o s of these IWMI's approach is based on the premise that increasing the productivity of degraded ecosystems through sustaining NRM interventions will result in an increase in the following ES:Provisioning services -products obtained from ecosystems (livestock feed and human food). Regulating services -bene ts obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes (above-and below-ground carbon sequestration, and soil erosion control). Supporting services -services that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services (soil nutrient cycling through vegetation restoration). Cultural services -non-material bene ts obtained from ecosystems (spiritual Land degradation in the Ethiopian Highlands (photo: Desalegne Tadesse). Improved incomes and livelihoods of at least 1,500 households. ","tokenCount":"198"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4360546136.json b/data/part_6/4360546136.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1d63fc4b245fdb5f3690eb13c708cdde","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5af6d6c8-622d-4eec-a04f-04efe816befc/content","id":"1778687361"},"keywords":["Santillano-Cázares, J.","Turmel, M.-S.","Cárdenas-Castañeda, M.E.","Mendoza-Pérez, S.","Limón-Ortega, A.","Paredes-Melesio, R.","Guerra-Zitlalapa, L.","Ortiz-Monasterio, I. Can Biofertilizers Reduce Synthetic Fertilizer Application Rates in Cereal corn","wheat","organic fertilizers","Guanajuato","Chiapas","Tlaxcala","Sonora","Campeche"],"sieverID":"9f7d96e9-c8b2-41a1-a249-efd6de07bec8","pagecount":"18","content":"Biofertilizers are considered as potential supplements or alternatives to fertilizers. The objective of the present study is to evaluate different biofertilizers in combination with synthetic fertilizers on the yields of maize and wheat in several states in Mexico. Fourteen biofertilizer treatments plus a treatment with 100% the locally recommended fertilizer rate (RFR), another with 50% RFR (the control treatment), and one without any fertilizer (for a total of 17 treatments) were tested on maize and wheat in five states across Mexico. Field experiments were established in five states and several years for a total of 14 experiments in Mexico. In general, except for the experiments conducted in moderately low soil P conditions, Chiapas and Sonora (maize), no response to biofertilizers was observed in the remaining locations, through the years in wheat and maize. We conclude that in high input production systems, the biofertilizer response is more an exception than a rule with only 21% of the experiments showing a significant difference in favor of biofertilizers and only 4 of 15 products tested produced a yield response in more nitrogen deficient environments. Some products containing AMF may be beneficial in maize production systems with phosphorus deficient environments.The use of biofertilizers in Mexico dates back to pre-Columbian times, as mud from lakes (located near what today is Mexico City) loaded with a variety of microorganisms was used to build floating plots (called chinampas) to grow crops [1]. More recently, Armenta-Bojorquez et al. [2] indicated that the state of Sinaloa (a highly productive, high input agricultural state in northwestern Mexico) widely adopted the use of biofertilizers for N fixation on legume crops around the 1970s and 1980s. Currently the irrigated intensive production systems in Sinaloa, for the most part, relay on synthetic fertilizers. In contrast, the state of Chiapas, which has fewer input intensive systems, and mostly rainfed agriculture, in southern Mexico, seems to be one of the most enthusiastic and successful states for testing biofertilizers [3,4]. Today, with the goal of improving productivity and reducing the costs of production while minimizing environmental impact, the Mexican government promotes the use of biofertilizers across the whole country. They see biofertilizers as a way to cut down the use of synthetic fertilizers; regardless of obvious agroecological and input use differences across a highly diverse country (https://www.gob.mx/agricultura%7Cregionlagunera/articulos/sagarpaentrego-2-9-toneladas-de-biofertilizantes-para-el-mejoramiento-del-suelo (accessed on 24 December 2021)). Thus, given the present wave of interest, farmers in Mexico are looking for alternative management practices that could help them reduce their fertilization costs hence, making their activity more profitable. Among these management options, the optimization of mineral fertilizer rates, timing, and methods of application are of great importance [5,6], as well as fertilizer sources such as organic fertilizers [7,8] and biofertilizers [9,10].The term biofertilizer was defined by Vessey [11] as \"a substance which contains living microorganisms which, when applied to seed, plant surfaces, or soil, colonizes the rhizosphere or the interior of the plant and promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant\". Biofertilizers can contribute to soil fertility through N fixation, phosphorus solubilization, and an extended root system through association with vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the soil (AMF), which can improve soil exploration for increased water and nutrient uptake; principally for P uptake. This in turn can result in a better tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress, protection against pathogens, and a general increase in plant fitness [12,13]. This technology more commonly involves seed inoculation with bacteria of the genera Azospirillum spp. [14,15], Bacillus spp. [16,17], and Pseudomonas spp. [18,19]; as well as mycorrhizas like Glomus spp. [20,21]. However, there are other microorganisms also used as biofertilizers. Itelima et al. [22] have made a detailed list of biofertilizers, distinguishing among those used for nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, phosphate mobilizers, biofertilizers for micronutrients, and plant growth promoting Rhizobacteria. Commercial biofertilizers products can have a specific microorganism or a consortium of several of these microorganisms as granular or liquid presentations to be applied (inoculated) to seeds, soil, or plant tissues [23][24][25].The use of biofertilizers emerges as a potential sustainable alternative for improving maize and wheat cropping systems [26,27]. A growing interest in Mexico is arising based on the expectation that using biofertilizers may partially substitute the use of synthetic fertilizers [28][29][30][31][32]. It has been suggested that biofertilizers can save up to 50% of synthetic fertilizers [4,33]. Positive effects from different microorganisms have been reported for laboratory and greenhouse experiments [16,17,[34][35][36][37][38]. However, the potential of biofertilizers for decreasing synthetic fertilizer rates and or increasing the yield of cereals under field conditions in Mexico has been limited and unclear. The quality of biofertilizer products has been questioned due to several factors.Herrmann & Lesueur [39] indicated that \" . . . many of the products that are currently available worldwide are often of very poor quality, resulting in the loss of confidence from farmers. The formulation of an inoculant is a crucial multistep process that should result in one or several strains of microorganisms included in a suitable carrier, providing a safe environment to protect them from the often harsh conditions during storage and ensuring survival and establishment after introduction into soils. One of the key issues in formulation development and production is the quality control of the products at each stage of the process.\" Furthermore, Husen et al. [40] found a series of inconsistencies in a study about biofertilizers quality in Indonesia and concluded that there is an urgent need to improve the current quality standard system of biofertilizers. In a study of the effect of biofertilizers on bean (Vigna sp.) production in Pakistan, Zahir et al. [41] concluded that \"research for the development of inoculum for different advanced genotypes should be continued and more emphasis should be deployed to develop biofertilizers with efficient strains to use them under different climate and soil conditions\". A classic paper addressing the inconsistency and variability of biofertilizers in Mexican agriculture was published by Fuentes-Ramírez and Caballero-Mellado [42]. More recently, other studies conducted in Mexico have recog-nized having inconsistent results with the use of biofertilizers [28][29][30]. Even more recently, in 2019, Rodriguez-Ramos et al. [43] in a multi-location trial reported a lack of response of biofertilizers on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. In contrast, there is one study conducted in Chiapas, Mexico [3] that reported definitive advantages of applying biofertilizers together with synthetic fertilizers to increase maize yields. The objective of the present study was to evaluate different commercially available biofertilizers in combination with synthetic fertilizer on the yields of maize and wheat in contrasting climatic and input use conditions in Mexico.Experiments were established in five Mexican states, distributed across Mexico. The experimental sites were highly contrasting in several agroecologic conditions, such as geographic location, climate, and soil characteristics (except for Campeche; where no soil analyses were performed); as well as input use and agronomic practices (Tables 1 and 2). Solar radiation, precipitation, and the minimum and maximum temperatures occurring during the crop cycle of the experiments in all states and years are presented in Tables 3 and 4    In each location, locally recommended hybrid maize and wheat varieties were seeded. Depending on the treatments, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers were applied according to local recommendations for each site. All biofertilizers were applied to the seed prior to planting following the directions prescribed by the products' manufacturers. Weeds and diseases were controlled in each site following local recommendations. The experiments in Sonora and Guanajuato were irrigated, while the experiments in Campeche, Tlaxcala, and Chiapas were established under rainfed conditions. A summary of crops management practices in all sites is presented in Table 4.Fourteen biofertilizer treatments was the maximum number that was included in a single study. Not all 14 biofertilizer treatments were tested in each state. Treatments 1-14 were inoculated with biofertilizers and received 50% of the locally recommended fertilizer rates (RFR) (Table 5). Treatments 15, 16, and 17 received 50, 100, and 0%, respectively, of the locally RFR, without biofertilizers. Table 5 shows which biofertilizers were tested in which states. For the full or half the RFR, the synthetic fertilizers consisted of urea as a nitrogen source, diammonium phosphate (DAP) as a phosphorus and nitrogen source, and potassium chloride (KCl), as a potassium source.  Experiments where the same treatment structures were repeated across states and years were classified in Groups. In Group 1, all 14 biofertilizers plus one treatment with 100% the locally RFR, another with 50% RFR (the control treatment), and one without any fertilizer or biofertilizer (for a total of 17 treatments) were tested on maize and include experiments conducted in Guanajuato (two cycles), Chiapas (two cycles), and Tlaxcala (one cycle 2013). Cycle 2012 in Tlaxcala was not included in Group 1 due to its unique treatment structure, where only 10 out of the 14 biofertilizers were tested. All experiments in Group 1 were replicated three times. Group 2 included four maize experiments in Sonora, where some of these 14 biofertilizers or combinations of these were tested (Table 6). All experiments in Group 2 had four replications. Group 3 included two wheat experiments in Sonora, one experiment per year, where six biofertilizers were tested on two wheat varieties. Experiments in Group 3 were also replicated four times. Unlike the rest of the experiments reported in this paper, in Campeche, the nonfertilized treatment, 100% RFR, or the control (50% RFR + biofertilizers) were not included in the experiments. Instead, five synthetic fertilizers, no biofertilizer containing treatments and seven biofertilizer containing treatments plus a synthetic fertilizer rate of 90-66-48 (N-P-K) were tested in 2018. In contrast, five synthetic and five biofertilizer containing treatments were tested in 2019. Therefore, no grouping was conformed for this state due to the treatment design asymmetries between years. In both 2018 and 2019, the experiments were replicated three times.Only biofertilizers that were sold commercially and were associated with crop nutrition were included in this study. All biofertilizers had been registered with the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS, by its Spanish acronym); an office which is part of the Mexican Federal Government. Crop yields were measured in all sites. Maize yields were adjusted to 14% moisture, while wheat yields were adjusted to 12%.Except for the two experiments with wheat in Sonora, which were arranged in a split-plot in a randomized complete block design, the experimental design for all other experiments was a complete randomized block design with three or four replications. All the experiments in Sonora had four replications, for both wheat and maize. All other experiments had three replications. The experiment with wheat in Sonora tested biofertilizers on two wheat varieties. Maize plot size consisted of eight rows separated by 0.75 m (6 m wide) by 5 m long. Wheat plot size consisted of four beds, 80 cm apart with three rows of wheat on each bed and 5 m long.Statistical analyses were performed by groups of experiments that shared the same treatment structure or individually when experiments had a unique treatment structure. Analyses of variance (ANOVA's) were performed using PROC GLM; in the statistical package SAS, version 9.2 for Windows (SAS Institute, 2008). Treatment mean separations were performed using the Fisher's least significant difference (LSD) test at a p level of 0.05. In Campeche, given its treatment structure, which lacked a control treatment, such as 50% RFR, in addition to means separation, the effectiveness of biofertilizers (plus 50% RFR) was done through a single degree of freedom contrast between all the treatments with biofertilizers plus 90-66-48 (N-P-K) synthetic fertilizer versus treatment number 6 (in 2018) and number 5 (in 2019) (pure synthetic fertilizer at a rate of 90-66-48, N-P-K), one contrast for each cycle.ANOVAs for all grouped and non-grouped sites are shown in Table 7. The control treatment to test the effectiveness of biofertilizers was the 50% of local RFR, thus, the core comparison throughout this paper is the 50% RFR vs. the 50% RFR plus the different biofertilizers. From now on, the biofertilizer containing treatments are referred simply by their commercial names.  Group 1 neither had a non-significant state × year × treatment interaction nor was it significant in the year × treatment interaction. However, the state × treatment interaction was significant. This interaction occurred due to a different magnitude of response of treatments across states. In Chiapas, a group of biofertilizers significantly out yielded the control treatment and yielded similarly to the full RFR. In contrast, no significant differences were observed for the control and the biofertilizer containing treatments in Guanajuato or Tlaxcala 2013 (Figure 1 and Table 8). In Tlaxcala 2013, the site was characterized by drought during the reproductive stage (beginning of September). Furthermore, the date of seeding (18 of May) was later than what is locally recommended, due to a delay in the rainy season. The group of biofertilizers that resulted in higher yields in Chiapas, were BiofertiBUAP, MicorrizaFer, and FerbiliQ, which yielded an average of 1300 kg ha −1 higher than the control (a 27% difference) and 790 kg ha −1 less than the full RFR (a 12% difference). Thus, this group of biofertilizers in Chiapas fully compensated the reduction of 50% of synthetic fertilizers, as compared with the full local RFR. The yield difference between the full RFR and the control was 2090 kg ha −1 higher for the full RFR than the control (a 43% difference). This substantial difference indicates the need of the RFR to achieve the maximum yields and highlight the merit of biofertilizers on achieving the maximum yields. The yield difference between the full RFR and non-fertilized treatment was 5099 kg ha −1 higher for the full RFR than the non-fertilized treatment (a 383% difference). This large difference points out that the fertility level on the non-fertilized treatment was very low (high probability of yield response to fertilizers). In Guanajuato, no significant difference existed between the biofertilizers and control. However, a significant difference was observed between the full RFR and control, accounting for 1335 kg ha −1 in favor of the full RFR (an 11% difference). Also significant was the comparison between the full RFR and non-fertilized treatment, recording a difference of 2568 kg ha −1 (a 22% difference) (Figure 1 and Table 8). Tlaxcala 2013, probably caused by a very low soil organic matter (O. M.) content, with only 0.6% (Table 2), averaged a yield of 3207 kg ha −1 and did not show significant differences, not only among biofertilizers and the control, but among any of the treatments (Figure 1 and Table 8). Group 3. Looking at the wheat experiments in Sonora we found a non-signific years × treatments × wheat varieties interaction, neither was the treatments × wheat rieties interaction significant, nor was the effect of treatments significant. Since no s nificant treatments × wheat varieties interaction was recorded, the factor of varieties w pooled together in a separate analysis (Table 7). Once the effect of varieties was poo together, the effect of treatments still remained non-significant (Table 9). The means Group 3 are shown in Table 9. The difference between the control and mean of all b  Group 2, which includes the four maize experiments in Sonora, showed a nonsignificant year × treatment interaction but a significant difference among treatments (Table 7). Table 9 shows the mean comparisons for Groups 2 and 3. In Group 2, the core comparison in this study, the biofertilizers vs. the control was significant in one case. The biofertilizer containing treatment of Azofer + MicorrizaFer, significantly out yielded the control. The difference between Azofer + MicorrizaFer and the control was 823 kg ha −1 higher for the biofertilizers (a 9% difference). No other significant difference between the biofertilizers and control was recorded. The difference between the full RFR and control was 2110 kg ha −1 higher for the full RFR (a 24% difference). This latter comparison shows that although there was ample margin for increasing yields (2100 kg ha −1 ) by applying the full rate as compared with the control, only one biofertilizer containing treatment contributed to the yield recorded for the control treatment. Other than this exception, the biofertilizers did not contribute any additional yield, compared to the control. The difference between the full RFR versus the non-fertilized treatment was 7080 kg ha −1 higher for the full RFR treatment (a 280% difference); this large difference indicates that the natural fertility of the experimental area was in great need of nitrogen fertilizers to support maximum yields. Group 3. Looking at the wheat experiments in Sonora we found a non-significant years × treatments × wheat varieties interaction, neither was the treatments × wheat varieties interaction significant, nor was the effect of treatments significant. Since no significant treatments × wheat varieties interaction was recorded, the factor of varieties was pooled together in a separate analysis (Table 7). Once the effect of varieties was pooled together, the effect of treatments still remained non-significant (Table 9). The means of Group 3 are shown in Table 9. The difference between the control and mean of all biofertilizers was 261 kg ha −1 higher for the control (a 4% difference). The difference between the full RFR treatment and control was 44 kg ha −1 higher for the control (less than 1% difference); and the difference between the full RFR treatment and non-fertilized treatment was 71 kg ka −1 higher for the full RFR treatment (a 1% difference). The latter comparison shows that the residual fertility of the experimental area was high enough to maintain the maximum yields, providing little room for biofertilizers to demonstrate any advantages.The experiments that were analyzed independently (non-grouped) were Tlaxcala 2012, Campeche 2018, and Campeche 2019. No significant treatment effect was recorded for any of these three experiments (Table 5). In Table 10, the means of all three experiments are shown. A possible explanation for a lack of significance among treatments in Tlaxcala 2012 is explained by the occurrence of consecutive dry years, being these rainfed experiments, together with the presence of the highest coefficient of variation, indicating high soil variability in the experimental area. Under such abnormal conditions in this state, the effect of using biofertilizers could not be determined.  In Campeche, the effect of treatments was not significant in any of the two cycles, 2018 or 2019 (Table 5). In addition, in 2018, the contrast of the synthetic fertilizer treatment (90-66-48, N-P-K) against the average of all biofertilizer containing treatments plus 90-66-48 (N-P-K) had a p = 0.4835 and the same contrast in 2019 had a p = 0.9972. The means for Campeche are shown in Table 10. These results indicate that in this location, the use of biofertilizers did not result in higher yields, compared with the purely synthetic fertilizer treatments.In summary, Table 11 shows the number of experiments where the biofertilizer had a significant yield response across locations, cycles, and crops. Glomus geosporum, Glomus fasciculatum, Glomus constrictum, Glomus tortuosum, Glomus intraradices 0 of 3 -Microbiologia MICI Unspecified 0 of 2 - † The yield response in Sonora was a combination of Azosfer + MicorrizaFer and MicorrizaFer in Chiapas. Furthermore, the response was consistent throughout the years (i.e., consistent results).It was found that there are significant benefits of the biofertilizer MicorrizaFer in Sonora and Chiapas (AMF); locations with low P soils with maize. Given the extent of low P tropical soils in maize production systems in Mexico, this is a very relevant finding. Other than that, in general, no response to biofertilizers was observed in the rest of the locations through the years in maize. The yield response in Chiapas in this study coincides with that reported also in Chiapas by Martínez-Reyes et al. [3], who found a positive response of maize yield to a combination of synthetic fertilizer plus biofertilizers. It is worthwhile to notice that both the Chiapas and Tlaxcala sites had moderately low soil P availability. The benefits of AMF symbiosis in maize in low P soils have been well documented [45,46]. In contrast, the different response of wheat to AMF under low-moderate P has also been documented. Since wheat has a more extensive root system and root exudates, it is less dependent on AMF for P uptake and the response is generally less; while, maize is a crop that is highly dependent on AMF for P uptake due to root architecture [47]. A generalized lack of wheat yield response to biofertilizers in the present study coincides with another series of experiments conducted in Guanajuato, Mexico by Rodríguez-Ramos et al. [43] with an inconsistent response of biofertilizers in wheat. Across all experiments, this study concluded that the addition of biofertilizers had an inconsistent response on yield and that, in general, did not compensate cereal yields due to reductions on the recommended synthetic fertilizer rates.In experiments conducted under irrigation in Guanajuato and Sonora, excluding the one with maize in Sonora, which positively responded to biofertilizers (experiment that demonstrated being nitrogen deficient), it is suggested that the lack of yield response to biofertilizers could be partly be explained by the relatively high soil fertility. In Tlaxcala, there was no difference between the 50% and 100% RFR. There was no additional yield response from the 100% RFR or biofertilizers; indicating plant nutrition limitations were covered by the 50% rate under water limiting rainfed conditions. In Guanajuato, on the other hand, the unfertilized yield was over 9 t ha −1 ; indicating high residual soil fertility. High soil fertility could be the result of the residual effect of nutrients caused by the continuous application of considerable high fertilizer rates through the years that are typically employed in these intensive production systems. Sonora ranks first in wheat production in Mexico and Bajío (Guanajuato) ranks second or third every year. Thus, these states are highly productive and use high level of inputs for crop production. Even though in the present study the full recommended fertilizer rates were cut by half, soil fertility still remained relatively high, as observed by the small or almost null gap between the full RFR and the non-fertilized treatments recorded for maize in Guanajuato and wheat in Sonora (Tables 8 and 9). Thus, in these two locations, where relatively high fertility may occur, biofertilizers may not have been as effective in high fertility environments as in low fertility environments like in Chiapas or Sonora, in the case of maize, where the gap between the full RFR and the non-fertilized treatment was a 383% and 280% difference, respectively.In a classic paper, Fuentes-Ramirez and Caballero-Mellado [42], reported results from an extensive campaign where biofertilizers were tested in Mexico. They reported that \"When nitrogen fertilizers were not applied to traditional and modern maize cultivars, the inoculation with Azospirillum exerted beneficial effects in 95 and 93% of the sites evaluated during 1999 and 2000, respectively. However, when fertilizers were applied in levels higher than 110 kg N/ha, the positive responses on the maize yield were observed only in 55 and 50% of the sites evaluated in 1999 and 2000, respectively\". Banayo et al. [48] supported the hypothesis of the inconsistency of biofertilizers performance in the Philippines due to relatively high fertility levels in rice production system. They concluded that \" . . . the trends in our results seem to indicate that biofertilizers might be most helpful in rainfed environments with limited inorganic fertilizer input\". At the 50% RFR, the nitrogen fertilizer rates in Guanajuato and Sonora were 100 and 125 kg N ha −1 , respectively, on top of the modest residual fertility levels (Table 2) (modest residual fertility if 35 kg N are required to produce 1000 kg of wheat, in environments where mean yields are around 6500 kg ha −1 ).Even these slightly high fertility levels could have inhibited the response of microorganisms contained in the applied biofertilizers. In further support of this hypothesis about high soil fertility in Guanajuato and Sonora cancelling the benefits of biofertilizers to crop yields, Fukami et al. [23] observed that the efficiency of Azospirillum spp. to support crop yields depended on N rates. High N rates would decrease the ability of Azospirillum spp. to promote positive responses on crop yields, due to a decreased activity of the enzyme nitrogenase, while at low N rates its ability to stimulate a positive response is increased. These results are in general agreement with those reported by Ramírez-Ramos et al. [43], where, with the exception of the results observed in Villagrán, there was no effect of the biofertilizers on wheat or barley (Hordeum vulgare) yields in Guanajuato. The present study supports the hypothesis of high soil fertility as yields of maize without fertilizers were high, as compared to the 100% RFR (Table 8). In addition, relatively high soil supplies of available phosphorus (P) may have, as well as N, inhibited the response to mycorrhizasbased biofertilizers. Davaran et al. [20] found a negative interaction between Glomus spp. and P fertilization at levels higher than 50% the locally recommended rate (equivalent to 50 kg P 2 O 5 ha −1 ), while the mean P 2 O 5 applied fertilizer rate in non-responsive sites in the present study was 54 kg P 2 O 5 ha −1 on top of the P in soil residual reserves (Table 2). Jensen and Jacobson [47] provided additional evidence about vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizas being inhibited by high P levels in soil and vice versa.On the other hand, a lack of an adequate water supply in rainfed experiments, except for Chiapas where annual precipitation exceeds 1000 mm, could have been the main reason for the lack of response of maize to biofertilizers. Glazova [48] reported that the efficiency of bio-fertilization directly depended on soil moisture levels, being the optimum at a level as high as 60% soil moisture. In addition, Alahdadi et al. [49] reported a significant water deficit stress × cultivar × biofertilizer interaction on soybeans (Glycine max L.). They suggested that by increasing the severity of water deficit stress, the primary root length decreased. This could be the result of a disruption in photosynthesis because of the shortage of soil moisture and decreasing transport of photosynthates to the plant during the growth period.Cassán et al. [25] point to a number of possible reasons for restricting the response of biofertilizers in different crops. Crop plant root factors such as surface area, root hair abundance and length, growth rate, response to soil conditions, and exudations determine the relative dependency on AMF for nutrient uptake [45,46]. Other causes include complex interactions between microorganisms in biofertilizers and plants; strong stressful crop growing conditions; unsound methods of inoculation; a lack of replicability of experimental conditions; and the interaction of native soil biota with inoculants, i.e., studies under isolated controlled conditions often produce different results under field uncontrolled conditions. Other suggested reasons for the lack of response to biofertilizers include possibly a poor quality of biofertilizer standards [29]. In the present study, for example, Azofer + Microrriza Fer (Glomus spp. based) out yielded the control in Sonora and Chiapas; both maize and low available P sites, but the same biofertilizer, sold by the same company, did not show a yield response in any other part of the environment, which may suggest variability in quality of products from different manufacturers, although there are other several factors, inherent to individual biofertilizer users that may damage the product such as prolonged exposure time of biofertilizer products or biofertilizer treated seed to direct sunlight in the field (among a number of other particular practices and environmental conditions. Chávez-Díaz et al. [1] underlined that there are several factor interacting that need to be considered in order to take advantage of biofertilizers (Figure 2). The use of biofertilizers is no doubt, less harmless to the environment than synthetic fertilizers, which is of key importance in today's world. However, the need of producing food for ≈ 8 billion people (as today, 14 December 2021) is equally or more important and requires increasing the productivity of crops, but crop productivity is unavoidably linked to substantial input use. It is a physics rule. The key for intensive production systems is to find ways to be more sustainable. This objective is possible without sacrificing crop yields. Minimum tillage systems, the use of tools to reasonable apply minerals, such the GreenSeeker ® technology, which is capable of estimating the N needs of crops based on actual yield potential, among many other technologies are sound tools that are designed to make modern agriculture productive but friendlier to the environment, to farmer's income, and to society in general. The downside of biofertilizers is their lack of consistency across products, locations, and years. In addition, the interactions among these factors are complex to understand and apply at the field level, as biological processes are very dynamic in space and time for the microorganisms and for the plant's environments.The results of these experiments show that only in Chiapas and Sonora (maize) was there was a significant increase in yield with some biofertilizers in combination with inorganic fertilizers. Therefore, one of the main conclusions of this study is that biofertilizers only work in some places and in the places where biofertilizers show a response, only some of them work. These results suggest that we should be cautious before widely recommending the use of biofertilizers across Mexico since their positive response on yields seem to be more of an exception rather than the rule.From the results observed in the present multiple-locations (with highly contrasting agroecologic characteristics and input use levels), multiple-year study, it is suggested that the lack of response to some environments may be related to the level of precipitation, organic matter content, and residual soil fertility. Further research is needed to test biofertilizers in environments representative of smaller farmers, with even lower input investment and surely more responsiveness to fertilizer applications, than those repre-  The use of biofertilizers is no doubt, less harmless to the environment than synthetic fertilizers, which is of key importance in today's world. However, the need of producing food for ≈ 8 billion people (as today, 14 December 2021) is equally or more important and requires increasing the productivity of crops, but crop productivity is unavoidably linked to substantial input use. It is a physics rule. The key for intensive production systems is to find ways to be more sustainable. This objective is possible without sacrificing crop yields. Minimum tillage systems, the use of tools to reasonable apply minerals, such the GreenSeeker ® technology, which is capable of estimating the N needs of crops based on actual yield potential, among many other technologies are sound tools that are designed to make modern agriculture productive but friendlier to the environment, to farmer's income, and to society in general. The downside of biofertilizers is their lack of consistency across products, locations, and years. In addition, the interactions among these factors are complex to understand and apply at the field level, as biological processes are very dynamic in space and time for the microorganisms and for the plant's environments.The results of these experiments show that only in Chiapas and Sonora (maize) was there was a significant increase in yield with some biofertilizers in combination with inorganic fertilizers. Therefore, one of the main conclusions of this study is that biofertilizers only work in some places and in the places where biofertilizers show a response, only some of them work. These results suggest that we should be cautious before widely recommending the use of biofertilizers across Mexico since their positive response on yields seem to be more of an exception rather than the rule.From the results observed in the present multiple-locations (with highly contrasting agroecologic characteristics and input use levels), multiple-year study, it is suggested that the lack of response to some environments may be related to the level of precipitation, organic matter content, and residual soil fertility. Further research is needed to test biofertilizers in environments representative of smaller farmers, with even lower input investment and surely more responsiveness to fertilizer applications, than those represented in the current research, since, Tlaxcala and Chiapas experiments were developed under medium input, while Sonora and Guanajuato were high input production systems. Another lesson the experiments left us is, in future research, to include another control treatment with, perhaps, 25% of the locally RFR, since the 50% RFR often yielded the same as the full RFR, indicating that in these locations we did not lower the fertility level to achieve a more accurate evaluation of the efficacy of biofertilizers.While we found evidence that there can be benefit from some products in lowmoderate soil fertility conditions, there were by far more products that provided no benefit and resulted in yield loss. Only four of the 15 biofertilizer products produced a yield response and only one in more than one location (MicorrizaFer). While the benefits of a biofertilizer can be significant under a certain condition with the right product, there is a greater chance of a farmer using a product with no benefit. This shows the need for welldesigned field trails in experimental platforms to test products before recommending to farmers to avoid risk of yield loss. Farmers need clear guidance on the use of biofertilizers, what products are recommended, and how much synthetic fertilizer rates can be reduced. Further research on this is required to fine tune recommendations to maximize yields and economic benefits for farmers.","tokenCount":"5537"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"adda7bd279c0c074969190183a5264ab","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9d59ec4f-36f7-48c5-8da9-1849b5509d54/retrieve","id":"-804348066"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6ad73f30-aea6-4ce4-8574-6036d2d73aed","pagecount":"97","content":"Es para nosotros motivo de satisfacción y orgullo presentar el plan estratégico que el CIAT ha elaborado para la década de los 90 y para años posteriores. El plan describe el nuevo rumbo estratégico que orientará las actividades de un centro renovado que se acerca al siglo XXI. Este plan también servirá de guía al CIAT para desarrollar estrategias operativas a mediano plazo y planes anuales de trabajo al llegar el centro a su tercera década de actividades.Durante su primera década de funcionamiento, la de los años 70, el CIAT desarrolló sus instalaciones y programas. Este fue un período de expansión rápida, y al mismo tiempo cautelosa, ya que el centro pasaba de una amplia base inicial a un pequeño número de programas con enfoque muy específico. Hacia el final de la década, su trabajo en mejoramiento del arroz, que partió de la base tecnológica y de los materiales del IRRI y de una estrecha colaboración con el programa nacional de arroz de Colombia, ya había logrado un impacto importante en las estadísticas nacionales de producción de arroz en América Latina.Durante su segunda década, la de los 80, el CIAT consolidó su esfuerzo investigativo en América Latina, estableciendo vínculos más sólidos con los sistemas nacionales de investigación y desarrollo, y descentralizando una porción creciente de sus operaciones. Durante este período amplió también sus actividades en frijol común, que incluyeron a Africa, y en yuca, que incluyeron a Asia. Hacia finales de la década, se pudo apreciar un impacto cuantificable en todos los programas del CIA T, tanto en los campos de los agricultores como en las cifras nacionales de producción de muchos países latinoamericanos. Esperamos que, en la década de los 90, el gran número de tecnologías próximas a su completo desarrollo tenga un impacto significativo en la economía y en la agricultura de las Américas, de Africa y de Asia.Sin embargo, es evidente que la investigación tradicional del CIAT en cultivos básicos es insuficiente para lograr un desarrollo agrícola sostenible. En los 90, el centro avanzará con firmeza hacia un manejo combinado de cultivos básicos y de recursos naturales dentro de un esquema de sistemas integrados. Este esfuerzo pretende incrementar la producción de alimentos y el crecimiento económíco sin comprometer los recursos naturales básicos, de los cuales depende el progreso futuro.También se planea incorporar más rápidamente la investigación avanzada a nuestro trabajo, compartir, en lo posible, nuestras responsabilidades internacionales con nuestros colegas los programas nacionales, y desarrollar enfoques colaborativos con un rango cada vez más amplio de instituciones.Este plan estratégico es el producto de un esfuerzo de dos años que involucro a todo el personal del CIAT, a la Junta Directiva, y a muchas personas ajenas al centro. Su v desarrollo se caracterizó por una consulta amplia con los líderes de la investigación de los países en desarrollo y con científicos particulares, realizada tanto en talleres como en grupos de trabajo. Reconocemos con gratitud la contribución de muchos individuos altamente calificados que brindaron su valioso tiempo para ayudarnos a desarrollar y revisar los diversos componentes de este plan. Destacamos especialmente a quienes invirtieron largas horas en los análisis que permitieron la selección final de los cultivos básicos y los agroecosistemas.En nombre de toda la comunidad del CIAT, deseamos expresar nuestro profundo reconocimiento al anterior Director General, el Dr. John L. Nickel, quien se retiró de la institución a principios de 1990, después de 15 años de liderazgo sobresaliente. El, con su pensamiento claro y visionario, inició y orientó las etapas iniciales del proceso que culminaron en el presente plan estratégico.Confiamos en que la estrategia aquí expuesta, ejecutada de manera flexible por un personal dedicado, con el apoyo de donantes comprometidos, y en asocio con las instituciones nacionales e internacionales de investigación y desarrollo, contribuirá a que el siglo XXI sea más promisorio para aquéllos a quienes servimos. Trabajando juntos en la tarea urgente de aliviar la pobreza y el hambre, y moviéndonos hacia el logro de sistemas agrícolas más sostenible s, alcanzaremos un futuro más justo, seguro y próspero.Firmado, 1 .El resultado de un proceso intenso e interactivo que involucró a la Junta Directiva del CTAT, a grupos internos de trabajo del centro, y a líderes de muchos programas nacionales. El proceso de planeación se inició con un examen de los ambientes externo e interno del CIAT desde una perspectiva a largo plazo. Varios grupos de trabajo analizaron las tendencias económicas de América Latina y del Caribe, las tendencias de ciertos cultivos básicos, y del manejo de los recursos naturales para una agricultura sostenible (véase el Suplemento).Los objetivos centrales que pretendemos alcanzar, y que guiaron nuestro proceso de planeación, son el crecimiento, la equidad, y el mejoramiento de la base de recursos naturales. En la formulación de nuestras estrategias, se tomaron en cuenta los valores culturales del CIA T y sus ventajas comparativas actuales y futuras.El análisis muestra que el cambio que ocurre en torno del CIA T es rápido y continuo, de manera que esta institución debe cambiar radicalmente si quiere continuar siendo relevante. Cada vez más, los paradigmas de la investigación tradicional, basados principalmente en aspectos de la productividad, deben dar paso a conceptos nuevos de diseño de tecnologías. Estos conceptos deben contemplar las complejas interacciones biofísicas que subyacen a los sistemas de cultivo, y también las dimensiones socioeconómicas, políticas y agroclimáticas que determinan los patrones de uso de la tierra en determinados agroecosistemas. Las opciones tecnológicas deben satisfacer múltiples criterios de desempeño, que comprenden desde aspectos microeconómicos hasta ecológicos. Esto requiere cambiar el enfoque de sistemas regidos por la oferta al de aquéllos regidos por la demanda.En consecuencia, el CIAT integrará su trabajo actual de desarrollo de germoplasma a un esfuerzo importante en investigación en el manejo de los recursos.La investigación sobre desarrollo de germoplasma se concentrará en un conjunto de cultivos básicos económicamente importantes, que concuerden con la misión del centro y que permitan al CIAT hacer un aporte único e importante a nivel internacional. Estos cultivos básicos comprenden el frijol, la yuca, el arroz y las especies forrajeras tropicales. Con excepción del arroz, para el cual el CIAT asume la responsabilidad regional en América Latina y el Caribe, el centro tendrá la responsabilidad mundial de los demás cultivos básicos que le conciernen. Se dará un énfasis secundario al sorgo y a la soya, limitándolo al desarrollo de estos cultivos como componentes de sistemas agrícolas para las sabanas de suelos ácidos del trópico americano. Los esfuerzos en desarrollo del germoplasma se orientarán cada vez más por un propósito estratégico de la vii investigación, haciendo énfasis en aquellos componentes básicos de la tecnología con potencial excepcional en el desarrollo de sistemas de producción eficaces y sostenibles. La investigación en desarrollo de germoplasma se relacionará estrechamente con la investigación sobre manejo de los recursos, respondiendo así a la demanda de esta última por insumas tecnológicos esenciales y específicos. Por su parte, las herramientas metodológicas de la investigación en manejo de recursos, y la información relacionada con los agroecosistemas, permitirán a la investigación sobre germoplasma avanzar dentro del contexto de los agroecosistemas.La investigación en manejo de recursos se concentrará en una selección de agroecosistemas importantes del trópico americano, con dos objetivos: mejorar el manejo de los recursos disponibles para la agricultura, y ayudar a aliviar las presiones sociales y del mercado sobre los ambientes más frágiles. El aumento en la producción de alimentos y de otros rubros agrícolas importantes será así compatible con la conservación a largo plazo de la base de recursos. Esto implicará la investigación de aspectos críticos del manejo de los recursos, y el diseño de opciones de uso de tierras que optimicen los retornos sociales a la agricultura, en diferentes situaciones que persigan un equilibrio entre la utilización de los recursos y su preservación.La investigación sobre manejo de recursos es una labor de gran alcance y complejidad, que requiere la cooperación sistemática de muchas instituciones a nivel nacional, regional e internacional. Para las zonas agroecológicas seleccionadas, el CIAT constituye un punto focal de orden internacional que facilitará a los distintos esfuerzos institucionales su convergencia en el objetivo de mejorar el manejo de los recursos agrícolas. El CIA T está totalmente preparado para asumir el papel de centro ecorregional de investigación, permitiendo que otras instituciones --particularmente otros centros y agencias internacionales especializadas--contribuyan armónicamente al diseño de mejores alternativas tecnológicas. El CIAT proporcionará una plataforma de investigación y la infraestmctura física e informativa necesaria para estos aportes institucionales.Para proseguir con su nueva misión de integrar la investigación en desarrollo de germoplasma y en manejo de recursos naturales el CIAT redistribuirá los recursos con que cuenta y requerirá algunos adicionales. Un análisis de la cuantía rninima necesaria para el período que abarca este plan revela que los recursos anuales adicionales requeridos equivaldrán a un diez por ciento más, aproximadamente, de los que fueron aprobados por el GCIAI para 1991.viii Capítulo 1Para apreciar los resultados de una investigación a largo plazo, es necesaria también una visión a largo plazo. Sin embargo, en una época de cambios rápidos a nivel tecnológico y político, la predicción del futuro no está exenta de riesgos. En consecuencia, nuestro análisis se limitó a las esferas de cambio que revisten especial importancia para el desarrollo de la estrategia del centro en la década de los 90 y en los años siguientes. Hemos tratado de prever, en especial, las principales tendencias que moldearán el entorno del CIAT durante la primera década del próximo siglo.En América tropical, las tendencias económicas conforman el medio en el cual se seleccionan los temas de investigación y se aplican los resultados de ésta. Las presiones de orden social como de mercados sobre los recursos naturales de la región tienen implicaciones profundas para la agenda de investigación. La evolución en las prioridades de los donantes, en respuesta a las prioridades del desarrollo nacional y regional, afecta sustancialmente nuestras estrategias. Finalmente, las tendencias cambiantes de los métodos de investigación y la capacidad de nuestros colaboradores determinan la clase de servicio que el CIAT debe ofrecer.1Para muchos países de América Latina y el Caribe, los años 80 fueron una 'década perdida'. La deuda externa de la región adquirió proporciones inmanejables alcanzando $415 mil millones de dólares en 1989. Los ingresos de capital en los 70 se revirtieron porque salieron de la región más de $30 mil millones de dólares al año. Las exportaciones descendieron porque los términos del comercio se deterioraron y las débiles políticas monetarias condujeron a una inflación descontrolada. El crecimiento económico se paralizó, y en muchos países la economía literalmente se contrajo. La agricultura sobrevivió a los años críticos sorprendentemente bien porque mantuvo una tasa de crecimiento de 2.2%, frente a la de la industria que fue de 1.0%. El aumento en la producción de alimentos, sin embargo, apenas pudo equiparar la tasa de crecimiento demográfico.En 1990, la población se empobreció, en promedio, 10% más que en 1980. En 1986, la pobreza afectó al 37%, aproximadamente, de la población de la región, 2% más que al comienzo de la década. Aunque aumentó durante la década de los 70, el consumo per cápita de alimentos comenzó a descender a mediados de los 80. En 1986, más de 55 millones de personas de la región padecían desnutrición o estaban en severo riesgo nutricional. La crisis golpeó con especial dureza a la población urbana de escasos recursos.El reajuste de los tipos de cambio condujo a la disminución de las importaciones de alimentos y a un aumento de los precios, lo cual redujo aún más la seguridad alimentaria de la población pobre urbana.El crecimiento de la producción agrícola provino en su mayor parte de las fincas de tamaño mediano. La visión tradicional de la agricultura del trópico americano como altamente polarizada está pasando gradualmente de moda.Ha surgido un sector comercial de tamaño mediano que utiliza insumos modernos y que se especializa en pocos productos para el mercado. Se puede esperar que este sector contribuirá sustancialmente al desarrollo en las próximas décadas.Al sector de fincas pequeñas le fue menos bien, en general, porque no pudo participar de los aumentos de la producción. El restringido acceso a los insumos y servicios brindó a los agricultores de pocos recursos escasos incentivos para producir más o para invertir en mejorar la tierra que cultivaban. En tales circunstancias, el acervo de recursos fue crítico para la supervivencia. En las áreas de potencial agrícola medio a alto, el sector demostró notable elasticidad pues los agricultores, en general, dieron un manejo idóneo a la crisis, particularmente los que se especializaban en cultivos comerciales de 2 gran valor para la exportación. En las áreas de mayor marginalidad, el empobrecimiento progresivo y, en algunos casos, la pobreza absoluta expulsó de sus tierras a un gran número de personas. Muchos migraron hacia las ciudades; algunos se dirigieron a regiones selváticas; y otros se convirtieron en trabajadores rurales sin tierra.Hacia el final de la década, la política macroeconómica se modificó en respuesta a la crisis. Actualmente, el ambiente económico de la región se asemeja a las condieiones de mercado libre más que en cualquier época pasada.El contexto general del desarrollo económico del continente americano durante los próximos diez años se caracterizará por una mayor convicción de que las fuerzas del mercado y el sector privado son la clave del crecimiento. La necesidad de reducir el papel del estado en las economías nacionales ha tenido aceptación general, y se ha traducido en la implementación de cambios importantes en la política de muchos países. l..os controles de precios y de las importaciones se están reduciendo gradualmente, y se están revisando los tipos de cambio sobrevalorados, que deterioran especialmente al sector agrícola.La nueva década se caracterizará también por la aguda escasez de recursos para proseguir con el crecimiento económico. l..os fondos para resolver los problemas de equidad serán limitados, y por tal razón habrá que atacar estos problemas mediante estrategias orientadas hacia el crecimiento. Las actitudes hacia la agricultura están cambiando. En la actualidad se considera que la contribución del sector es esencial para el crecimiento futuro, tanto a través de la expansión de las exportaciones que generan divisas como mediante el valor agregado por efecto de las interrelaciones domésticas y por los multiplicadores del gasto, los cuales son especialmente altos en los sectores agrícolas pequeño y mediano. Los países buscarán nuevos mercados de exportación y se adherirán más al principio de la ventaja comparativa. En el desarrollo de estos nuevos mercados, las tecnologías que reduzcan costos y aumenten la ventaja comparativa desempeñarán un papel muy importante.La cantidad de tierra y de mano de obra disponibles en América tropical constituye una base excelente, aunque no suficiente, para fortalecer las ventajas comparativas. Las tecnologías que reduzcan los costos son esenciales para ampliar los mercados domésticos y mantener el nivel de competencia en los mercados internacionales. A largo plazo, la agricultura podría convertirse en el motor del crecimiento. Al parecer, este es el momento adecuado para las estrategias que aceleren la transformación de los agricultores de subsistencia en pequeños empresarios. Un reto importante será organizar e integrar a estos agricultores a los mercados en expansión, al procesamiento de poscosecha y a otros servicios rurales. La investigación y su consiguiente generación de tecnología son cruciales para facilitar este proceso.A medida que avance la recuperación económica, sufrirán mayor presión los 3 ecosistemas ya amenazados de América tropical. Estas presiones son de dos tipos: de mercado y sociales. Las presiones del mercado surgen a medida que la empresa privada responde a la demanda, tanto doméstica como de exportación, de materias primas y de otros productos. Las presiones sociales se manifiestan cuando los agricultores marginados de escasos recursos de la región se ven forzados, ya sea a agotar los recursos naturales en las áreas que cultivan, o a migrar para incorporar nueva tierra a la actividad agrícola. En síntesis, los aparentes excedentes alimenticios actuales en América tropical son principalmente un fenómeno del mercado y no un fenómeno social. Si la población de escasos recursos de la región dispusiera de más dinero en efectivo, utilizaría una parte sustancial de éste en alimentos. Por lo tanto, son urgentes las tecnologías que reduzcan los costos de producción y por tanto el precio de los alimentos, con el fin de ampliar los mercados domésticos y fortalecer la competitividad en los mercados internacionales. Además de aumentar la productividad, estas tecnologías deberán ayudar a conservar los ecosistemas frágiles de América tropical. También deberán permitir que el agricultor de escasos recursos participe plenamente en el proceso de desarrollo.Potentes fuerzas sociales y económicas impulsan el desarrollo agrícola de América tropical. Toda la región posee abundante tierra, y una densidad de población rural de sólo 20 personas por km 2 , muy inferior a Asia donde hay más de 150 personas por km 2 • No obstante, también posee zonas rurales superpobladas y muy pobres, donde los recursos naturales se encuentran ya gravemente degradados. Los resultados son el hambre de tierra, el conflicto social, y un paisaje natural que está sufriendo cambios rápidos y a veces catastróficos. A continuación se analizará esta situación en tres zonas diferentes de América Latina tropical que, como se indica en la Sección 4 del Suplemento, tienen gran importancia desde los puntos de vista socioeconómico y agro ecológico.El asentamiento marginal en áreas de bosque. América tropícal aloja lo que queda del bosque tropical más grande del mundo, un recurso que padece la intensa y creciente presión de la población pobre y carente de tierra, así como de la explotación comercial. La tala del bosque y la expansión de las zonas cultivadas han sido fuentes tradicionales de crecimiento económico en la región. Aunque durante los 80 se registraron aumentos importantes en la productividad agrícola, de 20% a 30%, aproximadamente, del incremento de la producción agrícola proviene principalmente de la expansión de los cultivos en las zonas de bosque primario.Estas ganancias son bastante efímeras, ya que las áreas desmontadas se convierten frecuentemente en matorral pocos años después de explotarlas ron un cultivo seguido de pastoreo.Los bosques frágiles están cada día más expuestos a presiones internas y externas. El asentamiento humano en dichas zonas ocurre como resultado de 4 presiones externas, tanto sociales como del mercado. La inversión de riesgo y los excedentes de mano de obra son atraídos por la oportunidad que brinda una tierra barata que puede valorizarse rápidamente. A corto plazo, fluye el ingreso proveniente de un uso de la tierra que agota los recursos naturales. Frecuentemente, se diseñan políticas nacionales que estimulan el asentamiento marginal en vez de prevenirlo. El desmonte directo para establecer hatos es una causa importante de deforestación en la Amazonia y en América Central. En Brasil, hasta hace poco, la política del gobierno proporcionaba protección fiscal y otros incentivos a quien desmontara y abriera tierras para tal fin. En una economia inflacionaria la ganadería representa un refugio seguro para el capital.En la Amazonia, el desarrollo en las márgenes de las carreteras sigue típicamente un patrón endógeno a saltos. En efecto, los sistemas de producción no sostenibles empujan a los cultivadores de 'tumba y quema' a desmontar más área de bosque; de las tierras degradadas que éstos abandonan se apoderan los grandes hacendados. La degradación de otras zonas, particularmente de las laderas andinas y del nordeste de Brasil, ocasiona la inmigración constante de nuevos colonos acelerando la tasa de cultivo por tumba y quema. En América Central, los reductos y franjas costeras de bosque que aún subsisten están amenazados, de modo semejante. por la densa población de las tierras altas que los rodean. En una zona determinada, las tierras que primero se desmontan tienden a ser aquéllas con estación seca.Las zonas muy húmedas tienen menor demanda, ya que son las más difíciles de desmontar, siendo la quema a menudo imposible. La probabilidad de que el agricultor abandone esas ronas húmedas a los pocos años de cultivarlas aumenta según la humedad que tengan, porque tales zonas, después del desmonte, están expuestas a degradarse muy rápidamente. Esto significa que, por lo regular, la deforestación está abriendo más y más tierra marginal para uso agrícola, y que cada oleada sucesiva de desmonte de bosque tiene la posibilidad de culminar en la degradación de un área mayor de tierra. Significa, de otro lado, que todavía se pueden proteger las zonas más vulnerables del bosque si los gobiernos deciden actuar para lograrlo, y que, dadas las condiciones tecnológicas actuales, la protección del bosque que aún subsiste no exigirá el sacrificio de gran cantidad de tierra potencialmente cultivable.La pobreza rural en zonas de ladera y en tierras bajas estacionalmente secas. Muchos de los que migran a las zonas selváticas tropicales son agricultores de escasos recursos provenientes de las faldas andinas, a quienes la erosión, la pérdida de fertilidad del suelo, o la falta de un abastecimiento adecuado de agua forzó a abandonar sus posesiones. Otros eligieron dejar atrás las zonas sobrepobladas y golpeadas por la pobreza del nordeste y de la costa de Brasil, para hacerse colonizadores espontáneos en procura de una vida mejor.En estas zonas, las principales formas de degradación del suelo son la deforestación y el cultivo en laderas de 5 pendiente fuerte o moderada, que aumentan la escorrentía y la erosión, así como el cultivo continuo sin insumos que disminuye la fertilidad y deteriora la sólo reducen continuamente el potencial productivo de estas tierras, sino que generan además costos significativos para los sistemas hidrográficos de regiones más bajas. La presión que soportan las zonas que aún restan del bosque --por la extracción de leña, de materiales de construcción, y de tierra cultivable adicional--es considerable. Su desmonte aumentará mucho más los riesgos de erosión, ya que se incorporarán al cultivo áreas aún más pendientes.La pobreza acelera la degradación de las zonas de ladera y de las tierras bajas estacionalmente secas. Para aliviar la presión sobre estas tierras y reducir la migración hacia los bosques, son indispensables las estrategias integrales de desarrollo, de uso de la tierra y de aplicación de tecnologías que reduzcan las presiones sociales y provean incentivos y tecnologías para una producción sostenible.Oportunidades de expansión en las sabanas. Varios países del trópico americano --particularmente Brasil, Bolivia, Colombia y Venezuela--poseen extensas áreas de sabana de suelos ácidos, actualmente subexplotadas. Para estos países, el desarrollo de estas áreas representa una alternativa atrayente frente al desmonte de más bosque con fines de explotación comercial. Sin embargo, en la mayoría de las regiones de sabana no existen aún los incentivos políticos, la infraestructura, y las tecnologías adecuadas.A diferencia del bosque tropical, las sabanas requieren poca inversión inicial en la limpieza del terreno, y su desarrollo no acarrea los altos costos ambientales asociados con la pérdida del bosque. Sin embargo, los suelos ácidos e infértiles de estas tierras --tan susceptibles a la degradación si se utilizan indebidamente--constituyen una barrera importante para el desarrollo.Quienes migran hacia las zonas boscosas queman la biomasa en pie no s610 para despejar la tierra sino también para fertilizarla. Para alcanzar niveles similares de fertilidad en las sabanas, los colonos tendrían que hacer fuertes inversiones en fertilizantes químicos y en enmiendas del suelo --un costo que ellos no pueden asumir.Las sabanas ofrecen oportunidades, aunque limitadas, de aliviar las presiones sociales que produce la degradación de las tierras de ladera y de bosque. Las sabanas constan, principalmente, de planicies extensas cuyos suelos son relativamente pobres; por consiguiente, es improbable que absorban una gran cantidad de los excedentes de mano de obra, ya que son más aptas para la mecanizaci6n. No obstante, podrían aliviar buena parte de la presión del mercado sobre el bosque tropical, porque ofrecerían grandes oportunidades para el establecimiento de hatos y para la agricultura de mediana escala.También ofrecerían oportunidades de empleo a través de los sectores agrocomercial y de servicios que apoyan al sector productivo.La expansión de la agricultura en las productos de primera necesidad En las áreas de sabana con buena infraestructura se han establecido recientemente explotaciones agrícolas y hatos. Desafortunadamente, las prácticas de manejo que en la actualidad se emplean en ellas están deteriorando los recursos básicos. El cultivo continuo de la soya, por ejemplo, lleva a la compactación y erosión del suelo; la acumulaci6n de malezas y plagas incita al uso excesivo de agroquímicos tóxicos; y el sobrepastoreo, combinado con el uso de especies forrajeras de inferior calidad, está conduciendo a la degradación de las pasturas de gramíneas cultivadas. Además, la demanda de materiales para construcci6n y para cercas amenaza ya Jo que aún queda de los bosques de galería o del Cerrado. Por tanto, son necesarios sistemas de producción más sostenibles, tanto en estas áreas como en las vastas sabanas subexplotadas.Resulta crítico para las sabanas saber si su desarrollo puede competir realmente con el de las áreas de bosque. Se deben desarrollar políticas y tecnologías que permitan hacer de las sabanas una región más atractiva para la inversi6n y que pueda desviar la presi6n sobre los bosques primarios.El futuro programa de actividades del CIAT reflejará los cambios en el papel del sistema internacional de investigación agrícola y en las políticas de los donantes que lo apoyan. Fundado a principios de los 70, en respuesta a la crisis alimentaria de los 60, el Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI), al cual pertenece el CIAT, ha evolucionado considerablemente y sus objetivos están en la actualidad en proceso de redefinición. Esta evolución ha reflejado la ampliación de los criterios empleados para establecer prioridades y que van desde la producción de alimentos hasta consideraciones de crecimiento económico. Sirven de ejemplos el potencial del cambio tecnológico para generar ingreso y empleo y, más recientemente, la sostenibilidad a largo plazo de la producción agrícola.El objetivo inicial de los primeros centros de investigación del grupo fue elevar la autosuficiencia alimentaria de los países en desarrollo. Sin embargo, la experiencia de la revolución verde sirvió para reconocer que la pobreza es una causa de desnutrición tan importante como la escasez de alimentos. Puesto que el aumento en la oferta de alimentos es una condición necesaria, pero no suficiente, para aliviar el hambre, recibe más énfasis actualmente la seguridad en la propia capacidad de producir alimentos que en la mera autosuficiencia alimentaria, tanto a nivel doméstico como del país. Al incluir la generación de ingresos como un objetivo explícito del grupo, éste ha ampliado el 7 alcance de su investigación. Se ha puesto mayor énfasis en un rango más amplio de cultivos y de otros productos básicos, con los cuales los pequeños productores puedan atender la necesidad de dinero efectivo y no sólo la de subsistir. Se espera que esta tendencia continúe durante los 90, y que el grupo se amplíe y acoja aspectos de investigacíón sobre pesca y silvicultura, además de agricultura.Reflejando una preocupacíón internacional, los temas ambientales se han colocado en el primer plano de la agenda de investigación agrícola internacional en los últimos años. El GCIAI ha declarado explícitamente que uno de sus objetivos es el manejo y la conservación efectivos de los recursos naturales para la producción sostenible. Este concepto ha adquirido importancia crucial para el trabajo del GCIAI. Menos expuesta que los sistemas nacionales de investigación a las presiones políticas para obtener ganancias a corto plazo en la producción, la comunidad científica internacional está en posición adecuada para emprender la investigación sobre aspectos de la sostenibilidad. Esta investigación es necesariamente de largo plazo y su retribución es más difícil que la de otras actividades. Para que los aspectos de sostenibilidad se puedan abordar más plenamente, es posible que el enfoque tradicional en los cultivos básicos que investiga el GCIAI se complemente, en el futuro, con un número creciente de programas que investigue el manejo de los recursos a nivel de ecosistema. El nuevo énfasis en los aspectos ambientales implica también más investigación de las opciones de uso de la tierra y de los aspectos relacionados de política.El grupo está explorando y discutiendo las posibles alternativas de evolución del sistema. Se ha planteado la necesidad de dos tipos de centros: uno orientado al desarrollo del germoplasma a nivel mundial y el otro al manejo de los recursos ecorregionales. Aunque el Comité Técnico A~esor (TAC, en inglés) apremia por una clara definición de las responsabilidades dentro del sistema GCIAI, al mismo tiempo prevee que algunos centros podrían asumir responsabilidades por determinadas actividades, tanto a nivel mundial como ecorregional.En el contexto de la investigación de cultivos, el papel de los centros del GCIAI ha sido, tradicionalmente, proporcionar a los programas nacionales materiales genéticos mejorados junto con las correspondientes técnicas de manejo para que aquéllos continúen su desarrollo. También esto está cambiando. Los programas nacionales más desarrollados estarán cada vez mejor preparados para compartir las responsabilidades de la investigación en todas sus etapas que incluyen investigación básica, estratégica y, particularmente, aplicada y adaptativa. Esta participación en las responsabilidades permitirá a los centros hacer más investigación estratégica en la cual tienen las ventajas inherentes a su condición de organizaciones internacionales de investigación. Los centros están en posición ideal para colaborar con los laboratorios de investigación básica de todo el mundo en 8 la aplicación de la biotecnología a los problemas agrícolas de los países en desarrollo.Con el tiempo, los programas nacionales más avanzados aceptarán que los centros descontinúen varias de las actividades de apoyo que realizan actualmente, como son el desarrollo varietal, los cursos sobre producción de cultivos, la colaboración técnica en la identificación de problemas y sus prioridades, la participación en proyectos de asistencia técnica, y la coordinación de redes de investigación. Sin embargo, el ritmo con que los centros podrán devolver éstas y otras responsabilidades a las institucíones nacíonales será muy variable, porque depende de que éstas puedan obtener de los gobiernos ayuda financiera adecuada. La continuidad de la financíación es, actualmente, materia de preocupación.El ambiente de apoyo financiero. En términos reales, es poco probable que los recursos financieros de los donantes tradicionales del sistema GCIAI aumenten en proporción significativa. Parece que muchos donantes están llegando al límite de su ayuda y, a pesar de los notables resultados obtenidos por el sistema, hay evidencia de un cierto grado de cansancio después de años de apoyo. Hay expectativa creciente entre algunos donantes --especialmente los bancos de desarrollo--de que algunos programas se vinculen a sus objetivos específicos de ayuda al desarrollo. Esto crea problemas a las instituciones comprometidas en la investigación a largo plazo, cuyas prioridades se generan en consulta con los colegas nacionales y regionales, y pueden ser incompatibles con las que se generan en otros contextos.Un cambio estratégico hacia sistemas integrados dentro de contextos ecorregionales, junto con el énfasis en la investigación agrícola estratégica, puede implicar altos costos. Asimismo, un cambio hacia mayor investigación en manejo de los recursos, que será cada día más necesaria, y la ampliación del campo de acción del sistema para que incluya la silvicultura y la pesca, suponen costos aún mayores. En un clima de congelación, o disminución real de los recursos financieros del grupo actual de donantes, estos hechos deben conducir a una revaluación minuciosa de las prioridades de investigación, y a la exploración de posibles fuentes adicionales de financiación. En este clima de solución de problemas, la investigación sobre la producción agrícola debe relacionarse estrechamente con la conservación de los recursos naturales, y debe realizarse en función \\ de las condiciones agroecológicas y socioeconómicas predominantes. Un enfoque en sistemas de uso de tierras permitirá a los científicos profundizar su comprensión de los mecanismos básicos que determinan la estabilidad y la productividad de ciertos ecosistemas.Este enfoque en manejo de los recursos naturales incluye componentes como la caracterización agroecológica, el análisis de los patrones y de las alternativas de uso de la tierra, la comprensión de las relaciones entre el suelo, el agua y la nutrición vegetal, los cultivos y las opciones para establecer sistemas de cultivo, y finalmente las alternativas de política agrícola y forestal. Estos componentes apuntan a la creación de la base para el desarrollo sostenible.La perspectiva de sistemas aquí descrita será posible gracias a los avances continuos en los enfoques y metodologías de investigación --entre los cuales están los modelos de crecimiento de los cultivos en relación con los suelos, el agua y la luz--y gracias también a la comprensión de los procesos de toma de decisiones en la agricultura en pequeña escala. Para complementar esta tendencia hacia los sistemas, se requerirá una mejor comprensión de los 11 mecanismos controlados por genes y de los procesos de reciclado de nutrimentos, de manera que la investigación en cultivos básicos adopte el enfoque integral en la solución de los problemas de sostenibilidad. Esta declaración enfatizaba objetivos de producción de alimentos (crecimiento) y de alivio de la pobreza (equidad), típicos de un centro inscrito en una incipiente 'revolución verde', sin referencia explícita a un objetivo de conservación de recursos (sostenibilidad).La solidez de la investigación del CIAT en cultivos básicos y actividades relacionadas durante los últimos 15 años ha cosechado muchos logros. La base de conocimientos sobre los cuatro cultivos se ha ampliado sustancialmente, en particular respecto a las fuentes de resistencia o tolerancia a un amplio rango de presiones de tipo biótico y abiótico. Los rápidos y notables aumentos logrados en la producción de arroz constituyen una respuesta impresionante al reto de satisfacer las necesidades de crecimiento regional y de equidad urbana. Respecto al frijol, la yuca y los pastos tropicales --cul tivados en condiciones menos favorables y sobre los cuales había menor conocimiento que sobre el arroz cuando el CIAT empezó a trabajar--el impacto en la producción ha sido comprensiblemente más lento; no obstante, el progreso ha sido significativo y se están obteniendo resultados importantes.El seguimiento al impacto de la tecnología desarrollada por el CIA T, tanto a nivel nacional como en las fincas indica que se han logrado aumentos 18 significativos en la producción de frijol y de arroz en América Latina, en pastos en América del Sur, y en yuca en países productores de América Latina y Asia.Se han establecido bases de datos agroclimáticos y otros componentes de sistemas de información geográfica que se están utilizando para revisar las prioridades de investigación. Se ha montado un gran esfuerzo orientado a la solución de problemas en investigación en biotecnología. También se ha contribuido a fortalecer la investigación en fincas orientada al cliente, por medio de capacitación y desarrollo de metodologías. A través de la capacitación, del establecimiento de redes, y de la descentralización de actividades, el CIAT ha logrado una relación efectiva con sus colaboradores nacionales. En efecto, muchos especialistas han podido aplicar su capacitación a los problemas locales, se han establecido redes efectivas de cultivos básicos, y la ubicación de personal del CIAT en las sedes de los programas regionales ha incrementado la comunicación y la colaboración mutuas.Por lo tanto, el CIA T ha respondido bien a una de Ja.<¡ tareas que le fueron encomendadas en el momento de su fundación, esto es, la definición de prioridades entre un conjunto de cultivos básicos relativamente poco investigados, y la generación de conocimientos y tecnología para aumentar la productividad de éstos en condiciones de bajos insumos externos. En cumplimiento de su misión, los programas de cultivos han otorgado alta prioridad al desarrollo de componentes tecnológicos que permiten establecer sistemas de producción más sostenibles.De acuerdo con la filosofía de investigación de bajos insumos del centro, una perspectiva de sostenibilidad penetró todas las actividades de investigación de los cultivos básicos, pero se prestó poca atención al diseño de sistemas de producción integrados y sostenibles. Sólo hasta hace poco la investigación ha avanzado suficientemente para abocar aspectos de sostenibilidad a nivel de sistemas.El CIAT se encuentra en un período de transición. Evaluar su comportamiento durante las dos últimas décadas es motivo de orgullo por sus logros. Sin embargo, el análisis de las tendencias del entorno en CIAT indica que es necesario adoptar un enfoque más orientado hacia los sistemas si se desea abordar adecuadamente los aspectos de sostenibilidad.El paradigma de investigación del CIAT se ha basado en un enfoque reduccionista inspirado en la oferta, y concentrado en desarrollar productos que superasen los principales retos de producción planteados por el medio ambiente. Si se desea promover sistemas sostenibles, es necesario adoptar un nuevo enfoque. Por lo tanto, las tecnologías deben abordar los factores que relacionen el desempeño ecológico, económico y ambiental de la finca. La producción agrícola debe enfocarse no sólo desde el punto de vista de cómo está siendo afectada por el ambiente, sino también de cómo interactúa con él. Esto implica un 19 cambio de un enfoque impulsado por la oferta a otro derivado de los sistemas.Por supuesto, el CIAT no tiene actualmente la estructura organizativa ni el personal capacitado para acomodarse al nuevo enfoque. Tiene, no obstante, la capacidad de evolucionar y asimilar el cambio, como lo ha demostrado en las dos últimas décadas de su existencia. Indudablemente, la principal fortaleza del CIAT reside en sus cuatro programas de cultivos, que cuentan con objetivos estables y financiación estable, y que fueron específicamente diseñados para atender las necesidades de los agricultores de escasos recursos. La estrategia de bajos insumos en la investigación del CIA T ha constituido una respuesta a las consideraciones de sostenibilidad y equidad rural. Es así como la resistencia genéticamente inducida a las principales plagas y enfermedades reduce al mínimo la necesidad de agroquímicos, ahorrando escasas divisas y reduciendo la contaminación sin sacrificar el rendimiento.El establecimiento de redes, la capacitación, y la comunicación han sido fundamentales para la investigación en cultivos del CIAT, permitiendo catalizar el dinamismo y la productividad de los equipos nacionales de investigación.Su ubicación en un país tropical, la naturaleza apolítica e internacional de sus actividades, su vinculación con laboratorios de investigación avanzada, y su estrecha relación con los programas nacionales de investigación, otorgan amplia credibilidad al CIA T.Estas ventajas están atemperadas, hasta cierto punto, por varias limitaciones. Los topes de financiación se han nivelado e inclusive descendido en términos reales. A esto se suma la creciente dependencia de recursos financieros fuertemente restringidos. Las dificultades financieras de los programas nacionales limitan la devolución de actividades por parte del ClAT. Esto crea expectativas en relación con la entrega de productos y servicios. La concentración de recursos en pocos lugares restringe la presencia del ClA T en toda la región; además, un modelo organizativo bastante rígido limita los cambios que se pueden hacer y el número de cultivos que pueden integrarse a nivel de sistemas. Finalmente, aunque el CIAT tiene larga trayectoria en la solución de problemas con la investigación en cultivos, este enfoque no constituye un marco sólido en el cual fundamentar un paradigma de investigación orientado a sistemas, y hacia la investigación en manejo de recursos en ambientes agroecológicos importantes. Uno de los valores centrales del CIAT es la convicción de que la investigación es esencial para proporcionar una base científica ál manejo integral y sostenible de la producción agrícola. La percepción de la realidad a lo largo del continuum de la agricultura, desde los agricultores hasta los gestores de la política agrícola, permite tomar decisiones de manejo racional, acordes con la estrategia de sistemas descrita anteriormente.Otro fundamento de los valores del CIA T es su preocupación por la dignidad y el bienestar de la humanidad. Más de 700 millones de personas de los países en desarrollo presentan síntomas externos de desnutrición que reducen su capacidad y disminuyen significativamente su bienestar. La causa primordial es la pobreza, entendida ésta como la falta de ingresos suficientes para comprar los alimentos que conforman una dieta adecuada.Otras causas son la producción deficiente de alimentos o la falta de recursos para importarlos, así como los servicios inadecuados de agua potable, salud y educación. Cualquier solución al problema mundial de la alimentación, aunque depende de una cantidad suficiente de alimentos básicos, se concreta en elevar los niveles de ingreso de los segmentos más pobres de la población. El alivio de la pobreza y del hambre es un requisito ineludible para el mejoramiento de la condición humana.El CIAT cree también en una sociedad más equitativa y busca activamente que los beneficios de su trabajo favorezcan a los menos privilegiados. Los funcionarios del CIAT se sienten comprometidos tanto con aquellos a quienes sirven, como con quienes proporcionan los recursos que hacen posible este trabajo. Estos valores culturales determinan los principios operativos que seguimos para cumplir nuestra misión.En consonancia con su cultura, el CIAT observa cuatro principios relacionados entre sí, que serán reafirmados por el centro en su afán de maximizar sus resultados. Son ellos la orientación por relevancia o por objetivos; la perspectiva de sistemas; el enfoque multiinstitucional; y la ventaja comparativa.Orientación por relevancia u objetivos.El CIAT es una institución de investigación aplicada que somete todas sus actividades al principio de relevancia. Se concentra en la investigación para la solución de problemas siguiendo una misión institucional, en cualquier nivel de complejidad que sea necesario para superar grandes limitaciones. A través de la planeación sistemática, de la evaluación y del seguimiento, el centro se asegura de que sus programas se concentren en lo más importante y no en lo puramente interesante, y sigue, con un 21 sentido de urgencia, un orden de prioridades claram~nte definidas. Mediante su programa de capacitación, y por la interacción con instituciones colaboradoras, el CIAT estimula a quienes trabajan con él a hacer otro tanto.Perspectiva de sistemas. El centro tiene plena conciencia de que los problemas y las oportunidades de la producción agrícola no se pueden atender mediante enfoques unidimensionales que se concentren únicamente en elementos dados. Al mismo tiempo, somos concientes de los riesgos inherentes a una estrategia de sistemas per se, que podría reducirse fácilmente a interminables análisis de sistemas y a actividades de investigación en localidades específicas. Por lo tanto, trataremos de identificar puntos de acceso prácticos y relevantes a los sistemas de producción agrícola. El trabajo en estos puntos de acceso se realizará con una perspectiva clara de las dimensiones físicas, biol6gicas, socioecon6micas, políticas y de uso de la tierra que puedan incidir en las opciones tecnológicas. En otras palabras, a lo largo del proceso se combinará una perspectiva de macro-agroecosistemas con otra de microsistemas de producción.Enfoque multiinstitucional. Un corolario del principio de orientación hacia sistemas es el reconocimiento de que la tarea entre manos es tan grande que ninguna institución puede asumir por sí sola toda la responsabilidad. Por tanto, es necesario adoptar un enfoque multiinstitucional integrado, no sólo para unificar recursos y hacer confluir diferentes perspectivas, sino para compartir una visión de los problemas y de los retos presentes, y poder establecer conjuntamente programas y prospectos de investigación.Ventaja cómparativa. En el contexto de un enfoque multiinstitucional, es esencial que las actividades de los diversos participantes no sólo se funden en el espíritu de asociación, sino sobre la base de que la contribución de cualquiera de ellos complementa la de los otros para lograr sinergismo. La división del trabajo se debe basar en el principio de la ventaja comparativa, es decir, que cada socio haga lo que mejor sabe hacer y al menor costo.Los principales agentes de la investigación y el desarrollo agrícolas son las instituciones nacionales de investigación agrícola. Su trabajo recibe, cada vez más, el apoyo de una red de instituciones del sector público o privado a nivel nacional, o de instituciones de investigación internacionales o 22 regionales, o de laboratorios de investigación avanzada. El reto es identificar y explotar más la ventaja comparativa de todos los asociados dentro del ámbito en que pueden cooperar.Nuestro análisis muestra los cambios requeridos para atender la futura, indudable y permanente necesidad de investigar para aumentar la productividad de los cultivos; señala también la creciente inquietud sobre el deterioro generalizado de los recursos naturales para la producción agrícola.Por lo tanto, concluimos que para permanecer en posición relevante ante las necesidades de la región y en el contexto evolutivo de la investigación agrícola internacional, el CIAT necesita girar gradualmente hacia estrategias de integración centradas en el desarrollo del germoplasma y en el manejo de los recursos.Capítulo 3Además del crecimiento y de la equidad, la preocupación por la conservación y el mejoramiento de los recursos naturales ha sido incorporada al conjunto de criterios que guiarán al CIAT hacia el cumplimiento de sus objetivos; tal inclusión nos ha llevado a replantear nuestra misión.En asocio con otras instituciones, especialmente las organizaciones nacionales de investigación agrícola, la misión del CIA Tes:Contribuir a aliviar el hambre y la pobreza en los países tropicales en desarrollo, mediante la aplicación de la ciencia a la generación de tecnologías que conduzcan a aumentos duraderos en la producción agrícola, y conserven, a la vez, los recursos naturales.El énfasis de esta misión estriba en el crecimiento, en la equidad, y en el mejoramiento del acervo de recursos naturales.Crecimiento económico. La condición sine qua non del desarrollo es el crecimiento económico. La tecnología puede contribuir directamente a este fin elevando la productividad de los recursos empleados en la producción agrícola --principalmente la tierra y la mano de obra. Existe también una relación muy 23 importante, o efecto secundario que consiste en que la oferta desencadena la demanda de insumos. Además, a medida que aumenta el ingreso de los productores y de los consumidores, unos y otros amplían su consumo de otros productos básicos. La demanda resultante de bienes y servicios permite a otras personas percibir ingresos. Los efectos directos e indirectos del cambio tecnológico varían según el producto agrícola o los tipos de cambio tecnológico. En consecuencia, determinar el cambio tecnológico hacia el cual dirigir el esfuerzo investigativo es una consideración importante para el CIAT.Aunque el crecimiento no es un fin en sí mismo, es una herramienta importante para cumplir el mandato del CIAT de elevar el bienestar de la humanidad, ya que eleva los ingresos.Equidad. El crecimiento económico eleva los ingresos de los pobres, pero a menudo lo hace en términos absolutos y no relativos. Los pobres se benefician menos del desarrollo que otros grupos sociales más privilegiados. Por esta razón, si el centro persigue el objetivo final de aliviar el hambre y la pobreza, deben hacerse consideraciones de equidad que atemperen la búsqueda del crecimiento.En América Latina se ha extendido más la pobreza en los últimos años. Aunque el grado de pobreza es mayor en las áreas rurales que en las urbanas, 57% de los 190 millones de pobres viven en éstas últimas, y aproximadamente 55 millones se encuentran desnutridos.Hay que enfatizar seriamente la provisión de alimentos para los pobres en el futuro. El desarrollo agrícola reciente se ha caracterizado por un uso más intensivo del capital, dando como resultado baja demanda de mano de obra agrícola y, a menudo, su desplazamiento. La política estatal, la mecanización agrícola, y los subsidios a los insumos ban beneficiado más a los grandes productores agrícolas que a los pequeños. Estos desarrollos han sido las fuerzas motrices de la urbanización, del aumento de la mano de obra agrícola sin tierra, y del desplazamiento de los agricultores de pocos recursos a tierras menos fértiles o marginales. Dada su preocupación manifiesta por la equidad, el CIAT otorga importancia fundamental al desarrollo de opciones tecnológicas cuyos beneficios lleguen a los pobres, ya sean aquéllos el aumento de su poder adquisitivo, de sus oportunidades de empleo, o de su nivel nutricional.Los recursos naturales. El crecimiento puede tener también consecuencias ambientales negativas, puesto que la contaminación y la destrucción de los recursos naturales deterioran la calidad de vida. Los recursos naturales de la tierra son el 'capital' del cual depende del crecimiento futuro. El crecimiento sostenible significa vivir de los intereses de ese capital, no del capital mismo, y mejorar, en lo posible, la calidad y la productividad de tales recursos. Por lo tanto, la conservación de los recursos naturales debe ser el 24 tercer criterio para evaluar el impacto potencial de la investigación del CIA T.La equidad y la conservación de los recursos naturales suelen ser objetivos complementarios. Para sobrevivir, la población con un nivel de vida marginal no tiene, con frecuencia, otra alternativa que consumir el capital natural, agotando así los suelos y la vegetación de los cuales depende su supervivencia futura --y la de las generaciones venideras. Aumentar los ingresos de la población rural de escasos recursos hace de ésta un mejor guardián de los recursos naturales. Concentrar la investigación exclusivamente en la conservación, excluyendo los intereses de los pobres, sería disociador. El objetivo del desarrollo sostenible implica un equilibrio entre la explotación y la conservación de los recursos naturales, en el cual los pobres tengan acceso a los recursos que estimulan el crecimiento y aquéllos derivados de él.Está claro que el CIAT debe continuar dando prioridad a la investigación sobre el germoplasma que aumente el rendimiento. Una firme orientación hacia el desarrollo del germoplasma es necesaria para alcanzar la dimensión de crecimiento en nuestra misión. Sin embargo, para cumplir con la conservación de los recursos naturales se requiere que el mejoramiento del germoplasma adopte una aproximación más integral y orientada hacia los sistemas.Resulta igualmente claro que si no se hace un esfuerw complementario para investigar el manejo de los recursos, no podría reconceptualizarse el desarrollo de tecnología dentro de una perspectiva de sistemas. Es apremiante la necesidad para la investigación agrícola de comprender las causas fundamentales de la degradación de los recursos y de desarrollac alternativas tecnológicas dentro de una perspectiva de uso de la tierra.El  Se destacaron cuatro grupos agroecológicos:• las márgenes de bosque;• las laderas;• las sabanas; y• las zonas de sequía estacional.De éstos, los tres pritneros forman un conjunto con factores ambientales comunes y factores socioeconómicos interrelacionados. Los une un común denominador fundamental para la agricultura tropical americana: los problemas y oportunidades del desarrollo de zonas marginales. Otro aspecto común es el de los problemas de los suelos ácidos e infértiles, tema de investigación en el cual el CIAT ha adquirido ventaja especial al desarrollar cultivares de arroz, yuca y especies forrajeras tolerantes a la acidez. Cada zona presenta buenas oportunidades de contribuir al desarrollo agrícola sostenible.Aunque constituyen un agroecosistema importante, las zonas de sequía estacional no se incluirán todavía en la investiga9ón del centro sobre el manejo de recursbs. Sin embargo, el CIAT tratará de contribuir al análisis de las estrategias y de las políticas sobre uso de la tierra para esta zona, en relación con la emigración :( con la producción agrícola. Esta zona continuará recibiendo también atención directa de los programas de yuca y de frijol.Otras zonas agroecológicas de América tropical y del Caribe, entre las cuales se cuentan tierras muy productivas y laderas en zonas muy altas, están experimentando una degradación significativa de sus recursos. Estas no serán materia de investigación del centro durante los 90. Sin elPbargo, recibirán atención, como las áreas de sequía estacional, en términos del análisis de las estrategias y de las políticas sobre uso de la tierra, así como sobre la investigación en cultivos, según la importancia de los mismos en las respectivas zonas.Cultivos dentro de agroecosistemas. En el proceso de selección de cultivos y ecosistemas, la medida en la cual aquéllos se cultivan o se podrían cultivar en las zonas agro ecológicas fue una consideración importante. En efecto, la inclusión (con énfasis secundario) del sorgo y de la soya entre los cultivos escogidos se relacionó directamente con su potencial en el agroecosistema de sabana. Es posible que en la segunda mitad de la década de los 90 se reexamine la selección de cultivos y 29 El manejo de recursos necesitará acceso a la experiencia y al conocimiento sobre cultivos que ha acumulado el CIA T durante más de 20 años de investigación.A medida que adelanten investigación sobre opciones tecnológicas en los ecosistemas escogidos por el CIAT, los investigadores en manejo de recursos necesitarán orientación acerca de las existencias de germoplasma del CLAT.También requerirán acceso a la amplia investigación agroecológica hecha por el centro en aspectos como adaptación de cultivos, factores que limitan la producción, interacciones cultivo-suelo y cultivo-cultivo, papel de las pasturas en el reciclado de nutrimentos, desarrollo de ideotipos y de otros componentes tecnológicos para determinados agroecosistemas, y análisis de los cultivos en el contexto socioeconómico. Aportes similares provendrán de otros centros internacionales, por ejemplo, del subprograma del CIMMYT sobre tolerancia del maíz a los suelos ácidos y del programa regional andino del CIP, ambos con sede en el CIAT; del ICRAF en agrosilvicultura, y de la nueva iniciativa forestal del GCIAI.El desarrollo de germoplasma requerirá a su vez retro-alimentación sobre el comportamiento y necesidades de ese germoplasma, particularmente en los sistemas de cultivos múltiples. Los programas de cultivos se beneficiarán de un conocimiento integrado sobre el ambiente de producción, de su exposición a un enfoque de sistemas y metodologías de investigación asociadas, 30 de la comprensión de los mecanismos de desarrollo de cultivos para agroecosistemas específicos, y de la experiencia con prototipos para otros ambientes de producción.Creernos que esta transferencia dinámica de información es posible en un medio constituido por áreas orgánicas separadas, aunque intercomunicadas, de investigación sobre desarrollo de germoplasma y sobre manejo de recursos, con el apoyo de unidades de desarrollo institucional y de investigación especializada.El modelo anterior de investigación del CIAT daba énfasis al establecimiento de un centro de excelencia orientado hacia el desarrollo de tecnología a nivel internacional. Los colegas nacionales y otros relacionados con el centro desempeñaban un papel parcialmente receptivo. Dada la nueva orientación del CLAT hacia las necesidades y prioridades de investigación derivadas de los sistemas, surge un modelo colaborativo que se basa más en la ejecución descentralizada, y que da mayor énfasis a la integración de la información y a la eficiencia de las comunicaciones.La ampliación de las interacciones institucionales implica que las soluciones a los problemas dependerán progresivamente del desarrollo de consorcios y de alianzas estratégicas. El beneficio mutuo de los participantes será el resultado que obtengan a cambio de la experiencia específica que aporten. El papel del CIAT se centrará en sus ventajas comparativas, como son:una institución de investigación con superioridad bien definida en algunos de sus aspectos, así como con experiencia directa en caracterización agro ecológica;una institución de investigación con alto grado de credibilidad en investigación y desarrollo agrícolas, y con experiencia en la investigación en cultivos; y un socio de investigación con financiamiento e y con excelentes relaciones con organizaciones de investigación a nivel nacional, regional e internacional.A medida que el CIAT avanza hacia el futuro, encontrará un ambiente en donde será cada vez más común compartir las responsabilidades de investigación, establecer redes de investigación, compartir y consolidar la información, y realizar esfuerzos interinstitucionales de grandes proporciones. El CIAT se encuentra en posición privilegiada para ayudar a definir esquemas de trabajo adecuados para la cooperación interinstitucional que se relacionen con su misión. Estos mecanismos de cooperación darán oportunidad a los líderes de la investigación y a los gestores de política, de adoptar prioridades regionales de investigación. Servirán además para atraer fondos destinados a proyectos de investigación 31 responsables y costeables. Finalmente, los programas interinstitucionales sólidos permitirán que el CIA T suspenda algunas de sus actividades de apoyo, y dedique más recursos a las labores de investigación para las cuales posee ventaja comparativa.Como eje internacional de la investigación sobre germoplasma y sobre manejo de recursos, los conocimientos acumulados por el CIAT serán de gran utilidad para otros participantes. Son ellos los sistemas nacionales de investigación, las instituciones de investigación especializada, los bancos para el desarrollo, las organizaciones no gubernamentales, las organizaciones internacionales y regionales, y los institutos de política estatal.El papel del CIAT en este nuevo sistema será principalmente el de convocador y catalizador. El desarrollo de agendas comunes de investigación es una rnta natural cuyo liderazgo podría asumir el CIAT. Asimismo, su considerable experiencia en el manejo de talleres y conferencias le da una ventaja comparativa como convocador de debates sobre temas importantes. Su sólida actuación en el transcurso de los años, en capacitación y en comunicaciones le da al centro una ventaja comparativa en el fortalecimiento institucional y en la administración de redes.El CIAT tiene la oportunidad de constituirse en eje del desarrollo de un sistema de apoyo a la información. A medida que los sistemas de investigación se hacen más complejos, la recolección y la difusión de la información se vuelven críticas. Esto no sólo implica el manejo de la información en términos de biblioteca clásica o de publicación, sino también todos los aspectos de manejo de los recursos de información y de acceso ellos en tiempo real y en la forma necesaria. La tecnología de procesamiento de la información evolucionará a un ritmo cada vez mayor, con las consabidas reducciones en costos y la simplificación de los procedimientos 32 operativos. La tendencia hacia la asociación y a los consorcios justifica que el CIAT actualice su capacidad en sistemas y servicios para atender la necesidad de información a nivel interno e interinstitucionaI.Los planteamientos anteriores nos llevan a formular el mandato operativo que se presenta en el Cuadro 2.Cuadro 2. Mandato Operativo para la Década de los 90El CIA T contribuirá al desarrollo tecnológico que redundará a largo plazo en el mejoramiento de la productividad de los recursos agrícolas; al desarrollo de estrategias y métodos de investigación agrícola innovadores y más costeables; al fortalecimiento de las instituciones de investigación agrícola de los países participantes; y al desarrollo de vínculos interinstitucionales. Para tal fin, las actividades del CIAT se concentrarán en las tres áreas siguientes:InveslígadóD sobre desalTollo de genooplasmaFrijol: responsabilidad global para el frijol común, con énfasis secundario en la habichuela.YUca: responsabilidad global; en Africa, por intermedio y en coordinación con el lITA.Alroz: responsabilidad regional en América Latina y el Caribe, en coordinación con el IRRI.Forrajes tropicales: responsabilidad global en relación con los suelos ácidos e infértiles que se encuentran entre O y 1800 m.s.n.m.; en Africa, por intermedio y en coordinación con el ILCA.Además, el CIAT asume responsabilidad secundaria por la soya (en coordinación con el lITA) y por el sorgo (en coordinación con el ICRISA T), limitándose al desarrollo de estos cultivos como componentes en sistemas de producción agrícola para ambientes con suelos ácidos e infértiles, especialmente en el agroecosistema de sabana.Investigación sobre manejo de recursos en América tropieu1Investigación sobre el uso de la tierra, con énfasis en estrategias y alternativas de política de uso de la tierra.Investigación orientada a los agroecosistemas en:Bosques margtnales talados.Laderas de suelos moderadamente ácidos y de baja fertilidad, con énfasis en las de aItltud media.Sabanas de suelos ácidos.Desarrollo institucional Actividades de apoyo a nivel nacional y regional.La estrategia de investigación del CIAT seguirá dos direcciones complementarias: desarrollo de germoplasma y manejo de recursos. Estas áreas serán apoyadas por un programa de desarrollo institucional, y por unidades de apoyo especializado a la investigación. Este capítulo esboza las funciones y estrategias de estos programas y unidades durante la próxima década.Los cultivos son la esencia de la producción agrícola y el eje de todas las actividades económicas del sector agrícola. La investigación en cultivos es el punto de acceso a este complejo de producción. Nuestro análisis muestra una continua necesidad de participación internacional en la investigación de cultivos, sobre todo en lo referente a la recolección, caracterización, y conservación del germoplasma, y a la manipulación genética de aquellas especies de uso transnacional o global.El CIAT prestará atención primordial a cuatro cultivos: frijol, yuca, forrajes tropicales y arroz. Para los tres primeros, el centro asumirá un mandato global, y para el arroz un mandato regional en América Latina y el Caribe. Los antecedentes sobre la importancia global y regional de estos cultivos se presentan en la Sección 3 del Suplemento.En el CIAT, la investigación sobre desarrollo de germoplasma pretende anmentar la productividad y mejorar la calidad de cultivos escogidos incrementando la exploración de los recursos de germoplasma y su uso para una agricultura sostenible. El CIAT posee considerable competencia y experiencia en la investigación de cultivos, y se propone afianzar los esfuerzos futuros sobre el sólido fundamento adquirido.Objetivo general. Aumentar la disponibilidad de alimentos y los ingresos de la población de escasos recursos mejorando la productividad del frijol por medio de tecnología sostenible, en colaboración con instituciones nacionales.Enfoque. El mejoramiento genético y la investigación en sistemas de cultivo pueden satisfacer las necesidades de los agricultores de escasos recursos. Ya se ha logrado mejorar sustancíalmente la resistencia a plagas y enfermedades --la principal prioridad de investigación durante los 80.Se intensificará la investigación estratégica que responda al reto de elevar el potencíal de rendimiento y superar el estrés edáfico, y que aproveche las oportunidades de aplicar los avances de la biotecnología. La investigación estratégica sobre limitaciones globales se realizará principalmente en la sede del centro, para servir a América tropical y a Mrica subsahárica, mientras que los problemas regionales serán atendidos por el personal destacado en el exterior, principalmente en Mrica.En América tropical, la División de Investigación en Manejo de Recursos del CIAT ayudará a mejorar los sistemas de cultivo del frijol, especialmente en zonas de ladera. En otras zonas agroecológicas, como las tierras altas de México y el nordeste de Brasil, el Programa de Frijol trabajará junto con los programas nacionales. El mejoramiento de los sistemas de cultivo de frijol seguirá siendo actividad importante en Mrica, en ausencia de un centro ecorregional para Mrica oriental.En la medida en que se desarrolle la capacidad de los programas nacionales, el CIAT reducirá su investigación aplicada y fortalecimiento institucional.No obstante, la capacitación en Mrica continuará recibiendo atención primordial.La demanda de habichuela está aumentando rápidamente y es una magnífica fuente de ingresos para los agricultores de mediana escala. El CIAT ampliará esfuerzos para mejorar la adaptación de la habichuela al trópico. Gran parte de su investigación estratégica sobre frijol, especialmente en resistencia a enfermedades y plagas, es fácilmente transferible a la habichuela. Se dará énfasis al trabajo en América 36 tropical, pero los materiales desarrollados serán de utilidad también en Asia y Mrica.La asignación aproximada de recursos básicos para este programa entre 1991 y 2001 aparece en la Figura 4.1. Aunque el esfuerzo global descenderá en más de un tercio, la investigación estratégica recibirá una reasignaci6n de recursos significativa. Esto se logrará reduciendo entre 60% y 20% los recursos para investigación aplicada y apoyo institucional.Objetivos específicos. Son cinco los objetivos relacionados entre sí, a saber: Objetivo 1. Explotar los métodos de la biología avanzada para emplear mejor los recursos genéticos del frijol.La biología molecular ofrece muchas oportunidades para identificar eficientemente y transferir genes útiles, tanto entre plantas de fríjol común como entre especies relacionadas. Su colección de recursos genéticos del género Phaseolus más grande del mundo le da al CIAT una ventaja especial en la aplicación de estos métodos, que en gran medida complementan el fitomejoramiento tradicional.Las sondas genéticas para uso en los programas nacionales de mejoramiento serán de especial utlilidad en la acumulación piramidal de genes de resistencia a enfermedades, plagas, y estreses edáficos. Se caracterizarán los acervos genéticos, y se estudiará la coevoluci6n entre el frijol y los patógenos, \\as plagas y los rizobios, con el fin de establecer prioridades para la recolección futura de germoplasma y apoyar el mejoramiento de campo.Los mapas de genes procedentes de laboratorios de investigación básica en países desarrollados ayudarán al ClAT a aislar los genes deseados y a adaptar la transformación asexual y los métodos de regeneración a la transferencia directa de genes. Los métodos de introgresión interespecífica darán acceso a las características deseadas en especies estrechamente relacionadas. Se evaluará el potencial para mejorar los rizobios, con el fin de aumentar la eficiencia de la fijación biológica de nitrógeno.El éxito de una mayor investigación estratégica depende del acceso a los resultados de la investigación básica obtenidos en laboratorios de países 37 desarrollados. Una red de investigación avanzada en frijol será decisiva para establecer estos vínculos. El éxito dependerá también de la capacidad del programa nacional para utilizar la metodología, los componentes y los materiales progenitores desarrollados por el CIAT.Objetivo 2. Reducir las pérdidas por plagas y enfermedades.La pérdidas de origen biótico continúan siendo una limitación importante para la productividad del frijoL Como estas presiones bióticas son variables, es urgente contar con una base genética amplia de resistencia para poder lograr el control sostenible de las plagas y enfermedades. El programa concentrará sus esfuerzos en la identificación de nuevas fuentes de resistencia, y en el desarrollo de técnicas de manejo integrado de plagas. Como aún no se han identificado las fuentes de resistencia a algunas enfermedades y plagas importantes del frijol, se dará énfasis a la evaluación de ancestros silvestres respecto a su resistencia y a utilización de genes que se sabe están presentes en especies estrechamente emparentadas.Se emplearán cada vez más las herramientas moleculares para estudiar la diversidad de los patógenos y de las plagas. El limitado conocimiento biológico actual sobre muchas de las enfermedades y plagas importantes en Africa requiere especial atención.El uso creciente de plaguicidas entre los pequeños agricultores constituye un problema ambiental y económico serio en América tropical. El CIAT ayudará a los programas nacionales a reducir la aplicación de plaguicidas mediante un control integrado sostenible que complemente la resistencia genética.Los recursos asignados a estudios sobre enfermedades y plagas disminuirán en vista del progreso actual y esperado en los programas nacionales.Objetivo 3. Aumentar el potencial de rendimiento del frijol.El potencial de rendimiento del frijol en condiciones favorables no ha aumentado en la misma proporción que el de otros cultivos más intensamente investigados. El programa explotará aún más la variación entre acervos de genes para romper así los enlaces genéticos 38 indeseables. Con el fin de maximizar el rendimiento, se identificarán características fisiológicas como la adaptación a fotoperíodo y temperatura, la morfología del dosel de follaje, y los patrones de absorción y distribución del nitrógeno.El retardo de la madurez y la arquitectura mejorada de la planta contribuirán a aumentar el potencial de rendimiento. Se mejorará el rendimiento de plantas con diferente tipo, clase de madurez, y color del grano. E! trabajo general en mejoramiento del rendimiento se duplicará.Objetivo 4. Mejorar la adaptación a las limitaciones edáficas.En los sistemas de cultivo del frijol la fertilidad del suelo está descendiendo por la expansión del cultivo a suelos marginales, por los períodos cortos de barbecho, por la erosión, y los altos costos o la disponibilidad limitada de fertilizantes, especialmente en Africa. La fijación biológica del nitrógeno contribuye a la sostenibilídad de la producción de frijol y puede ser mejorada. Los mecanismos de adaptación del frijol a los suelos ácidos, o con bajo contenido de fósforo, no se han determinado aún. Se sabe poco acerca de la tolerancia a la sequia, aunque el estrés hídrico es la principal causa de inestabilidad en la producción.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa se concentrará, primero, en la identificación de caracteres genéticos óptimos de adaptación a las limitaciones edáficas, y segundo, en comprender los mecanismos de adaptación en colaboración con laboratorios de investigación avanzada.Se desarrollarán métodos de mejoramiento del germoplasma y se proveerán poblaciones de progenitores a los programas nacionales, junto con apoyo en el manejo de la fertilidad en los sistemas de cultivo de frijol. Se espera aumentar inicialmente la investigación general sobre las limitaciones abióticas.Objetivo 5. Fortalecer la capacidad nacional para mejorar la productividad del frijol. -Mejoramiento genético menos 006tOSO y -Menores costos de la iJ:westigación;-Progreso continuo de la tnvestigación ídentifkad6n y ttansíe:rencia de 'genes. roás rápido;adopción temprana;báail:.a en laboratorios avanzados;acceso a genes en materiales 'exóticos'.solución a problemas previamente . acres.o público permanente al los genes insolubles en relación con el BGMV, deseables; asooebÍta y Empoasca.programas nacionales efectiV'OS en el empleo de genes nuevos como material progenitor.Aumentar el potencial de rendimíertto.-Ideotipos nuevos y de mayor -Aumento del rendimiento en las fincas; -Existencia de variabilidad genética títil;rendimiento.alivio de bl presi6n wbre las tlerT3Ssistemas de semillas efectivos, frágiles a medida que el frijol se desplaza a ambientes de mayor prodUdividad.Mejorar )a simbiosls microbiana.-Mejores genotipo< d< frijol para la -Menores costos de produed6n; -Efectividad de 106 sistemas de fijaci6n de nitrógeno;. enriquecimíento de la biosfera del inoculaci6n y distribución •. «pas mejoradas pata mejor simbiosiS, suelo;producción más sostenible.Mejorar la efIciencia en el uso de -Material progenítor adaptado a los -Mejor productividad en condiciones de -Efectividad de los sistemas de st:mi1las; nutriroentos y del agua.sistemas edáfiros y tolerante a tstreses esm!s.variabilidad gen6tica. abi6ticos.Lograr fUistenda estable a las plaga¡ Y -Dive:rsos materiales progenitores con -Productividad estable y mejoradaj -Efectividad de los sistem8&-de semill~ enfermedades. resistencias múltiples, uso :reducido de plaguicidas.. variabilidad ge~tka.F«talecer 105 programaK nacionales.-CientífiOO6 nacionales capacitados:. -Investigación adaptativa 'i aplicada más -Mayor compromiso nacional ron la efectiva que condu.n:a a mayor inveh1ipci6n agrícoia; productividad en las fincas.mayor estabi11dad de los científiCOS en jos programas nacionales.Crear redes regionales para ia -Uso más eficiente de los recursos -Menores costos de investigación; -Disposici6n nacional para intercambÚlr transferencia horizontal de tecnología. mediante la coordinación y la mayores aumentos de productividad en resultados de investigaci6n, especialización; menos tiempo. difusión mÁs rápida de la nueva tecnología.Objetivo general. Mejorar la disponibilidad general y la calidad de la yuca en el trópico, y aumentar los ingresos, particularmente de los sectores rurales menos favorecidos de la población.Enroque. La yuca es un alimento urbano y rural importante en gran parte del mundo en desarrollo, y una fuente mayor de calorías para 500 millones de personas; en el trópico africano, por ejemplo, es la principal fuente de calorías. La yuca también está cobrando importancia como fuente de carbohidratos en la industria de alimentos para humanos y animales. Los estudios de demanda revelan que la yuca puede competir en muchos mercados. Mediante la vinculación de los agricultores a esos mercados, la yuca contribuye al desarrollo económico de las regiones donde el cultivo es importante. Puesto que es cultivada por pequeños agricultores principalmente, la inversión en desarrollo de tecnología de yuca puede beneficiar directamente a la población rural de escasos recursos.En la última década, el Programa de Yuca del CIAT y sus colaboradores nacionales adoptaron un enfoque integral, regido por la demanda, en la investigación y desarrollo del cultivo.Bajo este enfoque, el diseño y el desarrollo de tecnologías apropiadas de producción y procesamiento se basan en la identificación y caracterización de oportunidades de mercado. Estas tecnologías se evalúan y adaptan posteriormente en condiciones de agricultores en proyectos de 41 investigación y desarrollo en regiones productoras representativas. El seguimiento y la evaluación ayudan a refinar las tecnologías para posterior difusión en un área más amplia y proporcionan además retroalimentación sobre nuevas necesidades de investigación. De este modo se identifican áreas de investigación claves para el CIAT y para los programas nacionales.El reto para el programa en los 90 es promover la integración y la consolidación de los sistemas nacionales de investigación y desarrollo de la yuca en el trópico americano y asiático, y facilitar los vínculos entre estos sistemas y las instituciones que realizan investigación avanzada sobre este cultivo. En Africa, las necesidades de los programas serán atendidas en colaboración estrecha con el IffA.Manteniendo una perspectiva de sistemas de cultivo, el programa enfatizará el desarrollo de recursos de germoplasma. El manejo del cultivo, así como la investigación sobre la utilización y el mercadeo del producto se concentrarán en aspectos estratégicos de importancia global. La investigación aplicada en estas áreas retornará gradualmente a los organismos nacionales, estimulándose la cooperación horizontal regional entre los países. El programa se concentrará principalmente en el desarrollo de tecnologías para los ecosistemas subtropicales, subhúmedos y semiáridos de América y Asia, interactuando estrechamente con la División de Investigación en Manejo de Recursos del CIA T en los ecosistemas de ladera, de mercado con la participación de los sabana y de márgenes de bosque, en los cuales se produce aproximadamente 25% a 30% de la yuca en América tropical.La asignación aproximada de recursos financieros al Programa de Yuca, entre 1991 y 2001, aparece en la Figura 4.2. Los recursos básicos disminuirán levemente en el rubro de personal durante ese período, y significativamente en términos de las posiciones aprobadas por el TAC para 1989-1993.Objetivo l. Mejorar genéticamente la productividad y la estabilidad del rendimiento de la yuca.La creciente capacidad de los programas nacionales en mejoramiento de la yuca generará mayor demanda de una caracterización más precisa del germoplasma y del suministro de diversidad genética en variedad de formas.Se obtendrá tal caracterización mediante la identificación de moléculas ( dactiloscopia molecular), los mapas de genes, y la selección más eficiente por resistencia a plagas y enfermedades, por tolerancia a la sequía, por eficiencia fotosintética, y por factores de calidad. Se establecerá una colección de especies silvestres del género Manihot, cuya caracterización contribuirá potencialmente al mejoramiento de la yuca. Se suministrará germoplasma básico, bien caracterizado, como fuente de caracteres específicos. Las poblaciones y los clones élite se diseñarán para ecosistemas ampliamente definidos. El diseño de sistemas de 42 producción basados en la semilla verdadera parece técnicamente factible en la actualidad, y recibirá un impulso importante durante la década.Objetivo 2. Desarrollar prácticas de manejo del cultivo conducentes a una producción sostenible de yuca en agroecosistemas seleccionados.La heterogeneidad de las condiciones en las cuales se cultiva la yuca exige el desarrollo de tecnología mejorada de manejo del cultivo para los principales ecosistemas. La baja fertilidad del suelo y su pérdida de nutrimentos, agravadas por la erosión, las plagas y las enfermedades, son factores de peso que reducen el rendimiento en los ambientes desfavorables en que se cultiva la yuca cada vez más.Los estudios comparativos entre ecosistemas revelarán los principios que determinan la productividad del cultivo en condiciones de estrés, y permitirán mayor comprensión de las interacciones entre el desarrollo de la planta, el ambiente físico y biológico, y los factores socioeconómicos que ondicionan las prácticas de manejo. Partiendo de esta investigación, se desarrollará tecnología mejorada para evaluación por los programas nacionales. Se dará énfasis a los sistemas de cultivo que contemplen el mejoramiento de la fertilidad del suelo, la prevención de la erosión, y el manejo integrado de plagas y enfermedades. Este trabajo se realizará en estrecha colaboración con los programas nacionales y con la División de Investigación en Manejo de Recursos.Un reto importante para el Programa de Yuca y para la División de Investigación en Manejo de Recursos en los ecosistemas seleccionados es conservar y mejorar el suelo en los ambientes menos fértiles donde la yuca es uno de los pocos cultivos viables. La investigación sobre manejo integrado de plagas y enfermedades continuará proporcionando alternativas costeables para mantener y mejorar el rendimiento. El apoyo al lITA en el control del ácaro verde y el piojo harinoso de la yuca en Africa seguirá siendo prioritario.Objetivo 3. Mejorar la calídad de la yuca para elaboración de diversos productos.Se ha trabajado poco en los factores genéticos, ambientales y de procesamiento que afectan la calidad de los productos elaborados con yuca. Es necesario investigar para garantizar que 43 las nuevas variedades sean apropiadas para tales usos y para las necesidades de los agricultores. Se estudiarán los principales factores de calidad de las rafees y hojas de la yuca, especialmente el contenido de almidón y de cianuro.Esta nueva e importante actividad dará como resultado mayor disponibilidad de recursos genéticos y productos de superior calidad debida a mejores prácticas agronómicas y de procesamiento. Durante la última década, el CIAT desempeñó un papel importante en el desarrollo de la tecnología de conservación en poscosecha y procesamiento de la yuca, y en la investigación de mercados y de consumo. Una tarea importante en los 90 será involucrar a instituciones de ciencia y tecnología de alimentos en este trabajo de desarrollo y procesamiento de productos.Objetivo 4. Fortalecer la capacidad de investigación y de transferencia de tecnología de los sistemas nacionales de investigación y desarrollo.El ClAT ha contribuido sustancialmente al desarrollo de los programas nacionales de investigación sobre yuca, especialmente en América Latina y en Asia. Sin embargo, algunos de ellos tienen limitaciones de financiación y de personal que impiden satisfacer la creciente demanda de tecnología mejorada de yuca. Los proyectos integrados de investigación y desarrollo en regiones cultivadoras de yuca han atraído recursos de investigación, y están proporcionando las directrices para la generación de tecnología relevante.El programa seguirá construyendo sobre esta experiencia positiva, apoyando a los organismos nacionales por medio de la capacitación selectiva de su personal, de 44 la creación de vínculos adecuados entre instituciones de investigación y desarrollo en los países desarrollados y en desarrollo, del establecimiento de redes regionales, y del diseño, planeación y organización de proyectos integrados.Las actividades de carácter transitorio incluirán el fortalecimiento de la capacidad institucional para diagnosticar problemas y oportunidades, el desarrollo de métodos de investigación, y la formación de personal con miras a devolver ciertas actividades a los sistemas nacionales. Se ampliarán las redes de investigación en Asia para incluir temas socioeconómicos y de poscosecha. Mientras continúa apoyando las actividades regionales, el programa buscará que las redes sean autónomas hacia el final de la década.Los resultados y el impacto del Programa de Yuca se resumen en el Cuadro 4.2. Mejorar la calidad de la yuca• principios y componeetes de • aumento del potencial de invertir en el desarrollo de para diversos usos finales.tecnología para el diseño de mercado para la yuca y sus áreas marginales donde la sistemas de cultivo a base de productos derivados; yuca es el principal cultivo; YUC<!, eofatizando:• yuca más barata para consumo • politlcas gubernamentales . el mantenimiento de la humano directo e indirecto en no sesgadas a favor de fertilidad del suelo, áreas urbanas. fuentes competitivas de su conservación, y hidratos de carbono. el manejo integrado de plagas y eofern!edades;• desarroUo de productos de yuca aceptables para el Inversión mfruma en consumidor. la yuca a ruvel nacional. desarrollo: SNIDA;• redes regionales de investigación ydcsarrollo;proyectos integrados para produ~ción, procesamiento y mercadeo de la yuca.Objetivo general. Mejorar el bienestar nutricional y económico de los productores de arroz y de los consumidores de bajos ingresos en América Latina y el Caribe, por medio del aumento sostenible de la producción y la productividad del arroz.Enroque. El programa genera y difunde tecnología mejorada para aumentar y estabilizar la producción de arroz en América Latina y el Caribe. Puesto que su mandato es regional, es el más pequeño de los programas de investigación en cultivos del CIA T, y puede hacer uso de los considerables recursos de investigación disponibles en otros centros, especialmente en el International Rice Research Institute (IRRI); este ultimo posee un mandato global respecto al arroz, y se ocupa de aspectos de investigación estratégica de alcance mundial.Hasta ahora se ha hecho énfasis en el desarrollo de germoplasma para el arroz de riego, y en la incorporación de resistencia a las razas de piricularia y a las plagas dominantes en el material de alto rendimiento desarrollado en Asia. A partir de ahora, el programa abarcará un rango más amplio de ecosistemas y de áreas de investigación. Aunque continuará la investigación sobre el arroz de riego, se prestará mayor atención a los sistemas de arroz de secano que son típicos de América tropical. En estos sistemas, que producen 40% del arroz de la región y corresponden a 60% del área cultivada, se pueden lograr aumentos considerables en productividad.Es necesario que la producción de arroz aumente sustancialmente para que corra pareja con la tasa anual esperada de crecimiento demográfico de 2%. Puesto que las dificultades económicas de la región limitarán seriamente la expansión del área bajo riego, la mayor parte del aumento en la oferta de arroz en este sistema tendrá que venir del aumento en el rendimiento. Ahora bien, la vasta zona de sabanas del trópico latinoamericano sólo produce pasturas nativas de baja calidad; además, la precipitación de gran parte de esta zona es elevada y generalmente confiable. Por consiguiente, hay allí potencial para aumentar sustancialmente la producción de arroz en sistemas adaptados de cultivo bajo riego y secano, de alto rendimiento.Para ecosistemas corno las sabanas de suelos ácidos, en los cuales el CIAT está concentrando sus esfuerzos, se desarrollarán gerrnoplasma y aspectos relacionados para satisfacer las necesidades de determinados sistemas de producción. Esto requerirá investigar las plagas del arroz y la adaptación del gerrnoplasma a las limitaciones ambientales críticas. En los ecosistemas que no son prioritarios para el CIA T, corno aquéllos de arroz de riego, continuaremos apoyando los sistemas nacionales en su trabajo con los productores. Puesto que la diversificación de los sistemas de cultivo es crucial para estabilizar los rendimientos y elevar la productividad, el programa tendrá que investigar en alguna medida los sistemas de riego. En muchas zonas, el cultivo de frijol utiliza la humedad residual del suelo después de un cultivo de arroz. En colaboración con el Programa de Frijol, se ensayarán alternativas que mejoren este sistema.Tanto en el sistema de riego como en el de secano, se dará especial atención al manejo integrado de plagas (MIP), método que ofrece grandes oportunidades de reducir los actuales costos económicos y ambientales, inadmisiblemente altos, de la producción de arroz.El programa continuará proporcionando capacitación para la investigación a científicos de los programas nacionales, y garantizará el flujo de información sobre el cultivo a nivel nacional, regional e internacional. Un reto importante será adaptar los avances de la biotecnología del arroz, en rápido desarrollo, a las necesidades regionales, y garantizar el acceso de las instituciones nacionales a estos métodos y productos nuevos. Se trabajará en el fortalecimiento de las redes regionales existentes y, por medio de ellas, en aspectos de manejo del cultivo, especialmente en el MIP.La estrategia de mejoramiento del programa pasará del desarrollo de líneas fijas al suministro tanto de material progenitor de buena calidad, como de estrategias de mejoramiento para diferentes sistemas y áreas objetivo. Se estimulará también a muchos programas nacionales para que proporcionen materiales avanzados a regiones con requerimientos similares.El porcentaje aproximado de recursos asignados al programa para 1991 a 2001 aparece en la Figura 4.3. Aunque durante esa década los recursos se reducirán en cerca de 20%, la cuantía 47 total dedicada a la investigación estratégica aumentará significativamente.Objetivos específicos. Los objetivos del Programa de arroz durante el periodo cubierto por el plan son los siguientes:Objetivo 1. Ampliar la base genética disponible del arroz de riego con el fin de lograr mayor estabilidad en su producción.La amplia difusión de variedades modernas, genéticamente relacionadas y de alto rendimiento, en la mayor parte del área cultivada con arroz de riego en América tropical significa que el mejoramiento para aumentar la diversidad genética debe seguir siendo prioritario. Los genes que confieren resistencia a plagas y enfermedades, ya incorporados al germoplasma del arroz bajo riego, provienen de un número limitado de fuentes, 10 cual compromete la estabilidad de esa resistencia. Los agricultores tienden a responder a la inestabilidad aplicando agroquímicos tóxicos para manejar las plagas. Otra limitación de la producción del arroz de riego es que, en general, el germoplasma moderno requiere un suministro de agua abundante y estable para expresar totalmente su potencial de rendimiento. La tendencia actual en el desarrollo de sistemas de riego sugiere que la disponibilidad de agua continuará descendiendo.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa emprenderá dos iniciativas importantes: incorporar en las poblaciones mejoradas varias fuentes de resistencia genética a las plagas y enfermedades, y transferir hábitos de enraizamiento y otros caracteres de adaptación del arroz de secano a los tipos de arroz de riego de alto rendimiento. Los colaboradores nacionales necesitarán métodos efectivos de selección y evaluación para explotar adecuadamente los nuevos genes de resistencia o tolerancia, y para usar eficazmente el material progenitor promisorio.Objetivo 2. Lograr y mantener una expresión más completa del potencial de rendimiento en los sistemas de riego, reduciendo a la vez el uso de insumas externos.El potencial de rendimiento de las variedades modernas no se está materializando en muchas zonas de riego a causa de la presión de las plagas, del uso ineficiente de los insumas, de prácticas inadecuadas de manejo, y de diversos factores socioeconómicos. En Asia se desarrollan actualmente prácticas 48 cada vez más sofisticadas de manejo integrado de las plagas y del cultivo, de las cuales América tropical se podría beneficiar. En forma similar, los recientes y extraordinarios avances de la biotecnología del arroz están suministrando nuevas herramientas para el manejo de las plagas y del cultivo.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa generará componentes de tecnología para manejo integrado del cultivo, y buscará entender mejor la biología de la planta y los factores que gobiernan las interacciones entre componentes. Esto requerirá analizar la importancia, la variabilidad, y la interacción de las principales limitaciones bióticas y abióticas en la región, como el añublo del arroz (piricularia), el virus de la 'hoja blanca' junto con su vector Sogatodes sp., el complejo de insectos saltahojas, y el arroz rojo. Un aspecto importante para la relevancia, el diseño, y la adopción de la tecnología serán las implicaciones de los ambientes socioeconólIÚco y de mercado a largo plazo para los sistemas de producción de arroz de secano y de riego.Objetivo 3. Desarrollar germoplasma de arroz de secano de alto rendilIÚento, adaptado a las sabanas.Más de dos millones de hectáreas de sabana con alta precipitación cultivadas con arroz de secano no se han beneficiado con germoplasma de alto rendilIÚento. Puesto que las poblaciones en desarrollo han producido líneas de buen potencial de rendilIÚento, que toleran los suelos desfavorables y las presiones bióticas de dichas zonas, existe la posibilidad de aumentar sustancialmente la producción de arroz y de expandir el área cultivada. Ahora bien, esos suelos frágiles requieren el desarrollo concienzudo de prácticas agronólIÚcas sostenibles, rotaciones, y asociaciones.Para lograr este tercer objetivo, el programa trabajará en tres frentes: desarrollar poblaciones mejoradas que incorporen suficiente variabilidad para generar líneas que se ajusten a los requerimientos de los sistemas de producción; explorar y desarrollar nuevas características de la planta que puedan generar nuevas alternativas de producción; y comprender los mecanismos de tolerancia del arroz de secano a los suelos ácidos. La colaboración estrecha con el nuevo Programa de Sabanas del CIAT será esencial.Objetivo 4. Fortalecer la capacidad nacional para realizar investigación conducente al mejoramiento y estabilización de la producción de arroz.La solidez de los programas nacionales de investigación del arroz es vital para el éxito del Programa de Arroz del CIA T.A medida que el programa avanza hacia la investigación estratégica, será necesario que los programas nacionales asuman adecuadamente actividades previamente a cargo del CIAT.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa desarrollará diversas iniciativas de capacitación en colaboración con el Programa de Apoyo al Desarrollo Institucional, como la capacitación en servicio y los cursos cortos sobre temas específicos, aprovechando al máximo los materiales de capacitación del IRRI. El CIAT se convertirá así en un centro regional de capacitación avanzada en investigación del arroz, abierto a profesionales graduados para que realicen proyectos de postgrado en colaboración con científicos del Programa de Arroz. Las becas para investigación postdoctoral se dedicarán a temas específicos de importancia regional. El programa estudiará la posibilidad de que los programas nacionales fuertes asuman parte de la capacitación regional. Se desarrollará la capacidad nacional para que el CIA T delegue la responsabilidad del curso general de capacitación en producción de arroz, que sigue siendo una de sus actividades importantes en esta área.Objetivo 5. Promover el intercambio efectivo de información. • material progenitor para líneas de arroz más eficientes mejoramiento de arroz; programas de cruzamiento a en el uso del agua.apoyo continuo de nivel nacional; INGER/IRRI al intercambio líneas de riego con sistema de germoplasma. radical de secano; metodologías de evaluación para los SNIDA.2. Lograr y sostener una mayor -Componentes de tecnología . Reducción del uso de . Sistemas de extensión efectivos; expresión del potencial de para MIP/MIC; plagnicidas;distribución de la relación rendimiento.• comprensión de la interacción . reducción de costos de precio alto/costo a través del entre componentes; producción; sistema;• comprensión de la interacci6nreducción en precio al programas nacionales con entre limitaciones biótieas y consumidor del sector rural. perspectiva de MIC. abiótieas y germoplasma; red de MICo , DesarrolIargermoplasma de Germoplasma de alto 3.--Producción anual incrementada -Liberación y adopción de arroz de alto rendimiento y rendimiento adaptado a secano.en 5 millones de toueladas/año variedades en 1993/1994. adaptado a las sabanas. para el año 2000.• Científicos de los SNIDA -Cumplimiento de los objetivos -Compromiso de los países en nacional de. investigación en capacitados. capacitación de 1 y 2.investigación sobre arroz; arroz.investigadores en los pafses por apoyo adecuado de los recursos personal de los SNlDA. del CIAT.• Información fácilmente -Disponibilidad de -Apoyo del CIA T respecto a efectivo deintormación entre y utilizable; conocimientos que permitan mecanismos de intercambio de dentro de Jos SNIDA.libros, folletos, boletines; realizar satisfactoriamente los información, y capacidad para• discos compactos ROM objetivos 1 a 4 en todos los desarrollarlos.-~.(Incluyendo bases de datos SNIDA., sobre germoplasma). Es necesario desarrollar germoplasma forrajero productivo, adaptado a los suelos ácidos, y resistente a las limitaciones bióticas y abióticas, para aumentar la producción de leche y carne en los actuales sistemas agropastoriles, y como componente funcional importante en la sostenibilidad de éstos en los tres ecosistemas prioritarios para el CIAT. Para lograr este objetivo, el programa continuará seleccionando especies forrajeras para las tierras bajas, mejorará las especies forrajeras más promisorias entre las ya seleccionadas, desarrollará germoplasma para mayor altitud, y continuará la selección de especies arbóreas tanto forrajeras como de múltiple propósito. El mejoramiento de las pasturas se concentrará en la manipulación genética para resolver las principales limitaciones.El desarrollo de germoplasma forrajero para zonas de mayor altitud (800-1800 m en la línea ecuatorial) en los ecosistemas objetivo comprenderá la definición de ideotipos vegetales, la ampliación de las colecciones existentes, las expediciones dirigidas de recolección de germoplasma, y la determinación de factores de calidad y anticalidad en las nuevas adquisiciones.La selección de especies forrajeras y forrajeras arbóreas y herbáceas de múltiple propósito se hará en diversidad de localidades y en colaboración con los sistemas nacionales de investigación agrícola. En cada ecosistema prioritario se establecerán sitios importantes de selección. Objetivo 2. Comprender los mecanismos de compatibilidad ecológica de los componentes de las pasturas.Para un eficiente desarrollo del germoplasma de especies forrajeras, es necesario comprender cómo interactúan los componentes de las pasturas en respuesta a diferentes presiones de tipo biótico y abiótico, y a diferentes condiciones de manejo.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa explorará tres áreas importantes: las interacciones suelo-planta, especialmente los mecanismos de adaptación a los suelos ácidos y los que mejoran el suelo; las limitaciones bióticas de las plantas y sus interacciones, incluyendo los mecanismos que explican la resistencia; y las interacciones planta-animal.Los estudios para comprender las interacciones suelo-planta incluyen el análisis anatómico, fisiológico y bioquímico de los sistemas radicales y de los patrones de enraizamiento, la absorción de nutrimentos, el aporte de las raíces y de los residuos vegetales a la materia orgánica, las relaciones entre las raíces y el follaje, y la 54 identificación de los genes responsables de diversos mecanismos de adaptación.Este tipo de investigación ayudará a comprender y a manipular el mejoramiento de los suelos en pasturas, y establecerá así un vínculo natural con los programas de agroecosistemas.Se realizarán estudios para comprender las limitaciones bióticas de las plantas y sus interacciones, enfatizando las principales plagas y enfermedades, incluyendo la anatomía y bioquímica del salivazo (en Brachiaria spp.), la antracnosis en Stylosanthes spp., y la pudrición por Rhizoctonia en Centrosema spp. También se harán estudios para caracterizar la variabilidad genética de enfermedades y plagas, y para identificar los genes responsables de su resistencia en la planta.Para comprender las interacciones planta-animal en los sistemas de especies mixtas, el programa estudiará los factores de calidad y anticalidad en la producción de rumiantes, y los factores fisiológicos, biológicos y bioquímicos que afectan la digestión de la fibra vegetal.Objetivo 3. Fortalecer la capacidad nacional y regional para desarrollar germoplasma forrajero.Para desarrollar con éxito este objetivo en los suelos ácidos del trópico, son esenciales programas nacionales y regionales fuertes.Para lograrlo, el CIAT se apoyará en las redes de investigación existentes, y en otras nuevas en América tropical (RIEPT), en Asia (SEAFRAD), y en Africa (a través de AFRNET / ILeA), a la vez que desarrollará nuevos mecanismos de colaboración en investigación estratégica.En América tropical, el CIA T se concentrará en la capacitación avanzada de científicos nacionales, con la intención de aumentar la participación retroalimentación efectiva de los programas de agroecosistemas. En el sector agrícola, los cultivos son el eje de las actividades socioeconómicas, en tanto que el manejo de los recursos naturales es un componente fundamental de la sostenibilidad del sector a mediano y largo plazo. Además, el manejo de los recursos afecta la transferencia de éstos de una generación a otra. En consecuencia, el objetivo de la investigación en esta área es mejorar el manejo de los recursos disponibles para la agricultura en América tropical, de manera que el aumento de la producción de alimentos y de otros productos sea compatible con la conservación a largo plazo del acervo de recursos.Este objetivo se perseguirá mediante el diseño de alternativas de uso de la tierra dirigidas a la optimización de los retornos sociales hacia la agricultura, en situaciones alternativas de equilibrio entre la producción y la conservación.La estrategia central consiste en integrar las opciones de sistemas agrícolas y de uso de la tierra que ayuden a aliviar las presiones sociales y de mercado sobre los ambientes más frágiles. Dicha estrategia será el resultado de actividades realizadas en dos niveles de agregación. A nivel sectorial, se hará énfasis en el desarrollo de estrategias alternativas de uso de la tierra, y en la comprensión de la relación entre dichas estrategias y los mecanismos de política.A nivel de producción, se hará énfasis en la generación de tecnologías de manejo y en su integración en sistemas de producción agroecológicamente sólidos, eficientes en cuanto al uso de insumos, y económicamente viables.En relación con el uso de insumos, la investigación buscará maximizar la adaptación o la tolerancia del germoplasma para reducir la necesidad de insumos agroquímicos. También buscará optimizar la eficiencia en el uso de insumos mediante el reciclado efectivo de nutrimentos y el uso económico de insumos externos.A nivel de la producción, la investigación se concentrará en tres agroecosistemas importantes: los márgenes de bosque, las laderas, y las sabanas de América tropical, cada uno con su propio equipo interdisciplinario de investigación. La confluencia de actividades en estos tres agroecosistemas contribuirá a un enfoque regional de sostenibilidad. Esto se logrará equilibrando el énfasis en crecimiento económico de las sabanas con la preocupación por la equidad en las zonas de ladera y por la conservación de los recursos en los márgenes de bosque. La investigación a nivel sectorial se hará a través de los agroecosistemas en América tropical y bajo la responsabilidad de un programa multidisciplinario de uso de la tierra. Se espera que los cuatro equipos establezcan una base común de información y metodología, y generen sistemas sostenibles, en estrecha colaboración con los programas de desarrollo de germoplasma del ClAT y con los colegas nacionales, regionales e internacionales.Los cuatro programas prestarán especial atención a la comprensión de los patrones de inmigración humana, y adoptarán un enfoque dinámico de los sistemas agrícolas desde el punto de vista del usuario; este enfoque comprende la toma de decisiones a nivel familiar, el empleo de mano de obra por sexo y por grupo de edad, la generación de ingresos, y la disponibilidad de alimentos.La distribución aproximada de los recursos de los programas de 58 Agroecosistemas y de Uso de la Tierra para el período 1991 a 2001 se presenta en la Figura 4.5. La Figura 4.6 muestra la misma distribución de recursos según áreas de especialización.Investigación del Uso de la Tierra Objetivo general. En el CIAT, la investigación del uso de la tierra pretende mejorar el manejo de este recurso en América tropical. Para cumplir este objetivo, el Programa de Uso de la Tierra trabajará en asociación con los programas de cultivos y agroecosistemas, y con el IFPRI y la nueva iniciativa forestal del aCIAl.Enroque. Este programa buscará integrar el desarrollo de componentes de producción y de sistemas con estrategias y política adecuadas de uso de la tierra.Tal propósito requerirá estudios detallados de los sistemas de producción dentro de los patrones de uso de la tierra, y estudios comparativos más amplios en diferentes ambientes y bajo diferentes opciones de política. Para lograrlo, el CIA T utilizará su actual base de datos sobre climas, suelos, vegetación y factores socioeconómicos, agregando datos de otras fuentes cuando se considere necesario. En colaboración con otros programas de investigación del centro, el Programa de Uso de la Tierra diseñará y realizará encuestas rurales como base para generar tecnología y para evaluar su impacto.Objetivos específicos. El Programa de Uso de la Tierra organizará sus actividades alrededor de los siguientes objetivos:Objetivo 1. Comprender la dinámica del uso de la tierra.Antes de que se puedan diseñar mejores tecnologías, estrategias y políticas de uso de la tierra, es necesario comprender la 60 dinámica de los usos actuales y alternativos de la tierra.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa identificará las tendencias en los patrones de uso de la tierra, analizará las relaciones causales entre el uso de la tierra y los factores socioeconómicos y políticos, medirá los costos sociales de diferentes prácticas de uso de la tierra, y caracterizará y hará seguimiento a la tierra como recurso básico. Se prestará especial atención al posible impacto de nuevas tecnologías y políticas sobre los patrones de migración humana.Objetivo 2. Estimar alternativas políticas que mejoren el uso de la tíerra.Un ambiente político que favorezca la adopción de tecnología para la conservación de recursos es crucial. Su adopción y la de numerosas tecnologías orientadas hacia la producción es inusual en la actualidad. Las razones varían desde la oferta poco confiable de insumos, pasando por la ausencia de crédito y de incentivos en los precios, hasta la inseguridad en la tenencia de la tierra. En América tropical, los patrones de migración humana y la inversión en las fronteras resultan notablemente afectados por las políticas de infraestructura y de tributación.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa estudiará, en varios pafses, el impacto de la política sobre uso de la tierra y la adopción de tecnologías, y apoyará a las entidades nacionales y regionales en el diseño de alternativas políticas. El CIAT no definirá las políticas, pero trabajará con los analistas de éstas a nivel nacional para presentar a los gestores de política una serie de alternativas y la evaluación de su posible impacto. Se evaluarán diferentes implicaciones políticas para el diseño y la difusión de la tecnología, prestando especial atención a la ventaja comparativa y a la necesidad de evitar los efectos externos negativos de la agricultura.Objetivo 3. Evaluar el impacto de las nuevas tecnologías y políticas sobre el uso de la tierra.Una vez introducidas las tecnologías y la política, se debe evaluar su impacto social, económico y ambiental, tanto a nivel local como regionaL Muchas actividades agrícolas suponen costos sociales altos que afectan otros sitios fuera de la finca.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa estudiará el modo en que la tecnología y la política afectan la dinámica del uso de la tierra, especialmente los patrones de migración humana, y hará seguimiento a los efectos de las nuevas tecnologias sobre los recursos básicos. Se aplicarán estudios y modelos de campo para evaluar el impacto local, y para extrapolar esas evaluaciones al ecosistema. El programa intercambiará datos e información con otras 61 instituciones de investigación, especialmente con las que hacen seguimiento y pronósticos de los cambios climáticos a nivel regional y global.Objetivo 4. Robustecer la capacidad nacional para mejorar el manejo del recurso tierra.El fortalecimiento de la investigación y de la capacitación a nivel nacional es un requisito para el mejor manejo de la tierra. Los organismos nacionales de investigación y de formulación de política necesitan establecer vínculos más estrechos entre sí, y aumentar su capacidad de realizar encuestas, de acceder a la información regional, de analizar aspectos políticos críticos, y de diseñar tecnología para la conservación de los recursos.Para lograr este objetivo, el CIAT realizará investigación y capacitación colaborativas, convocará reuniones entre instituciones de investigación agrícola, de manejo de recursos, y de formulación de políticas; y distribuirá información a través de bases de datos, servicios de biblioteca, y publicaciones.Los resultados y el impacto esperados del Programa de Uso de la Tierra se detallan en el Cuadro 4.5.Cuadro 4.5. Resultados e .impacto esperado del Programa de Uso de la Tierra, Objetivo Resultado Impacto esperado Suposiciones 1. Comprender la dinámica del• Comprensión de las tendencias -Un plan de investigación de -Vinculación efectiva con las uso de la tierra. en el uso de la tierra; mayor relevancia; instituciones de política, USO• estimaciones de las ventajas ymejor información para la de la tierra y ambiente (como desventajas de diferentes toma de decisiones por los IFPRI); patrones de \\ISO de la tierra; gestores de política.• acceso al SOl detallado, a • mejores reCW'sos de encuestas, y a datos información.secundarios;2-Valorar las alternativas de -Comprensión de las políticas• Adopci6n de una política -Instituciones nacionales que políticas. sobre uso de la tierra; conducente a la agricu!tllfa influya!!, sobre los patrones de• escenarios políticos sostenible. lISO de la tierra; alternativos.• vínculos ron gestores de polftica.3. Estudiar el impacto de la -Recomendaciones para el • Tecnologías más sostenibles; -Vmculación efectiva con los política y de la tecnología diseño de tecnología;• mejor conservación de los sistemas nacionales de sobre el lISO de la tierra.-estimacioDes del impacto recursos básicos.investigación agrícola. ambiental.• Seminarios sobre política;• Mej<>res políticas de uso de la • Disposición de las instituciones los gestores de política y las • investigación interinstitucional; tierra; nacionales para celaborar instituciones de investigaciónmejor diseño de tecMlogía; entre sí; agrícola y manejo de recursCls.• ajll»'Opolftico del sector interinstituciooaJ.p¡Ib1ico.Objetivo general. Reducir la presión sobre los bosques tropicales desarrollando sistemas de producción ecológica y económicamente acertados para las áreas ya taladas.Enfoque. Para reducir la deforestación en América tropical, se necesitan dos tipos de acción. En primer lugar, un cambio en las políticas macroeconómicas para desestimular la deforestación empresarial en gran escala para el establecimiento de plantaciones y hatos.La investigación de este aspecto será responsabilidad del Programa de Uso de la Tierra. En segundo lugar, tecnologías que intensifiquen y estabilicen la agricultura, reduciendo así la cantidad de tierra necesaria para vivir de manera aceptable, y permitiendo el establecimiento de agricultores migratorios de pequeña y mediana capacidad. Este aspecto de la investigación será responsabilidad de este programa.Una preocupación importante será garantizar que la tecnología mejorada para las zonas de bosque no siga estimulando la deforestación. Aunque es imperativa la regeneración de las zonas degradadas, existe el riesgo de que los sistemas de producción más sostenibles y rentables atraigan a la franja marginal del bosque a más gente sin tierra, y a agricultores y hacendados comerciales.Por estas razones, el desarrollo de tecnologías para las áreas taladas debe ir acompañado de estudios microeconómicos y políticos que conduzcan a una mejor estrategia de uso de la tierra para el bosque aún en pie. El programa orientará su 63 investigación hacia el agricultor migratorio; se concentrará en la generación de tecnologías que mejoren el suelo de las fincas de tamaño pequeño a mediano en áreas deforestadas, y no el de fincas grandes, lo que evitará atraer capital de riesgo al desarrollo forestal. Al mismo tiempo, y en unión con el Programa de Uso de la Tierra, este programa medirá el impacto potencial de las tecnologías, y ayudará al desarrollo de estrategias nacionales de uso de la tierra.Inicialmente, el programa enfatizará la investigación sobre sistemas de producción sólo en aquellos países que carezcan de zonas extensas de sabana y que tengan, por tanto, menos alternativas de desarrollo (como América Central). Los estudios sobre política y uso de la tierra abarcarán un mayor rango de países, incluidos aquéllos con sabanas. Una vez se establezca la posibilidad de desarrollar tecnología forestal mejorada que no atraiga la inversión destinada a las sabanas, el CIAT dirigirá su atención a otros países, empleando la estrategia de red de investigación para probar tecnología e intercambiar información.En los bosques naturales hay, con frecuencia, sistemas de cultivo nativos. Estos pueden ofrecer lecciones valiosas sobre cómo hacer agricultura sostenible en el bosque sin reducir sustancialmente la diversidad biológica.Por esta razón, la investigación sobre manejo de recursos naturales estudiará detalladamente esos sistemas en los márgenes de bosque todavía en pie, junto con tecnologías mejoradas para el área talada.El uso del bosque para fines no agrícolas es una alternativa política importante frente a la tala para el cultivo. El CIAT no posee una ventaja particular en esta área, pero se sumará estrechamente a la nueva iniciativa forestal del GCIA! y a instituciones de investigación forestal, con el fin de que esta alternativa sea explorada adecuadamente. En algunas zonas degradadas, la reforestación es la opción de uso de la tierra más promisoria. El CIAT tampoco tiene experiencia en esta área, pero buscará aportes de instituciones apropiadas de investigación forestal.Para abordar mejor los aspectos forestal y agroforestal de la investigación sobre manejo de recursos, el CIAT buscaría alojar la iniciativa regional del International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) y la nueva iniciativa forestal del GCIA!.Objetivos específicos. El Programa de Márgenes de Bosque tendrá los siguientes objetivos:Objetivo l. Evaluar el posible impacto social y ambiental de la innovación tecnológica en el cultivo migratorio.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa realizará estudios socioeconómicos de los actuales sistemas de producción, incluyendo los sistemas de cultivo tradicionales. Los estudios abarcarán los patrones actuales de migración dentro de la zona, el origen de los colonos, sus circunstancias socioeconómicas antes y después de la migración, y el influjo sobre ellos de la tecnología mejorada. El propósito será medir el impacto de la tecnología mejorada sobre la demanda de tierra dentro del ecosistema.Objetivo 2. Reducir los efectos destructores del cultivo migratorio.Objetivo 3. Ayudar a desarrollar mejores estrategias de uso de la tierra en las áreas de bosque húmedo.Para garantizar que la nueva tecnología haga impacto en las tasas de deforestación, es necesario planear mejor el uso de la tierra en las áreas de bosque consideradas como un todo. Resulta imposible pensar en sistemas agrícolas mejorados sin tener en cuenta las áreas de bosque circundantes.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa, junto con el Programa de Uso de la Tierra, servirán de foro a las entidades nacionales de política y a las instituciones de investigación forestal (incluyendo la nueva iniciativa forestal del GCW) para ayudar a formular estrategias regionales de uso de la tierra. Además de los sistemas agrícolas mejorados, la reforestación se tendrá como una alternativa para las áreas severamente degradadas. Para las áreas de bosque sin talar, las alternativas políticas son, entre otras, la protección y el uso sostenible para fines diferentes a la agricultura. Se prestará especial atención a los aspectos de infraestructura y política.Objetivo 4. Fortalecer la capacidad nacional para mejorar los sistemas de producción en los márgenes de bosque.El fortalecimiento de la capacidad nacional es esencial para el desarrollo agrícola sostenible en las áreas de bosque talado.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa identificará principios y métodos para generar e implementar tecnologías mejoradas. El CIAT capacitará a investigadores regionales y nacionales en investigación sobre sistemas de producción. Se desarrollarán mecanismos de colaboración regional e 65 internacional para el desarrollo de tecnología y el intercambio de información, lo cual contribuirá eventualmente a la difusión de esa tecnología.Objetivo general. Mejorar el bienestar de la comunidad agrícola que vive en las zonas de ladera, mediante el desarrollo de sistemas de producción agrícola sostenibles y comercialmente viables.Enfoque. Las actividades generadoras de ingresos que permiten la acumulación de capital y la intensificación agrícola, a la vez que conservan los recursos de suelo yagua, son la clave para resolver los problemas ambientales de las laderas.Las zonas de ladera son muy heterogéneas en términos de sus recursos básicos y sus sistemas de producción. Su acceso a los mercados también es muy variable. En áreas con buen acceso al mercado, los problemas de equidad son menos graves. Estos problemas se presentan, en cambio, en las zonas más severamente degradadas, que ofrecen pocas oportunidades de éxito para la tecnología agrícola. Los suelos ácidos, un común denominador en muchas zonas de ladera y en otros ecosistemas, serán el blanco principal del programa, especialmente en las áreas con suelos bien irrigados, y con potencial agrícola moderado y acceso razonable a los mercados.Dada la complejidad de los problemas socioeconómicos, técnicos y ambientales de las laderas, las iniciativas para mejorar en ellas el manejo de los recursos naturales deben formar parte de los planes regionales de desarrollo que comprendan actividades agrícolas y no agrícolas. Esto requerirá una gran cooperación interinstitucional e intersectorial, que permita identificar los problemas con exactitud y movilizar el personal adecuado y otros recursos para resolverlos.Muchas otras organizaciones --especialmente las no gubernamentales-ya están desarrollando actividades en las zonas de ladera. El programa empezará seleccionando sitios representativos para hacer investigación, e identificando organizaciones colaboradoras para establecer una agenda común de investigación. Dada la heterogeneidad de las laderas, se analizará muy bien el modelo de colaboración interinstitucional apropiado para lograr el mayor impacto posible.Corno ocurre en las áreas de bosque, existe el riesgo de que la tecnología mejorada atraiga inmigrantes de zonas más degradadas. Por ello, el CIAT hará estudios socioeconómicos que determinen previamente a su diseño el impacto potencial de sistemas de producción mejorados. Se establecerán vínculos con instituciones relevantes de investigación forestal.Aunque existen numerosas tecnologías para conservar el suelo y el agua, los agricultores raras veces las adoptan sin estímulos políticos. Estudios para identificar instrumentos de adopción de políticas serán un complemento necesario del desarrollo de la tecnología en el campo.Objetivos específicos. El Programa de Laderas concentrará sus actividades en los siguientes objetivos:Objetivo 1. Caracterizar los mecanismos que propician la degradación de los recursos naturales y evaluar alternativas tecnológicas.Antes de introducir nueva tecnología, es necesario comprender y caracterizar los mecanismos que llevan a la degradación de los recursos en zonas de ladera. Para lograr este objetivo, el programa hará investigación de diagnóstico sobre problemas de manejo de los recursos en zonas elegidas y contrastantes. Se analizarán las decisiones de los agricultores sobre el manejo de los recursos naturales, y se incorporarán a modelos para cada tipo de área. Se estudiará el flujo de energía (incluyendo el equilibrio de los nutrimentos) en los sistemas degradados y no degradados. Posteriormente, el programa construirá o adaptará modelos para análisis de las alternativas de intervención tecnológica en términos de su impacto en la sostenibilidad de la estructura y estabilidad del suelo, en la acumulación de materia orgánica, en la escorrentía, y en la erosión del suelo. Finalmente, se combinarán modelos biológicos y socioeconómicos para predecir el ingreso y los efectos ambientales de diversas intervenciones tecnológicas.Objetivo 2. Generar componentes viables desde el punto de vista agroecológico y económico, y aceptables para los agricultores, en prácticas de manejo y conservación del suelo y del agua.Para prevenir la degradación adicional de las laderas, las tecnologías que conserven los recursos son cruciales para proporcionar a los agricultores ingreso a corto plazo. Aunque el equilibrio entre la generación de ingresos y la conservación de los recursos dependerá del sitio en cuestión, la investigación estratégica del ClAT puede ayudar a comprender los mecanismos subyacentes.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa recogerá información y evaluará un amplio espectro de componentes de tecnología. El manejo de estos datos es decisivo para proporcionar información a las partes interesadas sobre aquellos componentes que podrían tener éxito en determinadas condiciones. La mayor parte de la investigación adaptativa, es decir, de la prueba de tecnologías en el campo, será realizada por los programas nacionales colegas del CIAT. Se utilizarán métodos de investigación participativa para involucrar a los agricultores en el diseño, prueba y evaluación de prototipos de tecnología. La investigación estratégica comprenderá el seguimiento y la evaluación del equilibrio de nutrimentos, los flujos de energía, la toma de decisiones en el grupo familiar, el empleo de mano de obra por sexo y por edad, la generación de ingresos y la disponibilidad de alimentos, y los métodos de seguimiento y evaluación de actividades. Se prestará especial atención al manejo integrado de plagas, ya que el abuso de los plaguicidas constituye un problema creciente en las zonas de ladera. En unión con el Programa de Uso de la Tierra y con investigadores nacionales, se estudiarán los instrumentos políticos que posiblemente estimulen la adopción de tecnologías. El punto de partida para intensificar la producción en las sabanas debe ser la mayor información sobre los interrogantes que suscita la sostenibilidad en las áreas ya desarrolladas, y sobre las oportunidades en áreas actualmente subexplotadas.Para lograr este objetivo, el Programa de Sabanas colaborará con el Programa de Uso de la Tierra, con las instituciones nacionales, y con los agricultores en la caracterización de los sistemas de producción existentes, la identificación y jerarquización de los principales problemas de sostenibilidad, y su ubicación en un contexto de política ambiental. Estos estudios compararán los sistemas de producción que presentan problemas con aquéllos que lucen más estables. De especial interés son las características físicas y químicas del suelo, el manejo de plagas, la diversidad biológica de las sabanas, los procesos de toma de decisiones de los agricultores, la estacionalidad de la oferta de empleo, el acceso a los mercados, y la dinámica de la tenencia de la tierra.Objetivo 2. Diseñar intervenciones tecnológicas que se ajusten a los ambientes de sabana y eleven su productividad, previniendo a la vez, o revirtiendo, la degradación de los recursos.Para lograr este objetivo, se probarán los sistemas de pasturas a base de gramíneas mejoradas y de leguminosas, y de rotación de corta duraci6n (ley farming) a base de arroz, ya desarrollados; las variedades mejoradas de soya y sorgo que remplacen el arroz en las zonas más secas, y las especies arbóreas de múltiple propósito adaptadas a suelos ácidos. Otros componentes se tendrán en cuenta donde sea conveniente. Se requerirá además investigación a largo plazo sobre las relaciones suelo-planta en diferentes 69 esquemas de cultivo y de pastoreo, para desarrollar métodos de seguimiento y predicción de la sostenibilidad de sistemas alternativos. Esta investigaci6n también relacionará los diferentes sistemas de producción con el acceso a los mercados, la disponibilidad de mano de obra, los requisitos de manejo empresarial, y con otros parámetros socioeconómicos.Objetivo 3. Comprender los aspectos biofísicos y el manejo de sistemas de producción en sabanas para una producción sostenible.El diseño de intervenciones tecnol6gicas requiere la comprensión de los procesos básicos que contribuyen, a largo plazo, a la productividad o a la degeneración de un sistema.Para lograr este objetivo, el programa estudiará los factores bióticos y abi6ticos de los sistemas, especialmente las relaciones suelo-planta-microbios y las interacciones plaga-planta. En éstas y otras áreas se obtendrán aportes de los programas de cultivos y de otras instituciones de investigación. Se construirán modelos de reciclado de nutrimentos a partir de datos de los sistemas piloto y de estudios paralelos controlados. • Comprensión del proceso de -Plan común de investigación • Capacidad de instituciones de explotación agrícobty SU decisiones de los agricultores; relevante para el CIAT e investigación y desarrollo influencia sobre el uso de modelos de uso agrícola de la instituciones nacionales y interesadas para observar un recur:sos. tierra para determinados regionales; enfoque dinámico de sistemas agroecosistemas;diseño más apropiado de la de explotación agrícola.• prioridades de investigación. investigación agrícola sostenible.2. Hacer investigación estratégica. • Modelos mecánicos de• Conjunto sistemático de -Progreso continuo en reciclado de nutrimentos, uso conocimientos sobre relaciones investigación sobre relaciones del agua, Y dinámica de la causales. suelo/planta/anima!; vegetación.• vínculoll efectivos con instituciones de investigación avanzada.3. Desarrollar y probar -Componentes tecnológi\"\",,¡• Adopción más amplia y rápida -Acceso a componentes lecnOlogía.sistemassostenibles; de tecnologías y sistemas de relevantes de tecuología y a• estimaciones de ló& efectos explotacióo sostenible; germoplasma; que se estiendan a otras mejor conservación de los• sistemas efectivos de regiones; recursos básicos; prodneción de semilla;• estlmaciones de las habilidades • mayor producción de• compromiso de los programas de manejo requeridas. alimentos. nacionales a participar en actividades colaborativas.4. Fortalecer los sistemas• Científicos capacitados;• Sistemas nacionales de• Mayor estabilidad de los nacionales de investigación.• proyectos colaborativos piloto; investigación más efectivos; cientfficó& en los programas• redes de investigación;investigación 'f extensión nacionales.• documentación.eficientes sobre agricultura sostenible.Como fundamento de este plan estratégico, hay dos cambios básicos e interrelacionados en el enfoque del CIAT hacia el desarrollo de tecnología. El primero es un mayor énfasis en el contexto, o sistema, en el cual ocurre el desarrollo agrícola. En el caso de la investigación de cultivos, ésta se concentra en el desarrollo de germoplasma y de tecnologías componentes para determinados ambientes de producción agroecológica.En el caso de la investigación sobre manejo de los recursos naturales, la perspectiva de sistemas se enfoca en algunos agroecosistemas importantes en los cuales se pueden tratar coherentemente los problemas de manejo de recursos, abarcando todo el rango de factores biofísicos, socioeconómicos, y de uso de la tierra en dichos agroecosistemas. El segundo cambio de enfoque es la aceptación de que los modelos de solución integral exigen la participación de muchas personas; en otras palabras, la generación de tecnologías es una tarea altamente participativa, en la cual la coordinación interinstitucional y el apoyo mutuo son tan importantes como las actividades mismas de investigación. Objetivo 2. Aumentar la eficiencia de los sistemas nacionales de investigación y fortalecer sus vínculos con el desarrollo.La eficiencia de los sistemas nacionales de investigación y desarrollo depende de modelos adecuados de investigación interinstitucional, de estrechas relaciones entre las organizaciones que componen esos sistemas, y de que todas las actividades de generación y transferencia de tecnología formen parte de tales sistemas.Para lograr este objetivo, este programa apoyará a los programas del CIAT en el diseño de actividades colaborativas de investigación y predesarrollo (redes, consorcios y proyectos). Para ello contará con la experiencia adquirida en cooperación interinstitucional, con capacitación en manejo de proyectos (tomando proyectos reales como objeto de estudio), y con otros servicios de apoyo, como se indica en el Objetivo 1. Fortalecer la capacidad de 'as• Recursos bumanos y equipos ron • proyectos eflCienl<>menl<> diseiiados.interinstitucional.agrícola.Desarrollar m.temas de oferta de• Nuews empresal y.mec:anismos • Adopdón de variedades mejoradas de • Apoyo de programaa .. oonal .. de ...,uta apws pata las citeunstan<ias OtgInizativo& para el somlnistro de cultivos y pasturas y de AAFMP para inv«tiga<i6n Y desam>llo, y apoyo de loo ¡>e<¡-agriculton:s.tonservación -de recursos... ftnanciem de los ~tes. para iniciar• U _ \"\"no!oil\" de producdón y proyecIos piloto.p_ntode _na para _etlU empresas.Mejorat: ~ capacitación nacional'o -¡n.tltu<ionall .. ci6rt de programas de • Mayor efectividad de los .sistemas de La caracterización de las asociaciones entre microbios y raíces mediante técnicas de identificación molecular permitirá comprender mejor la dinámica de la población de microorganismos, especialmente en la rizosfera. Esta información puede también ser útil para el manejo de prácticas de control biológico de plagas y patógenos, y para aumentar la eficiencia de la planta en el uso de nutrimentos.La unidad continuará colaborando con los programas de cultivos del ClAT en la identificación de limitaciones de la producción críticas para la investigación en laboratorios de investigación avanzada de países desarrollados y en desarrollo. Se planea ofrecer un curso que fortalezca todavía más la capacidad nacional y estimule la vinculación permanente entre los laboratorios de países desarrollados y en desarrollo que participan en redes de investigación avanzada.78La Unidad de Investigación en Virología fue creada para caracterizar y hallar mecanismos de control de los virus que amenazan la seguridad del intercambio de germoplasma y limitan la productivídad de las especies vegetales investigadas por los programas del CIAT. Para lograr estos obíetivos, la unidad colabora con las otras unidades de apoyo a la investigación en el CIAT, especialmente con las unidades de Investigación en Biotecnología y de Recursos Genéticos, para aprovechar al máximo las técnicas disponibles de biología molecular avanzada y para garantizar el cumplimiento de normas cuarentenarias estrictas en la introducción y producción de germoplasma.Durante los 90, la unidad continuará desempeñando esas funciones, y prestará mayor atención a la aplicación de técnicas avanzadas a los problemas prioritarios identificados por los programas de cultivos del CIAT. Durante todo el proceso de planeación se tuvieron en cuenta estimaciones globales de los recursos disponibles.Después de identificar el conjunto de cultivos y zonas agroecológicas en que el CIAT trabajará, el proceso de planeación se concentró en identificar los esfuerzos y los recursos mínimos requeridos para producir resultados específicos. En el curso de este análisis se comprobó que los requerimientos financieros y de personal que supone asumir la responsabilidad internacional sobre la soya y el sorgo superaban las expectativas realistas de obtención de recursos. Esto llevó a limitar el trabajo propuesto para estos cultivos a la investigación exploratoria sobre su adaptación a los suelos ácidos, dirigida a desarrollarlos como cultivos componentes en sistemas de producción diseñados para ecosistemas de sabana. En éstos, el retomo esperado de su producción es muy alto. Ambos se incluyen en este plan como actividades complementarias.Los recursos básicos para las demás áreas de programa, consideradas de muy alta prioridad para el CIAT, se ajustaron al mínimo requerido para lograr los objetivos planteados. Por debajo de este nivel mínimo de recursos básicos, la capacidad del centro para cumplir su misión estaría severamente limitada.Los recursos mínimos para cada área de programa se resumen en el Cuadro 5.1 y se expresan en términos de posiciones de personal principal por año. También se presentan las posiciones actuales, las ayudará activamente a desarrollar la capacidad de las instituciones colaboradoras, a nivel nacional o regional, para asumir mayor responsabilidad por las tareas que actualmente realiza el CIAT. Este proceso liberará recursos que el centro puede redistribuir en armonía con los objetivos y prioridades esbozados en este plan estratégico.El programa de trabajo que supone el plan estratégico es obviamente ambicioso, y se puede llevar a cabo con éxito solamente en la medida en que colaboren las instituciones a nivel nacional, regional e internacional. Esto requerirá un alto grado de coordinación de actividades, las cuales a menudo se  Como se explicó en el Capítulo 2, con el transcurso de los años ha surgido una cultura institucional sólida, cuyas características fundamentales son el orgullo en la institución, la conciencia de responsabilidad por el bienestar de millones de personas, la búsqueda de la excelencia en todos los aspectos de la labor del CIAT, y el deseo colectivo de alcanzar el éxito de la misión del centro. Mediante sondeos de la cultura institucional, estamos precisando el grado en que se cree en los valores institucionales en el centro y se actúa de 86 acuerdo con ellos, y cuáles políticas o prácticas administrativas refuerzan estos valores o los contradicen. Este esfuerzo continuará y se consolidará en la próxima década, con el fin de que se fortalezcan y mejoren los elementos positivos de la cultura del CIAT.Manejo del proceso. La esencia de la administración de la investigación en el CIAT es el programa por oposición al proyecto. Esto significa que, una vez desarrollada una estrategia, habrá mecanismos adecuados de seguimiento y evaluación de las actividades de los programas y de los científicos individualmente, para garantizar que contribuyan al logro de los objetivos y de las prioridades establecidas. La participación activa del Comité de Programas de la Junta, la evaluación entre colegas mediante la revisión anual de los programas del centro y de los programas en sí, el seguimiento continuo por parte de los líderes de programa, los comentarios a los informes y las visitas al campo por funcionarios directivos, y la evaluación anual del personal principal son elementos importantes de este proceso. El conjunto de esos elementos garantiza la calidad y la relevancia del trabajo de cada científico, y pennite apreciar el progreso de los programas y la necesidad de corregir sobre la marcha tanto las prioridades como las metodologías.El modelo de los equipos multidisciplinarios de investigación, organizados alrededor de un solo cultivo o de un sistema agroecológico, y apoyados por unidades de investigación especializada y por actividades de desarrollo institucional, ha demostrado ,.-' \"\", ~ -t-o( ---' -1 Gru~s de trabajo por diSciPlin~~ --0.;\";\"\"+) e ya su efectividad. Este modelo se conservará como la principal característica de la estructura organizativa del CIAT en los 90; se complementará además con un incremento en los equipos ad hoc de trabajo para ciertos problemas de investigación que es necesario abordar por fuera de la estructura organizatíva de los programas (Figuras 5.2 y 5.3). Estos equipos ad hoc estarán compuestos por personal principal de diversos programas y unidades, según el caso, y serán financiados con presupuestos flexibles. Esta organización se puede describir como un enfoque de matriz parcial y flexible, en donde los programas son el eje sobre el que gira la organización, y los proyectos escogidos se insertan transversalmente en aquéllos.\"Por razones de tipo práctico y costeable, la mayor parte de los servicios de apoyo, como son los programas o unidades de apoyo continuará centralizada, y orientada hacia el servicio. Con el tiempo, el CIAT limitará los recursos financieros básicos para las unidades de apoyo, y canalizará una parte de los recursos operativos a través de los principales programas, a fin de asegurar que las actividades de apoyo estén a tono con las prioridades y necesidades de aquéllos. Se estimulará la disciplina mediante la participación activa en publicaciones científicas reconocidas por su alta calidad, y mediante la asociación informal en grupos disciplinarios y grupos de investigación orientados hacia proyectos. Para facilitar el intercambio interdisciplinario y el uso compartido de las instalaciones, se ubicarán los científicos de una misma disciplina de diferentes programas en proximidad física.Manejo ","tokenCount":"20720"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f6413b0c5b6edcc87eb232fe86b8d03a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b8e16efd-b0ae-4b46-a7ce-58ceb19592df/retrieve","id":"1568832831"},"keywords":["food security","food sovereignty","smallholder farmers","traditional food systems","indigenous food systems","food production urbanization","pollution","policy","food security","nutrition transition","climate change","food markets","urban agriculture","city region food systems food security","economics","climate change","household elasticity","demand nutrition","production","poverty","export","supply chains","bottlenecks","resilience eating practices","home-cooked meals","processed foods","nutrition","metro manila smallholder farmers","middlemen","dependence","market prices","trust food security","nutrition","farmers","climate smart villages","food supply chains","consumption","markets public markets","private markets","lettuce","pechay","parasite contamination","food safety market linkage","smallholder farmers","corporate social responsibility","Jollibee grilled pork intestine (isaw)","pork barbecue","grilled coagulated chicken blood (betamax)","microbial contamination","waste management","food preparation food safety","food handling","city policies","food vendors perception","intention","food safety","consumers","streetfood"],"sieverID":"326cc319-e9f8-48b3-b69c-42d46f6d723c","pagecount":"56","content":"CIP thanks all donors and organizations that globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/fundersThis literature review will address food marketing, the urban informal sector, and small-scale food processing within Metro Manila to provide a literary background for Workpackage 2 of the Resilient Cities initiative. In the review, literature will be summarized and synthesized through a food security and urban livelihoods lens.Metro Manila is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with rapid urbanization and population growth exerting pressure on food security, education, housing, waste management, and employment (Porciuncula, et al., 2001). Growing bodies of literature emphasize the complexities of urban food security, elaborating on the triple burden of malnutrition which includes stunting, obesity, and micronutrient deficiency (predominantly vitamin A, iron, and iodine). These food security challenges disproportionally affect the urban poor, 44% of which suffer from malnutrition in Metro Manila. To address these food security issues, the Filipino government has historically focused on food production and promoting rice self-sufficiency (Bairagi, et al. 2022). However, recent research urges a food system approach to food security, emphasizing the holistic importance of the availability, accessibility, affordability, adequacy of foods (Wiskerke, 2015). Food marketing, the urban informal sector, and small-scale food processing are undeniably essential elements of this food system in Metro Manila. Understanding how and what kind of foods reach the urban table is essential in designing effective food security interventions. Therefore, this literature review will cover these elements of the food system as a reference for the Resilient Cities initiative.This article uses a human ecology framework to analyze food systems in the Philippines. The article is divided into the sections \"state of human well-being\", \"state of ecosystems\", and \"state of institutions\" which respectively describe the nutrition, environmental, and policy challenges in the Filipino food system. Some factors discussed include the Spanish colonial era, American occupation, land titles, international trade, climate change, land degradation, and income inequality. Figures 1 and 2 are especially helpful illustrations of food system and human ecology frameworks. It should be noted that the article has a focus towards rural livelihoods and food production. Although links to urban food marketing are not explicitly made, an analysis of perpetuating (rural) poverty and unbalanced food availability provides an insightful background to understanding food security.Davila defines the human ecology framework as \"an analytical framework that captures the underlying discourses and associated feedbacks of these [discourses] on institutions, human well-being, and ecosystems\". He uses this framework to reveal and analyze social discourses within the Filipino food system, focusing on nutrition, environmental sustainability, and the policy environment.The Philippines has a history of being exploited for its natural resources. This pattern began during the Spanish colonialization period and continued throughout the Japanese and American occupation. During Spanish colonialization, the Philippines was established as a hub for timber and cash crop trade. Land was cleared at alarming rates, sold to wealthy Spanish families, and used to grow a selection of cash crops. After the Spanish left, 25% of the country's forested land was depleted. During the US occupation, land clearing was institutionalized, and the Philippine Trade Act was established to put American elites in control of Filipino cash crops (for the American market). This power perpetuated Western principles of property rights where informal smallholder and indigenous landownerships were labelled \"illegal\". Paired with incentives to intensify agriculture, indigenous and smallholder knowledge systems were marginalized. The US focused on commodity exports of traditional goods such as corn, coconut, and sugarcane; and high-value crops such as bananas, mangoes, and pineapples.In the modern context, Davila shares an elaborate critique of policies from the Filipino government which focus on staple foods. He argues that not only does this policy orientation reduce agrobiodiversity, but it also limits rural development opportunities, reduces the diversity of livelihoods, downgrades traditional and indigenous local food systems, and ultimately leads to environmental degradation. Despite the many modernization interventions that are linked to these policies, Davila articulates that implied trickle-down benefits rarely reached rural farmers. Furthermore, as agricultural intensification increases the vulnerability of production livelihoods to flooding and drought, smallholder farmers are forced to bear the burden of land degradation. Although there are interventions which address climate adaptation, this support typically focuses on crop protection while disregarding landscapes and people. Davila additionally suggests that socioeconomic and political processes such as \"weak governance, corruption, lobbying, and increased human pressures\" are linked to the perpetuation of this production-oriented model and environmental degradation. Davila advocates for the need to integrate conservation policies with rural development to prevent further environmental degradation.Not only does a reduction in agrobiodiversity pose challenges for the environment, nutritional diversity and household food consumption are also put at risk. Unfortunately, food security challenges in the Philippines are (currently) framed as a primarily economic discourse, ignoring issues of \"social interactions, equity, gender, and environmental concerns\". Davila contrasts food security with the concept of food sovereignty, which highlights \"rights of rural communities to frame and influence their immediate food systems\". Addressing the complex sociopolitical landscape where elite landownership and the disempowerment of famers are major challenges, Davila argues the food sovereignty perspective is essential in future research and policy action.Fill the Nutrient Gap Philippines Summary Report World Food Programme Nutrition Division. (2019, March). Fill the Nutrient Gap -Philippines Summary Report. World Food Programme. https://www.wfp.org/publications/2018-fillnutrient-gap-philippines-summary-reportThis report by the World Food Programme (WFP) is a detailed introduction to nutrition and food security challenges in the Philippines. The report shares a variety of insightful statistics which are supplemented with ample descriptions to illustrate the nutrition environment within the Filipino food system. The report also demonstrates how food marketing, specifically, affects nutrition, elaborating on the influence of school meals, advertising, and transportation. Ultimately, the report provides extensive background information on nutrition challenges and concludes with recommendations for intervention.33% of children under 5 are stunted in the Philippines. The WFP suggests that this statistic is largely due to \"poverty, natural and manmade disasters, low consumer demand for nutritious food, and agriculture policies focused on rice self-sufficiency\". Food prices establish a barrier to a nutritious diet especially for the urban poor. The authors mention that transportation costs in the Philippines are especially high due to the country's archipelagic geography and complexities in the supply chain. Additionally, rice self-sufficiency policies are criticized for their failure to address the needs for increasing food diversification. In response, the authors emphasize the importance of improving the collective \"availability, physical access, affordability, and choice of nutritious foods\".The Filipino diet is \"high in cereals and tubers and low in fruits and vegetables\", regardless of income. At least two meals in a day are rice-based, and 18% of daily consumed foods are processed. Although the World Health Organization recommends only 50% of daily energy intake from staples, staples contribute to 73% of daily energy intake in the Philippines. Furthermore, foods with the greatest micronutrient content are the least consumed, supplemented with the growing consumption of unhealthy snacks. Approximately 85% of advertised foods and drinks are considered unhealthy, complementing the increase in demand for unhealthy foods. The report elaborates on other drivers of unhealthy food demand, including \"access, ease of consumption, affordability, and taste preferences\". Subsequently, the WFP warns that unhealthy snacks not only result in an overconsumption of energy, but also increase the cost of a nutritious diet by 40%. The report emphasizes that dietary needs of the population are in more nutrient-dense, not energy-dense foods.To improve nutrition in the Philippines, the WFP recommends investment in more nutritious school meals, micronutrient supplementation, and fortification of staple foods. The report also encourages the establishment of a sugar tax and conditional cash transfers to vulnerable households. Finally, to promote the diversification and intensification of nutritious foods, the WFP advocates for better investment and social support for smallholder farmers.Environmental hazards also arise, including pollution, inadequate waste disposal facilities, and the heat island effect.Wiskerke emphasizes the importance of food security in urban areas as it affects the local economy, environment, public health, and quality of neighborhoods. \"Food security\" is described in this chapter as the collective availability, accessibility, affordability, and adequacy of food. The authors elaborate on the challenge of food loss to exemplify the different food security challenges for industrialized and developing countries (food losses in developing economies occur predominantly in the harvest, storage, and transport phases, while in industrialized economies, losses manifest further down the food chain). Pairing food security challenges with the shift in urban diets, Wiskerke stresses the need for research in food systems, as opposed to previously production-focused narratives.Many contemporary food systems, especially at the post-harvest stage, are dependent on fossil fuels, leading to vulnerabilities to changes in oil prices. Street shops are discussed as an important source of urban food security as they offer lower prices, flexibility in buying quantity, access to short-term credit, all within walking distance to the urban poor.Wiskerke further argues that the current dichotomy between urban and rural policy is responsible for shortcomings in urban food research, policy, and planning, such that (from p.4):• Study of food provisioning is confined to rural and regional development • Urban food security failure is seen as a production failure (not distribution, access, or affordability) • Promotes the view of food policy as a non-urban strategy, delaying researchIn the conclusion, Wiskerke emphasizes the necessity to adopt a city-region scale for development as this will implement an integrated and comprehensive solution for a futureproof food system. As part of this solution, Wiskerke suggests strategies to build synergies and resilience such as urban agriculture, linking peri-urban family farmers to food markets, and reusing food wastes.The future of food security of the Philippines in the face of climate change and changing consumption This report outlines the different impacts of Covid-19 on food production, domestic and export markets, smallholder farmers, consumer nutrition, and employment. Although the report is written at the national scale, certain sections directly address Metro Manila. Altogether, the report provides unique insight on limitations in the Philippine food system that were made aware in light of the pandemic.The Covid-19 pandemic greatly affected the Filipino food system. Unemployment and underemployment rates rose, leading to a reported 44% of the population with insufficient incomes to meet basic household needs. Women were especially vulnerable to the economic shocks inflicted by the pandemic as they had \"smaller cash flow and reserves, limited credit options, less inventory, and a reduced client base\". Even after governmentimposed quarantine periods, female businesses struggled to return to business as usual. A similar vulnerability persisted in micro and small enterprises. Farmers, on the other hand, had greater resilience as they faced frequent shocks from variable weather events. Many farmers had a risk-averse attitude which limited their adoption of high-risk, high-value farming activities. Conservative farming was practiced more by smallholder farmers due to the limited availability of agri-inputs. Despite protecting farmer livelihoods, these production choices negatively influenced the diversity of food crops produced.Restrictions on transportation and enforced community quarantines affected supply-chain bottlenecks and consumer accessibility to nutritious food. Online options for agricultural trade emerged and grew in popularity, but this was not an affordable option for the majority of the population. Rice supply was protected by the government as rice was purchased directly from farmers and distributed in relief packages. These packages targeted urban areas, mainly Metro Manila, which lacked rice production activity. Other agricultural products, such as the Lakatan banana, did not receive the same treatment. As Covid-19 restrictions complicated inter-island logistics, shipping costs rose and hindered the transportation of food products. Because the Lakatan banana has high spoilage rates of up to 30%, women processed the fruits into banana cakes as a coping strategy. Farmers also shifted production to more fast-growing crops (such as squash) to \"ensure continuity in cash flow\". According to the Pinggang Pinoy model for a nutritious diet, food shortages for vegetable and fruit were 92.2% and 59.8% respectively. Conversely, rice, when including imports, had a 24.8% surplus in supply.Structural shifts in food basket composition of rural and urban Philippines: implications for the food supply system Bairagi, S., Zereyesus, Y., Baruah, S., & Mohanty, S. (2022). Structural shifts in food basket composition of rural and urban Philippines: Implications for the food supply system. PLOS ONE, 17(3), e0264079. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264079This journal article is a highly technical exploration on the impacts of urbanization and changing diets in the Philippines. These diet changes are then translated to implications for the food system and challenges which arise. A discussion on market systems is taken from an economic perspectivetheories such as elasticity, consumption, and demand are used to explain household food choices. Much of the paper covers the methodology and calculations of price elasticities for various food products and demographics. Furthermore, differences between household food choices in urban and rural areas over time are examined. Finally, although the paper includes many tables and figures to display calculations, a descriptive analysis is limited.1/5 of the Filipino population is considered poor and 1/10 is considered food insecure. Low agricultural productivity due to limited diversification, climate change, and its impact has made the Philippines historically import-dependent. The Philippines government has approached the issue of food insecurity though economic means of high import tariffs and production subsidies for rice. These policies support rice production, paired with pricestabilizing measures to promote self-sufficiency in rice. Yet, as urbanization and incomes increase, the food basket is expected to diversify, putting pressure on rice-focused agricultural resources. The authors stress the need to analyze the changing demographics and diets of the Filipino population to implement policies suitable for the future.To describe the changing Filipino diet, the authors compare price and expenditure elasticities in urban and rural populations. The calculations shared in the article suggest that income growth will lead to greater food consumption and nutritionally diverse diets. Price elasticities for rice (how consumer demand changes as price changes) vary from -0.04 to -2.17, suggesting that changes in demand differ considerably, potentially depending on income, gender, or education. For both urban and rural households, however, expenditure on rice remains to have the highest budget share compared to expenditure on other foods. The report also found that urban households spend 18% of their budget share on eating outside and only 9% eating at home. Compared to rural populations, urban populations spend less budget share on rice, fish fruits, and vegetables. Furthermore, educated household heads spend more on meat and dairy products, implying the benefits of effective nutrition education. Finally, the results demonstrated that expenditure on dairy products is increasing for both urban and rural populations.Overall, the authors recommend interventions in the non-rice sector to supply nutritious food items at affordable prices.Technological and institutional challenges to food security in the Philippines Rola, W. F., Rañola Jr., R. F., Magcale-Macandog, D. B., & Rola, A. C. (2014). Technological and Institutional Challenges to Food Security in the Philippines [E-book]. In U. S. Nagothu (Ed.), Food Security and Development: Country Case Studies (1st ed.,. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315745824This book chapter describes the status, relevant programs, major threats and drivers, investments, education, and reform practices addressing food security in the Philippines. The section \"programs that contributed to food security in the Philippines\" from p.61-64 is especially insightful in briefly introducing current policies and interventions. The authors argue that factors which influence national food security in the Philippines are: poverty, population growth, a weak marketing system, weak institutions to deliver food security programs, environmental degradation, climate change, and the conversion of agricultural lands. Although an explicit analysis of market-related influences is limited, the discussions of overall food security and interventions illustrate the complex environment in which food marketing operates.Filipino food policy has historically favored food production over food accessibility, nutritional balance, and food safety. According to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), despite the country having sufficient food supply, 15% of the population still lives below the food per capita threshold. Many Filipinos are nutritionally insecure and struggle with undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overnutrition, and obesity. The authors associate these challenges to a lack of integrative programs \"linking production plans with nutrition security\".The environment threatens food production through soil nutrient depletion, soil erosion, tropical storms, floods, droughts, and mangrove forest conversion. Furthermore, excessive chemical inputs and soil degradation establish positive feedback loops which reduce agricultural productivity. Demands from population growth and urbanization further exacerbate production challenges as fertile lands are converted and agriculture is forced into marginal, hilly lands with lower yields. In response to these challenges, the authors suggest production-enhancing investments and programs such as agroforestry, intercropping, various extension and farm insurance programs.In addition to production challenges, food security is threatened from a marketing perspective. The authors argue the current market system is \"failing\" due to the lack of postharvest facilities, poor infrastructure support for value-adding and transport, inadequate advocacy, and the lack of timely market information. High rates of spoilage and losses in agriculture and fishery damage the profitability of farming activity. Although the financial barriers and investment challenges of farmers are recognized, many credit and insurance programs fail to encourage their participation. Chakraborty, et al. (2016) argues that food consumption is \"embedded in culturally grounded social systems\". In the Philippines, eating patterns are changing, especially for the growing middle class. From the households interviewed, there is increased consumption of processed foods and restaurant meals. Despite the growth of the middle class from 2003 to 2009, the average income expenditure on food remained constant at 27%. Yet, the annual expenditure on eating food outside the household increased from 17% to 20% from 2003-2009. Especially for the student demographic, eating out is described as both time and budget friendly, providing most of their meals even if \"outside food\" to be unhealthier. The article also underlines a correlation between household helpers and eating out, such that households without domestic help cooked less at home. In addition, the interviews revealed an increased popularity of processed meats and canned goods. Many individuals and households cited convenience as the main reason consuming these products. Alternatively, other processed items like powdered milk and bottled water grew popular not because of convenience, but because of their perceived health benefits/advantages. Through describing many examples of different household food activities, the article illustrates how socioeconomic factors and cultural perceptions shape food consumption. They further emphasize that the practice of food consumption is \"a very local affair\". Lastly, the authors advocate for the importance of addressing these complexities and express the need for greater research in household food waste and policy action in the service industry.Building Food and Nutrition Resilience in Quezon City Oyuela, A., EAT Foundation, & UNICEF. (2020, December). Building Food and Nutrition Resilience in Quezon City: A Case Study on Integrated Food Systems. In EAT Forum. EAT Foundation.Retrieved October 6, 2022, from https://eatforum.org/content/uploads/2020/12/Case-study_Quezon-City-Food-and-Nutrition-Resilience-EAT-UNICEF-QUEZON.pdfThis report by the EAT foundation describes an extensive collection of initiatives that address food security in Quezon City. Authors also provide numerous policy recommendations and a clear action plan to deliver these recommendations. The report is especially useful for the Resilient Cities project as an introduction to existing work in food security and relevant actors for potential partnerships. Table 1. in chapter 4 is a particularly helpful reference which outlines how different institutions and partnerships are involved in improving food security in Quezon City.Quezon City is home to a quarter of the Metro Manila population and has the largest share of urban poor in the Philippines. Approximately 20% of the city's households are moderately food insecure and 15% experience severe food insecurity. The city suffers from the tripleburden of malnutrition (undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight/obesity) as there is a lack of access to nutritious, affordable, and sustainable diets. Likewise, increasingly unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles also contribute to this challenge. In response, the Quezon City Food Security Task Force (QC-FSTF) identified access and availability as the two weakest points in the urban food system, suggesting these points for intervention focus.Many organizations, policies, and government initiatives address urban food security in Quezon City. These include the Good Food Cities Declaration, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Plant, Health, the C40 Food Systems Network, Joy of Urban Farming, Farmer to Consumer Programme, the Sustainable Diner Project, the Community Mart app, Gulaan sa Paaralan initiative, and the Kadiwa on Wheels initiative (these organizations, policies, and initiatives are separately described in the report). Through the descriptions of pre-existing initiatives on food security, the authors address the importance of the food environment, emphasizing food affordability, nutrition information, and marketing to drive better consumer choices.The QC-FSTF established a two-fold food security framework, addressing urban agriculture and food trade/processing to \"create an enabling environment\" for an improved food system. Although urban agriculture is unlikely to satisfy urban food needs, it has the potential to improve food security and nutrition for the most vulnerable, as well as creating livelihood opportunities and increasing the productivity and spatial quality of urban land. The authors further elaborate that the food system can be strengthened by supporting value-adding enterprises and e-platforms which facilitate trade. In addition, because Quezon City is described as a \"food gateway to Metro Manila\", improvements in the city's food system are argued to also benefit the larger city-region.To achieve food resiliency, the authors share a roadmap which targets vulnerable and food insecure groups and promotes agri-zones and food-zones. The report then highlights partnership and policy guidelines/suggestions to encourage urban innovation \"towards a healthy and sustainable food system\". These include leadership at all levels, integrated programming to address complexity, entering novel partnerships for implementation, and a strong narrative on equitable and sustainable food systems. This report provides a brief overview of the structure of food marketing in the Philippines. There is bias towards the private retail sector, focusing on descriptions of large retail groups such as SM Markets, Robinsons, and Puregold. Wet markets, talipapas, streetfood vendors, or food hawkers are not mentioned in the report, overlooking important food outlets for the urban poor. The descriptions on the commercial food industry, however, elaborate on food processing, different types of products (healthy, prepared, instant, etc.), and cover a small sampling of relevant market regulations. It should be acknowledged that some statements in the report lack consistent citation or register as subjective. Moreover, certain statements contradict or do not fit into messages from scientific literature. Overall, the report covers an extensive range of topics but is limited in detail and evidence. For the Resilient Cities project, this report may be relevant in describing food-related activities for middle-and upper-income groups.Approximately 80% of the total food supply in the Philippines is domestically produced. The authors suggest, however, that the composition of food supply is expected to change as there is a growing preference and demand for imported products (these include \"gourmet and healthy foods, frozen foodstuff, ready-to-cook food, and processed grocery items\"). In addition to dietary preference, growing traffic issues are linked to the popularity of prepared foods. Subsequently, the authors describe the \"frequent snacking culture\" in the Philippines and growth of convenience stores, especially around business centers and residential areas. As of 2019, SM Markets is the lead food retail group with 934 supermarkets and convenience stores across the Philippines. This is followed by Robinsons Supermarket with 615 supermarkets and convenience stores. Other large retailers include Puregold Price Club Inc., METRO Retail Stores Group Inc., and Landers Superstore. Statistics on these stores across the Philippines are provided in greater depth in section 2.1.1 of the report.Food processing is one of the largest industrial sectors in the Philippines. According to the Philippine Food and Drug Administration, most of the registered food and beverage processors are micro-to medium-sized businesses. While large processors directly import raw goods, smaller processors purchase ingredients through distributors. To regulate the production and marketing of \"unhealthy\" processed foods, the Republic Act 10963 was established in 2018. This act taxed 6PHP/liter for caloric or non-caloric sweeteners and 12PHP/liter for using high fructose corn syrup in food processing.The Retail Pattern of Manila McIntyre, W. E. (1955, January). The Retail Pattern of Manila. Geographical Review, 45(1), 66. https://doi.org/10.2307/211730 Keywords: Divisoria market, Sari-Sari stores, parasite stores, talipapas, history, policy This journal article provides a general description of the history of different food markets in Manila. Markets of focus include Divisoria Market, parasite retail concentrations, and talipapas. Although commercial/private food outlets are not as discussed, the article provides a broad background on how food is marketed in Manila. Because the article was published in 1955, some dynamics are expected to be different in modern-day. Nonetheless, the historical descriptions provided remain relevant as background information. A noteworthy element of the article is the included map of Divisoria market. Although outdated, such a map is rare in published works.The food marketing scene in Manila is composed of \"small eating places\", sari-sari stores, general grocery stores, public markets, and parasite stores. In residential areas, \"small eating places\" were seen on every block, with the range of customers limited to immediate vicinity. A sari-sari store is the typical \"neighborhood shop\" and sells miscellaneous things.In most cases, these stores have a low inventory value of a few hundred pesos. Over time, \"small-scale imitations of the American supermarket\" developed in wealthier neighborhoods and replaced sari-sari stores. Especially after World War 2, general grocery stores with refrigerated counters became more commonplace.Most public markets in Manila were built 30-40 years ago, historically located near major churches. These markets were an important food source for the city and became focal points for urban development. The success of a market was heavily dependent on locationmore accessible markets prospered and became fixed. However, as the urban population grew, so did the challenges of overcrowding, the lack of cleaning, refrigeration, and sanitation facilities. In coordination with the growth in demand and opportunity, parasitic activity expanded around the market area, including privately owned retail stores.Divisoria market is the most important market for Manila (and Metro Manila). It's advantageous vicinity to the North Port Area, inter-island shipping docks, and railroad stations promoted food trade and its significant growth and popularity. Products sold in Divisoria were priced lower because of direct access to suppliers. Furthermore, the wide selection of goods sold quickly established Divisoria as a \"favored market\". As of 1955, the market housed over 3000 stalls organized into two sets of long counters, divided longitudinally. Vendors preferred outer stalls because these were more accessible to customers. As a result, stalls in market areas furthest from main entrances (M. De Santos and Tabora St.) were often empty.Parasite stores surrounded public markets to take advantage of its customers. However, sanitary conditions in these areas were often poor. McIntyre defines Talipapa stores as a \"small-scale copy of public markets on private property, often spilling into streets\". Often, stall keepers squat without permission. Since 1948, ownership of these stalls was restricted to Filipinos by law, but were still mostly owned and operated by Chinese. Talipapa stores also grew in popularity in Manila after World War 2 as residential subdivisions grew. McIntyre highlights that the growth of Talipapas marked a notable shift in Manila market dynamics: where people once settled near markets, markets now moved towards people.Empowering consumers in selected public markets in Metro Manila: a framework for the development of AgriWatchPH This conference paper describes the potential for a mobile application -AgriWatchPHto improve communication between market consumers and the Department of Agriculture (DA) as a form of empowerment. Regulatory characteristics of public markets in Metro Manila are described with a focus on market prices and the accountability of vendors. The paper subsequently provides a concise outline of limitations in the public market system such as the mishandling of produce and improper pricing. Although the app is still in its development phase, its proposed features and their intended impacts are detailed in the paper. Altogether, the links made between market limitations and consumer empowerment reveal the intricacies in food marketing.The growing number of vendors in public markets has led to challenges such as overpricing, product mishandling, hoarding, and stiff competition. Although market prices are \"regulated\", mishandling persists. Republic Act No. 7581 (\"The Price Act\") guarantees the availability of \"basic necessities\", which include corn, rice, root crops, fish, pork, beef, poultry, milk, eggs, vegetables, fruits, sugar, and cooking oil. In other words, the DA is responsible for ensuring the prices for these necessities are reasonable. Current price regulation is appointed by \"checkers\" in public markets who oversee product prices from 7AM-9AM to determine daily maximum and minimum prices. These prices are fed to and published on the DA website. The authors express that despite these efforts, a mechanism to monitor whether these prices are followed by vendors is lacking. Furthermore, because the website is only accessible by computer, it is not popularly used by consumers (many of whom prefer mobile devices). Because of \"tedious\" administrative processes to file complaints, many consumers instead post complaints on social media channels such as Facebook. The authors highlight flaws in this system as only some posts will reach proper authorities.The AgriWatchPH app aims to utilize consumers to help regulate market prices and address flaws in communication. A price check module is proposed to display daily prices shared from \"checkers\" and the DA. Consumers may refer to these market prices when shopping and file complaints through the app if they find discrepancies. These complaints will then be forwarded to a DA price watch team who will coordinate an appropriate response. The authors elaborate that establishing a direct connection between proper authorities and consumers would enable governing bodies to cater better action.The paper describes other modules in more detail, including the login, report, check price, budget planner, price checker, accounts management, price adjustment, and market management modules. These additional modules are designed to streamline market information and cater better services to market consumers. The budget planner module, for example, is specifically designed to encourage financial and grocery planning for lowerincome households. While the primary purpose of AgriWatchPH is to improve price regulation and the communication of complaints, the additional features aim to enhance the overall shopping experience for consumers. This book chapter explores the relationship between \"trust\" and agri-food chain mechanisms using an economic lens. The chapter presents a greater focus on theoretical discussion with limited reference to the case studies which are introduced. The authors define and discuss economic theory on trust, satisfaction, communication, personal relationships, reputation, investments, power, and dependence. Succeeding the economic background, the chapter presents results from an empirical study on Australia and the Philippines (this section is most relevant for the Resilient Cities initiative). Although a city or region within the Philippines is not specified in the case, the results share insightful dynamics between smallholder farmers and traders, and how this influences food production and marketing decisions.Research in the Filipino agrifood chain reveals a growing concern that traders are taking advantage of smallholder farmers. Most farms in the Philippines are 0.6 to 1ha in size and are managed by smallholder farmers. These smallholder farmers face challenges to their production and livelihoods from weather events, seasonality, and the perishability of their crops. Often, smallholder farmers also lack direct access to food markets and therefore rely on traders for market linkage and information. These traders have the power to manipulate food supply, access to information, financial capital, credit, and transportation of goods. Although market prices vary from day to day, smallholder farmers have limited power in negotiating prices because of this dependence. Furthermore, high marketing costs can be attributed to \"inefficient transport, inadequate cool storage capacity, significant variations in product form, variety, and quality\". The authors suggest that in many cases, traders take advantage of farmers' limited financial capital by offering credit to lock farmers into trade relationships. In contrast, traders can also establish good relationships with farmers through advising farmers on which crops to grow based on market patterns and profitability. For farmers who grow perishable crops and have limited knowledge on markets, this information is essential.Because of this dependency of farmers to traders, the authors elaborate on the importance of trust in food chain relationships. The authors argue that traders with good relationships with customers make \"higher margins and more efficient exchanges\". In addition, farmers can reduce uncertainty in their business exchanges when there is a greater perception and experience of trust. Finally, results from the empirical study also indicated that to build trust, Filipino farmers valued the \"willingness of the market intermediary to advise the grower of supply problems, a close personal friendship, and perception that the buyer had treated the grower fairly and equitably\".Local food systems in Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines: perspective from the local communities Espino, A., Monville-Oro, E., Barbon, W. J., Ruba, C. D., Gummadi, S., & Gonsalves, J. (2021, May) This working paper under the CGIAR research program on climate change, agriculture, and food security (CCAFS) describes the challenges and drivers for food systems in Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. The paper describes different aspects of country-level food systems, including but not limited to, production, food environment, and diet. This is followed by an analysis of local-level food systems, where the rural traditional food system in Himbubulo Weste serves as a case study for the Philippines. Although the analysis of the Himbubulo Weste food system is not directly applicable to the urban context of Metro Manila, the description of the broader Philippine food system remains relevant and insightful. The paper includes tables and statistics that are useful references for understanding food marketing (especially in the section of food environment). The following summary is written for sections relevant for context in the Philippines only.Food systems encompass an assortment of activities which collectively constitute four core elements: food supply chains, the food environment, individual factors, and consumer behavior. The seven main drivers of food systems include: \"climate and environment, globalization and trade, income growth and distribution, urbanization, population growth and migration, politics and leadership, and sociocultural context\". The authors describe different ways in which the drivers of the food system influence the different four core elements. The Filipino food system is vulnerable to changes in international prices because of its dependency on international trade to satisfy domestic food demands. Furthermore, despite a focus on increasing rice production, the cereal import dependency ratio continues to rise. In Filipino food supply chains, fragmentation and inadequate storage and distribution facilities result in \"significant supply losses for key food commodities\". Food losses are highest for fruits and vegetables, leading to implications in the quality of vulnerable diets. In the food environment, the authors highlight the vulnerability of low-income households to price or income shocks and describe that these groups are more likely to \"shift to cheaper sources of calories\", such as cereals and processed foods. This contributes to the growing issue of inadequate nutrition in the average Filipino diet. A detailed table in the \"Dietary Intakes\" section outlines the intake of different nutrients and foods in the Filipino diet, revealing an overconsumption in sodium and sugar-sweetened beverages, while fruits, milk, and vegetables lack adequate consumption.In Himbubulo Weste, the food system is characterized as a \"rural traditional\" food system. Although the village has limited diversity in food choices, shorter supply chains increase the resilience of the food system. The village implements climate smart agriculture to help diversity and intensify agricultural production. Despite improvements in production, farmers still face challenges in distribution as buyers have greater market power and demand cheaper products. Moreover, farmers express struggles such as the \"absence of a stable contact market, inadequate storage, distribution and transport infrastructure, and poor economic status\". Local food marketing in this village focuses on small retail stores and food hawkers that sell dry and perishable goods, respectively. The authors emphasize the importance of fresh food hawkers in promoting physical access to foods. The informal and This is a short report on food safety in public and private markets in Munoz, Quezon City, and Alabang, Muntinlupa City. Fresh pechay (Chinese cabbage) and lettuce are sampled from public and private markets in these cities and tested for the following parasites: Ascarid, Ascaris, Entamoeba coli, E. histolytica, Giardia lamblia, Hookworm, Trichostrongylus sp., E. vermicularis, Trichuris trichiura, insect, slug, unknown specimen. The report presents test results to compare contamination between the vegetables, cities, and type of market. Results from table 1. present the difference in vegetable contamination between private and public markets which may be of particular interest to the Resilient Cities project. Overall, the report shares insightful statistics on food safety and market outlets with a brief discussion of why these results may exist.Food-borne diseases in the Philippines are closely linked to the consumption of contaminated vegetables. In 2004, parasitic worms caused over 78.6 thousand deaths in the Philippines. These parasites are commonly transmitted through poor sanitation and handling practices (especially while working with manure in vegetable cultivation). Results from the study indicate that public markets on average had greater parasitic contamination, with 55% and 50% contaminated pechay and lettuce from Munoz and Alabang, respectively. On average, pechay was more contaminated than lettuce, with 55% and 35% of the samples contaminated respectively. Of the contaminated samples, the most common parasites detected were Ascarid (46.25%) and Ascaris (45.00%). The authors express likely sources of the contamination are from issues in sanitation and waste management at the market level. In public markets, vegetables are often handled with bare hands and are subjectively \"dirtier\" than private markets. Private markets may also have less contamination because vegetables are individually packaged, outer leaves and additional rotten parts are removed, and vegetables are \"not exposed to mechanical vectors like flies\". Finally, the authors mention that the presence of Ascaris could indicate that animal manure was used as a fertilizer during vegetable production. Given the prevalence of parasitic infestation in these vegetables, the authors conclude with a recommendation for greater caution for infestation and contamination in the production, processing, and sale of food products.This report describes the pilot project: Bridging Farmers to Jollibee Supply Chain, which is part of the Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP). Although the project is more focused on farmer livelihoods and food production, it also exemplifies linkages between rural and urban food networks. Relevant aspects for the Resilient Cities include the potentials benefits both for large food service groups and smallholder farmers with better market linkages.The main challenges of smallholder farmers in the Philippines (identified by the FEP) include: sustainable production methods, limited access to integrated post-harvest facilities, low business skills, weak marketing links with buyers, and inadequate capital. The FEP found similar challenges while working with Kalasag farmers. The case study illustrated that many farmers had small plots of land, utilized traditional farming techniques, had limited access to production capital, and struggled to find steady markets for their crops. Additionally, the Kalasag farmers were dependent on traders for credit and market access which contributed to their limited bargaining power.Training from the FEP targets market skills and agricultural financing skills which aims to \"build production capacity and enable farmers to produce for institutional markets\". As of 2008, 600 farmers trained by the FEP delivered high-value crops (peeled onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, lemons, chili) directly to the Jollibee Food Corporation (JFC). This contribution covered 25% of the total raw vegetable requirement of JFC. For JFC, this was an opportunity for sustainable corporate social responsibility and the linkage helped adapt to the \"rising number of middle-income urban consumers who want high-quality food\". The FEP describes the effects of this collaboration as a \"win-win scenario\": JFC had access to higher quality goods, and farmers benefitted from additional income. Farmer communities also saw trickledown effects in the form of greater capacity and new jobs (especially for women) in activities such as onion peeling, which lead to 20% higher prices.Literature review of the urban informal sector focuses on the role of this sector in urban livelihoods and food supply. Questions such as: how does the informal sector function? How large is the urban informal sector? And the relationship between the informal sector and different levels of government are explored. The literature in this section is organized to flow from broader to more specific insight on the urban informal sector in the Philippines. For an alphabetical list of literature, see the reference list on page 53.Reconfiguring space mobilizing livelihood: street vending, legality, and work in the Philippines This detailed journal article describes the livelihoods in the urban informal sector through a case study in Baguio City. Experiences of informal vendors are described in detail to provide insight on informality, legality, gender, and policy. Although these experiences cannot be immediately translated to the Metro Manila context, because Baguio is also urbanized and has a vibrant street economy, some general patterns may be transferrable to Metro Manila.Informal activity in Baguio City is largely composed of the sale of fresh produce, manufactured goods, and cooked food. The informal sector contributes greatly to the urban economy; however, is often stereotyped as disorderly, superfluous, interrupts efficient traffic flow, and competes unfairly with larger hygienic establishments. Furthermore, street vending activity is seen by the municipal administration as illegal, rendering street vendors vulnerable to fines, prosecution, and confiscation of goods. Milgram suggests that these conflicts stem from basic differences in vendors' and state workers' understanding of \"space\". Not only are vendors typically excluded from the urban planning process, but they are also subject to frequent police harassment that results in the destruction of their goods. Vendors argue that they occupy crowded areas to maximize business, but to the police, this occupation requires them to forcibly remove vendors and hold demonstrations.In 2007, Baguio City passed an anti-peddling law under the \"Marikina vision for Baguio City\" which withdrew many rights of street vendors. The law exemplified a failure to address the livelihood needs of the poor while attempting to reduce informal activity and minimize congestion/disorder. Several subsequent projects followed the anti-peddling law, such as the 5-point plan, one tray white line policy, and the ID badge project. Vendors struggled as their vending locations were limited to areas with less foot traffic or minimized to \"authorized areas\" which were not defined. Furthermore, lengthy administrative processes for registering vending businesses for an ID badge worked to \"divert vendors' attention from advocating better street working conditions\".In face of these challenges, vendors formed associations and mobilized to mitigate restrictions. Vendors continued their practices and made their best attempt to avoid the police, resulting in a \"continuing game of cat and mouse\". Sometimes, the police were more lenient if they had relationships with the vendors, or municipal workers would be paid to mention when the next police \"cleanup\" would take place. In this manner, the regulations imposed by the municipality created conditions of both illegality and informality. Some vendors practiced a micro-selling strategy called \"tempoc\" or \"atado\" in response to the frequent police \"cleanups\". In this strategy, vendors arranged small pyramids of fruits or vegetables on bright plastic sheets. When the police came, they quickly picked up corners of the sheets and relocated to avoid confiscation. Micro-selling also benefitted buyers who often did not have large disposable income and preferred buying in smaller quantities. Buyers also mentioned they did not mind that street vending was illegal, and neighboring storeowners also described it was beneficial to have nearby street vendors as it attracted customers to their business. This exemplifies the \"permeable borders between formal and informal enterprise\".The author ultimately concludes that the informal economy is \"not restricted to small-scale and survivalist activities of the poor but are also a sphere of accumulation in which non-poor operate\". Street vending activity is simultaneously formal, informal, legal, and illegal. Vendors also showed agency to take positions of leadership and \"overcome barriers of social recognition and livelihood rights\".Street vendors, their contested spaces, and the policy environment: a view from Caloócan, Metro Manila This journal article describes the conflicting strategies between informal street vendors, urban planners, and policy makers. The differing perspectives of vendors and policymakers are outlined with a bias towards street vendors. The spatial, legal, and socio-economic challenges to street vending are described in detail and relevant laws targeting the informal sector / street vendors are listed. Helpful statistics on average incomes of street vendors surveyed are also provided.Street vending is defined as \"the retail or wholesale trading of goods and services in streets and other related public axes such as alleyways, avenues, and boulevards\". Street vendors are often situated in areas with high foot-traffic, expanding and contracting with dynamic peak hours of different streets. Reasons for street vending are summarized as the need to make money, increase autonomy, learn/practice skills, and socialize children. Despite the livelihood opportunities street vending offer to the urban poor, vendors are often unfairly targeted by planners and policymakers to \"wipe the cityscape clean\". Government officials describe concerns towards informal activity such as traffic and sanitation issues, unfair competition, and tax leakage. On the other hand, the authors suggest that street vending \"adds vitality, and contributes to economic activity and service provision\". Rather than a hindrance, informal activity is argued to be a healthy transition to the formal.Because of policymakers' negative association towards informal activity, the needs and vulnerabilities of street vendors are often ignored. Vendors describe their needs as insufficient institutional support, long work hours, material poverty (many resort to loan sharks due to a lack of financial support), absence of permits, and no office to accommodate concerns. Street vendors are also subject to frequent purges by the municipality. The vendors, however, yield political power such that they negotiate bribes and write formal letters to city hall to protect their rights. In this manner, the informal and formal sectors are also argued to have grey boundaries. The authors comment that while street vendors hold informal, mostly verbal, agreements to rent public spaces, many government officials are also engaged in bribery linked to street vending, \"strengthening the culture of informality\".Street foods: traditional microenterprise in a modernizing world This journal article studies street vendors in Iloilo and Manila from a feminist perspective. The case studies highlight the role of women in street vending activity and emphasize street vending as a survival strategy rather than a business operation. In the article, Tinker poses the question: how can governments help the streetfood trade without \"strangling\" it? Although Tinker occasionally delivers subjective messages, she shares critical insight on women's livelihoods (a topic with otherwise limited discussion in streetfood research) and clarifies the specific challenges and opportunities women face.Working women in Southeast Asia are usually limited to commercial occupations because of its considered \"low status\". Streetfoods, however, provide an opportunity for women to redefine their social roles as both genders work together in the enterprise. Tinker articulates that women's involvement in streetfood vending also increases their intra-household bargaining power and enhances their value. In the cases studies of Iloilo and Manila, women often made financial decisions for their streetfood business. As a result, more profits from vending were invested in human capital. Money spent on feeding their children was a means to improve nutrition while sending children to school used education as a way out of poverty. If there was leftover profit after investing in the household, vendors expanded their sales to dry goods, and gradually converted their business into a \"tiny grocery store\". Tinker argues that understanding the purpose and priorities of streetfood vending are important in designing interventions helpful for women. For example, NGOs or vendor associations may offer credit to female vendors, but this does not address their particular needs such as sexual harassment and childcare.Streetfoods provide an \"essential source of inexpensive ready-to-eat food for workers of every class and occupation\". Vendors commonly sold cakes and processed foods and served prepared foods. In Iloilo, approximately 10-12% of the labor force is involved in streetfood enterprise, 4/5 of which are women-owned. Yet, government policies fail to (sufficiently) support streetfood businesses and the informal sector. Regulations such as vending licenses and food safety inspections are inconsistent and often subject to bribery. Additionally, the police operate frequent campaigns to \"clean the streets\" which subject vendors to harassment and destruction to their vending carts. Anticipating damage to their carts, many vendors are therefore reluctant to improve their workstations, leaving implications for food safety. Vendors also mention that although many have high school or even college educations, they entered the streetfood trade because of \"abysmal\" whitecollar wages. Although there was limited competition with mega-malls, vendors had to fight to keep their vending areas, coming to work even when they are sick to occupy their space.Given its importance and popularity, Tinker concludes that it is \"impossible to suppress streetfood trade\". It is therefore important to empower vendors through training and legitimizing their livelihoods. Tinker also suggests connecting local agriculture with streetfoods, promoting greater use of fruits and vegetables in food preparation. Finally, Tinker advocates for the extension of research from this study to further investigate street foods sold to children and their nutritional value.The market in the urban informal sector: a case study in Metro Manila, the Philippines Nakanishi, T. (1990). The market in the urban informal sector: a case study in Metro Manila, the Philippines. The Developing Economies, 28(3), 271-301. https://doi.org/10.1111/j. 1746-1049.1990.tb00185.x Keywords: labor, migration, unemployment, slum, scavengers, sari-sari store .tb00185.x Keywords: labor, migration, unemployment, slum, scavengers, sari-sari store This journal article is the result of lengthy participant observation spanning from [1985][1986][1987][1988][1989][1990] in the squatter community Sitio Paz. Quantitative data presented may be outdated, but observations and certain patterns may remain relevant. It should be noted that most residents of Sitio Paz were employed in the recycling business as scavengers. The study, however, also investigates sari-sari stores, which is elaborated in the second half of the report. Standards of living, income levels and distribution, migration history, employment, and social interactions are described in detail with supporting quantitative data. Notable tables include table IV \"the reasons for migrating,\" table VI \"occupation of employed persons in Sitio Paz,\" and table VIII \"labor mobility in the urban informal sector based on job histories of household heads\". For the Resilient Cities initiative, the article provides insightful information on the relationship between poverty and the urban informal sector.Rural-urban migration has a large influence on the slum areas in Metro Manila. Nakanishi argues that in less developed countries, the urban informal sector is a result of limited fluctuation in urban employment despite a growing urban population. Of the migrants surveyed, 78% indicated they moved to Metro Manila moved in search of job opportunities.Many, however, were unable to obtain jobs in the urban formal sector. Labor mobility between the urban formal and informal sector, as well as within the urban informal sector, was not so active. Most of the migrants in Sitio Paz were landless agricultural workers before coming to Metro Manila, and 54.8% of the population did not finish elementary school. The study found that while most residents were scavengers, migrants who lived in Sitio Paz for longer entered \"more productive\" occupations such as tricycle driving, sari-sari businesses, and jeepney driving. Many residents worked long hours, so information attainment was mostly through relatives or acquaintances. Thus, one's social network and \"reliability\" were the strongest components to labor mobility. Contracts were mostly verbal and labor offers were instable. The author argues that the urban informal sector is not competitive but segmented based on \"mutually beneficial interpersonal relationships, which avoid risk arising from imperfect information\".Owning a sari-sari store was advantageous because family members could be stably employed, and various goods were available for emergency use. The expected income from a sari-sari store was also higher than other jobs in the informal sector. The entry barrier to the sari-sari store business, however, was high: initial capital, management knowledge, and established status in the community are needed. Residents had suki relationships with sarisari store owners: \"purchasing goods has the same meaning as paying for using the store as an information station\". The stores surveyed had a net profit of 30 pesos / day. A table with items sold and their values is listed on p.296. Poverty in Sitio Paz was a significant issue. 70% of homes were made of disused articles (tin, cardboard). Most homes did not have private toilet facilities, nor did they use the public toilet (made of garbage near the river). Instead, many excreted on newspaper and dumped this in the river. Residents in Sitio Paz described it was \"next to impossible\" to access formal financial facilities, resulting in many residents borrowing money from friends, sari-sari stores, or usurers. Money loans were an especially large part of the scavenging trade as this was often the form of obtaining labor.Overall, the study finds that interpersonal relationships are strong determinants of labor mobility, but poor migrants still struggle to enter the urban formal sector due to high entry barriers such as education and technical skills. The author argues this labor market mechanism is reason for the vicious circle of poverty experienced by many in the urban informal sector.SUEAA profile: street vendors of Manila Neary, J. (2018, October 11). Street vendors of Manila. SUEUAA. Retrieved September 8, 2022, from http://sueuaa.org/blog/street-vendors-manilaThis web article by SUEAA provides a broad background on street vending activity in Manila. General descriptions and definitions of street vending are followed by details on challenges vendors face, mainly in terms of recognition and financial capital.Main challenges for Manila are the volume of informal settlements and traffic congestion. Traffic is, in part, affected by the many street vendors in Manila, vending in strategic locations to maximize \"footfall\". Fresh produce is often sold by women, while the sale of manufactured goods is not restricted to a particular gender. Street vending is seen as an \"intersection between public space, economic activities, and temporalities\" which render the activities a \"vital part of city society\". The street vending trade is difficult to control and is viewed by many city planners as illegal. In extreme cases, goods sold on the street are sprayed with kerosene to make them unmarketable. Because streetfood vending is not officially recognized, vendors are also vulnerable to fines or prosecution. As a coping mechanism, many vendors seek security through informal payments or agreements with municipal workers. As their financial capital is usually limited, vendors also typically carry out loans. Lastly, the article summarizes the experience of street vendors in Manila as a \"negotiation of visibility and vulnerability\". Neary expresses additional interest in the gendered differences of this experience, calling to action the necessity for further research on the topic.Street foods: informal sector food preparation and marketing Barth, G. A. (1983). Street Foods: Informal Sector Food Preparation and Marketing. In Equity Policy Center (No. 18143593). Equity Policy Center. https://agris.fao.org/agrissearch/search.do?recordID=XF2015017071 Keywords: Iloilo, nutrition, women, credit, food preparation, handling, policy, suki This is the final report for the Philippines portion of the international research project on streetfoods by the Equity Policy Center. Other case studies of the project include Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Senegal (other additional cases were added in later years). Although the focus of the Philippines study is on Iloilo City (Western Visayas), the national context of streetfoods and nutrition is also illustrated in the report. Furthermore, because Iloilo (despite not being in Metro Manila) is an urban area with an active streetfood scene, case-specific conclusions may be potentially comparable to the Metro Manila context. In short, the report is the result of lengthy research and provides extensive insight on the economic characteristics of streetfoods, livelihood importance of streetfood enterprises, consumer demand, health implications, and policy recommendations.Because of the extensive coverage of the report, different chapters are relevant for the \"Urban Informal Sector\" and \"Small-Scale Food Processing\" sections for the Resilient Cities literature review. The relevant chapters will be summarized for the \"Urban Informal Sector\" literature review: \"Chapter 1: Introduction\" and \"Chapter 2: Street Food Establishments\".Malnutrition is prevalent throughout the Philippines because of insufficient caloric and nutritional intake. Poor sanitation, limited healthcare facilities, inadequate income, limited nutrition knowledge, and uneven intra-household food distribution also contribute to the malnutrition challenge. While the domestic market for rice received the greatest development attention, the market system for fruits, vegetables, legumes, root crops, and fish was left underdeveloped. Despite government programs to boost food production, Barth describes that \"farmers will not increase production significantly unless they believe they can sell the increased production at a profit\".The urban food market in the Philippines consists of \"stores, marketplaces, and food sellers operating without permanent selling structures\". In Iloilo City, many small-scale vendors were part of associations which protected their rights and livelihoods. Although stall fees in the market were usually paid, other requirements such as business permits and licenses were often ignored. Furthermore, because many stallkeepers are not formally registered to their stalls, they are prevented access to credit programs. The greatest legal challenges are for non-permanent sellers as they struggle to obtain proper operating licenses. In Iloilo City, these sellers were usually tolerated as long as they \"did not cause major obstructions\". However, this level of tolerance depended significantly on the administration.In the survey on Iloilo City, 83% of the respondents' households relied on street vending as a primary source of income. As informal workers typically earned below the minimum wage, many pursued a \"mixed occupational strategy\". Permanent streetfood enterprises were found to earn more in sales of both meals and snacks compared to non-permanent enterprises. Furthermore, 79% of the streetfood vendors surveyed in Iloilo city were women, who were found to also have greater control over business decisions than their male counterparts. The survey also revealed that 85% of respondents obtained items such as \"fruits, vegetables, fish, and milled rice\" from Iloilo City's nearby surroundings. Garth also highlights a trend in the replacement of locally-produced goods such as shoes or candy by large Manila-based corporations.Suki is a relationship between a buyer and seller in the Philippines. Although the term is commonly used, it has varying uses. In general, a suki relationship consists of regular contact and credit. Garth describes that especially in the Philippines where \"capital is relatively scarce,\" credit transactions are critical. Suki sellers may provide a small reduction in market price or offer better quality goods to suki buyers. Forms of bargaining included ayo (discussion on the amount to be paid) and paaman (selling a larger quantity at the same price). Garth also explains that bargaining and credit decisions are a key aspect to the success of street food businesses.Many street sellers were exposed to the business from a young age, usually through a family member. Although low capital investments allow an ease of entry, Garth argues that the experience and skills involved in street vending raise the qualifications needed for a successful business. Contrary to literature that suggests self-employment in the informal sector is temporary until workers find formal work, Garth describes that many migrants do not enter self-employment until they have lived in the city for longer. Garth therefore highlights that the skills and experience of the workers should be \"utilized to encourage economic development\".The Sari-Sari store: informal retailing in the Philippines This article describes livelihoods in the Sari-Sari store business with a focus on Metro Manila. Written in 1997, the description of formal and informal sectors is arguably outdated. However, survey and interview results describe how these stores operate as well as introducing the complicated relationship between Sari-Sari stores, legalization, and marketing officials. It should be noted that although Sari-Sari stores are not often associated with retail of fresh foods (with the exception of stores that combine Carinderia activity), Sari-Sari stores are an important source of pre-packaged and dry foods (as well as household goods), especially for poorer populations.Gatchalian et al. (1986) describes to the informal sector as a \"coping mechanism\" for urban populations in response to an economy which \"failed to support them\". The informal sector is an important aspect of the Filipino economy which directly serves the needs of the large, impoverished population. In the Philippines, this informal sector is characterized by \"smallscale production and service activities that are individual-or family-owned and use laborintensive and simple technologies\". Individuals and households involved in the informal sector often work long hours and lack access to public services such as \"electricity, water, drainage, transportation, and educational and health services\".Sari-Sari stores are described as a retail operation selling a variety of consumer goods packaged in small sizes. The stores are seen as mechanisms that \"cushion the impact of high prices\" because of their ability to sell in smaller quantities. Within Metro Manila, Sari-Sari stores comprised of approximately 71% of active outlets (as of 1997). 92% of the Sari-Sari stores surveyed did not formally report their economic activity, and as a result did not have access to \"lawful privileges and benefits\". Only stores that were in highly visible areas obtained a permit to legally operate. Of the storeowners, 36.7% used savings, 52.2% borrowed money, and 11.1% used a mix of both strategies as a source of capital. Most sales were made with credit which was tracked with a listaban system (similar to a credit log for each customer). Within this system, the credit limit of customers depended on their palabra de honor, accounting for how financially dependable the customer was. 72% of the Sari-Sari stores applied a base markup of 5-6% to store goods. Ultimately, despite their \"illegal\" operation, Sari-Sari stores are an accepted and popular form of retailing that will \"remain a medium of distribution as long as there are clusters of low-income Filipinos\".Measuring the contribution of the informal sector the Philippines economy: current practices and challenges This conference paper provides an economic and statistical analysis of the informal sector in the Philippines. The informal sector is divided into the categories agriculture, industry, and services. The informal food sector is mentioned as part of the \"services\" category but does not receive explicit analysis. Criteria to identify the informal sector is followed by detailed calculations using data from censuses and surveys from the Philippine Statistical System. The paper is highly technical with limited qualitative commentary. Many statistics, although helpful to economists, need to be further processed for publishing to a general audience.The informal sector is defined as household unincorporated enterprises which consist of both informal own-account enterprises and enterprises of informal employers. The unorganized sector is described as the sector not covered by establishment surveys of the Philippine Statistical System. As of February 2019, 68.7% of recorded establishments in the Philippines were informal. 62.8% of employed persons above 15 years of age were in the informal sector, and 66.7% and 56.4% of males and females were involved in the informal sector respectively. Between 2006 and 2016, the unorganized agriculture and industry sector grew, while the unorganized service sector decreased in terms of nominal GDP. Overall, there was an increasing gap between organized and unorganized sectors in the Philippines.Policy intervention in the street foods trade and its effects on health and livelihood: a case study of Quezon City Yeung, D. S. (1977, June) This master's thesis provides a detailed description of the street food trade through an extensive collection of surveys and interviews conducted in both Quezon City and Metro Manila (although there is more information presented on street food vendors operating near Quezon City Hall than in Metro Manila). Survey results cover a wide range of topics from demographics, financing, household dependence, training, consumers, and policy. The results are displayed in a number of tables, each accompanied with extended discussion. Because a diversity of topics is covered, the study serves as a strong resource to understand street food vending from both a livelihood and policy perspective. The statistics shared from the survey are also clear and helpful references.The informal sector is characterized by an ease of entry, small-scale, low capital investment, little technology or skills required, use of readily available materials, and mobility of operations. Yeung, however, argues the term \"informal\" masks the importance the sector, \"cutting off formal government support such as the provision of labor laws\". As of 1992, informal activity accounted for 50% of all economic activity in Metro Manila. Interestingly, what is considered regular business at the village level is often tagged \"informal\" in the urban setting. Informal activities are usually unregulated with messy or absent bookkeeping. Contracts and employee benefits are rare, paired with improper tax contributions. 60% of vendors studied in Quezon City obtained permits, while in Metro Manila this was only 36%.Approximately 70% of the Metro Manila informal sector is involved in the provision of sarisari stores, and 25% in preparing raw and cooked foods. Street foods can supply a daily energy intake of 2100-2700 calories and with enough financial means, they can also provide adequate nourishment. Popular streetfoods include \"fried snacks, beverages, soups, ices, native cakes, and assorted barbecued items\". Because there is minimal or simple preparation in streetfoods, nutrients in the foods are better retained. Furthermore, streetfood processing often reflects local/traditional food preparation methods, serving as a vector of cultural preservation. Customers surveyed also indicated a preference towards buying traditional Filipino streetfoods because these take more time to prepare.Streetfood vendors are described as permanent/semi-permanent, mobile, or invisible. Within these categories, mobile operations are the most \"physically risky and prone to harassment\". Mobile operations sold more ready-to-eat snacks while permanent operations sold heartier meals. Permanent vending is preferred and corresponds with higher profit margins. These were often located around offices and schools and had a more regular clientele. By contrast, ambulant vending is common near bus stops, taxi stands, and pedestrian overpasses with a more itinerant clientele. Ambulant vendors were observed to travel furthest from their homes and relied more on borrowed finances. The \"five-six\" rule is a common loan system in the informal sector, where a loan of five pesos in the morning is repaid as six pesos in the evening. Despite many vendors in impoverished conditions, many shared contempt with government neglect because policy changes were thought to negatively impact their financial practices. Furthermore, interviewed vendors feared eviction and harassment and shared that over-regulation would only increase bribing activity. Several vending businesses are unofficially controlled by \"turf bosses\" who collected \"rent\"; however, as these rent collectors were sometimes workers in city hall, complaints were difficult to file.Streetfoods and unsanitary vending practices are linked to illnesses such as botulism, hepatitis, parasitic infections, and cholera. Yet, only 12% of consumers in Metro Manila expressed concern for streetfood health. Yeung argues that \"until customers demand more sanitary food handling practices and are willing to pay for it, these practices will continue\". From the vendors perspective, access to water and garbage pickup services were the most pressing concerns. Vendors currently bring water from their homes, which is challenging with longer commutes and restricts the volume of water available.Lastly, Yueng advocates to use policy as a \"means of rendering informal sector activities compatible with urban growth management\". Suggested interventions include access to credit programs, improving working conditions, and better skills training programs.Batangan, D. B., & Batangan, M. T. U. (2009, January 1). Social security needs assessment survey for the informal economy in the Philippines. In International Labour Organization.Labour Organization. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.ilo.org/manila/publications/WCMS_125339/lang--en/index.htmThis lengthy report characterizes the informal sector in the \"Greater Manila Area\". The authors describe challenges in defining the informal economy, as well as mentioning the implications due to the lack of proper classification. Subsequently, the report establishes a specific and detailed definition for the informal economy which is utilized in their survey research. The survey targets \"poblacion,\" \"adjacent,\" and \"remote\" barangays (delineated based on distance from the \"town plaza\") from randomly selected municipalities in Quezon City, Tacloban City, and Cagayan de Oro City. Extensive data is extracted from these barangays and cities, covering topics from sources of livelihood and household characteristics, to farming activity, income, and insurance. It should be noted that data from the three cities is consolidated to represent the barangay categories \"población,\" \"adjacent,\" and \"remote\". Therefore, data on specifically Quezon City, for example, is not available. Overall, the extensive information presented throughout the report are helpful not only in presenting the social security needs (such as insurance and micro finance) of the informal economy, but also in providing extensive contextual information on these urban areas.Social security benefits are critical in poverty reduction. It is therefore essential to \"extend social security coverage to the working population in the informal economy\". The authors describe that challenges in developing effective policies and interventions is rooted in the poor understanding of the informal sector. Many studies share varying definitions of the informal sector which lead to inconsistencies in, for example, measuring the economic contribution or analyzing the activities of the sector. Through an exploration of what is necessary in properly defining the informal sector, the authors establish the definition: \"enterprises operated by own account workers, which may employ unpaid family workers as well as occasional/seasonal hired workers … [and] may employ less than 10 employees on a continuous basis\".The informal sector is a major source of employment for the Philippines. However, many individuals in the informal sector earn very little income, have limited medical benefits, and lack retirement insurance. Additionally, many informal workers struggle to sufficiently feed their households or send their children to school. Many workers also avoid seeking medical treatment because of its financial burden. Furthermore, because of the lack of retirement insurance, many individuals are forced to work at old age to continue supporting their livelihoods.Results of the survey on randomly selected barangays in Quezon City, Tacloban City, and Cagayan de Oro City indicate that financial capital was a key driver to both insurance coverage and participation in microfinance projects. Out of all the respondents, 62.1% indicated that they \"did not have any form of insurance coverage\". Furthermore, when respondents experienced unexpected problems, borrowing money from family members or \"others\" was the main response in all barangay categories. Of the respondents who did have insurance coverage, the most common type was health insurance, followed by life/death and illness insurance. The least common were livestock and vehicle insurances. Interestingly, despite a common desire to have insurance coverage (approximately 81% of all respondents), most participants were not interested in acquiring insurance due to their \"inability to pay for the premium or contribution\". Subsequently, the survey found that 91.5% of all participants were not involved in microinsurance or microfinance programs. Again, at high costs were identified as the main barrier to access these resources.Streetfoods into the 21 st Century Tinker, I. (1999). Street foods into the 21st century. Agriculture and Human Values,16(3),[327][328][329][330][331][332][333] https://www-proquestcom.ezproxy.library.wur.nl/docview/214180163?accountid=27871In this journal article, Tinker describes what the future of streetfoods may look like by drawing insight from her experiences in streetfood research both independently and with the Equity Policy Center's \"Street Foods\" study. In the article, Tinker describes the influence of urbanization (and globalization) on streetfood businesses. However, it should be acknowledged that this insight is illustrated primarily through examples of streetfoods in industrialized economies (eg. streetfoods in New York City). Therefore, readers should be critical when applying conclusions from the article to the streetfood landscape in the Philippines. Nonetheless, some broader patterns are still applicable to the Philippines, and small segments in the article also directly address developing economies. A such discussion that is relevant to the Resilient Cities initiative is the section which explores the suitability of streetfoods as a strategy out of poverty.Tinker defines globalization as \"the development of a global economy that impacts on and privileges trade among countries and so affects prices of energy, food, and manufactured goods everywhere\". In terms of food and nutrition, globalization has changed dietary practices and increased the popularity of imported foodstuffs and grocery stores. Urbanization, on the other hand, is linked to the expansion of streetfood vending as the development of slum housing (that lack kitchen facilities) encourages outside consumption.Research in streetfoods is crucial in understanding the nutritional status of a country. Streetfoods are consumed by a range of socioeconomic groups, but especially by the urban poor. As of 1999, approximately 15% of the labor force in the Philippines was involved in streetfood enterprise. Where an average of 51% of the household income was spent on food, this statistic reached 77% household food expenditure for the poorest quartile in the Philippines. Because of financial barriers, their consumption habits are typically characterized as \"frequent snacking\" or \"grazing\". In some countries, streetfoods are also mashed and fed to babies, indicating the importance for streetfoods to be nutritious and safe. In the Philippines, some notable nutrition interventions include the addition of legumes to cassava cookies and the introduction of vitamin-enhanced fishballs. Tinker elaborates that the key to effective intervention is to design a \"culturally appropriate\" approach which does not lead to an increase in price.A major limitation in current streetfood analysis is the fixation in the economic paradigm that defines growth as an essential attribute of entrepreneurship. Streetfood businesses contradict this paradigm as they operate on \"fundamentally different values\": instead of aiming to expand vending business, the purpose of streetfood enterprises is to provide a livelihood for the family. Tinker links this discrepancy to the harassment of vendors, introducing the larger issue of \"big business versus the common man\". In addition, many studies on \"streetfoods\" only target the visible aspects of the trade, overlooking the importance of \"invisible streetfood\". These include foods that are prepared directly for customers, often prepared in women's' homes and eaten as lunch by the working population. Evidently, the streetfood trade is \"an intricate network of traders, processors, and producers\".The involvement of women in streetfoods is complex. As women balance both household chores and streetfood businesses, they are described to have a \"double day\". Because of their external responsibilities, women often earn less than their male counterparts, despite potentially earning more per hour. Still, involvement in streetfoods is linked to women empowerment, increasing bargaining power, and reducing domestic violence. Because women are found more likely to invest in the household than men, the benefits of women in streetfoods expands to the household level. Yet, when microfinance initiatives target women, the efficacy of these interventions is questioned as \"women often funneled money to enterprises controlled by their husbands\". Tinker recommends greater research into this dynamic to improve female-targeted streetfood interventions.Ultimately, Tinker predicts that streetfoods will \"flourish\" in the 21 st century. The demand for streetfood is likely to increase, and vendors will \"adjust the food to suit new palates and higher customer standards for safe handling\". Through this transition, however, it is essential for governments to work with vendors and economists to acknowledge the context-specific definition of \"success\" in streetfood enterprise.Literature review on small-scale food processing targets food processing especially by micro-enterprises and streetfood vendors in Metro Manila. In contrast to the review on the informal sector, small-scale food processing uses a nutrition and food safety lens to gain insight on the linkages between street foods and public health. The literature in this section is organized to first describe small-scale food processing / streetfood processing, then to highlighting the challenges and potential interventions in the streetfood trade. For an alphabetical list of literature, see the reference list on page 53.Street foods: informal sector food preparation and marketing Barth, G. A. (1983) Keywords: Iloilo, nutrition, women, credit, food preparation, handling, policy This is the final report for the Philippines portion of the international research project on streetfoods by the Equity Policy Center. Other case studies of the project include Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Senegal (other additional cases were added in later years). Although the focus of the Philippines study is on Iloilo City (Western Visayas), the national context of streetfoods and nutrition is also illustrated in the report. Furthermore, because Iloilo (despite not being in Metro Manila) is an urban area with an active streetfood scene, case-specific conclusions may be potentially comparable to the Metro Manila context. In short, the report is the result of lengthy research and provides extensive insight on the economic characteristics of streetfoods, livelihood importance of streetfood enterprises, consumer demand, health implications, and policy recommendations.Because of the extensive coverage of the report, different chapters are relevant for the \"Urban Informal Sector\" and \"Small-Scale Food Processing\" sections for the Resilient Cities literature review. The relevant chapters will be summarized for the \"Urban Informal Sector\" literature review: \"Chapter 5: Street Foods and Health\". It should be noted that this chapter highlights calorie deficiencies as the major challenge in Filipino food security, which contrasts with more recent papers that suggest micronutrition deficiencies are critical. Sections of Chapter 5 which are especially helpful for the Resilient Cities initiative include \"Food Preparation and Handling\" and \"Nutritional Significance of Street Foods\".The streetfood environment has many potential sources of contamination which pose risks for food safety. Food safety risks are commonly associated with illnesses such as \"diphtheria, hepatitis, tuberculosis, gastroenteritis, dysentery, typhoid fever, and cholera\". These risks have become so commonplace such that \"frequent mild bouts of diarrhea and illnesses … are accepted as a way of life\". Common sources of contamination include utensils, cooking equipment, glasses, dishes, vendors' hands and nails, soil dust, flies, rodents, nearby garbage, and water. Paired with the temptation to cut costs, preparation and handling practices in the streetfood sector do not meet \"acceptable standards\". In this report, the studied forms of streetfood operations include carinderias, barbecue stands, fried nuts stands, and native cake vending. These operations have different food safety risks (detailed in pg.81-83) linked to their distinctions in handling practices. This report includes a laboratory analysis of Salmonella, Shigella, cholera organisms, and coliform bacteria conducted for samples of popular Iloilo streetfoods. All samples (excluding the donut samples) tested negative for coliform organisms when tested within a few hours of cooking. However, after six hours since cooking, all samples tested positive for intermediate coliform organisms (even if they were recooked). The report recommends that to prevent diseases, food handlers must be \"subject to some type of supervision\". That said, Barth warns that food handling practices will not improve unless there is also greater public awareness and concern over sanitary conditions. Key opportunities for intervention include providing heating devices powered by solar energy to boil water and cook foods. This aims to keep energy costs low while also encouraging vendors to cook foods more frequently.Rice a staple food in the Filipino diet, consumed more than once a day. This is followed by fresh fish or seafood, which is consumed approximately once a day. In an evaluation of household food consumption, nutritionists found that 50% of households had poor nutritional diets. This is argued to be partially due to the lack of knowledge regarding a \"proper diet\". Table 5.4 and 5.5 provide informative values on the nutrient content and cost per peso for streetfood \"meal dishes\". Overall, meat dishes were the highest in calories and proteins, while vegetable dishes were highest in iron, vitamin A, and ascorbic acid. Yet, the 214 calories per peso of rice is unmatched by any other primary ingredient of meat, fish, or vegetables. This explains the popularity of the food, and highlights challenges as many essential nutrients are lacking in rice. Snacks are introduced as foods which may potentially reduce calorie-protein deficiencies. A single serving of \"snack food\" is estimated to contribute 11% of daily required calories and 10% proteins. Survey responses also share that snacks are a popularly consumed food, especially for younger customers. Snacks can be an important food especially for those lacking calories; however, snacks may also drain the budget that could otherwise be spent on more nutritious foods. Barth suggests the introduction of locally grown low-cost nutritious foods which can supplement streetfood snacks and meals for improved diets. A highlighted opportunity is in incorporating more soybeans and soybean products, which has proved popular in Manila.Policies and strategies for the development of small and medium scale food processing enterprises in the Philippines Digal, L. (2014). Policies and strategies for the development of small and medium scale food processing enterprises in the Philippines. In Policy measures for micro, small, and medium food processing enterprises (MSFMEs) in the Asian region (pp. 177-240). Food and Agriculture Organization. http://econ1.upm.edu.my/~fatimah/FAO%20SME%20ASEAN%202014.pdf#page=187This chapter is part of a larger report from the FAO Regional Office of Asia and the Pacific on food processing enterprises in Asia. This chapter on the Philippines describes the employment, challenges, and contribution of food processing enterprises of different scales. It should be noted that the intricacies of micro, small, and medium scale enterprises are discussed in greater detail than large scale enterprises. However, large processing enterprises are listed and briefly described in the section \"Key SMFE players\". Although the linkages between food processing and retail are described, there is a bias towards formal retail and processing establishments. Finally, the detailed recommendations described in pg.197-198 are an especially helpful resource for designing the vendor business schools for the Resilient Cities initiative.Population growth and an increase in the number of dual income households in the Philippines are linked to the rise in local demand for processed foods. Combined with increasing international demand for processed foods, increasing income, and liberalization policies from the Filipino government, the food processing sector in the Philippines is expanding. The impact of these changes is described as \"restructuring\" agrifood markets and popularizing convenience stores and supermarkets. Alongside these formal establishments, the informal sector in the Philippines is estimated to contribute to approximately 17% of the national GDP. Enterprises in this sector are mostly in vending and selling various food goods, miscellaneous items (sari-sari store), and tailoring.Food processing enterprises are classified in the chapter as micro-, small-, medium-, or large-scale enterprises based on the size of assets and number of employees. Within the processed food industry in the Philippines, micro-, small-, and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) comprise of 99.6% of the enterprises, of which micro-enterprises represent approximately 92%. These MSMEs contribute to approximately 60% of the country's exports, where the most common products are Cavendish bananas (17%), canned and frozen tuna products (11%), desiccated coconut (7%), and prepared/preserved pineapples (7%). The chapter further specifies that 68% of MSMEs are based in Luzon, and Metro Manila alone contains 25% of the MSMEs in food processing.Within the food processing sector, the Philippine Standard for Industrial Classification delineates 10 subsectors, covering the processing of meat, dairy, rice + corn milling, starches, animal feed, beverages, bakery products, sugar, crude coconut oil, and others. 85% of micro-and small-scale enterprises are involved in the rice + corn milling and bakery subsectors; however, these enterprises struggle to sell products at the national level, selling mostly at the provincial scale. Moreover, micro-and small-scale enterprises in the food and beverage sector are typically more labor intensive than their larger counterparts. As a result, these smaller enterprises typically face smaller revenues and limited value addition.Challenges in the productivity of smaller enterprises are linked to concerns in \"the business environment, access to finance, access to markets, and productivity and efficiency\". Strict requirements, slow processing, inadequate financial statements, and lacking information on credit facilities act as barriers to adequate funding for smaller enterprises. Banks are also reluctant to provide financing to smaller enterprises because of perceived \"high risks\". Furthermore, in contrast to large enterprises, smaller enterprises lack a consistent supply and quality of raw materials. Because of poor product packaging and limited or lacking certification, products struggle to expand to new or international markets. Digal also highlights that in the processed meat subsector, high costs, limited knowledge of quality raw material, and inadequate technologies and facilities are major issues. Likewise, in the fruit and vegetable processing sector, pressing issues include erratic supply, increasing input costs, poor product branding, limited shelf life, and difficult accreditation.Overall, the chapter emphasizes that despite the significant contribution of MSMEs to the Philippine economy and food environment, these enterprises face many challenges which restrict their expansion and development. It is therefore important for the government and private sector to support MSME development. Digal outlines key recommendations to develop MSMEs: encouraging clustering of MSMEs to improve linkages with larger firms, investing in value-adding and market-orienting activities, developing of credit facilities that are suitable for micro-enterprises, and prioritizing inclusive growth to alleviate poverty. This article describes a study which uses questionnaires, interviews, and literature to quantify and describe popular streetfoods, handling practices, and perceptions of sanitation in Batangas, the Philippines. The literature review section of the article introduces the role of streetfoods in urban livelihoods both in the Philippines and across the globe. Subsequently, results from the questionnaire and interviews are presented and briefly discussed. The discussion of results from the questionnaire and interviews, however, is limited and the conclusion fails to fully cover the scope of the conducted research. It should also be noted that throughout the article, there are multiple instances of improper English or typing errors which risk miscommunication. Despite these limitations, the authors describe Filipino street food culture in authentic detail and insight from the literature review may be relevant for the Resilient Cities initiative.Streetfoods in the Philippines are an important aspect of Filipino culture, inexpensive food supply, and job opportunity. The popularity of streetfoods is rooted in Filipino snacking culture. Filipinos typically eat three meals a day, supplemented with \"merianda\", a generic term for snacks. Although streetfoods are an essential aspect of urban livelihoods they are also linked to rural agriculture and local enterprises to supply traditional ingredients. Furthermore, the authors describe that even as the commercial retail sector grows, the cultural significance of streetfoods in the Philippines remains. Recently, new developments of indoor malls even include a recreation of street-food style establishments.At the same time, streetfoods are also associated with public health concerns. Challenges in streetfood hygiene include inadequate toilet and washing facilities, insufficient disinfection, the presence of insects and rodents, and a lack of organized sewage disposal. Moreover, refrigerated storage is either limited or nonexistent and foods may contain a variety of additives and contaminants. While some researchers suggest that regular consumers of streetfoods may develop immunity to common contaminants, the authors note that especially when these foods are consumed daily, poor sanitation and food practices pose substantial risks to public health. The Department of Health in the Philippines therefore urges consumers to avoid vendors without proper health permits. However, many consumers, especially the urban poor, continue to frequent street vendors. The authors reveal that for poorer communities who depend on streetfoods, individuals prioritize convenience and affordability over the \"safety, quality, and hygiene\" of streetfood vending. Streetfood vendors also demonstrate a similar attitude, where volume and price are prioritized over freshness and cleanliness when purchasing raw materials.The questionnaire on streetfoods revealed that in Batangas City, isaw was the most popular streetfood, followed by balut, fishballs, tokneneng, and kikiam. Responses from consumers also found that although consumers believed the working area of streetfoods were adequately hygienic, the food preparation practices of vendors were a source of food safety concern. Consumers emphasized certain areas of concern, which included the lack of ensuring whether foods were free from fly eggs, the non-use of hair nets or gloves, and double-dipping of foods. The authors note that the use of single-use plates and utensils were not a large source of food safety concern.Ultimately, the authors conclude that streetfoods have the potential to \"improve civic life\". The article advocates for local governments to provide and organize training and seminars to share knowledge on food safety and sanitation procedures.Street vended foods: potential for improving food and nutrition security or a risk factor for foodborne diseases in developing countries? Imathiu, S. (2017). Street Vended Foods: Potential for Improving Food and Nutrition Security or A Risk Factor for Food borne Diseases in Developing Countries? Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science Journal, 5(2), 55-65. https://doi.org/10.12944/CRNFSJ.5.2.02This article outlines the importance, challenges, and opportunities in the streetfood trade in developing countries. The article does not specify patterns related to any single country, rather maintains a broad scope in the discussion of nutrition security and food safety. However, the description of food safety challenges is especially insightful as risk factors such as different chemical interactions in foods and food handling equipment are detailed. These factors and their descriptions are unique to this article as other analyses of food safety tend to focus on hygiene and bacterial/microbial contamination. Because the article covers a range of topics, it provides a strong, albeit general, foundation on streetfoods which can then spur additional research for the Philippines and Metro Manila.Streetfoods are an important food source for city-dwellers as industrialization compels greater out-of-home consumption. Unique flavors and traditional preparation techniques also establish the cultural significance of streetfoods for both locals and tourists. As employment opportunities in the formal sector fail to keep up with rapid urbanization, more households turn to streetfood vending as a livelihood strategy. Still, despite their importance and popularity, streetfood vending in developing countries lack official recognition, regulation, and protection.Streetfoods are a \"variable, but significant\" part of consumers' daily diet and nutritional requirements. The type of foods prepared and ingredients used not only differ per country, but also between vendors. The article further describes that streetfoods may be centrally processed foods from the formal sector, processed by small-scale processors, or processed by vendors themselves. Because of the diversity of and lack of documentation in the streetfood sector, there is insufficient data on the nutritional value of streetfoods. As micronutrient deficiencies (most prominently vitamin A, iron, and iodine deficiencies) in developing countries grow more severe, Imathiu emphasizes the need for research in the dietary and nutritional contribution of streetfoods. The article also highlights that interventions in streetfoods, such as possible micronutrient fortification, may alleviate these \"hidden hungers\". In the Philippines, for example, the intervention of vitamin-enhanced fishballs illustrates the opportunities and successes in culturally appropriate improvement of common foods. Finally, Imathiu also advocates for research especially on children's consumption of streetfoods as they are more prone to deadly food-borne diseases.The poor microbial and chemical quality of streetfoods is a hazard to food safety. Examples of hazardous food handling practices include using unsafe raw materials (harvested from contaminated waters or containing pesticide residues), using non-food grade materials in cooking (can lead to heavy metal contamination), and re-using frying oil (can promote the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and acrylamide). Many streetfood sites also lack basic provisions such as \"running potable water, washing facilities, toilets, and organized waste disposal\". Imathiu also elaborates that where cereals and legumes are a large component of traditional diets, chemical substances such as glycoalkaloids, phytic acid, and tannins may reduce the nutritional benefits of food products.Weighing the benefits and challenges of streetfoods, Imathiu urges the necessity to officially recognize streetfoods, implement guidelines and regulations on food safety, and provide training to both vendors and consumers for a safer and healthier food environment.Food safety knowledge and practices of streetfood vendors in a Philippines university campus Azanza, M. P. V. (2000, July). Food safety knowledge and practices of streetfood vendors in a Philippines university campus. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, 51(4), 235-246. https://www.proquest.com/docview/216489154?accountid=27871 Keywords: Quezon city, streetfood vendors, students, policy, food safety, sanitation This journal article provides a helpful description of common food handling practices by urban street food vendors. The article explores the gaps between the knowledge and practice of food safety through literature review, observation, and a survey on street food vendors in an unspecified university campus in Quezon City. The survey results are helpful for case-specific statistics on the knowledge and practices vendors take towards food safety. However, because these vendors are in a university campus setting, it should be acknowledged that their experiences may differ from vendors in city/street settings. These differences are briefly explored in the paper. The topics covered in the food safety assessment include: health and personal hygiene, good manufacturing procedures, food contamination, waste management, and food legislation. Findings from the case study are supplemented with literature and broader theoretical information delivering a strong overview of food handling practices from the perspective of food vendors.Street foods in this study are defined as \"anyone selling ready-to-eat foods and drinks in streets and public places\". The study describes different forms of processing found in the streetfood trade, delineating the categories:• Processed: completely packaged, not requiring additional handling except chilling bottled drinks • Semi-processed: processed foods which require additional cooking (eg. fishballs, pork dumplings) • Vendor-prepared: foods cooked by vendors starting from raw materials Streetfoods are a very popular and important food source for many people; however, they are also a known vector for food-borne illnesses such as cholera, hepatitis A, dysentery, and typhoid fever. To safeguard the quality of foods, the Sanitation Code of the Philippines (PD856) was established to restrict street vending to only packaged food, drinks, biscuits, and confectionaries. However, Azanza argues this code is unrealistic and limits the livelihoods of many street vendors. In reality, the case study reveals that the code not strictly followed or controlled.In the sample of vendors surveyed, most were female, married, without an education beyond high school, and between the ages 30-50. The average daily gross income of these vendors was P100-500. Because many families rely solely on streetfood vending as an income source, many times they will continue their businesses despite ill health, potentially directly or indirectly transferring their illnesses to customers. The interviews also reveal that many vendors take leftovers home for family consumption, which may cause food-borne illnesses within the household (and spread to customers the following day).For food safety practices such as personal hygiene, most vendors were aware of best practices. The gap between knowledge and practice, however, was strongly tied to the availability and vicinity of public sanitation facilities (such as washrooms). This was partially the case for waste management, where survey results found that despite the knowledge that waste accumulation near vending sites was unsafe, many vendors left open plastic bags on the side of push carts which were disposed only at the end of the day. Subsequently, many vendors took \"shortcuts\" in food safety practices, believing their culinary techniques and expertise could control risks in their food preparation. The study revealed that vendors commonly prioritized the price and volume of food purchases over expiration dates or evidence of damage, compromising food safety. Furthermore, although many vendors expressed a general understanding of campus-level food regulations, very few were aware of food regulations at the municipal/city level. Azanza suggests this is largely due to the more frequent interactions with and monitoring from campus police as opposed to city officials.Overall, the results from the survey suggest that while there is adequate knowledge towards health and personal hygiene, manufacturing procedures, and food contamination, knowledge on legislation and waste management was lacking. Furthermore, even when vendors were aware of food safety practices, there was a significant gap between knowledge and practice mainly due to financial and infrastructure constraints. Azanza reasons that if vendors had greater financial capital, food safety would improve. Azanza advocates for the organization of safety net funds to address financial challenges and better provisions for basic utilities, infrastructure, and facilities (with an emphasis on handwashing stations and proper garbage disposal facilities). Finally, the article concludes with an additional recommendation for training and seminars on food safety to encourage and facilitate the translation of knowledge to practice.Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practices on food safety and compliance to microbial safety guidelines among vendors of commonly patronized street foods in Poblacion, Batangas City, Philippines This journal article follows a case study in the Poblacion (town center) of Batangas City, a city south of Metro Manila in the CALABARZON region. The study investigates the food preparation practices of three common street foods in the area: grilled pork intestine (isaw), pork barbecue, and grilled coagulated chicken blood (betamax). Interviews with street food vendors indicate common practices and attitudes towards food safety, which are paired with laboratory testing of food samples for E. coli contamination to quantitatively measure food safety risks. Insight from this article may be helpful for the Resilient Cities initiative in terms of understanding the technical and social interactions of specific streetfood examples. Because isaw, pork barbecue, and betamax are also popular streetfoods in Metro Manila, the conclusions from the article may be extended to this context.Streetfoods play a significant role in Filipino food culture. The streetfood environment is known for its \"diversity, mobility, and temporary nature\" and provides an important livelihood option for the urban poor. However, there is growing attention on issues of the streetfood environment such as food-borne diseases and a lack of adequate food safety practices. Common diseases are diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever, and food poisoning, typically from microbial contamination. The article further shares that major sources of contamination involve the place of preparation, cooking and serving utensils, raw materials, cooking time, and personal hygiene of vendors.Most of the vendors in Batangas City had limited education and did not receive formal training or education on the streetfood trade. The income of vendors sampled varied significantly, ranging from PHP5000-23300 per year. Of the total vendors, 69% of which were female, the majority lacked access to running water or hand washing facilities. The authors elaborate on poor personal hygiene practices such that vendors did not regularly wash their hands and often coughed or sneezed directly over vended foods. Furthermore, although trash bins were available, waste was not segregated. Researchers observed that food stalls in Batangas City all had display cabinets or covered containers for food. However, they warn that foods were still prone to smoke and dust contamination from passing traffic. Especially during peak hours, vendors described it was difficult to maintain cleanliness.From the administered questionnaire, none of the vendors exhibited \"poor attitude towards food safety,\" however, researchers noted inconsistencies in food safety practices. Most vendors purchased raw materials from the public market, 86% of which were purchased daily to maintain freshness. However, the respondents shared that they did not inspect their purchased ingredients because of their suki relationship with suppliers (characterized by trust and loyalty). Testing the pork barbecue, isaw, and Betamax samples in the lab, the researchers found a 29%, 54%, and 74% E. coli contamination respectively. These discrepancies were suggested to be correlated with the ingredients and preparation practices specific to the food item. For example, the preparation of Betamax involved chicken blood which was often purchased at the market already processed (as opposed to isaw and pork barbecue where more processing was done at the vendor-level). Betamax vendors explained that purchasing pre-processed ingredients was more convenient for their business, but they knew little of the quality of ingredients or processing practices that occurred at the market level. Researchers also found an association between the environmental condition of vending and E. coli load.The article concludes that greater attention is needed towards streetfoods to protect consumer health. The authors advocate for food safety trainings (offered every 6 months), the allocation of vending spaces more conducive to food preparation and selling, and better health regulations and sanitary permits.Street food vending and nutritional impact Blair, D. (1999). Street food vending and nutritional impact. Agriculture and Human Values,16(3), 321-323. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1007580507131 Keywords: EPOC study, health, nutrition, urban This journal article is better described as a review of the Street Foods study by Irene Tinker with the Equity Policy Center (EPOC). Much of Blair's article summarizes findings of Tinker's study, describing general patterns within the Street Foods study (the study covers cases in Indonesia, Thailand the Philippines, Egypt, Bangladesh, Senegal, and Nigeria). It should be noted that some generalizations made, for example regarding the improving relationship between informed officials and streetfood vendors, are not supported by articles specific to the Philippines. Blair elaborates on the Indonesia case, in which she discusses nutrition and potential interventions. Given their geographic proximity / some similarities in food culture, interventions suggested may be applicable to Metro Manila. Reading the original EPOC study is suggested for greater detail of the cases and insight specific to the Philippines.Streetfood vendors across the globe face common issues: \"sanitation problems, competition among pedestrians, vendors, and cars for road space, crowding and police harassment, difficulty, especially for women, in acquiring the time, hands, and capital needed to vend on a remunerative scale\". Poorer families tend to spend a greater percentage of their food budget on streetfoods. Blair elaborates that because streetfood businesses have the advantage of wholesale purchases, streetfoods are sometimes less expensive than homeprepared foods. Streetfoods also pose an advantage for households that have limited or insufficient time to prepare foods. In this way, \"street food vendors help preserve the more labor-intensive local food traditions\".In the discussion of food safety in streetfoods, Blair highlights the biases in Western standards which are applied to \"food safety\". As illustrated in Tinker's study, many locals consider streetfood safety \"typical of home preparation\". Within the wide variety of streetfoods, Blair mentions that foods \"boiled or fried just before serving are most sanitary\".Streetfoods provide an opportunity for improving the nutritional status of urban dwellers through vitamin A, vitamin C, and fat consumption. Blair mentions that vitamin A is linked to reducing blindness and severity of childhood infections. Additionally, iron consumption is linked to reducing anemia and stunting. Where household food consumption is lacking in fats and oils, fried streetfoods can improve this deficiency. Furthermore, Blair argues that \"vitamin A absorption may be improved by the deep fat fried street foods\" and that vitamin C is essential in \"improv[ing] iron availability from phytate containing foods\". To realize these benefits, Blair recommends incorporating local crops such as ripe mango, papaya, and leafy greens (which are rich in these nutrients) into streetfood preparation.The perception of local street food vendors of Tanauan City, Batangas on food safety importance in the categories: food safety practices, vendors' hygiene, and food preparation. The results are further processed to rank variation in response based on age, gender, educational background, monthly income, and working experience. It should be acknowledged that although the results are briefly described, there is limited discussion on why these results occur.Streetfoods in the Philippines are strongly influenced by the cuisine of neighboring countries such as Japan and China. Most vendors are unlicensed, untrained in food safety, and work in unsanitary conditions to prepare street foods. Unsafe food handling practices include \"inadequate storage and reheating of food before sale, insufficient handwashing, and inappropriate cleaning of cooking utensils\". In addition, streetfood vendors typically practiced improper food storage and refrigeration methods. The authors highlight, however, that food safety issues also stem from poor city planning/management. Because streetfood vending is not legally recognized, city authorities hesitate to invest in proper infrastructure for a healthier streetfood environment. Furthermore, city officials reason that because vendors do not pay city taxes, they are not entitled to legitimate support. The article indicates the lack of proper garbage collection facilities are especially concerning. The accumulation of waste near streetfood vending sites results in an increase in pest populations and risk of food contamination.The survey on the perceptions of streetfood vendors indicates different food safety priorities in the categories of food safety practices, food cooking processes, vendors' hygiene, and food preparation. While detailed results are described in the article, notable findings include handwashing was perceived as the highest ranked indicator of vendors hygiene. While the cleanliness of utensils were ranked highest in the food preparation category, results also shared that there was the combination of raw and cooked foods were ranked the lowest (meaning this received the least attention/worry with regards to food safety). The respondents also indicated their desire for better access to and maintenance of water resources. Vendors further described that although they prefer to maintain sanitary vending conditions to protect their reputation with customers, financial constraints limit their investment in the working area. To maintain a clean workspace, researchers noted that many vendors used cheap cleaning products which often contained hazardous chemicals.Ultimately, the authors recommend developing a simple and informative checklist of hygienic practices to share with streetfood vendors. The checklist aims to \"emphasize the implementation of good hygiene standards\" and also guide policymakers in designing effective programs for food safety.The effects of consumers' perceived risk and benefit on attitude and behavioral intention: a study of street food This article shares a broad literature review on consumption choices of streetfoods and presents results from a study on Seoul and Gyeonggi Province in Korea. The literature review offers a unique perspective which emphasizes the role of consumers in the streetfood scene. It should be acknowledged, however, that the review is partial to streetfoods in more industrialized economies. The study in Korea is technical and utilizes abstract variables to quantify perceived risks and benefits of consumers. For the Resilient Cities project, the literature review is more relevant as the study in Korea caters consumption choices in the context of an industrialized economy. Nonetheless, the article exemplifies the interactions between consumers and the streetfood trade, an essential perspective that is otherwise limited in research.Streetfoods offer unique, bold flavors with simple preparation. Despite isolation from the restaurant sector, streetfoods boast traditional, local cultures and authentic cuisine, rendering the enterprise a cultural icon and, often, a tourist attraction. Streetfoods can materialize in different environments, such as hawker centers, night markets, or street stalls. Despite the importance of streetfood vending to local livelihoods, \"streetfood trades are often viewed as a nuisance\".Streetfood vendors typically sell processed meals and snacks in public spaces. A common characteristic of streetfoods is the sale of these goods for immediate consumption; however, this feature is increasingly associated with environmental issues such as the overuse of disposable service ware. Other issues in the streetfood trade include health risks, illnesses from Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli, Listeria, and symptoms like diarrhea, cramping, vomiting, and nausea. Additionally, the frequent consumption of streetfoods can contribute to unhealthy diets and an overconsumption of fats and inferior ingredients. Despite growing research in food safety, the authors highlight that the \"dimensionality\" of streetfood risks and benefits are lacking in research attention.The study uses the \"perception of risk and benefit\" framework to analyze consumer choice in Korean streetfoods. It is well documented that affordability and convenience are popular reasons for purchasing streetfoods. The authors question, however, whether the value consumers receive in streetfoods are \"what the consumer wants\". This is described as perceived benefit: \"a consumer's belief about the extent to which he or she will become better off from the purchase and/or use of an object\". In short, the framework covers the influence of social risk, psychological risk, physical risk, on the purchase and consumption of streetfood. The questionnaires administered for the study highlight five dimensions of risk perception (socio-psychological, hygienic, financial, environmental, and health risk) and seven dimensions of benefit perception (taste, affordability, serving size, prompt service, convenience, accessibility, and food variety). The results indicate that hygiene is the \"most critical determinant of the users' perceived risk, followed by health risk and environmental risk\". Common concerns included \"unsanitary utensils, poor handwashing, improper food storage conditions, ingredients that are not fresh, and insufficient water supply\". Finally, affordability, serving size, and convenience were the most influential factors towards perceived benefit.The authors conclude that food safety training and regulation is important to lower the risk perception of consumers. To realize this, the authors emphasize the necessity of an \"encouraging relationship\" between government and vendors and further research into tourist customers.Streetfoods in developing countries: the potential for micronutrient fortification Draper, A. (1996, April) This two-section report covers first the street food environment in the Philippines from a nutrition and livelihood standpoint, and in the subsequent section describes a more technical outline of further research needed for different kinds of fortification. For the Resilient Cities project, the first section is more relevant as it provides a detailed description of streetfood characteristics and challenges as well as the livelihoods of those involved in streetfood production and consumption. The final argument of the first section profiles the potential suitability of streetfoods as a vector for micronutrient fortification due to its regular and consistent consumption by people from many social classes (but mainly the urban poor). The second section elaborates on this conclusion and describes different considerations for various forms of micronutrient fortification (including vitamin a, b, c, iron, etc.). Draper concludes that to design an effective micronutrient fortification plan, further research on consumption requirements, chemical requirements, and acceptability is essential.The street food trade is large and complex. For many of the urban poor, it is an innovative strategy in response to exclusion from formal employment. Typical characteristics of the streetfood trade and the informal sector include, among others, \"ease of entry, family/household ownership of enterprise, high labor intensity, operating in unregulated and competitive markets\". Draper describes that the streetfood trade is ingrained in the whole food system, not just retail. Vendors are linked to suppliers for ingredients and ready-made foods. Additionally, 75% of the vendors in the Philippines process some or all of the foods they sold. In other words, urban street food provides an \"outlet for products of rural-agro processing\".Streetfoods are often cheaper than foods prepared at home and pre-packaged processed foods. In a sample of streetfoods in the Philippines, a meat-based dish was found to have 193Kcal and 16g protein. Vegetable dishes had less energy but greater iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C content. Competition with other vendors keeps prices low but may also lead to purchasing inferior materials that compromise food safety. Draper notes that hazards such as microbial contamination, pesticide residues, transmission of parasites, use of unpermitted chemical additives, and environmental contamination are prevalent in streetfoods. However, food cooked in poorer households often pose similar health risks. Draper further stresses the necessity to use proper salts, spices, nitrates, and sugars to prevent food spoilage and to avoid using cheap ingredients from unauthorized suppliers. Although regulation is needed to control food safety, Draper warns that over-regulation risks repressing the informal sector and further marginalizing the urban poor (and reducing their access to cheap food).Most streetfood vendors describe a lack of capital as their main constraint. Few have access to formal credit facilities and resort to lending money from family, colleagues, and informal money lenders. In addition, human and physical capital such as business skills, access to water and waste disposal systems, and recognition by the local administration jointly influence the insecurity and vulnerability of streetfood vendors. Draper mentions that the lack of official recognition has led to numerous cases of vendor harassment. Furthermore, women, who comprise of approximately 63% of all streetfood vendors in the Philippines, are often left out of streetfood interventions because they have less time and other responsibilities (such as childcare).Streetfoods are a promising vehicle for micronutrient fortification because they are: inexpensive and available foods, an integral part of urban diets, consumed regularly and consistently across income groups, and particularly consumed by urban poor and children. However, the challenges for micronutrient fortification in streetfoods include the heterogeneity of foods and livelihoods involved in the trade, the large number of suppliers linked to production of ingredients, the lack of reliability in delivery systems, microbial safety, irregular consumption, and cost.To reiterate, this literature review covers food marketing in Metro Manila, the urban informal sector, and small-scale food processing. As the selection of literature indicates, these topics are interconnected and collectively contribute to the food security and livelihoods in Metro Manila.Food security is defined as the combined availability, accessibility, affordability, and adequacy of foods (Wiskerke, 2015). Recent literature emphasizes the complexities involved in food security, and the importance of understanding issues as part of a larger food system. In the Philippines, food security issues have been approached as a production issue, with a focus on rice self-sufficiency. Argente, et al. (2019) criticizes agricultural policies associated with enhancing rice production as associated agricultural intensification contributed to the reduction of traditional food production practices, overuse of chemical inputs, and environmental degradation. This contributes to the vulnerability of food production to climate events, resulting in fluctuations in food supply and price. Nutrient-rich crops such as fruits and vegetables are especially vulnerable to spoilage due to their perishability and long value chains. These qualities are linked to the imbalances in food nutrient consumption. Nutrition deficiencies in the Filipino population highlight that especially for the urban poor, access and affordability of nutritious foods are a key issue (World Food Programme Nutrition Division, 2019).Literature on food marketing highlights the complex food provision system in Metro Manila. Because there is limited food production in Metro Manila, the region is dependent on rural food production and imports to meet growing food demands (Espino et al., 2021). As the Covid-19 pandemic revealed, this rendered the urban food system vulnerable to shifts in both national and international food dynamics (Robins et al., 2020). Batt et al. (2010) also reveals that the long value chains of fresh produce establish inefficiencies in the food trade. Because farmers lack market linkages and information, they are dependent on traders for advice on which crops to grow and have limited power in negotiating farmgate prices. At the urban scale, this may have implications of higher food prices or greater food spoilage as the financial challenges of farmers restricts them from investing in their harvest. Food reaches the urban population through outlets such as public and private city markets, talipapas, large grocery chains, convenience stores, streetfood vendors, online stores, sarisari stores, restaurants, and more. These outlets are a mix of informal and formal establishments, catering to the diverse and changing diets of the urban population. Abela (2019) and the World Food Programme Nutrition Division (2019) link urbanization to the growing number of convenience stores and consumption of processed foods. Interestingly, despite the growth of commercial food outlets, Tinker (2003) reveals that this has limited competition with the streetfood trade. For the urban poor and even the growing middle class, streetfoods remain an important food source because of its affordability and convenience. Paired with a national food culture of frequent snacking, streetfoods are a significant contributor to the Filipino diet (Buted & Ylagan, 2014). Researchers warn, however, that the significant and regular consumption of streetfoods, especially by the urban poor, calls to attention the necessity to better understand the nutrition and safety of these foods.An abundant body of research reveals the hazards related to streetfoods in the Philippines, highlighting issues such as microbial contamination of Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli, and Listeria. These challenges are linked to poor vendor hygiene, inadequate vending environments, the use of inferior ingredients and non-food-grade equipment, and the lack of proper sanitation and garbage disposal infrastructure. Literature suggests that although some of these practices/issues are linked to the lack of food safety knowledge of food vendors, in many cases, food safety challenges are a result of poor institutional support and financial barriers.The inadequate provision of institutional support is linked to the complicated relationship between the government and informal sector. Because streetfood vending often lacks formal recognition (and does not pay tax), municipal halls are reluctant to invest in and provide proper infrastructure (Aquino et al., 2018). To policymakers, streetfood vending is seen as a \"nuisance\" rather than an important livelihood and food source (Recio & Gomez 2013). As a result, this sector is often left out of policymaking, despite its size and significance in Metro Manila. Furthermore, frequent police campaigns to \"clean the streets\" subject vendors to harassment and the destruction of their vending area (Tinker, 2003). These negative perceptions of the streetfood trade not only challenge vending activity, but also the livelihoods of the urban poor. As many households rely solely on street vending as a source of income, the challenges which face the streetfood trade affect the ability to feed the household and send children to school. Additionally, as harassment and other livelihood challenges add to the financial burdens of vendors, coping strategies such as purchasing inferior ingredients or the inability to invest in their vending business create hazards for food safety. In other words, this exemplifies the linkages between the adequacy of streetfoods and challenges of the informal sector.Despite the challenges streetfood vendors face, Tinker (2003) emphasizes that these vendors are not without agency. It is important to recognize that streetfood vending as a survival strategy, not a business strategy, and means out of poverty. As profits from vending activity are funneled back into the household, streetfoods are utilized as a strategy to invest in human capital before the expansion of the business.Ultimately, through the broad exploration of selected topics, this literature review explores the linkages between challenges in nutrition, how food reaches and is distributed within Metro Manila, to the livelihood challenges of the informal sector, and to issues in food safety. These challenges, while associated with food security and urban livelihoods, are also undeniably connected to the pressures of urbanization and population growth. It is important to therefore acknowledge the underlying issues of limited employment opportunities and social and physical infrastructure that motivate the urban population to navigate and reconfigure their livelihoods.Limitations in this review include the bias towards the urban poor in the discussion of food security and livelihoods. Although the prevalence of obesity is briefly mentioned, the review focuses on micronutrient and caloric deficiencies. Furthermore, this selection of literature contains limited discussion on formal/commercial establishments such as malls, supermarkets, and convenience stores. There is an inherent assumption that research focus is less needed to support the food-sensitive development of these establishments. However, as researchers advocate for market linkages between micro-, small-, and large-scale enterprises as a means of livelihood support and poverty alleviation, an additional assessment of formal/commercial enterprise research is necessary. Subsequently, as the literature on small-scale food processing reveal, there is minimal research on the nutritional contribution of streetfoods. Blair (1999) argues that the Western food standards dominate the research agenda and warns readers to realize the impact of cultural predispositions on intervention design. Finally, a further limitation in this review is the diversity of case studies and scope that is included, despite a research focus on Metro Manila. Even though many examples remain within the broader context of the Philippines, it is cautioned that the conclusions drawn may not be immediately transferrable to the Metro Manila context.Nonetheless, the sample of literature shares numerous intervention and policy recommendations which have the potential for implementation in Metro Manila. In addition to recommendations such as microfinance for streetfood vendors, greater research in the eating habits of children, or micronutrient fortification of streetfoods, the literature also shares recommendations that are helpful in designing effective vendor business schools for the Resilient Cities initiative. Overarching considerations include the challenge of including women in vending interventions. Tinker (2021) describes that because women in streetfood enterprises balance business and household responsibilities, limitations in time restrict their participation in intervention programs. Furthermore, even when training and capacity building benefits their business, their specific livelihood challenges such as sexual harassment and childcare are not addressed. It is recommended that because, as an abundance of literature indicates, women compose of a significant portion of the streetfood sector, interventions should be tailored to their gendered experiences and needs.In the example of Baguio City, vendor associations were identified as a successful strategy to protect the rights of streetfood vendors and facilitate communication between vendors and government bodies. Digal (2014) further describes that for small-scale food processing enterprises, forming associations improves linkages with larger enterprises and expands their market reach. Yeung's (1977) study on streetfood vendors in Quezon City, however, describes that despite the available opportunities to join vendor associations, many were hesitant to join due to financial constraints, administrative hassles, or the lack of perceived benefits. It is recommended to address these challenges both in the implementation of vendor business schools as well as financial or institutional support. For communities where vendor associations are active, intervention can further support these groups in sharing information on how to access microfinancing or loan schemes, understanding vending rights, and food safety practices.It should be acknowledged that \"administrative hassles\" appear frequently as a barrier for lower-income communities to organized support. This is, for example, the case with microfinance schemes, insurance services, and the registration of street vending / informal businesses. This pattern highlights that training or capacity-building in administrative skills may improve the ability of these communities to utilize available support. However, these limitations also imply the greater issue of purposefully tedious or lengthy administrative processes to prevent these groups from accessing support. Further research should address this issue to both hold organizations accountable for the accessibility of support and facilitate the improvement of these service systems.","tokenCount":"19920"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a5004e725ded5224970d36a484dd4fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5a101f0b-a40f-4790-82b0-d210980c74c4/retrieve","id":"-1678369065"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ae4f004e-b9f8-4ec8-945c-8aeec7355f9f","pagecount":"4","content":"An El Niño event is declared when a sustained increase in sea surface temperatures (SST) is observed over the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, as a result of weakening in trade winds from the west, allowing the accumulation of anomalously warm waters (see Box 1).Seasonal forecasts from dynamical climate models are now available with higher reliability, since the \"spring predictability barrier\" of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been overcome (Jin et al., 2008).Monthly predictions of sea surface temperature anomalies indicate that El Niño conditions will most likely reach a maximum during November 2023 to February 2024.Lower rainfall and higher-than average temperatures are forecast for the six-month period from June to November 2023 (Figure 1)As this period covers an important part of the dry season, the forecast anomalies are generally very low. However, anomaly forecasts for November, roughly the start of the rainy season, predict a negative impact on rainfall in the Limpopo Basin.Lower-than-average rainfall could delay planting dates in 2023 for crops such as maize, until rainfall permits emergence in rainfed systems. A direct consequence of a late maize planting could be a decrease in yields due to thermal and water stress at the end of the 2023/24 season.Mean temperatures (Figure 1b) are predicted to be above the average during the period June to November 2023. In November, high temperatures accompanied by rainfall deficits could favor conditions of water deficit and environmental stress on maize seedlings.Stress conditions should continue to be monitored in the coming months as the current El Niño event evolves and upcoming forecasts are released.Higher-than-average temperatures are predicted for the Limpopo Basin from June to November 2023 A delay in the onset of the rainy season in November is predicted A reduction in rainfall and higher temperatures induced by the 2023 strong El Niño event are expected for the Limpopo Basin from January to March 2024 Historic data suggests a negative impact of El Niño on maize yields of the following season in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The maps show that El Niño causes rainfall and temperature anomalies that imply unfavorable conditions for crops. The combination of low rainfall and high temperatures should lead to drought conditions over the region. Consequently, higher thermal and water stress and a reduction in yields should be expected.Evapotranspiration anomalies (Figure 2c) indicate higher atmospheric water demand and water consumption by plants, which could increase the negative water balance throughout the growing season. The impact could be compounded by the high number of days with extreme temperatures (Figure 2d), which are associated with heat stress and significant reductions in maize yields (Lobell et al., 2013).Experience shows that the water deficit stress during the flowering and grain filling stages significantly reduces maize yields in non-drought tolerant cultivars (Sah et al., 2020). Potential conditions of water scarcity and environmental stress for crops such as maize in the Limpopo Basin should raise concerns in the region.As the dominant system in the Limpopo Basin corresponds to rainfed maize, decisions must be taken to try to maintain yields using maize cultivars tolerant to water and thermal stress, or promoting management practices to retain soil moisture, increasing water use efficiency.  El Niño results from higher-than-normal sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The region 5N-5S, 170W-120W (white rectangles below) is looked at to monitor and predict global ENSO conditions. The maps below show predictions of SST anomalies from June to November 2023.The El Niño 3.4 index is calculated by taking the mean three-month SST anomalies over the 5N-5S, 170W-120W region. A global El Niño or La Niña event is declared when the index shows anomalies exceeding +/-0.5 º C that persist for three consecutive months.  What has been previously observed in the Limpopo Basin in terms of maize yields and El Niño? The seasonal climate anomalies presented are associated with adverse maize growth and production conditions.The historical record of maize yields at the country level in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, shows that El Niño years are associated with a mean decline in maize yields (Figure 4).However, the scattering in Figure 4 also shows that not all El Niño years fit the average, and there are years with maize yields above the average. Furthermore, the range of El Niño 3.4 index forecasts from June to November 2023 (dashed lines in Figures 3  and 4) indicate a higher chance of a \"strong\" El Niño event according to dynamical models.Figure 4 shows that not all El Niño events are associated with a decline in maize yields. Similarly, Figure 5 shows that not all El Niño events are associated with a lower rainfall amounts and an increase in temperatures, evapotranspiration and the number of warm days across the region, as summarized in Figure 3.For example, 1959 corresponded to a year of high rainfall (77% higher than average) and also low temperatures (-1.3 ºC below the average) in the Limpopo River Basin, a year of maize yields 27% above the interannual mean in South Africa.These \"discrepancies\" might be explained by differences in sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, timing and other seasonal phenomena such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), which can significantly affect maize yields in the Limpopo Basin (Anderson et al., 2020), especially during El Niño years (Pohl et al., 2007).As MJO consists of two main parts, the \"wet\" and the \"dry\" phases lasting between 30 and 60 days, the intensity of these phases could determine seasonal anomalies for summer 2023/24 in the Limpopo Basin.This publication has been prepared as an output of CGIAR Research Initiative on Digital Innovation, which researches pathways to accelerate the transformation towards sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems by generating research-based evidence and innovative digital solutions. This publication has not been independently peer-reviewed. Any opinions expressed here belong to the author(s) and are not necessarily representative of or endorsed by CGIAR. In line with principles defined in CGIAR's Open and FAIR Data Assets Policy, this publication is available under a CC BY 4.0 license. © The copyright of this publication is held by IFPRI, in which the Initiative lead resides. We thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to CGIAR Trust Fund.2023 Projected rainfall and temperature anomalies 6-months (June-November) seasonal forecasts were obtained from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) multi-system (released in June 2023) (https:// cds.climate.copernicus.eu/). Eight General Circulation Models (GCMs) were used, which have a variable number of ensemble members, which were averaged to obtain one forecast per model. Finally, the multi-model ensemble was used to generate the forecasts of this document.Anomalies of sea surface temperature, total rainfall, and mean temperature from the following models were used:• CMCC (SPS3.5) Research-based evidence and solutions for digital innovations to accelerate transformation of agrifood systems, with an emphasis on inclusivity and sustainability.More information: on.cgiar.org/digital Brief prepared by: Carlo Montes (The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center).Management of river flows in an El Nino event.Declining rainfall will result in reduced river discharge (flow), resulting in negative impacts for users of the water for livelihoods, and placing stress on the river ecosystem. The e-flow directions produced by IWMI (see Volume 7 https://limpopo-eflows.iwmi.org/) provide tables of flow that are required to protect the ecosystem as well as the beneficiaries of a functional ecosystem.The recommended e-flows are lower during dry years such as due to El Nino, mimicking natural processes and helping build resilience of the ecosystem without compromising its quality. The Digital Innovation Initiative is working to assist with implementation of eflows and is providing digital tools that will enable water resource managers to manage river flows to ensure a sustainable river and use of the water.The occurrence of an El Niño event in 2023/24 is almost certain. The historical record is also clear regarding the average anomalies that El Niño induces in the Limpopo River Basin and its potential to impact production of highly important crops such as maize.It is important to keep tracking seasonal anomaly forecasts in the following months, continue the transfer of information to farmers from meteorological and agricultural extension services, and to take timely decisions regarding possible options to mitigate the potential impact of seasonal rainfall deficits and other factors.As the maize growing season approaches, it is important to monitor the status of the MJO, which could be decisive in terms of the magnitude of the influence of El Niño in Limpopo.","tokenCount":"1385"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2244758e29de870efad4708f52d83ca1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9872ef16-291a-4439-9391-65e3eea3ae78/retrieve","id":"-107992770"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9e901906-faf1-4efe-9462-bfc88268b2f0","pagecount":"13","content":"The first year of the AfricanBioServices project is now over. About 100 scientists are now working in the field, in the lab or with already collected data to meet the goals of the project. The executive committee reviewed the research plans for all of them in June and the next step will be to report their findings based on these plans. This is how the European Union wants it and we have to adhere to their requirements.Most of the 13 beneficiaries have appointed at least one PhD student in their groups; these will be some of the outcomes of this project. All PhD students are developing their research plans at different universities. My hope is that they will all graduate before the project terminates. My wish is, furthermore, that all PhD students will succeed with their data collection and graduate in the name and spirit of AfricanBioServices. These students will be our sons and daughters who will continue with the important work we have started in the name of this project.Our first deliverable was the Data Management Plan. Please ensure you use this plan when developing your own projects. An important promise of this project is that we shall leave a database that can be used for coming generations. Therefore, all of us have to follow the designated system, develop metadata plans and input our data into the data repository for further upload into the AfricanBioServices database.Finally, we have agreed about a Communication Plan to guide us on how to communicate among ourselves as well as with our external audiences, including the local communities. It is therefore important that we all use this plan to communicate. Furthermore, we must all use the e-room for communication. Communication is still the key for our success. Good luck!Database group developing the data management plan in Serengeti, Tanzania, February 2016 (photo contributed by Janemary Ntalwila).Existing socio-economic data from various institutions have been collected, compiled and uploaded in the project repository. Data on human and livestock demography for specific study villages have not yet been collected as we are awaiting confirmation of the targeted study villages.In collaboration with the WP5 team, a workshop was held in April to train 13 enumerators (TAWIRI staff) and pretest questionnaires. The trained enumerators will assist in field surveys on socio-economic data collection to fill the gaps. The team also undertook a preliminary site selection visit to identify villages around Serengeti National Park for inclusion in the study. Of the 23 villages identified, 20 will be included in the study.Existing biodiversity, climatic and hydrological datasets have been collected and uploaded into the project repository (http://africanbioservices.webhosting.rug.nl/wHomePage) and database (http://www.bio.ntnu.no/tanzania/login.php). However, some hydrological data are yet to be collected. The team has assisted other WPs in their field work, for example, surveys on biodiversity. Selection of study sites and data collection on vegetation study for WP2 and WP4have commenced. The small mammal survey and road transect surveys on large mammals for wet season were completed in May. Immobilization of impala, wildebeest and zebra for global positioning system (GPS) radio collaring has commenced. Water samples in communities in all study areas have been analyzed for coliforms; positive samples will be analyzed further for molecular detection of bacteria species. Preliminary analysis indicates that about 77% (n = 58) of sampled water sources contain faecal contamination.With assistance from NTNU, several datasets have been uploaded into the project repository and project database. We have uploaded about 305 publications related to socio-economic studies in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, large mammals (15), small mammals (25), birds (11), reptiles and amphibians ( 14)and plants (20). We have also uploaded data from the aerial elephant census of 2014 (total counts), rainfall data, human demographic data from the population census of 2001 and 2012, socio-ecological data from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) project, alien and invasive plant species, plant species diversity and abundance (from the IPBES project), long-term aerial census data for elephant and buffalo and standards for all uploaded datasets.For some time, transport has been a major constraint in the data collection tasks. Between March and May, TAWIRI in collaboration with NTNU purchased five project vehicles that have been allocated to four WPs with one on standby for use between other partners during their field work. A protocol on how to use and share the vehicles between WPs has also been developed by WP7.Contributed by Janemary Ntalwila, Robert Fyumagwa, Angela Mwakatobe, Devolent Mtui andThe sustainability of ecosystems and the services that they provide are compromised by a variety of anthropogenic processes. It is necessary to understand how human-induced stresses may affect ecosystems in order to be able to mitigate the potential negative effects.While negative anthropogenic processes are largely curtailed within the protected Serengeti National Park, a diverse array of threats lurks along and immediately outside the park's boundaries.For large mammals, indirect threats may take the form of altered habitat, for example, deforestation of woodland habitats, or more directly through poaching or persecution. Animals alter their behaviour and habitat selection in response to such mortality risks, which may additionally elevate stress hormone levels.To investigate how different types of land use in and around the Serengeti may affect herbivores, AfricanBioServices researchers are using the impala antelope, common in most woodland habitats across East and southern Africa, as a model species.Recently, researchers from TAWIRI, NTNU and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research commenced fieldwork where their first task was to deploy 20 satellite GPS collars. Once fitted, the units are programmed to record hourly GPS locations providing a detailed insight into movement behaviour.In addition, the collars are equipped with accelerometers that provide high-resolution activity sensor data. In combination, the data received from the collars will allow researchers to contrast movement, activity, habitat selection and behavioural decisions in different land use types in and around Serengeti National Park.Park (photo credit: Craig Jackson).Insights gleaned from the movement and activity data will be further complemented by data collected during regular fieldwork. Here, detailed observations will assess how herds' behaviour, particularly in response to the presence of humans, may differ depending on the presence or absence of threatening processes, such as areas where they are exposed to high levels of bushmeat poaching or well protected within the national park. Faecal samples will be collected during this fieldwork, facilitating the subsequent extraction and analysis of stress hormone levels. The comprehensive study, therefore, aims to generate a greater understanding of how diverse human activities and land use types may affect a model ungulate species.Teams make good progress in setting up field sites and mapping the study area Initially, 14 animals were fitted with GPS collars. This was followed by an intense period of collaring of zebra and wildebeest in May. Five packs of wild dogs have so far been collared in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Loliondo.During spring, road transects in most of the region were surveyed to monitor the diversity of large mammals and birds observed from a vehicle. Several of these transects have been monitored in other projects in the past (for example, the IPBES project) and changes in diversity along these transects can therefore be analysed from 1996 until 2018. What lacks at the moment is establishment of a transect through the Loliondo region in Tanzania and the Mara region in Kenya, but this will be resolved during 2016. The information on diversity will be compared to that on land use development and traffic load (number of vehicles passing) in the specific regions.The group studying vegetation responses to land use and climate has also been very busy. The training focused on the household economic accounting principles of the Poverty Environment Survey approach and how the related questions could be adapted to the specific circumstances in the Greater Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. The workshop was a great start to the close collaboration between TAWIRI and the University of Copenhagen over the coming years in implementing the tasks in WP5.Based on the feedback and practical experience of the many seasoned enumerators, a number of improvements were made to the questionnaires. The enumerators, in turn, were introduced to and obtained experience in working with the Poverty Environment Survey approach.The next round of training will be conducted in July immediately before commencing the first round of the four scheduled quarterly surveys and will hopefully include the enumerators from Kenya.After the training workshop, team members from TAWIRI and the University of Copenhagen took a two-week field trip circling the Tanzanian part of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem with the aim of selecting sites for the household questionnaire survey.The team visited relevant district offices and selected villages to collect basic contextual information and validate the pre-selection of villages based on geographic information systems and secondary sources. In total, 21 villages have been selected in Tanzania. Another four villages will be selected in Kenya following a similar approach.Solomon Zena Walelign to join the WP5 team as a postdoctoral scientistOn 16 March 2016, WP5 completed job interviews for the second of the two postdoctoral scientist positions included in this work package. The Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen received applications from 12 people; four met the qualifications and, subsequently, three were interviewed. We are happy to announce that we are in the process of signing a contract with the successful candidate, Solomon Zena Walelign.Solomon studied for his PhD at the Department of Food and Resource Economics, University ofCopenhagen; his research thesis was on rural livelihood strategies in Nepal. We know Solomon as an excellent econometrician and an extremely productive researcher.Solomon will be responsible for assessing the households' choice of livelihood strategies. This task aims to assess household preferences and trade-offs in choices regarding changing ecosystem services, policies and management strategies, and determine what incentives best encourage households to choose livelihood strategies that are compatible with maintaining ecosystem function and ecosystem service delivery. This will involve the use of choice experiments and potentially other behavioural field economic approaches that are still novel in a developing-country context but highly promising in terms of providing answers to urgent management questions.Solomon will also be responsible for designing the surveys, coordinating the data collection, analyzing the data and writing the relevant output. He will start officially on 1 September 2016 and we in WP5 look forward to welcoming him into our team and working with him over the next two years.research and communication methods. For example, they demonstrated that participatory methods for quantifying ecosystem services would enable the project value these services from the perspective of the consumers rather than the scientists. A number of teams are therefore developing community-based research methods to achieve this target.Through the meetings, we have also been able to identify schools as an additional channel for communicating our research findings. When the team visited Narok, pupils from the local primary school had a campaign to support a clean-up exercise within the community. This may be a useful way to communicate with the local community so the project plans to partner with such schools as part of communication activities and awareness creation at the community level.Pupils from Aitong Primary School in the Mara Narok area lead a march to support a clean-up exercise in the community (photo credit: ILRI/Bernard Bett).During these meetings, we distributed copies of Kiswahili versions of the project brochure. The brochure uses pictograms to show the linkages between the key drivers of change that the project is analysing, namely, climate and changes in land use, demographics and ecosystems. The brochure will be translated into the Maasai language to enhance its uptake by the local community.We are grateful to all project partners for the roles they have played in communication and dissemination, especially the TAWIRI team for helping to develop the brochure and facilitating the community meetings in Serengeti.Dublin, H. ","tokenCount":"1951"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dc646cfd240fed6cf031f66384ef3101","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/017ede5a-548a-4147-8458-6498c58a4102/retrieve","id":"-1084849965"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6cfb0f3c-f974-4528-8bbc-c97f0e94b6e2","pagecount":"1","content":"• Objective comparison of reproductive performance across management systems and interventions, esp. in projects targeting dryland production systems.• Used to evaluate the costs of poor reproductive management and development of economic models.The • To ensure cost-efficiency of interventions, changes in reproductive performance need to be measured and monitored objectively.• Various traits have been measures over time, making comparisons difficult.• We collected data on commonly used reproductive performance measures from 242 goat flocks in four districts in the drylands of Ethiopia• A quantitative goat annual reproductive performance index (G-ARPI) was developed by combining reproductive performance traits.• Improved tool for farmers/pastoralists, veterinarians and researchers to determine reproductive performance at flock level.• Will be used to monitor reproductive performance to make flock management adjustments• Validate and possibly to re-calibrate the index and its cut-offs and adapt the approach for other production systems in different agro-ecologies.Gezahegn Alemayehu * , Gezahegne Mamo, Biruk Alemu, Hiwot Desta, and Barbara Wieland *gezahegn.alemayehu@cgiar.orgPastoral girl competing with kid to get milk. Photo: Gezahegn A./ILRI § Towards objective measurement of reproductive performance of traditionally managed goat flocks in the drylands of Ethiopia. § Any intervention plan to increase reproductive performance needs to measure and monitor reproductive failures appropriately.","tokenCount":"198"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"30877b55d6923f7135fe8d0b036efea4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/241ad2ed-280a-4a9d-b960-ea03b25dbd82/retrieve","id":"54483222"},"keywords":["Farmers","perception","gender","improved haricot bean","attributes","Cameroon"],"sieverID":"ebcb9f8d-f1e2-4e3f-a9c5-f53ed170a8a7","pagecount":"9","content":"The introduction of improved varieties of haricot bean has been viewed as a strategy to increase haricot bean production. Thus, recognising the perception of men and women of these varieties can contribute to increase production. The study sought to analyse farmers' perception of improved haricot bean varieties in the West region of Cameroon. A mixed-method was used in collecting data from six sub-divisions in the West region to evaluate men and women farmers' perception of improved varieties of haricot bean in 2019. Result reveals that farmer's desirable attributes of improved haricot bean varieties qualities were related to the fact that it was high yielding, highly tasteful, had good grain quality and size, diseases and drought-tolerant as well as accepted in the market. On the other hand, farmers did, not like varieties that are difficult to harvest, susceptible to excess rains, late-maturing and have low market demands. Thus, varieties which are not resistant to biotic and abiotic stress with low market demand should undergo a product replacement strategy to meet the desired attributes of men and women farmers.Haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important legume worldwide contributing 16.9% of protein and 7.3% calorie (Katungi et al., 2009). The above crop plays a significant role in the prevention of some human ailments such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Xiong et al., 2019;Jukanti et al., 2016;Hayat et al., 2014). Women play a leading role in the production and processing of haricot bean in Africa (Snappe et al., 2019;Franke and de Wolf 2011). Haricot bean is rich in micronutrients (iron and zinc) and protein which is essential to the health and wellbeing of especially women and children (Haas et al., 2016). The crop also plays a vital role in improving the soil through symbiotic nitrogen fixation (Wilker et al., 2019;Farid et al., 2017).Most of the haricot bean production in Africa is dominated by resource-poor small-scale farmers who grow the crop in various inter-cropping mixtures with cereals and other major crops (Birachi et al., 2011). The estimated production is about 23, 816, 123 tons, covering a total of about 18 million ha, out of which 17% are in Africa (FAO, 2014). Haricot bean production fits in many farming systems, ranging from small-scale with limited technology in poor economies to large scale mechanized farming. However, haricot bean production and productivity potential have not been achieved due to several constraints including biotic (fungal, bacteria, viral diseases and insect pest) and abiotic (drought) stress. The demand for this crop is increasing as it slowly transforms from a traditional subsistence crop to a market-oriented crop (Buruchara et al., 2011). Approximately 40 percent of its production is marketed at a market value of over US$ 452 million annually (Katungi et al., 2011;Buruchara et al., 2011;Ugen et al., 2012).In Cameroon, haricot bean is one of the legume crops of choice, dominating food habits and dietary practices. It is also known to be an affordable source of protein, especially in areas where livestock products are high-price (Katungi et al., 2009). The crop is consumed both in the dry and snap bean form, hence making it the main subsistence crop for many women (Tambi et al., 2017). For example, in the last few years, domestic and international demands for haricot bean have increased especially towards neighbouring countries. Report from the Institute of National Statistics shows an increase in export values between the period of 2009 (1.183.2 tons) and 2010 (1.271.5 tons) to neighbouring countries such as Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African and Nigeria (INS, 2017). This increase according to an earlier study by Siri et al. (2014) could be associated to increase in domestic, regional and international demand for haricot bean. Results from the same study also show that the rapidly growing population and urbanization of major towns like Douala and Yaounde as well as the expansion of institutions such as boarding schools, military camps, prison yards, orphanage homes and hospitals within the national territory are also accountable for this domestic increase.The increased negative impact of biotic and abiotic stresses on food crop production has resulted in crop losses and subsequent shortage of food, impacting the nutrition of millions of people in the country. Thus, in order to improve the productivity of haricot bean and meet the need of the growing population, the Pan African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) in collaboration with the Institute of Agricultural Research and Development (IRAD) introduced fourteen bush, semi-climber and climbers improved bean varieties; red mottled (Ecapan 021, Mac 55,Feb 192), cream (TY3396-12, Mac 33, Nitu), small white (Mex 142), and large white (BGG and 22-GL), yellow (KJ4/3), small red (NUV-109-2, DOR-701), small black (PNN) according to Siri et al. (2016). The introduction of improved haricot bean was a strategy to enhance food and nutrition security in the country.A lot of research programs are diffusing bean varieties through multilocational, farmer's field day and on-farm trials in Cameroon, with little or no idea of men and women perception of the different varieties they have been disseminating over the years. Perceptions of new agricultural technology are important factors that are associated with farmers' adoption decisions (Kaup, 2008). Since farmers' perceptions influence crop variety choice, use, and subsequent adoption there isneed to understand men and women farmer's views and not household views of these improved varieties (Abdullah and Samah 2013). As recognising the perception of men and women in technology development results in increased agricultural returns (World Bank, 2009).Based on these premises, the study sought to assess men and women farmers' perception of improved haricot bean varieties in the West region of Cameroon. Farmers may subjectively evaluate the technical and cultural aspects of these technologies differently. Thus, understanding men and women farmers' perceptions are important in designing and promoting agricultural technologies (Uaiene et al., 2009). Farmers' perceptions of improved varieties of haricot bean have significantly influenced their decision in relation to varieties adopted, produced and marketed. Their perception was evaluated based on desirable and undesirable attributes of improved varieties of haricot bean in the study area.The study was carried out in the West region of Cameroon, precisely in Foumbot, Kouoptamo, Bandjoun, Djebem, Nkong-Ni and Penka-Michel sub-divisions, where the rural population comprises 80% of the total population (Figure 1). The climate of this region is characterized by two seasons; the rainy season from about March to October, and the dry season from November to about mid-March (Yengoh, 2012). Most of the agricultural activities take place during the rainy season since the region is poorly equipped with irrigation infrastructure. The region was selected for this study because it is one of the leading production hubs for haricot bean and provides income for most of the men and women farmers. Also, dissemination efforts of improved varieties were concentrated in this region.The methodology used in this study is a multi-stage sampling procedure. In stage one, the West region was purposively selected, as one of the leading haricot bean production hubs. In stage two, three administrative divisions were purposively selected -Noun, Koung-Khi and Menoua because of high production of haricot bean production in the region. In stage three, two sub-divisions were purposively selected from each administrative division -Foumbot, Kouoptamo, Bandjoun, Djebem, Nkong-Ni and Penka-Michel. These sub-divisions were selected because their farmers benefited the most from improved seed distribution through government intervention from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) and Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation (MINRESI) through the delegations of Agriculture and IRAD, respectively. Also, to reduce bias information of the perception of men and women farmers towards improved varieties, two hundred and forty farmers were selected using a simple random technique from a list of farmers groups in the different sub-divisions. The list was made up of farmers who had cultivated at least three of the different introduced improved haricot bean varieties in these sub-divisions. Thus, forty men and women farmers were selected in each division, making a total of 240 farmers in the entire study. The geographical location of respondents is presented in Table 1.Prior to data collection, three research assistants were recruited and trained to collect data and run a pre-test before going to the field. Three visits were made to the study sites. The purpose of the first visit was to make formal arrangements for entry into the study area and established contact with key institutions and resource persons. The second visit focused on questionnaire administration to men and women haricot bean farmers.Questions were asked on their socio-demographic characteristics, their perception on improved haricot bean varieties. In the third visit, key informant interviews were carried out with selected farmers and key resource persons from MINADER, IRAD and non-governmental organizations. As far as possible, both male and female officers were interviewed to understand which improved varieties have been disseminated to farmers. While key informants farmers were asked which improved varieties, they grew and why, and this was triangulated with information from focus group discussion. Four focus group discussions (FGD) were also conducted during this phase in Foumbot and Penka-Michel sub-divisions. In the FGD, farmers were requested to indicate their views on the desirable and  undesirable attributes of improved varieties of haricot bean and reasons why. Also, questions were asked whether the production of haricot bean has increased and why key informant and FGD complemented triangulated quantitative data on farmers' perception of improved varieties of haricot bean and validated the results. Farms and markets were also visited in the different studied areas to get the ground-truth on why farmers preferred certain improved varieties and appreciate those that drive major markets.Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the data that was collected. This included percentages and frequencies. Qualitative data obtained were transcribed, and themes identified through content analysis and used to interpret the data.The ages of farmers ranged from 20 to above 60 years, with a mean age of 42 years in Table 2. The findings also mirrored the information from 767, 000 individuals in 13 countries across three regions (Sub Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific) and 38 countries from the Rural Livelihoods Information System by Aslihan Arslan (2019), where the average age of farmers in Africa varies from 41 and 50 years. In addition, we see from the table that women between (20 to 29 years) farming haricot bean are marginally significant compared to men of the same age.Findings on Table 2 also revealed that almost all (99.2 percent) of the farmers had been cultivating improved haricot bean for more than three years, indicating some experience which can permit farmers to articulate their perception on improved varieties. Fifty-three percent of women farmers have more than 30 years of experience, compared to men farmers. This is because haricot bean for the longest time has been considered a woman's crop (Nakazi et al., 2017). The data on Table 2 further shows 73 percent of women farmers with primary education, have a 1 percent significant difference compared to the men farmers. About thirty-three percent of the men farmers had been to high school and even had higher levels of secondary and university education than their female counterparts. The higher illiteracy rate among females as compared to their male counterparts has been observed in many developing countries (Mugonolaa et al., 2013).Men were more involved in livestock farming while women were into crop farming. Women involvement in crop production was significantly different by 1 percent compared to their male counterparts. The reason could be as a result of the gender division of labour in the farm and household. This is an indication that even though both men and women are involved in haricot bean production, it is still a woman's crop. With the introduction of improved varieties, more men have experience than women, and this is probably due to the risk involved in investing in any new technology. During FGD, most farmers in Foumbot said they had cultivated these varieties for more than eight years due to their proximity to the mother station charged with the multiplication of these varieties. Thus, proximity and availability also increase years of experience in cultivating these improved varieties.Our interest in this section was focused on perceived reasons given by men and women farmers to support the fact that haricot bean production has increased in the West region. In Figure 2, the high yielding potential of improved haricot bean was the main reason for increased haricot bean production as reported by male farmers. This is confirmed in the male focus group discussions where men said: \"We grow more climber's varieties -Mex 142, NUV-109-2 and Mac 33 which are high yielding compared to women who usually grow bush varieties\".Furthermore, more women than men attributed the increase in haricot bean production to increase haricot bean varieties cultivated as well as increased participation of men in haricot bean cultivation (Figure 2). Men and women acknowledged the importance of market demand for these varieties as a factor that attributed to its increased production and participation of both sexes. Thus, promoting the adoption of improved haricot bean varieties has the potential to increase production, household food security and farmer's revenue, which is one of CIAT-PABRA objectives for all targeted countries across Africa.The observation on increased in haricot bean production from farmer focus group discussions confirms FAO statistics (2020), which shows an increase in haricot bean production in the country from 342,270 and to 402,054 and yields from 12,687 to 13,456 in 2014 to 2018 respectively. The observation is also in line with findings of Katungi et al. (2015), who reported that adoption of improved haricot bean has caused an increased in haricot bean cultivation and yields. Therefore, policies aimed at enhancing haricot bean productivity and promoting the adoption of new, improved technologies should consider the perception of men and women farmers. The results on farmers' perception on desirable qualities of improved haricot bean varieties showed that men and women farmers attached high importance to high yielding potentials, early maturing varieties and varieties that are resistant to diseases as compared to the local ones (Figure 3). The above choices can be attributed to changing climate and adverse effects on the crop. Several empirical studies have shown that an improved variety will be appreciated highly if the new variety is technically and economically superior to the local varieties (Krishna and Qaim, 2007;Kruger et al., 2011). Further analysis by sex indicates that traits such as high yielding, resistant to drought, rainfall and diseases, taste, right grain size and quality, market price were rated almost equally by male and female farmers.More specifically, women preferred the following traits: early maturing and storability, while men on their part preferred varieties with more seed accessibility and less input (Figure 3). This implies that varieties having varietal traits with high yielding potentials and early maturing will be highly adopted by men and women farmers. For example, Kruger et al. (2011) report that farmers in Burkina Faso appreciated a modern sorghum variety because it gave high yield, compared to the traditional sorghum variety that farmers planted in previous agricultural years. Chong (2005) argues that farmers' adoption of new agricultural technologies is also affected by farmers' perception of the amount of labour requirement they will have to allocate if they adopt the underlying technology. Thus, this might have been a key motivational factor why the majority (59.7 percent) of the women appreciated varieties that are early maturing the most. Additionally, women explained during focus group discussions that early maturing varieties such as TY3396-12, Nitu, Ecapan 021 and Feb 192 allow them to have many cropping seasons in a year, hence helping them to meet their economic obligations such as paying school fees and loans. This study concurred with Martel et al. (2000), who argue that farmers adopt new agricultural technologies because they perceive that the new technology could reduce labour requirements and other associated costs, and reduce losses due to risk (drought and heavy rains) during production.Farmers' evaluation on undesirable attributes of improved haricot bean varieties established that they were not contented with varieties that are difficult to harvest (62 percent), susceptible to excess rains (43.4 percent) and those with late maturity (36.2 percent) as well as varieties Men further complained that in some circumstances, these losses not only increase the risk of food insecurity at the household level but also at the level of benefits that accrue from its sale. This implies that farmers' perception of undesirable attributes, especially under changing environmental conditions are also important. Adegbola and Gardebroek (2007), report that in addition to considering yields and profit associated with improved technology, farmers also consider improved varieties that reduce risks because damages from insects and/or disease during grain production and storage can result in substantial yield losses and poor grain quality.Men and women farmers both agreed that an undesirable trait was when the crop is susceptible to drought. Women complained of the following attributes: susceptible to excess rain and diseases, low market demand, unacceptable grain colour and unavailability of seeds. On the other hand, men undesired traits were dull haricot bean colour, late maturing, poor storability and more input. They also did not like when the crop was difficult to harvest, an attribute often associated with drudgery. These variations in undesirable attribute may be due to differential access to information, differences in cultivated varieties and the seasons in which these varieties are being cultivated. Men and women may have different agricultural production functions, possibly because crop choice differs by gender, which may be influenced by cultural norms (Doss, 2002) or by other factors such as lack of access to resources and the culturally accepted division of labour. However, both men and women emphasized the fact that climbing varieties were challenging to harvest, especially during heavy rains. Finger et al. (2009) show that easy crop management was part of the reasons that would encourage farmers to accept a particular technology.Men and women had varied perceived reasons for why improved haricot bean production increased in the region. They both agreed that high market demand was responsible for this increase. Women farmers also added that the increasing involvement of men in haricot bean farming is a contributing factor while men highlighted the high yielding attributes of the improved varieties. It was noted during focus group discussions that men mostly cultivated climbers which were high yielding compared to women who mostly grew bush varieties. Women also attributed increase haricot bean production to available different varieties which they could cultivate. This can be attributed to women's search for multiple varieties that meet food and market needs.Both men and women farmers desired attribute in an improved haricot bean variety was high yielding and drought-tolerant. Women wanted a variety that could store well, was early maturing, had a good grain size and not susceptible to too much rains while men desired attributes were disease-tolerant, less input, grain quality, good market price and availability. Men and women farmers desired attributes that could help them adapt to the changing climate, reduce the cost of production, that can stay for long to meet consumption patterns and better prices. In addition, the availability of improved haricot bean seeds is also crucial for continues production and wider dissemination.Perceived undesirable attributes for both men and women farmers was susceptible to drought. Women farmers did not want a variety that had a dull grain colour, was susceptible to heavy rains, not available and susceptible to diseases. In contrast, men farmers perceived undesirable attributes was late maturing, poor storability, poor grain size and difficulty in harvesting. Looking at desired and undesirable perceived attributes of improved haricot varieties for both men and women farmers, it is clear that they have similar attributes they desire and do not in varying degrees. Thus, perceptions of new agricultural technology should be studied, and information used for breeding varieties that meet men and women attributes of different haricot bean varieties to increase adoption and wider production impact.","tokenCount":"3311"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"63432fa9de843d5b81bf0d707ea455f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/63858efd-fe4d-4c33-9f7a-7146d7239ce4/retrieve","id":"1075069992"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f466589-5910-4a04-9c71-0511dbf7a2af","pagecount":"3","content":"Describe the general progress of the work plan and deliverables, including where the planned work is progressed as expected, where it is not, whether the work plan is still on track to complete expected deliverables, and if not, what proposed modifications are contemplated.The rice-based systems component stakeholders have agreed on: the logframe indicating the outcomes, outputs and activities up to September 2012, project sites, project implementation partners, their roles and responsibilities, protocols for baseline, diagnostic and yield gap surveys, nutrient manager validation, multi-stakeholder platform establishment and community seed production, as well as milestones and timelines for the seven activities identified for 2012.AfricaRice trained Ghanaian partners on yield gap (2 trainees) and diagnostic (2 trainees) surveys in Cotonou, 13-17 February, 2012. Partners that will produce seed under the project as well as sources of foundation seed for multiplication were identified.The sub-agreement between IITA and AfricaRice as well as those between AfricaRice and its implementation partners (SARI and the World Vegetable Research and Development Center -AVRDC) were signed and funds were transferred accordingly. Key Deliverable Deviation: If specific key deliverables were not met according to the proposed plan, briefly discuss the reasons they deviated and the proposed corrective actions.All the activities listed in the logframe have been started. However, all started late because of the many uncertainties about the project and its implementation. Related to this, the activities could not start until agreements had been signed by the implementation partners. Now that the agreements have been signed and funds transferred, these activities will be conducted fully. Course Correction: Whether or not you are on track to meet key deliverables, with the benefit of current experience, are there any modifications you would propose to the work plan and deliverables?It is more realistic to set a completion date of September for most of the activities only the inception workshop, baseline and diagnostic surveys can be completed earlier than September, 2012. The yield gap survey and Multistakeholder platforms establishment, operation and assessment will not be completed until 2013. Plans for Next Reporting Period: To the extent that you have proposed modifications to any of the activities identified in the deliverables, identify why modification of these activities will still lead to achievement of the deliverables, and how your organization will be able to successfully achieve the deliverables as modified.The only modifications are in the timelines for completion. The new timelines are more realistic and achievable. Risks: Are you aware of any significant risks or concerns that have not previously been identified, and that may affect your organization's ability to achieve the agreed-on deliverables? If so, indicate how your organization is addressing those risks.The frequent modifications of the entire project by the donor has given cause for some concern  Sustainability: If your organization intends for this project to be sustained after the grant period has ended, what actions have your organization and project partners taken and what actions will you be taking to facilitate sustainability, and how will the project be continued?Sustainability of the project's activities will be assured because their implementation is being linked, through the establishment of rice sector development hubs, to the Ghana national rice development strategy as well as other donor-funded rice value chain development projects in the project intervention areas. Successful intervention in the project sites will be up-and out-scaled by development agencies and the private sector (who are part of this project) to other areas not covered by the project. Scalability: If your organization intends for this project to increase in scale after the grant period has ended, what actions have your organization and project partners taken and what actions will you be taking to facilitate that increase in scale?Successful intervention in the project sites will be up-and out-scaled by development agencies and the private sector (who are part of this project) to other areas not covered by the project. Lessons Learned: What lessons have you learned during the past year that will help you to achieve your intended results moving forward?The interest and commitment of the stakeholders in this project, including the government of Ghana, have been amazing and the project will build on this. The importance of effective communication and inclusiveness of all stakeholders for successful project implementation have also become clearer and will be a guiding principle.","tokenCount":"710"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"33d26cd6ce76034025207d67b839dc5e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aeea7de8-9ba4-4877-8edb-37f45f9f5c25/retrieve","id":"-778015455"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9b6871df-2eb6-4f36-8930-c88dd7f50587","pagecount":"2","content":"Development of a curated resource center on evidence Commissioning Study: GENDER Platform Part II: CGIAR system level reporting Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs:• Gender-equitable control of productive assets and resources • Improved capacity of women and young people to participate in decision-making • Technologies that reduce women`s labor and energy expenditure adopted Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Too early to say Description of activity / study: The GENDER Platform's flagship product, the resource hub, launched on International Women's day 2021, with evidence, tools, methods and manuals, training material and publications of gender research in agriculture and food systems that are of interest to the global development community. In the ten months between its launch and the end of the year, the resource hub had a total of 50,263 visits, exceeding by 151% the visits garnered by the now-retired GENDER website during the same period in 2020. In 2021, 3036 publications and 356 news posts (including historical content), 96 expert profiles, 18 events and 52 introductions to tools, methods, manuals and training courses were published on the hub. Content highlights include 12 gender evidence explainers and 26 gender insights.","tokenCount":"194"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f10ee0fb99deb4b0edb345b30d5340a4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ea644247-a24e-4d14-897f-aff930d68c2b/retrieve","id":"-560759903"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e2d99f45-fac6-49dd-8f88-592c435de278","pagecount":"11","content":"CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock provides research-based solutions to help smallholder farmers, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists transition to sustainable, resilient livelihoods and to productive enterprises that will help feed future generations. It aims to increase the productivity of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world. The Program brings together five core partners: the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with a mandate on livestock; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which works on forages; the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which works on small ruminants and dryland systems; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) with expertise particularly in animal health and genetics and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) which connects research into development and innovation and scaling processes.The Program thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust FundThe Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is committed to creating awareness, knowledge and skill on research and models to increase use by scientists and decision makers beyond the CGIAR, contributing to achieve development outcomes. As part of this commitment and strengthening partnerships, the Alliance supports the \"Digital dairy -Information and Communication Technology (ICT) advisory to realize the forage triple win\", a project under the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Program (KCSAP). KCSAP is a Government of Kenya program that is funded by the World Bank and is being implemented over a five-year period (2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022) under the framework of the Agriculture Sector Development Strategy (ASDS) (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020) and National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS, 2010). The development goal of KCSAP Digital Dairy Project is to achieve adoption at scale of existing Technologies, Innovations, and Management Practices (TIMPs) -improved forages and pastures-through ICT-based, usable and timely advisory and training to dairy farmers. Outputs from this project include:1. Big data analysis and modelling -contributing to improved understanding of forage TIMPS adoption challenges and better understanding of end users for improved future targeting & profiling 2. Quantification of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) contribution of total forage TIMPS adoption in terms of total increase in milk production (Mt/year) and GHG emission intensity reduction (Mt CO2e) 3. Accessible and usable ICT-based advisories for informed decision-making on appropriate forage species and their management, taking into account local soil conditions, daily weather and market information, and enabling peer-to-peer exchange.CLEANED is a minimum data ex-ante environmental impact assessment tool developed by the Alliance to quantify environmental impacts of livestock production systems. CLEANED is an easy-touse Excel-based tool that allows users to explore multiple environmental impacts of transforming livestock production systems and value chains. It evaluates changes in different livestock enterprises on productivity and economics, land and water use, greenhouse gas emissions and soil health 1 . The tool is most useful in the designing and planning phase of projects, initiatives or programs that look into farm-scale interventions as it allows users to understand impacts and trade-offs and to better design sustainable livestock systems. Participants were taken through general overview of the CLEANED model. This section highlighted on the importance of livestock and associated negative environmental impacts with emphasis laid on framework behind CLEANED model development. The facilitator outlined several dimensions assessed by the model, CLEANED process and input data requirements. At the moment it does not. Data requirements to calculate carbon stock changes high, and changes in carbon stocks need to be considered over a long-time frame (e.g., 15 years). In the new upcoming desktop version of CLEANED, calculation of carbon stocks will however be included.A deep dive into the sections of the model enabled participants to have an overview of what outputs are generated by the model, parameters used, several sections of the inputs sheet and a quick run through back-end calculations to understand how each of the dimension is computed.Participants were divided into two groups to conduct a CLEANED exercise. Each group was expected to model its own farm by modifying benchmark farm through changes in livestock numbers, manure management, feedbasket (percentage intake), and crop inputs. They would then save modified farm as theirs and transfer results to a summary sheet provided. As they reported back from groups discussions, the facilitator expected them to discuss and compare their model farm outputs with benchmark farm results. The objective of this exercise was to enable participants to interact with the tool and have a basic understanding of keying the data in the tool, generating reports and discussing the outcomes. It was evident from the reporting session that many had a quintessence of executing tasks and explaining results. Currently, the model assumes that anything coming outside the farm is purchased and has no impact on land use where assessment is being done. However, this is something the experts will be looking at and see possibilities of assessing beyond livestock enterprise. 4. Why is Rice calculated separately from other crops?Rice fields have much higher methane emissions and thus it requires special attention.This was meant to test participants level of understanding CLEANED model. Ten participants' respondent to the questions. Highlights of questions and their responses are in Table 3. • Informs decision-makers and the public of the environmental consequences of implementing a proposed project in the livestock system • In order to be able to understand the impact it has on the environment and see ways to mitigate the negative effects • Because there is a link between livestock related activities such as feeding and animal emissions and the status of the environment • These reports are essential in planning for better land utilization.• They inform on the impact of livestock production on the environment and hence influence farming decisions How would you employ CLEANED in your work, and with what objective?• It will assist me assess the effect of improved forage and livestock management on productivity of the enterprise and the impacts of these changes on GHG emission, erosion and water use efficiency • KSCAP objective 2. By seeing the effect of the different types of fodder • In preparation of Livestock advisories to the various stakeholders.• Evaluating the impact of the farm enterprise on the environment under objectives 2 & 3 • Modelling the system and also assess the risks • The model can be changed to an online application to increase availability, accessibility and impact. I would apply it on a web-based application Showcasing a CLEANED assessment case study, including scaling to regional levelIn this session, a representative of a dairy livestock enterprise from the Southern Highlands of Tanzania was used to show case how CLEANED has been applied to assess Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in intensive dairy systems. Participants were in agreement that low emission livestock diet plays a critical role in reducing GHG emission intensity. This was followed by a case study to elaborate in details how CLEANED was used to scale farm level milk production impacts to national level 2 . Ideally, farm scale impacts are multiplied by herd composition to get national level environmental impacts. Information on herd composition and individuals per herd is based on national statistics. One of the participants suggested a possible pathway of grouping farm types of similar characteristics and choosing one farm to model and then predicting the rest through multiplication. Participants were impressed with scaling outcomes and clearly saw a tool that can be used influence decisions at both regional and national levels .Participants were again divided into two groups to discuss amongst themselves on CLEANED relevance and application to KCSAP Digital Diary Project under aforementioned outputs 2. Comments arising from the group discussions included the following:• Impacts of climate change are evident. This tool is useful to influencing our own institutions and can be used in other projects as well.• The tool can be used to influence policy at both county and national levels.• Kakamega has big project on dairy improvement. The tool can be used to measure impacts of improved feeding on climate smart agriculture goals within the county. • According to participants, Nyandarua dairy was an important enterprise to see how proposed interventions were addressing climate change goals since the county had already started investing in its value chain. • It was established that county governments were willing to invest in evidence-based research.Therefore, CLEANED model will be used to provide evidence (in values) to source climate finance. • It is key in generating policy briefs and general advisories on climate change.• CLEANED is useful when comparing policy targets especially in agriculture sector.","tokenCount":"1430"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8402bd611ca359c543e1f1930b062cd5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/18020675-5d0d-4e4c-9676-9f788d60bfc2/retrieve","id":"-632185750"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ec1f6022-6367-45d5-858f-ae68f8c5ca8b","pagecount":"13","content":"We thank Dr. Thomas Hargrove who reviewed and edited the document to improve its presentation and contento We also thank Dr. Alvaro Ramírez ofthe Rice Program for providing the impact data assessment.CIAT recently bred two resistant rice cultivars suitable lor both irrigated and favored upland conditions in a \"hot spot\" environment for blast. These cultivars have been grown experimentally and commercially for 5 years without breakdown. Resistance remains stable because several resistance sources are combined in the Unes, which were selected through a long and complex breeding scheme.An integrated strategy involving classical pathotyping and molecular fingerprinting has provided a novel mechanism to classify more than 50 Colombia n pathotypes 01 blast disease into six distinct genetic lineages or \"families.\" Combined with the use 01 molecular markers, scientists will now be able to identify and use genes resistant to specific lineages rather than to randomly breed for individual pathotypes.The proposed integrated breeding strategy, whose living proof is the durability of two cultivars that were independently bred by traditional methodologies, will permit rapid identification 01 desirable resistance sources and the breeding of stable blast-resistant cultivars for different environments and cropping systems. Lasting resistance will reduce fungícíde use and lower plant breeding cosls. which will translate into profits for rice farmers and a cleaner environmenl. Over a 15-year period, including years with both above-and below-average blast epidemics. the net present value 01 the benefits is estimated at US$1.6 billion Irom increased crop yield. and in reduced expenditures lor rice imports and use 01 fungicides in latin America alone. Worldwide, this environment-Iriendly scientific breakthrough helps resolve one 01 humanity's mos! devastaling plan! diseases.Rice is the world's mosl important crop, and the major tood lor a third 01 humanity.Rice blasl disease is the mosl widespread and damaging disease 01 cultivated rice in both tropical and more temperale latitudes. The disease is caused by the ascomycete fungus, Pyricularia grisea Sacc. (teleomorph: Magnaporthe grisea Barr). The tungus reproduces asexually and is noted lor expressing a large number 01 virulent torms or pathotypes, especially in rainted or upland areas, where the environment lavors epidemics.Mosl rice-growing areas in Asia, Africa and lalin America rely upon regular introduction 01 new blast-resistant rice cultivars as well as fungicide use.Many years 01 genetíc breeding and research have shown Ihat genetic resislance to blast in these regions is short-Iíved, rarely being ellective for more Ihan 2 lo 3 years. Several major nationwide resislance breakdowns have been documented in countries as diversa as Egypl, Soulh Korea and Ihe Philippines. One 01 the mosl recenl breakdown occurred in Texas in 1991. Whelher the lack 01 durable blasl resistance reflects signilican! shifts in the trequency 01 existing pathotypes or trequen! occurrence 01 new palhotypes by mutatíon and/or immígration is nol fully known. The key to resolving Ihese issues líes in delining the population genetic structure thal underlies patholype variation and in determining how and at what rate pathotypes evolve.The other control melhod used by rice larmers, Le., when resistanl varieties are not available, depends heavily on lungicide treatments, usually applied on a calendar basis. Fungicide use may not always be effective or economicaly sound, imd is never environmentally desirable. This situation 1 argues in lavor 01 adopling a broader disease management slrategy Ihat would allow development 01 durable resistance and a reduction in lungicide use worldwide.Ihe concept 01 integrated crop management, which combines breeding lor durable disease resistance with rice cultural praclices Ihal include disease management concepts. This approach aims lo maintain current production levels in regions where yields are already high, and to increase yield where Ihe lull varietal genetic potential is lar Irom being realized. Production costs must be lowered il rice production is lo remain efficient.Managemenl 01 plan! disease pathogens, varielies, cultural practices and fungicides, which all loo often are treated separately by researchers and extensíon agents, are considered logether in this summary 01 íntegrated research. Bringing a range 01 lools together to guarantee a healthy crop will nol only contribute to higher and more stable yields, bul should also prolong Ihe lifespan 01 resistant varieties which are so painstakingly developed. The chal/enge is then lo exploit these integrated management tools so that farmers can maintaín high yíelds at economical1y attractive production levels with the lowest possible use of external inputs.Cultural methods or agronomic practices have been shown to clearly play an important role in developing blast pathogen populations. Using genelic resistance alone in rice may nol be an adequate control tactic, particularly in coping with pathogens that exhibil great variation, as in the case 01 rice blast.Fertilizatíon, planting and water management practices play an important role in the rapid breakdown 01 rasistance by ancouraging high pathogen population levels. We have accumulated a larga sel 01 dala al diffaranl sites in a tropical blast-prone area in Colombia and can thus assemble and use Ihe available tools properly, keeping in mind farmers' objective 01 a productive and profi!able rice crop.We have repeatedly demonslrated tha! higher rice yields are obtained through a combination 01 lower nitrogen and seeding rates as opposed to Ihe high rates used by rice growers in the study area. Together with optimal water management, total returns may be increased by the equivalenl 01 up lo 1 tonlMa 01 paddy compared with conventional practices.Rice growers have developed management practicas thal oltan incorporate inappropriate land preparation andlor suboptimal chemical control 01 weeds. Under these circumstances, cultural practices may lose efficiency if resistance levels are nol high enough to counleract environmental effecls that favor pathogen proliferation and mutation.CIAT and its collaborators in NARS have generated data that will provide opportunilies lo weighing management alternatives for rice blast. As an example, one key queslion is \"Ooes resistanee deserve a higher priorily within the concepl 01 inlegraled disease managemenl?\" Answers to Ihis question need further analysis using Ihe history 01 rice varietal development in Colombia since 1960. Incorporating genelie resistance into commercial varietíes has elearly been the prelerred mean s tor prolecling rice from disease. Breakdown 01 this resistance is eommon in mos! riee-growing areas and otten oceurs shortly alter varietal release.Generating highly resistant and durable varíeties for riee-blasl-prone areas will have three major eeonomíe impaets: (a) eliminate curren! yield losses beca use 01 uncontrolled blast disease in farmers' fields: (b) bring savings lrom fewer or zero sprayings 01 fungicides; and (e) minimize environmental hazards from using ehemieals on humans, wildlife and Ihe environment in general.From experimental data, it has been estimated thal average yield losses amount lo 5-10% in irrigaled systems and are more than 20% in minfed systems in existing production systems using current varieties. According to farm surveys earried out by C1AT and its eollaborators, farmers' expenditures on proteetive fungicides range from 6% to 50% 01 total crop protection eosts. By introducing new, more !oleran! and stable rice germplasm lo the blast disease, il can be expeeled Ihal not only will future rice yields slabilize al higher levels but also Iha! unit produelion eosts will decline.Rice blasl disease management, partieularly in developing eountries, must, lor eeonomie reasons alone, rely on effeelive resistance breeding and gene deployment strategies. This approaeh is also consisten! with overall goals 01 sustainable agriculture and redueed dependence on ehemieal-based teehnologias. Sueh approaches have been hampered by !he diversity and virulenee 01 the fungal pathogen and Ihe inabilily lo combine adequate resistance genes. This summary describes a novel and íntegrated strategy developed by an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional team from CIAT's Rice Program and Bioteehnology Research Uníl cooperating with two scíenlisls al Purdue University. The strategy components that follow combine all Ihe lools 01 elassíeal pathology, breeding, and molecular biology lo address this key eonstraint on global rice production.The sole epidemiological tool for studying the rice blast fungus has been a palhogenicity assay, which sorts isolales inlo palholypes (\"races') by their range 01 infection on a set 01 differentially resistant rice cultivars. Assay results can be strongly influenced by host age and condition, inoculum quality and variation in en'llimnmental conditions during the assay. Furthermore, isolates may produce a variety 01 intermediate ¡nfection responses (Iesion types) on one or more of the differentials, making assay scoring both difficult and subjective. Although an intemational set of eighl differential cultivars has been established lo standardize assays, it has beco me elear that this set cannot decipher Ihe pathotype diversity that occurs in most rice-growing regions.Many pathogenic races have been identified in P. grisea, and this variabilíty has been cited as the cause of resistance breakdown. Controversies over the origins 01 this diversity are well documented. For example, great pathogenic variation has been reported from single-spore isolales originating trom single les ion s and monoconidial subcultures, while other studies have shown isolates lo be palhogenically stable. In the context of the palhogenic diversity of P. grisea, it is recommended Iha! breeding strategies should minimize the probability 01 escapes. Strategies should also include líne evaluation and selection in sites highly lavorable tor the palhogen, where populations remain high Ihroughout the season and palhogenic diversity is high. These sites are commonly denominated 'ho! spols\" and developing durable resistance is more likely lo be successful under such conditions. We haya collected evidence over more than eight growing seasons thal shows that resistance selected al a \"hot spot' site in Colombia is stable over both time and space. A crilical evaluation 01 pathogenic diversity to explain the durability of Ihis resistance has been carried out using both conventional palhotyping and molecular lools such as DNA-fingarprinting.Characterizing variability in virulence, a highly necessary slep lor developing durable resistance, has been conducted in the last tour years.1I has focused on race composilion, compatibilíty with known resistance genes, frequency 01 occurrence 01 virulence factors and variability as reflecled by pathogenicity in diverse rice cullivars (Table 1).Studies have also been conducled lo determine il the sexual stage 01 the fungus is playing any role in !he origin 01 this variability. This has not been lound lo be the case. Pathogen variability has been shown lo be lar beyond the intemational designation using differenlials because several races could be lurther differenliated into differenl pathotypes when local commercial varieties were used as dilferentials. Compatibilíly was presen! in the population lor at least 13 known resistance genes and resistance sources tested (Table 1). Virulence frequencies ranged from O to 0.86, with no cultivar susceplible to all pathogen isolates. and resistance lo all isolates being present only in advanced lines developed at this hol spot site (Table 2). It was very important to lind that the lowest virulence frequencies were associated with combinations of resistance genes.Ánalysis of the frequency 01 compatibilily 01 ;sofates recovered lrom commercial rice cultivars revealed a marked specializalion lor the cultivar 01 origino This is a very important linding given Ihe pathogenic diversity lound. Rare compatibílities with particular cultivars sugg6sted Ihal combinations 01 certain virulence may be assoc!ated with poor fitness or with deleterious effects tor the palhogen. Further studies on genetic diversily using DNA-fingerprinting indicated that this combination 01 virulence genes is nol present in the pathogen population due to the genetic diversity among the pathogen population Ihal would need the sexual stage lor recombination.These results have allowed CIAT lo use a precise stralegy lo develop disease resistance since combinations of resislance genes can now be direcled toward resistance to Ihe combination of virulence genes with low chances 01 occurrence in the palhogen population.Random combinations 01 resistance genes may be proven to be useless since unnecessary virulence genes are maintained in the pathogen population. This has been observed despite high cultivar specificity .Stralegies to incorporate and accumulate resistance genes that may present barriers to pathogen compatibífity are being implemented by characterizing genetic diversity via lurther pathotyping and DNA-fingerprinting analysis.Aecently, 3 DNA probes were developed by Dr. J. Hamer, and they refiably and specifically idenlify the genetic backgrounds of the full spectrum of rice blast fungus pathotypes. One of these probes conslsts 01 cloned fragments 01 repeated DNA obtained from the rice blast fungus genome and are called MGR586 (previously referred to as pCB586). The probe hybridizes to approximately 50 EcoRI fragments, ranging in size from 1.5 lo 20.0 kb, in the genome of all P. grisea isolates that intect rice, but to only one or a few fragments in P. grisea isolates limited to other grass hosts. Worldwide conservation of MGR586 sequences in rice blast pathogens indicates that they descend from a common ancestral source, genetically isolated from other host-limited forms of P. grisea. Genetic mapping, using MGR, shows that sequences are randomly dispersed on all chromosomes 01 the pathogens and segregate as genetic loci. Consequently, the MGR586 restriction fragment protiles observed in the natural clones of the pathogen define multilocus haplotypes, which we have referred to as MGR-DNA fingerprints. These can identify both genetic diversity and relaledness among field isolates.An extensive study of Colombian rice blast diversity was conducted by first analyzing the population structure in a Colombian blast disease \"hot spot' where local pathotype di\\lersity is five times greater than in the entire USA. The study site at Santa Rosa Slatlon is a 30-hectare resistance breeding farm located in the savannas of eastem Colombia. An ideal climate and continuous plantings of a wide variety of susceptible cu/tivars support chronic usage disease le\\lels throughout the 270-day growing season, and the blast population contains more than 50 pathotypes.A total 01 151 field isolates were obtained from 15 different cultivars during 1987 and 1990. The iso/ates expressed a total of 56 pathotypes which cOllectively included virulence and a\\lirulence on all intemalional differentials over a broad continuum of 5 combinations. Thirty-one iso lates (20% of the sample) had uncharacterized pathogenicity, i.e., pathotype 11-1, being avirulent on all differenlials. Based on this spectrum of pathotypes and associated inferences of resistancegene frequencies among the differentials, we concluded that few of the known resistance genes or gene combinations would be useful or effecti\\le for blast resistance at Santa Rosa.A total of 115 different MGR-DNA fingerprints (with 42•52 EcoRI fragments per fingerprint) were observed in our sampling. However, all isolate diversity was subsumed in only six distinct MGR-defined lineages (Figure 1). Isolates within each líneage had a 92% or greater average fingerprint similarity, with no significant subclustering among lineage members (nol shown). In contrast, the maximum consensus símílarity between lineages was 85%, the mínimum was 37%, and the average was 49%. Alllineages were significantly different (p= 0.001) from each other tor genetic distance (Figure 2  2).Studies conducted over the past live years on these two cultivars compared with other commercial varieties clearly demonstrated that specilic combinations 01 resistance genes or sets 01 genes, rather than random combinations 01 genes, are the most efficient way to develop durable resistance. The breeding effort to incorporate su eh combinations was slow and laborious due to the inability, at that lime, to identily the various genes in a segregating population.Recent developments described aboye using molecular tools have provided new horizons lor breeders in managing highly variable diseases su eh as rice bias!. Molecular markers offer an efficienl way lo locale and monitor disease resistance gene transler in rice breeding programs. RAPDs (random amplified polymorphic DNA), are short oligonucleotide primers and were recenlly demonstraled lo be eftectlve In gene tagging in tomato and lettuce. RAPDs ofter an inexpensive and efficlent way lo idenlify and characterize genomic components. Both markers provide new opportunities to develop or identify breeding lines with specific resistance genes. Using these markers, linkage with genes resistanl lo isolates belonging to one lineage (SRL-l) has been oblained as a lirsl step in localizing a series 01 genes resistant to the various lineages lound in Colombia.These exciting results allow a fundamental redirection 01 rice breeding schemes. They imply that we should focus on genes resistant to lineages, rather than on genes resistant lo specific isolates as inferred lrom pathotype analysis (Table 3).As an example, Oryzica Llanos 5 presents combinations 01 resistance genes lo the six genelic lineages found in the palhogen. Not even the most virulent isolates 01 the btast palhogen studied exhibited virutenee lo the susceptible cultivar Cica 9. one of the parents 01 Oryziea Llanos 5. Compatible ¡solates with Cica 9 belong to the genetie lineage SRL-l or SRL-2. and do nol present virulence genes lor resistance genes associated with the genetic lineages SRL-3, SRL-4, SRL-5 and SRL-5. Achieving sueh levels 01 resistance requires an intensive crossing and seleetion scheme. The new strategy combining pathotyping, MGRfingerprinling and molecular marker-assisted gene tagging provides a way lo define the genetic organization and distribution 01 rice blasl pathogen diversity and to incorporate appropriate resistance genes.Such a strategy lo attack a lormerly intraclable 7 problem will provide the most efficíent ~eans available for ímproved blast dlsease management and could serve as a model system lo tackle similar lungal diseases such as potato blight, wheat rust or downey mildew in sorghum and millet.---------~-_ ................. -TableS. Reaction of commercial rice varieties to six genetic lineages of blasl pathogen in Colombia.The polential impaet of developing durable resistanee for rice in Latin America has been eSlimated al more than US$400 million per year in years of high disease pressure. This is equivalen! to 7.4% of the lolal value 01 rice production in the region.The benefits amount to approximately US$200 million and US$80 million in years of normal and low disease pressure. respeclively.For a l5-year production series, the net present value of !hese benefils is estimated al US$1.6 billion, assuming a probability a priori 01 33% lor years of low. normal and high disease pressure, respectively. This also means that, on average, the region would save about US$2l0 million Ihrough reduced imports 01 rice and lower cost 01 lungicides, with very positive ímplicatíons lor its lood balance and sustainabilily 01 rice produclion.We hesitate lo magnify Ihese estimates lo a global scale and will leave this lo olhers. We who make up this multidisciplinary team are proud te have worked together to solve this difficult problem. We are confident Ihat the results willlead lo major benefits tor mankind in rice and that Ihe methodologies, once applied to other crops and variable pathogens, will provide even further prool Ihat good science, wisely managed, is an excellenl investment.The interdisciplinary and interinstitutional leam is composed 01 the lollowing scientists, listed in alphabetical order: ","tokenCount":"3019"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"776c75865365e786fda9a437ea21db67","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/577900d6-a77f-4aa8-8935-a61e6cbe64e6/retrieve","id":"-990463387"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e9493d76-b7c8-4a7b-aaa2-dda21153659a","pagecount":"31","content":"The Basin Focal Project for the Volta (BFP-Volta) is a research project funded by the Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF). Its aim is to provide an in-depth analysis of the basin through three main thematic issues: water-poverty, water availability/use and water productivity. The overall objective of the BFP-Volta is to contribute to the main goal of the CPWF, that is, to alleviate poverty through better management of water in order to enhance agricultural productivity and environment conservation 1 .In this context, the WorldFish Center has been commissioned to produce a series of two complementary reports focusing more specifically on the fisheries resources and the link that may exist between poverty and fisheries in the Volta basin. The present report is the first of these two documents. It should be seen as a preliminary analysis presenting a background of the fisheries resources in the Volta Basin essentially from a biological perspective. Its specific objective is to conduct a diagnostic analysis of the status of the Volta basin's inland fisheries, with a particular focus on the biological productivity of the various water bodies existing in the basin. Whenever possible, the diagnostic will be proposed in relation to the current exploitation rate of the fisheries resources. The analysis will include the Volta Lake, but also the other hydropower reservoirs, rivers, floodplains, and the numerous small-scale seasonal or permanent ponds that are scattered throughout the basin. Particular attention will be paid, however, to Lake Volta, reflecting the large number of fishery-dependent communities that live on its shores. The report will also concentrate on two countries within the basin: Ghana and Burkina Faso as together they cover more than 83% of the total basin surface.The Volta River Basin is the ninth largest basin in Sub-Saharan Africa, covering an estimated area of 400,000 km 2 . The Volta basin stretches from approximately latitude 5 o 30' N in Ghana to 14 o 30' N in Mali. The widest stretch is from approximately longitude 5 o 30' W to 2 o 00 E', but the basin becomes more narrow towards the coast of the Gulf of Guinea (Fig. 1).The Volta Basin is drained by several major rivers: the Mouhoun (ex-Black Volta), the Nakambé (ex-White Volta) with the Nazinon (ex-Red Volta) as its tributary, the Oti River and the Lower Volta. The mean annual flows of the Mouhoun, Nakambé, and Oti River are 7,673 ×10 6 , 9,565 ×10 6 , and 11,215 ×10 6 m 3 respectively (MWH, 1998). The Oti River comprising only about 18% of the total catchment area, contributes between 30% and 40% of the annual flow of the Volta River System. This situation is due to the steep topography and the relatively high rainfall in the Oti sub-basin.A dominant feature in the basin is Lake Volta that covers about 4% of the total area in Ghana. It generates hydropower (1060MW) at Akosombo and Kpong, about 100 km north of Accra. Some 95% of the generated power in the basin comes from these two sites. Table 1 presents the catchment area of sub-basins and length of the main tributaries of the Volta River. The Volta basin is spread over six West African countries: 43% in Burkina Faso, 42% in Ghana, and the remaining 15% in Togo, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire and Mali (Table 2).  A short general profile of the basin is provided in Box 1. The riparian countries of the Volta River Basin are some of the poorest in the world. Mali has the highest proportion of the population below the poverty line (64%, 2001 estimate), Burkina Faso has 52.4% (2003 est.) and Ghana 49% (1999 est.). According to the World Development Report 2000/2001, all of the Volta River Basin countries are considered to be in the low-income category (GNP per capita of $755 or less).The Akosombo dam is by far the most significant structure built in the basin (Box 2). The Volta Lake reservoir itself has a surface area of about 8,500 km 2 . Water available from the reservoirs is primarily used for hydro-energy production. In combination with the Kpong dam, the Akosombo dam is of strategic importance to the economy of Ghana, generating together more than 95% of the power produced in the country.In the other riparian countries of the basin, small and larger dams have been built to secure food production after the severe droughts that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. For instance in the Nakambe sub-basin alone (Burkina Faso) more that 600 small dams have been built most of them during that period. More recently, power-generating dams have also been built in some of the main Volta tributaries, Bagre and Kompienga, (Burkina Faso) with generating capacities of 41.5 GWH and 31.0 GWH respectively and on the Oti River, at the border between Togo and Benin, with a power generating capacity of 35 GWH. Ghana is relatively well watered and is drained principally by the Black (Mouhoun), White (Nakambé) and Red (Nazinon) Volta Rivers and the Oti River. Several other smaller water rivers including the Pra, Tano, Ankobra, Densu and Bia also drain the forested southern area. There are, in all, 15 rivers (with a total catchment area of 237,870 km²) and 12  reservoirs. The largest of the reservoirs is Kpong (36.5 km²), down stream of the Volta Lake; but the other reservoirs of importance include Vea and Tono, in the Upper East Region; Weija and Dawhenya near Accra (outside the Volta basin); and Barekese near Kumasi. About 92% of the reservoirs are 100 ha or less. In addition there are about 90 brackish water lagoons situated along the coast of Ghana, with a total surface area of about 400 km² (a large part of which are outside the Volta basin). The largest of these is the Keta lagoon situated close to the delta of the Volta River. Other major lagoons include Songaw, Sakumono and Muni (outside the basin). Table 3 summarises the main rivers of the Volta basin in Ghana.The number of dams and dugouts is about 310 and more than half are in the Upper East and West Regions (169); the Northern Region has 90 and the Volta Region has 51. Overall, the total surface area of inland water bodies is estimated to be 10,089 km 2 , with Volta Lake comprising 92.6% of this total surface, followed by swamps, lagoons and reservoirs in that order (Table 4).Photo: The Akosombo damThe Akosombo dam was until recently the largest man-made lake in the World. The Volta Lake reservoir itself has a surface area of about 8,500 km 2 , an average depth of about 18.8m and a shoreline of about 5,500 km. The deepest portions of the lake are about 90 m. The total volume of water in the reservoir at full supply level (about 84.73 m) is approximately 150 billion m 3 . The seasonal rise and fall is about 2.0 -6.0 m and the areas covered by seasonal fluctuations are about 100,000 ha. Water available from the reservoirs is primarily used for hydro-energy production, other significant uses being transportation, fishery, water supply (commercial and domestic purposes), tourism and irrigation. Contrary to many hydro-power dams that are generally built upstream, the Akosombo dam is built close to the ocean because of the flat relief of the basin and the difficulty to find potential locations. Construction of the Volta Lake led to the resettlement of about 80,000 people from several hundred villages to fifty newly built townships (more than 1% of Ghana's population at that time). In addition to the resettlement of the river communities, damming affected local health, agriculture, fishing, and navigation. In Burkina Faso, the hydrographic network of the country is characterised by three great river basins: the basin of the Volta, the basin of the River Comoé and the basin of the River Niger (Fig. 2). In Burkina Faso, the Volta basin covers 40% of the whole country and includes the main tributaries of the Volta, including the Mouhoun in the South West. It drains other sub-tributaries such as the Siou, Voun Hou, Sourou, Vranso, Le Grand Balé, the Bougouriba, and the Poni over its 820 km route within the country. Table 5 presents the distribution of the available surface water resources of the Volta River Basin in Burkina Faso.  Barry et al. 2005 Apart for the main Mouhoun and Nakambé rivers, the country has other smaller streamsfor example the Bougouriba, Comoé, Béli, Sirba and Tapoa. Many of these rivers dry up in the dry season (October-June), with the exception of the Mouhoun and Comoé in the southwest which are fed by springs and have their sources in more humid regions. In addition to these tributaries and rivers, seasonal ponds in floodplains make a relatively dense network, and an increasing number of small-scale irrigation reservoirs are being built up. In the Nakambé basin alone, more than 600 already exist, and more are to be constructed across the country, along with two big barrages (Samandeni and Bougouriba).In summary, the resources of the system are relatively 'diffuse', due to the fact that there are no big water-bodies (larger than 500 ha, except Bagré and Kompienga) that are permanent, nor zones where rivers display large channels.In Burkina Faso, two main types of fisheries are distinguished, based on their hydrological nature (Table 6):riverine fisheries along rivers and their primary and secondary tributaries, with a total area estimated around 27500 ha, i.e. 22.5% of the country's total water-body surface (122,000 ha); and seasonal ponds, lakes, floodplains, and reservoirs with a total area of 94,500 ha, i.e. 77.5% of the total water-body surface Note that Table 6 includes water-bodies of the three river basins (Volta, Comoé and Niger).Although only partial data exists, it was initially estimated that between 8,000 and 8,500 tons of fish are caught annually at a national level and that this amount constitutes roughly 60-70% of biological capacity (Breuil 1995). More recently, the fishery potential has been re-estimated -since a production of 12,500 had effectively been recorded in 2003, suggesting that the actual potential may be higher. This potential certainly increased recently with the creation of additional reservoirs (MOFA 2003).Within this potential, the Volta basin includes a set of water bodies covering about 75,000 ha in flooded season (Baijot 1984, van den Boosche andBernacsek 1990) 2 . These authors have estimated that the fisheries potential of the part of the Volta basin located in Burkina Faso is about 3750 tonnes per year, that is, about 28% of the national potential. This estimate did not however include the Bagré and Kompienga reservoirs which are now providing the largest part of the production.Located in the South of the country (30 and 50 km respectively from the Ghana and Togo borders), the reservoir of Bagré was filled up in 1992. The main purpose of this 25000 ha reservoir is the production of hydro-electricity and irrigation 3 . Since 1994, the average fish production has been 975 tonnes of mainly (small) Tilapia (Fig. 3) while the potential is estimated to be around 1500 t.Kompienga reservoir was built in 1988, initially for hydro-power generation, on the river of the same name. It is located in the East part of the country (about 400 km from Ouagadougou). Its maximum surface is 20,000 ha. In terms of fisheries, Morand talks about the \"remarkable fisheries quality of the reservoir\" (1998, p.5) stressing that the productivity of the reservoir is estimated to be 100 kg/ha/year, i.e. close to the upper limit of the productivity range for lake and reservoirs in tropical areas [35-120 kg / ha/ yr]. Fig. 4 shows the production of the reservoir since 1991, when statistics were first recorded. Burkina Faso has engaged in an active policy of surface water control since the 1970s, which has resulted in the construction of an important number of water reservoirs (Fig. 5).In 1995 there were approximately 2100 artificial reservoirs in Burkina Faso, 80% of which are less than 70 ha (during flooding season). The majority of reservoirs are in the north of the country where the climatic conditions are the harshest 4 and many are reduced to very low water levels (or even dry up) with important effects (through fishing pressure or natural mortality) on the fisheries stocks. A more effective use of these reservoirs seems therefore to be possible through stocking as the natural stock is not always sufficient to ensure a full recruitment from one year to the next.Recognizing these natural limitations, a German Cooperation (GTZ) project has been implemented from 1988 till 2002 with the objective of increasing the fish production in the South-western part of the country, relying on fisheries enhancement activities. On average, in the 8 water-bodies included in the programme, the production of Nile Tilapia increased from 50 kg/ha to 115 kg/ha. This was, however, less than the initial objective set by the project. After 14 years of activities, GTZ concluded that cultured-based fisheries in Burkina Faso was technically feasible but the up-scaling of the project was impeded by two major bottlenecks: the high price of fingerlings, due to the absence of an established aquaculture industry, and their low survival rate, due to the abundance of natural predators (GTZ 2003).Ghana has often been presented as the 'African fisheries nation' par excellence, reflecting the importance of the sector in the economy of the country (Marquette et al. 2002, Atta-Mills et al. 2004). The Ministry of Fisheries noted recently in this respect \"The fisheries sector is of huge socio-economic significance to the country as fish and fish products provide nearly 70% of the country's animal protein requirements. This significant contribution is made available mainly through marine and inland capture fisheries as well as freshwater aquaculture\" (MOFA 2006). In recent years, however, several studies have concluded that the marine fishery sector in Ghana has now reached its limits and may even being over-exploited (Atta-Mills et al. 2004).More than 90% of the inland fresh water fish are produced from the Volta Lake (Box 3). Fish production figures for Volta Lake from its creation in 1964 to 1979 were estimated by Vanderpuye (1984). The fish yield pattern showed an initial steady rise to a maximum of almost 62,000 t in 1969 -the highest yield ever recorded for a man-made lake -followed by a decline and stabilization at around 40,000 t in 1979. This figure of 40,000 t has then been proposed by Vanderpuye as the long-term yield of the lake. However, from 1994 the landings started to rise again, reaching 80,000 t in the late 1990s. This increase in fish landings is thought to be the result of deployment of active gear, such as the winch net in the lake. For management purposes, the lake has been divided into eight strata (Fig. 6).The Volta River basin dominates the country's riverine system and includes the 8,480km2 Lake Volta. Fishing in Lake Volta contributes about 90% of the total inland fishery production in Ghana. Formed about 40 years ago, Lake Volta is the largest man-made lake in Africa and the second largest in the world. A tremendous fishing opportunity was offered by the creation of the lake and a large number of fishers from various parts of Ghana moved into the lake area. It is estimated that a total of 300,000 people depend on the lake for their livelihood of which 80,000 are fishers and 20,000 fish processors and traders (Braimah 1995). The fishery is solely artisanal with about 17,500 canoes actively fishing in the Lake operating from about 2,000 fishing villages.A frame survey conducted by the then-Directorate of Fisheries of Ghana in 1998 provides the most recent data on the characteristics of the fisheries. The distribution of fishing villages, population, fishing boats and outboard motors in the various strata of the Lake is shown in Table 7. Briefly, the data indicated that there were 1232 fishing villages along the Lake with a total 71861 fishers operating 24,035 fishing boats. Two earlier frame surveys conducted in 1970 and 1975 recorded 18,358 and 20,615 fishers and 12,074 and 13,815 canoes respectively (Bazigos 1970, Coppola andAgadzi 1976).  The Lake is rich in fish fauna. Roberts (1967) recorded 112 fish species during the preimpoundment phase while 108 species were recorded during the filling stage (Denyoh, 1969). Currently 121 species have been recorded (Dankwa et al., 1999). It is also known that 32 fish species are present which were not recorded during the early stages of the Lake (Denyoh, 1969). The species list recorded during the filling stage is likely to change mostly due to upgraded taxonomy and also to the disappearance of some fish species as a consequence of the change from riverine to lacustrine conditions. The native fish however, fill all the niches in the ecosystem and it has not been necessary to introduce any exotic species (Vanderpuye, 1984). The open offshore waters, which considerably expanded following impoundment, have been populated mostly by small-sized clupeids, e.g., Odaxothrissa mento, all of which are utilised for food.The change from riverine to a lacustrine condition during the formation of the Lake, which started at the beginning of the rainy season in May 1964, led to the death of a variety of fish species, including Chrysichthys spp. which are very sensitive to oxygen depletion (Petr, 1968). The ecological change also brought about substantial changes in the fish community structure. During the Lake's initial two years, some of the riverine species, especially Mormyridae almost completely disappeared. The basic trend was towards the development of a community of fish species which had vegetarian food habits such as the Tilapias (mostly Sarotherodon galilaeus, Oreochromis niloticus and Tilapia zillii,) and the less common Citharinus (C. citharus, C. latus), Labeo (L. senegalensis, L. caubie), Distichodus (D. rostratus, D. engycephalus) and some Synodontis species. The predominance of insectivorous feeders e.g., Characidae (Alestes baremoze A. dentex, Brycinus nurse), Schilbe intermedius, Schilbe mystus, Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus and some species of Synodontis kept decreasing (Petr, 1968(Petr, , 1969)).Predators were distributed throughout the Lake where they found an abundance of food such as the clupeid Microthrissa and schilbeid Physailia pellucida. In the more accentuated lacustrine environment in the main fishing areas in the south of the Lake a variety of major commercial species, e.g., the mormyrids and the characid Alestes decreased (Petr, 1969). In the south, fishing started in the open waters and the fish catches indicated the suitability of deeper water for some important commercial species of fish -indicating improved oxygenation of deeper layers. The northern part of the Lake kept its more riverine character, especially during the flood season, and served as an important breeding and feeding place for many commercial species of fish (Petr, 1968).Thirty-six years after the formation of the Lake, commercial fish landings are dominated by tilapiine species, not only in the lacustrine south but throughout the Lake. Also those species previously considered to be mainly limited to riverine conditions (Hydrocynus spp., Labeo spp., Mormyrids, Schilbeids, Odaxothrissa mento, Brycinus nurse, Alestes baremose, Alestes dentex and Citharinus spp.) have returned to what were originally described as lacustrine parts of the Lake. Stabilization of suitable conditions has probably enabled these species to exist in areas where they previously were not commonly found. The composition of the commercial catch (by weight) from 1991-1998 comprise Chrysichthys spp. (34.4%), tilapias (28.1%), Synodontis spp. (11.4%) Labeo (3.4%) Mormyrids (2.0%), Heterotis spp. (1.5%), Clarias spp. (1.5%), Schilbeids (1.4%), Odaxothrissa mento (1.4%), Bragrus spp. (1.3%) and Citharinus spp. (1.2%). The remainders, which include Alestes spp., Brycinus spp. Distichodus spp., Gymnarchus spp., Hydrocynus spp. and Lates niloticus, account for less than 1.0% each of the commercial catch by weight (MOFA, 2003).In 1970 and 1975, the principal fishing gears used in the Lake were: gill nets, cast nets, lines and traps (Bazigos 1970, Coppola andAgadzi 1976). At that time, the mesh sizes of gill nets used by fishers ranged from 102 205 mm (Vanderpuye, 1984). Nowadays, the smallest mesh sizes are reported to be below 25 mm (MOFA, 2003) and include mosquito net for the small pelagic clupeids. The main types and number of fishing gears in Lake Volta are presented in Table 8. Gears introduced in recent years are mostly unauthorized and include drive-in gear (locally known as Wangara), bamboo pipes (specifically for Chrysichthys spp.), combined gill nets and traps (nifa nifa) and some active gears, such as beach seines (adranyi), purse seines (winch nets) and other forms of encircling gears. These active gears are supposedly illegal on the Lake, but currently contribute between 65 and 70% of the total fish landings from the Lake (Braimah, 1989(Braimah, , 1991)).The introduction of purse seines (winch nets) on the Lake since the mid-1980s was seen as a result of the deployment of a new type of fishing craft called a 'winch boat'. This fishing technique can accommodate 10 to 15 fishers and work conveniently with nets which can be as long as 500 to 800 m and 20 to 30 m deep. Normal canoes still predominate but their capacity has increased from 6 -7 boards to 10 -12 for a length ranging between 5 and 10 m, and they are now operated by 2 to 4 fishermen.Apart from Lake Volta, inland fisheries cover fish production from dams, other lakes and lagoons. The total inland fishery production in Ghana is not totally clear (see below) and it is difficult to draw any definite figure. According to the Directorate of Fisheries, other inland systems, except lagoons, are underdeveloped and under-exploited, needing substantial improvements to be made in yield performance in order to make a significant contribution to the inland catch in comparison with the Volta Lake's output (MOFA 2006). In several reservoirs quite large individual fish are still being caught. Fisher densities on lakes and reservoirs range up to 6 fishers per km of shoreline, which is a relatively high figure compared to what is observed in Southern Africa (Jul-Larsen et al. 2003). This combination of a relatively high density of fishers with still under-exploited water-bodies can be explained by the part-time nature of fishing operated on these water-bodies by households who also farm or have other means of earnings.Some documents (e.g. MOFA 2006) state that the current national fish production figures for dams, dugouts and rivers (except Lake Volta) are under-estimates and represent probably only a quarter of the actual fish production from these water bodies. The reason for this statement is that catch data from representative samples of these water bodies are reported directly as total fish production figures without due adjustments to make up for the total number of water bodies concerned. Based on this, an estimate of 319,000 t (comprising 251,000 t from the Volta Lake and 68,000 t from other sources) has been proposed for the year 2000, making the contribution of inland fisheries equal to nearly 83% of the total marine output of 383,000 t for that year (MOFA 2006).This hypothesis (which should be considered with great caution -see next section), outlines the extent to which the inland fisheries sub-sector may effectively contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction, a consideration that has hitherto not been recognized.Based on the official statistics, the inland fisheries sub-sector contributes about 20% of the total domestic fish production. Some stock assessment studies, however, show a discrepancy with these official figures and suggest that the actual contribution of inland water bodies may well be over three times the national figure reported for each year (de Graaf and Ofori Danson 1997, Kunzel 1998, Braimah 2000). For instance, while in 1997 some 60,000 t was reported as the national fish production figure for the Volta Lake alone, studies based on stock assessments argued that the real figure should be between 150,000 and 200,000 t (de Graaf and Ofori Danson 1997, Kunzel 1998). Other unpublished lakewide frame surveys and catch assessment programmes indicated that 251,000 t were landed from the Volta Lake in 2000, while the national account showed a meagre quantity of 65,000 t.Beyond the recording issue mentioned above, which is not necessarily specific to Ghana but rather general to a large number of developing countries (reflecting the frequently limited financial and human resources of the institution in charge of monitoring inland fisheries), the review of the literature on Volta Lake highlights another potential issue. Although the current estimates of the landings show an increasing or (at least in their more conservative forms) a stable trend, most of the assessments and reports produced in the last 30 years claim that the lake resources are seriously over-exploited. The Ministry of Fisheries for instance in 2006 stated: \"Of the inland sources, the Volta Lake is the most significant, but is currently confronted with overexploitation and overcapitalization phenomena that inhibit the optimum use of the available fisheries resources\". Prior to this recent report, other studies had already highlighted this issue: \"Fish catches on Lake Volta are steadily decreasing according to various studies conducted over the past decades (Cappolla and Agadzi 1976, Agyenin Boateng 1989, Braimah 1995, and de Graaf and Ofori-Danson 1997)\" (Pittaluga et al. 2003, p. 25).The decline in catch volume is generally attributed to a reduction in total rainfall, in conjunction with an increasing fishermen population, the use of illegal fishing methods (including the use of chemical poisons), as well as the development of farming along the banks of the lake that destroys brushes in which fish dwell. It is also often reported that fishers themselves complain about a greater proportion of very small fish in their catches. Pittaluga et al. report from their survey that almost all interviewed fishers (97%) said that the fish catches were declining. According to these fishers, a major reason for the decline was increased population of fishers, followed by a lower water level and the use of beach seines and winch-boats.In 1993, length frequency data on 26 commercially important fish species collected by the Integrated Development of Artisanal Fisheries programme (IDAF) project indicated that 17 fish species were caught before reaching the age of one year (Goudswaard and Avoke, 1993). According to the report, the high mortality of the juvenile length classes was caused by the extensive use of small-meshed gill nets and the then-recently introduced new active gears, in particular the purse and beach seines that provided between 65 and 70% of the total commercial landings (unpublished IDAF report, 1993).While these reports provided some evidence that a risk of overfishing could not be ruled out, this narrative of over-exploitation has been widely adopted and repeated for more than 20 years, while no clear negative trend has been observed in the fishery catch 5 . To the contrary, some of these reports even show an increase in production in the lake over the last two decades. Nevertheless, the over-exploitation narrative is now well established as the prevailing view of the status of fish stocks in Lake Volta. One consequence is that this narrative now strongly influences other sectors experts' view on fisheries (with the potential danger that this may shape the way future investments are planned). For instance in the recent Global International Water Assessment conducted in West Africa (Abe et al. 2004), the GIWA expert panel recognised that unsustainable exploitations of inland fish and other living resources was the second major issue for the Volta Basin. Their assessment was exclusively based on Braimah 2001 report.In this section, we review more systematically some of the main conclusions proposed in the key documents published on the Volta Lake over the last 15 years. The first of these documents is the FAO Technical Report produced by de Graaf and Ofori-Danson in 1997.In 1995/1996 the IDAF carried out a fisheries monitoring programme in stratum VII of Lake Volta. The programme encompassed a full frame survey, a catch and effort monitoring programme and a length-based stock-assessment programme.At that time , the frame survey indicated the presence of 40,000 fishers in the stratum. Comparing these figures with the earlier socio-economic survey conducted in 1992 suggests that the number of canoes had increased by 23%, from 6,500 to 8,068, and the number of fishers by 122%, from 18,000 to 40,000. In contrast, the number of winchboats had slightly declined from 380 to 358.From the catch and effort data for Stratum VII, de Graaf and Ofori-Danson calculated an estimated total production of 33,800 tonnes for 1996. Based on this figure, they concluded that the previously used production estimate of 44,000 t/year for the whole of Lake Volta (derived from Vanderpuye 1984) was an under-estimate. Instead, based on their own estimates derived from a surplus production (Schaefer) model, de Graaf and Ofori-Danson estimated that the total production of Lake Volta should be around 150,000 -200,000 t/year (180-240 kg/ha), with a maximum sustainable yield of 36500 t/year for the stratum VII. De Graaf and Ofori-Danson pointed out, however, the great uncertainty of their results due to the limitation of the data (see Box 4). In particular, they admitted that the Schaefer curve had been fitted with only two valid data points. De Graaf and Ofori-Danson used their catch and effort data of stratum VII in a surplus production model. The data indicates that a maximum sustainable yield of 36500 t/year can be obtained from stratum VII at a fishing effort of 5500 canoes and a CPUE of 6.6 t/canoe/year. Such an analysis would indicate that at present stratum VII is overexploited due to the activities of 8060 canoes. Extrapolated to the whole Lake these figures would indicate a maximum fishing effort of 41,000 canoes and a MSY of 271,000 t/year for the whole of Lake Volta. de Graaf and Ofori-Danson however point out that these estimates would \"certainly [be] an overestimation\" and that the total production of Lake Volta was most likely to be around 150,000 -200,000 t/year (180-240 kg/ha) with a total annual value of 30 million USD.Beyond the empirical limitation induced by the poor quality of the data, the adoption of a surplus model to extrapolate the production levels of the lake may also be problematic from a conceptual point of view. Indeed the use of conventional surplus model such as the Schaefer model has been questioned by inland fisheries specialists for more than 20 years. Based on empirical studies of rivers, lagoons or lakes (Welcomme 1989, Malvestuto and Meredith 1989, Laë, 1997), or numerical simulations (Welcomme andHagborg 1977, Morand andBousquet 1994), many of these fisheries specialists argue that the response of inland aquatic resources to fishing effort may not be a parabola as commonly represented in the traditional models but a 'plateau', reflecting the fact that inland resources seem to be characterised by a certain degree of 'resilience' to fishing effort (Box 5).Length frequency analysis de Graaf and Ofori-Danson also conducted a length-based stock assessment using a multispecies multi-gear Thompson and Bell analysis. Based on these results and assuming that \"the data were reliable\", de Graaf and Ofori-Danson concluded that \"the stocks [were] \"seriously over-exploited\" (p.iii) but recognised that \"Small sample sizes, as sometimes was the case in the programme executed in Stratum VII, seriously hampers the analysis and reduces the reliability of the results\". They concluded \"from a scientific point of view it is difficult to draw conclusions on the [then]-present status of the stock in stratum VII of the Lake Volta\". Unfortunately, de Graaf and Ofori-Danson did not compare the results of their length frequency analysis with the findings of their surplus production model.Many fisheries specialists argue that inland aquatic resource are more 'resilient' than assumed in the traditional surplus models, and that their response to fishing effort may thus take the shape of a 'plateau' (instead of a parabola) along which the production remains stable (or slightly decreasing) for a large range of fishing effort values, up to a limit level F lim , from which eventually the stock starts to decline. This limit F lim can however be equivalent to 3 to 5 times the conventional F MSY . Within this new approach, environmental variations (such as nutrient pulse -see schema below) will influence further the response by modifying the plateau level-as illustrated by the curves (a) and (b) in the schema.  One possible solution to reconcile these different empirical studies would be to consider that water levels can influence fish catch through two opposite mechanisms operating at two different time-scales: one positive effect at the short-time scale (as observed by de Graaf and Ofori-Danson) and one negative at the longer time scale as suggested by Braimah and WRI's latest analysis 6 . The overall hypothesis is that the water level plays a central role in the productivity of the Lake Volta fishery. In addition, some non-linearity in these effects may be also at work, which would explain the current difficulty of the researchers to identify clear correlations.The hypothesis that the lake's productivity is driven by water level may be seen as related to the \"flood pulse\" concept suggesting that seasonal flooding is the major driver of the biotic productivity of river-floodplain systems (Junk et al., 1989). Although Lake Volta is not a river-floodplain system per se, it is characterized by season fluctuations of its water level (on average 2 to 6 meter), with an area of about 100,000 ha covered by these seasonal fluctuations.For reservoirs in other parts of the world, Kolding and van Zweiten (2006) have proposed an index that captures the idea suggested by the flood-pulse hypothesis. This is the Relative Lake Level Fluctuation (RLLF) index, defined as follows:RLLF = mean lake level amplitude / mean lake depth.Prior to this RLLF concept, several authors had already explored possible avenues along the \"water-level\" hypothesis for Lake Volta (Braimah 1995, de Graaf andOfori 1997).None of these studies, however, seems to generate a strong consensus that would allow the confirmation (or refutation) of the \"flood pulse\" hypothesis. Even the status of the lake in terms of productivity remains unclear. While the poor nutrient content suggests an oligotrophic lake (Antwi, 1990), Braimah, using catch statistics, claimed that the lake's yield was around 43 kg/ha/yr (see Table 9). This would make the Lake mesotrophiceutrophic. This last estimate of 43 kg/ha/yr also diverges from the potential yield calculated with the Morpho-Edaphic Index Model, which was found to be approximately 12 kg/ha (Braimah 1995). How do these different values compare with the rest of the literature on reservoir and lake fisheries in Africa? Several authors have proposed general estimates of the relationship between fisheries productivity and bio-physical characteristics of the water-body considered 7 . Based on a data base of 71 African lakes and reservoirs (46 lakes and 25 reservoirs), Crul (1992) proposed the following relationships: Catch = 8.32 (water body area, km 2 ) 0.92 (R 2 = 0.93)Using the 46 lakes' data only, the correlation is : Catch = 8.93 (lake area, km 2 ) 0.92 (R 2 = 0.92) ;and for the 25 reservoirs: Catch = 7.09 (reservoir area) 0.94 (R 2 = 0.94).The overall model suggests an average catch of 60 kg/ha/yr, with values slightly lower in large lakes than in smaller ones, but with a large uncertainty when applied to a single water body (Crul 1992). In a later review including 65 African lakes, Laë (1997) observed that many relationships formerly proposed were not enough accurate and reliable to be used to predict potential fish catches in individual lakes or reservoirs. The best predictors for total catch is total surface area (R 2 = 0.76) and for catch per fisher, the morpho-edaphic index (R 2 = 0.42) when the fishing effort is higher than 2 fishermen per km 2 .A number of studies have used the catch per unit effort (CPUE) as a standard measure. Rough figures for lake or reservoir have been proposed by Henderson and Welcomme (1974) and (Crul, 1992). The relationship by Henderson and Welcomme (1974) is a combination of physio-chemical characters of the lake and the density of fishing activity. It relates the catch per fisher (tonnes/year) and the morpho-edaphic index (MEI) as follows Catch per fisherman (tonnes) = 14.3136 (MEI) 0.4681   More generally, Crul has proposed a mean yield per fisher around 2.3 tonnes/year for the combined series of lakes and reservoirs and 2 tonnes/year for reservoirs only.For Lake Volta, the recent (unpublished) estimates of 251,000 tonnes/year would mean a catch of 295 kg/ha/yr, suggesting a quite high but possible annual catch per fisherman of 3.5 tonnes/year -assuming that the number of fishers operating around the lake is 71,800. (Braimah 2000) This figure can be compared with two other large African reservoirs, the fisheries production of Lake Kainji (1270 km 2 ) and that of Lake Nasser (6216 km 2 ). Lake Kainji fishery is reported to yield between 4,500 and 6,000 tonnes/yr, while Lake Nasser production ranges from 15,700 to 34,000 tonnes. The productivity of these reservoirs ranges from 24 to 55 kg/ha/yr (Crul and Roest, 1995).Despite many scientific studies and several international research programmes, great uncertainty remains about the actual and potential productivity of Lake Volta. Part of this uncertainty reflects the 'natural' variability of the lake's ecosystem, its size, and the relative difficulty to access some parts of the shorelines, making extrapolations of local sampling to the whole lake difficult. There is an urgent need to address this uncertainty if one is really serious about promoting fisheries as an entry point for poverty alleviation and food security for communities surrounding the lake.Experience suggests that water policy-makers and rural development planners will be willing to consider small-scale fisheries, such as those operating on the Lake Volta, only if one is able to demonstrate with concrete and tangible evidence the real importance of these fisheries for the national economy and the livelihood of the local population living along the shores of the lake. It seems to us that generating concrete and tangible evidence is possible. A more rigorous and systematic analysis of the fragmented but numerous data that exist should allow this overdue comprehensive assessment of the Volta Lake fisheries' productivity to be conducted and possibly result in new understanding of the role of the environment in this productivity. It would also allow analysis to go beyond what seems to be a paradigmatic view on the \"over-exploitation of the lake's current resources\".","tokenCount":"6330"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"22fb7ccf0f5dae559c57e0cb2b4116b2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/66a39953-28a3-45c1-bb7b-579ab9c452f0/retrieve","id":"180130538"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"05cd0e20-95a8-4191-9a70-e4eb61272c64","pagecount":"9","content":"Rapport sur le séminaire sur les chaînes de valeur de la filière laitière en Afrique, organisé conjointement par le CTA et l'ILRI du 21 au 24 septembre 2014, à Nairobi (Kenya) Jean-Joseph Cadilhon, économiste agricole principal au sein du Programme sur les politiques, le commerce et les chaînes de valeur de l'Institut international de recherche sur le bétail, Nairobi (Kenya) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/15335803206/in/set-72157647635677919) Les pays d'Afrique subsaharienne ont vu leur industrie laitière emprunter des voies de développement très différentes. L'Afrique australe se caractérise par de grandes exploitations laitières familiales rattachées à d'importants transformateurs laitiers. L'Afrique de l'Est a encouragé le développement parallèle de grandes entreprises de transformation laitière et de chaînes de valeur du lait cru dans lesquelles interviennent de petites exploitations laitières et de petits négociants. En Afrique de l'Ouest, de nombreux pays se sont essayés à la transformation à petite et à moyenne échelle du lait local, mais la plupart des laiteries transforment également de la poudre de lait importée. À travers le continent, les difficultés liées à la collecte et à la création de valeur ajoutée pour le lait provenant de troupeaux pastoraux itinérants demeurent considérables. D'une manière générale, les pays africains se divisent en deux groupes : les exportateurs nets de produits laitiers et les importateurs nets.L'essor économique des pays d'Afrique subsaharienne, l'émergence d'une classe moyenne africaine et l'augmentation de la demande de produits laitiers qui en a découlé ont conduit les grandes laiteries de l'Union européenne (UE) à mettre en place des plans d'investissement visant à développer l'industrie laitière africaine. De plus, dans toute l'Afrique, les consommateurs, la société civile et les partenaires de développement encouragent les industries laitières à adopter des modes de production plus durables. Les impacts des chaînes de valeur laitières sur l'environnement et sur l'emploi au niveau local doivent être mis en balance avec leur performance économique. En plus de l'efficience économique, les parties prenantes des chaînes de valeur cherchent également à instaurer une plus grande responsabilité sociale, à inclure les petits exploitants, les femmes et d'autres groupes marginalisés et à mettre en place un label de durabilité.Organisé par l'Institut international de recherche sur le bétail (ILRI) et par le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA), le séminaire sur les chaînes de valeur de la filière laitière en Afrique s'est tenu du 21 au 24 septembre 2014 à Nairobi, au Kenya. Il a été financé par le Programme de recherche sur les politiques, les institutions et les marchés (PIM) et le Programme de recherche sur le bétail et le poisson du GCRAI.L'objectif du séminaire était de réunir les différentes parties prenantes qui participent au développement de la chaîne de valeur laitière en Afrique afin de partager des opinions et des expériences concernant l'utilisation de méthodes et d'outils servant à l'analyse et au développement des chaînes de valeur laitières. Parmi les participants se trouvaient des représentants des petits exploitants, des transformateurs laitiers privés dans le cadre d'un partenariat avec l'Association laitière d'Afrique australe et occidentale (ESADA, East and Southern Africa Dairy Association), des consommateurs de lait, des parties prenantes travaillant en étroite collaboration avec les responsables gouvernementaux et plusieurs chercheurs issus d'organisations de recherche nationales et internationales et de l'ILRI. La totalité du contenu partagé pendant le séminaire est disponible ici.Les participants ont reconnu qu'aujourd'hui, les différents points de vue qui existent sur les chaînes de valeur laitières n'étaient pas forcément identiques, ni même compatibles. Par exemple, Kelly Boucher-Aburi, directrice du développement de projets chez Tetra Pak Eastern Africa, Kenya, a déclaré aux participants que l'Afrique avait suffisamment de lait pour satisfaire sa demande interne. Les difficultés à surmonter concernent la diffusion de la technologie qui permettrait la transformation du lait et sa livraison aux consommateurs africains, ainsi que le maintien de sa qualité le long de la chaîne. En effet, chaque année sur le continent, on estime les pertes de lait à près de 2,6 millions de dollars. Elle a invité les participants à réfléchir à des solutions permettant d'identifier les lacunes de la chaîne de valeur, pour lesquelles des interventions pourraient aider à réduire les pertes de lait. Paul Goodison, un expert indépendant du commerce agricole ACP-UE basé en Belgique, a expliqué les défis clés pour l'Afrique par rapport à la future suppression des quotas de lait dans l'Union européenne. La hausse de la production de lait qui en résultera incitera certainement les laiteries européennes à chercher de nouveaux marchés pour leurs produits laitiers. Les marchés africains seront sûrement dans leur ligne de mire grâce à l'augmentation de la demande de produits laitiers qui résulte de la croissance économique et de l'urbanisation de l'Afrique. Cet intérêt pourrait éventuellement conduire les entreprises européennes à la recherche de débouchés commerciaux à réaliser des investissements directs étrangers importants dans le secteur laitier africain. Toutefois, l'expérience montre que les instruments de politique commerciale existent et sont utilisés avec succès dans certains pays (par exemple en Égypte, au moyen d'incitations fiscales, et au Nigeria, au moyen de licences d'importation soumises à un niveau minimum d'approvisionnement local). À court terme, la suppression des quotas de lait européens risque de poser de grandes difficultés au développement laitier en Afrique, car elle va sûrement entraîner une hausse des importations de lait en poudre et encourager l'adoption de modèles commerciaux pas toujours inclusifs. Néanmoins, elle va également offrir des opportunités concrètes à long terme pour le développement de chaînes de valeur laitières plus concurrentielles grâce au transfert de technologie, de savoir-faire et la création de partenariats Nord-Sud. La question de savoir si les parties prenantes et les gouvernements africains considéreront la tournure des événements comme un risque ou comme une opportunité dépendra de leur bonne compréhension des questions complexes et interconnectées en jeu et de leur choix de la bonne réponse aux niveaux régional, national et local. Plutôt que d'opposer les deux modèles de développement (lait en poudre importé contre approvisionnement local), le débat a fait ressortir qu'il était possible de combiner les deux. À long terme, l'approvisionnement en lait local auprès de petits exploitants ne devrait pas seulement être considéré comme une question de responsabilité sociale de la part des entreprises, mais aussi, et cela est plus important, comme une stratégie commerciale durable et un moyen de créer des « valeurs partagées ».Le séminaire s'organise autour de trois thèmes récurrents considérés comme des éléments clés pour encourager le développement d'une chaîne de valeur laitière durable en Afrique : la participation des petits exploitants, les investissements du secteur privé et l'équité entre groupes sociaux selon le cadre du « genre ».En effet, dans un contexte africain, le développement de la filière laitière doit tirer profit des forces et répondre aux faiblesses de la base de production laitière du continent, qui repose en grande partie sur les petits exploitants. La filière laitière ne peut se développer sans producteurs forts et organisations de producteurs solides. Les participants ont souligné la nécessité fondamentale de renforcer les capacités des producteurs et de leurs organisations. Divers cas ont été présentés, notamment ceux de l'Inde et de l'Indonésie, où les exploitants laitiers semblent être beaucoup mieux équipés et organisés. Le séminaire a permis de découvrir que, sur le continent, certaines initiatives gouvernementales soutenaient déjà les petits exploitants laitiers. Il conviendrait toutefois de mettre en place davantage de mesures incitatives pour les aider à respecter les politiques existantes et renforcer leur adhésion aux nouveaux processus et technologies en lien avec le développement laitier. Le séminaire a finalement conclu qu'il était impératif de véritablement mettre l'accent sur les bases du développement agricole : la vulgarisation et l'accès au financement.En ce qui concerne les investissements du secteur privé, les participants ont convenu qu'il y avait de nombreuses opportunités pour les investissements privés dans les chaînes de valeur laitières africaines, mais que ces derniers devaient devenir des entreprises viables afin de porter leurs fruits à long terme. Les partenariats entre les organisations privées et publiques et avec les groupes d'agriculteurs et d'autres parties prenantes intéressées ont été identifiés comme la voie à suivre pour encourager les investissements de toutes les parties dans les chaînes de valeur laitières. Les visites de terrain ont permis aux participants de se rendre compte des nombreuses manières directes et indirectes de mettre en place des partenariats fructueux dans le secteur laitier au Kenya. Un appel aux gouvernements a été lancé pour renforcer l'intégration au sein des marchés laitiers régionaux. Enfin, les participants ont conclu que les gouvernements pourraient contribuer de manière significative à l'essor du secteur laitier en faisant la promotion -par l'intermédiaire des écoles, des médias de masse et des médias locauxdes avantages nutritionnels et sanitaires de la consommation régulière et modérée de produits laitiers.Pour finir, le séminaire a exploré le rôle du genre dans les chaînes de valeur laitières africaines. Les participants ont clairement indiqué que la question du « genre » ne concernait pas que les femmes, mais portait plutôt sur l'instauration de relations équitables entre les différents groupes sociaux au sein de la société et des ménages. Mettre davantage l'accent sur le genre dans le développement des chaînes de valeur laitières africaines pourrait contribuer à résoudre les conflits familiaux concernant la production, la commercialisation et la consommation de produits laitiers. Il a été nécessaire de poursuivre le dialogue afin d'identifier les solutions susceptibles d'avoir le meilleur impact. En effet, dans le domaine du développement de la filière laitière, les politiques et les stratégies relatives au genre font cruellement défaut. Et quand elles existent, c'est le budget nécessaire pour les mettre en oeuvre qui manque. Cette situation donne lieu à un manque global d'actions concrètes et visibles visant à renforcer l'égalité entre les sexes dans les chaînes de valeur laitières africaines. Différentes opportunités ont été identifiées, mais très peu d'interventions concrètes ont été mises en oeuvre.Les visites de terrain du 21 septembre avaient pour objectif de permettre aux participants de tirer des enseignements à partir de diverses expériences kenyanes du développement des chaînes de valeur laitières vécues par une coopérative d'agriculteurs, une société par actions, une entreprise familiale de transformation laitière et un fournisseur d'intrants. Par exemple, le principal objectif du modèle de la SACCO (coopérative de crédit et d'épargne) laitières rurales de Kiambaa était de faciliter l'accès des petits exploitants laitiers au financement. Cependant, les membres de cette coopérative ne disposaient d'aucune information sur les besoins des acheteurs concernant la qualité du lait et n'étaient dès lors pas incités à investir dans un système évaluant la qualité du lait qu'ils produisaient. D'un point de vue de la question du genre, l'expérience de Kiambaa a montré de façon encourageante que 60 % du lait était collecté par des femmes et qu'elles participaient également beaucoup à la production laitière.La laiterie Ol Kalou, elle, proposait un autre modèle organisationnel. Elle est détenue par une société par actions, dans laquelle les producteurs ont des parts, mais à laquelle d'autres investisseurs kenyans qui souhaitent placer leur argent dans le développement de la production laitière dans leur comté rural d'origine participent également. La relation de la laiterie avec ses petits fournisseurs se base sur les quatre piliers suivants : de bons services pour les exploitants, de bons prix pour le lait, de bons équipements pour limiter les pertes et un lait de bonne qualité pour les clients. L'expérience d'Ol Kalou a également démontré le rôle croissant joué par les femmes et le fait que la hausse de la production laitière a entraîné une hausse de revenus pour les exploitants. Cette augmentation des revenus a à son tour aidé les exploitants à se diversifier dans d'autres entreprises agricoles et non agricoles afin de répartir leurs risques et subvenir à leurs besoins. L'entreprise de transformation laitière Eldoville a donné à l'ensemble de ses partenaires la possibilité formidable de continuer de se développer en décidant de fabriquer des produits laitiers transformés de grande qualité pour les petits marchés de niche du secteur de la restauration, de l'hôtellerie et des services traiteur. Cette stratégie a permis à tous les partenaires impliqués d'enregistrer des marges plus élevées par rapport au marché kenyan du lait en tant que produit de base. La laiterie a mis en place une base spécialisée de petits exploitants agricoles sous contrat qui fournissent au centre de collecte un lait riche en protéines et en graisses pour des prix plus élevés que ceux du marché classique. Géré par une femme, le modèle laitier d'Eldoville a tout particulièrement permis aux participants de constater les évolutions en matière de genre qui ont encouragé les femmes à prendre une part active dans toutes les étapes de la chaîne de valeur laitière. Enfin, le quatrième groupe, qui a visité Sigma Feeds, a découvert une laiterie de pointe et une entreprise privée puissante disposant d'une marque reconnue de produits fourragers et dotée d'une stratégie marketing solide. Sigma distribue son lait aux marchés spécialisés et aux fabricants de crèmes glacées, exploitant également de ce fait les marchés laitiers de niche à forte valeur ajoutée qui apparaissent au Kenya. En démontrant que des aliments à forte valeur intégrée aidaient les vaches de race premium à produire du lait de qualité élevée, l'entreprise a également exercé une influence positive sur le développement laitier des petits exploitants voisins qui le considèrent comme un modèle.Arona Diaw, directeur des achats et de l'approvisionnement à la Laiterie du berger, au Sénégal, a montré un angle opérationnel différent. Travaillant dans le contexte sénégalais, très difficile et caractérisé par de fortes pressions environnementales limitant les ressources fourragères et par des pressions tout aussi fortes sur les marchés en raison de l'importation de lait en poudre, la Laiterie du berger a pour objectif social de mettre en place une industrie laitière reposant en grande partie sur du lait fourni par de petits éleveurs pastoraux. Les principaux défis de la laiterie sont les suivants : rester compétitive par rapport aux autres laiteries utilisant exclusivement du lait en poudre importé, moins cher, pour leurs produits laitiers et encourager un développement durable pour tous les partenaires de la chaîne. Néanmoins, depuis 2006, la Laiterie du berger a réussi à croître de 23 % par an et collecte toujours la moitié de son lait auprès de 800 fournisseurs locaux qui ont lentement augmenté leur production pour atteindre un total de 2 000 litres de lait par jour. La laiterie collecte du lait frais auprès des exploitants deux fois par jour et le transforme en divers produits laitiers qui sont maintenant commercialisés dans 10 000 points de vente à travers le pays.Grâce à une foire boîte à outils, les chercheurs ont présenté les outils qu'il est possible d'utiliser pour effectuer des travaux de recherche, une analyse de la chaîne de valeur laitière, des outils de renforcement des capacités et des études de cas sur le développement laitier africain. En interagissant avec les chercheurs, les spécialistes du développement laitier ont découvert des outils susceptibles de les aider à surmonter leurs difficultés. Les chercheurs ont ensuite confronté leurs analyses théoriques au point de vue des spécialistes actifs sur le terrain.Voici certains des outils partagés 1 :• Un cadre stratégique pour le développement de l'industrie laitière dans les économies émergentes -Jan van der Lee (WUR) • Le mécanisme Know-Eat Hub de VACID Africa -Betty Mutua (VACID Africa) • L'outil d'évaluation des aliments du bétail (FEAST) servant à l'analyse et au renforcement des capacités des chaînes de valeur laitières -Ben Lukuyu et Emmanuel Kinuthia (ILRI) • Le rôle des « modèles de développement » dans la structuration de chaînes de valeur durables en Afrique de l'Ouest -Guillaume Duteurtre (CIRAD) • La validation de terrain d'un cadre conceptuel économétrique pour l'évaluation de l'impact des plateformes d'innovation -Jo Cadilhon (ILRI) • Les relations hommes-femmes par l'intermédiaire du marché : impact de la participation des petits exploitants aux marchés laitiers sur le poids des femmes dans les négociations au sein des ménages à Selale, Éthiopie -Birhanu Megersa Lenjiso (CIDIN et Radboud University Nijmegen) • Une analyse institutionnelle de la chaîne de valeur basée sur l'approche globale des chaînes de valeur (GVC) -Serena Ferrari (CIRAD) Voici certaines des études de cas présentées :• Cartographie de la chaîne de valeur du lait de chamelle au Kenya -Dishon Muloi (ILRI)• Identifier les obstacles au développement de la chaîne de valeur laitière au Malawi -Rollins Jonathan Chitika (AICC) • Valorisation du lait de vache pour les femmes Peuls au Bénin -Yvon Saroumi (FSA/UAC) • Améliorer la chaîne de valeur laitière en influençant les politiques et les pratiques, en favorisant la participation des femmes et en renforçant les compétences et les réseaux : l'expérience de VSF-G en Somalie -Maurice Kiboye (VSF-G)Des séances spéciales de récits oraux en ont également été organisées afin que les autres contributeurs puissent partager leurs expériences concernant le développement de filières laitières, les défis qu'ils ont rencontrés et les solutions qu'ils ont trouvées pour surmonter ces défis. Lors d'une séance plénière, Meeta Punjabi Mehta (Creative Agri Solutions Pvt. Ltd) a parlé de l'utilité pour l'Afrique de s'inspirer des leçons tirées du développement laitier de l'Inde. Enfin, quatre séances pratiques assistées par des pairs ont été organisées à l'intention de participants rencontrant des problèmes concrets, afin qu'ils puissent débattre de solutions avec leurs collègues : les meilleures solutions pour l'alimentation de vaches laitières sur 12 hectares de terre dans l'est du Ghana ; les implications des politiques laitières sur l'utilisation actuelle et future des terres et de l'eau au Kenya ; l'attribution de licences et le manque de réglementation de la filière laitière : les obstacles à la sécurité alimentaire au Kenya ; et l'insécurité foncière pour les petits producteurs laitiers dans les régions périurbaines de Niamey, au Niger.Les trois principales questions définies comme points cruciaux pour un développement laitier durable en Afrique étaient : le prix, l'accès au financement et les connaissances. Le problème de l'accès au financement n'est pas un obstacle uniquement pour les petits exploitants. En effet, les grands transformateurs laitiers et les petites et moyennes entreprises tout au long des chaînes de valeur éprouvent également des difficultés à obtenir les financements dont ils ont besoin pour investir dans leur entreprise.Les connaissances sur les innovations techniques, mais aussi sur la gestion et les processus commerciaux sont essentielles pour que les exploitants laitiers et les petites entreprises agroalimentaires s'organisent face aux marchés.Les participants au séminaire ont débattu des solutions possibles pour parvenir à un développement laitier durable en Afrique. Même s'il est crucial que toutes les parties prenantes aux chaînes de valeur laitières participent à la mise en oeuvre des solutions, le rôle des pouvoirs publics dans la promotion des changements a été perçu comme étant particulièrement important. Une des solutions avancées a été la coopération entre les parties prenantes du secteur laitier. Premièrement, il conviendrait de mettre en place des coopérations et des partenariats au niveau international entre l'Europe (et d'autres pays industrialisés) et l'Afrique, mais également entre les pays en développement qui ont acquis des expériences diverses du développement laitier. En associant les outils pertinents, il est possible d'accroître la production de lait en Afrique et d'améliorer la compétitivité des chaînes de valeur laitières africaines et d'ouvrir ainsi la voie à l'accès au financement, au développement du savoir, aux actions de plaidoyer, à la diversification de la transformation laitière et l'application des législations. L'appropriation commune de ces développements le long des chaînes de valeur permettra de les rendre plus durables, c'est pourquoi il est crucial de renforcer les partenariats et la coopération. La durabilité environnementale des chaînes de valeur laitières a été abordée dans certaines contributions du séminaire, mais les participants étaient d'avis qu'il fallait davantage mettre l'accent sur la transformation des chaînes de valeur laitières africaines en chaînes de valeur véritablement durables.Photo de groupe des participants :(https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/15370161127/in/set-72157647635677919)","tokenCount":"3255"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac6f920c31216513bd725c49fced0829","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/94804df4-9602-4f36-88af-ab6f3327ba2e/content","id":"-237793077"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1907c5b7-dc2c-4484-860a-f85050a6f299","pagecount":"46","content":"The genesis of CIMMYT can be traced to an invitation extended during the Mexican presidential inauguration of 1940. That invitation, in fact, had many ramifications. It contributed much to the concept that the food production problems of poor countries are rooted in a lack of effective research rather than in the absence of ostensibly superior technology from affluent countries . And that ultimately led to the formation of the network of international agricultural research centers, of which CIMMYT is one, and the consortium of donors-the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)that now funds them . Before focusing attention on CIMMYT, it is appropriate to review some 20 years of early history involving agricultural research in Mexico, which set the scene for CIMMYT .At that inauguration, the Minister of Agriculture, Marte R. Gomez, asked US Vice President Henry Wallace to provide technical assistance in helping Mexico overcome its chronic food shortages. Wallace, a former US Secretary of Agriculture who had travelled widely in Mexico, was receptive. Since this was before the birth of foreign aid agencies, Wallace turned to the Rockefeller Foundation, which had experience in mounting international public health programs. The foundation agreed to help answer Mexico's request and in 1941 it sent a commission of three eminent agricultural scientists-E.C. Stakman, Richard Bradfield, and Paul C. Mangelsdorf-to survey Mexican conditions and make recommendations .The publication of this document commemorates CIMMYT's twenty years of service to Third World agriculture. Much has changed during the past two decades: scientific advances have opened up new horizons for research; the needs of the Center's clients (national crop improvement programs) have evolved as they have accumulated experience and expertise; and CIMMYT itself has changed in response to changing circumstances. Yet through it all, the Center has, at its core, remained essentially the same vital, dynamic institute that it was at its inception.CIMMYT's maturity as an institution and its global impact belie its official age of 20 years. In a very real sense, the Center is much older. CIMMYT's origins can be traced back to 1943 and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture Cooperative Agricultural Program/Rockefeller Foundation, which was initiated to improve Mexican agriculture . The Office of Special Studies (as the program was called within the Ministry) employed at its peak 21 non-Mexican agriculturalists and over 100 Mexican colleagues. This cooperative effort was very effective in helping to improve the country's agricultural sector and, by the mid-1950s, Mexico was approaching self-sufficiency in maize and wheat production.The Mexico/Rockefeller joint venture gave credence to the idea that a small , dedicated group of researchers could influence the course of agricultural development. CIMMYT was itself a result of this collaborative effort, and the success of those earlier days enabled the newly formed Center to respond rapidly and effectively to the spectre of mass starvation in the Indian subcontinent during the late 1960s. Those crisis years gave rise to a sense of urgency among CIMMYT staff, reinforcing their commitment to the Center's mission and modus operandi.Many accounts of those early days have been written . We asked ourselves, \"Of what value would yet another account be, and really, what should one say in observing the twentieth anniversary of an institution as dynamic, yet as stable, as CIMMYT?\" A consensus emerged that a conventional history was not needed; rather, a description of the \"mainstreams of CIMMYT research\" and the courses they followed over the past 20 years was deemed appropriate .It was with great confidence that Steve Breth was asked to undertake this task. In Steve we found an individual who is arguably one of the most knowledgeable writers focusing on international agricultural research today. Steve has been associated with agricultural research since 1963, when he joined the USDA as an economist working on a study of agricultural development in West Africa. From 1965 to 1969 he served as an editor for the American Society of Agronomy, and from there moved to IRRI for a five-year stint as a writer/e ditor. In 1974 Steve joined CIMMYT in a similar capacity, leaving in 1977 to join the IADS communications group. He is now with the newly formed Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, and special thanks are due to Robert Havener, President of Winrock International, for giving Steve the time needed to write this publication.With his unique background in mind, CIMMYT asked Steve to view the Center 's development in light of the forces that shaped the direction of international agricultural research . In so doing, he provides a better understanding of the Center's character and its evolving role in the agricultural research community. This then was Steve's mandate and is the objective of this publication: to give the reader a sense of the Center, its evolving research agenda and priorities, and to place those distinguishing characteristics in a retrospective context.The Office of Special Studies conducted research on a wide range of crops, including maize and wheat, and later on livestock . It established research plots and demonstrations in farmers' fields and developed extension methods . It employed recent university graduates as interns and helped them get fellowships for advanced training . At its peak, the Office of Special Studies had 21 US and 100 Mexican researchers .During the 1950s the government of Mexico made a substantial commitment to agriculture and, by 1960, a broad range of research investigations were underway.2The experiment proved successful and, by the mid-1950s, Mexico was approaching selfsufficiency in maize and wheat . In maize , an expansion in area planted, better cultural practices, the selection of superior varieties from native strains, and the incorporation of disease resistance all contributed to the gains. Hybrids were produced and widely accepted by large-scale farmers, but hybrids remained beyond the reach of many small-scale farmers due to limited seed distribution systems and other factors .In wheat, several major scientific achievements occurred during this period . Strong resistance to stem rust, a disease that was ravaging Mexican wheat-growing areas, was the first breeding goal. Impatient with the rate of progress, the breeders of the Office of Special Studies found two climatically different locations where they could grow, successively, two generations each year, and in that way halve the time necessary to produce a variety.The two locations were not only climatically different, they differed in elevation by 2600 meters and in latitude by 10 degrees . Thus the advancing generations were exposed to, and could be selected against, differing spectrums of diseases and environmental problems.Moreover, it was soon found that this shuttle breeding system permitted elimination of plants sensitive to daylength. The drawback of varieties whose flowering is controlled by daylength is that they cannot be successfully grown in areas or seasons that have a different daylength than the one in which they are developed . The daylength insensitive varieties that emerged from this system were thus more broadly adapted, as well as resistant to stem rust and certain other diseases.Farmers who had begun using fertilizers on wheat, however, were next frustrated by the tendency of tall wheats to topple over when heavy doses were applied. The wheat breeders of the Office of Special Studies turned to sources of the Norin 10 dwarfing genes as a possible solution . Norin 10 was being tested in the U.S. for dwarfing winter wheats .The first crosses with Mexican spring wheats were made in 1953. It was nine years later before a host of problems such as sterility and poor grain quality were surmounted sufficiently for Mexico to release its first semidwarf varieties . These varieties were not only more resistant to lodging, they had a new plant architecture that resulted in a greater proportion of the dry matter going into the grain . The result was a quantum leap in the yield potential of wheat that would give Mexican wheats international acclaim within a few years .During the 1950s the government of Mexico made a substantial commitment to agriculture and, by 1960, a cadre of well-trained Mexican agricultural professionals had been developed, a graduate school of agriculture had been established to train new scientists and technicians, and a broad range of research investigations were under way. The government decided the time was right to form a national agricultural research program, INIA (Institute Nacional de lnvestigaciones Agrfcolas).The Office of Special Studies was closed in 1961. Several of the Rockefeller staff remained in Mexico as advisors to !NIA and to extend the lessons learned in Mexico to other countries. The Office of Special Studies had engaged in some international work . A few young scientists from other Latin American countries had taken part in in-service training . And regional networks such as the Central American Corn Project had been established to exchange genetic materials and information .After 1961, international wheat nurseries were formed that introduced wheat-producing countries throughout the world to Mexican wheats, and the first trainees from outside the Western Hemisphere were accepted .In 1962, following a visit to the new International Rice Research Institute, President Adolfo Lopez Mateos suggested creating an international agricultural institution in Mexico with collaboration of the Rockefeller Foundation . An agreement was made, and in 1963 an International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center was established as a cooperative program of the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture and the Rockefeller Foundation . The center absorbed what had been the foundation 's Inter-American Food Crop Improvement Program .It quickly became evident that the geographic scope of the new institution was too limited . It had insufficient resources to handle the large volume of urgent requests for training and germplasm coming from countries of Asia and Africa . As a result, the founding partners decided to rewrite the charter .On April 12, 1966, under a new charter , CIMMYT was established as a nonprofit organization responsible to an internationally elected board of trustees . The Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation joined Mexico as the initial principal supporters of CIMMYT.During the past two decades, the capacity of developing countries to address their agricultural problems has grown immensely . CIMMYT has contributed to that change and, as it has occurred, CIMMYT has changed in many ways, too. But through this period certain hallmarks of CIMMYT's activities have held constant.One hallmark is the large-scale production of diverse germplasm that national researchers can use directly , adapt, or manipu late , broadening the choices available to farmers . A second is training intended to enhance the competence and productivity of the specialists who are the heart of crop improvement work in developing countries. A third hallmark, which is closely related to both germplasm development and training, is the Center's participation in worldwide networks of maize and wheat scientists . A fourth is the development of procedural tools to help network scientists do their jobs more efficiently and with greater impact.Finally, a fifth hallmark, which is less tangible, but no less important: a sense of thoroughgoing pragmatism in addressing the problems of hungry people . It is conveyed by CIMMYT people through training, by example , and through frequent meetings and discussions with agricultural leaders and government officials at all levels. The widespread assimilation of that attitude has motivated a generation of scientists and technicians to move from the desk to the field in order to confront and overcome the real problems farmers face.In part through CIMMYT's work, two ideas that were commonplace in developing countries 20 years ago are now much less widely held : that small farmers are stubbornly resistant to new ideas and that researchers seldom produce anything useful.The foundation of CIMMYT's strength has been its nonpolitical nature, its continuity of funding, and its stability of staffing. Global and regional political winds have shifted many times during the past 20 years, but the fraternity of agricultural scientists that works with CIMMYT has grown and become stronger. It is one of CIMMYT's most important roles to serve as an impartial clearinghouse for scientific information and genetic materials whose dissemination might otherwise be stymied by political rigidities or bureaucratic entanglements .The sustained support for CIMMYT by donors large and small has established a climate in which meaningful long-term goals can reasonably be set. And stable staffing affords good prospects that the sequence of steps necessary to achieve those goals can be carried out . Although changes and shifts occur, CIMMYT staff members are in posts long enough to become thoroughly familiar with research issues , to acquire detailed knowledge about conditions affecting agriculture in various regions, and to build personal relationships with local scientists and other leaders . The freedom to take the long view is an advantage shared by few international and national organizations .The year CIMMYT was founded, 1966, was a momentous one for starting an agricultural institution . In India the cereal harvest had fallen drastically short for the second year in a row. On a per capita basis, food production had plunged to the lowest level since the Second World War. Pakistan, too, would have a poor crop . The world saw the spectre of famine riding the plains of the Indian subcontinent .In 1966, the vear CIMMYT was founded, the world saw the spectre of famine riding the plains of the Indian subcontinent. CIMMYT was able to make a significant impact immediately, benefiting from the momentum of two decades of work in Mexico .CIMMYT was able to make a significant impact immediately, benefiting from the momentum of two decades of work in Mexico. Eighteen thousand tons of seed of Mexican wheat varieties were shipped to India in 1966 as a follow-up on smaller seed imports a year earlier . For several years, Indian scientists had been assessing the adaptability of Mexican varieties to Indian conditions and determining which performed best. In Pakistan, where local tests of Mexican materials had also been done since 1961, 42,000 tons of seed wereimported in 1967 .These imports provided significant short-term and long -term gains. In combination with appropriate fertilization and management practices worked out by local and CIMMYT scientists, the new varieties raised yields enormously in India and Pakistan when more favorable weather retur.ned in 1967. And with such good results, farmers became eager for the further improved varieties local scientists had begun developing using Mexican varieties as a source of dwarfing and other desirable traits. In addition, progressive governmental officials began to institute the policy changes needed to enable farmers to find fertilizer, seed , and other inputs when needed. A number of other wheat-producing countries followed the pattern established in India and Pakistan.As an international organization, CIMMYT in its early years continued some major undertakings begun in its predecessor Mexican program and formalized and expanded several others that had been mini;ir initiatives. To the large-scale development of spring bread wheat were added full-fledged programs on durum wheat, triticale, and barley. And the principles of massive crossing and rapid advancement of generations were applied to them . High yield potential and broad adaptation were important goals in improving these crops, as they were for bread wheats. The search for resistance to the major diseases was intensified .International testing enlarged enormously. The International Spring Wheat Yie ld Nursery, begun in 1963, was continued, but by 1970, yield nurseries we're also being shipped for durums and triticales. New types of nurseries were created . Screening nurseries allowed the performance of advanced lines to be widely evaluated, particularly for disease resistance . The F2 nurseries gave well-staffed national breeding programs the opportunity to make selections in broadly based segregating populations .The Maize Program did pathbreaking work on identifying and developing a number of productive and broadly adapted populations, which were made available to national programs. Through its efforts, the germplasm available to maize breeders around the world was greatly broadened.A protein quality laboratory was established to provide essential data for the Maize Program's investigations of high lysine, or opaque-2, maize. Within a few years, work on cereal chemistry was begun to provide milling and baking data for the wheat program.A formal in-service training program was established for young scientists and the number of trainees handled annually was expanded . Training was offered in agronomy . Shortly thereafter it became clear that the funds required to adequately support these four research centers could not long be supplied by the two donors alone. Moreover, there were emerging demands for new centers and it was clear that broader funding was essential. In response to this need the World Bank, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAQ), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), along with 12 other donors, created in May of 1971 an innovative form of international association to support the budding research system.The idea was to form a \"Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research\" (the CGIAR, or CG). The purpose of this new .. organization was to fund a network of international agricultural research centers, each with its own independent board of trustees, but each pursuing activities consistent with the System's mandate. An arresting manifestation of the success of this approach is the rapid increase in funds channeled through the CG, from an initial budget of US$ 9 million in 1971 to nearly US$ 200 million in 1986. At its inception the CG System comprised 15 donors and 4 centers; the System now has 40 donors supporting 13 centers and, as a recent study of its impact shows, the System has been a notably good investment for its donors.It is to its credit that the CGIAR has avoided the bureaucratization that all too often accompanies the creation of such a system. Administrative overhead is minimal. The World Bank provides the CG's Chairman and the Executive Secretariat. The System is advised by a Technical Advisory Committee whose Secretariat is provided by the FAQ and whose members are prominent agricultural scientists from around the world. The CG has no constitution, no by-laws, and as few \"rules\" as possible; commitments are verbal, and cooperation and concensus are the hallmarks of the organization . plant pathology, experiment station management, and cerea l chemistry, in addition to breeding. Opportunities for post-doctoral fellows to work in the Wheat or Maize Programs increased. The emphasis that CIMMYT gave to training and to continuing contact with former trainees reflected the conviction that, in most developing countries, the critical barrier to agricultural progress was the woefully thin ranks of adequately trained researchers .To provide immediate assistance in strengthening national research programs, a number of CfMMYT staff members were assigned to important maize-or wheatproducing countries . By 1970, CIMMYT had nearly 20 scientists in developing countries outside Mexico; most were part of bilateral programs .National crop research programs made impressive strides during the 1970s. The numbers of well-trained scientists grew and, in more and more countries, research programs abandoned the academic separation of disciplines and reorganized on multidisciplinary lines.The drama of the early years was climaxed by the award of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize to Norman E. Borlaug, director of CIMMYT's Wheat Program. The award recognized his tireless efforts to apply science to the eradication of hunger . He saw the award as being symbolic \"of the vital role of agriculture and food production in a world that is hungry both for bread and for peace, \" and called himself \"but one member of a vast team made up of many organizations, officials, thousands of scientists, and millions of farmers-mostly small and humble-who for many years have been fighting a quiet, oftentimes losing war on the food production front.\"The beg inning of the 1970s was marked by the inauguration of CIMMYT's headquarters, about 45 kilometers northeast of Mexico City. The 43 hectares of land forming the experimental farm had been procured by the government of Mexico and lent to CIMMYT .Four substations were also acquired and developed in the early 1970s . These stations are situated at various elevations and provide significant agroecological contrasts to conditions at CIMMYT headquarters (2240 meters elevation) and the major wheat research site used by the Center, the CIANO station (39 meters elevation) in northwest Mexico (operated by the Ministry of Agriculture) . The establishment of the present Toluca station (2650 meters elevation) provided the wheat program with a critical second cycle per year under environmental conditions quite different from those at CIANO . The opening of the Poza Rica station on the Veracruz coast was especially important for the Maize Program because it provides a site with the humid tropical conditions that characterize much of the developing world .Regional programs -National crop research programs made impressive strides during the 1970s. The numbers of well-trained scientists grew and, in more and more countries , research programs abandoned the academic separation of disciplines and reorganized on multidisciplinary lines , often modeled on CIMMYT and other international agricultural research centers .The burgeoning of national programs placed heavy demands on CIMMYT for consultation and advice oh research planning and operations . The need could not be satisfied effectively by periodic visits of headquarters' staff, nor could personnel be posted to all countries asking for help. While maintaining bilateral arrangements with some countries , CIMMYT turned increasingly to regional programs as an efficient mechanism for making the assistance of outreach scientists available to many countries .CIMMYT's regions are defined as groups of countries, usually contiguous, whose production environments and production problems are similar . CIMMYT provides staff members to regions that have a significant output of wheat or maize and that agree to exchange germplasm and scientific information in order to better utilize scarce research resources through cooperation , By 1979 there were four regional maize programs, four regional wheat programs, and four regional economics programs. The individuals in the maize and wheat regional programs tend to be specialists in crop improvement or production agronomy. The regional economists work closely with both maize and wheat regional scientists.The duties of the regional staff are to work alongside national program scientists and help improve their research skills, to identify technical problems affecting the use of improved germplasm and to help find agronomic and economic solutions through onfarm research and other means; to help national programs assess their training needs; and to encourage and support national crop improvement and production activities.The regional scientists carry out these tasks by helping national scientists monitor the various international nurseries distributed by CIMMYT. They also help assemble and evaluate materials for regional trials, as well as work with national program materials. To foster the integration of production agronomy and on-farm tests into national research systems, the regional staff members help plan agronomic experiments. They also organize training courses, workshops, and travelling seminars for national scientists . Thus, working as a team, the regional scientists support the efforts of national researchers to improve farmers' productivity. Their intimate knowledge of local production constraints, such as insect and disease complexes or socioeconomic problems, also provides important information for conduct of research at CIMMYT itself. Persons 50----------------c::::J Headquarters -RegionalSenior scientists are inceasingly placed in regional posts around the world  \"The Green Revolution, Peace and Humanity,,The following are excerpts from Norman E. Borlaug's Nobel lecture, given on December 11, 1970.The food production brigade \"When the Nobel Peace Prize Committee designated me the recipient of the 1970 award for my contribution to The Green Revolution, they were in effect, I believe, selecting an individual to symbolize the vital role of agriculture and food production in a world that is hungry, both for bread and for peace . I am but one member of a vast team made up of many organizations, officials, thousands of scientists and millions of farmers-mostly small and humble-who for many years have been fighting a quiet, often-times losing war on the food production front.\"The qualities of leadership \"Where are those leaders-where are the leaders who have the necessary scientific competence, the vision, the common sense, the social consciousness , the qualities of leadership and the persistent determination to convert the potential benefactions into real benefactions for mankind in general and for the hungry in particular?\"Meshing international and national programs \"The international centers were developed to supplement national agricultural research, production, and training programs, not to replace them . The centers are but one link in the worldwide network of organizations attacking basic food crop production problems on a worldwide, regional, national and local level. The backbone of this network is now and must continue to be the national programs . These must be given greater financial support and strengthened staff-wise to meet the challenge of rapidly expanding food needs for the future.\"   The most dramatic shift in CIMMYT's activities during the 1980s has been an increasing emphasis on improving the stability of yield, particularly in more marginal areas . The creation of germplasm with broad adaptability and high yield potential remains a principal goal. The maintenance of yield stability through stronger and broader resistance to insects and diseases continues to receive a large measure of research resources. But the research agenda increasingly includes attention to less-favored areas where the productivity revolution of the past 20 years has reached only a fraction of the farmers .Marginal areas are characterized by such limiting factors as a high incidence of disease and /or insects, drought, acid soils, or excessive heat or cold .Some marginal areas suffer sharp annual fluctuations in cropping conditions-as, for example , those caused by irregular rainfall patterns-which discourage investment in technologies that enhance productivity . Other areas have persistently low yields because of inherent production barriers such as incidence of highly destructive diseases or infertile • soil.As part of its approach to marginal areas, CIMMYT is emphasizing the generation of germplasm that has greater yield dependability.One route involves applying conventional breeding procedures in search of genetic variation within a crop species for additional tolerance to specific environmental stresses such as drought or excessiv3 cold or heat.Another is less conventional and involves finding in related genera strong sources of resistance to stresses that prevent productive crop growth (acute incidence of certain diseases or insects) and sources of tolerance to pernicious soil conditions (toxic levels of aluminum, strong acidity, or salinity), and to transfer them to otherwise productive varieties .CIMMYT's research on wide crosses-the crossing of different crops, or of a crop and a wild species -has importan-t implications for marginal areas . This work is going on both in maize , where the principal elements are maize and tripsacum (a wild relative of maize), and in wheat, where such wild relatives as Agropvron, Elvmus, and Aegilops species are being utilized. Triticale, a crop created by wide crossing, has notable productivity in acid soils . The goal of most other wide crosses is to transfer useful but scarce genes into productive maize and wheat genotypes .CIMMYT researchers are devoting more attention to less-favored environments, where many farmers have yet to benefit from improved agricultural technologies .Maize hybrids -For some farmers who grow maize under more productive conditions, maize hybrids in combination with improved agronomic practices could give significant productivity increases. While CIMMYT will continue to focus on open-pollinated varieties, it has begun a hybrid development program in response to requests from some national maize programs. CIMMYT will generate breeding information about its pools and populations that will help scientists in making hybrids. Also, CIMMYT will undertake research and training in the development and production of nonconvention~ I hybrids.Expanded germplasm banks -To support the search for special characteristics needed in marginal areas, CIMMYT strengthened its germplasm banks in the 1980s by upgrading its storage facilities and creating new staff positions.CIMMYT's maize germplasm bank traces from the extensive collections of the maize landraces (primitive varieties) made in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Guatemala by the Office of Special Studies in the 1940s. In later years, collections from Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru were added . The bank has the world's best collection of landraces from the Western Hemisphere-the center of origin for maize. But until recently, the main function of the bank was only to supply useful materials to the breeders in CIMMYT's Maize Program and in other programs that request seed. Now it has specifically taken on other responsibilities, including the long-term conservation of the Hemisphere's landraces .The collection has about 12, 500 entries, but perhaps 20% are duplicates or redundancies that will be culled in the future. Lowtemperature storage facilities completed during 1985 will make it possible to more than double the lifetime of seed and thus cut the frequency of regeneration from once every 20 years to as infrequently as once every 100 years. Less frequent regeneration will reduce genetic drift-the change in genetic composition that occurs each time an accession is regenerated.Duplicate samples are kept in other germplasm banks as well.A computerized data management system is being developed for the bank. In preparation for that, data on the origins and various characters of the entries have been consolidated.The bank also maintains wild relatives of maize-the various teosinte taxa and members of the genus Tripsacum . While these plants may possess genetic variation not found in maize, characterizing and classifying them is a long-term undertaking .The CIMMYT wheat germplasm bank maintains germplasm of bread wheat, durum wheat, triticale, and barley that possesses desirable characteristics. The main function of the wheat bank remains the storage of materials developed by CIMMYT breeders, plus some new materials from other countries. These materials comprise a working collection that, prior to the 1980s, was available primarily to the Center's own breeders. In 1 981 , with the completion of new bank facilities and the hiring of a senior scientist to head the bank, CIMMYT began fulfilling requests from breeders outside the Center for germplasm having specific agronomic, disease-resistance, and quality characteristics.The wheat bank started with about 20,000 unduplicated entries and grew to nearly 60,000 entries by 1985 . These include bread wheats, durum wheats, triticales, barleys, and interspecific germplasm entries . The source of the material held by the bank is mainly the CIMMYT international screening and yield nurseries and the spring and winter crossing blocks.The germplasm entries are each evaluated for a bout 40 characters related to morphology, agronomic performance, disease resistance, and grain quality. CIMMYT's facilities permit short-term and medium-term storage . For longterm storage duplicate sets of the entries are sent to germplasm banks located elsewhere. In 1985, national programs received samples of 2600 entries from the bank .CIMMYT has enjoyed two decades of cordial and fruitful relations with the government and people of Mexico . Many of the overseas courses have stressed on-farm research. In these courses, CIMMYT is using the call system, an innovative training procedure that brings course participants together for one to two weeks at key stages during the crop cycle. Each call focuses on certain aspects of the on-farm research process (conducting on-farm surveys to assess farmers' circumstances, analyzing those circumstances and planning trials, managing trials, analyzing experimental results, formulating recommendations) and the emphasis is placed on learning through doing. A call system course may concentrate only on certain skills or it may attempt to cover the entire range. In the latter case, the course might be spread over 18 months and would include at least five calls. During the periods between calls, the participants resume their normal job responsibilities.Expanding activities in economics-In the 1980s the Economics Program continued to develop and teach procedures for on-farm research, while expanding its activities into other areas as well. Increasing attention is now given to the analysis of data related to the world maize and wheat economies. Analysis of production, consumption, and trade trends for these crops forms an important part of the Program's work. One of the major products of this interest is the publication, in alternate years, of Maize or Wheat \"Facts and Trends.\"In addition to summarizing trends for the crop, the publication also adopts a particular theme for special focus. Recent themes have included the economics of maize seed production, wheat marketing and pricing issues for developing countries, feed and food uses of maize, and consumption and import trends for wheat.Another activity initiated by the Economics Program is the development of a set of procedures that will be useful to decision makers concerned with the allocation of research resources among crops and regions.The techniques involve the estimation of the real costs of resource s used in producing competing commodities. A blend of economic information with biological data is required for the analysis. The Program collaborates with national program colleagues in the development of case studies that are used in the development of a manual of procedures useful for national research program administrators.In addition to continuing its work in on -farm research, the Economics Program also began to explore ways of using farm level data for assessing certain aspects of policy. Data generated by on-farm research are useful not only for deriving farmer recommendations, but also for assessing the adequacy of input delivery, credit arrangements, information systems, and markets. Thus, CIMMYT is in a position to take advantage of new tools as they are developed and to make the benefits quickly available to developing countries.CIMMYT is a service agency to national agricultural research programs in the developing world. Working together, CIMMYT and national programs have developed new germplasm and new techniques. But it is the local testing, evaluation, and adaptation by national programs that largely determines whether innovations will have an impact on many farmers. Throughout its history, CIMMYT has made the support and strengthening of national programs a fundamental tenet of its operational philosophy.In the future, no less than in the past, this partnership is the key to helping the millions of farm families whose livelihoods depend on the production of maize or wheat.The aim of CIMMYT's maize improvement research is to increase farmers' options for raising the productivity of the resources they commit to maize production. Since maize is grown in a wider array of environments than any other cereal crop, only local researchers and farmers are in a position to identify the precise combination of varietal attributes that are right for a locality.C/MMYT participates in and promotes the international development of maize germplasm, producing intermediate rather than finished products suited more for broad agroclimatic zones than for particular ecological niches.CIMMYT participates in and promotes the international development of maize germplasm . CIMMYT's breeding program yields intermediate rather than finished products. Generally they are suited for broad agroclimatic zones, or mega-environments, but perhaps are not fully adapted to a particular ecological niche . For that reason, they must undergo a degree of adaptive testing before release to farmers.In CIMMYT's international maize testing program, national programs are influential in determining which maize materials will be improved and how. The system gives national programs a strong voice in the selection of genetic materials and it affords them the opportunity to extract germplasm at any stage for their own improvement programs or for possible release.Conceptually, the system is like a funnel, with a large array of genetic diversity entering at one end and a small amount of refined and tested genetic materials emerging from the other end. The improvement process starts with the gene pools-groups of rather diverse germplasm that has been classified according to zone of adaptation, growth duration, and grain type and color . The number of pools has varied over the years, but currently there are 37. The pools are grown each year, with periodic additions from the germplasm bank and other sources. They undergo mild selection, but the aim is to retain the basic character of the pool as a mass reservoir of classified genetic variability.The best fraction of each of these pools provides the basis for forming refined populations (32 such populations are currently in use). Each population is classified according to environmental adaptation and its important characteristics:• climate: tropical or subtropical Based on data from those trials, CIMMYT scientists select the 50 to 60 best families from each population for within-family improvement, recombination, and regeneration of the population.The data also indicate which families will be chosen to form experimental ~arieties. Some experimental varieties are formed from the 10 best-performing families of each !PTT at each location. Another experimental variety is formed from each population based on the 10 best families at all six locations in which the population was tested.These varieties are advanced to the F2 stage and sent to 30 to 50 cooperators around the world as Experimental Variety Trials. The topperforming varieties in those trials are further tested in the Elite Variety Trials, which are conducted at 60 to 80 locations.Data from all three types of trials are made available to cooperating maize breeders throughout the world. They decide whether to use the germplasm in their own breeding work or in testing for possible release as a variety.CIMMYT supplies small quantities of seed of selected materials to national programs that request it.The international network has tested over 850 experimental varieties during the last decade.To judge the usefulness of this material, the Maize Program relies on two indicators. One is adoption of the germplasm by national breeding programs. So far, scientists in 43 of those programs have used the experimental varieties and other germplasm to develop and release nearly 150 varieties and hybrids. The second indicator of progress is systematic evaluation of the improved materials . In 1982-83, for example, multilocational variety trials were conducted to determine whether improvement of the populations was leading to better varieties . The results suggested that experimental varieties developed from more recent cycles of selection were higher yielding, earlier, and shorter than those from the original cycles. Moreover, stability analyses indicated that those varieties were better adapted to lowyielding environments and also performed better at high-yielding and medium sites.By 1970, modern varieties of wheat and rice had firmly established the advantages of short height for raising yield potential and responsiveness to good management. But most of the tropical maize strains used in the CIMMYT breeding program or that were in cultivation were over three meters tall. These strains had a harvest index of only 0 .3, meaning that their grain made up only about a third of the total dry matter produced by the plant. In modern wheat and rice varieties , and in commercial maize varieties of the US corn belt, the harvest index was about 0 .5.The advantage of a shorter plant with a higher harvest index is that, when seeded at high density, it produces about the same amount of dry matter per hectare as a plant with a low harvest index , but the grain yield is much higher .In the late 1960s, CIMMYT began a special project to test the benefits of shorter height in tropical maize . Breeders turned to recurrent selection to accumulate minor genes for shortness. They applied the breeding scheme in an attempt to progressively shorten Tuxpeno-1, one of CIMMYT's widely adapted, high yielding, tropical maize populations .In each cycle of selection, at the time of pollination, only families shorter than the mean were chosen for recombination. Then, at harvest, the ears were placed at the base of each plant in the selected families so that the families could be visually evaluated for yield, lodging, and disease resistance. On those grounds, some of the selected families or plants were rejected. As the plant height decreased in successive cycles, the planting density was increased .After 18 cycles, plant height had been cut almost in half, to 156 centimeters, the harvest index had improved to 0.4 7, and yield had risen by a third to 6 .2 t/ha, an exceptional yield for the tropics. In addition, cycle 18 materials were earlier in maturity.After 18 cycles of recurrent selection, the height of Tuxpeno had been cut almost in half, the harvest index had risen to 0.47, and yield had increased by a third to 6.2 t/ha, an exceptional yield for tropical maize.Sources of improvement -Most of the yield improvement was related to the ability of short plants to withstand high density plantings without lodging and without an increase in barren plants. Lowering the height of the ear was largely responsible for the reduced lodging. A narrowing of the interval between pollen shed and silking accounted for a reduction in proportion of barren plants.Comparisons of the original population with the shortened population in trials under less favorable conditions, including farmers' fields with low nitrogen use, showed that the yield gain was not limited to well-managed experiment stations. In fact, on a percentage basis, the yield advantage of the shortened population was even greater at the low-yielding sites, suggesting that the shortened population had gained general stress tolerance. The shorter Tuxpeno-1 (cycle 18) also made a good parent in the production of hybrids .The study also showed that there is a limit to the amount of yield increase that can be derived from selection for reduced plant height .After the fifteenth cycle, there was little improvement in harvest index and grain yield .Based on this work, reduced plant height became a high priority breeding objective in CIMMYT's maize improvement program . Most of CIMMYT's maize populations now have generally acceptable plant height, a higher harvest index, less lodging, and greater responsiveness to fertilizer .Worldwide, maize is seldom grown under irrigation . In farmers' fields, the crop typically suffers several weeks without rain at some point during the growing season . Drought stress, however, is a danger not only when rains fail temporarily, but also when , in very hot weather, the plants transpire more water than they can draw from the soil , even if it is raining regularly.In tropical Africa, fluctuations in maize output appear to be affected more by the timing and quantity of rainfall than by any other factor. Thus the availability of varieties with better drought tolerance could improve the stability of food supplies among small farmers.Maize is particularly vulnerable to shortages of moisture at two stages . After seeding, if the germinating seeds are unable to extract sufficient water from the soil, poor stands will result . A second critical stage is the two-week period before and after flowering. The researchers created a drought-resistant synthetic variety under a recurrent selection scheme using five indicators of stress . These were leaf and stem elongation rate , the interval between anthesis (pollen shed) and silking, leaf death score, canopy temperature, and grain yield. Taken together , these indicators provide indirect information on rooting depth and intensity, ability to adjust osmotic activit'y to periods of insufficient water, and general tolerance to stress .After six cycles of recurrent selection the synthetic variety yielded 2.0 t /ha under severe drought stress, 24 percent more than the original population. Under moderate drought stress it yielded 3 .2 t /ha, 29 percent more than the original population . And with normal irrigation, it yielded 6 .6 t /ha , 10 percent more than the original population .The chief reason for the greater yields in the drought-resistant population when grown under drought stress was a higher number of kernels per plant, rather than an increased weight per kernel .In a parallel experiment, researchers compared selection under the five indicators with selections based on yield alone and found the indicators to be significantly better . In particular, simple selection under severe drought produced a variety that performed poorly under normal irrigation, suggesting that responsiveness to well-watered conditions can easily be lost.The experiments also showed that in the drought-tolerant variety, general stress tolerance was an important factor, along with the ability to find more water and to continue metabolic activity under stress. For breeders who lack the resources to apply all the indicators used by CIMMYT, selection in high density plantings would raise general stress tolerance and thereby improve drought tolerance .Most of the improvement in drought tolerance occurred during the first three cycles of improvement. Shrinking gains after that suggest that the variability for the traits under selection had become a limiting factor, a hypothesis now under investigation .Based on the indicators tested in this series of experiments, four elite populations with good agronomic type and high yield potential have been chosen for recurrent selection to improve drought tolerance . This work is just beginning .In addition , a germplasm pool consisting of entries that possess drought-tolerance properties is being formed. This pool will serve as a source of germplasm for drought-tolerance breeding at CIMMYT and for national programs .Dr. G. Plant breeding has sometimes been likened to putting a butterfly in a jar without losing the butterflies already captured inside. The development of quality protein maize has tested the ingenuity and perseverance of maize breeders with some exceedingly small and skittish genetic butterflies.The discovery of the mutant gene opaque-2 in the 1960s raised hopes among maize breeders around the world that the quality of maize protein could be vastly improved.Although compared to other cereals maize has a moderately high protein content, the protein is short of two essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophan. Due to those deficiencies, humans and animals other than ruminants can use only about half the protein in maize, unless their diets contain other sources of lysine and tryptophan. Maize carrying the opaque-2 gene has higher levels of lysine and tryptophan, which permit animals to metabolize more of the protein. More recently several other genes have been found that have an effect similar to that of opaque-2.In 1970 CIMMYT began introducing the opaque-2 gene into a wide range of germplasm and some of the products were tested internationally. It soon became evident that serious liabilities were associated with the opaque-2 gene. The so-called high-lysine maize had soft, chalky kernels instead of the hard, translucent grains preferred by most maize growers. In addition, low dry matter accumulation in the kernels depressed yields, and the grain dried slowly and was vulnerable to ear rots and attacks of storage insects .Although many programs phased out highlysine work, CIMMYT felt that by making use of its large germplasm resources and the international testing network, acceptable varieties with high-lysine content in the grain might be achieved. CIMMYT scientists had already found a few modifier genes that could improve kernel hardness and appearance, but some of these genes simultaneously lowered lysine and tryptophan content. Consequently, the CIMMYT protein laboratory played a vital role in the improvement process by devising rapid screening methods to identify materials that had nearly normal kernel texture and retained protein quality.Modifier genes-In seeking to separate the high-lysine gene from the deleterious effects of associated genes, CIMMYT breeders set out to accomplish a feat often discussed, but rarely attempted, i.e., that of changing a major trait by accumulating many small modifier genes. And through diligence and care, they succeeded. By the mid-1970s, protein quality had been improved substantially and CIMMYT decided to make a concentrated effort to improve the germplasm's yield, grain type, and other characteristics. The central idea was that, to be successful, high-lysine maize had to be comparable to improved normal maize in every other respect. 'Two significant actions were taken. First a wide range of normal maize genotypes differing in maturity, adaptation, and grain texture and color were converted to high-lysine, hard endosperm maize-quality protein maize (QPM), as it came to be called . Second , QPM gene pools were developed and improved .The critical step in converting the normal genotypes to QPM was to devise a method for accumulating modifier genes. Each modifier gene has only an incremental effect in converting opaque kernels to crystalline form . The genes must be piled up in order to make an impact. But modifier genes that reduce lysine and tryptophan content have to be culled out . Through repeated selection , chemical analyses, and recombination , remarkable improvements in the appearance and texture of the kernels were achieved .Various techniques were developed to overcome other deficiencies . For example, in selecting and breeding for hard kernels, there is a tendency for the kernels to become smaller. Spaces between kernel rows are symptomatic of this problem, so breeders selected against open spaces in order to boost yields .Numerous trials were also conducted to be sure that the kernel modification was stable under different growing conditions, a question not yet fully answered .The establishment of OPM pools is patterned after CIMMYT's work with normal materials . The pools provide a large array of genetic modifiers and new gene combinations. At the same time , through crossing and moderate selection pressure, the quality of the materials has been upgraded in several ways: plants are shorter, ears are lower, maturity earlier, and kernel appearance is improved-all while retaining better protein quality and yield.By the 1980s, a wide range of QPM germplasm had been developed and many of the shortcomings associated with the opaque-2 gene had been substantially reduced . At this point the breeders regrouped all the QPM material to reduce its total volume and to facilitate further refinement and wider testing.Seven lowland tropical and si x subtropical QPM gene pools were formed , distinguished by maturity, grain color, and kernel type (dent or flint), and the improvement process was continued .Plant breeding has sometimes been likened to putting a butterfly in a jar without losing the butterflies already captured inside. The development of quality protein maize has tested the ingenuity and perseverance of maize breeders with some exceedingly small and skittish genetic butterflies.QPM v arieties -Additionally, six tropical and four subtropical populations were formed . Families generated from these populations have been evaluated at six locations around the world in CIMMYT's international progeny testing trials . Data from these trials have been employed to form experimental OPM varieties, which also are undergoing international testing .These changes have improved the data available for refining OPM germplasm, they have involved national programs more closely in improving the germplasm, and they have given national programs easy access to the best QPM materials .Low yields have been a major weakness of OPM, but in recent international trials, several OPM experimental varieties have equalled the normal check . Good results have been obtained in other trials as well. Nutricta, a QPM variety released in Guatemala, has yielded as much as some of the best experimental varieties and hybrids .  The outlook for QPM is affected by shifting views on human nutrition. There is now less concern about a protein crisis than existed 15 years ago and more stress on overcoming calorie deficits. Nevertheless there are clearly important groups of people that are vulnerable to protein deficiency-pregnant women and children under the age of five. There may be a special role for QPM in parts of Africa where diets are dominated by low protein root crops and where costs of traditional protein sources are soaring. Ironically, under these conditions mothers and young children may have even less access to protein sources than other household members.CIMMYT takes the conservative view that QPM has potential as an element in programs to combat malnutrition. As an improved source of protein in a crop that is widely grown, it has an advantage over new and unfamiliar highprotein crops that might be introduced as part of campaigns to enhance human and animal nutrition.Beyond that, through the process of developing OPM to its present status, CIMMYT breeders have done pioneering work in demonstrating how many modifier genes, each with a tiny impact, can be accumulated to induce major changes in the characteristics of a plant.From its inception the Maize Improvement Program has given a prominent place to the development of resistance to major diseases and insect pests in developing countries. Substantial progress has been achieved in the work on diseases by means of a three-pronged approach: ( 1) routine selection at experiment stations in Mexico for resistance to ear and stalk rots and to leaf blights and rusts; (2) further selection against those and other diseases by national scientists evaluating IPTTs; and (3) special projects conducted in cooperation with various national and international institutions to develop resistance to diseases for which selection cannot be done efficiently in Mexico.Though much smaller gains have been made in the work on insects, the groundwork has been laid for more rapid development and delivery of insect-resistant germplasm in the future to cooperators in national programs. The search for resistance depends heavily on being able to reliably distinguish between resistant and susceptible plants. Developing insect resistance is a difficult undertaking for that reasonnatural infestations of insects tend to be variable and unpredictable. This is particularly true for the members of the moth families that constitute the major pests of maize worldwide.Laboratory methods -In 1975 CIMMYT started a laboratory for mass rearing maize stem borers, corn earworm, and fall armyworm . Techniques used in temperate climates had to be adjusted to fit the biological characteristics of tropical insect strains . In addition, the output had to be large enough to service the immense volume of materials contained in the CIMMYT maize pools and the population improvement program.There are several essentials for improving insect resistance through artificial infestation. First, a colony must be established that contains insects that are as voracious as their wild cousins. Second, it must be possible to produce enough of the insects at the right time for infestation. Third, germplasm must have sufficient genetic variability for resistance. Fourth, there must be an efficient means for infesting plants with equal numbers of insects. Fifth, to classify the insect damage, a rating scale must be developed. Finally, there must be an effective breeding scheme to raise the level of resistance.To ensure that inseot colonies are representative of the wild population, CIMMYT rejuvenates them every 6 to 10 generations (about 1 year), depending on the species. Wild insects are collected and raised in isolation for one generation to ensure that they are not diseased or bearing parasites. Then the wild stock replaces the laboratory population or is crossed with it.The diets have to be formulated specifically for each type of insect . For earworm and armyworm, the diet is mainly soybean meal, maize meal, and brewer's yeast. Maize borers are fed a prepared formula mixed with maize cob grits, brewer's yeast, and wheat germ. All three types of insects get vitamins and antibiotics, and CIMMYT has found that including ground maize tassels in the diets helps the colonies thrive.Rearing facilities are tailored to the biology of each insect type to encourage growth and multiplication. Proper facilities avert such problems as cannabilism and make it easy to collect the eggs or the larvae. Fall armyworm moths, for example, were originally kept in small cages, but they left their eggs attached to the supports or frames, which made them difficult to collect. Substituting paper bags for the cages was an improvement. The egg masses then could be collected by cutting up the bags. Now waxed paper bags are used, and the egg masses can easily be scraped off with a spatula .The pupae of corn earworm presented a different problem . The pupae tend to burrow below the surface of the semisolid diet on which they are raised. So that the pupae do not have to be extracted one by one, scientists have designed a polystyrene cell unit that can be split into two layers. When the layers are separated, the diet mass and the pupation cells are split in half and the pupae can be dumped out.Artificial infestation -Since the refinement of the mass-rearing methods, scientists have used artificial infestation for improving the efficiency of selection for resistance to one species or another in selected pools and populations.In the past infestation was done with egg masses, until CIMMYT developed the \"bazooka\" technique for infesting maize with larvae. The bazooka is a cylindrical dispenser calibrated to place a uniform dose of maize cob grits mixed with larvae in each plant . The quantity of grits allows the scientists to control the number of larvae applied to each plant.Compared with infestation with egg masses, use of the bazooka is faster, it gives more uniform infestation, and the insects are less frequently destroyed by predators, resulting in fewer \"escape\" plants.Recently, CIMMYT has taken several steps to increase the flow of resistant material to national programs. In 1983 experimental varieties were formed to concentrate resistance in good agronomic backgrounds. The varieties are based on progenies showing the best levels of resistance in artificially infested nurseries. Preliminary trials of these experimental varieties are under way.Multiple resistance -A second step involves the formation of multiple resistance pools. Several sets of the International Lepidoptera Resistance Trials organized by Mississippi State University (USA) were grown in Mexico in 1984 and artificially infested with stem borers and armyworms. Some of the entries showed higher levels of resistance than had been found in any of CIMMYT's maize populations . Their yields, however, were low and their agronomic characteristics poor.Prompted by these results, CIMMYT solicited seed of maize reported to be resistant to any of the genera or species of borers found anywhere in the world. The lines, synthetics, hybrids, and varieties sent by maize researchers are being recombined to form the multiple borer resistance pool. After mild selection for resistance and agronomic traits, some of the progeny are showing good resistance to borers and armyworms, as well.The improvement of this pool will continue through recurrent selection. International testing of the most resistant families has begun at nine locations, using standardized levels of infestation. At each location, the cooperators will select and cross the families that perform best against each locally present insect and return the seed to Mexico for further recombination and testing.While the multiple-borer resistance pool promises to serve as a strong source of diverse resistance to various borers, it may not serve as a direct source of selections that will perform well in tropical maize-growing environments, where other insects predominate.As a result, CIMMYT established the multipleinsect resistance tropical pool. This pool includes some materi<ils from the maize borer resistance pool but mainly contains the most resistant selections from CIMMYT's tropical populations and pools. The latter materials have undergone up to 18 cycles of selection in tropical environments and have good levels of resistance to tropical diseases and excellent yield and agronomic performance . Within this pool, selections are being made for resistance to borers and fall armyworms . When progeny are extracted from the pool in a few years, they should combine high yield potential with resistance to insects and diseases .Several other areas of research are being explored as well, such as testing and making selections from certain Caribbean races of maize believed to have good insect resistance, and screening progeny of wide crosses between maize and tripsacum. But regardless of which of these avenues ultimately proves most fruitful, they all depend heavily on the care and feeding and on-time delivery of millions of insects.CIMMYT wheat germplasm is developed to meet five minimum criteria: high yield potential, broad adaptation, and resistance to the three principal wheat diseases-stem rust, leaf rust, and stripe rust. In addition, attention is being given to improving resistance to the \"minor\" diseases of wheat, such as those caused by Septoria, Helminthosporium, and Fusarium species.The accretion of these characteristics in CIMMYT-developed germplasm is a direct result of the multilocational breeding and testing that undergirds the Wheat lmprove,ment Program .Wheat yield potential received a mammoth boost from the introduction of dwarfing genes in the late 1950s. The dwarfing genes changed the way the plant apportioned carbohydrates among its vegetative and reproductive parts. The grain of productive tall varieties constitutes only 25 to 35% of the total weight of the plant. In dwarf varieties, the grain is usually 40 to 50% of the total weight. In other words, dwarfing improves the efficiency with which the plants use sunlight, water, and nutrients, the essential inputs for growth.In addition, shortening the plant (and increasing its straw strength) multiplied the response to high fertility. When fertilized heavily, tall varieties produce somewhat more grain, but are likely to fall over, reducing the actual harvest to such an extent that the yields of less well-fertilized plants often are higher . The short, strong stems of dwarf varieties resist lodging; that and other features bred into dwarf varieties make them highly efficient users of inputs the farmers apply.More recently the introduction of winter-wheat genes into spring wheats through spring x winter crossing has raised the yield potential again.Adaptation -The bedrock of the broad adaptation of CIMMYT materials is insensitivity to daylength . In many varieties, flowering is triggered by the onset of days of a certain length . While there are some biological advantages in certain regions in daylength sensitivity, it is usually futile to plant such varieties outside of the normal growing season or at a location nearer to, or farther from, the equator. In either case, differences in daylength will make flowering occur too early , too late, or, if daylength never reaches the critical duration, not at all.CIMMYT scientists strive to develop high -yielding, broadly adapted, and diseaseresistant germplasm for a range of environments in the Third World. Screening for stripe rust resistance is done in the Andean region of South America, in the highlands of East Africa , and in Mexico, locations where a broad spectrum of stripe rust races are found . Data from the screening is used to guide subsequent crosses to enhance resistance. Materials with broad resistance to stripe rust started to become available in the 1980s.Other features -Breeding for special features takes place as an overlay on the foundation of high yield potential, broad adaptation, and re sistance to the major rusts . Breeding for resistance to such diseases as septoria , ' helminthosporium, and scab is under way in subsets of CIMMYT germplasm. Since th ese diseases are not ubiquitous and are important only in certain regions, no attempt is made to incorporate such resistance in all germplasm .To do so would unnecessarily slow the process. CIMMYT takes a similar approach in work on drought tolerance, heat tolerance, and to lerance to high levels of aluminum .Yield stability -Statisticians have investigated the yield stability of various groups of varieties in different environments using results from 15 years of the International Spring Wheat Yield Nu rseries. These are replicated trials that have been conducted annually since 1963 at about a hundred locations in 60 to 70 countries and th at involve 50 advanced lines and varieties.For the stability analysis, the locations were cla ssified according to the mean yield of all varieties in all trials . Thus locations where the mean yield was 1 t/ha were characterized as 1 t/ha environments, locations that averaged 2 t/ha were characterized as 2 t/ha envi ronments and so on . The most productive envi ronment had a mean yield of 9 t /ha . Stability was considered to have four facets . A ariety or group of varieties has acceptable . eld stability if its mean yield is significantly ., gher than the average yield at all sites; if its responsiveness to better environments is greater than the mean of all varieties; if the trend in yield from environment to environ ment is consistent; and if the yield in the poorest environment equals or exceeds the mean of all varieties.CIMMYT wheat germplasm is developed to meet five minimum criteria: high yield potential, broad adaptation, and resistance to the three principal wheat diseases-stem rust, leaf rust, and stripe rust.The analyses showed that group A-CIMMYT• developed materials released directly by national programs-had higher average yields than the other groups, more responsiveness to better environments, and in poor environments, yields no worse than average . In consistency, Group A was slightly exceeded by Group B. But closer analysis showed that that ranking may be misleading . In certain locations that are disease \"hot spots,\" the strong disease resistance of certain genotypes in group A, caused them to yield well above the average for the group. Statistically that registered as yield instability, but from a practical viewpoint, it is an asset, not a liability .The study did not find evidence to support the idea that some varieties with modest yield potential may perform better under poor conditions than varieties that have high yield potential. All the ISWYN varieties yielded about the same under poor conditions. In areas where low yields are caused by low levels of inputs, particularly water, the expression of yield is severely restricted for all varieties regardless of inherent yield potential. Moreover, the stability that some observers attribute to locally developed varieties is more a result of their poor performance in high-yielding environments than of superior performance in poor environments.Thus through a dynamic system of wheat improvement, which rests on broad-based crossing and multilocational testing, CIMMYT and its collaborators generate a stream of steadily improved materials of value to large regions of the wheat-growing world .The notion of crossing spring wheats with winter wheats-two large but separate gene pools-has been a powerful lure for many plant breeders.In nature, the genes of these two groups seldom intermix because outcrossing is uncommon in a self-pollinated crop, because winter and spring wheats are usually grown in climatically different regions, and because, even if plantings of spring and winter wheats are in proximity to one another, they normally flower at different times. As a result , wheats with the spring' growth habit and wheats with the winter growth habit have travelled separate evolutionary paths, with guidance from farmers, and, in this century, from plant breeders.Special strengths -Plant breeders have long recognized that each group has special strengths that might be usefully combined with those of the other group. For example, winter wheats tend to have better drought tolerance; spring wheats tend to have better milling and baking quality. Moreover, the genes for these desirable traits could be found in already productive varieties-varieties with good genetic backgrounds. Thus when crosses were made, the progeny would bear a fair number of acceptable characters, and subsequent breeding and selection to eliminate undesirable traits would take less time.In greenhouses, spring and winter wheats can be made to flower at the same time, primarily by manipulating temperature to vernalize the winter wheats. (Winter wheats require a period of cold temperatures to induce flowering.) Through this process a number of commercially important wheat varieties have been created. In fact, Norin 10 x Brevor, the original source of dwarfing in Mexican varieties, was a spring x winter cross.A unique site-But greenhouse work is costly and the number of crosses that can be made annually is limited. CIMMYT has been able to shatter that limitation because of the special climate at one of its Mexican research sites.In the 1970s CIMMYT began to look at largescale spring x winter crossing as a means to strengthen the drought tolerance of spring wheats as well as their resistance to stripe rust, septoria, and root diseases. It found a partner in Oregon State University (USA), which was interested in developing winter wheats with greater stem and leaf rust resistance, higher yield, and better milling and baking quality-all of which are readily found in good spring wheats. In addition to shoring up weaknesses in the two gene pools, intercrossing offered the opportunity to enlarge the spectrum of genes for other desirable characters available to breeders.The key was the Toluca, Mexico, station . Although the location is within the tropics, its elevation (2650 meters) ensures that periods with temperatures low enough to vernalize winter wheat occur from December through February. At Toluca, winter wheats are planted in November and spring-wheats are planted on several successive dates starting in January. In May both groups are flowering and breeders can make extensive crosses.To accelerate the pace of breeding, spring x winter crossin'g also takes place at the CIANO station in Northwest Mexico, the site of CIMMYT's principal spring-wheat breeding activities. There, potted winter-wheat seedlings are grown in cold chambers to vernalize them. They are then transplanted outdoors and grown under electric lamps to extend the daylength and hasten flowering.The research partnership-In all, over a thousand crosses a year are made and seed from the first generation progeny are divided with Oregon State University. CIMMYT breeders use the seed in subsequent crosses with the aim of producing spring-habit wheats. From this point, the progeny undergo the same rigorous testing and screening procedure as conventional spring wheats. At Oregon State University, breeders use the seed similarly in developing better winter-habit wheats. The national wheat program of Turkey is also involved in exploiting germplasm for winter wheat.Almost as soon as advanced lines became available from CIMMYT's first spring x winter crosses, exceptional performance was evident. Now, progeny of spring x winter wheats are consistently among the best entries in the International Spring Wheat Yield Nurseries conducted annually at over 100 locations worldwide.Veery 'S' -Crosses of high yielding Mexican spring wheats with certain winter wheats from the USSR and USA have been particularly noteworthy. One bf these, a line called Veery 'S', has produced average yields 5 to 1 OD(a higher than other widely adapted, high-yielding varieties in several years of trials . From their Soviet winter-wheat progenitor ( Kavkaz), the Veery lines have gained better resistance to powdery mildew and stripe rust as well as additional resistance to septoria leaf blotch and leaf rust. They also appear to be more tolerant of early season cold, late season heat, and drought. Consequently they perform well in a wide range of diverse environments.Mexico began to release varieties from the Veery 'S' line in the 1980s. They now cover 80% of the nation's wheat area. Selections made from Veery lines have been released in over a dozen other countries as well and more are coming. To date, over 3 million hectares of Veery -derived varieties are under cultivation.A leading aim of CIMMYT's bread wheat breeding program is to develop genetic resistance to the important wheat diseases . Because the major rusts-leaf rust, stem rust, and stripe rust-are by far the most destructive wheat diseases worldwide, resistance to them is a prerequisite for CIMMYT lines promoted to advanced stages. In addition, CIMMYT breeders incorporate resistance to other diseases that are regionally important into suitable germ plasm.The rusts -In the struggle against rusts, the battle is never over . These parasitic fungi can readily mutate into new virulent races, and they are capable of explosive multiplication, causing an epidemic. A variety that has been resistant to the prevailing races in an area may become susceptible almost overnight when a new virulent race suddenly appears . In many areas, a new variety can be expected to last no more than five years before a new race arises to which it is not resistant.The best weapon against these insidious adversaries is broad-based breeding to accumulate multiple genes for resistance, intensive exposure to the rusts through inoculation, and multilocation testing to expose weaknesses in the resistance genes.Crossing with a wide range of sources continues in order to broaden the base of resistance. In international tests, CIMMYT germplasm has demonstrated resistance to stem rust at locations around the world. In Northwest Mexico, the nation's major wheatproducing area, there has been no threat of a stem rust epidemic for 25 years.Moreover there are indications that stable resistance to stem rust may be possible . Yaqui 50, a tall Mexican bread wheat, is one of several varieties whose resistance to stem rust has endured for over three decades. CIMMYT regularly uses such varieties in crossing for resistance.In the 1960s, leaf rust, which had been a minor disease in Mexico, began to be troublesome. Efforts to incorporate resistance from various sources were begun and within a Over several years of trials, selected Veery lines have produced average yields 5 to 10% higher than other widely adapted, high-yielding varieties.decade considerable progress was made . In most areas of the world, CIMMYT materials are resistant to leaf rust . Ironically, the resistance is not stable in Mexico. A severe epidemic struck Northwest Mexico in the late 1970s. However, through periodic changes to new varieties , leaf rust has been held in check until now .A bright omen in th e search for stable resistance to leaf rust is the discovery of the \"slow rusting \" characteristic of certain lines . When leaf rust attac ks these lines, the usual lesions occur, but their onset is delayed . By harvest the int'ensity of the attack is still mild and the effect on yield is minimal. A vigorous program to identify sources of this trait and to transfer it into productive varieties is under way .Development of strong resistance to stripe rust is less well advanced than work on the other major rusts . Screening for resistance was begun at one of CIMMYT's high elevation stations in Mexico where stripe rust is endemic. But international multilocation testing revealed that the race spectrum at that location is narrow . As a result, the resistance genes in the materials were ineffective against races prevailing at numerous other locations .In the mid-1970s CIMMYT began screening lines in the Andean region of South America, an area with severe stripe-rust incidence . Screening was also initiated in the highlands of East Africa . By employing data from these trials in making crosses, a broad genetic base for stripe-rust resistance is pervading newer CIMMYT materials . But the level of resistance still has considerable room for improvement .Multilocation testing -Success in breeding for resistance is heavily dependent on internationa l testing . The international nursery system permits the exposure of materials to a wide range of virulence. Performance data returned from cooperators are used to calculate the average coefficients of infection for various diseases in numerous locations . For rusts, a line that shows a consistently low coefficient at diverse locations is presumed to carry multiple genes for resistance . Lines with low coefficients for rusts or other diseases are used in simple and three-way crosses to pyramid the resistance genes . The segregating progeny are then exposed to all possible diseases in the field, to cul! out those that do not have broad resistance . When germplasm combines broadbased disease resistance with a productive background, it is returned as advanced lines to national programs for retesting, further selection, or possible release.Other diseases -Septoria spp., a fungus, is an example of a wheat disease complex that is of regional importance. In the 1960s and ea,rly 1970s, CIMMYT germplasm grown in North Africa and the Middle East often performed poorly because it lacked resistance to septoria diseases . Subsequently, CIMMYT began collecting sources of resistance to intercross with lines possessing high yield potential. Screening of the progeny for septoria resistance was done cooperatively w ith several national programs in the Mediterranean region . An acceptable level of septoria resistance has now been achieved in some CIMMYT germplasm suitable for regions where Septoria spp. are prevalent.Several diseases are serious limitations to the productivity of wheat in tropical climates that are now considered marginal for wheat . Sources of resistance to helminthosporium leaf blight are being crossed with the best CIMMYT germplasm and tested at a warm , humid site on the eastern coast of Mexico . At this site, helminthosporium diseases are so severe that the only survivors are lines with strong resistance .Resistance to such diseases as septoria and helminthosporium leaf blight is not incorporated into the full range of CIMMYT germplasm . Doing so would dilute the resources available for resolving more pervasive breeding problems. Instead the development of resistance is centered on the segment of CIMMYT germplasm appropriate for areas where the disease pfevails, such as Bangladesh, Nepal, eastern India, Brazil, Paraguay and the countries of East Africa. Other countries that would profit from better fusarium resistance include China, East Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay .By superimposing resistance to diseases of regional importance on germplasm that has high yield potential and resistance to the major diseases, CIMMYT and its collaborating national programs expand the production options of poor farmers who populate marginal areas of the world.Success in breeding for disease resistance is heavily dependent on international testing, which permits the exposure of materials to a wide range of virulence .Compared to bread wheat, durum wheat has received less attention from breeders. At CIMMYT, intensive improvement of durum wheat has been under way for little more than a decade .Although durums cover only 10% of the world's wheat area, they are of local importance in North Africa and the Middle East, Italy, Ethiopia, India, the Andean Zone of South America Canada, the USA, and the USSR . The grain has special properties desirable for making noodles and other pasta products. Durums are also favored for producing certain types of unleavened bread and such homemade products as couscous, bulgur, and chapatis .Dwarfing -When bread wheat strains bearing the Norin-10 dwarfing genes arrived in Mexico in the late 1950s, crosses were made with durums as well as with other bread wheats . Durum yields increased remarkably. Subsequent breeding and selection has lifted the yield potential of durum wheat to such an extent that under optimum conditions their yields exceed those of bread wheats.While work to raise the yield potential of durums continues at CIMMYT, efforts to enlarge the genetic base of improved lines and to widen their adaptation have been given increasing emphasis in recent years .Unreliable rainfall is characteristic of many durum-growing areas and CIMMYT is undertaking cooperative research with the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (!CARDA) to improve drought tolerance. In addition, spring and winter durums are being crossed with the intent of transferring the latter's drought tolerance to the spring-habit germplasm pool. Breeding for earlier maturity is another promising avenue: early maturing varieties would have less risk of being damaged by late-season epidemics, drought, or frost .While work to raise the yield potential of durums continues at CIMMYT, efforts to enlarge the genetic base of improved lines and to widen their adaptation have been given increasing emphasis in recent years.Advanced durum wheats in CIMMYT's breeding program have high and stable levels of resistance to stripe rust. To strengthen resistance to stem rust, CIMMYT ships genetic materials to cooperating national research institutions in Ethiopia where the presence of highly virulent races of stem rust provides excellent conditions for screening. They are then returned to CIMMYT for incorporation into lines for other parts of the world affected by stem rust. Better resistance to septoria, fusarium, and helminthosporium diseases is still needed.Progress has also been made in producing lines with solid stems, which provide resistance to the attack of sawflies, a serious pest of wheat in certain countries of North Africa and the Middle East.Export quality-Massive testing by the CIMMYT milling and baking laboratory facilitated the development of new durum lines that combine high yield potential with grain that has the size, weight, pigment, and protein content required for making pasta and other semolina products. High quality grain is essential for countries that hope to enter the lucrative durum export trade.Through the international nurseries, CIMMYT germplasm reaches national programs. Durum varieties derived from CIMMYT materials are being grown widely in the Mediterranean basin, in Pakistan, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mexico, and in South America.Triticale has come a long way from its origin as a laboratory curiosity. The first successful crosses of wheat and rye, to create what is now called triticale, were made in the late 1800s. But development of triticale as a crop didn't start until the 1950s.CIMMYT began working with triticales in the late 1960s. Triticale strains at that time were low yielding and had a narrow range of adaptation. Typical triticales were tall, late maturing, and photoperiod-sensitive, that is, the onset of flowering was affected by day length . In addition, they were partially sterile, so a large proportion of spikelets never formed grains; the grains that did form tended to be shrivelled.Narrow genetic base -As a man-made crop , triticale lacked the eons of evolutionary time necessary to become genetically diverse. The narrowness of the germplasm base made it vulnerable to diseases and other problems .The broad spectrum of varieties employed in CIMMYT's durum and bread wheat breeding programs afforded an opportunity to expand the genetic base of triticales. Working with the University of Manitoba (Canada), CIMMYT began an extensive-crossing program between short, photoperiod-insensitive Mexican wheats and Canadian triticales. The progeny were moved back and forth, in successive seasons, between two disparate locations in Mexico. As in CIMMYT's wheat improvement program, this procedure accelerated progress by allowing two generations to be grown each year . In addition, it exposed plants to different climatic conditions and disease complexes, and photoperiod-sensitive plants could be quickly eliminated. These triticales , however, yielded only about half as much as the best wheat varieties .The single greatest advance in the history of triticale was a serendipitous event. In 1968, breeders found, among the third generation progeny of one of their crosses, a few plants that stood out. They were apparently the result of a spontaneous outcross, that is, a plant two generations earlier had been ferti lized by pollen from an unknown bread wheat rather than being selfpollinated .This line, called Armadillo, was photoperiodinsensitive, had one dwarfing gene, better yie ld, and much higher fertility. Its strong features were readily transmitted in crosses with other triticales and it also crossed well with bread wheats, durums, and rye. By the late 1970s large numbers of triticales had Armadillo in their pedigrees.The single greatest advance in the history of triticale was a serendipitous event, a spontaneous outcross with an unknown bread wheat.The early triticales, however, had weak stems, which resulted in a tendency to lodge, particularly when grown under heavy doses of fertilizer. Numerous crosses were made with stiff-strawed bread wheats to overcome this deficiency .Shrivelled grain -Crosses were also made to produce plumper grain, and large-scale laboratory testing provided the information to make selections . Test weights, one measure of plumpness, have improved in some materials from 68 kg/hi to as high as 76 kg/hi, a level comparable to that of bread wheat. Although substantial gains have been made, shrivelled grain still preoccupies triticale breeders. Lines that have high test weights under optimum growing conditions often have lower test weights under poor conditions. But lines with good test weights under suboptimal conditions generally retain them when grown in better co nditions. CIMMYT's high-elevation summer nursery sites provide suboptimal conditions that allow selection for stable, high test weights.International triticale trials were established in 1969 . The trials provide data on triticale's adaptation to a wide range of conditions. They also give breeders at CIMMYT and elsewhere ready access to triticale germ plasm. Since 1973, the yields of the best triticales have equalled the yields of the bread wheats.The combination of rye and wheat germplasm gives triticale better adaptation to difficult co nditions than wheat . Recent analyses have shown that the best triticales are distinctly superior to bread wheats in certain dryland conditions, tropical highlands, and acid soils. But triticales have no significant yield advantage over wheat in irrigated subtropical conditions or Mediterranean climates.CIMMYT has in recent years accentuated the expansion of the germplasm base. Crosses between bread wheat and rye and between durum and rye are made to create new primary triticales. Tissue-culture techniques have been improved to raise the proportion of primary crosses that succeed. Crosses are also being made between winter triticales and spring triticales, two gene pools that have quite different features.Target areas -Triticale currently covers some 750,000 hectares in 30 countries, with the largest areas currently found in developed countries. In favored production environments, even when the yields are equal, triticales cannot compete with high-yielding wheats because the lower milling rates of triticale cause it to sell at a discount . In harsher environments, the superior yields of current triticales should more than compensate for a lower price . There are about 3 million hectares where wheat, barley, or rye is now grown that could be advantageously sown to triticale . In addition, another 15 million hectares that do not now support small grains could be sown to triticale. These are the zones in which current research is focused.Triticale (right) tends to perform much better than bread wheat (left) when both are grown in adverse soils, such as in this highly acidic plot. CIMMYT's work in on-farm research stems from its studies on the spread of new maize and wheat varieties and new management practices, which showed that adoption takes place unevenly . As a result of differences in agroecologica ( and socioeconomic circumstances , even neighboring farmers in a locality may have quite different adoption patterns . Simply stated, adoption follows if the recommendations fit .CIMMYT's work in on-farm research stems from its studies on the spread of new maize and wheat varieties and new management practices, which showed that adoption takes place unevenly.With this premise as background , CIMMYT set out to develop procedures that would help national agricultural research programs efficiently generate appropriate recommendations . Four essential elements were identified .First, the farmers for whom the recommendation is derived must be carefully targeted . The delineation of recommendation domains-groups of farmers whose circumstances are similar enough that they will be eligible for the same recommendationfacilitates this process .Second, the importance of interactions, biological and economic, must be recognized . Farmers make decisions in comple x environments . Some of the sources of complexity are : the possibility of growing several crops a year, or sometimes simultaneously; the risks presented by uncertain climate and unreliable markets; the multiple objectives of the farm fam ily, which often consumes much of its production and which ma y also derive income from off-farm work; the heavy dependence on famil y labor; and the heterogeneity of the land and labor used for production .Third , such a complex system requ ires the joined perspectives of biologi cal and social scientists in the research process . And fourth , to be re liable , much of the research should be carried out on the farms of representative farmers .In order for a research strateg y to be practical for national programs it must fit their means . That is, it must be one that national research programs can implement, despite their limitations of staff, equipment, and f unds . Also , given the intense competition for scarce research funds in developing countries, the strategy must yield results soon , even if longterm results are potentially greater . Finally, the strategy must be compatible with the tendency of farmers to adopt new technology incrementally.As a result, CIMMYT con centrates on a class of systems-based research that treats one , or sometimes two , enterprises (for example, wheat or a maize-bean intercrop) as variables. But the approach recognizes that competitive and complementary relationships with other activities exist and it ensures that these relationships are reflected in the design of technolog ies for the enterprise under investigation . In addition , CIMMYT stresses the value of restricting consideration to a few high priority components . These limitations make the strategy feasible for most national research programs , they encourage emphasis on nearterm results, and they are consonant with farmer adoption behavior .The on-farm research procedures developed by CIMMYT are fle xible enough to encourage adjustment and refinements as local situations dictate, but they are formulated so that researchers with little experience have firm guidelines that they can follow . The procedures involve a sequential approach to data collection . A rapid overview of the farming system guides further data collection on a smaller number of variables . This information is in turn translated into research priorities, which form the basis for on-farm experimentation . From an assessment of the experimental results, recommendations are formulated . Biological and social scientists collaborate throughout the process.Diagnosis is both the first stage of on-farm research and a continuing activity throughout the research process. Initially, researchers review existing data and informally survey farmers, merchants, and others about practices and problems . A formal survey may be carried out as well, if resources permit. The information from the initial diagnosis is used to develop a list of priority problems and to identify potential solutions that conform with farmers' needs . These form the basis fo r the first year's experimentation .Planning is done before each season's on-farm experiments are installed . Information from diagnosis and previous experiments is used to determine which problems are the most important and that they are sufficiently defined so that alternative solutions can be proposed . After screening proposed solutions for their likely profitability, riskiness , compatibility with existing farming systems, etc., the most promising form the experimental variables from which a set of on-farm experiments is designed .During planning, the concept of recommendation domains is used to sharpen the research focus: it facilitates estimating the number and type of farmers that share a problem and that are likely to benefit from a particular solution and it helps in the specification of the characteristics of representative fields where trials should be conducted .Experimentation is the central part of the onfarm research process . The on-farm experiments apdress a few experimental variables and leave all nonexperimental variables at the farmers' level. Hence, it is vitally important to have determined the management practices of representative farmers before experiments begin . Various types of experiments are conducted, but generally there is a progression from experiments designed to characterize and define problems, to experiments that test solutions to well-defined problems, to verification trials that may be used as demonstrations as well. In this progression, the degree of farmer management, the number of sites, and the size of individual plots all tend to increase .The assessment of on-farm experiments involves a review of the agronomic responses observed throughout the cycle, a statistical analysis of the results , and an economi c analysis .Finally, recommendations are formulated with the objective of providing farmers with the most useful information possible in the context of scarce research resources.An equally important product of this process is the information that can be provided to decision makers about the effects of policies at the local level and to scientists concerned with setting priorities for longer term research. The involvement of extension workers in the entire process gives them first-hand knowledge of the technology as it develops and it affords the researchers the valuable insights of the extension workers .Interest in on-farm research is rising rapidly in developing countries. Through demonstrations and training courses , CIMMYT has helped national research programs in 20 countries integrate on-farm research procedures into the technology generation process .CIMMYT works on maize and wheat, two crops that together constitute over 40% of the cereal output of the developing world. Its ultimate goal is to provide farmers with more productive options. New varieties, if genuinely better, are relatively simple for farmers toadopt-their worth can readily be judged, they can be tried in small quantities, they are inexpensive, and, if superior and accompanied by an agronomic package that permits them to express their genetic potential, they pay off quickly. The adoption of a superior variety often creates an incentive for farmers to employ more intensive cultural practices, with profound effects on incomes and food supplies.The creation of new varieties of wheat and maize results from a partnership between CIMMYT and national programs. CIMMYT provides a broad array of germplasm in various stages of development. It is made accessible through the international testing networks. National programs evaluate the germplasm against local diseases, insects, and stresses, and use it in any way they see fit. The international testing networks also serve to provide national programs with multilocation data on promising germplasm they have under improvement. Which experimental lines or varieties to name and release to farmers is a decision made by national programs in each country. Thus, CIMMYT's role is not only to promote the development of superior germplasm but to strengthen the capabilities of national programs to improve germplasm and thereby provide farmers with a stream of useful varieties.Through its wheat program, CIMMYT has had an extraordinary impact-the ancestry of half the wheat grown in the developing world, as well as important segments of wheat germplasm in developed countries., can be traced to CIMMYT developed materials. Maize germplasm from CIMMYT has had a less widespread effect, but there are signs that its day is coming.The cultivation of maize takes place in innumerable ways throughout the developing world. It is a crop that is grown in tropical, subtropical, and temperate areas . Although it is an important food crop , nearly half the total harvest in developing countries is destined to be fed to livestock. And it i8., for many growers, a secondary or subsistence crop, rather than a primary food crop. Thus, diffusion of superior maize varieties is more complicated than that of crops grown by farmers in less heterogeneous environments and with less diverse economic objectives .Over 70 countries participate tn the international maize improvement network, which, in the last decade, has developed and tested over 850 experimental varieties .Over 70 countries participate in the international maize improvement network, which, in the last decade, has developed and tested over 850 experimental varieties . During this period, a large share of the national maize programs in developing countries have reorganized to follow the population improvement system used by CIMMYT. Those changes allow the programs to make better use of the diverse and steadily improving germplasm exchanged through the international testing network. Alumni of CIMMYT training courses make up an increasing proportion of the research staffs of national programs. Since 1971, CIMMYT has had nearly 900 maize trainees from 74 countries.Nearly every maize breeding program in the developing world is using superior materials developed by CIMMYT to improve local varieties . Fo rty-th ree national programs have released 14 7 varieties and hybrids from materials in the international testing network . In Brazil, for example, 12 such varieties have been released . Most have been chosen for their high levels of disease resistance. Ten varieties and three hybrids from CIMMYT materials have been released in Guatemala and are grown on some 40% of the country's maize area. In Costa Rica 10 to 15% of the maize area is planted to varieties selected from CIMMYT materials. In Nigeria, a variety resting on CIMMYT materials is one of two recently released improved varieties that together cover one million hectares .Evidence of change in West African maizegrowing areas comes from a recent sample survey of 10 Ghanian villages representative of the region . Among these farmers, who typically cultivate about two hectares of maize, fourfifths were planting at least part of their fields to improved varieties derived from CIMMYT germplasm. More than half were using these varieties on the majority of their fields.Overall, CIMMYT estimated in 1983 that about 5 million hectares of maize varieties based on CIMMYT germplasm were being grown in the developing world . About half of that was in Mexico, about 1 million hectares were in Asia, and 0.5 million each in Africa, South America, and Central America . The international spread of semidwarf wheats is one of the momentous events of agricultural history. The wheats bearing the Norin 10 dwarfing gene began moving out of Mexico in international nurseries in the 1960s. National programs recognized their worth and began releasing varieties so rapidly (in many cases importing large quantities of seed to speed the process) that by 1970, one out of every eight hectares of wheat in the developing world was planted to varieties bearing germplasm developed by CIMMYT or its predecessor organization . For certain countries, the conversion was even more dramatic. India, Nepal, and Pakistan had 40 to 50% of their wheat in modern varieties by 1970, and Mexico had 90%.The international spread of •semidwarf wheats is one of the momentous events of agricultural history. Over 400 modern varieties have been released by national programs and semidwarf wheats now cover over 50 million hectares in the developing world. The diffusion of modern wheat varieties has proceeded unabated in the years since . The international testing program has made available germplasm with better yield potential, better yield stability, stronger disease resistance. The capabilities of national wheat scientists have grown in more and more countries . Over 400 modern varieties have been released by national programs. As a result, semidwarf wheats now cover over 50 million hectares in the developing world .In Asia, excluding China, and in Latin America, 80% of the wheat land is in modern wheats. In sub-Saharan Africa the proportion is 50% and in North Africa and the Middle East, 30% . The adoption of modern varieties was delayed in China, but is now taking place at a rapid pace.The country now has some 15 to 18 million hectares in locally developed modern wheats (exceeding, for example, the whole of Latin America), but that represents only about one half of the wheat area of the country.The effects of the wheat revolution have been profound in many countries. India and Bangladesh provide two examples . India's national average wheat yield is 1.8 t/ha, more than double what it was in the early 1960s.In Bangladesh, the advent of modern wheats, in combination with faster maturing modern rice varieties, have given farmers sufficient time to grow a crop of wheat in the winter season. Bangladesh now plants 500,000 hectares of wheat, virtually 100% of which is in modern varieties. Compared with the early 1960s, the yield has more than tripled, the area of wheat has grown by a factor of 9, and production is 30 times greater.CIMMYT wheat germplasm is making an important contribution to food production outside the developing world as well. In the US, nearly all the wheat planted in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Texas, as well as half the wheat in Kansas, carries CIMMYT germplasm. Several new varieties in Australia and New Zealand also have a CIMMYT lineage . In all, about 10 million hectares of spring bread wheat in industrial countries carry CIMMYT germplasm in their pedigrees.Finally, the most recent assessment of the impact of modern varieties, a study by the CGIAR, said that, conservatively estimated, the average yield increase from improved wheats in the developing world is 500 kilograms per hectare. Thus, those varieties have raised food production by about 25 million tons a year, or enough to provide the average annual grain consumption for 250 million people .These In a complementary fashion CIMMYT remains committed to providing high-quality training intended to enhance the research capabilities and productivity of national agricultural research programs in developing countries . In this regard the Center will continue to focus attention on the development of procedural tools designed to heighten the impact of scientists in national programs.The \"thoroughgoing pragmatism\" that has guided the work of CIMMYT staff and all who have played a role in facilitating the Center's impact is still a dominant trait. This includes a heavy commitment to field work, to hands-on science . The \"generation of scientists that moved from the desk to the field\" remains committed to this approach. As well they recognize that this same pragmatism may one day suggest a tempering of their own field activities in favor of providing guidance to the next generation of front-line researchers.CIMMYT continues to draw on its strength as a nonpolitical entity , rising above global and regional geopolitical forces as it strives to contribute to the well-being of millions of poor farmers in developing countries. The Center's role as an \"impartial clearinghouse\" for the dissemination of genetic materials and scientific information to national program colleagues remains unchanged.And finally, CIMMYT will continue to take the \"long view' ; in addressing the research opportunities and priorities affecting maize, wheat, and triticale in the Third World. The Center's ability to do so, of course, rests squarely on sustained financial support by its donors, but the advantages inherent in this \"long view\" are evident to those who fund international agricultural research. These hallmarks do more than describe the modus operandi of one of the world's premier agricultural research institutions; they provide guidance to an organization that is today as dynamic as it was 20 years ago . This dynamism springs from CIMMYT's strong sense of itself, a confidence born of its history and its global reputation; this in turn enables the Center to respond to new circumstances as they arise .CIMMYT's mission has changed over the years as the needs of its clients have changed and as research has created new opportunities. But the hallmarks that characterize CIMMYT have not changed and, because of this• secure identity, the Center is able to respond effectively to the changing needs of others. CIMMYT today reflects the same dynamism, the same integrity, and the same commitment to standards as at its inception, 20 years ago.","tokenCount":"16735"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bc1ba56d500c549ccd9d9026fa51bfc8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7b129e27-6272-4615-8d65-12fddf153017/retrieve","id":"-699869290"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a59ba0be-4199-4f65-81a9-bd04eaee77bc","pagecount":"592","content":"This volume contains papers and abstracts of the First Biennial Conference of the African Small Ruminant Network. Ten papers deal with the Small Ruminant Production System and Policy; Eight papers on Small Ruminant Performance and Reproductive Physiology; eleven papers on Small Ruminant Reproductive Wastage and Health. Another nine describe and analyse feeds and feeding systems and there are 1 1 papers on Small Ruminant Genetic Resources and Breeding. Four papers on Small Ruminant Development in Africa complete this volume.Kenya has an estimated 7 and 8 million sheep and goats, respectively. Table 1 gives the breakdown of this important animal resource base into hair and wool sheep and meat-and dairy-goat types. The significance of the small-ruminant sector in the overall agricultural economy was recognised in 1970's with the establishment of the Sheep and Goat Development Project. Due to increasing demand for animal products, a proportionate share of increase in small ruminant productivity is necessary without environmental degradation. This development will inevitably come through research. This paper outlines the small ruminant research trends from the 70's up to the present and projects on what will likely be the research requirements by the year 2000 AD, given the current socio-economic development patterns in the country.  The Project also had some shortcomings: It lacked sufficient co-ordination. Progress in the field could not be adequately monitored. Breeding and selection criteria of the studs were not established. Overall production package could not be advanced. The small-scale farmer production system was not addressed.There was marked deterioration in specific production segments like prime lamb and wool production. Most of the work was done on-station and it lacked on-farm socio-economic considerations.The present -1980's -1990 Based on the experience gained from the SGDP, other projects were conceived that had a direct bearing on the research aspects on sheep and goats.The Small Ruminant Collaborative Research Support Program (SR-CRSP)The Project is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and has been in existence now for about 10 years. The Project's principal objective in Kenya is to develop on systems analysis research basis a dual-purpose goat (DPG) of 40 kg mature weight with a potential of 4 kg daily milk field at peak lactation to satisfy home milk requirements of families in small-scale farming areas. The selling points of this Project are:1. To synthesise a DPG from a broad base of adequately sampled two indigenous goats, the Galla and the East African and two exotic dairy goats, the Toggenburg and Anglo-Nubian, based on systems analysis principles and the management capability to small-scale farmers. The parental combination ensures high adaptability to local environmental fertility and high meat and milk production. It also ensures high heterosis retention in the economic traits in the stabilised new DPG. So far, the first composites are in place and breeding is in the correct direction in terms of yields of two kg of milk per day on one milking (Mwandotto et al, n.d). The use of artificial insemination (Al) for goat production in our environment has been demonstrated in the process of development of this DPG and adaptability of the DPG to different production zones is planned in the development of the Project.2. The project is multifaceted in that the breeding research is augmented by simultaneous nutrition management, disease and socio-economic research aspects in order to evolve a comprehensive production package for the producers, training institutions and extension agents. That package is now at its final stage of development.3. The project aims at producing low cost production technologies: (a) use of weigh-band to estimate weight of animals on the farm for on-farm research -see below; (b) development of non-conventional fodders -vines and agroforestry shrubs and farm by-products for goat feeding; (c) use of Haemonchus contortus resistant animals to lower the cost of maintenance of breeding flocks. With a heritabilrty estimate of 0.397 for Haemonchus resistance in the breeding flock (Rohrer et al, 1990, unpublished), the resistance can be selected for in the future DPG; (d) partial milking for cheap and hygienic feeding and still able to adequately estimate milk yield (Ruvuna etal, 1988).4. The project has an important aspect of on-farm production and evaluation research aspects where DPG parentals are monitored in terms of acceptability by target farmers, production levels and marketability of the goats and their products.The IPAL Project was set in the arid lands of northern Kenya with the Federal Republic of Germany and UNESCO aid. The selling point of this Project was that the small ruminants were researched on in their traditional setting and management and in integration with cattle and camels. Prospective innovations were monitored carefully. One of the notable of the projects knowledge of the resilience of small stock in sustaining its population after drought catastrophes (Blackburn, 1984). The limitation here was that it was also location-specific. The ILCA project in Kajiado showed the importance of marketing small ruminants on weight, body condition and sex basis (Chabari et al, 1987).The Embu-Meru-lsiolo Goat and Sheep Project This as a non-governmental organisation (NGO) Project based at Marimanti and sponsored by the Governments of Kenya and the United Kingdom. It is a good example of an NGO conducting research to augment the national efforts of research information generation. It has conducted on-farm recording and breed comparisons. Even though there is some confounding in data structure, it is indicated that there is no difference between the Deguin and the Boran Galla in milk production (Skea, n.d.). As we move to on-farm research activities, apparently care will have to be taken in experimental designs in order to get as much information as possible from trials.The Universities and Agricultural Development Corporation (ADG)The University farms do keep some stock for teaching purposes complete with good records especially in purebreed dairy goats. Most of these flocks have, however, tended to be small in size and consistent long-term observations on them have not been possible. Large flocks of both sheep and goats are, however, in the hands of ADG with a possibility of large data sets of pedigree and production kept for long periods. This is an area of ADC flocks and their breeding/management programmes.As a result of the first project of the 1970's some data have accumulated on government farms which have been analysed recently to reveal important research information. On crossing the Galla to the East African goat and the Boer (Angwenyi, 1984), the East African superiority in adaptation and the superior mothering ability of the Galla was indicated. Furthermore, a Galla x East African cross dam gave a favourable maternal heterosis that would be useful in raising Boer cross kids. Shortcomings in the experimental designs limited the information on maturing characters that could have also been generated by that study. On the same farm, Maasai and the Dorper with apparently a combination between 47/64 and 7/8 Dorper being ideal. In another study in high altitude areas, the Hampshire Down sheep grew faster than the Red Maasai with the Dorper being in between the two breeds and the carcass characteristic also differed between the breeds (Wachira et al, n.d.) while interactions between breed and sex occurred for meat traits.The future 1990'sGiven the experience of the past and the present, research projection on small ruminants by the year 2000 AD in Kenya may be viewed as follows:-1 . A more integrated and co-ordinated approach will be needed instead of the research being zonal and addressing only small sections of the societies.2. Well designed studies will be set that have adequate experimental material and without confounding effects in order to generate comprehensive information per unit of resource invested in research. Current methods of data analyses and animal evaluation will also be employed.3. Products that have so far not been included in our priorities will be addressed -prime lamb and wool. A research laboratory in wool and mohair is envisaged in order to support the natural fibre industry. There should be more research on Merino, Corriadale, Romney mash sheep (which form more that 10% of the sheep population) and Angora goats. A proposal to develop a prime lamb production industry, near urban centres for ease of marketing has been proposed by Angwenyi (n.d.).4. Revitalization of small ruminant breed societies and formation of new ones to promote and develop the characteristics of individual breeds in order to support any planned crossbreeding programmes.5. More multidisciplinary approach to research will be in place in line with the example of SR-CRSP with multi-institutional involvement for any possible complementarity and more efficient use of research funds and research expertise and release of technological packages of different production systems.6. More intensive search for resistant animals against endemic diseases and understanding the mode of inheritance of the possible resistance in order to cut down the cost of drugs in maintaining flocks.7. More diversified fodder crops for small ruminants i.e. studies on shrubs and agro-forestry trees and use of goats for more efficient control of bush enchroachment in range areas.8. Broaden the definition of small ruminants to include rabbits (in intensive agriculture) and small wildlife species like the undertake (in range areas) and undertake studies on the economic integration of those species in animal agriculture. In ranching situations, wildlife meat is relevant as tourist hotel industry moves into individual ranches and the lean wildlife meat may earn premiums. Harvesting of wildlife products from non-endangered species was recommended in 1985 (IBAR, 1986). 9. Small ruminant meat characteristics will be studied in detail including meat from the (new) species in order to develop objective grading criteria and more use of by-products from the small ruminant industry.10. Use of biotechnological principles on breeding better animals and development of vaccines (animal health management through biotechnology). Embryo transfer technology will be built on the current Al experience and successful commercialisation of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) vaccines will stimulate the development of multivalent vaccines to cut down cost of production and administration of the drugs.11. Training in very specialised fields in small ruminant production i.e. reproductive physiology, embryo transfer, development of gene markers and probes etc.Session 1 Small ruminant production system and policy Systèmes et politiques d'élevage des petits ruminants Introduction L'élevage des petits ruminants présente au niveau mondial, une quadruple spécificité:• il est mené dans des conditions techniques extrêmement diverses selon les situations agro-économiques dans lesquelles il s'insère, ce que reflète la diversité des prix de sa viande dans le monde;• il n'a connu nulle part l'évolution vers le type de production intensive de masse qu'ont connue les autres grandes productions animales (volaille, porc, lait de vache);• c'est un élevage à triple fin: viande, laine, lait dans des proportions très variables selon les situations;• enfin, le petit format de ces herbivores domestiques exclut leur utilisation en animaux de trait; en revanche, il les rend faciles à manipuler par leur détenteur, mais plus sensibles aux prédateurs que le gros bétail, d'où la nécessité de leur protection.La production marchande de viande d'herbivores: un sous-produitDe tout temps et dans le monde entier (sauf dans les pays riches depuis quelques dizaines d'années), la consommation de viande est très réduite, réservée aux fêtes ou aux élites, l'alimentation de base étant constituée de féculents (céréales, tubercules) accompagnés de protéines végétales (Iégumineuses). La viande la plus consommée est issue d'un élevage ayant d'autres fins: laine (ovins); lait; cuir (bovins, caprins, ovins); travail (bovins, équins, camelins); fumier (ovins en zone méditerranéenne). Les viandes de granivores (oiseaux, porcins), qui ne produisent rien d'autre que de la viande, sont un très grand luxe réservé à une élite, ou tout simplement interdites (interdiction du porc par l'islam). Dans cette situation, on peut donc dire qu'il n'y a pas d'animaux élevés spécialement pour la production de viande, si ce n'est quelques unités élevées, en basse-cour, à partir de résidus de culture ou de déchets domestiques, à seule fin d'autoconsommation familiale. Dans tous les cas, la consommation de viande est occasionnelle.herbivores élevés sur de grands espaces (le coton puis les textiles artificiels remplacent la laine, le caoutchouc et le PVC remplacent les cuirs, la motorisation remplace les chevaux et les boeufs de trait, les engrais chimiques le fumier). Les grands troupeaux d'herbivores sur pâturages spontanés, dont le marché des produits autres que la viande se déprime, ne peuvent pas répondre à l'augmentation très forte de la demande en viande.En revanche, les progrès techniques importants dans la culture céréalière permettent de consacrer une part de plus en plus importante des terres cultivées à la production d'alimentation animale.L'élevage intensif de masse, à seule fin de production de viande (volaille, porc), se développe alors dans ce contexte particulier. Il est fondé sur une utilisation massive de céréales ou de fourrages cultivés. Dans les deux cas, il s'agit de cultures impliquant labour, fertilisation, semence, par opposition à l'exploitation de territoires à végétation poussant sans intervention humaine directe.Les herbivores sont moins efficaces que les granivores pour la transformation des céréales en viande. Le développement d'un élevage d'herbivores à viande exige donc qu'une partie de leur alimentation reste assurée par le pâturage d'herbe spontanée. Si la demande en viande d'herbivores leur attribue un prix plus élevé qu'à celle de granivores, la proportion des céréales dans leur alimentation pourra être d'autant plus importante.Le développement des élevages marchands d'herbivores pour la viande se fait donc toujours sur la base d'une utilisation combinée de céréales ou de cultures semblables (au moins la phase finale), et de pâturages spontanés. C'est pourquoi, du point de vue du développement de l'élevage et de la gestion de l'espace, ce qui distingue les différentes modalités techniques n'est pas la proportion fourrages concentrés/fourrages grossiers, mais la proportion fourrages cultivés/fourrages spontanés.Aujourd'hui encore, la majeure partie de la viande d'herbivores consommée dans le monde provient d'élevages conduits à d'autres fins (bovins-lait, ovins-laine) et l'essentiel de la croissance de la consommation de viande des dernières décennies provient d'une production de viande à base de céréales (volaille, porc).Cette logique de la production de viande, comme produit principal ou sous-produit, et selon l'utilisation d'herbe, est reflétée par les quantités et les prix sur le marché international (tableau 1). Les viandes de granivores s'échangent beaucoup moins (5% de la production mondiale) sur le marché mondial car, fabriquées à base exclusive de céréales, ce sont les céréales qui s'échangent et il n'y a pas d'avantage comparatif à une localisation proche des zones de production. En revanche, les viandes d'herbivores, selon les disponibilités en ressources spontanées et leur statut de sous-produits, peuvent avoir des prix de marché très différents. L'essentiel des exportations mondiales sont le fait de pays à faible densité de population et à climat tempéré (hémisphère Sud), où, de plus, l'élevage ovin est essentiellement orienté vers la laine. C'est pourquoi, la viande ovine est moins chère sur ce marché que la viande bovine qui est dans ces pays la principale fin de l'élevage bovin. Toutes les formes d'élevage ressortent de deux grands types, que l'on retrouve dans l'histoire, avec des modifications particulières liées aux systèmes agraires dans lesquels cet élevage est pratiqué:• grands élevages spécialisés extensifs il s'agit de troupeaux de grandes dimensions, gérés comme un capital, exploités par des éleveurs spécialisés utilisant de très grands espaces, avec peu de travail par unité produite;• élevages paysans: il s'agit des troupeaux de petites dimensions de paysans dont la production est diversifiée. Les ovins, caprins sont l'une des diverses productions mises en jeu pour assurer l'entretien et le renouvellement de la famille.Les élevages spécialisés extensifs sont de deux types Les plus anciens sont ceux des pasteurs des régions steppiques. Les populations qui les pratiquent vivent sur des territoires où les cultures sont difficiles, voire impossibles. Les animaux constituent donc leur seul moyen de survie. Le lait (et parfois le sang) est le principal produit, pour l'autoconsommation. Les seuls animaux abattus sont les animaux malades ou réformés, ou ceux que l'on vend en cas de sécheresse ou pour se procurer du grain.Dans les zones plus arrosées, c'est le pouvoir politique, appuyé éventuellement sur la force militaire, qui impose l'affectation, au détriment des cultures, de grandes parties du territoire à l'élevage du bétail, dans le but d'assurer une base d'approvisionnement dans le produit de cet élevage (Iaine, cuirs, chevaux, etc.) quand celui-ci est l'objet d'un enjeu économique stratégique: c'est le cas des grands élevages actuels de l'hémisphère Sud et d'Amérique du Nord. Ce fut le cas dans le passé en Europe et en Asie du Sud-Ouest pour la fourniture de laine et de chevaux de guerre.Les deux types d'élevage extensif, qui ont besoin de vastes espaces à rente foncière faible, ne sont mis en oeuvre que si la densité de population agricole est très faible, soit en raison de contraintes pédo-climatiques, soit comme résultat d'un processus historique (colonisation, exode rural, etc.). Seule une évolution des structures agraires peut les faire apparaître ou régresser. L'élévation du prix de marché des produits, qui augmente les revenus, ne peut faire croître leurs effectifs que dans des limites très étroites. Toute intensification significative amènerait en effet, une augmentation excessive des besoins en travail; ce surcroît de travail serait mieux valorisé par d'autres productions ou simplement ne peut pas être assuré. Très sensibles aux aléas bioclimatiques, ces élevages connaissent de très amples fluctuations de leurs effectifs, de leurs performances, et des prix de marché. Les variations de valeurs de leur cheptel peuvent être beaucoup plus importantes que le produit qui en est issu. Les éleveurs sont donc souvent à juste titre, plus attentifs au négoce de bétail qu'à une intensification, dans tous les cas coûteuse.Dans les exploitations familiales de petites dimensions et disposant de peu de capitaux, le principal facteur pour assurer les besoins familiaux est l'utilisation du travail. On observe la réalisation d'un ensemble de productions dont l'association permet un renouvellement à moindre coût du potentiel de l'exploitation, et à tout moment une adaptation souple au travail disponible, aux opportunités du marché, aux variations climatiques. Le petit troupeau ovin/caprin joue ici un rôle important pour l'autoconsommation, mais certains des produits sont mis en marché. Dans la palette des différentes productions commercialisables, cet élevage constitue souvent une garantie contraléatoire. La littérature décrit abondamment son rôle de caisse d'épargne. Mais surtout il contribue à la diversité des sources possibles de revenu ou de nourriture. Cette production plus aisément fractionnable que l'élevage bovin, valorise principalement le travail familial, et les ressources fourragères qui n'auraient pas d'autres destinations (jachères, résidus de culture, landes). Les achats sont toujours très limités, et les investissements pratiquement absents.Comme les types extensifs, ces types d'élevage ovin/caprin peuvent fournir des produits au marché à des coûts peu élevés, mais ils ont peu de capacité de croissance interne des effectifs, même dans le cas d'augmentation du prix perçu.Ces élevages, dont la rationalité est le produit, et non la rentabilité du capital, et qui sont en outre peu sensibles aux aléas climatiques puisqu'utilisant rarement la totalité des ressources fourragères disponibles, ont souvent des performances zootechniques élevées (prolificité, rendement laitier). Ils peuvent en outre jouer sur le marché un rôle régulateur (Mounier, 1989), vendant en période de hausse des cours, et accroissant leur autoconsommation ou conservant les animaux en période de cours bas.Dans certains cas bien particuliers se sont développées en Europe, des formes d'élevages intensifs sur un modèle ressemblant à celui de l'aviculture et de la production porcine:• spécialisation des troupeaux vers la viande ou le lait accompagnée de l'organisation collective de l'amélioration génétique;• intensification fourragère et moyens de gérer l'exploitation de l'herbe et de contrôler l'alimentation des animaux;• moyens de contrôle de la reproduction et de l'état sanitaire des brebis;• équipements, aménagements de locaux améliorant l'efficacité du travail;• forte liaison, souvent contractuelle, avec l'agro-industrie pour la fourniture de facteurs de production et l'écoulement du produit.Tous ces moyens ont pour objet d'augmenter la production sans utiliser plus de surface, mais en augmentant la consommation de biens et de services achetés qui permettent une intensification du travail et une diminution de la dépendance des aléas biologiques et agro-climatiques. Ce type d'élevage n'a pu se développer que ponctuellement, dans les cas où le prix du produit (viande ou lait) était élevé grâce à une demande spécifique (fromage de Roquefort, agneau de lait) non concurrencée par les productions plus performantes, et à une protection absolue du marché mondial. Ces élevages sont actuellement en crise en Europe du fait de l'ouverture des marchés et de la baisse des soutiens publics.Fortement tourné vers le marché, ce type d'élevage est cependant le seul qui puisse, au niveau d'un pays ou d'une zone, répondre à une augmentation du prix des produits par une croissance de la production dont la limite est seulement fonction du prix.Développé sur une large échelle et aux conditions que l'on a exposées plus haut, le modèle \"atelier intensif\" offre trois types d'avantages:• il permet une croissance très importante de la production;• il fournit des emplois à la population rurale;• il est moins sensible que l'élevage extensif aux aléas bioclimatiques.En revanche, il comporte de nombreux dangers.Même si le revenu global de l'éleveur peut être supérieur à celui de l'élevage paysan, en raison du volume accru, le revenu par unité produite est relativement faible (figure 1) et toute baisse des prix met en cause la survie de l'éleveur, d'autant plus que cet élevage est devenu sa principale source de revenu.Elément perturbateur du marché Son succès même accroît les quantités offertes d'une façon telle que le marché connaît une tendance à la baisse des prix. Le produit risque alors de diminuer fortement, engendrant une hausse des prix etc. Ce type de production est générateur d'évolutions cycliques du marché. Pour les deux raisons précédentes, son développement nécessite une stabilité des prix: gestion publique puissante du marché, ou contractualisation des rapports avec l'acheteur garantissant l'écoulement et le prix. En outre, si dans le même espace commercial existe un élevage extensif de grande échelle, celui-ci va être incité à augmenter ses effectifs, aggravant le surpâturage, et accentuant les fluctuations du marché. Cette production intensifiée constitue souvent l'essentiel du revenu des paysans qui s'y adonnent. Les fluctuations du marché provoquent souvent leur ruine, puisque leur marge brute, forte par le volume produit, est faible à l'unité de produit (figure 2). Alors que pour l'élevage paysan cette production représente une faible part de ses ressources, il peut la retenir (stockage \"on field\") en cas de conjoncture basse, et revendre en cas de conjoncture élevée, d'autant que son système de conduite le lui permet mieux que l'atelier spécialisé, qui doit vendre les animaux dès qu'ils sont prêts.Productivité du travail inférieure à celle de l'élevage extensif Comme toute production intensive, c'est-à-dire qui permet d'augmenter le volume produit sur une surface donnée, il est exigeant en travail. Ce modèle ne peut donc être envisagé que si la pression démographique est importante, et que des élevages extensifs, disposant de grandes surfaces, n'ont pas accès au même marché. Il ne peut donc se développer que si les capacités de travail ne sont pas saturées.Intensif/extensif: une notion macro-économiqueLes conditions de l'intensification doivent être examinées non seulement au niveau de l'unité de production, mais également au niveau d'un espace-marché (pays). La différence des prix de la viande ovine (tableau 2) entre la CEE, l'Australie, l'Algérie ne peut s'expliquer complètement qu'au vu des conditions de productivité du travail et de la terre que connaissent ces différents espaces. Pour l'ensemble de la production agricole, la productivité du travail diminue quand celle de la terre augmente. Les pays densément peuplés (Algérie) ou ayant opté pour être agro-exportateurs (France) sont condamnés à une forte productivité de la terre, à une faible productivité du travail agricole, et, si la demande existe, à une production ovine chère et intensive (tableau 3). En revanche, les pays peu densément peuplés (Australie) ou ayant opté pour être agro-importeurs (Grande-Bretagne) peuvent avoir une productivité dutravail agricole élevée, une productivité de la terre plus faible, et éventuellement un élevage ovin extensif et de grande dimension, fournissant des produits bon marché.Dans le cas de l'Algérie, l'élevage ovin, autrefois extensif et steppique, est devenu un élevage intensif fondé sur l'utilisation massive de céréales, grâce à une demande soutenue et la fermeture quasi absolue des frontières au marché mondial de la viande ovine. C'est ainsi que la production agricole totale du pays (tableau 4) a connu une intensification remarquable (+32% entre 1970 et 1987) malgré la stagnation des rendements en céréales, grâce à l'augmentation de la production de viandes rouges et de lait. La productivité pondérale des brebis (tableau 5) y a chuté de 25%. En effet, s'agissant de viande, le même animal est en permanence à double statut: animal de boucherie et appareil de production. Il en résulte que dans le cas d'un élevage dépendant des aléas climatiques les cours des animaux sont très fluctuants avec les conditions météorologiques. Les fluctuations de la valeur du cheptel détenu peuvent être, dans une année, beaucoup plus importantes que la valeur de la production finale. Les améliorations zootechniques proposées ne \"passeront\" que si leur mise en oeuvre ne perturbe pas la faculté d'adaptation de l'éleveur aux aléas du marché et du climat.c) Des objectifs de l'action d'amélioration: accroissement de l'offre sur le marché et/ou accroissement du revenu des éleveurs.Le développement massif d'ateliers intensifs peut par exemple recourir à des importations d'aliments du bétail à bas prix, assurant la stabilité de ces ateliers mais provoquant une baisse des prix qui condamne les producteurs paysans locaux.Ces conditions conduisent à proposer des améliorations techniques en douceur, qui ne perturbent pas les modes d'organisation existants. On peut citer l'exemple de l'Algérie, où au cours des 20 dernières années, la production de viande ovine a doublé, avec une baisse sensible de la productivité numérique des brebis et une augmentation légère du poids des carcasses. Dans la situation actuelle, il est probable que tout effort visant à augmenter la productivité des brebis serait vain, tant que les fluctuations aléatoires des prix du bétail ne sont pas stabilisées. En revanche, on peut dans ce pays rechercher les moyens:• de stabiliser les ressources alimentaires par l'intensification fourragère;• d'augmenter encore le poids des carcasses (amélioration génétique, nutrition);• d'améliorer les indices de consommation de céréales (mode de conduite, action sur le marché).Dans les pays d'agriculture paysanne dominante, où la majeure partie de la production est autoconsommée, des améliorations douces peuvent accroître notablement les quantités mises en marché sans accroître démesurément la production totale, si elles sont mises en oeuvre par l'ensemble des paysans et si, dans le même temps, les circuits commerciaux s'organisent.En Afrique, il semble, vu la pénurie généralisée en denrées alimentaires, que la principale viande consommée soit de la viande d'herbivore, et en faible quantité.Le cheptel des ruminants ramené a la population humaine (tableau 6) y est d'ailleurs légèrement plus élevé que la moyenne mondiale, et même que la moyenne européenne. Cinq pays africains figurent parmi les 15 plus gros pays en termes de petits ruminants (tableau 7). Les petits ruminants y sont proportionnellement plus importants qu'ailleurs puisqu'ils représentent 21% du total des ruminants contre 15% en moyenne mondiale. Dans toute une partie du continent, en gros autour du Sahara, la production laitière est conséquente (40% à65% du lait produit), s'apparentant en cela, à l'élevage du bassin méditerranéen oriental (tableau 8). Ailleurs, sa production principale est la viande, sauf en Afrique du Sud (laine). Source: FAO, (1989).L'Afrique participe peu aux échanges intercontinentaux des produits de l'élevage ovin (ceux de l'élevage caprin sont pratiquement inexistants, hormis les échanges frontaliers): en animaux vivants (tableau 9), à part les échanges entre Etats voisins du Sahel vers la côte, on doit noter le courant de la corne de l'Afrique vers la péninsule arabique; en viande, un petit courant d'importation de l'Afrique du Nord en provenance d'Océanie. L'essentiel du commerce mondial de viande ovine (tableau 10) provient en effet d'Océanie et va en direction de l'Europe de l'Ouest, du Moyen-Orient, et de l'Asie du Sud-Est. The preliminary results highlight two important points. Firstly, there are regional differences in the consumption of small ruminant meat. These are differences which may be associated with variation in flock dynamics (size, structure and growth) and productivity, production constraints and trends in the production and consumption of other types of meat. Secondly, there is a strong consumer preference for sheep and goat meat in most regions of SSA, as shown by the increase in small ruminant slaughter offtake over the past two decades.In East, West and central Africa, relatively large and increasing small ruminant flocks, stable carcass yields andlor sustained production of other meats seem to have offset the potentially negative impact of high small stock offtake on flock growth and productivity. In contrast, in southern Africa growth of sheep and goat flocks is slow and carcass yield is low and slaughter offtake of other meats (e.g. beef) are declining and hence may not sustain the continuing demand for small ruminant meat in this region in coming years.Tendances de la production et de la consommation de la viande de petits ruminants en Afrique subsaharienne Senait SeyoumLes petits ruminants (ont partie intégrante des systèmes de production agricole de l'Afrique subsaharienne. Leur principale fonction est la production de viande. La présente communication étudie les caractéristiques et les tendances globales de la consommation, de la production et de la commercialisation de la viande des petits ruminants dans les quatre principales régions d'Afrique subsaharienne.On constate des différences marquées entre ces régions en ce qui concerne la consommation. Elles dépendent de paramètres tels que la taille, la composition, la croissance et la productivité des troupeaux, et également des tendances de la production et de la consommation des autres types de viande. A en juger par l'augmentation continue du taux d'exploitation des petits ruminants en Afrique subsaharienne au cours des vingt dernières années, la viande de mouton et de chèvre est plutôt bien appréciée dans la majeure partie de cette région. Toutefois, compte tenu de la faible croissance des rendements à l'abattage des effectifs des petits ruminants ainsi que de la baisse des taux d'exploitation des autres espèces animales (ex: bovins), cette tendance ne pourra vraisemblablement pas se maintenir au cours des prochaines années.In many areas of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), livestock raising is an important economic activity from which food (meat, milk) and non-food commodities (manure, traction, hides and skins, wool etc.) and cash income are derived. Meat is one of the most important livestock products. In 1975, meat accounted for about 47% of the gross value of total SSA livestock output (Addis Anteneh et al, 1988).In spite of this, per caput consumption of all kinds of meats (including beef, small ruminant meat, poultry and pork) averaged 10 kg in 1986/88 in SSA (FAO, 1988;1989), compared with about 81 .8 kg in Europe in 1987 (MLC, 1990). The low level of meat consumption in SSA is primarily due to the low level of meat production per caput which in turn is a consequence of the low productivity of the livestock sub-sector in the region. Between 1974/76 and 1986/88 per caput meat production and per caput consumption increased at annual rates of -0.7% and 0.1%, respectively (FAO, 1988;1989). Furthermore, given recent developments in the region e.g. rapid population growth and urbanisation, rising input costs, foreign exchange shortages and slow income growth, future prospects seem to be for stagnant or even declining meat consumption, with the likelihood of severe food shortages and growing calorie-protein deficiencies for the bulk of the population (Reutlinger, 1980).Such prospects underscore the urgent need for increasing food production in SSA. New technologies must be developed that enhance production and appropriate livestock development policies must be designed. A prerequisite to this is an understanding of production consumption of and trade in animal products.This paper is based on a preliminary study of the nature and scale of small ruminant meat production, consumption and trade in different regions of SSA.The study focused on small ruminant meat for three reasons: First, present knowledge of small ruminant meat demand patterns in SSA and of factors underlying them, is inadequate. As a result, it has often been difficult to identify potential market opportunities for small ruminant meat and to devise efficient ways of exploiting such opportunities. Second, consumption of beef which has traditionally dominated meat consumption in SSA, is declining relative to consumption of other meats, including mutton and lamb (FAO, 1988). Third although small ruminants currently play a minor role in supplying SSA with meat, they hold promise for increasing meat production and smallholder incomes; compared with cattle, small ruminants require fewer resources, have shorter production cycles, faster rates of growth and greater environmental adaptability.The paper is organised in four sections: Section 1 deals with the small ruminant meat production structure and looks at livestock population, carcass weight, herd/flock offtake and aggregate meat production trends; Section 2 provides information on small ruminant trade flows; in Section 3, aggregate small ruminant meat consumption are determined for the four regions of SSA; in the final section (4), the prospects for increasing small ruminant production and consumption in SSA and their policy implications are discussed.The Small Ruminant Meat Production Structure Small ruminant populations, distribution and growthSmall ruminants are found throughout SSA. Most small ruminants are found in the arid and semi-arid zones of the Sahel and East Africa (ILCA,1980), mainly in pastoral and agropastoral systems. Flock in these areas are generally large (up to 100 head per household) and are often kept with other livestock for both meat and milk production.Small ruminants are comparatively less important in humid and subhumid zones. Nevertheless, it is estimated that in 1981, about a third of SSA's small ruminant population was found in these ecological zones (Onim et al,1 986). In both zones, smallstock are mostly kept by smallholder who rely mainly on crops but keep small ruminants as a subsidiary source of income and meat and a safeguard against crop failure and low crop prices.Table 1 shows the regional distribution of cattle and small ruminants in SSA in 1988. Small ruminants outnumber cattle by 1.6:1 in SSA as a whole and by 2.7:1 in West Africa.The main concentrations of small ruminants in 1988 were in East and West Africa, which accounted for 88 and 93% of the sub-continent's goats and sheep. It probably reflects environmental (drought, feed availability, disease) and socio-economic (land scarcity, management system, profitability of sheep/goat production, consumer preferences) conditions.Goats are more numerous than sheep in SSA (Table 1) particularly in southern and central Africa. The reasons for these distribution patterns are not very clear but seem to be related to differences in physiological/adaptation characteristics and socio-economic roles of sheep and goats. In much of Africa, sheep production is a relatively market-oriented activity aimed mainly at satisfying urban and ceremonial demand for meat (CRED, 1980;Nestel, 1986). In contrast, goat production tends to be subsistence oriented and to cater to the needs of a larger number of rural and lower income consumers (Zimbabwe Government, 1987).Table 2 shows the annual growth rates of cattle and small ruminant populations in the four regions of SSA between 1 961 /65 and 1 986/88. It appears that over the past two decades, the overall population of cattle, sheep and goats has grown slowly in SSA, at annual rates averaging 1 .5, 1 .8 and 1 .5%, respectively. However, small ruminant populations in SSA increased faster than cattle populations, between 1 974/76 and 1 986/88 when they grew at an average annual rate of about 2%, compared to 1 .5% for cattle stocks. The consistently higher growth of small ruminants relative to cattle in West Africa suggests that a major shift, from cattle to smallstock, has occurred in this region, where considerable constraints inhibit expansion in cattle numbers.Carcass weights, offtake and meat productionThe meat production of different livestock species is reflected in their carcass weights. Information on carcass yields is therefore useful in comparing and determining the actual and potential values of different meat-producing animals.Average small ruminant carcass weights, estimated from aggregate FAO meat production and slaughter data, are highest in southern Africa and lowest in central Africa. In 1986/88, goat carcasses weighed an average 12.2, 11.7, 10.8 and 10.3 kg, respectively, in southern, West, East and central Africa. The equivalent regional figures for sheep carcasses were 1 1 .6, 11 .8, 12.9 and 1 1 .8 kg, respectively.Figure 1 shows the evolution of cattle, sheep and goat carcass weight indices in different regions of SSA between 1 961 and 1 988. Indices for these figures were calculated by taking 1961/65 annual carcass weight averages, for each species and region, as a base. Thus, on an equivalent basis, small ruminant carcass weights have generally been maintained at higher levels than beef carcass weights. The marked fall in carcass weight indices in the early 1970's particularly evident for West and East Africa reflects a period of draught. On the whole, the trends described above suggest that small ruminants have a great potential for meat production than do cattle especially in traditional production systems.Although definitions vary, \"offtake\" is generally taken to represent the proportion of animals annually leaving the total herd/flock due to deaths, slaughters, sales or other transactions e.g. exchanges, gifts, loans. In SSA the measurement of smallstock offtake is subject to a high degree of inaccuracy, partly because of lack of reliable data on small ruminant population, growth and production parameters but also because this largely rural and unofficial nature of smallstock slaughter and marketing makes data collection difficult. The estimates of offtake and conclusions presented in this section should therefore be interpreted with caution.While not exactly quantifying offtake, estimates of offtake, obtained rather arbitrarily by dividing FAO data on slaughters by total livestock numbers give a rough idea of offtake patterns and trends in SSA. These estimates indicate that in 1986/88, sheep offtake rates were highest in central and East Africa (32.1% Cattle Sheep Goats Small r u m i n a n t s 000/0 070/7 000/0 000/0 070/7 000/0 000/0 070/7 000/0 000/0 070/7 000/0 West Arrica -0.00 0.00 0.7 0.30 0.00 0.N 0.ro 0.70 0.N 0.00 0.00 0.00 Central Arrica 0.30 0.0 0.0 0.00 0.07 0.' 0.0 0.00 0.7 0.ns 0.N 0.0 East Arrica 0.00 0.7 0.70 0.7 0.00 0.00 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.00 0.030 0.0 S o u t h e r n 00Q Q0-0 JQ 0 7Q _0 30 0 0 0.00 0.7 0.0 0.7 0.N 0.0 Arrica SSA 0.■ 0.■ 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.0 0., 0.00 0.0 Regional groupings are as derined in Table 7 growth rates are per cent annual growth rates c a l c u l a t e d on the basis or 000/00 070/70 and 000/00 annual a v e r a g e s .Source: Own c o m p u t a t i o n s NSsed on 7AO (000) P r o d u c t i o n Tapes. and 29.6%, respectively) and lowest in West and southern Africa (27.4% and 25.7%). A different picture presents itself for goat offtake rates in 1986/88, these being highest in West and southern Africa (35.6% and 31 .3%, respectively) and lowest in East and central Africa (26.9% and 29.9%, respectively). Source: Drawn on the basis of FAO data (FAO 1989 Production Tape).Figure 2 shows the evolution of small ruminant and cattle offtake indices in each region of SSA. From 1961/65 to 1973/74, smallstock offtake indices in SSAasa whole were lower than cattle offtake indices, but thereafter smallstock offtake indices was higher than cattle offtake indices. This trend was most pronounced in southern Africa, but was also evident in West Africa. Differences in the evolution of sheep and goat offtake rates are also apparent. For much of the 1960s and 1970s, sheep and goat offtake indices for SSA as a whole were similar. Around 1982 sheep offtake indices started to exceed goat offtake indices. The only exception to this generalisation was West Africa where goat offtake, though low, consistently exceeded sheep offtake.While all this implies that smallstock, particularly sheep, are being slaughtered to a greater extent than cattle, the population and carcass weight trends that have accompanied offtake trends in some regions are cause for concern. Table 3 provides regional population, offtake and carcass weight growth rates for cattle, sheep and goats between 1974/76 and 1986/88. In West Africa, cattle offtake growth (1.15% p.a.) almost equalled growth in cattle population (1 .36% p.a.) and exceeded growth in carcass yields (0.37% p.a.). In contrast, small ruminant offtake grow slower (at 0.39% p.a.) than either small ruminant numbers (1.95% p.a.) or carcass yields (0.69% p.a. on average). In view of this, the prospects for meeting future meat demand in this region through increased goat/sheep production may be envisaged.The slow growth of cattle offtake (0.09% p.a.) , in central Africa, was accompanied by an increase in cattle stocks (2.80% p.a), and decline in carcass weights (-0.05% p.a.). This probably reflects this use of cattle for purposes other than meat production and factors constraining productivity increases in this predominantly humid region. Smallstock offtake grew at a relatively faster rate (0.53% p.a. for goats and 0.76% p.a. for sheep) in this region, and does not seem to have been detrimental to flock growth and productivity since small ruminant stocks increased (1.98% p.a.) and carcass weights were relatively stable (0.03% p.a. for sheep and 0.12% p.a for goats). There would thus seem to be room for increasing small stock, particularly sheep, in this region provided that population and carcass weight trends remain favourable.In East Africa, cattle offtake is declining (at -0.20% p.a.) and cattle number and carcass yield are increasing slowly (1 .55% and 0.02% p.a., respectively). In spite of this region having large and growing small ruminant populations (2.03% p.a.) and rather favourable carcass weight trends (0.38% pa), small stock offtake has also grown slowly. The observed decline in goat offtake (-0.59% p.a.) is probably due to low demand for goat meat. The growth in sheep offtake (0.56% p.a.) suggests a greater reliance on sheep than on goats in this region. However, there is a need for more country-specific studies looking at unofficial slaughter, trade and constraints e.g. low productivity and vulnerability of smallstock to changing environmental, management and market conditions, before coming to definite conclusions about small stock offtake in East Africa. In southern Africa, cattle offtake is declining (-0.72% p.a.), as are carcass yields (-0.27%p.a.), and small offtake rates are increasing (at 1.14% p.a. for sheep and 0.75% p.a. for goats). This suggests some substitution of sheep/goat meat for beef. However, the slow growth, or declining of small ruminant stocks (0.55% p.a. for goats and -0.07% for sheep) indicates that current levels of offtake cannot be supported unless flock productivity is increased. Overall, the emerging picture is one of substantial regional differences in the evolution of offtake rates in SSA. Over the past decade, cattle offtake increased in West and central Africa while it declined in southern and East Africa. In contrast, small stock offtake increased in almost all regions, the only exception being East Africa where goat offtake declined between 1979 and 1986. Southern Africa had the fastest growing rates of offtake of small ruminants.Domestic production of small ruminant meat in SSA is hard to quantify because of lack of reliable data. The most complete available data on small ruminant meat production come from FAO which defines meat production as meat from animals slaughtered within national boundaries, irrespective of their origin. This includes the meat equivalent of imported animals and excludes that of exported animals. As such, it does not accurately represent domestic production. However, FAO production statistics adjusted for net trade in meat provide general indications of regional small ruminant meat production patterns and trends in SSA.Table 4 presents 1 986/88 estimates of total and per caput domestic production of sheep, goat and small ruminant meat in the four regions of SSA. East and West Africa accounted for 92% of domestic small ruminant meat production in 1986/88. A similar pattern was observed for per caput production. Goat meat production generally exceeded sheep meat production except in East Africa.Table 4 also gives growth rates of per caput small ruminant meat production between 1961/65 and 1974/76, 1974/76 and 1986/88 and 1961/65 and 1986/88. Over the 1961/65-1974/76 /76 period, per caput production declined at an average annual rate of 1.49% in SSA as a whole, annual growth rates being negative in East and West Africa (-1.89% and -1.71%, respectively) and positive in southern and central Africa (2.63% and 0.37%, respectively). Between 1974/76 and central Africa (2.63% and 0.3%, respectively). Between 1974/76 and 1986/88, per caput production declined in all regions of SSA. Considering that human populations grew fastest in East andWest Africa between 1974/76 and1986/88 (at rates averaging 3.08 and3.19% p.a.), this suggests an increase in domestic small ruminant meat production in these regions.In most traditional systems of SSA, small stock are kept as a means of generating cash income, as well as a source of meat/milk for direct household consumption. A sizeable proportion of small ruminant trade is also carried out through unofficial marketing channels, at either village or regional levels. Given this production, consumption and marketing traits, reliable data on small ruminant trade flows in SSA are difficult to come by. The small ruminant trade presented in this section are based on aggregate FAO statistics and thus should be viewed with caution.Figures 3 and 4 show total imports and exports of sheep and goats in SSA and its four regions. Since FAO statistics do not differentiate between live sheep and goats and do not cover trade in goat meat, the information provided relates to imports/exports of fresh sheep meat and of live sheep and goats combined.Small ruminant trade in SSA is not very substantial (Figure 3). In 1987, it involved a total of 44,1 18 1, almost 5% of the sub-continent's estimated total production of small ruminant meat in that year. However, differences are apparent in the composition and evolution of exports and imports. Of the total volume traded in 1987, 26 493 t, or 60%, consisted of exports and 17 625 t, or 40%, of imports. Small ruminant exports in SSA also appear to be subject to fluctuation which may reflect the influence of drought.East and West Africa account for the majority of small ruminant exports (Figure 4). However, exports declined from 17 556 t in 1961/65 to 10 061 t in 1985/87 in West Africa, and rose from 12 559 1 in 1961/65 to 23 326 1 in 1985/87 in East Africa. This rapid expansion of exports in East Africa was probably the result of growing demand for small ruminant meat in the Near East in the late 1970s and 1980s (Schluter, 1984). Whether this demand was met through increased local small ruminant production or curtailment of domestic demand in this region cannot, however, be clearly ascertained.West Africa accounted for the majority at small ruminant imports (Figure 4), although imports were markedly lower after 1961/65. Between 1961/65 and1987, West Africa moved from being a net exporter of live sheep and goats to being a net importer. The reverse was true in East Africa where net exports, especially of live sheep and goats, increased substantially. In southern Africa, small ruminant trade was limited; in the 1980's exports of live small stock virtually came to a standstill in this region while fresh sheep meat imports increased substantially. In central Africa small ruminant trade is insignificant.Total and per caput consumption Aggregate consumption of small ruminant meat can be roughly estimated by adding up small ruminant meat production and net trade figures. However, in the particular context of SSA, limited coverage and unreliability of data render measurement of consumption difficult. The estimates of small ruminant meat consumption presented in this section are based on FAO data on slaughtered production and net trade in small ruminants and should therefore be seen as only rough indicators of consumption. Since FAO trade data were not available  Source: FAO Trade Tape (FAO, 1988).for 1 988, average annual 1 985/87 net export figures were deducted from 1 986/88 production figures to get estimates of 1986/88 small ruminant meat consumption.Table 5 presents 1 986/88 estimates of total and per caput consumption of sheep, goat and small ruminant meat in different regions of SSA. In total, annual consumption of small ruminant meat in SSA amounted to 906 000 t, most of which was consumed in East (440 000 1) and West Africa (378 000). Goat meat consumption exceeded sheep meat consumption except in East Africa. Much of the same picture is observed for per caput small ruminant meat consumption (Table 5).Based on the previous estimates, ). In central Africa, growth rates did not differ much between the two periods and total small ruminant consumption grew at an average rate of 2.69% p.a. 1961/65-1986/88. Though mostly negative, regional growth rates in per caput consumption of ruminant meat show similar trendsThe place of small ruminants in overall meat consumptionGiven the previous picture of small ruminant meat consumption in SSA, there is a need to determine its importance in overall meat consumption. Figure 5, which is based on 1961/65, 1974/76 and 1986/88 average annual estimates of per caput consumption of the four major types of meat consumed in SSA i.e. beef, small ruminant, poultry and pig meat, gives an idea of the composition and evolution of meat consumption in SSA.Beef is the dominant meat consumed in SSA, its share in meat consumption in 1 986/88 ranging from as high as 57% in southern Africa to as low as 38% in West Africa. However, beef consumption seems to be declining in most regions of SSA, particularly in West Africa where its share in overall meat consumption fell from about 50% in 1961/65 to 38% in 1986/88. 1986-88 6.3%• Other meats include pig and poultry meat.Source: Adapted from FAO data (FAO 1988 and1889).In 1961/65, small ruminant meat accounted for between 6% and 31% of total meat consumption in the four regions. In recent years, poultry and pig meat have come to account for a significant and increasing portion of meat consumption, especially in West and southern Africa. The reasons behind these consumption patterns and trends are not very clear.This report has looked at aggregate patterns and trends in production, and trade in and consumption of small ruminant meat in SSA between 1961 and1988. The evidence presented shows that small ruminant meat production and consumption are greatest in East and West Africa, and are of only minor importance in central and southern Africa.Observed regional trends indicate that domestic production of small ruminant meat has failed to keep pace with demand, especially in southern Africa. Over the past decade, southern Africa's meat production performance has been particularly poor, calculated growth rates for beef, pig and small ruminant meat production in this region between 1974/76 and 1986/88 averaging -0.81, 1.96 and 0.65% pa., respectively. Only poultry meat production growth (4.14% pa.) exceeded the region's human population growth rate of 2.89% pa. Thus per caput production and consumption of small ruminant meat appear to be declining in most regions of SSA.This situation is largely the result of production, environmental and socio-economic constraints bearing upon a traditional production system which has been accorded a low priority in livestock and agricultural development plans in SSA. Almost all small ruminant meat comes from traditional production systems.In some areas of SSA, regular offtake of sheep/goats appears to have been excessive in relation to such parameters as the size, structure, growth and productivity of flocks. In other areas, however, there appears to be room for increasing small stock offtake. All this emphasises the need for viewing the means by which sustained small ruminant production and consumption in SSA are to be achieved in the wider context of the varying and changing environmental and socio-economic conditions prevailing in the sub-continent.In Cameroon, the consumption of meat and other livestock products is particularly affected by the geographical setting of the country. The livestock producing areas are located far away from the main consumption areas of the South. This situation, coupled with the poor system of husbandry and the inadequate marketing infrastructure, has resulted in an insufficient supply of meat from all types of livestock.During the early part of the past decade, Cameroon experienced a rapid increase in population (3.0%) as well as a steady increase in the Gross Domestic Products Recent estimates indicate that the domestic meat supply has not been able to meet the internal demand. Table 1 reveals a shortage of 55.7 thousand tons of meat from all livestock species. Another factor which affects the consumption of meat in the country is the uneven distribution of the available supply. This situation is indicated in Table 2. Regions situated further away from the producing areas receive very little meat from any source. Consequently, it is evident that as a result of its geographical setting and other related problems, the country's domestic demand for meat and livestock products is unlikely to be met, if emphasis is placed as it is at present, on cattle production alone. In Cameroon, sheep and goat production ranks first among ruminants in terms of numbers, although in terms of total meat output they are second to cattle. According to recent estimates there is a total of 437 thousand goat and 240 thousand sheep farms with populations of 3.5 million and 1 .5 million, respectively (MOA, 1984). The figures indicate that goat and sheep production is a major economic activity in terms of the number of people employed and as a source of revenue, especially in the main producing areas of the country. Consequently, it is imperative that all the available types of livestock be exploited. It is also important that the potential demand for the various types of meat should be estimated so as to evaluate their marketing potential. This is necessary for effective planning of future livestock development programmes. If the production of goat meat has to be increased as a measure for alleviating the shortage in the present meat supply, it is important to determine its demand in relation to other types of meat in the country. This is necessary because consumer reaction to goat meat should be taken into consideration by government and other interested bodies in planning future investments in livestock development. This paper attempts to evaluate consumers, response with respect to price changes in goat meat and other types of meat as well as the effects of increasing income on consumption. Due to lack of accurate data relating to the consumption of all types of meat, the analysis is limited to only two principal types of meat (goat meat and beef) for which data were available.The analysis is based on official time series data covering a period of twelve years. This period may statistically be regarded as inadequate to guarantee a satisfactory estimate of the demand for the product. It may be argued that such an exercise which has the initial constraint of limited data is subject to a wide margin of error. On the other hand, it is also a fact that observations covering a long period of time pose some statistical and economic problems of analysis. In this respect, it is important to note that factors affecting demand do change over time and therefore estimates based on long periods of observations may not reflect these changes. However, it is hoped that subject to the methodology and the analytical techniques used, the results obtained here will be indicative of the true situation and will serve as a pioneering attempt.The principal factors affecting the demand for meat in general include: a) the amount and distribution of per capita income in the population b) the availability and prices of substitutes c) the retail price of the commodity.There are, however, other factors such as tastes, consumer preferences for different cuts of meat, religious and traditional affiliations of the people and other not easily quantifiable factors. In this paper, the demand for goat meat and the effects of income, price and substitutes on consumption are the major consideration in the analysis.The per capita consumption of goat meat is taken as the dependent variable. The total consumption figures used are the annual time-series data of the official slaughter of goats. These are published in the annual reports of the Ministry of Livestock and Animal Industries. It is perhaps important to mention that these slaughter figures may not represent the actual consumption of goat meat. This is because a substantial number of goats is slaughtered privately for home consumption especially during festivities such as funeral ceremonies, marriages etc. However, since these private slaughters do not enter the marketing system, they are not directly guided by the normal market forces of supply that only the official marketed stock may be affected by the main factors that cause variations in demand.In order to obtain the per capita consumption, the recorded number of goats slaughtered is converted into kg equivalent for fresh goat meat by using a mean carcass weight, which in the case of goats in Cameroon has officially been estimated at 12 kg (1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979). The yearly totals of fresh goat meat are then divided by the estimated population to obtain the per capita consumption.The independent variables constitute the per capita income and prices. Income is a very important factor in the study of the demand for food and other agricultural products but the problems it presents in most demand studies result from the concept and actual definition of income. However, for the purpose of this paper, income is defined as the \"real income\". This means that the actual money incomes as represented by the values of the GDP have to be deflated by an inflation factor. This inflation factor is taken to be the consumer price index. In other words, the formula for estimating 'real income' is as follows:Per capita income Real income =x 100 Consumer price indexThe prices used in this analysis are the average annual retail prices of the various types of fresh meat. These are also published by the Office of Statistics in the Ministry of Livestock and Animal Industries. These prices were also deflated by the consumer price index in order to make adjustments for changes in the money values. The prices obtained can therefore be termed 'real price'. According to the theory of consumption, an equal percentage change in the prices of all commodities as well as in the money incomes of consumers should not disturb the pattern of quantities demanded or consumed (Fox, 1968).The demand model developed for analysis is based on the fact that the quantity of purchased goat meat consumed per head of the population can be said to be a function of the price of goat meat, the real per capita income of the population, the price of beef and a disturbance term (U) . Beef has been chosen as a substitute since it is, from a priori knowledge, the most popular though expensive type of meat in the country. The production and marketing of mutton is comparatively marginal relative to goat meat and the pork consumption is also heavily influenced by religious inclinations. These two types of meat have not been considered in the analysis. The demand model can, therefore, be represented in the following function form:Where:Cgmt = per capita consumption of goat meat in time t Pgmt = price of goat meat in time t (in francs CFA) Yt = income per capita in time t Pbt = price of beef in time t U = disturbance term. The term is assumed to be normally and independently distributed with a mean zero and unit variance.In estimating the demand for meat and other food products, several statistical methods and techniques have been developed to determine the relationship between consumption, income and prices. These methods and techniques have their advantages and limitations. For this paper, the linear function, the semi-logarithmic function, and the double-logarithmic function were tried.The functions were employed in a least square multiple regression analysis so as to find out which of the function best fits the available data. The three functional forms were then transformed into the following estimating equations: It is believed that statistical data can only trace a theoretical demand curve if that curve (demand) remains fixed while the supply curve shifts (Oni, 1972). In the present case, it cannot be claimed that the demand schedule for goat meat in the country has remained fixed, but the slaughter data exhibits a less violent fluctuation when compared with the limited market offtake by the producers. Consequently, it can be assumed that the statistically derived demand function will trace out the true demand for goat meat in the country. This identification problem and the possible remedies have been considered by Johnston (1963) and Fox (1968).Furthermore, from a priori knowledge of the situation, the price of goat meat at the retail does not bear any relationship to producer prices. This is because the producer prices are somewhat officially predetermined and there is also the limitation of the willingness of producers to sell a set of drawings at each point of time. In other words, the impossibility of repeated drawing as envisaged in the notions of probability and statistical inference would not necessarily constitute any serious obstacle to make generalisations on the results obtained from the data used.Of the three estimating equations tested, the linear and double-log functions were selected for further analysis. This is because they largely satisfied the a priori expectations of the demand for goat meat. The results obtained from the two equations are presented in Tables 3 and 4, respectively. The two equations were further subjected to a series of combinations. Since one of the major objectives of the analysis was to determine the effects of price and income on the consumption of goat meat, it is important to know their separate effects upon the dependent variables. This would be difficult if the explanatory variables are highly correlated. + + = significant at the 1 per cent level.+ = significant at the 5 per cent level.1. Cgmt = per capita consumption of goat meat in time t.Nonetheless, in order to carry out the exercise of identifying the individual effects of the independent variables, the stepwise multiple regression technique has been employed in the two estimating equations.Furthermore, the price ratio of beef and goat meat was introduced into the equations as a separate explanatory variable. This technique makes it possible to identify the individual as well as the cumulative or additional effects of the regressors on the dependent variable. The process of eliminating some of the variables from the equations also served as a means of reducing the multi-collinearity between them. In view of the fact that time-series data are susceptible to auto-correlated errors, the residual were also calculated and the various equations were tested for their presence by the Durbin-Watson statistics (Dwt). + = significant at 5 per cent level.1. Cgmt = per capita consumption of goat meat in time t.From the estimating functions of the equations presented in Tables 3 and 4, the equation (iii) in Table 4 from the double-log function was selected as the lead equation. This is because it contains all the important explanatory variables and fulfills most of the a priori expectations on the demand for goat meat. The coefficient of the price variables and that of income have the correct negative and positive signs, respectively, and they are significantly different from zero and statistically significant at 1 per cent. Their residuals are not auto-correlated as tested by the Durbin Watson statistics (Dwt) . The joint effects of all the explanatory variables of the equation is to explain 90 per cent of the variation in the dependent variable and coefficient of multiple determination (Ft2) is highly significant (0.90). Furthermore, the standard errors of estimates are relatively low.In order to properly analyse and draw reasonable conclusions on the consumption of goat meat in terms of quantity-price and income relationships, it is necessary to estimate also the price and income elasticities of demand. The different elasticities from the estimating functions were consequently calculated as follows :- The various elasticities were calculated at the mean values of the variables. In the double-logarithmic function, the regression estimates of the coefficients of the appropriate variables are taken as the direct elasticities. The various elasticity estimates from the two functions are presented in Table 5.In the literature, very little attention has been given to goats in economic research. Consequently, there are few estimates of income elasticity of demand for goat meat. In many cases, even in countries where goat is popular, the income elasticity is calculated jointly with mutton and lamb. Table 6 shows various estimates of the income elasticities of demand for the different types of meat in some African countries. The income elasticity estimates for mutton and lamb (which often includes goat meat) in some of these countries are similar to those obtained from our equations and it might be said that the consistency of the results presented in Table 5 leads to some credibility to the estimates.The direct price elasticity of demand for goat meat (EPgm) has the correct negative sign in each of the estimating equations. With reference to the lead equation (iii) of the double-log-function, the direct price elasticity is -0.90. This can be taken as almost unit elasticity in terms of price. It indicates that goat consumption will increase by 0.9 per cent if the price falls by 1 per cent. The cross price elasticity of goat meat and beef has the correct positive sign and is also close to unity (0.95). This implies that the demand for goat meat has approximately unit elasticity in relation to the price of beef. This agrees with a priori expectations and knowledge of the actual marketing situation of goat meat in the country. As a result of the limited supply of beef in most parts of the country and the consequent increase in beef prices, the demand for goat meat has increased rapidly in recent years. Furthermore, the positive sign of the cross price elasticity with (Epb) confirms the fact that beef and goat meat can be taken as substitute products. The income elasticity of demand for goat meat is also positive and far greater than unity (2.1). It signifies that with any 1-per cent increase in income, the consumption of goat meat is likely to increase by 2.1 per cent. On the whole, the demand estimates indicate that goat meat is almost price-and highly income-elastic.Although the demand estimates reveal a high income elasticity, it is perhaps important to remark that the estimated increase in the consumption of goat meat will occur only if the distribution of income continue in the present proportion. On the other hand, if the increased income goes to the wealthier section of the population, the increased consumption of goat meat will involve only the privileged few who can afford it rather than the majority of the population. Furthermore, with almost a unit cross-price elasticity with beef, increased consumption of goat meat will depend on the price of beef which generally is regarded as a superior type of meat. The implication of this situation is that if the production of goat meat is to be increased as a measure of increasing the overall supply of meat in the country, it is important to adopt a cheaper and efficient method of production and marketing than it is at present. This is necessary because any increase in the consumption of goat meat will depend greatly on its price relation with beef. Goat meat has to be produced and marketed at competitive prices with beef and perhaps that of meat. It is also important to note that government policy of fixing producer prices may not necessarily serve as incentive for increasing production, especially if the fixed prices do not bear any relationship with prices at the retail level.The importance of goats as a source of meat supply in the country has been revealed and from the demand analysis, there is the need to determine the cost effectiveness in goat production as a necessary condition for increased output. Finally, it is important to remark that any effort undertaken by the State or individuals at stepping up inter-regional production and improving the efficiency and distribution of goat meat will be consistent with the economic growth as well as the nutritional requirements of the country as a whole. Nine key Ethiopian central highland markets were surveyed for a period of one year beginning in January and ending in December of 1989 to determine the effects of certain animal and market characteristics on price and the pattern of sheep prices in relation to seasons. Each market was surveyed once a week on the main market day. Price, weight, sex, age, colour, condition score, breed and buyers ' purpose were recorded for all completed transactions. A total of 50 062 cases were recorded.Three markets, each representing redistributive, intermediate and terminal markets, as identified by buyers' purpose were chosen for further analysis. Considerable weekly price variation was evident. Animal characteristics (weight, age, condition, sex, colour) as well as buyers' purpose and seasons were variably important in explaining variations in price among animals within weeks. Variations in the composition of these characteristics from week to week were among factors underlying changes in weekly mean prices. R2 varied from 0.2659 to 0.3583 for price-per-kilogram model and from 0.7822 to 0.8413 for price-per-head model in the three markets.Facteurs affectant les variations intra-annuelles du prix des ovins dans les hauts plateaux éthiopiens  (Gryseels, 1988). Farmers benefit from efficient markets which transimit information and ensure minimum marketing margins. Farmers need to be aware of the preferred characteristics of animals as well as price patterns so that they can plan breeding and fattening programmes and breed selection consistent with the best seasonal prices and consumers' preferences.There is very little literature on marketing of small ruminants in Ethiopia. Ayele Gebre-Mariam and Hillmann (1975, unpublished) tried to determine, factors affecting differences in price levels in a given market and between markets at various rounds of (a central highlands livestock) survey. The most vivid shortcoming of this study was that the data were collected during an abnormal (drought) year and as a result its conclusions may not necessarily be representative.The objectives of the present study are to: (i) determine overall market composition by basic animal characteristics, (ii) determine intra-annual price patterns and factors underlying intra-annual price variations.In the central highlands, as in nearly all other parts of the country, there is no regular market information on prices and supplies, nor formalised grades and standards. Agreement on price is reached by a long one-on-one bargaining between a seller and a buyer. Animals are sold on a per-head basis. Under such circumstances, prices paid will reflect buyers' preference for various animal characteristics (sex, weight, age, condition, breed, colour), the purpose as to whether the animals are purchased for consumption, breeding, the season of the year and the bargaining skills of buyers and sellers.Nine key central highland markets most of them purposively selected to capture the main pattern of movement of sheep and benefit from ILCA's outreach research stations were included in a sheep market survey. The survey was undertaken on the main weekly market day for a period of one year (January to December 1989). Due to technical reasons, the survey in a few markets was started and completed a few weeks later. The survey at Degollo was interrupted much earlier due to security problems.All completed transactions on ordinary market days and as many completed transactions as could be tracked on festival market days were recorded at the exit gate if fenced, or at one or two of the most frequented departure routes rf open market places. This procedure minimised enumerators' decisions about sampling. A festival market was represented by two market days: the market falling on the festival day (or the market closest to the festival day ) and the one preceding it. To select representative markets for analysis the markets included in the survey were classified on the basis of buyers' purpose (for approaches used in market classification see for example : Herman Tilahun, 1979;Solomon Bekure and Negussie, 1983). All the markets included in the survey fall into terminal or redistributive categories (Table 1). Although classified as a terminal, the Debre Berhan market was almost equally important as a redistributive market. Shola and Degollo, the most typical terminal and redistributive markets, respectively, and Debre Berhan, an intermediate market, were selected for analysis. The following equation was estimated in order to determine factors affecting sheep prices for each of the markets selected for analysis. Overall market composition by basic animal characteristics Sex distribution of sheep sold varied from market to market (  Intra-annual sheep price pattern Considerable weekly mean price variation was apparent in the three markets (Figure 1). Average prices were highest in the terminal market and lowest in the redistributive market throughout the survey period.  Both the quantity purchased and offered for sale considerably increase during religious festivals. The lowest demand for sheep is expected to occur during fasting periods. Apart from producers' response to increased demand for sheep during festivals, seasonality of supply is affected by producers need for cash and lambing pattern. Gryseels (1988) noted that small ruminants were the first to be considered for sale when food and seed grain stocks were depleted. The highest demand for grain seed and the lowest stock of food grain occurs during June to end of September. In addition cash needs are high before the harvests begin. Gryseels (1988) also reported that the peak lambing season was from September to November and relatively equally distributed during the rest of the year. where:Pi is observed price per head of the ith sheep; pi is the predicted price per kg; Wi is the observed weight of the ith sheep.Annex 1 records estimated parameters of the price-per-kg equation for the terminal, intermediate and redistributive markets. Positive and negative coefficients within a set of dummy variables signify premiums and discounts, respectively, relative to the dummy in the base in Ethiopian birr (EB). The t test was used to check whether the individual premiums or discounts were different from zero.The different patterns of variation in price per head and price per kg caused by week to week variation in average weights is shown by plotting mean price per head and mean price per kg on the same graph (Figure 2) for the terminal market.If the weights did not vary at all from week to week, the two price lines would maintain a constant difference. Sheep sold in the terminal market were on the average heavier than in either of the other two markets (Figure 3). The overall annual mean weight forthe terminal, intermediate and redistributive markets were 26.6, 20.2 and 19.7 kilograms, respectively. The quadratic structure of the effect of weight on price per kg indicates that prices first decline to a minimum and increase as weight increases. The equations for males, castrates and females were calculated and plotted for each of the three markets in order to determine the pattern of price variation in relation to animal weight (figures not included). Most of the males and females in the terminal market were less than one year of age. Their weights ranged both above and below w*1 . The mean weight of the male group was slightly smaller than w* while, for females, mean weight was slightly larger than w*. Thus for males and females premiums in price per kg were offered both as weights decreased below w\" and increased above w*. The mean weight of castrates was well above w* indicating that price per kg was strongly rising with increasing weights. This reflects a higher demand for castrates that are both fat and heavy and results in higher per animal price for castrates.The picture is similar in the intermediate market but somewhat different in the redistributive market. In the redistributive market, prices per kg of all three sex categories are strongly rising as weights increase. One can only speculate as to why the relationship between price per kg and weight are so different from the other two markets. The redistributive market is quite remote and animals are purchased mainly for resale where as they are nearly all purchased for slaughtering in the terminal market and for slaughtering and resale in the intermediate market. Animals purchased for resale must be trekked a long distance from the country to terminal markets. Perhaps these conditions explain the emphasis favouring higher weights in the redistributive market.A significantly higher premium offered for castrates in all the three markets was not unexpected. Castrated and fattened sheep locally known as mukit (also applicable to goats) are on the average the heaviest group.Castrates are relatively old, 70 per cent of them between two and four years, and fat to very fat in condition (55 per cent of them fall in this category). Gry seels (1988) noted that farmers castrate sheep for fattening in order to fetch prices.Generally, consumers prefer lambs because of their tenderness and low weight. The low weight translates to low price per head. Certain colours are preferred to others and especially so for some localised occasions. Sheep sold during the Easter and Id-al-fater weeks received the highest premiums in all the markets. The purpose for which sheep were bought made significant overall price differentials in the intermediate and redistributive markets. Virtually all sheep were bought for slaughter at the terminal market. A significant time trend was indicated in the three markets. However, this was not considered as a regular within-year cyclical phenomenon.Signifies the weights at which minimum price per kg occurs.Characteristics of sheep varied among the central highland markets, partly reflecting consumers' preference. For example, in contrast to the terminal market where sheep were purchased mainly for slaughter, relatively higher proportion of female sheep were observed in the intermediate and redistributive markets. Female sheep predominated in the intermediate market. The proportion of castrates, fat and very fat sheep was highest in the terminal market. However, most sheep sold in the central highland markets were of average condition and lambs of less than a year age.There is a considerable week-to-week variation throughout the year in sheep prices per kg in the central highland markets. These variations are related to variations in overall supply and demand as well as in characteristics of animals offered for sale. Factors affecting the number offered for sale include taking advantage of high demand during festivals, lambing season, as well as cash needs for crop inputs and later for food purchases just before harvest when grain stores are low.Animal characteristics that affect price per kg are weight, sex, age, condition and colour. In addition, the purpose for which the animal was purchased, whether for resale, slaughter, fattening or reproduction, affected price. Market composition with respect to these characteristics varied from week to week which suggests that weekly mean prices per kg vary partly due to varying market composition effect. A significant time trend over the year was also observed in two of the three markets analysed. Though this trend may continue into the next year, it is not regarded as a within-year cyclical phenomenon.Calculation of predicted price per kg multiplied by the observed weight demonstrated that the price-per-kilogram model is of equal predictive value for price per head when weight is known. Given the high variation in weights both within and between weeks, the price per kg would seem to be more useful market information than price per head.The results suggest that there may be some benefit from co-ordinating fattening, breeding and marketing programmes to take the best advantage from some preferred animal characteristics and selected festival markets. However, further analysis will be needed for optimising fattening and controlled breeding programmes. For example, production analysis is needed on costs as well as animal response to alternative fattening programmes and seasonal grazing to use in combination with information generated in the present study on effects of weight, age, condition, and seasons on prices. Wool and mohair are the most important outputs, by value, of Lesotho's agricultural sector and are strategically important to Lesotho's economy. Over 20 per cent of the value of agricultural output can be attributed to wool and mohair sales alone and, if the value of the joint products of sheep and goats (skins, meat and offspring) were taken into account, their contribution to the agricultural economy would be even greater. To farmers, wool and mohair sales constitute their largest single component of domestically generated monetary income. A study of the Sehlabathebe Range Management Area showed that 75% of the gross cash income generated by livestock was generated by sheep and goats and that they still contributed the major proportion of income even if all cash and non-cash livestock income were included (Lawry, 1986). The 1985 Livestock Holders Survey found a similar pattern nationally (Swallow et al, 1987a). Lesotho's wool and mohair exports comprise over 43 per cent of the value of all exports and, since the decline of diamond production in the early 1 980s, have been the largest export items. In addition to their role in generating income, the purchase of sheep and goats provide an important investment outlet for migrants' savings and, as such, are a major repository of rural wealth. At mean 1989 sale prices of 1 04 maloti per sheep and 80 maloti per goat, Lesotho's small ruminant flocks represent a total value to their owners of some 254 million maloti (approximately US $100 million).Livestock keeping and migrant labour are close complements in the rural Lesotho economy. The rapid increase in livestock numbers and the enthusiasm shown by Basotho for Merino wool and mohair production in the early 20th Century followed the transformation of the Lesotho economy from one exporting grain to regional markets to one exporting labour to South African mines and farms. Since, unlike crop production, extensive livestock production does not require adult male labour (it can be undertaken with adolescent herders), it thus permits men to absent themselves from the farmstead for long periods. Livestock and migratory labour are complementary in other ways, as well. They provide a ready (and in many cases, only practical) form of investment for a migrant's savings which can be liquidated in times of need or upon retirement. Livestock are normally a very profitable investment: research in 1 985/86 found that, on average, Lesotho cattle, sheep and goats paid a real rate of return of between six and ten per cent (Swallow et al, 1987b). Changes in product prices have recently altered these rates of return but, for the most part, they are still well above the rates paid by most alternative investments available to rural Basotho and, like any good investment, they provide current income and capital appreciation. This income is but a subsidiary to a rural household's main income source from wages, however. Data from the mid-1 970s from theThabaTseka Mountain Development Project and the Phutiatsana Irrigation Project indicate that only about 30% of a typical rural household's income is derived from all domestic sources, with agriculture accounting for about 60% of this. Two-thirds of this agricultural income (or 12% of the total) is contributed by livestock (van der Wiel, 1977). Thus, livestock-derived income provides an income supplement which may make a household's well-being easier and more secure but it is the rare, and invariably very poor household, which is reliant, solely or largely, on livestock for its existence. Although, according to rural surveys, farmers are not indifferent to the low productivity of their livestock (Hunter, 1987), they may have neitherthe labour resources nor sufficiently strong incentives to do much about it.Added to the socio-economic constraints on livestock production are a variety of ecological constraints. Lesotho's harsh winters take their toll on livestock condition with adverse effects on survival, reproduction and fleece quality. According to Range Management Division estimates (Chris Weaver, personal communication), the commonly owned range is about 40% overgrazed and able to provide only relatively meagre nutrition to the animals grazing on it. The rugged terrain hinders livestock marketing which, in turn, makes culling difficult. As a result of these constraints, livestock productivity is low. In an attempt to better evaluate this low productivity with an aim to designing more effective improvement programmes, some 1700 sheep and 2000 goats were sampled at a cross-section of government and private shearing sheds throughout Lesotho during 1987/88. Animals and fleeces were weighed, age and sex were determined, and samples of wool and mohair were taken from the side fleece for further laboratory testing. This paper analyses some of the regional disparities in wool production revealed by this effort. Additional results and data on mohair production, as well as research procedure and methodology may be found in Hunter (1990a and1990b).Lesotho is conventionally divided into four geo-climatic zones (World Bank, 1 985) . Tables 1 and 2 provide basic statistics on these regions. Along the western and southern edge of the country, below 1830 meters in altitude, lie the lowlands. This zone is relatively flat and contains most of the arable land, about 43% of the rural households and virtually all of the urban population. Over 50% of the harvested maize land and 57% of the harvested land devoted to sorghum in Lesotho is in the lowlands (BOS, 1987). Because of the urban concentrations, the lowland zone contains most of the employment opportunities and is more economically diverse than the other zones. This zone is often divided, on the basis of mean annual rainfall, into subzones (de Baulny, 1981). The northern lowlands (NL), roughly from the Maseru-Berea District border northwards, normally receives between 650 and 850 mm of rainfall per annum. The southern lowlands (SL), south of this border, is rather drier-receiving a mean rainfall of between 600 and 750 mm per annum. Some areas, such as parts of Mafeteng and Mohale's Hoek districts may receive less than 650 mm per annum.   Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Lesotho (1988). The Mountain (MTN) zone comprises about 60% of the total land area and lies above 21 30 meters. Rainfall is highly variable in this zone, ranging from over 1 000 mm per annum in the higher elevation along the front range of the Maluti and northern Drakensberg to about 600 mm on the fringes of the Senqu river valley (de Baulny , 1 981 ). Summers are short and winters may be bitterly cold. As a result of both the rugged terrain and the short growing season, there is relatively little arable land in this zone, although field crops are possible in protected valleys. A little over 80% of the land, mostly rangeland, is devoted to livestock production.Although the mountain zone contains only about 20% of the rural households, they own 68% of the sheep, 44% of the goats and 37% of the cattle in Lesotho (Table 2). Virtually all adult rural males engage in labour migration at some point in their lives but, according to data from several development projects, the mean length of a mountain male's migrant career (20 years) is almost 20% shorter than that of his lowland counterpart (van der Wiel, 1977).The Foothill (FTL) zone lies between the lowland and mountain zones at an altitude of 1830 to 2130 meters and comprises about 10% of the total land area of the country. It receives rather higher rainfall than the Lowland areas: most of this zone gets between 800 and 950 mm mean annual precipitation (de Baulny, 1981). As in the lowlands, maize production predominates, followed by sorghum and beans. While not as economically diverse as the lowlands, the foothills' close proximity to the lowland zone gives it economic opportunities that are lacking in the mountains and Senqu river valley.The Senqu River Valley (SRV), which divides the mountain zone, lies in a \"rain shadow\" and receives the least rainfall of all zones: normally between 500 and 600 mm per annum (de Baulny, 1 981). It contains only about 1 1 % of the country's total land area. Only slightly less so than in the mountains, the land is devoted overwhelmingly to livestock grazing (Table 2). Although maize production utilises the largest proportion of the harvested area, sorghum production is relatively much more important in this zone, as befits its rather drier climate.Implication of Zonal Differences for Small Ruminant Production and DevelopmentThese differences in zonal resources and characteristics have a number of implications for the productivity of small ruminants and the quality of their fleeces. The much higher population density and relatively small proportion of the land area devoted to grazing means that lowland village grazing areas are under heavy pressure. Although this can be relieved to some extent by taking livestock to seasonal mountain cattle posts, survey data from the 1985 Livestock Holders Survey suggest that this practice is not as common as is often supposed (Swallow et al, 1987a). Of the 250 sheep-owning households surveyed nation-wide, 54% kept their sheep in village grazing areas or dry-lots year round. This involved about 50% of the sheep in the survey. Examination of the raw data indicates that these practices are somewhat more common in the lowlands than in the other areas. Distances are often long between lowland villages and their mountain cattle-posts. Trekking costs, in terms of time and lost animal condition, are high. In addition, the distance may make careful management by the owner difficult, thus increasing the threat of loss by theft. Finally, the higher per flock costs of keeping smaller lowland flocks at cattle-posts may encourage their being kept year-round near the village. Thus, because of poorer grazing resources, lowland flocks are relatively small and unproductive. Small flocks mean, in turn, that selective breeding is more difficult and the use of improved breeding stock is less cost-effective. Also, because lowland residents have a number of alternative domestic income-earning options, such as crop production or wage employment, their flocks are less important to them as income earners. Mountain residents, by contrast, have few alternative domestic income-earning options to livestock. Because of this, livestock ownership is more widespread, flocks are much larger and the better pastures in this zone provide a more solid foundation for a livestock industry. On most counts, mountain flocks are much more productive and much higher income earners than flocks from other zones.The dominant sheep breed in Lesotho is the wool Merino. Table 3 summarises the zonal differences in mean measures of wool productivity and quality. The superiority of the MTN and NL zones in wool production is particularly evident in their higher greasy fleece weights and clean wool yields and in their longer staple lengths.  The clean-yield measure (the proportion of clean wool obtained from a unit of greasy wool) is of particular importance since wool is sold in the clean state and yield is generally rather low. The SL and SRV-the driest and dustiest areas of the country-register the lowest yields. Along with the FTL zone, they also have the poorest mean greasy fleece weights. The multiple of these measures, the clean-fleece weight, looks especially poor for these zones. Generally, the SL and SRV produce 26% lighter clean fleeces than the MTN zone. The FTL zone performs even more poorly-producing an average clean fleece only 43% as heavy as the MTN zone. Compared to the second-best wool producing area, the NLzone, these poor productivity areas produce about 15% lighter clean fleeces per sheep.In addition to the purely quantitative differences, differences in the qualitative measures are also important. Although there are little differences in mean fibre diameter (all are fine), there is a statistically significant difference (at the 95% level) in staple lengths. Since this is a key determinant of wool style or type, this affects the quality and, hence, the wool price offered. In general, sheep from FTL and SRV, in particular, produce markedly shorter (12% and 16%, respectively) staples than those from MTN. Indeed, FTL staples are an average of one centimetre shorter than MTN staples.While these differences in mean measures highlight some marked zonal differences in productivity and quality, these averages conceal several important distinctions. To highlight these, it is necessary to focus on the distribution of these measures within each of the zones. This is done in the next section.Clean wool fleece weights  1. NL = Northern lowlands; SL = Southern lowlands; SRV = Senqu river valley; FTL = Foothills; MTN = Mountain. Note: All measures for Tables 2, 3 and 4 are for adult 2-teeth and older) Merinos.Lesotho figures are weighted averages of zonal figures.Columns may fail to add to 100 because of rounding.While these two zones have relatively few low-weight fleeces, they have a high proportion of relatively heavy fleeces. Almost 45% of MTN fleeces weigh over 1.5 kg and almost one-quarter of them are over 2 kg in weight. No other zone has more than 5% as heavy. Although NL does not score as high in heavy-weight fleeces, almost 45% of its fleeces are over 1.25 kg in weight.Wool's style or type is largely determined by the length of its staple. Longer (combing) wools are more suitable for weaving and use in the worsted trade while shorter (carding) wools are used for knitting. Normally, the longer wools fetch higher prices.  Staple length is not the only factor determining whether or not a wool is suitable for combing or carding. Tenderness, which can cause breakages in the wool, can also cause a longer wool to be unsuitable for combing. No data exist on the degree of soundness in Lesotho's wool although the extreme nutritional stress from Lesotho's cold winters combined with the added stress of reproduction, suggest that it is likely to be particularly problematic for ewes. It may also be more prevalent in lowland village grazing areas, as well.A key component of wool quality is its fineness measured by mean fibre diameter. This is also a key determinant of a wool's price. In general, all of Lesotho's wools are fine (all of the zonal mean fibre diameters are less than 20.5 microns) and this accounts for their generally good market acceptance. By general agreement within the trade, however, this fineness is less the result of genetics and more the result of the poor nutrition offered by Lesotho's overgrazed range. Because of this, it is often referred to as \"hunger-fineness\".Despite this general fineness, there is some zonal variation in the distribution of fineness classes. This is evident from Table 6.In this measure, the performance of the two best zones diverges. The second-best NL zone has over 70% of its wool in the two finest categories and very little in the two coarsest classes. The MTN zone, by contrast, has less than 60% in the finest and almost 20% in the coarsest classes. Two reasons for these differences suggest themselves. One may be nutritional. Despite the relatively high rainfall in the NL zone and its close proximity to mountain grazing, high population density in this zone may restrict grazing, particularly in village areas, and make the impact of hunger-fineness more acutely felt. The other may be an unintended effect of the 50-year-old Livestock Department programme of supplying improved rams to farmers for breeding. Although these are supplied at cost, they are only cost-effective when put to relatively large flocks and, as a result, they go disproportionately to MTN stock keepers. Rams are selected for body conformation, size, fleece weight, and staple length but rarely for the fineness of their wool. As a result, many of the rams are characterised by medium to medium-coarse wools. The higher proportion of coarser wools in the MTN zone may be the effect of this breeding policy.  These zonal differences in wool and mohair productivity and quality translate into marked differences in the zonal economic returns from keeping Merinos. LPMS data (from government wool-sheds only) for the 1985/86 wool and mohair seasons were analysed, using ordinary least-squares regression, for zonal differences and for the impact of membership in a Wool and Mohair Growers Association (WMGA) on a grower's economic returns (Hunter, 1987). Results of this analysis are reported in Table 7.This table refers only to non-WMGA members (73% of sheep owners marketing through LPMS) who own 57% of sheep shearing at government wool-sheds. WMGA membership narrows, but does not eliminate, these zonal economic differences.Mountain wool producers receive an 18-37% price advantage over other wool producers. Despite the fact that MTN wool is generally rather coarser (stronger) than wool from other zones, the combination of heavier fleece weights, relatively high yields and long staples translate into higher gross incomes per sheep. In this regard, MTN producers have a 25% advantage over the next-best zone, the NL, and a 32-50% advantage over the remaining zones. When the substantial differences in flock size (relating mostly to the different options and opportunities available to the residents of the different zones) are taken into account, MTN flocks earn 3-8 times as much for their owners as flocks from other zones.Although NL flocks generally produce relatively heavy fleeces and relatively high quality wool, the small average flock size probably makes them only marginal-income supplements for their owners. Another way of evaluating the economic effect of zonal differences terms is to focus on the rates of return generated by a sheep enterprise. Livestock budgets, originally prepared by Swallow et al (1987b) and updated and revised by Hunter and Carvalho (1990, unpublished) were used to generate zonal rates of return. It was assumed that all zones had similar costs and non-wool returns from livestock. This assumption is probably unrealistic, however. Stock keepers with larger flocks would gain certain economies of scale in herding costs but, because of higher levels of flock management, may spend more on veterinary costs or supplemental feed. Smaller stock keepers may have higher average herding costs but may spend less on other aspects of flock maintenance. From the standpoint of returns, larger stock keepers may have a higher marketed offtake from their flocks than smaller counterparts. However, while these adjustments should alter the absolute magnitude of the rates of return, they probably would not affect the overall rankings. Using 1985/86 data, rates of return to a typical sheep enterprise ranged from 6% in the foothills to 1 1% in the mountains. The zonal rankings are presented in Table 7.The extremely close correspondence in rankings by both methods is evident. Since 1985/86, wool prices have increased dramatically (although the market has recently reversed). As a result, the average sheep enterprise returned 14.5% on investment in 1988/89.Generally speaking, wool productivity in Lesotho is rather low. Because of the practices of kraaling animals at night and grazing cultivated fields, Lesotho's wool is dirty and clean wool yields are low. Clean fleece weights are also low because of overgrazing and poor nutrition and, perhaps, for genetic reasons. Only 60% of the nation's clip is longer than 60 mm in length for which poor nutrition, genetics and climatic stress are principally responsible. No matter which perspective one takes, whether that of productivity, quality or economic returns, there are clearly identifiable rankings of wool production by zone, however. The MTN zone is unambiguously most favourable to wool production. Fleece weights are heavier, yields are higher, staples are longer, wool prices are higher, and farmers'incomes per animal are larger. The FTL zone, from almost all perspectives, is the worst wool-producing zone. The SRV is an intermediate zone and its performance is, indeed, fairly representative of the \"average\" for Lesotho. In the lowlands, the SL zone is the second-worst for wool production while the NL zone is the second-best.Both conceptually and because of data limitations, it is difficult to disentangle the relative effects of genetics and of environment and management on these rankings. From the environmental perspective, village grazing areas in the lowlands are invariably crowded and heavily organised. If lowland animals use mountain cattle-posts, the trekking between village and highland pastures imposes its own form of stress on fibre production. Although highland pastures are also overgrazed, the quality of their vegetative cover is generally much higher and stocking rates rather lower than in lowland grazing areas. The better nutrition in the mountains contributes to longer staples, larger body mass and higher fleece mass.Other factors may play a role too. Mean sheep flock size in the mountains is about two to three times larger than in other zones. The purchase of improved Merino rams for breeding is much more cost effective for larger flocks than for small ones. Not surprisingly, most of the improved rams procured by the government from South Africa go to mountain producers. Further, because mountain residents have few alternative domestic income-making opportunities, they are more income-dependent on their flocks and may practice more careful husbandry than their lowland counterparts. Survey results indicate that larger stock keepers are more likely to dose their animals more frequently and more likely to dip them twice as recommended (Hunter, 1987). They also show the strongest commitment to keeping sheep primarily for wool production (Hunter, 1987). Interviews with farmers indicate that many of the larger mountain producers employ adult herders, a practice that would not be cost-effective for a small flock.According to agricultural census data, there has been a steady reduction over the last 30 years in the proportion of sheep in the highly productive MTN zone and an increase in the less productive SRV and FTL zones. Not only has this shift put increased pressure on grazing areas least able to support them but, other things being equal, it would have reduced overall wool productivity and quality measures.Although the reasons for these shifts are probably complex and may be associated with the upsurge in economic activity in the lowlands in the Post-Independence era, livestock policy decisions can have an impact on the geographical distribution of sheep in the future. The following policy directions may be worthy of consideration:a. Wool production in the southern lowlands should be discouraged. Generally, animals in this zone are so unproductive, wool quality is so poor, and flocks are so small that the income received from fibre production is minimal. It is likely that wool production is but a secondary function of livestock production and that repositories for savings and meat production are primary functions. Merinos are not particularly well-suited to either of these latter functions. In this zone, livestock development funds would have a greater impact on farms incomes if they were redirected from wool production to activities with higher potential.b. Wool production in the foothills should be discouraged also. Development funds would have a higher pay-off if money for wool development were concentrated in the mountains and northern lowlands. Angora goats perform very well in this zone, however, and should receive greater development emphasis (Hunter, 1990b).c. Although the Senqu river valley is a marginal wool producer, there are limited alternative economic activities for residents of this zone. Therefore, it is probably desirable to continue to direct small ruminant development funds to this zone.d. Much-discussed restrictions on transhumance movement of livestock from lowland areas to highland cattle-posts would discourage extensive livestock production in the lowlands. Careful thought should be given to the impact of this restriction on wool production in the northern lowlands, however.e. Although administrative and enforcement constraints may be large, consideration might be given to a discriminatory grazing fee which imposes higher fees against small ruminants in those areas in which they are particularly unproductive.Although wool productivity in Lesotho is generally low, there are zones where performance is reasonably good. Concentrating wool production and Merino development resources, including funds, extension efforts and physical infrastructure in these areas while de-emphasising the low productivity areas would raise overall productivity measures and lead to a more productive utilisation of scarce resources.Partial budget analysis for on-station and on-farm small ruminant production systems research: Method and data requirements Small ruminants (i.e. sheep and goats) are essential components of farming systems in tropical Africa. They are raised mainly for meat, milk, and skin providing a flexible financial reserve (Social Security) in bad crop years for the rural population (Sumberg and Cassaday, 1985). Tropical Africa contains about one-third of the world's goats and one-sixth of its sheep. On average there is one goat or sheep on every 10 ha of tropical Africa and there are about 1.1 head of goats and sheep per person employed in agriculture. Available estimates also show that sheep and goats are equivalent in weight terms, to about 17% or the total domestic ruminant biomass of tropical Africa (Wilson, 1988). Sheep and goats are important also because: (1) they require minimal inputs and maintenance costs;(2) they are less susceptible to stress due adverse changes in climatic conditions (e.g. drought); and (3) they have a relatively high reproduction rate and are easy to dispose of (Winrock International, 1983). Thus in face of the declining crop yields due to movement of cropping onto marginal soil types and diminishing fallow periods, improvement in the production of sheep and goats is likely to improve the welfare of smallholders (Peacock, 1987).A number of national research organisations in partnership with the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) are conducting research to improve the productivity of small ruminants on the continent. However, although they provide insights into improving small ruminants productivity, some new technologies are not adopted because of lack of economic advantage over current production methods (Amir and Knipscheer, 1987). Increased animal yield is a necessary but insufficient condition for adoption. A new technology must also be profitable (Nagy and Sanders, 1990). For example, the economic benefits of innovation aimed or reducing reproductive wastage and of improved health, nutrition and management must be determined as a basic for recommending such to farmers.One problem faced by most NARS, however, is an acute shortage of livestock economists, and biological scientists often lack the skills to conduct an economic evaluation of the results of their work. Moreover, most manuals on economic analysis of biological interventions are crop-oriented (e.g. CIMMYT, 1988;MSTAT-C, 1988). Animals, however, have different characteristics making the use of these manuals not immediately accessible to animal scientists. It is therefore necessary that livestock specialists acquaint themselves with basic economic methods for the economic evaluation of small ruminant technologies.This paper presents the Partial Budget Analysis (PBA) approach for analysing the economic benefits of alternative small ruminant technologies. While there are other types of budgeting (e.g. whole farm and enterprise budgeting), the partial budgeting procedure is the most useful in farming system research (Worman et al, 1990).The next ection presents the logic of the partial budget approach. The third section describes the data-set required to perform the analysis. Special attention is paid to the direct and indirect benefits and cost necessary for a correct evaluation of small ruminant technologies. In the fourth section an example is provided which is based on experimental data collected in the Ethiopian highlands. The last section presents some concluding qualifications and comments.Partial budgeting is a method of organising experimental data and information about the cost and benefits from some change in the technologies being used on the farm. The aim is to estimate the change that will occur in farm profit or loss from some change in the farm plan (Boehlje and Eidman, 1984). Partial budgets do not calculate the total income and expenses for each of the alternative plan but list only those items of income and expense that change. They measure changes in income and returns to limited resources, provide a limited assessment of risk and, through sensitivity analysis, suggest a range of prices or costs at which a technology becomes profitable (Mutsaers et al, 1 986).Assuming for simplicity that the farmer's objective is to maximise returns, the method is as follows: Let Nl denote the net income from the sale of animals, or animal products, i.e. the amount of money which is left when total costs (TC) are subtracted from total returns (TR) :Total costs include the costs of all inputs such as feed, non-feed inputs (e.g. veterinary costs, wages of hired labour, etc.). TC can be separated into two categories: Fixed costs (FC) and variable costs (VC):Fixed costs represent the costs that do not vary when comparing alternative technologies (e.g. land). Variable costs are those that do vary between the technologies, such as the amount of feed or labour used.In deciding whether or not to adopt a new technology, a farmer will want to know if it will increase his or her income. Similarly in order to properly screen among alternative technologies for further testing, a researcher will want to know which of the interventions is potentially economically more attractive. The increase of changes in net income (ANI) is the difference between the change in total returns (aTR) and the change in total costs (ATC): ANI = ATR-ATC(3) = ATR -AVC -AFC = ATR -AVC, since, AFC = 0 AFC is equal to zero because by definition fixed costs do not vary. Assuming that capital is not a constraint, the technology with the highest ANI will be recommended. However, higher benefits may not be attractive if they require very much higher costs. New technologies typically require a package of increased inputs (thus additional costs), and farmers will want to consider the increase in costs in their decision. Thus, it is necessary to compare the extra (or marginal) costs with the extra (or marginal) net benefits.Another criterion which takes the cost factor into account is the marginal rate of return (MRR). MRR measures the increase in net income (ANI) which is generated by each additional unit of expenditure (AVC):In other words MRR measures the effect on net return of additional capital invested in a new technology, compared to the present one (CIMMYT, 1988). It is not necessary to calculate MRR if the new technology costs less than the farmer's present technology, or if the new technology yields a lower benefit than the present one for a comparatively higher cost. When this occurs, the technology is said to be \"dominated\". For practical purposes Table 1 summarises the methodology for conducting partial budget and marginal analyses.In making recommendations, three criteria must be observed: First, if net income remains the same or decreases, the new technology should not be recommended because it is not more profitable than the farmer's present technology ; second, if net income increases and variable costs remain the same or decrease, the new technology should be recommended because it is clearly more profitable than the farmer's technology; and third if both net income and variable cost increase (this is usually the case), the marginal rate of return should be looked at. The greater the increase in net income and the higher the marginal rate of return, the more economically attractive the alternative technology is.The most difficult task in performing partial budget analysis, is the proper identification of the costs and benefits associated with the alternative technologies. Using poor data can lead to wrong recommendations. The minimum amount of data which must be collected depends on the design of the trial and the questions for which answer are required. Once it has been decidedTable 1. Partial budgeting format 1 . Additional income: List the items of income from the alternative plan that will not be received from the base plan.2. Reduced expenses: List the items of expense for the base plan that will be avoided with the alternative plan.3. Subtotal: 1 + 2.4. Reduced income: List the items of income from the base plan that will not be received from the alternative.List the items of expense from the alternative plan that are not require with the base plan.6. Subtotal: 4 + 5.7. Difference: 3 -6: A positive (negative) difference indicates that the net income of the alternative exceeds (is less than) the net income of the base plan by the amount shown.Source: Adapted from Boehlje and Eidman (1984).what questions need answers, it is possible to identify the variables which will provide the necessary data use in conducting the analysis. Generally the following data are required for partial budget analysis: (1) quantities of inputs which vary between alternative technologies; (2) prices of these variable inputs;(3) yields or productivity levels resulting from the alternative technologies; and (4) prices of the outputs.All benefits and costs should be calculated using farm-gate prices. That is, the actual price which the farmer pays for the inputs or receives for his products. Thus all inputs prices should account for any cost, such as transportation required to bring the input to the production site. Similarly if the farmer sells his animal off the farm, then the transportation and, storage charges, and/or marketing costs in delivering it to the sale point should be deducted from the market price of the animal. If a technology affects the quality of the animal (e.g. attractiveness of the colour, fattened tail, appearance), different market prices should be applied for the different qualities. Sometimes it is necessary to value the fixed assets (e.g. facilities, equipment). These are usually valued using the depreciation technique. A simple formula for depreciation is the original cost minus any expected salvage value divided by the number of years of useful life (Wormanetal, 1990).Table 2 presents a breakdown of the benefits for the economic analysis of small ruminants. Four products are generally consid ered important : (1) reproductive capacity of animals, (2) weight gain;(3) milk yield, (4) meat yield; and (5) manure.The importance of input depends on the technologies being evaluated. But both cash and r on-cash costs should be identified. Cash costs include items like feed costs (e.g. grain, wheat bran), non-feed costs (e.g. veterinary charges, wages for hired labour). Non-cash costs include items like family labour, capital costs, depreciation costs (equipment and animals) and other non-market feed costs (e.g. crop residues, household wastes). One of the major problems in performing a partial budget or an economic analysis is what value to assign to the inputs in a trial and output from the trial. Determining the field price of inputs and outputs can become a difficult exercise especially when dealing with non-market inputs or products. In this case, opportunity cost (which is the value of the resource or product in its best alternative use) should be employed. One example is manure. Because it provides a low cost source of fertiliser for crop, it can be given a value equivalent to the reduced use of chemical fertiliser. Another example is family labour. Assuming labour market is competitive, rural wages for hired labour can be used as a proxy. At this point it is important to note that labour (though it is the primary input most farmers make into agriculture), is one of the more difficult items to value. This is because for most farm household members off-farm employment is not really an option. Also for most household members (e.g. women, children, old men and young boys), there are no paying alternative to on-farm work (see Worman et al, 1 990 for more discussion on labour valuation). Finally, if the animal or the animal product (e.g. milk) is consumed at home, the opportunity cost is the amount the household would have to pay to purchase that meat or milk instead of using their own product.This example is based on experimental trials conducted in the Ethiopian highlands. The purpose of the experiment was to assess the impact of drenching and feed supplementation on sheep productivity. The experiment was designed in response to nutritional and health problems (e.g. liverfluke, coenuris, diarrhoea, anthrax, lungworm) faced by sheep in the region. Data used in this study were from several sources. Biological and input price data were adapted from Ngategize and Brokken (1990, ILCA, Addis Ababa, unpublished data) and Ngategize et al (n.d.) which report on the stimulated effects of interventions on flock productivity and the economic of endoparasites control in the Ethiopian highlands, respectively. Animal price data (by head, and sex) were determined using a general linear model which describes the effect of animal characteristics on the price of sheep in the Ethiopian highlands (Andargachew, 1990).There were four treatments with 50 ewes in each treatment group. In treatment I (the control) animals were under normal grazing practice with no drenching or feed supplementation. Treatment II included drenching with anthelmintics. In Treatment III, animals received feed supplementation with wheat bran and noug cake in addition to normal grazing. Treatment IV included both drenching and feed supplementation. The feed supplements were composed of 300 g of wheat bran and 150 g of noug cake (Guizotia abyssinica) per ewe per day. The drenching scheme was composed of Ranide (a Fasc/o/a-specific anthelmintic) and Panacur (a broad spectrum anthelmintic which is effective against gastro intestinal nematodes and lungworms). Both were administered three times a returns was EB 3.71 per ewe for a marginal rate of return on increased expenditure of 19%. The cost of adding drenching to treatment III in combination with supplemental feeding (treatment IV) was EB 3.58 per ewe while the increase in net returns relative to treatment III was EB 0.78 per ewe for a marginal rate of return of 22%. The marginal rate of return of treatment IV relative to treatment III was 19.4%. Given the high cost of capital, treatments with supplemental feeding and supplemental feeding with drenching cannot be recommended. However, drenching alone yields a very high marginal rate of return under the experimental conditions (334%) and can be suggested for on-farm testing.Economics constraints and opportunities for small ruminant systems in sub-Saharan Africa must be understood as a basis for developing interventions. For example, the economic benefits of innovations aimed at reducing reproductive wastage and improved health, nutrition and management must be determined as a basis for recommending such to farmers. The problem is that most national agricultural research systems face an acute shortage of livestock economists and biological scientists lack the skills to conduct an economic evaluation of the results of their work. In order to properly evaluate alternative small ruminant interventions, livestock specialists will need to acquaint themselves with basic economic methods. In this paper, the partial budgeting analysis approach is presented. It is a simple but powerful approach which consists of organising experimental data and information about costs and benefits of various alternative technologies. Partial budgeting also allows the researcher to carry out marginal analysis which is needed for a correct evaluation of alternative interventions. Marginal analysis is important because although the calculation of net benefits accounts for the costs that vary, a technology may not be attractive to farmers because of the extra cost involved.In performing partial budgeting the first step is the identification of costs and benefits. This requires: (1) proper quantification of the production parameters;(2) proper elicitation of the inputs used, and outputs produced; and (3) proper recording of the (farm-gate) prices of outputs and inputs. The second step is to convert the identified quantities into costs and returns. All other non-cash costs (e.g. family labour, capital cost, and depreciation charges) must be properly valued. Non-market inputs and costs should be valued at their opportunity cost. In the case of small ruminants four products are generally considered important: they include (1) reproductive capacity of animals, (2) milk yield; (3) weight gain; (4) meat yield; and (5) manure. On the input side, cash and non-cash costs must be determined. Cash costs include feed and non-feed costs, wages for hired labour. Non-cash costs include family labour, capital costs, depreciation charges and other non-market feed costs.Using partial budgeting, an example is provided which compares the economic potential of a sheep breed under alternative health (endoparasitic control) and feeding systems. There were four treatments including: (I) grazing on natural pasture (the control); (II) drenching; (III) feed supplementation; and (IV) feed supplementation and drenching. Despite the fact that treatments (III) and (IV) yielded higher liveweight animal productivity per ewe than drenching alone (treatment II), economic analysis using marginal analysis has shown that endoparasites control with anthelmintics was economically more attractive. This result clearly highlights the importance of economic analysis in the process of technology evaluation. However, it is important to note that before doing economic analysis, the researcher must properly assess the experimental data to verify that the observed response makes sense from an animal science standpoint.Before concluding, a few words are worth mentioning. Although the partial budget may indicate that the new technology is \"better\" than the traditional, it will not show that both technologies produce a loss. Also, a partial budget (though it is easy to interpret) is rarely presented with a statement of the farmer's objectives, the farmer's resource base, and important non-cash consideration. For example, the partial budget does not tell us if labour is available to the farmer to feed the animals. Partial budgets ignore the substitutability of inputs and how they are allocated based on fixed endowments and the implicit prices of the resources. Although they yield important insights into the economic attractiveness of a new technology versus a traditional one, result of partial budgets should therefore be treated with caution. About 38% and 4% of the respondents in Salima had tasted or consumed goat and sheep milk, respectively, compared to 24% for goat milk at Lilongwe. Unavailability was the major factor (P<0.001) influencing the attitudes of the people towards consumption of goat and sheep milk in Salima followed by the fact that it is not traditional to milk goats and sheep and consume their milk, a reason which was major (P<0.001) in Lilongwe. Strong flavour and taste was a tertiary factor in the study. Respondents failed to associate coded milk samples with actual sources. Mean taste scores (based on a 5-point scale of1= like very much to 5 = dislike very much) for goat, sheep and cow's milk were 1.81, 2.12 and 2. 77, respectively. There were no significant differences among milk sources in these scores. The results indicate that goat and sheep milk is just as acceptable as cow's milk. In the tropics, milk is obtained mostly from cattle. Small ruminants (goats and sheep), however, are an important source of milk in Asia, the Middle East, north Africa and the Caribbean where the contribution of goats and sheep to total milk production is estimated at 15-50% (Matthewman, 1985;Treacher, 1985). South of the Sahara, until recently, goats and sheep were not by tradition, milked for human consumption. FAO (1987) estimates that there are 250 and 300 million goats and sheep, respectively, in the tropics. About 60 and 30% of the world population of goats and sheep, respectively, are found in villages of the developing countries. Of the 1.6 million goats and 0.8 million sheep in Malawi, over 90% are owned by small-scale producers in rural areas (Malawi Government, n.d.). In 1987, dairy goats were introduced in Malawi as supplementary sources of milk.Goat and sheep milk is said to have important advantages over cow, milk for human nutrition. For example, Jenness (1980), and Devendra and Burns (1983) reported that compared to cow's milk, goat and sheep milk has higher protein, energy and fat contents. It has adequate amino-acids content. The higher proportions of short-and medium-chain fatty acids are of greater significance for ease of digestion. Goat milk is an excellent source of calcium, phosphorus and chlorine. Although goat and sheep milk has excess potassium and chloride which cause acidosis, and is deficient in vitamins C and D and folic acid, this milk would be beneficial to children in early postweaning periods. If supplemented with iron and folic acid, infants and pregnant mothers would benefit from these milk sources. However, strong flavour and taste of goat and sheep milk, and issues connected with witchcraft and lower social status are said to prevent people from consuming goat and sheep milk (Manyenga,1 987) despite the belief by others that goat milk has therapeutic properties. Manyenga (1987) further reported that other people believe goat udders are too small to be milked. These controversies and the introduction of dairy goats in Malawi raised fundamental questions on milking of goats and sheep and peoples' attitudes towards an acceptance of milk from these sources. Information on these questions would help evaluate the feasibility of goat milk production programmes not only in Malawi, but also in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa and other tropical countries where small ruminant milk production has recently been introduced.The objectives of this study were:(a) to assess peoples' attitudes towards goat and sheep milk and its consumption and the factors associated with these attitudes.(b) to compare the acceptance of goat and sheep milk relative to identically prepared cow's milk.Two areas, namely Salima and Lilongwe where dairy goat projects have been initiated, were chosen for these studies. In Salima, two sets of questionnaires were administered by a trained research assistant at Mangochi Enterprises (site S1), Chipoka-Malawi College of Distant Education Centre (site S2) and at Salima Secondary School (site S3) . The questionnaires used were written both in English and a local language. To capture information on milk consumption in general and the attitude of people towards goat and sheep milk, the first questionnaire was to be administered to as many individuals at each site as possible a day before the taste-test exercise was carried out. In the end, 31, 104 and 71 respondents were covered at sites S1, S2 and S3, respectively. Based on responses on the first day at each survey site, 28, 59 and 47 respondents at sites S1 , S2 and S3, respectively, were selected to participate on the taste-test day.For the taste-test exercise, fresh milk from zebu cows, local and Boer x local crossbred goats and from local and Dorper x local crossbred sheep was used.The milk was obtained from a goat breeding centre managed by the Malawi-German Livestock Development Programme at Lifidzi in Salima. The milk was passed through a milk strainer. The milk was then heated in clean sauce pans, while preventing burning, to near-boiling point and later cooled to body temperature. One hundred millilitre containers with lids were used. These containers were labelled X, Y and Z. Using random numbers, goat milk was allocated to X, sheep milk to Y and cow's milk to Z. About 100 ml of milk was poured in each container. They were kept at 35-40°C by placing them in an insulated box. During the taste-test exercise, respondents were again told they were tasting cow's, sheep and goat milk but the actual identities of samples were disclosed only after the taste exercise was completed. Each respondent was given a second questionnaire together with three samples of milk. They were encouraged to ask questions regarding test procedures. Each respondent was asked to taste the three coded samples, one at a time in the order indicated on the questionnaire. Information required was the identity of the tester, identity of milk and reasons for this. They were also requested to score the taste for each milk sample on a 5-point scale as used by Boor et al (1987):1. Like very much 2. Like 3. Neither like nor dislike 4. Dislike 5. Dislike very much.General comments about the milk were invited at the end of each questionnaire.In another similar survey undertaken to assess the consumption and acceptance of goat milk and evaluate the factors limiting goat milk production/consumption among goat farmers, 172 individuals were interviewed in villages around Bunda College, Lilongwe, Central Malawi. Information collected was similar to that collected using the first questionnaire in Salima area.Milk samples from goats and sheep were analysed and have been presented in a separate paper (Banda et al, 1990). The composition of zebu cow's milk (Kasowanjete, 1 982) is not much different from that of goats. Data collected were analysed using contingency tables to provide a measure of association or fitness of fit (Gill, 1986).Consumption of milk and general attitude towards goat and sheep milk About 85.9% of the respondents in Salima claimed to have tasted milk. However, only 78.2% claimed to drink milk on a regular basis, i.e., at least once per week (Table 1). Of those who drink milk, over half (56.5%) claimed to drink milk every day and 27.3% drank milk once per week.  Generally it is quite clear that the unavailability of the milk (P<0.001) was the major reason why most respondents (56.9%) in Salima have never consumed milk from goats and sheep, followed by the fact that goat and sheep milk consumption is not traditional. There was a significant (P<0.001) milk source difference in the ranking of reasons on non-consumption. With goat milk, the second most important reason (19.3% of consumers) was that goat milk had a very strong smell and taste whereas for sheep, the lack of tradition of sheep milk consumption and knowledge that sheep could be milked were both equally the second most important (17% of respondents) reasons for not consuming sheep milk.About 68.5% and 62.5% of the respondents showed willingness to taste goat and sheep milk, respectively. About 63.0% were willing to buy and consume goat milk, while the proportion for sheep fell to 56.6%. Minor, but nonetheless culturally important, reasons were also identified. With sheep milk, people of the Malawi lakeshore origin never want to consume sheep milk because of the religious taboo of not consuming mutton. They also believe that the intensity of sneezing in sheep makes their milk psychologically unhygienic.Of the 172 farmers interviewed in Lilongwe, central Malawi, only 24% had ever tasted goat milk. Of those who had never tasted or consumed goat milk, 91% said that it was not traditional to consume goat milk, 4.5% were allergic to it while 2.3% claimed that the small amounts obtained from goats did not warrant the consumption of their milk. However, over half (56.5) were willing to consume goat milk and over 90% were willing to produce and sell goat milk if dairy goats and a milk market were available.Comparison of consumer acceptance of goat, sheep and cow milk Data collected using the second questionnaire were analysed to initially find out whether respondents could associate the coded samples with the actual sources of milk. Results are shown in Table 3. Sample X was goat milk, sample Y was sheep milk and sample Z was cow's milk. It is quite evident (P <0.001 ) that sample X was associated more with cow's milk. Both samples Y and Z were associated more (P<0.001) with sheep milk. Frequencies of taste-test scores for all the milk types are presented in Table 4.Irrespective ofthe source of milk, a significant (P<0.001) proportion (66.9%) gave scores of 1 and 2. There were significant interactions (P<0.001) with source of milk. Goat and sheep milk received scores of 1 and 2 from 71-72% of the respondents while the proportion for cow's milk was only 59.2%. About 21-23% of the respondents gave scores of 4 and 5 for goat and sheep milk and that for cow's milk was 30.0%. Taste-test results in the form of mean scores for goat, sheep and cow's milk are presented in Table 5. The mean scores for goat, sheep and cattle milk were 1 .81 , 2.12 and 2.77, respectively. There were no significant differences (P>0.001) among these scores between the sources and sites of the study. The poorest score was for cow's milk at site S1 . At the three sites the respondents felt that goat and sheep milk was sweeter than cow's milk but that goat milk was sweetest. Those with more sensitive palates claimed that goat and sheep milk was creamier in taste. About 49.1% of the respondents claimed that goat and sheep milk was better, but whether this was with respect to nutritional value or not was not clear in this study; 16.5% were for cow's milk, 15.4 were indifferent and the rest did not give comments. After this taste-test exercise, the proportion of respondents claiming that goat and sheep milk has a strong smell fell to 3.8%.In this study, about 78.2% of the respondents claimed to consume milk at least once a week and 56.5% claimed to consume milk everyday. About 21 .8% never consume milk. The major factor responsible for 21.8% of the respondents not consuming milk was their low incomes and or financial status. These results correspond favourably with those given by Banda and Phiri (1990) for the Lilongwe urban area in the Central Region of the country. Milk consumed was exclusively cow's milk and the regular consumption here may refer to consumption during breakfast or as snacks.About 38% and 4% of the respondents in Salima had never tasted or consumed goat and sheep milk, respectively, because of unavailability. The high proportion of respondents in Lilongwe (91%) claiming not to consume milk because it was not traditional to milk goats and consume their milk, could perhaps allow to infer that unavailability may be strongly associated with the non-milking of goats as a tradition (Boor et al, 1987). One underlying factor is the claim that the udder of sheep or goat was too small to produce enough milk for human consumption.Another factor is perhaps the termination of goat milking by the few who did after the introduction of dairy cows in the early 1 960s in Malawi. For cow's milk, on the other hand, Banda and Phiri (1 990) found that incomes and prices were the main factors limiting the choice and consumption of cow's milk and milk products. It seems, therefore, that in milk production projects, one must isolate the limiting factors for small ruminants from those for cattle.A general problem that has been shown to limit the consumption of goat and sheep milk is its strong flavour and taste as reported previously in Zimbabwe (Manyenga, 1987) and in Kenya (Boor et al, 1987). Goat milk need not have a strong smell and taste. The strong smell/taste of milk from small ruminants, e.g., from goats, might be due to unclean milking procedures, utensils and milk itself.In addition, Skjevdal (1979) reported that the content of short-and medium-chain fatty acids (especially C6-C10), potassium chloride and the presence of some cresols (ortho-, meta-and para-cresols) may be responsible for the strong flavour and taste of the milk from goats and not necessarily the presence of the buck. In the present study, the strong flavour/taste was a secondary factor for goat milk and was a very minor factor for sheep milk, reflecting perhaps, better milking procedures and handling of the milk. This is confirmed by the results of the taste-test exercise which showed that respondents could not really associate the coded samples with actual sources of milk. In addition, no differences in taste scores were detected between goat and sheep milk on the one hand and cow's milk on the other. If anything could be said at all, it was obvious that the respondents showed the least preference for cow's milk. The claim, therefore, that goat and sheep milk has a strong flavour is based on unsubstantiated reports or purely an aesthetic bias. Although the presence of the bucks may not be responsible for the strong flavour in goats, it is nevertheless advisable to prevent contact between males and lactating females immediately before milking and hair from falling into the milk. The specific flavour of goat and sheep milk, if not caused by unhygienic conditions, may not be important for direct human consumption, but is desirable in cheese production.Although goat milk ranked highest and cow's milk lowest on a double blind taste-test exercise, the mean taste-test scores were not statistically different between the sources. The higher number of best scores of 1 and 2 for all the milk and the mean scores of less than 3 reflect high consumer opinion of all the milk types. Goat milk was the best in flavour and taste followed by sheep milk. Acceptability therefore, may not be a limiting factor to consumption of goat and sheep milk as was observed in Kenya (Boor et al, 1987). This tends to confirm the indication that unavailability of the milk may be the major overriding factor. Malawi local goats produce between 250 and 640 ml of milk per day using hand-milking (Mwenefumbo and Phoya, 1982;Mchiela, 1989;Bandaetal, 1990). This is not even enough for kids and lambs. To improve milk production to levels that will provide a surplus for human consumption, dairy goat breeds such as the Saanen, Alpine and Anglo-Nubian could be crossed with local breeds while selecting for slightly better producing local genotypes.The sweeter taste of goat and sheep milk as claimed by some respondents might be due to the 4.5-5.1% lactose content observed in the milk used in the study and the creaminess could have been due to the high (6.0-7.0%) fat content. The real effects due to these chemical constituents on the use of goat and sheep milk for infant feeding and as emergency milk sources in cases of breast failure should be studied. Since the composition of cow's milk was not determined, there is a need to do the survey again, but now backed by nutritional and medical studies in order to evaluate intolerance of consumers to the use of these three different milk types.It is concluded that unavailability was the major problem influencing the consumption of goat and sheep milk. Acceptability for these milk types was high.Strong flavour/taste was a tertiary factor in this study and of little or no consequence. However, in order to increase the scope and general validity of the results of this type of investigation, there is need to include other locations likely to be affected by the goat milk production research and development programmes. • une parfaite connaissance de la population objet d'étude (effectifs, structure, mouvements);• une évaluation précise et fiable des performances des animaux;• une identification rigoureuse des facteurs de variation des performances, notamment ceux d'ordre pathologique et ceux liés aux pratiques d'élevage.Les animaux suivis sont identifiés individuellement à l'aide d'une boucle auriculaire numérotée. Les troupeaux de petits ruminants sont visités chaque quinzaine par des observateurs ayant une bonne formation de base en zootechnie et en pathologie.Trois éléments sont considérés comme fondamentaux et représentent le noyau de base du système: un suivi démographique, un suivi pondéral et un suivi sanitaire. Ce noyau, support de travail de tous les chercheurs impliqués, doit être maintenu plusieurs années sans rupture de suivi.Un suivi démographique Les affections respiratoires des petits ruminants, dominante pathologique au Sénégal, permettent d'illustrer l'articulation entre les modules d'investigation. Pour l'étude de ce thème, les modules impliqués sont:• ceux du noyau de base : les suivis démographique, sanitaire et pondéral;• un module de suivi clinique spécifique centré sur la sphère respiratoire; • un module d'étude de l'environnement et des pratiques d'élevage, en fait impliqué dans un grand nombre de thèmes de recherche.La démarche retenue procède en cinq étapes :• identifier, décrire et dimensionner cette entité morbide (épidémiologie descriptive);• rechercher un indicateur simple à observer, fiable, permettant de procéder à des investigations exhaustives;• analyser la pathogénie de ces affections en mettant en oeuvre des protocoles d'étude ponctuels (épidémiologie analytique);• évaluer l'impact de ces affections en termes de production en reliant cet ensemble d'informations aux données concernant les performances (épidémiologie synthétique);• expérimenter des méthodes de lutte.La première phase, descriptive, est abordée grâce aux suivis démographique et sanitaire et permet de préciser l'évolution dans l'espace, l'évolution dans le temps, les classes d'animaux atteints, etc.Il est ainsi possible d'établir (tableau 1) les points suivants:• les mortalités à la suite d'affections respiratoires intéressent les ovins et les caprins dans des proportions comparables;• cette pathologie est plus meurtrière dans le centre et le sud du pays que dans le nord;• les mortalités sont surtout importantes entre novembre et avril, durant la saison sèche fraîche;• les mortalités interviennent surtout dans le jeune âge, dans les mois qui suivent le sevrage (4 à 8 mois d'âge). Un échantillon de 600 jeunes animaux nés sur une période de 1 8 mois a fait l'objet d'un suivi sérologique en vue d'établir la cinétique de l'infection par les principaux agents infectieux des pneumopathies. Les prélèvements ont été effectués à intervalle de 45 jours, de l'âge de 15 jours à l'âge de 1 an. Lors du premier prélèvement sur le jeune, la mère faisait aussi l'objet d'un prélèvement. L'analyse de ces suivis permettra de :• calculer la prévalence et l'incidence sérologique des différents agents infectieux;• observer leurs associations et leur ordre d'apparition;• suivre la cinétique des anticorps animal par animal, et d'interpréter la réponse sérologique du jeune en tenant compte de celle de la mère;• suivre l'évolution dans le troupeau et de noter les variations saisonnières.En reliant ces informations à celles du suivi clinique spécifique, il sera possible d'établir la liaison (ou au contraire l'absence de liaison) entre une conversion sérologique (une infection) et une expression clinique (une affection) ou une issue mortelle.Il serait bien entendu intéressant de compléter cette investigation par l'analyse de prélèvements biologiques réalisés sur animaux malades ou sur cadavres. Ce protocole, complexe à mettre en oeuvre compte tenu des contraintes de terrain, n'est pas encore réalisé au Sénégal. La quatrième phase, l'évaluation de l'impact, pourra être abordée lorsque nous disposerons de l'ensemble des informations précédentes. Elles seront reliées aux données de performances de reproduction (suivi démographique) et de croissance (suivi pondéral) pour établir avec précision le coût réel (affections bénignes comprises) de ces affections en termes de mortalité et en termes de baisse de performances.La cinquième phase, expérimentale, pourra être abordée:• pour établir la liaison de cause à effet entre un facteur de risque et ces affections. Par exemple, l'amélioration des conditions de logement dans les troupeaux dans lesquels on enregistre une forte prévalence du jetage, conduit-elle à une réduction sensible de l'incidence des affections respiratoires et une amélioration des performances zootechniques?• pour établir le coût-bénéfice et la faisabilité d'actions de lutte contre les affections respiratoires telles que:• la vaccination contre certains agents pathogènes;• la modification de certaines pratiques d'élevage impliquées dans la pathogénie de ces affections.Nous ne pouvons pas conclure cet exposé qui souligne les avantages d'une démarche de ce type sans en souligner également les contraintes.Les plus frappantes sont :• la nécessité de disposer d'un financement suffisant pour mener un programme de recherche sur un terme de plusieurs années;• un partage du temps entre les activités de recherche et les activités de gestion et de maintenance du système, indispensables au fonctionnement du programme;• la forme, la diversité et l'importance du nombre de données collectées, qu'il faut articuler entre elles, posent des problèmes méthodologiques nouveaux de gestion et d'analyse de l'information.On ne peut pas non plus conclure sans souligner la dynamique originale et les pratiques de recherche nouvelles que génère ce type de système, ne serait-ce qu'en amenant les chercheurs de différentes disciplines à concevoir et à conduire conjointement des protocoles sur un même matériel animal.La succession des phases de recherche présentées dans la deuxième section de cet article peut subir quelques modifications. L'impact de traitements sanitaires prophylactiques sur la productivité des petits ruminants a été étudié sur les 1 200 petits ruminants appartenant à ces 35 unités de production agricole, (700 caprins et 500 ovins). Parmi ces animaux une moyenne de 750 têtes ont fait l'objet de mesures de poids mensuelles pendant 12 mois.Les animaux ont été répartis entre 3 groupes de traitement par choix aléatoire pendant toute la durée du suivi.• TO : lot témoin ne recevant aucun soin vétérinaire• T1 : lot vacciné à l'antipasteurellique (juin et novembre), à l'antipeste e à l'antibactéridien (juin).• T2 : lot vacciné (aux 3 vaccins précités) et déparasité au Panacur ND ou à l'Exhelm II. ND. (en juin et en octobre).Le suivi de l'embouche ovine a concerné de 1 987 à 1 989 un effectif de 1 01 béliers, appartenant à 28 des 35 unités de production agricole, en observant l'alimentation, la santé et les performances pondérales.Systèmes de production des petits ruminants Au cours de l'étude, le nombre de sorties s'est chiffré à 35% de la population originelle, se décomposant en 66% pour les prélèvements (vente, abattage, cadeaux) et 34% pour les taux de mortalité.Les modifications de la structure des sorties imputables aux soins vétérinaires dans cette expérience sont résumés dans le tableau 3. On y voit que les traitements diminuent l'influence de la mortalité au profit des prélèvements, en notant une acuité supérieure du phénomène pour les ovins. Il fut également noté que la mortalité dans les troupeaux sous abri permanent a considérablement diminué. Ce taux a chuté de 6% chez les ovins et les caprins (tous traitements confondus).Les animaux les plus utilisés au cours des trois campagnes de suivi de l'embouche étaient de race Djallonké (85%) de race Bali-bali (8%); métissages Djallonké/Maure ou Djallonké/Bali-bali (7%).L'âge moyen de l'ensemble des animaux était de 21 mois avec des variations individuelles de 12 à 36 mois. Celui des ovins de race Djallonké était généralement compris entre 18 et 30 mois. Les ovins engraissés étaient en majorité des mâles entiers.Les principaux types d'aliments offerts sont: paille de brousse, feuilles etbranchettesd'arbres (Tamarindus indica, Ficus gnaphalocarpa, Pterocarpus erinaccus), graines de mil, son de mil, fanes de niébé, fanes d'arachide, fanes de dolique, gousses de Piliostigma reticula, aliment Huicoma.Le poids moyen de départ a été de 33,25 kg pour l'ensemble des 101 têtes. La moyenne de poids de démarrage des ovins mâles de race Djallonké (race la plus représentée dans la zone de Banamba) engraissés au cours des trois campagnes a été de 29,12 kg.Le poids à la fin de l'embouche a été de 37,80 kg toutes races confondues. Le gain moyen quotidien était de 65 g pour une durée moyenne de 70 jours (toutes races comprises).Les marchés à bétail locaux constituent des sources d'approvisionnement pour les ovins. Les résultats du suivi de quatre marchés dans la zone de Banamba ont révélé qu'il y a une augmentation de l'offre globale en petits ruminants au cours de la période de janvier à juin. Au cours de cette période le nombre total d'ovins augmente de 1,5% par mois et celui des caprins d'environ 8% par mois (Tangara et Sissoko, 1990).Quant An attempt was made to study the traditional Black Head Ogaden sheep management practices by the nomadic and semi-nomadic people in the Ogaden plateau of south-eastern Ethiopia. The methods employed were a predesigned questionnaire, observations and sampling of relevant elements.The management aspect was found to be rather specialised in that breeding is controlled to achieve both selection and synchronisation of lambing season with rainy season (which starts around the month of April) . Lamb crop is once per year and most of the ewes (96%) give birth to a single lamb. Watering interval is 4-10 days based on water scarcity in a locality. Supplementary feeding and pasture conservation are not practised. As management, nutrition and disease in the Black Ogaden sheep closely interact, an approach encompassing such elements to see into the problems of the pastoralists would be much rewarding.Methodes d'elevage traditionnel du mouton Somali a tete noire dans le sud-est de I'Ethiopie Girma AdugnaCeffe etude explore les methodes d'élevage traditionnel du mouton Somali a tete noire pratiquees par les populations nomades etThe Black Head Ogaden (BHO) sheep comprise most of the sheep population of the Ogaden region and they stand in number second to camels. This sheep breed/type forms the greater proportion of the small ruminant population in the region and contributes a great deal to the national economy as it has special merits in the Middle East and Arabian countries.It is, nevertheless, raised by the pastoralists under harsh environmental conditions, with seasonal under-nourishment or malnourishment, long watering intervals, long walks, heat stress and little or no protection against diseases.In this paper, the methods of feeding, watering, and housing and control of breeding to synchronise the lambing season with the rainy season are discussed. Flock structures, herding, castration, marking (identification) and miscellaneous operations are presented. Major diseases and ailments as known to the pastoralists and the inherent drawbacks of disease control measures generally practised in the region as well as the veterinary extension and services to the region are examined.The sheep typeThe BHO sheep are fat-rumped, have a black head, white body and limbs and on the average weigh 30-35 kg at maturity (MOA, 1985). They are polled.In Ethiopia, the BHO are found in the lowland areas of Hararghe, Bale and Sidamo Administrative Regions (Gonzalez, 1981, unpublished).They are also indigenous to Somalia and Kenya where they are known as the Black He=\"i Somalia (Osman, 1985).Information on the sheep management practices in the traditional sector of the region was collected through a predesigned questionnaire. Ninety-seven owners were interviewed from nine difierent localities in the region. Two different occasions, namely the beginning of the dry season (late October) and the last third of the short rainy season (mid-May), were chosen to conduct the interview as well as to watch the actual management practices.Feeding, watering and housingThe feed resource for sheep is native pasture. Supplementary feeding and forage conservation are not practised. Nevertheless, some soil types at some specific points are said to be provided to the sheep at 3-6-month intervals. These soil types known locally as \"Arabi\", may contain some mineral elements.All animal species (cattle, camels, goats and sheep) graze in the same field.Grazing time is from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. When the heat gets unbearable around noon, sheep collect under shades or simply congregate at a point and hide their heads under each other's body.During feed scarcity, which is usually in the dry season (October to March), the pastoralists migrate with their flocks to other localities where forage is available. The distance covered during such migrations may be in the range of 50 to 200 km. The site selection is largely dictated by the availability of water in the area.Water scarcity is the basic problem for the pastoralists and the frequency of watering is determined by the distance from water points and the availability of water which is scarce during the dry season. Table 1 shows watering frequencies for different localities. Delay can be made for as long as 10 days in such areas as Aware where water scarcity is greatest. The distance covered to the watering points can be as long as 20-40 km (an equivalent of a 6-hour journey, single trip) during periods of severe water scarcity.The pastoralists enclose their sheep and goats together at night. But where the number of goats is large, a separate pen is built for them. From the beginning of April to the end of October males are kept in a separate pen for the purpose of breeding control. The enclosure can be built from wood or even stones. During the rainy season the enclosure may get muddy and another is built if the materials are available.Different age groups are identified by the pastoralists (Table 2). Likewise, sex group identification is practised. A female sheep ready to breed or is pregnant for the first time is termed as \"Sebyeno\", a breeding ewe is \"Laha\" and \"Sumel (cka)\" is a ram used for breeding purposes. A general overview of the flock structure is shown in Table 3. Males form only a smaller proportion of the flocks and they are castrated if intended to be sold later.One to four entire males per flock are used for breeding purposes.Only a few lambs were observed to be born between October and March, and these are termed as \"Gera\" (the bastards); they are \"unwanted\" because they were conceived during the separation of males from females due to faulty herding by shepherds.All age and sex groups are mixed and herded together after November. After the start of the lambing season (around the month of April) the sumel is herded separately in the field or it is tethered around homesteads. After a while, it is kept with the lambs, at least for sometime, till the next mating season (November to April) when it again joins the rest of the flock.On some occasions, the \"sumel\" may be sold or even slaughtered if the breeder cannot afford to keep it for some reason. Then he has to borrow a \"sumel\" from a friend till he raises one from his own flock. Breeding is controlled to achieve both selection and synchronisation of lambing season with that of rainy season.Selection is largely biased towards the performance of male sheep. The common practice among the pastoralists is to select the fastest growing male for breeding. The number of \"sumels\" in a flock vary from one to four based on flock size, but usually two are kept in a flock. The \"sumel\" can be used for breeding at one year of age but preferably at two years or more.The lambing season starts around the month of April to mid-May after few weeks of the start of rains. Lamb crop is thus only once in a year (at least per ewe) with 96% of births attributed to singles.Most farmers claimed that they check the lambs for receiving the first milk (colostrum). They help weak lambs by putting their little fingers into the mouths of the lambs (in order to elicit the suckling reflex) and immediately providing the dam's teat. During the next 30 day s (after birth) , the lambs are kept at home during the day either tied, if small in number, or kept in an enclosure, if large in number At 30-40 days of age, the lambs would start to graze and are kept with the \"sumels\". Weaning is at 4-5 months of age usually before the mating season so as to allow the ewe sufficient time to regain its body condition for successful breeding. In some localities, however, weaning is not practised especially where there is labour scarcity for separately herding the weaned lambs, now termed as \"Berars\".Castration, marking (identification) and miscellaneous practices Castration is performed for two reasons, namely, breeding control and fattening but little importance is attached to the latter in some localities.The time for castration is usually at about 5-6 months of age. Attrition of the spermatic cord is achieved by beating it between two sticks specially designed for the procedure.Each owner marks his sheep to identity his flock because sheep of different owners may get mixed at watering points or during migrations. The marking is usually made on ears, but less frequently on other sites such as the face, the base of the ears, the upper region of the fore limbs and the perineal area (Figure 1). The marking is done using a fire-heated metal as early as 3-4 months of age but it can also be done at the time of weaning (4-5 months of age).Alternatively, some cuts are made on the tips or sides of ears using a sharp knife. Members of a flock bear the same mark(s); combinations of markings may be made on a sheep.Apart form the markings, each member of a flock, particularly the breeding females are identified by names. Most of the pastoralists noted that each female has its own name no matter how large a flock size may be. Some of the names include: \"Merkebo\" the big, \"Siyaha\" moving rump while walking, \"Odyer\" low-voiced, \"Afyer\" small-mouthed and \"Donyo\" resemblance to a boat.Overgrown hoof is trimmed with simple and local materials. First the hoof is heated with fire at the site to be cut. Then the overgrown hoof is cut off using a sharp knife leaving a reasonable proportion to the proximal region of the hoof.Parturition difficulties are usually relieved by local \"midwives\" who are specially skilled in the field.The most commonly reported disease condition by the pastoralists is a condition locally known as \"Shillin\". It refers to tick lameness, other tick damages and some non-specific conditions. People in the region tend to attribute most animal disease (particularly the \"Shillin\") to ticks. Other disease conditions known to the breeders range from the more important parasitic-gastroenteritis (Aal or Gaedanoley) to orf to which little importance is attached. Diseases reported of importance which were noted with several suitable descriptions are to be found in Table 4 along with their respective Somali names. Mortalities were reported to be greater among the lambs, particularly during the dry season. Apart from the disease conditions, predators were also reported to create problems especially around Aware and Druale where people blamed hyenas for heavy production losses. Pastoralists of Harshin and Duria localities reported jackals as major predator problems.The pastoralists are quite aware of the effects of the disease conditions. The concepts of animal diseases and treatment traditionally held by the breeders are often scientifically sound. Those in the vicinity of veterinary clinics seek official drug supply, while others, either due to lack of veterinary service or the high price of drugs resort to purchase of drug supplies through black markets. Lirophen (an acaricide), panacur and levamisol boli (anthelminthics) were observed in open markets in a number of places. There are rumours that some breeders have their own syringes and needles which they use to inject the sick animals with antibiotics. Indeed, one owner admitted that he used to inject his animals with penicillin.The veterinary section of the region vaccinates the sheep of the region against anthrax, pasteurellosis and sheep pox, but not on a regular basis.The pastoralists of the Ogaden region have evolved a management practice which enables them to sustain livestock production under the prevailing harsh environment and scarce natural resources. According to Wilson (1983), \"Nomadism is a sophisticated management response to a resource base which is always seasonally and often totally deficient.\" Similarly, Owen (1976) thinks that \"Nomadism is one of the most interesting systems of farming that has ever evolved which is still widely practised in some sheep breeding areas and dates back in history right to the threshold of domestication; yet,\" he continued, \"the elements of this method of farming developed over centuries as a balanced ecological system, still make sound sense in terms of using land resource.\"The main nutritional constraint in the semi-arid zone is that of bridging the gap between wet and dry seasons (Onim et al, 1985). The length of watering intervals, long walks to reach watering point and the forage scarcity during the dry season adversely affect the productivity of the BHO sheep.Better results may be achieved through improved management of the grazing land. The communal grazing land tenure prevents an individual from making any effort to use the land efficiently (Jahnke, 1982) but the trend of the nomads to form associations under \"Livestock Breeding Association\", as being facilitated by the Range Land Development Unit of the region, can greatly enhance efforts made to introduce pasture conservation principles into the nomadic way of life.As the search for grazing land is closely related to water requirements, water developments can be attempted but caution is necessary in doing so. Any attempt to develop water supply has to be seen in the context of resource management as a whole.Flock structures are more heavily weighed to females which is the case in the flocks of Darfur in the Sudan and Afar in Ethiopia (Wilson, 1975).The control of the lambing season is also in response to the resource availability. This practice may, however, have some adverse effects on the pregnant ewes and the lambs which are born around the start of the rainy season. The ewe gestation period coincides with that of inadequate nutrition and under such conditions even quite low worm burdens can have a detrimental effect on the food conversion efficiency of the dam which in turn influences foetal growth and subsequently the neonate through poor milk production by dam. Furthermore, the free living stages of most helminths can develop to infective stages during the lambing season since the environmental conditions would favour the parasitic egg development during this period. Urquhart et al (1987) suggest that the epidemiology can be worsened by the increased numbers of susceptible lambs and dams, the latter being due to periparturient relaxation of immunity.Despite the mentioned drawbacks, the breeding practices of the pastoralists are reasonable and have their own merits. Frequent lambing puts more strain on the ewe and unless she is fed a superior diet she loses weight (Sahni and Tiwari, 1974).A seasonal production of lambs results in high lamb mortality (Labban and Ghali, 1969) and poor growth rates (Ganesekale, 1975) for those lambs bom in the unfavourable season of the year. The breeders of the Ogaden region are therefore practising in line with this principle. The other element of their breeding practices worthy of notice is the selection of breeding animals. Selection of breeding male is done from generation to generation in the same flock. As flocks do not mix and even if they do so in the field, the males are not allowed to mount the females, in-breeding depression may be assumed to occur.On the other hand, the principle of selecting the fastest growing male lamb for breeding is worthy of encouragement. There is more scope for the improvement of growth traits than of reproductive traits because of higher heritability and phenotypic variations of growth traits within a breed (Gatenby, 1986). Better results could be achieved if breeders exchange their \"Sumels\".Regarding disease control and veterinary services, it is doubtless that an optimum disease control scheme is needed in a given production system for maximum productivity. Moreover, as the innovations like the introduction of exotic sheep breeds or massive supplementary feeding are of a purely hypothetical nature for the Ogaden region, disease control would be a more practical approach to the watchful and suspicious pastoralists.The indiscriminate use of drugs available through black markets may impose drug failures due to underdosing or inappropriate treatments. Proper veterinary extensions and services should be adopted to alleviate such problems.The pastoralists of the Ogaden region are doing their best with regard to management in order to maximise the use of the resource base at their disposal.The real effect of watering frequencies on the production of the Black Head Ogaden sheep and the optimum range for the areas concerned need further investigation.The nutrient requirements, and the incidence, prevalence and seasonality of BHO sheep diseases are not yet fully documented. Unless the spectrum of the sheep diseases is established it would be difficult to undertake appropriate disease control schemes.Some points which should be given due emphasis include:• Judicious water development at certain points after careful consideration of the ecological implication Les mises-bas et poids à âge type des produits ont été relevés de 1983 à 1989 sur un troupeau de 30 brebis et de 3 béliers Djallonké de type Mossi, à la station expérimentale de Gampèla.Le sexe, le mode de naissance, le mois, la saison et l'année de naissance ont eu un effet significatif sur les poids à âge type et les GMQ des agneaux. Sur 960 agneaux nés, les poids àO, 15, 30, 60, 90, 180, 360 et 540jours étaientde 2,33; 3,86; 5,51; 8, 14; 10,32; 14,37; 20,43 et 24,87 kg pour les mâles, et de 2,13; 3,66; 5,07; 7,64; 9,50; 12,94; 1 7,63; et 20, 79 kg pour les femelles. Tous sexes confondus, le poids des agneaux à 90 jours était de 10,55 kg pour les simples, 8, 10 kg pour les jumeaux et 8,68 kg pour les triplets. Le poids à 90 jours était de 10, 77; 10, 11 et 8,37 kg pour les agneaux nés en saison pluvieuse, en saison sèche fraîche et en saison sèche chaude, respectivement.Sur 213 primipares nées entre 1 983 et 1987, l'âge moyen à la première mise-bas s'élève à 16,62 mois. L'année et la saison de naissance de la femelle ont eu un effet significatif sur l'âge à la première mise-bas; les mises-bas les plus précoces (15,46 mois) ont été observées chez les femelles nées en saison sèche chaude tandis que les plus tardives (17,40 mois) ont été observées chez celles nées en saison sèche froide. L 'intervalle moyen entre mises-bas a connu une baisse régulière, du premier (9, 14 mois) au cinquième intervalle (7,27 mois); par la suite, ce paramètre a varié de manière irrégulière. Les taux de fertilité, de fécondité et de prolificité étaient de 122%; 139%; et 116%. Le pic de naissance le plus important de l'année se situe au mois de novembre, et le suivant au mois de mai.Les paramètres de production des ovins Djallonké du Burkina ont ete etudiés par quelques auteurs (Dianda, 1981;IEMVT, 1980;MAE, 1990). Cependant, la plupart des resultats publiés jusqu'a présent proviennent d'enquêtes realisees en milieu villageois.Les ovins Djallonke de type Mossi ont ete introduits sur la station expérimentale de Gampela (SEG), dans le but de favoriser les etudes sur cette race de mouton; cet article, qui est base sur des observations faites entre 1 983 et 1 989, fait le point sur divers paramètres de production.La SEG dispose d'un parcours de 400 ha de savane claire arborée et arbustive, en zone Nord-soudanienne (pluviométrie moyenne 670 mm). Un troupeau de moutons Mossi (parent du mouton Djallonké) y a été constitué par l'achat, dans les villages environnant la station, et sur le marché de Pouytenga (140 km au sud-est de Ouagadougou), d'une trentaine de brebis présentant soit des dents de lait usées, soit deux dents adultes, et de trois béliers de 2 à 3 ans d'âge.L'alimentation est basée sur le pâturage (7 heures par jour), avec une complémentation à base de drèches de brasserie égouttées (57 g/jour de matière sèche en moyenne). Après chaque mise-bas, les brebis mères reçoivent environ 250 g de matière sèche de drèches, plus du foin tout-venant de graminées, de ligneux ou bien des fanes d'arachide, selon la saison; cette alimentation se poursuit pendant environ deux semaines, puis les animaux sont remis au pâturage.Les animaux ont été régulièrement vaccinés contre la peste des petits ruminants et la pasteurellose, et ont subi un déparasitage interne au début et à la fin de chaque saison pluvieuse et un détiquage périodique.La lutte est naturelle, les béliers restant en permanence avec les brebis. Les jeunes mâles non destinés à la reproduction sont castrés vers l'âge de 6 mois. Des fiches individuelles ont permis le suivi de la carrière des femelles, et de révolution pondérale des produits. Les poids à âge type ont été déterminés grâce à des pesées périodiques. Les mortalités périnatales et les naissances ont également été enregistrées.Pour l'étude des facteurs de variation, la séparation des moyennes a été faite à l'aide du test de Scheffe du logiciel SAS. L'année a été divisée en trois saisons: la saison dite pluvieuse (SPL) de juin à octobre, la saison sèche fraîche (SSF) de novembre à février, et la saison sèche chaude (SSC) de mars à mai. Les taux de fertilité, de fécondité et de prolificité ont été calculés selon les méthodes décrites par l' IEMvT (1980).Au 12 juillet 1989 la bergerie comptait 335 têtes dont 65,64% de femelles, avec une forte proportion de jeunes de moins de 1 an (tableau 1). Le poids et la taille au garrot des adultes étaient respectivement de 42,1 1 ± 2,65 kg et 66,56 ± 5, 14 cm pour les béliers, et de 27,34 ± 4,62 kg et 58,48 ± 3,50 cm pour les brebis. Quatre principaux types de robe composaient le troupeau: blanc dominant (53,13%), pie noir (33,13%), pie marron (12,83%), noir (0,89%). D'autre part, les poids à âge type observés à Gampèla sont légèrement supérieurs à ceux rapportés par Bourzat (1979); celui-ci trouve des poids à 3, 6, 12 et 18 mois de 8,6; 13,5; 19,0; et 20,8 kg respectivement, chez les mâles.La supériorité des mâles est également apparente au niveau des gains de poids quotidiens (GMQ). Les GMQ importants observés entre 0 et 90 jours sont dus en grande partie à la contribution de l'alimentation lactée, qui est importante à cette période (Yoni, 1989). La corrélation entre la production laitière de la mère et la croissance des agneaux allaités est importante durant les six premières semaines de lactation.Les agneaux simples sont plus lourds que les jumeaux de la naissance jusqu'à l'âge de 180 jours (P<0,05). Par la suite, la différence devient minime. Cependant, dès le quinzième jour, les triplets pèsent autant que les jumeaux, et la différence de poids grandit ensuite en faveur des triplets (tableau 3). Ces résultats se rapprochent de ceux obtenus par Berger (cité par IEMVT, 1 980) . D'autre part, nos observations rejoignent celles de Murayi etal. (1987), qui en station au Rwanda constatent que les agneaux simples sont plus lourds que les jumeaux jusqu'à 2 ans d'âge. A la naissance, les agneaux nés triples sont moins lourds que leurs homologues jumeaux de 10,45% mais semblent les surpasser dès le quinzième jour. Le petit nombre de naissances triples ne rend pas cette différence significative.Ces observations s'opposent d'ailleurs à celle de Bourzat (1979), qui constate des performances de croissance des triplets de race Mossi inférieures à celles des jumeaux et des simples.Influence La répartition mensuelle des 838 naissances enregistrées de 1 983 à 1 988 figure au tableau 6. On ne note que peu de variation d'une saison à l'autre: 35,68% naissent en SPL, 34,96% en SSF et 29,36% en SSC. Pour l'ensemble du troupeau, les naissances sont plus fréquentes en janvier (9,82% du total), mars (11,14%), mai (10,54%) et novembre (11,50%). Le mois le moins propice semble être le mois de juillet (6,59%). On peut penser que la présence d'un pâturage très jeune et de très bonne qualité en juin crée une situation favorable à la fertilité chez les femelles vides. Quant au pic de mai, il résulterait des luttes de décembre, correspondant aux premières chaleurs fécondes après les agnelages de novembre.Plus de la moitié des mises-bas des primipares se situe entre janvier et mai, avec un pic au mois de mars. La saison pluvieuse joue donc un rôle important pour la puberté des primipares, puisque la plupart des saillies fécondantes ont lieu entre septembre et janvier.Les bonnes conditions de la saison humide y favoriseraient chez les agnelles une accélération de croissance permettant l'entrée en puberté. Wilson (1988) a observé chez les ovins Peuls transhumants du Nord-Burkina des pics de naissance en novembre et décembre. Bourzat (1979)  Le taux de fécondité était de 139%, avec des variations allant de 100 à 162%. Ce taux est beaucoup plus important que ceux donnés par Dianda (1981) à Sondé-Est (104%) et par le MAE (1990) pour des ovins de race indéterminée et en milieu villageois (79 à 123%). Cependant, Vallerand et Branckaert (1975) trouvent des valeurs moyennes de 1 68% au Cameroun, tandis que Hadzi (1988) trouve des résultats allant de 157 à 203% par an.Le taux de prolificité a varié de 100 à 125%, avec une moyenne de 116%. Là encore ces performances sont meilleures que celles observées par Dianda (1981) et que celles rapportées par le MAE (1990), qui trouve 101 à 119%. Sur la SEG les agnelages étaient surtout simples (85, 80%); le pourcentage d'agnelages doubles et triples était de 13,84 et 0,36%, respectivement.Le taux moyen de mortalité périnatale (à 7 jours) était de 7,18%, avec des variations interannuelles (tableau 6) allant de 4,98% (1987) à 14,70% (1983). La répartition est presque la même pour les deux sexes: 31 mâles et 29 femelles pour 60 agneaux morts.La cause essentielle de ces mortalités est généralement la subviabilité à la naissance, liée à un faible poids. Dans certains cas, la mortalité a été entraînée par un rejet de l'agneau par la mère ou par une insuffisance de la production lactée de la mère. Mais bien souvent les causes des mortalités n'ont pas pu être déterminées.Les ovins Ojallonké du Burkina Faso ont une croissance relativement lente dans les systèmes extensifs d'élevage, inférieure aux performances des moutons du Sahel et des ovins de race européenne. L'étude a confirmé l'influence essentielle de l'année et du mois de naissance sur les performances de croissance et de reproduction des moutons Mossi du Burkina Faso. A travers ces facteurs, on note surtout l'influence des conditions du milieu (évolution de la qualité et de la disponibilité du pâturage, température ambiante, conduite de l'élevage, etc.). Les résultats obtenus montrent aussi que les mâles devraient être renouvelés tous les 16 à 17 mois.Indépendamment de ces facteurs, on note aussi beaucoup de variations pour des groupes d'animaux relativement homogènes. Un programme rationnel de sélection permettrait donc probablement d'aboutir à une amélioration des performances. D'autre part, les performances rapportées ici proviennent d'une situation où l'alimentation repose essentiellement sur le pâturage naturel, et où la reproduction n'est pas gérée; une gestion rigoureuse de la carrière des géniteurs, une intensification de l'alimentation, et une amélioration des conditions d'élevage sont susceptibles de permettre une productivité plus importante, comme l'ont démontré les essais d'embouche menés au nord-ouest du Burkina (Bourzat ef al., 1987) et dans notre laboratoire à Gampèla (Nassa, 1990). L 'étude des performances zootechniques des moutons Somali à tête noire et des chèvres blanches Somali montre un niveau de productivité très lié aux conditions climatiques particulièrement sévères au cours des trois années du suivi: l'âge à la première mise-bas est supérieur à 2 ans; l'intervalle entre parturitions, voisin de 14 mois, dépend de la saison de mise-bas précédente; la fécondité est faible chez les deux espèces (62% chez les ovins et 65% chez les caprins); la mortalité est élevée chez les jeunes animaux avant le sevrage (13 à 57% selon la saison). Ces paramètres conduisent à une baisse sensible du cheptel pendant la sécheresse. L'étude de ces mêmes paramètres en période postsécheresse devrait fournir des indications importantes sur la capacité de ces populations à surmonter les aléas climatiques. productivity was strongly affected by the harsh climatic conditions experienced during the three years of the survey: age at first parturition was over two years; the length of the parturition interval, mean of about 14 months, was influenced by the season of the preceding birth; conception rate was low in both species (62% in sheep and 65% in goats); young-stock mortality was high, ranging from 13% to 51% depending on the season.Population growth rates calculated from these parameters indicated a marked drop in the livestock population during the drought period.A study of these parameters following the period of drought should provide important information on the capacity of these populations to withstand climatic changes.Le Central Rangeland Development Project (CRDP) opère dans une zone située au centre de la Somalie entre 3°10' et 7°40'N. Limitée à l'est par l'océan Indien et à l'ouest par la frontière avec l'Ethiopie, elle couvre les régions administratives de Hiran, Galgadud et Mudug, soit une superficie de 149 000 km2.Les parcours de cette zone (Central Rangelands) ont toujours joué un rôle important entre le nord du pays (régions d'Hargeisa) et la partie sud-sud-est (régions de Mogadiscio et de la vallée du Shebele). Cette étude devait fournir aux organismes en charge du développement de l'élevage un référentiel technique le plus précis possible sur la productivité des petits ruminants de la zone. La race ovine Somali à tête noire (Blackhead Somali Sheep), également appelée mouton de l'Ogaden ou mouton de Berbera, peuple la zone du CRDP. Classé dans le groupe des ovins a queue grasse, ce mouton est élevé essentiellement pour la production de viande et accessoirement pour la peau. Le poids adulte, sexes confondus, varie de 33 a 45 kg. La population locale caprine est la race Mudugh (Rosetti et Congiu, 1955), également appelée Galla, Deghier ou Digit yer, ou communément chèvre blanche Somali (White Somali Goat), par référence à sa robe d'un blanc très pur quelquefois tachetée de noir. Cette race se rencontre dans la partie la plus aride du pays. Son format est intermédiaire entre la grande chèvre du désert du Soudan et la petite chèvre d'Afrique de l'Est (Devendra et McLeroy, 1982). Ses longues pattes en font une bonne marcheuse. Elle est élevée pour ses productions de viande et de lait.l'année n'excédant pas 3 à 5 °C. Nous avons retenu le découpage suivant entre les différentes saisons au cours de l'année:• dayr (petite saison des pluies) :22 septembre au 21 décembre.• jilaal (Iongue saison sèche) :22 décembre au 21 mars.• gu (grande saison des pluies) :22 mars au 21 juin.• hagaa (petite saison sèche) :22 juin au 21 septembre.Le programme couvre six entités administratives (districts):• deux districts de la zone centrale: Dusa Mareb et Galakayo;• deux districts de la vallée duShebele: BeletWeyneet Bulo Burti. La végétation du district de Bulo Burti a été décrite par Kucharef al. (1985). Les épineux dominent largement cette steppe arbustive;• deux districts côtiers : El Dhere et Hobyo. La végétation du district d'EI Dhere se caractérise par deux formations remarquables: les steppes herbeuses de la plaine côtière, et les steppes arbustives de l'intérieur, qu'ont prospectées et décrites Herlocker et Ahmed (1986).Le peuplement humain est constitué en majorité par des éleveurs nomades et quelques agriculteurs sédentaires le long de la vallée du Shebele. 30 villages ont été choisis pour chaque zone par tirage au sort (sur 1 50 environ) en fonction des contraintes d'accès, climatiques ou militaires. Le tirage au sort des unités familiales n'a pas été possible compte tenu de l'impossibilité d'obtenir les listes des familles. Un certain nombre de chefs de famille ont refusé de participer à nos travaux, d'autres se sont déplacés et il nous fut impossible de retrouver leurs troupeaux. Finalement, l'enquête a porté sur 361 exploitations dont la répartition par zone est résumée dans le tableau 1. Les fiches d'enquêtes et leur mise en oeuvre Trois enquêtes se complémentant ont été réalisées auprès des unités de production sélectionnées:• les données relatives au système d'élevage ont été collectées à l'aide d'un questionnaire d'enquête mis au point au Burkina Faso (Bourzat, 1984), et complété pour pouvoir être utilisé dans toutes les zones écologiques;• les données barymétriques ont été recueillies grâce à une fiche individuelle.Les mesures et contrôles des animaux ont été effectués au parc de nuit près du campement, soit le soir avant la tombée de la nuit, ou le matin avant le départ des animaux au pâturage;• les données recueillies par une fiche de carrière de femelle ont servi à évaluer les paramètres de reproduction.Cette dernière fiche permet de reconstituer la carrière d'une reproductrice à partir des données mémorisées par son propriétaire. Pour chaque saison de reproduction, le nombre, le sexe de chaque produit ainsi que leur devenir sont enregistrés. Les nombreux travaux menés à partir de ce type d'enquête (Coulomb, 1982;Dumas, 1975) montrent que les données restent fiables tant que l'entretien est mené avec une personne directement impliquée dans la gestion quotidienne du troupeau. La fiabilité décroît avec la diminution d'intérêt porté par le propriétaire à son cheptel et avec l'espèce considérée (les espèces à portées multiples, à cycles de production courts et dont les valeurs unitaires des produits sont relativement faibles sont moins bien connues des éleveurs).La taille de l'échantillon (n=1000) permet une bonne évaluation des paramètres de base de la reproduction des petits ruminants dans la zone du CRDP, qui sont présentés dans ce document.Répartition des naissances au cours de l'annéeLe pic de mise-bas correspond à la grande saison des pluies gu, ce qui signifie que la plupart des saillies fécondantes ont lieu pendant la petite saison des pluies ou au début de la saison sèche alors que le pâturage est encore abondant et de bonne qualité (tableau 2). Un deuxième pic moins important apparaît pendant la petite saison des pluies dayr, qui correspond à des accouplements pendant la saison gu. Les chèvres sur toutes les zones, et les ovins et caprins de la vallée du Shebele, présentent des parturitions plus étalées sur les différentes saisons. Ce phénomène peut s'expliquer par un spectre alimentaire des caprins plus large que celui des ovins ainsi que par les pratiques de contrôle des accouplements.Pour assurer un approvisionnement régulier en lait, la reproduction des caprins n'est pas contrôlée et la lutte a lieu toute l'année. En revanche, chez les ovins qui Le tableau 3 montre que les caprins sont moins précoces que les ovins, alors que la situation inverse est généralement admise. Les brebis et les chèvres de la vallée du Shebele sont plus jeunes à la première parturition que celles de l'intérieur et de la côte. La situation nutritionnelle moins sévère de la vallée explique peut-être cette observation. La variation de l'âge moyen à la première mise-bas de la région intérieure, représentée par l'écart type, est plus importante que dans les autres zones. Dans les régions littorale et de la vallée du Shebele, les ovins et les caprins ont pratiquement les mêmes taux de fécondité.Très peu de parturitions ont lieu avant 2 ans. Après ce stade, il ne semble pas que l'âge ait une influence sur le taux de fécondité moyen annuel à l'exception des caprins de la zone littorale, où la fécondité augmenterait avec l'âge.Les taux d'avortement et de mortalité des jeunes sont calculés à partir des fiches de carrière de femelles. Le tableau 6 donne une estimation et la description de la situation de la mortalité chez les jeunes. Aucune donnée sur les avortements ne fut disponible pour la zone intérieure. Les taux d'avortement les plus élevés pour les deux espèces semblent être ceux enregistrés dans la vallée du Shebele pendant la petite saison des pluies dayr. La mortalité des jeunes des deux espèces à 1 mois ou à 4 mois est plus élevée dans les zones de l'intérieur et de la vallée que sur la zone littorale. La saison la plus meurtrière quels que soient le taux de mortalité ou l'espèce considérée s'avère être la grande saison sèche jilaal.La mortalité à 1 mois représente la majeure partie de la mortalité cumulée à 4 mois. Le premier mois est crucial pour les chances de survie du jeune, à l'exception des agneaux et chevreaux nés pendant la grande saison sèche dans la zone intérieure. Relativement protégés par l'allaitement maternel durant le premier mois de leur vie, ils souffrent ensuite très gravement de la situation de disette de jilaal (abreuvement très précaire, pâturage rare et de faible valeur nutritive, prélèvement de lait très important pour l'autoconsommation de la famille).La répartition des mises-bas au cours de l'année obéit aux mêmes tendances que celles observées dans d'autres régions arides ou semi-arides: le maximum de parturitions intervient quatre à cinq mois après la saison des pluies. Bourzat (1984) a décrit ce phénomène pour le nord du Burkina Faso et Wilson (1988) pour le Mali central.L'âge à la première mise-bas, de plus de 2 ans aussi bien pour les ovins que pour les caprins, est très élevé par rapport aux résultats obtenus chez d'autres races de la zone semi-aride. Dans le nord du Burkina Faso, Bourzat (1980) mesure un âge moyen à la première mise-bas de 13,8 mois et Ouedraogo (1984) de 13,5±1,7 mois. Wilson et Durkin (1983) enregistrent au Mali central un âge moyen à la première parturition de 15,8+3,8 mois et Haumesser et Gerbaldi (1979) calculent un intervalle de 13,0 à 16,6 mois chez les petits ruminants du Niger. Les moutons Massai' au Kenya, avec un contrôle de lutte, mettent bas pour la première fois à 18,0 ±3,7 mois; les mises-bas commencent chez la petite chèvre Massai d'Afrique de l'Est à 18,3±3,9 mois (Wilson etal., 1984).L'intervalle entre mise-bas varie de 10,9±2,1 mois à 17,5+1,6 mois pour les caprins et de 9,2±1,9 mois à 19,7±2,5 mois pour les ovins. Ces grandes amplitudes traduisent les effets des conditions écologiques et de la saison sur la précédente parturition. Les intervalles les plus courts correspondent bien aux observations faites au Soudan occidental où Wilson (1 976a, 1 976b) rapporte des intervalles de 9,2 mois, et à celles du même auteur (Wilson, 1988) au Mali où les caprins présentaient des intervalles de mises-bas de 9,7±3,5 mois et les ovins, de 8,7±2,5 mois.Compte tenu de l'âge élevé à la première parturition, la fécondité moyenne annuelle par classe d'âge varie de 53%, chez les deux espèces à 3 ans, jusqu'à 71% chez les ovins et 89% chez les caprins de 6 ans. Le taux de mortalité à 4 mois chez les caprins varie de 13 à 51 % (moyenne: 24%), taux dans lequel la mortalité à 1 mois représente 62 à 77%. 15 à 55% des jeunes agneaux meurent avant 4 mois (moyenne: 26%). Parmi ceux-ci, 77 à 100% disparaissent le premier mois de vie. Au Mali, (Wilson, 1988)    The productivity of sheep under traditional management in the subequatorial forest area of Mayombe, Congo, has been evaluated over a 3-year period from 1988 till 1990. Data was collected in one village on a sample of 104 animals. Fertility, prolificacy, fecundity, reproductive efficiency and mortality of the young were calculated. Age at first parturition, parturition intervals and weights at birth were also recorded. Productivity is relatively low due to high mortality rates in the young. A management system which is based on free-roaming does not promote productivity in spite of satisfactory fertility rates and fairly good environmental conditions.des mères et des produits du troupeau. Tous les mâles au temps initial n'ont pas été pris en compte et sont restés en dehors de nos effectifs jusqu'à la fin du suivi.Les événements qui se produisent au sein du troupeau sont régulièrement enregistrés par un jeune paysan lettré du village. Des enclos ont été construits pour faciliter les opérations de marquage et de pesée; les animauxy sont parqués la veille de chaque visite mensuelle du technicien chargé du suivi.Les données enregistrées ont permis de calculer chaque année les indices de productivité suivants: quotient de fertilité (100 x nombre de mises-bas/nombre de femelles à la lutte); taux de prolificité (100 x nombre de produits/nombre de mises-bas) ; quotient de fécondité (1 00 x nombre de produits/nombre de femelles à la lutte); quotient de productivité numérique (100 x nombre de produits vendus, conservés ou consommés/nombre de brebis à la lutte); taux de mortalité des agneaux (100 x nombre d'agneaux morts/nombre total de produits nés). Le poids moyen à la naissance des agneaux a été évalué sur un échantillon de 35 mises-bas simples pour plusieurs rangs de mises-bas (tableau 5). Les faibles poids à la naissance chez les primipares amenuisent les chances de survie des jeunes agneaux qui naissent pour la plupart avec des poids inférieurs à 1,5 kg.  The indigenous goat has been found to be prolific (Sibanda,1 988,unpublished) but there is a lot of reproductive wastage due to kid mortalities and long kidding intervals (Ndlovu and Royer, 1988, unpublished). Although most of the reported kidding intervals of the Zimbabwean Small East African goat seem to range from 213 to 270 days (Hale, 1986;Royer, 1988, unpublished) there are indications of longer kidding intervals (Hale, 1987). These long kidding intervals could be due to one or a combination of several causes, including acyclicity of does, early embryonic losses of foetuses, abortions that are not noted by enumerators, and shortage of bucks in communal area herds.In order to suggest intervention strategies, it is necessary to better define the kidding interval and identify which of the putative causes of long kidding intervals are involved. This experiment was carried out in order to monitor the cyclicity of does in two communal flocks and to determine kidding intervals specific to these flocks.The flocks monitored were kept at Tsengerai Communal Lands in Nyanga North in the north-eastern part of Zimbabwe. The area lies within Natural Region 5 and is bordered by hills which provide a discrete limit to the area.The main rains fell between December and February and totalled 663 mm and 547 mm for the 1987/88 and 1988/89 seasons, respectively. The temperature ranged from 9 to 35°C with October, November, December and January being the hottest months whilst April, May and June were the coldest. The relative humidity was lowest in September (23%) and highest in December and January (87%).Farmers were persuaded to amalgamate their flocks into a larger unit: in return they were offered large-size bucks from a local research station. Amalgamation also served as a labour-reducing incentive as the farmers took turns in herding the flocks. Two amalgamated flocks were created which were managed and housed identically and in juxtaposition. In one flock (Yellow), the does were mated to bucks bought by the project from Matopos Research Station whilst in the other (Blue) the does were mated to local bucks. All goats were ear-tagged using plastic ear tags appropriately coloured for each flock. Ownership still lay with each individual farmer who was free to sell, slaughter or dispose of the animals in any way desired and at any time.The rainfall, humidity and temperature in the area were monitored. The animals in the flocks were weighed fortnightly and births, deaths, sales and purchases were noted by project-employed enumerators.In August-September 1988 and March-April 1989, blood samples were collected for five consecutive weeks from all adult females (15 kg or more), for determination of serum progesterone level.On average, the flocks consisted of 52.2% adult females, 3.1% entire males and 39.7% kids of both sexes (Table 1). In the Yellow flock only two adult entire males were allowed though this was not always possible to enforce as farmers did not want to castrate progeny from the larger Matopos bucks.The kidding pattern showed two distinct peaks in March-April and August-December (Figure 1) which, between them, accounted for over 75% of the kiddings. The March-April peak is quite sharp and compact whilst the August-December one is more diffuse and broad. Of the total births, about 30% were twins and 70% were singles (Table 2).   Of the females that completed the August/September 1988 sampling period, 64% were pregnant, 20% were acyclical and 16% were cycling (Table 3). This depicts over a third of the flock as being non-pregnant. Of the 1 3 acyclic animals, eight had kidded in August prior to sampling. In the follow-up sampling period (March/April, 1989), of the 26 does that had kidded in October-December 1988 and were still in the flock, about 54% were acyclical and a total of 65.4% of the does were not pregnant five months after kidding (Table 4). Kidding intervals About 26% of the animals had kidding intervals of less than or equal to 250 days and about 35% had kidding intervals of less than or equal to 300 days (Figure 2). The majority (39%) had kidding intervals between 301 and 450 days. The data are based on 31 females that kidded at least twice during the study period. The mean kidding interval was 370 ± 122 days. However, if season of kidding is taken into consideration, the average kidding interval for does kidding in March-April was 265 ± 48 days whilst that for does kidding in August-December was 382 ± 90 days. Seasonal differences were significant (P<0.01). 25.8% 9.7% 12.9% 12.9% 12.9% 9.7% 6.5% 6.5% 3.3% Kidding interval (days) Body-mass Changes Does that kidded in March-April had slightly increased (mean 5% ± 3.37) in body mass from kidding to weaning (24 weeks post-kidding) while does that kidded in August-December had slight losses (mean 4% ± 1 .74) in body mass over the same period. The regression of body-mass change at 24 weeks post-kidding on kidding interval was significant (P<0.01) and the resultant regression equation was:Kidding interval = 395-7.29 percentage body-mass change at 24 weeks post-kidding.The erratic rainfall pattern noted over the two-year study period is typical of Natural Region 5 areas in Zimbabwe. This has dire implications for cropping, especially the lack of rainfall in January 1988 which is a crucial month for maize production. It also has adverse implications for feed availability to goats and might account for the conspicuous shift of the kidding peak from August-September to November-December in 1988.The flock composition would suggest that even though the buck:female ratio is low, shortage of bucks is unlikely to be a major cause of long kidding intervals as kidding was spread over two seasons.The twinning rates observed here are lower than those reported by Sibanda (1988) using research station data but agree with those reported by Hale (1986) and Ndlovu and Royer (1988, unpublished) based on communal area data. It would appear that nutritional stress limits the number of foetuses that the animals in communal areas can carry to term.The percentage of acyclical does five months after kidding reflects the long kidding intervals obtained. The kidding interval of 370 days is about 100 days more than that reported by Royer (1 988, unpublished) working on the Small East African goats in Bikita District, south-east of Zimbabwe. It also differs greatly from the figure of 243 days reported by Hale (1987). It should be noted though, that a deliberate effort was made to exclude all observations that showed kidding intervals of over 300 days in the data reported by Hale (1987). The diverse kidding intervals shown in Figure 2 are typical of unselected populations but could also be due to the fact that the does were of different age groups.Assuming that the data reported by Hale (1986Hale ( , 1987) ) and Royer (1988, unpublished) represent the genetic potential of Zimbabwean Small East African goats, it would appear that there is some environmental factor that is suppressing the full expression of this potential in Tsengerai flocks. Animals kidding in August/September kid at a time when feed resources are at their lowest and lactate for about two months under such conditions. Thus nutritional stress appears to be a prime probable cause of acyclicity and long kidding intervals in these animals.Body-mass changes support this hypothesis. Animals kidding in March-April on average had lower body-mass losses compared to those kidding in August-December. The large standard errors associated with the means are due to the fact that the flock was unselected and the data were not corrected for age of the doe. Doe age would affect the doe's susceptibility to stress. Nevertheless, the regression equation indicates that one percentage unit loss in bodyweight at 24 weeks post-kidding increases the kidding interval by about seven days. Body-mass changes at 24 weeks post-kidding are important as does should be mated at this stage if they are to conceive within 365 days. Body condition at mating has been shown to influence conception (Henniawati and Fletcher, 1986).The monitored flocks showed long kidding intervals which were mostly due to extended periods of acyclicity which seemed to be due to kidding during periods of greatest nutritional stress. Follow-up studies will investigate the possible role of strategic nutritional interventions in reducing kidding intervals.An analysis of lambing records of West African Dwarf sheep kept at lle-lfe, Nigeria Year of birth significantly influenced birthweight and litter birthweight (P<0.001) and type of birth (P<0.01). Males were heavier (P<0.01) than the females. Lambs delivered in the dry season were lighter (P<0.001) than their wet season counterpart. Litter composition had significant effect on birthweight (P<0.05) and litter birthweight (P<0.01).Male.female ratio was equal while the ratio of single:twin:triplet was 68:3 1:1. Mean birthweight, litter birthweight and litter size at birth were 2.15 ± 0.46 kg, 4.06 ± 0.77 kg and 1.33 ± 0.41 kg, respectively. Significant correlation coefficients of-0.62and +0.87(P<0.001) were obtained when type of birth was correlated with birthweight and litter birthweight, respectively. Adjustment factors for the significant effects were provided.Djallonke a lie Ife (Nigeria) L'année de la naissance eut un effet significatif sur le poids de l'agneau, celui de la portée (P<0,001), ainsi que sur le type de naissance (P<0,01). Le poids des mâles fut supérieur (P<0,01) à celui des femelles, tandis que celui des agneaux nés pendant la saison sèche était plus léger (P<0,001) que leurs homologues nés pendant la saison humide. La composition par sexe de la portée avait un effet significatif sur le poids à la naissance (P<0,05) et sur celui de l'ensemble de la portée (P<0,01).Small ruminants have for so long taken the back seat in the livestock development programme of Nigeria. However, with current awareness and interest, it is necessary that basic information on production traits and factors that affect them should be documented. Fall et al (1982) reported that birthweight in Djallonke sheep of Senegal is significantly affected by year and season of birth, type of birth, sex and parity. There is paucity of such evaluation forthe West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep in the humid tropics of Nigeria. This study was thus undertaken to evaluate the effects of these factors on lambing related parameters in WAD sheep.The WAD sheep used in this study are adequately described by Adu and Ngere (1979). They were housed in barns measuring 22 m x 4 m on a cemented floor.The animals were grouped depending on their status: lactating, pregnant or growing. Each pen was provided with two receptacles for feeding concentrate and watering. A groove filled with water was made round each barn to prevent ant problem. The barns were cleaned daily.The animals were put on pasture (Giant Stargrass in pure stand) at about 7.30 a.m. and returned to the barns in the afternoon. They were then fed ad libitum a supplementary diet consisting of 50% corn, 7.5% groundnut cake, 10% brewers' dry grain, 30% rice bran, 1 .5% dicalcium phosphate, 0.5% Agricare and 0.5% salt.Panicum maximum and Gliricidia sepium were also provided ad libitum in the pens. The sheep were treated for ectoparasites, drenched once every three months and given other veterinary attention when the need arose. The animals lambed all year round. Birthweights were recorded within 12 hours after birth. Stillbirth or deaths immediately after birth were disposed of after post-mortem examination. Such lambing records were discarded for this analysis. Lambs were examined for any defect at birth and to maturity.Records of the birthweight, litter birthweight and litter size at birth were analysed for effects of year of birth, season of birth (dry season -November to March; rainy season -April to October) type of birth, litter composition and sex using the General Linear Model (SAS, 1982). Differences between means were tested by Duncan's New Multiple Range Test (Steel and Torrie, 1980). From least squares constants, weights of lamb were adjusted to the equivalent of a single, male lamb born in the wet season. Correlations between type of birth and birthweights were also computed.The least squares means for birthweight, litter birthweight and litter size at birth are given in Table 1 . The least squares constants and adjustment factors for birthweight and litter birthweight are presented in Table 2. Male:female ratio was equal while the ratio of single:twin:triplet was 68:31 : 1 .Significant (P<0.001) correlation coefficients of -0.62 and 0.87 were obtained when type of birth was correlated with birthweight and litter birthweight, respectively.The overall average birthweight of 2.15±0.46 kg obtained in this present study was found to be higher than the 1.8 kg reported by ILCA (1979) for the same breed in Oyo town. Ngere and Aboagye (1981) reported a birthweight of 1.3 kg in Ghana while Ngere et al (1979) reported 1.5 kg in Ibadan. It appears that the location of the breed has an effect on the birthweight either as a result of differences in the management system practised or the feeding regime and feedstuffs offered. Nevertheless, the WAD sheep is the smallest of the Nigerian breeds of sheep. The WAD weighed lighter at birth than the Uda and Yankasa breeds (Buvanendran et al, 1981).The estimated average litter size at birth of 1 .33±0.41 is higher than the estimates reported in the literature for indigenous Nigerian breeds (Buvanendran et al, 1 981 ; Sackey et al, 1987 ). No case of quadruplets was observed in this study. Ngere and Aboagye (1981) observed a twinning rate of 55% in Ghana while Ademosun (1 973) reported a 37% twinning rate which is slightly higher than the 3 1 % obtained in this study for the WAD sheep. Sackey et al (1 987), on the other hand, reported 22% twinning rate in Yankasa kept at institution farms. Means along the same column with different superscripts are significantly (P < 0.05) different from each other. There was a significant year effect for all the three traits under consideration, though with no clear-cut trend. Birthweight increased throughout the duration of the study except for 1982 and 1987. The year 1987 witnessed a decline in performance for the three traits which may be as a result of the absence of supplementary diet for that year. Litter size at birth began to decline in 1 986. This could be attributed to the possible effect of inbreeding since the Ife flock is closed. In addition, there has never been any conscious genetic improvement of the flock for any trait.The effect of season was significant (P <0.01 ) for birthweight and litter birthweight but was not significant (P>0.05) for litter size at birth. Lambs born in the wet season were heavier than those delivered in the dry season by 0.1 kg. Similar results were obtained by Buvanendranet al (1981) and Wilson and Murayi (1988).The seasonal effect could be nutritional due to the quality of forage available to the ewe during pregnancy. This view was held by Adu and Olaloku (1979) who stated that the birthweight of lambs is significantly affected by the nutritional status of the ewe during pregnancy Osinowo et al (1989) also observed that season of birth. Significantly influenced litter size at birth. The insignificant effect obtained in this study may be due to the fact that the dry season in the southern part of Nigeria is not as pronounced as in the northern part to warrant a high foetal mortality and/or because season in the cited reference was defined differently from the definition in this paper.Litter size was positively correlated (+0.87) with litter birthweight but negatively correlated (-0.62) with birthweight. Birthweight dropped significantly from 2.3 kg for singles to 2.0 kg for twins and 1 .88 kg for triplets. Litter birthweight, however, increased significantly from 4.01 kg for twins to 5.65 kg for triplets. Twins and triplets were thus 3.65 kg and 1.71 kg heavier than singles and thus the low birthweight for twins and triplets are offset by high litter weight. These differences are quite notable and are maintained to maturity (Buvanendran et al, 1981).Though the growth rate of the WAD sheep cannot match any of the northern breeds, the higher litter size could bridge the productivity gap to a certain extent.Ngere and Aboagye (1981) reported that type of birth affected birthweight. This was further supported by the reports of Ademosun (1 973) and Ngere et al (1 979) although the birthweights reported (2.5 kg and 1.5 kg) were higher and lower, respectively, than the value obtained in this study. This goes to show the high variability that exists in the WAD sheep for birthweight. Birthweight recorded in this study ranged from 2.8 kg to 1.2 kg. This provides opportunity for selection to improve birthweight.Male lambs were found to be heavier than female lambs at birth in this study. Buvanendran et al (1981), however, did not observe any sex effect on birthweight. In the present study there were no differences between the sexes within the different types of birth. However, the presence of a male in a litter or the preponderance of males in a litter led to an increase in the litter birthweight and birthweight.From the foregoing, multiple birth is desirable in WAD sheep because of the higher litter weight and litter size and absence of congenital malformation. It should therefore be selected for, to improve reproductive efficiency (Turner, 1969). This will necessitate adequate selection criteria and adjustment factors. Taiwo et al (1982) suggested that age of dam, sex of lamb, type of birth and season of birth need to be adjusted for. The values obtained in this study are indicative, but more studies are still required.Improvement in management practices and system, feeding (regime and feedstuffs) and disease control are, however, imperative for sustainable increase in productivity. Population demographic analysis were carried out in four different breeding sheep and goat station flocks in Kenya using data collected over a four-year period from 1986 to 1989. Data collected included monthly flock inventory records for breeding adults, yearling and 0-1 year old within sex categories, lambings, disposals and mortalities and losses from the flock.Results indicated that irrespective of the flock breed type composition, ecological lactation or breeding management schedule practised, the proportion of males to females remained at a ratio of 30-70 except for one flock with predominantly wool sheep breeds located in ecological zone II with a high proportion of 50% breeding adult females, the three station flocks had had breeding females comprising 40% of the total flock. It was observed that a hair sheep station breeding flock located in ecological zone IV and comprising ofDorperand red Maasai sheep breed types and practising frequent mating system recorded the lowest annual mortality rate (13%) and highest annual lambing rate per 100 breeding females (133%) in the flock, the highest annual disposal offtake (37%) and the highest annual flock population increase (1 7%) compared to the other three stations which practise once a year joining. A wool sheep station in a high potential ecological zone performed lowest in these parameters.It is therefore concluded that management practise rather than flock structure plays a more critical role in production efficiency of sheep and goat flocks located in adaptive environments. Une analyse démographique a été effectuée à partir de données collectées pendant quatre ans (1986)(1987)(1988)(1989) sur quatre troupeaux d'ovins et de caprins reproducteurs élevés en station au Kenya. Ces données portaient sur le nombre mensuel d'adultes reproducteurs, dejeunes mâles et dejeunes femelles âgés de 1 an et de moins de I an, les agnelages, les ventes, la mortalité et les pertes enregistrés dans les troupeaux.II ressort des résultats obtenus que le sexe-ration comptait toujours 30 mâles pour 70 femelles quelles que soient la composition par race des troupeaux, la zone écologique, le système de reproduction. A l'exception du troupeau de la zone écologique II constitué essentiellement de moutons à laine où il y a forte proportion (50%) de femelles reproductrices, les trois troupeaux élevés en station comptaient 40% de reproductrices adultes. Les meilleures performances ont été enregistrées pour un troupeau de Dorper et Red Masai élevé en station dans la zone écologique IV, et dont les animaux étaient fréquemment accouplés: ce troupeau a montré un taux de mortalité de 13%, un taux annuel d'agnelage de 133%, un taux d'exploitation de 37% et un taux de croissance démographique de 17%. Ces performances étaient meilleures que celles des trois troupeaux où l'accouplement est programmé une fois par an. Les chiffres les plus médiocres se rapportant à un troupeau de moutons à laine élevé en station dans une zone écologique à potentialités pourtant élevées.Il apparaît, au vu de ces résultats, que le mode d'élevage est plus important que la composition du troupeau pour déterminer les performances de production de troupeaux d'ovins et de caprins élevés dans diverses zones écologiques. L'examen clinique des béliers comporte deux phases:• un examen général pour apprécier les aptitudes physiologiques, l'état des réserves corporelles (par palpation lombaire), la conformation, avec une attention particulière à la posture du bélier et aux problèmes de l'appareil locomoteur postérieur, et l'aspect de la laine;• un examen de l'appareil génital qui se limite à l'inspection et à la palpation des parties externes et facilement accessibles du tractus génital.Une notation des testicules et épididymes permet d'apprécier leur état sanitaire et fonctionnel. A la palpation, la fermeté et la souplesse des testicules sont chacune notées de 1 à 5 (de très fermes à très moux, et de très souples à très flasques). La taille, la fermeté et la souplesse des épididymes sont notées de 1 à 3. Le prépuce et le pénis sont également examinés (état des muqueuses, mobilité etc.).Pour s'assurer de la quantité et de la qualité de la semence produite par les béliers, l'examen du sperme des béliers, obtenu par électro-éjaculation, se limite à l'estimation des paramètres suivants:• le volume et la consistance de l'éjaculat;• la mobilité massale et individuelle, lue immédiatement après la récolte sous microscope à faible grossissement. La motilité en avant des gamètes est notée en termes de pourcentage. Une mobilité de 70% est exigée pour un sperme de bonne qualité;• la concentration du sperme est déterminée par comptage à l'hématimètre;• après coloration des frottis de sperme à l'éosine-nigrosine, la détermination des pourcentages de spermatozoïdes morts et des spermatozoïdes de formes anormales est réalisée sous microscope (Blom, 1950). Le microscope à contraste de phase est utilisé pour une meilleure visualisation de la morphologie des gamètes.  En système intensif nous constatons que 31 ,3% des beliers ayant 8 DR sont a reformer au niveau de l'examen genéral corrtre seulement 3,6% pour les animaux ayant 2 DR (tableau 4). Nous constatons globalement qu'apres l'examen le pourcentage de geniteurs impropres a la lutte reste plus eleve en système extensif (21,8%) qu'en système intensif (20,4%).Les principales causes de reforme relevees au cours de l'examen genéral des geniteurs sont rapportees aux tableaux 5 et 6 respectivement pour les beliers utilises en système extensif et en système intensif. Dans le système extensif, les defauts de conformation sont la principale cause de reforme (17,9% des animaux examinés) suivis par la mauvaise qualité de la laine, notamment la présence de jarres (13,9%), alors qu'en système intensif la pathologie proprement dite est dominante (1 7,6% des animaux examinés). Nous relevons cependant que dans les élevages encadres par l'ANOC, les fréquences de reformes dues a la mauvaise conformation et a la mauvaise qualité de la laine représented respectivement 2,3% et 4,6%, contre 21,8% et 16,3% dans les élevages non encadres.  Puberté chez la race D'man, la race Sardi et leur produit de croisement  Berger, 1990). Cela résulte d'un faible taux de fertilité (78-63%) et d'un taux élevé de mortalité des jeunes de 18 à 31% dans les conditions du terrain (Chaarani, 1987), contre 5 à 10% en stations expérimentales (Lahlou-Kassi, 1987).L'étude des performances de reproduction des jeunes femelles ovines, réalisée à travers l'analyse des données recueillies sur le terrain ou en station expérimentale, met en évidence l'importance de la dispersion de l'âge à la première mise-bas et l'influence de la saison de naissance sur l'âge à la puberté.Age au premier agnelage L'ensemble des études menées aussi bien dans le berceau de race qu'ailleurs met en évidence la précocité sexuelle de l'agnelle de race D'man répandue dans le système des oasis et en zone présaharienne. Plusieurs cas d'agnelages ont été signalés à l'âge de 8 mois chez la D'man (Bouix et al., 1974). Un intervalle d'âge de 9 à 22 mois a été observé dans les élevages D'man des vallées du Ziz (Barki, 1974) et du Drâa (El Fakir etal., 1979). Par ailleurs, une étude menée en station pendant quelques années montre que l'âge au premier agnelage varie de 1 3 à 1 4 mois quand les agnelles sont respectivement nées en automne ou au printemps (Bouix ef a/., 1974). En dehors de son berceau de race, l'âge moyen de la D'man au premier agnelage varie de 9 à 33 mois (Boutgayout, 1980), avec 87% des femelles mettant bas à un âge inférieur à 24 mois.Contrairement à la précocité de la race D'man, la race Sardi est considérée comme une race tare. En effet, l'âge signalé au premier agnelage varie de 13 à 27 mois (Boutgayout, 1980) montrant une distribution bimodale (de 13 à 15 mois et de 22 à 25 mois). Dans le berceau de race, l'âge moyen observé est de 15,6 mois (Drissi, 1983).Age et poids à la puberté L'agnelle de race D'man élevée au niveau de la vallée du Drâa peut manifester le comportement de chaleurs aussi tôt qu'à l'âge moyen de 150 jours (130-170) (Harrouni, 1977) et au poids moyen de 15 kg (Bouix etal., 1974). En dehors de son berceau de race, l'agnelle D'man devient pubère à un âge moyen de 6,3 à 6,5 mois et à un poids de 24 ± 1,5 kg (Lahlou-Kassi, 1982). Cette précocité sexuelle a été également signalée chez le mâle D'man (Glatzel,1 980) . Par ailleurs, ce caractère peut être transmis à la descendance d'un croisement avec une race tare (Lahlou-Kassi, 1982). Cela suggère que la précocité sexuelle de la race D'man est un caractère racial génétiquement transmissible.A l'inverse de la race D'man, il existe peu d'informations relatives à l'apparition de la puberté chez la race Sardi. Néanmoins, l'âge rapporté à la première saillie fécondante varie de 7 à 19 mois (Drissi, 1983).Différents auteurs s'accordent maintenant pour dire que la puberté chez l'agnelle est déterminée par des facteurs génétiques (Dyrmundsson, 1973;Land, 1978) et par l'interaction de plusieurs paramètres environnementaux dont il n'a pas été possible de scinder les effets de façon satisfaisante. Ces derniers regroupent: le niveau alimentaire et la vitesse de croissance (Land, 1978;Quirke, 1979;Dyrmundsson, 1981;Foster etal., 1985), la saison de naissance (Foster, 1981;Lahlou-Kassi ef al., 1989), la photopériode (Foster ef al., 1985) et enfin les traitements hormonaux exogènes (Fosterer a/., 1985; Dyrmundsson, 1987).L'objectif de cette étude est de déterminer avec précision l'âge et le poids à la puberté de la race D'man (précoce), de la race Sardi (tardive) et de leur produit de croisement dans des lots homogènes d'agnelles nées à différentes saisons de l'année.L'analyse de variance et l'ajustement des moindres carrés, pour étudier l'effet de la race, de la période de naissance et du type de naissance sur l'âge au premier oestrus et à la première ovulation, ont permis de faire des régressions entre:• l'âge et le poids à la puberté;• l'âge à la puberté et le taux d'ovulation;• l'âge à la puberté et la saison de naissance.    Pourcentages cumulés des âges au premier oestrus chez des agnelles Sardi nées en janvier-février (1)      -Kassi, 1982). Il semble résulter de l'interférence de la saison de naissance avec la période de baisse de l'activité sexuelle qui se manifeste par une baisse de l'incidence d'oestrus et d'ovulation spontanés chez la jeune D'man (Lahlou-Kassi, 1982) ou induits par l'effet mâle chez la jeune Barbarine (Khaldi, 1984;Khaldi et Lassoued, 1990). Le poids à la puberté de cette race est positivement corrélé (r=0,73) avec son âge au premier oestrus. Quant aux agnelles Sardi, elles sont pubères à un âge plus tardif et à un poids supérieur comparées aux D'man. Les jeunes femelles nées tôt dans la saison d'agnelage (novembre-décembre) atteignent la puberté la même année alors que celles nées au début de la saison sexuelle de la race (mai-juin) n'ont pas le temps d'atteindre un développement corporel suffisant pour manifester leur premiers signes de chaleurs. Elles ne seront cyclées que la saison de l'année suivante (Foster, 1981). Les produits de croisement atteignent la puberté à un âge intermédiaire aussi bien en croisement D'man x Timahdite (Lahlou-Kassi, 1982) qu'en croisement D'man x Sardi. La diminution de l'âge à la puberté en parallèle à l'augmentation des gènes sexuels de la D'man est une caractéristique génétiquement transmissible de façon additive (Lahlou-Kassi ef a/., 1989).Le taux d'ovulation, qui constitue l'une des composantes principales de la prolificité, est élevé chez la jeune D'man indépendamment de la saison de naissance, tout en restant inférieur à celui observé chez l'adulte (2,85) par Lahlou-Kassi (1982). L'effet de la saison de naissance sur le taux d'ovulation est statistiquement significatif chez les produits de croisement. Il varie de 1,3 à 1,4 quand la puberté survient en période de journées croissantes ou longues (naissances de novembre-décembre ou d'avril-mai) à 1,7-1,8 quand elle survient en période de journées décroissantes. Chez la brebis adulte, le taux d'ovulation est élevé en début de saison sexuelle, puis diminue pour atteindre son minimum juste avant le début de la phase d'anoestrus saisonnier (Scaramuzzi et Radford 1983). Cela est probablement dû à l'effet de la photopériode sur le taux d'ovulation. Par ailleurs, l'évolution du taux de prolificité observé chez la D'man (Boutgayout, 1980) et la Sardi (Berger ef al., 1989) au cours des trois à quatre premiers agnelages résulte de l'augmentation progressive du taux d'ovulation et de la diminution du taux de mortalité embryonnaire (Boujenane, 1989;Bradford ef a/., 1989).  The results of this study show that the adult Barbary ewes are characterized by a long sexual season which begins in July and ends in February (242 days). The intensity of their seasonal anoestrus (spring) is relatively low: the percentages of ewes ovulating or displaying oestrus at least once a month are never lower than 75 and 25 %, respectively.The possibilities of reproduction of the young females born during autumn are more limited. Reaching their puberty at the age of 10 months, their sexual season is not longer than 100 days (September-December).The restoration of the post-partum ovarian and oestrous activities is not immediate. Its precocity depends essentially on the lambing season. In fact, if the first postpartum ovulation occurs approximately 17 days after parturition in the October lambing ewes, this interval is twice and three times longer for those lambing in June and February, respectively. On the other hand, the duration of the postpartum anoestrus (interval between parturition and the first oestrus) is about 60, 75 and 100 days when lambing occurs in October, June and February, respectively.The stimulation of the ovarian activity of the seasonal anoestrous females in spring by the ram effect is very intensive. Ovulation is induced in 98 % of adult ewes and 75 % ofyearlings. The first induced ovarian cycle is of a short duration (6 days) in 25 and 35 % of the two categories of females, respectively.The prolonged undernutrition of ewes during pregnancy and lactation impairs some of their reproductive characteristics even when they are overfed between weaning and joining. Le début de la saison sexuelle des agnelles nées en automne se situe pendant la première moitié du mois de septembre de l'année suivante (figure 1). Agées alors de 10 mois, ces agnelles ont un poids vif moyen de 34,7 kg. Leur saison sexuelle est courte puisque la date moyenne du dernier oestrus est le 3 décembre. Sa durée moyenne est de 104 jours.La saison sexuelle des brebis adultes est significativement plus longue (P <0,01 ) , la date moyenne du premier oestrus se situant pendant la première quinzaine du mois de juillet et celle du dernier oestrus pendant la deuxième quinzaine du mois de février. Sa durée moyenne est de 242 jours.L'intensité de l'anoestrus saisonnier est également en rapport avec l'âge des femelles. En effet, 25 a 40% des brebis continuent à extérioriser un comportement d'oestrus au printemps alors que l'arrêt de l'activité oestrale est quasi total chez les agnelles pendant la même période.   L'ovulation est induite chez la totalité des femelles non cycliques des quatre lots dans les quatre jours qui suivent l'introduction des mâles (tableau 6). La sous-alimentation des brebis pendant la gestation et/ou la période d'allaitement ne semble donc pas affecter leur réponse à l'effet bélier à condition de les bien  The response of ewes in oestrus to different stimuli was studied in five normocyclic West African dwarf ewes during five successive oestrous cycles. Sniffing around the perineum was significantly superior (P<0.05) to other stimuli in evoking the characteristic \"looking-over-the-shoulder\" behaviour of ewes in oestrus and was not affected by masking the ram's odour with an odoriferous substance. Visual stimuli by a dummy ram evoked the response in 8% of the ewes but acted synergistically with the auditory stimuli, when accompanied by a pre-recorded ram's sexual vocalisation to increase the percentage response to 26. Olfactory stimuli with a linen, which was liberally rubbed on an intact ram, did not evoke the response.It is concluded that oestrus detection in ewes may be possible using artificial stimuli in intensive sheep husbandry.Importance relative des stimuli tactiles, visuels, auditifs et olfactifs dans la detection des chaleurs chez les brebts Djallonke Oestrus behaviour is the most definite sign of oestrus in female animals and it has been reported for various species. The ewe does not exhibit oestrus behaviour in the absence of a ram (Terrill, 1975). It is therefore necessary to devise artificial teasers for oestrus detection in ewes under commercial or large flocks for the application of modern breeding techniques such as oestrus synchronisation and artificial insemination. This will involve identification of the stimuli involved in the \"looking over the shoulder\" which is characteristic of ewes in oestrus (Hafez et al 1969).The objective of this study was to determine the characteristic behaviour of West African dwarf ewes and to identify the areas of the body of the ewe that evoke sexual arousal leading to the shoulder-looking behaviour of ewes in oestrus.The experimental animals consisted of five normocyclic pluriparous WAD ewes aged 4-5 years and weighing 25-35 kg. Oestrus was synchronised with prostaglandin F2-alpha (UpJohn Company, Kalamazoo, USA) as described previously in the WAD goat (Akusu and Egbunike, 1984). Following the second PGF2-injection ewes were exposed to various stimuli as follows: The response of ewes to stimulus C was scored as described by Denenberg and Banks (1969) and Clayton et al (1981). The areas of the body investigated were the hindquarters, vulva, tail, abdomen and ears. A score of 1 was assigned to positive response (Iooking over the shoulder) while negative response was scored 0. For a comparison, stimuli responses were expressed as percentage of the observations. The relative positive response of the ewe to areas of the body investigated with stimulus C is summarised in Table 1 . Responses to the ram's tactile stimulation of the hindquarters and the vulva were significantly superior to the stimulation of the tail (P<0.05) which was in itself superior (P<0.05) to stimulation of the abdomen and the ears.The response of ewes to stimulus A was positive in 8% of observations. When accompanied with the ram's sexual vocalisation (Stimulus B), 26% of the ewes responded positively to the dummy. All ewes in oestrus elicited the response in the presence of an intact ram (Stimulus C) and this was not affected by masking the ram's odour with an odorifirous substance (Stimulus D). On the other hand, ewes in oestrus did not respond to the linen previously rubbed on an intact ram (Stimulus E).The main sign of oestrus in the ewe observed in this study was \"looking over the shoulder\". This is in agreement with the report of Tomkins and Bryant (1974).The hindquarters and the perineal region of the ewe may possess abundant tactile receptors in comparison to the abdomen and the ears. It is known that oestradiol-17B is responsible for the psychic manifestation of behavioural oestrus in domestic animals (Scaramuzzi, 1975;McDonald, 1977). However, Glengross et al (1981) observed that the mechanism of uptake of oestradiol by the hypothalamus could affect oestrus behaviour. It is therefore probable that the ewe produces less oestradiol-17B receptors during oestrus than other domestic animals such as the goat (Akusu, 1987) that displays behavioural oestrus characteristics in the absence of the buck.Visual stimuli alone appeared to have a poor effect on the ewe in oestrus. However, response was improved by auditory stimuli and therefore both stimuli may be acting synergestically. The non-response to olfactory stimulus could not be explained. Pheromones of rams are located in the wool (Knight and Lynch, 1980). Hence, the non-response to the ram's odour may be due either to inadequate pheromones on the linen or the non-involvement of pheromones in the \"looking-over-the-shoulder\" response of ewes in oestrus. The latter suggestion is buttressed by the fact that response was unaffected by masking the ram's odour with an odoriferous substance. However, Baldwin and Meese (1977) and Alexander and Stevens (1982) reported that the scent of olfaction is very strong in the ewe. Therefore, it is possible that the ewe could discriminate the ram's pheromones from a variety of odoriferous substance.This study has demonstrated that tactile, visual and auditory stimuli are important components in the characteristic \"looking over the shoulder\" behaviour of ewes in oestrus. It may be practicable to devise artificial oestrus detection stimuli consisting of blowing air around the perineum which simulate the ram's \"nosing\" around this area, a dummy ram and pre-recorded ram's sexual vocalisation. Progesterone levels were very low during the first four days of the cycle (day 1 = day of oestrous) with the lowest level of 0.3 ±0.02 nglml being recorded on day 2 of the cycle. There was a steady rise in the levels during the cycle until day 15 when the highest level of 2.2 ± 0.05 nglml was recorded which was followed by a sharp decline on day 20 (P <0.05). The profile of oestradiol-1 7s was erratic during the cycle. Mean maximum and minimum concentrations were recorded on day 1 (152.6 ± 31.6 nglml) and day 2 (58.8 ± 22.6 nglml), respectively. These results showed that while progesterone and oestradiol profiles in the WAD goat followed the luteal and follicular phases of the oestrous cycle, progesterone profile is more reliable in assessing the phases of the oestrous cycle. Progesterone and oestradiol-17B are ovarian hormones that have several practical biological applications in the management of reproduction in animals. They are involved in oestrus manifestations, the ovulatory process, cyclic regression of the corpus luteum, establishment of pregnancy and parturition. Progesterone levels have also been used in the determination of the onset of puberty in cattle (Diaz et al, 1986), pigs (Shille et al, 1979) and sheep (Oyedipe et al, 1986) and verification of the accuracy of oestrus detection (Sawyer et al, 1986). A knowledge of the levels of these hormones can be of benefit for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in cases of endocrine dysfunction involving normal sexual activity of the female.The levels of these hormones during the oestrous cycle and pregnancy have been determined in several species of domestic animals, especially in sheep and cattle (Scaramuzzi, 1976;Adeyemo and Health, 1980;Voh et al, 1987). Compared to the other species, fewer reports are available for the goat (Mori and Kano, 1984;Akusu et al,1989).The objective of this study was to generate basal data on the levels and profiles of progesterone and oestradiol-17B during oestrous cycle of the West African Dwarf goat. This breed of goat is the most numerous of the ruminant species in the humid rainforest zone of southern Nigeria (FAO, 1966;Carew, 1982) and therefore represents the quickest means of increasing meat production for the populace through oestrous synchronisation and artificial insemination.Four pluriparous WAD goats, aged 3-4 years and weighing between 15-20 kg were used for this study. They were managed intensively on concrete-floored pens in the small ruminant unit of the Department of Veterinary Surgery and Reproduction, University of Ibadan. Animals were fed on a corn-based ration (0.5 kg/d). Clean water and Giant Stargrass were constantly available.Oestrus was synchronised with 1 0 mg PGF2-a as described previously (Akusu and Egbunike, 1984;Akusu et al, 1989). Animals were teased for oestrus five times daily at intervals of 4 hours between 08.00 and 24.00 h with an apronned sexually mature buck.Animals were bled through jugular venupuncture and plasma stored at-20°C until assayed for progesterone and oestradiol-17B by radioimmunoassay techniques (Dada et al, 1 984; Akusu et al, 1 989) . Hormone concentration was calculated from linearised logit-log plots of standard curves. Inter-and intra-assay variations for progesterone were 11.5% and 10.9%, the corresponding values for oestradiol-17B were 10.3% and 11.5%, respectively.Blood was collected during the first five days of the oestrous cycle (day 1 = day of oestrus) and then on days 10, 15 and 20. The study was carried out during three successive oestrous cycles.Oestrus was synchronised in all goats treated with PGF2-a.The mean oestrus duration was 33.3 ± 6.6 h while oestrous cycle occurred at 19.7 ± 1.7 d.Peripheral plasma progesterone and oestradiol-17B profiles are summarised in Figure 1 . The levels of progesterone were generally lower than 1 ng/ml during oestrus and metoestrus (d 1-d 4). The lowest level of 0.3 ± 0.02 ng/ml was Days determined on d 2 of the cycle. This was followed by a gradual rise in d 3 and d 4 (0.5 ± 0.03 ng/ml and 0.87 ± 0.02 ng/ml, respectively). D4 value was significantly higher than d 2 (P <0.05) . There was a sharp rise on d 5 and remained stable up to d 10 and a further rise in progesterone level to a peak value of 2.2 ± 0.05 on d 1 5 followed by a sharp decline (P <0.05) by d 20. There were differences in the levels between the three cycles but the profiles were not affected (Figure 2) . There was a rapid decline (P<0.05) on d 2. Thereafter, there were fluctuations in the levels but a gradual rise was observed up to d 20 (131 .7 ± 44.3 ng/ml). The profile of oestradiol was similar irrespective of the cycle (Figure 3). The general profile of progesterone and oestradiol-1 7B of the West African Dwarf goat was similar to reports in various species of domestic animals (Shearer et al, 1972;Sarda et al, 1973;Perera et al, 1978;Arora and Pandey, 1982;Oyedipe et al, 1986;Danell, 1987). The mean level of progesterone of the WAD goat was lower than the values reported for other breeds of goats (Heap and Linzell, 1 966;Thomburn and Schneider, 1972). This may be a breed characteristic which has been reported in the ewe (Bindon et al, 1979).The individual variations in the peak values of progesterone and oestradiol-17Bin the goats may be due to variations in individual traits that may be correlated with expression of overt heat signs and may serve as an index of selection (Perera, 1979). However, it was observed that all does had a common pattern with relatively high levels of progesterone during the luteal phase, a decline between the 1 5th and 20th d of the cycle and values approximating zero at and around oestrus. Similarly, the peak values of oestradiol-17B generally corresponded with the follicular and luteal phases of the oestrous cycle. It showed a fluctuating level of between 58 and 92 pg/ml until the day preceding the onset of behavioural oestrus when an increase was demonstrated. The peak value was for a day and there was no subsequent rise. This was consistent with the report of Shearer et al (1972) and therefore suggested that the psychic manifestation of behavioural oestrus in the goat is the result of oestradiol acting on the central nervous system (McDonald, 1977;Hansel and Convey, 1983).These results showed that while progesterone and oestradiol profiles in the WAD goat followed the luteal and follicular phases of the oestrous cycle, progesterone profile is more reliable in assessing the phases of the oestrous cycle.Session 3Pertes en reproduction et I'etat sanitaire des petits ruminants Introduction La pathologie constitue l'un des obstacles les plus importants à l'amélioration de la productivité des troupeaux de petits ruminants en Afrique. Aborder les problèmes de santé animale des caprins et ovins est cependant difficile pour des raisons liées à:• notre connaissance de leur pathologie: les informations sont souvent disparates et limitées (surtout pour la pathologie caprine). La présence vétérinaire est souvent insuffisante pour assurer le contrôle et suivre révolution des maladies sur le terrain;• la pathologie elle-même : il n'y a pas de pathologie dominante par zone ou par pays: existence de syndromes à étiologie multifactorielle plutôt que d'entités pathologiques bien définies;• l'intervention de nombreux facteurs favorisant et déclenchant: la malnutrition et les carences alimentaires diminuent la résistance des animaux au parasitisme et aux infections. Le parasitisme potentialise à son tour les effets de la malnutrition et favorise ainsi les maladies infectieuses. Des facteurs physiques (climat), mécaniques (poussières), chimiques (balnéations), biologiques (virus, bactéries) peuvent déclencher des pneumopathies;• nos moyens d'action: souvent limités en Afrique, ils doivent être bien \"ciblés\" (CIPEA, 1983).L'Afrique doit faire face à des impératifs économiques souvent contradictoires: sa population progresse à un rythme soutenu, les besoins en protéines animales croissent proportionnellement (ces protéines sont indispensables aux enfants en bas âge qui représentent une fraction importante de la population), mais dans le même temps, les ressources en devises affectées à l'amélioration sanitaire du cheptel stagnent, voire même régressent.Cette pénurie de moyens financiers justifie des choix drastiques d'affectation des crédits qui doivent avoir des effets maximaux sur la productivité du cheptel dans un minimum de temps.Ces éléments rendent complexe la proposition de priorités de recherche et de développement. Les thèmes prioritaires et les stratégies proposées devront bien sûr être rediscutés et éventuellement réorientés pour chaque pays en tenant compte des pathologies dominantes et des moyens d'intervention.Importance économique et sanitaire des principales maladies des petits ruminantsLes tableaux 1, 2 et 3 présentent pour les principales maladies virales, bactériennes et parasitaires des petits ruminants en Afrique une estimation de leur importance economique, de leur gravite pour la sante humaine, et de la priorite qu'elles constituent pour la recherche et le développement. Ces trois eléments seront successivement discutes. Cette notion est difficile à apprécier étant donné les conditions d'élevage en Afrique. Il semble pourtant que l'on puisse dégager quelques \"certitudes\".• Les carences nutrltionnelles sont certainement, à elles seules, responsables de plus de pertes que l'ensemble de la pathologie infectieuse. Ces pertes peuvent être directes ou indirectes, la malnutrition étant un facteur favorisant pour l'éclosion de syndromes infectieux. L'amélioration des performances du cheptel africain ne peut passer que par une alimentation correcte aussi bien du point de vue qualitatif que quantitatif. Pourtant cette amélioration peut se heurter à des contraintes culturelles qu'il est difficile d'ignorer, en particulier lorsque l'importance du cheptel représente plus un statut social qu'une valeur strictement économique, lorsqu'il existe des prix hautement spéculatifs (à la veille de l'Aïd) qui font passer l'état d'embonpoint de l'animal au second plan.• Les parasitoses sont elles aussi une dominante du point de vue économique.Elles peuvent avoir un effet néfaste direct mais surtout elles peuvent créer ou favoriser des carences nutritionnelles indirectes par spoliation, par perturbation de la flore intestinale normale. En outre, ces parasitoses favorisent aussi la pénétration de germes pathogènes ou pathogènes opportunistes lorsqu'elles occasionnent des brèches dans le système de défense naturelle de l'hôte.• En dehors de toute carence il existe pourtant des maladies infectieuses majeures qui sont un frein à l'amélioration génétique du cheptel africain. Certaines d'entre elles touchent indistinctement l'ensemble de la population des petits ruminants, d'autres peuvent avoir une cible élective parmi les races exotiques importées pour obtenir une amélioration rapide du cheptel local. Enfin, il faut garder à l'esprit que ces mêmes animaux importés peuvent eux aussi être porteurs de maladies \"d'avenir\" pour l'Afrique.La gravité des zoonoses transmises par les petits ruminants est limitée face aux maladies spécifiquement humaines qui frappent encore l'Afrique et qui sont beaucoup plus meurtrières. Parmi celles dont l'impact est d'ores et déjà certain, nous citerons (IEMVT, 1980):• la brucellose, due à Brucella melitensis principalement, qui peut occasionner une maladie humaine chez les éleveurs mais aussi chez les consommateurs si les produits laitiers sont appelés à une plus large utilisation (la pénurie de bois rend improbable le chauffage du lait avant consommation);• l'hydatidose: dans ce cas, les petits ruminants ne sont pas à l'origine directe de la contamination humaine (ce sont les chiens principalement) mais ils sont un maillon essentiel du cycle de Echinococcus granulosus. Comme le traitement de la maladie humaine ne peut être que chirurgical et que la plupart des anthelminthiques utilisés chez les chiens sont inactifs sur ce cestode, l'effort principal doit porter sur l'éducation du public qui doit pouvoir reconnaître les lésions chez les petits ruminants et soustraire celles-ci de la consommation par les chiens;• la fièvre de la vallée du Rift: les épidémies les plus récentes ont montré (Egypte, Sénégal) que cette maladie pouvait avoir une répartition panafricaine et ne se cantonne plus dans son aire d'origine. Son importance en tant que zoonose n'est plus à démontrer aussi bien que son impact économique lorsqu'elle se déclenche dans une population entièrement réceptive. Néanmoins, son apparition erratique rend difficile toute prophylaxie suivie et demande surtout une bonne information des services vétérinaires pour raccourcir les délais d'intervention en cas d'apparition de la maladie;• le charbon: les petits ruminants sont des animaux très sensibles à Bacillus anthracis au même titre que les bovins; il faut donc les inclure dans les plans de prophylaxie contre cette maladie;• la fasciolose, très répandue chez les ovins, peut aussi avoir une certaine importance chez les humains. Le nombre de cas de fasciolose zoonose en Afrique est assez mal connu et mériterait d'être précisé. De toute façon, l'impact économique sur les productions ovines justifie à lui seul des plans de prophylaxie.Orientation de la recherche sur la pathologie ovine et caprine Un syndrome digestif (diarrhée-amaigrissement)Il comprend essentiellement des parasitoses digestives (strongylose, fasciolose, cysticercose, echinococcose, coccidiose) les entérotoxémies et les colibacilloses-salmonellose, (surtout chez les jeunes de moins de 1 an).La peste des petits ruminants semble jouer maintenant, pour les petits ruminants, un rôle tout à fait comparable à la peste bovine en Afrique. Auparavant plus connue dans l'ouest du continent, elle s'est étendue progressivement vers l'est pour atteindre le Proche-Orient. A l'heure actuelle, aucun pays africain ne peut s'estimer à l'abri de cette maladie.Or il a été montré que, grâce à une communauté antigénique poussée, le vaccin peste bovine pouvait être utilisé chez les petits ruminants et leur conférait une bonne protection. Des vaccins homologues sont d'ailleurs en cours d'essai (Nigéria, IEMVT) et devraient être disponibles dans un proche avenir. C'est pourquoi cette maladie, malgré son impact énorme, n'est pas considérée comme une priorité de recherche mais au contraire, le maximum de ressources disponibles devrait être consacré à son contrôle, à l'instar de ce qui est fait pour la peste bovine.Deux autres thèmes de recherche importants doivent d'autre part être pris en considération:• avortements mammites (brucellose, fièvre Q, chlamydiose, campy lobactériose), mammites bactériennes diverses;• affections de la peau et des pieds (ecthyma, varioles ovine et caprine, fièvre aphteuse, corynébactéries, streptotrichose, teignes, gales, tiques, myases, piétin)Il convient de ne pas passer sous silence les progrès de la recherche fondamentale qui vont peut-être révolutionner à la fois les techniques de diagnostic aussi bien que les méthodes de lutte. Cette présentation est forcément schématique et nous souhaitons qu'elle ouvre une large discussion. En particulier, nous n'avons pas insisté sur les \"maladies d'avenir\" que pourraient être les maladies introduites par les reproducteurs importés pour l'amélioration des races locales; ce sera sans doute un chapitre à développer ultérieurement.Pour finir nous voudrions insister sur les trois questions fondamentales auxquelles il faut répondre avant d'engager toute enquête.1) La question vaut-elle vraiment la peine d'être posée ?2) La question n'a-t-elle pas déjà reçu une réponse ailleurs ?3) Avons-nous vraiment les moyens nécessaires de répondre correctement à la question posée ?Des réunions comme celle à laquelle nous participons doivent permettre de confronter des expériences diverses et répondre au moins partiellement aux deux premières interrogations. En ce qui concerne la troisième, chaque institution doit pouvoir apprécier le rapport coût/résultat; en effet, l'affectation de trop peu de moyens pourrait aboutir à l'obtention de résultats biaises, peu fiables, qui dans une certaine mesure pourraient être pires que l'absence de résultat.Ainsi, dans tous les cas où un moyen de lutte efficace et peu cher est disponible, nous pensons qu'il faut affecter le maximum de ressources aux actions de développement et réserver la recherche aux problèmes qui n'ont pas encore trouvé de réponse satisfaisante.Bibliographie CIPEA (Centre international pour l'élevage en Afrique L'anoestrus post-partum chez la brebis est défini comme l'intervalle de temps qui sépare l'agnelage des premiers signes de chaleurs visibles. Cette durée a souvent été déterminée à partir de l'intervalle de temps entre deux mises-bas successives (Berger et Ginisty, 1980). Mais la brebis n'étant pas systématiquement en gestation après la reprise des activités ovariennes, l'intervalle entre deux mises-bas peut ne pas toujours être la somme de la durée d'une gestation et de celle de l'anoestrus post-partum. Compte tenu de l'importance de ce paramètre de reproduction dans la maîtrise du rythme des mises-bas en vue de l'amélioration de l'élevage ovin, il a paru intéressant et même indispensable de connaître avec précision la durée de l'anoestrus post-partum.Parmi les facteurs influençant le rétablissement normal de l'activité ovarienne après la mise-bas, nous citerons la lactation, l'alimentation qui détermine le poids vif de l'animal, et la pathologie, particulièrement les parasitoses gastro intestinales.L'objectif de notre travail est d'étudier la durée précise de l'anoestrus post-partum par la détection des chaleurs et les frottis vaginaux chez des brebis soumises à l'influence de coccidies et des strongles gastro-intestinaux.  Les durées les plus courtes (40-60 jours) s'observent chez les jeunes brebis primipares ou chez les multipares qui n'allaitent qu'un agneau. En saison des pluies, la durée moyenne de l'anoestrus post-partum est nettement plus courte chez les primipares que chez les multipares (P<0,02). De même, la fluctuation des valeurs autour de la moyenne est plus faible chez les primipares que chez les multipares (P<0,001).Détermination de la durée de l'anoestrus post-partum par les frottis vaginaux (D2)La lecture des frottis vaginaux et les courbes de variation des cellules vaginales (figure 1) au cours de l'anoestrus révèlent:• un taux de cellules superficielles inférieur ou égal à 40% durant les quatre premières semaines après la mise-bas. Durant cette période, les cellules intermédiaires basophiles sont dominantes associées à une abondance simultanée des polynucléaires;• un pic d'environ 70% de cellules superficielles se produit quinze jours avant les manifestations des signes de chaleurs. Ce pic suivi d'une chute est caractérisé par une abondance des cellules superficielles éosinophiles et par la disparition des polynucléaires;• un autre pic de cellules superficielles autour du jour du premier oestrus. Ce nouveau pic est moins grand que celui observé quinze jours plus tôt;• l'indice karyopycnotique révèle quelquefois un pic dès la troisième semaine après la mise-bas. Si parfois il y a un décalage entre ce pic et celui des cellules superficielles, on note souvent la coïncidence entre ces deux pics.Ces résultats permettent de recalculer la durée de l'anoestrus déterminée par la cytologie vaginale (D2 = 54,85 ± 9,71 jours) qui est nettement plus courte (P<0,02) que celle révélée par la détection des chaleurs (D1 = 76,88 ± 16,44 jours). La cytologie vaginale révèle aussi une reprise tardive de l'activité ovarienne après la mise-bas en saison pluvieuse (tableau 1).Influence du parasitisme gastro-intestinal sur la durée de l'anoestrus post-partum Influence de la coccidiose Le nombre moyen de coccidies au moment de la mise-bas (1039 ± 261 oeufs par gramme) est légèrement inférieur à celui à la fin de l'anoestrus (1807 ± 959). Néanmoins, il existe une corrélation positive étroite entre la durée de l'anoestrus et le taux de coccidies au moment de la mise-bas. Cette corrélation est encore plus étroite pendant la saison pluvieuse (r=0,98).Aussi les brebis dont la durée de l'anoestrus post-partum est inférieure à 60 jours sont les moins parasitées. Leur OPG de coccidies est inférieur à 400. Le rapport du taux de coccidies par poids de l'animal est de l'ordre de 20 dans ce groupe d'animaux. Chez les brebis dont la durée de l'anoestrus est comprise entre 60 et 90 jours, l'OPG moyen de coccidies est de l'ordre de 700. Le rapport OPG par poids est égal à 43,87.Il existe une étroite corrélation (r=0,87; P<0,01) positive entre le taux de coccidies et la cytologie vaginale (taux de squames et de l'indice karyopycnotique) (tableau 2).  Pour les brebis dont l'anoestrus post-partum dure moins de 60 jours, l'OPG moyen est inférieur à 250. Le rapport taux de strongles par le poids de l'animal est de l'ordre de 12. Chez les brebis dont l'anoestrus dure 60 à 90 jours, l'OPG moyen atteint 350. Le rapport taux de strongles par poids est de l'ordre de 1 5. Chez les brebis dont la durée de l'anoestrus est supérieure à 1 00, l'OPG moyen est égal à 485,75. Le rapport strongles-poids est de 30,87 (tableau 3).Il existe une étroite corrélation positive (r=0,78; P<0,01) entre l'infestation strongylienne et l'âge. La corrélation existe, mais elle est plus faible entre le taux de strongles et le poids de l'animal (r=0,58; P<0,01). La différence entre le premier pic et celui du premier oestrus traduirait une sécrétion plus importante de FSH après la mise-bas. La teneur en FSH est plus élevée pendant le premier cycle après la reprise des activités ovariennes que pendant les cycles ultérieurs. La sécrétion de FSH semble par ailleurs inhibée par la prolactine liée à la lactation.La libération de FSH favorise comme on le sait la folliculogenèse, qui se traduit par une forte sécrétion d'oestrogène à laquelle sont sensibles les cellules superficielles de l'épithélium vaginal. Si la pycnocytose traduit la présence d'oestrogène, nous pouvons penser à la reprise assez rapide des activités ovariennes avec des productions d'oestrogènes puisqu'on a observé un pic d'indice karyopycnotique dès la troisième semaine après la mise-bas.Dans le troupeau étudié, l'infestation coccidienne semble constante et régulière. Elle a une influence sensible sur la durée de l'anoestrus post-partum. L'augmentation de l'infestation parasitaire après la mise-bas s'explique par une diminution de la résistance physiologique de la mère liée entre autres à l'allaitement. La diminution de l'absorption intestinale des aliments due aux coccidies se traduit par une perte de poids sensible. Il existe donc une corrélation linéaire entre la durée de l'anoestrus et le rapport OPG par poids.La mise-bas peut donc constituer un facteur de déséquilibre biologique provoquant des troubles de l'état général de l'animal qui devient sensible à l'infestation parasitaire.L'activite ovarienne post-partum chez la brebis Djailonké a ete etudiée par la detection de chaleurs et par les frottis vaginaux colons au Papanicolaou. L'examen coprologique a permis d'evaluer I'influence de la coccidiose gastro-intestinale sur la duree de l'anoestrus post-partum.La duree moyenne de l'anoestrus post-partum determinee a partir de la detection des chaleurs est plus grande que celle donnee par Berger et Ginnisty (1980). Le retour des chaleurs est plus tardif pendant la saison pluvieuse. L' etude de la cytologie vaginale au cours de l'anoestrus post-partum permet de determiner la duree moyenne de l'anoestrus physiologique vrai qui est nettement plus court que la duree d'anoestrus observee dans les conditions ordinaires d'observation.Le taux de coccidies a la mise-bas est le facteur qui influence le plus la duree de l'anoestrus post-partum. During 1988 and 1989 the effect of endoparasites on the productivity of Ethiopian highland sheep was studied using eggs per gram (EPG) counts, worm counts and packed cell volume (PCV) at Debre Berhan, Dejen, Deneba, Tulu Meko and Wereilu. Nematode and trematode EPG counts were low except at Tulu Meko with significant (P<0.05) differences in age, season and year effects in most sites. Mean monthly mature worm counts in necropsied sheep were also low to moderate and ranged from 0-4 375 and 0-1 825 in the abomasum and intestines, respectively. The predominant worms in the counts were mainly Trichostrongylus colubriformis with a few Haemonchus contortus and others, irrespective of season. This was attributed to possible resistance and/or \"self cure\" to haemonchosis andlor environmental factors. Mean PCV values were almost similar for all the locations and were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the degree of nematode and trematode infections in all sites.Low PCV and high EPG levels were significantly (P<0.05) associated with poor body-condition scores and low bodyweights. Monthly repeatabilities of PCV, bodyweight and body-condition score were 0.44 ± 0.01, 0.71 ± 0.01 and 0.35 ± 0.01, respectively, while the values for nematode (0.09 ± 0.01) and trematode EPG (0.20 ± 0.20) were much lower. The higher repeatability for PCV in contrast to EPG would indicate that it was less affected by the variable factors influencing egg output. It is, therefore, suggested that it should be used in conjunction with nematode and trematode EPG levels in endoparasite monitoring.Effets des endoparasites sur la productivité du mouton des hauts plateaux éthiopiens  Most sheep in Ethiopia are owned by smallholders in the highlands where there is mixed crop-livestock production. These sheep are an integral part of the livestock sector of the economy. Sheep supply meat, wool (hair) and skin and generate about 89% of farmers' cash income (Gryseels et al, 1989).The productivity of Ethiopian sheep is affected by nutritional and endoparasitic stress although they are all year-round breeders. Nutritional stress occurs whenever there are dry spells and often before grass grows during the rainy seasons. The major endoparasitic diseases of importance include fascioliasis, gastrointestinal nematodiasis, cestodiasis and lung worm (Graber, 1975;Scott andGoll, 1977;Bekele Mamo et al, 1981;Lemma et al, 1985). Their effects range from a reduced performance to mortality (Sykes, 1978;Armour and Gettinby, 1983). These effects are also exacerbated by the level of nutrition.There are limited field studies on the effects of endoparasites on productivity.Most attempts have been on experimental infections of either a single or few parasites which do not simulate the dynamics in field conditions. Hence this study was performed to determine the impact of endoparasites on productivity of the highland sheep in Ethiopia. This report focuses on the relationship of some of the indicators of endoparasites on productivity and the estimates of repeatability of associated parameters.The study was carried out on-farm at Debre Berhan, Dejen, Deneba, Tulu Meko and Wereilu in the Ethiopian highlands from June 1 988 to December 1 989. These places are located in the central, northern and north-western part of the country where the altitude ranges from 2500-3000 m above sea level and the production system is mainly mixed farming. They have bimodal rainfall pattern with long rains from June to September and short rains from March to May. A total of 2594 sheep were involved in the study. These included the Menz, Horro, Wollo and Dejen breed types from 30-50 farmers with 350-400 sheep each at the beginning of the study. There was also periodic replacement of exits. All animals were raised under traditional management with minimum health interventions.Each site was visited monthly for sampling and data collection which included faeces for eggs-per-gram (EPG) counts and faecal culture, blood for packed cell volume (PCV) and screening haemoparasites, bodyweight, body-condition score (MAFF, 1984;Hossamoet al, 1986) and pregnancy and lambing status. In addition, 122 (six-month-old or more) sheep were sacrificed at each site at the rate of four per month in the first year and then periodically in the second year for post-mortem examination, worm count and identification; Skerman and Hillard, 1 966) at Debre Berhan and Tulu Meko. The age of each sheep was estimated from teeth-eruption changes (Williamson and Payne, 1959) on each visit.Data were analysed by least squares (SAS, 1987) using the general linear model for the effect of endoparasites on productivity for each site separately but were pooled for repeatability estimates. Dependent variables were bodyweight, body-condition score and lambing interval. The independent variables were nematode and trematode EPG levels determined by classifying infection levels as either low (<50) or high (> 50), and PCV which was also classified as below normal (<. 27) and above normal (> 27). The EPG and PCV classifications for each animal were based on the means of the repeated monthly determinants over the study period. Repeatability was estimated using a mixed model (Harvey, 1987) with random animal effect and other relevant fixed effects. The estimates of repeatability for log value of positive EPG and PCV were obtained by treating these as dependent variables and adjusting for the fixed effects.Peak nematode EPG counts were observed during the long and short rainy seasons especially at Tulu Meko (Figures 1 and 2). In addition, trematode EPG counts were also high for most parts of 1 989 at Tulu Meko but not on other sites. Log values of monthly EPG counts were significantly (P<0.05) affected by age of sheep, season and year. The mean monthly mature worm counts in necropsied sheep ranged from 0-4375 and 0-1825 in the abomasum and intestines, respectively. Immature worms were less frequently encountered. Worm counts at Tulu Meko were higher than at Debre Berhan. The log transformed mature worm counts from the abomasum did not show significant (P>0.05) seasonal differences in both sites while year-effect was significantly (P<0.05) different at Tulu Meko but not at Debre Berhan (P>0.05). The commonest mature and immature worms found during worm counting were Trichostrongylus colubriformis with only few H. contortus, T. axei, Oesophagostomum columbianum, Bunostomum trigoncephalum and Trichuris skrjabini. These gastrointestinal parasites were also found in faecal cultures. The mean monthly counts of Fasciola hepatica in the liver ranged from 0-78 for both Debre Berhan and Tulu Meko. Seasonal frequencies of D. filaria and T. colubriformis were 66.7-1 00% and 64.0-1 00% in necropsied sheep but they were low for others. significant (P<0.05) differences in PCV which decreased with increasing parasitic load in each site. Mixed nematode and trematode infections were few and insignificant (P>0.05). PCVs were also significantly (P<0.03) different in different age groups of sheep, different seasons and different years but not in different sexes.Figure 3 shows the frequency of average PCV (average above and below normal), nematode (average low and high EPG levels) and trematode (average low and high EPG levels) EPG levels of all sheep in different sites. These frequencies indicate that endoparasitism was highest at Tulu Meko with low PCV, high nematode EPG and high trematode EPG levels of 37.4, 31.8 and 38.4%, respectively. The least-squares means for body-condition scores, bodyweights of male sheep and lambing interval are, respectively, presented in Tables 1 , 2  and 3  Wereilu, respectively, and were significantly (P<0.05) affected by PCV, nematode and trematode EPG levels. Liveweights had mean squares of 22.2 ± 1.7, 26.0 ± 2.3 and 26.8 ± 1.6 kg at Debre Berhan, Dejen and Tulu Meko, respectively, with the subclass means showing significant (P<0.05) differences due to PCV and nematode EPG levels at Debre Berhan and trematode EPG levels in all. The least-squares means for lambing interval was 263.2 ± 4.0 days at Tulu Meko with no significant (P>0.05) effect by the different variables.The repeatability values for PCV, bodyweight, body-condition score, lambing interval, nematode EPG and trematode EPG were 0.44 ± 0.01 , 0.71 ± 0.01 , 0.35 ± 0.01, 0.43 ± 0.14, 0.09 ± 0.01 and 0.20 ± 0.02, respectively (Table 4). Correlation coefficients between bodyweight and body-condition score were low (r= 0.3-0.5, P<0.01) for different sites. Monthly nematode EPG counts were low with very little variation with rainfall for most sites except at Tulu Meko compared to previous findings (Tekelye Bekele et al, 1987). This agreed with the low to moderate worm counts (Skerman and Hillard, 1966) of necropsied sheep at Debre Berhan and Tulu Meko. The EPG of the necropsied sheep was also low. The moderately high nematode EPG counts at Tulu Meko was associated with the high intensity of worm load. The commonest species found during worm counting, T. colubriformis, has low prolificacy and pathogenicity (Holmes, 1985). Highly prolific worms like H. contortus had low counts specially at Debre Berhan although they were available in necropsied sheep and faecal cultures. This may be due to genetic factors where H. contortus was not established and/or was removed after infection due to self cure (Preston and Allonby, 1979;Kasali et al, 1988) and/or other environmental factors.Trematode EPG counts were highest in 1989 than in 1988 in all sites which probably happened due to the heavy rainfall in 1988, which also increased the transmission of fascioliasis by increasing the abundance of the intermediate host, the snail, Lymnae truncatula (Goll and Scott, 1 978). Fascioliasis, especially when complicated by Clostridium novyi infection, is the major cause of ovine mortality in the Ethiopian highlands (Njau et al, 1988). The presence of D. filaria in most necropsied sheep agreed with previous findings (Bekele Mamo et al, 1981). Its high frequency is suggestive of its importance since it is commonly complicated by pasteurellosis, inclement weather and inadequate nutrition.The overall mean and subclass mean PCV were lowest at Tulu Meko which could be due to high intensity of endoparasitism as observed in the EPG and worm counts. This could also be due to differences in breed parasite tolerance and/or management. PCV variation with age, year and EPG load effects was common to most sites. PCV variation with age could be physiological, while year effect could be due to differences in the rainfall leading to differences in the degree of endoparasitism. The effect of season was variable depending on the degree of endoparasites and level of nutrition.Repeated measurements of endoparasites indicated high frequencies of sheep with subnormal PCV, and high nematode and trematode EPG levels at Tulu Meko. This further confirmed the high intensity of endoparasitism in this site. Productivity traits like body-condition scores and bodyweights were directly correlated with the level of PCV, being low when PCV were low and high when PCV were high. High nematode EPG lowered body-condition scores and bodyweights. But high trematode EPG resulted in high body-condition scores and high bodyweights which could be due to repeated exposures to fascioliasis while at the same time growing and increasing in body mass. Endoparasitism did not have any effect on lambing interval which may be due to its periodic occurrence and/or it may not influence this parameter.Monthly repeatability estimates for nematode and trematode EPG were low showing that egg output was variable being affected by different factors like age of the host, species and age of parasite, nutritional status of the host, season, physiological factors like pregnancy and degree of repeated infections. But although PCV could also be affected by multiple factors, its monthly within-animal variation was moderately high and hence it should be used in conjunction with EPG for monitoring the level of endoparasites. Although there are reports of high correlation between bodyweight and body-condition scores (Hossamo et al, 1986), this was not the case in this study. The repeatability of body-condition score was low which could be probably due to the effect of either within-animal and/or between-scorer variation. The repeatability estimates for lambing interval across parities is higher than the range reported (Wilson et al, 1989).Lamb -les 0-3 mois sont la classe d'âge la plus vulnérable;-ils sont affectés en priorité par le syndrome \"chétivité\";-ils ont une hiérarchie des syndromes mortels relativement stable d'une stratégie prophylactique à l'autre;-ceci quelle que soit l'espèce.Ces constats laissent croire que la mortalité des jeunes de0à3 mois répond à un déterminisme autre que celui contrôlé par les prophylaxies testées.Les enregistrements épidémiologiques obtenus par le programme Pathologie et productivité des petits ruminants en milieu traditionnel (PPR) de 1985 à 1987 permettent de décrire l'importance absolue et relative de la mortalité des petits ruminants dans la région de Kolda. Ce qui nous donne l'occasion de poser un regard critique sur le paramètre constitué par les taux de mortalité très usités en épidémiologie.Les résultats rapportés ici ont été obtenus dans l'une des zones d'intervention du PPR, la région de Kolda, au sud du fleuve Casamance. Les précipitations y sont plus abondantes (950 mm par an), plus régulières et réparties sur une plus longue période que dans le reste du Sénégal.Les petits ruminants exploités dans cette zone, sont des animaux de petite taille: ovins Djallonké et chèvres guinéennes.L'on serait tenté, devant l'importance de la mortalité chez les ovins et les caprins de moins de 3 mois, de mettre en route des prophylaxies plus complètes ou tout au moins de rechercher les étiologies précises de la mortalité ainsi notée. Cependant, il nous paraît prudent avant pareille décision de procéder à l'évaluation de l'effet des prophylaxies sur la mortalité. Le taux de mortalité annuel est calculé comme le rapport M, nombre de sujets morts dans une population donnée pendant une période de n mois, et P la somme des nombres de sujets recencés dans cette population à chaque passage mensuel durant ces mêmes mois, multiplié par 12. La mortalité relative peut ensuite être établie par classe d'âge ou en fonction des causes de mortalité.Le taux de mortalité est donc simplement une donnée énumérative (le nombre de morts) rapportée à une autre donnée énumérative qu'est l'effectif moyen de la population, et peut à ce titre être considéré comme une mesure caractéristique de la population et être statistiquement traité comme telle.L'effet des prophylaxies sur la mortalité sera étudié en comparant les différentes mortalités annuelles des quatre lots par une analyse de variance sur le taux de mortalité (assimilé à une mesure). C'est à partir de ces valeurs que nous évaluons l'effet de la vaccination et de la vermifugation. En mortalité relative par sous-classe d'âge, ce constat se trouve conforté par le fait que plus de 40% des morts de 0 à 12 mois intéressent les moins de 3 mois et ceci dans chaque lot chez les espèces étudiées. Nous notons enfin que les troubles de croissance viennent en tête des causes de mort quel que soit le lot prophylactique (tableau 3).La vaccination n'induit pas chez les béliers de différence significative, alors que la vermifugation engendre une baisse significative de la mortalité (P<0,05). Aucune différence n'est induite chez les brebis, les chèvres et les boucs, par aucun traitement (tableaux 4, 5, 6, 7). Le PPR a mis à l'essai dès son démarrage différents scénarios prophylactiques En résumé, la mortalité chez les 0-3 mois est abaissée par le déparasitage significativement chez les ovins mâles seuls.Par contre, les vaccinations sont sans effet sur les taux de mortalité globale aussi bien chez les ovins que chez les caprins de moins de 3 mois. Ce qui peut s'expliquer par la protection immunitaire passive (non spécifique) dont ces jeunes bénéficient dans tous les cas.Ces résultats sont conformes à ceux du PPR obtenus par la méthode des quotients sur des cohortes d'animaux de même classe d'âge (PPR, 1988).Enfin, il importe de retenir que la hiérarchie des causes de mort dans la sous-classe d'âge des 0-3 mois est relativement stable à travers les groupes de lots prophylactiques.Ces constatations portent à croire que la mortalité des jeunes de 0 à 3 mois d'âge constitue une entité épidémiologique répondant à un déterminisme faisant intervenir en sus des facteurs et des agents parasitaires ou infectieux autres que ceux ciblés par les essais prophylactiques. Investigation of the incidence of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) disease in goats revealed seasonality in its natural occurrence in the environment. Tissue culture rinderpest vaccine was effective in protecting goats against the disease. The optimal time for vaccinating goats against PPR was when the least number of animals were incubating the disease. In the tropical humid zone of West Africa this would be in late November.contre la peste des petits ruminants (PPR) dans la zone tropicale humide du sud du Nigeria PPR disease is of great economic importance. It was described as the most destructive viral disease against small ruminant flocks (Bourdin, 1983) and as number one constraint to intensive small ruminant farming. Mortality in susceptible flocks varies from 10% to 100% and morbidity from 50% to 100%.Tissue culture rinderpest vaccine (TCRV) is widely used in West Africa in the control of PPR disease. However, to date, there are conflicting reports both documented and mostly undocumented by field veterinarians as to the effectiveness of TCRV in controlling this disease.This study was therefore carried out in the tropical humid zone in southern Nigeria to determine whether this disease shows clear seasonality of occurrence and whether this accounts for the conflicting reports on the effectiveness of TCRV in controlling PPR.Nsukka is a small university town in a rural agricultural environment. It is located in the tropical humid zone in southern Nigeria. It lies approximately on latitude 06°52'N and longitude 07°24'E.Rainfall and mean daily temperature data on monthly basis over a five-year period (1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986) in Nsukka environs were obtained from the university farm meteorological unit where the records were maintained on daily basis.Two veterinary clinics in the town, the University veterinary teaching hospital and the town veterinary clinic were patronised by small ruminant owners from Nsukka and the surrounding villages within 15-20 km radius of the town. From daily treatment records in both clinics over the period of study, data were collected on monthly basis of the first-time reports of cases characteristic of PPR. Cases of pneumonia only or parasitic gastro-enteritis shown in the records were excluded from the data. Data from the two clinics were pooled on monthly basis Source of Tissue Culture Rinderpest Vaccine (TCRV)The TCRV was obtained from the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Oji River depot.One-hundred dose vial of freeze-dried TCRV was reconstituted in 1 00 ml of sterile refrigerated normal saline. 1 ml of the reconstituted vaccine was injected into a goat subcutaneously in the neck region, with a sterile needle. Animals less than three months old were excluded from the experiment.With the co-operation of the owners, the number of goats in each household was split into two equal groups taking into consideration age, sex and body condition.One group was vaccinated and the other was not (control). Only clinically healthy goats with no history of previous vaccination were used in the project. The ages ranged from six months to four years. Animals were individually identified.Goats were vaccinated either at the end of November or end of January.On 24th November 1988, 100 goats were vaccinated and 101 goats left as controls in various households as described above at Obukpa on the outskirts of Nsukka town. Twenty households were involved.On 28th November 1988, 100 goats were vaccinated and 103 goats left as controls in various households as described above at Afikpo about 1 20 km south of Nsukka. Thirty households were involved.On 25th January 1989, 200 goats from 45 households in Nkpirimkpi, a village in another part of the Nsukka outskirts, were vaccinated and 200 goats left as control.All the locations were in the tropical humid zone in southern Nigeria.All animals in the project at the various locations were monitored for 12 weeks post-vaccination both by regular weekly visits and with the aid of the local veterinarian for evidence of PPR or any other illness in any of the experimental animals.  Table 1 shows the monthly occurrence of PPR, rainfall, mean daily relative humidity and temperature for each year of the five-year period of the study undertaken in Nsukka environs. The cumulative monthly PPR incidence and rainfall over the period are shown in Figure 1 .Table 1 and Figure 1 show that PPR occurs throughout the year. PPR incidence starts to build up from end of December and rises rapidly during harmattan season to a peak in the early rainy season in April. There was a sharp fall in the incidence over the latter part of the rainy season (May to September) in each year of study.Daily records showed no reports of new PPR cases within 40 hours of rainfall.The effects of vaccinating goats with TCRV against PPR are shown in Table 2 for the November vaccinations and Table 3 for the January vaccination.  Though PPR seems to occur throughout the year, there is a definite indication of seasonality in its natural occurrence in the Nduaka environs (Figure 1). The incidences were higher during the dry harmattan season than during the rainy season. It appears that the inclement dry, cold and dusty harmattan weather (December-February) and the poor nutrition by this time combine to spread PPR. The incidence seems to rise rapidly from December to a peak in April. Obi (1983a) and Durojaiye (1983) in western Nigeria also associated most outbreaks with this season of the year. In Oyo State (western Nigeria), Opasina (1983) observed two out of four outbreaks in the early dry season and an other two in the last third of the dry season (January). These observations were in a climatic zone similar to that in Nsukka. Bourdin (1983) on the other hand stated that in the Sahelian climate of Senegal, outbreaks of PPR occur mostly during the rainy season. Reported occurrence of new outbreaks within 48 hours of rainfall as in Ondo State in Nigeria (Ojo, 1983) could not be confirmed in this study. January to April appeared to be the period of greatest risk of small ruminants to PPR each year (Table 1). This raises the question of how long a naturally acquired immunity after a field outbreak lasts. The 3-5 year cycle of occurrence reported by Obi (1983) was not observed in this study.There have been conflicting reports on the effectiveness of Tissue Culture Rinderpest Vaccine (TCRV) to control PPR in goats and sheep. Effective vaccination against PPR is a major advance in the control of the disease.According to Gibbs et al (1977) TCRV confers complete immunity to goats without transferring the disease to other animals. Adu and Nawathe (1981) reported that even pregnant animals tolerated TCRV well. On the contrary, Abegunde (1983) suggested that if animals are not screened for sub-clinical infection prior to vaccination, they may come down with the disease and that abortions may occur in pregnant animals. There are more undocumented similar conflicting reports by field veterinarians.The results of various times of vaccination with TCRV to protect the goats against PPR in this study seem to confirm the observations made by Abegunde (1983).When the goats were vaccinated with TCRV in November, a period of sub-clinical infection, none of them came down with PPR infection while about 8.5% of the control came down with PPR. However, when the vaccination was done in January, a period of peak infection, about 8% of PPR cases including 1 .5% mortality were recorded among the vaccinated animals. About 41 .5% of PPR cases including about 1 1 .0% mortality were recorded among the control.Our work thus confirms that TCRV is very effective in protecting goats against the PPR disease, but that this efficacy only holds if the vaccination is done when the animals are at a subclinical level of infection (Abegunde, 1 983). In the Nsukka environment in Nigeria, the end of November seems to be the right period for TCRV vaccination. The main small ruminant diseases in Senegal are lung diseases and gastro-intestinal strongyle infections.This paper presents the results of the technical and economic assessment of a series of parasitic and infectious disease-control measures intended for small ruminant owners in Senegal.Les dominantes pathologiques des petits ruminants au Sénégal sont les pneumopathies et les strongyloses gastro-intestinales. Cette communication présente les résultats d'une évaluation technico-économique des actions de prophylaxie anti-infectieuse et antiparasitaire qui peuvent être proposées aux éleveurs de petits ruminants du Sénégal.Cette évaluation a été réalisée dans le cadre du programme \"Pathologie et productivité des petits ruminants\" de l'ISRA (Institut sénégalais de recherches agricoles) et de l'IEMvT (Institut d'élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux).Zone d'étude L'étude a été menée dans trois sites correspondant à des zones écologiques et des systèmes d'élevage différents:• le site de Ndiagne, dans la partie nord du pays, avec 3 500 petits ruminants en expérimentation. Ce site sahélien reçoit de 250 à 400 mm de précipitations et est peuplé de paysans Wolof essentiellement cultivateurs, entretenant un petit troupeau d'une quinzaine d'ovins de type Peul-Peul, et de paysans peuls essentiellement éleveurs et possédant des troupeaux d'une trentaine d'ovins (Peul-Peul) et caprins (sahéliens),• le site de Kaymor, dans la partie centre du pays, avec 1 500 petits ruminants en expérimentation. Ce site soudanien reçoit 650 mm de précipitations et est peuplé de paysans Wolof, essentiellement cultivateurs, entretenant un petit troupeau de 10 à 15 têtes d'ovins et de caprins issus d'un métissage ancien entre grandes races sahéliennes et races naines du Sud;• le site de Kolda, dans la partie sud du pays, avec 1 500 petits ruminants en expérimentation. Ce site soudano-guinéen reçoit 950 mm de précipitations et est peuplé de paysans peuls cultivateurs et éleveurs, entretenant dans chaque concession un petit troupeau de 10 à 15 têtes d'ovins Djallonké et de caprins guinéens.• paramètres zootechniques (structure de la population, mortalité, reproduction, croissance);• paramètres d'exploitation (immigration, émigration);• prix au producteur et coûts d'intervention.Trois types d'approche sont ensuite développés: a) Le calcul du coût de la maladie, en rapportant la différence de bénéfices (bénéfices d'exploitation + capital animal induit) entre la situation \"avec action\" (B,) et la situation \"sans action\" (B0), au nombre total d'animaux en première année : Bi -Bo coût de la maladie = N b) Le calcul de l'amélioration relative des bénéfices, en rapportant le bénéfice supplémentaire (actualisé) au bénéfice de la situation \"sans action\": Bi -Bo amélioration relative des bénéfices = Bo c) Le taux de rémunération des dépenses prophylactiques, en rapportant le bénéfice supplémentaire (actualisé) au coût des interventions: Bi -Bo taux de rémunération des dépenses = Résultats Techniques Le tableau 1 montre:• que la vermifugation permet d'améliorer au moins une catégorie de performances animales dans chacune des zones et pour chacune des deux espèces. Elle est toutefois plus efficace pour les ovins dans le sud du pays;• que la vaccination antipasteurellique pratiquée seule n'est efficace chez les ovins (non testée chez les caprins), que dans la partie nord du pays;• que la vaccination antipestique (associée à la vaccination antipasteurellique) est efficace au nord comme au sud du pays tout au moins pour les ovins.Ces constatations amènent à proposer une régionalisation des interventions, qui concernerait les deux espèces:• vermifugation sur toute l'étendue du territoire et plus particulièrement dans la partie sud;• vaccination antipestique sur toute l'étendue du territoire;• vaccination antipasteureilique dans la partie nord du pays.Ces recommandations doivent être évaluées sur le plan économique avant d'être retenues.Le coût des interventions a été calculé:• en considérant que les structures des services de l'élevage se chargeraient de l'organisation des campagnes de vaccination, tandis que des structures privées se chargeraient de promouvoir et de distribuer les vermifuges;• en répercutant l'intégralité des coûts d'intervention (prix du produit + promotion + distribution + conservation + salaires des agents pendant les campagnes) sur le prix du traitement au niveau de l'éleveur qui s'établit ainsi:-vaccination antipestique 33 F CFA/animal/an -vaccination antipestique/antipasteurellique 93 F CFA/animal/an -vermifugation 320 F CFA/animal/an.Ces trois approches ont permis de montrer que les actions régionalisées proposées étaient toutes économiquement rentables. A titre d'exemple, nous présentons dans le tableau 2 les résultats de ces calculs pour la zone nord que l'on peut brièvement commenter:1-En termes zootechniques le parasitisme digestif et le complexe pneumopathie sont des contraintes plus nettes chez les caprins que chez les ovins, nous l'avons vu. En revanche, en termes monétaires ils entraînent un manque à gagner (coût de la maladie) plus important chez les ovins. Ceci en raison du prix au producteur beaucoup plus élevé pour les ovins (350 à 450 F CFA/kg pour les femelles, 700 à 850 F CFA/kg pour les mâles) que pour les caprins (350 F CFA/kg pour les deux sexes).2-La prophylaxie anti-infectieuse génère une amélioration relative des bénéfices plus importante (14,5% pour les ovins) que la prophylaxie antiparasitaire (6,5%). Ceci du fait du coût plus élevé des actions de vermifugation (320 F CFA/animal/an contre 93 F CFA pour la vaccination associée). A m e l i o r a t i o n I.P.P. 0N 0-A n t i p e s t i q u e et A n t i p a s t e u r e l l i q u e p r o p h y l a c t i q u e V e r m i r u g a t L'originalité de cette étude réside dans son exécution:• en grandeur réelle ayant impliqué 6 500 petits ruminants dans le dispositif expérimental;• en milieu villageois sur cinq années, ce qui permet de tenir compte à la fois des conditions de production traditionnelle et de leur variation annuelle;• étendue du nord au sud du pays, ce qui amène à établir des recommandations régionalisées en matière de prophylaxie. In order to obtain adequate numbers of samples from the animals, all collections were made at abattoirs. To obtain data on seasonal variations in parasite populations and biology, attempts were made to make a minimum of four collections at most sites. Points of collection are shown in Figure 1 .Selection of the abattoirs was based on the number of individual animals slaughtered daily and the probability of obtaining native animals from the various ecological regions of Mali.Monthly temperature and rainfall data were obtained from the National Agroclimatological Office at Bamako.The following parasites species were recorded from Sahelian sheep in order of predominance: Trichostrongylus colubriformis, Haemonchus contortus, Strongyloides papillosus, Cooperia curticei, Oesophagostomum columblanum, Skrjabinema ovis and Trichuris ovis. Vi/V Kadiolo BaouleR. BagoeR.The results obtained from this survey may not reflect the overall field situation due to a limited sample size from the abattoirs visited.Based on post-mortem examination, the following nematodes were identified in long-legged Sahelian goats in order of predominance: Skrjabinema ovis, S. papillosus, H. contortus, T. colubriformis, O. columbianum and Cooperia curticei.Only two nematode species were found in significant numbers. These were T. colubriformis and H. contortus. Prevalence figures are given in Table 1 . There was a relatively high prevalence of G. pachyscelis infection (27 %) observed in these goats. Fasciola gigantica and paramphistomidae infections occurred with a prevalence of 20% and 35%, respectively. Only one sheep was found to be infected with Schistosoma spp. No Dicrocoelium was found during the course of the investigation.Not a single F. gigantica was found to infect the local dwarf sheep in the southern part of the country. However, 18% of the animals were infected with both D. hospes and paramphistomes. Due to a limited sample size, the results of this investigation concerning the dwarf sheep may not reflect the overall field situation.Trematodes were found with the following frequency: Paramphistomum spp (34%), F. gigantica (7%) and Schistosoma spp (3%).No Fasciola was recovered in these goats in the course of this investigation. On the other hand, 44% of the animals examined were infected with Dicrocoelium hospes. The only larval cestode reported in this study is Cysticercus tenuicollis. Post-mortem examination showed the following prevalence: Sahelian sheep (19%), Sahelian goats (42%) and Sudanese dwarf sheep (42%) and Sudanese dwarf goats (46%).In the traditional management of animals in Mali, sheep and goats are grazed together. This parasitological survey has shown that they also share the same parasite species but with different levels of infection. Studies conducted in Australia also showed that sheep and goats were infected with the same species of worms when grazed together (Malins, 1971). However, conflicting results have been reported elsewhere in Africa (McCulloch et al, 1968) and in Europe (Le Riche et al, 1973) with different types of management. One explanation for the difference in worm burdens and composition in sheep and goats is that the latter they are browsers as well as grazers and, if feeding on scrub high enough, they could avoid most of the infective trichostrongyle larvae.Heavy infections coincided with the rainy season, then progressively declined during the dry season. Immature stages (most of which were at an early stage of development) were recorded during the dry season and, thus, probably contributed to the increase of the adult populations during the rainy season. These findings suggest that most of the larvae had undergone inhibition of development during the drier period of the year. The phenomenon, as described in cattle, is commonly known to occur in sheep in temperate regions (Donald et al, 1964;Dinneen et al, 1965;Michel, 1974) and recently recognised in tropical Africa. Studies done in Senegal (Vercruysse, 1985, have shown that larvae ingested between October and December were inhibition-prone, the adult populations resulting from the burden acquired during the previous August. Furthermore, the study showed that from January onwards, as the hypobiotic larvae started to mature, these new adults gradually replaced the older population and seeded the pasture with eggs. Therefore, the author concluded that starting in June-July-August, a new population of adult worms developed.In Mali, the peak of immature Haemonchus was observed in March among the Sahelian sheep and represented 91% of the rainy season. This decrease coincided with a sharp increase of the adult population suggesting the maturation of the immature worms. Additional data are required from the dwarf sheep in the Sudanese region to ascertain the survival mechanisms of the parasite.Although the genus Trichostrongylus is considered to occur primarily in temperate regions and not thought to thrive during the warm rainy season (Grant, 1981), results from this study indicate that this species may be of economic importance in sheep in Mali because it is one of the most prevalent species both in the Sudanese and in the Sahelian regions. In the Sahelian sheep, T. colubrifirmis was found to be the most abundant nematode species with the highest mean intensity.Since the first report on the occurrence of the hookworm Gaigeria pachyscelis in sheep and goats in South Africa (Orlepp, 1935), a wide distribution of the parasite has been reported in tropical Africa. Graber (1965) recognised this parasite among native sheep of Senegal. Assoku (1981) in Ghana found only 1 % of the sheep infected with this hookworm. The present survey indicates a higher prevalence in the southern regions with 27 % and 15 % of sheep and goats being infected, respectively. On the other hand, the Sahelian counterparts had a much lower prevalence (7% for sheep and 2% for goats). These findings suggest that the parasite thrives in a region with higher rainfall. However, research is needed to ascertain the importance of the epidemiology of this parasite in Mali.Results from earlier workers indicated that up to 66% in sheep of Chad were infected with O. columbianum and there was a wide distribution among the Senegalese sheep (Vassiliades, 1981). In Mali, it appears from this study that nodular form of the infection is of greater economic importance with a prevalence rate of 25 to 40%. The presence of nodules on viscera is of prime importance for the rural population because the infected intestines are subject to condemnation during meat inspection and are therefore lost for use as sausage casings.These species occurred more commonly in cattle than in sheep and goats (less than 5% of the small ruminants were infected with the genus). The following species were identified: Cooperia pectinata, Cooperia punctata and C. curticeci.As indicated by gross liver and microscopic examinations for the presence of adult worms and eggs, 20% of the Sahelian sheep were infected with Fasciola gigantica, where as only 7 % of the goats in the Sahelian regions were infected with the same parasites. The difference in the level of infection and prevalence is probably due to difference in resistance to infection and grazing habits of the host species.Only 3 % of the sheep examined were found to be infected with Schistosoma bovis in the Sahelian region. Further investigation is needed to assess the pathology of schistosomes in small ruminants because of increasing reports of damage that the parasite might cause in sheep (Vercruysse, 1985).Cysticercus tenuicollis was widely distributed among small ruminants in Mali. However, this parasite is known to be of low pathogenicity (Dunn, 1978). Other species, such as Moniezia, Avitellina and Stilesia were also commonly associated with sheep and goats.Control Strategy in the Semi-arid ZoneThe experiment was carried out in the Djoni village located in the Bamako country, 1 50 km north-east of Bamako with an average annual rainfall ranging from 500 -600 mm.One hundred and fifty goats and 70 sheep aged from birth to 24 months were grouped at random into different age categories prior to anthelminthic treatment. Animals comprised exclusively Djallonke sheep and dwarf goats.Both animal breeds were owned by small individual households. They are kept around the villages during the rainy season and allowed to graze freely away from the villages without herding during the dry season.Priorto anthelminthic treatment, animals were divided intofive different treatment groups and all were immunised against pasteurellosis, anthrax, black leg and peste des petits ruminants (PPR). The anthelminthic treatments were as follows:No treatment (control group) T1 -received TBZ 66 mg/kg of liveweight T2 -fenbendazole 5 mg/kg The experiment was carried out at Fonsebougou, 56 km north of Sikasso in the southern part of Mali.Eight flocks of sheep owned by villagers were identified by ear tags and randomly divided into three groups of treatment according to their weight: Liveweight changes: to determine any change that has occurred in liveweight, sheep were individually weighted every two months.No mortality was recorded.Our findings demonstrated that lambs were more heavily infected by trichostrongyles because they were more susceptible. The maximum egg count was observed between August and October with a peak in September. However, ewes remained infected all year-round thus serving as the source of contamination for the lambs.No significant change was noted on liveweight between the treated groups and the control in adult sheep (ewes and rams). No statistical analysis could be done of weight data lambs because of the low number of observations by the end of the experiment.Session 4Small ruminant feeds and feeding systemsEvaluation des strategies visant a faire correspondre les ressources fourrageres aux besoins des petits ruminants R.M. NjweCette etude passe en revue les stratégies a suivre pour que les ressources fourrageres puissent couvrir les besoins de I'élevage des petits ruminants. Le choix du type de strategies a adopter s'effectue en tenant compte des conditions climatiques, ecologiques et socio-economiques prevalantes. Diverses strategies sontAfrica, excluding South Africa, has about 22% of the world's population of sheep and goats, and produces 14% of the total sheep and goat meat. Goat and sheep milk production in Africa also accounts for approximately 14% of the world production (FAO, 1981).Small ruminants represent 24% of the total livestock units in Western Africa and 17% in eastern Africa (Peacock, 1985). Their distribution tends to favour the arid and semi-arid zones of tropical Africa where 58% of sheep and 68% of goats are found. Dwarf goats and sheep are more abundant in the humid zone of West and central Africa particularly as they have the advantage of being trypanotolerant.Small ruminant production is typically a small-scale farmer activity attracting minimum investment in housing, feed and health care and is largely sustained by the potential of the individual breeds themselves. Three distinct management systems can be distinguished: free roaming (extensive) or herding, tethering and confinement of animals. Tethering and confinement are associated with areas characterised by high population densities, more intensive cropping, land scarcity and high labour requirements. In most of Africa, an extensive management system of production seems most popular for both sheep and goats. Among the numerous constraints to production under these systems, those related to nutrition are of primary concern.The nutritional problem Gatenby (1982) has indicated that the major factors limiting the productivity of small ruminants in Africa are poor nutrition in the semi-arid areas and diseases in more humid areas. Water can be a problem in some dry areas. Contrary to popular belief, the genotypes of breeds in Africa are not the primary limiting factors especially where nutrition, disease and marketing problems have been adequately handled.The nutrient content in the form of metabolisable energy, digestible protein and minerals may be poor in arid and semi-arid regions, even when vegetation appears to be adequate. The dry season poses serious feed problems in semi-arid areas. There are three aspects of the feed problem, namely, the issue of increasing the efficiency with which the available feed is utilised (e.g. forages, crop residues, agro-industrial by-products and nonconventional feeds), the inability to make maximum use of the limited total feed resources and the inadequate supplies of feed (Devendra, 1 987) and water.Strategies for ensuring adequate nutrition of small ruminants must be based on optimising overall agricultural and livestock productivity from available resources, improving existing technologies and integrating technology that employs multipurpose crops and animals and recycling of crop residues and by-products as nutrients for both animals and plants.Components of such strategies may include matching livestock production systems to available resources, selection of crops and cropping systems that will maximise biomass production and nitrogen fixation and thus minimise use of inputs external to the system, developing simple processing techniques to optimise the use of different components of crops for different end purpose, recycling of livestock wastes, making more efficient and widespread use of agricultural and industrial by-products as sources of ruminant feed and incorporation into the production system of non-ruminant species that are well adapted to use of farm resources, by-products and wastes. An in-depth analysis of each strategy is worthwhile.Increased offtake De Boer (1982) reported that traditional producers, because of their small-scale operations, market few animals on ad hoc basis, if at all. Small-scale intermediaries handle the transport and assembly functions needed to make up economic numbers of animals for transportation to larger markets.Experience shows that the scope for increasing offtake lies neither in attempts to regulate and control the market participants nor in the control prices, nor creation of parastatals but rather in facilitating the operations of the market participants and instituting measures which reduce marketing costs. These include, improving the infrastructure of livestock marketing, the provision of market information through the mass media (i.e. prices and volume of livestock traded in various markets), regulating the standards of products and services and negotiating favourable trade agreements in export markets (Solomon Bekure and McDonald, 1985).Increased use of legumes in cropping and pastoral systemsIntercropping forage legumes with cereals tends to increase the overall crude protein level of the total fodder available after grain harvest of the primary crop.Usually this involves undersowing a cereal crop with legume. The time of undersowing is critical to optimum production of grain and fodder. Mohamed Saleem (1 985) indicated that planting Stylosanthes guianensis cv Cook or S. hamata cv Verano on the same day with sorghum reduced grain yield by more than 70%, but the loss of grain yield was minimised if they were sown 6 and 3 weeks, respectively, after planting the sorghum. Similarly, reduction in grain yields was observed in a trial in which sorghum was sown with Centrosema pascuorum, Alysicarpus vaginalis or Macroptilium lathyroides on the same day, but the reductions were not as significant as with S. guianensis.Fodder banks have been suggested as a strategy to improve nutritional status of livestock in the dry season. Fodder banks are concentrated units of legumes established by pastoralists adjacent to their homesteads to serve as supplements to dry-season grazing. In Nigeria this has been developed into a low-input technology package for pastoralists by ILCA (Mohamed Saleem, 1985). Preliminary results on use of fodder banks appear to be quite promising despite some problems associated with establishment, utilisation and regeneration.Association of forage legumes in crop rotation has been demonstrated to improve the nitrogen content of soil thereby benefiting crop production when such plots are cropped. This also offers appropriate opportunity to integrate crop and livestock production. Mohamed Saleem (1985) reported that maize growth and grain yield was much higher when a portion of fodder banks of different ages was cropped as compared to yields immediately outside the fodder banks, which were previously either cropped or under natural sub-climax vegetation.Production systems using tree legumes usually consist of either a dense population of trees in a small area, a row of trees planted as \"hedgerow\" on bunds, as edges of crop areas or interplanted with crops (alley cropping).The leaves of trees can be used as a high quality supplement to crop residues and grass. The level of incorporation may range from 20-75%. High responses in terms of weight gain have been registered with small ruminants (Home et al, 1986). Leaf production seems relatively unaffected by frequency of cutting although wood production is increased with decreasing cutting frequency. Preston and Leng (1987) have indicated that tree legumes such as Gliricidia, Erythrina and Leucaena have a great potential as sources of legume fodder particularly as they are high-yielding perennials and possess deep-rooted systems that may have access to ground water and nutrients that may not be available to smaller leguminous plants. Rajaguru (1987) estimated that a hectare of tree fodder such as Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala could yield up to 6-8 tons of dry matter per year which could support 12 goats or sheep. Meanwhile, Home et al (1986) estimated forage yield of G. sepium and L leucocephala at 1 2. 1 tons/hectare/year.Small ruminant production in an alley-cropping perspective has been analysed by Sumberg (1 985). Alley-cropping is a system in which crops are grown in alleys between rows of frequently pruned trees. The large input of nitrogen and organic matter from tree foliage can potentially support continuous cropping at intermediate yield levels (Kang et al, 1981). Small ruminants can be integrated into an alley cropping by cut-and-carry feeding of portions of the tree foliage or by grazing natural fallow regrowth and trees during periodic fallow years. The cut-and-carry feeding applies to goats and sheep while the grazing system is limited to sheep because goats tend to de-bark the trees. Fast growing leguminous trees like G. sepium and L leucocephala are essential for the system of feeding. In order to give sufficient benefit to the crop and avoid the possibility of soil mining, it is recommended that approximately 75% of the available tree foliage be applied to the soil as mulch while the rest is given as feed to animals. An annual tree foliage yield of four tons dry matter/hectare would yield about one ton dry matter which is sufficient to support approximately 14 adult animals per hectare as a year-round supplement or four animals/ha as sole feed. Van Eys (1987) cautioned that structural carbohydrates are usually high in forage supplements. When their levels are high, this tends to interfere with the utilisation of roughage as well as supplement. In addition, there are some antiquality components in forage supplements (tannins, cyanogenic glucosides, nitrates, soluble oxalates) that can reduce payability, voluntary intake and productivity if forage supplements are fed continuously to small ruminants, and particularly if they are fed in the fresh form or grazed by the animals. Some of these compounds can be partially destroyed by drying or storage. However, ruminants tend to be suited to utilising some forage legume supplements that contain antiquality substances since these can be detoxified in the rumen (for example, mimosine DHP in L. leucocephala).Effective exploitation of natural browse for the nutrition of small ruminants In Africa, it has been estimated that over 250 million head of domestic animals live in arid, semi-arid and mountain zones where browse is an important qualitative component of the livestock diet (Le Houerou, 1978). The widespread traditional use of browse as an available source of quality feed during the dry season is vitally important to maintain seasonal and yearly stability of livestock production. Lamprey et al (1 980) have reported a browse productivity rate of 5000 kg dry matter/ha/annum for riverine Acacia xanthophloea which is about double that of most savannah grasslands. However, there is a large variability in productivity within populations of browse species depending on the ecological conditions. Established browse plantations of Medicago arborea have been able to produce 3500 kg dry matter/ha/year under annual rainfall of 350-450 mm (Le Houérou, 1975). Otsyina and McKell (1984) indicate that browse, especially in the savannah vegetation types, contributes a large amount of available forage as a complementary source of feed for livestock, particularly during the dry season when herbaceous forage is in short supply. The major problems appear to be inadequate management systems that fail to make optimum use of shrubs and find ways to increase the number and quality of valuable browse species available for livestock production. Le Houerou (1980) reported that compared with tropical grasses, browse is richer in protein and some minerals in the dry season. At this time, browse plants are the most valuable feed used by livestock. Browse could therefore supplement the low protein content of grass forage if used effectively during dry periods. The crude fibre content of browse also tends to be lower than that of grasses and usually ranges from 20-40% and is even lower for shoots and leaves (Pellew, 1980). Given the low content of crude fibre in browse compared with dry grass, the energy content of browse appears to be higher than that of dry grass (Le Houerou, 1978).Browse plants can satisfy the needs of small ruminants on provided that the animals can gain easy access to them and a sufficient quantity is available to them directly or with the aid of man. From dry to humid tropical Africa the contribution of browse towards intake by an animal implies considerable effort on the part of herdsmen in activities such as planting of browse trees, maintaining the necessary balance of the species present by selective bush-clearing and making browse available to animals by either beating down fruits as in the Sahel, by trimming or cutting back (Boudet and Toutain, 1980). Carew et al (1980) reported studies on the potential of browse plants in the nutrition of small ruminants in the humid forest and derived savannah zones of Nigeria. Savannah goats and sheep browsed and grazed longer and spent less time scavenging than their counterparts in the humid forest. The biting ratios of browse to grass in the forest zone were 77: 1 for the goats and 1 3: 1 for the sheep. This shows that browse plants were selected more often by goats and sheep in the forest zone than the savannah region though browse plant height or accessibility tended to affect selection pattern. Common species studied were Ficus exersperata, Newboulotia leavis, Asphilia africana, Spondias mombin and Cyclicodiscus gabunensis.Recommendations (Otsyina and McKell, 1984) for research on browse plants include the identification of superior browse species with regard to available productivity, nutritive value and persistence under grazing by livestock; the development of methods for establishing desirable browse species in ecologically favourable areas along with grasses in mixed plantings; the improvement of management practices of established and native pastures containing both browse and grass species to maintain effective species composition; and the documentation of characteristics useful for improving shrublands for small ruminants in different seasons.Tree crops may contribute to livestock feed resources through use of their by-products. If these by-products could be collected properly and processed, they could offer alternatives to costly concentrates. Common by-products obtained from plantation crops include coconut cake, palm-kernel cake, rubberseed cake, citrus wastes (pulp, seed meal) and cocoa pods and residues. Cover crops grown in plantations also offer feed that can be used for small ruminants. Natural herbage growing under plantation trees may be collected and conserved in the form of hay. Where possible, controlled grazing underneath tree canopies may be practised on a rotational basis. Fodder cultivation under plantation crops can also be practised.Wan Mohamed (1 987) has indicated that cultivation of cover crops in plantations in Malaysia offers a lot of potential for production of small ruminants. The age of rubber trees or oil-palm trees tends to influence the botanical composition of the ground cover. Cultivated legume cover crops tend to decline as the trees mature due to their shading effect which reduces photosynthesis. In terms of compatibility, sheep production is more compatible with oil palm cultivation than goats. However, both species are complementing in reducing the need to use herbicides and thus reducing the cost of weeding and increase returns per unit area of land. Parawan and Ovalo (1987) reported that integration of livestock production with coconuts has a high potential in the Philippines. Moog et al (1977) indicated that coconut plantation pasture is available throughout the year and provides of farmers with nutritious feed for livestock. When feeds are scarce, farmers use coconut fronds in addition to bamboo leaves, banana leaves and Gliricidia sepium.The low technology inputs, the versatility in the feeding habits, and the relatively low acquisition cost of goats and sheep can fit appropriately into the majority of smallholder coconut farms. The added value of goat meat and milk, mutton and animal manure as fertiliser produced from the use of crop products, crop by-products and forage under coconut can raise the average income of the coconut smallholder (Parawan and Ovalo, 1987).The constraints of integrating small ruminant production in rubber and oil-palm plantations include damages to young plants especially at establishment time, the potential toxic effect of herbicide sprayed on tree crop planted in rows and rat-baiting in oil-palm plantations which could contaminate by-products of oil-palm processing which could lead to copper toxicity problems in livestock (Pillai and Tan, 1977).In countries where there is large-scale cultivation of citrus, their by-products offer useful feed resources for livestock. When grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) and sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) are industrially processed on a large-scale to produce juice or sections, by-products such are peels, rag, and depending on method of processing, other by-products like citrus molasses and citrus seed meal may be available. In most cases, the harvest of citrus usually coincides with the dry season when grass is scarce. When quantities of peel and rag (the string axis and white fibrous membrane) are large, they are conserved by drying. The dried citrus pulp can easily be mixed with other ingredients and is palatable, rich in nutrients and exerts a mild laxative effect. It can be stored for all-year feeding and deteriorates less in storage than many other feeds (Gohl,1 978). The pulp is better used as pellets where possibilities for pelleting exist.Banana plantations also offer important feed resources for feeding small ruminants. It has been estimated that, for every ton of banana picked and exported to the fruit market, about 750 kg are rejected as being either unsuitable or in excess of requirements. This discarded fruit represents 10-20% of the crop depending on the degree of culling and the amount of fruit that is rendered unusable by storms (Le Dividich et al, 1978). Most of this can be used as animal feed. Chenost et al (1976) reported that in ad libitum feeding of goats, when forage and bananas were offered separately in a trough, the two feeds were ingested in such proportions that bananas constituted 20-40% of total ingested dry matter. When bananas were blended with forages, the intake of both dry matter and digestible organic matter rose sharply from 0-20% with increasing dietary content of bananas; at the 20% level, dry-matter intake was higher for ensiled than for fresh green bananas with a peak of 1 .8 to 2.2 kg/1 00 kg liveweight. Beyond this level, dry-matter intake remained relatively constant as bananas replaced green forage on a weight-for-weight basis, while digestible organic matter rose slowly. Banana leaves may also be used as forage for animals.With increases in population pressure and the demand for more food and farmland, the use of crop residues and by-products is increasing. Straw, for example, is a valuable feed resource especially during the dry season. However, Preston and Leng (1987) believe that the feeding of straws, like most roughages, to ruminants is constrained by their slow rate of degradation and therefore low total digestibility, their low propriate fermentation pattern in the rumen and their negligible levels of both fermentable N and by-pass protein which is usually associated with their low intake.The digestibility of straws can, however, be improved by either alkali treatment, ammoniation, treatment with poultry manure or feeding with green forage legumes.Alkali treatment of by-products to improve intake and digestibility Kategile (1983) described a simple method of treating roughages with NaOH that could significantly improve their intake and digestibility in small ruminants. However, the cost and availability of NaOH may pose an important constraint under rural conditions. It is hazardous if not well handled and is a pollutant to environment.Urea supplementation (ammoniation) Naga and El-Shazly (1982) reported that supplementation with urea can improve the digestibility of nutrients contained in supplemented material provided the level of urea is maintained at 0.5 to 2%. There are risks involved when urea nitrogen in the diet exceeds 30%. This may lead to potassium losses in urine resulting in the depletion of the animal's body supplies (Juhaz et al, 1976). Eventually, this can lead to depressed bacterial growth, decreased synthesis of the B-vitamins in the rumen, loss of appetite and cerebrocortical necrosis (Naga et al, 1978).Ammonium hydroxide from urea appears to be safer to use than direct liquid ammonia or gaseous ammonia. When mixed with an equal weight of water, the mixture contains about 5% urea equivalent of dry matter on dry-weight basis. The solution can be kept in water and feed containers covered with plastic sheet to prevent exposure to air for 3-4 weeks. After this period the plastic sheet is opened to release ammonia that has been produced, and the material can be fed to animals.Using animal wastes to improve intake and digestibility of roughages Excreta from poultry are rich in N, mostly as uric acid which is hydrolysed to ammonia by rumen micro-organism. Sha and Muller (1982) reported that poultry wastes used at the 25-40% level can meet most of the protein and mineral requirements in ruminant livestock. However, the use of poultry wastes in ruminant feeds tend to result in reduced microbial count, low dietary energy content, exposure to pathogens and high intake of antibiotics and chemotherapeutics that may be present in the waste. Incorporation of high energy feed ingredients such as molasses, root crops and grains can balance energy requirements and maximise utilisation of the non-protein nitrogen (NPN) fraction of the wastes; mixing molasses with ration containing poultry wastes may improve payability and intake and prevent eye and respiratory problems associated with the dusty nature of poultry waste.Pathogens could be eliminated by ensiling, stacking, formaldehyde in treatment or dehydration. Feeding of wastes that contain high levels of antibiotics and chemotherapeutics should be avoided.Large quantities of lignocellulose from sugar-cane, timber and cereal processing usually go to waste. Feeding materials that are high in lignocellulose tend to have a low digestibility, low nitrogen content and low animal production potential. Simple inexpensive treatments which increase lignocellulose breakdown in the rumen and supplements of non-protein nitrogen could significantly increase animal production. However, when subjected to 3-6% sodium hydroxide solution and/or steam treatment, irradiation, grinding and ammoniation, lignocellulose breakdown in the rumen is increased, and with the addition of non-protein nitrogen its utilisation increases and thus improves animal production. Wong et al (1 974) reported that treating bagasse with high pressure (1 4 kg/cm2) steam for five minutes raised dry-matter digestibility from 28 to 60%.Conservation of forage as silage for feeding small ruminants during the dry season Conservation of forage as silage under proper conditions can result in the preservation of 90% harvested energy and protein and the concentration of energy within the silage (McCullough, 1978).In tropical Africa the use of silage is not common. It, however, offers a good opportunity to preserve abundant forage produced during the wet season for use in the dry season. Under rural conditions, silage can be made in pit silos which are relatively easy to construct and are also affordable by farmers. Recently, there have been improvements of silage-making using discarded fertiliser plastic bags.The chopped grass is compacted in the bag and sealed. All the bags are then packed and compacted in the silo after which the silo is sealed. This system enables farmers to ration the daily require silage by simply removing one or more bags as required. Empty fertiliser bags cost about 0.3 US dollars in local markets.Silage-making is most convenient in high population areas where pastures are scarce and grasses like Tripsacum laxum and Pennisetum purpureum are readily available. Where sugar-cane tops are abundant these could also be ensiled.Under rural conditions, labour may be a serious constraint if large amounts of silage are to be made without mechanisation.Increased conservation of feed as cut or standing hay and supplements for use in the dry seasonWhere animals are prevented from migration during the dry season, feeding strategies must be evolved that will prevent the animals from losing weight. Quite often some of the pasture is ungrazed during the wet season and retained for use during the dry season. This is called standing hay. This would require suitable supplements in order to maximise its efficiency of utilisation. Diets based on molasses/urea mixture may be employed to supplement dried standing hay (Gulbrassen, 1985). Whole cotton seed is occasionally used (Ngo Tama et al, 1987) in sheep rations in the semi-arid regions in North Cameroon. Similarly, cotton seed and groundnut cakes may be fed with straws, cut fodder or hay (Njwe, 1978;Fall et al, 1989).The use of non-protein nitrogen (NPN) with standing hay has also proved most effective in dry-season feeding. Urea is most commonly used. The primary concern in feeding urea is providing sufficient amounts to be of value to the animal but minimising the risk of mortality from toxicity. NPN may be fed to animals by spraying on pasture in the field. The spray usually consists of 39% molasses, 6.25% urea and 54.75% water. This method is wasteful. Alternatively, the urea/molasses mixture may be fed separately as liquid in troughs placed in pastures, but the risk of poisoning, as each animal has free choice, is high. Block licks (40% urea, 10% molasses, 2.5% trisodium phosphate and 47.5% salt) have been used (Alexander etal, 1970). Molasses blocks of relatively low urea content can be used during droughts as high energy feed (Preston and Leng, 1987). The hardness of the blocks restricts and slows rate of intake. Alexander (1978) has recommended incorporation of biuret in dry licks that contain salt. First, a 1 :1 biuret to grain mixture is made. This is then mixed with salt in a ratio varying from 1:1 to 1:3. This mixture has been used to arrest decreases in body weight of sheep grazing dry poor quality pasture in Australia.Use of fertiliser to improve pasture yields On soils with low fertility, fertiliser application can increase dry-matter production per unit area. Superphosphate and nitrogen fertilisers like urea and ammonium sulphate are most widely used. Usually, fertiliser application is adopted in intensively managed systems in which high value products can justify the economic cost. The smallholder in most cases cannot afford the cost of using fertiliser, but farmyard manure from goat and sheep pens may be used in promoting higher pasture yields for a cut-and-carry intensive system of small ruminant production. Common fodder grasses that may be exploited in such a system include Tripsacum laxum, Pennisetum purpureum and Panicum maximum.Unimproved pasture will continue to play an important role in small ruminant production in Africa. Overgrazing must be avoided to prevent degradation of these pastures. However, since these pastures become markedly deficient in quality, they are better utilised in the dry season with supplements such as urea-molasses, tree-forage legumes, leguminous browse, conserved legume hays and crop residues like groundnut and cotton haulms. Dehydrated poultry excreta from caged layers can also be exploited in supplementing poor quality forages during the dry season. It seems to be an economical protein supplement for ruminants especially as the cost of dehydration is low when compared to the cost of conventional feeds. A destruction of possible pathogens in poultry wastes needs to be done before it is used.Quite often there may be competition for the use of some crop residues and agro-industrial products between livestock producers and industry. The production of paper from rice straw and alcohol from molasses, and the use of bagasse as fuel are common examples. This could easily render these feeds unavailable for livestock. Alternatives have to be identified and exploited to sustain livestock during a period of scarcity.Conservation of herbage and surplus by-products by ensiling, drying or other means ensures a continuous supply of fresh and conserved feed over prolonged periods. Preservation of by-products of citrus industry either by ensiling or drying can make important contributions to the amount of locally available feed resources for small ruminants.The cultivation of legumes in cropping systems may be hindered by the limited quantities and unaffordable prices of seeds. Commercial seed production which is a specialised activity, needs every encouragement by African governments. Several indigenous and introduced legumes and grasses need investigation in order to recommend suitable species for cropping systems and pasture improvement.Grazing sheep can help control weeds on rubber estates and provide income to smallholders (in smallholder schemes) during pretapping years. Optimum carrying capacities for different aged plantations need to be determined. Sheep seem to be more compatible than goats when reared on a semi-intensive basis in rubber and oil-palm plantations. Both species are suitable for coconut plantations.Silvipasture offer potential feed resources for small ruminant production in densely populated areas with forest reserves. Goats tend to adapt better to silvipasture than sheep.The feeding strategy to adopt will depend on factors such as climate, ecological conditions, topography, farming systems and prevailing socio-economic conditions. Extensive goat production under the traditional communal grazing system is widely practised in the semi-arid and arid regions of Africa which sustain 66.7% of the African goat population (FAO, 1984). This system, characterised by shortage of land, poor range management and seasonal fluctuation of feed supply favours mere survival rather than optimum production. Productivity of the goats in these areas can be improved by making more efficient use of the feed resources presently or potentially available to the farmer. To do this will require information on the nutrient quality of the feed as a function of season, the suitable physical form of the feed, the refusal rate and the physiological state and energy balance of the goats to be fed. Studies to generate such information often necessitate stall-feeding of the animals with no access to grazing. Unfortunately, when previously free-ranging goats are confined and stall-fed, they are stressed and may either eat less, lose weight, about (Wentzel, 1987) or even die (Kasowanjete et al, 1986). Many feeding trials are usually prematurely abandoned when goats fail to adapt to stall-feeding and unfortunately most of these futile efforts but nonetheless useful experiences are never reported.This paper discusses some of the problems experienced during the adaptation to stall-feeding of 100 previously free-ranging indigenous Matabele does.The reported work was carried out at the former Thuli Breeding Station which is situated in Matabeleland Province in the south-western part of Zimbabwe. The region is semi-arid. The vegetation is mainly acacia shrub and mopane woodland with several species of annual grasses appearing during the rainy months of November to March. Droughts are frequent, consequently herbage quality and quantity fluctuate within and between years. The total amount of rainfall during the study year ( 1989) was 162 mm. The mean maximum and minimum temperatures were 28°C and 13°C, respectively.In May 1989, one hundred muciparous indigenous Matabele goats were bought from communal farmers living within a 20-kilometre radius of the research station. The animals were driven on hoof to the research site. They were ear-tagged, weighed and their age was determined by counting the number of permanent incisors.On arrival the does were dewormed, dipped and vaccinated against pulpy kidney disease. Thereafter deworming and dipping were repeated on a regular basis.The animals were housed in groups in a large animal house with concrete floors and partial roofing that allowed adequate ventilation. A forage mixture (two-thirds veld hay and one-third lucerne hay) with a mean crude protein content of 12% and neutral detergent fibre content of 60% was offered ad libitum in raised feeding troughs. Water and a salt mineral blocks were freely available to the animals. As from September 1989 (fourth month of adaptation), all the does were individually offered 100 g maize grain daily so as to increase energy intake in preparation for breeding on-station. At the end of the fifth month of adaptation (October 1989), the goats were synchronised for oestrous using progesterone-impregnated intravaginal sheep sponges (Veramix 60 mg medroxyprogesterone, Upjohn, UK). The sponges were withdrawn after 14 days and 2 days thereafter, 10 large Matabele bucks, with a mean liveweight of 65 kg, brought in from Matopos Research Station, were introduced to the flock. The bucks continuously ran with the does during the day but were confined separately overnight so that mating records could be kept.In order to determine pregnancy, blood was collected through the jugular vein 21 days after mating and twice weekly thereafter. The blood was kept at 2CC overnight and allowed to clot. After 24 hours, serum was decanted and stored at -20°C until assayed for progesterone levels using a radio-immunoassay technique developed for goat serum.All goats were weighed weekly and kept under close observation during the adaptation period. All incidences of diseases and reproduction were recorded.The adaptation period was intended to take three weeks but had to be extended to six months due to problems associated with feeding, disease incidences and reproduction.In the first four weeks of adaptation, feed refusals were approximately 60% of the feed offered as goats selected mainly lucerne hay which constituted only 24% of the total dry matter offered. When the forages were ground in an effort to reduce selection, feed refusal rates doubled because the feed was dusty. Low dry-matter intake (below 40% of the expected intake) during the first few months of adaptation is not uncommon in stall-feeding trials involving goats fed forage-based diets (Ademosun et al, 1985). The low feed intake has largely been attributed to the ability of goats to select and ingest the higher quality of diets on offer (Owen and Aboud, 1988). Owen and Aboud (1988) have shown that intake will improve when goats are permitted to reject at least 50% of the feed offered rather than the conventional 1 0 to 20%.The reduced feed intake experienced in the first few weeks of adaptation may be the root cause of the observed liveweight losses, diseases and abortions.The most prevalent diseases during adaptation were orf (contagious ecthyma), gaseous lymphadenitis, kerato-conjunctivitis (pink eye) and swollen knee joints.In cases of orf, daily swabbing of the lesions with salt solution and gentian violet led to rapid recovery.In the second month of adaptation (July 1989) there was an outbreak of pink eye disease which spread rapidly amongst the whole herd; treatment with oxytetracycline led to quick recovery. Swollen knee joints were observed in 20 does and all 100 breeding bucks in the second month of adaptation. These swellings were diagnosed as none pathogenic (no antibodies to caprine Arthritis encephalitis virus) and were attributed to lack of exercise due to confinement. The affected goats spontaneously recovered within four weeks.Diseases encountered during adaptation may have led to the liveweight losses, abortions and acyclicity. In our study, incidences of orf and gaseous lymphadenitis were a lot higher than in normally experienced underthe traditional system.Six does died during the first month on station. Autopsies carried out were test negative for bacteriological and virological pathogens.There were (P) differences in mean doe liveweights at buying between the different age groups (Table 1). Mature 8-tooth does were 18% and 35% heavier than the 6-and 4-tooth age groups, respectively. In the first 6 weeks on station all does lost an average 56 g/day. After six months adaptation (November 1989) when the does were mated, doe liveweight differences were smaller although the younger 4-tooth does were still significantly (P) lighter than the 6-and 8-tooth groups which were about equal in weight. As from November (sixth month of adaptation) all does gained weight. The highest gains were in the 4-tooth age group (90 g/day) compared to 53 g/d and 80 g/day for the 6-and 8-tooth groups.These weight gains could be attributed to replenishment of lost body tissue and genuine growth in the immature 4-and 6-teeth groups. (SD) = standard deviation.Not withstanding the concerted efforts to avoid buying pregnant females, about 90% of the goats purchased turned out to be pregnant (Figure 1), mostly in the second month of gestation. None of these goats had shown overt pregnancy symptoms when purchased.During the first three months of adaptation, 30% of the does aborted. The highest number of aborters was in the young 4-tooth age group where almost 1.5 and 8 times more does aborted than in the 6-and 8-tooth age groups, respectively (Figure 1). Specimens from the aborted foetuses and placentae were tested for leptospirosis, contagious abortion, Rift Valley fever and blue tongue. All test results were negative and it was postulated that stress factors (such as a sudden change of environment, rather than disease could have caused the abortions.Based on information available in other ruminants and observations made in goat flocks, Morand-Fehr (1987) has concluded that pregnant goats are very sensitive to various kinds of stress such as rapid variations of environmental conditions, excessive animal density in the goat house, struggles between animals, psychic shock etc. Hypersensitivity to stress of pregnant goats has been explained by the theory that, unlike other domestic ruminants where both the corpus luteum and the placenta secrete progesterone, pregnancy in goats is sustained by progesterone secretion from the corpus luteum only (Sheldrick et al, 1980).Intravaginal sponges that were used for oestrus synchronisation could not be withdrawn from 10 does. The sponges were eventually pulled out after surgical manipulation of the vagina. Five of the does resumed normal oestrus after three months but the others remained acyclic.Mating was expected to commence two days after sponge withdrawal but was delayed by 20 days. Reasons for this delay cannot be readily explained. It is possible that the sheep intravaginal sponges used were unsuitable for goats, though other workers have reported successes with progesterone impregnated sheep sponges used on goats (Cameron et al, 1988). Environmental effects such as ambient temperatures could have contributed to the delay of oestrus onset or lack of libido after sponge withdrawal. It has often been stated that goats in the tropics will kid all year round (Wilson et al, 1984;Hale, 1986). However, there are indications of definite peak kidding periods, usually two per year, availability as influenced by rainfall patterns (Hale, 1986). It is possible that the rains also have a cooling effect on cyclic goats which enhances libido. In sheep, it has been shown that a high proportion of mating occurs in the early morning and activity subsides to a low point at midday and increases again in the evening (Blockey and Cummings, 1970). In this study the mean daily temperature was above average (34°C) wnen the goats were exposed to the bucks and mating only commenced a day after the first rains of the season.Mating (November 1989) lasted about four weeks and only 50% (48 goats) of the flock conceived as confirmed by consistently high blood progesterone levels (1 ng/ml). The rest of the flock which did not conceive in November continued to run with the bucks. Twenty eight of the remaining 46 goats were mated in February after which there were no further matings (Figure 2).Combining the reproductive outcome for matings in November and February (after 6-9 months adaptation to on-station regime), 74% of the original flock purchased managed to conceive and kid, 7% aborted while 19% remained acyclic recording basal blood progesterone levels (<0.3 ng/ml). The number of goats that aborted was far less after nine months (7%) on-station (Figure 2), as compared to 28% (Figure 1) in the second month on-station. Mature 8-teeth does had the best performance with the highest number of goats kidding (96%), the least number of does remaining empty (4%) and no aborters (Figure 2). The abortion rate was higher in the younger 4-tooth does (11%) than in the 6-tooth does (8%) which were 7.6 and 4.2 kg, respectively, does lighter than the mature 8-tooth does at mating. The presence of habitual aborters (does with a long standing poor reproductive history) in the flock cannot be ruled out. It is quite likely some farmers took advantage of the sale to rid themselves of their non productive stock. This could also explain barrenness of 1 0 goats at buying and the failure of the same goats to conceive at mating in November and in February.The fact that more does conceived when mated in February (increasing the total kidding rate in response to breeding on-station from 46% to 74%) means that given time to adjust a larger proportion of the goats will conceive and kid.Unfortunately this prolonged adaptation greatly inflates the cost of goat research projects as compared to cattle and sheep which usually adapt to stall-feeding in 3 weeks. Unlike cattle and sheep, goats seem to have a lower stress thresholdIn our experience, adaptation to on-station regime by indigenous Matabele goats previously managed under the traditional extensive system took more than 6 months. In the first few months, the goats ate very little forage and consequently lost weight. Diseases not previously experienced in the traditional system became a problem on station. Reproductive performance was poor, especially among the younger groups of females, suggesting that adult females have a better chance of adapting to complete confinement.It seems that numerous environmental factors acting either individually or collectively will impose some degree of stress but our knowledge of the ability of these previously free-ranging goats to adapt or adjust to stall-feeding needs to be improved by further long-term research.Fattening mature indigenous (Matabeie) goats: Effects on animal performance, body and carcass composition Complete cereal-based diets, containing either 50,33,22,or 10 veld hay (9. 7,10.3,11.6,and 12. 1 MJ MEIkg DM,respectively) were fed to 40 wethers, to achieve a target body mass gain of 10 kg by 230 days. Ten animals were slaughtered at the start of the experiment to determine initial carcass mass and the body and carcass composition.For animals which attained the target, slaughter mass growth rate and feed intake were similar between diets. Animals fed the 22 per cent hay diet out-performed the others in terms of mean body mass gain feed conversion ratio. Means of performance traits had high coefficients of variation and it is suggested that the heterogeneity of the sample population may have masked treatment effects.Compared to the preliminary slaughter group, carcass mass and yield was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by feeding as was fat deposition in both visceral and carcass depots. The quantity of fat deposited appeared to be positively related to dietary energy concentration.Embouche de caprins adultes de race locale matabele : effets sur les performances et la composition de la carcasse Peasant farmers in Zimbabwe own over two million goats (CSO, 1989). These goats, predominantly of the 'indigenous' type, are a heterogeneous population unselected for productive traits. Goats in Zimbabwe are reared primarily as meat animals (Hale, 1986), with little information on carcass attributes. Research in an extensive production system with the 'Matabele' goat of southern Zimbabwe, has suggested that a slaughter mass of about 38 kg will yield carcasses with desirable meat characteristics (Tawonezvi and Ward, n.d.).The effects of fattening goats on complete cereal-based diets differing in energy content, on animal performance, body and carcass composition were investigated.Fifty wethers (castrated goats) from the Matopos Research Station flock, aged either 18 or 24 months were used in the experiment. The goats were allocated into five groups of 10 animals each, balanced for body mass and age. One group (PS), was slaughtered at the beginning of the experiment to estimate the initial carcass mass and body and carcass composition.The remaining groups were randomly allocated to one of four diets containing either 50 (H50), 33 (H33), 22 (H22) or 1 0 (H 10) per cent coarsely milled (< 1 .5 cm lengths) range hay. Chemical composition and digestibility of the diets (Table 1) were as reported by Hatendi et al (1990). Animals were individually penned and offered feed in two equal meals at 07.00 and 14.00h daily. The amount of feed offered daily was adjusted each morning to allow refusals of between 100 and 200 g. Water was available at all times. Animals were slaughtered after gaining 10 kg body mass. The experiment ended after 230 days due to lack of feed.  Hatendi etal (1990).Animals were weighed before and after a 24 to 30-hour fast to determine final body mass (FBM) and mass at slaughter (SM), respectively. The head, feet, pelt, full gut, omentum mesentery, liver and heart were removed and weighed. The mass of the empty gut was determined after washing-out the gut contents whose mass was estimated by difference (full gu-t empty gut).Hot carcass mass was recorded within 30 minutes of slaughter and cold carcass mass after chilling at approximately 7°C for 48 hours. Chilled carcasses were visually scored for fat cover as described by Colomer-Rocher (1987).Carcasses were cut into three sections. The fore section was removed from the carcass by cutting between the 6th and 7th ribs, and the rib section separated from the hind section at the penultimate rib. Eye-muscle depth, eye-muscle width and backfat depth were measured with callipers on the cut surface of the penultimate rib.The carcass sections were split along the mid-line and the right sides sealed in plastic bags and frozen pending chemical analysis. Prior to analysis the frozen sections were ground twice through a cutter-grinder fitted with a 9-mm screen (Jeffco Food and Fodder Cutter-grinder Model 262B). Ground carcasses were thoroughly mixed by hand and a representative sample analysed to determine dry matter, crude protein, ether extract and ash content (O'Donovan and Elliot, 1971).Initially data from both the PS and fed treatment groups were analysed for treatment differences by ANOVA using age and initial body mass (IBM) as covariates. Where significant treatment effects were found orthogonal comparisons were made between the PS and the fed-treatment means. Subsequently, data from the fed treatments only were reanalysed by ANOVA using age and IBM as covariates and differences between diets evaluated using paired orthogonal contrasts. Differences (P < 0.05) between means of fed animals are indicated in tables by use of superscripts.Three animals died during the trial of unspecified causes (Table 2). These, in addition to the six animals which did not attain the targeted body mass, and had daily body mass gains of less than 35 g/d were excluded from the analysis. Diet offered did not affect (P>-0.05) animal performance traits (Table 3) though performance generally tended to improve with decrease in dietary hay.Slaughter mass and the carcass characteristics of all groups are shown in Table 4. Among the fed treatments, though gut fill at slaughter and the proportion of SM represented by gut fill were significantly higher (P<0.05) for the H50 than either the H33 or H22 groups, diet had no effect on empty body mass. Carcass Carcass fat score was lower (P<0.001) for the PS than the fed animals (Table 4). Among fed groups, though diet had no effect on fat score, it was highest for animals offered H10.Body parts of fed animals were heavier than those of PS animals. In terms of proportion of EBM, however, they were lower, except for the omental and mesenteric (0+M) fat (Table 5). Amongst the fed treatments the weight of the O+M fat depots and their proportion of EBM were lowest (P>0.05) for animals offered H50 (Table 5).As proportions of the cold carcass the fore and hind sections were lower (P<0.001) and the rib section higher (P<0.001) for the fed groups as compared the the PS group (Table 6). There were no differences (P>0.05) among the fed groups in carcass proportions.Eye-muscle width and depth tended to be greater (though not significantly as for the fed animals) than the PS group (Table 7). Among the fed groups, there were no differences in eye-muscle dimensions and back fat. Weight and proportion in the carcass of the kidney knob and channel fat (KKCF) was lower (P<0.001) for *** the PS than the fed groups. Among the fed groups KKCF weight and its proportion of carcass mass tended to increase as the roughage level of the diet decreased and were significantly (P < 0.05) lower for the H50 group as compared to the other fed groups (Table 7). Values in a row with the same superscript are not significantly (P < 0.05) different. KKCM = kidney knob and channel fat. ns = not significant. SE = standard error. CCM = cold carcass mass.Table 8 shows the chemical composition of the right carcass side (less kidneys and KKCF). Compared to PS group, feeding decreased carcass water (P<0.001), crude protein and ash content (P<0.001) and increased (P<0.001), carcass fat content. Among the fed groups carcass water, crude protein (CP) and ash were higher for the H50 group but differences were not significant. Carcass fat content was highest for the H10 group. *** Daily carcass gain (less kidneys and KKCF) tended to have more fat as the concentrate proportion in the diet offered increased (Figure 1). Dry-matter intakes of the fed animals ranged from 2.4-2.9 per cent of their body weight and falls within the 1 .9 to 3.8 per cent range suggested by Devendra and Burns (1983) for meat goats fed ad libitum. The observed inverse relationship between intake, diet energy content and DM digestibility is in agreement with work elsewhere (ARC, 1980;Forbes, 1986). Mean daily intakes of energy and protein (estimated by difference between the composition of feed offered and refused), were 8. 8,9.6,9.8,and 10.4 MJ ME and 200,190,130,and 140G CP for diets H50 to H 10,respectively. In this experiment, growth rates at these intake levels were lower than those suggested (>100 g/d) for growing goats by NRC (1981), Devendra and Burns (1983) or Wilkinson and Stark (1987). Animal performance was comparable to that reported for African breeds of goats reared intensively (Adebowale and Ademonsun, 1981 ;El Hag et al, 1984;El Hag et al, 1985). Growth rates in this trial were greater than the mean post-weaning gain between 5 and 1 8 months of 36 g/d reported at Matopos Research Station for extensively reared goats (Baffour-Awuah, 1987).Means of performance traits in this study had high coefficients of variation. This suggests a lack of uniformity of the indigenous goat population and may have masked treatment effects.Gut fill as a proportion of mass at slaughter was greater than the six to eight per cent reported for finished Sudan Desert goats (Gaali et al, 1972).Carcass mass and yield of the fed animals in this study were greater than those previously reported at Matopos Research Station for animals of similar origin reared extensively (38 kg body mass yielding 16 kg hot carcass mass; Tawonezvi and Ward, n.d.), and are comparable to those reported elsewhere for finished goats of similar slaughter mass (Naude and Hofmeyr, 1981;Devendra and Burns, 1983).Carcass fat cover increased appreciably in the fed groups. The observed large deposits of fat in the omentum + mesentery, and the kidney knob and channel fat depots, support reports which indicate minimal fat deposition in the subcutaneous fat depot of goats (Kirton, 1970;Gaali et al, 1972). The omental and mesenteric fat depots increased in weight by 3 to 5 times in the fed animals, representing between three and five per cent of the empty body weight. A large amount of fat was deposited in the carcass tissues of the fed animals.Whilst some of the differences in carcass chemical composition between treatment groups can be explained by the relationship with carcass mass (Kirton, 1970;Naude and Hofmeyr, 1981), there was a tendency for the fat component of carcass gain to increase with dietary energy content and intake. The large amount of fat deposited in non-carcass and carcass fat depots may be indicative of the final body mass of animals in this study approaching their mature mass and thus a tendency towards 'fattening' rather than 'growing'. The increased fat deposition with dietary energy level may in part be attributable to the effects of reduced protein: energy ratio of the diets as the roughage content decreased (Beede et al, 1985;Mtenga and Kitaly, 1990).Goats exhibit a centripetal growth pattern (Colomer-Rocher, 1987), with the proportion of the carcass represented by the forequarter and joints along the mid-line increasing with age and carcass mass (Kirton, 1970;Owen and Norman, 1977). The resultant improved carcass conformation of the fed groups becomes evident if the carcass mass to length ratio is used as an objective indicator of conformation (Colomer-Rocher, 1987). Calculated from the means of cold carcass weight and body length, with the ratio of the PS group used as a baseline, ratios for the fed treatment groups were 1.3, 1.6, 1.4, and 1.5 for treatments H50to H10, respectively.de la paille de sorgho a ere etudie chez 30 moutons Yankassa. La composition physique (proportion de tiges, de feuilles) et chimique de la paille et du dolique est presentee.La complémentation de dolique a déprimé l'ingestion de la paille de sorgho: (de 9 et 7% pour 90 et 180 g de dolique). Cette baisse est devenue significative (P<0,05) avec une complémentation de 270 g.L'addition d'uree a augments I'ingestion de paille et la digestibilite de la matiere seche et des parois cellulaires, respectivement de 6,5, 14,6 et 11,8% et a entraini un accroissement significant (P<0,05) de la digestibilite de l'azote. La complémentation s'est globalement traduitpar une amélioration du gain de poids des moutons. Au vu de ces resultats, il apparait que la complémentation de la paille de sorgho par le dolique en ameliore la consommation et l'utilisation. Toutefois, a niveau eleve (au-dela de 20%), le dolique tend a avoir un effet de substitution.Quantitatively, sorghum is the most important cereal crop grown in Nigeria (Table 1). About 46% of the estimated 21795000 hectares of land under cultivation is devoted to sorghum production with an annual total grain yield of about 5.53 million tonnes (Central Bank of Nigeria, 1988). Alongside this grain production is an estimated 22.14 million tonnes of stover which is available for ruminant livestock feeding. And since cereal crop growing areas are also the home of most of Nigeria's livestock population, cereal crop residues constitute an important feed resource during the dry season. Also, because Nigeria cannot as yet develop intensive livestock feeding systems based on expensive and scarce feed resources like grains, oilseed cakes, high-quality pastures, crop residues will continue to be important in Nigeria's livestock feed resources.However, crop residues are known to have low content of available protein, energy and minerals. It is recognised that rumen fermentation is impaired and animal performance lowered when the nitrogen content of the diet is less than 1 .2% (Conrad and Hibbs, 1968). The feeding of energy and protein supplements is known to enhance the utilisation of poor-quality feeds like crop residues by maximising roughage degradation and optimising rumen microbial protein synthesis (Anderson, 1978;O'Donovan, 1983). Because of high cost, scarcity and other logistic problems, the use of concentrates and non-protein nitrogen as supplements is not justified.The current interest in a more intensive use of crop residues in Nigeria justifies the search for cheaper and readily available supplements. Lablab purpureus is a dual-purpose legume crop that is rapidly gaining acceptance by agropastoral farmers in northern Nigeria (Tanko et al, 1990). Lablab has high seed and forage yield as well as good hay-curing ability compared with other commonly grown legume crops in Nigeria.The objective of this study was to compare the effect of urea and three levels of Lablab supplementation on the utilisation of a basal diet of sorghum stover by Yankasa sheep. 2. The extraction rates (seed:stover/haulm) developed by Alhassan and Kalian (1984) in NAPRI (unpublished) were used.Sorghum (SK-5912) was planted at a seed rate of 10 kg ha'1. At planting, fertiliser was applied at the rate of 37.5 kg N ha\"1 followed at 6 weeks by a side-dressing of 22 kg N ha'1. The sorghum was harvested for grains 123 days after sowing. After grain harvest, the whole plant was removed at ground-level and packed. Thereafter, a random sample was taken, weighed and subdivided into leaf and stalk portions. This paper reports the trials with ground sorghum stover (3-4 cm).Lablab purpureus cv. Rongai (white) was planted from seed at the rate of 15 kg ha'1. At 90 days the forage was cut and field-dried. A random sample was taken, weighed and separated into leaf and stem fractions. The Lablab was chopped into 1-2 cm pieces and used as the supplement in a series of experiments.Samples of the whole sorghum and Lablab as well as their leaf and stem fractions were analysed for dry matter, nitrogen, NDF, lignin and ash (AOAC, 1975;Goering and Van Soest, 1970).The nylon bag method (Orskov et al, 1980) was used to estimate ruminal degradation of the whole stover, Lablab and their respective leaf and stem fractions. About 3 g of each sample was placed in nylon bags (size 100 x 170 mm with 12 mm pore size) and were incubated in the rumen of 2 Bunaji cows in replicates. The bags were anchored by a 50-cm nylon string to the cap of the rumen cannulae and withdrawn at 12, 18, 24, 48 and 72 hours. They were then washed and dried at 60°C for 48 hours (Mehrez and Orskov, 1977) for the estimation of dry-matter and nitrogen disappearance. Thirty yearling Yankasa sheep with an average weight of 22.8±0.7 kg were treated for endo-and ectoparasites and used for the 78-day feeding trial. The treatments were:A -Sorghum stover ad libitum B -Sorghum stover + 90 g Lablab C -Sorghum stover + 180g Lablab D -Sorghum stover + 270g Lablab E -Sorghum stover + 9 g urea + sulphur to achieve N:S ratio of 10:1The Lablab supplements were intended to provide 1 0, 20 and 30% of total intake while the urea represented 1.5% total intake. The urea was dissolved in about 5 cc of water and mixed with the sulphur. The resulting solution was mixed with a grab-sample of the stover and fed to the animals first before offering the basal diets. This was to ensure a complete consumption of the urea. The stover was fed ad lib. Animals were weighed fortnightly. A 7-day total faecal collection was done at the end of the feeding trial.All data were subjected to analysis of variance and differences among treatment means were determined (Snedecor and Cochran, 1980).The sorghum stover is made up of 17.3% leaf, 26% upper softer stem and 56.7% lower woody stem while the corresponding figures for the Lablab are 38.7, 13.5 and 47.7%, respectively. In terms of physical composition the leaf and upper softer stem, which generally contain a higher concentration of most nutrients, constituted approximately 43 and 53% of the stover and Lablab, respectively.The apparently higher ash content (Table 2) of the leaf fraction may be partly due to soil contamination while being dried in the field. As expected, the NDF and lignin in the stem fractions were generally higher than in the leaf fractions. The grinding of the stover reduced selection of leaf fraction which are generally more nutritious and more relished by animals (Martin and Wedin, 1974;Powell, 1985) and enhanced a better utilisation of the whole plant. The 48-hour dry-matter disappearance rate (Table 3) increased with incubation time. Lablab was degraded more rapidly than stover. In both cases, the leaf fractions was degraded more rapidly than the stem fractions. Supplementation of sorghum stover with either Lablab or urea improved its degradability (Table 3) and digestibility (Table 4). Means with different superscripts within each row are significantly different (P < 0.05).Total feed intake increased significantly (P<0.05) when the stover was supplemented with 180 g Lablab. The 85, 170 and 255 g actual Lablab intake accounted for 18.8, 31.4 and 53.3% of the total dry matter intake, respectively. Total feed intake and utilisation were generally better in sheep given stover plus either urea or Lablab, a confirmation that nitrogen is deficient in the stover (Table 5). Stover intake was depressed by 9 and 7% at the 10 and 20% levels of Lablab supplementation, while the depression (44%) was significant (P<0.05) at the 30% level of supplementation. This result tends to support the contention that supplements have beneficial effects on the utilisation of fibrous feeds if the level of supplementation does not exceed 20% of the diet dry matter (Preston and Leng, 1984;Wegad and NDumbe, 1987). It would appear that Lablab had a substitution effect beyond the 20% level of supplementation. Means with different superscripts within each row are significantly different (P < 0.05).Though not significant (P>0.05) the digestion of dry matter, organic matter and NDF generally increased with increasing levels of Lablab supplementation.Crude-protein digestibility was, however, significantly (P<0.05) improved by the supplements. The supplements generally improved rumen fermentation of the test diets and the range of improvement falls within that reported by Sharma et al (1972).The improved liveweight gains of sheep fed Lablab supplement justify its use in preventing liveweight loss during the critical dry season period.It is concluded that the use of sorghum stover as a feed resource is greatly enhanced by supplementing with Lablab. The planting of Lablab with sorghum or maize has been accepted as a cropping practice by farmers in the subhumid zone of Nigeria. The settled farmers who feed crop residues to animals in their rugas can be encouraged to further reduce particle size (or grind) to enhance better utilisation. Already some well-to-do farmers have installed grinders on their farms. A study was conducted to investigate the effect of inclusion of Lablab meal on growth rate, feed intake and carcass composition of Black Head Persian (BHP) lambs. Twenty-four BHP castrate sheep with average weight of 14. 1 ±2.7 kg were allotted randomly to four dietary treatments. Lambs were individually maintained in metabolic crates. All animals were offered hay ad libitum. Lambs on control treatment (A) were given in addition 380 g of maize bran per day. Animals on treatments B, C, and D were given daily 380 g of concentrate based on maize bran with 25, 50 and 75% lablab meal, respectively.Growth rate, dry-matter intake and feed conversion ratio were 34, 66, 68, 71 glday; 58.7, 69.5, 74.0 glkgVfn/day and 15.2, 11.3, 9.3, 9.1 g/DMI/g gain, respectively, of treatments A, B, C and D. The level of inclusion of lablab meal had no significant (P>0.05) effect on killing-out characteristics. Hot carcass weight as percentages of slaughter weight and empty body weight were 41.3, 41.0, 40.5, 42.5 and 52.0, 52.3, 53.5, respectively, for animals on treatments A, B, C and D. Carcass composition expressed as percentage of carcass weight showed no significant treatment effects and value of 60. 91, 61.29, 61.11 and 62.97% for carcass lean, 19.06, 20.24, 18.42 and 17.54% carcass fat and 17.86, 16.70, 17.91 and 16.67% for carcass bone were obtained for treatments A, B, C and D. It is concluded that inclusion of lablab meal in maize bran above 25% has no beneficial effect in terms of growth rate and carcass composition.Utilisation de la farine de dolique (Dolichos lablab) comme complément protéique dans l'embouche d'agneaux sevrés Most of the four million sheep found in Tanzania are kept under extensive management systems and depend almost exclusively on natural pastures for their nutrient requirements. The availability of these feeds is mainly determined by the amount of rainfall and length of the dry season. Sheep find adequate quantities of a fair-to good-quality herbage during the initial months of the wet season and consequently gain weight. However, they start losing weight as soon as the grasses approach maturity and their condition deteriorates progressively through the dry season.Several experiments with sheep and goats have shown that performance can be improved by protein supplementation (Mtenga and Nyaky, 1 985; Mtenga and Kitaly, 1990). However, most of the supplements used such as soyabeans, cottonseed cake and cashewnut cake are expensive and are not readily available in sheep-rearing areas. Leguminous multipurpose trees and forages such as lablab niger offer the best alternative cheap source of protein supplement. Lablab can be easily cultivated and is drought resistant. It can be successfully grown in dry areas with rainfall as low as 400 mm (Luck, 1965). It can also be intercropped with maize or sorghum. The beans as meal and the forage as hay or silage, can form a good source of supplement to ruminants.A detailed study is underway at Mpwapwa in Tanzania to evaluate the yield and effect of supplementing low-quality maize and sorghum stover with lablab to provide further information on the effect of supplementing low-quality Rhodes grass hay with different levels of lablab bean meal on performance of lambs.A completely randomised design was undertaken with 24 castrated Black Head Persian (BHP) lambs. The age of the lambs was between 4 and 7 months and initial weight was 14.1 ±2.7 kg. Animals were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments. Chloris gayana hay was harvested from the University farm and was offered ad libitum to animals in all treatments. In addition to hay, animals in Lambs were penned in 150 x 90 cm wooden pens and fed individually. Hay was chopped into 4-6 cm length and was offered twice a day at 09.00 and 14.30 hrs while supplements were given once a day at 08.00 hr. Water was available at all times. Animals were weighed weekly. Samples of hay and supplement offered and refusals were collected for chemical analysis.At the end of the feeding period which lasted for 100 days, four animals per treatment were slaughtered, skinned and eviscerated. The head was removed at the OS occipitate-first cervical junction, while the hind and forefeet were separated at the tarso-metatersal and carpo-metacarpal junctions. Carcass was weighed after the kidney and pelvic fat was removed. The carcass was split into two halves and the left side was dissected into lean, fat and bone (Cuthbertson etal, 1972).All dried feeds were ground to pass through a 1-mm screen in a Christy and Norris 20-cm laboratory hammer mill. Chemical components of the feeds and meal samples (Table 1) were determined by standard methods (AOAC, 1975). Data were analysed by standard analysis of variance procedure for a completely randomised design (Steel and Torrie, 1980). If the treatment mean square was significantly greater than error mean square, treatment means were compared by the New Multiple Range Test of Duncan, using standard error of difference (s.e.d.)atP<0.05.Chemical composition of Chloris gayana hay, individual feed ingredients and the supplement are shown in Table 1 . The supplements in B, C and D had crude protein content of 169, 206 and 227 g/kg DM. These values are higher than the initially intended values of 141, 183 and 224 g/kg DM, respectively, derived from published figures. Hay refusals were lower in crude protein than hay offered.Total dry-matter intake (g/day and g/kgW°75) increased with increasing level of dietary lablab meal in the supplements as a result of increased intake of hay (Table 2). Lambs on treatments B, C and D consumed 18, 43 and 50% more hay than lambs on treatment A (without lablab supplement) . A similar trend was also observed in protein intake and animals on treatments B, C and D consumed 27, 58, 86% and 28, 56, 90% more protein per day and per kgW°75 than animals on treatment A. The estimated concentrations of protein of diets consumed were 7.8, 8.8, 10.9 and 12.2 g digestible crude protein per MJ ME.  Mean weekly liveweight changes as influenced by treatment are shown in Figure 1 . Animals without lablab meal supplement (treatment A) were inferior in growth rate throughout the period of study. However, treatment differences in growth trends of animals with lablab supplements (treatments B, C, and D) were not apparent. Table 2 shows that animals on treatment A had significantly (P<0.05) slower growth rate than animals on treatment B, C, and D. However, the difference in food conversion ratio among animals offered different levels of lablab supplement were small and insignificant (Table 2), but animals that received 25% lablab did not gain as fast as those fed which had higher levels of lablab (P<0.05). The level of inclusion of lablab in the ration had no significant effect on killing-out characteristics (Table 3). Dressing percentage showed no defined pattern Animals on treatments A and B had significantly higher proportion of kidney fat than animals on treatment D. The weights of lean, fat and bone as percentages of carcass weight and tissue ratios were also not affected by treatment. No correction was made for losses during dissection which ranged from 1.8 to 2.7%.Crude protein content of 59 g/kg DM of Chloris gayana hay used in this study is lower than that of 86 g/kg DM reported by Mtenga and Nyaky (1985) and of 143 h/kg DM reported by Mtenga and Shoo (1990) but higher than the value of 44 to 54 g/kg DM found by Mtenga and Massae (1988) from hay harvested in the same University farm. This variability is mainly associated with season of cutting and stage of growth at the time of harvest. The protein content of lablab bean meal of 254 g CP/kg DM found in the present study compares well with values reported elsewhere. Gohl (1981) found values of 242 and 280 g CP/kg DM for seeds from Uganda and Zimbabwe, respectively, while Santos (1976) reported a value of 270 g/kg DM for seeds from Mozambique.Protein supplementation may affect DM intake through its effect on digestion in the rumen (Adeneye and Oyenuga, 1 976; Egan, 1 977) and this may be the case in the present study. In our earlier studies on protein supplementation, voluntary intake of dry matter was reduced by protein supplementation containing high energy in diets and this was due to the animals receiving sufficient energy from the supplement to satisfy its requirements. Thus total DMI and hay intake will depend on the hay quality, amount of concentrate offered and the energy:protein ratio of the supplements.Response to nitrogen supplementation on growth rate has been reported by several workers. A crude-protein content of 1 1% in DM is considered ideal for normal liveweight gains in sheep and goats (Kay et al, 1968;Kay and MacDearmid, 1973). A similar trend in growth rate (34.14, 65.65, 68.01 and 70.5 g/day for treatments A, B, C and D, respectively) was also observed in the present study as the protein content of the diet consumed increased in the order of 1 1 .36%, 13.22%, 1 5% and 16.73% CP, DM. The growth rate observed in lambs on a low level of protein intake in this study (treatment A) was lower than that 50.0 g/day reported by Mtenga and Nyaky (1985) for similar sheep under grazing conditions. Similarly Mtenga and Nyaky (1 985) reported higher values of growth rate ranging from 73.4 to 94.6 g/day in BHP sheep under grazing conditions. The higher growth rates in these studies were perhaps due to ability of the lambs under grazing condition to select the more nutritious parts of browse during grazing. The findings are, however, in agreement with that 25.19 g/day reported by Shoo (1986) and that 33.9 g/day reported by Mtenga and Massae (1988) in BHP lambs under confinement which was the case in this study. Growth rate for lambs under high levels of protein intake (16.73% CP) were also lower than that of the 98.5 g/day reported by Mtenga and Massae (1988) and that of 120.27 g/day reported by Mtenga and Nyaky (1 985) for similar type of sheep under grazing plus concentrate supplementation.The tendency for lower growth rate at each level of protein supplementation observed in the present study could partly be due to the low intake of energy (Balch, 1976). The level of energy supplied to sheep has been considered to be of importance as the level of protein intake increases (ARC, 1980). In the present study increasing the level of lablab meal in the diet increased the protein: energy ratio, whose values were 26.59, 29.08, 36.84 and 43.44 g/DP/Mcal DE for treatments A, B, C and D, respectively. The importance of the protein : calorie ratio of diets has been reported by Preston et al (1965) who found that daily intake of 22 g DCP per Mcal of DE resulted in the maximum body gain of 251 g/day with wether lambs. Similarly, Adeneye and Oyenuga, (1 976) recorded best performance (302 g/day) for sheep with high energy intake (7.68 MJ ME/day) and medium but adequate protein (82.8 g/CP/day). In another experiment where energy was held constant and protein level was varied, highest daily gain (176 g/day) was attained by sheep on a crude-protein intake of 147.7 g/day and digestible energy intake of 9.9 MJ/day (Adeneye and Oyenuga, 1976). The lowest and highest protein intakes (100.4 g and 151 .4 g CP/day) produced the lowest daily gains (24 g and 54 g/day, respectively).The dressing percentages of 41 .3 to 42.5% on liveweight basis observed in this study compare well with the result (40-50%) reported by Devendra and McLeroy (1982). Increasing level of protein in the diet had little and insignificant influence on dressing percentage. These results are in agreement with the results reported by Kemp et al (1976) with lambs given diets varying in protein level from 10 to 16% CP. The findings are, however, at variance with those of Robinson and Forbes (1970) and Levy et al (1980) who observed an increase in the dressing percentage with increasing level of dietary protein in the supplement concentrate. Dressing percentage of 52.5% based on EBW observed in the present study compares well with the value of 52% reported by Owen and Norman (1977) for indigenous Botswana sheep. The importance of dressing percentage in the tropics, however, remains to be questionable since practically all of the by-products are consumed as food. Other components of the body even sell at higher prices than carcass meat (Mtenga, 1979;Devendra and McLeroy, 1982).The small and insignificant effect of protein level on the proportion of non-carcass components observed in this study is in agreement with past findings at Sokoine University. This was expected because these organs are early-maturing (Palsoon and Verges, 1952;Mtenga, 1979). Gut fat, however, showed a tendency to decrease from 2.7% at low-protein level in treatment A to 1.3% at high-protein level in treatment D. Similar trend has been reported elsewhere by Mtenga (1979).The overall mean percentage carcass composition data obtained in the present study are in line with few published data on sheep in Tanzania (Mtenga and Nyaky, 1985). French (1938), however, reported relatively lower values for lean and bone tissues and higher values for fat tissues for Black Head Persian lambs in Tanzania ranging from 49.9-57.5% and 8.9-11.1%, respectively, but the composition (as percentage lean, bone and fat) observed in the present study is in agreement with the findings reported elsewhere (Owen, 1976). Contradictory results were, however, reported by other workers (Andrew and Orskov, 1970;Fattetetal, 1984;Vipondetal, 1989). In their studies, they reported increase in percentage carcass nitrogen and decrease in ether extract in lambs as the level of dietary protein increased. Factors such as age and weight at slaughter, sex and breed singly or in combination may cause disparity of results between workers.The profit margin per animal for raising animals under treatment B diet was greater (30 TSh per animal) than that of control treatment (maize bran plus hay).The lowest margin of profit was, however, obtained for animals on treatment D (Table 4). At higher levels of energy intake, high level of lablab inclusion may be more profitable. The difference in marginal profit between animals given maize bran alone (treatment A) and those supplemented with lablab bean meal is too small to justify the practice of rearing lambs on lablab bean meal supplementation. The marginal profit, however, may vary from one place to another depending on the price of lablab bean.  facteur limitant pour la croissance des ovins et des caprins. Cependant, compte tenu de la faible réponse à la complémentation protéique enregistrée dans des essais effectués à la Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), on est en droit de s'interroger sur le bien-fondé de cette assertion.Cette étude fait le point des travaux effectués jusqu'ici à la SUA sur la complémentation alimentaire des agneaux et des chevreaux. Les quantités ingérées d'énergie métabolisable et de protéines brutes digestibles ont été calculées à partir des données initiales. Les analyses effectuées ont révélé qu'il existait une forte corrélation (r = 0,85) entre le rythme de croissance et la quantité d'énergie métabolisable ingérée, mais une faible corrélation (r = 0,67) entre celui-ci et la consommation de protéines. Ces résultats amènent à conclure que la quantité d'énergie consommée constitue le principal facteur limitant de la croissance des petits ruminants dans les conditions de la SUA (région tropicale semi-aride). Il est également conclu que les meilleures performances de croissance des agneaux et des chevreaux sevrés peuvent être obtenues avec des aliments complémentaires très riches en énergie mais seulement moyennement riches en protéines.The major part of cattle as well as small ruminants in Tanzania are fed on arid or semi-arid grasslands. That the nutritive value of the pasture drops drastically during the dry season is well documented. The content of crude protein decreases while the content of crude fibre increases resulting in a decreased digestibility of all nutrients and hence a decreased energy content of the grass (Butterworth, 1967;Osbourn, 1976;Gohl, 1981;Butterworth, 1985). The low digestibility of grasses means that the amount taken up by the animal will be reduced due to the decreased rate of passage through the rumen. All together, it means that uptake of both protein and energy from pasture the animal decrease considerably during the dry season.Therefore, supplementary feeding of livestock has been advocated and much research work has been devoted to trials using different compositions and amounts of supplements. The major idea has been that protein is the major limiting factor in the diet, and most trials have used supplements with protein-rich feeds. However, in many cases the response in terms of growth rate has been poor.The present paper reviews the results of a total of eight research projects performed at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania as MSc thesis or special projects during the years 1981-1989 in search of an answer to the following questions:Is intake of protein or energy the major limiting factor for ruminant growth on tropical grassland? and What types of supplementary feeds are more likely to improve the performance of grazing small ruminants?None of the reviewed papers estimated the animals'intake of energy. For most of the works the animals were kept in metabolic cages and the intakes of dry matter as well as of the individual nutrients were measured. Moreover, the digestibilities of the individual nutrients were determined in the same experiments.The available data therefore allowed us to calculate the intake of total digestible nutrients (TDN) or the intake of digestible organic matter (DOM) from which the intake of digestible energy (DE) or metabolisable energy (ME) was estimated using the following equations given by Devendra and McLeroy (1982):Hence the metabolisable energies stated in this paper were calculated as follows:1) ME (MJ) = 0.82 x 18.4 x TDN = 15.1 x TDN (kg) or 2) ME (MJ) = 0.82 x 19.2 x DOM = 15.7 x DOM (kg) Results obtained from using equation ( 1) or (2) were not significantly different.For some of the works reviewed the animals were grazed, so that the uptake of only the supplemented feed could be measured. For these cases we assumed that the uptake of dry matter from grazing was 0.45 kg/day for animals of 1 5-kg liveweight, and that the grass contained 9 MJ ME and 40 g digestible crude protein (DCP) per kg dry matter (DM). These assumptions are in accordance with the findings of Shoo (1986) and Muhikambele (1990) using grass hay (Table 2). An uptake of 0.45 kg/day for a 1 5-kg animal corresponds to 3% of its liveweight. This agrees with a low-level uptake as stated by Devendra and McLeroy (1982).The estimated intake of metabolisable energy and digestible crude protein (DCP) as well as the growth rates observed in the reviewed works are shown in Tables 1, 2 and 3. Kitalyi (1982) is a typical example of an experiment using     supplements with increasing contents of protein. The results clearly demonstrate that supplementation of 200 g concentrate with only 10% oil cake (11% CP) improved growth rate by two times. No further improvement was obtained by increasing the protein content of the mixture. Nyaki (1981) and Massae (1984) observed about three-fold increase in growth rates by using 400 or 500 g of supplement with moderate protein content.The effect of high-protein allowance to low-energy diets was especially demonstrated by the works of Shoo (1986) and Muhikambele (1990) using supplements of Leucaena leucocephala or cottonseed cake, respectively (Table 2). In both cases, the supplement had no effect on the growth rate.The relationship between growth and intake of energy or protein for all eight studies is illustrated in Figure 1 a and 1 b, respectively. The data show that growth rates are highly correlated with energy intake (r =0.85), while the correlation to protein intake (all points) is poor (r = 0.67). Figure 2 illustrates growth rates in relation to the amount of supplemented concentrate. The correlation is fairly high (r = 0.77).The relationship between growth rates and intakes of protein and energy was already illustrated by ARC (Agricultural Research Council) in 1980 (Figure 3). The data presented in Figure 1 b are in good agreement with the ARC illustration. Increase of protein intake on a low level of energy intake gives no improved growth. With increasing intakes of energy, growth rate increased and the requirement for protein increased. The encircled points in Figure 1 b show protein intake vs the growth when energy is non-limiting. Under these conditions growth rate is highly correlated to protein intake (r = 0.94).Thestippled lines in Figure 1 a and 1 b show feeding norms for a 15-kg goat kid according to Devendra and McLeory (1982). These feeding norms assume that protein and energy are fed in a ratio of 6 g DCP per M J ME. Other feeding norms also give similar ratio for protein/energy, eg NRC (1976) stated 6.5 g DCP/MJ ME. The protein/energy ratios of the supplemented diets referred to in the present review (Tables 1 , 2 and 3) in most cases exceed that of feeding norms.Table 4 summarises the data in Tables 1 , 2 and 3, showing average values of intake, protein/energy ratio and growth rates for unsupplemented groups and for groups given concentrates with \"moderate\" or \"high\" protein content. The data show that unsupplemented diets have low intakes, low protein/energy ratio and low growth rate. Supplementation increased energy intakes by 50% in average (from 4 to 6 MJ) and increased intakes of digestible protein by 100 or 200 /i. The average effect on growth rates was about 100%, independent of the Encircled points selected from graph b, as least-protein intake for same growth, i.e. protein limiting for growth. Stippled lines show feeding norms (Devendra and McLeroy, 1982). protein level. The data strongly point to the energy intake as the major limiting factor for growth under the conditions of the studies reviewed.The importance of energy supplementation is emphasised by the findings of Hai (1988) and Susuma (1989) both using cassava chips to increase the energy content of the supplement without changing the protein content (Table 3). The minor increase in energy intake from the supplement can not explain the observed increase of growth rate (about 50%). However, it is most likely that the groups on the cassava based concentrates had a higher uptake of grasses, resulting from a positive effect of cassava starch on the digestibility of the grass.The effect of energy on utilisation of protein is mainly due to the fact that protein synthesis is a very energy demanding process. The synthesis of microbial protein in the rumen requires the presents of digestible carbohydrate to provide Increasing protein intake energy. The synthesis of proteins in the animal body, for example muscle protein, require the supply of energy from combustion of nutrients like acetate and glucose. If the supply of energy rich nutrients is deficient, then an increased intake of protein will result in an increased transamination and deamination of amino acid. Increased amounts of ammonia are released, converted into urea in the liver and further excrete in the urine (Riis, 1983).This explains that increased protein intake on low energy allowance results in increased excretion of urinary nitrogen (Shoo, 1986;Muhikambele, 1990). Such diets result in increased nitrogen intake and increased nitrogen excretion, but no significant improvement in nitrogen balance or growth.Furthermore, the addition of high protein to low energy diets may have a negative effect as illustrated in Figure 3, lower curve. This is likely due to the energy expense of urea synthesis.  The present review allows us to conclude the following:1 . Energy intake is the major limiting factor for growth of ruminants on semi arid grasslands of Tanzania.2. Protein supplement alone to low energy diet has no effect on growth rate.3. Concentrate supplements should contain high energy and moderate amounts of protein to allow a content of about 6 g DCP per M J ME in the whole ration (concentrate + roughage).4. The summarised data of this review (Table 4) indicate that the growth rates of grazing lambs or kids can be improved from 30 to 60 g/day by use of a daily supplement of 200 g concentrate containing 12 MJ ME/kg DM and 1 2-1 3% of DCP. This corresponds to a mixture of maize bran with 30% cotton seed cake (CSC). A growth rate of 1 00 g/d requires total intake of 8.5 MJ ME and 55 g DC) (Fig. 1). Considering the supply from the basic diet (Table 4) the required content of the supplement is 4.6 MJ ME and 37 g DCP. If 400 g concentrate is given it must contain 1 1.5 MJ ME/kg DM and 9% DCP. This corresponds to maize bran mixed with only 15% CSC.5. Improved suggestions for best supplements require growth studies using different amounts of concentrate mixture with different protein-energy ratios. Such trails would allow us to calculate the economical optimal composition and amount of mixture.6. Future research on feeding must consider the intakes of both energy and protein, during the experimental design as well as in the conclusion of the work. Otherwise we shall continue to judge all beneficial effects as due to protein and all lacks of effect as due to experimental error! Effects of plane of nutrition on growth performance and carcass composition on lambs in Tanzania E.E. Massae^and LA. Mtenga2 A study was undertaken to investigate the effect of plane of nutrition on growth performance and carcass composition of lambs. Some animals were on low (L) and high (H) planes of nutrition throughout the experimental period of 112 days. One other group started on a low plane of nutrition for 56 days (LH) and changed to a high plane of nutrition for 56 days (LH) while another group started on a high plane of nutrition for 56 days and changed over to a low plane of nutrition for the remaining 56 days (HL).During the first 56 days, lambs on H regime grew faster and consumed less feed per unit gain than those on L regime. In the last 56 days lambs on LH regime showed compensatory growth by growing faster than those on the HH regime. In the same period lambs on the LL regime grew faster than those on the HL regime. When the whole 1 12 days were considered, the lambs on LH regime were almost as efficient as those on the HH regime in growth rate and feed utilisation.Carcass weight as a percentage of empty body weight was lowest for lambs on L and LL regimes. Carcass quality was, in terms of lean, fat, lean-to-fat and lean-to-bone ratios best for LL followed by HL, LH and HH regimes.Effets du niveau alimentaire sur les performances de croissance et la composition de la carcasse des agneaux en Tanzanie The aim of the sheep producer is to get his lambs to slaughter weight in a short time with maximum amount of lean meat, minimum bone and an amount of fat which is desired by the market. Among the many factors which contribute to variation in growth performance and carcass composition in sheep, plane of nutrition plays the major role. A high plane of nutrition improves performance and carcass composition of lambs (Owen, 1976;Andrew and Speedy, 1980;Mtenga and Nyaky, 1985). This is associated with increased intake of dietary energy and protein.It has also been observed that undernutrition disturbs the normal relationship between chronological and physiological ages in such a way that in case of animals on a low plane of nutrition, physiological ageing proceeds at a slower rate. When such retarded animals are given liberal amount of feed, they tend to grow at a rate appropriate to their physiological age rather than their chronological age. Osborne and Mendel (1915) noted this biological phenomenon which was characterised by faster than average growth rate and it was later termed \"compensatory growth\" by Bohman (1955).The phenomenon of compensatory growth has been a subject of great interest to researchers as reviewed by Allden (1968), Keenan and MacManus (1969) and Goodchild and Mtenga (1982). This is because proper utilisation of compensatory growth can result into economic benefits as producers are interested to keep their animals alive at the lowest cost possible in the dry season. Strategic supplementation of expensive concentrates can be beneficially used in feeding underfed animals at the end of the dry season in feedlot operations.Carcass composition of the underfed-refed sheep have also been observed to vary from those of continuously growing animals (Goodchild and Mtenga, 1 982) .Sheep which are mostly found in Tanzania include Red Maasai and Black Head Persian (BHP). BHP is considered superior in growth rate and carcass composition (French, 1944;Mtenga and Nyaky, 1985) and has been used to upgrade local sheep. There has been little research work carried out on the ability of these animals to survive during periods of less feed supply and compensate sufficiently during periods of liberal feed supply taking into account the existence of interbreed difference in the magnitude of response (Goodchild and Mtenga, 1982). The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of plane on nutrition on growth rate and carcass composition of lambs.Twenty-eight male Black Head Persian (BHP) and Red Maasai lambs were used The lambs had a mean initial liveweight of 14.6 2.3 kg and ranged between 10-14 months of age. Four animals were randomly selected and slaughtered to form a base line. The remaining 24 animals were randomly allocated to two treatments (H and L), each treatment having 12 lambs. Lambs on treatment L were fed the hay ad libitum plus 100 g of concentrate (basal diet), and was referred to as low plane of nutrition. Animals on treatment H were fed high plane of nutrition which consisted of hay ad libitum plus 400 g concentrate.After eight weeks, four animals were randomly selected from each treatment and were slaughtered. The remaining eight sheep on treatment L were randomly allocated to two groups. One group of animals continued with the low plane of nutrition (LL) while the other was put on high plane of nutrition (LH). Similarly the eight lambs on treatment H were randomly allocated to the two dietary treatments (HL and HH). Animals in the four treatments were slaughtered at the end of the 6th week to determine slaughter characteristics and carcass composition. Daily feed intake and weekly liveweights of animals were recorded.Chloris gayana hay was obtained from the university farm from two cuttings done in October, 1982 andJanuary, 1983. The concentrate consisted of 71% maize bran, 27% cottonseed cake and 2% mineral mixture (Maclik). The mineral mixture consisted in percentage of Ca (18.61), P (3.5), Na (13.0), CI (20.0), Cu (0.12), Co (0.03), Fe (0.31), I (0.01), Mg (0.44) and S (0.18).At the stated slaughter points animals were slaughtered and weight of warm carcass was taken excluding kidney and kidney fat. Non-carcass components were also obtained. The left half carcass was dissected into lean, fat and bone.Losses during dissection were assumed to come mainly from the lean meat and therefore lost weight was added to lean weight. The dissected components were thoroughly mixed together, frozen and then minced through a 2.5-mm sieve.Samples of feeds and carcasses were analysed according to the AOAC (1975) method. Analysis of variance was used for most of the parameters studied and treatment means were compared using least significant differences (Steel and Torrie, 1980).Diarrhoea was the only disease problem noted in four cases which occurred in the 9th week of the study. This problem was observed in lambs which were changed from low to high plane of nutrition and was probably due to initial high concentrate intake.Table 1 shows the chemical composition of Rhodes grass at two cuttings. There was an increase in crude fibre and a decrease in crude protein with the second cutting as a result of maturity and high lignification. The chemical composition of the other ingredients is also shown in Table 1 and the concentrate had about 18.0% crude protein. The concentration of energy in these diets, derived from a digestibility study was 9, 8, 9.7, 10.8, 10.3 MJ/kg DM digestible energy and 7.9, 7.8, 8.7, 8.4 MJ/kg DM metabolisable energy for treatments LL, HL, LH and HH, respectively. Growth rate and feed intake Lambs on treatment H grow faster (P<0.001) than those on treatment L during the first eight weeks of the experiment (Table 2) . Between weeks 9 and 1 6, there was also a highly significant (P<0.001) difference between treatments in daily gains. Lambs on treatment LH grew the fastest, gaining 41,71 and 84 g/day more than those on treatments HH, LL and HL, respectively. Changing from a high to a low plane of nutrition adversely affected growth rate of lambs (LL vs HL).Considering the whole experimental period, lambs on HH treatment had the highest gain followed by those on treatments LH, HL, and LL in decreasing order. Differences between HH and LH were, however, not significant (P<0.001).Liveweight of lambs as influenced by treatment with time is shown in Figure 1. It is clear that lambs on LH are compensating and compensation is more pronounced in the first few weeks following change from low to high plane of nutrition. No covariance analysis was undertaken to correct for differences in liveweight gain brought about by the initial liveweight of the animals as there were little and insignificant differences in initial weights between treatments.  Compared to lambs on treatment L, lambs on treatment H ate significantly more food in total (765 vs 558 g/day; P<0.001) and per unit metabolised weight (87 vs 66 g/kg W0'75; P<0.01) during the first eight weeks of the study (Table 2). This was expected as lambs on H were given more concentrates. During the last eight weeks of the experiment, there was also a highly significant difference (P <0.001 ) between treatments in hay and total dry-matter consumption. Hay consumption was highest in animals on LL, followed by animals on LH, HL and HH in a decreasing order. DM intake expressed as total g/day and kg metabolic body weight was highest for LH animals, followed by HH, LL and HL in decreasing order (Table 2) and differences between treatments were significant (P<0.001). Feed conversion ratio (DM intake/g liveweight gain) was lowest in animals on treatment LH and highest in animals on treatment HL.When the whole experimental period is considered, animals on treatment HH consumed more dry matter (767 g/day and 83 g/kg W°75) followed by LH (705 g/day and 77 g/kg W075), HL (600 g/day and 76 g/kg W075) and LL (564 g/day and 74 g/kg W075). However, differences in feed intake per metabolic body size were small and insignificant (P>0.05). On average, animals on LH and HH were superior in feed utilisation (9.7 vs 1 4.6 FRC) compared to animals on LL and HL. Feed utilisation efficiency (reciprocal of FRC) was highest in animals on HH and lowest on animals on LL but the difference in FRC between LH and HH animals was insignificant (P>0.05).Table 3 shows the effect of dietary treatment on slaughter characteristics. Animals on treatment H slaughtered at the end of the first eight weeks weighed and dressed higher (P<0.05) than the animals on treatment L Percentage gut fill, kidney and kidney fat were about equal for animals on both dietary treatments. Gut fat was, however, significantly (P<0.01) higher in lambs on the high plane of nutrition. At the last slaughter weight (16 weeks; Table 3), animals in treatment HH weighed more (P<0.01) at slaughter than the others with the differences between these lambs and those on treatments LH, HL and LL being 0.85, 3.07 and 6.92 kg respectively. The differences in dressing percentage between lambs on treatment LH and those on HL and HH of 1.57 and 1.56 were not significant whereas the difference between lambs on LH and LL of 6.62% was significant (P<0.01). Animals on LL treatment had the lowest proportions of gut fat (P<0.01) and kidney plus kidney fat (P<0.05) and the highest (P<0.01) proportion of gut fill.There were significant (P<0.001) differences in carcass weight between treatments (Table 4) and these mainly reflected differences in slaughter weight of these animals. These differences were also reflected in absolute weights of carcass components. Weights of carcass tissues in Table 4 are therefore expressed as percentage of carcass weights to partly correct for carcass weight effects. By the eighth week, animals on treatment H had significantly (P<0.001) higher proportions of fat and lower proportions of bone but the superiority of 3.8% of lean in animals on L was not significant (P>0.05). Lambs on treatment L had 1 1 .8% more lean to fat ratio but 0.9% less lean-to-bone ratio than lambs on treatment H. Chemical composition data in Table 5 show that carcasses of animals on H were superior to those of animals on L in dry matter and ether extract but inferior in crude protein and ash. At the end of the 16th week, lambs on treatment HL had the highest percentage of lean meat followed by lambs on LL, LH, and HH (P<0.05) in descending order. Percentage carcass fat in lambs on HH treatment was higher (P<0.01) than that in lambs on LH, LL and HL by 6.8, 12.0 and 12.4 units, respectively, while proportions of bone was highest (P<0.001) in lambs on treatment LL followed by those on treatments HL, LH and HH in decreasing order (Table 4). Treatment effects on lean:fat and lean:bone ratio were small and insignificant (P>0.05).Table 5 shows that the plane of nutrition significantly (P <0.01 ) influenced the dry matter and ether extract composition of the carcasses, with the highest value being observed in animals on HH treatment.Table 6 shows that both the increases in carcass lean and fat were highest in lambs on treatment H during the first 8 weeks. Increase in lean from the 9th to the 16th weeks in lambs on LH was 3.8 times that of animals on HH (31.1 vs8.3 g/day), but lambs on HH were slightly superior in the rate of fat deposition. When the whole experimental period is considered, increase in lean in LH and HH lambs were very similar but fat increase rate was 1.5 times more in lambs on HH. Fat and lean increase rates were also higher in HL compared to LL lambs during this period. Efficiency and economic returns High efficiency of lean meat production is always desirable. Efficiency is sometimes defined as the ratio of total lean tissue to total food consumed during the period under evaluation but under practical situations carcass rather than lean weight is used. In this study, efficiency of carcass deposition was 0.02, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.06 kg of carcass per kg of food (hay and concentrate combined) for the LL, HL.Table 7 shows the economics of treatments imposed in this study. The highest profit margin per carcass sold was obtained from animals on LH, followed by those on HH, HL and LL Performance response of animals to low and high plane of nutrition during the first eight weeks of the experiment was as expected and was mainly due to higher concentrate intake, which resulted in increased growth rate, higher slaughter weight, dressing percentage and proportion of carcass fat, and lower proportion of lean, (Owen, 1976).During the growth period between the 9th and 1 6th week, lambs on treatment LH were superior in growth rate (104 g/day) to those on treatment HH (63 g/day) despite the fact that they were on the same plane of nutrition. This is likely due to the phenomenon of compensatory growth (Osbourn and Wilson, 1960;Keenan andMacManus, 1969;Keenan, etal, 1970;Goodchild and Mtenga, 1982). In this period, animals on treatment LH consumed more feed per unit metabolic body weight and utilised it more efficiently than their counterparts on treatment HH. This partly accounts for their superiority in growth rate. In a concurrent study, digestibility coefficients for dry matter, crude protein and crude fibre were 59. 1, 59.3, 67.0, 65.0, 71.2, 70.2, 77.6, 76.5%, and 63.5, 60.3, 65.3 and 85.3%, respectively, for animals on treatments LL, HL, LH and HH. Similar observations have been reported by other workers with sheep (Allden and Young, 1 964;Allden, 1970;Graham and Searle, 1979). The reason for lower daily gains for lambs on HH at 9th-16th week period compared to H lambs at 0-8-week period was not clear but possibly the lambs had passed the phase of accelerated growth rate, Orskov et al (1976) observed that when lambs change from high to low dietary regime, they tend to eat less and grow slower than lambs on low plane of nutrition.The results of this study confirm their observation. Winchester and Ellis (1957) commented that the refed animal tends to grow at a rate appropriate to its physiological age rather than its chronological age. The present study confirms this statement in that lambs on low plane of nutrition were physiologically younger as measured by live-weight, and lean and fat contents.On changing from a low to a high plane of nutrition, these animals grew faster and almost caught up with animals maintained continuously on a high plane of nutrition.Dressing percentage is both a yield-and value-determining factor and is therefore an important parameter in assessing performance of meat-producing animals. Lambs on H treatment dressed higher than lambs on L treatment in accordance with findings reviewed by Owen (1976). Mukhtar and El- Hag (1978) found that tropical sheep fed roughage diet only dressed 10% units lower than those fed 3:1 concentrate to roughage ratios. In this study, differences in liveweight, age and level of fatness in the carcass could have accounted for variation in dressing percentage (Berg and Butterfield, 1976;Owen, 1976) which was 35% for L lambs and 28% for H lambs. The percentage gut fill was 36, 32, 29 and 20 for LL, HL, LH and HH lambs, respectively.Berg and Butterfield (1 976) reported that fat is the most labile tissue in the animal's body and can easily be manipulated by nutrition and management. The treatment effects on gut, kidney and carcass fat in the present study can be attributed to energy and protein in the diets of these animals. In accordance with the views of Berg and Butterfield (1976), lambs on a low plane of nutrition were leaner and had less carcass dry matter, fat and energy contents but higher crude protein, bone and ash.It was shown that compensatory growth was partly due to the deposition of more lean and hence more protein and less fat and therefore less energy (Sheehy and Senior, 1942). Recent studies have also supported this hypothesis (Butterfield, 1966;Keenan and McManus, 1969;Drew and Reid, 1975). This hypothesis is also supported in this study (Tables 4, 5 and 6).Some workers have reported a similar body composition for both realimented and continuously grown lambs (Graham and Searle, 1975;1979;O'Donovan, 1974). Others have reported increased fat and reduced protein percentage in realimented sheep. The phenomenon of compensatory growth has been reviewed in detail by Goodchild and Mtenga (1982). Factors such as age at the onset of restriction, severity of undernutrition, body weight at slaughter, sex and breed may singly or in combination cause disparity in results between workers.This study shows clearly that Tanzanian lambs have the ability to compensate in terms of growth if switched from a low to a high plane of nutrition and this seems to be brought about by a number of factors such as increased food intake, greater digestibility of the diets and higher protein deposition. It appears that the merits of supplementation are the prevention of mortality, improved growth rates and the production of better carcasses. The phenomenon of compensatory growth can be exploited through strategic supplementation to produce enough and good quality but relatively cheap meat at a time of relative scarcity. However, more research work is needed on the applicability of this phenomenon in field situation taking into account all factors associated with it, including the availability of supplements. More data are also required on the economics of feeding manipulation in different parts of Tanzania. The possibility of finishing lambs on Stargrass-Silverleaf pasture was investigated. Twenty-five male and female lambs (30 Dorpers and 20 Merinos) were used in the trial. The lambs were weaned at 12 weeks of age and stratified according to breed, sex and mass and randomly assigned to five groups. The first group was slaughtered to give an estimate of the initial carcass mass of the lambs on experiment, the second group consisted of lambs receiving the conventional high energy (10-12 MJ/kg DM): protein finishing diet. The other three treatments were made up of lambs grazing on low (800 kg livemass/ha), medium (1000 kg livemass/ha) medium (100 kg livemass/ha) and high (1200 kg livemass/ha) stocking rates.The lambs fed on the concentrate diet grew significantly (P<0.001) faster (251 gld) than those on low (103 gld), medium (101 gld) and high (87 gld) stocking rates. There were no significant differences in growth rate between lambs on the different stocking rates. Production per hectare in terms of livemass was significantly higher (P < 0. 05) on the high stocking rate (617 kg/ha) than on the low (483 kg/ha) and the medium (595 kglha) stocking rates. Stargrass dry-matter yield was significantly higher (P<0.001) than legume yield. Crude protein content increased whilst crude protein per cent decreased after a month in both grass and legume herbage.The growth rates obtained on the pasture were low and lambs failed to reach slaughter mass. A period of pen-fattening before slaughter would benefit the lambs. A study was carried out to assess the value of caged layer waste (CLW) as a nitrogen (N) supplement to fibrous crop residues commonly fed to sheep and goats in Kenya. Three crop residues namely maize stover (MS), maize cobs (MC) and wheat straw (WS) were mixed with graded levels of sun-dried CLW from 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50% (as-is basis). The mixtures were incubated for 12, 24, 36, 48, and 72 hours in the rumen of five fistulated Galla goats to study dry-matter degradability (DMD) using the nylon-bag technique. In another study, the effect of method of processing poultry waste on DMD in the reticulo-rumen was investigated. CLW was processed according to the following methods: sun-drying for 4 or 8 days; ensiling for 21 or 42 days; deep-stacking for 21 or 42 days; or fumigation with formaldehyde, four or eight times. The results showed that the DMD of crop residues significantly (P<0.01) increased with increasing level of CLW inclusion up to 40%, beyond which there was no further increase. DMD of all crop residues and at all levels of CLW inclusion increased with increasing duration of incubation in the rumen. Maize stover and maize cobs had a similar (P>0.05) DMD which was higher (P<0.01) than that of wheat straw. The results of the study suggested that poultry waste could be used as a supplemental source of N to fibrous crop residues to increase their degradability in the reticulo-rumen. Among the methods of processing studied, deep-stacking resulted in a higher (P<0.01) DMD than the other methods. Duration of sun-drying or deep-stacking or number of times the CLW was fumigated did not (P>0.05) affect DMD in the rumen. However, ensiling for 42 days gave a higher (P<0.01) DMD of CLW than 21 days. DMD was higher (P<0.01) for longer incubation time irrespective of the processing method. It was concluded that the processing methods used did not adversely affect degradability of CLW in the reticulo-rumen. Il ressort des résultats obtenus que l'addition de taux de fiente croissants augmente significativement la dégradabilité des résidus de récolte (P<0,01), jusqu'à 40%, seuil au-delà duquel elle s'est stabilisée. Cette dernière a toujours augmenté avec la durée d'incubation, quel que soit le taux de fiente considéré. Les taux de dégradabilité de la paille et des rafles étaient comparables (P > 0, 05), mais supérieurs à celui de la paille de blé (P<0,01). Il ressort de ces résultats que les fientes de volaille pourraient être utilisées comme source d'azote complémentaire pour augmenter la fermentescibilité des résidus de récolte fibreux dans le réseau.En ce qui concerne les traitements, la dégradabilité des aliments traités par empilage était supérieure (P<0,01)à celles obtenues avec tous les autres procédés. La durée du séchage au soleil et de l'empilage ainsi que le nombre de fumigations n'avaient pas d'effet The goat, a key actor in the small ruminant production theatre of animal agriculture in Africa was once referred to by the colonialists as \"a problem child of African agriculture\", causing soil erosion and deforestation and being an absolute nuisance in crop-based farming systems. Not until work carried out in the late 1950s at Serere Research Station in Uganda proved these allegations to the contrary, did the scientific world realise that small ruminants are not villains but have a role to play in the overall livestock production systems on the African continent.This meeting, today, bears witness to one of the major achievements of the last two decades, regarding animal agriculture in Africa. That achievement has been the fact that greater awareness of the role that small ruminants play in subscribing to the animal protein pool for human consumption has been created. Yet there are still numerous constraints against increased small ruminant productivity. Some of these have been spelt out by Adeniji (1989) and include low genetic potential for milk and meat production, inadequate nutrition and poor management practices, prevalence of diseases and reproductive wastage and limited market outlets for small ruminant products. Secondary limitations cover a range of logistic inadequacies including inappropriate technologies, poor extension services and linkages between research and extension, lack of economic incentives and unavailability of inputs for the utilisation of research findings.In this address, privilege has been accorded to the speaker to switch on the state of the art and focus on breeding strategies for small ruminants in Africa. In the process, attempt will be made to highlight some of the critical bottlenecks against genetic improvement through known conventional methods and suggestions will be made in relationship to unconventional approaches that could be pursued for various farming systems in the different ecological zones that characterise the environments of sub-Saharan Africa.Sheep and goat populations in Africa have recently been put at about 191 and 159 million heads, respectively. These estimates represent about 30% and 32% of the world's total population of sheep and goats, respectively. Distribution trends by ecozones indicate that the arid areas take a substantial share of the African small ruminants, accounting for 36% of sheep and 39% of goat populations. The semi-arid, the subhumid and the humid zones account for 22%, 14% and 8% of sheep and 27%, 16% and 9% of the goat populations, respectively.It would appear therefore that the majority of small ruminants (58% sheep and 66% goats) are kept in arid and semi-arid zones which predominantly practise pastoral-nomadic system of livestock production. Implications from distribution trends are clear. Breeding strategies for nomadic flocks face contradictions between adaptation and absolute productivity. The type of small ruminant breeds for the harsh environment are determined by the ability to survive prolonged droughts, walk and cover long distances in search of water and forages, and utilise coarse forages for growth, reproduction and lactation (Osinowo and Abubakar, 1989).Breeding strategies for intensive small ruminant production presuppose a sedentary rather than a nomadic system of production. It is under the subhumid and humid ecozones, where communities practice agropastoral and sedentary agricultural farming system, that breed improvement technologies are likely to be successfully adopted. These areas, however, constitute roughly 35% to 40% of the small ruminant population out of which about 10% are on the extreme humid side with the attendant problems arising out of the stressfully humid climate, low nutritive value of fodder and major disease vectors such as ticks, tsetse flies and helminthic parasites. Breeding for heat and disease tolerance would be desirable but could in the process contradict the genetic improvement of the economically productive traits.However, irrespective of the strategic options, it would be highly desirable that breeding plans match small ruminant breed resources to the available feed, management and socio-economic resources in a given ecozone. The bottom line to future approaches in genetic improvement should be to promote the utilisation of the more promising and adapted indigenous breed resources rather than opting for introduction of temperate goat and sheep germplasm that are often ill-adapted to the tropical conditions. The main goal would be to develop simple breeding procedures involving farmers at the grassroot level and be able to register progress towards predictable and sustainable levels of small ruminant meat and milk productivity in agricultural and agropastoral farming systems around Africa.In designing breeding strategies for small ruminant improvement in Africa one should not overlook a number of constraints that must be overcome before strategies are put in place. A few that come to my mind include:• Lack of adequate data on breed/type characterisation and standardisation of breed names within and between the five regions of Africa (North, West and Central, East and South). It is possible that there could be a lot of duplication of breed names by country or region. Determination of genetic distances among some of the populations may therefore by useful. The developments in genome mapping and biochemical genetics may, in future, be able to provide information on DNA sequences that can be used to measure genetic distances and thereafter narrow the present breeds/strains to a smaller number that can be evolved into a dominant type for a given ecozone.• Much as on-farm breeding data recording schemes would promote participatory research, extension and feedback attributes of a strategic breeding plan, flock mobility under the extensive nomadic systems would pose a major problem. In smallholder systems, small flock sizes coupled with communal herding and single sire flocks also creates problems for isolating sire, farm or flock effects from the true genetic effects. These problems immediately suggest that breeding strategies will have to be modelled along group breeding schemes with on-station nucleus breeding units to provide tested sires to participating farmers.• Small ruminants, particularly goats, tend to perform less satisfactorily under on-station than on-farm environment. Peters (1989) attributes this phenomenon to differences in management practices. On-station production systems follow modern husbandry methods (fencing, routine disease control, restricted breeding, housing etc.). These lead to reduced feed selection possibilities, higher disease risks and restricted mating freedom. Hence, transposing on-station results on breed comparison to field conditions may not necessarily reflect the true life situation on the range or free choice herding systems in villages. On the other hand, on-farm studies deal mainly with non-genetic factors and may not lead to proper assessment of the desired genotypes.• Much as some sheep breeds (Dorper Blackhead Persian, Yankasa, Balami, Uda:Ouda etc.) and goats (West African Dwarf, Sudan Desert, Nubian, Galla, Mubende, Boer, Red Sokoto and Somali) have been reasonably documented, there are other types that have not received sufficient attention to explore their full potential. Low genetic potential among the majority of small ruminants is often assumed and breeding plans to cross the indigenous stocks with exotic germplasm are implemented regardless. This is a constraint in a sense that breeders are pushed by economic forces to adopt germplasm for immediate (short-term) benefits without projecting sustainability consequences. The results have been improvement in productive traits at the expense of fitness traits, which in all, could lead to disaster in the long run.Strategic planning for small ruminant breeding must, from the start, therefore, put into consideration a number of factors. These include the production system (i.e. nomadic, sedentary, agropastoral, mixed farming etc.), the priority order of economic traits (i.e. meat, milk, fibre skins etc.), the national flock structure and the socio-economic mix, including level of literacy, product consumption habits, market outlets and type of ownership (i.e. smallholder, pure or mixed ranching).With regard to the production system, the majority of small ruminant populations are located in arid and semi-arid zones of Africa. The owners pursue a nomadic production system which is ecologically imposed but makes full exploitation of arid and semi-arid ranges possible. Nomadism, however, does not render itself to systematic genetic improvement of productive traits other than ensuring and promoting traits for survival.Strategies for nomadic systems will, for some time, be restricted to disease control and regulation of carrying capacities by creating socially acceptable market outlets.When we turn to the prioritisation of traits, and assuming that breeding strategies will be best suited to the agropastoral and smallholder crop production systems, two issues come to the fore:First, with the exception of the milking Nubian-Riverine and the Abyssinian goats, most of the goat and sheep breeds are kept for meat. Those that produce limited amounts of milk (40-80 kg/year) are mainly located in arid and semi-arid environments (i.e. Sudan Desert/Sahel, Maradi/Red Sokoto, Small East African upland semi-arid, Sudan Desert sheep and Ethiopian fat-tailed sheep).Having noted already that breeding efforts should focus on sedentary farming and agropastoral production systems, one would be inclined to exclude milk production as a key trait for genetic improvement. The effort to breed for milk production would involve importation of exotic dairy goat breeds for cross-breeding. The associated costs of importation followed by ill-adaptation of the crossbreds to the ecosystems in the sub-Saharan region cannot be justified.Increases in milk yield from 0.5 kg to 2 kg per day are possible, but would still be less than what could be obtained from similar efforts with cattle.Second, accepting that milk can more effectively be obtained from cattle than from goats or sheep under intensive agro-farming practices, the next consideration is to decide between sheep and goats as meat sources. Sheep can be cheap sources of mutton as they tend to weigh more than goats. However, by the nature of their coat, sheep may not adapt well to the humid climatic zone. Their natural ecosystem is the highlands whose total geographical area is relatively small with extremely high human population densities as compared to the semi-humid and semi-arid areas. Sheep breed, improvement strategies for semi-arid zones may be hampered by the nomadic nature of the production systems in those areas.Furthermore, due to their close-to-the-ground grazing behaviour, sheep kept together with cattle can easily cause soil erosion, particularly in the hilly and mountainous areas of eastern Africa. In the West African region, breeds of sheep such as the Yankasa, Uda and Balami may have a role to play in the agropastoral production systems of that region. Overall, it would appear that for the humid and semi-humid zones breeders should concentrate on goat improvement for meat and skins which offer decisive advantage as goats fit in well with peasant smallholder production systems in those areas.The third issue to consider is that modelling breeding strategies along the conventional methods of progeny testing over a wide range of farm conditions, often supported by recording and artificial insemination services will not work for small ruminants. In most of sub-Saharan Africa, record keeping for meat animals has been difficult to institute due to range production systems where animals stay away from homesteads for some period of time and kidding or lambing are asynchronous with seasons. Furthermore, ownership of small ruminants ownership is in small numbers and is scattered far and wide in the area.Concentrating large numbers of small ruminants for conventional breeding techniques may not be feasible in the near future, as most progressive farmers and agropastoralists would rather invest the high capital outlay into cattle than goats or sheep. Under such circumstances it would be strategic for breeders to pursue procedures that would enhance superior gene flow from nucleus elite herds to the farmers, supported by performance testing under smallholder production systems.In short, and according to Olayiwole and Adu (1989), since conventional selection methods are not feasible for small flocks where recording is inadequate or hard to institute, breeding programmes for such a situation should be carefully planned, easy to operate, sufficiently flexible and should incorporate the utilisation of available genetic resources. Within a given breeding scheme emphasis on meat should supersede consideration for other secondary traits such as milk and fibre (skins being a by-product of meat production improvement efforts).Strategic small ruminant breed improvement could then be approached from three angles: a) screening and selection within the locally adapted breeds for prolificity, faster growth rate, larger body size and conformation. The programme should be carried out in elite nucleus flocks to generate superior sires for distribution to smallholder farmers.b) crossbreeding or inter-breeding between two most promising local breeds that developed in nearly similar ecozones but that can complement each other's attributes.c) blending several local breeds irrespective of their original environment with the hope of evolving a synthetic breed for a given production system Strategic Breeding Schemes Three possible approaches are hereby proposed with the following assumptions: a) Meat is the primary target for small ruminant improvement.b) Body size at maturity is generally categorised into three groups: small (20-30 kg), medium (30-45 kg) and large (45-60 kg).c) Heritability estimates for growth characters are reasonably medium to high (0.30-0.45) and litter size, though it may register low heritability estimate, responds somehow to selection.d) The majority (over 90%) of small ruminant production is still under traditional systems of production but can change gradually to modern systems with improved extension services.Open nucleus elite breeder and multiplier flocksThe scheme involves assembling animals through purchases to a central station.The number of animals (does or ewes) should be sufficiently large (300-500) with about one-third to act as control group. High selection pressure is thereafter imposed on the offspring and the dams according to productivity indices for male and female offspring on the one hand and selection of dams to stay in the herd, on the other. The progeny selection index takes into account the reproductive rate of the dam and the offspring's growth rate and weight at weaning, or better still up to one year to avoid maternal effects at weaning stage. Dam selection index is on the basis of fertility and is calculated at the end of each breeding season. It considers the dam's present and previous records in relationship to those of its contemporaries. These indices have been described by Osinowo and Abubakar(1989).The selection pressure would allow the top 10% of the males to be retained in the elite herd for further breeding while the next top 30-40% would be transferred to form the flock sire multiplication scheme after performance testing and the 50-60% would be culled. On the side of the dams, about one-third would be culled remaining during each cycle and replaced by the progenies of the top (10%) performing offspring. The next one-third of the females would be moved to the flock sire multiplier station. The flock sire multiplier station would ensure an increase of the number of males available for distribution to farmers after further screening. The system would ensure improved males from the elite breeder flock entering multiplier flocks, from which greater numbers of improved males are generated for distribution to smallholder village flocks.Open nucleus elite breeder and participatory farmer flocksThe procedure under this scheme would be essentially similar to the first except for the starting and ending stages of animal selection. It also does away with the intermediate sire-multiplier flock stage and requires full cooperation between participating farmers and the Elite Nucleus Breeders. The scheme requires some minimum level of literacy on the part of the beneficiaries (farmers) and outright goodwill to release and receive animals between the station and the farm flocks.In essence the proposed scheme is a private cooperative breeders' organisation pivoted around a public government institution that funds the central nucleus breeding flock. The procedure assumes that there has been preliminary on-farm performance appraisals of animals that would enter the nucleus flock.The scheme involves organising groups of interested participants on a provincial or state basis to discuss the concepts, aims and benefits, including the legal and genetic aspects of the scheme.Each member of the cooperative group, assisted by the field staff, contributes the top-performing females to the elite nucleus central station. This is the concept of preliminary screening of the population for elite females based on weight for age and histories on prolificity.The next step would be to decide on the exchange rate for the top females contributed to the central nucleus flock, in return for the highly selected sires to pass back to the cooperative farmers. Perhaps a ratio of five females contributed to one tested sire and two super dams received back from the station could be a useful starting point.Within the central nucleus flock, the top performing females will acquire an elite status as more performance data accumulate. These females must then be bred to the top (1-5%) sires for use within the nucleus flock.Under this scheme faster genetic progress comes from the relatively high selection pressure made possible in the initial on-farm screening operation followed by equally intensive selection and the technology transfer and extension service between the central nucleus station and the farmer-contributor of superior foundation animals.Much as intensive selection programmes under centralised elite nucleus flocks generate superior germplasm for distribution to farmers, the final benefits can only be gauged through on-farm performance evaluation. Performance testing identifies and quantifies the nongenetic constraints in order to improve management, disease control and feeding practices. Since we cannot breed beyond the environment the improved animal's genetic abilities should periodically be tested against the prevailing environmental conditions on the farmers' farms.Performance evaluation is a logistical complement to genetic improvement schemes. It diagnoses constraints pertaining to a given production system, provides on-spot checks and analysis of husbandry problems, and generates feedback information to breeders and farmers alike. Very often, the results obtained from central station tests are of little relevance to traditional production systems and may not contribute much towards understanding of the specific adaptation ability of animals to farmers' conditions.One further attraction of on-farm performance testing, is that it provides information on location-specific production conditions that could lead to breed improvement options that are appropriate to the system. Individual animal appraisals and breed comparisons, however, can best be carried out under controlled on-station conditions.Successful implementation of on-farm performance evaluation is, however, likely to be constrained by a number of problems. Peters (1 989) gave a comprehensive outline on the subject and highlighted the following aspects: a) on-farm recording must be based on a large sample of flocks carefully stratified following a baseline survey.b) comprehensive recording of farm covariates is required to explain systematic differences and major reasons for variation in performance.c) where small ruminants are reared on an extensive scale, flock mobility is often a major problem to performance testing.d) in smallholder systems, small flock sizes and communal herding also create problems for isolating farm or flock effects.e) seasonality of production would facilitate accurate recording of reproductive data, but asynchronous production is most common in African systems and demands regular visits and data recording in herds participating in the on-farm performance schemes.f) in order to delineate covariates such as season, disease, age of dam, parity, litter size and sex effects and adjust the data accordingly, one would require a data base spanning over a period not less than two years.g) individual animal identification may face difficulties when herds have mixed ownership and continuity may be disrupted by decisions of the owner to sell or slaughter the animal.However, there are a number of complementarities between on-farm performance evaluation and central nucleus herd stations. According to Peters (1 989), genetic improvement schemes on the latter require a field base if they are to be successful. Furthermore, where nucleus breeding units are integrated with on-farm performance evaluation, immediate improvement through selection of superior foundation animals (see strategy 2) to attain faster and more effective progress can be achieved.A successful on-farm performance evaluation scheme should be concerned with the whole farm environment; cover all components of the farm environment;identify factors limiting production within the system; initiate integrated research to find solutions based on on-station controlled procedures; test breeding or production interventions (on-farm); evaluate the consequences of the interventions; and be instrumental in the design of small ruminant programmes (Peters, 1989).Breeding strategies for small ruminant improvement in Africa should focus on meat production characteristics, with skins as a by-product. Multiple births phenomenon should be effectively exploited to provide the maximum meat output per unit of input. Under smallholder production systems of humid and subhumid zones of Africa, conventional breeding methods are constrained by communal grazing, small flock sizes, single-sire flocks, low levels of literacy and poor recording schemes. A partial solution has been suggested to institute elite nucleus breeding stations, screen and test animals (sires) for distribution to farmers. These schemes, however, in the long run should be complemented by simple but systematic on-farm performance evaluation programmes to reinforce and monitor continual genetic improvement. Chevon is the meat used most for preparing food in public restaurants (popularly known as \"chop bars\") in Ghana. The West African Dwarf goat (WAD), the commonest breed in Ghana, is known for its prolificacy and trypanotolerance. Its small size (15-21 kg; Devendra and McLeroy, 1982) makes it suitable for butchering in small communities where there are no cold-storage facilities. It is therefore not surprising that the government intends to encourage farmers to increase the production of goats during the implementation of its medium-term agricultural development programme (Ministry of Agriculture, 1988). The expected increase in the population of goats (1 901 000 in 1987 to 9 172 000 by the year 2000) is greater than the expected increase in the populations of sheep (1 989 000 in 1987 to 6 319 000 by the year 2000) and cattle (1 170 000 in 1987 to 1 853 000 by the year 2000). Since the population of goats is expected to increase about ninefold, it is necessary to assess the performance of the dominant breed in all the ecological zones of the country so as to know its potentialities and limitations. This will help the policy makers to decide whether new genes should be introduced or not.The aim of this paper therefore is to assess the performance of the WAD goat on the farm of the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, which is located in the humid forest zone of Ghana.Location, climate and management of the flockThe data used in this study were obtained from the production records of the flock of WAD goats belonging to the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. The study covered the period January 1969 to December 1970. The location, climate and vegetation of the University farm have been described by TuahandBaah (1985).Kiddings were recorded and kids were weighed within 24 h after birth. The kids were ear-tagged for identification and were weaned when they were four months old. The males not needed for breeding were castrated using the burdizzo at the time of weaning. The breeding males ran with the females throughout the year, thus there was no controlled seasonal breeding. Routine drenching against endoparasites was carried out fortnightly. Dipping was also carried out fortnightly to control ectoparasites. The goats were kept under a semi-intensive system throughout the year as described by Tuah and Baah (1985). They were housed in pens at night and allowed to graze during the day. Straw or wood shaving bedding was provided in the pens.The animals grazed mainly Cynodon spp interspersed with Centrosema pubescens from morning up to 1 700 h GMT. They were supplemented with wet brewer's spent grains.Age at first kidding was computed as the difference (in days) between birth and first kidding dates of does.Kidding interval was calculated as the difference (in days) between two successive kiddings for all does with more than than one kidding record.that on the farm, kidding interval is not affected by changes in quantity and quality of forages which occur during the various seasons of the year as these forages form the staple diet of these animals. It is also possible that the practice of feeding wet brewers' spent grains ameliorated the effects of nutritional stresses, hence the no significant effect of the month of kidding on kidding interval. It must also be noted that in the forest belt the dry seasons are not as severe as in the savanna areas of the country and feed shortage is not very great. The prolificacy of the goats was 1 85.5%. On the same farm, goats were more prolific than the Djallonke sheep (Tuah and Baah, 1985;130.3%). The incidences of single births and births of twins, triplets and quadruplets were 35.69, 45.61, 16.15 and 2.55%, respectively. It is not desirable to have a prolificacy value of more than 200% as kid mortality is increased with an increase in prolificacy (Table 2). In this country, artificial milk replacers are not fed to the extra kids which cannot get access to teats. In an earlier study covering a ten-year period (1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978), Tuah (1989) reported that prolificacy in goats on the same farm was affected (P <0.01) by the age of dam. The values for the various age groups involving 234 kids were 1 24. 1 , 196.8, 182.8, 206.7, 277.8 and 233.3% for does aged one, two, three, four, five and six years, respectively. The effects of type of birth on birthweight, weaning weight and pre-weaning growth rate are shown in Table 3. Birthweight was affected (P<0.01) by type of birth. Generally birthweight decreased with increase in litter size. Robinson et al (1977) reported that, for lambs in utero, as the number of foetuses increases, the number of caruncles attached to each foetus decreases thus reducing the feed supply to the foetus and hence the birthweight of the lambs. Pre-weaning growth was not affected by the type of birth perhaps because most of the kids were raised as singles and twins (Table 4). Hunter (1957) observed that each twin lamb suckling its mother obtained 68% of the milk obtained by a single lamb, hence the differences in the pre-weaning growth rates of single-born lambs and twin-born lambs. The overall mean pre-weaning growth rate (32.88/day) falls just outside range reported by Reynolds (1989) for kids kept in Nigeria (17.4 g/day to31.9g/day).Weaning weight was affected (P<0.01 ) by type of birth, decreasing with increase in litter size. Sidwell et al (1962) reported that type of birth had the greatest influence on weaning weight. In an earlier study Tuah (1989) reported that birthweight and weaning weights of kid were not affected by sex, season of birth, age and parity of dam. The mean overall post-weaning (4-12 months) growth rate (24.04/day) was less than the mean overall pre-weaning growth rate (32.8 g/day) but well within the range reported by Reynolds (1989;14-28.3 g/day) for the same breed in Nigeria.Table 4 contains the pre-weaning mortality rate of kids. Mortality rate increased as litter size increased but only the mortality rate of quadruplets was significantly (P<0.01) different from that of the other birth types. The overall mortality rate of 36.3% was higher than the rate (20.95%) reported by Tuah and Baah (1985) for lambs on the same farm. The rate is, however, similar to the rates reported by Wilson et al (1985;30%) and Vallerand and Branckaert (1 975;35%) for unweaned lambs. The major causes of pre-weaning deaths in kids on the same farm according to Tuah (1989) were starvation (24.27%), pneumonia (16.50%), helminthiasis (20.38%), bacterial infection (6.80%), diarrhoea (5.8%) and headwater (4.85%). About 21% of the mortalities occurred during the neonatal period (0-7 days). These causes of mortality can be controlled if proper management practices are instituted.The breed is prolific (185.6%) and this trait needs no improvement since mortality rates of kids can be high with prolificacy values exceeding 200%, especially when kids which have no access to teats are not artificially fed in this country. Mortality rates of kids are high (36.34%) but this source of wastage can be reduced with proper management practices. Kidding interval is greater than the ideal of 240 days. It must be observed here that there is no culling of poor producers on the university farm. Perhaps if culling of poor producers is carried out, the kidding interval could be shortened. The mean age at first kidding (543.18 days; 18.1 months) is higher than the value reported for Katjang goats in Malaysia (15-16 months) by Devendra (1966).The greatest limitation of the breed is its slow growth rate. There is the need to carry out selection within the breed or to introduce new genes to improve the trait. Introduction of new genes should be done with caution so as not to adversely affect the good characteristics of the breed. The feed conversion efficiency of the breed should also be studied.Mean litter size for six parities for BLD, BG and Kl does were 1.35, 1.21 and 1.43, respectively. It was concluded that BLD goats with higher liveweights and efficient reproductive performance compared to BG and Kl goats should be used for crossbreeding purposes to improve the meat production from goats in the rural areas.Comparaison des performances de caprins a viande a Malya (Tanzanie) Small ruminants have been frequently used as a source of meat in both rural and urban areas of Tanzania, although meat from goats is both scarce and expensive.The high demand for goat meat led to the improvement of indigenous goats through crossbreeding with bigger breeds so as to increase the per capita animal protein consumption levels of Tanzanians. A breeding programme to develop a meat goat breed based on indigenous goat was started in the early 1960s. The indigenous goats termed as \"Small East African goat\" by Devendra and Burns (1983) was crossed with Kamorai and Boer breeds to develop the Blended goat.The present study reports on growth and reproductive performance of Blended goats at the Livestock Research Centre, Malya. Progeny crosses between Blended x Galla and Kamorai x Small East African goat (SEA) genotypes were used for comparative purposes. The results in this study would indicate the benefits of using the meat goat genotypes developed to be used in improving the indigenous goat population.The study was undertaken at the Livestock Research Centre (LRC), Malya, situated near Lake Victoria at an altitude of 1250 m above sea level. The mean precipitation at the Centre ranges from 640 mm to 1020 mm extending from late October to early May. The natural pasture is dominated by Hyparrhenia spp with isolated patches of Setaria sphacelata, Cynodon dactylon and Chloris gayana. The main browse plant was Acacia tortilis.Records for this study were obtained from LRC, Malya and the National Livestock Registry at Mpwapwa. A total of 4824 records on liveweights and 1258 kidding records covering over a 10-year period (1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980) of Blended (BLD), Blended x Galla (BG) and Kamorai x SEA (Kl) were used in the present study. Computation of the genetic constitution of BLD goat showed the following proportions:Kamorai 55%, Boer 30% and indigenous 1 5%. Blended x Galla goats considered in this study were 50% Blended and 50% Galla, while Kl goats were 50% Kamorai and 50% indigenous. The schematic evolution of blended goats, BG and Kl is shown in Figure 1. Iff?1/2 Kamorai 1/2 Indigenous Managerial practices of goats at LRC, Malya did not vary during the period of study, whereby kids weaned at 16 weeks of age were subjected to grazing on natural pasture. At the age of 72 weeks, maiden does were mated for the first time, and mating period extending for 50 days (mid-July to early September) was conducted once per annum. The ratio of buck to does during mating was about 1:40.Kids at birth were ear-tagged for identification and weights were recorded at birth, and at ages of 1 6 weeks (weaning) , 24 weeks (post-weaning) , 48 weeks (puberty) and at 72 weeks (maturity). Weights were also recorded at mating and kidding for females and at yearly interval for males. Main diseases of goats encountered at the centre included tapeworm infestation, pneumonia and foot-rot. Routine treatment and disease control measures (deworming and dipping) was regularly done for all goats at the Centre.Traits investigated in this study included birthweight, weaning weight, weights at 24, 48 and 72 weeks of age and growth rate. Reproductive traits investigated included size of litter, percentage of birth with twins and sex ratio of kids born. The liveweight data were analysed by a least-squares method.Mean liveweights of kids from birth to 72 weeks of age by genotype, sex and birth-type are shown in Table 1 .Blended kids having 2.9 kg birthweight, 13.4 kg weaning and 29.8 kg at 72 weeks of age were observed to have significantly higher liveweights than BG and Kl kids. At 48 weeks of age Kl kids were significantly heavier than BG kids. Male kids exhibited higher liveweights (P<0.05) than females, while single-born kids were heavier than twins at all ages of weight recording.Growth rates from birth to weaning, 24, 48 and 72 weeks of age are shown in Table 2. Blended kids showed higher growth rates from birth to weaning and from birth to 72 weeks of age. Single-born kids exhibited higher growth than the twins from birth to weaning and to 24 weeks of age, while at higher ages their growth rates were not significantly different.Blended does showed higher incidence multiple births with twinning rate of 40.9%, overall for six parities compared to BG does, whereas Kl does had higher twinning rates compared to both BLD and B does (Table 3).Litter size computed by dividing the total number of kids born by the total number does kidded showed a tendency to increase from first parity to fifth parity and a reduction in sixth parity. Sex ratios for kids bom were observed to be slightly less males than females but were not significantly different across parities and genotypes in the study. Liveweights at birth and weaning of BLD, BG and Kl kids in the present study are lower from those reported for BLD kids at Malya and Kongwa by Das (1989). It was also observed that weights at birth, weaning and at 72 weeks age of goat kids in this study were lower than those reported for Boer goats by De Haas (1978), Malawi goats by Ayoade and Butterworth (1982) and Tsana goats (APRU, 1984). Blended goat kids showed higher liveweight and average daily gain compared to BG and Kl kids. These parameters were also higher than that of Black Bengal goats reported by Singh et al (1983) and Black Bengal x Beetal crossbred goats reported by Kanaujia et al (1986).At birth, males were only 0.2 kg heavier than females, which was smaller than the 0.3 kg reported by Kyomo (1978) for Small East African goats. Singles were heavier than twins and grew faster from birth to 24 weeks of age. Similar observations were reported by Nath and Chawla (1978) for Beetal, Alpine and their crossbred kids. The pre-weaning daily gain of BLD kids of 94.3 g/day exceeded that of BG and Kl kids by 6.4 and 12.8, respectively. Similar observations were made by Kassuk (1974) who attributed lower pre-weaning average daily gain of BG and Kl kids to lower milk yields of their dams.Weaning weight would reflect mothering ability of dam as well as the inherent growth potential. Thereafter growth potential would predominate. In this study, males were significantly heavier and grew faster from weaning onwards (P<0.05). Their differences increased from 16 to 72 weeks of age implying that sex effects are more pronounced with age after puberty. Blended and Kl does showed higher multiple births than BG does. The incidence of multiple births tended to increase from first parity to fifth parity. Twinning per cent of does in the present study were lower than that reported for Black Bengal and Beetal x Black Bengal does in India by Kanaujia et al (1986). The sex ratio of kids born are similar to that reported by Sinha and Sahni (1 981) for Indian goats. With the exception of twin-born males, birthweights of Saanen crosses were significantly higher than local kids. Likewise, weaning weights and weights at one year were higher in the Saanen crosses than in the local kids. Weight gains per day were higher before weaning than after and were higher in Saanen crosses than in the local kids.Elevage de caprins laitiers au Malawi: durée de la gestation, poids à la naissance et croissance de la race locale et de ses croisements avec des Saanen The zebu cow has remained the major source of milk in rural areas of Malawi where 89% of the people live. Improved dairy cattle breeds are concentrated in areas surrounding urban centres designated as Milk Shed Areas.Figures on milk consumption in rural areas are not available. However, FAO (1 986) reported that total milk production in Malawi was 40 million kg which gave an estimated per capita consumption of 5 kg. With a population which is increasing at 3.2% per annum but with about 0.95 ha of land per capita (Munthali, 1987), the likelihood of improving this per capita milk consumption is remote. The goat, due to its small size and hence lower feed and capital requirements, can supplement cattle as a source of milk specially for rural areas.Keeping goats is already popular among the smallholder farmers in Malawi. A survey conducted by Banda and Phiri (1990) indicated that goat milk is not discriminated against and is actually preferred in some cases. However, milk production from local goats is low (Mwenefumbo and Phoya, 1982;Banda, 1989). As an effort to improve milk production from goats, crossbreeding Saanen bucks to Malawi local goats commenced on an experimental basis at Bunda College of Agriculture in 1988. So far, observations have been on gestation length, birthweights, weaning weight and growth to one year.Indigenous (local) Malawi does were mated randomly either to Saanen bucks or to local bucks at the Bunda College farm (latitude 14°35'S, longitude 33°50'E, 1200 m above sea level). The doe were herded on natural pastures together with a vasectomised buck. Any doe noticed on heat was separated and mated to a fertile buck. This provided an opportunity to record accurately the mating day, kidding day and calculate gestation length. Also recorded at kidding was kid weight, litter sizes and sex of kid. All male kids in both groups were castrated at two weeks of age. Age of the dams was determined using dentition (Wilson and Durkin, 1985).All kids together with their dams were fed indoors on Star grass (Cynodon nlemfuensis) and Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) for the first one month. Thereafter they were herded on natural pastures together with the rest of the flock.No supplementary feeding was done and the dams were not milked. Mortality was also recorded.The data were analysed using Statistix 2.0 Program on the Unisys Computer available at Bunda College.Effect of breed of sire on gestation lengthThe average gestation length of dams sired by Saanen bucks was not different from that of dams sired by local bucks (Table 1). Although previous data on Effect of litter size and sex of kid on gestation length Gestation length in dams kidding single kids (147.14+2.86 days) was about the same as in dams kidding multiple kids (147.09±3.05 days). Similarly, the gestation length in those kidding male kids (146.94±2.7 days) were the same as those kidding female kids (147.34+2.98 days). The results therefore agree with Asdell (1929) that gestation length is not affected by litter size and sex of kid.With the exception of males born as twins, birthweights of Saanen crosses were significantly higher than those of pure local (Table 2) . Birthweights of males were also higher than that of females in both groups. Mortality rates of kids were 22% in local kids and 21 % in Saanen crosses. It is difficult to suggest reasons for these mortality rates since post-mortem examination of dead kids was not conducted.As in birthweight, weaning weights and weights at 1 year (364 days) were significantly higher in the Saanen crosses than in pure locals in both male and female kids (Table 3). Weight gains per day were also higher in the Saanen crosses than in the pure locals both before and after weaning.Unlike the Saanen crosses where males had higher weaning weights (1 2.80±5. 1 4 kg) and weight at one year (25.00±3.00 kg) than females (11.96±2.77 kg at weaning and 22.50± 1.78 kg at one year), in the pure local kids, the females had higher weaning weight (8.33±0.7 kg) and weight at one year (16.16+1.55 kg) than males (7.60+1.53 kg at weaning and 14.99± 1.66 kg at one year). Similarly, weight gains per day were higher in males (92.32 gm before and 48.41 gm after weaning) than in females (82.67 gm before 41 .82 gm after weaning) in the Saanen crosses, but higher in females (56 gm before and 31 gm after weaning) than males (50 gm before and 29 gm after weaning) in pure local kids. This could be attributed to the effect of castration. However, similar results have been reported by Kasowanjete et al (1987) in the Malawi goats.So far, these observations indicate that Saanen crosses are performing better than pure local kids (higher birthweights, weaning weights, weight gains per day and weight at one year) under the same management. However, this was at a research station and further investigations are planned for village conditions. Similar studies are planned for 3/4 and 1 /4 Saanen under both station and village management before a firm recommendation is made. Overall mean birth, weaning weight at 17 weeks and pre-weaning daily liveweight gains for kids were 2.77±0.08kg, 13.0+ 0.41 kg and 87.0+3.5 g, respectively. The values of sheep were, respectively, 3.19± 0.05 kg, 18.5+0.32 kg and 128.9 ±2.5 g. In goats, season of kidding had significant effect on all these traits, but genotype had effect only on kid birthweight. In sheep, season and genotype exerted significant influences in all the lamb traits. Correlations between milk yield and growth rate of the young were significantly high and positive.Regressions of growth rate on milk production for kids were poorer than those for lambs. Research with non-dairy goats and sheep both in temperate and tropical areas has assessed the variation in the milking ability of dams, and demonstrated that the amount of milk produced by various breeds at various stages of lactation has a strong influence on kid and lamb growth during the pre-weaning period, with 20 to over 60% of the variation in weaning weight accounting for the volume of milk produced (Peart, 1982).Due to influence of milk yield on weaning weights and due to the large variation in milking ability among the wide ranging genotypes available in the tropics, several methods for estimating milk production, namely kid/lamb suckling, handmilking and hand-milking after oxytocin injection, must be tested and the best selected (Steinbach, 1988). Results reported in literature on the use of suckling and oxytocin methods are very variable. Moreover, in extensive systems of management, season exerts significant indirect effects on the quantity and quality of feedstuffs as well as on the levels of diseases and parasites which, in turn, affect the milk production ability of the animals. For example, Sacker and Trail (1966) reported higher milk yields in goats and sheep during the rainy season while Mittal et al (1977) reported significant seasonal effects in Barbari goats, but not in Jamnapari goats. Malawi has about 1.6 and 0.8 million goats and sheep, respectively, of various genotypes (local, imported and their crosses). The introduction of dairy goats between 1986 and 1987 raised further questions as to the acceptability of their milk. Such information is needed to develop optimal breeding, development and marketing strategies for both meat and milk production programmes.The objectives of this study were:• to describe and evaluate the present and potential milk production capacity of the existing local and imported small ruminant stock (goats and sheep)• to compare different goat and sheep genotypes with respect to the composition of their milk• to assess the potential influence of season on milk production and milk composition of goats and sheep in Malawi• evaluate and compare the acceptability of goat and sheep milk relative to cow milk and• to make recommendations for on-farm improvements, policy changes and draw suggestions for further research.In addition, the growth rate and milk conversion efficiency of kids and lambs were studied.The study was carried out at Lifidzi Goat Breeding Centre near Salima in Central Malawi. Lifidzi Goat Breeding Centre lies at 13°50' south and 34°30' east with an altitude of 600 meters. The Centre is one of the four farms run by the Malawi-German Livestock Development Programme (MGLDP) established in 1983.In the study on milk yield and milk composition, data were collected from the same 20 goats and 38 sheep in the dry season and in the rainy season. In addition to the animals used in both seasons, 5 goats and 7 sheep were used during the dry season only and 18 goats and 5 sheep during the rainy season only. Local (LL), Boer (BB) and crossbred (BL) goats and local (LL), Dorper (DD) and crossbred (DL) sheep were used. Each genotype was composed of first and second parity animals in the dry season and, second and third parity animals in the rainy season. Milk production of these animals was estimated by kid/lamb suckling, hand milking and oxytocin + hand-milking techniques on 3 different days in each of the 1 2 weeks following parturition. The techniques were alternated every three weeks. Animals were incorporated each week as they kidded or lambed. All these factors were arranged in a 2 x 2 x 3 factorial design.The breeding and management of all the animals are presented in Figure 1. In the dry season, all dams reared kids/lambs of their own genotypes. The initial milk yield for each animal was determined about one week post-partum. Thereafter, milk yields were determined every week until the 12th week of lactation. On the days of yield determination, kids and lambs were separated from their dams for two 4-hour periods: 0700 to 1 1 00 hours and 1 1 1 0 to 1 51 0 hours. For the suckling method, the young were allowed to suckle at 1 1 00 hours and at 1510 hours. They were weighed before and at completion of suckling. The difference in weight was taken as the milk production during the separation period. For the hand-milking technique, animals were milked out before going out for grazing. The amount of milk wao not measured at this time. At 1 100 and 1500 hours, they were milked out by hand for 10 minutes each time and the amount of milk measured. The daily milk production for both methods was calculated by summing up the two 4-hourly yields and multiplying the results by 3. The oxytocin technique (oxytocin + hand-milking) was done by milking the animals after injection of oxytocin at the beginning of each milking. Ten international units or 1 ml of oxytocin was injected intramuscularly into the rear flank. After 3 to 5 minutes animals were milked out rapidly until no more milk could be withdrawn. Only one milk yield determination was carried out for health reasons. The amount of milk obtained during this single separation period was multiplied by 6 to obtain daily milk production. During the days and times that hand-milking and oxytocin techniques were employed, 50 to 100 ml of milk samples were obtained. The samples were immediately frozen at about -20°C and stored for analysis in order to determine the chemical composition of the milk.Liveweights of dams and the young were taken at parturition and at weekly intervals until the young were weaned at 1 7 weeks of age. At the time of weighing, condition scores of the dams were done. The scale used for the score was that described by Russel et al (1969) except that for goats the subcutaneous fat deposition component was ignored.All the milk samples collected were analysed for fat by the Babcock method, for protein (N x 6.38) by the Kjeldahl method and for total solids and ash by methods described by AOAC (1980). Lactose was determined by Nelson's colorimetric determination of sugars. Solids-not-fat (SNF) concentration was derived from total solids and fat concentrations by difference. Energy values were calculated using equations developed by Economides (1986) for sheep and goats as follows:a. Goats: Y= 1.64 + 0.42X, b. Sheep: Y= 1.94 + 0.43X, where Y is the calorific value of milk in MJ/kg and X, is the per cent fat.Dependent variables were milk yields, milk composition, liveweights and growth rate. Fixed least squares models described by Harvey (1977) for use on data with unequal subclass numbers were used. They included fixed effects of season, technique of milk-yield estimation, genotypes and their first order interactions. The effects of parity and the number of kids/lambs suckled were included as regressions. The model for the analysis of milk composition included in addition, the effect of lactation stage.Analysis of variance and tests of significance for total lactation yields in goats and sheep are given in Table 1. In goats, season of kidding, technique of milk-yield estimation and genotype exerted significant effects on the total 12-week lactation yield. None of the interaction effects was significant. Parity of the dam had a quadratic relationship to the total lactation yield. The linear effect of the number of kids suckled was significant. In sheep, technique of milk yield § The least squares means and standard errors for total milk yields in both goats and sheep are presented in Table 2. In goats, milk production of does kidding in the dry season was significantly higher (P<0.001) than that of those kidding in the rainy season, irrespective of genotype or technique of milk-yield estimation. Estimates of milk yield obtained by the suckling technique and the oxytocin technique were similar. The quantity of milk harvested by hand-milking was 36.5% less (P<0.001) than that harvested by the other two techniques. Boer x local crossbred goats showed higher (P<0.001) 12-week milk production over the local and Boer goats which gave similar milk-yield estimates. The regression of the total 1 2-week milk production on parity was 1 2.83 and -5. 1 5 for the linear and quadratic terms, respectively. Total milk production increased by 13.64 kg with the increase in number of kids suckled. Coefficients of variation obtained from within-genotype analysis of variance were 24.5%, 118.9% and 20.9% for local, Boer x local crossbred and for boer goats, respectively.In sheep, mean total milk yields were similar. The overall difference in 12-week milk production estimated by the lamb-suckling or oxytocin methods (58.6 or 56.6 kg, respectively) was not significant. Over the whole lactation period, hand-milking estimates were 40.5% less (P<0.001) than those of either the lamb-suckling or the oxytocin methods. Dorper ewes produced the largest quantities of milk and local ewes produced the least. Dorper x local crossbred ewes produced total milk yields which were intermediate between the two other genotypes. Differences among these genotypes were significant (P<0.001). Milk production performance among genotypes differed according to the technique milk yield estimation employed (P<0.05) and according to season of lambing (P<0.001). The local ewes produced 47.6% and 30.9% higher milk yield by the suckling method than by the hand-milking and oxytocin methods, respectively. Dorper x local crossbred and Dorper ewes on the other hand gave higher milk yields by the oxytocin method than by the hand milking and suckling methods. Dorper ewes produced 1 5% less milk in the rainy season than in the dry season, but the other two genotypes produced slightly more milk in the rainy season tan in the dry season. The regression equation of total milk production (MP) on litter size (L) and parity (P) was MP = 21.31 + 16.33L + 16.33 L + 12.84P -3.38P2The effect of litter size suckled and parity on total milk yield are presented in Figure 4.The average daily milk yields and lactation pattern for goats and sheep are presented in Figure 5. The average daily milk yield in goats increased to a maximum of 1076 g at two weeks post-partum and then decreased steadily till the end of lactation at 12 weeks when production averaged 962 g/day. In sheep,   on the other hand, the average daily milk yield was practically linear in decline, maximum production of 745 g occurring in the first week, decreasing throughout lactation until 12 weeks of lactation when production was 508 g/day.The composition of goats and sheep is shown in Table 3 and Figure 6. Local and BB goats had essentially the same milk composition in terms of total solids, butterfat, lactose and energy and these values except those for lactose, were significantly higher (P<0.001) than those for the Boer x local crossbred goats. There were no significant differences between BL and BB goats for SNF but SNF was significantly higher (P<0.001) in LL goats. Ash content was highest in BL goats and lowest in BB goats. Protein content was highest in LL goats and lowest in BB goats.Local sheep produced milk with the lowest total solids (P<0.05), butterfat (P<0.001) and energy (P<0.001) contents, but had the highest levels of SNF (P<0.001), ash (P<0.01), protein (P<0.001) and lactose (P<0.001). The differences between DL and DD ewes in total solids, butterfat, SNF, ash and energy were not significant. However, the contents of protein and lactose in DD ewes were least and lower (P<0.001) than those in DL ewes whose values were intermediate.Mean liveweight and liveweight gains of kids from birth to weaning at 17 weeks are given in Table 4. Although kids born during the dry season were lighter (P) at birth than those born during the rainy season, they weighed more at weaning (P) and gained more (P<0.001) weight until statistically significant differences among dam genotypes were detected only for kid birth-weights. Kids born to LL does were lightest and those born to BB does were heaviest (P). Those born to BL does were intermediate. However, between birth and weaning, no statistically significant differences among dam genotypes for kid growth traits were observed.Least squares means and standard errors of lamb live weights and liveweight gains from birth to weaning are shown in Table 5. Although the mean birthweight of lambs born in the dry season was lower (P) than that of those born in the rainy season, the performance of the former group was significantly superior to that of the latter group until weaning. Performance of lambs born to and reared by LL ewes was the least (P<0.001) in all growth traits. Weaning weights and liveweight gains were highest (P<0.001) in lambs born to and reared by DD ewes. The performance of those born to and reared by DL ewes was mostly intermediate However, only the difference in birthweight between DL and DD ewes was within v a r i a b l e groups bearing 0 i i f e r e n t letters diifer s i g n i r i c a n t l y (P<0.17). Those without l e t t e r s 0o not diifer.     In the present study, goats produced significantly less milk in the rainy season than in the dry season which disagrees with the observations of Mukundan and Bhat (1983). During the year when rainy season trials were set up, rainfall had increased from 976 mm to over 1 300 mm which was obtained from October 1 988 to early April 1989. These much longer and intensive rains disturbed the normal grazing period and pattern. In addition, the level of worm infestation observed in faeces and the higher level of disease incidences during this season could have accounted for the productive performance.The non-significant difference in estimates of total and daily milk yields between suckling and oxytocin techniques throughout lactation does not agree with the results of Mill and Steinbach (1984) who obtained higher estimates when oxytocin technique rather than when suckling technique was used. Hand-milking produced 36.5% less milk than either of the other two methods. Similar findings have been reported by Ueckermann et al (1974). These findings and the present results might show that all the breeds used in the present study have never been selected for milk production and indicate very strong mothering instinct.Differences in dam genotypes in total and daily milk production were evident. Previous estimates of milk production of the three goat genotypes are limited. Levels attained by the LL does are much higher than those reported for other tropical/subtropical breeds (Devendra and Burns, 1983). The breed is, however, surpassed by far by the Beetal and Jamnapari of India and the Damascus of Cyprus. The estimates of Boer goats are very much lower than those observed on the same breed elsewhere in Africa (Ueckermann et al, 1974). The present milk-yield estimates of BL does are 1 12% of the mid-parent average, 116% of the LL goats and 109% of BB goats. This might suggest that crossbreeding the BB and the LL goats could be beneficial for increased milk production.The total milk yields of sheep in the dry rainy seasons were similar. Similar findings were reported by Aboul- Naga et al (1981a). Much earlier, Sacker and Trail (1966) observed that the growth rate of lambs of the East African Blackheaded sheep lambing in the dry season was restricted.Total milk intake by lambs (suckling technique) was similar to total milk production of the ewes (oxytocin + hand-milking). The oxytocin + hand-milking technique usually gave no second milk let-down or residual milk in the udder as confirmed by palpation. This might suggest that either the ewes had adjusted their daily milk secretion to equal that consumed by their lambs or that all the lambs were consuming all the milk the ewes were capable of producing as suggested by Wohlt et al (1984). Similar findings were reported by Doney et al (1979) and Aboul- Naga et al (1981b).Although previous estimates on the sheep breeds used in the present study are not available, the levels attained by LL ewes are similar to those of Malpura and Chokla in India, higher than those of West African Dwarf sheep in Nigeria (Gatenby, 1986), but surpassed by Rahmani, Ossimi and Barki (Aboul-Naga et al, 1981a). Ueckermann et al (1974) reported that of the South African nonwoolled sheep, Dorper breed produced an average daily milk yield of 1262 g in 100 days. The present yield of about 750 g/day recorded in 84 days is too low and might be indicative of the existing insufficient nutritional environment.The pattern of daily milk yields in goats significantly rising to maximum within two weeks and then decreasing afterwards to end of lactation was also observed by Ehoche and Buvanendran (1983) in the Red Sokoto goat. The pattern of milk yields as observed in sheep was also reported by Gatenby (1986).The overall contents of total solids, fat, SNF, ash, protein, lactose and energy observed in the present study are much higher than those of all other breeds, except those of the West African Dwarf and the pygmy goats, as summarised by Parkash and Jenness (1968) and Devendra and Burns (1983). The contents in sheep are lower than those reported for Middle Atlas of Morocco (Gatenby, 1986). The changes in the composition of sheep and goat milk in this study are different from the results reported for dairy goats in the temperate areas (Parkash and Jenness, 1968).Kids and lambs born in the dry season weighed less at birth, but weighed and grew more up to weaning. The lighter birthweight in the dry season might probably be due to nutrition of the dam in the last third of pregnancy. Most goats and sheep gave birth between May and June when rains had stopped and plan of nutrition was getting low. Peart (1982) concluded that when nutrition of the dams during the last stages of gestation is low or restricted, birthweight of kids and dam milk yields in the first lactation weeks are reduced. However, the higher performance of these kids and lambs until weaning is probably due to the higher yields of milk and milk components produced by the dams during this reason. Observations made in the present study are contrary to expectations and to most published results (Sousa et al, 1987;Hendy, 1987). The controversy might have arisen due to differences in location, management, environment and genotype. Genotypic effect of dams was evident for differences in kid birthweight, but not for weights and gains to weaning. The least and heaviest birthweights in kids born to local and Boer does, respectively, are expected. Similar results were observed in sheep. The intermediate birthweights of kids born to crossbred goats may imply some additive gene action among the dams for kid birthweight and an advantage over the local goats as regards this trait. These results are contrary to the report published by De Haas (1977). Later, similar findings to the present results were reported by Ayoade and Butterworth (1982). However, similarity among genotypes in most of the pre-weaning traits might indicate that the milk yield differences may have been inadequate for the kids to show differences. In sheep, lambs born to and reared by local lambs performed the poorest. Weaning weights and pre-weaning gain differences in lambs born to and reared by Dorper on the one hand and crossbred ewes on the other hand were not significant, implying that the differences in milk yield only were not adequate to show differences in growth traits of the lambs.Goats produced more milk than sheep irrespective of genotype used. The milk yields are much lower than those for temperate and other Indian-recognised breeds. Due to reproductive problems in exotic genotypes, especially in Boer goats, no clear conclusions can be drawn. The content of all milk constituents in sheep, except fat, was higher than that in goats. The average composition is much higher than that of most tropical genotypes recorded. Lambs grew faster than kids. The low milk yields of the goats and sheep used could probably be increased by both selection and crossbreeding with well known high milk producing breeds. Although no valid recommendations could be drawn from this short-term study, the study has brought out some specific areas and problems that need attention. Some suggestions to be made need to be backed up by long-term studies through multidisciplinary approach.Suggestions for further research• If at all feasible, more research is required to include a larger number of Boer goats in order to come up with valid conclusions.• There should be a continuation of the evaluation and description of the performance potential (milk and meat) of all the existing stock to cover all the genotypes in all the zones of the country.• Evaluation of the milk production potential should be extended to include the newly introduced Saanen breed and its crosses with local goats. Assessment should include even post-weaning period to effectively evaluate milk production persistency, a character suitable for dairy production. The three milk measurement techniques should be tried to find the differences in milk production response. The suckling method needs refinement.• Possible causes of mortalities and disease incidences should be found.There is need to search several new treatment strategies to improve the health status of the small ruminants. Causes of reproductive problems in Boer goats and Dorper sheep should be promptly investigated.• Testing of several lamb and kid rearing regimes. This should include different suckling regimes and time of weaning, different feeding systems and housing types to help reduce mortality. Effect of milk removal on performance of the young should be examined.• Test several feeding, health, breeding and management technologies on the existing stock and evaluate their economic viability.• Selection of the existing small ruminant stock for growth rate of the offspring and milk production should be expanded or established. Compte tenu du faible niveau de production laitière de la race bovine locale, cette même production pouvant être obtenue à partir des chèvres laitières importées, un croisement d'absorption entre la chèvre locale et la chèvre alpine a été effectué dans cette région par le placement des boucs de race alpine dans des centres de monte.Les performances de reproduction, de croissance, et de production laitière des différents génotypes obtenus en station par croisement de la petite chèvre d'Afrique de l'Est avec les boucs de la race alpine font l'objet de la présente communication.chevreaux nés par rapport aux femelles en âge de reproduire); taux de prolificité (nombre de chevreaux moyen par mise-bas) et intervalle entre mise-bas.En conclusion, le croisement d'absorption entre la petite chèvre d'Afrique de l'Est et le bouc de race alpine a une influence négative sur les paramètres de reproduction. Les résultats des performances laitières des différents niveaux de croisement sont exprimés dans le tableau 4 (Schmidt, 1990). Ces résultats ont été relevés à la même station de Vyerwa sur une période n'arrivant pas à 9-1 0 ans comme les autres paramètres déjà vus. 2, c-\" 3_  Les chèvres de race alpine produisent plus que leurs croisées avec la petite chèvre de l'Afrique de l'Est. Parmi les croisées, les 3/4 sang alpin (R,) produisent plus que les demi-sang. Le niveau de production laitière paraît donc étroitement lié au taux de croisement alpin. In Nigeria, goats are the most numerous of all types of livestock numbering about 27.6 million (FOS, 1986). The animals are primarily for meat production. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture (FMA, 1981) estimated that goats contributed about 1 7 per cent (65 000 tonnes) of the total meat supply in Nigeria. Of the three breeds of goats in Nigeria Red Sokoto is the predominant and the most widely used and distributed breed in the northern savannah belts of the country (Ngere et al, 1984). To increase meat yield from this breed requires genetic improvement of its liveweight. Proper measurement of this trait, which often is hard in the villages due to lack of weighing scales, is a requisite for achieving this goal. The need for estimation of the trait from simpler and more easily measurable variable such as linear body measurements therefore arises.Very few studies have been carried out on the linear body measurements of Nigerian breeds of goat and their possible use for estimating the animals' live weights (Mason, n.d. ;Robinet, 1967;Ngere et al, 1979;Moruppa and Ngere, 1986;Ibiwoye and Oyatogun, 1987;Osinowo et al, 1989).This study was carried out to establish the relationship between liveweight and some linear body measurements in the Red Sokoto goat as a step towards employing such in bodyweight estimation for selection and other purposes in the semi-arid zone of Nigeria.The animals and their managementThe data used for this study were collected on 1 1 1 male and 90 female Red Sokoto goats aged 1-5 years at Dan' Maraya Farms, Kano, Nigeria. The animals were managed semi-intensively and separated into three age groups (1-2, 3-4 and 5 years). Groups were housed in separate compartments especially at night. The animals were released daily for grazing at 0800 hours and they remained outside until about 1600 hours. In the wet season, seed cakes and cereal offals were offered as supplement. In the dry season, the goats were fed cowpea and/or groundnut hay. Drinking water and salt lick were provided ad lib. Animals received routine inspection and dipping; drenching and vaccination were done for herd health maintenance.Records kept on the farm included stock-taking and disposal, breeding and reproduction, weight and health-care recordsIn all 201 sets of measurements were obtained for the four variables considered. Bodyweight was taken using weighbridge and the following linear body measurements were made using the tailor's tape measure.(a) Body length (BL) was measured as the distance from the external occipital protuberance to the base of the tail.(b) Height-at-withers (HAW) was measured as the distance from the surface of a platform to the withers and (c) Heart girth (HG) represented the circumference of the chest.Data collected were classified on the basis of sex and age. Three age groups (1-2, 3-4, and 5 years) were used. Means±SE forthe bodyweight and linear body measurements (BL, HAW and HG) were calculated. Analysis of variance was done to examine possible sex and age effects on the variables measured. The interrelationship of bodyweights and linear body measurements were estimated by simple correlation (Steel and Torrie, 1980). This was done separately for the two sexes in cases of significant sex effect.Table 1 summarises the average measurements obtained for all the traits studied. Except for the linear body measurements at 1-2 years of age all the values obtained for the four traits were higher in the males than in the females. This male advantage was more conspicuous and statistically significant at 3-4 years of age.Only the values for heart girth showed a significant (P <0.05) advantage for males 5 years of age.Values obtained for the linear body measurements in the present study are very close to those reported by Moruppa and Ngere (1986) for Red Sokoto goats in similar age groups. The differences observed in all the traits studied especially in favour of the male goats agree with earlier reports (Ngere et al, 1979;1984) on the same and other Nigerian goat breeds.The correlation coefficients obtained between the variables are presented in Table 2. These values are with no respect to effect of sex of goat on the variables. The high and significant correlation coefficients between height at withers and heart girth and bodyweight at 1-2 years of age suggests that either of these variables or their combination would provide a good estimate for predicting liveweight in Red Sokoto at an early age. The higher coefficient of correlation (r=0.0871) obtained between the two variables attests to this. Moruppa and Ngere (1986) and Osinowo et al (1989) reported a similar trend in the same breed. Mukherjee et al (1981;1986) and Singh et al (1987) reported the highest and significant correlation value of bodyweight with chest circumference in various Indian goat breeds. At later stages (3-5 years) body length assumes more importance as an indicator of liveweight (r=0.532, 0.754). Results of the correlation analysis carried out with respect to the significant effect of sex (P <0.01 ) on the variables are given in Table 3. The higher correlation coefficients for the male goats in most of the cases indicate that on the basis of the dimension of the various body lengths the bodyweight could be predicted more accurately in the male than in their female counterparts.The results of the analysis have underlined the significant effect of sex on the linear body measurement covered and pointed to the need not to ignore it in employing any of them for predicting liveweight in Red Sokoto goats. Heart girth would give the best estimate for predicting liveweight of Red Sokoto goats at 1-2 years of age. Body length would be a better predictor at later stages. Values within each age group with d i r r e r e n t s u p e r 8 2 r i p t s dirrer s i g n i r i c a n t l y (P < 0 . 1 D 0 . 0 5 ) . 2o letter i n d i c a t e s s u b c l a s s groups did not show a s i g n i r i c a n t sex errect in the analysis or v a r i a n c e . Where records are absent, the ages of cattle and sheep are commonly estimated by examining their teeth. However, there are very few published reports on permanent incisor eruption in small ruminants, especially on goats (Wilson and Durkin, 1984). Since date of birth is rarely known in traditional management systems, estimating age by means of dentition offers an opportunity method for establishing population structure. Furthermore, carcass-grading systems for sheep in Zimbabwe entail classification into categories by age, as well as fleshing and fat cover, while that of goats only takes fleshing into consideration. It is suggested that inclusion of age in the grading and pricing of goat carcasses could encourage farmers to sell their stock when in prime condition. Therefore, knowledge of dentition in relation to age in goats would be a useful management tool. This study was designed to examine the relation between age and dentition among indigenous goats and sheep. Influence of year and type of birth, sex and species differences were investigated.Ages at eruption of permanent incisor teeth of 292 goats and 392 sheep of known dates of birth were determined. The animals were born in October and November in 1984, 1985and 1986. Indigenous sheep (Sabi) and the large Matebele goat (Sibanda, 1990) were used. These animals were grazed on semi-arid thorn veld (Ward et al, 1 979) for 8 hours a day and were penned at night. Dipping was carried out weekly in the wet season (November to April) and once every two weeks during the dry season. Vaccination against pulpy kidney and strategic deworming were practised.A tooth was considered to have erupted when it had broken through the gum and the age at which animals attained a particular pair of permanent incisors was defined as the number of days from birth to the time when both incisors making up a pair had cut the gum. Animals were mouthed at 14-day intervals between October 1 985 and September 1 989, starting when they were approximately a year old with milk teeth still present (except in 1986 when sheep data on age of first eruption were discarded) continuing to full mouth in females. Data from males were available for the eruption of the first pair of permanent incisors only because males were slaughtered at 18 months of age.Data were analysed by analysis of variance using a General Linear Model (SAS, 1987). Within each species the effects of year and type of birth, sex, birthweight, daily weight gain and weight at eruption of permanent incisors on age at teeth eruption were examined. Correlations between age at eruption of first pair and those of subsequent pairs of permanent incisors were determined, in addition to examining the correlations between ages and weights at eruption. A comparison between species was also made.Age at eruption of permanent incisors was indicated by a 95% range (mean plus or minus two standard deviations).The mean ages for permanent incisor eruption for goats (Table 1 ) were similar to those reported by Wilson and Durkin (1984) and Otesile and Obasaju (1982). However, the second to the fourth eruptions tended to occur relatively earlier than those reported by Wilson and Durkin (1984). Age at first permanent incisor eruption was correlated (P<0.01) to age at subsequent eruptions.The effects of sex and type of birth were not significant in goats, though the effect of year of birth was marked (P <0.01 ) . Eruption of first and second pairs occurred later in twins which were also lighter in bodyweight than singles. Although weight tended to exert an influence on age of eruption, there were no significant correlations. Daily weight gain between birth and age at first eruption was correlated to age at eruption of first, second and third pairs of permanent incisors (P<0.01). The effects of year of birth could have been manifested through daily weight gain as influenced by nutrition.Ages at which the first to fourth pairs of permanent incisors erupted in sheep (Table 1) are similar to those reported by Starke and Pretorius (1955). The ■\" *-*x Daily weight gain from birth and age at first eruption was correlated (P<0.01). Gain between successive eruptions were also correlated (P<0.01) with their respective ages at eruption. This, as in goats, may have been a reflection of nutrition from birth to first eruption. Since only breeding females were available from second to fourth eruption, the effects of year of birth on weight and weight change were confounded by physiological status of animals which was not taken into account in the present analysis.Sheep and goats differed (P<0.01) in age of eruption of their second to fourth pairs of permanent incisors, the magnitude of the difference increasing between each pair (   Odenya (1982) and Kiriro (1986) studied lamb traits only up to weaning. A majority of studies have reported the performance of temperate sheep. There is an extreme paucity of information regarding the performance of sheep raised in Kenya.The purpose of this study was to investigate environmental sources of variation influencing growth traits in a flock of Dorper sheep at various stages of growth, from birth to yearling.The data used in this study consisted of growth records of 969 Dorper lambs. These data were collected from records of the Sheep and Goat Development Project (SGDP) based at OI'Magogo, a substation of the National Animal Husbandry Research Centre (NAHRC), Naivasha, between 1978 through 1987.Bodyweights analysed included weight at birth, at three months (weaning), at six months, at nine months and at months (yearling). Lambs were nursed by their dams up to weaning. Each lamb record included sire, dam and lamb identifications, type of birth and sex. Three seasons of birth were defined on the basis of the monthly rainfall distribution. Two rainy seasons were identified with April and May (season 1) forming the peak of the long rains while October and November were classified as a season of short rains (season 2). The remaining months were classified as a dry season (season 3).Parities were defined based on the number of times the ewes had lambed giving rise to parities 1 , 2, 3 and 4, the latter comprising ewes with 4 or more lambings.Due to disproportionate distribution of data across years which resulted into discontinuity in the data, it was not possible to include actual years in the analysis. Therefore, to adjust for differences in weather conditions across years, periods of birth were defined by grouping adjacent years on the basis of annual rainfall pattern. This otherwise uncommon grouping method was implemented after examination of meteorological data, and was felt to be the best method under the circumstances. Period 1 consisted of the years 1978-1980 which received the highest rainfall, period 2 (1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985) received intermediate amounts while period 3 (1986)(1987) received the lowest.The absolute growth rates were derived by taking the difference in weight within the period and dividing it by the time interval in days. The absolute rate of gain for each lamb was calculated over five growth periods namely: Birth to weaning (GR 1 ) , weaning to six months (GR2) , six to nine months (GR3) , nine to 1 2 months (GR4) and birth to 12 months (OVRGRT). These, together with the bodyweights, constitute the 10 traits analysed in this study.In view of the differences in actual age at which weights were taken, the latter were pre-adjusted as follows:ADJWWT     The effect of season of birth was significant for all traits except birthweight, pre-weaning growth rate and growth in the interval six to nine months. The effect of season of birth arises from seasonal variation in the physical environment resulting from changes in weather conditions (including rainfall amounts, temperature, and humidity) which directly affect feed availability, especially in a situation (such as is the case in this study) with no supplementary feed. Seasonal influence on a trait such as birthweight operates through its effect on the dam's uterine environment mostly in late gestation (Eltawil et al, 1970). Such factors operating in seasons prior to lambing will be manifested in birthweight. This may explain the higher (albeit non-significant) birthweight of lambs born in the dry season, lambs born in the long dry season during the critical stages of gestation. Such lambs would be expected to weigh more at birth compared to those whose dams underwent a nutritionally stressful period during gestation. It is, therefore, expected that the season when the ewe is in gestation is likely to play a more important role in birthweight than the actual season of birth. On the other hand, season of birth plays an important role in growth performance indirectly through its influence on the dam's nutrition (and hence amount of milk available to the unweaned lamb) and later, directly, through its effect on the pasture availability and quality on which the lamb is subsequently weaned. Growth traits are known to have positive correlations, both genetic and phenotypic (Osman and Bradford, 1965;Dzakumaetal, 1978;Mavrogenis et al, 1980;Stobartetal, 1986).The significance of season of birth for early growth performance may thus be responsible, as a carryover effect, for its significant influence on growth traits up to yearling. That growth rate from weaning to six months was not significantly influenced by season of birth -although season of birth was a significant source for growth rate before and after this period -may be due to the post-weaning stress which may have obscured the effect of season of birth. In general, seasons 1 and 3 were associated with better performance than season 2 (the short rains). The impact of this advantage early in life appears to be perpetuated up to yearling. As far as the bodyweights are concerned, season 3 was consistently associated with superior performance. From the results of this study, it is evident that lambs born in the dry season performed better than those born in the rainy season. It is therefore recommended that breeding at Ol'Magogo should be planned so that lambing would occur in the dry season. This way, would lambs benefit from favourable prenatal nutrient availability via their dams. However, lambing in the dry season has serious nutritional implications to the ewes. This is a time when ewes require good pastures so as to support their young and improve their own body condition. The best compromise would be to time lambing to occur towards the end of the dry season just preceding the rainy season.Parity was a significant source of variation for birthweight, pre-weaning growth rate and adjusted weaning weight (P<0.01). Least squares means (Tables 3 and  4) indicate that as far as pre-weaning growth rate and weaning weight are concerned, the performance of lambs improved with increase in parity. That young ewes tend to produce smaller lambs at birth has been documented (Dass and Acharya, 1970;Wilson, 1987). First parity ewes are still growing and thus must provide for their own growth in addition to the foetal demand. It is generally known that mothering ability, especially milk production, increases with parity; older ewes are larger in body and are better milkers (Dass and Acharya, 1970;Eltawil et al, 1970;Wright et al, 1975;Stobart et al, 1986). Hence, influence of the superior maternal environment of such ewes is expected to be translated into better lamb performance up to weaning. It was, therefore, not surprising that post-weaning growth performance was not significantly influenced by parity. The effect of parity of dam on lambs is thus imparted as maternal influence whose direct influence is limited to the nursing period.Period of birth was a significant source of variation for all traits except birthweight and yearling weight. As has been alluded to in Materials and Methods, period of birth was defined by grouping adjacent years which, from meteorological data, generally had a similar rainfall pattern. To this end, the significance of this factor was only important because it facilitated the adjustments of records for the effect of 'periods'. Any particular period, on its own, has no important bearing on the interpretation of the results and therefore did not have any management implications.In order to improve breeding value, selection must be based on genotypic rather than environmental superiority. Thus, variation due to definable environmental effects must be removed by use of suitable adjustment factors. Ideally, these adjustments would be developed individually for each management unit (i.e. flock), but only rarely is sufficient data available to allow this. The next possible level for development of adjustment factors is within either definable groups of management units, or definable genetic groups. It is necessary that all known sources of variation influencing the traits of importance be included in the model of analysis, otherwise the results of the study may not be reliable. If less factors are included there is often a tendency to obtain overestimates of the genetic parameters of interest. In this study, for example, it would have been quite useful to include such factors as age of dam, and type of birth and rearing as some of the adjustment factors. However, type of birth and rearing was not included in the model of analysis because genetic parameters were also being estimated based on paternal half-sibs only, while age of dam was not available in the original data set.The trait of interest ought to be investigated in the environment under which it is to be typically expressed, since this environment may be the one which is necessary for revealing certain desirable or undesirable genes or, in contrast, the sought-after genetic differences may be of little importance or indistinguishable in this environment. For instance, traits evaluated at OI'Magogo should not necessarily be expected to behave in the same way in a quite different environment, such as the Kenyan highlands. Genetic improvement of many traits might be more effectively accomplished by evaluating them, and others correlated with them, under particular environmental circumstances or during a specific period in the life cycle, depending upon the particular genes involved and the correlations among them. Cette étude repose sur les données recueillies pendant 10 ans (1978 à 1987) sur 969 agneaux de race Dorper à OL'Magogo Naivasha. Les paramètres étudiés sont le poids des agneaux de la naissance à l'âge de 1 an, et leurs taux de croissance absolus à intervalles de temps consécutifs. Les coefficients d'héritabilité obtenus à partir de demi-frères paternels étaient de 0,15+0,07 pour le poids à la naissance, de 0,18+0,08 pour le poids au sevrage corrigé, de 0,39+0,11 pour le poids à 6 mois corrigé, de 0,55 ±0,1 3 pour le poids à 9 mois corrigé, de 0,53+0,13 pour le poids à 12 mois corrigé, et en ce qui concerne la croissance, de 0,14+0,07 avant le sevrage, de 0,28+0,09 du sevrage à l'âge de 6 mois, de 0,59±0, 14de6à9 mois, de 0,49±0, 12 de 9 à 12 mois, et de 0,49 ±0, 12 de la naissance à l'âge de 1 an. Les coefficients d'héritabilité des caractères étudiés après le sevrage étaient presque toujours supérieurs à ceux des caractères étudiés de la naissance au sevrage, ce qui signifie que l'influence directe du patrimoine génétique de l'animal est moins importante au cours des premiers mois de la vie qu 'au cours des mois suivants. Les coefficients de corrélation génétique et phénotypique estimés entre les poids étaient essentiellement positifs, allant respectivement de 0,15 à 0,99 et de 0,02 à 0,98. Par ailleurs, il existait de fortes corrélations génotypiques et phénotypiques entre les poids moyens aux intervalles consécutifs, entre les poids et les taux de croissance et entre les taux de croissance eux-mêmes.The potential for genetic improvement is largely dependent on the heritability of the trait and its genetic relationship with other traits of economic importance upon which some selection pressure may be applied. Information on heritabilities is essential for planning efficient breeding programmes and for predicting response to selection. Genetic correlations, on the other hand, are essential in predicting indirect responses to selection and are needed in order to determine the optimum weighting and expected response to multiple trait selection.Statistical techniques presently utilised for the estimation of breeding values in selection programmes rely on estimates of genetic variation within and between traits of economic importance. The overall impact of any selection programme will depend on the direct and correlated responses that result from selection on the selection criterion. These responses can be predicted a priori by using estimates of genetic and phenotypic relationships between all traits of economic importance.In Kenya, Dorper sheep are kept mainly for meat production. Thus, traits affecting economic viability include those associated with growth. Body weight and rate of gain are among the most economically important and easily measured traits of meat animals Although weight is an important objective in selection, knowledge of the particular phase of the animal's growth upon which to base selection is of utmost importance. Genetic and phenotypic parameter estimates are scarce in sheep reared under Kenyan conditions and where such information is available, analytical methods used tend to be inadequate.The purpose of this study was to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters of growth traits in a flock of Dorper sheep at various stages of growth from birth to yearling.The data used in this study consisted of growth records of lambs in a flock of Dorper sheep. These data were collected from records of the Sheep and Goat Development Project (SGDP) based at GTMagogo, a substation of the National Animal Husbandry Research Centre (NAHRC), Naivasha, between 1978 through 1987. A total of 969 records were available and were thus analysed for genetic and phenotypic parameters.Bodyweights analysed included weight at birth, at three months (weaning), at six months, at nine months and at 12 months (yearling). Lambs were nursed by their dams up to weaning. Each lamb record included sire, dam and lamb identifications, type of birth, sex and dam breed. Three seasons of birth were defined on the basis of the monthly rainfall distribution. Two rainy seasons were identified with April and May (season 1) forming the peak of the long rains while October and November were classified as season of short rains (season 2). The remaining months were classified as dry season (season 3).Parities were defined based on the number of times the ewes had lambed giving rise to parities 1,2,3 and 4, the latter comprising ewes with four or more lambings.Due to disproportionate distribution of data across years which resulted into discontinuity in the data, it was not possible to include actual years in the analysis. Therefore, to adjust for differences in weather conditions across years, periods of birth were defined by grouping adjacent years on the basis of annual rainfall pattern. This otherwise uncommon grouping method was implemented after examination of meteorological data, and was felt to be the best method under the circumstances. Period 1 consisted of the years 1978-1980 which received Parameters were estimated from covariances of relatives using paternal half-sib (PHS) analysis based on the Least Squares Method (Harvey, 1982) in which sires were cross-classified with fixed effects. The analytical complications introduced in half-sib analysis by use of litters was avoided by including only lambs born as singles. Heritability was estimated from variance components as h2 = 4 o2 l(o2 + o2) s s w where h2 = heritability estimate ct2 = sire variance component s o2 = variance of records within sires wThe approximate method of Swiger et al (1 964) was used to estimate the standard error of the heritability estimate. Genetic correlations between two traits 1 and 2, r12 were estimated as r12 , os1s2/ (as1os2) where os1 s2 is the sire covariance component for the two traits and os1 and os2 are square roots of respective sire variance components.Genetic and phenotypic parameters Heritability Heritability estimates are summarised in Table 1. Heritability of birthweight was found to be 0. 1 5±0.07. This estimate compares favourably with estimates of 0. 1 9 (Osman and Bradford, 1965) and 0.21 (Dzakuma et al, 1978). The estimate for weaning weight was 0.18±0.08 which was lower than 0.28+0.1 1 (Stobart et al, 1986) and 0.36±0.12 (Mavrogenis et al, 1980). Thus, in general, both estimates for birth and weaning weight were lower than those in the literature. Heritability for six-months weight was estimated at 0.39±0.1 1. This was slightly above the estimates of 0.28±0.10 (Dzakuma et al, 1978) and 0.21 (Ercanbrack and Price, 1972). The estimate for weight at nine months (0.55±0.13) compares favourably with the range of 0.30 to 0.50 (Rae, 1982). However, few studies have reported heritability estimates of nine-months weight. That for 12-months weight was estimated at 0.53+0.13 and was higher than values reported in other studies: 38±0.23 (Dass and Acharya, 1970); 0.26±0.11 (Stobart et al, 1986); and 0.11+0.11 (Dzakuma et al, 1978). Heritability estimates of growth rates progressively increased from 0.14±.07 for pre-weaning growth rate to 0.59±0.1 4 for growth rate between six to nine months, then declined to 0.49+0.12 for rate of gain between nine to 12 months. The range of heritability for pre-weaning growth rate in the literature (Hundley and Carter, 1956;Givens et al, 1960;Vogt et al, 1967) was 0.18-0.37. Overall growth rate had a heritability estimate of 0.49±0.12. However, this was higher than 0.29+0.11 (Stobart et al, 1986). Rae (1982) reported a range of 0.20-0.40 for post-weaning growth rate while a high figure of 0.58±0. 1 4 has been reported in Columbia sheep (Ercanbrack and Price, 1972).It is clear from these and other results that post-weaning growth generally has higher heritability estimates than pre-weaning growth. This would indicate that environmental factors, in relation to additive genetic factors, had more influence on early lamb gain than on gains later in the lamb's life. This may be attributed to the high maternal influence associated with lamb growth performance early in life. High maternal influence has a tendency to increase the component of variance environmental to the lamb thereby lowering heritability estimates (Harrington et al, 1962;Thrift et al, 1973).The best time to evaluate an animal's additive genetic value for a desired trait is under circumstances which assure maximum expression of the genes, that is under conditions when heritability is highest, provided that the genetic expression at this time is highly correlated with the genetic expression during the time period in life when the trait is most valuable or important (Ercanbrack and Price, 1972). However, one should not ignore the effect of time of evaluation on generation interval. Moreover, the desired genotype might be more accurately evaluated through another highly heritable trait, or an index, which is highly correlated genetically with it.These results, therefore, indicate that to select lambs for their own genetic merit for weights and gains, it would be best to use bodyweight at nine months as the selection criterion rather than weaning weight as is often practised. This trait should be superior to weaning weight or pre-weaning growth rate since it is much less influenced by maternal effects which tend to obscure the direct additive genetic effect for growth. Although the generation interval may not be considerably shortened, overhead costs should certainly be curtailed when the rest of the lamb crop is disposed of at this stage. On the other hand, selection of ewes as dams must be based on lamb performance pre-weaning and at weaning. In any case, the objective should be to choose a practical selection criterion which will maximise the annual rate of progress for the trait to be improved without seriously impairing merit in important correlated traits (Ercanbrack and Price, 1972).Genetic correlations between growth traits at various ages was generally high and positive ranging from 0.15±0.24 to .99+01 (Table 1). Genetic correlations between adjacent traits were generally higher than the ranges reported in the literature: 0.21-0.77 for correlation between birth weight and weaning weight (Osman and Bradford, 1965;Mavrogenis et al, 1980), 0.13-0.22 for birthweight and 1 2-months weight, and 0.21-0.72 for weaning weight and 1 2-months weight (Dzakuma et al, 1978;Stobart et al, 1986). The high genetic correlations among these traits suggests that selection for any one of these traits would result in considerable positive change in other traits. The complications brought about by maternal environment early in the lamb's life (hence the lowered estimate of direct genetic effects) may be overcome by utilising correlated response. One could concentrate on traits with high heritability as long as there exists a high positive correlation with other traits of economic value. Moreover, selection directed towards weights at later ages would minimise response in birthweight and possible increased frequency of dystocia (Shelton, 1964;Thrift et al, 1967;Olson et al, 1976;Martin et al, 1980;Mavrogenis et al, 1980). However, selection for weights at later ages would be expected to lead to increased yearling weights which is desirable for meat animals, but may be associated with increased maintenance costs for breeding animals and those kept for wool production.Genetic correlations between growth rates and various weights and between growth rates themselves ranged from medium and negative to high and positive (-0.42 to 0.99). Statistically, most of the estimates were not significantly different from zero. Such (negative) estimates could be explained by the effect of compensatory growth obscuring underlying genetic relationships. Thus, in general, genetic correlations were low to high and positive. There is, therefore, potential for exploiting correlated response for most of these traits. Traits such as birthweight, weaning weight and pre-weaning growth rate could be incorporated in a selection index aimed at selecting for yearling weight since these traits are highly correlated with 1 2-months weight. However, care must be taken to avoid problems related to dystocia which may result due to selection for increased birthweights.Phenotypic correlations between weights were all positive and generally high (0.19-0.74) (Table 1). As was the case for genetic correlations among weights, phenotypic correlations between adjacent weights were higher. The correlations tended to decrease as the time interval separating the observed weights increased.In the case of genetic correlations between growth rates and weights, and among growth rates themselves, the phenotypic correlations ranged from low and negative to high and positive values (-0.17 to 0.98). The fact that there exists a negative (although low) correlation between pre-weaning growth rate and growth rate in the intervals weaning to six months and six to nine months (-0.16 and -0.06, respectively), may indicate that a faster pre-weaning growth rate because of substantial milk available tended to be followed by slower post-weaning growth rate. It seems logical to suggest, in general, that the low negative correlations which appear in some growth periods such as between weaning to six months and nine to twelve months (-0.08), and six to nine months and nine to 12 months (-0.16), are consequences of compensatory growth and not antagonistic as such. There was, as would be expected, a consistent positive phenotypic correlation between overall growth rate and all other growth rates of the lamb before yearling indicating common environmental effects.From the results of this study, it is concluded that selection for weight and weight gain would best be based on post-weaning traits though the generation interval is likely to be slightly longer. Positive correlated response should be expected in other correlated traits due to the generally large and positive genetic correlations. Preliminary selection could also be conducted during the pre-weaning period since Inyangala (1989) reported favourable repeatability estimates for birth weight, pre-weaning growth rate and weaning weight. However, the high maternal influence on pre-weaning must not be ignored as it tends to mask the true genetic merit in the lambs.Sheep are generally not milked in Cameroon. However, it has been established that milk production has direct effect on weight gain by lambs. Barnicoat et al (1956) reported a positive correlation between growth rate of New Zealand Romney lambs (between 0 and 12 weeks) and fat content, and total milk consumption with correlation coefficients of 0.72 and 0.61, respectively. Milk production during lactation is an important factor affecting maternal ability in sheep. Estimates of milk production by Cameroon Dwarf Blackbelly sheep do not exist. The present study focused on estimating daily and total milk production during the lactation period of Cameroon Dwarf Blackbelly sheep; establishing the lactation curve; and investigating the relationship between age of animal at the commencement of lactation and total milk production during the lactation period of 12 weeks.The sheep used for the study are popularly called Blackbelly sheep as a result of the distinct black abdomen and dominant brown colour on all other parts of the body. They are a strain of the West African Dwarf sheep found along the Atlantic coast from Senegal to Angola. This sheep is a hair type with a thin tail. It measures 55 to 65 cm at the withers. The head is small with a straight profile. The ears are small and droop a little. Males have short spiral horns. In general, females are hornless but sometimes they have spurs. The hair is short and quite smooth but is sometimes rough. Adult males weigh 25-35 kg while adult females weigh 20-25 kg. Birthweight ranges from 1.5 to 2.0 kg. Average age at first lambing is 534 days while the lambing interval is 228 days. The sex ratio is about 49 per cent male and 51 per cent female. Prolificity has been estimated at 107 per cent while fertility and fecundity rates are 1 13 and 121 per cent, respectively. This sheep is thought to be the ancestor of the Barbados Blackbelly sheep (Epstein, 1971). It is found in the forest region of Cameroon, Gabon, Congo and Zaire (FAO, 1 979) .Mason (unpublished data) reported that 1 0.5 per cent of sheep in the Central and South Provinces of Cameroon were the Blackbelly sheep. Weekly milk production by Cameroon Dwarf Blackbelly sheep are presented in Table 2. From parturition there was an increase of milk production from 2.95 kg per week to a peak of 3.52 kg at four weeks and thereafter a gradual decline to 2.10 kg at 12 weeks of lactation. Average milk production per lactating ewe is indicated in Table 3. Total milk production per lactation ranged from 28 to 42 kg, corresponding to 0.33 to 0.50 kg per day.Age at the time of parturition (days) was positively correlated with total milk production (kg) and the correlation coefficient of 0.71 was significant (P<0.05).The regression equation describing the relationship was as follows:  Maximum daily milk production was attained by the Cameroon Dwarf Blackbelly sheep at the 4th week for lactation. This implies a more gradual increase of milk production to attain a peak when compared to some breeds for sheep that do so more rapidly and earlier. Coombe et al (1960) reported that milk output reached a peak at 10-20 days; while Ricordeau and Denamur (1962) reported that Prealpes sheep attained milk production peak at 25 days.The daily peak milk production of 0.50 kg obtained with Cameroon Dwarf Blackbelly sheep is low when compared to 1 .25 litres per day with Prealpes sheep (Ricordeau and Denamur, 1962). Spedding (1963) has indicated that peak milk yield in sheep varies with breeds. Bonsma (1929) reported peak daily milk production in Merino sheep of 0.77 kg while Owen (1957) indicated a value of 2.23 kg.The yield of 28-42 kg of milk by Cameroon Dwarf Blackbelly sheep during a lactation period of 96 days is low when compared to 48 and 53 kg by Ossimi and Rahmani sheep, respectively (Sharafeldin and Mostageer, 1961), for a lactation period of 84 days and 100-150 kg by Awassi sheep for a period of 160 days (Koseoglu and Aytug, 1961).The positive relationship between age and milk production obtained in the present study with Blackbelly sheep agrees with reports by Gruer (1 959) that total milk production per lactation by Precoce, Stara, Zagora and Plovdiv sheep increased upto six to seven years before declining. However, the oldest ewe used in the investigation of the age/lactation total milk relationship had not attained three years.The evaluation of milk production needs to be extended to other local breeds for which we do not have any information at the moment.pluridisciplinaires dont les travaux sont essentiellement axés sur l'étude des systèmes de production. Son mandat consiste à effectuer des recherches sur les systèmes d'élevage caprin en vue de promouvoir la production de lait et de viande et partant d'augmenter le niveau d'alimentation protéique des petits éleveurs tout en accroissant le revenu monétaire de ces systèmes de production intensifs sur de petites exploitations grâce à la vente d'animaux sur pied, de viande et de lait. Les principaux résultats obtenus sont présentés, qui concernent notamment la production, la conservation et l'utilisation des aliments du bétail, la conduite des troupeaux caprins, la mise au point d'une race composite de caprins destinée à la production de lait et de viande et l'évaluation de ses performances ainsi que l'immunoprophylaxie et le diagnostic de la péripneumonie contagieuse des caprins, de l'hydropéricardite et des helminthiases.Il aborde également les aspects économiques de ce type d'élevage, l'accueil qui lui est fait par les paysans de I ouest du Kenya ainsi que l'utilisation qu'ils font des produits ainsi obtenus.The  Due to high population densities, up to 900 people per sq km in some areas in western Kenya, sub-division of farms has substantially reduced pasture and fallow lands rendering reduction in cattle population (Russo et al, 1983). Lack of adequate pasture has led to intensive management methods such as tethering and stall-feeding. In response to this challenge SR-CRSP scientists are solving the problem through integration of DPG with crop agriculture. This is achieved through dual-purpose crops, crop residues and by growing fodders and legume trees in alley cropping or soil conservation practices. Table 3 gives an indication of the quality of some of the forages derived from dual-purpose crops and crop residues.In testing the hypothesis that integration of DPG with crop production would result in adequate production of forage for goats, a model farm was established at Maseno. The farm is 0.5 ha in size and is designed to produce enough major food crops for the farmer's needs as well as feeds for four goats or one adult cow. Food crops (maize, beans and sweet potato) one adult cow. Food crops (maize, beans and sweet potato) are planted on 60% of the land, while forages, Napier grass, two species of Leucaena, Sesbania and Calliandra, that are planted both as borders and alleys took 40% of the land. In one year this farm produced food crops and forage as shown in Table 4. Four DPGs were exclusively fed from the model farm forages for the whole year with large surpluses realised every month.The main goat diseases in western Kenya and in Kenya at large are contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP), heartwater and haemonchosis. SR-CRSP has had success in these diseases in vaccine and diagnostic kit development.In an endeavour to evaluate the inactivated and lyophilised CCPP vaccine developed by SR-CRSP and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) scientists, 50 goats were immunised with a single dose of vaccine and 50 others were left as unimmunised controls. All the goats were left on the same farm for two months and then moved to Kabete Veterinary Laboratory farm for challenge. The two groups were mixed and allowed to graze during the day and at night they were housed with five goats with experimental challenge of CCPP. During the first two weeks after movement of the goats to Kabete, 12 vaccinates and 14 unimmunised goats died of diarrhoea. None of these goats had evidence of CCPP infection. Of the remaining 38 vaccinated goats, two became infected with CCPP and had a fever for two days. None of the 38 vaccinated died. At the end of the experiment (four months later), all 38 goats were euthanised and examined for lesions and organisms. Only the two with fever had mild adhesion of the cardiac lung lobes to the thoracic wall and no F38 organisms were isolated from any of the 38 vaccinated goats. In contrast, 30 of the 36 unimmunised goats developed fever and 27 died of CCPP. The three unimmunised goats that developed fever and survival had adhesions of the cardiac and apical lobes of the lungs to the thoracic wall. The six control goats without clinical signs did not have lesions or detectable organisms at the end of the experiment.In summary, 75% of the unimmunised goats died when challenged by contact with CCPP-infected goats and none of the vaccinated goats died.Heartwater is a severe infection of goats, sheep and cattle caused by rickattsia (Cowdria ruminantium). In goats, the disease causes a very high mortality and can be devastating in susceptible populations. Transmission is by ticks, primarily Ambloyomma variegatum, which are widely distributed in Kenya. Currently, diagnosis is made by post-mortem examination of brain tissue. A more convenient method of diagnosis is needed as well as a method of prevention.A published method was used to grow C. ruminantium in vitro in bovine endothelial cells. Establishment of the tissue culture system at Kabete made available a renewable source of organisms. Larger quantities of organisms provided Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA), protein and infectious organisms for a variety of studies and represents an important advance in our research program on heartwater.Endothelial cells were infected with Kiswani isolate of heartwater, made in Kenya.DNA purified from C. ruminantium organisms isolated from infected endothelial cells was used to make genomic library. Size-fractionated fragments were ligated into puc19 and used to transform Escherichia coli. Two cloned genes were identified that were from the heartwater organism and one of the genes pcr9, a Amblyomma variegatum ticks fed on C. ruminantium -infected goats but not in ticks fed on uninfected goats. Tick infection with C. ruminantium was confirmed by transmission of headwater to uninfected goats either by feeding of nymphs fed as larva on infected goats or by subinoculation of tick gut homogenates. The pcr9 insert DNA probe detected C. ruminantium in midguts of A. variegatum nymphs infected as larvae and in midguts of A. variegatum adult ticks infected as nymphs but not in midguts from control nymphs and adults. Nucleic acid sequence of this pct9 insert DNA was determined for eventual development of oligonucleotide primers for use in polymerase chain reactions in order to increase sensitivity of assays using the DNA probe.Research on haemonchosis focused on the identification of genetically resistant or tolerant goats as one long-term solution to control this important internal parasite. This research emphasis is based on the findings that several expensive treatments per year are required to prevent clinical disease and associated production losses. The assumption that genetically resistant or tolerant goats can be identified is based on the identification of a resistance trait in sheep and on our work that indicated susceptibility differences occurred among breeds of goats.Natural Haemonchus contortus infection of 300 kids was evaluated from two months to one year of age. Faecal samples were collected from the rectum and parasite eggs per gram of faeces determined. During the observation period, some kids had very low or no eggs while others had high egg counts. To extend the observation of differences among individuals to natural infection, two groups of goats were selected for further study. Group A contained 1 1 goats which had a mean egg count of 201 ±200. The two groups were confined in pens, cleared of worm infection using Ivermectin and challenged with 500 H. contortus larvae per kg bodyweight. Faecal samples were collected once a week for eight weeks and eggs per gram determined. Group A goats had significantly (P<0.05) lower eggs per gram (mean 726±213) than group B (mean 1643+463). Also, individual goats in both groups had low numbers of eggs indicating resistance to the challenge infection. Some animals in group B had very high infection rates indicating that individual differences may be greater than group differences. This study emphasises the importance of experimental challenge to assess genetic resistance of goats to H. contortus and that individual differences in susceptibility occur among goats. Further studies are in progress to define more clearly the occurrence and basis for differences in susceptibility.As the name implies, on-farm evaluation calls for the researcher to take measurements on-farm and for interaction with the farmer, on the subject of the technology or intervention with regard to its biological and socio-economic aspects. In looking at the biological aspect, the on-farm performance of DPGs was compared with on-station over a period of two years. Results of the comparison are given in Table 5. Judging by these results, it is evident that the on-station DPGs are out-performing their counterparts on-farm. Causes leading to these differences give guidance for further investigations and trials. For example, the kidding rate on-station is 98% as opposed to 65% due to managerial rather than biological problems. Farmers are not fully conversant with heat detection and buck availability is limited to a few farms. This is not a researchable problem but one that requires education and more bucks.  Similarly, both Muhanda and Hamisi clusters are noted to be most consistent in feeding the cultivated forages to the DPGs. By contrast, Masumbi farmers merely feed their DPGs with cuttings from growing on shrubs fallow land while Lela farmers prefer to \"open graze\" their DPGs rather than feed them with large amounts of cultivated forages in the cluster (Table 7). Linear programming (LP), a procedure for determining efficient resource allocation which uses mathematical procedures consistent with economic concepts to determine optimal farm plans, showed the following based on the results from Table 7, with regards to DPG enterprise (Nyaribo, 1989):• Dairy production generated higher net returns than food crop production. This makes sense since milk and meat are both high (cash) value commodities.• The DPG's market potential is very good and can easily out-compete the local zebu cattle.• As we move from the medium to the large farm, there is a modest 7 per cent increase in livestock sales, but a significant 31 per cent increase in net farm income. This means that with additional factors of production (capital, land and management) farmers can increase their incomes significantly through livestock sales.It is interesting to note that there were no livestock sales in the small Hamisi farms (0.69 ha) of which only 0.59 ha was cultivable land while the LP model production is at variance with actual observed practices since it does imply that the smallest farms in the area keep livestock under non-optimal conditions for risk aversion reasons and other reasons not related to profitability. In fact, the small farms have been observed to be more attracted to the DPGs and its techpacks than larger farms that are more in commodity agriculture. It is anticipated, with increased production level of the DPGs and particularly, with milk production of over one kg per doe/day, the larger farms are likely to capitalise on it as they are currently doing with cash crops.Bien que l'élevage occupe au Togo par rapport à l'agriculture une place modeste dans l'économie nationale, son développement constitue une des conditions nécessaires pour atteindre l'objectif que s'est fixé le pays depuis une vingtaine d'années: l'autosuffisance alimentaire. Dans ce cadre, un Projet national petits ruminants a été mis en place au Togo, dont nous présenterons ici les principales activités.Malgré les tentatives et efforts de développement de l'élevage des ovins et caprins, force est de constater que les paysans ont du mal à associer cette activité aux cultures vivrières. Nos recherches sont donc axées sur l'étude des éventuels avantages mutuels entre la culture vivrière et l'élevage des petits ruminants au niveau du paysan-éleveur et de définir dans quelles mesures nous pourrons les valoriser davantage. Une synthèse de ces résultats est présentée en deuxième partie.Programme de développement de l'élevage des petits ruminants au TogoPour atteindre les objectifs lui étant assignés, réduire le déficit en viande du Togo et augmenter les revenus paysans, le Projet national petits ruminants (PNPR) comprend trois volets: celui de l'encadrement du secteur traditionnel, celui de la création et du suivi des élevages semi-intensifs, et le Centre d'appui technique de Kolokopé.L'encadrement du secteur traditionnel vise à l'amélioration des pratiques de l'élevage traditionnel dans les domaines de l'alimentation, de l'habitat et de l'hygiène, ainsi qu'à la protection sanitaire contre la peste des petits ruminants et le charbon bactéridien (vaccination), et d'autre part contre les parasitoses gastro-intestinales et les ectoparasites (déparasitages).Les actions entreprises au niveau du secteur traditionnel sont reprises auprès des élevages semi-intensifs et intensifs avec un suivi plus marqué auxquelles s'ajoutent celles de l'amélioration génétique. Les campagnes de vaccination et de déparasitage ont permis une baisse moyenne du taux de mortalité de 25% à 8%, alors que les actions d'amélioration de l'alimentation, de l'habitat, de l'hygiène et de la reproduction ont permis d'enregistrer une amélioration du taux de productivité, qui est passé de 81% à 134%.Dans La sélection des animaux améliorateurs est basée essentiellement sur la vitesse de croissance des jeunes mâles et sur la conformation des jeunes femelles. Les mâles sont livrés pour la reproduction à l'âge de 12 mois avec un poids de 26 à 27 kg, tandis que les femelles sont mises à la reproduction à l'âge de 8 mois, avec un poids de 14 à 15 kg. Le programme de sélection permet de livrer annuellement:• 300 à 400 agnelles, 30 à 50 béliers reproducteurs dans les élevages; et• 400 à 500 têtes à la boucherie (animaux non retenus pour l'élevage ou à réformer).Les thèmes de recherche appliquée, au niveau du Centre d'appui de Kolokopé sont les suivants:• expérimentation de plusieurs types de gestion de troupeaux: lutte continue, lutte organisée avec \"rattrapage\", lutte organisée synchronisation de l'oestrus, etc.;• insémination artificielle, avec l'assistance de la FAO: 264 brebis du Centre ont été inséminées à l'aide de semences récoltées sur des béliers de grande valeur du Centre de sélection ovine de Bouaké. 70% des inséminations furent fécondantes, et 22 agneaux mâles ont été sélectionnés pour la reproduction;• expérimentation des programmes de lutte contre les tiques en faisant varier le rythme de balnéations et en utilisant des produits nouveaux (étude faite en collaboration avec l'école des sciences de l'Université du Bénin, Lomé;• mise en place de programme d'essais en collaboration avec le CIPEA sur la complémentation alimentaire d'agneaux avec Leucaena et pois d'Angole Le disponible en sous-produits agricoles est évalué en pesant la paille de riz récoltée sur des carrés choisis au hasard dans un champ et les fanes d'arachide sèches stockées, les sons de céréales et les épluchures de manioc disponibles (après séchage). La matière verte et la matière sèche des prélèvements de fourrages opérés dans les pâturages naturels du Centre de Kolokopé ont été déterminées.Leur appétibilité est évaluée par la rapidité avec laquelle les animaux entament le sous-produit servi; le taux d'ingestion est déterminé par le rapport de la quantité de sous-produit ingérée et du poids vif total des animaux.Les crottes de mouton sont récupérées par balayage des parcs (deux fois dans la semaine) et pesées après passage au tamis. La production est évaluée en fonction des moues de conduite des lots d'animaux constitués:• pâture (8 h par jour) et stabuiation (1 6 h environ) d'un troupeau de brebis et d'agneaux, avec complémentation (graines de coton) et supplémentation minérale (pierre à lécher);• stabuiation permanente d'un troupeau mixte et d'un troupeau de jeunes mâles en croissance (fourrage vert, foin, graines de coton et pierres à lécher).Après précompostage des crottes mises en tas pendant 14 jours, quatre traitements ont été réalisés pour le fumier: en tas sous abri, en tas couvert, en fosse sous abri, et en fosse non couverte. Des échantillons ont été prélevés un et deux mois après la date de la confection du fumier, à des profondeurs différentes (20 cm, 50 cm, 80 cm) en vue de doser les différents éléments fertilisants après détermination de la matière sèche: N (méthode Kjeldahl), C (méthode Anne), P205 (parcalorimétrie), K2O (par photométrie de flamme), CaO et MgO (par spectrométrie d'absorption atomique).Sous-produits de cultures Le disponible en paille de riz (tableau 1) est le double de la production de grain (respectivement 961 g/m2 et 514 g/m2, moyenne de 9 échantillons). La paille de riz bien séchée, très riche en matières minérales, peut être conservée et servie comme aliment de lest chez les moutons. Actuellement exploitée dans ce sens par les paysans du nord du Togo, elle est rarement, sinon jamais, utilisée par ceux du sud du pays. Le tableau 1 montre que le taux de production de panicules vides de sorgho est de 25%. En considérant un rendement moyen de 500 kg à l'hectare de sorgho paniculé en culture associée (contre 850 kg à 1 tonne en culture pure de sorgho) , le disponible est de 125 kg/ha de panicules vides. Le taux d'ingestion est de 38% pour des moutons habitués; ce taux, faible, peut être augmenté en abandonnant délibérément quelques grains de sorgho sur les panicules vides.En dépit de son faible taux de production au niveau artisanal (19%), le son sec de maïs, de par sa richesse en MPD (80 g/kg de MS) et sa valeur énergétique (0,85 UF/kg de MS), constitue un bon complément dans l'alimentation des ovins.Le tableau 2 permet d'évaluer la production d'épluchures sèches de manioc à 2 400 kg par hectare. Malgré leur taux de production faible (8,70%), les épluchures sèches de manioc sont très utilisées par les paysans-éleveurs dans la complémentation alimentaire de leurs animaux. Les tests sur l'ingestibilité de ces épluchures sèches montrent un taux de consommation de 80% prouvant ainsi la bonne appétibilité de ce sous-produit. La stabulation permanente au niveau du paysan influe cependant négativement les productions de l'élevage (perte de poids, avortements éventuels, poids faibles des agneaux à la naissance, etc.) car le paysan-éleveur ne maîtrise pas encore les contraintes de cette technique de stabulation permanente. En conséquence, les conseils prodigués au paysan-éleveur portent sur le mode de conduite sur les parcours avec un temps de pâture assez long (8 h environ par jour) suivi d'un repos au parc.La composition minérale des crottes fraîches et précompostées (tableau 6) montre que les taux des différents éléments fertilisants se révèlent identiques à l'exception de ceux du carbone et de l'azote.Le tableau 6, qui résume aussi les analyses des différents types de fumier, permet de recommander la préparation du fumier sous abri (en tas ou en fosse) de préférence au fumier non couvert, car il fournit ainsi une meilleure concentration en éléments.La constitution d'un fumier excrément permet de profiter de la proportion, même faible, des éléments fertilisants des crottes de mouton, et fait actuellement l'objet de vulgarisation.Ce programme de développement de l'élevage des ovins et caprins suivi de recherche d'accompagnement vise l'amélioration du secteur traditionnel de cet élevage.L'étude a permis d'une part de dégager la disponibilité des résidus et sous-produits agricoles et leur utilisation, d'autre part d'apporter des améliorations dans l'association agriculture-élevage ovin en vue de mieux implanter l'agropastoralisme au stade paysannat.La mise à la disposition des paysans-éleveurs des animaux reproducteurs sélectionnés, la maîtrise des thèmes de vulgarisation par ceux-ci et enfin l'association de l'élevage à l'agriculture (exploitation des jachères pour pâturages, conservation et utilisation des résidus et sous-produits agricoles pour l'alimentation des animaux, bonne utilisation du fumier de mouton pour la fertilisation des champs, etc.) constituent une des solutions pour la réalisation de l'équilibre entre productions végétale et animale. Dans les régions densément peuplées des hautes terres, l'élevage bovin perd régulièrement du terrain. Une politique de reboisement ambitieuse essaie de limiter les effets de l'érosion mais empiète systématiquement sur les parcours communautaires de faible valeur bromatologique.L'effectif de chèvres et moutons semble augmenter parallèlement du déclin du gros bétail. Cependant, les systèmes de production traditionnels restent peu performants et le taux d'exploitation ne s'élève que très faiblement. Deux types de solutions sont à l'étude pour accélérer l'intensification de la production du petit bétail: l'intégration de l'élevage des petits ruminants à l'agriculture et l'association de l'élevage ovin aux reboisements et à l'élaiculture.Projet intégration petits ruminants agriculture (PIPRA)Les recherches poursuivies depuis 1986 ont porté essentiellement sur les possibilités d'intégrer l'élevage des petits ruminants à l'agriculture dans une des régions naturelles les plus densément peuplées du pays (Nord-Kirimiro-commune de Mutaho). L'enquête zoo-économique préalablement menée sur 60 exploitations agricoles a fait ressortir certaines caractéristiques:• réduction extrême de la superficie cultivable des exploitations;• agriculture intensive avec jachères de durée très courte, limitées le plus souvent à quelques ares en 1\" saison;• effectifs animaux faibles, l'espèce bovine est en voie de régression;• intérêt identique pour la chèvre et le mouton, sans préférence caractérisée.En 1987, six exploitations-pilotes, associant l'élevage caprin à l'agriculture suivant un contrat-type, ont été installées et encadrées. Un certain nombre de contraintes ont pu être identifiées; difficultés d'installation de certaines cultures fourragères, soit par manque de semences, soit par utilisation d'une technique non appropriée; réceptivité laborieuse des exploitants à certaines techniques semi-intensives; effectifs restreints de reproducteurs du centre de Murongwe ne permet pas de satisfaire les souhaits de tous les demandeurs.   Tous les paramètres classiques continuent à être collectés et interprétés, afin de les comparer utilement à ceux obtenus dans les rugos.Les faibles superficies de parcours à Murongwe sont encore réduites par le débordement régulier de la Mubarazi en saison des pluies. L'effectif actuel de 83 reproductrices semble difficile à dépasser et même à maintenir. Toutefois, diverses améliorations pourraient être trouvées en intégrant davantage les petits ruminants aux parcours et ressources fourragères des taurillons élevés à Murongwe pour la production de fumier. Au cas où ces améliorations ne pourraient être obtenues, le développement de la Station de Maramvya permettra à l'avenir de produire les géniteurs nécessaires. La Station de Murongwe servira alors de Centre de transit et de quarantaine, avant la diffusion aux éleveurs.1.5.1.2. Installation de centres de Saillie. En effet, afin de contrôler efficacement l'amélioration génétique du troupeau de la commune, les saillies se font exclusivement avec les mâles sélectionnées de la Station.Les jeunes mâles, produits en Station ou dans les rugos encadrés, sont:-soit castrés et mis à l'embouche, -soit retenus pour la reproduction aux centres de saillie, selon les performances enregistrées sous la mère. Ils sont ensuite confirmés par test de descendance. Deux centres de saillie sont installés à Murongwe et Gitongo. Il est à noter que c'est le troupeau de Ryarusera qui fournit le plus de géniteurs.Un programme identique est prévu pour les palmeraies de l'IMBO-SUD, qui présentent l'avantage supplémentaire d'un excellent fourrage représenté par la plante de couverture, à savoir Pueraria phaseloldes, abondante pendant les premières années de la plantation.La station zootechnique de Maramvya Depuis sa création la Station Zootechnique de la FACAGRO possède un projet petits ruminants.La capacité d'accueil est actuellement de 150 reproductrices pour chaque espèce et l'on compte plus de 600 ovins et caprins à la Station de Maramvya.Les recherches actuelles ou à venir portent sur:• la caractérisation et la connaissance des races locales: toutes les données concernant la croissance et la reproduction, sont collectées et sont exploitées afin de sélectionner les meilleurs reproducteurs. Ceux-ci sont entre autre diffusés au niveau des projets comportant un volet développement des petits ruminants.• l'alimentation: des études dans ce domaine ont porté sur le comportement des animaux au pâturage, la digestibilité du Leucaena leucocephala, du Panicum maximum et du Pennisetum purpureum et la paille de riz. Divers niveaux de complémentation à base de son riz sont testés sur les mères allaitantes et les jeunes non sevrés.• la reproduction: des recherches plus fondamentales sont menées afin d'établir des profils hormonaux et de les mettre en relation avec les caractéristiques de reproduction de nos races locales. Cette base de sélection mise en place progressivement compte aujourd'hui 10 500 brebis réparties dans 100 élevages disséminés sur tout le territoire ivoirien. Par an, ce sont 400 à 500 agneaux présélectionnés que le PNSO achète aux éleveurs adhérants à ce système de contrôle des performances zootechniques des animaux.Une meilleure intégration financière et technique des actions de sélection dans les activités des projets d'encadrement de la SODEPRA (Société de développement des productions animales) devrait permettre de résoudre les problèmes que rencontre le PNSO.","tokenCount":"85916"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"735fa4f33fddb1800a599909c3ff2ab0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/464fc565-10d1-4bbc-816b-0b44741c4346/retrieve","id":"-2027185606"},"keywords":["Cluster analysis","Fragmentation","Last glacial maximum","Phylogeography","Range expansion","Refugium","Species delimitation","Tropical rainforest"],"sieverID":"df7e3412-7347-4334-9a83-08378c1f3380","pagecount":"13","content":"Background: The evolutionary events that have shaped biodiversity patterns in the African rainforests are still poorly documented. Past forest fragmentation and ecological gradients have been advocated as important drivers of genetic differentiation but their respective roles remain unclear. Using nuclear microsatellites (nSSRs) and chloroplast non-coding sequences (pDNA), we characterised the spatial genetic structure of Erythrophleum (Fabaceae) forest trees in West and Central Africa (Guinea Region, GR). This widespread genus displays a wide ecological amplitude and taxonomists recognize two forest tree species, E. ivorense and E. suaveolens, which are difficult to distinguish in the field and often confused.Results: Bayesian-clustering applied on nSSRs of a blind sample of 648 specimens identified three major gene pools showing no or very limited introgression. They present parapatric distributions correlated to rainfall gradients and forest types. One gene pool is restricted to coastal evergreen forests and corresponds to E. ivorense; a second one is found in gallery forests from the dry forest zone of West Africa and North-West Cameroon and corresponds to West-African E. suaveolens; the third gene pool occurs in semi-evergreen forests and corresponds to Central African E. suaveolens. These gene pools have mostly unique pDNA haplotypes but they do not form reciprocally monophyletic clades. Nevertheless, pDNA molecular dating indicates that the divergence between E. ivorense and Central African E. suaveolens predates the Pleistocene. Further Bayesian-clustering applied within each major gene pool identified diffuse genetic discontinuities (minor gene pools displaying substantial introgression) at a latitude between 0 and 2°N in Central Africa for both species, and at a longitude between 5°and 8°E for E. ivorense. Moreover, we detected evidence of past population declines which are consistent with historical habitat fragmentation induced by Pleistocene climate changes.Conclusions: Overall, deep genetic differentiation (major gene pools) follows ecological gradients that may be at the origin of speciation, while diffuse differentiation (minor gene pools) are tentatively interpreted as the signature of past forest fragmentation induced by past climate changes.The evolution of African rainforest species is still poorly understood. The Guineo-Congolian tropical forests cover a wide area, forming one block extending from Sierra Leone to Ghana in West Africa, and another block from southern Nigeria to the Albertine rift in Central Africa. According to White [1], three main types of Guineo-Congolian rainforests occur along a rainfall gradient displaying a coastal-inland orientation: evergreen forest (\"Hygrophilous coastal evergreen rainforest\"; rainfall >2000 mm); semi-evergreen forest (\"Mixed moist semi-evergreen rainforest\"; rainfall between 1600 and 2000 mm); and dry forest (\"Drier peripheral semievergreen rainforest\"; rainfall between 1200 and 1600 mm). Furthermore, the Guineo-Congolian phytochoria has been divided into three sub-centres of endemism along a West-east axis based on patterns of species distribution and endemism [2]. These are: i) the Upper Guinea region (UGR) in West Africa, ii) the Lower Guinea region (LGR) to the West of Central Africa, and iii) the Congolian region to the East of Central Africa. The UGR and LGR are separated by a broad savanna corridor, also known as the Dahomey Gap (Benin, Togo, and South East of Ghana; Figure 1). A range of factors, including spatial ecological gradients, historical climate changes, and physical barriers to gene flow might have contributed to the organization of the diversity within the African rainforest, both within and among species. Given the scarcity of palynological data in the lowland tropics, molecular phylogenetics and population genetics approaches can provide major insights into the relative influence of these factors. The present work aims to provide a better understanding of the evolutionary history of the Guinean tropical forests by addressing the phylogeography of two sister-tropical tree species across the UGR and LGR (hereafter referred to together as the Guinea region: GR).Genetic studies of plastid and nuclear DNA in plant species from the LGR have already demonstrated that within-species genetic diversity often displays spatial discontinuities leading to geographically coherent gene pools or clades, even in the absence of gaps in the distribution of the species [3][4][5][6][7][8]. However, the distribution of genetic diversity over the entire GR and the origin of this structuring remain largely unknown. Two main hypotheses may explain these spatial genetic discontinuities: (i) the presence of ecological gradients driving adaptive differentiation ('ecological gradient hypothesis'), (ii) forest fragmentation/expansion following climatic oscillations driving differentiation by genetic drift between forest refuges ('forest refuge hypothesis').The ecological gradient hypothesis posits that environmental gradients can induce parapatric speciation (or ecotypic differentiation) without the need for population isolation. This hypothesis has been supported in a few African animal species (e.g. [9]) and African plants (e.g.Figure 1 Sampling of the Erythrophleum individuals within the Guinean Region (GR) and assignment to gene pools according to the Bayesian clustering analyses. The levels of rainfall are indicated on the map, providing the approximate distribution of evergreen (rainfall >2000 mm), semi-evergreen (1600-2000 mm) and dry rainforests (1200-1600 mm). The black line is an approximation of the current distribution of wet rainforests. The distribution of major and minor gene pools as inferred from nSSRs is indicated as follow. Purple triangles: SW gene pool, blue and green circles: respectively SCn and SCs gene pools; orange, red and yellow squares: respectively Iw, In, Is gene pools; crosses (na I): E. ivorense individuals not attributed to any of minor gene pools I; black dots (na SC): E. suaveolens individuals not attributed to any of minor gene pools SC. [10]). The forest refuge hypothesis posits that the cyclic fragmentation and re-expansion of lowland forests in response to Pleistocene climatic change has been a main driver for species diversification or population differentiation. The climate was drier in tropical Africa during the last glacial episode (i.e., 110000 to 12000 years BP, with a glacial maximum between 26000 and 19000 years BP) causing an expansion of dry and/or mountain forests and savannas that would have constituted barriers to gene flow among the different rainforest fragments [11,12]. The geographic locations of these refugia are highly debated. Humid conditions had initially returned by ca. 14500 years BP, reaching a maximum between 9000 and 6000 years BP. This corresponds to the so-called Holocene African humid period which was characterised by a maximal extension of rainforests [13]. At this time, between ca. 8400 and 4500 years BP, even the Dahomey Gap was covered by the rainforest [14]. A significant increase in aridity at the end of the mid-Holocene led to the retreat of the rainforests and the reopening of the Dahomey Gap [15].Erythrophleum (Fabaceae-Caesalpinioideae) is a pantropical woody genus with representative species from North-East Asia (E. fordii, E. succirubrum, E. densiflorum), Australia (E. chlorostachys), Madagascar (E. couminga) and Africa (E. ivorense, E. suaveolens, E. africanum). In this study we focus on the two recognized African forest species: Erythrophleum ivorense A. Chev. (syn. E. micranthum Harms) and E. suaveolens (Guill. et Perr.) Brenan (syn. E. guineense G. Don.). E. ivorense occurs in the UGR and the LGR, from Gambia to Gabon, with a distribution discontinuity between the UGR and the LGR, being totally absent from the Dahomey Gap [16]. This species is found in evergreen forests and requires high rainfall [8,17,18]. E. suaveolens is more widespread, being found from Senegal to Sudan and Kenya and southward to Mozambique and Zimbabwe [16,17]. Hence, it is present in all three subcentres of endemism of the Guineo-Congolian phytogeographic region and also occurs in adjacent peri-forest areas. It occupies a wider range of climates than E. ivorense and is found in semi-evergreen forests (in Central Africa; see [8]) and in gallery forests (outside of Central Africa; [16,17,19]). Contrary to E. ivorense, its distribution is continuous from West to Central Africa, occurring also in the Dahomey Gap [16]. The two species are difficult to distinguish in the field in the absence of reproductive organs, and are grouped under the same timber trade name \"tali\". In Central Africa, the literature contains several inconsistencies concerning their respective distributions and ecological requirements. Nevertheless, Duminil et al. [8] demonstrated that plastid DNA (pDNA) represents an efficient barcode to identify the two species in the LGR where their respective parapatric distributions are correlated with the rainfall gradient. In West Africa, the two species are reported to occur in contrasting habitats (E. ivorense in evergreen forests and E. suaveolens in forest galleries) and are not expected to be found in sympatry [17]. A third related African species, E. africanum (Welw. ex Benth.) Harms, is distributed within the Zambezian and Sudanian regional centres of endemism (sensu White [2]), from Senegal to Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania and southward to the Transvaal region, occurring in woodland savannas but never in forests. Nuclear DNA sequences indicate that African Erythrophleum species form a clade in which E. ivorense and E. suaveolens are more related to each other than to E. africanum (J. Duminil, unpublished).The wide ecological amplitude and geographic distribution of E. ivorense and E. suaveolens within the GR allow analysis of the influence of ecological gradients and past population fragmentation on patterns of genetic differentiation. As taxonomists describe two species which are often confused (at least in Central Africa), we hypothesize that genetic variation might display diffuse discontinuities. Sharp discontinuities (i.e. occurrence of gene pools without introgression) would be expected between isolated reproductive entities, like species following the Biological Species Concept or populations that have been geographically isolated over a long period. Diffuse genetic discontinuities (i.e. gene pools with evidence of substantial introgression) would occur between populations that were (i) recently separated (e.g. by the formation of the Dahomey gap) or (ii) formerly isolated (e.g. in forest refugia) but subsequently came into secondary contact or (iii) parapatric, and adapted to different environments but still maintain some gene flow, in which case they may form a stable hybrid zone.Here we use nSSRs and pDNA sequences to (i) identify major gene pools (sharp discontinuities) and minor gene pools (diffuse discontinuities) within the GR region and check whether they can be matched to taxonomic species, and (ii) verify whether genetic discontinuities can be explained by current climatic gradients (ecological gradient hypothesis) and/or by Pleistocene climatic changes (forest refuge hypothesis and role of the Dahomey Gap). We attempt to gain complementary insights into the evolution of Erythrophleum (i) by assessing the congruence between gene pools assessed from biparentally-inherited nSSRs and maternally-inherited pDNA haplotypes and clades, (ii) by estimating the divergence times between gene pools using a fossil-calibrated pDNA phylogenetic tree, and (iii) by testing for genetic signature of past demographic changes using nSSRs.Leaves or cambium were sampled from 648 individuals of E. ivorense and E. suaveolens from the LGR and the UGR (sensu White [2]). As most samples could not be identified taxonomically using morphological traits, except samples from Central Africa [8], they were treated as a blind sample for genetic analyses.Correspondence with taxonomic species is based, in Central Africa, on a previous published work [8]. In West Africa, we considered a priori that samples from the evergreen forest area (>2000mm rainfall, Figure 1) must belong to E. ivorense while those from the dry forest area (<1600mm rainfall) belong to E. suaveolens, in accordance with the known ecology of the species in West Africa [17]. For each sample, the annual precipitation of the sampling location was recovered from WorldClim (variable Bio12).Additional E. africanum samples from Benin (N10.21 E1.21 and N10.68 E1.63), E. chlorostachys (F.Muell.) Baill. from Australia (S12.49 E130.99) and E. fordii Oliv. from China (three individuals, one from Fujian-N24.1 E117.4-, one from Guangdong-N23.6 E114.7-, one from Guangxi-N22.1 E108.3-) were used as outgroups in phylogenetic analyses. Total DNA was isolated with the NucleoSpin® plant kit (Macherey-Nagel).Nine microsatellite loci (namely Ery1, Ery3, Ery4, Ery6, Ery7, Ery14, Ery 17, Ery18 and Ery23) were amplified for 648 individuals of E. ivorense or E. suaveolens using the protocol described in [20].As the concept of a population is difficult to apply in tropical rainforests, individuals were arbitrarily grouped into 34 populations according to their geographic coordinates. Observed and expected heterozygosities, inbreeding coefficient (F IS ) and allelic richness (A O ) were estimated for each population using FSTAT [21]. The frequency of null alleles per locus and per population was estimated in the 18 populations represented by at least 10 individuals by maximum likelihood following [22] using the program FREENA [23].We used the Bayesian assignment program STRUCTURE [24] to identify differentiated gene pools without prior spatial information on the origin of samples. We used a two-step approach to identify (i) major gene pools showing no or negligible introgression (sharp boundaries) and (ii) minor gene pools displaying introgression (diffuse boundaries) within each major gene pool. Hence, analyses were first run on the whole set of nSSR genotypes using the no admixture and independent allele frequencies model, to avoid overestimation of K [25] and because gene pools having diverged for long may have independent allele frequencies. The admixture model was also tested and gave similar results (data not shown). There were 20 independent iterations for each imposed number of gene pools K varying from 1 to 10, which were summarized using CLUMPP v.1.1.2 [26]. The total MCMC chain length was 40000 steps with the first 10000 steps being discarded as burn-in [27]. To assess the optimal value of K we considered the log-likelihood of the data according to K, but also the number of individuals that were not assigned to a gene pool above a probability threshold of 0.8. The latter criterion was important to identify well isolated gene pools (few or no admixed individuals).Further STRUCTURE analyses were carried out within each major gene pool using the same procedure except that we used an admixture model with correlated allele frequencies, in which the fraction of ancestry from each gene pool was estimated for each individual. A uniform prior was used whereby the individual admixture alpha parameter was set to be equal for all gene pools. Here, the optimal K was assessed by the log-likelihood of the data only.Fixation indices (F ST and R ST ) between pairs of populations or gene pools were computed using SPAGeDi 1.3 [28]. F ST is based on allele identity while R ST is an analogue of F ST based on allele size. R ST is expected to be larger than F ST if stepwise mutations have contributed to differentiation, as in the case of ancient isolation [29]. The occurrence of this pattern was tested using random permutations of allele sizes among allelic states [29].We characterized the genetic variation at the trnC-petN1R inter-genic fragment, as described in [8], on a sub-set of 297 individuals representative of all defined populations (Additional file 1).We also sequenced the matK gene and the trnL intron using the matK1R-matK3F and trnLc-trnLd primer pairs (respectively Ki-Joong Kim, unpublished; and [30]). Sequences were obtained for 72 (matK) and 66 individuals (trnL) arbitrarily selected from the different gene pools defined by the Bayesian clustering analyses described above. All three pDNA fragments were also sequenced for E. africanum, E. chlorostachys and E. fordii.A median joining network [31] for the trnC-petN1R inter-genic fragment was constructed using the software NETWORK version 4.5.1.6 (Fluxus Technology Ltd). All polymorphic characters were considered (single nucleotide polymorphism, insertion-deletion and simple sequence repeat) except for a small hypervariable portion of the trnC-petN1R inter-genic fragment that could not be unambiguously aligned. All characters were given equal weight. Samples of E. africanum were used to root the network (unambiguous nucleotide sequence alignment was not possible for E. chlorostachys or E. fordii, and these were discarded from the analysis).The matK gene and the trnL intron were used in the dating analyses because they have already been used by Bruneau et al. [32] to date a phylogenetic tree of Fabaceae species, with calibration points specified from fossil dates. Here we focused on the part of the phylogenetic tree that includes Erythrophleum (Figure four in [32]). We obtained trnL and matK sequences from GenBank for a set of Fabaceae species closely related to Erythrophleum, and attempted to obtain examples from the most divergent lineages within the Erythrophleum clade (Figure four in [32]). For E. ivorense and E. suaveolens sequences, we used a single sample per major gene pool.The phylogeny and divergence times were estimated using the Bayesian MCMC software package BEASTv1.6.1 [33]. The HKY (for trnL) and the GTR (for each of the three matK codon positions) models of DNA substitution were used with a gamma distribution for among site rate variation (these were the best supported models under the AIC criterion in jModelTest [34]). We constrained some taxa to be monophyletic following unequivocal results in a previous study [32] (see Figure 2).Rates were specified from the uncorrelated lognormal relaxed molecular clock and a birth-death model was used to specify the prior on times. Prior information on divergence times was obtained from a previous review of fossil-information (paleobotanical records) [31] and used to specify calibrations on specific nodes. Given the age of the root, and the scale dependence of some components of the model, it was reasonable to define 1 time unit = 10 Ma (rather than 1 Ma). Priors on four node ages (nodes O, P, R and S; see below for their designation) were specified from the Normal distribution, N (4.5,1), which was asymmetrically truncated by the uniform distribution, U (4.5, 5.6). The minimum value of this constraint was justified because there is fossil evidence that divergence within all of these clades began > 45 Ma, reviewed in [31]. Also, the estimated divergence times at more basal nodes than O, P, R and S are estimated to be around 56 Ma. Specifically, earliest divergence time within the Caesalpinia clade is 55.9 Ma [31], while the earliest divergence time for nodes R and S must be younger than the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of the Dimomorpha, Mimosoideae, Tachigali, and Peltophorum clades which has been estimated at 56.3 Ma [31]. To summarize, our analysis constrained the ages of the following four nodes to be between 45 and 56 Ma, with greatest prior density around 45 Ma and lowest density around 56 Ma: (1) the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of the Caesalpinia clade (node P in [31]), (2) the MRCA of the Mezoneuron clade (node O), (3) the MRCA of the Dinizia clade (node R), (4) the MRCA of the Ingeae clade (node S). In addition, we followed [31] by constraining the root node (equivalent to the most basal divergence within the legumes) to be close to 65 Ma, using a gamma distribution. We examined the effects of three different Gamma priors placed on the root: G (65, 0.1), G (650, 0.01) and G (6500, 0.001). The first of these represents the loosest calibration and the last represents the tightest: 95% of the G (65, 0.1) distributions lies within the range 52 -79 Ma, while 95% of the G (6500, 0.001) lies within 63 -66 Ma.Two MCMC analyses were run each for 100 million generations sampled at 5000 step intervals. We used Tracer v1.4 [33] to assess convergence, estimate effective sample sizes (ESS), and examine the posteriors of all parameters. The first 500 samples were discarded as burn-in.Microsatellite markers were used to detect signals of demographic decline or expansion using the Bayesian inferential method of Storz and Beaumont [35] implemented in MSVAR1.3. The method relies on the full allelic distribution and takes into account relative sizes of microsatellite alleles, with mutation rates and demographic parameters free to vary among loci. Allelic frequencies are used to estimate the current effective population size (N 0 ), the ancestral effective population size (N 1 ), the number of generations since the demographic change (Ta) and the mutation rate (μ). In separate analyses, both a priori defined populations (Additional files 2 and 3) and gene pools inferred from Bayesian cluster analyses were used as input to MSVAR. It was important to test demographic changes at both these levels because departure from the Wright-Fisher assumption used in the MSVAR analytical model can create false signals [36]. We used only populations that contained at least 20 individuals, therefore restricting this analysis to the LGR (populations 1, 3, 4, 5, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21 and 25;Additional files 2 and 3). Analyses at the gene pool level were performed only on gene pools presenting a low genetic substructure (see results) to avoid potential population structure bias [36]. We used very flexible priors in order to minimize their impact on the posterior [37]. All priors were specified from log Normal distributions as follows: N 0 (4,6), N 1 (4,6), μ (−4, 3) and T a (3,6) (the first value represents the mean and the second value the standard deviation). Priors on the current and the ancestral population size were identical so that population decline or expansion is equally likely. An exponential model of population size change was assumed. The generation time was assumed to be 100 years (modal flowering age based on our field observations, data not shown). Three analyses with different starting points were carried out for each data set (1.2. × 10 9 steps; thinning of 40000 steps). Convergence among MCMC chains was checked by applying the Gelam-Rubin statistic implemented in the CODA package in R [38]. Samples from the three analyses were combined. The significance of changes in population size was examined using Bayes factors. The number of states in the chains in which the population has declined (N 0 /N 1 < 1) was divided by the number of states in which the population has expanded (N 0 /N 1 > 1) (see [37]). The means and the 95% highest probability densities (HPD) of the marginal posteriors of the natural parameters (N 0 , N 1 , μ and T a ) and the scaled parameters (θ 0 = 4 N 0 μ, θ 1 = 4 N 1 μ and t f = Ta /2N 0 ) were obtained using Tracer v1.4.The likelihood of the data increased steadily from K = 1 up to K = 5 under the no-admixture model. A plateau was reached at K = 5, above which the variance among replicates increased (Additional file 4). Only a few individuals remained unassigned to a gene pool for both K = 2 (10 individuals, at a cut-off level of P ≥ 0.8) and K = 3, (12 individuals), while the number of unassigned individuals increased sharply for K = 4 (102 individuals) and 5 (419 individuals) (Additional files 5 and 6). Hence, we considered that K = 3 is the optimal solution for identifying major gene pools. These gene pools present characteristic geographic distributions (Figure 1 and Additional file 5). A first gene pool is distributed along the African littoral, but is absent from the Dahomey Gap and southern Central Africa regions. This distribution tracks the distribution of evergreen forests. A second gene pool extends from the drier zones of West Africa (including the Dahomey Gap) to the north-west of Cameroon. The third gene pool is restricted to the interior forests of Central Africa, reaching the littoral only in the south of Central Africa. It is noteworthy that the first two gene pools cluster together when two clusters are specified in the analysis (K = 2) (Additional file 5).All (but one) of the Central African E. ivorense samples (following [8]) and all West African samples that were originally assigned to E. ivorense (15 samples collected in the evergreen forest) were grouped within the first gene pool, which was denoted with the letter \"I\" (Table 1). All West African samples a priori belonging to E. suaveolens (28 samples collected in the dry forest area) as well as samples from northwest Cameroon identified as E. suaveolens [8] were assigned to the second gene pool, which was therefore denoted \"SW\" (Table 1). Finally, all central African samples identified as E. suaveolens, except individuals from northwest Cameroon included in SW, were assigned to the third gene pool, which was therefore denoted \"SC\".Using the admixture model within each primary gene pool, the optimal K reached K = 3 within I, K = 1 within SW, K = 2 within SC. Hence, a total of six minor gene pools can be identified (Figure 1). They again formed geographically cohesive but more or less overlapping groups and a substantial number of individuals now appears admixed. According to their geographic distributions, the three minor gene pools detected within I will be referred to as Iw (found in UGR and on the northwestern part of the LGR, Figure 1), In (found in the northern part of the LGR) and Is (found in the southern part of the LGR). The two minor gene pools detected within SC will be referred to as SCn (northern LGR) and SCs (southern LGR) (Figure 1, Additional file 7). At a threshold of 80%, approximately 40% of I individuals could not be assigned to Iw, In or Is, and approximately 20% of SC individuals could not be assigned to SCn or SCs (Additional file 7).Analyses used either the arbitrary-defined populations (local patterns of diversity) or the six minor gene pools (regional patterns of diversity) as the unit of classification. At the population level, significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were detected (excess of homozygotes). Mean null allele frequencies per population varied from 0.005 to 0.181. Estimated selfing rate was close to zero in all but two populations. The two exceptions were populations 3 and 12, although these were not characterized by higher F IS (Additional file 2). Mean allelic richness varied from 1.33 to 10.70.At the gene pool level, the F ST among populations differed significantly from zero in all but one gene pool (Is), but were always lower than 0.147. Permutation tests on R ST revealed no evidence of a phylogeographic signal in any of the gene pools except for Is (Table 2).Overall, five of the 15 pairwise comparisons between the minor gene pools resulted in a significant phylogeographic signal (R ST significantly larger than F ST , Table 3). These significant comparisons were generally population pairs from different major gene pools within the UGR and the LGR (Iw-SCs, SW-SCn, SW-SCs). However a significant comparison was found within a major gene pool (Iw-Is), as well between two major gene pools in the LGR (Is-SCs).Among the 297 sequences of the trnC-petN1R inter-genic fragment, 21 different haplotypes were identified (Figure 3, Additional file 8). A first clade of five related haplotypes (H1 to H5) was found along the coast of the LGR (H1), in Benin (H3 and H4), Ghana (H3), Guinea (H2 and H5), and the South of Ivory Coast (H5). H1, H2 and H5 were found only in I, with H1 in In and Is, and H1, H2 and H5 in Iw, except one individual from southern Cameroon bearing H1 while unambiguously assigned to SCn (population 18, Additional files 2 and 3). H3 and H4 occurred in SW. The second clade includes 15 haplotypes (H6 to H21) which were found almost entirely in SC. There were two exceptions to this rule: H15 was found in a population from Ivory Coast (population 28, Additional files 2 and 3) from SW gene pool; H12, H20 and H21 were found in northwest Cameroon (population 8, Additional files 2 and 3) from SW gene pool too. Hence, within the major gene pool I, the parapatric minor gene pools In and Is were Table 1 Correspondence between the three major gene pools and species based on the following proxies: in West Africa, samples were assigned to E. ivorense if rainfall >2000 mm and to E. suaveolens if rainfall <1600 mm at their sampling location; in Central Africa, samples were assigned to E. ivorense if they had the plastid haplotype H1, and to E. suaveolens if they had another haplotype, following [8] Major gene pools (K = 3) monomorphic for the same haplotype (H1) while the allopatric minor gene pool Iw also contained H1 East of the Dahomey gap (individuals located in Nigeria) and two other related haplotypes (H2 and H5) found only West of the Dahomey gap. Within the major gene pool SC, the parapatric SCn and SCs shared many haplotypes from the second clade, but with higher haplotype diversity in SCs (12 haplotypes) than in SCn (6 haplotypes), despite a larger sample size in the later. Gene pool SW had mostly unique haplotypes from the first clade (H3, H4) or the second clade (H12, H15) as well as haplotypes shared with gene pool SC in their contact zone from North Cameroon (H20, H21). Eight different haplotypes were characterized in the 72 sequences of the matK gene (Additional files 8 and 1). There was no clear genetic structuring over the Guinea region within I (the haplotype H4 is represented in the UGR and the LGR) or over the LGR within SC. Five haplotypes were detected among the 66 trnL sequences (Additional files 8 and 1). No polymorphism was found within I or within SCn. The geographic patterns of nucleo-cytoplasmic associations were consistent with those reported for the trnC-petN1R (Additional file 1). Levels of genetic polymorphism and differentiation were generally too low to allow estimation of divergence time between gene pools by molecular dating analyses, except between the SC and I. Accession numbers corresponding to the trnC, matK and trnL sequences are indicated in the Additional file 8.Posterior mean divergence times and 95% posterior intervals are shown in Figure 2  Evidence of demographic decline was detected by MSVAR analyses at both geographic scales (population and gene pool, Additional file 9). The data contained insufficient information to allow precise estimation of natural parameters N 0 , N 1 , Ta and μ. Marginal posterior distributions were wide and differed only slightly from prior distributions. By contrast, the scaled parameters θ 1 and t f were well estimated with a narrow 95% HPD (except for populations 17 and 21 and for SCs and In that presented wide 95% HPDs), but not θ 0 (except for populations 4, 16, 18 and for SCn). A signal of population decline was detected in all populations and gene pools, mostly with strong support (Bayes Factor > 10 in 10 cases, although 3 < BF < 10 in one case, and 0.33 < BF < 3, in three cases). Weak or no support corresponded to populations and gene pools in which the data were not very informative about scaled parameters.In the present study, two major gene pools were expected, as samples came from two different species according to taxonomists. We unexpectedly detected three major gene pools, one corresponding to E. ivorense (gene pool I) and two corresponding to E. suaveolens (gene pools SW and SC; Figure 1). Moreover, the order of appearance of the gene pools (with increasing values of K) was not consistent with the expected species delimitation because I and SW clustered together against SC when we fixed K = 2. This questions the monophyly of E. suaveolens and thus the botanical classification based on morphological characters.  Gene pools I and SC present a long contact zone in Central Africa, so that the sharp genetic boundary indicates that they should correspond to distinct species following the BSC. The same can be argued between I and SW in West Africa. By contrast, SW and SC have a limited contact zone in northern Cameroon, but our limited sample size there does not allow us to confirm they are reproductively isolated. Additional sampling at their contact zone and a new taxonomic study based on morphological traits of E. suaveolens individuals from Central and West Africa would be justified to assess whether they might be considered as distinct morphological (sub-) species. Interestingly, significant phylogeographic signals (nSSRs, R ST > F ST ) were mostly detected between major gene pools, suggesting ancient divergence (number of generations comparable or larger than the reciprocal of the mutation rate; [23]). This is in support of ongoing or accomplished speciation with a (near) complete barrier to gene flow.The chloroplast genome was globally congruent with the nSSRs data in terms of haplotype distribution because each major gene pool generally carried private haplotypes. There are two exceptions however: in southern Cameroon, one individual from the SC gene pool carried a haplotype typical of the I gene pool, and in northern Cameroon, individuals belonging to the SW gene pool had some of the haplotypes found in the SC gene pool. These exceptions may result from past chloroplast captures or from incomplete lineage sorting. While incomplete lineage sorting can often impede reciprocal monophyly between fully isolated sister species with large population sizes, it is much less likely to maintain shared haplotypes and, moreover, it is unlikely to maintain a geographic correlation in the distribution of shared haplotypes between species. As all the reported exceptions are located close to contact zones between major gene pools, chloroplast capture appears a more parsimonious explanation. It suggests that individuals from the major gene pools might hybridize on rare occasion.Examination of the distribution of pDNA lineages in each major gene pool reveals some additional incongruences  because even the haplotypes unique to SW are paraphyletic. Ancient chloroplast captures may also be responsible for this pattern, but incomplete lineage sorting is equally plausible. In any case, this supports rejection of the pDNA-based species delimitation based on the monophyly of pDNA lineages [8].Patterns of differentiation within the Erythrophleum genus in Africa: ecological gradient versus forest refuge hypothesisThe three major gene pools are found in different habitats and climatic conditions. This is particularly true in West Africa where gene pool Iw was found in evergreen forests in locations where annual rainfall ranged from 1620 to 2350 mm (mean = 1980 mm), while gene pool SW was found in dry forests and in forest galleries with an annual rainfall ranging from 1055 to 1220 mm (mean = 1150 mm). These results are fully consistent with the West African literature reporting that E. ivorense occurs only in wet evergreen forests while E. suaveolens occurs in much drier areas. In Central Africa, the contrast is less sharp: gene pools Is and In were found in evergreen forests with very high annual rainfall (1620 to 3480 mm; mean = 2460 mm), while SC occurred in the drier semievergreen forests (annual rainfall 1370 to 2050 mm; mean = 1640 mm), and SW in the forest-savanna mosaic of northern Cameroon (annual rainfall 1530 to 2090 mm; mean = 1710 mm). Our data do not allow testing whether diversification has been driven by an ecological factor such as annual water availability, length of the dry season or another correlated ecological factor. However, given the above evidence and the fact that the third African species, E. africanum is only found in drier savanna habitats than E. suaveolens, we can conclude that there is a strong association between species diversification and habitat specialisation in African Erythrophleum, suggesting that the differentiation of major gene pools can be explained by the ecological gradient hypothesis. Contrary to major gene pools, the diffuse genetic boundaries separating minor gene pools were not related to rainfall gradient, or any other obvious environmental gradient. There is thus no support for an ecological gradient hypothesis, in which the forms represent differentiated ecotypes which maintain some degree of gene flow.Based on pDNA, Central African E. suaveolens (gene pool SC) and E. ivorense (I) diverged before the Pleistocene, during the Miocene or the Pliocene (Table 4). As, we examined a deep phylogeny, it seems reasonable to assume that sequence divergence times should closely approximate to species divergence times. Although posteriors are quite wide they support the view that genus diversification of African rainforest plants mostly preceded the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles [39]. Evidence for the impact of Pleistocene climate changes may be present in intraspecific patterns of genetic diversity, but the polymorphism of the pDNA sequences was too low to date the divergence between major gene pools, and the polyphyletic nature of the chloroplast genome within gene pool SW precludes any estimation of its divergence time.The origin of minor gene pools: population fragmentation and evidence of population decline support the forest refuge hypothesis Molecular dating did not allow estimation of divergence times between minor gene pools. However, they should be much inferior to the divergence time between major gene pools, and are thus likely to be contemporaneous of the Pleistocene climatic cycles. The R ST values provide insights on the relative divergence. Indeed, Iw presents a significant phylogeographic signal with respect to Is. Differentiation should thus be much more ancient than the differentiation between In and Is, or between SCn and SCs, where minor gene pools are in direct contact and there is a high degree of admixture.Additional insights come from tests of demographic changes. Indeed, we detected a signal of population decline (nSSR data) in all the LGR gene pools, both at the population and gene pool levels, which confirms previous results obtained with pDNA data [8]. This signal is consistent with the forest refuge hypothesis. However, as it could not be accurately dated, we cannot state with certainty that this was driven by climate changes.Several studies of tree species have reported patterns of genetic differentiation between the northern and the southern part of the LGR with a disjunction located approximately between 0°N and 2°N, despite the current absence of a habitat discontinuity [5][6][7]40]. We also found this pattern of differentiation with a limit close to 2°N, for both Erythrophleum species. Although different factors can generate similar patterns, this convergence among several forest tree species suggests ancient habitat fragmentation, consistent with the forest refuge hypothesis, if we assume the existence of northern and southern refuges. The weak genetic differentiation between the northern and southern gene pools, the absence of phylogeographic signal, and the large proportion of admixed individuals near the contact zone indicate that the LGR minor gene pools within each species are only weakly differentiated and have already partly introgressed.The Dahomey Gap is often considered as the limit between Upper and Lower Guinean phytogeographic regions. However, it does not coincide with the delimitation of SW and Iw gene pools (Figures 1 and 3). This result is not surprising for E. suaveolens given that, in West Africa, it mainly occurs in gallery forests within dry forest or savanna landscapes at the periphery of the Guineo-Congolian forest. However, for E. ivorense, which is strictly associated with evergreen forests with high rainfall, the distribution of Iw on each part of the Dahomey gap is more surprising. In fact, for the nuclear genome, a genetic discontinuity occurs West of the Dahomey gap, in Nigeria (limit between gene pools Iw and In), while it occurs at the height of the Dahomey gap for the plastid genome (distribution limit of haplotypes H1 and H5; Figure 3). This pattern supports the hypothesis that populations on each part of the Dahomey Gap were recently in contact and that the savanna corridor reopened recently. Meanwhile, the absence of shared pDNA haplotypes between the LGR Iw and the UGR Iw suggests that the Dahomey gap did play a role in the past. It has been suggested that the Dahomey Gap was dominated by savanna during the glacial periods and by rainforest during the last interglacial and the early Holocene [12,14]. The current savanna corridor was almost certainly present ca. 1100 years ago [14] but in southern Benin a semi-evergreen rainforest prevailed between ca. 8400 and 4500 years BP [14]. Thus, the distribution of Iw on each part of the Dahomey gap and the absence of shared pDNA haplotypes between UGR and LGR populations indicate that the populations were separated in the past during a cooling event. They underwent secondary contact during a warming event and separated again during the last opening of the Dahomey Gap.The discrepancy between the positions of the nuclear and plastid genetic discontinuities could be explained by more limited seed than pollen dispersal and a phenomenon of chloroplast capture when populations west of the Dahomey gap (Iw) extended to the east during the more humid periods and hybridized with eastern populations bearing the H1 haplotype. Additional sampling in Nigeria would be necessary to test this hypothesis. Interestingly, the limit between Iw and In is localized somewhere between 5°and 8°E (Nigeria), a biogeographic limit coinciding with the one found in lowland forest bird taxa [41].Our study provides new insights into patterns of differentiation that occurred within evergreen, semi-evergreen and forest galleries of the Guinea region using a widespread tree genus. We detected three major gene pools occurring in distinct habitat types that probably originated before the Pleistocene. Hence, climatic gradients in tropical Africa are probably the first major driver of differentiation in the genus Erythrophleum, but additional tests based on molecular signatures of climate-driven selection would be necessary to confirm this hypothesis. Furthermore, within major gene pools, we provide evidence of historical barriers to gene flow (i) within the evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of the LGR at a latitude between 0 and 2°N, (ii) within the evergreen forest of southern Nigeria at a longitude between 5 and 8°E. The first barrier has been reported in other African rainforest tree species and could indicate the occurrence of Northern and Southern forest refuges in the LGR. The forest refuge hypothesis is also supported by genetic signatures of past population declines. Contrary to a priori expectations, the second barrier does not coincide with the Dahomey gap, but to the east of this region, indicating that this savanna corridor was previously dominated by an evergreen forest containing E. ivorense. Nevertheless, the occurrence of an east-west genetic discontinuity indicates that West African and Central African forests have probably been isolated most of the time during the Pleistocene. Finally, while three gene pools with sharp genetic boundaries have been detected, chloroplast captures seem to have occurred in a few instances at their contact zones, suggesting that they may not be fully isolated.","tokenCount":"6896"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0c9b728052eedeebdc147f3cea021f39","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/AW2HNO/X0WEN1","id":"-1018021416"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b9c52f8d-c63f-470b-9bd4-091fe71f4e99","pagecount":"13","content":"Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. We are a research team from IFPRI. We are conducting a survey under the project called \"Understanding smallholder private irrigation in North Central Nigeria\". The survey aims to learn about the recent and current nature of the irrigation practices in Abaji area. You have been selected to participate in an interview that includes questions on topics such as the nature of your irrigation practices, irrigation equipment uses, and irrigation related labor uses. These questions in total will take approximately 1-2 hours to complete and your participation is entirely voluntary. It is possible that you may feel tired as the interview proceeds. You can refuse to participate. If you agree to participate, you can choose to stop at any time or to skip any questions you do not want to answer. Your answers will be completely confidential; we will not share information that identifies you with anyone. After entering the questionnaire into a data base, we will destroy all information such as your name which will link these responses to you. There is no direct benefits to you from participating in this interview. However, the information collected from you can significantly help the government and donors to improve their support programs for the irrigation sector in Abaji area as well as the whole of Nigeria.You can ask questions about the research anytime during the interview. If in the future you have any questions regarding survey and the interview, or concerns or complaints we welcome you to contact the following:Enumerator, please ask the interviewee to identify the largest irrigated plot.What is the land tenure status of this plot? 1 = purchased with title (skip to 2.4) 2 = purchased without title (skip to 2.4) 3 = rented from local indigenes for a fee 4 = rented for free without a fee (skip to 2.3)How much did you pay for rent for the most recent season? Water source for the rainy season may be inland, if the river expands during the rainy season. If so, please ask the farmer their locations as well, and ask questions.We would like to know the water sources from which you extract irrigation water What is approximat e distance from this water source to the plots irrigated (meter)?For how many years have you been using this water source for irrigation?How did you learn about this source?  Between land preparation and planting, what is the maximum depth the irrigation water reaches for this crop on this plot? 1. below ankle 2. above ankle and below knee 3. upto knee 4. above knee and below waist 5. above waistTypically, how many days of the week is the plot for this crop covered with irrigation water (between land preparation and planting)?Between planting and harvesting, what is the maximum depth of water for irrigating this crop on this plot? 1. below ankle 2. above ankle and below knee 3. upto knee 4. above knee and below waist 5. above waistTypically, how many days of the week is the plot for this crop covered with irrigation water (Between planting and harvesting)?Please ask the questions for the largest irrigated plot. ","tokenCount":"525"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c8648af9ee7eb0d8f682f65a40e7829d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/988907d6-4f9a-4300-9e41-bd473a26851e/content","id":"642191102"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ca53c78e-3e75-45ab-bb0e-bf713ee1d024","pagecount":"33","content":"Las opiniones vertidas en el presente trabajo corresponden al autor y no necesariamente a la institución a la que pertenece.El CTIll'1YT, en ccX\">pernción con investigadorps de nuchos programas nacionalps de inw~stigación agrícola, ha intE\"l'ltado desarrollar prnrediJrLi.entos mlp. r:ont.ribuvan a focalizar la inw~st:iqar:ión agrícola en las ne('esidades de los ;:~qrict1ltares. Talcolñborñ~ión entre científicos agrrcnJ.as y economist--<,s supone distinguir a aquel1ns grupos de agric:u1tares para guj nnes deben crearse las nueVé;\\S tp.CI1ologías, y para ello es pred.so deteU'li.ni1r sus circunstancias\" problemas para detectar las rrejores oportunidades de investigación. Los proararras de investigación resultantes se efectuan en estaciones experirrentales v en parcelas de agricultores representativos.El Programa de F.conomJ.a del CJnm ha hecho hincapié en el c1esarrollo de procedimientos para la prinera etapa de este p~so, hasta determinar las oportunidades para la investigación. T.Ja evolución de los procedimientos, ha sido sintetizada en un manual titulado \"P1aneación de 'recnologías Apropiadas Para los Agricultores: Conceptos y Proced:iJnientos\", en el que han influido investigaciones realizadas en colaborad.ón con ruchos progrélITlRs nacionales y con los Programas de Entrenamiento de Maíz v Trigo del CIMT'1YT. Nuestro trabaio con programas nacionales carenzó en 1974 con' el Programa Nacional de Maí.Z de Zaire, luego se pasó a trabajar en Tunez, Paquistán v Egipto. El ritno de trabajo se aceler6 note1blerrente en 1978 con la designación de econanistas regionales para que estimularan provec:tos similares p..n Kenia, Tanzania, ZñIT1hia, Ecuador, Perú, Balivia , Panamá, El Salvador y la India. Actua:1.rrente se está llevando a efecto, adarás, programas cooperativos con otros programas nacionales. Crearos que los procedimipntos resultantes brindan lineamiE'ntos sólidos \" ef~tivos en ténninos de costos, que los programas nacionales puedE'n seguir.Rn. el I!lflrCO de este proceso se llbi('-a el presente inforne, el cual a partir de una breve reseña histórica que E'.xplica la aparición de los enfoques de sistemas v la investiqacién en fincas de agricultores, repasa algunos conceptos clave~c'l.el enfoque ITlf\"todolégico del Cllf.1YT e ilustra sobre su utilización con exneriencias provenientes del programa cooperativo desarrollado con el Instituto de Investigación Aqropecuaria de panaJIlá (IDIAP).Director del Programa de F..conanía. Introducción 1.Un Poco de His to r ia PAGINA 2.3.4.6.Algunos El presente trabajo intenta cubrir tres puntos íntimamente relacionados: 1) Reseñar algunos hechos salientes en la evolución de la investigación agrícola que en gran parte explican la aparición de la investigación en campos de agricultores, el desarrollo de los enfoques de sistemas y el uso del concepto de tecnoiogía áproplada. 2) Reseñar las ~ineas generales de la metodología de investigación en campos de agricultores (enfoque restringido de sistemas de producción) que CIMMYT intenta promover en su trabajo cooperati~¿ ~on 'íos programas nacionales.3) I lustrar el manejo de algunos de los componentes de esta metodología util izando para ello la experiencia de uno de estos programas de nuevo estilo que están siendo desarrollados en países del continente.La investigación agrícola apl icada tiene como objetivo central el desarrollo de tecnologías factibles de ser utilizadas por los productores. Una característica interesante de la evolución de la investigación agrícola en las últimas dos décadas es que más y más, y de distintas formas se va incorporando la figura del productor y sus circunstancias específicas de producción en la orientación y el desarrollo operativo de la investigación.Esto tiene algo que ver con la forma en que las ciencias sociales se van integrando en el proceso de investigación agrícola y el papel cambiante que éstas van asumiendo, particularmente en la última década.Las circunstacias agroeconómicas del productor y sus impl icaciones en términos de asignación de recursos y de adopción tecnológica seconstituyen crecientemente en el foco de la atención de los programas nacionales de investigación agrícolp.El punto de partida para este desarrollo está dado por el hecho de que con bastante frecuencia los estudios de adopción han indicado que muchos productores (cuando no la mayoría de éstos) no están utilizando recomendaciones emanadas de los aparatos de investigación y extensión.Esto ha llevado al mantenimiento y en algunos casos a la expansión de la brecha existente entre las potencialidades asociadas con las tecnologías supuestamente disponibles y 10 que surge de las realidades productivas concretas en cada región del mundo. Esta brecha parecería ser más manifiesta cuando pensamos en términos de pequeños productores.Dentro del ámbito de las ciencias sociales se han manejado muchas hipótesis para explicar esta situación. Sin entrar en detalle, podemos mencionar: 1) aquellas referidas a una supuesta irracional idad y tradicionalismo por parte de los productores (que explicaría su resistencia a adoptar nuevas tecnologías agropecuarias); 2) en otra línea de pensamiento se hace recaer el peso de esta situación en una sistemática ineficiencia del aparato de extensión que impide que en forma efectiva, el conocimiento sobre las nuevas tecnologías llegue al productor; 3) en otro caso se hace referencia a problemas de política agrícola, (por ejemplo, la no disponibilidad efectiva de insumos asociados con las nuevas tecnologías), problemas que hacen que el productor no pueda capitalizar los beneficios de las nuevas tecnologías que surgen de investigación.Al margen de que estas hipótesis resulten parcial o totalmente correctas como explicación de la existencia de la brecha tecnológica a que hacemos referencia, hay una hipótesis adicional que resulta de particular interés para aquellos que trabajamos en ámbitos de investigación agrícola aplicada.Esta hipótesis surge en gran medida de los estudios de adopción realizados en distintos países del mundo y nos dice que las tecnologías desarrolladas y recomendadas por los aparatos de investigación y extensión no siempre han sido (o son) adecuadas a las circunstancias agroeconómicas en que se desenvuelven los productores a los cuales supues tamente están di r ig idas.' ¿Cuáles son entonces los elementos centrales de esta adecuación, o en otras palabras, qué es realmente más importante en la decisión del produGtor aceptando o rechazando una alternativa tecnológica? la evidencia empírica disponible, sin lugar 8 dudas, nos indica que tenemos aquí también muchos factores que van a explicar la adopción o rechazo de 1as al ternat Ivas tecno lóg Icas.' Sin embargo, podemos permi t i rnos usar una simplificación que al menos actuaría como condición necesaria para la adopción tecnológica. la simpll~lcactón seria que los productores adopta rán al ternat.i-vas tecno1óg Icas que• prometan aumenta r sus ingresos, •a -niveles •aceptables•4e.riesgo considerando las circunstancias específicas en que debe utilizar dichas tecnologías; entre otras, los recursos de que dispone; las características topográficas, de suelos y climáticas de su finca; el complejo de plagas y enfermedades que afectan al cultivo; y las características de los mercados de productos e insumos con que opera.Es precisamente en• función de estos elementos que los estudios ex post realizados en las últimas dos décadas (ex post en el, sentido que se han realizado después de que el proceso de• generación-promoción ha tenido lugar) nos indican que en muchos casos las alternat1vastecnológicas disponibles en recomendaciones no han sido consistentes con las circunstancias de los agricultores.Respondiendo o intentando responder a estos problemas, los centros ino ternacionales' y los programas nacionales comienzan, en particular••a parti r de la década del 70, una búsqueda de conceptos', procedimientos y metodologías que lleven al desarrollo de tecnologías adaptadas a las necesidades del productor. la pregunta que está detrás de esta búsqueda es, qué elementos y que procedImIentos se deben utilizar para maximizar la probabi-. lidad de que el procesó de investigaci6n resulte en el menor tiempo posible en alternativas:tecnol6gicas factibles de ser utilizadas por el . productor.Con esta perspectiva, el problema consiste, más que en avanzar la frontera de la ciencia. en tratar de adaptar el conocimiento existente a problemas específicos de producción. Amparados en este proceso, se desarrollan los enfoques de sistemas y aparece el trabajo en campos de agricultores. Inicialmente, esto último se da meramente como hecho físico espacial; o sea, parte de la investigación que se realiza, en las estaciones experimentales, pasa a ser realizada, inicialmente en la misma forma, en campos de agricultores.Aparece simultáneamente el énfasis en programas integrales de investigación en producción, desarrollados en áreas específicas y conducidos en campos de agricultores representativos del área en cuestión, en donde todas las disciplinas concurren integradamente a la solución de problemas prioritarios de producción de grupos objetivos de productores.Comienzan a redefinirse en este proceso los papeles de investigación en la estación experimental y de la investigación en campos de agricultores, y sobre la marcha se van ajustando y enriqueciendo con la experiencia de trabajo los nuevos enfoques y metoQologías de trabajo.En centros internacionales como el CIHHYT, a raíz de este proceso t se consolida y expande el área de agronomía, aparecen y se extienden los programas regionales y más tarde se expande el programa de economía, particularmente en relación con los programas cooperativos regionales de maíz y trigo.La investigación se enfoca crecientemente en el productor y los nuevos procedimientos y metodologías de trabajo van planteando la necesidad del trabajo cooperativo de biólogos y científicos sociales en todas las etapas del proceso de investigación.Esto implica cambios importantes en el papel jugado por las ciencias sociales, cuya naturaleza deja de ser exclusivamente lIex-postll (análisis económico de resultados experimenta1~, estudios de adopción, etc.) para extenderse más y más en ámbitos \"ex-ante\" de p1aneamlento y orientación de la investigación.Algunos Aspectos Centrales del Enfoque de CIMMYT 1;, En relación con 10 expresado precedentemente (y sin pretender entrar en un análisis exhaustivo), el CIMMYT produce en la actualidad básicamente tres \"bienes intermedios\" que pueden utilizar los programas nacionales de investigación: a) material genético b) procedimientos y metodologías de investigación c) capacitación o entrenamiento en el uso de dichas metodologías Lo que sigue de este trabajo se concentra en el punto (b). En el área de investigación en producción la preocupación central de la institución es contribuir al desarrollo de metodologías y procedimientos de investigación que permitan, no a CIMMYT, sino a los Programas Nacionales, desarrollar tecnologías apropiadas para grupos objetivos de productores.Acorde con ello, el enfoque se desarrolla en dos áreas íntimamente relacionadas. Por un lado, la identificación de problemas de producción que enfrentan los productores representativos del área, y las posibles soluciones tecnológicas a dichos problemas. Por otro lado, estas posibles soluciones son incorporadas en la experimentación a la vez que la estrategia y el manejo experimental incorporan en los ensayos las circunstancias de los productores representativos.La forma concreta que este tipo de investigación asume, presenta variaciones en los distintos países en que se esta implementando. Sin embargo, de acuerdo a nuestra propia experiencia hay ciertos criterios básicos que condicionan a nuestro juicio el tipo de metodología o d • .  Este es el punto central de la naturaleza II res tringida ll de este enfoque de sistemas; como contraste con lo que podríamos llamar el enfoque lIamplioll de sistemas, que trabaja con un número notablemente mayor de variables experimentales, e incluso intenta frecuentemente desarrollar sistemas alternativos completos para el prod uc to r .e) La metodología de investigación en producción en campos de agricultores debe ser práctica y susceptible de ser implementada en las condiciones típicas de recursos humanos y materiales de los programas nacionales.Enmarcándose en los principios precedentes, el enfoque metodológico del Programa de Economía del CIMMYT parte de la interacción entre biólogos, economistas y responsables de la política agropecuaria, pasando por el análisis de información secundarla, encuesta informal yencuesta formal dirigidas a identificar las circunstancias de los productores del área; las características y prácticas de producción prevalecientes entre los agricultores representativos; y llegando por último a las implicaciones que estas pudieran tener para la experimentación dentro y fuera de la estación experimental. El Diagrama No. 1 resume los componentes y etapas de este proceso metodológico.Razones de espacio y tiempo nos impiden entrar en una explicación detallada de todos y cada uno de estos componentes y etapas de la in-..n su ugar, nos parece mas apropia o en esta ocas on, concentrar nuestra atención en cuatro conceptos que nos parecen útiles al enfocar la investigación en los problemas más importantes de la clientela de productores, a la cual está dirigida. El primer concepto se refiere precisamente a la identificación de esa clientela (dominios de recomendación), el segundo a las formas de reducir los problemas de investigación a un número manejable de nuevos componentes tecnológicos (preselección de nuevos componentes tecnológicos), el tercero a la forma en que estos componentes pueden articularse en el programa de investigación en términos de hipótesis, horizontes de tiempo en que se esperan tener resultados y prioridades con que son asumidos (estrategia y manejo experimental); y el cuarto referido a la dinámica del proceso de investigación (análisis integral de ensayos, integración en el diagnóstico, revisión de hipótesis, recomendaciones y continuidad de la investigación). Al intentar explicar estos conceptos recurrimos extensamente a la experiencia que nos ofrece uno de estos programas de nuevo estilo que están siendo imple- 3.Resulta obvio que los investigadores no pueden intentar desarrollar tecnologías específicas para cada productor individual. Resulta claro que ésto sería por un lado inmanejable y en el caso que pudiera manejarse no implicaría un uso efectivo de los recursos de investigación. La eficiencia en el uso de estos recursos nos plantea la necesidad de enfocar y dirigir la investigación hacia ciertos grupos de productores. Los conceptos que hemos mencionado precedentemente, es decir, aquellos referidos a las circunstancias físicas, biológicas y económicas de producción, nos proveen un marco de referencia efectivo para definir tales grupos de productores.El dominio de recomendación es, para nosotros, un grupo de productores cuyas circunstancias agroeconómicas son sufici~ntemente similares como para permitir el desarrollo de recomendaciones únicas que tengan validez para todos los productores en el grupo. Aquellos productores cuyas circunstancias requieran una recomendación diferente en nuestro esquema serán parte de un dominio de recomendación distinto.Ahora bien, resulta también obvio que en ningún caso tendremos dos productores idénticos. Aún para productores que pueden estar en campos vecinos puede haber diferencias en las circunstancias físicas yeconómicas de su explotación.No obstante ello, podrán asignarse productores a grupos relativamente homogéneos en términos de estas circunstancias de manera tal que una recomendación única sea aproximadamente adecuada para cada productor en el grupo. Esta homogeneidad relativa, con sus implicaciones para las recomendaciones, es 10 que está detrás del concepto de dominio de recomendación. En el Programa de Investigación en Producción para el área de Caisán en Panamá, se encontró, entre otras cosas, que si bien el área considerada era relativamente homogénea, en términos de circunstancias naturales (precipitación, temperatura, suelos); existían circunstancias económicas (infraestructura de caminos) que introducían una diferenciación de carácter espacial (Bajo Chiriquí y Resto del Area) con claras implicaciones para la disponibilidad de insumos y el acceso a mercados por parte de los productores ubicados en cada uno de las sub-áreas consideradas.La encuesta formal de producción permite confirmar esta hipótesis.Las prácticas de producción y el uso de insumos son, como resultado de esta situación, marcadamente diferentes en cada zona, justificando una primera diferenciación en dos dominios de recomendación. te topografía de la parcela de maíz introduce otra línea de diferenciación con supuestas implicaciones para la fertilidad del suelo, la magnitud del problema de erosión y la viabilidad de mecanización. Con estos elementos, el Programa de Investigación se concentra en su etapa inicial en el grupo de productores, dentro del Dominio de Recomendación 2, que producen maíz de primer ciclo en parcelas con una ine1 inación menor de cinco por ciento.Hasta aquí hemos hablado de productores representativos, asociando su representatividad en términos cuantitativos (importancia relativa sobre el total de productores o sobre el total del área del cultivo objetivo). Nos podemos preguntar si puede haber otros elementos para establecer representatividad. Al intentar contestar esta pregunta, necesitamos hacer algunas consideraciones de política agropecuaria y del papel creciente que se le da a la investigación como un instrumento de esta última. Las decisiones relacionadas con objetivos nacionales de política agropecuaria pueden ser promovidas orientando la investigación en forma consistente con dichos objetivos. Una de las formas que ésto puede asumir es precisamente, tomar especialmente en consideración los objetivos nacionales de política agropecuaria, en la selección del dominio de recomendación, (por ejemplo, puede expresamente dirigirse la investigación a sectores de pequeños campesinos en situación de marginación económica).Con esta perspectiva, la utilidad de las alternativas tecnológicas potenciales puede ser visualizada desde dos puntos de vista; por un lado, en que medida éstas pueden ser utilizadas por los productores, y por otro, en que medida es consistente su uso con los objetivos nacionales de política económica.Los investigadores, en consecuencia, deberían seleccionar líneas de trabajo consistentes con las prioridades nacionales. Pero en realidad ésto es sólo un lado del problema. Las prioridades nacionales relacionadas con la agricultura deben ser balanceadas y consideradas en relación con 10 que aparece como técnicamente factible. No es entonces suficiente para las instancias decisorias de política agrícola el evidenciar los deseos por cierto tipo de alternativas tecnológicas. Estos deseos deben ser yuxtapuestos con las impresiones de los costos relativos de varias líneas de investigación y también con las percepciones acerca de la probabilidad de éxito que se puede establecer a priori para cada línea; en otras palabras, con 10 que sería la percepción de las posibilidades biológicas. Indudablemente, las personas que mejor pueden dar una idea de 10 que serían estas posibilidades biológicas son precisamente los investigadores agrícolas. En nuestra.perspectiva entonces las prioridades para la investigación agrícola surgen, o deberían sur-gir al menos, de la interacción entre las instancias de política agro• pecuaria que representaría los objetivos nacionales de política agropecuaria y los investigadores agrícolas que deberían aportar sus ideas o percepciones acerca de las posibilidades biológicas asociadas con la investigación agrícola. Para el caso que nos ocupa (Caisán) la misma selección del área de trabajo fue condicionada por objetivos nacionales de política agropecuaria (prevalencia en la misma de pequeños y medianos productores).Hay muchos problemas interesantes para investigar, pocos son los importantes. Nuestro interés es identificar estos últimos para concentrar en ellos el esfuerzo de investigación.El proceso de preselección de nuevos componentes tecnológicos está estrechamente ligado a la definición de dominios de recomendación. Esta es una etapa muy creativa del proceso de planeamiento de la investigación, donde el conjunto de la información generada se integra con las percepciones de los técnicos y las de los propios agricultores (validadas a través de la encuesta), para confluir en un conjunto mínimo de variables experimentales que serán incorporadas en el programa de investigación.Cada una de ellas estará acompañada de hipótesis referidas tanto a su impacto potencial como a las relaciones esperadas, frente a la práctica del productor, y las demás variables experimentales. Resulta obvio reiterar que este es un paso vital que condiciona la eficiencia de la investigación tanto en términos de beneficio-costo del proceso, como también en términos del horizonte de tiempo necesario para producir resultados (adopción por parte de los productores).Para ilustrar la forma en que este proceso de preselección puede darse, volvamos al ejemplo del dominio de recomendación No. 2 del Programa de Caisán y tratemos de reseñar cómo y porqué la información obtenida de los propios agricultores, junto con las percepciones de los técnicos del programa van acotando el conjunto de factores limitantes más importantes que, incidiendo sobre productividad e ingresos de los productores de maíz, parecen en principio superables y por 10 tanto prometedores para ser incorporados como variables experimentales al programa de investigación.Anticipándonos a la discusión, señalemos en principio que los componentes seleccionados se ubican en: a) problemas de competencia de malezas; b) arreglo espacial de siembra y densidad; c) problemas con fertilizantes y d) problemas de acame (vuelco de maíz).Veamos seguidamente qué tipos de elementos han jugado y cuáles son en cada caso las hipótesis con que estos componentes se incorporan al programa de investigación. En la Sección 5 veremos las impl icaciones de estas hipótesis en la articulación de la estrategia y manejo experimental.Este aparece como el problema central que está incidiendo claramente en los rendimientos de maíz. La fertilidad natural del suelo, unida a la magnitud de las precipitaciones (3000 -4000 mm anuales) explican el grado de incidencia en el área del problema de malezas; el cual es claramente percibido por el agricultor.En el ordenamiento de los problemas más importantes que afectan a la producción, realizado por los agricultores a través de la encuesta, el problema de malezas ocupa el primer lugar (véase el Cuadro 2). Estas percepciones de los agricultores son consistentes con las hipótesis formuladas por los técnicos en la encuesta. exploratoria. Por su parte, en el plano de las circunstancias socio-económicas de los productores representativos, la escasez de mano de obra en la zona, y su costo, hacen inefectivo y a veces incluso imposible un control manual oportuno de malezas. Por último, las alternativas de control mecánico (cultivo con tractor) tampoco resultan viables, básicamente porque el estado de los campos en la época del control (lluvias) normalmente no permite la entrada del tractor a las parcelas de maíz.Estas son las razones por las cuales el comienzo del Programa de Caisán encuentra a los productores, desde el punto de vista de este problema, en una situación que podemos definir como de I'transición\", buscando soluciones alternativas al control manual que permitan aumentar no solo la efectividad agronómica del control, sino también la productividad de la mano de obra (escasa) utilizada en esta actividad.CUADRO Lo precedente explica porqué la mayoría de los agricultores usan herbicida (malo bien) al momento de la encuesta. La práctica prevaleciente en este sentido es la utilización de 2-4-0 en dosis de cerca de un litro por hectárea, aplicado a los 30 días de la siembra.Este punto de partida del programa de investigación permite formular la hipótesis de que existen claras oportunidades de desarrollar, en un corto plazo, alternativas tecnológicas de control químico de malezas que aumenten los rendimientos de maíz y la productividad de la mano de obra, con beneficio económico para el productor. Estas alternativas giran en torno de la prueba de un herbicida selectivo (Gesaprim) aunque se analizan también otras alternativas de control químico.La casi totalidad de los agricultores siembran manualmente a chuzo, en un arreglo espacial irregular localmente llamado IIma teadoll.La distancia entre golpes oscila en alrededor de un metro colocándose una cantidad modal de cuatro semillas por golpe. En términos de densidad, esto implica unas 40,000 plantas por hectárea al momento de la siembra.En está área-problema las hipótesis de investigación se plantean en relación con el problema de control de malezas. Por un lado, el arreglo irregular de siembra dificulta el control de malezas; y por otro, lado se piensa que un adecuado control químico permitiría util izar una densidad mayor, como resultado de la eliminación de la competencia de malezas •. El programa se propone explorar, en relación con el control químico de malezas, alternativas de siembras en hileras con una población mayor que la utilizada por el productor.Como resultado del análisis realizado, el problema de fertilizantes se visualiza con distintas facetas: Desde el punto de vista de producción, el agricultor parece estar familiarizado con el uso del insumo (en realidad de los agricultores 10 usan). Sin embargo, un porcentaje importante de éstos (42%) no usan fertilizantes. Por otra parte, los que utilizan el insumo, 10 emplean en dosis que en promedio están bastante por debajo de las recomendaciones de extensión (unos 4 quintales~/ de fórmula 10.30.10 ó 12.24.12). No existe evidencia para la zona que dé claras indicaciones de repuesta a fertilizantes, ni menos se conoce su magnitud (en el caso de que dicha respuesta existiera). Por último, las percepciones de los técnicos del área (hipótesis) es que dicha respuesta, si existiera, no debe ser substancial, particularmente en las zonas planas del , 7/ area-• ii Desde el punto de vista de la política crediticia, los programas para maíz en el área han enfatizado dos cosas; mecanización y fertilizantes. Mientras que la primera ha sido ampliamente adoptada por los productores, no ha ocurrido 10 mismo con los fertilizantes, en cuyo caso ya §7 Quintales de 100 libras Z/ El 68% del área en maíz/frijol se ubican en parcelas con topografía plana (pendiente de menos de un 5%). No. 2; y en particular, si a partir de la práctica del productor (dosis bajas), la tasa marginal de retorno asociada con las recomendaciones es mayor que el costo de oportunidad de capital.iii Desde el punto de vista de las firmas distribuidoras de insumos y la disponibilidad por tipos de fertilizantes para Caisán, es probable que ésta esté influenciada por la cercanía de la zona papera más importante de Panamá (Cerro Punta) que puede hacer que Caisán sea un IImercado residual\" frente a la importancia del mercado de Cerro Punta. Esto podría condicionar el tipo de fertilizantes que normalmente se encuentran disponibles para Caisán.Se espera que la incorporación de fertilizantes, particularmente nitrógeno y fosfóro como variables experimentales, pueda darnos entre el tipo de fertilizantes disponibles y los requerimientos específicos de la producción de maíz en el área.En resumen, en el caso de fertilizantes, su incorporación en el programa de investigación apunta no directamente hacia el productor, sino más bien a dilucidar cuestiones de política agrícola de vigencia específicia para los productores del área. Los nutrientes considerados prioritariamente son nitrógeno y fosfóro; y la hIpótesis central en este caso es que en el corto plazo, la fertilidad natural del suelo y la consecuente respuesta a fertilizantes químicos no permitiría justificar el enfásis puesto en estos insumos por las acciones crediticias y de extensión.Los Problemas de Acame (Vuelco de Maíz)Los fuertes vientos que se presentan en el área, particularmente durante los meses de junio y julio, representan un riesgo importante en el proceso de producción. En la visión del productor, los problemas de acame figuran entre los más importantes junto con el de malezas (véase el Cuadro 2). La encuesta provee información sobre la frecuencia con que se produjeron daños parciales de acame en los últimos cinco años y los meses de mayor probabil idad de ocurrencia. Cerca del 80% de los casos reportados de acame se ubican en el período juniojulio. En 10 que se refiere a la, frecuencia del daño, ésta resulta muy variable, aunque podemos decir que en el período considerado todos los productores han sufrido daños parciales de acame, al menos en una ocasión. La magnitud de eventuales pérdidas de cosecha asociadas con este problema ha sido muy díficil de precisar ya que dependen no solo del área afectada, sino también del estado de madurez del maíz acamado (que en algunos casos puede incluso cosecharse). De todas formas, entre los elementos que contribuyen a aumentar la incidencia de acame en la zona, se encuentra el excesivo desarrollo vegetativo de la variedad empleada por el agricultor, la cual generalmente supera los 3.5 metros de altura, característica que la hace particularmente susceptible al vuelco.Por otro lado, a pesar de que en el área se han probado variedades que alcanzan alturas menores (entre otras Tocumen 7428) dichas variedades no han sido aceptadas por los agricultores, ya que, según sus reportes no resisten bien el exceso de humedad, característica del área, las mazorcas se pudren, el capullo (espatos) no cierra bien, y sus rendimientos no superan a los de la variedad local.Frente a esta situación, y vista la reciente experiencia de los productores del área con las variedades que se intentará introducir, el programa de investigación decidió no incorporar variedad como variable experimental en las primeras etapas del trabajo, sino más bien limitarse a diseñar un modesto programa de mejoramiento que tenga como objetivo bajar la altura de la variedad local.Por último, las restantes consideraciones que avalan la decisión de no incorporar variedad como variable experimental en la'etapa inicial del programa, están referidas al hecho de que la información agroeconómica manejada da indicación de que en un corto plazo, el impacto en productividad e ingresos, derivado de componentes agronómicos (tales como control de malezas y densidad) sería claramente superior al que eventualmente pudiera conseguirse con nuevas variedades en esta etapa del desarrollo tecnológico del área.Hasta aquí se reseñó la preselección de componentes tecnológicos a incorporar en el primer ciclo de ensayos de maíz. La idea, reiteramos una vez más, es concentrar los esfuerzos de investigación en un número mínimo de nuevos componentes tecnológicos que en su conjunto puedan ser manejados por los recursos humanos asignados al área, y que prometan resultados en un período razonable, en términos de alternativas tecnológicas factibles de ser utilizadas por los productores. Por la misma naturaleza de este proceso de planeamiento de la investigación, debe quedar claro que con esto no se agotan todos los problemas del área, ni tampoco queda completamente definido todo el futuro de la investigación.En particular, en el caso que nos ocupa, los problemas de erosión reportados por los productores, y confirmados por la observación directa en el área; los problemas de \"falta de maquinaría'l y \"escasez de mano de obra\", esta última particularmente en el período de cosecha de maíz, preparación del suelo y siembra de frijol; las cuestiones de empalme de ambos cultivos con tiempo para realIzar las prácticas en el momento apropiado; éstos y otros aspectos que veremos seguidamente llevan a considerar en el futuro de la investIgación a la tecnología de cero labranza como alternativa a la labranza convencional.La decisión en este sentido es la de postergar la incorporación en el programa, del sistema de labranza como variable experimental hasta tanto se tenga información experimental que permita validar las hipótesis formuladas sobre el impacto potencial y viabilidad para el productor de las alternativas de control químico de malezas que serán analizadas en los ensayos. La tecnología de cero labranza aparece aso-ciada en este contexto con el control químico de malezas; y como tal parece razonable, consolidar primero el conocimiento en esta última área antes de entrar en las relativamente mayores complejidades del sistema de labranza per se.Por último, la información manejada no deja completamente clara la naturaleza y magnitud del problema de insectos. Se espera que la misma experiencia de conducción de los primeros ensayos pueda arrojar alguna luz adicional sobre esta cuestión que lleve a incorporar en el futuro el problema de insectos al programa de investigación.f) Topografía de la Parcela como Elemento de Diferenciación en el Dominio de Recomendación No. 2La encuesta nos permite confirmar, como era de esperar, que la topografía del terreno condiciona las prácticas de preparación del suelo que realizan los productores. Aparte de esto no se encuentra otra asociación entre la variable topografía y el resto de las prácticas de producción. Sin embargo, se anticipa (hipótesis) que la topografía del terreno va a condicionar el comportamiento de al menos alguna de las variables experimentales que se incorporan en el programa.La encuesta provee información sobre la distribución de las parcelas de maíz/frijol en rotación y maíz primer ciclo en distintas condiciones de topografía del terreno. La mayor parte del área de maíz de primera se encuentra ubicada en terrenos con pendientes menores de cinco por ciento. Al parecer, los productores tienden a dedicar sus mejores parcelas a la producción de maíz y/o frijol. Si se tuviera que tomar una decisión de localizar los ensayos en terrenos de pendiente o en terrenos planos, esta última alternativa parecería en principio más representativa de la situación prevaleciente en el área.Sin embargo, antes de pretender dejar contestada la pregunta precedente parece importante preguntar, si en términos de los componentes tecnológicos seleccionados, se esperan diferencias significativas en el comportamiento de las variables experimentales en tierras planas y tierras de ladera. La presunción es que para la mayoría de las variables experimentales (malezas, arreglo espacial y densidad y acame) no se espera que existan diferencias importantes. Sin embargo en el caso de fertilizantes sí podría esperarse una menor fertilidad natural y quizás una mayor respuesta a fertilizantes químicos. Esto podría sugerir, al menos para estos componentes, una apertura del Dominio de Recomendación Número 2, del cual se separarían los terrenos de ladera, que integrarían digamos, el Dominio de Recomendación Número 3. Dados los escasos recursos con que el programa comienza, y visto las circunstancias de representatividad, el programa comienza dentro del Dominio de Recomendación Número 2, en los terrenos con pendientes menores de cinco por ciento.En la medida en que nuevos componentes tecnológicos se vayan incorporando en el futuro dentro del programa de investigación y en función de las experiencias y resultados obtenidos en uno ó dos ciclos, será posible extender el trabajo a las tierras de ladera, y de esta forma precisar la definición tentativa de Dominios de Recomendación realizada al comienzo del programa.El ejemplo precedente nos da una buena idea de la información y argumentos manejados en la preselección de componentes tecnológicos, así como también del proceso de formulación de hipótesis asociadas con cada uno de ellos, a val idar con la experimentación. El paso siguiente en el proceso es precisamente definir el programa de ensayos. En la sección siguiente nos ocupamos de este tema.En la sección anterior hemos ilustrado el proceso de preselección de componentes tecnológicos, utilizando la información sobre las circunstancias de los productores generada en la etapa de planeamiento de la investigación. Seguidamente, veremos la forma en que estos componentes pueden articularse en el programa en forma consistente con el conjunto de hipótesis que acompañan su incorporación; así como también otras implicaciones para la estrategia y el manejo experimental, :tales como horizontes de tiempo en el cual se esperan tener resultados para los distintos componentes o grupos de componentes; y el manejo acorde dado a las variables experimentales y no experimentales en el diseño y conducción de los ensayos.Volvemos a recurrir en este caso al ejemplo de Caisán, ya que el mismo ilustra igualmente los punto metodológicos que queremos destacar en esta sección.A través del proceso descrito en la sección precedente se preseleccionaron en Caisán cinco componentes tecnológicos para incorporar en el programa de investigación: a) control de malezas; b) densidad y arreglo espacial de siembra (\"ma teado\" vs. siembra en hilera); c) requerimientos de nitrógeno; d) requerimientos de fosfóro; y e) problemas de acame. Este último se encara en forma separada de los restantes con un programa de mejoramiento cuyos objetivos están dirigidos a bajar la altura de la variedad local. Esto permitiría no el iminar, pero sí moderar, los riesgos de acame detectados en la zona. Por la naturaleza del trabajo de mejoramiento a realizar, se esperan resultados en un horizonte de mediano plazo (tres o cuatro años).Los restantes componentes son ordenados en dos grupos de acuerdo con el horizonte temporal dentro del cual se plantea la investigación en cada uno de ellos; la naturaleza del problema que se pretende resolver; y el grado de prioridad con que son asumidos.En un horizonte de corto plazo, en primera prioridad, se ubican los componentes a) y b) (control de malezas y densidad y arreglo espacial de siembra) para los cuales se espera formular recomendaciones en un período no mayor de dos años. Esto surge del anál isis \"ex-an te'l real izado en la zona y está basado fundamentalmente en dos hipótesis. Por un lado que habría amplio margen de incremento en la productividad e ingresos con factibilidad económica (a priori) en este grupo de alternativas tecnológicas a desarrollar. Por otro lado no se esperan en este grupo problemas de política agropecuaria o disponibilidad de insumos, asociados con estas alternativas tecnológicas.En un horizonte de mediano plazo, y en segunda prioridad se ubican los componentes c) y d) correspondientes a los problemas de fertil idad.El problema en este caso no se circunscribe al área de producción sino que también presenta claras ramificaciones en el área de política agropecuaria. Los programas de crédito en la zona han enfatizado tradicionalmente el uso de fertilizantes. Sin embargo, no obstante que los productores están familiarizados con estos insumos, casi la mitad de ellos no los utilizan, y los que 10 hacen, emplean dosis menores que las recomendadas. Por otra parte, no existen evidencias de respuesta a fertilizantes para el área, y la percepción de los técnicos es de que la fertilidad natural de la zona no permite pensar en una respuesta sustancial (si esta existiera), al menos en las parcelas del dominio de recomendación seleccionado para el comienzo del programa. En resumen, en este caso los ensayos se plantean no para formular recomendaciones en un corto plazo a los productores, sino más bien para dilucidar en un mediano plazo las cuestiones precedentes.El agrupamiento realizado no es meramente taxonómico, sino que tiene, entre otras, implicaciones para la conducción de los ensayos. Por un lado, los cuatro componentes son incorporados como variables experimentales en ensayos uniformes de naturaleza exploratoria, donde se analiza integralmente con un arreglo factorial 2~, efectos e interacciones de estos cuatro componentes frente a la práctica del agricultor. Los ensayos exploratorios se complementan con ensayos de \" n iveles\" incluyendo tipos de herbicidas, dosis y epoca de aplicación, y niveles de nitrogéno y fosfóro.En los ensayos que incorporan control de malezas y densidad como variables experimentales (orientados hacia el corto plazo), la naturaleza y el nivel de las variables no experimentales se establece de acuerdo con las prácticas de cultivo prevalecientes en el dominio de recomendación. Esto permite que los resultados de los ensayos reflejen el impacto que tendrán los productores representativos, en el caso de que adopten en el futuro las alternativas tecnológicas consideradas.Por su parte, los ensayos de fertil izantes, (orientados hacia un mediano plazo) son manejados \"como sí\" los productores fueran a adoptar alternativas mejoradas de control de malezas y densidad, y consecuentemente las variables no experimentales correspondientes a estos componentes son fijadas a los niveles considerados óptimos de acuerdo con la información disponible en la etapa de planeamiento.Por último, los niveles testigo de las variables experimentales, incorporan en todos los casos la práctica del productor. En el Cuadro No. 3 se reseñan los elementos ya descritos de la estrategia experimental.Más allá de la etapa inicial de planeamiento, comienza un proceso continuo de 'Iaprendiendo por acción 'l • Después de cada ciclo se integra la información proveniente de las encuestas con los resultados de los ensayos; se revisa el diagnóstico realizado, las hipótesis formuladas y se definen con todos estos elementos las líneas de continuidad de la investigación, tanto en campos de agricultores como en la estación experimental; las recomendaciones para los productores (si estas procedieran); y las implicaciones de política agropecuaria que pudieran corresponder. A medida que se vayan encontrando soluciones a los• problemas prioritarios y 105 productores acepten las alternativas tecnológicas generadas, nuevos problemas ocuparán su lugar y nuevos componentes tecnológicos serán incorporados al programa de investigación.Veamos seguidamente como el análisis integral (agronómico, estadístico y económico) del primer ciclo de ensayos de maíz en Caisán permite ir validando las hipótesis formuladas en la etapa de diagnóstico y derivar implicaciones en términos de los elementos mencionados precedentemente.Los resultados de los ensayos exploratorios consistentemente muestran efectos principales significativos para herbicidas y densidad; y en menor grado interacciones entre ambas variables. Por otra parte, la tasa marginal de retorno para la aplicación de Gesaprim (solo) es de 700%; y cuando se agrega al Gesaprim una mayor densidad con siembra en hilera se eleva a un 1400%. Esto confirma la hipótesis de que existen  en estos componentes claras oportunidades de desarrollar alternativas tecnológicas viables para los productores del área.Por otra ~arte, los ensayos de nivel en herbicidas resultan cualitativa (tipos de herbicidas) y cuantitativamente (dosis) consistentes con los resultados de los ensayos exploratorios. Esta consistencia, y el alto margen agronómico y económico revelado para las alternativas consideradas, llevan al IDIAP a formular recomendaciones a los productores, a pesar de contar sólo con un ciclo de ensayos.En 10 que respecta a la orientación futura de la investigación, estos resultados, junto con el diagnóstico realizado sugieren líneas de trabajo para el futuro inmediato.a) Dado el impacto que tuvieron herbicidas y densidad y los indicios de interacción entre ambos componentes; proceden en el próximo ciclo de maíz, ensayos de nivel en herbicidas por dosis para ir precisando cuantitativamente las relaciones entre ambos, como así también confirmando los niveles óptimos de su utilización.b) Dado que se va validando las hipótesis sobre el impacto agroeconómico de un control adecuado de malezas; y visto los problemas de erosión que se han encontrado en la etapa de diagnóstico, y el hecho de que parte de las parcelas de maíz/frijol se encuentran en terrenos de ladera; se decida incorporar el sistema de labranza como variable experimental en el siguiente ciclo (ensayos exploratorios), analizando la preparación del suelo típica de los productores representativos frente a una alternativa de cero labranza con control químico de malezas. c) Dado el impacto que tuvo el Gesaprim; y como el sistema de producción prevaleciente en el área consiste en una rotación maíz-frijol se decide analizar el efecto residual del herbicida sobre el frijol, utilizando para ello un arreglo factorial (dosis de Gesaprim por días después de su aplicación en que es sembrado el frijol). A los efectos de ganar en eficiencia de tiempo y costos de investigación, este arreglo factorial se desarrolla en los surcos de borde del ensayo de herbicida por densidad.Por último, el impacto del componente densidad y arreglo espacial de siembra sugiere, por un lado, observaciones de campo para precisar la densidad del productor en siembras mecanizadas y a chuzo; y por otro lado, un control más riguroso de la densidad en el manejo de los experimentos a realizar en el futuro.En lo que respecta a fertilizantes químicos, tanto en los ensayos exploratorios como en los de nivel, no se encuentran respuestas estadísticamente significativas (confirmando también en este caso las hipótesis formuladas en la etapa de planeamiento). Por otra parte, tanto la incorporación de nitrogéno y fosfóro separadamente, como su utilización conjunta, resulta en retornos marginales negativos, aún a partir de prácticas mejoradas de control de malezas y densidad.¿Cuáles son las implicaciones que surgen de estos resultados? En primer lugar sugieren, por lo menos, cierta cautela en el manejo de recomendaciones de fertilizantes hasta tanto se pueda ir confirmando en ciclos siguientes la información obtenida en el primer ciclo. También sugieren revisar el énfasis puesto en fertilizantes por los programas crediticios.En lo que respecta a la orientación futura de la investigación estos resultados y el horizonte de mediano plazo para estos componentes, sugieren el uso de ensayos en parcelas continuas donde pueda analizarse el impacto de mediano plazo sobre la fertilidad natural del suelo, de un manejo más intensivo de la rotación maíz/frijol, incluyendo prácticas mejoradas de control de malezas y densidad de siembra.A través de la experiencia de Caisán hemos intentado describir algunos conceptos claves del enfoque restringido de sistemas que CIMMYT intenta promover en su trabajo cooperativo con los Programas Nacionales de Investigación. Lamentablemente los resultados y recomendaciones de Caisán no pueden extrapolarse a otros países, ni siquiera a otras áreas dentro de Panamá. Afortunadamente, sin embargo, 10 que sí puede extrapolarse son las experiencias metodológicas, que junto con las que se realizan en Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala y Haitíª/ confirman nuestro convencimiento del potencial y utilidad del enfoque como complemento necesario y enlace entre la investigación de la estación experimental y las actividades de extensión, para el desarrollo de tecnologías apropiadas a grupos objetivos de productores y consecuentemente, para aumentar la eficiencia de los aparatos institucionales de investigación agropecuaria.ª/ Se refiere solo a programas en América Latina; experiencias similares se realizan en Asia y Africa.","tokenCount":"7149"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7e5a1cf2948a27b1d163b02d70d36d90","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a777af60-b046-4b96-9711-f49b551806d8/retrieve","id":"-1578987019"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"96fd9e30-b0fc-4277-9f1b-92b71234b9a7","pagecount":"1","content":"Colombia, dentro del programa de bioseguridad se destaca el monitoreo de la susceptibilidad de las plagas blanco a las proteínas Bt. El objetivo fue determinar el efecto de las tecnologías Bollgard® (algodonero Bt) sobre larvas y adultos de S. frugiperda en condiciones de laboratorio (27 ±1°C, 65 ±10% HR y 12 h fotoperiodo). Para larvas se calcularon índices metabólicos y de consumo de alimento; en el caso de adultos se establecieron tablas de vida. Las variedades GM evaluadas fueron: NuOpal RR (Bollgard® Cry1Ac), DP 141 B2RF (Bollgard II® Cry1Ac+Cry2Ab) y una variedad no Bt Delta Opal RR. En los ensayos con larvas se estableció una cohorte de 195 larvas/variedad, los parámetros evaluados fueron: (a) peso de larvas, (b) peso de heces, (c) peso del alimento suministrado y (d) peso del alimento no consumido. Se calculó la Tasa Relativa de consumo (TRCo), Tasa Relativa de crecimiento (TRCr), Eficiencia de la Conversión del alimento ingerido (ECI) y la Digestibilidad aproximada (DA). Para los adultos, se construyeron tablas de vida (35 parejas/variedad). Se calcularon los parámetros demográficos: Tasa reproductiva neta (Ro), Tasa intrínseca de crecimiento (rm), Tiempo medio generacional (T), Tiempo de doblaje (Dt) y Tasa finita de crecimiento (λ). Los índices nutricionales indicaron una actividad antialimentaria de la variedad DP 141 B2RF sobre larvas representada en menor tasa de crecimiento y conversión del alimento. La variedad causa además una disminución del 58.6% en el peso de las larvas y una supervivencia de 3.4%. Para las tablas de vida, las hembras provenientes de la variedad DP 141 B2RF exhibieron menores tasas de reemplazo (Ro) y mayor tiempo de doblaje (Dt) comparado con los mismos parámetros obtenidos sobre la variedad no Bt Delta Opal RR. Se concluye que la antibiosis de la variedad DP 141 B2RF sobre larvas tiene un efecto subletal.","tokenCount":"298"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4853dc5dd210b02d79ca94b37d8b312e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/198833dd-58da-4526-a0d2-437c4a286866/retrieve","id":"1018266255"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b575c691-44aa-46dd-9170-f6d00cbbf2c3","pagecount":"37","content":"Background 2 Methodology 2.1 Selection of the survey area 2.2 Definition of subgroups 2.3 The questionnaire 2.4 Selection of respondents vii Potential farmer demand for a dairy genomic assay technologyTables Table 1: Subgroups present (X) in the traditional and the emerging areas  6: Reported breeding method used (as per cent of all breeding events during the past two years) Table 7: Interest of farmers of the various subgroups in the genomic assay and their willingness to pay Table 8: Reasons for interest in the genomic assay and the certificate by subgroups and type of animalThe results show a generally high level of interest across all subgroups of smallholder dairy farmers in traditional as well as in the emerging areas. The main reasons for this high level of interest can be broadly grouped into financial reasons and need for better-informed breeding decisions. Among the financial reasons, owners of village bulls view the assay and the accompanying certificate as a marketing instrument that will help them in their breeding business. For all producers, the use of the assay was seen as potentially leading to higher sales prices for animals, as an assurance to buyers of the quality of the animal. More information to make better breeding decisions is the other main reason for the interest in the assay. A significant number of respondents believed that increasing exotic proportion in a cross-bred cow would lead to increased milk yield. In general respondents were eager to know more about good breeding practices but had only limited ideas to what extent the additional information provided through the assay would help them in that respect. Most traders were indifferent to the technology, although those that were interested recognized the potential value in increasing demand or sales price in the cattle they were trading.In general, it can be concluded that the genomic assay could find a market and a group of potential adopters, depending on the cost and logistics of access and implementation. Once successfully piloted, it could be part of a comprehensive program of education and training for smallholders on a wide range of topics emphasizing the three main pillars of any livestock activity, namely breeding, feeding and health.In many parts of Africa and Asia, particularly in temperate climates such as tropical highlands, colonialists introduced 'exotic' European breeds of cattle to achieve higher levels of milk production than was available from the local cattle. To increase their survivability in the context of harsh temperatures, significant disease challenges and poor-quality feed, the common practice was developed in many countries to cross-breed these exotic cattle with the local breeds, which were better adapted to the local settings. Currently, this happens ideally via artificial insemination (AI) using semen of exotic bulls either produced and delivered by the national cattle breeding institutions or imported from private animal genetics companies. Using AI reduces the risk of disease transmission associated with natural mating, and assures better choice of and control of breed type. Alternatively, locally-kept bulls, which can accurately detect heat in cows, are employed to provide natural service, either opportunistically by farmers raising cross-bred bulls for sale to butchers, or by farmers keeping breeding bulls mainly to serve their cows, but also providing this service to other farmers in the neighbourhood, in general against a moderate fee. These 'village bulls' were either bought as young stock from commercial farmers (in this case they are very often pure exotic-breed bulls) or they are offspring of cows believed to be 'well-performing' within the localities. For a number of reasons, among them the unreliability and sometimes unavailability of AI service, as well as cost, Baltenweck et al. (2004) found that slightly more than 80% of breeding is done through natural service, in spite of the fact that just over 50% of producers indicated a preference for AI for greater milk productivity.Due to many decades of both controlled (via AI) and uncontrolled cross-breeding, there are now millions of cross-bred dairy cattle in Africa, about which, since there are generally few records kept, little may be known regarding the ratio of local versus exotic breed composition of specific cattle and the various breeds involved in the crosses. This constrains continued breed improvement since breeders are not able to easily know the animal's traits so as to select those which suit their objectives. It also constrains the livelihoods and businesses of smallholder dairy farmers, since they cannot easily know the milk production potential of the heifers they buy.The African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG) project developed a genetic assay that can determine the breed composition of a dairy animal based on a single sample of its hair or blood. Using the latest technological advances, the test assays an animal's genotype at hundreds of thousands of locations across the genome. The genetic information can be used to estimate with high accuracy the percentage of the animal's ancestry that is of exotic breed origin (Bos taurus) versus the percentage that is from a local zebu breed. It can, with somewhat lower accuracy determine which particular exotic breeds are represented (e.g. Holstein vs. Ayrshire vs Jersey). In addition to breed composition, when related animals are sampled, an animal's parents can be identified, allowing pedigrees to be determined. The initial version of the genetic assay was expensive (approximately USD200 per sample). A much simpler and cheaper assay, based on a few hundred genetic markers, has now been developed by the project, which provides an accurate estimate of exotic versus zebu ancestry and can assign parentage with high accuracy. It does not, however, discriminate between different exotic breeds in the ancestry of an animal. This simpler technology requires only that a hair sample, including hair roots, is pulled from the tail of a cow/bull to be used as the source of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) for the genetic assay analysis. It is estimated by the ADGG management that the simpler assay can be made available for the equivalent of approximately USD10 including the logistic expenses of getting the sample from the cow to the lab and after analysis, transmitting the result in the form of a certificate back to the farmer.During early discussions with the ADGG management the following types of potential benefits of this genomic assay from the perspective of the smallholder dairy farmers were hypothesized, which would likely drive demand for the assay technology:• Knowing the genetic makeup of their cows allows farmers to make better-informed breeding decisions so that progeny are best matched to the production environment in which they are raised.• Whenever a dairy animal is being sold and purchased, a certificate proving the genetic composition might increase the value of the animal. This is most likely to be true for heifers because farmers will focus more on achieved milk yield when buying cows that are already in production.• In case the owner of a 'village bull' has a certificate of genetic makeup, this might increase the demand for service by that bull.In order to validate these hypotheses or at least determine generally the level of potential interest by dairy system actors in the genetic assay technology, a set of surveys was designed and conducted. This report presents the results of these surveys.A healthy and well-managed cross-bred cow (credit: ILRI/Christoph Weber).Although Kenya is at present not included in the ADGG program, it was selected for the survey site for the following reasons:• Compared to the two present ADGG countries, Ethiopia and Tanzania, the dairy sector in Kenya is significantly more developed, which has some advantages. With some area-specific differences, dairy development in Ethiopia and Tanzania is likely to occur along a similar pathway to that in Kenya. The current smallholder dairy system in Kenya thus offers an opportunity to assess dairy technology demand, which is likely to also develop in the neighbouring countries.• In Kenya there is a somewhat pronounced regional differentiation of the smallholder dairy sector between the 'traditional dairy areas' like the central region (Kiambu, Nandi, Bomet and Uasin Gishu counties) and the 'emerging dairy areas' like western Kenya and the Upper Eastern region around Meru. The traditional dairy areas were in part developed during the colonial period by settler farmers, so have a long history of commercially oriented dairy development and still comprises a few large-scale commercial farms, although most are small-to medium-sized farms. In the 'emerging dairy' areas further west, smallholder dairying has developed in recent decades postindependence. These differentiated dairy areas allow a comparison of the demand for technology by relatively more and less advanced dairy producers.For logistical reasons, several counties from western Kenya in the 'emerging dairy areas' that were adjacent to counties in central Kenya representing 'traditional dairy areas' were selected for the survey. As we will see below there is also a significant trade of dairy cattle between these areas and inside the survey area, with relatively high-grade cattle from the traditional dairy areas providing stock to the emerging dairy areas. In western Kenya, Busia, Kakamega and Vihiga counties were selected in the emerging dairy area while Nandi and Bomet were in the traditional dairy areas.The emerging areas are characterized by small landholders and primarily zero-grazing dairy production systems, whereby animals are stall fed with cut fodder and crop residues. Farmers source cross-bred replacement animals from the traditional dairy areas where high-grade heifers are available through traders or agents from the livestock department. In these areas, calving intervals are longer due to poor heat detection and animal husbandry among often relatively inexperienced farmers. Milk sales are typically to informal traders or retailers in towns.The traditional areas reflect higher levels of dairy development, as well as larger land holdings. Production systems are semi-intensive in nature, with cattle kept in paddocks, so they are not exclusively stall fed. High-grade bulls are kept by some farmers, living in paddocks with cows. Milk marketing is more formalized, with sales going to cooperatives, commercial processors or large traders.The level of cross-breeding is likely to play a significant role during all commercial transactions involving dairy cattle intended for production or breeding (culled animals for slaughter are likely to be priced largely according to body condition and weight). As indicated, farmers in the emerging dairy areas often sourced cattle from the traditional areas. Therefore, livestock markets were included in the survey as well, particularly livestock markets where dairy cattle are sold and purchased during the regular market days. On this basis, the weekly livestock markets in Serem (Vihiga/Nandi) and Bomet were included in the survey.During a brainstorming session among a group of experienced International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) field researchers, discussion was held as to what subgroups of smallholder dairy farmers might exist that would have a potential interest in the genomic assay described above.Given the general lack of official pedigree certification and performance recording among smallholder farmers, the benefit for a farmer of having a certificate that documents a cow's genetic makeup would likely occur during animal sales and purchases. There are farmers in the traditional dairy areas who regularly breed heifers for sale, for additional income, given that they do not need all their on-farm-bred youngstock to maintain their dairy herd at the typically small scale suitable to their resource constraints. This subgroup was designated the 'breeders' and exists predominantly in the traditional dairy areas.Correspondingly, in the emerging dairy areas we have 'new' smallholder dairy farmers who buy heifers or cows to expand their herds of cross-bred dairy cows, rather than rely only on the longer process of raising home-bred young stock. These farmers are also likely to be interested in certification of the genetic makeup of the cattle they buy.Farmers are likely to want to know the genetic makeup of their cows to make better informed breeding decisions. If a farmer for example has a good experience with cross-bred cows, which are 75% exotic and 25% indigenous breed and wants to maintain that level of exotic blood in the herd, they would prefer a bull with the same makeup. At present they would depend only on a phenotypic assessment of their cows as well as of potential bulls for servicing, which may not be accurate. The genomic assay can provide this basic information. Such farmers form another group who are 'smallholders who are likely to want better informed breeding decisions.'Another potential group of clients for the genomic assay is expected to be owners of village bulls that are used to service cows among surrounding farmers for a small fee. A certificate confirming the genetic makeup of the bull (for example, 75% exotic genes) might increase the demand for the service and possibly the price. In most of the traditional dairy areas artificial insemination (AI) services are available from public or private providers, so an alternative to village bulls exists, but AI is generally less available in the emerging dairy areas. Whether owners of bulls in traditional and emerging dairy areas rate the benefit of the genomic assay differently may be revealing.As shown in Table 1, these subgroups are not represented equally across the two different dairy areas chosen for the survey. Breeders, who sell dairy cattle are found mainly in the traditional dairy areas where there is long experience in cattle breeding. New dairy farmers, who buy dairy cattle, are found mostly in the emerging dairy areas. Smallholders who want better breeding decisions, village bull owners and traders of dairy cattle are found in both regions.A young village bull (Ayrshire) supplied by the AVCD project (credit: ILRI/Christoph Weber).Table 1: Subgroups present (X) in the traditional and the emerging areas Owners of village bulls X X Breeders, who sell dairy cattle X New dairy farmers, who buy dairy cattle X Smallholders who want better informed breeding decisions X XTraders on livestock markets X (Bomet) X (Serem)The objective of the questionnaire (see Annex) was to obtain basic characteristics of the respondent's dairy and cattle breeding activities, farmer objectives, and to determine the degree of potential respondent interest in the genetic assay, for which type of animals and for what reasons. Sufficient explanation was given to the respondents including some principles of animal breeding to clarify the relevance of the genomic assay in the context of a smallholder dairy farm. The initial questions enabled the enumerator to categorize the respondent into one of the six subgroups.One of the objectives of the survey was to find out what price the respondents were willing to potentially pay for the genomic assay including the certificate. We assessed the WTP directly by an open question during the survey. Many studies have shown that the various WTP approaches can generate inaccurate results for various psychological and technical reasons. The inaccuracy tends to increase if the product or service in question is unknown to the respondent, as it was the case in the survey. Nevertheless, carefully framed WTP enquiry is a simple and fast method to assess an approximate price range for a product or service (Breidert, Hahsler and Reutterer 2006).The survey started with a one-day training of the five enumerators on the ILRI campus. During this training the enumerators received a list of smallholder dairy farmers in Busia and Vihiga counties in the emerging dairy area, that were supported by the Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) project a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)funded program supporting dairy value chain development. These farmers received purebred exotic (Ayrshire) bulls at subsidized rates to be used as village bulls, since dairy farming was relatively new in the area, availability of AI was limited and only very few exotic bulls were available. The enumerators contacted the owners of village bulls from the lists and arranged interviews. Village bull owners also provided contacts with smallholders from the other two subgroups present in the emerging dairy area (new farmers and those wanting better informed breeding decisions). The same approach of contact with village bull owners then 'snowballing' to other farmers was used also in Vihiga County. In Kakamega, where AVCD does not operate, lists of dairy farmers were obtained from the Kakamega Dairy Farmers Cooperative. In Nandi and Bomet counties, in the traditional dairy areas, contact farmer lists were obtained from the ADGG's precursor project, the Dairy Genetics East Africa (DGEA) project.As a result of this process, the selection of respondents was not in any way randomized, but can be confidently expected to represent typical dairy farmers in the target areas.In the morning the team (five enumerators and the ILRI researchers/authors) met and the mode of travel for each enumerator to their area for the interviews of the day was organized. The researchers accompanied one of the enumerators on a rotational basis each day. The interview sessions varied between 30 and 45 minutes mainly depending on the explanation of the breeding principle and the genomic assay. Over time each enumerator developed their own way of explaining it either using bean and maize seeds representing local and exotic breeds or doing some simple calculations on paper. In general, the respondents were interested in these explanations and eager to engage. At the end of the day the team met again to discuss any issues of the day's work and prepare for the following day.In the emerging dairy area, the team sought to interview at least 16 respondents in each of the three counties from each of the relevant subgroups. In the traditional dairy area, 25 respondents from each of the three relevant subgroups per county were interviewed in each of the two counties. The numbers of respondents in each subgroup and county are provided in Table 2.Farmers were interested to get involved (credit: ILRI/Christoph Weber). 3 ResultsA detailed overview of the average herd size per farm as well as the average herd composition in the various subgroups is given in Table 3. The distinction between local and exotic cattle has been made solely on phenotypic appearance, with the latter category mostly made up of cross-breeds that have a significant and visible degree of exotic genes.In the traditional dairy area, given the more advanced nature of dairy development, the focus is on dairy cattle breeds for milk production, so neither local bulls nor local castrated males are kept in any of the three subgroups. In these areas, donkeys are generally used for traction such as pulling carts, so there is also no demand for local bullocks.In the emerging dairy areas, some of the owners of village (exotic) bulls also keep at least one bull of local breed. These local bulls normally accompany the local herd when grazing and might serve other farmer's cows as well, but in such cases no fee is charged by the owner. Local bullocks are kept in the emerging dairy area, mostly at least one pair, used for cultivation and transport. Some exotic bullocks (castrated males) are kept in the emerging areas, most likely as a byproduct of dairy farming and reared for beef production since they grow quickly, if the farmer has adequate access to green fodder, roughages such as maize straw, or grazing land.As with local males, very few local female cattle as well as local youngstock and local calves are kept any longer in the traditional dairy area. In the traditional dairy area, the average number of exotic dairy cows varies between 2.3 and 3.3 cows per smallholder farm. As expected the numbers of exotic dairy cows in the emerging areas is lower, between 0.9 and 1.5 per farm on average, with the most found among the smallholders who want better breeding decisions subgroup. The share of productive animals, i.e. adult females, is rather low even in the traditional dairy area and varies between 28% and 39% of the total herd. In the emerging dairy area, the share of exotic cows in the herd was somewhat lower and varied between 10% and 27%. These numbers are somewhat less than those found in a study of 400 farms in western Kenya in which 36.4% of the average herd were lactating cows, which together with dry cows comprised 50% of the herds which were on average adult females (Omondi and Njehia 2014). It is possible that since the survey lists were obtained from dairy development project, that the farmers selected were among the more resource poor, thus had smaller herds than the overall regional average.Cross-bred cow with her newborn calf (credit: ILRI/Christoph Weber). In all subgroups and in all categories, cattle sales exceed purchases on average, as reported by respondents during the previous two years (Table 4). The likely reasons for this is that of course herds on dairy farms grow with each calving needed to produce the next lactation cycle, and that farmers manage herd sizes and composition to most effectively use the limited feed and labour resources available and to meet their objectives. Thus, cows are normally sold for slaughter after their productive life, and most of the replacement heifers may be bred on-farm rather than purchased. Additionally, most male cattle are sold while young, besides those kept to be raised for meat. Owners of village bulls may sometimes need to buy a replacement bull to mitigate inbreeding and improve the genetic makeup of the herd. Out of the 18 bulls purchased during the past two years 16 (89%) have been bought by owners of village bulls.The proportion of cattle sold is higher in the traditional areas than in the emerging dairy areas, notably among breeders, as is to be expected, and which is likely to reflect the fact that such areas are a source of heifers for the market. They sell more cattle than they buy, and more than a third of all cattle sold are heifers, the category of cattle most likely to be in demand for herd growth and breeding stock. Bullocks are neither sold nor bought frequently. Calves up to one year of age are also infrequently sold or purchased and those which are, are mostly males (Table 4). Somewhat more young males are sold than females, most noticeably by breeders. Slightly more bulls are purchased in the emerging dairy area than in the traditional area, where supply may be adequate, and AI is more readily available.The results show that the farmer strategy for increasing herd size relies on buying-in a cow followed by buying-in heifers (75 cows and 60 heifers were reported to have been purchased and 60 heifers). An advantage of buying a cow is the ability to better evaluate the likely milk yield. The breeders in the traditional area sell not only cows, but also bulls and youngstock of both sexes: in total they sell more than six times the number of animals they purchase (193:30)! The most numerous category of cattle they sell are heifers followed by male youngstock and cows (Table 4).The new smallholder dairy farmers in the emerging areas mainly buy cows and heifers; this is the only subgroup where the number of female cattle bought are almost the same as the number of female adults sold. (27:28). As can be seen from Table 4 there is considerable exchange of dairy cattle to and from the smallholder farms, an indication that sale of animals is part of the business model, and may match seasonal resource constraints and household cash needs, and that purchasing stock is a means to potentially improve the genetic makeup and performance of the herd, which is relevant of course to the genetic assay technology.The general market orientation of dairy farms may be regarded as relatively high, with more than two third of all respondents selling part of the milk produced on their farm; on average half of all milk produced is sold. For comparison, earlier work by Waithaka et al. (2002) in western Kenya found that on average, 33% of dairy households sold milk. Since milk is an important part of the Kenyan diet, the remainder is consumed within the household and community.Looking at the various subgroups in terms of production level and market orientation, the results are clear: In the traditional areas in all three subgroups the production level is higher and the share of milk sold is higher as well. (Table 5). Smallholder dairy farmers in the traditional areas sell on average 57% of the milk they produce, whereas in the emerging area this figure is 44%. Moreover, the absolute number of farmers selling milk per subgroup is also higher in the traditional area. This is matched by higher milk yields in the traditional dairy area, reflecting longer history of dairy development, experience, genetic makeup of cattle, and access to inputs and services.Among the subgroups in the traditional area, the breeders, who can be described as the most advanced dairy farmers, have the highest milk yields and sell the greatest proportion of milk. Compared to many international standards however, the production level even in this group of the most professional and most experienced farmers is quite low with an average of the best cow of all respondents in the subgroup at peak lactation of 9.1 l/day. Another indicator for the low production level is the fact that only 21 smallholders of all 302 respondents had at least one 'high-yielding cow' (giving at peak lactation a minimum of 15 l/day). When breeding their cows, farmers can choose whether to use natural mating with a bull or to use AI, which is to some extent available in all areas. Availability of high-grade bulls may also be variable, particularly in emerging areas. It should be kept in mind that farmers may have differing objectives when seeking to have their cows served. Some may simply want to generate another lactation to continue milk production, and so may have limited interest in the genetic makeup of the resulting calf. Others may aim to raise replacement heifers or to sell heifers, in which case the source of genetics may be important.In the traditional dairy areas, which have demonstrably greater market orientation, the share of use of AI is higher than in the emerging area (31% versus 21%) -Table 6. Even in the traditional area, however, only a minority of farmers reported using AI in the last two years, even among the breeders (36% report using AI). The lowest use of AI is in the subgroup of bull owners in the emerging area, as would be expected, given they have their own means of servicing their cows.Overall, the use of AI is remarkably low across both areas, given the large investment in dairy development over the years.For comparison, a study in western Kenya in 2002 found that nearby 80% of surveyed households reported using AI in the previous 12 months from either government or non-governmental organization/cooperative sources (Waithaka et al. 2002). Various sources report ongoing problems with AI services, including high cost, but in particular poor reliability and frequent failed inseminations.Enumerator and farmers in a discussion (credit: ILRI/Christoph Weber) Respondents provided reasons for their preference of a particular breeding method. The main reasons in favour of natural service focused around• Lower price• Easier access• More reliable/higher success rate Main reasons in favour of AI were• Better quality of calves (although this was also sometimes mentioned as a reason for natural service)• No transmission of diseasesIn Western countries the AI costs normally vary between the equivalent of 40 to 75 litres of milk (Bane and Hultnäs1974) and assuming an average price per litre of milk of KSh35, the price for AI in Kenya also is in that range ( KSh1,400-2,625). However, given that milk yields are much lower in Kenya, the relative cost of AI per unit milk produced is much higher than in the West. Natural service using village bulls is likely to be a fraction of the cost. AI is also more expensive due to the cost of 'repeat' service in the case of a failed insemination, which is less likely (and less costly) in the case of natural service.It is generally accepted that after the privatization of veterinary and AI services in Kenya in the 1990's the AI distribution systems collapsed and prices for services increased considerably, so that the use of AI in areas still serviced by AI most likely also declined. Some suggest that privatization also led to a lower quality and poor performance of the AI service (Karanja 2003), but no clear evidence is provided. What has changed in the AI system is the mode of delivery. Unlike the current situation, where AI technicians directly ride to the farmers herds/cows when reached to on phone, before privatization in the 1990s, AI technicians were doing 'runs', i.e. driving regular routes along which farmers could bring their cows to roadside cattle crushes which were placed at a distance of approximately 1.5 km from each other.What is less clear is whether the reintroduction of subsidies for AI in a country -e.g. in Rwanda around 2008 (ILRI, 2011) or in various counties in Kenya, the latest case being Kiambu, where the governor announced free AI services in February 2019 (Korir 2019) -will have a long-lasting and sustainable effect on the use of AI services.It is well-known that the village bull is better in heat detection than the farmer. Particularly in zero-grazing systems and even in the emerging dairy areas quite a few cows are individually tethered near homesteads, and not kept in a group of cattle, rendering heat detection more difficult. Moreover, signs of heat are not so pronounced if the cow is underfed, which is again not uncommon. Poor heat detection can increase the cost of AI, if the insemination is not accurately timed, increasing inseminator transport costs. Some farmers fear that AI with exotic semen will produce big calves, leading to difficult calving and even mortalities.Often single cows are tethered near the house and then heat detection is not easy, especially when the cow is underfed (credit: ILRI/Christoph Weber).There is not much research work published on the performance of the AI service in Kenya. Kinyua (2016) and Ngetich (2010) state that conception rates on two government farms (1 veterinary farm, 1 Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organisation [KALRO] research farm) were 1.9 and 2.74 inseminations per pregnancy, which for a large farm with qualified staff and no transport nor communication problems is not impressive. Conception rates among smallholder farmers in rural area can only be lower.As mentioned above, some farmers believe that natural service by a village bull gives better calves, but it was not entirely clear what a respondent meant by 'better calf'. The term may refer to the genetic quality of the calf, which the farmer may regard as better suited to the environment, or the size of the calf. It may also refer to the sex of the calf. Some farmers were found to believe that use of AI led to more male than female calves (Staal and Kaguongo 2003). Some sources claim that there are indications of a considerable level of inbreeding in both breeding systems (SDP/KDDP, 2004).For farmers who have the objective of producing high-quality calves, rather than just producing another lactation, the attractiveness of AI is reflected in its somewhat greater use among the breeders in the traditional dairy areas. The acceptance and use of AI increases with farmer experience and market orientation -expressed by milk sales as well as by sales of breeding stock of smallholders.The processing of semen eliminates the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, albeit the skill of the inseminator may influence other risks. No reliable figures were identified to assess the risk of spreading of sexually transmitted or other contagious diseases by using a village bull, but they certainly exist.The fact that even in the traditional dairy areas more than 60% of all reported breeding events were by use of a bull, despite some degree of existing AI service available, may be a result of a mix of factors, including differing farmer objectives for servicing cows, perceptions of reliability, cost, accessibility and degree of market and performance orientation. In a recent multi-country study (Mwanga et al. 2019) results showed that users of AI kept records more frequently, purchased more animal feeds and hired more and better paid workers than their colleagues using village bulls. That suggests that AI, as expected, is more frequently adopted by farmers who also adopt other modern practices and are performance oriented.4 The genomic assayThe majority of respondents expressed interest in the genomic assay and the certificate documenting the result, and this holds true across all subgroups of the survey with the exception of the traders. Whereas in the six subgroups of smallholder dairy farmers the interest in the genomic assay varied between 90% and 96%, only 21 (42%) of the 50 traders interviewed showed interest (Table 7).With the relatively small number of respondents in each subgroup it is not possible to interpret a difference between 90% and 96% interest in the genomic assay between the various subgroups. It is, however, worth noting that the most business-oriented subgroup, the breeders in the traditional area, who sell a considerable number of heifers, are not more interested in the assay and the accompanying certificate than the other subgroups.Responses as to the amount which respondents are willing to pay (WTP) for the genomic assay and the certificate, the traders indicated they are prepared to pay the most (KSh 665), whereas the breeders indicated the lowest amount, KSh 368. These WTP results do not seem to conform to the levels of interest expressed in the technology, particularly in the case of traders, who expressed the least interest. Respondents were asked why they were interested in the genomic assay and the certificate and could give one or more reasons for their interest, and for which animal (Table 8). The choices for interest indicated in the questionnaire were for a) better informed breeding decisions, b) high sales price of animal, and c) greater demand for mating services (only in the case of male). Respondents could also indicate other reasons, which were recorded. The resulting reasons for interest in the technology were a mixture of these pre-formulated options and freely formulated answers. Since some of the open question responses were similar to the pre-formulated options, we formed clusters of similar reasons among the responses:Cluster 1: The assay as a basis for better informed breeding decisionsThe respondents who mentioned explicitly 'Better informed breeding' as their reason for interest were 125 while 23 respondents mentioned 'I want to know the genetic make-up of my cattle' as a reason. Both reasons indicate a desire to have better information for decision-making, albeit for possibly different objective. A few respondents provided a more detailed reason such as 'If I know the cross-breeding level of my cow, it is easy to know it from her calf as well' or ' If I know the level of cross-breeding, it will help me to avoid lowering the level of exotic blood'.Cluster 2: The assay is advantageous for financial/business reasonsIn this cluster, two main reasons were combined and given by 97 respondents: bull owners envisaged an increased demand for service by their bull or farmers expected a better price when selling young stock, because the certificate would provide additional information for the buyers. Four (4) more respondents indicated that the certificate would be helpful in general when buying or selling cattle.Cluster 3: 'The more exotic, the more milk the cow will produce'Twenty-seven ( 27) respondents clearly expressed their opinion that the certificate would tell them exactly the ratio of exotic and local breeds of a cow and therefore they would also know the milk yield of that cow.Cluster 4: The genomic assay as an additional management tool Twenty-four (24) respondents saw the genomic assay as an additional tool to improve their overall management or for some specific management issues such as animal health, feeding, record keeping or decisions on culling of cattle.Cluster 5: The genomic assay as a modern technology increasing the social status of the farmer Seven (7) respondents indicated that they are interested in the genomic assay because they are a village elder, a progressive farmer or want to be pioneers in livestock development.Cluster 6: Unspecific/other reasons Five (5) respondents gave unspecific reasons for their interest in the assay.Serem livestock market in Vihiga County: A broad variety of cattle are on offer (credit: ILRI/Christoph Weber) Some animals from Serem market end up in the nearby slaughter slab (credit: ILRI/Christoph Weber) .After respondents indicated their general level of interest in the genomic assay and their reasons, they were then asked in more detail their reasons for the categories of cattle in their herd (bulls, cows, heifers, young males). The responses (Table 8) are generally in line with the overall reasons given, but provide a more differentiated picture.Smallholders owning a bull (there were only six respondents from other subgroups than the two 'bull owner' subgroups) had interest in the genomic assay because they envisage a higher demand for their bull for serving cows against payment. So, the bull owners consider the certificate as a marketing instrument, especially if the expected 'higher sales price' (reason 2, HSP) is combined with the expected increased demand for the bull service.For cows, the major reason for the interest in the assay and the certificate is in better breeding decisions (166) , followed by higher sales price (for animals) (57). 10 of 29 breeders indicated higher sales price as a reason. As expected the majority of the two subgroups labelled as seeking better informed breeding chose that as a response (84) vs higher sales price (207).For heifers, again better breeding decisions was the most frequent response ( 87), but a significant number of respondents indicated higher sales price for the animal (48). The interest in sales price was particularly strong among breeders, 12 of 19 of whom indicated that reason for interest.A young bull/male calf, except when intended as to replace a bull in the herd, is likely to be sold. Therefore, financial reasons, either an expected higher price at sale or better marketing of the bull for service, are important reasons for the genomic assay and equally important as the additional information for breeding decisions. However, the large number of responses (36 from 51) indicated interest in better breeding decisions, suggesting that at least some farmers are raising males as bull replacements.Traders were interviewed in two livestock markets during market day.• Bomet/Kapkwen livestock market, which is situated about four kilometers outside Bomet town, holds market day on Tuesdays. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 cattle are sold here on a normal market day (Mibei 2013).• Serem livestock market is a market split between two locations: On Fridays there is the Serem livestock market in Nandi County and one day later, on Saturdays, the livestock market is in Serem, Vihiga County. Quite a number of traders buy cattle on Friday on the Nandi side and sell them the following Saturday in Vihiga. The team interviewed traders on a Saturday on the market in Serem, Vihiga county.Although all traders were interviewed in their role as traders, a considerable number were also keeping cattle at home and in some cases their opinion differed between their roles as cattle trader and cattle owner. In Kenyan livestock markets there is a class of middlemen generally called 'brokers'. Unlike traders, they normally do not own the livestock being traded, but mediate between buyers and sellers. During the interviews we could not differentiate between traders and brokers.As shown in Table 7 traders are the only subgroup in the survey in which the majority of respondents (58%) expressed no interest in the genomic assay and the certificate. Since the respondents have been interviewed in their role as traders and brokers only, it is assumed that they viewed the genomic assay from this perspective and considered the effect the assay and the certificate might have on their business activities.Most traders indicated interest in the technology based on a potential increase in the sales price of the animal, or similarly indicated that the assay will be a proof of (better) quality of cattle for sale and a better quality will lead to better prices and higher margins. Some traders were concerned that the certification would create precedent, which may make it difficult in future to sell animals without certificates since potential buyers might assume that the animal is of inferior quality. Some traders thought that because cattle with a certificate may be more expensive, it may mean they will be more difficult to sell and eventually the margins for trader might shrink. Buyers may not understand or appreciate the certificate, since they are mainly buying according to phenotypic appearance of the animal. A small number of traders were only buying cull cattle to sell to butchers and for them, the assay and the certificate has no influence on value.There is a high level of expressed interest in the genomic assay across all subgroups of smallholder dairy farmers in traditional as well as in the emerging dairy areas. The main reasons for this high-level of interest can be broadly grouped into financial reasons and better-informed breeding decisions.The financial reasons focus around two different issues: Owners of village bulls see the assay and the certificate, in addition to informing breeding decisions, as a marketing instrument which will help them in their breeding business. A second financial reason frequently stated for all categories of cattle, is a potential higher sales price for animals, in the expectation that the assay and the accompanying certificate might contribute to an overall impression of good animal quality and modernization of the sellers' business.More information to make better breeding decisions is the other main reason for the interest in the assay. Most respondents were very engaged in the explanation of the assay and showed an interest in the topic. A significant number of respondents believed that increasing exotic proportion in a cross-bred cow automatically would lead to increased milk yield, although we know that other factors such as feeding and animal health play a large role. Given the limited resources of most smallholder farmers, the milk yield potential of higher-grade animals is unlikely to be achieved.In general respondents were eager to know more about good breeding practices, but had only limited ideas to what extent the additional information provided through the assay would help them in that aspect. This limitation may be reflected in the fact that there were few differences across the six subgroups as far as the general interest in the genomic assay and the reasons for that interest are concerned. The interest of breeders was not higher than in all the other subgroups. At the same time, respondents did provide rational explanations for their reasons across the various categories of cattle. Making better breeding decisions was the primary reason across all groups, although some, such as breeders and bull-owners anticipated value in higher sales prices for their animals, or increasing demand for their bull services.Most traders were indifferent, although those that were interested recognized the potential value in increasing demand or sales price in the cattle they were trading. Some expressed concerns with the precedent that regular use of such certificates might set and the implications in the future.It should be repeated that surveys on the interest in and the willingness to pay for a product, which was unknown to the respondents, tend to yield inaccurate results, as found in other surveys on related topics as well (Khainga, Obare and Nyangena 2018). These results suggest that there is an interest in the genomic assay and smallholders are also willing to pay for this service, but the exact figures should be treated with some caution. In general, it can be concluded that the genomic assay could find a market and group of potential adopters, depending on the cost and logistics of access and implementation. Once successfully piloted, it could be part of a comprehensive program of education and training for smallholders on a wide range of topics emphasizing the three main pillars of any livestock activity, namely breeding, feeding and health.","tokenCount":"7286"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a8cb74522c5c6c166f52a57a7f77efb7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7053ba47-e003-4d9c-8b42-bd0617e2793f/retrieve","id":"1549612882"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"69abd29e-d988-47a9-aed9-652024145d3f","pagecount":"29","content":"This report draws on a survey of external subject matter experts and consultations with CGIAR leaders involved in the Initiative proposals. The input from these stakeholders supported the recommendations in this report. ISDC expresses gratitude to ISDC workstream lead Andrew Ash and chair Holger Meinke for their leadership and guidance throughout this project. Appreciation also goes to Secretariat lead Amy R. Beaudreault.The Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC) is a standing panel of impartial, world-class scientific experts who provide rigorous, independent strategic advice to the CGIAR System Council and other stakeholders. Membership was established in October 2019 and 2022 membership consisted of Holger Meinke (chair), Nompumelelo H. Obokoh (vice chair), Fetien Abay Abera, Andrew Ash, Chris Barrett, Magali Garcia, Suneetha Kadiyala, and Lesley Torrance. In order to operate, ISDC receives operational support from its secretariat, which is part of CGIAR's Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES) and hosted at the Rome, Italy, office of the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Tropical Agricultural Research Center.To improve future ISDC external review of CGIAR proposals, ISDC conducted an ex-post analysis of the Initiative review process through a reviewer survey, CGIAR stakeholder consultations, examination of QoR4D reviewer scoring divergence, and Initiative Design Team (IDT) responses to ISDC reviews. The report details the analysis' recommendations grouped by: (1) QoR4D and its application to Initiatives, (2) insights for the design of the Initiative proposal template, and (3) areas for deeper consideration by IDTs and senior leadership in developing future proposals.• For QoR4D and its future application, the 17 review criteria will be revised to improve clarity and remove any redundancy. ISDC designed the criteria to apply to Global Thematic and Regional Integrated Initiatives and learned through this analysis they were less well aligned to Initiatives that were service oriented or focused on underpinning technologies (e.g., Genebanks). 1 In future, the 17 criteria will be modified so they also will be suitable for the assessment of proposals involving different goals. The QoR4D criteria have been revised to explicitly ensure research hypotheses, comparative advantage, and inclusive innovation prompt well considered responses by IDTs.• For the Initiative proposal templates designed by CGIAR System Office, recommendations included adding a two-page summary that permits proponents to articulate the value proposition, approach, and projected impact in a more persuasive, narrative form. Reorganization of templates for a better \"flow\" with sufficient space to provide important process detail that currently is only located in appendix sections. Although the goal of keeping proposals short continues to be recommended, the right balance still needs to be continuously reviewed.• To improve the development of future Initiatives, the analysis recommends that IDTs and senior leadership emphasize consultation and partnerships, comparative advantage, research justification and research questions, as well as the overall cohesion across the portfolio.The consultations confirmed that the QoR4D criteria and the process used for the ISDC Initiative reviews were beneficial to System Council and assisted in its decision making. The lessons provided in this expost analysis will further improve Initiative review processes for independent assessments and will have implications if ISDC participates in future stage-gating of current Initiatives.The Quality of Research for Development in the CGIAR Context (Qo4RD [ISDC, 2020]) is a framework that facilitated CGIAR System-wide agreement on the nature and assessment of the quality of science, a concept broadened beyond scientific credibility to include the likelihood of achieving development outcomes. QoR4D was initially developed in 2017, adopted in 2018, and revised in 2020. The framework was designed to help CGIAR to:• Develop research strategies and programsBuild a new research portfolio • Establish monitoring systems • Design performance management standards QoR4D was established through a consultative process involving representatives from entities across CGIAR involved in managing or assessing science quality. Through the consultative process, the Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC) developed four elements (table 1) that form the basis for a common frame of reference across CGIAR.Table 1: QoR4D Four ElementsRelevance refers to the importance, significance, and usefulness of the research objectives, processes, and findings to the problem context and to society, taking into account CGIAR's comparative advantage. It incorporates strategic stakeholder engagement along the agricultural research for development (AR4D) continuum, original and socially relevant research aligned to national and regional priorities, the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework (SRF), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also recognizes the importance of international public goods.Scientific credibility requires that research findings be robust and that sources of knowledge be dependable and sound. It includes a clear demonstration that data used are accurate, that the methods used to procure the data are fit for purpose, and that findings are clearly presented and logically interpreted. It recognizes the importance of good scientific practice, such as peer reviewLegitimacy means that the research process is fair and ethical and perceived as such. This feature encompasses the ethical and fair representation of all involved (e.g., funders, research teams, collaborators, policy makers, farmers) and consideration of the interests and perspectives of intended users. It requires transparency, sound management of potential conflicts of interest, recognition of the responsibilities that go with public funding, genuine involvement of partners in co-design, and recognition of partners' contributions.Effectiveness means that research generates knowledge, products, and services that lead to innovations and provide solutions. It implies that research is designed, implemented, and positioned for use within a dynamic theory of change, with appropriate leadership, capacity development, research skills, and a supportive, enabling environment to translate knowledge into action and to help generate desired outcomes.The next stage started in 2021 when ISDC operationalized QoR4D to make the framework fit for purpose for Initiative proposal reviews-a major step in the One CGIAR reform that put in practice the 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy (CGIAR, 2020). With the commencement of One CGIAR, 33 Initiatives would replace the CGIAR Research Platforms (CRPs). As part of its mandate, ISDC provides science advice to System Council (i.e., funders of CGIAR), which includes the external review of scientific proposals.The ISDC external review did not prioritize Initiative proposals but served as quality assurance, an essential part of good governance. The main benefit was assurance that the best possible science is conducted to deliver the intended development outcomes. This assurance provided confidence to funders that their investments in One CGIAR research are appropriately targeted with high chances for success.The operationalization of QoR4D defined 17 criteria that encompassed the four underpinning elements of QoR4D, aligned with the Eschborn Principles (ISDC, 2021). Criteria were framed through a codesign engagement to ensure Initiative developers put an inquiry into understanding the context, anticipating needs of end-users and opportunities that might emerge, and building a package of partnerships and activities required to reach high-level outcomes and impacts. Criteria were designed as a means of providing feedback for improving individual proposals and their implementation, and to provide advice to System Council.An independent and anonymous review team reviewed each Initiative, comprised of three external subject matter experts (SMEs), led by an ISDC member and supported by the CGIAR Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES). The CAS Secretariat identified SMEs through a competitive roster enrollment that currently contains more than 100 social and biophysical scientists representing more than 25 countries. Although the reviews were anonymous, an aggregated list of reviewers for each Initiative proposal wave was presented along with select demographic data (IAES, 2022).SMEs were matched based on their expertise to each Initiative review team, with one serving as a coordinator who aggregated and coordinated the review, working closely with the ISDC member lead.Because the Initiatives are multidisciplinary and cut across all five CGIAR Impact Areas, each SME team had a social scientist to ensure perspective diversity. Reviewers attended a workshop in prior to the reviews where the CAS Secretariat will provide detailed guidance on the expectations and process.Criteria were designed as a means of delivering feedback for improving individual proposals and their implementation, and to provide advice to System Council. Two templates were developed: 1) for the review teams and 2) for final reporting. Review teams assessed by a combination of qualitative data and Likert scores per criterion. Scores were not weighted since each proposal was unique.The external reviewers scored each of the 17 QoR4D criteria on a four-point Likert scale (criteria mapped against the current proposal template). The external reviewers also had an opportunity to provide short narratives for each of the criteria, an overall assessment of the proposal, and two proposal sections of greatest strengths and weaknesses. The three external templates developed by the SMEs then were aggregated to generate the final summary and report for System Council. The 33 Initiative reviews occurred in two waves, resulting in two reports. This report does not include data from the two Initiatives reviewed after March 2022 that included Genome Editing and Fragility, Conflict, and Migration.Since ISDC will continue to review scientific proposals as part of its mandate, this report provides an expost summative assessment of the QoR4D criteria along with other feedback received for the Initiative proposal development process. The recommendations will impact future ISDC proposal and stage-gating external reviews.Over four months, ISDC collected qualitative and quantitative feedback to inform its lessons learned. The first data collection occurred at the conclusion of the Initiative reviews. The ISDC secretariat within IAES disseminated an online 28-item questionnaire to all SMEs who served as reviewers (N = 53; n = 34; 64% response rate). The survey was organized by three domains including reviewer and coordinator templates, QoR4D criteria scoring, and overall questions and demographics.To gain internal CGIAR perceptions once feedback from the SMEs was obtained, ISDC held consultations with internal leadership and scientists. Four consultations were held with the director of programs, three global science directors, the managing director, research delivery and impact, and three Initiative proposal leads from the Initiative Design Teams (IDTs). A questionnaire guide was developed to lead discussions (Appendix 1).Over four months, ISDC collected qualitative and quantitative feedback to inform its lessons learned. The first data collection occurred at the conclusion of the Initiative reviews. The ISDC Secretariat within the Independent Advisory and Evaluation Function (IAES) disseminated an online 28-item questionnaire to all SMEs who served as reviewers (N = 53; n = 34; 64% response rate). The survey was organized by three domains including reviewer and coordinator templates, QoR4D criteria scoring, and overall questions and demographics.To gain internal CGIAR perceptions once feedback from the SMEs was obtained, ISDC held consultations with internal leadership and scientists. Four consultations were held with the director of programs, three global science directors, the managing director, research delivery and impact, and three Initiative proposal leads from the Initiative Design Teams (IDTs). A questionnaire guide was developed to lead discussions (Appendix 1).SMEs perceived the reviewer and coordinator templates as fit for purpose. Related to QoR4D criteria scoring, 94% agreed that a Likert scale was appropriate and 79% agreed that a four-point scale provided enough granularity. However, some SMEs would have preferred less restricted word limits for rationales and commentary.Some reviews had high variance within QoR4D criteria and 64% of SMEs responded that the variance was caused by reviewer expertise diversity (figure 1).Although reviewer expertise diversity caused variance in scoring, the majority of SMEs found this diversity as a strength of the process. One reviewer noted that a strength was, \"the diversity of views and experience; especially bringing in more practical and grounded views to the process.\"SMEs suggested areas for improvement included lack of time and some of the criteria overlapped. The majority of weaknesses in the proposal process were not within ISDC's control regarding restrictions in the proposal template, access to appendices, and a lack of science. One reviewer commented, \"there was much focus on the theory of change, but little on the process of practically converting research results into impact at scale.\"The internal CGIAR consultations had similar findings. Science leaders perceived the coordinator template and ISDC reporting as useful and appropriate given the primary audience of System Council. The reporting of all scores and the consensus score was appreciated along with the rationale supporting the scores. However, an aspect noted was that the QoR4D criteria was developed for scientific proposals and some criteria did not fit for proposals that were more structural or service oriented, such as platforms. The IDTs found the linkages of QoR4D criteria to proposal sections valuable.Like the SMEs, discussions included areas of improvement that were not in ISDC's control such as proposal template design, lack of time for proposal development, and rollout of reviews. One comment made was \"the current Initiative proposal rollout was chaos.\" The consultations also uncovered lack of clarity about what happens after the ISDC review.The most mentioned area for improvement from the SME survey and CGIAR consultations focused on the proposal template. Some remarks included the following.The innovation mapping request of the proposal was extremely time consuming.The template space was too limited. Proposal writers did not have enough space to adequately address the QoR4D criteria.The proposal template was too development focused and prescriptive. The process for how IDTs responded to the ISDC reviews and recommendations varies considerably across CGIAR. Initiatives are at different stages of design and implementation, and this has been one factor in how they are incorporating ISDC feedback.During May and June, the System Office held a series of drop-in virtual meetings for System Council members to learn more about the Initiatives' design and implementation. At the time of this publication, 26 Initiatives provided explicit responses to ISDC recommendations, indicating that the ISDC reviews were having significant influence. Many Initiatives provided quite detailed responses on how they were revising their design and implementation based on the feedback. This suggests that the review criteria and the mode reviewers provided feedback was useful and constructive for many Initiatives. As might be expected, a few Initiatives expressed some defensiveness in responses, mostly through a lens that the Initiative template did not permit them to fully articulate critical aspects of the Initiative to which the ISDC comments were directed. Appendix 2 provides a synthesis of the responses to ISDC reviews and recommendations as presented at the May-June System Council drop-in meetings.The assessment or audit of how well IDTs responded to the ISDC Reviews and how recommendations were incorporated into revised Initiative designs and implementation is not part of ISDC's remit. However, a defined process by the System Office is important as consultations on the ISDC review process revealed confusion within IDTs and senior leadership.Based on the surveys and interviews, the QoR4D criteria are highly relevant and appropriate for reviewing Initiatives. Some of the criteria were considered to overlap in scope, which made scoring confusing for a few reviewers. For future Initiative reviews, the criteria will be revised to improve clarity and remove any overlap. This will be completed in tandem with finalization of the proposal template developed by the System Office.ISDC designed the criteria to apply to research Initiatives and were less well aligned to Initiatives that that were service oriented or focused on underpinning technologies (e.g., Genebanks). 2 In future, the 17 criteria will be modified so they also will be suitable for the assessment of proposals involving different goals to ensure they are fit for purpose.The QoR4D criteria included aspects of innovation and comparative advantage. However, these were not strongly articulated or explicit enough to draw out responses with a depth of analysis or rigor. The criterion relating to research questions did not sufficiently draw out in the Initiative proposals the knowledge gaps being addressed or the underpinning research hypotheses. The QoR4D criteria have been revised to ensure research questions and underlying hypotheses, comparative advantage, and inclusive innovation prompt well considered responses by IDTs.ISDC analyzed the individual reviewer scores to determine which criteria generated most divergence amongst reviewers (table 2). Unsurprisingly, the costing criterion generated most variation in scoring. This relates to the template which requested from IDTs a high-level budget summary with little detail relating to work packages or outputs. Many reviewers assessed this budget information to be inadequate for proposals requesting more than USD $30 M.Other areas that generated most divergence amongst reviewers were theory of change, analysis of tradeoffs and synergies, impact at scale, and capacity building. In contrast, there was a more consistent assessment across reviewers for the \"bread and butter\" aspects of research (i.e., defining the research problem, alignment of objectives, outputs and outcomes, work packages, research methodology, research outputs, project management). The lower mean scores and bigger variation amongst reviewers 2 Initiatives may include the term platforms but does not include the proposed five Impact Area Platforms.Were the criteria appropriate and did they prompt the required constructive critique from reviewers?in scoring criteria relating to impact, capacity building and trade-offs suggests Initiatives were less well able to persuasively communicate their value proposition in these emergent but critical areas of CGIAR research. Many of the questionnaire comments and post-review interviews raised issues with the Initiative template rather than the review criteria or process. These comments came from reviewers, IDTs and Global Science Leaders and have been summarized on p. 4.A common thread through these comments was the template was too prescriptive and did not offer the opportunity to provide a narrative of the value proposition. Although proposals were mostly more than 50 pages, the individual proposal sections did not individually provide enough space to go into sufficient detail. This resulted in proposals that were still long but ironically didn't provide enough information. For example, the sum of the parts did not add up to a cohesive document. This might be addressed by:• providing a two-page Summary section at the front that permits the value proposition, approach, and projected impact to be articulated in a more persuasive narrative form, • re-designing sections so that there is more of a flow and that sufficient space is provided in critical areas and other areas of more specific process detail located in appendix sections.Codesign, partnerships, and inclusive innovation are all critical areas for the design of a successful Initiative that has the best chance of creating impact. These areas cut across the critical QoR4D element of Legitimacy and within that the area of ethics. Ethics was reduced in the template to a default section of text and this needs to be addressed in subsequent templates.At a broader level are the four elements still appropriate (e.g., with a stronger focus on innovation systems should this come out more explicitly in the elements)?QoR4D Application Lessons Learned, 7The Initiative Reviews, survey results, and consultations with CGIAR leadership provided some high-level insights that should be considered in the development of future Initiative proposals. Figure 2 provides the feedback communicated to SC members on the cohesiveness of the research portfolio, presented at the 14 th Meeting of System Council, March 2022. In addition to previous SC advice, the following provides additional lessons from the 31 reviews.Clearly from the 31 Initiatives reviewed there was extensive consultation on the research problem and needs. This occurred in the context of a structural reform process still underway, the ongoing portfolio that needed to be concluded, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted travel and face-to-face engagement.Consequently, the nature of partnerships was not sufficiently detailed, and it was difficult to determine from the Initiatives if collaborators were deeply involved in codesign and project teams nor how these partnerships will be leveraged. Without having a solid understanding of these partnerships, assessment of their appropriateness proved difficult for some reviewers. Future Initiative proposals need to better articulate the depth of these partnerships, particularly in the context of how they contribute to research outputs and their role in facilitating scaling of impact.The term \"comparative advantage\" was used in quite varied ways within CGIAR Initiatives. Most commonly, Initiative proposals used the term to describe the stock of available research inputs. For example, a critical mass and mix of research scientists with appropriate skills, especially in the context of multi-disciplinary teams, location, and geographic spread of operations, CGIAR as an honest broker, ability to partner and leverage scaling partners, long track record of research, ability, and reputation. Initiative proposals rarely used the concept to refer to CGIAR research outputs, outcomes, or impacts, although that is its proper application.That is a missed opportunity within the Initiative proposals to demonstrate wise stewardship of scarce investor and partner resources to maximize total impact. Taking a more thoughtful approach to assessing CGIAR's comparative advantage can strengthen portfolio management and expected CGIAR research impacts. The upcoming ISDC Technical Note on comparative advantage will provide a framework that should be embedded in future Initiatives.Many Initiative proposals were lacking in solid scientific justifications outlining why the research is needed. The proposals continued to have a strong development and impact emphasis, and with tight word limits, attentiveness to some of the underpinning best practice in presenting scientific research appears to have been sacrificed. Future Initiatives should identify knowledge gaps that inhibit development followed by the research questions and their underlying hypotheses. Along with the balance of science and development in the Initiatives, is the concern that many proposals present overall vague and poorly defined research questions. Some of the issues in clearly articulating research justification and questions relate to the template design itself but even within those constraints, a more persuasive articulation is required.For the first time in CGIAR's history the entire research portfolio was built to deliver one overarching strategy with each Initiative purposefully designed to fill existing knowledge gaps. However, despite the intent towards a unified research strategy, some Initiatives identified divergent drivers and proposed contradictory solutions. This was particularly evident in the Regional Integrated Initiative proposals, which did not always link well with other Initiatives leading to gaps or duplication of effort. These gaps and duplications could lead to counterproductive intra-CGIAR competition between global and regional Initiatives.In future, sufficient time should be provided for Science Groups and IDTs to look across the portfolio to identify any contradiction and duplications and resolve these during the design process. This crossportfolio assessment would also provide a better opportunity to identify synergies that can be reflected in the individual Initiative designs.The QoR4D criteria and method for the ISDC Initiatives and advice proved to be beneficial to System Council, along with IDTs. The lessons provided in this ex-post analysis will further improve Initiative review processes for independent assessments and may have implications if ISDC participates in future stage-gating of current Initiatives. The learning from this process could be beneficial for other agriculture research for development organizations that need to review diverse research proposals in a transparent and strategic manner. During a time of organizational reform, adaptive management and continued selfassessments are required to ensure future efficient and effective proposal reviews.The specific challenges of reaching women should be addressed in greater depth• Initiative concept note and operational workplans now address more explicitly how women and youth are being targeted in the design phase, giving due consideration to constraints and tradeoffs.Define more specific and relevant impact indicators • Analysis of existing market structures and incentives for adoption will be part of scoping assessments for intervention design and scaling-readiness assessments.Include postharvest scientists, agronomists, and/or food scientists in the core team • These have been included (from CGIAR and partnership with WUR)Clearly define \"digital technologies.\"• We recognize that digital innovations in themselves are not solutions.We will clarify different approaches to achieve the goal by selectively using more specific terms that can convey our intent better within the context of each Work Package.• To improve the linkage with CGIAR Impact Areas, we designed Initiative Projects that are mapped to five Impact Areas. Collectively, these projects will demonstrate how we deliver benefits toward impacts to different systems and contribute toward the Impact Area outcomes.Be more specific about the design of Work Packages.• Our Theory of Change assumes that the digital ecosystem develops as technologies benefit the most vulnerable without increasing the digital divide. To be more specific, we designed 17+ Initiative Projects that address system-level problems using a diverse set of innovative digital tools and approaches.Iteratively refine innovations.• Applying the human-centered design approach, our work will initiate through engagement with partners and stakeholders and iterate. We will use the forums to keep checking back with partners and stakeholders to co-design prototypes and implement them. This will ensure uptake and impact• In partnership with CGIAR Digital Services, we will employ the Lifecycle Approach that will iteratively design prototype solutions, and deliver them to partners for evaluation, and redesign.Targets of gender diversity, inclusivity, and equity may not be achievable.• We revised MELIA metrics to be grounded on the latest baseline data and reflect a coherent GESI focus.• We will iteratively co-design and co-develop prototypes, evaluate, and redesign digital innovations throughout the life of our Initiative.• Beyond Work Package 2, our design of innovations will focus on the wider issues of inclusivity relating to youth and marginalized sectors of society, prioritizing simpler, localized solutions with low entry barriers.Budget assumptions and justification are missing.• We did submit the budget narrative as a separate document following the submission guideline, but we found that it was not delivered to the reviewers.• We have added a cost-benefit analyst to the team, who will lead a series of cost-benefit analyses on the Initiative Projects. We will also explore the well-being of society and the environment as given by the five Impact Areas.Outline processes for ensuring the legacy of tools after the Initiative ends.• We will support demand partners to enhance their existing services and develop a research-based sustainable business model. For public sector partners, our capacity-strengthening programs will support embedding the tools institutionally.• We are partnering with CGIAR Digital Services to scope on the provision of infrastructure to centrally serve some of the services that are required by multiple Initiatives/partners.Address challenges of attributing the Initiative's impact.• We will reflect on the challenge in the design of our causal impact assessments, employing \"best practices\" from the digital development communities.• We will engage with SPIA to explore innovative impact assessment approaches suitable for digital innovations whilst adhering to ethical considerations.Local buy-in and partnerships will be crucial The gender transformative work is ambitious but then narrowed down to \"norms that block women's access to financial services and entrepreneurship opportunities.\" Is this the plan?• Work Package 1 will identify leverage points and levers (GTAs) to intervene in the AFS that build women's economic resilience to climate change: could be financial, entrepreneurship, social networks, nutrition.This Work Package (should) dig into specific constraints that impact women's uptake of technology …not always addressed under norms but deeply influenced by them: …a concern here is the diversity of women's initial conditions.• A systematic review will be conducted, supplemented by primary data collected in the living labs. Understanding the diversity of women's initial conditions will be the basis for designing STIBs. We will focus on the most vulnerable groups to illustrate this process and assess outcomes.The overall proposition relies on successfully…designing social protection programs with complementary program components in the priority countries. There is no assessment of the status of these approaches.• In \"Pathway 1,\" case studies on impact of SP on women's resilience to climate shocks build on large-scale SP programs on which we have detailed data and relationships with relevant partners.• In \"Pathway 2,\" we have added an activity for two target countries in 2022-2023.There should be some in-person, tailored support for outputs 4.1 (tookit) and 4.5 (guide) to ensure that people understand a) how they are relevant for their specific work, and b) how to use them.• We now plan 20-25 interviews with expected users of these tools at the tool design stage, to ensure that the tools address their needs and to increase their subsequent take-up.The body of work that will address the governance and policy challenges is not articulated with the necessary clarity for pathways 1 and 2 in Work Package 4.• We are now developing a formal conceptual framework. This will guide thinking about how pathways 1 and 2 operate and where the levers are for expanding women's voice and agency.The approach may hew too closely to work with IMPACT and RIAPA, and thus focus too much on the agriculture sector.• We agree that it is essential to analyze other sectors in addition to agriculture. Our approach includes both sector-specific (partial equilibrium) and economy-wide (general equilibrium) modeling tools. RIAPA, for instance, captures the entire agri-food system and economy and tracks individuals and households. • We will also link to other non-agricultural models, including water, transport, and energy systems models.More clarity is needed regarding metrics, identification of policies and investments to be analyzed, relationships to other CGIAR research, and other elements.• We regret that these points were not sufficiently clear in the proposal. F&M will focus on crosscutting systems-level outcome metrics (e.g., jobs, water use, and emissions in the food system) and household-level health/nutrition and gender/inclusion metrics, allowing F&M to explicitly address trade-offs across all outcome areas. Key policies being targeted in F&M will be defined with partners, including national and agricultural development/investment plans. F&M is closely interacting with other CGIAR Initiatives.The personnel list appears overly oriented towards biophysical and technological components compared to social science.• We agree that social sciences are critical, and regret that this was not sufficiently clear in the proposal. The staffing plan subsequently prepared for (and approved by) One CGIAR Senior Management makes clear the importance of social science expertise that will be brought to bear in the initiative.QoR4D Application Lessons Learned, 13No real co-construction process Design phase:• AE-I consultation process conducted in each country to validate the demand and interests of national and local actors • Semi-structured interviews, meetings and local consultations also informed decision making Implementation:• Guiding principles developed (WP1) for \"engaging with both national and local stakeholders\" • Establishment of living labs in each country very consultativenational and local workshops • Demand for an agroecological transition revalidated during establishment of living labsThe [AE-I] consortium lacks knowledge and expertise on agroecology Not insignificant experience but fully accept the need for greater integration and strengthening of these capacities in CGIAR. To this end:• Recognize that opportunity for Capacity Development comes from implementing the initiative.• Capacity of at least 101 CGIAR scientists will be increased directly through input to the AE-I.• Transfer of knowledge from those partners with more experience to those with less (e.g. proposed formal training of WP leads and country coordinators on sustainability thinking in communities)• Allocate 2023 budget for development of CGIAR early career and senior researchers as well as partnersOverlap and lack of coherence between the approaches followed by the different work packages• Considerable effort by WP leads and living lab coordinators to design an integrated work program that ensures all WPs are implemented in specific contexts as a coherent program• Considerable effort in each ALL to develop bottom up, coconstructed interventions that address stakeholder priorities.• AE-I will establish national project boards/technical steering committees, involving the implementing partners and other key actors and stakeholders as recommended• ToC will be reviewed every year as part of a \"pause & reflection\" exercise, before annual reportingEmbracing local partnerships Gender and social equity, emphasizing youth• Draft framework for gender and social equity, including youth, in climate resilient agriculture based on inputs from experts (within and outside the CGIAR) in transformative gender research and comments from donors such as GiZ.• Currently recruiting a post-doc through the Nordic Africa Institute to work with Work Package leads and partners to embrace social equity.More consideration of benefits other than GHG reduction• Mitigation focus stems from M+ role in portfolio • Low emission food systems development in a • manner that does not threaten food production • Additional indicators on co-benefits to be provided in the 2022 MELIA plan• To be provided in MELIA plan and work plan• Process kicked off during initiative inception meeting (May 9-12, 2022)• MELIA lead (60%) and MELIA team established• National communications to UNFCCC (GHG• inventories, adaptation goals, financial needs, etc.)• Sub-national baselines (Living Labs) to be produced Build synergies with other CGIAR research:• Use of common set of tools and indicators to measure common outcomes • Co-location: One Health with SAPLING in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Vietnam, with LCSR in Ethiopia, India, and UgandaStrengthen/clarify external partnerships:• The CGIAR has conducted over 15 years of research on zoonoses, food safety, AMR, and safe use of wastewater. We have developed strong relationships with national and other partners during this time and will build on these partnerships to deliver research that positioned for immediate impact.• Partnerships with the private sector: historically One Health has had limited engagement with the private sector -it has been focused on public sector institutions. We will strengthen this. Our initial discussion with potential private sector partners has been positive and we will work to build these links (17 Striggers, Land O'Lake Venture 37, BioSpring)What is the CGIAR comparative advantage in Water and AMR in water• Initiative is built on IWMI's 20 years of experience in the safe use of polluted water in food production and development of Resource Recovery and Reuse (RRR) of waste within the Water, Land & Ecosystem CRP and CGIAR AMR Hub What is the plan for capacity development of early career researchers in partner organizations?• PhD training and leverage from other One Health projects• Involve all of WorldFish's senior scientists and several of the IWMI's senior scientists in the management of the Initiative. • IDT led by the WorldFish Director of Science and Research.• Hold quarterly meetings of the leadership team, consisting of the Initiative's leader and deputy leader, WP leaders, country leads, MELIA leads and three cross-cutting thematic leads for nutrition and health, gender and social inclusion, and climate and environment, respectively • Create a matrix management structure so that countryprogram leads play a crucial role in ensuring that countries implementing multiple work packages (including from other initiatives) work with inputs from various WP leads and leverage synergies. • Form a science advisory board that includes senior scientists and leaders from CGIAR entities as well as from the broader community of stakeholders within aquatic food systems (academic scientists, policymakers, representatives from international organizations and the private sector).Implement actions to guarantee the future sustainability of the project's outputs and outcomes, including notably at the smallholder level• We see our role in CGIAR as catalyzing existing or potential partnerships and supporting policy design.• We partner with many networks of researchers, civil society organizations, and intergovernmental and regional bodies that support ongoing mechanisms for upscaling and adoption of innovations.Strengthen the explanation of the role and engagement of partners and stakeholders and ensure that the related assumptions that underpin impact pathways are addressed in a continuous and proactive manner.• In the ongoing inception phase, deeper engagement with partners is taking place, consultation and definition of their role are needed in the implementation and the impact pathways. Partnership with Royal Rhoads Univ, Canada in this initiative, on ToC development, will pioneer improved use of ToC in project management across One CGIAR. Five country-level workshops planned in 2022.• Synergies with other initiatives and bilateral projects are now more apparent as in-country workplans solidify. e.g. ACIAR projects in Solomon Islands and Timor Leste, USAID and BMGF projects in Bangladesh.Ensure integration of the work package on new varieties (WP4) with other work packages.• Innovations developed in WP4, both in terms of varieties and scaling mechanisms (PPPs), are considered in WP2, 3 and 5 when and where contextually appropriate.• Synergies have also been developed through co-investment outside the Initiative: Fish for Africa Innovation Hub, Namno Initiative EoI.• Choice of combinations of the work packages in the countries are based on the diagnosis of the state of the research and innovation system for aquatic food systems in each country and what value our work can add under the constraint of financial and time resources. Assuming three phases of the RAqFS initiatives (2022-2025, 2025-2028, 2028-2031), most focal countries would benefit from the synergies between the five work packages by the end of the program cycle.QoR4D Application Lessons Learned, 17The risk assessment should be strengthenedThe Use Case model and its underlying due diligence processes are expected to address many of the risks associated with partner performance and uptake of agronomic solutions.Furthermore, data to action does not occur automatically• Correct; the Use Case model is meant to contain the relevant partnerships that facilitate the application of recommendations.The word \"mitigation\" appears as an ornament because actual actions for mitigation are not included, even marginallyWe accept that 'mitigation' is referred to without much detail; we have direct mitigation-related activities:(i) An indicator related to the agronomic gain KPI framework focusses on reducing product based GHG emissions by 25% and another indicator focusses on soil health, which is directly related to soil organic carbon;(ii) All MVPs will be made climate adaptation/mitigation explicit by ensuring that recommendations/solutions included in the MVP directly address climate change; and(iii) The priority research theme on perennials for livelihoods and conservation will focus on increasing productivity and profitability of perennials (e.g., cocoa, coffee) aligned with zero deforestationToo much emphasis on Industrial Agriculture Narrative• Industrial agriculture is the root cause because public incentives and policies continue to encourage industrial agricultural systems over sustainable, nature-positive types of farming. Only one system of incentives is in place, which encourages even smallholder farmers to adopt unsustainable practice. In other words, we refer to industrial agricultural not based on the size of the farm but the political economy system that led to the negative impact of agriculture and which is still in place.• Challenge analysis will be refined in target countries during start up, as we started already in Kenya and Burkina Faso.• Perceived overlaps in WP design are explicitly designed feedback loops and synergies designed to support NATIRE+ that are multidisciplinary and multi-thematic, including conservation, restoration and production and recycle.• Yes, conservation without utilization is ineffective; hence the IDT designed WP1 to focus on conservation and WP2 to focus on using the outputs of conservation (seeds) in production and value chains Seed Systems• Novel aspect of seeds system intervention is focus on role of informal seed system actors (e.g., grain traders, small community seed businesses) in NPS and CGIAR technology outscalingFlesh out major directions and how the most promising areas from previous research will be fast tracked• Completed CoSAI review of recent CGIAR and non-CGIAR research and innovations in urban and peri-urban agriculture and identified fast-track starting points for the Initiative. • Have facilitated co-design of research and scaling plans for each Work Package and in most priority countries.Strengthen the components concerned with implementation and scaling ensuring strong codesign with the range of partners• Implementation plans have been developed over past 6 months, jointly with local and national partners from different levels of government, civil society, and private sector as well as with research and scaling partners.Consider strengthening trade aspects, including elements such as transport, storage and marketing innovations• We do address technologies (storage, retail, digital logistics, food safety, waste reduction, resource recovery) as well as related business models and supportive policy options.• Focus on 'food catchment' of cities; detailed research on regional and international trade is outside the scope of this Initiative but will link with Markets and Value Chains initiative in this regard.Include radically new approaches such as vertical farming, cellular and plantbased animal food substitutes.• We will examine advanced technology innovations with the objective to better understand their potential contribution to CGIAR impact areas.• Recently completed with CoSAI a review of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) in this contextRethinking the impact statements especially with regard to more appropriate performance indicators Improving the impact assessment plans; further justification for the measurable three-year outcomes; Need for a more detailed budget breakdown and realistic budget for scaling readiness activities due to the complexity inherent in scaling innovation packages. Explicit recognition of the risks posed by the COVID pandemic and political instability in some of the target countries is also needed. Clarity of objectives and research questions needs improvementRephrasing and clarification: ongoing -updated proposal through online submission tool (Jun 30)Planned activities, geographical and crop foci, time frames, and resource requirements needs more explanation Consider crops' biological constraints (genetic and physiological variations).• Agree. These are considered in WP2's ToC. WP2 confronts demand with supply (cost feasibility) side to ensure that product profiles are realistic and can be bred in a cost-effective manner. • We are building feedback loops between WP1, 2 and 3. WP1 identifies market while WP2 feeds back information on what kind of market intelligence to look for. WP3 feeds back behavioral information to WP2 for TPP design.There is no clearly mapped capacity building framework• Agree. We will develop a capacity building framework under WP5's G×I Learning Alliance.• We have started collaboration with Cornell University and Makerere University to jointly develop a capacity building framework.Open Data & Open Access protocols and plans are vague• Agree. Details on protocols will be developed by Digital Transformation Initiative.• Market Intelligence Initiative is one of the users of the outputs from Digital Transformation WP5 (Enabling Digital Platforms and Services for R&D Practitioners).There is a need for impact focused metrics• Agree. The Initiative will measure and report on progress along its ToC, with metrics of outputs and outcomes towards SDG impacts.• WP1 and WP4 are collecting an extensive set of indicators and metrics of impact opportunities, which will be used to develop ex-ante and ex-post impact assessment strategies in WP4 and WP5. The team is closely coordinating with SPIA.More scientific detail • Accelerated Breeding will focus on capacity building in optimizing breeding pipelines.• Breeding Resources will focus on capacity building for use of tools, technologies and services.• Current focus: aligning workplans and using project management tool across 100+ scientists, 7 centers and 23 crops Other clarifications• Gene editing is addressed by the \"Genome Editing\" Initiative• Scope clarified with Genebanks regarding trait discovery and trait deployment (upstream breeding / pre-breeding /parent development)Data management should be standardized and searchable.• We have initiated the data governance network for breeding data, with the approval of Digital Services and ABI WP3Capacity development-describe training for partners and stakeholders a little more explicitly.• We have assigned regional \"change leads\" (senior scientists and leaders from each Center). They will have two major tasks in 2022:(i) lead regional demand assessment for services and technologies, which will include capacity building needs.(ii) develop a change management plan• We will provide explicit opportunities for specialized training in professional operational skillsets like process management, project management.More details on partnerships. What incentives and processes would be in place to establish and manage innovative partnerships?• Breeding Resources follows the lead of ABI in the development of breeding network partnerships with NARES. For research/technical partnerships, we proposed a technical advisory committee to assess and prioritize technologies and potential partners -we are waiting for more clarity on GI level committees to avoid duplication and meeting overload.Adoption is critical. There should be a plan to monitor the shape, quality, and distribution of the data to ensure quality and usefulness and screen for lapses in quality control.• This is a part of what we intend as part of the performance management dashboard proposed in WP3.QoR4D Application Lessons Learned, 21Projected benefits This knowledge in combination with multi-stakeholder consultations in different contexts will help refine the strategies/approaches to be tested per context. Research questions are being refined and adapted in the light of this review in the updated proposal through online submission tool (Jun 30) .• WP5 will complement this work with an explicit and strengthened emphasis on policy options to reach disadvantaged farmers.Integration of formal and informal seed systems• Additional activities will be described in the plan of work and budget to be developed to include aspects that improve outcomes for gender and youth through equitable seed systems including farmer-based seed systems updated proposal through online submission tool (Jun 30).• Additional partnerships will be sought or strengthened to enhance our capability to better integrate formal and Informal (farmer-based) seed systems. Ongoing discussions with CDI WUR team.Need for clear identification of AgriLAC's impacts vs other initiatives• Recognition of interdependency and need of alignment between AgriLAC and Global Thematic Initiatives (GTI), close articulation in the first phase of implementation. • Such articulation will be facilitated by the implementation of Integrated Agri-food Systems Initiative (IASI) methodology.Need for more clarity on AgriLAC Resiliente scaling approach• AgriLAC Resiliente will bring proven innovations from Colombia, Mexico and Peru to Central American countries to be tested, validated, adapted and improved and then, return the lessons learned and further innovations applicable back in those countries.• Scaling in AgriLAC Resiliente is not unidirectional but rather it is a process with several feedback loops in both directions so that collective learning and innovation occurs across the region.Need for further details on MELIA approach of the Initiative to observed changes.AgriLAC will build on and adapt the e-agrology system for monitoring key indicators useful to measure outcomes.• AgriLAC will adapt the MEL plan yearly, in coordination with the WP leads, more often during the first year.• Separating impacts is indeed a challenge, however we plan to estimate impacts of particular activities that will contribute to the overall impact at the initiative level (focus on baseline data and initial impacts given the 3-year timeframe).• AgriLAC will use MEL data and the learning studies to accountfor the contribution of the initiative to observed changes.• AgriLAC will build on and adapt the e-agrology system for monitoring key indicators useful to measure outcomes.Need for increased capacity building• UU has added an East and South Africa learning platform as one of the hubs under UU • Integration between work packages is critical for the success of the initiative• WP 4 has been rescoped to focus explicitly on governance and institutional arrangements. Environmental sustainability elements have migrated to WP 1.• Explicit links and synergies have been made through the kick-off workshop and activity planning High level themes to include and strengthen• Livestock; governance, policies, and institutions; gender have been emphasized and integrated in all work packages.• Partnerships with CCARDESA and ASARECA, the sub-regional NARES networks for ESA• PABRA as part of UU with its strong network with the NARES• Work with the NARES is included in WP1, WP2, WP4 and WP5.The Initiative combines elements of two CGIAR Action Areas: Resilient Agrifood Systems and Genetic Innovation. The absence of a rationale in terms of \"integrated systems approaches.\"• Elements of all three science areas ST -WP1,5), GI -WP2), RAFS -WP2,3,4). For the integrated systems approach we apply better packaging of synergistic technological solutions (varieties, agronomic packages, diversification of cropping) supported by institutional and enabling policy arrangements along with the empowering of local communities and key stakeholders (access to inputs, markets, better transfer of technology).Characterization of research problem-lack of hard evidence and scientific documentation of the scope of these problems and the corresponding prospects forWe have revised and rewritten large parts of the research problem and have referenced them. A trans-disciplinary research approach has been used to deal with these specific challenges based on our experiences.","tokenCount":"7765"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cf2eac2d9d01218118ab1677b37513b1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cbf32d02-df15-4146-a7c2-d15641b890b9/retrieve","id":"-397963556"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d6277ce2-c004-4e3c-981a-a9b782acca5e","pagecount":"12","content":"Coffee is crucial to the Ethiopian economy as it represents 26% of the country's commodity exports. It is an important source of income for over 15 million smallholder farmers and bears potentials for coffee tourism development. Coffee agro-ecosystems in Ethiopia are known to support diverse flora and fauna, including shade trees and other plant species. However, potential yields and income from coffee are found to be compromised and ecosystem integrity would be disrupted due to impacts of climate change and variability.• Annual rainfall is projected to increase by 45 to 185 mm during the 2035 period. Kiremt (Meher) season rainfall is projected to increase by 8 to 72 mm while Belg season rainfall will decline by 15 mm to 36 mm.• Annual minimum and maximum temperatures are projected to increase by 1.28 to 1.48°C and 1.12 to 1.28°C, respectively by 2035.• Average number of wet days will markedly increase during the 2035 period and the number of heavy and very heavy rain days will rise. Number of consecutive dry days, the standard daily intensity index, and diurnal temperature ranges will decline.• Tropical nights will considerably increase by a minimum of 20 days and a maximum of 100 days.Changes in major climatic variables in coffee producing areas will affect each component of the coffee value chain followed by several socio-economic and ecological consequences.Coffee value chain stakeholders at all levels are expected to take the following proactive measures (Figure 1) towards a climate-resilient coffee value chain and coffee-based ecosystems in Ethiopia. . Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee arabica and the largest producer and exporter of coffee in Africa.The different production systems (forest coffee, semi-forest coffee, garden coffee, and plantation coffee) contribute to the diverse flavors and qualities of Ethiopian coffee. Shade-loving nature of the crop favors nature-based economic development and sustaining high canopy vegetation and agroecosystem integrity. Coffee contributes to 26% of the country's commodity exports, making it the primary source of foreign currency earnings. It is an important source of income for over 15 million smallholder farmers and bears potentials for coffee tourism development. The agroecological zones (AEZs) approach was used to delineate areas exhibiting similar climatic conditions to support rain-fed coffee production. FSRP districts were then mapped over the different agroecological zones. It was found that sub-humid midland (SH2), sub-humid lowland (SH1), moist midland (M2) and humid midland (H2) are the most dominant AEZs, accounting for 85.63% of the total harvested area and 85.11% of the total production and trade value (  Climate projections for 2035 show an increase in annual rainfall for all coffee producing agroecological zones.The projected rainfall change varies across agroecologies, ranging from 24 mm in moist midland to 74 mm in sub-humid lowland per year compared to the baseline. The interannual rainfall variability is also projected to increase in all coffee producing agroecologies; exceeding 20% everywhere, with the highest variability expected in moist midland agroecological zone.All FSRP districts in coffee growing areas are expected to experience increased rainfall; ranging from 20mm (Chire) to 225mm (Bahirdar Zuria) during the 2035 period compared to the baseline period (Figure 3). All the districts in Gambela and Amhara will have annual rainfall changes greater than 150 mm. Rainfall variability is projected to rise in all districts with the lowest variability observed in Guliso and the highest variability recorded in Chire.Kiremt (Meher) season rainfall is projected to increase by 8-72 mm in all coffee growing agroecologies during the 2035 period, with the highest increase expected in sub-humid lowland agroecological zone. The interannual rainfall variability is expected to increase by more than 30% in all agroecologies during the 2035 period compared to the historical period. The variability of Kiremt season rainfall will increase the most in the south, southeast and the eastern Ethiopia.Belg season rainfall is projected to decline across all agroecologies with varying proportions. The magnitude of the reduction will vary from -15 mm in sub-humid lowland to -36mm in moist midland agroecological zones. Rainfall variability in Belg season is projected to rise by 15% in all agroecologies with moist midland agroecological zone experiencing the highest increase. Projected high rainfall conditions during Kiremt would favor growth, flowering and fruiting of coffee plants.It also favors further expansion of coffee cultivation particularly in sub-humid lowlands. On the other hand, high rainfall would cause flooding, soil erosion, blockage of roads and affect post-harvest and dry processing operations. Decline in Belg season rainfall would cause moisture stress and suppress flowering.Annual observed minimum (8-24°C) and maximum (18-34°C) temperatures are projected to increase by 1.28-1.48°C and 1.12-1.28°C respectively by 2035. The increase in annual minimum temperature is higher than annual maximum temperature in all coffee-growing agroecologies. However, there exists agroecological diversity in the extent of projected temperature rises. The highest increase in annual minimum temperature will occur in sub-humid lowland and sub-humid midland agroecologies located in the west and southwest parts of Ethiopia. The increase in annual maximum temperature is expected to be higher in moist midland and humid midland agroecologies, situated in the central and eastern parts of the country.All FSRP districts are expected to exhibit an increase in annual minimum and maximum temperatures by 2035 compared to the historical period (Figure 4). The magnitude of change in annual minimum temperature is projected to be higher than maximum temperature.Kiremt season minimum temperature is projected to rise by 1.31 to 1.4°C, while the maximum temperature is projected to increase by 1.2 to 1.37°C. The projected change in the minimum temperature is expected to be higher in the sub-humid lowlands, while the highest change in maximum temperature is projected to be in moist midlands.Belg season minimum temperature is projected to increase by 1.36 to 1.56 °C, while maximum temperature increases during the same season will vary from 1.29 to 1.43 °C. The highest changes in minimum and maximum temperatures during Belg season are projected to occur in sub-humid lowlands and moist midland agroecologies respectively. Tropical nights (representing number of days where minimum temperature higher than 20 o C) are projected to considerably increase by 100 days in sub-humid lowlands and by less than 20 days in moist midland, humid midland, and sub-humid midland coffee producing agroecologies and FSRP districts. Diurnal temperature range (i.e., difference between maximum and minimum temperatures) is projected to decline in all coffee producing areas during the 2035 period.Increases in annual and seasonal temperatures would increase evapotranspiration, affects water availability to plants, increases pest and disease outbreaks, accelerate deterioration of quality of coffee beans and reduce their shelf life. Changes in temperature patterns can influence the maturation process of coffee cherries, affecting the flavor and quality of the harvested beans. Increases in tropical nights could lead to heat stress, reduced photosynthesis and yields, decreased quality and increased incidence of pests. Narrower diurnal temperature ranges can affect photosynthesis, flowering, and fruit development, leading to reduced yields. Temperature highs would have few positive impacts such as reduced severity of coffee thread light disease.Average number of wet days has shown a marked increase in all FSRP districts (Figure 5). They will be accompanied by a rise in the number of heavy and very heavy rain days especially in the sub-humid lowlands and the humid and sub-humid midlands. Consecutive dry days are projected to slightly decline under the future climate (2035) in most FSRP districts and all agroecologies except sub-humid lowlands, with pronounced decline in moist midlands. The standard daily intensity index (an index representing total rainfall divided by the number of rainy days) is also expected to decrease in all agroecologies with the highest decrease in moist midland agroecological zone. The rise in wet days and heavy rains could lead to prolonged periods of soil saturation, localized flooding and soil erosion. The decline in standard daily intensity index can impact overall productivity and yield of coffee crops. The impacts of climate change on agriculture in general and coffee value chain in particular are learned to be manifold with alarming signals calling for proactive decisions at different spatial and temporal scales. The Coffee and Tea Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture and its sub-national extensions, Ethiopian Meteorological Institute, research and academic institutions, private sector stakeholders including financial and marketing agents, and other development allies are required (encouraged) to take the following actions towards a climate-resilient coffee value chain in Ethiopia.different stages of the coffee value chain in different places necessitate a comprehensive, multistakeholder, down-scaled, automated, user-friendly, and coffee-specific knowledge management platform. This mechanism will serve as a hub for generating, testing, documenting, exchanging, applying, monitoring, and continuously improving knowledge on coffee -climate interactions and selection of technologies, advisories, and warnings applicable to different stages and contexts of the coffee value chain.2. Enhancing climate-responsive coffee variety research -variations in rainfall and temperature, seasonality, length of growing period, and other extreme climate events would limit availability and choices of coffee varieties. These imply the need for engagement of coffee research institutions to release coffee varieties that suit to different agroecological zones and for different time scales. 5. Mainstreaming climate -adaptive coffee disease and pest management-projected increases in wet conditions combined with high daytime and nighttime temperatures imply greater incidence of diseases and pests affecting coffee production and marketing chains. There would also be possible manifestations of unknown diseases, insects and invasive weeds. Therefore, a climate-informed and integrated pest management system including proactive pest monitoring and knowledge generation on climate-pest interactions and their relevance to coffee production and marketing are imperative.6. Ensuring efficient coffee marketing system -the coffee value chain is known to entertain several actors from production to export. Concerns are learned to revolve around lengthy institutional procedures, clarity of responsibilities, standards, branding, and other marketing requirements. Solid interventions that fully transform the comprehensive Ethiopian coffee strategy, competitive pricing, and quality management including monitoring and evaluation systems should therefore be put in place.7. Promoting climate-smart marketing infrastructure -the impacts of floods on roads and bridges, increased incidence of storage pests due to hot temperatures, and reduced shelf life of coffee beans due to varying weather conditions, among others, imply urgent demands for setting climate-compatible design codes for marketing infrastructure and ensuring adherence to design standards.8. Advancing climate risk insurance schemes -despite notable climate-driven losses and damages, the culture of risk transfer in agricultural systems is very limited and much more so in the contexts of smallholder coffee farming systems. Therefore, the factors that impede application of weather insurance schemes followed by measures that enhance wider dissemination of these risk transfer schemes need an in-depth analysis.","tokenCount":"1734"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"02fa5de20495d3d23ca32c0f7650323f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e2293eba-b8c4-40cf-9ac2-86c71b533887/retrieve","id":"-856771628"},"keywords":["European Food Safety Authority ELISA: Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay EU: European Union EuFMD: European Commission for the Control of FMD FLI: Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute","Germany FMD: Foot-and-Mouth Disease FMD-DISCONVAC: Development","Enhancement and Complementation of Animal-sparing","FMD Vaccine-Based Control Strategies for Free and Endemic Regions"],"sieverID":"f759278f-238b-4b59-8065-c6f493c74c92","pagecount":"121","content":"Dr Lucy Robinson graduated with a D.Phil. in viral immunology and pathology from Oxford University in 2008, after working on FMDV in cattle at The Pirbright Institute. She completed several years of post-doctoral study both in the UK and in SE Asia, before embarking on a career in manuscript editing and scientific writing. She now runs her own consultancy, Insight Editing London (www.insighteditinglondon.com), where she specialises in report writing and pre-submission review of biological and biomedical science manuscripts. Dr Theo Knight-Jones started as a veterinary clinician, before specialising in veterinary epidemiology and public health. Having spent several years gaining experience and qualifications at the Royal Veterinary College, London, Theo obtained his PhD at The Pirbright Institute looking at the evaluation of FMD vaccines and vaccination programmes. He is currently based in Zambia employed as a veterinary epidemiologist at The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) within the Food Safety & Zoonoses group.The Global Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Alliance (GFRA) comprises 16 international institutions actively engaged in Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) research, as well as numerous partners, collaborators and stakeholders. The GFRA has five strategic goals aimed at expanding FMD research collaborations and optimizing use of resources and expertise:• Goal 1. To facilitate research collaborations and serve as a communication gateway for the global FMD research community.• Goal 2. To conduct strategic research to better understand FMD.• Goal 3. To develop the next generation of control measures and strategies for their application.• Goal 4. To determine social and economic impacts of the new generation of improved FMD control measures.• Goal 5. To provide evidence to inform development of policies for safe trade of animals and animal products in FMD-endemic areas.For more information, including current GFRA news and members, see http://www.ars.usda.gov/gfra/There are numerous FMD research organisations and experts. The broad focus of their research is driven by funding bodies, which in turn are directed by scientists, policy makers and non-governmental donors. It is important that each of these groups is aware of the current needs and gaps in FMD knowledge, technologies and research capacity. The purpose of this document is to provide appropriate information in these areas to facilitate an efficient and coordinated approach to global FMD research.Here, we provide a fully-referenced update of the research conducted on FMD and the FMD virus (FMDV) since the previous GFRA report in 2011. Alongside a review of the literature pertaining to priority research areas, current activities being undertaken at GFRA and EuFMD (European Commission for the Control of FMD) member institutions are included, alongside an analysis of the major gaps in knowledge and a summary of proposed next-steps. This information is presented in the context of the GFRA goals, with reference to the parent report, the 2010 Gap Analysis produced by The FMD Countermeasures Working Group in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Gap Analysis provided a comprehensive summary of the priority research areas according to the state of knowledge in 2010, and therefore serves as a useful reference for the progress made in recent years. As well as a research update, it is our hope that this document will enable researchers to effectively target their work towards prioritized knowledge gaps, avoid duplication of efforts, and highlight opportunities for collaboration.A list of contributing institutes is provided in the Appendices.To cite this report: Robinson and Knight-Jones (2014) Global Foot and Mouth Disease Research Update and Gap Analysis, GFRA/EuFMD. http://go.usa.gov/cZgG9In this report we combine literature review and expert consultation to evaluate global FMD research progress since 2011 and highlight remaining knowledge gaps, incorporating ongoing work from 33 research institutes from around the world.FMD is frequently listed as the most economically important disease of livestock in both developed and developing countries. Disease-free countries experience periodic FMD outbreaks and so must maintain their capacity for rapid detection and control. Some countries, particularly in South America, are successfully controlling and eradicating FMD through mass vaccination. However challenges remain in proving FMDV freedom in vaccinated populations and in the design, production and distribution of vaccines able to induce effective immunity to emergent field strains. In addition, many other endemic countries have no, or ineffective, control policies or programmes. In these cases there is an urgent need to understand the economic and social impacts of FMD within each region, and to determine whether or how FMD can be controlled by vaccination alone. Underpinning all this is the requirement for comprehensive knowledge of the virus itself, its interaction with host species, and how we can most effectively prevent its replication and spread within both individual animals and through populations.It is commonly accepted that FMD vaccines are not very stable and this has been historically blamed for their low levels of protection from FMDV in the field. While this principle is true, it has been highlighted in recent years that the manufacturing process itself warrants significant scrutiny moving forwards. A strong regulatory framework surrounding vaccine production is necessary to ensure antigen stability and to assure that maximum potency is realised under field conditions. These findings are discussed in more detail within the Vaccines section of this report.Since the last GFRA report, the USA has licensed a recombinant vector vaccine for use in cattle during an outbreak of FMD. Additional new vaccine technologies that address important gaps have also been transferred from GFRA research laboratories to vaccine manufacturers and are currently under development: a program of rolling out these new technologies to other parts of the world is likely to prove valuable in years to come. Studies of the interaction of the virus with the immune systems of various hosts are informing promising rational improvements to vaccine design and testing. Coupled with advances in manufacturing and quality control, we can be hopeful of improved outcomes from established vaccination programs in the medium term future.In terms of molecular analysis, advanced genetic studies have improved understanding of FMD transmission with increasing relevance to field control. Development and scrutiny of mathematical models has enhanced outbreak preparedness and policy planning, although more ground testing is required. Novel molecular techniques promise to further reduce diagnostic costs and improve accessibility to high quality testing.Greater consideration is being given to commodity-based trade as a way of opening up FMD-free trade to poor farmers in wildlife endemic areas without the economic drain and ecological impact of zonation and enclosure of wildlife.Previously neglected, the importance of field epidemiology in the evaluation of FMD outbreaks and control programmes is being increasingly recognised.Although the field of FMD modelling is progressing, validated best practices have not yet been established: rigorous ground testing of real time decision support tools, including those capable of estimating and comparing cost-effectiveness of different strategies will be required. The extent to which generic spread models can be used in different settings also needs to be determined.Further developments are required in defining appropriate surveillance methods, particularly those able to confirm of disease-free status in vaccinated populations.Clear guidance, knowledge sharing and evidence-based policy developments will be necessary to assist endemic countries to control FMD, with a focus on those possessing substantial smallholder farming sectors. At the same time, basic field epidemiology has been under-utilised in the evaluation of control programmes, particularly in endemic countries. A pressing question in this area is to what extent we can hope to control FMD by vaccination in the absence of effective biosecurity measures, which are notoriously difficult to enforce in some settings.The use of molecular and genetic techniques in combination with epidemiology is expanding as technologies become cheaper and more powerful. This progress must be supported, as major breakthroughs in our ability to understand and ultimately control FMD could be imminent. The incorporation of these tools into practical disease control should also be encouraged. However, the ability to use models to predict severity and likelihood of transmission based on genetic data remains elusive.In the case of FMD-free countries, approaches for identifying high risk strains for incursion and estimating their impact should be developed. Efforts to maintain outbreak preparedness, including training, planning of control strategy and resource requirements need to be continued.The need for improved understanding of the role of wildlife in FMD maintenance and transmission is evident. Characterising the features of infection and transmission in controlled studies and field studies of relevant species will be required to provide accurate information to inform policy on the role of wildlife in official FMD status.The full social and economic impact of FMD remains hard to estimate, which hampers effective design of control policies. In particular, in endemic regions with limited potential to access export markets, we currently know little of the impact of FMD and its control measures. High quality information would assist evaluation of FMD control options in order to mitigate disease impact.Social factors profoundly affect the effectiveness of monitoring and control policies. In particular we need to understand how best to use compensation as a means of maximising farmer participation in disease reporting and control. Furthermore, a wider appreciation of the regional social and cultural factors that affect compliance would be beneficial.Real-time economic models to guide disease control during outbreaks have been developed and must now be rigorously field tested.The use of reverse genetics to engineer new FMD vaccines, such as inactivated leaderless FMD vaccines, viruses with improved stability and culture adaptation, and FMD virus-like particles, has the potential to revolutionise the safe and cost-effective production of effective FMDV vaccines. However, careful evaluation of novel vaccines is needed with a particular focus on their efficacy in species other than cattle and their effects on non-humoral aspects of the immune response.Several novel adjuvanting or vectoring strategies for various FMD vaccines also show promise but will require further testing in a range of species under physiological challenge conditions. Whilst convenient and cheap, the use of murine systems should be explored with extreme caution in light of accumulating data on relevant differences between their immune systems and those of natural FMD target species. In addition, the importance of qualitative aspects of the response to FMDV infection and vaccination, such as the characteristics of non-neutralising antibodies, or the immunoglobulin isotype ratio induced, must be recognized, and these parameters should be included during the evaluation of novel adjuvants or vaccines. To provide meaningful reference, conventional vaccines should be included alongside any novel approach in all studies.Improved methods enabling the rapid and effective purification of FMDV for conventional vaccine production are under development which, if rolled out widely, could improve control in endemic areas within a relatively short time. Some studies have begun to indicate possible ways of using needle-free strategies to induce protective mucosal responses to FMDV vaccines, but further study of mucosal immunity in target species (perhaps requiring the development of additional tools), both in general and in relation to FMD, will be required to realise the potential of this strategy.Predicting vaccine matching with emerging field strains remains challenging.The control of FMD in endemic regions would be markedly assisted by improving the formulation of quality controlled vaccines and reagents to extend shelf life and reduce cost, thereby potentially increasing both availability and efficacy. More broadly, standardised independent quality assurance should be used by all FMD vaccine production facilities.Despite much effort, reliable immune correlates of protection remain to be identified. An absence of standardised approaches to vaccination and challenge during early vaccine development is likely to have contributed to this problem, and should be addressed as a matter of urgency, ideally in collaboration with the OIE and other international bodies to ensure widespread uptake of resulting recommendations. The definition of a common protocol and minimum set of basic standards for such experiments would have dramatic impacts on our ability to compare novel vaccination strategies carried out at different sites, and provide a way of understanding which approaches warrant further study and which should be discarded. The current haphazard use of different protocols under diverse conditions with individually selected readouts risks sub-optimal use of time and resources and must be considered a high priority for change.In 2010, the use of adenovirus to vector interferon (IFN) α (Ad5-IFNα) into hosts and induce shortlived non-specific protection against FMDV appeared promising. It now seems that Ad5-IFNα alone is insufficiently potent for use in outbreak situations. However, studies combining Ad5-IFNα with an additional immune stimulator show promise, as does Ad5 encoding an IFN-stimulating transcription factor in place of IFNα. Substituting Type III IFN into the Ad5 vector appears more effective, particularly in cattle, and warrants further investigation.An area of urgent unmet research need is the potential interaction of immune-modulating biotherapeutics with the response to vaccination. Before use in the field, we must know how expression of large amounts of these innate immune cytokines affects both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the immune response in target species. For example, high levels of IFNα can adversely impact the magnitude of T cell responses, which in the case of FMD vaccination, could preclude the formation of sufficient immunity to confer protection from disease. This has so far been almost completely neglected in the literature. More generally, the integration of biotherapeutics into existing emergency measures similarly remains to be achieved.Non immunological, small molecule inhibitors of FMDV 3Cpro have been identified, but remain to be tested in target species in vivo.RNA interference-based strategies are also being explored, though their suitability for upscaling to the levels required in outbreak situations has yet to be assessed.While published literature has focused on the environmental impact of existing disinfectant use in recent outbreaks, ongoing work, particularly at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), aims to develop standardised disinfectant efficacy test methods, to assess activity of antimicrobial pesticides against FMDV, and to define optimal conditions of use for new and established disinfectants.Continued development of molecular and genetic technologies combined with novel analytical techniques will benefit many areas of FMD research and understanding. Production of effective penside tests and increasing the usability and affordability of various FMD diagnostics for laboratories with limited resources would offer significant benefits to endemic regions in particular.Improved diagnostics for SAT strains are still required, as are better tests to support DIVA (Differentiation of Infected and Vaccinated Animals) and for vaccine matching. Investigation of air sampling technologies is ongoing.Further development, validation and standardisation of methods for measuring post-vaccination population immunity are required.Our understanding of FMDV persistence has been revolutionised by finding that retention of virus in the lymph node appears to be more the rule than the exception, even in species not thought capable of retaining live virus, such as swine. What remains to be seen is whether this phenomenon is primarily to the advantage of host or pathogen.Understanding early events during infection has been hampered historically by the common use of non-physiological routes of challenge with the virus. Data now show that widespread adoption of more relevant routes of infection for laboratory studies is both feasible and desirable. Standardisation and universal acceptance of this approach would be enormously beneficial.Beyond expression of integrins, evidence of other determinants of susceptibility at the cellular level have gained interest in recent years and should be pursued.Factors underpinning genetic resistance and age-related susceptibility to FMDV infection warrant investigation.Determinants of the extent of the role of wildlife species in field conditions during outbreaks should be defined with the support of laboratory controlled infections to enable full understanding of the disease in epidemiologically relevant non-agricultural species.New knowledge on the bovine immunoglobulin response requires interpretation for its relevance to FMDV infection and vaccination in natural FMDV target species.The importance of non-neutralizing antibodies in the response to FMDV has become apparent, particularly in terms of interactions of antibody-bound virus with immune cells. We now need to define the roles of these immune complexes in vivo in target species to enable their exploitation.Regulatory gamma-delta T cells appear to play a previously unappreciated role in the response to vaccination of cattle. Comparable experiments should be undertaken in other target species to understand the impact of this cell type to FMD vaccination in broader terms, particularly in light of new data highlighting the importance of T cell responses for optimal vaccine-induced immunity.Similarly, novel approaches have revealed that CD8 T cell stimulation may also be a desirable outcome of vaccination, but its potential remains unexplored outside of swine.The neonatal immune systems of FMDV target species remain far less well characterised than their adult counterparts. Further study of neonatal immunity, with particular reference to the T cell compartment, and in conjunction with characterisation of FMDV vaccine and adjuvant responses is required.Qualitative hallmarks of effective adaptive immunity to FMD vaccines and infection are being uncovered. Understanding how to use this knowledge in a more comprehensive approach to vaccine design could prove valuable. Further study to determine how to achieve optimal IgG class ratios and increase immunoglobulin avidity should inform development of improved vaccines, particularly where cross-protection is a priority.Mucosal immune responses remain relatively under-studied in target species. Robust techniques should be developed and applied to understand how mucosal and systemic immunity combine to provide effective protection following vaccination and during infection.The multiple and varied ways in which FMDV manipulates the host immune system are becoming evident from molecular studies that should serve to both validate and direct design of novel biotherapeutics.Substantial data indicate that FMDV 3A warrants further investigation as a determinant of both virulence and host tropism, but an emphasis on experimentation in natural host species is required to move forwards.Exploitation of precise, quantitative, high-throughput molecular techniques to study FMDV holds great promise for advances in understanding of pathogenesis at the cellular level. Their future application to primary cells or more physiologically-relevant cell lines, combined with careful experimental design, will be required for this promise to be realised.Considering recent advances in our molecular understanding of FMDV's interactions with the host interferon response, we now need to establish to what extent we can link molecular findings with whole organism responses to natural infection. As a starting point, some of the experiments that have been carried out in immortalised cell lines should be repeated in cell lines and/or primary cells from relevant target tissues of natural host species.Large animal experimentation for FMDV is necessary, but coupling this approach with appropriate in vitro and small animal models of the disease has the potential to expedite research progress and reduce the number of large animals needed. However, the challenge of developing and validating the \"right\" model remains. In parallel, reagent/method development to enable in-depth study of the immune systems of target species, particularly the mucosal compartment, would facilitate advances in FMDV pathogenesis and vaccine science.The connection of internationally-recognised centres of expertise in FMD with local research institutes in affected regions will enable effective transfer of knowledge and expertise to smaller centres and ensure a standardized approach to the characterisation of new isolates in common or locally-relevant host species. Some institutes are pioneering this approach, which has the potential for widespread In August 2010, the FMD Countermeasures Working Group was created to bring together a selection of leading authorities in the field of FMD. With the support of the GFRA and the Instituto Nacional de Technologia Agropecuaria (INTA) of Argentina, they conducted an analysis of current knowledge of the disease and its control in both epidemic (predominantly the US) and endemic situations. At that time, the group identified several major obstacles to effective prevention, detection and control of FMD, including:1. Poor and inadequate education and training of veterinarians and livestock producers in detecting early signs of FMD.2. Lack of validated commercial pen-side test kits for disease control.3. Failure of serologic methods to determine status (infected, uninfected) in some vaccinated animals.4. Absence of a surveillance system for early recognition of signs, or to find evidence using antigen detection, antibody, or virus detection.5. Lack of reliable comprehensive international surveillance systems to collect and analyse information.6. Current models have not been designed to evaluate in real-time the cost-effectiveness of alternative control, surveillance, and sampling strategies.7. Several aspects of FMD epidemiology and transmission still have to be uncovered, including the influence of viral factors that affect viral persistence, emergence, competition, transmission, and spread of FMD virus strains.8. There are no FMD vaccines permitted for distribution and sale in the US 9. At present, there is no rapid pen-side or field-based diagnostic test for FMD control during a disease outbreak that has been validated in the field as \"fit for purpose.\" 10. There is a need for better analytical tools to support decisions for FMD control. These obstacles were further broken down into priority research knowledge gaps, and in this report we will present recent progress towards filling those gaps. We will also highlight points that remain to be addressed, and identify new targets for research that have emerged as a product of improved understanding and/or changing needs since 2010.This report summarises recent completed and ongoing global FMD research and thereby identifies current knowledge gaps. A literature review was conducted to identify recent published FMD research. This was based on a PubMed search using the search terms \"foot and mouth\" but not \"hand, foot and\", published between June 2011 and June 2014. This returned a total of 505 relevant peerreviewed manuscripts that could be approximately allocated to research topic areas as shown in Table 1.Papers (n)  All member institutes of the GFRA and EuFMD collaborators were also contacted and given the opportunity to contribute updates on their recent, ongoing and future FMD research activities.Responses were received from 33 institutes (see appendix -Contributing Institutions & Financial Support), distributed as follows:• Europe -10 institutes (30%)• North America -5 institutes (15%)• South America -2 institutes (6%)• Asia -6 institutes (18%)• Africa -8 institutes (24%)• Australia/New Zealand -2 institutes (6%)Published literature and research updates were then summarised for each area of FMD research and evaluated in the context of the goals identified in the 2010 Gap Analysis. Any unmet goals from 2010 were noted and new goals were also highlighted in order to provide a comprehensive account of the most pressing topics in need of research as of June 2014.Although a disease of low overall mortality, FMD places a huge burden on both individual livestock keepers and national economies (Fogedby 1962, James and Rushton 2002, Sutmoller, Barteling et al. 2003, Knight-Jones and Rushton 2013). It is a viral disease (family: Picornaviridae, genus: Aphthovirus) affecting cloven-hoofed animals, the epidemiologically and economically most important hosts being cattle, water buffalo, pigs, sheep and goats. As well as infecting agricultural species, FMDV can be maintained within populations of certain wildlife species, such as African buffalo and wild boar, which act as a reservoir of virus capable of transmitting the virus to livestock (Alexandersen, Zhang et al. 2003, Alexandrov, Stefanov et al. 2013).There are seven different FMD serotypes (O, A, Asia-1, SAT-1, SAT-2, SAT-3 and C) which tend to exist in regional virus pools, within which virus strains tend to circulate (Figure 1). Following infection, FMDV replicates in the animal for between 2 and 21 days before the onset of clinical signs, during which time large amounts of virus may be shed into the environment. Typical signs of infection include vesicular lesions on the feet, mouth, tongue and udder, accompanied by fever and weight loss. In young animals, the virus can cause fatal myocarditis. Even when an animal recovers from infection, long-term morbidity is common, and up to 50% of recovered ruminants continue to harbour live virus in the absence of clinical signs. There is therefore the potential for these carrier animals to transmit FMDV to other livestock, and for this reason their existence has farreaching consequences for both the epidemiology of FMD and for trade with epidemic-recovered or endemic countries.Thus the impacts of FMDV can be understood on two levels: Direct 1. High mortality in young stock.2. Reduced productivity including milk yield, fertility, growth rate, and traction power (where beasts of burden are used).3. Change in herd structure with a need to maintain more breeding adults for the same level of output (for example, milk, young-stock, meat). Indirect 1. Cost and impact of disease control including movement restrictions, market closures, vaccination costs and culling.2. Control measures may impact on other industries including tourism.3. Loss of access to lucrative livestock and livestock product export markets.4. In endemic regions, FMD prevents the use of high productivity breeds that are more susceptible to the disease.Countries or zones are divided into three categories depending on their FMD status: FMD-free without vaccination, FMD-free with vaccination and endemic. Each category will feel the threat and impact of FMD differently, and so have different priorities in terms of research, prevention and disease control.For FMD-free countries/zones the emphasis of management is on reducing the risk and impact of virus incursions. Risk reduction is intimately linked to FMD incidence in both neighbouring and tradepartner countries, and is determined largely by a region's ability to manage the flow of animals and their products from these countries. Should an incursion occur, early detection is crucial, followed by rapid implementation of an effective control strategy. Once the outbreak has been controlled the focus moves to surveillance, which is required to identify remaining sources of infection, to prove freedom from disease, and eventually to regain international trading rights. Vaccination may be used to assist outbreak control and therefore vaccine banks must be constantly maintained and frequently updated to maximise efficacy against currently-circulating strains.Countries that are FMD-free with vaccination have similar interests, but may have different priorities in terms of vaccination, with long-term immunity being of particular relevance. A dependence on regular vaccination brings several problems of its own: differentiating infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA) by means of serology remains a challenge, and vaccinated animals may become subclinically infected thereby potentially masking an outbreak situation. In addition, the financial burden of vaccine provision, distribution and repeated gathering of livestock for inoculation is considerable.In endemic countries there is an urgent need for potent, quality-assured vaccines that induce longer immunity and can be produced in vast quantities, at low cost. As the majority of FMD research is conducted in more affluent countries, which are also often FMD-free, our knowledge of controlling epidemics is considerably greater than that of managing endemic FMD. Accordingly, in these regions, control strategies are often sub-optimally designed and poorly implemented. This is a pressing concern as FMD production losses have the greatest impact on the world's poorest countries, where more people are directly dependent on livestock (Figure 2).The annual global impact of FMD in terms of visible production losses and vaccination costs in endemic regions alone amounts to between 6.5 and 21 billion USD, while outbreaks in FMD-free countries and zones cause additional losses of >US$1.5 billion a year (Knight-Jones and Rushton 2013). FMD is frequently listed as the most economically important disease of livestock in many developed and developing countries (Perry and Randolph 2003, Perry and Rich 2007, Perry and Rich 2007, Perry, Sones et al. 2007, Perry and Grace 2009, Rushton and Knight-Jones 2012).Vaccination is now a component of every control program for FMD, whether in response to endemic disease or an incursion into a previously FMD-free region. However, most countries remain reliant on  The long-standing challenges to effective control of FMD reflect gaps in our knowledge of the virus and the disease. The events immediately following exposure of the host to the virus remain poorly characterised, as do aspects of host species' immune systems and responses to the virus. How the virus' tropism for different host species, individual animals and tissues within those animals is determined, is as yet unclear. Accordingly, many of the gaps highlighted in this report are within the areas of basic research into FMDV-host interactions at the molecular and cellular level. Coupled with detailed immunological studies in host species, these studies will enable rational design of improved vaccines formulated in a way that will facilitate their widespread use. As ongoing research projects are completed and followed by appropriately conducted studies in the areas highlighted here, we believe that there is every reason for optimism that our ability to control FMD will be substantially improved in the near future. This will, however, depend entirely on significant funding to maintain and advance the most promising research and development programs.In the following section we present a review of recent literature on FMD research and updates of ongoing work at GFRA and EuFMD institutes. To aid understanding, this information is divided into research topic areas, which themselves fall under the broader headings of either Controlling the Disease or Understanding the Virus.Global FMD update: 2011-14The global FMD landscape has undergone several shifts since publication of the 2011 GFRA report.FMD SAT-2 outbreaks in North Africa and the Middle East caused significant losses and an international crisis in 2012, which was exacerbated by limited efficacy of the SAT-2 vaccine used. In 2014, serotype O outbreaks in non-endemic regions of North Africa have been a cause for concern: in Southern Africa, outbreaks continue to occur within long-established, and previously successful, FMD control programmes that are based on zonation, vaccination and exclusion of FMD endemic wildlife.This has been disastrous for the beef export industry.The most recent FMD outbreak in the EU occurred in 2010/11, and was associated with wild boar infected with an Asia-1 strain from Turkey. This outbreak highlighted the previously-underestimated role of wildlife in this region and revealed shortfalls in vaccine matching and potency of some vaccine banks in FMD-free countries. Sporadic outbreaks continue to be reported in Russia.In Asia, large outbreaks have occurred in the previously FMD-free countries of Japan (2010/11) and South Korea (2010/11 and 2014) as a result of virus spill-over from epidemics within neighbouring endemic countries. Encouragingly, the Philippines have now achieved FMD-free status, which should have considerable benefits for the region. India and China have both prioritised FMD control and are vaccinating on a large scale; this is a considerable challenge given the scale of quality-controlled vaccine production required and the necessity for high coverage across vast areas. Greater still is the challenge of implementing acceptable, yet effective, movement controls and biosecurity measures in smallholder systems.There is cause for optimism in South America, where no FMD outbreaks have been reported since early 2012, with more and more countries/zones obtaining official FMD-free status. The know-how amassed within these control programmes could be utilised by those elsewhere attempting to control the disease through mass vaccination, but effective means of disseminating this valuable knowledge remain to be developed.From the 2010 Gap Analysis:The priority aim was to produce analytical tools to support decision-making, with an emphasis on developing:1.Anomaly detection methods to identify outlier events.Prediction models for identification of genetic variants of viruses, to predict severity, duration, and likelihood of transmission of disease, and to evaluate the degree of success of control and prevention interventions.Epidemiological models that project spread of disease in a defined region under various control strategies and that can be used in developing disease control programs and for active surveillance sampling.Since the 2011 report, 111 studies of FMD epidemiology have been published, almost half of which described advances in mathematical modelling. Most used transmission models to predict the consequences of outbreaks in FMD-free countries, estimate resource requirements and compare different control options, particularly the impact of vaccination [see section on control of epidemics in disease free countries] (Backer, Engel et al. 2012, Backer, Hagenaars et al. 2012, Hagerman, Ward et al. 2013, Garner, Bombarderi et al. 2014). One study combined data on FMDV ecology and maintenance with a modelling approach to estimate the relative roles of domesticated animal species compared to deer and wild boar, with reference to a Bulgarian outbreak in 2011 (Dhollander, Belsham et al. 2014), revealing the potential for wildlife hosts in similar climatic zones to contribute substantially to the spread of disease.Several papers used risk analysis to assess the chance of a FMDV incursion when importing livestock and commodities. Simulation of theoretical outbreaks in France revealed the potential positive impact of improved surveillance protocols, and in particular, the importance of having specialist veterinarians available to support diagnosis as soon as FMD was suspected (Rautureau, Dufour et al. 2012).Models developed for epidemics are largely not appropriate for use in endemic situations, but developing models to deal with the complexity of endemic FMD is enormously challenging. A recent study identified important factors influencing control in a vaccinating endemic region, suggesting that duration of natural immunity, rate of vaccine induced antibody waning, and the rate of disease reintroduction are key to the success of vaccine strategies. Moreover, the efficacy of prophylactic, as opposed to ring, vaccination was highlighted in this model, as was the importance of the duration of natural immunity in determining size and frequency of disease outbreaks (Ringa and Bauch 2014).A few publications compared and reviewed the suitability of different modelling strategies (Sanson, Harvey et al. 2011, Tildesley and Ryan 2012, Flood, Porphyre et al. 2013, Halasa, Boklund et al. 2014);a retrospective evaluation of model performance illustrated the impact of poor control decisions based on models designed using inaccurate data (Mansley, Donaldson et al. 2011), highlighting the importance of precise knowledge of pathogenesis and transmission in different species under varied conditions. Consideration of the combined outcomes of various studies by meta-analysis, as illustrated by (Bravo de Rueda, Dekker et al. 2014) supports the need for improved parameterisation and the development of more robust epidemiological models.Model accuracy is limited by input data quality, which in turn comes from both laboratory studies and from field epidemiology. Field studies constituted about a quarter of FMD epidemiology publications, largely conducted in countries where FMD is endemic. Several were descriptive or risk factor studies based on FMD sero-surveys of countries in the early stages of FMD control (Dukpa, Robertson et al. 2011, Abubakar, Arshed et al. 2012, Ayelet, Gelaye et al. 2012, Dukpa, Robertson et al. 2012, Kibore, Gitao et al. 2013), sometimes looking at wildlife (Bolortsetseg, Enkhtuvshin et al. 2012, Alexandrov, Stefanov et al. 2013, Jori, Caron et al. 2014, Mkama, Kasanga et al. 2014). Consistent, rigorous sampling coupled with standardised design and analysis would allow clearer estimation of the burden of disease and accurate comparison of that burden between different sero-surveys.Field studies are starting to be used to assess vaccine performance (Brito, Perez et al. 2011, Knight-Jones, Bulut et al. 2014). A recent meta-analysis of 28 studies estimating the efficacy of vaccination in China suggested that more than 70% of animals from government-targeted species were adequately protected against serotypes Asia-1 and O (Cai, Li et al. 2014). Guidance on target vaccine coverage and efficacy should be updated using modern approaches. The ability to monitor population immunity would be enhanced by the identification of stronger correlates of protection, above/more reliable than the virus neutralisation test (VNT). Current knowledge of correlates is largely limited to the first month after vaccination with homologous strains.Within a vaccination programme, long term protection against heterologous strains is important. Improved tests to detect FMDV carriers are required, isolation of live virus from oro-pharyngeal region is time consuming and unreliable.Several studies also assessed surveillance data (Madin 2011, Kasanga, Sallu et al. 2012) and its use in disease management (Willeberg 2012). In a field based surveillance study, a combination of nonstructural protein (NSP) antibody surveillance of pigs at livestock markets followed by clinical investigation was used to identify FMD infected farms in Taiwan (Chen, Lee et al. 2011). An important, yet hard-to-quantify issue is behavioural factors affecting disease reporting and control. Attempts have been made to understand the barriers to compliance for farmers in Texas (Delgado, Norby et al. 2012), and Bolivia (Limon, Lewis et al. 2014). Taken together, these studies effectively highlighted the differences between farming populations in the two countries, and the importance of understanding local cultural and social factors that influence the agricultural community's motivations to report FMD outbreaks.Substantial improvements in our ability to accurately model FMD have come via molecular epidemiological studies that have been able to link outbreaks caused by closely related viruses (Ahmed, Salem et al. 2012, Hui and Leung 2012, Hall, Knowles et al. 2013, Wright, Knowles et al. 2013), as well as estimate the likely roles of various transmission routes in both the UK 2001 (Morelli, Thebaud et al. 2012) and Bulgarian 2011 outbreaks (Valdazo-Gonzalez, Polihronova et al. 2012).Challenge studies have refined knowledge of key epidemiological parameters including: the point of onset of clinical signs during infection in cattle (Chase-Topping, Handel et al. 2013); the relationship between onset of clinical signs and the FMD transmission window in cattle (Charleston, Bankowski et al. 2011); the ability of sheep to transmit the virus to cattle [\"the results indicated that in a mixed population of sheep and cattle, sheep play a more limited role in the transmission…than cattle.\" (Bravo de Rueda, de Jong et al. 2014)]; the potential of wild boar (Breithaupt, Depner et al. 2012), or buffalo (Madhanmohan, Yuvaraj et al. 2014) to act as hosts; and the optimal use of full-genome sequencing to understand transmission pathways during epidemics (Juleff, Valdazo-Gonzalez et al. 2013, Orton, Wright et al. 2013). Field data have also been combined with transmission experiments (Hagenaars, Dekker et al. 2011, Sanson, Gloster et al. 2011) and modelling approaches (Chis Ster, Dodd et al. 2012) to generate improved data for incorporation into next-generation models.Other field epidemiology papers described eradication campaigns and factors contributing to success (Windsor, Freeman et al. 2011, Naranjo andCosivi 2013). Such reports are useful to endemic countries attempting improved FMD control, where informed control policy guidance is sometimes limited.Quantitative evaluations of the progress and effectiveness of ongoing control programmes in endemic countries were few and far between and would be similarly valuable in informing future decisionmaking.Similarly important are the descriptions of recent outbreaks (Muroga, Hayama et al. 2012, Cho andChu 2013), including lessons learned and reviews of regional or national FMD situation, including disease epidemiology (Swallow 2012) and control strategies (Parent, Miller et al. 2011, Leon 2012, Ding, Chen et al. 2013, Ferguson, Cleaveland et al. 2013, McReynolds and Sanderson 2014). Facilitating the sharing of knowledge between those with recent experience of FMD eradication in endemic countries and individuals responsible for similar attempts in their own nation would minimise the repetition of mistakes and likely improve overall outcomes. A problem for most endemic countries is that they are unable to improve biosecurity and movement restrictions, given the small holder systems that predominate with dependency on common grazing and frequent trading of livestock to provide income for many people. More potent vaccines may control FMD despite poor biosecurity, however, this has yet to be assessed.Antibody response to commercial tetravalent vaccine was significantly impacted by breed (Di Giacomo, Brito et al. 2013). Breeding for both productivity and resistance to FMD may represent a complimentary approach to conventional control measures in endemic regions. One study provides evidence that MHC type can determine clinical protection from disease following inoculation of virulent FMDV in naive Wanbei cattle (Lei, Liang et al. 2012).In terms of FMD control policy, much of the efforts of FMD-free countries is concerned with minimising the risk of a virus incursion and minimising the impact of an outbreak should one occur. This comprises several different aspects, including identifying high risk activities likely to increase the chance or severity of an outbreak, predicting how an outbreak is likely to behave and deciding on the most effective control policy for a range of situations. Contingency planning should ensure that resources, skills and legislative capacity are sufficient. Ground testing, including simulation exercises, should be performed to assess control measures for efficiency, feasibility, compliance and disruption to the farming sector and other areas of the economy.Predictions about outbreaks and control measures, used to inform contingency plans, have become heavily reliant on modelling. This is due to the complex nature of disease transmission within the livestock population [also mentioned in the epidemiology section].For example, prediction models have suggested that the final scale of an outbreak is strongly correlated with the situation after two weeks, and this could inform decisions on whether or not to scale up control efforts at this early stage of an outbreak (Halasa, Willeberg et al. 2013). Elsewhere fault tree analysis has been used to identify potential weaknesses on control strategy (Isoda, Kadohira et al. 2013).The role of vaccination has been modelled extensively. In the Netherlands, it was estimated that in areas of high farm density, ring vaccination would halt an epidemic as rapidly as pre-emptive culling, whilst dramatically reducing the number of farms culled. However, if large numbers of pig farms require vaccination, vaccine supplies will be insufficient as pig farms contain many more individuals than cattle farms. Not vaccinating pigs did not appear to impact significantly on epidemic size (Backer, Hagenaars et al. 2012). However, findings from models are likely to be specific to the setting evaluated. The same model suggested that in areas of low farm density, culling detected farms only, without vaccination, would be sufficient, assuming infected farms are detected 6-10 days for cattle and pigs, with lower detection rates in sheep and goats, and culling taking place a day after detection (Backer, Hagenaars et al. 2012). These results were also used to assess the most efficient postoutbreak surveillance strategy (Backer, Engel et al. 2012). In Switzerland, vaccinating a wide area around affected herds was considered to only be beneficial during a widespread, non-localised epidemic, while failure to restrict movements and delayed culling were deemed critical, highlighting the importance of preparedness and the capacity of veterinary services (Durr, Fasel-Clemenz et al. 2014). A simulation of FMD in Germany found widespread ring vaccination preferable to pre-emptive culling (Traulsen, Rave et al. 2011). Furthermore, as large numbers may be culled for welfare reasons as a result of movement restrictions within vaccination zones, this should be considered during outbreak resource requirement planning (Hadorn, Durr et al. 2013).One paper sought to clarify FMD vaccination policy in the USA by presenting several key decision makers with an outbreak scenario to establish when and why they would implement emergency FMD vaccination (Parent, Miller et al. 2011). Elsewhere, the influence of different stakeholders on control policy found that in France a vaccination based strategy was always the preferred national policy despite regional differences (Marsot, Rautureau et al. 2014).The enormous scale of livestock movements is responsible for much of the impact of notifiable disease outbreaks. In an attempt to mitigate this, more restrictive routine movement regulations were implemented in many countries in the wake of the devastating 2001 outbreak in Northern Europe.However, a Dutch study found that in the long term the scale of trading and movements returned to pre-outbreak levels despite increased regulation (Brouwer, Bartels et al. 2012). However, following past outbreaks in the UK, routine movement standstill regulations have been maintained as part of the FMD control policy as a key component of limiting spread of the virus. Thorough policy evaluation following outbreaks is rarely performed in most countries and should be encouraged to inform improved decision-making.Movement data are crucial inputs for most livestock models. Where they are lacking, the utility of models may be limited. In turn, the impact of movement restrictions is a common model output. The effectiveness, timeliness and compliance of movement restrictions is typically found to be of paramount importance (Buhnerkempe, Tildesley et al. 2014). In addition, effective tracing of livestock movements has also been shown to drastically reduce the impact of outbreaks in free countries (Hagerman, Ward et al. 2013, Mardones, Zu Donha et al. 2013).The need for farmers to both report disease and to undertake legislated control measures is critical for outbreak control. In Texas, USA, farmer compliance was likely to be suboptimal in terms of case reporting, collecting cattle for examination and observing a movement standstill during an outbreak (Delgado, Norby et al. 2012). Understanding factors underlying non-compliance may aid design of more widely-accepted methods, or of appropriate incentives to support the FMDV control effort.Disease outbreaks are often initially detected at abattoirs, highlighting the importance of frequent inspections by well-trained inspectors (Hernandez-Jover, Cogger et al. 2011). Unfamiliarity with exotic diseases at all levels, including farmers, can also contribute to a lack of preparedness. To help address this, EuFMD have run real-time training courses in endemic countries where government veterinarians, mostly from free countries, obtain first-hand experience of FMD outbreaks (Gardiner 2013). These courses equip participants with diagnostic sampling and field epidemiology skills necessary for vets in the field during FMD outbreaks. Importantly they expose vets who have often never seen a case of FMD to real outbreaks, providing training in clinical diagnosis and biosecurity 1 . Awareness and preparedness training should also involve livestock keepers and other relevant stakeholders within livestock value chains.The potential role of FMD in bioterrorism has been considered by some governments due to the relative ease with which highly contagious material can be obtained from outbreaks in endemic countries and the severe economic consequences of outbreaks in disease-free countries (Farsang, Frentzel et al. 2013). Some governments have used prediction models to estimate resource requirements during an outbreak and how availability of manpower influences the impact of an outbreak (Garner, Bombarderi et al. 2014). One study suggested that for outbreaks in Australia, stamping out would be effective, however, if human resources were limited then a vaccination strategy may be preferable to culling alone (Roche, Garner et al. 2014). Others have used expert opinion and group consultations to explore some of the logistics of outbreak containment. One study concluded that depopulation of a large feedlot would be difficult to complete in a humane and timely fashion (McReynolds and Sanderson 2014).Many countries have described their contingency plans, sometimes specifying where weaknesses exist (Diez andStyles 2013, Ding, Chen et al. 2013). These plans are discussed in detail with stakeholders, including government officials, livestock leaders, scientists and figures in the wider industry. Of course control of transboundary diseases requires not only within-country cooperation and coordination, but wider international and regional collaboration (Corrales Irrazabal 2012, Sumption, Domenech et al.The environmental and public health impact of the mass usage of disinfectant caused concern in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) (Kim, Shim et al. 2013) as did large scale burial of slaughtered pigs (Yang, Hong et al. 2012). Welfare concerns during mass culling were also an issue in this outbreak.Various In the Netherlands, Wageningen University have been particularly active. One study found that environmental virus accounts for 1/3 of transmission in housed cattle but the route of infection into the host remained unknown. They also found that small ruminants were as susceptible as cattle but less infectious. Modelling studies estimated that a 2-5km ring vaccination policy could contain an outbreak and confirmed that minimising the duration of an outbreak was a critical aspect of limiting economic impact. As part of the EU FMD-DISCONVAC project, managed by CODA, they have been involved in the validation of FMD control models, something of huge importance given the increasing acceptance and reliance on models to advise policy.Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) has been involved in multiple projects in the US as well as Africa and Asia. Some projects are technical, such as the FMD bioportal to assist international sharing of information and modelling studies; other projects are field-based, including descriptive epidemiological studies and evaluation of the role of carriers in the field.For a summary of research updates from contributing institutions, see appended Table 2.Although the field of FMD modelling is progressing, validated best practices have not yet been established. The extent to which generic spread models can be used in different settings also needs to be determined. Greater ground testing of real time decision support tools, including those capable of estimating cost-effectiveness of different strategies is also required.Developments are also required in surveillance methods, particularly when confirming disease free status in vaccinated populations.Clear guidance, knowledge sharing and evidence based policy development are required to assist endemic countries to control FMD, particularly those with large smallholder farming sectors.As molecular and genetic technologies become cheaper and more powerful, so does their use in epidemiology. This progress needs to continue as major breakthroughs could be imminent. The incorporation of these tools into practical disease control should be encouraged.Basic field epidemiology is under-utilised in the evaluation of control programmes, particularly in endemic countries.Approaches for identifying high risk strains for incursion and impact in FMD free countries should be developed.FMD has not been controlled by vaccination alone in the absence of effective biosecurity measures and efficient rapid diagnosis. Workable control strategies suitable for developing countries in the early stages of FMD control need to be developed and evaluated.A major obstacle to control in certain FMD-endemic regions is the role played by wildlife species in maintaining and spreading the disease. Publications between June 2011 and June 2014 have largely focused on three different aspects of FMD in wildlife: characterisation of FMD strains, burden of infection or susceptibility within specific species and populations; understanding transmission dynamics within wildlife populations, and between wild and domestic animals; and defining optimal control strategies for those regions where wildlife populations play a significant role in the epidemiology of FMD.In 2010/2011 FMD-infected wild boar (Sus scrofa) were detected in FMD-free Bulgaria. Infection was also detected in domestic livestock. Further investigation revealed clustering of small groups of seropositive animals in both wild boar and deer populations, suggesting that these species have a limited capacity to maintain and spread FMDV (Alexandrov, Stefanov et al. 2013). Surveys of wild boar in Turkey subsequently determined a sero-prevalence of 20% in animals within endemic regions (Khomenko, Alexandrov et al. 2012), although finding a clinically-infected animal was extremely rare.A modelling study that considered this information, along with the results of experimental studies of FMD infection in wild boar (Breithaupt, Depner et al. 2012), supported the hypothesis that the wild boar and deer populations on the Bulgarian-Turkish border were unable to maintain FMD infection in the absence of infection in domestic animals, but highlighted the possibility that they could play an important role in transmission during future outbreaks under different conditions (Dhollander, Belsham et al. 2014). There is a need to monitor populations of susceptible wildlife species, as well as factors affecting/likely to predict changes in their numbers/geography, e.g. wild boar populations have grown enormously in parts of Europe in recent decades, and we must be responsive to the increased risk they pose during potential outbreaks.The ability of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) to harbour a number of pathogens that are transmissible to domestic livestock creates a costly and complex problem for both farming and conservation communities (Michel andBengis 2012, Caron, Miguel et al. 2013). Although there is some debate, it seems probable that African buffalo are the only wildlife species that play a significant role in the maintenance of FMD within the region (Weaver, Domenech et al. 2013). Probang samples from African buffalo in Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique contained FMDV serotypes SAT 1-3, suggestive of their maintenance within the buffalo populations (Weaver, Domenech et al. 2013, Kasanga, Dwarka et al. 2014). A prospective serological study of cattle grazing adjacent to wildlife in Zimbabwe also detected sero-conversion to FMD serotypes carried by buffalo, but in the absence of clinical signs, indicating the need for close monitoring as part of effective FMD surveillance in these settings (Jori, Caron et al. 2014) The ability of feral pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to be infected and transmit FMD was confirmed in experimental studies (Mohamed, Swafford et al. 2011, Moniwa, Embury-Hyatt et al. 2012). The role that deer and feral pigs could play in epidemics in the USA was further explored in a modelling study, but our knowledge of FMD transmission in wildlife populations is limited, and consequently their role in FMD outbreaks is hard to predict (Ward, Laffan et al. 2011).Traditional strategies for controlling FMD at the interface between wildlife and livestock have had a negative impact on wildlife, as well as on some human populations. This is particularly true when fencing has been used to segregate wildlife and livestock from FMD control zones. There have been calls for more balanced approaches that safeguard wildlife populations and do not disrupt the ecosystems upon which many people depend for a livelihood: in order to achieve this, a better understanding of FMDV circulation between wild and domestic species is required, as is an appreciation of the economic value of wildlife (Ferguson, Cleaveland et al. 2013). See commodity based trade in socio-economics and international standards section.Much is being done to increase our understanding of the role of wildlife in FMD epidemiology. InEurope, interest has centred on wild boar (Sus Scrofa) after outbreaks in Thrace and widespread seropositivity detected in Turkey. A study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that FMD would not be maintained by wild boar in Thrace (EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) 2012). A modelling study highlighted the limitations of passive surveillance and reliance on hunting for surveillance in wildlife when compared to active sample collection (European Food Safety Authority 2012).In sub-Saharan Africa there have been efforts to further understand and quantify the risk of FMDV transmission from African buffalo to domestic species. More importantly, efforts are required to define conditions under which FMDV-free beef can be produced in regions where the virus is endemic in wildlife, without impacting on wildlife and wildlife tourism.For a summary of research updates from contributing institutions, see appended Table 2.A better understanding of the role of wildlife in FMD maintenance and transmission is required in various endemic settings.This would provide evidence to inform policy on the role of wildlife in official FMD status.The benefits of controlling FMD in developed livestock sectors that are able to export livestock and their products is so apparent that detailed economic studies have not traditionally been required. The benefits of FMD control elsewhere are more controversial and less well understood. In the endemic setting and in less developed countries, the case for FMD control must be made by detailed and robust economic studies in order to justify funding. This is recognised by the PCP-FMD, which states that such studies should be performed during the early stages of a control programme (EuFMD/FAO/OIE 2012).Despite this, the field receives little attention and methods for estimating the many complex aspects of FMD impact are not established.The fourteen identified peer-reviewed publications since June 2011 include a handful of studies using field studies to estimate the economic impact of FMD on smallholders in endemic countries, mostly in South-East Asia (Shankar, Morzaria et al. 2012, Ferrari, Tasciotti et al. 2013, Nampanya, Khounsy et al. 2013, Young, Suon et al. 2013, Jemberu, Mourits et al. 2014). FMD control in endemic countries has traditionally been deemed a lesser priority, particularly for countries without the potential to benefit from FMD free export markets. These studies found that impact was significant but variable from region to region. One study in South-East Asia estimated that smallholder outbreaks resulted in a reduction in household income of 4-12% (Shankar, Morzaria et al. 2012), in parts of Laos losses in FMD affected households may account for 60% of annual household income (Nampanya, Khounsy et al. 2013). In many societies cattle are valued as assets even when not traded for financial gain, but rather as a resource that can be \"cashed in\" at times of need. Thus FMD can have big impact on livelihoods even when livestock are not raised in a commercially intensive way.One paper looked at the effect of FMD on market prices in the Philippines and found that: pig farm and pork wholesale prices dropped 11.8% and 15.7%, respectively; somewhat surprisingly, chicken farm and wholesale prices declined by 21.1% and 14.2%; and that the margins of pig and chicken traders were also adversely affected (Abao, Kono et al. 2014).Some modelling studies incorporated economic consequences when assessing national effects of FMD (Boklund, Halasa et al. 2013, Martinez-Lopez, Ivorra et al. 2014). Although this can be uncertain, economics is critical in policy making and must not be neglected by researchers.There was one review of the global impact of FMD which estimated that in endemic countries FMD causes a global economic impact, due to production losses and vaccination costs alone, of around US$6.5 to 21 billion per year (Knight-Jones and Rushton 2013). Two papers looked at theoretical and technical issues associated with animal health economics (Hasler, Howe et al. 2011, Gosling, Hart et al. 2012). In addition there were several studies on disease prioritisation (Chatikobo, Choga et al. 2013, Jibat, Admassu et al. 2013, Onono, Wieland et al. 2013), often finding FMD to be deemed a priority by farmers and policy makers in both the developed and developing world, although regional variation exists. A handful of additional reports on FMD impact in endemic countries were published in the grey literature (Ashenafi 2012, Botswana parliamentary inquiry 2013, Limón, Guitian et al. 2014).The standards required to trade with official FMD free status are prescribed by the OIE. The waiting period required before livestock exports can resume after an outbreak in a free country has been eradicated vary depending on whether vaccination was used and the fate of the vaccinated animals, i.e. whether they have been removed or not. Some have argued that given, sufficient surveillance, a 3 month waiting period should apply after vaccination regardless of whether vaccinated animals are later culled or not (Barnett, Geale et al. 2013, Geale, Barnett et al. 2013). Of particular importance is the ability to prove FMD freedom within a vaccinated population, usually by clinical and passive surveillance supplemented with extensive sero-surveillance using imperfect diagnostic tests. Possible approaches and problems have been considered (Caporale, Giovannini et al. 2012), however, challenges remain. Furthermore, unlike for diagnostic tests, clinical detection of FMD has not been evaluated in terms of sensitivity and specificity and this limits the certainty we can have in disease free certification (Knight-Jones, Njeumi et al. 2014).Commodity-based trade is based on the principle that the FMD-free status of a product can be assured without the need for complete FMD freedom within a large geographic zone including wildlife (Thomson, Penrith et al. 2013, Thomson, Penrith et al. 2013). The benefit of this approach is that not only does it remove the need to enclose and restrict the movements of people, livestock and wildlife, it also reduces the impact of FMD outbreaks on distant farmers that would otherwise lose access to export markets though loss of zonal FMD free status, making livelihoods more dependable and trade less volatile. Furthermore, by increasing the accessibility of lucrative export markets, more producers have a stronger incentive to control FMD.Collaborations between the University of Sydney and local partners in South-East Asia have looked at FMD impact in Smallholder systems, an area of interest to international donors. This area is being reviewed by researchers at The Royal Veterinary College and the International Livestock Research Institute (Knight-Jones and Rushton 2014). Although mortality from FMD is low, the continued, and widespread, high disease incidence clearly leads to a heavy burden of disease at the population level.However, FMD impact in smallholder systems has received relatively little attention and more studies are needed.Studies at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute (FLI) and The Pirbright Institute have also looked at biosafety of certain livestock products to begin to understand the FMD risk associated with international trade.For a summary of research updates from contributing institutions, see appended Table 2.Improved understanding of farmer participation in disease reporting and control, including how best to use compensation as a tool for disease control.Improved understanding of the impact of FMD and FMD control, particularly in endemic countries with limited potential to access export markets.Real-time use of economic models to guide disease control during outbreaks.Options for FMD control and status in wildlife endemic settings, such as commodity based trade, require ground testing.Priority research aims stated were to:1. The vaccine field is the best represented in terms of number of new publications since 2011, with many investigators conducting small scale trials of a range of innovative vaccine approaches. For a review of new vaccine technologies see (Rodriguez and Gay 2011). The licensing of the first FMDV vaccine for emergency use in the US has revolutionised the landscape, and an increasing appreciation of the importance of mucosal and cellular immune responses to successful vaccine strategies is filtering through into rational vaccine design studies. Moreover, several exciting developments in the arena of needle-free delivery systems have been made, but are yet to be translated to large-scale field condition trials.At the point of writing the 2010 Gap Analysis, a new generation of Human adenovirus 5 (Ad5) derived FMD vaccines was under development by PIADC in conjunction with industry partners GenVec. In October 2012, the first such vaccine was licensed for use in cattle in the US under outbreak conditions.The licensed vaccine comprises an adjuvanted formulation of replication-deficient human adenovirus 5 (Ad5) engineered to encode the FMDV structural proteins VP0, VP1 and VP3, alongside the viral protease 3C required for their cleavage from the polyprotein. In culture, the structural proteins will spontaneously assemble into empty capsids that retain much of the immunogenicity of inactivated whole virus. Employing recombinant adenovirus in place of live FMDV offers significant advantages for the security and ease of vaccine production, which has enabled the vaccine to be manufactured on the US mainland. Encoding only the FMDV proteins required for empty capsid assembly should also permit differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA) by conventional detection of anti-NSP antibodies in recovering animals, or with the FMDV 3D ELISA that is being developed in parallel with the vaccine. Efficacy studies are reported to show protection from as early as 7 days postvaccination in greater than 95% of cattle following a single immunization.While the newly-licensed vaccine undoubtedly represents a major leap forward in the field and is well suited to meet the needs of an epidemic in the US, its potential benefits in FMD endemic regions may be limited as a result of, for example, its storage requirements. However, the empty capsid, or viruslike particle (VLP), strategy could be exploited in a different way: in place of producing recombinant virus with the aim of generating the VLPs in vivo following immunization, empty capsids can be synthesized in vitro as a vaccine antigen. Until recently, the problem with this approach was the cellular toxicity of FMDV 3C protein, leading to low/variable yields of capsid; we now know that yields of serotype O and A capsid from mammalian cells can be markedly improved through limiting the expression of 3C relative to P1-2A by a variety of means (Gullberg, Muszynski et al. 2013, Polacek, Gullberg et al. 2013). Using a novel construct encoding FMDV A P1-2A, with 3C frame-shifted to reduce its activity, researchers from the Pirbright Institute extended these findings into insect cells, where a high level of FMDV serotype A empty capsid expression was achieved with minimal toxicity.Importantly, the capsids produced were recognised by sera from both infected and vaccinated cattle (Porta, Xu et al. 2013). The same group then showed that by incorporating a mutation designed to stabilize the capsids during exposure to heat or low pH, they could produce a commercially-viable vaccine candidate able to induce strong humoral responses in cattle and sustained protection from challenge (Porta, Kotecha et al. 2013). This approach could prove revolutionary for the production of FMDV vaccines in a safe and costeffective way. Their efficacy in susceptible species other than cattle remains to be evaluated, and it will be necessary to understand their stimulation of non-humoral aspects of the immune response in order to fully optimize their design and formulation.Several other groups have also shown promising results using various VLP strategies: FMDV Asia 1 capsids produced in E. coli protected cattle and swine from challenge, and stimulated FMDV-specific T-cell proliferation and IFN-γ secretion in cattle (Guo, Sun et al. 2013); using mammalian cells grown in suspension culture may also prove an easily scalable method of empty capsid production for FMDV vaccines (Mignaqui, Ruiz et al. 2013). Furthermore, targeted modifications to the FMDV capsid sequence can render vaccine viruses more stable as well as facilitating their adaptation to tissue culture, for example, introducing lysine at VP1-110 significantly enhanced cell culture adaptation of the virus which has the potential to enable vaccine manufacture of an increased range of strains (Berryman, Clark et al. 2013).Groups working in Japan have recently begun to explore the possibility of using chimeric plant viruses engineered to contain short viral sequences as a safe way to produce vaccines. Li et al showed that a 9 amino acid sequence from FMDV VP1 could be expressed on the surface of apple latent spherical virus and produced in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. The same strategy applied to expressing epitopes from zucchini yellow mosaic virus induced specific antibody responses in immunized rabbits (Li, Yamagishi et al. 2014), and thus may warrant further attention.Alongside novel methods of subunit vaccine production, advances in our understanding of how best to design such vaccines also hold promise. A study in mice has highlighted the importance of the conformation and valency of the epitopes used: following previous work showing that dendrimeric B cell/T cell fusion peptides induced superior B and T cell responses and better protection compared to their linear counterparts, this study went on to reveal that fewer copies of the B cell epitope could be at least as effective as more copies, and that the inclusion of an optimally oriented T cell epitope was important for immunogenicity (Blanco, Cubillos et al. 2013). In target species, we are some way from a parallel level of knowledge, but progress is being made, notably towards the definition of predicted CD8 T cell epitopes in swine (Liao, Lin et al. 2013), which as seen above may be a valuable addition to the vaccine-stimulated anti-FMDV response.An interesting approach to vaccine design involves immunising with a recombinant live attenuated Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) expressing the VP1 gene from FMDV. In goats this strategy successfully stimulated both neutralising antibodies to PPRV and enabled protection from virulent FMDV challenge after a single vaccination (Yin, Chen et al. 2014). While unconventional, the potential economic advantages of a dual vaccine are undeniable, and this study highlights the power of using the PPRV as an internal live viral adjuvant which may serve to elevate the anti-VP1 response to a protective level in sheep and goats, usually unattainable with conventional subunit vaccines.A major challenge in vaccine design is the move away from needle-based administration systems.Given the importance of inhalation as a route of transmission of FMDV, and the known importance of the local mucosal immune response for rapid protection, FMD is in fact a good candidate for an effective intra-nasal or even oral vaccine. Researchers working in Korea orally administered recombinant FMDV VP1 conjugated to Co1, a peptide mimic of bacterial cell wall components, which targets the protein conjugate to M cells of the intestinal Peyer's patches, the gateway to mucosal lymphoid tissue, to enhance its immune-stimulatory capacity. While protection assays were not included, an enhanced VP1-specific IgG and IgA response was evident in the mice, both in the mucosa and systemically, relative to VP1-alone treatment (Kim, Lee et al. 2013). Similarly, Iranian scientists have shown that the inclusion of inactivated FMDV into chitosan nanoparticles for intra-nasal application is effective in guinea pig models, particularly in terms of inducing high levels of mucosal IgA production (Tajdini, Amini et al. 2014). Further improvements might be made by targeting the chitosan nanoparticles to antigen-presenting cells within the mucosa via their mannose receptors: guinea pigs intra-nasally immunized with mannosylated chitosan nanoparticles containing a plasmid encoding FMDV VP1, mounted strong FMDV-specific IgA responses in the nasal mucosa and exhibited 60% protection from challenge (compared to 80% from conventional vaccine) (Nanda, Hajam et al. 2014). Little work has been done on needle-free administration of mucosal-targeted vaccines in natural host species of FMDV. While any studies in non-natural target species must be interpreted cautiously, the strategies noted above are novel, rational and warrant serious consideration for evaluation and optimisation in susceptible livestock species.The adjuvant field is appropriately an area of much active research, but it must be borne in mind that murine immune systems differ profoundly to those of target species, as does their response to the artificially forced FMDV challenge used to evaluate protection. As well as evaluation in target species and comparison with commercial vaccine, qualitative aspects of the induced response should be studied in order to understand their correlation with the speed, robustness and longevity of protection from challenge. Physiologically-relevant adjuvants should be preferred for this reason, as opposed to synthetic/non-specific immune stimulants or those originating from non-viral pathogens, which risk sub-optimal polarization of the immune system.The adjuvant research field has expanded dramatically in recent years with an increasing appreciation that the agents added to vaccines have not only the potential to magnify the immune response to the target antigen, but to shape the intricacies of the long-lived response to the immunizing agent. As seen above, the quality of the response can be just as important as the quantity when determining long-term protection from disease.Several studies in mice have tested different adjuvants to FMDV vaccines and reported a level of success, though the extent to which this is translatable to natural FMD target species remains to be seen. Combining oral adjuvants with conventional FMDV vaccination is potentially attractive, and a study in mice fed a plant-derived polysaccharide from Radix Cyathulae officinalis Kuan and also given conventional FMDV vaccine, saw significantly higher FMDV-specific antibody titres, increased frequency of CD4 + IL-2, IFNγ and IL-4 producing cells, and decreased frequencies of T-regulatory cells compared to conventional FMDV vaccine-treated animals (Feng, Du et al. 2013). Similar results have been produced by the same group using different antigens in mice (Feng, Du et al. 2014). While no challenge data are available, the detailed characterization of the ensuing immune response to the vaccine is encouraging on a number of levels, and coupled with the advantages of oral administration of a natural product, warrants further investigation in appropriate animal species.Using Toll-like Receptor (TLR) ligands as adjuvants to stimulate antigen-presenting cells is a popular approach, and there is some evidence that Poly I:C, a mimic of a virus-derived TLR3 ligand, can significantly increase cellular and humoral immune responses and reduce inter-individual variation in protection in pigs when combined with a multi-epitope subunit FMDV vaccine (Cao, Lu et al. 2013),supporting their earlier data in mice (Cao, Lu et al. 2012) responses in mice (Gungor, Yagci et al. 2014). The nanoring concept is clearly distant from application to commercially available FMDV vaccines at this stage, but may prove a useful tool for understanding the impact of differential antigen targeting upon ensuing immune responses, and therefore to rational design of improved vaccines and adjuvants in the FMD field.Many adjuvants will increase the magnitude of some aspect of the immune response, and may also increase the speed of induction, but the polarizing effects on the immune system are often overlooked and ill-understood. Using physiologically relevant adjuvants possesses the advantage that the immune response that's enhanced should also be of the \"right\" type to counter the viral threat. For example, the cytokine IL-2 may deserve investigation as an immune-stimulating addition to FMDV vaccines (Chen, Zeng et al. 2014), perhaps to increase the speed of onset of adaptive immunity in an outbreak situation. Of particular interest, one study assessed the potential of using small synthetic RNAs of the FMDV IRES as a novel adjuvant to two inactivated FMDV vaccine formulations in mice, and found that VNT were consistently higher in IRES-adjuvanted groups, that the onset of neutralising antibody was faster, and mean viraemia was lower following challenge (Borrego, Rodriguez-Pulido et al. 2013). In many ways this, or similar, strategies could represent the ultimate in rationally-designed adjuvants.Using a highly immune-stimulatory component of the live virus itself, in a non-infectious form, accompanied by inactivated FMDV protein shells should not only increase the magnitude of the immune response, but will go some way towards ensuring that the vaccine-induced response is a closer match to that induced by live virus, and needed for protection against the same threat.Combining adjuvants aims to achieve a similar improvement to the tailoring of the response, and several publications have shown synergistic effects: both plant-derived adjuvants, in this case Rapeseed Oil and Ginseng Saponins (Zhang, Wang et al. 2014), and the synthetic TLR7/8 ligand R848and poly I:C combined with traditional aluminium hydroxide-adjuvanted vaccine (Zhou, Li et al. 2014) have shown promise. Potential differences in receptor expression amongst immune cells and in the fundamental processes of immunity between inbred laboratory mice and outbred cattle, pigs or sheep, for example, render it impossible to predict the extent to which such results are translatable between species, though the approach is certainly of interest. The adjuvant field is appropriately an area of much active research, but it must be borne in mind that murine immune systems differ profoundly to those of target species, as does their response to the artificially forced FMDV challenge used to evaluate protection. As well as evaluation in target species and comparison with commercial vaccine, qualitative aspects of the induced response should be studied in order to understand their correlation with the speed, robustness and longevity of protection from challenge. Physiologically-relevant adjuvants should be preferred for this reason, as opposed to synthetic/non-specific immune stimulants or those originating from non-viral pathogens, which risk sub-optimal polarization of the immune system.An obstacle to the use of vaccines during outbreaks in FMD-free countries is the subsequent inability to differentiate infected-recovered animals from vaccinates that also test positively for FMDV-specific antibodies. Conventional vaccines have traditionally relied on the absence of antibodies to viral NS proteins to enable differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA), but this relies on every infected animal making the anti-NS response, and zero contamination of the vaccine with NS proteins.A marker vaccine with a deletion within FMDV 3A may offer some improvement (Li, Lu et al. 2014).However, this strategy similarly relies on 100% response rate of infected animals to the deleted region of 3A. The use of attenuated non-transmissible deletion mutants appears equally effective and far less risky in terms of accidental release (Uddowla, Hollister et al. 2012), similar to the newly-licensed US vaccine, further increasing the attractiveness of such approaches.Methods for assessing the quality of FMD vaccines are well established and internationally accepted (European pharmacopoeia 2012, OIE 2015). However, there is always the potential to improve existing methods and research is ongoing.A recent investigation of locally-produced and imported FMD vaccines available in Pakistan revealed alarming differences in quality (Jamal, Shah et al. 2013), clearly illustrating the importance and need for effective quality control in the vaccine-manufacturing process. However, advances in vaccine technology mean that state-of-the art methods for antigen production, purification and formulation may be technically and/or economically out-of-reach for some endemic countries. Scientists working at the Pirbright Institute have engineered a recombinant FMDV expressing the influenza haemaglutinin protein and a FLAG tag, either of which can be used to cheaply and easy purify virus from infected cell cultures (Seago, Jackson et al. 2012). Coupled with appropriate quality control measures, improved methods enabling the rapid and effective purification of FMDV for vaccine production purposes could markedly improve control in endemic areas in a short time span and their development should be supported. Routine independent evaluation of vaccine batch quality is fundamental to all successful vaccination programmes and needs to be promoted.The quantity of intact viral capsid present in dose of vaccine is critical for immunity. Novel approaches have been developed to improve the measurement of capsid stability, something traditionally difficult to assess (Thermoflor assay, PaSTRy: Particle Stability Thermal Release Assay). As well as the assessment of vaccine quality, these methods will aid the study of determinants of capsid stability, highly relevant to vaccine development (Walter, Ren et al. 2012, Seago 2014). Quantification of vaccine antigen content using specific Llama antibodies has also shown promise (Perez-Martin 2014).An important measure of the quality of a vaccine is the vaccine potency test, which aims to measure protective power and ensure between-batch consistency. Traditional potency tests required direct challenge of a limited number of animals to measure the protection of a given vaccine or vaccine batch, but this approach is time-consuming, expensive, and may not predict protective power in the field (Goris, Merkelbach-Peters et al. 2007, Knight-Jones, Edmond et al. 2014). Alternative approaches continue to be explored and are used routinely in some regions: modifying the OIE challenge test procedures could make it possible to reduce the number of animals used with minimal losses of sensitivity or specificity (Reeve, Cox et al. 2011). Attempts to correlate bovine serological responses to vaccine protection have potential and are increasingly used for batch quality evaluation, murine responses may also be of use (Molin-Capeti, Sepulveda et al. 2013). The newly-licensed Ad5-vectored FMD vaccine is, by its nature, highly amenable to in vitro testing for batch potency and inter-batch consistency. In parallel with development of the vaccine, researchers at PIADC have defined a panel of tests including traditional modified-live vaccine virus infectivity assays, coupled with liquid chromatography and several immune-chemical assays, that may have the potential to replace live animal potency testing for this vaccine (Brake, McIlhaney et al. 2012).Various in vitro methods of estimating cross-protection against heterologous strains have beenproposed, but a recent study concluded that only the liquid-phase blocking ELISA offered sufficient reliability and accuracy to be a serious consideration (Tekleghiorghis, Weerdmeester et al. 2014). That said, in vitro methods proved valuable in understanding a lack, or loss, of vaccine mediated protection during outbreaks of divergent strains in Ecuador between 2008 and 2011 (Maradei, Perez Beascoechea et al. 2011, Maradei, Malirat et al. 2013). Furthermore there are data to suggest that in vitro matching using IgG subtypes and avidity tests may perform better than the traditional r1 value tests (Lavoria, Di-Giacomo et al. 2012, Brito, Perez et al. 2014); but while genetic sequencing should be able to predict antigenic sites, and therefore vaccine matching, a recent study using serotype A FMDV concluded that this approach was insufficiently reliable (Ludi, Horton et al. 2014).Overall, a widespread move from large animal challenge experiments towards in vivo laboratory models or in vitro assays to predict vaccine potency is not imminent, particularly in the case of animals less well-studied than cattle, such as buffalo (Madhanmohan, Yuvaraj et al. 2014), or goats and sheep (Madhanmohan, Nagendrakumar et al. 2012), where live challenge remains the gold standard.However, further careful exploration of possibility of using small animal models, or of reduced numbers of large animals (Reeve, Blignaut et al. 2010, Reeve, Cox et al. 2011), and defining the most appropriate surrogate measures for in vitro assay should move us closer toward this goal in the near future (Reeve, Blignaut et al. 2010, Reeve, Cox et al. 2011).It has become apparent in recent years that while laboratory controlled infections of vaccinated animals are well-accepted, they are typically variable, under-powered (Goris, Merkelbach-Peters et al. 2007) and poorly recapitulate many aspects of field infections. Hence, there has been increasing interest in the evaluation of actual protection achieved under field conditions (Knight-Jones, Edmond et al. 2014). This is an important, but neglected, area as while different approaches have been investigated, further assessment of their strengths and weaknesses is required before a standardized approach can be adopted (Muleme, Barigye et al. 2012, Elnekave, Li et al. 2013, Knight-Jones, Bulut et al. 2014). Again, the measurement of serological parameters has proven particularly useful when comparing the field efficacy of different vaccination schedules, in this case during the FMD outbreak in Korea in 2010/2011 (Lee, Lee et al. 2013).The vaccine research and development field continues to be well investigated by numerous institutes around the world. The FLI have also been working towards the FMD-DISCONVAC project, carrying out several crossprotection studies using conventional monovalent serotype A vaccines. Overall, while challenge virus specific VNT titres correlated well with protection, they uncovered evidence that some recent isolates from the Middle East cannot be covered by the high potency A vaccines that previously did provide sufficiently broad cross-protection. In addition, the FLI is testing the potential of viral vectors expressing different combinations of FMDV proteins to be used as novel vaccine candidates, with animal challenge experiments planned for the most promising candidates.The University of Glasgow is heavily involved in developing strategies to increase the effectiveness of vaccination against FMDV, with focus on India. In particular, they aim to: define improved tools for vaccine strain selection via reverse genetics and modelling approaches; to determine whether crossserotype protective antibodies can be induced, and to characterise them; and to develop new approaches to monitor FMDV infections within cattle populations to trace virus circulation and permit measurement of vaccine effectiveness. In addition, the possibility of improving FMDV vaccine The National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLIRRI) in Uganda is planning a set of studies defining important cellular and humoral immune parameters in the response to conventional vaccine across a range of relevant species, including cattle, goats, sheep and pigs. In particular they will focus on the impact of age and breed in determining the magnitude and quality of response.In South Africa, the OVI is involved in a multi-site project with the University of Glasgow, The Pirbright Institute and SACIDS (Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease), aiming to develop improved indirect and informatics-based methods of vaccine matching with field strains. This interesting approach uses mathematical predictions of protective B cell epitopes, based on genetic and structural data and in vitro assays, with which to compare vaccine and field viruses and thereby predict the extent of shared antigenicity. Associated work has also highlighted qualitative differences between assays often used interchangeably to determine antigenic match between field viruses and vaccine strains, which is an unresolved issue for effective vaccine strain selection. An approach to overcome the impact of viral antigenic drift is also being developed in conjunction with PIADC, which may enable molecular \"fine tuning\" of vaccine strains to improve their protective power in the field. A second project aimed at improving current vaccine production strategies is also underway, in collaboration with Wellcome Trust Consortium scientists, in Oxford, UK. Through structural modifications to the virus, substantial improvements in thermal stability and cell-culture adaptation have been made, which may overcome pressing problems in the conventional manufacturing process, particularly for SAT serotype FMDV. Planned trials in cattle will assess immunogenicity, efficacy and shelf life of the newly-engineered vaccines.The Pirbright Institute plan to employ reverse genetics approaches (capsid switching, partial capsid switching and site-directed mutagenesis), to understand the relationship between serological crossreactivity, capsid amino acid sequence conservation and capsid structure. They will trial the strategy of combining heterologous serotype A vaccine strains in an attempt to improve antigenic cover against a third heterologous strain, in conjunction with Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL) in Hyderabad.PIADC is involved in a suite of collaborative and independent research projects aimed at improving understanding of the vaccinal immune response, the development of novel vaccines, and approaches to overcome the limitations of conventional vaccines/their production. With the University of Vermont, Canada, the impact of breed-specific responses to FMDV are being incorporated into a strategy to accelerate the development of improved vaccines, and alongside, data are being collected on the impact of bovine leucocyte antigen sub-type on responses to the human adenovirus-vectored FMD vaccine developed by PIADC. With scientists at Australia's CSIRO-AAHL, PIADC aims to understand the optimal vaccination protocols for sheep, and to define the appropriate challenge conditions with which to test emergency vaccines in this species.In a separate development, ARS scientists at the PIADC have engineered a recombinant vaccine seed virus (the FMD-LL3B3D platform) to improve safety in case of virus escape from the production facility.This virus can replicate in cell culture but is attenuated in cattle and swine; moreover the deletion of selected epitopes from the virus should allow the development of companion tests enabling DIVA.Importantly, relevant capsid sequences can be substituted into the chimeric virus seed to provide immunity against different strains. This engineered vaccine seed is then used to produce inactivated vaccine in the conventional way. This new vaccine technology has been transferred to Zoetis and is currently under development with the support of ARS scientists. Chimeric vaccines, such as the FMD-LL3B3D, represent another promising avenue for the production of improved FMD vaccines.The University of Wageningen in the Netherlands is conducting a set of studies that are linking the antibody response and protection induced by conventional FMD vaccines with vaccine dose and antigen concentration, as well as mode of administration. The sensitivity of response to the composition of the vaccine in particular has highlighted the risk of generalising results between vaccines from different manufacturers, the impact of which has been under-estimated until now. They are also concerned with developing reliable in vitro assays that correlate immune parameters (such as serology, measurement of IFN-γ release, capacity of sera to promote FcR-mediated FMDV For a summary of research updates from contributing institutions, see appended Table 2.The use of FMD virus-like particles as a vaccine has the potential to revolutionise the production of effective FMDV vaccines in a safe and cost-effective way. However, their efficacy in species other than cattle is incompletely defined, as are their effects on non-humoral aspects of the immune response.Several novel adjuvanting or vectoring strategies for various FMD vaccines also show promise but will require further testing in target species under physiological challenge conditions. Whilst convenient and cheap, the use of murine systems may need to be de-emphasised in light of accumulating data on relevant differences between their immune systems and those of natural FMD target species. In addition, the importance of qualitative aspects of the response to FMDV infection and vaccination, such as the characteristics of non-neutralising antibodies, or the immunoglobulin isotype ratio induced, must be recognized, and these parameters should be included during the evaluation of novel adjuvants or vaccines. To provide meaningful reference, conventional vaccine should be included alongside any novel approach in all studies.Improved methods enabling the rapid and effective purification of FMDV for conventional vaccine production are under development which, if rolled out widely, could improve control in endemic areas within a relatively short time.Some studies have begun to indicate possible ways of using needle-free strategies to induce protective mucosal responses to FMDV vaccines, but further study of mucosal immunity in target species (perhaps requiring the development of additional tools), both in general and in relation to FMD, will be required to realise the potential of this strategy.Despite much effort, reliable immune correlates of protection remain to be identified. An absence of standardised approaches to vaccination and challenge is likely to have contributed to this problem, and should be addressed as a matter of urgency, ideally in collaboration with the OIE, for example, to ensure widespread uptake of recommendations in future studies.Predicting vaccine matching with emerging field strains remains a challenge.Control of FMD in endemic regions would be markedly assisted by improving formulation of quality controlled vaccines and reagents to extend shelf life and reduce cost, thereby improving availability and efficacy.Lack of independent evaluation of vaccine quality is a major deficiency that holds back many control programmes.Priority research aims stated were to:1. Testing Ad5-IFN distribution and expression in cattle after aerosol exposure 2.Evaluate the ability of Ad5-type I IFN platform to confer rapid onset of protection (18 hr) against several FMD serotypes and subtypesVaccines as a primary line of defence suffer from the unavoidable weakness that the vertebrate adaptive immune system needs time, at least 7 days from the first inoculation, in order to mount a potentially protective antibody and/or T cell response. In an outbreak situation, this gap may be bridged by the application of rapid, short-acting biotherapeutics aiming either to stimulate a nonspecific anti-viral state in the animal, or to specifically inhibit a part of the viral life cycle for sufficient time to allow a vaccine to become available, or until the response to the vaccine grows sufficiently strong.Replication-defective human adenovirus 5 (Ad5) has attracted much interest as a potential vector for  (Windsor, Carr et al. 2011), which remains to be fully understood in terms of species-specific mechanisms of immunity.Though effective, impractically high doses of the Ad5-vectored interferons are likely to be required for their direct applicability to outbreak control in the field. Accordingly, several modifications to the approach have been attempted to increase potency; instead of incorporating the sequence for the interferon itself into Ad5, encoding a constitutively-active transcription factor targeting type I IFN induced high levels of IFNα production in mice, and protection from FMDV challenge as soon as 6 hours post-treatment, which lasted for approximately 4 days (Ramirez-Carvajal, Diaz-San Segundo et al. 2014). Treatment of pigs with stabilised poly I:C combined with replication-defective adenovirus encoding IFNα was also effective in inducing sterile immunity to A serotype FMDV, and at high doses the stabilized poly I:C alone could stimulate high levels of Type I IFN production in vivo and protect from disease (Dias, Moraes et al. 2012). Data in mice indicate that including IFNγ in tandem with IFNα in the recombinant adenoviral vector, and exploiting FMDV 2A to cleave the two cytokines after transcription, might be more effective in preventing FMD than either protein singly (Kim, Kim et al. 2014), which would be easily tested in swine. Taking a different route, exchanging the Ad5 vector for Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus empty replicon particles encoding porcine IFNα protects porcine cell lines from infection by FMDV, as well as rendering mice resistant to lethal challenge 24 hours postadministration (Diaz-San Segundo, Dias et al. 2013).An alternative interferon-related target is interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3), which is an antiviral effector of the innate immune system that has been recently characterised in swine. Inducing expression of sIFITM3 in BHK cells blocked FMDV infection at the point of entry, and sub-cutaneous inoculation of suckling mice with a plasmid encoding sIFITM3 was able to protect against lethal challenge at 48 hours post-administration (Xu, Qian et al. 2014). Direct treatment with small synthetic RNA sequences from the FMDV IRES or 3' non-coding region of FMDV at the same time as pathogen inoculation was also able to protect suckling mice from lethal challenge with Rift Valley Fever Virus (Lorenzo, Rodriguez-Pulido et al. 2014), highlighting the potential utility of the strategy using either FMDV or unrelated viral sequences, which is yet to be tested as a biotherapeutic in FMDV infection While the potential benefits of biotherapeutics are clear, their integration into epidemic control strategies in the field remains untested. As immune-modulators, they have the potential to both positively and negatively impact immune responses to pathogens: to illustrate, there is evidence from swine and mice that high levels of type I IFN early in viral infection may be involved in supressing the T cell response (Summerfield, Alves et al. 2006, Langellotti, Quattrocchi et al. 2012) and therefore it cannot be assumed that the application of IFNα-based biotherapeutics, prior to, or concurrent with a conventional vaccine will not adversely impact the response to that vaccine.Previous work at PIADC ago that showed that porcine IFN-α enhanced protective immune responses to FMDV in pigs vaccinated with a replication-defective adenovirus containing FMDV capsid and 3Cproteinase coding regions (Ad5-A24) (de Avila Botton, Brum et al. 2006). The interaction of immune-modulating biotherapeutics with the ensuing proposed vaccine must be addressed as a matter of urgency, with particular emphasis on detailed characterisation of both qualitative and quantitative effects on the quality and duration of the immune response in key target species.Non-immune-modulating biotherapeutics have been less explored, but may also hold promise.Harnessing the host's own transcriptional silencing mechanisms to prevent FMDV genome replication has been attempted with limited success using short-interfering RNAs, but micro-RNAs may hold more promise. A plasmid encoding dual miRNAs targeting the IRES region proved able to delay or prevent death in suckling mice when co-administered with high doses of FMDV from multiple serotypes. (Chang, Dou et al. 2014).Moreover, the many and varied roles of FMDV 3Cpro make it an attractive target for pharmacological inhibition, and a recent study both designed an improved cell-based assay to test candidate compounds and used it to identify AG7088 (Rupintrivir) as a potent 3C inhibitor (van der Linden, Ulferts et al. 2014). This is particularly interesting as Rupintrivir was originally developed by Pfizer as an aerosolised treatment for the common cold in humans, and therefore may prove amenable to further development as an intra-nasal biotherapeutic to impede the early stages of FMDV infection in outbreak situations.CODA has a program of research targeting discovery of anti-FMDV biotherapeutics with which to supplement current outbreak control measures. They have found three different classes of anti-viral compounds are active against FMDV in both guinea pigs and immunodeficient mice. One compound underwent several rounds of modification and retesting that produced lead compounds active against the FMDV protease 2C, and inhibited the early phases of replication of the virus. However, technical limitations have precluded further development of these compounds for large-scale use. In contrast, high-throughput screening of 65,000 small molecules revealed three compound classes active against multiple serotypes of FMDV in vitro that could be easily and cheaply manufactured on large scales.Preliminary studies in guinea pigs and mice are ongoing.The IVRI are interested in the potential use of small interfering RNA (siRNA) as an antiviral strategy applicable to FMDV control. Four siRNA sequences targeting FMDV 3Cpro have been designed and show efficacy in reducing FMDV replication in vitro. Alongside, IVRI plan to exploit the adenoviral delivery system to develop and test IFN α and λ based therapeutics for early FMD control.INTA are also interested in the possibility of using RNA interference (RNAi)-based antivirals to control FMDV, but with a focus on artificial microRNAs, which may offer a safer means of intervention than the use of short-hairpin RNAs or small-interfering RNAs which have previously been proven effective against FMDV replication in culture.Scientists working at PIADC are focusing their biotherapeutics research on immune-modulators, particularly those able to induce NK cell activity, such as IL-15. However, as little is known of the precise role of NK cells during FMDV infection of cattle or pigs, work will be conducted to characterise the function of NK cells in the early stages of infection of these species. New reagents will be generated to assist this work, and biotherapeutics will undergo testing both in vitro and in vivo.For a summary of research updates from contributing institutions, see appended Table 2.In 2010, the use of adenovirus to vector IFNα (Ad5-IFNα) into hosts and induce short-lived non-specific protection from FMDV appeared promising. It now seems that Ad5-IFNα alone is insufficiently potent for use in outbreak situations. However, studies combining Ad5-IFNα with an additional immune stimulator reveal some potential, as does Ad5 encoding an IFN-stimulating transcription factor in place of IFNα. Substituting Type III IFN into the Ad5 vector appears more effective, particularly in cattle, and warrants further investigation.An area of urgent unmet research need is the potential interaction of immune-modulating biotherapeutics with the response to the ensuing proposed vaccine. Before their use in the field, we must know how expression of large amounts of these innate immune cytokines affects both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the immune response in target species. For example, high levels of IFNα can adversely impact the magnitude of T cell responses, which in the case of FMD vaccination, could preclude the formation of sufficient immunity to confer protection from disease.Non immunological, small molecule inhibitors of FMDV 3Cpro have been identified, but remain to be tested in target species in vivo.RNA interference-based strategies are also being explored, though their suitability for upscaling to the levels required in outbreak situations has yet to be assessed. More generally, the integration of biotherapeutics into existing emergency measures similarly remains to be achieved.to be a sudden need to conduct large numbers of tests on critically short timescales (Paton and King 2013).To facilitate strain typing, RT-PCR methods have been developed that can rapidly amplify the capsidcoding region of the FMDV genome (Le, Lee et al. 2012, Xu, Hurtle et al. 2013); another novel RT-PCR used minor groove binder technology for the detection of FMD of all serotypes (McKillen, McMenamy et al. 2011). The Pirbright Institute have recently reported the development of serotype specific rRT-PCR assays for FMDV strains circulating in the Middle East (Reid, Mioulet et al. 2014), which was highlighted as a research priority in the 2010 GFRA Gap Analysis.A number of RNA detection assays targeting the FMDV genome have been developed using reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), with some detecting single serotypes and others multiple (Chen, Zhang et al. 2011, Madhanmohan, Nagendrakumar et al. 2013, Yamazaki, Mioulet et al. 2013, Ding, Zhou et al. 2014, Kasanga, Yamazaki et al. 2014). RT-LAMP was faster, simpler, more cost-effective and at least as sensitive and specific as RT-PCR. Furthermore, it has been successfully used in a portable platform to allow rapid diagnosis in the field (Abd El Wahed, El-Deeb et al. 2013).The development of RT-LAMP represents an important breakthrough that will enable increased usage and access to molecular diagnostics.A number of studies describe the generation of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies for use in FMD immuno-assays (Lin, Li et al. 2011, Chen, Peng et al. 2012, Cho, Jo et al. 2012). One paper described FMDV antigen detection using a novel direct ELISA that outperformed the conventional indirect ELISA (Morioka, Fukai et al. 2014). Superior serotype specificity was also obtained in a sandwich ELISA using recombinant integrin αvβ6 as a capture ligand and serotype-specific monoclonal antibodies as detecting reagents (Ferris, Grazioli et al. 2011). Another study developed a recombinant single chain variable fragment as an alternative to immunoglobulins and applied it as a detection agent in an ELISA (Sridevi, Shukra et al. 2014).Conventional tests for antibodies recognizing FMDV structural proteins, which are raised in abundance after vaccination or infection, use detection antigens derived from live virus which requires specialized bio-safety level 3 facilities to produce safely. The use of recombinant technology as an alternative source of test antigens showed promise in several studies (Ko, Lee et al. 2012, Basagoudanavar, Hosamani et al. 2013, Wong, Sieo et al. 2013). One study supported the use of the solid phase competition ELISA for FMDV structural protein antibody detection (Li, Swabey et al. 2012). Several publications described the development of in-house tests for the detection of viral NSP-specific antibodies, the basis of most DIVA assays (Jaworski, Compaired et al. 2011, Gao, Zhang et al. 2012, Sharma, Mohapatra et al. 2012, Srisombundit, Tungthumniyom et al. 2013, Biswal, Jena et al. 2014, Mohapatra, Mohapatra et al. 2014), including a Luminex assay (Chen, Lee et al. 2013). But regardless of the test used, relying on the detection of anti-NSP antibodies to detect infection in vaccinated populations is imperfect, as vaccinated cattle may occasionally sero-convert, particularly after repeated vaccination and persistently infected cattle with localised rather than systemic infection may not develop a detectable NSP antibody. Thus certifying freedom in vaccinated populations based on NSP sero-surveillance comes with an element of uncertainty.Next generation sequencing technologies have emerged that allow sequencing of not only the predominant sequence but also minority variants present within a single sample. This technology has been used to explore within-host virus evolution and selection in a way not previously possible (Wright, Morelli et al. 2011, King, Madi et al. 2012), substantially advancing our knowledge of FMDV population dynamics within the animal. Molecular and genetic technologies play a central role in our ever expanding knowledge of virus ecology and transmission.Besides RT-LAMP, mentioned above, developments in pen-side diagnostics include the evaluation of a portable real-time PCR amplification platform (Madi, Hamilton et al. 2012). Another study described a high-speed quantitative PCR assay which provided results in <30mins (Wernike, Beer et al. 2013), which could be a substantial advantage in the urgency of an outbreak situation. Variations of the lateral flow device were produced, including one for the detection of vesicular stomatitis (Lin, Shao et al. 2011, Ferris, Clavijo et al. 2012, Yang, Goolia et al. 2013). The use of thermal imaging to assess hoof temperature for the early detection of FMD was found to be of limited accuracy (Gloster, Ebert et al. 2011). Progress has been made in the field of rapid diagnostics, but further advances would be beneficial, particularly for methods that allow strain typing.A multiplex RT-PCR assay, combined with microarray typing, was used to detect and type all serotypes of FMDV and vesicular stomatitis virus in one test protocol (Lung, Fisher et al. 2011). Another multiplex PCR assay was able to screen samples for six different porcine pathogens that can present with similar clinical signs [including FMD] (Wernike, Hoffmann et al. 2013).The use of cotton ropes as a means of obtaining oral fluid samples from pigs was found to have reasonable sensitivity (Vosloo, Morris et al. 2013). Similar results were found for rope-in-a-bait as of humane way of getting saliva samples from wild boar (Mouchantat, Haas et al. 2014). These approaches could be employed to address both feasibility and welfare considerations in regular sampling protocols, particularly those involving wildlife. An evaluation of oral swabs versus probang sampling found that early viraemia could be detected by both sampling methods in pigs and cattle, though persistent infection in FMDV carrier cattle could only be detected using probang samples (Stenfeldt, Lohse et al. 2013). Furthermore tonsil swabbing seems to be high effective at isolating virus in persistently infected African buffalo (Juleff, unpublished).A clear global picture of the distributions and movements of FMD strains within and between regions and countries is lacking. This is due to limited diagnostic capacity and sampling in many endemic countries (Namatovu, Wekesa et al. 2013). Cost and complexity present a barrier for the wider use of many of the diagnostic techniques mentioned above in developing countries: although there is no immediate solution to this problem, pen-side devices have proved useful, RT-LAMP promises to make molecular diagnostics simpler and more economical, and there is the prospect that sequencing technologies will also likely become more affordable in the future (King, Madi et al. 2012). In FMDfree countries, early detection of infection is critical and further developments in pen-side tests and pre-clinical diagnostics are needed (Paton and King 2013).The Pirbright Institute is active in several areas of FMD diagnostic development, many mentioned in the above literature review (pen-side PCR, RT-LAMP, next generation sequencing, etc…). In collaboration with IZSLER, researchers are working on the development of new monoclonal antibody based assays for use in commercial tests. Cost, complexity and biosafety requirements of current tests (antibody and antigen) present a barrier to some countries wishing to perform more FMD diagnostics.LVRI in China have a similar diagnostic research interest to The Pirbright Institute, and have developed two rapid pen-side tests in the form of a NSP immunochromatographic strip and a Dot-plot kit.CODA is also working on ELISA tests for laboratories with limited facilities. In addition, within the FMD-DISCONVAC project, they have performed validation studies on the IgA and NSP ELISAs as DIVA tests and worked on Luminex assays. Like other laboratories they are active in twinning programmes to assist laboratories in endemic countries.In Argentina, both INTA and CEVAN have done research to improve the use of serology in estimation of vaccine protection and immunity, as well as for detection of infection. When mass vaccination is used but disease is not present, field evaluation of vaccine protection has to rely on immune correlates and not natural challenge.In Australia, CSIRO-AAHL has worked on diagnostic capacity in readiness of an FMD incursion. In New Zealand, AHL-NZ (Animal Health Laboratory -New Zealand) have performed evaluation studies for FMD diagnostics in red deer, which are farmed in large numbers and could play an important role should an outbreak occur.The University of Glasgow's work includes the use as milk for NSP tests, PCR and virus sequencing to assess population burden of infection. In addition they are interested in assessment of vaccine effectiveness in the field and the development of diagnostics in East Africa. FLI have looked into noninvasive sampling methods, such as baited swab sampling of wild boar and air sampling for pre-clinical detection in cattle. They have also worked on various aspects aiming to optimise FMD diagnostics, including virus inactivation by nucleic acid extraction buffers.The IVRI has looked at the use of a baculovirus expression system to produce the 3ABC protein for use in NSP tests without the need for live virus. Wageningen have also looked at NSP tests, assessing alternatives to the current commercial tests and studying the timing of NSP antibody responses after infection or vaccination in cattle and small ruminants.Although initial findings at The Pirbright Institute indicated that the use of thermography for early FMD detection may not be promising, further evaluation of the technology continues at other sites, including PIADC. Plum Island have also developed a multiplex RT-LAMP that can simultaneously test and screen for FMD and Vesicular Stomatitis. In addition they are trying to produce inexpensive diagnostic kits for sub-Saharan Africa.Priority research aims stated were to:1. Identify determinants of viral virulence for different serotypes of FMDV in cattle, sheep, and swine 2.Investigate virus-host interactions at the primary sites of infection in ruminants and their role in determining infection 3. Determine the early events in FMDV pathogenesis in swine and small ruminants (i.e., primary site of replication, mechanisms of spread)In part, our relative lack of understanding of the events occurring during and immediately following the host's initial exposure to the virus reflects the ongoing need for reliable and reproducible methods to simulate natural infection under laboratory conditions. In pigs, two simulated-natural inoculation systems were recently developed and tested: intra-oropharyngeal inoculation gave consistent and synchronous infections and was preferred over intra-nasopharyngeal administration, which was more variable. The same study also highlighted the likely importance of the oropharyngeal tonsils in early infection of swine (Stenfeldt, Pacheco et al. 2014). In cattle, administering FMDV-A24 either into the tongue epithelium or by aerosol, confirmed data from O serotype viruses that initial replication occurs in the nasopharynx, followed by expansion in the lung and systemic viraemia, as well as identifying a local Type I and III IFN response at the primary sites of infection. Comparing an attenuated mutant of the same strain revealed that virulence determinants at the point of infection were: virus-intrinsic factors, host defence mechanisms, and route of exposure (Arzt, Pacheco et al. 2014). Widespread adoption of more physiologically relevant routes of infection for laboratory studies appears feasible and desirable to produce data readily translatable to field situations.On the cellular scale, it has been known for some time that FMDV tissue tropism cannot be fully accounted for by receptor expression alone. Whole genome gene expression profiling now suggests that a combination of receptor (αVβ6 integrin) expression and availability, the capacity of the tissue to clear infected cells, and the extent of the type I IFN response locally are the key influencers of tissue tropism and the pathogenesis of the viral lesions (Zhu, Arzt et al. 2013). Understanding the tropism of FMDV for the heart muscle is particularly pressing, as myocardial infection is the most commonly identified cause of death in animals with FMD. New data from pigs infected with chimeric FMDV found that alterations to the capsid proteins VP1, VP2 and VP3, had the potential to markedly increase the proportion of infected animals dying from myocardial infection (Lohse, Jackson et al. 2012). A comparative analysis of fatal FMDV-associated myocardial inflammation in two pigs indicated that viral strain differences may also play a role in determining the precise pathology of the condition, but that regardless of strain, an abundant NK cell infiltrate was present within the heart muscle (Stenfeldt, Pacheco et al. 2014). Moving forward, it would be of interest to determine which features of the strains are associated with increased fatality, perhaps focusing initially on capsid proteins, as well as investigating the properties of the NK cells infiltrating the heart, and whether they are part of the problem or the solution.Full understanding of the carrier state is a pre-requisite for rational development of vaccines able to induce sterile immunity and for planning safe and effective means to trade with endemic countries.The presence of FMDV in the germinal centres of carrier ruminants was described for the first time in 2012 by Juleff et al, working at the Pirbright Institute. Unexpectedly, this virus is also detectable in animals defined as non-carriers according to traditional methods (Juleff et al., 2012). Moreover, recent evidence indicates a similar phenomenon may occur in pigs (Stenfeldt, Pacheco et al. 2014), which is surprising as swine are considered non-carrier species. These findings revolutionise our appreciation of FMDV persistence, but it remains to be seen whether their primary importance is as a depot of live virus leading to replication and the emergence of the classical \"carrier state\" or rather as a protective immunological resource with which to maintain high antibody titres for prolonged periods.A useful tool for understanding persistence at the cellular level has been developed by researchers at the University of Wuhan in China. They established a persistently infected cell line and found that the molecular basis of persistence was based on selection for modifications to the cellular genome that enables resistance to the lytic effects of FMDV (Zhang, Li et al. 2013)  While in vivo persistence is unlikely to be mediated by the same mechanisms, this study offers a novel perspective on the problem and could be used as a starting point for investigations of cellular factors involved in pathogenesis and as a way to understand how to block FMDV lysis of target cells and therefore prevent spread of infection within the animal.In an EuFMD-funded project, researchers at the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) in France plan to characterise both FMDV and host cell determinants of persistence on the cellular level, focusing on host transcriptional modifications that can overcome FMDV-mediated lysis. It will be interesting to compare the outcomes of this study with those already published (Zhang, Li et al. 2013) and to understand to what extent the findings are cell type/virus strain specific.The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute has generated important data during laboratory infections of wild boar, showing that the disease is clinically mild in this species but follows a similar time course to that in domestic pigs; no viral shedding was detected past 9 days post-exposure though viral RNA was detected in some tissues at day 27.CODA in Belgium has several ongoing/completed studies addressing FMDV transmission. They have confirmed that infected Asian buffalo are able to transmit the virus to both naïve buffalo and naïve cattle, but that this transmission could be minimized by appropriate vaccination. Also considering wildlife, while published data show the capacity for transmission from wild boar, it seems that their actual contribution (as for gazelle) is highly variable in outbreak situations. Similarly, it appears that the contribution of environmental contamination of the virus is considerable in some situations, highlighting the need for development of effective disinfectant protocols in the field.The OVI, in South Africa, is involved in a consortium (funded by Oregon state university and the Pirbright institute) research project to understand how FMDV is maintained and transmitted within the African buffalo. Central to the project is the detailed study of a captive herd of buffalo over 3 years, which will include monitoring of FMDV population dynamics, antigenic variation, transmission patterns, and the interaction of these factors with secondary influences (co-infection with common respiratory pathogens and/or seasonal malnutrition).Researchers from the Pirbright Institute plan to conduct controlled transmission studies to provide accurate data that will inform next-generation modelling. By infecting cattle they will define the relative importance of different sources of virus emission, identify dominant routes of virus transfer between infected and naïve animals, and establish how the virus is most frequently taken up prior to infection. Groups working in the Netherlands at the Wageningen University have highlighted the potential importance of environmental contamination during FMDV transmission between cattle, finding that if the virus persists environmentally for a day or more, it can account for around 30% of transmission, which had been previously under-estimated. Virus in the saliva of infected cattle can not only transmit to other cattle, but studies also showed that other small ruminants may be similarly susceptible, though precisely how the virus is transmitted is a topic of further investigation. The broader scope of work also includes improved understanding of FMDV transmission between vaccinated and nonvaccinated/recently vaccinated sheep, cattle and buffalo as well as quantification of viral load in different excretions and secretions from these animals. The aim is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the transmission pathways between animals of the same or different species under conditions of differing immunity and/or in the field. In parallel, the data generated will be incorporated into improved transmission models.For a summary of research updates from contributing institutions, see appended Table 2.Our understanding of FMDV persistence has been revolutionised by finding that retention of virus in the lymph node appears to be more the exception than the rule, even in species not thought capable of retaining live virus, such as swine. What remains to be seen is whether this phenomenon is primarily to the advantage of host or pathogen.Understanding early events during infection has been hampered historically by widespread use of non-physiological routes of challenge. Data now show that widespread adoption of more relevant routes of infection for laboratory studies is both feasible and desirable. Standardisation and universal acceptance of this approach would be beneficial.Beyond expression of integrins, evidence of other determinants of susceptibility at the tissue and cellular levels have gained interest in recent years and should be pursued.Factors underpinning genetic resistance and age-related susceptibility to FMDV infection warrant investigation.The factors determining the extent of the role of wildlife species in field conditions during outbreaks should be defined with the support of laboratory controlled infections to enable full understanding of the disease in non-agricultural species.It will be interesting to see to what extent the molecular virulence determinants identified in vitro are applicable in target species, and in particular, whether the same determinants are equally important for different species.Priority research aims stated were to: Illustrating the importance of basic knowledge in FMDV target species, only recently have we discovered that the bovine immune system generates antibody diversity in a fundamentally different way than other species (Wang, Ekiert et al. 2013), thus bovine antibodies may be able to bind epitopes in a way that cannot be modelled using conventional parameters or in rodents. This knowledge could have profound implications for the way we consider designing vaccines targeting antibody responses, and might be one reason that vaccines can under-perform in cattle when developed in mice. Functional implications of new knowledge on bovine antibody diversity should be elucidated in vivo. As part of the broader issue of small animal models, caution should be used when considering the applicability of antibody responses generated in rodents to likely outcomes in cattle.Several studies have also advanced knowledge of the FMDV-specific antibody response. Recently, Pega et al described the kinetics of the early B cell response to aerosol infection, showing that FMDVspecific antibody secreting cells were present in the lymphoid tissue of the respiratory tract and spleen from 4 days post-infection (Pega, Bucafusco et al. 2013). The authors provide evidence to show that IgM is abundant early, both locally and systemically, and is responsible for viral clearance independent of T cell help. A study using porcine cells has also highlighted the potential importance of nonneutralising opsonic antibodies that facilitate uptake of bound FMDV by dendritic cells (DC), which are potent immune modulators. Summerfield's group provide evidence that opsonizing antibodies can increase plasmacytoid DC-mediated release of antiviral Type I IFNs in response to both homologous and heterologous serotypes (Lannes, Python et al. 2012). An earlier study in cattle also showed significant increases in FMDV-specific recall responses in vitro using DC incubated with immunecomplexed UV-inactivated virus (Robinson, Windsor et al. 2011). Virus-neutralizing titre can no longer be considered the sole readout of the value of the antibody response to FMDV; there is sufficient data to warrant a thorough investigation of the role of immune complexes in vivo in target species during infection and vaccination, and how they might be exploited to improve immunity.The dominance of T cell-independent antibody responses during early FMDV infection is well established, though the question remains: are T cell-dependent antibody responses simply not stimulated to the same extent, or are they actively inhibited? In mice, there is evidence that early Type I IFN production is responsible for diminished proliferation of T cells during infection (Langellotti, Quattrocchi et al. 2012). In the same model, chemically-inactivated virus also induced a regulatory T cell response. Recent data in cattle have confirmed the likely importance of this observation: Guzman et al provided the first conclusive data that bovine gamma-delta T cells are the regulatory equivalent of murine and human Foxp3-positive T regs, and also demonstrated the ability of these cells to significantly impede FMDV specific CD4 and CD8 T cell proliferation in vitro (Guzman, Hope et al. 2014).These findings may explain earlier in vivo observations, where partial depletion of gamma-delta T cells shortened the period of viraemia during FMDV infection of cattle (Juleff, Windsor et al. 2009). T regulatory cells have now also been defined and characterised in swine (Kaser, Gerner et al. 2011), though their functional significance for FMDV infection and vaccination has yet to be investigated. The potential importance of regulatory gamma-delta T cells in the response to vaccination of cattle has been underestimated until now, and remains unknown in the case of other target species. Their impact on the magnitude of the T cell response to FMDV infection and vaccination should be investigated, with a view to minimizing their activation through rational vaccine design.A second perspective on the relative weakness of the anti-FMDV T cell response comes from studies on their interactions with dendritic cells (DC), which license T cell activation and proliferation. FMDV appears to deplete splenic DC in mice (Langellotti, Quattrocchi et al. 2012), while bovine DC are effectively killed by live FMDV immune complexes in vitro (Robinson, Windsor et al. 2011). This could represent an immune evasion strategy, as the immune complexes formed by FMDV and host antibodies early in the response have the potential to destroy any DC attempting to take up the complexes and use the digested viral proteins to stimulate FMDV-specific T cells. Such a mechanism is consistent with in vivo observations in cattle, where there is little or no induction of the FMDV-specific T cell response, while responses to other antigens are unaffected by infection (Windsor, Carr et al. 2011).It also seems that different mechanisms of T cell suppression may predominate in different species.High levels of interferon alpha were linked with early T cell inhibition during FMD in mice (Langellotti, Quattrocchi et al. 2012), and a similar mechanism may operate in swine, at least during classical swine fever virus infection (Summerfield, Alves et al. 2006). In contrast, in cattle, only low levels of Type I IFNs are detected (Windsor, Carr et al. 2011), again consistent with the lack of immunosuppression that is evident in other species.At least for vaccination, the importance of CD4-expressing T cells is now clear: depleting CD4 T cells from cattle significantly reduced virus-neutralising antibody titres and delayed antibody class switching (Carr, Lefevre et al. 2013). These data emphasize the importance of T cell responses to optimize vaccine-induced immunity, which has been overshadowed by the traditional focus on neutralizing antibodies alone.Successful responses against many viruses rely on CD8 T cells, but their role in FMDV immunity remains obscure. Infecting swine with FMDV A24 has now been shown to induce specific CD8 responses, and moreover, a vaccine able to induce FMDV-specific CD8 T cells, critically, in the absence of marked antibody responses to the virus, diminished clinical signs and lowered viraemia (Patch, Kenney et al. 2013). Several CD8 T cell epitopes have also been identified within the structural proteins of FMDV A24 (Pedersen, Harndahl et al. 2013), though whether the responses detected in swine are in fact targeted towards these epitopes remains to be seen. While the role of CD8 T cells in cattle appears to be minor, the novel approach adopted by Plum Island researchers has yet to be tested in other species and may prove uniquely well-suited to answering the question in a way that other studies have been unable to. FMDV specific CD8 T cells may be able to reduce the severity and duration of disease, making their stimulation a potentially useful adjunct to traditional vaccine strategies. Their role in species other than swine may warrant re-examination using new approaches.The neonatal immune system is to some extent immature or perhaps even actively tolerogenic, as a result of in utero programming, and this can prove problematic for effective vaccination of young animals. Moreover, the influence of maternally-derived antibodies delivered through colostrum upon subsequent immunization is far from clear. Effective protection of this vulnerable population group will require thorough knowledge of both these aspects of early life immunity.Comparing groups of vaccinated calves with either high or low levels of anti-FMDV antibodies from colostrum revealed that abundant maternal antibody may prevent the development of the anti-FMDV IgM response, and could interfere with the production of virus-neutralising antibodies. These effects could not be overcome by a booster dose of the vaccine; however, the presence of maternal antibodies showed some benefit in terms of longevity of the overall anti-FMDV response measured by liquid-phase blocking ELISA (Bucafusco, Di Giacomo et al. 2014). The authors highlighted the somewhat contradictory findings when considering the data from blocking ELISA versus measurements of virus-neutralising titre, and proposed that VNT data might be the more useful in a young bovine population. They did not address the neonatal T cell response to vaccination.In agreement with these findings, two week old calves without maternal antibodies to FMDV exhibited poor humoral responses to the same vaccine that was given to their mothers during pregnancy (Dekker, Eble et al. 2014). Interestingly, using an intra-typic heterologous vaccine, calves carrying maternal antibodies were able to mount a limited response, leading the authors to propose this as a strategy in emergency vaccination protocols in regions that were already employing prophylactic vaccines.One study did detect induction of high levels of virus-neutralising antibodies in calves with maternal antibodies against FMDV, but only using oil-and not aluminium hydroxide-based adjuvants (Patil, Sajjanar et al. 2014). While the overall findings are perhaps inconsistent with those of other groups, this work does highlight the unaddressed issue of potential differences in efficacy of various adjuvants in young animals.From outside the field, an intriguing study found that a Human Adenovirus 5-vectored swine influenza vaccine was able to overcome interference by maternal antibodies (Wesley and Lager 2006). It will therefore be particularly interesting to discover whether the same phenomenon occurs in calves vaccinated with the newly-licensed adenoviral FMDV vaccine (see Vaccines). The neonatal immune system of FMDV target species remains far less well characterised than their adult counterparts. Neonatal calves seem able to mount responses to commercially-available FMDV vaccines, but only in the absence of high levels of maternal antibody, and perhaps only with the \"right\" adjuvant. Further study of neonatal immunity, with particular reference to the T cell compartment, in conjunction with side-by-side comparisons of responses to different adjuvants is required.In line with the emerging importance of the T cell response to both FMDV infection and vaccination, new approaches to predicting protection following immunization are beginning to incorporate markers of T cell immunity. For example, combining VNT data with measurements of the levels of IFNγ produced by CD4-expressing T cells in whole blood restimulation assays, allowed correlations to be seen that were associated with clinical protection following vaccination (Oh, Fleming et al. 2012).Interestingly, the extent of the IFNγ response to the two vaccines tested was not dose dependent, and did not always reflect the VNT of the animal. This raises the question of which other host-intrinsic factors are involved in determining the magnitude of the IFNγ-producing T cell response to vaccination, and how the response might be augmented by rational improvements to vaccines.Predicting cross-protection between vaccine strains and field isolates is a second important objective.Traditionally the likelihood of cross-protection has been estimated by virus neutralization test (VNT), liquid phase blocking ELISA and complement fixation assay, but these techniques are labour intensive and can be sub-optimally accurate. A recent study assessed the suitability of high-throughput avidity and IgG subtype ELISAs to predict cross protection in cattle from serum samples. In cattle immunized against FMDV A24 Cruzeiro and challenged with A/Arg/01, protection against the heterologous strain was associated with higher avidity antibodies to A/Arg/01. Some animals had low or undetectableVNT, yet were protected upon challenge, and this phenomenon was linked to a higher IgG1/IgG2 ratio than non-protected animals (Lavoria, Di-Giacomo et al. 2012). Combining VNT and measurements of antibody avidity with immunoglobulin class ratios may well improve the accuracy of current vaccine-matching approaches. Moreover, understanding how to achieve optimal IgG ratios and increase immunoglobulin avidity could improve vaccine design, particularly where cross-protection is a priority.The challenges of identifying correlates of protection following vaccination often reflect the more fundamental lack of knowledge of the events immediately following the administration of the vaccine, long before the emergence of measurable adaptive immune parameters such as neutralising titre. In the case of adenovirus-based FMDV vaccines, some progress has been made by the development of recombinant adenovirus 5 (rAd5) carrying either a luciferase-or GFP-encoding gene in place of FMDV sequences. Inoculation of the traceable rAd5-luciferase particles into cattle revealed the association of transgene products with antigen-presenting cells within the inflammatory infiltrate, and from 6 hours post-inoculation, within the inter-follicular areas of the draining lymph node (Montiel, Smoliga et al. 2013). Experiments using rAD5-GFP revealed that the addition of an oil-based adjuvant increased the frequency of expression of the fluorescent protein within lymph migratory DC; in a separate experiment, the addition of the same adjuvant resulted in increased frequencies of FMDV-specific IFNγ-and TNFα-secreting memory T cells compared to vaccination with rAD5-FMDV alone (Cubillos-Zapata, Guzman et al. 2011). Taken together these studies illustrate the potential of recent advances in our ability to dissect the interaction of vaccine components with antigen-presenting cells and the impact such interactions can have on ensuing immunity. Such innovative reagents will prove useful in identifying the key immune cells involved early in the induction of the immune response to vectored vaccines, and provide a rational basis on which to compare the efficacy of different strategies during this critical initial phase of the vaccine response. For a summary of research updates from contributing institutions, see appended Table 2.New knowledge on the bovine immunoglobulin response requires interpretation for its relevance to FMDV infection and vaccination in natural FMDV target species.The importance of non-neutralizing antibodies in the response to FMDV has become apparent, particularly in terms of interactions of antibody-bound virus with immune cells. We now need to define the roles of these immune complexes in vivo in target species to enable their exploitation.Regulatory gamma-delta T cells now appear to play a significant role in the response to vaccination of cattle. Similar experiments should be undertaken in other target species to understand the impact of this cell type to FMD vaccination in broader terms, particularly in light of new data highlighting the importance of T cell responses to optimize vaccine-induced immunity. Similarly, CD8 T cell stimulation may also be a desirable outcome of vaccination, but its potential remains unexplored outside of swine.The neonatal immune systems of FMDV target species remain far less well characterised than their adult counterparts. Further study of neonatal immunity, with particular reference to the T cell compartment, in conjunction with characterisation of FMDV vaccine and adjuvant responses is required.Qualitative hallmarks of effective adaptive immunity to FMD vaccines and infection are being uncovered. Understanding how to use this knowledge in a more comprehensive approach to vaccine matching may prove invaluable. Alongside, further study to determine how to achieve optimal IgG class ratios and increase immunoglobulin avidity should inform improved vaccine design, particularly where cross-protection is a priority.Mucosal immune responses remain relatively under-studied in target species. Robust techniques should be developed and applied to understand how mucosal and systemic immunity combine to provide effective protection following vaccination or during infection.Defining the molecular features of FMDV has direct applications for how we understand, and therefore overcome, infection with the virus, as well as identifying molecular targets that may be amenable to therapeutic inhibition in order to prevent viral replication, characterising the effects of the virus upon host cells allows us to appreciate its immune evasive strategies.At the stage of cell entry, the main new finding is the requirement for phosphatidylinositol 4,5 bisphosphate (PIP2) within the plasma membrane for integrin-dependent FMDV entry (Vazquez-Calvo, Sobrino et al. 2012). This is particularly interesting as PIP2 has since been linked to regulation of the autophagosome/lysosome system (Rong, Liu et al. 2012), which has emerged as an important component of FMDV infection on the cellular level. FMDV induces the formation of autophagosomes to facilitate cell entry (Berryman, Brooks et al. 2012), and FMDV 2C protein has been shown to interact with Beclin1, a host protein that regulates the autophagy pathway, perhaps as a means of preventing lysosomal fusion (Gladue, O'Donnell et al. 2012).As well as the importance of autophagosomes for cell entry, FMDV also requires cellular membranes for genome replication. It now seems that these membranes originate from the early secretory pathway, specifically the pre-Golgi compartment (Midgley, Moffat et al. 2013), which may link with the observation that FMDV 3C(pro) can cause fragmentation of the Golgi associated with a loss of microtubule organization (Zhou, Mogensen et al. 2013). These disruptions to vesicular trafficking and the secretory pathway are particularly relevant when it comes to the production and release of cytokines from infected cells, and the transport of immune-stimulatory MHC/antigen complexes to the cell surface. Rearrangements to the internal membrane system of infected cells thus appear to serve the dual purposes of facilitating replication and avoiding immune stimulation.In addition, FMDV has evolved several specific mechanisms to evade the host type I IFN response.While earlier work identified roles for FMDV L(pro) and 3C(pro) (Wang, Fang et al. 2012) in inhibiting the production of type I IFN, new data show that 3C(pro) can also impede signalling downstream of the type I IFN receptor, specifically the nuclear translocation of STAT1 and STAT2 (Du, Bi et al. 2014).These molecules have hundreds of potential transcriptional targets, including many anti-viral effectors and immune-stimulatory genes. Alongside, studies in tumour cell lines have identified potentially relevant alterations to cell signalling induced by FMDV VP1 binding to target cells, including downregulation of COX-2/PGE2 and IKK/NF-κB signalling, both of which are important immune pathways (Ho, Hung et al. 2014). Taken together these studies highlight the varied and powerful ways in which FMDV manipulates the host immune system to permit its replication and spread, and validate the development of biotherapeutics to counteract such effects during the critical early days of infection risk in the outbreak scenario.Alongside host determinants of the virulence of FMDV infections (see (Arzt, Pacheco et al. 2014), under Pathogenesis), molecular features of the virus can have profound impacts on the virulence of the strain. Attenuation has been linked with both low-and high-fidelity variants of the viral RNAdependent RNA polymerase, the latter of which may act by limiting the potential for adaptive quasispecies emergence (Xie, Wang et al. 2014, Zeng, Wang et al. 2014). In addition, an elegant series of in vitro experiments tracked the differential virulence of two A serotype field strains isolated during the Argentine outbreaks of 2000/1 to differences in the structure of the internal ribosome entry site (IRES)of the viral genome (Garcia-Nunez, Gismondi et al. 2014). Interestingly, the interaction between the IRES and viral 3' untranslated region (UTR) was the key determinant of the level of FMDV replication, adding a second level of regulation to the system.The roles of FMDV non-structural protein 3A in virulence now appear to be multiple and varied: optimal FMDV 3A dimerization has been linked to viral infectivity, at least in vitro (Gonzalez-Magaldi, Postigo et al. 2012), while the interaction of 3A with the host protein DCTN3, likely involved in intracellular organelle transport, seems to be a potent virulence determinant in both primary bovine cell cultures and in cattle (Gladue, O'Donnell et al. 2014). Moreover, while deleting amino acids 87-106 of the FMDV non-structural protein 3A did not affect virulence in swine, in cattle these mutations resulted in limited replication in the pharyngeal area after aerosol infection but no systemic spread (Pacheco, Gladue et al. 2013). Thus FMDV 3A warrants further investigation as a determinant of both virulence and host tropism.The functional effects of the described mutations should be characterised in order to understand the basis of their effects on in vivo virulence.Our knowledge of the impacts of FMDV infection upon target cells has been advanced by two notable studies. As well as direct repression of gene transcription, FMDV infection can alter host cell gene expression via modulation of cellular micro-RNAs (miRNAs). In the PK-15 porcine kidney cell line, FMDV Asia 1 induced differential expression of 172 known, and 72 novel, miRNAs after 6 hours, compared to non-infected cells. Pathway annotation revealed that the miRNAs were abundant in cell death and immune response pathways (Zhang, Liu et al. 2014). In addition, another group working in China employed high-throughput quantitative proteomics to analyse the global changes in protein expression in FMDV-infected IBRS-2 cells. After 6 hours of infection, 77 cellular proteins were significantly up-regulated, and 50 were significantly down-regulated, relative to non-infected cells.Ingenuity pathway analysis highlighted the abundance of regulated proteins involved in various biological pathways including cell movement, intercellular signalling, lipid metabolism and protein synthesis (Ye, Yan et al. 2013). These studies represent an exciting new era in the application of precise, quantitative, highthroughput molecular techniques to the study of FMDV. This unbiased approach holds great promise in terms of understanding the molecular pathogenesis of FMDV infection and identifying new therapeutic targets for intervention. Future study should focus on the development of improved controls for infection (or the use of purified virus), and movement away from cell lines. Early time points of infection would be revealing, as would the use of primary immune cells as targets. The extent to which changes observed are driven by the cellular response to virus versus actively induced by replication could be addressed by the use of purified inactivated virus, while questions regarding cross-species differences in susceptibility could also be addressed at this level.As seen in the Vaccines section, major advances have been made using FMDV capsids engineered to have increased resistance to low pH. This has required some understanding of the molecular requirements of acid-resistance: two separate studies on mutants of Type Asia1 or Type C FMDV with increased resistance to low pH allowed the identification of parallel single amino acid substitutions at VP1 N17D and VP2 H145Y (the residue required for VP0 cleavage) that were key for the acid-resistant phenotype (Vazquez-Calvo, Caridi et al. 2014, Wang, Song et al. 2014). Type O FMDV required only the VP1 N17D substitution to achieve acid-resistance, which substantially increased its immunogenicity under acidic conditions and highlighted the potential of this alteration to improve vaccine production (Liang, Yang et al. 2014).Following the collaborative project between PIADC (USA), the CBMSO (Spain) and INTA (Argentina) that identified the structure of the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of the viral genome as a molecular virulence determinant (Garcia-Nunez, Gismondi et al. 2014), preliminary work has also uncovered evidence of a potential virulence determinant from two strains of the virulent subtype that is evident in murine infection but not reflected in differences in replication rate in cell culture.Sequence comparison has now identified 6 amino acid changes across viral proteins VP2, VP1 and 2C as well as 26 synonymous changes throughout the viral genome that are being evaluated for their impact on lethality of FMDV in adult mice.DTU are conducting a program of research aimed at improving molecular knowledge of the virus, in particular they are aiming to understand: the requirements for capsid precursor processing and capsid assembly to assist vaccine development, and how to produce self-tagged virus particles through modification of a 3C protease cleavage site.In a collaborative effort between PIADC and IZSLER, FMDV replication is being analysed from the perspective of the host cell. Aiming to identify the host proteins that play critical roles in the process of virus replication and to characterize their cellular location, interaction kinetics, and role in the viral life cycle, this project may offer new insights and possible points for intervention during infection.FMD control is constrained by the tools available. Progress accelerates with scientific breakthroughs and stagnates in the face of unsolved problems. Progress in disease control can take several forms:• Achieving control where previously not possible or allowing a better level of control.• Achieving the same level of control but in a more efficient way (time, cost).• Allowing increased certainty in disease/infection status, which facilitates control and allows access to FMD free markets, thereby increasing incentives to control FMD.• Providing increased understanding of a disease, which can improve our ability to describe and predict events, or may eventually result in tools for control not anticipated at the time of discovery.Historically our ability to control FMD has depended on the ability to coordinate control through effective veterinary services with control facilitated by the development of imperfect but sufficiently effective vaccines, which have changed relatively little in the last half-century. More recently our ability to select an effective control strategy has been enhanced by the development of mathematical models. Improved diagnostics enable us to detect infected animals in vaccinated populations with greater confidence, allowing for less draconian standards for international trade and reduced dependency on culling based strategies. Further refinements are required in these areas.Currently available tools for FMD control have enabled eradication in much of the developed world, however, in many developing countries FMD remains uncontrolled, and with three-quarters of world's livestock living in endemic regions this represents a vast unmet need. In these settings the biosecurity measures that have been fundamental to successful FMD control in the developed world can seldom be implemented effectively. Improved vaccines, with longer-lasting protection against a wider range of strains and lower production costs could therefore be the single most important development to allow FMD control where previously not possible. Although this is not imminent, encouraging progress has been made with several novel vaccine candidates addressing key weaknesses of the current inactivated vaccines. While new discoveries are crucial, uptake and implementation of existing methods and technologies is often lacking, and the same compliance frameworks will be crucial for the success of any novel strategies that emerge. Lessons learnt about how to control FMD with existing quality assured vaccines should be shared and clearer guidance provided to those struggling to control the disease despite significant efforts.Another area of huge potential is genetic and molecular research. More powerful tools and analyses are promising to increase our understanding of various aspects of FMDV evolution, ecology and epidemiology. This in turn will benefit a range of areas, from basic virology, to vaccine and diagnostic development. Furthermore improved genetic technologies have the potential to reveal information crucial for control, such as transmission chains, vaccine match, and level of virus circulation.FMD control has been prioritised by many governments around the world. ","tokenCount":"23070"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e6e331ec5f6f94f447de9edeb744d741","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/41dc5205-70e7-4b30-9111-757bdc251984/retrieve","id":"1616909290"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31451cc9-54d3-4ade-9b08-8b7289501f64","pagecount":"13","content":"1. Describe the OH governance, education, research, and implementation landscapes within Rwanda. 2. Understand the advantages of having clear OH policy framework over a strategy and challenges associated with insufficient implementation of the structures as planned in the policies. 3. Discuss the benefits and challenges of integrating OH in education.The Rwanda Government has adopted the One Health (OH) approach to ensure optimal preparedness and response to complex health challenges. Despite the approach adopted by government institutions, academia, and other stakeholders, there are few insights into the status of OH research and innovation, education, governance, and implementation of OH solutions. The Capacitating OH in Eastern and Southern Africa (COHESA) project aims to enhance the capacity of local institutions to bring about optimal solutions to OH challenges. This case report aimed to provide baseline information about the adoption and implementation status of Rwanda's research and innovation, governance, and education related to the OH approach. An evaluation tool collected baseline information from selected institutions' representatives in key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Moreover, a review of grey and published literature on One Health in Rwanda was conducted. A wide range of actors, including parastatal institutions, academia, NGOs, and private sectors, are involved in OH activities in Rwanda. Various institutions of higher learning education mainly use extracurricular activities to deliver OH education. However, the University of Global Health Equity has adopted an innovative approach to OH education by integrating OH in the medical curriculum and implementing a graduate degree with an OH concentration. Rwanda is among the few countries with an OH policy that is essential to guide actions and distribute responsibilities among various actors. However, anchoring the unit responsible for OH governance in the prime minister's office could boost OH institutionalization and facilitate coordination and collaboration among OH stakeholders.This case presents findings about Rwanda's OH landscapes, with a focus on the country's strengths and challenges to fully adopt an OH approach. Despite the relative early adoption of OH in Rwanda, there are no regular assessments done to evaluate the country's research and innovation, education, and implementation of OH to advise on possible policy adjustments. The COHESA project team within Rwanda recruited multisectoral and multidisciplinary actors to gather the needed information summarized in this case study. In total, 14 key informants were recruited for baseline data collection, and further 13 participants from various institutions were recruited for the focus group discussion. The project facilitated interviews and the focus group discussion using validated OH assessment tools pretested and translated to Kinyarwanda, the local language to allow the users to respond in their preferred language. This assessment provided valuable insights into Rwanda's well-developed OH governance and education and identified challenges linked to optimal cross-collaborations among essential OH actors in Rwanda and the institutionalization of OH. The health of humans, animals, and the environment is ever interconnected. Currently, 60% of emerging infectious diseases reported globally are zoonotic (Jones et al., 2008). Moreover, the emerging human pathogens are dominated (75%) by those originating from humans (Jones et al., 2008). Rwanda is impacted by these emerging as well as endemic zoonoses such as RVF, brucellosis, cysticercosis, and tuberculosis (Rottbeck et al., 2013: Ntivuguruzwa et al., 2020, 2022b, c;Acosta Soto et al., 2021;De Clerck, 2023). Rwanda is a small, land-locked country located in the Albertine Rift. Its population of 13.2 million in 2022 is projected to increase to 23.6 million by 2052, translating into a high-density increase from 501 to about 894 inhabitants per square kilometer (NISR, 2023). This population increase may mean an increasing contact between humans, animals, and biodiversity, leading to increased health challenges for all.To ensure multisectoral collaboration and strengthen the mitigation of potential complex health challenges, the Government of Rwanda has committed to the OH agenda. To date, policy documents such as the OH policy 2021 and a renewed OH strategic plan for 2021-2026 are available (Rwanda Ministry of Health, 2021a, b). Other specific guidelines that shape multisectoral collaboration toward mitigating a complex issue are also developed (or are being developed). For example, the AMR stewardship and AMR surveillance guidelines and documents guiding for the preparedness and response for rabies, Rift Valley fever, and highly pathogenic avian influenza are available for use by parastatal institutions and other OH stakeholders. Academic institutions have also picked interest in OH in various ways, including offering training to the future workforce on OH, research, and supporting policy and guideline development.The Capacitating OH in Eastern and Southern Africa (COHESA) project is a 48-month project implemented in 12 countries including Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa, and Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in Southern Africa regions. COHESA has four aims: (i) to enhance relevance of OH research and policies in Eastern and Southern Africa; (ii) to increase national and subregional cross-sectoral collaboration between government entities with OH mandates and OH stakeholders across society; (iii) education and research institutes equipped to train the next generation workforce in tackling OH issues; and (iv) to increase the capacity of government and non-government stakeholders to deliver OH solutions. The project was launched in December 2022 and is led by a consortium of three institutions: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Centre de cooperation international en recherche agronomique pour le developpement (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, CIRAD), and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA AfriCenter). In each country of implementation, there are focal institutions, known as \"multipliers\" which are typically academic partners. The multipliers oversee the implementing and co-designing the project.Previous publications provided preliminary insights into the Rwanda approach toward OH. Nyatanyi et al. (2017) provided a documented framework that justifies the need for OH adoption. Other more recent publications described the OH governance and provided insights into the Rwanda OH landscape judging from the country's COVID19 preparedness and response mechanisms (Igihozo et al., 2022). However, more data need to be provided about OH environment with specific emphasis on OH research and innovation, governance, education, and implementation. Such evaluations are valuable insights that could serve as a learning model for other countries while allowing to identify gaps and support optimal implementation of OH in the country.To collect information for this case study, three methods were used: first, a desktop review which consisted of searching published literature using PubMed database and the available reports from government institutions. Second, key informant interviews (KIIs) with OH experts on research, governance, education, and implementation of OH. The key informants were purposively selected from parastatal, academic, and other institutions involved in public health, animal health, wildlife animal health, and environment. Third, a focus group discussion (FGD) was organized mostly with participants from the institutions involved in the KIIs and others from institutions that were not available for the KIIs. The findings from the three methods were used to synthesize this case to highlight strengths and gaps in the Rwanda OH landscape and will serve to plan the COHESA OH activities.Ethical clearance was obtained from the International Livestock Research Institute (Reference: ILRI-IREC2022-20/3) and from the University of Global Health Equity (Reference: ILRI-IREC2022-20/3).Information was collected from a wide range of actors involved in OH activities in Rwanda.The key informant interviews engaged 14 out of 19 invited institutions. Of the 14 informants appointed by their respective institutions, 10 were males and four were females (Table 1). Participants' ages ranged between 29 and 41 (median 36.5, IQR = 3.5), and all had attained university studies. The informants had a wide range of expertise in their functions. Hence, most informants were junior managers (7/14) or senior managers (4/14) in their institutions. In addition, the informants included one CEO, one epidemiologist, OH expert, and one associate professor. The institutions represented were mostly government and academic (5/14 each) but also included NGOs (3/14) and one institution from the private sector. The informants' experience ranged from less than a year to 13 years (median = 5.5, IQR = 8.3).The informants were involved in various activities at their respective institutions. Their primary duties included:-management of activities and research related to climate change;-coordination and implementation of OH activities, multisectoral partners coordination;-coordination of animal department, veterinary laboratory services, transboundary animal movements, and livestock policy analysis;-legislation related to marketing and authorization of veterinary medicine and devices;-supervision of veterinary field activities, knowledge management, capitalization, and supporting activity implementation;-registration and licensing of veterinarians and identifying research gaps and areas of continuous program development;-teaching, research, and academic administration (mostly for those in Academia); -organizing fieldwork, workshops, and meetings related to Animal Welfare;-coordination of wildlife-related research and OH; and -coordination of the implementation of the project related to OH and Epidemiology.For the focus group discussion, 13 participants from various institutions were recruited. The participants came from parastatal institutions (6/13), NGOs (3/13), academia (3/16), and the private sector (1/13). The participants were from veterinary backgrounds (10/17), environmental sciences (2/17), or public health (5/17). The participants comprised six females and 11 males.We scanned through available literature on research and innovation about OH to obtain information about what OH challenges are perceived as essential and have received the funder's attention in Rwanda. Moreover, information about existing OH data could support understanding the country's level of preparedness and response toward emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, climate change, environmental issues, and antimicrobial resistance, and it could provide insights into possible gaps in the OH approach.Various reports were published to advocate for adopting the OH approach in health governance, research, and disease surveillance (Kelly et al., 2017;Nyatanyi et al., 2017;Henley et al., 2021) or to provide information on the status of research in OH or on its governance in Rwanda (Igihozo et al., 2022;Dutuze et al., 2023). Recognizing the vulnerability to health threats for rural community members, Henley et al. (2021) highlighted that community members are often the first to witness changes related to complex health challenges and advocated for further actions to capacitate the community to optimally play their role as sentinels of surveillance of community-level change in animals, humans, and the environment. Further, the authors recommend strengthening OH education and international collaborations in OH activities including capacity building, as a sustainable pathway to integrate and reinforce national and transnational strategies.With growing concerns about emerging infectious diseases, Kelly et al. (2017) demonstrated the need for a transdisciplinary collaboration to establish an active surveillance mechanism to detect pathogens in wild animals, thus cutting the chances for spillover in people and food animals. To fully adopt the OH approach needed to solve complex issues including pathogen spillover, Nyatanyi et al. (2017) recommended overcoming a few challenges, such as inadequate technology, miscommunication, and competition over budget, which could hinder the registered progress.While research attempted to address complex OH issues, a review by Dutuze et al. (2023) highlighted the need to strengthen investment in human capacity and laboratory facilities to better approach OH research. OH challenges also require innovative approaches and multidisciplinary teams that combine their expertise in animal, human, and environmental health. Such teams are often challenging to put in place and supervise. Rwanda's approach to the management of COVID-19 provided a framework for creating and operating such teams (Igihozo et al., 2022).Concerning the research on specific OH challenges in Rwanda, the retrieved literature was on environmental and WASH-related challenges such as podoconiosis (Bayisenge et al., 2020), evaluation of WASH services (Coughlin et al., 2022), snakebite envenomation (Nduwayezu et al., 2021;Schurer et al., 2022), and environmental impact of mining activities (Macháček, 2020;Muhire et al., 2021). Infectious diseases were also highly investigated. Under this category, publications were made on zoonotic Neglected Tropical Diseases such as trypanosomiasis (Gashururu et al., 2023) and cysticercosis (Rottbeck et al., 2013;Mushonga et al., 2018;Tuan et al., 2020;Acosta Soto et al., 2021;Shyaka et al., 2022). In addition, infectious microbial diseases such as brucellosis (Gafirita et al., 2017;Ntivuguruzwa et al., 2020Ntivuguruzwa et al., , 2022a, b;, b;Djangwani et al., 2021;Kiiza et al., 2021), orthobunyaviruses (Umuhoza et al., 2017;Dutuze et al., 2020;Smith et al., 2021;De Clerck, 2023), and bovine tuberculosis (Habarugira et al., 2014;Ntivuguruzwa et al., 2020) were investigated. Research studies on mycotoxins were identified, focusing on the prevalence of aflatoxins in various food matrices (Niyibituronsa et al., 2016;Nishimwe et al., 2017;Grosshagauer et al., 2019;Nishimwe et al., 2022). Lastly, a few studies were done on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Antimicrobial Use (AMU) in livestock (Manishimwe et al., 2017(Manishimwe et al., , 2021(Manishimwe et al., , 2022)).These various studies provide insights into crucial OH challenges, and the data could be used as baseline information to design adequate interventions. However, no single study was comprehensive enough to address the identified challenge in a thorough manner that considers potential drivers from the human, animal, and environmental sides. All the studies were designed in a silo-thinking approach to respond to OH challenges from a single and thus incomplete angle (e.g. approaches in human or animal health only). The OH governance structure is established to guide the country's efforts toward coordination, collaboration, and effective implementation of OH initiatives. Rwanda has approved an OH policy and its strategic plan for 2021-2026. In Rwanda, a policy aims to provide an overall direction that defines priorities and parameters for action to respond to a need. On the other hand, a strategic plan is informed by the policy and strive to translate its overall guidance into medium to long-term goals and objectives.As specified in the OH policy, the central unit for the OH governance in Rwanda is a OH Multi-Sectoral Coordinating Mechanism (OH-MCM). This OH-MCM was created to ensure overall coordination of OH-related activities and implementation of critical documents. The mechanism will be composed of the Director Generals from parastatal institutions reporting to the ministry in charge of health, agriculture, and animal resources, environment, ICT and innovation, Finance and Economic Panning and the Rwanda Development Board, and academia. The organ will have a permanent secretariat to facilitate its work. The Prime Minister's instructions will establish the mechanism where the organ will report via Social Cluster Ministries, a group of ministries collaborating to address social issues, focusing on health, education, agriculture, and family promotion. Despite the policy being published in 2021, the OH-MCM, which is yet to be launched, will serve as the overarching governance body responsible for coordinating and overseeing the implementation of the OH Strategy in Rwanda. It will ensure the participation of all relevant stakeholders and the optimal utilization of available resources. Besides the structural framework, which is defined but awaits its official launch, several policy documents are in place to guide OH efforts in Rwanda. They include the OH policy, the strategic plan for 2021-2026, and other documents that provide strategic framework to tackle humans, animals, and environmental challenges at sectoral levels within government ministries.Of the various countries that adopted the OH approach, Rwanda is among the few if not the only which has a specific policy that guides OH implementation. The adoption of a policy is beneficial in providing an official guidance and stand on a particular important matter such as OH. In addition, it defines the roles and responsibilities of the various involved parties, and this may boost the overall performance of OH interventions. Although the policy and strategic plans are in place, OH is still not optimally institutionalized.In fact, planning and coordination are limited by sectors not being collaboratively involved, and this may impede optimal interventions against complexes challenges threatening the health of humans, animals, and the environment.Participants in the baseline OH assessment in Rwanda unanimously reported a lack of involvement of professionals working on environmental and agriculture aspects in OH. These professionals are left behind on OH's agenda. To highlight the point, a participant observed:There is still a poor understanding of OH with a strong bias toward diseases. Therefore, people think it is business for only human and animal health sectors.Another participant added:Environmental people are not well involved. We ask them what we have to do with the environment in the OH context and how we can collaborate on that. They don't even know what to do. They don't tell you even if we ask them about their priorities concerning OH. If you invite people to the workshop, when they come, we can discuss how they can help in the environmental surveillance of AMR. But it seems new to them. There is a long way to go to achieve a common understanding with environmental experts on OH. That's my point of view. So, the perspective is that the environmental sector is not as represented as others in OH.Rwanda benefits from having strong documentation of how OH should function across government in terms of strategy, policy, and implementation. However, not all government sectors have equally institutionalized OH. This is in part due to limited awareness of responsibilities of some actors, meaning that while the policy exists, some actors do not recognize their role in the policy and therefore are not implementing the policy. Conversely, some OH actors are keenly aware of their role in the policy and are determined to retain perceived ownership of OH and the financial benefits accorded. Hence, an effective platform needs to be in place. The platform shall be established by the Prime Minister's instructions creating the OH-MCM and defining its mission, organization, competence and functioning (Rwanda Ministry of Health, 2021a). For the OH policy to be fully institutionalized, all stakeholders will need to be fully aware of their roles, and this aim is currently being addressed through a variety of workshops and meetings being led by the COHESA team in Rwanda. Once stakeholders are aware of their roles and responsibilities, then the policy in place clearly allows for the implementation of the OH approach in Rwanda through mandated institutions.Capacity building in OH started in Rwanda with the OH Central and East Africa (OHCEA) project, which was rebranded into the Africa OH University Network (AFROHUN). OHCEA's approach was to work within a university network, and therefore, the University of Rwanda, UR (College of Medicine and Health Sciences and the College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine) was the pioneer of OH in Rwanda in general and specifically in education. Toward the end of OHCEA and the inception of AFROHUN, the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) joined the OHCEA network, and thus, the OH activities were jointly implemented by both the UGHE and UR.Through OHCEA and AFROHUN activities, various educational activities were conducted, including the development of various short courses and integration of OH Core Competencies in the veterinary medicine and environmental health curricula (Amuguni et al., 2017). In addition, OHCEA and later AFROHUN supported the implementation of various extracurricular education activities. These included teaching the Infectious Diseases Management module to students from various tertiary institutions, conducting field experiential learning activities (Demo-site), and organization of a mini-conference to provide the students and their mentors with an opportunity to showcase their OH-related activities. Lastly, under the support of AFROHUN, an AMR course for veterinary professionals was developed and validated to be used by the Rwanda Council for Veterinary Doctors while training the in-service veterinary professionals.Beyond the OHCEA/AFROHUN support, the UGHE and Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) provide specific training and modules of OH in their curricula. The UGHE has a master's program, Master of Science in Global Health Delivery, with an OH track option. In this track option, the students are exposed to various OH-related learning, including in-class and field activities (Fig. 2).In addition, UGHE adopted an innovative approach to the integration of OH in the medical curriculum. In fact, in addition to the provision of an introductory module of OH in the medical curriculum, other sessions (e.g. food security and food safety session in the Gastrointestinal System and Nutrition module (MED 106), AMU, and AMR in animals in the Infectious Diseases module (MED 105), etc.) are integrated into the existing medical curriculum to ensure the students have acquired the OH mindset. Lastly, the students are introduced to taking a \"OH\" patient history to capture the inextricable link between humans and animals (Bayisenge et al., 2022). OH is not limited to animal and human health, the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) runs modules of OH in their agricultural programs. This is done to ensure that students integrate OH into their conservation agriculture vision.Taken together, with the support of OHCEA/AFROHUN, various institutions created OH Students OH Innovation Clubs (SOHIC). These allow the dissemination of educational information to students in the clubs and are a network that receives various OH-related trainings. These clubs that exist across various institutions are a source of hope for the next generation of health professionals as well as a potential tool for increased awareness about the OH approach at the grassroots level.Participants unanimously agreed that OH education still has gaps that must be addressed. Some of the gaps highlighted are as follows:1. Lack of decentralization of OH training: the participants pointed out that OH training was kept for tertiary education, and it does not reach levels below tertiary education or the community. In this regard, participants recommended that OH training go below university teaching to raise awareness in the youth. 2. Lack of harmonization between implementers: it was reported that various higher learning institutions implemented OH training. However, it was unclear whether the training led to the same graduate. Thus, the participants recommended harmonizing the curriculum to ensure that universities produce a workforce ready to contribute to solving OH challenges. Providers of OH short courses must also implement such harmonization. 3. Curriculum revision to adopt new teaching methods: participants noted that there is a constant need to upgrade what is currently practiced. For example, universities should strive beyond concept teaching to equip students with more practical learning.Lastly, to better understand how well various programs prepared the OH workforce for their careers and identify areas of improvement, there should be tracer studies to know where One Health alumni are and how or whether they currently apply OH in their activities at work.Since the adoption of the OH approach, the establishment of OH policy, and governance, various activities have been implemented, guided by the national authorities and essential documents that shape Rwanda's OH agenda. Therefore, below are important milestones that have been achieved and what has not yet been in place (Table 2).   Guided by a strategic plan and AMR action plan, various activities are underway to build capacity for various stakeholders, including laboratory personnel (hospitals and veterinary laboratories), drug supply chain workers, and so on. This capacity building is conducted through various workshops that focus on various aspects such as antimicrobial stewardship and quality control in AMR testing The OH unit gets involved in regional efforts that build collaboration and capacity building for AMR. https://africacdc.org/news-item/ advancing-antimicrobial-stewardshipand-amr-surveillance-in-eastern-andsouthern-africa/ Education about OH in various institutions OH education is implemented by various institutions. The offered training sessions ranged from informal short awareness campaigns to formal training in the forms of continuing professional development (CPD), modules, or the entire program. The adoption of OH in universities resulted in the creation of Students' OH Innovation Clubs (SOHICs). These clubs have been instrumental in providing awareness on OH matters in various settings. UGHE organizes competitions and games that aim to enhance OH thinking for their students. https://afrohun.org/ rwanda-students-in-antimicrobialresistance-amr-sensitization-drive/ https://ughe.org/ analysing-the-bigger-picture-ughehosts-student-one-health-photo-challenge.Rwanda was hit by a country-wide outbreak of the Rift Valley fever in 2022. This outbreak was managed thanks to joint efforts by workers from medical, public health, and veterinary institutions that contributed to a common goal to stop the outbreak. Integrated Surveillance System OH Unit, under the division of the Public Health Surveillance and Emergency Preparedness and Response at Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), is developing an integrated surveillance tool to track disease events from the human and animal sectors. The objective is to be able to fast-track outbreaks of infectious diseases using an OH approach. The tool has been finalized and is being tested. However, important gaps have been observed, and these could play against optimal OH institutionalization and overall performance.-OH not yet operational per the OH Policy OH structure is not yet in place according to provisions from policy documents. This may hinder the full collaboration of stakeholders from the different institutions and may be a barrier to the optimal coordination of OH activities.-OH education offered as an extracurricular activity and is donor dependentThe teaching of OH courses is not harmonized. Also, various courses are extra-curricular, which makes it difficult to know who has/has not received the course. It is essential to formalize and harmonize OH course delivery to fully equip the next generation of the workforce with the right skills and attitudes related to OH.-While Rwanda has not fully implemented the OH policy and strategy as written, it is clear that cross ministerial efforts are occurring to address OH issues with numerous successes such as the response to COVID-19 and the recent 2022 RVF outbreak. During these recent health challenges, various entities came together for the first time to approach the challenge holistically and ensure optimal well-being for the communities. For instance, during the recent RVF outbreak, public health infrastructure stepped Downloaded from https://cabidigitallibrary.org by 86.174.89.92, on 08/21/24. Subject to the CABI Digital Library Terms & Conditions, available at https://cabidigitallibrary.org/terms-and-conditions in to test animal samples, and the animal and public health services co-implemented an awareness campaign targeting at-risk populations. While these successes are noteworthy, it is likely that, by more fulsome implementation of the OH strategy and policy as they are written, it would help not only to improve the responses to OH issues but also to prevent them from occurring. Additionally, there are still implementation efforts which are not moving forward such as budget sharing and optimal collaborations which is likely, at least in part, due to the incomplete adoption of the OH strategies and policies on OH in Rwanda.The approach adopted by the COHESA project aims to enable countries in East and Southern Africa to be responsible for defining their needs for capacity enhancement in OH. In addition, the project works through academic institutions, which will play a linkage role between the various institutions involved in OH in Rwanda. COHESA provided insights into the current OH landscapes in research and innovation, education, governance, and implementation through the baseline assessments. These insights are essential to designing adequate interventions to strengthen achievements and correct the identified gaps. Hence, the project will support enhancing the level of adoption of OH through (i) supporting more interactions between involved country stakeholders; (ii) supporting redesigning materials that enhance the educational and research competence of academic and research institutions; (iii) creating a peer-learning environment for countries involved in the project and others that will hear about the project outputs; and (iv) allowing for collaboration with other OH activities in Rwanda to avoid duplication and build upon existing initiatives.This work provided essential insights: research on OH challenges is conducted, but its planning and execution are done in a siloed manner; the country has one of the most robust OH policy frameworks in Africa and beyond but lacks full operationalization for more efficiency of the OH unit; lastly, OH education is still dominated by extracurricular activities that are donor-dependent and only a handful institutions have fully integrated OH in the curriculum.The COHESA project intends to support interventions that will fill some of the observed gaps, which will likely lead to the optimal implementation of OH solutions (Richards et al., 2024). In Rwanda, COHESA will engage government stakeholders to facilitate discussions on implementing the OH structure as planned. Further, working with academia and other partners, strengthening OH education will include implementing recently developed benchmarks of OH education at the university level, developing relevant and contextspecific OH CPD courses, and disseminating OH in secondary and primary education. Going forward, there is a need to establish a monitoring and evaluation framework to closely follow the project's achievements and advise on effective ways to enhance the operationalization of OH.1. How could we address the lack of awareness and insufficient integration and involvement of Environmental Health Experts into OH? 2. How could we support the integration of OH education beyond tertiary education in other non-medical institutions? 3. Who would be the key influencer(s) to tackle the structural rigidity in OH governance and coordination? 4. Do you think academic institutions are well placed to drive OH institutionalization and operationalization in OH governance? 5. There is a clear need to carry out comprehensive research that address OH drivers from humans, animals, and the environment. How could we bring together relevant sectors to codesign and coimplement OH research and innovations?","tokenCount":"4712"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9d1e4809d0c694a006a1be25d3d06756","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/cdd49b93-11b0-449a-92ea-03442a0bcc6e/content","id":"-151732787"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5769f6b3-e982-4bed-9254-8d48bd47d217","pagecount":"13","content":"Fall armyworm (FAW), a voracious agricultural pest native to North and South America, was first detected on the African continent in 2016 and has subsequently spread throughout the continent and across Asia. It has been predicted that FAW could cause up to $US13 billion per annum in crop losses throughout sub-Saharan Africa, thereby threatening the livelihoods of millions of poor farmers. In their haste to respond to FAW governments may promote indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides which, aside from human health and environmental risks, could undermine smallholder pest management strategies that depend to a large degree on natural enemies. Agro-ecological approaches offer culturally appropriate low-cost pest control strategies that can be readily integrated into existing efforts to improve smallholder incomes and resilience through sustainable intensification. Such approaches should therefore be promoted as a core component of integrated pest management (IPM) programmes for FAW in combination with crop breeding for pest resistance, classical biological control and selective use of safe pesticides. Nonetheless, the suitability of agro-ecological measures for reducing FAW densities and impact need to be carefully assessed across varied environmental and socio-economic conditions before they can be proposed for wide-scale implementation. To support this process, we review evidence for the efficacy of potential agro-ecological measures for controlling FAW and other pests, consider the associated risks, and draw attention to critical knowledge gaps. The evidence indicates that several measures can be adopted immediately. These include (i) sustainable soil fertility management, especially measures that maintain or restore soil organic carbon; (ii) intercropping with appropriately selected companion plants; and (iii) diversifying the farm environment through management of (semi)natural habitats at multiple spatial scales. Nevertheless, we recommend embedding trials into upscaling programmes so that the costs and benefits of these interventions may be determined across the diverse biophysical and socio-economic contexts that are found in the invaded range.In 2016, the fall armyworm (FAW; Spodoptera frugiperda J E Smith, Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a voracious agricultural pest native to North and South America, was first detected on the African continent (Goergen et al., 2016). It spread quickly from West Africa across the continent, causing extensive damage to crops (Abrahams et al., 2017) and has subsequently spread across Asia (Kalleshwaraswamy et al., 2018). In its native range, FAW is known to feed on over 350 plant species (Montezano et al., 2018) but considering just maize, rice, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.05.011 Received 13 August 2018; Received in revised form 30 March 2019; Accepted 3 May 2019 sorghum and sugarcane it has been calculated that FAW could cause up to $US13 billion per annum in crop losses across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Abrahams et al., 2017). Moreover, due to the high consumption of these cereal crops, particularly maize, in smallholder diets, FAW could have a substantial negative impact on food security. In short, FAW threatens to undermine progress on sustainable development goals for millions of poor farmers.In the Americas, FAW is a sporadic and long-distance migratory pest, with the adult moths capable of flying over 100 km in a single night (Johnson, 1987). It does not have a diapause phase and hence is only capable of overwintering in warmer climates. The female deposits egg masses of a few hundred eggs, usually on the underside of the leaves, and first instar larvae show phototaxis, moving towards the top of the plant, and disperse by ballooning on silk threads (van Huis, 1981). Later instars do not move between host plants and are cannibalistic (Chapman, 1999). In maize, FAW larvae feed on young leaf whorls, ears and tassels, although late instar larvae can cut through the base of maize seedlings killing the whole plant. FAW has two genetic strains, both of which have been detected in Africa (Goergen et al., 2016); the \"rice strain\" which prefers rice and other grasses and the \"maize strain\", which feeds predominantly on maize and to a lesser extent on sorghum (Sparks, 1979). In the invaded range, FAW is projected to constitute a lasting threat to several important crops, as the region provides diverse host plant sources and favourable climatic conditions for constant reproduction in many areas (Goergen et al., 2016;Midega et al., 2018;Montezano et al., 2018).Management of FAW will require a multi-pronged approach that augments existing smallholder pest management strategies.Fortunately, there are many potential low-cost control options that build on local knowledge and ecological principles. Importantly, these are often more relevant to smallholders who lack financial resources to purchase chemical pesticides or expensive seed (Abate et al., 2000;Altieri and Trujillo, 1987;Grzywacz et al., 2014;Orr and Ritchie, 2004;van Huis and Meerman, 1997;Wyckhuys and O'Neil, 2010). Agroecological approaches are compatible with plant breeding and biological control options, and may also be compatible with judicious use of safe chemical pesticides. However, most of the chemical pesticides commonly used are broad spectrum and thus kill natural enemies. Hence their use is likely to undermine agro-ecological approaches (Meagher et al., 2016;Perfecto, 1990;van Huis, 1981;Witmer et al., 2003). In fact, natural enemies are often more severely impacted than the pest (Halley et al., 1996) and indiscriminate spraying can lead to perverse effects, if reductions in natural enemy populations allow the pest to escape its natural control agents (Hardin et al., 1995;Lewis et al., 1997;Ruberson et al., 1994;Tscharntke et al., 2016). In addition, the largely uncontrolled and improper use of chemical pesticides in Africa and elsewhere, including many products and formulations that are banned in the developed world, is a serious concern for human health and the environment (Lewis et al., 2016).Deployment of FAW control options requires an understanding of current smallholder pest management strategies and the way these are constrained by farm management and livelihood factors (Altieri and Trujillo, 1987;Kebede, 2014;van Huis and Meerman, 1997;Wyckhuys and O'Neil, 2010). Smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia already contend with a variety of crop pests, including several native armyworm species (Kfir et al., 2002;Rose et al., 2000). Prior to the arrival of FAW, it was estimated that insect pests, attacking crops at various stages pre-and post-harvest, reduced yields by approximately 30% across Africa, although particular outbreaks not infrequently result in complete crop failure (Grzywacz et al., 2014). Hence, FAW control strategies will need to be integrated into a broader pest management perspective, with a focus on interventions that can generate pest control benefits across a wide array of pests and that are suited to a diversity of crops and cropping systems. Knowledge of current smallholder pest management strategies can also inform the design of interventions to improve adoption (Abate et al., 2000;Altieri and Trujillo, 1987;Wyckhuys and O'Neil, 2007).Here, we review current knowledge of the effects of agro-ecological approaches on population densities of FAW and its natural enemies, as well as on the impact of FAW on crop yield. Based on the findings, we identify agro-ecological management options for FAW that are effective and suited to smallholder farming systems. These measures can be immediately piloted and upscaled. Nonetheless, because of the diverse biophysical and socio-economic contexts occurring in the invaded range, we strongly recommend embedding trials in upscaling programmes to gain an understanding of how the performance of different options varies geographically. Furthermore, we suggest that such trials adopt a farm systems approach so that potential trade-offs may be explicitly examined. We also identify promising novel interventions and make recommendations for research to refine and develop these. We believe this information should be useful to both researchers and national and international agencies concerned with FAW management and enable them to consider how they might pilot approaches through their existing rural development programmes. Details of our methods including search terms are provided in the online Supplementary Materials (Appendix S1).Since the dawn of agriculture, farmers have exploited the pestcontrol services of organisms living in and around their fields (Fig. 1; Huang and Yang, 1987). Agro-ecological approaches to pest management are based on three complementary strategies (Fig. 1): (i) sustainable soil fertility management, which improves crop health and pest resistance (Fig. 1(1-3); Altieri and Nicholls, 2003); (ii) promoting biodiversity at a range of spatial scales from the field up to the landscape and thereby providing living space for natural enemies (Fig. 1(3-6), 1 (8-12); Altieri and Letourneau, 1982;Bàrberi et al., 2010;Landis et al., 2000;Murrell, 2017;Nicholls and Altieri, 2004); and (iii) specific management activities designed to prevent outbreaks or reduce their impact. Many interventions are already aligned with other concepts of sustainable land management, such as climate smart agriculture. For example, measures can include crop rotations, intercropping and mulching of crop residues at the field scale; allowing diverse crop margins and in-field diversity to develop (Tschumi et al., 2016), planting shrubs and trees, and allowing some areas to regenerate naturally (Pumariño et al., 2015) at the farm scale; and increasing the amount and diversity of forest cover and the area under different agricultural crops at the landscape scale (Gurr et al., 2003;Landis et al., 2000;Murrell, 2017;Veres et al., 2013). Diversity is an essential element, because different natural enemies may be more effective at controlling different pests, or pests at different developmental stages or in different seasons. Research has demonstrated that the importance of diversity in the delivery of ecosystem services, including pest control, increases as environmental heterogeneity through space and time increases (Tylianakis et al., 2008), and strongly seasonal climates with high inter-annual rainfall variation create highly heterogeneous conditions for farmers over much of the range invaded by FAW.Nevertheless, management of biodiversity across scales can also be tailored to enhance the pest control function (Fig. 1). Within the field, specific inter-crops can be used to reduce pest infestation (i) by reducing the movement of larvae between crop plants (Päts et al., 1997), (ii) by reducing oviposition on crop plants (Ampong-Nyarko et al., 1994), mainly through the emission of volatiles that directly repel egg-laying females or provide olfactory camouflage (Khan et al., 2010;Pichersky and Gershenzon, 2002), and (iii) by harbouring natural enemies and increasing their activity (Landis et al., 2000;Midega et al., 2006). Many natural enemies respond to plant volatiles that are released when the plant is damaged by a herbivore (Hoballah et al., 2002;Hoballah and Turlings, 2001), but these signals are often much reduced in strength in modern crop varieties (de Lange et al., 2016;Hoballah et al., 2002). However, some natural enemies may respond to semiochemicals released by strategically selected companion plants (Khan et al., 2008). Where their growth does not impede the crop, weeds can provide a pest control function through providing habitat for natural enemies (Penagos et al., 2003). Selective removal of some plants and planting of others can improve the benefits rendered by field margins (Bàrberi et al., 2010;Norris and Kogan, 2005). For example, plants with simple open flowers, such as many Apiaceae, can provide nectar for parasitoids and social wasps. Trees can provide alternative prey and nest sites for generalist natural enemies, such as ants (Aluja et al., 2014). Ants may be an underappreciated pest control agent in tropical agricultural systems, as they are important insect predators in natural ecosystems, but their role in pest control has not been well investigated (Fuller et al., 1997;Morris et al., 2015;Offenberg, 2015;Philpott and Armbrecht, 2006;Way and Khoo, 1992). Social wasps are also important predators of lepidopteran larvae and their service to agriculture has probably been underestimated (Held et al., 2008;Symondson et al., 2002). Diversity can also be managed at larger scales to enhance the pest control function (Gurr et al., 2003;Landis et al., 2000;Murrell, 2017;Veres et al., 2013). Judiciously placed linear features, such as live fences or wind breaks, can increase connectivity for beneficial species and create barriers to the movement of crop pests. However, landscape features can also affect the outcome of interactions among natural enemies (Tscharntke et al., 2016). For example, insectivorous birds feed on both crop pests and their insect natural enemies and the direction of the effect on pest control can depend on the amount of tree cover (Gras et al., 2016;Martin et al., 2013). Management for pest control can even be extended to the provision of nest sites (e.g. insect hotels) for natural enemies (Fig. 1(11); Huang and Yang, 1987).An agro-ecological approach to pest control involves the integration of complementary interventions, across a range of spatial scales, into the farming system. Most measures are multi-functional, such as those contributing to improved soil health or diversification of farm produce. Hence, the approach exploits natural synergies within smallholder farming systems. Moreover, specific measures usually provide pest control benefits for a variety of pest species. Redundancies in the approach also provide farmers with choices, so they can opt to incorporate measures according to the specific constraints they face. Providing farmers with baskets of options will be essential for upscaling agro-ecological approaches for pest management in SSA (Coe et al., 2014). However, it will also be important to identify potential negative effects of interventions, such as increases in the burden of labour on women and young children. Last, it is critical to consider the role of agro-dealers, who could have an important role in supplying inputs, such as seeds or seedlings for inter-crops and field margin plants, but who through the existing market chains may be more inclined to promote indiscriminate use of often dangerous, broad-spectrum chemical pesticides.Reports from FAW's native range support general agro-ecological principles of pest management through enhancing the role of natural enemies (Altieri, 1980;Altieri et al., 1978;Ashley, 1979;Clark, 1993;Fuller et al., 1997;Hay-Roe et al., 2016;Hoballah et al., 2004;Lewis and Nordlund, 1980;Meagher et al., 2016;Perfecto, 1991Perfecto, , 1990;;Perfecto and Sediles, 1991;van Huis, 1981;Wheeler et al., 1989;Wyckhuys andO'Neil, 2010, 2006). A noteworthy observation is that farmers in Honduras and Guatemala, who were managing diverse smallholdings within complex landscapes including forest patches, did not regard FAW as a serious pest (Morales et al., 2001;Wyckhuys and O'Neil, 2010). FAW caused minimal damage in these fields and never sufficient to warrant the use of pesticides (Wyckhuys and O'Neil, 2007). Whereas in bio-climatically similar areas where farmers cultivate maize in large-scale monocultures, FAW is a serious pest (Blanco et al., 2014). van Huis (1981) also noted that where maize in Nicaragua was grown alongside cotton that was heavily sprayed with pesticides, FAW was a much more prominent pest than in other areas that were typically not sprayed.Fig. 1. Agro-ecological approaches to pest management: (1) Minimum soil disturbance enhances biological properties of soil, thereby improving soil fertility management and plant nutrition; (2) Mulching of crop residues protects the soil surface and adds carbon to improve soil fertility management, and in addition provides habitat for insect predators especially spiders, earwigs, beetles and ants; (3) Planting leguminous inter-crops or cover crops improves soil fertility management through nitrogen fixation, diversifies the field environment for beneficial insects, including insect predators and parasitoids, and through the production of olfactory cues can deter pests from laying eggs (also in the case of FAW, intercrops may trap the ballooning first instar larvae thereby increasing mortality); (4) Shrubs/trees with flowers or extra flora nectaries support populations of ants and small wasps; (5) Boundary trees (e.g. fodder trees, fuelwood trees, shelter trees) provide perches and roosts for birds and bats and increase the structural diversity of the farm habitat through shade and shelter; (6) Crop rotationimproves soil fertility management and diversifies the farm environment; (7) Regular scouting by the farmer to identify pests and assess damage enables informed pest management decisions; (8) Weeds allowed to grow between the maize rows and along field margin can provide habitat for insect predators and encourage parasitoids and predatory wasps through provision of nectar (however, weeds can also compete with the crop and sometimes provide alternative hosts for pests, hence detailed understanding of their effects is required); (9) Diverse field margins provide habitat for generalist predators, such as spiders, beetles, earwigs and ants; (10) Insectivorous birds and bats provide an important role in reducing pest abundance in diverse agro-ecological systems; (11) Nest site provision for predatory wasps or ants could be used to enhance the local abundance of insect predators; (12) Predatory waspthese wasps hunt pest caterpillars to provision their larvae. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)FAW is prey to a diversity of natural enemies. It is attacked by over 150 parasitoid and parasite species from 14 families, including families within the Hymenoptera, Diptera and Nematoda (Ashley, 1979;Molina-Ochoa et al., 2003) and by diverse taxa of insect predators (Braman et al., 2002;Fuller et al., 1997;Perfecto, 1991;van Huis, 1981;Wyckhuys and O'Neil, 2006). Evidence also suggests that parasitoids do not show any preference for the rice or maize FAW strains (Hay-Roe et al., 2016). Hence, there is reasonable hope that effective control can be achieved with native natural enemies in the invaded range. Already, five parasitoids belonging to two orders and three families (including four larval parasitoids and one egg parasitoid), have been recovered from FAW in East Africa (Sisay et al., 2018). Combined rates of parasitism ranged from 50% in Jimma, Ethiopia to 4% at Pwani, Tanzania. Moreover, generalist predators, including ants and social wasps, which play important roles in lowering populations of lepidopteran pests of cereal crops in Africa (Midega et al., 2006), have been observed attacking FAW larvae SSAunpublished observations).-> .Healthy plants and vigorous plant growth are important plant physiological attributes for withstanding pests and diseases. However, inappropriate use of inorganic fertilisers can result in increased pest damage (Altieri and Nicholls, 2003). For example, Kaqchikel farmers in Guatemala complained that since the introduction of inorganic fertilisers herbivorous pests, including FAW, had become a problem in their traditionally managed maize fields (Morales et al., 2001). Meanwhile, experiments in Guatemala showed that crops fertilized with inorganic fertilizers had a higher abundance of aphids than organically fertilized crops (Morales et al., 2001). Fertilisation with inorganic fertilisers can result in a spike in nitrogen uptake and the production of foliar nitrogen, which is attractive to insect herbivores (Altieri and Nicholls, 2003;Morales et al., 2001). In their review of the topic, Altieri and Nicholls (2003) found that crops in soils with high organic matter and active soil biology exhibit lower abundance of insect herbivores than those in degraded soils with low organic carbon content. Nonetheless, application of inorganic fertilisers can result in improved yields, despite higher pest pressure, as a consequence of improved plant growth. A substantial yield gap exists across the vast majority of smallholder farms, as a consequence of inadequate plant nutrition (Vanlauwe et al., 2014). Hence, we recommend sustainable soil fertility management approaches, which aim to improved soil nutrient status and increase soil organic carbon. Measures include the use of nitrogen fixing cover crops, crop rotation, inter-croppingincluding the use of fertiliser trees and addition of composted livestock manure, alongside the application of inorganic fertilisers.Sustainable soil fertility management is also compatible with efforts to increase the role of agricultural soils in climate change mitigation, which is a significant component of most nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. There have been numerous reviews of development programmes aimed at improving smallholder soil fertility management (e.g. Thierfelder et al., 2015). Overall, these studies find that, despite the obvious benefits, uptake among farmers is low, which can be attributed in part to the time it takes for soils to accumulate carbon and for the benefits to be realised (Vanlauwe et al., 2014). Higher risks, especially in the first year or two, for example, from increased weed pressure and increased management complexity, also serve as barriers to adoption. However, linking pest control benefits to sustainable soil fertility management may help overcome impediments to adoption.In the Dominican Republic, Del Rosario (1981; reported in Kumar and Mihm, 2002) found that FAW infestations were reduced by 30-60% in no-till maize as compared to conventional controls, and similar results are reported from Costa Rica (reviewed in Andrews, 1988). In Florida, Clark (1993) found that carabid beetles, rove beetles, spiders and ants were important predators of FAW in reduced-tillage maize fields. Moreover, he showed that fields with the highest level of mulch coverage and lowest tillage intensity had the highest densities of predators. All (1988) found there was no difference in pest damage between plough-based and no-tillage-based systems, except when residues were present. And, Roberts and All (1993) found that FAW infestation in maize was reduced at the seedling stage in no-till systems with residue retention, but the difference declined as the maize continued to grow. In a wheat-maize rotation conservation agriculture system in central Mexico, Rivers et al. (2016) found significantly higher spider activity in no-till maize and with residue retention in wheat. Higher levels of soil cover increased predation of FAW before and after planting in maize and before planting in wheat. FAW damage was also significantly reduced in no-till maize (Rivers et al., 2016; FAW damage was not investigated in wheat). In a series of experiments focusing on the performance of different maize hybrids in Mexico, Kumar (2002) and Kumar and Mihm (2002) found that zero-tillage consistently resulted in lower FAW damage and increased yields by around 10%, as compared to plough-based tillage systems. Addition of mulch in the notill systems resulted in variable results for FAW damage and had no significant effect on yield (Kumar and Mihm, 2002). Initial results from Zimbabwe suggest that minimum tillage systems also lower FAW infestation rates in SSA (Baudron et al., 2019).FAW is a highly fecund, migratory pest with overlapping generations that does not have an extended life-cycle phase in the soil (it does not diapause and pupation is just a few days). Therefore, tillage, which is usually a once-off intervention practised at the onset of the season, is unlikely to effectively control this pest. Tillage has not been found to be an effective control measure for FAW in the Americas. In contrast, the evidence presented in the previous paragraph that minimum tillage systems, especially when associated with surface mulch, reduce FAW damage and increase yields.Physical structures on top of the soil create a favourable microclimate, reducing temperatures and increasing humidity, and provide shelter and hunting space for arthropod predators. Spiders, in particular, appear to respond positively to increased ground cover (Reichert and Bishop, 1990;Rivers et al., 2016). Mulch may also act as a barrier to FAW larvae when burrowing into the soil to pupate and increase predation during this stage. Perfecto (1990Perfecto ( , 1991) ) reported that ants killed 92% of FAW pupae in smallholders fields in Nicaragua. However, mulch can sometimes promote pests or diseases, although this can usually be avoided if non-crop biomass is used (Boosalis and Doupnik, 1976). For example, in a small study in NE Mexico, Rodríguez-del-Bosque and Salinas-García (2008) found no tillage with maize residue retention increased incidence of fungi (Fusarium spp. and Aspergillus flavus) that cause mycotoxin contamination in maize. Mulch can also increase maize stem rot in more humid sites, while in drier sites it may increase termite attack. Hence, residue mulching interventions should be tailored to local conditions and where possible use non-crop biomass in rotation systems to avoid pest and disease carry-over.As a pest control measure, minimum soil disturbance and mulching of residues can be easily integrated with existing efforts to promote sustainable intensification and climate change adaptation through conservation agriculture (Thierfelder et al., 2016(Thierfelder et al., , 2015)). However, in many smallholder farming systems crop residues are fed to livestock, which can be an impediment to adoption of mulching (Baudron et al., 2014;Valbuena et al., 2012). Use of fodder trees or other alternative livestock feeds, combined with composting of animal manure, can be integrated with low tillage and mulching as a holistic suite of measures for soil fertility management with anticipated benefits for FAW control.Inter-crops can reduce pest damage by (i) improving soil health and promoting vigorous plant growth, especially in the case of N-fixing intercrops or those that serve to ameliorate the field microclimate (Sida et al., 2018b), (ii) inhibiting movement of larvae among plants (van Huis, 1981), (iii) preventing female moths from laying eggs, through visual or chemical disruption (Khan et al., 2010), and (iv) providing habitat for natural enemies (Midega et al., 2006). In experiments conducted by Altieri et al. (1978) in Columbia, FAW infestation rates as cutworm were 14% lower and as a whorl feeder 23% lower in maizebean inter-crops as compared to monoculture maize. Altieri (1980) also found that early planting of beans, up to one month before maize, substantially reduced FAW infestation. In Nicaragua, inter-cropping with beans reduced FAW infestations by 20-30% and significantly reduced damage to whorls (van Huis, 1981). This was due to reduced larval dispersal, because the inter-crop trapped the ballooning 1st instar larvae. This mechanism may also explain why early planting of the inter-crop increased its effect in the study by Altieri (1980). In addition, van Huis (1981) found that maize polycultures supported higher densities of natural enemies, including earwigs and spiders, that fed on early larval instars. Meanwhile, inter-cropping reduced parasitism of FAW by braconids but increased parasitism by tachinids (van Huis, 1981). Also in Nicaragua, ants were found to be more common in maize-bean inter-crop fields than in maize monocrops (Perfecto and Sediles, 1991).A system developed for controlling stemborer and Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. (a parasitic weed), known as climate adapted push-pull, was also found to be effective against FAW on maize in East Africa (Midega et al., 2018). In push-pull systems, farmers inter-crop cereals with plants that exude pest repellent volatiles, such as Desmodium spp., (\"push\") and plant pest attractive grass species, such as Pennisetum purpureum Schumach, as a border around the field (\"pull\"). Pest survival on the pull plant may be low (Khan et al., 2007;Midega et al., 2011) or it can be used for focused pesticide application. On average the climate adapted push-pull system, which uses the drought tolerant companion plant, Desmodium intortum (Mill.), as the push and Brachiaria cv Mulato II as the pull, reduced FAW infestation by 86% and increased maize grain yields 2.7-fold in drought prone areas of East Africa (Midega et al., 2018). FAW belongs to the same family as Busseola fusca Fuller, one of the lepidopteran stemborer species effectively controlled by the push-pull system (Midega et al., 2014). Therefore, although the causal factors behind the pest control effect and increased yields were not investigated, it is likely to include the activity of semiochemicals emitted by the companion plants, improved soil health (Desmodium spp. being some of the most efficient nitrogen fixing legumes (Whitney, 1966)), and activities of natural enemies. The companion plants provide valuable fodder thus facilitating crop-livestock integration. The effectiveness of this system against FAW implies an urgent need to optimize it for broader application. Early results from Uganda suggest that other leguminous intercrops are effective in reducing FAW infestations, but exhibit lower control over Striga than Desmodium (Hailu et al., 2018). There is also a need to fully elucidate the mechanisms of FAW control for sustainability and for extension to other pests and cropping systems in the region. Needless to say, pushpull systems can be integrated with other measures to control pests, including soil fertility management and habitat diversification at field and farm scales (Kebede, 2014;Midega et al., 2018).Whether as cover crops, green manures, multi-cropping systems, part of a push-pull system or fertiliser trees, inter-crops can play an important role in controlling pests, including FAW.3.2.4. Effects of weeds and weed management (Figs. 1-8) Altieri (1980) found that when weeds were also permitted to grow in his maize-bean intercrop plots in Columbia, there was an eight-fold reduction in FAW infestation relative to the maize monoculture. Similarly, in Florida, FAW infestation was approximately 50% lower in plots with weeds, as compared to those without (Altieri, 1980). In Honduras, Portillo et al. (1991) found that FAW infestation was higher in fields treated with herbicide than in weedy fields under normal smallholder management. In a comparison between clean and weedy maize plots in Chiapas, Mexico, Penagos et al. (2003) found that FAW infestation was over 2.5 times higher in the clean plots at 20 days post-planting. However, the numbers of FAW larvae declined markedly thereafter and were not significantly different among treatments. Arthropods (mostly predatory Carabid beetles) were over twice as abundant in weedy plots, as compared to clean plots, but the numbers of parasitoids were similar (Penagos et al., 2003). van Huis (1981) investigated the effect of weeds on FAW infestation in maize in Nicaragua. He found that weeds increased oviposition by FAW and that when weeds were abundant throughout the plot FAW larvae were common on both maize and weed plants. However, van Huis (1981) also found that when weeds were cleared in a strip either side of the maize row there were almost no FAW larvae on the maize. As FAW oviposited almost exclusively on the maize, van Huis (1981) suggested the main effect of weeds was to trap the ballooning 1st instar larvae. van Huis (1981) also recorded significantly higher densities of insect predators and parasitoids in weedy plots. Hence, van Huis (1981) suggested weed management could be an important tool for FAW management in smallholder fields.In conclusion, several reports indicate that the presence of weeds increases the abundance of natural enemies in maize plots and often reduces FAW infestation. However, if weeds become overly abundant they will compete with the crop and reduce yields. Thus, we suggest that farmers need to manage weeds, but that they could consider leaving some weeds in a strip between the maize rows for pest control benefits. The topic would benefit from further research to better understand which types of weed more effectively reduce FAW infestation and how best to manage them.3.3. Habitat diversification at farm scale (Figs. 1-4,1-5,1-6,1-9)Countless studies have shown that habitat diversification at farm scales results in an increased abundance of natural enemies and their improved effectiveness in controlling insect pests (Andow, 1991;Wyckhuys and O'Neil, 2006). In two smallholder managed agro-ecosystems in Honduras, Wheeler et al. (1989) recorded high levels of parasitism (43%) of FAW. Also in Honduras, Wyckhuys and O'Neil (2010) reported that higher abundance of natural enemies was associated with early successional environments with high floral diversity surrounding fields. Fields supported diverse assemblages of parasitoids and predators and FAW infestation rates remained below economic threshold levels (Wyckhuys and O'Neil, 2006). In a survey across four states in Molina-Ochoa et al. (2004, 2001) found that parasitoid diversity and FAW parasitism rates were highest in areas with the highest diversity of habitats near maize fields. Using sentinel larvae placed in maize fields in Florida, Hay-Roe et al. (2016) found that different parasitoid species preferred the field edge and the centre, but overall FAW parasitism rates were similar in both habitats. They also found parasitoid species abundances varied seasonally. Recoveries of sentinel larvae from pastures were very low, which the authors attributed to the large numbers of predators, especially ants, social wasps and spiders (Hay-Roe et al., 2016). In sweet corn fields in Florida FAW parasitism rates varied from 1% to 92% (Meagher et al., 2016). Mean FAW parasitism rates were far higher in areas without pesticide spraying (44 ± 9.6%) than in sprayed areas (15 ± 2.5%), and the highest rate was recorded from an unsprayed site with the highest plant diversity around the field while, conversely, the lowest rate was recorded from a sprayed site with very low plant diversity in habitats abutting the sample site (Meagher et al., 2016). In summary, evidence from the Americas supports the ecological principle that increased habitat diversity around the field increases efficacy of natural enemies in controlling FAW.Leaving of weeds alongside fields can provide habitat and alternative food to a variety of natural enemies (Figs. 1-4) (Holzschuh et al., 2009). Wyckhuys and O'Neil (2007) recorded significantly lower FAW infestation levels in fields bordered by habitats of high floral richness and cover, and a marginally significant negative association was found with grass cover at short distances (< 100 m) from the field border. Experimental plantings of two wild flower mixes bordering bermudagrass increased populations of beneficial arthropods, especially foliar spiders and carabids, and predation rates on artificially placed FAW eggs and larvae were very high (Braman et al., 2002). In Peru, in an assessment of the quality of refuge plants around a maize field, Quispe et al. (2017) found that plants with bracteal extra-floral nectaries attracted the highest abundance and diversity of both predators and parasitoids, including species that attack FAW. They also found that plants with high foliage density attracted more alternative hosts and higher parasitoid and predator densities (Quispe et al., 2017).3.3.3. Agroforestry (Fig. 1-5)Through diversifying the farm environment, especially the increased structural diversity that trees and shrubs provide, agroforestry is an important component of the agro-ecological pest management toolkit (Aluja et al., 2014;Philpott and Armbrecht, 2006;Pumariño et al., 2015). However, we could not find any studies that specifically examined the role of agroforestry in FAW management. Trees are likely to enhance the abundance of birds and bats (Figs. 1-10) and increase their role as natural enemies of FAW (Maas et al., 2016(Maas et al., , 2013)). Bats in particular may be important control agents of the adult moths (Boyles et al., 2011;Lee and McCracken, 2005;Maine and Boyles, 2015). For example, in Texas it has been estimated that 100 million Brazilian freetailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) consume up to 4 billion noctuid moths each night, and consumption patterns correlated with the seasonal migrations of pests, including FAW (Lee and McCracken, 2005). Birds also consume large numbers of crop pests (Jones et al., 2005b;Kirk et al., 1996) and are more diverse and abundant in maize fields with diverse field margin habitats (Jones et al., 2005b). Moreover, in laboratory trials red-winged black birds (Agelaius phoeniceus L) preferentially selected larger, non-parasitized FAW larvae, which would enhance their pest control effect (Jones et al., 2005a). However, only a few bird species may be able to extract FAW larvae from the whorls and husks (Kirk et al., 1996).In SSA, a number of development agencies have been promoting the use of fertiliser trees, such as Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth ex Walp, Tephrosia volgelii Hook. f., and Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev, to improve soil health and provide other benefits, such as on farm woodfuel and livestock fodder production. Incidental reports suggest that these inter-crops may also reduce infestations of FAW and other pests. Parts of all three tree species are known to have insecticidal properties, and leaf extracts of Tephrosia are widely used as a traditional insecticide (Stevenson and Belmain, 2017). Hence, it is possible that these species deter ovipositing female pests when used as an inter-crop, but further research is required to substantiate their effectiveness.A significant advantage of agroforestry is the multi-functionality of trees (Sida et al., 2018b), for example, improving soil health, providing shade for livestock, protecting crops against temperature stress and reducing transpiration, and supplying woodfuel, timber, and fodder, as well as providing a pest control benefit. However, use of trees within cropping systems needs to consider potential trade-offs in tree-crop interactions, especially with respect to competition for light and water (Ndoli et al., 2018;Sida et al., 2018a). Nonetheless, agroforestry is being widely promoted within the concept of climate smart agriculture and hence there is ample opportunity to establish trials and determine the efficacy of trees in the management of FAW and other pests. The provision of ant nest boxes to control pests in Citrus orchards in ancient China is perhaps the first documented use of an agro-ecological approach to pest management (Huang and Yang, 1987). However, the use of artificial nest sites to augment populations of natural enemies is not widely practised and is even more poorly documented (Staab et al., 2018). Nevertheless, nest sites are often limiting, especially in agricultural environments, so it stands to reason that nest site provisioning could enhance the local abundance of beneficial insects. In New Zealand the wasp Ancistrocerus gazella Panzer, a common predator of leaf-rollers in orchards, nested in holes drilled in blocks of wood and when moved to a new site provisioned fresh nest holes with leaf-rollers (Harris, 1994). Management of weaver ants (Oecophylla spp.) in forestry plantations (Offenberg et al., 2004) and on fruit trees (van Mele, 2008) suggests the provisioning of ant nest boxes might be an effective pest management tool for arable crops. Social wasps  are important predators of lepidopteran larvae and efficient predators of FAW (Held et al., 2008), even burrowing down into the maize whorl to extract larvae. In a study in Brazil, which used boxes (or Vesparies) containing Polistes nests, wasps on average collected 1.54 larvae per colony per hour and predated 77% of FAW present in maize plots (1 colony per 25 m 2 ), providing effective control (Prezoto and Machado, 1999).Nest site provision can be seen as a low-cost approach to traditional biological control involving in situ augmentation of native natural enemies rather than the typically expensive programmes focusing on laboratory rearing and releasing. The risk is low, but the cost-benefit relationship of this approach of FAW management needs to be investigated.While in practice the role of the landscape in regulating populations of natural enemies and crop pests is rarely considered in pest management, experimental studies provide evidence that natural enemies have a strong and consistent positive response to landscape complexity (Bianchi et al., 2006;Chaplin-Kramer et al., 2011;Gurr et al., 2017;Landis et al., 2000;Murrell, 2017). Nevertheless, the landscape can also promote disservices, such as alternative food plants for pests or sources of seed for noxious weeds (Tscharntke et al., 2016;Zhang et al., 2007). Hence, management strategies need to consider the characteristics of the natural enemies they aim to promote and those of the unwanted organisms they aim to avoid (Chaplin-Kramer et al., 2011;Tscharntke et al., 2016;Zhang et al., 2007). Nonetheless, there is growing evidence that preserving and restoring semi-natural habitats not only increases densities of natural enemies but also enhances pest control services (Gurr et al., 2017;Midega et al., 2014), although results are not always consistent (Karp et al., 2018). For example, in a test of the role of landscape complexity on FAW parasitism rates, Menalled et al. (1999) found that complexity correlated with increased parasitism in only one out of three sites. However, in a study on infestations of the closely related cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera Hüber, in cotton fields in China, Liu et al. (2016) found that egg parasitism by Trichogramma chilonis Ishii was best predicted by landscape composition within 2 km of a field, with lower parasitism rates in landscapes dominated by crop fields. Also, in a recent meta-analysis of aphid biological control in several cropping systems, Rusch et al. (2016) found that on average pest control via natural enemies was 46% less effective in homogeneous landscapes dominated by cultivated land, as compared with more complex landscapes. These findings indicate that studies assessing the role of landscape features on in-field FAW infestation and parasitism in the invaded range are warranted.Landscape management requires the cooperation of large numbers of stakeholders who often have very different interests. Hence, sustainable landscape approaches are usually government led and externally financed to a substantial degree, although communities should have a large say in determining objectives and monitoring progress to sustainability (Prasanna et al., 2018).Maintaining remnants of forest in agricultural landscapes can be effective for conservation of arthropod biodiversity and contribute to biological control in adjacent crop fields (Landis et al., 2000;Veres et al., 2013). Forest patches near crop plantations have been shown to increase the local abundance and diversity of natural enemies, such as predatory solitary wasps and insectivorous birds and bats (Boyles et al., 2011;Jones et al., 2005b;Maas et al., 2013Maas et al., , 2016;;Sousa et al., 2011). Sousa et al. (2011) evaluated the influence of forest distance on predatory solitary wasp abundance and richness and its relation to the natural biological control of FAW in maize fields in Brazil. They found that wasp abundance decreased, whilst FAW abundance increased, with the distance from the forest. Meanwhile, Wyckhuys and O'Neil (2007) found that spiders and ground beetles reached high abundance in maize fields within coffee agroforest landscapes.Given the scale of the global land restoration agenda (Bonn Challenge: 350 Mha by 2030), embedding trials of the effects of restoration treatments, including planting and natural regeneration, on pest control and other ecosystem services is essential (Gellie et al., 2018).Early planting after the first effective rains usually provides better growing conditions for maize, making use of more heat units at the beginning of the cropping season. Control of pests in early planted crops derives from low pest pressure at this time of the season. However, early planting is also associated with increased risk of crop failure, as the initial rains may be erratic. Smallholder farmers may therefore be hesitant to plant their crops early and resort to either staggered planting or delaying the planting by using shorter season varieties (Thierfelder et al., 2016). Current advice to farmers is to wait for the first effective planting rains of 30-50 mm that fall in 2-3 consecutive days. This normally assures adequate soil moisture for crop establishment, especially if this is not the first rainfall event, and reduces the risk of crop failure. Staggered planting also helps farmers disaggregate labour peaks and hence potentially benefits women and children who are usually responsible for planting and caring of the young crops.Spraying with sugar solution or fish soup may be a low-cost option for encouraging natural enemies into the crop. Sugar on leaves attracts ants, solitary wasps, parasitoids and other natural enemies, while fish soup is specifically for attracting ants. The effectiveness of such a measure will depend on the availability of natural enemies around the field. In Honduras, sugar-solution treated maize had significantly higher densities of natural enemies, 18% lower FAW infestation and 35% lower leaf area damage than water-only treatments (Canas and O'Neil, 1998). In a comparison of spraying (i) water only, (ii) water plus sugar (10%) and (iii) water plus molasses in Parana state (Brazil), Bortolotto (2014) found that there was no difference among treatments in predator densities, but the rate of FAW parasitism was much higher in the sugar and molasses treatments (∼11.5%), as compared to the water only treatment (∼6.5%). We could not find any research on the application of fish soups, but farmers traditionally use this on their crops in parts of Africa. Clearly, more research is required to understand under what circumstances these interventions may be effective in controlling FAW and other pests. However, these are certainly worth investigating as a potential low-cost responses to outbreaks that are an environmentally benign alternative to chemical pesticides.Pouring a mixture of sand and ash into the leaf whorl has been found to be effective in killing FAW larvae, and is being promoted as a low-cost cultural pest control option by FAO (FAO, 2018). However, the high labour demands of such an approach make it only feasible for small plots and, moreover, there is a risk that promotion of this approach may result in a substantial increase in the burden of work on women and children, who are often assigned crop tending tasks. Nevertheless, using sand and ash may provide an immediate solution to a FAW outbreak for families who cannot afford chemical pesticides. In the longer term promoting other agro-ecological approaches is likely more effective.3.5.4. Crushing egg masses and hand-picking larvae Crushing egg masses and hand-picking larvae are very labour intensive options that are, nevertheless, available to farmers in the event of an outbreak. Due to the high labour demands it will not be effective for large plots and may increase the burden of labour on women and children. A healthy crop will out grow low densities of FAW with little or no impact on yields (Hruska and Gould, 1997). Hence, egg crushing and caterpillar picking should only be promoted as a last option in the event of an outbreak. As above, longer term solutions through promoting other agro-ecological approaches are likely more effective.The rapid spread of FAW has in some cases resulted in indiscriminate spraying of pesticides, often without regard to whether chemical control is necessary or even effective within the local context (McGrath et al., 2018). Indiscriminate spraying not only wastes money and has potential negative impacts on human health and the environment (particularly where knowledge concerning the safe use of these toxic chemicals is limited; Lewis et al., 1997;Meagher et al., 2016;Pretty and Bharucha, 2015;Tscharntke et al., 2016), but also undermines agro-ecological approaches by reducing populations of natural enemies. Evidence from the Americas indicates that where chemical pesticides are applied, populations of natural enemies are reduced and their impact on FAW populations greatly diminished (Meagher et al., 2016;Perfecto, 1991;van Huis, 1981). In Nicaragua, van Huis (1981) found that 15 days after spraying with pesticides FAW populations were actually higher, as compared to clean controls. Therefore, effective use of agro-ecological approaches requires that only safe chemical pesticides are used and only as a last resort.However, the practice of donating or subsidizing pesticides by national programs that are socially or politically motivated to provide these free of charge to farmers (de Groot, 1995;Hruska and Gladstone, 1988), encourages unnecessary use of chemical pesticides (Hruska and Gladstone, 1988) and neglect of traditional pest management practices (van Huis and Meerman, 1997). It may also lead to emergence of resistance, as has been reported in FAW for a broad spectrum of chemical agents in the Americas (Carvalho et al., 2013;Okuma et al., 2018;Yu, 1991;Yu and McCord, 2007) and to Bt maize in the US and Brazil (Huang et al., 2014;Omoto et al., 2016;Storer et al., 2012). We suggest that nationally supported crop insurance schemes might be more appropriate than promotion of discounted pesticides.Knowledge concerning the relationships between pest numbers, host responses to injury and resultant economic losses, forms the basis of decision making in an IPM system (Pedigo et al., 1986; Supplementary Materials Table S1). However, previous studies for FAW in maize, show large variation in the injury levels resulting from a given level of FAW infestation, large variation in plant response to injury and, in many cases limited yield loss despite significant incidences of damaged plants in fields (Supplementary Materials Table S1). This variation is likely driven by differences in plant age, plant nutrition, climate, and the abundance and efficacy of natural enemies. The only published guidelines on action thresholds for FAW control in Africa are those suggested by McGrath et al. (2018). However, not only are the original data highly variable, but the trials were conducted under very  All (1988); Clark (1993); Reichert and Bishop (1990); Rivers et al. (2016). Reduced FAW damage: Rivers et al. (2016); Roberts and All (1993), but Kumar and Mihm (2002) had variable results. Kumar (2002) and Kumar and Mihm (2002) did not find any increase in yield over minimum tillage.  Ochoa et al. (2004Ochoa et al. ( , 2001)). Increased levels of parasitism or predation: Andow (1991); Meagher et al. (2016); Molina-Ochoa et al. (2004, 2001).(continued on next page) ecological conditions to those found in smallholder fields. Furthermore, preliminary results from Zimbabwe suggest that yield loss cannot be predicted from assessments of infestation and leaf damage alone (Baudron et al., 2019). In addition, approaches to calculating economic thresholds (e.g McGrath et al., 2018) typically ignore many costs, including damage to the pest control services provided by natural enemies and risk to human health and the environment. Given the high degree of uncertainty surrounding the relationship between infestation levels, plant damage and yield loss, and poor knowledge concerning the effectiveness of chemical pesticides, especially when applied by smallholder farmers without proper equipment or training, we would advise much more conservative thresholds until better data are available. Cultural responses, such as sugar spray or fish soup, may be tried as a low-cost initial response, while pesticides should only be applied as a last resort and only formulas that are less toxic to natural enemies.Several of the agro-ecological approaches described in this article are known to be effective against FAW. In Table 1, we provide a summary of the reviewed information. A number of interventions are ready to be piloted at scale, including (i) minimum tillage, (ii) biomass mulching, (iii) intercropping, including use of cover crops and alley cropping, (iv) diversifying the farm environment through crop rotation, agroforestry and management of field margins and (semi)natural habitats. However, interventions need to be tailored to local contexts and hence field trials should be embedded into up scaling programmes, so that interventions can be fine-tuned. This would have the additional benefit of delivering a comprehensive understanding of the cost/benefit ratios of these interventions across a broad spectrum of biophysical and socio-economic contexts. Indeed, we would advocate embedded such trials in all ongoing sustainable intensification programmes, as a quick way to gain an understanding of the effects of such interventions on FAW and other pests. Furthermore, for the development of meaningful Farmers often wish to stagger planting to spread out labour demand and as an insurance against rainfall variability. Requires further investigation.Evidence from highly seasonal environments in N. America indicates it is a successful strategy. However, there is no information available from Africa and outcomes are likely to be very different.4.2 Spraying with sugar solution or fish soup: As an alternative to using chemical pesticides a 10-20% sugar spray or protein rich fish soup is sprayed on the crop.The bait attracts natural enemies into the field, especially ants and parasitoids.Sugar solution had a modest effect in Americas (18% reduction infestation and 35% reduced leaf damage in one study). Effect of fish soup unknown. However, ants are known to be very effective predators of FAW. Should be trialed as an alternative to chemical pesticides.Limited, just two studies on sugar spray: Bortolotto (2014); Canas and O'Neil (1998).4.3 Pouring sand or ash in the leaf whorl: An alternative response to pest outbreaks to use of chemical pesticides.Sand and ash irritate the soft skinned larvae forcing them out of the whorl or directly killing them.Unknown: Labour requirements are substantial. Requires further investigation. IPM strategies, it is essential that improve our understanding of the relationship between FAW infestation, leaf damage and yield loss by conducting trials and collecting data on important co-variates, in particular the abundance of natural enemies. Other interventions show considerable promise but require a more thorough testing before they can be recommended for up scaling. These include the possibility of managing weeds to provide living space for natural enemies, providing nest sites to augment populations of important natural enemies, such as ants and social wasps, and cultural interventions, such as spraying sugar or fish soup in response to an outbreak.In addition, we recommend that ecologists team up with researchers from other disciplines to explore potential synergies. For example, agroecological approaches may benefit (or potentially inhibit) traditional biological control involving the release of laboratory reared parasitoids. Similarly, working with crop breeders to enhance the production of plant SOS chemicals by the crop when attacked by herbivores could greatly enhance the benefit of agro-ecological approaches. It will also be important to determine which of the FAW strains are present in an area and which ones pose a threat to particular crops. The food preferences of the two different strains may determine their ability to survive on alternative hosts during the non-cropping season, which especially at larger scales may determine the effectiveness of control options. Even at the plot scale, the effectiveness of, for example, a pushpull system might depend on which strain of FAW is attacking a field.Last, it is important that research is conducted on smallholders current pest management strategies, how to communicate evidencebased pest control advice most effectively, and how to establish the market chains needed to support agro-ecological options.","tokenCount":"8543"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"51eba656605b9521a2d81cdbe0739a89","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f01a9d91-9951-4070-87e4-31ae53354b7d/retrieve","id":"1490689690"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ffd704ab-07c5-43da-953b-007299b46081","pagecount":"7","content":"Maize is the most important cereal in sub-Saharan Africa. It is relatively inexpensive and provides many families with much-needed nutrients. For the farmers, it matures early and Is a source of ready income. Maize production Is being threatened by some diseases and pests, among which are downy mildew and stem borers. Serious yield losses often occur. This paper summarizes two studies that report the efforts of liT A scientists to screen and breed maize varieties for resistance to downy mildew and stem borers.Downy mildew o n maize, ca used by the fungal pathoge n Perollosc/erospora sorgh; (Weslo n and Uppal) Shaw, has been widely reporled in Africa (Frederiksen and Renfro 1977) and has become a se ri o us Ihreal 10 maize prod uctio n in parIs of Mozambique, Nige ri a, Uganda, and Zaire. It can be effeclivel y and efficienlly conI rolled by hosl plant resistan ce.Lcp idopterous stem borers are among the most important insect pests o f maize in Africa. In West Africa, Eldalla saccharilla Walker (Pyralidae) and Sesamia ca/amistis Hampson (Noctuidae) are Ihe mosl damagi ng and widespread stem bore r species ( Bosqu e-Pe rez a nd Mareck 1990a ; Shanowe r el al. 199 1; Gounou el al. 1994).Conlrol of slem borers can o nly be achieved through the integ ratio n of various control practices, such as biological and cultural control, as well as host plant resistance.Resistance breeding has been an effective approach for Ihe conlrol of inseCI pesls in olher parI S of Ihe world (Grace n 1989; Sm ilh el a l. 1989). Scienlisls al !lTA have bee n cond ucting research o n stem borers and developing co nt rol practices for seve ral years. Screening and breeding for resistance to E. saeclzorina and S. ealamislis are an int egra l part o f these efforts.This paper describes and compares methods for downy mildew inocu latio n and artificial infestati o n with stem bo rers w hich have been used in the maize breeding program al!lTA . Progress in developing resistant va ri eti es ada pted to th e lowland lropics o f Africa is also reported.Symplo ms of downy mildew include while, powdery conidia o n the und erside of maize leaves; half leaf chl orosis; narrow, stiff, erect leaves; and malformat io ns of both male a nd female inflo rescences re ferred to as \"crazy lOp\" (Williams 1984).In Nige ri a, there appear to be two distinct strai ns of P. sorghi which infect maize: a \"sorghum\" strain in the northern savanna regions and a \" maize\" strain in some of the more humid southern states. The latter isso aggressive th at infected plants produce no grai n. In cidence of dow ny mildew in susceptible maize varieti es may be as high as 90% under natural co nditions, resulting in up 10 90% yield loss in farmers ' fields . In contrast, sy mpto m remission of the sorg hum strain has been o bserved o n maize (Olanya and Fajemisin 1992). The sorgbum strain produces two types o f spores: conidia • Adapted and slightly co ndensed fro m two papers previously published: (1) J.G. Kling, K.F.Cardwell. and S.K. Kim . 1995 To cause systemic infection, downy mildew spores must germ inate a nd penet rate merislematic lissue. Since the maize s tra in does no t co mmonl y produce oospores, the ea rliest possible infectio n unde r natu ral conditio ns occurs whe n the seedling e me rges from the ground and is ex posed to airborne conidia, which penetrate leaves through o pen stomata. Probability of infeclio n is g realesl w hen Ihe temperature is dropping and th ere is condensalio n on leaf surfaces. By aboul 30 days afler planti ng (DAP), depending on Ihe develo pmenlal slage of Ih e plan I, systemic in fecI io n wit h DM is no longer possible.Damage due to stem borer infestation . \";, a damis,i.\\' 'ldullS I<.l Y their eggs het ween the leaf sheaths of yo ung mai ze plant:-. and. upon hatching. most larvae penetrate the: stem be low the growing point. Larvae ma y also penetrate the whorl. resulting in leaf. tassel. and upper stem damagi.' . Sl'ri• ous yield reduction from S . n t/ami.,\",i., occurs as a resu lt of dcadhcarts. ste m tunncling. lodging. and dircct damOJgc to the c(lrs. Tunne ling of thl: ~Icm <:ommonly n::-.ults in ca rly leaf :-'Cilcsccncc. red uced translocation. and lodgi ng ( Bosque-Perez and Marcl'k 19l)Oa. 1(91), In co ntras t 10 .\\.('atomisti. ', t:. wlcdlllri\"a bcgin:-. to illre ~i maize plant:. around Ilowering time . Direct dam;Jgc 10 th e car:-i:-. also common.Field inocula ti on a nd usc of spread er rows. Con~istenL high kvcls of infec tion in breeding trial s arc es~e nlial for progres~ in breeding for downy mild ew resi stan ce (DMR). To achieve it hi g h level of infectinn. planls arc inoculated 10--14 DAP. When spreade r row~ arc utilized. tesl 111 ;'1lerial s arc planted about I () days .' Ifl er inoculating th e spreader rows. A mix of susceptible va rieties should be lIsed for the spreilder rows to altain a consistent. high leve l of spore production during th e period when test mat erial s arc suscept ible to systemi<.: infec tion . Pool 16-SR and TZESRW arc reco mmended as vilr ieties whi ch produce large quantities of spores. heginning ,. bout 2 weeks after inoculation and co ntinuing for .1 wee ks or more (Cardwe ll et al. 1994). Tes t material Can be evaluated for percent downy mildew by 4 weeks after planting. when spre.lder rows ilre uti lize d. For the maize strain of P. . WJrghi. it is sufficient to reco rd incidence of DM. sin ce infected plants produce no grain . In other regions. it ma y be desirable to obtain yie ld d<tta to assess the severity of the d isease.Sp ra y inoc ul a ti on m eth od s. Until recentl y. re sistance breeding at the International Institute of Tropkal Agri<.:ullure (IITA) depended en tirel y on a nighttime infestation method which ulili zes the natural cycle of spore production (Siradhana el 2. 1 1976: F\"jcmisin 19X8). The methud \\\\'1.1:-' adopted from procedmes deve loped in Thflibnd in 1968. To usc this tcchniqu e. large quantilies of in fec ted lea vc!>. are col-ICI.:ted al 1700 hr!>.. The leaves arc washed to rcmove o ld spores and dehri!>.. and in cuhatcd in large tra~h barre ls wilh water al the bottom. At about UJOO Ius. the leaves arc washed in water to collect new conidia. The sp<lrc suspe nsion is tmnsferred to bi.lckpack spr<.lye rs. c':!fried 10 the field. and sp ra yed into the whorls of the plants. This technique is lahor inten sive and costly in terms of l11anhours. If th e re is rainfall shortl y after inocul~lIion _ th e procedure musl be repea led . Dry condition:--also rc-du~.:c infect ion. Spreader row!>. need to be inocul4lll'd up 10 th ree time!>. 10 att a in ;!Cceplabk level:-. of infel, tio n (I-ajcJ11i~in 19XR).In 1991. an incubator wa:-; purchased and laboratory space was mad e ava ili.lbh.: al the Federal College of Agriculture in Akure. in the endemic DM zone in so uthern Nigeria. A daytime in oc ultllion method waS adopted (Schmitt and Fn:yta g 1974). wh ich has heen shown to providl' level:-. of in ..... <:t ion a:--hi gh a~ tho:--c for the ni gh lliT11 l. • procedure (Cardwell et al. I Spray inonilatiull mct hOlb (all he furth er improved hy using builed or di:-;I ill ed w'lter to make initial. concenlrated suspc:nsion:--. wh ich c<.In he diluted to a co nce ntration of I x lOS co nidia ml -I immediately before inoc ulation. and hy keeping the suspc: nsioll at 4-6 °c tn reduce the germination rate of conidia and conscquent losses in viability in so lution (Cardwell ct \"I. 1994).Seedlin g inoc ulation meth od . To overcome some of th e limitations nf spra y inoc ulation. a method for ifl(Kulating germinating seeds has heen deve loped. Craig ( 19XO) observed that incidence of downy mildew was highest when mai ze was exposed to conidia < II the seedling stage. That 'lpproach has been modified and simplified at IITA for usc: in large-scale breeding programs.Maize seeds for spreader rows arc germinated in an incubato r in the laboratory. After 72 h. when the radical and colcopt ile ha ve just emerged. infected leaves are placed on a wire mes h above the seedlings and allowed to sporu late overnight. Seedlings arc transplanted to the field the fo llowing day and test rows are planted 10 days later. High dise;'lse incidence has been obtained in susceptihlc te st rows with this method . and requirements for labor and inoculum have been grea tl y reduced . The method ll1 a~ be applied Withou t an illcllb a~ lOr. milking il readil y tran:--fcrablc: to na lional agricultural research systems (NARS) .Incubator sl' ree ning meth od . A modified ve rsion of a system developed by Craig (1987) for collecting spores and inocu lating 7-day old seed lings in an incubator was adopted at II TA in 1 99~ (Cardwell et al. Il)t)\"'). It requires so me relatively expensive cqu ipment. which Illay limit its use by NARS. The system makes yea r-fOund screening possihle. Also. Ics:--Ihan sr';, of susceptihle plants escape infectioll . Plants arc !>.cored 1-2 wec:.'ks after inoculation . AI thi:--~Iage. :-;y mpt om-ks~ plal1l~ l'an be Ir;msplanted 10 a I..-rossi ng hlock or isolatl.'d for selling or recomhination.Work conduct ed by II TA scie nti sts in the ea rly I 480s demonstraled that controlled. uniform . artificial infest;.ations arc needed In uc vdop borer-resistant gcr mplasm (Bo~qu(' -P c re z ('t al. 19X9). M a~s rea ring of slem hon.::r~ i:--req uired 10 provide in-SCl• ts for arlifil'ial infestation . Methods to ma ss rear S . ('a/amislis and I::. sacc!wrina ha ve been deve loped at IITA and improved over the yea rs. At pre~e nt. our laboratory produces 150.000 eggs of S. ca/amislis or SOO.OOO of I:'. sacc/wrill(l per wed at the pea k of th e production cycle.Sc ree nin g m e thod s fo r £ Ida\" a sacchar;na. In order to increase th e number of breeding materials Ihal can be sc ree ned for resistance to E. sacc/wr;,,\". a new infestation method was deve loped (Bosque-Pe rez and Mareck 19CJnb). Stripsofasuscept ible mai ze va riet y ilre planted I month prior to planting test materials. which arc then plaJllcd perpendicular 10 the strips, usi ng .1 m rows and I m ,tlle ys. Plants in the spreade r rows are infested al si lking with E . . mc{'/wrillu egg masses (65-75 eggs pcr plant) obtained from the laboratory colony. Adu lts that emerge from the spreader rows move to the test planls, re• su it ing in a natu ral infestation. Test materials arc checked regularl y to ensure that a uniform level of infestation ha s been achieved . The method ha s proven to be efficient.At maturity. the following assessments arc made : percent of plants with broken stalks. car aspect (s ize. uniformit y, freedom from diseases. etc.). and plant aspect (plant and ear height. uniformity. freedom fro m diseases, etc.} using a 1-5 scale; ear damage (a n estimate of the pe rcentage of gra in co nsumed or da maged by the borer using a 1-5 scale: 1= G-5; 2 = 6--25 ; 3 = 26--50; 4 = 5 1-75 ; and 5 = 76--100%); and grain yield. Measu rement s of agrono mic characteristics (days to silk, plant and ear height) are also taken. The re lati ve we ights assigned to agronomic characteristics and E. sacc/lllrilla resistance trails for selection vary, depending on the population and severity of infestation in a particular yea r.Screening methods for Sesamia calamis/is. The development of screen in g met hods and the selecti on of Sesamillresistant mate rials were enhanced by th e identification of resistant (TZi 4) and susce ptible (TZi 19 or TZi 25) inbred lin e checks (Marec k et al. 1989). To scree n for resistance to S. calamistis, 2 1-day old plants are infested with 25-30 eggs (black head stage) obtained from a laboratory colony. Eggs are placed between the leaf she ath s at th e base of the plant. Damage ratings are taken 2 and 6 wc;eks after infestation, using a 1-9 rating scale ( Bosq ue- Perez et al. 1989).Screening a nd breeding for resistance at IITA Dow ny mildew Deve lopment of downy mildew resistant vari eties for the lowland ecologies of West and Cen tral Africa has been a major priorit y in the breeding program at liT A since the ea rl y 1980s (Fajemisin et al. 1985;UTA 1987;Kim et al. 1990) . DM resistance breeding was initiated in Nige ri a by the national mai ze program in the late 1970s. Coll aborati ve activities with !ITA were soo n initiated and co ntinue prese ntl y with the Institute of Agricultural Resea rch and Training (IAR&T), fbadan and the Federal Coll ege of Agri cultu re. Akure. The sources of resistance used in the breeding program were introduced from the national programs in Thail and and the Philippines in the late 1970s. Resista nce so urces developed in south east Asia have been successfull y deployed and uti lized to control DM throughou t th e wor ld, and ge nerall y appear to be effect ive aga in s t diffe re nt P e ro llosclerosporll species. In addition, they are stable under a wide range of environmental conditions (Frede rikse n and Renfro 1977;Renfro 1985). Nonetheless, there are reports of species and strain specificity, and genotype by location interactions for resistan ce (Wi lliams 1984). w hi ch imply that we should continu e to incorporate add iti onal ge nes for resistance into improved materia ls as they become ava il ab le. Some new introd uctions obtained from Thailand and th e Ph i lippin e s have rece ntl y been introgressed into some of ou r DMR populati ons.Although results of st udi es on the mode of inherita nce of resistan ce to P. sorghi in ma ize have var ied depending on the material used, experi ence has show n that the trai t is rel ati vely easy to manipu late through selection, provided that re liable sc reening methods are available. Singburaudo m and Renfro (1982) determined that a polyge nic system was responsible for resistance in a study of 10 inbred lin es under heavy di sease challenge in Thailand. Susceptibility was dominant for 7 of the resistant lines and incompl etely dominant in one resistant line, indicating additive ge ne action for P. sorghi. The authors agreed with theconc1usions of Kaneko and Aday (1980) in studies with P. philippinellsis that downy mildew infection is med iated by threshold conditio ns. Expression of the disease depends on the inocul urn load, genetic background, condition of the ma ize pl ant, and environmental factors. Experience in Nigeria has shown that und e r mild disease pre ss ure, resistance appea rs to be dominant, whereas under heavy infection , resistance is recessive. Resistance is add iti ve at intermediate leve ls of infec ti on (Fajemi s in, unpubli shed data).Once a re lati ve ly high level of resistance is attain ed, it is esse ntial to have hi gh, uniform levels of infection in screening nu rse ri es to make further progress in selection and resista nce breeding. Using a co mbinat ion of the inoculation methods now avail ab le, levels of infection achieved in susceptible c hecks in the population improvement program have been consisten tl y high since 1992 (Table I). The major emphasis in the population improvemen t program since 1989 has been to convert four heteroti c breed ing populations, which are being improved for general adaptation through reciprocal recurrent selection. These are TZE Compo 3 (earl y, flint), TZE Comp. 4 (early, dent). TZL Comp o 3 (late, flint), and TZL Comp o 4 (late, dent). All open-pollin ated varieties and hybrids derived [rom these composites should th en have acceptab le levels of DMR .To assess the current status of DMR in elite maize va rieties ava ilable from IITA,  In the hybrid breeding program , inbred parenls of elile hybrids are being converted for OM R. A major achi evemen t has been Ih e development of a OM resislanl single-cross hybrid, 8644-27, which is marketed commerciall y by Pioneer Seeds in Nigeri a as \"Oba Super 2.\" One of the parenl lines is KU14 14, a OMR inbred 10 from Thailand. The hybrid has aboul 22% susceptibility under heavy di sease pressure (Table 2). By 1992, the ol her inbred parent , TZi 18, had bee n converted for OMR and KU 14 14 had been conve rted for resisla nce to MSV. Now bOl h parents confer resislance 10 OM and MSV. Crosses belween KU1414 from Thailand a nd MIT2, a resistant inbred line from the Philippines, have show n ve ry high levels of resistance. Incorporati on of new sources of resistance into the breeding program can Ihus enhance Ihe levels of OMR and increase the durability of resistance.Since 1985, a wide diversilY o f germplasm has been screened fo r reacti on to infestation by e ither S. ea/amis/isor E. saee/Illrilla . This includes the BR (borer resislant) populalion o f llTA (developed by screening for S. ea/GlIlis/is under natural infestation), C LMMYT's MER ( multiple borer resislanl) and MERT (multiple borer resisla nl lropical) populalions, a porI ion of Ihe M I R (ma ize inbred resistant) lines from Hawa ii , a nd a wide range of ge rmpl asm from North and South A merica which has shown resistance to other species of maize stem borers. So urces of res is tan ce to S. ea lamis/is or E. sacc/wrilla have been found among some of Ihese germ plasm groups.Three populalions with mode rate resistance to S. ca/amislis were formed be-Iween 1987 and 1988 (Table 3). The populalion TZBR Sesa mi a 2 was evenluall y discontinued, as it did not show adequate levels of resislance 10 Ihis pest. The olher two populations, TZBR Sesamia I and 3, are undergoing select ion for resista nce to S. ea /amislis.Screening for resis tance to E. saeeharilla has received major emphas is. After intensive scree ning from 1985 10 1987, three populations with mode rate resistan ce to E. saecJllIr;na were formed between 1988 and 1989 (Table 3). In 1985, 102 accessions inlroduced mostly fro m CIMMYT were scree ned for resistance as test crosses with Ihe hyb rid 8338-1; superi or malerials were selected a nd back crossed to th ei r o ri ginal introductio n. TZBR (Iropical zea borer resisla nt) Eldana 1 was formed from Ih e besl 14 of lhese backcrosses. Addilionall y, inbred lines with tropical adaplali on were scree ned for resistance, and th e best five recombine d to form the pop ulati on TZBR Eldana 2. Tropically adapled, early, interm ediate. and late-maturing open-pollinated populations were a lso scree ned for resislance during 1 98~9 ( Fig. I, Table 4). S I lines from the three most resistant late populations (La Posla, OMR-LSRW, and TZSR-W-I) were scree ned and supe rior lines were selected and recombined to form Ihe TZBR Elda na 3 popul al ion. Beca use TZBR Eld ana 3 was developed fro m elile, adapled popu lalions, il may be Iransferred to nati onal programs for direct use by farmers. Cycle 2 of Ihis populalion performed well in multilocaliona l yield Iri als in Nigeria and COted ' lvoire in 1993, and it was adva nced to international trials. TZBR Eldana 1 is derived fro m exotic germ plasm a nd is less ada pled 10 Ihe region. It is inlend ed for use as a source of E. sace/zarinG resistance by nali onal breeding progra ms.Among th e early, tropi call y adapled populations screened in 1988, Iwo earl y compos it es und e rgoi ng improvement at llTA (TZE Compo 3 and 4) and an experimental variely fro m CIMMYT's population 30 (EV 8730-SR) showed the least ea r damage under E. saccharinG in festa ti on Table 3. Genetic background of stem borer resistant populations. t   yield, ea r aspect, and reduced lodging in our normal breeding trials. Ear damage and percent stalk breakage were significantl y correlated in this experiment (r; 0.52, P < 0.05).To evaluate levels of E. saccharifla res istance in tropically adapted intermediate and late populations (Table 4), ratings of the amount of frass in the leafaxils and extent of ear damage were recorded ( I ;  5). This may be because a highly susceptible inbred was used as the tester, in order to maximize expression of resistance among the test crosses. Highl y significant differences were observed among families for resistance, but the family x type (St or TC) interaction was not significant. Analysis within types showed that genetic differences were significant among the S I  3. Rating scale : J = resistant to 5 = susceptible. 4. Rating scale: 1 = vigorous to 5 = weak plant growth.12 fa milies, but not among the TCs. More replicati on would, therefore, be req uired to make comparab le progress from selection based on TC evaluation. Vigor ratings (J = very vigorous to 9 = nol vigorous)we re obtained on a su bset of 112 famil ies. Corre lations between damage ratings and vigor were obtained bOlh for Sl families (r = 0.39, P < 0.01) and T Cs (r = 0.51 , P < 0.01), but the difference between Ihe correlations was not significant. These result s suggest thai Sl family seleclion for S. calamistis resistance w ill be more effective th an TC selection. However, since the correspondence between 51 fam il ies and their TCs was very poo r, we only carri ed oul one cycle of seleclion for each type of fami ly, to determine the actu al progress that can be obtained from the two selection methods.Owing 10 Ihe relalionship between S.calamistis resistance and plant vigor, hybrids tend to be more resistant than openpollinated varieties. Among the Sesamia populalions, TZBR Sesamia 3 CO appears to have the greatest resistance, which was comparable 10 thai of hybrid 8321-18 in one experiment (dala nol Shown). Wh en the distribut ion ofS1 famiJi es from this popu lation was observed (Fi g. 3), averaged over two replications, genotypes to the left of the di stribution we re most res istant. Twenty families had better ratings than the resistant check, TZi 4. One limitation of TZBR Sesamia 3 is that it is relati vely susceptible to Puccillia polysora.-Some attention will be g iven to agronomic traits and disease resistance in the future, while continui ng to place the greatest emphasis o n developing Sesamia resistant source populations for nationa l breeding programs.","tokenCount":"3926"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"14948e1e973598617c447c06d78026fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/23ce5343-4c9a-421a-9547-0d189c250545/content","id":"1813817063"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"855a814a-ce70-4c8d-a48d-1a8558d74419","pagecount":"56","content":"CIMMYT is an internationally funded, nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquanered in Mexico, the Center is engaged in a research program for maize. wheat. and triticale. with emphasis on improving the productiviry of agricultural resources in developing countries. It is one of III nonprofit international agricultural research and training centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). which is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The CGIAR consists of some 40 donor countries. international and regional organizations. and private foundations.CIMMYT receives core support through the CGIAR from a number of sources, including the international aid agencies of Australia,. Estimates of expected annual regional productivity loss (ARPL) for wheat-related problems 27 Table 6. Relative importance of unscored problems (lower number indicates higher priority) 27 Table 7. Researcher-identified rice crop problems and researchers' prioritization. Haryana, India, 1992 wet season 35 Table 8. Suggestions for action, by problem category 36 Table 9. Suggested priority actions, by problem and action class (wheat survey team) 37 Table 10. Suggested problem-solving research for three major rice-wheat system problems (rice survey team) 40 Table A1. Participants in the rice and wheat diagnostic surveys, Haryana, India, 1992 41 This repon contains the findings of diagnostic surveys conducted during the wheat and rice seasons of 1992 in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts of Haryana State. India. Scientists from ICAR, HAU. CIMMYT. and IRRI participated in these surveys. Methods of rapid rural appraisal were used, similar to those employed in other rice-wheat diagnostic surveys in India and Nepal.The survey area. located on the Indo-Gangetic Plain in northeastern Haryana State. is characterized by a semiarid climate. Annual rainfall averages only 704 mm, falling mostly in the summer monsoon season. Irrigation is essential for growing rice and wheat. The soils in the study area are light to medium in texture (sandy loam to clay loam), alkaline in pH, and low in organic matter. Some soils in the southwestern part of the study area are salt affected.Most irrigation water in the study area comes from tubewells. with only about one-fifth provided from canals. Most of the groundwater is of good quality (although sadie in the southwestern part of the study area).Rice and wheat are the major crops grown by farmers, with sugarcane, oilseeds, pulses, fodder crops, potatoes. and vegetables making up the balance. Rice-wheat is the major cropping pattern. Rice-berseem clover and triple-crop patterns featuring rice, toria (Brassica campestris) and wheat (or sunflower) are also found.Livestock production and dairying are important components of the farming system. Animals are largely cared for by women. These enterprises interact strongly with the rice-wheat system, partly through the supplies of farm yard manure (FYM) they make available. Despite high livestock populations, the use of FYM on crops is declining because dung is increasingly used for fuel. The main sources of livestock fodder are wheat straw. rice straw (especially Basmati), berseem, fodder maize and sorghum. oats, and cut grasses. Fodder scarcity is a particular problem in sodic areas, where crop yields are lower and there are fewer a1ternati ve crops.Tractors are used mainly to prepare land for planting wheat, and most land preparation is done with tractors. Tractor numbers have tripled in the last 10 years. Disc harrows and cultivators are the only implements available. Farmers perfonn 4-8 tillage operations prior to sowing wheat on lighter soils and 8-12 operations on heavier soils. More operations are used where rice stubble is a problem. Fewer are used when rice is harvested late. Farmers often bum rice straw to facilitate tillage in wheat. The high number of wheat tillage operations appears to be a problem in the study area. Extensive mechanized tillage increases costs and contributes to soil compaction. Reasons given by farmers for extensive tillage include the need to incorporate rice residues, to prepare a fme seedbed, and to break up clods in heavier soils.Turnaround time between rice harvest and wheat planting is usually 15-35 days after modem varieties (MVs) of rice, but turnaround is reduced to 4-12 days after Basmati. Pre-irrigation is usually given to improve wheat germination.Almost all wheat is broadcast sown by hand at a seed rate of around 100 kglha. Low plant populations are found on 20-30% of wheat fields. however. Waterlogging, use of poorly stored seed, poor plant growth. and poor tillering were suggested as causes of low wheat populations.Some of the wheat in the study area is planted [ate, in early December. The long turnaround time between rice harvest and wheat planting appears to be the major reason for this. although late harvest of Basmati rice. loria, and sugarcane also can affect wheat planting date. However. late wheat planting appears less common than in other rice-wheat areas of South Asia.Wheat varieties commonly planted by farmers include HD-2329 (nonnal and late planting), HD-2009 (normal planting), and HD-2285 (late planting). Leaf rust was observed on all of these varieties. Leaf firing and blight was also present on HD-2329. but these diseases need more evaluation. As for rice. the area sown to Basmati varieties is said to exceed 40% of the rice area and to be increasing. Basmati rice is grown largely on well-drained maggra land having medium-textured soils. Basmati is grown by both large-and small-scale fanners.Varieties popular in the study area include Basmati-370, Haryana Basmati-l, and Taraori Basmati. Farmers find Basmati attractive because it sells for a higher price and costs less to produce. Straw of Basmati rice is also preferred for feeding livestock.Farmers usually use their own wheat seed, saved from the previous crop, or seed acquired from their neighbors. Sometimes farmers purchase and then multiply certified seed for use in the following year. Wheat seed was observed to be contaminated with barley, but many fanners noted that wheat and barley mixtures usually do not reduce yields or the price received for harvested grain.Farmers use high rates of fertilizer on wheat (100-150 kg Nlha and 50-75 kg P20/ha) but claim that they need to use more fertilizer now compared to 10 years ago to get the same yield. Few farmers use potash. The use of FYM on crops appears to be declining. especially for rice and wheat. Continuous rice-wheat cultivation, declining levels of organic matter, and other causes were suggested for suspected problems of soil health.Weeds affect yields of both rice and wheat. An annual regional productivity loss for wheat of nearly 8% was estimated for the problem of Phalaris minor infestation -higher than for any other wheat-related problem that was identified. Nearly all farmers use Isoproturon herbicide for control; few weed by hand. The effectiveness of chemical weed control varies considerably among farms. Data recently collected by scientists suggest that P. minor is becoming resistant to Isoproturon. If confinned. this problem represents a major threat to the future productivity of continuous rice-wheat systems. The incidence of different weeds affecting rice and wheat appears to be changing over time.Aphids and termites were identified as minor insect pests for wheat. Insect pests identified as problems for rice include leaffolder, white-backed planthopper. and stemborer.The survey team observed leaf blight, loose smut, and some rust in fanners' wheat fields but did not consider them major problems. However, the year was not favorable for rust development; more disease might be observed when rainfall is more abundant. Additional work is needed to evaluate productivity loss to diseases, especially leaf blight. The most imponant diseases affecting rice in the study area were blast, foot rot, and bacterial leaf blight.Groundwater depletion is a serious problem in the study area, and water tables have fallen as much as 20-25 ft (about 6-7.5 m) in 10 years. This problem has raised the cost of irrigation and may eventually threaten system sustainability. Excessive pumping of groundwater. slow replenishment of aquifers, and transpon of water to other areas of the state by canal all contribute to this problem. In about 10% of the study area, especially in the southwestern part.poor groundwater quality (sodicity) is a problem. Few alternative sources of good quality water exist in these areas; however, rice-wheat is not a common pattern there.Wheat harvesting and threshing take place from April to mid-May. Most wheat (80-90%) is harvested manually and threshed mechanically. The rest is harvested by combine. especially on larger holdings where family labor is insufficient. Migrant labor is important for harvesting and threshing wheat and transplanting rice.In brief, among the problems that affect wheat as well as rice, weeds are a near-term problem that limits both rice and wheat production. Declining soil fertility and soil health, as well as groundwater depletion. are longer-term problems that have implications for the sustainability of the rice-wheat pattern. In addition, poor groundwater quality is an issue in a few areas.Suggested actions to address these problems include additional diagnosis, monitoring to assess longer-term effects of farmers' practices and alternative technologies, research on alternative solutions to problems that are thought to be well understood, extension, and research on policy implications (for providing information to policy makers).Haryana is a major agricultural state in northwestern India. A large part of Haryana is located on the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plain. where rivers issuing from the Himalayas, along with groundwater, provide water for irrigating crops. Two of the most common crops in the state are rice and wheat; in 1989-90, rice accounted for II % of the cropped area in Haryana. and wheat accounted for 33%. Typically these two crops are grown sequentially in a rice-wheat cropping pattern. This cropping pattern, found throughout the state. covers nearly 500,000 ha (Hulce and Huke 1992). but is concentrated particularly in the northeaSt \\Figure 1). Rice and wheat are both important food grains for Haryana's large population, which is growing rapidly at 2.6% per year (Appendix B. Table B 1). Rice and wheat from Haryana also make a significant net contribution to India's food reserves. In all nine rice-wheat study areas, research has commenced with diagnostic surveys conducted during the rice and wheat seasons. These surveys bring together scientists of different disciplines and commodity programs to describe and analyze the rice-wheat system at each study area. Particular attention is given to interactions between rice and wheat, and between the rice-wheat pattern and the rest of the farming system. Survey analyses have resulted in the development of a research agenda for each study area, to guide the actions of a mUltidisciplinary team from the national agricultural research system (NARS), working in partnership with (and receiving support from) the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).This report presents the findings of exploratory diagnostic surveys conducted during 22-29 March, 1992 (the wheat season) and 27 September-2 October, 1992 (the rice season) in the Karnal-Kurukshetra study area.Both the rice and wheat diagnostic surveys in Haryana employed well-known methods of rapid rural appraisal and adaptive research planning (Tripp and Woolley 1989, Fujisaka 1991). As with many rapid rural appraisals, these surveys were characterized by opportunity sampling (including farmer groups and key infonnants, as well as individual women and men fanners), the integration of field observations with semistructured farmer interviews, and a review of secondary data. The surveys aimed to describe farmers' practices and fanning system interactions, identify problems of productivity and sustainability, generate hypotheses on their respective causes, and suggest ways of addressing these problems? Appendix A lists the names of survey participants and their institutional affiliations.The surveys were structured to take advantage of the study area's generally good roads. Participants were divided into small groups. On a given day, each group was provided with a vehicle and was sent to a preselected part of the study area. Villages visited during the wheat survey are shown in Figure 2. Some of the same villages were visited during the rice survey. A higher proportion of fanners interviewed for the rice survey lived in independent compounds, which may have biased the survey toward the larger, mechanized farmers. Participants were encouraged to interview women as well as men farmers. Considerable information on the role of women in the farming system was obtained during both surveys.Discussions with farmers or farmer groups were guided by a list of priority themes or \"guidelines.\" Survey partlcipants were expected to arrive at an understanding of fanners' perspectives on the guide issues. As the surveys progressed. guidelines evolved from general themes to specific questions. reflecting changes in the understanding of survey participants. During the wheat survey, guide issues ranged broadly over land types, farming system components, crop-livestock interactions, cropping patterns, wheat management and problems. and system problems associated with threats to sustainability. During the rice survey, guide issues focused more closely on farmers' agroecological classifications and their correlations with farmers' practices, rice production inputs and outputs, and rice crop problems and farmers' solutions to those problems, Participants returned each day to a meeting room for afternoon or evening discussions, Observations and impressions were shared, challenged, and synthesized, and a new set of guidelines was developed for the next day's visits, For the wheat season survey. points of consensus or controversy among the survey groups were recorded on a computer using personal infonnation management software 3 and sorted by theme, group, and date. Survey notes were printed and circulated among the participants daily to check for consistency and correctness. This procedure enabled a draft report to be written within days of the survey's completion.Towards the end of each survey, discussions focused on productivity and sustainability problems (and their causes) identified by fanners and scientists. Problems were ranked and actions to address the highpriority problems were discussed. Suggested actions included additional diagnosis. research to examine solutions to well-defined problems, extension. and policy analysis.The study area is located in the heart of the rice-wheat area of Haryana State (Figure 1). It lies between 29°11' -30°16' N latitude and 76°II' -77°IT W longitude; it is about 240 meters above sea level.The climate of the eastern subzone of Haryana State (including the study area) is classified as semiarid, tropical to subtropical. Annual rainfall ranges from less than 300 nun to over 1,000 mm (mean 704 mm). About 75-80% of the rain falls between June and September. Winter rains add only SQ..l25 mm to the annual total and, compared to the monsoon rains, vary more from one year to the next (NARP 1990). Mean air temperatures are around 29-31 °C during the summer and l6.5-18°C in the winter. These temperatures range from a maximum of 45°C in the summer to a minimum of less than 5°C in winter (Figures 3 and 4). Annual potential evapotranspiration is 1,400-1,600 mm, varying from 600-750 mm in the summer to 400-450 mm in the winter. Annual water deficits range from 600 to 1,100 nun per year. Irrigation for rice and wheat is necessary to make up for these deficits. Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts comprise part of the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plain laid down by the Indus River system. Most of the rice-wheat tracts in these districts are located on the flat alluvial plain. Nonetheless. farmers recognize several distinct land types, largely distinguished by differences in elevation, with accompanying changes in soils and hydrology. Land types identified by fanners during the survey include maggra (the upper part of the toposequence), dakkar or dungi (medium to lower). and jhil (or \"ponds:' the lowest land, where prolonged flooding is common). Most cultivated land is maggra, some is dakkar (30-35%), but little isjhil. There is a strong relation between land types and soil types: lighter soils are found on maggra and heavier soils on dakkar aIldjhil. It should be noted. however, that in the rice-wheat tract, maggra may include loam soils of medium texture:S oils in the study area are tropical arid brown to arid brown (TypiclUdic Ustochrepts). These soils are calcareous but do not have calcium carbonate layers within a l•m depth. They are very low in organic carbon. Their texture ranges between sandy loam and clay loam. Levels of available phosphorous and potash are medium to high, whereas nitrogen is low. Soil pH varies from 7.0 to 8.5. except for some places that have problems of salinity and sodicity (Table I). Fanners tend to classify soil by texture, but they also recognize some salt-affected soils. Their classifications include: rosli or rerili (sandy); doyam or darmiyani (sandy loam or loam); chahi (good, well-drained soils); dakkar or chikni (clayey relative to other soil types, or \"hard\" soils); and kallar (\"no plants grow,\" salt-affected) or reh (\"crusting of surface salts\"). Farmers also refer to soils of mixed texture (domar or \"two kinds of soils\"), which appear to be a combination of rasH and heavier soils (dakkar and chikni).Source: Rice Research Station, Kaul, Ha/Y8f1a.Agriculture in the study area relies heavily on irrigation. especially water from tubewells. In Kamal District. data from 1989-90 show that about 77% of the irrigated area was served by rubewells and 23% by canals (Appendix B, Table B2). Reliance on tubewells was lower in Kurukshetra District. where 65% of the irrigated area was served by rubewells and 35% by canals.From 1979-80 to 1989-90. net irrigated area increased from 86% to 97% of cultivated area (Appendix B. Table B3). However. the proportion of area irrigated by tubewells relative to canals did not change. During the survey it was estimated that 75-80% of the wheat was irrigated with tube wells. and the remainder with canals. No rainfed wheat was observed.An analysis of gwundwater quality in Kamal District reported in 1976 revealed that 60% of the samples were good quality water and 5% were normal and marginally saline water, whereas 21 % were sodie and 10% saline-sodie. Most of the poor quality saline-sadie water was concentrated in the Assandh block in the southwestern part of Kamal. Bicarbonates were the dominant anions in water with low electrical conductivity (EC). The proportion of chlorides and sulfates increased with increasing EC. In Kurukshetra District, 76% of the water samples were good, 4% normal, 15% sadie, 2% marginally saline, and 3% saline-sadie. WaterquaJity issues from the farmer's perspective are discussed below, especially in the section on \"Groundwater Quality.\"Rice and wheat together account for nearly 80% of total cropped area in the study area (Appendix B, Table B4). Sugarcane. oilseeds, fodder, potatoes, and vegetables are also important crops. Major cropping patterns in the study area include rice-wheat, rice-berseem clover, and rice-(loria,5 potato)-(wheat, sunflower). The rice-wheat pattern covers the largest area; virtually all farmers use this pattern on at least part of their farms. Rice-berseem also appears to be grown by most farmers. although it covers only 5-10% of the area. The rice-(toria. potato)-(wheat, sunflower) pattern is far more variable, concentrated in areas with suitable land and soil typeS.6 In the rice-wheat pattern, both medium-duration modem varieties (MVs) of rice and Basmati rice varieties are used; mostly short-duration rice varieties are used in the rice-berseem pattern.Farmer interviews revealed that some cropping patterns were associated with specific land and soil types.ALthough a continuous rice-wheat rotation is followed on both maggra and dakJcar, the rice-toria-wheat pattern (which features the use of short-duration sathi rice varieties) was concentrated on lighter soils on maggra lands. Alternatives to rice on maggra lands include fodder sorghum, colton, and fodder maize.Rice-rice-wheat with short-duration satm rices is increasing, especially in fields close to tubewells. Sathi rices are not found on reclaimed kallar land. although medium-duration MVs of rice and Basmati rice are grown there. Alternatives to wheat in the upper landscape include berseem, onion, and sunflower. In the lower daJckar only rice is grown in the wet season, whereas berseem is grown instead of wheat on a small area in the second season.~Brassica campt!stris.A variety of minor cropping patterns are also found, including:• Those wrth a third crop following rice-wheal (e.g., rice-wheat-green manure; rice-wheat-rice); these patterns are essentially intensifications of the fundamental rice-wheat pattern.• Those featuring a longer-term rotation between rice-wheat and sugarcane (e,g., rice-wheat-sugarcane-ratoon).• Those entirely without wheat (e.g., rice-sunflower; rice-sugarcane-ratoon-sunflower).• Those featuring fodder sorghum or maize as a summer crop, such as (sorghum, maize fodder)-rice-berseem;(sorghum, maize fodder)-rice-wheat; (sorghum, maize fodder)oberseem.The survey team occasionally observed fields of oats, winter vegetables (e.g., garlic or onions), or winter pulses (lentils, chickpeas). Some villages have substantial concentrations of winter cash crops (including sugarcane), but the incidence of these crops is exceedingly variable within the study area.The influence of sodic water on cropping patterns (assessed through visits to brackish-water areas) was found to depend on the extent of sodicity and the availability of alternative sources of water. Where reasonably good tubewell water (i.e., only slightly sadie) or canal water is available, nee-wheat is still the main cropping pattern. Groundwater of poorer quality is often mixed with better quality water for crop production. Where no sources of good quality water are available, however, monocropped rainfed summer pearl millet is more common. In sadie-affected areas, pulses (with the exception of pigeon peas) are not grown.Although the surveys focused on the rice and wheat enterprises. farmers' livestock activities also received considerable attention because livestock and crop activities were expected to interact strongly. Trends in animal populations and in the use of fann yard manure (FYM) on crops were examined, since these trends have implications for the future productivity and sustainability of the rice-wheat cropping pattern.According to fanners. milk sales are increasing as a source of income, especially among smaller-scale farmers. 7 Since consumption of dairy products within the farm household does not appear to have decreased. the implication is that the number of dairy animals per fann is also increasing (or that milk production per animal is increasing). Nonetheless. fanners generally assened that overall livestock populations per farm are roughly constant. Numbers of bullocks and cows are said to be decreasing, while buffalo numbers are increasing. sThis view of animal numbers as approximately constant was confinned indirectly by women. who reported spending an increasing proportion of their time caring for livestock -not. however. because there are more animals. but because better care of dairy animals (especially buffalo) improves animal health and increases milk production and cash income. Also note that dairy buffalo consume more fodder 7 Some farmers suggested that migrants from other areas (\"Punjabis\") tend to be more active in this field.than dairy cattle. One constraint to increased livestock numbers, then, may be labor scarcity. Women perform many of the tasks associated with animal husbandry and already dedicate a surprising proportion of their time to these tasks (Table 2). Cutting! harvesting green fodder (own field) Total Labor (hours/day) 1.0 , .5 0.5 0.5 1.5 1.0 6.0 A desirable herd size was reported as being around L5-20 animals. Few farmers have this many animals. however. Landless farmers or farmers with very small holdings typically keep three to four animals at most (and many keep none at all) because they lack access to adequate fodder and sufficient space. Fodder management has become increasingly important as animal feeding patterns have changed from open-range grazing to stall feeding.Major sources of fodder include wheat straw, Basmati rice straw, berseem, fodder maize or sorghum, oats, and cut grasses. Straw from MV rices is rarely used. Mustard (grown in small amounts mixed with the wheat crop) is often used to enrich rations, especially for dairy cattle. Berseem is particularly important as a source of green fodder during the dry season. occupying around 10% of cuLtivated land at that time. Farmers report that production of berseem has increased substantially to meet the more demanding dietary requirements of dairy animals but that this has not been achieved by expanding berseem area. Rather, berseem yields have been increased through greater use of better varieties, nitrogen fertilizer, and improved management.Finally, fodder scarcity is especially an issue in areas where water is brackish, where crop yields (and crop residue yields) are lower.Women report that, for all practical purposes, there are no community forests from which they can obtain firewood. Limited amounts of firewood are obtained from branches of trees located in the farmers' own fields or (for landless farmers) by the roadside, from dry twigs of pigeon pea. mustard. or Sesbania aculeata or occasionally from other crop residues. However, the most common source of fuel is dung cakes.Total FYM production is steady or even increasing, but the amount of FYM diverted from use as fertilizer to use as fuel is increasing. About 80% of cooking is done with a mud stove called the karat a structure designed for slow cooking which uses dung cakes as fuel. The kara is used to boil milk, cook pulses, or prepare animal concentrates. Only about 20% of cooking is done with a chulha 9 using flTewood for fuel-this includes the preparation of chapatis and deep frying, both of which require a hot flTe. In general. women are aware of alternative sources of fuel other than flrewood or dung cakes. For various reasons, however, they prefer not to use them. 10 The consequence of these trends is that FYM use in the rice~wheat cropping pattern is on the decline. This decline, combined with the removal of crop residues for fodder and the burning of residues not used for fodder (e.g., MV rice straw), goes a long way towards ex.plaining the low levels of organic matter in the soil (Table 1).Even when FYM is available for application to crops, transporting it to the field may be a problem. Less labor is required to transport FYM to fields closer to home; fields farther from the homestead may not receive as much FYM as fields that are closer. The transport problem is complicated further by greater crop intensification: it becomes more diffficult to use animal-drawn carts to transport FYM to fields. because cropped fields block the movement of the cart.The role of women in agricultural work appears to vary by caste and social status. Women of higher castes, e.g., Rajput, do not engage in field work. Middle-income women of other castes may work in the field of the family farm. whereas women from lower castes work in their own fields and in the fields of others, for wages or on a share basis. When possible, the preparation of dung cakes is left to scheduled caste women or laborers. Virtually all middle-and lower-income women. however, help harvest and thresh wheat. Women bring the sheaves of wheat to the threshing machine. load threshed grain in sacks for transport to the farm household, dry and clean the grain, and store it. Men are responsible for tillage, sowing, irrigation, and application of fertilizers and herbicides. In earlier days, women were responsible for hand weeding wheat, but this practice has declined in importance with the introduction of herbicides. Women do not participate in the reclamation of saline or sodic lands. As noted above. women assume reesponsibility for a large proportion of farm tasks involving flre wood and fodder collection and livestock management. (Note that additional information on women's role in rice-wheat farming is provided throughout this report.)Farmers reported a number of differences between larger and smaller farms. ll Smaller farms appear to be somewhat more diversified. A higher proportion of the income from small farms was received from dairy products, whether these were consumed in the household or sold for cash. Small farms probably have more animals per hectare because dairy animal husbandry is labor intensive, particularly for women. Partly as a consequence, large-scale farmers are more likely than small-scale farmers to have some fields that never receive FYM.Larger farms are more likely to be confronted with labor scarcity at periods of peak labor demand, such as rice transplanting, the rice harvest. and the wheat harvest. FuU•time servants, family members, and locally hired day laborers are often inadequate for operations that must be performed on time, and the availability of migrant laborers from other states can be uncertain. This is one reason that large farms have disproportionately adopted combine harvesting.Available secondary data indicate that the distribution of landholdings within the study area is highly unequal: 35% of holdings account for only 5% of cultivated area. Mean farm size is around 3.2 ha. Greater efforts should be made in forthcoming diagnostic activities to contact and interact with smallscale and marginal farmers.Wheat. Approximately half a dozen wheat varieties are recommended for planting in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts. These can be classified by recommended planting date into two groups. The first group, comprising varieties recommended for timely planting, includes HD-2329, HD-2009, and WH-283 (older varieties now susceptible to rust, powdery mildew, and Kamal bunt), WH-542 (a newer variety resistant to rust, powdery mildew, and Kamal bunt), and WH-157 (recommended specifically for salt-affected soils). The second group, varieties recommended for late planting, includes HD~2285 and WH-29 1.Recent surveys conducted by researchers from HAU indicate that virtually 100% of the wheat area in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts is planted to improved varieties. Although no data are available on the area planted to individual varieties, the diagnostic survey confmned that the recommended varieties are grown widely. Information provided by farmers, as well as visits by scientists to several hundred fields, . revealed that HD-2329 and HD-2009 are by far the most popular varieties for timely planting, whereas HD-2285 and HD-2329 are preferred for late planting. A few farmers use other varieties, including HD-2204 and WH-147 for timely sowing and HD-1553 for late sowing.Wheat seed management practices appear relatively consistent throughout the survey area. Most farmers plant seed they have saved from the previous cycle, in a few cases supplemented by seed acquired from a neighbor. Farmers prefer to use their own seed to economize, since purchasing new certified seed every year would be expensive. Nevertheless, they recognize the desirability of periodically replacing seed to ensure genetic unifonnity as well as to avoid buildup of weed seeds. Many fanners accomplish tbis by purchasing small quantities of certified seed on a regular basis, preferably from the Haryana Seed Development Corporation, or else from private traders (however, the quality of seed sold by private traders is said to be unreliable). Every three to fOUf years, farmers purchase enough certified seed to plant approximately 10% of their total wheat area; they save the production from this certified seed and use it to plant their entire wheat area in the following year. In this way, fanners replace their wheat seed on a regular basis. By purchasing a relatively small quantity of certified seed and multiplying it themselves, they avoid the cost of total seed replacement. Despite farmers' claims to be replacing their seed regularly, many fields in the survey area were observed to contain mixtures of wheat and barley. According to fanners, certified wheat seed is almost always pure; thus, contamination with barley probably occurs on the threshing floor or during combine harvesting. 12 The incidence of wheat-barley mixtures varies widely, ranging from as low as 5% of fields in some villages to as high as 35% in others. Most farmers are unconcerned about such mixtures, claiming that a low level of contamination with barley plants does not adversely affect overall wheat grain yields. Furthermore. they point out that under the present grain marketing system one basic price is paid for wheat, regardless of whether it contains a small amount of barley. Scientists' estimates of grain yield losses attributable to wheat-barley mixtures were 1-4%.In addition to possibly reducing yields, the presence of barley in wheat fields may invoke another cost. Several farmers acknowledged that whenever the percentage of barley rises above a certain level, they replace their seed by purchasing a fresh lot of certified seed. To the extent that wheat-barley mixtures compel farmers to replace their seed more frequently than would otherwise have been necessary, the presence of barley may be invoking an economic cost. Impure stands were also noted in rice.Basmati rice vs. modern varieties. Over the past several years, many farmers in the study area have replaced medium-duration rice MVs with Basmati rice, much of which is grown before wheat. Basmati area is now said to exceed 40% of the area sown to rice and is increasing over time. However, the incidence of Basmati varies enormously over different parts of the study area. The core of the Basmati rice tract is shown in Figure 2.Basmati is grown largely on well-drained maggra land having medium-textured soils. and is grown by both large-and small-scale farmers. Basmati varieties include Basmati•370, Haryana Basmati-l, and Taraori Basmati. Farmers find Basmati attractive because of its excellent price (well over twice that of MV rice) and relatively lower cost of production (including a lower water requirement and lower rates of fertilizer application). In addition, Basmati rice straw is a good and preferred source of fodder, unlike straw from MV rice. These advantages more than compensate for lower Basmati rice yields, possibly more disease problems, and possible lodging in more fertile soils. Farmers feel that the Basmati-wheat pattern may be less exhaustive of soil nutrients than MV rice-wheat.The case of Basmati rice is interesting for several reasons, including its effects on wheat land preparation and wheat planting date. Basmati rice is harvested later than MV rice (in November, as opposed to the end of October), so tillage practices for wheat are adjusted accordingly to enable farmers to plant wheat on time (before 1 December). Turnaround time is around 25 days after MV rice, but only around seven days (and sometimes as little as two days) after Basmati rice. This relatively rapid turnaround is achieved by pre-irrigating rice fields where wheat will be planted, instead of waiting to irrigate until after the standing rice crop has been harvested.Nineteen large-scale farmers were interviewed more fonnally regarding management, costs, and returns for Basmati and MVs (Table 3). The respondents grew both Basmati and MVs, had a mean farm size of 6.8 ha, and planted rice on 5.4 ha. Of the 5.4 ha of rice. 2.4 were planted to Basmati and 3.0 were planted to MVs. Basmati required much less water than the MVs (two to three irrigations per week rather than seven for the MVs, from about 10 days after transplanting). Lower irrigation costs were not reflected in the budget for two reasons. First. fanners paid a flat rate for electricity ($1.50Ihp/mo) to run their pumps. Second, and contrary to \"common sense,\" the electricity payment extended over a longer period (because of the longer duration of Basmati rice) and therefore was higher. Farmers applied similar rates of phosphorus (125 kglha diammonium phosphate) to Basmati and the MVs. but higher rates of nitrogen (about 163 kg vs. 375 kg urealha) to the MVs. Insecticide and herbicide use were essentially the same for the two types of rice, as were costs of land preparation (largely mechanized), transplanting, weeding, harvesting, and threshing. These latter operations were done mainly by hired labor. Overall, production costs for Basmati ($213/ha) and MVs ($224) were essentially the same.Yields of Basmati (2.4 tlha) were half those of MVs (4.8 t/ha). Gross revenues, however. were higher for Basmati ($940Iha) than for MVs ($6l8/ha), because farmers received a much higher price for Basmati ($0.40Ikg) compared to the MVs (SO.13/kg). Net revenues, therefore, were about double for Basmati ($727/ha) compared to MVs ($393/ha) (Table 3).Land preparation for wheat consists of a variable number of tillage operations designed to incorporate organic matter (e.g., crop residues. FYM, green manures) and to prepare the seedbed for planting. The vast majority of farmers now prepare their land using tractors. Only a small proportion (probably around 10%) still use bullocks. Tractor numbers increased more than three-fold in the 10 years from 1980 to 1990 (Appendix B, Table B7). Most tillage operations are done using hired machinery. as less than half of the farmers in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts own tractors. Disc harrows and tine cultivators are the most commonly used tillage implements. The number of tillage operations carried out in any given field is highly variable and depends on numerous factors, some of them interrelated:• Soil type (light vs. heavy).• Power source for tillage operations (tractor vs. bullock).• Ownership of power source (owned vs. hired).• Type of previous rice crop (Basmati vs. MV rice).• Planting date of previous crop (early vs. late).• Method of disposal of crop residues from previous crop (removal vs. burning).• Method of harvesting previous crop (combine vs. manual).No attempt was made to determine the average number of tillage operations associated with each of the many possible combinations of factors. Most fanners reported that 4-8 tillage passes are usually made on lighter soils and 8-l2 passes on heavier soils. In general. the lower end of these ranges prevails if wheat is being planted after rice and the previous rice crop was harvested manually (resulting in the removal of rice straw from the field). The upper range prevails if the previous rice crop was harvested by combine harvester (leaving the rice straw scattered in the field, so that it must be chopped andincorporated). 13  However, an important exception to these general rules is when farmers bum the rice straw left in combine-harvested fields. Fewer tillage operations are needed then.The high number of tillage operations used to prepare land for wheat planting is an important problem in the rice-wheat system. The problem has two dimensions. First, in the shon run, the high number of tillage operations adds substantially to the cost of producing wheat (especially compared to alternative reducedor conservation-tillage methods practiced elsewhere in the world). Second, over the longer run, the high number of tillage operations may contribute to soil compaction problems.Although the survey participants were unable to estimate the total wheat area subject to an excessive number of tillage operations, all agreed that the problem is widespread in the rice-wheat system. A problem-cause diagram was developed to organize hypotheses on possible factors contributing to the high number of tillage operations used in preparing land for wheat planting (Figure 5). Several causes were identified: 14• The need to incorporate crop residues left from previous rice crop. Both of the predominant rice harvesting methods tend to leave significant amounts of crop residues in the field, either straw and/or stubble (in the case of combine harvesting and hand harvesting of MVs) or simply stubble (in the case of hand harvesting of Basmati cultivars). This creates a need to incorporate residues, which is difficult, given that farmefS' tillage implements are not efficient at chopping and incorporating rice straw and stubble.13 Ten years ago there were no combine harvesterS. but their numbers are increasing slowly and their presence must be considered in future research (Appendix B, Table B7).14 It should be stressed that causes of problems discussed in this and foUowing sections are hypotheses. stimulated by field observation and discussion with farmers.• The need to prepare a fine seedbed tilth for wheat after puddled rice. The puddling practice normally done to prepare land for rice transplanting destroys the structure of the soil (for the wheat crop), creating the need for a high number of tillage operations to prepare a fine tilth for wheat planting. 15 • The need to break up clods in clay-/oam soils. Wheat is often grown after rice in clay-loam soils, which are relatively heavy. A high number of tillage operations are needed to break up clods in these soils.In rice-wheat cropping patterns, the turnaround time between ric;e and wheat vanes, depending on the type of rice that is grown. In the case of medium-duration MVs, which are usually harvested by late  October, farmers generally have l5-35 days to prepare land for wheat. In the case of Basmati rice, which is usually harvested in mid-November. farmers generally must complete land preparation within only 4-12 days to avoid planting the wheat crop late. Farmers surveyed during the rice cycle reported sowing wheat by the end of November, regardless of what kind of rice they planted. They intentionally decreased turnaround time by reducing the number of tillage operations and by shortening the periods between tillage after harvesting Basmati rice. Nonetheless, field operations conducted during the wheat survey indicated that late-sown wheat fields were concentrated in areas cropped to Basmati in the previous season.Land preparation for wheat typically involves a pre-irrigation to soften the soil for tillage, to facilitate the decomposition of organic matter, and to raise the soil moisture content to ensure good germination of the wheat crop. In rice•wheat cropping patterns, the timing of the pre-irrigation varies with the harvest date of the preceding rice crop. since the harvest date detennines how much time is available for timely completion of land preparation for wheat. When the preceding rice crop consists of a medium-duration MV harvested in October, the pre•irrigation usually takes place after the first two cultivations. However, as noted earlier, when the preceding rice crop is Basmati rice (harvested in November or even December). the pre-irrigation is often done into the standing rice crop to speed turnaround time. In this case, farmers must wait four to five days for the soil surface to dry before entering the field to harvest manually. Where combines are used for rice, fields must be left to dry somewhat longer so that they can support the weight of the combine. In this case. pre-irrigation for wheat must be done after the rice harvest.Throughout Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts, wheat is usually planted using the broadcast method. Most farmers sow around 100 kglha of seed. Farmers prefer to broadcast seed because large areas may be planted quickly and broadcasting requires very little labor. Seed drills are rarely used, partly because suitable designs are lacking (i.e., drills capable of effectively sowing wheat into the remaining rice straw and stubble). The drills that are available tend to get clogged by the stubble and end up acting more as rakes than drills.Despite its clear advantages of speed and labor savings, the broadcast method of sowing has one disadvantage: it can result in suboptimal plant stands. Visual inspection of farmers' fields revealed that a significant proportion of the total wheat area is characterized by plant populations that are lower than desirable. 16 (Interestingly. researchers' estimates of the percentage of wheat area affected by low plant populations varied widely, from 10% to 60%, in part because different groups visited different areas.) Associated productivity losses were estimated at 5-15%.A problem-cause diagram was drawn to summarize hypotheses to explain low plant populations in wheat (Figure 6). Four primary causes were suggested:• Use of the broadcast method for planting wheat. Although broadcast seeding need does not necessarily result in low plant populations, some fanners seem to use inadequate quantities of seed when broadcasting. The recommended seed rate for broadcasting is around 125 kglha. but many fanners use considerably less.• WaterlDgging. Low plant populations in some wheat fields can be attributed to waterlogging. especially waterlogging occurring during germination and emergence, when wheat is most sensitive to this problem. Waterlogging, which is a particular problem in sadie soils, often is caused by inadequate land leveling (due to a lack of appropriate tillage equipment). Waterlogging is also a problem in soils characterized by hard pans, which frequently develop as a result of shallow conventional tillage for wheat involving a high number of operations.':~.  • Poor seed germination. Poor seed germination may also be a cause of low plant populations. Poor seed germination may result from the nature of the seed itself -for example. farmers plant poor quality seed or varieties poorly adapted to particular soil conditions (e.g.• sadie soils). Alternatively, poor seed germinabon may also result from abiotic stresses, such as uneven soil moisture at planting.• Poor growth and tiIIaring. Plant stands were observed near harvest, when poor growth and tillering after germination could have been afactor in creating poor stands. Late planting, poor nutrition, drought, waterlogging, weed competition, and other factors can be responsible for poor growth and an inability to compensate for poor emergence. Factors leading to poor growth and tilieTing need to be separated out from those causing poor emergence, since they are different.The recommended date for planting wheat in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts is l5 November. While most farmers agree that this date is optimal for maximizing yields, not aU farmers can get their wheat crop into the ground by mid-November. Thus, wheat planting begins in early November and stretches through December and occasionally even into January.Planting date is important. Experimental data from Haryana show that when wheat planting is delayed past the middle of November, yield begins [0 fall off at a rate of approximately l.2% for every day's delay (Figure 7). Similar data from Pakistan show a decline of 1% per day after the end of November (Hobbs 1985). Although the rate of decline may be mitigated somewhat by using a variety adapted to late planting, yield losses will still occur for short-duration varieties.Districts? To answer this question, it is necessary first to agree on the meaning of the term perceptions, as well as the empirical evidence from these other studies, an effort was made during the survey to estimate the extent of the problem in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts, to detennine its causes, and to explore possible solutions. \"lateness\" used by farmers corresponds closely to the definition used by researchers: wheat planted on or after I December is considered to be \"planted late.\" In the absence of fannal survey data, it is not possible to state precisely the percentage of wheat area planted by specific dates in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts. However. visual inspection suggested that 5-25% of fanners' fields had been planted lale enough to result in yield losses of 10-25% in these fields.A problem-cause diagram was developed to summarize hypotheses on the causes of late planting of wheat (Figure 8). Several factors were identified as contributing to late planting in wheat:..: ..:.;,. \", Machinery failure (pumps, electricity, tractors)Machinery not available (especi ally hired tractors)The presence of rice stubble reqUires extensive ti lIage to obtain a fine seedbedExcessive soil moisture at time of tillage Note: Problems, primary causes, and secondaly causes are represented by rectangles, hexagons, and cwa!s. respectively. • Late harvesting of the previous crop. Late planting in wheat occurs most often because the previous crop has been harvested late, Most of the wheat that is grown after amedium-duration rice MV is planted close to the optimal planting date in mid-November. When wheat is grown after Basmati rice, less time is available for land preparation. When wheat is grown in a rice-(totia. potato)-wheat rotation, the totia or potato crop is usually not harvested until late November or early December, and wheat planting is frequently delayed. The same situation arises when wheat is grown after sugarcane or late-planted Basmati rice.• Long turnaround between the previous crop and wheat. Late planting of wheat may also be caused by a long turnaround between the previous crop and wheat. In the rice-wheat rotation. long turnaround usually results from the high number of tillage operations needed to incorporate crop residues left in the field following the rice harvest. sometimes exacerbated by failure of the machinery (tubewell pumps, tractors) needed for land preparation operations, including pre-irrigation.• Unfavorabfe weather at planting time. Unfavorable weather can also contribute to late planting in wheat. Even when the previous crop has been haNested and land preparation has been completed, wheat planting may be delayed if rain falls after the fields are pre-irrigated, leaving the soil too wet for planting and final land preparation.Increasing intensification in the rice-wheat system has forced farmers to become increasingly conscious of the need for sound management practices to maintain soil fertility. preserve soil structure, and protect soil health.Among soil management issues, fertility management and soil physical degradation are both important. Fortunately, many fanners in the principal rice-wheat areas are by now well aware of the need to replace the large amounts of nutrients extracted every year by multiple cycles of ever-higher-yielding culli vars. Soil fertility management generally involves applying some combination of fertilizer and organic material (crop residues, FYM, and green manures).Fertilizer use on wheat and rice. Most farmers in Kamal and Kumkshetra Districts apply 100-150 kglha of nitrogen to their wheat (slightly less in fields where FYM has been applied to the previous rice crop). The main source of nitrogen is urea, although the diammonium phosphate (DAP) that is used also contains some nitrogen. Nitrogen fertilizer is broadcast, typically in three split applications: at planting, after the first irrigation (25 days after planting), and after the second irrigation (25 days later). A few farmers apply an additional top-dressing after the third irrigation, especially if the leaves are showing signs of yellowing. Top-dressed fertilizer usually is applied four to five days after an irrigation, as soon as it becomes possible to enter a field without sinking into the soil.Phosphorus use on wheat is also ~ignificant in Kamal and Kumkshetra Districts. Most farmers claim they apply 50-75 kglha of P 2 0 S ' The main source of phosphorus is DAP, although occasionally single super phosphate (SSP) is used when DAP is unavailable. Phosphorus is nearly always applied basally, broadcast during the final stages of land preparation.Fertilizer use on nee varies by the kind of rice grown. Farmers apply similar rates of phosphate (25 kglha P205) to Basmati and MVs, but they apply higher rates of nitrogen to the MVs (about 75 kglha vs. 170kg/ha).Trends in fertilizer use proved difficult to discern at the farm level. Some farmers reported that use of fertilizer has leveled off during recent years, although nearly all stated that current levels of fertilizer application are significantly higher than they were 10-15 years ago, when yields were lower. In contrast. other farmers asserted that they have to apply increasing amounts of fertilizer simply to maintain the same yields.Crop residues. The increasing intensification of the rice-wheat system seems to be changing the role of crop residues in the farming system. Because farmers need to achieve rapid turnaround between rice and wheat (or potato and wheat. or coria and wheat), they now view straw and stubble as more of a problem than as a source of nutrients andlor material for improving soil structure. At the same time. given the growing scarcity of grazing land, straw and stubble are increasingly valued as livestock feed. For these reasons, incorporation of crop residues seems to be diminishing. Rather. these residues are increasingly burnt. or removed and fed to animals, to facilitate land preparation for the ne~. crop.Farm yard manure. Despite declining in importance during recent years, use of FYM continues to be widespread in the rice-wheat system. Virtually all farmers apply FYM to their fields, although application strategies vary depending on its availability. the area to be covered, and cropping panerns. Most farmers now have sufficient FYM to cover only about 10-25% of their fields per year, so that they can apply FYM to a given field on average only once every four to 10 years.In general, farmers follow a regular application schedule. cycling among fields according to a more or less fixed rotation. However. the rotation may be interrupted to afford preferential treatment to certain fields, such as fields that show particular signs of nutrient deficiency or fields used for vegetable production. These preferred fields may receive FYM as often as once every three years. AU fields typically receive FYM at some time or another, with the exception of some fields of farmers with extensive landholdings. Also, farmers who rent land rarely apply FYM to rented fields.Farm yard manure application rates vary. Fields used for cereal production receive around 20-25 tlha (fresh weight), and fields used for vegetable production receive more than 30 t/ha.When used in a straight rice-wheat rotation. FYM is always applied before the rice crop. Partly this is because there is more time available to apply FYM before the rice crop, whereas land preparation for wheat is constrained by the need to avoid late planting. An additional factor causing FYM to be used before rice is that the dry (wheat) season is used for composting FYM collected during the rainy season.In contrast, FYM collected during the dry (wheat) season is normally used to make dung cakes and is not applied as fertilizer.Green manure. Few farmers in the study area practice green manuring. Fewer than 5% of the fanners contacted during the diagnostic survey grew a crop of dhaincha (Sesbania aculeata) between wheat and early sathi rice. Although many farmers are aware of the benefits of green manuring, most simply do not have enough time to fit a green manure crop into the rotation. Some farmers pointed out that another reason for not growing green manures is that the implements needed for incorporating green manures are not available. Also, considerable irrigation would be needed to grow a green manure crop, as it would be grown during the driest and hottest part of the year.Weeds are a major problem in wheat in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts. The principal weed is Phalaris minor. followed by wild oats (AvenafatLUl). Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) and bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) are also present and on the increase.Wheat. Although the incidence of P. minor is difficult to estimate. it seems safe to say that. in the absence of control measures. virtually all wheat fields would soon be infested. with yield losses as high as 75%. Farmers continue to ex.perience yield losses even after applying herbicides.Nearly all farmers in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts use herbicides to control P. minor in wheat, and the P. minor problem seems to be declining over time as more and more fanners use herbicide. Very little manual weed control is practiced. Reasons fanners give for this include the high cost of labor. the difficulty of entering fields for hand weeding without damaging the wheat crop. and the difficulty of distinguishing between P. minor and wheat during early growth stages. Isoproturon. the herbicide used most widely to control P. minor. is usually mixed with urea fertilizer or a sand/soil mix and broadcast after the first irrigation. Despite significantly reducing weed populations, this method of application does not always result in uniform control and is not completely effective -infestation with uncontrolled P. minor still may be high enough to cause yield losses of up to 30% (panicularly in fields where rice straw has been burned). However, the uneven performance of Isoproturon may be as much the result of adulterated product sold by private traders as of ineffective application methods. Moreover, some scientists feel that P. minor is becoming resistant to Isoproturon.Rice. To control weeds in rice, farmers use pre-emergence herbicides and family or hired labor for weeding if infestations are severe. If they believe that weed pressure is not too severe, farmers usually harvest weeds for fodder. Late removal of the weed Echinochloa crus-galli possibly leads to yield reductions.Wheat. Insect pests do not appear to be a major threat to wheat in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts.Aphids in low numbers were reported throughout much of the survey area, but it seems that they cause discernible yield losses in wheat only rarely. (This issue needs monitoring in the future.) Termites (white ants) were seen to cause occasional, highly localized damage to ungenninated seed, but the total area affected appears small (0-2%), and productivity losses are probably negligible (0-5%).Rice. Insect pests identified as problems for rice included leaffolder, stemborer, and white-backed planthopper. Of these, leaffolder and white-backed planthopper were more severe, each accounting for an expected rice productivity loss of more than 10% per year for the study area as a whole.Wbeat. Farmers did not consider diseases to be a major problem during the 1991-92 wheat season.Survey participants claimed to have observed few disease problems during the survey. 17 However, the diagnostic survey was done in a year when weather was unfavorable for many wheat diseases, so that levels of infection may have been lower than normal.Pathologists noted that several diseases were widespread throughout the survey area. although at relatively low levels of infection. Leaf blight was observed in 50-80% of farmers' fields, but rarely at levels capable of causing sizable yield losses. Loose smut was also observed in 50-90% of farmers' fields, but again at very low levels. Because most of the wheat observed during the survey was still in the grain filling or ripening stage, levels of Kamal bunt infection could not be detennined, even though Kamal bunt at times has been an imponant disease in the survey area.Rice. At the time of the rice survey, Basmati was at the heading stage and MVs were being harvested, so it was difficult to take direct observations of rice diseases. Based on past experience, survey team members suggested that blast, foot rot, and bacterial leaf blight were important diseases. However. only blast was thought to lead to important yield losses at the level of the study area.Irrigation of wheat. All wheat produced in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts is irrigated. The wheat crop normally receives four to six irrigations; more irrigations are done on higher land featuring lighter soils (e.g., doyam soils), and fewer on low-lying land featuring heavier soils (e.g., dakkar soils). If rainfall is relatively abundant during the growing season, fewer irrigations may be necessary. Preirrigation, a universal practice in the study area, is used to ensure sufficient moisture for good wheat germination. Additional irrigations are given, on average, every 20-25 days during the tillering, heading, flowering, and grain filling stages.As mentioned above, approximately 80% of the total wheat area in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts is irrigated from tubewells and only 20% from canals. The increasing reliance on rubeweUs seems to be a function of decreasing availability of canal water. much of which is being divened to suppon irrigation further south. Many farmers in the survey area agreed that canal water is not normally available during the wheat season.Groundwater depletion. Groundwater depletion is a formidable problem in the study area. Some farmers estimate that the water table has fallen by 20-25 ft (about 6.0-7.5 m) during the past 10 years. In the shan run, this increases the cost of pwnping water from tubewells. directly raising the cost of wheat production. Over the longer term, the sustainability of the cropping system may be threatened. Figure 9 shows water table fluctuation in Haryana from 1974 to 1991. During this period. much of the rice•wheat area in the two selected districts experienced water table decline on the order of Q-4 m.Groundwater quality. Water management practices in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts are influenced not only by the quantity of available groundwater, but also by its quality. This is particularly true in the so-called \"brackish-water\" areas, where groundwater quality is poor due to sodicity. In these areas. fanners have adopted a set of practices designed to minimize problems.One common strategy is simply to bore deeper tubewells for access to aquifers containing better quality water; in some of the brackish-water areas, fanners now pump water from as deep as 100 m. Additional practices designed to manage poor quality groundwater include using scarce canal water as efficiently as possible; mixing canal water and tubewell water to minimize the toxic effects of the groundwater; and planting crops that require less irrigation (e.g., pearl millet).Fortunately, soils contaminated by sadie groundwater often can be reclaimed by applying gypsum. Farmers are well aware of this treatment, and, with the exception of some conununal land, large tracts of formerly contaminated land have been reclaimed. Because treatment with gypsum is fairly simple, soil problems caused by sodic groundwater seem to be diminishing through time. Only in a few areas did farmers report that the problem is increasing.Wheat harvesting generally takes place from 15-30 April; threshing begins soon after harvesting and extends through 15 May. Approximately 80-90% of the wheat area in Kamal and Kurokshetra Districts is harvested manually and threshed mechanically. Only 10-20% of the wheat area is combine harvested. Manual harvesting is preferred because combine harvesting does not permit recovery of the straw, which is valued as livestock feed. IS On smaller landholdings, harvesting and threshing usually involve family labor. Harvesting generally is done by women, while threshing tends to be performed by both men and women. Most threshing is done by hired mechanical threshers; men operate the threshers, while women collect bundles of straw and bag the threshed grain. On larger landholdings, family labor is rarely sufficient for completing the harvest in a timely fashion, so fanners supplement family labor by hiring migrant laborers (typically from Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) on contract.The rates charged for contract harvesting vary. In 199 L, most contract laborers in the study area were paid in kind at a rate of 100 kg of grain and 50 kg of straw for harvesting, and 150-200 kg of grain for threshing one acre (0.40 ha) of wheat. The few who were paid in cash recei ved 250-300 Rs/acre (618-741 Rs/ha) for harvesting and another 350-500 Rs/acre (865-1,235 Rslha) for threshing. These rates somewhat understate the total cost of contract harvesting, however. since migrant and local laborers also receive food from their employers, and fodder for their animals. By way of comparison, during 1991 the rates charged by combine harvesters for contract harvesting of wheat averaged around 250-300 Rs/acre.The main wheat-related problems identified during the diagnostic survey can be separated into four categories:• Factors that appear to reduce wheat yield (e.g., late planting or competition from P. minot,.• Seemingly inefficient use of purchased inputs, regardless of whether yields are reduced (e.g., excessive tillage when reduced tillage would result in similar yields).• Seemingly inefficient selection of enterprises or cropping patterns (e.g., late planted wheat instead of sunflower).• Practices thought to lead to resource degradation or reduced system sustainability (e.g., long-term decline in soil health).Care was taken to distinguish between problems (as defined above) and causes of these problems (Tripp  and Woolley 1989), Farmers' socioeconomic circumstances, such as a lack of credit, are often loosely referred to as \"problems,\" but these affect productivity or sustainability only to the extent to which they also affect biological or physical processes. These socioeconomic circumstances are assigned a causal role in this analysis, but are not considered \"problems\" in light of the definition being used.Wheat-related problems are sunimarized in Table 4. in the order in which they were elicited during the survey (that is, they are not yet ranked). Problems were introduced into the listing based on fanners' suggestions, direct observation of problems in the field, and background information. Factors thought to be problems based on researchers' previous experience or secondary data were at times included, although many dropped out during the ranking process. Note that there were multiple sources of information for most problems.To distinguish the most important from the least important problems. survey participants developed a weighted scoring model. Survey participants were divided into fOUf groups. Each group independently estimated fOUf parameters for each problem:• The percentage of farmers in the study area affected by the problem.• The percentage of rice-wheat area affected by the problem.• The productivity loss associated with the problem, when the problem is present (expressed as a percentage of current yield).19• The frequency of the problem (expressed as apercentage).The product of percentage area. percentage productivity loss. and percentage frequency provides an estimate of the expected annual regional productivity loss (ARPL) associated with the problem. expressed as a percentage of current yield. The ARPLs for a particular problem were compared and averaged over groups. When groups were unable to make a quantitative estimate, question marks were inserted in the model. The results of the scoring exercise may be seen in Table 5 (scores in Table 5 are averages over the four groups).Of the 15 problems identified, five received reasonably high scores. These are (in order of importance):1. Weed competition. 2. Declining soil health, 3. Poor groundwater quality. 4. Low plant population. 5. Late planting.The total ARPL for wheat was estimated to be around 25% of current yields.It is clear from Table 5 that the importance of weed competition and soil health issues lies primarily in the large proponion of the study area affected by these problems. In contrast, other priority problemspoor groundwater quality, low plant populations. and late planting -appear to affect only a small proportion of the study area. It is instructive that the problem with the highest productivity loss for affected fields (poor groundwater quality) does not receive the highest priority in tenns of ARPL. Some problems (those in Table 5 with question marks) could not be scored because of insufficient information. Survey participants were asked to rank these from 1 (most important) to 5 (least important). Rankings were summed over groups (Table 6). According to these rankings, groundwater depletion and excessive tillage warrant funher attention. Note: See Table 4 for a more complete description of lhese problems.Table 6. Relative importance of unscored problems (lower number Indicates higher priority) At the time of the survey, Basmati rice was at the heading stage and rice MVs were being harvested.Other than a few fields infested with weeds and at most 15% of fields affected by some leaffolder, rice stands were very good. The survey team, however, thought that rice pests and diseases constituted major problems (this hypothesis was based partly on past experience). These problems are listed in order of priority in Table 7. Research on these ricespecific problems is already conducted by HAU and other rice scientists and is therefore not discussed further here. Other problems noted in rice were weeds (a system-wide problem. discussed below) and impure stands. Several problems identified in the course of the rice-and wheat-season diagnostic surveys are systemwide problems. One -weeds -is a near-term problem. Problems of soil fertility and soil health, groundwater depletion, and poor groundwater quality are longer-teon problems that have implications for the sustainability of the rice-wheat cropping pattern. These problems and hypotheses for their causes are discussed below.A problem-cause diagram was developed to summarize hypotheses about factors contributing to the problem of weeds in wheat and rice (Figure 10). In wheat, P. minor is of particular concern. Several factors were identified:• Use of FYM promotes distribution of weed seed, Although no formal study has been conducted in the survey area on weed dynamics, it seems likely that the use of FYM is afactor in weed infestation. Weeds are frequently gathered along the edges of fields and from uncultivated land for use as fodder. Given that most weed seeds pass intact through the digestive lracts of livestock, manure from these animals is infested with weed seed. Applying FYM to cultivated fields thus promotes distribution of weed seed, contributing to the buildup of weed problems.  • Higher labor costs leading to less hand weeding and more herbicide use in rice and wheat, which may contribute to a shift in weed composition.• Poor weed management in rice seedling nurseries and weed seed contaminants in rice seed, leading to transplanting of weeds.• Weed flushes in rice caused by interruptions in irrigation, which in tum result from unscheduled electric power interruptions.• Herbicide is often ineffective. One reason P. minorcontinues to cause yield losses in wheat is because chemical control methods are often ineffective, for several reasons. First, the dosage may simply be incorrect, enher because of improper mixing, farmer ignorance or attempts to economize on the product, or because the commercial product was adulterated. Second, the dosage may be correct, but the timing of the application may be inappropriate. which sometimes happens because the farmer cannot obtain the herbicide on time (for example, delays in the distribution channel) or because of delays in irrigating the crop. Third, the method of application may itself be ineffective, especially since most farmers broadcast herbicide mixed with urea or sand. Suitable sprayers and nozzles for effective herbicide application are not readily available to farmers. The efficacy of herbicide applications may also be diminished by the ash left when rice residues are burnt in the field. Fourth, there is some evidence that P. minoris becoming resistant to Isoproturon, amajor herbicide used in wheat cultivation. If confirmed, this will represent amajor threat to the future productivity of continuous rice-wheat systems.A problem-cause diagram was developed to summarize hypotheses on reasons for problems of soil fertility and soil health (Figure 11). Several factors were identified:• Soil chemical problems. Many soils in Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts appear to be developing nutrient deficiencies that adversely affect wheat yields. These nutrient deficiencies are probably associated wrth low and declining levels of soil organic matter, stemming from removal or burning of crop residues, decreasing application of FYM, and limited use of green manuring. Although application of chemical fertilizer succeeds in replacing some of the nitrogen and phosphorus extracted by the intensive rice-wheat cropping pattern, fertilizer use is unbalanced in the sense that other, minor nutrients may become progressively limiting.• Soil physical problems. Many soils in the study area appear to have compaction problems. Perhaps the single most important cause of soil compaction is the high level of machinery use, including both conventional tillage for wheat (involving many shallow passes) and combine harvesting (in some areas). In addition. the puddling performed to prepare fields for rice transplanting effectively destroys -from the point of view of the wheat plant -soil structure and deteriorates soil physical properties. Some of the deterioration in soil physical condition can be attributed to reduced incorporation of crop residues and FYM. Besides directly inhibiting root growth, soil compaction adversely affects wheat yields by preventing water infiltration, thus contributing to water stagnation. Stagnation caused by compaction appears to be aparticular problem in sodic soils.• Other soil health problems. Pathologists participating in the diagnostic survey expressed concem that continuous rice-wheat cropping may facilitate buildup of soil-bome pathogens, which could conceivably affect crop yields in the future. Relatively little is known about this, however.A problem-eause diagram was developed to summarize hypotheses on causes of groundwater depletion (Figure 12). Several factors were identified:• Excessive pumping ofgroundwater from tubewells. Groundwater depletion occurs primarily because of excessive pumping from tubewells. Although excessive pumping can be traced to anumber of causes, three were identified as most important. First, steady population growth in the region is leading to intensification of the cropping system, Water staptlon  which naturally increases the demand for irrigation water. Second, poor management of water at the farm level apparently exacerbates the problem, as many farmers use groundwater inefficiently (this is hardly surprising, given that the cost of water to farmers remains low). Third, supplies of canal water -which could be used as an alternative to tubewell water -are inadequate. in part because canal water is diverted to the south to support irrigation in other areas of the state. Canal water apparently is supplemented by tubewell water before being diverted to other areas.• Slow replenishment of aquifers. The depth of the water table has been falling because the increased reliance on groundwater for irrigation and other uses has been depleting the region's aquifers faster than they are replenished through rainfall. Effects of land management practices in other areas on aqUifer replenishment were not examined.   A problem-cause diagram was developed to summarize hypotheses on factors contributing to poor groundwater quality (Figure 13). One primary causal factor was identified:• Insufficient alternative sources of water. Poor quality groundwater limits wheat yields only in those parts of the stUdy area (less than 10% of the total) where alternative sources of good quality irrigation water are unavailable. This includes areas where good quality groundwater cannot be obtained by varying the depth of tubewells and where supplies of canal water are exceptionally scarce. Farmers reported that the eHects of poor quality groundwater are most pronounced in fields located farthest from irrigation canals.During the survey, important interactions among problems became apparent. Figure 14 synthesizes these interactions, focusing on the major problems identified during the surveys. It is not surprising that many of these problems are associated with farmers' selection of the continuous rice-wheat cropping pattern, a tendency noted in previous diagnostic surveys. Figure l4 illustrates hypothesized interactions and linkages among a number of problems in terms of how they are affected by such system-level factors as selection of cropping pattern, groundwater use policy, and trends in using FYM for fuel vs. fertilizer.:L . .    Problem-cause diagrams, however, are not used merely to illustrate the influence of fanning system parameters on crop-specific problems. They also serve to elicit suggestions for possible ways in which research. extension, or public policy can address -and solve -these problems. The suggestions for action are presented next.An understanding of the possible causes of problems uncovered during the survey helped identify opportunities for agricultural research, extension, or policy to contribute to solving those problems. Specific opportunities were identified for the following classes of actions:• Diagnosis: Actions to better define problems that are poorly understood, including testing of hypotheses on the incidence and severity of asuspected problem, and its corresponding causes. Diagnostic activities may take the form of surveys, experiments, or an assessment of secondary data.• Monitoring. Actions conducted in the context of periodic return visrts to apanel of farmers (this category overlaps to a certain extent with the more general category of diagnosis). Monitoring specifically aims to quantity changes over time in tarmers' practices and problems, and trends in system productivity and land quality.• Research on possible solutions: Actions whose primary purpose is to develop and assess alternative solutions to problems that are fairfy well understood. These actions may take the form of farmer-managed or researchermanaged experiments or surveys of the responses of different farmer groups to major problems.• Extension: Actions to accelerate adoption of a well-known solution that seems feasible and attractive, tor solving a well-understood problem.• Research on policy. Actions whose primary purpose is to study the policy implications ot a problem or asolution. Some actions may serve to inform policy makers of the costs and benefits associated with alternative policy options.Altogether. 33 opportunities for action were identified. These are listed in Table 8, grouped by problem, with action classifications marked for each.A final discussion among wheat survey participants developed infonnal and tentative rankings among these alternative actions. 20 A small number of actions were selected as being of the greatest importance (Table 9). Note that many of them call for additional diagnosis or research on policy, not just for additional research on alternative technical solutions. A similar list was developed by the rice survey team (Table 10).  Intensive farm-level study of rice harvest activities and how these affect tillage for wheat (including studies of manual VS. combine harvesting for rice. with respect to cost. differential impacts on social groups. etc.).Modifications in rice combines 10 ease straw management (baling, windrowing. etc.).31. The use ot water additives to improve water quality for the rice-wheat system.32. Screening of wheat varieties tor use under sodic conditions.33. Development of crop management practices to cope with problems associated with the use ot poor quality groundwater. 2. Ways to increase the effectiveness of broadcast application methods tor helbicldes amently in use.Alternative methods of hertliclde application to Improve their effectiveness (broadcast vs. alternatives).7. Health, farmer safety, and environmental issues in the useef pesticides, including hertlicides.10. The use of alternative planting practices (e.g., row planting) to facilitate mechanical weed control.16. Study of crop residue and FVM management to detennine effects on soil health. especiaJly nutrient cycling.The suggested agenda for action is ambitious. Although some of the actions already have been taken by scientists at HAU, many have not. A number of the suggested actions aim to address major problems through system-level interventions. or by using leverage points that rely on links between one enterprise or problem and another (e.g., numbers 8. 13, 15, 16, 18. and 30 in Table 8). System interventions of this kind, along with a new appreciation for policy issues (e.g.. numbers 3, 23, and 29) provide fresh opportunities for researchers and extension workers to collaborate with farmers.Finally, the use of farmer monitoring appears repeatedly in the list of suggested actions. given concerns about issues related to sustainability. This theme warrants just a bit more discussion here.It was noted in the introduction to this report that the NARS-CIMMYT-IRRI collaborative research project on rice-wheat systems in South Asia has a number of objectives. One of these is to assess the sustainability of this system. To meet this objective, researchers must study the long-term effects of farmers' practices and alternative technologies on the quality of resources devoted to rice-wheat cultivation. They must aim, in short, to \"measure sustainability.\"Without going into detail on interpretations and definitions of sustainability , or how that concept might be made operational,21 it may be noted that a well-focused monitoring program can help \"measure sustainability.\" Such a program allows the measurement over time of changes in farming practices, farming systems, and land quality (including soil chemical and physical measures). Changes in land quality and system productivity can then be analyzed and assessed. holding constant such confounding factors as technical change and changes in input use levels. A successful monitoring program requires the participation of several disciplines, working together with a representative sample of fanners, over an extended period. 22 Whether or not farmer monitoring begins in Haryana in the near term, it is clear that researchers and extension workers have their work cut out for them. Incomes and employment for millions of farm families in the study area depend on rice and wheat cultivation. Opportunities to improve the productivity of the rice-wheat pattern -and chances to conserve the quality of resources farmers devote to this pattern -should not be neglected.21 For a discussion of interpretations of the notion of sustainability. and different approaches to its measurement. see Harrington (1992).22 A full discussion of issues in planning and implementing farmer monitoring progams goes beyond me scope of this paper.A summary of some of the issues involved in such programs may be found in Harrington, Hobbs. and Cassaday (eds.) (1993).Statistical Data from Kamal and Kurukshetra Districts  ","tokenCount":"12868"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a62539cbc3ba88ecbee739a6ab83ed898f7e9bc9
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"563ef26e173683ee5a5b987311b759c5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/51478b28-6180-4441-adcf-0a11f9c7b1f2/retrieve","id":"990999545"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f68d65b-0540-4b19-9927-bd593857a723","pagecount":"7","content":"M e j o r a m i e n t o d e A r r o z e n C h i l e y U t i l i z a c i ó n d e l a S e l e c c i ó n R e c u r r e n t e J o s é R o b e r t o A l v a r a d o A . \\ I n v e s t i g a d o r d e l C e n t r o R e g i o n a l d e I n v e s t i g a c i ó n Q u i l a m a p u , I n s t i t u t o N a c i o n a l d e I n v e s t i g a c i o n e s A g r o p e c u a r i a s ( I N I A ) , C a s i l l a 4 2 6 , C h i l l a n , C h i l e J o s é R o b e r t o A l v a r a d o A . I n t r o d u c c i ó n S i t u a c i ó n d e l M e j o r a m i e n t o G e n é t i c o U t i l i z a c i ó n d e l M é t o d o d e S e l e c c i ó n R e c u r r e n t e R e f e r e n c i a s 1 1 7 S e l e c c i ó n R e c u r r e n t e e n A r r o z I n t r o d u c c i ó n E l a r r o z s e c u l t i v a e n C h i l e d e s d e f i n e s d e l a d é c a d a d e l t r e i n t a y s u p r o d u c t i v i d a d y p r o d u c c i ó n h a n s i d o v a r i a b l e s a t r a v é s d e l t i e m p o . U n o d e l o s c a m b i o s q u e s e h a n p r o d u c i d o e n e l p a í s , e n l o s ú l t i m o s a ñ o s , s e r e f i e r e a l u s o d e v a r i e d a d e s d e g r a n o l a r g o y c r i s t a l i n o , e l c u a l a l c a n z a e n e s t e m o m e n t o a l r e d e d o r d e u n 6 0 % d e l a p r o d u c c i ó n n a c i o n a l . L a i n t r o d u c c i ó n d e e s t a s c a r a c t e r í s t i c a s d e c a l i d a d n o h a e s t a d o a s o c i a d a c o n u n a m a y o r p o t e n c i a l i d a d e n e l r e n d i m i e n t o ; a l c o n t r a r i o , a l p a r e c e r l a s v a r i e d a d e s d e g r a n o l a r g o y c r i s t a l i n o t i e n e n u n a s u s c e p t i b i l i d a d a l f r í o e n l a e t a p a r e p r o d u c t i v a m a y o r q u e l a d e l a s v a r i e d a d e s d e g r a n o m e d i a n o , m á s t r a d i c i o n a l e s e n e l c u l t i v o . O t r o s c a m b i o s s e r e f i e r e n a l u s o d e m e j o r t e c n o l o g í a , l o c u a l i n c l u y e u n m e j o r m a n e j o d e l c u l t i v o e n c u a n t o a f e r t i l i z a c i ó n , c o n t r o l d e m a l e z a s y m a n e j o d e l a g u a . E s t o h a p r o d u c i d o u n a u m e n t o e n e l r e n d i m i e n t o d e s d e u n p r o m e d i o d e 2 . 6 t / h a q u e s e o b t e n í a n e n l a d é c a d a d e l o s s e s e n t a h a s t a m á s d e 4 . 0 t / h a e n l o s ú l t i m o s a ñ o s ( F i g u r a 1 ) . S e e s t i m a q u e e l p o t e n c i a l d e r e n d i m i e n t o c o n l a s v a r i e d a d e s a c t u a l e s e s d e 6 . 0 t / h a , y p r o d u c t o r e s q u e a p l i c a n l a t e c n o l o g í a r e c o m e n d a d a e s t á n a l c a n z a n d o r e n d i m i e n t o s a ú n m a y o r e s ( V e l a s c o e t a l . , 1 9 9 4 ) . E s n e c e s a r i o , p o r l o t a n t o , e l e v a r l o s p o t e n c i a l e s d e r e n d i m i e n t o d e l a r r o z . E l o b j e t i v o g e n e r a l d e l a i n v e s t i g a c i ó n e n a r r o z e s m e j o r a r s u p r o d u c c i ó n p a r a q u e e l c u l t i v o s e m a n t e n g a r e n t a b l e y c o m p e t i t i v o . P a r a e l l o s e r e q u i e r e r e f o r z a r e l m e j o r a m i e n t o g e n é t i c o y e s t u d i a r f a c t o r e s d e m a n e j o q u e p e r m i t a n l a e x p r e s i ó n d e l a p o t e n c i a l i d a d d e l a s v a r i e d a d e s , a d e m á s d e e f e c t u a r l a t r a n s f e r e n c i a d e l a t e c n o l o g í a p a r a q u e l o s p r o d u c t o r e s p u e d a n a p l i c a r l a . E l a r r o z e s e l c u l t i v o m á s i m p o r t a n t e e n u n á r e a d e l v a l l e c o n r i e g o c o n o c i d a c o m o z o n a d e s u e l o s a r r o c e r o s . E s t o s s u e l o s p r e s e n t a n a l t o c o n t e n i d o d e a r c i l l a s y / o e s t r a t o s i m p e r m e a b l e s e n p r o f u n d i d a d , l o c u a l o r i g i n a p r o b l e m a s d e d r e n a j e q u e d i f i c u l t a n e l e s t a b l e c i m i e n t o d e o t r o s c u l t i v o s . E l á r e a m e n c i o n a d a , q u e s e e n c u e n t r a u b i c a d a e n l a s r e g i o n e s V I , V I I y V I I I , s e p u e d e d i v i d i r e n c u a t r o z o n a s q u e s o n : a ) N o r t e ( V I R e g i ó n ) , p r i n c i p a l m e n t e l a p r o v i n c i a d e C o l c h a g u a ; b ) C e n t r o N o r t e ( V I I R e g i ó n ) , p r o v i n c i a s d e T a l c a y C u r i c ó ; c ) C e n t r o S u r ( V I I R e g i ó n ) , p r o v i n c i a d e L i n a r e s , y d ) S u r ( V I I I R e g i ó n ) , p r o v i n c i a d e Ñ u b l e .P r o g e n i t o r P a r t i c i p a c i ó n ( % ) P r o g e n i t o r P a r t i c i p a c i ó n ( % )A s e a t i c o 1 . 1 9 A r i e t e 2 . 6 0 B o n n e t b e l l 2 . 6 0 D e l t a 1 . 1 9 E u r o p a 1 . 1 9 I t a l p a t n a 1 . 1 9 K o r a l 1 . 1 9 L i d o 2 . 6 0 R . B . M u t i q u e V e r c e l l i 2 . 6 0 R i c a 2 . 6 0 R o c c a 1 . 1 9 S e n a t o r e N o v e l l i 1 . 1 9 S e s i a 1 . 1 9 S i u a 1 . 1 9 S t r e l l a 1 . 1 91 . 4 1 M a r s 1 . 4 1 M e r c u r y 1 . 4 1 A r l e s i e n n e 1 . 9 2 A l a n 1 . 9 2 I S C R 6 1 . 9 2 L a b e l l e 1 . 9 2 M 2 0 2 1 . 9 2 M a j a n e s 4 1 . 9 2 Q u i l a m a p u 1 . 9 2 R e x m o n t 1 . 9 2 S K B T 1 . 9 ","tokenCount":"2634"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4781443535.json b/data/part_6/4781443535.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"63dc76aee75431e251363663040f89c3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aa0b85c6-3c9b-4151-ba88-c69cb4f62482/retrieve","id":"1933706113"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3be49bd4-8225-4fc8-a4cf-329601b60daa","pagecount":"17","content":"Esta herramienta ha sido diseñada para el apoyo, automatización de procesos y análisis de series climáticas dentro del convenio CIAT-MADR. No se pretende competir, ni suplantar otras herramientas disponibles y desarrolladas por otras entidades. Por el contrario, buscamos un trabajo colaborativo y de retroalimentación constante entre metodologías.RClimtool ha sido diseñada con el objetivo de facilitar a los usuarios el análisis estadístico, control de calidad, llenado de datos faltantes, análisis de homogeneidad y cálculo de indicadores para las series climatológicas diarias de temperatura máxima, temperatura mínima y precipitación.Para ejecutar la interfaz de la aplicación debemos cargar el código fuente tal como se muestra en la siguiente figura:Una vez se ha cargado el código exitosamente aparecerá la siguiente interfaz gráfica:En la figura 1 se observa la ventana principal de la herramienta, la cual se encuentra dividida en diferentes módulos, cada uno ubicado en los paneles de la parte izquierda de la interfaz. El contenido de estos módulos será desarrollado más adelante.RClimTool ofrece diferentes opciones de análisis, diseñadas con el objetivo de brindar una aplicación que reúna todo lo necesario para llevar a cabo un estudio completo de las series climatológicas.Para ilustrar las funciones de cada uno de los módulos, a continuación se muestra el análisis de las series climatológicas diaria para las variables temperatura máxima, temperatura mínima y precipitación de 10 estaciones meteorológicas.En el módulo de lectura de datos encontraremos diferentes botones que nos permitirán leer y cargar las bases de datos que contienen la información de las variables de interés. Importante: No utilizar tildes ni la letra \"ñ\" para nombrar carpetas y archivos que se utilizarán con la herramienta, ya que esto genera conflicto al momento de usar la aplicación.El botón cambiar directorio (1) ofrece la opción de seleccionar el directorio donde se encuentran los archivos que se van a cargar, también será la ubicación para guardar todas las salidas de la aplicación.Figura 1. Ventana para lectura de datos 1 En la parte (2) de la figura 1 se encuentran los botones que permite cargar la información cada una de las variables. Por ejemplo, al dar clic en el botón Temp. Máxima aparecerá una ventana emergente en la cual se debe ubicar el archivo que contiene las temperaturas máximas diarias de las diferentes estaciones. Este procedimiento se realiza para las demás variables a analizar.En esta ventana se selecciona la ubicación y el archivo que deseamos cargar. Seleccionamos el archivo y damos clic en ok como se ve en la figura 2. Recuerde cerrar la ventana emergente cada vez que se cargue una variable diferente.Nota: El formato de los datos de entrada se especifica en Anexos.Una vez tenemos los datos cargados para todas las variables a analizar, procedemos a realizar el análisis descriptivo para cada una de ellas, para ello debemos especificar el período de análisis, útil si se desea analizar solo una sección de la serie, por ejemplo Marzo-1990 hasta Enero-1991, si por el contrario se desea analizar la serie completa entonces estos campos deben estar vacíos. Después de seleccionar la variable a analizar tal como se muestra en la figura 3, procedemos a dar clic en el boto Descriptivas, los resultados se pueden visualizar en la consola de R (ver figura 4).Consola en RPara el análisis gráfico se tiene la opción de generar diferentes tipos de Gráficos automáticos, los cuales se generan para todas las variables. Si se desea trabajar con información climatológica mensual (promedio mensual para temperatura y total mensual para precipitación) se debe seleccionar Mensual en la opción Tipo de análisis, luego al dar clic en alguno de los botones (Gráficos Plot, Gráficos Boxplot o Gráficos de dispersión) aparecerá un mensaje con la ubicación de los gráficos generados (ver figura 5).Otra opción es realizar los gráficos de forma personalizada, al dar clic en los botones del módulo Gráficos Personalizados aparecerá una ventana donde se encuentran los campos necesarios que se deben especificar; para los argumentos x e y, se escogen las variables mediante un lista desplegable.Los demás argumentos, como el título, etiquetas de los ejes, color, entre otros sirven para personalizar el gráfico (para consultar la ayuda sobre los argumentos del gráfico dar clic en el botón Help).Una vez seleccionadas las variables y modificados los argumentos damos clic en ok y en una nueva ventana se desplegará el gráfico (ver figura 6).Opción para gráficos mensuales Figura 6. Análisis gráfico personalizadoUn aspecto importante a tener en cuenta en el análisis de las series climatológicas, es el control de calidad, que consiste en generar algunos criterios y/o filtros para ayudar a identificar datos no razonables y/o erróneos.En la figura 7 se encuentra el módulo Control de calidad, aquí se encuentran algunos campos editables que deben ser llenados a criterio del usuario, como el No. de desviaciones estándar, un criterio útil para identificar datos atípicos en la serie (por defecto son 3). El Rango de la variable se debe especificar de acuerdo con los valores lógicos esperados que puede tomar la variable.Al dar clic en el botón Validar aparecerá un ventana que indica el estado de cada estación respecto al rango establecido para la variable. Los criterios ejecutados en la consola son (ver figura 8): % Datos atípicos: Se definen como el porcentaje de datos que no se encuentran dentro del siguiente intervalo [ ̅ ], donde ̅ y es el promedio muestral y la desviación estándar muestral de la variable a validar respectivamente. Nota: Este criterio no es recomendable para la variable precipitación ya que su distribución suele ser asimétrica. % Datos fuera del rango: Indica el porcentaje de datos que se encuentran por fuera de los límites definidos para el rango de la variable. Los datos identificados para este criterio serán automáticamente reemplazados por NA's. % Datos tmax<tmin: Se calcula únicamente para temperaturas e indica el porcentaje de datos en los que la temperatura máxima fue menor que la temperatura mínima en la misma fecha. Los datos identificados para este criterio serán automáticamente reemplazados por NA's. % Datos variación≥10 (TM_10): Sólo se calcula para la variable temperatura, y éste nos indica el porcentaje de días en los cuales la variación de un dato de temperatura con respecto a otro fue mayor o igual a 10ºC. % Datos consecutivos: Identifica los datos iguales en un período mayor a cinco días consecutivos en la serie analizada y éstos son reemplazados por NA's. por éstos filtros, el cual se debe llevar a cabo manualmente sobre los archivos generados en la carpeta Datos faltantes, donde se encuentran los archivos después haber realizado el Control de calidad a todas las variables (ver figura 9).Al dar clic en el botón generar pre-informe, automáticamente se creará un archivo Word con un informe que incluye un análisis descriptivo preliminar y los criterios generados en el módulo del Control de calidad, complementado con los gráficos que realiza la aplicación. El pre-informe quedará guardado en el directorio que aparece en la ventana emergente, como se muestra en la figura 10.El llenado de datos faltantes es realizado mediante el paquete RMAWGEN de R, el cual a partir de la estimación de modelos VAR realiza el llenado de los datos. Es importante resaltar que esta metodología es útil cuando se tienen porcentajes de datos NA bajos e información de varias estaciones que se encuentren relacionadas y que no presenten mucha variabilidad.Para este módulo es indispensable que se tengan datos de varias estaciones en el MISMO PERÍODO para las variables temperatura máxima, temperatura mínima y precipitación, ya que interactúan entre sí para completar los datos faltantes.En la figura 11 se muestran los campos necesarios que se deben especificar para el llenado de datos faltantes, al dar clic en el botón completar datos, se iniciará el proceso que puede tardar varios minutos.Una vez finalice el proceso, aparecerá de nuevo una ventana indicando que el proceso ha finalizado. En la carpeta Datos faltantes se crearán las bases de datos para cada una de las variables y los gráficos de la serie original versus la serie generada (ver figura 12).Figura 12. Ubicación archivos Datos faltantesEn este módulo se implementaron varias pruebas estadísticas con el fin de analizar la homogeneidad de la serie: Pruebas de normalidad: estas pruebas comprueban si los datos de la variable en estudio proceden de una distribución normal, si se cumple este supuesto se deben utilizar pruebas paramétricas; sino se cumple debemos acudir a las pruebas no paramétricas. Estacionalidad (tendencia): Se propone la prueba del Rango de Correlación de Spearman* y el Test de Mann-Kendall. Para estimaciones futuras es necesario que se cumpla este supuesto  Estabilidad en varianza: Test F* aplicado en subconjuntos de información. Estabilidad en Media: Incluye el Test T* y el Test U Mann-Whiney como alternativa no paramétrica al Test T, usando las medianas como estadístico más robusto que la media.Nota: Las pruebas con * requieren del cumplimiento del supuesto de normalidad.En la figura 13 se observan algunos de los resultados obtenidos para este módulo, en el ejemplo se utilizó la variable tmax y un nivel de significancia del 5%. En la consola se muestran las tablas obtenidas para cada prueba, las cuales incluyen para cada estación el valor-p y la decisión de acuerdo al nivel de significancia escogido.Figura 13. Análisis de homogeneidad de las series Para este módulo se encuentra opción de generar un informe que resume todas las pruebas estadísticas incluidas en el análisis de la homogeneidad, para realizarlo damos clic en el botón Generar Informe.Para el cálculo de indicadores se tienen los siguientes sub-módulos: Indicadores anuales: Se calcula el número de días para cada año que cumplen con la condición indicada (Mayor que o Menor que), el valor del criterio que define la condición se deja libre al usuario. Indicadores mensuales: Para este sub-módulo se calculan los máximos o mínimos mensuales para la variable escogida.Para llevar a cabo estos cálculos, primero seleccionamos el período y la variable a analizar, luego se escoge el valor para el indicador de interés, y procedemos a dar clic sobre el checkbox del mismo. En la carpeta Indicadores se generarán archivos de Excel con los indicadores calculados (ver figura 14). Un problema identificado para esta versión se encuentra en el módulo de datos faltantes, el rango de las fechas de las variables debe estar desde el 1 de enero del año inicial de análisis hasta el 31 de diciembre del año final, para poder llevar a cabo el llenado de datos.Por favor reporte cualquier problema a Lizeth Llanos l.llanos@cgiar.org y David Arango d.arango@cgiar.org junto con los mensajes de error y los datos que se usaron para el análisis. También apreciamos las sugerencias que contribuyan a mejorar la herramienta.Los archivos que vayan a ser utilizados deben estar en formato CSV (delimitado por comas). Se deben emplear bases diferentes para cada una de las variables, con las estaciones que se deseen analizar. Estas bases deben cumplir con los siguientes aspectos:1. Columnas en las siguientes secuencias: day, month, year seguido de los nombres de las estaciones. NOTA: unidades de Precipitación= milímetros y unidades de Temperatura= grados Celsius 2. Para los casos en el que se presenten datos faltantes, se deben codificar como NA; los registros de datos deben estar en orden cronológico. No se permite fechas faltantes.Ejemplo de formato de datos de entrada para RClimTool:Figura 17: Formato de entrada variable precipitación Figura 18: Formato de entrada variable temperatura máxima Figura 19: Formato de entrada variable temperatura mínima","tokenCount":"1884"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/4787675370.json b/data/part_6/4787675370.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1be7e7ee0fa16bd7a4a994a1eb90022d8779ca9c
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+++ b/data/part_6/4787675370.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2acf1fc2355156b789679d240b5dc943","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6d81fb2e-e058-4725-b245-8353308ee9b0/retrieve","id":"-1750757859"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"28049fb4-d4b4-4a97-963f-0982656e6f6f","pagecount":"55","content":"This paper reviews the literature on smallholder commercialization. It explores the conceptual developments in smallholder commercialization, methodological advancements in measuring the degree of agricultural commercialization at household level, and the impacts of commercialization on different socio-economic groups. The paper also investigates policy recommendations made by different authors aimed at facilitating the smooth process of transforming smallholder agriculture from subsistence system to a fully commercialized farming. Based on the review, the paper throws light on conceptual and methodological gaps in relation to smallholder commercialization, and finally, draws general conclusions and directions for future research.Commercializing smallholder agriculture is an indispensable pathway towards economic growth and development for most developing countries relying on the agricultural sector (von Braun 1995;Pingali and Rosegrant 1995;Timmer 1997). In the long-run, subsistence agriculture may not be a viable activity to ensure sustainable household food security and welfare (Pingali 1997). The welfare gains from market-oriented production arise from specialization that builds on and creates comparative advantages, potential for large-scale production, and from dynamic technological, organizational and institutional change effects that arise through the flow of ideas due to exchangebased interactions (Romer 1993(Romer , 1994)).Smallholder commercialization also typically leads to an increased diversity of marketed commodities at a national level and increased specialization at regional and farm levels (Pingali and Rosegrant 1995;Timmer 1997;Kurosaki 2003). Moreover, commercialization has a linking power between input and output sides of a market. Demand for modern technologies promotes the input side of production and facilitates the development and advancement of technological innovations. In turn, the use of modern technologies can result in higher productivity and production entering markets.Agricultural commercialization usually takes a long transformation process from subsistence to semi-commercial and then to a fully commercialized agriculture (Pingali and Rosegrant 1995). In subsistence production, the farmer's objective is food self-sufficiency by using mainly non-traded and household generated inputs. The objective and the input sources change in semi-commercial farms into generating surplus agricultural outputs and using both traded and non-traded farm inputs. In a fully commercialized agriculture, however, inputs are predominantly obtained from markets and profit maximization becomes the farm household's driving objective (Pingali and Rosegrant 1995). 1   Although the net welfare gain from agricultural commercialization at the household level is universally accepted, there is no common standard for measuring the degree of household commercialization. Some literature has considered a dichotomy between food and cash crops 2 and examined the household resource allocation decisions to these crops as a proxy to the level of a smallholder commercialization (de Janvry et al. 1991;Fafchamps 1992). Others use different types of ratios such as marketed outputs or inputs to the total value of agricultural production or total household income (von Braun et al. 1994;Strasberg et al. 1999). In the dichotomy between food and cash crops, food crops are assumed to be used only for home consumption whereas households are considered as net sellers in the cash crop output markets and net buyers in the input markets for cash crops. However, some studies reveal that these situations are far from reality as food crops are also marketed and households could also take any position in their food crop 1. The detail of changes in household production objectives, input sources, income etc. at the different stages in the commercialization process is given in Annex 1.2. The distinction between food and cash crops differ from literature to literature. Some authors make the distinction based on the nature of commodities (food and non-food commodities); others define based on the purpose of production (whether a commodity is basically produced for market or home consumption) or based on its use pattern (whether the major proportion of that commodity is marketed or consumed at home).output market participation (Gabre-Madhin et al. 2007;Pender and Alemu 2007). Therefore, the level of surplus production available for marketing and the household, location, and commodity specific transaction costs are often more important than the crop type in determining the position of a household in the output markets.Moreover, to what extent agricultural production is commercialized at a household level is subject to risk and household's attitude towards risk (Fafchamps 1992;Dercon 1996). The more risky the marketing environment a household is engaged in (high variation in market prices and strong correlation between marketed commodity prices and household income) the less a household will be involved in agricultural practices that support market orientation (Fafchamps 1992;von Braun et al. 1994). Works of Finkelshtain and Chalfant (1991) and Fafchamps (1992) also clearly showed that a household's decision to commercialize depends on the sum of consumption and income effects of market shocks.The concept of agricultural commercialization can be complex, and has contributed to varying definitions and emphases given in the literature. According to Pingali (1997), agricultural commercialization is more than marketing agricultural outputs. Pingali argued that agricultural commercialization is attained when household product choice and input use decisions are made based on the principles of profit maximization. Moreover, according to von Braun et al. (1994), commercialization implies increased market transactions to capture the benefits from specialization. Increased market transactions are more easily attained when there are favourable policies and institutional arrangements that promote open domestic and international trade environment, and the development of market infrastructure and support services that facilitate access to existing markets and the opening up of new market opportunities under a secured legal system.There is largely a consensus that commercialization has differential impacts on different socioeconomic groups (wealthy and poor, land owners and landless farm households, women, and children) under different socio-economic, institutional and policy environments, although the net impacts are not necessarily or universally positive. However, there are only a few, if any, who contend the need for commercialization to promote social development and economic growth. With all the merits and demerits of agricultural commercialization to different clusters of the society and under different socio-economic and policy situations, this paper tries to investigate major findings and advancements in literature on this issue. Moreover, it tries to look for potential gaps that warrant further research both in conceptual and methodological aspects related to agricultural commercialization.The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 examines definitions of commercialization and how different authors specified commercialization indices. Section 3 looks at the processes of smallholder commercialization. Impacts of smallholder commercialization on household welfare, health, and nutrition are discussed in Section 4. Section 4 also presents different arguments regarding the impacts of smallholder commercialization on value chain actors, the environment and the overall economy. Taking the perspective of smallholder commercialization, Section 5 synthesises arguments by different authors on the synergies between food and cash crops at a household level. The roles of interlocked transactions and interlinked markets in the commercialization of subsistence agriculture are discussed in Section 6. Section 7 deals with determinants of agricultural commercialization and policies recommended to facilitate the commercialization process. Methodological and conceptual gaps in the smallholder commercialization literature are discussed in Section 8. Finally, Section 9 gives general conclusions of the review and directions for future research.2Measuring the level of commercializationThe relevance of measuring the level of smallholder commercialization arises from the interest to make comparisons of households according to their degree of commercialization (Randolph 1992).In addition, it also helps to gauge to what extent a given farm household is commercialized in its overall production, marketing and consumption decisions, and to analyse the determinants of commercialization. However, there are diverse methods or indicators used for measuring the level of commercialization. As these diverse indicators are emanating from how authors perceived the concept of commercialization, it is important to discuss the underlying definitions of smallholder commercialization.In a broad sense, smallholder commercialization could be seen as the strength of the linkage between farm households and markets at a given point in time. This household-to-market linkage could relate to output or input markets either in selling, buying or both. Alternatively, smallholder commercialization could also be seen as a dynamic process: at what speed the proportion of outputs sold and inputs purchased are changing over time at household level.Considering household-market linkages in their static form, this section examines how smallholder commercialization has been perceived by different authors and what different indices are currently available to measure the level of commercialization at household level.In most literature, a farm household is assumed to be commercialized if it is producing a significant amount of cash commodities, allocating a proportion of its resources to marketable commodities, or selling a considerable proportion of its agricultural outputs (Immink and Alarcon 1993;Strasberg et al. 1999). However, the meaning of commercialization goes beyond supplying surplus products to markets (von Braun et al. 1994;Pingali 1997). According to these authors, it has to consider both the input and output sides of production, and the decision-making behaviour of farm households in production and marketing simultaneously. Moreover, commercialization is not restricted only to cash crops as traditional food crops are also frequently marketed to a considerable extent (von Braun et al. 1994;Gabre-Madhin et al. 2007). Commodities traditionally considered as food crops may increasingly be marketed during the transformation process as households specialize. The commonly accepted concept of commercialization is, therefore, that commercialized households are targeting markets in their production decisions, rather than being related simply to the amount of product they would likely sell due to surplus production (Pingali and Rosegrant 1995). In other words, production decisions of commercialized farmers are based on market signals and comparative advantages, whereas those of subsistence farmers are based on production feasibility and subsistence requirements, and selling only whatever surplus product is left after household consumption requirements are met.Focusing on commercialization in its static form, various authors have used different yardsticks in measuring the level of agricultural commercialization at household level. von Braun et al.(1994) specified three types of commercialization indices at household level: output and input side commercialization, commercialization of the rural economy, and degree of a household's integration into the cash economy. For each type, the authors formulated indices measuring the extent of household commercialization. The first index measures proportion of agricultural output sold to the market and input acquired from market to the total value of agricultural production.In the second type, commercialization of the rural economy is defined as the ratio of the value of goods and services acquired through market transactions to total household income. Here, there is an assumption that some transactions may take place in-kind such as payments with food commodities for land use. Thirdly, the degree of household integration to the cash economy is measured as the ratio of the value of goods and services acquired by cash transaction to the total household income (von Braun et al. 1994).In measuring household-specific level of commercialization, Govereh et al. (1999) and Strasberg et al. (1999) used a household commercialization index (HCI), which is a ratio of the gross value of all crop sales per household per year to the gross value of all crop production. This ratio does not incorporate the livestock subsector, which could be more important than crops in some farming systems.Recently, Gabre-Madhin et al. (2007) used four approaches to measure the level of household commercialization: sales-to-output and sales-to-income ratios, net and absolute market positions (either as a net buyer, net seller or autarkic/self-sufficient household), and income diversification or level of specialization in agricultural production. According to Gabre-Madhin et al. (2007), the sales-to-output ratio measures the gross value of all agricultural sales by a household as a percentage of the total gross value of its agricultural production. This ratio is similar to what has been developed earlier by different authors (Abercrombie 1961;Cleave 1974;Ruthenburg 1980as cited in Randolph 1992;von Braun et al. 1994) as the percentage of agricultural output sold to total agricultural production. The total sales-to-income ratio is the ratio of the gross value of total sales to total income from crop production. In this index, income from crop production is assumed as a proxy to total household income, ignoring income from livestock, and off-and non-farm sources. The market position of a household is evaluated using the ratio of volume of sales and volume of purchases to the total volume of stock: the sum of storage from the previous production year and production in the current year. The specialization index tries to capture to what extent farm households are specialized in their production to capture the benefits from comparative advantages: producing what they can efficiently produce and buying what they cannot. This index measures the proportion of the value of purchased agricultural products not produced by households to the gross value of agricultural production. Numeric specifications of all the indices discussed above are given in Annexes 2-5.In most literature, the issue of commercialization is based on the proportion of resources allocated to either cash or food crops. However, under the existence of favourable market environment and infrastructure, food crops could also have the potential to be commercial crops (Fafchamps 1992). Moreover, cash crops are not necessarily supplied to the market. A good example is the case of groundnuts in West Africa where large proportion of groundnuts produced are consumed at home though it is considered as market-oriented commodity (von Braun 1994). Therefore, categorizing crops broadly into food and cash crops to analyse the extent of household commercialization lacks a strong footing and requires looking at the purpose for which a crop is grown rather than looking at the nature/type of crop itself. Based on this review, it appears that the common approach to measuring the degree of smallholder commercialization is based on the proportion of the value of agricultural produce sold or the value of agricultural inputs bought to the total household agricultural income (Randolph 1992;von Braun et al. 1994).Although there is relatively rich body of literature analysing the extent of commercialization for crop production, the commercialization process in the livestock subsector have received little attention. With the aim to identify the position of a farm household in livestock market participation, Negassa and Jabbar (2008) formulated a gross and net (market) livestock off-take rates at the household level. 3 The gross off-take rate measures the overall rate of inventory changes of livestock in a household. It categorizes births, gifts received, and purchases as incoming animals whereas deaths, sales, gifts, and slaughters are considered as outgoing ones. The gross off-take rate is then defined as the ratio of the difference of the two to the average inventory of a given period (usually one year). The net (market) off-take rate, which is more relevant in measuring the level of smallholder commercialization, considers only the sales and purchases of livestock per household per a specific period. Net off-take rate is then computed as the ratio of the difference of the two to the average inventory of the period.Smallholder commercialization is part of an agricultural transformation process in which individual farms shift from a highly subsistence-oriented production towards more specialized production targeting markets both for their input procurement and output supply. In a broader sense, one could also see smallholder commercialization as a pathway to the overall economy's structural transformation in which larger proportions of economic output and employment are generated by the non-agricultural sectors. To attain this essential goal of structural transformation through a smooth process of smallholder agricultural commercialization, policy and strategy interventions to improve the functioning of input and output marketing, improvements in service provision, and the development of infrastructure stand out prominent. Policymakers may also need to target the types of agricultural commodities to be promoted and which markets to focus on.There is an ongoing debate about targeting the process of smallholder commercialization. One issue of debate is whether smallholder commercialization should aim at increasing the productivity and marketed surplus of staple food crops or, alternatively, to focus on a newly introduced highvalue crops. The second issue is, given the targeted commodity types for commercialization, whether to produce these commodities for domestic or export markets. The following subsections briefly discuss arguments in the literature on these issues.In addition to the underlying socio-economic circumstances under which smallholders operate, the argument on which commodities to target in the process of smallholder commercialization emanates from the agro-ecological circumstances, technical know-how of smallholders, and their risk bearing capacity and attitude towards risk. Since staple food crops have been produced for a longer period under the subsistence system, it is believed that smallholders have the technical know-how and experience in the production of these commodities. Thus, new yield-enhancing technologies for these crops could help in generating more surpluses to the market, increasing household income at a lower risk and improving national-level food security. On the other hand, different modes of production targeting high-value non-traditional commodities could help farm households generate more income per unit of resources used on the farm but at a higher production and market risk. In the latter case, out-grower schemes or contract farming are usually considered major risk-sharing strategies and means to link smallholders to the export markets (Dolan and Humphrey 2000).Although agricultural commercialization is believed to put increased emphasis on specialization, it is not confined to the production of high-value commodities. Pingali et al. (2005) argued that, for many farmers, the transition from subsistence to commercial staple crop production is far more pertinent than a complete shift to specialized high-value commodities. Similarly, Gebre-ab (2006) stated that the production of marketable surplus of staple food over what is needed for own consumption is initially the most common form of commercialization in a peasant agriculture.Through time, as the level of smallholder commercial orientation increases, however, one observes mixed staple and cash crop production systems giving way to specialized production units for the production of high-value crop and livestock products (Pingali et al. 2005;Gebre-ab 2006).Apparently, the potential gains from high-value agricultural commodities tend on average to be higher than those for staples even though production of high-value commodities can be accompanied by greater uncertainty and risk. A critical issue to be answered by smallholders specializing in high-value outputs is whether their size, be it land or other resources, can profitably support such activities in the long term (Lerman 2004;Pingali et al. 2005). In addition, to a large extent, crop choice is determined a priori by the land potential available to small farmers. So, while high-value crop production may promise higher rewards, that option is not open to all small farmers. For some small farmers, at best, commercialization can offer the possibility of some diversification into non-staples, but not a total specialization (Pingali et al. 2005). In conclusion, smallholders can commercialize in staple food commodities, in non-traditional high-value cash commodities, or combine the two types of commodities depending on the agroecological circumstances, levels of production and price risks, and market conditions. However, one can certainly argue that smallholders will move towards more specialization in the process of commercial transformation in the long run.The choice of targeting either domestic or export markets in the process of smallholder commercialization is basically linked to the nature of the targeted commodities. For countries with large population size, domestic markets could also be a major market target due to higher domestic demand for both staples and high-value commodities. However, high-value non-traditional commodities are usually produced for the export market.In targeting the export market for the process of smallholder commercialization, the issue of product quality, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, timely and regular supply, and volume need to be given emphasis in enabling the small-scale farmers to be part of the game (Henson et al. 1999). Despite the national interest in foreign currency earnings from export markets, these and other regulatory issues put smallholders at a higher income risk which might have an adverse consequence on the overall commercialization process. Such constraints can be overcome by vertically coordinated supply value chains that use smallholders as out-growers (Dolan and Humphrey 2000).Apart from the intercontinental export markets for high-value cash crops, there is a considerable potential demand for staple commodities in the domestic and intraregional food markets of developing countries (Diao and Hazell 2004;Diao et al. 2007). A study by Diao and Hazell (2004) showed that Africa's domestic demand for staple food was about USD 50 billion in 2000 and expected to double by 2015.The role of risk in a smallholder commercialization process can be seen from two perspectives: before and after shifting from subsistence to semi-commercial production system. First, perceived risks in labour and food markets compel subsistence farmers to stick to the self-sufficiency objectives both in their production and consumption decisions. Second, unreliable and costly food markets and fluctuations in market prices put the relatively market-oriented resourceallocation decisions of semi-subsistence households at stake due to less reliability of food markets to guarantee household food security (von Braun et al. 1994;Govereh et al. 1999). Reserving the discussions on the overall impact of risk on household resource allocation decisions for Section 7, this subsection briefly discusses why risks are higher under commercialized agriculture and what implication this has on the overall commercialization process.Agricultural commercialization leads to a more specialized pattern of production at a household level (Timmer 1997). A specialized production by its nature is highly susceptible to the risks of fluctuating prices and yields which results in fluctuating household income. To continue the commercialization process under unforeseen income shocks, either credit markets have to be easily accessible or semi-commercial households have to put some of their good-year income in a form of quasi-liquid assets for consumption smoothing in a bad year. To mitigate risks related to smallholder commercialization and keep households in the move towards a fully commercialized agriculture, Timmer (1997) stressed that governments have to play a crucial role in designing and implementing the necessary policy measures that could help smallholders in designing their own risk-management and risk-sharing strategies.Smallholder commercialization is assumed to lead towards more specialized production systems based on comparative advantages in resource use. In turn, specialized production leads to higher productivity through greater learning by doing, scale economies, exposure to new ideas through trade (better knowledge diffusion through exchange), and also better incentives in the form of higher income.Impacts of commercialization can be categorized into first, second and third orders. The first-order are mainly income and employment effects that are directly reflected in household welfare. The second-order effects include health and nutrition aspects usually contingent on the level of income attained through the existing level of commercialization. The third-order (or usually known as higher order) effects are the macro-economic and environmental effects that go beyond household level.The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) conducted several case studies to investigate the impacts of smallholder commercialization on production, income, nutrition and other social and economic dimensions of farm households. These studies cover several developing countries including Kenya, the Gambia, Rwanda, the Philippines and Guatemala. In most of the cases, the impacts of commercialization are highly specific to location and policy environments (von Braun and Kennedy 1994;Strasberg et al. 1999). However, one can generally conclude that the positive impacts of agricultural commercialization are likely to outweigh the adverse consequences from the process. With this understanding, the impacts of smallholder commercialization on household welfare (including income and employment), health and nutrition aspects with special emphasis to women and preschool children, on value chain actors and the overall macro-economic environment will be discussed in the next subsections. 5Agricultural commercialization tends to generate more household income due to its comparative advantages over subsistence production (Kennedy and Cogill 1987;Dorsey 1999). However, unless rural markets are well-integrated and risks are low to influence household decision behaviour, the shift from subsistence to commercial crop production may have an adverse consequence by exposing households to volatile food market prices and food insecurity. This subsection discusses the welfare effects of smallholder commercialization in relation to income and employment dimensions (first-order effects) and also the indirect effects on nutrition and health aspects (secondorder effects) through the income-consumption linkage.Different case studies in Africa demonstrate that household income increases as farm resources are reallocated from subsistence to commercial crops (von Braun et al. 1994). Using empirical evidence from coffee growers in Central Kenya, Dorsey (1999) showed that households who followed a commercial specialization scheme earned significantly higher annual net income than others. Similarly, farm households who shifted their production from maize/corn to a sugarcane out-growers scheme earned higher income in South Nyanza District of Kenya (Kennedy and Cogill 1987) and in Bukidnon Province on the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines (Bouis and Haddad 1990). However, compared to the smaller but more continuous flow of income in the form of cash and food under semisubsistence production system, higher income from cash crops in lump-sum payments is usually spent within a short time and more on non-food commodities (von Braun 1994). This problem is exacerbated in the absence of well-integrated financial systems that promote savings from cash-crop income.In some cases, commercialization may be planned, but in most cases it is likely to be spontaneous. Whether a smallholder commercialization process creates more employment opportunities in rural areas is subject to the nature of commodities produced, technologies used in the production process, and whether agricultural processing is involved in the scheme (von Braun et al. 1994).Usually it is believed that high-value cash crops are labour intensive in their production and targeting these crops in the commercialization process helps to absorb surplus family labour. Moreover, commodities that require further processing at a village level before marketing (e.g. commodities like soybean, cassava and tobacco in the uplands of Java) could create employment opportunities for farmers and their family members and also promote income distribution among village members beyond the producing household and particularly to the poorest class of people in a community (Kawagoe 1994). On the other hand, smallholder commercialization that favours labour-saving technologies like mechanization may have an adverse effect on employment of the agricultural labour force in the family.In smallholder commercialization, it is assumed that resources are being diverted from food crops to cash crop production which results in lower food availability from own production and more dependence on local food markets (Immink and Alarcon 1993). In support of this view, there are studies that witness the adverse effects of smallholder commercialization on nutritional status of households, particularly preschool children. A study by Dewey (1981) in rural Mexico provided evidence that dietary diversity, dietary quality, and nutritional status of preschool children can be negatively associated with lower crop diversity and increased dependence on purchased foods. Randolph (1992) also found that agricultural commercialization in Malawi exerted a negative influence on child nutrition, especially during the nutritional stress seasons. In addition, based on a case study from sugarcane-producing households in the Philippines, Bouis and Haddad (1990) also argued that raising household incomes appears to be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for substantially improving preschooler nutrition. This is noted due to the fact that higher-income households preferred to spend more of their cash crop income on non-food items.On the other hand, there are arguments in favour of smallholder commercialization as a means to improve household health and nutrition status. These arguments generally follow two directions.First, commercialization is assumed to enhance household income which helps to purchase a diversified mix of goods and services (like health care, better housing etc.), or increase the current market basket (Kennedy 1994a). Second, through the income-food-consumption linkage, commercialization is assumed to increase the food intake of household members, which could improve their nutritional and health status (Kennedy 1994a).However, whether the income from commercialization is directly linked to household food consumption and whether all household members (particularly, women and children) also have equitable access to these gains appears to be an empirical issue. A common debate on the linkage between commercialization and nutrition is that income from commercial (cash) crops is under the control of men (Kennedy and Cogill 1987;Immink and Alarcon 1993;Tinker 1979cited in Kennedy 1994a) and used more for non-food expenditures (Kennedy and Cogill 1987). Kennedy and Cogill (1987) showed that income control by women correlates with improved child nutritional status, suggesting that women are more likely to spend on food and health care. According to these authors, a 1% increase in sugarcane income in South Nyanza District in Kenya results in an increase in energy intake of 24 kilocalories per household per day. On average, sugarcane production increased household income by 15% which increased household energy intake by 360 kilocalories per day, or approximately 33 kilocalories per day per person in the household (Kennedy and Cogill 1987).Analysing the child health and morbidity rates in several countries including the Gambia, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Philippines and Guatemala, Kennedy (1994a) concluded that there is no clear evidence that agricultural commercialization has an adverse effect on child nutrition. Another point of argument on health impacts of commercialization refers to the higher labour demand of commercial crops as reducing the household time spent on child care, particularly by women (Kennedy and Cogill 1987). Generally, the food security status of commercialized farm households is influenced by both household-level technological changes that permit increased food crop production on limited resources, and the meso-and macro-level environment consisting of marketing conditions, market prices, rural infrastructure, and access to credit (Immink and Alarcon 1993). The macro-level factors influence the level of income a commercialized household can earn and market prices that influence the household income-consumption linkage, whereas household-level technological changes could help to secure food self-sufficiency under a risky food-market environment.Smallholder commercialization by itself may not have a direct impact in increasing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS but the process of commercialization will strengthen the interactions and linkages between rural and urban populations. Newly emerging trade opportunities due to the commercialization process may also contribute to population movement and relocation. This dynamics may increase the transmission of HIV/AIDS to the rural community. On the other hand, HIV/AIDS has a direct and adverse effect on smallholder commercialization through the loss of active labour that would have been engaged in agricultural activities. However, it must be noted that the literature on commercialization is very scanty on the relationship between commercialization and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.Through increasing household market participation, commercialization of smallholder agriculture has a direct and usually positive impact on value chain actors such as input suppliers, output traders, transporters, processors, financiers and others. The positive impacts could be due to economies of scale created from increased demand and supply that tend to decrease average cost per unit of operation.Some of the marketing and processing activities done by value chain actors can be handled by farmers and their families as a side job to agriculture. Findings by Kowagoe (1994) in upland Java, Indonesia, suggested that a high contribution of marketing and processing to rural household income and employment is expected when commercialized farm products are processed in the village and then marketed. Kowagoe (1994) argued that the processing and marketing of commercial products at a village level contributed up to 70% of total household labour income and employment. Commercialization, in general, creates a variety of opportunities for valuechain actors who add different forms of value to commodities on their way from the point of production to final consumption. Actors may change the forms of products via processing, storing or transporting from one point to another based on market demands.Both negative and positive environmental effects of smallholder commercialization could be observed when the commercialization process is targeting high-value commercial commodities.Negative effects could arise due to the fact that these commodities usually demand higher use of external inputs such as pesticides and herbicides that could have an adverse effect on the environment.Based on the Asian experience, Pingali (2001) argued that agricultural commercialization has both positive and negative impacts on the natural resource base. Higher economic growth results in higher opportunity cost of labour, leading to the excessive use of herbicides and pesticides in agriculture. Increased use of agricultural chemicals, in turn, could lead to higher environmental and human health risks (Pingali 2001). On the other hand, favourable macro and micro-level economic policy reforms that potentially dissolve input subsidies and output support programs could result in sustainable management of the agricultural resource base by allowing the actual opportunity costs of resources to be better reflected in market prices. However, Pingali was cautious in judging the net effect of agricultural commercialization on the environment due to the fact that the effect could vary depending on the specific circumstances under which the commercialization process takes place (Pingali 2001).If the commercialization process is linked to irrigation schemes, improper use of water resources may have serious consequence both on surface and subsurface water bodies. Water-logging and salinity are some of the major problems related to irrigation development. Moreover, the problem of downstream degradation of water quality by salts and toxic agrochemicals is a serious environmental problem. Government policies that establish secured property rights to land and water resources and regulate chemical use can be important in addressing these problems (Pingali and Rosegrant 1995).When smallholders commercialize, developing countries with large population shares in the agricultural sector can generate more income, thus economic growth. Increased income in the agricultural sector raises demand for manufactured goods and services in the other sectors of the economy, thus stimulating further growth. Moreover, possible linkage of smallholder commercialization to the export market could enhance foreign currency earnings and improve the balance of payments. Commercialization may also increase employment, especially when labourdemanding high-value commodities are targeted.The impact of smallholder commercialization on the gender dimension depends on a commodity's gender-specific labour demand and on who controls the income generated. The shift from staple maize to sugarcane production in Kenya and the Philippines was associated with a significant reduction in the percentage of women's labour use in agricultural activities, from 50.5% to 1.2% in Kenya and from 9.1% to 2.5% in the Philippines (von Braun 1994). In this case, one could say that sugarcane is a 'men's crop'. However, in Guatemala, the shift from maize to vegetable production increased the proportion of women's labour use from 6.1% to 21.5% (von Braun 1994). Whatever proportion of female labour is involved in cash crop production, income from these crops is usually controlled by men.In the agricultural transformation process, semi-commercial agriculture is an intermediate step coming between subsistence and commercialized agriculture (von Braun et al. 1994;Timmer 1997). One of the main features of semi-commercial agriculture is that farm households are producing both for home consumption and markets using both traded and non-traded agricultural inputs (von Braun et al. 1994). Under such circumstances, smallholders have to decide whether to allocate their scarce resources (usually land and labour) to cash or food crop production, and to what extent. Apart from competition for resources at a household level, cash and food crops may also have complementary effects in household resource allocation decisions. These features are discussed in the following subsections.Conventionally, it is well known that cash and food crop productions are competing for farm household resources. This competition is fierce particularly under missing or imperfect food markets in which households prefer to produce their own food crops to secure household consumption at the expense of higher returns from cash crop production (de Janvry et al. 1991;Jayne 1994). However, some food and cash crops may require labour or draught inputs at different periods (Jayne 1994). This argument is conditional on the nature of crops and sources of moisture available for production, such as in cases when food crops could be grown during rainy season and cash crops grown on irrigated plots during the dry season.The complementary nature of food and cash crop production decisions at a household level bases itself on the income and financial linkages between the two types of crops. Income from cash crops might be used either to purchase food crops from a market, which permits allocating most household resources to cash crop production, or to purchase external inputs for the production of food crops that enhance food crop productivity. In doing so, fewer resources are required to produce adequate food for the household consumption and the remaining resources can be shifted to the production of cash crops.In support of this view, a study conducted by Govereh and Jayne (2003) at Gokwe North District in Zimbabwe revealed that households who intensively produce cotton obtained higher grain yields. In addition, the same authors found evidence of regional spill-over effects whereby commercialization schemes induce second-round investments in a particular area that provide benefits to all farmers in that region, regardless of whether they were engaged in the scheme (Govereh et al. 1999). Equally important, the cash-crop out-grower scheme had positive spill-over effects for smallholder food production through the adoption of fertilizer on food crops. This was made possible through the cash crop input delivery channels, and increased availability of farm credit through cash crop schemes to promote hiring additional labour and finance investments in productive assets such as draught oxen and traction equipments (Strasberg et al. 1999).6Interlocked transactions, interlinked markets and commercialization Smallholder commercialization demands not only well functioning output markets to sell marketable commodities, but also efficient and low-cost factor markets that reflect the true opportunity cost of farm inputs. In some cases, smallholders may not be able to obtain purchased farm inputs like seeds, fertilizer and other chemicals due to shortage of liquidity or higher transaction costs associated with these input markets. Moreover, they may not be able to have access to output markets due to similar or other problems. Under such circumstances, different institutional arrangements are considered to solve or at least mitigate these problems and promote smallholder market participation, contributing to higher farm household income. One such category of institutional arrangements involves interlinked markets, also known as interlocked transactions.Interlocked transaction is an institutional arrangement meant to reduce transaction costs through tying agricultural credit and input supply to the delivery of product at harvest (Govereh et al. 1999). In other words, interlocked transactions tie input transactions with output marketing. Such an arrangement has a double advantage in agricultural commercialization. First, small-scale farmers could get agricultural inputs like seed, fertilizer and other chemicals on credit basis, which is a means to overcome farm household cash constraints. Secondly, farmers are ensured of the marketability of their produce, sometimes even directly at farm-gate (Jayne et al. 2004). Experience from Kenya reveals that there is a direct and indirect positive impact of interlinked cash-cropping schemes on the intensification of input use in food-crop production. Smallholders engaged in interlocked credit/input/output marketing arrangements for cash crops used more fertilizer per acre both on cash crop and food crop production in Kenya (Jayne et al. 2004).However, Govereh et al. (1999) raised the concern of diversionary sales (side-marketing outputs) to other buyers as a major problem in such arrangements. According to Govereh et al. (1999), unlike the perishable and industrially processed high-value cash crops, food crops potentially suffer from this disadvantage as staple food crops can be processed and stored on the farm for longer periods. This nature of food crops poses greater difficulties and costs for lending firms to ensure delivery due to moral hazard. Moreover, the non-existing or weakly performing formal legal system in rural setups aggravates the problem through lack of strong contract enforcement mechanisms (Jabbar et al. 2008).Determinants of commercializing subsistence agriculture 6There are a number of determinants in commercializing smallholder agriculture. These determinants are broadly categorized as external and internal factors. 7 The external ones are factors beyond the smallholder's control like population growth and demographic change, technological change and introduction of new commodities, development of infrastructure and market institutions, development of the non-farm sector and the broader economy, rising labour opportunity costs, macroeconomic, trade and sectoral policies affecting prices and other driving forces (von Braun et al. 1991;Pingali and Rosegrant 1995). In addition, development of input and output markets, institutions like property rights and land tenure, market regulations, cultural and social factors affecting consumption preferences, production and market opportunities and constraints, agro-climatic conditions, and production and market related risks are other external factors that could affect the commercialization process (Pender et al. 2006). On the other hand, factors like smallholder resource endowments including land and other natural capital, labour, physical capital, human capital etc. are household specific and considered to be internal determinants. Some of these factors are briefly discussed in the next subsections.Population growth and demographic change are considered as demand-side driving forces for smallholder commercialization resulting from the urbanization effect of economic growth (von Braun et al. 1994). Urbanization and higher income from economic growth increases demand for marketed agricultural products which will tend to increase commodity prices and stimulate agricultural production for the market. However, by creating pressure on farmland, population growth may retard the commercialization process as food self-sufficiency on smaller plots becomes a priority over producing for markets. Moreover, population pressures may result in land degradation and lower productivity. Therefore, the direction of the influence of population growth on commercialization can be ambiguous.The importance of resource-saving and yield-enhancing technological innovations and their adoption by the ultimate users are unquestionable in the smallholder commercialization process (von Braun et al. 1994). Adopting a temporal perspective, von Braun et al. (1994) argued that, in the short-run, increased commercialization could occur without change in agricultural technologies, but the inverse would be less likely due to the indispensable demand-side pull for technological innovation.Moreover, technological innovations should not be focusing on cash crops alone. Fafchamps (1992) and Jayne (1994) argued that, under loosely integrated food markets, focusing on technologies biased to cash crops may not bring the intended boost in cash crop production as poor households are still using a significant share of their resources for food crops. Thus, in addition to the improvements in cash crop technologies, there has to be resource-saving innovations in food crops that could guarantee higher food production using fewer resources. According to these authors, productivity increases in both cash and food crops are crucial even if a country's objective is to increase cash crop production alone.7.3 Institutions North (1990) defined institutions as 'rules of the game' comprising of both formal rules (laws, constitutions, property rights etc.) and informal constraints such as norms, conventions, and codes of conduct that provide the structure for human interactions. Through their influence on human behaviour, institutions influence economic performance, growth, and development (Kharellah and Kristen 2001).To better understand the role of institutions in smallholder commercialization, it is important to disentangle and briefly discuss institutional environments and institutional arrangements.Institutional environments refer to the fundamental political, social, and legal ground rules that establish the basis for production, exchange, and distribution. For instance, rules governing property rights and the right to contract are under this category. On the other hand, institutional arrangements refer to relations between economic units that define how these units can cooperate or compete (Williamson 2000). A good example is market arrangements such as contracts, auctions, exchanges, co-operatives etc. (Omamo 2006).According to Glover (1994), the distributional benefits of agricultural commercialization, access to commercialization opportunities, and sharing of commercialization risks are functions of institutional arrangements. The following subsections discuss the roles of both formal and informal institutions in the overall smallholder commercialization process.Formal institutions like laws, constitutions, rules, regulations, contracts, property rights, and legal frameworks facilitate the playing ground for economic actors (North 1991;Kharellah and Kristen 2001). In one way or another, these institutions contribute to the overall smallholder commercialization process. For instance, experiences from grain markets in Ethiopia (Gabre-Madhin 2001) and Madagascar (Fafchamps and Minten 2001) showed how the scope of spatial and temporal arbitrages in grain marketing is limited due to a weak legal system for contract enforcement and the demand for personal inspections for grades and quality standards of each grain delivery. Such poor institutional arrangements result in higher transaction costs of trade that must be paid by producers and consumers, which, in turn, results in a wide spread between farmgate and retailer prices.Clearly defined property rights on land and other resources also play a key role in overall economic performance and agricultural modernization. For instance, comparing two institutional arrangements (communal and less communal field systems) in Europe during late medieval and early modern Europe, Hopcroft (1999) argued that agricultural modernization came latter in a communal field system due to lack of clear property rights and less developed markets with communal fields. Jayne (1994) argued that poor seed delivery systems are one of the major constraints that kept up to 90% of crop land for food grains in semi-arid areas of Africa. The development of agricultural support services such as agricultural extension linking smallholder farmers with new farm practices, and institutional arrangements such as agricultural marketing and service cooperatives, are designed to help link smallholders with input and output markets (Lerman 2004). These institutions can facilitate technology dissemination and access to market information. Institutional arrangements like sharecropping, interlocked contracts between labour and credit and land lease are adopted by smallholder farmers to solve problems related to market failure and asymmetric information, consistent with a principal-agent model approach. Rural financial institutions are also relevant in facilitating access to long-term credits for fixed assets and short-term credits for working capital. Agricultural credit plays a vital role in the process of commercialization by allowing smallholder farmers to assume risks associated with commercial crop production (Immink and Alarcon 1993;Lerman 2004).Contract farming is a risk-sharing institutional arrangement and is expected to promote the production of cash crops by smallholders (Glover 1994). Contracting can also serve as an institution to overcome barriers to entry, although certain measures need to be taken to ensure contract enforcement and to reduce transaction costs. One important point in this regard is whether contract agreements could be flexible or adjustable within a given limit when unanticipated external shocks occur.Although it is relatively more difficult to study the extent of constraints imposed by informal institutions on economic performance (North 1990), these institutions are as important as the formal ones, if not more, in facilitating or hindering a smallholder commercialization process.Values, norms, sanctions, taboos, cultures, traditions etc. have strong influences on smallholder production and marketing decisions, including those related to input use. Socio-cultural and religious factors determine consumption preferences of households, which can be a motivating or demotivating factor for household commercialization (Pender et al. 2006). These authors noted the case of teff in Ethiopian highlands and 'matooke' in central Uganda as examples demonstrating the impact of culture-influenced consumption preferences on a smallholder agricultural production system. In addition, Pender et al. (2006) argued that the prevalence of religious fasting periods in Ethiopia, during which individuals do not consume meat or dairy products, greatly limits the prospects for commercial livestock production for the domestic market.The role of informal institutions in governing market exchange is paramount particularly when formal institutions are missing. A case in point is the set of informal institutions used in setting grades and standards for commodities in the Ethiopian grain markets through the use of brokers and other market intermediaries (Gabre-Madhin 2001).When production is market related, risk has a direct impact on farm household decision-making behaviour (Chavas and Holt 1990;Finkelshtain and Chalfant 1991). While production risks are assumed to be the same both for subsistence and marketed goods, major risks to smallholder commercialization usually arise from market and policy failures (von Braun et al. 1994). In most rural economies, land, labour, financial, and insurance markets are either non-existent or imperfect (de Janvry et al. 1991). Under such circumstances, risk-averse semi-subsistence households tend to produce more of the market-risky subsistence goods (consumption commodities). This situation holds particularly when the effects of shocks are triggering changes in household consumption more than in income (Finkelshtain and Chalfant 1991;Fafchamps 1992;von Braun et al. 1994).According to von Braun et al. (1994), the degree of change in household consumption due to shocks depends on the share of risky crops in total consumption, the income elasticity of demand for risky crops, risk preferences of the household and the covariance between consumption prices of risky crops and the revenue they generate. The higher the share of risky crops in the household's total consumption, the more is household consumption influenced by market shocks. Under such circumstances, households tend to allocate fewer resources to commercial commodities in favour of more resources towards food production for home consumption. If the demand for homeconsumed risky crops is largely affected by changes in household income due to market shocks, then households prefer to be self-sufficient in production and consumption of risky crops rather than allocating resources to cash crops.The existence of low-cost, well-integrated and efficient rural markets is a key element in agricultural commercialization. Using a crop portfolio choice under income and consumption price risk model, Fafchamps (1992) showed that the crop portfolio of households consists of more cash crops when agricultural productivity is increased and rural markets are well integrated. de Janvry et al. (1991) also showed that resource allocation to cash crops substantially diminishes in the absence of food markets since the aim of food self-sufficiency at a household level takes prominence.In explaining the importance of well-integrated markets for household market participation and better returns from technology adoption, Barrett (2008) argued that well-integrated markets transmit excess supply to distant locations, and because of this, the returns to increased output due to technology adoption diminish less quickly in well-integrated markets than in segmented or poorly integrated markets. According to Barrett (2008), the potential for adverse welfare effects on nonadopters due to a fall in output prices is also lower in well-integrated markets. 88. The concept of a fall in output prices due to technology adoption and its adverse effect on non-adopters is an old but strong idea of Cochrane (1958). This concept is well known as the 'Technology treadmill'. For further readings, see Gabre-Madhin et al. (2003) and Barrett (2007).Participation in market exchange is a core element in smallholder commercialization. However, transactions in markets are not frictionless and without cost. There are physical marketing costs like transport and storage costs and, also importantly, transaction costs related to searching and processing information, negotiating contracts, monitoring agents, and enforcing contracts (Gabre-Madhin 2001; Jabbar et al. 2008) Transaction costs can be classified into two types: fixed and proportional transaction costs (Key et al. 2000). Searching, monitoring, screening etc. are some of the fixed transaction costs. This category of transaction cost is highly household or commodity-specific, non-variant with the volume of transaction, and basically deters smallholder participation in markets. Proportional transaction costs, as the name indicates, are proportional to the volume under transaction (Key et al. 2000). Using empirical evidence, Renkow et al. (2004) showed that fixed transaction costs in maize-producing semi-subsistence households is one of the major deterrents to market participation. According to these authors, fixed transaction costs were estimated to be 15.5% of the price band in maize market prices.Apart from its direct impact in deterring or limiting household participation in cash crop markets, the prevalence of higher market transaction costs also limits household involvement in cash crop production by discouraging participation in food markets and prompting them to give priority to subsistence food production (Fafchamps 1992;Omamo 1998b;Key et al. 2000;Govereh and Jayne 2003;Pingali et al. 2005). As a result, agricultural resources are diverted away from their potential use in cash crop production that would generate higher household income. A good example is the study conducted by Jayne (1994) in five regions of Zimbabwe where food marketing costs are high. Controlling for asset and locational differences among households, the study showed that grain surplus households cultivate 48% more oilseeds (as a cash crop) for market than their grain deficit neighbours.Since the specific types and levels of transaction costs vary by households, locations, and commodities transacted (Pingali et al. 2005), there is no single public or private innovation or intervention that can reduce them. Therefore, it is essential to focus on a variety of integrated arrangements that fit into the existing realities on the ground. Among others, these arrangements could include contract farming (Glover 1994) and development of smallholder organizations aimed at reducing marketing costs (Govereh et al. 1999;Alene et al. 2008) and costs of inter-market commerce (Barrett 2008), achieving continuous and reliable supply of marketed commodities produced by smallholders (Dolan and Humphrey 2000), and facilitating market information provision via improved telecommunications (Pingali et al. 2005).Combined with small farm sizes and unreliable food markets that characterize smallholders and the rural markets they operate in, food habits could also be a reason for farmers not to commercialize (von Braun 1994;Pender et al. 2006). Even if markets may exist for some of the food commodities, preferences to consume own production is sometimes observed as a reason for self-sufficiency objectives.Household asset holdings, both in terms of capital and as a buffer to mitigate any production and market related shocks, are relevant in a smallholder commercialization process. The principal argument for household asset holding as a determining factor in smallholder commercialization assumes a consumption-side perspective by highlighting its role in mitigating unexpected shocks in the commercialization process. Reductions in yields or unfavourable market prices may affect household income and consumption adversely. Under such circumstances and in the absence of credit markets for consumption, asset liquidation may be the only option available to households to smooth their consumption. On the other hand, the importance of assets for smallholder commercialization can be seen from the production side. Assets like land, oxen, farm implements, and human capital are essential for marketable surplus production at a smallholder level. Larger farm holdings enable households to exercise economies of scale by adopting modern technologies (von Braun and Immink 1994). These and other assets for surplus production become critical especially when markets for land and oxen power are completely missing or less functional. When factor markets are imperfect, resource ownership matters for efficiency (Sadoulet and de Janvry 1995).In addition, household asset holding in the form of human capital is one of the crucial elements in commercializing smallholder agriculture (World Bank 2007). Human capital comprises education, experience, skills, capabilities etc. of the household members engaged in pursuing new opportunities that could change the household's overall living standards.Smallholder commercialization cannot be left to the market alone (von Braun et al. 1994). Pingali and Rosegrant (1995) emphasized the importance of appropriate government policies to facilitate the smooth transition from subsistence to commercialized agriculture. According to these authors, priority areas where a government should take actions are investments in the development of rural markets, transportation and communication infrastructure, crop management, research and extension, secured property rights to land and water, development of a liberalized capital market, and provision of support services such as market information, credit services, extension services, health, sanitation and nutrition to rural households (Pingali and Rosegrant 1995;Pingali 1997). Pingali (2006) generalized that governments ought to help in creating enabling policy environments for smallholder commercialization through investing in rural infrastructure and undertaking institutional reforms that could encourage the private sector to participate in the development of the rural economy. Moreover, the role of government is crucial in specifying property rights and enforcing contracts to promote specialization and reduce the costs of market exchange (North 2000).8Gaps in commercialization concepts and methodologiesThough the issue of smallholder commercialization has been debated and researched for a long time now, especially since the 1980s, there still are gaps that warrant further investigation to sharpen the concepts and methodologies used in measuring the level of smallholder commercialization. Gaps also exist in the analysis of the determinants of smallholder commercialization and the effect of commercialization on households, the environment and the macro-economy. Major identified gaps in the literature based on this review are discussed below.The level of commercialization need to be measured in order to analyse the determinants of commercialization. There are a number of different ratios developed to measure the degree of household commercialization. These different indicators usually emanate from the way commercialization is conceptualized. Some authors use econometric models derived from the conventional non-separable agricultural household models to evaluate their resource allocation decisions for producing commodities consumed at home (food crops) vs. those supplied to markets (cash crops). Others use simple indices (ratios) to look at the proportions of resources or income derived from the market. In some cases, these indices are focusing on either input or output side commercialization, whereas in others, they combine the two and look at overall market transactions of a farm household. Nevertheless, there is no well accepted and comprehensive definition that could give a multidimensional view to the smallholder commercialization concept so that one can easily judge to what extent a given farm household is commercialized in its overall production, marketing and consumption decisions.As indicated earlier, one method of evaluating household commercialization is econometric analysis. von Braun et al. (1994) stated that allocation decisions could be estimated econometrically by using reduced form equations with an extended list of exogenous explanatory variables that affect many structural relations. However, this was not addressed in their edited book claiming data limitations and the difficulty of identifying the underlying structural coefficients from reduced form estimates, and drawing conclusions about the specific impact of crucial variables in the system at each particular link.Considering several earlier studies cited in Randolph (1992) and the literature reviewed in this work, it appears that the most common approach used in measuring the degree of commercialization at a household level has been using the proportion of sales from the total value of agricultural production (von Braun 1994). This is actually the revealed marketing decision of a household, particularly for commodities that are potentially used for sale and home consumption (Randolph 1992). However, some households may sell commodities that are not intentionally produced for markets. In this case, considering the proportion of sale as an indicator for the degree of commercialization may lead to a wrong conclusion. Therefore, in addition to the revealed marketing decisions, future studies on commercialization should also try to incorporate indicators that can capture household's production decisions whether a given commodity is mainly produced for home consumption or sale.Although there are a number of studies on the impacts of physical marketing costs (especially transport costs) in deterring or limiting smallholder market participation (Omamo 1998a;Renkow et al. 2004), attempts are limited to empirically test the role of both formal and informal institutions and institutional arrangements in reducing transaction costs and thus enhancing commercialization. Thus, future studies on smallholder commercialization should explicitly incorporate the role of institutions on the level of household's commercialization and the overall commercialization process.Most studies examining the determinants and impacts of commercialization have used crosssectional data. For example, in analysing the impacts of smallholder commercialization on the nutritional status of preschool children in Guatemala, Immink and Alarcon (1993) used a 24-hour recall method to collect data on household consumption patterns. Analysis of cross-sectional data obtained through such a method is highly time and context specific and may not sufficiently reflect the situation over time. Thus, conducting more studies using panel data on household production, marketing and consumption patterns over a longer period are essential to get a more realistic picture of the determinants of commercialization and its impacts.Much of the research on smallholder commercialization has focused on crop production and largely ignored livestock activities. Nevertheless, livestock and livestock products account for a major proportion of household cash income both in sedentary mixed crop-livestock systems and in pastoral and agro-pastoral systems. Due to this fact, analysis of smallholder commercialization should also pay attention to the livestock subsector as well.Human capital elements such as education, experience, skills, capabilities and talents of family members are essential in commercializing smallholder agriculture. Even if a farming community is exposed to a favourable environment that facilitates smallholder commercialization, all community members may not commercialize their production system to the same level. There are some individuals who inherently have better skills and capabilities to do the implicit cost-benefit analyses required and apply their talents to quickly adapt to and exploit new opportunities while others are either adapting slowly or not at all. The contributions of human factors in the overall commercialization process have generally been given little attention. Though difficult to quantify some of these human capital elements, commercialization studies in the future should try to account for the effects of these elements on the degree of smallholder commercialization.Since the 1980s, smallholder commercialization has received greater attention as part of the agricultural transformation process and as a consequence of urbanization and economic growth (Pingali 2001). Various authors have discussed a range of issues regarding smallholder commercialization, including the strategies to be followed in moving smallholder resource allocation decisions towards markets and the consequences of commercialization on smallholder welfare including income, employment, consumption, health, and nutrition. Based on issues reviewed in the above sections, a number of general conclusions can be drawn.First, the concept of smallholder commercialization goes beyond the marketing of surplus staple products. It is very broad in the sense that it comprises household input use decisions, major objectives of production, household participation in input and output markets, degree of specialization in production and dependence on markets for income and consumption. This calls for the need to consider these dimensions when examining the level of smallholder commercialization.Secondly, given the existing circumstances under which smallholders operate, smallholder commercialization could take place either in staple food crops or high-value commodities produced for domestic or export market, or combinations of the two. Several authors including Pingali and Rosegrant (1995) and Pingali et al. (2005) agreed that commercialization leads to more specialization both at a regional and household level, and at the same time to more diversification at national level.Third, though there is a fear that smallholder commercialization may exacerbate food insecurity for poor households as more resources are allocated to cash crops, there are findings from case studies in different developing countries showing that smallholder commercialization may enhance the level of household consumption and nutritional status. Such positive impacts are, however, attained under the presence of well functioning food markets and fair intra-household distribution of cash crop income.Fourth, during the process of commercializing smallholder agriculture, there is a stage at which both staple food crops and high-value cash crops are produced by the same household. Research findings show that the production of cash crops improves opportunities for increased input use in staple crop production, contributing to higher agricultural productivity so that household consumption demand from own production can be satisfied using fewer resources, allowing additional resources to be shifted to cash crop production.Fifth, markets and their integration play a crucial role in sending signals for households to allocate resources to their best use. However, the prevalence of high transaction costs make markets either completely non-existent or imperfect. Such phenomenon usually impede smallholder participation in factor and/or product markets or at least limit their level of participation so that the potential gain from commercialization tends to be minimal. In this regard, several authors recommended public investments in infrastructural development and government policies that influence institutions and institutional arrangements as crucial elements in encouraging the private sector to play an overall facilitation role in the smallholder commercialization process.Sixth, there are still gaps in the literature particularly in comprehensively conceptualizing the level of commercialization at a household level and in modelling and estimating the determinants and impacts of commercialization. The effect of different social, cultural, institutional, economic and human factors influencing the level of household commercialization warrants better attention. The use of panel data in commercialization studies has been limited, with most existing studies based on cross-sectional data sets. Use of panel data may better reveal the dynamics of commercialization.In general, studies conducted so far on the impacts and determinants of smallholder commercialization focus on specific dimensions of commercialization rather than on comprehensive analyses that incorporate all or most of its possible dimensions. Focus on specific dimensions is usually less capable in providing a realistic and comprehensive picture of the commercialization process. Analysis of commercialization also needs to consider the impact of commercialization at different levels in the economy. Hence, multidimensional, longitudinal, and comprehensive analysis on the determinants and impacts of smallholder commercialization is warranted.Annex 2: Indices of agricultural commercialization (von Braun et al. 1994)  Annex 3: Household Commercialization Index (HCI) (Govereh et al. 1999;Strasberg et al. 1999)  ii.iii.The net-market position:where V refers to volume of commodities iv. Specialization Index (SI)  (Thorpe et al. 2000;Gitu 2006) Kenyan government had been taking commodity specific institutional supports that could help to link smallholders with markets. Some of these institutional supports were provided through the Kenyan Tea Development Authority (KTDA), Horticultural Crop Development Authority (HCDA), and Kenyan Dairy Cooperatives.In 2000, Kenya produced about 16% of the world's black tea. It ranked second after Sri Lanka in tea exports and third after India and Sri Lanka in production. There had been rapid growth both in acreage and production, with the major expansion coming from the smallholder sector whose share of total output rose from a mere 2% in 1963 to 62% in 2000. Favourable investment policy, institutional support by Kenyan Tea Development Authority (KTDA), attractive world-market prices, and the land redistribution policy adopted by the government at independence were the major contributors towards the success in Kenyan tea development.About 16% of the Kenyan agricultural export income in 2000 came from horticulture. It was a major source of income and employment in the rural areas, and the smallholder sector accounts for 60% of horticultural exports. Horticultural Crop Development Authority (HCDA) facilitated the private sector development through a broad range of institutional and marketing arrangements, which included a wide use of contract farming, in which traders provided funding, price information and overall marketing services to farmers. In recent years, Horticultural Crop Development Authority (HCDA) noticeably restricted its role to the provision of advisory and regulatory support.With an annual output of 3 million tonnes, 80% of which is accounted for by smallholders, total national milk production is twice that of any other country in the continent. A range of government policies contributed towards the development of dairy sector in Kenya. The liberalization of milk marketing in 1992 was the major policy change in favour of smallholder milk producers. This policy had an impact on a rapid growth of private sectors providing input and output services, and stimulated increased small-scale trading in fresh milk (Thorpe et al. 2000).Generally, smallholder tea, horticulture and dairy developments in Kenya have been supported by:The legal and policy frameworks like land reform, regulatory frameworks, and contractual • arrangements.Institutional support through initially public-funded authorities that provided services to • producers, and sometimes used for channelling subsidies (inputs), but which are gradually transferred to producer associations or the private sector.Investment in public infrastructure. • Annex 7.2 Western Kenya: Commercialization of rice and its impact on nutrition (Niemeijer and Hoorweg 1994) In 1980s, the Kenyan National Irrigation Board implemented irrigation schemes in which smallholder farmers (commonly known in this scheme as tenants) are obliged to grow only marketable commodities recommended by the management of these schemes. The schemes were centrally managed and the products were centrally purchased. For instance, at the Ahero Irrigation Scheme, in Nyanza province, Western Kenya, nearly all irrigated farmland was used for paddy production. On average, tenants under this scheme had 5.1 acres of cropped area of which about 78% was covered by rice production. The study was conducted to test the hypothesis that households under this scheme eat only rice and therefore had malnutrition problem.Ahero and West Kano Irrigation Schemes in Nyanza Province, Western Kenya.A single visit survey conducted during March to April 1984. Food consumption was recorded using the 24-hour recall method. The months March to April were selected for this survey purposively since this period was the time when food stocks are usually at their lowest level and nutrition problems are most common in that area.A total of 335 sample households from four groups of farmers that differ in their degree of participation and dependence on irrigated rice production: Non-rice growers (134 sample households) • Three categories of rice growers with different production characteristics particularly in • their source of income and type of tenancy (201 sample households).The authors reported that tenants on the irrigation scheme had higher income per capita than any other farm groups. However, these tenants were getting their income from less diversified sources, mainly rice production. Comparing the average household food consumption per head of different farm groups, it was identified that resident tenants with specialized income sources consumed 2494 kcal/day per head. This figure was the lowest of all the four farm groups. Moreover, it is also lower than the recommended daily calorie intake per adult consumption unit, which is 2600 kcal. From this, the authors concluded that income composition appeared to be more important than the level of income for a household nutrition.Annex 7.3 Southern Kenya: Effects of sugarcane production on income and nutrition (Kennedy 1994b) Objective: To assess the impact of shifting production from maize to sugarcane on household food security situation and preschool children and women's nutrition status.Site: Southern Nyanza, Western Kenya. Major findings:Income: • sugarcane producers got more income than non-producers, mainly due to the difference in the value of marketed agricultural income. There was a difference in income of KSh 1129 between the two groups. By disaggregating this difference, it had been shown that 41% of the difference in income is from commercial agricultural income, 38% from subsistence income, and the remaining 21% from higher non-farm income.there was a difference in the daily per capita calorie intake between sugarcane producers (2848 kcal) and non-growers (2641 kcal).Based on household consumption function, the researcher found that non-farm income decreases household consumption but women's income contributes positively. Thus, the researcher concluded that it was not the amount of income but the source of income and who controls the income that matters in household food security.Annex 7.4 Philippines: Nutritional effects of shifting from corn to sugarcane (Bouis andHaddad 1990, 1994) Background:In Philippines, corn is the major staple crop but its productivity is very low due to poor soil • fertility (on average, 0.9 tonnes/ha during the main season and 25% of this amount during the other season, which makes a total of 1.125 tonnes/ha per year from two-time harvest per year)In 1977, sugar mill was established in the study area. • In early 1980s, households started to supply sugarcane to the established mills. • Gross margin on corn was 1023 pesos/ha per year whereas it was 4570 pesos/ha per year for • sugarcane.Study area: Bukidnon province on the southern island of Mindanao, Southern Philippines. Sample size: 510 corn and sugarcane producing households were surveyed four times at fourmonth intervals during 1984 and 1985. Sample composition: smallholder landowners, tenants, and landless labourer households.Land tenure: •The introduction of sugarcane changed the land tenure system. Landowners became reluctant to rent out for corn production as the opportunity cost of renting land was becoming higher. Thus, several former corn tenant households had lost access to land as landlords decided to grow sugarcane and chose to hire labour for the new crop rather than rent out their land.• smallholders that shifted their production towards sugar (whether it is on own or rented land) made substantially higher profits per hectare than their corn producing households, at an average of USD 225/ha per year for sugar compared with USD 100 for corn.Despite the higher profit from sugarcane production compared to corn, all sugarcane producing households with access to land continued to allocate some share of their land for corn production to avoid food security problem that might be caused due to risky food-market environment.The introduction of sugarcane production reduced the contribution of women's and family labour use in the total production. The average women's labour contributed in sugarcane production was only 2.7 days/ha per year compared to 12.4 days/ha per year in corn production. Thus, the introduction of sugarcane production helped to release women's labour from agriculture to other home activities including childcare. Generally, corn and sugarcane demanded similar amount of labour per ha per year (approximately 109 days/ha per year). However, two-third of labour used in corn production was reported as family labour whereas the remaining was hired labour. This situation was the reverse in sugarcane production and created more employment opportunity to the rural labour.Food budget shares declined but household calorie consumption increased with income. The authors emphasized that calories purchased per peso declined with increasing income due to the fact that higher income households seek more variety in whatever they consume unlike the low income households that spend more income on staples with higher calorie content. In other words, higher income households spend on meat and other more expensive food products.In this study, surprisingly, sugarcane producers provided 72% of preschooler's calorie requirements whereas the corn producers provided 76% of their preschooler children's calorie requirement. From this, the authors concluded that household income could be a necessary but not a sufficient condition to substantially improve preschooler nutrition.Losers and winners due to the introduction of sugarcane in the province Losers:Households that lost access to land due to the shift in the interest of landlords to grow • sugarcane than renting out land for corn producers.About half of the small-scale sugarcane producers that had no contracts with the processing • mills. They had to negotiate with other farmers who had contracts, which reduces their income from sugarcane production and sale.Children of the households that lost access to land due to the introduction of sugarcane • production.Winners:Land owners that shifted from corn to sugarcane production. These households usually had • larger farm size, the capacity to bear more risk, better access to credit, better education and know-how, access to important political and social institutions to take advantage of new agricultural production technologies when they become available.Annex 7.5 Vietnam: Commercialization process and policies (rice as a cash crop) (Goletti and Minot 1997;Nguyen 2003) Background: Vietnam is a densely populated country with 0.15 ha of land per capita. Compared to neighbouring country in Southeast Asia, the availability of land is too low to generate a sufficient amount of income, hence marketed surplus from agricultural sector. Land expansion is limited though the State had invested considerably on land reclamation and irrigation system. In addition, agricultural population grows so fast that the increase in land supply could not compensate to maintain the amount of land per capita. During the 1990s, cultivated area increased 1.5% annually, while agricultural population grew at 2% per year on average. Therefore, land per capita in agricultural sector was reduced from 0.154 to 0.149 ha (Goletti and Minot 1997).With this limited availability of land, the acceleration of agricultural labour productivity, income and marketed surplus depends largely on the pattern of land use. In Vietnam, 70% of cultivated land was used for food production. On top of Resolution No. 10 in 1988 that recognized the farm household as the central economic unit responsible for its production decisions, Resolution No. 5 in 1993 further moved in the direction of rural development and recognized land use rights of households (Goletti and Minot 1997).Rice: Rice exports from Vietnam are often cited as the success story of agricultural policy reforms (Goletti and Minot 1997). The success starts from the abolishment of cooperative system in 1988 that caused the reallocation of land to peasant households which greatly increased land productivity (Nguyen 2003). The most important achievement was food export from 1989 though Vietnam had got to import annually 0.5 to 1 million tonnes of food up to 1988 (Nguyen 2003). Vietnam's average paddy sale per annum went up to 64% of the production (Goletti and Minot 1997) and mostly purchased by private traders (96%). Goletti and Minot (1997) indicated that Vietnam is one of the leading rice exporters next to Thailand and US.Annex 7.6 Guatemala: Diversification towards exportable high-value vegetable crops and its impact on household food security (von Braun and Immink 1994) Background:Traditional export crops in Guatemala were coffee, cotton, sugar, bananas and beef that • constitute more than 70% of the agricultural export commodities around late 1980s.Most economic gain from the agricultural sector was coming from large-scale modern • agriculture.The government of Guatemala took a policy action towards crop diversification and • expansion of export income through non-traditional commodities, specially, exportable highvalue vegetable crops.This program was designed to incorporate smallholder producers organized in cooperatives. •Objective of the study: The study was aimed at analysing the impact of this smallholder commercialization on household resource use (land and labour), income, expenditure, food security, and other outcomes.Location of the study: • At Cuatro Pinos, 35 km west of Guatemala City. The area has good infrastructure and market integration.coverage: In 1970s, about 90% of the cultivated land was covered by maize and beans which were staple crops. The remaining 10% was covered by vegetables (cash crop).In early 1980s, the Cuatro Pinos Cooperative members entered into a contract growing arrangement for export vegetables. Net return (in gross margin per unit of land) from the exportable vegetables was 15 times more than the net gain from maize production. However, the authors confirmed that these export commodities demanded 13 times more input costs than maize on the same plot. The associated production and market risks were also higher for vegetables.Obtained from two round surveys in 1983 and 1985 in six villages of the Cuatro Pinos cooperative.195 cooperative members and 204 non-members.Adoption of the high-value vegetables for export: • less traditional farmers with larger farm size, better access to rural infrastructure but without access to secure off-farm employment were the ones who adopted these export crops.There was a difference in land allocation between cooperative members and non-members. Seventy-eight per cent of the non-members' farmland was covered with the traditional staple crops (maize and beans) whereas it was only 52% for cooperative members. Surprisingly, cooperative members who owned less than 0.25 ha of farmland allocated 45% of their land to export and only 38% to maize and beans while non-cooperative members with similar farm size allocated 81% of their land to maize and beans.There was no complete specialization in vegetable crops. More than 90% of the export crop growers produced some amount of maize for home consumption due to their preference for food security.maize and beans yields were, on average, 30% higher for export crop producers because of their labour intensive cropping practices and higher levels of fertilizer applications.due to the introduction of new exportable vegetable commodities, employment in the six villages of the cooperatives increased by 21%. The introduction of exportable vegetable crops also increased the contribution of women's labour. On average, women contributed 9% of the total labour in maize, 25% in traditional vegetable and 31% in the new export vegetable crops.Overall, household income increased by 38% above the average nominal income before the introduction of export commodity. Specifically, households who participated in the production of export crops earned 60% above the non-participants.As the income increased, less percentage of the additional income is spent on food. Generally, the amount of income spent on food from the same additional income was higher for women than men.There was higher calorie intake by the export crop producers. However, as the income level of households increased due to the export crop production, the share of maize and beans in the food composition deceased whereas the share of meat, eggs, and other foods showed increment. Generally, additional income increased calorie consumption but at a decreasing rate. For instance, the elasticity of calorie consumption with respect to income was 0.31 at the total sample mean of the study.Annex 8: South Asian experience in agricultural diversification towards high-value commodities General background: In the recent years, South Asian countries have faced a declining per capita consumption of cereals while that of high-value agricultural commodities like milk, fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and fish have been rapidly rising and creating a profound impact on agricultural production, marketing, processing and retailing environment (Joshi et al. 2007). These changes in consumption patterns are due to the rising income and fast growing urbanization due to economic growth. This opens an immense opportunity for smallholder farmers in the region to diversify their agricultural production towards these high-value commodities. Joshi et al. (2007) argued that the diversification process towards high-value agricultural commodities is affected by roads and other infrastructure, technology, availability of family labour, access to credit etc. For instance, the share of high value commodities in the total value of agricultural output is more than 50% in the urban and peri-urban areas of India whereas it is about 40% in the hinterlands. Similarly, the area under vegetables has increased around Dhaka in Bangladesh, the Katmandu Valley in Nepal; and Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar in Pakistan. All these areas are with good road networks and better infrastructure.Based on the literature, the following subsections describe experiences from three South Asian countries (viz. Bangladesh, India and Nepal) in diversifying agricultural production from cereal based towards high-value market oriented commodities. Annex 8.1 Bangladesh: Agricultural diversification towards high-value agricultural commodities (Alam 2007) In Bangladesh, the area and production of non-cereal crops had been declining before 1990 due to more attention given to the food grain crops, particularly rice. However, Bangladesh launched a diversification project called Crop Diversification Programme (CDP) in 1990, with the aim of import substitution and decline in the production of non-cereal grains like tubers, pulses, and oilseeds. This program was believed to provide a new direction to the agricultural diversification in the country.There have been various measures taken by the Bangladesh government for the development of livestock sector as well. Some of these measures are: grants of 20-25 per cent subsidy to dairy farms, imports of poultry and livestock feed without tariff, liberal bank credits, transport subsidy for the import of improved breeds of cow and supply of improved varieties of cattle and poultry vaccines.Another important lesson from Bangladesh is its experience in vertical integration of markets in the dairy sector. Two practical examples are the following. First, the Milk Vita and Bangladesh Relief Action Committee (BRAC) Dairy use both contract farming and cooperatives for the supply of raw materials and also maintain farms. Second, the Bangladesh Milk Producers' Cooperative Union Ltd. (BMPCUL) practices considerable degrees of vertical integration and also developed both backward and forward linkages in the dairy sector. This milk producers' cooperative had 65,000 farmer-members that were grouped into 568 village milk producers' cooperative societies. Overall, this cooperative played a role in creating job opportunity for 4000 people in the rural area and 750 people in the processing plants. Apart from the dairy sector, there is also vertical integration in the fisheries sector. This has been seen most often between the private shrimp processing and exporting firms and the fisheries.On the other hand, there are a number of constraints faced in promoting the diversification of high-value commodities. The following were reported by Alam ( 2007): household food-security requirements, small size of farm holdings, lack of knowledge about new technologies and technical know-how, lack of financial resources, risk in marketing agricultural products, meeting export standards, and others. Some of the interventions undertaken to facilitate the diversification include: introduction of minor crop production in seasonally fallow lands, introducing crop rotation programs, diversification of cropping patterns towards the production of high-value crops, development of high yielding varieties (HYVs) and the use of hybrid technology and genetic upgrading of non-cereal crops.Annex 8.2 India: Agricultural diversification towards high-value agricultural commodities (Joshi et al. 2007) Referring to the estimates of the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) in India, the researchers indicated that the per capita consumption of cereals for the people below poverty line declined by 10% over the period 1983 to 2000. However, their consumption of milk, vegetable and meat increased by 30, 50 and 30%, respectively. According to the researchers, this change in the consumption pattern of the poor indicated that there was a silent revolution underway.It is also believed that changes in the demand patterns and higher exports of the high-value agricultural commodities call for the institutional innovations to meet the changing consumer preferences. Several authors also agree that the change towards high-value commodities is not only due to the rising income but also the change in relative prices between cereals and high-value commodities (due to technology impact and changing demand pressure), increasing urbanization, infrastructure, and more open trade policies.In search of higher income by smallholders, non-food grain crops like oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, spices and sugarcane have mainly substituted for coarse cereals. The remarkable success of India in the oilseeds sector was the result of Technology Mission on Oilseeds (TMO) launched by the government of India in 1986 to meet the domestic demand and have control over the import of edible oils. It is a mix of improved technologies and favourable policies to augment oilseed production in the country. Still there is a need to push up technical efficiencies at production and processing level to be competitive in the oilseeds export market.The study identified rapid technological change in agricultural production, improved rural infrastructure, and diversification in food demand patterns as determinants of crop diversification towards high-value commodities. Based on econometric estimation results, the study concluded that markets and good road networks could stimulate agricultural diversification in favour of highvalue crops, particularly horticulture. Encouraging appropriate institutional arrangements for better markets through cooperatives or contract farming would go along with strengthening the farm-firm linkages.In 1970, India implemented 'Operation Flood Programme' through the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to develop the dairy sector. The program developed a cooperative model for procuring and marketing of milk and milk products. About 170 milk cooperative unions were established under this program. These cooperative unions are operating in over 285 districts and covering nearly 96,000 village level societies in different states by making nearly 10.7 million farmers their members until 1999-2000.The national dairy development board also diversified the portfolio of its commodities • by including fruits, vegetables, oilseeds and plantation crops to meet the growing demand for fruits and vegetables of Delhi Metropolitan area. During the study period, there were 150 associations with members of 188,000 growers throughout the country. This model has most benefited the smallholders in remote areas where markets were absent for fruits and vegetables.In 2000, the Netsle India Limited, a private sector multinational company collected up to 650,000 kg of milk per day from about 90,000 farmers in about 1600 villages in Punjab province. The success is due to the forward and backward linkages, i.e. the company provides free veterinary service and extension, breeding services, fodder production techniques etc. for quality milk production.Saguna Hatcheries Limited (SHL) and Venkateshwara Hatcheries Limited (VHL) are the leading ones in the Indian poultry sector in having a model of contract farming for production, marketing, processing and export of eggs and broilers.Annex 8.3 Nepal: Agricultural diversification towards high-value agricultural commodities (Pokharel 2007) In Nepal's economy, agriculture contributes about 38% of GDP in 2001 and 81% of the population is engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming is a common practice. About 70% of the farmers are smallholders with average landholding of less than one hectare. Crop, livestock and horticulture is a typical farm characteristic in Nepal.Agricultural diversification towards high-value commodities is a recent phenomenon in Nepal. The share of horticulture and other cash crops increased from 20% in 1985 to 27% in 2001, while the share of food grains declined from 37% to 34% during the same period.The key issue in agricultural diversification towards high-value commodity is market integration that links farm production to the processors and then to the consumer market. The following are mentioned by the researcher as constraints to diversify Nepal's agriculture towards high-value commodities.Traditional orientation of farming and smallholdings • Weak institutional base for contract farming • Weak research and extension system, and low public expenditure on this system • Low risk bearing capacity of the smallholders and absence of well-knitted insurance • management Lack of essential infrastructure like irrigation, rural roads, rural electrification, price • informationPoor linkages between industry and commodities produced by farmers • Lack of adequate credit. • Nepal's Government policy and programs on diversifying agriculture towards high-value commodities: With the intention to reduce rural poverty through increased income and employment, the Government of Nepal emphasized the need for agricultural diversification in its Eighth Five-Year Plan (1992-97) and the 20-year Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP) prepared in 1995 and executed since 1997. The plan targeted an annual growth of 5% in agriculture through promotion of high-value crops, agro-ecology related commodity development, and the development of rural infrastructure.The agro-ecology related commodity development focuses on cereal crops for Terai region; high-value commodities like citrus, off-season vegetables, vegetable seeds, beekeeping, and the livestock raising in the hills; and the high-value crops such as apple, herbs, and yak cheese in the mountain regions. In support of the diversification process towards high-value commodities, there were interventions taken by the government of Nepal, including abolishment of agricultural subsidy since 1990, lowering import and export taxes on agricultural products, exempting agricultural income from tax, privatization of the public farms and companies.","tokenCount":"14699"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c6b51d88c00fb7d67e3b0831c1d04287","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ac3e52f4-d649-4bfa-a1ee-b3531a32b461/retrieve","id":"-929780173"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2820ed56-6b35-4b53-8ca9-e7bd95b2777c","pagecount":"2","content":"Water constitutes 60 to 70 percent of the body of livestock.The water that dairy cattle need is supplied by drinking, by the feed that they consume, and by metabolic water produced by the oxidation of organic nutrients.Water loss occurs via saliva, urine, faeces, and milk; through sweating; and by evaporation from body surfaces and the respiratory tract. The amount of water lost from the body of cattle is influenced by the activity of the animal, air temperature, humidity, respiratory rate, water intake, feed consumption, milk production and other factors.Lactating cows: Drinking or free water intake satisfies 80 to 90 percent of the dairy cows' total water needs.Water is an especially important nutrient during periods of heat stress. The physical properties of water are important for the transfer of heat from the body to the environment. During periods of cold stress, the high heat capacity of body water acts as insulation -conserving body heat.Dry cows: The major factors affecting free water intake of dry cows are:• concentration of dry matter in the diet• dry matter intake, andCalves and heifers: During the liquid feeding stage, calves receive most of their water as milk or milk replacer. However, studies show that calves offered water in addition to a liquid diet gain faster and consume dry feed earlier than calves provided water only in their liquid diet. Therefore, it is recommended to provide water to calves receiving liquid diets to enhance growth and dry matter intake.As with all livestock, water should be fresh, clean and always available and care should be taken to ensure adequate water supplies during periods of heat stress.Providing the opportunity for livestock to consume a relatively large amount of clean, fresh water is essential. Water is consumed several times per day and is generally associated with feeding or milking. Cows may consume 30 to 50 percent of their daily water intake within 1 hour after milking.The temperature of drinking water does not affect drinking behaviour and animal performance very much. Given a choice of water temperature, cows prefer to drink water with moderate temperatures (63-82°F) rather than very cold or hot water.Hardness is generally expressed as the sum of calcium and magnesium reported in equivalent amounts of calcium carbonate. The hardness of water has no effect on animal performance or water intake.Nitrate can be used in the rumen as a source of nitrogen for synthesis of bacterial protein, but reduction to nitriteWater for dairy cattle and buffalo in Pakistan Sulfate guidelines for water are not well defined, but general recommendations are less than 500 ppm for calves and less than 1,000 ppm for adult cattle. Hydrogen sulfide is the most toxic form and concentrations as low as 0.1 milligrams per litre can reduce water intake.pH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity. The preferred pH of drinking water for dairy animals is 6.0 to 8.0. Waters with a pH outside of the preferred range may cause non-specific effects related to digestive upset, diarrhea, poor feed conversion, and reduced water and feed intake.Microbiological analysis of water for coliform bacteria and other microorganisms is necessary to determine sanitary quality. Since some coliform bacteria are soil-borne or non-fecal, a fecal coliform test may be used to determine if the source of total coliform is at least in part from feces.For young calves, total and fecal coliform counts should be less than 1 per 100 ml. For adult animals total and fecal coliform counts should be under 15 and 10 per 100 ml, respectively.Total bacteria count measures virtually all pathogenic as well as non-infectious bacteria that use organic nutrients for growth. Total bacteria counts in excess of 500 per 100 ml may indicate water quality problems.Blue-green algae have been reported to cause illness when cattle consume water containing it. Although the causative agent has not been identified specifically, cattle should be prevented from drinking water with heavy algae growth. Symptoms of blue-green algae poisoning include in-coordination of voluntary muscle movement, bloody diarrhea, convulsions and sudden death. Shading of water troughs and frequent sanitation will minimize algae growth.Dairy animals vary greatly in their daily stock water requirements depending on:• breed• stage of lactation and milk production• water quality, andDaily water intake by milking cows can be estimated as follows:• Dry matter intake per day in kg x 6• Plus 1 litre of water per every litre of milk produced daily  ","tokenCount":"725"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f906b59c5cadf90e46af6785110c79f4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/448fc024-be52-4620-9e2e-a9f7743f88db/retrieve","id":"201401962"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b22271e4-87f6-46a1-9a9c-90d4181907ec","pagecount":"13","content":"Throughout the humid African tropics, root, tuber and banana (RTB) crops are the most important food staple. Approximately 300 million people in developing countries depend on RTB value chains (namely cassava, potato, sweetpotato, bananas and yams) for food security and income (Thiele et al. 2017). Indeed, foods derived from RTB crops contribute significantly to caloric needs, from nearly 25% in Nigeria to close to 60% in the Democratic Republic of Congo (RTB 2016). Being bulky and perishable, RTB crops are commonly grown for local consumption (Bentley et al. 2016).The potential of RTB production to contribute to food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has not yet been realized due to low productivity. Underdeveloped seed systems have been unable to disseminate clean seed of climate-smart varieties of RTB crops. Potato yields in most of SSA have stagnated at 8-15 t/ha, largely as a consequence of limited access to quality seed (Demo et al. 2015). In Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, nearly 75% of the potato fields are contaminated withRalstonia solanacearum (a long surviving, soil-borne bacterial pathogen), and less than 5% of farmers have access to quality seed (Gildemacher et al. 2009). However, rates of food production can double, and possibly triple, without expanding the area under production, by developing seed systems that deliver abiotic and biotic stresstolerant varieties.We present two case studies that describe the introduction of climate-smart varieties of potato in Kenya and orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) in Mozambique, and the associated challenges in their delivery through seed systems.Unlike true seed crops, RTB crops are vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs) and their seed systems have received limited investment. Since VPCs tend to remain true to varietal type for generations, farmers tend to save seed over several years. However, there is a problem with this approach; multiplying the VPC seed without acquiring fresh seed to flush through diseased stock can risk degeneration--the process when pests and diseases accumulate over successive cycles of propagation (Bentley et al. 2016). More efficient seed systems that deliver climate-smart varieties and reduce the spread of disease are required to reduce the yield gap in RTB crops.As shown in Table 9.1, there are challenges to encouraging investment along RTB seed systems, such as the bulky and perishable nature of the planting material. Investment must therefore be focussed near the seed users who are often in isolated, rural areas. Furthermore, the low multiplication ratios mean seed production is more expensive and requires more time than for grain crops.The benefits of climate-smart varieties can only be realized by addressing weaknesses in the delivery chain through functioning seed systems, directly linking seed systems as a key tool to address climate change. The complexity of the production and logistics systems must also be expertly addressed in order to speed up the delivery of well adapted varieties to markets.Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a key staple and fast expanding commercial crop in SSA with more than 1.6 million hectares under production and five million potato farmers (FAOSTAT 2017). In SSA and other tropical regions, potato production is limited to the cooler highlands that lie between 1600 and 3000 m above sea level (masl), and where night temperatures drop below the 16-18 °C required for tuberisation (Haverkort and Harris 1987). However, highland farmers are at risk of unpredictable rainfall and increasing temperatures caused by climate change and variability that affect farm productivity under rain-fed conditions. Potato growing is highly susceptible to precipitation variation and 575 mm is the minimum rainfall required per cropping season to obtain reasonable yields of 20 t/ha. Erratic rainfall in Kenya during the 2016-2017 drought reduced yields obtained by seed potato multipliers by 56%, from 15 to 7 t/ha. This was after a reduction in rainfall from a  (Zemba et al. 2013).In Kenya, certified seed production meets approximately 5% of demand, which has slowly increased from 0.6% in 2009 (International Potato Center 2016). The majority of farmers obtain seed from informal sources or save a portion of their harvest as seed for several generations. This is the case in most potato-producing countries in SSA, where certification protocols are not put into practice. The low yields plaguing this region (8-15 t/ha compared to realistic yields of 20-30 t/ha obtainable under smallholder farmer conditions) are largely a consequence of farmers' limited access to quality seed of biotic and abiotic stress tolerant climate-smart varieties (Demo et al. 2015).Climate change can be a major threat to potato production systems in Africa. In many of the drier potato growing regions, climate change causes yields to decline as a result of water and heat stress. Yields will decrease even further where there is no possibility of irrigation, to the extent that growing potatoes will become impossible. Traditional potato growing areas are also at risk of increasing temperatures; hence varieties need to be heat tolerant. To adapt the potato to overcome these challenges, breeding efforts by CIP prioritize resilience to the most likely future abiotic and biotic stresses: heat tolerance, water use efficiency, earliness and disease tolerance. In a series of adaptive participatory trials in several SSA countries, some climatesmart potato clones have shown great adaptability to erratic weather conditions. With 15-20% less precipitation and a temperature increase of 2-3 °C under the scenarios of climate change, these clones have shown greater tolerance to drought and heat without yield losses (International Potato Center 2017b). This reduces the risk of yield losses due to climate change, and offers farmers in mid-altitude regions the possibility to integrate potato into their agrifood system.From 2013 to 2015, 15 clones were evaluated for water-stress tolerance over three seasons (2013)(2014)(2015) at three locations ranging from 1300 to 1700 masl, where seasonal precipitation averaged 295 mm (range 210-414 mm) and yielded significantly greater than the existing varieties (Table 9.2, International Potato Center 2017b). In 2016 and 2017, five of these biotic and abiotic-stress tolerant clones with water-stress tolerance and enhanced resistance to late blight and viral diseases were officially released in Kenya, specifically: Unica, Lenana, Wanjiku, Chulu and Nyota.Seed potato goes through physiologically different forms and rounds of bulking before arriving at the final product. The first generation (G0) is the product of tissue culture (TC) plantlets (the foundation and conservation material) in the laboratory.The TC plantlets are transferred to a screen-house to produce minitubers (G1) using sand hydroponics or aeroponics. The minitubers are then planted in the field to produce G2 seed in standard seed sizes. The next phase in the seed production process involves bulking tubers. After two to three generations of field multiplication, the seed can be certified. In those countries without operational certification systems, seed multipliers obtain starter material from the National Agricultural Research System (NARS). Informal systems rely on seed multipliers multiplying certified seed for an additional one or two seasons to make quality seed locally available to farmers (Fig. 9.1).The seed potato planting rate is 2 t/ha and seeds are often sold at farm gates, which means the expansion of improved seed systems is vital to ensuring farmers can access quality seed. Agro-dealers do not distribute seed potato due to its bulk and perishability, and few businesses have invested in certified seed because of high resource and human capacity requirements. To fill the gap in the supply of quality seed at the local level, informal seed multipliers (ISM) are now beginning to diversify.The supply of certified seed in Kenya is limited, therefore many farmers use unmarketable ware potatoes as seed, which they source either on farm or from local markets. This perpetuates the cycle of low yields, as there is no input of quality seed to flush out the diseased (Bentley et al. 2016). To improve localised access to quality seed, ISM in four Kenyan counties (Elgeyo-Marakwet, Nandi, Meru and Uasin Gishu counties) were trained in seed potato multiplication, quality control and record keeping, to support their seed production businesses. The ISMs invested in certified seed potato as starter material which would then multiply. Their transport costs were covered initially, and reduced as the ISM's businesses developed.In the first 18 months, 220 ISM sold 322 tonnes of quality seed, enough for 1700 farmers to plant 160 ha. The ISM's mean gross margins over three seasons of seed potato sales ranged from 2000 to 4000 USD/ha (International Potato Center 2017c).Establishing these ISM seed businesses also greatly benefitted the farmers, who travelled significantly shorter distances (reduced from 110 to 3 km) to access qual- ity, certified seed in Kenya (International Potato Center 2017c). In Meru, the preliminary data also showed that farmers are benefitting from the ISM. Their yields doubled after just one season using the quality seed, averaging 19.2 t/ha compared to 9.4 t/ha using traditional seed (unpublished data).An apical cutting is similar to a nursery-grown seedling, except that it is produced through vegetative means. Rather than allowing TC plantlets to mature and produce minitubers in the screen-house, apical cuttings are produced from the plantlets. Once rooted, the cuttings are planted in the field to produce field seed tubers, followed by one to three successive generations of field multiplication.In current production systems, apical cuttings can be used in place of minitubers (Bryan 1981). While the latter are more versatile--minitubers can be stored until planting and are easy to transport--apical cuttings are more productive and reduce the time needed to complete the production cycle by one season.Using apical cuttings in seed systems is a relatively new concept in Kenya, gaining acceptance among stakeholders largely due to productivity gains over seed systems that use minitubers. Within 1 year of the initial trial to test the performance of apical cuttings in the field, two private sector enterprises have invested in producing Fig. 9.1 Seed potato production system showing diverse entry and exit points to engage in seed production that suits various farmer and entrepreneurial profiles them, and the seed potato unit at the National Potato Program has adopted the technology into their seed production system. The body that regulates seed certification has also endorsed apical cuttings and is integrating the technology into seed potato certification protocol.Progressive farmers and ISM hosted two trials to assess the productivity of apical cuttings over two seasons. This was the first time after one on-station trial to assess productivity, and while the results from the first season were highly variable, they mostly achieved the expected multiplication rate of eight tubers/cutting (data not presented).Productivity improved from season one to season two, with the mean tuber multiplication rate surpassing the target of eight tubers >20 mm/cutting, averaging 8.8-15.6 tubers >20 mm/cutting (Table 9.3).Additionally, 40 ISM trialed cuttings to produce seed potato. In their first season of production, ISM yields surpassed the expected eight tubers/plant (Table 9.4).High rates of productivity (between 8 and 10 and up to 15+ tubers per cutting) means seed sales from the cuttings can become profitable after two seasons of multiplication and farmers can access earlier generation seed. Seed tubers produced from cuttings can also be multiplied on farm for a further few seasons without risking significant seed degeneration, provided good agricultural practices are followed. Mozambique has experienced 13 significant drought years between 1979 and 2016 1 and represents the challenge across much of SSA, where an estimated 2.3 million people needed humanitarian assistance between January and March 2017 (FSIN 2017). Levels of chronic undernutrition are high among children under five in the region, with 71.2% estimated to be vitamin A deficient (VAD) (Aguayo et al. 2005).High levels of VAD in young children prompted researchers to introduce betacarotene rich sweetpotato into Mozambique in the late 1990s, because one root (125 g) of an OFSP variety can meet a young child's daily vitamin A needs (Low et al. 2017). Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) has long been a staple in Mozambique, but the dominant varieties are white-fleshed with no beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. Initial efforts focused on testing contending varieties from around the world, resulting in the release of nine OFSP varieties in 2000. In 2002 these varieties were widely distributed in southern Mozambique as a post-flood disaster recovery initiative. They performed well in southern and central Mozambique until three seasons of consecutive drought hit in 2005.Among the most popular of these first-generation varieties was the Americanbred Resisto, which outyielded local varieties, matured earlier (at 4 months), had a deep orange flesh, moderate dry matter (24%) and the smooth oblong shape favoured by marketers. In the dry season, when farmers plant a second crop in valley bottoms with residual moisture. Resisto produced more roots than the dominant, reputedly drought tolerant local variety Canasumana, but it had no vines left at the time of harvest. In contrast, Canasumana had abundant foliage left (Low et al. 2001). In tropical areas, sweetpotato is largely propagated from vine cuttings of the previous crop, therefore not maintaining sufficient quantities of vigorous vines resulted in a shortage of Resisto planting material the following season.1 Significant drought in parts of the country in 1979,1981,1987,1990,1998,2001,2005,2007,2008,2010,2015,2016. In recognition that OFSP was well liked by the population, especially young children, but that better adapted varieties were needed, funds were raised to support breeding in Mozambique. As over 50% of sweetpotato production was lost (both white-and orange-fleshed) in the prolonged 2005 drought, the first step was to collect all landraces throughout the country that had survived. In total, 147 accessions (both landraces and improved materials) were characterized morphologically and molecularly. The best (in terms of high yield performance under water-stressed and non-water stressed condition) were selected as parents to develop drought-tolerant OFSP.Breeding varieties to survive drought is a complex process. Drought can occur at any point in the development cycle of the crop, and the varieties selected need to perform well under water-stressed and non-water stressed conditions (Andrade et al. 2016a;Makunde et al. 2017). For a variety to be permanently adopted, it needs to have vigorous vines and roots left in the ground at harvest (a traditional source of planting material) must sprout well at the beginning of the rains. With regards to taste, a floury texture is preferred, a characteristic associated with dry matter contents of 28% or above.The standard protocol historically used for many sweetpotato breeding programs required a variety to develop over a period of 8 years, including: the crossing of the new parents and generation of seed; the growing out of clones from those seeds; a selection process over a number of years, specifically evaluating the variety's agronomic and organoleptic characteristics with active farmer participation. The Accelerated Breeding Scheme (ABS), unlike this traditional approach, exploits the fact that each clone is a potential variety and has more sites earlier in the breeding cycle, including one stress environment for the trait of interest (in this case a drought-prone site). The ABS reduces the breeding cycle from 8 to 4-5 years (Grüneberg et al. 2015).By applying the ABS, 15 new drought-tolerant OFSP varieties were released in Mozambique in 2011 (Andrade et al. 2016b). An additional four OFSP varieties were released in 2016 (Andrade et al. 2016c). Some of these varieties have widelyadapted and others performed well in specific agroecologies with a range of maturity periods. Many farmers prefer the six improved early-maturing varieties, which are ready in 3-4 months, because they enable them to manage rainy seasons of unpredictable lengths (Alvaro et al. 2017). Some of the later maturing varieties are deeper rooting which can be advantageous, because when the soil dries and cracks, weevils can reach the roots and the deeper the root, the harder it is for the weevil to reach it (Low et al. 2009).There is strong evidence to suggest that combining OFSP introduction with community-level nutrition education increases the intake of vitamin A in young children and their mothers, and reduces VAD in children under 5 years of age (Low et al. 2007;Hotz et al. 2012;Brauw et al. 2013). However, a major challenge in drought prone areas has been ensuring quality planting material is available when the rains begin (Fig. 9.2). In bimodal areas, vine retention is not a major issue because farmers often use cuttings from an existing crop to start a new one. This explains the larger per capita production of sweetpotato in East and Central Africa than in unimodal Southern Africa. In drought-prone areas, some farmers with access to valley bottoms with residual moisture use this land for a second crop. Other farmers water small plots near their homes, and some invest in irrigation. The most common method, however, is to leave roots in the ground, ready to sprout when the rains start. The drawback is that the roots are often attacked by weevils or other diseases, which reduces both the quantity and quality of subsequent root output (Gibson et al. 2011).A method known as Triple S (Storage in Sand and Sprouting) improves upon this traditional practice. Developed in drought-prone areas of Uganda, the method selects pest-free roots at harvest, layers them in a container of sand and stores them in the home for up to 7 months. Some 6-8 weeks before the rains are expected to start, the sprouted roots are planted in a nursery and watered twice a week, producing approximately 40 cuttings per root. Being ready to plant when the rains begin, they enable yield gains ranging from 25% to 300% (Namanda et al. 2013). This technology is now being adapted to local conditions and promoted in six other countries, including Mozambique. It is a low-cost, knowledge-based technology that enables farmers to adapt to drought, and the technique can also be used to store larger roots for consumption for an additional 2-4 months. As described in the potato and sweetpotato case studies, adapting smallholder farming to climate change can be achieved by growing varieties that can cope with high temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, and even drought. However, functional seed systems are essential for delivering such varieties and providing healthy seed. Research is revolutionizing this adaption to climate change, from new breeding approaches (e.g. ABS), multiplication techniques (e.g. apical cuttings) and on-farm seed management techniques (e.g. Triple S), to new approaches for engaging with specialized seed producers, seed users, markets and regulatory agencies. The clear links between climate change, improved varieties and seed systems illustrate the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations to ensure that scientific, technical, socio-economic and gender aspects are considered in such interventions.Given the need for strict quality control to manage the high risk of seed degeneration in VPCs, developing seed systems to deliver climate-smart varieties requires a multi-stakeholder approach, especially if support for a project is limited. Sustaining seed systems beyond project life is a key challenge that can be addressed through well-targeted partnerships that drive the process while supporting those who use the system with the technologies to deliver them.","tokenCount":"3096"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3fb088c94e73e600d413f1ffcd69d728","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7f6e9712-aa73-4aa7-bef5-895e902a1d47/retrieve","id":"-982964544"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"82d62566-dcc8-400d-9165-efe670906b85","pagecount":"43","content":"From 1 to 5 October, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) organized a review and planning workshop for the East and Southern Africa Project of the Africa RISING Program with the intention to capitalize on early project activities, to produce a work plan, to form research teams and to garner feedback about the plans formulated from partners.In the first three days the participants heard about the 11 early win projects that took place in the first year of the program. They drew lessons out of these projects around partnerships, cross-cutting issues, market access, agroforestry and a few other areas. They listened to the key constraints enunciated by District Agricultural Officers from Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia and formed multi-disciplinary groups to develop research questions addressing these constraints. They finally reformed as groups working on interactions between crop, soil/water and livestock to formulate research hypotheses and activities that could form a program of action for year 2.On day 4, a field visit to Babati was organized, with stop-overs in two very diverse villages: Maramboi, a village dominated by pastoralists and Gichameda, a village benefitting from an irrigated scheme.On the final day, ten representatives of development partner organizations came to hear the plans and comment on them.The plans were not detailed sufficiently as they listed a number of research options from which to develop research teams. These ideas form the basis for the formulation of refined research action plans with tangible activities starting with the planting season in Tanzania in November. This report features the main discussion points, decisions, next steps and links to all presentations and documents shared during the meeting.From 1 to 5 October, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) organized a review and planning workshop for the East & Southern Africa Project of the Africa RISING Program.The workshop aimed to:1. Capitalize on early win projects to inform planning for the next year(s) 2. Develop an action plan for the next year (October 2012 -September 2013) 3. Form research teams 4. Receive feedback from a wider stakeholder group about the plans formulatedThe first three days gathered all research teams from the inception period, while the last two days brought together a wider set of development partners to review the plans elaborated in the first few days.The workshop was facilitated by Ewen Le Borgne from the International Livestock Research Institute. After introducing participants to one another and the workshop agenda, Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon presented a review of the first year of the Africa RISING project in the region.In her presentation, Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon presented a chronology of events that led to this review and planning event: This presentation was an opportunity to remind everyone that Africa RISING is a commitment for another four years. The core of the activities for the first year was however the early win projects, which were introduced in the next session.By batches of three or four projects, all early win project proponents presented what their project was about, what insights it brought forward as well as lessons learnt and other elements to take into account. After the presentations, participants got a chance to ask additional questions. The early win projects are listed in the table below. In addition to these early win projects, a grant was given to MSU to expand on some of their work in Malawi and on which Africa RISING is going to build its activities in future.At the end of the first day, participants were invited, in an Open Space, to identify areas that were important to draw lessons from and capitalize upon for the broader program to come. The following areas were identified: Day 2 -Grappling with researchThe second day of the workshop was dedicated to the research activities, building upon some pillars of the program: the research framework, monitoring and evaluation plans and the selection of action sites. Before this started, Ewen Le Borgne gave a presentation indicating the communication tools (see box 2) and channels created for the program. These tools and the teams present will support research work throughout the program.Participants asked questions about: how to deal with information (and communication channel) overload, document management, using the tools in low-bandwidth environments and using georeferenced pictures etc.These concerns will be addressed by the Communication team and where applicable the Project Coordination Committee in the next few months.Joseph  The research framework presentation finally touched upon a series of methods that could be used such as participatory rural appraisal, participatory technology development and randomized control trials (RCT) -and particularly proposed some steps to roll out the RCTs across the sites.In the Q&A, Joseph emphasized:-The fact that we have limited budget but have to be clear that we are intervening in some villages and not in others (e.g. the control villages). -The complexity of RCTs and the fact that other factors from the environment are integrated too.-The idea of looking into tradeoffs between market use and household consumption, as a hypothesis around which to customize RCTs.Naomie Sakana (IFPRI) presented the monitoring and evaluation plan, with a specific track for monitoring (the \"process of systematic collection and analysis of data on specific\") which will be handled by implementing partners -IITA, ILRI and collaborators -and for the evaluation (the \"periodic assessment of worth or significance of an activity, policy or program\") which will be led by IFPRI. M&E entails a number of components, activities and outputs, summarized in the figure 3 below.The presentation is available here and is complemented by another presentation about possible evaluation activities which was referred to but not presented at this workshop.Mateete Bekunda presented the final building block of the morning session. In his presentation, Bekunda introduced the selection of districts in Tanzania (Babati, Kiteto, Kongwa), which was based on the development domains for sustainable intensification (agro-ecological potential, population density and market access) and the need for co-location at the Nafaka project sites in Kiteto and Kongwa (see figure 4 below). Site selection was based on the stratification work undertaken by Chris Legg on behalf of IFPRI.This presentation was complemented by another very short presentation by Regis Chikowo from Michigan State University about the selection of districts in Malawi. In the Q&A, the conversation touched upon the following:-Randomization of villages, which should be extended; -The attribution of impact to Africa RISING versus other projects in the area -something which USAID has specific guidelines about to avoid double accounting/reporting; -The importance of maize-based systems, even when looking at dominant sorghum/millet systems (they still include maize); -The importance of market access among variables chosen for site selection; -The challenges of receiving good data for some of these sites, when national systems lack that information and capacity to generate it in the first place. Before the next session, Lava Kumar from IITA gave a presentation about new challenges in intensification, related to the outbreak of a fungal disease (see box 4 for more information).The outputs of the work to fight this disease might lead to the development of a strategy to mitigate pest and disease risks to intensification and intensification plans.The district agricultural development officers of Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia presented one by one the major challenges they are facing in the districts selected for Africa RISING.The Malawi presentation emphasized soil fertility, climate (rainfall) variability, inadequate resources and suggested using lead farmers, drought tolerant interventions, soil fertility improving cropping systems and harmonization of programs and resources.The Tanzania presentation emphasized soil fertility, access to improved seeds, climate (rainfall) variability, pest management, weak linkages between research/extension/farmers, inadequate agroprocessing/mechanization, insufficient knowledge about nutrition; and for livestock, unavailability of improved breeds, overstocking, pests and diseases, conflicts between livestock keepers and farmers; generally weak market linkages and poor transformation.The Zambia presentation emphasized climate change, soil degradation, unavailability of improved varieties, dysfunctional markets (and awareness about them), pests and diseases, limited draft power, coordination among partners, lack of processing equipment. Ways forward suggested: productivity, nutrition focus, capacity building of NARS. In order to guide the discussions, Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon reminded all participants (in a presentation) about important boundaries and principles of research. Boundaries define what we are not going to do while principles inform our approach.-We work on the selected sites in the three countries -We focus on the Research Framework and its four Research Outputs -We follow the Feed the Future Indicators -We remain within budget and time frame-Our intervention domain is the farm household -Sustainable intensification: we aim at producing more output from the same area of land while reducing negative environmental impacts and increasing contributions to natural capital and environmental services -We follow a stepwise approach towards SI -We aim at targeting different household typologies which have different resources and livelihood objectives -We constitute R4D platforms for cooperation and co-learning, including private and public sector actors needed to deliver on SI at scale -The critical entry points we identified: (i) technologies for productivity enhancement, for natural resources management (NRM), for income generation, for knowledge management, (ii) innovations related to social and institutional arrangements , (iii) combination.Three additional ethical principles guide our work: We develop a relationship with farmers and handle data provided by farmers anonymously; we ensure data ownership (shared by partners) and we take care of publication rights (shared by partners with acknowledgement of those who originally collected data).On the basis of the prioritization of challenges and the research boundaries and principles, five multidisciplinary groups were formed to develop a series of research questions, activities and approaches.Each of these groups ensured that all the main issues identified in the prioritization were included. The results of all groups are available here.All groups addressed the exercise by looking at the individual components rather than their integration, despite the multi-functional composition of the working groups. This resulted in a long 'shopping list' of research questions, ideas and approaches which cannot be easily summarized here. See the group work results for more information.The day ended with some reflections about defining the unique comparative advantage or niche of Africa RISING, i.e. the fact that it is about demand-driven integrated systems research for sustainable intensification.To reframe the debates, the third day started off with three presentations about a) the research framework b) the Africa RISING niche and c) the Nafaka project and how to align Africa RISING with it.The presentation by Bernard van Lauwe (IITA) about the research framework explained further what Joseph Rusike had presented the day before, with particular emphasis on specific aspects of each research output:1. Situation analysis and program-wide synthesis focuses strongly on characterizing and stratifying target communities so that promising interventions are identified. 2. Integrated systems improvement requires identifying existing sound practices within communities and will strive for the combination of innovations from multiple sources. 3. Scaling and delivery of integrated innovation states that even well identified and integrated innovations may need additional efforts to be scaled up and out. 4. Monitoring and evaluation hopes to firmly wrap the three previous research outputs in an integrated M&E framework and approach.He also briefly introduced the research framework of the Humid Tropics CGIAR research program (CRP), as it is very close to that of Africa RISING -as shown in figure 5 below. The same components of analysis, integration and scaling support the work. Asamoah Larbi (IITA) followed this presentation with one slide introducing the niche of Africa RISING, i.e. the areas where crop-, livestock-and soil-focused technologies or approaches coalesce (area 7 in figure 6). Where the combination of the three cannot be achieved, at least two of these interactions should be together (areas 4, 5 and 6 in the figure).After both presentations, the Q&A session emphasized a couple of important aspects:-In this region, due to the urgency of planting, research output (RO) 1 and RO 2 activities have to be implemented concurrently; we cannot wait for RO1 to be completed before starting RO2.-The graph above does not include markets, nutrition, gender etc. but these are all elements that support the overlapping circles and should indeed feature in the research work plans.Joseph Rusike and Joe Tindwa concluded the early morning session with a presentation about the Nafaka project. Tanzania Staples Value Chain (NAFAKA) is a $30 million USAID-funded program that integrates agricultural, gender and nutritional development approaches to improve smallholder farmers' productivity and profitability in maize and rice value chains. USAID has been asking both projects to explore cooperation options.Joseph Rusike explored various options for cooperation through e.g. joint mother and baby trials, postharvest work, joint work on markets, RCTs etc. Joe Tindwa reinforced the message that there was ample room for cooperation between the two projects.After these presentations, participants split themselves across five groups: one group to work specifically on research output 1 and four groups to work on interactions: two groups on crop-soil interactions, one group on crop-livestock and soil interactions and one final group working on rice-based integrated systems. All groups worked on the same assignment and template, namely to identify:1. What combination of technologies would potentially fit in this system (bearing constraints in mind)? 2. What tangible research activities should we undertake to test if our combination fits this system? What specifically to do NOW? (to be in the field in November) 3. Who should be part of the research team? 4. Who could we partner with? The groups worked for most of the day and came up with presentations. Notes from the presentations are available here. The presentations themselves are linked from the sections below.Bernard van Lauwe, Joseph Rusike, Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon, and Naomie Sakana were tasked to identify approaches, methods, and tools that could be used to effect research activities under Research Output 1 (RO1). RO1 entailed 8 activities around situation analysis and program-wide synthesis. Different approaches, methods, and tools were identified and summarized in table 2 below.The group revised key drivers for testing intensification that were initially used to stratify mega-sites into development domains. Key drivers included agro-ecological potential, market access, and population density. Van Lauwe proposed to replace broad development domains with production systems. The argument was that key production systems reflect agro-ecological potential (i.e. suitability for specific crop commodities and specific crop livestock systems) and both human population density and livestock density.Market access could be considered in terms of distance to terminal market. Major terminal markets for the research areas are: (i) Kibaigwa in Kongwa district for maize (ii) Dar-es-Salaam for legumes and (iii) Dodoma for cattle. Based on agro-ecological potential, human population and livestock densities, the group identified four major production systems: (a) maize-based (b) maize-confined livestock grazing (c) Maize-free grazing and (d) mostly livestock. Market access can be captured in terms of both distance to market and production orientation at household level during baseline survey.GIS and meta-analysis methods will be applied to secondary data from Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS) to define SI dimensions along key production systems.Specific sites/villages will be chosen in each of key production systems for the implementation of SI interventions. Research sites should be selected to meet the criteria of treatment and control sites for rigorous evaluation whenever possible. Potential villages have already been selected for treatment. Control sites, however, are still to be validated by the implementation team in Tanzania.GIS techniques are used to propose action research sites. The selection can only be completed by field visits to validate the results of GIS analysis.Upon completion of site selection, households will be identified to affect the activities on SI intervention implementation in the field. Given the diversity in household assets and their farming systems, a farm household typology will be developed to simplify this diversity. Data will be collected using participatory approaches, focus group discussions, and baseline surveys. Secondary data will also be gathered from LSMS 2010/2012. A participatory approach will be used to cluster households into different wealth classes. Multivariate analysis such as Principal Components and Clustering analysis will be used to refine the standard classification scheme to functional farm household typologies. The group stressed the need to match farm households with four production systems.In order to identify interventions that could be implemented in the field, it is imperative to identify researchable issues to be addressed by SI interventions. Such issues can be organized around key entry points. Once entry points have been identified, these can be linked up to create pathways for research implementation. Different methods that include Delphi, expert opinions / estimates, households and experts surveys, scoring, congruence, econometric modelling (i.e. producer and consumer surplus), DALYS (specifically for valuing other outcomes on environment, nutrition, gender, and equity), and Sustainable Livelihoods guidance Sheets will be used to identify pathways entry points. Rusike suggested initiating collaboration with Dr. Alioune Diagne from Africa Rice Centre to learn from his expertise on the use of DELPHI methods.The implementation partners need to agree and document the suite of interventions that will be implemented and evaluated at each research site. The inventory informs the appropriate design for the baseline survey. The survey is needed to obtain baseline values of indicators the intervention might change. Different data sources will be used to gather information on potential innovations, including: (a) projects (b) CRP portfolios and (c) outcome of the Review and Planning meeting. Innovations will be categorized into four major groups: (i) on the shelves (ii) in pipelines (iii) in use by farmers and (iv) indigenous knowledge. These innovations will finally be characterized to suit farm household typologies that would be identified in each farming systems of specific development domains.Ex-ante evaluation analysis will be undertaken to guide the identification of potential technologies. Analysis results will allow comparisons between predicted technology preferences with actual technology uptake among different household types. Farming system models and decision support tools will be used to determine physical input/output relationships of the potential options. Sensitivity analyses will be performed to test alternative technologies and their implications for system productivity (production domains, farms, communities) and system resilience. Results of ex-ante analyses will be validated by stakeholders from R4D platforms.This activity entails the identification of options that will be used to better integrate interventions into typology-specific bundles. Simple approaches for integrating SI option will be developed to suit interventions with specific systems and household types. System comparisons in-situ and participatory experimentation processes will be conducted with households of different typologies. Methods will be complemented with comparisons of perspectives between male/female farmers on technologies within household types.The group did not elaborate on this last activity. Formal M&E process, results of hypothesis testing at program level were proposed to affect this activity. Methods such as outcome mapping will be used to measure the behavior change.These activities were discussed in a larger group to define roles and responsibilities, timeframe for delivery, and identify funding source for their implementation. Details on roles and responsibilities, timeframe, and funding sources are presented in the table for each activity. In its presentation, this group looked at three different agro-ecologies: humid, sub-humid and semi-arid and listed crops that can be found there. They suggest the following:-Varieties to choose: adapted varieties, grain legumes with high HI, climbing beans (high altitude). -Temporal and spatial crop arrangements: crop rotations, intercropping, doubled-up legumes, inputs from farmer groups, introducing systems from other regions. -Soil fertility and nutrient management: Diagnostic nutrient trials, targeted combination of nutrients for the cropping system and soil types. -Foliar application of micronutrients.-Responding to farm typologies and domains.-NRM: soil and water conservation, land rehabilitation.-IPM -Labour-saving technologies: mechanization for intensification, post-harvest technologies)The combination they recommend: Appropriate varieties + cultural practices + soil fertility management + IPM + labour saving technologies +post-harvest and safety oriented technologies.The group also recommended a number of research activities and identified research team members and potential partners around these activities:In its presentation, this second group working on crop-soil/water suggested a number of technology combinations:-Cropping system: Intercropping and rotation, (depending on agro-ecological zones with health advantages of legumes), spatial arrangements -CA/water harvesting with intercropping/rotation with grain and legumes -Erosion/Water management (subs-oiling, tillage, tied ridges, live hedges, etc.) -Soil health: Fertilization with inorganics/organics (manure, compost, green manures, residue retention) -Integration of tree shrubs on farm: Faidherbia, pigeon peas -Grain legumes into the system -Cover crops/weeds -New varieties for food grains and legumes -IPM -Systems modeling for climate change and predictionThe activities they suggested include participatory variety selection, assessing pests/diseases, assessing adaptability and performance of new varieties, local legume production of foundation seed, water management activities, combination of organic and inorganic fertilizers, mother/baby trials, conservation agriculture (intercropping and demo plots), soil characterization in the research sites and system modeling as well as a number of cross-cutting activities (capacity building, economic evaluation of grain storage options, farmer linkages with market information, ex-ante impact assessment on income and nutrition, assessing the resilience of technologies to climate variability).The group also looked at the expertise required to carry out this work, in total 14 different disciplines enumerated in slide 6 of this presentation.Finally the group identified partners in each of the countries including Nafaka, NARS, local authorities, local policy centers, private sector actors etc.In its presentation, the group emphasized the following combinations of technology:-Dual purpose legume crops and tree/shrubs for ruminant and non-ruminant animals -Village Level Poultry and Crop Production for Meat and Eggs -On-farm feed formulation using locally available crops and trees/shrubs -Pasture management for extensive systems In its presentation, the rice systems group focused on the major constraints they are facing in rice production and in vegetable production (e.g. weed/pest management, water, markets, harvest and post harvest, input access and soil fertility), upon which they prioritized five technologies addressing the gaps:-Community-based seed and seedling systems: improved cv's, good seeds, healthy seedlings, promotion of good planting methods. -Integrated crop management: timing of operations, cropping rotations, labor-saving technologies, small mechanization. -Water management: WUE-enhancing technologies (drip irrigation, aerobic rice systems, water harvesting/conservation). -Harvest and post-harvest handling: small mechanization, improved packaging, grading and standardization. -Markets: warehouse receipt systems, farmer organizations to improve market access, farmer access to dedicated markets, food quality and safety standards.From this they identified activities that could/should be undertaken, in the short-and long-term:After these presentations, Mateete Bekunda took a few minutes to thank everyone for the inputs and to explain what the inputs were. There are lots of ideas on the floor and not everything can be implemented due to resource restrictions. Who is doing what in details remains to be seen, however the ideas formulated will help generate terms of reference to develop the actual work plans.Some of the activities proposed will be undertaken this year -with the urgency of the planting season -while others will be undertaken the subsequent years.In order to give the project team a feel of the diversity of contexts in the Tanzania project sites, and to illustrate some of the challenges facing small-holder famers, a one-day field trip was organized to two villages in Babati district in Manyara region.This is a very dry part of the district. The main economic activity for community in the village is livestock keeping, mostly cattle and goats. Their main challenge is getting adequate water and pasture for the livestock.At the time of the field visit, the pastoralists' communities were digging shallow wells to get underground water for their livestock. The water was very muddy and the exercise was very tedious.The villagers explained that for the last ten years, they had not received any substantial rainfall. They also said some of the community members had travelled with their livestock in search of pasture and water.The second stop was at Gichameda village to see an irrigation scheme that was started in 2004 with funds from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) that was currently not being well managed and therefore not utilizing the resources well.The irrigation scheme was managed by the Mkombozi Water Users Association formed by the farmers. It had 167 members and covered 178 hectares. The farmers were growing rice, maize and vegetables. The members explained that the irrigation had increased their yield of rice production from 3.5 t/ha to 7t/ha.The farmers said their challenges included lack of modern farming implements such as weeders, rice harvesters and post-harvest processing machines, lack of market information and poor infrastructure. Pests and diseases were also spotted in some of the fields.-Progress in year 1 -Main lessons in year 1 (building on partnerships, entry points, logistics, opportunities) -Research framework and the three main research outputs -The importance of working with partners e.g. Nafaka, other Feed the Future projects.-Challenges in the action districts identified -prioritized -The niche of Africa RISING -Possible combinations of technologies and activities around various interactions -Who could be part of research teams for each set of interactions and who could be interesting partners for this work-This region works on RO 1 and RO 2 simultaneously to get ready for the planting season. RO 3 will be addressed later -All research teams are led by CGIAR scientists but include NARS, Universities etc.-The research teams focus on RO 1 (one team) and on various sets of interactions (cropsoil, crop-livestock, rice-based systems), following the niche of Africa RISING -Action sites selected are good and remain the same Lessons learned from the workshop Africa RISING is a complex program, begging the need to learn from ongoing activities. Here are some reflections about the content and process of the workshop:-The trans-disciplinary approach to group work was appreciated and helpful to develop research ideas -The niche of Africa RISING and its boundaries and principles have to be very clear to all people involved in developing action plans -it is important to spend time on this -Having representatives from other regions helps cross-pollinate and build upon lessons learnt from a region to the next -The stakeholder consultation day should be organized once clear action plans are ready to be presented, preferably a few weeks after the planning meeting (a useful lesson for year two) -Planning in details for such a complex project/program would be easier with a smaller group or with a group of people that have followed progress and conversations throughout the project -Africa RISING needs instruments to show progress made, decisions made and boundaries set so that not every aspect is re-explored/discussed/challenged after decisions have been made -Working on an integrated picture from the start is the way forward to elaborate activities, rather than identifying research questions, technologies etc. (otherwise everyone starts in their default operating mode) -Looking at planned activities for the next few years, rather than just year 2 would help prioritize key activities for each year and develop the sequencing -Systems thinking and integration of crop/livestock/soil interactions together with crosscutting elements (markets, institutions, capacity building, gender) is not straightforward and few people can readily elaborate working plans in such a fashion, it's a learning process for all of us","tokenCount":"4406"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"685a4cf2ec15d79b24622006263dd3c8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0c9a4b7e-207a-45bf-b0b5-cf71f166274c/retrieve","id":"-187575728"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"01485e51-c22d-4c60-8f54-00956229a5b6","pagecount":"22","content":"Extensas zonas gllnaderas en América Tropical se c.ncucntran local izadas en 'regiones de sabana donde la baja fertil idad del suelo es uno de los principales factores a considerar en la selección de especies de, pastos pl'oductivos que satisfagan las necesidades .nutricionales de los animales en pastoreo. Estas tien'as aptas para el desarrollo de la ganaderí'a talll-. bién pá?Scntan contrastes de distribución de Tluvias, variando desde muy húmedo, durante 6-8 n:eses hasta muy seco durante el resto del año, otro filc tOl' que i nfl uye en 1 ~ se 1 eec i ón de especi es. BJr.a.dI..Úti:''¿1t J¡(!li~i.di.COr.a., un especie de .gramínea relativamente nueva en este continente, se adapta bien 12 a esas condiciones y tiene,caractel'Ísticas a9ronó~icas que merecen ser co!}: sid\\¡radas y ~valuadas en diferentes ecosistemas del trópico i\\l:lcricano. -El objetivo del presente trabajo es presentar-cierta eviden~ia del g~ , do de adaptación y los ¡'equerimientos de fertil izacian de esta gramínea 16 c'on especjal referencia a la subregión de la' altillanura plana de los '-la-17 nos C1riímtales de Colombia'; 18 19 CARACTERISTICAS GENERALES DEL ECOSISTEHA ..... . 20 Los Llanos Orientales de Colombia están situados al este de la eordi-22 llera' orienta 1 con un ál\"Cm 'aproximada de 24 millones de hectáreas (157. del 23 total del país) .\" Comprenden cuat¡•o impOl'tantes y definidas subregioncs: la altillanUl'a plana, la altillanura ondulada y sel~ranía, los aluvio,nes 25 viejos inund,1dizos, y cl,Piedelllonte con las terrazas aluviales (Sánchez y '. El el ima, de los Llanos Oricntales sc caracteriza pOI' \\lila pl'ccipitaci61 '.'.Evaluación de Recursos de Tierras para Amé,:,ica Latina, la altillanur.l plana y ondulada y la serranía se consideran. según los patrones de evapotranspiración potencial total durante la estación lluviosa (THPE), como' sabanas tropicales, bien drenadas, hipert'énnicas CTWPE 910-1060 mm) que incluye los Llanos d-e Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana y Sul\"inam; y sabanas de Roraima y Na<;apa en Brasil (CIAT. 1979), 12 Los factores climáticos y edáficos así como también la topografía, 13 presentan en general, condiciones ,que favorecen el lav~do de los nutrimen-. ' 14 tos del suelo, la escasez' de'minerales meteorizables y el predominio'de n:inerales de baja activid.ad en la fracc,ión arcilla, .:. la, elevada acidez y la baja disponibil idad de nutrimentos en estos suelos han sido consideradas en una forma general como los factores más limitantes para su utilización agricola. Sin embargo, la selección de , \" pastos adaptados al ambiente en áreas .donde las condiciones de topografía y buen drenaje 10 han permiti?o, ha logrado pI'oducir 'un cambio en el con-.. .21 cc¡ito que se tenia sobre la pobl'eza de estos suelos (CIAT, 1982).A19u~as caractefisticas de horizontes superficiales en suelos consi-, . ,23 derados como, representativos de la región se pl'escntan en el Cuadro L la 24 mayoría de los suelos presentan condiciones aparentemente similare's de baj 25 f~rti1idad natural, excepto los aluviones viejos y el Piedemonte. la baja : 26 fertllidnd mltu¡-al de los suelos' de la altil1anura está entre los m.1s ba-2? jos de la\"rc!lión con pll' de a1rédcdol' ele ~.5:c;on una baja disponibilidad . .• \"\" .... \"\" \"\" N \"\" \"\" N N .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ....  4.'6 3.8 15.7' 5.67. 2.12 0.59 3.7 ,29 \" • • ..... , ,10-42 Ar 5.0 1 ;3• 24.7 2.96)0 1.'62 0,.31 5.4 52 ... • 0-25 F L . , 4.5 3.1 5.6 0.15 0.08 0.06 3.7 88   . • \" .. . . .....,.-~.' .,,' ....  , .-• \" ,,' \". ' t..' , .. :: .---_ ...... _-..... _----1 de bases de cambio. que detel'minan una saturación de aluminio alta (93~). De, ahí que 1 a agricultura se concentr.e casi ~xcl us ivatnent~, e~ el Piedemontp'y las terrazas aluviales' con suelos más fér~iles. , la mayoría del área est5 cubierta por sabana y el resto por bosques' de 'galería en las riberas de los rfos y quebradas. Dentro de la región se , , , han reconocido lO,diferentes tipos de sabana, los cuales sé han clasifica do de, acuerdo con su composición ,flor'Ística la cual parece estar muy relacionada,con el grado de drenaje interno de los suelos pero se considera que no existe un solo factor que haya sido responsable de su formación (Blydenstein, 1967) ; 24 hojas lanceoladas y lisas de color verde brillante, nativa del este y sureste de Africil tropical que cl'ece en áreas relativamente húmedas. Introducida a América, tropical, ha mostrado Una ampl ia adaptación a la variabil'i-2'1 dad de climas existc,ntes. Es asf que se la observa, tanto en regiones de  12 el potencial de producción de materia seca de los pastos. Es así que la 13 proqucc•ión de mate¡'ia seca de las especies de ~ en general aumen-' 1.4 ta'considerablemente a medida que disminuye el déficit estacional de hume 15 dad del ecosistema de sabana hacia el bosque tropical hGmedo. (Cuadro 2)., .16 la baja pI'oductividad de B. /wmoÚ:U.ccla en ecosistemas de sabana parece 17 e~tar' relacionada con bajas tasas de crecimiento durante la estación seca• l'a (Cuadro 5) siendo'mucho menor a medida que se prolonga la época. de déficit 19 de humedad en el suelo y en el medio ambiente, tal como ocurre en el Cerra 20 do de BI\"asil. Resultados de producción de materia seca p¡~ovenientes de .  ----------------------------------------------------- Producci6n promedio anual de mater:la seca de 8Jl4eh.ú:vtla spp .en diferentes ecosistemas del tr6pico ameritano.Plana:tioo  .~ : 23 b1e ).24 Requerimientos Nutricional es  , .Q). .\" .:.... ~.  -------------------kg/ha)dia- ----------------- -  ' .I ,.-..,.~--------------~----------------------------------~, i • '. '.\"1 asociados con el 00% de los' rendimientos máximos (Cuadro 7) IIlUes~l:an que 2 1.1. ,humúUcola pres'cntó el menor requerimiento externo (50 kg C,a/há 'equ i-.' .  : ' :\" y' ..... ~• '1 • ~ Cuadro 8. Efectos de la aplicación de azufre en la producción de . . materia seca (ton/ha/afto) y con ten i dos de S di s pon i b 1 e en el suelo y en. e 1 tej i do 'de tres espec i es de 6.'!.aclv.:w....ia. \"p.    ","tokenCount":"994"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d90327f12b2a4ac7cdbc975444cfb327","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc03e4ca-e65c-470d-bddc-39587b1dda52/retrieve","id":"444630008"},"keywords":["Farming systems, Fertilizer recommendations, Grain legumes, Residual effects Farmers, markets, poverty reduction, skills, social capital Family farms, agricultural innovation, access to and use of agricultural innovation, political and institutional environment Agribusiness, public and private investment, regional integration, strategic agricultural commodities, value chains Generation Challenge Program (GCP), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), HarvestPlus, Human health, Impact Agricultural water management, practices, approaches, policy, knowledge management, Africa Balanced nutrition, Human health, Soil fertility, Micronutrients, Improved seeds, Markets, Millennium development goals (MDGs), Soil fertility African Green Revolution, bottlenecks, partnerships, food security, poverty alleviation, accept change Agro-enterprise, Microfinance, Rural banking Farmers Field Schools, fertilizer microdosing, millet, participatory approach, sorghum, warrantage or inventory credit system Farm gate price","fertilizer use","joint procurement","price elasticity scenarios","sub-Saharan Africa DRIS, ear leaf, long-term experiments, nutrient limitations, on-farm trials Best-fit interventions, ISFM options, thresholds, trade-offs Crop yield, in-situ water harvesting, nutrient management, tillage, water Fertilizer, nitrogen, rice, technology, weed Extension, learning, participatory research, scaling-up, video Fertilizer equivalency of manure, millet production, organic amendment, soil fertility, Simulation Crop residue, manure, nitrogen, tied ridges, tillage Acacia colei, Dry land eco-farm, millet-cowpea, Roselle, soil fertility, Ziziphus mauritiana Dissemination, investment options, ISFM innovation impacts, scaling up adoption Agricultural productivity, long term experiments, soil fertility, sub-Saharan Africa Clustering, Environmental Stratification, Principal component analysis, Representative sites, Rwanda and Burundi long-term, chemical fertilizers, farmyard manure, crop residues, maize, soil properties Phosphorus accumulation, phosphorus availability, residual effect, residue quality and quantity, shoot dry matter Chronosequence","degradation","fertilizer use efficiency","SOM Cowpea","P use efficiency traits","Soil P availability","West Africa Low input, Mucuna pruriens, reduced tillage, resource poor, rotation, smallholder agriculture Devil-bean biomass, fertilizer nitrogen, intercropping, maize production, soil fertility management Groundnut-sorghum rotation","mineral and organic fertilizers","soil fertility","Yields Agricultural inputs, Farm typology, Resource use efficiency, Soil fertility, Sub-Saharan Lantana, maize yields, manure, mineral fertilizer, tithonia Grain soybeans, nitrogen fertilizer, tillers, vegetable P balance, P modeling, P recovery, P uptake Exchangeable aluminium, organic input, P sorption, soil acidity, Tithonia diversifolia Fractionation, manure, nutrient deficiency, triple-super phosphate Nitrogen, Phosphorus, western Kenya, soil degradation, conversion age Phosphorus, Rates, Sources, Sugarcane, Yield Maize, organic/inorganic soil amendments, soil fertility Maize yield, manure, N-fertilizer, N-response : N 2 fixation","P-uptake","soybean , Efficiency, maize, nitrogen, residual effect, Western Cameroon Fertilizer, Manihot esculenta, nutritional value, rural area Improved legume fallow","maize","Njoro","nutrient availability","organic based nutrient management Spatial arrangements yield, rooting characteristics N balance, N contribution, N 2 -fixation, Northern Guinea Savanna, Rotation effects Acidic soils, Aluminium toxicity, decomposition Soil erosion, soil fertility, maize production aggregation, fertilizer, residue quality, roots, soil organic matter Legume for increasing maize yields, residues, maize stover, nitrate leaching, nitrogen mineralization Agro-ecological zone, Bradyrhizobia, promiscuous soyabean, PCR-RFLP Maize, soybean, Striga hermonthica, suicidal germination Highland bananas, nutrient inputs, mulch, market price fluctuations Biomass transfer, fertiliser equivalence, Ipomoea stenosiphon, nitrogen mineralization Cassava, farming innovations, food security, improved varieties, Côte d'Ivoire Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), Phosphorus, P-mobilizing Agronomic efficiency, Farming systems, Phosphate rocks Carbon-13, fertilizer equivalency, soil organic matter Nigerian savanna","P use efficiency traits","Soil P availability","Soybean Moisture conservation","nutrient resource","post-emergence tied ridges, conventional tillage Arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), Biomass production, Cowpea, Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), Forage legumes","Grass/Legume intercrops","Grassland productivity","Semi-arid rangelands","Soil fertility Green manure, soil water, productivity Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, banana/plantain, drought, water use efficiency Burkina Faso, compost, cotton-maize, ploughing frequency, soil water content, yield Genetically modified maize, decomposition, model, soil Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), banana cultivars, colonization, mycorrhizal dependency, nutrient content Arbuscular mycorrhizae banana systems, rhizosphere Abundance, land use, management, Mycorrhizae, Trichorderma Faidherbia albida","litter decomposition","microbial respiration","mineral fertilizers","Vitellaria paradoxa Plant-pollinator biodiversity, income increase, livelihood improvement, pollination services conservation, green revolution achievement Conservation tillage, Crop-residue, Intercropping, maize yields, SOM, Available phosphorus, Bush fields, Compound fields, Organic carbon, Soil fertility Arid and semi arid lands, diameter and height, genetic variation, provenances, soil fertility Biomass quality, Coastal region, improved fallows Arid and semi-arid lands, Kenya, land and water management, soil fertility Integrated nutrient management, Kenya, Semi-arid lands, Soil fertility, Water harvesting Land characteristics, oasis soils, productivity index, water and nutrient use Semivariograms, Soil fertility, Soil Organic Carbon, Spatial variability, Western Kenya DAP, farmyard manure, nutrient levels, slope, soil test Decision support tools, GIS, resource endowment, socio-economic analysis, , cropping systems, grain yield, long-term, Maize/pigeon pea, sustainability, model validation, management Carbon sequestration","Model simplification","RothC","Soil organic matter","Uncertainty Agriculture","carbon sequestration","modeling","soil carbon Economic reforms, farmer field school, livelihood, market linkages production Farmer evaluation, food security, grain legumes, participatory research local soil classification, region of Gourma, small holders´ farmers, soil fertility management, stone belt Agricultural productivity, institutional and technical constraints, market access, rural livelihoods, smallholders Below-ground Biodiversity","Convention on Biological Diversity","Material Acquisition Agreement","Material Transfer Agreement","Policy framework ASAL, Kenya, natural resource management, policies Environmental safety, occupational health, pesticides, small-scale farmers Adoption, gender, participation, technologies Burkina Faso, Bondoukuy, landed insecurity, migrants, food security Local and technical indicators, tracking change Maize-based production systems, Millennium development goals (MDGs), Profit maximization, Resource-poor smallholders Learning Centre","maize yields","mineral fertilizer","resource endowment Arid and semi-arid lands, biodiversity, Kenya, land degradation, upscaling technologies Africa, fertilizer use, Kenya, policy Local soil classification, region of Gourma, small holders´ farmers, soil fertility management, stone belt Dissemination, farmer groups, integrated soil fertility management participatory approaches Adoption potential, farmers' preference, maize yields, profitability Conservation agriculture","crop residues","diversification","risk","soil quality Crop diversification, grain amaranth, intercropping, land equivalent ratio, monocropping, soil fertility, soybean Dry land farming, farmer innovation, vegetable Cropping season","food security","household","marketing Micronutrients, Nutrition Zinc Djengo, farming practices, soil, sustainability, Yatenga, zaï Maize grain yield, plant nutrient uptake, resource-endowment, resource management strategies, soil fertility variability Agriculture, community, trees, soil, water Soil health, soil quality, soil quality assessment, soil quality indicators, soil quality monitoring Optimal, risk, risk preference, smallholder Phytoalexin, phytotoxin, potato scab, Streptomyces scabies, thaxtomin A Health risks, heavy metals, wastewater farming Heavy metals, river water, sewer water Agriculture, Appropriation, Decision Support Systems, Social Construction of Technology, Relevant Social Groups African Green Revolution, context, interventions, target communities Agrofrestry, Livelihoods, diversity, smallholder, crop, livestock, AfricaNUANCES, FARMSIM Finance, land size, tenure systems, gender roles, ISFM technology Impact, innovation, research-entrepreneurship link Vertisols, land use/utilization, cropping, sustainable, management Nitrogen-15, N-fixation, cowpea Forage legumes double cropping wheat"],"sieverID":"dc44fb55-24ef-452a-9933-3d4275165ea1","pagecount":"274","content":"African agriculture is highly diverse, with major farming systems matched to the major agroecologies. In each country or region there are localised agroecological gradients, and large differences between regions in terms of access to markets. Within each village a wide diversity of farming livelihoods can be found -differing in production objectives and resource endowments. Differences in soil fertility are partly derived from inherent differences in properties (the 'soilscape') but are strongly influenced by past management, particularly by the rates and quality of organic manures added to the soils. It is clear that 'one-size-fits-all' or silver bullet solutions that are generally applicable for enhancement of soil fertility simply do not exist. Further, although research has focused on 'best bet' technologies for different regions, a better conceptualization is 'best fit' technologies for specific situations.Although the heterogeneity in African farming is at first sight bewildering, systematic analysis across farming systems in West, East and southern Africa reveals repeating patterns of management. These repeating patterns of allocation of nutrient resources and management methods lead to self-organization among smallholder farms. The past management of fields leads to extreme differences in fertilizer use efficiency, e.g. from 5 kg grain kg N -1 to 50 kg grain kg N -1 between fields of the same farm. By categorizing field types within agroecological zones in simple terms, easily recognizable by farmers, 'rules-of-thumb' can be derived for highly-efficient management of scarce nutrient resources in these heterogeneous environments. Success of legume-based technologies for soil fertility improvement, such as grain legume/cereal rotations or legumes for animal fodder also varies enormously depending on the soil fertility status of fields.New approaches for enhancing productivity in Africa must take account of, and harness, the dynamic nature of farming systems and the heterogeneity between regions, farmers and their fields. Our proposed approach represents a substantial shift in concept from traditional 'blanket recommendations' to focus on the targeting of bestfit technologies to different farmers and crops within production systems using simple 'rules-of-thumb' derived from scientific principles and local farmers' knowledge.iii Contents Preface Preface Africa remains the only continent that has not been able to fully benefit from the effects of the Green Revolution. The first Green Revolution failed in Africa because it did not take account social and ecological variability, culture, institutional bottlenecks and a host of other issues. This Revolution failed to recognize that although agricultural technology is an important factor, it is only one aspect of a complex socio-economicecological system.Various local, regional and international forums have been held to discuss how Africa's Green Revolution can be achieved. The African Heads of State and governments have developed the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) as a framework for agricultural growth, food security, and rural development. CAADP has set a goal of 6% annual growth rate in agricultural production to reach the UN's Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger by 2015. The African Heads of State Fertilizer Summit held in Abuja Nigeria in June 2006 led to the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution. The Summit identified three most critical issues that need to be addressed if millions of African farmers are to increase utilization of fertilizer. These are access, affordability and the use of incentives. The Summit recognized that given the strategic importance of fertilizers in achieving the African Green Revolution, there is need to increase the level of use of fertilizer from the current average of 8 kg ha -1 to an average of at least 50 kg ha -1 by 2015. Similar sentiments were echoed at the African Green Revolution Conference in Oslo where it was resolved to take concrete and concerted action towards the development of self-sustaining changes in African agricultural growth through the use of enhanced approaches to public-private partnerships.Achievement of the desired growth in agricultural production calls for deliberate effort to increase access and affordability of inorganic fertilizers, seed, pesticides and profitable soil, water, and nutrient management technologies by the smallholder farmers in Africa. For many years now, agricultural research has generated numerous technologies that can launch the African Green Revolution but these have not been widely adopted and benefited the smallholder farmers in the continent. There is need for a shift in paradigm from the linear model of research-to-development to the systems perspective. This calls for agricultural innovation, which is the application of new and existing scientific and technological (S&T) knowledge to achieve the desired growth in agricultural production and overall economic development in Africa.Crop diversification is an important instrument for economic growth. Through the use of biotechnology, high yielding crop varieties have been bred with potential to significantly increase production. NERICA, \"New Rice for Africa\", for example, is a new rice variety that has been bred through the application of biotechnology and offers great potential for transforming agriculture in the continent. Other high yielding crop varieties such as maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea, soybean, cassava, cotton with additional benefits of being disease and insect resistant have also been bred and these have the potential for increasing food production and incomes if accessed by smallholder farmers in the continent. There is need for agricultural practitioners in Africa to explore the application of the benefits of biotechnology and crop diversification in achieving the desired Green Revolution.The world is experiencing rapidly evolving production, consumption and marketing conditions driven by new technology, globalization, urbanization and associated phenomenon. There is need for smallholder farmers to be aware, prepared and equipped to face the resultant challenges. Farmers need to be linked to input-output markets and supported in order to access the required seed, fertilizer, pesticides and also access market information and better prices for their produce. Further, there is need for change in paradigms in development practice where participation, diversity and self reflection are incorporated in agricultural research and development. There is need therefore to build strong institutions among all actors in the natural resource management (NRM) sector as basis for influencing change.Africa needs to adopt a holistic, dynamic and innovative approach to availability of all agricultural inputs, improved output markets, and policies that encourage input use by farmers and fair prices for their produce if significant growth in the agricultural sector is to be achieved. What is needed is innovative application of existing and new knowledge, the narrowing of the gaps between income generation and investment in the natural resource base through linkages to markets, policy be informed by sound natural science, investments be made in extending this knowledge to farmers, and proper institutional linkages in NRM built and strengthened.It is on the above backdrop that the African Network for Soil Biology and Fertility (AfNet) in collaboration with the Soil Fertility Consortium for Southern Africa (SOFECSA) organized this International Symposium entitled 'Innovations as Key to the Green Revolution in Africa: Exploring the Scientific Facts'.The overall goal of this symposium is to bring together scientists, agricultural extension staff, NGOs and policy makers from all over Africa to explore the scientific facts and share knowledge and experiences on the role of innovation in soil fertility replenishment as a key to the Green Revolution in Africa.(i) To assess the potential and feasibility of use of external input and improved soil and crop management to achieve the African Green Revolution (ii) To identify and learn about innovative approaches needed to build rural input market infrastructure (iii) To review the main policy, institutional, financial, infrastructural, and market constraints that limit access to innovations by poor farmers;(iv) To evaluate strategies for scaling out innovations to millions of poor farmers in the continentTheme 1: Constraints and opportunities towards the African Green Revolution Theme 2: Potential and feasibility of use of external input and improved soil and crop management to achieve the African Green Revolution Theme 3: Factors that limit access to and adoption of innovations by poor farmers Theme 4: Innovation approaches and their scaling up/out in AfricaIt is trusted that this volume of abstracts will enlighten the reader and will contribute significantly to elucidating the importance of innovation in achieving the desired growth in the agricultural sector in the continent.Director General, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)Theme 1Constraints and opportunities for the African Green RevolutionTargeting technologies -from fields to farms and farming systems; from 'silver bullet' technologies to 'best fits'Paul L. Woomer FORMAT, P.O. Box 79, Village Market, Nairobi, Kenya Email: plwoomer@gmail.com Soil science is an interdisciplinary pursuit involving the biology, chemistry, geology, physics and human impacts upon complex soil systems. Despite this interdisciplinary, soil scientists have too often operated in relative isolation of other disciplines, in part through the belief that most agricultural problems can be solved through the manipulation of soils. While operating in this manner, a huge volume of technical findings were compiled. \"Solutions\" to many African small-holder's production constraints were identified, but too few of these found widespread utility within routine farm operations. In addition, soil scientists (and others) tended to be overly influenced by travel opportunities, passing fads and shifting paradigms, and many soil scientists became absorbed within pet projects. Pressure is now being placed upon all agricultural disciplines, including soil scientists, to translate their relevant findings into useful technologies and products that offer assistance to Africa's small-scale farmers. These demands are necessary because science is ultimately held responsible by society to offer new solutions to pressing problems and the world's development community now stands poised to assist Africa's poor to conquer food insecurity and reverse rural stagnation. As a result, now is the time for soil scientists to rethink the value of their past, on-going and future research findings. Several approaches may assist this process. Express results not only in terms of soil parameters or crop yield, but also in economic costs and returns. Use this economic information to develop straightforward technologies and affordable soil management products. Do not work with isolated farmers, rather work through farm associations and in collaboration with extension or development agencies. Whenever possible, work within larger interdisciplinary teams composed not only of scientists but also members from civil society and private enterprise. Find means to lobby policymakers regarding the benefits from employing available expertise, technologies and products to social and economic problems. Be deliberate and avoid counterproductively by rushing this process or making excessive claims concerning one's findings. Soil scientists have much to offer the next African Green Revolution once we better incorporate market-led technology adoption and management of available capital, farm and human resources into our problem-solving approaches. The word 'famine' nowadays applies almost exclusively to the African continent. Up till the end of the 20 th Century, the 'hunger belt' usually referred to the Horn of Africa countries, but the new millennium has seen several countries in southern Africa join in the group requiring food aid. In all cases of famine, lack/shortage of rainfall is cited as the main cause. Yet within the same continent there are countries which are food secure, but normally receive much less rainfall than the 'drought' rainfall amounts of the hunger belts. Just how much is agriculture in Africa retarded by water scarcity? Or is it simply poor management of agricultural water? Or better still, by how much could African agriculture recoup from targeted management of water that is or could be made available to agriculture? There are varied answers to this, most of them qualitative, and ample information exists on the technologies, practices, approaches, policies and even finances required to bridge the food gap. However, the fact that the problem has persisted means that either, not enough has been done, or what has been done has had little impact. The innovations needed in agricultural water management so as to propel the African Green Revolution, will require more than just exploring case-studies of various experimental trials. They have to include approaches and interventions capable of changing the perceptions and thus the actions of vast cross-sections of society, from farmers to decision makers, and even those in the non-farming sectors. It can be done (examples of such wide-scale change of attitude and thus propelled action have been achieved in the campaigns for family-planning, HIV/AIDs, basic education and environmental conservation). This paper therefore describes some broad-category water management initiatives relevant to smallholder agriculture in Africa. It also explores the wider options to enhance the prioritization of agricultural water management at decision making levels, promotion of action across the various sectors, and optimal management of water by practitioners.A The previous papers in this symposium have highlighted the heterogeneity of smallholder farming systems in Africa, and the strong effects that this can have on the efficiency of fertilizer use, organic manures and crop yields. Within resourceconstrained environments in many areas in SSA, 'best-fit' interventions are those that compatible with farmer production goals and supply optimal returns to investments in inputs, labour, and land. Here we focus on the implications of these findings for a new research agenda for improvement of soil fertility and productivity. First, we describe the various potential components of 'best-fit' Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) options, as presented in other papers within this section. These components are related to the biophysical, economic, social and infrastructural dimensions which are the principal driving forces which give rise to different farms and farming systems. Second, the returns to investment in ISFM options are analysed within the context of soil fertility gradients and compared with commonly available, less knowledgeintensive 'blanket' recommendations. Emphasis is placed on the need to identify the thresholds in these various factors that determine responses to ISFM options. Third, suggestions are made concerning the types of experimental research and analytical tools that are required to analyse trade-offs in investment in different ISFM options. In the final section, some general considerations for the identification and dissemination of 'best-fit' ISFM interventions are discussed, and the consequences explored of integrating these concepts in the implementation phase of an uniquely African Green Revolution.Exploring crop yield benefits of integrated water and nutrient management technologies in the Desert Margins of Africa: The influence of weed control on nitrogen fertilizer use efficiencies (NUE) by rice genotypes was studied in the Senegal River valley of West Africa with a field experiment during four seasons. It was hypothesised that integrated management of technologies could improve rice productivity. The objective was to develop integrated high-return technologies that improve irrigated rice-based systems productivity and profitability. Data indicated that rice yields were affected by N fertilizer, genotypes and plant densities. In good weed control conditions, optimum doses of recommended N fertilizer varied from 80 to 180 kg N ha -1 . Fertilizer N use efficiencies by genotypes were affected by weed control. Profitable management options of genotypes and N fertilizer recommendations have been identified. With a good control of weed, four genotypes (WAS 33, WAS 62, WAS 122 IDESSA1 and WAS 122 IDESA2) better used N fertilizer and yielded from 7 to 9 tonnes ha -1 of paddy with low application of N fertilizer (80 kg N ha -1 ). But poor control of weed increased N lost, decreased yields and profitability. Two genotypes (Sahel 202 and WAS 55-B-B-2-1-2-5) have been found to be most competitive against weeds. However, no more than 60 kg N ha -1 should ever be recommended when weeds are poorly controlled. It was concluded that productivity and profitability of irrigated rice-based systems could be improved with integrated management options of genotypes, fertilizers and weed.Zooming The general deficiency of the tropical soils in phosphorus constitutes one of the main factors limiting the production in sub-Saharan Africa. The present work is to collect a knowledgments on the use of Burkina Rock phosphate in the recapitalization of soils fertility in order to increase agricultural production. The main research permitted to: (1) define the doses of rock phosphate to recommend by culture: 400 kg.ha -1 in first year and 100 kg ha -1 year -1 the years after or 200 kg ha -1 every year, for sorghum, maize, cotton, peanut and cowpea; 500 kg ha -1 in first year and 200 kg ha -1 year -1 the following years for the pluvial rice; 600 kg ha -1 in first year and 300 kg hayear -1 the following years for the irrigated rice;(2) finalize a formula of partially solubilised rock phosphate whose is: 4,22N -24,55P 2 O 5 -6,26S -25,52CaO -0,16MgO. This one is practically equivalent to TSP in term of production of cereals and better in term of nutrients content on soil and, is economically profitable; (3) improve phosphate rock solubility by add 80 Kg per tonne of organic residue at the beginning of composting organics residues. Mixed formula combining 75% rock phosphate to 25% TSP or 50% rock phosphate + 50% TSP associated to the rotation with cowpea increased sorghum production. Rock phosphate is efficient, in the struggle against the soils degradation and the recuperation of the degradated soils and in the stabilization of the productions for a lasting agriculture. Management options to improve phosphorus (P) availability in the West African savanna include the application of organic residues, sole or with inorganic fertilisers. The quality and quantity of organic resources affect their contribution to nutrient availability. The quality of residues influences decomposition and nutrient release in the short term but its importance in the long term is unclear. A greenhouse study with six different soils assessed the residual effect of contrasting organic residues (maize stover, Senna siamea, Mucuna pruriens, Leucaena leucocephala, Gliricidia sepium, Pueraria phaseoloides, and Lablab purpureus) and triple super phosphate (TSP) on maize growth during four cropping cycles of 7 weeks. For the first cropping, the average shoot dry matter yield (DMY) obtained with residues of C:P ratio ≤200 was similar to the TSP treatment (about 14 g pot -1 ), and higher than the yield obtained with maize stover (C:P ratio = 396). From the second cropping, the shoot DMY of the maize stover treatment (15 g pot -1 ) was higher than those of the other treatments. Both high and low quality residues had similar effects on the cumulative DMY. Cumulative shoot P accumulation in the maize stover treatment (53 mg pot -1 ) was significantly higher than the control (30 mg pot -1 ), and also similar to those from high quality residue treatments. Significant interaction (P<0.05) between soil and organic resource for DMY occurred only during the first two croppings. This indicates that the effects of soil type and residue quality on nutrient availability dwindle in the long term. Phosphorus (P) application is essential for crop production in the weathered, P-fixing soils of Western Kenya. It is hypothesized that a single large application can lift available P levels above a critical threshold, but further seasonal applications are requisite for sustaining yields. A field study was conducted in Siaya district to evaluate maize yield, P uptake, soil P balance and economic returns from P applied at different initial P rates, and further seasonal P additions. In the first season, triple super phosphate (TSP) was added at rates of (0, 15, 30, 50, 100, 150 and 250 kg P ha -1 , and maize yield and P uptake was assessed during 10 consecutive seasons. Additional treatments were included where an initial application of 100 kg P ha -1 was supplemented with seasonal additions of 7 kg P ha -1 , supplied as TSP, manure or Tithonia. Residual benefits of maize in terms of increased grain yields were high with cumulative yields ranging from 17.4 to 54.8 t ha -1 when P was applied at rates above 100 kg P ha -1 . Resin-extractable P increased significantly with initial P addition but decreased rapidly with time, particularly for treatments with one-time high dose P application. Economic evaluation of these technologies revealed that application of initial P as 100 kg P ha -1 with seasonal additions of 7 kg P ha -1 as TSP would give the best marginal returns to investment. Phosphorus is one of the major limiting factors for crop production on many tropical and subtropical soils. The concentration of soluble phosphorus (P) in soil is usually very low. These low levels are due to high reactivity of soluble P with calcium, iron or aluminium that leads to P precipitation. Some soil micro-organisms are effective in releasing P from inorganic sources through solubilization and from organic pools by mineralization. About 187 isolates of P solubilizer's (PSM) were obtained from soil and root samples collected in four provinces situated in two out of the five agro-ecological zones of Cameroon, on young and old oil palm-trees rhizosphere selected for their economical importance in Cameroon. They were tested for purity on agar plates and their efficiency in mobilizing phosphorus from insoluble sources were evaluated in liquid media containing sparingly Ca-P, Al-P and Fe-P. As mechanisms of phosphate solubilization, it appeared that Ca-phosphate solubilization resulted from combined effects of pH decrease and carboxylic acids synthesis. However, the synthesis of carboxylic acids was found to be the main mechanism involved in the process of Aland Fe-phosphates solubilization. Both were mobilized at pH 4 corresponding to their natural occurrence by citrate, malate, tartrate, on much lower level by gluconate and trans-aconitate. Green house trials using maize inoculated with pre-selected 10 PSM isolates showed a significant improvement of plant yield and phosphorus uptake from 49 to 200% according to isolates. Some of theses bacteria have been identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens, the plant growth promoter and soil borne disease biocontrol agent.Keywords: Plant yield, phosphorus uptake, phosphate solubilizing micro-organisms, organic acids. Greenhouse study was conducted to determine the agronomic effectiveness of unacidulated (KPR) and partially acidulated (KAPR) Kodjari phosphate rock relative to Triple Superphosphate (TSP). The available phosphorus of a ferruginous soil (pH, 6.2) was labelled with a 32 PO 4 3solution, and the soil was amended with 50 mg P kg -1 as ground KPR, KAPR and TSP. Two plants, maize and cowpea were grown alone or in association. After 60 days growth period, shoot yield, P uptake and real coefficient of P utilization (RCU %) were determined.Dry matter yields and P in dried tops increased by KAPR and TSP application however, with KPR, no significant difference with the control was recorded. Also in KPR treatment the dry matter yield and P uptake for maize and cowpea, grown in association decreased in all treatments. The agronomic effectiveness of KPR, KAPR and TSP in terms of RCU% was classed in this order: KPR < KAPR < TSP. The average values of RCU% in KPR treatments of pure or mixed culture were very low (0.3 %) indicating that KPR was not dissolved in the soil. In contrast they were high in KAPR and TSP treatments. In KPR treatments planted with maize alone or in association, RCU% values were higher than those measured with cowpea. This indicates that maize seemed to use KPR more efficiently than cowpea due to organic acids actions excreted by its roots and higher root densities. At last, the association did not increase significantly the use of KPR by plants. compared to the control which gave 1.36 t ha -1 . Soybean yields were disappointingly low in the first season with the DAPL treatment and control treatment giving yields of 0.32 t ha -1 and 0.14t ha -1 , respectively. This however changed significantly after the variety was changed in the second season, with yields going up to 0.68 t ha -1 for the TSPL treatment. From the study, it was concluded that there is potential for growing soybean in Uasin Gishu District of Kenya. However, a study and/or research is recommended to screen and identify a suitable variety for increased soybean yields in this District. Western Kenya region contains 40% of the country's population on only 15% of the country's land area, with population densities ranging from 500 to 1200 persons per km 2 . This has resulted to reduced land sizes, continuous cropping with no addition of fertilizers due rising poverty levels, high rates of soil nutrients depletion and food insecurity. 'PREP-PAC' an integrated nutrient management package that targets the replenishment of 'lost' nutrients in the widespread low fertility patches, was felt to be a simple, effective and affordable package that can be adopted by resource poor farmers. PREP-PAC was tested on a small scale farm in Nyabeda, Siaya District western Kenya for three continuous seasons. The farm was characterized by low pH (5.35), low % carbon content (1.84), Olsen P (1.12 mg P/ka and low total nitrogen (0.27%) and classified as sandy clay loam (FAO classification). MBILI intercropping system involving seven legumes, intercropped with maize (Zea mays) was used. The treatments were arranged in a 7x2 factorial, in a randomized complete block design, each treatment replicated four times. PREP-PAC application significantly (p<0.01) increased legume and maize grain yields A significant increase (p<0.01) in legume heights five weeks after planting was reported. Economic analysis indicated a significant (p<0.01) increase improved farm income hence concluded that PREP-PAC can be utilized under MBILI intercropping system towards nutrient replenishment and food security in Western KenyaResponses of indigenous legumes species to mineral P application for soil fertility restoration in smallholder farming systems of Zimbabwe Developing alternative soil fertility management options for resource-constrained farmers is vital for increasing food security in many parts of Africa where soils are constrained by nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) deficiency. This study investigated the population dynamics and P response of indigenous legumes as organic nutrient sources in smallholder farming systems of Zimbabwe. Single super phosphate (SSP) was broadcast and incorporated to 20 cm depth at 26 kg P ha -1 before indigenous legume species mostly of the genera Crotalaria, Indigofera and Tephrosia were broadcast in mixtures on surface at 120 seeds m -2 species -1 on disturbed soil. The study was conducted in 2005/06 rainfall season under low (450-650 mm yr -1 ) to high (>800 mm yr -1 ) rainfall conditions. Application of P had no significant (P>0.05) effect on legume species composition and establishment patterns but positively increased biomass by 20-60%. Instead, P increased and influenced the biomass and composition of non-legume species. Abundance of Richardia scabra was reduced by 20-38% while that of Cynodon dactylon increased with SSP application, leading to a significant (P<0.05) increase in overall non-legume biomass. Indigenous legumes derived 61-90% of their N from the atmosphere with amounts fixed ranging from 5-120 kg N ha -1 under semi-arid conditions to 78-267 kg N ha -1 under high rainfall. N-fixation of indigenous legumes increased by 32% and 18% under low and high rainfall respectively. P application moderately increased biomass productivity but resulted in substantial increase in nitrogen fixation rates. Further research is required to quantify potential P benefits to subsequent cereal crops. Extractable soil phosphorus (P) varies with the solubility of phosphatic fertilizers.Extractable bray-1 P (B1P) and Setaria anceps cv. kazungula response to P in a treated acid soil were monitored. Soil treatments comprised; Triple super phosphate (TSP), Gafsa phosphate rock (GPR) or Christmas Island phosphate rock (CIPR) at 0 to 300 kg P ha -1 with or without manure. Monitoring was done bimonthly for 14 months and experimental design was randomised complete block with three replications. Results indicated that extractable Bray-1 P (B1P) in decreasing order was; TSP>GPR>CIPR, consistent with their solubities. An integration of manure and fertilizers resulted in much higher extractable B1P than sole fertilizers or manure. Over time, P availability decreased at a fast rate for the first six months and later was relatively constant. The DMY exhibited quadratic relationships with P rates. Maximum DMYs (6-11 t ha -1 ) were attained at 150-200 kg P ha -1 and declined above that rate. Average setaria dry matter yields (DMY) were not significantly different (6.1 to 6.6 t ha -1 ). Yields per harvest increased to a maximum (11 t ha -1 ) at 2-6 months and then declined to 2-4 t ha -1 after one year. Cumulative yields (20 to 55 t ha -1 ) were not significantly different for the various fertilizers. Manure-CIPR integration increased DMY but manure-GPR and manure-TSP depressed DMY. Yield depression was associated with high P causing nutrient imbalances in the soil. The study demonstrates the need for balanced fertilization, particularly in the use of high fertilizer levels as advocated in the Africa green revolution. In the smallholder farms of central Kenya, the rate of soil nitrogen (N) loss is higher than the rate of replenishment resulting in N deficiency. Farmers lack financial resources to replenish N through application of chemical fertilizers. This study evaluated the contribution of some organic materials solely applied or combined with inorganic fertilizer to soil inorganic N and uptake of N by maize. The experiment was a randomized complete block with 3 replicates that was established in 2000. Soils and maize samples were taken at 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 and 20 weeks after planting maize (WAP) and analysed for inorganic N and nitrogen content, respectively. The amounts of soil inorganic N at 0-15 cm soil depth and amounts of N taken up by maize varied among the different sampling dates, treatments and between the seasons. The treatments that had sole tithonia, leucaena and calliandra applied recorded the highest amounts of soil inorganic N especially in 2004 LR when rainfall was poor. During 2002 LR, when rainfall was fairly distributed, soil inorganic N increased from 0 to 4 WAP and generally reduced from 6 weeks up-to 20 WAP. The increase in soil inorganic N at the start of the season was attributed to nitrogen flush (Birch effect) and rapid decomposition of the organic materials while the reduction that followed was attributed to uptake of N by maize coupled with leaching. The amount of soil inorganic N was found to be generally higher during 2004 LR (when rainfall was poor) than 2002 LR probably due to the restricted uptake of N by the maize crop during 2004.Effect of manure application on soil nitrogen availability to intercropped sorghum and cowpea at three sites in eastern Kenya. A trial was conducted where sorghum and cowpea were intercropped at three sites with different natural concentrations of soil phosphorus (1.0, 7.0 and 26.3 mg kg -1 Olsen-P) and with biannual cropping. There was a total of five field treatments namely goat manure applied at rates of 0, 5 and 10 t ha -1 annually for six years, and at 5 and 10 t ha -1 annually for four years followed by two years without manure. Continuous manuring at 10 t ha -1 created the same amount of soil N as 5 t ha -1 manure so the residual effects were the same for 5 and 10 t ha -1 manure and the effects were the same at all sites. In the season studied, between 1.8 and 4.1% of the native soil N was mineralized and taken up by the crops. 11% of the manure residual N (applied between two and six years previously and remaining in the soil) was taken up and this fraction was the same in all soils. Recently applied manure N contributed significantly more to crop N in the most nutrient-deficient soil. On the soils with Olsen-P ≥7 mg kg -1 , cowpeas obtained a significant extra 32 kg N ha -1 , attributed to biological N fixation (BNF). If Olsen-P was <6 mg kg -1 , BNF was negligible. Two land management effects on C and N supplies and their dynamics was carried out in order to define plots C and N stocks models for a more complex modelling multi agents system (MAS). For that purpose 112 farmers plots judiciously selected were sampled in horizons 0-10 and 10-20 cm and analyzed. Moreover 26 pedological profiles were described and 12 of them sampled along the whole profile for C, N analysis to estimate C and N stocks and dynamics for deeper layers. Results show that apparent density (Da) is not significantly different in the two farming systems and cultivating does not affect this one. Da is not affected by the various land uses. Moreover Da in the two horizons 0-10 and 10-20 cm are significantly different. Fine elements content is not significantly different in the two farming systems. Soil is neither affected by the land uses, nor even by cultivating. On the other hand fine elements ratio varies significantly when moving from 0-10 cm horizon to the lower one 10-20cm. C and N stocks are mainly a function of fine elements content (clay + fine silt in %). Cultivating does not affect significantly stocks. The two farming systems show a significant difference of average stocks of C, N. These same stocks in the 0-10 cm horizon are higher than stocks of the 10-20 cm horizon. For all soil, all land uses confused, average C , N stocks for the 20 first centimetres respectively 14,12 t ha -1 and 0,9 t ha -1 . The study suggests that management is the major determinant of C storage as well as soil texture (clay+ fine silt in %) and those act mainly on the first 10 centimetres soil. C and N contents and stocks beyond 20 cm are related to soil depth rather than land management. Soybean (Glycine max. L. (Merr)) offers potential as a high protein substitute for human consumption and cash for smallholder farmers in sub Saharan Africa. Soil acidity and nutrient mining have been identified as the major constraints limiting crop production by smallholder farmers in SSA. A field trial was conducted over two seasons to determine the effect of rate of N and P fertilizer application on the growth of soybean under acid soil conditions. Four P rates (0, 7.5, 15 and 22.5 kg P ha -1 ) were combined with two N application rates (0 and 30 kg N ha -1 ) and 2 lime rates (0 and 1 500 kg ha -1 ) on a sandy clay loam site previously under a grass fallow. Nitrogen-fixing indigenous legumes can be harnessed to enhance soil fertility replenishment of smallholder farms. However, nutrient release from such organic materials is largely determined by the chemical composition. A study was conducted to determine the chemical quality of indigenous legumes mainly of the genera Tephrosia, Crotalaria and Indigofera, and their C and N mineralization using a leaching tube method under laboratory conditions. All the legumes had >2% N. With the exception of Macrotyloma daltonii, all the legume species had a lignin content of >15%. Total polyphenols ranged from 1-2.5% for all the legume species. Despite the relatively high lignin content, most of the legume species mineralized >70% of the added N within 155 days of incubation. Eriosema ellepticum, Crotalaria pallida and Tephrosia longipezi had mineralized >40% of the added N within 21 days of incubation. Mixed biomass from indigenous legume fallows (indifallows) cumulatively mineralized 69% of the added N compared with 54 and 42% for biomass generated in natural fallows and sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea. L) fallows, respectively. Crotalaria cylindrostachys immobilized N throughout the incubation period despite the relatively high N (2.3%) and low polyphenol (1.8%) content. Cumulative evolved CO 2 was correlated to the initial legume N content (r 2 =0.91). The results apparently suggest that indigenous legumes can potentially contribute to the N requirements of crops in smallholder farming areas. However, the major challenge lies in regulating the N mineralization to enhance crop uptake, given that most of the legume species had mineralized >50% of the added N within a month.The Effect of Organic Based Nutrient Management Strategies on Soil Nutrient Availability and Maize Performance in Njoro, Kenya Interaction between Resource Quality, Aggregate Turnover, Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling in the Central Highlands of Kenya Combined use of organic (OR) and mineral sources (MR) of nutrients is accepted as one of the most appropriate ways to address the problems of declining soil fertility and poor crop yields facing small-scale farming in sub-Saharan Africa. A field study was conducted at Embu in Central Kenya to investigate the effect of OR and MR management on aggregate turnover, C sequestration and N stabilization. The study comprised of ORs of differing quality; Tithonia diversifolia (high quality), Calliandra calothyrsus (medium quality), Zea mays stover (medium quality), Grevillea sawdust (low quality) and farmyard manure applied at a rate of 4 ton C ha -1 with or without 120 kg N ha -1 mineral fertilizer. Soil organic matter (SOM) fractions from soils sampled from the top soil (0-15cm depth) at the establishment of the field trial in 2002 and before the long rains in 2005 were analyzed for C, N and C-13 signatures. In 2005, SOM fractions C and N quantity was higher for both the sole and combined application of tithonia, calliandra, stover and manure compared to the initial (2002) total soil C and N. High quality ORs had the highest SOM input compared to low quality ORs while medium quality ORs contributed most to the formation of stable macroaggregates and SOM accumulation. Therefore, both OR quality and MR should be considered when devising soil management options for soil fertility and crop production.The Effect of Farmyard Manure Amendment on Soil and Rice Production in the Office Du Niger Zone of Mali From 2001 to 2004, a study was conducted in the \"Office du Niger\" zone of Mali to determine the combined effects of farmyard manure and N and P fertilizer applications in rice production system. Twenty five treatments were set-up in a factorial arrangement with 5 levels of manure (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 tons manure per ha), 5 levels of nitrogen (0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 kg N per ha) and replicated 4 times. With a basal application of 2 tons of manure per ha, rice paddy yield reached a maximum of 6.5 tons when N was applied at increasing rate up to 90 kg N ha-1. When organic manure was applied at a rate greater than 2 tons, rice paddy responded linearly up to 120 N and reached 7 to 7.8 tons per ha. Increasing rates of manure (1 to 4 tonnes per hectare) improved paddy yield but not the straw and the total biomass yields. Without manure, crop yields were levelled at 5.5 tons ha-1 with increasing rates of N. The results indicated that, annual application of low quality organic resources such as the farmyard manure can significantly improve soil physical and chemical properties and rice paddy yields. The results also suggest that with application of 3 to 4 tons of manure, nitrogen fertilizer rate can be reduced by 40 kg N per hectare. Increased yields of maize grown after cowpea than maize has been attributed to enhanced N-availability and other rotation effects. Improvement in soil chemical properties has been indicated to be one of the most important rotation effects. Soil properties and grain yield were evaluated where different crop rotations were used. Two promiscuous improved cowpea lines (IT 96D-724 and SAMPEA-7), natural fallow and a hybrid maize (Oba Super 2) grown in 2003 were followed by a test crop of maize in 2004 with and without nitrogen (N) fertilizer (0 and 90 kg N ha -1 ). Rotation and N fertilizer had significant (P<0.05) influence on the organic carbon and total N contents and unfertilized continuous maize resulted in the lowest values. Soil total N of maize plot following SAMPEA-7 was slightly higher (0.920 g kg -1 ) than that following IT 96D-724 (0.870 g kg -1 ). Cropping systems had no significant (P > 0.05) effect on soil pH, while the main effect of fertilizer on exchangeable cations was highly significant with rotation systems involving cowpea having lower values than continuous maize. Fertilization significantly affected exchangeable Ca and K concentrations only. The average increase of both cowpea cultivars were 50% higher than that of maize-maize and 22% higher than that of the fallow-maize system. Lack of interaction between rotation and fertilizer N effects indicates that the changes in the soil properties may explain the yield difference between cowpea rotations and continuous maize. The study showed that crop rotation increases maize yield even in the absence of inorganic fertilizer.Cowpea Production in the Southern Rangelands of Semi-Arid Eastern KenyaKenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) -Katumani, P.O. Box 340, Machakos. *Corresponding author: cgithunguri@kari.org; cmgithunguri@yahoo.comThe Southern Rangelands of Kenya are difficult environments prone to frequent droughts. The effect of the flat (farmer practice), tied-ridging and contour furrows seedbed types and integrated nutrient management practices on the performance of rainfed cowpeas was studied on-farm at the southern rangelands of Kenya during the 2006 short rains season. The treatments without fertilizer in combination with the flat seedbed had significantly higher number of pods than the tied-ridging and contour furrows seedbed types. The tied-ridging seedbed produced the highest number of branches while the flat and contour furrow seedbeds produced the highest pods and grain yields. The tied-ridging in combination with 10t ha -1 manure produced significantly higher number of pods, branches, pods and grain yields than both flat and contour furrows seedbeds. Under the 10t ha -1 farmyard manure + 20kg N ha -1 + 20kg P ha -1 soil fertility option the flat seedbed produced the highest number of pods and the contour furrows the highest number of branches, pods and grains yields. The flat, tied-ridging and contour furrows seedbeds in combination with 5t/ha manure produced the highest number of pods, pod and grain yields while the contour furrows produced the highest number of branches. Under 5t ha -1 manure + 20kg N ha -1 + 20kg P ha -1 the flat seedbed produced the highest pod and grain yields. The tied-ridging seedbed in combination with farmyard manure enhanced cowpea performance and grain yield even though performance was best under the flat seedbed on incorporation of inorganic fertilizers to manure.Effect of soil acidity on nodulation and yield of selected soybean cultivars commonly grown in southern Africa The majority of smallholder farmers who cultivate acidic soils in sub Saharan Africa (SSA) have limited or no access to lime. Differential tolerance to acidity by crop species can be exploited to sustain crop production without liming where production would be uneconomic. A study was conducted under greenhouse (nutrient solutions) and field conditions (Domboshawa Training Centre and Chendambuya smallholder area, Zimbabwe) from August 2002 to June 2004 to evaluate the effects of soil acidity on the growth of eight maize cultivars commonly grown in Southern Africa. There were significant (p<0.001) cultivar tolerance by Al toxicity in terms of total root length (TRL), relative root length (RRE), and shoot and root dry matter weight. In terms of Al tolerance indices (ATI), cultivars DK 8031 and SC517 were the most and least tolerant varieties, respectively. Liming significantly increased grain and stover yield at one of the three sites in all cultivars except PAN 413. At the other two sites, liming depressed grain and stover yield in both seasons. It was concluded root growth parameters can be used screen maize cultivars commonly grown in Southern Africa for tolerance to soil acidity. Response of maize to liming seems to depend on exchangeable soil Ca-to-Mg ratio with positive with positive responses being recorded where the ratio in low, i.e. low Ca content. More studies are required to determine thresholds limits where Ca fertilisation is necessary.Effect of long term application of organic and inorganic resources on soil properties and maize yield at Kabete, Kenya Rotational effects of cowpea genotypes and P fertilization on the yield of sorghum on P-deficient soils of Sudan and Sahel savannas of West Africa. Adoption of cereal/legume rotation is a sustainable strategy for increasing cereal yields and improving soil fertility by subsistence farmers in West Africa, but little progress has been made on how different crop varieties and previous P fertilization will influence such a system. Field experiments were established at Minjibir (Sudan savanna, Nigeria) and Toumnia (Sahel savanna, Niger Republic) to assess the effects of cultivation of fifteen cowpea genotypes to which rock phosphate (RP) and SSP fertilizers were previously applied, on subsequent sorghum. Phosphorus fertilizers, (0, 90 kg P ha -1 as RP and 30 kg P ha -1 as SSP) were the main factors and cowpea genotypes were the sub factors arranged in a randomized strip plot design replicated three times. Grain yields of rotation sorghum were significantly higher than those of continuous sorghum. Cowpea genotypes exhibited variations in their effects on grain yields of subsequent sorghum. For example, at Minjibir mean grain yield of rotation sorghum with cowpea IT 98K-476-8 (2843 kg ha -1 ) was 54% higher than that of continuous sorghum (1295 kg ha -1 ). Previously applied P fertilizers significantly affected grain yield of sorghum in the order SSP > RP > 0P; this effect was more pronounced at Toumnia than Minjibir. Soil available P varied with cowpea genotypes and P fertilizer application and it was highest in plots that received RP, followed by SSP and least under 0P treatment. Generally, AMF colonization of roots of rotation sorghum was higher than that of continuous sorghum. Field worked was conducted to study the response of modern (MH) and old (OH) hybrids, and a variety of landraces (L) under irrigation (I) and drought (D) conditions with two levels of nitrogen (160 kg N ha -1 and 80 kg N ha -1 ). Drought decreased grain yield (GY), final biomass (FBM), grains per ear row (GPER) and individual grain weight (IGW) by 24%, 18%, 7% and 6% and plant height (PH), and length (CL) and diameter of cob (CD) by and 51 cm and 0.5 and 0.2 cm respectively. Low nitrogen reduced FBM by 6% and PH by 11 cm, silking date and anthesis -silking interval were delayed by two days (24 0 Cd) under drought. MH had greater GY than OH and L in average of drought and nitrogen treatments. GY (r = 0.07, P <0.05) and FBM (4 = 0.68, P <0.05) were positive and significantly correlated with year of hybrid release in average of drought and nitrogen treatments, and genotypes (excluding L genetic materials); a gain of 57 kg ha -1 for grain yield and 128 kg ha -1 year -1 for biomass was determined. On the other hand, anthesis -silking interval was negative and significantly associated with year of hybrid release (r = -0.76, P <0.05). This study reveals that greater biomass and a shorter anthesis -silking interval may be the key issues to improve grain yield of maize for water and nitrogen limited environments. Smallholder farms in Central Highlands of Kenya exhibits a high degree of heterogeneity, determined by complex set of socio-economic and biophysical factors.The farms consist of multiple plots managed differently in terms of allocation of crops, nutrient inputs and labour resources; making within-farm soil fertility gradients caused by management strategies a common feature. In most cases nutrient inputs are preferentially allocated to home fields whilst outfields are neglected. A monitoring study involving nutrient inputs, flows and balances was conducted in Kirege Location, where 9 case study farms were used. The study was to compare the intensity of soil fertility management between home fields and outfields. It also compared soil fertility management practices between three different resources endowment classes to reveal important differences in patterns of fertility management. The farms were visited to record movement of nutrients-containing materials using a monitoring protocol covering household, crops, livestock, soil and socio-economic aspects of the farm. Data obtained was analyzed using IMPACT program version 2.0 to obtain total nutrient inputs and balances at field and farm levels and statistical analysis done using GenStat discovery edition 2. Results revealed that mean N inputs over all resource endowment classes decreased with distance to the homestead (from 94 to 22.9 kgha-1), as did Olsen-P (from 54.6 to 15.6 kgha-1) and K (from 193 to 34 kgha-1). Due to this heterogeneity in smallholder farms, there is a need for a more targeted approach to soil fertility intervention that differentiates between farm fields, agro-ecological zone and resource endowment status. In the past, much work has been done in Africa on the isolation of rhizobial strains nodulating legumes. Practical demonstrations of the value of rhizobial inoculation are rare, because most work has been done under controlled, rather than field conditions.In the present study, we describe results obtained in the field (research station and farms) on the utilization of selected microsymbionts (Rhizobium and mycorrhiza fungal) for inoculating tree legumes and improving their growth and biological nitrogen fixation in Africa. The synergic effect of the dual inoculation has been clearly demonstrated with Acacia mangium and Calliandra calothyrsus in irrigated perimeters in Senegal. On the other hand in Kenya, the impact of the dual inoculation on the forage production by Calliandra calothyrsus in several sites has not been clearly demonstrated in the field (3 sites). But meanwhile, the same inoculum tested with the same Calliandra calothyrsus provenances in Zimbabwe has significantly improved in the field (2 sites) the biomass yield produced by the trees. With African Acacias, the lack of rain in dry lands prevented a positive effect of inoculation on the growth of seedlings planted in the field after four months of growth in nursery. The inoculation of mature trees of A. senegal in the field has been effective and has significantly improved the yield of gumarabic. Through our work, we have obtained information and results on the limitations of field rhizobial inoculation for improving tree growth for forage, firewood and litter production and in some cases soil fertility as well. Some cyanobacteria strains could be an economically attractive, ecologically sound alternative to chemical fertilizers because of their ability to fix nitrogen. As a result of lack of information on these effects in South Africa, a glasshouse study was conducted to evaluate the nitrogen fixation benefits of cyanobacteria strains 3g and 7e, indigenous to South Africa, and 9v from Tanzania, in a split split-plot design. Suspensions of cyanobacteria were uniformly applied to potted soils with or without maize seeds planted. After 6 weeks, the maize biomass was harvested and the top 15 mm of the soils mixed, before a second maize crop was grown for six weeks. Inoculation with strains 3g, 7e and 9v resulted in maize dry matter increases of 9.7, 9.1, and 10.4%, respectively, in the Fort Hare soil and 17.3, 22.3, 18.04%, respectively, in the Hertzog soil, at the first harvest. At the second harvest, the dry matter increases were 8.7, 10.3, and 24.07%, in the Fort Hare soil and 12.9, 14.8, and 19.01% in the Hertzog soil. Tissue N and N uptake also increased significantly with inoculation in both soils at both harvests. Soil nitrate N was higher where soils were inoculated and not cropped than cropped control in the first harvest. After the second harvest, soil ammonium N was highest in the 7e treatment for the Fort Hare soil, when cropped twice, and for Hertzog soil cropped once, relative to the control. The study suggested that cyanobacteria strains 3g and 7e have potential benefits in maize growth and for soil N improvement.Multi-functional properties of mycorrhizal fungi: field results from inoculation response and perspectives for crop production The main objective of this work is to show multi-functional properties of microbial resources for crop production. Beneficial organisms such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi) may be very useful for a sustainable agricultural production in African countries were soil fertility and drought are serious limiting factors. AM fungi can stimulate plant functioning: nutrient uptake, tolerance to drought, soil acidity, disease and pest; contributing to improving crops yields in African soils. In conditions where their activity is low, inoculation with selected strains could be use for restoration. This work reviewed some results obtained after experimentation using some crops under diverse agro-ecological zones of Cameroon. A workshop was done to explain the use of this technology. Inoculation of AM fungi may increase yield from 50% to 200% depending on crops and environmental factors. Legumes, vegetables, fruit trees showed higher response to inoculation compared with cereals. The benefit of banana-AM fungi symbiosis was tested for growth and drought tolerance. The results showed that plant growth, leaf surface and dry weight are significantly stimulated by mycorrhiza. AM fungi inoculation provided 30% more water to banana after 40 days of stress, water use efficiency and phosphatases activities were correlated with drought tolerance. AMF inoculated banana provided more suckers and bigger banana bunch than others. To develop this approach, the cost/benefit ratio of inoculation should be determined to envisage its incorporation into nursery. The use of mycorrhiza to overcome constraints which are limiting factors for a sustainable agricultural production in Africa is needed.Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, inoculation, multi-functions, water use efficiency.Effects of selected soil chemical and biological properties on maize yield in biomass transfer agroforestry systems Effects of Calliandra calothyrsus, Tithonia diversifolia and Tephrosia vogelii green manure applied independently or combined with triple super phosphate (TSP) and limestone on soil chemical and biological properties that influence maize yield were evaluated on an Ultisol of Rubona, Rwanda. Treatments compared were the control, limestone at 2.5 t ha -1 , TSP at 25 kg P ha -1 and 50 kg P ha -1 , leaf of Calliandra, Tithonia and Tephrosia each at 25 kg P ha -1 and 50 kg P ha -1 respectively, Calliandra, Tithonia and Tephrosia each combined with TSP at equivalent rate of 25 kg P ha -1 and 50 kg P ha -1 respectively. Leaf biomass, TSP and limestone were applied four consecutive seasons Limestone led to significant increases in soil pH followed by Tithonia combined with TSP at 50 kg P ha -1 . All treatments reduced significantly exchangeable acidity and aluminium compared to the control. A combination of organic materials with TSP at 50 kg P ha -1 improved soil organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and phosphorus (MBP).The same treatments contributed in inorganic P fractions increases from 3.6 to 109.5% than green manure applied independently. Only the combination of Tithonia with TSP increased inorganic P fractions by 1.6% to 52.2% compared to TSP alone. The combination of green manure treatments with TSP in the proportion of 25% significantly increased grain yield from 24 to 508%. Inorganic P fractions, soil carbon, MBC and MBP values were strongly correlated with maize yield, confirming the crucial role of these soil properties in improving maize yield. Gradients of decreasing soil fertility with increasing distance from homesteads commonly occur on smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa due to differential resource management. A study was conducted for five seasons (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006) on fields closest to homesteads (homefields) and outlying fields (outfields) of two smallholder farms on a sandy and clayey soils to assess maize yields after applying 100 kg N ha-1 yr-1 with different rates of P (0, 30, 50 kg ha-1 yr-1) from single super phosphate (SSP) or cattle manure. In the first four experimental seasons, maize yields in homefield control plots were greater than in the outfields of farms on a granitic sandy and a redclay soil. Application of large amounts of manure (~17 t manure ha-1 yr-1) for three seasons was necessary to significantly increase maize yields on the sandy outfields. There were no significant grain yield responses to addition of fertilizer N and SSP in the outfields over the first four seasons. In the fifth season, Ca and micronutrients (Zn, Mn, B) were added to assess of the potential to increase maize yields in these fields by targeted micronutrient fertilizer application, but their effects were masked by poor rainfall. A cost-benefit analysis revealed that more than five years were required for farmers to off-set the costs of replenishing soil fertility in degraded fields by applying large amounts of manure. Plant residues offer a viable alternative to the costly and non-readily available commercial lime in addressing the constraint of soil acidity among the rural smallholders. The liming potential of the residues, attributable to excess cations over inorganic anions, exists in either available or non-available forms. This study investigates cation flux and its effect on pH and plant residue alkalinity of four plant residues, maize (Zea mays), soyabeans (Glycine max), leucaena (L. leucocephala) and gliricidia (G. sepium) upon incubation for 100 days with and without application of lime in an acidic Zambian Ferralsol. Initial characterization of base cation content ranged from 239-879 (Ca 2+ ), 188-458 (Mg 2+ ) and 298-477 mmol c kg -1 plant material (K + ). Of these between 26-60, 62-92 and 76-96% in that order were water soluble. On incubation up to 70 % Ca 2+ and at least 80% Mg 2+ and K + added in the residues were initially present eventually increasing to 84 and 95% respectively. Potential alkalinity were 373 (maize) 1264 (Soyabeans), 794 (leucaena) and 1024 (gliricidia) mmol c kg -1 . Of this between 42% (gliricidia) and 52% (leucaena) constituted available alkalinity. Exchangeable aluminium was absent or appeared in insignificantly very low amounts towards the end of the incubation while base cations were fixed. There was initial dependence of pH on both total cation concentration and residue alkalinity but this relationship was later lost suggesting incomplete activation of the non-available fraction of the potential alkalinity. Nitrogen mineralization affected both cation flux and residue alkalinity. This study highlights the importance of residues on amelioration of major cation deficiencies and aluminium phytotoxicity. Striga hermonthica is a serious pest of cereal crops in west Kenya. It has infested about 217,000 ha of maize cropland resulting in 182,000 t of maize grain loss per year worth about $29 million. A two-year pilot project was developed by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation and six non-governmental organization partners to explore opportunities for better striga management. Three approaches and five management options were evaluated over two years; 1) striga tolerance (KSTP 94 and WH 502), 2) legume suppression (Push Pull and MBILI) and 3) imazapyr seed dressing of herbicide resistant maize (Ua Kayongo). Ua Kayongo resulted in the greatest maize yield (2.60 t grain ha -1 ) largest returns ($371 season -1 ) and reduced striga expression (0.5 striga stems plant -1 ). In contrast, the striga susceptible hybrid (H513) control produced 1.58 t grain ha -1 , returns of $228 season -1 and was infested by 2.6 striga stems plant -1 . The other striga managements were also effective, producing between 2.10 and 2.46 t grain ha -1 and infested by 0.5 to 1.4 striga stems plant -1 . In addition, Ua Kayongo was field tested on over 13,000 farms during two years and farmers' impressions of the variety were extremely favorable. Clearly, imazapyr seed treatment is a breakthrough technology in striga control but its combination with other, more agro-ecological management approaches, particularly suppression by intercropped field legumes is necessary. Moreover, it is unlikely that commercialization of Ua Kayongo seed alone is sufficient to reach a full cross-section of striga's impoverished victims, suggesting that additional incentives triggering farmer collective action are required before this technology can achieve its full impact. The synergistic effect of soil and water conservation (SWC) measures (stone rows or grass strips) and nutrient inputs (organic or mineral nutrient sources) was studied at Saria station, Burkina Faso. The reduction in runoff was 59% in plots with barriers alone, but reached 67% in plots with barriers + mineral N and 84% in plots with barriers + organic N, as compared with the control plots. Plots with no SWC measure lost huge amounts of soil (3t ha-1) and nutrients. Annual losses from eroded sediments and runoff reached 84 kg OC ha-1, 16.5 kg N ha-1, 2 kg P ha-1, and 1.5 kg K ha-1 in the control plots. The application of compost led to the reduction of total soil loss by 52% in plots without barriers and 79% in plots with stone rows as compared to the losses in control plots. SWC measures without N input did not significantly increase sorghum yield. Application of compost or manure in combination with SWC measures increased sorghum grain yield by about 142% compared to a 65% increase due to mineral fertilizers. Yields increase did not cover annual costs of single SWC measures while application of single compost or urea was cost effective. The combination of SWC measures with application of compost resulted in financial gains of 145,000 to 180,000 FCFA ha-1yr-1 under adequate rainfall condition. Without nutrient inputs, SWC measures hardly affected sorghum yields, and without SWC, fertilizer inputs also had little effect. However, combining SWC and nutrient management caused an increase in sorghum yield. A survey of 450 farmers was conducted in nine localities within North Central Nigeria to determine the factors that affect organic fertiliser use by farmers. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to administer 50 questionnaires in each locality and descriptive statistical tools were used to analyse the results. Farmer characteristics showed an average age range of 37-50 years, literacy rate of 12-58%, and a family size of 3-9. The results showed that all the respondents use some form of organic amendment for soil fertility management, although the bulk of the organic resource is acquired from external sources. The proportion of farmers that raise livestock ranged from 33% to 76% with an average per capita generation and consumption of farmyard manure of 1.05 t yr -1 and 0.38 t yr -1 , respectively. Cattle dung was the most commonly used organic material with usage by 41% of the farmers; this was followed by crop residue at 28%. There were distinct locality and farmer variations in the use of organic fertiliser. The major factors that determine farmers' use of organic matter resource include access to mineral fertiliser, availability of the organic resource, family size and the educational background of the farmer. In one locality with a large number of migrant farmers, use of organic amendment was significantly lower on rented lands than on lands owned by the farmers. An over-view is made of the various purchasing and novel 'counter-trade' relationships that exist between farmers in some localities and itinerant 'Fulani' herdsmen, and how these could be scaled up to improve access to organic manure by farmers in rural countryside.Opportunities for sustainable crop production: Contributions from organic resource quality and quantity Opportunities for sustainable crop production are essential to overcome the decline in crop yields commonly observed in smallholder agriculture in the tropics. Therefore, in a three-year field studies initiated in 2003 major season in the semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana, maize yield indices as influenced by 5 organic resource quality and a control un-amended treatment were evaluated. Results underscore the beneficial effect of organic resource application for sustainable maize grain yield. There was a huge immediate benefit in maize grain yield of 85-150% depending on the quality of the organic resource applied, which was almost lost in the subsequent minor season and reappearing in subsequent seasons but discriminated on the basis of the quality of the material. The quantitative effect of organic resource application on maize grain yield was evident in 2004 major season where 4 t C ha -l produced significantly (P< 0.02) higher maize grain yield than 1.2 t C ha -l and remained superior in subsequent seasons. Leucaena leucocephala, a class II material showed superior maize grain yield across the years but in the absence of inorganic N application. On the other hand, cattle manure progressively showed superior benefits to maize grain yield from 2004 minor season when combined with inorganic N (120 kg N ha -l ) application. While underscoring the significant contribution of combined application of organic resources and inorganic N to improved maize grain yield, such combinations should be guided by the quality of the organic resource as well as the quantity of application for maximum benefits.Understanding cassava yield differences at farm level: lessons for research Cassava is an important food crop in Africa. A range of improved varieties and IPM practices have been developed to maintain and increase its yields in response to emerging pest and disease problems. Much less attention has been given to ISFM and agronomic practices. Important yield differences in cassava are found between farmers. Using a farm typology approach and six case study sites in east Africa, yield differences between sites and farm types were quantified and factors contributing to the differences evaluated. Overall, yield differences are twice as large between sites (6 t/ha) as between farm types (3 t/ha), whereas within sites, cassava yield differences between farm types vary from 1.5 to 7.5 t/ha. While differences in agroecological conditions explain part of the variation found at site level, differences in management were important in explaining cassava yields between farm types. Richer households obtained significantly (p<0.001) higher cassava yield (+3.2 t/ha) than poorer households. Hired labour input (p<0.01-0.05), monocropping (p<0.05-0.15) and timing of first weeding (p<0.01-0.1) significantly explained yield differences between sites and farm typologies. Use of improved varieties was rarely linked to higher yield levels. Manure and/or inorganic fertilizer use is rarely targeted to cassava. To improve cassava production in Africa, more emphasis should be given to the development and dissemination of appropriate management practices, higher yielding varieties. R4D efforts in cassava should take into account and benefit from differences in cassava production that exist between farm types, while at the same time not loose sight of agro-ecological differences. The experiments therefore focussed on labour reduction and input cost reduction, using the following treatments: for labour: point-placing with 2 weedings (reference), drilling at correct distance to avoid thinning with 1 and 2 weedings, broadcasting with one weeding; and for inputs: ashes, 1⁄2 ashes and 1⁄2 manure, DAP, 1⁄2 DAP and 1⁄2 manure, manure, 1⁄2 Tithonia and 1⁄2 DAP, all at a rate of 20 kg P ha-1, and no input as a control. There was a significant increase in yield when applying input, but no significant yield difference between the different inputs. As DAP is difficult to acquire by most farmers, there was high interest among farmers in the use of ashes, manure, Tithonia and combinations of local inputs. The different labour options did not lead to significantly different yields. Labour use efficiency favoured the low labour treatments; broadcasting and 1 weeding. Partial budgets, dominance analysis and field day discussions with farmers will be used to conclude which labour and input treatments suit which types of farmers, depending on their available resources.Nutrition and utilization for health and income generation: an incentive for the promotion of legumes in KenyaOhiokpehai Omo* and Kingʼolla Brenda TSBF-CIAT P.O. Box 30677-00100, Gigiri, United Nations Avenue Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: +254-20-7224779, Fax: +254-20-7224763/4 *Corresponding author: oohiokpehai@cgiar.orgSoybeans contains 40% protein and 20% oil and .Soybean is both food and nutria health which can support human wellbeing. This project addresses the utilization of soybeans through sustainable and participatory capacity building in soybean processing, nutrition and mentoring in its production and marketing to act as an incentive to boost production of soybeans at the grass-root levels. Adequate and appropriate nutrition which can be achieved through the consumption of a balanced healthy diet (consisting of locally available foods and fortified food and/or micronutrient supplementation when needed) is vital for the health and wellbeing of all individuals regardless of HIV status. Nutritional support helps to maintain the immune system and to sustain healthy levels of physical activity. Our methodology included visiting farmer associations, living positive groups and giving short talks on the goodness of soybeans and allowing question and answer sessions to ensure that our clients had a voice. Also training of trainers (ToT) for five days (ToT-5 days) and training of farmers (ToF) for two days (ToF-2 days) in processing and utilization of soybeans, hygiene, sanitation, basic business management, and nutrition education were involved. Soybean is incorporated into several locally eaten foods with taste tests carried out and analyzed to determine the degree of quality improvement. We incorporate or replaced soybeans in locally eaten dishes such as mandazi, ugali, porridges, chapatti and \"omushenye\" or potato dish to increase their protein content without changing the tastes. Human induced soil erosion across the arable lands in the Central Kenya highlands is a major threat to sustainable agricultural productivity. This is against the backdrop of disappointing uptake of recommended conservation farming measures by smallholder farmers' in-spite of the intense efforts towards promotion of the appropriate conservation measures. This study therefore explored the knowledge of the farmers to the occurrence and effects of soil erosion and, the status of conservation farming at household-farm level by characterizing case study farms that represented distinguished generic farm types for two agro-ecologically dissimilar study sites.Trained enumerators carried out a formal farm survey by use of specific focused questionnaire for 48 households across the sites. The farmers were aware of the occurrence of erosion in their farms though the severity and risk varied across sites and farm types. The farmers understood the dynamics of the erosion process and were able to identify most of the factors responsible for occurrence of erosion as well as assessing the effectiveness of recommended conservation farming measures prior to implementation. The farmers also recognized various conservation farming measures for the control of erosion but the actual implementation varied depending on the site and farm type. The sources of conservation farming information for the farmers were site dependent and were mainly from either agricultural extension agents or other farmers. The smallholder farmers faced diverse constraints in the adoption of conservation farming measures that revolved around farm and household circumstances such as shortage of labour and capital.Prioritizing research efforts to increase on-farm income generation: the case of cassava-based farmers to in peri-urban southern Cameroon The growing group of poor subsaharan Africans and a trend of declining agricultural research budgets demand priority setting on technological improvements targeted to direct impact on poverty alleviation. However, the extent to which agricultural technologies benefit the poor remains questionble when not targeted to well defined client groups with specific socio-economic situation and associated restrictions and opportunities. In this light, it may be appropriate to de-emphasise on crop yield and re-emphasise on labour requirements as a parameter of succes of a technology. As a case study, this paper defines the problems and opportunities of commercialization of cassava production in the forest margins of peri-urban Cameroon. Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the chief subsistence staple and mainly produced extensively in traditional mixed food crop fields in a short fallow rotation with virtually no use of external inputs. The urban demand for cassava products is growing yet yields are generally low and current production increments are mainly based on increased cassava growing area. Preliminary data from surveys in peri-urban Yaoundé indicate that technologies for sustainable intensification of cassava production should be targeted both at pre-and post harvest levels. Options for specific targeting of labour saving technologies will be discussed with emphasis on weed suppressing planted fallows, fallow vegetation management and herbicide use as well as post-harvest processing mechanisation. Farmers' participation from the start is key in this developing / introducing / adapting of technnologies and ensures appropriateness and subsequently better adoption potential and hence, higher impact.Cost-effectiveness of fertilizer use in the production of main crops in Cameroon A survey of crop producers was carried out in the 10 provinces of Cameroon to assess the level of fertilizers use and their consumption status in the production of fertilizerdepending crops like maize, cotton, irrigated rice, Robusta coffee, onion, Solanum potato and tomato. To achieve that goal the study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of the fertilizer use for those crops and further identified strategy axes to be undertaken for an efficient use and increased levels of fertilizers. Results indicated that for onion, tomato and potato, it was highly profitable to use three types of complete fertilizers (NPKMgO 12-14-19-5, NPKMgO 11-11-12-5 or NPK 20-10-10) combined with urea (46% N). The crop yields margin ranged between 6000 -10000 kg ha-1 with a gross benefit per ha comprised between USA$1578 and $3681. For cereals (rice and maize), it was moderately profitable to use the \"special maize and rice fertilizer\" (NPKSMgO 14-24-14-5-35) in addition to urea, meanwhile crop yields margin ranged between 1000 -4000 kg ha-1 with a gross benefit per ha fluctuating between $585 and $759. It was not profitable to use either \"special cotton or coffee fertilizer\" or NPK 20-10-10 plus urea on tree crops (cotton and coffee) as this led to have crop yields <1000 kg ha-1 for a gross benefit ranging between $302 and $384. Crop yield increases through the use of improved cultural practices and increase in crop proceeds through the improvement of products quality and development of exports to sub-regional/regional markets were identified as the two main strategy axes capable of boosting the consumption level and improving the cost-effectiveness of fertilizers in the country.Bio-Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Tree Production in South Eastern Drylands of Kenya Empirical evidence on key biophysical, social and economic factors and their interplay for enhanced tree production in drylands of Kenya is scarce and scattered. The thesis for the study was that tree production in drylands was mostly practiced by resource poor farmers who based their decisions on a multiplicity of bio-socio-economic factors. Data was collected through a survey covering 100 households using structured questionnaires. Sampling units were selected through multi-stage stratified random sampling procedures, and regression and descriptive statistics applied in analysis. It was observed that tree production was taken as a land use system by mostly youthful, poor and modestly educated farmers. Apart from tree varieties, and environmental and climatic conditions, tree survival was dependent on labour, type of farm enterprise, and availability of germplasm, market and farmer while tree technology adoption was dependent on farmer's age, capital assets, product price, and availability of water and farmer. Household male heads were heavily involved in all tree operations. Marketing of tree products was dependent on price, labour, capital assets, and technical knowhow. It was concluded that tree production in the South Eastern Drylands of Kenya was practiced more with resource poor farmers who based their decisions on a multiplicity of factors. Measures aimed at increasing farmer accessibility to water and markets were crucial in enhancing tree production. Exploratory research on ways of enhancing growth rates and economic value of indigenous trees was urgent. The traditional field experimentation approach (whether on-station or on-farm) is becoming increasingly inadequate in addressing problems related to complex agricultural systems. The conventional methods of experimentation, where multilocation trials are conducted over several years, are both time-consuming and expensive. One practical and cost-effective alternative is to use simulation models. Models enable effective investigation of a wide range of production scenarios over varying climatic and soil conditions. Over the past two decades, the crop growth modelling approach using dynamic process models has been adopted in Kenya to address problems related to effective and efficient management of natural resources. This paper provides a review of CERES-maize model adaptation and application for maize production and the APSIM model for evaluation of soil conservation practices in the drylands of eastern Kenya. CMKEN, the Kenyan version of CERES-maize, was used to simulate maize yields comparable to those experimentally derived (R 2 0.88), when tested under rainfed and irrigated conditions with varying cultivars, sowing dates, plant population and nitrogen fertiliser rates. After validation, the APSIM model accurately predicted maize yield (R 2 0.94) and was also tested for estimation of total soil, N and C losses, through runoff at KARI -Katumani, under similar conditions.Overcoming market constraint to pro-poor agricultural Growth in the Eastern of DR. Congo, South Kivu Poor agricultural commodity prices are the key causes of poverty in many sub-Saharan African countries. Efforts to improve rural livelihoods must improve agricultural produce marketing. This study was carried out to ascertain how the warrantage (a micro-credit scheme) system can be used to improve agricultural marketing and livelihoods in Madana community, Jigawa State, Nigeria. The design was an action research approach, based on supervised enterprise project framework. Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews, and group and personal discussions. Analysis was carried out using qualitative and quantitative methods. Prior to intervention, farmers in the area sold their produce at low prices immediately after harvest to meet urgent cash needs, resulting to low returns on investment and limited use of improved farm inputs. A pilot phase led to the observation that farmers could overcome the above problem if offered the opportunity to hold onto the produce for few months after harvest to take advantage of high prices during lean season. This study was to scale-up the findings from the pilot phase. Through the warrantage system, farmers have been able to timely access subsidised farm inputs, increase production, store their produce and sell during the lean period when prices are high. The outcome include: farmers are increasingly able to meet their cash and other needs. The impact of the project has generated widespread interest among other farmers even outside the Madana community. They are adopting the warrantage system as a model for sustainable self-help and a robust means of improving their livelihoods.Mobilizing Producer Marketing Groups for Sustainable Production and Natural Resource Management: Prospects and Challenges for Achieving Impacts at Scale with \"Green Revolution\" in Africa *Correponding author0: p.sanginga@cgiar.orgAchieving Green Revolution in Africa critically depends on organizing small-scale producers into marketing groups and strengthening their capacity to undertake collective action in natural resources management (NRM). This paper draws from a cross-sectional study of 100 producer marketing groups (PMGs) in Uganda. The paper presents a typology of PMGs based on their market readiness and innovation capacity, and investigates the factors that determine their capacity to compete in markets and to disseminate NRM innovations. The paper examines the PMG members' incentives to invest in ISFM, and the trade-offs and synergies between market access and soil fertility status for different categories of PMGs. The results, suggest that the chances of achieving impacts at scale with ISFM innovations can be improved by (i) improving functioning of input and output markets; (ii) strengthening innovation capacity and skills for experimentation in PMGs; (iii) strengthening social capital and connectivity to service providers and local government; (iv) promoting market institutional innovations for collective marketing (credit, market information system, financial management and business skills), and (v) identifying value chains and incentives that are strong enough to compensate for the risk in adoption; in combination with strategies to improve PMGs' skills that will contribute to their accumulation of financial, natural and human capital. The paper suggests that we need a better understanding of social resilience and sustainability of PMGs. Social resilience is the capacity of groups or communities to cope and adapt to changes in markets (products, prices, demand) and in the broader socio-ecological system. Many countries in Africa are undergoing economic reforms to reverse the wide spread and deepening poverty at the household level. Market liberalization is causing steep competition among the different stakeholders resulting in the need for spiral change in the production technologies. In the past, research was mostly geared towards food production and little was done to link it to market demands. Low adoption of agricultural technologies was mainly due to low participation of farmers in the technology development coupled by lack of market for produce. Linking research to market was done using farmer run farmer field school (FRFFS) approach in the highlands of southwestern Uganda. This was done after identifying potato as a possible enterprise for community's household income. Major constraints to potato production were bacterial wilt, late blight and low soil fertility. To perfect production, two FRFFS were set up in two sites and two experiments conducted on Victoria and KachPot 1 varieties. Experiments involved integrated late blight management with four different spraying regimes of rodimil and agrozeb and planting on ridges and conventional planting with and without fertilizers. Complete block randomized design with two replicates was used. Performance of technologies was done basing on marketable yield. Results showed that, for each unit of money invested in using agrozeb every after 14 days, 2.9 extra units of money are generated, 2.6units with agrozeb, then rodimil when necessary. However, spraying with agrozeb, followed by rodimil then agrozeb, results shows a loss of 2.0 units of money for each unit invested. While insufficient market access is recognized as a key institutional constraint to smallholder development in Africa, the generalities that characterize much of recent research on the subject mean that the mechanisms by which market access exerts influence are not well understood. Drawing on household-level data from the former \"independent homeland\" of South Africa, this paper employs the logistic model to isolate key components of market access, including access to market/price information, productive inputs, infrastructure, etc. Differences in the extent to which these factors constrain smallholder crop and livestock farmers buttress the expectation of greater policy impact from research that takes a wider view of market access. The paper fits the foregoing finding against the backdrop of South Africa's troubled past that continues to negatively impact on its agricultural economy. How this history has influenced intra-and inter-sectoral relationships and coordination is discussed. The paper further presents results that shed light on how policy and smallholder support measures can be better targeted to address the problems of limited market access in the communal/rural areas in order to increase the use of agricultural inputs such as mineral fertilizers, enhance agricultural productivity and equity as well as improve overall rural livelihoods. Results will be extrapolated to other rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa which, in many respects, are similar to the former \"independent homelands\" of South Africa. Research has found that linking farmers to market is a motivating factor for encouraging farmers to invest in soil fertility improvement techniques to maintain the sustainability of their production. Organic sources of fertilizers are common for farmers that cannot afford, or access, inorganic fertilisers. Integrating good varietal performances with organic soil fertility amendment improve soil quality and crop yield. Initially, five \"new\" bean varieties (NABE 4, NABE 5, NABE 11, NABE 12C and Mani ga mulimi) were tested for yield performance and profitability. Yields were only significantly different (P≤0.05) across sites. Therefore, farmers based selection on other characteristics rather than yield for varieties to adopt. NABE 4, NABE 5 and NABE 12C were the most preferred due to their good qualities (colours, size, promising marketability). In the subsequent trial, compost and liquid manure were evaluated on yields of two selected varieties. Similarly, yields were significantly different only across soil types. Participatory farmer evaluation using scoring determined that compost was preferred because most farmers were able to make it themselves. NABE 4 was most preferred because it was highly tolerant to drought and diseases, had short cooking time and tasty thick soup. Based on cost benefit analysis, control was more profitable than compost and liquid manure, farmers concluded that there was no need to add more nutrients to the soils. This reinforces the fear that farmers linked to markets will continue to exploit their natural resources and will not invest in sustainable crop production due to constraints investment ability and labour.Keywords: Bean production, organic farming, yield, farmer evaluation, profitability.Application of soil quality indicators in semi-arid rangelands in South Africa: perspectives for degradation monitoring Concerns were raised over the past decades on the degradation condition of arid and semi-arid rangelands in South Africa, mainly in areas under communal land management. Changes of vegetation components were often used to characterize degradation, whereas soil quality and degradation processes remain less understood. The integration of soil information in rangeland monitoring cannot be overemphasized. The aims of this study were to characterize and establish baseline indicators of soil quality/health, and to investigate the potential effects of grazing and exclusion management on soil quality indicators, that could be used for reporting on rangeland degradation in semi-arid South Africa. The soil characterization provided some valuable baseline indicators of soil quality (and fertility) at the sites surveyed. Notwithstanding the alarming plea about communal rangeland degradation, similar soil quality indicators were observed between the sites under communal management and surrounding commercial and/or game areas, considered well managed based on the attributed of their aboveground vegetation. This challenges the sole use of vegetation parameters in monitoring and assessing rangeland health. Furthermore, site-specific approach is cautioned when assessing degradation between different rangeland management systems. The results warrant the need to re-examine the \"tacit\" degradation in communal managed areas rangelands. This warrants the need to re-examine the \"tacit\" degradation in communal managed areas. The effects of grazing were divergent depending on the soil properties monitored and sitespecific characteristics. Last, the integration of both science-experts and community knowledge and understanding is essential to empower local stakeholders in order to support management decisions for sustainable rangeland use.Baseline indicators; communal rangeland management; grazing and exclusion effects; rangeland degradation; soil quality.Optimizing the production under trees in parklands at Nobéré (Burkina Faso) using shade tolerant crops Sanou J. 1 , Bayala J. Cereals production has been reported to be reduced under trees in parkland systems due to the shade indicating the need to replace them with shade tolerant crops. Thus, an experiment on the association of two fruit-trees, Adansonia digitata (Baobab) and Parkia biglobosa (Néré), with the millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and a shade tolerant crop called tabouchi (Xanthosoma sagittifolium), was conducted in Nobéré (Burkina Faso). The two crops were grown under 4 trees of each fruit-tree species. The influence zone of each tree was subdivided in 3 concentric zones: A= from tree trunk to half radius of the crown; B=from half radius to the edge of the crown and C=from the edge to 3 m away. A control plot was established for each tree in an area under no influence of any tree. The results revealed no significant difference in the height of millet plants under the two fruit species whereas the highest plants of the tabouchi were observed under néré tree. Trees shade increased the number of tillers but reduced the total leaves area of millet plants. In turn, the total leaves area of tabouchi plants was increased by shade. The photosynthetic energy conversion yield measurements revealed that the two crops were stressed during data recording period even though plants stress was lower in shaded zones. As a consequence of the above functioning parameters, the highest yields of millet were obtained in zone C (1754.17±177kg ha -1 ) under baobab trees while tabouchi performed better in zones A (4531.82±835kg ha -1 ) and B (3470.92 ±955kg ha -1 ) under néré trees proving its shade tolerance. An economic evaluation of the option of replacing cereal by shade tolerant crop is going to be conducted.Effect of Zai soil and water conservation technique on water balance and the fate of nitrate from organic amendments applied; a case of degraded crusted soils in Niger. The Zaï is a technology that creates conditions for runoff water harvesting in small pits. This water accumulates in the soil and constitutes a reservoir for plants. The organic amendment applied in the Zaï pits releases nutrients for these plants. During the dry season of 1999 at ICRISAT research station and the rainy seasons of 1999 and 2000 on-farm in Niger, experiments were conducted on degraded crusted soils to study the water status and nitrogen release in the soil throughout the season. In these experiments, the effect of application rates and organic amendment sources on millet biomass production in Zaï systems were tested on-station. While the effect of planting technique (Zaï versus flat) millet grain yield and biomass production was tested on on-farm. A rapid progress of the wetting front during the cropping period could be observed. It was below 125 cm in the Zaï treated plots 26 days after the rain started vs 60 cm for the non-treated plots. Applying cattle manure lead to shallower water profile due to increased water consumption. Plant available water was often exhausted in non-Zaï treated plots presuming shortage of water. Total nitrate content increased throughout the profile compared to the initial status, suggesting potential loss to the soil-plant system with drainage, which was less pronounced when cattle manure was applied. This study shows that the system improves soil water status allowing plants to escape from dry spells, however at the same time it can lead to loss of nutrients, particularly nitrogen. Agricultural productivity is widely recognized as a critical determinant to both human well being and economic growth in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), also accounting for over 70% of HIV cases globally. Several studies have shown that HIVS and nutrition operate in tandem. Moreover, it has been shown that the two greatly affect agricultural production due to reduced energy to work, inability to purchase agricultural inputs, low workforce and eventual death of the infected person especially the head of household among others. The link between agricultural productivity, malnutrition and HIV therefore cannot be overlooked. People who are inadequately nourished are more susceptible to diseases and poor health in general. In an attempt to achieve optimal nutrition and health status especially among vulnerable groups, various intervention programmes have used food supplementation using mainly plant based food products such as corn blend. These programmes have proved to be effective in restoring the nutrition and health status of the people concerned. However, much more value would be achieved if such programmes are complemented with basic health services such as deworming, micronutrient supplementation/fertilization, nutrition education as well as water, sanitation and hygiene as an additional component. This paper will explore the usefulness of adding value to agricultural production as an incentive for farmers to grow quality crops which could be used to address HIV/AIDS, hunger and malnutrition with major focus on preservation, processing, nutrition intervention and research. The benefits of research and nutrition education in order to improve nutriahealth and economic well being are highlighted. Through its pilots in various geographical areas and centred around various crop and livestock commodities, the project is testing various approaches that can stimulate commercialisation and develop responsive service delivery systems through focused capacity building activities and addressing various institutional, financial, market and information related constraints in a complex innovation systems framework. IPMS has been learning much about optimal strategies, in terms of application of relevant knowledge and approaches. However, a major challenge lies in ensuring that service delivery agencies (including research and extension) learn from these experiences and adopt responsive ways of working by engaging in dialogues with users to shape their agendas and ensure a continuous flow of knowledge generated for application to solve priority problems. To ensure continuity and sustainability of the new institutional arrangements and ensuring a continuous dialogue, the boundary spanning function needs to be institutionalized. The natural choice for housing this function, in the Ethiopian context, seems like the Extension service, but there no adequate skills or experience in the system. This paper while analyzing the project experiences also tries to highlight some important lessons for stimulating sustainable innovation processes and developing strategies to scale them out.Farming innovation for food security among the HIV/AIDS affected rural households in Western Kenya. Abstract Teso District in western Kenya is the home of close to 100,000 people and currently one of the most densely populated regions. Population densities range from 500 to 1200 people per km 2 and the population growth rate is over 3.4% per annum. It is also characterized by low crop productivity, shortened or non-existent fallow period, low fertilizer inputs, lack of use of pesticide and improved seeds. The high population pressure coupled with mono-cropping of maize (staple food crop) has caused a steady decline in soil fertility and soil organic matter content, which together have favored build up of Striga weed. Crop diversification is an instrument for successful agricultural innovation towards achieving high agricultural yields. Declining soil fertility and increasing food insecurity has necessitated evaluations of higher yielding methods of crop production as plausible alternatives to the traditional cropping systems. The performance of soybean when intercropped with grain amaranth was investigated on-farm in two sites in Teso district. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with two treatments replicated three times. Pure stands of each crop were used as controls. Grain yield of soybean and amaranth crops were significantly higher in the intercrops than in pure stands (P<0.05). Similarly, there was a significant difference between yields from sites one and two. The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) of the intercrops was greater than one (1.6) thus intercropping was preferred over the conventional mono-cropping system. Therefore, intercropping is one of the many technologies /innovations that can easily be adopted towards achieving the objectives of African Green Revolution.Micronutrient fertilizers for the Ethiopian soils in the new Ethiopian Millennium for fighting household food insecurity and malnutrition: a case from semi arid Tigray Plateau The relations between plants and soil biota involve positive and negative feedbacks between soil organisms, their chemical environment, and plants. Then, the characterization of microbial community functioning is important to understand these linkages. An experiment was conducted in a field system for two years to investigate the impact of rhizobial inoculation at the beginning of the rainy season of 13-years old trees on their arabic gum production. We investigated whether the soil microbial biomass and nitrogen mineralization affect gum production. Soil samples from the 0-25 cm, 25-50 cm and 50-75 cm layers of the rhizosphere of inoculated (IN) and not inoculated (NIN) trees were incubated under laboratory conditions and in situ. Interestingly, results obtained during the two years (2005 and 2006) showed that rhizobial inoculation significantly increased the arabic gum yield. These results could be correlated to other soil properties related to soil fertility, such as carbon and organic nitrogen content, and total microbial biomass. Rhizobial activities were highest at the 0-25 cm soil layers; where roots are present. Hence, rhizobial inoculation significantly increased the microbial biomass. However, any correlation could be found between the inoculation treatment and the N mineralization. Our results confirmed the positive effect of inoculation of mature trees on arabic gum production highlighted in previous data. Regarding the economic role of arabic gum, this study suggest innovative microbial approaches for sustainable arabic gum production and to improve livelihoods of the local populations. The rural poor populations are exposed to sanitary risks coming from improper management of the environment. Indeed the majority of the illnesses coming from water is bound to the management of human's excreta in this zone that sometimes account about 80% of households without latrine. The hypothesis is that, the stool and the human urine collected from the adapted and less expensive latrines are usable in agriculture to increase the productions and to improve the income of the small farmers. This work is made on the peri-urban site in Burkina Faso. Urine and stool, collected separately from the specifics latrines, then stocked in the cans (urines) during four weeks and in the closed pit (stools) during six months, have been tested respectively on the eggplant (Solanum melongena) and on the maize (Zea mays). Three doses determined according to the chemical composition of excreta have been put in comparison with the mineral fertilizer on clay-sandy soil for the eggplant and, on ferric oxisoil for the maize in the farmer field, during two years. The optimal doses for urine and for stool are respectively 1.2 litters by plant for eggplant and 980 kg ha -1 for maize. They increased yields respectively for eggplant and maize of +84% and +90% compared to the control, and also improve the income of farmers. The extension material facilitating the agricultural use of this human manure was elaborated. In conclusion the use of excreta collected would permit to purify the environment while improving agricultural production and income.Appropriation of decision support systems for better agricultural scenario analysis: Relevance, challenges and opportunities ICRISAT Zimbabwe has been working for the last ten years to encourage small-scale farmers to increase inorganic fertilizer use, and progressively increase their investments in agriculture, as the first steps towards Africa's own Green Revolution. The program of work is founded on a technology breakthrough proven to be successful in a subset of communities Southern Africa -micro-dosing using small targeted quantities of inorganic nitrogen fertilizer. It starts from the proposition that resource constraints prevent most risk averse farmers from pursuing rates of fertilizer application recommended by most national extension agencies. Rather than asking how can a smallholder subsistence farmer maximize her yields or profits, micro-dosing asks how can a farmer maximize the returns to a small initial investment -that might grow over time, turning deficits into surpluses. Our results from three years of wide scale testing across southern Zimbabwe have consistently shown that fertilizer micro-dosing can, irrespective of the resource status of the household, increase grain yields by 30 to 50% in both low and high potential areas where farmers cannot afford to purchase the current recommended rates of fertilizer. It is still unclear which of the social factors drive or condition the uptake of technological innovations derived from agricultural research by the poor smallholder farmers. The objective of the study was to unravel from the many social factors; the most dominant and determinant ones in the uptake of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) options in Emuhaya, Western Kenya. It specifically delved into the relationship between financial endowment and land resources as well as role distinction between men and women in the study area on the uptake of ISFM options. The information was obtained from small-scale farmers through questionnaires, participant observations, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with farmers, and extension officers in the area. The study generally established that there is a significant linkage between finance, land size and gender role differentiations with regard to the uptake of the innovative technology by the small scale farmers. Specifically, the study showed that the low income levels of farmers combined with small plots of land were a great impediment for uptake of the ISFM technology. The study revealed that the placement of most farm work on women, who head 70.2% of the households, but are coincidentally less financially empowered and with minimal land resources and decision making power, is an additional bottleneck towards successful adoption of ISFM technologies. The study recommends that soil fertility research interventions should take cognizance of distribution of financial as well as land resources among the target communities.The potential role of legumes in facilitating green revolution in Africa: integrating biophysical and socio-economic dimensions of technology innovation *Corresponding author: olival@swiftkenya.com Abstract Provision of sustainable solutions to the soil fertility problems undermining food security in many smallholder farming systems in SSA has remained largely elusive due to a number of factors, such as the high degree of social and ecological variability, and poor access by smallholder farmers to markets for seed, fertilizer and other essential inputs. Legumes have an important potential role in SSA as sources of food, fodder and income. However, the capacity of legumes to produce grain and biomass and to contribute to soil N fertility through atmospheric N 2 fixation is influenced not only by the genetic potential of the species but also by variations in environmental conditions. A study was conducted in western Kenya to assess the capacity of a wide range of legumes to improve smallholder productivity, using the socio-ecological niche concept as a framework for integrating the biophysical and socio-economic dimensions into the technology innovation process. Generally, the species fixed 7-90% of their N requirements. N 2 -fixation by the green manure species ranged from 29 kg N hato 232 kg N ha -1 , while that of the grain legumes ranged from 3 kg N hato 172 kg N ha -1 , and grain legumes with yields greater than 1 Mg ha -1 resulted in negative net N inputs into the soil. The grain yield of maize following legumes was increased by 33-47%. While economic benefits of growing legumes in rotation with maize varied with species, rainfall, soil fertility and prevailing produce prices, returns to land and labour were greatest with grain legume-maize cropping systems. However, the impact of the legumes on household food security varied, depending on the level of farmer resource endowment. Legumes have the potential to make significant contribution to African green revolution by stimulating productivity in smallholder farms in Africa, so long as appropriate tools and methodological approaches are used to address the social and ecological variability. Early attempts to realize a green revolution in Africa were informed by Asia's green revolution of 1960's. The Sasakawa Global 2000 project initiative in Africa which began in 1986, has lasted for twenty years and clarified many important lessons about assumptions, objectives, approaches and events that are essential to realizing a green revolution in Africa. Most importantly lessons learned clearly point to the need for alternative project design, approaches and reforms that are prerequisites for location specific success that might lead to a green revolution in Africa. Replicating such concomitant successes on a continental scale requires resources that are beyond the scale of any single institution and can only be attained through partnerships over a prolonged period. However such institutional commitments to co-operation and collaboration require more purposeful and transparent partnerships that aim for a greater common good rather than institutional triumph. Organizations embarking on a second thrust to achieve a green revolution in Africa will do well to be informed by the institutional framework that commands the services that technologies need to flourish. Africa's green revolution may well be lead/driven by institutional reforms rather than technological innovations.Formulating crop management options for Africa's drought-prone regions: Taking account of rainfall risk using modeling. The purpose of this paper is to highlight on the technological changes in agriculture among small scale farmers in Tanzania and how these changes have contributed towards poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable agriculture. The paper reviews the challenges in the sector with available evidence suggesting that most of the rural areas are faced with low production and productivity in agriculture, land degradation in the form of soil erosion, nutrient depletion are severe, while food crop yields of less than a metric ton per hectare are common and deforestation, overgrazing are widespread. The paper has gathered together issues on the status and trends of small scale farmers in Tanzania and their use of technologies, land and gender, labor, income and resources allocation. Results indicate that Investment in agricultural technology is crucial in order for to meet the growing demand for food at low cost.Current evidence provides support for the view that such investment is, indeed, profitable and does contribute to improved productivity. However, there is still a lack of empirical evidence derived from rigorously measuring the impact of technological change on household welfare, based on consumption and other factors. The few studies show that technological change improves income and food consumption while increase the burden of women's work hours in the field. Technology adoption and adaptation by farmers is influenced by a myriad of factors amongst them social and economic factors. Previous efforts to increase technology adoption have been based on a technology push whereby technologies developed either using conventional or participatory approaches are pushed to farmers for adoption. More recently debate on technology adoption by farmers has centered on the role of \"technology pull\" as a means to increasing the use of improved technologies especially by smallholder farmers. One of the \"pull\" factors is access to markets. It is hypothesized that better access to market opportunities provides incentives for adoption of agricultural technologies (improved varieties, seed, and inputs) and re-investment in Integrated Soil Fertility and Management innovations. In 2006, cross-sectional household surveys were carried out in selected sites in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania, to investigate how farmers were investing their resources as a result of improved access to markets and what their investment priorities were. While there is evidence that the more market-oriented farmers are able to invest their additional income in ISFM technologies, the study found out that there are significant variations across countries, crops, gender and wealth categories. Empirical evidence in Malawi and Tanzania shows that farmers receiving higher incomes due to improved marketing opportunities are purchasing inorganic fertilizers. However, in Uganda, reinvesting in agricultural inputs and soil fertility replenishment was a lower priority compared to other livelihood needs such as paying school fees, health care, nutrition, food security, business investments, housing, and savings. In Malawi purchasing agricultural inputs (mainly fertilizer and seeds) ranked highly followed by investments into small business and in small livestock. Analysis showed that 62.7% of farmers (67.8% women and 57.3% men) preferred to invest in purchasing fertilizer as a first priority, while 23.8% (30% women and 18.2% men) who preferred to purchase seeds as a second priority. These differences in investment priorities are also determined by wealth category, the amount of income obtained and gender.The African Network for Soil Biology and Fertility (AfNet)The African Network for Soil Biology and Fertility (AfNet) was established in 1988 as a pan-African Network of researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa. AfNet is the single most important implementing agency of Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT) in Africa.More recently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and The International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) for hosting AfNet under the umbrella of FARA. Since its inception, AfNet has grown steadily and the current membership stands at over 400 scientists. The Network aims at strengthening and sustaining stakeholder capacity to generate, share and apply soil fertility management knowledge and skills to contribute to the welfare of farming communities in the Africa. This is achieved through the adoption of the integrated soil fertility management (ISFM); a holistic approach to soil fertility that embraces the full range of driving factors and consequences namely biological, physical, chemical, social, economic and policy aspects of soil fertility.The main activities of AfNet are: (iii) Information dissemination: In an effort to facilitate exchange of information among all stakeholders, AfNet has published several books, newsletters, brochures and posters. AfNet has successfully organized 9 international symposia where researchers from across the continent were able to share their research experiences. AfNet has also established The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) to facilitate information dissemination to researchers and students.The AfNet Coordination Unit is comprised of The Coordinator, two research assistants and one administrative assistant. The AfNet Steering Committee consists of a multi-disciplinary and gender balanced team of African Scientists drawn from the Eastern, Southern, Central and Western Africa regions.The Soil Fertility Consortium for Southern Africa (SOFECSA) is a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary regional organization founded 2005 to develop and promote technical and institutional innovations that enhance contributions of integrated soil fertility research and development to sustainable food security and livelihood options in Southern Africa. SOFECSA is an impact-oriented consortium operationalised through a 15-member technical management/steering committee in collaboration with the host institution (CIMMYT-Southern Africa), a regional coordinator and support staff, and country-level teams drawn from diverse stakeholders.ISBN 978-92-9059-217-4","tokenCount":"17663"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d731dc99c6bdc62f266b958195c2151d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/516ee009-b986-4e69-bd19-df798be6dcb4/retrieve","id":"760088443"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"efd4d345-79da-4463-8139-1a1f5a67983f","pagecount":"12","content":"The CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes (GrainLegumes) is focused on eight major grain legume crops that are most important to the smallholder farmers in four regions: § South and Southeast Asia (SSEA)Chickpea, groundnut, pigeonpea, lentil § Sub--Saharan Africa (SSA) Groundnut, cowpea, common bean, soybean, faba bean, pigeonpea § Central and Western Asia and North Africa (CWANA)Chickpea, lentil, faba bean § Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)Common beanOver the nine--year Phase II period (2015--2023), the Research--for--Development activities under GrainLegumes will help increase grain legume harvests by 7.1 million tons in targeted countries in the four regions. The estimated economic value of this increase is US$ 4.5 billion. The health of consumers will improve from the extra 2.1 million tons of protein in their diets. Over 9% of the estimated economic value from CRP research is from benefits generated by environmental services. The additional 415,000 tons of nitrogen from biological fixation generates an equivalent fertilizer cost savings of US$ 392 million, and 5.5 million tons of avoided greenhouse gas emissions with an estimated value of US$ 55 million (US$ 10/ton CO 2 e).Ultimately, GrainLegumes will contribute to all four of the System Level Outcomes as described in the approved proposal. More immediate, the CRP will focus on producing the following five Intermediate Development Outcomes:• Improved productivity of pro--poor farming systems, especially among smallholder farmers • Increased and more equitable income from grain legumes, and control of it, by low income value chain actors, especially women • Improved and stable access to grain legumes by urban and rural poor • Increased consumption of healthy grain legumes and products by the poor for a more balanced and nutritious diet, especially among nutritionally vulnerable women and children • Minimized adverse environmental effects of increased production and intensification of grain legumes Draft targets for each IDO based on the projected impacts achievable across the Flagship Projects in the nine--year second phase are summarized for each IDO.• Yields of common bean increase at least 40% among adopters in Latin America and Africa • Drought tolerant cowpea varieties with 15--20% increase in yield adopted by 10--15% of farmers in target countries and planted in 1.0 million hectares; low--P tolerant cowpea varieties cover at least 500,000 ha in low soil fertility areas of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania. • Heat tolerant varieties of chickpea, faba bean, lentil and bean cultivated in 1.5 million hectares with 20--25% increase in yield in target regions • Short--duration chickpea and lentil varieties grown in 500,000 ha in rice--fallows and new niches, improving the cropping system productivity by 20--25% in target regions of South Asia • Adoption of drought tolerant groundnut cultivars provides 10--15% increase in yield in 500,000 ha in India and Vietnam; 200,000 ha in Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Niger, and Senegal; 150,000 ha in Malawi; 100,000 ha in Uganda and Mozambique • Adoption of drought tolerant soybean cultivars will increase grain yield by 15--30% in 50,000 ha in Malawi, 10,000 ha in Mozambique, 15,000 ha in Zambia and 100,000 ha in Nigeria • Adoption of soybean varieties with enhanced biological nitrogen fixation will provide 20--30% increases in grain and biomass yields and add at least 20 kg nitrogen per hectare to soil • Hybrid pigeonpea cultivated on 500,000 ha in target regions in India with an average increase of 20--25% productivity, with an increase in soil organic matter content by 0.2--0.3% • 15--20% increase in pigeonpea yields in 200,000 ha in Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda• Income from common bean sales increases by at least USD 250 million in Latin America and USD 300 million in Africa • 10--15% increase in income of 1 million households from growing drought and low--P tolerant cowpea varieties • 15--20% increase in income for at least 2.5 million households, of which 30% income earned by women, by growing heat tolerant varieties of chickpea, faba bean and lentil • 10--15% increase in income from groundnut for 1 million households across India and Vietnam • 10--20% reduction in labor requirement for women by cultivating short duration improved groundnut in India, Vietnam, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria and Niger • 10--20% increase in groundnut export due to reduced aflatoxin contamination in India, Vietnam; 15--20% in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda; and up to 10% in Burkina Faso, Ghana, in Nigeria, Mali, Senegal and Niger • 10% increase in income from groundnut in 150,000 households in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali; and 15--20% increase in income from groundnut in 200,000 households in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda; of which at least 50% earned by women • 15--20% increase in income from cultivation of short--duration chickpea and lentil varieties to about 1 million smallholder families, especially women--headed households • Chickpea, faba bean and lentil harvested mechanically in 2 million ha with 15--20% increase in income in target regions due to reduction in production costs, and 20--25% reduction in labor requirements of farm women involved in chickpea cultivation• An additional 1.6 million tons of common beans are available annually in Latin America, and 1.3 million tons in Africa, derived in part from an additional 500,000 hectares in heat prone areas, and an additional 500,000 hectares of climbing beans • At least 10% increase in cowpea production resulting in higher supply of grains to the market and ultimately consumers • At least 550,000 ha area in new niches brought into cultivation of chickpea, faba bean, lentil and bean by growing heat tolerant varieties• At least 15% increase in groundnut supply at household level in target areas in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda and 10--15% in Nigeria, Mali, Senegal and Niger • Decrease in grain legume price volatility/variability by at least 3--5% in the target regions in India, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal and Niger; and 2% in Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Syria, Turkey and Iran • About 1 million households growing an additional crop of short--duration chickpea/lentil in rice fallows and rice--rice systems • Decline in real price of pigeonpea by at least 10% in target regions 4. Increased consumption of healthy grain legumes and products by the poor for a more balanced and nutritious diet, especially among nutritionally vulnerable women and children• 10--15% increase in consumption of chickpea and faba bean, 15% of bean in Africa and 40% in Latin America, and 15--20% of lentil in target areas • 10% higher consumption of groundnut containing low aflatoxin particularly by women and children in India, Vietnam, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal and Niger • 20% higher consumption of lentil containing high iron and zinc content particularly by women and children in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Ethiopia • 20% increase in consumption of pigeonpea in poor rural households in India, and 10% in Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda, especially by women and children• An additional 25,000 metric tons of nitrogen from climbing beans, and 25,000 metric tons from improved bush beans • Cultivation of short--duration foliar diseases resistant groundnut varieties reduces pesticide use by 20--25% in target groundnut producing areas, minimizing environmental contamination by pesticide residues by at least 15% • Reduction in pesticide use in chickpea and pigeonpea by at least 25% in target regions of Asia • Reduction of yield losses by 35% in cowpea due to the adoption of IPM innovations based on host plant resistance (including Bt--transgenics), biological control and bio--pesticides, thereby reducing the use of synthetic pesticides by at least 25% • Increase soil fertility and organic matter content by 0.1--0.2% in the target groundnut areas in SSEA, ESA, WCAGrainLegumes will achieve the above IDOs through numerous impact pathways and theories of change that will vary depending on the crop, technology innovation, value chain and region being targeted. Such specificities are under draft. In this document, we present an overall picture of the impact pathway and theory of change that leads from the research outputs from each Flagship Project, to behavioral and capacity change among targeted immediate beneficiaries, ultimately leading to the desired set of Intermediate Development Outcomes and System Level Outcomes.Most outputs of the CGIAR Research Program on GrainLegumes are seed--based and therefore have commonalities in their development and dissemination. Historically, seed--based technologies have been easier to transfer to and to be adopted by farmers, with many farmers anxious to experiment with new varieties. An exception is the GrainLegumes' Flagship Project on 'Insect--smart' cowpeas, chickpeas and pigeonpeas. This Flagship Project will produce a significant Integrated Pest Management output that will include natural enemies of pests, but even this Flagship Project will have a host plant resistance component that is seed--based. On the other hand, most seed--based approaches will be complemented by a crop/pest/disease management component, and will also be strengthened if they facilitate participation in markets that in turn motivates investment in inputs.A number of assumptions are made regarding the potential for the CRP to produce the targeted outputs. These include the following.• Research for poverty stricken low potential areas will remain the domain of the public sector.• Adequate genetic diversity exists to offer significant protection against abiotic stress • Modern breeding techniques can enhance capacity of international centers and partners to breed for abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. • Past success in identifying natural enemies of legume pests can be converted into viable IPM systems. • There is buy--in of partners in the production of the outputs, along with an enabling environment.A common assumption about dissemination of new legume varieties is that farmers save their own stocks and seldom purchase seed, and that this is a disincentive to the private sector to produce and stock legume seed. Undoubtedly this has been a barrier to the rapid dissemination and the \"reach\" of improved legume varieties. However, this has also stimulated a more creative and diversified approach to legume seed production and dissemination systems. Among the multiple approaches tested, several scenarios for the marketing of small quantities of seed at economical prices (small seed packets) proved especially promising. Being able to experiment with new varieties at minimal risk motivated thousands of farmers to purchase seed packets for as little as the cost of a cup of tea. In turn some seed producers were motivated to enter the legume seed business, selling at a small unit price but at a higher per weight price. Mapping access by farmers to seed outlets will facilitate putting seed within reach of smallholder farmers. Some of the CRP seed--based products are designed to augment total food production and availability, and are targeted to producers with more resources (e.g., hybrid pigeonpea, herbicide resistant and/or mechanizable varieties), at least in the near term. Some of these technologies implicitly will be accompanied by changes in input use or machinery, and with the expectation that input providers will respond to this opportunity.One critical component of success has been to substitute the vertical model of the impact pathway (researchers to national partners to extension agents and seed producers) for an interactive model with feedback loops back and forth between farmers, traders, researchers, and seed producers. This can be viewed as linking up supply and demand, and has permitted the development of business and professional relationships whereby users and suppliers of seed (or other technology) enter into agreements that facilitate the flow of seed. These relationships should be nurtured to evolve into \"innovation platforms\". Other technologies benefit from other sorts of person--to--person communication such as farmer field schools, for which a \"training of trainers\" strategy can serve for scaling up.• Quality breeder and foundation seed can be produced in adequate quantities.• While small seed packs are a low risk option for farmers that permit them to experiment with new varieties, private seed companies may need some support to participate in this strategy. • Multiple approaches encouraged by the public sector will be needed to expand dissemination.• Novel agronomic practices that require capital investment will find slower adoption but this will be facilitated by marketable varieties.While there are many behavior changes in terms of seed purchase, crop management, etc., the essential behavior change at all levels (farmers, seed producers, input suppliers, and policy makers) needs to be a new attitude toward legumes. Farmers often plant a legume only after other crops are already established. As noted above, many seed producers see little future in legume seed. Policy makers fix their attention on volumes of food that normally proceed from cereals, and not on quality. All must consider legumes to be an indispensable component of the diet and of the farming system. An awareness of their nutritional value and health effects is an important part of this message, but a growing economic value driven by more effective markets will be the most effective tool for this, combined with a more effective communication strategy.• Dissemination gives farmers exposure to new varieties with greater market potential and leads to behavior change. • Farmers with modest--to--good capital and market access will adopt crop management techniques, especially when the variety lends itself to higher technology. • Enhanced markets will attract the attention of farmers, the private sector, and policy makers, and will raise the profile of all these actors With the change in behavior described above, support for legumes at all levels should be enhanced and the enabling environment greatly facilitated.• At least some seed companies will be induced to distribute and sell small seed packs, while others will eventually respond to the opportunity afforded by a more technical production system. • Extension services, especially those sponsored by NGOs, will help reach the poorest of the poor.Partnerships and networking are crucial to CRP Grain Legumes, as the CRP focuses on facilitating R4D activities among a wide array of partners. CRP Grain Legumes with partner with (i) national agricultural research systems in the target countries in ESA, WCA, SSEA, CWANA and LAC, (ii) regional R4D networks, (iii) advanced research institutes in both developed and developing countries, (iv) private sector R&D institutions and companies, and (v) non--governmental organizations and farmers' organizations.GrainLegumes will be working with the NARS in each target region to ensure that the international public goods generated by the CRP are fine--tuned to meet the local needs and conditions, and subsequent adoption by smallholder farmers. The NARS will be involved in (i) using modern tools to enhance efficiency of their own breeding programs, (ii) co--develop and evaluate germplasm and disseminate high yielding legume varieties, (iii) evaluate and disseminate integrated crop management technologies, (iv) identify and enhance improved seed delivery models, and (v) enhance capacities of men and women for grain legume R4D innovations.Regional R4D networks: GrainLegumes will harness the strength of well--established regional networks as they are very effective for accelerating impacts and strengthening capacities. CRP Grain Legumes will work with the regional networks (e.g., CLAN, APAARI, AARINENA, CORAF, ASARECA) to widen their scope and impacts along the legume value chain. Being regionally based, the networks are close to the socio-economic and biophysical context in which adoption and impact occurs. These networks will also provide feedback on regional/national knowledge, data, information on grain legume issues, trends, priorities and expectations. In addition, the networks will be: (i) sharing evidence, best practices, innovative ideas and problem--solving expertise across crops and regions; (ii) sharing facilities and services among those best equipped to carry out different tasks; (iii) coordinating and fostering inter-disciplinary and cross--crop project collaboration; (iv) mentoring and training of young scientists and providing them opportunities for professional development; and (v) creating scientific consensus of opinion to informed policy--making. Unfortunately, some networks have become dormant or are at low-level of activity in the past decade due to lack of resources. CRP Grain Legumes will attempt to provide support to these networks, because of the strength they have to exploit new opportunities.The CGIAR centers are already involved in research collaboration with many ARIs in both developed and developing countries. GrainLegumes will strengthen and enhance partnership research in the following areas: (i) new tools and methods to identify trait--specific germplasm, (ii) technological support in using modern biotechnology (genomics and genetic engineering) tools, (iii) high--throughput phenotyping and genotyping platforms, (iv) crop simulation modeling, (v) strategies to improve existing seed systems models and policies, (vi) developing post-harvest and value--addition technologies, and (vii) capacity building of partners in R4D innovations.Research and development investment by the private sector, especially in biotechnology related areas, is likely to further increase in the coming years. GrainLegumes will partner with relevant private sector R4D institutions without compromising the CGIAR principles and interests. The private sector has been very active in seed production and delivery systems, but mostly in industrial crops and hybrids. Considering that private sector involvement in grain legumes has been low, GrainLegumes will work closely with both national and multinational seed companies to increase their role in legume seed business. GrainLegumes also envisages partnership with the private sector in the area of seed systems, post--harvest processing and value--addition.Grain legumes are mostly grown by smallholder farmers in marginal areas, with limited access to inputs, technologies and markets. Many of the NGOs operate in remote areas and in the drylands where grain legumes are extensively cultivated, and work closely with marginal and smallholder farmers. GrainLegumes will work with local NGOs and FOs for on--farm testing and evaluation of improved legume varieties, promoting proven and best--bet crop management technologies, facilitating village cooperatives for seed production and delivery, help in seed--business incubation, enhance awareness on post--harvest processing technologies and value--addition, linking farmers to markets and aspects of nutrition and health.The October 2012 approved CGIAR Research Program on GrainLegumes that is being implemented is structured around the development and delivery of eight innovative 'game changing' Product Lines. We consider that these Product Lines are the 'Flagship Projects' in the new CRP Phase. Each Flagship Project (Product Line) was developed based on a critical analysis of the major product and market constraints in the targeted regions. Further details on each Flagship Project (Product Line) is provided in the approved proposal available on the GrainLegumes website (www.grainlegumes.cgiar.org).FP 1. Drought and low--phosphorous tolerant common bean, cowpea, and soybean FP 2. Heat--tolerant chickpea, common bean, faba bean and lentil FP 3. Short--duration, drought--tolerant and aflatoxin--free groundnutManaging key biotic stresses FP 5. Insect--smart chickpea, cowpea, and pigeonpea production systemsUltimately, all Flagship Projects will address each of the IDOs, although as seen in the following diagram, we perceive that the weight of the contribution of each FP to a specific IDO will vary.Following are brief descriptions of the proposed Flagship Projects in Phase II.Water deficits (drought) and low soil fertility (poor plant nutrition) are considered to be major abiotic stress limitations for production, especially for legume crops that are cultivated in relatively marginal environments. Research on abiotic stresses including breeding has a long history in the CGIAR, which has improved genetic adaptation to drought through an innovative combination of approaches: trait based selection with some sharing of common approaches across different species; genomics combined with a thorough understanding of adaptation mechanisms and their genetic basis; crop simulation modeling to help navigate the biological complexity; and interspecific crosses with desert species Phaseolus acutifolius in the case of common bean. This Flagship Project will extend the impact of drought tolerant cultivars, and incorporates a component of enhancing adaptation to low fertility soils, especially soils with low phosphorus availability. Low soil fertility is the most widespread and chronic limitation to crop yield in the tropics, often co--occurring with drought in areas where legumes are cultivated. Improving on--farm yields demands dealing with multiple stresses. Addressing drought and low P in a combined manner is both innovative and necessary.Many countries could experience unprecedented heat stress because of global climate change. Heat sensitivity in crops such as chickpea, common bean, faba bean, and lentil is a major limiting factor that can reduce yields, product quality, and lead to restricted geographic adaptation. This Flagship Project provides an opportunity for comparative studies on heat tolerance across legumes. The levels of heat tolerance available in different species can be compared and the most heat tolerant species can be identified for a target environment. It will also help in establishing common sites and protocols for heat tolerance screening. Comparative studies on physiological mechanisms of heat tolerance will help in understanding mechanisms of heat tolerance across legumes and developing a lab--based screening method (e.g., pollen selection) for heat tolerance. The candidate genes for heat tolerance identified in one species can be used to identify homologous genes across species.Over two--thirds of the global groundnut is produced as a rainfed crop where drought is a major yield reducer. While drought can occur throughout the growing season, mid--season drought and end of season drought are estimated to cause losses of 500 million US$ annually. End--of--season drought not only reduces crop yield substantially but also predisposes groundnut to infection by aflatoxin producing fungi Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. Aflatoxin contamination is an important quality and health concern worldwide affecting its trade and profitability. Genomic and genetic engineering approaches are envisaged address these problems more effectively.Symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) is a trait that distinguishes legumes among the major world crops. In the target areas of CRP on Grain Legumes, that are often low input systems, the capacity of grain legumes to capture nitrogen (N) symbiotically is a fundamental characteristic that needs to be fully harnessed and exploited. Legumes meet a large part of their own N demand through SNF and also partially contribute to the N requirement of the following crop in the system. Past efforts to enhance SNF through inoculation with improved Rhizobium strains were partially successful, and N2Africa project is addressing this aspect. Although, many factors determining the rate of nitrogen fixation are set by the host plant, starting with the phloem flow, breeders have been reticent to incorporate SNF as a breeding objective due to lack of good selection tools, and without clear evidence of the potential of success among other multiple breeding objectives. New strategies that are focused on the plant, and that address the fundamental limitations to SNF, must be developed, employing new tools that have come on board in the past two decades, and using recently developed stress tolerant germplasm and reference collections that are a gateway to access diversity.Chickpea, cowpea, and pigeonpea are devastated in the farmers' fields by insect pests, particularly the pod borers, Helicoverpa armigera and Maruca vitrata. They cause estimated losses of over US$ 1 billion annually, despite application of insecticides costing over $500 million annually. The levels of resistance to pod borers in the cultivated germplasm are quite low, and hence, there has been little progress in developing cultivars with adequate levels of resistance to these pests. However, wild relatives of these crops do have high levels of resistance to these pests. Other pests of economic importance, with geographical differences, are heteropteran pod sucking bugs, Clavigralla spp. in cowpea and pigeonpea; pod fly, Melanagromyza obtusa in pigeonpea; and flower thrips in cowpea and pigeonpea. Our vision for the Flagship Project 'Insect--smart production systems' is to use an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach that will integrate the application of genetic engineering and genomic tools, wide hybridization, and rational application of biopesticides and synthetic pesticides to guide decision--making in pest management. The integration of transgenic plants with high levels of resistance to pod borers and management approaches will act as a major game changer to provide a sustainable solution to these intractable pest problems. This approach will be based on a thorough understanding of pest biology, behavior, population dynamics and migration patterns in relation to biotic and abiotic mortality factors and climate change, providing a systems perspective in relation to cropping systems where these crops are grown, instead of focusing solely on the crop plants per se.Flagship Project 6. Extra--early chickpea and lentil varieties South Asia's farming systems are dominated by mono--cropping cereal--based systems: rice--wheat (9.8 million hectares) and rice--rice (2.1 million hectares) systems. In the Indo--Gangetic Plain, expansion of more productive wheat in northern India and boro--rice in eastern India and Bangladesh has resulted in substantial reductions of chickpea and lentil cultivation. With cereal yields projected to double over the next 30 years, legumes are likely to be pushed out, unless extra--early varieties of chickpea and lentil are developed that can fit in these cropping systems, and thus increase legume production and sustain productivity of the rice--based system. Extra--early varieties (90--100 days) escape end--of--season drought and heat stresses in addition to fitting the crops in available short windows of these cropping systems.Weeds (parasitic and non--parasitic) continue to be a major production constraint to grain legume production. This Flagship Project will focus on development and delivery of both, genetic and non-genetic options for weed management. In genetic options, simple and efficient herbicide tolerance screening techniques will be developed and novel sources of herbicide tolerance identified from both existing and induced genetic variability and used in breeding programs for developing herbicide tolerant breeding lines. The research on non--genetic options will include identification of herbicides with less phytotoxic effects on legumes; development of effective methods for application of herbicides, and identification of cultural measures, compatible genotypes and crop rotations for integrated management of weeds (mainly parasitic weeds on faba bean and lentil). Traits amenable for mechanized harvesting will be integrated so that the genotypes are suitable for intensified management.Pigeonpea is an important grain legume crop in South Asia, and East and southern Africa. While area under pigeonpea cultivation has an annual growth of about 2% over the past 50 years, its productivity remains low at 700 kg/ha. The successful development of hybrids based on cytoplasmic male--sterility has opened up new avenue for enhancing the yield potential of pigeonpea. This is a technology that has only begun to show its potential, and like hybrid maize in the 1930s, this will change the face of pigeonpea production for many years to come. Considerable progress has been made in developing a seed production system for large--scale deployment of pigeonpea hybrids.Five Strategic Components (SCs) contribute to advancing Grain Legumes objectives of improving the production, sales, and consumption of grain legumes. ","tokenCount":"4319"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"239cc62de9ad77be08893afb6ee8d13b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dcc3f73d-cb41-4a82-ba95-7b67ee8b7f66/retrieve","id":"-1334736423"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bd05c36d-91ec-4324-95a1-aa024bb1b753","pagecount":"29","content":"Agroforestry is practised by almost a third of rural smallholders (Miller et al., 2017) on 43% of the world's agricultural lands (Zomer et al., 2014). Agroforestry systems can take many forms, ranging from agrisilvicultural (trees combined with crops) to silvopastoral (trees combined with pastures or animals) and agrosilvopastoral systems (trees combined with animals and crops) (Nair et al., 2021). Agroforestry systems contribute to provisioning food and nutrition, medicine, and income to rural households and play critical cultural roles and regulatory functions (e.g. water regulation, soil fertility, biodiversity conservation, pollination) around the world (ibid.). As such, agroforestry is central to the resilience of rural people and landscapes globally.Yet these socio-ecological systems embed and (re)produce significant gender differences and inequalities. These range from gender-specific labour, knowledge, and skills to inequalities in decision-making, access to and control over resources, and costs and benefits related to agroforestry. Gender relations interact with other social relations, such as those based on ethnicity, age and generation, socio-economic status, and more, to produce differential experiences, outcomes, and inequalities (Colfer et al., 2018) in relation to agroforestry.The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize gender equality as a goal in its own right, and as a key lever for achieving other SDGs. Similarly, gender equality may be its own goal in agroforestry interventions, and a lever for achieving other desirable agroforestry outcomes. Yet gender must be intentionally addressed in agroforestry initiatives if they are to hold promise for social justice and sustainable development (Elias et al., 2023).This chapter explores the nexus of gender and agroforestry. Specifically, we recognize that gender shapes agroforestry systems and that agroforestry systems can either (re)produce, or alternatively, challenge gender inequalities; and we explore projects and initiatives that have sought to do the latter.To support this analysis, we draw on two frameworks -the Gender at Work framework, and the Reach-Benefit-Empower-Transform framework -to understand, respectively: (1) gender transformative change in and through agroforestry; and (2) a range of programmatic approaches for working with gender to support this change. To bring the discussion to life, we draw on examples of agroforestry projects that have intentionally addressed gender relations and examine how they have fared. In so doing, we highlight entry points for agroforestry interventions to promote greater equality.To structure our analysis of the gender-agroforestry nexus, we draw on Rao and Kelleher's (2005) 'Gender at Work' framework of 'what needs to change' to achieve gender equality. Adapted from Wilber (1999), the framework highlights the formal and informal barriers to gender equality that must be lifted together, from the individual-to the system level, to support equality (Fig. 1). As shown by the arrows, changes across levels and quadrants are mutually reinforcing.Broadly explained, in the top left quadrant (quadrant 1), we include aspects related to gendered knowledge, self-awareness, decision-making, and agency (the ability to make strategic life decisions and act upon them in situations where this ability was previously denied (Kabeer, 1999)), which are linked with women's (and men's) capacities, leadership, voice, and influence. These contribute to achieving a rich and reflective understanding of the world (critical consciousness) that underpins action to redress the inequalities described in quadrants 2-4. Women's access to and control over resources (quadrant 2) includes control over assets, income, and information. Following Morgan et al. (2023), we highlight that between the individual and the systemic levels, changes in women's and men's critical consciousness and rights to resources also occur at the collective level. The bottom-right quadrant 3 refers to the changes needed in formal policies and regulations, including those that condition governance processes. Finally, the bottom-left quadrant 4 includes the informal 'rules of the game' (North, 1991), such as gender norms and discriminatory beliefs, traditions, and practices that shape the conditions and processes (decision-making, control over resources, policy-making, and implementation) described in the other quadrants. We apply the framework below to demonstrate some of the ways in which gender and agroforestry are mutually shaped and summarize these in Table 1.  Due to socially prescribed roles and responsibilities, rural women and men are often tasked with collecting, using, and managing different tree products (Catacutan and Naz, 2015;Gelinas et al., 2015;Kiptot, 2015;Villamor et al., 2015). This gendered division of labour influences the perceptions, knowledge, and skills women and men acquire about tree resources (e.g. Müller et al., 2015), and the value they place on diverse tree species, traits and products, and environmental services (Kiptot et al., 2014;Degrande and Arinloye, 2015;Gutiérrez Velásquez, 2016;Karambiri et al., 2017). Despite these gendered knowledge systems and preferences, women are often excluded from decision-making processes related to agroforestry (Kiptot and Franzel, 2011;Gonçalves et al., 2021). The capacity to make decisions about land use, which tree species to safeguard or plant, how to use different parts of trees, whether or not to adopt agroforestry innovations, and more, are shaped by gender and other social identities, such as marital status, lineage, and stage in the life cycle (Assé and Lassoie, 2011;Colfer et al., 2015;Gumucio et al., 2017). Women's influence over decision-making processes is often limited in restoration, climate action (e.g. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+)), and other agroforestry programmes and initiatives (Larson et al., 2018;Sarmiento Barletti et al., 2019;Kristjanson, 2020;Elias et al., 2022). This partly owes to a lack of recognition of women as agroforesters and resource managers, despite their multiple contributions to managing trees and collecting, processing, trading in, and otherwise using tree products (Islam, 2015). Challenging this misperception, which rural women themselves have frequently internalized (Elias, 2015), is an important step for increasing women's individual and collective self-awareness, critical consciousness, and agency in and through agroforestry.Gender inequalities are also manifest in relation to access to and control over land, trees, and other agroforestry resources. Customary and formal laws, which embed and reproduce gender inequalities, mediate rights to land and incentives and capacity to manage tree resources. In patrilineal systems, women's rights hinge upon their relationship with male relatives -usually a husband, father, or uncle -who are considered primary rightsholders (Colfer et al., 2016;Meinzen-Dick et al., 2019). Rights to plant, harvest, or fell trees are also formed at the intersection of gender and other factors, such as marital and residence status (Kiptot and Franzel, 2011;Elias et al., 2017). In the many contexts where tree planting signals a claim to land, there are commonly prohibitions against women planting trees because of their insecure rights to land (Kiptot and Franzel, 2012;Colfer et al., 2017). Gendered land and tree tenure regimes affect tree management strategies, as tenure insecurity limits women's incentives to plant and manage trees to which they may not have long-term rights (Howard and Nabanoga, 2007).Although they are dynamic and interrelated, there can also be distinctions between rights to land and to the trees it harbours. For example, in Burkina Faso, rights to shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) are not automatically conferred to the borrower when land is loaned (Kuusaana, 2022), and access to néré (Parkia biglobosa) pods follows a hierarchy based on women's lineage, order of marriage (in polygamous households), and migrant or resident status (Pehou et al. 2020). Rural women's more limited access (as compared to men) to other types of agroforestry assets, such as agricultural inputs, new technologies, means of transport, as well as to labour and to complementary services (information, credit, etc., described below) also hinder women's access to benefits from agroforestry (Degrande and Arinloye, 2015).As mentioned above, women's exclusions from decision-making and from accessing and controlling agroforestry resources are frequently enshrined in formal institutions, laws, and policies. Extension services and input delivery systems, financial services, laws regulating land tenure, and other formal institutions may fail to recognize women as agroforesters, farmers, and resource managers (Kiptot and Franzel, 2011;Degrande and Arinloye, 2015;Quisumbing et al., 2019). Other times, these institutions embed the problematic assumption that rights and services delivered to men will automatically reach and benefit other household members (Quisumbing et al., 2019). Extension systems are themselves largely staffed with men, which complicates contact with rural women when norms discourage interactions across gender groups with non-family members (Ragasa, 2014).Gender biases in private and public services, such as credit and extension services (Manfre et al., 2013;Kosec et al., 2023), limit women's capacity to participate in agroforestry markets and to build remunerative tree-based enterprises (Catacutan and Naz, 2015;Ingram et al., 2016;Davis et al., 2019). Where benefits from agroforestry are formally linked to land rights, such as in many Payments for Ecosystem Services schemes, women who are not registered on titles receive limited direct benefits from these initiatives (Sunderlin et al., 2018;Kariuki and Birner, 2021;Tseng et al., 2021). When rules of the entry limit the number of members in farmers' associations or cooperatives to one per household, women are usually excluded in favour of their husband, which limits women's direct access to services and benefits from these groups (Kaaria et al., 2016).Norms and belief systems underpin these exclusions and inequalities. For example, as noted above, gender norms shape the division of labour in agroforestry systems. As Sunderland et al. (2014) show in their global comparative study, although there are regional specificities, rural women typically dominate the collection of non-timber tree products for food, fuel, fodder, medicine, and small-scale trade, whereas men are primary harvesters of structural fibre, such as timber for construction or sale. There are also normative specifications about where women and men should collect tree products, which species they can plant or harvest, which parts of the tree they can draw from, and more (Elias et al., 2017). Claims to land, the most fundamental resource in land-based production systems, are also normatively mediated. For example, even when women's and men's rights to land are equal before the law, social sanctions and stigmas may strongly deter women from claiming these rights (Doss and Meinzen-Dick, 2020).As noted above, gender norms shape decision-making patterns, including in agroforestry initiatives (Colfer et al., 2015;Gumucio et al., 2017). In many contexts, such norms discourage women from attending public meetings or speaking up in front of their male counterparts (Agarwal, 2001;Elias et al., 2020). At the household level, too, women's participation in certain decisionmaking processes, including those related to land and tree management, may be frowned upon and limited -though the issue is complex and contextspecific (Mwangi et al., 2011;Kiptot, 2015;Gumucio et al., 2017). Taboos, social restrictions on mobility, and time deficits resulting from the gender division of labour further limit women's capacity to engage in agroforestry initiatives and markets (Agarwal, 2011;Kiptot and Franzel, 2011;Degrande and Arinloye, 2015).Many agroforestry initiatives -programmes, projects, and research -seek to recognize, respond to, and challenge these gender-based constraints. The 'Reach, Benefit, Empower' (RBE) framework (Johnson et al., 2018) offers clear practical guidance for understanding and developing effective strategies to achieve and monitor progress towards these goals. The original RBE framework was adapted to include the 'Transform' (T) dimension (CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems, 2017), which captures programmatic aims and strategies to lift the barriers to gender equality, moving beyond a focus on individual women and their groups towards reforming the informal and formal discriminatory structures (norms, policies -quadrants 3 and 4 of Fig. 1) that maintain inequality. Table 2 presents the key elements of the framework, aligning progressively more ambitious objectives for women's empowerment and gender equality with strategies for achieving these, and with indicators that can be used to monitor their achievement. The four dimensions of RBET are not mutually exclusive, but rather reinforcing. As shown in Table 2, goals and strategies to reach, benefit, or empower women, or to transform unequal gender relations and norms are often distinct, however. In this chapter, we draw upon the RBET framework to demonstrate some of the approaches that agroforestry initiatives have taken to reach and benefit women, support their empowerment, and transform discriminatory structures to advance gender equality.One of the most common ways agroforestry projects attempt to reach and benefit women is by involving them in the selection of tree species. In so doing, projects recognize that women and men are both legitimate stakeholders with overlapping but also distinct knowledge and priorities for tree species. Two illustrative examples of such efforts are presented below.The first is the study 'Gender and climate mitigation through coffee agroforestry', conducted as a complementary research component within four partly overlapping projects implemented in Northwest Vietnam (Dien Bien and Son La provinces) by World Agroforestry, CARE, and Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD). The northern upland region of Vietnam is populated by ethnic minority groups, now sedentary and characterized by diverse cultural practices and norms. The study focused on the Thai ethnic group, which typically occupies the lower segments of valleys, with access to both paddy fields and some sloping land with forestry and home gardens. Decades of monoculture on deforested hills have resulted in severe land degradation, and in response there has been a recent shift in government policies (e.g. Nationally Determined Contributions) towards more tree planting, both in forests and agroforestry systems, to address livelihood, degradation, and climate change concerns (Mulia et al., 2020).Project staff had been implementing agroforestry in the region since 2011 and observed that forestry was typically considered men's purview. Men worked in the forests and were therefore assumed to be more knowledgeable about trees in general. Forestry extension officers were men, who tended to talk to male farmers, thereby reinforcing the exclusion of women. Within some ethnic groups, however, fruit trees in home gardens were under women's care; and despite limited dedicated attention to gender issues, project staff observed that men and women had different priorities for trees.A complementary applied research component (2018-2020) was thus developed to bring women's tree preferences to the fore. The research aimed to: (1) fine-tune the methodology for collecting data on local socio-ecological knowledge about tree species and related preferences for coffee agroforestry systems, and (2) provide evidence on the importance of a gender-sensitive understanding of agroecological knowledge and priorities. Through structured and semi-structured interviews and participatory group exercises with women and men separately, the project team explored local women's and men's knowledge of priority tree species, and their valuation of ecosystem services associated with each species in Arabica coffee agroforestry systems compared to coffee monocultures. Simelton et al. (2021a) provide more detail on how the study followed the prompts from the 'ShadeTree Advice' methodology (Rigal et al., 2022) to identify gender-specific tree species preferences.Findings, presented in Simelton et al. (2021a) and Nguyen et al. (2020), showed that men prioritized tree species for inclusion in coffee agroforestry systems according to three main criteria, namely, soil quality (species contributing to soil fertility, soil moisture, low root competition, litter provision, erosion control), coffee production (species that do not negatively impact coffee yields), and income generation (Fig. 2). In comparison, women valued more types of benefits related to: labour requirements, shade provision, microclimate, pest and disease resistance, coffee production, income generation, and soil quality (Fig. 3). Despite its importance to women, income generation was not a primary criterion for them to prioritize tree species. Instead, they considered fruit tree species and others that reduce household expenditures because their products are consumed within the home as priorities.The overall preferred species for men was honey locust (Fructus gleditschiae (Gleditsia)), whereas for women it was plum (Prunus salicina), a multipurpose species (Table 3). The three species that men prioritized were also included among women's priorities so this rendered no conflicting result (Table 3). Instead, because women's priorities were based on a wider range of criteria, also consulting them resulted in a larger number (nine) of potential tree species for inclusion in agroforestry systems.Several reasons account for differences in men's and women's tree species preferences. For one, rural men from ethnic minorities in Vietnam generally have more years of formal schooling than their women counterparts and are more likely to be bilingual and speak Vietnamese, the national language. They are therefore better able to access public information and communicate with extension and project officers, which are predominantly done in Vietnamese. Preferences are also shaped by gender roles. Because women weed and pick coffee cherries under the sun, they value trees with canopies that provide  suitable shade for coffee (such as locust and candle bush) and for themselves. Moreover, their heavy farming and domestic responsibilities, including their caretaking (of children, elders) roles, leave them little time to follow courses or attend meetings, which often restricts their participation in value-addition activities of the family enterprise. This contributes to women's preferences for fruit trees, from which they can sell fruits directly. By exploring gender-specific tree species preferences, the project helped to reveal, document, and discuss these normative gender roles with study participants (quadrant 4 in Fig. 1). Findings have also informed subsequent projects targeting ethnic minority women in developing marketing and economic skills for coffee and agroforestry business (Simelton et al., 2021b). Results have additionally been shared with investors, government, and extension officers, who usually decide what tree seedlings to select for agroforestry projects (see Nguyen et al 2020).Reinforcing results from the first case study in a different regional context, the second example -the 'Agroecological Regenerative Cocoa' (ARC) project -focuses on another tree crop: cocoa. Cocoa is the second most important agricultural product in Peru after coffee, and the Peruvian cocoa sector employs more than 100000 families, generating 13 million wages annually (Soto et al., 2022). Cocoa forms part of the ancestral Amazon culture, knowledge, and heritage of Indigenous peoples. Yet the expansion of cocoa plots is one of the main threats to forest ecosystems in the region. Cocoa agroforestry (versus monoculture) is considered a way to strike a balance between profitability and forest conservation.The ARC project (2020-2025) aims to contribute to the establishment of productive and sustainable cocoa agroforestry landscapes to improve the quality of production, ecological resilience, socio-economic sustainability, and sustainable access to markets. Led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in collaboration with KAOKA, Colpa de Loros cooperative, CECAO cooperative, Conservation International, and World Agroforestry, the project's gender equality objective focuses on the equal participation and leadership of women and men. Emphasis is on 'reaching' and 'benefiting' (Table 2) women by including them and ensuring their participation in the co-design and implementation of activities, and designing activities 'according to the context and the necessities of women and men' for the benefit of all.The project recognizes that traditionally women in the Peruvian Amazon have played a crucial role in the preservation and sustainable use of tree species, non-timber forest products, and medicinal plants, drawing on their knowledge of ancestral practices and its intergenerational transmission. In Peru's Amazonian region of Ucayali, the project is working with the Colpa de Loros cooperative that includes 30% of women members. The project has taken an intersectional approach by including women of different age groups (a group of 40-to 60-year-olds and another of 60-to 80-year-olds) and ethnicities (Quechua from the Andean regions and mestizos from the coastal region).In the project site, a situational analysis showed important gender gaps in household headship (Fig. 4), which is linked to decision-making authority. Although this is a common traditional household structure in the Peruvian Amazon, the project emphasizes more egalitarian decision-making in relation to tree species selection in agroforestry plots to benefit not a specific gender group, but the entire community and the environment.The situational analysis surfaced differences in women's and men's tree species preferences, which were based on different criteria. Men wanted to plant a greater number and proportion (85%) of timber trees, such as mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) and caipirona (Calycophyllum spruceanum), because of their high market value. In contrast, although financial benefits were important for women, they wanted to plant a large proportion (50%) of fruit tree species, and of species providing medicinals, firewood, and other products related to household maintenance and well-being.By applying a gender-sensitive methodology for tree species selection, the project was able to respond to the preferences of women and men, to provide benefits of importance to both. Planting multiple tree species supported diverse income streams to alleviate financial constraints between cocoa harvesting seasons, and greater dietary diversity, including the production of nutritious seeds, nuts, and fruits. As in the Vietnam case, assuming that all species are ecologically compatible, cocoa agroforestry systems informed by women's and men's priorities would thus promote greater agrobiodiversity while promoting greater equity in agroforestry. In both cases, prior information, group consultations, and debriefing sessions were important for supporting women's full participation in research and other project activities.The project 'Nutrition-sensitive forest restoration to enhance the capacity of rural communities in Burkina Faso to adapt to change ' (2016-2019) aimed to increase the utilization and restoration or planting by smallholder farmers of tree diversity with optimal characteristics for local use, adaptation to climate change, and nutrition. Coordinated by Bioversity International, the project was implemented in the Sahelian and Sudanian regions of Burkina Faso, in collaboration with the Burkinabè NGO Association tiipaalga, the Burkina Faso National Tree Seed Centre (CNSF), the Institute of Research in Applied Sciences and Technologies (IRSAT) in Ouagadougou, and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). In the provinces of Oubritenga and Kourwéogo, on the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso, one component of the project described in Tiendrébéogo et al. (2020) focused specifically on the constraints women face in implementing land restoration activities, and the potential that gender-responsive restoration holds for improving women's lives and livelihoods. In that region, most of the farm and forest land has been degraded by overexploitation, and prevalent shallow and relatively infertile soils are vulnerable to erosion and runoff. The Mossé, who are the dominant ethnic group in these areas, are patrilineal and practice agropastoralism. Mixed methods, including interviews with women and men farmers and key informants, focus group discussions with women and men and members of women's self-help groups, and direct observation, were used to gather information on experiences with restoration, types of restorative practices, and factors supporting or hindering women's and men's adoption of such practices. Participants were purposively sampled to represent a diversity of backgrounds and experiences. Data were additionally gathered on social networks through which innovative practices are shared and adapted, taking into account the economic and social heterogeneity of different actors involved.Research showed that farmers in the study sites are involved in different restoration activities on their agroforestry plots, such as creating zaï pits, halfmoon catchments, stone bunds, composting, mulching, charcoal making, farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), grass strips, fencing, and firebreaks. The characteristics of these techniques influence requirements for their adoption, such as access to and control over specific types of assets (quadrant 2 in Fig. 1). For instance, agroforestry practices including FMNR and fencing as practised in the study sites (exclosures of 3 hectares) require large areas of land and secure land tenure, which women lack in the area. Composting requires access to organic waste, and the creation of stone bunds demands access to stones and means of transporting them to desired field areas, all of which are also difficult for women. Some techniques, such as fencing and charcoal making, require financial capital to purchase materials. Those requirements pose different constraints to adoption for men and women of different socio-economic and generational groups.As noted above and shown in this research, women face multiple constraints to implementing restoration practices, as socio-cultural norms (quadrant 4) and gendered power relations shape their access to assets (quadrant 2), labour, and benefits from restoration, as well as their recognition as legitimate stakeholders who should have influence and decision-making power in restoration processes (quadrant 1). Gender, however, is not the only factor that determines who will implement and potentially benefit from restoration practices. Whether a woman is married, where her husband resides, the size of the plots she can access, and even whether the woman has adult male children all influence the probability of a woman implementing restoration practices and gaining some of the benefits. Notable differences exist among groups of women, such as married women living with their husbands, widows, and wives of migrant husbands (Table 4).Widows who live with the families of their deceased spouse do not systematically benefit from their late husband's fields. They cultivate land that his family has given them and often find themselves with only small, degraded plots. This group has the most difficulty adopting restoration techniques. They are excluded from practising fencing techniques because they do not have enough land (quadrant 2). Those who are not part of farmer organizations targeted by NGOs also lack the knowledge to practise FMNR. Other widows have left the household of their deceased spouse and manage their own lands. They have more autonomy over decisions related to the adoption of restoration techniques, but are typically asset-limited and farm relatively small plots of land.Wives of emigrant husbands were mostly 30-40 years old in the study, and cultivated fields that their husband had inherited. These fields are larger and more fertile than those of widows, and their situation allowed them to acquire a certain autonomy in managing agricultural work in their husband's absence. This group of women practices zaï pits and has some rights to use compost if living in the compound of their husband's parents. Yet, because they lack of membership in farmer organizations, do not have access to their husband's labour, and have limited land, they do not practice FMNR, fencing, or implement stone bunds or half-moons.To address these constraints, women's self-help groups, with some support from NGOs such as Association tiipaalga, are working to secure communal access to land for widows and young women whose husbands have migrated. Association tiipaalga has acted as an intermediary between landowners and women's groups to help the latter acquire rights to land to be able to 'benefit' from agroforestry. Once acquired, women fence off this land to promote natural regeneration and plant income-generating tree and crop species. Working as a group, women can thereby improve their collective land rights as well as their access to other resources and farming implements while strengthening their social capital and collective action.NGOs such as Association tiipaalga also train women on different land restoration techniques, which participants have applied to their household fields and personal plots to increase their yields. In the study villages, restoration activities have resulted in women's employment and income through the sale of non-timber forest products. Micro-credit provided to women's groups by Grass strips X X Source: Tiendrébéogo et al. (2020).Association tiipaalga and other NGOs have further enabled members to carry out other income-generating activities and to use their income to pursue microentrepreneurial opportunities.The 'Regreening Africa' project (2021-2023) aimed to reverse land degradation to improve livelihoods, food and nutrition security, and climate resilience by scaling evergreen agricultural practices among smallholder farming households.The project was coordinated by World Agroforestry and implemented in eight sub-Saharan African countries, including Ghana. Ghana's Bawku West district is a degraded area, with a largely agrarian population that is heavily dependent on tree resources to fill annual food gaps. Tree product-based livelihoods are especially vital for women, who have discretionary access to land in a patrilineal landscape where women's rights are embedded within men's rights. Cultural norms exclude women from land use and management decisions, including those related to restoration and to the benefits of restorative practices. In this district, World Vision Ghana and Catholic Relief Services took an intentionally transformative approach focused on redressing restrictive gender norms as a precursor to achieving effective restoration with more balanced outcomes for men and women. Over 22 months, the project adapted and implemented several methodologies described as 'gender transformative approaches' (GTAs) (Mayoux, 2014;Mohanraj and Hillenbrand, 2015;CARE, 2019;Wong et al., 2019). These methodologies seek to unpack the underlying causes of gender inequality, such as discriminatory gender norms (quadrant 4 in Fig. 1) that underpin unequal access to productive resources (quadrant 2), participation in decision-making (quadrant 1), labour burdens (quadrant 4), and a lack of recognition of women's roles and contributions (quadrant 1). Taking a GTA, the project encouraged critical self-reflection and awareness of the influence of gender relations, gender roles, and stereotypes on women's access to resources and information (quadrants 1, 2, and 4).A gender analysis preceded the design of GTA modules. The analysis highlighted imbalances around land access and control, work burdens, as well as women's exclusion from land decisions (Adeyiga et al., in prep.;Adeyiga, 2021;Bourne, 2022). This baseline directly fed into the design of GTA modules, outlined below; effectively setting the priorities for the first phase of the initiative.The methodology combined work at a landscape scale with work at the community and household scales. The Regreening Africa project involved 30 villages in Bawku West, all of which received technical capacity strengthening in evergreen practices, including composting, FMNR, and tree nurturing. Of these communities, 15 were randomly selected, after which 10 households per community were randomly selected to participate in the GTA initiative. Two members of each household took part in activities: usually the man household head and their partner (one spouse), or in the few women-headed households, the woman head with an adult man from her household. Gender training was facilitated by local experienced man-woman pairs, and community champions were selected and received additional training to support and encourage other participating households.GTA modules focussed on equipping men and women with the capacities and opportunity to critically reflect on and navigate their sensitive and tightly held beliefs around gender in relation to assets, labour, finances, and decisionmaking. The training consisted of adapted reversed role play and visioning exercises to bring the gender norms that provide constraints or opportunities for women and men as individuals, and for their households and communities, to the fore (quadrant 1). Participants discussed what social changes they desired, prioritized behaviours to change, and committed to sharing decisions (quadrant 1), asset control, workloads, and expenditures (quadrant 2) to achieve more equitable households.Following a participatory outcome mapping methodology (Mohanraj and Hillenbrand, 2015), men and women participants developed indicators to capture the changes that they were committed to making over the research period (Table 5). These were categorized as immediate changes, which were expected to happen quickly, and long-term changes requiring sustained engagement and action.These indicators were used for monitoring every fifth month on three occasions. At each monitoring meeting, men and women discussed what was changing in their lives and what was not changing, such as women's access to land. Strategies were proposed to encourage men to share homesteads (home gardens or cultivated land near the dwelling) with women. Community champions played a key role in supporting households along this journey, visiting each household at least once a month to discuss the household's particular situation and changes.In the initial two years of project implementation, the GTA resulted in important changes in gender norms. The most significant outcome was women's increased agency (quadrant 1, Fig. 1) to make changes in homesteads. Prior to the GTA initiative, women had been unable to make decisions in this area and spent long hours daily gathering resources far away from this central area. At the end of 2 years, 80% (n = 120) of the women who took part in the GTA initiative were able to access up to 0.5 acres near their homes to cultivate crops of their choice (quadrant 2). There were also significant shifts in household labour, with men challenging existing norms (quadrant 4) by contributing more often to collecting water and fuelwood, bathing children, and taking them to school.Participating households reported that the gender training had improved household relations, and that even though women could not participate in land decisions openly, they felt consulted in most decisions by their spouses. Due to the positive feedback from participating households, word quickly spread within the communities about the GTA and several people asked the project team to include them in future training. With internal funding, World Vision Ghana scaled out gender training to an additional 25 households in each research community. The project also designed an interactive radio programme in the local language (Kusaal) that reached an estimated 16 000 listeners in five districts across the Upper East region. In this programme, gender specialists discussed ways to address unequal gender norms to improve household relations and wellbeing. By popular request, the programme extended its run and involved significant listener participation through phone-ins. Based on listener responses, there was an appetite for more GTAs.GTA modules went beyond 'reaching' men and women. The reflection activities enhanced men's and women's critical consciousness and women's capacities to negotiate and navigate the complex interactions and normative prescriptions that exclude them from decisions (i.e. 'empower'). By explicitly engaging men in challenging discriminatory norms, these activities also sought to 'transform' the structures that perpetuate inequality.The case studies demonstrate progressively more ambitious ways in which agroforestry projects have integrated gender considerations to reach and benefit differentiated groups of women and men, and support their empowerment as well as changes towards greater gender equality. In the first (Vietnam and Peru) cases, projects 'reached' women by engaging them in meetings, research, and listening to their priorities; and used this information to develop tree species portfolios that would 'benefit' women as well as men. The cases surfaced inequalities in women's and men's access to resources (quadrant 2 in Fig. 1), and sharing results back with farmers served as a launchpad for discussions that raised their awareness of gender relations (quadrant 1 in Fig. 1). In both cases, considering gender at the planning stage, when tree species are selected, was important for ensuring that the chosen species fulfil the breadth of social, economic, and environmental functions that both women and men farmers seek. Local perspectives, and rural women's influence in the selection of trees, showed promise for enhancing synergies among livelihoods, nutrition, biodiversity, and other socio-economic and environmental goals.In the Burkinabè case, social inequalities based on gender, family structure, and other intersecting factors of social differentiation influenced the ability of farmers to adopt land restoration techniques. Although there were differences across groups of women, rural women on the whole faced several constraints in carrying out land restoration activities. These constraints include a lack of perceived legitimacy as stakeholders in restoration initiatives (quadrant 1) and discriminatory norms (quadrant 4) that limit their access to and control over land, labour, and other productive resources (quadrant 2). Through a groupbased approach, the project intentionally addressed some of these constraints to allow women to benefit from agroforestry, strengthen their social capital, and enhance their land rights and livelihood opportunities -all of which further sustain women's interest and investments in restoration.Finally, the Ghana case showed that it is possible to challenge discriminatory norms (quadrant 4) in the context of an agroforestry project. Supporting women's and men's equitable inputs into land use and management decisions requires 'transforming' deep-rooted gender inequalities in households and communities. Applying a GTA supported several changes in gender dynamics, such as improving intra-household relations and women's confidence to negotiate for their strategic interests, over a relatively short period of time.Research is only beginning to examine how gender equality can support other desirable agroforestry outcomes, and how to achieve synergies among these multiple goals (Elias et al., 2021). Further long-term research should explore how changes in gender equality, such as those described above, can be sustained over time and scaled beyond the household and community levels. Finally, research is needed on how simultaneously pursuing changes across the four quadrants described above in the context of agroforestry projects can accelerate progress towards gender equality and other agroforestry outcomes, to benefit people and the planet.The following publications provide a good overview of the subject:  • Fortmann, L. and Rocheleau, D. (1985). Women and agroforestry: four myths and three case studies. Agroforestry Systems 2(4), 253-272. https:// doi .org /10 .1007 /BF00147037.","tokenCount":"5902"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"41df31a6be5e7841cbe2ef9563628d87","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ed341944-2f7e-4e4e-841f-adfb14d4480c/retrieve","id":"-34908673"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ca4564aa-e51b-4c27-af65-a50e8e64ec0d","pagecount":"4","content":"The promulgation of integrated water resources management dictated by the South African Water Act coupled with increasing international pressure for adopting IWRM principles has promoted renewed interest and need for detailed hydrological modelling. This project therefore seeks to provide a high resolution hydrologic model for selected quaternary catchments of the Olifants Catchment to aid the water sector in optimally using and planning water related projects, particularly the sectors that require models of a smaller time scale than has been previously provided. This shall encompass assessing and modelling runoff generation; investigating the effects of land cover and land use and investigating upstream-downstream interactions of the selected catchments. The results of the model shall be compared with results from the monthly time-step models currently in use and a linkage to such models shall also be provided.The advent of civilisation brought with it the need to 'tame' the environment through various human activities which altered the environment in various forms. Most of these anthropogenic changes have a profound effect on the water cycle and ultimately, on the availability of water and quality of water resources. Such effects are critical as water is crucial for human and environment sustenance and development. In the light of such development, there are now a number of issues that are becoming more pertinent in man's quest to improve his livelihood and environment. Such issues include environmental protection, sustainable development and the effects of climatic change. It is becoming more important to forecast the effect of land use changes, agricultural practises, afforestation and deforestation and related activities on water resources. This is taking place over and above the growing concerns of a global water crisis with about a third of the world's population living in water stressed environments. The prevalent global water crisis has prompted a lot of activity in integrated water resources management. It is becoming increasingly important to know the amount of fresh water resources that are available and how these can be optimally and equitably allocated to the increasing population. As Southern African nations embrace water reforms, they are becoming more aware of the need to estimate the amount of available water and how this quantity and quality can be affected by any changes, both in space and time, in the natural environment and by anthropogenic activities.South Africa has made tremendous progress in adopting integrated water resources management, including the underlying principles, and water is on the top agenda of the government. The Water Act of 1998 sets the policy framework on addressing water related issues. One mandate that is given the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry is to establish national monitoring and information systems. The purpose of the systems is to facilitate the continued and co-ordinated monitoring of various aspects of water resources by collecting relevant information and data, through established procedures and mechanisms. A crucial part of the data that has to be collected and processed is hydrological information, with the output at high enough a resolution to be beneficially and easily put to use by the different water using sectors in the country.With competition to meet the varying needs from the domestic, commercial, industrial and the agricultural sector and also the demand to meet the Reserve requirements it is clear that hydrological tools are necessary to help inform discussions about potential changes in water-resource policies and investment plans. This project therefore seeks to provide hydrological tools for selected quaternary catchments of the Olifants, to aid the water using sector in optimally using and planning water related issues.To facilitate management of water resources in South Africa the country has been divided into seven strategic planning areas or drainage regions, each of which has approximately uniform hydrometeorlogical characteristics (Basson et al., 1997as quoted by McCartney, M P et al, 2004). The Olifants River Basin is one of the principal sub-catchments of the Limpopo River Basin and lies within the Northern Region strategic planning area of the country. The Olifants Catchment is further subdivided into five water management regions, which are further subdivided into seven secondary catchments as shown in the figure below;  A second study which was a sequel to the WR90 study developed a Water Situation Assessment Model (WSAM) to evaluate the status of water resources in the country. A number of other related water resources studies on the catchment have been undertaken by different organisations and have given representative figures in terms of runoff generation and the yield of the catchment. What has been identified in some of these studies is that models that provide spatial and time step output at a high resolution will be needed to determine the available surface water resources, particularly in stressed area of Water Management Areas (DWAF, 2004).The assessment of the surface water yield will use an existing physical based model to model that can be used to report on the extent of the available surface water resources in the quaternary catchments. This will aid planning authorities in determining the feasibility of implementing water allocation activities and also to adequately plan and implement any water development strategies. It is imperative that a clear picture of available resources be developed to aid such work.In addition, the assessment will also provide information that will allow for natural resources management as the effect of overland activities will also be incorporated in the model and the impact of upstream abstractions and activities can be easily forecasted. Of particular importance is that the time-step of the model will be of high enough a resolution to be of relevance to water sensitive activities such as irrigation-such a tool does not exist on the area of interest. Another point of interest is that the results of the model may be used to correlate land use and river flows in similar, in terms of biophysical conditions, in nearby ungauged catchments, such as the B72A quaternary catchment.This research project forms a part of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food Project 17: Integrated Water Resource Management for Improved Rural Livelihoods. The entire project brings together diverse disciplines from the social sciences to the technical sciences in the true sense and spirit of integration with the intent of making meaningful contribution to rural livelihoods. The success of this component of the CGIAR Program is therefore crucial to all the other parts and shall also provide the basis of formulating tools on catchment similarities for extrapolating conclusions from one catchment to another, as will be required in the case of ungauged catchments that were chosen as 'laboratories' for the entire project.","tokenCount":"1085"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9e6f1e60dd7bb2941af945ae32188acb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/69f924fc-1933-407a-850f-5e80275e9e5f/retrieve","id":"-1860299739"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9f6e6004-3567-4f0d-a747-333bbd3b86b4","pagecount":"1","content":"Agriculture is central to Kenya's economic development, constituting 28% of the country's GDP and accounting for 65% of total export earnings. The crop, livestock, and fishery sub-sectors contribute approximately 78%, 20%, and 2% to the agricultural GDP, respectively. The sector employs more than 80% of Kenya's rural workforce and provides about 18% of total formal employment. The country profile shows 98% of Kenya's crop production is rain-fed, however, only 15% of the country receives sufficient rainfall for crop production with very small landholdings (0.3-3 ha) and extremely limited irrigation (less than 0.16% of arable land). This poses the greatest challenge on development of more resilient food systems in the changing climate.In the 2019 Global Hunger Index, Kenya ranks 86th out of 117 qualifying countries. With a score of 25.2, Kenya suffers from a level of food insecurity that is serious. Out of 48 million people, 2.6 million people are in food crisis.According to the FAO, Kenya is the 31st most vulnerable country to the negative effects of climate change and the 37th least prepared country in the world to tackle climate change. The main climate impacts expected to affect agriculture in Kenya in the future include higher temperatures, more erratic and heavy rainfall, changes in the timing and distribution of rainfall, and increase in the frequency and duration of droughts. Climate change affects agriculture and agriculture also contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, requiring both adaptation and mitigation actions. Beyond agriculture and food security, climate change is also a risk multiplier for poverty, conflict, migration, health and gender inequality.The agricultural sector is the largest source (58.6%) of total GHG emissions in Kenya, with livestock emissions accounting for 96.2% of the total emissions from agriculture. The contribution of other sectors to national GHG emissions are as follows: energy (25.3%), industry (3.2%), and waste management (1.2%).During both the short (October, November, December; right) and long (March, April, May; left) rainy season, temperature is likely to rise by more than 2°C with the highest increase of 3°C over north-western Kenya during the long rainy season (MAM).The mean rainfall during the short rainy season (right) is projected to significantly increase in the northern part of Kenya by 40-50% for the 2050s. However, during the long rainy season (left), the seasonal mean rainfall is expected to decrease by 10-20% over north-western and western parts of Kenya.","tokenCount":"391"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05b0ad83fbd5a2492f6debb96272e8e6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/48ff61ca-86a6-48b2-93ce-ef9d0ec9d104/retrieve","id":"563517845"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9cba123a-69fb-4891-bff2-8e4e0957502f","pagecount":"31","content":"La ECC&GRA fue elaborada con el apoyo del Programa CliFor, financiado por la Unión Europea y el Gobierno Alemán e implementado por GIZ, a través de las dos consultorías puntuales:La Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería(SAG),como institución rectora del Estado para el sector agroalimentario hondureño, presenta la Estrategia Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático del Sector Agroalimentario de Honduras 2015-2025 ENACCSA, con el objetivo de promover la gestión de riesgos climáticos y la adaptación del sector agroalimentario al cambio climático identificando las posibles sinergias en acciones de mitigación, y que tiene como visión que: \"Al 2025 la SAG ha liderado y generado mecanismos de concertación y sinergia para la reducción de la vulnerabilidad agroclimática y el incremento de la resiliencia y capacidad de adaptación en el sector agroalimentario de Honduras\", siendo de vital importancia para su implementación, la participación y el involucramiento de productores, productoras, pueblos originarios, instituciones del Estado, ONGs, gobiernos locales, la academia, centros de investigación y la empresa privada, considerando las aportaciones que el sector provee para el desarrollo, económico, social y ambiental del país.La Estrategia se formuló atendiendo el mandato de la Ley de Adaptación al Cambio Climático, Estrategia Nacional de 1 Cambio Climático la Política de Estado para la Gestión Integral del Riesgo en Honduras , y de otras políticas afines de índole regional e internacional. Está fundamentada en los conceptos de ambiente, adaptación, mitigación al cambio climático y la gestión de riesgo de desastres, considerando la relación entre la recuperación y conservación de los agroecosistemas con las acciones y medidas para la adaptación al cambio climático y la gestión de riesgos. Pretende promover un cambio hacia una agricultura sostenible, sustentable y resiliente, siendo la persona humana la finalidad superior del desarrollo y sobre todo de los más vulnerables al cambio climático, bajo principios de intercultural, equidad de género, participación e inclusión social de hombres, mujeres, jóvenes, niños y niñas.La ENACCSA tiene la finalidad de orientar a técnicos (as), productores (as), cooperantes y otros actores del sector agroalimentario, para el diseño de sus intervenciones de adaptación al cambio climático y la variabilidad climática, para la sostenibilidad de la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria, hacia el logro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS, 2030). Los daños y pérdidas se están volviendo recurrentes afectando de manera significativa la economía y medios de vida de las familias especialmente del área rural que su seguridad alimentaria y su economía depende de la agricultura. Datos de COPECO y del Comité Técnico Interinstitucional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Sequía, señalan que en el 2014, de los 298 municipios de Honduras, 66 municipios de 10 departamentos presentaron severa crisis por sequía, afectando 76,712 familias de pequeños productores de maíz, frijol y sorgo (COPECO, 2014); mientras que en el 2015 según la declaratoria de la situación de emergencia fueron afectados por el fenómeno de El Niño y la sequía 146 municipios, de estos, 62 estuvieron en condiciones críticas de escasez de alimentos. Esto significó para el país una asignación de cien millones de lempiras (L.100,000,000.00) de los recursos del Fideicomiso para Reactivación del Sector Agroalimentario FIRSA.En este mismo año, el prolongado fenómeno de la canícula generó pérdidas en áreas de cultivo, especialmente en el 96% de maíz, frijoles 95%, maicillo 46%, y frutales 67%. En la producción pecuaria se dieron pérdidas el 52% de gallinas, 23% en abejas, 21% en vacas y un 12% en caballos, cerdos y toros (OXFAM y Cáritas de Honduras, 2015).Sobre la base del análisis de los efectos del cambio climático, de los costos y beneficios de una acción en este ámbito, la SAG, mediante la Mesa Técnica de Cambio Climático y Gestión del Riesgo y consultas participativas en las regionales con técnicos y productores, se propuso desarrollar e implementar la Estrategia Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático para el Sector Agroalimentario de Honduras (2015-2025),que integra una serie de elementos y acciones estratégicas puntuales para reducir la vulnerabilidad y mejorar la capacidad de adaptación del sector agroalimentario al cambio climático y la variabilidad para una agricultura más resiliente y sostenible.La ENACCSA está estructurada con 4 Ejes Estratégicos y contiene objetivos estratégicos que apuntan al fortalecimiento de la institucionalidad y de las capacidades humanas, la concertación de acciones para la prevención y recuperación ante eventos extremos, mejoramiento de las capacidades técnicas y financieras para implementar las medidas de adaptación, la articulación y alianzas para innovación tecnológica y el acceso a la información agroclimática y la gestión del conocimiento.La implementación de la Estrategia será posible con el aporte de productores y otros actores del sector público y privado, así como de los organismos de cooperación.VERSIÓN EJECUTIVA Ambiente: se considera como el conjunto de valores naturales, sociales y culturales existentes, que influyen en la vida del ser humano. Enmarca todas las acciones de:Gestión de Riesgos (GR)Cambio Climático (CC)• Resiliencia: Capacidad humana de asumir con tolerancia situaciones límite y sobreponerse a ellas.Las acciones de GR y CC, coinciden con las acciones, medidas, planes y estrategias de adaptación necesarias para reducir la vulnerabilidad.Pretenden ayudar al sector agroalimentario de Honduras a volverse resiliente ante los efectos e impactos de la variabilidad climática.Permiten desarrollar una mayor capacidad adaptativa al cambio climático, para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria de la población.La Adaptación se considera una interface entre las acciones y medidas orientadas tanto a la gestión de riesgos como al cambio climático. Estas medidas forman parte de las acciones de seguridad alimentaria necesarias, que incluyen brindar disponibilidad, acceso, utilidad biológica y adecuación de los alimentos (inocuidad), en el presente y en el futuro.La vulnerabilidad actual (VA) y la vulnerabilidad futura (VF) influirán en la definición de las medidas de adaptación, bajo un marco conceptual incluyente. El sector agroalimentario debe conceptualizarse como un sistema agroalimentario que incluye elementos en las fases de producción, circulación y consumo de bienes y servicios asociados a la alimentación humana y en la fase de distribución del ingreso generado en dichos elementos (PESAH, 2004(PESAH, -2021)).Para la elaboración de la ENACCSA, se consideran como fundamentales los siguientes conceptos: Según el Panel Intergubernamental de Expertos en Cambio Climático (IPCC, 2012) se considera como un proceso para diseñar, aplicar y evaluar estrategias, políticas y medidas destinadas a mejorar la comprensión de los riesgos de desastre. Incluye el fomentar acciones para la reducción de desastres, así como la transferencia de técnicas, medidas y conocimiento que promueva las prácticas de preparación, respuesta y recuperación para casos de desastre, con el objetivo explícito de aumentar la seguridad humana, el bienestar, la calidad de vida, la resiliencia y el desarrollo sostenible.Se conoce como la capacidad de los sistemas de ajustarse de forma espontánea o planificada, en respuesta a eventos climáticos actuales y futuros, incluye cambios en las prácticas, procesos y estructuras, para moderar daños o aprovechar las oportunidades. Según el AR5-IPCC (2014), los gobiernos, a diferentes niveles, están empezando a desarrollar planes y políticas de adaptación y a integrar consideraciones sobre cambio climático en planes de desarrollo más amplios.El desarrollo sostenible busca armonizar el proceso económico con la conservación de la naturaleza, favoreciendo un balance entre la satisfacción de necesidades actuales y las de las generaciones futuras. Sin embargo, pretende realizar sus objetivos revitalizando el viejo mito desarrollista, promoviendo la falacia de un crecimiento económico sostenible sobre la naturaleza limitada del planeta. (Manifiesto por la Vida, 2002: 7).En cambio, la sustentabilidad se funda en el reconocimiento de los límites y potenciales de la naturaleza, así como en la complejidad ambiental, inspirando una nueva comprensión del mundo para enfrentar los desafíos de la humanidad en el tercer milenio. Promueve una nueva alianza naturaleza/cultura fundando una nueva economía, reorientando los potenciales de la ciencia y la tecnología y construyendo una nueva cultura política fundada en una ética de la sustentabilidad -en valores, creencias, sentimientos y saberes-que renueva los sentidos existenciales, los mundos de vida y las formas de habitar el planeta Tierra. (Manifiesto por la Vida, 2002, p. 7).El Dicha influencia ha sido detectada en cambios en el ciclo global del agua, en las reducciones de la cobertura de nieve y hielo, en la elevación del nivel medio mundial del mar y en los cambios de algunos eventos climáticos extremos. (AR5-IPCC, 2014).Las concentraciones atmosféricas de dióxido de carbono (CO2), metano (CH4) y óxido nitroso (N2O) han aumentado desde el año 1750 debido a la actividad humana, excediendo en 2011 los niveles preindustriales en un 40%, 150% y 20% respectivamente.Asimismo, las concentraciones de CO han aumentado 2 en 40% desde la época pre-industrial, en primer lugar, las provenientes de las emisiones de combustibles fósiles, y en segundo lugar, de las emisiones netas del cambio de uso de la tierra. Las emisiones anuales de CO de la quema de combustibles fósiles y producción 2 de cemento fueron 8.3 GtC/año en promedio para 2001-2011 y 9.5 GtC/año en 2011, 54% arriba del nivel de 1990; y las emisiones netas de CO del cambio 2 antropogénico de uso de la tierra, fueron de 0.9 GtC/año en promedio para 2002-2011(AR5-IPCC, 2014).Es muy probable que, a escala mundial, el número de días y noches fríos haya disminuido y que el número de días y noches calientes haya aumentado; el océano ha absorbido un 30% del CO2 antropogénico emitido, causando su acidificación y entre 1901 y 2010 el nivel medio del mar subió 19 cm (AR5-IPCC, 2014).El Perfil estratégico de la SAG y el Programa Nacional de Agricultura Bajo Riego (PRONAGRI).El Programa de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación de Tecnología Agropecuaria (DICTA).La nueva Unidad de Agroambiente, Cambio Climático y Gestión de Riesgos de la SAG. Para Centroamérica, las proyecciones de tres modelos de simulación del clima diferentes, bajo el escenario de emisiones medio-altas (A2), indican:• Aumentos en las temperaturas para todos los horizontes de tiempo futuros, y en el caso de las lluvias, una mayor variabilidad respecto al período 1980-2000.• En el caso de Honduras, los cambios proyectados indican que la temperatura media anual aumentaría en los rangos siguientes: VERSIÓN EJECUTIVA• Los efectos del cambio climático principalmente en la producción de granos básicos hacen prever que la seguridad alimentaria y los ingresos de ese sector de la población sufrirán una reducción significativa, lo cual es probable que ocasione un aumento de la migración del campo a la ciudad y más problemas para abastecer de alimentos básicos a la población urbana pobre. (CEPAL, 2009).• El brote de roya del café de 2012-2013, en el caso de Honduras como uno de los rubros de mayor importancia productiva y generador de divisas. El área total afectada fue de 70 mil ha (25% del total del área cultivada), con un total de pérdidas de US$230 millones correspondientes a 1.3 millones de quintales (PROMECAFÉ & Vandermeer, 2013).• De acuerdo al AR5, las tendencias actuales y los efectos del cambio climático a futuro en las dimensiones que de acuerdo al IPCC, aumentarían la vulnerabilidad y agravarían los Impactos negativos del Cambio Climático.• Para 2030-2040 se proyecta un riesgo muy alto tanto de escasez de agua como de inseguridad alimentaria.• Para 2080-2100, dicho riesgo continuaría siendo muy alto con un incremento de 2°C, y extremadamente alto con un incremento de 4°C.• Entre otros impactos, la disponibilidad de alimentos estaría amenazada por las reducciones proyectadas en los rendimientos agropecuarios y pesqueros y con un aumento de 3°C. Habría una pérdida de la capacidad de adaptación de los agricultores en función a sus prácticas (AR5-IPCC, 2014). Como síntesis, en el período 2010-2014 el PIB Agrícola fue de 13.4% (L. 23,153 millones) posicionándose como la tercera actividad económica más importante del país. Las exportaciones representaron un 34.1% del total de bienes equivalentes a US$ 2,639.2 millones. En relación a la Población Económicamente Activa (PEA) más del 50% se encuentra ubicada en las zonas rurales, de ese porcentaje, poco más de 45% forma parte de la población económicamente activa (PEA).  Según FAOSTAT, el 12% de la población hondureña sufre de desnutrición; por lo que prevé:• Que la volatilidad de los precios de los alimentos puede agravar los problemas de desnutrición y pobreza, sobretodo en el 60% de la población rural.• Los aumentos en el precio de los alimentos pueden traer beneficios a algunos sectores de algunas regiones del mundo, pero en general, se prevé que aumentará la cantidad de pobres.También el Banco Mundial resume el impacto que la volatilidad de los precios internacionales ejerce sobre la producción hondureña, las importaciones, exportaciones y precios internos de cinco de los principales productos básicos de Honduras: café, maíz, arroz, frijoles y aceite de cocina, lo que representa:• Casi 60% del gasto total de los extremadamente pobres.• Más de 40% de los pobres.• El 18% de quienes no son pobres.En las zonas rurales estos cinco productos representan 55% del gasto total, independientemente de la clasificación del ingreso.Las cifras precedentes indican que la economía hondureña es vulnerable en cuanto a generar divisas y actividad económica como resultado de los cambios en los precios internacionales del café, los frijoles y el aceite de cocina, aunque los precios al consumidor (internos) no son tan sensibles. Algunas conclusiones acerca del impacto que los cambios de los precios internacionales tienen sobre la economía hondureña.Una reducción permanente del 16,65% en el precio internacional del café, reduce el precio al consumidor del café un 0,88% en relación al escenario base. Aunque el impacto en la inflación es mínimo, los impactos en las divisas extranjeras y en la actividad económica generada por el sector del café son significativos.En realidad, el sector produce una pérdida de US$ 178,9 millones (aproximadamente el 6% del stock actual de reservas internacionales del Banco Central de Honduras) a la vez que contrae la actividad económica en un 5% y conduce a una reducción general de la actividad económica de entre el 0,2% y el 0,3%.A diferencia de la agricultura comercial, que tiene como único objetivo la maximización de la rentabilidad, el agricultor familiar busca reducir el riesgo a través de la diversificación productiva. Ante esto, los agricultores familiares de Centroamérica carecen de sistemas productivos especializados en un único bien. Por el contrario, combinan la producción de:• Granos básicos (principalmente maíz y frijol)• Hortalizas• Animales menores (aves, cerdos y abejas)• Algunas variedades de frutas• Café• Ganado vacuno (fundamentalmente en la etapa de cría y producción de leche)Del total de agricultores familiares, cerca del 61% corresponde a agricultores por cuenta propia que tienen esta actividad como ocupación principal. De ellos:• El 4% de pequeños agricultores empleadores a cargo de unidades productivas, tienen hasta cinco empleados (contando a los familiares no remunerados).• Y el restante 35%, son asalariados agrícolas y no agrícolas o trabajadores por cuenta propia no a g r í c o l a s , q u e t i e n e n a l a a g r i c u l t u r a independiente como actividad secundaria.• Para Honduras esto representa según CEPAL, FAO, IICA, 2013: 366,000 trabajan por cuenta propia.11,000 son pequeños empleadores.107,000 pequeños agricultores familiares. El gobierno de la República de Honduras, a través de la SAG, se ha propuesto como objetivo incidir positivamente en el bienestar sustentable de las familias rurales. Ha declarado la lucha contra la pobreza y la inseguridad alimentaria. La inversión en agricultura, la formulación y adopción de políticas y programas para aumentar la producción de bienes y servicios provenientes de la Agricultura Familiar de manera sostenible, son prioridad nacional.Si consideramos los escenarios de emisiones A1B (niveles intermedios de emisiones de GEI) al 2030 se tendrá el siguiente panorama:• El promedio anual de la temperatura del país habrá aumentado 1.4 °C.• Este aumento de temperatura, acompañado de periodos de sequía y de calor.• Reducción de la lluvia, que provocara un déficit del agua y consecuentemente un cambio en las zonas aptas para los diferentes cultivos. 12 % en 2050.También se analizó la producción promedio de frijoles y se prevé una disminución de:11 % para el año 2025.32 % para el año 2050. • En las zonas de tierras bajas se superó el rango de temperatura óptimo, sobre todo en el caso de los frijoles. Estos resultados sugieren que el cambio climático tendrá un efecto más determinante en la agricultura de tierras bajas.La SAG cuenta con un Plan e Iniciativa basada en 3 ejes fundamentales:• Promoción de las políticas e instrumentos que permitan ampliar la base de activos del agricultor (dotación de recursos productivos, infraestructura y capital).• Fortalecimiento de la institucionalidad pública para la agricultura familiar.Promoción de las organizaciones de productores eficaces e incluyentes. La Agencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), publicó en agosto del 2014, un estudio sobre la \"Vulnerabilidad y Resiliencia frente al Cambio Climático en el Occidente de Honduras\", donde hacen una evaluación del impacto del cambio climático en los sistemas sociales y ecológicos con énfasis en los departamentos del occidente en el corredor seco de Honduras: Copán, Ocotepeque, Lempira, Santa Bárbara, Intibucá y La Paz. El objetivo principal fue identificar respuestas de adaptación existentes y de estas las aplicables, a fin de fortalecer la resiliencia de los medios de vida y de los ecosistemas frente al impacto climático. Se analizó la sensibilidad del café, el maíz, el fríjol, la lechuga y la papa ante la variabilidad y el cambio climático, tomando en cuenta:• Los rangos de las temperaturas y las precipitaciones necesarias para el desarrollo de cada uno de estos cultivos en el occidente hondureño.• Las proyecciones climáticas para la región occidental de Honduras.La SAG, por medio del Servicio de Información Agroalimentario (INFOAGRO) y la Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria (DICTA), en coordinación con el Centro Nacional de Estudios Atmosféricos, Oceanográficos y Sísmicos (COPECO-CENAOS), ponen a disposición periódicamente, cada 10 días: 3 por mes, Reportes Agro Meteorológicos con el objetivo de presentar las condiciones meteorológicas en las principales zonas productoras de granos básicos de Honduras. Publica además de los mapas nacionales de precipitación y temperatura, las variables meteorológicas por departamento, fases de la luna y comentarios agronómicos.• En contraste, en el litoral caribeño llueve durante casi todo el año registrándose una disminución en la precipitación durante los meses de febrero a mayo.• La región donde más llueve es el litoral Caribe y la región donde menos llueve es la zona central del país.En 2014 Honduras soportó un período de sequía sin precedentes que, dependiendo de la zona, varió entre 45 y 60 días.• Los territorios más afectados fueron los departamentos del sur del país.• La sequía durante los meses de julio y agosto ha producido pérdidas muy altas en las áreas de producción de granos básicos.• El Gobierno de Honduras a través de la Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG) y su Comisión Permanente de Contingencias (COPECO) dio a conocer que la canícula prolongada ocurrida entre julio y agosto de 2014, tuvo las siguientes consecuencias:Afectó a casi un millón de personas (186,311 familias).Afectó 165 municipios de los 298 del país.Debido a su ubicación geográfica el clima de Honduras es:• De características tropicales, sin embargo, la orografía hondureña y su interacción con los vientos que soplan sobre el territorio y los fenómenos tropicales, como ondas y ciclones, generan microclimas que van desde el tropical seco hasta el tropical húmedo.• La orientación de las sierras hondureñas juega un rol muy importante en el régimen de precipitación estableciendo diferencias bien marcadas entre el litoral Caribe, la región inter-montaña y el sur del país (Argeñal, 2010).El régimen de precipitación de Honduras es una consecuencia directa e indirecta de los siguientes fenómenos:• Zona Intertropical de Convergencia (Z.I.T.C.), vaguadas en el oeste de latitudes medias, ondas tropicales, sistemas de baja presión atmosférica en altura y superficie, brisas de mar a tierra, brisas de valle y de montaña, frentes fríos, líneas de cortante y ciclones tropicales.• La estación seca y la canícula (julio-agosto), en las regiones sur e inter-montana, es una consecuencia del fortalecimiento y desplazamiento hacia el oeste del anticiclón del Atlántico Norte, ubicado sobre las Islas Bermudas durante esta época del año, ya que provoca un aumento en la velocidad de los vientos alisios (Argeñal, 2010).2Un aumento en la temperatura.Lluvias más variables y en menor cantidad.2. La fenología es la ciencia que estudia la relación entre los factores climáticos y los ciclos de los seres vivos.Según Argeñal 2010, la mayor parte del territorio hondureño, especialmente las zonas inter-montañas y el litoral del Golfo de Fonseca, tienen un clima con un régimen de precipitación que presenta dos estaciones bien marcadas.Se muestra además las siguientes situaciones:• Durante la estación lluviosa de estas regiones (mayo-octubre) se presenta: Una disminución en la precipitación en un período conocido como Canícula. • El impacto del fenómeno de El Niño en el año 2014 representa un indicio sobre la forma en que los choques meteorológicos repercuten en las cadenas de valor del maíz y del fríjol en el occidente de Honduras (USAID).• Los medios de vida en el occidente del país presentan un alto grado de sensibilidad frente a los efectos climáticos, ya que dependen predominantemente de la agricultura.Una reducción en la cantidad de lluvias de entre el 10 y el 20 por ciento y un aumento en las temperaturas de entre 1,0 y 2,5°C generarán efectos considerables en los medios de vida y en las cadenas de valor agrícola en el occidente de Honduras.Según la Dirección General de Riego y Drenaje (DGRD) de la SAG, a quien le corresponde la conducción de acciones relacionadas con la promoción y desarrollo del riego y drenaje en actividades agrícolas y el Programa Nacional de Fomento a la Agricultura Irrigada (PRONAGRI):• La infraestructura existente de riego en el país se da más por las grandes empresas privadas y es alrededor de 70,000 ha de las compañías bananeras, cañeras, agro exportadoras de hortalizas, tabaco, frutas, plantas ornamentales y de follaje.• Los pequeños, medianos y microempresarios agrícolas (MiPymes) apenas disponen de alrededor de 10,000 hectáreas de riego. La SAG a través de la DGRD cuenta con 10 distritos de riego para un área total de 10,000 ha, cinco de ellos están en el departamento de Comayagua y uno en los departamentos de La Paz, Santa Bárbara, Valle, Francisco Morazán y El Paraíso. En Honduras existe una gran diversidad de federaciones de grupos étnicos, que son parte de la diversidad cultural que viven en determinados territorios del país. Estos pueblos poseen una cultura basada en su cosmovisión y en sus prácticas fundamentadas en conocimientos ancestrales que le han permitido adaptarse y enfrentar los múltiples desafíos a lo largo de su historia, mismos que deben ser reconocidos e incorporados en el abordaje y construcción de capacidades para enfrentar el cambio climático.De igual manera, estos impactos negativos del clima están y continuarán afectado de manera diferenciada a hombres y mujeres, no solamente en sus funciones o condiciones biológicas (embarazo, lactancia y desnutrición), sino en sus papeles dentro de la sociedad. Por tanto, es importante que las evaluaciones de vulnerabilidad e impactos y las estrategias y medidas de adaptación y mitigación incorporen un abordaje con enfoque y equidad de género.La formulación de la estrategia se ha fundamentado en:• U n p r o ces o p a r t i ci p a t i v o y d e co n s u l t a permanente con la Mesa Técnica de Cambio Climático y Gestión de Riesgos de la SAG creada para este propósito y que a futuro tendrá vigencia como órgano de consulta.El proceso se inicia cuando los miembros del 3 SCASA proponen y aprueban trabajar una Estrategia de CC de la SAG. Los pasos seguidos para la formulación de la estrategia fueron los siguientes:• Conformación de una Mesa de Técnica de Cambio Climático y Gestión de Riesgos (MTCC&GR) en la SAG, como paso previo a la creación de la Unidad de Agroambiente, Cambio Climático y Gestión de Riesgos (UACC&GR).• Definición y consenso de la ruta metodológica para la formulación de la estrategia y su presentación en el SCASA.• Talleres con la MTCC&GR y aportes nacionales (COPECO y otros) para la formulación de la visión, objetivos estratégicos, resultados esperados, indicadores, y estrategias específicas para el logro de resultados.• La MTCC&GR y de la UACC&GR de la SAG, y la asesoría de GIZ en la revisión y sistematización respecto a los estudios de análisis de vulnerabilidad del sector agroalimentario en Honduras (Diagnóstico).• Validación de la estrategia en regiones priorizadas del país: consultas regionales.• Presentación y aprobación en el SCASA de Honduras.• Aprobación oficial de la Estrategia y presentación pública para iniciar su implementación.Este proceso participativo promovido por la SAG y apoyado por el Programa CliFor de GIZ, se inició en julio 2014 con apoyo de un consultor externo. Desde octubre se suma un equipo de consultores nacionales apoyados por el Programa CliFor de GIZ, quienes continúan con la conducción y asesoría a la UACC&GR de la SAG en la formulación de la ENACCSA. De manera que así se ha constituido un equipo consultor que trabajó con la MTCC&GR de la SAG, en coordinación directa con el consultor internacional y la SAG.En septiembre de 2014, con la intención de probar y revisar exhaustivamente la ENACCSA, se realizó en Choluteca un taller sobre escenarios socio económicos y ambientales futuros, combinados con los impactos climáticos esperados en el sector agrícola. Liderado por el Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS) y la Universidad para la Cooperación Internacional en Costa Rica, el taller reunió importantes funcionarios de gobierno y diseñadores de políticas que trabajan directamente con los agricultores.El mecanismo de consulta, aprobación y difusión definido ha sido la MTCC&GR, la cual está integrada por miembros de las diferentes direcciones de la SAG, expertos en la temática del cambio climático y gestión de riesgo. La cooperación internacional a través del programa Clifor-GIZ, con el apoyo de consultores nacionales e internacionales, han participado en las reuniones de trabajo de la mesa en calidad de agentes asesores.Al 2025 la SAG ha liderado y generado mecanismos de concertación y sinergia para la reducción de la vulnerabilidad agroclimática y el incremento de la resiliencia y capacidad de adaptación en el sector agroalimentario de Honduras.De forma participativa a través de talleres, se consensuaron los criterios básicos que le dan el marco de referencia a la estrategia. A continuación, se mencionan:Énfasis en la seguridad alimentaria, como medida principal para proteger a las personas y sectores más vulnerables.Énfasis en el diseño e implementación de medidas de adaptación al cambio climático, prioridad en respuestas de corto y mediano plazo, sin perder de vista el largo plazo. (distinguir y abordar simultáneamente lo urgente y lo estratégico).Priorización de los sectores, territorios y poblaciones humanas más vulnerables e impactados por el cambio climático en el país. • Orienta y propone la formulación de políticas públicas, planes y programas del sector agroalimentario hacia un desarrollo agrícola de manera sostenible que contribuya a la adaptación y gestión de riesgos.Orienta el funcionamiento de la Unidad de Agroambiente, Cambio Climático y Gestión de Riesgos de la SAG.• Se refiere a la concertación y armonización de acciones de ambiente, cambio climático y gestión de riesgos.• Se proyecta realizar está concertación por medio de la Mesa Técnica de Cambio Climático y Gestión de Riesgos (MTCC&GR&GR) a lo interno de la SAG.A lo externo, con la definición de herramientas de trabajo para el Sub-comité de Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria, que preside este Secretaría de Estado.Fortalecimiento institucional de la Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería en materia de capacidades y recursos humanos, para la gestión ambiental, adaptación al Cambio Climático y Gestión del Riesgo agroclimático.Concertación y armonización de acciones de prevención y respuesta ante eventos extremos: con énfasis en sequía e inundaciones.Está orientado a fortalecer las capacidades técnicas del Sector Agroalimentario en referencia a la adaptación al cambio climático.Responde a la necesidad de investigación, innovación, evaluación y monitoreo de los sistemas, tecnologías y buenas prácticas agropecuarias, fomentando la intercooperación.Fortalecimiento de las capacidades técnicas del Sector Agroalimentario para diseñar e implementar medidas de ACC y de GR.Articulación y alianza con redes de investigación y otras fuentes que generan innovación, investigación, tecnología, sistemas de información y conocimiento para la ACC. La UACC&GR coordina, propone, da seguimiento y consulta los aspectos de manejo y dominio de políticas y propuestas de organización, procedimientos y aspectos presupuestarios (el medio de verificación será el Acuerdo Ejecutivo publicado en La Gaceta).Las Regionales de la SAG cuentan con un enlace técnico de Cambio Climático y Gestión de Riesgos.Se cuenta con un reglamento operativo con base en el acuerdo ejecutivo publicado. La MTCC&GR ha generado convenios de trabajo con todas las instituciones del SCASA para la implementación de la Estrategia.A partir del 2017 se presentan informes trimestrales sobre la ejecución de los POAs y la ejecución de los proyectos, conteniendo los lineamientos de ACC&GR en los POAS y Presupuestos.Presentación de una propuesta sobre la creación de la UACC&GR como instancia especializada de la SAG en temas de cambio climático para aprobación del Ministro.Promueve la formación y funcionamiento de las Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas a nivel regional del país.Propone una carta de entendimiento entre la UACC&GR de la SAG y el CENAOS de COPECO, para intercambio de información, análisis y colaboración en materia de información agroclimática.Crea el Reglamento, objetivos, agenda de trabajo y funciones de la MTCC&GR.Fortalece las Unidades de planificación para incorporar la ACC&GR en la formulación de POAS, proyectos y presupuestos.Estrategia Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático para el Sector Agroalimentario de Honduras 2015-2025VERSIÓN EJECUTIVA R 1.2.3 Del 2017-2020 las Regionales de la SAG están promoviendo la aplicación de medidas de ACC&GR, respondiendo a las demandas de los productores locales, 4 bajo el enfoque de equidad de género e interculturalidad.Regionales enlazados con la UACC&GR, teniendo planes de acción estructurados y con plataformas de coordinación y articulación generando propuestas y proyectos de implementación de al menos dos medidas de adaptación y de gestión de riesgos con los actores del sector agroalimentario de la región. (Reportes trimestrales sobre acciones de ACC&GRAC implementándose en cada regional).Integra las Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas en las Regiones de la SAG que tiene mayor presencia institucional y prioridad con proyectos en ejecución o por ejecutarse en el periodo; luego, replicar las medidas en otras regionales con capacidades técnicas establecidas y alianzas estratégicas (Proyectos en ejecución que aplican y validan las medidas).Responsable: UACC&GR de la SAG. Socio: BANCO MUNDIAL, BID, BCIE. Aliados: EMPRENDESUR, PROMECOM, HORIZONTES DEL NORTE, COMRURAL.4. La estructura presupuestaria de la UPEG cuenta con técnicos para la unidad de género; el enfoque de género debe retomarse como un enfoque de género y seguridad alimentaria.R 1.2.2 Del 2016 al 2025 existe un equipo humano institucional formado y capacitado, que orienta y asesora la transversalización del tema de ACC&GR en la SAG, y el abordaje sinérgico interinstitucional e intersectorial del tema del cambio climático.Equipo instalado y operando, cuenta con profesionales formados para el análisis de la información agroclimática en aspectos técnicos, metodológicos e instrumentales, apoyando iniciativas locales, regionales y nacionales de ACC&GR y liderando áreas claves dentro de la SAG.Establece un programa de formación continua sobre ACC&GR para personal de la SAG, sus dependencias centrales y regionales y otras instituciones del sector y de unidades ambientales de gobiernos locales. VERSIÓN EJECUTIVA R 2.2.1. A partir del 2017 se están implementando prácticas de producción agropecuaria y acuícola sostenibles adaptadas al clima, considerando la producción de especies que aportan a la seguridad alimentaria en beneficio a pequeños productores y población en riesgo por inseguridad alimentaria.R 2.2.2 Al 2017 se han sistematizado medidas y prácticas de adaptación al cambio climático del sector agroalimentario, orientadas a productores de pequeña escala, incorporando las prácticas ancestrales como parte de las estrategias para la seguridad alimentaria.R 2.2.3 Al 2020 se han desarrollado capacidades de los productores para aumentar la producción de material vegetativo y pie de cría adaptado a las condiciones agroclimáticas imperantes.Número de productores y productoras en riesgo agroclimático que incorporan sistemas productivos sostenibles adaptados al clima para incrementar su seguridad alimentaria.Número de buenas prácticas documentadas/ sistematizadas que se incorporan a las medidas de prevención y respuesta ante la sequía e inundaciones aplicadas por productores y productoras agropecuarios, pescadores y pequeños productores acuícolas.Número de productores innovadores, incorporados a la producción de material vegetativo y pie de cría validado por su capacidad de adaptación y productividad.Aumentado el acceso de los pequeños productores a materiales genéticos adaptados a condiciones climáticas extremas.Número de buenas prácticas documentadas/ sistematizadas que se incorporan a las medidas de prevención y respuesta ante la sequía e inundaciones Identifica la ubicación de los emprendimientos nacionales de acuicultura y captura de peces y mariscos, categorizando aquellas que se encuentren en el corredor seco.Integra y fortalece las redes de gestión del conocimiento sobre prácticas y medidas de adaptación y de gestión de riesgos para pequeños productores.Fomenta el establecimiento de bancos de semillas, zoocriaderos y otras instalaciones para el fito-mejoramiento, mediante alianzas de cooperación técnica y financiera. Objetivo Estratégico, OE 2.2 Fomento y apoyo de prácticas que contribuyan a la seguridad alimentaria local, mediante la producción agroalimentaria sostenible, de acuerdo a los medios de vida y potencial agroecológico del territorio, priorizando a los pequeños productores con enfoque de equidad de género e interculturalidad.Estrategias para logro de Resultados Responsable, socios y aliados R 2.1.1 La SAG a través de la UACC&GR ha logrado coordinar, concertar y promover mecanismos estratégicos con el sector público, organizaciones privadas del sector agroalimentario frente a eventos extremos como la sequía, las inundaciones y otros, haciéndose acompañar de un mecanismo legal y marco estratégico vigente con incidencia nacional y regional.La MTCC&GR&GR cuenta con un plan de trabajo y protocolos establecidos para responder a sequías, inundaciones y otros eventos climáticos extremos, incorporado en los Sistemas de Alerta Temprana que se han establecido a nivel nacional, regional y local.Mesas de Cambio Climático, Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas y demás estructuras organizativas vinculantes han consolidado agendas y planes de acción enfocados a reducir los daños y pérdidas y aumentar su resiliencia ante los efectos del cambio climático.La SAG y COPECO desarrollan y promueven mecanismos interinstitucionales, cada vez con mayor énfasis en la prevención del riesgo ante eventos extremos como la sequía y las inundaciones, que afecta cultivos, animales, y otros medios de vida de la población rural.Armoniza la institucionalidad regional de cambio climático con gestión de riesgos, valorando las iniciativas, saberes y experiencias regionales y locales.Establece directrices para gestionar el riesgo ligado a la reducción de las perdidas en cultivos a consecuencia de eventos climáticos extremos, incidencia de plagas y enfermedades y otras amenazas. Eje Estratégico 2.Concertación y armonización de acciones de prevención y respuesta ante eventos extremos: con énfasis en sequía e inundaciones.Objetivo Estratégico, OE 2.1 La SAG armoniza y concerta mecanismos y acciones con el sector público, las organizaciones privadas y demás del sector agroalimentario, para lograr propuestas prácticas que contribuyen a la reducción de los impactos producidos por las sequias y las inundaciones en el sector agroalimentario. VERSIÓN EJECUTIVA R 3.2.1. Para el año 2018 se cuenta con un diagnóstico de la oferta y demanda de agua por cuencas en el país para uso agrícola (Gestión de la información hídrica).R 3.2.2 Para el 2020 las cuencas utilizadas para proveer a los sistemas de riego establecidos, cuentan con un plan de manejo que permita el uso sostenible del agua incrementando la productividad agropecuaria sobre todo en zonas más vulnerables del país.Se cuenta con un documento elaborado que resume la información de la situación hídrica para uso agrícola.Planes de manejo con enfoque de gestión integral del recurso 7 hídrico para proyectos de riego.Número de sistemas de cosecha de agua (reservorios) establecidos en el país que benefician a familias en condiciones de riesgo agroclimático.Gestión de recursos técnicos financieros, alianzas estratégicas.Fortalece las Regionales con técnicos expertos en riego apropiado a condiciones de riesgos agroclimáticos.Incluye en todos los proyectos de riego, la protección y restauración de las áreas de recarga hídrica. VERSIÓN EJECUTIVA R 3.2.3. Al 2020 con prioridad en las comunidades del Corredor Seco y otras del país, se ha incrementado la oferta de agua para riego y se ha mejorado su gestión y eficiencia. R 3.2.4 Al 2020 se visualiza la inversión pública de proyectos de afianzamiento hídrico, dotando de agua de riego en mayor porcentaje a las familias más vulnerables y expuestas a los impactos de la sequía.Número de sistemas de riego implementados bajo el Programa de Desarrollo Agrícola Bajo Riego (PDABR) que benefician a familias en condiciones de riesgo agroclimático, implementando el blindaje de proyectos y la sostenibilidad del recurso hídrico.Cada año, a partir del 2017 se elaborarán informes sobre la tasa de eficiencia de uso de agua en la agricultura, esperando que al menos se incremente de 33% a 63%.Un 40% de las familias del Corredor Seco tienen acceso a riego tecnificado y han sido capacitadas en su uso, mantenimiento y reemplazo.Capacita a los usuarios de riego en protección de cuencas, conservación y uso eficiente del agua (enfoque de gestión integral del recurso hídrico).Mejora las capacidades del sector para articular las iniciativas e inversiones locales, de programas, proyectos y servicios de la SAG y de otras instituciones para facilitar el acceso a sistemas de riego en zonas prioritarias.Facilita y coordina la implementación del financiamiento para 9,255 hectáreas productivas bajo sistemas de riego como Objetivo Estratégico, OE 3.2 Prevenir la reducción del volumen disponible de agua, mejorando su calidad y cantidad mediante un 6 correcto manejo de las cuencas y priorizando proyectos y programas de afianzamiento hídrico como inversión para la ACC.Indicadores Estrategias para logro de Resultados Responsable, socios y aliados Fomentar y velar por la incorporación de la variable ambiental en todas las políticas, planes, programas, proyectos y actividades agropecuarias; incluyendo la adaptación al cambio climático y su mitigación, así como la gestión integrada del riesgo agroclimático; mediante la reducción de la vulnerabilidad agroclimática y el incremento de la resiliencia y capacidad de adaptación del sector agropecuario.Generar procesos metodológicos a través de instrumentos técnicos y administrativos que faciliten la incorporación del enfoque para la adaptación y mitigación del cambio climático y la reducción del riesgo agroclimático, en todas las políticas, planes, programas, proyectos y medidas impulsadas por la SAG y por el sector agroalimentario.• Apoyar el cumplimiento de los compromisos y obligaciones multilaterales del Estado hondureño derivados de las convenciones multilaterales, en el marco de la articulación del sector agroalimentario con la adaptación, mitigación, gestión del riesgo agroclimático, entre otros.• Conformar y consolidar espacios institucionales e interinstitucionales para el fomento de la incorporación de la variable agroambiental, que incluya la adaptación, mitigación, gestión del riesgo agroclimático de todos los actores del sector agroalimentario.• Conformar espacios intersectoriales para la discusión, consulta, divulgación, fomento e implementación de las políticas, planes, mecanismos facilitadores y financieros, programas y proyectos orientados hacia la adaptación, mitigación y reducción del riesgo agroclimático.• Fomentar la incorporación de la adaptación, mitigación y gestión del riesgo agroclimático en los proyectos agropecuarios, ya sea que requieran o no licenciamiento ambiental, y generar orientaciones metodológicas y manuales de buenas prácticas para tal efecto.• Fomentar la ejecución de la Estrategia de Adaptación al Cambio Climático para el Sector Agroalimentario, tanto a lo interno como a lo externo de la SAG; y establecer un sistema de seguimiento y evaluación, sobre la base de los indicadores de resultado y de impacto incluidos en dicho instrumento de planeación. La UACC&GR tendrá la siguiente estructura:Incluiría la coordinación general y una unidad de apoyo técnico-administrativo.Incluiría los cuatro componentes siguientes:Investigación y tecnología.Fortalecimiento técnico-institucional.Estrategias y medidas.Gestión de riesgos.Todas las unidades técnico-operativas abordarían las tres dimensiones fundamentales planteadas en los objetivos de la UACC&GR: Ambiente Cambio climático Gestión del riesgo agroclimático.Tabla 3. Estructura de la UACC&GRAsesor Técnico-operativoEn ese contexto internacional y nacional, la SAG deberá jugar un papel central y protagónico, en coordinación y sinergia con otras entidades gubernamentales y espacios intergubernamentales pertinentes, para dotar al Estado y a la sociedad hondureña de una «Estrategia para la Adaptación al Cambio Climático en el Sector Agroalimentario de Honduras», así como de los mecanismos de implementación más efectivos para prevenir, reducir o minimizar los efectos e impactos adversos del cambio climático en el sector agroalimentario nacional.Para el logro de los objetivos de esta Estrategia, la SAG deberá dotarse de las capacidades institucionales, técnicas y humanas que le faciliten su implementación de manera apropiada y que la habiliten para asumir el papel de liderazgo requerido en el ámbito nacional, territorial y local, con la sustentación científico técnica y la legitimación social requeridas, para asegurar la viabilidad política de las decisiones y acciones para enfrentar el cambio climático de manera oportuna y efectiva.La SAG a través de la UACC&GR, tendrá que participar activamente desde ya en los procesos nacionales en curso y por venir, encaminados a la conceptualización y formulación de los planes, programas y proyectos que en materia de adaptación al cambio climático para el sector agroalimentario y agropecuario se deberían priorizar.Para tal efecto, la UACC&GR deberá desarrollar dichas iniciativas para el sector agroalimentario en el contexto de un Plan de Adaptación, y sustentarlas de acuerdo a las directrices establecidas, las cuales demandan elaboración de:• Escenarios de cambio climático.• Estudios de impacto, adaptación y vulnerabilidad.• Identificación de las necesidades y planes de acción tecnológicos.• Propuestas de medidas de adaptación.Dicho Plan y las iniciativas vinculadas, constituirían los instrumentos de implementación de la Estrategia UACC-GRAC. Los impactos observados y proyectados a futuro para el sector agroalimentario debido al cambio climático tienen efectos directos en:• La seguridad alimentaria y nutricional.• Los sistemas de vida y su entorno natural.• Los ingresos familiares y medios de sobrevivencia de una gran mayoría de la población.En el marco de su mandato legal, incluyendo otros compromisos derivados de la Convención Marco sobre Cambio Climático, que es Ley secundaria de la República, así como de las directrices emanadas de la Estrategia Nacional de Cambio Climático, la SAG deberá asumir los desafíos correspondientes para enfrentar el cambio climático, en el marco de sus funciones institucionales.Para tal efecto, la SAG deberá concebir, desarrollar e implementar mecanismos de naturaleza diversa en materia de adaptación y mitigación del cambio climático, tales como:• Gestión pública, lo que incluye estrategias, planes, programas proyectos y medidas de fomento de la adaptación.• Científico-tecnológicos, lo que incluye la investigación, experimentación, innovación, desarrollo, transferencia y difusión tecnológica.• Normativos, referidos al marco jurídicolegal, a la institucionalidad pública y privada, y a plataformas o espacios multisectoriales o intersectoriales.• Educacionales.• Organizativos, para mejorar la efectividad de las actividades agropecuarias y agroalimentarias.• Económico-financieros.• Participación ciudadana, transparencia y rendición de cuentas de la función pública.","tokenCount":"6995"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9b0c9a1a32f30d4df6d3b594ff51d2ce","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/013186cf-74ef-4cbc-876f-28f12f597d84/retrieve","id":"-348486486"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"598924b0-737c-43fb-ab20-d4386858ba8c","pagecount":"31","content":"The Food Resilience Through Root and Tuber Crops in Upland and Coastal Communities of the Asia-Pacific (FoodSTART+) project is a 3-year research grant funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Fund (IFAD). Implemented by the International Potato Center (CIP), together with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and in close collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (CRP-RTB), FoodSTART+ aims to enhance food resilience among poor households (HH) in upland and coastal communities of the Asia-Pacific region through the introduction of roots and tuber crops (RTCs) innovations, primarily within the framework of IFAD investments. The project's objectives are to (1) identify gender-responsive needs and opportunities through vulnerability assessments among food-insecure RTC-producing and consuming HH; (2) design and implement innovations that enhance food resilience with partners and local stakeholders; and (3) develop and validate effective partnership strategies with IFAD investment projects in promoting RTCs for food security at scale.The project has five outputs:• Output 1: Subnational geographic target areas combining food vulnerability with significant RTC production and use are prioritised and mapped • Output 2: Effective, mutually beneficial, research-for-development (R4D) partnerships identified, established, and monitored • Output 3: Gender-sensitive RTC innovations that respond to 10-20-year climate-change scenarios and expressed needs of stakeholders are identified • Output 4: R4D actions to promote RTC innovations implemented and monitored and the results documented • Output 5: Field-based best practices, outcome stories, and success factors are documented and disseminated to support IFAD, CIP, CIAT, and wider national and regional policy development.Funding for the five outputs of FoodSTART+ comes from two sources: a larger grant from the EU (€1,830,551) and a smaller grant from IFAD (US $200,000). These are complemented by co-financing from CIP ($100,000). The small grant provided by IFAD focuses on applying and extending partnership models with IFAD investment projects which have emerged from earlier FoodSTART experiences, which includes the operational activities concerning the identification, establishment, and monitoring of R4D partnerships in Output 2. The EU large grant, on the other hand, covers Outputs 1 and 3-5. In view of delays in the approval process for the larger EU-funded component of this project, and in agreement with IFAD grant manager, additional activities of Output 1 involving site selection, identification of partner investment sites, and the conduct of scoping studies were funded by the smaller grant, though they are reported here as envisaged in the Agreement.Output 1Activity 1.1: Scoping studies (6), based on research sites/investment projects identified in proposalSix scoping studies conducted in five countries were completed in the early part of the reporting period and submitted as drafts during the inception workshop in February 2016 (these studies were initiated through revised arrangements of the IFAD smaller grant, as indicated above). The six studies were carried out by teams comprising FoodSTART+ staff and IFAD investment project staff. The scoping studies were conducted in the five target countries with identified investment projects as follows: Hunan Agricultural Rural Infrastructure Improvement Project (HARIIP) in China; Meghalaya Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project (Megha-LAMP) in India; Smallholder Livelihood Development Project (SOLID) in Indonesia; Fisheries Coastal Resources and Livelihood Project (FishCORAL) and Integrated Natural Resources and Environment Management Project (INREMP) in the Philippines; and Sustainable Rural Development Project (SRDP) in Vietnam. In all cases stakeholder meetings were held to feedback the main results of the scoping studies to farmers and officials who had provided information, receive reactions and inputs from them, and refine the recommendations accordingly. The scoping studies were edited during the year. The seventh scoping study was initiated towards the end of the reporting period in Myanmar, led by FoodSTART+ and implemented by a Burmese consultant working with local officials and farmers. The report is due by end of March.This component is led by the CIAT-Asia team that already developed a mapping proposal/work plan. However, with the delayed contract signing of the EU component between CIP and IFAD which led to further delay in signing the subcontract with CIAT (signed late 2016), implementation was put on hold. Suitability maps are yet to be done and will be pursued in the second year of project implementation.The project was launched on 2 February 2016, and was attended by FoodSTART+ staff, IFAD country representatives from Philippines and Vietnam, and IFAD investments project staff from Philippines, China, and Indonesia. The launch included a key session and panel discussion about the successful collaboration in northern Philippines between the first phase of FoodSTART and the IFAD investment project known as the Second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management Project (CHARMP2). The IFAD country program officer for Philippines; the Agriculture, Agribusiness and Income Generating Activities (AAIGA) Coordinator for CHARMP2; and FoodSTART staff who were actively involved in the first phase partnership with CHARMP2 participated in the panel. A video of the CHARMP2-FoodSTART collaboration was shown.A planned cross visit by a delegation from the IFAD SOLID project in Indonesia for October 2016 was postponed at the last moment by the Indonesian team because of issues within the SOLID project organisation.The delay in contract signing of the EU component caused the literature review on food vulnerability and resilience to be postponed; however, Ms Nadezda Amaya, consultant, was hired in late 2016, and the report will be ready by March 2017.Output 2 1FoodSTART+ staff contributed to various relevant country strategic opportunities programme (COSOPS), investment projects supervisions missions, and IFAD country offices activities. The objective was to promote the prioritisation and incorporation of RTCs for increased food resilience. These included contributions to an IFAD country office review and supervision mission of Megha-LAMP in India; participation in a supervision mission of SOLID in Indonesia; and multiple contributions to IFAD country activities in the Philippines, including the annual country programme review and evaluation meeting/workshops related to the IFAD Philippines country strategy.v | P a g eA major achievement of FoodSTART+ in its first year of implementation has been the establishment of partnerships with the six IFAD investment projects in the five target country sites. Owing to exchange rate fluctuations affecting the dollar value of the budget which was used to determine operations, reductions in the scope of the project led to China being reclassified as a secondary site and requiring additional sources of funding to FoodSTART+ to support collaborative activities. During initial interactions with the targeted investment projects, discussions were held about the most appropriate partnership options and arrangements that could be established for the proposed collaborations. The results of these discussions were brought to a special session on partnership arrangements held during the inception meeting in February 2016. This discussion provided the basis for three types of partnership arrangements: embedded (India and probably Vietnam); neighbourhood (Philippines), and provisional (Indonesia). Briefly, the embedded mode involves posting a staff to be based in the offices of the investment project in the area of its operation, to be the active promotor and facilitator of partnership interactions. The neighbourhood mode involves locating the promotor and facilitator of the partnership in an institutional setting with ready physical and collaborative access to investment projects. The provisional mode involves the location of the FoodSTART+ staff in Indonesia close to the headquarters of the SOLID investment project, whilst management decisions are ongoing regarding collaboration.Five stakeholder workshops were held in the different sites to identify and prioritise collaborative opportunities for FoodSTART+ and the investment project to work together towards more effectively reaching the goals of the investment project. Either directly within the stakeholder meetings or in separate workshops held between FoodSTART+ and investment project personnel, the basis of the partnership was also discussed and defined. As a result of these workshops and meetings, six annual collaborative action plans were developed.FoodSTART+ began the adaptation of the \"Partnership Health Check-up\", originally developed by CIP in sub-Saharan Africa. This monitors organisational contributions to partnerships, the degree of mutual support, transparency and accountability, and overall partnership efficiency. This will be implemented over the second year of the project. The assessment process has been variable between different sites. In Philippines, in both investment projects, stakeholder and action plan development workshops did not identify the need for further assessments but, rather, decided that the collaboration with FoodSTART+ should move directly to support training and implementation of farmer business schools (FBS) (see Activity 3.3). In India, assessments were discussed as part of the preparation of the action plan between Megha-LAMP, FoodSTART+ staff, and TAP members. FoodSTART+ staff and TAP members developed the methods and tools for potato and cassava value chain assessments. In Vietnam, initial discussions indicate the likelihood that complementary assessments will be carried out for better understanding of socioeconomic, food, and agriculture issues at the commune level in order to design value chain action plans for each commune. These plans will be confirmed in early 2017. In Indonesia, no decisions have yet been taken.A potato value chain study was undertaken in Meghalaya, India, to analyse the entire chain and identify major constraints and areas where interventions could significantly increase returns for potato producers. This information will be used As an integral part of the six scoping studies completed during the reporting period, stakeholder workshops were held to review the results of the studies and draft proposals for prioritised follow-up actions. Inputs from stakeholders resulted in revised plans and priorities and helped strengthen buy in for their implementation. Action plans from these validation workshops were further reviewed and refined during the FoodSTART+ inception meeting in February 2016, and in mini-workshops by FoodSTART+ staff and investment projects.Actions will be implemented in the second year based on the action plans developed with investment projects (Activity 4.1), some on-going assessment activities (see Activity 3.1), and several capacitybuilding activities (Activity 4.3).During the reporting period, capacity building of investment project and partner staff has focused on value chain methodology, including assessment tools and value chain development approaches, and the introduction of the FBS approach to help investment projects achieve their objectives in increasing incomes and livelihood of target beneficiaries. Seven capacity-strengthening events related to these topics have taken place during the period-four in Philippines and three in India. Planned hands-on training in value chains in Indonesia and capacity building in value chains and FBS through a cross-site visit by SOLID staff to northern Philippines were both put on hold owing to SOLID internal management issues.As part of cross-regional sharing of FBS methodology between IFAD grant and investment projects, a one-day orientation workshop was held in Quito, Ecuador, for staff of a CIP-led IFAD grant project operating in three countries of Latin America (IFAD-Andes). The workshop, held on 14 November 2016, was given by Christopher Wheatley, FoodSTART+ TAP member and senior FoodSTART+ value chain advisor. The workshop was also attended by government agriculture officers, non-governmental organisations, university faculty, and producers' groups linked to an IFAD investment project. The workshop led to the discussion and plans for potential application of FBS in the IFAD-Andes project.A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan has been drafted by FoodSTART+ staff and will be shared with investment projects during the 2017 FoodSTART+ partners' meeting (scheduled for May 2017).During the meeting, coordination with the M&E systems of relevant investment projects through a number of means, including data collection, will be explored. We plan to support investment project partners to monitor changes in food consumption, gender norms, and HH capacity to ensure food security over time. Specific tools include progress indicators, gender checklist, resilience indicators, and partnership health check-up.Activity 5.1: Communications and engagement plan developed for target audiences A communications and visibility plan has been drafted and will be shared with the investment projects during the 2017 FoodSTART+ partners' meeting. FoodSTART+ site is already included in IFAD-Asia portal.To be implemented.The \"most significant change\" methodology was adopted for the evaluation of CHARMP2 and will result in knowledge products (book and video) to share lessons on FBS use and benefits thereof for FoodSTART+ partners and other interested stakeholders.Under implementation.To be implemented.Gender is receiving high priority in all areas of implementation of FoodSTART+. To ensure that gender issues are considered at all stages of implementation, a gender checklist has been developed by Nozomi Kawarazuka, TAP member and RTB gender specialist based in Vietnam. It has been pilot tested in India, Indonesia, and Philippines with FoodSTART+ staff there. On the basis of feedback discussed during the team meeting planned for February 2017, a refined version will be rolled out during the partners' meeting. This will be integrated into the FoodSTART+ gender strategy, a draft of which has already been developed by the TAP gender specialist and shared within the team. The full strategy and checklist will be shared more broadly during the partners' meeting in May 2017, for proposed adoption in the investment projects.As already described, a whole Output 2 of FoodSTART+ is dedicated to the elaboration of different models of partnership between the grant project and the targeted IFAD investment projects and their development and monitoring. A paper describing the partnership development experience with IFAD investment projects during the first phase of FoodSTART is being finalised.An important partnership being developed in FoodSTART+ is with the CRP-RTB. Both CIP and CIAT are members of that CRP, and there are good opportunities for cross-learning around technology issues, especially integrated pest and nutrient management in India and postharvest issues in Vietnam and possibly Myanmar. It is also proposed that RTB will be represented on the FoodSTART+ Steering Committee.A communications and visibility plan as well as various briefs on FoodSTART+ have been prepared. FoodSTART+ site is already included in IFAD-Asia portal.Good progress had been maintained in most of the outputs anticipated for implementation during the first year. Owing to a delay in signing the agreement between IFAD and CIP for the EU component, there was a corresponding delay in signing the sub-agreement with CIAT, which put on hold follow-up actions to scoping studies in Vietnam and Indonesia as well as the Geographic Information System work. Furthermore, SOLID in Indonesia is reviewing its collaborative arrangements in light of the limited period left to complete the project.The priority for the next period is for India and Philippines to move to implementation of actions as follow on from the scoping, assessment, and capacity-strengthening activities, and for Indonesia and Vietnam to move to assessment, capacity strengthening, and action.In all cases, we expect more attention to the project's communication and visibility through publishing of results and communicating progress and achievements. More details can be found in Annex 22.FoodSTART+ builds on and expands the scope of the Food Security Through Asian Root and Tuber Crops (FoodSTART) project supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Fund (IFAD). The project is being implemented by the International Potato Center (CIP), together with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and in close collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (CRP-RTB), from 2011 to 2015. One of the major achievements of the FoodSTART project is the generation and systematisation of evidence on the contribution of root and tuber crops (RTCs) to the food security of low-income male and female agricultural producers and consumers, with particular focus on indigenous peoples. More important, the project developed and promoted methods, tools, and best practices for IFAD investment projects to better target and facilitate impact at scale for outcome-focused RTCs innovations. One such tool is the food security framework, which focussed on food availability, access, and utilisation during operationalisation. FoodSTART+ aims to expand upon this focus to include the analysis of the dynamic, cross-cutting aspect of vulnerability/resilience, and the capacity of communities and households (HH) to adapt through the use of an approach to food security/resilience. With the growing recognition of climate change impact on food systems and food security, bridging the gap between security and resilience is critical. Hence, by drawing upon FoodSTART's knowledge base, the project aims to provide a more robust RTC-based food security model with which to go to scale. The overall purpose of FoodSTART+ is to promote the role of RTCs in reducing food vulnerability and enhancing resilience of poor male and female agricultural producers and consumers in the Asia-Pacific.The overall project goal is to enhance food resilience among poor HH in upland and coastal communities of the Asia-Pacific region, through the introduction of RTC innovations, primarily within the framework of research-for-development (R4D) partnerships with IFAD investments.The project objectives are to (1) identify gender-responsive needs and opportunities through vulnerability assessments among food-insecure RTC-producing and consuming HH;(2) design and implement innovations with partners and local stakeholders that enhance food resilience; and (3) develop and validate effective partnership strategies with IFAD investment projects in promoting RTCs for food security at-scale.The FoodSTART+ project consists of two funding sources: a larger grant from the European Union (EU) (€1,800,000) and a smaller grant from IFAD. The project comprises five outputs (see Table 1). Of these outputs, the IFAD smaller grant was expected to cover the operational activities only of Output 2-Identification, establishment, and monitoring of effective and mutually beneficial R4D partnerships. This output ensures the establishment and effective functioning of the R4D partnerships, primarily between FoodSTART+ and the IFAD investment projects. The EU larger grant, on the other hand, covers Output 1-Geographical targeting based on scoping studies and mapping of food vulnerability as well as RTC production and use; Output 3-Identification of gender-sensitive RTC innovations responding to prioritised needs and opportunities; Output 4-Implementation of R4D actions to promote identified RTC innovations; and Output 5-Documentation and knowledge product development to support IFAD, CIP, CIAT, and wider national and regional policy development. Annex 1 presents the full logframe of FoodSTART+. FoodSTART+'s core target countries are Philippines, Indonesia, India, and Vietnam; the first three countries are former FoodSTART target sites. This new project, however, targets new provinces/states to which RTC innovations and best practices in food security research and development could be adapted/out-scaled. In Vietnam, joint CIAT-CIP grant projects (2009-2013) have collaborated with IFAD investment projects on RTC value chains. China was originally a target site but, because of exchange rate changes leading to a reduced dollar value budget, project outputs had to be revised; the Hunan, China, location was reclassified from being a primary target site to a supplementary site that will be considered should external funding for FoodSTART+ from other donors become available. Moreover, there is already significant in-country funding for the development of RTCs for income and livelihoods in China. Following discussions of the Steering Committee during the meeting's launch in February 2016, Myanmar was included as the supplementary target site for the project (see Fig. 1 for the project location and IFAD investment project partners). For more details on the FoodSTART+ project, see Annex 2 for the project brochure.  To be implemented. 0At least 1 hard copy publication per site (i.e. 5) plus at least 2 project-wide publications, also available online. Additional short topic-specific briefs (at least 10) will be produced for online publication.Detailed evaluation completed of FBS achievement and impact during FoodSTART first phase in CHARMP2, using the \"most significant change\" methodology. This will provide lessons for FBS use in second phase. Six scoping studies were conducted and completed between September 2015 and January 2016, by the FoodSTART+ project team in partnership with the IFAD investment project teams. Although this was not an original component of the small grant funding for FoodSTART+, in agreement with IFAD grant manager part of the costs were included in the small grant in order to enable the project to advance in the face of delays in processing the EU funding. The scoping studies were conducted in the five original target countries, with scoping studies of two investment projects in the Philippines. In all cases stakeholder meetings were held to feedback the main results of the scoping studies, receive inputs, and refine the recommendations. Scoping studies reports were completed in October 2016, and are now being edited for publication. The reports will be published online, and briefs summarising key findings and recommendations are currently being prepared (see Annexes 4a and 4b for the draft reports of Vietnam and Philippines, respectively). An additional scoping study in Myanmar, FoodSTART+ supplementary site, was started in September 2016, and is expected to be finalised in March 2017. FoodSTART+ conducted the study without an IFAD investment project partner, but as a contribution to potential new investment projects as the country opens up further to ODA (see Annex 5 for the ToR of the scoping study). The major RTC focus is potato and cassava, with sweetpotato and elephant foot yam as minor crops. Table 4 summarises information on the six completed scoping studies. The CIAT-Asia team, in charge of the mapping component, has already prepared a \"Technical proposal on spatial assessment of RTC resilience\" for FoodSTART+ (Annex 6 for the proposal). However, with the delayed contract signing of the EU larger grant, implementation was put on hold.During the project's launch on 2 February 2016, which included FoodSTART+ staff, IFAD country representatives from Philippines and Vietnam, and IFAD investment project staff from Philippines, China, and Indonesia, a key session and panel discussion was held on the successful collaboration in northern Philippines between the first phase of FoodSTART and the IFAD investment project known as CHARMP2. The IFAD country programme officer for the Philippines, the AAIGA coordinator for CHARMP2, and FoodSTART staff who were actively involved in the first phase partnership with CHARMP2 participated in the panel; a video of the CHARMP2-FoodSTART collaboration was shown (see Annexes 8 and 9).A planned cross-visit by a delegation from the IFAD-SOLID project in Indonesia for October 2016, was postponed at the last moment by the Indonesian team because of issues within the SOLID project organization.The conduct of the literature review on food vulnerability and resilience was postponed due to the delay in contract signing of the EU component. However, Ms Nadezda Amaya, consultant, was hired in late 2016, and the report will be ready by March 2017.Exploratory visits to all the target IFAD investment projects in the five countries were conducted from May to June 2015 by the principal investigator, marketing specialist, and senior research associate of the CIP-FoodSTART+ team, together with members of the CIAT-Asia team for Vietnam and Indonesia (see Annex 10). These visits and subsequent communications have resulted in the final selection of the benchmark sites in India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and China and confirmation of the six IFAD investment projects (i.e. HARIIP, Megha-LAMP, SOLID, FishCORAL, INREMP, and SRDP) where FoodSTART+ will seek to build R4D partnerships. Owing to exchange rate fluctuations and consequent reduction in the EU budget for the project, these plans are under review. (Annex 11 describes the investment project partners.)The partnerships with IFAD investment projects were formalised during the FoodSTART+ inception meeting on 1-2 February 2016, in Manila, Philippines, with the preparation of collaborative 2016 action plans.FoodSTART+ staff contributed to various relevant COSOPS, investment projects supervisions missions, and IFAD country offices activities (Table 5). The objective was to promote the prioritisation and incorporation of RTCs for increased food resilience. for three types of partnership arrangements: embedded (India and probably Vietnam); neighbourhood (Philippines), and provisional (Indonesia). Briefly, the embedded mode involves posting a staff to be based in the offices of the investment project in the area of its operation, to be the active promotor and facilitator of partnership interactions. Thus a staff hired by FoodSTART+ currently holds office in Megha-LAMP in India. The neighbourhood mode involves locating the promotor and facilitator of the partnership in an institutional setting with ready physical and collaborative access to investment projects. In the Philippines, the research assistant hired by FoodSTART+ is seconded to a national research organisation partner, Philippine Rootcrop Research and Training Center (PhilRootcrops) based at VSU, which is geographically and collaboratively close to both investment projects. The provisional mode used in Indonesia reflects the on-going discussions and negotiations with SOLID. The FoodSTART+ staff is based close to the national headquarters of SOLID in Jakarta to facilitate interaction with its leadership. The implementation of the partnership arrangement will take place in Vietnam in early 2017. Delay has been due to late signing of EU agreement and consequently of the agreement with CIAT.The scoping studies (Activity 1.1) have been conducted in the investment project sites, in partnership with the IFAD investment project teams. Five stakeholder validation workshops were held to present and validate the findings/results of the scoping studies, and to gather feedback from different stakeholders on the reliability of the data and information gathered by the team. These stakeholder workshops also aimed to present and prioritise opportunities in RTCs to help identify potential innovations and to define areas of collaboration between and among stakeholders and investment projects. Annex 13 presents the guidelines of the stakeholder validation workshops conducted as part of the scoping studies; Annexes 14a and 14b are selected stakeholder validation workshops reports (Philippines, India). The action plan developed in the workshops was presented and further developed by the investment partners during the FoodSTART+ inception meeting on February 2016. As a result, six annual collaboration action plans by investment projects were developed in the said meeting. Annex 15 refers to the FoodSTART+ and IFAD investment projects collaborative action plans for 2016.FoodSTART+ began the adaptation of the \"partnership health check-up\", originally developed by CIP in sub-Saharan Africa (Annex 16). This monitors organisational contributions to partnerships, the degree of mutual support, transparency and accountability, and overall partnership efficiency. An initial presentation was made by the project coordinator during the inception meeting. The tool is being refined and the project team is reviewing the process of implementing these partnership health checkups for FoodSTART+. This will be pursued over the second year of the large grant project.FoodSTART+ has formed a pool of experts (i.e. the TAP) to provide technical advice on project implementation. The TAP was formed and first convened during the inception meeting in February 2016. Annex 17 presents the ToR of the TAP. At present, six specialists participate in the TAP, covering a range of thematic areas indicated in Table 7. preparation of the action plan between Megha-LAMP and FS+ staff and TAP members. FoodSTART+ staff and TAP members developed the methods and tools for potato and cassava value chain assessments. In Vietnam, no decisions on assessments have yet been taken owing to delays in moving beyond the scoping study. In Indonesia, no decisions have yet been taken.Potato value chain study in Meghalaya. One of the activities in the collaborative action plan with Megha-LAMP was the conduct of a potato value chain study. It aimed to analyse and depict the entire potato value chain in Meghalaya-including input supply, production, and marketing (plus any processing)-and identify major constraints and areas where interventions could significantly increase returns for potato producers. This information will be used to identify Megha-LAMP/MBMA activities along this value chain. The study is currently underway. One TAP member (Julie Roa) facilitated the start-up training workshop in November 2016 in Shillong, India; the FoodSTART+ staff and consultant will continue to collect and analyse the data and write the report; the study will be completed in early 2017. Annex 18 presents the ToR of the potato value chain study.A gender checklist for introducing new RTC technologies to men and women which intends to guide FoodSTART+ staff and partners to ensure that gender is adequately addressed in their action plans and interventions was prepared by one of the TAP members (Annex 19). The gender checklist was circulated and commented by FoodSTART+ staff.A study on agricultural practices for cassava and sweetpotato was conducted by two students in Quang Binh (SRDP site) in Vietnam from June to August 2016. The study aims to look into the gaps between existing agricultural practices and climate smart agriculture for cassava and sweetpotato. The students are Kate Wilkins, a master's student at University of California-Davis, and Nguyen Nam, undergraduate student at Dickinson University. The report will be available soon.As mentioned above, a potato value chain study for Megha-LAMP is underway. Prior to the conduct of the study, the Megha-LAMP staff went through an orientation training for the fieldwork of the study on 23-26 November 2016, in Shillong. Reports are also due for the study of agricultural practices in Quang Binh Province, Vietnam.Included within this activity are carrying out and reporting on cross-visits between different target sites.As part of the scoping study, eight stakeholder validation workshops were conducted from late 2015 to early 2016. As reported in Activity 2.3, during the workshops the scoping study results were presented and validated, in order to identify potential opportunities and innovations on RTCs that could be potentially exploited by investment projects and other stakeholders. Beyond FoodSTART+ in Asia, the FBS methodology was also shared with CIP-Ecuador through a oneday orientation workshop facilitated by Christopher Wheatley, FoodSTART+ TAP member, on 14 November 2016 in Quito. The workshop was attended by CIP staff, agriculture government officers, NGOs, academe, and producers' groups. The workshop led to the discussion and plans for potential application of FBS in Ecuador, particularly in an on-going IFAD grant project (IFAD-Andes).The FBS approach is used by the investment projects as an approach in helping project beneficiaries increase income and established enterprises. In Philippines, INREMP started piloting six FBS in Bohol, through their people's organisations in December 2016 (Table 10). One TAP member, Nozomi Kawarazuka, facilitated and completed the gender-responsive proposal for expert contribution to organic potato production practices to be implemented in Meghalaya. The study will involve external funding source.An M&E plan has been drafted by FoodSTART+ staff and will be shared with investment project during the 2017 FoodSTART+ annual meeting (scheduled for May 2017).A communications and visibility plan has been prepared and will be shared with the investment projects during the 2017 FoodSTART+ annual meeting. FoodSTART+ site is already included in IFAD-Asia portal.To be implemented.CHARMP2 engaged FoodSTART+ in the evaluation of FBS achievement and impact during FoodSTART first phase in CHARMP2 sites. The \"most significant change\" methodology was adopted for the evaluation and will result in knowledge products (book and video) to share lessons on FBS use and benefits thereof for FoodSTART+ partners and other interested stakeholders.Knowledge sharing is important for the FoodSTART+ project. Prior the meeting, FoodSTART+ staff joined the workshop on \"Gendered adaptation strategies in response to climate change: case studies in South-East Asia\". A presentation was made on gender in FoodSTART+, highlighting the main lessons about the role of women and men in RTCs livelihood in upland and coastal communities in the Philippines, from the FoodSTART+ scoping study, and the importance of linking women and men to markets through the FBS approach, with gender and climate change perspectives. (See Annex 21 for the \"Gendered roles in root crops livelihood in coastal and upland communities in Philippines: CIP-FoodSTART+ \" presentation.)To be implemented.The major challenge faced by FoodSTART+ in its first year of implementation is related to the delay in the approval of the EU-funded component of the project. This resulted in delayed project start-up of FoodSTART+. Since the two components are fully integrated, the delay required some adjustments in the smaller IFAD grant project, including funding of the scoping studies. Financial implications of these adjustments are addressed in a letter accompanying the financial report.Owing to the delayed initiation of the EU component of the project, the recruitment of the project coordinator was deferred. It was not possible to hire the project coordinator due to funding constraints. To ensure that the project is being coordinated efficiently, a coordination team led by CIP's principal investigator, with assistance from the senior marketing consultant and senior research associate of FoodSTART+, have assumed the responsibilities of the project coordination.Owing to the delayed project start-up, the signing of sub-grant agreement with CIAT was also delayed, affecting implementation of some activities in Vietnam and Indonesia. Collaborative activities planned with the investment projects were affected, implying the possible loss of interest from investment projects (i.e. SRDP).Another challenge faced by the project is the reduction of project funds due to exchange rate losses (weakening of the Euro vs USD). Target project sites and activities were trimmed down, due to the reduction of project funds. The current core target sites are four countries, with China being reclassified as a secondary site.As for project implementation, there is still uncertainty surrounding naming of a technical task manager of FoodSTART+. To date, FoodSTART+ is still waiting for the official information from IFAD on the project's task manager. Some decisions on project implementation, such as final composition of the Steering Committee, are still pending. Many of these issues will be addressed during the partners' meeting in May.A challenge on partnerships with investment project is the high dependency on investment projects to implement the collaborative action plans. Some activities were affected due to procedural delays in decision making of the projects (i.e. Megha-LAMP), less interest and cooperation attitude (i.e. SOLID and SRDP), and fund availability in their current work plan/budget and timeframe of the projects (i.e. INREMP and FishCORAL). However, FoodSTART+ staff maintained regular contacts, follow-up, and adjustments with the investment projects to address these issues.One innovation being developed by FoodSTART+ project is the establishment of an innovative partnership model, whereas a grant project with a research focus supports and collaborates with IFAD investment projects. The partnership arrangement includes \"embedding\" a grant project-funded research assistant into an investment project (i.e. FoodSTART+-funded researcher seconded to Megha-LAMP in India) and locating a FoodSTART+ researcher with a national research programme (VSU in the Philippines) working closely with IFAD investments. This ensures maximised collaboration and streamlined activities with multiple investment projects.The FBS approach, a participatory action learning approach to support farmer groups' participation in, and benefit from, agricultural value chains, has generated interest among the IFAD investment projects for adaptation and scaling in the implementation of their own projects. The FBS curriculum is now being adapted in two IFAD investment projects (Megha-LAMP in India and INREMP in Philippines), with a possibility of out-scaling by CIP in Ecuador.Owing to the delays of FoodSTART+ project start-up and financial constraints, there are no public goods produced yet. However, the FoodSTART project (considered the first phase of FoodSTART+) still has materials due for publication, namely: Gender is receiving high priority in all areas of implementation of FoodSTART+. To ensure that gender issues are considered at all stages of implementation of FoodSTART+, a gender checklist, developed by Nozomi Kawarazuka, TAP member and RTB gender specialist based in Vietnam, has been developed and pilot tested in India, Indonesia, and Philippines with FS+ staff in these locations. On the basis of feedback discussed during the team meeting planned for February 2017, a refined version will be rolled out during the partners' meeting. This will be integrated with an FoodSTART+ gender strategy, a draft of which has already been developed by the TAP gender specialist and has been shared within the team. The full strategy and check list will be shared more broadly during the partners' meeting for proposed adoption in the investment projects.","tokenCount":"5766"}
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It was also stated (pg 9 Conclusions and Decisions) that \"Once amended per above, the revised SRF will drive the CRP preproposal development process pending endorsement by the FC and approval by the Funders Forum.\" 2 This paper introduced the concept of IDOs to the CGIAR discussion and talked about prioritization at both the System level and the level of the CRPs.The CGIAR's Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) 2016-2030 identified three strategic goals or system level outcomes (SLOs) of the CGIAR: (i) reduced poverty, (ii) improved food and nutrition security for health, and (iii) improved natural resource systems and ecosystem services. Since SLOs are the higher-level goals of the system, CGIAR has introduced the concept of Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs) to enable scientists and researchers to consider these ultimate goals from the research activity perspective, i.e. thinking through the contexts in which their outputs might contribute to development. Below this IDO level are 45 unique sub-IDOs that have been adopted as the common research outcome targets within each CGIAR research program (CRP), according to program-and peer-reviewed assessments of priorities and of what can be delivered. The structure of the sub-IDOs under IDOs contributing to SLOs are shown in Figure 1 with 35 sub-IDOs under the three SLOs and 16 under the Crosscutting Themes. The SRF 2016-2030 will guide the development and implementation of the portfolio of second generation CRPs (CRP-II).In April 2015, at the 13th Fund Council meeting in Bogor (FC13), donors agreed to endorse the SRF 2016-2030 for approval by the Funders Forum, subject to the ISPC developing \"a qualitative prioritization framework by September 2015,\" and that it \"will consult during the process with concerned FC members to ensure that it meets their needs and concerns\" 1 . The ISPC Chair, therefore, agreed to implement a \"qualitative prioritization\" of the sub-IDOs (rather than of the research per se), with the overarching objective being to develop a framework, independent of Centers' own initiative, for qualitatively assessing relative priorities across sub-IDOs. The intention was that the output from this exercise could then be used by the ISPC alongside its assessment of the quality of the individual CRP-II pre-proposals which were to be submitted in mid-August 2015. In other words, this framework could serve as a \"tool\" for dialogue between the different parts of the CGIAR System for moving towards a more robust prioritization process in the future and contributing as one of several methods for CGIAR system level priority setting as alluded to in the ISPC White Paper (\"Strengthening Strategy and Results Framework through Prioritization\", 2013) 2 . This brief note describes the initial steps taken by the ISPC between June and September 2015 towards developing a framework for qualitatively assessing relative priorities across the 45 unique sub-IDOs. It describes the results of two parallel efforts undertaken -pilot exercisesaimed at eliciting priorities from two distinct groups of CGIAR stakeholders: donors themselves and knowledgeable (of CGIAR) development experts.   Online group surveys (for donors) to elicit priorities and individual questionnaires (for experts) were utilized and subsequently analyzed. We emphasize that these are initial steps. Yet, while we conclude that the results of this pilot exercise cannot be reliably applied to the overall (portfolio) or individual CRP-II pre-proposal assessment, we believe a similar but enhanced twopronged effort can and should be undertaken prior to the submission of the CRP-II full proposals (31 March 2016). The ISPC believes this second exercise would be useful to both the ISPC in its CRP assessments and, importantly, to the donors in helping them reach strategic decisions about resource allocations. We are also hopeful that this information might be supplemented by more quantitative approaches, modeling exercises, etc., over the course of the next six months.The Process: In the survey, each donor was asked to indicate their organization's (i.e., not individual) priorities across the sub-IDOs (45 unique sub-IDOs across 3 SLOs and 4 cross-cutting themes). Rather than rely on a scheme of assigning scores of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) to each of the sub-IDOs, the ISPC chose to force choices, which is more akin to the actual situation allocating scarce resources. Thus, across the entire set of 45 sub-IDOs, respondents were asked to assign points between 0 and 45 to each of the sub-IDOs reflecting the priority of that sub-IDO to their organization, i.e. the total points allocated to all 45 sub-IDOs could not exceed 45, thus forcing them to make choices.Nine key results from the donor/stakeholder survey (based on 19 respondents):1. One observes varying extent of discrimination between sub-IDOs by the donors when it comes to prioritizing (Figure 2). One respondent put all the weight (45 points) on only eight sub-IDOs; eight respondents assigned no points (zero score) to at least 20 sub-IDOs and 13 respondents gave a zero to at least 10 sub-IDOs. Each of those respondents are expressing clear preferences of some (preferred) sub-IDOs over others. However, three respondents assigned a score of '1' to all the sub-IDOs, thereby indicating equal importance to all 45 sub-IDOs. Another three respondents assigned points to all but eight or less of the 45 unique sub-IDOs. 2. Every sub-IDO has been assigned some importance (priority) by donors in a collective sense.Of the 855 total 'points' assigned, Enhanced genetic gain (sub-IDO 4.3) and Reduced preand post-harvest losses including those caused by climate change (sub-IDO 4.1) received the highest number of points from the 19 respondents, 34 and 30 respectively (Figure 3); and thus, by that simple account, could be considered the highest priority sub-IDOs.Increased safe use of inputs (sub-IDO 7.3) and Enrichment of plant and animal biodiversity for multiple goods and services (sub-IDO 9.3) received the least number of points, 7 and 9 respectively (Fig 3 ); and thus could be considered lowest priority sub-IDOs.All five sub-IDOs under Increased productivity are in the top ten donor priority sub-IDOs.Both sub-IDOs under improved food safety are in the lowest five priority sub-IDOs.While no clear delineation can be made between high, moderate and low priority groupings since aggregate points allocated are continuousdistinctions can be made between sub-IDOs clustered around the high end, e.g., first 10 sub-IDOs where the points allocated to sub-IDOs range from 34 to 24, and the last 10 sub-IDOs where the points allocated range from 7 to 12. [In theory, were the sample size sufficient and representative, the ISPC could \"rank\" the sub-IDOs based on this donor preference elicitation and use that ranking in some manner as part of the assessment of the pre-and full proposal FPs].An alternate method for assessing priorities is examining how many times respondents assigned at least one point to a sub-IDO 4 . According to this method, 17 out of 19 respondents gave at least one point to land, water and forest degradation (including deforestation) minimization and reversed (sub-IDO 8.1). The lowest priority sub-IDO remains increased safe use of inputs (sub-IDO 7.3) -7 out of 19 respondents gave only one point to this sub-IDO.Assessing these results at the IDO level (based on aggregation of sub-IDO scores under each), discrete delineations in total points are evident as per Table 1: the highest priority IDO is increased productivity (IDO 4), followed by increased incomes and employment (IDO 3), capacity development cross-cutting theme and climate change cross-cutting theme. The lowest priority IDO is improved food safety (IDO 6).At the SLO level (aggregating across all sub-IDOs under each SLO), Reduced poverty emerges as the highest priority SLO (305 points), followed by improved food and nutrition security for health (253 points), and improved natural resource systems and ecosystem services (166 points). Seven of the 19 respondents provided some comments and reflections about the prioritization exercise that offer useful insight as to the way forward. Key ones by various donors related to: The challenging nature of the exercise particularly sub-IDOs are: (a) often defined in general terms, (b) sometimes inter-linked, (c) often equally important, or (d) important (or not) depending on the geographical context.  The need to consider the comparative advantage of the CGIAR when assessing sub-IDO priorities. For instance, while donors may fund certain sub-IDOs through development funding, they do not consider it a priority for research funding.  The integral nature of cross-cutting themes and sub-IDOs to the Results Framework.Drawing on respondents' comments above and aspects observed by Secretariat staff throughout the course of the exercise, there appear to be several constraints that limit the usefulness of the donor / stakeholder survey results, which should be resolved if and when a second round of the survey is conducted (we believe it should be). These include:a) The need to increase the number of respondents, particularly from the largest contributing donors, e.g., BMGF, the Netherlands and the World Bank, to make results more representative of the CGIAR donor community. It would be useful to have at least half of the Funders Forum respond and at least 90% of the contributing donors. This would also allow for greater discrimination between high, moderate and low priority sub-IDOs.b) Confusion as to whether donors/stakeholders should rank sub-IDOs in terms of their organization's overarching priorities for all development funding or whether priorities were reported specifically for research funding or even funding for agricultural research. In the future, it will be important to specify which of these is preferred when donor surveys are carried out. We believe it's the latter that is important to capture, both for clarity and comparability to expert opinion results. c) Sub-IDOs are not always unambiguously defined and therefore can be subject to different interpretations, e.g., do the three sub-IDOs under 'natural capital enhanced and protected, especially from climate change' refer to the research aimed at conservation of resources directly relevant to agriculturethe soil, water, biodiversity on the farm or mainly to the offfarm environment, or to both? Footnotes will be required to provide more explanation to particular sub-IDOs.d) Some sub-IDOs might be a necessary condition to achievement of other sub-IDOs, i.e. not all sub-IDOs are at the same level and hence impacting one may mean impacting several.For example, if access to high-quality seeds and inputs in market or extension services (influenced strongly by roads) is a necessary condition for the sub-IDO enhanced genetic gain, sub-IDO reduced market barriers is the \"enabler\" for on-farm genetic gain. Account must be taken of this inter-connectedness.e) Development strategies and therefore, agricultural research-related development strategies are highly contextual because of heterogeneityone can expect substantial variations between countries and within countries (and even regions within countries) in terms of the current priority one sub-IDO has over others. One option is to elicit priorities for sub-IDOs for diverse categories of region x institution x market development classes.f) Trade-offs and adverse effects in targeting (prioritizing) a particular sub-IDO have not been addressed. In a future survey, scope for qualifying a particular response along these lines should be provided.The Approach and Process for Implementation:In a parallel effort aimed at generating a stronger conceptual and empirically-based rationale for establishing priorities across the agreed upon set of sub-IDOs, the ISPC drew on the expertise of a group of knowledgeable and well respected agricultural and development experts. These individuals were asked to judge the extent to which the CGIAR is well placed to deliver on each of the 51 sub-IDOs (45 unique + 6 'repeats' appearing under two different IDOs) based on a set of criteria developed by the ISPC. Five criteria had been identified by the ISPC as being potentially relevant in helping determine sub-IDO priority for the CGIAR. These were: Relevance of the sub-IDO for achieving the particular SLO;  Centrality of agricultural research (vis-à-vis other development options) for achieving the particular sub-IDO;  Comparative advantage of the CGIAR (vs alternative suppliers);  IPG orientation of the CGIAR lending itself to production of this sub-IDO; and  Expectation of delivery (short/medium term vs long term).Approximately 20 agricultural development experts were approached to assess their interest in participating in this sub-IDO priority setting exercise. Most expressed a keen interest in the exercise, but unfortunately time constraints prevented many from actually participating. A few others expressed doubts about the feasibility and value of such an exercise, particularly for specific criteria such as the IPG orientation of the CGIAR (IPG being a useful criterion for consideration of research outputs but does not lend itself easily to achieving a particular development outcomealthough that is clearly the ultimate intention) and expectation of delivery. Seven individuals, however, were able to participate in making the assessment, and in particular making the assessment on the basis of the first two criteria: the \"relevance of sub-IDO for leading to achievement of the SLO\" and the \"centrality of agricultural research for achieving the sub-IDO\". It is important to note that these seven individuals are highly respected within the international agricultural community, have multi-disciplinary backgrounds 5 (economists, agricultural R&D expert, bio-physical scientist, international development expert, donors) with many years of experience (including within the CGIAR) and most have solid publications records.The other criteria that were initially on the list were dropped after further consideration 6 . For example \"Expectation of delivery within a short or long timeframe\" will always be highly context specific. It would not be possible to evaluate sub-IDOs on this criterion without knowing the specifics of the research proposed (problem addressed, capacity of teams, time frames, etc.)which would have to be evaluated in the CRP pre-proposals themselves.Individually, and using a standard sub-IDO template, each of the seven participating experts were asked to judge by rating from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) the extent to which the CGIAR is well-placed to deliver a particular sub-IDO based on the following considerations for the first two criteria listed above, i.e., relevance and centrality. The scores givenone for each criterionshould be based on development theory (of development pathways and constraints), existing empirical evidence and their own expert judgment to assess:(a) Relevance: the strength of the direct or indirect linkages between a sub-IDO and its corresponding SLO (b) Centrality: the extent to which agricultural research represents a critical intervention point for achievement/delivery of a given sub-IDO relative to other interventions.Thus, two scores, one for each criterion, were recorded for each sub-IDO. In addition to the rating for each criterion for every sub-IDO, the experts were also requested to provide a summary narrative highlighting where they believe the best evidence (empirical or theoretical) exists for the strongest linkage(s) between sub-IDO and a particular SLO; and for justifying agricultural research investment to achieve a particular sub-IDO (considering advances in science and technology that may enable or speed up progress towards delivery, or alternately, other related or unrelated factors that may hinder such progress).5 However, it should be noted that there was a preponderance of economists amongst the seven experts, even if they were also donors/international development experts. 6 With the exception of comparative advantage which served as the sole criterion for an independent evaluation by one individual. Those results are not reported here given the small sample and limitations with the method used.All seven experts scored each of the two criteria for each of the 35 sub-IDOs under SLO1, SLO2 and SLO3; five of the experts also scored each of the criteria under the16 sub-IDOs under the cross-cutting themes (CCTs). Thus a total of 70 (35 sub-IDOs x two criteria)1-5 scores were recorded from all seven experts with an additional 32 (16 sub-IDOs x two criteria) 1-5 scores recorded from five of the experts. Different ways of analyzing the results were possible. As this was a very small sample of respondents (n=7 for the SLOs and n=5 for the CCTs) and given the likelihood of different rating scales by each of the experts, all scores were normalized (equivalent z scores calculated) for both the relevance and centrality criteria. The mean of the z-scores for each sub-IDO for each category was then calculated. Each data set (for both relevance and centrality) was then divided into quintiles, and from these quintiles three categories were established: high for those in the top two quintiles, moderate for those in the third quintile and low for those in the bottom two quintiles.Finally, the sub-IDO was given an overall rating based on the following: 1. 'High Priority' if it had a high rating for both relevance and centrality criteria 2. 'Low Priority' if it had a low rating for both relevance and centrality; it was also rated low if it was low for one of the two criteria, i.e. either relevance or centrality 3. 'Moderate Priority' if it had a moderate score for both relevance and centrality 4. 'Moderate-high Priority' if it had moderate score for one criteria and high for the other.The ratings for each of the sub-IDOs, transformed from their 1-5 scores according to the method described above, are presented in Table 2. In addition to showing the expert group's overall composite score for each of the 51 sub-IDOs, individual ratings for each of the two criteria, \"relevance\" and \"centrality\", are also given. Figures 3 and 4 present this more succinctly. The key results emerging from this exercise are:1. Ten sub-IDOs are classified as high priority, with six of these under the SLOs and four under the CCTs. Eight sub-IDOs fall into the moderate-high priority group (five under the SLOs and three in the CCTs), two sub-IDOs fall into the moderate priority group (one each under the SLOs and CCTs), and 31 sub-IDOs come under the low priority group (23 under the SLOs and 8 in the CCTs).2. No high priority sub-IDOs are found under SLO1 -reducing poverty. Three are found under SLO2 -improving food and nutrition security, two of which \"Closed yield gaps through improved agronomic and animal husbandry practice\" (sub-IDO 4.2) and \"Enhanced genetic gain\" (sub-IDO 4.3) contribute to the IDO \"Increased Productivity\", a traditional core strength of the CGIAR and arguably the area of best documented achievement. Three high priority sub-IDOs are also found under SLO3improving natural resource systems and ecosystem services, two are under the Climate Change CCT, one under the Policies and Institutions CCT and one under Capacity Development CCT.3. Two of the five sub-IDOs under \"Increased Productivity\" were ranked differently by the experts depending on whether they were considered as contributing to SLO1 or SLO2a clear recognition of the perceived different pathways likely to play out under each, notwithstanding the likely correlation between poverty and household food insecurity in many cases. Figure 3 depicts a bi-modal colouring for those two sub-IDOs.4. When considering how central or how important agricultural research is to achieving the sub-IDOs, the experts, in their collective judgment, considered that 21 of the sub-IDOs have low priority and another 10 of only moderate priority. If this expert judgment is reasonably correct, a great many sub-IDOs will only be achieved, or will more effectively be achieved, by (a) pursuing development initiatives other than agricultural research, or (b) working in specific locations and situations where the enabling environment is conducive to uptake and effective utilization of the outputs of agricultural researchthose would need to be defined and justified clearly on a case by case basis. Should these results stand up in the face of a larger and more representative stakeholder group, it would be a highly significant result with important implications for setting priorities across sub-IDOs and FPs targeting them.5. The experts also considered that 20 of the sub-IDOs (10 of which overlap with the set identified above) have low priority with respect to their importance for having a clear direct or indirect link with the SLOs or CCTs. A further 11 sub-IDOs have only moderate priority from that perspective. Here again, if this sort of finding holds up under a broader and representative assessment by experts, it has very important implications for targeting for the CGIAR.Experts provided some comments and reflections about the prioritization exercise that offer useful insight as to the way forwards. Key ones include: Scoring was complicated by the strong inter-connectedness and/or overlaps between many sub-IDOs within a given IDO, and even across the IDOs. Notably, the achievement of practically all sub-IDOs requires development efforts and often complementary (non-agricultural) research, but the converse is not true, i.e. some sub-IDOs could be substantially achieved with little or no additional/new agricultural research (even if the sub-IDO is of substantial relevance to the SLO). Since most sub-IDOs relate to the outcomes of development rather than to those of research, in these cases CGIAR comparative advantage may be contingent on effective partnerships, with governmental institutions, NGOs or private sector. Sub-IDOs seem to have been developed by consensus rather than through a scientific or logical process and there are some difficulties in applying an objective approach to their prioritization. Ideally, priorities in international agricultural research should be assessed on a neutral basis so that different options can be evaluated. Lessons Learned and Caveats:Drawing on experts' comments above and aspects observed by Secretariat staff throughout the course of the exercise, there appear to be several constraints that limit the usefulness of the expert opinion survey results, which should be resolved if and when a second round of the survey is conducted (we believe it should be). These include:a) The need to increase the number of experts with enhanced cross-disciplinarity and diversity of experience in different regions (important for the development context). Gender balance amongst the experts would also be desirable.b) The relevance of sub-IDOs to SLO achievement varies across agro-ecologies, farming systems, institutional landscapes (including value chains and markets) and policy environments. One option would be to elicit priorities for sub-IDOs for diverse categories of region x institution x market development classes.c) It must be recognized that the sub-IDOs are correlated and their interconnectedness must be taken into account.d) The target time frame merits mention. The time frame of the SRF is 2030, which begs the question -is research for achieving the sub-IDOs factored into the 15-year vision while CRPs last only 6 years (for the second generation CRPs)? It is important to make a distinction between types of sub-IDO targets that are feasible to achieve in a six-year time frame and some equally/more important ones that contribute to long term strategic goals. This will need to be teased out further in a future exercise.g) Some sub-IDOs are poorly or ambiguously worded and are thus open to interpretation. For example, the sub-IDOs under CCT 3 -Policies and Institutions -are very heavy on capacity building, rather than focusing on the nature of the policy analysis, advice and advocacy. If these were modified accordingly, the sub-IDOs under CCT4 -Capacity Developmentcould then focus on capacities in the CGIAR and partners to deal across the three SLOs.Footnotes may be required to provide more explanation for such sub-IDOs or alternatively, some sub-IDOs could be rephrased (for instance sub-IDO C.1 \"Increased capacity of beneficiaries to adopt research outputs\" could be reformulated as \"Increased analytical capacity to inform policymakers across the three SLOs, negotiate best solutions in the interest of people and the environment, and monitor their implementation\").h) Trade-offs and adverse effects in targeting (prioritizing) a particular sub-IDO have not been addressed. In a future survey, scope for qualifying a particular response along these lines should be provided.When comparing results from the expert opinion exercise and from the donor survey, there appears to be some degree of convergence. For example, \"Enhanced genetic gain\" (sub-IDO 4.3) received the most number of \"points\" from the donors and thus, by that account, is the highest priority sub-IDO. Likewise, the results from the expert opinion exercise also scored sub-IDO 4.3 under SLO2 as high priority, and moderate-high priority under SLO1. There are another four sub-IDOs that were identified as high or moderate-high by both groups. In a similar vein, the donors identified \"Increased safe use of inputs\" (sub-IDO 7.3) and \"Enrichment of plant and animal biodiversity for multiple goods and services\" (sub-IDO 9.3) as the lowest priority sub-IDOs; these sub-IDOs were also scored as low priority by the experts. Some other sub-IDOs, for example the two under the IDO \"Improved food safety\" (sub-IDOs 6.1 and 6.2), were also scored as low priority both by donors and the experts.Nonetheless, there were a few areas of divergence where the donor survey results did not quite align with the expert opinion results. For example, \"Reduced pre-and post-harvest losses including those caused by climate change\" (sub-IDO 4.1) was scored as high priority by the donors but low priority by the experts. This incongruence can partly be explained by the fact that donors were asked to indicate their organization's priorities -hidden bias could be brought in by different donor agency priorities (rather than focusing on what CGIAR priorities should be), including weighting (i.e. relative emphasis based on scale of funds offered by each respondent's donor agency). But there is no a-priori reason to expect to see complete convergence between these two different stakeholder groups.While the ISPC did not consider that the prioritization exercise was sufficiently robust to be part of its review, we do think it is useful to consider how a more robust exercise in future might be applied to assessment of CRP proposals. Figure 6 shows the distribution of sub-IDOs targeted by the 13 CRPs. Sub-IDOs under SLO1 and sub-IDOs under three of the CCTs dominate the attention of more than the two-thirds of the CRPs. Sub-IDOs contributing to the IDO \"Increased productivity\" under both SLO1 and SLO2 are also major targets of the CRPs. Sub-IDO under SLO2, SLO3 and CCT on Climate Change have a relatively lower frequency. While all sub-IDOs are covered by the CRPs, in fact only one CRP targets sub-IDO 6.2 (Appropriate regulatory environment for food safety), and only two CRPs are targeting the other sub-IDO that comes under the IDO \"Improved Food Safety\". All the other sub-IDOs are covered by at least three CRPs.Figure 7 depicts a similar distribution using data from the Flagship Projects (FPs). The cumulative number of sub-IDOs targeted by the 72 FPs across the 13 CRPs was 494 7 . Here again, it is the sub-IDOs under the CCTs of gender and youth, policies and institutions and capacity development and the sub-IDOs under SLO 1reducing poverty that are most often targeted by the FPs and CRPs. Relatively few of the FPs target the sub-IDOs under SLO2 (with the exception of the Increased Productivity IDO). Only two FPs from the total of 72 consider sub-IDO 6.2 as a target, and only three are targeting its neighbor sub-IDO 6.1 (Reduced chemical and biological hazards in the food chain). Fig 7 also identifies the sub-IDOs that have received the highest and lowest priority from the donor survey that were discussed earlier in this note. In comparing those results to this FP sub-IDO frequency distribution, there appears to be good convergence between the donor priority sub-IDOs and their relative importance amongst the FPs, i.e., \"Enhanced genetic gain\" and \"Reduced pre-and post-harvest losses\" were the two highest priority sub-IDOs for donors and these are sub-IDOs where 14 and 15 FPs respectively include them as targets. Conversely, the two sub-IDOs for which donors gave least priority, 7 For the purposes of the analysis the following three cross-cutting programs were treated as equivalent to flagship projects, since sub-IDOs were specified for these in the Performance Indicator Matrices: \"Core Theme: Gender and Inclusive Growth\" (CRP: Agriculture for Nutrition and Health), \"Cross-cutting program on Gender, Equity and Empowerment\" (CRP: Agriculture for Nutrition and Health) and \"Supporting Platform 1. Delivering Impact and Inclusion\" (CRP: Forests, Trees and Agroforestry).\"Increased safe use of inputs\" (sub-IDO 7.3) and \"Enhancement of plant and animal biodiversity for multiple goods and services\" (sub-IDO 9.3) have only 4 and 5 FPs targeting them respectively. The high frequency of FPs targeting sub-IDOs in the CCTs is not surprising since this was a requirement in the CRP-II pre-proposal guidelines for submission.The preceding analysis describes the relationship between the individual sub-IDOs against frequency of CRPs and FPs targeting them. The CRP pre-proposals included information about approximate budgets associated with the sub-IDOs, which are included in the Performance Indicator Matrix (PIM) annex of each pre-proposal. Therefore, it is possible to look beyond simply the number of relevant FPs, to the magnitude of proposed investment associated with each of the sub-IDOs, albeit, by making some critical (but reasonable) assumptions about distribution of resources across the joint set of sub-IDOs targeted by the FPs 8 . This is shown in Figure 8. This gives a much clearer picture of the relative effort proposed in the CGIAR aimed at achieving these sub-IDOs, and by implication the corresponding IDOs and SLOs. Striking is the very high level of proposed investment for (the proposed) research activities targeting the five sub-IDOs within the IDO \"Increased Productivity\", accounting for almost one-quarter of the total budget requested over the six-year period (USD 8.56 billion). The two highest donor priority sub-IDOs alone (sub-IDOs 4.1 and 4.3)indicated by the green stars in the Figure 8 attract a collective budget across 29 FPs of USD 850 million over the 6 years. This is equivalent to 10% of the total CGIAR requested budget. The two lowest donor priority sub-IDOs (sub-IDO 7.3 and 9.3)indicated by the orange starstargeted by 9 FPs, have a budget of less than USD 100 million. At least from the donor perspective, this sort of convergence is reassuring. But of course the question still to be asked is whether this difference in (proposed) investment is appropriate in terms of adequately reflecting the relative importance of these sub-IDO priorities.The figures at the bottom of Figure 8 show the total proposed investments in research that targets the sub-IDOs across the three SLOs and four CCTs. SLO1-reduced poverty -intends to attract some USD 3.4 billion in investment or about 40% of the total CGIAR budget. The first three IDOs under SLO1 represent a research investment of some USD 1.45 billion. With the exception of one moderately high priority sub-IDO and one moderate priority sub-IDO, the other six sub-IDOs in this SLO are considered low priority by the expert group (shown in Figure 9) and were in the middle range for the donor group. This analysis cannot answer the question as to whether an investment of USD 1.45 billion over six years (roughly 17% of the total) focused on those three IDOs within SLO1 is an appropriate amount, but it does begin to bring together the number of FPs targeting the various sub-IDOs, the magnitude of the proposed research investments across FPs and CRPs targeting those sub-IDOs, and the priorities assigned to them by different stakeholder groups, i.e., donors and experts. Taken together, these data offer a good basis for in-depth discussion and for further analysis for establishing a more focused set of priorities and allocating resources accordingly. Of course this is only looking at the demand side: resource allocation should also take into consideration the quality of science and research proposed in the narrative of the CRPs as well as the feasibility of the theories of change and impact pathways, among many other considerations as per the criteria in the guidelines.Figure 9 pulls together the complete set of information harvested from this exercise: the results of the expert opinion survey which assigns priorities across each of the sub-IDOs, the two high and two low donor elicited priority sub-IDOs and the proposed research investment associated with each of the targeted sub-IDOs. Of the sub-IDOs that receive a relatively high level of investment, a large proportion are also deemed high or moderately-high priority by the experts.It was noted that a disproportionate number of high and moderately-high priority sub-IDOs are found under SLO3 and CCT1 (Climate Change) compared to SLOs 1 and 2 where a large number of moderate and low priority sub-IDOs are found with the notable exception of the IDO \"Increased Productivity\" which spans both SLO 1 and 2. This exercise has shown how a more robust prioritization exercise could be used to compare information about different stakeholder sub-IDO priorities with the targeting of sub-IDOs by the 72 FPs across the 13 CRP-II pre-proposals. Using the results from both the donors and the experts, the ISPC has been able to identify 5-6 high and moderately-high sub-IDOs and in every case there are a large number of FPs targeting them. Interestingly, the low priority sub-IDOs identified by both groups have a correspondingly small number of FPs targeting them. Still, for the reasons spelled out above under the donor and expert group sections, the ISPC decided that the results were not robust enough to be applied to the ISPC's assessment of the relative importance of the CRP-II pre-proposals. For this CRP-II pre-proposal assessment, the ISPC will continue to rely on the arguments and rationale as presented in each of the pre-proposals for that assessment.The ISPC aims to refine and conduct an expanded qualitative prioritization exercise to feed into a more robust analysis of full proposals. The objective of this exercise will remain the same: to strengthen the quality, relevance, and impact of new investments through the provision of expert scientific guidance through an appropriate qualitative prioritization for the next generation of CRPs. The ISPC will take a similar approach in expanding the dialogue and soliciting inputs from (a) a larger set of donors, and (b) some 30 or so experts drawn from various relevant disciplines (combining survey with Delphi method and/or workshop to reconcile the knowledge and judgment of several experts), and (c) consider addressing other criteria such as comparative advantage of the CGIAR explicitly.More quantitative prioritization efforts have been used by different Centers at different times. TAC itself for many years relied on a quasi-quantitative prioritization tool (a modified congruence approach) for recommending resource allocation at the System level. The ISPC hopes to bring in the required expertise to help explore, perhaps with groups such as PIM/IFPRI, ways in which different models might be used or adapted to complement the more qualitative exercise on prioritization described above. The IMPACT model, for example, is already being used (and is being expanded upon) by almost all of the Centers under the coordination of the Global Futures project of PIM. There is scope for using combinations of models, to explore ex-ante the impact of different types of research investment at the System level, but validating estimates is a huge challenge here.","tokenCount":"5663"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f8975118afc38e00e8d71a85f2695cd0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a9999385-77c4-4dbd-a84e-459fbb5ce968/retrieve","id":"-865811707"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8dd59a9f-1ab3-487e-8c2b-26b6ba7e551f","pagecount":"68","content":"Disclaimer : All the views expressed in this publication are based on established legal principles and any error or lapse is purely unintended and shall not make either the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT or the ISPGR liable for the same. This publication is exclusively for the purpose of awareness creation and purely non-commercial in nature.India provided a benefit sharing (BS) model on commercial use of PGR 20 years before NP on ABS came into existence. Indigenous traditional knowledge of Kani tribals on a stamina builder herb Arogyapacha was used in developing a commercial herbal product Jeevani by Arya Vaidya Pharmacy and Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), Palode, Kerala, and its commercial benefits were shared with the Kani tribe. Farmers, tribal and indigenous communities in India have been playing a critical role as conservers of bioresources and related traditional knowledge and they should be rewarded with monetary and/or non-monetary benefits. The purpose of ABS framework is to ensure that biological resources are accessed and used with Prior Informed Consent (PIC) from the providers and on Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT) between the providers and users. When commercial benefits are accrued, consequent to access and use of bioresources, the user needs to share them fairly and equitably with the provider.The Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) guidelines under BDA, 2002 have come into force with effect from 21 November 2014 and consist of: (i) procedures for access to biological resources and/ or associated traditional knowledge for research or biosurvey and bioutilization for research and commercial utilization for foreign entities; (ii) mode of BS for commercial utilization (1 to 3% for the trader and 3 to 5% for the manufacturer); (iii) option of BS on sale price of the biological resources (from 0.1% to 0.5% based on annual gross ex-factory sale of product); (iv) procedure and mode of BS for transfer of results of research; procedure and mode of BS in intellectual property rights (IPR) cases (directly by applicant 0.2 to 1.0% through licensing 3 to 5%); (v) procedure and mode of BS for third party transfers (2 to 5%); (vi) determination of BS and sharing of benefits; (vii) processing of applications received by NBA and details of exemptions to access for prior approval of NBA or SBB. Scope of implementation of these guidelines is very vast in India. However, their implementation is limited to a few cases only, both in public and private sectors, and has sometimes led to legal conflicts with the private sector.Some challenges faced for operationalizing ABS in India include: (i) appropriate valuation of bioresources; (ii) correct interpretation of provisions and exemptions; (iii) harmonization across multiple implementing institutions and jurisdictions; and (iv) simplification of legal jargons and enhancing procedural transparency.Commercial value of biodiversity is largely not estimated or under-estimated. Ecosystem services are invariably not accounted. The global seed market is expected to reach US $70 billion, of which Indian share is nearly 4%. Industries with about 25% bioresource-based products have massive global market value e.g. herbal supplements ($22 billion), personal care ($12 billion), food products ($31 billion), and pharma industry ($640 billion). Public and private research and development (R&D) institutes use bioresources for developing technologies. Some of the users need repeated access to resources for their industry, while others need resource only once as it can be multiplied using science and technology.Most critical challenge in implementing ABS under the NP mainly dealing with bilateral exchanges, is to assess the actual as well as potential economic value of resources before arriving at appropriate terms of BS. This is accentuated in cases where the assessment is done a priori. Absence of clarity on market value, its appreciation and temporal/spatial variations as well as industry demand and market reach can put the fairness and equity elements of ABS at risk. Often such situations lead to reluctance on part of users and disillusionment in providers.There is a general perception that ABS obligations are meant for foreign seed companies using Indian resources and not applicable to Indian seed industry. Although, Indian users need not get prior permission for accessing the resources for research, biosurvey and bioutilization purposes, but they need to get prior approval from the respective authorities if the resources are utilized for commercial purpose. On the other hand, foreign users of Indian bioresources (foreign individuals/entities including non-resident Indians or Indian companies having foreign shareholders) need to get prior approval from the NBA even before accessing the bioresources. Stakeholders still complain about the lack of clarity on (i) a cut-off date for access to pre-BDA material and their commercialization; (ii) access to genetic resources (e.g. insect, pest or weed) for services e.g. 'to be used to test against' for research; (iii) definitions of 'Indian Company', 'biological resource', 'genetic material', 'valueadded product', 'conventional breeding', 'occurring in India' in today's context; (iv) overlapping jurisdictions e.g. NBA, PPV&FRA and DAC&FW (ITPGRFA implementing authority in India).India exempts specific uses/activities [value-added products, conventional breeding, certain government approved international collaborative research work and over 400 normally traded as commodities (NTAC) under certain conditions], certain users (local communities, traditional healers and farmers) and obligations (exchange of designated genetic resources of food crops and forages under the ITPGRFA for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture).In India, ABS is affected by multiple statutes, governed by multiple ministries issuing multiple guidelines, and executed by multiple agencies. Modalities for access to genetic resources need to be harmonized before BS provisions are implemented. Coordination and cooperation among agencies has been a challenge for effective implementation of ABS. A functional interface [e.g. PPV&FRA and NBA; NBA and Indian Patent Office (IPO); NBA and DAC&FW; NBA and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)] can establish non-encroaching, complementary and compliant procedures. Addressing issues such as (i) disparities in the applicability of biodiversity rules across states; and (ii) mismatch between bilateral Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) and multilateral Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) remains a challenge. The enabling process under multilateral access to genetic resources as per ITPGRFA needs further refinement.The NBA, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) are the three statuary bodies that currently oversee governance of ABS in India. The implementation of the same, however is not unambiguously documented even five years after the notification of the Guidelines for ABS in India. Local communities are invariably the owners of traditional biological resources as common heritage. In the three-tier system of BDA, the BMC at grassroots level is the most powerful decision making body that grants permission for access to bioresource by any user. The BMCs are expected to be formed taking village or Gram Panchayat as a unit as per the provisions of BDA (guidelines of NBA). As of January 2020, there are 29 SBBs and 2,43,499 BMCs in India which have prepared 95,252 People's Biodiversity Registers (PBRs). Besides, there are several Government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that contribute to conservation of biological resources. Also, there are a few outstanding individuals both in forest and agricultural ecosystems who conserve and use biological resources. Several community seed banks, supported by NGOs and others, also serve as source of seed for users. There are more than 1,750 genebanks in the world at the international, national and local level. Currently, genebanks under the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Centers hold more than 7,50,000 accessions of PGR that are accessible through the multilateral system (MLS) of exchange of the ITGRFA using well accepted SMTA. The ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi has over 4,50,000 PGR collections held in seed, in vitro, cryo and field genebanks. Several research institutes within and outside National Agricultural Research System (NARS) also conserve genomic resources in addition to seeds.Accessing any biological resource or associated knowledge for research, commercial use, biosurvey and bioutilization, transfer of biological resources, transfer of research results or for obtaining IPR requires approval from the respective regulatory bodies. Regulatory requirements vary based on the nature of the applicant and the specific activities involved. The users, upon obtaining access, are expected to enter into a BS agreement with relevant institution or organization. BS arrangements (monetary or otherwise) are decided on a case-by-case basis after due consultation with the local bodies and the benefit claimers. As per NBA, of the benefits received by SBBs or NBA, only 5% can be retained whereas the rest be shared with the BMCs or for biodiversity conservation by the communities under the India's National Biodiversity Action Plan (2019).All the ABS instruments that are in place in India to regulate access to genetic resources and BS amount to a complex web of legal texts and beyond the interpretation and reach of most of the farmers. In fact, farmers are disproportionately unaware of the institutional rules and structures governing ABS. It is generally opined that ABS implementation and subsequent portfolio management have not yet struck the balance between conservers and users. The long-term sustainability of locally created legal bodies such as BMCs is at stake without any inbuilt financial mechanism and technical backstopping. Similarly, many authorities and institutions have provisions to incentivize the farmers and farming communities for promoting agrobiodiversity conservation but again it is only one-time award given to the genetic resource conservers. Currently, there is no policy or mechanism to incentivize the farmers and communities involved in the conservation of agrobiodiversity. There is also a need to quantify ecosystem services being provided by these communities in terms of monetary value. In fact, ideally the monetary benefits should reach these communities as compensation for the losses borne by the communities for not opting to grow high yielding crops and varieties. Also, there is a perception that regulatory restrictions on access for research would have negative impact on expected genetic gains and hence need to be more user friendly in the larger national interest. There has to be a clear distinction between the research aiming for proprietary rights and the research for conservation through use in the interest of national public goods.In a biodiversity-rich country like India, comprehensive inventorization of bioresources is a herculean task. Nonetheless, digitalized documentation must begin in a systematic manner involving all stakeholders. The country has options to declare a few regions as Special Ecological Zones (SEZ) for evolving clarity of extent, nature and taxonomic limitations of access. Customized strategies for different bioresources use and user combinations need to be drafted and pilot projects and case studies need to be commissioned. All the steps across states must be harmonized within the framework of ABS provisions. Greater involvement of providers in awareness and capacity building will augur well for the successful implementation of ABS. The PPV&FRA, as an exemplary step, confers communities and individuals with genome saviour awards. However, how does the state handhold the conservers to ensure sustenance of their conservation efforts as well as expected economic growth? Can mentorship programs be established where rewardees work in close collaboration with either government R&D institutions or industry? How do the Indian regulatory agencies maximize the utility of benefit funds or genefunds? These concerns need to be addressed jointly by the experts and concerned stakeholders to brainstorm and find practical solutions.In view of above, a 'National Webinar on Implementation of Access to Plant Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing' was held on August 27, 2020 to have in-depth deliberations involving all stakeholders from different sectors conserving and using biological resources. The webinar was organized jointly by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT under UN Environment implemented GEF project, India Office and Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources (ISPGR) with support from ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPV&FRA) and Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) and Federation of Seed Industries of India (FSII). Participants included users and providers of genetic resources such as communities, national and international genebanks, crop-based institutes, universities, and private sector companies with experience in both commercialization and regulatory systems involved for use of biological resources.To understand the existing inconsistencies in the ABS system and suggest measures for improvements including policy reorientation and communities involved in the conservation of agrobiodiversity in particular. Dr Kuldeep Singh, Director, ICAR-NBPGR and Vice-President, ISPGR, also welcomed the delegates besides setting the context of the webinar. He mentioned that globally access to genetic resources was streamlined to a large extent after the MLS of ITPGRFA, using the SMTA, came into existence. In India, he appreciated the role of ICAR, for streamlining the procedure for accessing the germplasm for use by both public and private sector institutions in India and abroad, using the revised MTAs. However, some gaps remained, especially for crops outside the Annex 1 list of ITPGRFA, and in case of bilateral exchange on reciprocal basis. Most of the treaties and legislations have been built on addressing issues of BS, but progress made so far has been far from that was envisioned, as impact has not been visible, except in a few cases. He also stated that BS should be viewed at three tiers/levels -individual, community and national level, as all the three are involved in conserving genetic wealth. He recalled the previous meeting 1 held on ABS issues in 2016 and hoped that all the experts of the current meeting would deliberate further to suggest ways to have more BS models at the various levels.  amendments with respect to ABS guidelines that would better address concerns of all relevant stakeholders.Dr Juan Lucas Restrepo, Director General, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, as Special Invitee, remarked that the disruptions caused to the food supply chains during the current COVID-19 pandemic makes a compelling case to ensure that an enabling environment be created for societal changes for long-term food and nutritional security. He further emphasized on mainstreaming of agrobiodiversity and diversification of agro-ecological landscapes. While appreciating India's efforts on implementation of ABS, he highlighted that there is need for greater harmonization in the NP and ITPGRFA for ABS issues. Further, he highlighted the need for wider availability and accessibility of genetic resources across geographies. hailed the webinar as a much-needed one for developing evidence-based recommendations for the Indian government to implement ABS. India has been sharing a lot of its germplasm with the global community. For example, 15% of rice germplasm in IRRI belongs to India; recently the country has shared several stress tolerant legume crops to Africa under a collaborative project. He further stated that PGR conservation has been carried out in India satisfactorily, but utilization is comparatively poor which needs to be enhanced and only then the issue of equitable BS would arise. Further, implementation of rules on ABS had been uneven and complex, given the rich biodiversity of the country and lack of adequate capacity and awareness amongst the varied stakeholders. For this, interpretation of legal provisions under various statutes needs to be harmonized. He expressed hope of greater convergence and coordination amongst the authorities in Government dealing with these issues, especially in the light of revision of the BDA Rules and Guidelines, currently under deliberation at country level. Capacity building of conservers for promotion of biological resources is required and the farmers who have not been given due credit for conservation need to be suitably rewarded. He urged that more technology and science-based evidences be applied to resolve issues of origin and ownership of genetic resource as well as trait discovery, to channelize BS mechanisms.Dr R.S. Paroda, President, ISPGR and Chairman, TAAS & Chair of the Inaugural Session highlighted the genesis and objectives of the webinar. He said that a similar meeting on ABS had been organized by ISPGR in 2016 on the topic 'ABS-Striking the Right Balance'. He said that during the early 20 th century, PGR was considered as heritage of humankind and freely available for exchange. By the late 1990s and early 2000, treaties like CBD brought in the issue of sovereignty leading to some restrictions. India brought in a sui generis system of protection for genetic resources, which included farmers' rights. He affirmed that currently regulations for access to genetic resources are more for the purpose of creating a system of facilitation, rather than a hindrance. If there had not been free exchange of genetic resources, our food basket would have been entirely different. Several programs on plant breeding by FAO and other organizations like Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have laid emphasis on the use of conserved genetic resources. This was also the focus during the 1 st International Agrobiodiversity Congress (IAC) held in Delhi in November 2016, which was inaugurated by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, and culminated in the Delhi Declaration on Agrobiodiversity Management. A balancing act is required for ABS, for which valuation of genetic resources is very important and this requires public-private partnership (PPP). The objective of the present webinar is to come out with a road map for a framework for effective implementation of ABS, possibly through a single window system (akin to GST Council of the GoI), with greater coordination and convergence. It is also required to see what kind of BS can be offered -monetary, knowledge sharing, capacity building, and better social development. He mentioned that more coordination and convergence was required to serve the society with the aim of not to 'govern' but 'serve'. He further stated that gene conservers need to be empowered through value addition and linking with the markets for better livelihood. He said that the Ninth Governing Body Meeting (GB9) of the ITPGRFA slated to be hosted by India in December 2021 would be a great opportunity to showcase India's strength and diversity, including ABS implementation mechanisms and impact. Dr Vania C. Rennó Azevedo, Head of Genebank, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) spoke on \"ABS in PGRFA -Global Experience\". She defined the term 'access' in the context of crops as access to genetic materials through the collections in the world's gene banks, which may include local seeds kept in small refrigeration units of research labs, national seed collections housed in government ministries or research center collections that Dr P.L. Gautam contain all known varieties of a crop from around the world. Under the ITPGRFA and its MLS, collections of PGRFA that are in the public domain and under the management and control of 147 Contracting Parties (CP), are available under efficient rules of facilitated access, as also the international PGRFA collections hosted by CGIAR (including non-Annex 1 crops). The 'BS' under ITPGRFA happens when parties who access genetic materials through the MLS agree to either freely share any new developments ('PGRFA products') with others for further research and breeding or, if they want to keep the developments to themselves, agree to pay a percentage of any commercial benefits they derive from their research into a common fund to support conservation and further development of agriculture in the developing world. The Benefit Sharing Fund (BSF) created by the ITPGRFA was operationalized in 2008. She informed that the 11 CGAIR genebanks (Africa Rice, Bioversity International, CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI and IRRI) currently hold some 753,170 germplasm accessions 'in trust' for global users, which are subject to policy guidance of international community. The accessions are provided facilitated access for free, or minimal administrative costs, for agricultural research under contract/MTA with set conditions for acceptable uses, dispute resolution, passing on to subsequent users, etc. Under the guidance of the Governing Body, benefits are shared in the forms of (i) exchange of information; (ii) access to and transfer of technology, (iii) capacity-building, and (iv) sharing of monetary benefits arising from commercialization.By ratifying the ITPGRFA, the CPs agree that PGRFA of crops listed in Annex. 1, which are under the CPs management and control and in public domain, are automatically included in the MLS, available for distribution under the terms of Treaty as per SMTA. All countries further agree to create policy measures to encourage natural and legal persons to voluntarily include Annex 1 PGRFA in the MLS global process of exchange. On an average, material distributed under the MLS comes from CGIAR (23%), CGIAR breeding programs (63%) and countries/ other organizations (11%). So far, Asia has been the highest recipient of this germplasm (34%).Dr Azevedo informed that the CGIAR is very active in implementing and guaranteeing the BS in different ways including (i) free and almost immediate access to Dr Vania C Rennó Azevedo accessions conserved in the CGIAR genebanks itself is per se a BS; (ii) more than 800,000 accessions are available for distribution, and more than 4 million samples of germplasm and breeding lines were distributed in the past 10 years; (iv) data availability -passport, characterization, evaluation, DNA sequences and genomes, subsets, publications available in Genesys, genebanks and centers websites and databases, NCBI, etc.; and (v) capacity building. Unfortunately, some countries are unhappy with the current ABS system, due to the low monetary sharing of benefits. In 2013, the governing body of the ITPGRFA established a Working Group to enhance the MLS and BS by increasing payments and expand the scope through SMTA revision. However, in spite of nine meetings of the Working Group and three meetings of the Governing Body (GB) of the ITPGRFA, no consensus could be reached and negotiations were suspended at 8 th meeting of the GB in November 2019.Dr Azevedo further stated that CGIAR supported the Subscription System wherein recipients/subscribers agree to make annual payments to the BSF, for a fixed minimum number of years, based on their total seed sales and/or related license fees, of all crops that they sell which are included in Annex. 1 crops (even if not accessed through the MLS). Such a system does not require tracking or tracing, and it generates upfront, predictable payments to the BS system. None of the payment rates linked to these options have been fixed yet. Nonetheless, rates proposed for consideration were: (i) 0.015% of sales/licensing of all products by subscribers (under subscription option);(ii) 0.2% (minus 30%) of sales/licensing of particular PGRFA products derived from MLS germplasm, whose use is not restricted for further research and breeding (under single access option), and (iii) 2.0% (minus 30%) for sales/licensing of particular PGRFA products derived from MLS germplasm whose use is restricted for these purposes (also under single access option). Further it is opined that subscription system could also be a means for addressing BS from the use of Digital Sequence Information (DSI) with higher subscription payments to reflect the fact that subscribers got to enjoy commercial benefits associated from access to and use of both genetic materials and associated DSI. The DSI and BS from it and the expansion of Annex. I are two important issues under negotiation in the SMTA.Finally, Dr Azevedo provided a detailed overview of the mandate and achievements of ICRISAT. The ICRISAT genebank conserves 128,155 accessions, of six mandate crops (sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut and finger millet) and five small millets (foxtail, kodo, little, proso and barnyard millet), originating from 144 countries. Of these 110,818 accessions are safely duplicated at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway. Most of the germplasm has been characterized and is actively used in breeding new varieties.Dr Malathi Lakshmikumaran, Executive Director, Laxmikumaran & Sridharan Associates, spoke on \"ABS in respect to conventional plant breeding under the BDA\". She emphasized on the need for scientific and detailed definition of key terms used in the BDA 2002. For instance, the term 'biological resources' as defined under Section 2(c) includes plants, animals and micro-organisms or parts thereof and by-products with actual or potential use or value but does not include human genetic material. However, it excludes value added products. Similarly, under Section 2(f), 'commercial utilization' as defined in BDA means end user of biological resources for use such as drugs, industrial enzymes, food flavours, fragrance, cosmetics, emulsifiers, oleoresins, colours, extracts and genes used for improving crops and livestock through genetic intervention, but does not include conventional breeding or traditional practices in use in agriculture, horticulture, poultry, dairy farming, animal husbandry or bee-keeping.Dr Lakshmikumaran said that the NP clearly calls for recognizing the importance of genetic resources to food security, public health, biodiversity conservation, and the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. It also talks about the special nature of agricultural biodiversity, its distinctive features and problems needing distinctive solutions. Hence, agrobiodiversity for food needs to have different solutions as compared to biodiversity used for medicines, cosmetics, perfumes, industrial enzymes, etc. with respect to commercial utilization. The NP also recognizes the interdependence of all countries with regard to genetic resources for food and agriculture as well as their special nature and importance for achieving food security worldwide and for sustainable development of agriculture in the context of poverty alleviation and climate change and acknowledging the fundamental role of the ITPGRFA and the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Another aspect to keep in mind is that Article 8j of CBD and Article 7 and 12 of the NP relate to respecting, preserving and maintenance of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge (to be read as traditional knowledge), innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovations and practices through model contractual clauses. She hoped that the Indian BDA Dr Malathi Lakshmikumaran also speaks of 'traditional knowledge' associated with genetic resources. This is very important in the seed sector.The lack of definitions becomes subject to interpretation whenever legal issues arise. Under Section 2(p) 'value added products' means products which may contain portions or extracts of plants and animals in unrecognizable and physically inseparable form. As per BDA 2002 ABS Guidelines (Nov. 2014), Regulation No. 17 states that certain activities or persons exempted from approval of NBA or SBB among others include, inter alia, \"access of biological resources for conventional breeding or traditional practices in use in agriculture, horticulture, poultry, dairy farming, animal husbandry or bee keeping, in India\". Despite defining 'value added products' under the BDA, there is lack of clarity in terms of implementation and enforcement. It is also not clear whether bio-waste comes under the purview of the BDA, especially since access and commercialization of the same is not detrimental to the objectives of the BDA. Clarity is lacking for scope of the terms 'or knowledge associated thereto' with respect to biological resources occurring in India under Section 3(1) of the BDA for access approval, when seen in the light of the CBD and NP that refer only 'traditional knowledge associated' with biological resources. In the absence of clear definitions or understanding of the terms 'conventional breeding' or 'traditional practices in use in agriculture, horticulture, poultry, dairy farming, animal husbandry or bee keeping' to understand the scope of the exemption of the above from 'commercial utilization' as defined under Section 2(f) of the BDA, it is very difficult for NBA to govern the issues under the act. She urged the group of eminent people in the meeting to help in providing such definitions to NBA.Similarly, under Section 2(m) 'research' means study or systematic investigation of any biological resource or technological application, that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof to make or modify products or processes for any use. Conventional breeders use tools such as pathogens, insects, etc. to develop plants resistant to them. Given the wide frame of biodiversity under BDA, when breeders use the pest and pathogens as tool for conventional breeding, the former would also fall under the purview of BDA. Dr Lakshmikumaran opined that exemptions are required for these tools to develop new varieties. With respect to Section 3 of BDA, she pointed out there is no definition spelt out for 'knowledge associated thereto' in reference to biological resources. There is need for clarification whether this is traditional knowledge, DSI or characteristics of the plant. Section 7 of BDA regulates all Indian players by asking them to intimate the SBB about use of biological resource for commercial utilization, or biosurvey and bioutilization for commercial utilization. It is clear that Indian players do not need prior approval or prior intimation for conducting research or biosurvey or bioutilization on bioresources. Section 2(f) automatically excludes all players (Indian and foreign) for access of bioresources for commercialization using conventional breeding or traditional practices in use in agriculture, horticulture, poultry, dairy farming, animal husbandry or bee-keeping, but does not exclude those who would be using new technologies (like CRISPR/Cas, MAS, etc.) for their work. Section 4 pertains to situations where previous approval of NBA is required for transfer of results of research. For the purposes of section 4, 'transfer' does not include publication of research paper or dissemination of knowledge in any seminar or workshop, if such publication is as per the guidelines issued by Central Government. She said that there is need for clarity if internal sharing of research data with/between subsidiary and/or group companies that fall under Section 3(2) of the BDA is carried out without any monetary consideration, would not require prior approval under Section 4 of the BDA. She pointed out that there is lack of central government guidelines that enlist the criteria for exemption of publication of research papers or dissemination of knowledge in seminars or workshops from the ambit of 'transfer' under Section 4 of the BDA. Dr Lakshmikumaran requested that NBA should make such guidelines at the earliest or if already existing, to place on their website. This would avoid inadvertent non-compliance of Section 4 with respect to publications if there are no proper guidelines.The Section 6 deals with prior approval before applying for IP, and exempts plant variety protection (PVP) under the PPV&FR Act 2001. Here again, the word 'information on a biological resource' needs clarification, especially DSI or genetic data. Also, if waste material of biological origin is part of patent, does it get covered by Section 6? It was opined by Dr Lakshmikumaran that there is lack of proper reasoning for the non-inclusion of seeds in certain cases under the notifications issued under Section 40 of the BDA. Seeds are an 'essential commodity' under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and thus, there exists a statutory basis to include seeds within the scope of the exemption under Section 40 of the BDA as they are 'normally traded commodities'. She emphasized that guidance and clarification is required in this regard.She also pointed out that lack of clarity exists in implementation of the ITPGRFA exemption as per the MoEF&CC and DAC&FW notifications. Whereas the NBA is of the view that the exemption under the said notifications is only limited to the 26,563 crop accessions of barley, chickpea, finger millet, lentil, paddy, pearl millet, pigeonpea, sorghum and wheat as notified by India from amongst the crops listed in Annex I of the ITPGRFA, the MoEF&CC and DAC&FW notifications appear to suggest that all activities related to 64 species listed in Annex 1 of ITPGRFA should be exempted from BDA. She suggested that guidelines be provided by NBA whether all the accessions in Indian system for the 64 crops be covered and also whether all the accessions of the CGIAR system are exempted under Section 3 and 4 of BDA.Dr Ram Kaundinya, Director General, FSII, made his presentation on \"Perspectives of Seed Sector on ABS\". He informed that FSII is an association of 42 researchbased seed companies, driven by principles of research investment, IP protection and compliance of all rules and regulations. The FSII also has a group of Alliance of Agri Innovation which looks at the biotechnology related issues and policy matters. He said the FSII is committed to make the system of ABS successful as they believe that individuals, communities and nations must get benefitted for conserving genetic resources. The FSII advocates a fair, smooth, transparent system which provides with ease of doing business and rewards for crop improvement work and thereby benefits are provided to farmers and consumers. He assured their commitment to work with institutions and regulators in making the process easier, smooth and transparent. He further stated that the seed industry is fully aligned with the core principles of BDA, CBD and NP. He informed that 90-95% seeds in the country are produced indigenously, in which the private seed sector contributes significantly. Thus, the industry is very deeply involved in protection and sustainable use of the biological resources. He said that seed industry as such does not deplete bioresources but rather helps in maintenance of agrobiodiversity through the process of plant breeding.While briefly highlighting the chronology of events related to CBD, ITPGRFA and NP, he opined that there was greater need for coordination between the MoA&FW and MoEF&CC for execution of ITPGRFA and NP. He sought the clarification as to who among ITPGRFA/CBD/NP governs ABS? He highlighted the need for seed sector specific guidelines for agriculture and food sectors and called for resolving the operational issues of seed industry being faced in the current ABS regime. Dr Kaundinya said that 64 crops listed under Annex. I of ITPGRFA are exempted from Sections 3 and 4 of BDA by MoEF&CC under a notification of 17 December, 2014. However, only 26,563 accessions of nine crops have so far been listed by DAC&FW. He said that a process should be in place to move from nine to all the 64 crops. Further, there is need to add more crops and expand the list to cover crops like maize, brassicas, sunflower and vegetables. Open free access to DSI should be encouraged and not be over-regulated.The FSII feels that ABS for the seed sector should be governed under the ITPGRFA by the DAC&FW, MoA&FW. All these changes should be made with definite timelines. Till such times, interim three steps were proposed. First is development of sector-specific guidelines for agriculture and food sectors (already initiated by NBA). These may be published and used to address sector-specific needs. Second, some of the key terms (conventional breeding, traditional practices, farmer/grower/cultivator/individual, breeders, indigenous and exotic) require definition on scientific basis to bring clarity. Third, there are certain operational issues of seed industry which need to be addressed to ensure smooth flow of the process. These include:(i) Upfront payment prescribed for accession for research purpose: Currently, there is an upfront fee of INR 3,000 per variety/location/accession being charged. FSII believes that this is not fair as 90-95% of accessions are not used in the final variety development and where accession request if for commercial, cultivable seed varieties of less economic value. Hence, a lot of money goes into accessing the initial material. Further, 0.5% of sale value for BS on commercialization is high, where indigenous genetic resource utilization is minimal. Some of the accessions accessed are also freely available and traded commodities in the market. It is, therefore, suggested that the BS should be linked to the share of contribution of the accession to the final product, which can be verified through DNA fingerprinting technologies. The BS should be structured based on contribution of a particular accession to the final product. This would give a more nuanced and staged approach.(ii) Sharing of research results: For global corporations, a lot of research work goes on in different countries and there is continuous exchange of information. Many a times the location of data storage is outside India (e.g. MNCs). Transfer of research results within/between subsidiary companies where there are no monetary benefits and/or transfer of results is only for administrative purpose.Approval for this takes a lot of time and is deemed unnecessary.(iii) Normally traded as commodity (NTAC) exemption list: Seed should be restored in the NTAC list (as it existed till 2016) with immediate effect so that there is no bottleneck in the exchange of seeds.(iv) Accessions of microorganisms for using as testing tools in the development of new plant varieties should be exempted.(v) There should be exemption of biologicals from PIC for non-commercial utilization (sending leaf sample to labs, seeds for trials /evaluation purpose, etc.).(vi) Section 3 of BDA: There should be an alignment in the Companies Act, Foreign Exchange Management Act and BDA for definition of 'Non-Indian.' In the absence of definition of non-Indian participation in BDA, many Indian entities are being considered as non-Indian.In summary, Dr Kaundinya said that a collaborative approach is required between research based private seed industry, and various public institutions and regulators, as the objectives of both are the same. The system should not restrict the seed industry from delivering better products for the farmers in a mutually beneficial way. The next round of ITPGRFA discussions are scheduled to be held in Delhi in 2021. India can mark the event by pre-closing all the pending matters indicated above to develop a smooth and transparent system.Ms Shalini Bhutani, Legal Researcher and Policy Analyst, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) spoke on \"Respecting (Agrobio) Diversity, Sharing Benefits\". She referred to the trends indicated in the report by FAO on the State of the World Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture and the SDG 2, vis-a-vis genetic diversity. The Target 2.5 of the SDG calls upon nations maintain genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at national, regional and international levels, and ensure access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge as internationally agreed. The FAO undertook a technical cooperation program (TPC) in India with MoEF&CC, NBA, MoAC&FW for mainstreaming agrobiodiversity during 2017-19. These were undertaken in Punjab, Mizoram and Kerala and learnings from this are being taken-up for grounds up view on agrobiodiversity, challenges in capacity development, and communities' views on ABS. More recently, FAO has been involved in some of the COVID-19 responses and inputs to some of the GoI empowered groups with respect to facilitating removal of bottlenecks in some of the supply chains due to the lockdown and containment measures.Ms Bhutani focused on the ground up view on how the concept of ABS works at grassroot level, especially in the post-COVID scenario. The NBA proactively (on April 3, 2020) took out two orders in commitment for India's solidarity to streamline and access to PGR, and for fast tracking therapeutics and diagnostics for COVID-19.The GoI called for self-reliance in economy, particularly relying on agriculture for its economic growth in the coming months and years, urging the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) to develop area-wise, territorial agro-climatic models of agricultural development. Further, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has also issued guidelines for developing more individual and community nutrition gardens. Hence, agrobiodiversity is being viewed as source of food and nutritional security especially for the people living in marginalized areas, with harsh production environments. These were the communities worst hit after the pandemic, when supply chains got cut-off due to the lockdown. Since they had continual access to their local bioresources, this helped them tide over the difficult times. For example sanitizers were produced from 'Mahua' flowers (Madhuca longifolia) in Central India by Self-Help Groups. Secured access to local bioresources helped the communities to sustain themselves. Respecting access to agrobiodiversity can be one of diverse ways to look at ABS from the ground, and there cannot be one homogenous system for this. Other approaches would include respecting diverse agrosystems. How can real keepers of bioresources (local communities) have continued access to diversity that keeps their agriculture possible? Traditionally seen, BS happens subsequent to access. Ms Bhutani drew attention to Article 5, of the UN Declaration on Rights of Peasants 2 wherein peasants and people in rural areas have the right to access and use in a sustainable manner the local natural resources required to enjoy adequate conditions of living and they have the right to management of these resources. Access to local resources present in their communities should be seen as a benefit itself because that is the basis on which the local knowledge systems and grassroots innovations which would help in recovery of local economy. This of course is wellcovered in the idea of non-monetary benefits as per the NP. But that does not imply that the obligated BS from external users can be done away with. Sustainable use of bioresources can also offer real and tangible benefits to the local communities as enshrined in ITPGRFA (Article 6) dealing with fair agricultural policies that promote the development of diverse farming systems and supporting local knowledge systems. The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework has five long-term goals for 2050 Vision for Biodiversity which emphasize that genetic diversity must be increased in next decade and the benefits shared must be fair and equitable.Finally, Ms Bhutani shared five guiding principles to relook ABS, according to national circumstances: (i) actively promote inclusion and social justice harmony. Under the PPV&FR Act, the BMC have been granted PVP certificates, while itself being the body to oversee the ABS (ii) revitalizing farmer participatory plant breeding and public plant breeding systems is another potential BS system; (iii) when granting access, one should see if the health of the people/community, area and globe is safeguarded; (iv) to support for greater diversified and decentralized seed industry because of the localized needs in a mega diverse country like India; and (v) ABS system interpretation of patents rule assessment and IPR interpretations under various acts-assessment of ABS vis-a-vis IPR are required.As Co-Chair of the Session, Dr R.C. Agrawal complimented all the speakers and said that many of the issues flagged by them were being addressed under the revision of the BDA, especially for commercial utilization aspects. BS is a big issue, requiring understanding the difference between ownership and stewardship of varieties by the farmers.In spite of almost 15 years of existence of ITPGRFA, the weakest point has been implementation of Farmers Rights (Article 9). Since 2016 an Ad hoc Technical Committee has been constituted to suggest the options which is currently working on the issue. He cited some examples of recent court judgments on BS, which necessitates revision of the BDA provisions to address many of the issues raised in these judgments.Dr P.L. Gautam, Chair of the Session, while appreciating all the speakers, briefly mentioned that he had been associated with all the acts and treaties right from the beginning and stated that negotiating in a treaty in international fora is a huge task, due to diverse viewpoints of different stakeholders. The inclusion of Farmers Rights was a necessity for India in the ITPGRFA, but not important for several other countries. Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK) was elaborately discussed in all CBD negotiations, but international processes are very slow, as one has to go by consensus. India's legislation has made good progress in implementation of ABS and other related provisions in both BDA and PPV&FR Act. Due to the unprecedented nature of the Acts, implementation was initially a problem. Relook is required so that \"ease of business\" can happen and for this several issues flagged in the webinar would be helpful. There is need for greater capacity building and awareness generation. Documentation, digitization and evaluation of PBRs, plant varieties and valuation will ease many things. There is need for sustainable institutional mechanism to provide BS to the conservers. Regarding germplasm exchange, a few important issues that need relook are reciprocal exchange of germplasm, international nurseries, foreign material to be tested in India and tracking mechanisms of GR. Dr Gautam opined that use of genetic resources has considerably declined, and more emphasis needs to be given to prebreeding and utilization. Interface between agencies is also very important. Mr Álvaro Toledo, Deputy Secretary, ITPGRFA, Rome, while thanking the previous speakers who had covered aspects about the treaty said that it was the integrated approach for the implementation of the treaty which would really allow bringing benefits to the small farmers. He said that India had taken an important step in offering to host the GB9 meeting of the ITPGRFA in 2021, which provides a unique opportunity to showcase the strength of its crop diversity and India's leadership in the treaty negotiations. Mr Alvedo gave three key messages in line with questions related to implementation of ABS under the ITPGRFA:(i) Unlike many countries, India is centre of origin of important plant species that feed the world and provide the basic PGR that give resilience to diverse agroecosystems. The future discussions about ABS need to keep in mind not only the farmers inhabiting the countries of origin, but also small farmers elsewhere in the world by drafting fair and equitable regulations.(ii) Food security during the early days of treaty was talked about in terms of ensuring certain calories per day. This concept has evolved to be more encompassing to include nutritional aspects which would require us to make available, share and conserve another set of PGR in the next decade. In order to enhance BS, strengthening of SMTA is required and for which the GB needs to take a final decision on the proposed new contract. Mr Toledo encouraged India to hold informal discussions and strive for a consensus in the region to take a step forward by the time of the GB9.(iii) The issue between DSI and ABS is also a major challenge for all R&D sectors. There is a growing consensus that over-regulating access to DSI will not be beneficial or practical. He suggested that the Treaty's approach for access through MLS seems to be a good place to start from and it may be able to solve some of these difficult matters by leading a way for all the sectors. for their bioresources. Sometimes bioprospecting will lead to valuation of the resources. For this, creation of well-defined database of important bioresources and the associated traditional knowledge (like the TKDL) and developing the standard valuation methods is required. Dr Sharma mentioned that there is need to strengthen the infrastructure, capacity and resources of the SBBs, because the SBBs in various states are not at the same stage. He advocated for a single window system for the ABS by convergence between agencies and ministries. The BMCs at the village/panchayat level are responsible for inventorization and conservation of bioresources, also need a lot of support, capacity building, awareness workshops and technical backstopping. When the National Gene fund is generated from the ABS, question arises about its utilization at the BMC level. Appropriate guidelines should be developed by the line departments. A well-defined mechanism is very much required.Dr Bhag Mal, Secretary, TAAS, and former South Asia Coordinator, Bioversity International, stated that in India ABS is implemented by multiple statutes, governed by multiple ministries issuing multiple guidelines, and executed by multiple agencies. As a result, there are serious concerns to be tackled at various levels in order to benefit the stakeholders. The implementation of a single window system is a must, for which an integrated platform needs to be established for facilitating access of bioresources especially those related to agrobiodiversity, and eventual BS dedicated modules relevant to different regulatory authorities. This is a big challenge, but needs to be done. Farmers, tribals and indigenous communities in India have been playing a crucial role as conservers of bioresources and related traditional knowledge. Bioresources that provide various benefits to the society must be used in a sustainable manner and providers be rewarded in monetary and non-monetary benefits. Further, there is no in-built policy mechanism through which farmers and communities involved in conservation of agrobiodiversity get incentives on a long-term basis. The ecosystem services provided by communities need to be quantified in terms of the monetary value. In fact, these communities need to be compensated for the losses borne by them by not growing high yielding crops and varieties.Dr Bhag Mal highlighted that the PPV&FRA has taken good initiative by conferring 'Genome Savior Awards' to communities and farmers. Such efforts need to be further intensified. In fact, question arises as to what happens to such awardees, and whether there is any handholding for them for their sustenance. Also, mentorship programs need to be initiated where they can work in close collaboration with R&D sector or industry. There is also a need to device suitable mechanisms to maximize utilization of BS funds by various agencies. The problems of slowing down of exchange and access to CGIAR materials need to be resolved. Capacity building also needs to be given due attention and regular programs on ABS need to be organized. There is a clarity required on the overlapping jurisdictions of NBA, DAC&FW and PPV&FRA. The delegation of responsibilities for agrobiodiversity needs to be redefined to ensure clarity and remove ambiguities. Greater convergence and coordination is required between NBA, SBB, BMC, PPV&FRA, DAC&FW and ICAR (including its five Bureaux).He further suggested that a National Council on Agricultural Development, under the Chairmanship of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India (similar to GST Council) or similar suitable mechanism needs to be developed to ensure effective coordination between central and state governments for successful implementation of ABS guidelines.Dr Sanjeev Saxena, Assistant Director General (Intellectual Property & Technology Management), ICAR observed that Bureaux under the ICAR system, which are the designated repositories of the genetic resources by NBA, require to seek permission from SBBs for germplasm collecting.Thus, institutionalized linkages between the Bureaux, SBB and NBA need to be strengthened. He suggested that Bureaux can share their passport data with SBB/BMC and they should be exempted-from seeking permission for collecting. The identification numbers which these Bureaux would provide can be used for traceability during utilization. Further, in case of disputes, these samples would be available in the Bureaux. In respect of PPV&FR Act, lawful acquisition of genetic resource is required in terms of PIC, MTA, MoU or contracts. In the case of BS mechanisms (genefund) need to be developed to ensure that the funds should reach either the conserver, or developer or even the repositories.Dr R.K. Tyagi, Coordinator, Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology and Bioresources (APCoAB), Bangkok, focused on the regional status of ABS. He informed that factors which determine how effectively a nation has implemented Dr Sanjeev Saxena Dr R.K. Tyagi the ABS under NP are: (i) biodiversity conservation policies specifically designating the protected areas to motivate the actors to utilize NP, (ii) implementation of systems to protect GR and quality of institutions such as protection of property rights (tangible and intangible), (iii) efficiency of legal frameworks for dispute resolution, investor protection, and (iv) a low government regulation burden to utilize ABS agreements. These factors are measured through the lodging of International Recognized Certificate of Compliance (IRCC) in ABS-Clearing House (ABS-CH). An analysis based on records in ABS-CH shows that 18 countries (particularly biodiversity-rich countries) in Asia-Pacific region have placed the information on ABS procedures and national reports in ABS-CH. Out of these, only three countries i.e. India, Bhutan and South Korea have developed ABS procedure at national level and surprisingly even Australia, China and Japan have not done so far! Only nine countries have placed their National Reports in ABS-CH; meaning thereby that there is lot to be done at nation levels. India is one of 'the Leaders' in utilizing NP. On the basis of IRCC records, of the total 117 countries that ratified NP, only 16 have registered 564 agreements (64% non-commercial and 36% commercial) till August 2019. India is leader (220) in the world followed by France (153). Only other country that has IRCCs is Vietnam with 28 commercial/non-commercial agreements. India is one of the early adopters of NP and enacted the regulatory framework/legislation to this effect. Regulatory framework is in place in many other countries also, however, Rules have yet to be developed. India is well-placed to implement of ABS procedures under NP in comparison of other countries in Asia-Pacific region. Out of 65 points of compliance, only a few are yet to be complied as indicated in national report available on ABS-CH, e.g. checkpoints (information of use of GRs on research, innovations, pre-commercialization, commercialization etc.) and compliance with domestic legislation.The other issue deliberated by Dr Tyagi was inclusion of DSI in NP. This subject is under discussion since 2016 in meetings of Parties of NP and CBD. The major issue is inequity and trust-deficit between high-income community and low-middle income countries. He opined that sharing DSI will ensure equitable collaboration and prevent exploitative practices. The benefits to DSI donor include improved research funding and collaboration; trust building between high and low-middle income countries; greater opportunity to access to GR; maintain high bioethical values. The benefits to sample providers would be equitable, negotiable research opportunities, capacity development and reduced exploitative practices. The key challenges include: (i) ownership; (ii) potential conflicts of overlapping authorities; (iii) community sharing; (iii) negotiation of benefits; (iv) laws to deal with traditional knowledge.He further informed that organizations like APCoAB/APAARI can help in facilitation role as a Regional Forum in capacity development, public awareness, policy dialogues, policy advocacy and cross-country sharing of learning experiences.Dr K.S. Varaprasad, Former Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (ICAR-IIOR), Hyderabad, informed that he was currently working on a global UNDP-GEF-ABS project involving 23 countries. Dr Varaprasad said that India has a leading role as many countries look forward to seeking guidance from the acts and guidelines developed for ABS. Under the UNDP-GEF-ABS India project, he is working with ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad, on capacity building. In the last one year, 200 scientists have been trained across the research institutes of ICAR (in 20 states) on ABS awareness and implementation process. With respect to issues concerning ABS, multiple channels of access of genetic resources (including markets) is a problem. There is a gap (sometimes up to 10 years or more) when material is accessed and it comes as commercial product in the market. In such cases, monitoring becomes as problem and use of software and other new technologies (as being attempted by NBA) would be helpful. Dr Varaprasad opined that there should be no restriction or regulation with DSI for research purposes and only when a commercial product is developed using DSI, the ICRISAT subscription model should probably be used. He stated that the actual benefit to communities/farmers at the ground level is very meagre as compared to the potential that exists in India. Valuation of raw bioresources is more of an academic exercise, while valuating a commercial product is what is important. Institutional mechanism for R&D is important where organizations like ISPGR can play an important role in initiating a discussion. Harmonization of acts, treaties and agencies dealing with ABS is very important. Finally, he also emphasized that ABS can only be implemented if technology-based checkpoints are made available by the government. Mr K.P. Raghuram, Technical Officer (Benefit Sharing), NBA, Chennai, informed the participants that the NBA which is in the process of revising the BDA rules and guidelines has recently streamlined many procedures to smoothen the process. For instance, only the applications are being dealt by the Expert Committee while all other activities are being dealt at the NBA Secretariat itself for disposing cases in a time-bound manner. As far as the utilization of BS fund (gained from companies and users of bioresources) is concerned, so far the NBA has released INR 500 million to the SBB and BMC which has been used for different purposes like conservation of Red Sanders, medicinal plants, etc. The NBA would be conducting case studies to document how the BS fund is being utilized by the SBBs/ BMCs. The issue regarding seeking permission from SBB by Bureaux for germplasm collecting, as per prevailing law (also stated in the BD Regulations of 2014), Indians are not required to seek permission for research purposes. Guidelines to BMCs are issued regarding the same. Only when non-Indians are involved in collecting, then approval is required from SBB or NBA.Dr Raghuram informed that the SOPs to comply with the BDA, and sought by the seed sector, are in final stages of completion. As per directions of the MoEF&CC, an Expert Committee has been constituted by NBA for developing and putting forth India's stand regarding DSI in the various international fora like ITPGRFA and NP.Dr Neeti Wilson, Partner, Anand & Anand, Noida, spoke specifically on various laws related to ABS. The PPV&FR Act provides BS with respect to registered varieties on the basis of the use of a variety conserved or possessed by either an individual or a community. The BS can be claimed by a party, who believes and claims that they have contributed to the development of a registered variety, such as in the development of parental lines. Till date, no BS claim has been made by any claimant except one where also the Authority did not grant the benefit on account of unsubstantiated claim. The extant Dr Neeti Wilson varieties under the PPV&FR Act are unique for India. If claimed for BS, such claims may not be ignored in the case of usage of extant varieties of public or private sector even if they were not registered, for development of new varieties whenever the latter are commercialized. Dr Wilson suggested that a database of such varieties and a system to link these to the ABS window of PPV&FR Act be developed.Agricultural innovations and linkage between patents and PVP cannot be denied. Biotechnological innovations in agriculture are not only plant varieties and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but much more. The use of agrochemicals, farm equipment, modern techniques such as aquaculture, hydroponics, etc. are equally important. The inventions linked to agrobiodiversity are to be seen in totality. IPR knowledge related to different IPs interface with different laws as can be seen in the recent Geographical Indications of Goods case. Dr Wilson mentioned that legal knowledge needs to be incorporated in a holistic manner, and Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I) which enforces the IP rights (other than PVP rights) need convergence with MoA&FW as the global markets work in totality. The BDA which furthers the objectives of the CBD, also needs to be seen in a holistic manner. The ABS provisions are actively being pursued to fulfill the provisions of the NP. Equal emphasis needs to be there on sustainable use of biological resources. The UN SDGs have received a set-back as per the 2030 agenda due to the COVID-19 crisis. However, the importance of agriculture sector has come to the limelight. Dr Wilson said that exemption of 64 crops of ITPGRFA and the limited NTAC is not enough. Extensive stakeholder meetings are required to speed up the updating of the list. The need of the hour is development of a single-window clearance system to simplify access to Indian biological resources, along with robust PICs and MATs systems. She further recommended for marketable products, that just like GIs, development of country-specific trademark or a mark associated for Indian biological resources be considered, for the purposes of tracking, BS and preventing biopiracy. Adoption of innovation should reflect experimentation and assessment at farmer's level, rather than social following. A farmer should not be buying seeds because all farmers are doing so. Counterfeit or spurious seeds would not only harm the farmer and the vendor but also Indian agriculture, economy, and will affect the traditional wisdom of the farmers, developed dynamically over the course of the years. The target of doubling of farmer income should thus go along with farmer education and increasing agricultural and legal knowledge. The farmer should be aware of the choices and also to respect innovations in plant variety development irrespective of their being the product of biotechnology or GM, so that benefits continue from all perspectives. The Indian agricultural economy and the constant need to innovate along with the current world scenario, emphasize that access to agri-innovations along with traditional wisdom is the way forward towards sustainable use and benefit for all.Mr P. Narayanan Unny, Progressive Farmer, Navara Eco Farm (NEF), Palakkad, first gave an introduction about his farm. The NEF is a 125-year-old traditional family farm located in the rice belt of Kerala, Chittur of Palakkad district in the shadow of the Western Ghats. The Silent Valley region is also located in Palakkad district. NEF is an integrated farm growing 72 varieties of agricultural crops including specialty rice like Navara and Palakkadan Matta, vegetables, spices, medicinal trees and plants, coconut, fruit trees and other trees. NEF maintains herbarium of 200 plants. The entire farm is \"Certified Organic\" for India, European Union and the United States Department of Agriculture. It was under the initiative of NEF that the Geographical Indication [GI] registrations of Navara rice and Palakkadan Matta rice were achieved. The Navara rice is a traditional medicinal and nutritional rice and is endemic to Kerala. This rice is known as \"Shashtika Rice\", meaning the rice that matures in 60 days and is used in Kerala Ayurveda \"Panchakarma\" treatment for arthritis, paralysis, neurological complaints and polio in children effectively. It is also used as a nutritional rice and health food for people of all ages starting from small babies to the elderly and has been claimed to develop immunity, very much relevant in the current COVID-19 times. This work was recognized by GoI by conferring the Plant Genome Saviour Recognition Award in year 2008. NEF, therefore, presents a farmer-led initiative for conserving an important traditional and ancient rice variety and is a classic example of on-farm conservation.The first recommendation given by Mr Unny was to provide access and conservation funding every year, at least for 10 years, for such farmer beneficiaries as NEF. The objective of such a funding is to encourage farmers/producers who produce products which have unique and widespread applications in addition to direct consumption and to further encourage cultivation by using methods which conserve ecology and environment and maintain biodiversity contributing to ecosystem services. This will be in line with \"Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan\". The reasons/logic to provide such a funding are: (i) Navara rice is a seasonal crop and is cultivated only during the summer and the plant is very fragile and lodges even with dew; (ii) to ensure that the entire medicinal properties of the Navara rice are retained, it is imperative that it be grown organically as otherwise due to the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers the medicinal properties will be destroyed; (iii) organic Navara rice cultivation is labour intensive and very costly. Farmers lose revenue for a number of reasons like not opting for high yielding varieties, non-availability of water, limitation of one crop per year and low yield due to organic cultivation, leading to increased cost of production; (iv) there is tremendous loss due to natural calamities. For more than a decade now, weather has been unpredictable and farmers incurred heavy losses due to floods; (v) loss due to man-animal conflicts. Since 2006, protected species such as peacocks and wild boars have started invading farmlands leading to considerable destruction of crops. This has resulted in heavy losses to the farmers with no respite or compensation being provided by State/Central Government agencies; (vi) financial non-viability has led many rice farmers to migrate to other farming activities. Fragmentation of previously large rice field holdings have put the rice farmers in disadvantage as these holdings have become economically unviable; (vii) poor financial viability is also a serious concern. The steady increase in the cost of production while the sale prices have remained constant has led to rice farming becoming unviable.Mr Unny suggested the parameters to help identify agricultural products for which the funding support is to be provided. These included (i) traditional items endemic to the region and (ii) GI registered in India will ensure that encouragement is given to the products that are endemic and is unique to that region (\"Vocal for Local\"). He further mentioned that the process of providing the funds should be by direct transfer to the account of the farmer's/producer's Bank Accounts, PM Jan Dhan Yojana or state bank accounts. With respect to the quantum of amount of benefits to be provided, smallholder farmers may be given INR 1,00,000/per acre/per year for non-organic farmers and additional 75% per acre for Certified Organic Farms. Medium farm holding farmers may be given INR 65,000 per acre / per year for nonorganic farmers and additional 75% per acre for Certified Organic Farms. For farmers having large farm holdings INR 25,000 per acre/ per year for non-organic farming process and additional 75% per acre for Certified Organic Farms. An escalation of 10% should also be provided every year. This additional 75% has been suggested for farms with organic certification, as in addition to ensuring chemical free produce despite resulting in very low yield, the organic methodology of farming also helps provide ecosystem services such as conservation of biodiversity, natural resources, ecology and environment besides addressing problems relating to global warming.Another method of BS is the model for sustainable management adopted by Navara rice and Palakkadan Matta rice farmers clusters and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). They are (a) Navara Rice Farmers Society, and(b) Palakkadan Matta Farmers Producer Company Ltd. Since both rice varieties are GI registered, it would be best to channelize all sales through the above-mentioned entities. GI legal framework should also ensure punitive action against infringement. Additionally, it will not always be possible to monitor the end user pricing and quantities. So, it is recommended that, an additional 3% cess such as a BS cess be added and this amount be credited back to the cluster administration/society-who will then distribute the proceeds among its farmer members, in proportion to the amount supplied by each farmer. All these can be audited.Dr Kuldeep Singh, Director, ICAR-NBPGR, thanked the Chair of the session for summing up salient features of intervention by each panelist. He said that food security and availability itself is the biggest BS, which the society and country as a whole has accrued from genetic resources. Valuation of a product has become an important issue and investment needs to be made in HRD to develop valuation experts. While appreciating the model suggested by Mr Unny, Dr Singh sought more ideas to design more ABS models to promote on-farm conservation, so that farmers are encouraged to grow diverse foods, and varieties, which would help in allowing the natural evolution of these crops. Though India has done well in terms of ex situ conservation (ICAR-NBPGR genebank has >0.45 million germplasm accessions of > 1,900 plant species), but in situ conservation also need to be promoted from an evolutionary point of view.The Chair, Dr T.R. Sharma, DDG (Crop Science) concluded the session by thanking all the panelists for bringing forth several new and useful suggestions and recommendations. He said that an interesting well-known example of valuation is that of the gene Xa21cloned from Oryza longistaminata, a wild rice species originated from Mali 3 . The gene was mapped and transferred to indica rice at IRRI, then cloned at University of California, Davis by Pamela Ronald and her associates, further transferred into different transgenic rice varieties, then licensed to several companies. A voluntary BS was constituted (Genetic Resource Recognition Fund), which besides the developers, also included people of Mali, in the form of Fellowships at University of California, Davis and access at cost price to all Mali residents the transgenic varieties developed using Xa21gene. This is an important case study for BS mechanism.Dr Sharma noted that many organizations and countries are involved in conservation and use of PGR in products commercialized, but only a few of them have taken the initiative of developing mechanisms for BS. He emphasized that a balanced ABS system is required for the benefit of the all the stakeholders. Due to paucity of time, a general discussion could not be held, and the Chair invited the participants to share their views and suggestions by sending the same through emails for inclusion in the proceedings. He then invited the Co-Chair for his remarks.The Co-Chair of the Session, Dr V.B. Mathur, welcomed all suggestions made during the webinar, though he observed that most of them led to actionable points leading to NBA itself! He informed that some of the points made are already under process within the NBA, which may not be known to outsiders. Dr Mathur agreed to the suggestion made by many on the need to build capacity, which is very much required at the level of SBBs and BMCs. He assured that NBA was looking into this and acting in a systematic manner, by engaging as many people, including local universities/colleges as technical support group for PBRs. A big country like India needs to move forward and this can only be done on a digital mode, starting with the metadata, to facilitate ABS. For the issue regarding greater convergence between scientists of all ICAR bureaux and the SBBs, Dr Mathur said that rules for free exchange of material and information already exist for academic/ research purposes, and only in very few cases of commercialization one needs to come to NBA.Dr Mathur informed that he is the Member of the CoP Bureau, and at the highest level of global governance, the DSI is a very burning issue and shall remain so in the near future. The MoEF&CC has set up a taskforce on DSI with representatives from all the concerned ministries and India's position on the subject is being worked out. The issues between the BDA and PPV&FRA are being addressed by convergence as Chairperson of PPV&FRA is currently the Chair of Agrobiodiversity Committee of the NBA. Dr Mathur sought sector specific guidance to increase understanding about the implementation and interpretation of BDA, involving different stakeholders, possibly in small group meetings. In the end, he said that a collective viewpoint of the country is required which is acceptable to all the stakeholder groups, built on evidence-based suggestions.Dr R.S. Paroda as Chair of the Session gave his concluding remarks. He said that most of the stakeholders in the ABS had participated and provided their suggestions. For ABS, there are two mechanisms which have been legally adopted internationally: (i) multilateral system of ITPGRFA, wherein even farmers rights are being defined. Dr Paroda recalled him chairing the Working Group on Farmers' Rights before the Treaty was accepted; and (ii) bilateral system under the NP of the CBD. For the MLS, countries have already gone ahead with the acceptance of SMTA, although some issues continue to be debated. It is presumed that these would be discussed in the next meeting of the GB, slated to be held in India in 2021 and hosted by the MoA&FW. This would be an opportunity to showcase and demonstrate India's strength on not only use of its vast genetic diversity, but also on ABS mechanisms developed so far. We still need to fully understand the requirements under the NP. With the NP developing after the BDA and many technological and other unforeseen developments taking place, it is right time to relook at the definitions in the BDA to have the needed reforms in the guidelines. Given the importance of agrobiodiversity from its use perspective, it may require separate treatment than the overall biodiversity. For this, ITPGRFA matters were earlier governed by MoA&FW and decisions related to genetic resources were delegated to ICAR-NBPGR. Dr Paroda suggested that similar kind of delegation may be possible under NBA through necessary delegation of responsibilities. Hence, a national system, working in unison may be developed. Dr Paroda also emphasized on the need for greater coordination and convergence especially between MoA&FW and MoEF&CC. This may be accomplished though a high level Coordination Committee, so that all issues can be flagged, technically debated and resolved. For the suggestion regarding single window system, Dr Paroda suggested that for agrobiodiversity, ICAR-NBPGR can be accorded the responsibility, given its infrastructure and capacity, including human resources. He also opined that a relook is also needed for the PPV&FR Act, based on various issues flagged in the webinar by diverse stakeholders, especially the private seed sector. Existing ambiguities need to be removed and clear-cut guidelines defined through technical committees. Dr Paroda while appreciating the model of rewarding for ecosystem services and benefits to farming community, mentioned that to strengthen this area, we would require documentation, capacity building, mentoring through institutions and work at grassroot level, including KVKs, BMCs and SBBs. There is need to strengthen the Gene Fund under both BDA and PPV&FRA. Dialogues are required at the national level on ABS considering the need for mutual respect and confidence building amongst the stakeholders. He also encouraged greater public-private partnership for breeding, new technologies, from very beginning and through the process of registration as well as commercialization. He expressed great concern about the fact that in spite of nearly 15 years of PPV&FRA existence, nearly 66% of the extant crop varieties had still not been applied for registration and suggested that ICAR should take this up as a matter of priority in national interest. Finally, Dr Paroda advised that in preparation of the GB9 meeting of the ITPGRFA, two issues be taken forward: (i) the ABS with possible working models and case studies to demonstrate India's strength, and (ii) expansion of the Annex 1 list of crops (e.g. inclusion of soybean, minor millets, legumes and other crop spp.) especially for needed diversification of existing food basket.The Session concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr B. Sarath Babu, Councillor (South Zone), ISPGR to all the dignitaries, participants and organizers of the webinar. 2. Both NBA and PPV&FRA may formally develop a mechanism of interface on harmonious and coordinated implementation of the provisions on BS mechanisms on national bioresources within the provisions of the respective legislations. In view of the provisions of Sections 8 and 13 of PPV&FR Act, and Section 18 of BDA, it is recommended that the common goal of dealing with conservation and documentation of the native plant genetic materials be met by both the Authorities. These become the source for facilitating ABS related aspects involving the users of the traditional native plant species in India and elsewhere. Both the Authorities may develop an institutionalized mechanism that formally enables common unambiguous decision making, including assigning costs or hearing grievances for necessary orders. It is also observed that both Authorities are empowered to form as many committees as required to achieve the targets envisaged in the Acts, respectively.3. India is a center of origin of important plants. Therefore, resilient and diverse agro-ecosystems have great stake at global level with respect to multilateral system of exchange of PGRFA. India has so far notified 26,563 accessions belonging to nine crops (barley, chickpea, finger millet, lentil, paddy, pearl millet, pigeonpea, sorghum and wheat) from Annex I list of ITPGRFA. There is an urgent need to expand this list, to move from nine to all the 64 crops, and also to add more crops to expand the list to cover crops like maize, brassicas, sunflower and vegetables. The ITPGRFA has to revisit SMTA and associated subscription system to ensure an effective and implementable ABS system, besides discussion on expansion of Annex 1 crops to include all PGRFA. The 9th Session of the Governing Board of the ITPGRFA is scheduled to be held in December 2021 in India. India needs to build consensus through prior consultations/ dialogues/ meetings on the above-mentioned issues, as also revise its guidelines on ABS to facilitate better access to genetic resources by the private sector. This opportunity may also be availed to showcase India's strength and diversity of genetic resources, as well as regulatory and institutional systems in place for food systems security for the present and for posterity.4. There is justified need to have in place a 'Single Window System' to facilitate ABS to serve as an integrated platform for easy access to bioresources, especially those relating to agrobiodiversity. There is also further justification for additional allocation of about INR 200 crores by the GoI along with defined guidelines to use the National Biodiversity Fund [section 27 (1) of BDA], State Biodiversity Fund [section 32 (1) of BDA] and Local Biodiversity Fund [section 43 of BDA] since these would support the grassroot level conservers and users of bioresources. In fact, such a Fund could be used in various agrobiodiversity/genetic resource conservation programs, including the much needed incentive for the environmental services provided by the farming/tribal communities engaged in PGR activities. Hence, explicit guidelines for the utilization of Biodiversity Fund may be developed and a subcommittee under Agrobiodiversity Committee of NBA be constitutued to expedite the utilization of existing funds5. There is urgent need to clearly define the key terms under Section 2(f) of the BDA inter alia, 'commercial utilization', 'research', 'conventional breeding', 'traditional practices', 'value-added products', 'equitable benefit sharing', 'mutually agreed terms', etc. Clarity is also required on dealing with scope of 'biological waste', 'associated knowledge', 'wholly Indian entities' and exemptions under various sections. The definitions also need to be sectorspecific to facilitate sectoral approach while determining ABS obligations. The lack of clear definitions within the BDA could be subject to different interpretations, resulting in legal issues. This is especially so to understand the scope of exemption of conventional breeding and traditional practices from those of commercial utilization. The Central Government guidelines that enlist the criteria for exemption of publication of research papers or dissemination of knowledge in seminars or workshops from the ambit of 'transfer' under Section 4 of BDA needs further clarity regarding internal sharing of research data with/between subsidiary and/or group companies that fall under Section 3(2), without any monetary consideration.6. Proper reasoning for the non-inclusion of seeds in certain cases for notifications issued under Section 40 of the BDA is required. Also, clarity is needed as to whether use of biological resources as testing/reference tools, which are otherwise not the object of research, biosurvey, bioutlization or commercial utilization, but are used to confirm or verify the desired features of other bioresources or products developed or are under development, should be subject to regulation under the BDA.7. There is need for clarification of discrepancies between the provisions of the BDA and the SBB rules, specifically in relation to approval or intimation for the use of bioresources and ABS obligations on 'wholly Indian entities' and the understanding of the scope and ambit of Section 7 of the Act.8. Recent advances in biology, medicine and agriculture have been due to success of modern 'omics' technologies, made possible due to sharing and mining of freely accessible digital sequencing data. Hence, concerns are being raised about possible fair and equitable ways of sharing data. Given that the BDA's letter and spirit largely preceded most of the genomics developments, it remains unclear, in which realm this information exchange is to be considered in daily practice. Therefore, it needs to be clearly indicated how use of DSI and the implications thereof come under the purview of BDA. Organizing a national brainstorming workshop on this subject on priority is advocated.9. The amendments expected in BDA need to be geared towards the concept of \"ease of doing business\" for those who wish to access and use India's biodiversity. This should entail simplification of the technical, legal and procedural requirements. The provisions in the BDA that are either not clear or conflicting need to be addressed on priority. There is need to expedite approvals or have provision of conditional/interim approvals (in specific cases) preferably within one month. For this, digitization and transparency of online clearances may be ensured. Such transformation can become integral to the ongoing revision process of the BDA Rules and Guidelines.10. Overlapping areas and ambiguities in the provisions of the two Acts (BDA and PPV&FR Act) regarding Breeders Rights, Farmers' Rights and BS needs to be relooked critically in order to have better harmony and clear understanding. Under Section 3(1) of the BDA, there is need for better clarity on the scope of the terms \"or knowledge associated thereto\" with respect to biological resources occurring in India for approval of access, when seen in the light of the CBD and NP that only refer to \"traditional knowledge associated\" with biological resources. Farmers play a critical role as conservers of bioresources and related traditional knowledge. Accordingly, formulating a section/legislation protecting farmers' traditional knowledge against misappropriation may be considered.11. There is a need to unambiguously inform public the requirements for seeking permission/approvals of NBA or SBBs on plant varieties registered under the PPV&FR Act in execution of the rights to produce, sell, market, distribute, import and export the varieties for their use as seed or seeding materials by either the breeders, their assignees or agents or licensees. For those covered under Section 3 of the BDA, till they register the varieties with PPV&FRA, the Section shall operate. In the case of registered varieties all aspects that ABS covers in BDA are already covered in the contributions to be made to the Gene Fund of the PPV&FR Act, that is with similar responsibilities for taking care of the plant biodiversity in the country as in the BDA. Further, no user of the bioresources can be made to pay more than once to the exchequer for the same purpose in two different names thereby making registration a redundant exercise defeating the purpose of the Acts.12. A very important aspect is valuation of biological resources, which needs to be undertaken on priority by creating suitable templates. The process should be led by biologists and economists, and must involve research institutes and state agricultural universities with adequate support from funding agencies.It is important that only valuation of the material should be the basis of decisions as to what can be shared and what should be the price. Periodic updating of valuation in the context of dynamic demand and supply is the key to ABS. This is a huge exercise and would involve significant investment and collaboration. Bioresources valuation would also require public-private collaboration and partnership, for which an enabling environment and desired policy support would be critical.13. While assessing germplasm for trait discovery, or origin or ownership, the scientific processes need to be transparent as well as trustworthy employing all modern and innovative technologies. This would generate facts that in turn would help in facilitating decisions concerning BS.14. An effective and functional mechanism needs to be developed to ensure benefits of PPV&FRA Gene Fund and other funds under regulatory agencies to reach the conservers/developers/repositories of valuable genetic resources and registered varieties as provided in the respective legislations. Also, there is an obvious need for hand holding support for capacity development of conservers of agrobiodiversity. Mentorship programs also need to be initiated where awardees/rewardees can work in close collaboration with respective R&D institutions either in public or private sector.HRD and Awareness 16. There is need for innovative ways to create awareness and educate the users on provisions associated with ABS, including various IPRs, especially on coverage and exemptions under BDA. For this, massive multilingual multimedia outreach programs may be developed. Also, regular programs need to be organized on ABS for promotion, awareness and capacity building to ensure effective implementation of ABS provisions. A simple brochure encompassing end-to-end guidelines for ABS needs to be developed in local languages and widely distributed to all concerned.Alternative Models for Benefit Sharing 17. The issue of BS should be viewed from grassroots level, especially in view of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The communities in marginal areas were the worst hit after pandemic, but continued access to local bioresources provided them much needed relief. Hence, due attention needs to be paid to agrobiodiversity conservation and its access and the diverse ways in which benefits can be shared right from the ground level. Article 5 of the 'United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas' (Res No. 39/12 of Sept 2018) includes access to local resources by peasants, shepherds and other people working in rural areas for sustainable use and also the right to management participation of these resources.Similarly, Article 6 of ITPGRFA provides for fair policies for diverse agricultural systems. Hence, access to local resources becomes a benefit itself, which should be enshrined in local governance systems. Planning the public-funded agrobiodiversity conservation programs and strategies for access must be revisited from the grassroots level.18. The ABS framework and protocol is a vital requirement for ensuring that farmers are encouraged to cultivate endangered or niche crop varieties and conserve such endemic and traditional crops even if they are economically unviable. This may lead to significant financial stress to the farmers, which needs to be addressed. There is need to ensure that farmers continue safeguarding and enhancing agricultural biodiversity by developing and conserving PGR for food, nutrition and livelihood security and for protection of environment and ecology. To incentivise the farmers and communities involved in conservation of bioresources that provide various benefits to the society, a monetary ABS model needs to be developed which should reach these individual farmers/ communities as compensation for the losses borne by them for not opting to grow high yielding crops and varieties. This can only be achieved by providing adequate financial support (on the lines of 'Direct Benefit Transfer' scheme) in addition to formulating policies that lead to self-sufficiency in production and financial independence to the farmers for a foreseeable period in future.The objective of such a funding is to encourage farmers/producers to further encourage cultivation of local crops by using methods which conserve ecology and environment and maintain biodiversity contributing to ecosystem services. This will be in line with 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan'. Certified organic farming may be given a special consideration as it is low yielding, labour intensive and preserves traditional farming methodology (Paramparagat krishi) while protecting ecology, biodiversity and environment, leading to sustainable development. It also ensures optimum use of water and addresses global warming issues.19. Involvement of farmers in participatory plant breeding is another potential BS system. This involves fostering, as appropriate, plant breeding efforts with the participation of farmers, to strengthen the capacity to develop varieties particularly adapted to social, economic and ecological conditions, including in marginal areas.20. Women play a significant role and serve as repository of traditional knowledge in conservation and utilization of genetic resources and hence need to be given special recognition and suitably rewarded. Both NBA and PPV&FRA may consider promoting the role of women as conservers of biodiversity and create suitable incentives like awards, stipend or fellowships.  The instrument provided to achieve this noble objective is ensuring sustainable utilization of biological resources. Once sustainability aspect is examined by NBA or SBB, the access of biological resources and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of biological resources will have to be decided.z Without understanding and ensuring the sustainability of biological resources, the ABS exercise remains a mere collection of revenue and not an instrument of conservation of biological diversity.zIn order to estimate the quantity of each biological resource to be harvested sustainably, several research studies and experiments will have to be conducted. This requires substantial funding and technical manpower in field.In the existing scenario, neither NBA nor SBBs can take up such research work on sustainability.zThe sustainability of cultivated biological resources also must be examined critically and robust parameters must be standardized to conserve biodiversity in cultivated lands. While the importance of agriculture is respected, the fact remains that it is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss all over the world and mismanagement in cultivation threatens biodiversity in other ecosystems such as forests, rivers, lakes, ground water etc.z Another important aspect is valuation of Biological resources. This is a huge exercise and involves significant investment and collaborative approach. Periodic updating of valuation in the context of dynamic demand and supply is key to ABS.zThe current Biodiversity Management Environment is top heavy. It has taken 18 years to understand the issues on implementation of the law. The biodiversity professionals are not available at local body level to service the Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs).zThe routine capacity building programs and training capsules are not enough to handle the tasks on hand. Biodiversity professionals are required to provide regular service to Biodiversity Management Committees for effective implantation of Biological Diversity Act. They must be employed as regular employees at least in all biodiversity rich Taluqs/Blocks in the country. The concerned line departments will also be benefitted from these professionals.z Adequate funds should be provided to Biodiversity Management Committees to discharge their functions. Lot needs to be done regarding preparation of quality People's Biodiversity Registers by involving local people and their validation.  As observed by me from 2010 onwards, National Biodiversity Authority has come up a long way in shouldering the responsibilities and made excellent contributions. The current leadership has taken-up various initiatives to invigorate and engage various institutions and sectors to achieve higher outcomes. I am sure that they will provide practical solutions to important issues such as amendments to BD Act & Rules, harmonization and convergence among institutions & bureau and generate consensus and synergy. A big applaud to Dr V B Mathur.z However, much more needs to be attended at the level of State Biodiversity Boards and BMCs. The recommendations of various speakers are quite relevant. I wish to specially stress that Dr S K Sharma, Former Director ICAR-NBPGR spoke for need of valuation of biodiversity, strengthening of BMCs, creation of National Fund for ABS and its utilization by BMCs and conservation departments and tracing the sources of biological resources procured from markets. Sri P N Narayanan Unny, Farmer from Navara Eco Farm provided excellent inputs for practical solutions at grassroot level.","tokenCount":"14874"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4c3bbead1bddc522e6ac9c9e40ab1cbe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0bea7e92-864a-4511-ae4c-659316ac6d71/retrieve","id":"-1206883809"},"keywords":["Introductl","on Program and Budget Dl","scussl","on -Mandate and Ob)ectl","ves -The Board of Trustees -Organl","zatl","onal Structure -Research Sl","tes -Program Achl","evements and strategl","es --Bean Program --Cassava Program --Rl","ce Program --Tropl","cal Pastures Program -Fl","nancl","aljBudgetl","ng Informatl","on for 1989 and 1990 --Operatl","ng Expendl","tures --Capl","tal Expendl","tures --Earned Income --Donor Fundl","ng III Fundl","ng Request for 1991 -Commodl","ty Research Programs -Research Support -Tral","nl","ngjCommunl","catl","onjInformatl","on -Adml","nl","stratl","on & General Expenses -Capl","taljReplacement Capl","tal -Workl","ng Capl","tal -Self-Generated Income -Donor Fundl","ng -Impact of Fundl","ng Request on Medl","um-term Plan"],"sieverID":"06b9da8f-d583-4230-835a-ace25cb6e6d7","pagecount":"48","content":"In 1988, the CGIAR approved CIAT's med~um-term plan ent~tled \"CIAT Program Plans and Fund~ng Requ~rements 1989-1993 11 Th~s plan was accepted by the CGIAR w~th the expectat~on that ~n the early stages of the f~ve-year plan, CIAT would present ~ts strateg~c plan to reach the year 2000The strateg~c plan, ~n turn, would g~ve r~se to a new med~um-term plan wh~ch would be ~n~tlated no later than the 1992 f~nanc~al year CIAT plans to d~scuss a new vers~on of lts strateglc plan wlth TAC ~n March 1991 and subsequently present a new medlum-term plan for the perlod [1992][1993][1994][1995][1996] In the meant~me, tha 1991 fund~ng request lS stlll based on the CGIAR-approved 1989-1993 medlum-term plan tor CIAT In 1989--the f~rst year of the med~um-term plan--CIAT ~ntroduced a serles of econom~es ~n ~ts operat~ons that enabled the Cantar to execute ~ts full Essent~al Program at about $630,000 below the approved budget CIAT ~ncorporated these reduct~ons ~nto ~ts 1990 fund~ng request, as well as 1nto subsequent requestsFor the 1990 budget year, CIAT's fund~ng request, tully based on the approved medlum-term plan, amounted to $31,316,000 for essent1al act~v~t~es Because of a shortfall ~n ava~lable fund1ng, actual fund~ng aga~nst th~s request was $28,916,000, ~ e , a shortfall of $2,400,000 Th~s requ~red the ~mplementat~on of a ser~es of programmat1c reduct~ons, temporary reduct~ons ~n research and adm~n~strat~ve support, the non~mplementat~on of the earller approved cassava agronomyjbreedlng posltlon for the development of a cassava germplasm pool for the sem~-ar~d reg~ons of Brazll and Afrlca, and the postponement of earl~er approved sen~or staff pos1t1ons (one pos1t1on approved for 1989 and three tor 1990)The 1991 fund~ng request for essent~al act~v~t~es amounts to $32,672,000Th~s request reflects varlat~ons from the 1990 budget base as shown ln Table B (pages 23-24) The reader wlll note that thlS 1991 request lS lower than the orlg1nal 1991 request ($33,184,785) as approved 1n the mld-term plan (In add~tlon, 1t should be cons1dered that the present fundlng request ~ncludes sorne $500,000 for a bUlld1ng proJect and an addltlon to worklng capltal, ~ e , two earl1er approved 1tems that needed to be postponed ln 1989 and 1990 because of budget twúerfund1ng In t'1ose years ) CIAT w1shes to p01nt OUL that wlth avallable fund~ng at the presently requested level, lt w~ll be able to carry out the essent1al work program for 1991 as presented ln the mId-term plan CIAT works malnly wlth natl0nal agrlcultural research systems (NARS) to develop lmproved agrlcultural technology WhlCh wlll lncrease the quallty and quantlty of speclflc baslc food commodltles ln the trop1cs, pr1mar1ly ln Latln Amer1ca and the Carlbbean Wlthln the CGIAR system, CIAT has global responslbll1t1es for common beans and cassava, prlnclpal respons1b1l1ty for trop1cal pastures, wlth spec1flc responslblllty for the aC1d, lnfert1le 50115 of the Amerlcan troplcs, and reglona1 respons1bll1ty for rlce ln the Amerlcan troplcs One of the prlmary purposes of the Center 15 to asslst NARS ln the development of plant varletles that produce re1atlvely hlgh yle1ds wlth reduced 1evels of fertl1lzers and agrlcultural chemlcals Research emphaslzes plant lmprovement ln order to obtaln a stable genetlc reslstance to maJor troplcal pests and dlseases, to1erance to adverse cllmate and 5011 condltlons, and the development of technology to lncrease the sustalnab1e productlon and utl1lzatlon of the crops wlthln 1tS mandate For example, 1n the maJor bean-produc1ng reg~ons of coastal Mex1co, 40% of the farmers were uS1ng lmproved var1etlesIn N1caragua, such varlet1es are sown on over 15,000 hectares CIAT germplasm has also been w1dely released 1~ Burund1, Eth1op1a, Rwanda, and Za~re Breed1ng for ~ncreased n1trogen (N) f1xat1on has been a maJor are a of study Conslstent y1eld 1ncreases due to Rhlzoblum 1noeulatlon have been observed 1n on-farro tr1als 1n Central Amer1ca and Afr1caEarl1ness 1n nodulat1on 15 a character Wh1Ch had not been screened for prev10usly The Program thus developed a screen1ng method for ltS evaluatlon and tested a large number of genotypes Several small-seeded genotypes have shown cons1stently better early nodulatlon than the best prev10usly 1dent1f1ed genotype5The ma1n 11ne of research on drought adaptatlon mechan1s~s concerns drought avoldance through greater root growth or eff1c1ency of water uptake Studles undertaken recently have shown that root genotype lS respons1ble for conferr1ng adaptat10n to drought stress Charcoal rot (Macroohomlna phaseollna) lS a ser10US sOllborne pathogen 1n dry, h1gh-temperature reglon5 of Lat1n Amer1ca and Afr1caThe Prograrn 1dent1f1ed 22 res1stant acceSS10ns and 15 1nterrned1ates under both f1eld and greenhouse screen1ng of large numbers of acceSS10ns It also found a h1gh correlat10n between res1stant acceSS10ns and drought tolerance, suggest1ng useful poss1b111t1es for screen1ng as both problems tend to occur together The Program has carr1ed out select10n for res1stance to bean pod weev1l (Ap1on godmanl) 1n bush and cl1mb1ng l1nes and has selected several 11nes wlth good agronomlc characterlst1cs, adaptat1on, and seed color, Wh1Ch are undergo1ng further testlng A)total of 1688 acceSS10ns were recently evaluated for bean cornmon IDosa1C Vlrus (BCMV)Out of the 327 wlld Phaseolus vulgar1s acceSS10ns tested, three were res1stant to BCMV, lnd1cat1ng the presence of the dOID1nant I gene Roughly 200 acceSS10ns exhlblted superlor adaptat10n or res1stance tra1ts to bean gemlnlv1rusesSeven bas1c sources of bean golden IDosalC V1rus (BGMV) tolerancejres1stance were 1dent1f1ed and w1l1 serve to 1ntroduce add1t1onal varlab1l1ty lnto bean var1et1es wlth BGMV toleranceThe program stud1ed the mechan1cal 1noculat1on of beans w1th BGMV, as compared w1th natural fleld lnfectlon, ln Guatemala Although f1eld evaluat10ns are the preferred method for rout1ne screen1ng of segregat1ng populatlons, mechan1cal 1noculat1on 1n glasshouse condltlons provldes rlcher lnforrnat1on on genotype response and lS use fuI for the selectlon of parents A number of prevlously unknown plant responses related to BGMV res1stance were ldent1f1edThe transfer of tra1ts through 1nterspec1f1c crosses (e g , E vulgar1s X E acutlfol1US) 1S proceed1ng and a number of hybr1d plants have be en recovered through embryo cultureThe program has also successfully regenerated plants frOID callus cultures of several w1ld relat1ves of E vulgar1s and cell suspens10n cultures of E acut1fo11us strateg1es A.Reduce losses froro pests and d1seasesBroaden the genet1C base of reslstance sources, lncludlng 1ncreased use of genes from w1ld ancestors and other cult1vated Phaseolus specles Identlfy reslstance sources where lacklng and 1ncorporate the genes cond1t1on1ng reslstance lnto acceptable cult1varsDevelop lntegrated pest control strategles to complement genetlc res1stance wh1le reduclng pestlc1de app11cat10ns Llnes wlth reslstance to the storage weevll (Zabrotes spp ) wlll move lnto wholesale lnternatlonal dlstrlbutlon ThlS klnd of reslstance has been transferred from wlld Phaseolus vulgarls lnto agronomlcally acceptable cultlvated types ln a wlde varlety of graln types that wlll be made avallable to natlonal programs, prlnclpally for use as parental materlal ln natlonal crosslng programsIn Central Amerlca, natlonal programs wllI assume responslblllty for functlons heretofore handled by CIAT, as CIAT reduces staff outposted ln the reglon Natlonal programs wlIl take over the multlpllcatlon and dlstrlbutlon of seed for reglonal nurserles, as well as the analysls and publlcatlon of data 2 Cassava ProgramThe lmpact of the lntegrated cassava pro]ects ln Colombla and Ecuador lS becomlng eVldent as slgnlflcant numbers of farmers are benefltlng from the lncreased prlce stablllty resultlng from the use of cassava as an anlmal feed Both cassava productlon and rural employrnent have lncreased, leadlng to more stable and lower consumer prlces for fresh cassava Consumer beneflts ln Barranqullla--northern Colombla's largest clty--are estlmated to be US$3-4 mllllon per year Strengthened ASlan NARS are releaslng lmproved varletles based on CIAT germplasm ln Thalland, Indonesla, the Phlllpplnes, Malaysla, and ChlnaIn Malaysla, one new varlety offers the posslblllty of cropplng prevlously unexplolted peat sOlls, and ylelds of 14 t/ha of dry roots have been harvested after only SlX months Recent work on drought tolerance lndlcates that the crop lS a C 3 -C lntermedlate ln lts photosynthetlc pathway, openlng t~e posslblllty of creatlng new, hlgher yleldlng llnes ln the future A strong relatlonshlp has been shown between leaf photosynthetlc rate and yleldThe cassava hornworm (Erlnnyls ello) lS one of the most serlOUS pests of cassava grown ln the troplcs, at tlmes resultlng ln complete defollatlon leadlng to reduced root yleld Some fleld populatlons of hornworm larvae ~~_~ found to be lnfested wlth a Vlrus causlng conslderable larval mortallty A slmple concentrate derlved from the dlseased larvae can be applled to the crop and has been shown to offer nearly complete control ThlS method has been fleld-tested and farmer-adopted ln numerous areas Chronlc cyanlde tOXlClty lS asevere problem ln Afrlca durlng drought ln areas where cassava may be the only ava~lable food after other crops fa~l Under such cond~t~ons, cyan~de levels are normally h~gher than usual Prel~m~nary screen~ng has revealed llnes WhlCh ma~nta1n low cyan~de levels even under drought cond~t~onsThe task of comb~nlng h~gh y~eld potentlal w~th good eat~ng quallty had been eluslveCUrrently, however, on-farm trlals ha ve resulted ~n var1et1es WhlCh meet both of these qual1f~cat~onsAn advanced cassava research network has been establlshed to undertake research ~n selected areas where presently there lS a maJor constralnt ta lmprovlng product~on, processlng, or ut~l~zatlonThe ln vltro cassava germplasm bank has been augmented to over 4000 entr~es, representlng 90% of the global callectlon Nearly 200 el~te clones were dlstrlbuted ta 17 countrles Co1lect~ons submltted to CIAT have been pathagen-tested and returned ta thelr country of ar~gln A comprehenslve system for the management of the ln vltra co1lectlon has been developed as a pllot proJect wlth the Internatlonal Board for Plant Genetlc Resources (IBPGR) A CIAT Breeder/Physlaloglst has been statloned at the Internatlonal Instltute of Troplcal Agrlculture (lITA) ta facllltate callaboratlon between the two centers, wlth partlcular emphasls ln the area of germplasm movement froro Latln Amer1ca to Afrlca A f1rst sh1pment of 90,000 seeds took place 1n January 1990Root rots are becoIDlng an lncreaslng problem as cassava productlon systems become more lntenslf~ed Research on control lS based on comblnlng ~mproved cultural pract~ces and var~etal res~stanceUse af the productlon systems that have be en developed has g~ven excellent resultsIn the Amazon wetlands, where severe losses have been reported, fourfold lncreases ln y~elds have been atta~ned Slm~lar results are be~ng obtalned on Colombla's Atlantlc coastThe Cassava Program has used lsozyme electrophoresls to characterlze over 1400 clones ln the germplasm bank as part of a systematlc effort to ldentlfy dupllcates ln the collectlonAugment and characterlze the germplasm collectlon for more Backstopp~ng ~n the areas of tra1n1ng and consultat1on w~ll be prov~ded A nat10nal census for the Colomh1an r~ce sector has been conducted and a deta~led d~str~but~on map for rlce 1n Lat~n Amerlca completed At both levels, small farms were shown to const1tute a larger-than-expected segment of the r1ce-grow~ng commun~ty A reg10nal NARS survey was conducted, focus1ng on humap resource ava1Iab~1~ty and act1v1tyResults showed exper~enced and well-tra1ned staff, w~th or1entatlon skewed strongly toward breed1ng and agronomy but lack~ng 1n plant protect~on, tra~n~ng, extens1on, and soc~oeconom1CSThe new aC1d-tolerant l~nes, respons1ve to ~nputs and ShOW1Pg excellent gra~n qual~ty, have been f~eld-tested by NARS Ñ~th prom1s~ng resultsIn areas where s1gn1f1cant upland r1ce ~s produced on aC1d s011s, ClAT's savanna 11nes performed extremely well, w1th y1elds averag~ng 30~ over local checks and hav1ng super10r gra1n qual~ty and lodg1ng reslstanceThe R~ce Pro:¡;;;.\", and Trop~cal Pastures Program have ln1tlated a collaborat1ve pro]ect to develop a r1ce-pasture rotat~on system for th~ ac~d-so11 savannas and Cerrados of Lat1n Amer~caThe pro]ect's 31ms are to develop a susta1nable product1on system for poor so~ls based on the prem~se that a product1ve r1ce crop w1l1 perID1t the estab11shment of an ~mproved grass-legume pasture by defray~ng the establ~shment costs of the pasture Nlneteen n~nety-one wlll be the yaar durlng WhlCh the Program beglns lmplementlng the maJor strateglc shlfts already antlclpated ln the draft strateglc plan These ad]ustments w~ll mark a relatlve lncrease ~n emphas~s dlrected toward the hlgh-ralnfal1 upland areas--as compared to lrr~gated areas-dlrectlng breedlng to more strateglc actlvlt~es such as popu1atlon lmprovement, expandlng our lnlt~at~ves ln the areas of lntegrated crop and pest management, conductlng reglon-spec~f~c strateglc research, and dlrectlng tralnlng actlvltles toward mld-career sClentlsts as opposed to entry-level sClentlsts Upland actlvlt~es wlll conslst of further development of upland populatlons adapted to the hlgh-ralnfall, aCld-soll enVlronments prevalent ln Latln AmerlcaThe Rlce Program wlll glve conslderable attentlon to the development of approprlate rlce-pasture assoclatlons and approprlate agronomlc practlces It wlll collect base-llne data on pests ln preparatlon for developlng IPM approaches for these enVlronments and more complex systems A prlnclpal focus wlll be to begln quantlfylng the agronomlc, ecologlcal, and economlcal sustalnablllty of alternatlve systems Breedlng wlll focus on the development of populatlons from WhlCh parental materlal for use by nat~onal programs may eventually be drawnThe appllcatlon of the results of RFLP (restrlctlon fragment length polymorph~sms) mapp~ng for dlsease reslstance wlll begln ln gene pyramldlng for blast and \"hoJa blanca\" reslstanceThe Rlce Program w~ll begln to apply the technlques and concepts developed for ICMjIPM over the prev~ous years at the fleld level for \"ground testlng\" It wlll g~ve part~cular attentlon to the ~nteracL~on of management alternat~ves and the~r effects on nontarget pests It wlll meld the SOC10eCQnOm~c ~mpl~cat~ons of management alternat~ves lnto the lntegrated approachesThe relatlve lnvestment ln reg~on-speclf~c sLrüLeglc research w~ll lncrease, offsett~ng reduced actlv~tles ~n some areas of breedlng and related act~v~tlesThe lncrease ~n strateglc research wlll be most slgn~flcant ~n entomology, pathology, and breedlng, and wlll take advantage of b~otechnologlcal advances The Program w~ll glve speclal attent~on to the mechan~sms of adaptatlon to aCld sOlls and the posslbll~ty of comb~nlng upland root systems w~th ~rr~gated plant types Full decentrallzatlon of screenlng efforts has been achleved wlth the establlshment of four maJor screenlng sltes representlng contrastlng ecosystems and farmlng systems--savannas, Cerrados, the Amazon, and Central Amerlca A clear advantage has been demonstrated ln the performance of anlmals grazlng grass-legume pastures compared wlth those grazlng pastures of the same grass wlthout legumes or natlve savanna The productlvlty of A gayanus sown wlth ~ caPltata was about 50% greater ln anlmal llvewelght galns per head and 18% ln galns per hectare than those of the grass aloneThe productlvlty of the assoclatlons lS tWlce that of natlve savanna ln terms of llvewelght galn per head, and 15-fold ln terms of galn per hectare For the degraded lands of the raln forests, new grass-legume pastures that effectlvely flX N and capture and recycle llmlted sOll nutrlents are belng ldentlfled Results from NARS' grazlng trlals show that new grass-legume pastures lncrease yearly welght galns per hectare over degraded pastures more than threefold The Troplcal Pastures Program research actlvltles ln 1991 wll1 lnclude selected ad]ustments to those lmplemented durlng the prevlous year In the area of germplasm collectlon and lnltlal characterlzatl0n, the trend wl11 contlnue to be a decreased effort ln a hlghly selectlve expansl0n of the collectlon, WhlCh wl11 be paralleled by a very modest lncrease ln breedlng for selected characterlstlcs ln strateglc specles such as and Centrosema Research networklng through the RIEPT wlll expand, especlally ln the area of multllocatl0nal screenlng of promls1ng germplasm On-statl0n research on pasture establlshment, reclaroatlon, and development wl11 decrease, whlle more baslc studles addresslng lssues of nutrlent cycllng and the s011-plant-anlmal lnterfaces wlll eXperlence a modest lncrease ln resource allocatlon as a consequence of on-statlon experlments establlshed ln mld-1990 In coordlnatlon wlth the Rlce Program, the Troplcal Pastures Program wl11 further lncrease lts research ln crop-pasture rotatlon for the savannas (Colombla and Brazl1)Flnally, seed supply actlvltles are proJected to further lncrease ln step wlth the expanded evaluatl0n actlvltles of promlslng germplasro FINANCIAL/BUDGETING INFORMATION 1989 and1990 Tables 1 to 8 ln the Appendlx provlde detal1s for flnanclal years 1989 and 1990 All references ln the text below to the 1989 budget refer to the 1989 budget as publlshed ln the CGIAR-approved \"Fundlng Request for 1990\" lssued ln July 1989July 1989July 1990 Income froro donors for essentlal actlvltles amounted to $28,421,000Together wlth self-generated lncome of $840,000, a total of $28,961,000 was avallable for CIAT's essentlal actlvltles ln 1989 (excludlng an allocatlon of $300,000 for the External Revlews conducted ln 1989) On the expense slde, operatlonal costs were $26,321,000 1 whlle capltal expendltures amounted to $2,607,000The balance of $33,000 was applled to the worklng capltal furd Agalnst an approved budget of $31,316,000, avallable fundlng was expected to amount to $28,916,000The worklng budget establlshed by CIAT  Expendltures ln research support were some $4 9 mllllon, versus a budget of $5 2 mllllon Notable lS an underspend1ng of $150,000 for V1S1t1ng sC1ent1sts and postdoctoral fellows Also, the nonf11l1ng of the pos1t10ns for B10chem1st (Blotechnology Research Un1t) and Agr1cultural Geographer (Agroecolog1cal Stud1es Un1t) resulted 1n selected underspend1ng 1n the respect1ve support unlts Under Research Support, CIAT lS llst1ng the \"an1mal herd\" as an expense 1tem for 1989, w1thout a correspond1ng budgeted amountThe an1mal herd lS meant to be a self-susta1n1ng act1v1ty Wh1Ch prov1des the Treplcal Pastures Program w1th an1mals for research purposes, and at the same t1me produces suff1c1ent 1ncome from the sale ef the an1mals to pay fer the operat1en of the herd In 1989, the operat10nal costs of the herd were h1gher than expectedIn add1t1on, w1th a very large number of slaJghter an1mals on the market because of Colomb1an 1nternal SOC10econom1C reasons, meat prlces were excess1vely depressed Th1S has requ1red a substant1al ad]ustment ln CIAT's valuatlon of the an1mal 1nventory The expenses llsted under thlS 1tem ($185,000) reflect the cost of these two factorsIn the 1990 worklng budget, funds for v1s1tlng sC1entlsts and postdoctoral fellows were reduced by $184,000At the same t1me, an upward ad]ustment for the Genet1c Resources Un1t was made to prov1de that un1t w1th adequate resources for lt to prov1de bas1c germplasm-related servlces not only to beans but also to trop1cal pastures and cassava In the Agroecolog1cal Stud1es un1t, because of a lack of resources the Agrlcultural Geographer pos1t1on lS no longer budgeted ln 1990. however, thlS poslt1on lS proposed to be operat1onal1zed 1n 1991 (see below) In add1t1on to the spec1f1c mod1f1cat1ons llsted aboye, all the research support un1ts were asked to 1ntroduce selected econom1es 1nto the1r operat10nal expenses Overall, 1n real terms, the 1990 budget for research support act1v1t1es 15 sorne $470,000 below the 1989 budget levels Traln1ng/Commun1cat1on/Infornat1on Tra1n1ng¡commun1cat1on¡lnformat1on act1v1t1es showed h1gher-than-budgeted expend1tures of sorne 9 percent, Wh1Ch was pr1mar1ly due to a h1gher-than-antlclpated level of L._~n1ng act1v1t1es 1n the h1ghly restr1cted port10ns of the approved essent1al program In the 1990 budget, the \"Tra1n1ng Mater1als Development Sect1on\" (approx1mate costs $105,000¡year) 15 budgeted ln the \"Tralnlng & Conferences\" llna 1tem, rather than 1n the \"Cornmun1cat1on¡Informat10n\" 1tem ThlS 1ncraase 1n the tra1n1ng budget 15 counter-balanced by a Shlft away from tralnlng In the h1ghly restr1cted port10ns of essentlal act~v~t~es Furtherroore, a temporary reduct~on ~n tra~n~ng scholarsh~ps amount~ng to soma $50,000 was ~ntroduced for 1990 as a temporary sav~ng to meet the fundlng shortfallExpend~tures for roanagement and adm~n~strat~on were essent~ally as budgetedThe budget for the off~ce of the Internal Aud~tor ($110,000) was reasslgned to \"Adm~n~strat~ve Support\" In constant dollar terros, the area of Manageroent and Adm~n~strat~on was tr~mmad s~gn~f~cantly ~n v~ew of budget underfundlng to llberate resources ($50,000) for the addlt~on of an adm~n~strat~ve support funct~on ~n Vlllav~cenc~o (~n the footh~lls of the Llanos of Colomb~a), where CIAT ma~nta~ns a research stat~or fer the R~ca Program, and the Cassava and Trop~cal Pasturas Pregrams ara act~vely representad General ODerat~ng Expenses 1990 General operat~ng expenses were sl~ghtly below budget ($2,633,000 actual versus a budget of $2,695,000)The propased budget for \"General Expenses\" for 1990 (a reduct~on of $120,000 ~n real terros) ~s based on CIAT's exper~ence ln 1989, and ~ts best estlmate of costs fer the ~tems ~nvolved ~n 1990Capltal and cap~tal replacement expendltures amounted to $2,607,000 versus a budgeted amount of $1,899,000In t~e second semester of 1989, and ln v~ew of the very hlgh demand for add~tlonal capltal ~tems caused by the Center's gradual forays ~nto more \"upstream\" research, and the neea to upgrade the malnframe computar lnstallatlons, the dec~s~en was made te curta~l to the max~mum operat~onal expend~tures ~n order to be able to allocate an add~t~onal amount of some $700,000 to cap~tal Wlth the ach~eve~ent of th~s goal, CIAT was able to lnvest SOMe $350,000 ~n so-called \"advanced research equJ.pment\" and $220,000 ~n the acqu~s~t~on of an IBM AS¡400 computerThe balance ($120,000) w0~ lncorporated J.nto the \"Cap~tal Development Fund 11The 1990 budget for cap~tal and cap~tal replacement ~s $1,810,000, ~ e , $159,000 below 1989 levels J.n constant tarros (and $384,000 below the level or~g~nally approved for the 1990 budget year)Among other ~tems to be reduced, the postponement of the expansJ.on of the laboratory¡off~ce space complex as descr~bed ln the mld-term plan ($200,000) for 1991 w~ll be requ~red Earned Income 1989 1990 CIAT budgeted $700,000 for self-generated lncome such as farro productlon, flnancla1 lncome (mostly lnterest), and overhead charged on speclal pro)ects Hlgher-thanantlclpated lncome from the farro operatlon and froro overhead more than compensated fer the fact that ln 1989, no net flnanclal lncome was generated (caused by the f10w of payments from donors that was dlstlnctly skewed toward the end oi the year, thus causlng lmportant cash ilow dlfflcultles)Total self-generated lncome ln 1989 was $840,000For 1990, self-generated lncome lS estlmated at $816,000 The sllght reductlon over 1989 lS attrlbutable to a reductlon ln lncome for overhead Donor Fundlng 1989Fundlng 1990 In 1989, donor fundlng for essentlal actlvltles amounted to $28,421,000 An addltl0nal amount of $4,294,000 was aval1able for \"deslrable actlvltH~s \"In 1990, lncome from donors for essentlal actlvltles lS expected to amount to $28,100,000In addltlon, CIAT lS proposlng $5,619,000 for \"deslrab1e actlvltles\" At the end of Aprl1 1990, CIAT estlmated that of thls amount sorne $3,288,000 wou1d actually be funded Tab1e A below 11sts the \"deslrable actlvltles\" pro)ected for 1990, together wlth a status report on fundlng aval1abl11ty -----------------------------------------------------------------   In terros of constant U S dollars, th~s amounts to some $500,000 less than the orlglnally approved request for 1991 as presented ~n the med~um-terro plan ($33,185,000) In terros of a comparlson wlth actual fundlng ln 1990, the 1991 fundlng request lS some 2 5 mll110n constant dollars aboye the resources avallable 1n 1990Table B shows the 1990 budget base, and l~sts all proposed modlflcatlons to thlS base ln order to arr1ve at the 1991 fundlng request -----------------------~-----------------------------------------   As lndlcated ln the medlum-term plan, the posltlon for On-farm Agronomlst (Beans) ln Central Amerlca and the Carlbbean wlll be shlfted from essentlal to deslrable beglnnlng wlth the 1991 budget year The reductlon lmplled by thlS Shlft amounts to sorne $122,000 Slmllarly, the medlum-term plan pro]ected a further reductlon ln 1991 ln the actlvltles of the Carlbbean Rlce Network (budgeted ln the Rlce Program), classlfled as essentlal Speclflcally, the reductlons foreseen ln 1991 amount to some $300,000 1 2 Delayed Addltlon PosltlonsAs of the 1990 budget year, the commodlty research programs were staffed as was proposed ln the 1989-1993 mld-term plan, wlth the followlng exceptlons Flrst, the posltlon for Cassava Agronomlst/ Breeder that was to be statloned wlth the Brazlllan natlonal lnstltutlon was not operatlonallzed for lack of resources and the posslblllty to contract the work lnvolved dlrectly wlth the Brazlllan natlonal lnstltutlon, uSlng speclal proJect resources Second, for lack of avallable resources, the followlng two posltlons were not lmplemented, but herewlth are proposed to be lmplemented ln the 1991 budget yearThe medlum-term plan proJected thlS headquartersbased posltlon for 1990The recent convergence of a serles of events conflrms the urgency to thls appolntmentThe followlng actlvltles are not necessarlly to be asslgned speclflcally to thls posltlon (second breeder ln the program), but they lndlcate the range of new actlvltles antlclpated ln breedlng alWlth the placement of a CIATjIITA SClentlst at lITA, the demand from Afrlca for germplasm and other lnputs from headquarters wlll lncrease slgnlflcantly Th~s has already been seen to some degree ln early 1990, when the Breedlng Sectlon sent nore seeds to lITA than ln all prevlOUS years comblned b)CIAT lS commltted to maJor lnput lnto a proJect for developlng seml-arld and subtroplcal adapted germplasm ln partnershlp wlth Brazlllan lnstltutlons In the lnterest of promotlng an lnnovatlve IARC-NARS eollaborat~on, CIAT opted agalnst uSlng a TAC-approved eore breeder pos~tlon ln Brazll e} CIAT ~s plannlng to become more lnvolved ln bUlldlng a wlld Manlhot specles eollectlon, eva1uatlng lt, and plannlng for lts utlllzatlon en praetlcal breedlng programs The long-term sustalned lmprovement ln cassava wlll depend on exploltlng the wldest posslble range of germplasm resources d} CIAT has developed a framework for research 1n the are a of developlng a commerclal true seed propagatlon system for cassava Hlgh payoffs are expected, but maJor research 1nput wll1 flrst be requlred e)Advanced research technlques for the genet1c manlpulatl0n of cassava are on the horlzon Much of th1S work wll1 be done ln advanced laboratorles ln other lnst1tutlons CIAT, however, wll1 provlde a key 11nk to the appllcatl0n of these technologles wlth maJor lnput from the Breedlng Sectl0n f) Sorne 20% of the world's cassava lS produced 1n the subtroplcs So far, nelther CIAT nor lITA has devoted much effort to thlS ecosystem The development of a network of subtroplcal countrles lS ant1c1pated, and breedlng wl11 be a maJor actlvlty Cassava Root and Leaf Quallty Speclal1stConsumers 1ncreaslngly requlre products of conslstent hlgh quallty Yet tradltl0nal cassava products are characterlzed by a hlghly varlable quallty, for reasons WhlCh are not understood CIAT proposes to establlsh a Quallty Sectl0n ln ltS Cassava Program, whose purpose wll1 be to conduct strateglc and applled research to generate an understandlng of the factors--genetlc, envlronmental, and process-related--whlCh affect end-product quallty In addltl0n, for cassava to reallze lts potentlal as a multl-end-use crop w1th a dlverslty of food uses, a range of novel food products based on cassava flour and starch must be developedThe funct10nal propert1es of these root components, based on the1r physlocherolcal characterlstlcs, and the genetlc and envlronmental effects on these propertles and characterlstlcs must be understood lf thlS obJectlve lS to be met The Quallty Sectl0n wlll pay partlcular attentl0n to HCN, an lssue that lS becomlng IncreasIngly 1roportant, especIally In Afrlca, where human tOXlclty problems have been ldentIf1edThe Sect10n wIII develop more preCIse rapld analysls methods to fac1lltate the ldent1flcatlon of low-HCN germplasm, study preharvest envlronmental effects on root and leaf HCN content, and determlne the condltlons for optlmal HCN ellmlnatl0n durlng processlng Quallty Sectlon research wlll be llnked to that of the BreedIng, Agronomy, and Utll1zatlon SectIons and wIll complement the more baslc studles belng carrled out by lnstltutlons partlclpatlng ln the Cassava Blotechnology NetworkThe obJectlve wlll be the provlslon of conslstent, hlgh-quallty cassava-based products through genetlc, crop management, and processlng lmprovements _ JIn addltlon to these two pOGItIons, CIAT proposes to lmplement the followlng two posltlons as orlglnally proposed ln the mld-term plan for the 1991 budget year Cassava Eeonomlst In CIAT eonflrms the requlrements of the servlees of an eeonomlst In ASla, Slnee the dynamles ln productlon, market1ng, and trade of cassava products on th1S cont1nent cannot adequately be mon1tored by the headquarters econom1st World cassava product1on lS 137 ffillllon tons ApproX1mately 38% of thlS volume lS produced 1n AS1an countr1esMost cassava ln Lat1n Amer1ca and Afr1ca lS domest1cally consumed ln fresh and/or sem1processed formIn AS1a, cassava forros the bas1c or 1nterroed1ate product for the manufactur1ng of a w1de range of value-added end products for human and anlmal consumptlon for both domest1c and export marketsThe AS1an-based econOID1st needs to pay spec1al attent10n to the followlng aspects The ra1n forest of troplcal Amer1ca lS be1ng deforested at a rap1d rate Degradat10n of pastures and lack of susta1nab1l1ty of crop product_0' after clear1ng and burn1ng ha ve been one of the forces beh1nd cont1nued deforestat1onIn recent years, the Trop1cal Pastures Program has expended a maJor effort 1n screen2ng and select1ng adapted grasses and legumes, ~any of these have advanced to the stage of on-farm testlng, and some of these rnater1als have already become cornmerc1al cultlvars In add2t10n, encourag2ng progress has be en ach18ved by selected nat10nal prograrns and other 1nternat1onal 1nst1tut1ons 1n the area of developlng tree components for aC1d S011S Th1S opens up the poss1b111ty of recla1m1ng large areas of degraded lands by 1ntegrated perenn1al herbaceous and woody components 1n mult1layered systems, thus reduc1ng the pressure on further deforestat1on However, th1S requ1res a maJor research effort to study the 1nteract1ons among components for the understand1ng of ecolog1cal pr1nc1ples to develop alternat1ve land use 1n th1S frag1le ecosystem The sC1ent1st requ1red w1ll lead the research effort by br1ng1ng 1n expert1se from CIAT and other nat10nal and 1nternat1onal 1nst1tut1ons 1 4 Change L1StAs descr1bed 1n the m1d-term plan, the Trop1cal Pastures Program proposes to proceed w1th the follow1ng change 11st, or Subst1tut1on of sen10r staff pos1t1ons, 1n 1991Phas1ng out of Germplasm Evaluat10n Spec1al1st and phas1ng 1n of Aqroecoloq1st 1n the Savannas After 15 years of emphas1s on the trop1cal pastures germplasm collect1on, the world collect1on of trop1cal grasses and legumes for aC1d sOlls now cons1sts of more than 24,000 acceSS10nsA large proport1on of th1S collect1on has been screened for adaptat10n to maJor ecosystems, and key spec1es have been 1dent1f1edAs a consequence, the Trop1cal Pastures Program ant1c1pates that w1th respons1b1l1t1es for germplasm collect1on, 1n1t1al character1zat1on, conservat1on, and d1str1but1on of pastures germplasm transferred to the Genet1c Resources Un1t, the Program can reduce 1ts germplasm act1v1t1es to strateg1c work on germplasm acqu1s1t1onAs a result of prev10us efforts of the Program, new grasses and legumes are now commerc1ally ava1lable for the Colomb1an Llanos Slm1larly, h1ghly prom1s1ng exper1mental upland r1ce llnes and new cassava cult1vars are be1ng tested 1n these aC1d sOlls Other 1nst1tut1ons are al so develop1ng llnes and var1et1es of sorghum (INTSORMIL), ma1ze (CIMMYT), soybeans (ICA, Colomb1a), cowpeas (lITA), 011 palm (ICA), and other crops, adapted to aC1d sOlls At th1S t1me, there lS a need to study how best to 1ntegrate pastures and var10US crops 1n econom1cally v1able susta1nable agropastoral systems of the Llanos The Agroecosystem Spec1al1st pos1t1on lS proposed to replace the Germplasm Spec1al1st pos1t1onSuch a systems spec1al1st lS to assemble the requ1red knowledge base, and 1nteract w1th CIAT sC1ent1sts and other 1nst1tut1ons so as to develop 1ntens1f1ed 1ntegrated land-use syste'\"-ovt1ons for the trop1cal savannas No net change 1n the budget lS antlc1pated due te thls Subst1tutlon of sen10r staff pos1t1ons 1n the Trop1cal Pastures Program 2Research SupportThe same resource patterns as applled to the 1990 budget are proposed to be appl1ed 1n 1991, w1th the follow1ng mod1f1cat1ons Over the years, the AESU has develeped extens~ve data bases, data collect~ons, and rnethods to serve the commod~ty prograrns and CIAT rnanagement ~n def~nlng the phys~cal envlronment, agr~cultural system, and soc~oeconomlC mll~eu fer each of the CIAT mandate commod~tles These stud~es proceed log~cally from the general to the speclf~c They start wlth contlnental~~al: studles of crop geography wlth an accent on the physlcal lenvlronment and proceed to much larger scale studles of small reg~ons, where~soc~oeconom~c var~ables becorne relevant In all of these, spatlal cons~peratlons are an lmportant factor u,• \" f'In the cornlng years, the accent Thus, the three sen~or posltlons--cell and tlssue culture, b10chemlstry, and molecular genetlcs--are consldered the m~n~mum essentlal strateglc research support for the appllcatlon of the new blolog~cal methodologles to CIAT commodlt1esThe plant phySlOloglst In charge of cell and tlssue culture research was, unt1l the end of 1989, the only senIor posltlon In the BRU, and thls person has addltlona1 dutles as Head of the UnltThe second sen10r posltlon--plant blochemlstry--was 1mplemented In the flrst semester of 1990The prlmary responslb1llty of the sClentlst In that posltlon lS to provlde research support to ldentlfy the blochemlcal factors Wh1Ch underlIe the mechan1sms of reslstance¡tolerance 1n selected plant pathogen-pest lnteractlons In addlt1on, the blochemlst wIll help to develop blochemlcal markers for the characterlzatlon and assessment of genet1c var1abll1ty ln CIAT crops Once the factors responslble for res1stance¡tolerance have been p1npolnted, the next step wIll be to relate those (prote1ns, enzymes, ~tc ) to the genet1c make-up of the plant by means of molecular blOlogy technlques Agronom1cally use fuI genetlc construct1ons are al so avaIlable from other plant specles Furthermore, CIAT needs to enhance ItS capaclty to explolt avaIlable (and develop new) molecular genetlc markers and maps In plant breedlng ThlS wlll be achleved by the use of gene mapplng, clon1ng, and transfer technlquesThe proposed th1rd senlor pos1tlon In the BRU, a plant molecular genetlclst, w1ll be responslble for thlS research support act1vlty ln dlrect collaboratlon wlth plant breeders In the research programs It lS also expected that th1S posltlon wIll greatly contrlbute to the Interface In research at the cellular, blochemlcal, and molecular levels In the UnIt wlth collaboratlng advanced research lnstltut10ns and wlth the work of practlcal plant breedlng at CIAT and the NARS The selectlon of the sClentlst to flll the molecular genetlcs posltlon wlll have to take lnto account both a strong molecular b10logy background and demonstrated experlence ln plant genetlcs and breedlng The Program was to have four maJar thrusts tralnlng, lnformatlon¡documentatlon, publlcatlons, and publlC lnformatlon In the short term, the program leader was to cover the roles of both 1eader and head of tra~nIng and conferences, but eventually each thrust was to be headed by a senIor posltlon Moreover, a maJor reason for creatlng the program was that It should be led by a full-tlme program leader--~n the same way as the Center's research programs, based on the conslderatlon that the TCSP lncludes a w~de spectrum of act1v1t1es, and has 1mportant responslbll1tles ln lnstltutlon-bu1ldlng and the provlslon of support functlons for the strengthenlng of collaboratlng NARDS ThlS need, 1f anyth1ng, has become stronger Slnce the merger was lmplemented The TCSP's lnstltutlon-bulldlng and enhanclng funct10n has shlfted from a supply-drlven and reactlve approach to one that lS proactlve and hlghly targeted Instead of belng moved by the Center's \"supply\" capaclty for provldlng l.nformat1on, knowledge, and tralnlng, and prov1d1ng serv1ce slmply upon request, the TCSP now channels the Center's expertlse and stock of 1nformatlon to meet clearly deflned needs of the NARDS Por th1S, the TCSP follows a Center-wlde approach and keeps a country-level perspect1ve to gU1de the Center's NARDS-enhanc1ng endeavorsIn other words, 1t strlves to assess the needs of the lndlvldual countrles' teehnology generatlon and transfer systems as a whole (ln relat10n to CIAT's eommod1t1es) V1s-a-V1S the more restrleted needs and percept10ns of lnd1v1dual 1nstltutlons or commodlty programs wlthln nat10nal systems It llkewlse str1ves to ensure that CIAT's response to NARDS' needs lS determ1ned from a Center-w1de standpo1nt, rather than from an exclus1vely commodlty program p01nt of V1ew Th1S requlres the attent10n of a full-tlme program leader The TCSP's tra1n1ng functlon, on the other hand, has become more complexThe strateg1c Shlft toward more upstream tra1n1ng of NARDS SC1entlsts had to be paralleled by an effort to strengthen the NARDS' own capac1ty for traln1ng the1r human resources devoted to downstream researeh and technology transfer Consequently, the TCSP developed a strategy of traln1ng the tralners to eover the downstream traln1ng demand, as a complement to CIAT's upstream researeh tralnlng All th1S 1mplles that the functlons of tra1nlng head and TCSP program leader should not contlnue to be earr1ed out by a slngle person It lS therefore proposed that the pos1t1on of Head of Tralnlng be lmplemented not later than 1991 4Management/Admlnlstrat10n and General Operat1ng Expenses There are no addlt10ns for Management/Admlnlstrat1on and General Operat1ng expenses 5 Cap1tal/Replacement CapltalThe request for cap1tal and cap1tal replacement funds lS as presented 1n the med1um-term plan for the 1991 budget year, plus the amount of $200,000 for the addltlon of one module to the 1aboratory/offlce space complex whose construet10n needed to be postponed 1n 1990 fer lack of funds 6 WorkLng CapLtalThe ad)ustment ~n work~ng capLtal requested for 1991 amounts to $574,000Th~s amount represents some 8 2 percent (~ e , 30 days of operat~ons) of the net add~tLons made to the 1989 budget (~n 1989, CIAT was asked to ~mplement the add~t~ons proposed for 1989 but to postpone the add~tlon of the correspondlng worklng capltal), plus the sama percentage for add~tlons proposed for the 1991 budget year (Because of underfund~ng ~n the 1990 budget, no net addlt~ons to the CIAT program were made ~n 1990, nor was lt poss~ble ~n the 1990 budget year to add the worklng capltal add~tlons as postponed ln 1989, as shown ~n Table 2 [ltem IJ, the resources needed to \"catch up\" w~th work~ng capltal to the year 1990 amount te $320,000 ) 7Self-Generated lncorne Earned ~ncome ~n f~nanc~al year 1991 ~s proJected to be at the level of $716,000 lt ~ncludes pro)ected lncome fer farro preductlon, overhead on speclal pro)ects, and ~ncorne from flnanclal transactlons (malnly lnterest)The pro)ected reductlon of $100,000 ~n earned ~ncome over the 1990 budget year lS based on the conslderat~on that the portlon of pro]ect fundlng on wh~ch overhead lS charged ~s expected to be less than ln 1990Vls-a-vls the budget reguest amountlng to $32,672,000, and proJected self-generated lncorne amountlng to $716,000, CIAT's request for fund~ng from the CGIAR arnounts to $31,956,000Aga~nst th~srequest--at the tlme of publlcatlon of thlS document--ClAT was assured fundlng (ln the forro of h~ghly restrlcted fundlng) of essentlal actlvltles ~n the amount of $2,129,000 9 Impact of Fund~ng Recruest on Medlum-terro PlanIn terms of the essentlal program, w~th the budget request as outl~ned aboye, CIAT w~ll stay fully w~th1n the or~g~nally approved medlum-terro plan The only d~fference relates to the non~ncluslon of the senlor staff pos1tlon for a Cassava AgronoIDlstjBreeder who was to be stat~oned ln northeastern Brazll, and whose responslblllty was to have been the development of a cassava gerroplasm pool for the seml-arld reg~ons of Brazll and hornologous areas 1n Afrlca CIAT, ln coordlnat~on wlth Brazll1an natlonal lnstltut1ons, ~s now plann~ng to devolve the executlon of thlS work to Brazll, and lS hopeful that fundlng for thlS actlv1ty wlll be forthcomlng CIAT lS proposlng to 1nclude th1S devolut~on actlvlty 1n the \"deslrable program \" For 1991, CIAT p1:oposes \"des1rable actlVltles\" amountlng to $5 3 rnlll10n dollars, aga~nst WhlCh, at the end of Apr1l 1990, sorne $2 3 m~ll~on were pro)ected to be avallable  ------------------------------------------------------------------  ( 1988 1989 1990 & 1991) (amounts are ln thousands of current US dollars)1 A e t u a l 1 Actual I ' 9901 1 99 1 1 Chanr¡:es ayer 1 1 1 988 1 1 9 8 9 Budget 1 Budget request I 1990 estlr.ate tAmount 1 SY, Amo\"\", 1 SY. ~, 1 $Y. Amount I su 'mount 1 $'000 : I 11 950 1 57 12 633 1 63 13 691 161) 13 211 1 61 13 B69 1 653 5 1- 2 697 1 4 3 2<4 1 :; 3 310 I 4 3 000 1 53 108 1-1-       (1988 1989 1990 & 1991)   ( (1) (1)'   -- --    (1988 1989 1990 & 1991) (amounts are ln thousands of current US doltars)I A e tu. l I A e t \" • l I Estlmnte I ProJectlOn I ==::t===:;:=:-:;:; I :::;:;:;:::::;:;:;:;:;\"''''''' I \"''''''':;:;:;:;'''''';:;:;;; I \"''''::::::;:;;;:::::::::;:;:; ","tokenCount":"6374"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2396165894e9a846099be0a2c1b83bba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4ac891f1-bd2a-48b1-a740-3e94260197e0/retrieve","id":"-2124643185"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d47d7c13-73ce-4d75-9180-cba6a530fa5a","pagecount":"24","content":"Fusarium oxysporum formae specialis cubense (Foc) is a soil-borne fungus that causes Fusarium wilt, which is considered to be the most destructive disease of bananas. The fungus is believed to have evolved with its host in the Indo-Malayan region, and from there it was spread to other banana-growing areas with infected planting material. The diversity and distribution of Foc in Asia was investigated. A total of 594 F. oxysporum isolates collected in ten Asian countries were identified by vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) analysis. To simplify the identification process, the isolates were first divided into DNA lineages using PCR-RFLP analysis. Six lineages and 14 VCGs, representing three Foc races, were identified in this study. The VCG complex 0124/5 was most common in the Indian subcontinent, Vietnam and Cambodia; whereas the VCG complex 01213/16 dominated in the rest of Asia. Sixty-nine F. oxysporum isolates in this study did not match any of the known VCG tester strains. In this study, Foc VCG diversity in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Sri Lanka was determined for the first time and VCGs 01221 and 01222 were first reported from Cambodia and Vietnam. New associations of Foc VCGs and banana cultivars were recorded in all the countries where the fungus was collected. Information obtained in this study could help Asian countries to develop and implement regulatory measures to prevent the incursion of Foc into areas where it does not yet occur. It could also facilitate the deployment of disease resistant banana varieties in infested areas.The edible banana (Musa spp.) originated in Asia following interspecific hybridization between two species, M. acuminata Colla and M. balbisiana Colla. After domestication, seedless varieties were disseminated worldwide, and these are now grown in most tropical and some subtropical countries of the world as a fresh fruit and staple food [1,2]. More than 150 banana varieties are grown in Asia for domestic consumption and export [3], making up 45% of all bananas grown globally [4]. India is the largest producer of bananas, with an annual production of 30 million tonnes, while China is the world's largest producer of Cavendish bananas, with an annual production of approximately 11 million tons [5]. Other major banana producers in Asia include the Philippines (8.6 million tons) and Indonesia (5.4 million tons). Whilst most of Asia's bananas are consumed locally, the region also produces bananas for export. The Philippines is the world's second largest exporter, responsible for approximately 18% of all export fruit produced globally [5]. Cultivars grown on the continent differ greatly from one country to another, depending on adaptability and market preferences. India, China and the Philippines have extensive Cavendish industries, whereas countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia grow many local varieties such as Silk and Pisang Awak [6,7]. Production on the continent is affected by a number of biotic constraints, of which banana Fusarium wilt is one of the most devastating.Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht f. sp. cubense (E.F. Smith) Snyder & H.N. Hansen (Foc), the causal agent of banana Fusarium wilt (Panama disease), is found in all countries where the crop is grown except those bordering the Mediterranean (apart from Egypt [8]), Somalia, and some islands in the South Pacific [9,10]. The pathogen is believed to have co-evolved with its banana host in Asia, and from there was disseminated to new areas through infected planting material [11]. Banana Fusarium wilt is exceptionally destructive and gained infamy by disrupting the agricultural, social, economic and political landscape in Central America during the first half of the 20 th century [12]. Following first reports in Costa Rica and Panama in 1890, the disease rapidly spread to other Latin American countries where Gros Michel bananas were cultivated for export [1]. The disease vanished as a problem when Foc race 1-resistant Cavendish bananas were adopted to replace Gros Michel. Cavendish bananas, however, were also found to be susceptible to Foc race 4; first in the subtropics [13], and then in the tropics [14]. Because of its interaction with Cavendish bananas under different environmental conditions, Foc race 4 was divided into Foc 'subtropical' race 4 (SR4) and Foc 'tropical' race 4 (TR4) strains. The latter is particularly damaging and raised major concerns after it severely affected Cavendish plantations in Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia in the 1990s [14,15,16]. These concerns intensified when severe epidemics also occurred in Cavendish plantations in China and the Philippines [17,18]. More recently Foc TR4 has spread to the Middle East and Africa [19]. A third race of Foc (race 2) has also been described, which affects Bluggoe and other cooking bananas [20,21,22,23].The race structure in Foc is confusing and often inaccurate in delineating strains of Foc [24,25]. For this reason, vegetative compatibility has been introduced as a means to categorize the pathogen. Vegetative compatibility groups (VCG) in Foc are determined when the hyphae of complementary nitrate non-utilizing (nit)-mutants, generated on chlorate medium (CLM), anastomose to form stable heterokaryons on minimal medium (MM) [26,27]. Isolates representing the same VCG will have the same alleles at all vic loci, while those in different VCGs have different alleles at one or more vic loci [27]. Whereas vegetative compatibility provides a clear measure of phenotypic relatedness, the technique does not measure the genetic distance between phenotypes [28,29]. It is also labour intensive and requires approximately 2 months for identifying unknown strains.additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific role of this author [EF] has been edited in the 'author contributions' section.A total of 24 vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) have been identified for Foc, of which 21 are present in Australia and Asia [14,23,30,31,32,33]. Some VCGs are cross-compatible and form VCG complexes, for instance VCGs 0120/15, 0124/5 and 01213/16. The largest number of Foc VCGs is found in countries where Foc is believed to have originated, such as Indonesia and Malaysia. However, VCG distribution in Asia also depends on the banana varieties grown and the prevailing climatic conditions in each country. For instance, VCGs 0120 often causes disease on Cavendish bananas in the subtropics, whereas VCGs 0121, 01213 and 01216 most commonly affect Cavendish and other diploids and triploids of M. acuminata in the tropics. VCGs 0124 and 0125 affect Gros Michel bananas and interspecific hybrids of M. acuminata and M. balbisiana, such as the AB, AAB and ABB bananas [7].A number of DNA-based studies have been employed to determine the phylogenetic relationships between Foc VCGs. These studies all suggest that Foc is separated into two main clades and eight to ten lineages [25,26,27,31,34,35]. Clade A affects mainly M. acuminata hybrids, whereas Clade B affects mainly M. acuminata x M. balbisiana hybrids. The lineages in Foc each contain one to five closely related VCGs [28,29]. PCR markers have been developed to rapidly identify Foc race 4 strains [36] and the VCG complex 01213/16 (Foc TR4) [33,37] in Clade A.Banana Fusarium wilt occurs in all Asian countries [38,39]. VCG diversity in Foc has been determined for strains collected in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, China and the Philippines; all countries where a large diversity of bananas exists [28,40,41,42,43,44,45,46]. It is, however, the damage caused by Foc TR4 to Cavendish bananas grown in monoculture that is of particular concern to commercial growers and banana export companies [16,47]. Foc race 4 was reported in Taiwan in 1967 [20] and Foc TR4 in Indonesia and Malaysia in the 1990s [9,48]. In the Philippines, Foc race 4 infections on Cavendish were reported as early as the 1970s [49]. The causal Foc strain was identified as VCG 0122 [50], which is regarded as less virulent to Cavendish bananas than VCG 01213/16. When Foc VCG 01213/16 began to cause largescale epidemics to the expanding Cavendish industry in China [17] and the Philippines [18], a renewed interest and concerns of the threat of Foc to the Asian banana industry was generated. Mitigating measures are now being developed in China, the Philippines and Taiwan where Foc TR4 is causing significant losses [51]. Foc TR4 has, however, not yet been reported from India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia [45]. The objective of this study, therefore, was to assess the genetic diversity, distribution and host varieties affected by Foc in Asia.Samples collected from banana plants with Fusarium wilt symptoms in Asia from 2006 to 2007 were characterized in this study. No special permission was needed as samples were collected and submitted by individual country officers who are members of a legitimate Regional Network, the Asia Pacific Network, coordinated by Bioversity International. The species is not an endangered species. The samples were collected in China (12), Indonesia (6), Malaysia (67), the Philippines (79), Taiwan (102), Bangladesh (61), Cambodia (160), India (66), Vietnam (35) and Sri Lanka (27) (S1 Table ). All collections were made during 2006 and 2007 by country representatives trained in Fusarium wilt field diagnostics, who also recorded the cultivar and locations where samples were taken. The collectors were requested to make the sampling effort as representative as possible of production areas and cultivar diversity, but this could not be guaranteed. Primary isolations were performed by plating out 5-mm pieces of infected vascular strands, which were first surface-disinfested, on potato dextrose agar (PDA) modified with 0.2% Novobiocin. Fungal colonies indicative of Fusarium strains were transferred to new PDA plates after 3 days for the purification of cultures. The strains were then single-spored and identified to species level.A total of 615 Fusarium isolates were obtained from Asia, which are all maintained in 15% glycerol at -80˚C in the culture collection of the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa (S1 Table ). In addition, tester strains of the 24 VCGs of Foc were obtained from Dr Suzy Bentley and Mr Wayne O'Neill at the Queensland Department of Primary Industries in Australia, Prof Randy Ploetz from the University of Florida, Homestead FL in the USA, and Dr Kerry O'Donnell from the United States Department of Agriculture in Peoria IL in the USA (S2 Table ).All isolates of Fusarium collected in Asia were single-spored and identified to species level. For cultural and morphological identification, each isolate was grown on PDA and carnation leaf agar (CLA), respectively. Colony colour and fungal morphology were then compared to characteristics of Fusarium spp. described by Nelson [52] and Leslie and Summerell [53]. Only isolates identified as F. oxysporum were selected for further characterization.For DNA extraction, F. oxysporum isolates were grown in 90-mm Petri dishes on PDA at 25˚C for 1 to 2 weeks. Fungal mycelium of each isolate was harvested by scraping it from the surface of the growth media with a sterile scalpel, and depositing it into Eppendorf tubes. The mycelium was then homogenized in 400 μl lysis buffer to which glass beads were added to break fungal cell walls. The Eppendorf tubes were thereafter shaken for 5 min in a Retch MM 301 shaker (Du ¨sseldorf, Germany) and incubated at 65˚C in a water bath (Polyscience, Niles, USA) for 10 min. Afterwards it was spun in a Spectrafuge 24 D centrifuge (Labnet International, Edison, USA) at 14 000 rpm for 4 min. DNA was extracted and purified using the protocol provided by Wizard SV Genomic DNA Purification System Kit (Promega, Madison, USA). The extracted DNA was quantified using a Nanodrop spectrophotometer (NanoDrop, Wilmington, USA) and stored at -20˚C until further use.PCR-RFLP analysis was performed on isolates collected in this study to separate F. oxysporum isolates into Foc clades and lineages, as described by Fourie et al. 2009 [29]. Briefly, the 1500-bp intergenic spacer (IGS) region was first amplified using the primer set PNFo and PN22 [54] with an Eppendorf Mastercycler Gradient PCR machine (Eppendorf Scientific, Hamburg, Germany). The IGS region of each isolate was then subjected to restriction digests with five different enzymes to determine their clade and lineage designation. These enzymes included Eco88 I, Csp6I and BsrD I (Fermentas, Nunningen, Switzerland), and BbvI and BceAI (New England BioLabs, Hitchin, England). All the enzymes were used separately in PCR-RFLP digestion reactions and consisted of 10 μl IGS PCR product, 2.5 U of the restriction enzyme and 2 μl (2x) of the supplied restriction buffer. After incubation at temperatures described by enzyme specification for 3 h, the restricted fragments were separated using agarose (3%, w/v) gel electrophoresis [55]. In addition, the primer set R117 (GTC AAC CAG GAG CAG ACT G) and U9 (GTA ACC TCT GAC TCA CCG) was used to target the mitochondrial repeated (MtR) region that distinguishes between Lineage VI and VIII isolates within Clade B [29]. PCR cycling conditions consisted of 35 cycles at 94˚C for 45 sec, 50˚C (IGS) or 59˚C (MtR) for 45 sec, and 72˚C for 90 sec. Each PCR was preceded by an initial denaturation step at 94˚C for 2 min and concluded by a final extension step at 72˚C for 5 min. Isolates of F. oxysporum that fit the known lineages of Foc were tentatively considered members of the banana Fusarium wilt pathogen, and were selected for VCG testing. Those that did not belong to any of the known lineages were excluded from VCG analysis.To rapidly identify isolates of Foc TR4 (VCG 01213/16) in the Asian population, DNA of all isolates were amplified on an Eppendorf Mastercycler Gradient PCR machine (Eppendorf Scientific) using two sets of primers. These included FocTR4-F and FocTR4-R developed by Dita et al. (2010)  [33], as well as VCG 01213/16 F1 and VCG 01213/16 R2 developed by Li et al. (2013)  [37]. The PCR assay was conducted using 20 ng of fungal DNA in a total volume of 25 μl containing 1x Buffer, 2 mM MgCl 2 , 1 U Taq DNA polymerase, 0.32 mM dNTPs, 0.8 mg. ml -1 BSA and 0.2 μM of each primer. PCR cycle conditions for the Foc TR4 primer set consisted of 30 cycles at 95˚C for 1 min, 60˚C for 1 min and 72˚C for 3 min. Each PCR was preceded by an initial denaturation step at 95˚C for 5 min and concluded by a final extension step at 72˚C for 10 min. The cycling conditions for the VCG 01213/16 primer set consisted of 35 cycles at 94˚C for 45 sec, 64˚C for 45 sec and 72˚C for 60 sec. Each PCR was preceded by an initial denaturation step of 94˚C for 5 min and concluded with a final extension step of 72˚C for 5 min. As a positive control, a known VCG 01213/16 isolate (CAV 789) was included, as well as a non-template control.Nit-mutants of wild type Foc isolates were generated on minimal media (MM) amended with 1.5-3.0% KClO 3 and incubated at 25˚C for 7-21 days, as described by Puhalla (1985)  [26]. Spontaneous KClO 3 -resistant sectors that developed were transferred to MM slants. Those that grew as thin colonies with no aerial mycelium were classified as nit-mutants and were further characterized on media containing one of four different sources of nitrogen [56]. The VCG identity of all the Asian Foc isolates were then determined by pairing nit-1 and nit-3 mutants of the Asian isolates with Nit-M testers of known VCGs testers. A VCG identity was assigned to an unknown Foc isolate if a heterokaryon was formed between its nit-1 or nit-3 mutant and the known tester's Nit-M mutants [57]. Nit-1 mutants of Foc isolates that were not assigned any known VCG identity were paired with their own Nit M mutants to test for heterokaryon incompatibility. Once intra-strain compatibility was established, they were tested for compatibility with isolates that were also incompatible with tester strains representing known VCGs. All pairings were repeated at least once. The mutants are all maintained on MM slants at 4˚C at the facilities of the Department of Plant Pathology, Stellenbosch University.Of the 615 isolates investigated in this study, 594 had cultural and morphological characteristics typical of F. oxysporum (Table 1) [52,53]. Microconidia were produced in false heads on short monophialides and were mostly single-celled and kidney-shaped. The microconidia were produced in abundance, and thin, sickle-shaped macroconidia were produced in moderate amounts. Chlamydospores were formed singly and sometimes in pairs with a coarse protective wall after 4 weeks on CLA, and in some cases only after 6 weeks of incubation. The colour of colonies differed from cream to peach, cream to dark purple and cream to purple-peach. Twenty-one of the isolates were identified as other species of Fusarium (S1 Table ) and excluded from further analysis.Of the 594 Fusarium oxysporum isolates collected from wilted bananas in Asia, 179 isolates were divided into Clade A (30%) and 336 isolates into Clade B (57%) respectively, based on their PCR-RFLP profiles (Table 1). Seventy-nine isolates (13%) did not fit into either of the two clades, and were excluded from further analysis in this study. Forty-one Clade A isolates were collected in Malaysia (64% of total isolates from country), four in Indonesia (67%), 95 in Taiwan (96%), 28 in the Philippines (38%) and 11 in China (92%), respectively. Fifty-one Clade B isolates were collected from Bangladesh (86%), 144 collected from Cambodia (94%), 32 collected from Vietnam (91%), 55 collected from India (85%), and 15 collected from Sri Lanka (56%). The majority of isolates in Clade A (Lineages I-V) represented Lineage V (96%), whereas Clade B (Lineages VI-VIII) isolates represented Lineages VI and VII. Of the latter, Lineage VI contained 84% of the isolates. All known VCGs showed the expected PCR-RFLP fingerprint according to Fourie et al. (2009)  [29]. VCGs 0121 and 01213/16 were in Lineage V, VCGs 0124/5, 0128, 01212, 01220 and 01222 in Lineage VI and VCGs 0123, 01217 and 01218 in Lineage VII (Table 1). VCG 01221 was the exception. While showing to be in Clade B, it did not correspond to PCR-RFLP fingerprints of Lineage VI, VII or VIII (Table 1).The primer sets developed for VCG 01213/16 identification by Dita et al. (2010) [33] and Li et al. (2013) [37] amplified a 463-bp and a 455-bp [33,37] band, respectively. None of the isolates representing VCGs other than VCG 01213/16 produced amplification products with either of the primer sets.Nit mutants were successfully generated for all the Asian Foc isolates. Ninety-nine percent of isolates produced both Nit-M and nit-1 or nit-3 mutants, which were used for compatibility testing. Ten isolates were self-incompatible and did not produce heterokaryons when their Nit-M and nit-1 mutants were paired (Table 1) [27]. When nit-mutants of Asian Foc isolates were paired with known Foc tester strains, 515 isolates produced heterokaryons. In total, 14 of the 24 known VCGs were identified in Asia, with those representing the 0124/5 and 01213/16 VCG complexes dominating (Table 1). Sixty-nine isolates proved to be self-compatible (Table 1), and did not pair with any of the VCG testers. They were thus excluded from further analysis.For a comprehensive analysis of Foc diversity and host interaction throughout Asia, VCG and host data of 80 Foc isolates from China [37], 117 isolates from Thailand [45], and 47 isolates from Indonesia [58] published recently, were combined with results from the current study. Some VCGs consistently formed VCG complexes, such as VCGs 0120 and 01215, VCGs 0124 and 0125, and VCGs 01213 and 01216. Results for these VCGs were therefore combined.Countries in Asia with the greatest number of known VCGs were mainland China (8), Indonesia (7) and Cambodia (7) (Fig 1). The country with the least amount of VCGs recorded was Sri Lanka, with three VCGs. The VCG complex 01213/16 dominated in Southeast Asia  ). A second unidentified F. oxysporum isolate was found in the Cavendish cultivar Pei-Chiao (Giant Cavendish).VCGs in Malaysia. Foc was collected from bananas in Malaysia from the western Malay Peninsula, but not from Malaysian Borneo (Fig 4). The VCG 01213/16 complex was widespread (Fig 4) and found on six cultivars affected by Fusarium wilt (S1 Table ). These included the Lakatan cultivar Pisang Berangan (AAA), the Sucrier cultivar Pisang Mas (AA), Pisang Raja (AAB), Pisang Awak (ABB), the Bluggoe cultivar Pisang Abu Keling (ABB) and Port Dickson (genome unknown) (Table 2). Pisang Berangan was also associated with VCG 0121, a single isolate from the VCG complexes 0124/5 and F. oxysporum isolates not compatible with known VCGs (S1 Table ). Four other VCGs were found in Malaysia. VCGs 01217 and 01218 were found on the Silk banana Pisang Rastali (AAB) and the Bluggoe cultivar Pisang Abu Keling (ABB) in northern Peninsular Malaysia, VCG 0123 on Pisang Awak and Pisang Rastali in the northeast and northwest of Peninsular Malaysia, and VCG 0128 in the Kelantan area (Table 1; Fig 4), for which no cultivar information was available. Twelve unidentified isolates of F. oxysporum were obtained from banana in Malaysia. Two of these were VCG incompatible, while 10 isolates incompatible to known VCG testers were associated with Mas, Pisang Kapas, Pisang Abu Keling, Pisang Berangan, Pisang Awak, Pisang Rastali and Plantain (S1 Table ).VCGs in Indonesia. Seven Foc isolates collected from Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi in Indonesia were identified in this study. More isolates from western Sumatra were identified by Riska and Hermanto (2012) [58]. The Foc population in Indonesia was highly diverse, and included VCGs 0120/15, 0121, 0123, 0124/5, 0128, 01213/16, 01218 and 01219 (S1 Table) [58]. The VCG complex 01213/16 was most widespread (Fig 5 ), and was isolated from the local banana cultivars Loka Dadi and Loka Pumbu, and from Pisang Raja (AAB), the Silk banana cultivar Pisang Raja Serai (AAB), Pisang Barangan (AAA), the Gros Michel cultivar Ambon Kuning (AAA), the Cavendish cultivars Ambon Hijau and Buai (AAA), the Rose banana cultivars Rejang (AA) and Jantan, the Saba cultivar Pisang Kepok (ABB), the Sucrier cultivar Pisang Mas Kirana (AA) and the Laknau cultivar Pisang Panjang (AAB) (Table 2) [58]. Most VCGs in Indonesia were isolated from Kepok [58] and Loka Dadi [S1 Table ]. The isolates from West Sumatra included VCGs 0120, 0121, 01213/16 and 01219, with VCG 01219 found in two regions, Dharmasraya and Solok (Fig 5) [58]. The local cultivar Loka Dadi was associated with VCGs 0123, 0124 and 01213/16 (S1 Table ).VCGs in China. The greatest diversity of Foc in Asia was found in China. Collections were conducted in five different banana-producing provinces by Li et al. (2013)  [37]. Additionally, 5 isolates from the Cavendish cultivar Brazilian (AAA) and the Pisang Awak cultivar Guangfen (ABB) and six isolates with no cultivar information were identified as VCG 01213/ 16 in the current study (S1 Table ). Other VCGs identified in China included VCGs 0120/15, 0123, 0126, 01218, 01220, 01221 and 0124/01222. Guangdong Province hosted the largest and most diverse population of Foc, including the VCG complexes 0120/15, 01213/16 and 0124/ 22, as well as VCGs 0123, 0126 and 01220 (Fig 6). VCG 01213/16 complex was widespread in all production areas, except for Yunnan Province. VCG 01218 was isolated in the Guangdong province only. Most VCGs in the Chinese population were associated with Guangfen, including VCGs 0120/15, 0123, 0124/22, 0126, 01213/16, 01220 and 01221 (S1 Table) [37]. Da Jiao, an AAB variety, was only affected by VCG 01218 (Table 2) [37].VCGs in Bangladesh. Foc was found widespread throughout Bangladesh (Fig 7). The population was dominated by the VCG 0124/5 complex, which was obtained from all affected banana cultivars in the country; including the Silk type banana Bangla Kola, the AAB bananas Sabri and Plantain, and the AB Ney Poovan banana Champa (Table 2). VCG 01220 was isolated from Sabri and Plantain in western Bangladesh along the border with India (Fig 7). The single isolate of VCG 0123 was found in central Bangladesh and VCG 0124/01222 in northern Bangladesh. VCG 0128 was isolated in the northwest and VCG 01217 in the north-central region (Fig 7). The cultivar most affected by Fusarium wilt in Bangladesh was Sabri, which was associated with all the VCGs found in the country with the exception of VCG 0128. It was also affected by an isolate not compatible to known VCGs (S1 Table ).VCGs in India. Banana Fusarium wilt was detected in several important banana varieties grown across India (Fig 8). The dominant VCG found in India was the VCG 0124/5 complex (Fig 1 ), and isolates from this VCG were collected from ABB bananas including Monthan and the Pisang Awak cultivar Karpooravalli, AB bananas such as Ney Poovan, and the Silk cultivars Rasthali, Malbhog and Mortaman (AAB) (Table 2). VCG 0128 isolated from BB cultivar Manohar, was found in a single location north on the border next to Myanmar (Fig 7). A number of banana cultivars were also affected by isolates of Foc not fitting into existing VCGs. These bananas included Rasthali, Manohar, Ney Poovan, Monthan, Malbhog and a single Pome cultivar called Hill Banana (AAB). The cultivars from which most VCGs were collected in India were Karpooravalli (S1 Table ); which were associated with VCGs 0124/5, 01220 and the VCG complex 0124/22; and Ney Poovan associated with VCGs 0124/5 and VCG 01220 (S1 Table ). No isolates were collected from Cavendish bananas, which are planted widely in India.  VCGs in Sri Lanka. The relatively small Sri Lankan population of Foc composed primarily of isolates representing VCG 0124/5 (Fig 1). These were isolated from a range of cultivars in the central and Sabaragamuwa provinces, including Gros Michel (AAA), Red (AAA), Pisang Awak, Silk and Ney Mannan cultivars. Only one isolate of VCG 01217 from Silk and one VCG 01220 isolate from a Ney Mannan (ABB) cultivar were collected in Sri Lanka (S1 Table ). No location information was available for these isolates. Ten isolates collected from Gros Michel, Silk and Red cultivars in the central, western and Sabaragamuwa provinces did not belong to any known VCG of Foc (S1 Table, Fig 7).VCGs in Cambodia. This study provides the first population study based on VCG identification of Foc from Cambodia (Table 1). Isolation was only done from Pisang Awak cultivar Namwa (S1 Table ). Two general areas were affected: Kampong Cham and Kandal. Kampong Cham (south-eastern part of Cambodia) were most severely affected, and all VCGs identified in the country (VCGs 0123, 0124/5, 0124/22, 0128, 01217, 01218, and 01221) were found in this area. Only VCGs 0123, 0124/5, 0128 and 01221 were found in Kandal (Fig 8). VCGs in Thailand. Thailand was the only country in Asia where the Foc population was not dominated by either the VCG 0124/5 or VCG 01213/16 complexes [45]. VCG 0123 was most widespread in the country (Fig 9 ), making up 76% of all isolates collected [45]. All Foc isolates were collected from the ABB Pisang Awak cultivar Kluai Namwa [45]. The VCGs complex 0124/5 was found in the northern and central part of Thailand, whereas VCG 01221 was restricted to the north (Fig 9). VCG 01218 was isolated in the south [45].VCGs in Vietnam. Five VCGs were found in Vietnam, all members of Clade B, with the exception of VCG 01221. The VCG 0124/5 complex dominated the Vietnamese Foc populations (Fig 1 ), with isolates collected from all cultivars affected by Fusarium wilt. These included the two Pisang Awak cultivars Chuoi Tay and Chuoi Su (ABB), a Bluggoe cultivar called Chuoi Ngop (ABB) and a Silk cultivar called Chuoi Goong (AAB) (Table 2). VCG 0123 was associated with Chuoi Goong and VCG 0128 with Chuoi Tay. Both were isolated in the north of the country, while VCG 01221 was isolated from Chuoi Su in the central part of the country ( Fig 10). Most of the Foc isolates were obtained from Pisang Awak, including VCGs 0124/5, 0128 and 01221 (S1 Table ).VCG 01213/16 was isolated from Musa cultivars of the diploid genotypes AA and the triploid genotypes AAA, AAB and ABB (Table 2). Cultivars within genotype AAA were infected with Somaclones Formosana and Tai-Chiao #3 (both selections of Giant Cavendish); as well as the Mysore (AAB), Pisang Raja (AAB), Pisang Panjang (AAB), and Loka Pumbu and Port Dickson (both with unknown genomes) were exclusively associated with VCG 01213/16 (Table 2). The AAB cultivars Mortaman (India), and Bangla Kola (Bangladesh) and the ABB bananas Pisang Awak (Sri Lanka) and Chuoi Ngop (Vietnam) were exclusively associated with VCG 0124/5. The Pisang Awak cultivars Kluai Namwa (ABB) in Cambodia and Guangfen (ABB) in Mainland China were associated with seven known VCGs, respectively (Table 2). Cultivars from which F. oxysporum isolates were isolated that did not fit into any existing Foc VCGs included Guangfen from China, Plantain and Sabri from Bangladesh, Pisang Kapas, Pisang Awak, Berangan, Mas, Rastali and Plantain in Malaysia, Raja, Manih, Berangan, Cavendish and Kepok in Indonesia [58], Hill Banana, Rastali, Malbhog, Manohar, Ney Poovan and Monthan in India, Red and Silk in Sri Lanka, Namwa in Cambodia, Lakatan and Latundan in the Philippines, Gros Michel, Red and Silk in Sri-Lanka, Namwa and Pei-Chiao in Taiwan and Chuoi Gong and Chuoi Ray in Vietnam (S1 Table ).The banana Fusarium wilt fungus Foc is particularly diverse within the F. oxysporum species complex when compared to other formae speciales. It consists of three races and 24 VCGs, which are substantially more than the number of VCGs found in other important Fusarium wilt fungi such as F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, F. oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum, F. oxysporum f. sp. melonis and F. oxysporum f. sp. canariensis [32]. This large diversity could be attributed to the polyphyletic nature of Foc [47], its possible history of sexual reproduction [59], parasexuality [60,61] and horizontal gene transfer [62]. Vegetative compatibility measures have been successfully employed to determine the origin and global distribution of Foc [28,63]. The current study, combined with recent publications on Foc diversity in Asia [37,45,58], showed the presence of 17 VCGs, thereby confirming the region as the most likely origin of the fungus [11,29]. VCG diversity in Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh was reported for the first time. The VCGs reported in this study had been identified in Asia before [8,9,11,28,32,40,42,44,47,48,64], but VCGs 01217, 01221 and 01222 are reported in new countries. VCG 01217 from Bangladesh, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, VCG 01221 from Cambodia and Vietnam and VCG 01222 in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam, were reported from the region for the first time. Sixty-nine F. oxysporum isolates collected from diseased banana plants also did not fit into any known VCGs. Non-compatible isolates warrant further investigation, as they may represent novel VCGs/populations of this this pathogen.Two VCG complexes dominate in Asia. The VCG complex 0124/5 was most common in the Indian subcontinent, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, whereas the VCG complex 01213/16 was dominant in the rest of Asia. Their distribution can most likely be attributed to their host range and the movement of planting materials within and between countries. VCG 01213/16, for instance, is well-established in areas where Cavendish bananas are grown in monoculture, such as the Philippines, mainland China and Taiwan. The distribution of this VCG within these countries was mostly associated with the planting of Cavendish bananas. For instance, in the Philippines VCG 01213/16 was found in the Mindanao Island, where 99% of the country's Cavendish bananas are grown, but not in the Visayas and Luzon where other varieties are grown. Most of the bananas in mainland China and Taiwan are also Cavendish cultivars. In Malaysia and Indonesia, however, VCG 01213/16 is also established on banana varieties other than Cavendish [14,16]. It is surprising that VCG 01213/16 had not spread from Malaysia and China into neighbouring Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, as many cultivars grown in the latter countries are also susceptible to this strain [9,21]. Perhaps the mixed crops and banana cultivars that are used in these countries do not favour its establishment. The recent expansion of the Cavendish banana industry in Vietnam and Thailand [5] may increase the risk of an outbreak of Fusarium wilt caused by VCG 01213/16 in this area.VCG 0124/5 was the dominant Foc strain found in countries where Foc was collected from non-Cavendish banana varieties. This strain was present in all Asian countries, apart from the Philippines. This could be due to a sampling bias, as most of the samples collected in the Philippines were from Cavendish bananas. VCGs within Foc Lineage VI, which include VCG 0124/5/8/12/20/22, are some of the most widely distributed in the world and occur in all regions where banana are cultivated [9,14,24,25,28,29,30,46,63]. The widespread occurrence could be due to human dispersal of planting material. VCG 01220, for example, which is commonly found throughout the Indian subcontinent, is also found in East and Central Africa (ECA) [65], a region with a well-established relationship with India. Fusarium wilt was discovered in ECA when a large community of Indian emigrants settled in the area soon after World War II ended [66]. It is possible that VCG 01220 and other Lineage VI VCGs could have been introduced into the region by Indian settlers.India is the largest producer of bananas in the world. More than 20 banana varieties are grown commercially in the country, and the fruit harvested is mostly intended for the domestic market. More than half of India's bananas are Cavendish types. Other popular varieties include Ney Poovan, Rasthali, Nendran, Bluggoe and Pome. Bananas are grown primarily in the northeast and southern parts of the country, with Tamil Nadu being the largest area, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka [67]. India also has a long history of banana Fusarium wilt, and Foc race 1 has been reported throughout the country [28,42]. In the current investigation, three VCGs (VCGs 0124/5, 0128 and 01220) were found on Ney Poovan, Silk, Monthan and Pisang Awak bananas in southern India. Despite the significant Cavendish industry, no Foc race 4 VCGs, such as VCG 0120/15 and VCG 01213/16, were detected. An unusual association between VCG 0124 and Cavendish bananas, however, was reported by Thangavelu et al. (2012)  [68] following a survey conducted in the Tamil Nadu region. Cavendish bananas are considered immune to Foc race 1 and was employed to control the Fusarium wilt epidemic on Gros Michel bananas in Central America during the 1960s. With the exception of that caused by VCG 01213/16, damage to the Cavendish bananas requires predisposing factors; in the latter cases, there is significant genotype x environment (GxE) interactions [51].GxE interactions may be responsible for some unexpected results in the current investigation. A single association occurred between Brazilian cultivar (AAA Cavendish) and VCG 0123 (regarded as Foc race 1) in China. VCG 0123 has been associated with Grande Naine before [69], but as a rule are usually associated with cultivars susceptible to Foc races 1 and 2. In Indonesia an isolate of VCG 01213/16 was isolated from the AA cultivar Rose (synonym Rejang) [58], which were previously reported to be resistant [70]. The most unusual association between VCG and banana variety was the single isolate from VCG complex 0124/5 on Berangan (AAA) in Malaysia. These associations may be indicators of the environmental contribution to the outcome of these interactions. Several Foc VCGs were not found in Asia. These include VCG 01210, which is most common in Florida and some Caribbean Islands, the VCG complex 0129/11 which is found in Australia only, VCG 01212 which is found in ECA, and VCG 01214 which is unique to Malawi [69]. This study reports VCGs in new countries for the first time. VCG 01221 was first reported from Thailand [46], and was now also found in Cambodia, Vietnam and mainland China. VCG 01222 was first reported from Malaysia, and thereafter from Uganda, where it frequently formed a complex with VCG 0124 [71,72]. In the current study, VCG 01222 were also found in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. VCG 01223 and 01224 were not isolated from banana samples collected in this study. It was originally isolated from Pisang Keling and Pisang Ambon in Malaysia, respectively [33]. Since isolates recovered from these cultivars in Malaysia were limited, future surveys could reveal a more widespread occurrence.A number of F. oxysporum isolates associated with banana did not fit into any known VCG, despite being self-compatible. These isolates might either be non-pathogenic endophytes, or putative novel Foc VCGs not previously detected. Another seven isolates described by Riska and Hermanto (2012) [58] were also not compatible to known VCGs. Bentley et al. (1998)  [28] found 13 putative VCGs or genotypes when investigating a worldwide population of Foc. These incompatible isolates should be tested for pathogenicity on banana, vegetative compatibility, and relatedness to previously described genotypes of the pathogen.VCG complexes were frequently observed in the current study, including cross compatibility between VCGs 01213 and 01216; 0124 and 0125; 0124 and 01222 respectively. Complexes in Foc VCGs have been reported before, and often involve two or more VCGs [7,24,28,25,29,46,60,62]. VCGs are usually identified by heterokaryons that form between individuals with common alleles at their vic loci [57]. A mutation at a single vic locus, thus, could place closely related individuals in different VCGs [28,31]. When unknown strains are characterized, they could then pair with either or both VCGs, resulting in cross compatibility between different VCGs. The VCGs within complexes, however, are all closely related when genetic distances are measured [29]. It might be more prudent to regard these VCG complexes as single taxonomic units.An understanding of the diversity of Foc in banana countries and regions can have important management implications. It could guide quarantine authorities on the movement of planting materials, and allow growers in the deployment of resistant varieties. However, the success of planting resistant varieties against Foc VCGs present in Asia should not be based solely on the findings of the current study. The collections made in this investigation in some instances were geographically localised and with sampling bias, and thus only provided a representation of Foc diversity in the region. For instance, in Vietnam there were no collections made in the southern region. Future studies will need to be more representative of regions and cultivars. Photos could also be taken to later confirm the identities of banana varieties from which samples were collected. Varietal reactions will also have to be field tested against all races and VCGs of Foc present in the area. This involves the inclusion of control varieties and a proper statistical layout to ensure uniform and sufficient disease development.","tokenCount":"6308"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"691a18499e9d2b4a238d6cebae891c08","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/70f3986a-82bb-4b7a-a7a1-b1ea93d155ad/retrieve","id":"-1356852062"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2df77dc0-f1f1-4742-a759-9343ae50412a","pagecount":"5","content":"Influencing the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (an interim, evolving outcome) Short outcome/impact statement: CCAFS (with the Genebank Platform) developed a written submission to the 23rd session of Convention on Biological Diversity's Subsidiary Body on Technical and Technological Advise, and convened a side-event at the same meeting, arguing that the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework should promote the Plant Treaty (and more use of PGRFA). The Plant Treaty and increased PGRFA use were subsequently included in the first full draft of the Post-2020 Framework (which is still subject to further negotiations),The 10 Year Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (1) adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity includes goals and a monitoring framework. As far as access and benefit-sharing is concerned, the 10 year plan focusses exclusively on the implementation of the CBD's Nagoya Protocol, and ignores entirely the Plant Treaty, which provides essential policy support for CGIAR Centers R4AD and the use of crop genetic diversity for climate change adaptation. A new 10 year strategy is being developed to cover 2021-2030 (called the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework). CCAFS/Genebank Platform scientists developed a written submission (2) for the 23rd session of the CBD's Subsidiary Body on Scientific Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) in November 2019.The submission argued that the Post-2020 Framework should promote and monitor implementation of the Plant Treaty in addition to the Nagoya Protocol. The submission proposed a related goal and indicators for monitoring. CCAFS/Genebank Platform scientists organized a side event on the same topic, including speakers from the African Union, Plant Treaty Secretariat, and UNEP to explain the position paper to SBSTTA delegates. We also made oral interventions during plenary sessions. Some Contracting Parties supported our interventions. At the conclusion of the SBSTTA meeting, the SBSTTA Chair developed a written set of recommendations (3) for consideration in the further elaboration of the Post 2020 framework; it included word-for-word the draft Goal proposed by CCAFS.These recommendations were then used by the Co-chairs of a working group that was created negotiate the Post 2020 framework. Their first draft was published in January 2020, and it explicitly promotes and monitors implementation of the Plant Treaty along with the Nagoya Protocol (4). Negotiations will continue until October 2020 when the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will be adopted. In the meantime, our efforts to influence the development of the Post 2020 Framework have been very successful. We will continue our efforts in 2020, and report on the final outcome of the process next year.• • EA: East Africa Contributing external partners:• ITPGRFA -International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (governing body)• CGRFA -Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and AgricultureThis is an example of policy innovation, under the larger Social Science innovation category. CCAFS' ability to effectively promote this international level policy change is based on, and attributable to, long standing work supporting countries to implement both the Plant Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol in mutually supportive ways. This is work that was supported through CCAFS P66 in previous years. We drew on expertise of long standing trusting partnerships with national and international organizations with whom we partnered under P66 to both a) develop our submissions, and b) promote its reception under the framework of the CBD. This past work included innovations demonstrating the utility of the Plant Treaty for accessing crop diversity needed to help farmers and national agricultural research organization gain access to crop diversity for climate change adaptation.","tokenCount":"577"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7b6fd6d85d9812778c8e528ace5a93bb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5bbb30b9-901d-4f3f-838c-bf62bc3836a8/retrieve","id":"-455507991"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6df6b3bc-1e5d-405f-9e57-6438347310a8","pagecount":"3","content":"The CGIAR initiative on Agroecology established Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALL) in seven countries. Jointly, members of those territories who act along the food value chain assess and demonstrate which agroecological innovations work best, where, why, and for whom. They identify business opportunities and financial mechanisms for local enterprises to deal with agroecological innovations. They develop context-specific strategies and action plans that encourage and support sustainable behavior change, and they determine the most suitable policies and mechanisms of policy integration for promoting effective and sustainable agroecological transitions. In only one year more than 1300 actors are actively engaged in co-innovation processes.Engaging with stakeholders and establishing Agroecological Living Landscapes (blog) Creating a Community of Practice at CGIAR for multistakeholder platforms (blog) A case against silver bullets: context assessments are key for agroecological transitions in diverse food systems (blog) Supporting the development of agroecological business models by linking food system actors along the value chain (blog) Alliance and partners explored agroecological transition pathways in case studies from low-and middle-income countries and found that participatory action research and local sociotechnical support play a critical role in stimulating transitions towards agroecology. Strategies and priorities for research to better support agroecological transitions using these catalysts of change as entry points were proposed. The engagement of governments, private sector, civil society, farmers and farm workers in this research agenda was considered essential. [11] The CGIAR initiative on Agroecology established Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALL) in seven countries [1,2,6]. The Initiative and its 34 partners (including 8 CGIAR Centers, the 2 international research centers, CIRAD and CIFOR-ICRAF, and 22 other external partners) have selected at least one ALL in all seven target countries. Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALLs) are formed in selected territories of each country with diverse stakeholders, including farmer associations or communities, researchers from multiple disciplines, extensionists, private companies, international and national non-governmental organizations as well as local, regional, and national policymakers. The establishment of ALLs does not follow a standard methodology: each country's context leads to a different agroecological transition pathway(s) and multi stakeholder approaches. In most ALLs, the Initiative relies on existing multi-stakeholder platforms [3], choosing implementing partners with capacity to strengthen farmers' agency and influence local institutional arrangements, business models, and policies. Country teams have engaged with national and local partners, paying attention to their interests in agroecology, socializing Initiative objectives, and assessing the agroecological context to identify territories that can serve as ALLs. [4] Jointly, members of those territories who act along the food value chain assess and demonstrate which agroecological innovations work best, where, why, and for whom [5]. They identify business opportunities and financial mechanisms for local enterprises to deal with agroecological innovations [6, pp. 7, 12, 17, 30, 31]. They develop context-specific strategies and action plans that encourage and support sustainable behavior change [7], and they determine the most suitable policies and mechanisms of policy integration for promoting effective and sustainable agroecological transitions [8]. In only one year more than 1300 actors are actively engaged in co-innovation processes. The Initiative diversified its approach to ALL establishments, thus widening the scope for sustainable action [2]. Initial outcomes include the decision of commercial allies of organic cocoa farmers in Peru to explore carbon markets, an agreement with the government of Peru's Ucayali region to include an agroecological lens in its biotrade strategy, the strong leadership of Kenyan partners in implementing ALLs, and Initiative support for Kenya's Inter-Sectoral Forum on Agroecology and Agrobiodiversity in implementing national policy. In Tunisia, partner organizations are already refocusing their priorities on reducing inputs along the livestock value chain and on social and solidarity-based economy principles for honey production. ","tokenCount":"600"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"97a0755e0f964ad23b0bcbb5a1251941","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d1b1c56b-df77-4ac1-94fd-4bb14a7436fa/retrieve","id":"-2069331680"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f9087d6-a774-4bc6-ab28-de3a7261c406","pagecount":"14","content":"• Our approach involves the creation of models calibrated on extensive historical data. These models generate synthetic vegetation indices, forming a counterfactual dataset.• By comparing these synthetically generated indices with actual satellite imagery, we can identify significant deviations from the baseline thus generating a Biomass Climate Adaptation Index .• Notable positive deviations, where satellite measurements significantly exceed the synthetic output, indicate improvements in crop production practices. • Conversely, gradual negative deviations from the baseline signal areas in need of intervention. • To create our counterfactual data stream, we employ a sophisticated deep neural network architecture. This structure combines a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with a Long Short-Term Memory Network (LSTM). • The integration of these components allows us to effectively capture both spatial and temporal context within the landscape. • The model takes as input remote-sensed weather data, landscape structure such as elevation and slope, and vegetation status, derived from remote sensing, at a time t and produces predictions for vegetation status at time t+1.Climate Adaptation Index -The modelsClimate Adaptation Index -The workflow Results : At pixel level• At the pixel level, our method enables the production of a continuous stream of counterfactual data, utilizing MODIS imagery as the data source.• We can generate these data points every 16 days for millions of pixels, providing a detailed and temporally consistent view of the landscape with a R² of 0.724.Results Rice farming intensification in the Senegal River Valley Classification of seasonality by encoding time-series as images using Gramian Angular Field -1.Rice can be identified with high precision by analyzing NDVI, NDYI, and VH temporal profiles 1 . By turning these time-series to images we can use unsupervised machine learning (CNN) to classify rice and its seasonality for each year -2.There are two seasons in the SRV, the dry season and wet season. • The insights of our Climate Adaptation Index are illustrated here, focusing on the Enderta woreda in Ethiopia during the particularly severe drought of 2015. • Areas performing poorly are highlighted in orange, while green areas indicate better-than-expected performance within the context of the drought. • Remarkably, despite the adverse conditions, the area outperforms model predictions, underscoring its resilience and adaptation capabilities during this challenging period, as depicted in the time series. • The district was selected as one of the sites of the UNDP/GEF Project, \"Promoting autonomous adaptation at the community level in Ethiopia (2012Ethiopia ( -2016)).\"","tokenCount":"399"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bcb44126865544cd586d3a91b9b51446","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/62197029-e065-47f0-be6b-71ca413feb80/retrieve","id":"1144202442"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fdcca7e2-2a52-47ec-b7ef-677986020138","pagecount":"15","content":"rolECClON HISTORICA SIl)IOPSIS I Los resultados de los análisis de fósforo reaUzados en el Laboratorio de Suelos i 1, del lCA por el método de Bray II en un total de 54.745 muestras de suelos profósforo. Las cordilleras Andinas, por su diversidad de suelos y climas, fué necey Contribución del Programa de Suelos del lCA y del Proyecto Fósforo ClAT-ICA.'vlmientes de 10 regiones naturales de Colombia; separadas en cada reg¡6n por i :! 1I ! -altitud sobre el nivel del mar, mostraron que se pueden distinguir áreas del pars con contenidos de fósforo muy bajos, bajos, medios y altos. Las regiones naturales de los Llanos Orientales, Costa Pacrfica y Selva Amazónica, apesar de que el número de muestras es muy reducido en comparación C011 su extensión, se pueden consider;¡:-~omo muy bajos en fósforo «5 ppm. P).La región del Valle del Ba;u •• Iagdalenase encontró que tiene suelos bajos en fós-2 Con suelos cuyo contenido medio en este elemento se distinguen las regiones de la Sabana de Bogotá, V\",lLe del Alto Magdalena y Valle del Cauca. La Costa Atlán:l ',~ica y el Desierto Guajiro se pueden considerar como regiones con suelos altos en ! sario separarlas por altitud. En las zonas bajas (0-600 m.s.n.m.), el fósforo es bajo, lo mismo que entre 1800 y '2400 m.s.n.m. El fósforo es muy bajo entre 600 Y 1800 m'. s.n.m. y medio en suelos que se encuentran a más de 2400 m.s.n. m. Los resultados señalan la importancia de este elemento para la mayo-:ña de los suelos del país e indican la, necesidad de investigar a fondo :, forma más eficiente y económica de su utilización mediante el uso de fuente'. ':13 fósforo naturales o transformadq¡¡.El aumento en los rendimientos de los cultivos es un reto para parses como Colombia, cuya economía está ba~rinciPalmente en la agricultura. Muchos de sus suelos son muy ácidos y pobres en fósforo para q,:c se obtengan buenas producciones y algunos son saltnos o alcalinos (7).i Las deficiencias de nutrimentos en los suelos colombianos están muy e:-..1endidas ii (7; 11), pero el potencial de la producción de cultivos puede ser alta si se usan \" ,1 ! las cantidades y los grados adecuados de enmiendas y fertilizantes.Las propiedades de los suelos son muy variables (10), Y se necesita información seria para poder realizar inversiones seguras en enmic(las y fertilizantes.It0s resultados de análisis de suelos y de ensayos de campo son una excelente fuente de Información sobre las condiciones de los nutrimentos en el suelo (2).En muchos paises de latinoamórica los resultados de análisis de suelos se han relaclonado con los estados, los suelos o las reglones fisiográficas y con los c;;¡ltivos para los cuales se hizo el análisis (1, 2). Una primera aproximación d\"\" ;a.' evaluación de la fertilidad de los suelos en Colombia, fué realizada por Mar: c. Los niveles críticos utilizados son unamodiflcación de los obtenidos por el Programa de Suelos del ICA ( 12). En este caso se consideró un suelo como muy bajo .. con menos de 5 ppm. de P, bajo entre 5 y , e ppm p. medio entre 15 y 30 ppm P y alto con más de 30,ppm. P.Con el fin de agrupar las muestras analizadas en una forma racIonal, se dividió, el pars en 10 regiones naturales, de acuerdo al criterio usado por Gu\"rrero (4) y dentro de cada región por altitud, separando cada 600 metros.sobre el nivel JI del mar hasta un grupo final que incluye aquellos suelos localizados a más de 3000 metros de altura. Las cara~terrsticas generales de las reglones naturales se presentan en la Tabla 1. Guerrero (4) propuso esta división del pars basado en diferencias de condiciones fisiográficas, clima y vegetación. Esta div Isión concuerda con lacUmática propuesta por Schultes (13).Con el fin de decidir. dentro de cada reglón, el estado del fósforo del suelo. se utili.z6 el siguiente criterio: muy bajo: más del 30% de las muestras analizadas tienen menos de 5 ppm. de p. o más del 50% tienen menos de 10 ppm de P; bajo: más del 50% de las muestras tienen menos de 15 ppm de P: medio: menos del 50% de las muestras tienen menos de 15 ppm de P S menos del 50% tienen más de 30 ppm de P; alto: más del 50% de las muestras tienen mas de 30 ppm de P.... ::SULTADOS y DISCUSION Las respuestas al fósforo en los suelos de Colombia están restringidas principalmente a regiones cuya altltud es media ó alta. Esta afirmaoión no es verdadera en todos los casos, debido a que los suelos de los Llanos Orientales, que representan el 27% del área total del p~~s, se consideran como extremadamente deficientes en fósforo aprovechable (3, 7).En las regiones frras del para, el fósf. .. ,•o es considerado como el nutrimento más limitante. En la mayorCa de los casos, la producción de cereales y papa es extremadamente baja si el fósforo no se aplica en cantidades del orden de 100 ;--~-\"'-y 350 kg P205!Ha, respeotiamente.  Se ha demostrado que el suministro de fósforo a cultivos de clima frlo Produce las respuestas más significativas a los fertilizantes en Colombia {7, ll}. Factores tales como el material parental {deposiciones de cenizas volcánicas en la mayorra de los casos}, la acidez del suelo, la naturaleza de los productos de la intemperizacióny la temperatura, posiblemente se encuentran reb\"'nados con las deficiencias generales de fósforo observadas en los suelos de (c-,tas regiones.La Tabla 2 muestra el porcentaje de distribución de los suelos en 10 regiones naturales de acuerdo con los niveles crrticos para fósforo previamente establecidos y la Figura 1 presenta al pars dividido en regio:.'. s con suelos cuyo contenido de fósforo es muy bajo, bajo, medio y alto.Los suelos de la Costa Atlántica y del desierto Guaj iro se consideraron como altos en fósforo puesto que más del 50% de las muestras analizadas tenran más de . 30 ppm de P. Esta apreciación está de acuerdo con los resultados del lCA en ensayos de fertilización en el campo {7, 8, ll}, los cuales incluyeron algodón, arroz, marz,_ sorgo, leguminosas de grano y yuca, donde se obtuvieron óptimos rendimientos sin la adición de fósforo o con pequeñas cantidades que oscilaban     5) en cuanto [l ,,\" fijación de fósforo por suelos procedentes de' 5 de las regiones naturales en estudio con relación a cantidades crecientes de fósforo añadido las cuales se pueden ver en la Figura 2, presentan una buena correlación con las respuestas a la fertilización fosfatada de algunos cultivos m:ostrados anteriormente. Et suelol proveniente de la re-gi6n';'ndina fijó la mayoría del fósforo añadido hasta 800 ppm de p. seguido por ~.el suelo de la Sabana de Bogotá. Las muestras de suelos del Valle del bajo Magdalena y de la Costa Atlántica fijaron cantidades apreciables de fósforo, pero el extraído por la solución utilizada, (HCi O.05N + H2S04 0.025~') fué r~lativamen te alto. El suelo proveniente del Vane del Alto Magdalena presentó la más baja capacidad de fijación. Este suelo fijó solamente cerca del 60% del fósforo añadido y ciertamente, los cultivos que crecen en los suelos de esta región. ::cquieren fósforo o responden a cantidades relativamente pequeñas de este m: \",ento (7). Orientales representan un área extremadamente extensa en la cual la mayoría , de sus suelos son muy deficientes en fósforo.En las regiones más frías del para el fósforo es el elemento más claramente limitante y los suelos de estas regiones presentan una alta capaCidad de fijación de fosfatos., i !i d.•1 ::1.- -600 y 1800 -2400Meo:::.. mayor de 2 .. 400 :\"t~ 2 SabiÓ1 de Bogotá  ","tokenCount":"1263"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/5019127717.json b/data/part_6/5019127717.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6608b4fc563d86add86699418986afceacfadf8f
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4e0342563048a027e6905b4384da33eb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e52338b7-f4a7-4065-8e4c-823c050f7d82/retrieve","id":"-1580509363"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d6081648-9af4-430e-bf1e-845c94c45c0b","pagecount":"16","content":"Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) district agrifood systems assessment aims to provide a reliable, accessible, and integrated evidence base that links farm production, market access, dietary patterns, climate risk responses, and natural resource management with gender as a cross-cutting issue in rural areas in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. It is designed to be a district-level multiyear assessment. Using data collected in February-April 2023, this data note describes the types of unhealthy foods people are eating, where they get those foods, perceptions about key unhealthy foods, and from what source they receive information about different unhealthy foods. This is one of a set of data notes that, together, provide a holistic picture of the agrifood system in the district.TAFSSA's district-level agrifood systems assessment included interviews with three respondents per household: a female adult (aged 20+ years), a male adult (aged 20+ years), and an adolescent (aged 10-19 years). A description of the household and respondent sampling strategy is provided at the end of this data note.In this data note, you will find information on background characteristics of the households and individuals who were interviewed. This is followed by information on the types of unhealthy foods people are eating, which was measured using two methods. Respondents were asked about the unhealthy foods they ate the day before the interview (24-hour recall) and about how often they ate certain unhealthy foods in the past week (food frequency questionnaire). The 24-hour recall was conducted using the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) application, which also captures when (at different eating occasions such as breakfast, a snack between breakfast and lunch, lunch, etc.) people ate each unhealthy food item.In addition to what people eat, you will find information on where they get their unhealthy foods.Finally, you will learn why people choose to eat certain unhealthy foods. Respondents were asked about the availability, accessibility, taste, and other factors that may influence their decisions to consume certain unhealthy foods. Diets were measured by asking people about what they ate or drank on the previous day, from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed and did not eat or drink anymore. This includes all foods, both healthy and unhealthy, consumed at home and away from home. This data note focuses only on the unhealthy foods, which were categorized in 7 groups (see box on right). The Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) application (Bromage et al, 2021) 2 was used to capture this information.Among the 9 GDQS unhealthy food groups (7 unhealthy food groups plus red meat and high-fat dairy, which are unhealthy when consumed in excess), we have excluded two -refined grains and baked goods, and white roots and tubers. These were excluded because the consumption rate for white roots and tubers approached nearly 100% among all survey respondents, and white roots and tubers and refined grains and baked goods constitute staple dietary items or the most consumed sources of carbohydrates across the study regions. We show the percentages of individuals who consume foods from the 7 unhealthy groups (Figure 3), commonly consumed foods and beverages within unhealthy food groups (Figure 4), how many times per day people eat unhealthy foods (Figure 5), and who eats unhealthy foods at various eating occasions (Figure 6).  ✓ Adolescent males consumed sugar-sweetened beverages more than 4 times than other respondents.✓ Adolescent males and females consumed higher fried foods at home and purchased fried foods compared to their adult counterparts.✓ Adolescent males and females consumed around 3 times more purchased fried foods compared to adult males and females, respectively.✓ Female adults and adolescents consumed more fried foods at home and high-fat dairy than male adults and adolescents. ✓ Around 50% of total unhealthy foods consumed were sweets and ice creams for all respondents. Sugar, biscuits, and cookies were the most common items.✓ Within the purchased fried foods group, the specific foods consumed differed across respondent types.These figures show the percent reporting consumption of each food and beverage for each GDQS unhealthy food group.Only the foods and beverages consumed in larger proportions are indicated by name. The width of the outer blocks for each food or beverage shown is scaled according to the relative percent reporting consumption of that food or beverage.The size of each block in the inner circle reflects the sum of all percentages across all foods and beverages reported as consumed for that unhealthy food group. which provided information about all unhealthy foods consumed in the previous 24 hours, we selected a set of 6 \"sentinel unhealthy foods\" (see box on right) to better understand how frequently these common examples of unhealthy foods are consumed, where people buy them, and their perceptions about these foods.Respondents were asked about where they purchased these unhealthy foods (haat, retail shop, or other sources) (Figure 7) and how frequently they consumed these foods in the past 7 days (Figure 8).For the two most-consumed unhealthy foods (biscuits and fried foods), we examined people's perceptions about some key aspects. These included whether they know of a vendor who sells the food, if the food is safe to eat, easy to acquire near where they spend most of their time, is not too expensive, is fast and easy to prepare, tastes good, fills their stomach, is nutritious, and if their family enjoys eating it (Figure 9). Understanding these perceptions provides insights into drivers or barriers of food choice.  ✓ Among households that purchased instant noodles, chips, biscuits and baked sweets, more than 70% households purchased these foods from retail shops.✓ Households purchased deep fried foods mostly from other sources such as weekly markets, city markets, mobile vendors, and road markets. ✓ Most adults consumed tea/coffee with sugar, with more than 37% consuming it every day. ✓ Most adolescents consumed chips, biscuits and baked sweets, with more than 40% consuming these foods multiple times a week. ✓ Among advertisements for unhealthy foods, soft drink advertisements were the most frequently encountered, followed by salty packaged snacks.✓ Compared to female adults, female adolescents were 1.5 to 3 times more exposed to advertisements for soft drinks; fried foods; salty packaged snacks; candies, chocolate, and ice creams; and baked sweets.✓ Compared to male adults, male adolescents were exposed 2 times more to advertisements for fried foods, salty packaged snacks, and baked sweets. We selected 25 villages in the district with a probability proportional to the number of households that reside in each village. Within each village, we conducted a household listing to identify eligible households, that is those with adolescents (10-19 years old). From the households with adolescents, we randomly invited 20 households to participate in the survey. If a household refused, we replaced that household with another randomly selected eligible household, to retain a total of 1,000 households in the district. Thus, the findings reported in this data note are representative of rural households from this district that include an adolescent.Within households, one adult female aged 20+ years, one adult male aged 20+ years, and one adolescent aged 10-19 years were selected as the respondents for the survey. When multiple adolescents were living in a household, the oldest adolescent was selected. In some households, an adult male was not available (often due to migration for work). In such households, the female was the only adult respondent (See Table 1 for respondent sample sizes). At the beginning of the interview, the adult in the household primarily involved in agriculture (either male or female) and the adult primarily responsible for food purchasing (either male or female) were identified as the primary respondents. ","tokenCount":"1255"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a24dc07ef607bbf69a48edf63d89de93","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e4817686-7132-4dcc-bc2e-ba06a70c55a7/retrieve","id":"1867429587"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cbd35f95-e061-44a1-abae-c8f6c7603ed5","pagecount":"4","content":"Average potato yields in sub-Saharan Africa are four times lower than those in industrialized nations, mostly due to the effects of diseases, particularly late blight. This research demonstrates that the transfer from wild potato relatives of three resistance-conferring genes into a cultivated potato variety provides complete resistance to late blight for several seasons. Initial findings suggest this resistance will be long lasting. Cultivation of this late blight resistant potato would increase family farm incomes by 40% and ensure the supply of fungicide-free potatoes to consumers.Bioengineering is the modification of the genetic information in a crop using direct gene transfer and other biotechnology methods. The new genetic information can be a new gene from another species, or a change in the DNA sequence which will give a new desirable property to the bioengineered crop. The resulting organisms are also referred to as genetically modified or transgenic organisms.Unless protected by expensive and toxic fungicides-up to 15 times a season-late blight disease devastates potato crops throughout the world. Considered responsible for one million deaths in Ireland and widespread famine in Europe during the 1840s, late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, remains the most devastating potato disease triggering annual yield losses of 15-30% globally. Costs in terms of disease control and reduced yields due to late blight amount roughly to USD 10 billion a year in developing countries. Estimated yield losses in Uganda range from 13-57% of the total potato production. A 2004 survey of 227 farmers in Kenya revealed that 54% of them put late blight losses at 30-60%. Many farmers in Ethiopia have shifted potato production from the long to the short rainy season to avoid the worst effects of the disease which is triggered by excess moisture. Resource-poorsmall-scale farmers are the most exposed, suffering the highest losses, up to 100%.  Bioengineered crops resistant to some of the world's most devastating pests have been cultivated for the last 22 years in 24 countries on 190 million hectares of land. The use of chemical pesticides for these crops has dropped by 37%, yields have risen by 22% and farmer profits increased by 68%. These benefits have been comparably greater for developing nations. The biodiversity of agricultural landscapes has been enhanced, while the pressure of pests, including for organic producers, has fallen. All these additional benefits have come at no additional costs or risks than those of conventional farming. There is no scientific evidence of harm caused to human health or ecosystems. Reputable academic institutions, such as the World Health Organization, concur that the bioengineered crops currently grown are as safe and nutritious as their non-bioengineered equivalents. In 2015, the bioengineered potatoes were transferred to Uganda and planted in experimental trials by the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) for five seasons. Phytosanitary and biosafety regulatory agencies in Kenya and in Uganda played an important role in securing full compliance with national regulations. In all cases, the bioengineered potatoes were cultivated without fungicides, while non-bioengineered potatoes were rapidly killed by late blight disease. The yields from the bioengineered potatoes were four times higher than the national average. Farmers who were given the opportunity to visit the fields were impressed by the ability of their well-known Victoria potato to withstand late blight disease without chemicals.Testing continues in 2019 to demonstrate that the bioengineered potato is substantially equivalent to the non-bioengineered variety, apart from resistance of the former to late blight disease. The tests will examine molecular changes in the potato genome, confirm that all the genes respond as expected, and undertake a comparison between the bioengineered and non-The rows in the front plot are empty as all the potatoes have been destroyed by late blight disease. The bioengineered Victoria potato has survived unaff ected, NARO research station, Uganda (CIP/NARO).The most popular potato varieties are susceptible to late blight which is exclusively controlled by costly and toxic fungicides. Even organic production relies on less effective, but highly toxic copper-based fungicides.Wild potato relatives have co-existed with the late blight pathogen for centuries in Central and South America. Traditional farmers have long valued wild relatives for the exceptional diversity they have added to breeding activities in the Andes region. Over the last 100 years, breeders have crossbred small numbers of wild relatives with potatoes to successfully enhance their resistance to many diseases. However, combining all the desirable traits into one potato variety would be impossible using traditional breeding practices. It took 46 years of conventional breeding and selection to obtain the late blight resistant varieties, Bionica and Toluca, which only contain one resistance-conferring gene, rather than the three genes transferred through bioengineering.Moreover, new pathogen strains quickly overcome the resistance of the newly released varieties based on a single resistance gene. That so many popular potato varieties need to be treated with expensive chemicals frustrates potato farmers worldwide. Adding a few resistance-conferring genes to the potato offers the potential to resolve many of these challenges.Wild potato relatives have co-existed with the late blight pathogen for centuries. with the bioengineered potato during the field trials. These comprehensive tests are designed to ensure that the bioengineered potato does not negatively impact human health or the environment.While scientists are eager to reclaim the Victoria potato from late blight disease, research is ongoing to evaluate how long this new resistance will last. But researchers believe it is likely to be long-lasting. A new set of bioengineered varieties are being prepared and a new set of disease resistance genes are being tested, including for resistance to viruses and bacterial wilt.Perhaps more important at this stage is the need to enhance engagement with potato partners in Uganda and in neighboring countries to explain the benefits of adopting this new variety.The late blight resistant bioengineered potato eliminates the costs associated with the use of fungicides (chemicals, sprayers) and offers farmers increased yields, which CIP scientists estimate could represent a 40%NARO increase in profits for small scale-farmers. For African farmers, the costs associated with potato production, the losses caused by the disease, and their exposure to harmful chemicals would be greatly reduced. In addition to benefiting from increased crop yields, seeds multipliers would save money otherwise spent on fungicide sprays during field production of seed tubers. And finally, consumers would be able to purchase fungicide-free potatoes.Scientists have successfully developed late blight resistant potato. It is now up to the national authorities of Uganda to decide if bioengineered potatoes can be released, cultivated and consumed in the country. This process should be evidencebased, focusing on the benefits to local producers and businesses of higher productivity and incomes, to consumers of healthy potatoes and to the environment of chemical-free farming. This would give farmers the choice to grow bioengineered late blight resistant potatoes and consumers a choice to eat potatoes free of fungicide residues.Tubers of the bioengineered late blight resistant Victoria, Uganda (CIP/NARO).For African farmers, the costs associated with potato production, the losses caused by the disease, and their exposure to harmful chemicals will be greatly reduced.","tokenCount":"1157"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/5027953813.json b/data/part_6/5027953813.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..641e7d933ad8c96794ab55683cbe7e8c1f95d2a2
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b09e737c1d65b3917bdf2c30c58bc594","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92aed64a-f597-45f3-8028-0ef19debf219/retrieve","id":"-554088732"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2d2a36fd-7c01-45b8-960c-401d8eec2569","pagecount":"40","content":"The publications in this series record the work and thinking of IWMI researchers, and knowledge that the Institute's scientific management feels is worthy of documenting. This series will ensure that scientific data and other information gathered or prepared as a part of the research work of the Institute are recorded and referenced. Working Papers could include project reports, case studies, conference or workshop proceedings, discussion papers or reports on progress of research, country-specific research reports, monographs, etc. Working Papers may be copublished, by IWMI and partner organizations.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI staff. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment.This Working Paper summarizes research conducted as part of the AgWater Solutions Project in Ethiopia between 2009 and 2012. Rainfed agriculture and subsistence farming are the main features of agriculture. The midlands and highlands are dominated by mixed farming systems where livestock and crop production are equally important and highly integrated. In the lowlands, pastoral systems dominate. Single cropping is the norm but double-cropping is practiced along rivers in some parts of the country. Over half of Ethiopia's 64 million rural people live in poverty.Less than 10% of the 3.7 to 4.3 million hectares (Mha) of irrigable land is currently irrigated.The potential irrigable land in Ethiopia is between 3.7 and 4.3 Mha with the actual irrigated area estimated at just 7 to 10%.Researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project conducted a situation analysis in 2009, which identified a range of options deemed to be technically feasible, affordable and practical for smallholder farmers: water-lifting technologies, groundwater for agriculture and manual well drilling, community-based watershed management, on-farm water storage, small reservoirs and rainwater harvesting.The main findings of the project indicate that:• Water-lifting technologies could benefit between 1 and 2 million farm households. The main barriers to its adoption are weak supply chains, lack of extension services and access to credit.• In the coming five years, 8,000 hectares (ha) will be developed as a pilot study using groundwater. Groundwater and manual well drilling could be greatly expanded with investments in hydrogeological maps and groundwater data; and financing for private sector drilling and building a pool of skilled labor for the drilling industry.• Watershed size and hydrogeology are the key physical factors in community watershed management. Macro-watersheds performed better on all indicators than smaller watersheds. Land and crop productivity and area for cultivation increased over the years as a result of land rehabilitation, water availability for supplementary or full-scale irrigation, and new agronomic practices.• Farmers could gain considerable benefit from on-farm ponds, including higher yields and greater incomes. The government is already promoting on-farm ponds, but this is usually to store rainfall in dry areas to supplement rainfed crops.• Small reservoirs support soil and water conservation, drought proofing and small-scale community irrigation. A well-designed reservoir can sustain multiple uses, including livestock, fisheries, domestic needs and small businesses.1 Based on AgWater Solutions Project 2010.Across Africa and Asia, a growing number of smallholder farmers are finding ways to better manage water for agriculture to increase yields and income, and diversify their cropping and livelihood options. Farmers buy or rent irrigation equipment, draw water from nearby sources, and individually or collectively build small water storage structures. This development is often overlooked by external investors, yet the smallholder agricultural water management (AWM) sector is contributing to food security, rural incomes, health and nutrition. While small-scale AWM practices could potentially benefit hundreds of millions of farmers, this potential is far from being realized. The AgWater Solutions Project examined this trend together with the opportunities and constraints associated with smallholder AWM in five countries in Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Zambia, and two states in India, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. Through this, the project identified a number of ways in which the potential of the smallholder AWM sector can be realized, including:• Building supportive institutional structures: Existing governing bodies typically cater for public irrigation systems and are often not adapted to capitalize on the opportunities and to handle the challenges posed by this alternative mode of irrigation development.Traditional agricultural institutions rarely focus on market-oriented smallholder crop production, such as high-value vegetable production in the dry season.• Overcoming value chain inefficiencies: Market inefficiencies negatively affect farmer decision-making and access to technology. Inefficiencies include: poorly developed supply chains; high taxes and transaction costs; lack of information and knowledge on irrigation, seeds, marketing and equipment; and uneven information and power in output markets.• Improving access to technology for all sectors of society: Better-off farmers have greater access to information and technology than their poorer counterparts and women who face several hurdles: high upfront investment costs, absence of financing tools, and limited access to information to make informed investment and marketing choices.• Managing potential trade-offs: While smallholder AWM can be beneficial for an individual farmer, its uncontrolled spread can have unexpected consequences. If not managed within the landscape context, the many small dispersed points of water extraction, can negatively impact downstream users and cause environmental damage.Addressing these challenges requires a fresh look at new and existing AWM technologies, products and practices to enhance the potential of the smallholder AWM sector and find solutions.Rainfed agriculture dominates even though rainfall distribution and intensity vary considerably, resulting in incidents of drought every four to five years. Such variability affects crop and livestock production, and contributes to volatility in food prices.River and stream diversions are the most common practices in the midlands and highlands wherever there are rivers. Traditional diversions are used for small plots. Those developed by the government or NGOs are for community managed irrigation. Diversions are generally less costly than other AWM solutions.Micro-dams or reservoirs are concentrated where river or stream diversions are not possible, but the topography is suitable for small dams and reservoirs (the midlands, highlands and areas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR)). Micro-dams are showing promise in Tigray and Amhara. Dams are usually made of earth and stone often with water-lifting devices to irrigate 100-200 ha. Investment costs can be high. Silting, seepage and waterlogging are problematic.(Continued)Subsistence farming is another main feature of agriculture in Ethiopia. The midlands and highlands are dominated by mixed farming systems where livestock and crop production are equally important and highly integrated. In the lowlands, pastoral systems dominate. Single cropping is the norm, but double-cropping is practiced along rivers in areas with distinct bimodal rainfall distribution patterns.Just over half of Ethiopia's 64 million rural people live in poverty. Less than 10% of the 3.7 to 4.3 Mha of irrigable land is currently irrigated, more than half of which is traditional irrigation schemes. The Government of Ethiopia has instituted several policies and strategies to support agricultural development and water resources development, including the Rural Development Strategy, the Water Resources Management Policy and the Water Sector Policy. These initiatives aim to enhance the efficient, equitable and optimal utilization of water resources for sustainable agricultural and socioeconomic development, and place small-scale irrigation as a key priority. However, despite the pro-AWM policies and the commensurate demand among farmers for AWM solutions, water resources remain poorly developed and the utilization of existing AWM schemes, including small-scale AWM, is inefficient. Field assessments in small-scale irrigation projects indicate that some irrigation schemes are not functioning due to a shortage of water, damaged structures and poor water management.The Agwater Solutions Project mapped the potential for AWM to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia and found that just over 38 million people (56% of the rural population) could benefit from AWM (Figure 1).Within the existing, positive policy environment, a range of AWM options already exist in different parts of the country (Box 1) that could support the realization of the estimate that just over 38 million people could benefit from AWM. Based on this long list, the researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project identified, in consultation with stakeholders, several options deemed to be technically feasible, affordable and practical for smallholder farmers. Further research determined how many smallholder farmers could potentially use these options and a series of recommendations were made on how to increase adoption and sustained use (Table 1).Groundwater and hand-dug wells provide ample water in the midlands and highlands of the SNNPR, Oromia, East Hararghe and parts of Amhara. In the Raya and Kobo valleys in northern Ethiopia, farmers fit wells with pressurized pumps to irrigate large areas.Lake and river pumping is common where there are lakes (Zeway, Awash, Koka, Abaya and Hawassa) and rivers (Kelafo, Mustahil, Ferfer, Dolo, Cherati, Hargel, Teji and Baro). Farmers who have good access to markets often use motorized pumps to grow horticultural crops, but price fluctuations are a constraint. Over-abstraction and water quality are causing some concern.Rainwater harvesting in traditional ponds (birka) are used for livestock in dryland areas, such as Somali, and in the agro-pastoral communities of southern Tigray, Afar and Borena. The government has been implementing schemes since 2002. There have been encouraging signs of adoption in Tigray, SNNPR, and in the East and Hararghe zones of Oromia and Somali. However, the full potential of water catchments was not considered in the design stage of existing ponds leading to water loss. Spate irrigation is a common practice in which farmers collect and divert floodwater from upstream catchments to irrigate downstream areas via simple furrow systems. Spate irrigation is mainly practiced on lowland plains (Raya Valley of Tigray, Kobo area of Amhara Region, in the Afar escarpment and in the lowlands of the South Omo Zone in SNNPR).Soil and water conservation activities, such as gully reclamation, are supported by the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). These practices are designed to reclaim eroded areas and gullies. Government or NGO support is critical to scaling out this promising program.Motorized pumps are often used to lift water from rivers, lakes, ponds or wells, typically for irrigating high-value crops in Hararghe and Oromia. Householders are adopting pumps across the country because they are easy to operate. Adoption is encouraged through the Water Sector Development Program of 2003. The government has imported thousands of pumps free of duty and tax, and is selling them through cooperative associations for ETB 6,500 (USD 640). This may be less efficient than encouraging private operators, and maintenance and support may be insufficient.Other irrigation systems. Sprinkler systems were recently introduced in Tigray and Amhara. Farmers are adopting drip irrigation, treadle pumps, rope-and-washer pumps, and windmills in some areas, particularly in Oromia Region and in SNNPR. Good quality systems are not widely available yet in local markets, and the technical and financial feasibility of these solutions needs further research.Source: AgWater Solutions Project 2010. Source: FAO 2012a. Details of the approach and related studies undertaken to arrive at these conclusions are given in Box 2 and elaborated in subsequent chapters. Further information, including case studies and mapping data, can be found on the project website (http://awm-solutions.iwmi.org).Situation analysis and selection of AWM options: An initial analysis was undertaken of the conditions in each country and the AWM practices already being undertaken. These were reviewed with stakeholders and some of the most promising practices were selected.Field-scale and community-level case studies: Researchers used a participatory opportunity and constraint analysis and methodology to understand the complex interaction among social, economic and physical factors that influence the uptake and success of AWM options, and to identify technologies appropriate to different contexts in each of the project countries.Researchers used a multi-disciplinary approach to look at how the natural resource base impacts on, and is impacted by, AWM in four watersheds in Tanzania, Burkina Faso, West Bengal (India) and Zambia. The analysis concentrated on the hydrological impact of current and potential AWM interventions; the current resourcebased livelihoods and dependencies on sources of water and water management practices; an impact assessment of potential AWM scenarios; and a review of formal and informal institutional capacity to deal with AWM interventions and potential emerging externalities.National AWM mapping: Maps were developed to help assess where AWM will have the greatest impact within a country or state, and where specific interventions will be most viable. The steps followed were to use a participatory process in which experts defined the main livelihood zones based on farming typologies and rural livelihood strategies, and the main water-related constraints and needs in the different rural livelihood contexts. Using this, the potential for investment in water to support rural populations could be mapped based on demand and availability of water. A further step was to map the suitability and demand for specific AWM interventions, such as motor pumps or small reservoirs, and to estimate the potential number of beneficiaries, application area and investment costs. These allow investors to choose entry points and prioritize investments in AWM that will have the most beneficial impacts on rural livelihoods.Regional AWM analysis: Researchers used geographic information system (GIS)-analysis, crop mix optimization tools and predictive modeling techniques to assess the regional potential for the 'best-bet' AWM technologies in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in terms of: potential application area (in hectares), number of people reached, net revenue derived and water consumption. Scenarios were also developed to factor in climate change and potential changes in irrigation costs.(Continued)Stakeholder engagement and dialogue: An integral part of the entire project was the engagement of stakeholders from the initial assessment of AWM opportunities through to the identification of possible implementation pathways. The dialogue process was used to ensure that project results reflected stakeholder perceptions and addressed their concerns. National consultations, dialogues, surveys and interviews were fed into all stages of the project.Encouraging enterprises that combine the supply of pumps, technical support to farmers and markets for produce could greatly improve the use of water-lifting technologies and bring economic benefits to farmers.In their Growth and Transformation Plan, the Government of Ethiopia discusses greater use of groundwater by helping farming households invest in private hand-dug wells and water-lifting technologies. The total number of pumps already in use in Ethiopia is not known, but the Regional Bureaus of Water Resources have supplied over 70,000 pumps and the total could be much higher.Researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project set out to identify factors that influenced the adoption of water-lifting technologies by smallholder farmers, particularly motorized pumps, in four regions: Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray. Data was collected from 800 randomly selected farm households (200 sample households in each region). Researchers stratified the sample according to data on water-lifting technologies from the Regional Bureaus of Water Resources, and considered various physical and economic factors.Thirty-percent of the farmers interviewed had adopted petrol or diesel pumps, 3% used electric pumps and 1% used treadle pumps. Petrol and diesel pump use was almost evenly distributed across the regions studied.Households with a higher number of adult males were more likely to adopt water-lifting technologies. Female-headed households were less likely to adopt water-lifting technologiesthey made up only 3% of the adopters but 21% of the non-adopters.The number of pumps imported into Ethiopia steadily increased up to 2009 (Figure 2).The survey found that a large number of farm households are aware of water-lifting technologies (WLTs), and that extension services and radio may have contributed to this high level of awareness among farmers. However, only a small percentage of farmers invest in WLTs (Table 2). Further analysis found that although information is a contributing factor for adoption it is not sufficient on its own. Motorized pumps are clearly the favored technology when adoption does take place (Figure 3). In 82% of the cases studied, farmers use motor pumps to irrigate in the dry season. The source (surface water or groundwater) does not influence adoption rates, but the size of the landholding does. Farmers with the largest landholdings tend to adopt cheaper forms of irrigation, such as gravity fed systems, those with small landholdings use manual methods (buckets and treadle pumps) and those with medium-sized landholdings adopt motorized pumping. A great many farmers still depend entirely on rainfall (Figure 3).The cost associated with water-lifting technologies influences their adoption. Prices of pumps are considerably higher for motorized pumps than for manual devices (Table 3). Import taxes account for 37% of the cost of motor pumps. The running costs also vary considerably and is a factor that affect farmers' decisions to adopt the technology, although it was found that household labor was not considered an important factor. Access to fuel, mechanical parts and support services were also cited by farmers as being reasons for not adopting a water-lifting technology. They feel that there are insufficient spare parts and support services for repairs and maintenance. Machinery frequently breaks down and the farmers' lack of technical knowledge to maintain these devices can lead to dissatisfaction and slow adoption by other farmers who witness these problems.Most farmers who invest in water-lifting technologies want to irrigate in the dry season to earn additional household income. Incidence and depth of poverty were found to be lower for households with access to irrigation.The research revealed a number of strategies that would encourage wider adoption of waterlifting technologies, particularly motorized pumps:• Help support businesses that sell a range of pumps and provide after-sales service and parts. This could take the form of training dealers in the technical aspects of the products they sell, marketing and after-sales services, and helping them set up demonstration plots. Pump maintenance and repair manuals in local languages would help boost sales and improve farmers' capacity.• Provide 'pro-poor' support in terms of start-up capital and tax exemptions. Support might take the form of credit arrangements and supportive policies that enable farmers to purchase water-lifting technologies using alternate forms of collateral (e.g., group guarantees and projections of future income).• Strengthen the knowledge and skills of extension service workers to provide practical advice on the use of water-lifting technologies and irrigated agriculture, and incorporate experience-sharing farm visits.• Explore ways and means to create pump rental markets. Many farmers are able and willing to rent pumps but there are few available. More pumps could be made available for rent using an 'irrigation service provider' model in which small entrepreneurs rent out pumps on a short-term basis. The service provider takes care of maintenance of the pumps, and offers technical and agricultural advice (Box 3).• Develop information campaigns for broadcast on radio.Box 3. Irrigation service providers.Irrigation service providers are private entrepreneurs who rent out small pumps and offer support services to farmers who want to irrigate dry-season crops.(Continued)Stakeholder feedback.• Often there isn't enough water in ponds for motor pump use.• There is competition for water between farmers in the upper and lower parts of watersheds.• Sometimes the only available water is too far from our land or in places that are hard to pump from.• Frequent breakdowns, no reliable supply of spare parts, and poor repair and maintenance services.• Mismatch between the number of pumps imported into the country and adoption rates, probably due to illegal, unregistered imports from Sudan. (Continued)In many sub-Saharan countries, millions of smallholder farmers earn extra cash income from irrigated vegetable cultivation during the dry season. Most use simple hand-watering methods which are time consuming and limit the area they can cultivate. Some farmers use small pumps to expand their cultivated area and with it their profit, but only relatively welloff farmers can afford the initial investment costs and have the means to run and maintain a pump. Women farmers, in particular, face trouble accessing motorized pumps. An alternative is to hire a pump for the time required to irrigate.An irrigation service provider owns one or more portable motorized pumps along with hoses, pipes and other accessories. The service provider rents a pump set to an individual or a group of farmers for a fixed period of time, and takes care of the running costs, and operation and maintenance of the pump set. Farmers pay a fixed rate per hour that covers all costs and leaves a profit for the service provider. Depending on the need and the level of skill and motivation of service providers, they can extend their services to offering loans for agricultural inputs, agronomic advice and credit.Benefits:• For local entrepreneurs: a profitable business opportunity.• For farmers: affordable access to motorized pumping as individuals (no need to organize into a collective); potentially related services (agronomic and marketing advice, and credit); and higher profits from vegetable farming due to larger areas and better water supply.• Prices are high. Initial subsidies could help until local manufacturing is established.• Reduce import taxes but only as an interim measure to avoid discouraging local manufacturers.• Support existing institutions rather than establishing new ones.• Beware of monopoly practices.Source: FAO 2012b.Physical suitability for small pumps was assessed on the basis of travel time to markets (defined as population centers of 20,000 inhabitants or more), which was considered 'highly suitable' if the travel time was less than 4 hours and 'unsuitable' if the travel time was over 8 hours; proximity to surface water; and the occurrence of soils with shallow groundwater potential (fluvisols, gleysols and gleyic sub-units). This was combined with demand, which was assumed to be more favorable in zones with a higher prevalence of market-oriented smallholder farmers, high population density and landholdings of less than 2 ha.Based on these conditions it was calculated that, if 50% of the total potential motor pump users were to adopt the technology around 1.1 to 2.2 million households could benefit (amounting to 8.8 to 16.9% of the rural population). The potential application area is 0.9 to 1.8 Mha or 3 to 5.7% of the total agricultural land area (Figure 4).Ethiopia has large reserves of groundwater that could be used to drive agricultural growth. Better hydrogeological mapping, changes to existing policy and capacity building are needed to harness this untapped resource.The Ethiopian Government plans to implement nine irrigation projects. In the coming five years, 8,000 ha will be developed as a pilot study using groundwater. The Directorate of Groundwater Development Studies and Management, Ministry of Water and Energy, will drill more than 90,000 test wells, 28,000 monitoring wells and 370,000 meters (m) of production wells. This ambitious effort will require institutional and human capacity development, technology procurement and transfer, and more up-to-date and reliable hydrogeological data and maps.Livelihood-based demand Source: FAO 2012a. Investment in irrigation, particularly in small-scale and household-level irrigation, has been identified as a core strategy to unlink agricultural production in Ethiopia from uncertain rainfall, improve crop production and induce the use of inputs which further enhance agricultural productivity. With more smallholder farmers using motorized pumps to irrigate, groundwater will play an increasingly important role in achieving these goals.Researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project undertook a comprehensive review of past and current literature and data available on groundwater from regional and state water bureaus. They determined a number of factors affecting groundwater exploitation:Groundwater use: Agricultural use of groundwater is low. Data from 8,000 boreholes indicate that over 80% of groundwater use is for domestic purposes. Most wells are shallow and have low yields of less than 10 liters per second.Groundwater reserves: Groundwater reserves may be greater than the commonly used estimate of 2.5 billion cubic meters (BCM). Studies in Kobo, Raya and Adaa Bechoo suggest that regional aquifers are deep and water movement crosses basins. The groundwater reserve is estimated to be 2.5 BCM in Kobo Girana Valley alone, 7.2 BCM in Raya and 965 million cubic meters (MCM) in Adaa Bechoo.The coverage and scale of the available geological and hydrogeological data and maps are not adequate for managing groundwater. The available groundwater database is not widely used by experts and institutions. A new groundwater database known as ENGWIS is under development.Capacity to drill wells: Capacity for deep well drilling is hampered by the lack of reliable hydrogeological data, high cost of equipment and drilling, poor quality installations, and shortages of skilled and experienced personnel.Human resources: Human resources for management and development of groundwater in regional and state water bureaus are insufficient. One-third of the available positions are vacant. The capacity gap widens at local levels of administration. There is a severe shortage of qualified well-drillers and a high demand for hydrogeologists, electricians, mechanics, water supply engineers and hydrologists.Groundwater studies should focus first on the conceptualization of the groundwater system before making estimates based on local information. Studies are needed to understand the regional groundwater system in terms of flow hydraulics and the subsurface geological system. Government and donor agencies need to cooperate to establish and promote the use of a single source of data and information.Capacity building: Public universities offering geology degrees (e.g., Addis Ababa University and Mekelle University) could accommodate more hydrogeology courses in their curricula.Vocational training institutions need support to meet the emerging demand for skilled labor in the drilling industry.Institutional framework for managing groundwater: Development strategies and policies, such as the Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme and the Ethiopian Water Sector Policy, include managed groundwater development to contribute to national growth and development. However, the institutional framework for governing groundwater requires further elaboration and clarification.The government currently allows private and public well drilling companies to import drilling rigs tax free. However, the capital cost of a drilling rig can be USD 800,000 and there is a chronic shortage of spare parts. Government-backed loans, in-country parts depots and public-private partnerships would provide a much-needed stimulus to a struggling industry.A pilot of Manual Well Drilling Businesses by iDE, together with the AgWater Solutions Project, has provided more information to support some of these recommendations, including the need for better training and financial support (for details, see the section, Manual Well Drilling).• We do not have enough information about where groundwater is available. Mapping potential areas will facilitate groundwater use.• Intensive irrigation is causing salinity problems in some areas (e.g., in Abraha Atsbeha watershed in Tigray). More research is needed in these locations.Source: FAO 2012b.Establishing private manual well drilling enterprises to provide low-cost access to groundwater would expand the irrigated farm production area and offers potential to improve the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers.Establishing an industry for manual well drilling to access shallow groundwater for irrigation would benefit all stakeholders.For low-income, smallholder farmers, it could improve their access to groundwater, lengthen the crop growing season, expand crop options to higher-value crops and increase incomes. Women farmers with wells spend significantly less time walking long distances for water.For well drilling enterprises, it could provide a healthy return on investment and create employment.For supply chain actors, it could increase profits along the chain.For the financial services sector, it could stimulate demand for financial products and services throughout the value chain.Manual well drilling (Box 4) is feasible only in specific hydrogeologic conditions. In carefully selected test areas, a pilot drilling program conducted by iDE had an 80% success rate. Maps showing more detailed and accurate soil, hydrogeology and water resources data would help determine suitable locations and reduce exploration costs.Teams use manual labor and simple technologies to tap shallow groundwater. In many Asian countries, it is an established business.In Africa, manual well drilling is prevalent in Sudan, Chad, Nigeria and Niger. In Nigeria, more than 100,000 wells have been manually drilled and, in Niger, 42 private sector drilling teams have drilled more than 18,000 wells.Once a well is drilled, farmers have a range of water-lifting, storage and application options.Source: Weight et al. 2012; AgWater Solutions Project 2011b.In 2009, iDE initiated a manual well drilling pilot program in three locations in Ethiopia to determine the technical and financial feasibility of establishing a niche in the private sector industry for manual well drillers. The goal was to catalyze widespread private-sector, low-cost manual well drilling by creating an industry of private well drillers that were skilled in:• drilling techniques suitable for Ethiopia's challenging geologic conditions;• mapping areas with potential for manual well drilling;• raising awareness among farmers and building their capacity for irrigating higher-value crops; and• establishing market chains that link equipment suppliers, drillers, farmers and consumers.The pilot well drilling program in lakes Zeway, Betcho and Tana areas demonstrated the high potential demand among farmers for more access to groundwater. For every well drilled, an additional three farmers expressed interest in a well. The key constraints were the institutional obstacles to obtaining investment capital and the lack of skilled well drillers.There are many areas with shallow groundwater and permeable soil layers with high potential for manual well drilling, but the geology in Ethiopia makes drilling a challenge. To achieve an acceptable drilling success rate, accurate groundwater maps and a database of geological conditions are essential.A separate analysis by IWMI researchers showed that while there are alternatives such as hand digging and machine drilling, manual well drilling is the most economic option.Researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project developed a detailed model outlining how investments in water resource mapping, driller training, warehousing inputs, awareness and value Box 5. Establishing a manual well drilling industry.• Produce maps showing where manual well drilling is most likely to find water and the potential number of farmers who could benefit.• Monitor environmental risks and set up a national database on water resource availability, quality and drilling conditions.• Set up a program to train and certify manual well drillers and help them set up businesses.• Support private sector supply chains for spare parts, drilling equipment and pumps.• Develop financial products and services to support the value chain.• Raise awareness among smallholder farmers to create more demand for wells.• Train smallholder farmers in high-value irrigated crop production and marketing.• Facilitate smallholder farmers' access to water-lifting technologies.Source: Weight et al. 2012. chain linking would stimulate the market for input suppliers, well drilling enterprises, small farmers and markets.Investments refer to initial financing by donors and governments to spur private sector industry. An initial feasibility assessment is estimated to cost approximately USD 5 million. Once mobilized, private industry would become self-sustaining and expand through financial returns without further external investments (Box 5; Figure 5).This investment model recommends simultaneous investments over a period of three to five years in driller training and certification, creating supply chains for drilling equipment and supplies, increasing demand among farmers, building farmers' capacity for irrigated agriculture, and linking farmers to processing, storage and market opportunities for higher-value farm produce.The estimated net annual additional income to farmers using a drilled well and treadle pump to irrigate a 700-square meter (m 2 ) plot is USD 490 per year. In addition to their cash investment, farmers would need to participate in training or extension programs to build their capacity for irrigated production and marketing of high-value crops.Certified well drillers operating their own small business could expect to earn up to USD 1,500 per year. A certified training program for well drillers graduating up to 200 drillers per year could result in nearly 400,000 wells over ten years. Initial investment required by farmers and well drillers is USD 156 and USD 1,247, respectively (Table 4).Suppliers of drilling equipment and materials benefit as the number of drillers multiplies and drillers scale up their operations.In suitable areas: Community-based watershed management could be a significant factor in helping the government achieve its aim of making agriculture the driving force of economic development in Ethiopia.Ethiopia has 12 major river basins and 17 livelihood zones. Over 80% of the population live in the regions of Oromia, Amhara and SNNPR, which together with Tigray are known as the major regions. Given the current favorable policy framework and the government's aim to make agriculture the driver of economic development, community-based watershed management offers a promising solution.Watershed management programs have been implemented in Ethiopia for the past four decades. New initiatives based on lessons learned over this period offer opportunities to:• reduce farmers' dependence on rainfed, low-productivity subsistence agriculture;• reverse land degradation;• address flooding and sedimentation;• tackle water shortages and moisture stress;• generate grazing land and fodder crops for animals; and• increase local participation in water management.The challenge is not to 'find' solutions but to negotiate solutions that are inclusive and equitable, and steer the country towards its goal of making rural agriculture the basis of economic growth.There is now a supportive policy and legal framework facilitating decentralized and participatory development, institutional arrangements that encourage public agencies at all levels to work together, and an approach to natural resources that reflects local legislation and tenure practices.Watershed development activities were assessed in six study sites in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia to see how management efforts can be scaled up across the country. The watersheds in each region were chosen to represent one successful and another less successful watershed. The watersheds are located to the east, where moisture is a limiting factor and watershed degradation is high.• Watershed size and hydrogeology play a critical role. Macro-watersheds (e.g., AbrahaAtsbeha) performed better on all indicators than smaller watersheds.• Improvement of groundwater was more pronounced in watersheds with permeable geological formations (e.g., sandstone and colluvial deposits of Abraha Atsbeha).• Land and crop productivity and area for cultivation increased over the years as a result of land rehabilitation, water availability for supplementary or full-scale irrigation and new agronomic practices.The productivity gains on farms in the upstream areas are mainly from rainwater conservation, while farmers downstream have increased access to irrigation, particularly from groundwater (Table 5). In the lower reaches, farmers can cultivate two or more times a year because of greater water availability during the dry season.Farm income increased, on average, by 50% and households reported food security to have increased from 20 to 90%, and access to health and education services had increased by 20 to 50% and 50%, respectively. Where to invest: Solutions to enhance watershed management Site-specific development: Various land rehabilitation and conservation measures are being employed (soil and water conservation structures, reforestation, gully treatment and area enclosures) along with rainwater harvesting, rural water supply and income diversification. Since a 'one-size-fits-all' approach does not work, site-specific watershed development solutions need to be identified that take into consideration local situations.Capacity building: Managing watershed externalities within and outside a watershed requires cooperation among stakeholders to build and strengthen institutions, social norms and regulations, and to develop systems of sharing responsibilities and benefits.Land tenure: Ethiopia's watershed management policy needs revision to address land tenure and community rights issues.Discussions around the Mekelle University study on watershed management programmes showed that participants agree that community-based initiatives work best, and that water allocation responsibilities should be devolved to avoid conflict and ensure fair sharing of surface water and groundwater.Source: FAO 2012b.Large irrigation schemes cannot always supply enough water at the right times. Storing water in farm ponds allows farmers to irrigate when they need to. Farmers can then supplement rainfed crops or grow and sell seasonal high-value crops.A pilot study by iDE in the Shopa Irrigation Scheme, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, showed that farmers could gain considerable benefit from on-farm ponds, including higher yields and greater incomes. The government is already promoting on-farm ponds, but this is usually to store rainfall in dry areas to supplement rainfed crops. The program could be extended to underperforming irrigation schemes.iDE built four on-farm water storage demonstration ponds in the Shopa Irrigation Scheme (located within the Shopa Bultum Peasant Association), reviewed the water management and agronomic practices of local farmers, and asked them about their incomes and profits. Irrigation extension officers and development officers were also interviewed about current practices and the potential for these new AWM options.• Managers of the Shopa Irrigation Scheme provide water to farmers for two hours every two weeks. Farmers grow wheat, maize and potatoes, and some grow onions and cabbages.• Maize and wheat yields are high at 4.0 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) and 2.8 t/ha, respectively. Potato, onion and cabbage yields are below potential for the area.• Landholdings range in size from 0.5 to 5 ha with an average of 2.5 ha. Land is owned, leased or sharecropped. The total land area is 200 ha, of which 140 ha is irrigated. The irrigation regime sometimes leads to conflict and farmers are limited in the crops they can grow because they have no control over when and how much water they can use. Farmers practice flood irrigation, which wastes water and erodes the soil.The ponds used in the scheme range in size from 14 to 40 m 2 . A 28-m 2 pond can be filled in half an hour and can irrigate up to a quarter of a hectare twice a week. By storing water, farmers can irrigate between the official water supply times. Ponds are lined with a geo-membrane, concrete or clay. Farmers also need to lift the water and iDE has been supplying treadle pumps at a 50% subsidy rate. The farmer pays ETB 170 (USD 1 = ETB 17.8). Local entrepreneurs and youth groups are making treadle pumps. There is a tradition of group labor in the area, so digging the ponds has not been difficult.Farmers could use the ponds for more than supplementary irrigation. For example, cabbage production using on-farm water storage is a lucrative business. Net returns are around 1,410 USD/ha -about USD 350 more than from canal irrigation. The benefit-cost ratio shows that an investment of ETB 1 on cabbage production using on-farm ponds and treadle pumps would cover the cost and generate an additional ETB 2.90, which is high for a poor farmer.The benefit-cost ratio for canal and flood irrigation (Table 6) is higher than the pond system because no capital is required. Without pond and pump irrigation, it would not be possible to grow cabbages, hence no additional income. The pond system also reduces nutrient depletion, a longterm benefit not included in the calculation. There is ample demand for farm products. The Shopa Irrigation Scheme is close to market centers and trading routes. One limitation is that farmers have little experience selling vegetables and are easily taken advantage of by brokers and merchants. iDE is organizing 'Producer and Marketing Groups' for farmers. The groups are legal entities that will help farmers get better access to inputs and microfinance institutions, and improve their bargaining position.• Promote AWM options in other irrigation schemes. The government could combine this approach with its current rainwater harvesting program.• Geo-membrane linings are currently hard to acquire. A useful investment would be in making them more widely available. One way to do this would be to support local manufacturers. Other options such as concrete and clay could be improved.• Strengthen cooperatives to help farmers get better access to markets and negotiate better prices for crops.• Improve management of the irrigation scheme to ensure water continues to be available.• Provide training on improved agronomic practices and irrigation of new high-value crops, such as vegetables.For investors in small reservoirs, the challenge lies in coordinating and integrating multiple users and social groups around a common resource. Limiting costs through improved procedures and financial management is also critical.In sub-Saharan Africa, the term 'small reservoir' refers to the water stored behind an earthen or cement dam less than 7.5 m high. They can store up to 1 MCM of water and sometimes have a downstream irrigation area of up to 50 ha. Capital investment is, generally, externally driven and community management is the norm.A well-designed reservoir can sustain multiple uses including livestock, fisheries, domestic needs and small businesses. Small reservoirs support soil and water conservation, drought proofing and small-scale community irrigation. In many cases, small reservoirs are assets in which significant investments have already been made by governments, donors, NGOs and communities. They are in high demand, fit with national strategies and policies, and attract funding from international development agencies. In many cases, they perform below expectations for irrigation but have multiple-use benefits that are often unaccounted for.Studies were conducted on four small reservoirs in Hintalo Wejerat, Tigray: Gum Selassa, Miella, Shilanat 4 and Hizaeti Wedicheber. The approach to analyze the performance of reservoirs used qualitative evaluation based on the ranking of respondents. The rankings related to four main indicators: the status and functioning of dam infrastructure; effectiveness of management of the reservoir; benefits of the reservoir to users; and equity in the institutional arrangements for the use and management of the reservoir.Storing surface water is an expensive way to invest in AWM, but is sometimes the only way to provide people in rural communities with water. High costs can often be traced back to poor design, construction and management (Figure 6). Investment costs can be controlled by improving procedures, more detailed feasibility studies and strict accountability to decision makers. To effectively evaluate small reservoirs and to compare them to other AWM interventions, a cost-benefit analysis needs to be considered per capita and for the entire lifetime of the project. If managed well, then costs are comparable to investments in other types of AWM interventions. Benefits are greatest when multiple uses, existing farming systems, water recharge and direct pumping are taken into account.To be effective at providing livelihood benefits, small reservoirs also need a strong and inclusive institutional component. Water user associations (WUAs), for example, tend to ignore de facto or planned multiple uses other than irrigation. There needs to be multiple organizational options for communities, and coordination with traditional and local authorities.There are a number of promising approaches to improving the use and efficiency of small reservoirs.• Coordinate and integrate multiple users 'spatially' around the small reservoir/watershed and 'temporally' throughout the project cycle.• Facilitate multiple institutional arrangements.• Strengthen existing policies, procedures and links within organizations.• Introduce a step-wise approach to assess feasibility and needs when planning rehabilitation or new construction.• Establish pre-qualification standards for contractors and better compliance with existing procedures for awarding contracts.• Develop guidelines for contractors on the design of multiple-use reservoirs.• Build capacity for extension workers, especially regarding multiple-use systems and social aspects.Better information generally leads to more effective decision making. Improved planning processes would reduce investment costs with a positive impact on performance as will adopting a multiple-use perspective for monitoring. Overall, there would be a better return on investment.A 'suitable' area for small reservoirs is defined as an agricultural area where the Aridity Index (yearly precipitation divided by yearly reference evapotranspiration) is between 0.2 and 0.65, i.e., semi-arid to dry sub-humid. A higher livestock density is assumed to be correlated with enhanced multiple uses of small dams. Using these criteria, research carried out by the AgWater Solutions Project estimates that if 50% of the households that could potentially benefit from small reservoirs were to begin using these, this could amount to 244,000 to 894,000 households in Ethiopia (1.9 to 6.9% of rural households). The potential application area is 244,000 to 894,000 ha or approximately 0.8 to 2.9% of total agricultural land (Figure 7).Taking river basin hydrology, environmental constraints, yield improvements, costs of the investment and price impacts of expanding crop production into account, the potential area expansion for small reservoirs in East Africa is 5 Mha and 100 million people (or 19 million households) (IFPRI 2012).Ethiopia has a wealth of opportunities to increase irrigation and food production. At present, most farmers are smallholders cultivating for subsistence purposes usually on rainfed land or grazing livestock. The Government of Ethiopia has made a commitment to increase irrigation. The AgWater Solutions Project reviewed a number of AWM options and has made a series of recommendations:Water-lifting technologies could benefit around 1-2 million households at an investment cost of up to USD 884 million. The financial barriers to entry must be lowered by supporting pump supply businesses, and by reducing taxes and subsidies. Improving after-sales services, access to spare parts and extension services, and providing manuals in local languages could extend the life of pumps and prevent abandonment. Pump rental markets should also be explored, including credit arrangements to stimulate their development.The use of groundwater and the development of manual well drilling will only be feasible if there is more information about the resource. Investments should be made in mapping groundwater, developing a national database, facilitating information sharing and developing a pool of skilled labor for well drilling. An improved institutional framework and groundwater policy are also required.Community-based watershed management has many proven socioeconomic benefits but interventions must be developed and implemented with watershed users, and must take account of local conditions and needs. Institutional development, land tenure and user rights will be critical.Small reservoirs could benefit some 200,000-900,000 households at a total maximum investment cost of USD 3,272 million. The advantage of small reservoirs and on-farm water storage ponds is that they provide multiple benefits as well as allowing farmers to grow highvalue dry-season crops. Keeping costs down during the planning, implementation and use of small reservoirs is the challenge.Livelihood-based demand Source: FAO 2012a. ","tokenCount":"7419"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e69159dacfd1098dc227a97e73ea71f6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a5e26d06-4cbb-4d34-b219-5b2f6f82bf41/retrieve","id":"-1840833932"},"keywords":["Md Zamal Uddin/WorldFish gender-transformative approaches","gender norms","methods","communities of practice","learning"],"sieverID":"17f3366e-31b7-4129-879a-1eed60a261b0","pagecount":"25","content":"The CGIAR Generating Evidence and New Directions for Equitable Results (GENDER) Impact Platform is grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund Contributors: cgiar.org/ funders. Support to this work was provided through Mitigate+: Initiative for Low-Emission Food Systems and HER+ Gender Equality. We would like to thank those whose valuable input contributed to this paper; Els Lecoutere for her review and editing, Marcelo Ortiz for producing the graphics, and the rest of the contributors-Ranjitha Puskur, Nicoline de Haan, Marlene Elias and Elizabeth Bryan-for their thoughtful comments, discussion and feedback. Furthermore, we value the thoughts, experiences and suggestions shared by everyone who participated in the workshops held in July and October 2021, in particular thank you for comments and support from: Shreya Agarwal (Digital Green); Renee Bullock,Ongoing fundamental change processes within CGIAR reflect its embeddedness in, and responsiveness to, wider shifts in the mainstream international development sector. Its ambitions include moving beyond prioritizing economic growth and technological innovation to a deeper consideration of how CGIAR can contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Gender Equality (SDG 5) and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10).CGIAR has a strong record on researching gender. CGIAR gender research and its ambition to achieve impact on gender equality are supported through an architecture consisting of the CGIAR Generating Evidence and New Directions for Equitable Results (GENDER) Impact Platform, a CGIAR Research Initiative focused on Harnessing Equality for Resilience in the Agrifood System (HER+), and gender research teams and individual gender researchers conducting research through CGIAR Centers and Initiatives (see Annex 1).CGIAR is increasingly exploring ways in which gender-transformative change, and changes in food, land and water systems, are mutually reliant. However, it has produced relatively fewer publications on how it conducts gender-transformative research.Gender-transformative research methodologies aim to catalyze gender-transformative and socially just change processes during the entire research process-from design and implementation to monitoring, evaluation and learning. These methodologies emerge from understandings of gender-transformative change, gender-transformative approaches and gender-transformative research-key concepts for this paper, whose descriptions follow.The Community of Practice on Gender-Transformative Research Methodologies (GTRM-CoP) brings together international gender researchers at CGIAR and partner organizations. The community of practice is committed to gender-transformative change processes, and aims to co-create socially just and gender-equitable futures in food, land and water systems. The GTRM-CoP is part of the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform and is housed under the Methods module of the Platform.Gender-transformative change (GTC) is change which moves toward gender equality. This change can be conceptualized as a process with three key dimensions: (1) building agency, (2) changing unequal power relations, and (3) changing discriminatory structures (DeMerritt-Verrone and Kellum 2021). At the core of achieving gender-transformative change is the understanding that \"lasting change requires engaging with deeper barriers. These refer to the underlying, and often unrecognized, structural causes of inequalities that are embedded in natural resource management and food systems, in particular: informal barriers (norms), formal barriers (laws and policies) and semi-formal barriers (such as national statistics and data systems)\" (McDougall et al. 2021, 368). Gender-transformative change involves \"fostering examination of gender dynamics and norms and intentionally strengthening, creating, or shifting structures, practices, relations, and dynamics toward equality\" (ibid., 368). Gendertransformative change emerges from critical consciousness and a normative understanding of equality as being beneficial to human beings and their flourishing (MacArthur et al. 2022;Rottach et al. 2009). Hillenbrand et al. (2015, 11) argue that \"transformation grows more cooperative forms of power and relationships (power with) that affirm diverse people's critical awareness and dignity (power within) and their capabilities and aspirations (power to).\" These multiple manifestations of power are linked to agency, which is at the heart of the empowerment process (Kabeer 1999;van Eerdewijk et al. 2017).Gender-transformative approaches (GTAs) aim to catalyze gender-transformative change, whereby normative and structural barriers to gender equality are removed allowing more equal power relationships to emerge (FAO, forthcoming). Gender-transformative approaches reshape gender dynamics by redistributing resources, expectations and responsibilities between women, men and non-binary gender identities, often focusing on norms, power and collective action (MacArthur et al. 2022). These approaches encourage critical awareness among women and men of gender roles and norms, promote improvement in the position of women, challenge the distribution of resources and allocation of duties between women and men, and address the unequal power relationships between women and others in the community (Rottach et al. 2009).Gender-transformative research (GTR) draws upon decades of experience in action research. It seeks \"to not only build knowledge but acknowledges that research itself has the potential to transform societies-both through the process and the results of research\" (MacArthur et al. 2022, 2). Njuki et al. (2022) define gender-transformative research as \"action research that addresses the root causes of gender inequalities and creates the conditions for lasting social change at the household, community, and institutional levels, and generates evidence on both the processes and outcomes.\" Gender-transformative research is participatory, reflexive, action-oriented and involves collaborative integration of research and practice-the latter melded into a united approach (ibid., 9). Gendertransformative research \"requires a shared and contextualized understanding of an objective of profound gendered change for a specific program and setting\" (ibid., 7). As a first step it demands personal and professional transformation, which in turns demands personal reflexivity (Hankivsky 2014;Nazneen and Sultan 2014) and a commitment to decolonizing approaches to development and research (MacArthur et al. 2022, 9).Gender-transformative research methodologies (GTRMs) aim to catalyze gendertransformative and socially just change processes during the entire process-from design and implementation to monitoring and evaluation. A review of six gender-transformative change case studies identified principles that are necessary for gender-transformative research to lead to changes in gender equality (Njuki et al. 2022). These include \"conducting a deep, intersectional gender analysis to understand context and the multiple dimensions and layers of inequality and power; meaningfully engaging with and building capacities of local actors to drive and sustain change processes; combining action to influence change with research on how change happens; and a focus on how norm and structural change can happen at scale\" (ibid., 19).Many researchers scattered across different organizations and projects are actively developing and implementing gender-transformative research methodologies, with varying success. The GTRM-CoP enables researchers to share their research struggles and insights, and to contribute to the collective understanding of how these methodologies work and what outcomes they have for different target groups. Researchers working toward gendertransformative change need both formal and informal ways to compare results and learn from one another. Providing adequate support and space for systematic and serendipitous learning across a critical mass of researchers and their partners is important.The GTRM-CoP is designed as a community of like-minded researchers with whom to share challenges, successes, knowledge and data to help investigate these issues. Gender researchers will be able to 'work out loud' as they adapt and develop gender-transformative research methodologies, learning from others who have developed experience in these topics, and co-learning while advancing research together. The GTRM-CoP can be understood as an 'innovation playground' where researchers have a safe space for exchanging ideas and work-in-progress, accessing relevant expertise, problem solving, connecting to others to develop theory and practice, and creating joint products such as scientific articles.For CGIAR gender researchers, participation in the GTRM-CoP should place them and their Research Initiatives 1 in a better position to achieve the goals in the Gender Equality, Youth and Social Inclusion Impact Area, while contributing to the conditions for wider social transformation which is the ultimate goal of CGIAR. Non-CGIAR research partners in the CoP are expected to accrue similar-organizationally relevant-benefits through their participation. Expected benefits to the CGIAR Research Initiatives, CGIAR as a whole, and partners and other organizations, are accelerated learning processes about what works or not in gender-transformative research methodologies.The primary aim of the GTRM-CoP is to contribute to the CGIAR Impact Area on Gender Equality, Youth and Social Inclusion, and to the global commons. It will complement and support the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform's objectives to advance gender research, with a focus on gender-transformative research methodologies. First, it is expected that gender researchers will be better able to embed these methodologies in their work, research frameworks, policy dialogues and institutional cultures. Second, it is expected that participation will contribute to efforts to improve theory and practice in the development and implementation of gender-transformative research methodologies in research and development settings. The core objectives of the GTRM-CoP are to:1. Convene and share knowledge on gender-transformative research methodologies between gender and non-gender researchers to accelerate progress toward gendertransformative change and socially just outcomes.2. Co-create and share, experiment with, adapt, learn, critically comment upon, aggregate and scale new and existing gender-transformative research methodologies.3. Assess the impact of gender-transformative approaches.4. Encourage and facilitate CGIAR Research Initiatives to move beyond diagnosis to action to challenge and transform normative and structural constraints on gender equality in food, land and water systems.5. Share and inspire uptake and scaling of gender-transformative research methodologies through the CGIAR Research Initiatives, in collaboration with their partners. The GTRM-CoP will provide a platform for sharing methodologies for use by stakeholders.6. Monitor and assess the best project designs to facilitate the development and implementation of gender-transformative research methodologies.7. Develop and test monitoring, evaluation and learning indicators and processes to capture gender-transformative change processes. Monitoring, evaluation and learning processes are expected to involve all partners, particularly those whose lives are expected to be the most impacted by using gender-transformative research methodologies.The GTRM-CoP is expected to result in:• An evidence base on what works in research methodologies for gender-transformative change.• Gender-transformative research methodologies ready for sharing with the global community.• Collaborative research papers, research-practice innovations, guidance notes, manuals and other impact-oriented tools and resources.• A community of gender researchers with refined skills in gender-transformative research methodologies and an expanded network for supporting further growth.• Resulting gender-transformative change in food, land and water systems.This paper is inspired by a conviction among a group of gender researchers within and outside CGIAR that the current CGIAR reform process (OneCGIAR), in which interdisciplinary teams from multiple research organizations are being constituted for action on global and regional challenges, is a strategic moment to 'up the ante' regarding gender-transformative research in food, land and water systems. From these lessons, we created the Community of Practice (CoP) for Gender-Transformative Research Methodologies (GTRM). The ambition is that the GTRM-CoP be a managed learning and sharing space for the co-creation and scaling of gender-transformative research methodologies for long-lasting, deep change in gender equality-particularly women's empowerment in food, land and water systems. Membership of the CoP is open to CGIAR researchers, their partners and other institutions. Operational details are provided in Annex 2.CoPs have been defined as \"groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis\" (Wenger et al. 2002, 4). Fundamentally, a CoP provides a space where bold and innovative ideas may emerge. The core elements of a CoP are: (1) its domain or purpose, such as the motivation that acts as a unifying call for action; (2) its practice, that is, the actual tools, methods, frameworks or narratives that the CoP develops and uses; and (3) the community itself, representing people who are passionate about and committed to the domain, and want to improve their practice.We envision the core elements of the GTRM-CoP as follows:• domain: improving gender equality and social equity• practice: understanding, developing, testing and using tools and methodologies for gender-transformative research, and gathering evidence with and about the methodologies• community: researchers who are passionate about and committed to exploring and understanding gender-transformative change, centered around-but not exclusive to-CGIAR 2. From theory to action: how the GTRM-CoP worksThe development and operationalization of the GTRM-CoP will initially be achieved in four topic groups; more may be added. The four topics are described in detail below. The aim is to create a dedicated space for CGIAR researchers, various partners, academic colleagues and others to share, learn and try out gender-transformative research methodologies, which in themselves create gender transformation.The GTRM-CoP is housed under the Methods module of the GENDER Platform. It is open to CGIAR researchers and their international, national and local partners, including research collaborators, government, civil society organizations, universities, private sector and multi-and bilateral partners.During the two workshops that took place in 2021, a set of principles were developed which will guide the operationalization of the CoP.The GTRM-CoP should:1. Develop research methodologies in gender-transformative ways, following the (feminist) action research tradition.2. Identify and address multiple forms of intersectional exclusion, including age, disability, ethnicity, caste and others.3. Strive to create an internal environment which stimulates collaboration and mutual learning.4. Promote transdisciplinary research (box 1) as a model for non-hierarchical collaboration between CGIAR researchers, partners and end users.5. Create and encourage good models of partnership through developing research alliances with traditional (e.g., national agricultural research systems [NARS]) and new partners (e.g., men's organizations for gender transformation, Indigenous groups and private sector partners).6. Contribute to the global commons by sharing tried and tested gender-transformative research methodologies and research outputs (e.g., peer-reviewed papers, blogs, extension manuals and other knowledge products) to the global scientific community, government partners, civil society organizations, private sector actors, local communities and others.7. Ensure that data will be made publicly available in a semi-open access format after full anonymization, in accordance with ethical principles to safeguard human subject integrity and security, and applicable privacy protection acts and policies.8. Develop new ethical protocols that go beyond the principle of informed consent, to ensure all research partners are committed to the principles of gender-transformative research.Transdisciplinarity brings diverse forms of knowledge together to design comprehensive approaches that address complex phenomena across food, land and water systems (see for instance, Lopez and Ludwig 2021). The importance of transdisciplinary skills for fostering innovation in CGIAR research has been noted by the Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC 2021, 1). A transdisciplinary perspective contributes to deepening understandings of heterogeneous (cultural, economic, environmental, religious, etc.) relations and negotiating their relevance for fostering gender equality in agricultural and natural resource management contexts (Lopez and Ludwig 2021). A transdisciplinary approach calls for collaborative work among individuals from different disciplines (such as sociology, anthropology, economics, breeding, engineering and management), from distinct backgrounds (including between formally trained and nonformally trained researchers), and between different ways of knowing.Collaboration between biophysical and social sciences can contribute to developing scientifically excellent, demand-driven, people-centered solutions. A transdisciplinary approach to gender-transformative research methodologies enables such scientific collaborations to engage in meaningful sharing and learning with local knowledges, in ways that ensure local realities and needs are at the core of gender-transformative research initiatives.Often, knowledge is dominated by single frames of reference that rarely consider differentiated standpoints, which can lead to the marginalization of different needs and realities as well as missed opportunities to tackle complex socioecological challenges (Ludwig and El-Hani 2020). This is also the case with knowledge about women's empowerment and gender equality (Carnegie et al. 2019;Wendoh 2007). A transdisciplinary approach can reveal what empowerment means for local women and understand and operate at a comfortable pace for the women involved in such studies. This aids design methods to effect change by working with and through communities as a whole, not just with a few women, in ways that strengthen the entire system, improving women's place and status in the community and how they contribute to and benefit from the system (see for instance, Flintan 2008).The GTRM-CoP will develop a living library of gender-transformative research methodologies that are ready for testing, or tested and ready for further use, adaptation and scaling.A foundational compendium of methodologies with a record of fostering gendertransformative change, compiled by a Working Group under the GENDER Methods Module, will serve as a starting point for methodologies with potential for further investigation (publication under review). The GTRM-CoP will provide learning spaces to share what we know about these methodologies.Accelerated learning and scaling of methodologies are expected to happen through interactions within the smaller research topic groups within the GTRM-CoP. Researchers can participate in multiple topics, which provides one route for cross-learning and scaling.Researchers may wish to start by trying out and adapting gender-transformative research methodologies which have already been developed. Conversely, they may opt to codevelop new methodologies through interactions with colleagues. We anticipate that sharing in the CoP will happen in a variety of ways, including via established mechanisms for communications such as webinars and hybrid workshops, but also through informal bilateral conversations between community members digging deeper into a topic. Dissemination of methodologies, lessons and findings will be text based (e.g., articles and blogs), multimedia (e.g., videos), hybrid (e.g., interactive manuals and tools) and conversational (e.g., discussions between researchers). Within the CoP, spaces will be open for learning between different CGIAR Research Initiatives and bilateral research projects, different research institutions and between different topic groups (figure 1).A To be effective, the learning spaces need to be at a level at which lessons can be grounded in actual ongoing research trial and error. CoP members prioritized four topics for co-learning:(1) gender-equitable masculinities, (2) intersectionality, (3) transformative research processes and data, and (4) mobilizing GENNOVATE data and tools. The list of topic groups is flexible and might change over time with new topic groups emerging and others being disbanded.Relevance. This topic group is about developing and using gender-transformative research methodologies to develop a better understanding of how masculinities-as a systemic phenomenon-link with and influence attempts to move toward women's empowerment and gender equality in food, land and water systems. It is recognized that people gendered as men and boys also face impacts, inequalities, injustices and vulnerabilities (Ahmed and Dery 2022) and, therefore, that the strategic needs of men and boys need to be addressed.What it means. Masculinities comprise the various ways of enacting oneself and acting as a man, and are the specific expectations and values attributed with being and becoming a man in a given society (OECD 2021).Masculinities are relational and express complex relations of power between women and men, and between men. 'Restrictive masculinities' (ibid.) describe masculinities which limit men to their traditional role as the dominant gender group, thereby constraining men's life choices and undermining women's empowerment and gender equality.Restrictive masculinities operate by defining roles for men in two associated ways. First, men are expected to express attitudes and behaviors that confirm locally accepted norms about masculinities. This may influence men to make choices different from those that they may have made in different circumstances. Second, men who do not conform to these norms may face social sanctions or ostracization. In contrast, 'gender-equitable masculinities' are supportive of women's empowerment and gender equality. They allow men to express a wider range of attitudes and behaviors. Gender-equitable masculinities are important to transform the existing social and gender norms that are governed by patriarchy and normative masculinities.What it builds on. This topic group will build on critical studies of men and masculinities in a variety of sectors, including food, land and water. Partnering with civil society groups, including members of MenEngage 2 , Promundo/Equimundo 3 and other NGOs and civil society groups, is important.What it will do. This topic group will identify new and existing gender-transformative research methodologies working with men and masculinities. The goal is to 'unblock' genderdiscriminatory norms and structures, and to facilitate gender-equitable masculinities for more socially inclusive and just food, land and water systems. As part of this, men will be considered not only as agents of change, to help contribute to women's empowerment, but also as leaders and beneficiaries of gender-equitable research processes.WorldFish developed a gender-transformative approach to address gender constraints within a project aiming to reduce post-harvest fish loss in the Barotse Floodplain, Zambia.It developed a gender-transformative research methodology using drama skits, embedded within an action research process. The drama skits aimed to build critical consciousness among women and men around gendered performances of masculinities and femininities.The focus was on creating a critical consciousness of unequal gender norms, genderrestrictive masculinities, attitudes and power relations at community and other levels.Consequent monitoring, evaluation and learning found that women became empowered through the process. A large percentage of fishing gear ownership shifted from men owners only to joint ownership with their spouses. Women reported having significant input on decisions about how to spend fisheries income, on which they previously had little influence.The researchers conclude that challenges underlying post-harvest fish losses are technical and social in nature. However, technical innovations are more successful when they develop methodologies which \"explicitly challenge and seek to address prevailing unequal gender norms, attitudes, and power relations. By tackling the technical and social constraints in value chains in tandem, small-scale fisheries have greater potential to contribute toward enhancing the food, nutrition, and economic security of all people who depend on their natural resources\" (Cole et al. 2020, 60).Relevance. This topic group aims to achieve a better understanding of how intersectional gender-transformative research methodologies link with and influence attempts to promote women's empowerment and social justice in food, land and water systems.What it means. Feminist scholars and social justice advocates have long sought to integrate intersectionality-the recognition that there are multiple intersecting and overlapping forms of social difference, tied to structures of privilege and inequality-into research and action (Keddie et al. 2022). Kabeer (1994, 65) says that \"while gender is never absent, it is never present in pure form. It is always interwoven with other social inequalities such as class and race and must be analyzed through a holistic framework if the concrete conditions for life for different groups of women and men are to be understood.\" Hankivsky (2014, 3)   (Farnworth et al. 2022;Rietveld et al. 2020). At the same time, it is important not to rely on \"deficit models of identity, which fail to recognize how delineating difference can be a source of solidarity, empowerment and resistance\" (MacArthur et al. 2022, 8). In other words, (aspects of) identities can be celebrated and promoted. Also, people can experience power and disempowerment simultaneously (Hankivsky 2014, 3).What it builds on. The topic group will work with existing methodologies, and design and test new methodologies. The concept of intersectionality draws from critical race theory and feminist activism; the term itself coined by Crenshaw (1989). It provides a means to analyze systems of power. Intersectional analysis can help identify how different social identities and social categories come together as an expression of forms of marginalization, disadvantage and disempowerment. Intersectionality research is rare in food, land and water systems, though Tavenner and Crane (2019) highlight recent examples. Useful manuals include Making Sense of 'Intersectionality': A Manual for Lovers of People and Forests (Colfer et al. 2018) and Methods of Intersectional Research (Misra et al. 2021).What it will do. This topic group will identify existing and create new intersectional gendertransformative research methodologies, to understand and interrogate participants' perceptions of the impact and interaction of different aspects of identity and social power in their lives (MacArthur et al. 2022, 9). The relative importance of a particular category or structure cannot always be predetermined; their salience becomes apparent during the course of investigation (Hankivsky 2014). Other scholars acknowledge that much intersectional research is inductive but note that intersectionality can also inform comparative and quantitative projects (Misra et al. 2021). In this topic group, it will be important to work with women's movements and networks, and with other civil society partners working on intersectionality. This topic group recognizes that \"Intersectionality is explicitly oriented toward transformation, building coalitions among different groups, and working toward social justice\" (Hankivsky 2014, 3). Building in personal and group reflexivity is essential. \"Scholars, researchers, policy makers, and activists must consider their own social position, role and power when taking an intersectional approach. This reflexivity should be in place before setting priorities and directions in research, policy work, and activism\" (Hankivsky 2014, 3; see also, Potts et al. 2022).A Relevance. Conventional research processes tend to be vertical and data-extractive, even when anchored in participatory and inclusive principles (McAlvay et al. 2021). Community or local empowerment about the research process and the data it generates is rapidly becoming a key area of interest across fields, from participatory methods in development (i.e., Cinnamon 2020;Steiner and Hanks 2016) to open science, big data, citizen science and digitalization in food, land and water systems (see for instance, Beaulieu and Leonelli 2021;Feldman and Shaw 2018;McCampbell et al. 2022). A gender research agenda anchored in critical reflexivity that advances horizontal dynamic processes between different actors and shared data ownership, thus promises to transform conventional research processes. Such an agenda has the potential to make research processes and the data they generate empowering for local women and men across food, land and water systems.What it means. Transformative research processes demand that researchers critically reflect on their positionality and research choices, and the potential (positive and negative) impacts these choices may have on the lives of diverse local women and men. Critical reflections on the concepts, theories and methods used, and their (Western, liberal, middle-class, technocratic) origins, are expected to produce explorations of plural theoretical and methodological frameworks and ways of engagement. This will ensure that gender research is context specific, people-centered, and driven by just and reciprocal exchanges between actors, thus leading to meaningful changes in modes of researching, collaborating on and intervening in gender work across food, land and water systems. Data sovereignty is an important aspect of transformative research processes as it advances the rights of local people to own, control, access and/or possess data that derive from them (Walter et al. 2022). Supporting community self-sufficiency in research is thus a way of enacting reciprocity and an effective way to ensure research accountability.What it builds on. Transformative research processes and data build on participatory approaches promoted since the 1980s as a response to top-down interventions and research in rural development projects, as well as to failures of the transfer-of-technology model (Leeuwis 2000). However, transformative processes extend beyond these as they uphold a critical viewpoint in the codesign, coproduction and co-ownership of the research process.Significantly, transformative research processes and data acknowledge the role of the researcher as a knowledge broker and mobilizer for change (Shaxson et al. 2012). They aim to strategically use mixed methods, social activism, culturally responsive inclusion and other methodologies and approaches (see Mertens 2021) to address research-researched power dynamics and tensions resulting from differences in expectations, objectives and benefits (Wilmsen 2008)  What it will do. The goal is to inform and (continuously) improve gender-transformative research methodologies in ways that increase researcher accountability, as well as the quality of research engagements. This topic group seeks to develop shared understandings, good practices, guidance notes and standards to embed 'relational accountability' (Reo 2019) across gender-transformative research in food, land and water systems. That is, to ensure continuous reflection on the researchers' responsibility to those they work with and benefit from, and to engage in critical discussions about potential consequences of gender research. It aims to kickstart discussions about gendered data sovereignty.Transformative research processes Carnegie et al. (2019) is an example of a transformative research process that a group of diverse stakeholders, including Australian researchers, partner organizations and communities in Fiji and the Solomon Islands, undertook as they coproduced a methodology for community-based indicators of gender equity. Kickstarted by critical reflections on the role of economic incentives as the dominant pathway to women's empowerment and gender equity, the researchers sought to explore alternative viewpoints. Eventually, they opted for a mix of participatory, feminist, diverse economies and strength-based approaches to codesign a research methodology and indicators more attuned to local women's and men's lives. The resulting indicators were grounded in local meanings and realities, included distinct ways of participating, and encompassed important relationships across all spheres of life-including the non-economic. The indicators were useful for the different stakeholders including community members, who could use them to identify aspirational goals for gender equity. They also provided an opportunity for community members to pace, track and measure their own progress toward these goals in ways that were coherent with their own customs and social dynamics, while the researchers managed to capture such progress to inform policymaking and to share their lessons and methodology with the research community.cont.Processes for gendered data sovereignty are still being developed. Indigenous data sovereignty provides valuable insights into how data can empower.The Native Nations Institute (NNI) of the University of Arizona collaborated with First Nations women and men throughout the United States to develop a set of recommendations for researchers to protect Indigenous Peoples' right to be consulted and to retain data sovereignty, through various open-source software and web-based platforms which are in use today (NNI 2021). The NNI maintains that Indigenous data sovereignty principles must be employed throughout the life of a project-from designing objectives and methodologies to validating research results, disseminating results, storing data and ensuring access to the data after the project is over.Example 2: Biocultural Labels and Notices Biocultural Labels and Notices are a mechanism developed to address community interest in biodiversity and genetic resources (Anderson and Hudson 2020). The Biocultural Labels (for use by Indigenous Peoples and local communities) and the accompanying Notices (for use by researchers and institutions) are an initiative focused on accurate provenance, transparency and integrity in research engagements with these communities. The Biocultural Labels are data markers that help define community expectations and consent about appropriate and future use of research data. Data markers provide a practical application for access and benefit-sharing for genetic resources (per the Nagoya Protocol). They support international expectations around the disclosure and origins of community data used in research contexts.Relevance. GENNOVATE was an unprecedented study at CGIAR-in its scale and comprehensiveness-for examining the interlinkages between gender norms, agency and innovation. It paid attention to women's and men's situated experiences and realities and emphasized capacity development and training on qualitative methodologies for its research partners (see also Annex 1). Also, multiple researchers built on the GENNOVATE methodology (or elements of it) after the GENNOVATE study and created new methods and tools which form a resource in themselves. GENNOVATE data and tools can inform new gender-transformative research methodologies and action research designs.What it means. GENNOVATE encompasses a methodology and a dataset. The GENNOVATE methodology is a qualitative and comparative field research methodology which explores interactions between gender norms, agency and agricultural innovation (Petesch et al. 2018).What it builds on. The GENNOVATE dataset consists of qualitative and numerical information from 137 case studies conducted in 26 countries and represents the largest qualitative dataset on gender and agriculture within CGIAR. While many publications (scientific articles, reports, guidelines and briefs) came out of GENNOVATE, the database and insights from GENNOVATE have not yet been exhausted. More and different uses can be made of the existing data.What it will do. The topic group will work to adopt and adapt GENNOVATE research methods to create new ways to research, assess and monitor gender-transformative change. The topic group can also explore how the existing database can be mined to inform CGIAR Research Initiatives and other research and policy purposes (Figure 2).Source: elaborated by Diana E. Lopez as part of a workshop \"GENNOVATE: taking it forward\", October 2021, Amsterdam, Netherlands.Gender-transformative research methodologies aim to catalyze gender-transformative and socially just change processes during the entire research process-from design and implementation to monitoring, evaluation and learning. The Community of Practice on Gender-Transformative Research Methodologies (GTRM-CoP) is a community of researchers passionate about and committed to exploring gender-transformative change in food, land and water systems. The GTRM-CoP is designed to be a safe space for co-learning, developing, testing and using gender-transformative research methodologies to advance gender research together.The GTRM-CoP, in its infancy in 2022, aims to accelerate learning and action that fosters gender-transformative change in food, land and water systems, through the interactions within and between the topic groups, following a set of principles and values in a spirit of humility and learning. These lessons will be available to others within CGIAR and beyond as part of a global movement toward gender equity and achieving Gender Equality (SDG 5) and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10).Annex 1. Gender-transformative research within CGIAR CGIAR and its partners have contributed to improving public knowledge on how to understand and address food, land and water crises facing the world. The impacts of these crises are socially inequitable, hence a commitment within CGIAR to challenge social and gender inequalities, and to propose socially just and gender-equitable solutions.Ongoing CGIAR gender research is supported through an architecture consisting of: • Coordinating the topic groups internally and externally, with the rest of the CGIAR architecture (GENDER Platform, HER+).• Monitoring progress, listening to needs and suggesting adaptation.• Developing and nurturing the community membership.• Energizing, galvanizing and stimulating activities within and across topic groups, with topic co-convenors.• Managing a small budget and the implementation of activities leading to knowledge products and practices.• Co-developing knowledge products with topic co-convenors and members.Topic Co-convenors are volunteers with personal interest as well as proven experience in the proposed topics, who convene members around mutually agreed objectives within a topic for a specific period. We expect to have one to three co-convenors collaborating per topic. At least one topic co-convenor per topic should join the Organizing Committee to ensure internal communication. Responsibilities include:• Leading the topic group to set its own objectives, including methodologies to work on, initiatives to work in, ways of engaging with each other, desired knowledge and concrete deliverables to work toward.• Listening to and working with members to ensure their needs, contributions and aspirations are addressed.• Following up on agreed objectives and co-convening discussions among topic members.• Connecting members to each other and helping to build networks.• Liaising with other topic co-convenors and with the Organizing Committee to make sure that insights and developments are shared and communicated in both directions.CoP Members work together to build on and develop, pilot and scale gender-transformative research methodologies, trying them out in their own research, sharing their experiences and documenting their journey. The aim is to ultimately create gender-transformative research methodologies that successfully achieve gender-transformative change within specific research contexts. Responsibilities include:• Agreeing in the topic group on which methodologies to work on, and how to engage in ways that allow space for sharing knowledge widely and support for a deep dive approach-engagement modes can include email, voice calls, shared documents, and more formal collaboration modes (DGroups and Teams).• Documenting the process and sharing within the topic group periodically.• Collaborating with others to accelerate learning, to share challenges, weaknesses, successes and strengths, and to help others with challenges.• Suggesting new topics around which to convene and becoming occasional co-convenors when passion, needs and expertise combine. ","tokenCount":"5742"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"994af135f08b5e489e982c6140872cb8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c09a046e-96d8-460d-a8f8-f7eb0fd324e7/retrieve","id":"1128935412"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"58189c1d-7d0e-4cf2-9bb9-e96fb78712bb","pagecount":"4","content":"The 2008 reform of the CGIAR consortium for a food secure future included creation of collaborative research programs (CRPs) that draw on expertise across member institutes to address some of the most pressing challenges to poverty reduction, food security, health and nutrition and sustainable natural resource management. The Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) program was the first of two CRPs to begin work, in 2010. CCAFS is a strategic collaboration between Future Earth, the global change community, and the 15 research centres that are members of CGIAR.Phase 1 of CCAFS relied on a log framebased program design and management system of four overarching research topics: adaptation to progressive climate change, adaptation through managing climate risk, pro-poor climate change mitigation and integration for decision making. The program has delivered significant research results, and is now grappling with the challenge of documenting the impacts of its research.The 2nd phase of CCAFS will start in 2017. However, all research elements are being phased in earlier, including the flagship on policies and institutions for climate-resilient food systems starting in 2014, and climate-smart agricultural practices, low-emissions agricultural development, and climate information services and climate-informed safety nets in 2015.• Capacity to develop, monitor and communicate theories of change, impact pathways and monitoring and evaluation needs to be mainstreamed throughout a collaborative research program and centres implementing its research.• A well-articulated collaborative research program impact pathway helps centre teams understand what is expected of them, and to design their own impact pathways showing contribution toward the collaborative research program outcomes they will be responsible for monitoring and reporting.• The common denominator within a collaborative research program must be a harmonised monitoring and evaluation system so that we are producing evidence that aggregates at higher levels and across geographies, and provides a clear picture for all our partners of what results are occurring, what results are expected, and how they will be produced.CGIAR is moving to a different of science, and this needs to be well thought out and understood by centres, CRP researchers and partners. The focus can no longer be on research deliverables such as reports, trainings, crop varieties and decision support tools. We have learnt that the production of these deliverables doesn't automatically lead to impact in terms of the wellbeing of smallholder famers, the end users of our research.Instead, we need to focus on taking responsibility for the outcomes emanating from the uptake and use of our deliverables. An outcome is a change in the way actors and organisations do things so as to bridge the gap between us and the ultimate beneficiaries of our research, and the corresponding changes in knowledge, attitude and skills that underpin these key behavioural changes. We call these \"bridging actors\" next users, and our deliverables are often targeted at helping them improve the way they do business.A CRP needs a vision of how results from its research will improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, and a solid plan for the intervening steps between a deliverable and achieving impact. We call that plan our impact pathway, and it is supported by a theory of change (TOC) that recognises the assumptions made, the strategies needed and the actors that must be involved to move from one step in the pathway (e.g. an activity) to another (e.g. an outcome). A good CRP impact pathway shows how all the areas within a CRP relate to one anther (are nested together) so as to jointly contribute to achieving the program's vision, while providing enough details about each of the progressive steps in the pathway that users can understand every step in terms of location, timing, how it will be achieved, who will carry it out and how it contributes to the next step in the pathway. We focus on outcomes rather than impacts because they are closer to our sphere of action and lead to an enabling environment that allows impact to happen.The common denominator within a CRP must be a harmonised monitoring and evaluation (M+E) system so that we are producing evidence that aggregates CCAFS is an early adopter of the CGIAR mandate that the second phase of CRPs be designed according to an explicit TOC, including a detailed impact pathway for M+E of outcomes and impacts. The approach has proven valuable for planning in accordance with CCAFS's goal of a science-driven agenda meeting regional priorities.CGIAR SYSTEM-LEVEL OUTCOMES 1 Increased and stable access to food commodities by rural and urban poor (\"Food security\"); Increased control by women and other marginalized groups of assets, inputs, decision-making and benefits (\"Gender and social differentiation\"); Increased capacity in low-income communities to adapt to climate variability, shocks and longer-term changes (\"Adaptive capacity\"), Additional policies and institutions supporting sustainable, resilient and equitable agricultural and natural resources management developed and adopted by agricultural, conservation and development organizations, national governments and international bodies (\"Policies and institutions\") and Increased carbon sequestration and reduction of greenhouse gases through improved agriculture and natural resources management (\"Mitigation\").The bulk of CCAFS research takes place in five regions: Latin America, West and East Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. We have a complex program of large clusters of research referred to as Flagship Programs (or Flagships for short), which are mostly but not entirely implemented in these five regions (Figure 1). Much of the impact from our work is being measured on the ground in the regions where we work. Therefore, the research that occurs at sites within those regions must be based on clear and detailed impact pathways for each site, these in turn contributing to overall impact pathways for each region. This means that our research must meet the climate change, agriculture and food security priorities of our site and regional stakeholders, and those impact pathways need to be fully owned by the stakeholders involved. The CCAFS regional program leaders have been working on developing their impact pathways since November 2013.They have taken various approaches to identifying priorities -for example, expert consultations, workshops and prior experience. One key lesson is that regional program leaders need to have a good prior understanding of the situation in the region, the actors, and the barriers that decision makers face. Also, because of the complex nature of the CCAFS program, it has been more effective for regional program leaders to draft the upper levels of their impact pathways in-house (vision, outcomes, research outputs), and then convene a larger group or workshop to revise and validate that work before going on to map actions and specific projects to the research outputs.We have realised that regional outcomes and actions need to be well defined prior to development of flagship impact pathways. Building a flagship impact pathway is a process of harmonising a research mandate with regional priorities. The majority of the four flagship pathways will actually be captured in the regional impact pathways.The process we have developed is for flagship leaders to first develop the upper or aggregate levels of their impact pathways, meaning the higher-level outcomes to which all of the regions contribute. This consists of a small number of mid-level outcomes leading to a 2019 outcome target and a 2025 outcome target. The next step is to identify which of the regional outcomes contribute to the mid-level outcomes, and determine if the combination of research outputs and actions across the five regions adequately 'cover' the work that needs to occur to meet the midlevel outcomes, or if there are gaps. If gaps exist, the regional impact pathways will be revised to cover those gaps. Also, the flagship leader needs to determine  if there are more global level research outputs and actions that are needed to complete their impact pathways. Those supra-regional activities are documented as a global component of each flagship impact pathway.Each regional and flagship impact pathway is accompanied by a TOC, where the assumptions made in developing the impact pathway are documented, particularly how one step leads to another, and the strategies for managing those assumptions. In some cases, those strategies will call for additional activities that need to be implemented to ensure there is progress made along the impact pathway in a timely fashion.To date we have completed the TOC and impact pathway for our Flagship on policies and institutions for climateresilient food systems. This has been an experiential learning process, during which we gained knowledge and insights as we worked with regional program leaders and research partners to develop the flagship. When we called for concept notes from CGIAR partners last year, we did not have impact pathways for the flagship or region. One reason is that we had little existing capacity in TOC and impact pathways, and were building our knowledge and skills as we went along. As a result, some required elements in our call for concept notes, and later, full proposals were unclear or unnecessary. One lesson is that a well-articulated flagship impact pathway helped the project teams considerably to better understand what was expected of them and to design their own impact pathways, with indicators of progress toward outcomes that they will be responsible for monitoring and reporting on.A major point of learning for us has been that there needs to be capacity to develop, monitor and communicate TOCs, impact pathways and M+E in each region and flagship of CCAFS, as well as in those centres that are implementing research. This is a weakness for us right now, because there is little capacity for this in the CGIAR system. Our work on TOC is coordinated through the CCAFS crosscutting research theme on linking knowledge to action (K2A), which has strategically sought support and advice from outside CCAFS.Development of impact pathways takes time and resources that need to be mainstreamed into all our flagships and regions. Capacity also needs to be created or mobilised within the centres.In February 2014 we convened a CCAFS Working Group on Impact Pathways and M&E for Results-Based Management, which currently has a one-year mandate to facilitate our TOC process. The working group is composed of members from each flagship and region, as well as interested centres. The members will be trained in April 2014 in TOC, impact pathway and M+E design. Over the following three months, members will be supported by K2A in facilitating the completion of the impact pathways and M+E plans in their units. The working group will gather later in the year for a follow-on training focusing on M+E harmonisation and implementation.We have learnt that impact pathways are living documents. In a large, complex program like a CRP, flexibility is necessary in the design process so that each unit builds its pathway through iteration that includes learning and harmonisation with the other units -in our case the flagships and regions that make up the CCAFS matrix structure. And we have learnt that there should be emphasis on having a communication strategy. Partners may not have the capacity to do impact pathways, outcome oriented work, and so on. Therefore what we want to achieve needs to be clearly communicated so that they can prioritise building appropriate capacity. This process has also taught us how important it is to develop an M+E system in parallel with our impact pathway, so that they feed into each other. We will report on development of the CCAFS M+E system in our next CCSL TOC learning note. In the near future, we will also issue a CCSL TOC learning note exploring how the CCAFS flagship on policies and institutions for climate-resilient food systems, the first Flagship to fully adopt a TOC and impact pathway approach to program design and M+E, is using its impact pathway to trial a results-based management system for a preliminary set of outcome-focused projects.","tokenCount":"1941"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f6956057324e143014a88c6ba6b49a30","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a068414a-480f-48e3-a539-d0c7d7874d08/retrieve","id":"1865178236"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"26edd658-2fcd-4844-ae39-51d979be1db1","pagecount":"50","content":"August 2020 CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock provides research-based solutions to help smallholder farmers, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists transition to sustainable, resilient livelihoods and to productive enterprises that will help feed future generations. It aims to increase the productivity of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world. The Program brings together five core partners: the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with a mandate on livestock; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which works on forages; the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which works on small ruminants and dryland systems; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) with expertise particularly in animal health and genetics and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) which connects research into development and innovation and scaling processes.The Program thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust FundIn 2019, the Livestock CRP decided to provide a three-year investment in an integrated core project in each of its priority intervention countries -Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam. These investments, approx. USD 1.5 million over three years, are intended to capitalize on previous CGIAR and bilateral projects (2012-2018) that sought to transform target value chains through accelerated research for development interventions along the entire value chains. These core projects will support integrated delivery of already-identified 'best bet' interventions across the five flagship areas and associated cross-cutting themes.The shared objective of the projects is to accelerate testing and uptake of integrated packages and baskets of technical and institutional innovations/interventions. These projects are supported by the PMU and KIT to maximise learning and intervention outcomes as well as effective engagement, communications and planning. To support learning across the different flagships and country teams, a virtual learning week was organised from 20-30 April 2020 to:1. Discuss and document learning and reflection on the implementation of the priority country projects; 2. Zoom in on insights and lessons on the integrated intervention packages, partnership development, scaling, change pathways.In the first week (20-24 April), inputs for the learning were collated through the chat function of MS Teams. A daily learning question was posted on each country channel and shared by e-mail to each country team (including partners). During the day, participants could post or e-mail their replies and react to each other posts. KIT colleagues collated the posts into daily country summaries. In the second week (27-30 April), virtual meetings were organized for each country separately to discuss the main lessons in each country. A final virtual meeting was organized on the 4 th of May to present and discuss preliminary cross-country lessons.Table 1 summarizes the participation per country and per day. Just over half (54%) of the 72 invitees participated in the chat discussions. The first day (topic: integration) attracted most discussion, the fourth day (topic: change pathway) the least. In total, 506 posts and replies were shared during the week. Although the participation rate was good, most participants were CRP scientists. Only three country partners (of 17 invited partners) engaged in some discussions during the week.  -What actions are we doing that improve our ability to partner effectively? -Have you seen any specific results or outcomes that demonstrate good partnering? Day 3 (key insights): Today we want you to step back and share a standout lesson or insight you think the country project can benefit from. It can be on any of the following (or something else you want to share):-A technical or cross-cutting intervention, working as a team, implementing a tool, taking an interdisciplinary approach, implementing the theory of change, or working with a different research approach (market-systems, sustainable intensification, etc). Tell us why you chose it. -Have you come across or experienced something unexpected or surprising in your work that happened as a result of your involvement in the project?Day 4 (change pathways): Now we want to get to the 'meat' of the project. Please tell us about a specific medium to long-term or other change (pathway) the country project has been working on:-What have you seen happen so far (e.g. progress made, setbacks encountered, opportunities popping up)? -Is progress happening as you expected? Where are you on the trajectory? -What has been a success? What has been the challenge? -Why do you think these happened?To close out the week, we will return to a topic that came up several times earlier: scaling! All of our projects are designed to test technical and institutional interventions that can be scaled, even if we are still at the start of the pathways that will get us there.So, looking at the project as a whole, what do you think are the critical next steps and conditions for us to improve the scaling prospects of our projects and their planned interventions?Lessons shared on integration Day 1 (integration): In a nutshell, what's your understanding of the 'integrated intervention packages' that your country project is implementing?-How have you contributed to the integrated intervention packages? -How has this changed the way you work? What are you or your colleagues doing differently now from before (if anything)? -What positives or trade-offs have you observed from this process so far?During the discussions, it became apparent that there are questions and lessons on different dimensions of the integrated intervention packages:-Effect of integrated intervention package -Integration between research teams and flagship activities -Integration on the ground; implementation of integrated intervention package by local partnersFor many country teams, it is still unknown what the full effect of an integrated intervention package is on the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder livestock producers. It was noted that some best-bet innovations naturally integrate together (e.g. genetics, breeding and fattening of small ruminants), creating synergies, but the integration of other best-bets (e.g. manure management, environment) may be less obvious. There are also questions about what comprises the integrated intervention package: is it the same set of best-bet practices for everyone, or can next users and end users pick and choose according to their own preference? Flexibility in defining integrated packages is considered as desirable, as different combinations of best bets could serve different purposes for different target groups. However, this would complicate the evaluation of the effect of the integrated intervention package as there will be multiple types of interventions.Some interventions can more easily be integrated than others -where one activity feeds into another naturally -than others. Integration can result in synergies, such as:-Combining breeding, feeding and health practices resulting in better flock health, reproductive management and fattening (Ethiopia) -Integrated packages combine technical and institutional solutions (Tanzania) -Integration with value chain logic (including bringing in aspects such as demand side, business potential and delivery mechanisms) (Tanzania) -A digital platform can be an effective mechanism to bring all best bets together and to deliver the intervention to other users. Such tools make a concept like integration more concrete.Table 2 gives an overview of the integrated intervention packages that are being tested in each priority country.SmaRT Pack for small ruminant producers Pilot 'best-bets' tested over many years are being packaged as one bigger intervention to increase productivity of small ruminant producers; this means that all interventions are packaged and offered in all sites.The technical products for the delivery packages to be leveraged by agribusiness targeting producers were identified as Brachiaria grass (or other forage options), manure management, East Coast fever vaccine, and artificial insemination. These are delivered through capacitated agripreneurs and agribusinesses using digital platforms for farmer profiling and e-extension; and capacity development supporting market access, safer products and effective collective action. Two types of packages exist: 1) enabling packages targeting agripreneurs; 2) delivery packages targeting smallholder dairy producers. Both packages consist of three elements: a set of technologies; a set of institutional and delivery components to enable access to the technologies; and a set of actions to grow technical and business capacities to take up and deliver the packages Uganda pigSMARTThe integrated packages being implemented in Uganda are delivering a set of technological innovations from the flagships to the relevant value chain actors. This involves joint planning and delivery ensuring that value chain actors experience a seamless process of engagement. Flagship innovations are sequentially rolled-out following the value chain logic so that farmers and other actors are engaged at the right time. The technologies include herd health, community-based AI in pigs, improved forages, manure management, heat stress, and a business model for improved commercial feeds through training and certification. It also brings in the important element of strengthening market linkages between pig farmers and buyers (aggregators) and input suppliers to incentivise uptake of the technology pieces. There is the extension component through the pigSMART platform to expose pig farmers to the technologies while also enhancing linkages b/w value chain actorsInterventions from the different flagships/ themes (feed, health, breeding, market, gender, market etc.) are developed in the same sites and among the same communities with a common purpose. The nature of the intervention takes account of the needs and constraints in other flagships and are supportive of each other.Integration between research teams and activities starts with joint planning, including a joint construction of the Theory of Change (ToC) and design of the baseline study (including data collection instruments). Flagships also collaborate on other data collection activities (e.g. market survey). It was noted that data analysis may still be done separately by each flagship, but findings should be shared and discussed between flagships.Comments were made that working on integrated intervention packages encourages to look at the bigger picture rather than individual interventions. In Ethiopia, it was recognized that single interventions are now more harmonized, with farmers receiving the same package of best-bet interventions. This requires better coordination of fieldwork through joint planning and implementation.Some good practices were shared that facilitate the integration of research activities. In Ethiopia, fieldwork coordination has been improved through joint planning and implementation. Monthly meetings with space for joint reflection on what went well and what needs to be corrected allows collective thinking and acting (Ethiopia). A joint activity that is accessible to all and shared with local communities is a useful tool to make the integrated approach more visible to all involved and facilitate coordination.It was observed that the integrated approach has several benefits:-There is less confusion among next users (e.g. extension agents, entrepreneurs) and end users (livestock producers). Coordination between flagships and researchers means that the same integrated package of intervention is on offer for next and end users, and there is one team trying to address the problems of the livestock producers. -Farmers see opportunity to diversify their livelihoods.-Potential to unlock complex challenges in livestock value chains.-Capitalize on interventions coming out of earlier research projects. -Opportunity to discuss findings and ideas with colleagues from different disciplinary areas.There are also several challenges:-It takes more effort to coordinate and integrate activities among flagships as the project becomes more complex, but potentially also more broad at the expense of deepening. Transaction costs of doing the research and implementation thus increase. -Integration requires increased face-to-face interaction for learning and engaging with local stakeholders. -Integrated projects require more time input of researchers, as you need to understand the basics of what other components are doing. The effort required is not appreciated in regular performance indicators and reviews against which researchers are held accountable. -The timeframe of the priority country programs is short, and there are concerns that the ambitions of achieving impact through an integrated approach are unrealistic within the timeframe. Exit strategies are therefore necessary. -Existing structures and funding mechanisms within the CGIAR limit the flexibility of the projects and as such form a hindrance to integration at times.The country teams noted that the release of funds for the country projects has been instrumental in facilitating the integration of research activities and best-bets. Without dedicated core funding it is more difficult to organize one integrated approach. However, there are still some questions about whether the country programs result in a different form of integration of activities and solutions than before, and what the ultimate benefit will be.The following drivers and factors have been identified by the country teams as facilitating the integration of their research and best-bets:-Team effort to coordinate planning of activities and implementation, in order to think and act collectively. Dedicated funding, a steady team committed to an integrated approach, regular team meetings to evaluate progress, joint data collection (e.g. baseline surveys, participatory community approaches), willingness to draw in colleagues from different disciplines to support ongoing activities, are all mechanisms to better integrate flagship activities. It helps to start with using simple mechanisms to make sure the interventions are genuinely integrated (e.g. template to describe interventions, joint intervention calendars).It was also noted that responsibilities should be well-defined so it is clear to everyone who is in charge of what. -There is a need for physical presence, also of researchers, to engage with stakeholders, learn and adjust to change during implementation. Community approaches are seen as effective approaches to engage with end users and develop a joint understanding of their challenges, needs and interests. -Take advantage of natural synergies between best-bets, where one activity feeds into another. For example, breeding and fattening of animals (unselected breeding animals being fattened to be sold as meat), animal health and breeding, or targeted feeding to improve breeding (Ethiopia Each country team did a quick self-assessment on their progress in terms of integration in the country program. The majority of the researchers reported that the technical integration of bestbets look promising, but the implementation is more challenging (Figure 1). ▪ What level of integration is feasible on the ground? What is sustainable?❑ Is it about aggregation, harmonization or integration of best-bets? The country teams reported that engaging partners from the start of the projects is beneficial to getting the buy-in of these partners, but also to obtain local insights (and secondary data) to inform the project's design and make project targets more suitable to the local context. However, working with partners also requires clear expectation management between partners, well defined roles and the nurturing of an active relationship to avoid antagonism between the project and partners. It was also observed that engaging partners not only in the planning and implementation but also in the production of knowledge products is critical in getting partners trust and commitment in the partnership process. Local partners can often provide insights in the contextual relevance of knowledge and innovations.Effective partnerships require a diversity of partners. In Ethiopia, the country team worked with local research partners and extension before, but now also engage with district offices and service providers who are important partners for scaling the integrated intervention packages. The team has observed that government officials in most of the regions are interested in partnering to up-scale the technologies. Positive side is that multiple actors from research centres, Livestock Agency and some NGOs start assisting breeding programs.Depending on the economic and institutional context, effective partnerships can be established with private sector players in combination with partners from the public sector and civil society. In Tanzania, the country program aims to incorporate dairy agribusinesses to deliver the best-bet technologies to dairy producers. Service providers are contracted to capacitate the agri-businesses and adopt a market systems approach, while synergy is also sought with development partners to ensure there is an enabling environment for the agri-businesses to thrive. In particular in Tanzania, where the enabling context and business competitiveness are ranked relatively low compared to other East African countries, finding the right partners is important.In Uganda, the genetics team is creating a partnership with private sector companies (AbacusBio from NZ and VetLine services from Uganda; also linking us to the PigBoost program) as well as a public sector company (Makerere University). The willingness to make this partnership succeed is high, and the aim is to leverage on each other's resources, e.g. the use of PigBoost as tool, Vetline services training inseminators on the ground, or partners using each other's project sites. The scaling scan in Uganda, however, revealed that partners from the financial sector will be essential to initiate scaling, but are yet to be included in the partnerships. It was also recognized that the constellation of partners may change over time, depending on the project phase.Several activities were identified that can make partnerships more effective:-Knowledge sharing and capacity strengthening of national partners enhances effective partnerships. -Trust was identified as one of the key elements of effective partnerships. Not only formal linkages and activities create strong partnerships, but also strong social and personal bonds foster trust. -In Uganda, the partners bring in their existing platforms while the project provides the content that is adapted to the value chain, creating a win-win situation for partners. Setting up a Community of Practice (CoP), where the key theme (e.g. sheep fattening in Ethiopia) is at the core has been useful. The topic resonates with all participants/members of the CoP (including cooperatives, research centres, universities, micro-finance institutes and value chain actors), allowing all participants to engage each other. -In Ethiopia, community conversations have been contributing to partnership integration.Local partners and community groups came together to explore and analyse locally relevant issues and develop a joint actionable plan for community-based actions. This approach helped to mobilize partners and act together, as well as help improve the (partnering) capacity of local partners and researchers, and share local experiences in the community.In Ethiopia, a network of low-infrastructure reproductive platforms to deliver improved genetics has been established with national partners. Seven labs have been established through a co-investment between ICARDA and the national research system. The national system provided the physical structure and the basics of lab equipment while ICARDA invested in specific artificial insemination equipment and supplies and most importantly invested in CapDev of the staff to design, implement and assess reproductive interventions. The partnership went a step further when the first cohort of trained staff in key sites used their capacities to assist the establishment of new sites while, at this stage, ICARDA was only monitoring that the process is put in place in an adequate way.Creating partnerships does not come without its challenges. Some reported challenges included:-Different level of understanding among actors, -Different interest (for example in site/farmer selection), -Arranging common time for work/discussion between partners -Mixing higher-level officials with grassroot personnel of the ministry of agriculture can make the latter group less vocal, so different stakeholder groups (even if from the same institute like the Ministry of Agriculture) may need to be engaged separatelyEach country team did a quick self-assessment on their progress in terms of integration in the country program. The majority of the researchers reported that their partnerships are well established, but some specific partners are still missing that could benefit the project (Figure 2). During discussions, several issues came up that could compose a learning agenda on partnerships:❑ What are the essentials of partnership building?❑ How to strategize, plan and manage partner engagement for project sustainability?❑ How to effectively manage partner expectations?❑ How to monitor quality / effectiveness of partnerships? What constitutes a good partnership?Day 3 (key insights): Today we want you to step back and share a standout lesson or insight you think the country project can benefit from. It can be on any of the following (or something else you want to share):-A technical or cross-cutting intervention, working as a team, implementing a tool, taking an interdisciplinary approach, implementing the theory of change, or working with a different research approach (market-systems, sustainable intensification, etc). Tell us why you chose it. -Have you come across or experienced something unexpected or surprising in your work that happened as a result of your involvement in the project?The country teams shared their own lessons learned from past years of interdisciplinary research.The flagship Animal Health has been using community conversations as an approach to engage with local communities. The approach offers methods for facilitating integrated project implementation as well as integrating learning. These conversations revealed deep insights in local knowledge and practices that were very valuable for the project. Mamusha Lemma (ILRI) shared valuable lessons from the application of community conversations on animal health in Ethiopia. The main lessons are summarized below (see Annex 4 for more detail):-Community conversation can serve multiple purposes -Consider practicalities of the meeting to promote inclusivity -Invite couples to stimulate household conversations -Know your community to know your participants -Connect community conversations to local information sharing networks -Be clear about your expectations towards participants -Understand the conversation evolution process -Use common language -Insist on team reflection immediately after -Reflection results in learning results in attitudinal change -Community conversations should make an integrated part of the work plan -Link community conversations with multi-stakeholder platforms -Engage local research and development partners to strengthen relationships with communities Jane Wamatu (ICARDA) recognized the effectiveness of the community conversations: \"I choose community conversations. Last year during a workshop with youth groups organized for sheep fattening youth groups, l got a sneak peek into the potential of community conversations. The workshop was intended for imparting improved practices in feeds, nutrition and ration formulation, however, the 2 days ended up being in depth discussions around feeding by the youth group members. It was totally exhilarating. The in-depth information on feeding practices and feed resource utilization revealed, has never been captured through surveys. Revelations on misconceptions, outdated info imparted by extension workers, enumerators who rarely visit some youth groups all came to the fore. CCs are very useful for deep insights.\"The Ethiopia team reported a high rate (>95%) of adoption of improved practices and market orientation in sheep fattening by youth groups following entrepreneurial training. This indicates that the market-oriented approach in sheep has proved to be beneficial.Experiences with collective marketing of small ruminants also yielded important lessons:-Farmers received training in different aspects of group formation and management, trust, collective marketing, etc. Farmers gave encouraging individual feedback, yet they appreciated the financial compensation for attendance more than the knowledge that was shared during the training. -Farmers are reluctant to challenge the indigenous hierarchy within the local society, and thus hesitant to form a group led by one of the members. As the proposed group formation for collective marketing was not in line with the indigenous institutions, it became a costly exercise. Collective actions thus need to be aligned with the existing social hierarchy to make them effective and empower the community.In Ethiopia, sustained efforts and commitment since 2009 have resulted in community-based breeding cooperatives that enabled small ruminant producers to earn an income and move out of poverty as shown in the communities Bonga, Doyogena and Menz. Engaging communities at every stage in the program implementation and establishment of breeders cooperatives were key for success of such schemes. Interestingly, the Bonga communities are now investing in social responsibilities in addition to the huge benefits they are getting from the program. A clear working structure has contributed to the success. The sustained efforts also built trust form the community and higher officials, who now start considering the CBBPs as an efficient approach to increase small ruminant productivity in Ethiopia.In Tanzania, the program activities of the current and previous phases of W1/2 funding have been branded under one common umbrella: Maziwa Zaidi. The advantages of this branding are: 1) not confusing clients especially farmers with many labels for program activities and 2) acting as a glue for fostering interdisciplinarity locally and across flagships. Maziwa Zaidi has become known as a dependable forum/partner -motivating for farmers and other stakeholders. The brand name also motivates farmers. Adolf Jeremiah (ILRI) shared an anecdote from 2013: \"After an interview with one of the respondents in Lushoto she said \"When I hear we are needed by Maziwa Zaidi people I am always ready because I need my cows to produce more milk and I hope these people are coming with solutions to make my cows produce more, I always follow very careful what they advise\". I think the Branding \"Maziwa Zaidi\" itself is motivational and bringing hope to farmers and other stakeholders and hence acceptance.\"The Tanzanian integrated intervention package is built on lessons from previous program phases.One of these lessons is using agribusiness as entry point for upgrading the smallholder dairy value chain. Though the agribusiness approach was resisted by key partners in the previous phase, it is now widely accepted as it aligns with the strong emphasis on rural commercialization in the current national agricultural strategy (2017-2026) for Tanzania. Previously, the focus was rather on pushing productivity from the farmer perspective. The current strategic focus has influenced the enabling environment and mindsets in government and other development partners, creating more interest in agribusiness approaches.Having engaged with private sector actors such as traders and aggregators, the Uganda team learned that they react differently to specific considerations, risks and incentives in their decision making than foreseen. The traders have a different view on what win-win scenarios could be than the research team. They have a keen eye for business models that are practical and can work, trying to achieve maximum returns on investment. But they are hesitant to enter into marketing arrangements with pig producers, fearing the legal implications if the market is unfavourable. The team has learned to engage with the traders through their informal structures (hiring specific external expertise for this), but finds it difficult to get resources and commitment from the traders for the partnership. As for now, the traders can obtain more benefits from the informal trade and structures than from more formal arrangements.The Vietnam team is starting up a new project, but some thoughts were shared on how to build a sustainable initiative, given the short timeframe. Several critical areas were highlighted: 1. A common name or branding for the country program; 2. A set of common practices for the program in working with partners, farmers and other stakeholders; 3. Strong partners on the ground with local presence with whom a trust relationship has been established; 4. Build trust with local authorities and listen carefully to them in order to identify critical issues/priorities.Day 4 (change pathways): Now we want to get to the 'meat' of the project. Please tell us about a specific medium to long-term or other change (pathway) the country project has been working on:-What have you seen happen so far (e.g. progress made, setbacks encountered, opportunities popping up)? -Is progress happening as you expected? Where are you on the trajectory? -What has been a success? What has been the challenge? -Why do you think these happened?Ethiopia Some initial progress has been made on the integrated intervention package, as the program already started sire dissemination, health interventions and proper sire selection leading to increased productivity and creating interest among officials, NGOs and communities. Number of participants increased in all sites, and small ruminant producers (including youth and women) show interest to participate in all components of the SmaRT pack.The Ethiopian team observed that the country project builds on the lessons learned over the last few years. The impact pathway is therefore seen as a continuum of changes of what has already happened, and what is expected to happen. For example, farmers have become more business oriented, changing their production systems and focussing more on quality rather than quantity of production. Strategic partner engagement and capacity strengthening support have help project partners to support implementation and scaling of interventions beyond the project sites. Activities such as partner meetings, field support, review and planning meetings, multi-stakeholder meetings and community conversations have all contributed to learning and knowledge sharing among project partners which has contributed to the partners' internalization of the project's approaches and methods.Community-based engagements have contributed to the transformation of constraining gender relations in small ruminant value chains in the project intervention sites. Community conversations have been instrumental to engage community groups in active dialogues about constraining gender relations, questioning their views, values and perspectives regarding gender relations, and establishing new perspectives towards equitable gender relations in the household and community. Mamusha Lemma (ILRI) shared the following observations: \"In Doyogena district, one of the Livestock CRP sites, elders and religious leaders played key roles in challenging community members to change their views and practices about gender relations at the household. During the conversations, people tell stories about their experiences and called for actions to transform constraining gender relations. They openly dialogued about cultural values and norms that constrained men and women to share domestic roles and make decisions equitably. Women realized that they were part of the problem ridiculing and nicknaming men who want to share domestic roles. Couple's participation in community conversations has been a factor in facilitating gender transformation in the household. Since the couples engaged in conversations together, they have shared understanding and commitment to change practices in their household and influence their children.\"In Tanzania, agripreneurs have been engaged in workshops to articulate their demand within the context of the country program. This has created awareness among agripreneurs about the profitable technology packages that are available. However, progress on change pathways #1 (increased capacity of agribusiness) and #2 (package and test technologies) has been limited so far.Investments in the previous phase of Maziwa Zaidi has resulted in significant progress in the third change pathway: influence policy and investment. The increasing profile of the livestock sector has continued since the government launched the Livestock Modernization Initiative in 2015 (with support of Maziwa Zaidi) and government policy has shifted towards rural commercialization as a key mechanism for agricultural development. There are signs that evidence-based decision making is institutionalized; e.g. the launch private sector desk at MoLF and invitation to ILRI to support it; increased budgetary allocation by local government authorities for livestock; and the Livestock Expo (where ILRI was invited to give a keynote address). Leveraging activities of the government and other development partners (e.g. SNV, Solidaridad) provide opportunities to make good progress in this change pathway. This experience shows that change pathways do not start with field activities, but rather with long-term presence and partnerships. Field activities can accelerate movement along the pathway, but the pathway itself is being constructed through long-term commitment.The team observed that the conception phase of the project took longer than usual because of stakeholder consultations that were required. The preparation time (for hiring staff, consulting stakeholder, purchasing equipment, etc.) of this type of project takes longer than anticipated, causing some delays in other activities. Nevertheless, establishing the partnerships can be considered as an early achievement in the change pathway.An important short-term change observed in Uganda is that aggregators are becoming more aware and accepting that by supporting their suppliers (pig producers) through linkages with input and service providers, they also benefit as they get reliable and dedicated supply of pigs. However, the aggregators prefer to engage with large-scale pig producers, but consider dedicated supply arrangements with small-scale producers as a hassle. Some of the interventions were assessed for potential adoption/scaling and valuable lessons generated. The challenge has been limited adoption of some interventions/technologies, especially by the value chain actors (traders/butchers), e.g. ICT mobile applications for disease reporting. This may be partly caused by weaknesses in the institutional structures, in particular the market systems.As Vietnam is still at the early stages to develop a new program, little can be reported on the progress made. However, opportunities have been identified to raise more awareness among farmers about feeding practices, feed storage, compost making and vaccination. Training materials on animal health for farmers and professionals are under development.The learning week took place at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers reflected on potential effects of the pandemic on the value chains in their respective countries in general, and the country priority programs in particular.With the Covid-19 control measures in place (e.g. travel restrictions, closure of venues, ban on group gatherings), many project activities have been put on hold. This includes research activities (e.g. baseline surveys in Tanzania and Vietnam) and stakeholder meetings (e.g. Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam). In addition, priorities of some partners (e.g. governments) may change. Some activities have moved online or continue over the phone.It is anticipated that consumers and policy makers alike will change perceptions and priorities for food markets. The Covid-19 pandemic may increase the focus on food safety and hygienic practices of food processors and at food markets.Emily Ouma (ILRI) shared the following observation: \"Currently most of the aggregator businesses (in Kampala) are struggling to remain in business as they cannot access pigs and the major outlets through pork joints are closed as they are considered entertainment joints that bring several people together. It will be interesting to assess the resilience of the aggregator business and the strategies used. In the long run, such businesses that handle fresh pork may transform (or forced to transform) given the poor waste disposal practices and presence of rodents/marabou storks that characterize their premises and increase possibilities of infections to pork handlers and consumers. There are opportunities to strengthen work on food safety including waste management at the slaughter and retail nodes of the pig value chains.\"To close out the week, we will return to a topic that came up several times earlier: scaling! All of our projects are designed to test technical and institutional interventions that can be scaled, even if we are still at the start of the pathways that will get us there. So, looking at the project as a whole, what do you think are the critical next steps and conditions for us to improve the scaling prospects of our projects and their planned interventions?It was noted that some interventions scale more easily than others. There is a general apprehension that scaling integrated intervention packages is more difficult than a single technology, as both the intervention and the influencing factors become more complex. The more complex the intervention, the more variables (and their interaction effects) need to be considered.There is a general perception that donors tend to support simple interventions that have a clear impact pathway (and visibility when impacts can be attributed to a single intervention), and are reluctant to support more complex integrated approaches because of fear of failure. It is therefore important to include the donor organisations in longer trajectories to show that more integrated approaches can also work and achieve impact. This also requires producing the evidence that these donors are looking for to be able to influence their agenda setting and program design.Non-technical enabling conditions are important external factors that determine the scaling potential of the integrated intervention packages. This includes elements such as access to finance and insurance, market demand, or policies and regulations, The stakeholder engagements and scaling scans also emphasized the importance of having the right enabling conditions in place.There was an overall agreement in the discussions that the right partnerships are key to successful scaling. This includes partners that can facilitate non-technical elements of the integrated intervention packages, such as financial service providers.Key development partners should be engaged from the onset, to get their buy-in for the intervention packages and the scaling strategy. Once partners are convinced of the effectiveness of the approach or intervention, it is expected that they will support the implementation in other areas. In Ethiopia, experiences were shared on working with partners at international (e.g. FAO, World Bank), national (extension services and NARIs) and local (communities, veterinaries, etc.) level that support scaling by adopting best practices (e.g. the CBBP approach) in their strategies and ways of working beyond the project. These partners then become vehicles for scaling the intervention packages to other areas (spill-over effect) as well as to higher levels of intervention.In Ethiopia and Vietnam, the public extension services and (regional) governments are important partners for scaling. In these cases, alignment with government's policies and programs is crucial to engage with the public sector partners.In Tanzania and Uganda the private sector are considered key players for the scaling process. An important prerequisite for scaling is the commercial business case of the integrated intervention package, in particular if private sector partners are expected to drive the scaling of the integrated intervention package. In Uganda, the project team has invested time and energy in establishing partnerships at the start of the program that can support scaling efforts later. A critical step to ensure scaling is to make sure that synergies are being built across different stakeholders. The Uganda team identified a need to provide a platform where different stakeholders can engage with each other, including private sector players and policy makers to discuss the policy environment. In Tanzania, the project team particularly engaging with agripreneurs through an incubation process to take up the integrated intervention package.Communication with relevant stakeholders (including potential new partners) on the integrated intervention package are key to engage partners and prepare scaling strategies. is considered important.The communication should include key aspects of the project interventions, approaches and results, and should be appropriately designed (clear and concise message) and presented through the appropriate channels to different audiences (policy makers, local leaders, community groups, and extension staff). This also requires the mapping and establishing of contacts, in order to communicate successes and lessons learned with the relevant persons who can influence their organisations. Collaboration with communication partners such as Farm Radio International may be required to set up a coherent communication strategy. Equally, national researchers may have more influence on the ministry than international researchers.When documenting experiences and turning approaches and lessons into scaling implementation tools and learning materials for partners, their capacities for scaling and implementation can be strengthened through knowledge sharing and providing problem-solving training and support.Communication can also be done through field visits to demonstrate the technologies to higher level officials. (e.g. Fodder adoption project in Vietnam).Scaling takes time as it is a long-term process of learning about systemic transformation and adapting strategies according to the lessons learned. Bilateral projects rarely allow the time to learn about scaling of integrated approaches, hence the scientists appreciate dedicated funding that allow research on more critical and complex issues and learning from the experience. It was also noted that the current country programs are not scaling projects as such, but keeping scaling as an end objective in mind does influence the focus and mindset of the research teams.Overambitious plans for scaling can also put unrealistic pressure on partners to quickly achieve results at the cost of the sustainability of the impact. As Mamusha Lemma (ILRI) noted:It was recognized that it is key to document experiences to facilitate learning, optimize interventions and get the required enabling environment in place to be able to go to scale. Girma Kassie (ICARDA) suggested the following steps to facilitate the learning on scaling in Ethiopia: (i) Documenting the designing and the implementation processes of the SmaRT packs -with details on how the packs were adapted to social and ecological conditions. (ii) Monitor the adjustments farmers in intervention areas made on the SmaRT Packs. (iii) Evaluate the scale-ability of our SmaRT packsbased on technical and economic criteria. (iv) Develop recommendation domains or scaling maps for the packs. (v) Prepare a dissemination plan for the packs (with simple and accessible guidelines).Godfrey Ngoteya (ILRI) suggested a similar list of steps to improve the scaling prospects in Tanzania: (i) Never get tired of re-visiting our plans whenever necessary (ii) Monitor the implementation process more closely (iii) Engaging stakeholders throughout the processes through an effective communication strategy. As well as to (iv) stay committed all the time.Iddo Dror (ILRI) shared his insights from the scaling scans in Tanzania and Uganda. Doing a scaling scan early on in the research project was considered useful as it encourages the teams to look at the solutions from a more holistic view, not focusing only or mostly on the technologies but scanning the entire landscape and identifying the areas that hinder uptake was a useful process. This is often ignored as 'out of scope', however ignoring barriers does not make them go away -so having a quick scan of the pathways was a useful exercise for the country teams and partners. He summarized the lessons of the scaling scans as follows:1. Start early. The sooner you start planning for scaling and identifying your pathways, the better -scaling is not something to start thinking about at the end of one's research. Each country team did a quick self-assessment on their progress in terms of scaling in the country program. The majority of the researchers reported that they needed to do more learning and research on scaling (Figure 3).  Previously the problem was one farmer gets one intervention package and not the other; now all best bets (health, breeding, feeding, marketing) are introduced to the selected farmers.-Thanks to the country project an extra effort was made to better coordinate fieldwork to make sure the packages come across as such and not as a series of different interventions.We now plan and implement interventions as a team (since the planning phase). We also think about real integration where one activity feeds to the other, and call upon colleagues to support ongoing activities. -During monthly meetings there is joint reflection on what went ok and what needs to be corrected; this allows 'collective thinking and acting'. This facilities cross-learning: e.g. discuss usefulness of certain approaches like community conversations for different components of the package and how to organize our community-level and district level platforms -Essential conditions for integrated intervention include: team of researchers who believe in integrated approach; best-bets which could actually be integrated; proper joint planning of the field activities (both CG and NARS); development of activity calendar which is properly followed; frequent meetings to evaluate progress and see what need to be done differently; consultation with farmers; etc.-Synergies: combining breeding, feed and health result in better reproductive management and sheep fattening. The higher the productivity, the more animals have to be marketed, and the more important are marketing models. -Benefit: At least, it is less confusing for farmers, researchers and extension staff compared to before when they were visited individually with our activities. They now believe they work with just one team trying to address their main problems. The problem is that we still don't know how integrated intervention is implemented on the ground (still in learning phase). -No tradeoffs identified -Observation: community conversations can also be useful to push agenda of encouraging continued participation of young womenWhat is your understanding of the integrated intervention package that your CP is implementing ?The Country Program defines two types of integrated packages as combination of socially and environmentally sustainable technological solutions/ products, and institutional mechanisms, delivery mechanisms that-a) Enable agripreneurs to provide services in commercially viable and profitable manner, and b) Improve livelihoods of smallholder dairy farmers by growing inclusive market systems that provide value for reliable inputs and services.-Integrated intervention packages (must) include -technical solution/s, (equitable) institutional and/or delivery mechanisms and business potential -Combined interventions contribute to increased productivity as compared to…..? -Recognition that existing packages are focusing on the supply side -need modalities to bring in the demand side -Planning and delivery: understanding that innovations should not only integrate flagships but also be linked sequentially to the value chain logic -Recognition that packages integrating different solutions could serve different purposes (e.g.'enabling' and 'delivery') for different target groups -Development of the packages ought to be a fluid process cutting across organizational/ flagship boundaries as per evolving needs in course of implementation -Using online training tools to help facilitation teams-Flexibility in defining integrated packages could complicate their evaluation -Focusing on demand side might highlight needs beyond the scope of the project activities and current areas of work of the partners? -Positive tradeoff: farmers diversifying their livelihood (e.g. fodder sale) -can it be attributed to integrated package promotion? -Recommendation: Some packages still lack/need more integration of innovations addressing social and environmental sustainabilityWhat is your understanding of the integrated intervention package that your CP is implementing ?The integrated packages being implemented in Uganda are delivering the a set of technological innovations from the flagships to the relevant value chain actors. This involves joint planning and delivery ensuring that value chain actors experience a seamless process of engagement. Flagship innovations are sequentially rolled-out following the value chain logic so that farmers and other actors are engaged at the right time.How has this changed the way you work? What are you or your colleagues doing differently now from before (if anything)?-Collaborate, work together more with colleagues and those from different disciplines.Planning and reflecting together, recognize we are adding value to each component. But also a counterpoint: Are we really working together more (or differently) than in past? -Dedicated funding for integration was a key driver. And helps to create a stable team -Recognition that single-domain interventions may not lead to change/impact -Planning and delivery: understanding that users will need a and roll-out. And that innovations are sequentially implemented relative to the value chain logic-Cost: recognition of complexity -'it's a long road'.-Cost: demands increased face-to-face interaction for learning, and especially for engaging local stakeholders. Need visibility on the ground, building relationships and trust -Benefit: PigSmart platform 'brings it all together' and is mechanism for delivery. Tool helps to understand and structure what complementary knowledge input is required and concretizes concept of integration -Benefit: Much more staff time investment required for an integrated project -because of need to understand the dimensions of other components. Right now no (time/financial) incentive to engage in other 'integrated' projects.-Recommendation: Would be useful to use CP's as vehicles for additional fundraisingInterventions from the different flagships/ themes (feed, health, breeding, market, gender, market etc) are developed in the same sites and among the same communities with a common purpose. The nature of the intervention takes account of the needs and constraints in other flagships and are supportive of each other.-At initial assessment stage integration was limited:o Each flagship has its own tools to do the assessments; special mention of LU/LC change assessment as completely stand alone. o Some of fieldwork was coordinated? o Linkages made / integration achieved between the feeds and environmental flagships as information from one needed for the other. -The planning stage was a good opportunity to present results to each other -Design of the Rhomis baseline survey was coordinated between flagships -At the implementation stage there are some examples of how integration is planned (hasn't started yet); e.g. integration of genetics information into marketing (LLAFS) study. What actions are we doing that improve our ability to partner effectively?-Developed a TOR to invite applications from agri-service providers to capacitate them for adopting a market systems approach aimed at scaling out their businesses and/or uptake of technologies and innovations? -Training and mentoring agribusinesses -Organizing common meetings to bring stakeholders together for planning purposes -(Providing) free access to information from different networks -Recognize need to explore partnerships with private actors with respect to the right incentives and policy environment to encourage uptake of innovations/ research outputs -Recognize the need to generate evidence to influence behaviors of private sector and government partners, and donors to support scaling-Positive: Getting partners' buy-in to engage together for scaling innovations -Positive: Identifying potential issues that need attention to ascertain scaling readiness in a more practical way, and revisiting scaling ambitionsWhat actions are we doing that improve our ability to partner effectively?-Strengthening capacity of our partners to better carry out their tasks -eg. training herd health champions -Bring stakeholders together for planning purposes -Recognize need to strengthen private sector partnerships for implementation (in addition to public sector) -Regular communication and coordination among the different flagships. -Have invited representatives from local authorities in planning meeting -Have invited partners workshops/ trainings (e.g. RHoMIS, CLEANED) -Visited potential local partners to introduce the project, find out what they do, and seek for potential collaborations -Shared project plans -Involved local organizations in the project as consultants or jointly conducting field trials -Made efforts to interact more with partners to build a sense of team, including socializing.Developing a Theory of Change to think about scaling and partnerships has been useful; but for Vietnam this may have been early in the process because of the stage the project is in.-Project better known among local authorities and potential partners -Local insights into project design; project's targets more suitable to local context -Improved access to secondary data, and locally relevant information from local authorities -Support received to organize trainings/ workshops/ surveys -Not yet engaged (much?) with new types of partners, but it may happen further down the lineMany lessons were shared by the Ethiopia team; most lessons were harvested over several years related to the implementation of action research, in particular the following topics:-Community conversations (many lessons on the preparations and process of this multistakeholder forum) -Community breeding / Breeding cooperatives -Potential of interdisciplinary research -Importance of learning and reflection in action research -Collective marketing groups -The importance of understanding and respecting social hierarchy and local culture (societal rules) in all these participatory approachesThe Tanzanian team discussed the following insights:-Pitching the project as a value chain development project -with FNS and development objectives -could attract attention of politicians? -Branding all dairy activities in Tanzania or having a common name such as Maziwa Zaidi for the country program might have been a unifying factor to build commitment of all partners/ stakeholders and a shared understanding of the goals? -Experience of previous phase is paying off to gain acceptance of the agribusiness approach involving women and youth as an entry point for upgrading smallholder dairy value chains (and might attract more investments for scaling) -The agribusiness approach aligns with the government's emphasis on rural commercialization (in ASDP II 2017-2026) where there is shift from productivity enhancement to dairy value chains -Maziwa Zaidi seen as a dependable forum/partner -motivating for farmers and other stakeholdersA technical or cross-cutting intervention, working as a team, implementing a tool, taking an interdisciplinary approach, implementing the theory of change, or working with a different research approach (market-systems, sustainable intensification, etc)?-Branding: consider bringing back the MorePORK label for consistency with L&F and brand recognition -Need to learn how to engage with the private sector and how they can contribute to the research. What is in it for them? But also how can they contribute resources, and how do we make them commit to it? Maybe a different approach is needed?Have you come across or experienced something unexpected or surprising in your work that happened as a result of your involvement in the project?-Maybe not much new -we have been working together in Uganda on the pork VC for a considerable time -Assumption was that pig aggregators would be enthusiastic to participate in the market arrangements, but they are afraid of the legal implications of not being able to meet the conditions of the agreement. Also, to reach out to them, we have learnt to use their informal structures -The team needs local expertise and local knowledge to get work done -Using/ implementing the theory of change allows for incorporating components that might have been overlooked during implementation and/or not foreseen in the design phase of projects; -ToC framework for monitoring can may be applied to make assumptions on how and why changes occur; also has a role while measuring impact-Can agreements with aggregators be 'de-risked' to increase their participation and buy-in? If yes, who is the risk shifting to?Factors that are critically important for the country programs:-A common name or branding for the country program -A set of common practices for the program in working with farmers, other stakeholders and partners -Strong on the ground partners with local presence with whom a trust relationship has been established, or working towards this where this is not the case yet -Listening carefully to local authorities to identify critical issues/priorities Another important surprising issue raised is the lack of conversation about sustainability of the initiatives as the time-frame is short, and high expectations of the stakeholders are being built up.What have you seen happen so far (e.g. progress made, setbacks encountered, opportunities popping up)?-Strategic partner engagement and capacity strengthening support have helped project partners became aware and capacitated to support project implementation and scaling beyond the project intervention sites -Community-based engagements have contributed to the transformation of constraining gender relations in small ruminant value chains. -Targeted youth group members continue to embark on subsequent fattening cycles.-Progress has been made in terms of project activities (e.g. trainings), but COVID-19 causes some delays. -Behavioural change is an important part of the impact pathway, and this has been observed (i.e. in how small ruminant producers do business and reorient their production system, shifting from quantity to quality) in some of the sites. -For example, the project already started sire dissemination, health interventions and proper sire selection which absolutely lead to increased productivity. Interest and participation of the extension experts and officials, some NGOs, the community is shown already. These are good signs that the anticipated changes will be achieved. -The livestock agency also supports the cooperatives in collective marketing integrated with NGOs for breeding sire and fattened animals.-In all the sites the number of participants increased and all the members are interested to participate in all SmaRT packs of using improved sires based on recommendation, animal health practices, fattening practices using available resources and collective marketing to sell both improved sires for outside the community and fattened animals.-The community members in the old sites understood the role of women in small ruminant production and marketing and then they improved the participation and benefits of women for access to new knowledge and information. -Development practitioners learned a lot over the years and try customize the practices in different areas. However, they mostly focus on breeding ram selection and distribution and some health interventions. They lack following proper breeding system, feed supply and fattening. -The youth group members are already getting positive feedback from the sheep fattening undertaking and/or they see great potential in the cooperatives. The challenge for them was to register as cooperative (but this has been resolved).-The country project builds on previous activities and lessons learned over the last couple of years. The impact pathway therefore is a continuum of changes that have already happened and those we expect to happen due to the new set of interventions.What have you seen happen so far (e.g. progress made, setbacks encountered, opportunities popping up)?-Interventions on the ground are on hold so a bit premature to say if the packages need redesigning in view of achieving/ strengthening integration Is progress happening as you expected? Where are you on the trajectory?-Tools for implementing baseline surveys are ready -Call for incubation/acceleration for service providers is ready to go out.-Engagement with agripreneurs has created awareness about potentially profitable technologies/ research outputs that researchers have to offer -Project is providing opportunities to engage with development projects and partners like SNV and Solidaridad interactions among flagships is going on quite well and we have great partners some medium and long term changes in terms of increased income from the agripreneurs and smallholder farmers especially women and youth through sale of feeds and forage planting materials-already visible. More training and demonstrations needed to increase adoption rate.-Success due to work from the previous phase of Maziwa Zaidi:launching of the Livestock Modernization Initiative in 2015 supported by Maziwa Zaidiwith relation to influence policy and investment, partly -Establishment of a private sector desk at MoLF and invitation to ILRI to support it; -Increased budgetary allocation by local government authorities for livestock; -ILRi invited to give keynote address at the Livestock Expo where ILRI was invited to give a keynote address) -Setback: Corona virus may change life forever, so we may have to reconfigure ourselves to re-set to and work with a \"new normal\" that we can't paint right now.-Maziwa Zaidi's role in the previous phase was instrumental in stimulating government's focus on livestock as an important commodity to drive the rural agribusinesses and commercialization agenda.-No significant changes so far. Many short-term to medium changes not yet achieved due to covid-19 interruptions, e.g. the ultimate business strategies has not yet been able to engage with aggregators and input providers -A lot of consultation with stakeholders in project inception phase, ideas needed to settle and gel before action could be taken. -Aggregators are becoming more aware and some establishing dedicated supply arrangements with farmers (especially large-scale producers), and supporting linkages with other input and service providers. -Service providers are very keen to start using PigSMART as a way of growing their business.-Government has appointed herd health champions in each district -Due to COVID, aggregators cannot purchase pigs and pork joints are closed.-Emerging risk and opportunity: Slaughter and retail nodes of pork value chain may be forced to strengthen hygiene, food safety and waste management >> opportunity for project to support such a process.-It may be early in the process for Vietnam to say much about how the ToC is developing because of the stage the project is in (no interventions started yet), but 'baby-steps' are being made on the change pathway. -There are opportunities to raise more awareness among farmers about feeding practices, feed storage, compost making, and vaccination. -There are also opportunities to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of the government's free cow and buffalo vaccination program.-Training materials on animal health for farmers and professionals are under development but this activity has slowed down due to the corona outbreak. -Beef / pork processing is already common, and there is an opportunity to link this to the OCOP program to improve market linkages and work on improving food safety. -COVID-19 will affect the project at different levels; delays in field activities and stakeholders engagement, and shifting priorities among policy makers, farmers, and consumers. This may require adjustments in the ToC. -Develop recommendation domains or scaling maps for the packs / scaling strategy -Develop learning agenda for scaling process In all this, documenting the learning and communication with development partners is key. But scaling cannot be forced. However, if conditions are right (e.g. local service providers and DAs are capacitated to implement), and the SmaRT pack is effective, it will spill over to other areas. CBBP is taken as an example of an approach that is being picked up by other development partners (GoE, World Bank, FAO), and thus slowly going to scale.Critical next steps and conditions to improve the scaling prospects of our projects and their planned interventions:-The goal of scaling is to increase the impact of the innovations by drawing on the influence of key stakeholders -need a commercial business case for uptake of technologies; -Collaboration with the public sector and promoting the adoption of new techniques or technologies is also needed for scaling; need to strengthen partnerships with key actors. -Creating visibility for the prioritized technologies is needed; conduct a feasibility study to assess the communication pathways and act on findings; -Scaling needs good partnerships and commitment to those partnerships on the groundwhile delivering content radio and digital formats are most suitable in the given situation. Farm Radio International can be a potential partner. -Scaling -systemic transformations -takes time. Therefore we need to keep our targets realistically calibrated to the project's timetable. -Scalability of the interventions depends on the quality of the delivery approaches; we need to develop solid business cases for the intervention packages in order to ensure profitability to the agripreneurs in the incubation phase; the latter requires substantial investment in the incubation process. Also has implications for selection of competent and reliable service providers (need a rigorous vetting process) -Also needs a communication strategy that will cut across partners, beneficiaries, and service providers for strengthening partnerships, and getting them to focus on areas needed to achieve our scaling ambition. -In the changed context (COVID), decline of purchasing power might affect both dairy farmers and agribusinesses negatively which in turn will adversely affect the proposed interventions, and reduce chances for scaling. -Need to assess baseline situation revisit implementation strategy -this needs to be communicated with all partners and stakeholders effectively. Commercial sustainability of the interventions is more critical in the present situation; therefore re-checking our assumptions, plans for delivery and organizing activities is important. -Need to include non-technological aspects of the interventions e.g. finance.-We will implement the Scaling Readiness deep dive in June with two interventions only: market arrangements and training and certification of feed producers. This will inform repackaging the 'basket'. Scaling Readiness is resource intensive! -Vital to continue to engage with private sector actors -these are crucial to the whole scaling process and will determine the success of the project -Need to ensure that interventions are implemented in an integrated manner, that they are consolidated and leverage each other -Assessing the scaling potential of an integrated intervention is inherently more complex than for a single innovation -Not much attention has yet been given to gaps identified by scaling scan, notably nontechnical elements such as financing and insuranceWhat are the critical next steps and conditions to improve the scaling prospects of our projects/ interventions?-Garner support from the government at different levels, by: o Involving national researchers from the start who have more influence with government and can support embedding it o Organizing cross-site visits to successful sites for higher level officials -Ensure that interventions are 'simple' enough to be scaleable (example given: using fodder grass species which are easily propagated) -Build capacity among local partners to ensure they are able to 'take over' the work-Scaling may be different for the Vietnam project compared to the other countries as it is 'new'. -Scaling may be more challenging in Vietnam because there is more of a systems focus (more livestock/environment interactions Annex 3. Minutes of the learning week wrap-up sessionTanzania -Amos:Useful feedback gained in the learning exercise; reminded of areas to look more into Highlights:• Integration: we and others are happy with integration design, spent time doing that, but learning curve for implementation. Especially, in relation to business case for environment for agri-preneurs; need to look at demand side more broadly. Needs to be better integrated into other elements of the package. What are we going to be testing, especially since there is a room for adaptation depending on context raises questions about evaluation at the end.When/ how do we determine what we are evaluating? Then we shouldn't make more changes to what we are testing • Partnerships: happy about partners involved in co-creation and shared objectives. There is a question about the quality of partnerships and there was a discussion on metrics for that.Helen's work is supporting that. Need to work more on engaging those that are directly involved in implementation, but also nurture those that aren't. Need to create trust in general • Scaling: recognition that we are on track. Scaling work focusses on getting more investors.We have the right partners but laying the ground for scaling depends on evidence that the packages are working and can be delivered profitable. Scaling scan will support that work. • We can always do more on communication across flagships and with partners. We have a good ToC to support that. The polls showed that we are doing reasonably well. • Mentioned the results of the polls (see slides of the synthesis).• Need to firm up the partnership arrangements so that all our flagships are clear on how our activities will align with those of partners -SNV, Solidaridad, TALIRI, Govt, etc. It seemed to me that some flagships were worried that the arrangement looked rather loose, without clear terms of what we expect from the partners and what we will do together to qualify the partnerships. Amos: This relates to the need for more communications across flagships and partners as we implement the Tanzania project as I also highlighted.We are early in implementation so the learnings are about as far as we have gone now.• The nature of the proposal in Uganda (complex) makes it complicated to implement. It involves a lot of partners. We are showing some integration in terms of working together.Need to look at how we really integrate our work, the integrated package of interventions, and how we implement those, and activity sequencing. • Partnerships: we have the right partners on board but there is a question about how we work with those partners. We need to think carefully about how we engage with private sector and how we motivate them to contribute resources towards implantation. Other issues is sustainability of partners; how their roles as partners and consultants will pan out in the long run, keeping an eye on exit strategy of the project. The scaling scan done late last year shows there is a gap regarding institutional issues, finance insurance and policy, and the partners operating in that space. So going forward we need to keep an eye on that to bridge that gap.• Integration: there was a lot of appreciation about that but it is now about how to test it out in practice. It is about how we work: coordination, planning, budget. Looking at change pathways rather than at the flagships individually. • Market systems; the integrated technology packages is complex. The market systems approach brings in the simple things that can be done in these systems to bring value. It is more about the 'softer' changes so we will benefit quite a bit from the contribution analysis supported by KIT.• Integrated intervention package is already being implemented, mainly about production and marketing. In the discussion it was clear that compared to before there are more disciplines and partners involved which requires more planning, these planning processes can still be improved. So learning around integrating these disciplines is still needed. Some more integrated research questions would be needed. How to best implement this in the field; discussed community-based approaches and how to harmonize this across to the teams and how to measure adoption of integrated packages. There are issues now with doing the baseline surveys (covid0 so need to assess how this will be done to measure success of the integrated intervention packages. • Partners: have done partnerships mapping with Helen and have an action plan with certain partners. Not yet all partners on board with. But progress made on the action plan and needs to be taken up with more urgency. But given situation maybe needs to be done virtual. Need to work with Helen on how to evaluate these partnerships to see if we are making progress specially on those that we haven't engaged much. • Discussions a bit difficult for Vietnam. Because we are still at an early stage. But still a good exercise. We are learning for the other countries. • Integration: still an ongoing process. We don't have an integrated package but we have a series of steps to put it in place. Common understanding of the situation in Vietnam with a system focus. So we want an integrated package for the different farming systems but we don't yet have the package for each. We have done Rhomis survey which was a truly integrated exercise. Now we have to continue in this way to approach the communities. Still a few assessments to do before we have the package. So there will be a market survey which will inform the genetics flagship. Also additional assessment for feeds and forage which will inform the environmental flagship. If we do it this way we can really reach an integrated package. But it takes a lot of time and COVID isn't helping so we need to see what is realistic in the timeframe. • Scaling: we don't have a clear scaling strategy yet but we know this is something we have to think about. We are aware that we are facing difficulties related to the systems focus. We need to include the systems focus in eth scaling strategy and it is not clear yet how we are going to do that. • Potential changes in the change pathways due to the pandemic and we will discuss this more in the next few weeks in the team. But general change pathway still valid. • Partnerships: good partners for the moment but haven't done much with them . For the baseline we had implementing partners and we learned who to work with and not. You can star with a good partner but in the end it is really the individual that count. End of this month we will have the virtual partnership exercise with Helen which will help to identify which additional partners to include.Helen: On partnerships: ILRI staff know that there has been an exercise with Dalberg to make ILRI fit for purpose, and part of that are partnerships. So a process to manage partnerships is being put in place. This includes guidance when you are selecting partners, agreements, tools for partnerships in different stages. It has gone a bit off the radar since COVID. Those tools will be rolled out more widely across ILRI. I have been trying to make sure that the ILRI process is not going in a different direction than for the CRP. So the same tools will be rolled out also for the other partners outside of ILRI. Need to align a bit more with KIT.Amos: we must work more on balancing the approach we have taken to focus more on deliver and test what is demanded and of interest and how to relate this with the research that we do. The survey with agri-preneurs should inform the design, which should address this particular question. Would like to share lessons with others on this. How do we learn across countries. E.g. how do we best enable scaling? E.g. finance, insurance, policy. In our work we have factored this in. we have sent out a call for capacity building of service providers. We have received a response from a fund that provides financing that may be able to help bridge the financing gap and facilitate groups to access local funds. Especially focusing on organizations that are responsible to facilitate the private sector. Keen to follow up on what exactly we are scaling. In the case of Tanzania our focus I primarily on getting more investments. How we measure that is a different question, If we have significant increase in number of investors (agri-preneurs, public sector, philanthropy) in agriculture.Mamusha Lemma shared the following valuable lessons from the application of community conversations on animal health in Ethiopia:Multiple purposes of community conversations: As a group process, community conversations can be used for different purposes. For example, they can be used to engage community groups to get their voices heard in advocacy, policy-making and planning processes. They can be used as development intervention method to empower community groups and enable them to own the development process. They can be used as a participatory training and knowledge development intervention (combination of discussion and training format), where community conversations explore community groups' existing knowledge and practices and introduce new knowledge in the process. They can also be used as a qualitative research approach to conduct research in a naturalistic setting and interpret results on the spot.Consider practicalities of the meeting: It is important to consider venue, time and duration of community conversations. The community conversations were conducted in community centers (farmer training centers, community meeting halls or under a tree) which were both accessible to women and men members of communities. Convening community conversations in an open space invited a lot of people including children and the youth to join the conversations. But it also brought challenges in managing the conversations and gaining the attention of participants, who were often distracted by greetings from passersby. We also noted that there were gendered differences in how long men and women commit to stay in discussions. Women tended to go earlier than men because they have small children to care for, food cooking, animals to water, and many other small jobs to do.Invite couples to stimulate household conversations: Involving couples in community conversations facilitated interaction, cooperation and learning application at the household since both acquired shared understanding and commitment. When one spouse attends conversations, information may be only partially shared or not shared at all. Community members reported that they held household conversations, which included children, leading to improved interactions, relationships, knowledge sharing and decision making.In facilitating community conversations, it is advisable to be familiar with community structures and know who is in attendance of the conversations at the beginning to avoid dominance of conversations by a few and encourage others to participate and express their views.There is a tendency for people to expect community leaders to speak first. If you ask other participants after influential people speak, they tend to agree to what they said. So, it is important to know who is in the meeting before starting the conversations.Connect community conversations to local information sharing networks: Community conversations facilitated information sharing, social learning and influencing among community groups and beyond. Community members used informal spaces and networks (such as home visits, social gatherings and local savings groups) to share information from their conversations with household members, neighbors and other community members. These information sharing networks are regarded as webs of conversations that connect ideas and people, forming a larger framework of meaning and ideas, which further inform the cultural and social structure of the networks.Be clear about your expectations: As community members may not have direct experience with participatory processes, they may expect facilitators to talk and 'teach' them instead of actively participating in discussions. Making the purpose clear and clarifying expectations from the start can help avoid this challenge. Facilitators must remind participants that they are not there to 'teach' them but to create space for them to work and find solutions together.Understand the conversation evolution process: It is important to understand how community conversations evolve and how participants react in the process. Community conversations evolve from a confirmatory view (ideal picture), to a more critical view of perceptions and practices, to community visioning and actions. At the start of conversations, it is expected that participants portray an ideal picture. It is natural to protect themselves and defend their perceptions and practices. They need time to evaluate the interaction and develop confidence and trust before openly and freely discussing and sharing their views. Through probing and storytelling, they could develop trust and confidence and become critical of their own views and practices.Use common language. While the technical areas of community conversation issues (for example, antimicrobial use and resistance) were not new to local partners, they found communicating these issues to community members in understandable terms challenging. Through engaging in community conversations, local partners learned conceptualizing and localizing discussion issues in words and expressions that were familiar to men and women community members.Insist on team reflection immediately after: It is a good practice that the facilitation team does reflections immediately after community conversations to capture main points and gain new insights. This also helps develop knowledge and skills of the team through team learning in managing community engagement events. The research team learnt that participation, empowerment, collaborative learning and transformation are key guiding principles in community conversations.Reflection results in learning results in attitudinal change: A deeper level of learning lies in personal reflection -an interpretive and insight-making process. Personal awareness, new learning and insight making into an issue in question happens through dialogic and self-reflective social learning processes, which result in attitudinal change, new ways of doing and motivation to act. The community conversation process has been a rewarding learning experience for both the community members, the local partners and the research team. Through a reflective learning process, the research team gained new perspectives and insights into the community conversation approach, which in turn helped refine the methodology and community engagement principles. The research team engaged local facilitators and process note-takers in reflective discussions and generative learning process to capture lessons, insights and experiences, which informed the design and delivery of consecutive conversation sessions. This social learning process has been a powerful experience for the research team as well as local partners. Such an after-event reflection and insightmaking session has also been instrumental in the analysis and interpretation of community conversation results.Community conversations should make an integrated part of the work plan: As a development intervention method, community conversations are not a stand-alone activity. They must be implemented along with other development and learning activities over a long-term process. Findings from community conversations must inform intervention planning to address issues raised.Link community conversations with multi-stakeholder platforms: Since addressing some of the issues raised during community conversations can be beyond the capacity of community groups and involve other stakeholders, other forms of intervention such as multi-stakeholder platforms may be required to address strategic or institutional issues.Institutional capacity development of research and development partners has been a central objective in the design and delivery of community conversations. Research and development partners claimed benefits from their participation in community conversations. They found the facilitation skills and social learning to be a rewarding experience. They claimed that the community conversation process helped them strengthen their partnering, community engagement, learning facilitation, and demand-driven planning capacity.Participating in the community conversation process has helped the local partners understand the level of empirical knowledge the community has, and that this knowledge has important value for local planning and intervention. It has also helped change the perceptions of different groups towards others. For example, the community conversation method helped challenge the perceptions of the local partners towards the community. In Doyogena, talking to the district veterinary staff, they had some negative perceptions about the knowledge, care and interest of the community towards caring for their animals. But during the community conversations, community members described their animals needs well and restrictions on resources and support were what limited their actions.Local research and development partners found community conversations engaging and empowering for both community members and themselves. Compared with their own community engagement practices, they testified that community conversations have made learning engaging for community members. Community conversations also helped contextualize the learning process and create collective understanding (beyond individual learning) through social interaction and collaborative learning between community members and local service providers, leading to locally relevant joint actions and implementation. ","tokenCount":"12989"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c92d10562866a5308d95d0d0648b5bc9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/598b8e5f-fd2a-4d66-9631-fdc979aa0701/retrieve","id":"-374433843"},"keywords":["decision making","labor","alternate wetting and drying","gender","rice","Colombia"],"sieverID":"e092a963-13e9-47a8-b264-52d0e1fcb940","pagecount":"48","content":"Colombia has contributed to, and is part of, the solution towards overcoming climate change challenges. This country, according to 2010 calculations, is among 40 countries that had the greatest contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 1990 and 2012 (García et al., 2015). Because of its geographic location, it is vulnerable to climate variability. In this context, during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris 2015 (COP21), Colombia committed to reducing GHG emissions by 20% and increasing adaptive capacity by implementing at least ten adaptation initiatives by 2030. The agricultural sector represents 19% of GHG emissions, which highlights the need for the design and implementation of technologies, practices and programs to mitigate GHG emissions in the agricultural sector while supporting farmers to adapt to climate variability (García et al., 2015).Annually, rice contributes approximately 500 million tonnes (t) of GHG emissions globally. This represents 10% of GHG emissions from the agricultural sector (Adhya et al., 2014). Consequently, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) designed and promoted a climate-smart agricultural (CSA) technology known as alternate wetting and drying (AWD), which is an improved water-saving technique that reduces methane gas emissions by approximately 48% and water use by 30% (Richards and Sander, 2014). This means that during the crop cycle, there will be times when the plot is flooded and times when it is drained (with sufficient soil moisture that doesn't impact yields), contrary to permanent flooding, the most popular practice for irrigated rice.But for CSA technologies to be designed, disseminated and adopted in a specific context, it is important to understand the different trade-offs and consider the various dimensions. These include climatic, agronomic (current crop management), economic (cost and benefits of implementing the technology), political (infrastructure and policies) and social considerations. The social and economic dimensions require an understanding of aspects such as: the particular actors at the household level that decide on whether to implement a new practice or technology; the resources needed and their accessibility and availability; and the possible socioeconomic effects that a new technology could have on people's lives (i.e. a reduction/increase in labor and/or the generated benefits). Understanding differences and dynamics between women and men in terms of decision making could help us to understand how gender differences could influence the adoption of a CSA technology and how the implementation of the technology could affect the gender division of labor.Historically, the introduction of agricultural technologies has focused on best practices, but these generally lack a gender focus that explores whether the technologies are accessible to both men and women and if it is likely to have differentiated effects on women and men (World Bank et al., 2015). Currently, there is more concern in the global agenda about understanding the relationship between gender and CSA practices, especially as gender could constrain or enable the successful adoption of promising technologies. Any unfavorable effects that promising technologies may have on women and men need to be identified and addressed to optimize the technology.Organizations and studies have shown that new technologies could be more successful if women's and men's needs and preferences are taken into consideration (Huyer et al., 2015). Gender is important in mitigation and adaptation strategies: \"not only are marginalized [women] the first and worst affected by extreme weather events, but they also possess local ecological, social and political knowledge which can inform and contribute significantly to climate change adaptation strategies\" (Figueiredo and Perkins, 2013: 188). This means, that the differences between women's and men's constraints, incentives, resources, thoughts, responsibilities, and preferences, could positively or negatively influence the adoption of a CSA technology.The introduction of technologies can also increase or decrease the time spent in an agricultural activity, which might impact men and women differently, if they perform specific activities on the farm. Labor-saving technologies can be positive or negative, depending on one's perspective. A wage laborer would experience a labor-saving technology as a reduction in labor time and thus wages, which is typically interpreted as a negative impact. An unpaid laborer, will see laborsaving technologies that free up more of their time for leisure or other activities as a positive impact (Bishop-Sambrook 2003;Doss 2001;World Bank et al., 2015). For example, the introduction of a mechanical thresher in Bangladesh had an unfavorable effect on poor women because it replaced the work they were performing in the rice fields as hired laborers (Beuchelt and Badstue, 2013). But a new technology can also reduce the time spent on activities allocated to unpaid family labor, such as in the case of Flexi-biogas, which provides cooking gas for smallholders who keep livestock, and that at the same time saves 2 to 3 hours of women's time in cooking, time that can be used for other incomegenerating or leisure activities (World Bank et al., 2015).Previous analyses on the adoption of AWD in Asian countries have found that socioeconomic variables can limit or enable farmers in using this technology. For example, the following variables have been found to affect the farmer's adoption of the technology: economic incentives in reducing water use (e.g. water cost, pumping, labor and inputs); institutional support or infrastructure; contact with extension services; water scarcity; when the rice crop area is larger than the nonrice crop area; land type (e.g. leveled land); control of water; and education level of the household head (Adhya et al., 2014;Lampayan et al., 2015;Rahman and Bulbul, 2015).Previous studies have indicated how gender aspects could be related to the implementation of AWD (Adhya et al., 2014;Farnworth, 2015). An evaluation in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, found that in rice production, women are typically overlooked by extension services, despite their contribution because rice production is viewed as being primarily a male domain. This issue is reflected by low institutional awareness of gender in rural projects and in AWD+ training programmers (i.e. a technological package which includes AWD, rice varieties, crop establishment, and pest management options) targeting farmers (Farnworth, 2015). In the same study, Farnworth (2015) shows that there are clear economic benefits when AWD+ projects target women and enable their participation in rice production; the total costs of production are significantly reduced and profitability increases. Women, who are key actors in rice production, are not recognized and this may slow down the adoption rate and successful implementation of AWD. Therefore, the introduction of AWD will need to consider the needs, preferences and constraints of these important, yet often ignored actors (i.e. women) to increase the probability of success.Gendered labor aspects were identified as an important research domain for AWD in Asia: \"On average, women provide nearly half of the labor input in Asia's rice producing areas, so they may stand to benefit from improvements in water management\" (Adhya et al., 2014). AWD is likely to lead to further time savings for women smallholders, and more loss of work for hired labor (Farnworth, 2015). The introduction of AWD could affect the time spent on specific activities, such as irrigation and/or weed control, and therefore the lives of those who perform it.For rice production in Latin America, there are some indicators of gender roles and differences in rice production. Women's participation is often unrecognized and their contributions as decision makers are not usually recognized, in part due to cultural bias that defines women as having mainly domestic duties such as caring and cooking and men having productive responsibilities such as rice production (Twyman et al., 2015a). Although women are not usually recognized as rice producers, a study in Peru found that women participate in transplanting (Muriel, 2013) and in Bolivia in manual activities related to weed control (Twyman et al., 2015a). Nevertheless, women are less likely to have access to extension services, agricultural information and key agricultural resources (e.g. large-size land, inputs and labor) (Muriel, 2013).To date, information about gender roles and differences between women and men in rice production is lacking in Colombia. Therefore, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in collaboration with the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the National Rice Federation in Colombia (FEDEARROZ), conducted a socioeconomic baseline study with a gender perspective that aimed to evaluate the feasibility of implementing AWD. The project was supported by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).The study sought to find out how gender might impact the adoption of AWD in Colombia. We had two key hypotheses: women participate in decision-making processes and will influence AWD implementation on their farms; and compared to men, women have less access to incentives and resources necessary to implement AWD (e.g. water level, grounding technology, etc.).We also aimed to discover how the adoption of AWD would affect the gender division of labor on-farm. We hypothesized that since women do much of the manual labor (e.g. manual weed control), this may affect the implementation of AWD. AWD may increase weed pressure if it is not well managed. The recommendation is to start doing the wetting and drying cycles after canopying so that the weeds are starved of light and do not grow as much. We envisage that, in production systems in which women participate as hired labor, if the number of person days used for weed control are reduced due to AWD implementation, this would imply less work opportunities for women and less income for these households. On the other hand, if women worked as family laborers, lower weed pressure may imply more time is available for other activities related to income generation or leisure.By addressing these questions, we tried to create awareness of the possible gender constraints that could affect the future implementation of AWD and of the possible social effects of AWD in the lives of women and men involved in rice production. This document contains a descriptive analysis for each question. First there is a general characterization of the households interviewed. Then, there is an analysis of women's participation as decision makers and a description of the gender differences in access to resources for AWD. Afterwards, we present a description of the possible effects of AWD on the gendered division of labor. Finally, there are concluding remarks and recommendations for next steps for a second phase of the project.A representative farm household survey was implemented in five departments in Colombia, which represent the major rice production zones in the country: Tolima, Norte de Santander, Córdoba, Cesar and Casanare. Interviews were conducted in 609 households who grow irrigated rice, in during March and April 2016. The sample is representative of rice farm-households in the five departments. The sample was determined through a two-stage procedure based on the Colombian Rice Census data set of 2006, provided by FEDEARROZ. The sample was limited to those households with irrigated rice located in municipalities with five or more cases, for a population of 5,597 cases with irrigated rice. The number of communities to be sampled in each department was calculated based on the National Rice Census. Then, we randomly selected households to participate, based on a list provided by locals in the communities.During the fieldwork two problems arose that did not allow us to include the desired number of observations. First, due to accessibility challenges, it was impossible to accomplish all the surveys in Córdoba and at first some observations of the population were not taken into consideration in the sampling procedure in Tolima and Norte de Santander. To overcome these issues, an expansion factor process was applied, which allowed the surveys to be representative of the real population (Tables 1 and 2).   A six-module questionnaire was used to collect information on the demography of the household members; characteristics of the house and assets; agricultural land owned and production levels; water management; production and irrigation problems; sources of information; and participation in agricultural organizations or associations. The questionnaire was based on previous studies of adoption of modern varieties developed by CIAT and on an operationalization of the research objectives. A pilot test was conducted with women and men rice producers in Jamundí, in the department of Valle del Cauca, with the support of Arroz Blanquita, a rice miller. Finally, the survey was implemented in tablets using the Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro).The survey contained sex-disaggregated information about women's and men's participation in the decisionmaking process, labor, ownership of assets and land, participation in agricultural/social groups and access to information about rice production and water management. In all cases, the interviewed person was a household member who participated in decision making about rice production, either a woman or a man.Collected information was mainly from men's perspective, since in just 9% of the cases the respondent was a woman. The minimum standards for sexdisaggregated data recommend capturing information from men and women at the individual level to identify gender differences within the household -either by conducting intra-household surveys that interview both a man and a woman in each household or by interviewing a minimum number of women respondents to allow for statistical analysis for differences between men and women respondents (Doss and Kieran, 2013). But in this case, it was not possible due to the limited resources available, and it was not possible to interview more women, because in the field they often do not see themselves as producers or decision makers, a fact that has been presented in previous studies (Twyman et al., 2015a). Nonetheless, the information available from this study allowed us to conduct a gender analysis of questions asked about men's and women's roles, access to resources, and participation in decision making, although the results were based primarily on men's perspectives as they were the most respondents (91% compared to 9% of women respondents).A group of 5 coordinators and 18 enumerators conducted the survey under the supervision of CIAT researchers. This group participated in a four-day training workshop in either Tolima or Cesar. The training workshop included practical visits to rice farmers (with plots in municipalities outside the sample) to pilot the questionnaire and address challenges and concerns identified by the enumerators and coordinators.The surveyed households surveyed had specific social, economic, and production characteristics. Most riceproducing households were headed by men with a partner (72% of cases) and had on average three members. The highest education level attained by one of the members did not exceed secondary education (i.e. high school) in 67% of the households. There were a significant number of households (33%) where at least one member was enrolled in or had attained higher education (undergraduate and graduate studies). And on average, respondents had worked in rice cultivation for approximately 23 years. To measure poverty, the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) developed by Grameen Foundation for Colombia was used. This measure calculates the probability of being under the poverty line using a set of 10 questions/ variables. The set of variables add up to a total score ranging from 0 to 100. The closer a household is to 0, the more likely it is to be under the poverty line.According to the results, most households had high scores, which means they had a low probability of being below the poverty line (Figure 1). The average score was 52, which means a probability of only 9% of being below the poverty line. Economically, 96% of households confirmed that they depended primarily on the rice they produced. Even within agricultural areas, 99% said that rice was the most important crop for sustaining the household. Very few reported to have animals or other crops (Table 3). In some cases, at least for the principal plot, irrigated rice was rotated with corn, especially in Tolima (Figure 2). Only 18% had at least one household member with an off-farm occupation (excluding housewives and students). The households surveyed were basically rice producers and for them, this crop is their most important source of income. 1 These plots are the ones that were characterized in the surveys. In some cases, due to logistics, it was not possible to register all the plots of the households, because in some cases they exceed 100 plots.  Source: Authors calculations from Gender/AWD survey (2016).More than half of the households (59%) had only one plot for agricultural activities. The remaining cases had between 2 and 10 plots. Thus, on average, households had 2 plots for agricultural use (standard deviation: 0.07). Most of the plots were for irrigated rice (on average, 98% of the plots used by the household for agriculture were for rice). The maximum area of the biggest plot in the rice fields within a household was mostly below 17 ha. The results show that an important proportion, 27% had 3 ha or less, followed by 21% who had between 3 to 6 ha, 20% had between 6 and 9 ha, 17% had between 9 and 16 ha and the remaining had 17 ha or more. 1 The smallest plot size reported was 0.5 ha and the largest was 120 ha (Figure 3). From these plots of irrigated rice, the project characterized the most important plot, with an average yield of 6.0 t/ha for the five departments in the study. About 99% of interviewed households sold 96% of their rice. The interviewed farmers stated that they mostly used FEDEARROZ 2000 (46% of the households) and FEDEARROZ 67 (33% of the households). The rest use FEDEARROZ 60 and Clear Field, among others.Approximately half of the households reported that at least one household member belonged to an association or group. Interviewed farmers indicated that they trusted the advice and information they got from the National Federation of Rice Producers (FEDEARROZ) (52%), other agricultural associations (26%) and districts/ irrigation associations (19%). A similar proportion (52%) reported that at least one household member had received information on rice production and 53% had received information on water management. Most (92%) said they used the information received about production and slightly less (85%) used the information about water management.Identifying who makes the decision about rice production is important for assessing whether a CSA practice will be implemented on a farm or not. \"Programmatically, all those who are involved in making on-farm decisions should be targeted to maximize the chances that a program will be successful\" (Twyman et al., 2015b). Within a household, it was possible to find more than one producer; the household head was not necessarily the only person who made decisions about the natural resources. Yet, in the case of farm-level production, not all decision makers were recognized as such, a situation that usually underestimates women's participation, including in the rice sector (FAO, 2007;Twyman et al., 2015 b).According to the results, at least 38% of the households had more than one family member who was making decisions on or contributing to rice production.However, women's participation was not recognized as much as men's. Women were recognized as principal rice producers only in 8% of the 609 cases, but the proportion of households in which they contributed as decision makers was higher (21%). This was identified by asking about the different activities in the decisionmaking process for rice production in which women were involved (Table 4). The variables in Table 4 were based on the theoretical proposals of Nalia Kabeer (1999Kabeer ( , 2005)). The decision-making process has two dimensions: the final action of the decision and the negotiations before this action. The present study operationalizes these dimensions by including questions about: who makes what decisions related to rice production (final decision); and who the final decision makers ask for advice (negotiations before action is taken).Person in the household identified by the respondent as principal decision maker about rice production.Family members that were recognized as producers by the respondent.Family and others that participate in the final decision making about rice agronomic activities (e.g. seeding, fertilization, irrigation, weed control, etc.).Family and others that make final decisions about rice production as principal producer, producer, or over agronomic activities (aggregated of the previous three variables).Family or others that give advice on the process of decision making.Family or others that participate in final decision making or advise on income generated from rice production.Person identified as the owner of the rice plots owned by the household.Person listed on the documents as owner of the rice plots owned by the household.Person reported as owner of machinery and tools (e.g. tractor, combine harvester, scythe, etc.).Table 4: Key variables to identify participation in the decision-making process and assets ownership. 2Women were identified as principal rice producers in about 8% of the cases, but when searching deeper in the activities carried out, it was found that the participation of women was higher. For each agronomic activity, the number of households that reported women's participation increased to 18%. Therefore, there were 21% of households in which women participated alone or with men in the final decision (see Table 5). This implies that for AWD, about a fifth of rice-producing households have women as decision makers too, and therefore their opinions should also be taken into account in the design and the possible dissemination of this technology.Women's participation as advisors in the decisionmaking process is less than their reported participationonly by 6% of the cases (women and joint). This means that 23% of households had women participating in the process of decision making as principal producers, producers, final decision makers and/or advisors, either alone or with men (Table 6). Furthermore, women had an important contribution as landowners, as 32% of cases had their own plot for rice production (Table 5).This chapter describes women's participation in rice production, their decision making in managing a rice plot and their contributions to productive assets. Table 5 presents three important aspects. First, although men participated in most of the households for each of the activities, women participated too, especially in the final decision making and as landowners. Second, when women participated it was more common that men participated too (i.e. the importance of joint decisionmaking). Third, depending on the research method, women's visibility increased or decreased; for example, when the question was about the main producer, the level of women's participation was less compared to when it was about the decision maker for each agronomic activity.Table 6 shows the activities in which women had more contribution in the final decision making, alone or joint.Women were more likely to participate in \"strategic\" activities, such as which crop should be seeded, the planting date and how much of the production was for commercialization and how much was for other purposes (e.g. consumption of seed) (FAO, 2007;García, 2015). In the literature, there are some hypotheses for this type of phenomenon: through these activities women can control the land that they own as individuals or as part owners (Deere and Twyman, 2014;Twyman et al., 2015b); and/or the strategic decision was seen by household members as activities that had a direct impact on family income (García, 2015). Women participated less in the process before the final decision was taken -by giving advice or negotiatingthan at the final decision making. Between 26% and 66% of the respondents reported that the decision makers trusted their own experience. This varies depending on their agronomic activity; in manual weed control and harvest, the percentage of respondents that believed in their own experience was higher compared with decisions about fertilization, chemical weed control and pest/diseases control. In the latter, they indicated that they sought advice mainly from FEDEARROZ (National Federation of Rice Producers) or other shops that sold agricultural inputs (Annex 1). Basically, in activities such as transplanting and harvest, women participated a little more (Table 7). Table 8: Gender of household head, interviewees and producers.Table 9: Households in which women and men received agricultural information and participated in groups.Source: Authors calculations from Gender/AWD survey (2016). n= 609.Source: Authors calculations from Gender/AWD survey (2016).To synthesize women's contribution to decision making and ownership in rice production, a conceptual operationalization was made for 'producer' or 'farmer' (considering the household's members). The variable was based on the following definition made by the Colombian National Agricultural Census of 2014: a producer is \"a natural person or a group of people that make decisions over the activities related with the agricultural production unit and that affront the risk, take the credits, receive the earnings or assume the economic losses with their assets\" (DANE, 2016). BasedTable 8 shows the lack of recognition of women as rice producers. There are cases in which women are rice producers, but are not recognized as such. From the household in which women are rice farmers, about 31% of the cases were recognized (head of the household, principal producers, interviewed, receive information and had group membership). Answering the question, on this definition we include the following three domains to define rice producer/farmer: decision making about rice production, decision making about rice income and ownership of important rice productive assets such as land and machinery.It was found that 34% of the households had women producers according to the above definition, although only 9% were interviewed and 8% were recognized as principal producers (Table 8). Also, the invisibility of women was seen in terms of access to agricultural information and participation in groups, as shown in Table 9.yes, there were unrecognized women in rice production: women that made decisions and contributed with productive assets, but were not considered (at least by the respondent) to be the household head, principal producer or an appropriate respondent, nor did they receive agricultural information or participate as group members.This section analyzes the information at the level of the individual (as opposed to household-level analysis made in the preceding paragraphs). It was found that the proportion of unrecognized women rice producers was greater than in the case of men. Although there were 250 women producers, just 51 of them were considered to be principal producers, 4 a similar number to the household heads (47 women). Meanwhile, 675 men were producers and 555 were recognized as rice farmers. Figure 4 demonstrates that most women who made decisions about rice production were not recognized, an aspect that could interfere with other types of interventions too (e.g. technology dissemination and adoption). Also, it shows the inequality in the access to important services, such as information related to the use of water and/or production, and group membership. Most of the rice-producing women (73%) -compared to just 12% of men -did not get any recognition as principal producers or respondents, and did not have access to information and groups. Women producersFigure 4: Percentage of women and men producers, recognized as household heads interviewed, principal producer, target of information services and group membership.Women should be targeted in the process of dissemination and implementation of CSA technologies because they participate in the decision-making processes of rice production and they contribute to it with productive assets; they make up approximately a third of the population of the study. The main problem is that a significant proportion of these women are unrecognized. They are unrecognized as rice farmers in various spheres, including access to information and services. Gender differences can affect the implementation of AWD, as women play an important role in rice production, but these roles are often not recognized. If Colombia does not consider women and their roles in rice production when/if they promote AWD, adoption rates may be lower than expected.The unrecognized women rice producers were concentrated in male-headed households where they were mainly performing domestic chores. Most of these women (83%) were married or in a consensual union; 75% were housewives and dedicated a lot of their time to domestic activities -on average 14 hours per week.Also, these women were concentrated in households in Tolima, Norte de Santander, and Casanare. Specifically, of the total households with women rice producers in Tolima, Norte Santander, and Casanare, women were considered to be unrecognized in 66, 70 and 59% of cases. These households were more likely to be below the poverty line, with 18% of probability compared to 8% probability for households in which they were recognized, according to the PPI. They were concentrated in households with the following characteristics: the maximum of irrigated rice plots was slightly higher, at 12 ha, compared to those cases in which they were recognized; on average the person who had the most experience in rice production in the household was 23.2 years old, 4.2 years more than in households where women were visible as producers.In other words, women that were unrecognized were those that were seen as responsible for the household; they were spouses and housewives in male-headed households with a higher risk of being below the poverty line.Preliminary methane measurement (photo: Laura Arenas/CIAT).A second way to respond to the question of how gender differences could affect the implementation of AWD is by understanding the dissimilarities between households in which women participation in rice production and those in which women do not participate, especially in terms of their access to important resources and perceptions of incentives for AWD. In some Asian countries, such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, evaluation studies have shown how access to water, level ground, level of education of the farmer and payment for water are important resources and incentives that can enable or limit the implementation of AWD (Adhya et al., 2014;Lampayan et al., 2015;Rahman and Bulbul, 2015).The survey questionnaire included the above variables.In this document, we analyze five of them. In future analyses we will integrate more variables and more robustly analyze the ones presented here. Households were identified that had the following attributes: economic incentives to reduce the use of water; noneconomic incentives to use AWD; level ground; water availability; control of water; membership of irrigation district or water associations; and access to agricultural information related to water and rice production.Table 10 is a summary of the operationalization developed to construct the variables mentioned and the potential aspects to be integrated in future analyses.In general, the households interviewed did not present economic incentives (at least in terms of paying for water by volume) or noneconomic incentives (e.g. mitigation and saving water). The majority reported that they performed land leveling in the principal rice plot at least once; but it was not possible to determine if the plots were well levelled. More than 50% had at some time experienced problems with water availability, but more than 90% reported that they had control over this natural resource when was available. A total of 40% belonged to an irrigation district and/or water association and 60% had access to water and/or production information (Figure 5).Households that pay for water by volume. Inputs, pumping and labor.Households that identify water reduction and mitigation of climate change as the main reasons for using AWD rather than increased yields and reduced costs).-Households that affirmed to have carried out land leveling once in the principal rice plot.Ground without hollows or gaps that permit better water management (from the farmer's perspective).Qualifies with a 4 or 5 (from 1 to 5) the access of water.-Households that identified 100% control of water for rice irrigation or who could control but needed to ask third parties in order to use it.-Households in which at least one household member was part of an irrigated district or water association. -Households in which at least one household member had access to information about rice production or water use.-Table 10: Operationalization of key resources or incentives in order to use AWD.Source: Authors' design (2016).  In general, rice producers do not have incentives to reduce water use. In most cases, water payments were made per hectare rather than based on the volume of water used. Therefore, for farmers, water saving generally did not negatively affect the amount of money they spent on water. Furthermore, irrigation was an activity that was just a small part of total production costs. The questionnaire asked respondents to rank four elements of production -irrigation, weed control, land preparation and fertilization -from the costliest activity to the cheapest. Irrigation was usually located in the third or fourth place. And the cost of water was not identified as a problem in the production cycle (1% of households). This issue was confirmed with some semi-structured interviews conducted in districts and water associations in Tolima, Norte de Santander and Córdoba; these interviews confirmed that farmers did not have incentives to use less water and that they, as districts, did not have the capacity to charge by volume. 5   While water associations and irrigation districts did not have the capacity to fully regulate or charge for water, there were still times when water was quite scarce in this region. It was also found that most households (more than 90%) had control over the water on their farm. As stated by several respondents, water availability is a huge challenge for rice producers. From the producer's point of view, about 98% of households used rivers as their main source of water for irrigation and 59% identified that sometimes there was not enough water in the rivers.The access to key resources for implementation of AWD varied by department. Differences were found, especially in noneconomic incentives, economic incentives and land leveling. In fact, Norte de Santander was the department where the greatest proportion of rice households had the key resources necessary for AWD adoption (Figure 6). In Norte de Santander, approximately 60% of the households had an economic incentive to adopt AWD, contrary to other departments where incentives were calculated at less than 20%. In Norte de Santander, there is a larger proportion of households that pay for water based on the volume of water used, rather than on the cultivated area or season. Noneconomic incentives seem to be more relevant in Casanare and Cesar, and less in Córdoba. Apart from Cesar and Casanare, more than half of the cases in each department confirmed that they had carried out land leveling at least once. Control of water or water availability did not seem to be a problem for any of the departments but water availability was more of an issue for Tolima. Nonetheless, in Norte de Santander, Cesar and Casanare, the water availability problem was reported in approximately 20% of the cases. Casanare and Cesar are departments in which a greater proportion of households did not have access to irrigation district or water association membership. And access to information was higher in Cesar and Córdoba.Overall, Tolima had a substantially higher proportion of cases with level ground, control over water and access to water/production information. Norte de Santander had the majority of resources and economic incentives. Farmers in Córdoba did not have economic and noneconomic incentives to adopt AWD, and those in Casanare had a higher level of noneconomic incentives than in the other departments. After describing the overall situation of households' access to, and control over, resources and their incentives for water management, Figure 6 disaggregates the key resources and incentives by gender, using an approximation that combines the participation of women in the field and the gender of the household head to construct various variables available to agricultural studies for operationalizing the gender of the producer. So we combined the gender of who decides and contributes resources to rice production with the head of the household. Therefore, here households were classified into three categories: male-headed households with no women producers; male-headed households with women producers; and female-headed households with women producers.Various hypotheses could explain this; here we explore one. Households with women who participated as rice producers may have experienced better water availability because they were in places that did not suffer water scarcity as much as in other places. AsThe resources and incentives were disaggregated among the three types of households. We observed statistical differences in water availability, noneconomic incentives and access to information (Figure 7). Female-headed households with women producers were more likely to have water availability compared to the other two cases and more access to information and noneconomic incentives. In addition, male-headed households, with women producers, were more likely to have this resource and incentives. On the other hand, male-headed households, with no women as producers, are likely to have lower non-economic incentives.Figure 8 shows, women's participation was more visible in Norte de Santander and Casanare, two departments in which water availability is not a problem for the majority. But further analyses must be carried out to have a better understanding of the situation. Source: Authors calculations from Gender/AWD survey (2016).Non-economic incentiveLevel plot 70 90 100According to the results described here, there is a second reason to include women in a program to increase implementation of AWD in Colombia.Households in which women participate as producersin male-or female-headed households -are more likely to have noneconomic incentives. This is because these households prefer mitigation and water saving rather than productivity increases or a reduction in costs as potential motivating factors in implementing AWD. Also, households with women producers were more likely to have water availability, which is a key factor for the implementation of this technology, in part because women's participation is more visible in Tolima and Norte de Santander that have less problems of water availability compared to other departments. Developing and disseminating technologies that are implemented by farmers requires a critical analysis of possible social effects that this might have on the population of intervention. One such social effect is on labor use in the production process, specifically in those activities that could be affected by AWD implementation, such as irrigation and weed control. AWD is likely to impact irrigation and may increase weed pressure if it is not well managed depending the previous water management and weed control techniques. Specifically, change in water management, could potentially affect: the timing and frequency of weed control, and/or the intensity of effort needed for weed control. Many agricultural technologies are considered to be labor saving, in other words, \"tools and equipment which reduce drudgery and/or improve efficiency of performing various farming or household activities\" (Bishop-Sambrook, 2003). It is also important to note, that labor-saving associated with technologies such as AWD could also reduce employment opportunities and, consequently, income for hired labor.Apart from decision making, women also participate in activities related to irrigated rice production. Men participate in almost all the agronomic activities as both family and hired labor; women participate mostly as family labor (Table 11).  As presented in Tables 12 and 13, in nearly all households, men participated in activities related to the production process. Women contributed to specific activities that were more manual or not \"directly\" related to agronomic activities. As family labor, women were more likely to participate in food provision, supportive tasks, registration of information, or as family labor providers (as an overall without a specific activity) 6 (Table 12). As hired labor, their participation was in these activities as well as in manual weed control and transplanting (Table 13). Labor time in weed control could change with the implementation of AWD, requiring more or fewer person days during the rice production cycle.  The information currently available is the number of person days used for each agronomic activity and the number of households that used labor for a specific activity. But there is no information on how AWD might have affected the time used for irrigation and/or weed control. In a scenario in which AWD increased the person days required for manual weed control, rural women who worked as paid labor (or men) would in theory have more opportunities to generate income. But, if the person days needed for this kind of labor are reduced, women would have less paid work -an issue that could translate into less income for rural households. The same case has been mentioned for conservation agriculture (Beuchelt and Badstue, 2013).Therefore, it is important to systematize information in terms of labor force used in the scenario of AWD, to compare the possible impact that this technology may have had on the number of person days used, and thus on the lives of those women and men who work in weed control and irrigation (e.g. systematized information from experimental plots for AWD or apply a randomized controlled trial [RCT] methodology).Photo: Laura Arenas/CIAT.According to these results, it is important to consider gender for disseminating technologies related to water management (i.e. AWD) in the Colombian rice sector, for the two main reasons outlined below.• First, in pragmatic terms, it is important to include women rice producers during field experimentation and dissemination of this technology in order to contribute to a higher rate of adoption. As highlighted here, women participate in the decisionmaking process and contribute their assets. The main producer is not the only one making decisions about rice production, and in some cases, those who make the decisions get advice from others, including from national agricultural associations and inputs sellers. Therefore, it is important to consider all these actors when designing dissemination approaches for strategies such as AWD. Also, as households where women participated in rice production were more aware of the mitigation and water-saving benefits of AWD, targeting such households could increase early adoption rates.• Second, in terms of social justice, even when women participated, they did not receive recognition of being rice producers; they did not get access to information of rice production or group membership in the same numbers as men did. The dissemination of new technologies in rice production could be an opportunity to involve more women in this process, and increase their access to agricultural services. Also, AWD may affect the time used for labor related to irrigation and weed control activities. Women worked in manual weed control as hired labor and men worked in irrigation and chemical weed control. Therefore, it is important to be aware of this issue when developing an implementation, strategy for AWD and designing alternatives to mitigate the negative effects on the livelihoods of those women and men, or support the possible positive effects.According to these main results the following steps are recommended (Figure 9):1. Integrate a gender perspective in the future research and implementation of AWD in Colombia.2. Include social trade-offs (i.e. economic, productive, climatic and agronomic) in the analyses conducted on the implementation of AWD.3. Share the information with scientists and national stakeholders working in rice production. This can include blog posts, info notes, and other briefs -for example a blog post was written to share the study of gender and AWD. 7  ","tokenCount":"7003"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6551b59124646cf3745be2758d86db3a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/268369d0-d0cb-4fd5-aabb-f361d0061463/retrieve","id":"1380750911"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6a37d47a-c77a-47f7-9345-7966eb6243e0","pagecount":"4","content":"Achieving sustainable change at scale requires a change in the way \"we all do our business\". CGIAR centers and their partners need to embrace a change management agenda.Several CGIAR centers and CRPs are pioneering ways to accommodate \"scaling\" in their organizational structures. These range from establishing center-wide Communities of Practice, to mainstreaming scaling in their institutional procedures and practices, e.g. by having integrated or independent structures set up explicitly for scaling innovations. The following examples were discussed:The TTU at ICIPE was set up in 2017 as a support unit of ICIPE's three main thematic hubs, with the aim to bridge the gap between research and applications. To date, the TTU already scaled out two innovations: the Push-Pull Technology and Bait Production against Fruit Flies byIn November 2018, the CGIAR/GIZ Task Force on Scaling facilitated a Conference on Scaling, organized by CCAFS Southeast Asia. 70 participants of 34 research, development, farmer, policy and finance organizations shared their experiences and learnings. The main take away was: \"Scaling takes place in complex systems and involves all kinds of different stakeholders. Scaling should therefore lead to sustainable change at scale. To achieve sustainable system change, we need to challenge ourselves and to change the way we work.\" Kenya Biologics. Hereby, the TTU acts as broker between researchers and the broader stakeholder landscape, including farmers and mainly private sector scaling partners, with the following main tasks: Understanding both research processes and the developed technologies, as well as the needs of farmers, private sector partners and stakeholders. Breaking down and translating the innovations so that farmers and users can better understand these. Packaging the innovations in a way that they are useful for farmers.The implementing agencies, however, still need continuous advice and TTU's expertise.The TTU has its own mission, goal and strategy. Its communications team and website are independent, but linked to the headquarter communication structure. The TTU also has its own budget, while at the same time functions as a fundraising unit. Each funding proposal of ICIPE's various departments now includes technical transfer activities, or seeks advice of the TTU before being submitted.The TTU employs staff with different skill sets. It requires different human resources policies and recruitment practices to prioritize \"someone with high motivation for action and change\" over someone with a strong academic background, if all other competences are the same. The most needed skills for scaling innovations are multidisciplinary analytical skills, management and field implementation experience, as well as a combination of both structured thinking and a practical mindset.The set-up of the TTU as support unit also poses challenges for ICIPE as a whole: Cooperation between researchers and innovation developers: The TTU staff relies on the new knowledge and innovations of the departments. At the same time, the TTU sometimes needs to \"put the finger on the weak spots\", e.g. when assessing innovations' scalability. This critical approach can discourage active cooperation of researchers and innovation developers. Evidence for fundraising: Future independent fundraising for the TTU will require evidence of TTU's contribution to improving scaling of innovations, which in turn calls for the respective monitoring and data management mechanisms. Currently, funding for the TTU is not secured over the long term, and relies on diverting resources from research activities. Contractual conditions for private sector cooperation: Albeit the private sector partners have already commercialized standardized innovations of ICIPE, the question of paying royalties to ICIPE, and the allocation of the amounts to the different departments and to the TTU, is yet to be resolved.In 2016, IITA set up the P4D Directory as a separate structure, replacing partnership and capacity development directorate, to enhance delivery of IITA innovations and increase sustainable use of IITA innovations at scale. The P4D Directorate combines the five units Business Incubation Platform, Delivery and Development Office, Capacity Development Office, Youth in Agribusiness Office, and the Mechanization Office. Each unit has its own organizational structure and support units at project level. In addition, two commercial agricultural consulting -and farm management services, and three non-profit industrial companies are established, which operate more than ten countries. The P4D department hosts 39 staff members (e.g. CEOs of the companies, business managers, communication staff and innovation delivery experts) that are working on the different aspects of scaling, and interact daily with the researchers.The P4D innovation pipeline has three major sections: An initial phase for research and innovation development projects; A second project phase for innovations that have higher scaling potential, engaging with innovation delivery partners; A possible third phase for incubating the organizations working on the most promising innovations, connecting these with investors from the private (non-profit) sector or governments (\"institutionalization\").This set-up guides donor and private sector investments to identify innovations that align with their respective innovation development and scaling programs. The P4D Directorate is further based on three strong partnerships: Wageningen University, specialized on capacity building and science on scaling, provides state of art knowledge and tools for scaling. IITA's R4D structure supports research on and development of innovations. The link to the CGIAR CRP Roots, Tubers and Bananas provides access to global learning on scaling innovations, and strategic investments through its Scaling Fund Initiative.The discussed initiatives are only two of many examples how the CGIAR++ centers currently approach and explore scaling within their structures. The following key messages of the workshop's participants can help the wider R4D community in institutionalizing their scaling efforts: Scaling is not an expenditureit is an investment! \"Scaling needs money, but also attracts money.\" Some donors and development initiatives already explicitly fund scalable innovation development, while private sector, investors and government partners look more into massive adoption. However, both need to have evidence to prove that the innovations are worth investing in. Be responsive to the multiple demands of users.\"Farmers don't think in silos, so we should not work in silos.\" Researchers propose innovations with specific uses, but farmers need innovations that answer their multiple challenges. Therefore, it is crucial to cooperate with multiple disciplines, and to invest in understanding, translating and repackaging the innovations. Build management capacity for scaling \"The scaling mindset is different from the research mindset\" New leaders will need to be managers, with business perspective and skills. This will require different human resource policies, with other forms of performance evaluation criteria than for traditional research. Allow for failuresbut document for learning Changing the work routines requires changes at multiple levels of the CGIAR centers and CRPs. At the same time, many innovative forms of partnerships or business opportunities arise at project levels. These opportunities bear large potential for learning and documentation, thus building up the needed institutional experience.Navigating new contexts can be challenging. The discussion among the CGIAR++ Scaling Workshop participants provided some insights on how to manage change on individual or project level: Seeing is believingalso for CGIAR centers When the context is not suitable for investing significantly in scaling, it might help to provide evidence in the frame of small initiatives. One way of using small budgets efficiently can be to cooperate with agencies that can translate research results into scalable innovations and/or use these to create impact at scale. This in turn can attract more donor and investors' money. Recognize and respond to researchers' needs and priorities \"Scientists prioritize publishing and are skeptical about using their time and resources for non-research activities.But they are also happy to see the results of their research on the ground, and to gain visibility towards the donor!\" Recognize how difficult it is for scientists to make decisions for scaling, which always carry an element of risk and might require compromising technical efficiency for use at scale. Promoting \"best bet options\" is not very compatible with researchers'' instincts. On the other hand, the emerging science on scaling also provides for publications in highranking journals, incentivizing researchers' interest in investing time and resources on scaling.\"The beauty is to bring worlds that are hard to match.\"There can be organizational conflicts, e.g. competitions between departments, or between the people on project, unit and headquarter levels. Stakeholders can have conflicting needs, e.g. immediately tangible benefits pursued by business managers and long publishing processes in the scientific domain. Managing these conflicts requires negotiation skills, and an understanding of the different \"languages\" of the stakeholders. Get buy in at multiple levels Convince people with influence, e.g. the ones who communicate and engage directly with donors.Technicians that worked on the innovations at the field level can be natural allies, as well as colleagues working in communications and at strategic levels. Help people to own the change It can be exhausting to spearhead change. It can be more rewarding to engage with existing change initiatives within an organization, helping these to become more effective. At times, it might also help forge alliances outside of the organization, which can influence research for development projects to become more sensitive to scaling: \"At some point, I just stop talking and get other people inso that my colleagues hear it from someone else!\"Scaling takes place at and across multiple levels: from evidence to action, from local to national and global scales and back, from simple to more complex. This calls for strengthening the collaboration between researchers and a wide set of stakeholders. While there might not be a blueprint on the best way of institutionalizing scaling, participants of the CGIAR++ workshop identified shared issues that CGIAR centers and partners can benefit on exploring together: Scaling projects are different from research projectsthe implementation part is necessary!  Consider equity for marginalized groups and social inclusion to translate scaling work to different contexts and users' understanding. \"Smart tasks\": Share ownership in planning and implementation, clearly define and map roles, specialized inputs and responsibilities of each partner, and transparently share each other's agenda. Open the door to new relevant partners and explore new methods of collaboration. Areas of cooperation span the process from initial research to critical impact studies, including innovative ways of data sharing.The Participants saw a strong role for the CGIAR centers, its partners and the wider scaling community to equip and facilitate an expert dialogue with donors and financiers, for joint learning and advocacy on scaling: Team up with scaling scientists and practitioners of the different CGIAR centers to develop a shared understanding on innovation development and scaling. Details of framing and working definitions can still be different for the different centers, but need to align with a shared understanding and language. Harmonize and/or complement the tools to identify scalable technologies and practices, scaling pathways and approaches, and challenges. Learn from each other to build capacity within scaling partners and CGIAR scaling practitioners andexperts. Also learn from outside the CGIAR, e.g. from external experts on communications, finance, marketing. Join think tanks to develop new inspiration. \"Speak with one voice\" to raise awareness on these issues towards donors and financiers. Arne H. Theissen (Arne.Theissen@mailbox.org) is a free-lance systemic consultant, based in Germany.Felix Zeiske (felix.zeiske@giz.de), formerly innovation transfer advisor at ICIPE, now works as GIZ country manager in East Asia.Murat Sartas (m.sartas@cgiar.org) is an innovation performance and delivery scientist at IITA and Wageningen University, linked to the RTB CRP.","tokenCount":"1838"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f7f29ca06a49baab2d39935facaf2cf6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7ad22d63-f9ff-4cac-93ba-a02e86277495/retrieve","id":"-1825988587"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"96eded50-272b-4dca-9f6e-2c408e8beede","pagecount":"42","content":"Rapport technique : Diffusion de prévisions climatiques et conseils destinés aux agriculteurs et aux agro-pasteurs. Accélérer les impacts de la recherche climatique du GCRAI pour l'Afrique (AICCRA)L'objectif d'AICCRA est d'accroître l'accès des prestataires de services de recherche et de vulgarisation agricoles en Afrique aux connaissances, aux technologies et aux outils de prise de décision pertinents pour améliorer la résilience des systèmes agricoles et alimentaires face au changement climatique.Ce projet vise à mettre en oeuvre la composante sous régionale d'AICCRA en Afrique de l'Ouest en mettant en place des partenariats multi-acteurs de réseaux et de centres scientifiques et éducatifs existants afin d'atteindre des résultats qui ne peuvent pas être atteints facilement, voire pas du tout, en s'engageant avec des partenaires individuels au niveau national. Plus précisément, ce projet renforcera la capacité des institutions publiques régionales (par exemple, CERAAS/ISRA, ANACIM, ANCAR, etc.) et des entreprises privées (par exemple, les fournisseurs d'intrants, les entreprises de TIC, les médias) à développer des modèles d'affaire pour les services climatiques et pour la connaissance des AIC, des approches et des outils pour soutenir une adoption efficace inter-régionale et sud dans diverses chaînes de valeur.Dans le cadre de la mise en oeuvre du projet AICCRA, l'institut international de recherche sur l'élevage (ILRI) a établi une collaboration fructueuse avec l'entreprise Jokalante afin de faciliter la diffusion des informations climatiques et des conseils agricoles et agropastoraux. Il s'agit principalement de diffuser des messages vocaux dans trois langues locales (Wolof, Pulaar et Manding), permettant ainsi aux producteurs d'accéder à des informations cruciales. Après une première année de partenariat en 2022, la décision a été prise d'étendre la portée du projet pour inclure les pasteurs et agro-pasteurs.Le présent rapport technique offre une vue d'ensemble des activités menées tout au long de l'année 2023, couvrant la période de janvier à décembre. Ce rapport documente les étapes franchies dans la mise en oeuvre du projet, mettant en lumière les résultats obtenus, les défis rencontrés et les perspectives pour l'avenir. Il témoigne de l'engagement continu de l'ILRI et de Jokalante à renforcer la résilience des communautés agricoles et agropastorales face aux défis climatiques.Les objectifs assignés à Jokalante durant cette campagne 2023 se présentent comme suit : 5. Assurer la diffusion des conseils produits par ISAT et ceux de la communauté de pratique pour l'élevage : il s'agit de faire les enregistrements en voix et en langues locales des informations et conseils puis assurer la diffusion directement sur le téléphone mobile des bénéficiaires sous forme d'appels.Le bilan complet de ces activités sera présenté dans les sections suivantes, couvrant les domaines spécifiques de l'agriculture, de l'élevage, ainsi que des aspects transversaux et une évaluation approfondie et détaillée des résultats obtenus au cours de la campagne.Partie 1 : Elevage Ces fonctionnalités prennent en compte entre autres :• La chaine de valeur,• La thématique dans laquelle l'expert donne ses conseils• La zone concernée par le conseil et la période de validité  -Objectifs spécifiques :1. Analyser la perception des bénéficiaires sur le canal de réception des informations et conseils.2. Etudier les types de décisions prises par les producteurs à l'issue de ces informations et conseils reçues.La démarche méthodologique de cette étude est basée sur une approche mixte. Elle consiste de lier l'approche qualitative et l'approche quantitative.-Population de l'étude Pour l'enquête quantitative qui s'est déroulé via des appels téléphoniques, la population mère est l'ensemble des personnes ayant écouté plus de 75% de l'ensemble des informations diffusées durant la campagne ce qui donne un total de 635 personnes.Par rapport à l'enquête qualitative deux focus groupes ont été déroulés dans deux villages d'intervention du projet. Ces focus groupes ont mobilisé les bénéficiaires directs des informations et conseils qui ont été diffusées.-Calcul de la taille de l'échantillon Pour calculer la taille de l'échantillon, un degré de confiance de 95% et une marge d'erreur de 5% seront appliqués sur la population mère, ce qui a donné les résultats présentés dans le tableau ci-après :   n'apprécient pas particulièrement la voix de l'homme diffusant les informations, à cause des considérations sociales qui pourraient être mal perçues par leurs conjoints.-Appréciation du contenu des informations et conseils diffusées. -Niveau de partage des informations Selon les résultats de l'enquête, il ressort que les éleveurs partagent fréquemment les informations qu'ils reçoivent, que ce soit avec leurs proches, leurs collègues éleveurs ou les membres de leur famille. En effet, 93,2% des participants à l'enquête ont indiqué partager les informations qu'ils reçoivent. -Analyse de la prise de décision et les effets des messages voix diffusés La prise de décision reste la finalité des conseils diffusés. A cet effet, la question de savoir si les éleveurs ont pris des décisions suite aux conseils reçus a été posée les réponses obtenues ont montré que 78% des interviewés ont au moins pris une décision. Les décisions prises portent sur les activités de cultures fourragères, la santé animale, la planification des activités liées à l'élevage… 7% 93%  Certaines éleveuses ne se sentent pas à l'aise d'être contactées par un homme pour recevoir des informations, car cela pourrait susciter des frustrations chez leur mari.• Problème d'accès à l'eau douce et la non fertilité des terres pour la culture fourragère : La majorité des enquêtés n'ont pas pratiqué la culture fourragère pour cette année, principalement en raison de la quantité limitée des pluies, de la salinité et du coût élevé de l'eau des forages, ainsi que de la faible fertilité des terres.-Recommandations Les recommandations qui découlent de cette campagne se présentent comme suit :• Organiser davantage des activités de sensibilisation sur le terrain : Jokalante en partenariat avec AICCRA, APAFIL et ADID doivent organiser des activités de sensibilisation sur le terrain et via la radio pour mieux informer les bénéficiaires sur les informations qu'ils reçoivent ainsi sur le système de feedback.• Enregistrer les messages voix en tenant compte du sexe de la cible : En plus de partager les informations dans la langue choisie, Jokalante doit désormais prendre en considération le genre de la personne destinataire du message. Les hommes reçoivent les informations par le biais de la voix masculine, et que les femmes les reçoivent via la voix féminine. Il ressort du diagramme ci-dessus que parmi les 1301 enquêtés, 74,4% sont des hommes contre 24,6% de femmes. Durant cette enquête de profilage la question sur la langue parlée a été posée aux interviewés. Les résultats obtenus sont présentés dans le diagramme ci-dessous.Il ressort du diagramme ci-dessous que 60,65 % des interviewés comprennent la langue PULAR, ceux qui parlent Wolof et MANDING représentent respectivement 36,43% et 2,92% des enquêtés. A la lumière du tableau si dessus, nous notons que le projet a diffusées plus de 61 885 messages reçus écoutés soit un taux de 69% par rapport à l'ensemble des personnes ciblées. On note que le taux d'atteint par alerte varie entre 50% et 82%. Pour rappel, Jokalante fait 04 à 05 relances pour joindre ceux qu'elle n'avait pas pu joindre au premier appel. Toutefois, de nombreux paramètres doivent être pris en compte dans la réception du message au moment de l'envoi : le téléphone de la cible peut être éteint pendant longtemps, la personne peut être en communication ou bien un problème de réseau peut survenir, etc.Aussi, il est intéressant de noter que les alertes sont spécifiques par zone, ce qui signifie que pour chaque alerte les quatre zones d'intervention sont concernées.-Objectif général L'objectif général de cette évaluation est d'analyser les effets des informations agrométéorologiques sur les activités culturales des producteurs dans le cadre du projet AICCRA.-Objectifs spécifiques 1. Analyser la perception des bénéficiaires sur le canal de réception des conseils agrométéorologiques.2. Etudier les types de décisions prises par les producteurs à l'issue de ces informations et conseils reçues.3. Ressortir les effets des conseils agrométéorologiques diffusés sur les activités culturales des bénéficiaires.Pour évaluer les effets de cette campagne, une approche mixte a été adoptée. Elle consiste de lier à la fois l'approche qualitative et l'approche quantitative. Ce qui a permis d'obtenir des données quantitatives étayées par les explications nécessaires.-Population de l'étude La population mère de cette évaluation est l'ensemble des personnes ayant écouté plus de 80% de l'ensemble des informations diffusées durant la campagne ce qui donne un total de 1914 personnes.Pour les enquêtes qualitatives, des focus group ont déroulés dans les différents clusters du projet à raison deux focus par cluster.-Calcul de la taille de l'échantillon Pour calculer la taille de l'échantillon, un degré de confiance de 95% et une marge d'erreur de 5% seront appliqués sur la population mère, ce qui donne les résultats présentés dans le tableau ci-après :  Le diagramme ci-dessus montre que plus de 98% des producteurs considèrent que les informations et les conseils qu'ils ont reçus sont compréhensibles. Ceux qui affirment que c'est difficile voire très difficile à comprendre représentent respectivement 0,94% et 0,31% des enquêtés.Cependant, il faut noter qu'il y a 13,7% des producteurs qui ont affirmé que parfois des termes qui sont dit en français et qu'ils peinent à comprendre, comme le témoigne ce producteur du village de Touba NDIAGNE « le seul problème que je veux signaler c'est la langue, parfois dans le message certains termes sont dits en est dit en français or ici beaucoup de cultivateurs ne parlent pas français ».-Analyse de l'utilisation des agro-conseils dans les décisions d'avant-saison Les informations communiquées concernent les prévisions climatiques et les conseils agrométéorologiques via ISAT, guidant ainsi les producteurs depuis la préparation de la campagne jusqu'aux dernières pluies de la saison. Ainsi, certaines décisions prises par les producteurs avant le début de la saison ont été traquée et voir comment les informations reçus de ISAT les ont aidées dans ces décisions. Parmi, ces décisions on peut noterDans cette section, l'objectif est d'évaluer dans quelle mesure les producteurs intègrent les prévisions saisonnières dans leurs processus de planification pour la campagne agricole.Les résultats révèlent que la vaste majorité des répondants, soit 95%, déclarent prendre en compte les prévisions saisonnières lors de l'organisation de leurs activités préliminaires à la saison. Notamment, parmi ceux qui intègrent ces prévisions, un pourcentage significatif de 99% témoigne que les informations provenant d'ISAT les ont guidés dans l'anticipation des conditions saisonnières, influençant ainsi leurs décisions finales.Oui Non Ces constatations mettent en lumière non seulement la pertinence, mais également l'influence positive des prévisions saisonnières, en particulier celles fournies par ISAT, sur les pratiques agricoles des producteurs.Ces résultats soulignent que les producteurs qui intègrent activement ces informations sont mieux préparés à anticiper les variations saisonnières, ce qui les aide à prendre des décisions éclairées pour optimiser leurs rendements et gérer efficacement leurs opérations agricoles.  Ces résultats soulignent l'importance cruciale des données agrométéorologiques dans le processus décisionnel des agriculteurs, démontrant que l'accès à des informations précises et certifiées contribue de manière significative à l'optimisation des pratiques agricoles, en particulier lorsqu'il s'agit de préparer les terres pour l'hivernage -Utilité des agro-conseils pour les décisions en cours de saison Au cours de l'hivernage, des prévisions climatiques ainsi que des conseils agricoles hebdomadaires sont fournis aux producteurs afin de leur permettre de prendre des décisions tactiques. Parmi ces décisions on peut noter entre autres :Dans cette partie la question de savoir si les producteurs ont appliqué des engrais, contrôlé les mauvaises • Décisions relatives à la récolte et à l'après-récolte La période de récolte reste une période cruciale pour les producteurs avec les risques des dernières pluies.Ainsi, des prévisions climatiques couplées avec des conseils agricoles sont partagés aux producteurs pour leurs permettre de prendre leurs dispositions nécessaires, mais aussi de mieux identifier la maturité des cultures avant de procéder aux récoltes. Ainsi, la question de savoir si les producteurs identifient les moments optimaux pour les récoltes et à quel point les informations sur ISAT leurs permettent d'optimiser la période de récolte des cultures a été posée.  Les défis rencontrés au cours de cette campagne agricole sont exposés dans les paragraphes suivants• Défaillance du réseau téléphonique : le manque de réseau téléphonique reste une réalité dans certaines zones.De ce fait, certains bénéficiaires restent parfois injoignables, même si Jokalante fait au moins 4 relances d'appel durant la validité de l'information.• L'impossibilité de réécouter des messages voix diffusés : les populations ont exprimé le besoin de pouvoir récouter les messages voix diffusés.• Manque de stratégie de pérennisation du service : Il est observé que des approches visant à assurer la continuité du service au-delà du projet n'ont pas encore été élaborées.Les recommandations qui découlent de ces contraintes notées sont présentées comme suit :• Mettre en place le système de récoute des messages voix diffusés : Jokalante est invité à mettre en place son système IVR pour les bénéficiaires. Ce système permettra aux producteurs d'appeler sur le même numéro pour recevoir les informations et conseils diffusés.• Organiser des campagnes de sensibilisation sur la pérennisation sur service : afin de favoriser une meilleure appropriation de la pérennisation du service, il est essentiel de renforcer la communication entre Jokalante et les producteurs. Ces échanges permettront une compréhension approfondie des diverses offres de service ainsi que des étapes à suivre pour s'abonner au-delà du projet. Mais aussi, de réfléchir à la durabilité de ISAT avec un business model qui pourrait permettre aux producteurs d'accéder aux conseils au-delà du projet.  ","tokenCount":"2179"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8b9ee31bc2e06685f26c4a324d40275d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/db9d9d08-694b-4902-9ffe-e634be2052ec/content","id":"783508821"},"keywords":["Physiological breeding","Yield potential","Heat","Climate resilience","Pre-breeding","Rapid cycle breeding"],"sieverID":"8bcb4ffc-1915-4c85-bd95-4a419ec35f39","pagecount":"23","content":"To accelerate genetic gains in breeding, physiological trait (PT) characterization of candidate parents can help make more strategic crosses, increasing the probability of accumulating favorable alleles compared to crossing relatively uncharacterized lines. In this study, crosses were designed to complement ''source'' with ''sink'' traits, where at least one parent was selected for favorable expression of biomass and/Genetic gains in spring wheat yield are currently in the region of 0.5-1% per year (Sharma et al. 2012;Fischer et al. 2014;Crespo-Herrera et al. 2017) and due almost entirely to conventional approaches. Yield gains are achieved through unspecified recombination of genes of minor effect when elite lines are intercrossed, as well as the introgression of new genetic diversity from landraces or wild relatives (Braun et al. 2010), typically as sources of disease resistance and grain quality traits (Ortiz et al. 2008;Sehgal et al. 2015). Additional information about candidate parents can help design more complementary crosses. For example, high density markers, as well as pedigree information/coefficient of parentage (COP) can be used to maximize genetic diversity between elite parents (Sukumaran et al. 2017). However, two elite lineseven with diverse marker profiles or low COP-may still involve the same traits and alleles to achieve good expression of yield. Genetic and physiological characterization of lines can help make more strategic crosses in terms of complementary traits and alleles. By crossing lines with good yield and complementary traits, the probability of achieving cumulative gene action for yield increases, compared to crossing uncharacterized lines or ones expressing the same traits.Since understanding of the genetic basis of cultivar level differences in yield potential is very limited, trait based crossing currently relies heavily on phenotypic information (Reynolds and Langridge 2016), although in the few backgrounds and environments in which genetic dissection has been performed, markers that pertain to yield or its components can also be used to guide hybridization strategies (e.g. Griffiths et al. 2015). If the objective is to increase tolerance to abiotic stress, empirical data and models (Richards 2006;Ghanem et al. 2014;Cossani and Reynolds 2015) can help suggest parents with potentially complementary trait/allele profiles. Similarly, conceptual models of complementary traits can be used to design strategic crosses for increasing yield potential (Reynolds et al. 2012). In this context, it can be helpful when characterizing and selecting complementary parents to consider a 'pyramid' of traits going from highly integrative to less integrative (Fig. 1). For example, since yield is a function of total biomass (BM) and of partitioning biomass to grains, i.e. harvest index (HI), one can hypothesize that crosses between lines with a large BM (and related traits) on the one hand, and high expression of HI (and related traits) on the other, is more likely to be complementary than crossing high yield 9 high yield lines, assuming both parents have adequate expression of yield.This paper presents the outcome of a considerable body of work where the value of source/sink crosses were tested in a realistic breeding context. The idea that biomass contributes to yield is borne out by theory-a large biomass pushes the theoretical yield margin-and in practice, since biomass is commonly associated with genetic gains in yield (Aisawi et al. 2015). The importance of improving biomass is also borne out by the apparent stagnation of harvest index in recent decades (Foulkes et al. 2011). However, crossing and selecting for biomass alone is not sufficient since the two traits often show negative association (Aisawi et al. 2015). Furthermore, putting positive selection pressure on HI increases the chances that among the many competing sinks expressed during stem elongation (including for height), grain sinks will be favored (Foulkes et al. 2011). The disadvantage of selecting for high biomass is that it can bring in lateness and lodging tendency associated with increased height. While this tendency was observed in the current study, results also showed that these linkages can be broken even in the best yielding lines.The breeding results described in the current work were founded on strategic crossing using-as trait sources-a large body of genetic resources that had been selected either at high yield potential, or under heat stress (Reynolds et al. 2015). Selected genetic resources constituted the female parents while highyielding, broadly adapted lines with appropriate height, phenology and disease resistance were used as males, and as recurrent male parents if crossing with a female landrace or synthetic hexaploids. Crosses were designed to complement ''source'' with ''sink'' traits, in the sense that at least one parent was selected for favorable expression of biomass (source) and the other for favorable expression of sink related traitsincluding harvest index (HI), kernel number per m 2 (KNO), thousand kernel weight (TKW), and grains per spike (GSP)-.The overall objective of the study was to demonstrate in a breeding context that complementing source with sink traits-through strategic crossing-can achieve significant yield gains. The specific objectives of the study were: (i) to derive suitable progeny from strategic crosses-mainly in terms of yield, biomass, phenology, height and rust resistance, targeted to favorable and heat stressed environments, respectively; (ii) evaluate the performance of the selected progeny across a range of target environments; and (iii) compare the performance of the best lines with that of local checks and elite CIMMYT material.The lines used as parents for trait-based crossing in this study came from a number of different sourcesdescribed below-having been evaluated for yield and other agronomic traits using methodologies developed previously (Reynolds et al. 2007).Fig. 1 Trait hierarchy in relation to their degree of integration depicting the main drivers of yield (biomass and harvest index), and some of their components/subcomponents (none exhaustive). Int interception, DW dry weight, WSC water soluble carbohydrate, PS photosynthesisThe International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN) routinely develops and tests new wheat lines at more than 700 field sites in over 90 countries.Breeding is conducted at a few strategic research hubs to annually develop up to 1000 new high yielding, disease-resistant lines targeted to major agro-ecologies. Germplasm delivered is used as sources of outstanding traits for breeding; as candidates for variety release; and for research into local adaptation (Braun et al. 2010;Gourdji et al. 2012;Reynolds et al. 2017).Approximately 15,000 spring wheat landraces from the World Wheat Collection have recently been prescreened under high temperature stress. Several hundred landraces were selected for superior yield and biomass. Some of these were identified by the Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS) (Sehgal et al. 2015).CIMMYT has generated 2000 so-called 'synthetic wheat' genotypes using novel genetic variation in diploid and tetraploid wheat (Ortiz et al. 2008). These primary synthetics can be crossed easily with elite bread wheat lines, and backcross derivatives are already well represented in new high yielding lines distributed by IWIN. Field studies have also shown that synthetic-derived material can confer significant advantages in terms of yield and biomass under heat stress (Cossani and Reynolds 2015). All 2000 lines were recently screened at CIMMYT under yield potential conditions as well as under heat and drought stress, and lines were identified that expressed superior performance in terms of biomass and/or yield under each of these conditions as well as some in combination (Reynolds et al. 2015).Two types of nurseries were developed in this study, using almost the same breeding methodology; one targeted at high yield potential irrigated environments (Wheat Yield Collaboration Yield Trial, WYCYT) and the other targeted at heat stressed, irrigated environments (Stress Adaptive Trait Yield Nursery, SATYN). Field temperature profiles used to select the parents and progeny for these nurseries are shown below (Fig. 2). In both cases, crosses were designed where at least one parent was selected for favorable expression of biomass (source) and the other for favorable expression of sink related traits-including harvest index (HI), kernel number per m 2 (KNO), thousand kernel weight (TKW), spike density (SPM2), and grains per spike (GSP), under their respective yield potential and irrigated heat stress environments. Incidentally, results of the 1st WYCYT are not presented in this study as lines were generally not higher yielding than elite CIMMYT checks, though many showed superior biomass. Data of the 1st and 3rd SATYN nurseries are not presented as they were targeted to rainfed environments and will be reported separately.Two classes of check were used in this study: (1) local checks (LCH) selected by national program collaborators that represent their best available advanced line adapted to local conditions; and (2) the best available elite CIMMYT advanced lines, selected based either on their superior performance in experiments at the breeding site (e.g. Sokoll), or where available, the return of recent IWIN data (e.g. Quaiu). Their superior yield potential was verified in multi-year yield trials at the breeding/selection site (Obregon, Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB CIMMYT)). The best yielding elite (CIMMYT) check from each international nursery-considering average yield across all international sites (namely, Vorobey in 2nd SATYN; Roelfs in 2nd WYCYT; Sokoll in 4th SATYN; and Borlaug-100 in 3rd WYCYT), yielded 7.4 t ha -1 , 7.5 t ha -1 , 7.6 t ha -1 , and 7.7 t ha -1 , respectively (not statistically different), where Borlaug-100 is the current gold standard in terms of yield potential.The breeding approach was designed to test new strategic crosses-i.e. physiological trait (PT) crosses-in a relatively short space of time; in this case strategic crosses designed to combine source and sink traits in a 5-6 year, rapid cycle breeding time frame. The scheme is illustrated in Fig. 3. The growing conditions at the CIMMYT Obregon breeding station (27°20 0 N; 109°54 0 W; 38 m above sea level) are that of an irrigated, spring wheat growing environment (Reynolds et al. 2007). Most of the breeding occurred at this site, namely: crossing; selections for traits: plant type, phenology and leaf rusts resistance which were made in F 2 and F 4 bulks of 3-4 thousand plants/cross (spaced at approximately 2-3 cm on rows 12 cm apart); yield measured in small (2 m 2 ) F 5 yield plots derived from the seed of selected individual F 4 plants (augmented designs); and yield and yield components at F 7 in replicated trials. The environment at the CIMMYT El Bata ´n experimental station (19°31 0 N; 98°50 0 W; 2249 m above sea level) is that of a largely rain-fed, temperate spring wheat growing environment (10 year-2007-2016-mean temperature for the June-September wheat cycle was 17.1 °C). This site was used for growing F 1 plants, backcrossing in the case of exotic parents, selection of F 3 plants from bulks (mainly for rust resistance as well as height and phenology), and for seed multiplication in F 6 generation (sown using 12-20 relatively uniform spikes bulked from the F 5 yield plot) to generate enough seed for F 7 yield trials in Obregon and for further multiplication in a quarantine zone (in Mexicali, Sonora) for international yield trials in F 8 . The international nurseries comprised of the best new PT F 8 progeny, namely lines with superior or equal yield and/or final biomass to the elite checks, as well as elite CIMMYT checks. All crossing and selection was made in the field without fungicide in order to incorporate an acceptable level of disease resistance which would otherwise confound yield data in international trials. In the case of the SATYN, the segregating generations until F 3 were sown in the same environment as the WYCYT, but selections in F 4 and beyond were made under heat stress by delayed sowing (Fig. 2).The selected progeny included in the WYCYT and SATYN nurseries were evaluated in replicated trials for yield and yield components using standard procedures as described previously for yield potential and heat stress environments (Reynolds et al. 2007). In summary, both environments are none-limiting in terms of irrigation, fertilizer, pest and disease control. However, the heat trials emerge about 10 weeks later (in early March) than the temperate sown trials (emerging mid-December) and as a result of warmer day and night temperatures (Fig. 2) experience a truncated life cycle of about 80 days from emergence to physiological maturity compared to temperate sown trials where the life cycle lasts approximately 120 days.The trials were grown at 50 sites located across some of the major spring wheat growing regions worldwide providing contrasting spring wheat production environments (Table 1). All sites were high radiation environments for which climatic data are summarized in Fig. 4 and Table 1, see also climatic data for CENEB and South Asian sites in Pask et al. (2014).Trials were conducted in the spring wheat season to correspond with recommended sowing and harvest times, depending on individual environments and contrasting between northern and southern hemispheres. At the majority of sites SATYN trials were planted later than WYCYT trials to increase exposure to heat stress. The two trials were treated as independent experiments. Trials were grown in well managed conditions; at all sites appropriate fertilization was implemented to avoid yield limitations, whilst weed and pest control were applied according to local best practice. Irrigation was applied by gravity-fed flood irrigation, and both trials were grown under fully irrigated conditions.The 2nd and 3rd WYCYT were grown in the 2013/14 and 2015/16 wheat cycles respectively, both with 42 lines; and the 2nd and 4th SATYN were grown in the 2012/13 and 2014/15 wheat cycles respectively,  consisting of 50 and 28 lines respectively. The experimental design at each location was a randomized alpha-lattice with two replications per entry (Barreto et al. 1997) giving a total of 84 plots for both WYCYTs, and 100 and 56 plots for 2nd and 4th SATYN respectively. At most locations, plants were sown on flat beds generally of 2.5-3.0 m length with 4-6 rows (20-25 cm between rows). All plots provided a total harvestable area of on average [3 m 2 . Seed rate varied according to plot size, but was  approximately 120 kg ha -1 to give a plant stand of approximately 300 plants m -2 assuming around an 80% survival rate.The number of days to heading (DH) or anthesis (ANT) was recorded when the spikes of 50% of plants in a plot had emerged (Zadoks stage 59) or extruded 50% of anthers (Zadoks stage 65) respectively, and to physiological maturity (MAT) was recorded when 50% of the peduncles in a plot were ripe (Zadoks stage 87) (Zadoks et al. 1974). When all plots reached physiological maturity, plant height (HGT) was determined by measuring the distance between the base of the stem and the top of the spike excluding awns. From total plot harvest, grain yield and total above-ground biomass (at 'field dry' moisture content of approximately 12%; i.e. 88% dry weight) and thousand kernel weight (TKW) were determined using standard protocols (see Pask et al. 2012), and harvest index (HI), kernels per square metre (KNO) and grains per spike calculated.Linear mixed models (LMMs) were used to analyse differences between genotypes in yield and biomass using the lme4 (Bates et al. 2015) package in the R statistical environment (v. 3.2.1) (R Core Team 2015). Random effects were included to account for nesting of replications within sites, and of sub-blocks within replications. For each trial LMMs were used to generate adjusted estimates of yield for each genotype at each site. Clusters of sites were identified that had similar patterns of yield across genotypes (i.e. a similar GxE interaction; as per clusters of sites presented in Tables) using the cluster detection feature of the corrplot function (Wei and Simko 2016) using (1-correlation) as a distance measure, and the default clustering algorithm (complete linkage method) was used to identify clusters. The number of clusters was chosen by visually inspecting a plot of the correlation matrix for the sites, and choosing the smallest number of clusters (3-5) that resulted in only positive correlations within each cluster. Subsequent analysis was run both across all sites in each trial and within each GxE cluster of sufficient size. In each case we ran an LMM to generate adjusted estimates of average yield and biomass across sites. Analyses tested whether each PT selected genotype had a significantly higher yield and biomass than (i) the local check (LCH) and (ii) the best non-PT selected genotype (elite CIMMYT lines; ECH), using the general linear hypothesis test implemented in the glht function in the multcomp package (Hothorn et al. 2008) to correct for multiple comparisons in each case using Dunnett's method for comparison with a control (the local check). To assess the overall success of PT selected lines in each trial we also compared the mean yield and biomass of (a) top three PT lines versus top three non-PT lines and (b) all PT lines versus all non-PT lines, using t-tests with the adjusted site means for each genotype as data points to ensure within site correlations were accounted for.Performance of progeny from strategic PT crosses in the CIMMYT breeding environment 2nd and 3rd WYCYTIn the CIMMYT breeding environment in Obregon, NW Mexico, the 2nd and 3rd WYCYT (irrigated, yield potential) nurseries showed average yields of 6.6 and 6.8 t ha -1 respectively (Tables 2, 3), with the yield of the best genotype (PT) registering 8.3 t ha -1 (see Supplemental Tables 1 and 2 for individual genotype data). Trials were managed to approach rather than maximize yield potential since the latter invariably results in lodging of some plots. Average biomass for both trials was around 14.5 t ha -1 with the best genotype registering 18.7 t ha -1 in 3rd WYCYT. The cycle lengths of genotypes ranged from 114 to 128 days across both trials, and were on average a week longer for 3rd WYCYT. The best 3 PT lines expressed significantly more yield and biomass than the best 3 checks (all of which were elite lines) in both trials. In 3rd WYCYT, the average of all PT lines showed 5% more yield (P = 0.23) and 11% more biomass (P \\ 0.01) than the average of the checks. In the 2nd WYCYT the average yield and biomass of all PT lines was not statistically different that of the averages for checks. Considering both nurseries, while plant height was on average 7.5 cm taller for the PT lines as a group than that of the checks, the best yielding PT lines were not necessarily taller than checks. The PT lines were on average 2 days later maturing than the checks, but again the best performing PT lines were within the same range as the checks.In the CIMMYT breeding environment in Obregon, NW Mexico, heat stress truncated cycle length by about 35% compared to the WYCYT nurseries, while yields were reduced by around 60%, and plant height by about 40% compared to the temperate environment (Tables 4, 5). The 2nd and 4th SATYN nurseries showed average yields of 2.5 and 3.3 t ha -1 , respectively, with the best yielding line (PT) registered at 4.6 t ha -1 for 4th SATYN (see Supplemental Tables 3 and 4 for individual genotype data). In 4th SATYN, the best 3 PT lines showed on average 37% more yield than the 3 checks (P = 0.13), and 28% more biomass (P = 0.18). However, when comparing the mean of all PT lines with the mean of all checks  there was no appreciable difference. In the 2nd SATYN, differences in performance between PT material and the checks were not apparent in the selection environment.For both 2nd and 4th SATYN nurseries, the truncated cycle length and plant heights tended to minimize differences among lines in these traits, and as with the WYCYT nurseries, the best performing PT lines showed similar cycle length and height as the checks.When considering the absolute ranking of lines averaged across all international sites as well as within the low GxE clusters, the majority of new PT lines outyielded local checks for all 4 nurseries (Table 6). The same was the case when considering individual sites where the majority of PT lines also out-yielded the local check (data not shown). A number of PT lines  The average yield of all genotypes across all international sites was 5.1 t ha -1 (Table 2). When considering the average performance of all PT lines across all sites, the new material showed a 6% higher yield than the average of all checks (P = 0.04). The best PT line showed a 23% higher yield than the local check (P \\ 0.01), while the average for the best 3 PT lines expressed 5% more yield than the average for the best 3 elite CIMMYT checks (P = 0.26). The trend was similar for most of the clusters except C5. The highest biomass expressed by a PT line averaged across all sites was 20% higher than the local check (P \\ 0.01) and while average biomass of all PT lines was 5% higher than all checks, statistical significance was poor (P = 0.32), probably due to the high CV. On average PT lines produced more and heavier grains per m 2 than the average of all checks (by 4%, P = 0.17; and 2%, P = 0.10 respectively). The best PT line produced 26% more grains per m 2 (P \\ 0.01) which were 20% heavier (P \\ 0.01) than the local check, while the average for the best 3 PT lines produced 7% more grains per m 2 (P = 0.15) which were 13% heavier than the best 3 elite CIMMYT checks (P \\ 0.01). Duration to heading were on average similar across genotypes. PT lines were slightly taller on average than all checks (100 cm vs. 98 cm).The average yield of all genotypes across all international sites was 5.5 t ha -1 (Table 3). When considering the average performance of all PT lines across all sites, the new material showed a 5% higher yield than the average of all checks (P = 0.07). The best PT line showed a 14% higher yield than the local check (P \\ 0.01), while the average for the best 3 PT lines expressed 5% more yield than the average for the best 3 elite checks (P = 0.26). The trend was similar for 2 of the 3 clusters. The average biomass of all PT lines across all sites was 9% higher than the average of all checks (P = 0.02) and the highest biomass expressed by a PT line averaged across all sites was 15% higher than the local check (P = 0.08). The top 3 PT lines expressed 13% more biomass than the top 3 elite checks (P = 0.09). On average PT lines produced heavier grains per m 2 than the average of all checks (by 6%, P \\ 0.01), whilst the GNO was similar. The best PT line produced 12% more grains per m 2 (P = 0.02) which were 13% heavier than the local check (P \\ 0.01), while the average for the best 3 PT lines produced 9% more grains per m 2 (P = 0.17) which were 7% heavier than the best 3 elite CIMMYT checks (P = 0.04). Duration to heading was on average 2% longer for PT lines than all checks (95 days vs. 93 days). PT lines were 6% taller on average than all checks (104 cm vs. 98 cm).The average yield of all genotypes across all international sites was 3.9 t ha -1 (Table 4). When considering the average performance of all PT lines across all sites, the new material showed a 10% higher yield than the average of all checks (P \\ 0.01). The best PT line showed a 21% higher yield than the local check (P \\ 0.01). However, the average for the best 3 PT lines was not different to the average for the best 3 elite CIMMYT checks. The trend was similar for all the clusters of sites identified. The average biomass of all PT lines across all sites was 6% higher than the average of all checks (P = 0.15) and the highest biomass expressed by a PT line averaged across all sites was 34% higher than the local check (P \\ 0.01).On average PT lines produced more and heavier grains per m 2 than the average of all checks (by 3%, P = 0.28; and 8%, P \\ 0.01 respectively). The best PT line produced 12% more grains per m 2 (P = 0.07) which were 20% heavier (P \\ 0.01) than the local check, while the average for the best 3 PT lines produced fewer grains per m 2 but which were 8% heavier (P = 0.03) than the best 3 elite CIMMYT checks. Duration to heading was on average slightly longer for PT lines than all checks (78 days vs. 77 days). PT lines were 4% shorter on average than all checks (95 cm vs. 98 cm).The average yield of all genotypes across all international sites was 4.1 t ha -1 (Table 5). When considering the average performance of all PT lines across all sites, the new material was slightly lower than the average of all checks (4%) but not significantly. However, when considering the 4 clusters of sites, the average yield of the best 3 yielding PT lines ranged from 5 to 17% more than the 3 elite CIMMYT checks (significance ranged from P = 0.12 to P = 0.67).Biomass was not significantly different. On average PT lines produced fewer but heavier grains per m 2 (P = 0.17) than the average of all checks (by -5 and 3% respectively). The best PT line produced 11% more grains per m 2 (P = 0.01) which were 11% heavier (P \\ 0.01) than the local check, while the average for the best 3 PT lines produced 6% more grains per m 2 which were 15% heavier than the best 3 elite CIMMYT checks. Duration to heading was on average the same across genotypes (83 days). PT lines were 4% taller on average than all checks (99 cm vs. 95 cm).Correlation analysis of trait expression in the breeding environment with yield and trait expression at international sites Correlation coefficients between the average yield across international sites with expression of yield, yield components, phenology and height for the same genotypes at the breeding environment in Obregon did not show any unexpected patterns. In many cases yield and biomass showed significant correlations with average yield across international sites, and occasionally one of the other yield components also in particular TKW. Phenology in the breeding environment was not a predictor of yield internationally, while height showed a weak negative association with yield. The latter was perhaps partly related to the absence of height reduction alleles associated with exotic material in their pedigree. This was supported by a negative association of height with HI. As expected the more heritable traits TKW, phenology and height showed relatively strong associations between the selection and target environments with correlation coefficients generally in the range 0.65-0.95.Four main clusters of sites can be identified within the dendrogram for yield (Fig. 5); (i) BA-Jo to RO-Fu, (ii) EG-So to MX-Ya_htdrtfeb, (iii) IN-Dh to MX-Ya, and(iv) IR-Za to IR-Pa. Within two of these main clusters there is evidence of smaller clusters of very similar sites; EG-So to MX-Ya_htdrtmar in cluster (ii), and IN-Ka to IN-Ja in cluster (iii). Sites within Mexico are well represented throughout the dendrogram, confirming the value of the centralized breeding platform hosted in this country.Multi-location yield trials confirmed that strategic source-sink crosses targeted to high yield potential and heat stressed environments respectively, resulted in a number of new PT progeny with substantial yield gains across a full range of target environments (Fig. 6). Genetic yield gains are never easy to demonstrate for a number of reasons. First and foremost, yield gains tend to be marginal; for conventional spring wheat breeding at CIMMYT, typical gains average around 0.5% per year when Fig. 5 Dendrogram for similarity in yield ranking across sites using data across all four yield trials. This reflects the correlations among sites in the patterns of yields across different genotypes, converted to a distance measure (1-correlation). In cases where a pair of sites did not have any genotypes in common, the missing value was replaced with the mean correlation prior to conversion into a distance measure analyzed over two or more decades (Sharma et al. 2012;Crespo-Herrera et al. 2017). addition, there is usually a large degree of experimental error in field trials. This was indicated in the current study by high values for coefficient of variation even when sites were clustered using GxE modelling (Tables 2, 3, 4, 5). Nonetheless, most new PT lines were superior in yield and biomass to local checks in almost all environments, thus providing valuable new germplasm to national wheat programs. Since a large proportion of the new PT material was derived from exotic sources including landraces and synthetics, it also provides new sources of genetic variation, in agronomically good backgrounds. Showing superiority over elite CIMMYT checks is a larger challenge which nonetheless was achieved in most environments (Fig. 6). While statistical significance was often marginal, the tendency across all 4 nurseries indicated either the superiority of the best new PT lines compared with the best CIMMYT checks, or the superiority of all new PT lines as a group compared with all checks, and in some cases, both. The strategy showed genetic gains in both temperate and hot, irrigated environments. Furthermore, the fact that biomass was up to 9% higher for PT lines as a group compared to the average for checks (except for 4th SATYN), indicates the potential of this material if used in crosses with material better adapted to local conditions in terms of harvest index.The relationship between trait expression in parents with that of their progeny (i.e. PT lines in WYCYT and SATYN)-to determine the source and nature of Fig. 6 Percent genetic gains expressed for: (i) the best PT line over the local check (LCH), (ii) the best 3 PT lines over the best 3 elite checks (ECH), and (iii) of the average of all PT lines over the average of all checks; for a all sites, and b the largest cluster of low GxE sites (12, 17, 11 and 13 sites for 2nd WYCYT, 3rd WYCYT, 2nd SATYN, and 4th SATYN, respectively) of each international nursery. See Supplemental Tables 1-4 for data used to calculate genetic gains genetic gains-will be the subject of future analysis from ongoing studies in the breeding (the current study intended to focus on gains in target environments). However, as an example, the highest yielding line internationally from the 3rd WYCYT, namely a PT line with the pedigree MEX94.27.1.20/3/ SOKOLL//ATTILA/3*BCN/4/PUB94.15.1.12/WBLL1, was the product of a cross between the parents P1 (MEX94.27.1.20/3/SOKOLL//ATTILA/3*BCN) and P2 (PUB94.15.1.12/WBLL1), which incidentally both have Mexican landraces in their pedigree. Parents and progeny sown side by side in the breeding environment in replicated field trials, showed that while both parents had similar yield (2% difference), P2 a greater 'source' as indicated by 11% more biomass at maturity than P2, while P2 expressed a greater sink as indicated by 8% larger HI, 6% larger GSP, and 9% large TKW than P2. In the same environment, the new PT line expressed 11% more yield, 4% larger HI, and 2% more TKW and biomass at maturity than the best value of parental expression. The new PT line expressed 5% more yield and almost 20% larger TKW and biomass at maturity than the elite check Borlaug 100, which is the best yielding elite CIMMYT line currently available; it's superior performance over Borlaug 100 was also reflected at international sites in terms of yield, biomass and TKW (Table 3).Balancing biomass (source) with yield components (sink) through breeding While a number of studies have suggested that yield and radiation use efficiency can be increased by improving source and sink balance (Slafer and Savin 1994;Reynolds et al. 2012), this is the first time the hypothesis has been tested in a realistic breeding context. Results indicate that selecting parents with high expression of biomass (source) and crossing to sources with good expression of sink traits (HI, KNO, TKW etc.) resulted in genetic gains for both yield and biomass, supporting the idea that a more favorable sink capacity boosts RUE as well as yield. Clearly the phenomenon needs to be further tested, nonetheless, evidence to support the idea has come to light recently from an extremely high yielding durum line (Cirno). The line shows relatively low RUE before anthesis, then after setting a very high number of grains with high grain weight potential, switches to a very high RUE during grain-filling (Molero and Reynolds, unpublished data). In the meantime, studies are underway in the breeding environment comparing the best PT progeny of the WYCYT and SATYN lines with their parents to track the expression of source and sink traits from parents to progeny-as outlined above-and their apparent interaction.Agronomic traits: phenology, height, disease resistance, and broad adaptation of PT material While the PT lines as a whole in the WYCYT and SATYN nurseries represented a wider range of height and maturity class than the checks, the best material was generally similar in these characteristics to the checks. Furthermore, leaf and yellow rust screening at hotspots in Mexico indicated that the majority of the material had acceptable levels of resistance. Much of the PT material was derived from relatively exotic germplasm like landraces and synthetics and subjected to very restricted rounds of selection (Fig. 3). Therefore, broad adaptation would not necessarily be expected. This was reflected by the fact that while in most clusters (Table 6), and sites (not shown), a number of PT lines outperformed any of the checks, they were not necessarily the same lines across all clusters/sites. Such material, if consistently yielding well, would be useful locally. Where material expresses high biomass and acceptable yield (i.e. not optimally adapted) it could be crossed with locally adapted elite lines as a source of RUE. Nonetheless, a significant number of lines were superior in yield and biomass to the checks across all sites and/or within clusters as shown by statistical analysis, indicating broad adaptive features in many cases (Fig. 6).The PT pre-breeding approach used in this study is intended to test hypotheses about potentially useful traits in a realistic context, namely through making strategic crosses and testing selected progeny in target environments (Reynolds and Langridge 2016). A large body of literature exists on many different candidate traits and alleles for boosting yield (e.g. see examples in the bibliography and therein), but until tested in a realistic breeding context, they remain hypothetical. In fact, strategic crossing is the only way to test the true value of a trait-or constellation of traits or the alleles associated with them-for use in mainstream breedsuch proof of concept, productive crop improvement programs are understandably reluctant to incorporate new traits or methodologies into already successful pipelines. The most promising of these candidate traits and alleles should be tested through pre-breeding (e.g. see International Wheat Yield Partnership; http://iwyp.org/). Furthermore, while the products of such pre-breeding may lack a number of important traits, for example, related to end-use quality and specific disease resistance profiles, if they show superior yield or biomass, they can be used as parental sources in backcrossing or other breeding methodologies to introduce new genetic diversity into well-established backgrounds, enriching the genepool. Occasionally, products of experimental pre-breeding may have all the requisite agronomic traits, as evidenced by the dissemination of PT lines in CIMMYT international nurseries like SAWYT (http:// wheatatlas.org/nurseries/iwin), as well as their promotion as candidates for release by national wheat programs, and-in the case of Pakistan-the recent release of PT lines as new cultivars (Manes, Imtiaz and Reynolds, unpublished).Mainstream breeding programs are incorporating trait-based approaches in progeny selection more commonly now (e.g. Rutkoski 2016), especially with the advent of high throughput phenotyping which can help overcome problems associated with low heritability/repeatability of complex traits related to yield (Tattaris et al. 2016). However, this study shows that trait-based approaches have at least as much value in the selection of parents for strategic crossing (Richards 2006;Reynolds and Langridge 2016). When characterizing and selecting complementary parents it is useful to consider a 'pyramid' of traits going from highly integrative to more simple (Fig. 1). In this study, crosses between lines with favorable expression of traits related BM on the one hand, and high HI on the other, were successful. Nonetheless, BM and HI are necessarily a function of genetically simpler traits which can be considered in greater detail when making more complex strategic crosses (Fig. 1; Reynolds et al. 2012).Physiological breeding as described here is not restricted to strategic crossing of phenotypic traits. It can also make use of markers, though currently these are more likely to be for alleles associated with genes of major effect-such as Ppd, Vrn, and Rht in wheat (Eagles et al. 2014). Nonetheless, since selecting among early generation progeny for expression of complex traits is not always feasible (due in part to very large numbers), it is expected that genomic selection-potentially in combination with high throughput phenotyping of few integrative traits like canopy temperature and vegetative indices (Rutkoski 2016)-will find valuable application in selection of early generations based on strategic crossing for complex physiological traits. Marker assisted selection (MAS) has not delivered as expected (Langridge and Reynolds 2015) but remains a possibility, especially if QTL 9 environment interactions can be more effectively modeled (Millet et al. 2016).Results provide a proof of concept that selecting parents with high expression of biomass (source) and crossing to lines with good expression of HI and other yield components (sink) can boost genetic gains. This is perhaps to be expected, since these traits are either drivers or components of yield, and their strategic combination is more likely to result in the accumulation of complementary alleles than when simply crossing among elite high yielding lines, which may have largely the same physiological or genetic basis for achieving yield. Some of the best new PT lines have already been selected as candidates for national release by the country programs of many of the authors herein, and two PT lines have been released in Pakistan for heat stressed conditions contributing to the climate resilience of wheat-namely Pakistan-13: MEX94.27.1.20/3/SOKOLL//ATTILA/3*BCN, and Borlaug-16: SOKOLL/3/PASTOR//HXL7573/2*BAU. Results of the current study support the use of genetic resources like landraces and products of wide crossing (i.e. synthetic wheat) in providing new and better sources of important traits like biomass and kernel size (see pedigrees in supplemental Tables); the cultivars released in Pakistan include a Mexican landrace, and syntheticderived SOKOLL, in their respective pedigrees. Such successful germplasm provides opportunities for molecular studies to demonstrate genetic contributions from exotic parents to support more wide scale molecular applications in breeding, genetic resource screening, and gene editing.","tokenCount":"6416"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"535d4524350f7b6439cdd65a9df35489","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b96b0ac8-428e-4926-a958-8f775f141cd5/retrieve","id":"1317823342"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0d0da737-bf28-4300-b560-d31c1ae54088","pagecount":"9","content":"What is a bamboo shoots plantation?• Bamboo shoots are young bamboo stems. They are very nutritious and have been eaten as a vegetable for thousands of years. There are three types of shoots: spring or summer shoots, winter shoots and rhizome shoots.• A bamboo shoots plantation is a bamboo plantation managed specifically to produce edible bamboo shoots.• Management of a shoots plantation is more intensive than of a culm plantation because the removal of a significant number for sale may affect the integrity and productivity of the plantation.1. Select a site: A 2. Select the species: Select 3. Prepare the site: gently sloping site species according to their Plough the site and is ideal, with friable, cultivation requirements and incorporate organic slightly acidic soil.the management system used. matter.4. Plant the bamboos: 5. Form support groups: One-year-old plantlets Including groups covering 6. Monitor progress: are the best planting marketing, materials and And take action to material.plantation management. continually improve.• Permits rehabilitation of degraded lands through increased areas of bamboo plantations.• Increases community welfare and promotes empowerment of individuals and communities.• Requires minimal capital investment to establish.• Builds on farmers own inherent plant cultivation abilities and is easily adopted.• Promotes environmental improvement through the use of large quantities of organic matter, which are preferable for bamboo growth.• Benefits entire communities particularly if established in conjunction with a shoot canning factory.Bamboo plantations are often managed as shoots/timber plantations, in which both shoots and culms are harvested for sale.In 1999. 40% of all bamboo exports from China were of canned edible bamboo shoots.Due to developing consumer tastes throughout the world the demand for bamboo shoots has been increasing over the past few years.Bamboo shoots are nutritious and contain 17 amino acids. The shoots of some species contain small quantities of hydro-cyanic acid, and can be poisonous unless boiled before consumption.• Availability of land suitable for bamboo cultivation • A small amount of start up capital.• Access to shoot plantation management skills in the early stages. • Establishment of a community business infrastructure.• Proper market linkages. ","tokenCount":"341"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/5210347174.json b/data/part_6/5210347174.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..8bb2cec401736b3a4ecb143a1ddd53f7488f859d
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"244cac4dc773054201ada74ff4c2678e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b038b01e-507b-4b53-894e-290c85d07fd7/retrieve","id":"-1960838095"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"230cbcc8-f665-458a-942b-705cfeafdd80","pagecount":"1","content":"Motivation, problem statement and aim: The concept of regenerative agriculture has rapidly gained momentum among agri-food companies, governments, NGO's and farmers. Different interpretations of this concept emphasize the importance of restoring and enhancing soil health and associated ecosystem services to generate multiple benefits for society and for farmers, including productive and resilient cropping systems and landscapes and improved farmers' livelihoods. Regenerative agriculture further seeks to mitigate greenhouse gases, thereby helping governments and agrifood companies to comply with climate mitigation targets. Conceptually, a focus on soil health, considering biological, physical and chemical aspects and multiple soil functions, has proven to be attractive for practitioners and policy makers. The popularity of the concept has thus given rise to an overwhelming demand for indicators, methods and novel technologies that can be used to assess and monitor soil health in robust and cost-effective ways. Key questions arise whether and how investments in the development and monitoring of soil health indicators support the urgently needed transition towards regenerative farms and food systems. Here, we aimed to review existing soil health frameworks and identify key challenges for their application in the context of smallholder farming in the global south, where farmers and societies are facing the most drastic consequences of soil degradation and climate change.Methodology: To address this objective we performed an extensive literature review and built on experiences from case studies developed through collaboration with key stakeholders in the agri-food sector.The following shortcomings are discussed: 1) From a scientific viewpoint, there are still important challenges associated with the measurement of soil health, and the interpretation of indicator values in terms of soil functions; 2) The relationships between soil health indicators and agronomic and environmental performance of agricultural production systems are often assumed. Yet, empirical studies linking soil health gains to agronomic and environmental gains, including trade-offs, are extremely scarce, especially in the context of smallholder farmers in developing countries; 3) The use of soil health indicators to support farmer decision making has received little attention. Ways to overcome these important shortcomings will also be discussed, with a special focus on approaches that offer promise to create real impact for smallholder farmers in the global south.Cusworth G and Garnett, T. ( 2023). What is regenerative agriculture? ","tokenCount":"370"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/5248975959.json b/data/part_6/5248975959.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0e6b2c33c0f01046a886b45a53beff037353dd11
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e8a3218cee2fdf26bf7e889ca59cc6b6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/daa6d64c-5f4a-4145-971b-57767ecfe6cf/retrieve","id":"-2037644939"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"01799edb-47a2-410d-936b-87d309dc9be0","pagecount":"501","content":"Results of screening trials with pasture legumes in Zimbabwe are reviewed. The Stylosanthes spp. proved especially suitable for reinforcement of native grazing on sandy soils because of their ability to establish under adverse conditions and to persist and spread under grazing. On heavier soils or on ploughed land a wider range of legumes showed promise, with Desmodium spp. outstanding in the higher rainfall areas. On an infertile sand in a lower rainfall region only Macrotyloma axillare cv Archer and Macroptilium atropurpureum cv Siratro were productive.The importance of defining the likely role of legumes in local livestock production systems and relating the evaluation procedure to this use is stressed. This is illustrated in the trials described by an increasing trend towards including grazing in the evaluation process.These proceedings include five opening and keynote addresses which provide introductory remarks on the activities of the Pasture Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (PANESA) in its regional attempts to enhance research and development of ruminant livestock feed resources. These introductory remarks are followed by papers on the themes of the workshop \"African Forage Plant Genetic Resources\" on which there are four papers presented.On the second theme \"Forage Germplasm Evaluation\" there are 16 papers presented and finally on the theme \"Extensive Livestock Production Systems\" there are 21 papers.As a workshop organiser and editor of the proceedings, I would like to pay tribute to all authors and especially those who presented the WELCOME ADDRESS -A.B. Lwoga Chairman of PANESA's Working Committee and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Tanzania Forage Resources NetworkOn behalf of the PANESA Working Committee, on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Tanzania Forage Resources Network and on my own behalf, I should like to take this opportunity to warmly welcome you all to this ceremony which marks the beginning of the PANESA Workshop and Annual General Meeting for the year 1987.As a Tanzanian citizen, it is my great pleasure and privilege to welcome all the foreign workshop participants to Tanzania, and to Arusha in particular. I am not a resident of this part of Tanzania, but I know that Arusha town is very famous for its hospitality and, also, that the surrounding countryside boasts of some of the rarest and most wonderful game sanctuaries in the world. You are, therefore, most welcome to utilise this opportunity, over and above the workshop business, to learn a bit about Tanzania by exploring Arusha and the surrounding countryside.A word of special welcome is due to our Guest of Honour today, the Honourable Sumaiye, Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development. I am most delighted that he has been able to accommodate this event in his very busy schedule of activities, and also that he has been able to come, to officiate at this ceremony. I should, therefore, like to place on record my deep appreciation to the Deputy Minister for the honour he has accorded us by agreeing to perform this important function in the history of PANESA.Mr. Guest of Honour, it is pertinent on this occasion to take a brief look at PANESA's origin and tasks.The Pasture Network for Eastern and Southern Africa has its roots in a workshop which was held at Harare in Zimbabwe in September, 1984 and attended by pasture and livestock experts from eleven eastern and southern African countries. Having realised that inadequate nutrition was the single most important constraint to livestock production in the countries represented, the workshop resolved to form a network which would strive to find solutions to the problems affecting pasture production and, consequently, the livestock industry in the Eastern and southern African region. PANESA was launched in November 1984 with the overall aim of improving the effectiveness of pasture research in participating countries and expediting the application of improved technology by farmers and graziers at all levels of management.What is the nature of the problems that PANESA has committed itself to solve? A glance at the past and present performance of the ruminant livestock industry in eastern and southern Africa throws some light on the urgency and immensity of PANESA's tasks. Eastern and southern Africa as a region holds nearly 86 million head of cattle or 51% of the total cattle population on the African continent. The region, however, produces a mere 38% of Africa's bovine meat and only 33% of Africa's cow milk.The annual herd offtake is estimated to be 10%, representing about 143 kg of slaughter weight per head, compared with an offtake of 34% and a slaughter weight of 218 kg per head for the developed countries.The average milk yield is estimated at 425 kg per year per cow, compared with 3,217 kg per year per cow in developed countries. Overall livestock production is so low that it hardly meets the human requirements for livestock products in the region. One consequence of this situation has been an increase in imports of livestock and livestock products over the years.We in PANESA believe that inadequate nutrition for the animals is one of the main factors accounting for the low productivity of livestock in the region. The animals subsist largely on natural pastures whose vegetation is not only scanty, but also of low quality. In the eastern and southern African region, natural pastures occupy 34% of the total land area while cultivated pastures occupy a mere 6%. In the developed countries corresponding proportions are 23% for natural pastures and 12% for cultivated pastures. The tasks of PANESA, urgent and immense as they are, involve removing the nutrition bottleneck through the generation and/or adaptation and application of appropriate technology.Mr. Guest of Honour, since its formation in November 1984, PANESA has carried out the following activities in pursuit of its objectives:1.It has started a newsletter, the \"PANESA Newsletter\", which is a medium for the exchange of ideas and experiences among all those interested in pasture and livestock research and development.It organised a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya in November, 1985 on the theme \"Feed Resources for Small Scale Livestock Producers\" .It organised a training course for young early career scientists and pasture technicians in \"Forage Plant Introduction and Initial Evaluation\" in Ethiopia in October, 1986.It has started a collaborative pasture introduction and evaluation programme in which national research institutes participate in experiments that are coordinated on a regional or sub-regional basis.Mr. Guest of Honour, the workshop you will be opening in due course is yet another milestone in PANESA 's efforts in the long march towards its objectives. The theme of the workshop, which arose from the Nairobi workshop in November, 1985, consists of three topics, namely:1.African forage plant genetic resources. This aims at taking an inventory of important forage plant genetic resources in the region.Germplasm evaluation. This seeks to take stock of national research efforts in forage germplasm evaluation in the region.Extensive livestock production. This aims at reviewing the state of the art in the diverse extensive livestock production systems in the region with the objective of identifying common problems and generating strategies to improve the productivity of the systems.The workshop has drawn more than 60 participants from 14 member countries, namely: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the host, Tanzania.The workshop has also drawn participants from a number of international research agencies including the International Development Research Centre (Canada) and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (based in Addis Ababa) .Mr.Guest of Honour, this workshop would not have materialised and, indeed, PANESA would not have come into being in 1984 had it not been for the generous financial, technical and logistical support of international research agencies sympathetic to the cause of PANESA. The International Development Research Centre organised and financed the Harare Workshop in 1984 and further financed PANESA' s first budget, whose activities include this workshop. The International Livestock Centre for Africa has provided the headquarters as well as back-up facilities and services for PANESA.I take this opportunity of paying tribute to the fundamental and far-reaching role these two organisations have been playing in establishing PANESA and, thereby, helping to build up national capabilities in pasture and livestock research and development in PANESA member countries. I wish to express my sincere hope that their commitment will endure, and also that other international agencies will join hands with PANESA in improving livestock productivity through better livestock nutrition in Eastern and southern Africa.Mr. Guest of Honour, it is with greater pleasure, honour and privilege that I now invite you to officially open this workshop.Honourable Sumaiye, Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Ladies and Gentlemen:It is certainly a great pleasure to be with you in Arusha for the third Workshop on Pastures in Eastern and Southern Africa.For some of us, this is also our third time to be together in a similar forum. But to those who are not familiar with IDRC, Mr. Chairman, I request a minute to enable me to introduce the organisation.IDRC is a corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 197 0 to stimulate and support research in developing countries for the countries' own benefit. IDRC is funded entirely by the Canadian Parliament to which it reports annually. Its operations are guided by an international 21-member Board of Governors. IDRC has its headquarters in Ottawa with regional offices in Singapore (Southeast Asia, East Asia and the Pacific) , New Delhi (South Asia) , Nairobi (Eastern and Southern Africa) , Cairo (West and Central Africa) and Bogota (Latin America and Caribbean) . IDRC gives support to developing countries to carry out research in areas of agriculture, health sciences, social sciences, communication and information. I am in the division of agriculture, food and nutrition sciences within which animal sciences is encompassed.The Animal Science Sub-program in Eastern and Southern Africa gives priority to research aimed at improving the traditional livestock production systems, including nutrition, pastures and socio-economics. It is therefore, not surprising that IDRC has been associated with your interests and efforts in pasture improvement through the Pasture Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (PANESA) . The network has grown from a dream to reality. In 1984, an idea was floated, today ILCA is the coordinating agency and an active committee is guiding the activities of PANESA. A full-time coordinator is now in place. The noble aims within the umbrella of PANESA include:1.Strengthening pasture research capabilities. 2.Procuring, disseminating and exchanging forage germplasm.Evaluating the germplasm procured. 4.Developing appropriate technologies for traditional systems. 5.Collecting, disseminating and exchanging information.PANESA has attracted the attention of several agencies because of the important goals that you have set for yourselves, and because the modality of organisation is bottom-up thus facilitating the inputs of scientists from the region into an ILCA-coordinated network.PANESA also encourages national networks.I do hope that this workshop will enable you to exchange information and experiences. Further, I do hope that you will take time to discuss the regionally coordinated research activities.In drawing up your plans for regional research activities you may wish to bear in mind that there are some funds (though limited) which can be made available for national activities, and ILCA can assist you in:-research protocols -data processing -supply of germplasm -training of scientists and technicians -supply of some literature.It is certainly advantageous to draw upon ILCA's resources.As it is not my intention to take too much of your time, I would like to reiterate that IDRC is proud to be associated with PANESA and looks forward to a fruitful co-operation.OPENING ADDRESS -J.C. To thill Head, Plant Sciences Division International Livestock Centre for Africa Mr. Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, the Commissioner for Livestock Development, Chairman Professor Lwoga, Ladies and Gentlemen:It is a pleasure for me to be here today: firstly to pay my respects to you, Mr. Deputy Minister, on behalf of the International Livestock Centre for Africa, and secondly to compliment our hosts Professor Lwoga and conference organiser Dr. Dzowela on the organisation of this meeting, which is my first.ILCA has been honoured and challenged by the PANESA membership, through its elected Working Committee, by being invited to be the technical partner complementing IDRC's financial partnership in this network. We have welcomed this offer because we sincerely believe we have something to offer PANESA and its membership, but we also have something to take and that is the wisdom of the membership in helping us to more effectively shape our own programme. That is, we see the interaction as two-way.As some of you may know ILCA is presently going through a process of self examination and programme redefinition. This is calling for much greater interaction with national scientists, with much of this coming through the links that networks like this provide. The effectiveness of technology transfer can be magnified many-fold through the networking approach.We have a strong commitment to the dual role that forages can play in both improved animal production through nutrition and crop production through better soil fertility.The two are linked through the animals that most African farms maintain.We therefore have great pleasure in coming together to discuss these issues here in this beautiful, and I am sure bountiful, region of Tanzania, and we thank you, Sir, for this opportunity.OPENING ADDRESS -Hon. Sumaiye Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen:I feel greatly honoured to have been invited to open this workshop on behalf of Hon. Jackson Makweta, the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development, which will be dealing with three themes namely:1.African forage plant genetic resources 2 .Germplasm evaluation 3.Extensive livestock production.The workshop bears special significance for Tanzania since livestock production plays an important role in the socio-economy of the country.Thus, on behalf of the United Republic of Tanzania and, on my own behalf, I would like to thank PANESA for deciding to hold this workshop in Tanzania and the organisers for the successful preparation of the workshop. I am glad to note that the workshop has drawn participants from the Eastern and southern African countries and from outside Africa. This, I believe, will provide a unique opportunity for sharing experiences for the common goal of happiness and progress of mankind in Eastern and southern Africa.I would like, in this connection, to take this opportunity again to warmly welcome all the foreign colleagues to Tanzania.It is my sincere hope that you will find your stay comfortable and also that your programme will allow you some time to see and learn more about Tanzania.Mr. Chairman, I believe I do not need to remind this audience of the seriousness of the food crisis facing Africa. Suffice it to say that our governments are concerned about the consistent decline in food production throughout the continent over the past two decades, a period in which there have been marked increases in food production in the other continents, including the Green Revolution in Asia. Our governments are also worried about the upward trend in population growth in Africa, as contrasted with the downward population growth trends in all the other continents over the same period. The combination of these two scenarios has meant that our people, with each passing year, are becoming poorer, hungrier and less well nourished.It has also meant that our governments have, over the years, had to import increasing amounts of cereal grains and livestock products to make up for deficits in domestic food production. In short, the resulting situation has posed a real threat to the continent's political and socio-economic survival.Can this threat be averted? Mr. Chairman, my answer is yes, even though, I know, the task will not be easy. For in the words of Dr. Carl Eicher, a prominent agricultural economist (Professor of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University, USA) , \"Africa's agricultural production must be doubled within the next 15 to 20 years to keep up with population growth rates of 3 to 4%H.Mr. Chairman, it is my strong belief that solutions for Africa's agrarian crisis will have to be found within Africa, and not from outside Africa. Effective crop and livestock production strategies for the diverse ecological and farming systems in Africa cannot be prepared in Europe or America. Such strategies must emerge from Africa, prepared from results of intensive, long-term research on agricultural production constraints.For, while it is possible and useful to transfer or adapt some existing technology from elsewhere, much of the knowledge needed for agricultural production will be locale-specific, and will have to be generated locally. It is in this context that I think highly of the objectives and activities of your network which are:1.To strengthen national pasture research capabilities primarily through training and data analytical facilities.To procure, disseminate and exchange pasture plant germplasm in the region and from international sources.3.To evaluate promising pasture plant species/strains for adaptation and production in different ecological zones and agricultural production systems.To develop appropriate pasture production technologies that can be integrated into the prevailing livestock production systems .To collect, disseminate and exchange information.Mr. Chairman, PANESA is a new network aiming, to use your own words, at improving effectiveness in pasture research in participating countries and expediting the application of improved technology by farmers and graziers at all levels of management. I hope you will keep the network new in its approach towards tackling Eastern and southern Africa's livestock and pasture problems. I hope you will learn from the experience of older professional networks and associations in Africa and avoid their mistakes.For example, due to financial constraints affecting most of our countries, the choice of research projects undertaken by many national research institutions and professional associations and networks has been inspired by donors. Such research does not, if at all, address the true and felt needs and constraints of the host countries and cannot therefore, generate technology that will help transform our agriculture.Allow me to suggest, therefore, that PANESA should consider, as a matter of urgency, establishing livestock and pasture research priorities and plans within member countries and for the region as a whole. This will not prevent individual researchers from pursuing their own desires but it will, at least, provide guidelines for the allocation of scarce national resources and also for donors to respond to.Another common weakness of our research systems has been that the results of research are often not accessible both to the end-users (livestock-keepers) and other researchers and scholars outside the boundaries of our countries or regions simply because they are reported in working papers and published in limited numbers of copies. It is my hope that PANESA will concern itself not only with the generation of improved livestock and pasture innovations but also with the adoption of such innovations by the livestock keeper in his environment.Mr. Chairman, your network is meeting in Tanzania at a time when we are intensifying our efforts in agricultural development. One of our major concerns is to transform the livestock industry so that it can play a greater role in the socio-economy of the country. In particular, we would like the livestock industry to:1.increase the per capita income of individuals engaged in livestock production, processing and marketing, with emphasis being placed on producers in the traditional sector;2.increase the volume and quality of livestock products to service local industries using livestock products as raw materials as well as generate exportable surpluses and reduce import requirements;3. increase the production, processing, and marketing of animal protein to meet national nutritional requirements; and 4. increase the use of drought animals, thereby reducing both the use of imported energy on the farm and the human burden.Ruminant livestock are an important component of the livestock industry in Tanzania. They number over 12 million head of cattle and 10 million head of sheep and goats, distributed over approximately 45,900 sq km of mainly natural grassland. Over 99% of all the cattle, sheep and goats are owned by livestock keepers in the traditional, largely subsistence, sector. Despite the diversity of production systems, this sector has several characteristic features:1.Grazing resources are utilised communally.There is increasing encroachment on grazing land by arable farming which, combined with increasing livestock numbers over the years and periodic droughts, has led to serious land degradation.Productivity of the livestock is low; with calving rates of less than 40%, calving intervals of about 2 years, calf mortality rates in the range of 25-40% and an offtake of less than 10%.When we talk of transforming the livestock industry in Tanzania, we therefore, essentially mean a multiplicity of transformations in the traditional livestock sector: It means transforming the outlook of the livestock keeper from being a subsistence to a commercial producer.It means serious attempts to preserve the natural rangeland and improve its water resources, and prevent bush fires which destroy the ecology, fauna and flora.It means evolving production systems that not only utilize but also conserve grazing resources.means evolving production systems that integrate livestock production with crop production.It means developing better adapted, higher yielding and more nutritious forage species.It means developing a more productive animal than the one available at present. It means establishing more effective production -marketing linkages in the pastoral areas.It means evolving land tenure systems that are consistent with improved production systems.All I am trying to say, Mr. Chairman, is that transformation of the livestock industry in Tanzania and, I believe in most of the PANESA member countries, requires the successful application of a set of technologies appropriate to the millions of small livestock keepers in the traditional sector. The generation and application of these technologies is, I believe, a major need that PANESA must try to meet.Obviously, this will require execution of long-term, multidisciplinary research projects in which participants include not only research scientists, but also extension workers and livestock keepers as partners in a common endeavour.I am confident that this workshop, which has drawn livestock and pasture experts from within and outside Africa, will go a long way in formulating an agenda aimed at providing effective solutions to livestock and pastures in Eastern and southern Africa.All that remains for me is to say how grateful I am to have been given this priceless opportunity to be with you this morning, and to wish the workshop all the success that it so rightly deserves. Mr. Chairman, Distinguished PANESA members, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is indeed a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity through which I can share with you our ideas on pasture work and animal nutrition and the direction of such a discipline in Tanzania.Secondly this meeting has additional importance not only in exchanging ideas but also in getting acquainted with scientists involved in this vital discipline in different sub-Saharan countries.It is obvious that people coming from different parts of the Eastern and southern African region would have different experiences which can be shared with us. As you are all aware, present demand for food, grazing, fibre and fuel has increased beyond the limits that nature can provide unaided. Future demand for the land to produce these products will be even greater. The potential of the land to produce these products is set by the soil and climatic conditions and by the level of inputs and management applied to the land. Any overuse beyond these limits results in degradation beyond economic feasibility and subsequently yields decline, threatening the lives of the people in the countries, as it is happening now in sub-Saharan African countries.Mr. Chairman, let me highlight the forage resources in Africa as a whole with examples of the constraints prevailing in Tanzania.The forage plant resources of Africa are composed of forests, such as the Congo forests, woodlands/brushland and savannas which cut across the continent. In these communities, there exist numerous grasses and herbaceous plants which form the bulk of the livestock diets. These communities have been used to enrich the genetic pool of pasture plants, particularly grasses for other tropical countries.In its natural state the African biome is quite delicate; its management requires the application of proper ecological principles to maintain the system. With an exception of the Congo forest, the woodland/brushland and grassland formations are typical rangelands of Africa and are very important to us. These rangelands are usually semi-arid and in most cases receive annual precipitation below 700 mm. However, their potential in livestock production is enormous. Much of this range resource remains under exploited.In Tanzania there are 60 m ha of rangeland potentially suitable for livestock production but only 6m ha are currently utilised.Underutilisation of this resource is due to high tsetse fly infestation, poor management practices, lack of land tenure policy, inadequate water supplies, overgrazing and lack of markets .About 530 m ha are infested with tsetse flies.These areas cover the bulk of western and eastern Tanzania.Some pockets of tsetse also occur in northern Tanzania in the national parks and game reserves. Consequently livestock expansion has been limited by the presence of the flies and the lack of national policy for tsetse control.In the traditional livestock sector, which accounts for 99% of the total livestock numbers in the country, animal husbandry is poor, resulting in low calving, weaning and offtake rates, and high pre-weaning and herd mortalities.Most of the traditional grazing lands are owned publicly and grazed communally.There are no restraining measures on the number of animals an individual can keep. Under this communal tenure system, there is not enough motivation for an individual or group of individuals to invest in pastureland improvement programmes, or to maintain the quality of existing infrastructure .Unreliable rainfall coupled with seasonal rivers, has necessitated conditioning the livestock to drink water irregularly.Prolonged dry seasons have made it impossible for the livestock to maintain their weights resulting in excessive unthriftiness of the animals.In severe cases prolonged dry seasons followed by severe forage shortages result in livestock deaths.There is a general inability on the part of the farmer to match the animals to the available forage.This has resulted in overstocking and subsequently overgrazing. This trend in turn is characterised by soil degradation. The consequences have been low herd fertility and high mortality rates.Although the notorious killer diseases such as rinderpest have been under control, the quality of livestock accrued from these efforts are still below the standard required by the meat importing countries.In addition to this, there have been insufficient incentives locally to force the stock owners to sell the right proportion of their livestock.Consequently, the offtake rates have remained below 10%.Further, a general lack of basic infrastructure such as dips, watering points, livestock development centres, markets, cattle handling facilities, dispensaries, etc. and pursuance of conflicting objectives on the use of land, all combined limit the widespread distribution of livestock.The exploitation of the African forage plant resource will therefore depend on how fast our local scientists can realise appropriate interventions to mitigate the above constraints. The testing and adaptation of simple techniques to improve the productivity of the forage resource should provide a challenge to research scientists.The overgrazing trend characteristic of the heavy livestock areas in Tanzania imply that the present pasture plants cannot withstand grazing under a communal land-use system.Research scientists in pastures are therefore confronted with the task of providing plants that are going to establish easily, persist under drought conditions, provide nutrients to livestock as well as having a soil stabilising characteristic.In Tanzania, considerable efforts have been given to pasture research since the early 1930s, as animal nutrition became evident as a limiting factor to livestock production. Up to 1970 findings on cases of range productivity, manipulation of species introduction and evaluation and pasture agronomy, had been realised through zonal research centres. These findings were carried out by non-African scientists on short contracts; as a consequence, they have been of little practical application.The bulk of our range is still under communal land use system.Past research also suffered from lack of coordination, direction, continuity and a responsible institution for pasture research.Mr. Chairman, my country has embarked on rehabilitating the present research institutions, such as the Tanzania Livestock Research Organization (TALIRO) , with more support in terms of animal diseases, tsetse, trypanosomiasis and pasture research.The Pasture Research Institute, to be established at Kilosa, will be charged with the responsibilities of carrying out research in better methods of range resource use to farther animal productivity in the country. The immense responsibility will be the focus of discussion in the three-day workshop.Mr. Chairman, having discussed briefly the status of pasture research in my country, you will bear with me and look briefly at the food and livestock situations. Food and agricultural output has not kept pace with the increasing population due to many factors which may not be different from those operating in other PANESA member countries. These include: lack of infrastructures (particularly feeder roads) and low level technology in agriculture, livestock and fisheries. These problems have become acute as a result of long-standing input supply, ineffective extension services, lack of skilled manpower and inability of past research efforts to make a break in key areas.Agriculture is still the backbone of our country's economy, contributing well over 50% of the foreign exchange earning. However, the livestock sector's contribution to the economy as compared to arable farming, has for a long time remained insignificant.Food crop production during 1972-1980 increased at 5% per annum compared with 3.5% decline in cash crop production.The increase in food crops was due to increase in the amount of acreage brought into production while yield per unit area actually declined.Tanzania's present livestock population stands at 13 m cattle, 5.8 m goats, 3.8 m sheep, 130,000 pigs and approximately 25 m poultry. Its distribution follows the pattern of human population and is inversely correlated with the areas infested with tsetse flies. The main areas of cattle raising are the dry open grasslands or wooded grasslands where precipitation is marginal for crop cultivation. Large concentrations are in the northern and western parts of the country and the population is expanding in the southern highlands.In terms of livestock per head of the human population, Tanzania is one of the most significant livestock rearing countries in Africa. Yet the average consumption level of animal protein per person is only 22% to 33% as estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization. There is a marked difference in consumption level between rural and urban populations, as well as between the regions.In order to increase the livestock sector's contribution to the national economy and increase consumption levels of animal protein in the short and long term, my Government plans to develop the traditional, commercial beef and dairy herds.Traditional Some 85 to 90% of the national cattle herd is under stock owner cultivators. Livestock development strategies under stock-owning cultivators will emphasise both livestock and crop production. Experience has shown that as crop production declines, livestock population also declines and vice versa. The remaining 10 to 15% of the national herd is owned by pastoral ists who occupy the grasslands of Serengeti, the woodland and wooded grassland of the Maasai Steppe.This production system is characterised by ownership of large numbers of stock, lack of livestock movement control, communal grazing system, traditional husbandry practices, absence of livestock records, rudimentary identification methods, estimation of cattle numbers and continuous breeding.Selection and culling is seldom done. There is no routine disease control programme, except for the nationally coordinated campaigns, like rinderpest.Traditional pasture and range management methods and non-specialised grazing systems are practised. When developed, it will be able to play its part in raising the animal protein consumption levels to 4.3 kg protein per capita.The development would require proper land-use plan and provision of livestock improvement packages.This would be achieved by settling farmers in villages and development of village ranches followed closely by the application of principles of range management. The overall development of the traditional herd require that it increases by 69% in order to meet the year 1990 national beef targets, and a further 50% increase would be needed to meet the year 2000 demand. To meet these, annual offtake rate targets would have to increase from 10 to 12% by 1990 and 13% by year 2000. Carcass weights would have to increase from 100 to 120 kg.Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, the commercial beef herd is only a small portion of the total cattle population run independently by the NARCO, TSC and ASC. However, the Government has been charged with the responsibility of:1.Building up an improved quality beef herd which will provide a source of stock for the traditional sector;2.Producing improved quality beef for home consumption and for export ;3 . Acting as a catalyst for improved ranching techniques for the traditional sector;4 .Fattening feeder steers purchased from the traditional sector, thus increasing the overall national meat production; and 5.Providing certain technical and training services where possible.The development strategy followed includes expansion of the ranches and intensification of some of the existing ranches. The expansion strategy has realised over 15 ranches. Many of the ranches under NARCO are low-cost extensive ranches. Some of the mature ranches have been intensified by investments in the development of the environment and water.Consequently, they have reached their production targets as average production coefficients; manifested in their calving rate 56%, weaning rate 50%, pre-weaning mortality rate 9%, -herd mortality 7%, -offtake rate 15.4%.The herd offtake rate will have to increase by 15 to 20% and carcass weight from 150 kg to 165 kg in the long term (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) to meet the projected beef demand as required by the National Food Strategy of 1982.Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, in the analysis of the livestock sector, the role played by the dairy herd in the nutrition of our people and the economy of the country has not been forgotten. Development of the herd which comprises commercial dairy farms, traditional cattle owners and the smallholder dairy farms, aims at stimulating dairy production to substitute for imported milk products in the short term and to develop dairy units throughout the country in the long term to provide milk for the rural population.The commercial dairy farms are mainly run by the parastatal organisations including Tanzania Dairy Farming Company Limited (DAFCO) , Tanzania Sisal Corporation (TSCO) , National Agricultural and Food Corporation (NAFCO) and co-operative unions.The projected milk production targets of 10 m litres per annum have not been realized due to a lot of problems including inadequate herd size on various farms. This implies that imported milk products have continued to increase to meet the market demand for milk.The traditional sector which produces about 365 m litres of milk per annum plays an important role in supplying milk to the rural population.Strategies to develop this sector should therefore focus on up-grading and selection coupled with improved management and feeding.The smallholder dairy farmers increase the supply of milk in rural areas and nearby urban areas. They are very efficient when compared with commercial producers.This system is being encouraged by ensuring that dairy heifers are available for them and providing essential services such as artificial insemination.Having discussed briefly various herds of the livestock sector and the role they have in the economy and the nutrition of the people in the country, a trend which may resemble that in some of your countries, I have to point out that the contributions made by the sector have been due to efforts and progress made in the control of animal diseases, and to some extent to the genetic improvement of local breeds of livestock.Mr. Chairman, the livestock sector would have been in a position to contribute more to the economy and nutrition of the people, if sociological, economic and animal nutrition constraints were solved. PANESA is therefore charged with the responsibility of generating scientific knowledge in the short and long term to utilise the range resources for the benefit of current and future generations. The knowledge sought should be able to allow for multiple range resource use for sustained range productivity. Part of this task has been initiated by the Range Management and Tsetse Control Section in my Ministry.It is hoped that combined efforts of this section and those of the Pasture Research Institute to be established at Kilosa and sister pasture research institutes in PANESA member countries will realise findings to exploit range resource. I wish you the best of success in this workshop.The introduction and evaluation of potential pasture grasses and legumes occupy a large proportion of the time of most pasture research teams and it is obvious that this is a field in which the PANESA network will be deeply involved. The pasture section at Grasslands Research Station has, since the mid-1950' s but particularly since 1970, been involved in the introduction, evaluation and incorporation into farming systems of forage and pasture legumes. During this period the section made many mistakes, learnt many lessons and changed its ideas and methods several times. In the hope that these experiences may be of interest to other workers in this field in Eastern and southern Africa, an attempt has been made to summarise the experiences in this paper. Most of the results presented and discussed here have been published elsewhere, and for that reason the methods employed are not described in detail. Emphasis is placed on comparisons of several species or strains under common conditions rather than on comparisons of techniques involving only one or a few strains.The procedures used in the introduction nursery (Clatworthy, 1975) are similar to those used in almost all introduction nurseries worldwide. Seeds are inoculated with Rhizobium strains known or thought likely to be effective on that species and are sown in a single row on fertilized soil. The nursery beds may be watered to ensure establishment but not thereafter. Records are kept of the habit, vigour, persistence, flowering date and flower characteristics, seed set, disease and pest attack and other features of interest for each introduction. The beds are kept weed-free for the first two seasons but not after that. Only in exceptional cases are plants harvested from the nursery.Seed is reaped from all lines initially to ensure a reserve of seed, but once this has been achieved, more seed is bulked only from those lines showing promise.Where feasible, cattle are allowed access to the introduction nursery from the fourth year onwards so that the acceptability of the legumes to stock can be observed. The introduction nursery is intended only as a very coarse screen to eliminate those plants which are obviously unsuited to conditions in the area.A large proportion of the introductions will warrant further testing to determine their agricultural potential, and it is with the techniques which should be used for this testing that this paper is primarily concerned.The introduction nursery is on Grasslands Research Station (18°ll'S, 31°30'E, 1630 m.a.s.l., 873 mm a.a.r., granitederived sandy loam soils) . Other trials to be discussed were carried out on Henderson Research Station (17°35'S, 30°58'E, 1290 m.a.s.l., 869 mm a.a.r., mainly silty clay loam soils derived from metasediments) and Makoholi Experiment Station (19°5 0'S, 30°47'E, 1200 m.a.s.l., 650 mm a.a.r., granite derived sandy soils) . In all cases fertilizers were applied, but, to save space, details of fertilizer treatments are not given here.Included in this section on establishment are trials in which seedling density or establishment percentages were determined, even though the work was primarily intended for some other purpose.For this reason the same experiment may be discussed under two or more headings.With the anticipation that the main benefit from the use of pasture legumes would come from their introduction into large areas of native grazing or veld, early trials therefore concentrated on this aspect of the work. Experiment 1. (Clatworthy and Thomas, 1972). Seeded at Grasslands in December, 1964 on native grassland on an infertile coarse sand.Treatments comprised: unsprayed or sprayed with 1.4 1/ha of Gramoxone disced to 25 or 100 mm depth left bare or mulched with 500 kg/ha of hay after seeding Desmodium intortum, Lotononis bainesii, L. listii, Stylosanthes guianensis and Trifolium semipilosum.The seed was broadcast on the soil surface and was not covered, except by mulch on the appropriate plots.Surviving plants were counted on three occasions in the ten months following seeding.Experiment 2. (Clatworthy, 1980) . At Grasslands and Henderson, mainly to test the effects of grazing management on the persistence of twelve legume strains seeded into disced veld. The legume seeds were broadcast on the soil surface in December, 1970 and plants were counted in February and July and early in the next rains.Experiment 7. Seeds of 13 strains of Stylosanthes spp. and of Siratro were sown on fertilised disced strips in native grassland at Chibero Agricultural College (18°06'S, 30°40'E, 1335 m.a.s.l., 805 mm a.a.r., clay soil derived from dolerite) and at Matopos Research Station (20°24'S, 28°28'E, 1340 m.a.s.l., 585 mm a.a.r., coarse sand derived from granite) in December, 1981. Seeding rates were calculated to allow 400 viable seeds of the Stylosanthes spp. or 150 of Siratro. The seed was dropped in a line on the soil surface and then lightly raked.The paddocks concerned were included in the normal grazing rotations and seedlings were counted at the end of the establishment season.Quite early in the work it became obvious that farmers were mainly sowing pasture legumes on ploughed land, usually after a period of cropping, and accordingly, increased emphasis was placed on this aspect. Experiment 3a. (Grant, 1976). Approximately 250 viable seeds of Desmodium intortum. Oxley fine-stem stylo and Siratro were sown on three dates in the 1973-74 season on the surface or in drills 10 mm deep on soil which had been fumigated with methyl bromide. Experiment 3b. (Grant, 1976) . The same three legumes were sown in 1974-75 late in the dry season, just before the rains or after rain had fallen and the first crop of weeds been destroyed. Half the area was fumigated with methyl bromide, all seeds were sown in drills 10 mm deep and half the plots were mulched with broken maize cobs after seeding. In both of these experiments seedings were counted frequently, with the final count during the following rains. Experiment 4. (Clatworthy, in press, a). Twelve strains of Stylosanthes spp. covering S. fruticosa, S. guianensis, S. humilis, S. scabra, S. subsericea and S. viscosa were sown on ploughed and disced land at Grasslands and Henderson (1973-74) and at Makoholi (1974-75) at a constant seed rate of 10.7 kg/ha. Five strains were common to all three sites; others were chosen on the basis of likely adaptation to the particular site. The seed was broadcast and lightly covered and seedlings were counted approximately two months after sowing. Experiment 5.(Clatworthy, in press, b) . Twelve strains of legumes which it was thought might prove suitable for use in ley pastures were sown on ploughed and disced land at Grasslands and Henderson (1973-74) and at Makoholi (1974-75) . Six strains were common to all sites and the others were chosen on the basis of their likely adaptation to that area. Seeds were sown at rates applicable to commercial use in shallow drills 0.5 m apart and were kept weed-free during the season of establishment. Seedlings were counted at Grasslands and Makoholi early in the first dry season after sowing.Included in this section are trials in which the comparative performance of a number of legume strains, in terms of yield, persistence, acceptability to stock or other desirable features, is determined over several years.Undercutting Only Experiment 4. (Clatworthy, in press, a) . Twelve strains of Stylosanthes spp. were sown at Grasslands, Henderson and Makoholi. Yields were determined by cutting to a height of 75 mm once or twice per season.Combined with cutting Experiment 5. (Clatworthy, in press, b) . Twelve legume strains with potential for use in ley pastures were sown at Grasslands, Henderson and Makoholi. Yields were determined by harvesting quadrats from each plot twice or three times per season.After each sampling a group of cattle were put into the experiment and remained there until the most selected legumes had been grazed to approximately the sampling height. After the cattle had been removed, the apparent acceptability of each legume was scored and the whole experiment was then slashed to sampling height.Alternating with cutting Experiment 6.Thirty lines of Neonotonia wlghtii and four of perennial Glycine spp. , with Silverleaf desmodium and Siratro as controls, were sown in replicated rows at Henderson. At the end of the establishment season the rows were sampled for measurement of dry-matter yield and of seed production. In the following season half of each row was harvested four times, and half once, and yields were again measured. The trial area was then fenced and grazed hard by cattle for two seasons; grazing was sufficiently severe that topping after grazing was not necessary. In the fifth season the plants were again harvested to determine how well they had survived the grazing.Grazing Trials Experiment 2. (Clatworthy, 1980). Twelve legumes were sown in replicated blocks on disced veld at Grasslands and at Henderson. Each trial was fenced into six paddocks which were grazed at 250 and 50 cdh in the growing season only, in the dry season only or year-round using a simulated rotational grazing system. The percentage frequency of occurrence of the legumes, and of other species, was determined early in the dry season each year. The trial at Henderson was burnt by a very hot escaped fire in July, 1976. In the late dry season of 1978 the herbage in both trials was mown and removed and in February, 1979 quadrats were harvested from each plot for yield determination.Experiment 7. Plants of 13 Stylosanthes spp. and of Siratro which had been sown on disced strips through grazed veld were counted annually in the late growing season in order to measure their persistence and spread. Notes were also made of such features as plant vigour, degree of grazing and any obvious signs of disease or pest attack.Veld Reinforcement Experiment 1. The seed was sown onto moist soil, but seeding was followed by a period of hot, dry weather. Both the herbicide spray and deep discing improved establishment, but the effect was not additive. Mulching had little effect although it caused an initial increase in seedling numbers on the shallowly-disced treatment.Table 1 shows that the legumes fell into three distinct categories: Stylosanthes guianensis had good initial establishment and good survival; Lotononis bainesii and L. listii had poor initial establishment but excellent survival, while Desmodium intortum and Trifolium semipilosum had moderate to poor initial establishment and poor survival. As a result of this experiment, most of the establishment trials done between 1965 and 1970 were done with S. guianensis only. The twelve legumes were sown on disced veld in December, 1970. At Grasslands seeding was followed by a hot, dry period, but the weather at Henderson was considerably more favourable for establishment.Stands of all legumes were therefore denser at Henderson. At Grasslands the Stylosanthes spp. had the largest establishment percentages, especially at the count after the dry season. At Henderson the differences in establishment percentages were much smaller and all legumes except the two Lotononis spp. produced good stands. Sown Pastures Experiment 3a. The three legumes were sown on three dates, either in shallow drills or on the surface of moist soil which had been fumigated with methyl bromide. The numbers of seedlings which had emerged three weeks after seeding are shown in Table 3.There was little difference in stand densities between the first two sowings, but the third date produced the greatest emergence. Sowing in drills had a marked beneficial effect, which was least with Siratro and greatest with Desmodium intortum. Experiment 3b. The same three legumes were sown on three dates in shallow drills on soil which had or had not been fumigated with methyl bromide and which were or were not covered with a mulch after sowing. Table 4 shows the number of seedlings which established in the various treatments. Mulching proved beneficial, and the effect was consistent for the three legumes. Soil fumigation also increased establishment and the effect was most marked with Desmodium intortum, which virtually failed on the unfumigated plots. The results of these two experiments confirm those already presented for the veld reinforcement trials which showed that Desmodium intortum is considerably more susceptible to stress during seedling establishment than are Siratro or Oxley fine-stem stylo.Experiment 4. Twelve strains of Stylosanthes spp. (but not the same 12 at each site) were sown on ploughed and disced land at Grasslands, Henderson and Makoholi. Seedlings were counted approximately two months after sowing, and at Grasslands and Henderson differences between the strains in seedling density were highly significant. Seedling density was not affected by seed size but was positively correlated with germination percentage.When establishment was expressed as percentage of viable seeds sown, there were significant differences between the strains at all three sites. There was a consistent negative correlation between establishment percentage and the germination percentage of the seed sample. This must have resulted from the germination in the field of some hard seed which did not germinate in the incubator.Seed size had no effect on establishment percentage. Experiment 5. Twelve strains of legumes with possible potential for use in ley pastures were sown in shallow drills on ploughed and disced land at Grasslands, Henderson and Makoholi. At Grasslands and Makoholi seedlings were counted approximately six months after seeding, and at both sites differences in seedling density were highly significant. Seed size had no effect on seedling density (showing that the different seeding rates were effective in reducing variation) , but seedling density was again positively correlated with germination percentage. Establishment percentage of viable seeds sown was negatively correlated with the number of seeds per gram, showing that larger seeds had a greater probability of successful establishment.These counts were done in June, by which time in Experiment 2 the Stylosanthes spp. had shown superior survival at Grasslands over the other genera under the rigorous conditions of veld reinforcement in a season of below-average rainfall. This advantage was not demonstrated in the present trial in the easier conditions on ploughed land on which weeds were controlled and in a very wet season.Undercutting Only Experiment 4. Twelve strains of Stylosanthes spp. covering a total of seven species, with five strains common to all sites, were sown at Grasslands, Henderson and Makoholi and were harvested once or twice per season for a minimum of three years. The results presented in Table 5 show that in the season after sowing, maximum herbage yields of stylo at all sites were close to or greater than 5 t/ha of dry matter. Strains of Stylosanthes guianensis were the highest-yielding at all sites, the solitary exception being in the establishment season at Makoholi where greater yields were produced by the annual species S. humilis and S. subsericea. But the persistence of the stylos was poor, and few lines were productive by the fourth year of the trial.Even strains such as Oxley fine-stem stylo, which was known to persist well under grazing at Grasslands, had declined markedly by the fourth harvest season. From observations in grazed plots, there appeared to be a rough correspondence between the persistence of the strains under cutting and under grazing.Nonetheless the results provided only very poor indication of the possible value of the Stylosanthes spp. under grazing conditions, especially for the annual species for which the cutting treatments effectively prevented seeding and regeneration.Combined with cutting Experiment 5. Twelve strains of legumes of potential value in ley pastures were sown in shallow drills on ploughed and disced land and were kept reasonably weed-free in the establishment season.From the second season onwards, yields were determined by harvesting quadrats from each plot. After sampling, cattle grazed the trial until the most palatable legumes had been grazed to approximately sampling height. The cattle were then removed, the extent to which the different legumes had been grazed was noted and the trial mown.--qia-■ T 3 0 -p o . » q -U T q-e-d = on 'S O\"ST L'Zi E-8OT L-Z 0\"E E-ET O' --O 9MTAt both Grasslands and Henderson Desmodium intortum was the outstanding legume, with an average annual yield of more than 8 t/ha at Grasslands and 6 t/ha at Henderson. The other two Desmodium strains were also highly productive, as was Archer but Archer proved considerably less acceptable to cattle than the other legumes.At Henderson, fire burnt the whole trial after the second sampling season and affected all the legumes, although none was completely eliminated. Yields in the final season were very low compared with previous years, perhaps because the poorly drained site became waterlogged in a year of exceptionally heavy rain. Work in Australia has shown that few of the pasture legumes can tolerate prolonged waterlogging (Mclvor, 1976) .At Makoholi only Archer (1.7 t/ha) and Siratro (1.6 t/ha) were productive. Results at this site were very different from those at Grasslands and Henderson. Makoholi would normally be regarded as having submarginal rainfall for sown pastures but this trial coincided with a period of above-average rainfall, and a more likely reason for the failure of the legumes would be the inherently low soil fertility.The effect of grazing in these trials was very small as the plots were topped immediately after grazing, and for all practical purposes these could be regarded as pure cutting trials.In ley pastures the main selection criterion is to produce the maximum yield of herbage over a relatively short life of the pasture, and that can be measured sufficiently accurately in cutting trials. The main advantage from the use of animals in this trial was that it demonstrated clearly the very low acceptability of Archer.(b) Alternating with cutting Experiment 6. Thirty lines of Neonotonia wightii, four of perennial Glycine spp. and Siratro and Silverleaf desmodium were sown in replicated rows at Henderson. When sampled at the end of the establishment season, the highest yielding legumes were Silverleaf desmodium and three strains of N. wightii cv Cooper, CPI 25702 (from which Cooper was selected) and an introduction from Angola which was almost certainly also Cooper.In the second season, half of each row was harvested four times and the other half at the end of the growing season only. The same four legumes were again the highest-yielding. The trial was then fenced and grazed by cattle for two seasons. In either season there was a detectable difference in the acceptability of the various strains, and in both seasons grazing was sufficiently severe that slashing was unnecessary.In the final year the legumes were harvested twice to measure their persistence after the period of grazing. At this harvest the three Cooper lines and Silverleaf desmodium produced yields below average, and the three highest-yielding lines were all Neonotonia wightii strains of Zimbabwean origin. These were very similar in their visual characteristics and in flowering time, and it is intended to combine them and release the mixture as a pasture cultivar.This trial illustrates the need to continue screening for a reasonable period before conclusions are reached. It is tempting to ascribe the failure of the Cooper lines to a lesser ability to withstand grazing, but, in the absence of a cutting-only control, this is not justified and may have been merely an effect of time. At least, though, we can be confident that our selected lines will persist for the normal life of a pasture, even under severe grazing pressure.Experiment 2. Twelve legumes were sown in six replicated blocks on disced land at Grasslands and Henderson. Each legume was sown in two plots in each block. The blocks were fenced separately and were grazed at two stocking rates in the dry season only, the wet season only, and year-round using a simulated rotational grazing system.At Grasslands only the five stylo strains and Siratro established in reasonable density, and of these Oxley fine-stem stylo proved outstanding. It persisted well and spread into plots in which it had not been sown and appeared particularly favoured by grazing during the growing season.At Henderson a much wider range of legumes established and persisted throughout the trial. Schofield stylo initially was outstanding but it appeared short-lived and Silverleaf desmodium was the most impressive legume in the middle stages. The fire in 1976 affected all the legumes, although none was completely eliminated, but Lotononis bainesii and L. listil recovered rapidly and were the most prominent legumes at the end of the trial.Silverleaf desmodium was especially favoured by grazing in the dry season only while the Lotononis spp. grew best in plots which were grazed in the growing season.The large differences between the results from the two sites in this trial emphasise the need for multi-site testing covering a range of soil and climatic conditions if results are to have a widespread applicability. The results also emphasise the need for the long continuation of trials and also for recurrent natural hazards, such as fire, to be incorporated in the design.The season of grazing treatments proved useful; doubling the stocking rate did not. This type of trial is of value in determining which strains justify large-scale testing in animal production experiments.Experiment 7.Seeds of a range of Stylosanthes spp. and of Siratro were sown on disced strips in veld and grazed in normal farm practice. Surviving plants were counted at intervals, normally in the late growing season of each year.The results are a combination of the ability of each strain to establish and to persist. At nearly all sites the greatest number of seedlings were from S. guianensis strains, but S. scabra proved hardier and had a greater percentage survival. At Grasslands in 1984 there was evidence of increases in stand density of S. fruticosa, S. viscosa and all S. scabra lines, and this trend continued into 1986. All of the stylos were grazed and even the notoriouslyunpalatable S. viscosa appeared to be well eaten by the late dry season.>■ 00In Zimbabwe, as in most parts of the tropical and subtropical world, the main legumes used in pastures are of Central or South American origin. Few locally collected legumes were included in the trials described here: of these, Stylosanthes fruticosa could prove of importance in the medium-rainfall parts of Zimbabwe and Neonotonia wightii on heavier soils in the better-watered areas.Indigenous strains of Alysicarpus rugosus, Lotononis listii, Macrotyloma axillare and Teramnus labialis (all of which performed well in one or more of the trials described in this paper) also occur in Zimbabwe. However, diseases and pests have posed problems with indigenous strains, especially when grown in pure stands for seed production and may limit their usefulness compared with introductions.For national institutions with limited resources the most logical first stage is to introduce strains of pasture plants of proven or suggested value under similar conditions elsewhere and to test those. Inevitably research and extension workers and farmers will collect, on a casual basis, seeds of grasses or legumes which catch their attention, usually because of productivity, growth habit or acceptability to stock. This is healthy and can pay big dividends, but it is doubtful if a heavy commitment to pasture plant collection is a wise use of national resources and it is disturbing that emphasis has been given to plant collection at the IDRC/PANESA/ILCA training course in \"Forage Plant Introduction and Evaluation\" in October, 1986. There are excellent chapters on pasture plant evaluation in several books (Shaw et al . , 1976;'t Mannetje et al . , 1976;Cameron and Mclvor, 1980;Jones and Walker, 1983). The stages which have evolved in this paper largely echo those which are outlined by those authors, particularly in regard to the need to consider the likely use of the plant from an early stage in the evaluation process. This is especially relevant in Africa, with its multiplicity of livestock production systems, ranging from intensive cut-and-carry milk production to extensive and largely uncontrolled grazing of rangeland. For cut-and-carry system the yield of the forage is the most important criterion, and this can be adequately assessed in simple cutting trials, ideally combined with some assessment of the nutritional value of the herbage. For rangeland improvement, the criteria of success depend more on persistence and spread under grazing, which can really only be measured in situ. The likely use of the forage plants within the local farming systems will need to be borne in mind in planning the evaluation trials within the PANESA network.Except in the most basic stage, that of the observation nursery, the type of accession chosen for testing, and the form of treatments imposed, should be defined to a great extent by the role the plant is to play in the livestock system.In many cases in Africa the farming systems, the roles of livestock within them and the potential benefits which can be derived by the growing of forage plants, are not yet clearly defined and this makes the task of the researcher dealing with small-scale farming systems more difficult than that of the worker with well-defined commercial livestock operations.The authors believe, though, it should be possible to postulate suitable roles and types of forage plants for each area and to derive likely \"short lists\" of promising lines for more detailed evaluation. They query whether time will be best spent testing a complete and common spectrum of pasture grasses and legumes under the full range of conditions covered by the PANESA region as that seems a complete negation of the region's collective experience built up over so many years.A major deficiency of the experiments on ploughed land described in this paper is that in all cases the legumes were sown in pure stands. Except when intended as protein banks, either grazed in situ or cut and conserved, there are considerable advantages to combining a grass with the legume, and the selection of productive and compatible mixtures is a complex and demanding task.Again, though, a great deal can be learnt from experience under similar conditions elsewhere. In particular we in PANESA need to study the methods used, and the lessons learnt, by the extensive and growing Tropical Pastures Evaluation Network (RIEPT) in South America and the neighbouring regions.Botswana, extending from 18°S to 27°S and 20°E and 29°E is situated on the Southern African Plateau with a mean altitude of 1,000 m.a.s.l. It covers 582,000 sq. km with marked topographical features mainly in the east on the hardveld, where the soil is capable of supporting arable agriculture.The hardveld is a narrow strip covering about 20% of the country. In the northwest is the Okavango Delta. The rest of the country is covered by the Kalahari sand.There is great variation in amount and distribution from location to location and from year to year. The rainfall is highest in the northeast at 650-700 mm decreasing to a minimum of 100-200 mm in the southwest. Rainfall occurs in October-April and over 90% of rain occurs in November to March. Beginning and end of rains are equally unreliable. Early planting might suffer from drought, or late planting may never get established.Evaporation often exceeds 2 m per annum, and humidity is low. There is quite a large difference between morning humidity and afternoon humidity. Temperatures reach 31°C in December and January, and daily variation averages 13°C. Frost is common in winter in the south.Livestock form an important industry accounting for 2 0% of the foreign exchange economy. In 1982 the cattle population was 3 million; this figure dropped to 2.5 million by 1986 due to drought.However, the cattle population has been increasing as drought years are often followed by good rain years.Cattle density is high in the hardveld; however, in the past few years the Kalahari has been intruded upon by large numbers due to opening of more ground waters. The Okavango delta is still lightly used due to the trypanosomiasis-transmitting tsetse fly, and in other areas range degradation is widespread, especially around watering points.There are a number of reports that categorise the vegetation of Botswana, notably those by Wear and Yalala (1971), DVH (1979) and Timberlake (1980)  The last type is specific to the Okavango Delta, and it includes the grasses Phragmites communis, Dichanthium papillusum, Panicum repens, Andropogon encomus, Echinochloa pyramidelis, Imperata cylindrica, and woody plants Ficus verruculosa and Hyphaene crinata.The purpose of this paper is to discuss the forage values and review some of these forage species that have been tried for pasture in Botswana.The history of range agronomy in Botswana goes back to 197 0 for only a short period (FAO, 1971) . The work resumed in 1976 and continued up to 1982 when there was a cessation of fodder plant screening from 1983 to 1985. Finally the work resumed again in 1986.The range agronomy section has tested promising species into farming systems programmes with local farmers. These were primarily the introduced species Stylosanthes humilis, Neonotonia wightii, Macroptilium atropurpureum, Stylosanthes guianensis and Rhynchosia sublobata. It has also determined the nutritive value (CP% and DMD%) of a variety of range grass and woody plants in some vegetation types.At some stage in the screening programme (1976/77) , the increase in rangeland yield by applying fertilizer was tested at Morapedi in an Acacia erioloba tree savanna on the Kalahari sandveld.A combination of nitrogen and phosphorus was applied in the form of urea and superphosphate respectively.Urea was applied at four levels (0, 50, 100, 150 kg/ha) and superphosphate at two levels (0, 33.2 kg/ha). The fertilizer work was extended to Marale in 1979 with a vegetation cover composed of Acacia nigrescens/Combretum apiculatum tree savanna in the hardveld. Three fertilizers, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the form of ammonium sulphate, superphosphate and potassium chloride respectively were applied in combinations of two.Levels of ammonium sulphate were 0, 250, 500 and 750 kg/ha; those for superphosphate were 0, 400 and 800 kg/ha, while those for potassium chloride were 0 and 50 kg/ha.The nutritive values in terms of crude protein and dry-matter digestibility of some range grasses in the hardveld and the Kalahari sandveld are shown in Tables 1 and 2 respectively. The hardveld grasses are generally of a higher nutritive value than those of the Kalahari sandveld. These data are means over a 29month period. However, within this period it was observed that protein values were quite high during the wet season, resulting in good livestock performance on them. During the dry seasons the range grasses were characterised by low protein values, lower than maintenance requirement, and thus animals lost weight. Tables 3 and 4 show the nutritive values of some wood range plants in the hardveld and the Kalahari sandveld, respectively. There are no major discernible differences between the nutritive values of hardveld and sandveld species.However, the woody species are generally higher in nutritive value than grasses in both vegetation types. This means that browsing is an important supplementation feed resource for these animals on range.Results of the exotic plants screening work indicated that Stylosanthes spp. and Macroptilium atropiirpureum made good    OProduction from plots planted the previous year. Source: APRU (1978,1979,1980,1981) Cenchrus sp. established poorly due to heavy weed competition.The other grasses Cynodon dactylon, Eragrostis culvula, Urochloa The plant is susceptible to frost although it has shown the ability to regrow once weather conditions warm up. The major problem interfering with its successful establishment is white termite attack and wildlife and goats that hammer it hard, hence affecting its maintenance under range.Results of the fertilizer trials indicated no significant increase in range productivity to levels of urea application beyond 50 kg/ha when phosphorus was held at zero.But when phosphorus was increased to 3 32 kg/ha the yield was increased at the other levels of urea application (Figure 1). Figures 2, 3 and 4 show yields of three grasses (Digitaria, Eragrostis and Urochloa spp.) in response to fertilizer. Nitrogen reduced yield at 500 kg/ha and beyond when superphosphate was held at zero (Figure 2).This response was similar to that of ammonium sulphate and potassium chloride, when ammonium sulphate was increased beyond 500 kg/ha and potassium chloride was held at 50 3 Suptrph■tphatt kg/ha yield was reduced (Figure 3) . Figure 4 shows that an increase in superphosphate increased yield more when potassium chloride was held at zero.  For Botswana, a country that has suffered from a succession of droughts, there appears to be limited scope for planted perennial pasture plants. Annuals render themselves better to easy incorporation in arable farming systems than perennials. The latter might pose problems of eradication in cropping systems.Interest in fertilizer trials ought to be reduced as the economic feasibility has indicated that fertilizer application to the range is unlikely to be of practical value in the immediate future.The current trends in research are geared to collaboration with ICRISAT and ILCA to come up with various cultivars of fodder millets, fodder sorghums and some specialised grasses and fodder legumes that would easily fit in small-scale crop-livestock farming systems. Indigenous fodders ought to be an integral part of this work. The lake which is 570 km long and 16-80 km wide is drained by the Shire River following the line of rift into the Zambezi River (Agnew and Stobbs, 1972) .The faulting and subsequent erosions created diversified topographies which have been modified by the influence of the lake, intertropical convergence zone and the southeast Trade Winds to give rise to tropical and sub-tropical environments.These environments contain a variety of grasses and legumes which could be utilised in our farming systems.So far there has been no extensive plant collections in Malawi, and as a result detailed distribution of forage plants is rather sketchy. However, the few vegetation documents available, the 1981 collection strip made by the senior author to some parts of the central and northern regions and the knowledge of the authors has formed the bases of this paper. Consequently, some documents could have been overlooked out of ignorance.The physiographic regions delineated by Pike and Rimmington (1965) (Appendices 1 and 2) have been used to describe the distribution of the forage plants. The climatic variables in these regions differ a lot and warrant a separate description to give a prospective collector all the necessary information.This area is a narrow extension of the Mozambique Coastal Plain into Malawi with altitudes ranging from about 120 m in the north to 40 m in the south. The area lies in the rainshadows of the Thyolo escarpment in the north-west, the Nsanje Hills in the south and the watershed between the Zambezi and the Shire rivers. The average temperature and rainfall are 30°C and 630 mm respectively.Urochloa mosambicensis, Panicum spp. Clitoria ternatea, Rhynchosia spp. and Sesbania spp. are found in this area. Urochloa mosambicensis is widespread in the valley especially on grassy areas occurring on sandy soil. This ecotype is superior to U. pullulans , a perennial found elsewhere in the country at altitude below 1500 m which tends to scorch whenever there is dry spell during the rainy season. Setaria and Panicum, Sesbania and Aeschynomene spp. grow along streams and dambos. Clitoria ternatea is found around Ngabu on gravelly soils.This region whose average altitude ranges from 610 m to 3000 m has an extended rainfall season as a result of the moisture carried by the south-east Trade Winds from the Indian Ocean. Average rainfall is about 3000 mm in Mulanje and Zomba and decreases to about 1000 mm in some parts of the Shire Highlands.Panicum maximum occurs along roads, streams and on scattered hills of the Shire Highlands which contain Acacia woodii and Albizzia gummifera vegetation. The commonest perennial wood type has broad dark green leaves and is found growing in the heavily disturbed areas.The giant types are found mostly on the windward side whereas the medium types tend to occur on the leeward side of these highlands. Pennisetum, Setaria, Cynodon and Neonotonia spp. also occur in this area.This area extends from Salima in the south to Nkhota-kota in the north.It is a relatively dry area due to the prevalence of the southeast Trade Winds which lose their moisture on the Mulanje, Shire and Zomba Highlands. The altitude is about 500 m, and the average temperature and rainfall are 23°C and 1270 mm respectively.The area is characterised by seasonal swamps and Acacia-Adansonia-Cordyla-Sterculia vegetation -interspersed with alluvial fans along the Linthipe, Lingadzi, Bua, Kaombe, Dwangwa and Dwambazi rivers.Pennisetum, Cynodon, Brachiaria, Setaria,Neonotonia and Aeschynomene spp. occur in this area. Panicum maximum is found along river and swamp fringes. The P. maximum growing along the Dwangwa river could even be planted from setts. The distribution of P. maximum seems to indicate that seed originally came from higher areas of the Dowa-Ntchisi and Viphya highlands.This hypothesis is supported by the absence of P. maximum along rivers and dambos from the Chitala river going southwards, a section which does not have corresponding highlands further inland.The Cynodon spp. have head smut which limits their chance of being suitable for collections. Neonotonia wightii along the entire area shows a visual gradation from diploid to tetraploid types from south to north corresponding to the amount of rainfall received.The area has some evergreen forests at altitudes of 17 00 m due to the influence of orographic rains brought by the southeast Trade Winds.Panicum maximum, Setaria spp. Pennisetum purpureum and Neonotonia wightii are found in this area.Past collections from this area yielded Panicum maximum cv Ntchisi.This giant guinea grass has broad bluish green leaves which makes it suitable for cut-and-carry, silage and grazing (Addy and Thomas, 1976) . Ntchisi panic has found its way into Kenya (Bogdan, 1977) and Zambia (Anon., 1979).Ntchisi panic like most guinea grasses is mostly propagated by splits because seed harvesting is hampered by variability in seed maturation on the same panicle which quickly sheds or are eaten by birds.The central region plateau is the largest continuous surface in Malawi extending from the margin of the rift valley in the east to the Zambian border in the west. The altitude ranges from 970 to 1300 m with an average temperature and rainfall of 20°C and 800 mm respectively.The vegetation consists of Acacia-Piliostigma-Combretum and Brachystegia-Julbernardia savannah woodlands on the Lilongwe and Kasungu plains respectively. Panicum maximum occurs along major rivers of Lilongwe, Lingadzi and Bua whereas Brachiaria spp.Setaria sphacelata, S. longiseta and S. splendida are found both on higher ground and dambos. Setaria palustris is found on dambos only.Most of these Setaria spp. are attacked by head smut (Tiletia echnosperma) .Macrotyloma spp. occurring on the Lilongwe plain consist of both annual grabrescent and pubescent types .The grabrescent type climbs onto the hyparrhenia and maize plants. This climbing attribute onto the latter could be utilised to improve the quality of maize stover for stall-feeding. Macrotyloma axillare occurs on the Kasungu plain but its small leaves would limit its usefulness as a forage legume. Neonotonia spp. which matures towards the end of the rainy season occurs throughout this region especially on termite mounds. viphya Lakeshore and HighlandsThe altitude ranges from 500 m on the lakeshore to about 1300 m on the highlands. This region, apart from the Mulanje-Shire-Zomba highlands, receives the next highest annual rainfall of over 1500 mm. The southeast Trade Winds, after blowing over the lake for a long distance, get recharged with moisture which falls as orographic rain. As a result of this influence, this region has an extended rainy season which supports growth of low altitude evergreen forests on the lakeshore and on the highlands.The Luweya catchment area, the area between Chintheche and Nkhata-Bay and extending westwards to Mzuzu, has the largest variety of Panicum and Brachiaria spp. compared to any other area in Malawi. In contrast, the northern Viphya Highlands contain relatively few of these grasses probably due to the rainshadows created by Choma and Chimaliro hills within the highlands. Setaria and Pennisetum spp. also occur in this area. Most of these species are found along streams and on the extensive Limphasa dambo. The heavily smutted Cynodon spp. are found on the lakeshore only.Neonotonia, Dolichos and Macrotyloma spp. occur in this region.Among Neonotonia spp. are found both early and late maturing ecotypes. The latter flower as late as August at the onset of the dry hot season when wild fires are very common. The slender pubescent Macrotyloma sp. is found on the lakeshore along gullies whereas Macrotyloma axillare and the shrub type Macrotyloma sp. occur on the highlands. M. axillare distribution seems to indicate that it thrives well on well drained sandy loam soil.The region lies between the Viphya to the west and Nyika plateau and Njakwa Hills to the east. The altitude is over 1000 m with an average temperature and rainfall of 21°C and 760 mm respectively.The vegetation consists of the Brachystegia-Julbernardia and Combretum-Acacia woodlands.Chloris gayana, Cynodon spp., Panicum spp. and Neonotonia spp. occur in this area. Most Cynodon spp. have head smut. Neonotonia spp. mature early in May-June at the onset of the cool dry season.Most of the area lies in the rainshadows of the Viphya highlands, the Nyika plateau and the Njakwa Hills. The vegetation consists of the Brachystegia-Julbernardia woodland. The altitude is about 1200 m and the average temperature and rainfall is 20°C and 760 mm respectively. Chloris gayana, Panicum spp., Cynodon spp., Pennisetum spp., Neonotonia spp. and Clitoria ternatea occur in this area.No collections of Chloris gayana have been made despite its wide acceptance for grazing and hay making.However, Vwaza Game National Park will remain the major area for future collections whereas in settled areas termite mounds will be the best spots. Large patches of Cynodon spp. in the Nkhamanga and Hewe areas occur along rivers and low lying areas.Panicum maximum is mostly found along the Rumphi and Runyina rivers. Clitoria ternatea is found at Rumphi boma.The area lies on the eastern slopes of the Nyika at an average altitude of 1400 m and is characterised by cool weather and an extended rainy season due to the influence of the southeast Trade Winds.The average annual temperature and rainfall is 20°C and 1700 mm respectively.Neonotonia and Dolichos spp. occurring in this area mature late in September-October at the onset of the short hot dry season.The largest concentrations of Neonotonia spp. occur between Junju and Kaziwiziwi where it is possible to find plants 2 0 m apart. Medium and giant Panicum maximum are concentrated along rivers and valley bottoms. Cynodon spp. occurs at Rumphi North bridge and around the Livingstonia plateau.The plateau lies between 2,000-3,500 m and receives about 1270 mm rainfall.The average temperature is about 14°C. Setarias and Macrotyloma spp. are the only important forage species found on the plateau. The Setaria because of the altitude have very small leaves and may not be suitable for collections. Two types of Macrotyloma spp. occur in the plateau -the grabrescent type found in the open grasslands and the slender pubescent type is found among the dense thickets along valleys.Kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum) introduced from East Africa has almost been naturalised on the plateau.The lakeshore plain average altitude is about 550 m. The average temperature and rainfall are 25°C and 920 mm respectively. Setaria, Panicum and Brachiaria spp. occur along channels in the Kara, Wovwe and Lufilya rice schemes, the dambos through which some major rivers from the Nyika plateau pass. Cynodon spp. on this plain are severely attacked by head smut. Calopogonium sp., growing around the Lufilya rice scheme, is a recent introduction by the Chinese agricultural technicians for green manuring.The plain lies at an altitude of 1500 m. The average temperature and rainfall are 20°C and 1000 mm respectively. Panicum, Cynodon and Neonotonia spp. occur in many areas especially along the drainage systems. Large concentrations of Panicum maximum are found at Chisenga, at the foothills of the Mafingi Hills, and a few plants are scattered along the Kaseye and Lufilya rivers. Neonotonia wightii is found along the Kaseye and Songwe rivers, and most of these mature in July.Cynodon spp. are widely distributed on the Chitipa plain especially on sandy soils where they form large patches of natural pastures. No head smut was observed on these Cynodon spp.The hills rise to an altitude of 2000 m. Due to the influence of the south-east Trade Winds, the area is covered by moist Brachystegia woodland, semi-evergreen forests and montane grassland forests. The average temperature and rainfall are 21°C and 100 mm respectively. Neonotonia wightii , with a lot of hairs, occurs in this area and matures late in September.A Calopogonium sp.introduced by earlier agriculturalists grows around Misuku Agriculture Station. There are few Panicum and Brachiaria spp. in this area probably due to extensive cultivation in this densely populated area. Cynodon spp. occurs in scattered areas.Panicum species tend to occur more in wet and fertile areas with high frequencies than in dry areas especially on the leeward side of high grounds. Neonotonia wightii also tends to follow the same pattern except that occurrence is also high in wet fertile areas.Chloris gayana , Urochloa mosambicensis, Brachiaria spp. Dolichos spp. and Macrotyloma spp. have special habitats. Therefore, with the present knowledge it is possible to make trips to targeted areas to collect specific species.Legend of Physiographic Regions as shown in Figure 1. The genus Sesbania belongs to the family Leguminosae and its subfamily is Papilionoideae. There are four subgenera of which Sesbania and Agati are of agricultural value. The subgenus Sesbania is much more important in Africa, and it has a large number of species. Some of the most important members of this subgenus Agati is mainly found in southern Asia and its members are more of perennial and tree types as compared to the relatively more annual and shrub types found in the subgenus Sesbania.Members of the genus Sesbania are known for exceptionally fast growth rates as well as a very high affinity for association with several nitrogen-fixing Rhizobia in the soil that cause formation of numerous and large nodules in the plant roots. Members of this genus also have several potential uses including forage, poles for light construction, fuelwood, pulpwood, live fences, medicines, shade trees for other crops and gums. This paper reviews these potential uses and makes a strong case for germplasm collection of members of the genus Sesbania in the PANESA region.It is envisaged that such a collection from several African countries will yield many useful selections when it will be subjected to screening for various economic and agricultural traits.Fifty species of Sesbania have been described in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Thirty-three of these species are found in Africa (Table 1) . The remaining 17 species are found in Australia (10) and Hawaii (7) species (Gillet, 1963;Burbidge, 19 65) . The number of Asian species is not known (Char, 1983) .In Africa the most dominant species is S. sesban (S. egyptica) .However, there are several species of Sesbania in Africa with unknown agricultural value and these have not been evaluated in agronomic trials. Sesbania has been reported in virtually all African countries from the tropical rainfall forests in Zaire to the Nile valley in the Egyptian desert.   Objectives of the proposed Sesbania collection include:1.To obtain Sesbania species from countries in the PANESA region. The seeds will be divided into two portions, one portion to be taken to a PANESA germplasm collection, and the other portion to be given to each country where the collection was made.The collections to the PANESA germplasm bank will not be an idle gene bank, but rather an active working collection. The collection will be screened for several potential, agricultural, forestry and industrial and medicinal uses.The information will be catalogued by the co-ordinator of PANESA.Arrangements will be made to multiply seeds of the promising collections and make these available on request to PANESA member countries.Several Sesbania species are an excellent livestock feed, both as fodder and hay (Onim et al . , 1985). Dry-matter (DM) yields of Sesbania forage is quite high when compared to other forage legumes. Onim (1986) compared forage productivity of Leucaena leucocephala (cv Cunningham) , pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and S. sesban at Maseno Research Station in western Kenya. The forage DM forage yields of the legumes after six months from planting were 8000, 5500 and 3000 kg/ha for Sesbania, Leucaena and pigeon pea respectively.Similarly nitrogen yields of these legumes were 250, 175 and 120 kg/ha for Sesbania, Leucaena and pigeon pea respectively (Figure 1) .Nutritive values of forages of some Sesbania species are presented in Table 2. The range of CP in Table 2 is from 18.8% to 32.0% with a mean of 27.1%. The mean crude fibre content is low (13.0%) and the mean calcium to phosphorus ratio is high (3:8). It is therefore clear that Sesbania species have forages of very high quality. Results of Katiyar andRanjham (1969) , Chinnaswami et al. (1978) and Singh et al (1980) showed that digestibility coefficients of three Sesbania species were quite consistent when these were fed to sheep and goats (Table 3) . DM and CP digestibility coefficients had means of 69.7 and 80.6 respectively.These results compare well with the DM digestibility coefficient of 74.3 that was reported on S. sesban from Maseno, Kenya by Sidahmed et al (1984) . The high nutritive value of Sesbania forage was confirmed in a supplementation study at the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) in Ethiopia (Anon. , 1986) . In this study, teff (Eragrostis tef) straw was supplemented with leaf hays of three browse tree legumes -Acacia cyanophylla, A. seyal, S. sesban and Vicia dasycarpa on a sheep feeding trial. Sheep body growth rates  Rotar and Evans (1985) .  (1980);Chinnaswami et al. (1978).showed that S. sesban hay was by far superior to all the other legumes: in fact sheep on A. cyanophylla supplementation lost condition (Figure 2a) . Nitrogen balance in sheep showed that apart from cyanophylla, the other legumes were ranked for the amount of nitrogen retained as Vicia dasycarpa, Sesbania sesban and Acacia seyal (Figure 2b) . These excellent nutritive qualities, especially the high CP content, makes Sesbania a very useful supplement as a source of CP to livestock. This is particularly crucial in small-scale farming where feeding of crop residues or cut-and-carry systems require a readily available source of CP. Sesbania hay lends itself to this system very well because it is easily stored until it is needed. Dairy meal (CP = 15%) can easily be substituted with Sesbania hay as a source of CP (CP = 26%) to lactating dairy animals. Sesbania species are known to fix between 500 to 600 kg/ha of nitrogen per year. In a green manure experiment in Maseno, Kenya (Onim, 1986) reported that S. sesban fixed up to 250 kg N/ha in six months. Since urea fertilizer contains 46%N, this fixation is equivalent to approximately eleven 50-kg bags of urea fertilizer in six months. The use of Sesbania as a green manure (GM) crop is a common practice in southeast Asia.Several studies have shown that Sesbania can return into the soil as GM between 80 and 120 kg of N within 90 days (Dargan et al . , 1975;Bhardwaj et al., 1981).Sesbania species are also often used in land reclamation especially in salty (saline) and sodic soils as well as in mining and excavation sites (Srivastava et al., 1973;Malik and Haider, 1977) . Both S. bispinosa and S. sesban have been used for these purposes.S. rostrata is native to tropical West Africa. This species is unique because it fixes nitrogen not only in its roots in the soil, but also in its aerial parts including stems and branches.  (Gillet, 1971) . Whether this species can fix more nitrogen than the other species is not well documented. More research is required in this area.As far back as the 193 0s, lactating mothers in Java were encouraged to eat young pods and flower buds of S. sesban and S. bispinosa since it was believed that these stimulate milk secretion (Ochse, 1931) . This galactagogue effect has also been reported in cattle in Kenya where in the 1950s, S. sesban was referred to as \"milk shrub\" (Brown, 1954) .Farmers were encouraged to feed Sesbania fodder to lactating cows to enhance milk secretion.Apart from the above-mentioned agricultural uses, there are several other general ones. These include cases where Sesbania are used as shade trees in coffee, cacao and other crop fields; as live fences and for general agroforestry uses.Perennial Sesbania species have been used for many years as a source of fuelwood. Bulk density of Sesbania varies according to species, rate of growth and age. However, values ranging between 240 to 616 kg/m3 have been reported (NAS, 1980 and1983). Fuelwood yields also vary depending on plant population used, species and bulk density. For example, S. grandiflora in a replicated trial in four sites in Hawaii at a spacing of 90 ocm x 90 cm (12,346 plants/ha), the trees had a mean stem diameter of 9 cm at breast height, and after three years the trees averaged 8 m in height (MacDicken, 1983). In another trial, at one year of age S. grandiflora had a height of 3.3 m, mean basal area of 24.5 cm and mean estimated wood volume of 24.6 m /ha. S. sesban grows to a height of approximately 4.0 m a year in western Kenya. Fuelwood potential of perennial Sesbania species among rural peoples of Africa is very large. This genus has many beneficial contributions to the environments where its forests are established for fuelwood purposes. These include its ability for rapid growth and thereby giving ground cover against soil erosion, leaf fodder for livestock and improvement of soil fertility through biological N-fixation and leaf litter. It is therefore imperative that this genus be strongly encouraged in soil reclamation, fuelwood and soil fertility improvement programmes in African developing countries.Sesbania species have also been used for fibre and pulpwood extraction.The S. exaltata of the Americas has been used as a source of fibre for fishing nets and lines by the Yuma Indians of Arizona for many centuries (Parker, 1972) . In South East Asia, S. bispinosa has been used for the same purpose (Sircar, 1948) . Sesbania fibre has been found suitable for fish nets because it resists decay.This quality qualifies Sesbania fibres for several other marine applications like sail lashings. Sesbania fibre is stronger than jute fibre (Townsend, 1973) .Sesbania has also been used as an important source of pulpwood.The best species for this role are S. sesban, S. grandiflora and S. bispinosa. The same bulk densities referred to before under fuelwood also apply here. When planted at a spacing of 20 cm x 40 cm, up to 125,000 stems/ha can be harvested.A paper mill exclusively operating on S. bispinosa did well in west Pakistan (Hussain and Ahmed, 1965) . In India, plantations of S. sesban have been established at Dandeli, Karuataka and at Jajahmundry to be sources of pulpwood for the West Coast Paper Mills and Andra Pradesh Paper Mill respectively. Yields of between 50 to 55 tonnes of green wood/ha/year have been reported in these plantations (Dutt et al . , 1983).Most of the African countries rely on pine forests for their pulpwood.Pines take up to 10 years to mature, and logs are often hauled into paper mills from as far as 400 km away (e.g. in Kenya) .This makes operational costs extremely high. The potential of rapidly growing species like Sesbania and Leucaena offer attractive alternatives. Both of these genera are also Nfixing trees as well as an excellent high protein fodder and hay for livestock feeding.S. grandiflora is known on both the continent and islands of Southeast Asia for its large and edible flowers. Raw or lightly steamed after removing calyx and pistil, they are used as an ingredient of soups, salads and vegetable dishes.The white flowers are preferred in the Philippines since red ones are said to be bitter. Leaves are also cooked as a vegetable.In Sri Lanka, one method of preparation is to cook chopped leaflets of S. sesban with chopped onions in coconut milk, creating a vegetable component of a traditional rice-based meal.S. grandiflora leaves have been found to be bitter in trials in India (Bai and Devadas, 1973) .S. grandiflora leaves had therefore to be prepared in mixture with other leafy vegetables (Gopaldas et al . , 1973).Sesbania leaves and pods have been eaten by lactating mothers to stimulate or increase milk secretion (galactagogue) . Ochse (1931) reported that in Java, leaves and young pods of S. grandiflora are eaten, especially by nursing mothers.According to Brown (1954) , feeding S. sesban leaves to cattle is believed to increase their milk production. Hurov (1961) calls S. sesban the \"Kenya milk shrub\". The Haya people of western Tanzania use this species for the same purpose.Many Sesbania species contain gums which may be of potential value for industrial uses. Natural gums, or mucilages, are complex polysaccharides which have a wide range of uses.Their varying physical properties are attributed to differences in the degree of branching of and polymerisation of the sugars. Gums are used in such wide-ranging products as ice cream, candy, soft drinks, beer, pastries and heat-and-serve convenience foods. Gums are also used in the manufacture of paper, textiles, paints, in well drilling and in mineral assay. Burkill (1935) reported that gums obtained from S. sesban, S. formosa and S. grandiflora are very similar to gum arabic.A United States National Academy of Sciences Report (NAS, 1979) stated that Sesbania bark gums have been used as a substitute for gum arabic, and suggested that with increasing scarcity of gum arabic from Acacia senegal , exploitation of Sesbania bark gums should be encouraged.Sesbania species have a long list of medicinal uses among different peoples of the world, especially in Africa and Asia. The three most important species as sources of traditional medicines are S. sesban, S. grandiflora and S. bispinosa. Astringent S. grandiflora juices and extracts have astringent quality. This is the ability to contract body tissues and blood vessels. This property is used for reducing fevers and for promoting fluid discharge and subsequent drying of mucous membranes, hence leading to healing of, for example, wounds.For systemic disorders e.g. smallpox, decoctions are taken internally.Local applications are claimed to bring relief to nasal congestion, and rhinitis and associated headache (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962) . The bark extracts are used in Java for thrush and stomach trouble in infants (Burkill, 1935). Astringent quality in S. sesban is even stronger and unique in many ways. Fresh root and poultices of leaves have been used for scorpion stings, boils, abscesses, rheumatic swelling and hydrocele (a collection of watery fluid in a cavity of the body, especially in the scrotum or along the spermatic cord) . Diarrhoea and excessive menstrual flow are said to be relieved by a concoction of seeds.Doses of up to 2 oz. of concoction of S. sesban leaf are used as an antihelminthic against tapeworms and roundworms in humans.A mixture of ground seed and flour made into a paste is used for treating ringworms (Watt, 1983) .The Haya people of western Tanzania make a concoction of leaves, barks and roots called \"Mubimba\" from S. sesban that they use to treat a wide range of diseases including sore throat, gonorrhoea, syphilis, yaws, fits and jaundice (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962) .It is believed in India that eating flowers for three days during menstruation inhibits conception. To prove this belief, Pakrashi et al. (1975) fed 50 gm of flower extract of S. sesban per kg of body weight to breeding and pregnant mice.Those that were breeding did not conceive while those that were pregnant aborted ranging from 54-77%, depending on the type of extract.Antitumor activity has been reported for the North American species (S. drummondii) and brief reviews of this work have recently been published in popular scientific press (Gannon, 1983). This characteristic was revealed when Powell et al . (1976) reported that ethanolic seed extracts of S. vesicaria, S. punicea and S. drummondii were cytotoxic in the KB cell culture and were active against lymphocytic leukemia P-388 in mice.The active ingredient in this extract was named \"sesbanine\" by Powell et al (1979) . A further fractionation revealed a second active ingredient called \"drummondol\" (Powell and Smith, 1981) . This antitumor medicinal value is of great interest in medicine as a possible source of drugs for cancers.The major limitation, however, is the very low yields of these compounds from Sesbania seeds.Approximately 450 kg of seeds yield a mere 50 mg of sesbanine (Powell et al., 1979). However, work is in progress to produce synthetic sesbanine.Several potential uses of Sesbania species have been reviewed in this paper. Most of these potential uses are urgently needed by the developing nations of Africa and Asia where populations are increasing at a rate that outstrips supplies from available natural resources.Since Africa has the largest diversity of Sesbania species, it is envisaged that the proposed germplasm collection when done, screened and catalogued will prove to be a great resource for the poor and developing nations in the PANESA region and beyond. Onim, J.F.M. 1986.Multiple use of pigeonpea. In: Proceedings of ICRISAT Consultative Group Meeting for Eastern and Central African Regional Research on Grain Legumes held at ILCA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 8-10 December 1986. pp. 115-120. Onim, J.F.M. , Semenye, P.P. and Fitzhugh, H.A. 1985 It was in recognition of this serious impediment to forage development in Africa that the Forage Agronomy Group (FLAG) at ILCA Headquarters in Addis Ababa established a forage genetic resources collection as a service to collaborators and other research workers in national programmes in Africa and for forage development work in ILCA programmes. This collection was begun in 1982 and has grown over the past five years until it now contains 9166 accessions of forage species, including legumes, grasses and browse.The maintenance of such a large and varied collection is now a major responsibility of FLAG, which has accepted the international responsibility to store this germplasm and make it freely available for research and development.All original material is being duplicated in other forage genebanks for security under the IBPGR global network of base collections (Hanson et al., 1984).The germplasm collection is composed of about 75% legumes and 10% each of grasses and browse with 111 genera and 341 species represented in the collection. The major part of the collection is made up of experimental lines of germplasm which were either acquired from other institutions or original collections of forages from various countries in Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Niger, Burundi, Eastern Zaire, Mali and Tanzania.Due to FLAG being located in Ethiopia and the resulting ease and economy of collection there, the largest number of ILCA collected accessions are Ethiopian, and they constitute 30% of the total collection. FLAG collecting missions in the other countries have contributed a further 10% of the accessions. Commercial lines of legumes and grasses make up about 5% of the collection and are held as a service to users who wish to test commercial lines in small quantities for preliminary evaluation.Due to the great range of environments in ILCA's mandate region and due to the centre of diversity of many important legumes lying outside Africa, primarily in South and Central America and Asia, FLAG has made considerable efforts to acquire representative sets of germplasm of potential value for development in Africa from institutes with collections from these regions.Almost 20% of the collections were obtained from the Centro International de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) based at Cali in Colombia which has a large collection of legume germplasm from Central and South America, the main centre of diversity of forage legumes.FLAG has strong co-operative links with the staff of the tropical pastures programme at CIAT, and in the past CIAT and ILCA have held joint collection missions for forages in Africa. Despite the number of accessions already in the genebank, there is much variation in both exotic and native African species of recognised forage value which is not represented in the collection.In addition, there are more than 50 of the 111 genera held by the genebank which are as yet only represented by very few accessions. These genera cannot be usefully tested with such a narrow range of material.African germplasm of forage potential has been little explored, and legumes, grasses and browse can be profitably collected. Concentration of collection activities in individual species and genera has captured tremendous genetic variation, for example in the East African highlands, Trifolium species (collected by ILCA) , Brachiaria decumbens (collected by ILCA-CIAT) and Panicum maximum (collected by ORSTOM) . Pennisetum, Cynodon and Chloris.Forage species are also needed for development for specific African environments. For example there are few truly promising legumes for semi-arid and acid soil conditions. Browse germplasm is very limited for acid soils and high altitudes. Such germplasm may be obtainable from other genebanks, or collections may have to be undertaken within or outside of Africa.There is an urgent need to collect and preserve genetic variation in species with genetic potential from areas subject to rapidly increasing population pressures before they are lost due to the resulting drastic environmental changes. Genetic erosion in forages and other wild species is occurring at a rapid rate in many areas, and timely action to collect is essential if valuable germplasm is not to be lost.Due to the small amount of forage germplasm collection done to date in Africa, almost any well planned collection is bound to produce new and substantial variation.Collecting missions require considerable forward planning to be successful.The target species, area of collection and time of year must be defined in order to optimise the number of accessions obtained. In 1987 FLAG has planned two collecting missions. One is genusspecific to collect mainly Sesbania species in Tanzania during July to August, although other genera of interest will also be collected if time allows. The other is a more general Ethiopian browse collection mission, which will probably be split into several short missions beginning in May to cover the seeding period of many species.The material collected must be conserved in an appropriate manner so that it remains available for distribution and is not lost or merely stored without being utilised. The easiest storage method is in a seed genebank.ILCA has recently installed new drying and cold rooms to process and store seeds under conditions in line with the IBPGR recommendations for the storage of seeds in genebanks (IBPGR, 1985). Seeds are first dried to between 3-7% moisture content in a dehumidified drying room, which operates at 15°C and 20% relative humidity. Under these conditions small seeds reach the required moisture content within one week while larger seeds take up to two weeks.When the seeds are dry they are packed in moisture-proof laminated aluminium foil bags which are carefully labelled and placed into store. ILCA has two types of germplasm storage. The active collection, composed of larger seed samples for distribution, is stored in a cold room at 5 C. The base collection is for security storage only and is stored in deep freezers at -20°C.Another method of conservation is to maintain plants in field genebanks. ILCA has a field genebank in the Rift Valley where a large collection of Brachiaria species and some other grasses are planted out. Many grass species rarely produce viable seeds and at ILCA maintenance in plots is the only feasible way to conserve these species.In vitro genebanks, where meristem cultures are maintained in test tubes under controlled environmental conditions, are an alternative method of storage of species which do not readily produce seeds. FLAG is already culturing meristems of Brachiaria species for distribution, and work will begin later this year on methods of culturing other grass genera and the development of in vitro storage procedures.In order that germplasm can be efficiently utilised, basic information should be available about each accession, thus allowing selection of potentially adapted materials for specific ecological zones. At collection, as much useful field data as possible is recorded about each accession and the site where it was collected. In genetic resources terms this data is known as passport data. A standard collecting form is used to record the data (Lazier, 1985) which is then entered into the computerised database. More data is obtained from references and analyses of soil samples. Further identification of herbarium specimens may be necessary.The database which ILCA uses has been made as comprehensive as is practical in order that a maximal amount of data is available to researchers.Another set of data known as preliminary characterisation data is recorded when the material is first grown in the field. This is, in general, observation data on morphology and adaptation obtained from a small number of plants in unreplicated plots.Further evaluation in replicated strip trials provides agronomic data which allows selection of promising material for multi-site evaluation trials in national programmes.To date only the passport data has been entered into the germplasm database, but it is envisaged that a supplementary database of agronomic characters will also be established in the development of the genebank documentation system. The computer is a valuable tool in germplasm work because it allows rapid selection of subsets of accessions by query on specific fields, preparation of germplasm catalogues and lists of passport data and manipulation of data.With such a wide array of germplasm available, the user may find it very difficult to select accessions for evaluation.The forage agronomists in FLAG can provide advice on promising materials to test, but selection is also possible directly by the user.FLAG publishes a germplasm catalogue which is updated at regular intervals (ILCA, 1985) .This lists all accessions available in the genebank in three ecologically organised volumes: tropical lowland, temperate/Mediterranean and tropical highland. The accessions in each volume are divided into annual and perennial legumes and grasses and presented in alphabetic and accession number order. A section on browse species is included in the tropical lowland germplasm catalogue, since the majority of the multi-purpose tree species are of tropical origin. As our collection expands with the addition of more temperate materials, sections on browse may be added to other catalogues.Since the catalogue cannot contain all useful data on an accession because of the amount of data available and large number of accessions, only the fields most useful for selection of appropriate germplasm for evaluation were included in the catalogue. This includes collection site data such as geographic location, rainfall, soil type and pH and other identification numbers of each accession.The catalogue can be used to select annual or perennial accessions of species of interest which were collected from areas of similar environment to the trial site. Users can then fill the ILCA numbers of selected lines onto an ILCA seed request form and submit this to FLAG.Germplasm is freely available from the FLAG genebank in small experimental quantities of a few seeds to a few grams. The recipients must multiply seeds of any promising material for use in subsequent experiments themselves. In return for the seeds, recipients are requested to provide the genebank with information on the performance of the lines tested, in order that the genebank can provide adapted germplasm for similar environments with greater assurance, thus providing a better service and considerable savings in time and labour.is obvious that with the wide range of environments encountered in sub-Saharan Africa, that sets of adapted germplasm must be developed for different ecological situations. FLAG currently evaluates its germplasm in four major environments. Three are in Ethiopia: tropical subhumid, mid-altitude on acid soils, tropical semihumid highland. More recently evaluation was commenced on tropical sub-humid lowland acid soils in Nigeria. Over the last four years a series of trials have been carried out in the Ethiopian sites and promising experimental materials have been selected for each of these environments. These are then planted in larger plots to see if they maintain their comparative advantage compared to commercial or previously available lines and to obtain sufficient seeds for larger scale trials. FLAG is building up its stocks of seeds of promising accessions so that they can go into wider testing in national programmes in 1988. Collaboration with national research centres through PANESA is the next important step in the development of promising forage germplasm for utilisation in animal production systems in the region.A number of Brachiaria spp. have been recorded in East Africa.These are Brachiaria brizantha, B. ruziziensis, B. serrifolia, B. mutica, B. dictyoneura, B. nigropedata, B. soluta, B. humidicola, B. radicans, B. serrata, B. jubata, B. leucocrantha, B. platynota and B. bavonei, (Bogdan, 1955;Van Rensburg, 1960;Mengistu, 1985) . The most common of these species are B. brizantha (Signal grass), B. mutica (Para grass), B. ruziziensis (Congo grass).Brachiaria brizantha occurs throughout tropical Africa from sea level up to 2400 m under an annual rainfall of over 800 mm (Bogdan, 1977) . In East Africa, Bogdan (1955) reported that B. brizantha is very variable and several varieties show striking differences in habit morphology and seed setting capacity. It is possible that the different varieties will perform differently in different ecological zones, but information of this kind is lacking.Low seed viability is probably one of the chief limitations to the wide use of Brachiaria spp. as a forage crop. Identification and development of varieties with good seed setting capacity is one area that ought to receive attention from researchers. B. brizantha has also been noted to be resistant to drought and aggressive, competing effectively with other species and quickly covering the ground (Stomayor-Rios et al., 1960). At Morogoro, Tanzania, a field of Brachiaria brizantha has been maintained for over 20 years without replanting. In Sri Lanka, Brachiaria brizantha has also been reported to perform well under shade of coconut trees (Anken-Lagefoged, 1955) . This observation is relevant to Tanzania because a number of dairy and beef farms have been developed in coastal regions where inclusion of this species under coconut trees would greatly improve feed quality and quantity.Brachiaria brizantha has also been noted to grow and give higher yield when grown on acid rather than alkaline soils (Stomayor-Rios et al . , 1960). This characteristic makes it suitable to grow in fallow land after a continuous use of soil acidifying fertilizers such as ammonium sulphate. According to Bogdan (1977) , this grass also recovers well from close cutting. This is also supported by observations on fields grown at Morogoro. These attributes make Brachiaria brizantha potentially suitable for the cut-and-carry feeding systems in highland areas of Tanzania.Due to its poor seed-setting characteristic Brachiaria brizantha is normally propagated by use of root stocks.This method of propagation is rather laborious for large-scale establishment but is not a major limitation for smallholder plots.is a leafy semiprostrate, rhizomatous species adapted to humid tropics (Whiteman, 1980) .It is less vigorous than Para and Signal grasses. It appears to be more shade-tolerant than Signal grass and thus is more suitable for inclusion under coconut trees. The grass can be propagated both from root stock as well as from seeds.Brachiaria mutica (Para grass) is a perennial stoloniferous grass widely grown in the humid tropics and subtropics with rainfall of 1250 mm p. a. This grass has become the backbone of the beef industry in South and Central America, Australia, Philippines and Cuba (Bogdan, 1977) . This species is, however, attacked by spittle bug in these areas, and attempts have been made by CIAT to collect germplasm resistant to spittle bug from East Africa.B. mutica is also said to perform well in waterlogged and flooded conditions as compared to B. brizantha and B. ruziziensis . This makes the species particularly suitable for swampy areas. B. mutica forms an open sward and therefore can combine well with legumes particularly Centrosema pubescens.There is considerable literature showing that Brachiaria spp. can give high yields of forage under good climate and management (Table 1) . Yields range between 5 and 36 t DM/ha/year depending on soil fertility, moisture and fertilizer application (Bogdan, 1977) .There is very little information on the productivity of Brachiaria spp. in Tanzania despite the fact that the grass is indigenous to grasslands there. The little information available is based mainly on Brachiaria brizantha.  Without fertilizer application, Frederiksen and Kategile (1980) , reported a yield of about 3 t DM/ha on a 10-year-old field (Table 2) . On fertilizer application yields were raised to about 10 t DM/ha. Kidunda (unpublished data) reported yields of 9.5 t DM/ha on unfertilized newly established plots. Brachiaria spp. generally respond very well to fertilizer application (Tables 2 and 3) , and the age of the sward seems to influence both the response and yield. Observations on the 2 0-year-old swards at Morogoro indicate that very few grass species can compete with Brachiaria spp. on persistence; this makes the species especially valuable in grazing lands. Where irrigation facilities are available, yields per annum could also be raised severalfold. In vitro organic-matter digestibility.Fredricksen and Kategile (1980). 3.9 3.9 3.9Source: Olsen (1982) in Uganda.Although no systematic studies have been carried out to evaluate the nutritive value of Brachiaria spp. a number of studies has shown that the species is of high nutritive value.Frederiksen and Kategile (1980) reported about 800 kg CP/ha in the fifth week of regrowth (Table 2) and Nnko, (unpublished data) working on the same plots, which were now 20 years old, reported 400 kg CP/ha at a fertilizer application rate of 105 kg N/ha at eighth week of regrowth. Elsewhere higher yields of CP have been reported with higher N fertilization. In Puerto Rico, Vicente-Chandler et al . , (1972), reported yields of 3.5 t of CP/ha at a fertilizer rate of 896 kg N/ha and 60 days cutting intervals for B. ruziziensis. The rate of N fertilizer will certainly be dictated by the economics in a particular area, but if comparative studies are to be conducted with other grass species such as Chloris gayana, Brachiaria spp. is likely to outperform them in this respect.Brachiaria spp. has been reported to have a fairly high mineral content. Mtengeti (unpublished data) , studying mineral status of some pasture species at Morogoro in Tanzania, reported high magnesium content of B. brizantha as compared to other pasture species studied. The species was reported to have fairly reasonable contents of other minerals as well ( Mtengeti (unpublished data)Although no systematic studies have been carried out at Morogoro to study intake and animal production from Brachiaria spp., observations have indicated preference and higher intakes by cattle for Brachiaria compared to Chloris gayana. In studies carried out in western Tanzania, Kapinga (1986) ueported that Brachiaria spp. was the second most palatable species (after Leucaena spp.) out of eleven species studied.In countries where Brachiaria spp. has been managed well as a forage crop, standard agronomic practices have resulted in very impressive animal performance.In Tanzania, there is a need to carry out identification, selection and improvement particularly on those varieties that set viable seeds and if possible identify varieties for the different ecological conditions. Combinations of Brachiaria spp. with different legume species have given impressive results elsewhere (Table 5) and are likely to give the same results in Tanzania. This is worth studying and exploiting for optimal production.The fact that Brachiaria spp. has performed extremely well in countries where it has been introduced should act as a catalyst to improve it in its native land and utilise this useful animal feed resource otherwise lying idle. Background information on the climate, livestock production systems, constraints to increased animal production and the role and scope of pasture and cultivated fodders in Mauritius to enable a proper understanding of the problem are highlighted. The results of some recent experiments on the evaluation of selected species of grasses for the different ecological zones are described.Particular emphasis is laid on the need for proper screening methods of pasture species and fodder crops and appropriate management techniques to improve productivity for the benefit of the livestock industry. Proposals for future research orientation are also outlined.Mauritius spends a considerable amount of money on the import of ruminants.However, during the past years the Government has given priority to development programmes in animal production, with the objectives, inter alia, to improve human nutrition, to create employment and to conserve foreign exchange.Significant constraints to improved animal production in Mauritius are the scarcity of land for fodder production and the low productivity of existing low potential pasture land. Historically, the establishment and management of improved pastures has not been given priority by ruminant owners for various reasons.In recent years, however, the need to consolidate the livestock industries has been appreciated, and this is reflected in the increased interest in pasture improvement.Moreover, the Government is currently setting up fodder units in various regions to provide incentives to smallscale cattle keepers, as well as stabilising the sugar production to about 600,000 tonnes/year so as to release land for food and feed production. A better utilisation of the Crown Lands, inter alia, through agroforestry is also being considered.The basic feed resources can be classified into two main categories:1. Grasses, legumes and tree fodder. 2. Crop residues, wastes from animal production and residues from the processing of food for human consumption.The forage/fodder species currently grown depend, inter alia, on the ecological conditions and the system of livestock management adopted. According to Naidu (1973) , the most commonly used species in order of importance for the cut-and-carry system from sources other than pasture in the regions of the island are shown in Table 1.three agro-climatic On the other hand, in the drier regions, where forage exploitation is to a large extent through grazing, the natural pastures exist mainly under the plantations of Casuarina equiseti folia.The pastures grazed consist essentially of Stenotaphrum dimidiatum, Cynodon dactylon and Panicum maximum.New species have been introduced of which Cynodon plectostachyus and Leucaena leucocephala have been the most promising.In order to increase animal production in Mauritius, the government is presently experimenting with the setting up of fodder plantations in selected villages.Forages are also increasingly being cultivated on government stations and to a lesser extent on private land; the main species involved are Pennisetum purpureum, Leucaena leucocephala, Setaria sphacelata and Cynodon plectostachyus.Primarily due to the marginal role of pastures in meeting the feed requirements of animals, the evaluation of forage in Mauritius has been sporadic with little coordination and lack of continuity.However, more systematic studies in the evaluation of selected forages are presently being carried out.The main research activities in respect of past evaluation of common forages are highlighted to indicate the scope of past and present activities. Unfortunately, the evaluation has not been thorough; most of the data relate to agronomic and to a lesser extent some nutritive value criteria.The need to exploit the potential of grasslands as an important resource for extensive low-cost feeding (grazing) as well as for fodder cultivation used in the cut-and-carry system is increasingly being felt.Serious efforts to identify high yielding and high quality grasses for the different ecological zones, to assess the effects of fertilizer application and to assess the effect of cutting interval and cutting height have been made since the early 70s.These studies have been undertaken mainly by the FAO Milk and Meat Project and the Ministry of Agriculture and have concentrated mainly on the collection of agronomic data.The productivity of eight selected grasses have been evaluated in two ecological zones (subhumid and superhumid) and the results are presented in Tables 2 and 3.Data for the other two species of grasses namely Cenchrus ciliaris and Chloris gayana were not included in Table 2 due to abnormally low productivity and poor persistency. The parameters given for 1978 were consistently superior to those 1974; and although Setaria sphacelata outyielded the other species in some respects, the crude protein yield was not superior.Other studies conducted in the superhumid zone confirms the superiority of Setaria sphacelata (Jhundoo, 1986) in terms of fresh and dry matter production.However, bearing in mind the fact that protein is probably the most critical nutrient in Mauritian forages, this does not necessarily imply that Setaria sphacelata is the most suitable feedstuff. The results of experiments carried out in the subhumid zone are given in Table 3. Generally it can be concluded that Pennisetum purpureum is the most vigorous, persistent and highly adapted species, and thus can be safely recommended for the subhumid regions especially for zero-grazing. Productivity data for the five species for 1976 have been omitted due to their poor performance probably resulting from unfavourable climatic conditions. Source: Naidu (1980Naidu ( , 1982)).On the other hand, assessment of the potential of Stenotaphrum dimidiatum, the dominant species in the shaded and open pasture of the drier regions and Ischaemum aristatum, a common species of the superhumid zones have been virtually neglected.Published data of Blair and Peerun (1970) on the potential of these two forages, based on five cuts over a tenmonth period on the subhumid site at Wolmar show the superiority of Stenotaphrum dimidiatum, especially in respect of the crude protein content and yield (Table 4) . The production from Stenotaphrum dimidiatum is generally much lower in the wet areas than Ischaemum aristatum. An advantage of Stenotaphrum dimidiatum is its persistently high crude protein content at various cutting intervals (Blair and Peerun, 1970) (Table 5) . Increasing the cutting interval from two to twelve weeks also increased productivity. Data on fertilizer responses of the grasses are only fragmentary.The need for properly fertilizing fodder plantations and pastures not only with nitrogen, but also with potassium, phosphorus and sulphur is not fully realised.As a consequence there is a decrease in production in subsequent cropping of these fodders.The effects of different levels of nitrogen fertilizer on the yield of three species of grass has been reported by Heerasing (1986) . His experiments showed that increasing levels of nitrogen application positively influenced yield in Pennisetum clandestinum and Brachiaria brizantha only (Table 6) .However, the results of an identical trial conducted earlier by the same author did not reveal any improvement in yield of the three grasses. Besides evaluation studies on grasses, the potential of legumes, mainly Leucaena leucocephala , has been assessed since the early 70s.It is naturalised legume and therefore offers considerable potential for exploitation not only as fodder but also in agroforestry programmes, alley farming, hedges and erosion control. Its major advantage is the high crude protein level, a nutrient which is deficient in tropical forages.A series of agronomic trials on Leucaena leucocephala have been conducted by Osman (1979), Rojoa (1982) and Heerasing (1984) to assess the role of various management practices on the productivity of this legume. Notably inter-row spacing of the plants have been shown to exert an effect on yield (Osman, 1979;Naidu, 1980;Rojoa, 1982;Heerasing, 1984,). Most of the authors have come to the conclusion that an inter-row spacing of between 90-100 cm yielded the best results. Only Osman (1979) found the optimum spacing to be 180 cm. Experiments on the effect of cutting height on yields were also undertaken (Osman, 1979) who in a 40-month period noted that the best cutting height was 75 to 150 cm, while Heerasing reported the optimum cutting height to be 37.5 cm.Other conclusions reached by Osman (1979)  are: 1.Cutting frequency has an important bearing on productivity.A frequency of cutting of 90 to 150 days (depending on season) was the most appropriate.When properly inoculated with suitable Rhizobium strains, fertilization is not needed.Overgrazing by animals, especially the goat and the deer is detrimental to Leucaena productivity.A productivity of 13 tonnes/ha /yr dry matter and a protein yield of 3.5 t/ha /yr have been obtained without fertilization and irrigation in the humid zone.Various nutritive value criteria have been assessed.Drymatter digestibility and various feeding trials have been undertaken during the past decade. Generally, the recorded data demonstrate that Leucaena leucocephala exerts positive effects on animal performance when used as a supplementary source of protein due to its ability to provide appreciable by-pass protein which is important especially for high performance animals feeding on low-quality fibrous feeds. Providing high levels of Leucaena leucocephala in the diet is not only economically unsound but influences certain parameters, inter alia, a reduction of milk fat in lactating animals (Mardamootoo, personal communication) , depression in animal performance and the possibility of intoxication.The problem of leucaena toxicity, fortunately is a regional one.In some countries, including Mauritius, it is well established that there exist rumen micro-organisms capable of degrading the toxic goitrogenic metabolite of mimosine (Jones, 1981) . Immunity against leucaena toxicity can easily be imparted to animals via infusion of rumen fluid from immune animals or suitable inoculum.This no doubt offers scope for increased utilisation of this highly productive and persistent legume.Other legumes which warrant further investigation to improve grassland quality (Osman, 1979)  are: 1.For the very wet regions:Stylosanthes guianensis Macroptilium atropurpureum Neonotonia wightii Vigna marina 2.For dry regions: Stylosanthes humilis.The establishment method advocated is that of oversowing the existing grass cover with the seed of these legumes.Another fodder plant of potential economic importance is sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) .The interest in the sugarcane plant lies primarily in its high potential to trap the sun's energy, which is in general superior to other commonly grown crops, because of its perennial ity and its value as a dry season feed. Biomass production of up to 64 tonnes dry matter per hectare per annum has been recorded (Bachofen et al , 1981). The use of sugarcane as a feed for ruminants is particularly appropriate in times of low sugar prices, which makes the utilisation of land through production of sugarcane for conversion through animals an interesting proposition.The potential of the whole sugarcane plant for feeding animals has been given considerable research inputs in various sugarproducing countries since the early 1970s (Jotee, 1984) .An experiment was carried out in Mauritius to study the effect of monthly cutting intervals from four to twelve months (Rajkomar, 1977) .The results reproduced in Table 7 show a slight increase in dry-matter yield but an appreciable decrease in protein yield with time. Further studies on the effect of  (Rajkomar, 1977) did not reveal any positive response to increased nitrogen fertilization on the overall yield.Unlike most green forages in the tropics, sugarcane is characterised by an increase in organic-matter digestibility from six months to 24 months after planting (Kung and Stanley, 1982) , and therefore can serve as a useful fodderbank during the dry season in certain countries. However, due to a decline in protein content with time, proper supplementation with by-pass protein in particular is desirable for satisfactory performance.The success of any livestock development programme in Mauritius will partly depend on the research input in pasture and fodder crop production. Hitherto the resource persons involved in the agronomic studies, chemical analyses and in the animal production sector have always worked in isolation. This has resulted in a lack of coordination which has hampered development; therefore, a multi-disciplinary approach is essential, as well as the need for standardisation of methodology and the use of maximum criteria for assessment.However, before any new fodder and pasture improvement plans are made, it is of utmost importance to make a thorough assessment of existing data on available feedstuffs and future requirements.The integration of fodder production into forest plantations has a good potential for the further development of the livestock sector. Therefore in the drier areas, where the stomoxys fly is not a problem, grazing by cattle/deer needs to be promoted.In the other areas, emphasis must be laid on the zero-grazing system mainly for the smallholders.Future research programmes to increase forage production and efficiency of animal production should, inter alia, include:1.More in-depth studies to assess the various management techniques used, viz. levels of cutting with respect to frequency and ageing, and fertilizer responses profiles for the main agro-climatic zones.Further investigation of naturalised/indigenous and exotic genotypes in relation to their persistency in long-term experiments.Concurrent experiments to assess the nutritive value of various forage and mixtures through digestibility studies and feeding/grazing trials.Further evaluation of other sources of feeds, namely the sugarcane tops, maize stover and cobs and other crop residues to enhance forage availability and hence production.Establishment of on-farm demonstrations to highlight the benefits of improved fodder production techniques to smallholders. 6.Provision of more training facilities, research inputs and other logistic support.Economic analyses of the various production systems.Implementation of these proposals, no doubt, will contribute to improving the scope and efficiency of animal production in Mauritius.A The climate is good, with a mean annual rainfall varying from 510 mm in the North-Eastern parts of Karamoja to 2160 mm or more in the Sesse Islands in Lake Victoria. The rainfall is bimodal with the first peak being in March-May (first rains) and the second in September-November (second rains) with dry periods in between the peaks. Further north the two seasons tend to coalesce into one rainy season of about five months centred around July and one long dry hot season. A mean monthly maximum temperature exceeding 37.8 C has been recorded in some parts of the country with a seasonal variation barely above 6°C. A figure of 10°C for mean monthly minimum temperatures has also been obtained with a seasonal variation of just about 3°C.Generally most soils are able to support some form of agriculture. Those soils with high productivity include:1.those associated with volcanic activities, The above four groups are well represented all over the country and have been cultivated extensively. There are also those soils with low to nil productivity, which are shallow or very sandy or sometimes with a lot of gravel. This group also includes those montane soils on the slopes of mountains. These are mostly in the north with localised patches and pockets in the rest of the country.Vegetation varies from rain forests to savanna and grassland with a small patch of bushland and thicket in the extreme northeastern part of the country in Karamoja.Agriculture is the backbone of Uganda's economy, engaging the majority of the population and currently accounting for about 95% of all foreign exchange earnings. Crop husbandry plays the leading role in the overall farming system and is poorly integrated with animal husbandry. Livestock are an important factor in the ordinary life of the majority of Ugandans.  Thomas (1966) and planted at Kawanda and later at Serere.1948 Chloris gayana was recommended as the best overall grass species for the grazed temporary ley throughout most of Uganda.In some areas, elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) was also commonly used for the temporary ley phase, but it proved difficult to eradicate from cropland.It required vegetative planting, and it was better adapted as a fodder crop than for direct grazing.1954 Detailed systematic work on grass and grass-legume mixtures was initiated at Serere by Horrell (1958).Introduction of legume species for the \"forest area\" was initiated at Kawanda in addition to the earlier grass museum and introductions at Kawanda by Thomas (1966) . These initial studies included over 100 different grass species, of both temperate and tropical origins, and approximately 60 different tropical and temperate legumes.Much of the earlier detailed investigative work was done mainly on grasses.Various texts were published on these grasses. Initially they were investigated for the rest period after arable cropping, and their importance as a source of grazing or fodder was then subsidiary.The effects of the animals on soil fertility were unclear until it was later shown that grazing did not reduce yields of subsequent crops (Kerrham, 1947) .The introduction of exotic animals after 1960 was an impetus to extensive grassland improvement. Evaluation of both indigenous and exotic pasture species was initiated as a result of this development. These have, over the years been evaluated in terms of management studies on establishment, persistence and production fertilization and yields and defoliation.Evaluation further concerned itself with chemical composition and nutritive values, animal productivity and seed production.Establishment, Persistence and Production Horrell (1958Horrell ( , 1963) ) gives an account of a wide range of grasses and legumes studied at Serere in nursery plots to determine their suitability for leys in eastern and northern Uganda.He pays special attention to persistence, production, habit, seeding ability and to a lesser extent palatability. The origins of the species in question are also given. From such studies, he was able to recommend the following species for use in eastern and northern Uganda. All of the above except Neonotonia wightii were exotic to Uganda.The study demonstrated the ability of a number of tropical legumes to grow vigorously and reproduce in this environment. A good growth of Stylosanthes gracilis with a crude protein content of up to 24% has been achieved at Animal Health Research Centre (AHRC Entebbe, unpublished data) . Chloris gayana has also been successfully established under a silage crop cover of sorghum at Entebbe while Melinis minutiflora was unable to establish (Harker, 1954) . Pennisetum clandestinum was found to grow well in pot experiments at AHRC, Entebbe (unpublished) . Other pasture species have been tried in different environments in Uganda, but the reports are difficult to come by.The use of fertilizers was considered important in pasture work in Uganda.Nitrogen fertilization was established to be essential for good production of pure grass swards or leys (Horrell and Bredon, 1963;Horrell and Tiley, 1970;Olsen, 1972). It was found that production of grass species falls sharply in the second and third years from planting but that yields could be maintained at a steady level by application of N or by the inclusion of a successful legume such as Desmodium intortum.Phosphorus or superphosphate was proved valuable for the establishment of legumes (Stobbs, 1969a;Olsen and Moe, 1971) . They reported that liming was useful for the persistence of lucerne and its nodulation but showed no general effects on the establishment, persistence, production or nodulation of either Desmodium or Stylosanthes.Responses of Hyparrhenia rufa, Panicum maximum, Stylosanthes guianensis, Centrosema pubescens and Macroptilium atropurpureum to phosphorus, sulphur and potassium in eastern Uganda were investigated by Wendt (1970) . All the species responded to P and S to levels of application of about 70 kg/ha of P and 20-40 kg/ha of S giving yield increases of 40-100%.Much work has been done to evaluate the compatibility of various grasses and legumes when planted in mixtures. Results of Olsen and Tiharuhondi (1972) discouraged the sowing of Desmodium intortum with Chloris gayana. Both D. int-rtum and Medicago sativa made good association with Panicum maximum and Setaria anceps (now sphacelata) .Literature on this aspect of forage evaluation is scanty.It appears that few studies on this aspect were undertaken. Horrell and Bredon (1963) working on Panicum maximum at Serere reported highest DM yields at cutting intervals of nine weeks while best yields of CP were obtained at cutting intervals of between six and nine weeks.Although there are no reports on legume defoliation studies in Uganda, Henderlong (1973) observed that the rate of regrowth of lucerne after defoliation was considerably more rapid than for any of the adapted tropical legumes.A number of workers evaluated various species for their chemical composition and nutritive values. Some of this work was carried out in different ecological zones. Species were analysed for crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre, ash and silica contents and for the various mineral element contents. This was done on both planted and rangeland pastures but mostly on grasses.The various grass species analysed in greater details in this respect were Pennisetum purpureum, Themeda triandra, Panicum maximum, Chloris gayana, Cynodon dactylon, Digitaria spp., Hyparrhenia spp., Melinis minutiflora, Setaria spp. and many other range species.Pennisetum purpureum, an indigenous grass of Uganda, has been found to be of very high value as cattle feed with a CP% content ranging between 9.2-20.5 and CF% of 29.3-37.7 (Marshall and Bredon, 1963) . It is used both as a pasture plant as well as fodder crop. Although pure pasture leys of individual herbage species are unusual in Uganda, P. purpureum and Setaria sphacelata have proved to be among the most productive pasture grasses and have been proposed for commercial use (Morrison, 1971) .Nutritive value assessments of pastures and forages have been reported by Juko and Bredon (1961), Bredon et al , (1963), Musangi (1965) and many others. The nutritional value of some common cattle browse and fodder plants of Karamoja, northeastern Uganda, has also been investigated by Wilson and Bredon (1963) .Due to the role played by rangeland for the grazing animal, several workers have attempted to evaluate the quality of range pastures in different parts of the country. Reports of Reid et al. (1973) indicate that natural grasslands in Uganda had lower digestibilities than the planted species.But the higher digestibilities in planted species declined more rapidly with maturity than the natural grasslands. They also reported that Brachiaria generally exhibited one of the highest levels of in vitro digestibilities among the species evaluated which agrees with the in vitro data of Soneji et al. (1971) which indicated higher digestibilities for Brachiaria ruziziensis than either Chloris gayana or Setaria sphacelata. Legume species on the other hand generally had lower digestibilities than the grasses in the early stages of growth, but the decline in legume digestibility was considerably less marked than for the planted grasses (Reid et al . , 1973). Digestibility trials and chemical analyses of indigenous grasses at AHRC indicated adequate starch equivalent values for both maintenance and an element of production throughout the year while protein was frequently limited (Marshall et al . , 1961;Bredon and Torrell, 1962;Bredon and Marshall, 1962) Various workers have analysed various pasture plants for their mineral contents in different localities. Minerals analysed for include: N, Na, K, Mg, P, Mn, Cu, Zn, Co, Mb, S, Sn. Investigations on the mineral status of the commonly used grasses on farms in Buganda and Busoga and also in western Uganda in the Queen Elizabeth National Park indicated adequate amounts of N, K, Mg, Mn, Cu, Mb and S while levels of Na, Ca, P, Zn and Co were marginal or deficient in many grasses thus requiring supplementation (Long et al., 1969;Long et al., 1970).Mean mineral composition (%) of some Uganda grasses as reviewed by Harrington and Pratchett (1973) are given in Table 1. Grasses had little difference in their cobalt content and so did the legumes with the exception of Macroptilium atropurpureum.The cobalt content was enough to meet animal requirements except where Pennisetum purpureum was the main fodder.Selenium status of pastures in Uganda has also been analysed by Long and Marshall (1973) . The better quality grasses, judged on the bases of CP content and DM digestibilities such as Brachiaria spp. , Cynodon dactylon, Panicum maximum and Setaria aequalis tended to have satisfactory mineral contents while the more typical savanna type grasses, Hyparrhenia tilipendula and Themeda triandra were generally low in essential minerals (Long et al . , 1969).Forage evaluation through livestock productivity has been studied at Serere by Stobbs (1969c) andOtim (1973) . Higher values in terms of animal production have been obtained when various legumes have been included in the grazing systems. Stobbs (1969b) investigated Stylosanthes gracilis and Centrosema pubescens as mixtures, top dressed with single superphosphate fertilizer.Stylosanthes gracilis because of its small hairy leaves and woody stems generally had low intake while Calopogonium mucunoides , one of the best legumes tested at Serere, was completely unacceptable to the animal (Otim, 1973) . Paspalum notatum was able to maintain excellent beef production at Namulonge Station, indicating its relatively high digestibility.The availability of planting seed is a major hindrance to pasture development efforts in Uganda. Preliminary evaluations of the various species for seed production have indicated that most of the various recommended species were able to produce seed. Emphasis has been put on legume seed production.Stylosanthes, Neonotonia, Centrosema and Macroptilium spp. have produced reasonable seed yields at Serere while Desmodium and Medicago spp. were not as successful (Wendt, 1970)  Pasture work in Uganda can be traced as far back as the beginning of this century.The initial aim of pasture establishment was to assist in the regeneration of soil fertility of continuously farmed land for the subsequent crops. The value of grazing these pastures was by then unknown as it was believed that this would interfere with the normal process of soil regeneration and hence affect the yield of the following crops.A journey across most parts of Uganda will reveal the availability of ample amounts of unutilised herbage. These natural pastures can easily be grazed by livestock.The availability of such herbage has not been an inducement to pasture improvement schemes involving farmers.Increasing pressure on the land as already observed in parts like Kigezi in the southwest, Mbale in the east and a few other places will require efficient management of the resources so as to support the increasing human and animal populationso.The provision of better adapted, more nutritious forages for livestock will go a long way in improving the productivity of national herds. Uganda is rich in its plant genetic resources of forage potential which are as yet to be exploited.Many indigenous grass speeies have been evaluated for their forage value and many have been recommended for various parts of the country. Indigenous legumes on the other hand have not been exploited.Only Neonotonia wightii has been studied in detail and recommended as a useful pasture plant. The rest of the legumes evaluated and recommended are exotic, most of them being of South American origin.They have been evaluated in terms of their establishment and persistence, chemical composition and nutritive values, fertilization and yields, defoliation and seed production. Livestock productivity from such pasture has also been evaluated. Some of these trials have, however, been limited to the research stations only, taking into account the two broad areas i.e. \"long grass areas\" and \"short grass areas\" .Extensive multilocational trials of various species have not been effected and this could be the cause of poor performance in some areas.This should therefore be carried out.One of the current problems limiting forage evaluation studies and requiring attention is the lack of planting seed. Many of the species tried have been found to seed well. In the past Kawanda and Serere have produced limited quantities of pasture seed, but this has since stopped.Currently, pasture seed must be imported from abroad if required. For researchers needing small quantities of seed, the solution has been solved by ILCA's FLAG programme which has gratefully supplied small quantities of seed for local multiplication purposes.Despite the important achievements in pasture research in Uganda, one wonders to what extent this has contributed to the overall livestock productivity in the country. The majority of livestock owners are small peasant farmers who graze their herds on communal land. These have obviously gained very little, and the idea of pasture improvement could as well as be a myth to them.There is lacking an integrated package which can be presented to farmers in different parts of Uganda so as to revolutionise their agriculture and enable them to increase their productivity and incomes. Many factors obviously contribute to the lack of an adequate and acceptable technology package of improvements for farmers which include traditional beliefs of large livestock numbers rather than productivity, land tenure systems, tendency to divorce animal from crop husbandry, lack of coordination between research and extension, and lack of incentives and proper training for both research and extension agents.There is still a need for integrated research into systems of farming. Only a few progressive farmers and government-owned livestock enterprises have gained from the results obtained through research. With increasing population pressure on the land and hence reduction in communal grazing lands, it is likely that alternative methods of feeding and improvements will be sought by the majority of livestock owners, but this must be coupled with a good supply of planting seed to farmers. In recent years many developing countries including Malawi have realised the importance of local forage plant genetic resources. However, the lack of funds to facilitate wide-scale collection and detailed evaluation of the local germplasm has limited exploitation of these local forage plant genetic resources. Instead, imports of both legumes and grasses have been done from Australia and other countries. Most of the imported materials are, however, locally represented. To minimise expenses on importations of seed, it was found necessary to critically look at local ecotypes to come up with some cultivars for different ecological niches. The evaluation work is limited by a lack of experience in local forage exploration and by availability of funds. Forage productivity evaluation is therefore limited to a few most promising germplasms namely Neonotonia, Panicum and Cynodon species. Only the work on Panicum maximum and Cynodon nlemfuensis is reported here.During the 198 0/81 growing season, a forage plant collection trip was made to some parts of the central and northern regions.The target areas were chosen on the basis of climate and topography hence, seasonally waterlogged valleys (dambos) , river courses and the eastern escarpments of the highland zones. Dambo and river courses were chosen to give an indication of forage species whose seed originally came from the inaccessible hills and valleys beyond the escarpments.Collections were made along roads crossing dambos, rivers and in some other places of ecological interest.Vegetative materials were dug out and put in black polythene bags; water was poured in and then the bags were tied at the mouth. The most promising star and guinea grass materials based on one growing season single row nursery observation were put in two trials respectively as follows:Trial 1: Star grass strains evaluation trial Twenty-four entries from the southern African region and local collections were put in a split-plot design trial with two replicates. The plots which measured 9 square metres were split two-ways into three nitrogen fertilizer application rates of 20, 40 and 60 kg N/ha applied in the form of calcium ammonium nitrate (26% N) and three cutting regrowth intervals of 3, 6 and 9 weeks respectively.Trial 2: Guinea grass (Panicum maximum Jacq.) strains evaluation trialFifteen collections, mostly indigenous to Malawi were planted in the same design as described in Trial 1. The only difference was that fertilizer rates of 0, 40 and 80 kg N/ha were applied. In both trials, the grasses were cut, weighed fresh and subsampled for the determination of dry matter after oven drying at 85°C for twenty-four hours.Star grass Yield data for the star grass strains for the 1984/85 and 1985/86 growing seasons are presented in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4. Two accessions, East Coast B and No. 343 Star gave the highest forage dry-matter yields and these were in excess of 5000 kg/ha. These are the more robust growing star grasses, with larger stolon and leaf material than the small-slendered leaf and stolon materials. Second ranking were those strains of 4000 kg/ha yield levels. These were Chololo, Ichinga, Monzi, Misuku, Camper Down, Thunda and Chinunkha. These were of intermediate stolon material.The least amounts of forage were produced by the three Malawlan collections, Nyungwe, Meru and S.E. Namwera all of which gave yields of less than 2500 kg/ha. These were materials least robust in growth and appearing less aggressive in that their stolon growth was rather restricted; hence they formed open turfs.The two commercially popular cultivars, Muguga and No. 2 Star, that have since been grown at Chitedze Research Station, were intermediate, giving yields of about 3500 kg/ha. The variability in forage productivity is explained by the fact that there were two different species in this collection. In the absence of critical taxonomic and botanical variety description, it was obvious that the material demonstrated a lot of physical differences. Plants that fitted the description with respect to Cynodon dactylon (Harlan and de Wet, 1969) were less robust in their growth habit. The more robust material probably belonged to C. nlemfuensis (Clayton and Harlan, 1970;Harlan, 1970) . Increasing nitrogen levels generally resulted in significantly higher yields (P=0.05), but some strains were less responsive to nitrogen depending on the cutting regrowth intervals. Materials with a generally open turf responded poorly and lacked a response to increasing nitrogen fertilization. This was particularly true of the local Malawian ecotypes, Nyungwe, Phoka Court, Chololo, Thunda, Meru and a few imported strains, No. 161 Star, No. 2 and Thornville. There was also a significant increase in forage DM yields in response to increasing cutting regrowth intervals (P=0.01). This was no doubt a consequence of increased forage maturity.During the 1985/86 growing season, all strains responded to increased cutting regrowth intervals from 3 to 9 weeks (P=0.001) as shown in Table 3. There was also a significant response to increasing levels of nitrogen fertilization, although the levels of 20 and 40 kg/ha were not statistically different. The strains Thornville, Baka, Misuku and No. 161 Star were not responsive to increasing nitrogen fertilization (Table 4) . In the analysis, the differences between cultivars did not turn out significant, however, the largest amounts of forage, in excess of 8000 kg/ha, were given by the strains East Coast  5 and 6) . These are generally leafier material which are generally of a very good regrowth potential, much better than either Ntchisi or Hamil Panic. The least producing were selections X and Makueni Panic, both of which are low growing and finer-leaved types. Both these strains were slow to establish a full canopy; as a result, they suffered considerably from weed competition during the establishment. The fact that they were smaller plant types could be explained by their belonging to a lower ploidy level than the majority of the more robust types. While the response to increasing nitrogen fertilization turned out significant, there was a tendency for same strains to respond less to increasing nitrogen fertilization beyond N2 which is 4 0 kg N/ha. Notable in this regard are selections C, M, J, K, D, H, B, Ntchisi Panic and Hamil Panic. While the nitrogen fertilization regimes employed in this study were not aimed at coming up with a complete nitrogen response profile recommendation, it was important as a selection tool in demonstrating the necessity of considering low fertilizer input management.In the early evaluation stages it is important to appreciate materials that may not positively respond to high fertilization management as these have potential for eventual use in smallholder farming systems where inorganic nitrogen fertilizers may be lacking due to high cost.The results show that the standard cultivars of star grass namely No. 2 star and Muguga and the three standard guinea grass cultivars, Ntchisi Panic, Hamil Panic and Makueni could be replaced by some more superior locally selected strains.Phoka Court and Misuku star grass strains which have not demonstrated a response to high fertilization management were collected from sites characterised by acid infertile soils.The lack of positive response in these two and other similar strains could be an adaptation to these poor growing conditions. This potential ought to be exploited in greater detail.This argument holds true also for the guinea grass strains that showed this potential.Panicum maximum strains have shown variability that warrants selection to replace Ntchisi, Hamil and Makueni Panics by the more robust, leafier ecotypes.The natural grasslands of Uganda comprise about 80% of the total land area (Horrell and Tiley, 1970) and are regarded as a national asset because they support nearly 99% of Uganda's livestock and game animals.Unfortunately, the productivity of these grasslands in terms of herbage quality and quantity and animal production is extremely below their potential.For example, estimated milk production per cow ranges from 400-600 litres in a six-to seven-month lactation period, and this is considerably below that of cows grazing improved grass/legume pastures.Even the ley pastures which constitute a small proportion of the natural pastures are below their potential.Their potential could be increased by incorporating forage legumes such as Stylosanthes gracilis, Desmodium intortum, D. uncinatum, Centrosema pubescens, Macroptilium atropurpureum, Medicago sativa and Indigofera hirsuta (Stobbs, 1969a, b;Otim, 1973;Horrell and Court, 1965;Mugerwa, unpublished;Sabiiti, 1979;UNDP/FAO, 1973).However, one of the major constraints in the improvement of pastures has long been the consistent lack of pasture seeds (both legumes and grasses) .Nearly all the pasture seeds are imported and are very expensive (about 5,000/= per kg of legume seed) and are still scarce in the country.The situation was further aggravated by political instability in the last 15 years or so and nearly all the pasture germplasm is confined to research stations or has disintegrated as at Kabanyolo Makerere University Farm.Furthermore, there is evidence to show that most of the recommended forage legumes fail to combine both productivity and persistence for a long time under various pasture management practices and ecological zones (Sabiiti, 1979) .To overcome some of the above constraints, it is important to evaluate local pasture species, especially legumes before they are extinct under the current rapid environmental degradation in the country. The need to develop local pasture species has long been emphasised by Henderlong (197 3) and others.One of the forage legumes which we have identified is Desmodium adscendens (Sw.) DC. It has been observed to grow well in the Lake Victoria crescent region of high rainfall (1000-1500 mm/annum) .The crescent region is important for dairy farming but there is scarcity of legumes on these farms.The legume appears to be grazed by livestock and game animals, especially during the dry season when the grasses are very dry. It roots at the nodes, and it could be established vegetatively to reduce the dependence on importation of expensive seeds. This method has been used successfully in Kenya to establish D. intortum and D. uncinatum (exotic species) by Keya et al . (1971). However, there is no data on this aspect. The legume makes excellent fodder and could be used as a soil cover and green manure. In Indo-China, Malaysia, East and South Africa, it is planted in tea and coffee plantations as a cover and for green manure. However, no work has been done on this legume here to determine its contribution to pasture productivity. The objectives of the study were to determine a method of establishment, assess dry-matter yield, feeding value (CP) and persistence of D. adscendens under various management practices.The first study (under planted pastures) was conducted at Kabanyolo Makerere University Farm. Kabanyolo is in the fertile lake crescent area, 19 km north of Kampala (O°28'N, 32°37'E, 1,200 m.a.s.l.). The upland soils of Kabanyolo are classified as Latosols, or ferrallitic soils. They are deep, highly drained red soils.The pH varies from 5.0-5.8 (Mohiddin and Mukiibi, unpublished;Reid et al . , 1973) with a very low level of phosphorus (4 ppm P Truog) , medium potassium (18 mg/100 g) and ample organic matter (3.1%) (Olsen and Moe, 1971).The area has a moist tropical climate with mean maximum temperatures varying from 28.5°C in January to 26.0°C in July and minimum temperatures from 17.4°C in April to 15.9°C in July and August.Mean annual rainfall is about 1,300 mm, with two peaks in April and November and two periods of low rainfall in January and July when the monthly mean drops to 60 mm.The second study (under natural pasture conditions) was conducted at Buwambo, 24 km north of Kampala (0°35'N, 32°34'E, 1300 m.a.s.l.). The soils and climate of the area are similar to those of Kabanyolo. The vegetation is dominated by a natural low medium tropical deciduous forest and abundant elephant grass (P. purpureum) in areas that have been cleared. Other important vegetation include perennial shrubs, native pasture legumes; D. adscendens being the dominant one followed by Neonotonia wightii and grass species Cymbopogon, Imperata, Digitaria, Panicum and Brachiaria.The area is commonly grazed by cows, goats and sheep.Mature stem cuttings (15 cm long) were planted at a spacing of 0.5 x 0.5 m into an established pasture of Chloris gayana Kunth., Cynodon dactylon Linn., and Brachiaria brizantha at Kabanyolo University Farm. The stem cuttings were collected from Buwambo, 24 km north of Kampala where the legume grows naturally in a mixture of P. purpureum, Brachiaria spp. , Hyparrhenia spp., Jmperata cylindrica and Panicum spp. They were planted into holes of about 7 cm deep and firmed with the soil. The pasture paddock was divided into four plots (10 x 10 m) each and were excluded from grazing for ten months. Planting was done during the long rainy season in March in 1979 to ensure maximum establishment.Before planting, single superphosphate at the rate of 250 kg/ha was broadcast onto the plots to promote legume root growth (Olsen and Moe, 1971) .Observations on the establishment of the legume were made after three and six months from planting because after that the senior author left the University. The total number of cuttings which had sprouted were determined.These parameters were determined in 1986 following the senior author's appointment at the University. However, the paddock had been grazed several times in the past but no observations were made. Conventional methods for herbage sampling of the old plots and dry-matter estimation were used. Crude protein content was determined by the Marcro-Kjeldhal method (AOAC, 1965) .Four plots (10 x 10 m) were randomly located at Buwambo, where the legume grows naturally. Mature stem cuttings of 15 cm long were planted onto a natural pasture dominated by B. brizantha, I. cylindrica, H. rufa and P. maximum.Any existing legume was removed before planting.The cuttings (one cutting/hole) at a spacing of 0.5 x 0.5 m were planted in March 1979 during the rainy season to ensure maximum growth.There was no application of single superphosphate fertilizers.Observations on establishment of the legume were made after three and six months from planting because of similar reasons as in the above.These were determined in 1986 from the old plots.Similar sampling methods and dry-matter estimation and crude protein content analysis were used as above. A ' t' test was used to compare the treatment means of the two types of pastures as outlined by Zar (1984) .The results in Table 1 show that D. adscendens was successfully established through vegetative propagation under both pastures (ley and natural); however, a significantly (P<0.05) higher percentage of establishment was obtained under ley pastures. This is expected because of the excellent seedbed conditions obtained in this method.The cuttings started producing shoots after three weeks from planting and by the fourth month most of the plants were fully established with many leafy shoots (5-10 shoots/plant) .Growth was vigorous but especially under ley pastures.Unfortunately, there were no further observations on the performance of these plants after 1979 because the senior author left Makerere University after completing his M.Sc. research programme.The legume has persisted very well both at Kabanyolo and in Buwambo under grazing, nearly eight years from planting.D. adscendens is more abundant in nearly all the paddocks at Kabanyolo than the introduced forage legumes mentioned in the introduction.The same observation is true under natural pastures.The legume has spread over large areas where it was not abundant before. Also the legume nodulates profusely without inoculation, especially under ley pastures, so it could be fixing N, as most of the nodules exhibited red pigment when cut open. Tne legume is prostrate and this makes it better adapted to grazing conditions. The plants under ley pastures produced significantly (P<0.05) higher DM yield and % CP. These are two of the major indices for evaluating a new cultivar.The plants under natural conditions mainly suffered from severe competition from shrubs, trees and tall grasses of Hyparrhenia spp. , P. purpureum and I. cylindrica.Management under natural pastures would require removal of tall species and topping of the existing vegetation to reduce shading and competition.The genus Desmodium has about 2 00 species (perennial or annual) which occur in temperate and tropical regions where they are used for grazing (Whyte et al . , 1953).Unfortunately, only two species (D. intortum and D. uncinatum) have been studied in detail in Uganda (Mugerwa, unpublished;Otim, 1973;Olsen, 1973;Reid et al., 1973;Olsen and Moe, 1971;Ochodomuge, 1978). This is also true for other countries (see Kategile, 1984;Anon, 1985) . Even then the success of these two legumes in pastures in Uganda has been limited by lack of sufficient pasture seed and other limitations which have been reviewed by Sabiiti (1979).Therefore, the results we have reported on D. adscendens are promising in that we can reduce dependence on imported seeds of exotic species and rely on a local legume species that establishes well by vegetative propagation and has a high potential for DM yield and % CP.It has shown admirable persistence in both ley and natural pastures under grazing conditions.However, we do not know the stocking rate and frequency of grazing that were used because no records were made. The legume appears to be dispersed by animals through either the seeds which stick on their skins and are dropped or by the broken stems which get trapped between the hoof and are later dropped in other paddocks. Also humans could have assisted in the spread of the legume on the farm.The profuse natural nodulation of the legume might be important in increasing pasture productivity, soil fertility and subsequent crop yields. Currently, we have no published data on D. adscendens in East Africa to compare with although Keya et al. (1971) have shown that other Desmodium species were easily established from root splits (40-80%) . In South America, Lazier unpublished did not clearly indicate how the legume was established. In Taiwan, Byran (1969) successfully established D. intortum and D. uncinatum by planting individual splits. Since D. adscendens occurs abundantly in the regions that are important for dairy industry in Uganda, farmers should be encouraged to collect and plant the legume in their paddocks and then apply single superphosphate to encourage root formation and growth. The early establishment and higher survival rate in ley pastures were partly attributed to single superphosphate.Once the plants have established, they form several prostrate shoots which grow rapidly, and these can again be used to plant in other paddocks.Our present data are not yet conclusive and since there is little information on this important legume, there is a need to investigate further other indices of evaluation, namely, response to defoliation (mechanical or biological), regrowth physiology to understand mechanisms of persistence, nutrient analyses, digestibility studies, grazing trials, (voluntary intake) and animal production (live weight gain or milk production) , N2 fixation and soil fertility and crop production from pastures previously planted to D. adscendens .Our current evaluation programme of D. adscendens at the University Farm is geared towards the above studies using an interdisciplinary approach.We have got soil scientists, microbiologists, animal nutritionists, agronomists and physiologists because we believe we can achieve great success in a short time. The highlands of Eastern Africa, in this context land above 1800 m, cover 70,000 km of which 60% is in Ethiopia.They contain the highest human and livestock densities and are the most intensively cultivated (Getahun, 1978;Morgan, 1982;Jahnke and Asemenew, 1983) . The major function of cattle in the Ethiopian highlands is traction. In the highlands of East Africa, cattle are primarily kept for milk. In fact the largest proportion of dairy production in Africa is in these highlands with Kenya leading (Mukasa-Mugerwa, 1980). The highlands therefore represent ideal smallholder mixed farming systems and have great potential for livestock production.Unfortunately, the highlands are plagued by the same constraints as elsewhere in Africa of inadequate livestock feed particularly during the dry season. Natural pastures provide about 65% of the feed resources, and the rest are provided by crop residues (Jahnke and Asemenew, 1983). So one way of increasing livestock feed would be through pasture improvement . However, periodic frosts, extended dry periods, high acidity, extensive areas of Vertisols and Nitosols, each with its own peculiarities present special problems to legume introduction. On the other hand, highland pastures are rich in legume composition particularly the Trifolium spp. (Gillett, 1952;Gillett et al., 1971;Mengistu, 1975;Thulin, 1983). Evaluation of annual Ethiopian clovers has shown that they have good potential for hay production (Kahurananga and Tsehay, 1984). In 1985 work was started in screening perennial clovers as research in Australia has shown that some of them have high potential for improving pasture production (Mannetje, 1964;Jones and Cook, 1981) .The screening was conducted at ILCA Headguarters, Shola, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (9°2'N, 38°42 'E) at an altitude of 2380 m on a gently sloping site with seasonally waterlogged black clay soil typical of the bottomlands of the Ethiopian highlands traditionally used for hay production and grazing. The soil is slightly acidic (pH 5.8) and very deficient in P(8.68 ppm) .Ten seedlings, each seven to nine weeks old of 98 accessions of Trifolium africanum (2), T. burchellianum (23), T.cryptopodium (13), T. semipilosum (57), including cv Safari for comparison together with T. repens (1) (control) originally from Ethiopia (83), Kenya (11), Tanzania ( 1) and southern Africa (3) were transplanted into a well cultivated field at 1 m intervals on 24 and 25 June, 1985. TSP was applied at a rate of 40 kg P ha .Two handfuls each of sheep manure were put in the holes and mixed with soil into which seedlings were transplanted. Observations were taken once every three weeks and included vigour, cover, stolon thickness, internode length, petiole length, middle leaflet surface area, inflorescences per plant, flowers per inflorescence and peduncle length. The plants were harvested in May 1986 and again in September 1986 and the material dried in an oven at 65 C for 24 hours for estimation of dry matter.Daily weather records were available at the ILCA Shola weather station nearby.The climatic data is presented in Table 1.The total annual rainfall for 1985 and 1986 was 1058 mm and 1198 mm respectively with a better spread in the later part of year (Showamare, 1986) . Average maximum and minimum temperatures for both years were similar but there were more frost nights in 1985 even during the rainy season which stunted annual clovers in nearby plots.The observations from the 980 plants are still being entered into the computer for cluster analysis in order to group plants according to their growth characteristics. Data so far recorded for the most important observations for each species are summarised in Table 2. The results show that T. cryptopodium had the highest DM production followed by T. burchellianum var. johnstonii .All varieties of T. semipilosum had lower DM with var. semipilosum, glabrescens , including cv Safari, intermedium and brunellii in that order. T. repens, T. africanum and T. burchellianum var. blongum had the lowest DM production. Again T. cryptopodium and T. burchellianum had the best vigour or green leaf retention during the dry season. T. semipilosum varieties shed most of their leaves during the dry season and those which remained turned copper red. T. semipilosum had profuse flowering with varieties semipilosum and glabrescens excelling.T. africanum had good flowering and T. cryptopodium was average.The one accession of T. repens had rather fair flowering.Both varieties of T. burchellianum had the worst flowering with some accessions not flowering at all. None of the accessions were affected by frost.Besides the above characteristics, all the clovers showed good soil binding characteristics, demonstrated by the fact that most of the soil cracking during the dry season occurred mostly on spots where there was no clover growth. T. cryptopodium with its numerous matt-forming rhizomatous stems was most outstanding in this respect.This is the first time that such a large collection of perennial Trifolium species from Ethiopia have been screened.It was rather surprising that the smallish often overlooked T. cryptopodium being evaluated for the first time surpassed the others in DM. This is partly due to its dense matt of stems with short internodes. It grows well in natural pastures with grasses such as Andropogon abyssinica, A. amethystinus, A. distachyos, Pennisetum thunbergii and P. clandestinum or Kikuyu grass. At one time it was briefly referred to as forming a valuable close sward under heavy grazing in association with Digitaria scalarum on Mt. Elgon (Gillett, 1952) . The prostrate growth habit and its small leaves and short internodes makes it ideal for sheep grazing at high altitudes from about 2600 m -3000 m.The mattforming growth habit which binds soil together also makes it ideal for soil conservation.Its only problem is that its pods shatter easily after ripening.There is therefore need to study the seed ripening characteristics in order to devise efficient means of harvesting.The other species which showed good productivity and which persisted well during the dry season was T. burchellianum var. johnstonii. Its ability during the dry season was also noted in early observations in Kenya and Australia (Bogdan, 1956;Britten, 1962;Mannetje, 1964). This characteristic is rather surprising as this species is normally distributed in moist grasslands and open glades in forests where rainfall is above 1000 mm (Gillett et al. , 1971;Thulin, 1983). This species is found growing with T. cryptopodium. Its major limitation is the poor flowering and hence seed production. This was also observed in one of the early glasshouse experiments where it failed to flower altogether (Mannetje and Pritchard, 1968) . However, in this trial there were two accessions, one from Ethiopia and the other from Tanzania which had good flowering. There are therefore possibilities for selection. This species has good potential for use in pasture for both cattle and sheep. It is also suitable for soil conservation.Although the average productivity of T. semipilosum was lower than the two preceeding species, there were some accessions which did well. It is rather surprising that var. glabrescens including cv Safari faired poorly. The latter is doing well in subtropical areas of Australia (Jones and Cook, 1981) .Although most of the accessions lost their leaves and those leaves which remained turned copper red during the dry season, they responded very fast to the onset of rain. This species had excellent flowering, and the pods do not shatter so easily, making it more suitable for seed production. It also grows well naturally with grasses in pasture, and it is found in a very wide range of altitudes, edaphic conditions for both cattle and sheep and for soil conservation.It seems to withstand very heavy grazing in communal natural pasture.The ability to persist under grazing has also been noted under Australian conditions (Sproule et al., 1983) .This screening trial has shown that the perennial Trifolium species have good potential for use in pasture. They could be used in establishing new pastures or on fallow areas including marginal areas. They could also be useful in reseeding degraded areas.It is important to continue making selections as evaluations continue. In this screening, four accessions of T. cryptopodium (ILCA Nos.7621,9391,9398,9461)  1968) . This germplasm has been exploited as a source of human food (Skerman, 1977) , forage for livestock (Hamilton et al., 1970;Hendricksen and Myles, 1980) and as green manure or cover crop (Pulseglove, 1968) .In Kenya, Lablab finds its greatest use in the small-scale sector mainly as a source of grain for human consumption. However, the current trends in farming emphasise the use of multipurpose crops that fit into integrated livestock/crop farming patterns.The investigations reported examined the potential contribution by Lablab in livestock/crop farming systems.The experiments were conducted at the Lanet Beef Research Station, Nakuru, altitude 18 60 m. Precipitation, mean maximum and minimum temperatures during the trials periods were: 611 mm and 623 mm; 24.5°C and 24.8°C; 9 . 5°C and 9.2°C in 1982 and 1983 respectively.The soil is a deep sandy loam with good water holding capacity.The major nutrient status was: K(me) 1.0, P(ppm) 1.9 and N(%) 0.10 with a pH(H20) of 5.5.The cultivar Valo (black seeded) was introduced from India. Nakuru (black and brown seeded) and Kakamega (black seeded) on the other hand, are local ecotypes grown in the Rift Valley and western Kenya respectively.Seeds were sown after 25 mm of germination rain was received each year at a rate of 7 kg ha . Plots (5 m ) were arranged in randomised complete blocks with four replications. At sowing, fertilizers were applied at the rates of 10 kg P ha\" , 4 kg K ha and 0.40 kg Cu ha-1 as single superphosphate, muriate of potash and copper sulphate respectively .Plots were harvested at monthly intervals after threemonths' growth from germination. Harvests were taken from 1 m2 quadrats excluding the guard row. Harvest four did not include the seed yield components. Material was cut approximately 5 cm above the ground and the bulk weight taken. Any shed leaves were separately collected and weighed.A subsample from each replicate was separated into leaf and stem fractions.The separated fractions and a subsample from the abscissed leaves were weighed and subsequently dried at 75°C for 24 hours for drymatter (DM) determination. Seed pods were included in the stem DM yield in harvests one to three. The dried green leaf and stem fractions were ground (2 mm) and used for determination of drymatter digestibility, crude protein (%N x 6.25) and phosphorus contents. Nitrogen was estimated using the micro-Kjeldahl method (Havilah et al., 1977) and phosphorus by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Dry-matter digestibility was estimated by in vitro digestibility method calibrated with lucerne of known in vivo digestibility. The data were subjected to analysis of variance.All ecotypes nodulated effectively with cowpea rhizobia in the soil; 23, 27, 22 and 19 effective nodules were recorded in Valo, Kakamega, Nakuru (black seeded) and Nakuru (brown seeded) respectively.Time to flowering differed by 20 to 30 days (Figure 1) .Total green DM yields ranged from 2000 to 12000 kg ha-1, and most of the yield was stem (Figure 1) . Green leaf DM yields ranged from 400 to 3300 kg ha . However. all ecotypes maintained green leaf DM yields above 2000 kg ha\"1 between three and five months of growth.Leaf shedding increased with maturity. This was associated with a progressive decline, 3.7 to 4.5 times with time, in leaf/stem ratio according to the following models:.80 (Valo) .76 (Kakamega) .74 (Nakuru, black seeded) .90 (Nakuru, brown seeded)Where Y is leaf/stem ratio and X is sampling time in months after sowing .Trends of dry-matter digestibility, protein and phosphorus contents in green leaf and stem with time are shown in Table 1. Digestibility was higher (P<0.01) in leaf than stem but declined by 10% to 15% units over time in both fractions. The decline in leaf digestibility was slightly higher than in the stem fraction: 0.17, 0.17, 0.10 vs 0.14, 0.09, 0.12 and 0.08% units day\"1 in Valo, Kakamega, Nakuru (black seeded) and Nakuru (brown seeded) for leaf and stem components respectively between three and six months of growth. Protein content was higher (P<0.01) in leaf than stem, and declined by 3% to 5% units in both fraction overY -1.17 -.25 X *, 3. £ 3Phosphorus content showed no significant changes with Seed yield was a function of seed pods m . All ecotypes had an average of 2 seeds pod . Nakuru (brown-seeded) out-yielded (P<0.5) the other ecotypes (Table 2).Seed protein content was similar (P>0.05) . OMeans within each column not followed by common letter differ (P<0.05) according to Duncan's multiple range test.The variation in time to flowering confirms the existence of physiological differences with Lablab purpureus ecotypes (Pulseglove, 1968) . This variation could be exploited in selecting germplasm suitable to a particular area.Green total and leaf DM yields were higher than those recorded for Lablab purpureus cv. Rongai (Murtagh and Dougherty, 1968;Hendricksen and Minson, 1986). The ceiling leaf DM yields suggested by Murtagh and Dougherty (1968) are lower than that contained in this study. Leaf retention characteristic exhibited by the Nakuru (brown seeded) ecotype indicated a useful attribute under grazing, and generally all ecotypes maintained more than 2000 kg ha green leaf content longer in the growing season than cv. Rongai (Hendricksen and Minson, 1986) .The decline in DM digestibility and crude protein content in the foliage with maturity is consistent with reports on other tropical pasture legumes (Jones, 1969;Norton, 1982). This decline was also associated with increased rates of leaf fall. However, the green leaf fraction maintained favourable levels of protein and digestible fractions. This was probably due to retranslocation of nutrients from the senescing leaves. Phosphorus content varied least with maturity. Partly, this is because phosphorus is not subjected to extensive retranslocation between plant organs.All ecotypes yielded more seed than was recorded by Davies and Hutton (1970) but lower, except Nakuru (brown-seeded) , -thanThe data on pods m -2 and was reported by Pulseglove (1968). seeds m and their effects on final seed yield appear to suggest there were differences in seed size, hence a potential to select for high seed yield among the existing materials.The protein content in the seed further shows a legume with potential use as human food.A substantial amount of leaf abscission occurred late in the season. This was the period (5 to 6 months of growth) when seeds were approaching maturity.As the shed leaves would not be available for grazing, studies are needed to investigate the time to optimise both the DM and seed yields. Overall, the DM yields, forage nutritive value, seed yield and its crude protein content show that Lablab purpureus would contribute considerably in livestock/crop farming systems. Agriculture in the semi-arid midland regions of eastern Kenya is characterised by very low capital inputs, low outputs (even in good seasons) and a high frequency of seasons in which production of staple foods is insufficient for local needs. Rapid increases in rural population densities and in the intensity of cultivation, fuelwood harvesting and grazing have resulted in alarming rates of soil fertility depletion and soil erosion. While rainfall is the principal limiting resource, it is usually closely followed by soil fertility, hence the need to examine the role of legumes in the cereal-based farming systems of the regions as an alternative to the use of expensive nitrogen fertilizers.FAO/GK/NORAD projects since 1974 (Wilton, 1976;Van Soest, 1986;Ibrahim, 1981;Chabeda, 1976) have made extensive collections of forage legumes within Kenya and evaluated them at four sites -Kitale, Kiboko, Katumani and Mtwapa along with some introduced material.However, much of the evaluation work is unpublished or is of a semi-quantitative nature, and the full potential of forage and browse legumes in Kenya's bimodal semiarid areas remains little understood. In addition, many new species and accessions have become available from more recent plant collecting and evaluation activities in other parts of the world, and this material required testing in Kenya.The objectives of the research programme reported here are:1.to assemble an extensive seed collection of forage and browse species with potential adaptation to semi-arid areas of Kenya,to assess the adaptation of this material in a series of experiments to a range of climatic conditions in the districts of Machakos and Kitui,to select a nucleus of widely-adapted legumes that might fit into the varied farming systems in these districts, and to assist agronomists and animal production scientists in further evaluating this material in \"on-farm\" experimentation .The work involves close collaboration between staff of the Kenya Government's Ministry of Agriculture and staff of the Australian Dryland Farming Project (ACIAR Project 8326) which is being implemented by the CSIRO Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures.A total of 167 accessions from 23 genera are under evaluation. Details of ecotypes/ species, Commonwealth of Australia Plant Introduction numbers, Kenya Introduction numbers, origin (where known) and project sites planted are contained in Appendix 1.The experiments were undertaken at four fenced sites as follows:1.Katumani NDFRS , altitude 1600 m, mean annual rainfall 717 mm, mean annual temperature 19.6°C, soil type: chromic luvisol, pH 6.5.Kiboko RRS , 975 m, rf 595 mm, mean temperature 25.7°C, rhodic Feralsol, pH 5.8.Mua Hills, 1650 m, rf 1179 mm, estimated mean temperature 19.0°C, red sandy earth, pH 7.0.Ithookwe (Kitui), 1160 m, rf 1080 mm, mean temperature 22.5°C, red sandy earth, pH 5.8.Row plot experiment. The experiments were laid in a randomised complete block design with 104 accessions and 3 replicates. Plots are 6.75 m and consist of two rows each 2.25 m long and rows 1.5 m apart. Replicates run along the contour. One of each pair of rows received a single dressing of a basal fertilizer. The other row was unfertilized.Sward experiments. For each season of planting, the experiments were arranged as randomised blocks with 20 accessions and three replicates. Individual plots were 16 m . Seed was not broadcast over the entire plot but distributed along disturbed rows 0.5 m apart.All plots received a basal fertilizer dressing at establishment.plot experiments. Seed viability was determined by germinating scarified seed on moist filter pads in petri dishes. Approximately 50% of all seeds/plot were scarified by sandpaper or scalpel.Inoculation with the requisite rhizobia in a gum arabic/distilled water solution was made a few days prior to planting. Inoculated seed was kept under refrigeration.Sward experiments. Seed preparation was similar to that for row plots except that 100% seed scarification was attempted, and the seeding rate was adjusted to give similar numbers of viable seeds per plot (Table 2) .Land preparation was minimal except for Ithookwe (site 4) which was ploughed just prior to planting. Vegetation was cut back and burned off during the dry season and line rows pegged out.A small chisel plough attached to a two-wheel Honda mini-tractor marked a 4 cm deep furrow along each planting row. At the onset of rains, when weed seedlings had emerged, the furrows were dusted with Aldrin 2.5% @ 20 kg/ha. Legume seed was then handsown, lightly covered and firmed with soil. Two days later or just prior to legume germination the planted rows were sprayed with Roundup herbicide 2 1/ha using a knapsack sprayer fitted with a fan nozzle. Subsequent row weeding was done by hand or with a rope wick containing Roundup.Row plot experiments (Table 1) .Agronomic and phanological characters recorded monthly from the second month after sowing included plant population and development (vegetative, flowering and seeding) , height, date of anesthesis, insect and disease incidence and a visual bulk rating on a one-five scale. In early October 1986, after 11 months of uninhibited growth, a measured length of average plant material in each row plot was cut at 5 cm above ground level (5 cm from the crown for trailing legumes), oven dried at 60°C and weighed. Sample weight was converted to yield (kg/ha) by the formula {Sample wt) 10 {cut length x 1.5).Sample experiments. Plant measurements similar to those given above were made except that for visual bulk ratings. Harvesting entailed cutting two randomised 1 m2 quadrats 5 cm above ground level from each plot three times per year. The first harvest was in late January, 1986 (end of short rains), the second in early June, 1986 (end of long rains) and the third in late September, 1986 (end of dry season) . The latter harvest also included measurements of regrowth from the first harvest.Cut material was oven-dried at 60°C, weighed and subsampled for later N analysis.Two weeks after legume seedling emergence a basal fertilizer was hand broadcast along one row of the row plots to a width of 1.5 m and evenly broadcast over the swards. Rates in kg/ha were: triple superphosphate 200, muriate of potash 41.7, dolomite 250, manganese sulphate 15, borax, zinc sulphate and copper sulphate 10, respectively and sodium molybdate 0.36. The swards received the same mixture broadcast over the entire plot.At Katumani, a collection of Mexican high altitude Leucaena accessions is being tested quantitatively against a suite of commercial cultivars including cv Cunningham, cv Peru and K8. Adaptation is progressively monitored throughout each year by measuring shoot extension growth relative to soil moisture content and air temperatures. Destructive harvests are made twice and four times per year for wood, stem and leaf yield.from 16 accessions which performed well at Site 1 (Katumani) , Site 2 (Kiboko) or both sites are presented in Table 1.Of the annuals, the short season Macrotyloma africanum with densely twining fine stems, had high resistance to insect and disease, good seed production and an excellent seedling regenerative capacity. Another trailing legume Vigna unguiculata CI60452 was more strongly persistent at both sites than other entries from that genus. Alysicarpus rugosus established well and had the highest edible dry matter (EDM) (1938 kg/ha) at the end of the evaluation period at Site 1. The two Stylosanthes hamata lines, cv Verano and K14363, are morphologically similar, but the latter persisted later into the dry season.Both accessions and the late flowering S. humilis are particularly susceptible to termites.Lablab purpureus cv Rongai grew vigorously at both sites and gave high visual bulk ratings. It flowered profusely, but seed production was reduced by the depradations of flower-eating beetles Mylabris and Coryna sp.The selected perennial legumes (Table 1) have persisted strongly at Site 1 but only Desmanthus virgatus, S. scabra cv Fitzroy cv Seca and S. guianensis Alupe 'C survived the, harsher environment at Site 2.These Stylosanthes accessions yielded >4 tonnes EDM/ha at Katumani and appear particularly well adapted at that site.The semi-erect shrub legume Desmanthus virgatus K14456 was slow to establish but showed promise later in the experiment at both sites.Neonotonia wightii was also slow to establish but grew vigorously after the second season. Cassia rotundifolia cv Wynn flowered very early and continued to produce seed throughout the year.It has persisted strongly at Site 1 The dual purpose (forage/grain) legumes, such as Lablab purpureus (cv Rongai) were the most productive after the first and second rainy seasons (see Harvests 1 and 2) but declined thereafter (see Harvest 3) . Maximum for the 18 other accessions tested was only 11% of the biomass produced by lablab purpureus . Legumes such as Alysicarpus rugosus, Stylosanthes scabra and Neonotonia wightii needed two rainy seasons to reach the production levels of an accession like Lablab purpureus. Thereafter, strong perennial species such as S. scabra and N. wightii had a clear advantage whilst annuals such as A. rugosus declined over the long dry season.of the maximum dry-matter yield) for five legume swards grown at Maruba, Kenya.Swards were planted on 30-10-85 and the third harvest was taken 327 days later on 22-9-86.Absolute dry-matter yield in tonnes ha-1 is shown in parentheses for each harvest. The first sward plantings at Katumani also provided an opportunity to compare the productivity of a relatively large number of Stylosanthes species under the cool dry conditions of the midlands of eastern Kenya. In all, six accessions from five species were included in this planting as shown in Figure lb. None of the long season annuals, biennial or perennial species produced any significant levels of biomass by the end of the first season.After this time, however, the Stylos were all relatively productive with the S. scabra cultivars, Fitzroy and Seca the most outstanding (3.4 to 4.4 tonnes ha\"?o) , followed by S. guianensis cv Graham (2.5 to 3.5 tonnes ha\"1).The least adapted Stylo to this region was S. hamata cv Verano. The first two destructive harvests from the Leucaena experiment have now been completed. Dry matter data is shown in Figure 2.From the preliminary data, the cultivar Peru appears to be the most productive in terms of leaf production, whilst L. diversifolia CPI 33820 was producing the largest amount of wood. Leaf on« petio4tThe potential role of forage and browse legumes in the semi-arid midlands of Kenya is in smallholder farming systems. Legumes could conceivably be used as inter-crops/alley-crops with cereals, in erosion control, in terrace bank stabilisation, in the improvement of degraded, non-productive grassland or as simple cut-and-carry fodder banks. The range of growth habit and persistence within the plant material being evaluated extends from the short twining annual Macrotyloma africanum to the small perennial tree Leucaena. Further experimentation (preferably on farms)is required to sort out the respective roles of material available, but the results from the experiments described here indicate that a good range of well-adapted leguminous material is now available.  The critical role of legume seed nurseries cannot be over emphasised.Once key lines have been identified, seed requests from research stations and research or extension officers cannot be met if supply is a constraint.The nurseries should be established in areas where demands on irrigation, man-power and supervision are easily met. Work is underway this season to produce experimental quantities of seed of the promising accessions noted above. The genus, Zornia has a tropical distribution mainly in America and Africa. A collection of Zornia species is used to provide natural grazing and hay during different seasons.The genus has maintained its taxonomic notoriety.The significance of classification of the species in this genus would possibly be in the application of various groupings to agronomic problems, particularly selection and/or breeding for specific purposes.As a guide to the understanding of the range of variation available in the Zornia accessions at ILCA, a study was made on the plants already growing at Soddo, Ethiopia, based on morphological and agronomic characters. Analysis of the collected data revealed that with the use of morphological characters, it was possible to obtain groupings belonging to particular species as exemplified by Zornia setosa, Z.glochidiata, Z. glabra and Z. latifolia.Based on agronomic characters a different pattern was obtained, but this narrowed the collection into two major groups. One group was characterised by prostrate to decumbent accessions while the other group comprised accessions which ranged from decumbent to erect in their growth forms.Other smaller groups with particular agronomic attributes could also be identified.seemed imperative, however, that further studies involving more attributes than those used here would provide more systematic groupings of accessions with succinct characteristics.The genus Zornia is indigenous to savannas and similar areas in tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Mohlenbrock, 1961;Mclvor and Bray, 1983) . The number of species in this genus is variable but commonly estimated to be around 80 and distributed predominantly in America and Africa. Some Zornia species (Bogdan, 1977) are of importance in providing natural grazing and hay, especially in Brazil and the neighbouring countries and also in the drier parts of West Africa.Species like Z. glochidiata (synonym Z. diphylla) provides some scant forage during the wet season and early in the season but does not survive long into the dry season (Skerman, 1977) .The genebank at the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) currently holds at least 234 accessions of Zornia species some of which were grown for seed production and agronomic evaluation during mid-1985 at Soddo in Sidamo, Ethiopia. In order to provide some quick information about these collections, a study of these accessions was superimposed on the existing evaluation programme.Using 22 attributes on 161 accessions of Zornia species data were collected on field-grown plants that had been growing for just over one year.The 22 attributes comprised both morphological and agronomic characters (Table 1) whose choice was partially based on taxonomic character descriptions of Zornia species (Mohlenbrock, 1961) and some of the forage evaluation characters used at ILCA. The purpose of this work was to try and group these accessions on the basis of their similarities and dissimilarities using both morphological and agronomic characters. This was to assist in picking out closely related accessions and also to obtain those accessions of good agronomic characters that could be subjected to further evaluation while awaiting the results from the ongoing evaluation trial.The collection data were classified using principal component analysis (PCA) , cluster analysis (CA) and K-means clustering. Size of the lowest leaflets: 1 = leaflets more than twice as long as broad. 2 = leaflets not more than twice as long as broad.Shape of upper leaflets: 1 = linear; 2 = filiform; 3 = lanceolate; 4 = ovate; 5 -elliptic; 6 = elliptic/lanceolate; 7 = oblanceolate; 8 = obovate 6.Flower colour: 1 = corolla yellow with no red marks 2 = corolla yellow with few red marks 3 = corolla yellow with many red marks 4 = corolla red 7. Flower (corolla) size: 1 = very small; 2 = small; 3 = small-medium; 4 » medium; 5 = medium-large; 6 = large.with acid Nitosols of pH 5.5 to 6.0. Rainfall is above 700 mm per year while the minimum and maximum temperatures are 12.6°C and 24.5°C respectively. The total length of the growing season is 245 days.Each accession has been planted on unreplicated raised plots each containing six plants. The plot size was 2 m by 1.5 m with 7 5 cm pathways across the slope and 1 m pathways or drains down the slope.Twenty-two characters -morphological and agronomic -that could be recorded at the time were selected based on their taxonomic applicability. Each of the 22 characters was recorded once for each accession.An HP 3000 computer and BMDP software were used for analysis of the collected data. For PCA the BMDP4M program was employed while the CA used the BMDP2M program to produce the vertical and horizontal dendrograms.The K-means clustering used BMDPKM program (Engelman, 1980;Frane and Hill, 1974).Only components with Eigenvalues greater than unity were retained in the principal component analysis, and they were rotated by the Varimax procedure to aid interpretation.BMDPKM program for K-means clustering used the hierarchical agglomerative method (Engelman, 1980) .All data were standardised before clustering. The BMDPKM program iteratively reallocates cases into clusters until each case is in the cluster whose centre is closest to the case. This procedure is followed for each number of clusters specified. In this study the specified clusters were 8, 10 and 12.The criterion of clustering was to minimise the maximum distance of a case from the centre of the cluster to which the case belonged. The word \"case\" here is synonymous to \"accession\". In all the above analyses the characters were considered under morphological, agronomic and morphological-agronomic categories.Before carrying out principal component analysis it was necessary to consider the correlation matrix for the characters under study.There existed a number of high correlations among the characters which confirmed the justification for carrying out principal component analysis on the data (Tables 2, 3 and 4  characters. The four factors explained 71.6% of the total variance for morphological characters with the eigenvalues of 3.249, 2.421, 1.658 and 1.373 respectively. Three factors explained 84.97% of the total variance for agronomic characters with their respective eigenvalues of 2.897, 2.606 and 1.295. For the combined morphological-agronomic characters the four factors accounted for 72.09% of the total variance with the eigenvalues of 5.045, 1.932, 1.739 and 1.376 respectively.The sorted rotated factor loadings for morphological, agronomic and morphological-agronomic characters are respectively presented in Tables 5, 6 and 7. In Tables 5, 6 and 7 the factor loading matrix has been rearranged so that the columns appear in decreasing order or variance explained by factors. The rows have been rearranged so that for each successive factor, loadings greater than .5000 appear first.Loadings less than .2500 have been replaced by zero.The interpretations attached to these factors for the morphological characters are that the positive end of factor one is characterised by attributes responsible for the higher number of leaflets per leaf, obovate in shape, yellow flowers with few or no red marks and green bracts.Factor two represents characters associated with large bracts and corollas, the corollas being yellow in colour. The inflorescences are compact, having very many flowers and bracts. The third factor expresses thick and long internodes and long inflorescences.The fourth factor is associated with characters responsible for the flowers that are longer than the bracts.For the agronomic characters the positive end of factor one is associated with characters responsible for bushy plants which are highly productive and adaptable while factor two indicates plants which are vigorous and leafy with high productivity. Factor three is associated with erect plants having very few leaves. inflorescence density, leafiness and large flowers (corollas) and bracts. Factor two, on the other hand, is mainly characterised by plants having reddish or purple bracts, semierect to erect but scanty foliage and flowers of medium size. Factor three is associated with plants having obovate leaflets with low branching intensity and inflorescence density.Factor four is mainly characterised by flowers that are larger than the bracts.The factor scores of individual accessions on the first four factors were plotted against one another under morphological , agronomic and all characters combined (Figures 1, 2 and 3). Clustering could be identified especially at the ends of the axes with most of the accessions scattered randomly at the point of origin.Based on the morphological characters four clusters, (A, B, C and D in Figure 1) on the plot of factor 1 versus factor 2 were formed. Cluster A comprised Zornia setosa accessions, cluster B was composed of Z. brasiliensis while cluster C comprised accessions 11411 and 11424. These two accessions have not been identified, but they could possibly belong to Z. lanata. Cluster p was composed mainly of Z. glabra. Accessions belonging to Z. diphylla and Z. pratensis tended to form a continuum, which is not surprising since Z. diphylla is normally applied to a complex of species, both perennial and annual (Bogdan, 1977). This complex of species usually embraces such species as Z. latifolia, Z. gracilis, Z. perforata, Z. pratensis and several others.Groupings of accessions or clusters based on agronomic characters were almost similar to those based on the combined morphological-agronomic characters (Figures 2 and 3) .Other species formed their own groups based on their stature and plant growth forms.Based on the clustering pattern of these accessions and the factor scores responsible for some characters, particular groups with particular characteristics can be picked out for further evaluation.As in the principal component analysis, the data were categorised into morphological, agronomic and morphological-agronomic characters.Using morphological characters, a minimum of ten clusters was formed with some non-conformist groups which later joined the rest of the clusters at higher amalgamation distances. The amalgamation distances ranged from 0.000 to 10.330 thus producing simple to complex fusions of accessions that produced a very large vertical tree dendrogram.Table 8 shows the composition of various clusters by accessions. Some characteristic features of some clusters had a definitive role for particular species. Cluster 1, for example, was characterised by having four leaflets per leaf, obovate upper and lower leaflets, small yellow flowers with few or no red marks, very short and slender internodes and very short inflorescences and bracts. This cluster comprised all accessions of Z. setosa and one accession, ILCA 11476, of Z. brasiliensis. Cluster 2 had accessions whose flowers were shorter than the bracts.They had ovate to elliptic leaflets with a few accessions having lanceolate leaflets. They also tended to have medium to long inflorescences, medium to large spread of bracts or inflorescences and medium sized bracts. Accessions in this cluster belonged to Z. glochidiata and Z. orbiculata. Cluster 10, which was the largest, comprising 28 accessions, was characterised by medium to large flowers with inflorescences of medium length, leaflets that were more than twice as long as they were broad and medium-to-large spread of bracts on inflorescences tOET '68EOwhich were either purple in colour or had red marks.Cluster 10 was composed of Z. glabra and Z. latifolia.Other clusters tended to be an assortment of various species, namely Z. diphylla, Z. latifolia, Z. pratensis and other unidentified Zornia spp.clustering based on agronomic and morphologicalagronomic characters, ten clusters could be identified in each case.However, based on agronomic characters the whole population could be divided into two major units.One group comprised accessions that ranged from creeping to decumbent and were of small stature (clusters 1 to 7) . The second group was characterised by being decumbent to erect, of fair to very good leafiness, good to very good branching intensity, vigour, productivity and plot cover. The first group comprised such species as Z. setosa, Z. glochidiata, Z. diphylla and some unidentified species while the second group comprised mainly Z. glabra and Z. latifolia.In the final K-means clustering analysis, divisions into 8, 10 and 12 clusters were specified under morphological, agronomic and morphological-agronomic characters (Appendix 1) . This number was arrived at on the basis of the previous observation which indicated that during cluster analysis at least 10 clusters could be identified while in the principal component analysis a minimum of six clusters including the continuum of accessions scattered at the point of origin could be identified.The chaTacters or variables which were important in determining clusters were those with relatively high \"F-ratios\" of the between to the within cluster mean squares. The characters which had high \"F-ratios\" (>30) were adaptability, productivity, inflorescence density, branching intensity and plot cover.These characters determined clusters under agronomic characterisation while those under morphological characters were flower size, size of the lowest leaflets and shape of the leaflets of the lowest leaves.For morphological-agronomic characters were flower size, size of the lowest leaflets and shape of the leaflets of the lowest leaves. For morphologicalagronomic characters the important variables responsible for clustering included the number of leaflets per leaf, flower (corolla) size, size of the lowest leaflets, productivity and adaptability. Some clusters were either wholly or partially composed of accessions belonging to particular or closely related species. This was exemplified by the clusters under morphological characters.Cluster 1 is, for instance, composed of accessions belonging to Z. brasiliensis and Z. setosa only. Z. brasiliensis is represented in the ILCA collection by accessions 11347 and 11476 only. Cluster 2 is dominated by Z. glabra and Z. latifolia while cluster 3 is composed of the accessions 11411 and 11424 (possibly belonging to Z. lanata) .Cluster 6 comprises accessions belonging to Z. glochidiata while cluster 7 has an assortment of species including Z. diphylla, Z. pratensis and Z. glochidiata.Zornia is a genus of known notorious taxonomic difficulty.The significance of classifications of the species in this genus would possibly be in the application of various groupings to agronomic problems, particularly selection and/or breeding for specific purposes.The results of classification do not establish but merely suggest the potential of a given accession.Plant evaluation is expensive in terms of time and effort, and it is known that certain species or genera are more likely to be of value than others. Selection of the materials to be used in the improvement of pasture germplasm depends on the available information about the germplasm. Coupled with the information on preliminary evaluation is the knowledge on characterisation of these materials both of which help in grouping the germplasm on the basis of morphological and agronomic characters.Agronomic information is, of course, essential for an understanding of the range of variation available in the accessions as a guide to existing desirable combination of characters and to the beneficial recombinations that may be possible with genetic manipulation. A pure morphological or morphological-agronomic classification is liable to be insufficiently sensitive to agronomic heterogeneity.A pure agronomic classification is too crude to permit identification, owing to the limited numbers of attributes that can be devised for collection.There is ample evidence that classification provides the single most profitable technique for obtaining a preliminary synoptic view of a complex system (Williams et al., 1973) . In a study of this nature the groups of accessions may be regarded as centres of variation and allow the information to be presented in a more simple form than enumerating the properties of all individuals. So if a collection like this Zornia one is too large to permit succinct description, a classification in groups of known mean characteristics will still be necessary if the information is to be summarised and communicated to others.Under morphological ordination and classification, accessions belonging to particular species or closely related species tended to form groups. Zornia setosa and Z. brasiliensis formed their own group; so did Z. glabra and Z. latifolia (with a few exceptions) ; and Z. glochidiata. A continuum of accessions belonging to Z. diphylla, Z. pratensis, some Z. latifolia and other unidentified Zornia spp. was formed. This was consistently so under the three types of analyses (PCA, CA and K-means clustering) .Since morphological classification is basically very valuable for identification and description, such classification has provided a useful tool for that purpose. Whereas a mixed morphological-agronomic classification is useful for description, it also provides some guide to the agronomic potentiality of some of the groups. The groupings in this study tended to conform to this observation. Agronomic classification tended to differ from the other two. Here groupings were purely based on agronomic similarities. However, the clusters comprising some accessions of Z. glabra and Z. latifolia were similar in composition for the three categories of classification.Accessions of z. diphylla, Z. pratensis, Z. setosa and Z. glochidiata tended to exhibit characteristics of poor agronomic potential while Z. glabra and Z. latifolia generally showed better agronomic potentiality. For example, in principal component analysis and cluster analysis accessions of Z.glabra, Z. latifolia, some Z. glochidiata and some unidentified Zornia spp. showed a high expressivity of branching intensity, inflorescence density, plot cover, productivity and adaptability. Good performance in a spaced-plant trial, however, does not guarantee good performance in a grazed pasture. Grazing of Z. brasilensis accessions, for example, had to be terminated at any point in time (CIAT, 1983(CIAT, -1985) ) , at Guilichao, CIAT, although the preliminary evaluation of these materials had been promising.However, because it is often uneconomic or even impracticable to carry out field trials of all available material, the function of methods such as those outlined in this paper is to select those accessions most likely to justify more intensive trials. Groupings of accessions and/or species have been obtained in this study and some of their characteristics spelt out. Choice of particular groupings will depend upon the use to which these materials are to be put. Groups comprising Z. setosa, Z. glabra, Z. latifolia and Z. glochidiata including their characteristics could give a guideline as to what use these selections could be put should they be advanced to further evaluation trials.The numerical methods of groupings are of particular value in the tropical genera which may require taxonomic revision like Zornia. Groupings defined on the basis of overall similarities of agronomic importance and morphology could well be of more value for practical purposes than stringently defined species and could be used equally well for communication purposes.    The importance of a germplasm collection to those utilising it is very dependent on the availability of accurate descriptions of the accessions and on the taxonomic identification of the germplasm (Engels, 1986) . Where there is a substantial number of accessions of one species or genus within the collection, efforts should be made to classify these into like groups. The objective of this classification is to allow the reduction of the number of accessions that have to be grown in the next phase.The genus Stylosanthes comprises 30 to 40 species (Burt et al., 1983;Stace and Edye, 1984), many of which are either agronomically unattractive or are of rare occurrence.By the beginning of 1984 the world collection of Stylosanthes spp. and S. fruticosa were as shown in Table 1. Stylosanthes species are adapted to quite different ecological situations and range from annuals to perennials. They also have different agronomic forms. This exemplifies the high range of variability within the genus. S. fruticosa is regarded as an excellent forage legume in some parts of Africa. Its deep and strong tap root system makes it resistant to grazing. The prostrate forms have some value in protecting the soil against erosion. S. fruticosa is a species which has received less attention than its South American allies S. guianensis and S. humilis, particularly in Australia. It must be presumed to have considerable potential as a forage legume in regions with a single dry season. It is distributed in many countries in Africa as seen in Figure 1.The latitude and longitude ranges within the current S. fruticosa collections were respectively between 12°00'N and 13°24'N and 02°19'E and 09°03'E for Niger, and for Ethiopia Source: Stace and Edye (1984) .between 04°54'N and 07°ll'N and 37°22'E and 39°30'E. Williams et al (1984), Lazier (1984), Skerman (1977), Thulin (1983) and IBPGR (1984) show that S. fruticosa is distributed in at least 23 African countries.Despite this wide distribution of S. fruticosa, especially in Africa, the current collection at the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) is mainly from Ethiopia and Niger. Two accessions were acquired from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) , Australia. In order to search for materials of agronomic potential, it is essential to collect sufficiently variable germplasm from many diverse environments and evaluate their forage potential . Some morphological and agronomic characters were studied for both identification purposes and assessment of agronomic value.Of the 164 accessions of S. fruticosa in the genebank at ILCA, 102 accessions were planted for agronomic evaluation and seed multiplication at Soddo in Sidamo, Ethiopia during April, 1985. The geographical and climatic description of Soddo and the planting procedure were as given in the Zornia paper in these proceedings .These S. fruticosa accessions had been collected mainly from Ethiopia and Niger (Appendix 1) . Those from Ethiopia were predominantly from Wolayta in Sidamo. In order to assess the existence of variations between the accessions that were undergoing agronomic evaluation, a study was superimposed on this trial.Observations were made when the plants were about 18 months old at the end of the rainy season. Eighteen characters (morphological and agronomic) on 93 accessions were selected based on the practical and field considerations at that particular time. These are given in Table 2 with their character state codes.Principal component analysis and cluster analyses were done on the HP 3000 computer as described in the Zornia paper in these proceedings.  The correlation matrix for the characters under study (Table 3) shows a number of high correlations. Plant growth form was most highly correlated with the height or distance of shoot tips from the ground but had otherwise low correlations with other characters.Other high correlations included canopy spread at the widest point with the length of the longest primary branch; canopy spread at the narrowest point and adaptability; and adaptability with plot cover. These correlations indicate that principal component analysis may provide a useful summary of the variability in the data.When principal component analysis was applied to the data, four components or factors were found to have eigenvalues greater than unity.These four factors explained 71.6% of the total variance with 4.176% eigenvalues of 4.176, 2.606, 1.920 and 1.318 respectively. Based on the sorted rotated factor loading (Table 4) the following interpretations were attached to the factors.The positive end of factor one is associated with the attributes responsible for characters of agronomic interest such as plants which are highly branched and quite bushy. Factor two represents characters associated with large leaflets while factor three expresses the high plant growth structure.The fourth factor is concerned with high leaflet length to width ratio.The factor scores of the individual accessions on the first three factors were plotted against each other. Some clustering could be identified, although most of the accessions appeared to be scattered randomly about the origin. On the plot of factor 1 versus factor 2, for example (Figures 2 and 3), about six clusters could be identified.Cluster 1 was composed of six accessions.These were characterised by long and wide central leaflet of the leaf nearest to the spike, petioles of the leaflet nearest to the spike being long and with distance between base of centre leaflet to junction point of the outer leaflets being between 1 and 2 mm.Cluster 2 comprises ten accessions. These accessions have very good agronomic characters tending to those of S. scabra in growth form. They are quite bushy with a high branching pattern and very high adaptability and plot cover.Cluster 3 is a uni-membered cluster composed of the accession 10539 whose central leaflet is very narrow and rather short. The accession, however, has similar agronomic features to those of the accessions in cluster 2, especially its wide canopy spread. This accession happens to be the one collected from the furthest east in the collection. It was collected from near Negele Borana in Sidamo, Ethiopia along the longitude of 39°30'E. Although this cluster exhibits a negative association of factors 1 and 2 , there is no consistent pattern of expression of these characters for all the accessions in the cluster. These accessions, however, have a less than 1 mm distance between base of central leaflet to function point of the two outer leaflets. The central leaflets of the leaves nearest to the spikes are generally narrow and short, with a few exceptions being of medium length and fairly wide. These accessions other than those originating from Ethiopia have the longest spikes in the S. fruticosa collection at ILCA. The above mentioned features tend to separate accessions in cluster 4 from those of cluster 5.Cluster 5 comprises nine accessions. These accessions have extremely poor to very poor plot cover and adaptability. They are of small stature and tend to form small bushes.Their leaflet and petiole characters are, however, almost similar to those of some accessions in clusters 1 and 2 . It is interesting to note that although most of these accessions show poor adaptability, they were collected from Soddo, Sidamo in the neighbourhood of where they are currently being evaluated.Cluster 6 is another uni-membered cluster comprising the accession 13924 from Niger. Like the other accessions appearing on the negative side of factor 1, it has very poor agronomic characters.It is also the only accession in the collection which was collected as far south in Niger as latitude 12°00'N.The 93 accessions of S. fruticosa in the final dendrogram were divided into ten clusters which distinctly are grouped into two main blocks comprising 15 and 77 accessions which will be referred to as groups A and B respectively. Group B comprising 77 accessions is solely composed of accessions collected from Ethiopia while group A comprises accessions from Ethiopia, Niger and CSIRO, Australia.In group A the accessions which form the main cluster are 13942, 13850, 13860, 13893, 13890, 10829, 10523, 13919, 10431 and 10453. These are some of the accessions found with negative scores on factor 1 in the principal component analysis. These accessions are part of clusters 4 and 5 in the plot of PCA factor 1 versus factor 2 and are characterised by long spikes and short and narrow central leaflets of the leaf nearest to the spike. These accessions also have small bushes, very poor plot cover and adaptability.Accessions in group B are characterised by large canopy spread, a fairly high number of branches originating from the main stem at or below 5 cm and good to very good adaptability. The above factor-loading matrix has been rearranged so that the columns appear in decreasing order or variance explained by factors.The rows have been rearranged so that for each successive factor, loadings greater than 0.5000 appear first. Loadings less than 0.2500 have been replaced by zero.In the final K-means clustering analysis, divisions into 10 and 12 clusters were specified (Table 5) . The relative importance of characters or variables in determining clusters can be judged by the \"F-ratio\" of the between to the within cluster mean squares. The most important variables were the average length of the spike, canopy spread at the narrowest point, the distance between base of centre leaflet to junction point of the two outer leaflets, canopy spread at the widest point, length of the longest primary branch, petiole length of the leaf nearest to the spike, plot cover and adaptability. The F-ratios for these variables were all above 10.0 with the highest being 28.0 for the average length of the spike.This can be illustrated by comparing clusters 2, 4 and 8. Cluster 2 is composed solely of accession 6745 which has the longest spike (of about 50 mm) among the collection; cluster 4 is also solely composed of 13342 which has the shortest spike (about 5 mm) and cluster 8 comprises accessions 13942, 13929, 13893, 13890, 13850 and 13860 whose spike lengths vary from 25 to 35 mm. The rest of the accessions had spike lengths ranging from 10 to 20 mm.  With cluster analysis, some strong clusters were formed. However, about one-third of the accessions were non-conformist. Accessions collected from Niger tended to form a group of their own while the Ethiopian materials also tended to form theirs. There were exceptions to this, however. Group A in the cluster analysis which had all the Niger accessions, except 13929, had materials of Ethiopian origin too. However, a sub-cluster existed that comprised wholly of materials from Niger. This cluster was also consistent in both principal component analysis and K-means clustering. It was not possible to record some of the most important characters in Stylosanthes species such as flowering, seed and fruit characters in this study .For proper characterisation and evaluation of plant genetic resources it is necessary to start from seeding to harvesting in order to obtain more meaningful inferences.Where time is limiting, however, a study such as is described here can give guidelines on what characters to use during evaluation and possible variations existing among the materials.All the analyses gave similar grouping of accessions. These groups were related to the geographical location or types of environments from which these plants were collected rather than variations between accessions from similar geographical location.For instance, the Niger material tended to be grouped together, while the Ethiopian material tended to form \"agrotypes\" . Since ILCA's collections of S. fruticosa is from such a limited part of its range, further collections from other African countries are highly recommended on the basis of the following observations :1.There is need to collect and preserve genetic materials that are in danger of disappearing as a consequence of the destruction of natural vegetation.There is need to increase the variability of collection from particular areas in relation to geographic, climatic and/or edaphic relevance.There is need to collect genetic material in particular areas which in the past have been neglected or overlooked with regard to collecting activities.Whereas it has been possible to obtain groups of accessions with particular characteristics based on the descriptions used in this study, the practical application of the findings has some limitations because of the omission of some important attributes. The variability existing within the species could therefore have been better described if more descriptors were used over a longer period of time. Despite the fact that little study has been done on S. fruticosa compared to the other Stylosanthes species, this characterisation and preliminary evaluation gives an indication of the variability or heterogeneity existing in S. fruticosa accessions currently available at ILCA. w UJ UJ UJ UJ UJ a a a a uj w w w uj UJ ri r* < f l ofl <n 4 (Tt 4 rt ffl <* m rt ofl rt (11 ofl o1  3 .UUUUUUUCJt3ucJUUUOUUOOUUi-tOUU a-.aaaaaaaa.aa.aaa.    Lundgren (1978) estimated the human population density at 180 people/km . Backeus (1982) predicted that by the year 1990 the population will have risen to 300 people/km2 .The high population has considerably increased pressure on land for agriculture. In certain areas people keep large herds of cattle which graze freely on the slopes as the communal grazing areas at the valley bottoms are used extensively for horticultural crops.Free grazing has caused considerable surface runoff and soil erosion resulting in site deterioration with a consequent reduction in crop production. Lushoto district has tried to tackle the problem by implementing a major project on agroforestry throughout the Western Usambara highlands since 1980.The Soil Erosion Control Agroforestry Project (SECAP) applies an integrated extension approach which takes into account forestry, plant production and livestock measures using the macro-contourline approach. This approach integrates livestock production through \"cutting and carrying\" of fodder, zero-grazing and stall-feeding of livestock.It also integrates plant production through farmyard manure application due to stallfeeding operations, and it has a forestry component for fuel, construction and soil erosion control measures.In order to simulate the many site conditions in the West Usambara Mountains, four on-station trial fields covering various ecoclimatic conditions have been established since November 1985. Screening, elimination and management trials have been carried out using the randomised block designs. The macro-contourline is essentially an erosion control barrier consisting of four components, namely: a fodder bushline (preferably a legume) , creeping legume line, fodder grass line and an agroforestry-tree line.This has been prepared and planted accordingly. The fodders are subjected to intensive cutting regimes.All the fodder components are cut half a year later after planting as this is what arr average farmer would normally do. Thereafter the fodders are cut intermittently throughout the year once there is sufficient amount of regrowth on them.Detailed ecological and meteorological measurements have been carried out in between the macro-contourlines. These have included:A zero treatment in which no soil control measure has been effected.Sunflower planted along the contourline.T: Grevillea robusta line planted at 2m spacing along the countour.GT: Guatemala grass with Grevillea robusta planted.Maize planted as a sole crop.Groundnuts planted as a sole crop.Ill: Maize/groundnut mix stand planted.Maize/oil radish mix stand planted.Erosion (-) and accumulation (+) of soil was measured in mm at soil erosion measuring stakes in between two contourlines.The data in the accompanying pages suggest that the macrocontourlines produced considerable amounts of biomass of both grass and legume species. In Table 1 for instance, the high productivity potential of the macro-contourlines has been demonstrated over sole stands. The average dry-matter (DM) yields are nearly three times higher on macro-contourlines than on sole grasslands in Kenya. The macro-contourlines produced considerably more fodder in subsequent years than the first (Table 2).The grass yields were 22% whereas the yields of fodder bushes were 86% more in the second year. This was most probably due to better established root systems and more intensive cutting regimes after the first year.Because of the diversity in topography and ecoclimatic conditions the most feasible fodder combinations for zero grazing systems in the West Usambara Mountains are presented in Table 3. The macro-contourlines appear to serve as basic fodder sources for zero grazing systems in the West Usambara Mountains. Due to stall-feeding of dairy cows with macro-contour line fodders, the milk yields in the West Usambara Mountains have increased already from 3 liters/day for local farmers to 7 liters/ day for SECAP farmers. As shown in Table 4, most of the soil was transported from treatments MI, T and GT; these were treatments that offered small erosion control because of poor ground cover. The zero treatment which was densely covered by natural fallow weeds had little soil movement. The potential and use of forage legumes in farming systems and particularly in livestock nutrition has been well summarised by Tothill (1986) . However research on indigenous wild legumes has been very limited compared to improved legumes. Tropical legumes which are used for forage have been cultivated during the last 50 years (Williams, 1983) yet the volume of unexplored genetic resource remains vast.Crotalaria ochroleuca locally known as \"marejea\" in Tanzania is a well-known leguminous plant in the southern part of the country.As early as 1939, the legume was cultivated on small scale by Benedictine Fathers at Peramiho (Rupper, in press) .It was mainly cultivated for the purpose of restoring fertility to the soil and to combat weeds. During shortages of fodder the legume was fed to dairy cows and calves. Although no quantified data is available, the performances of the animals were observed to be good.The aim of this paper is therefore to highlight research work related with Crotalaria spp.in the field of animal production.Areas that need immediate investigations are emphasised.Crotalaria , the genus to which Crotalaria ochroleuca belongs is the largest in tropical Africa and is commonly encountered in open places from mountains to semi-deserts, with over 500 species (Polhill, 1982). Most of the species are either annuals, semiperennial, perennials, herbs or shrubs (Martin and Leonard, 1970) . The leaves are either simple or compound with 3,5 or 7 leaflets (Polhill, 1982).Most of the species have numerous yellow flowers which later on bear tough-skinned seed pods that are inflated (Polhill, 1982) . The number of seeds contained in a single pod depends on species but ranges from 5 to 50 seeds. The seeds are kidneyshaped, and their colour varies from olive-green to either yellow-red or brown.Total dry matter is one of the factors which to a large extent determines the carrying capacity of a forage. In many selection programmes dry-matter yield is a key criteria for selection (Whiteman, 1980) . Since Crotalaria spp. are among the high nitrogen fixers, this partly explains their yield potential because total dry matter and nitrogen fixation in legumes are known to be positively correlated.In Upper Volta, it has been reported that C. juncea produced 10 tonnes/ha of dry matter without application of fertilizer (Anon, 1965) . In Surinam when C. quinquefolia was grown for fodder, Ubels (1960) recorded an average of 17 tonnes/ha of dry matter.In the southern part of Tanzania, Mukurasi (1986) harvested 12 tonnes/ha of dry matter from C. zanzibarica.Comparatively, lucerne (Medicago sativa) , which is one of the most important perennial fodders used in many regions of the world produces yields of 8-9 tonnes/ha (Whiteman, 1980) .Table 1 shows that an average crude protein content of Crotalaria spp. ranges from 10-35% with a mean of 24.1%.Crude protein content of the whole plant of C. ochroleuca is 28.1% and that of leaves is 34.5%. Although it is not possible to rank tropical legumes in terms of their protein content, according to Minson (1977) the mean crude protein of tropical legumes is 17.2%.The range may lie between 5.6% for Stylosanthes humilis to 35.8% for Leucaena leucocephala. It is therefore obvious that Crotalaria ochroleuca ranks high amongst other legumes in terms of crude protein content (Table 2).The crude fibre content of a forage is another important measure of dry-matter intake and in vivo dry-matter digestibility.The efficiency of ruminant microbes during digestion is influenced to a large extent by lignin available in the fibre component. Van Soest (1965) showed that the proportion of potentially digestible components decline as the fibrous content increases. Thus the relatively fair crude fibre content in Crotalaria (Table 1) suggests a possible high intake and drymatter digestibility.Phosphorus and calcium content in Crotalaria spp. has been shown in Table 1. According to NRC (1978) the minimum level of phosphorus requirements for most animals is about 0.15%, which is below the amount available in Crotalaria. The calcium content is observed to be fairly high compared to the other legumes. The limited data that is available does not give quantitative investigations to establish the potential of Crotalaria spp. as a fodder plant. The only work that gives some detail is that of Balaraman and Vankaterkrishman (1974) who determined the nutritive value of C. juncea by conducting a metabolism trial using rams.The chemical composition and digestibility coefficients of sunnhemp hay used is shown in Table 3.Intake on average was 2.57 kg of dry matter per 100 kg body weight.The digestibility coefficients on consumption basis showed that the portion consumed was highly digestible. However, on feed basis the digestibility coefficients were very poor due to the fact that the rams chose the leafier parts of the plant and rejected the stems. About 20 species of Crotalaria in tropical Africa alone are known to cause poisoning to cattle (Polhill, 1982). The symptoms seem to vary but common syndromes include inflammation of the horn, lameness and occasional starvation due to refusal by the animals to eat. The more lethal forms of poisoning affects the nervous systems, lungs and liver (Polhill, 1982). Poisoning seems to be serious at flowering and seed stages. Probably this is due to accumulation of the toxic alkaloid substance called Crotaline in these parts of the plant at maturity. Steyn and van de Walt (1945) reported loss of wool when sheep were fed C. juncea hay that was cut at flowering stage. They suggested that supplementation level in livestock feeds should not exceed 10% of the daily ration. Rupper (1984) observed that when C. ochroleuca seeds are sprinkled between the bags containing cereal grains, storage pests were killed instantly. They reappear six to nine months later. The fact that Crotalaria spp. have been observed to be toxic in one location but non-toxic in another, may explain the contradicting reports. The reasons why one species can be toxic in one location and non-toxic in another is still not yet understood. Crotalaria ochroleuca may be poisonous at flowering stage and the seeds may contain some poison, however, the legume seems to be non-toxic before flowering (Rupper, 1984) . Further research on this area is needed to establish the effect of feeding the legume on livestock performance and health.Crotalaria ochroleuca is regarded as a multi-purpose crop in agricultural production in Tanzania.Its importance as a livestock feed has been underscored because the plant is cultivated mainly in the area where a small number of livestock are kept and the land is not a limiting factor (Sarwatt, in press).In areas where cultivable land is a problem (e.g. in Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions) the legumes can be intercropped with regular food or cash crops.The legume will provide nitrogen to the crops intercropped with and assist in the control of weeds and nematodes. The green part can be cut two to three times and fed to livestock.Every time the legume is cut, the nodules senescent thus releasing more nitrogen and other nutrients which can be utilised by the accompanying crops.Research on the multi-purpose use of \"marejea\" is very limited in Tanzania. Most of the information available is mainly from the farmers' experience, which fails to answer questions like \"how much N is fixed by marejea under the present farming system,\" or \"how much marejea should be fed to a dairy cow for efficient milk production\". For these questions to be answered, a multi-disciplinary approach is needed.Lack of scientific information on its feed value as regards feed intake, digestibility coefficients and safe levels of supplementation calls for an urgent need to assess the animal production potential of this plant as a cheap fodder legume. Further evaluaticns involved both tropical and subtropical species with Rhodes grass (\"Chloris gayana Kunth) as a locally adapted reference species. At Uyole several introduced species have outyielded Rhodes grass and future work will look at the chemical composition of these species at different growth stages. Among the legumes, Desmodium spp. cv Greenleaf and Silverleaf have shown good adaptation at Uyole and a few of the substations. These species have mixed well with most grasses. Neonotonia wightii cv Tinaroo and Macroptilium atropurpureum have also shown good promise at Uyole. Amongst the perennial fodders, Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach) has shown a wide adaptation to different localities and is currently used by most small-scale dairy farmers for fodder.Lupinus spp. among the annual fodders has grown and stood well into the dry season at Uyole when planted late in the growing season. Oats cultivars have lot teen successful due to poor crown rust resistance. Currer-L evaluations have included Triticale cultivars which have outyielded oats.Fodder beets have been evaluated but have failed to bolt.Animal production evaluations at Uyole have just been initiated and preliminary results have indicated that a grazing pressure of as high as 32 cows/ha can be achieved on some of the forages and fodders without affecting milk production drastically.The Southern Highlands of Tanzania cover vast areas of natural grasslands with varying land topography where the overstorey comprises Miombo woodland. On the hillsides and on undisturbed flatlands Hyparrhenia and Themeda spp. form a dense cover. These grasslands often lack local legumes, and therefore increased animal production (beef or milk) cannot be expected.The increasing population pressure especially in Mbozi, Rungwe and Mbeya districts have forced farmers to develop a forage-feeding system where very small areas could be grown with improved pastures.Due to the low yield and quality of natural pastures a search into better quality grasses was initiated in 1970 at Uyole to cater for the four regions of Iringa, Mbeya, Rukwa and Ruvuma.The work reported is mostly from Uyole, and it is only recently that germplasm evaluation has been started in Iringa and Rukwa Regions.This paper broadly covers germplasm evaluations carried out at Uyole (Long.33°32 'E; Lat. 8°55'W) at an altitude of 1800 m with an average rainfall of 870 mm.Mean maximum temperatures range from 21-27°C and mean minimum temperatures of 8-14°C (Heady, 1978) . The soils developed from volcanic parent material and contain pumice.They have recently been classified as Eutrandepts (Soil survey USDA classification) (Kamasho and Singh, 1982). They have a medium to slightly acid reaction (pH 6.5) and have a light texture (clay-loam) . Phosphorus levels hardly reach 5 ppm. Copper is deficient in such soils.Initial grass introduction started in 1970 at Uyole from Sweden. They were mainly temperate grasses. A list of first introductions is shown in Table 1. In two seasons most temperate grasses proved a failure at Uyole despite a high nitrogen application rate of 120 kg N/ha. Only perennial and annual ryegrasses were worth harvesting. However these did not survive the dry season and due to poor seed set they had to be abandoned. However, Lolium spp. have proved a success on Kitulo plateau (2900 m.a.s.l.), and the species is now grown on a large scale for dairy production.During the same season Rhodes grass and Nandi setaria were introduced from Kitale and compared at Uyole under different nitrogen levels. Further comparisons with Congo signal, Italian ryegrass and perennial ryegrass showed the latter to be lowyielding in terms of dry matter as indicated by Table 2. Among all grasses Nandi setaria showed a much higher nitrogen efficiency followed by Rhodes grass. The two temperate species showed both low yields and low nitrogen efficiency.After the second season the temperate species were attacked by cutworms and had to be dropped out. Their seeding gualities were also poor.No chemical analysis was made on the different grass species due to lack of analytical facilities at the centre.Further evaluations had then to be based on Rhodes grass and Nandi setaria for their proved high yield with a good nitrogen response. Further comparisons were made involving molasses grass and coloured guinea grass (Anon, 1976) . Both coloured guinea and molasses grass gave 5-6 t DM/ha in three cuts at 4 0 kg N/ha fertilizer rate compared with 6 t/ha for Rhodes grass.During 1974 further introductions were made from Kitale, Kenya where Pokot Rhodes, Mbarara Rhodes, Masaba Rhodes and Molasses grass were compared with the locally growing Rhodes (Mbeya ecotype) . All Rhodes cultivars did not yield significantly higher than Mbeya ecotype at all nitrogen levels (0-350 kg N/ha) while the rest of the grasses actually gave lower  During 1975/76 season a chemical analysis based on % crude protein and in vitro dry-matter digestibility were carried out on Pokot Rhodes, Nandi setaria and Mbeya ecotype Rhodes as shown in Table 3 for three boot-stage cuts.On the whole, Nandi setaria contained more crude protein at most nitrogen levels. Variation among cuts was not expected since the cutting interval and growth stage was the same for all cuts.INVODMD seemed not to be affected by the nitrogen level. Quality changes were not pronounced up to 150 kg N/ha implying higher N dressing requirements on the low N status soils of Uyole. Pokot Rhodes gave lower protein content than Mbeya Rhodes which also displayed lower INVODMD. To date, seed increase and distribution is based on Mbeya Rhodes because of its superiority over the introduced cultivars from Kenya.  Legumes Due to the increasing number of small-scale dairy farmers in the Southern Highlands, the reliance on fertilizer nitrogen was considered not possible as in most cases the capital available is not enough even for the food crops.The highlands' natural pastures lack local legumes and most of them had to be introduced.Introduced Seed increase Is now being carried out for the two cultivars for further evaluation in different localities and distribution to areas where the legume has already been tested.During 1971/72 season all the above legumes were grown in mixture with either Rhodes grass or Nandi Setaria. Most legumes did not germinate and those that germinated did not form an adequate ground cover, and some did not tolerate the dry season. Further mixture evaluations were made in 1979-1986 season (Trial 505-79) season (Trial 505-79) and results are shown in Table 4 . The overall mixture effects were masked especially after the second year for the two legume cultivars, and this was worsened after the fifth year due to ingress Hyparrhenia sp. During the first year a chemical analysis was made on all the three cuts as shown in Table 5. Only crude protein was determined due to lack of facilities for other analyses.Irrespective of cut number, there was an increase in the crude protein content when Desmodium was included. Pure legumes, however gave higher values than the mixture. The grasses and legumes were planted in the field at Uyole, the grasses being either in pure stands or in mixtures with the different legumes.Due to seed shortage plot sizes had to be reduced to 9 m unreplicated and arranged in a split-block design.Weed control was done by the hand hoe during the first year of establishment and depending on the growth habit of the species, no weeding was carried out during the second year.Centro was very slow to establish compared to most other legumes.Stylos showed good performance during the first year only while lucerne was completely eliminated by most grasses. Though suited to the drier inland regions Buffel grass cv Biloela performed adequately at an altitude as high as 1800 m.a.s.l.All grasses proved to be drought resistant and although they were susceptible to night frosts in July/August they recovered rapidly. An exception was Urochloa mosambiscensis which did not recover after the fourth year.In addition Urochloa was completely shaded and killed by both Desmodium and Neonotonia spp. Most grasses were able to control weeds effectively except Urochloa, Paspalum plicatulum cv Bryan and Setaria sphacelata cv Narok.Paspalum was also completely shaded by both Desmodium spp. or Silverleaf. The only grasses that tended to show a good balance with the desmodiums were Brachlaria decumbens and Setaria sphacelata cv Kazungula.Among the legumes only Siratro, the Desmodium and Neonotonia spp. showed promise. Legumes like Centro, clovers and the stylos were all suppressed by the grasses. Despite the promise shown by Neonotonia, the legume failed to flower at Uyole and at Mitahila (1055 m.a.s.l.). One Centro has proved to flower in three months from planting at that altitude.Further grass evaluation in pure swards are currently being done on Rompha grass, canary grass,' Entolasia imbricata, Cynodon nlemfuensis , Cocksfoot and Panicum coloratum. They are compared with Rhodes grass and Themeda triandra as standard checks.With the legumes, further evaluations include Crotalaria intermedia, Archer dolichos, Berseem, Rhynchosia and Neonotonia wightii (Mbeya type) .Evaluation in terms of animal production has just been started at Uyole and there are indications that on a fertilized Rhodes/Desmodium mixture a grazing pressure of 32 animals/ha can be used without effecting milk production.The major problem the small-and large-scale farmers face in the highlands is shortage of green fodder during the six-month dry season. To solve this problem fodder crops have been introduced and evaluated. These are discussed below.This crop was introduced at Uyole in 1971 from the surrounding districts in Mbeya Region. Evaluations at the Centre showed it to be high yielding. Due to the increase in fertilizer prices, the evaluation included comparisons with Silverleaf Desmodium. Three-years' average data are shown in Table 6. This kind of evaluation indicated benefits for the mixture in dry-matter yield which could help farmers release inorganic fertilizers for other crops.For two consecutive seasons a chemical analysis was done on the first cut of the mixture, and it was clear that protein content increased with the inclusion of the legume as indicated in Table 7 . Applications of 40 kg N resulted in a small crude protein increase as compared to the legume mixture effect.Though the crop was hit by night frosts in July, it recovered at the end of August. Growth commenced immediately, and it became available for feeding in the October-November period.Due to much interest in Napier fodder, four new cultivars were introduced from Kitale, Kenya in 1975 and dry-matter yield assessed for five consecutive years. Only average data is shown in Table 8 (1977Table 8 ( -1981)). Despite the high yield obtained from Gold Coast, which almost approached that of Mbeya ecotype, its hairiness limits its use as they produce skin irritations especially when used under cut-and-carry .French Camerouns produced relatively high yields and large amounts have already been planted by the surrounding small-scale dairy farmers.  The crop was introduced from Tengeru in Arusha in 1977. Dry-matter yield averaged 6 t/ha under nitrogen applications of 160 kg N/ha.A chemical analysis of the crop indicated 17.9% crude protein, 10.9% crude fibre, 3.2% crude fat and 24.4% ash all on dry-matter basis.Lucerne:Among the perennial fodder legumes that have received much attention at Uyole is lucerne. Initial work in Tanzania started in Northern Tanzania where the cultivar Hairy Peruvian was compared with the cultivars Saladina and Hunter River.Work at Uyole started in 1971 with introductions of cultivars Tuna and Du Puitis (Anon, 1972) from Sweden. Due to poor germination and heavy weed competition these cultivars were lost.During the 1974/75 season 16 lucerne cultivars were re introduced from Sweden. Evaluations based on dry -matter productivity showed that at the onset of the dry season good quality hay can be produced from lucerne.However, during the 1973/74 season the cultivar Hairy Peruvian was planted in replacement series with Rhodes grass cv Pokot and nitrogen application included in order to measure the possible yield contribution of the mixture. During the first season a seed rate mixture of 3.5 kg Rhodes grass and 4 kg lucerne produced the highest yield. The two-year average data is shown in Table 9.The results not only demonstrated the advantages of the mixture but also indicated that lucerne benefited from small quantities of nitrogen application. Without nitrogen the mixture had a 12-14% CP content while with nitrogen application this was 13.9-15.8% CP, showing a small increase.Further evaluations stopped due to seed unavailability. At this altitude (1800 m.a.s.l.) there were not enough pollinators for the crop and hence no seed yield. Source: Anon (1977Anon ( , 1980)).These are short-term crops that cannot only be used to overcome seasonal feed shortages but also as main producers of roughage.They can be used as pioneer crops in new lands and they can easily be integrated into mixed crop-livestock enterprises. They can be used for direct grazing, made into silage or fed as green chop.Oats (Avena sativa)At higher altitudes in the highlands cool-season crops like oats can be grown. During 1970/71, ten oats cultivars were introduced from Sweden, Finland and Holland. These were planted in single rows and their seed yield potential assessed.Most cultivars showed a vigorous vegetative growth, but due to disease attack very few panicles were formed and hence low seed yields were recorded (Table 10) . Comparisons were made with the locally grown cultivar \"Suregrain\" from Canada which was introduced at Uyole in 1970 for use as a companion crop in the establishment of grass legume pastures, silage and green fodder production.  During the following season two new cultivars Nina and Sol II were added to the evaluation and the dry-matter yield measured at milk ripe stage. Rust assessment was made on all cultivars and there was an indication that most introduced cultivars had severe to very severe attack. The locally grown oats had no attack at all. These assessments tended to show that higher seed and dry matter yielding oats can be obtained but their problem was attack by crown and stem rust, resulting in a complete crop loss in cooler years.During the 1975/76 season 363 spring oats cultivars were introduced from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Sweden.These were planted in single rows whose purpose was to use intra-varietal diversification in the form of multiline cultivars to supplement the conventional resistant cultivars as part of the programme of crown rust control. The cultivars that did not set seed due to crown rust attack were abandoned in the first season.Only 25 cultivars were then selected based on resistance to crown rust. These were grown for four consecutive seasons and their mean dry matter, seed yield and other characters are as shown in Table 11. The cultivars Palestine and Orient were outstanding for earliness of maturity which was under 100 days. Based on crown rust assessment, Suregrain was the most resistant cultivar followed by C. Iowa, Clinton, Gidgee, C.I. 3821 and Ballidu.During the 1982/83 season, the locally adapted Suregrain cultivar was tested for its nutritive quality in comparison with Napier grass (Table 12) . Two trials were conducted at different growth stages of oats.The results showed oats to be highly digestible, but digestibility falls with age. The normal harvest stage for Suregrain is about 135 days where it could be at milk-ripe stage.Due to crown rust attack on the oats, different Triticale cultivars have been introduced, and assessments are in progress. So far, it has been shown that most Triticale cultivars are resistant to rusts and they give much higher dry-matter yield. Triticale cultivars have also shown a much higher seed-yield potential (Table 13) .Most oats and Triticale cultivars outyielded the standard cultivar Suregrain. Average data for two seasons indicated sorghum to give 8 tonnes DM per hectare in pure stand when cut three times per season while the yield was drastically reduced in mixtures with legumes as indicated by the data in In this particular evaluation it was shown that lupines could be planted as late as mid-March without affecting either seed or forage yield. Lupines planted mid-March would be ready for feeding in mid-July under Uyole conditions.For grain production, late planted lupines grew longer into the dry season resulting in much shattering of the seed.Having established that lupines could help solve feed quality and supply problems, more cultivars were introduced in 1974 for further evaluation.Results showed the L. albus cultivar Kulina to be the most outstanding. The most promising ten cultivars are currently being further tested for dry-matter yield and alkaloid content.  16) . The dry-matter content of leaves varied from 9% for the first harvest data to 60% during the last for both cultivars; while that of roots varied from 9* to 19%. This trial demonstrated the advantages of growing beet for fodder. when planted in January the crop can be left in the field up to November without very much affecting the yield.Thirty-three cultivars of fodder beets and 42 cultivars of sugar beets were further introduced. The sugar beets gave much higher yields than fodder beets, and in most cases sugar beets had a dry-matter content of above 25% while fodder beets had below 20%.There was a tendency for declining yield with the progressing years which could probably be due to inadequate phosphorus fertilization which was at the rate of 44 kg P/ha. Beets have been reported from California to require rates of between 49.3 kg to 148 kg P/ha (de Geus, 1973). Sugar beets gave yields ranging from 3-7 t DM ha, whereas the fodder beets gave a yield range in excess of 6 t DM/ha.The major problem encountered with this crop is seed production as the plants cannot bolt in Tanzania. This particular shrub legume was introduced from Helsinki University, Finland in 1986. Growth during the first year was very slow.Information from Helsinki (Varis, 1986) indicates that its quality can exceed that of lucerne. Observations on it are taking place.This legume was introduced from West Kilimanjaro in 1984. It has proved to be a non-branching legume that grows to a height of about 8 m. It has a very weak stem and even at that height it is less leafy.The suite of germplasm introduced and evaluated is wide.It ranges from the annual perennial fodders of temperate origin to the tropical/subtropical grasses and legumes including shrubs/trees.The promise of some of the species has to be matched with feed requirements of the existing livestockLupines are annual or perennial legumes belonging to the genus Lupinus which contains 250 species (Highes et al . , 1952). Most of these are native to America. The large-seeded species of commercial importance, however, are all native to the Mediterranean basin in Europe. These include blue lupine (L. angustifolius and L. hirsutus) , white lupine (L. albus) and the yellow lupine (L. luteus) . Others are the Spanish lupine (L. hispanicus) and Texas lupine (L. mutabilis) which have been used for more than 3000 years as a subsistence crop in the Andean Highlands (Lees, 1979) . Some of the cultivated lupines are bitter and unpalatable but excellent producers of nitrogen.In Kenya, there are two species of sweet lupines whose agronomy and nutritive evaluation has received considerable attention.These are the blue lupine cultivars Uniwhite, Uniharvest and Unicrop and the white lupines represented by the cultivar Ultra (Wanjala, 1979) . All of them are annual in nature. These varieties with high foliage, grain yields and high crude protein content were shown to take 4-7 months to mature depending on variety (Gladstones, 1970;Wanjala, 1979). The main objective of conducted work on lupine in Kenya was to establish a cheap source of protein as a concentrate for livestock supplementation. Trials undertaken at the National Agricultural Research Station, Kitale, included testing the adaptability of lupine varieties in different agroecological zones (Bauer and Oketch, 1976) , the observation of physiological characters of lupine varieties grown under uniform conditions (Kusewa et al . , 1977), the comparison of herbage dry-matter yield (Kusewa et al., 1980(Kusewa et al., , 1981) ) and the investigation on the effect of phosphatic fertilizers and inoculation on seed production of the lupine variety Ultra (Kusewa et al . , 1980(Kusewa et al . , , 1981)).Based on rainfall and altitude Bauer and Oketch (1976) have reported on the adaptability of lupines in nine sites in Kenya (Table 1) . The lupines were planted at a recommended spacing of 50 x 30 cm, Bauer and Oketch (1975) in unreplicated plots. Medium and high altitude, high potential regions such as Kitale, Molo, Eldoret, Kakamega and Embu proved to be the most promising sites for growing sweet lupines. Hot and dry areas such as Katumani and Kiboko as well as the hot and wet areas such as Mtwapa (Mombasa) proved unsuitable. There are indications that for better yields, lupines need 5 months free of serious moisture stress and mean monthly maximum temperatures ranging from 15 to 25°C (Wanjala, 1979) . These conditions are typical of the areas where lupines produced favourable results.Physiological development of four lupine varieties grown under uniform conditions was observed at Kitale (Kusewa et al . , 1977).The four lupine varieties Uniwhite, Unicrop, Ultra and Uniharvest were inoculated with group \"G\" inoculant before planting. Single superphosphate fertilizer at the rate of 40 kg/ha P2°5 was applied at planting. A spacing of 50 x 30 cm was used with two seeds per hill at planting.It was shown (Table 2) that Unicrop and Ultra were early maturing and were short and medium in height, respectively. On the contrary, Uniwhite and Uniharvest were tall and late maturing.Uniwhite was more susceptible to lodging than any of the other varieties studied. Field observations also indicated that Unicrop was the most susceptible to powdery mildew. Considering seed weight. Ultra had a higher weight per 100 seeds than all the other varieties. It also had more pods/plant than the others.  (1980,1981) conducted a trial at Kitale to determine herbage dry matter, seed production and nutritive value of four lupine varieties; Unicrop, Uniwhite, Uniharvest and Ultra.They were planted under recommended establishment practices similar to those of the physiological development study. The lupines were harvested at three stages of growth i.e. 2, 3 and 4 months after establishment.A single plot was included per variety for the determination of seed at physiological maturity.Significant differences (P<0.01) were observed in both herbage dry-matter and seed yield among varieties and harvesting stages (Table 3). Variety Ultra was outstanding in both herbage and seed yield. During 1980, maximum herbage yield for Ultra, Uniharvest and Uniwhite were obtained when they were cut at four months but highest yield for Unicrop was attained at three months.In 1981, however, all the varieties had the highest herbage yield when harvested at four months. Crude protein (CP) values and in vitro digestibility values (Table 4 and 5) were higher in the grains than in the herbage in all the four lupine varieties investigated. Source: Kusewa et al . (1980Kusewa et al . ( , 1981)). Source: Kusewa et al . (1980Kusewa et al . ( , 1981) )   (1980,1981) examined the seed production of lupine cv Ultra when inoculated and fertilized with phosphates at the rates of, 100, 200, 300 kg/ha P2°5 Inoculation resulted in more nodule formation per plant whereas phosphate fertilizer application did not have any effect on nodulation between the inoculated and non-inoculated lupine plants (Table 6) . Differences in seed yield and percent protein content were not significant suggesting that inoculation and phosphatic fertilization were not beneficial under Kitale conditions.The four sweet lupine varieties tested were shown to do well in medium and high altitude, high potential areas of Kenya.The lupines did not do well in hot and dry areas because of the moisture stress. These results are in agreement with those of Heath et al . (1975) who had reported that lupines required cool weather for best development. Savile and Wright (1958) reported that sweet lupines grow at altitudes between 2225 and 2743 m and bitter lupines from 1981 to 2743m. It would, however, appear that sweet lupines can still do well at lower altitudes than those recommended by Savile and Wright as evidenced by studies conducted by Heilbutch (1952) ; Poultney (1963) ; Bauer and Oketch (1976) and Wanjala (1979) . They reported promising results in Kitale at a lower altitude of 1980 m.The cultivar Ultra outyielded other varieties (Table 3) due to development of numerous pods and heavier seeds. This result would appear to contradict earlier observation (Table 1) where Ultra was outyielded by Uniharvest and Uniwhite.However, experiments conducted by Bauer andOketch (1975, 1976) ; Kusewa et al. (1977) and Wanjala (1979) confirm that Ultra is superior to the others in seed yield. Two farmers in Kitale reported a seed yield of 780-1100 kg/ha in 1951 and 780-1900 kg/ha in 1952 for sweet blue lupines (Heilbutch, 1952) . This is within the range reported in Table 1. Lack of response of sweet lupine varieties to inoculation and phosphate fertilization indicates that lupines can still be grown in Kitale without such treatments. The lack of response could be attributed to the fact that soils in Kitale have levels of phosphate adequate to support lupine growth.The results agree with those of Henderson and Preston (19 59) who recommended that application of phosphate should only be done on soils of very low fertility. Work by Bauer (1976) on lupine cv Ultra gave similar results.Inoculation should have resulted in greater nodulation hence higher seed yields.However, this was not so and could be attributed to ineffective nodulation. This argument is in line with that of Henderson and Preston (1959) who reported good nodulation of uninoculated crops in most areas of Kenya, although they noted that most of the nodules were ineffective. Work carried out by Wanjala et al . (1983) in one farmer's field showed a significant seed-yield response of sweet lupine cv Ultra to inoculation but not to phosphate fertilizer.A more comprehensive study by de Souza (1969) when working on blue lupines found effective natural nodules at twelve sites and no natural nodulation at nine sites.Experiences gained from this study show that there is need for lupine variety testing trials to be conducted in different ecological zones for herbage and seed yield. There is also need for phosphate and inoculation studies to be conducted in a wide range of sites. Future agronomic interventions of lupine studies should involve a study on the relationship of critical elements like sulphur and molybdenum with seed production and investigations on the effect of planting dates on seed yield for both early and late maturing varieties to avoid seed losses during wet weather. Other aspects to be considered should be intercropping lupine with food crop or other forages with the aim of maximising the utilisation of the ever-diminishing land holdings in the high potential areas.The high dry-matter yield, percent crude protein and high Dvalues especially in seed for the various lupine cultivars indicate that there is great potential for the utilisation of lupines as a livestock feed supplement. Further studies aimed at the utilisation of sweet lupines as a feeding material will elucidate the importance of these lupines in the livestock industry.In most smallholder dairy systems in the high potential areas of Kenya, provision of enough feed to lactating animals is a major constraint to production. Fresh herbage and crop residues fed during the dry season are generally of low quality and hence contain substandard energy and protein levels that can hardly meet maintenance requirements of lactating cows.In these circumstances, lupine grain could prove suitable as a feed supplement (Kenney, 1980) . As well as having a comparatively high protein content (over 30% in dry matter) , lupine is easy to feed and convenient to store for a considerable period of time.Commercial feeds manufactured and compounded by some feed industries form the bulk of the supplements in dairy enterprises. These are expensive for the average Kenyan farmer, hence the need to have supplement substitutes that can provide adequate energy and protein levels that do meet production requirements of lactating animals. The cost of lupine and its availability and value as a feed is such that it could be mixed with other cereal grains particularly maize for supplementary feeding.A grain with such a high protein content could be suitable as a supplement for lactating cows for which a diet with a protein content of about 16% is recommended for maximum production (NRC, 1978) .Protein ingredients in most supplements are the most expensive and hence pose major problems in most on-farm rations; this is because humans compete for the same for food. This, however, is not the case with lupine which is currently being used solely as feed. This study which involved the feeding of lupine (Lupinus albus cv Ultra) and maize meal was designed to solve the supplementation problem of nearly 20,000 farmers (Stotz, 1983) located mostly in the Kenyan highlands.Lupine, however, has shortcomings which include lupinosis known to cause liver disfunction through the damaging of liver tissues.The dangers of lupinosis have not been reported when seed is fed as a concentrate to ruminants, but was reported on the non-ruminants by Godfrey et al . (1985) and Wanjala (1979).Little work has been reported on the performance of dairy cows when supplemented with lupine alone or when incorporated in high energy diets. The primary objective of this trial was to study the effect of supplementing varying proportions of maize and lupine meal on the milk yield of lactating Friesian cows.The lactating Friesian cows, divided into two groups of five, were selected based on stage of lactation (animals in second or third lactation being preferred) , average yield of Fat Corrected Milk (FCM) , days postpartum and liveweight. The cows were then randomly assigned to five treatments containing varying proportions of maize and lupine meals. The percentage proportions of the two ration ingredients were A(100,0), B(75,25), C(50,50), D(25,75) and E(0,100) of lupine and maize meal, respectively.A change-over design in two 5x5 latin squares was used in the study. For each group of cows there was an adjustment period and a collection period of 14 days and 7 days, respectively. The cows were grazed on good quality Chloris gayana (Rhodes grass) pasture with supplementation being done daily during milkings at 08:00 and 16:00 hours. About 4.0 kg of each ration was supplemented daily to each animal.For each cow, the quantity of FCM produced daily was recorded.Samples of milk were taken twice a week during the collection period.The Gerber method was used in the determination of percent butterfat, on a portion of the sample, immediately after milking. The remaining sample was bulked for each cow within each period and later analysed for milk protein (CP) , solids-not-fat (SNF) , total solids (TS) , calcium and phosphorus .A summary of the average milk yield and its quality values are shown in Table 1. Milk yield expressed on a fat corrected basis was highest (15.0 kg/day) for cows supplemented with treatment D, followed with treatment E which gave 13.4 kg FCM/day. Non significant differences (P>0.05) were observed among treatments Values have been averaged for each ration between periods.The results indicate that ration D with a percent CP of 17.4 and an average daily intake of 3.9 kg/day produced favourable milk yields.It would thus appear that this ration had optimal nutritive status to increase and sustain high milk-yield levels. Cows fed on pure lupine showed some reluctance in consuming it; this being reflected in occasional observation of nil daily intakes particularly with decreasing levels of crude protein in the rations.This observation appears to conflict with the generally accepted concept that crude protein is the one nutritive factor that does consistently increase intake as evidenced by studies conducted by Ammerman et al . (1972), Mukisira and Hembry (1985).Inference from the observations made supposes that a factor inherent in the lupine meal could be responsible for the unexpected low levels of supplemental intake with increasing ration percent CP values.There is some possibility that alkaloids result in an undesirable taste to the cows. Inclusion of maize meal in the rations tends to decrease the bitter taste with the resultant effect of increasing supplemental intake and to some extent animal performance. Considering this argument, cows supplemented with pure maize meal had the highest intake of 4.0 kg/day albeit their average milk yield was inferior to that from cows fed treatment D. This could be attributed to the lower percent CP value in the pure maize meal ration.Data drawn from this trial show that ration D containing 75% maize and 25% lupine meals is desirable since animals on this treatment produced the highest milk yields.It also manifested fairly high intakes.Treatment rations with high lupine inclusions tended to have low intakes. This was attributed to the presence of alkaloids which impart an undesirable taste to lupine meals. It is hoped that the next stage of the study will investigate the actual alkaloid levels in the sweet lupine and to some extent establish its lupinosis effect, if any, on the liver cells of yearling steers.Out of a total cattle population in Mozambique of 1.4 million in 1981 some 72% were found in the southern three provinces of Gaza, Inhambane and Maputo, which account for about 20% of the total area of the country. Of these cattle 86% (881,000) were in the traditional family (or communal) sector, raised on extensive grazing with some use of crop residues. The major reason for the concentration of cattle in the south is the presence of tsetse north of 22°S, a line running through the north of Gaza and Inhambane provinces.The southern three provinces can be roughly divided into three livestock zones based on rainfall, which shows a steep gradient from the coast to the interior.The area is also bisected by three major rivers: the Limpopo (including the Elefantes and Changane rivers) , the Incomati and the Maputo. Most of the family sector cattle are found along these rivers especially in:(a) the drier interior parts (under 600 mm rainfall/year) where crop cultivation is very risky and cattle raising becomes the more important economic activity, in areas where human population densities are quite low;(b) the area between 600 and 800 mm rainfall/year which is principally an area of mixed farming, especially on slightly heavier soils. The major activity of the family sector is crop production (principally maize and cowpeas) but cattle are kept to provide draft power, milk for family consumption, meat, economic security in bad harvest years, and as a means of investment in years of surplus; and(c) the wetter coastal areas with their higher and more reliable rainfall (800 to 1100 mm/year) , sandy soils and dense human populations. Crop production (cashew, maize, cassava and groundnuts) is very important and livestock much less so although cattle are frequently used for ploughing.The mixed crop-livestock farming system is a very important one, involving not only a sizable portion of the national cattle herd but also a large portion of the rural population of the southern provinces.The district of Chokwe lies in the mixed farming zone on the southern side of the Limpopo river.There has been recent immigration of cattle and people into this relatively safe district from surrounding areas affected by the war, and concentration of a previously more scattered population into villages on the edge of a large irrigation scheme.This has caused many cattle to die of hunger in the dry season.The pasture and animal feed potentials of the district are large, and there has been a big increase in demand for draft oxen for use in the irrigation scheme. The need for intensification of livestock production is clear.Because of this situation a study was carried out (Timberlake et al , 1986) into the carrying capacity of the pastures and the distribution of dry season watering points in the area. This would assist in a more rational use of existing feed resources and provide a basis for land use planning for livestock production. This paper is in two parts. The first part describes the recent survey mentioned above, while the second part discusses these results, and results from other surveys in the area, from a farming systems perspective and gives some suggestions as to future lines of investigation.Chgkwe District in Gaza Province, in which the study area of 1830 km* is located, is primarily an agricultural district situated on the south side of the Limpopo river some 100 km from its mouth. It is characterised by a low and variable rainfall (averaging 623 mm/year, mostly falling from November to March) and high evapotranspiration (1413 mm/year) leading to high agricultural risk in dryland farming areas. A large irrigation scheme of approximately 37,000 ha, mostly for rice, maize and vegetables, is the major feature of the district. Since 1983 some 13,000 families have been granted plots of 0.5 to 1 ha in 9,000 ha of the scheme. Surrounding this are dryland grazing areas, some of which are cultivated in the form of small family plots. Maize and cowpeas are the major crops, but cassava, groundnut and sweet potato are also grown. Cattle are an important component of the fanning systems of the region, principally providing draft power. Goats are common but not numerous.The area is flat to gently undulating and consists basically of marine deposits overlain in places by more recent colluvial and alluvial deposits. Soils close to the river are sandy but fertile, while the rest are sandy loam in texture. These latter areas are dissected by large shallow depressions of clay soils which form water-courses for a few weeks of the year.In the southeast of the study area, rising above the rest, are interior dunes of reddish sands.The study was in three parts: a soil survey, a pastures/ vegetation survey and a dry season water points survey.The soil survey was at a reconnaissance level.A photointerpretation map was prepared based on aerial photographs at a scale of 1:40,000 flown in 1973.On this map the main physiographic/soil units were distinguished. Fieldwork consisted of 89 soil auger observations to a depth of 1.2 m in locations thought to be representative of the various physiographic units. The following characteristics were recorded: physiography, slope, drainage class, actual land use, soil texture, soil colour and mottling, soil consistency, presence of calcium carbonate, salinity and depth of groundwater table. Some 76 soil samples were also taken for laboratory analysis including pH and mineral content.On the basis of the fieldwork the preliminary photointerpretation map was adjusted and a final soil map prepared at a scale of 1:75,000.The pasture/vegetation survey was done at the same reconnaissance level. Using the same aerial photographs, 100 observation points were chosen, representative of the varying physiographic and vegetation units distinguished. At each observation point the tree, shrub and grass species present were noted with an indication of their cover/abundance.The observation points covered an average of 0.5 ha each and were not sited in heavily disturbed areas or inside the irrigation scheme.A matrix was later made of observation points along one axis and species along the other.This matrix was rearranged repeatedly on a micro-computer so that species which tend to be associated, and observations of similar species composition, were placed together. After various rearrangements clear groupings of observation points emerge and these form the basis of the vegetation units. The pasture/vegetation map was made using a modified version of the physiographic/soil map.From the map the areas of each pasture/vegetation type were determined. Potential livestock carrying capacities of each type were determined using the potential pasture productivity and livestock carrying capacity model of Timberlake and Reddy (1986). The assumptions used are given in Tables 1 and 2 1/ Using the model of Timberlake and Reddy (1986) and assuming 50% use factor and an animal feed intake of 2740 kg DM/head/year for a 350-kg animal with 100 gm/day LWG.2/ 75% probability value.3/ 1 head -1 adult 350-kg animal.Source: Timberlake et al. (1986).In determining dry season water points all points where water appeared to accumulate were noted on aerial photographs. Local information was used in locating those points (less than half) which still had water during September-October (dry season) , and this proved quite reliable. A questionnaire was filled in at each point concerning the presence of water, type, present condition, age, size and depth, where the cattle came from which use it, overgrazing/erosion, and whether it sometimes dries up. The system of canals inside and on the edge of the irrigation scheme were not included as access by cattle is possible along most of their length. Assuming that only half of the area can be grazed; rest is cultivated.b. Assuming 0.5 ha cultivated in this unit per family and 19,000 families, leaving 754.9 km available for livestock.c. Uncultivated and saline areas, and maize stover from Table 3.Source: Timberlake et al. (1986).The description of the soil units is based partly on data collected during the study, but also on the descriptions of Touber and Noort (1985) who carried out a detailed survey of the irrigation scheme. The 14 soil units determined can be divided into four major groups: soils of the interior dunes soils of the marine Pleistocene sediments on elevated areas -soils of the marine Pleistocene sediments in the broad depressions soils of the recent fluvial sediments of the Limpopo river.In general, the soils are quite fertile (except those of the interior dunes) , but the soils from marine sediments in the broad depressions often show rooting limitations due to the heavy clay and to periodic inundation. A good correlation was seen in the field between soil type and pasture type, although the length of inundation was also an important factor.Four major pasture/vegetation units were determined and described:1.Open  2. Gross estimates were also made of feed resources inside the irrigation scheme and are shown in Table 3.Excluding irrigation canals and the Limpopo river, 70 water points were found with water in the dry season. An additional 90 points which appear to contain water in the early dry season were noted from aerial photographs. The 70 points with water were divided into nine types: lakes, rivers, irrigation canals, small dams, small reservoirs, road excavations, boreholes, wells and natural depressions. Twenty major water points were noted and it was seen that the irrigation system, directly or indirectly (through raised groundwater levels filling excavations) , is by far the most important source of water. There are 4 0 small reservoirs specifically made for use by cattle, but only 14 now contain water through the dry season due to silting up and lack of maintenance. The Mazimuchopes river dries up to a few pools in the dry season. Assuming 2740 kg DM/year animal intake for a 350 kg animal. ILACO (1981, p. 476).Actual recorded grain yields are 1.8 t/ha with 13% moisture in the cool season, and 0.6 t/ha in the hot season (Woodhouse et al., 1986). Assuming 6% protein.Assuming 1:1 ratio of grain: rice.State farm production data averages 4 t/ha grain if a 50:50 ratio of the two varieties grown is used, however var. C4-63 has less vegetative growth (Woodhouse et al., 1986).1:1 grain: rice production data. ratio and commercialised rice f.Assuming full urea treatment and 3 t DM/year animal intake.In practice urea-treated rice straw would be used as a supplement.Source: Timberlake et al. (1986).A notable feature of the distribution of water points is that most of them are situated on or near the edge of the irrigation scheme.Between the irrigation scheme and the Mazimuchopes rivers some 13 to 30 km distant, there is virtually no source of water, so cattle are overgrazing some areas and underutilising other good pasture areas 8 to 15 km away.The number and class of cattle in the area is reliably recorded every year on the basis of the dip tanks. It is probably an underestimate due to immigration of unregistered cattle and the possibility that owners with one or two head do not bring their animals to be dipped. Table 4 gives the numbers and classes of animals and shows the high percentage of oxen in the family sector herds compared to commercial herds. These cattle, however, are not evenly distributed, and great concentrations are found associated with villages bordering the northwest edge of the irrigation scheme. Average herd sizes have been calculated from livestock census data for different localities.They are very variable, ranging from 4.4 to 38.7 head/family, with a mean of 9 head (Vet. Fac. , 1986). A recent study by Rocha (report in preparation) on traditional livestock practices carried out in three villages in the southwest of the study area and away from any major influence of the irrigation scheme, shows that only 2.1% of livestock owners interviewed did not have oxen, although 100% had a plough. The strong positive relationship between number of draught animals and area cultivated noted in this study is shown in Table 5. A Veterinary Faculty study (1986) into livestock practices in Chokwe District, also carried out by questionnaire, found that 27% of family sector animals were used for ploughing and/or transport, of which only 76% were oxen. The other 24% were principally cows but also included bulls and steers. Within the irrigation scheme a study into agronomic practices of families with small plots (Woodhouse et al., 1986) showed the great importance of animal draught power there, which varied with the cropping system and averaged 83% (Table 6) .Subsistence production of milk is widespread, although previously not fully recognised. Rocha's study found that 10.6% of livestock owners in Mazimuchopes do not have cows, but of those that do 93% milk in the wet season. Data on yields are still not available, but it can be assumed that yields are around 1 to 1.5 litres/day/producing cow.Milking is much less practiced in the dry season; questioned in July (dry season) , only 2 6.5% of cattle owners said they milked their animals (Vet. Fac, 1986), but it is not clear if they were speaking generally or referring to that month in particular. Supplementary feeding appears to be an important practice of traditional livestock owners. In the Mazimuchopes study Rocha found that 32% of livestock owners gave maize stover and/or failed maize crops, 9% gave cut grass in addition to maize stover, and 2% make hay for dry season use.In the Chokwe irrigation scheme in 1987 farmers were selling maize stover at 1000 meticais (around 25% of the minimum monthly agricultural wage) per cart load (approximately 200-300 kg) at the farm, i.e. transport is not included. This however was at a time when grazing was poor because of a mid-season dry spell.A measure of the sophistication of a farming system is its use of salaried labour. It is therefore interesting to note that 32% of livestock owners employ salaried labour for herding (Rocha, unpublished data) , although the influence of receipts from migrant labour in South Africa probably plays an important role.The calculated carrying capacities given in Table 1 show the good grazing potentials of the area. The importance of the open grassy depressions is very clear, although for some months of the year they are inundated and not utilised. This however is in the wet season when sufficient grazing is available in the Acacia savanna pasture type. Actual primary production data from these areas are not available and it is important to collect some.If grazing were evenly distributed the livestock carrying capacity of the natural pastures in the study area is 50,340 adult head, perhaps 64,000 head with the existing herd structure. The number of animals in the study area (which does not cover the whole of Chokwe District) is estimated at around 47,500 head, giving a theoretical possibility of increase of 16,500 head. The problem of course is that grazing is not consistent with the distribution of grazing resources for three major reasons:1.owners are afraid to graze the relatively unpopulated areas away from the irrigation scheme because of cattle thieving and the civil war situation;2. most of the cattle are associated with the villages along the edge of the irrigation scheme and kraaled there at night ; and 3 . the great lack of dry season water points away from the irrigation scheme and the resulting long distances from grazing to water.Overgrazing around the major villages is severe and some hundreds of animals die from hunger near water points in the late dry season.The two most practical ways of overcoming the problem are (a) to intensify livestock production with the use of forages or treatment of crop residues, or (b) provide water in the dry season in presently underutilized areas where this, rather than security or distance to the night kraal, is the limiting factor. The pasture study has made recommendations on some suitable locations for water points, which make use of runoff water that can be captured and stored in a small (approximately 100 x 50 x 3 m) reservoir. These reservoirs, many of which were constructed in the past but have not been maintained, only require re-excavation every two or three years and otherwise have no running costs. Bush encroachment is found in the Acacia savanna and broadleaved woodland vegetation types, particularly the former.Here it seems to be more acute in areas that are or were commercial ranches. However, some of the species causing bush encroachment in the Acacia savanna type are suitable for browsing.The irrigation scheme is the centre of nearly all agricultural activity in the district, and thus produces large quantities of crop residues, principally rice straw and maize stover. There are, in addition, large areas of fallowland; estimates are as high as 13,000 ha, but 5,000 ha would seem a safer figure, and perhaps a further 2,000 ha of abandoned saline areas. In theory cattle are not allowed to enter the irrigation scheme except working animals because of the damage they cause to the canal banks and crops they might eat. But this is not enforced and large numbers of cattle can be seen inside feeding on maize stover at the end of the season, in fallow fields, and grazing on weeds and regrowth in the rice fields after harvest.It is rather difficult to quantify these feed resources, but estimates were made (Table 3). The theoretical carrying capacity was calculated assuming that the animals would be living entirely off these feed resources, which is far from the real situation as they are not available year round. However, their importance can be seen, not only at present when fallow areas and much of the maize stover is utilised, but also the potentials of the large quantities of rice straw which are now normally burnt. This requires an applied research programme into the best and most cost-effective methods of treatment to increase its acceptability and feed value at the level of small-scale livestock producers.Cereals are not the only crops grown in the irrigation scheme.Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) , common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) , Lablab purpureus and pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) are frequently found grown with maize. These increase the protein value of crop residues when grazed together, but foliage productivity data are not available. Lablab in particular shows promise as a dual-purpose crop-grain for human consumption and foliage for cattle. It is normally planted with maize under dryland conditions at the end of the main rains (March/April) , but the plants are small. If planted one month earlier foliage production is much higher (Heemskerk, pers. com.). Some trials were carried out on Melilotus alba under irrigation as a coolseason crop after rice (Woodhouse et al., 1986).Forage drymatter yields averaged 3.6 t/ha. Lucerne (Medicago sativa) has been grown commercially inside the scheme.Outside of the irrigation scheme Cajanus, Lablab and Leucaena spp. would appear, from personal observation, to offer the best prospects as forages or dual-purpose crops that could be utilised as animal fodder by traditional farmers.Chokwe District is undergoing a challenge as regards livestock production.It is an area with a strong livestock tradition in which the provision of draft power is of the greatest importance, and an area with a large agricultural potential due to fertile soils and a large irrigation scheme. The challenge is due to an unstable and rapidly changing situation caused by various factors:(a) the civil war situation, resulting in a large influx of cattle and people from less-secure surrounding areas and a fear of grazing animals far from the villages;(b) the recent concentration of villages, and therefore cattle, along the periphery of the irrigation scheme leading to localised but severe overgrazing;(c) the impending return of much of the migrant labour force from South Africa which provides much of the cash and goods to the family economies of the area;(d) land use conflicts between livestock and dryland arable fanning concentrated around the villages;(e) the conflict between livestock and the management of the irrigation scheme which severely limits grazing of cattle within its limits (before a major dry-season grazing area) due to damage caused to canals and crops;(f) the insufficient quantity and quality of feed during the dry season for the draught animals which carry out an important part of the agricultural work inside and outside the irrigation scheme; and(g) the poor distribution of dry-season water points away from the irrigation scheme which limits accessibility to pastures because of excessive distances from grazing to water points and finally to the night kraal.With increasing land use pressure there is now a need for a more rational use of available resources (grazing, water, crop residues, etc.)/ and the need for intensification of traditional livestock production is clear. In the foreseeable future most agriculture will continue to be carried out by draft animals and will be in or close to the irrigation scheme. These animals need good feeding to maintain their strength, and the scheme will have a big role in providing their feed. Forages grown within the existing smallholder farming systems and better utilisation of crop residues are the main ways to achieve this.Recent studies discussed in this paper give a general idea of traditional livestock practices in the area, the principal problems and the feed resources available. Some future lines for investigation regarding animal feeding can be drawn from this: (a) Two or three detailed village-level studies need to be carried out in environmentally different zones in the region to determine and quantify livestock practices and constraints to production. These should include size and composition of individual herds, grazing practices, use of crop residues and quantification of weight losses (especially cows and oxen) . This will ensure that future interventions by the extension service are appropriate and have a good impact.(b) The relative importance and problems of goats which should be better adapted to shortage of grass and water.(c) Determination of the relationship between cultivation in the irrigated areas and cultivation under dryland conditions, as most smallholders in the irrigation scheme also have a plot outside and animal draught power is used in both.(d) Determination of pasture and animal productivity from both natural pastures and crop residues and the determination of carrying capacities on a more detailed level.(e) Determination and testing of appropriate methods of improving acceptability of rice straw, i.e. urea treatment or treatment with molasses.This testing should preferably be done through farmer-managed trials.(f) Suitable methods of storing maize stover and rice straw for use later on in the season without losses in nutritive value.(g) Intercropping of maize with Lablab, cowpeas and other suitable dual-purpose legumes with a view to improving the protein levels of crop residues. Some of the leafier legume varieties available from ICRISAT, IITA and other institutions presently available in the country can be used.(h) The use of Cajanus as forage including selection of leafier varieties, its place in the cropping pattern and management techniques.(i) The use of Leucaena as a forage reserve in dryland areas and around the village. Any limitations to its use (e.g. productive losses due to mimosine) should be investigated also.(j) Economics and production effects of supplementation with urea/molasses and phosphate blocks.The area of Chokwe is somewhat unique due to the influence of the irrigation scheme, but many of the traditional agricultural practices there are found over a large and important area of southern Mozambique. The impact of livestock or foragerelated research, and good extension packages, on this farming system would be large. It would also greatly improve crop production in the area through a more efficient use of animal draught power, thus the rural family economies would become more stable.The problems are now reasonably clear but still require some further quantification. Solutions have been suggested, but work has not really commenced on their viability. Given the limited resources in research a cooperative approach is required, with soil surveyors, land use planners, pasture agronomists, crop agronomists and animal production specialists working in coordination. Of the 12,341,000 ruminants, more than 90% are raised in an extensive system. This is predominant in the western and southern parts of the island, where land is still available for grazing, as the human population density is rather low between six to eight persons/km .The Malagasy cattle owner is also a rice producer. He lives in a sedentary system and his priorities for keeping animals are obviously different from those in developed countries. So productivity may be understood as the high number of zebu cattle which reflect his wealth and the ability to sell and/or slaughter at the occasion of traditional festivals.Productivity also means the working capacities of the zebu herds for draught, their manure and milk yield. For the national economy on the other hand, livestock productivity means the meat for domestic consumption and export.This paper analyses the different patterns of zebu cattle productivity in order to make some suggestions for research priorities and productivity improvements.Data presented here were collected from two sources: the first was from Ministry surveys (MDRRA, 1979;MPAEF, 1986) and the second from the Miadana Research Station.Two surveys were carried out during the last ten years.The first was from November 1978 to February 1979; the second from June to December 1984. The purpose of these studies was to acquire some data about the main features of the livestock population. The surveys used the stratified sampling procedure. It is clear that the collected information was not complete and accurate.But by such periodic appraisal it is possible to get the major trends of the national herd.Miadana Station (15°36'S; 46°38 'E) is the only research station covering the western and southern zones. It is located 60 km from Mahajanga, and the mean annual rainfall is 1,450 mm. Some data on the zebu weight gains and reproduction performances of improved management systems were collected from this station.The extensive livestock system is well spread all over Madagascar, but the western and southern provinces are the most representative of the system. These two provinces cover 318,000 tan , nearly 55% of the island's total area, and 61% of the national zebu cattle herd is raised in these two provinces.The climate varies from subhumid in the northern part to sub-arid in the southern region. The rains fall between November and April, and the dry season may last six to nine months of the year.The most important feed resources are natural pastures, crop residues and to a limited extent, improved pastures. The grazing lands are dominated by four grass species: Heteropogon contortus, Hyparrhenia rufa, Chrysopogon serulatus and Aristida rufescens (Figure 1) (Cabanys and Razaf indrastsita, 1971; Granier and Bigot, 1972;Morat, 1972;Suttie, 1974a). In the south the grasses are replaced by shrubs.Generally the edible dry matter available during the rainy season is sufficient as the stock is not able to eat all the grass produced. After the rainy season there is a rapid change of nutritive value in the grassland.Crude protein content particularly may be as low as 2% in September (Figure 2) . The management of this natural grassland is not controlled, except in the Androy region (south) , where there is a traditional deferred grazing area ranging from 2 to 200 ha, which is only grazed in the dry season.This deferred grazing land is called Adily ( Rats imba-Ra John and Razaf indratsita, 1977) .It belongs to a family or a local community, and their livestock are the only ones authorised to graze on it.Several pasture improvement tests were performed (Borget, 1971;Suttie and Hablutzel, 1975;Rasambainarivo et al . , 1980), particularly with leguminous species. The best adapted arehamata and Macroptilium atropurpureum (siratro) , but they failed in practical extension due to socio-economic reasons.In the south, thorny cactus is a traditional multipurpose plant.It is firstly used as fence around villages and fields. It is also cut, burnt and distributed to livestock in the dry season.The mature fruit is appreciated by humans. Some thornless cacti were tested (Suttie and Matzernmiller, personal communication) ; they give higher yield in terms of fodder although their management is more difficult, and they cannot be used as fences, so their extension is very limited. Weeds growing in the rice fields are also grazed after harvest.Other crop residues are maize and sorghum stovers, cassava, sweet potatoes, vines and groundnut haulms.A survey carried out in 1977 indicated that 70% of the cattle owners utilise crop residues for animal feeding.Agro-industrial by-products are not available for extensive livestock due to their high cost and transport problems.The Malagasy zebu is the major breed constituting the extensive cattle population.Herd composition (Table 1) indicates that females are more numerous than males and the bull: cow ratio is about 1:18. No culling of infertile females is practiced because legally they are not to be slaughtered. More than half of the stock are four years old and over, and about 11% are more than ten years old. In this old group the majority are castrated males.  In the extensive situation the age at first calving is longer. The calving interval is also longer. These data are in agreement with the report by Rakotobe-Ralako, (personal communication) who reported that in well-managed herds of zebu cattle age at first calving may be as short as 28 months compared to a range of 48 to 68 months under extensive management.The calving interval was extended in extensive management systems.The most important mortality is that of calves less than one year old; 21% of these calves die in the extensive system conditions. The mortality rate decreases as the zebu get older, and the overall mortality is estimated to stabilise at 7.5%. All these reproduction data will vary depending on seasonal availability of nutrition.The general pattern of Malagasy zebu growth in extensive system is presented in Figure 3 which compares smallscale owner and research station cattle. As expected, the rate of growth of the better managed station cattle is higher than that of the extensively managed. Even at the end of 48 months after birth the station-managed cattle are heavier by about 50-75 kg (Ratovonirina, 1983) .Considering the growth rates within the first 36 months, it is evident that the worst period lies between the 6th and 18th month of age. This period coincides with weaning, a period when daily weight gain decreases from 458 g to only 90 g/day.  Source: Ratovonirina (1983) .Comparative livestock productivity studies have shown that stocking natural grasslands at one animal/ha induces a weight loss whereas on legume reinforced planted pastures stocked at the rate of three animals/ha the animals were able to gain at 0.3 kg/day. These data show the potential for improvement of the extensive grazing land resources in Madagascar (Rasambainarivo et al., 1985).Nearly all the cattle slaughtered are zebu coming from extensive systems.These slaughters represent a national carcass consumption of 13.1 kg/ha/annum. This figure is doubtful as there are a lot of cattle slaughtered but not recorded. The mean carcass weight of Malagasy zebu cattle is 172 kg. The majority of slaughtered zebu are more than eight years old. Nevertheless, in a better environment the zebu carcass may weigh 200 kg (Gilibert, 1971) .Milk production is low in extensive systems. Data were collected in the suburbs of Mahajanga. The mean individual cow production is estimated at 350 litres for a 200-day lactation (Planchenault, 1986) .In the deep south of the Androy region, milk is also produced and traditionally processed, but milk production records are not available. conclusion From the data reviewed, it is evident that the major factor limiting production of the zebu cattle in Madagascar under extensive production system is inadequate nutrition which leads to poor reproduction and weight gain performance.The zebu cattle may not be expressing their full potential as a result of the nutrition problem under these conditions. Notwithstanding the socio-economic constraints to improving livestock production, an improvement of the feed resource would invariably increase the reproduction performance of cows and reduce calf mortality.More accurate information about the different management systems is required, and more comprehensive surveys must be carried out. Additional research information should be gathered about the status of bovines on-farm. And all of these data have to be used with a computer model for a production system simulation.As beef production is a rather complex enterprise, improvement can only be successful if it is carried out by inter disciplinary teams on national and regional level. In recent years relationships between seasonal rainfall and end of season herbaceous biomass have been published for several regions in Africa. For the Sahelo-Sudanian region data were compiled by Le Houerou and Hoste (1977) followed by studies in Mali by Penning de Vries and Djiteye (1982). For Eastern and southern Africa regressions between annual rainfall and herbaceous biomass were developed by Deshmuck (1984) which showed that per unit of rainfall biomass production in this region was twice as high as in West Africa. However, similar regressions for southern Africa given by Rutherford (1978) indicate that productivity of rangelands in Zimbabwe and Botswana is much lower than in East Africa.The purpose of this paper is to focus on the productivity of rangelands in arid and semi-arid Eastern Africa and indicate which factors are responsible for the substantial higher levels of productivity in this region as compared to southern and western Africa.Relationships between rainfall and peak biomass were analysed for sites in Kenya and Tanzania. All sites were located in areas with arid or semi-arid climates having seasonal rainfall ranging from 100 to 600 mm falling mostly in a bimodal pattern due to their location around the equator (Tables 1 and 2) .Raw data were obtained for three sites in semi-arid Kenya:(1) Kiboko Research Station (Too, 1985) ;(2) Athi plains (Potter, 1985); and (3) Tsavo National Park (van Wijngaarden, 1985) .These three sites are all located within the pastoral land use zone (cf . Jaetzold and Schmidt, 1983) . Additional data sets were used as supplementary sources: Amboseli (Western and Grlmsdell, 1979), Serengeti (Sinclair, 1979;Braun, 1973).  Braun (1973) Biomass in kg DM ha -1.rainfall in mm.In Kiboko a clipping trial was carried out from February 1982 to December 1984 in four neighbouring vegetation types. The plant cover consisted mainly of perennial grasses with a medium to light cover (10-30%) of Acacia and Commiphora shrubs and low trees.Seven different cutting regimes were applied together with two defoliation intensities (cutting at 5 and 12.5 cm height) .Within each vegetation type the 14 treatment combinations were repeated on land that was burned prior to the start of the trial and also on unburned land. Only data from the high intensity defoliation treatments were used assuming that harvesting at 5 cm height best represented available biomass. As the effect on herbaceous biomass growth of burning and vegetation type or their interactions were not significant (Too, 1985) , these were combined in the re-analysis, giving 38 pairs of data of cumulative seasonal rainfall and resulting biomass.The study in Tsavo National Park was designed to investigate and describe the ecosystem and to \"quantify the climate-soilvegetation-large-herbivore interactions and to develop a model describing these relationships quantitatively\" (van Wijngaarden, 1985, p. 149) . To this end, herbage productivity was measured in representative vegetation types over five rainy seasons during 1976-78. Data on seasonal rainfall, clipped herbaceous biomass, cover density of the perennial and annual grass as well as the woody component were made available for 88 sample plots, which were used for regression analysis.The site in the Athi plains was located in the treeless Themeda grasslands.The trial design was a factorial with five defoliation frequencies (3-, 6-, 9-, 12-and 15-week cutting intervals) each at three heights of cutting (5, 10 and 15 cm) . Treatments were applied from April 1974 to December 1978 covering ten growing seasons.Data on rainfall, evapotranspiration and biomass growth were given for three-weekly periods for the entire duration of the trial.As for Kiboko, only data for the high defoliation intensity (i.e. 5 cm) were used for the analysis. As the medium defoliation frequencies produced the highest biomass, only the cutting intervals of six and nine weeks were included in the analysis.This provided 24 pairs of cumulative seasonal rainfall and its resultant grass biomass production.For the other locations, relationships between standing biomass and annual instead of seasonal rainfall were available. For the Amboseli plains (Figure 1) the data covered the period 1973-78 (Western andGrimsdell, 1979).Similarly for the Serengeti plains, data were extracted and re-analyzed from Sinclair (1979) and from Braun (1973) .All sites were either protected or were located where grazing pressure was low. Standing biomass was measured through clipping either at ground level or at 5 cm above ground. In most areas, end of season biomass was recorded except in Kiboko (Too, 1985) and in the Athi plains where several defoliation regimes were combined. The results of regression analyses of seasonal rainfall on biomass are shown in Tables 1 and 2 . The proportion of the variation explained by rainfall ranged from 56 to 99% and was significant in all cases. Linear regressions were as good as quadratic ones except for the data from the Athi plains (Table 2) . The response to rainfall increases positively with the total amount per season. In the arid zone (Amboseli) biomass yield is only 3.8 kg DM ha-1 per mm of rainfall increasing to 10.7 kg in the tall Themeda grasslands in the Serengeti.However, responses to rainfall in Tsavo were twice as high as in Kiboko (8.0 and 4 . 1 kg DM/mm of rain respectively) although the latter site receives more rainfall. This is most likely due to differences in grass cover density. The average density in Tsavo was 60%, whereas Too (1985) reported that herbaceous cover in his trial area varied from 15-40%.Biomass yield at the lower range of rainfall (100-200 mm) was much higher in Tsavo and Kiboko than in the Athi plains (Figure 1) . In Kiboko harvesting was confined mainly to rainy seasons; hence for some of the cutting regimes, further growth occurred after the last cut which was carried over into the next season inflating the response to the next rains. However, in Tsavo only new season growth was recorded.In the Athi plains, a quadratic function gave the best fit, because the data set represented a series of very dry and very wet growing seasons. The trial started towards the end of a long dry period  , and during the five seasons from December 1974 to January 1977, seasonal rainfall averaged 200 mm producing only 200 kg DM/ha or only 1 kg DM ha-1/1™ of rain. Rain fell in small, isolated showers; hence the moisture index (P/Etj (cf. Sombroek et al., 1982) for any three-week period never exceeded 0.5. This long dry period was followed by 20 months of good rains.From March 1977 up to December 1978 seasonal rains averaged 365 mm and in each of the four seasons there was a -noisture surplus (P/Et>l) for at least six weeks. Early in 1978 over 500 mm of rain fell within 3.5 months producing close to 5 t DM biomass (Figure 1) .The effect of rainfall on productivity is influenced by soil type and the density of the herbaceous cover. The high biomass of the Themeda grasslands in the Serengeti and Athi plains is attributed to the relatively high fertility of the deep Vertisols over basalt (Sombroek et al , 1982). Standing biomass of 3-4 t DM/ha were recorded on similar soils in Kajiado (Page et al, 1975;Karue, 1975) and Masai Mara (Boutton and Tieszen n.d.).The effect of soil type on primary production was studied in Tsavo. For the same rainfall and plant density standing biomass on deep well drained sandy clays was 30-55% percent higher than on shallow gravelly soils (Table 3). The density of herbaceous cover is another important factor influencing primary productivity. In Tsavo, primary productivity increased threefold when grass cover increased from 20 to 80% (Table 3). Low plant cover partially explains the poor response to rainfall in the Kiboko and Amboseli areas. In the latter area herbaceous cover is usually below 10% (Lamprey, personal communication) .Re-analysis of the data from West Africa for the rainfall range of 100-600 mm produced a regression equation Y --152 + 3.2 x (N -26; R -0.73) giving a standing biomass of 800 and 1450 kg DM/ha-1 for rainfalls 300 mm and 500 mm respectively. Similar relationships were given by Penning de Vries and Djiteye (1982) for the Sahel in Mali; or very close to those for Amboseli (Table 1) .The low Sahel primary productivity was attributed to (1) poor and often sandy soils deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus;(2) high rates of evaporation during the growing season;(3) soil capping increasing runoff and impeding infiltration. As a result, the vegetation consists mainly of short-lived annuals with shallow root systems (Le Houerou and Hosts, 1977) , while plant density is usually below 35% and end-of-season standing biomass of annual grasses maximally was 1.0-1.5 t/ha when density was 20-35% (Wagenaar and de Ridder, 1985) . Rutherford (1978) showed that for the Colophospermum mopane savanna in Zimbabwe, 300 mm and 500 mm rainfall produced approximately 1000 and 1500 kg DM ha or close to the West African data. Much lower productivity was recorded in Botswana (22-23°S) during 1983-84 by Prince and Astle (1986).Although total seasonal rainfall varied from 360 to 530 mm, standing green biomass ranged only from 100-600 kg DM/ha (in 3 sites) with very low cover value (6-20%) . High woody cover (mean of 30%) and poor distribution of the rainfall were held responsible for the low herbage growth. Dancy et al. (1986) for the same period and at the same latitude in Botswana reported peak standing biomass yields (in May 1984) from 200-1700 kg/ha .Low yields were related to low plant density, which was in turn caused by high grazing pressure.Ungrazed areas had dense cover (65%) and yields of 1700 kg DM ha , which at an annual rainfall of 550 mm conforms to the equation of Rutherford (1978) . This level of productivity is similar to the average peak biomass of 1900 kg DM ha-1 reported by APRU (1977) for seven moderately grazed ranches receiving an average rainfall of 450 mm.Earlier work in Botswana confirmed the effect of stocking rate on peak biomass. McKay (1968) found that rangelands with an average rainfall of 300 mm grazed at high and moderate stocking rates for an eight-year period produced 400 and 1360 kg DM ha-1 respectively.The relationships established in Table 1 indicate that productivity is generally lower than given by the equation of Deshmukh( 1984) (300 mm:2350 kg DM ha-1, 500 mm:4050 kg DM ha-1), but also that productivity for unit of seasonal rainfall in East Africa is higher than that in either West or southern Africa. The equation of Deshmukh (1984) is distorted by the inclusion of annual and perennial grasslands together from very different environments with both monomodal and bimodal rainfall regimes extending from latitudes 23°S to 4°N. Furthermore, the selective use of data sets of questionable value reduces its predictive value. ' CONCLUSIONSIn conclusion, it appears that East African rangelands are more productive per unit of rainfall than those in West and Southern Africa.A combination of factors contribute to this: bimodal rainfall usually falls in well determined seasons of two-three months in length broken by a short dry season.This pattern allows perennial grasses to survive across seasons but encourages short-lived annuals to fill soace adding to the overall biomass yield.Soils are generally more fertile as they are derived from basaltic parent material or when underlain by basement complex surface horizons and are often enriched by volcanic ash deposits.Finally, extreme caution is required when rainfall-biomass equations that are derived from protected or ungrazed sites are used for prediction of rangeland resources under heavy grazing pressure.Such equations should be adjusted for actual plant cover which is a prime determinant in the rainfall response levels of rangeland vegetations It appears that these data be recognized as accumulated plant mass present at the time of sampling and not as annual production which might be in the order of half or less...\"The ten data sets from Marsabit include sparse annual grasslands with 200 mm of rain together with perennial grasslands producing up to 8 t DM ha-1 with 700 mm of rain. These perennial grasslands are often found near riverbeds (with run-on moisture )or on isolated mountain sites at 2000 m elevations.These two data sets represent 58% of the total data used to construct the equation.Another six points have been derived from Braun (1973, Figure 5); this figure showed 63 data points covering four different vegetation types two of which were used in Tables 1 and 2 (see equations 5 and 8) . Approximately 85% of Kenya can be classified as arid to semiarid, receiving less than 750 mm rainfall in four out of every five years (Griffiths, 1962). The traditional land use in these areas has been nomadic pastoralism, as with the unacceptably high risk of crop failure, settled crop production was not practicable under the low and very variable rainfall regime.However, nomadic pastoralism can only provide for security of food supply in such a very inhospitable environment if the necessary free movement of people and their stock is possible through low population density and where the land is not registered for ownership (Henning, 1960;Allan, 1965).Efforts by both Government and private development agencies towards improvement of human health and veterinary services, particularly over the last 30 years have considerably increased the pressure on the land in the arid and semi-arid regions of Kenya. This has been combined with the efforts by the Government to register land titles, either on an individual or group basis, in order to provide collateral for development loans and to make the provision of government services easier in a settled situation. A major result of these actions has been to limit the possibilities for movement as a strategy to cope with the effects of drought on feed and water supply to stock.Problems of periodic shortages of grazing; and of water under the settlement ^Views expressed in this paper are not to be considered as representing the official policy of Kenya Agricultural Research Institute or the Government of Kenya.programme have to be dealt with on the individual holding in situ.Although the subsistence requirements for the settled pastoralists in the semi-arid areas are likely to remain centred on milk, there is evidence that provision of good marketing facilities can result in stock sales and considerable changes in herd management and in food purchases and consumption patterns (White and Meadows, 1981) .Past strategies of maintaining apparently high stock numbers to reduce the risks of complete stock losses in drought, together with a high proportion of mature females in the herd to provide for milk production on a year-round basis are less justifiable or practical in a settled situation. Where stock numbers are high in a settled situation, drought effects may be expected to be severe, so it is desirable that the long-term animal production potential of particular land holdings are estimated using objective methods. This may provide a basis for recommendations as to the stock numbers and herd structure appropriate to the level of risk acceptable to those depending on the holding for their livelihood.The present paper presents data from a long-term study in a semi-arid area of Kenya of the growth of beef steers in relation to the pattern of rainfall distribution and amounts. It will be suggested that the results of the study indicate a possible methodology for the objective assessment of the long-term production potential of such rangeland sites, where the climatic database is adequate.Field data were collected at the Rohet Ranch sub-station of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, situated about 15 km from the Athi River Township (Lat. 1°20'S Long. 37°05'E). The site is about 1500 m altitude.Rainfall is bimodal, falling mainly in November/December and March/April/May with an average of about 580 mm being recorded over a period of fifteen years.The rainfall is typically highly variable both annually and seasonally, and vegetation growth closely follows its distribution. Evaporation potential is generally high, with less than 5% of the months having a Rainfall/Eo ratio greater than unity.Under the existing standard classification of East African rangelands the site lies in Ecozone IV (Semi-arid) (Pratt et al, 1966).In the more recent agro-ecological zone classification adopted by the Kenya Soil Survey the site lies on the boundary between the Livestock-Sorghum Zone (UMS) and the Upper Midland Ranching zone (UM6) (Jaetzold and Schmidt, 1983).The soils at the site are generally shallow sandy-clay loams derived from transported materials (Scott, 1962;Sombroek et al., 1982).Vegetation is an open grassland dominated by rhemeda triandra Forsk. The conditions at the site are representative of extensive areas of Kajiado, Narok and parts of Machakos districts, traditionally used by the Maasai tribe.The work was designed to measure the growth performance of beef steers under a range of set stock rates.For the first eleven years of the trial rates were 2, 3, 4 and 5 hectares per steer. For reasons which will be discussed further below, these stocking rates were increased to 1.33, 2.0, 2.67 and 3.33 hectares per head thereafter.The initial rates were chosen following discussions with local ranchers and extension personnel and agree with the estimates made for ecozone IV (Pratt et al., 1966;Jaetzold and Schmidt, 1983) and with estimates based on rainfall distribution (Jahnke, 1982) .The animals used were F1 cross steers from Bos indicus (local Boran type) dams and Bos taurus (Hereford type) bulls, such crosses being typical of the type of animals to be found in the commercial ranch in this part of Kenya. The animals entered the trial at about 15 months of age and were removed at about 33-36 months or at a weight of 450-500 kg. Liveweight gain of the animals was considered a good indicator of pasture condition. During the 13 years of the trial, eight series of animals were used. Set stocking was used throughout the trial as the limited data available from tropical areas did not show any evidence in favour of rotational grazing (jt Mannetje et al., 1976). Also, set stocking relates closely to current land usage and will provide baseline data, with the more resource-demanding rotational systems being tested in later studies.Because of predator risks the experimental animals were removed to a secure night paddock during darkness, so they grazed from 0630 to 1830 hours each day.For reasons of cost and availability of land, only a single paddock for each stocking rate was used, with four animals per stocking rate initially, raised to six in the twelfth year. All animals were sprayed against ticks twice weekly and were routinely vaccinated against prevalent diseases.Weights for each animal were recorded at the same time each week following overnight fasting and withdrawal of water.Samples for estimation of dietary composition were obtained from oesophageal fistulated animals similar to those used in the grazing study. Sampling was carried out for about 30 minutes at each sampling, with either three or four animals being used twice a day for three days.of the collected material was confined to laboratory chemical analysis using standard methods (Van Soest, 1963;and AOAC, 1970) with the data being calculated on an ashfree basis in an attempt to reduce the effects of salivary contamination (Marshall et al., 1967). Twenty 2 m x 1 m sample guadrats were harvested at random per paddock by cutting at about 5 cm height to give an indication of the composition of the overall sward at the time of the oesophageal sampling. The generally close similarity in performance between steers on the different stocking rates is notable. The pattern of growth was closely associated with the pattern of rainfall.  (3.6.74-20.1.75) .animal  50  0   1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111 1 1 1 1 1 1 L ± .J-A-1 1 1 1 1 1 ■ ■ 1 2 4 6 8 C 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 Three -week periods Tables 1 to 6 indicate the results of the dietary quality examination, using crude protein as the quality parameter, derived from the fistula samples, together with an indication of dietary selection practised by the animals as represented by the differences between sward and fistula samples. Means with the same subscript letter do not differ significantly at P-0.05 (Duncan, 1955). Means with the same letter do not differ significantly at P=0.05 (Duncan, 1955) .The results for the dietary composition and selection presented in Tables 1 to 6 indicate that there was apparently very little difference in the quality of diet eaten by the animals on the different stocking rates at different seasons of the year covering dry, wet and intermediate season conditions. Throughout the whole of the initial eleven years of the trial there was no indication of any statistically significant differences in per animal performance across the stocking rates so that performance at 2 hectares per head was as good as at 5 hectares. The inference to be drawn from this is that quality of the diet had the greatest effect on performance, with quantity of herbage available being of lesser importance, provided it was sufficient so that dietary selection could be practised effectively. It has been suggested that the relationship between animal performance and stocking rate would be highly site-specific and not conform to the simpler linear (Jones and Sandland, 1974) or culvilinear (Mott, 1960) relationships proposed earlier. To test what would happen to the sward and animal performance an increase in stocking rate in the present trial was made at the end of the eleventh year in order to determine whether selection would still be effective at higher stocking rates. Since long-term degradation of the sward had not been observed up to that point it was postulated that it might occur as at higher stocking rates together with sward damage by trampling and soiling by dung and urine.The results of the eighth series of animals to date (Figure 8) do not show any clear indication of a reduction of performance in the 1.3 3 ha/head stocked paddock so that the effects just mentioned may not yet become evident over the time span of 18 months .The general association between the performance of the animals and the pattern of rainfall distribution suggests that a predictive relationship may be derived from the results so far obtained.The growth curves were broken down into a series of wet seasons associated with the presence of rainfall, interspersed with periods of little or no rainfall in the dry seasons, the seasons being indicated in Figures 1 to 8. An earlier' analysis of the growth and rainfall data (Potter, 1985) indicated a time lag effect in the relationship between rainfall and liveweight gain. Due to the time taken for the vegetation to respond to the onset of the rains, any rain falling in the threeweek period immediately before the weight measurements appeared to be less influential than rain that had fallen three weeks earlier, that is from three to six weeks before weighing. Indeed, the analysis indicated that rainfall in the period immediately before the weighing was negatively correlated with growth.This may be explained by a loss in weight associated with the onset of rains resulting from a combination of reduced temperatures and a great change in the solid/water ratio and nutritive content of the diet (French, 1956;Denis et al., 1976).Using a three-week lag as discussed above, the data presented in Figures 1 to 8 were analysed further by examination of the growth rates in particular seasons in relation to the quantity of rainfall during the season. The seasons used are indicated on the respective growth curves as indicated on the figures.Since the results for all four stocking rates were combined, analysis of variance for the performance of the separate rates for each series of animals indicated no statistically significant differences (P=0.05). Eq. 1 indicates the relationship derived between daily rainfall during the seasons and liveweight gain per day. The data for the eighth series of animals were included in the derivation of the relationship even though the mean stocking rate was 2.3 3 ha per head as opposed to 3.66 ha per head for the earlier series as analysis indicated that all eight series could be considered part of one homogeneous data set. Y = 247.5 (S.E. 22.4) X -44.5 (S.E. 49.9) (-Equ. 1) R2 = 0.78 where Y represents daily liveweight gain in grammes per head and X represents daily rainfall in mm. A linear relationship, which accounts for 80% of the variation in liveweight gain suggests that rainfall data may be useful as a basis for predicting animal performance.Kenya is fortunate among developing countries in having a relatively large database of long-term rainfall (up to 80 years) even in some of the semi-arid areas.records Even though there may be an element of bias in the siting of the rainfall stations in positions which may be somewhat wetter than the surrounding area (Potter, 1987) , the data were used to calculate the probability of seasonal rainfall for the Rohet Ranch site combined with the Athi River Railway Station site some 15 km distant over a period of 65 years. Using a relationship derived as above the probability of annual livestock production levels were calculated on a long-term basis. Figure 9 indicates the probability of achieving a particular level of annual productivity per animal using the long-term rainfall data. The above analysis assumes that the quantity of herbage available to the animal is not limiting selective grazing during any one year. Up to the highest level of stocking used to derive the relationship (Eq. 1) no restriction in selective ability was evident, at least for the first eleven years of the study.The term changes in the sward vigour which may result in a decline in quantity of production or alteration in sward composition and therefore selection possibilities, but to date these have not become apparent. Direct measurements of sward productivity may not be adequate to indicate any such decline as the method of harvest may have a considerable effect on the yield figure measured.This point has been discussed in a related paper (Potter and Said, in press).It is intended that this study will be followed by others which will provide the necessary data to test the methodology at other sites, as no similar data are at present available from any similar long-term study in the region. Should the methodology prove to be generally applicable, even outside East Africa, the potential productivity for sites will be predictable to a level of accuracy useful for management planning recommendations.The East African Range Classification Committee which was set up to classify rangeland ran into a problem because those who had tried to classify rangeland before them used grassland composition (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977) . This approach was not satisfactory because the variation in grass composition in East Africa is so great that to classify rangeland solely by reference to one or two of its constituent grass species would give an incomplete idea of its character.The committee then used three characteristics to classify rangeland; soil moisture availability, climax vegetation and land use.They came up with six ecological zones. Rangeland was divided into three zones i.e. IV, V and VI. There has always been a need to review these zones because variation in productivity is too great. For example, two areas may receive a total of 500 mm of rainfall annually.One area may receive all that rain in one month while another area may receive it in two months. These two areas will differ in their land potential and grass composition. There has therefore been a need to review these ecological zones for proper planning and effective management.Kenya Rangeland Ecological Monitoring Unit (KREMU) divided rangelands of Kenya into 44 eco-units based on area occupied by animals belonging to a group of people all year round. This criterion of land use was not enough to delineate rangeland into ecological units which could later be used for planning purposes. Other factors like soil types, rainfall, soil moisture, and vegetation types had to be considered.The methodology involved looking at those factors already mentioned to see how they control or affect land potential.Soil undergoes a series of development stages as climate and organisms act upon the original rock or parent material (Stoddard and Smith, 1955) . Thus soil alone cannot influence the productivity of an area because its development is controlled by other factors. Soil which has developed through interaction of high temperature, low rainfall and little organism will be poor in plant nutrient.Vegetation is the product of its environment.The environment includes land form, soil, climate, animal and man.Often, of course, the present vegetation represents a stage of regression from a more highly developed or rigorous community which has been brought under stress, perhaps through use by man.Rainfall readings were divided into seven segments of 100 mm interval from 200 mm to 800 mm. Isohyets were drawn to join all areas with the same readings. Another rainfall parameter which was used was the monthly distribution.Soil moisture is closely related to grass production. Cassady (1973) reported that storms which produced 175 mm to 280 mm of rain within 30-60 days soaked the soil profile to depths of 120-180 cm. Thus soil which is capable of retaining most of the rain water and make it available to plants has higher plant production than either sandy soil or soil with hard layer which does not allow much percolation. Soil moisture was not used because not much research has been done on the major soils.Generally land use in most areas of rangeland is pastoralism. The area was used by either one ethnic group or a section of that group without coming out of it unless it was very necessary.Isohyets of 500 mm, 400 mm, 300 mm and 200 mm were used as boundary lines.Another boundary line was added showing livestock movement by one ethnic group or a section of a group. Thus a few modifications were made to the isohyets to accommodate these movement areas. For instance, Ewaso Ngiro was curved out of Mandera and Khorof Harar because of increased soil moisture from the underground river.The whole rangeland was divided into 29 ecological units, as shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3. The present 29 ecological units are manageable units as they are being used at the moment.There is some relationship between the boundaries of land potential and rainfall monthly distribution.  Livestock concentrate in the highland around Lake Turkana during the dry season of January through March but move down in the plain during the rainy season. From there they move towards the Sudan border from July onwards, but cattle rustling interferes with the grazing in that area.This is the lower part of Turkana District. Rainfall ranges from 500 mm on the western border to below 100 mm around the town. The dry central scrubland is divided almost in half by the Turkwel river. The area receives rainfall in April and May and very little along the Uganda border in June. The short rains of November and December are hardly experienced because of the prevailing wind which blows from Lake Turkana to the western border from August through December. The area is dominated by annual plants like Digitaria velutina, Aristida mutabilis, Dicoma tomentosa, Pupalia lappacea, Zaleya pentandra and Eragrostis cilianensis. D. velutina dominates the western border, while A. mutabilis dominates rocky areas and E. cilianensis is the common grass found in the remaining areas. Further to the west and the southern borders perennial grasses like Panicum maximum, Digitaria milanjiana and Echinochloa haploclada are found.When the area is misused, it is invaded by A. mutabilis and Cleome monophylla.This eco-unit forms the northern end of the Charangani hills. Rainfall ranges between 500 mm and 700 mm annually. The area has thick bush dominated by Acacia tortilis, A. reficiens, A. brevispica and A. mellifera.Grasses are mainly desirable species like P. maximum, Chloris gayana and Cenchrus ciliaris.This area runs from Sukuta Marmar through Maralal town up the northern end of the district. There is a ragged valley bordering Turkana District where vegetation is still in its potential. Rainfall ranges from 300 mm to 600 mm. The area east of Maralal hill receives the lowest amount of rainfall.Rainfall falls during the months of March to April and October to November.Desirable grasses like Themeda triandra, C. dactylon and D. milanjiana are systematically being replaced by Aristida adoensis and Harpachne schimperi which are increasers and Microchloa kunthii which is an invader.This eco-unit mainly comprises the eastern footslopes of the Cherangani hills and the Kerio Valley.The western side of the river is dominated by Acacia tortilis while the eastern dry side is dominated by A. mellifera, and the grasses are mainly C. dactylon, A. mutabilis and Urochloa brachyphylla. There is high concentration of livestock in the valley because of water availability.This eco-unit lies between the Tugen hills and Laikipia escarpment with Lake Baringo centrally located. The vegetation cover is good to the south around Chemogoch where grasses like T. triandra, E. superba and C. dactylon are still available.The vegetation cover and palatability improves again north of Lake Baringo.The area around the lake has been overgrazed and is dominated by Acacia adoensis, Sporobolus fimbriatus, Microchloa kunthii.Tragus terrestris and Dactylocteneum aegyptium.Rainfall ranges between 300 nun and 500 mm, decreasing from south to north.This eco-unit is bordered by the Ewaso Nyiro river on the north, Aberdares mountains to the south and Mt. Kenya to the east. Its rainfall ranges from 400 mm to 600 mm annually, decreasing northward. The grass cover is dominated by Themeda triandra and C. dactylon. Cynodon increases as Themeda is overgrazed, but the area is generally still in good condition as most of it is divided into ranches which are well managed. Acacia drepanolobium is the dominant woody species. Areas which remain dry for longer periods support short flat-topped A. drepanolobium while the more fertile areas that remain moist for longer periods support very tall A. drepanolobium. Areas which are overgrazed, seen mostly towards Rumuruti, are dominated by unpalatable species such as H. schimperi and A. adoensis.This is the eastern end of Laikipia district where the Ndorobo ethnic group lives. In this hilly area human population has greatly increased.Although the area gets good rainfall, overgrazing and the hilly nature of the area has greatly accelerated soil erosion. Woody vegetation is being depleted through charcoal burning. Harpachne schimperi and Microchloa kunthii are replacing palatable species such as T . triandra. This eco-unit can easily be divided into three sub-units.The Kaisut area has quaternary sediment and lies south of Marsabit hill.The second is the old lake bed of Lake Chalbi which is mostly covered by saline alkaline alluvial materials. The last is the recent alluvial and aeolian material overlying the eastern and north-western edges of the Chalbi desert (Herlocker, 1979) .The desert forms a swamp of an interior drainage system with perennial springs at the edge of the desert.Long rains fall in April and May while short rains fall in November.Evapotranspiration in this area is so high that the rains support mostly annual species.The desert supports saltloving species like Sueda monica while other areas support annual grasses such as Aristida papposa.While one view was that the area was dominated by Chrysopogon/Aristida , Heady (1960) thought Aristida sp. was the most dominant grass. Pratt and Gwynne (1977) called the area barren land.Composition and production of grasses vary greatly from place to place and from time to time reflecting high variability in rainfall (Herlocker, 1979) .This eco-unit is found in two areas: around Marsabit hill and Mt. Kulal.It is restricted to the upper elevation of these mountains.(a) Marsabit:The southern and eastern slopes of the mountain are wetter than the others (Herlocker, 1979)   Herlocker (1979) noticed that perennial grasses grow where openings occur in the bush canopy. Grasses are especially like those found in Marsabit. Most of the pastoralists who bring their livestock up-hill in the morning during the dry season descend in the evening because of cold nights.This eco-unit runs from the Maralal (Karisia) hills to the Wamba and Oldoinyo hills to the east of the Elbarta plains. Animals graze in the Suare and Ilponyeki plains during the wet season but come to water at Seyia river. During dry seasons most of the animals are taken into the hills while others go to Kom area. Range conditions in this area seem to be decreasing as readings on herbaceous cover showed a change from 42% in 1961 to 31% in 1970, then 22% in 1980. Plant composition of desirable species also changed from 68% in 196168% in to 49% in 197068% in , then to 33% in 198068% in (Skovlin, 1980)).Aristida papposa. Enteropogon macrostachys and Eragrostis caespitosa have been recorded (Olang and Karime, 1981) .From the Ethiopian border the area is mostly rugged with a lot of small water streams from west to east. There are a number of watering points along the international borders with Ethiopia and Somalia. Herbaceous cover in the south is dominated by Justicia flava, Aristida kenyensis and Aristida adscensionis . Rainfall ranges between 300 mm to 400 mm annually although the central part falls below 300 mm.This eco-unit lies below Marsabit and Mandera/Khorof eco-units. It remains wet longer than the areas around.The good grass cover found in the Lagh bogal drainage system starts from Tamsa swamp which is in the southern end of the unit. C. dactylon is one of the most important perennial species.The hills are the southern end of the Ethiopian hills with the rainfall near the border being more than 800 mm. The hills do not have extensive areas of closed forest, but many valleys, gullies and steep hillsides have dense cover. Among the common trees are Croton macrostachyus , Euphorobia candelabrum, Olea africana and Bauhinia tomentosa.Open hills and gentle slopes in the wetter western slopes carry plants like Combretum molle, Lannea spp. and Ozoroa spp. Much of the Hurri hills is grass covered which is edaphically controlled.Soils are heavy clay, with impeded drainage and frequent flooding (Synott, 1979) . Themeda/Chrysopogon grassland occurs at the eastern base and to the northeast of Hurri the hills (Herlocker, 1979) .This eco-unit includes Sibiloi National Park where the herbaceous cover is dominated by Dactylocteneum aegyptium and Aristida mutabilis which are both annual with one perennial Sporobolus ioclauds (Odhiambo, 1981) .Enneapogon cenchroides, Aristida adoensis, Tetrapogon tenellus, Tragus berteroniaus and Stipagrostis uniplumis. Further north towards Sabarai the number of species and percent cover decreases.A. mutabilis becomes dominant.Other species like Tetrapogon tenellus and Tragus berteronianus are found in low depression areas where soil moisture is higher.This eco-unit covers the whole of Kitui District, the northern part of Machakos and parts of Embu and Meru districts. Livestock movement is not so conspicuous here because of cultivation and some improved ranches .Kitui District used to support perennial grasses like P. maximum, Sehima nervosum, H. contortus, E. superba, E. macrostachyus, D. milanjiana, C. roxburghiana and T. triandra (Skovlin, 1980) .Overgrazing and shifting cultivation has resulted in increased bare ground and decreased cover by perennial grasses.Annual grasses and herbs like Brachiaria leersioides, Justicia exigua, E. cilianensis, Tetrapogon tenellus and A. adscensionis dominate most of the overgrazed areas (Muchoki, 1982).This eco-unit covers the Nakuru, Naivasha and Elementaita area where most of the savanna has been turned into wheat farms. Dominant grass in its potential is T. triandra, but with increased grazing, C, dactylon and Sida cuneifolia become dominant.With overgrazing, H. schimperi and Micqsrochloa kunthii increase or invade.Vegetation cover is changing from grassland to bush through the encroachment of Tarchonanthus camphoratus in the Gilgil area.The Loit hills form the southeastern border while Mau escarpment forms the northern border. These two hills attract rain from south and west making the unit wetter than normal .The northeastern part of the plain receives fairly little rain.The Acacia/Pennisetum shrubland in the black cotton soil has a mixture of Pennisetum mezianum, C. dactylon, Achyropsis greenwayii, Justicia elliotii and Dychoristes radicans.Themeqsda triandra dominates in red or sandy loam soil (Olang, 1984b) .Overgrazing in black cotton soil leads to increase in cover by J. elliotii and D. radicans . Overgrazing in Themedadominated areas leads to increase in woody plants such as Lippia. spp. , Indigofera spp., Justicia exigua and grasses such as M.kunthii and H. schimperi.From Suswa dam down to the beginning of Lake Magadi is the Kedong valley which has good stands of Cynodon plectostachyus and T. triandra.The area west of Lake Magadi is dominated by Sporobolus helvolus which covers the whole area during the rainy season, but almost all of it is grazed during the dry season.The area east of Lake Magadi is covered with rock pebbles with scattered Aristida spp. during the rainy season, but all of it disappears as the dry season comes. Areas further east and southwards are dominated by T. triandra, C. dactylon, P. maximum and P. mezianum.The soils are weathered and strongly leached. The area receives rainfall between 400 mm and 600 mm annually. Areas receiving the highest amount of rain are Voi hills and Mtito Andei. is a gradual decrease eastwards. Farmers perceive the following as the constraints which limit, in order of their severity, increased production of crops and livestock in their systems: drought, capital scarcity, livestock diseases, crop diseases and pests, poor infrastructure, inadequate extension service, lack of improved inputs, wildlife, land scarcity, labour scarcity, marketing, land tenure, bush encroachment, soil erosion, theft, large family and witchcraft. The ranking of these constraints varies slightly by farm size and survey site. Most farmers view the government as the source of solutions to most constraints. Admittedly many of the constraints would require government action such as improvements in infrastructure and marketing, land tenure, research and extension as pre-requisites for further development.Researchable constraints of immediate interest to the Kiboko National Range Research Station in order of their importance to farmers are: drought, livestock diseases, crop diseases and pests, and improved crop varieties and livestock breeds.This paper reports some of the results of a survey conducted by the Socioeconomics Division (SEA) of the Kiboko National Range Research Station (NRRS) to identify and rank production constraints as perceived by the agropastoral ists of southern Machakos District of Kenya (Mukhebi et al . , 1985).The Kiboko NRRS has a mandate for conducting research directed at developing technologies for increasing rangeland productivity in Kenya.To make such technologies relevant, production constraints that reflect the felt needs and aspirations of rangeland inhabitants are a pre-requisite.One of the reasons for the dismal performance of many development projects and programmes is that they are often designed to address problems of target populations as perceived by government officials and other outsiders rather than as perceived by the people themselves.The danger with this approach is that in many cases, considerable amount of resources are expended on trivial problems while priority problems of people are left unattended. The result is often that as soon as external funding and assistance are withdrawn, the initiated development activities which are supposed to be continued by the people are not carried beyond the life of the target group. This happens because sometimes a technical problem is implemented to provide a technical solution, when, in fact, that technical problem ranks low in the minds of the target population.The people may be having a different priority problem on their minds that requires a technical or non-technical solution as a necessary and sufficient pre-condition for any other development activity or project.The study was conducted in the southern part of Machakos District stretching from Salama through Makindu to Mtito Andei townships (Figure 1) .The area is semi-arid with an annual rainfall of about 500 to 700 mm, falling in two seasons: long rains (March to May) and short rains (September to October) . It is inhabited by the Akamba agropastoralists. On average, they own about 20 (+41) ha of land, keep 36 (±56) head of cattle, 13 (+16) sheep and 45 (+48) goats per household of 15 (+13) persons.They grow a variety of food crops during the long and short rainy seasons, mainly in mixed stands of maize + pigeon peas, maize + beans, maize + cowpeas, and maize + green grams. Three sites were selected for sampling: Kasikeu location near Salama, Makindu location in the middle of the target area and Mtito Andei location at the southern end of the target area. These areas are representative of the mixed farming systems of southern Machakos: relatively intensive systems of Kasikeu, less intensive systems of Makindu and rather extensive systems of Mtito Andei.On the basis of the above stratification by location, lists of farmers were obtained from area assistant chiefs and agricultural extension officers.(There was no official Land Registry list of farmers as land registration has not been undertaken in the area) . A random sample of a pre-determined number of farms was selected from each site. In total, 106 farms were selected: 32 in Kasikeu, 43 in Makindu and 31 in Mtito Andei.A survey team from SED with the assistance of the extension staff interviewed sampled farmers through single-day visits. The interviews were conducted during May 1985 using a pre-tested questionnaire. Among other variables, respondents were asked an open-ended question: What problems do you consider to be limiting increased production of crops and livestock on your farm? After enumerating all the problems, the respondent was asked how he/she felt they could be solved, one by one. Indian OceanResponses regarding felt problems are summarised in Table 1 by farm size and Table 2 by survey site.The problems or constraints to increased crop and livestock production are ranked on the basis of their response frequency.For all the farms, 17 constraints are identified and ranked in the following order of their severity starting with the most severe:Drought  suggesting solutions to a given constraint is greater than 100 when some respondents suggested more than one solution, and less than 100 when less than 106 respondents suggested any solution. The majority of the respondents view government as the major source of solutions to most constraints. Among the five severest constraints for all farms, drought is ranked first as expected in this semi-arid area. Capital scarcity is rated second. Many respondents expressed lack of cash for purchasing or hiring farm inputs such as seed or oxen for ploughing. This in turn is reportedly due to low volumes and prices of marketable product surpluses and inaccessibility to commercial credit.Livestock diseases is ranked as the third severest constraint. Respondents attributed this problem largely to inadequate veterinary services, lack of drugs and insufficient livestock dips. Tick-borne diseases such as East Coast Fever and heartwater are reportedly the most prevalent. Crop diseases and pests are the fourth most important constraint in these agropastoral systems.Frequent pests include birds and army worms, the latter coming especially at the on-set of rains following prolonged dry spells. The fifth constraint is poor infrastructure, i.e. lack of roads in many areas, poor roads that are impassable during wet seasons, lack of public transport vehicles, lack of sufficient hospitals and health clinics.Constraints are identified and ranked by farm size and survey site to determine any differences between farm size and spatial distribution.There is no difference in the list of identified constraints by farm size and site, but there is a slight variation in ranking. While drought is ranked number one constraint in small (0-9.9 ha) and medium (10-19.9 ha) size farms, it is ranked second in the large (20+ ha) size farms, in which livestock diseases are rated as the first constraint.Smaller farms rely more on crops than livestock for livelihood and vice versa for larger farms.Furthermore, while the farmers of Kasikeu perceive capital as their number one problem (due to more intensive systems) , it is ranked number three in Makindu and Mtito Andei locations, where drought is ranked first. Spatial variation in type and ranking of constraints could be expected to become more pronounced with distance.This would call for more caution generalising constraints over large geographical areas.One striking observation about the suggested solutions is that most respondents view government as the source of solutions to most of their problems. This view is not conducive to development.It encourages people to sit and wait for the government to provide solutions to problems that they themselves can solve or do something about. People ought to be educated \"by the government\" about the need to find or initiate solutions to constraints facing them by themselves rather than wait for the government to provide the answers.This could be effected through encouragement of community self-help (harambee) efforts and through cooperative societies as a few of the respondents suggest for solutions.Admittedly, many of the constraints identified would require government action such as improvements in infrastructure and marketing, land tenure, research and extension as pre-conditions or pre-requisites for any significant development initiated by the people themselves.of the constraints identified are interrelated. Solutions to some may alleviate others. For instance capital is ranked the second constraint considering all farms together. But the capital constraint is related to the land tenure, large family and marketing constraints. For instance, a freehold land tenure system with title deeds would enable farmers to have access to commercial credit by offering the title deeds as security for loans; smaller family size would lessen household consumption expenditure and save cash for purchase of farm inputs; and improved marketing would improve producer prices or increase volume of marketed farm produce, resulting in higher cash in-flow. Each one of these actions would have the tendency of relaxing the household capital constraint.From the NRRS point of interest, researchable constraints, in order of their priority to the farmers are: drought, livestock diseases, crop diseases and pests, and improved crop varieties and livestock breeds that would be more productive than the current ones. However, the solutions suggested by farmers are important and need to be explored thoroughly before research is designed and undertaken to develop or test technologies that may not contribute significantly to the solution of the constraint in the eyes of the farmers. In fact, researchers would need to gather more detailed field information about these constraints before launching any research, for instance, the magnitude and nature of each constraint. Such information would help in focusing research and developing technologies on more specific aspects of the constraints.It should be borne in mind that ultimately, whatever solutions (technologies) are devised to address the four and other \"researchable\" constraints above, farmers will need capital to adopt them. Since capital is ranked the second most severe constraint, it would need to be addressed before farmers would be expected to adopt the new technologies. Furthermore, since the listed constraints are interrelated as already mentioned and their solutions are geared towards the same goal of increasing agricultural production, an interdisciplinary approach in the context of rangeland systems research (RSR) would be the recommended strategy to adopt in addressing the constraints.The agropastoralists of southern Machakos District perceive the following as the constraints limiting increased crop and livestock production in their systems, listed from the most to least severe: drought, capital, livestock diseases, crop diseases and pests, infrastructure, extension services, improved inputs, wildlife, land scarcity, labour scarcity, marketing, land tenure, bush encroachment, soil erosion, theft, large family and witchcraft.The ranking of these constraints varies slightly among different farm size groups and survey sites. The majority of farmers view the government as the major source of solutions to most of the constraints.Admittedly in infrastructure and marketing, land tenure, research and extension services as pre requisites for any significant development initiated endogenously.Researchable constraints of immediate interest to the Kiboko National Range Research Station, in order of their importance to farmers are drought, livestock diseases, crop diseases and pests, and improved crop varieties and livestock breeds. More detailed data about these constraints would have to be gathered by researchers in order to focus research on, and develop technologies for more specific aspects of the constraints.As most of the constraints are interrelated and affecting the same goal of increasing agricultural production, an interdisciplinary approach in the context of rangeland systems research would be an appropriate strategy to follow in addressing the constraints.Tanzania has an area under rangeland estimated to be about 60 m ha which supports about 20 million stock units (Anon, 1983) . This level of animal production has, however, been below the national nutritional demand (Akilimali, 1983;Chagula, 1983).factors are responsible for the low animal production levels, but the most important of all is shortage of adequate quantity and quality feed in the dry season. This is manifested in overgrazing which is a common feature in all livestock farming systems.High levels of animal production can, however, be attained from these rangelands provided good range management principles are applied. Practices such as grazing at optimum stocking rate, use of proper grazing management systems and the use of the right kind of animals restore balance between forage supply and animal nutritional requirements.Grazing animals are known to prefer certain grasses and legumes at some stages of growth, and such behaviour was observed in palatability studies (Johnstone-Wallace and Kennedy, 1944) . As a result of selective grazing chemical and botanical composition, herbage consumed by grazing animals differs from the average of the composition of the sward in the field (Johnstone-Wallace and Kennedy, 1944) . The amount of green herbage on offer influenced the grazing animal's intake (Johnstone-Wallace and Kennedy, 1944) . Similar findings were reported by Chacon and Stobbs (197 6) , and that intake and total yield of herbage on offer was high and positively correlated.Cattle also prefer certain plant species at certain stages of growth and various parts of an individual plant (Hafez and Bouissou, 1975) .It was further reported that the taste of ingested materials probably provided ultimate basis upon which the animals formed a decision as to whether the material was highly preferred, merely tolerated or completely rejected.On the other hand, the grazing habits of goats was described by Knight (1964) , who showed that grass formed the major food preference for East African goats. However, these findings were not in agreement with those obtained by Staples et al., (1942), Jordan (1957), Wilson (1957), Edward (1948), andLugenja andKajuni (1979) , who concluded that goat diet comprised mainly trees and shrubs.Although Hancock (1954) found no relationship between temperature and grazing behaviours, Stricklin et al. (1976) reported that occurrence of thunderstorms forced animals to stop grazing.Similar observations were reported by Arave and Albright (1981).However, Smith (1959) did not observe any increase in the proportion of the night grazing of individual cattle under high daylight temperature.In this study attempts have been made to establish the relationship between phytomass productivity (PP) , animal forage preference (AFP) and environmental factors (EF) on semi-arid grazed and ungrazed plants in Tanzania.A total of 15.4 ha in 14 paddocks, each 105 m x 105 m at Kongwa Pasture Research Centre (PRC) , the West Kilimanjaro Livestock Research Centre (LRC) and the Mabuki Livestock Multiplication Unit (LMU) were used for the study. The mean annual rainfall and temperatures were: 250 to 500 mm and 27°to 33°C (PRC, Kongwa), 300 to 400 mm and 20°to 30°C (LRC, West Kilimanjaro) and 700 to 800 mm and 29°to 32°C (LMU, Mabuki) . The soils are derived from granite and gneisses at PRC, Kongwa (Owen, 1964) ; neugene alkaline volcanic materials at LRC, West Kilimanjaro (Anderson and Naveh, 1965) and alluvial lacustrine origin at LMU, Mabuki (Hathout, 1983).In general, all locations are dominated by Commiphora and Acacia trees, associated with Aristida, Pennisetum and Cynodon grass species.Primary productivity (PP) of grasses in tonnes dry matter (DM) was obtained at the middle and end of rains from 1 m2 quadrats, randomly located in the paddocks. However, PP of trees and shrubs was estimated from twigs of current year's growth of key browse plant within 1.67 metres height.All twigs in predetermined direction were harvested. The bulked-up samples were analysed for crude protein, (CP) calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) .The grass data were pooled for one season and analysed as split plot by way of ANOVA (Steel and Torrie, 1980) . Duncan's multiple range test (DMRT) was used to separate means, and chisquare of independence test was used for chemical analyses data (Sokal and Rohlf , 1969) .Tree and shrub yield data were inadequate for statistical analyses.AFP was determined by recording the time spent by animals on each plant species. Five to ten cows (zebu cattle) and 30-40 goats (blended castrates and females) were used at Kongwa and West Kilimanjaro locations.The species were observed on different dates between 0800-1200 hours at each location and site during the middle and end of rains. Cattle alone were used at LHU, Mabuki.The animals were observed for an hour at all locations, and different species of animals were observed on different days.The percent time spent by cattle and goats grazing on different plant species were summarised under four major plant classifications, namely: annual grasses (Urochloa Forage utilisation of key range plants (grasses) at Kongwa and West Kilimanjaro was determined from locally compiled heightweight tables as described by Lammasson and Jamson (1942).Phosphorus, calcium and crude protein were determined using the Molybdenum blue Fiske and Subbarow method, the Oxalate method and the Kjeldahl method respectively. This was in turn used to assess AFP.Environmental factors (percent relative humidity -% RH, maximum temperatures -Tmax. , evaporation -£ and rainfall -R) were collected twice daily at 09.00 and 15.00. Percent relative humidity was calculated from standard meteorological tables (Goodchild, 1983) .Regression of AFP (pooled for cattle and goats, grazing animal diet) on PP, AFP on CP, EF on AFP and PP on EF, for Kongwa and West Kilimanjaro locations, were used to establish the relationship between different factors (Sokal and Rohlf, 1969) . Data from LMU, Mabuki were too scanty to be included in the regression analyses.Ungrazed paddocks at Kongwa produced 14% more phytomass in tonnes DM ha (P<0.05) than that which was produced on grazed ones (Table la) .On the other hand, grazed paddocks at West Kilimanjaro and Mabuki produced 12% more phytomass in tonnes DM ha (P>0.05) than that which was produced on ungrazed paddocks, respectively (Tables lb and lc) . Sites 2 and 3 at Kongwa produced significantly more phytomass in tonnes DM ha\"1 (P<0.05) than that produced on site 1.There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the phytomass in tonnes DM ha produced on the three sites at West Kilimanjaro. However, site 3 produced 60% and 99% more phytomass in tonnes DM ha than that which was produced on sites 1 and 2, respectively (Table lb). Tree and shrub data from Kongwa location (Table 1d) , indicated that high (15.04 tonnes) DM ha-1 was produced from site 1.Site 3 was the least productive, with only 0.7 6 tonnes. Acacia mizera produced the highest mean DM (8.52 tonnes) at site 2.The least productive shrub was Cadaba kirkii , with mean DM yield of 0.24 tonnes. Cattle at Kongwa spent 26% more time grazing on perennial grass species than on annual grasses during mid-grains (Table 2a) .Least time (14%) was spent on herbaceous plants, and trees and shrubs. A similar trend was observed at the end of the rains (Table 2b) .Cattle at West Kilimanjaro spent 66% more time grazing on perennial grasses than they did on annual grasses and herbaceous species (Tables 2c and 2d) .However, observations made at Mabuki (Table 2e) indicated that cattle spent 16% more time grazing on perennial grasses than they did on herbaceous plants and annual grasses. Although cattle spent 17% more time grazing on perennial grasses in 1981 than they did in 1982 (Table 2e) , there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the way cattle grazed in 1981 and 1982.On the other hand, goats spent 50% of the time browsing on trees and shrubs at Kongwa during mid-rains, and 50% of the time at West Kilimanjaro at the end of the dry season. Least time was spent on grasses as shown in Tables 2a and 2b. Similar trends were observed at the end of the rains (Table 2b) . Species utilisation: At the West Kilimanjaro location, plant species were 2.27 and 5.67 more utilised than Kongwa and Mabuki locations, respectively (Table 3) .However, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the way species in the three locations were utilised. Urochloa trichopus had the highest (38.3%) utilisation of all the key species at the three locations. Pennisetum spp. and Chloris virgata followed closely. Bothriochloa insculpta was the least (28.05%) utilised species. -37.60 30.00Chemical composition: Analysis of herbage materials, (Table 4a) shows that site 3 at Kongwa had the highest (14.72%) mean percent CP compared to that which was obtained at site 1 (10.75%) and site 2 (9.2%) . The highest (11.65%) mean percent CP, at West Kilimanjaro (Table 4b) was obtained from site 1. This was closely followed by site 2 (9.97%) and site 3 (9.38%). There was no pattern in the way Ca and P occurred in the three sites at the three locations.Chi-square of independence indicated that year of grazing had no influence (P>0.05) on the chemical composition. However, sites influenced chemical composition at the two locations (P<0.05). Kongwa location experienced high (30.87°C) but less variable (CV -3.98%) mean temperatures when compared to that at West Kilimanjaro (26.21°C) and Mabuki (30.15°C). However, it was 23.23% and 27.09% more humid at West Kilimanjaro than it was at Kongwa and Mabuki locations respectively. The amount of moisture lost through evaporation ranged from 3.0 to 25.0 mls. West Kilimanjaro received 67% and 16% more precipitation, than that received at Kongwa and Mabuki respectively (Table 5) . Relationship between AFP and PP, CP, EF and PP and EF are summarised in Table 6.The results show that T max, R and E were major factors in determining AFP at Kongwa (P>0.05). Phytomass productivity (PP) , CP and percent RH were not the major factors determining AFP at that location. On the other hand, PP, CP, T max and R were major determinant factors of AFP (P>0.05), while percent RH and E were less important factors at West Kilimanjaro location.  la, b, and c) . The relatively low mean PP produced on grazed paddocks at the two locations were probably due to less grazing effect. The high phytomass produced on ungrazed paddocks at Kongwa is comparable to that obtained by Pearson (19651 who reported that grazed areas produced about 1.78 tonnes DM ha annual top growth when compared to protected areas (1.99 tonnes DM ha ) . The low mean PP obtained on ungrazed paddocks at Mabuki and West Kilimanjaro locations might be due to low moisture infiltration rates resulting from soil surface crusting.The high mean PP produced by A. mizera (8.52 tonnes) and B. zangubaricum (8.40 tonnes) shown in Table 1d is probably due to the growth habit of the shrubs. A. mizera tends to branch about a metre from the surface of the soil and these branches usually terminate into productive branchlets within browsing height.B. zangubaricum tends to sprout profusely at the base, forming large clumps, with abundant forage within browsing height. On the other hand E. cuneata, Vittex spp. , Grewia spp., D. pubescens , and C. kirkii are either single-stemmed, or branch high up, thereby contributing less to grazing.The high preference for annual and perennial grasses by cattle, and herbaceous plants and trees and shrubs by goats, observed at Kongwa, West Kilimanjaro and Mabuki (Table 2) confirm those of Staples et al . (1942), Edward (1948), Jordan (1957), Wilson (1957) , andLugenja andKajuni (1979) . In New South Wales, goats were observed to eat Acacia aneura and Cabtis spp. , while cattle had a high preference for Calotis spp. and Chenopodium anidiphylum (Squires, 1982) . The highest preference for perennial grasses exhibited by cattle (99%) on site 1 at West Kilimanjaro (Table 2c) was probably due to high percent CP content in the grazing (Table 4), which was mainly made up of Cynodon and Bothriochloa spp. This trend was, however, not observed on other sites and locations. In a study of cattle browsing behaviour in semi-arid area of Tanganyika, Payne (1963) observed that nutritive value and succulence determined the species that were browsed. The highest preference for perennial grasses exhibited by goats (88%) (Table 2c) was possibly due to the absence of trees and shrubs with forage within browsing height.The highest mean percent utilisation (33.55%) observed at West Kilimanjaro is probably due to common use in practice at the location.The non-significant differences in the utilisation of key range plants at the three locations suggest that the experimental animals had probably low grazing action.The high mean maximum temperature (30.9°C) observed at Kongwa location, relative to those at West Kilimanjaro and Mabuki (Table 5) , suggest that the location experienced more adverse conditions for plant growth than either West Kilimanjaro or Mabuki.The high coefficient of variation (25.81%) observed at West Kilimanjaro suggest that the location was probably influenced by the mountain's effect.On the other hand, the high percent relative humidity observed at West Kilimanjaro was probably due to high precipitation coupled by low temperatures (Table 5) . The high wind velocities (98.4 km/hour) were probably responsible for the high moisture (99.0 mls) lost through evaporation whereas, the high amount of precipitation received probably suggests that the experimental period fell in more than average rainfall years.The variation in AFP associated with differences in PP and CP at West Kilimanjaro (r -0.77) is probably due to decrease in leaf availability as grazing progressed in the season.Between January and March pastures at West Kilimanjaro and Kongwa are usually mature and dry and although the animals graze selectively, the choice at West Kilimanjaro is limited by the abundancy of less palatable species of Pennisetum. These observations are similar to those by Chacon and Stobbs (1976) working with cattle in Australia. The authors showed that the number of bites and intake declined when leaf decreased.They attributed these observations to lack of desire by ruminants to harvest feed, to nitrogen or mineral deficiencies, or to bulk in the rumen thus preventing the development of an eating drive.The variation in AFP associated with differences in T max (r -0.79) and rainfall R(r -0.94) for Kongwa and T max (r2 0.52) and rainfall (r2 = 0.98) for West Kilimanjaro, is probably due to favourable influence of high ambient temperatures and rainfall they have on PP (Table 6) . However, these factors tend to decrease CP and subsequently digestibility (Deinum and van Soest, 1968) .The low AFP might also be due to rumen pH depression associated with high ambient temperature and humidity (Mishra et al . , 1970) .The high, but non-significant effect of T max on AFP (Tables 5 and 6) is probably due to inherent differences in the herds used in the study at Kongwa and West Kilimanjaro locations. The herd at Kongwa seems to have been more adapted to temperature conditions than that at West Kilimanjaro. There was no pattern in the way R and E affected AFP and PP at the two locations. However, percent relative humidity seem to have been negatively correlated with PP at these locations.The high but non significant negative relationship between AFP and R at Kongwa probably suggests the detrimental effect of non-effective precipitation on grazing animals under semi-arid conditions. Non-effective precipitation encourages termite activity, resulting in low standing matter (Lugenja and Kajuni, 1979).The high but non-significant positive relationship between AFP and E at Kongwa and West Kilimanjaro is probably due to conducive environmental conditions experienced as a result of evaporation.The two locations are characterised by high wind velocities which probably bring about cooling effect to grazing animals.On the other hand, the non-significant positive relationship between PP and E at the two locations, is in agreement with the established fact that DM production depends on the amount of moisture lost through evaporation and transpiration processes (Lane, 1976) .The results show that the mean PP in tonnes DM ha\"1 of the range increased from 4 to 15 tonnes DM ha , when grasses and browse plant productivity is taken into consideration. The results also show that cattle grazed mainly on grasses while goats grazed mainly on herbaceous plants, trees and shrubs in this trial at Kongwa and West Kilimanjaro. The results further show that cattle and goats grazed grasses and browse plants to some degree, suggesting that there is a dietary overlap between the two animal species.These observations imply that for better and uniform range utilisation, cattle and goats should be mixed during grazing periods. In future intensive studies on stocking rate will be carried out for the different ecological zones in order to achieve optimum multiple range use, and identification of the major browse plants and establishing their roles in ruminant nutrition will be done.Daily intake of grazing cattle is determined by the product of time spent grazing, the rate of biting and forage intake per bite (Hodgson, 1982) . It therefore follows that grazing time influences intake directly, while other grazing habits such as drinking, ruminating, playing and resting may influence intake either positively or negatively. In Africa pastoral herdsmen exercise a major influence on the grazing behaviour of their cattle through herding. By herding, man decides when and where cattle are to go for grazing. So the skill of a herdsman coupled with environmental factors are the determinants of a successful grazing day in terms of forage intake.The endeavour to understand the grazing behaviour of the Maasai cattle was part of a study of the Maasai pastoral production system. This study was initiated by the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) . The study was carried out in three group ranches which were selected on the bases of their ecology and development gradients in Kajiado District, Kenya.The five-minute method was used to study grazing behaviour, as suggested by Hancock (1953) and used by Lampkin et al . (1958) at Muguga, Kenya.At the end of each five-minute period, an observation was made and the behaviour of each selected animal recorded. Behaviour activities recorded were: species of grass or browse grazed, resting while either standing or lying, ruminating while standing or lying, walking and drinking.With the exception of the species grazed the other behaviour patterns were confirmed if they continued for ten or more seconds.In theory, a total of 144 observations could be made from 7.05 to 19.05 hours which is the normal daylight period in Kenya at this latitude. However, the grazing period does not always extend over the entire daylight period, but rather is modified according to the schedule and needs of the individual livestock owner.In each herd, three animals were selected according to the role each cow appeared to play in the herd: the herd leader, an ordinary cow and a laggard. Each animal selected was followed by one observer during the entire grazing day.The observers used pedometers to monitor the distance covered during each grazing day. At the end of each day the distance walked was taken as the average of the three pedometers used.Pedometers were calibrated regularly against a known distance.A vibracorder was used as described by Stobbs (1970) to monitor total time spent actively, in grazing, walking, drinking and ruminating. For statistical analysis, SPSS and least squares procedures of Harvey (1977) were used.The mean length of the grazing day of Maasai cattle, defined as from the time they left their bomas in the morning until they returned for the night, was 10.8 + 0.6 and 10.4 + 0.6 hours for adult cattle and calves respectively. The difference between the adults and the calves of 0.4 hour was not significant (P>0.05).Although the 28 grazing days recorded by the five-minute method and the vibracorder did not overlap entirely, the latter also recorded an average of 10.6 + 0.8 hours.During green seasons grazing days were longer than during dry ones; the averages for the green and the dry were 11.1 + 0.4 and 10.3 + 0.8 hours respectively but the difference was not significant (P > 0.05).The measurements of the grazing day with an ordinary watch and the vibracorder were very similar and the differences between them were within the experimental error. A vibracorder had the advantage over human observers that, once the instrument was set with a chart covering seven days' records, it needed no further handling until the expiry of the seven days.The vibracorder also recorded night activities between 18.30 to 07.30 hours. The average duration of night activity for the green and dry seasons was 2.0 + 1.3 hours and the seasonal difference was not significant (P>0.05).The night activity was assumed to be mainly rumination.Total time spent ruminating on the average was 2 . 8 hours divided into 2 hours at night and 0 . 8 hours during the day.The mean distance walked per grazing orbit was 15.5 + 5.0 and 10.8 + 4.8 km for adult cattle and calves respectively. Hence adult cattle walked 4.7 km more than calves. The difference was 36% of the overall mean and significant (P<0.05). This difference in walking distance between the calves and the adult cattle was due to grazing management. Calves grazed in reserved areas near the homestead (Olopololi) , while the adults utilised the communal grazing areas. Calves had more opportunity for high intake since in the homestead herbage was relatively more abundant than in the communal areas, necessitating less walking in search of forage. For the adult cattle the distance walked was dependent on the herder's skills, on the grazing orbit followed, and whether it was a watering day or not.The overall percentage time spent in a grazing day in specific activities were 1, 8, 14, 15 and 62% in drinking, ruminating, resting, walking and grazing respectively. The percentage time spent was different between seasons, areas and grazing orbits and there were significant interactions of season x area and season x grazing orbit.Seasonal effects were highly significant (P<0.01) while animal type was not (P>0.05) for any of the activities.The coefficient of variations of the activities were large, and they ranged from 23 to 98.Table 1 presents various activities as affected by seasonal changes.More time was spent drinking in the green than in the dry and the dry/green seasons. Cattle ruminated less in the green than in the other two seasons, while rumination time during the day was 8% longer in the dry than in the green season. Cattle rested 13% of the day longer in the dry than in the green or dry/ green seasons, but they walked for a longer period in the green and dry/ green than dry season. Proportion of time spent on grazing was longest in the green season (66%) , followed by dry/green (62%) and 57% for the dry season. Ratios between rumination and grazing time were 1:8, 1:9, 1:17 and 1:5 for the overall mean, dry/green, green and dry respectively.Although this calculation of the rumination to grazing time ratio was only for the day-light period when viewed together with Table 1, a trend emerged linked to forage quantity and intake.Grazing and ruminating times appeared to be interrelated; low quality forage in the dry season resulted in longer ruminating and shorter grazing (intake) time, while the reverse was found in the better conditions of the green season. It is accepted that intake is limited by forage quality. But in this production system it appeared that rumination time was negatively related to intake.That the vibracorder can be used successfully to record grazing time (Stobbs, 1970) was confirmed in this present study. It has many obvious logistics advantages over observers with watches. It is a tool that could be used to compare herdsmen and their herds.The vibracorder was also effective in recording time spent on rumination during the night.Therefore the total ruminating time was calculated by adding the night time recorded by the vibracorder to that of the day time recorded by observers. The total ruminating time in 24 hours of 2.8 hours fell at the lower end of the range of 2.5 to 10.4 hours, reported by Harker et al (1953) andvan Soest (1982).Maasai cattle walked shorter distances than pastoral Fulani cattle in northern Nigeria studied by van Raay and de Leeuw (1974) who recorded daily averages ranging from 16 to 30 km. Maasai cattle walked less because of better grazing resources due to the bimodal rainfall and a greater degree of sedentarisation and a closer spacing of water sources, all leading to a lesser need for walking.The percentage time spent grazing of 62% or 6.7 hours was intermediate between times reported for herded cattle (65 to 89%, Semenye 1981; Otchere, 1986) and non-herded cattle (55%, Harker et al., 1953;Lampkin et al., 1958;Lampkin and Quarterman, 1962) .Lack of significant difference between animal types within a single herd means that the behaviours for the three different categories were similar. In a situation where cattle are not herded, similarity between the categories is less likely.Where cattle are herded the influence of the herder dominated the individual expression of cattle. However, when it came to behaviour on which the herder had less influence such as rumination, significant differences between grazing areas were observed due to differences in forage quality and water availability.Rumination time is known to vary with the forage quality (Hancock, 1953;van Soest, 1982), which varied across areas and seasons.More time was spent drinking in the green season, when there was plenty of surface water. Reasons have been advanced above for expecting longer rumination periods in the dry season when forage was at its lowest quality. Since they had access to forage of high quality and plenty of water in the green season, cattle should enjoy more resting time instead of less.However, it is possible that more resting occurred in the dry/green and dry seasons than in the green because of higher prevailing temperatures and the desire of either the cattle or the herder to avoid unnecessary effort. With increasing temperature, cattle rest for longer periods by seeking shade. The trials of Lampkin and Quarterman (1962) with steers at Muguga and Mariakani with temperatures below and above 3 0°C respectively, showed that time spent under the shade was much greater in the hotter environment. A similar seasonal trend in walking time was observed, but it should be noted that in the dry season cattle devoted their entire walking time simply to walking whereas in other seasons grazing and walking occurred simultaneously in some instances. Cattle grazed for the shortest time in the dry season, when quantity and quality of forage were lowest but spent a relatively longer period in rumination.The Maasai herdsmen herded their cattle with great skill despite severe limitations of livestock facilities such as adequate water sources, troughs and dips; and lack of paddocks and perimeter fences. The need for increasing the length of the grazing day to enhance intake was uppermost in their minds. However, due to predators this was not possible, hence the total grazing time coincided with sunrise and sunset.Rumination time was found to vary with the forage quality. Therefore, in dry seasons longer rumination time necessitated by poor forage quality could limit intake.A vibracorder timing of grazing days was found to be as accurate as watch timing.Due to the convenience of a vibracorder over observers, it is an ideal tool for grazing behaviour studies.Short mean calving intervals were associated with conception between November and January. Increased rainfall during the month prior to conception was correlated with a linear and highly significant (P<0.01) reduction in calving interval depending on conception period. Year effects were highly significant (P<0.005) .The target joining weight was around 318 kg. Above the target weight, fertility became a function of the absolute body weight such that heavier cows at joining were more fertile (P<0.01) than lighter ones. Below the target weight, fertility was associated with females that gained weight or suffered less body weight loss during the month prior to conception. Previously, dry cows tended to gain weight prior to conception to the detriment of fertility (P<0.005) . Effect of calving month was highly significant (P<0 . 005) depending on age of breeding females. Influence of dry season supplementation was significant but was modified by a number of factors such as age, year and previous parity.There was no significant difference in fertility of cows that were supplemented with energy or energy plus urea before calving. Generally, cows that were supplemented after calving had a shorter mean calving interval.Effects of weaning period, month and year were marginally significant (P<0 . 05) .Fertility improved as the dam's age increased from three years onwards but declined after about nine to ten years. Effects of previous parity and breed were marginal (P<0.05) depending on conception period.Nith supplementation, Boran crosses had a significantly (P<0.01) shorter mean calving interval than the pure Boran females. In general, effects of breed were minor compared to environmental factors especially those associated with conception period.More than 50% of the 8.7 million beef cattle in Kenya are reared in semi-arid to arid areas or rangelands (Livestock Development Division, 1983) . The overall offtake of beef is not adequate to meet domestic demand and at the same time sustain an export market.There is need, therefore, to increase not only efficiency of production but also to multiply the beef population quickly. The latter objective calls for a higher level of fertility.Not only does low fertility reduce productivity but it also limits improvement of the herd genetically.For instance, when calving rate is low, nearly all replacement heifers must be used to maintain the herd numbers, and this curtails selection intensity thereby lowering the rate of genetic improvement.Besides, a decline in fertility would result in a compensatory increase in the number of unproductive and aged cows with adverse consequences of overstocking leading to environmental degradation which is often irreversible.Fertility can be evaluated in terms of calving rate, i.e. the number of calves born in relation to the number of breeding females exposed to the bulls per annum.This measurement is ideal for survey studies. For selection purposes, individual cow data are required for which the parameter evaluated is the calving interval, i.e. the period between two successive parturitions. Although several factors may influence fertility, there is overwhelming evidence that inadequate nutrition is the most important single factor mitigating reproductive efficiency in beef cattle (Topps, 1977) . This observation is particularly relevant to tropical rangelands where pronounced seasonal changes in rainfall (French, 1957) contribute to a very precarious feed supply. Topps (1977) has associated seasonal changes in feed supply with corresponding changes in body weight of grazing beef cattle with adverse consequences on reproductive performance. The objective of this study was to characterise the influence of body weight changes and related factors that are associated directly or indirectly with the nutritional status of beef cows grazing natural pasture on calving interval.The study was conducted at KARI ' s field station near Athi River. The ranch lies in a semi-arid zone with a bimodally distributed rainfall averaging 565 mm per year (Figure 1) . The main grass species is Themeda triandra Forsk on gently undulating mosaic of ridges and shallow valleys of black clay loams (Gethin- Jones and Scott, 1955;Ledger et al., 1969).The genotypes were the Boran, small East African Shorthorn Zebu (EASZ)and their F± progeny from Hereford bulls. All animals were run as one herd and were grazed on natural pasture. Routine measures to control ticks and vaccinations against foot-andmouth, contagious abortion, rinderpest, blackquarter and anthrax were undertaken.Random mating was followed throughout 1973. From 1974 until 1976, mating was confined between June and August, but this was subsequently brought forward between May and July.Heifers were first mated after attaining a liveweight of 250 kg. Each calendar year was divided into six two-month periods to coincide as much as possible with the seasonal pattern of rainfall and temperature. Date of \"second\" conception was estimated from date of calving and assuming a mean gestation period of 283 days (Hutchison and Macfarlane, 1958) . An appropriate conception period was then assigned to each calving interval.soil Moisture Index Evaporative loss (E-) was estimated using McCulloch's (1965) Tables from data collected at the meteorological site at the ranch.E-values were multiplied by a crop coefficient of 0.86 derived by Pereira and McCulloch (1962) to predict evapotranspiration (ETQ) from a vegetative cover.A soil moisture index (SMI) was calculated from the equation: SMI -Total monthly rainfall fmm) Estimated ETQ (mm/month) which, for the purposes of this study, gave an indication of soil water adequacy for pasture growth after taking into account the biggest water loss (ETQ) . Indices were calculated for each calving interval for the period of one month (SMI1) and one to two months (SMI2) prior to \"second\" conception.Arising from variation in the breeding season, females were divided into five groups depending on the period taken after \"first\" calving before joining with the bulls. Group 1, regarded as the normal class, had bulls within 60 days post-calving. In groups 2, 3 and 4, joining took place between 61-150, 151-230 and 231 or more days after calving respectively. In group 5, females did not conceive during the \"first\" breeding season but did so during the subsequent mating period. Preliminary analysis indicated that there was no additional information lost by excluding groups 3 and 5. Consequently, only groups 1, 2 and 4 were retained for final evaluation.Strategic Supplementation on Calving Three experimental rations were prepared for supplementing incalf cows during the dry period between January and March in 1978March in , 1979March in and 1980 as follows:Ration A: 2 kg chopped fresh grass from the paddocks. Ration B: 2 kg ground sorghum grain (Sorghum vulgare) mixed with 500 g of sugarcane molasses (Energy) . Ration C: 2 kg ground sorghum grain mixed with 500 g molasses and 75 g of urea (Energy + Nitrogen) .The supplemented regimes were: Cows on feeding regime (i) and (ii) were supplemented during the last two months of pregnancy for varying periods until they calved down while those on regime (iii) were supplemented up to 60 days.Effect of Weaning on Calving IntervalBreeding females were suckling their calves each year. The calves were weaned in three batches at the end of September, October and November/ December during 1977, 1978 and 1979 when they were between 5 and 9 1/2 months old.Each female was regarded as an entity during the breeding season and data were compiled to include breed, birth and calving dates, previous parous state i.e. whether the animal was a heifer, dry cow or suckling a calf at conception prior to the calving interval in question and conception period. The covariables included body weight at weaning (WWN) , \"earlier\" calving (WCV) , one month after calving (W1ACV) , one and two months prior to \"second\" conception (W1BC and W2BC respectively) and at \"second\" conception (WCP) , SMI1 and SMI2. From this information, age at \"earlier\" calving, calving interval and weight changes WWN-WCV, W1ACV-WCP, W1BC-W2BC and W1BC-WCP were computed. Factorial effects in experiments 1, 2 and 3 are summarised in Tables 1, 2 and 3 respectively. OMonth of calving following weaning in question.The sources of variance and covariance for calving interval were analysed using the generalised least-squares regression methods for multiple classifications and non-orthogonal data as described by Harvey (1960) and adapted by Siebeck (1976) in his computer programme, SYSNOVA. All effects were considered fixed. The estimate of the mean squares attributable to any effect was computed after all other effects in the evaluation model had been fitted and was tested against that of the residual. This was hierarchical effect of nutrients within the pre-parturient feeding regime.(abJioi -effect of the ijth AB sub-class after the average effects of A and B have been removed.(ad) ± -effect of an interaction between A and the continuous variate Di-jkl ■ Tili-a interaction between a treatment and a covarlate enables particular slopes to be fitted.-partial regression coefficient of calving interval Yijkl on Dijkleijkl random errors.Weight Change During the Month Prior to \"Second\" ConceptionThe effect of weight change on calving interval was influenced significantly (P<0.01) by the period during which females reconceived and is depicted in Figure 2. During the May-July period, animals reconceived at an average weight of 331 kg, and weight changes did not affect calving interval to any appreciable degree.Weight gains up to 10 kg prior to conception between July and September were associated with short calving intervals (Figure 2) . Females reconceived between September and January at an average weight of 308 kg, and long intervals were associated with weight loss in excess of 10-15 kg.Influence of weight change also varied significantly (P<0.005) and curvilinearly depending on year of \"second\" conception as shown in Figure 3. While weight gain during 1976 resulted in systematic and sharp reduction in calving intervals, this effect was marginal during 1975.Weight gain during 1973/74 caused considerable variation in calving interval.The effect of this parameter was linear and highly seasonal (P<0.005) and is depicted in Figure 4.Females that gained weight prior to conception between July and September had calving intervals which were reduced by 0.7 days for each kg increase in body weight. This trend was reversed in the case of animals that conceived during periods other than July-September such that females that gained weight also had longer calving intervals. However, effect of weight gain prior to conception between May and July was marginal. Weight gains during 1980 resulted in long intervals. Mean calving interval was reduced by 0 . 7 days for each kg increase in body weight following calving during March; otherwise the overall effect of weight change did not vary across calving month . In the normal class of females, the optimal weight at \"second\" conception was 318 kg with a range between 310 and 330 kg (Figure 2) . However, joining weight did not affect calving interval significantly. Group 4 females reconceived at an average weight of 311 kg, and heavier animals had a significantly (P<0.05) shorter mean calving interval. In the weaning trial, animals reconceived at an average weight of 351 kg, and for each kg increase in liveweight above the overall mean, there was a corresponding reduction (P<0.01) in calving interval of 1.1 days (Figure 6) . The effect of this factor on calving interval was linear and highly significant (P<0.005) but was modified by conception period as shown in Figure 7. In general, increase in SMI during the month prior to \"second\" conception was associated with a shorter mean calving interval . The response was greatest during the September-January conception period but was relatively marginal when conception occurred between May and September. The effect of this parameter became marginally significant (P<0.05) when evaluated in the context of conception period (Figure 9) . Heifers that conceived between January and July had longer calving intervals compared to previously dry cows. Reconception between November and January was associated with shorter calving intervals regardless of previous parity.Year of \"Second\" Conception Year effects on calving interval were highly significant (P<0.005).Females that conceived during 1973 (late), 1975 and 1977 had shorter intervals compared to those that conceived during 1973 (early) and 1976.Dry season supplementation had a significant effect on calving interval, but this was modified by a number of factors: Age:Without supplementation, the 5 to 9-year-old cows had calving intervals which averaged 38 days shorter than the mean for the 4-year-old females (Figure 10) . Supplementation, whether before or after calving, only maintained calving intervals of the mature cows at average levels. However, there was a dramatic reduction in the interval when the 4-year-old females were supplemented after calving.Previous parity: Females that suckled calves during the previous year responded positively to supplementation especially when given after calving (Figure 11) . year of supplementation: While supplementation reduced calving intervals during 1978 and 1979 (post-parturient) , it was virtually useless during 1980 (Figure 12) . Month of \"earlier\" calving: Females that calved between March and early May had shorter calving intervals compared to those that calved during January and February (Figure 13) .However, with no supplementation, the 4-year-old females that calved during April and May had long intervals (Figure 14) . Energy versus energy + urea: Differences in the effects of these nutrients when given pre-partum were not significant. Calving intervals increased marginally (P<0.05) by 0.2 days for each day increase in the period before weaning was effected. There was some indication that the 4-year-old females that weaned calves at the end of September had a shorter mean calving interval than that of females that weaned calves at the end of October, otherwise the effect of weaning month per se was marginal (P<0.05). As weaning progressed from year to year, the 10-year-old-and-above cows had calving intervals which averaged 32 and 21 days longer than for the 4-and 5 to 9-year-old females respectively. In general, effects of weaning on calving interval were marginal.The influence of this parameter was significantly (P<0.05) modified by conception period (Figure 15) . Both the EASZ and the Boran females had similar calving intervals except during the September-January conception period when the latter breed had shorter intervals. The crosses that conceived between May and July had calving intervals which averaged 3 0 days below the adjusted overall mean of 357 days. Animals of all genotypes which conceived between July and September had long intervals. With supplementation, the Boran crosses had significantly (P<0.01) shorter calving intervals than pure Borans. The highly significant main effects and interactions with body weight changes, soil moisture index, age, previous parity and dam's genotype made conception period one of the most important factors affecting fertility of grazing beef cattle at Athi River Ranch.High fertility was achieved during the November-January conception period which normally covers the \"short rains\" with high temperatures. The high fertility observed between January and March (Figure 8) could be due to increased sexual activity mainly as a result of high temperatures (Anderson, 1944) . However, in rather striking contrast, group 4 females that conceived during the same period had a long fertility (Figure 9) . Considering that the number of females that conceived during this period in group 4 was much greater than that in group 2 (Table 1) , it would appear that inadequate grazing had a more marked adverse effect on fertility than the influence of increased temperature and sexual activity. Low fertility observed during the cold and dry period between July and September could be due to a level of intake sufficient to bring about ovulation but grossly inadequate for full manifestation of oestrus.The highly significant year effects reflected important variation in fertility from year to year. Admittedly, a large proportion of year effects would be confounded with variation associated with conception period. But since it is possible that factors other than conception period could contribute significantly to the observed variation, inclusion of year effects in the evaluation model would still be justified. Age of bulls and management practices relating to stocking rate, mineral supplementation and culling programmes are some of the factors which could vary from year to year. Bishop (1978) reported high conception rates following rainfall during the previous year. However, in Kenyan rangelands with such tremendous variability in rainfall both annually and seasonally (French, 1957) , it would be desirable to correlate fertility with rainfall within the immediate past so that corrective measures could be instituted in good time.In Australia, Andrews (1976) reported a high correlation between conception rate and rainfall with a one-month lag.Working at Athi River Ranch, Potter (1985) observed that liveweight gain was correlated with rainfall occurring between three to six weeks previously. The period of SMI evaluation in this study coincided with the one used by Andrews (1976) but did not quite correspond with the one evaluated by Potter (1985).Further work is needed to pin-point this period more precisely. Potter (1985) has suggested that use of rainfall data was just as good as the more elaborate and often cumbersome water balance information involving evapotranspiration data.Although rainfall may be an important factor, Andrews (1976) contended that a period of one month was not sufficient time for pastures to grow and improve body condition and hence conception rate.He postulated that increased fertility was likely to be due to either a change in the nutritional composition of the pastures or an increase in the rate of intake or both through the action of the hypothalmus and/or the pituitary.However, it is important to note that rangeland vegetation at Athi River Ranch grows very fast and matures very quickly (Karue, 1972;1974), and so it may have a short-term direct effect on body condition and hence fertility.The debate continues as to whether the animal's ability to conceive was a function of its absolute body weight per se (Lammond, 1970;Grosskopf, 1980) or weight change prior to conception (Elliot, 1964, cited by Topps, 1977;Capper et aj . , 1977;Thorpe et al., 1981). While suggesting the concept of a target joining weight, Lammond (1970) had intimated that for each cow, depending on breed, age and year, there was a certain range in body weight and body condition required for conception. By implication, therefore, it did not matter whether animals lost or gained weight during the breeding season provided their liveweight was maintained above a certain minimum.The ability to maintain weight would depend, among other things, on the current lactational stress on the animal, hence the reason why researchers evaluate body weight in heifers, dry or lactating cows (Kidner, 1966;Sacker et al . , 1971;Morley et al , 1976). Such evaluation would be possible if fertility was considered in terms of calving date rather than calving interval.Another aspect is whether the various workers were evaluating absolute or proportionate weight changes. A proportionate weight change such as that used in this study with weight at \"second\" conception as a reference point would render changes in small animals (though of the same breed) comparable to similar changes in bigger ones. It seems as if both body weight and weight change operate singly or simultaneously to influence fertility depending on the lactational and/or nutritional status of the animal.For instance, although animals in the normal class reconceived at an average weight of 320 kg well within the optimum range of 310 to 330 kg for this group of animals, influence of body weight was not significant.This could have been due to the adverse effect of suckling reported by Wiltbank and Cook (1958) and Hutchison (1983) .Group 4 females had dried off at the time they reconceived, and the effect of joining weight was able to be manifested, though marginally due to the fact that animals conceived at an average weight of 311 kg which was at the bottom of the required range in body weight.Under these circumstances, both body weight at joining and weight change affected fertility simultaneously.Animals reconceived between September and January and during 1976 at average weights of 308 and 298 kg respectively.Both weights were below the minimum weight required for conception, and animals that had a higher fertility were those that gained or lost less body weight during the month prior to conception.With favourable nutritional conditions between May and July (Figure 2) , during 1975 (Figure 3) and 1979 (Figure 5) , animals reconceived at average weights of 330, 311 (half the number of females were the small EASZ) and 352 kg respectively.Under these conditions, effect of weight change was marginal and animals could gain or lose weight without jeopardising their fertility. The picture during 1973/74 (Figure 3) was somewhat confusing probably due to the fact that fertility was evaluated over a two-year period.In any case, the sample size during 1973 and 1974 was far too small to warrant any serious consideration of the effects during these two years. Curvilinearity in response of weight change could also be ignored.Dry cows (group 4) and females that had settled down after calving before they were re-introduced to the bulls (group 2) tended to gain weight prior to conception to the detriment of fertility. However, in normal ranching situations, animals would be lactating at the time they reconceive with minimum chances of overweight.Failure to register significant effects of weight change between one month after calving and conception could have been due to the rather limited variation in climatic conditions during the pre-selected breeding season between May and July. However, it was evident that weight changes occurring near conception exerted a much greater effect on fertility than changes far removed from conception. What is, perhaps, perplexing is the revelation by Thorpe et al . (1981) that liveweight was merely an approximate indicator of the nutritional status of a beef animal. These workers postulated the existence of an intricate relationship between nutrition, hormonal control, lactation and fertility in which the post-partum period with its associated lactational stress was considered more important than variation due to liveweight. Since this relationship is still vaguely understood, monitoring of body condition as suggested by Andrews (1976) together with proportionate body weight changes during the month prior to breeding would give a reasonable indication of the fertility status of a grazing beef animal. Supplementation of beef cattle with energy (Wiltbank et al 1962 and1964;Dunn et al . , 1969) or nitrogen (Elliot, cited by Christie, 1962;Siebert et al., 1976;Holroyd et al . , 1977) has been a normal practice to improve fertility but results have not been consistent. For instance, in Botswana, Capper et al. (1977) observed no response to stimulatory licks of molasses and urea by dry cows or cows with calves older than five months. More recently, Holroyd et al . (1983) supplemented beef cows with urea and molasses but observed no effect on fertility. In this study, improved fertility was observed in the four-year-old and previously suckled females. It seems imperative, therefore, that assessment of the effect of supplementation should be done in the context of age and previous parity. Failure to detect differences in the effect of grain versus grain plus urea feeding could be attributed to the favourable climatic conditions especially during 1979 and 1980 which made it possible for animals to derive most of their nutrient requirements from pasture alone.It is worth noting that the last trimester of pregnancies at the ranch coincided with the period covering the \"short rains\" between November and December. Under such conditions, Orskov (1982) suggested that nitrogen requirements for pregnancy could be met by microbial protein synthesis alone. However, there is a tremendous increase in the nutritional requirements for lactation and reconception (Crampton and Lloyd, 1959) , hence the significance of post-calving supplementation. It would, therefore, be of interest to investigate the effect of nitrogen and energy sources when given post-partum.Since all indications pointed at conception as the most critical period, it would be necessary to pinpoint more precisely how soon after calving should supplementation be given.Because of the intricate relationship between non-protein nitrogen (NPN) and carbohydrate metabolism and utilisation (Orskov, 1982) , further investigations should be focused not on the relative importance of NPN and energy but rather on the proportion of rumen degradable and undegradable nitrogen relative to metabolisable energy intake.The effect of age on fertility of beef cattle is an indirect one through its influence on body condition to which young cattle are more sensitive (Andrews, 1976) .As body condition was related to liveweight, Wiltbank and Spitzer (1978) have stressed the significance of allowing young cattle to attain a target weight and age before first mating -the weight and age varying according to breed. Under East African conditions, Macfarlane and Worrall (1970) had indicated that puberty in Boran heifers occurred at approximately 60% of the mature body weight. However, mere attainment of puberty is not enough as young cattle are expected to conceive, carry the foetus to full term, rear the calf successfully and reconceive at the earliest opportunity. It is possible that the 250 kg liveweight stipulated for first breeding of heifers at the ranch was lower than the threshold joining weight especially in crosses. This would not only delay reconception but could curtail their productive life.If anything, it would be better to breed heifers too late than too soon.Young beef cattle were more vulnerable to adverse nutritional conditions at post-partum oestrus.However, their fertility improved as the post-calving period before joining with the bulls increased from about five months onwards.There was evidence from the weaning trial that highest fertility was achieved by the four-year-old females. The implication of these observations is that young cattle should be allowed about five months after calving before joining with bulls for their second mating season. This would mean that first breeding in heifers and that of the main herd would be out-of -phase, although all indications were in favour of seasonal mating. However, earlier breeding in heifers would necessitate their separation from the main herd which would facilitate closer attention and feeding to ensure high fertility. A suggested package for young beef cattle would be (a) mating between November and January or, in general, immediately after a rainy period (b) separating and mating approximately three months before the main herd to synchronize second mating with the rest of the herd and (c) providing a supplementary diet after first calving.The timing of the breeding programme at the ranch did not permit evaluation of the effects of calving months other than those between late January and early May.However, it was evident that animals that calved down during the dry season in January and February had a low fertility. This could be due to failure to regain lost body weight (Kidner, 1966) but as Christie (19 62) had indicated, dry season loss in body weight per se did not, necessarily, reduce fertility as long as the animal was able to recoup during the subsequent wet season. Animals that calved down during March had a high fertility which confirmed Daly's (1971) suggestion that calves should be dropped at the end of a dry season. The older cattle that calved down during the rainy season in April-May seemed to get away with less favourable nutritional conditions at post-partum oestrus probably because of their ability to draw on body reserves accumulated during the wet period (Orskov, 1982) .There were indications to suggest that previous parity had an influence, albeit small, on fertility. Results from various workers reporting on this parameter are rather inconsistent (Christie, 1962;Buck et al., 1976;Thorpe et al . , 1981). It would appear that in order to make meaningful comparison in fertility, one would have to consider previous parity in the context of conception period. When nutrition was adequate, for instance during November-January conception period, or when supplementation was given after calving, influence of previous parity became insignificant.Generally, carry-over effects arising from previous parity were of less importance in the fertility complex. This should not be confused with the over whelming influence from current lactational stress on the animal (Crampton and Lloyd, 1959;Trail, 1968), and the whole idea behind weaning is to remove this stress thereby ensuring that animals attain the body weight and body condition required for reconception. Lammond (1970) had suggested increasing body weight and condition before calving and attempting to hold this condition up to the breeding season. This could be achieved by early weaning but because of seasonality in pasture productivity (Karue, 1972(Karue, , 1974)), it would be difficult to maintain body weight. Besides, results of this study indicated that fertility was not always correlated with body weight at calving. The other alternative also suggested by Lammond (1970) was to allow cows to calve down in reasonable body condition and feed heavily up to conception. This would be a much more practical method which was supported by results of this study relating to post-partum supplementation.The question of weaning month necessitated some consideration because of the observed sensitity to pasture by the early weaned calves (Schotter and Williams, 1975) on one hand and the need to prepare the breeding female for subsequent calving and, more importantly, reconception on the other.However, effects of weaning month were, at best, only marginal probably because of a closed breeding period and hence weaning season. Thus, in considering the effects of lactation, it would be more important to pay particular attention to when animals are due to calve down so that they can be supplemented for early reconception rather than attempting to increase body weight and body condition at calving by early weaning.The EASZ females exhibited fairly consistent fertility levels throughout the year, an observation that was consistent with the findings of Galukande et al. (1962). Zebu cattle are indigenous in East Africa (Mason and Maule, 1960) and would be expected to have adapted themselves to fluctuations in feed supply and related factors from out-of-season rains and prolonged droughts.Adaptability has been attributed to their ability to lay down fat on a lower plane of nutrition (Mason and Buvanendran, 1982) . Fertility of the Borans was, by and large, similar to that of the EASZ which supported the observations reported by Trail (1968) at Ruhengere Ranch in Uganda.However, there was evidence to indicate that the Borans had a higher fertility during the last quarter of the year when pasture productivity was adequate.Results of cross-breeding to improve fertility have been inconsistent. Some reports have indicated a reduction in age at first calving (Mahadevan and Hutchison, 1964) and increased manifestation of oestrus in cross-bred zebu cattle (Swensson et al., 1981).Observations from this study tended to tip the balance in favour of Boran crosses under conditions of adequate nutrition.High fertility could be due to heterosis. However, this could not be confirmed due to lack of reciprocal crosses. Although it is desirable to maintain the indigenous zebu germplasm, the prospects of increased beef productivity from rangelands based on the Boran and its crosses look very promising.in range-fed beef cattle is a very complex physiological process involving the interplay of a number of factors.These factors are overwhelmingly climatic in origin which means that environmental conditions especially nutrition and management have to be tailored for the benefit of the animal. Nutritional and management factors immediately before and during the mating season had the most significant and far-reaching effects on fertility.Even during the conception period, influence of nutrition and related factors such as rainfall, body weight and dam's age varied from season to season and was modified by other factors which, all working in concert, complicated the situation even further.Fertility was seasonal. Consequently, seasonal mating would be advocated. High fertility was observed between November and January followed by May-July. The significant year effects reflected mainly seasonal effects although variation across years could be attributed to changes in feeding, mating practices and age of bulls.Increased rainfall during the month before conception was associated with high fertility. The effect was seasonal which underscored the significance of conception period and seasonal mating.The target joining weight was around 318 kg with a range between 310 and 330 kg. Heavier cows at conception were more fertile than lighter ones, but the depressing effect of suckling could counteract that of body weight unless joining weight was well above 318 kg. Animals that gained body weight or suffered less weight loss during the month prior to conception had a higher fertility.Previously dry cows tended to gain weight prior to conception and gave a better indication of fertility status than weight changes far-removed from conception.Dry season supplementation only helped to maintain fertility of older cows at average levels. However, it improved fertility of young and previously suckled females especially when given post-partum.There was no significant difference in the fertility of cows that were supplemented before calving with energy or energy plus urea.Fertility improved marginally following early weaning. Some benefit was achieved when young females weaned their calves in September following a dry and cold season. Generally, effects of weaning were of less significance in the fertility complex.Fertility also improved as the dam's age increased from three years onwards but declined after about nine to ten years. Young cattle were more vulnerable to adverse post-partum nutritional conditions. However, their fertility improved when they were allowed about five months after first calving before mating for the second parity. This would mean separation and mating of heifers some three months or so before breeding in the main herd to be able to synchronise their second mating with the rest of the herd.of previous parity on fertility was marginal depending on the nutritional level during the breeding season. Under grazing conditions without supplementation, dry cows were more fertile than previously suckled animals. This trend was reversed with supplementation. Females that conceived between November and January had a high fertility regardless of previous parity. Fertility levels of the East African shorthorn Zebu and Boran cows were similar except during the last quarter of the year when the latter breed had a better performance.Generally, crosses had a high fertility following a rainy season.However, with dry season supplementation, performance of the Boran crosses excelled the rest of the genotypes.Savanna grasslands in Kenya occupy areas of marginal rainfall that constitute over one half of the total area of the country (Pratt et al . , 1966). Water availability is the major driving variable controlling biological activity and regulating productivity of savanna ecosystems (Walker et al . , 1981;Maranga et al., 1983;Maranga, 1986). Rainfall events are sporadic and often occur in irregular pulsations of short-lived storms (Griffiths, 1972).Effective rainfall recharges soil moisture for a specific period of time.The time elapsing between a change in soil-water status and an observed change in a plant process constitutes the response period (Sala et al. , 1982). The response period of water-controlled processes is not fixed but is, at least partially, a function of the degree of water stress to which plants were previously exposed. The efficiency of utilisation of water input will decrease as the response period increases and therefore will depend on the water status (leaf water potential) of the plants prior to a rainfall event (Sala et al., 1982). This paper attempts to evaluate water responses of native shrub and grass species to fluctuating soil water in the semiarid lands of Kenya. Plant variables used in this study to gauge plant water responses include leaf water potential and transpiration both of which are important determinants of plant productivity in semi-arid areas. The adaptive mechanisms that explain the observed responses will be deciphered. Field studies of soil water potential distribution with depth on sites that were dominated by Digitaria macroblephara, Panicum maximum. Acacia tortilis. Commiphora riparia, Grewia rainfall contribution recharged the dry soils increasing soil water potentials from -10 MPa in early December to field capacity conditions by mid-December in the surface depths of 10 cm and 30 cm. Soil water potential in the deeper depths of 60-120 cm oscillated between approximately -7 MPa and -3 MPa over the same period (Figure 1) . The wetting phase in the short rainfall season maintained field capacity conditions in the surface depths for a period of approximately three weeks.As soil water input declined, a sharp drop in soil moisture potentials occurred for the shallower soil profiles with only a gradual decline for the deeper soil horizons.Leaf water potentials for the shrub and herbaceous plant species (see Figure 2) in mid-December were characteristic of non-water deficit conditions.In the course of the wetting phase, leaf water potentials barely dropped below -4 MPa. Stomatal conductance exhibited a pattern that was approximately inversely related to leaf water potential at least for the herbaceous plant species studied. Stomatal conductance values peaked in December coinciding with the phase of active soil water replenishment.Transpiration rates of the shrub species in the course of the wetting phase ranged between 20 micrograms/cm S-1 and 30 micrograms/cm S whereas that of Digitaria macroblephara rarely exceeded 20 micrograms/cm S_1 (see Figure 3) . In the course of the wetting phase, water was available within the rooting zone and all species maintained a favourable water balance. However, as soil water depletion continued to meet the rising evapotranspiration demand as the dry season advanced, moisture supplies were exhausted from the top soil profiles. Shallow-rooted Digitaria macroblephara and Grewia villosa registered unfavourable water balance. The deep-rooted Acacia tortilis appeared green for the entire growth cycle indicating that water was available within its rooting zone.Commiphora riparia drops most of its leaves and maintains a succulent stem in the course of the dry season. In this study, Commiphora riparia maintained a favourable stable leaf water potential suggesting an efficient regulation of its water economy facilitated by water conservation mechanisms. Feinner (1981) in a study of two Commiphora sp., Adonsonia digitata and Sterculia rhynchocarpa reported that these species are relatively efficient in conserving their water content.The specificity in water use patterns of semi-arid savanna ecosystems places important restrictions in their responses to management interventions.Excessive removal of herbaceous biomass by grazing animals would influence the total water input reaching the various soil profiles.Walker et al.(1981) reported that on medium to heavy textured savanna soils, decreases in infiltration rates resulting from capping of the soil surface pores were associated with a decline in grass and litter cover.In most of the Kenyan pastoral grazing lands, excessive depletion of grass cover through overgrazing has resulted in a serious problem of bush encroachment. The environmental processes leading to bush encroachment seem to be closely tied to the differential water use patterns associated with morphological characteristics facilitating exclusive use of water available at different soil profiles.Soil water potential distribution in the soil profiles of semiarid ecosystems is closely related to the nature of precipitation events and soil water depletion characteristics.The soil moisture response curve is characterised by rapid oscillations in the levels of soil water potential in the top soil profiles.Gradual declines in soil water potential occur with increase in depth and progressive advancement of the dry season. Shallow-rooted plants like Digitaria macroblephara and Grewia villosa tend to take exclusive advantage of water availability in the top soil profiles when precipitation events occur.As the dry season progresses, these plants quickly show unfavourable water balance suggesting little control of their water economy.In general the seasonal patterns of transpiration, leaf conductance and leaf water potential suggested that the shrub species utilised plant species. more water per unit area than the herbaceousThe performance of pastoral cattle is usually described as poor. For instance, weaning weights of calves are less than 65 leg (Nicholson, 1983;Diallo et al . , 1981), calving intervals are longer than eighteen months (Wagenaar et al., 1986;Otchere, 1986) and mortality rates of calves in some years are as high as 50% (Williamson and Payne, 1978;Mahadevan, 1966). However, it is known that the performance of cattle is a function of the breed, forage intake and the environment, including management and climatic factors. In turn forage intake by cattle grazing extensive rangelands is influenced by the age and physiological status of the forage on offer. In extensive production systems, of the three factors determining intake, forage quality is of greatest biological importance as compared to the others, because man has the least influence. This is so because forage quality is determined by climatic and soil conditions.To measure the forage quality and its implications on forage intake in a pastoral system a research was initiated by the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) as part of a three-year study of the Maasai livestock production.It comprised three group ranches with five grazing areas, located in the eastern area of Kajiado District in Kenya.Oesophagally fistulated (OF) cows were used for forage sampling. Sampling was done twice in a day to coincide with AM and PM grazing peaks. Sampling during grazing peaks were preferred in order to minimise contamination of the extrusa with regurgitated material.During each sampling session three OF cows were used and extrusa of approximately one kg was collected at each sampling from each OF cow. The collection period averaged 25 minutes.Extrusa samples collected in wet seasons were transferred into plastic bags and placed in a cool-box containing dry ice before being shipped to Nairobi for oven drying. In dry seasons the extrusa samples were first placed on wire mesh trays for sun drying. All extrusa samples on reaching Nairobi were dried in a Memmert oven at 60°C. Before milling by a Christy mill through a one-mm screen, the samples were fractionated into whole sample, leaves, and sheaths together with stems.Laboratory analysis consisted of Kjeldahl, fibre analysis (Goering and van Soest, 1970) , dry-matter solubility using double enzyme method of pepsin and cellulase, and atomic absorption spectrophotometry and flame photometry for minerals.The five-minute method was used to mimic grazing of the cattle.At the end of each five-minute period the species of grass or browse grazed was identified and recorded. Six areas and four seasons were studied.For statistical analysis SPSS and least squares procedure of Harvey (1977) were used.Over the 84 cow days, 74 different species of herbs grasses and shrubs were foraged by cattle. The observation period covered four seasons and six areas. Since one of the seasons represented the peak of the drought of 1984, the Kiboko area was included in this season because the majority of the cattle were moved there. It was claimed the area was endowed with more herbage than the home grazing orbits. Tables 1 and 2 show botanical compositions by season and area respectively.The dominant species in the diet were Chloris roxburghiana, Pennisetum mezianum and Digitaria macroblephara compromising at least 50% of the diet during the four seasons of 1983. Prominence of the first two species persisted even in the drought of 1984.In the dry season cattle did not browse but grazed on other species more and for the first time on the litter. As for the seasons of 1983, the three main species in the diet of cattle in all five areas of sampling were Chloris roxburghiana, Pennisetum mezianum and Digitaria macroblephara.The rest of the diet varied as certain species were either dropped or included from respective areas.The average diet composition of the five areas was very different from Kiboko ' s where the cattle were sent during the drought of 1984. For Kiboko Pennisetum mezianum and Digitaria macroblephara ceased to be one of the three major species. Instead there came browse species and the litter with the former contributing 34% of the diet.For this area the diet consisted of less than 65% grass. The diet preference index (Taylor, 1973) for the three major species ranged from 1.4 to 3.6, and their ground cover within the grazing orbits was more than the other species. Availability of these species was important in the determination of their selection. It should, however, be noted that these species are of high palatability compared with the others. Their selection, particularly for Digitaria macroblephara and Chloris roxburghiana, was due to availability and palatability while that of the less palatable Pennisetum mezianum was due only to availability. Oesophagally fistulated cows were used to determine forage quality by season and the study area. Analysis of 126 samples for crude protein (CP) , neutral-detergent fibre (NDF) , in-vivo dry-matter digestibility (IVDMD) , phosphorus (P) , calcium (Ca) , magnesium (Mg) , iron (Fe) , copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn) are presented in Table 4. Season, area and the interaction of season and area (except for two cases of P and Mg) were significant sources of variation (P<0.05). Differences between times of sampling were consistently non-significant for any of the variables.Differences among grazing orbits and cows showed no consistent trend.The interaction of time by season was significant (P<0.05) for CP only.  5. In all cases the analyses of the whole sample (WS) and leaves (L) were significantly higher than those of stems and sheaths (SS) .The WS was higher than L by 0.3, 1.0, 0.02 and 0.02% in CP, NDF, P and Mg content respectively (P<0.05).Other differences between WS and L in IVDMD, Ca, Fe, Cu and Mn were not significant (P>0.05) . The L fraction exceeded SS nutritively by 2.1, 7, 8, 0.06, 0.2 and 0.05%, 787, 1.4 and 10 ppm or by 26, 10, 16, 23, 40, 23, 48, 23 and 15% for WS in CP, NDF, IVDMD, P, Ca Mg, Fe, Cu and Mn respectively.For the seasons represented, the Fe concentration followed a different trend from the other elements for the green season, as differences between the fractions were not significant (P>0.05).The peculiar trend for the green season was probably because the Fe analysed in plant fractions was partly endogenous and partly exogenous arising from soil contamination and came from dust and soil ingestion during grazing; the green season dust was minimal and cattle did graze close enough to the ground to ingest soil or dust.In all seasons the SS fraction had the lowest concentration of Fe due to its smaller surface area on which dust could land.In the normal seasons of 1983 three grass species dominated. The three species, Digitaria macroblephara, Chloris roxburghiana and Pe/inisetum mezianum were preferred probably by virtue of being perennial, and having greater ground cover than other grass species.For the first two species Kibet (1984) has advanced similar reasons for their selection by cattle. Another stabilizing factor between the seasons' diets was the bimodal rainfall received.In the extreme conditions that prevailed in the drought of 1984 changes were forced in the diet selection.Cattle selected more of the less palatable and dead grass as litter.For the seasons by area, species composition varied little, but in contrast the quality of the diet was influenced much, due to environmental differences of rainfall, soils and ambient temperatures. The decision of the pastoralists to move their cattle to Kiboko area was wise nutritionally. The cattle browsed more and, presumably, got sufficient N to enhance their utilisation of the litter and the less palatable species that were available.The mean and the seasonal variation of CP was consistent with what has been reported of clipped and OF samples from Kenya (Karue, 1974;Potter, 1981;Reed, 1983;Tessema and Emojong, 1984) .This means the problem of rapid decline in CP is not an isolated case for the Maasai rangelands alone. This is probably explained by the high temperatures in the growing seasons that is characteristic of Kenyan rangelands, which accelerates plant maturation leading to lignification. If protein supplementation is contemplated in these areas, for maximum return, it should be restricted to September/October when the mean value of CP was lowest (5.5%) .The highest value of HDF (73%) obtained in this study is equal to the mean value of Tessema and Emojong (1984) and lower than 79% of Reed (1983) from comparable rangelands. These differences may have occurred due to sampling technique of OF versus clipping.Digestibility is known to limit voluntary forage intake (Campling et al . , 1962;Blaxter and Wilson, 1962;Karue et al . , 1973) , and within certain limits there is a positive correlation between digestibility and intake. This was shown by Elliot and Fokkema (1961) over a range of digestibilities of forage from 42 to 64%. The digestibility of Maasai cattle forage fell within this range (42-59%) , and it may be assumed that their voluntary intake was limited by low digestibility.Except for Ca and Fe all other elements investigated were only marginally above the critical level. For increased productivity of cattle in this production system serious considerations must be given towards supplementation with mineral salts.For P and Cu, apart from being marginally above the critical value, their availability is hampered by other factors prevalent in the study area. With regards to P, the Ca:P ratio does influence availability and utilization. Ratios of Ca:P of above 2:1 could limit availability and utilization of P (Conrad et al . , 1982) and such ratios were observed in certain seasons and areas of the present study.On the other hand Cu requirements for livestock increases where Mo concentrations in the diets is high. In the study area Mo is high as reported by Whittington and Ward (1983) . This implies there is need for Cu supplementation in order to cover the shortfall from marginal concentration in the forage and extra requirements triggered by excessive concentration of Mo.Differences in the nutritive values of the L and SS fractions were large, and the diets were made-up of 80 to 89% L. This means cattle selected the most nutritive parts of the forage available. Thus when OF samples and clipped samples are taken at the same, time the former commonly exceeds the latter in nutritive value (Pratchett et al . , 1977;Holechek et al . , 1982). However, the nutritive edge of WS over L was unexpected, because the former contained SS fraction which had the lowest values. These results must have been influenced by the high content of L in WS. However, the edge in the nutritive value of WS over L was probably due to the fact that the most nutritive part of a plant at any time is the growing point be it stem or leaf.As the growing points of the stems and sheaths were part of the WS, they contributed positively to its nutritive value. The same happened to the SS fraction, but due to its greater proportion of senescent stems and sheaths, the growing points contribution was insignificant. Lambourne and Reardon (1962) reported the digestibility of stem was initially higher than that of leaf but falling more rapidly after ear emergence. So the longer any part of the plant, in this case grass, remains in the growing stage, the better.Wilson (1983) cited 24 authors whose work showed that when herbage was stressed by lack of water, digestibility either increased or showed no change.Moisture stress slows growth and hence delays senescence.Forage intake by Maasai cattle was limited in the dry seasons by low values of crude protein and dry matter digestibility and high values of neutral detergent fibre. In addition to the low nutritional value of the diet being a limiting factor to intake, the dry seasons were characterized by scarcity of forage on offer.Supplementation with phosphorus, magnesium and copper is recommended during the dry seasons because of low forage intake. In green seasons supplementation is not necessary at the current production level of the cattle. On the other hand iron level in the diet was extremely high. As this high level (of over 300% above the recommended level) could be toxic, there is need for investigations on its effect and its interaction with other elements. Digitaria macroblephara and Chloris roxburghiana contributed greatly to the diet of Maasai cattle. Due to the fact that they are perennials of high palatability, drought resistance and nutritive value, they are ideal species for either introduction or re-seeding in arid and semi-arid areas.The author wishes to thank ILCA for funds supporting this research; the pastoral ists for allowing me to study their cattle; Drs. A. Carles, A. Said, J. Based on a diagnostic survey carried out in Mpwapwa District, the main features of the farming system are presented. This is followed by a description of the grazing lands which supply the major feed component of the ruminant population.The existing grazing pattern and farmer feeding strategies over the seasons are discussed.The farmers are agropastoralists producing mainly for subsistence.Livestock sales is the main source of cash income which in turn is spent on purchase of grain. There are very low investments in agricultural production resulting in low production coefficients.Despite the uneven distribution and poor quality of feed resource, farmers do manage to take most of their stock through the dry season by employing various strategic measures.Loose grazing of animals in the crop fields after harvest is the main form of supplementation (60% of the respondent n = 152) .Central Tanzania covers an area of 140,000 km in the central semi-arid plateau, between latitudes 4°and 7°S and longitudes 33°and 37°E (Figure 1) . The plateau lies at an elevation of 750-1500 m, the eastern boundaries of which are steeper escarpments rising to 1750 m above sea level. The area has a dry savannah type of climate with a long dry season between April and November, and a short wet season from November to April (Figure 2) .The total annual rainfall ranges between 250 mm to 750 mm with an average of 600 mm. The distribution is very erratic and reliability is low. Average temperatures are 20-25°C with a diurnal range of 12°C.Apart from the extensive areas of alluvium the two main soil types are a greyish sandy and red sandy loam textured. Severe leaching and laterisation are a common feature of the area. Natural vegetation consists of a dense deciduous thicket with Commiphora and Acacia as the dominant genera.Typical of semi-arid areas most of the land is of marginal agricultural productivity with the exception of small pockets of high potential along the eastern boundaries. The dwellers are agro-pastoral ists integrating crop production and livestock  According to the 1984 human population census, there are over two million people of various ethnic, groups namely: Gogo, Nguu, Hehe, Nyaturu, Nyiramba, Kaguru and Rangi. All these groups are of Bantu origin with an exception of a few pure Hamites, Maasai and Barbaig who have migrated from the neighbouring regions. The population is sparsely distributed in the area except for the few areas of higher soil fertility.Adoption of improved technology in agricultural production is minimal, and very low investments are put into the sector. Consequently, production coefficients both in cropping and livestock farming are low. Land productivity potential, however, is higher for extensive livestock production than for cropping. The area has over 15% of the national ruminant population. Moore (1971) reported that whereas 88% of the land is used for grazing, only 10% is used for cropping. Consequently, livestock is an important resource which if well tapped can improve the standard of living of the people.The production coefficients of cattle in the area have been reported to be generally low; calving rate of females over three years old of 45%, calf mortality to one year of age of 12%, mortality of other cattle of 10%, selling age of males of seven years and a market offtake of 13% (Stockes, 1976) .Major problems of this extensive livestock production system are seasonal shortages of good quality feed and lack of acceptable range management practices. However, given the nature of the livestock production systems which produce several products and use many resources, a thorough description of the system is a pre-requisite to testing of any improvement strategies.A team of scientists from the Tanzania Livestock Research Organization (TALIRO) formulated a Farming Systems Research (FSR) project entitled \"Improvement of Animal Production Systems in Central Tanzania\". The main objective of the project was to gain an understanding of the existing livestock farming system and develop improved pasture management, livestock feeding, herd composition and management practices that are acceptable to farmers in the traditional sector of Central Tanzania (Anon, 1986) . This paper attempts to describe and discuss the livestock feeding aspects of the study area as drawn from a diagnostic survey of Mpwapwa District.The diagnostic survey work was carried out in the 1985/86 growing season following the FsR methodology. Collation of background information was followed by an informal survey which resulted in stratification of the study area into three zones from which villages and households for formal survey were selected. There were three villages from each zone and 5% of the village households were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to cover all aspects of the farming system e.g. socio-economic background, cropping pattern, livestock species kept and livestock management practices (Anon, 1986) .More emphasis was placed on livestock enterprise. Trained enumerators with certificate level of education in agriculture were used. A total of 152 questionnaires were filled in from the nine villages.The data were coded, tabulated and analysed using hand calculators.From survey data, the main ethnic groups in the area were Gogo 44%, Kaguru 25% and Hehe 21%.Forty-one percent of the respondents had been living in the area for over 2 5 years whereas 47% had moved in during the national villagisation \"Ujamaa\" programme (197 0-1974) . It was revealed that the farmers in the area were agro-pastoral ists with over 99% of the respondents keeping livestock as well as engaging in crop farming.The farm plots were fragmented, the highest number of farm plots per household in the last growing season being six, and on average the furthest farm plots were 4.63 km from the homesteads. The average total hectarage was 5 ha, which may be considered to be rather large given the low level of mechanisation involved. Survey reports in other smallholder systems have reported farm sizes of 3.23 ha and 2.4 ha for draft cattle owners and nonowners respectively (Anon, 1982). A survey carried out in Northern Tanzania indicated the majority of farmers to own 1.2 ha of land (Urio and Mlay, 1984) . The tendency for farmers in Central Tanzania to own large farm plots may be explained by the relatively low labour requirement in the preparation of seed beds in this area.Ninety-two per cent of the respondents acquired their cropping land by clearing bush, thus individual land ownership is temporal . This reflects the existing land tenure system which is further indicated by the farmers' responses on the adequacy of grazing land.The majority of the respondents indicated that grazing land was abundant. However, the responses may be biased in view of the existing free movement of livestock from one area to another without limitation.As indicated by the secondary information, adoption or use of improved technologies in agricultural production was found to be negligible.Only 1% and 6% of the respondents had used tractors and draft power respectively in the previous cropping season.Agricultural production was mainly for subsistence. Seven percent of the respondents said they would sell their surplus yields, and the main source of cash income for the majority (79%) was livestock sales. Hence, food ranked first (35%) in the expenditure list, followed by clothing (32%) and crop farming (18%) .The livestock species kept were cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys, pigs and poultry. On average one farmer kept 38 head of cattle, 18 goats, 7 sheep, 4 donkeys and 17 chickens. The cattle kept had been acquired through inheritance, exchange of smallstock with grain, dowry or direct purchasing.There were high variations in herd sizes across the area, the majority (76%) having between 10 and 60 head of cattle. The herd sizes declared by the farmers were lower than those reported in the literature and from general observation. The discrepancies may have been due to the well known reluctance of pastoralists to reveal such information to strangers.Herding is the main method of supplying feed for the ruminant population in the study area. The operation is carried out by adult male members of the household. It was evident that herding is a well-planned activity among the livestock keepers. Some farmers indicated herding their animals collectively while others did it individually. In most cases there is strategic herding to combat cattle rustling which was indicated to be a common problem among the livestock keepers (72% n -152) .Describing the grazing lands of the study area can be quite difficult for researchers. For instance, there were no clear cut boundaries between the cropping land and the grazing lands. Moreover, after crop harvest the crop fields turn into grazing lands.The herdsmen, however, could identify their specific grazing areas, and grazing in crop fields was considered to be feed supplementation.Follow-up observation on the grazing pattern revealed that the individual or group herds were grazed in specific areas. Grazing times are determined by the herdsmen, basing it on the animal behaviour. Discussion with the herdsmen revealed that they had a good knowledge of the rangeland, could tell the most palatable species and that the choice of grazing areas was based on their knowledge and experience.The main grazing lands are in the secondary thicket which is an open community that has invaded abandoned crop land as a consequence of the shifting cultivation common in the area.It is composed of a mixed association of grass species and herbs. The common grass species were: Vrochloa trichopus, Dactyloctenium sp. , Aristida sp., Eragrostis sp. and Chloris virgata. Perennial grass species found in isolated areas were: Cynodon sp. , Cenchrus sp. , Hyparrhenia sp. and Panicum sp. Identified annual herbs included Astripomoea sp. , Crotalaria sp., Commelina sp., Cleome sp. and Ipomea sp. The common perennial weeds were: Solanum pandoroeforme, Sida grewiodes and Tephrosia incana while common thicket species were Cassia sp. , Croton sp. and Acacia sp. Most of the vegetation including weeds and shrubs were readily eaten by all classes of stock, a feature common in most semi-arid areas (Dyne et al . , 1984) .The common grass species are generally known for their low nutritive value. Work done by Karue (1974) indicated that most of the grass species cannot meet the nutrient requirement of the ruminant animals.He deduced that even the best of grasses notably Cynodon dactylon and Digitaria setivala could only supply about 30% of the protein required by the beef animal. This can lead one to conclude that the shrubs, weeds and other forage play a big role in the nutrition of the animals. In recognition of this, herdsmen cut down branches of browse for easy access to the animals.Availability and quality of the feed resource fluctuates during the year between the wet and dry seasons respectively. While in the wet season forage is abundant, in the dry season it is both scanty and poor in quality.Various strategies are adopted by the herdsmen in overcoming feed shortage problems in the dry season. Of main importance is the grazing in the crop fields after the harvest to utilise crop residues. About 60% of the respondents indicated doing so. A smaller proportion (40%) indicated burning; leaving the crop residue in the field and burning it when preparing land for the next growing season.In practice most of the residue is utilised by the animals, for no fencing was observed in the crop fields. Some farmers were reluctant to allow grazing in crop fields allegedly because it would result in reduced crop yield. Collection of crop residues for feeding was not a common practice probably because of limitations of transport.In summary, crop residues play an invaluable role in dry season for it is only when it is exhausted that herdsmen opt for other strategies. These include movement of animals to distant grazing lands for varying periods depending on the severity of dry periods; this involves a daily trekking of animals to distances as long as 6 km or more in search of pastures and water.Poor animal nutrition particularly in the dry season came out as one of the major constraints to livestock productivity in the study area. This view is supported by the low milk production in the dry season. Whereas, 1.4 litre per cow per day could be produced in the wet season, milk production in the dry season was negligible.The slow growth rates leading to attainment of mature weights in seven years could partly be due to poor nutrition also.Furthermore, movement of animals to distant grazing areas in the dry season results from the feed shortages. This problem can be described with the causes shown in ovals diagrammatically (Figure 3) . There can be many causes to this problem and some of the causes are interrelated.Three major causes to the problem have been identified in the current study: inadequate feed supply, inadequate grazing time and lack of adequate supplementation. The main causes could be further analysed to the root causes which can be used to identify research opportunities.Some of these could be difficult for researchers, for instance the big herd sizes, the land tenure system, cattle rustling and water shortage.These would require a closer relationship between researchers, policy makers and other national development agencies.On water shortage, improvement of the environment through afforestation programmes and use of water harvesting technologies could alleviate the problem.Water conserving fruits e.g. watermelons are being used by some farmers for feeding sensitive classes e.g. calves and sicklings. Wider use of these could also reduce the problem but this has to be directed to specific classes depending on production targets.Various techniques for improving rangelands have been suggested and some tested by range scientists.However, as Nestel et al . , (1973) correctly puts it, \"the major constraint lies in introducing change into the existing socio-economic systems, exacerbated by inexperience in adopting technology to suit local conditions\" . Exploitation of fodder trees and shrubs might involve introduction of more drought resistant and high quality species. The FSR team working on the research area is trying to introduce browse spp. such as Desmanthus virgatus, Leucaena leucocephala, Sesbania sesban, Sesbania spinosa and Rhynchosia senaarensis. However, a parallel comparative study of the nutritive value of the indigenous and introduced browse species is worthwhile for the former is already adapted. Information on the potential of the browse spp. as a forage resource in the area is scanty and most of the research work on this has not been conclusive (Kabatange et al., 1984). Its establishment might raise some problems because of the existing land tenure system. Furthermore, to introduce these as fodder banks might involve transportation which will again require wider use of draught power. As noted earlier, the use of draught power was not common particularly for the Gogo ethnic group who own the largest proportion of the cattle. Compassion is the main latent reason for not using animals for draught power.Improvement of the natural rangelands by introduction of drought resistant better quality grass genera such as Cenchrus and Cynodon would be a good alternative, but the problem of land tenure would limit its success.However, such introductions could be effected in the terminal year of cropping before the farm is left fallow. Another alternative is to improve the nutritive value of crop residues with minimal investment. This has been a subject of discussion (with ILCA scientists probably leading the way) , and a number of field experiments have given positive results (Butterworth and Mosi, 1986;Saleem, 1985). These experiments have been based on inclusion of annual legumes in the crop fields. Of importance to consider here is the time to undersow the legume in relation to grain yield and farmer labour requirements.The main grain legume in the study area was groundnuts. This legume is harvested earlier than the cereal, and the method of harvesting i.e. uprooting the whole plant, does not make it a good legume for consideration. Furthermore, since the crop is harvested when the shoot is green and it is piled up, in most cases it gets mouldy and might not be a good supplement. Other common legumes grown in the area are cowpea and Lablab spp. Since the leaves of cowpeas are used as a vegetable, Lablab spp. remain the best alternative. Thus, inclusion of this legume in the cropping systems and its effect on crop yield, quality of stover and livestock productivity could be investigated.The most important constraints to improving livestock production in Zambia are related to animal nutrition. The feed resources mainly based on the natural pastures, are poorly managed throughout the country. Due to the long dry season, there are feed shortages so that animals lose weight, suffer high death losses and exhibit low fertility. When animals are under so much stress, they are also more susceptible to diseases. Overstocking and overgrazing, which are very common in many grazing areas in Zambia, have resulted in serious land degradation, the disappearance of valuable pasture species and the spread of unpalatable species. When natural veld pastures are developed with a legume-base and fertilized mainly with superphosphate, most of them can yield large quantities of low-cost animal products.Legumes supply nitrogen cheaply for the associate grasses and grazing ruminants, and their large scale use in the future will ensure that adequate quantities of beef and milk will be within the financial reach of the rapidly expanding population of Zambia.In many areas of Central, Southern and Lusaka provinces in Zambia, inorganic nitrogen-grass systems are used for dairying and intensive beef production, but with increasing costs and the removal of subsidy and possible shortages of energy, there has been created a potential instability in price/supply of fertilizer N, thus making this practice uneconomical. There is, therefore, a swing in these areas to legume-grass systems.One of the most important facets of tropical pasture research is to find legumes suitable to the Zambian environment. Pastures based on these legumes have the potential for both higher stocking rates and faster cattle growth rates which can result in a significant increase in animal production.The volume of pasture research, and hence of literature, on the improvement of pasture production in Zambia, is very great, and no attempt is made here to review it fully.There have been other reviews by Prins (1970) , Craufurd (1979) , Kulich and Kaluba (1985), Kulich (1985), Kulich and Nambayo (1985), and Kulich (1986) .During the past 30 years there have been significant contributions on pasture legume research notably by Smith (1962Smith ( , 1963)), van Rensburg (1967van Rensburg ( , 1969avan Rensburg ( , 1969b)), Potter (1972), Verdoom (1965), Prins (1972Prins ( , 1975)), Peterson (1975), Shalwindi (1978), Craufurd (1978), J. and S. Kulich (1973Kulich ( , 1976) ) and by Kulich (1977Kulich ( , 1981)). Despite the efforts of these people to stimulate commercial interest, farmers have not responded in any significant way.During the '50s and early '60s beef production was not particularly profitable; the beef enterprise played second fiddle to tobacco and maize.Although farmers were planting pasture grasses, they were not prepared to spend money on the more expensive legumes.In the '70s, the situation started to change with an increase in consumer demand coupled with the banning of beef imports.When beef became more profitable there was increasing interest in pasture development.This interest, however, was not matched with a corresponding interest by most farmers with pasture legumes.The farmers relied on inorganic nitrogen which was heavily subsidised.As costs of N fertilizer increased with removal of subsidy in the 80s interest in pasture legumes was renewed and a high research priority was given aimed at finding stable legume-grass systems.There was an increased emphasis on pasture seed production as a result.The investigations were carried out at two locations:1.Mount Makulu Research Station, situated 16 km south of Lusaka at an altitude of 1,206 m. The average annual rainfall at this site is about 803 mm, falling during the rainy season that spans the November-March period. The mean annual temperature is 20.7°C with the coldest months, June and July, experiencing occasional ground frosts.Chimyamauni Farm, Mkushi, situated 300 km north of Lusaka at an altitude of 1,300 m. This site has an average annual rainfall of 900 mm and a mean annual temperature of 19.8°C.Excellent results have been obtained from three pasture legumes: Siratro, Stylo and Glycine at Mount Makulu. They have been grown in pure stands and in pasture mixtures for a number of years, and their suitability has been well established. Glycine and Siratro recovered rapidly on a section that was burnt accidentally in May. Stylo suffered most from the burning and the plants were subsequently damaged by termites. Siratro spread evenly in a very striking manner throughout the plots producing the most satisfactory and vigorous growth.All three species were compatible in Rhodes grass/legume pastures and were observed even to grow well with Star grass and in natural pasture swards. In the latter case, establishment and development were relatively small. The legumes were capable of producing well over 6,000 kg/DM/ha and over 1,000 kg CP/ha (16.6% CP) .They produced high-quality herbage throughout the season with crude protein values ranging from approximately 10 to 20% generally two to three times higher than the value for grasses. Glycine and Siratro also produced a considerable amount of dryseason growth and yielded 500 to over 1,000 kg DM/ha between June and October when good-quality forage is generally very scarce. These legumes stood up very well to heavy intensive stocking when they were allowed adequate rest between grazing cycles.Rhodes grass and native grass oversown to legume and stocked at 0.50 to 0.75 ha/steer supported steers for about seven to nine months.The steers gained 90 to 100 kg during the dry period. Glycine and Siratro are fire-tolerant and produce new growth soon after burning. Where they were completely burnt in June, the two species produced vigorous dry-season growth, yielding about 1,160 kg DM/ha.Stylo which is more drought-resistant is not firetolerant.The roots are readily killed by burning. It will, however, grow and re-establish itself during the rainy season following the fire from fallen seed.The above-ground herbage of all three species is killed by frost, but their root-stock is frost-tolerant. Both Glycine and Siratro produced vigorous new growth soon after severe frost which occurred in July, and they continued to produce excellent growth throughout the rest of the dry season. Regrowth of Stylo on the other hand seemed slower.On loamy soils of medium and heavy texture the most suitable species are Glycine and Siratro, while on the light-textured sandy soils Siratro and Stylo seem to be more suitable. Other cultivated and indigenous species such as Silverleaf desmodium, Macrotyloma and Rhynchosia, can also play an important role in pasture and forage improvement.Prior to 1974, large areas in the Mkushi District had been sown to both Rhodes grass and Star grass and some farmers had experimented with Torpedo grass (Panicum repens) in their 'dambos'.As a result of the increased profitability of beef, one farmer between 1979 and 1982 was able to clear 600 hectares of land along Mkushi River. The whole area was cleanly wind rowed and ploughed. Grass seed (Rhodes grass, Signal grass and Green panic) was sown with the legumes (Silverleaf desmodium, Greenleaf desmodium, Stylo cvs. Cook, Endeavour, Graham, and Seca, Lotononis and Siratro) into a rough seedbed and lightly harrowed.In the 'dambos' the area was disced during the dry season. Torpedo grass was planted vegetatively on a metre square spacing and Lotononis oversown into the rough seedbed. Since establishment, paddocks have been grazed at an overall average stocking rate of about 1.6 LU/ha. The pastures were heavily grazed during the December to February period and then either rested or lightly grazed for the next three to four months.In the latter part of the dry season they were again subjected to heavy grazing.Results of this exercise are presented in Table 2.In all cases the legumes were slow to establish although the companion grasses did well. Greenleaf desmodium started well but was quickly grazed out. The Silverleaf desmodium was the most encouraging, quickly establishing itself after the first year and maintaining or even increasing its share of the sward over the following four to five year period.Of the Stylosanthes spp. both Cook and Endeavour did well, but they suffered from termite attack during the last two years. In the rainy season of 1984/85 for the first time in Zambia the incidence of Anthracnose was confirmed. Worst affected were the cvs Endeavour and Cook in Rhodes grass. The one stand of cv Graham looked most promising having increased steadily over four years.It seemed less affected by termites and devoid of Anthracnose.The one plot of cv Seca (Stylosanthes scabra) started very slowly but had increased steadily despite being heavily frosted in 1981 and 1982. Seca plants spread into adjacent pastures, presumably through dung of grazing animals. The Lotononis had done exceptionally well in conjunction with Torpedo grass in the 'dambo'.Because of its palatability, it tended to be very heavily grazed in the dry months, but despite this it still managed to maintain itself. by Silverleaf desmodium and Siratro while Seca and Graham Stylos are the most promising of the latter group. Lotononis continues to be the main hope for ' dambo' improvement. There is no point in growing grass and legume pastures unless they can be properly utilised.It is likely that they would grow and thrive well if they are adequately managed. If pastures are allowed to grow unchecked during the entire growing season, the herbage becomes mature and coarse, and it rapidly deteriorates in feeding value.Pastures which are subjected to intensive rotational grazing remain relatively green and leafy and improve in basal cover. The major constraint to the expansion of legume/grass pastures is availability of seed. The seed production programme is being carried out under the auspices of the Government of Zambia and the Swedish International Development Authority, Agriculture Sector Support Programme. This programme has demonstrated the potential that there is for local seed production of different kinds of pasture species if a good management and good permanent maintenance breeding programme is introduced.The British colonial settlers established excellent commercial ranches, mainly in Machakos, Nakuru and Laikipia districts. After independence most of the white settlers offered their ranches for sale to Africans. The sale prices for those ranches were so high that Africans could not raise the required money at that time. Loans were made available at 80% of the sale price.The local people decided to form cooperative societies whereby each member was to raise Shs. 2,000/-to buy one share. Some members still could not raise the Shs. 2,000/-and had to incorporate other members. Thus one share was bought by a number of people but only one of them had his name registered. The others were called shadow members. For some time the high quality standard of livestock was maintained and a number of the ranches supplied the local farmers with improved bulls. The Kenya Meat Commission also continued to get high grade steers for slaughter.The current study was carried out to determine the effect of subdivision to livestock development and ecology of the range.A cooperative ranching society is where members own a ranch through the purchase of shares. A general meeting is held once to elect a committee of ten who run the ranch on behalf of the members.A general manager, who is supposed to husbandry, is recruited by the committee.When shareholders bought the ranches most of them thought that the benefits coming from the ranch would be immediate and substantial. Others became members just to see the colonialists go, while still others thought they would graze their own livestock side by side with the society ones.Most of the societies started experiencing problems brought by members. Committee members were the worst. Some of them took money from non-members then allowed them to graze their cattle on the society's land, while other members brought their relatives to live in the ranch as squatters. Some of the white settlers promised their workers part of the ranch when it was sold. This made employees become squatters in some ranches. A case in point is Kiu Co-operative Ranch where workers occupied 4000 acres since 1971 when the ranch was sold. The biggest problem to the societies, especially those in Machakos District, came from shadow members. These members were not allowed to participate in annual general meetings. Whenever a dividend was declared, it was paid only to registered members. The shadow members became a force which was soon recognised by the Government.They were later allowed to become members by increasing their share contribution .By 1964 local people in Machakos had formed 55 cooperative societies.Some of the ranch societies in the district are listed in Table 1.The problem with shadow members was experienced in Machakos only.Some committee members were illiterate, so instead of guiding the general member, they retarded his development plans. Some of the managers were not fit for the posts as their employment was influenced by some committee members.Because of all these problems it became necessary to subdivide the ranches. The effect of subdivision is already being felt in the country.During colonial days KMC made arrangements with the ranchers on the sale of finished steers for slaughter. Ranchers finished their steers with a market already assured while KMC officials also made all their purchases by telephone. KMC was thus able to operate at its full capacity.As these ranches changed hands and subdivision started, sale by telephone came to an end and KMC is almost closing its two factories in Mombasa and Athi River near Nairobi because of lack of animals to slaughter.Ranches which are already subdivided are being turned to crop production on subsistence level. Wildlife from Nairobi National Park and Hopecraft Game Ranch graze in these ranches during dry season. There will be continued crop damage by wildlife.An area east of Lake Naivasha called Mai Mahiu which had been subdivided much earlier and whose members are growing maize and beans is being degraded through erosion. Members harvest crops successfully once in five years. Wind erosion becomes serious when rains fail to come after land has been prepared.Most of the trained range management officers look upon pastoral areas (especially those in ecological zones V and VI) as being difficult areas.No proper cattle sales are organised and instead there is permanent quarantine over cattle movement because of contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia. Thus there are no plans for improvement regarding such problems.Most of the vast beef production areas in Kenya fall under ecological zones V and VI, where rainfall is erratic and the larger part of the year is dry. Livestock spend most of their time feeding on dry and protein-deficient forage. Some research should be carried out to find either deep-rooted legumes or annuals which will grow within a short time and dry up with the protein intact. Land preparation should be limited to scratching the top soil just to stop water from carrying the seeds away.Research in livestock and pasture production at the National Dryland Farming Research Station (NDFRS) Katumani, is principally aimed at increasing feed resources of smallholder agricultural systems of semi-arid areas and developing technologies and management systems that would raise livestock production from the subsistence level to a more commercial or a semi-specialised enterprise system. The research programme is carried out at four hierarchical levels: 1) base-line studies of the traditional livestock production system, 2) experimentation, 3) subsystem simulation study and 4) on-farm research.The base-line study of the traditional farming system included comprehensive farm surveys in different parts of the semi-arid zone in Eastern Kenya in order to describe the existing farming systems and identify the critical constraints faced by farmers of the region (Rukandema et al . , 1984;Tessema et al. , 1985) .These studies showed that traditional farmers of the dryland areas in Eastern Province avert risks by mixed cropping and livestock raising with the aim of achieving self sufficiency in food production.The land tenure in these semi-arid areas is a freehold system and farm sizes range from 1 to 20 hectares with a mean of 7.5 ha, out of which 2 to 3 hectares are cropped and 4-6 ha are left as natural rangelands.In the cropping subsystem, the principal crop grown is maize, usually intercropped with beans, pigeon peas and cowpeas.In the livestock subsystem, cattle, goats and sheep are kept by almost all farms, usually in numbers that exceed the carrying capacities of the farms. This has resulted in poor livestock productivity (e.g. in cattle, 50% calving rate; 18 months calving interval, 65 kg weaning weight and 450 kg milked yield per year per lactation) .The large number of livestock kept is related to the threat of recurrent food shortages due to crop failures on account of erratic and unreliable rainfall patterns. Thus, livestock are the only means of hedging against such crop failures.They serve as savings and to maintain cash liquidity.Their functions as sources of draught power, manure, meat and milk are secondary. Given these circumstances, however, these smallscale farmers attempt to operate rationally and optimally. Given appropriate technologies and the means to implement them, these farmers are quick to change and do raise their productivity considerably.Experimental research has been pursued on a number of areas. studies of the natural pasture through simple techniques such as selective bush clearing, burning and reseeding have shown that with a bimodal pattern of rainfall, reasonably high dry-matter accumulation of herbage can be achieved allowing higher stocking rates (2-3 ha/LU) than were normally accepted (6 ha/LU) for the dryland areas (Tessema and Emojong, 1984a) . Improvement of crop residues utilisation has shown good possibilities to solve dry season feeding problems.The quality of crop residues was improved through physical treatment and supplementation with high protein Leucaena and pigeon pea leaves (Tessema and Emojong, 1984b) .The economics of milk production was found to be profitable through feeding cultivated fodders such as Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and Bana, (Pennisetum purpureum x Pennisetum typhoides) to crossbred dairy cows (Thairu and Tessema, 1987).Draught Zebu oxen, when properly managed and adequately supplemented, provide sufficient draught power to break the soil and provide good tilth for planting crops before the rains thus making it possible to prepare more land for food and feed production (Tessema and Emojong, 1984c) . Such findings were used for developing a set of improved practices that can be brought together and tested as a package.In the past, research efforts to improve the productivity of small-scale farms have had little success because of the failure to consider an integrated approach as a research strategy.An integrated research approach is even more important for the livestock system than it is for crops.Improved technological alternatives in crop production such as new crop varieties, new rates of seeding and different planting dates may each be effectively adopted individually without substantially requiring LU = 250 kg weight accompanying technologies or affecting other activities on the farm.Innovations in livestock production, however, may not be considered individually or in isolation without due consideration of their effects on other activities of the farm. For example, the adoption of cultivated pasture and fodder crops depends upon the extent to which the activity is conflicting or competing with food crop farming.Cultivated fodder crops could only be economically utilised by livestock that are highly productive and with good genetic potential for such economic traits as milk production.As the genetic potential of the indigenous zebu cattle for milk production is rather low, the use of cultivated fodder crops for increased milk production would at least require the introduction of crossbred dairy cows in the system. Furthermore, for increased milk production from intensively managed pastures to be fully attained, an adequate water supply, proper animal health care and disease control, appropriate housing and shelter are required. Thus, a single innovation, such as the introduction of cultivated fodder crops in the farming system entails the adoption of a multitude of other activities. Therefore, while a step-wise improvement strategy is possible in crop improvement programmes, the livestock production subsystem must have the 'critical mix' of technological alternatives that need to be implemented and studied simultaneously in order to determine relationships, interactions, competitiveness and/or complementarity of innovations.At NDFRS in Katumani this is being accomplished at two hierarchical levels in a farming systems framework: subsystem simulation study and on-farm research.In this study the most promising technological innovations emanating from component research in livestock and pasture production are brought together and tested under simulated farm conditions at the experiment station, using the average resources available to a typical farmer in terms of land, labour and capital. The objectives of the study are the following:1.to identify real constraints of the improved livestock production system when compared with the traditional system; 2.to evaluate inputs, outputs and economics of livestock production under specific farming conditions;3. to formulate new and economically sound technological packages ;to determine the competition and complementarity in resource use between the livestock and cropping enterprises.An area of land comparable to the average-sized farm (7.5 hectares) was demarcated at the station. Leaving 2.5 hectares for food crop production, the remaining 5 hectares were put under the following improved practices of livestock production: a) improvement of the natural pasture through selective bush clearing and burning and reseeding with Stylosanthes scabra. The purpose is to improve the quality and quantity of dry-matter production and increase carrying capacity; b) improved utilisation of crop residues for dry season feeding through better collection and storage, treatment and supplementation with Leucaena leucocephala and pigeon peas; c) The central theme of the package is to increase feed resources and improve the livestock feeding system by intensifying land use and by integrating feed resources so that continuity of feed supply is assured throughout the year. Livestock production is intensified through the introduction of dairying for commercial milk production based on crossbred cows maintained on improved natural pasture, cultivated fodder crops and supplemented with home grown and conserved feedstuff s.From this subsystem study, data have been collected over a three-year period on pasture and animal production, including productivity of natural and improved pasture, milk production, calf, lamb and kid growth, weight gains and losses in mature stock, disease occurrence and mortality and livestock offtake. Along with livestock production operation all input data are also recorded: i.e. labour needed for various activities and cost prices of all items used.The initial and annual costs are given in Table 1 and included the following activities:The five hectares of bushy grazing land was selectively cleared. Reseeding with Stylo and Rhodes grass using minimum cultivation methods is still under study. The grass/legume ley is composed of Rhodes grass and stylo and requires one thorough weeding each season. This forage is grazed or cut and conserved as hay for dry season feeding.The established plot is expected to have a life span of four to five years and would require one weeding each season (short and long rains) . The fodder is zero-grazed during the growing season and any excess is ensiled.The established plot is expected to have a long life 6pan requiring one thorough weeding each season. The fodder is cut and fed to zero-grazed animals both during the growing season and the dry season.Crop residues from maize, pigeon pea and sorghum are collected properly each season and used during the dry season. Various techniques are used to improve the efficiency of theirLivestock shed was constructed. Locally available materials were used in the construction of the shed. If corrugated iron sheet roofing is used, it can also serve to collect rain water for use by animals. The bulk of water requirement is, however, hauled from a river source using ox-cart and drums. The livestock shed is estimated to cost KShs. 4000/-.Based on the feed resources developed on the five hectares of land as given in Table 2, the following livestock were kept in productive state throughout the year:-three crossbred dairy cows (Zebu x Friesian) , -one replacement heifer, and two oxen (indigenous) , -seven sheep and their followers, -seven goats and their followers. Total yield per annum from two growing seasons.An in-calf crossbred heifer is generally estimated at approximately KShs. 4500/-when directly purchased. But the crossbred cows can be obtained through artificial insemination of indigenous cows, thus eliminating this high investment cost.A stocking rate of approximately one livestock unit (250 kg) per hectare of farm holding (7.5 hectares) is achieved while the mixture of livestock kept will meet the farmer's needs for draught power, milk production (for sale and home consumption) and small stock for meat and periodic sale to meet large payments such as school fees, etc.The labour required to carry out the activities of this livestock subsystem is shown in Table 3. The sum total of man-hours required per day amounts to 11.8 hours.Out of these, seven hours are needed for herding, which under real farm situations can be undertaken by 7 to 10-year-old children who go to school only part of the day. Therefore, these hours need not be considered in terms of adult labour force.In the subsystem unit, grazing areas were fenced, thus the labour requirement for grazing was only imputed. The real requirements of labour hours for the livestock activities in terms of adult equivalents were therefore 4.8 hours. Other expendituresThese include:-drugs for all animals(-KShs. 980.00), -mineral and protein supplements (= KShs. 544.00), -dipping costs(-KShs. 760. 00) .The total amount of feedstuffs produced is shown in Table 2 and indicated that 27 tonnes of dry matter were potentially available in an average year.The total average lactation yield from three cows over two lactations was 1870 kg per cow without the calf at foot. This was achieved under semi-zero grazing where the cows were grazed on natural pasture during the day and, in the evenings, were offered chopped Napier grass (ad libitum) during the growing season and treated maize stover mixed with green Leucaena (at 3 0% of DM intake) during the dry season.When 500 liters of the milk produced is fed to the calf over a six-months period, 1370 kg of milk per cow is left for sale or home consumption. This is three times the amount produced by the average cow under traditional management. At a current value of milk in the local market of KShs. 3/-per liter, the value of milk offtake from three cows amounted to KShs. 12, 330 over a 14month period.Annual average weight changes of all livestock over a three-year period is shown in Table 4 below. The annual offtakes consisted of three lambs weighing an average of 28 kg, with a value of KShs. 672/-(at 8 KShs/kg) and four weaner goats weighing 30 kg with a value of KShs. 1080 (at 9 KShs. liveweight).The two oxen provided adequate traction power to plough two to three hectares of land each season, before rains started.They also pulled an ox-cart whenever required to draw water or to transport fodder. The opportunity cost of renting a team of oxen to plough one hectare of land in the area is KShs. 550/-.A total of 30 tonnes of manure (a compost made of 80% dung and 20% soil and other plant material) was collected yearly from the herd.The monetary value of this manure, according to current sale price is KShs. 2400 (at KShs. 80/-per tonne) .technological improvements tested in this study certainly required high inputs.But the outputs are also correspondingly high. It is, however, felt that more data would be required to make an appropriate assessment of the profitability of the enterprise. Calving, kidding and lambing intervals; death rates; the rate of decline in yield of established fodder fields; value of replacement heifers sold or kept etc. are some of the vital data that are still required to make a comprehensive assessment. It is estimated that a period of five years would be adequate to make such an assessment.The existence of strong interactions between crops and livestock in these small-farm systems is well recognised.While the crop subsystem is being studied in a separate simulation programme, the on-farm research programme discussed below is, however, carried out with an integrated multi-disciplinary approach.The most promising results from the multi-disciplinary on-station research were used to formulate technological improvements that would appear to increase the productivity of livestock on smallscale farms in semi-arid areas. Preliminary results of the profitability of these improvements when tested as a package under simulated farming systems also appeared to be very promising. The on-farm research programme was therefore designed to test the validity of these technological innovations under actual farm conditions.There are many factors which determine how rapidly a practice will be adopted by small-scale farmers. These include the costs and risks involved, the ignoring of potential returns, the complexity of the practice, the time it takes for better results, the compatability of the practice relative to cultural customs and established pattern of agriculture.Farmers are expected to respond differently to a given economic opportunity depending upon their subjective evaluation of the innovation. The smaller the potential increase in income from a particular recommendation, the more varied the response of different farmers is likely to be. For example, an increase of 10% to 20% in milk yield or in growth rate above the common experience can hardly be distinguished from changes in yields resulting from the usual seasonal or annual fluctuations. Incentives which in the initial stages bring about increases of 100% or more have a much better chance of adoption. Thus, the concept of the on-farm research programme has necessitated a somewhat radical approach, namely the introduction of a commercialised livestock enterprise in small-farm systems.Smallholder dairying based on crossbred cows maintained almost entirely on well managed forages and pasture grasses and supplemented with home grown and conserved feedstuffs would indeed seem to be a feasible innovation worth extensive on-farm testing. Except for the problems of feed resources and diseases that may limit level of production, the economic aspects of dairying in low potential areas would not be too different from that of the high potential regions when expressed in terms of returns to labour and capital investment. However, a successful dairying enterprise needs to adapt to the cyclical nature of the environment.Therefore a year-round feed supply of sufficient quality needs to be guaranteed.The feeding of dairy cattle for improved productivity is best achieved by the integration of herbage from natural rangeland, sown pasture, planted fodders and crop residues. Without the combined use of these different feed resources, increased and sustained milk productivity cannot be achieved. In order to attain this objective a change must come about from the present system of keeping livestock as a separate enterprise to that of fully integrating them in the farming system. As soon as farmers accept that grasses and forages need the same care and management of food crops, a transition from livestock keeping for subsistence to that for productive purposes will be effected. traction and material inputs as well as the returns for various enterprises, and to assess the pressure on farm resources and the levels of risk of different enterprise combinations faced by farmers.The data will be analysed by linear programming, regression equations and variance analysis to evaluate results and identify variables. Cost-benefit analyses will be made to test economic feasibility.Achievements of applicable results from livestock and pasture research are lengthy and difficult processes. While substantial data are available from the subsystem simulation study, collected over the past three years, data from the six farms on the on-farm research programme are scanty.Preliminary observations of the research approach used, however, show that the researcher is more knowledgeable of the real constraints of the production system and therefore can design more relevant and effective programmes. It seems also that the desired end results of the research efforts can be arrived at in a reasonably shorter period of time.The ILCA Subhumid Programme, adopting a farming systems research approach, identified poor nutrition in the dry season as the main constraint to cattle production in the subhumid zone of Nigeria. During this period, the natural pasture is not only scarce but also poor in quality, with a crude protein (CP) content of about 3%. This is below the critical 7% CP level required in the diet of ruminants. Cattle may lose up to 15-20% of their body weight during this season (Otchere, 1986) . Also, milk yields are low, calf mortality is high and many cows are unable to conceive because of nutritional anoestrus.A contributory factor to the low quality and productivity of the herbage in the subhumid zone is the poor nature of savanna soils.Intensive methods of agricultural production such as continuous cropping, land clearing and mechanised farming lead to nutrient losses through soil erosion, runoff and leaching.The organic matter of these soils is very low because the poor savanna vegetation contributes very little to the soil to replenish the fast decomposing organic matter. Burning and the removal of crop residues from the site for livestock feeding aggravate the situation.Any attempt to promote livestock production in the subhumid zone should therefore consider a programme of soil fertility maintenance in addition to improving the nutritional value of the pasture.For instance, the poor carbon and nitrogen content of these soils could be improved by the incorporation of forage legumes into the cropping and fallow systems. The use of agroindustrial by-products such as cottonseed cake, groundnut meal, urea and molasses can improve the productivity of lactating and pregnant cows. However, supplies of these feeds are not readily available and prices are escalating. In view of these ecological and financial constraints, ILCA considered a sustainable enterprise such as planted forage legumes (fodder banks) to be a more appropriate long-term option.Research is being conducted in three main case study areas. Kurmin Biri is a grazing reserve established by the government to assist pastoral ist settlement. Abet is an intensively cultivated area where pastoral ists settle amongst the arable farmers who are the landowners. Ganawuri is also intensively cultivated but by mixed farmers, who own both land and cattle.fodder bank is a concentrated unit of forage legumes established and managed by pastoralists near their homesteads for the dry season supplementation of selected animals. These legumes can fix soil nitrogen, and the protein content can stay above 8% for a greater part of the dry season.At present, Stylosanthes guianensis cv Cook and S. hamata cv Verano are the two main species recommended. (f) Ration the fodder bank by selecting the appropriate type and number of animals and limiting grazing to 2.5 hours per day.(g) Ensure sufficient seed drop and adequate stubble for stylo regeneration in the following season.Experiments have shown that supplementary feeding with 1 kg of cotton-seed cake (crude protein -30%) daily, maintained the bodyweight of Bunaji cows throughout the dry season (Otchere 1986). It was predicted that cattle fed with 2.5 kg of dry stylo (crude protein -12%) would derive similar benefits.With a potential stylo dry-matter yield of 4 to 5 tonnes per hectare, it was estimated that a 4-ha fodder bank should adequately meet the supplementary requirements of 15-20 pregnant and lactating cows for the six-month dry season if grazing is limited to 2.5 hours a day.Animals with access to fodder banks in the dry season of 1983 produced more milk, lost less weight and their calves survived better (Bayer, 1986: Figures 1 and 2). This is supported by evidence from the comparison of herds with and without fodder banks (Table 1) .The advantages of owning fodder banks is acknowledged by cattle owners as evidenced by an increase in the number of fodder banks in the subhumid zone from two in 1980 to 77 in 1986 (Figure 3) , and financial support has been provided by the World Bank for the establishment of an additional 2000 fodder banks over the next five years. Source: Mani (1986) .Major Constraints to Fodder Bank Expansion Social problems (land tenure system)  (1986) FulBe who are willing to settle on government grazing reserves find it easy to obtain land for fodder banks but there is only a limited number of grazing reserves. Most agropastoralists actually prefer to settle near crop farmers to have access to crop residues, better marketing facilities and social services.With an expanding population and consequent increasing demand for land for cropping, the pastoralists will face greater difficulties because the farmers retain the best crop land for themselves. Moreover, they are typically reluctant to lease their unused land to cattle owners for pasture development because of their tedious procedures and safeguards that have to be negotiated under customary law. In certain areas, pastoralists are worried that farmers will go to the extent of hindering cattle owners from acquiring individual pasture plots even in grazing reserves. This clearly indicates that fodder bank technology will not be as widely adopted as desired in the subhumid zone unless it is of significant benefit to the farmers, as well as to the livestock.Invasion of leguminous pastures by nitrophilous grasses (Gardner, 1984) reduces fodder bank productivity over time.This is because such pastures accumulate soil nitrogen through fixation of atmospheric N (Vallis and Gardner, 1984) which makes nitrophilous grasses very competitive. Since grasses grow faster than legumes, the latter are likely to be smothered, thereby lowering the nutritional value of the pasture especially if the grasses are not controlled. This was observed in a four-year-old S. hamata cv Verano fodder bank in the Kachia grazing reserve, which showed a rapid build-up of fast-growing grasses (Table 2) . In a one-year-old fodder bank, stylo productivity, soil N and crude protein declined with an increase in grass density (Figure 4) . In Thailand, mixed legume/Setaria sphacelata swards changed from legume dominance to grass dominance within two years (Andrews and Gibson, 1985) . This implies that a system must be devised whereby the excess N can be periodically flushed out to check the invasion of nitrophilous grasses.Cropping uses the accrued N, thereby restricting the growth of nitrophilous plants and favouring the legume component of the pasture. Nitrogen is the most limiting element for cereal crops and one of the most expensive fertilizers (FAO, 1984) . Exploiting legume-fixed nitrogen through cropping will, therefore, interest the farmers and will encourage them to lend their land more readily to the FulBe for pasture development.Previous work on legume-based cropping (Mohamed-Saleem, 1986) showed that maize-growing on fodder banks of various ages produced higher grain yields than on previously cropped and uncropped soils.Improvement in fertility and physical properties of the soil contributed to the increase in yield within the stylo area. Measurements on soils where the above experiments were carried out showed differences in bulk density, gravel, organic matter and nitrogen contents. ILCA's approach is to exploit this feature in order to encourage farmers to Moreover, once the arable community recognises Stylosanthes as a soil conditioner, it will command the same care and respect as that given to crops. This will also indirectly alleviate problems such as the deliberate burning and indiscriminate grazing of fodder banks. METHODOLOGY s conducted duri: 30'N, 8°25'E, rainfall 1300 mm between April-October), one of ILCA's case study areas. Two fodder banks of Stylosanthes hamata cv Verano established three and four years previously and grazed during all consecutive dry seasons, were identified. Four plots each of 15 m x 10 m were laid out inside each fodder bank. The plots were set up in sites in which the legume component was representative of that found in fodder banks of the subhumid zone (50-60% stylo) .Each plot formed a replication. Comparable plots which had remained as natural grass fallow for at least four years were also demarcated immediately outside the fodder banks .The plots were ridged to a height of 30 cm in May at onemetre intervals and planted with three maize seeds (Variety TZPB) per hole at a spacing of 0.25 and thinned to one seedling after emergence.A uniform dose of N, P and K at the rates of 60, 60 and 60 kg/ha, respectively was applied as compound fertilizer (N p15 K15^prior to planting and another 60 kg N/ha as urea was applied six weeks later. Plots were weeded five and eight weeks after sowing.At harvest, the cobs were first plucked then dehusked, dried and shelled to determine the grain yield.The stalks were cut and dried at 80°C to determine the dry weight of the crop residues. All data collected were analysed according to variance technique. The grain yield and crop residues of the maize planted Inside the fodder banks almost doubled that of maize sown outside the fodder banks (Tables 3 and 4) . Even at the vegetative growth stages it could be seen that the maize planted in the legume-based soils was performing better than that grown on natural fallow. These visible differences led to the organisation of a field day for over 100 farmers and pastoralists in Abet on 12th August, 1985. They were quick to note the superior growth of maize inside the stylo area.The incremental income to farmers growing crops in fodder banks in Abet would be 124% of normal crop revenue resulting from a natural fallow (Kaufmann and Blench, 1986) . Despite years of contact with fodder banks, the demonstration trials enabled farmers for the first time to see in a direct, visual manner that legume-based pastures can be exploited for crops as well as livestock.As a result, farmers asked for Stylosanthes pastures to improve soil fertility in their fallows.Five of these have been established and more farmers are becoming interested in the package (Table 5) . Initially, the small hectarage will be used for improving feed for small ruminants, but later it is hoped that the farmers will see the advantage of letting pastoralists seed and manage larger areas for them. At other times farmers arrange for herds of pastoralists to fertilize crop fields, so as to enjoy the benefit of cropping the area during the first year.In return, the pastoralists are allowed to cultivate the areas in subsequent seasons. This symbiosis could be developed further by incorporating forage legumes.The farmers could lend their fallow land to pastoralists for the establishment of fodder banks and thus improve their crop yields at the same time.Future work will include the determination of the minimum area required to produce fodder that will support the average number of small ruminants kept by farmers. Management guidelines for the utilisation of the fenced pastures for both wet and dry season supplementation will be worked out. Also, the contribution of stylo to soil fertility and the performance of animals grazing on the fodder banks will be monitored.Studies of the response of cereals to fixed nitrogen in fodder banks will be continued for newly opened and continuously cropped stylo soils in order to determine the most responsive crop and the fertilizer/labour requirements for cropping such soils. A crop-legume rotational system will be introduced in the larger (4 ha) fodder banks.Stylosanthes-based cropping serves the dual purpose of maintaining forage quality and improving crop yields. Thus, it can benefit both farmers and agropastoralists.Cropping stylo areas, hitherto considered as optional in fodder bank management, should now be regarded as an essential practice.Farmers and agropastoralists in Kurmin Biri, Abet and Ganawuri (ILCA case study areas) have seen this potential for cropping stylo areas. Since tilling these soils does not require more labour than a natural fallow (Tarawali et al . , 1986) they have started to crop part of their fodder banks and legume fallows.While Stylosanthes pastures were originally meant to promote livestock production, their continued spread across the subhumid zone will be a boost to crop production as well.Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa with approximately 26 million head of cattle including about six million draught oxen. About 80% of these animals are raised in the intensively cultivated highland part of the country. The Ethiopian highlands cover 490,000 km or about 40% of the country and almost half of the total African highland area (Gryseels and Anderson, 1983) .Ethiopia has unique agricultural features such as the use of teff (Eragrostis tef) as a cereal and enset (Musa ensete) as a root crop, an indigenous system of ox traction and the extensive use of equines (seven million) for transport (Jahnke, 1982) .use is dominated by mixed smallholder rainfed agriculture producing cereals, pulses and livestock. Crop production and livestock husbandry are commonly integrated in the mixed farming system of the medium-highland zones of Ethiopia. Oxen are important suppliers of draught power for land development, tillage, threshing and transport which means that the more crop production is increased, more and more oxen are required. This fact is even more realistic in most parts of high potential agricultural zones of Ethiopian highlands due to the uneven nature of the landscape. In Ethiopia, about six million ha of land are put under annual grain crops; mainly wheat, barley, teff, maize, sorghum and pulses.As more and more land is put under crop production, livestock feed becomes scarce and crop residues particularly cereal straws remain the major feed source for the animals particularly during the dry period of the year (which spans the November to May period) . Some estimates indicate that crop residues provide 40-50% of the annual livestock feed requirement. This paper contains current practices of straw utilisation and reviews efforts made to improve nutritional quality of crop residues in Ethiopia.From about 6 million ha of farmland about 12 million tonnes of crop residues (grain yield 10 qt/ha and 2:1 straw to grain ratio) are annually produced in Ethiopia of which about one-third is left in the field for aftermath grazing (stubbles) .Farmers use crop residues for different purposes, e.g. for fuel as firewood and minor constructions, especially maize and sorghum stovers; for roofing local houses, in the case of wheat, oat and barley straws; as binding material for walls of local houses, especially teff straw.But the major use is for livestock feed particularly for draught oxen during dry seasons. Animals feed on crop residues mainly in two ways.The residues are piled in stacks near homesteads and animals are let to eat from the stacks or given small quantities in the morning and evening, or for working oxen, before and after work. Alternatively, the residues are left in the threshing ground and consumed by animals together with the standing straws which are left for aftermath grazing.In some parts of the Ethiopian central highlands farms and government-owned fattening feed lots use straws with molasses and urea.There is a strong tendency towards improving the utilisation of crop residues by supplementing with molasses and/or urea at beef farms. And at some farmer cooperatives pen fattening of cull cows and old oxen is practiced on straw-based diets.Grain and straw yields of different crops are shown on Table 1. Yields of grain and crop residues are highly correlated. High grain yields are the result of high vegetative growth which is associated with high production of crop residues. The straw to grain ratio for wheat varieties ranges from 1.8 to 2.9 and of barley from 1.9 to 2.6. It appears that varieties of low yield potential produce the highest straw to grain ratio i.e. have the lowest harvest index. Total above-ground weight (kg)Samples were collected from trial plots and the Seed Multiplication Farm, so that the yield figures for different crops might deviate from what is normally expected. However, the figures shown for residue to grain ratio, harvest index and contents of crude protein and crude fibre can safely be used for rough estimation. Reed et al. (1986) have also demonstrated that high grain yielding varieties of sorghum (in Ethiopia) can also yield reasonably high amounts of crop residue with high nutritive value.As shown in Table 1 there are considerable variations in the contents of crude protein and crude fibre among different crop residues and varieties of the same crop.Nutritional values of different crop residues and some forages are shown in Table 2. Chemical composition of the cereal crop residues contain a large proportion of lignocellulosic cell wall constituents and have low crude protein contents. Thus one could expect both voluntary intake and digestibility of the crop residues to be low. Generally, cereal crop residues have an energy content of less than 7.0 MJ/kg dm. As shown in To achieve maximum intake of straw a crude protein content of 66-85 g/kg DM is necessary. Maximum intake of DM has been observed when crop residues form 16-35% of the diet.From studies at ILCA in Ethiopia (Mosi and Butterworth, 1985) showed that cereal crop residues are often less than 50% digestible and intake is usually 50 g/kg LW 0.75 or less. Preston and Leng (1987) reported that straws from various species of grain crops appear to be highly variable in in vitro digestibility and the crude protein content is always low (Table 4) . 0.4-1.0 0.4-1.0 0.5-1.0 0.4-1.0 0.5-1.2 0.5-0.8Generally, crop residues are poor quality feed so that their digestibility is low, and also they contain low N which limits voluntary intake and nutritional value.The most commonly used physical treatment has been grinding. It reduces particle size and increases the surface area of the straws exposed to rumen microbial action.Straws have the disadvantage of being extremely bulky, making costs of transportation high per unit of nutritive value. One advantage of grinding or fine chopping is to reduce the bulk of the materials.Soaking straw in water just before feeding has also been practised to increase dry-matter intake and hence digestible organic-matter consumption (Chaturvedi et al . , 1973;Holzer et al., 1975). Sundstol (1981) and Nicholson (1981) have reported that high pressure steam, high temperature treatment and irradiation of straws -are effective in increasing the digestibility under laboratory conditions. This practice appears to be costly and might not be used in the foreseeable future at small-scale livestock husbandry systems such as those in Ethiopia.The most widely used chemicals to treat straws have been sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and ammonia (NH3) .It has long been known that soaking in lime (alkaline solution) improves intake and digestibility of straw. Butterworth and Mosi (1986) (quoting Jaasuriya) reported that treating roughages with sodium hydroxide can increase their digestibility by 10-20 percentage points and increase intake by 30-50%. Studies conducted in U.K. (FAO, 1977) show that inclusion of up to 30% treated straw (with 5-6% NaOH) in complete diets has not depressed production of milk or beef. Ammoniation of crop residues using gaseous ammonia or through wet ensiling (for 10-30 days) with urea (4-5%) has been found applicable for practical use at present.and Leng (1987) reported that this practice increases digestibility by 5-10% units, nitrogen content of the straw, and acceptability and voluntary intake of the treated straw by 25-50% as compared to untreated straw.In Ethiopia, urea (46% N) is dissolved in water and sprinkled over the residues and fed at the rate of 75-100 gm/day/animal in some beef production feedlots.In Ethiopia, over 50,000 tonnes of molasses is produced annually of which about 55% is exported (Alemayehu Mengistu, 1985) . The practice of using molasses as a supplementary feed for livestock has not been well understood at present. Due to the drought problem in 1984/85, the Ministry of Agriculture and ILCA jointly conducted some studies and as a result of this work molasses/urea mixtures are being used as a strategic feed reserve in the drought stricken areas and as a routine feed in cattle fattening farms.Molasses is used as a palatable carrier for urea and minerals for improving the utilisation of crop residues. Molasses/urea mixtures are used also as the basis of a supplement to crop residues for routine feeding during the dry season.In cattle fattening enterprises, Preston (1985) recommended that molasses (at free choice) should be supplemented with 2.5% urea, cereal straw (0.8% liveweight on dry-matter basis) and protein meal about 0.25% of liveweight basis.Most of the oil seed plants such as noug (Guizotia abyssinica) , linseed, groundnuts, rapeseed, sesame and sunflower are widely grown in Ethiopia. The cakes of these crops are widely used as a protein supplement to low quality hays and crop residues.Leguminous forage crops which are rich in protein and usually high in digestibility have been found beneficial as a supplement to improve intake and digestibility of crop residues.From studies conducted in Ethiopia, Mosi and Butterworth (1985) found that addition of 20-25% Trifolium tembense hay to teff straw increased feed intake of sheep by 20-30%.In another study Butterworth and Mosi (1986) reported that where hay from Trifolium is supplemented to residues of teff, oat, wheat and maize at the rate of 30% by weight, dry-matter digestibility was increased by about 10 percent units as compared to straws alone (Figure 1) . Olayiwole et al. (1986) have also obtained satisfactory growth rates of crossbred dairy heifers by feeding cereal crop residues supplemented with small amounts of maize and urea and additional protein from Trifolium hay and noug meal (Table 5) .Improving cereal crop residues by supplementing with green forage legumes such as foliage from Leucaena, Sesbania , pigeon pea or hays from Trifolium, alfalfa and vetch, is the most practical method which can be adopted locally by small-scale farmers. Growing forage legumes on land that could otherwise be fallowed has the additional benefit of increasing the yield of subsequent crops through the nitrogen fixed by the legume. Intercropping cereals with legumes such as Dolichos with maize or sorghum (Haque, ILCA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unpublished data) can improve the nutritional value of the residues. This practice appears more appropriate and a cost-effective way as compared to other methods of improving the nutritional value of crop residues. Source: Butterworth and Mosi (1986) In high potential agricultural zones of the Ethiopian highlands more and more land is being cultivated for crop production every year to satisfy the increasing human demand for food. Consequently, the grazing lands are becoming scarce and crop residues remain the main feed source for livestock. The limiting factors with the utilisation of crop residues as livestock feed are low voluntary intake and poor digestibility.Emphasis is being given to assess implications of a more widespread use of crop residues as livestock feed and possibilities of improving nutritional value.Various methods of physical and chemical treatments of straws have been developed. Both treatment methods have been found to require heavy investment on machinery followed by regular availability or supply of replacement parts and chemicals which would not be feasible for small-farmer level at present in Ethiopia.Growing fodder legumes and use of these fodders as supplement to crop residue is the most practical and costeffective method of improving nutritional value of crop residues. This creates an opportunity for crop residues to play a useful role in reducing weight losses of animals particularly during dry periods.Better use of crop residues ought to be stressed, and research efforts must be directed to develop methodologies by which the utilisation of this resource could be increased. Plant breeders seldom consider the fact that crop residues are the most, often the only, available livestock feed resource when selecting crop varieties for high grain yields. Straw yield and nutritional quality might have to be considered when new varieties are developed.of sowing legumes under cereals and improvement of the nutritional qualities of crop residues by supplementations with leguminous fodders should be emphasised in the future .In Ethiopia, as elsewhere in Africa, malnutrition impairs livestock production. Ethiopia's overall livestock productivity is below average. Although 12.7% of Africa's 524.61 million cattle, sheep and goats are found in Ethiopia, the country produces only 7.3% and 5.1% of Africa's total meat and milk production respectively (FAO, 1985) . Grazing animals in Ethiopia subsist mainly on poor quality feedstuffs in the form of poor quality pastures in arid and semi-arid areas and hays and/or crop residues in the arable areas. In a few of the animal production centres where improved management is undertaken, the main supplements are energy and protein in the form of agro-industrial by-products such as cereal brans, molasses and oilseed cakes. Scant attention is given to the mineral content and nutritional balance of such diets. It has been widely established that available energy and protein of a feed are of primary importance to any animal but optimal performance is only possible if there is an adequate supply of minerals and vitamins (McDowell, 1985) .In Ethiopia, cattle rarely receive mineral supplements except occasionally common salt. Pastures are thus the main source of minerals, and only rarely can forages completely satisfy all mineral requirements of livestock (Miles and McDowell, 1983) . Mineral status of grazing animals in Ethiopia and other African countries has received very little attention. This may be due partly to the fact that the methodology of mineral nutrition studies, especially of trace elements, is rather complicated and signs of marginal mineral deficiencies are not easily detected but frequently it is mistakenly assumed that the grazing animal will obtain its mineral needs from the pasture.Mineral deficiencies, even if marginal, can result in depression of animal performance. Subclinical mineral deficiencies are often widespread and are responsible for as yet unestimated, but probably great, economic losses in livestock production.An earlier mineral study in Ethiopia (Faye et al., 1983) indicated probable widespread copper and zinc deficiencies, and although much more information on the supplies of essential minerals for livestock is required, it is very likely that mineral deficiencies contribute to the poor performance of livestock in Ethiopia. Before measures can be undertaken to correct these deficiencies, it is necessary to assess the mineral status of forages and of the grazing animals as well as their production responses to mineral supplementation. This study was undertaken to investigate the nutrient status, with special regard to minerals, of the common crop residues, pasture grasses, grass hays and browse trees used as livestock feeds in Ethiopia.Samples of meadow hay were collected from an ILCA site in Addis Ababa and from two other sites at Debre Berhan (an ILCAstation 120 km east of Addis Ababa and a Government sheep breeding station 132 km from Addis Ababa) . Samples were also taken from a commercial source in Addis Ababa, whose supplies came from the Addis Ababa region. All the samples were from the highlands (2500-3000 m) and were obtained by pooling core samples from ten positions within the stack. Samples of oats hay (whole plant with grain) , ryegrass hay and improved pasture hay (mostly ryegrass and native Trifolium species) were taken as described above from stacks of hay at ILCA sites in Debre Berhan harvested between September and November, 1986.Sesbania sesban grown at ILCA, Addis Ababa and in Yabello in the southern Ethiopian rangelands of Sidamo were harvested in February, 1987. Samples were taken by pooling leaves from mature trees (50 in Addis Ababa and 15 in Sidamo) .Leaves from the trees in Addis Ababa were further separated into young (first ten leaves on twig) and old. Pods with seeds on trees from Addis Ababa were first air-dried and then separated into pods and seeds.Samples of Leucaena leucocephala cv Peru were taken in February, 1987 from a lowland area at a Government research station (Institute of Agricultural Research, Melka Worer) in eastern Ethiopia using the same procedures as for Sesbania.Grass and browse species were collected from the Sidamo southern rangelands in February, 1987 by hand plucking during grazing observations over three days.The species collected included: Cenchrus ciliaris, Themeda triandra, Chrysopogon aucheri, Pennisetum mezianum. Acacia brevispica and Acacia nilotica. The Acacia samples were of the species mainly browsed by camels and goats.Samples of crop residues were taken using the same procedures as for hays. The crop residues were of highland origin, and most of them were being used in feeding experiments at ILCA, Debre Zeit and ILCA, Addis Ababa. chemical Analysis Dry matter was determined after drying in a microwave oven at 60 c for 24 hours. The dried samples were ground using a one-mm sieve and stored in plastic bottles ready for analysis. Neutraldetergent fibre (NDF) , acid-detergent fibre (ADF) , lignin and ADF ash were determined with a microfibre apparatus using the procedures of Goering and van Soest (1970) .Samples were prepared for mineral analysis by the wet digestion method using concentrated sulphuric acid in presence of hydrogen peroxide. Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in the extracts were determined with the autoanalyser which uses ascorbic acid as a reducing agent for P determination. The concentrations of potassium (K) , sodium (Na) , calcium (Ca) , magnesium (Mg) , iron (Fe) , manganese (Mn) , zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy.Sulphur (S) in the samples was quantified using the turbidimetric method of Cottenie et al. (1982).The analytical results for hay and range grasses are shown in Tables 1 and 2 , for crop residues in Tables 3 and 4 and for leguminous trees in Tables 5 and 6. Acacia nilotica 8..1 0.5 18.0 1.9 2.2 2.3 664 66 31 9.0 * Taken from the low-mid altitude southern Ethiopian rangelands.All the pasture grasses and crop residues studied had very low crude protein contents which is characteristic of mature tropical forages whose protein content declines rapidly following the rapid growth of the rainy season. Those figures were all below the level of 7.5% considered to be required for optimum rumen function (van Soest, 1982) .For reasonable levels of production, animals subsisting on these forages will therefore require supplementary protein which may be in the form of oilseed cakes and/or NPN sources such as urea which could be easily obtained locally. While use of such sources is practicable on smallholder units, it is not easy to do so for cattle on range in pastoral areas. In such situations it is possible to achieve some success through the use of high protein browse and tree crops such as Sesbania, Leucaena, Gliricidia and Acacia species (Table 5) . On smallholdings in the highlands, where feeding hay is practised, effort could be made to improve the quality of the hay by practising early cutting, although the problem here is to compromise quantity with quality. Since hay is now being marketed in Ethiopia, a degree of quality control could be achieved if analyses were carried out and a system of price premium for good quality was introduced.The high levels of ADF ash in most of the grasses indicates the presence of large amounts of silica which may seriously reduce digestibility (van Soest, 1982) .In relation to the essential mineral elements, the level of K in all the forages was above the level of 8 g/kg recommended for grazing animals (Underwood, 1981) . It has, however, been suggested (McDowell, 1985) that weaned calves and high producing dairy cows under stress, such as heat stress, may require K level above 10 g/kg, but since only the straws of barley, teff and linseed approached this figure, it seems most unlikely that problems of K deficiency are likely to arise.The same conclusion appears valid for S, Fe and Mn, the contents of which in almost all the forages studied were above the levels of 1 g/kg, 50 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg respectively proposed as adequate for grazing animals (McDowell, 1985). The requirement for S is basically related to that for N and S-containing amino acids, such that the ARC (1980) suggested that an N:S ratio of 14:1 is indicative of adequacy of S; in this regard, all of the materials examined are satisfactory.With reference to Na, there is some debate in the literature concerning the dietary concentration required. While Underwood (1981) recommended 1 g/kg for most grazing animals, the findings of Morris (1980) and Little (1987) indicate that 0.7 g/kg is adequate for non-lactating cattle, and the ARC (1980) suggested that a level of 1.4 g/kg is required by sheep. The present data show that with the exception of Sesbania, most of the materials examined were very poor sources of Na, such that routine supplementation is likely to be necessary. This characteristic of Sesbania has been recorded elsewhere in the tropics (Little, 1986) . while dietary Ca concentrations of 2-6 g/kg, with higher requirements for lactation have been variously recommended for cattle and sheep (NRC, 1978(NRC, , 1984(NRC, , 1985;;ARC, 1980), the findings of Sykes and Field (1972) suggest that levels of 2.5-3.0 g/kg are adequate in most circumstances.The results indicate that problems of Ca deficiency would not be expected.It is still widely believed that a large excess of Ca over P, resulting in Ca:P ratios approximating 10 or more, is deleterious to ruminants, although much conflicting evidence occurs in the literature (reviewed by Little, 1970) .In this context it is noteworthy that the ARC (1980) concluded that \"...it la not possible to state the optimal ratio of calcium to phosphorus for animal performance or whether such a ratio actually exists.\" Where wide ratios occur, the dietary concentration of P per se is almost certain to be inadequate. Underwood (1981) considered a dietary P level of 1.7 g/kg to be marginal for grazing animals, in essential agreement with work of Little (1980Little ( , 1985) ) which indicated that a figure of 1.4 g/kg should be regarded as minimal for growing cattle. The data in Tables 2 and 4 show that most grasses and crop residues examined were marginal to deficient in P, and supplementation with P is likely to be beneficial. For animals grazing on range, this would best be supplied through incorporation into complete mineral licks or in mixtures with common salt and bone meal. Animals on smallholder units, which may receive some concentrate feeds, may receive adequate P if offered high protein oilseed cakes such as cotton seed cake and noug cake. McDowell et al (1978) considered 30 mg/kg to be a critical level of dietary Zn, although the ARC (198 0) has suggested that concentrations of 12-20 mg/kg are adequate for growing cattle. The crop residues may thus constitute a marginal supply of Zn (Table 4) ; the necessity for supplementary Zn needs to be kept under review particularly for sheep, which require some 35 mg Zn/kg diet (ARC, 1980) .It is commonly accepted that the dietary requirement of cattle for Cu lies in the range 8-14 mg/kg (ARC, 1980;NRC, 1978NRC, , 1984) ) .Clearly most of the materials examined will provide a marginal to deficient supply of this mineral. This situation may be even further complicated by high levels of dietary Fe which can be elevated by soil ingestion during grazing. Humpries et al. (1981) showed that dietary concentrations exceeding 1 g Fe/kg can profoundly reduce the availability of ingested Cu; relatively slight and doubtless common levels of dietary soil contamination can produce Fe concentrations of this order (Healy, 1973) , necessitating the serious consideration of supplying supplementary Cu, either by injectable preparations, oral dosing with copper oxide needles or providing mineral licks containing Cu.In this context it should be remembered that the Cu requirement of sheep is only about 5 mg/kg however, so that the provision of supplementary Cu to this species is much less likely to be required.It should be stressed that data of the type presented here can provide only an indication of the existence of potential mineral deficiency problems, since animal selectivity usually results in the consumption of material of somewhat higher quality than that of the total available, and conclusive diagnosis must be based on the occurrence of a positive response to supplementary supply of the mineral in question. However, such data are vital in the formulation of critical supplementation experiments, upon which recommendations for practical supplementation regimes should be based.The pasture and crop residues examined had very low crude protein contents, and for increased levels of animal production the primary need is for supplementary protein. The most appropriate means of providing this will vary with local circumstances; protein-rich oilseed cakes or urea-containing blocks are valuable sources where they are available. But there is great potential for encouraging the use of leguminous trees, as well as the establishment of forage legumes as crops or oversown in the pasture.The minerals most widely present in inadequate amounts are Na, Cu and P, and supplementation regimes involving these elements are very likely to produce beneficial results. There is an urgent need for appropriate experimentation so that soundly-based supplementation packages can be devised.In Kenya, as in many developing countries natural pastures are the main source of nutrients for cattle.As a consequence, seasonality in quantity and quality of available herbage has a marked influence on animal productivity. Poor animal performance has usually been interpreted in terms of low dry-matter (DM) intake and inadequacy of energy and protein in the DM (Glover and Dougall, 1961;Abate et al . , 1981;Abate, 1985;Abate and Abate, in press) .Little mention is made of the effect essential elements have on production mainly because under controlled experimental conditions mineral supplements are normally fed. Yet surveys carried out in the country have revealed mineral deficiencies in Kenyan pastures (Burdin and Howard, 1963;Howard, 1969;Mwakatundu, 1977) with obvious consequences on animal development and reproduction (Todd, 1954;Howard et al., 1962). This paper aims to examine mineral levels in Kenyan pastures with emphasis on the effect of deficiencies on cattle production.Early indications of mineral deficiency in Kenyan pastures followed observations on earth eating and oesteofagia by cattle and wild ruminants (Todd, 1954;French, 1955;Howard, 1963). Table 1 shows the composition of two such natural licks. Hudson (1944), French (1955) and Howard (1963) concluded from other similar analyses that natural licks contained insufficient sodium (Na) while the levels of phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca) were too low to alleviate a deficiency. Concentrations of as high as 15.1 and 78.1% of sodium chloride (NaCl) have, however, been reported in the DM of natural salt licks in parts of North Eastern Province (Hudson, 1944) . The availability of mineral elements from earth licks is also probably low since only up to 6% of the organic matter is soluble in dilute acid (Table 1) . In spite of their unlikelihood as sources of minerals, cattle owners still regarded such salt licks as essential to the well being of their animals (Hudson, 1944) .  (Abate, 1984;unpublished data); levels compare well to those in productive grasses elsewhere in the world (Howard, 1963) and are adequate in meeting the requirements of grazing livestock (Howard et al., 1962). Because of large quantities in the soil, animals are also likely to augment their iron (Fe) supplies through direct ingestion of soil or from soil-contaminated herbage (French, 1955;Hodgson et al., 1962) and would, therefore, suffer no deficiency. For some minerals, the risk is either little or there is no evidence of deficiency in grazing animals (French, 1955;Mwakatundu, 1977). Depending on the area, other minerals may be borderline to sufficient.Thus, Howard (1963) has indicated that there may be a need to topdress Kenyan pastures with magnesium (Mg) fertilizers because levels of the element in grazings were similar to those that predispose animals to grass tetany.But Mwakatundu (1977) maintained that Mg was not limiting in Kenya because the element was sufficient in soils, pastures and bovine plasma. Also a suspected case of hypomagnesemia in the Naivasha area was not confirmed by serum analysis (Howard, 1963) . The position with regard to Ca equally requires defining. Howard (1963) found Ca levels in Kenyan pastures satisfactory but Mwakatundu (1977) reported that areas in Central and Rift Valley provinces were deficient in the mineral.A national average value of 0.53% has been quoted (Howard, 1963) although a lower concentration of 0.39% has also been reported for ley and natural pastures at Muguga, Central Kenya (Howard et al., 1962). On account of a comparatively lower productivity, a Ca deficiency is unlikely to occur in beef herds because of the ability to mobilise body depots.A proper Ca:P ratio is, however, physiologically desirable for high fertility and adequate rate of growth irrespective of level of production. Results of studies carried out in Baraton, Egerton, Kabete and Molo suggested that the Ca:P ratios of the grazings were satisfactory for ruminants (Mwakatundu, 1977) .Based on the available literature, the minerals most likely to limit cattle production in Kenya are P, Na, copper (Cu) and cobalt (Co) . Certain trace minerals like selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn) could, however, also be limiting.In a mineral survey Howard (1963) reported that 36% of natural pastures analysed contained less than 0.3% P while the average value for the country was 0.41%. Levels were lower in the dry than in the wet season. Todd (1954) analysed samples of Chloris gayana, Bothriochloa insculpta and Brachiaria dictyoneura and found them to contain as low as 0.13% P in the DM in the dry season.These results were similar to those of Howard et al., (1962) who reported a range in P content of 0.072-0.252% in grazed pastures in the high potential areas of Kenya; at the lower level P was deficient and this occurred during dry spells. Mwakatundu (1977) also confirmed that in Kenya P deficiency was widespread as shown by low levels in soil, pasture and bovine plasma. The concentration of P depended largely upon the extent of recent precipitation and was highly correlated (r = 0.72**) to CP levels in the pasture (Howard et al . , 1962). Mwakatundu (1977) has reported similar results.The requirements for P by grazing Kenyan cattle are not known.It is probable, however, that pasture levels of P are sufficient to maintain slow maturing and low producing indigenous animals but is inadequate for high producing improved breeds (French, 1955) . Suboptimal P levels in grazings have resulted in the following in Kenyan cattle: loss of appetite hence reduced feed intake, retarded growth, interference with regularity of heat hence reproductive rates, lowered milk production and, in extreme cases, depraved appetite or pica (Howard, 1963) .The concentrations of Na in pastures throughout Kenya are very low (Howard, 1963) , particularly in the dry season (French, 1955) .Wet season grass may, however, also contain Na levels that are insufficient in meeting animal requirements (French, 1955) . This is because rapid gain in weight by animals during the wet season induces high mineral requirements (McDowell et al., 1984).Of all pastures analysed in Kenya, 77% contained 0.01% or less Na; levels which are inadequate to cover the demands of dairy and improved beef cattle. A range of 0.007 0.022% Na has been reported for samples obtained from ley and permanent pastures of Cynodon dactylon and Chloris gayana in Muguga, Central Kenya (Howard et al . , 1962). Severe symptoms of Na deficiency have not been reported in Kenya mainly because most farmers feed salt to their animals.Disorders such as stilted gait, rusty coat colour and, in severe cases, fragility of bones in calves have been identified in Kenya as due to Cu deficiency (French, 1955;Howard, 1963). Copper concentrations in Kenyan pastures seem to lie between 4.0 and 12.2 ppm (Howard et al., 1962). Deficiency normally shows itself at levels lower than 5.0 ppm, and this has been shown in about 35% of pastures analysed in Kenya (Howard, 1963) . Shortage of Cu has been recorded in grazings along the Rift Valley and in parts of Central and Rift Valley provinces (Howard, 1963) because of a Cu deficiency in the soil (Pinkerton et al., 1965). Soils in which the underlying rock is ash and pumice may be expected to be deficient in Cu (Nyandat and Ochieng, 1976) . Mwakatundu (1977) also found subclinical Cu deficiency widespread in Kenya as a result of Cu deficiency either in the soil or pasture or bovine plasma and is more pronounced in dry periods (Nyandat and Ochieng, 1976) . The functioning of dietary Cu can be inhibited by excess molybdenum (Mo) resulting in a conditioned Cu deficiency.Animals consuming forages with Mo concentrations above 15 to 2 0 ppm showed Cu deficiency symptoms even though the Cu levels in the forage were higher than 5 ppm (Hodgson et al., 1962).Conditioned Cu deficiency does not seem a problem in Kenya because Mo was found deficient in several areas surveyed (Mwakatundu, 1977).Cobalt is a serious mineral limitation to livestock because even when grazing is abundant deficiency will lead to chronic starvation or wasting which is often indistinguishable from energy and protein malnutrition (French, 1952;Howard, 1963;McDowell et al . , 1984). It is rare for grasses to contain Co in concentrations that meet the demands of grazing animals (Hodgson et al . , 1962). When the content in the pastures herbage is 0.10 ppm or less (Hodgson et al., 1962) grazing animals are likely to suffer from Co deficiency. In Kenya, the condition is known as \"Nakuruitis\" (French, 1952;Howard, 1963) or as \"Narurasha\" among Maasai herdsmen (Hudson, 1944;French, 1952). Cobalt deficiency is common along the Rift Valley and is seasonal in character with symptoms usually appearing after the rains when grazing is plentiful and green (Hudson, 1944) . Mwakatundu (1977) also confirmed Co deficiency in the Egerton, Kabete and Molo areas of Kenya.Animals suffering from Co deficiency lose appetite and condition, may abort if in calf or may have difficulty to conceive again; the condition seems to affect lactating cows more than any other type of stock (Hudson, 1944;French, 1952).The literature cited above refers mainly to mineral deficiencies in the high potential areas of Kenya which are characterised by about 1200 mm of rainfall per annum. Reports on the effects of minerals on animal production in the rangelands of Kenya are lacking.About 85% of the total land area of Kenya is rangeland unsuitable for arable cropping because it receives only 500-750 mm of rainfall per year. The rangelands are, however, important because they contain about 50% of the total livestock population in the country. The cattle population here consists mainly of low production indigenous stock. In these areas grazing forms the only source of feed and the natural vegetation is dominated by Commiphora, Acacia and Themeda associations with a carrying capacity of 4 ha to a stock unit.In Table 2 are given lists of preferred grass species in the rangelands of Kiboko (Hatch et al . , 1984) and around Isiolo (Schwartz, H.J. pers. comm.). For most of the year the quality of the herbage is low. Karue (1974) stated that the level of digestible energy for most of the grasses in the dry zones of Kenya is inadequate to meet the demands for maintenance of grazing stock in the wet and dry seasons. Tessema (1986) reported that the grasses of the semi-arid areas of Eastern Province had high proportions of structural carbohydrates which were deposited in the plant tissues at an early vegetational stage; the protein content on the other hand dropped from 11 to 4% at six months of age. The mineral composition of wet season grasses around Isiolo is given in Table 3 . This is compared to the data from high potential areas of Mwakatundu (1977) given in Table 4. The mean values for the range area are comparable to those reported for the high potential areas. The data suggest that wet season grasses in the rangelands of Isiolo contain adequate levels of minerals to meet the demands of grazing animals. Consumption of sufficient quantities may, however, be limited by herbage intake since in the rangelands, CP levels fall to about 7% in only 8-10 weeks (Tessema, 1986) .  Mwakatundu (1977) MEETINO MINERAL REQUIREMENTS 07 GRAZING ANIMALS An adequate supply of energy and protein are no doubt important in the maintenance of high productivity in any animal production system.In the rangelands of Kenya benefits would be even greater if in addition, appropriate strategies were adopted to meet the mineral requirements of the grazing animal. McDowell et al. (1984) have observed that cattle grazing forages in severe P-Co-or Cu-deficient areas are even more limited by lack of these elements than by lack of either energy or protein.In the past the practice has been to move cattle to natural earth licks at certain seasons of the year (Hudson, 1944;Howard, 1963) , but as has been indicated earlier, the value of such licks as sources of minerals is low since they are devoid of reasonable quantities of either salt, Ca or P. Movement of animals to unaffected areas has been shown to cure Co deficiency (Hudson, 1944) . This is unlikely to remain a solution in the future in view of the present increase in population which will take more land for food crop production. Use of mineral supplements on the other hand increased milk yields, produced heavier calves and maintained better animal condition than unsupplemented controls, particularly in the dry season (Howard, 1963) .It is evident from the above observations that there is need for increased attention to be paid to mineral nutrition. Farmers need to be informed that energy, protein and minerals are interrelated in body maintenance, growth and health. They should be made aware of the possible incidence of mineral deficiencies because parts of Kenya are lacking in a number of the mineral elements essential in animal nutrition. Periodic mineral surveys which should include analyses of soil, water, plant and animal tissue are necessary in order to detect inadequacies.Inclusion of legumes in the pasture provides a mixture that ensures adequate intake of Co by grazing animals because legumes are efficient in accumulating Co in amounts above animal requirements (Hodgson et al., 1962).A mineral deficiency in pasture herbage is often a result of a deficiency in soil. Thus, the potential role of fertilizers in meeting animal requirements for minerals needs to be studied so as to develop a fertilizer package that is location specific. For example, Cu deficiency in animals may be treated by top dressing pastures with copper sulphate (Hodgson et al., 1962). It should be noted, however, that inadequate or erratic rainfall may be dominant over soil effects in determining the mineral concentrations of the herbage.Individual minerals may be administered as a drench, injection or slow release pellets. The use of \"copper bullets\" has been recommended for range livestock (Hodgson et al., 1962), but this would require professional supervision.By far the most important method of meeting requirements lies in mineral supplementation.Economic and physiological responses to mineral supplements have been recorded (French, 1955;Howard, 1963) , and this should be encouraged through the widespread use of free choice compound mineral licks.Several ranches in Kenya are known to offer mineral licks to their animals although there is no guarantee that all animals will consume enough of the lick at all times.What is desirable, however, is that such mineral mixtures should ensure that levels of P, Na, Cu and Co are particularly adequate. Finally, it is important to note that the measures recommended above are only effective if the general level of nutrition with regard to energy and protein is maintained particularly in the dry season.All plants depend upon the soil for their supply of mineral nutrients, and grazing ruminant animals obtain the majority of their mineral nutrients from plants grown on these soils. Concentrations of mineral elements in forage are dependent upon the interaction of a number of factors, including soil, plant species, stage of maturity, yield, pasture management and climate (McDowell et al., 1983).Most naturally occurring mineral deficiencies in herbivores are associated with specific regions and are directly related to soil characteristics (Underwood, 1981;McDowell et al., 1983). When mineral nutrients in herbage are marginal in respect of animal requirements, changes in concentrations brought about by climatic, managerial or, seasonal influences as well as plant maturity can be significant factors in incidence or severity of deficiency states by livestock wholly or largely dependent on these plants (Underwood, 1981) .In West Africa, as in the rest of tropical Africa, forages still serve largely as a source of essential elements for grazing animals.Little coordinated research has been done in these areas to identify places of endemic mineral deficiencies and toxicities.Little information is available on the mineral status of grazing animals and of the forages upon which they subsist. Since the mineral status of these forages is a function of multiple factors which interact with one another to produce varied effects, it is vital to investigate how such factors influence the mineral status of different forages in a tropical environment.This study was thus planned to investigate the effect of age of regrowth, season and fertilizer application on the mineral profile of two grasses predominant in the humid zone of West Africa, namely Guinea grass and giant star grass.The experiment was conducted at the University of Ife teaching and research farm situated in southwestern Nigeria at coordinates 7°28'N and 4°33'E at an altitude of 240 m above sea level.The average annual rainfall is about 1290 mm and the climate is subhumid.The rainy (wet) season stretches from about April to October while the dry season is from November to March.Four plots each 10 m x 10 m, two for Guinea grass (Panicum maximum, var. S112, Nchisi, Schum.) and two for giant star grass (Cynodon nlemfuensis var. nlemfuensis, IB8, Chedda) were cut back at heights of 15 and 5 cm respectively during the early wet season and early dry season. On the day of cutting back, one plot for each grass was fertilized with NPK (15-15-15) at the rate of 100 kg/ha. Samples of regrowth cut at a height of 15 and 5 cm for Guinea grass and giant star grass respectively were taken at 2 , 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 weeks after initial cutting back. The samples were harvested from five randomly selected areas (each 1 m in size) . The samples were taken to the laboratory, chopped into pieces, mixed and dried at 85°C over night before being ground in a laboratory stainless steel mill using a one-mm sieve.The dried samples were ashed at 500°C for 8 hours and extracted with 6 M HC1 as described by Buchanan-Smith et al . (1964) . Potassium and sodium concentrations in the extracts were analysed by flame photometer while calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron, zinc and copper were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy.Phosphorus concentration was determined by calorimetry (Fiske and Subbarow, 1925) . Soil samples were randomly taken from the unfertilized plots during both seasons and prepared for mineral analysis as described by Black (19 65) . The mineral concentrations in the extracts were determined using the same procedures described above.Data on forage mineral content was analysed, as a 2 x 2 x 6 factorial experiment with two fertilizer application levels, two seasons and six ages of regrowth. Soil data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance. Significant differences between treatment means were tested with Tukey's procedure (Steel and Torrie, 1960) .The results on soil chemical composition indicated the soil pH was acidic (Table 1) . Soil total nitrogen and exchangeable potassium and magnesium concentrations were higher (P<0.01) during the dry season than during the wet season. Available P, Ca, Na and Zn were lower (P<0.01) during the dry season than during the wet season. Mineral concentrations in both grasses were significantly affected (P<0.0.1) by the main factors. In most cases, the effects of the main factors were dependent on one another. Thus two-way interaction effects were observed for nearly all the minerals.The age of regrowth effects were often modified by both season and fertilizer effects.The K concentration in both grasses was higher (P<0.01) during the wet season particularly during the early period of regrowth.With both grasses there was a general decline in K concentration after six weeks of regrowth and the concentration of this element was lowest during the dry season though the differences were narrow towards the end of the regrowth period (Figure 1) . The concentration of Na in both grasses increased up to four weeks and thereafter the changes were inconsistent. With both Guinea grass and giant star grass, the concentration of Ha was higher during the dry season. There was an increase in the concentration of Ca during both seasons in Guinea grass while in giant star grass the changes were irregular and no overall increase was observed over the whole period. Except for K where lower concentrations of the element were observed in unfertilized plots, fertilizer effect on Na and Ca concentrations were inconsistent.The concentration of P in Guinea grass during both seasons and in giant star grass during the wet season declined with age of regrowth.No remarkable differences were observed due to either season or fertilizer application (Figure 2) .Overall, there was an increase with age of regrowth in the concentration of Mg in Guinea grass during both seasons and in giant star grass during the dry season. The concentration of Mg in both grasses was higher during the dry season. Fertilizer application was associated with higher Mg concentration during the dry seasons in giant star grass while the reverse was observed in the case of Guinea grass.The concentration of Fe in Guinea grass was fairly constant during the wet season but rose sharply with age of regrowth during the dry season. The changes in iron concentration with age of regrowth in giant star grass were inconsistent.Fe concentration was greatly increased by fertilizer application during the dry season. Except for giant star grass during the dry season when there was a decline in concentration with age of regrowth, the Mn concentration in both grasses exhibited slight In both grasses the concentration of Mn was higher during the dry season. No remarkable differences in concentration of Mn were associated with fertilizer effect (Figure 3) . The changes in Zn concentration in Guinea grass during the wet season over the 12week period were slight while there was a significant increase during the dry season. The concentration of Zn was high in Guinea grass during the dry season and only in unfertilized giant star grass during the same period. There was decline in Cu concentration during the wet season in both grasses with age of regrowth while little variation occurred with age of regrowth during the dry season. Fertilizer application on both grasses during the wet season resulted in higher Cu content.Potassium, phosphorus and copper concentrations declined with age of regrowth. With temperate grasses, Whitehead (1966) observed that P content and that of most trace elements in herbage declined with age. Potassium and P declining with age has been reported in tropical forages (Perdomo et al . , 1977;Gomide, 1978) .This decline may be due to the effect of dilution of these elements in a great quantity of dry matter that is produced and accumulated with advancing age. Gomide (1978) associated the low concentration of P and K in young tissues to their being mobile and thus easily translocated from the oldest tissues to the young ones .In this study Na and Ca concentrations in both grasses did not change appreciably with increase in age of regrowth at most times. Perdomo et al. (1977) observed that Ca concentration in Guinea grass and Bermuda grass did not change with increasing maturity. They however observed that Na concentration in Guinea grass increased with age. Fleming (1973) observed that Ca levels in forages remained relatively constant with advancing maturity. The concentration of Mg exhibited slight variations with age of regrowth during the wet season but increased during the dry season.Fleming and Murphy (1968) reported that Mg content in temperate grasses exhibited relatively little variation with advance in maturity. On the contrary, Jones (1963) in Zimbabwe noted that Mg levels in Guinea grass decreased with advancing maturity.Except for Cu, whose concentration declined with age of regrowth during the wet season in both grasses, the changes exhibited by the other trace elements were inconsistent.The decline in Cu concentration with age of regrowth has been earlier reported in temperate grasses (Thomas et al., 1952) and tropical grasses (Gomide et al., 1969). The inconsistencies in changes in trace element concentration observed in this study agreed with the statement by Conrad (1978) that trace minerals in plants may increase, decrease or show no consistent change with stage of growth, plant species, soil or seasonal conditions.In this study only K and Cu were remarkably affected by NPK fertilizer application.When NPK fertilizer was applied on Guinea grass and giant star grass in central Brazil (Gomide et al., 1969) no effect was observed on any of the minerals studied except Mn, whose concentration increased. Hemingway (1962) found that application of nitrogen fertilizer to grasses increased their Cu content while neither superphosphate nor muriate of potash influenced the Cu content of the herbage.Fleming and Murphy (1968) reported that application of K fertilizers resulted in increased Mg concentration in the herbage while the level of K subsequently increased.In this study, the failure of NPK fertilizer to influence Mg concentration considerably could be due to the combined effect of K and P, as Andrew and Robins (1969) reported that P fertilizer application resulted in increased Mg concentration while K fertilizer caused a reversed effect.According to NRC (1978NRC ( , 1984NRC ( , 1985) ) mineral requirement recommendations for cattle and sheep, the two forages were adequate in K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Fe and Zn. The latter element was marginal in Guinea grass during the wet season. The grasses were deficient in P, Na and Cu during both seasons. The Cu deficiency was more severe during the dry season. Low levels of Na, P and Cu in tropical forages have earlier been reported (Oyenuga and Hill, 1966;Ademosun and Baumgardt, 1967) . Concentrations of Mn as high as 430 mg/kg that were observed in Guinea grass could probably be detrimental to animal health through interference with metabolism of other minerals (Thomas, 1970) . Whether such high levels are of any economic significance in Africa is an aspect yet to be investigated.A study of the effect of season, age of regrowth and NPK fertilizer application on the mineral profile of Guinea grass and giant star grass indicated significant effects of the main factors, particularly of season and age of regrowth on almost all the elements.The two grasses were adequate in all minerals measured for livestock feed, except for Na, P and Cu.In case the two grasses are exclusively fed to livestock, it is recommendable to supplement with these deficient minerals. Other measures that could be taken to improve the mineral status of these forages include fertilizer application in case of P, Zn and Cu as well as foliar dusting in case of Zn and Cu as long as precautions are taken not to deposit excess amounts of these minerals on the vegetation. Effectiveness of such corrective measures under African field conditions need to be investigated. In both grasses, the Mn and Fe concentrations occurred in quantities far in excess of livestock requirements.It is recommended that further research be done to elucidate any deleterious effects to livestock that might be associated with such high mineral concentrations.The Fourth Livestock Development Project (FLDP) is a five-year phased programme designed to build an efficient national animal health service and simultaneously improve animal nutrition in the peasant sector. The primary objective is to improve livestock and agricultural production through increasing the efficiency of resource utilisation at the farm level in both the government and peasant sector cooperative support services.Increasing foreign exchange earnings and decreasing potential ecological damage through increasing live animal and hide and skins exports and through import substitution (dairy produce) is also an important objective.Institution-building within the Ministry of Agriculture represents a major project objective.The project consists of six main components: To conserve soil on arable land and catchment areas, c)By increasing the quality and quantity of feed; increase livestock meat and milk production, d)Increase manure production, e)Increase draft power for cropping, f)Increase fuel wood and timber supplies.This paper details with the various Fourth Livestock Development Project strategies and research needs for forage development which will be directed at improving forage production, management and utilisation at farm level.Long-term sustainable production of livestock and cropping is dependent on dramatic changes in livestock management systems.The key components of these changes are a shift towards more intensive feeding systems, with more emphasis on cut-and-carry feeding, and a gradual shift away from uncontrolled grazing, particularly on sloping areas.The strategies would be integrated closely with cropping practices, and in almost all cases, would avoid displacement of arable crops; in fact, the strategies would generally be complementary to arable cropping. There would be emphasis on the high potential areas, partly because those areas have the greatest potential for increased forage production under the kinds of strategies promoted, and also because most extension staff are being deployed in the high potential cropping areas.Strong links will be maintained with soil conservation programmes: physical soil conservation works can be substantially improved through the incorporation of improved forages; also, some forage development strategies can have a direct benefit in terms of erosion control, even in the absence of physical soil works.However, strategies would not be dependent on \"food for work programmes\" as this is not feasible in a programme of the size envisaged, and it would also reduce the likelihood of widespread rapid and spontaneous adoption of some strategies.There should be strong links with animal health programmes because of the mutual synergism not only in physical production terms, but also in the extension context. The interface between health and nutrition programmes would occur at the service cooperative, which is the major unit for extension.There would also be close links with the beef fattening and dairy programmes; the widespread success of both these programmes will be largely dependent on the incorporation of sound forage development, and there is also a reverse benefit in that the Project's forage development proposals would be more readily adopted within the peasant sector if they are linked with such programmes, thus offering the opportunity for conspicuous cash benefits.Legumes would be heavily emphasised because of their dual roles in both animal nutrition and in the maintenance or improvement of soil fertility and hence crop production.It is imperative that most strategies have a low financial cost if they are to be adopted within the peasant sector; in this context the heavy use of fertilizers would generally be avoided, and beef fattening and dairying programmes should not be dependent on the construction of expensive animal housing or on conventional post-and-wire fencing. Some strategies at least should have sufficiently conspicuous benefits to facilitate spontaneous and widespread adoption.For instance, the use of tree legumes in some strategies could fit into this category.is feasible to initiate a development programme immediately with existing technologies; however, there would be a need for continued adjustment in terms of genetic material and of strategies in the light of newly gained experience from both within the Project and other related institutions. It is imperative that the Project maintain a maximum of flexibility to accommodate these improvements.The success of various Project interventions will be markedly dependent on the agroecological zone and on other factors including cropping patterns and prior experience with more intensive feeding systems.Whilst the Project would initiate some activites in some of the more difficult areas or systems, it is important that emphasis initially be placed on those areas or production systems affording the best chances of success.Typically these areas would be in the low to medium altitude areas i.e. below 2400 m.The development strategies to be promoted by the project are: Legumes oversown on grazing areas, f)Perennial mixed grass/legume pastures, g) Annual fodder crops.These strategies would generally be associated with an extension programme to improve the utilisation of the forage.Improved grazing management would be extremely difficult to incorporate into common practice and would generally require substantial reduction in stock numbers to be effective. It will therefore play only a minor role in the development programme. A significant reduction in livestock numbers could dramatically affect livestock production and land degradation; its potential economic impact is therefore large.However, within current production systems, such a reduction will not occur in the foreseeable future.in numbers Table 1 illustrates the perceived significance of the various strategies. The potential economic impact, with a score of five representing the maximum impact, is assessed on a basis of increased forage production and benefits in terms of fuelwood supply, erosion control and contributions to the maintenance of soil fertility. The technical possibilities are assessed for low and high altitudes (say, below and above 2 2 00 m) , with an indication of acceptance of the strategy amongst farmers or cooperatives. Major research needs in support of the strategies are listed. These are discussed in more detail later. The forage strips would have multiple roles, including the provision of forage for cut-and-carry management, fuelwood supply, soil erosion control and stabilisation of associated crop yields through contributions of organic matter and nitrogen, and through the shelter belt effects.Tree legumes would form the basis of the forage strips. At higher altitudes grasses (particularly Phalaris spp.) would initially predominate in the bund plantings until more reliable tree legumes are available. However, where grasses are used in arable areas, it is important that they are not creeping types to avoid invasion of adjacent crop areas; herbaceous legumes would be incorporated with the grasses where no suitable tree legume is available.Close spacing of the tree legumes is important for erosion control, but is feasible only with the use of either cuttings or direct seeding; seedlings are too expensive to be used at higher densities. Even at the spacing of 0.5-1.0 metre between plants, costs are substantial, and techniques for improved direct seeding establishment demand immediate investigation.Management, and particularly the close control of stock access, is crucial to the success of the strategy. Wherever possible, the strips should be reserved for cut-and-carry utilisation; this would greatly enhance persistence and productivity, and the programme should, therefore, be restricted initially to areas where such control is assured. Excess leguminous forage from the strips would be used as a mulch on adjacent crop areas.The strategy will play an extremely important role in the longer term, but successful demonstration is central to its widespread adoption; initial sites should therefore be selected with good prospects of success.Farmers have demonstrated fair interest in the strategy, primarily on the basis of increased forage supply; reservations included possible competition effects with adjacent crops and increased difficulty of subsequent cultivation.The latter concern is valid, and the importance of establishing parallel rows wherever possible should be stressed. The importance of establishing a significant visual impact in the first season was clearly demonstrated.Producer cooperatives were shown to be generally much more receptive to the strategy and, where possible, should be used to provide the initial focus for such development.Backyard forage development involves the establishment of plots or hedges of forage in the immediate vicinity of the house. Typically, plots would comprise perennial grass with herbaceous legumes included where possible, or with the grasses interplanted with tree legumes; hedges around the house plots would be of tree legumes or occasionally of tall growing grasses. The inherently higher soil fertility and good control of livestock adjacent to the house enables the establishment of highly productive species with close to maximal yields.The backyard areas would be used solely for the production of high quality forage for the supplementation of lower quality forage for the supplementation of lower quality feedstuffs including crop residues, particularly in backyard fattening or dairying operations; hence, even small areas of 50-100 m can be significant.Backyard areas also provide a very convenient point of entry for new species or species types prior to their subsequent use on a wider scale e.g. within the various forage strip programmes. Under the close control offered, farmers can gain an appreciation of both the production potential and of the management requirements of the various species.Backyard forage is the most readily accepted of all strategies and could be very cost-effective in that it requires relatively little material or extension input. The strategy has already proved to be acceptable and logistically simple in all project areas.This strategy involves the establishment of a range of forage species within stock exclusion areas to improve both the productivity of the areas and the feeding value of the forages on offer. Such improvements would greatly enhance the acceptance of the exclusion strategy locally. Major emphasis would be on the herbaceous legumes, because of their contribution to forage quality and to total production, in some cases even under low soil fertility, and because of their relative ease of establishment even on unprepared seedbeds. The grasses typically require much better seedbed preparation for successful establishment, and their use would be largely restricted to sites with recent soil disturbance (e.g. where soil bunds have been constructed within the exclusion areas) . Also, the productivity of most exotic grasses would initially be very low in such severely degraded environments; substantial fertility accretion would be expected after several years of active legume growth, whereupon improved grasses could be gradually introduced.The tree legumes would generally have only a minor role within the Legumes Oversown in Grazing Areas Grazing areas could be improved if it were possible to introduce more productive or better quality species. Such species would need to be adapted to prevailing grazing pressures and soil fertility and to establishment without any land preparation. Grasses are generally unsuitable because the establishment rates of the oversown grass seed on compacted grazing areas are generally extremely low; legumes are generally more suited to such establishment.The higher altitude areas are typically served by a wide range of useful native legumes, with the Tri folium and Medicago spp. dominating; other useful species may be identified for this niche, but it is not a priority programme.At lower altitudes there is a relative dearth of productive herbaceous legumes in the grazing areas, with most of the trailing types having disappeared under the heavy grazing pressures. Also, there are some exotic species which are capable of filling this niche. The genus with the best prospects is Stylosanthes , which is typified by ready establishment on poor seedbeds and very low fertility soils, and in many cases by tolerance of extreme grazing pressure. S. hamata and S. scabra are the most promising species at this stage. Some less palatable climbing species including Calopogonium mucunoides will also be usefully oversown in some higher rainfall areas of the western slopes.Because of the low productive potential, the strategy must be based on very low inputs; in particular, seeding rates should be extremely low.A modification of the oversowing strategy is the sowing of seed on road verges.This can be done very quickly, is simply monitored, providing a long transect for evaluation and will often enable maximal spread of seed to surrounding areas.Because of the relatively low establishment rates from oversowing, even with legumes, the programme would be undertaken only on a pilot scale in the first couple of years. Although in suitable areas it can be highly cost-effective.Oversowing requires minimal inputs of local labour and no management inputs; therefore, there will be no difficulties in promoting the strategy. During the first two seasons the limited areas sown under the programme would be closely monitored to more closely define the site parameters indicating suitability for oversowing.This strategy involves the establishment of perennial mixed pastures on prepared seed beds and with management including grazing control and fertilizer inputs as required to maintain high productivity.Good arable soils are required for such productivity, and the strategy typically represents a diversion of land from arable cropping. Hence, there is a considerable opportunity cost. Other costs include fertilizer, seed costs Initial emphasis would be on the low to medium altitude areas for reasons similar to those given for the stock exclusion strategy i.e. a relative dearth of legumes in these areas and a range of suitable exotic legumes available. Most work will be undertaken initially on the pasture/ forage type legumes. Desirable characteristics for undersown legumes include deep rooting/drought tolerance to enable the legume to continue growth after the annual crop has been harvested; retention of leaf and hence of feeding value during the dry periods, to maintain a higher feeding value of the stubble; ease of establishment and heavy early seeding, to allow adequate regeneration in subsequent cropping cycles; and a proportion of hard seed, so that in subsequent crop cycles there is adequate seed remaining in the soil for establishment after the final weeding of the annual crop.The maize and sorghum systems provide the best opportunities for the strategy, and development can be initiated in such systems without further evaluation. Promising species include the free seeding Stylosanthes species including S. hamata and the Graham cultivar of S. guianensis ; the climbing legumes include Macroptilium atropurpureum, Macrotyloma spp, and Desmodium spp. , and the dual purpose types such as Lablab purpureas.An opportunity also exists in some of the higher altitude areas for the introduction of legumes with a longer growing season than the native species. Trlfolium repens and Trifolium subterraneum are likely prospects. The best opportunity appears to be in the fcelg-grown barley system.The initial sowing would take place after the final weeding, by which stage it is unlikely that the growth of most legumes would offer substantial competition to the companion crop. Sowing rates would be typically quite low, unless the seed is to be harvested for human food or as a cash crop. The strategy does present opportunities for seed collection for some species including Lablab.useful food grain species which will be incorporated in the programme at least for further evaluation include Phaseolus acutifolius, Lablab, and cowpeas. The use of the biennial or short-lived perennial Cajanus cajan (pigeon pea) , which could be interplanted with a range of crops in an alley cropping type system, offers similar benefits, and the Project is expected to participate vigorously in the wider promotion of this species.Undersowing was attempted on a range of sites during the 1986 season. It is evident now that the strategy will be quite well accepted by farmers. The strategy is relevant to both the well managed row planted crops characteristic of Harerge, and also to the very poorly managed, weedy crops e.g. in parts of the Rift Valley. In the former case, attempts would be made to link undersowing to contract seed production where possible, at least initially; in the latter case emphasis would be on hardier, self regenerating species.(seed inputs would generally be higher than with most other strategies) , stock control costs whether for fencing or additional herding labour and weed control.Also, successful management of mixed pastures for high productivity of grazing stock requires considerable skills. The strategy would generally be confined to the dairy programme, but in some cases could encompass the rehabilitation of crop areas through the use of a moderately long-term pasture phase.There are no serious technical constraints in any altitude zone.The strategy presents an opportunity for occasional seed production, particularly for the grasses, because areas established would generally be of sufficient size to warrant the necessary close supervision of harvest.The establishment of fodder crops such as alfalfa, oats, vetch and fodder beet will be technically feasible in most altitude zones.The strategy provides a convenient, simple introduction to the concept of actually growing forage for livestock feeding.Yields may be high in all altitude zones.However, the strategy would not be heavily emphasised in the project for several reasons:The project aims at integrating forage development with erosion control, but excessive use of short-term forage crops may actually aggravate soil erosion through repeated cultivations.Farmers cultivating an area of land would typically establish a subsistence or cash crop and would be reluctant to regularly invest such labour in short-term fodder cropping.The requirement for repeated inputs of seed is a further disincentive. The annual fodder crops may meet short-term needs, but often the perennial species (including some grasses and tree legumes) provide forage over a longer period.The establishment of short-term forage crops would be confined mostly to the dairy programme. There will be some use of the strategy also in backyard areas, especially with very productive species including alfalfa and fodder beet. Oats could become more widely grown particularly because of its broad adaptation and its dual-purpose nature; it would generally be grown in association with vetch.The seed production programme outlined for the Project is large scale by any standards; by Year 4, the Project will need to produce more than 150 tonnes of herbaceous legume seed annually. Also, the programme encompasses a much wider range of species than is usual within a single project. The forage development programme is entirely dependent on the seed production activities.The strategies for production are crucial, and, clearly, strategies previously employed are entirely inadequate for a programme of this scale. The only feasible approach is to produce seed in contract systems.A programme has already been initiated to collect seed at contract prices from some areas previously established to various forages, including Leucaena, Sesbania, Lablab, and vetch. Some indication of the suitability of the various contract prices will be afforded by this initial programme. To obviate the need for importation of large quantities of seed, some irrigated seed production areas have been established in collaboration with the Ministry of State Farms, Institute of Agricultural Research, ILCA and various service cooperatives; however, most production would be under rainfed conditions to facilitate cheaper seed.The great majority of seed must be produced under contract arrangements (with service cooperatives, producer cooperatives and individual farmers) , if the overall programme is to succeed. Contract systems, wherein producers are paid contract rates per quantity of clean seed produced, will result in much greater volumes of seed at significantly lower cost per kg, higher production per unit area, much greater efficiency of production, and after the first couple of years, quite reasonable predictability of total seed output.The contract prices will be set annually though for many species there will be minimal or no change from one season to the next; these prices must be standardised through the Project area and must be valid for at least one production season. The prices will reflect the seed yield potential, labour requirements and potential returns from alternative crops on the same areas.The prices should encourage close attention to management and high recovery of available seed. If the scheme is to succeed within the given time frame, the prices will offer substantially higher returns than for most competing crops. However, because of the relatively small area involved to meet the Project's demands, there would be no disruption of crop production.There are essentially three broad systems which might be used within the contract programme.The Fourth Livestock Development Project (FLDP) would assist dairy cooperatives to establish significant units of grass-based pasture with the understanding that a portion of the area would be closed for a period for seed production, with the cooperative providing harvesting labour under supervision and receiving contract prices. The system is convenient because it offers the chance for larger areas to be harvested, thus facilitating the supervision which is necessary for the harvesting of most of the grasses and overcoming the organisational problems associated with the typically lower seed yields of the grasses.Seed Collection from Stock Exclusion Areas Some species will seed quite well on relatively poor sites even though their dry-matter production may be quite low. Therefore, the stock exclusion areas provide a good opportunity for collecting substantial quantities of seed from herbaceous and tree legumes.Most labour would be provided by women and children.Species with high yield potential, and those with high labour and management requirements, may often be best grown on specialised seed production plots. Some of these would be small plots operated by individual farmers. Species suited to this general category include Stylosanthes spp. , Lablab and other climbing legumes grown in trellis systems.Pasture/ forage research programmes require substantial modification to adequately meet the demands of FLDP and similar projects.In particular, there could be less emphasis on evaluating species for conventional pasture development, and more emphasis on species and establishment requirements for specific strategies, and for some of the more difficult but very important systems including stock exclusion. The continued analysis of nutritive value of introduced commercial cultivars, and of the material already comprehensively analysed elsewhere, represents a serious misallocation of research resources.The Project is servicing a very wide range of environments, and information on species performance from just a few sites may be quite misleading.There is still inadequate information on the agroecological range of the species which would be used initially within the project. In particular, knowledge on the altitude limits is imprecise. The Project will adopt the approach of using the most promising species/ cultivars in the development programmes, with continuous monitoring and refinement; additionally, new material will be continually introduced for rapid screening.Evaluation will be introduced for rapid screening.Evaluation will be undertaken on sites representative of target areas. For example, those species expected to be used in the improvement of stock exclusion areas would typically be assessed on degraded soils of low phosphate status.Persistence of species must become one of the major criteria in selection. Given the scale of the Project, seed production potential should be granted more emphasis.There is a particular need to define a wider range of tree legumes suited to intensive cut and-carry-management, in particular for use in higher altitude areas where there is a relative dearth of such species.It is crucial that field extension staff be in a position to categorise sites according to suitability for various species and strategies.During the first two years of implementation, some 150-200 service cooperatives will be incorporated, covering a very wide agroecological range. By the end of that period, rapid assessment formulae should have been developed, utilising the key determinants of production including altitude, rainfall and soil factors such as drainage, depth, pH and phosphate status.Fertilizers will definitely not be used extensively for forage production within the peasant sector in the foreseeable future, and currently there is excessive research on the use of fertilizers for forage production.It is more valid to concentrate on defining site criteria which will determine the success strategic of species. Some research is justified on the use of phosphate (and other nutrients) in seed pelleting as an aid to the Project distributed pelleted seed.Inoculation requirements for the key species demand urgent attention, and the most convenient media for local use should be assessed.Substantial quantities of inoculant will be required for at least 5-10 species, and it must be determined whether a local production capacity is justified.It is crucial to collect information on production, harvesting and post-harvest handling for commercial quantities of seed. This will be done by close monitoring of the Project's seed production activities rather than in specific research programmes.It is particularly important to determine likely yields and labour inputs to define optimal prices for the contract seed production programmes.The development programmes are heavily dependent on the use of tree legumes, particularly for the more intensive cut-and-carry systems.Current propagation techniques within nurseries are excessively expensive, and there is an urgent need to define systems appropriate to the use of direct seeding cuttings and bare root/bare stem seedlings, enabling the use of small backyard nursery plots.There is an urgent need to undertake economic evaluation of the use of fertilizers within various production systems. This can be done immediately with the wealth of nutrient response data already available.After the first couple of years of the Project, there will be sufficient data for a comprehensive economic analysis of the various strategies. This is particularly important in the case of those strategies with high labour inputs, such as backyard forage and alley cropping. Also, it is crucial to assess the economics of backyard fattening and dairying using various feed inputs. It is expected that labour requirements for forage collection and forage yields will be central to the economic viability of the strategies; FLDP will allocate adequate resources for determining these parameters during the first two years.","tokenCount":"92714"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6864256381a786fa158a5fc6abd835a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aa4d3017-c2c2-4572-9e16-2ae81f1c5464/retrieve","id":"-153964103"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"14d84432-8d11-41f4-bf21-1bb9f32215ee","pagecount":"158","content":"This proposal was prepared by a cross-center and interdisciplinary writing team made up of Bhawana Upadhyay (RTB-CIP), Clair Hershey (CIAT), Claudio Proietti (RTB-CIP), Dagmar Wittine (RTB-CIP), Dietmar Stoian (Bioversity), Elmar Schulte-Geldermann (CIP), Elisabetta Gotor (Bioversity), Gordon Prain (CIP), Graham Thiele (RTB-CIP), Holly Holmes (RTB-CIP), Inge van den Bergh (Bioversity), James Legg (IITA), Michael Friedmann (RTB-CIP), Michelle Rodriguez (CIP), Netsayi Mudege (CIP), Oscar Ortiz (CIP), Philippe Monneveux (CIP), Piet van Asten (IITA), Selim Guvener (RTB-CIP), Simon Heck (CIP), Simone Staiger (CIAT), and Zandra Vasquez (RTB-CIP). Paul Woomer (IITA) provided a helpful text on Youth Empowerment and Agribusiness Opportunities for RTB. Gary Harrison provided final editing and Cecilia Lafosse helped with graphics. It drew on a huge effort from many more CGIAR scientists and collaborators from partner organizations.The document benefited from constructive discussion and feedback around the program structure and governance mechanisms provided by the Independent Evaluation Arrangement team that evaluated RTB in 2015. Commentary on the first draft from the CIP Board of Trustees, the RTB Independent Steering Committee, and the CGIAR Consortium Board and Office greatly helped to improve content. Finally, we thank the external reviewers of the business cases at flagship project and cluster level in 2015, which was a vital input into the writing process.The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) is one of eight Agri-Food System CRPs (AFS-CRP). It will incorporate livelihood systems work, especially from the CRP Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics (Humidtropics) with which strong collaboration has been established, and expand collaboration with Global Integrating CRPs (GI-CRP) and the other AFS-CRPs making up the portfolio.An external evaluation, commissioned by the Independent Evaluation Arrangement (IEA) in 2015, concluded \"that in spite of the complexities and challenges of successfully implementing a multi-crop and multi-partner CRP, RTB has made notable progress in the past four years and is already delivering results, in spite of budget cuts. RTB is well-directed and reaching a reasonable number of its near-term milestones and is working towards achieving its goals, particularly those concerning productivity and nutritional improvement for some of its crops\" (IEA 2016).RTB brings together four CGIAR centers (Bioversity, CIAT, CIP, and IITA) and CIRAD (also representing the French organizations IRD, INRA, and Vitropic) with more than 200 partners for research on banana, cassava, potato, sweetpotato, yam, and minor roots and tubers. Termed \"vegetatively propagated staple crops,\" they are linked by common breeding, seed, and post-harvest issues, and by the frequency with which women are involved in their production and use. RTB crops are the backbone of food security in a swathe of countries, running through the humid tropics in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and in more localized areas of Asia and Latin America. Elsewhere, RTB crops often complement maize, rice, wheat, legumes, vegetables, and livestock, while also forming part of many agro-forestry systems. Around 300 million poor people 1 in developing countries currently depend on RTB value chains for food and nutrition security and income; many more benefit through their consumption. RTB crops are increasingly taking on roles in income generation in value-added markets. However, climate change could potentially undo progress in poverty reduction and markedly increase food insecurity, especially in SSA where RTB crops are the most important. This puts RTB absolutely center stage in the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) in addressing the societal grand challenges of the 21 st century, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).An agri-food system includes all processes involved in feeding people: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consuming, and disposing of food and food packages. It includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each step (Eames-Sheavly et al. 2011). Agri-food systems affect the incomes of those whom they employ, the nutrition and health of consumers, and the quality of the natural resource base. They embody a mosaic of different crops, animals, and fish as well as other options at different levels of scale; women and men are both involved in varied and changing roles. Hence RTB research requires appropriate involvement of women and men at each of these levels-from household, to community, to landscape and above-and promotes the use of participatory and multistakeholder approaches that aim to strengthen engagement and target livelihoods enhancement.In those geographies where RTB crops predominate in the agri-food system, RTB takes an overall lead role, involving other AFS-CRPs when these can contribute to improving livelihoods. In those geographies where RTB crops play a secondary (or \"companion\") role in the system, RTB collaborates with the relevant AFS-CRP. This will be organized conjointly within the framework of site integration plans that have been built into the second phase of RTB, which is designed to run from 2017 to 2022.   Outside of the humid tropics in Africa and in most of Asia and Latin America, RTB crops are generally important in rotations, or as secondary crops, and can be key to increasing efficiency with income in the off-season or to addressing important nutritional deficiencies. And although RTB crops can play an increased role in food security with climate change and more extreme weather events, by and large, cereals remain the dominant crops in the agri-food systems. However, even in those parts of the world where RTB crops are not dominant at the national level, there are important but more localized areas of importance at sub-national level. These include (1) cassava-based cropping systems in Southeast Asia, mostly for processing into starch and chips but with important food uses in some places such as Indonesia;(2) potato-based cropping systems at subnational level in more temperate areas of SSA, China, and Central Asia and at higher elevations in the Andes; and (3) banana in parts of Latin America, providing employment and fair trade opportunities in export markets. Climate change will impact agri-food systems and worsen poverty in different ways. One of the most important effects is through reducing productivity and raising food prices (Fig. 2). This is of concern worldwide, but without significant technological change to cope with climate change, this is likely to be of special importance in SSA. As noted previously, this is precisely the part of the world where RTBFruits & veg Cereals crops are of the highest relative importance, with further expansion in the pipeline as the population of these countries continues to grow.Source: World Bank 2016. A key dynamic as a result of climate change will be crop substitution, especially where RTB crops replace more sensitive cereals and legumes. Maize will be particularly vulnerable to higher frequency of periodic drought, whereas production of cassava and, potentially, sweetpotato can be much more reliable.Considering the wide diversity of RTB crops, their significant roles in every major cropping system, and the future trends related to climate change, research on RTB crops contributes through a wide range of pathways to the System Level Outcomes (SLOs) of the SRF (CGIAR 2015) as well as the SDGs (http://bit.ly/202GssO). SLO 1 aligns primarily with SDG 1 to address poverty, SLO 2 aligns with SDG 2 on zero hunger and SDG 3 on good health, and SLO 3 aligns with SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production. All SLOs contribute to the SDGs on gender equity, reduced inequalities, climate action, and partnerships (see Fig. 3, which presents the full set of SDGs addressed).Innovations in RTB crops have tremendous impact on poverty reduction by (1) increasing farmers' income through raised productivity and linkages to markets and adding value, (2) enhancing non-agricultural rural employment with better remuneration especially through processing (often predominantly a woman's activity), (3) creating opportunities for youth employment, and (4) lowering food costs to consumers.There is already a general shift underway towards greater commercialization of RTB crops which creates new incentives for increasing yield, investing in inputs and raising incomes. Linked with this, because RTB crops are more perishable and bulky than cereals, they create opportunities for value addition and employment in post-harvest and processing in rural areas. This is particularly evident for cassava (e.g., in gari processing in West Africa) but true for other crops as well. Providing growing urban populations with RTB crops-based food will require extensive transformation of current technology to capture these benefits. But unless gender roles and needs are considered, innovation can worsen gender inequity (Sarapura 2012). Increasing opportunities for women can have a powerful impact on productivity and agriculture-led development, and reduce gender disparities in access to inputs, assets, opportunities, information, and other resources (Margolies and Buckingham 2013;FAO 2014).The area under RTB crops has doubled in developing countries since 1960, and expanded even more in Africa. The picture is mixed, however, for yield increase and area planted (Table 3). For some crops and regions, there has been little change. But where market conditions were favorable and appropriate new technology available, yield gains have been considerable. For example, industrial markets for cassava in Southeast Asia (Robinson and Srinivasan 2013) have spurred a 3.4% annual rate of yield increase in the last decade in Asia as a whole (Table 4). In Africa, potato is grown increasingly as a cash crop for urban markets, showing consistent growth with the second highest rate of yield increase of any crop in the last decade. The yield constraints in cassava illustrate the progress that is possible for RTB crops (Table 5). In Southeast Asia the introduction of improved varieties of cassava (supported by CIAT), followed by adoption of improved soil and crop management, raised yields from 13.0 t/ha in 1995 to 19.6 t/ha in 2011 (Howeler 2014). (As stated above, this is reflected in the annual yield increase of 3.4% over the past decade in Asia.) Estimates using the information presented in Table 5 suggest that if all economically viable practices were adopted in Asia, cassava yields could increase to at least 25.4 t/ha. In Africa, however, a wider set of constraints (e.g., pests and diseases, limitations in markets and infrastructure) has limited progress. Over the past decade there has been only a 1.6% rate of increase in yield, to just over 10 t/ha (Table 4), or less than 50% of economically achievable potential, thus leaving a considerable yield gap. Recent adoption studies in SSA are grounds for optimism that yield gaps can be closed. Adoption of modern varieties of cassava, potato, yam, sweetpotato, and banana (many developed or disseminated by CGIAR) was 39.7%, 34.4%, 30.2%, 6.9%, and 6.2%, respectively, of the total area cropped (ISPC, SPIA 2014).RTB crops offer high potential yields, but farmers often realize less than half that potential due to the use of poor quality \"seed\" (planting material consisting of tubers, cuttings, suckers, etc.) of limited genetic potential; biotic and abiotic constraints; and poor management practices. Broad experience shows that robust market demand is the most effective driver of agricultural technology adoption. Conversely, limited institutional arrangements that support markets, policy, knowledge, and technological development restrain yield potential.Women's farm yields are typically much lower than men's, reflecting specific gender barriers that lower women's productivity, including competing priorities (e.g., child care), and limit their access to information and technology (FAO 2014;Mudege et al. 2015). Low productivity in turn prevents women farmers from taking full advantage of market opportunities and the chance to increase income. Hence there are several strategies needed to make use of the full potential of RTB crops to exit poverty: (1) breeding for higher nutritional and processing quality;(2) identification of traits that are user-preferred and adapted to biotic and abiotic stresses;(3) provision of access to improved quality planting material;(4) development of better management practices; (5) implementation of sex-disaggregated data collection and integrated gender research; and (6) improved institutional arrangements.SLO 2: Improved food security and nutrition for health (SDG 2: zero hunger and SDG 3: good health and well-being)With an average production of around 790 million t on 59 million ha in 2011-2013(FAOstat 2015)), RTB crops represent the second most important set of crops in developing countries after cereals. The energy output/ha/day of RTB crops is considerably higher than that of grains, providing one of the cheapest sources of dietary energy. In 2011, RTB crops provided around 15% of the daily per capita calorie intake for the 763 million people living in least developed countries.In SSA and Asia, hunger is still common. RTB crops can increase food availability and diversity, especially during hungry periods or in the event of failure or damage to cereals during extreme weather events. Furthermore, vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is widespread, contributing to increased risks of blindness, illness, and premature death, particularly in young children and pregnant/postpartum women. Globally, 163 million children under 5 years of age are vitamin A deficient; Fe and Zn deficiencies are also common. Orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) is a proven biofortified crop: 50 g/day can meet the vitamin A requirements of a young child, and 1.1 million households (HH) have adopted OFSP across several African countries. Yellow cassava, also rich in vitamin A, is going to scale in Nigeria. Banana cultivars can be significant sources of vitamin A (Davey et al. 2009) and are being promoted in several countries in East Africa; potato breeding has achieved nutritionally significant levels of Fe and Zn (Thiele et al. 2010).RTB crops are mostly produced, processed, and traded locally, making them less vulnerable to abrupt price rises in international markets. Their potential is often limited, however, by the lack of preferred nutritious varieties, poor stability of micronutrients in fresh and processed food, unfavorable value chains, and weak institutional arrangements.SLO 3: Improved natural resources systems and ecosystem management (SDG 12: responsible consumption and production)The impact of RTB crops on the natural resource base and the larger environment varies with the crop and cropping system. As populations grow and extend their environmental impacts, the different systems will need to be evaluated for their potential to sustainably increase productivity. Approaches need to be devised that enable rural women and men smallholders to meet their food and income needs while safeguarding the long-term health (productivity) of farming and natural environments. RTB crops are highly suited to complex agri-food systems that include diverse and dense nutrient sources such as legumes, fruits, and vegetables, with the latter projected to show marked growth (Fig. 1). These complex systems also help to mitigate negative environmental impact. Conservation and on-farm use of crop genetic diversity can contribute to resilient cropping systems and increase the capacity to respond to evolving stresses. Some RTB crops tolerate stresses such as drought and heat and should be relatively robust in the face of climate change; others may require major supplemental efforts to maintain production. A strong focus on conserving and restoring the soil resource base will be essential to ensure total systems' sustainability in the face of increasing shocks from climate change. More generally, sustainable intensification of RTB agri-food systems will reduce deforestation.RTB, together with its wide array of partners, will conduct research for development (R4D) on its mandate crops and support options for scaling, taking a systems perspective to ensure relevance and impact.RTB made careful estimates of the numbers of beneficiaries based on impact pathways, considering the likelihood of success in research and probability of adoption, which is described in each of the flagship project (FP) sections. Achieving these targets will require extensive engagement of multiple partners for scaling and expanded capacity development (\"CapDev\") (see Annex 1 on partnerships and Annex 2 on capacity development). The aggregation of the figures presented at the flagship level is the basis for RTB and its partners to propose the following goals as its contribution to those of the SRF: 20,000,000 people (50% women) have increased their income  30,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are operating profitably in the RTB seed and processing sectors  8,000,000 farm HH have increased RTB crop yield through the adoption of improved varieties and sustainable management practices  10,000,000 people (50% women) have improved their diet quality  1,900,000 ha of current RTB crops production area converted to sustainable cropping systems.These goals are achieved via a set of targets identified as Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs) and their associated Sub-IDOs, achieved through RTB's five FPs. The detailed alignment of goals and targets with the SDGs is shown in Figure 3.Each of the five interlinked and interactive FPs has its own overall objective:FP1: Discovery research for enhanced utilization of RTB genetic resources: develop and apply leadingedge science toward faster and more precise development of user-demanded varieties, and to enhance the long-term conservation and use of genetic diversity.FP2: Adapted productive varieties and quality seed of RTB crops: make available good-quality planting materials of a diverse set of high-yielding RTB varieties that are adapted to the needs and preferences of different stakeholders in the value chain.FP3: Resilient RTB crops: close yield gaps of RTB crops arising from biotic and abiotic threats and to develop more resilient production systems, thereby strengthening food security and improving natural resource quality.FP4: Nutritious RTB food and added value through post-harvest intervention: support the fuller, equitable, and sustainable utilization of RTB crops for healthier diets and improved income opportunities.FP5: Improving livelihoods at scale: improve livelihoods by scaling RTB solutions in agri-food systems.Each FP is composed of a set of interrelated activities (referred to as \"clusters\"), each with its own aim and attributable targets (presented below in Section 2: Flagship projects). fund\" (described under FP5) creates an incentive structure for systems integration with a livelihood focus among FPs and with other CRPs. The 29 primary target countries where RTB crops are of greatest importance include 17 of the 20 countries prioritized for the CGIAR's site integration (CGIAR 2015) and all the 6 fast-tracked countries for more intensive integration (\"+\" and \"++\" respectively, Table 6). The involvement with AFS-CRPs in site integration plans for these countries is crucial (see Annex 6). RTB (Sub)-IDO targets are driven by the available evidence base and foresight analysis. In 2013-2014 RTB carried out a priority assessment to identify research options with highest priority and greatest expected impact on poverty reduction for the major RTB crops. The exercise included five steps: (1) mapping of crop production by agro-ecology and targeting of research areas;(2) constraints analysis;(3) identification of main research options, which included stakeholder consultation and expert surveys; (4) quantification of key parameters; and (5) estimation of research impacts (https://goo.gl/qt7ZFy). Building on this, an ex-ante analysis of preferred technology options was carried out for all crops, based on quantitative assessments of adoption potentials and the use of an economic surplus model to estimate key impact variables (Table 7). The technology options with highest potential impact were translated into RTB clusters in the new RTB structure (Fig. 5). Note 2: Two adoption scenarios were projected for the ex-ante assessment. Adoption rates in the \"higher adoption\" scenario were based on expert opinions. In the \"lower adoption\" scenario, adoption rates were reduced by 50%.Parameters elicited for the economic surplus model for each research option, and the results obtained such as the area under adoption and the number of beneficiaries (Table 7), provided the basis for estimating RTB's expected contribution to the SRF targets. The estimated adoption curve was used as the basis for estimating the number of beneficiaries. The impact of each research option on rural poverty reduction (final column in Table 7) was estimated. This was done by first estimating the marginal impact on poverty reduction of an increase in the value of agricultural production, using poverty reduction elasticities of agricultural productivity growth. The reduction in the total number of poor was then calculated by considering the estimated economic benefits as the additional increase in agricultural production value.The target definition process at the cluster level reveals the broad geographical scope (multi-country) and the integrated approach (multidisciplinary interventions, causal pathway built on the effects promoted by sets of different research outputs) adopted by RTB. Expected changes in crop yields and economic surplus results for the RTB target countries were used to quantify IDO-related targets at the cluster level. A conservative approach was applied to limit overestimation of targets and double-counting. In particular, where more than one research option was mapped into the same cluster and country, results were not aggregated and only the research option with the greatest number of adopters was considered.The priority assessment guided the selection of prioritized technologies for the design of crop-specific clusters under FP2-FP4. The close correspondence between the research priorities identified in the priority assessment and the RTB program structure can be seen in Figure 5. In light of Recommendation 4 of the IEA (2016), RTB is concluding a congruence analysis using a composite impact index of key variables (Table 7) that will be taken into consideration in resource mobilization and setting priorities.  RTB uses theories of change (ToCs) and their impact pathways as a dynamic framework for planning, assessing, learning, and adjusting the program's interventions and effects. The ToC describes how interventions by RTB lead to the expected results, including key assumptions and risks; causal linkages are visualized in an impact pathway. RTB works with a nested hierarchy of ToCs at the program, FP, and cluster levels.The program-level contribution to (Sub)-IDOs and higher level outcomes is shown in Figure 3. Figure 6 schematizes the initial stage of the impact pathway and key products. ToCs are presented for each FP in their respective section. ToCs were also prepared at cluster level, although space does not permit their inclusion in this proposal.Good match with priority assessment research option Partial match with one or more priority assessment research option(s)Note: A: Assumptions, R: Risks.The program-level ToC addresses poverty, food and nutrition security, and sustainable development challenges through a synergistic approach that integrates contributions from all RTB FPs.Tapping into underutilized RTB genetic diversity, FP1 collaborates with advanced research institutes (ARIs), universities, national agricultural research systems (NARS), and other CRPs. It is informed by FP2-FP5 on next and end user needs to make available breeding products that, through gender-responsive breeding pipelines supported in FP2, are used to obtain high-yielding and nutrient-rich varieties in line with consumer demand and adapted to future climates and resistant to biotic and abiotic threats. With national and international partners, FP1 seeks to influence changes in policy and regulatory frameworks for enhancing conservation and safe exchange of RTB genetic diversity.FP2 includes the upstream part of the breeding for each crop and helps to identify existing landraces with desired agronomic and user traits. FP2 works in close relation with national breeding, genetics, and phenotyping programs, ARIs, and universities. It is informed by FP3-FP5 as regards the needs of next users of prototype varieties and particular constraints (e.g., disease resistance). FP2 includes a crosscutting component on seed and approaches for demand creation. Scaling occurs with national seed agencies, private companies (e.g., seed business, traders, processors), service providers, and development partners.At the policy level, FP2 promotes the adaptation of national regulations on seed/planting material to introduce frameworks and standards that better respond to farmers' needs.FP3 develops an array of products for pest and disease characterization and management and improved agronomic practices for more resilient cropping systems. Pest/disease risks models related to climate change and pest risks analyses (PRAs) are developed with strategic research partners and the CRP on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Results are used to devise policy and technical advice for national plant protection organizations and regional and subregional organizations. Optimized land, crop, and water management techniques are developed in collaboration with NARS and universities and promoted through well-trained extension services and other service providers. More conducive policies for ecologically sustainable intensification of RTB-related farming systems and strategies for pest/disease containment and management support NARS and development partners in going to scale.FP4 promotes collaborations among public partners (e.g., national research institutes) and private partners (e.g., food technology firms, machinery manufacturers and fabricators, small and medium processors). The objective is to develop and disseminate improved and more efficient processing and post-harvest technologies and protocols for RTB-based food products that help to reduce waste and losses and make healthy and nutritious food available. Moreover, FP4 provides technical evidence and policy advice to national authorities, development partners, and donors for designing and implementing agriculture for nutrition initiatives and education/communication programs. Particular attention is paid to identify value chain opportunities that generate more equitable employment and income opportunities for women and youth.FP5 has a dual role as a space for systems research and for providing CapDev and backstopping in support of innovation and scaling in FP1-FP4. In this regard it provides a livelihood systems-related guiding framework for all FPs to steer them toward promising scaling of innovations, opportunities for advancing gender and intergenerational equity, expected and proven areas of greatest return, and scientific evidence on impactful partnership and scaling models.CapDev activities are integrated and specified in all impact pathways at cluster and FP levels (see 1.0.10; Section 2; Annex 2). Moreover, achieving development outcomes requires strong partnerships with development stakeholders spanning public and private sector and civil society. Such multisector, multistakeholder partnerships will have particular impact in site integration countries where, in collaboration with other CRPs, innovation and scaling processes will be co-developed with ownership among local stakeholders (see 1.0.8). Research on the science of delivery with a focus on the design, implementation, and performance of partnership and scaling models and their underlying institutional arrangements is integrated into FP5 and will guide cross-flagship learning.As described, the program ToC guides and builds on more detailed ToCs developed at the FP level (see Section 2). Flagship projects, in turn, are an aggregation of clusters with shared objectives and related R4D domains. Each cluster has its own structure, key outputs, and impact pathway nested within the FP's impact pathway.An RTB cluster functions as a time-bound project, each with a team that can manage for results. RTB defined three types of clusters: (1) Discovery-focused on innovative upstream research, yielding prototype products with potential to enter in delivery pipelines;(2) Delivery-focused on adaptive research and scaling with direct contributions to scientific and development results; and (3) Crosscutting-facilitate learning and achievement of outcomes across clusters and FPs. Crosscutting clusters provide advice and theoretical and operational frameworks for improving other clusters' effectiveness.Clusters comprise a set of products, each with its own work package (see Section 2: ToC subsections). In particular, Delivery clusters comprise lead and linked products. Lead products in Delivery clusters closely correspond to the concept of scalable technology and the associated inventory proposed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (http://bit.ly/1iAyC2Z). Linked products complement the lead product to support uptake. CapDev plays a critical role in creating the capacities amongst different types of users for the ToC to translate into envisaged outcomes. Gender aspects are taken into consideration in an integrative manner to improve user orientation and adoptability of technologies and to improve gender equity in relation to producing, processing, and marketing RTB. As an example, Figure 7 shows how a cluster (CA4.2 in FP4) combines different disciplinary areas of work: cassava processing centers, life-cycle analysis, and protocols for high product quality. Delivery clusters pass through different stages as the scale of RTB outcomes increases (Table 8). Stage 1 focuses on client-oriented participatory research and the assembly of products for piloting. In stages 2 and 3, the emphasis shifts to outcome support and the scale increases from initial to massive scaling. Transitions require a learning agenda based on feedback loops involving next and, where possible, end users to identify adoption levels and patterns and their drivers. Included here are supply-side constraints and market opportunities, context-specific influence of norms and agency on gender equity, and opportunities and needs for technology refinement and successful scaling. Progressive scaling from stage 2 to stage 3 will be based on evidence of efficacy and efficiency for scaling. As clusters move from one stage to the next, and as new Delivery clusters emerge out of discovery, the balance of research and outcome support and the roles of partners will change. By the end of the 6-year period, a majority of Delivery FPs will most likely be in stage 3. Others, especially those recently graduated from Discovery, will either be in stage 2 or continue to be in stage 1. So although the program portfolio is already generating significant outcomes from 2017, most outcomes from the current Delivery FPs will occur in the second period (2020-2022) of Phase II.ToCs need flexibility and a participatory process of validation, reflection, and readjustment to respond to specific and additional challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned through the course of the program's implementation.The set of nested ToCs constituted the backbone of the RTB's results-based management (RBM) framework. For all FPs and clusters, research products were identified, impact pathways mapped out, scaling strategies agreed, and indicators for (Sub)-IDOs and lower result levels constructed to provide the basis for RBM. They are shown in the Performance Indicator Matrix (included as a separate file).An RBM strategy (see Annex 5), piloted in Phase I by RTB and Humidtropics, is founded on five principles:(1) a clear and logical program design that ties resources and activities to expected results; (2) clear roles and shared responsibilities for RTB scientists/management and partners involved in implementation; (3) commitment to improve performance on an ongoing basis; (4) demonstrated accountability and benefits to stakeholders; and (5) reliable and timely information made available to program management, CGIAR, donors, and key stakeholders.A results-oriented culture will be promoted at all management levels through an integrated system that includes the following components: planning, monitoring, evaluation, and learning platform (PMELP), and impact assessment. PMELP focuses both on output delivery and outcome achievement. It provides quantitative and qualitative information on scientific results and their uptake by next and end users, CapDev activities, partnership management, and indicators for Open Access (OA) and Intellectual Assets (IA) management. It includes a learning agenda so that program refinements are built into the resultsoriented culture. The evaluation component covers summative and formative aspects, is implemented in coordination with IEA, and integrates thematic (e.g., key challenges in RTB seed systems) and managerial issues (e.g., resizing and adjustment of FPs and clusters). The impact assessment component (primarily in FP5) will include ex-ante and ex-post assessments, contribute to strategic program planning and resource allocation, and provide evidence of impact. Alignment with national and international partners (SDGframework, other CRPs) and their monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems is a requirement for the RBM strategy to function effectively and avoid parallel systems.RBM is supported by a PMELP, an information technology for the collection, storage, analysis, and sharing of technical data, developed with the CRP on Dryland Cereals and Legumes (DCL). PMELP links data with financial information to enable timely and informed decision making, transparent reporting to donors, and savings in administrative costs.RTB management is committed to mainstreaming gender across research as essential to enhancing impact and gender equity. The RTB Gender Strategy (RTB 2013a) identified seven specific objectives where gender analysis could make the biggest difference to program outcomes. RTB dedicated funding in Phase I to undertake gender analysis and gender integration research in these seven prioritized areas; the findings have contributed to integrating gender into FPs proposed for Phase II (see also Annex 3).Women are often the main producers, processors, and beneficiaries of RTB crops. Yet women's needs and concerns are often not duly considered in agricultural research. For example, in Malawi women regard potato as a key cash and food crop but are rarely targeted with relevant agronomic advice to improve their potato yields, which are half of men's (Mudege et al. 2015). Women were also not targeted with training in marketing, which means that they cannot effectively participate in and benefit from markets.A lack of attention to gender in innovation processes may even undermine women's livelihoods. In Kenya, the commercialization of banana value chains displaced women from producing and marketing the crop (Fischer and Qaim 2012). Exclusion has implications for efficiency and equity as well, leading to agricultural underperformance in terms of yield (World Bank et al. 2009;FAO 2011).Gender specialists took part in the cross-center team for the RTB priority assessment, and various measures were taken to capture gender. Three gender questions were included among 90 research options in the expert survey to identify priority research areas. Expert respondents were asked to rank the importance of (1) research and development (R&D) of gender-friendly labor-saving tools, (2) research on gender-equitable value chains, and (3) study on gender inequality in crop production systems. The three gender research options were, however, ranked low compared with other research options.Probable reasons are lack of awareness of: The importance of social aspects of technical research and focus on technical outputs rather than outcomes along the impact pathway. The inadequate capacity for integrating gender concerns, using available tools and undertaking gender analysis in agricultural R4D.As a follow-up to the priority assessment, focus group discussions were initiated to identify the key gender implications of future RTB research in different locations. This fed into a separate, cross-CRP qualitative comparative field study, in which RTB is a leading proponent in design, training, and implementation: GENNOVATE (Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Natural Resource Management). The 3-year project started in 2013 and involved 11 CRPs, reaching 125 villages across 25 countries where CGIAR is active (RTB and Humidtropics have 20 cases in 7 countries). Research explores differences in women and men's capacities to access, adopt, and benefit from innovations in agriculture. Results will contribute to adjustments to the design of the RTB gender portfolio in Phase II.In line with the scope of work outlined in the gender strategy and the findings of the priority assessment, RTB developed a gender capacity-strengthening plan (RTB 2013b) to raise awareness and build capacity among scientists and partners on the importance of gender mainstreaming and gender integration research. The team conducted an online (SurveyMonkey) Gender Training Needs Assessment, sent to 80 staff and partners, 62 of whom responded. Lack of skills/trained staff, lack of financial resources for gender activities, and lack of input from gender scientists were frequently cited obstacles to gender integration. RTB developed a gender training curriculum based on this assessment, with different flexible modules; 80 scientists and partners were trained in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in 2013. Additional theme-specific capacity-strengthening efforts for partners were conducted on participatory varietal selection (PVS) (Ethiopia, Uganda) and nutrition (Ethiopia) in 2015. In addition, the gender team implemented an analysis of all gender research published by RTB centers between 2007 and 2012 (RTB 2013c).Table 9 gives a synopsis of gender analysis undertaken in Phase I, the FP it relates to, and the gender relevance of the FP based on scoring its constituent clusters. RTB has also been adopting an approach to create strategic partnerships with regional and national organizations such as the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and ASARECA to develop synergies and to draw on their rich experience in gender mainstreaming and women's empowerment.Additionally, RTB is promoting (1) minimum gender standards in research, (2) strengthening of gender content in the RTB portfolio, and (3) building of stronger partnerships with key academic institutions to improve and increase the capacity to conduct gender research. In this regard, RTB is developing models for gender-responsive partnerships by establishing partnerships with universities. The primary objective is to facilitate interdisciplinary exchange among faculty, students, and RTB scientists/researchers in order to address the challenges of integrating gender into RTB projects. In 2014-2015, six graduate students participated and completed their research through the RTB-University Gender Partnership. The network now includes faculties from nine different U.S. universities, with plans for extension.We envisage this partnership as an opportunity to engage graduate students and faculties with RTB scientists and researchers, to integrate the needs of women farmers, and be attentive to gender relations in project design and implementation. We hope that the RTB-University Gender Partnership develops a strong and innovative community of practice (CoP) by creating the next generation of gender and development practitioners and scholars. Building on lessons from RTB-Phase I, Phase II will ensure that gender is integrated across the portfolio and that gender work is resourced. Gender work will adopt a two-pronged approach: (1) integrate gender within FPs and clusters and (2) conduct strategic gender research across FPs, with a dedicated crosscutting gender learning and support cluster in FP5 (CC5.3 Gender equitable development and youth employment). Strategic research will deepen the analysis of the relationship between gender and agrifood system innovations, and thus help to streamline gender elements across the RTB research cycle. This, in turn, will contribute to gender-responsive and, in some cases, gender-transformative outcomes.The synthesis will be based on a meta-analysis of experiences and results of gender integration research across the different FPs. Gender research will provide evidence-based lessons on the positive and negative interactions between gender norms and agricultural innovation; gender CapDev materials and strategies; and gender-responsive and gender-transformative metrics that will be fed into the RTB-RBM system (via impact pathway).Broad-based partnerships. The gender team will continue to build alliances through the RTB-University Gender Partnership. This effort will increase capacity to integrate gender into RTB agricultural research projects, while providing professional development opportunities for a new generation of visiting scholars. RTB will also partner with national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) to mainstream gender, and will offer gender CapDev programs as well as technical advice by gender focal points in those institutions. Additionally, more emphasis will be given on working with partners (such as FARA and ASARECA, women's networks, self-help groups, gender alliances) who are oriented on gender equity and women's empowerment issues and who promote gender-equitable approaches.The M&E system will be used to track progress toward gender outcomes generated from integrated and strategic gender research. Indicators that are gender responsive and transformative have been included in line with different (Sub)-IDOs and as outlined in the different FPs (see Performance Implementation Matrix). Some of the gender indicators-especially those related to institutional change-are developed as a result of the various audits and needs assessment in collaboration with the CGIAR Gender Network.RTB's Program Management Unit (PMU) and gender specialists will ensure that gender issues are addressed in the RTB portfolio through periodic workshops aimed at reviewing and reflecting on monitoring and knowledge-sharing. RTB will closely monitor changes for end users from pre-intervention situations, and will monitor, evaluate, and assess (ex-post) whether distribution of benefits is taking gender roles and relations into account. For work related to development of methods and tools for strategic gender research, the main indicator of impact will be tracking down by identifying the use of such developed tools by next and end users of RTB and its partners. In addition, RTB's PMU and gender specialists will develop templates to meet demand from scientists for guidelines to help them monitor whether or not the clusters are integrating gender aspects satisfactorily into their initiatives and are allocating sufficient resources for undertaking gender research. RTB will also conduct periodic assessment of gender knowledge among scientists to ensure that CapDev is adequately covered.Youth unemployment is both a challenge and an opportunity for youth to become the engine for driving new agriculture and agribusiness enterprises as well as rural transformation (Brooks et al. 2012). But youth face many hurdles in trying to earn a livelihood from agriculture and agribusiness (FAO, CTA IFAD 2014): each year in Africa alone, 10-12 million of its young people seek to enter the workforce, too many with little success (AGRA 2015). RTB will seek to engage youth as key stakeholders with an overall objective of developing their capacity and creating more economic opportunities to engage them in RTBlinked enterprises. RTB will link practical initiatives to engage youth in pilot sites with youth analysis as a framework to learn, link, and leverage resources to increase youth employment. A systematic youth analysis of key production constraints, opportunities, and value chains vis-à-vis RTB crops will be developed to ensure that youth benefit from RTB interventions (see also Annex 4). This will include the following research questions:1. What are the different roles, responsibilities, assets, and agency of young men and women, including their access to, control over, and use of resources? 2. What are the aspirations of youth considering different contexts and gender differences? 3. Which technical breakthroughs in RTB production and processing offer the best opportunities for youth advancement, and what is the best way to package them? 4. How do the yields and profits of accelerated youth agricultural ventures based on RTB technologies compare with other options, and how can they be optimized?5. What incentives are required to strengthen business skills among youth?Youth analysis and practical action to stimulate youth employment will be integrated into different FPs.In addition, RTB has a dedicated cluster for gender-equitable development and youth employment in FP5. This will learn from and build on IITA's youth \"agripreneur\" initiative, which engaged youth in crop production practices, seed multiplication, agribusiness, and inclusion of commercial processing and sale of vitamin A-rich cassava flour.The design of FPs and their clusters that make up the program build on the RTB-led assessment of research priorities for each of the crops and the new systems thinking (see 1.0.2). The IEA external review (2016) commended RTB on its set of interlinked and interactive FPs, noting that it \"has better potential than the previous structure to facilitate RTB to contribute to CGIAR goals (SLOs) through sub-IDOs, thus addressing one of the core principles of CGIAR reform.\" The program structure includes three types of interlinked FPs and their associated clusters.Discovery FP1 includes a set of four clusters that provides well-targeted, high-potential upstream research and next-generation breeding activities to accelerate genetic gains in yield, adaptation, resilience, and quality traits across all crops in a client-responsive way. The RTB breeding CoP brings together breeders, geneticists, and molecular biologists. It tracks variety and trait pipelines; monitors genetic gains; and supports shared services, tools, and information. FP1 also generates products for the Delivery FPs once proof of concept is established, including markers, approaches to genomic selection, and game-changing traits (where these present recalcitrant challenges to breeding). Finally, it adds value to genebanks by enhancing and characterizing the genetic diversity found there and promoting its utilization in breeding programs. FP1 supports the monitoring and management of in situ diversity to ensure resilient cropping systems and capacity to respond to climate change and other stresses, as well as opportunities for new uses and markets. RTB-Phase II envisages strong interaction between this FP and the CGIAR-wide platforms Genebank and Genetic Gain.Delivery FPs (FP2-FP4) consist of crosscutting and crop-specific clusters that focus on research products that generate significant outcomes and impact over the next six years. Delivery clusters include lead products that can achieve novel or disruptive innovation (Christensen 2012). For example, OFSP was a disruptive innovation for SSA farmers who initially preferred a white-fleshed type. OFSP has been vigorously promoted by building awareness of its health benefits, especially among women as primary caregivers, to generate strong demand pull and is now moving to aggressive scaling. Delivery clusters also include more routine products that rely on incremental improvement rather than disruptive innovation. Each Delivery cluster includes linked research products from different disciplines to enable uptake of the lead product, recognizing that varieties require functional seed systems and evidence of efficacy can influence policy change.Improved livelihoods at scale (FP5) enables uptake and scaling of key technologies from Delivery FPs that contribute to livelihoods. It incorporates elements from broader production systems, creating a strong feedback loop to the other FPs to ensure that technology is relevant for clients. It will develop tools, methods, and approaches that improve identification and prioritization of problems and opportunities. In addition, FP5 will encourage investment and develop, test, and experiment with RTB tools/methods/technologies within the larger systems context for sustainable intensification and improved livelihoods. It includes outcome support services and feedback loops to create the capacities, R&D partnerships, and innovation environments for product delivery to take research products and outcomes to scale. It addresses strategic gender-and youth-focused research to promote genderequitable development and youth employment jointly with the other FPs. Strategic gender research will be implemented to understand key constraints and opportunities affecting the differential participation of women and men in RTB value chains and technology innovation. It will seek ways to make participation more equitable and effective, leading to larger scale development outcomes. Foresight, as well as ex-ante and ex-post studies, will instill an impact culture to better align RTB research with outcomes and ensure value for money. FP5 will guide and backstop the implementation of the \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", which facilitates systems integration among FPs and with other AFS-CRPs.All FPs contain one or more crosscutting clusters; FP5 is predominantly crosscutting. Under FP5 research is conducted to develop new tools and methods jointly with other clusters. They provide methodological support to and spaces for shared learning with other clusters, both inside the same FP and across other FPs.Flagship and cluster business cases were laid out during 2014/15 and subjected to an intensive external review process in May/June 2015. Detailed feedback informed the feasibility of each cluster and their integration into FPs as well as the RTB program structure as such. Although reviewers found business cases generally solid, they drew attention to gaps and inconsistencies that led to ongoing reformulation of the cluster and FP descriptions and their incorporation into this proposal. The reviews (1) highlighted the absence of a sweetpotato cluster in FP2, with all other crops represented (this was subsequently included in the current version of this flagship); (2) pointed up the need to take a broader approach in FP4, considering the contribution of RTB crops as healthy functional foods; and (3) proposed that FP3 be framed so as to better reflect the broader work on crop management aspects.RTB is vigorously pursuing collaboration with other AFS-CRPs both where their commodities form an integral part of RTB cropping systems, such as legumes intercropped with cassava (with DCL), or where RTB crops contribute as companions in another AFS, such as potato as a rotation crop with rice (with RICE). This type of collaboration forms a key element of FP2-FP4.In addition, broader collaboration with other AFS-CRPs, guided by FP5, is planned at the livelihood level; considering, for example, transitions into more diverse sets of enterprises and inter-household linkages at the community and landscape levels.To leverage best practices across CRPs and greater contribution to SRF targets, as well as stimulate interdisciplinary research, RTB will link with all GI-CRPs: FP1 will interact closely with the Genebanks and Genetic Gains Platforms to best utilize new technologies, sources of genetic diversity, information, and databases to enhance breeding programs. Likewise, the cluster on gender-equitable development and youth employment in FP5 (CC5.3) will work closely with the gender coordinating platform to share and synthesize knowledge on how gender inequalities affect agri-food systems, and to understand the approaches and tools required to improve equitable access to RTB innovations.Annex 6 gives further details of collaboration between RTB and other CRPs and the new CGIAR-wide proposed platforms.A key dimension in the SRF and the CGIAR second-phase portfolio is the increased integration across the CRPs and a strengthened ability to work with a wide range of partners and stakeholders in achieving key development goals. RTB is fully committed to and will designate funding for site integration countries of highest priority, linked to a proposed \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\" (see Section 2: FP5) for RTB crops.Site integration meetings were held in the final quarter of 2015 for countries identified as highest priority (++ Site) and in 2016 for second-level priority (+ Sites). It is important to bear in mind that these priority countries are not intended to exclude other countries that are also critical for RTB deliverables. RTB is setting up a \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\" for Phase II that will support collaboration across CRPs at different levels of scale, with a particular focus on the site integration countries.RTB's PMU has worked closely with each of the prioritized site integration processes (see Table 6), providing co-funding and designating RTB focal points across all participating centers. These processes represent an opportunity to: Support dialogue and engagement with partners and stakeholders to understand and align with the national priorities and actions (i.e., demand for RTB research and also evidence-based advocacy where national priorities are inappropriate).Get closer to RTB partners in the CGIAR system (i.e., other CGIAR centers, CRPs) for strengthening collaboration across crops/commodities and with the relevant GI-CRPs in that country.Identify specific opportunities for integration into other CRPs where RTB could move ahead (e.g., work on sweetpotato silage or cassava waste utilization with LIVESTOCK).Provide input to organize an inventory of interventions by geography in the country and explore possibilities of focusing efforts in particular sites where co-location, shared services/research activities, and even staff could make sense.Provide a space to link impact pathways of RTB with those of the other CRPs.Under RTB, the expertise of CGIAR and French organizations that had been dispersed across individual centers was brought together to exploit several comparative advantages: (1) scientific capacity in human resources and research infrastructure; (2) individual center's capacity to act as conveners and facilitators across national boundaries, and as an \"honest broker\" to assemble a broad range of public, private, and development organizations; and (3) access to well-characterized global germplasm collections of major RTB crops. Phase I built on this comparative advantage by establishing a common umbrella to expand partnerships and capacity for crosscutting synergistic work relating to (1) their status as crops of the poor and the implications for poverty reduction and nutrition; (2) predominant roles of women in value chains;(3) vegetative propagation as related broadly to seed systems and to breeding systems; and (4) commonalities in post-harvest management, including transportation, storage, and processing.RTB, as a program with high scientific capability and global outreach in developing countries, has a comparative advantage and key pivotal role in integrative research generating international public goods, which would otherwise not be delivered by NARES, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), universities, or the private sector. Cassava, banana, sweetpotato, and yam are largely crops of developing countries with limited research investment in the developed world. Potato has a long history of first-world research, but technologies in developing countries lag far behind. Hence RTB and its centers include extensive expertise across these crops. The focus on crops that mostly fall outside the private sector area of interest, frequently with smallholder farmers, is a unique comparative advantage.Furthermore, RTB and its centers' ability to think across national and regional boundaries is a unique strength for international public goods research. Often the solution to a pest, disease, or other problems lies outside the place where it was found. Hence when cassava mealy bug appeared in SSA, IITA and CIAT were able to jointly mobilize to locate a natural enemy in South America. Similar emerging problems, such as the appearance of TR4 of fusarium in SSA and the new cassava pests in Asia, will require a similar approach.RTB actively supports research on partnerships. FP5 will promote best practices for partnering, including selecting the right partners and \"partnership health check-ups\" that build on influential earlier work (Horton et al. 2010). RTB especially supports partnership platforms that bring together multiple partners to learn and scale up. The RTB partnership strategy is based on an analysis of research needs and roles of partners along the impact pathway, closely linked with the CapDev strategy (see Annexes 1 and 2 NARES are partners of choice for much adaptive research, complemented increasingly by novel partnerships to go to scale. RTB will build on the array of networks, partnership arrangements, and innovation platforms already established. This includes partnerships with development organizations for scaling and with local organizations, NGOs, and institutions adept at developing capacity-particularly for producers and other stakeholders along the value chains-and that have the capacity to provide feedback and input into RTB strategies. Collaboration with the private sector will further increase going to scale, leveraging additional resources and entrepreneurial dynamism for accelerated technology promotion.Sections 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 provided much direct evidence of demand, aligned with grand societal challenges.Information was also provided about the importance of RTB crops for smallholders' livelihoods and for meeting food security needs for energy and micronutrients.During consultations with 255 stakeholders in 2010 for the design of RTB-Phase I, respondents expressed support for a systems-based program on RTB crops. Many suggested a stronger production-or livelihoodsystems approach, including participatory action research (Woolley et al. 2011). This was addressed in RTB by co-locating with the Systems CRPs, especially Humidtropics, to achieve a livelihood focus. By transitioning to an AFS, RTB enhances this approach.In 2012 RTB conducted a comprehensive, online expert consultation in coordination with ASARECA, CORAF, and CCARDESA in Africa; IICA in Latin America; and multiple partners in Asia. The goal was to identify the highest priorities for research on each of the RTB crops, with 1,620 responses 2 . Participatory stakeholder workshops were held to delve deeper (see Section 1.0.2). Findings from the consultation and ex-ante analysis were published and shared widely (https://goo.gl/qt7ZFy). RTB also carried out an online consultation with stakeholders on the Phase-II proposal, which attracted 1,757 page views by 1,025 individuals' visits and insightful commentary (http://bit.ly/1UyjQjQ).As part of RBM, RTB organized stakeholder planning workshops for three delivery clusters: seed potato systems in Kenya, Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) management in East and Central Africa, and cassava processing in Nigeria (http://bit.ly/1C6tb51). A broad range of stakeholders participated: farmers and farmer organizations; national, regional, and international research organizations; ministries and national agencies; private companies; NGOs; and international development agencies. RTB has expanded collaboration with stakeholders for the site integration consultation and is playing an active role in GCARD3 (CGIAR 2015).During the workshops mentioned above, stakeholders and RTB scientists co-constructed realistic, nonlinear impact pathways illustrating the interactions between outcome levels and among products and outcomes (http://bit.ly/1FkBU8Z). Priorities were then identified and specific scaling strategies formulated.Stakeholders collaborated to identify enabling and disenabling factors for the causal sequences to play out as expected. Partnership strategies and a framework for action were identified, and key elements of a joint monitoring, evaluation, and learning (M&EL) system identified, joint accountability framed, and the process of joint learning and scaling laid out. Co-constructing the results framework facilitated the definition of an agreed indicators' framework for monitoring expected changes that was based on and aligned with existing national M&E frameworks, data collections, and statistical sources from stakeholders, partners, and the like. In the case of the Discovery cluster \"Next-generation breeding\" workshop, stakeholders from private sector companies involved in crop improvement, universities, and NARS developed a set of metrics to measure genetic gain and created strong linkages for joint definition and alignment of breeding targets. RTB will continue to roll out RBM and organize stakeholder workshops for all clusters. This will make it possible to agree shared responsibilities with stakeholders for achieving SLOs and SDGs (see Section 1.0.3).CapDev actions are summarized in Template 1.Address key gaps among upstream partners for co-development and uptake of research products and of downstream partners for accelerated uptake and scaling.How chosen elements will be implemented RTB operates as an alliance of four CGIAR centers and CIRAD, with CIP as the lead center. Following best practices (IEA 2014) and lessons learned from RTB-Phase I, the Independent Steering Committee (ISC) comprises nine members appointed for three years, with possible reappointment for an additional three years. A majority of the ISC are independent members with competencies in gender, partnership, evaluation, and ToC, as well as capacity strengthening and cutting-edge science. The ISC includes the RTB program director as ex-officio member, the director general (DG) of the lead center as a permanent member, a DG of another participating center (on a rotating two-year appointment), and a high-level representative of CIRAD. Both DGs represent all partner CGIAR centers. The ISC chair is elected from among the independent members. The ISC meets face to face once a year with quarterly video meetings and the chair's interim email updates. It has oversight responsibility for the implementation of RTB and strategic alignment of RTB with the SRF; guides management for results; and approves plans, reports, and budgets. The ISC reports to the lead center board, which has fiduciary responsibility for implementation of RTB.The Management Committee (MC) consists of the deputy directors general-research for each of the centers and CIRAD on behalf of French partners. The MC, which meets quarterly, leads the management of the CRP and ensures timely implementation of plans, reporting, budgeting, and management for results. The RTB program director chairs the MC and reports to the ISC programmatically and to the DG of lead center administratively (Fig. 8). The program director is supported by PMU (see also Annex 7). Flagship project leaders and the RTB gender research coordinator meet monthly to report and plan research. FP leaders provide scientific leadership, ensure science quality in planning and reporting of cluster leaders, and provide advice to the MC on strategic issues regarding RTB.Cluster leaders form part of the management team for the FP with the FP leader and other cluster leaders. They provide scientific leadership for the cluster, including updating the strategy for the cluster and identifying new research opportunities.Individual centers are responsible for managing their own scientists and ensuring that they are contributing to RTB in line with the performance agreements of the FP and for talent management of flagship and cluster leaders and gender focal points. The centers are responsible for obtaining and maintaining bilateral grants To achieve an efficient use of resources, RTB will implement a harvesting interface that will use the metadata to harvest and index RTB knowledge products from RTB program participant's OA repositories (Table 10). Technical infrastructure and human resources of the lead center will be relied on for this implementation.Table 10. Key elements of the RTB OA installationsMakes harvested OD availableMakes harvested OA publications availableProvides a one-stop entry point for all RTB knowledge products, while the original publications and datasets will be accessed via redirecting to repositories of the program participants. This solution will:  increase the visibility and accessibility of RTB research;  conserve program participants' control and curation over their IA; and  ensure the availability of the information products beyond the life-cycle of RTB.Will host the RTB Open Access Portal and will include the RTB OA toolkit, including policy documents, training videos, donor OA information, and regularly updated OA publisher information RTB publication and acknowledgment guidelines will be developed to provide adequate information regarding metadata input for adequate harvesting. OA/OD, and compliance with these guidelines, will be a contractual requirement for the program participants.The lead center's OADM team will collaborate with their counterparts in program participants to achieve a harmonized implementation. During program implementation, OA will be subject to the governance structure of RTB, which will benefit from the support of the RTB OA task force composed of the OADM focal points of program participants. Copyright, licensing, and legal support will be provided to the RTB compliance and IA manager and the IP focal points. Budget has been earmarked for OA (see 1.1.6 and subsections 6 \"key activities\" of FP budget narratives), some PMU funding may be allocated for the development of the infrastructure and implementation of specific collaborative activities. RTB FPs and clusters will budget for data management and OA publication fees.Communication tools and approaches will be integrated across the program to support the achievement of R&D impact at the FP level and promote RTB externally to raise its visibility among key stakeholders at the CRP level.At the FP level, communications will help to achieve outcomes at multiple scales, supporting: (1) delivery, uptake, and adoption of knowledge, practices, and technologies by stakeholders;(2) policy influence by generating evidence-based products and facilitating dialogues with decision makers at local, national, and regional levels; and (3) knowledge sharing and learning mechanisms to connect partners and/or stakeholders.At the CRP level, communication promotes RTB's scientific progress, process, and results throughout the life-cycle of the program, emphasizing the unique potential of RTB crops to improve livelihoods, and the program's linkages to the SRF and SDGs. Communication goals include:  Making program information, documents, OA databases, and publications accessible to key audiences (e.g., donors, policymakers, and partners) through channels and platforms such as the RTB website, social media, and e-newsletters.Raising the profile of RTB research through media engagement and participation in key international and regional events.Supporting partnerships and knowledge sharing through internal and external events, maintaining and promoting platforms such as the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal, MusaNet, and more.A detailed and measureable communications strategy that builds on Phase I will specify a combination of online and offline, internal and external tactics to achieve RTB's communications goals (see Annex 10C).The RTB communications specialist will coordinate the program's communications efforts, working with communication focal points in the centers, drawing on their capacities and sharing lessons learned to grow RTB communications. At the FP level, communications will be implemented by FP and cluster teams, drawing on resources in partner organizations and contracting specialists where necessary. Adequate financial and human resources will be allocated to achieve RTB's communication goals at CRP and FP levels.RTB recognizes that risk management is critical to program success. The strategy for managing the different risk dimensions associated with the management of a large-scale program builds on lessons learned by the lead center and the alliance of the four CGIAR centers and CIRAD from RTB-Phase I. The objective is to ensure that program cost, schedule, and performance objectives are achieved along the RTB life-cycle, and to engage stakeholders in the process of uncovering program uncertainties, determining their scope, and managing them. Several dimensions of risk management can be identified.Governance. Key risks associated with the overall governance and execution of the program have been addressed through the establishment of the RTB governance bodies (see 1.0.11) with clear and specific roles and responsibilities. The establishment of this structure ensures the right degree of checks and balances between the responsibilities assigned to the lead center and the RTB management structure. In 2015, the ISC formed an internal working group on risk which will build on the lead center's procedures for risk analysis and mitigation.Program Performance. A set of relevant critical assumptions and risks associated with, and identified within, the ToC have been identified for each FP (see 1.0.2; Section 2). For each risk factor, RTB will assess the degree to which the FP team can identify, control, and mitigate critical risks, and how the identified assumptions and risks will be assessed periodically.An  39,288,836 40,860,389 42,494,805 44,194,597 45,962,381 47,800,876 260,601,879,274 22,754,445 23,664,623 24,611,208 25,595,656 26,619,482 145,124,687 FP4-Nutritious RTB food and value added through postharvest innovation 16,289,321 16,940,893 17,618,529 18,323,270 19,056,201 19,818,449 108,046,664 FP5-Improving livelihoods at scale 19,640,893 20,426,529 21,243,590 22,093,333 22,977,067 23,896,149  The total CRP budget presented for 2017-2022 is an estimate of the amount needed to achieve the outcomes described in the CRP and FP narratives, as well as in the Performance Indicator Matrix.The building up of the budget is the result of a consultative process among PMU, Management Committee, FP and cluster leaders. Budget figures for RTB Phase II are based on a complete new budget logic and set-up for the new program structure by FP and clusters (compared to the former Theme structure), following the RTB congruence analysis and strategic priorisation of research priorities. Amounts are likely to change during the course of implementation, depending on monitoring of annual workplans and expenditure (commitment to RBM) and the regular updates of the congruence analysis of the fit between outcomes and budget of each cluster. The share of budget by center within the FP is provisional, was revised for FP5 for the resubmission of the Proposal (July 2016) and will be further revisited after final/re-mapping of the additional budget allocated from CRP Humidtropics. Working closely with the Management Committee, the PMU will develop annual budgets, linked to a plan of work that will be presented to the ISC for endorsement and approved by the Board of Trustees of the Lead Center. A transparent process will be put in place for budget allocations of W1&2, taking into account prospects for delivery, quality of science and partnerships and credibility of the impact pathway.Funding FP1 and FP2 including discovery and breeding are areas of clear comparative advantage for the CGIAR with 47% of total funding under the base scenario. Discovery research is harder to fund and under the uplift scenario a relatively higher proportional increase will be applied here.FP3 which works on resilient RTB crops is the second highest funded flagship.FP5 works on the science of delivery, as well as contributing to scaling, sustainable intensification, and enabling outcomes. FP5 draws on experience gained from systems work (and budget mapped into RTB from Humidtropics), includes foresight and impact assessment as well as gender and youth components and hence is also a relatively well funded FP.FP4 which deals with postharvest and nutrition has relatively less funding currently, reflecting the fact that massive scaling will only be achieved in the short term with sweetpotato and partially cassava, and other crops have major work on piloting.An \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", funded by W1&2 for a total of $23,215,414, which will be assigned on the basis of semi-competitive grants to systems related work, involving RTB clusters and potentially other AFS-CRPs during the respective year is provisionally distributed across FP1-5 in proportion to their share in the total W1&2 budget -this distribution will change once the grants are awarded.As described in the budget narrative for each FP, all FPs include W1&2 funding for strategic research, and key coordination functions, which ordinarily are not covered by W3 and Bilateral.Risks in spending include:(1) low burn rates. The PMU will actively monitor burn rates with a mid-year check and reassign end of the year carryover if sufficient justification is not provided by science teams(2) in the event that a rapid increase in budget occurs, the need to rapidly implement additional activities (as occurred in the first three years of Phase I). RTB will develop a portfolio of complementary funding type concept notes to absorb additional funding streams should they appear.Full details of the budget at the CRP level and for each flagship are provided in the on-line tool and the excel files which complement this narrative and the flagship level descriptions. The table above shows the breakdown of the budget by flagship project and for the PMU and an estimation of the amount dedicated to key activities.  W1+W2 22,500,000 23,400,000 24,336,000 25,309,440 26,321,818 27,374,691 149,241,951 W3 62,675,111 65,182,117 67,789,401 70,500,977 73,321,017 76,253,856 415,722,481 Bilateral 29,001,241 30,161,290 31,367,742 32,622,451 33,927,349 35,284,445 192,364,520 Other Sources 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 114,176,352 118,743,407 123,493,143 128,432,868 133,570,184 138,912,992 757,328,946 Funding  577,713,620,395,107,221,634,402,784,129,291,463,681,753,039Other Sources 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -64,980,008 -79,497,576 -88,749,871 -97,687,121 -102,570,085 -107,903,129 -541,387,790 Secured Slightly reduce management and support costs in relative terms but increase absolute investment in MELIA activities. In particular linkages between monitoring and impact assessment will be strengthened and foresight and impact assessment studies expanded to better orient future investments.Management Budget under RTB is 2% of the total budget ($13.3M) and entirely funded by W1&2. This includes activities of the extended Program Management Team, Independent Steering Committee and Management Committee as well as the annual planning meeting for RTB managers, scientists and partners. 1. W1&2 allocations were determined for the new program structure with its constituent flagships and clusters, drawing on the congruence analysis which demonstrates a reasonable fit between budget and outcomes, attributable to each crop based cluster. W1&2 is assigned to: areas of cross cutting, synergistic research, which ordinarily would not be funded through bilateral projects. This includes for example developing a framework for seed system interventions across all crops. areas of high relevance such as strategic gender research and youth analysis. research management costs of FPs with a 20% time-commitment of FP leaders.In the preparation of annual work plans, there will be re-alignments of these budget amounts, based upon improved congruence analysis, the quality and granularity of the annual work plan presented to the PMU, level of performance at the cluster and FP level during the preceding year, and in the eventuality of low burn rates.2. Flagship leaders have oversight of the budget, including planning, monitoring and reporting, to ensure consistency between expenditure and technical progress. However, in the case of RTB, with multiple crops, budget holders for W1&2 funds are at the cluster level as cluster conceptually rather corresponds to an actual time bound project. Hence, cluster leaders are responsible for preparing annual budgets, ensuring appropriate burn rate -aligned with technical progress -and jointly with finance teams in ensuring timely and correct end of year reports.Major capital investments are from CIAT for the acquisition of environmental sensors and other highthroughput phenotyping equipment.  Youth (only for those who have a relevant set of activities in this area): This includes both youth analysis in FP5 and specific activities in the areas of seed system, modernizing agriculture and postharvest with strong potential for generating youth employment in FP1-5. Capacity development: This is described exhaustively in the CapDev sections of each flagship. Impact assessment: Ex post impact assessment is an essential activity to demonstrate to donors the value of their investment. However, it requires careful design of sampling frame and data collection. So it requires a dedicated investment to get credible evidence. Intellectual asset management: The PMU has a part time specialist for IA, so some costs are embedded in PMU, additional costs accrue through specialist advice and support from each of the participating centers.  ,778 26,138,392 14,677,768 10,839,194 25,428,003 543,904 Youth 25,667,841,518 4,403,330 3,251,758 10,171,201 Capacity Development 76,012,535 4,014,778 26,138,392 14,677,768 10,839,194 20,342,  Cross cutting areas such as communications, gender/youth research, RBM, Open access and data management and Intellectual Assets implementation  Cross center/cross CRP linkages and site integration  Strategic research, indicated for each of the FPs, for example: impact and foresight studies, breeding community of practice, \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\" and the science of delivery -which would not ordinarily by funded from W3 & bilateral. While the development outcome related part of each FP is expected to be primarily funded by bilateral sources (within the geographical priorities of investors). One System building actions that deliver the foundations for improved impact on the ground by cross CRP linkages, for example to operationalize the IDO and sub-IDO indicators as the principle targets established by the SRF or for site integration.W1 &2 funds will strategically be leveraged by bilateral funding, such that different sources of bilateral funding contribute to the same major W1&2 funded cluster aims, in order to build a program that is consistent and that can deliver its expected outcomes across multiple geographies. Given the breadth of the RTB program, and the funding model, with dependence on all sources of funding, funds from different sources are often commingled in support of research products that have been determined to fit within RTB scope and priorities.A reduction in W1/W2 fund availability will therefore primarily affect strategic research, cross cutting and coordination functions of RTB, collaboration amongst partners and support for \"One System\".The objective of FP1 is to develop and apply leading-edge science toward faster and more precise development of user-demanded varieties, and to enhance the long-term conservation and use of genetic diversity. FP1 will mobilize various actors in the varietal improvement research landscape, connecting genetic diversity, biotechnology, breeding, and use, both technically and from socioeconomic perspectives.New varieties have the potential to respond to a wide range of development and environmental opportunities and challenges, and are typically near the top of the list of production technology components requested by farmers. Varietal characteristics have impact throughout the value chain-from production to processing to consumer acceptance. Consumers have a strong interest in a range of traits that these new varieties offer, such as flavor, nutrition, and appearance. Higher productivity, resilience, and high consumer acceptability in intensified, sustainable systems can raise incomes and nutritional status of small-scale farmers and also reduce the expansion of crops into fragile ecosystems.Breeders have achieved significant success and impact in some crops, such as cassava in Southeast Asia and nutritious sweetpotato in East Africa. But progress on further improving rates of genetic gain has been constrained by overall low investment in RTB breeding relative to other major crops. Greater coordination between applied and molecular breeding, and between breeders and social scientists, is a prerequisite to capitalizing on latest science. Men and women's varietal needs sometimes differ, and breeders must recognize and target those needs, toward more gender-equitable opportunities.FP1 will address four grand challenges, with results mainly channeled through the other RTB-FPs, especially FP2.Nutritious and diverse agri-food systems and diets. By 2050, population growth and changes in dietary preferences will more than double food demand in SSA, where people are highly dependent on RTB crops. Yield increases at farm level have generally not kept pace with demand, which is being radically affected by urbanization and increasing incomes. Discovery research will enable incorporation of new traits to revolutionize RTB crops-from locally produced, processed, and consumed products to those that are storable, transportable, convenient, nutritious, and affordable, and with linkages to animal-based production systems through feed.Emergent and persistent pests and diseases. Emergence of new pests and diseases, pathogen evolution, and spread of current constraints such as cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) (and the associated vector, super-abundant whitefly), banana bacterial wilt (BXW), and potato late blight (LB) threaten livelihoods. In 2015, cassava mosaic disease (CMD), the world's most devastating disease on cassava, was reported in Cambodia, with potential threats to the entire Southeast Asia region. An accelerated response is needed, especially the identification of molecular markers for resistance to speed up the incorporation of diverse genes for durable resistance.Climate change. Climate change will drive the demand for research on biotic and abiotic stresses. Disease and pest incidence will be shifted, and weather uncertainty (e.g., drought and flooding) will increase.Several RTB crops are highly resilient to drought, flooding, or higher temperatures; but these can be improved, thus creating the need for access to new genetic variation and for accelerated breeding.Climate change modeling will guide enhanced utilization of genetic resources. FP1 will breed for heat and drought tolerance and resistance to pests whose range and intensity will shift.Diminishing genetic resources. Genetic diversity of RTB landraces and crop wild relatives (CWR)-sources of novel traits and genes-are at risk from replacement of traditional varieties by modern cultivars; agricultural intensification; and increased population, poverty, land degradation, and a changing climate. Improved management, collection, characterization, and use of material from ex situ genebanks, coupled with support for in situ monitoring and on-farm conservation, are central to a coordinated approach to meet this challenge. As stated in the SRF: \"The role of in situ conservation (in farmers' fields), alongside the collections held in genebanks, will continue to grow together with data integration.\"RTB's ability to meet a wide range of rapidly evolving user demands to address these challenges can be greatly enhanced by new tools and methods to (1) accelerate genetic gains, (2) characterize and pinpoint particular desired traits, (3) access broader and better-defined genetic diversity, ( 4) work together more effectively to exploit synergies, and (5) share common resources within and across RTB crops.For the clonally propagated RTB crops, breeders have unique advantages, especially to fix any genes, even in heterozygous condition, through continual clonal propagation. Any individual superior plant, at any stage of selection, can be propagated indefinitely, carrying along the identical gene combinations from one generation to the next. These advantages have always been appreciated by breeders of clonally propagated crops, but are now even more advantageous as molecular tools for early growth stage trait selection are becoming reality. However, there are also breeding constraints related to complex genetic make-up, difficulties in generating seed from crosses or in fixing traits transferred through breeding from one generation to the next, among others (Table FP1.1). The slow recombination rate is a serious limitation to genetic gain per unit time. The multiple species structure of the crop, especially in banana and also somewhat for potato and yam, makes breeding more complex. The objective of FP1 is to develop and apply leading-edge science toward faster and more precise development of user-demanded varieties, and to enhance the long-term conservation and use of genetic diversity.For the achievement of research results, FP1 is based on four Discovery (DI) clusters, each with its own aim and rationale (Table FP1.  Develop prototypes and products that allow the introduction of new traits, without disturbing any other traits and characteristics of the original genotype Overcome the limitations of conventional breeding for clonal crops to add new traits to highly preferred existing varietiesDevelop and promote an integrated and complementary conservation and use system for RTB genetic diversity on farm, in wild habitats, and in genebanks Optimize the long-term contribution of RTB genetic resources to crop improvement and natural resources sustainability FP1 focuses on discovery research and achieves (Sub)-IDOs through the Delivery flagships FP2-FP4, especially through coordination and integration with the breeding clusters of FP2 (Table FP1.3). The BCoP, housed in FP1 but crosscutting all the RTB flagships, helps define and fine-tune breeding targets through consultation among all the RTB flagship clusters and with partners and end users. FP1 supports accelerated genetic gains both through work on specific traits as well as on the development of advanced tools and methods that can be broadly applied across all target traits. Examples of the work on specific traits include marker development, metabolomics, and exploration of genetic diversity. An example of a broad application includes genomic selection. Since discovery research and breeding are long-term endeavors, development outcomes will mostly occur beyond RTB's Phase II end-point in 2022. B and C) Outcome 1.1: RTB populations with end users-preferred traits and adapted to targeted environments available (for more details see Table FP1.4 Targets for RTB genetic improvement are exceptionally diverse and complex. First, RTB includes multiple crops, each with distinct breeding targets. Second, RTB crops cover a very wide agro-ecological range and need to include adaptations to the variations of biotic and abiotic stresses in those environments. In most situations, farmers use low levels of inputs (fertilizer, water, pesticides). The stresses and environmental variations experienced by the crop are therefore less mitigated by management, compared with, for example, irrigated rice or maize cultivated under more intensive conditions. Third, end uses are quite diverse, each with its particular set of end user preferences that often vary distinctly between men and women. Table FP1.4 summarizes key traits identified as breeding targets during the RBM Pilot of NextGen Breeding, and how DI1.2 and DI1.3 clusters will contribute to achieving the target levels for these traits. Target traits and levels of expression are provisional, and DI1.1 will coordinate continual review and updating. Much of the discussion about accelerating genetic gains in the AFS-CRPs has centered on yield improvement, which is typically the metric targeted by breeders and used as the standard of success in evaluating impact. For RTB crops, yield is clearly important to farmers, but yield potential by itself is rarely sufficient to motivate adoption. A myriad of adaptive traits for soil and climate; pest and disease resistance; growth habit; root, tuber, or fruit shape and size; peeling characteristics; cooking time; and taste and texture enter the mix for end user acceptance.The products of discovery research connect to next and end users indirectly, through delivery research.Therefore, M&E will depend on intermediate indicators rather than specific countries or end users (Table FP1.5).Level of increased precision for identifying resistance genes using dense marker data; number of new sources of resistance in genebanks discovered with high throughput in vitro screeningNon-suitable genotypes can be discarded in early generations through use of molecular profiles linked to consumer preferences, thereby channeling more phenotyping resources to high-value selections Nutrition traits Increase in the maximum expression of a trait that can be achieved by combining complementary genes with molecular markersIncrease in maximum temperature or drought stress that can be tolerated through identification of new genes in the photosynthetic pathway, stomatal control, root growth, and other mechanisms of both cultivated and wild speciesFP1 makes critical contributions to accelerating genetic gains for priority traits for end users in the plantbreeding pipeline. The flagship focuses on taking leading-edge science to the level of establishing proof of concept. Once developed for routine use, the application is integrated into and delivered through the RTB Delivery FPs (FP2-FP5). Feedback mechanisms, especially through the RTB BCoP, will keep genderdifferentiated end users' needs at the forefront of research design.The impact pathway of FP1 (Fig. FP1.1) begins with discovery products that generate a set of research outcomes with next users. Next users will include both scientists supporting crop improvement in FP2 and, increasingly, partners who gain capacity to use advanced breeding tools and methods. The BCoP links discovery products and research outcomes to support metrics and the sharing of genetic resources, genetic stocks, data, knowledge, services, and facilities. Likewise, the BCoP links research outcomes with the delivery products of FP2-FP5 by facilitating feedback loops between upstream research, breeding programs, and users/consumers' needs assessments.FP1 will contribute to some Sub-IDOs in its own right, and links through FP2-FP5 to five broad products for delivery: High-yielding candidate varieties with consumer-preferred traits  More nutritious candidate varieties (e.g., vitamin A, Fe, Zn) Candidate varieties resistant to major pests and diseases  Candidate varieties with increased resilience to climate risks and extremes  Candidate varieties suited to environmentally sound and economically viable systems (links to FP5).The discovery products reach end users and contribute to Sub-IDOs through institutional partnerships, mainly NARS breeding and extension programs, farmers' organizations, and the private sector. Women typically are the principal cultivators, processors, and marketers of RTB crops in Africa, but the roles of men and women vary widely at the global level. Varietal trait preferences such as texture, flavor, appearance, and nutritional value are often gender differentiated, especially when crops are consumed and processed locally as in much of Africa. A major challenge that RTB will address through foresight (FP5) and value chain analysis (FP4) is understanding the evolving market drivers, differentiated by men and women market actors, in order to prepare technical responses 10-15 years in anticipation of need. For example, nearly all cassava peeling in West Africa is currently done manually, and mostly by women. Some traits facilitate either hand peeling or mechanized peeling. The breeding strategies will thus have a major impact on how this massive employer of women's labor in West Africa evolves in the next decade. FP1, especially through the RTB BCoP, will link with FP4 and FP5 to evaluate the possible consequences of the new technology, gender equity, and productivity trade-offs, and to define gender-responsive, development-oriented research strategies. And though some progress was made during RTB-Phase I toward integrating gender for defining target traits, much remains to be done. The target traits will continually undergo updating and revision with new information about end user needs, particularly as it relates to gender impact.During Phase II, RTB will take into further account breeding targets that might especially have benefits for youth. For example, traits with implications for labor-savings and added value can be relevant to expanding opportunities for youth in enterprise development. These new variety traits will often be driven by demand created by industry for new or modified products.FP1 will innovate in a fast-evolving scientific environment where DNA, RNA, and metabolite-level characterization, digitalization, automation, precision trait manipulation, and big data are pillars of creation of new technologies. The new breeding technologies will allow RTB to react more quickly to producer, market, and consumer demands, and create greater efficiencies in breeding (Pérez- de-Castro et al. 2012). FP1 will be the home of higher risk/higher pay-off products.DI1.1 RTB BCoP. Each candidate target trait, tool, or methodology will be carefully evaluated for likelihood of success and at what cost. Each research aim will include development and analysis of a credible pathway to success, with support from the broad community of both applied and molecular breeders, along with all other disciplines that feed into successful variety development and deployment. The BCoP assures science quality through its consultation and integration roles of bringing together, promoting shared resources, and finding consensus in developing goals and approaches among all the flagships and partners. The BCoP will contribute to achieving, evaluating, and monitoring science quality, and to fostering greater interaction among scientists.DI1.2 NextGen Breeding. DI1.2 will focus on upstream research using multidisciplinary approaches (genomics, phenomics, statistics) for enhancing the efficiency of RTB breeding programs. The participating members of the RTB centers offer a critical mass of expertise in quantitative genetics and plant breeding, genomics and bioinformatics, statistics, and phenomics. These disciplines will work together toward maximum synergy and specialization while continuously ensuring cross-learning among crops and traits research. Quality of science is indicated in the following: High-density profiling of genome-wide genetic variation using SNP markers (SNP-Chip, GBS, RAD, and DArTseq). Collaborate with cluster DI1.4 and the CGIAR-wide Genebank Platform to add value to germplasm collections, breeders' populations, and in situ diversity. Molecular markers for rapid translational breeding, genomic selection (including strategies for forming a training population for estimating breeding value for genomic selection), improved prediction models for parent and variety selection, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and quantitative trait loci studies with a view toward breeding. Use of aerial imagery (e.g., from drones) for monitoring and selecting for growth and development traits under environmental variations such as drought or pest and disease pressure, ground penetrating radar, electronic data collection, and image-based analysis. High-capacity data analysis, especially from the high volume of data generated from genotyping applied to breeding and genebank material and interoperability with genome resources. Development of high-density markers to identify and fix target genes for priority traits in homozygous condition, development of doubled haploid systems and rapid-cycle selfing options for inbred generation and fixing of genes.DI1.3 Game-changing Traits. This cluster has considerable overlap with NextGen, but is distinguished especially by two factors: the unique regulatory environment that surrounds the products of genetic engineering, and the insertion of individual traits into existing varieties without changing other background genes. This is not possible by other means in the heterozygous RTB crops. In this case, the quality of science becomes intertwined with policy and with consumers' perceptions of the safety of the product. Because this regulatory process is so complex and costly, it requires a completely different set of tools and expertise as compared with non-genetically engineered traits. In just the past few years, the prospects for using the power of gene editing (e.g., via CRISPR Cas9, a gene editing technique that can target and modify DNA using engineered nucleases) has increased significantly. Though still in its infancy for RTB crops, the technology will likely move very quickly from theory to practice based on successes in maize, wheat, rice, and model species. With gene editing, the debate has just begun in many countries as to whether varieties resulting from gene editing will be regulated or not. Gene editing technologies will have cross-RTB applicability once the technology has been established. Novel approaches include: Cassava:  Cassava starch composition by switching on/off genes of the starch synthesis pathway using genome editing. Modifying alleles for herbicide tolerance or carotenoid production (editing ALS and PSY genes). Cassava virus replication can be altered by modifying host protein required for their replication and movement. Proof-of-concept work at Danforth Center and ETH, Switzerland, and the National Agricultural Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), Uganda, has demonstrated efficacy of transgenic approaches. Bacterial effectors of Xanthomonas pathogens affecting cassava have been recently identified, together with some of their cognate genes in the host. Cisgenes for LB, virus Y, and leafroll exist; transgenes for bacterial wilt disease appear promising. Bacterial effectors of Ralstonia, pathogens, have been recently identified together with some of their cognate genes in the host. This opens the way to edit susceptibility genes as well as adding executor genes (Kyndt et al. 2015;Nyabonga et al. 2014). Gene editing to alter day-length sensitivity, early tuberization, and heat tolerance in potato. Potatoes with 3R genes from wild relatives have been able to withstand LB disease in the absence of any fungicide protections in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Uganda. NARS partners are now engaged in event selection and soon in multilocational trials. Sweetpotato:  Bt and RNAi technology for weevils and virus disease resistance. RNAi and transgenes are under the concept phase for nematode resistance. Transgenes and RNAi for control of Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) and aphids; resistance to nematodes using cystatins, synthetic peptides, and targeting the expression of genes to roots only. Gene editing to inactivate integrated Banana streak virus copies so they cannot reconstitute infections after tissue culture or other stresses. Transgenic bananas with resistance to Xanthomonas wilt have passed successfully the proof-of-concept stage using constitutive expression of sweetpotato genes conferring disease resistance. National partners are now in the first stages of multilocational trials.In situ work will include diversity analysis and cultivar/species identification, coupled with meta-analysis of grower, processor, and consumer-linked information for landrace varieties (de Haan et al. 2014;Säkinen et al. 2015) and gap analysis (Castañeda-Alvarez et al 2015;Khoury et al. 2015). Ex situ contributions from RTB will include new tools and methods for in vitro conservation and cryo-conservation. Research to develop more efficient, cost-effective, and secure methods for ex situ conservation could include research into prolonging seed longevity, understanding the complex reproductive biology of RTB crops, diversity and taxonomic analysis in the collections, support to digital genebanks, and, with DI1.2, development of marker systems to monitor genetic integrity. RTB will carry out molecular and phenotypic characterization and evaluation of CWR in RTB crops, feeding into prebreeding work in other clusters. RTB will conduct research on the organization of global genetic diversity of the cultivated species and CWR (Tessema et al. 2014).Detailed accession-specific, genomic-linked phenotypic information is needed to identify new traits for adaptation to climate change, pest and disease resistance, and consumer-preferred quality attributes for inclusion in pre-breeding programs in FP2. Predictive characterization will allow rapid screening of germplasm, making the breeding and other end user processes more efficient and cost effective. Highdensity marker diversity analyses of genebanks will help to identify evolutionary gene pools, which in turn can help breeders select best parents to maximize heterosis or for specific trait expression. Selfing and germplasm enhancement using genebank accessions will allow expression and selection for hidden recessive traits.Working together-the RTB BCoP. RTB-Phase I demonstrated the need for a mechanism to coordinate and integrate research and CapDev among clusters and flagships with input into development of breeding products. This mechanism should create greater efficiencies in RTB breeding by effective engagement within and among the RTB Discovery and Delivery clusters, by crop, opportunity, and constraint. Such cross-cluster collaboration would allow breeders to set breeding targets, advocate for the responsive development and timely testing of solutions, help optimize resource allocation in breeding schemes, and monitor progress toward breeding goals.Advanced tools and methodologies to accelerate breeding. In Phase I it became clear that there were large synergies to be realized in the development and application of advanced tools for breeding across the RTB crops. The commonalities-and often the complexities-of the clonally propagated crops could be exploited in crosscutting approaches. RTB should target the RTB-specific challenges that result from shared elements of their breeding complexity, and link to the CGIAR-wide Genetic Gains Platform for more broadly applicable technologies. Extensive cross-crop metabolomics work showed that RTB should best focus on a relatively few priority traits, based on specific hypotheses (e.g., quality traits or drought) rather than broad \"trawling\" for metabolites.Developing targets and metrics for RTB crops. During the RBM Pilot for the NextGen Breeding cluster, a major lesson learned was the need to link breeding goals and SMART targets (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound) through the full value chain, back to the definition of NextGen tools and methodologies.RTB held a workshop jointly with the NEXTGEN Cassava Project and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop strategies for linking consumer acceptance traits to next-generation tools and methods (BMGF et al. 2015). Outcomes of the workshop emphasized the need to bridge disciplines in order to truly integrate end user preferences in breeding, with inputs from experts in agricultural economics, gender, food science, molecular biology, and plant breeding (http://goo.gl/pIIRVE).A persistent lesson from Phase I is that there are frequently gaps between conservation and use of genetic resources. FP1 will work with other Discovery and Delivery programs inside and outside of RTB, including the Genebanks Platform, to analyze and uncover the value of a broad base of alleles and haplotypes that are linked to key traits and in a form easier to exploit by researchers and breeders. Phase I work also pointed out the need to develop capacity that will promote an integrated and complementary conservation and use system for RTB genetic diversity on farm, in wild habitats, and in genebanks.Women play a central role in managing home gardens and selecting and exchanging RTB planting material that meets their particular domestic food and health needs. Enhancing their livelihoods is essential to establishing a sustainable, long-term in situ conservation system for locally adapted landraces and associated CWR.Advanced science is often confusing for the general public, as it is for most policymakers. One of the lessons learned in Phase I was that RTB should take initiatives to bridge this knowledge gap. Stewardship and advocacy for science-based management are needed to ensure that risk assessment of new technology addresses the relevant risks and uses established standards and methods.It is important that more effort is invested in communicating the facts supporting the need, as well as the absence of need, for risk assessment of genetic modification (GM). The involvement of stakeholders, in particular the NARS, is critical to maximizing the chances of success for product development or largescale dissemination of planting material. This implies responsible communication on relevant GM matters, stewardship of the GM technologies intended for product development, and science-based advice to regulatory bodies in the target countries.FP1 comprises four clusters of activity that integrate to lead RTB discovery research. Table FP1.6 summarizes the discovery products for these four clusters. DI1.1 aims to set up a decentralized, integrated, and cross-crop BCoP to support accelerated genetic gains for yield, quality (nutrition, added-value), and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance/resistance in multiple RTB crops. Its value proposition is to identify and resolve the major challenges to RTB breeding research that can best be addressed in a crosscutting way. It will convene expertise and funds to link targeting (with special attention to gender), discovery, delivery, and use of breeding research tools and products and monitor their movement along RTB's impact pathways. This cluster directly responds to the IEA (2015) evaluation Recommendation 7 to further modernize its breeding program and adopt \"best breeding strategies for its crops that involve harmonizing breeding approaches within crops and transferring lessons across crops, where possible.\"Capacity building for breeding is a broad function of FP1 and FP2. The BCoP plays a coordination/ facilitation role. CapDev will be aligned with and responsive to the Genetic Gains Platform to address breeding excellence, including benchmarking with the private sector, and to improve utilization and dissemination of knowledge, breeding products, and methodologies focusing on clonal crops. The BCoP will benchmark successful breeding schemes and selection models, including accelerated breeding schemes, genomic selection, and other performance prediction models. Moreover, the BCoP will scope and help scale up or adapt effective decision support tools (DST), algorithms, and pipelines for integrating and applying genotyping, phenotyping, and profiling data to RTB breeding targets.Consultative processes among FP1-FP5 clusters are key functions of the BCoP. This component will bridge Delivery and Discovery FPs through collaboration to develop meaningful metrics for M&E of genetic gains. The BCoP will stimulate the development of tools, such as standard scales for trait assessment, and a knowledge base to improve and enhance the capacity of RTB breeders to define metrics and monitor progress in genetic gains. Metrics will be developed that address specific goals of increased productivity, nutritional contents, profitability, disease or pest resistance, and water or nutrient use efficiency toward target trait levels set with the Delivery FPs.The improvement of the RTB breeding database will facilitate use of diverse in-house and crop-specific integrating database environments to help speed up the extension of the Integrated Breeding Platform to clonal crops. As such, it will contribute to the success of data management tools and information types, thereby linking DI1.2, DI1.4, and the Delivery FPs as users and beneficiaries of plant-breeding data management systems. A primary objective of this component is to support communication and innovation on the application of appropriate biological experimental design and analytical approaches to accelerate RTB breeding. It will contribute to and stimulate the development of shared data capture and analysis pipelines and facilities for integrating data sets; and user-friendly tools for tracking and sharing breeding information, materials exchange, and seed and product movement along the impact pathway.Cross-learning and scalable methods for clonal crop breeding and variety selection will link phenotyping and trait transfer methods from DI1.2 and the Genetic Gains Platform with multiple RTB breeding programs to increase selection efficiency and variety deployment. Tools that may have spillover synergies across RTB include calibrations and prediction models for high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) methods, root and tuber growth assessment, some aspects of modeling, and the strategic use of distributed phenotyping networks that can help to unravel genotype x environment (GxE) interaction and improve selection accuracy. The BCoP will demonstrate how cross-crop research on RTB development, biology, and performance can translate into new approaches and accelerated gains from breeding. This module will develop links with the Genetic Gains Platform to assess and improve experimental station facilities and capacity to implement effective RTB evaluation to optimize gain from selection on genetic diversity.The documentation, communication, and promotion for use of populations, stocks, and elite breeding lines are especially pertinent for clonal crops for which the maintenance and exchange of intermediate products are costly and encumbered by quarantine concerns. Its purposes are to benchmark and systematize maintenance, communicate availability, and guide the use of intermediate products and tools (e.g., prebreeding stocks, genetic panels and mapping populations, selectable markers and respective gene source germplasm, and breeding lines in the pipeline).DI1.2 aims to develop and demonstrate the added value of next-generation tools, methods, and information for adoption and routine use in breeding programs (in FP2) to accelerate genetic gains for target traits. This cluster will seek to overcome some of the key RTB-specific challenges that result from shared elements of their breeding complexity (Table FP1.1), and link to the System-wide Genetic Gains Platform for more broadly applicable technologies. DI1.2 will employ efficient and high-throughput phenomics and genomics platforms as well as bioinformatics and biometrics capabilities to discover traitlinked DNA markers for deployment in breeding programs. Proof-of-concept research, including GWAS, genomic selection, and RTB inbred lines, will be a foundation for innovative breeding systems in the RTB crops (Cenci et al. 2014;Folgado et al. 2013Folgado et al. , 2014;;Lindqvist-Kreuze et al. 2014;Rabbi et al. 2014aRabbi et al. , 2014b;;Vanhove et al. 2015.) Genotype profiling and diversity analysis will add value to RTB germplasm collections and in situ diversity, mainly through collaboration with DI1.4 and FP2. Use of advanced tools for discovery of agronomic traits (e.g., GWAS) will enable more efficient and targeted use of genetic resources in breeding programs.NextGen breeding will translate proof-of-concept discoveries into tangible breeding tools, providing breeders with faster and more precise ways to identify and capture genes controlling target traits. Sequence-based genotyping will be used to continue generating dense marker data for genome-wide associations for trait discovery and genomic selection. Given the current very low adoption of markers for RTB breeding programs in low-income countries, DI1.2 has a key responsibility to quickly transfer tools and methodologies from the lab to the breeders' hands, based on clear end user priorities and constraints.Together with FP2-FP4, this cluster will spearhead the adaptation and adoption of novel, HTP approaches throughout the variety development pipeline. Such methods include use of aerial imaging, optical measurements for quality traits, advanced electronic data collection through smartphone apps for feature extraction and modeling plant phenotypes, characterization of root system architecture, and novel methods for root and tuber bulking rate assessment (e.g., with ground-penetrating radar). The HTP approaches will address some of the challenges associated with traditional phenotyping, especially physico-chemical characterization of bulky and perishable RTB crops. Metabolomics approaches will be developed and deployed for traits where useful variability is discovered for breeding.Bioinformatics and knowledge management for data analysis and integration adapt breeding databases with embedded analytical tools and workflow for bioinformatics and quantitative genetic analysis, variety selection, and geographic targeting. DI1.2 includes access to relevant publications and tutorials through webinars. All information assets will be annotated using ontologies (e.g., crop ontology) and made available as OA. RTB will work within the framework of existing databases related to management of breeding material, genetic resources, and omics data such as GOBII, IBP, Musa Germplasm Information System, RTB bases (cassava, Musa, yam, sweetpotato, potato) and RTB genome hubs (banana, cassava).DI1.2 will support work of breeders, especially through marker development, to create genetic stocks that are genetically fixed for specific traits-for example, pest or disease resistance, high DM content, or betacarotene content. These stocks will enable consistent expression of traits in breeding populations. Pure, homozygous lines will be generated through traditional self-pollinations (in the diploid RTB species) and, where available, doubled haploid or self-incompatibility inhibition systems, for the purpose of breeding by design (e.g., to exploit heterosis and for back-crossing).DI1.3 aims to develop prototypes and products that allow new traits to be introduced without disturbing economically and agronomically important traits and characteristics of the original variety. DI1.3 will continue to broaden the spectrum of utilization of RTB genetic resources by transferring genes from other organisms or editing existing genes. We will continue the efforts to develop GM RTB products while increasing coordinated activities in communication and regulatory requirements. Genome editing technologies will be applied to modify existing alleles to resemble alleles, not only from wild relatives but also from other organisms.Proof of concept is usually the first step needed to focus on the optimization of a gene construct and the assessment of the trait value (e.g., high disease resistance or tolerance to abiotic stresses). This will be done in partnership with breeders, geneticists, genomics scientists of RTB, and partners in ARIs. When proof of concept is completed, a prototype (a pre-product) will be developed. We will generally use genetic elements for which there is freedom-to-operate for our purpose, minimum regulatory requirements, and maximum potential benefit to final users.New GM technologies can be developed for RTB crops to improve efficacy and either reduce or eliminate regulatory burden. Some are already well known-such as intragenic or cisgenic methods free of selectable marker genes-but are yet to be developed for most RTB crops (e.g., marker-free vectors, genome editing, or site-specific mutagenesis). Genome editing has already shown great promise in crop improvement (enhanced resistance to powdery mildew in wheat, improved oil quality in soybean, etc.). Applicability crop by crop and trait by trait will require some time, but genome editing is clearly leading to a new wave of improved varieties.DI1.3 will provide research evidence that the development of genetically improved RTB varieties with specific traits is achievable using GM technologies. The term prototype refers to a pre-product that will have to be released following national regulation to become a product, typically in partnership with NARS and other stakeholders, using relevant recipient varieties and pilot sites. Trait performance has to be exhaustively assessed in order to better estimate potential impact. This concerns exposure to a wide spectrum of environments, abiotic stresses, and pathogen strains when dealing with disease resistance, or influence of growth, environment, and storage conditions on nutritional traits.Stewardship and advocacy are needed to ensure that the activities required for risk assessment of the new technology address the relevant risks and use established standards and methods. Involvement of stakeholders, in particular the NARS, is critical to maximizing the chances of success for product development or large-scale dissemination. This implies responsible communication on relevant GM matters, stewardship of the GM technologies intended for product development, and science-based advice to regulatory bodies in the target countries.Enabling environments involving local institutions need to be created all along the pipeline of product development. In many cases, it is a legal requirement to have infrastructure with containment or confinement measures, as well as the operational staff equipped with a biosafety regulatory degree in the country.Ex-ante/ex-post socioeconomic studies with FP5 have to be continuously conducted to redirect investments and support communication to stakeholders to create a sense of urgency and thus reduce delays in deregulation. Such studies also need to assess cost of restrictions, sometimes accompanying IPprotected technologies, to warrant freedom to operate for our purpose.DI1.4 aims to undertake research and develop capacity to promote an integrated and complementary conservation and use system for RTB genetic diversity both in and ex situ-one that will enable their contribution to food security, poverty alleviation, and climate change adaptation. DI1.4 will complement the Genebank Platform by focusing on research that aims to develop novel methods and tools for improving and refining existing ex situ conservation methods (seeds, in vitro, field collections, pollen, DNA) and characterization. It will also develop better understanding of what, where, and how RTB diversity is maintained on farm and in wild habitats, and their threats by working in partnership with relevant stakeholders. Techniques for identifying specific types of knowledge (e.g., traits that will be needed in climate resilient varieties to users of the germplasm) will also be addressed.DI1.4 will learn from and strengthen the capacities of partners, including farmers and local communities. It will also identify and transfer appropriate technologies to allow breeders and scientists to search for adapted traits in local landraces and CWR.Status and threats will be analyzed and diversity analysis carried out among the main RTB crops in order to identify priority populations for in situ conservation and supported where necessary by transfer to genebanks. Cost-effective action plans will be developed with partners in targeted geographies. Improved understanding of the relative benefits and cost of conservation and sustainable use will be used to inform policymakers and other stakeholders about the benefits of RTB landraces and CWR conservation.The conservation of clonal RTB crops requires novel approaches to enhance long-term sustainability and efficiency for both the clonal in vitro-preserved material and the CWR preserved as seed populations. New cost-efficient conservation tools and methods for RTB accessions and techniques will be developed to ensure that healthy individuals are safely conserved and distributed. This will include development of novel approaches to analyze genetic integrity and stability and new phytosanitary cleaning tools. There is also a need to consider and develop new thinking and approaches about the value of conservation of targeted cultivated RTB crops as true seed (conserving alleles rather than genotypes), and how this can be integrated into a modern genomics-informed approach to RTB crops conservation.The power of recent advances in genomic and informatics technologies for RTB crop improvement programs, combined with participatory characterization and phenotyping, will be used to characterize the targeted RTB crop diversity held in genebanks and in situ. Methods will be established to bring together genotyping efforts in target crops to develop systems to mine accessions with sequence, function, or biochemical/metabolic information. This research will have a strong accession-level focus on application of omics and bioinformatics tools. It needs to be strongly interconnected with both the Genebank and Genetic Gain Platforms and other clusters within RTB.Genebanks hold a wealth of untapped value, but this value is not always in a form that can be readily used and exploited in breeding programs. DI1.4 will work with other discovery and delivery platforms inside and outside of RTB to analyze and uncover the value of a broad base of alleles and haplotypes. These in turn will be linked to key traits and in a form easier to exploit by the researchers and breeders with a particular focus on development of germplasm to develop climate-resilient new varieties.Foresight and CapDev will be directed toward genetic resources management, primarily for NARS and smallholder farmers, with complementary approaches to both in situ (including on farm) and ex situ conservation and use of RTB crops. Partners will be trained in the assessment, characterization, evaluation, valuation, and documentation of RTB crop diversity, participatory selection with repatriated materials from the genebanks.An existing broad range of partners provides the key multidisciplinary expertise, capability, and research resources to deliver tools, information, and characterized genetic diversity and gains to next users (Table FP1.7). High-income countries have a lead on developing and deploying cutting-edge technologies. RTB supports multilateral partnerships that maximize access, implementation, and CapDev, especially to increase capacity for discovery research in developing countries. Much of RTB's discovery research relies on the outputs from advanced public and private sector laboratories in molecular genetics and other discovery research. CGIAR typically does not have a comparative or competitive advantage to invest in the large-scale, long-term basic molecular research that is typically done by consortia of universities or the private sector. FP1 will partner with those labs and research teams and provide the linkages and expertise to help move from basic research to the RTB crop-specific tools and methodologies (Table FP1.7). Most of the collaboration will be supported by bilateral projects, with a relatively small investment from W1/2 sources, in order to maintain and build core capacities within the RTB centers.RTB will also co-invest with other AFS-CRPs (RICE, MAIZE, WHEAT, DCL) through the Genetic Gains Platform to share genotyping, HTP, and bioinformatics tools, methods, and facilities. Because of some of the unique features of the RTB crops, there will also need to be considerable RTB-specific investment in HTP. The Genebanks Platform will be a critical co-investor with RTB for integration of gene discovery, germplasm enhancement, pre-breeding (in FP2), and in situ research. With CCAFS, RTB will co-invest to develop climate-sensitive breeding strategies under the CCAFS Learning Platform \"Foresight, models and metrics for climate-sensitive breeding.\" This will integrate climate change models with trait prioritization (e.g., drought and heat tolerance, pest and disease resistance) by target region. RTB will link with each of the research activities proposed by CCAFS for climate-sensitive breeding, and will inform the CCAFS modeling teams on the plausible targets that can be reached by breeding programs. Several of the RTB crops, especially cassava, are already known to be inherently well-adapted to higher temperatures and more variable rainfall, relative to many crop species. Yet there will still be dramatic effects for some crops both directly (temperature and rainfall) and indirectly (changes in biotic effects). Much of FP1's focus will be on identifying and incorporating tolerance to periodic drought, pest and disease resistance, and tolerance to higher temperatures. FP1 will work with CCAFS on metrics and downscaled models to guide climate responsive/smart breeding, including seeking co-funding for crop and climate change modeling, and definition of scenarios for which RTB breeding has specific response options. FP1 will identify climate homologues for germplasm and breeding population screening, where current sites are expected to have climate conditions similar to future conditions of our target impact regions. For example, sites with 2°C higher temperature would be homologues for current target regions, so as to begin to select for adaptation to future conditions; or select pest and disease hot spots that will have levels of pressure similar to projected target regions in a scenario of changed climate.In addition to the key focus on abiotic and biotic stresses, FP1 will gather experimental evidence to determine the value for money of breeding RTB crops for tolerance, or even higher yield response, to elevated levels of carbon dioxide.This flagship promotes an integrated and complementary conservation and use system for RTB genetic diversity on farm, in wild habitats, and in genebanks that will enable their optimum contribution to climate change adaptation. FP1 will develop better understanding of what, where, and how RTB diversity is maintained on farm and in wild habitats, and their threats from climate change, by working in partnership with relevant stakeholders. Techniques for identifying specific types of knowledge (e.g., traits that will be needed in climate-resilient varieties by users of the germplasm) will be addressed.Gender research in FP1 is driven by gender-differentiated preferences and impacts for varietal traits and by gender roles in in situ conservation. RTB-Phase I has shown how gender perspectives are vitally important for RTB technology development. Table FP1.8 indicates how the baseline gender work will be integrated into breeding objectives for RTB crops. Gender-relevant traits are not always evident to scientists and always need to be verified through participatory technology development methods. FP1 will monitor trend data on varietal adoption in order to develop a direct link between preferred traits, adopted technology, and farmer income or performance of agripreneurs. Gender-differentiated target traits are relevant across the breeding pipeline, especially for FP1 and FP2, but with critical feedback loops from FP3-FP5 as well. The BCoP will lead the coordination of crosscutting, participatory methods and actions for setting breeding targets and metrics, M&E of progress toward gender-differentiated traits, and ensuring gender inclusion in CapDev. DI1.2 will aim to identify the molecular basis for gender differences in trait preferences and develop DNA-based markers and HTP methods (e.g., near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy scanning) to speed up breeding. RTB is receiving support from RHUL on metabolomics, and the NEXTGEN cassava project is providing input to identify gender-differentiated traits and methods for indirect selection.The gender roles of in situ conservation will also be studied to understand gender dimensions of in situ management, which involves seed selection, farmer food choices and preference traits (drivers of conservation), child nutrition, folk taxonomy, and medicinal uses and feminized conservation, where temporal or permanent male migration occurs (the Andes, West Africa).Building advanced science capacity for individuals, organizations, and networks is a key part of achieving impact through discovery research. RTB will capitalize on regionally networked initiatives such as Bioscience Eastern and Central Africa. Strengthening labs within the CGIAR centers as regional platforms will also complement and fill gaps for national partners to strengthen their organizational capacities. In West Africa (IITA), in the Americas (CIAT and CIP), and in Asia (CIAT), RTB centers strongly encourage and support access to their advanced labs. Asia has some of the world's most advanced labs for RTB crop work, especially in India, China, and Thailand. Key labs in Africa, such as NaCRRI in Uganda and the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) in Nigeria, are quickly developing advanced research capacity. FP1 will actively support their participation (also considering that they are key RTB producers) in regional CapDev. The BCoP will become a knowledge-sharing mechanism for breeders, geneticists, and end users, and also address capacity needs for data analysis and IP, OD, and communications which are essential for enabling discovery CapDev.The work on breeding based on genetic engineering will require RTB partners and regulatory agencies to increase their institutional capacity. Specific regulatory requirements will need to be developed in parallel with derived prototypes or products with new traits.CapDev efforts will aim at enabling breeders and geneticists to make breeding objectives more responsive to the preferences of both male and female farmers. FP1 will provide new opportunities for the degree training of women scientists.Staff exchanges will be integral to CapDev. For example, RTB discovery research could benefit from senior scientist exchanges (1-3 months) and a longer term sabbatical leave (e.g., from partner university labs) at an RTB center. Training at the MSc and PhD level will be sought in bilateral projects, in priority topics for RTB. These candidates preferably should be from key RTB countries, and with strong support to women scientists.RTB crops are part of the Annex 1 of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and will be accessed, studied, improved, and disseminated with the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA).FP1 will generate, manage, and disseminate large amounts of omics and breeding data as OA and publish to keep FP1-generated data and knowledge in the public domain. Crop-specific databases (see Annex 9) will be accessible via the RTB Open Access Portal. The BCoP will provide the coordinating function to facilitate the success of data management tools and information by linking FP1 and the Delivery clusters, including partners, as users and beneficiaries of a plant-breeding data management systems.The BCoP will also benchmark and systematize the maintenance of pre-breeding stocks, genetic resources, and breeding lines in the pipeline for dissemination, and communicate their availability.NextGen Breeding will adopt breeding databases with embedded analytical tools and workflow for bioinformatics and quantitative genetic analysis, variety selection, and geographic targeting. FP1 will provide access to relevant publications and tutorials through webinars and make them available as OA.Genetic engineering is an area where IP will have a strategic importance. Private sector licensing is common, and regulatory issues define success or failure of a technology. Patent searches will be practiced to identify need for \"freedom to operate\" for third-party technologies (such as markers, genes, or gene constructs). Where applicable, humanitarian use license will be preferred to make new technologies available to farmers at reduced cost.The involvement of stakeholders, in particular the NARS, is critical to access genetic resources, maximize the chances of success for product development, and disseminate planting material on a large scale. FP1 will enhance participation in initiatives such as the Cornell Alliance for Science and strengthen partnership with National Biosafety Committees and Authorities.FP1 management will follow the general structure and guidelines for all of RTB. Nonetheless, FP1 will recognize its unique role of full dependence on the Delivery FPs to provide guidance on targets for breeding improvement and participation in M&E. The BCoP will in fact be a cross-flagship BCoP; but as a matter of structural requirement within CGIAR, it will be housed within FP1. Leadership of the BCoP will be through representation by each relevant cluster, in a management system that will be defined to fit the needs of the community as it evolves. This will begin in 2016 as a pilot, with the BCoP cluster leader having the principal management role and with primary responsibility for the community (RTB clusters and partners) to interact.FP1, because of its products, will have an especially high level of coordination and interaction with some of the CGIAR system-level platforms (Genebanks, Genetic Gains, Big Data). For each of these, FP1 will be both a major contributor and beneficiary. Governance of the flagship will take into account the need for extensive formal interaction with the platforms, by naming key liaisons or focal points to the platforms.While there will be complex interactions that need to be fostered and maintained, FP1 will also be strongly cognizant of the desirability of a light governance structure that keeps transaction costs to a minimum and provides high value for money for time invested in collaboration and interaction. Most of the governance functions will be standardized across FPs by the RTB MC. The share of budget by center within the FP is provisional and will be revisited taking into account prospects for delivery, quality of science and partnerships and credibility of the impact pathway.Explanations of these costs in relation to the planned 2022 outcomes:An \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", funded by W1&2 in a total of $23,215,414, which will be assigned on the basis of semi-competitive grants to systems related work, involving RTB clusters and potentially other AFS-CRPs during the respective year is distributed across FP1-5.FP1 houses a total of $4,881,920 of the \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", amount which is initially allocated to the Lead Center (CIP) which therefore shows a higher budget share in the table above.NRS: Fringe benefits for national staff are comprised of mandatory legal benefits by country and complementary benefits provided by each CRP participating center, such as Pension -social security, training and development, medical insurance, occupational health, transportation costs, personnel protection requirement and food subsidy.Fringe benefits for international staff are comprised of housing allowance, education allowance, car allowance, Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), hardship, home leave tickets, insurance, retirement contribution, occupational health, training and development, repatriation and relocation provisions, and food subsidy.Includes non-travel operating costs, such as standard fees applied by all CGIAR centers -Research Support Services and Facilities & IT fees -as well as costs related to consultancies, workshops, trainings, laboratory and experimental station services and other supplies and services related to field operations. Cost estimates are based on historical expenses and recent price analysis.If full project funding does not become available, RTB will prioritize specific FP1 deliverables: Develop genotyping and high throughput phenotyping to accelerate genetic gain in key end-user demanded traits, especially taking into account women's needs  Link industry and consumer demand for new products, such as cassava with reduced post-harvest deterioration, with advanced molecular tools to discover and develop new traits in RTB crops. Coordinate and track breeding progress in prioritized traits through an RTB-wide Community of Practice. Develop partner capacity and South-South collaboration in next generation breeding for confronting local challenges and opportunities in RTB genetic improvement. Introduce novel traits such as potato late blight resistance into existing farmer-preferred varieties through gene editing, without the regulatory constraints associated with GMO crops.If participating centers are successful in raising additional W3/Bilateral funds some key activities can also be diverted to those projects, in case they are aligned with RTB priorities. The objective of FP2 is to make available good-quality planting materials of a diverse set of high-yielding RTB varieties that are adapted to the needs and preferences of different stakeholders in the value chain.RTB crops represent a diverse group of clonal crops that face similar challenges of persistent low yields per unit area and high costs of production that limit their success in achieving food security for many of the world's poorest inhabitants, especially women and children. Where high-yielding varieties exist, their adoption is often hampered because they do not fully respond to end users' needs and preferences. Poorquality planting material further lowers productivity of RTB crop production systems. The use of RTB crops in other agri-food systems has been limited due to a lack of suitable varieties (e.g., short-cycle potato in a cereal-based cropping system).Hence, FP2 will address the following grand challenges, as identified by the SRF:Producing sufficient nutritious food. More than 800 million people worldwide remain acutely or chronically undernourished, and the number suffering from micronutrient deficiency is even greater. Additional pressure on RTB agri-food systems to meet food needs is caused by an increasing population, especially in the humid tropics in SSA, continuing soil degradation, and climate change. This FP will exploit the existing diversity of RTB crops and deploy new varieties with good and stable agronomic traits, resistance to destructive pests and diseases, and end user-preferred traits. Male and female farmers will benefit from improved crop varieties that better fit their needs and preferences, taking into account local agro-ecological conditions and the socioeconomic context. Populations who depend on RTB crops will also benefit from nutrient-and micronutrient-dense RTB varieties to improve food security and nutrition as well as market access to increase income.Climate change and risk of biodiversity loss. Climate change is expected to severely affect agricultural production, increasing constraints of water and temperature. This will be especially severe in those areas where RTB crops are a significant source of food security (Fay et al. 2015). Genetic diversity will be threatened by changing environments, reduced ecosystem stability, and increased pressures on land use. Climate-smart varieties will include traits for resistance to emerging pests and diseases as well as tolerance to drought, heat, salinity, and extreme weather events linked to climate change. Other climatesmart technologies include seed systems to preserve planting material during dry spells and extreme weather conditions, and to protect cultivar diversity for farming communities.Soil degradation. Low productivity often drives the expansion of the frontier of cultivation onto marginal lands prone to soil degradation. The cultivation of quality seed of more productive RTB varieties should improve efficiency in the use of external inputs, increase land and water productivity, and thus contribute to reducing pressure on expanding the frontier of cultivation.Post-harvest losses and value-addition opportunities. RTB crops are perishable and prone to postharvest loss. Expanding urban populations will mean reconfigured supply chains to meet the need for more convenient and storable RTB-based foods. Varieties will be developed that store longer in ground or post-harvest, retain nutritional quality longer after harvest, and provide novel and income-generating processing opportunities. Women are heavily involved in post-harvest processing and storage of RTB crops, yet their needs are often not sufficiently considered or targeted by CapDev to promote good post-harvest practices. FP2 will ensure that both men and women farmers, processors, and traders are actively engaged and involved in evaluating improved varieties for post-harvest processing and storage.New entrepreneurial and job opportunities. FP2 will open up new opportunities for employment and income generation through the profitable sale of diverse, locally available, high-quality RTB seed. To leverage these opportunities FP2 will work closely with the gender and youth cluster in FP5. In addition, varieties with higher processing quality will enable producers to link with a wide range of processors, from industrial to small scale, which can create additional employment opportunities. Through a demanddriven process, RTB will collaborate with a broad range of partners to achieve equitable access to varieties and seed and related information as well as business opportunities.RTB offers the combined assets of scientists from Bioversity, CIAT, CIP, IITA, and CIRAD, and a strong strategic partner network that draws on ARIs, national programs, the private sector, NGOs, and women's alliances. Such an arrangement will enable RTB to address the challenges of varietal improvement and seed distribution of clonal crops synergistically. A major comparative advantage of RTB is the extensive genetic resources base held by CGIAR centers and accumulated research experience with conventional breeding.The overall objective of FP2 is to make available good-quality planting materials of a diverse set of highyielding RTB varieties that are adapted to the needs and preferences of different stakeholders in the value chain. By seeking to realize synergies across crops and learning across countries and regions, FP2 will provide more inclusive answers to complex questions of variety adoption and seed systems, aiming for more cost-effective interventions in close cooperation with other RTB flagships. Additionally, it will increase availability of RTB-based staple foods to urban consumers. Key elements of the FP2 strategy to achieve the overall objective are: Implement strategies to accelerate genetic gains, improve efficiency of RTB breeding pipelines, and shorten the breeding cycle so as to accelerate farmers' access to new varieties exhibiting genetic gains. Develop varieties with user-preferred traits through PVS, drawing on gender-differentiated assessments of varietal preferences. Reduce bottlenecks in seed quality and distribution, using rapid multiplication and integrative systems-oriented, gender-equitable, and evidence-based seed interventions. Improve key seed system services focused on farm-level quality management, enabling regulation, basic diagnostics focused on breeder seed, and business and marketing skills for RTB out-growers.FP2 reaches multiple clients and beneficiaries: (1) consumers, especially women and children, with improved access to affordable, more diverse and nutritious cultivars and derived products with good sensory properties;(2) smallholder farmers, with access to a range of cultivars/hybrids possessing complementary traits, to increase productivity while enhancing agri-food system resilience;(3) processors and post-harvest handlers, with access to a more diverse range of cultivars, supporting profitable new market diversification opportunities as well as traditional processes; and (4) value chain participants (e.g., local market vendors), with access and understanding of preferred alternative cultivars.To achieve these research results, FP2 comprises seven clusters, each with its own aim and rationale (Table FP2.1):CC2.1: Improving smallholder access to healthy RTB planting material and new varieties BA2.2: Matching banana cultivars and hybrids with the needs of farmers, consumers, and markets for more sustainable food and production systems CA2.3: Added-value cassava varieties for traditional uses and high-impact markets PO2.4: Improving livelihoods of potato farmers in Africa by tackling deteriorated potato seed quality through an integrated approach PO2.5: Agile potato for Asia SW2.6: User-preferred sweetpotato varieties and seed technologies YA2.7: Yam varieties and sustainable seed systems. Reduce disease transmission through infected RTB seed; address the need for a flexible, dynamic seed supply approach; improve farmers access to improved varieties to increase income and food securityMake available high-yielding cultivars/ hybrids that better fit demands and are adapted to target environments and populations Exploit better existing diversity and the deployment of new hybrids, with useful agronomic, host resistance/ tolerance and end user traits lead to more stable yields of consumer-and market-demanded varietiesProduce cassava varieties and production packages to meet the needs of regionally diverse markets and production constraints in Africa, Asia, and Latin America Address cassava production constraints through efficient use of labor and inputs and improved varieties to provide regionally diverse markets with a consistent supply of preferred varieties that increase income opportunities while providing food and nutrition security PO2.4: Seed Potato for Africa Establish functional seed system to improve health status of planting material and to disseminate advanced newly developed varieties and existing market demanded varieties Raise potato yields in SSA from 6 to 10 t/ha currently to economically attainable yields by improved seed systems and access to high-yielding varietiesProvide alternatives for sustainably intensifying, diversifying, and increasing productivity and quality value of potato food systems, many of which are cereal based Improve smallholders' livelihoods in cereal-based systems in target areas of Asia  FP2 represents a dynamic and interactive set of clusters for research on banana, cassava, potato, sweetpotato, and yam. CC2.1 is a Crosscutting cluster that supports and learns from research in cropbased clusters in FP2 and also in FP3-FP5 (e.g., modeling of seed degeneration can guide protocols for seed replacement for varietal uptake). FP2 will closely collaborate with FP1 in the development of novel breeding methods, tools, and products as well as in the strategic use of plant genetic resources. FP2 and FP3 will co-develop and implement technologies to manage diseases and apply smallholder-adapted best agricultural practices recommendations. Breeding work on biofortification and processing qualities will be coordinated with FP4 on respective targets inclusive of research on bioavailability, processing yields, and product qualities and storability. Research work in collaboration with FP5 and its partners will be conducted in all aspects of FP2 technology and method development and dissemination in respect to gender responsiveness, capacity building, farm and livelihood integration, ex-ante and ex-post impact assessments, and innovation scaling strategies, among others.The impact pathway of FP2 (Fig. FP2.1) is based on three fundamental elements: (1) methods and tools for accelerating genetic gains in crop improvement to utilize genetic diversity more efficiently in making improved varieties available faster;(2) improved quality of planting material and improved smallholder access to healthy planting material by schemes that integrate and improve formal, semi-formal, and informal seed systems; and (3) going to scale through developed and validated equitable dissemination models implemented in strategic partnerships with stakeholders from development organizations and private sector value chain actors.Reaching out to next users will often be in close cooperation with FP3-FP5 scientists and their respective partners where varieties selected through PVS will be incorporated into resilient cropping systems, processing opportunities, and nutrition-responsive value chains and programs. Hence, FP2 will contribute to some (Sub)-IDOs in its own right, while contributing to others jointly with FP3-FP5.Identifying effective partnerships with a clear definition of roles and responsibilities embedded in shared M&EL systems will increase accountability in achieving collaboratively developed targets. Where possible, the private sector will be engaged to address bottlenecks in supply of seed and other inputs. FP2 will strengthen the public sector to create an enabling environment for commercially viable seed systems with more efficient, equitable, and profitable SMEs capable of producing high-quality RTB seed locally and creating rural business and employment opportunities.FP 2 will create feedback loops, conduct rigorous assessments, and invest in CapDev at different points along the impact pathway, working closely with the other RTB FPs and, in some cases, other CRPs. In collaboration with the RTB BCoP in FP1, novel breeding targets, methods, and processes will be applied to accelerate breeding gains, improve breeding pipelines, and shorten breeding cycles. Non-invasive HTP tools and cost-effective propagation systems will shorten breeding cycles and enhance production of prebasic and basic seed.Standardized designs and protocols for evaluation of materials for adaptation to biotic and abiotic conditions, in combination with novel data capture tools and globally accessible data storage platforms, will allow quantification of GXE interaction over space and time. Crop modeling and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools, in combination with climate data, will be used to identify current and future homologous target environments to extrapolate varietal performance (e.g., Hyman et al. 2013). Gender-responsive PVS methods will be mainstreamed to sustain adoption of new RTB varieties targeted to agro-ecological and socioeconomic context of end users (e.g., Paris et al. 2011;RTB 2014).FP2 will strengthen seed production technologies and seed quality control, and improve disease diagnostics in formal and informal seed systems. Supply chain management and risk prevention studies will result in more accurate seed supply and demand forecasts as well as business models for profitable RTB seed delivery.CC2.1 Access to quality seed/varieties. CC2.1 will use state-of-the-art modeling approaches and impact network analysis to combine biophysical and socioeconomic data to generate decision support systems (DSS) for seed quality control and monitoring. Novel, cost-effective rapid multiplication technologies adapted to specific geographical and socioeconomic circumstances will be developed to shorten seed production cycles. Scientific evidence about seed degeneration will permit seed supply and demand to be forecast more accurately and lower cost of seed provision. On-site diagnostics for rapid decision making about plant health status will be developed. Novel approaches based on next-generation sequencing will be used to fast-track production of clean planting materials. Cost-benefit analysis of protocols for alternative seed quality standards at national level and seed quality control schemes for resource-poor conditions will be developed. Faster bio-assays will also be developed. End user intelligence and user-preference profiling will ensure that traits important to end users are integrated into breeding and varietal selection. BA2.2 will exploit existing diversity by tapping into local traditional knowledge and through an increased understanding of adaptation of landraces to local agro-ecological and socioeconomic conditions. Crowdsourcing will be piloted as a cost-effective alternative to PVS (van Etten 2011).Cassava variety development will integrate optimal genomic prediction tools with inbred/hybrid breeding methods to efficiently deliver high-performing varieties selected for targeted priority agroecosystems and end user markets to enhance both income and nutrition security. Advanced HTP tools will be used, such as ground-penetrating radar to assess root-bulking rate, and remote sensing with drones to measure physiological responses. Increased mechanization with sitespecific and climate-smart practices will be tested and scaled out at the small-scale farm level through farmer associations.PO2.4 Seed potato for Africa. Novel tools will be used for accelerated breeding, such as molecular profiling of varieties, determination of genomic-estimated breeding values of progenitors, and deployment of determinants responsible for resilient, highly stable economic yield. Trait marker association studies will identify molecular markers associated with yield, quality, and tolerance parameters under varying conditions and integrate them for yield prediction and precision breeding.Research will engage female and male farmers and breeding companies in the selection process, conducting G x E by management evaluations. An integrated seed health combines elements of adapted seed production and dissemination systems, host plant resistance, and management to tailor solutions affordable and beneficial for farmers while supporting a vibrant and sustainable local seed sector (e.g., Thomas-Sharma et al. 2015;Schulte-Geldermann et al. 2015). Low-cost, off-the-grid seed storage solutions will be investigated, and novel chemical and biological control technologies of post-harvest pests/diseases will be validated. Diagnostics for rapid decision making on plant health status will be developed, such as non-invasive spectral imaging-based systems and loop-mediated amplification (LAMP) diagnostics in the lab and field.PO2.5 Agile potato for Asia. Biophysical and socioeconomic models will be combined to incorporate short-cycle potatoes more efficiently in various agri-foods systems, integrated into rice or wheat cropping cycles. Models based on genomic selection will be applied to improve populations for earliness, rate, and duration of tuber bulking as well as yield and quality traits, and adaptation to drought, heat, salt, and LB.Next-generation sequencing will be used to identify new viruses that will guide breeding, risk assessment, and phytosanitary procedures, and to design low-cost, more efficient diagnostic tools. Portable disease diagnostic tools will be developed for in situ quality control of planting materials. The dynamics of major biotic and abiotic constraints will be quantified to provide baselines for impact assessments. Biophysical information from field trials, socioeconomic data from field surveys, and secondary and macro data will be used to calibrate models at both the farm and agricultural sector level, and assess potential benefits of promising technologies. Remote and proximal sensing will aid phenotyping, monitoring adaptation to stress situations, yield forecasting, and land use changes.SW2.6 User-preferred sweetpotato varieties. High-throughput genotyping and HTP methods will be used to define and construct heterotic pools for specific traits, such as resistance to weevil and sweetpotato virus disease, drought tolerance, and nutrition quality traits. Molecular markers, linked to these traits identified through quantitative trait loci and GWAS approaches in FP1, will be used in a marker-assisted accelerated sweetpotato breeding scheme for developing robust, resilient, and nutritious varieties. Genomic selection will be implemented as a sweetpotato population improvement strategy based on genomic-estimated breeding values predicted from phenotypic data from traits and genome-wide sequence-based markers. Innovative in-clone breeding will be (1) the accelerated breeding scheme in a CGIAR-NARS breeding network;(2) heterosis-exploiting breeding schemes; and (3) fast-throughput virus stress/resistance and drought and salt stress/resistance screening (Grüneberg et al. 2015). Novel technologies to preserve vines-for example, net tunnels and the Triple S system (storage, sand, sprouting system)-will be further optimized along with decentralized vine production and dissemination.YA2.7 Quality seed yam. Robust, cost-effective, high-ratio propagation systems, such as bioreactor systems and aeroponics, will be integrated with genomic-assisted breeding and improved breeding pipeline management to deliver end user-preferred yam varieties. Novel approaches based on sRSA (NGSbased) and chemotherapy will fast-track production of clean planting materials. The development of onsite diagnostics and non-invasive spectral imaging-based systems will allow for rapid decision making on plant health status. New therapy procedures to eliminate fungi, bacteria, and nematodes from seed and ware yam will be validated. Locally available materials will be tested for the construction of affordable, improved storage structures for seed and ware yam.Over the past decades, RTB breeding programs have delivered high-yielding cultivars with good resistance to pests and diseases and high micronutrient and vitamin contents. However, recent studies revealed that uptake of new varieties has sometimes been lower than expected (Labarta et al. 2015). Additionally, it was learned that genetic fingerprinting can shed new light on adoption; the four major cassava cultivars adopted in different regions of Ghana were revealed as genetically identical (Rabbi et al. 2015). The major thrust of FP2 is the functional integration of variety improvement and seed systems by including socioeconomic and systems-related R&D learning and evaluation methods into biophysical research to better address end user needs.Studies of variety adoption in Phase I show that end user-preferred traits go beyond yield, and need to be researched and incorporated into breeding programs. For example, in Nigeria women preferred latematuring cassava varieties that could be harvested when money is scarce. They prioritized traits such as color, taste, and ease of peeling, whereas men preferred varieties that form roots fast and can be sold as fresh roots at the market (Kirscht, unpublished). In SSA countries, many well-adopted \"informal\" potato varieties (many rejected by researchers) cover large areas (Labarta et al. 2015). For example, in Kenya the informal potato variety 'Shangi' (probably a CIP escape) covers 70% of the growing area without support of a formal seed system (combined information from CIP project surveys 2009-2015). FP2 acknowledges this by a systematic inclusion of multistakeholder PVS (e.g., reflecting varietal performance under typical smallholder farmer conditions and capturing end user preferences and adoption potential).RTB has developed next-generation breeding systems based on the collection and application of genetic, metabolite, and phenotypic data together with participatory, gender-responsive research on farmers' trait preferences. This effort thus contributes to the selection of traits for genomic selection breeding and use of economic-weighted selection indices that aim to ensure that new varieties have wide and genderequitable impact (Ceballos et al. 2015;Ly et al. 2013;Ortiz and Swennen 2014;Tecle et al. 2014;Rabbi et al. 2014;Tushemereirwe et al. 2015).Various RTB-supported studies in Phase I demonstrated that availability and access to quality seed and improved varieties continue to be a bottleneck in many target countries. Seed production of RTB crops is usually mandated to highly centralized public institutes that lack resources and capacity to sufficiently produce and disseminate high-quality, affordable seed (Labarta 2013;Rabbi et al. 2015). Descriptions of what is needed for seed system improvement, for the RTB crops and others, can be piecemeal. Understandably, researchers and practitioners often focus on their own outlooks (e.g., improving seed quality, breeding, or seed storage rather than taking a holistic view). Thus activities frequently focus on how to multiply seed and to ensure that it is of good quality. Needed features that may emerge on the demand side from users (and especially issues of \"access\") are often given less visibility. If seed systems are to function well, roles of different stakeholders need to be complementary. Stakeholders need to see how they fit together in the seed system as a whole. In Phase I RTB developed a seed system framework that was holistic, balanced to meet varied user needs, and problem-solving so as to achieve maximum effectiveness.Unintended consequences. A focus on agronomic traits alone as a primary breeding goal may inadvertently disadvantage women who have a broader set of varietal preferences linked to their roles as food preparers and processors. Attention to how the introduction of new varieties could impact women and youth, positively or negatively, will be addressed. Sex-disaggregated data will be collected and analyzed to inform varietal selection and seed production decision making that is gender responsive and, ideally, gender transformative. Results will enable women and vulnerable households to fulfill their roles in food provisioning, production, and income generation.FP2 is organized into seven interrelated clusters that together achieve the objective and targets of the flagship. Each cluster has identified several research products that will deliver measurable R&D outcomes and contribute to (Sub)-IDOs as summarized in Table FP2.3. CC2.1: Access to quality seed/varieties CC2.1 aims to learn from and support other clusters across all crops to improve the economic sustainability of RTB seed systems in providing quality seed of demanded varieties. This entails the development of an evidence-based analytical procedure, which includes several standalone components:(1) approaches and tools to speed up dissemination of improved varieties at scale, including variety evaluation protocols, release approaches, and studies on drivers for adoption;(2) economic tools to estimate RTB seed supply and demand with a value chain perspective, which will generate critical information in order to implement profitable, gender-responsive, and sustainable seed delivery business models for RTB seed systems; (3) regulations and policies, including quality declared planting material guidelines and pest risk analysis to define thresholds values for seed-borne pests, to enable a more transparent environment for the development of RTB seed businesses as well as to reduce yield losses caused by existing and emergent pests; (4) DSS to help R&D partners select the best multiplication techniques for producing seed, all the way from breeders' seed through certified and farmers' saved seed, based on criteria of efficiency, cost effectiveness, and risk management; (5) models, DSS, and tools for managing seed degeneration and improving on-farm seed quality management, as well as characterizing existing seed systems, including gender and social relations, to help researchers and practitioners understand formal and informal components; and (6) innovative tools for knowledge sharing, such as CoP and ICTs for seed directories, variety catalogues, and the like. This cluster will add value to existing seed system interventions, by collecting and analyzing critical data through existing M&E systems for formulating and answering key research questions.BA2.2 aims to make available high-yielding cultivars/hybrids that better fit demands and are adapted to target environments and populations. Existing data and information systems will be upgraded and made inter-operational for the faster selection of varieties of interest: the Musa Germplasm Information System containing passport, characterization, and evaluation data; Musapedia providing factsheets of major cultivars, cultivar groups, and wild species; the Banana Genome Hub presenting genetic data of Musa acuminate; and the breeding database Musabase combining phenotypic and (epi-) genetic data in support of the fast selection of parents and hybrids and for use during field operations. Gender-responsive tools will be employed to identify the needs and preferences of different actors along the value chain (e.g., Camacho-Henriquez et al. 2015). Gender-responsive PVS methods will be mainstreamed to achieve breeding targets and sustained adoption adapted to the local agro-ecological and socioeconomic context (e.g., Paris et al. 2011;RTB 2014). After official registration, fully indexed and selected varieties will be made available for large-scale release to farmers via the commercial sector. The sharing and potential commercialization of cultivars/hybrids will be done in full respect of access and benefit-sharing regulations.CA2.3 aims to produce cassava varieties and production packages to meet the needs of regionally diverse markets and production constraints in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Through better understanding of gender-disaggregated trait preferences, cassava breeding will target traits that add value and increase the likelihood of sustained adoption of improved varieties. Since women often play major roles at all levels of the cassava value chain, cassava traits and technologies will target gender-equitable impacts such as \"weed-control-friendly\" varieties, early maturity, in-ground storability, ease of peeling, and processing quality for regionally important food and feed uses. Modernization of cassava production will address increased mechanization and nutrient-responsive varieties that link to market demand, more efficient processing, and new products for growing urban populations. Cassava varieties have several required traits (e.g., stable high yield potential, high DM content, low cyanide potential, starch functional properties, root cortex features, and stress resilience for current and emerging diseases and pests and for climate variation). And though cassava is already considered a good crop for climate-smart agriculture, breeding will place high priority on biotic and abiotic stresses, including selection for resistance to the virus and whitefly complex in Africa (CMD, CBSD, and B. tabaci whiteflies), America (bacterial blight and frog skin disease), and emerging diseases and pests in Asia, such as cassava witches broom (CWB), and drought tolerance in many environments. Additionally, cassava germplasm will be exploited for key high value traits, including biofortification with pro-vitamin A, specialized starches like low or high amylose, and reduced post-harvest deterioration.PO2.4 aims to establish functional seed system to improve health status of planting material and to disseminate advanced newly developed varieties and existing market demanded varieties. PO2.4 will create entrepreneurial opportunities and capacity at all levels along the seed value chain, with a special focus on women and youth farmers in the downstream segment. This will help create strong demand pull from users and revenues through the seed systems back to the breeding programs. This entrepreneurial demand-drive approach will accelerate much needed access to and adoption of varieties possessing indemand traits. The cluster's strong breeding element will offer a range of pro-poor traits including resistance to LB, to reduce dependence on costly fungicides, resistance to various viruses, drought and heat tolerance, and high levels of iron and zinc. Research themes include producing and disseminating large numbers of advanced clones (e.g., through seed directories), engaging farmers and breeding companies in the selection process, conducting G x E evaluations to help identify markers for trait selection, and addressing IP issues to generate revenues for seed producers. The cluster integrates applied research on advanced breeding methods, modeling seed degeneration and yield gaps, ICM, pest and disease epidemiology, adapted tools and protocols for seed quality control, nutrient and anti-nutrient contents, processing qualities, farm system integration, socioeconomic factors, capacity building, and gender. Collaboration is planned with the AFS-CRPs (MAIZ, WHEAT, RICE, DCL) for integration of potato into suitable crop rotations (maize, cereals, and legumes), intercropping systems (fodder legumes), and crop diversification strategies.PO2.5 aims to provide alternatives for sustainably intensifying, diversifying, and increasing productivity and quality value of potato food systems, many of which are cereal based. PO2.5 will develop and promote adoption of multipurpose potato varieties with resistances to the major biotic and abiotic constraints in Asian target regions (potato LB, viruses, heat and salinity), with relevant maturation traits (i.e., very early to moderately early) and adapted to multiple cropping systems, particularly to rotation in rice-and wheatbased systems. A subsequent aim of the cluster is to introduce more nutritious potato genotypes, especially with higher levels of zinc and iron. Improved on-farm management by farmers for more sustainable production constitutes another important component of the cluster. For this, PO2.5 will partner with organizations that have demonstrated success in building farmer capacity, including the private sector (e.g., agricultural-chemical industry). The cluster will promote a strong value chain focus to link major stakeholder groups that are currently poorly articulated in many countries, for example, between informal actors managing seed and groups working in new variety development. Potato in Asia forms a part of complex cropping systems, and expanded collaboration is planned with the AFS-CRPs MAIZE, RICE, WHEAT, and DCL.SW2.6: User-preferred sweetpotato varieties SW2.6 aims to investigate, develop, and disseminate better sweetpotato varieties and ensure that they meet farmer and consumer preferences. This will improve availability of sweetpotato varieties that are rich in beta-carotene and high in anti-oxidants, to meet diverse user preferences and needs with genderresponsive seed systems and strong linkages to SW4.4 (FP4), for achieving nutritional outcomes. The cluster's decentralized breeding hub system aims to better target global and local breeding population improvements and accelerate variety development by 14 national programs in its collaborative Speedbreeder CoP. Four sweetpotato population development platforms (Peru, Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda) have been developed. Each is improving one to three breeding populations exploiting heterosis (hybrid vigor) for faster yield gains and applying accelerated breeding principles (more locations earlier in the breeding cycle) to reduce the breeding cycle to four years and shorten period to release. Support platforms are linked to national program tissue culture labs, pre-basic seed programs, and decentralized seed dissemination systems. Research guides the development of OFSP \"seed value chains\" that link vine multiplication at farmer and rural enterprise level to basic seed with qualified multipliers, who in turn are linked to pre-basic seed at research stations. Wherever possible, SW2.6 will take an enterprise-focused approach to accelerate movement of new OFSP varieties through this chain, with an emphasis on women's involvement. This requires a value chain approach emphasizing linkages to root markets. This effort will be supported by new technologies to enhance vine multiplication and conservation, such as net tunnels to protect against virus-carrying insects, drip irrigation, and the Triple S technology for areas with prolonged dry seasons. The cluster will develop improved diagnostic tools for affordable and effective quality control of planting material. For knowledge sharing, the cluster will support the sweetpotato CoP via the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal (http://bit.ly/1puAzHM) to inform, organize, and harmonize R&D approaches; promote use of demonstration plots; and prepare press releases, policy briefs, and publications among other outputs.YA2.7 aims to develop and deploy improved varieties with enhanced pest and disease resistance, adapted to competitive cropping systems, with viable seed and ware yam value chains. Germplasm with novel traits will be identified in consultation with relevant value chains, and advanced breeding tools will be utilized to rapidly incorporate these traits into varieties accepted by farmers and the local markets. Genomics technologies, along with improved high-ratio seed yam propagation techniques, will be implemented to speed up variety development and reduce the average age of cultivars grown by farmers. The introduction of improved varieties will be accompanied and supported by appropriate crop and soil fertility management practices, use of crop mechanization, and better storage techniques. Delivery of seed to farmers' fields will involve international, national, and local organizations within public and private sectors, using macro-propagation and tissue culture methods to generate virus-free yam clones, and sustainable practices to improve access to quality seed yam. The entire research component within YA2.7 will be augmented by insight and knowledge of yam value chains, with special emphasis on expanding market opportunities for women farmers for producing ware and seed yam and women trading yam and associated crops. This effort will help to establish production alliances at district or state levels consisting of farmers, traders, exporters, processors, and investors to improve their access to yam and associated crop markets. Collaboration with other AFS-CRPs will involve integration of yam into suitable crop rotation patterns, intercropping systems (fruit and timber trees, vegetables, fodder legumes), and crop diversification strategies (MAIZE, DCL, WHEAT, RICE, FTA).FP2 takes advantage of strong partnerships established by RTB participating centers with national and regional research-and-extension programs; comprising a network of public and private partners (Table FP2.4). It will extend this further to a broadening circle of ARIs, development agencies, NGOs, policy bodies, and private sector partners. Engaging partners at upstream level with expertise in novel breeding and seed technologies; applied and local research institutes for technology evaluation, validation, selection, and development; and business partners for scaling is particularly important for reaching the millions of beneficiaries targeted by FP2. Many partners on the downstream side will be cluster/commodity specific in accordance with their mandates, whereas partners engaged at upstream research will engage across clusters. Some RTB crops will target new strategic partnerships through regional and global stakeholder fora for scaling. Partnerships are key to raising awareness on benefits of using quality seed and improved varieties. Campaign style approaches to give seed away for free often undermine commercial viability. Therefore, FP2 will facilitate novel arrangements with the private sector as a major driver in seed system development, giving due attention to incentive structures for seed sale.FP2 will identify and facilitate cross-flagship and cross-cluster collaboration where appropriate, as well as collaboration with other CRPs and CGIAR centers at site integration, regional, and global levels to avoid duplication and increase effectiveness. The effects of climate change, such as higher temperature, prolonged dry spells, and occasional flood events, have different effects on RTB crops. Crop-specific pests and diseases and the natural resource base require crop-specific strategies for adaption to changing environments (Table FP2.5). FP2 will utilize required trait combinations from its large gene pool and breeding populations to address crop-specific abiotic and biotic challenges. FP2 will draw on modeling in FP3 and CCAFS capability to downscale climate change models and provide metrics to guide breeding for the trait combinations required for particular target geographies. FP2, in close collaboration with FP1 and Genebanks and Genetic Gains Platforms, will intensify breeding for above-and below-ground root and storage organ traits at morphological, physiological, and genome levels for adaptation to abiotic and biotic stress scenarios caused by climatic events (e.g., Vanhove et al. 2012;Kissel et al. 2015;Khan et al. 2015).The effects of climate change are likely to differ between regions and agro-ecologies. FP2 will address these differences by establishing and strengthening regional breeding hubs that focus on traits of regional importance and closely linked with global collections for recurrent introduction of new traits to their breeding populations. Adaptation to climate change is also largely affected by availability, access, and utilization of climate-smart technologies, such as stress-adapted varieties, and so require functional seed dissemination systems and knowledge transfer. Responsive, inclusive seed system development is needed to disseminate climate-smart RTB varieties to farmers more effectively and efficiently.FP2 seeks to characterize gender-differentiated preferences for traits and their consequences in order to help breeding strategies and ensure gender-inclusive access to better seed. Where farmer trait preferences are not well understood, developed varieties may not meet farmers' needs, agro-ecology, and changing weather patterns (Mudege, unpublished). To understand gender consequences, RTB will draw on tools and instruments developed through participatory research and gender analysis work on participatory plant breeding (e.g., Farnworth and Jiggins 2003) and sensory evaluations with training panelists comprising male and female farmers, traders, and processors. Evidence will be fed back to breeders to develop standardized ontologies for user-preferred traits that respond to gender differences; in collaboration with the clusters CC5.4 and CC5.3 of FP5 and the recently funded Gender-Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation project among team members and local partners.FP2 will develop a gender-responsive biophysical and socioeconomic analytical framework to diagnose bottlenecks of integrated or single RTB seed systems, and develop strategies to strengthen them. FP2 will continue to seek to understand the seed needs of key end users by conducting collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data. Although farmers do not usually have access to quality seed, in many cases women's access may be even worse. In a gender situational analysis conducted by RTB on banana and potato in Uganda and Malawi, women often mentioned seed-related problems. The analysis identified as major barriers to success high cost of seed, poor quality, lack of seed knowledge, and lack of availability of seed in nearby local markets (Mudege et al. 2016;Mudege et al. 2015;Mayanja et al. 2016).CapDev interventions focus on strategies that cut across public and private sector stakeholders related to the following:Individual and organizational capacities of (1) breeders at NARS, ARIs, and universities to implement conventional and advanced breeding and selection methods; and (2) male and female farmers, processors, and seed multipliers to strengthen technical (e.g., varietal selection, cultural practices, postharvest techniques, seed production, disease diagnostics, and quality control) and business skills. Through strengthened capacities for designing and implementing smallholder-oriented effective breeding programs and sustainable seed systems, future research leaders will be formed through fellowships at MSc, PhD and post-doc levels. Knowledge transfer is encouraged by practical, hands-on mentorship in well-resourced research labs and experimental stations as well as in farmers' fields, and by sponsoring participation in international meetings and workshops.FP2 will strengthen institutional and entrepreneurial capacities of R&D partners, by co-investments in facilities, equipment, provision of information, and backstopping to improve institutional skills.Gender-responsive approaches throughout CapDev will support partners to foster women's participation (e.g., to be selected as seed multipliers, co-develop and use participatory gender-responsive research methods to identify end user preferences, varietal selection, seed interventions, and business models). Barriers that hamper participation of women-for example, in training and field demonstrations-will be addressed. Training courses on gender and plant breeding will be jointly implemented (e.g., with Cornell University).Design and delivery of innovative learning and information materials and approaches to reach wider audiences, through, for example, e-learning training modules on technical protocols, guidelines on best practices and principles, and interactive DST such as the banana knowledge base hosted by the ProMusa network (www.promusa.org/musapedia) and the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal.In both breeding and seed system work, previous knowledge and technologies such as protected breeding material, public databases, and reagents patented by labs will be acquired through public domains, research license, and commercial purchase (among others). In acquiring those technologies, FP2 will follow legal compliance such as phytosanitary, access permits, prior informed consent for traditional knowledge, and the like.FP2 will adhere to the regulations of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, including reporting to the Governing Body of the Treaty on transfers of plant genetic material (Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture) made pursuant to the SMTA and that for material under development. Transfer of varieties (with different arrangements for local landraces) to a NARS for official release will be granted without IP protection. Strategic variety release could be with a partner where the variety will be licensed to seed multipliers under certain conditions for multiplication, such as free access for public institutes, geographical restrictions, and availability of seed to smallholder farmers.The FP will ensure timely, irrevocable, unrestricted, and free online access by any user worldwide to information products, and unrestricted re-use of content. (This could be restricted to noncommercial use and/or granted subject to appropriate licenses in line with the CGIAR IA principles, subject to proper attribution.) For this purpose, FP5 will use appropriate repositories, such as Biomart and Dataserve, and several existing knowledge-sharing platforms, inclusive of quality control mechanisms via which outputs will be disseminated. Arrangements with collaborators and partners will be made to ensure OA of all relevant products generated.The FP will adhere to country-specific laws and regulations in the dissemination of the final outputs (e.g., phytosanitary standards, ethical guidelines, environmental stewardship, seed legislation, etc.).The FP2 management team will comprise the FP leader and the cluster leaders from all RTB centers. The FP leader will provide overall scientific and administrative leadership; cluster leaders will guide cluster teams. Results at the cluster level will regularly be reported, discussed, and evaluated by the FP management team during monthly virtual meetings. The cluster leaders will guide their teams in preparing annual work plans and budget drafts. Cluster leaders will provide biannual technical reports against indicators of agreed deliverables, which will be communicated to RTB's PMU. The FP leader closely coordinates with the PMU and ensures that the FP is integrated into the RTB program-wide M&EL system.The cross-flagship collaboration will be ensured by co-location of scientists in different FPs as well as by active participation in Crosscutting clusters and the BCoP cluster. Furthermore, FP2 intends to set up an information portal to be hosted by the new PMELP software tool for RBM and/or the RTB website. The portal will contain scientific information, activity maps by research area, variety release, and project intervention/geography, which will be updated on biannually. The portal will also include all relevant stakeholders for input from FP level to specific scientific topics.  -20,507,490 -28,210,236 -32,923,412 -36,378,023 -38,739,474 -41,231,637 -197,990,272 Total Flagship budget by Natural Classifications (USD)  5,230,020 5,439,221 5,656,789 5,883,061 6,118,383 6,363,119 34,690,595 39,288,833 40,860,387 42,494,800 44,194,594 45,962,377 47,800,873 260,601,864 Total Flagship budget by participating partners (signed PPAs) (USD) The share of budget by center within the FP is provisional and will be revisited taking into account prospects for delivery, quality of science and partnerships and credibility of the impact pathway.Explanations of these costs in relation to the planned 2022 outcomes:An \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", funded by W1&2 in a total of $23,215,414, which will be assigned on the basis of semi-competitive grants to systems related work, involving RTB clusters and potentially other AFS-CRPs during the respective year is distributed across FP1-5.FP2 houses a total of $5,927,841 of the \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", amount which is initially allocated to the Lead Center (CIP) which therefore shows a higher budget share in the table above.Benefits:NRS: Fringe benefits for national staff are comprised of mandatory legal benefits by country and complementary benefits provided by each CRP participating center, such as Pension -social security, training and development, medical insurance, occupational health, transportation costs, personnel protection requirement and food subsidy.Fringe benefits for international staff are comprised of housing allowance, education allowance, car allowance, Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), hardship, home leave tickets, insurance, retirement contribution, occupational health, training and development, repatriation and relocation provisions, and food subsidy.Includes non-travel operating costs, such as standard fees applied by all CGIAR centers -Research Support Services and Facilities & IT fees -as well as costs related to consultancies, workshops, trainings, laboratory and experimental station services and other supplies and services related to field operations. Cost estimates are based on historical expenses and recent price analysis.If full project funding does not become available RTB will prioritize specific FP2 deliverables  Data management and M&E at FP and cluster levels  Supporting breeding and seed quality improvement Community of Practice  Individual and institutional capacity building programs to key stakeholders from RTB breeding and seed production and distribution sectors in target countries. Investment in methods to shorten the breeding cycle  Test marketing strategies to accelerate farmer's access to new varieties exhibiting genetic gains e.g. distribution in small quantities, decentralized multiplication networks, use of ICT/SMS based information systems, mass media campaigns among others. If participating centers are successful in raising additional W3/Bilateral funds some key activities can also be diverted to those projects, in case they are aligned with RTB priorities. The objective of FP3 is to close yield gaps of RTB crops arising from biotic and abiotic threats and to develop more resilient production systems, thereby strengthening food security and improving natural resource quality. It will generate outcomes that directly target the needs of a diversity of household typologies, result in the transformation of the livelihoods of rural women, and build the basis for RTB cropping systems for the next generation of farm households.Hence, FP3 will address the following grand challenges, as identified by the SRF:Destructive pests and diseases and abiotic stresses compromise the food security of RTB cropdependent populations. Several invasive and emerging pests and diseases of RTB crops cause yield losses of 80-100%, with devastating impacts on rural communities. Multiple endemic pests and diseases also drastically restrict attainable yields in all RTB crops and call for smallholder-adapted IPM, congruent with men and women farmers' needs. RTB crops are often vulnerable to abiotic stresses, such as high temperature, drought, frost, and salinity, limiting the crops' ability to realize their full yield potential.Climate change has mostly negative impacts on crop productivity, as a result of extreme weather events (drought, floods), higher rainfall variability, and increasing temperature, which lead to dangerous geographical shifts and higher abundances and outbreaks of pests and diseases (Kroschel et al. 2016;FAO 2008). Overall crop yields have been predicted to fall by 10-50% in 70% of the studies conducted (Challinor et al. 2014), although the understanding of climate change impacts on RTB crops is still limited. Effects differ across crops; for example, cassava is likely to be favored by climate change, although it will face increased pressure from diseases (Jarvis et al. 2012). FP3 will place a strong emphasis on enhancing the understanding of the complex interactions between the effects of climate change on RTB crops, the pest and diseases that affect them, and the farming environments where they are cultivated.The expansion of the agricultural frontier and land use intensification are leading to deforestation, habitat/biodiversity loss, soil erosion/landscape degradation, and reductions in critical ecosystem services. RTB crops are produced primarily by smallholders, and cropping systems are frequently suboptimal. Increased national production often comes from an increase in the planted area and reduced fallow periods rather than from increased productivity or efficient land use.These challenges demand innovative, geographically representative, yet strongly focused research to deliver predictive models, methods, and products that support the preparedness and enable policymakers and end users to build resilient, sustainable, and climate-smart cropping systems. This will be achieved through research undertaken by FP3 that links closely with the other FPs of RTB, as well as a wide range of international and national partners.The comparative advantage for the research to be undertaken in FP3 is centered on the unique set of RTB participating centers (Bioversity, CIAT, CIP, and IITA), CIRAD, and partner institutions. The global network of researchers that will implement FP3 has the depth of research experience and extensive geographic coverage required to meet the R4D needs arising from the grand challenges presented. In addition, RTB is uniquely positioned to develop broadly effective systems of managing critical diseases, because patterns of infection and dissemination are similar for all RTB crops; solutions developed for one crop can in many cases be easily applied to others. Multidisciplinary research teams have wide-ranging expertise in such disciplines as entomology, modeling, molecular genetics, virology, and soil biology. This expertise in more applied themes exists in IPM, innovation platforms, extension, capacity building, policy, and gender. Strong linkages fostered between partners contributing to FP3 will ensure that research outputs are translated into development outcomes through the impact pathway.RTB scientists working in CGIAR played the lead role in the agricultural research intervention that had the single largest economic impact of any CGIAR activity-namely, the classical biological control of the cassava mealybug, which delivered benefits in excess of US $9 billion (Zeddies et al. 2001). These experiences resulted in RTB research teams achieving similar successes even more rapidly in restoring cassava production following the spread of the cassava mealybug to Asia. RTB researchers, working closely with national and international partners, also have a strong recent record of spearheading interventions to understand, monitor, and control pandemics of diseases of cassava and banana in Africa (Tripathi et al. 2009;Blomme et al. 2014;Kumar et al. 2015;Legg et al. 2015;Patil et al. 2015). The truly global coverage of RTB is further highlighted by important and geographically extensive pest and disease management initiatives in both Asia and Latin America (Kroschel et al. 2012;Parsa et al. 2012Parsa et al. , 2014;;Alvarez et al. 2013).The overall objective of FP3 is to close yield gaps of RTB crops arising from biotic and abiotic threats and to develop more resilient production systems, thereby strengthening food security and improving natural resource quality. The objective will be addressed through the implementation of six interlinked clusters: CC3.1: Management of RTB-critical pests and diseases under changing climates, through risk assessment, surveillance, enhanced modeling, and advanced IPM CC3.2: Sustainable RTB crop production systems BA3.3: Regional strategies and tools to arrest the spread of key fungal and bacterial wilts into new areas and recover banana productivity in endemic areas BA3.4: Improving the livelihoods of smallholder banana producers in Asia and Africa through recovery and containment of BBTV CA3.5: Preemptive, emergency, and ongoing response capacity to manage emergent biological constraints for cassava in Asia and the Americas CA3.6: Responses to biological threats to cassava in Africa.FP3 comprises two Crosscutting clusters and four clusters focused on specific crop/pest/disease combinations. Varieties and agronomic practices for yam, potato, and sweetpotato developed through FP2 will be incorporated into the sustainable crop production systems work of CC3.2. Pest and disease control tactics developed for the same crops under FP2 will be utilized in the crosscutting activities of CC3.1. The six clusters of FP3 are characterized by the aims and rationales presented in Table FP3.1. There will be a strong geographical focus on countries where the needs are greatest, notably in SSA, and where RTB research teams have a strong existing presence and comparative advantage. RTB is fully engaged in the site integration process that will be a key part of Phase II of CRPs, and FP3 will preferentially target its interventions towards site integration target countries. This will ensure that the flagship responds as effectively as possible to the R4D needs of local institutions and RTB stakeholders in target countries.Women are often the principal cultivators of RTB crops, and increasingly are involved in crop management and pesticide use, which exposes them and their children to health risks. There is evidence that women have greater concerns about agriculture-health linkages and are receptive to messages about IPM (Norton et al. 2005). Therefore, women will be specifically addressed with IPM technologies that favor alternative non-chemical means (e.g., biological control). Selected (Sub)-IDOs, geographies, and targets for 2022 are presented in Table FP3.2. FP3 achieves impact through a set of interlinked outcomes: Loss avoidance through more effective exclusion and containment of invasive and emerging pests and pathogens, resulting plant health organizations, and informed rural communities use of science-based risk assessment, diagnostics, surveillance, and eradication techniques. Recovery of RTB production in areas affected by invasive and emerging pests through varieties with pest/disease resistance, clean planting material, and innovative management practices for suppressive soils, cropping systems, and landscapes. Increased yields and income from the market-linked application of integrated crop and soil and pest management, which more effectively addresses multiple endemic pests and pathogens and abiotic stresses. Strengthened food security among resource-poor and vulnerable rural communities, resulting from the highly targeted application of resistant, nutrient-dense germplasm, clean low-cost planting material, and effective small-scale management practices. More effective and innovation-oriented institutional and policy frameworks, addressing the specific challenges and opportunities of vegetatively propagated RTB crops which are bulky, prone to perishability, and often cultivated, processed, and marketed by women.FP3 will mobilize improved research tools and impact-oriented research products linked to focus CapDev, working in partnership to achieve these outcomes in target regions. This partnership will employ field research teams working at shared sites with other CRPs, and promote modeling, efficient knowledge management systems, and innovative use of ICTs. FP3 proposes key learning platforms on crop and cropping systems, yield gap diagnostics, ICM, and IPM to maximize dialogue both within and across flagships. FP3 places a special focus on the needs of vulnerable, disadvantaged, and disregarded groups, such as the rural poor, women, and youth. RTB gender specialists will ensure that research products and methods developed under this FP will maximize gender equity.The impact pathway of FP3 (Fig. FP3.1) is based on a purposeful characterization and targeting of beneficiaries into household and community typologies. This targeting will link closely with FP5 in terms of agro-climates, livelihoods, gender, generational understanding, and scaling approaches. FP3's impact pathway will link to FP4 marketing/utilization and with FP2 in varieties and seed systems through the targeting of specific RTB value chains. FP3 will inform FP1 on trait prioritization for gene and marker discovery. The BCoP will facilitate the incorporation of targeted biotic and abiotic tolerance traits into variety improvement programs in FP2 that will form an integral part of FP3 IPDM. The key to achieving the desired levels of impact and change in targeted rural communities will be by working through a diverse set of partner institutions and by engaging vigorously with the site integration process to maximize local \"buy-in.\" Within FP3, the Crosscutting clusters CC3.1 and CC3.2 will guide the fine-tuning of research products based on an understanding of the influence of climate change and weather variability on the crop directly, on the range of pests and pathogens affected indirectly, as well as on beneficial and other ecosystem interactions. These two clusters will ensure that research products are informed by cuttingedge tools for pest risk analysis and crop/cropping system yield gap diagnostics.To achieve development outcomes from research outcomes, a broad range of public and private sector partners will play key roles. These will depend on the end user as well as the agro-climatic, market, and institutional contexts and the desired RTB-specific impact. Expanding market-oriented monocrops being produced by young entrepreneurs for agro-industry, for example, will engage quite different development partners than those for the promotion of nutrient-dense RTB crops for vulnerable, female-headed households to ensure greater food security.The assumptions in the FP3 impact pathway (Fig. FP3.1) focus on the relative profitability and price stability of RTB crops and the adequate financing and engagement of NARES to support development and uptake of FP3 products. Several of the development outcomes targeted by RTB-Phase II are contingent on continued government support to agricultural extension systems, which could present a potential risk. However, many governments, notably those in SSA, are increasingly recognizing the value of the agricultural sector, particularly in the current environment of low prices for commodities such as petroleum and minerals/metals. Consequently, support for agricultural extension is anticipated to increase in the immediate future. Another risk to offset is that increasing demand leads to indiscriminate use of fertilizer and agrochemicals. This risk is directly addressed in CC3.1 and elsewhere, including application of biorational products and deployment of host plant resistance. Novel science, common to several of the FP3 clusters, includes the application of both conventional and biotechnological techniques to identify and support incorporation of novel pest/disease resistance genes into RTB germplasm in FP1 and FP2. FP3 will draw on strategic research to elucidate complex interactions between RTB plants in diverse environments impacted by climate change; characterization and modification of the soil microbiome to enhance components that promote productivity while suppressing those that have adverse effects; next-generation diagnostics; application of mobile communication and data-handling systems; and the development of ecologically balanced pest and crop management solutions.Key areas of novel science and research innovation by cluster are described below.CC3.1 Pest/disease management. Novel approaches will be piloted for modeling the phenology and spread of chronic and invasive arthropod pests and diseases. GIS and climate models will be used to map and analyze potential pest risks (Kroschel et al. 2013), and to provide better predictions of crop losses and impacts of climate change on livelihoods. To develop science-based IPM strategies, research will be carried out to evaluate the self-regulating capacity of agro-ecosystems as well as the use of ecosystem services to balance pest problems. Inundative and inoculative strategies for the dissemination of new and existing biological control agents will be investigated. FP3 will look for opportunities to integrate different control agents with other control components, such as the application of biorational products and the deployment of host plant resistance.CC3.2 Crop production systems. Detailed data sets will be generated from a wide range of agroenvironments on RTB crop responses to diverse agronomic and ecological factors (variety, nutrients, tillage, intercropping, plant density, weed control, etc.). Key parameters, such as nutrient status at critical stages, soil properties, and meteorological data, will be related to yields to develop DSS. These systems will use modeling and GIS data to delineate application domains and fine-tune recommendations, enabling farmers to make informed decisions on varietal choice and the most appropriate agronomic measures.Research outputs from this crop-focused cluster will be linked with system-level activities implemented under FP5 through co-location of experimental sites in target countries and agro-ecologies.). New research under this cluster will tackle Fusarium by improving detection tools for diverse Foc; strengthening mechanisms for epidemiological characterization, surveillance, and monitoring; and developing a diverse array of control strategies. Vital novel information about the behavior of Fusarium species in the plant and soil will be obtained through both classical and metagenomics analyses of soil, root, rhizosphere, and stem micro-organisms (Köberl et al. 2015). These data will be used to guide the development of holistic soil and plant health management techniques. Mass selection techniques will be developed to facilitate screening for resistance. New applied research will focus on scaling out models for BXW management and beneficiary targeting using socioeconomic analyses. Network analysis and client satisfaction surveys will be used to enhance the coverage of interventions. Although good progress has been achieved in developing diagnostics (Hodgetts et al. 2014), further research will be conducted to provide a comprehensive characterization of the diversity and pathogenicity of Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum strains and pathovars in both banana and enset cropping systems. This will facilitate the development of more robust and user-friendly diagnostic techniques such as LAMP and lateral flow devices. Recently developed BXW-resistant transgenic varieties (Tripathi et al. 2014) will be field tested.Novel research conducted under this cluster will include the characterization and modeling of the epidemiology of the aphid-virus-banana pathosystem, design of innovative tools for diagnosis and surveillance, and effective approaches for community-based phytosanitary management of BBTD. It will engage communities in containment action and recovery of banana production by strengthening clean planting material production in BBTD-affected areas, and reduce reinfection risk in the seed supply chain. This work will build on achievements through RTB-Phase I, especially the ALLIANCE framework (www.bbtvalliance.org), which is a unique partnership of NARES and IARCs implementing a unified approach to mitigate BBTV in SSA. It will also interact closely with the community phytosanitation work for cassava virus control; IPM and phenology-based modeling to understand the climate change risk; approaches for banana intensification in BBTD affected areas; and the virus effects on seed degeneration. Virus-vector studies will focus on ecological interactions, vector natural enemies, endosymbionts, determining cultivar responses to virus and aphid, and the use of tolerant cultivars for disease management. It will also apply novel RNAi-based transgenic approaches to induce resistance to virus and aphid. RTB gender researchers will play a central role in understanding the gender, generational, and community-oriented elements of the disease management work.CA3.5 Cassava biological constraints, Asia/Americas. Surveillance and quarantine of rapidly spreading CWB (Alvarez et al. 2013) will be facilitated through the development and application of low-cost and robust LAMP-based diagnostics. Pest monitoring will be strengthened using crowdsourcing approaches, remote sensing, volatile-based detection systems, epidemic network modeling, and the extension of pest/disease identification keys. Meta-barcoding and polymerase chain reaction-based elucidation of arthropod food web structure will be applied to improve understanding of pest ecology (Mollot et al. 2014). IPM approaches will be strengthened through the innovative use of resistance enhancers, phytohormones (for cassava frogskin disease and CWB), or habitat manipulation tactics to enhance in-field abundance and action of key natural enemies.CA3.6 Cassava biological threats, Africa. Noninvasive phenotyping using spectral imaging technology, as well as LAMP and lateral flow device testing kits, will improve diagnostics and surveillance. Ecological studies will include the manipulation of plant characteristics through breeding to shift tri-trophic interactions in favor of biological control agents for target pests and the development of fungal and bacterial endophytes as \"biohealth\" products. RNAi and transgenic techniques will be developed for both pest and virus control, and resistance pyramiding will be used to combine novel conventional sources of resistance with transgenes. In addition to the promotion of clean seed (through linkages with FP2), FP3 will continue to explore the potential for community-based phytosanitation approaches in the area-wide eradication of cassava viruses under contrasting inoculum pressure conditions and develop scaling models for wider application.FP3 will build on the progress achieved in Phase I, notably through research undertaken as part of crosscutting projects where the collective skills of multidisciplinary, multi-institutional teams were harnessed. Key lessons learned during Phase I by cluster include: Real gains were achieved in developing approaches for predicting the effects of climate change on key pests and diseases through the breadth of collaboration, which relied on CGIAR centers from Latin America, Europe, and Asia; universities having specialized modeling skills; and national partners from both research and plant protection. Incorporating research knowledge into an analysis of pest risk threats to countries of East and Central Africa is relatively new. The project intervention to develop draft PRA documents for five key invasive or expanding pest/disease threats was positively received by local stakeholders. The approaches developed through this area of work will be expanded in Phase II to strengthen African plant protection and quarantine systems and to increase the speed and effectiveness of their response to pest outbreaks and disease epidemics of RTB crops. Through Phase I, early steps were made in establishing experiments and building models to be used in designing strategies for site-specific fertility management for RTB crops. Preliminary results have given RTB agronomy research teams the first insights into variability of soil and fertility factors both within and between sites. This provides an excellent base from which to determine, in Phase II, how site conditions and management practices affect soil fertility, how and where fertilizer can be used appropriately to boost production, and how soil biota and natural fertility can be most effectively conserved. These research outputs will be used to build expert systems that will be transformed into publicly accessible site-specific DST. Whole-mat removal, originally promoted by RTB and partners, was shown to be expensive and unpopular with growers. But the simpler alternative of single diseased stem removal has proven to be effective in reducing BXW and is readily accepted by growers. This approach will be strongly promoted during Phase II. Foc TR4 is arguably the most dangerous threat to commercial banana production worldwide. Following its inadvertent introduction to Africa in 2013, initially at a single site in Mozambique, there was great concern that it might affect the large areas of cooking bananas that are critical to food security in East and Central Africa. Experiments with African banana varieties in Asia, implemented through RTB-Phase I, indicated that the green cooking \"matooke\" varieties are highly resistant under field conditions, providing a potential option for integrated disease management. The matooke varieties, however, will succumb to the disease under laboratory/screenhouse conditions. Determining the vulnerability of African cooking bananas to Foc TR4 will be a key research target of Phase II. Experience of RTB researchers working in other continents affected by TR4 has highlighted the importance of containing the recent introductions to Africa; this will be another main area of research for Phase II. RTB scientists learned that lack of awareness about BBTD is the main cause for failing to recognize disease outbreaks and disease expansion in SSA. Since BBTD has affected parts of the developed world (notably Australia), the RTB teams quickly appreciated the need for global coordination in designing strategies for effective BBTD management in Africa. A global alliance for BBTD control was set up in order to achieve this, and this consortium has reinforced RTB's work aimed at controlling BBTD through the use of community-based learning alliances and the pilot-level application of community phytosanitation and recovery approaches. RTB research teams in Asia have realized that surveillance, coupled with diagnostics/identification systems, is critical to protecting the region's cassava crop. Surveillance work has demonstrated significant spread of new pests/disease. New diagnostic tools are allowing national partners to monitor this situation effectively, although much remains to be done. The new spread of CMD to Southeast Asia highlights the importance of this situation. RTB teams of plant protection scientists based in Africa and Southeast Asia are uniquely placed to tackle this new disease threat, since Africabased teams have decades of experience in managing CMD in Africa, and outstanding sources of CMD resistance can be readily sourced from IITA's cassava germplasm collection. It has become clear from RTB research into cassava viruses in SSA that there is no \"silver bullet\" control for either the viruses or the whiteflies that transmit them. During Phase I there was much hope that novel sources of resistance (including transgenics) would solve the problem. But we now realize that a broad set of methods will be required to manage and prevent further spread of these viruses. In addition to new sources of host virus resistance being generated through FP1 (transgenic based) and FP2 (conventional), new approaches to community-based disease management pioneered through Phase I will be combined under FP3 to develop effective, affordable, and long-lasting solutions to cassava viruses.FP3 R4D activities are organized into six interrelated clusters. Two are crosscutting, focusing on the key areas of pest/disease risk assessment, IPM, and sustainable crop management. The four crop-specific clusters focus on the most economically damaging pest and disease constraints affecting RTB production in the tropics. Cluster products are listed in Table FP3.3. The effects from climate change on temperature, rainfall, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels are likely to increase damage from pests and diseases. Similarly, increased globalization is resulting in more frequent occurrences of outbreaks and epidemics due to invasive pests/diseases.CC3.1 will develop innovative IPM strategies and improve the capacity of national partners and farmers to adapt IPM to potential new pest occurrences and to cope with the increased abundance and incidence of chronic pests under climate change. CC3.1 will strengthen the capacity of developing countries to develop and use advanced PRA methods. This will facilitate the identification of potential pest and disease threats and enable the design of pre-emptive control strategies to slow the development of invasive pest/disease outbreaks. Models will improve predictions of pathogen evolution. Further, pest range expansions and changes in abundance will be forecast and relative risks and impacts on RTB crop production systems and yields determined. Models will be based on georeferenced and digitized distribution data, as well as in-depth biological temperature-dependent pest life-table data to simulate life-table parameters (finite rate of increase, doubling time, etc.). Models will also consider the application of pest risk indices (establishment, generation number, and activity) in GIS pest risk mapping. All simulations will be run under different climate change scenarios, in order to improve knowledge of the variation of possible future pest invasions and outbreaks. For many pests no adequate sources of resistance have been identified in RTB crops. Hence CC3.1 will develop IPM strategies that combine available host plant resistance with other pest-specific innovative control tactics (cultural, mechanical, biological, biorational, etc.) that will be tested, adapted in participatory research, and made available to national programs. CC3.1 will tackle multiple pest problems by manipulating the self-regulating capacity of RTB-based crop production systems through conservation and augmentation strategies for pests' natural antagonists and through biopesticide-based approaches.Cluster CC3.2. Crop production systems CC3.2 aims to develop and promote technologies for more productive and ecologically sustainable crop production systems. Increasing human population and growing consumer demands are leading to the conversion of forests to agricultural land and the overexploitation of existing areas of cultivation. Consequently, the cluster's aims will be achieved by applying the principles of ISFM (integrated soil fertility management), IPM, site-specific nutrient management, and other DST. Site-specific crop managers (SSCM) provide DST to smallholders based on yield gap analysis by combing existing models and manager expert systems around five modules: (1) nutrient supply, (2) varietal choice, (3) agronomic measures, (4) IPM, and ( 5) natural resource management. SSCMs will target the needs and opportunities of RTB cropsdependent farm households with variable resource endowment levels, market access, quality of natural resources, climate, and land use intensity. Improved tools for identifying factors causing yield gaps will be developed, providing information on yield-limiting factors and economic and natural resource trade-offs. The SSCMs will be developed together with NARES through an iterative process that incorporates farm household feedback and on-farm evaluations. CC3.2 will obtain detailed datasets across RTB agroenvironments on crop responses to relevant agronomic factors (variety, nutrient supply, tillage, intercropping, plant density and patterns, weed control, etc.). These responses, combined with key parameters such as soil and plant nutrient status at critical stages, soil properties related to water supply, pest and disease occurrence and severity, and meteorological data, will be related to crop yields to develop expert DST. For these tools GIS analysis will define geographical application domains. The target is to attain higher yields in 75% of the cases in which DST were used. Tools will be web-based and publicly accessible. Members of participating NARS, extension agents, NGOs, farmers, and farmer groups contributing to data acquisition used to create the DST will be trained in their use. Final versions run on all mobile devices will enable farmers to make informed decisions on varietal choice and the most appropriate agronomic measures. Research outputs from this cluster will be linked with system-level activities implemented under FP5 through co-location of trial sites in target countries and agro-ecologies.BA3.3 aims to develop approaches, detection tools, and holistic and cost-effective practices for managing and containing Foc and BXW, which together represent the most geographically extensive and damaging threat to global banana production. Diverse bacterial and fungal wilts in banana threaten farmer and community livelihoods and national economies around the world. Fusarium oxysporum fsp cubense (Foc) wilt Races 1 and 2 are widely distributed in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, whereas Tropical Race 4 is found only in some countries in Asia and four countries in Africa and the Middle East. The bacterial wilts are regional, with Xanthomonas in East and Central Africa, Moko Ralstonia (Pseudomonas) solanacearum in Latin America and the Caribbean, and blood disease/Blugtok-Moko in Asia.A global alliance will link RTB centers with a worldwide network of banana and plant quarantine stakeholders in efforts to control banana wilts. BA3.3 will use this global stakeholder network to develop strategies for minimizing the risks of wilt spread, eradicating localized outbreaks, conducting surveillance with novel diagnostic tools, and managing infection in both epidemic and endemic zones of extant infection. A key component of the strategy used will be the design of protocols for the safe and efficient delivery of clean \"seed,\" in close collaboration with FP2. Exclusion activities will be given a particularly high priority since Foc wilts are almost impossible to get rid of once infection has occurred. BA3.3 will further address the development of specific management tactics as well as the use of modeling techniques to strengthen understanding of the epidemiology of these diseases. Knowledge developed will flow directly into risk models being developed in CC3.1. Novel sources of host plant resistance to wilts will be identified in partnership with FP2, and resistant germplasm will be exchanged, evaluated with farmers, and promoted as part of integrated wilt management strategies. BA3.3 will prioritize livelihood analyses and gender research in order to improve the relevance of wilt management strategies and to enhance their contribution to the resilience of rural cropping systems and the livelihoods of affected farming communities. To achieve this, strong linkages will be fostered with FP5.BA3.4 aims to develop approaches, detection tools, and holistic and cost-effective practices for recovery from and containment of BBTD. BBTD is one of the most devastating diseases of banana and plantain, and is one of the IUCN's 100 most important invasive species. BBTD is present in 15 countries in Africa and 13 countries in Asia. In SSA, BBTD affects the livelihoods of 6-12 million smallholder households in 13 countries. Very recently the virus spread to South Africa, and could threaten another 10-15 million smallholder households if its spread is not checked through adequate between-country quarantine.BA3.4 involves a suite of management components that will be integrated into an effective and sustainable management strategy. A key element comprises the design and application of multipurpose diagnostic tools that include (1) virus diagnostics for epidemiological study, virus monitoring, and management of clean seed; (2) diagnostic tools for measuring seed flows and associated BBTD spread risk; and (3) socioeconomic methods for determining the role of gender, generational factors, and markets at household and community levels. Social factors are of paramount importance in the effective implementation of community-based phytosanitation measures, and a thorough understanding of how these affect BBTD management approaches will be fundamental to the success of BA3.4. Epidemiological models will explore host-vector-virus dynamics and will be adapted to produce practical management tools. Modeling the effects of climate change on the BBTD pathosystem will be examined through linkages with CC3.1. More specifically, these studies will help to determine how changes in aphid abundance and virus virulence are likely to affect the severity and geographical spread of BBTD, guiding future management plans. Low-cost diagnostics will be developed and promoted to map disease spread and support the application of eradication and containment control measures. Remote sensing, drones, and spectral imaging methods will be used for phenotyping and surveillance. Wild and Musa landraces will be screened for resistance to BBTV, and improved seed systems will increase farmers' access to resistant varieties as they become available (linking with FP2).Cluster CA3.5. Cassava biological constraints, Asia/Americas CA3.4 aims to strengthen response capacity for emergent biological constraints affecting cassava in Asia and the Americas. In both continents, accelerated intensification of cassava cropping has been paralleled by introductions of invasive pests and diseases. These include cassava mealybugs, a complex of mite species, CMD, CWB, and frogskin disease. In addition, existing plant health threats have become increasingly damaging as a consequence of inadequate crop management schemes or improper pest control tactics. These threats have been further exacerbated by climate change. And although these pests and diseases commonly originate in intensive production areas, they have rapidly spread into areas where cassava is grown by resource-poor smallholders. These chronic and emerging pests and diseases threaten to have devastating impacts on local cassava-based livelihoods.Collaborative research will be carried out to (1) characterize and manage chronic and emerging biotic threats under current and future climates and (2) develop and promote productive, ecologically sustainable, and profitable crop and pest/disease management systems. CA3.5 comprises an integrated package of tools and technologies to forecast, prevent, and control phytosanitary constraints, with the goal of ensuring productivity, profitability, and sustainability of cassava production systems. Molecular diagnostics will allow rapid and unambiguous identification of pests and pathogens, and will be applied as a part of surveillance strategies. Virus diagnostic protocols will be harmonized across RTB partners to minimize the threat of transcontinental virus spread (linking with CA3.6). CIAT and IITA will work closely together to ensure that best practice is used for germplasm exchange and that procedures are adapted to account for emerging threats. Research will be conducted to define simple, cost-effective, and environmentally sound management approaches, covering cutting-edge research on thermotherapy, resistance enhancers, and phyto-hormone treatments. A strong focus will on the development and application of environmentally friendly control systems, including biological control and natural pest suppression. Local context-appropriate IPM technologies will be made available to farming communities where agro-ecological literacy is strengthened via capacity-building activities.CA3.6 aims to develop and disseminate technologies for the sustainable protection of cassava in Africa. Cassava virus diseases affect more than half of all cassava plants and cause losses in excess of US $1 billion annually in SSA. The viruses that cause CMD and CBSD are transmitted by the whitefly vector, Bemisia tabaci. Novel virus species combinations and super-abundant whitefly genotypes continue to drive the expansion of cassava virus pandemics through the African continent. The impacts of the virus diseases are compounded by significant damage inflicted by other major pests and diseases.The cluster will focus primarily on the most economically damaging constraints (CBSD, CMD, and whiteflies), but will develop robust and ecologically sustainable measures for controlling a wide range of local and introduced pests and diseases. CA3.6 will seek to integrate the basket of technologies developed for the control of each of these constraints. IPM packages developed will combine the augmentation of natural biological control with resistant varieties and recommended cultural practices to strengthen farmlevel management of biological threats. For commercial systems and pre-basic seed production sites, \"soft chemistry\" insecticides will be evaluated for whitefly control and, when combined with pest-scouting protocols and the use of economic thresholds, development of robust whitefly control strategies. Biological control will be applied continent-wide for the control of the spiraling whitefly and the invasive papaya mealybug; preparations will be made for the potential spread of the cassava tingid from Reunion to continental Africa. Linked products comprise the components of the IPM package as well as policy elements. Currently available nucleic-acid based diagnostics will be standardized and simplified, and lowcost point-of-test diagnostics will be developed and piloted prior to scaling out. Digital image-based diagnostic systems will be developed and made available for universal use via mobile phone apps. Capacity for virus indexing and the safe international sharing of cassava germplasm will be extended to more than 10 countries that currently lack this capability. New approaches to the production of high-quality earlygeneration seed, currently being developed in several countries in SSA, will be extended to more than 5 additional countries by partnering with FP2. Community-based approaches to the phytosanitary-based management of cassava viruses will be scaled out from pilot sites in Tanzania. Novel sources of defense to CMD, CBSD, whitefly, and cassava bacterial blight will be investigated in collaboration with FP1.Transgenics and RNAi will be key tactics for the management of biotic constraints in cassava, and CA3.6 will develop these novel approaches by partnering with DI1.3. Partnerships with FP2 and FP5 will be fully exploited to ensure that resistant germplasm is appropriately targeted at scale, and that it meets the needs of both target smallholder and commercial producers. Adoption and impacts of IPM packages and phytosanitary approaches developed will be strengthened by partnering with national and regional institutions involved with extension and plant quarantine.During Phase II, FP3 will expand the range of partners, including new and strengthened partnerships with national and regional institutions dealing with plant protection, quarantine, and agricultural policy.Traditionally, CGIAR centers have almost exclusively partnered with research institutions. For FP3, however, the increasing threats posed by invasive pests/diseases are such that it is essential to set up strategic partnerships with those institutions that are responsible for mitigating these threats.FP3 will draw on specific expertise from developed country partners where this adds value and contributes to strengthening capacity. Linkages will be developed with the private sector, including partners such as tissue culture labs, biocontrol companies, and agro-input suppliers. The RTB centers have a strong comparative advantage in delivering the results for FP3. Their global coverage, coupled with extensive collaborative linkages both upstream and downstream, highlight their unique capability to carry out the groundbreaking research outlined in this proposal (Table FP 3.4). CC3.1 will support regional and national plant protection agencies in reinforcing and extending their capabilities in the development and application of formal PRA for key RTB pests and diseases. Additionally, at the global level, FP3 will be involved in alliances established to address major RTB pest and disease threats. Some of these include the BBTD global alliance (BA3.4), the alliance of banana stakeholders aiming to mitigate spread of Fusarium wilt Foc TR4 (BA3.3), and the Pan-African Cassava Disease Surveillance Network (CA3.6).Crop yields are projected to decline by the 2030s in 70% of studies on the future impacts of climate change. In half of the studies, yield losses of 10-50% are anticipated (Challinor et al. 2014), although the understanding of climate change impacts on RTB crops is still very limited. Under current climate conditions, 30-50% of the yield losses are already caused by pests despite the application of pesticides to control them (Oerke 2006). Temperature increases are projected to cause major shifts in pest's geographical distribution and to magnify pest pressure in agricultural ecosystems (Kroschel et al. 2016). This makes individual PRAs and adaptation highly relevant, although adaptation options (e.g., varieties resistant to drought and pests and diseases, improvement in crop and pest management through technological innovations) may only reduce, not eliminate, losses caused by climate change (Challinor et al. 2016).FP3 will address existing knowledge gaps in understanding the impacts of climate change on the productivity and resilience of RTB production systems and future potential risks to pests and diseases. It will test different approaches for managing the risks of climate change through adaptation. This will include innovative crop and pest modeling for mapping and monitoring the vulnerability of systems (risk assessment) as well as the improvement and testing of technology (new varieties, intercropping systems, etc.) and ecosystem-based crop management options (e.g., biological control, increase of biodiversity, reduction of habitat fragmentation, maintenance of genetic diversity, etc.). National capacity will be enhanced and policy consultations held with the aim of reducing vulnerability and risks and promoting and improving national and regional adaptation plans. Important CapDev elements will include the training of extension services, awareness creation through participatory action research, and gender equity in education.Gender research in FP3 will focus on understanding local knowledge of male and female farmers of management practices in order to develop gender responsive information and communications strategies about safe pest and disease control methods. Baseline studies will enhance knowledge on gender roles and intra-household decision making in RTB-based cropping/management systems and establish household typologies of gender differences in management practices in areas affected by different RTB crop diseases.FP3 will work closely with NARES to develop strategies to address gender dimensions of farmer agroecological knowledge; pest management behavior; and identification of gender-specific constraints on the access to and use of healthy planting material or effective IPDM concepts, tools, and technologies. FP3 will proactively engage partners in designing and testing gender-responsive extension tools and methods and give full consideration to gender differences in knowledge and time availability when providing training on quarantine methodologies, field diagnostics of diseases, and IPDM.Through tailored meetings and field days, women will have enhanced opportunities to share their experiences in clone selection, soil amendments, planting material selection, and crop association. Furthermore, interventions such as the dissemination of improved varieties with disease resistance or the provision of clean planting materials will be made in such a way that potentially disadvantaged groups such as women, youth, and the elderly receive equal access. Where entrepreneurial opportunities exist for marketing of improved varieties or high-quality planting materials, they will be targeted to provide gender equitable benefits.Linking up strongly with other FPs, FP3 will focus on three types of CapDev interventions.Institutional strengthening. Joining partnership efforts, advocacy approaches for effective policies and practice will strengthen capacities of partners and clients to (1) use improved data management systems and tools, (2) define conducive regulatory frameworks for movement and exchange of planting material, and (3) use crop and cropping system yield gap analysis to target and monitor impact-oriented RTB research.Organizational development. The establishment of learning platforms targeting plant health agencies, NARS, and universities will enhance capacities to (1) adapt and implement methods for the characterization, diagnostic testing, surveillance, and exclusion of chronic and invasive biotic threats, and to monitor abiotic constraints; and (2) validate, under diverse agro-ecosystems and farm household typologies, gender-responsive technologies and practices that more effectively target ecologically sustainable intensification and agro-ecosystem resilience enhancement. Participatory action research will empower next users to share validated technologies and practices with smallholder farm households, such as the expert systems SSCMs and site-specific nutrient management (CC3.2), the management of BBTD in East and Central Africa (BA3.4), or research on the potential of ICT-based extension approaches to deliver locally appropriate cassava IPM technologies in Latin America and Southeast Asia (CA3.5).Research institutes and universities need to acquire the knowledge, and skills to integrate gender-responsive approaches into the design and practice of IPDM. CapDev will actively empower women at national and regional levels within regulatory research and extension systems, ensuring at least 30% female participation. Mentoring opportunities for women scientists will complement post-graduate trainings.FP3 will build its research program on existing knowledge and technologies developed by program participants and partners or publicly available databases to advance, adapt science, and make technologies and final products available to next users and farmers. These will include, among others, tools and software used in PRAs and GIS mapping (such as the Insect Life-Cycle Modeling), climate data from own and OA sources and databanks, and experimental data or collections of entomopathogens and natural enemies. Pest and disease sampling and studies will be done in compliance with the applicable national legislation regulating access to genetic resources-the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol. Any newly generated knowledge will be stored and regularly updated in project databanks (e.g., household, field survey, experimental and climatic data) which will be shared among program participants through jointly accessible databases, use of Dropbox, or special project online portals. Final research results will be made available to next and end users via OA publications and databases, such as Biomart, CGspace, and Dataverse. Moreover, FP3 and its clusters will allocate a budget to cover any OA fees that are required by publishers to avoid embargo periods. Up-to-date knowledge on banana pests and diseases will be made freely available through a dedicated Musapedia portal on the ProMusa website (http://bit.ly/1SZa6xT). Biocontrol agents or developed biorational products will be made available with SMTAs and/or licenses to national programs or the private sector. To achieve prompt and broad availability of research results and products, private sector partnerships will be fostered with companies involved in biological control of pests and diseases. FP3 will engage centers' public communications departments to promote important outputs and outcomes of this flagship; social media will be employed to expand coverage. FP3 will measure the impact of these efforts by monitoring the number of downloads, citations, shares, retweets, and mentions that the article receives using metrics that are part of CGSpace and Dataverse.FP3 will be managed by some of the world's leading RTB scientists, and will therefore benefit from a strong comparative advantage in the implementation of the research proposed for RTB-Phase II. The FP3 leader and six cluster leaders together have more than 100 years of experience in producing highquality RTB research results (see Annex 7). RTB centers have previously delivered the highest impact research outputs of any so far produced through CGIAR.FP3 will be managed by a team comprising the FP leader, cluster leaders, and cluster support leaders drawn from all five RTB participating centers. This diverse and experienced team will effectively cover the range of skills, disciplines, and areas of specialist expertise required to deliver strong FP management. The team will be supported by the RTB PMU. FP3 will involve both international and national partners in shaping the work plans and strategic direction of the flagship. This partner engagement in management will take place both through regular skype meetings and via the participation of key selected partners in annual RTB program meetings. Approaches to the management of FP3 will also be strengthened over time through regular interactions with the management teams (primarily the FP leaders) of the other RTB FPs.  ,920,005,765,239,717,434,082,869,359,713,112,476,856,[52][53]388,100 Other Sources (Fundraising) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -15,790,242 -17,365,071 -18,478,694 -19,351,607 -20,194,819 -21,290,268 -112,470,702 Total Flagship budget by Natural Classifications (USD)  2,965,562 3,084,184 3,207,552 3,335,854 3,469,288 3,608,060 19,670,503 21,879,270 22,754,441 23,664,620 24,611,205 25,595,652 26,619,479 145,124,667 Total Flagship budget by participating partners (signed PPAs) (USD)  873,820 2,988,773 3,108,324 3,232,657 3,361,963 18,328,828 IITA 13,304,949 13,837,147 14,390,633 14,966,258 15,564,909 16,187,505 88,251,403 879,272 22,754,443 23,664,621 24,611,206 25,595,654 26,619,480 145,124,676 The share of budget by center within the FP is provisional and will be revisited taking into account prospects for delivery, quality of science and partnerships and credibility of the impact pathway.Explanations of these costs in relation to the planned 2022 outcomes:An \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", funded by W1&2 in a total $23,215,414, which will be assigned on the basis of semi-competitive grants to systems related work, involving RTB clusters and potentially other AFS-CRPs during the respective year is distributed across FP1-5.FP3 houses a total of $4,773,263 of the \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", amount which is initially allocated to the Lead Center (CIP) which therefore shows a higher budget share in the table above.Benefits:NRS: Fringe benefits for national staff are comprised of mandatory legal benefits by country and complementary benefits provided by each CRP participating center, such as Pension -social security, training and development, medical insurance, occupational health, transportation costs, personnel protection requirement and food subsidy.Fringe benefits for international staff are comprised of housing allowance, education allowance, car allowance, Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), hardship, home leave tickets, insurance, retirement contribution, occupational health, training and development, repatriation and relocation provisions, and food subsidy.Include non-travel operating costs, such as standard fees applied by all CGIAR centers -Research Support Services and Facilities & IT fees -as well as costs related to consultancies, workshops, trainings, laboratory and experimental station services and other supplies and services related to field operations. Cost estimates are based on historical expenses and recent price analysis.If full project funding does not become available RTB will prioritize specific FP3 deliverables: cross-cutting, multi-partner development and application of pest risk assessment approaches for mitigating the impacts of invasive pests and diseases. The work includes climate change modelling and capacity development for national partners in pest risk analysis (PRA), as well as surveillance and rapid response strategies  co-ordination of efforts to contain the spread in Africa of Fusarium oxysporum fsp cubense Tropical Race 4 (Foc TR4) co-ordination of a global network targeting the improved management of banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) and implementing an Africa-wide community-focused control program  strategic collaboration to contain outbreaks of invasive pests and diseases in Asia -notably the recent outbreak of cassava mosaic disease in Cambodia. Design and application of IPM strategies for the sustainable management of witches broom disease and cassava mealybug species in south-East Asia. co-ordination of continent-level initiatives to diagnose, monitor, model and manage cassava virus pandemics in Africa and outbreaks of the whitefly virus vectorIf participating centers are successful in raising additional W3/Bilateral funds some key activities can also be diverted to those projects, in case they are aligned with RTB priorities.Please describe main key activities for the applicable categories below, as described in the guidance for full proposal Gender 14,677,768The key activities are described in: Section 2 of the FP narratives: N/A The objective of FP4 is to support the fuller, equitable, and sustainable utilization of RTB crops for healthier diets and improved income opportunities. FP4 seeks to harness the changing demand of consumers and other users of RTB crops as drivers of change that can positively transform production and utilization of RTB crops and increase their contributions to nutritious, profitable, and environmentally sustainable food systems. The ISPC's 2013 Science Forum noted the importance of linking nutritional and agricultural sciences to support the design of country strategies to integrate seasonal food availability, and the use of supplementation, fortification, and biofortification programs, together with dietary diversification (Herforth et al. 2015). There is great scope in diversifying and improving the utilization of RTB crops for nutrition and economic goals, resulting in healthier diets and increased economic opportunities for women, men, and youth. FP4 will work to overcome constraints that have hindered RTB crops from entering urban markets, such as their perishability, bulkiness, perception as of low social status, and limited post-harvest investment.Hence, FP4 will address the following grand challenges, as identified by the SRF:Persistent rural malnutrition, especially undernutrition. The number of undernourished people in Africa is increasing, and the world is not on course to meet global nutrition targets (FAO 2015;IFPRI 2015).Women of reproductive age and young children are most vulnerable to undernutrition because of their greater nutritional needs and social marginalization. Micronutrient deficiencies can have fundamental and irreversible impacts on physical and mental development of children. Through R&D, along with processing and post-harvest management to extend availability, RTB crops and nutrition-oriented research can reduce undernutrition amongst millions of vulnerable consumers.Feeding rapidly growing urban populations. As of 2014, 54% of the global population lived in cities, and 66% is projected by 2050. Supplying nutritious and affordable staple foods for these populations will require a reorientation of agri-food systems in many low-income countries. RTB crops can be grown comparatively easily in large quantities in many countries that are overly dependent on imported grains. FP4 will harness the relatively untapped potential for improving processing and reducing post-harvest losses of RTB crops. Such gains should help to reverse the trend of declining RTB food consumption among urban populations due to the crops' perishability and bulkiness.(See under sub-section 2.4.1.8: Climate change).Diets are becoming less diverse, healthy, and nutritious. The number of people overweight or obese is growing fast globally and leading to an estimated loss of 35.8 million disability-adjusted life years and rising diabetes rates. By 2035, diabetes is projected to affect more than 500 million people, the vast majority in low-and middle-income countries, and women more acutely than men. RTB crops are mainly recognized as a source of calories stored as starch, thus contributing to the problem of obesity and diabetes. But they are also potentially functional foods that provide fiber and other key elements in more diversified diets. In developed countries sweetpotato has already attracted attention and seen increased consumption because of its relatively low glycemic index. Recent research in cassava suggests that RTB varieties with resistant (high-amylose, low-glycemic) starches can be developed as healthier and economically valuable alternatives. Linking this research with nutrition education and behavior change interventions, FP4 can make new and significant contributions to managing the public health risks of obesity and diabetes.Post-harvest losses are often high for RTB crops and food safety is a growing concern. Managing the perishability of RTB crops and meeting increasingly differentiated market and policy demands are major challenges. FP4 will strive to enable producers and processors to take advantage of processing opportunities and meet food safety and quality standards, through research on nutrition qualities, sensory attributes, contamination, storage and handling, and convenience and packaging of fresh produce and processed products. FP4 will strengthen the demand-orientation in all FPs across RTB and link with consumer education and policy advocacy to expand demand for nutritious and safe RTB crops and products.New entrepreneurial and job opportunities are emerging from changing patterns of agri-food demand. These can provide spectacular growth opportunities for RTB crops, with cassava in West Africa at the forefront (The Economist June 2015), and other crops such as potato and sweetpotato expanding into new urban markets. Although local agri-processing can generate significant employment for rural youth and women, improved technology and research on value chains is needed to improve efficiency, safety, and sustained economic benefits. This includes strengthening smallholder business organization and entrepreneurial and business management competencies among women, men, and the youth.Environmental pollution and energy losses. Inefficient use of energy, water, and other inputs; process wastes; and sub-optimal use of by-products of RTB crops lead to environmental impacts and reduce competitiveness of the processing industry. This issue has important gender ramifications, too, as \"women and girls often carry a disproportionate burden from environmental degradation compared to men\" (UNEP 2007). Improving efficiency and utilizing by-products is an expanding area of RTB research. FP4 draws on progress, knowledge, and competencies in RTB to support healthy and diversified diets. Biofortification is under way for all RTB crops, at different stages of R&D. Vitamin A-rich OFSP is well advanced in more than 10 African countries and expanding to others in Africa and Asia where demand is high. Vitamin A biofortification of cassava is advancing fast, with wide-scale distribution in Nigeria; banana and yam are at earlier stages of development. Breeding for cassava, potato, and sweetpotato, biofortified for iron and zinc, is underway. Iron-fortified potato could be available within two years, and iron-fortified OFSP within five years is possible, if desired investment levels are obtained.The overall objective of FP4 is to support the fuller, equitable, and sustainable utilization of RTB crops for healthier diets and improved income opportunities. R&D activities will target countries and value chains where opportunity for reaching large numbers of beneficiaries is highest, and where momentum for investment exists amongst stakeholders.Flagship 4 consists of four interrelated clusters: CC4.1 Demand-led approaches to drive post-harvest innovation and nutritious RTB products CA4.2 Raising incomes and improving the health and safety at SME cassava processing centers CA4.3 Biofortified cassava for improved nutrition and livelihoods SW4.4 Nutritious sweetpotato for expanding markets and improving nutrition.FP4 will support research on all RTB crops, recognizing that they are at different stages of progress with regard to innovation for processing and nutrition. Hence, local processing of cassava has been developed to a far higher level than other RTB crops, as reflected in cluster CA4.2. Sweetpotato and cassava are already scaling biofortified varieties that are increasingly used in public sector nutrition programs as well as in processing for nutritious food in commercial and social enterprises. Clusters SW4.4 and CA4.3 will support research to guide and monitor these investments.In addition to underpinning crop-specific research, the Crosscutting cluster CC4.1 will (1) analyze and synthesize post-harvest approaches, capacities, and results in order to generate information platforms, tools, metrics, and guidelines that can be applied and further adapted across all RTB crops; (2) systematically address strategic RTB-wide challenges such as post-harvest losses or waste utilization; and(3) support research on post-harvest management of banana, potato, and yam that is not captured in other clusters of FP4. This work will be organized into four clusters that will pursue the following aims and rationale (Table FP4.1). Contribute to increased incomes and food security in target countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, by improving productivity, efficiency, product quality, health and safety at small and medium scale cassava processing centers Steer the strong momentum for growth in cassava processing toward equitable, sustainable, and nutritious goalsProvide rural households with nutritious biofortified cassava that will help reduce VAD, particularly among pregnant and lactating women and children under 5 years of age Improve diets and generate economic returns in the cassava value chainImprove nutrition and diets and provide income opportunities in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean through more diversified and intensified utilization of nutritious sweetpotato Support healthier diets by exploiting the untapped potential for diversified sweetpotato utilization and consumption Geographical and beneficiary targeting of FP4 is guided by (1) the need and demand for nutritious RTB food arising from undernutrition and from specific micronutrient deficiencies, especially of the most vulnerable (e.g., pregnant and lactating women and children under two years); (2) existing or potential market demand for RTB processing that can create income and livelihood opportunities for the poor, in particular women and youth; and (3) the feasibility of specific nutritious RTB crops to contribute to solving these challenges in different locations. Selected (Sub)-IDOs with quantified targets for 2022 are presented in Table FP4.2. B and C)Outcome 4.1: 700,000 HH (3,500,000 people), 25% of which are female headed, have increased their income by 15-20% by increasing and diversifying RTB sales (food, feed, industrial raw material, and seeds)Annual household revenue improved through increased and diversified sales (food, feed, industrial raw material and seeds) CC4.1: 500,000 people; 20% revenue increase CA4.3: 1,500,000 people; 20% revenue increase SW4.4: 1,500,000 people; 15% revenue increaseSupporting all clusters in their target countries CA4.2 Africa: Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda Americas: Brazil, Colombia B and C) FP4 combines technological and social research to better understand how RTB crop utilization can be intensified and diversified in order to meet nutrition, health, and economic goals in ways that are profitable, equitable, and environmentally sustainable. The clusters in FP4 will generate a range of technologies, delivery guidelines, capacity-strengthening tools, and knowledge products for policy development and investment planning. The underlying ToC is that the FP4 research products will enable next users to respond to existing market, social, institutional, and policy incentives for increased and better use of RTB crops. Their actions will result in development outcomes through two interconnected impact pathways: 1. The nutrition pathway will result in the wide use of biofortified and other nutritious RTB varieties to support household food and nutrition security. This is driven by strong demand from government campaigns and civil society programs to combat micronutrient deficiency. Food-based approaches promoting healthier diets will help to address the increasing burden of obesity and other diet-related public health challenges. Incentives for the multitude of private sector stakeholders in RTB market chains to prioritize nutritious varieties and improve food safety are expected to strengthen with increased consumer health awareness. 2. The commercialization pathway will lead to more efficient, equitable, and profitable SMEs producing both food and non-food products (such as starch) from RTB crops. This pathway will generate employment for women and youth in addition to income for smallholder farmers selling to these processors. Commercial food processing can also contribute to improved nutrition and food security, if nutritious products are prioritized and access to nutritious and safe processed food for the poor is achieved.Both pathways reinforce each other. Increased household incomes contribute to better nutrition and food security status if women have increased control over resources. Greater economic incentives from processing value chains stimulate wider adoption of nutritious RTB varieties and hence provide greater availability of nutritious RTB foods in rural and urban markets and at household level. FP4 recognizes that gender differences are crucial when seeking to improve the linkage between agriculture and nutrition. FP4, in conjunction with FP5, will investigate the social determinants of behavior change in order to effectively support both women and men to realize benefits from post-harvest innovation and nutrition improvement of RTB crops. Furthermore, there are strong opportunities for strengthening the role of women and youth in post-harvest interventions linked to RTB value chains.Risks and assumptions. Promotion of biofortified varieties, such as OFSP and yellow cassava, inevitably focuses attention on specific nutrients and new varieties as vehicles for supplying these nutrients. RTB will integrate these interventions with FP5 and A4NH to ensure that they are designed, implemented, and evaluated in a holistic nutrition context (a food basket approach). When creating demand for processed products such as urban snacks or bakery goods, however, there is a risk of promoting increased consumption of fats, salt, and refined sugars. FP4 will build capacity for promoting healthy food options and choices of products from RTB crops along the whole value chain.Especially in Africa, small-scale processing of cassava and other crops is in the hands of women and contributes to their livelihoods. Mechanization of gari, for example, may reduce drudgery and increase efficiency of conversion; but it also may shift control into men's hands and undermine women's livelihoods. FP4 will pay close attention to trade-offs of productivity and gender equity to mitigate this risk.Additionally, processing of RTB crops generates significant quantities of by-products (e.g., peels, fiber bagasse, wastewater), which typically accumulate around the processing site(s) and pollute local water (Tran et al. 2015). Expansion of post-harvest technologies must include appropriate strategies for process efficiency and management of by-products.CC4.1 Post-harvest innovation. This Crosscutting cluster provides a platform for exchange of post-harvest and nutrition-related research methodologies and evidence across all RTB crops. It will undertake strategic research into: Scientific methods and engineering tools to adapt current technologies and to better manage byproducts and waste, while realizing economies of scale  Methods for sensory analysis and assessments of end user preferences specific for RTB-based products from SMEs in developing countries (Bach et al. 2012;Otegbayo et al. 2011)  Models for strengthening food quality and safety in fresh RTB produce markets, while safeguarding access for poor producers and consumers  Improved indicators for measuring diet quality (beyond diet diversity) and the contributions of increased consumption of nutritious RTB foods and other nutritious non-staple foods (Vandevijvere et al. 2013;Golzarand et al. 2012).Systematic evaluations of commercial and public sector-supported approaches to scaling nutritious RTB foods (with FP5 and A4NH) will measure benefits to vulnerable target populations (including gender equity and poverty outcomes) and cost-effectiveness in terms of achieving nutrition goals.CA4.2 Cassava processing. Engineering methods for multi-objective process modeling and optimizationincluding technical, economic, and environmental parameters-will be adapted to small-and mediumscale cassava processing operations, in particular grating (rasping), pressing, roasting (cooking), and drying as well as utilization of by-products. CA4.2 integrates knowledge and methods from diverse scientific disciplines for improved process engineering and product development activities: Change of scale. Equipment adapted to cassava processing at small and medium scale will be designed and tested, based on efficient large-scale systems in use at cassava factories in Thailand and other countries. Multi-objective process modeling and optimization will be applied to scaling up or down unit operations. (Tran et al. 2015;Precoppe et al. 2015). Consumer preferences. Methods such as qualitative surveys of the food chain, focus groups, processing diagnostic, sensory analysis, and consumer testing of cassava-based products will identify which criteria are most important for the end users to adopt improved products, technologies, and varieties. Product quality. Analysis will be done of physico-chemical and functional properties for product quality improvement (Morante et al. 2016;Maldonado et al. 2013;Rolland-Sabaté et al. 2012;Sánchez et al. 2010). High-throughput methods, including NIRS, will be employed to elucidate the links between consumer preferences and product quality (Sanchez et al. 2014;Belalcazar 2016;Davrieux et al. 2016). Novel products and applications. Starches and flours from new cassava varieties, including waxy, small-granules and high-amylose cassava, will be used to develop products with improved properties for new markets: bakery goods, freeze-thaw stability, reduced syneresis, digestibility, and others. Novel uses of by-products. Processing technologies will be developed to increase the value and use of by-products in the cassava value chain (e.g., co-development of cassava processing and animal farming, use of peels and fibers by-products as raw materials to produce animal feed, stable wastewater-to-biogas system for small-scale processing) (Hansupalak et al. 2015;Okike et al. 2015). Environmental impact assessments. The cluster will advance understanding of the environmental impact of the burgeoning SME cassava processing sector, including analysis of carbon footprint and life-cycle assessments of SME operations.CA4.3 Biofortified cassava. Novel science in this cluster will use knowledge on sex-disaggregated trait preferences and regionally diverse end user cassava processing methods to develop locally preferred processed products (e.g., gari and fufu), recipes, and methods of preparation that will maximize retention of beta-carotene (Maziya-Dixon et al. 2015): Adaptive on-farm participatory research of nutritional quality. Tools and enhanced protocols for gender-responsive research will be developed and implemented to boost adoption of biofortified cassava. This includes methodologies and practices for collection of sex-disaggregated data and advanced phenotyping tools for standardized data collection based on use of the cassava trait ontology. Field-book applications through tablets and smartphones will be used with partners. End user requirements. In some cases, negative correlations between carotenoids concentration and yield have been observed. This has been shown by molecular markers marking quantitative trait loci on Chromosome 1 for both pro-vitamin A and DM content. Introgression of germplasm from Latin America provided by CIAT will be used to facilitate selection of elite biofortified materials for partners that satisfy demand for specific end user requirements with high levels of both carotenoids and DM. Evaluation of nutritional quality. Screening for total carotenoids of fresh cassava roots and processed productions will be carried out using simple and cost-effective equipment (iCheck TM carotene, chromameter, and NIRS) and procedures for assessment of root quality of pre-released biofortified cassava varieties (Rodriguez-Amaya 2001;Ceballos et al. 2013;Sánchez et al. 2014). CA4.3 will validate and apply protocols for evaluation of nutritional value of processed products and monitor pro-vitamin A content along with potential anti-nutritional factors such as cyanide potential or microbial contaminants or toxins after processing. Sensitization and awareness. Social media, entertainment platforms, and e-market, as well as improved marketing strategy based on value chain analysis, will be explored. Constraints to adoption will be analyzed with survey data using quasi-experimental methods and routes to alleviation will be identified.Research in this cluster will build on the successful integrated approaches that CIP and partners have applied for scaling OFSP in Africa. Specific approaches include: Behavior change and healthy diet context. In-depth social research will improve understanding of main incentives and barriers to changing behaviors about healthier diets within households and at aggregate levels. Particular attention will be directed at gender aspects. Research will examine differential behavioral and nutritional outcomes of several OFSP promotion approaches within and outside the context of mainstream nutrition campaigns. On the basis of this research, current indicators of diet quality (Gil et al. 2015) will be reviewed for their appropriateness to biofortified sweetpotato. Value chain development. Economic research on market dynamics for OFSP and other sweetpotato varieties will determine the market premium for biofortified varieties and other quality traits. This will form the basis for improving marketing strategies for both fresh and processed products. Food science for novel nutritious products. The Food and Nutrition Evaluation Lab at BecA-Nairobi, will scale up micronutrient, macronutrient, and proximate analysis of sweetpotato roots, leaves, processed products, and major meals relevant to FP4's target groups. An important focus will be on supporting development of nutritious and safe products (using hazard analysis critical control points protocols), such as OFSP puree, that can be stored at ambient temperatures and are accessible to vulnerable populations (e.g., complementary foods for poor rural and urban households with infants and young children). Measuring scalability. FP4, jointly with FP5, will utilize ongoing randomized controlled trials and qualitative research methodologies to assess effectiveness and efficiency of scaling approaches, including different combinations of agricultural, nutrition, and marketing interventions. The aim of this research is to identify best-bet approaches for reaching vulnerable populations with nutritious sweetpotato varieties at scale under different agro-ecological, social, health, market, and institutional conditions. Policy analysis and institutional research. Understanding the difference that various policy support and investments can make for realizing the potential benefits of nutritious crops such as sweetpotato is critical for the continued development of nutrition-sensitive agriculture. FP4 will work in partnership with FP5 and PIM to undertake policy research and institutional analyses of decisionmaking processes in public, private, and civic organizations involved in food security and nutrition investments.RTB-Phase I partners have successfully developed and scaled up biofortified crops, in particular OFSP and, more recently, biofortified cassava. Through an integrated agriculture-nutrition-marketing approach, OFSP has been established as a widely utilized nutritious crop among more than 1.7 million HH in 10 countries in Africa over the past five years. Biofortified cassava has embarked on a similar trajectory in West Africa. While FP4 will further scale up this approach over the coming years and apply it to additional nutritious RTB crops, several adjustments will be made to reflect key lessons. Six lessons stand out: (1) the process of adoption of nutritious (biofortified) varieties is context specific and requires adapting technologies and approaches to local production systems (replacement or adding on), diets (place in the meal by sex and age group), and markets (niche for new products, access for the poor to processed products). (2) A combination of rigorous M&E, complemented by objective adoption studies and detailed social (including gender) research on behavior change for adoption and flow of benefits from adoption, is required to understand trajectories (and numbers) of adoption and depth of resultant change at individual, household, and higher levels. FP4 will work with FP5 on the design of these studies and M&E methods.(3) Integrating the nutrition components into mainstream nutrition and health services is a winwin for scaling up but requires agreement on indicators to be tracked and additional capacity support at local levels. FP4 will update tools developed for OFSP in collaboration with A4NH (Cole et al. 2016). (4) Markets do not necessarily pay a premium for nutritious (biofortified) varieties. FP4 will develop this through proactive demand creation and consumer education emphasizing nutrition benefits as well as social and cultural attributes. (5) Potential health risks from processed foods based on nutritious (biofortified) RTB crops need to be addressed proactively; FP4 will only support processed foods that increase healthy choices for consumers. ( 6) Sequencing of interventions and adjusting intensity and approaches to the capacity of partners are key process lessons. For example, nutritious (biofortified) varieties need to be extensively planted before marketing and processing will be feasible at any level of scale.RTB-Phase I research support for increasing the consumer acceptance of processed RTB products has successfully developed a methodological approach for sensory analysis and end user preferences, based on cassava products gari and fufu in West Africa. This work should result in increased adoption rates of new products and new varieties on which these are based. This approach has already been replicated for banana in East Africa and will also be applied to other RTB crops-based products and in other countries. Phase II will thus strengthen end user orientation of RTB post-harvest research, emphasizing gender differentiation and greater market segmentation. Similar successes have been the development and application of methodologies for adapting cassava-processing technologies (driers for starch and flour) to SMEs in Africa (Hansupalak et al. 2015) and innovations for processing and drying of cassava peels for animal feed in West Africa, in collaboration with LIVESTOCK, FISH, and Humidtropics (Okike et al. 2015). FP4 will scale up these proven innovations together with private sector partners, including SMEs.Cluster CC4.1 will support the crop-specific clusters in addressing key research strategy lessons from Phase I. These are (1) combining technology and socioeconomic research to develop effective and sustainable supply chains of RTB produce into processing centers is critically important. This includes strengthening the capacity and competencies of producer organizations and traders and improving linkages and contractual arrangements between these stakeholders and enterprises engaged in processing.(2) Adapting commercial technologies for use by small-and medium-scale operators can improve processing efficiency. But these need to be accompanied by organizational adjustments in the enterprise and changes in market linkages in order to realize the full benefits of innovation.(3) More systematic attention should be paid to the reduction of post-harvest losses and waste across the entire value chain for all RTB crops so as to optimize returns on investment in research.FP4 R&D activities are organized into four interrelated clusters that together achieve the FP's objectives and targets. The following section provides a succinct description of the individual clusters that, along with their research products, are summarized in Table FP4.3. Research products Product specifications and processing protocols for high-quality and safe cassava-based food products Profitable and environmentally friendly technologies for the use of by-products from cassava processing Market-driven and inclusive approaches for scaling out SME cassava processing innovations CA4.3: Biofortified cassava Biofortified cassava and value added products Technologies and procedures for demand-driven, gender-sensitive development of nutritious food products based on biofortified cassava Protocols and results of on-farm testing for total carotene content and other quality traits of pre-released biofortified cassava varieties Tools and methods for sustained sensitization and promotion of healthier diets in cassavabased food systems Collaboration mechanisms and policy options to support production and consumption of biofortified cassava SW4.4: Nutritious sweetpotato Nutritious sweetpotato and its value-added products Tools and models for nutrition education and behavior change to improve diets Technologies, tools, and models for upgrading nutritious sweetpotato value chains and diversifying markets Evidence base, policy options, and investment guides for sustained investments in nutritious sweetpotato All four clusters in FP4 will work closely with FP5 to contribute effectively to systems research and to develop and test scaling strategies for improving access and use of FP4 technologies and knowledge by target populations. Overall, FP4 focuses on developing and implementing post-harvest and nutritionrelated technologies and strategies for taking these to scale. FP5, however, undertakes analyses of the wider livelihoods and agri-food system context and provides a platform for linking and improving scaling strategies across the different RTB flagships. Examples of specific linkages between FP4 clusters and FP5 are summarized in Table FP4.4 and discussed below. Lessons, tools, and metrics to support development of nutritious and value-added RTB products will inform crop-specific R&D work throughout this FP. They will provide an overall assessment of the opportunities, scope, and potential impacts of investments in RTB post-harvest management, processing, and marketing. Specific attention will be paid to the potential nutrition and gender impacts of different utilization options and on the responsiveness to changing markets and environmental constraints. Most post-harvest loss studies are concerned with physical losses, but this cluster will focus on quality losses.Research will build on methodologies and tools developed by PIM for measuring losses and waste across different crop value chains. Specifically, research will investigate innovative options for adding value to RTB waste and by-products, including potentials for using them as animal feed. Research on technological and commercial aspects of these innovations will be coupled with economic, social, and environmental research to better understand wider impacts and enable adoption by private industry at different levels of investment.Similarly, CC4.1 will provide methodological support for research on consumer preferences across different RTB crops and products. In this context, the focus will be on (1) building product-based consumer profiles within countries and regional profiles where products may overlap; (2) deciphering trait profiles that define preference of diverse user groups; and (3) understanding the nutritional, bioactive, functional, and anti-nutritional aspects of RTB crops and relating them to sensory properties and end users' preferences. This will serve to inform FP1 and FP2 for trait prioritization and development of protocols to use in breeding programs, by linking with the BCoP in FP1. In addition, processing factors that could enhance retention of nutrients and bioavailability and simultaneously reduce anti-nutritional factors will be determined. Beyond the specific research in the cassava and sweetpotato clusters, FP4 will also promote the application of these and other methodologies to post-harvest innovation in banana, potato, and yam value chains. Using similar approaches to cassava and sweetpotato, multidisciplinary research will support (1) testing of options for improved storage, post-harvest handling, and transport; (2) inclusion of nutritious varieties of banana, potato, and yam in nutrition strategies and campaigns; and (3) development of nutritious food products and value-added products. This work will link closely with banana, potato, and yam research in other FPs to identify timing and entry points for post-harvest and nutrition research. Where possible, technologies and approaches from other RTBs will be adapted to these crops.As a platform for sharing pertinent research findings from FP4 and information on post-harvest and nutrition innovations with SMEs, this cluster will support an online post-harvest information base. RTB members and their national partners will populate the base with information on promising and appropriate technologies, suppliers, local manufacturers, after-sale service providers, ad hoc case studies, and voluntary inputs from private suppliers interested in widening their customer base. This will include provisions for customer feedback. The online platform will provide information on trainings for SMEs (including online training modules), business development services, and policies and regulations.Cluster CA4.2: Cassava processing CA4.2 aims to contribute to increased incomes and food security in target countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America by improving productivity, efficiency, product quality, and health and safety at SME cassava processing centers. Cassava processing is growing strongly due to economic development and increasing urban populations. Previous achievements during RTB-Phase I include methodologies to adapt cassava processing technologies (e.g., raspers, centrifuges, and dryers for starch and flour) to SMEs. Building on these, new technological and management improvements will further benefit men and women as owners, managers, workers, farmers, and consumers. At the core of this cluster is continued research on technology improvements and process management options, for instance (1) semi-mechanized grating and pressing equipment that can be operated by both men and women; (2) improved gari roasting; (3) improved drying; and (4) quality assessments of raw materials and products. This research will integrate the preferences and needs of processors and consumers when selecting and further adapting improved processing technologies and cassava varieties, to capitalize on the strong market demand for cassava products and steer innovation into sustainable and profitable directions.To capture these preferences and needs, research methods under this cluster will include qualitative surveys all along the food chain, focus groups, processing diagnostics, sensory analysis, and consumer testing of cassava-based products. The cluster will build on the successes of RTB-Phase I in developing a methodological approach for sensory analysis and end users' preferences, based on cassava products gari and fufu in West Africa. Identification of key quality traits and other factors determining adoption and use of technologies, varieties, and products in the cassava value chain will be an important set of results from this cluster. These will also inform other FPs in RTB, including breeding (FP1, FP2), cropping/ production systems (FP3), and livelihoods systems (FP5). Research and CapDev in this cluster will help to improve quality control procedures and develop appropriate and safe processing equipment. This will increase the returns from selling consistently high-quality products and contribute to safer working conditions.Additional value in cassava processing can also be generated through the better use of by-products and waste, as demonstrated during RTB-Phase I by the conversion of waste cassava peels from gari processing into animal feed. Technologies to improve utilization of by-products will be tested in selected countries with a view to identify sustainable and profitable options. Through life-cycle assessment tools (LCA, ISO 14040-44), research will assess the environmental impacts of increased production and processing in SME processing centers. Life-cycle assessments will be complemented with gender analysis and socioeconomic assessments, including the equitable distribution of benefits for women. This research will generate important new knowledge of the environmental and social sustainability of this expanding industry that in turn will inform technology development, management systems, and investment planning. This cluster will engage with public and private sector stakeholders to identify and pursue research on institutional constraints to sustainable investments such as lack of collaboration between public and private partners, or poor access to information and financial services. In this context, the cluster will analyze and address gender and other social differences in access, use, and control of credit and other resources critical to investing in the opportunities from post-harvest innovation. Collaboration, established in RTB-Phase I, will be further strengthened with LIVESTOCK and FISH.Cluster CA4.3: Biofortified cassava CA4.3 aims to provide rural households with nutritious, biofortified cassava that will help to reduce VAD, particularly among pregnant and lactating women and children under 5. Biofortified cassava is rich in betacarotene and can provide a cost-effective and sustainable approach to improve serum retinol levels of target populations who depend on cassava as a staple crop. Given the geographical and social spread of these populations, biofortified cassava can reach some of the world's most food insecure and malnourished people.Research in this cluster will generate new knowledge, technologies, and protocols for the broad dissemination and diversified utilization of biofortified cassava. This research will include genderresponsive studies on consumer preferences and on quality trait preferences of cassava processors.Findings from this research will also help to guide selection of biofortified cassava varieties for release and dissemination. In collaboration with FP2, this cluster will field-test pre-released clones to ascertain their performance against the preferential traits identified by farmers, processors, and consumers. This will include analysis of total carotene and other nutritional qualities. On the basis of these assessments, preferred clones will be identified that combine multiple traits for different target regions and uses.This technology research will be complemented by extensive operational and social research to develop and promote improved uses of biofortified cassava to support healthier diets. This will include the development of new household-level food processing, preparation, and storage techniques that promote food safety and increase nutrition benefits. This research area will also pursue new food recipes, product development, and marketing strategies aimed at creating markets for healthy foods based on biofortified cassava, including both novel and nutritionally improved traditional products. Nutrition education modules and food demonstration guidelines will be developed to stimulate demand for vitamin A-rich cassava as part of healthier diets. Working with partners from health and education sectors, these tools and methods will be mainstreamed into national nutrition programs and disseminated broadly. Through continued monitoring and in-depth assessments, this cluster will assess the effectiveness of dissemination channels and partnership models for creating demand for biofortified cassava. On the basis of this research, CA4.3 will develop guidelines for policy development, key private sector investments, and agriculture-nutrition programming to stimulate broad interest in continued support and investment in biofortified cassava.Cluster SW4.4: Nutritious sweetpotato SW4.4 aims to improve nutrition and diets and provide income opportunities in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean through more diversified and intensified utilization of nutritious sweetpotato. The cluster is focused on expanding and diversifying the use of vitamin A-rich OFSP while also exploring the use of other nutritious sweetpotato varieties through similar technologies and processes. OFSP has been proven to be an effective tool for reducing VAD among children and women at large scale. Yet much more can be done to fully exploit the potential of OFSP and other sweetpotato varieties to improve the diets of urban and rural populations and generate economic opportunities along the value chain. Research in this cluster will generate improved tools and approaches for enhancing diet quality through sweetpotato; more efficient post-harvest and processing technologies, guidelines, and capacities for nutrition-sensitive value chain development; and better investment and policy frameworks for scaling up the benefits from nutritious sweetpotato. This research will seek to exploit the increasing range of locally adapted, nutritious OFSP and other sweetpotato varieties (developed with FP2) in more than 20 countries. To improve effectiveness and efficiency of OFSP within mainstream nutrition education and nutrition support programs, research will generate improved methods, tools, and partnership approaches that will strengthen capacities for delivery and support adaptive learning to adjust delivery systems to new institutional, socioeconomic, and agro-ecological environments. This work will be based on large-scale partnerships with national nutrition campaigns, and will be informed by improved metrics for monitoring consumption and by in-depth studies of dietary options and behaviors and nutrition outcomes. Beyond working through nutrition-specific interventions, the cluster will further support innovation and diversification of sweetpotato marketing, processing, and value addition to generate a greater range of nutritious sweetpotato-based foods for rural and urban markets. Research will include market assessments for fresh and processed sweetpotato, food science analysis of sweetpotato bio-physiochemical characteristics, technologies for shelf-stable sweetpotato puree for use as infant food and in processed products, and techniques for fresh root storage and handling. Private sector partners will lead in product development and supply chain management, contribute to marketing research, and will join public sector partners to improve consumer awareness of healthier diets. Underpinning these areas of research, the cluster will strengthen the evidence base of utilization, consumption, and nutrition outcomes of increased adoption of nutritious sweetpotato and its diversified use. Evidence will be consolidated across a range of partnerships and agencies promoting nutritious sweetpotato. It will form the basis for developing policy guidelines in the agriculture, nutrition, and health sectors; investment guidelines for the private sector; and programming guidelines for NGOs working in food security and nutrition support. Periodic assessments will analyze the effectiveness and efficiencies of these policy, investment, and partnership approaches to scaling up nutritious sweetpotato.  Adaptations of processing and storage technologies to climate related changes. FP4, linking with FP5, CCAFS, and the Natural Resources Institute, will assess implications from climate change and increased extreme climate events on post-harvest management, including harvesting, storage, fresh markets, and processing (e.g., drying) options. On the basis of these assessments, FP4 will develop and validate improved handling, processing, and storage technologies and supply chain management guidelines.Results from this research will inform crop improvement strategies (FP2) and research on resilient cropping systems (FP3).Innovations to contribute to climate change mitigation. Food processing, post-harvest losses, and food waste and by-products are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions (FAO 2015). FP4 will develop technologies and guidelines for reducing post-harvest losses and improving utilization of waste (such as peels from RTB crops) for animal feed and other uses. FP4 will specifically work to reduce emissions from cassava processing operations through appropriate selection of processing operations, improved energy efficiency, alternative renewable energy sources, water efficiency, reduced losses, and increased utilization of by-products. Linking these innovations into the current momentum for growth in the SME cassava processing industry, FP4 can contribute significantly to helping the industry reduce emissions and lower energy and water footprints.FP4 will target its dissemination activities to support both adaptation and mitigation strategies at country level, working closely with National Adaptation Programs of Action and other relevant country-led initiatives. Implementing partners will also work directly with farmers and traders' associations and with the RTB processing sector to inform their policies and procedures on the basis of FP4 research.The different preferences, needs, and constraints of women and men as consumers, food preparers, caregivers, sellers, buyers, processors, and employees are important determinants of FP4 outcomes. FP4 will use the following principles: Consider gender differences in RTB trait preferences by consumers, food processors, and householdlevel food preparers and caregivers (those feeding infants and children). These preferences include taste, suitability as infant food, cooking time, suitability for partial harvesting, processing quality, storability, and others. FP4 will provide feedback on gender differences in nutritional and quality traits to inform crop development and dissemination priorities. Work closely with existing country nutrition programs and NGO nutrition partners to identify good practice in gender-appropriate nutrition messaging and counseling methods and tools. Increased production and utilization of RTB at household level, risks overburdening women with additional tasks in production and food preparation. This risk will be assessed and managed in collaboration with community-level extension staff. Proactively engage women in participatory research such as testing of new processing or storage technologies, research to reduce post-harvest losses and improve utilization of RTB waste, and development and promotion of nutritious products and recipes. Work closely with key female stakeholders, such as in SME cassava processing or sweetpotato marketing, to jointly design, implement, and evaluate pilot activities. This is both to mitigate risks of marginalizing women from their current position through technological or institutional changes, and to enhance their current role and benefits such as by reducing the need for heavy physical labor during marketing and improving health and safety during processing. Engage development partners and NARES in designing and testing training and communication materials and methods, to suit the specific needs and interests of women and men, such as genderresponsive value chain tools for gender-equitable outcomes.FP4 will strengthen capacity and learn with multiple partners, including experts in women's agency and empowerment in value chains.Organizational development and institutional strengthening. CapDev will (1) enhance NARS research capacity and strengthen next users for research uptake of post-harvest interventions and (2) enhance NARES and private sector's capacity to engage with end users to adapt environmentally friendly processing and storage technologies. Examples are CapDev in post-harvest loss assessments, improvements of small-scale processing to save labor, and capacity to evaluate biofortified cassava varieties. Public-private partnerships along the value chain provide entry points for CapDev linked to advocacy, nutrition education, and the adoption of safety standards. In collaboration with FP5, communication platforms and facilitated events will foster social learning among practitioners and researchers. Partnership models, value chain approaches, and a strong evidence base from FP4 research will strengthen institutional capacity for going to scale.Design and delivery of innovative learning materials and approaches. RTB will support targeted CapDev (e.g., for SME cassava processors, specifically women and youth in rural and urban areas). It will promote recipes for nutritious and diverse food products for food vendors, processors, and homes, while increasing partnership capacity with food technology firms and the private industry.Gender and youth-sensitive approaches will be applied throughout all CapDev interventions. Attention will be given to gender-responsive training in partnership with NGOs, women associations, and the like.There is a special opportunity to strengthen the capacity of young men and women as entrepreneurs for small businesses along the post-harvest value chain through, for example, the integration of key messages into school curricula and investment in education and trade schools.IA and OA management in FP4 will follow the CGIAR IA principles, OADM policy, donor requirements, and implementation strategies of program participants. Existing knowledge base and technologies will be gathered, reviewed, and documented to form a database of background information to which FP4 can refer when implementing activities. This information will include processing technologies, production systems, product specifications, and nutritional analysis tools. The background information will also be shared with general public and/or interested parties, subject to the consent of the owners/developers. Legal requirements for use and dissemination of background information will be followed, in consultation with holding centers as well as owners of these technologies. New and emerging technologies and knowledge will be shared within FP4 and among other FPs such as FP2 to enhance implementation of programs and projects. Methods for sharing may include online database access (such as RTB Dataverse), collaborative projects, and common sharing platforms as well as by direct correspondence. Final products and outputs will be promptly and broadly disseminated to next and end users as per CGIAR policies to achieve maximum impact. Intermediate and underdeveloped technologies or ideas will be open to collaboration with interested parties, FPs, and centers through agreed procedures and agreements. All data and publications resulting from research in FP4 will be made OA (following appropriate ethical considerations) for public good and as a development or resource for capacity and policy development. FP4 will abide by all applicable legal and regulatory requirements, such as health and safety standards, product quality standards, and the requirement to obtain prior informed consent.FP4 will be managed within the general framework of RTB and will contribute to CRP-wide planning, reporting, learning, and dissemination. The FP4 leadership team will prepare annual work plans and budgets, by cluster, and will monitor their implementation closely with tools provided by the RTB's PMU. Cluster leaders will lead the preparation of these annual plans and furnish six-monthly technical reports on the delivery of research products. The FP leader will review, collate, endorse, and forward these reports to the PMU. The FP4 leadership team will hold monthly virtual meetings to review progress against milestones, discuss areas that require urgent attention or additional support, and identify practical opportunities for collaboration between clusters and for the further development of FP4.Cluster-level leaders will coordinate all technical and financial reporting, and will foster teamwork and collaboration among the cluster team of scientists from different institutions. In particular, during research planning and reviews, the full cluster team will provide peer support. Linkages and synergies among clusters are essential for FP4 progress, and the FP leader will work with cluster leaders to promote good communications among relevant scientists. Linkages between the Crosscutting cluster CC4.1 and the crop-specific clusters will receive particular attention to ensure that the potential for accelerated learning and adaptation of methodologies across RTB crops is fully realized. Similarly, the FP leader and cluster leaders will be in close contact with their colleagues in other relevant FPs and CRPs. Specifically, they will work with the FP2 team to align research planning and facilitate feedback on quality traits from FP4 to FP2, and improve targeting of dissemination of new varieties in FP2 to reach FP4 research sites. FP4 will have close links with FP5 and, in some locations, with the A4NH Food Systems for Healthier Diets flagship, for diagnosis and forecasting, gender research, and scaling up methodologies.  11,118,520 11,563,261 12,025,791 12,506,823 13,007,095 13,527,379 73,748,869 Bilateral 3,356,629 3,490,894 3,630,530 3,775,751 3,926,781 4,083,853 22,264,440 Other Sources 0 0 16,289,321 16,940,893 17,618,529 18,323,270 19,056,201 19,818,449   ,590,361,652,506,007,527,646,232,449,599,775,926,083,068,167 Other Sources (Fundraising) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -10,823,625 -12,811,306 -14,251,828 -16,282,573 -16,933,876 -17,611,231 -88,714,439 Total Flagship budget by Natural Classifications (USD)  3,823,299 3,976,231 4,135,280 4,300,691 4,472,719 4,651,628 25,359,849 Indirect Cost 2,190,899 2,278,535 2,369,676 2,464,463 2,563,042 2,665,564 14,532,182 16,289,317 16,940,890 17,618,526 18,323,267 19,056,198 19,818,447 108,046,645 Total Flagship budget by participating partners (signed PPAs) (USD)  16,289,319 16,940,892 17,618,526 18,323,268 19,056,199 19,818,448 108,046,652 The share of budget by center within the FP is provisional and will be revisited taking into account prospects for delivery, quality of science and partnerships and credibility of the impact pathway.Explanations of these costs in relation to the planned 2022 outcomes:An \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", funded by W1&2 in a total of $23,215,414, which will be assigned on the basis of semi-competitive grants to systems related work, involving RTB clusters and potentially other AFS-CRPs during the respective year is distributed across FP1-5.FP4 houses a total of $2,054,475 of the \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", amount which is initially allocated to the Lead Center (CIP) which therefore shows a higher budget share in the table above.Benefits:NRS: Fringe benefits for national staff are comprised of mandatory legal benefits by country and complementary benefits provided by each CRP participating center, such as Pension -social security, training and development, medical insurance, occupational health, transportation costs, personnel protection requirement and food subsidy.Fringe benefits for international staff are comprised of housing allowance, education allowance, car allowance, Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), hardship, home leave tickets, insurance, retirement contribution, occupational health, training and development, repatriation and relocation provisions, and food subsidy.Includes non-travel operating costs, such as standard fees applied by all CGIAR centers -Research Support Services and Facilities & IT fees -as well as costs related to consultancies, workshops, trainings, laboratory and experimental station services and other supplies and services related to field operations. Cost estimates are based on historical expenses and recent price analysis.If full project funding does not become available RTB will prioritize specific FP4 deliverables: Lessons, tools and metrics to support development of nutritious and value added RTB products  Improved technology for small and medium scale cassava processors, especially those involved in gari value chain in West Africa  Technologies and procedures for demand-driven, gender sensitive food products based on biofortified cassava  Technologies, tools and models for upgrading nutritious sweetpotato value chains If participating centers are successful in raising additional W3/Bilateral funds some key activities can also be diverted to those projects, in case they are aligned with RTB priorities.The objective of FP5 is to improve livelihoods by scaling RTB solutions in agri-food systems. In many developing countries, RTB crops play a key role as part of diverse agri-food systems in contributing to enhanced resilience, improved farm productivity, food security, nutrition diversity, and income. FP5 provides support to next and end users for scaling of RTB innovations from the farm to the community, the region, and beyond. It guides RTB scientists in FP1-FP4 on how to better target research, design strategic youth and gender research, select partners (with RTB Partnership Strategy, see Annex 1) and develop capacity for improving livelihoods at scale.FP5 will build on RTB crop improvement and production (FP1-FP3) and post-harvest technologies (FP4), using a systems approach to facilitate understanding and enhance impact of RTB crops in livelihoods. This results-oriented approach includes (1) forward-looking analysis of trends;(2) decision-support for the tailoring, integration and scaling of RTB technologies, based on farmer typologies and practical investment steps; (3) identifying best possible RTB (and other crops and livestock) technology options that contribute to sustainable livelihoods (e.g. avoid large environmental trade-offs); (4) addressing constraints for RTB technology adoption with gender and intergenerational transformations; and (5) evidence base to improve scaling of RTB agri-food system innovations with enhanced equity.RTB crops are grown and consumed especially in the humid and sub-humid tropics and sub-tropics (>800 mm of rain/year) where they form a set of key staples. These geographies are characterized by mostly favorable (though changing) climate conditions for crop cultivation. However, households typically face poverty and food and nutrition insecurity due to (1) small farm size (<2 ha); (2) marginal lands with low and declining soil fertility due to limited nutrient (re-)use;(3) strong dependency on one or two cash crops (e.g., tree crops) whose cash benefits often do not translate into improved income, nutrition, and resilience for women and children; and (4) low dietary diversity with low intake of micro-and macronutrients that are critical for nutrition.Hence, FP5 addresses the following grand challenges, as identified by the SRF:Competition for land leading to soil degradation and deforestation. The sub-humid tropics where RTB crops dominate are characterized by a mosaic of high population pressure areas, bordering natural forests, and wetlands with significant carbon and biodiversity stocks. Degradation of these natural areas by agricultural encroachment accounts for more than 30% of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions globally. Although industrial oil palm production in Asia and soy-livestock production in the Amazon Basin have been identified as key deforestation drivers, it is estimated that 65% of all deforestation in Africa originates from the expansion of small-scale subsistence agriculture. Deforestation and associated biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced significantly if smallholders would manage to reverse soil degradation, sustainably intensify production, and increase yield and income from existing farms.Diverse agri-food systems. Micro-and macronutrient deficiencies are common in RTB target countries.In general, much research and extension focuses on a single crop. FP5 will take an integrated approach, looking at all nutritional sources provided by RTB crops and other crop and livestock contributions to the diet, creating a strong space for learning and integration with A4NH.Climate change. RTB crops show diverse responses to climate change. Some, such as cassava, are more robust in the face of higher temperature and increased drought stress, whereas others will require adaptation (Jarvis et al. 2012). FP5 will build on the strengths of RTB crops for climate resilience and by taking a systems approach to facilitate adaptation (e.g., with banana playing a significant role as shade crop in perennial cropping systems and potentially offsetting adverse change).New entrepreneurial and job opportunities are emerging. Despite the relatively high energy/ha/day yields of RTB crops, the bulky nature of its fresh produce and the limited use of (and developed markets for) processing of RTB crops produce have often discouraged further investments into crop intensification by smallholders. RTB crops can play a major role in rural transitions and agricultural transformation.However, this largely untapped potential of RTB crops provides a real opportunity to strengthen smallholder and youth engagement in value chains at the level of production, processing, and trade, following the successful examples in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa (in that order), particularly for cassava and potato processing.To address these grand challenges, RTB will continue foresight analysis and horizon scanning to better understand what is needed where under current and future scenarios. RTB will make available compelling impact studies that address public and donor skepticism over the effectiveness of international aid and contribute to a strong evidence base to support advocacy and resource mobilization for the CRP.The challenge of the systems research approach in FP5 is that the number of interactions and the responses to the grand challenges may seem endless. Hence, methods and tools to describe, explain, explore, and design system entry points, and manage related trade-offs and synergies, are critical to prioritize RTB investments for sustainable intensification.Scaling is central to achieving the ambitious outcome targets of this Proposal. Scaling does not happen spontaneously. FPs and clusters in the Delivery FP2-FP4 have their own scaling strategies, captured in their specific impact pathways via the outcomes with stakeholders and visible for example in sub-IDO targets and the constellation of partners each FP brings to the table. Clear and carefully planned country level impact pathways need to be defined and agreed with stakeholders, with intermediate goals to measure whether scaling is moving in the right direction. Pathways to scaling are a long, stepwise and multi-stakeholder process. Scaling RTB solutions may not only require stepwise improvements, but also support for transformative action to remove deeply embedded beliefs and norms that hamper women/youth employment and their economic opportunities. Scalability has been a central topic for donors for some time and several frameworks already exist (Jonasova and Cooke 2012; IFAD 2015).The objective of FP5 is to improve livelihoods by scaling RTB solutions in agri-food systems. This objective will be achieved through the implementation of four interrelated crosscutting clusters: CC5.1 Foresight and impact assessment CC5.2 Sustainable intensification and diversification for improved resilience, nutrition, and income CC5.3 Gender-equitable development and youth employment CC5.4 Scaling RTB agri-food system innovationsThe four clusters are characterized by the aims and rationales shown in Table FP5.1. The synergies and linkages between the clusters are illustrated in Table FP5.3 in sub-section 2.5.1.6. Equitable and sustainable intensification and diversification of RTB-based production systems combined with strengthened market opportunities for smallholder farmers and youth (e.g., cassava-Southeast Asia; sweetpotato-Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia; potato-Andes, East African highlands) 850,000 HH Integration of RTB crops as multipurpose for food security (fresh and processed products) and livestock feed (e.g., cassava-Nigeria; sweetpotato-Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya; production system diversificationtropical Americas and the Andes) 1,000,000 HH Integration of RTB crops into other agri-food systems (e.g., tree crops systems with cocoa, coffee, and oil palm-Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, Vietnam; cereal crops-rice and maize-Asia; legumes x potato-Kenya, Rwanda) 350,000 HH Climate-resilient RTB crops and cropping systems as option for winter/dry season cultivation and as flood, drought, and high soil salinity response (e.g., sweetpotato-Malawi, Mozambique, Bangladesh; RTB crops in maize-dominated production systems under high climate stresses-Zambia) 1,000,000 HH Outcome 5.10: At least 5 partnerships and scaling models tested in at least 5 target countries and adjusted to be fit for purpose D.1.4 Increased capacity for innovation in partner development organizations and in poor and vulnerable communities Note: *Outcomes indicate the additional number of beneficiaries that can be attributed to the synergistic and additive effect of FP5 on scaling activities taking place in FP2-FP4. † The list of selected geographies/agri-food systems is not exhaustive; the results of the Site Integration process will further guide the selection process. The number of beneficiaries reflects targets estimated in other FPs for these countries.FP5 builds a greater emphasis on the agri-food systems and livelihoods perspective into the program intervention logic. The underlying assumption of this flagship is that innovations arising from other FPs will have greater impact if they can be analyzed, targeted, and tailored by FP5 for use in a much broader systems context. FP5 will support learning around scaling in RTB and help feed end user and next user intelligence into FP1-FP4 to guide technology development. Conversely, FP1-FP4 generate information on progress in scaling, technological opportunities and (perceived) scaling barriers for analysis by FP5. Such feedback loops should generate an evidence base about what works in scaling and nurture a continuous improvement, including technology refinement, based on learning.The set of linkages for scaling from delivery in FP2-FP4 to FP5 occurs in multiple ways:  CC5.1: foresight and impact assessment helps (1) to understand the big picture changes in consumption and production trends, enabling environment and institutional arrangements, which will likely occur across RTB agri-food systems and (2) make sure that the optimal technologies are identified for scaling and that the return is commensurate with the investment;  CC5.2: the higher level system interactions required for sustainable intensification considers and supports different routes to intensification across the farmer typology (e.g. farmers who are \"hanging in\" or \"stepping up\") in the context of rural transitions and transformation;  CC5.3: ensures gender equity and a dynamic consideration of youth (especially around employment) as scaling occurs; CC5.4: provides evidence based guidance across FPs about (1) which scaling strategies are proving most effective and (2) capacity development of key stakeholders for scaling to be more effective.Different clusters in the delivery flagships are currently at different stages along the scaling process (see subsection 1.0.3, table 8). Over the course of the six years of implementation of Phase II, some clusters in each country will move to the next stage. In the initial stage 1 of assembly and pilot, RTB research focuses on adapting technologies to be scaled. As initial scaling occurs (stage 2), research shifts its focus to the science of delivery -where FP5 has an expanded function. As clusters move to massive scaling (stage 3), the RTB research is one of backstopping with scope for assessing the broader impact of the scaling process with FP5.RTB Site integration gives particular attention to cross center/CRP collaboration for sustainable intensification and scaling. Indeed, both elements should form an integral part of CGIAR wide theory of change for site integration and how this leads to enhanced impact.In collaboration with other CRPs, FP5 will assess and provide options on how innovations could: Respond to current and future user needs and market opportunities (CC5.1, link with PIM) and how scaling depends on institutional arrangements-for example, in the sphere of regulation, tenure, policy, culture, social organization, service provision, and governance procedures (CC5.4, link with MAIZE and PIM). Improve total farm productivity in the short term, while avoiding ecosystem degradation and ecosystem service decline in the long term (CC5.2, link with MAIZE, FTA, LIVESTOCK, and RICE). Improve income and nutrition resilience while acting synergistically with other CRPs. Integrate RTB crops with livestock and legumes (CC5.2, link with LIVESTOCK and DCL); with vegetable, legume, and fruit production, particularly during lean seasons (CC5.2, link with A4NH); with tree crops (e.g., cocoa, coffee, oil palm) or cereal crops (maize, rice) (CC5.2, link with MAIZE and FTA). Improve resilience to climate, price, and crop pest/disease shocks (CC5.2, link with CCAFS).  Scale more effectively, including opportunities for women and youth (CC5.3 and CC5.4, link with PIM and the CGIAR-wide Gender Platform).  Identify spaces, drivers and gaps that need to be addressed to enable scaling (CC5.4)  Co-develop transformative gender strategies for women and youth (CC5.3).One risk that can be identified is that FP5 might target \"rich\" farmers through value chain approaches and that FP1-FP4 technologies will first increase productivity of these farmers who are perceived as already \"relatively privileged.\" This may lead to skewed impact in farm communities. In fact, the increase in market volumes by the early adopters may (temporarily) decrease the local market price and will subsequently decrease crop income of the poorer non-adopters (Fig. FP5.2). An \"intensification package\" approach may reduce agronomic efficiency and profitability of technologies introduced if they are not correctly staggered, reflecting a need for a stepwise approach tailored to farmers' resource availability. CC5.1 Foresight and impact assessment. This cluster will develop a coherent framework to enhance current and anticipated livelihood and economic impacts of RTB research and ensure demand orientation and learning from both positive and negative results as key elements of RBM. This cluster will contribute strongly to the M&EL, impact, and analysis functions of RTB.CC5.1 will use a harmonized set of approaches, state-of-the-art methods and tools to conduct prioritysetting exercises (Fuglie and Thiele 2009) and impact studies (Bellon et al. 2015) in target countries and across RTB agri-food systems. Five of these are presented here. (1) Integrated use of biophysical and economic models for foresight analysis and ex-ante assessments, with improved data and parameterization of RTB crops and agri-food systems and model comparison (e.g., economic surplus vs. computable general equilibrium; multi-markets vs. single markets; static vs. dynamic; different output measures). The models will increase the robustness of the conclusions by looking at complementary results in a confidence interval. ( 2 understanding and aligning the diverse next/end users' objectives and opportunities, as well as (2) their active participation in priority setting and evaluation of interventions (Berthet et al. 2016). CC5.2 will use objective-specific typology and tailoring approaches to match RTB innovations with next-and end-users' needs and opportunities. The insights will also inform FP1-FP4 on innovation needs. Stepwise and integrated approaches to intensify crop production need to take into account that farmers growing RTB crops are at different levels of the intensification and resource-access ladder. Participatory farmer segmentation at the community level provides a rapid tool for developing practical and locally-owned investment steps that respond to the diverse farm typologies as described in the DFID Conceptual Framework on Agriculture (DFID, 2015). Models that allow ex-ante exploration of novel farm-and landscape-level configurations (e.g., FARMSIM and FarmDESIGN) will be applied to guide scaling of RTB innovations in existing and future farming systems (link to foresight in CC5.1). These RTB intensification options should aim to reduce large trade-offs over (1) space (e.g. eutrophication due to excessive fertilizer use), ( 2 CC5.3 Gender and youth. This cluster will synthesize lessons learned from gender analyses conducted for different RTB technologies (e.g., varieties, seed systems, pest and disease management, nutrition, and post-harvest handling and processing) across the different RTB crops (e.g., Mudege et al., 2015) and put these into a livelihoods perspective, building on CC5.2. CC5.3 will translate these lessons learned into improved methods and guidelines for gender-responsive and -transformative research, targeting next and end users. In collaboration with CC5.4, it will develop innovative approaches for gender integration and youth analysis and evaluative research that ensure that scaling of technical innovations is useful for both men and women. This includes the collection and analysis of large-scale comparative qualitative data and social trends analysis, to generate lessons that can be generalized across regions, crops, and livelihood typologies. Research approaches are used that promote the use of genuine integration of qualitative and quantitative research (Shaffer 2013). The cluster will also engage in action research in pilot projects using youth and stakeholder analysis and private-public partnership models to expand economic opportunities for youth. CC5.3 will adopt reflective capacity building and use (Gottschick 2013) that will expose biophysical researchers to gender research in order to sustain gender-and youth-responsive research within RTB.CC5.4 Scaling RTB agri-food system innovations. This cluster will support scaling and strengthen CapDev from an RTB agri-food systems perspective. Strategies for scaling need to be adapted and tested considering differences in enabling environment, diversity in next and end user needs and opportunities, including opportunities for private sector involvement and variation across agro-ecologies. Stakeholder engagement will draw on analysis of stakeholder needs, foster the development of shared impact pathways with partners (building upon RBM pilots of the first phase), and ensure the building of diverse partnerships for effective scaling as per the stages of scaling (from pilot through to massive scaling, see sub-section 2.5.1.3). CC5.4 will engage in rigorous research with CC5.1 and stakeholders on institutional arrangements that help overcome existing constraints to scaling (e.g., lack of quality declared planting material approaches to improve availability of quality seed). Where possible, experimental approaches will be used, for example drawing on nudge economics to create incentives for use of quality seed (Banerjee and Duflo 2011) or using Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) to examine outcomes of different combinations of implementation approaches for OFSP in different districts of Rwanda (with FP4 and A4NH).CC5.4 will identify opportunities to bring technological innovations to scale with effective institutional arrangements (Klerkx and Leeuwis 2009). This includes research on ICT-based monitoring systems to inform decision making of interdependent stakeholders (e.g., agreement on regional pest management strategies). CC5.4 will build on recent developments in web-based and mobile technologies, which hold considerable promise to overcome problems of information transfer, connectivity, and coordination of different actors. Digital DST will, for example, be developed in relation to disease control in potato production in Ethiopia, site-specific crop management options, and dissemination and adoption of new varieties. In many cases, successful scaling requires multi-stakeholder coordination and learning to tackle RTB constraints, (Gray and VanderWal 2012;Jalbert and Kinchy 2015;Van Etten et al. 2016). Where RCTs are not feasible because of the difficulty or cost of finding a counterfactual, research on changes in social actor networks provides a rigorous alternative to assess existing partnership and scaling approaches in FP2-FP5. Hence CC5.4 will use a range of approaches to generate crosscutting insights from successful scaling models that can guide a best-practices framework on appropriate scaling of RTB innovations.FP5 builds on a strong heritage from Phase I when many RTB crop technologies have been successfully scaled. Examples with wide impact include (1) OFSP for nutrition; (2) Banana Xanthomonas wilt control practices; and (3) CMD and CBSD control. However, success is mostly related to addressing a single major constraint and dissemination took place through classical delivery pipelines with clearly differentiated roles for national partners and NGOs. However, larger complex problems at the core of the grand challenges, such as soil degradation and climate change, require a different approach. Technologies to tackle these complex problems often require significant changes in smallholder resources, have considerable lag-times between investment and returns dissuading smallholders, and need action at landscape-level and above. RTB will draw on lessons learned with Humidtropics from investment in understanding complex \"systems\". This requires (1) HH big data analysis to understand the diversity in smallholder opportunities and constraints (Frelat et al. 2015)  Many RTB innovations provide strong climate resilience functions, for example: tree-crop systems in the humid tropics (e.g. banana-coffee/cocoa intercropping), RTB diversification in cereal-dominant systems in the Savanna regions, or enhancing the complementary use of RTB crops to improve livestock feed options in smallholder systems (e.g. sweetpotato for pigs). Options for stepwise intensification of marketoriented RTB systems will be identified and evaluated to improve agronomic efficiency and income at farm scale and ecological sustainability at landscape scale (link to WLE). For example, the intensification of potato systems in the east African highlands requires first investments in (1) healthy seed systems, and only then investments in (2) fertilizers and (3) pest control. This sequencing improves agronomic, economic and ecological efficiency and needs to be accompanied by the right investments (private and public) through partner engagement guided by CC5.4. DST and approaches (e.g. mobile apps in CC5.4) will be developed and tested with RTB actors for sustainable intensification or diversification options, depending on their objectives, resource availability, and environmental conditions. This will be complemented with partner field demonstrations as well as co-learning workshops within sites and exchange visits between (similar) sites. Cluster 5.2 will play a pivotal role in site integration research and priority setting, while investing in place-based collaborations with CCAFS, FTA, RICE, and PIM. Promoting consumption of RTB crops without addressing dietary gaps may negatively affect human health. Hence CC5.2 in RTB will engage with A4NH (FP1) for work on multiple nutrient-rich agri-food value chains in RTB crop-dominant systems, testing options to increase overall availability of fat, protein, vitamin A, iron, zinc and folate.CC5.3 aims to design and implement strategic gender and youth research across all RTB flagships for gender-responsive outcomes and economic opportunities for youth. The cluster encourages genderresponsive research across RTB flagships (e.g., on preferences for varietal traits) and supports gendertransformative research (e.g., women's control over income from RTB crops) and intergenerational transfer models (e.g., youth's access to productive assets). Emphasis will also be on understanding youth's gendered interests and identifying context-specific, agro-economic opportunities for youth. Investment in youth and by youth should depend on their diverse access to resources (i.e., knowledge, land, funds), their aspirations, and the diverse opportunities (production, processing, marketing) that exist in their biophysical and socioeconomic environment. This cluster will first identify and synthesize the gender and youth interests in RTB's diverse research products. Narratives that identify what was and was not successful will enable the development of tools, protocols, and models for gender-responsive agricultural innovations for use by all scientists and partners. Subsequently, results from case studies will be used to identify gender-transformative impact pathways and related gender indicators to track progress with next users. Four different entry points are identified for CC5.3: (1) improving access to productive resources;(2) public-private partnerships to promote youth employment and agripreneurship; (3) vocational training curricula on agri-business, including use of ICT; and (4) incubation and CapDev programs on producing, processing, and marketing of RTB products.Cluster CC5.4 aims to provide support for scaling RTB solutions in agri-food systems. Existing frameworks for scaling, e.g. from IFAD (2015) and Chandy et al (2013) will be adapted to fit RTB innovations. IFAD (2015) has an analogous set of phases to the RTB stages of scaling, including a critical phase of \"leveraging\" with mainstreaming into national programs and getting on board critical private sector, development organizations and community partners. Each pathway for scaling needs to develop \"spaces\" where scaling can take place. Critical spaces that need attention include (1) financial and fiscal arrangements for sustainability;(2) resolution of political and policy constraints; (3) capacity of local institutions and implementing agencies; (4) availability of partnership arrangements that could potentially rally support for a particular programme. Partnerships are sought not only to mobilize resources, but also as a means of accessing knowledge and leveraging influence and outreach (IFAD, 2015) and ( 5) barriers that limit the more equitable participation of women, youth or indigenous peoples.Drivers of scaling will be identified under CC5.4 to guide work in FP2-FP4. Key drivers vary but may include (1) empowered organizations of smallholders, communities or women's and youth groups that are given support to voice their concerns and become stronger participants in dialogue with the public or private sector;(2) private-sector partners that invest in areas that also link up with development needs; (3) government agencies that are committed to moving the scaling agenda forward and politicians who intend to meet the needs of their constituencies; and (4) civil society organizations that pursue a national agenda for change.CC5.4 will develop a compelling evidence base for the shift from one stage of the scaling process to the next (see sub-section 1.0.3, table 8), through research on the science of delivery across FPs, showing what works in scaling RTB innovations and support learning and improvement. Each cases will be built upon a specific 'scaling strategy for which the respective drivers and spaces (including joint strategy development, shared impact pathways, joint M&E and learning systems, co-investments) will be studied. Examples include:Interface between assembly and pilot and initial scaling: BBTV control in Africa  Initial scaling and massive scaling: BXW control in Eastern Africa  Interface between initial and massive scaling: cassava processing  Massive scaling in multi-country context: orange-fleshed sweet potato CC5.4 will conduct rigorous research to enhance uptake of technology and tools, and use of information for scaling. Where possible, and conjointly with CC5.1, it will seek opportunities for experimental examination of scaling mechanisms, e.g. around alternative pricing policies for quality seed and willingness to pay. However, for research on scaling which occurs at a district or even higher level, finding an experimental counterfactual is often problematic; here rigor can be based on a clearly formulated theory of change and evidence that this plays out in practice. One promising option is social network mapping, to understand how partners are engaged and innovations are spreading, pick up changes in innovation processes, which demonstrate early progress to scaling -prior to significant technology adoption at the farmer or end user level. This will be a strong element for the provision of a rigorous comparative basis of scaling approaches. For this analysis, the cluster can build on a research design and results of a study undertaken for RTB in 2013 (Ekboir, Canto and Sette 2013).Strong linkages to RBM strategy and the MELIA approach for variables linked to scaling are essential to fill knowledge gaps.FP5 is designed to support and strengthen partnerships that contribute to improving livelihoods at scale. This will involve the identification, testing, and facilitation of different partnership modalities within the Discovery and Delivery flagships (FP1-FP4).There are four broad types of development actors with whom partnership models for going to scale can be assessed. These are (1) selected large-scale development organizations able to fund scaling activities from their own resources; (2) a larger number of local nonprofit civil society and public partners, generally low-resourced actors but often with good local knowledge and legitimacy; (3) regional/subregional CC5.2 will focus on improving the resilience of smallholder farming systems, including adaptation to climate change and shocks. Diversified farming systems are known to be more resilient to climate shocks. Resilience can be increased by increasing the diversity of RTB crops and through synergies with other farm enterprises such as livestock and vegetable gardening. Women have a key role to diversify farming practices, a focus of research tools and approaches developed in cluster CC5.3. The vulnerability to climate-related production shocks is likely to be particularly high in agri-food systems that focus on one or two cash crops (e.g., cocoa in West Africa humid lowlands, coffee in Vietnam's Central Highlands, or even RTB crops for industrial markets in Southeast Asia). Examples from PIM and CCAFS have shown that RTB crops provide stronger resilience in certain geographic areas than cereal crops. For example, the savanna areas in Southern Africa (e.g., Zambia) will increasingly benefit from lower dependency on maize and a stronger role for RTB crops.FP5 will support research on climate change adaptation with CCAFS through joint (PhD student) activities in overlapping sites and through joint work on network mapping and research on scaling.The planning and introduction of climate-smart varieties and technologies with FP2-FP4 will be supported through research on innovation and scaling in CC5.4. For example, innovations that improve access to relevant market and weather information (e.g., using ICTs), productive resources (e.g., novel credit arrangements), and off-farm opportunities (e.g., youth service providers) will all contribute to climate change adaptation.Increments in total agricultural production in Africa have been driven by an increase in production area and not yield. FP5 will contribute to climate change mitigation, through efforts to sustainably intensify agricultural production and maintain productive soils in the humid forest zones.The gender objective of FP5 is to ensure that developed RTB technologies, tools, and innovations are equitably useful to men, women, and young farmers and lead to equitable livelihood improvement and increased well-being. For this to happen FP5 intends to (1) identify different gender-specific needs of end users and match these needs with appropriate RTB technologies (CC5.1); (2) develop and adapt RTB technologies for intensification, diversification, and dietary improvement to a range of different end users' needs and resource limitations (CC5.2); (3) understand and predict how global and local trends affect different end users and gender relations and gender equity at large (CC5.3); and (4) use gender knowledge and understanding for efficient scaling (CC5.4). These different elements form part of the impact pathway for gender research (see Annex 3).In addition, FP5 will develop a set of gender impact indicators to monitor changes (CC5.4) in access to resources and participation of different social groups in agricultural production and other agri-business activities such as processing as a result of adoption of RTB technologies and innovations.To equip RTB scientists and partners to conduct gender-responsive research and achieve gendertransformational outcomes and empowerment women and youth, CapDev gender workshops will be organized where researchers are trained and share experiences that will be summarized in guidelines and briefs on gender research methods and context-specific gender needs and actions. A gender CapDev program will ensure that expertise on gender research is available within RTB, and that non-gender experts within RTB know when and how to make use of this expertise.FP5 will build capacity in the following 6 out of 10 elements of the CGIAR CapDev framework (see Fig. CapDev will enable RTB flagships to achieve impact and therefore contribute to the SRF targets by identifying the critical activities for advancing along RTB impact pathways (FP1-FP4). FP5 will build on research conducted by CC5.4 on understanding actor interdependency and facilitating them to develop joint solutions for scaling innovations. CapDev will enable researchers of RTB centers and international and national partner organizations to upgrade their skills for translating and customizing research outputs into products, raising awareness, and brokering relations between diverse stakeholders to achieve expected changes. Contact has already been to engage students and university faculty under the RTB Gender University Linkage Fund to strengthen capacity to conduct gender research. Program partners, scientists and other stakeholders, and flagship leaders will be included in the M&E system to assess progress toward completion of livelihood outcomes. Particular care will be given to monitoring the gender dimension of CapDev variables.FP5 will refine approaches to CapDev, including case-based learning sessions around successful processes of knowledge translation and brokerage, and the identification of best practices and CapDev champions.FP5's success is interlinked with its ability to support and provide feedback on technologies developed by other FPs. These IA will be accessed by FP5 through the program data and technology access modalities, part of the contractual framework. FP5 will use previous research results, methodologies tools, and technologies to create new and/or improved research results. FP5 will explore how big data analytical approaches can be used to unravel the relationship between agro-ecological and socioeconomic data and drivers, while providing OA for stakeholders to access, analyze, and explore how this could strengthen decision support. Both data and analytical approaches will be made available in the public domain. Where restrictions exist, FP5 clusters will negotiate and obtain licenses to access these technologies without restrictions on further dissemination of FP5 research results.FP5 will work closely with communities and farmers, which requires careful assessment of legal compliance matters such as prior informed consent, data anonymization, privacy, and regulations regarding access and use of traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources. RTB is bringing together a broad range of partners who are experienced and involved in respecting the regulatory norms and promoting/realizing the rights of farmers and farming communities. FP5 will follow the individual program participants' established procedures for compliance requirements. It will provide further leadership and create a cross-learning environment through its research activities.FP5's research results will include knowledge products and tangible products. All information and knowledge products will be published as soon as possible in compliance with OA. Publications and data will be added to OA repositories in accordance with RTB's OA strategy. Uptake and use of information and knowledge products will be supported with CapDev and communication activities. Tangible research results will be promptly and broadly disseminated for use by next users.FP5 will be managed within the general framework of RTB. CC5.4 is led by the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group at the Wageningen University and Research Centre, given their leadership on understanding innovation processes and the \"science of delivery.\"The FP5 leadership team, consisting of the FP leader and the four cluster leaders, will prepare annual work plans and budgets, by cluster, and will monitor their implementation closely using tools provided by RTB's PMU. Cluster leaders will lead the preparation of annual plans and furnish six-monthly technical reports. The FP5 leader will review, collate, and forward reports to the PMU. The FP5 leadership team will hold monthly virtual meetings.At cluster level, cluster leaders will coordinate all technical and financial reporting. They will foster teamwork and collaboration among the cluster team. Linkages and synergies between clusters are essential for FP5 progress and the FP leader will work with cluster leaders to promote good communications among scientists.An \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\" will be set up (see 2.5.1.2). The fund will feature: Impact assessment of the scaling process and its results in terms of technology adoption with CC5.1, with 30% of funding set aside. Focus on research for scaling RTB solutions, where smallholders, women and youth are primary beneficiaries (linked to CC5.4 and CC5.3). Delimitation for a specific prioritized set of RTB-relevant countries (especially focused on site integration countries) and to catalyze investments and innovations along the scaling phases. Integration with the site integration process of CGIAR and collaboration with other CRPs. Emphasis on sustainable intensification with support from cluster CC5.2. Significant capacity development for scaling with CC5.4. Research on enhancing uptake of technology and tools, and use of information together with crop specific clusters under FP2-FP4 to ensure a learning and implementation loop. The fund will be accessed by (1) FP1-FP4 in collaboration with FP5 to strengthen action research and livelihood system approaches, and (2) FP5 to strengthen collaboration with other CRPs to tackle livelihood systems' challenges and opportunities that will not be addressed by single CRPs in mixed farming systems that have a significant presence of RTB crops for food, income, nutrition, and/or resilience. The funding will be semi-competitive, along the lines of complementary funding used by RTB-Phase I, and will be accessed through a call for concept notes from joint RTB flagship teams, with an external peer review process in consultation with PMU, MC, and FP5 and final selection by ISC.  W1+W2 4,925,488 5,122,508 5,327,408 5,540,504 5,762,124 5,992,609 32,670,644 W3 10,467,857 10,886,573 11,322,035 11,774,917 12,245,914 12,735,749 69,433,047 Bilateral 4,247,546 4,417,447 4,594,145 4,777,911 4,969,027 5,167,790 28,173,868 Other Sources 0 0 19,640,891 20,426,528 21,243,588 22,093,332 22,977,065 23,896,148   ,839,886,322,774,245,735,804,051,364,554,777,969,167,884,812 Other Sources (Fundraising) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -13,890,267 -15,250,819 -15,876,641 -16,552,829 -17,214,942 -17,903,539 -96,689,036 Total Flagship budget by Natural Classifications (USD)  2,691,392 2,799,048 2,911,010 3,027,450 3,148,548 3,274,490 17,851,942 19,640,890 20,426,526 21,243,587 22,093,330 22,977,063 23,896,146 130,277,542 Total Flagship budget by participating partners (signed PPAs) (USD)  19,640,890 20,426,526 21,243,586 22,093,331 22,977,064 23,896,148 130,277,545 The share of budget by center within the FP is provisional and will be revisited taking into account prospects for delivery, quality of science and partnerships and credibility of the impact pathway.Explanations of these costs in relation to the planned 2022 outcomes:An \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\", funded by W1&2 in a total of $23,215,414, which will be assigned on the basis of competitive grants to systems related work, involving RTB clusters and potentially other AFS-CRPs during the respective year is distributed across FP1-5.FP5 houses a total of $ 5,577,915 of the System Innovations Fund, amount which is initially allocated to the Lead Center (CIP) which therefore shows a higher budget share in the table above.Benefits:NRS: Fringe benefits for national staff are comprised of mandatory legal benefits by country and complementary benefits provided by each CRP participating center, such as Pension -social security, training and development, medical insurance, occupational health, transportation costs, personnel protection requirement and food subsidy.Fringe benefits for international staff are comprised of housing allowance, education allowance, car allowance, Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), hardship, home leave tickets, insurance, retirement contribution, occupational health, training and development, repatriation and relocation provisions, and food subsidy.Includes non-travel operating costs, such as standard fees applied by all CGIAR centers -Research Support Services and Facilities & IT fees -as well as costs related to consultancies, workshops, trainings, laboratory and experimental station services and other supplies and services related to field operations. Cost estimates are based on historical expenses and recent price analysis.If full project funding does not become available RTB will prioritize specific FP5 deliverables: impact assessment of selected RTB technologies in target countries to guide FP1-4 research investments  participatory foresight analysis with private and public investors to guide RTB opportunities and investments. This exercise is also used to co-learn and understand stakeholder demands/needs. development and validation of decision-support tools that provide insight on RTB investment trade-offs at farm, community and national level in terms of economic returns, poverty/vulnerability reduction, nutrition benefits, natural resource degradation  gender/youth analysis, implementation skills and tools across RTB  monitoring, models, and partnerships for scaling of innovations. Since scaling is high on the agenda of donors, the tools, lessons and approaches from this W1/2 research investment should trigger bilateral support. \"AFS innovation and scaling fund\"If participating centers are successful in raising additional W3/Bilateral funds some key activities can also be diverted to those projects, in case they are aligned with RTB priorities. ","tokenCount":"48970"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c781a1a59f20c745e80451767318b118","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/df528ef3-0026-4558-a9a2-1373348494a6/retrieve","id":"-259877596"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0534886b-14de-406b-86ee-981c3c7b1ea0","pagecount":"1","content":"GBIF makes digital biodiversity data openly and freely available on the Internet for everyone, and endorses both open source software and open data access. http://www.gbif.org GBIF provides scientific biodiversity data for decision-making, research endeavours and public use.GBIF is a network of data publishers who retain ownership and control of the data they share. Linked datasets provide a more robust representation of biodiversity than any single dataset.GBIF provides access to primary biodiversity data held in institutions in developed and developing countries. Data shared through GBIF are repatriated data.GBIF is a dynamic, growing partnership of countries, organisations, institutions and individuals working together to mobilise scientific biodiversity data.GBIF invites you to download species occurrence data freely and openly from http://data.gbif.org GBIF invites you to join the GBIF network and share your biodiversity data, as well as participate in developing new tools and services.Crop wild relatives are a vital source of genetic diversity that can be used to adapt cultivated crops to climate change. However, the survival of crop wild relatives themselves is under threat today from the impacts of climate change.In this study, we use data accessible through GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, to evaluate the possible threats posed by climate change on 11 wild genepools of some of the major crops across the globe, comprising a total of 343 species.For each species, we have compiled data of both herbarium collections and germplasm accessions from GBIF, and analysed the potential distribution of each species using the Maximum Entropy approach in Maxent (Figure 1). Based on 18 global climate models for the year 2050 under emissions scenario A2a we also mapped the future geographic distribution of species, assuming unlimited migration rates (Figure 2)We then mapped the current richness of crop wild relatives, the future predicted richness and the predicted change. The results show the hotspots of change, where significant loss of diversity is expected to occur (Figure 3). These sites, mostly in sub-saharan Africa, eastern Turkey, the Mediterranean region, and parts of Mexico are priority areas for future collection of ex situ genetic resources and their long-term conservation in genebanks.  ","tokenCount":"347"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"55bfaecddcedd4069b5dc9bb24d3c728","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c748ea2b-71ac-4e24-959e-599f460428b4/retrieve","id":"45582653"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b4acc3c4-e248-46ae-988d-6430c26c5cbe","pagecount":"8","content":"Co-developed, tested, and scaled out by CCAFS scientists, climate services approaches are helping assess, produce, translate and transfer climate information to enable agricultural decision making to 420+ institutions in eleven countries in Latin America (LAM), reaching 501,000 farmers in a comprehensive national Climate Risk Management (CRM) from the local level to the national and regional levels, and allowing the generation of a powerful governance structure for rural development and community-level resilience.The participatory nature and diverse composition of LTAC at the territorial level (i.e.,public sector, NGOs-private sector, farmers-civil society among other types of institutions) allowed the generation of a powerful governance structure for rural development and community-level resilience. In Guatemala, next users apply gender-and youth-sensitive communication of climate services within their organizations (~79% of the institutions with gender/youth programs) and with farmers' groups. In a country with a poor situation of gender equality, climate services are helping to close the gap of access to information to vulnerable groups including women (30% of farmers) and indigenous (30%). Confidence in climatic information, a major transformation area reported (ref.3), has incrementally grown and about 88% of users perceive that the rainfall forecast is correct in the previous seasons, showing confidence in its use in decision-making (ref.4). The NextGen forecast system developed by IRI-CCAFS scientists has been key for this purpose. The development of LTACs in countries such as those mentioned has led to a sphere of political influence causing their institutionalization in Honduras and Guatemala or their inclusion in the National Determined Contributions (NDC) in the case of Colombia.• https://tinyurl.com/y6frxwax Local stakeholders and farmers in Latin America (LAM) generally have limited access to agro-climatic information and/or the mechanisms to relate it to the impact that climate can generate at the local level. This precludes the translation of information into actionable knowledge. We have co-developed, tested, and scaled out the Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (LTAC) approach to assess, co-produce, translate and transfer climate information to enable agricultural decision-making. Through LTAC users access information about climate variations at multiple timescales, understand how these can affect crops, and design measures to reduce crop loss. We systematically describe their process of evidence generation, partner engagement, scaling up, and monitoring.Co-designed between CCAFS scientists and 420+ institutions in 11 countries in LAM, the LTACs are now reaching 501,000 farmers (ref.1) in a comprehensive Climate Risk Management (CRM) strategy from the local to the national and regional levels, as follows, * Colombia: 15 LTACs deliver tailored agroclimatic information to 224,000 farmers in a climate service network of 140+ institutions; * Guatemala: 19 LTAC covers the entire country territory and 90+ institutions deliver advisory to 37,000 farmers; * Honduras: 12 LTAC reaches 77,000 farmers with 90+ institutions involved; * Other countries: in Mexico, El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, 163,000 farmers receive information from 190+ organizations.The participatory nature and diverse composition of LTAC at the territorial level (i.e.,public sector, NGOs-private sector, farmers-civil society among other types of institutions) allowed the generation of a powerful governance structure for rural development (ref.2) and community-level resilience. In Guatemala, next users apply gender-and youth-sensitive communication of climate services within their organizations (~79% of the institutions with gender/youth programs) and with farmers' groups. In a country with a poor situation of gender equality, climate services are helping to close the gap of access to information to vulnerable groups including women (30% of farmers) and indigenous (30%). Confidence in climatic information, a major transformation area reported (ref.3), has incrementally grown and about 88% of users perceive that the rainfall forecast is correct in the previous seasons, showing confidence in its use in decision-making (ref.4). The NextGen forecast system developed by IRI-CCAFS scientists has been key for this purpose (ref.5). The development of LTACs in countries such as those mentioned has led to a sphere of political influence causing their institutionalization in  or their inclusion in the National Determined Contributions (NDC) in the case of Colombia (ref.8). Julian Ramirez-Villegas, Senior Scientist on Climate Impacts, CCAFS, CIAT. j.r.villegas@cgiar.org; Carlos Navarro-Racines, Associate Researcher, CCAFS, CIAT, c.e.navarro@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"668"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a4980ff73eaadf2c54513d6bfb1001e2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dfc8cb05-8cda-4974-b3cc-b4ec49ab2d9e/retrieve","id":"1918780743"},"keywords":["dual purpose cowpea","haulm fodder quality","multi-dimensional crop improvement","heritability of haulm traits","cowpea fodder","groundnut fodder"],"sieverID":"941e9f0c-3661-44d0-a64e-390f87f4e552","pagecount":"9","content":"Cowpea is an important legume crop in Africa, valued highly for its grain and also haulms, which are a tradable commodity in fodder markets. Fodder market surveys in Northern Nigeria showed that groundnut haulms were priced higher than cowpea haulms, probably because of their superior nutritive value. The economic value of haulms has prompted cowpea breeders and livestock nutritionists to explore haulm fodder traits as additional selection and breeding criteria. Fifty cowpea genotypes cultivated across five locations in Nigeria in 2013 and 2014 were evaluated for food fodder traits. Significant (P < 0.05) genotypic dependent variations were observed in yields (kg/ha) of grains (537-1082) and haulms (1173-3368), though significant (P < 0.05) effects of location and year were observed. Grain and fodder yield had a tendency to be positively correlated (r = 0.26, P = 0.07). Haulms were analyzed for nitrogen (N), fiber fractions, in vitro digestibility, and metabolizable energy content. Highly significant variations were observed in all genotypic and livestock nutrition traits, although location and year had significant effects. Trade-offs between grain yield and haulm fodder quality traits were largely absent and haulm acid detergent lignin and grain yield were even inversely correlated (r = 0.28, P = 0.05), that is high grain yielders had decreased haulm lignin. However, haulm N and grain yield also tended to be negatively associated (r = 0.26, P = 0.07). Haulm fodder quality traits and haulm yield were mostly positively correlated (P < 0.05). Broad sense heritabilities for grain and fodder yield were 0.50 and 0.29, respectively, while heritability for haulm fodder quality traits ranged from 0.61 to 0.67, providing opportunities for concomitant increase in grain yield and haulm fodder quality traits. Selection of the 10 highest ranking genotypes for grain yield, haulm yield, haulm N, and haulm in vitro organic matter digestibility showed selection groups overlapping, suggesting that multi-trait selection is feasible. Economical evaluation showed that choice of primary traits is context specific, highlighting the need for identifying and targeting appropriate genotypes to fit different production systems. Considering haulm quantity and quality as traits of economic value can increase overall plant value in mixed crop-livestock systems.Legumes are important crops of mixed crop-livestock systems, providing highly nutritious food in their grains and highly palatable fodder in their haulms while at the same time contributing to soil fertility through nitrogen fixation (Alemayehu, 1997). Among the legumes, cowpea is a major crop in Africa which accounts for over 95% of the global production, with West Africa being the major regional producer. Promoting the use of cowpea as a dual-purpose crop, providing both grain and fodder, is attractive in mixed crop-livestock systems where land, water and fodder are becoming increasingly scarce and where fodder shortage can become severe, especially in the dry season (Tarawali et al., 1997). While cowpea area and production in West Africa over the last 5 years (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) have shown steady annual growth rates of 2.32 and 0.74%, respectively, yield per ha has declined at a rate of 1.53% (FAOSTAT, 2014). Thus, while Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso are ranked as the first, second and third largest producers of cowpeas globally, the yield per ha in the West Africa region is less than 20% of the average yield of the five top most producing countries (FAOSTAT, 2014). Forecasts by Abate et al. (2012) for the period of 2007-2030 predict that in West and Central Africa the supply rate of cowpea (2.6%) will continue to grow more slowly than the demand rate (2.7%). Thus, the need and scope for improving the productivity of cowpea in West Africa through breeding and management is urgent, with substantial potential impacts on food and fodder security and, consequently, livelihoods in the region. Projections suggest that by 2050 more than 80% of the population of West Africa will live in rain-fed mixed crop-livestock systems (Thornton et al., 2002), where cowpea is an important crop. Cowpea haulms are already an important fodder source for livestock in crop-livestock systems in the Sahel regions of West Africa where feed scarcity and seasonality is the major constraint to improved livestock production (Agyemang, 2002). The increasing demand for livestock product will further increase feed and fodder demand and the shrinking arable land and water resources will raise the importance of by-products like legume haulms as fodder sources even more (Blümmel et al., 2012a). Ex ante assessments of the impact of cowpea varieties concomitantly improved for grain and haulm yield and haulm fodder quality suggested multiple benefits and high likely adoption rate of such varieties (Kristjanson et al., 2005). A wide body of work exists showing that concomitant improvement for grain and straw yield and straw quality is feasible in cereals such as barley, maize, rice, sorghum, and pearl millet (Sharma et al., 2010;Blümmel et al., 2012a;Ertiro et al., 2013a,b). Similarly, for groundnut, Nigam and Blümmel (2010), Prasad et al. (2010) and Blümmel et al. (2012b) reported the potential for concomitant improvement of grain yield, haulm yield and haulm fodder quality. Less information is available in cowpea. The present work therefore explores: (1) lessons from legume haulm fodder trading; (2) genotypic variations in grain and haulm yield and haulm fodder quality traits in 50 genotypes of cowpea; (3) the stability of traits across years and locations; (4) trait relationships and tradeo s; and (5) opportunities of multi-trait improvement of cowpea.A survey of five fodder markets across Kano state in Nigeria was carried out over 2 years in 2009 and 2010 to understand the seasonality, price structure and price quality relationships in cowpea and groundnut haulms, legumes widely cultivated and traded in Northern Nigeria. The surveys were carried out monthly by visiting fodder markets in Ladi, Gujungu, Garki, Gezawa, and Badume. At the markets, haulm bundles of di erent sizes varied in price and similar size bundles in same period and market were priced di erently due to quality di erences perceived by their visual appearance. To account for the di erences in quality, the survey teams graded the bundles into categories based on the leaf and stem proportion and color and recorded their prices. A total of 200 observations of the price of haulms and 163 observations of the price of grains were collected during the survey. Haulm bundles were weighed and the samples were collected, dried, ground through 1 mm sieve and analyzed for fodder quality traits using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).Fifty cowpea breeding lines selected from IITA nurseries were tested for food and fodder traits. In 2013 and 2014 the lines were grown at five locations representing four agro ecologies: (i) Sahel (Malamadori, Jigawa State in Nigeria and Magaria and Maradi in Niger Republic), (ii) the Sudan Savanna (Minjibir, Kano State in Nigeria), (iii) the Northern Guinea Savanna (Shika, Kaduna State in Nigeria), and (iv) Forest Savannah Transition (Ibadan, Oyo State, in Nigeria). In both years, the experiments were implemented at Malamadori, Minjibir, Shika, and Ibadan. Magaria was added in 2013 while Maradi was added in 2014. A randomized complete block design with three replications was used. The experimental plots consisted of four rows of 4 m length with spacing of 0.75 m between rows and 0.20 m within rows. 100kg/ha of NPK were applied before planting or immediately after planting. Two to three hand weeding and three to four insecticide sprays was applied as soon as weed and insect infestations reached recommended intervention levels. The list of tested genotypes is as follows -Danila, IT00K-1148, IT00K-1263, IT00K-835-45, IT00K-898-5, IT00K-901-5, IT03K-316-1, IT03K-324-9, IT03K-351-1, IT03K-378-4, IT04K-227-4, IT06K-147-1, IT06K-270,IT06K-275, IT06K-335-9, IT07K-279-13, IT07K-291-69, IT07K-318-2, IT90K-277-2,IT95K-1072-57, IT96D-610, IT97K-1042-3, IT97K-1069-6, IT97K-1101-5, IT97K-131-1,IT97K-390-2, IT97K-499-35, IT97K-568-18, IT98D-1399, IT98K-1092-2, IT98K-1103-13,IT98K-1263, IT98K-128-3, IT98K-131-2, IT98K-166-4, IT98K-205-8, IT98K-412-13,IT98K-491-4, IT98K-503-1, IT98K-506-1, IT98K-589-2, IT98K-628, IT99K-216-44, IT99K-377-1, IT99K-494-6, IT99K-529-1, IT99K-529-2, IT99K-573-1-1, IT99K-573-2-1, and IT99K-7-22-2-2.Fodder samples from the test lines were collected in paper bags at grain maturity and oven dried in Ibadan or sundried in the other locations. Dried haulms were ground to pass through a 1 mm mesh. All cowpea haulm samples were analyzed for nitrogen (N), neutral (NDF) and acid (ADF) detergent fiber, acid detergent lignin (ADL), in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and metabolizable energy (ME) content by NIRS, using a NIRS equation specifically developed for cowpea haulms. Nitrogen represents the protein content (crude protein = N ⇥ 6.25), while IVOMD represents the potential digestibility of the fodder and is negatively a ected by the structural carbohydrates components (NDF, ADF, and ADL). The ME content of fodder estimates the energy available to the animal after accounting for fecal, urinary and methane losses. Nitrogen, IVOMD and ME are positive fodder nutritional quality traits while NDF, ADF, and ADL are negative ones.The SAS 9.4 (SAS, 2012) statistical package was used for analysis of variance (ANOVA) by general linear model (PROC GLM). The model for the randomized complete block design was Y ijk = µ+G i +E j +T k +GE ij +TE jk +GT ik +e ijk , where µ is the mean, G i the e ect of ith genotype, E j the e ect of jth environment, T k is e ect of kth year, GE ij is the interaction of ith genotype with jth environment, TE jk the interaction of the kth year with jth environment, GT ik the interaction of ith genotype with kth year and e ijk the random error. Comparison of means between treatments was determined using Fisher's least significance di erence (LSD) test at 5% level of significance. Simple correlations among laboratory traits were calculated by PROC CORR. Estimation of heritability and the variance components of the traits were determined using mixed model with restricted maximum likelihood (REML) and PROC VARCOMP.Cowpea haulms were sold in bundles of small size (3.8-5.5 kg), while groundnut haulms were sold in bundles of three sizes: small (5-6 kg), medium (11.5-12.5 kg), and large (16-18 kg). Groundnut haulms were available throughout the year in contrast to cowpea haulms, which were available only between January and August. The price of cowpea haulms in small bundles varied between 110 and 160 Naira (0.95-1.06 USD), with an average of 135 Naira (0.89 USD), whereas prices for small bundles of groundnut haulms varied from 400 to 1400 Naira (2.65-9.27 USD) with an average of 620 Naira (4.11 USD). The prices for medium and large bundles of groundnut haulm ranged between 1200 and 2000 Naira (7.95-13.25 USD) with an average of 1678 Naira (11.11 USD) and between 1500 and 3200 Naira (9.93-21.19 USD) with an average of 2440 Naira (16.16 USD), respectively.Small bundles of groundnut haulms were more often available in the market than medium and large ones. Within haulms of the same crop and bundle size, price di ered due to perceived visual quality di erences. After discussions with the fodder market actors, the survey team graded the haulms into six categories with green and leafy as the best category followed by very good, good, green and stemmy, sun damaged, and rain damaged.Mean price of cowpea haulms per kg was lower than of groundnut haulms and the price ratio of grain to haulm was much higher in cowpea (3.5 versus 1.1) than in groundnut (Table 1). Laboratory fodder quality traits of cowpea haulms were inferior to those of groundnut haulms. Haulm N content was significantly (P < 0.01) lower (2.0 versus 2.4%), and NDF content was significantly (P < 0.01) higher (59.9 versus 49.3 %) in cowpea compared to groundnut haulms (Table 2). Similarly, ADF and ADL tended to be higher and IVOMD and ME tended to be lower in cowpea haulms compared to groundnut haulms.Mean grain yields of cowpea across genotypes varied 2.01-fold, while the variations across locations and years were 2.09 and 1.09, respectively. Among the locations, Ibadan representing the forest transition zone recorded the highest yields followed by Minjibir (Sudan savanna region), Shika (Northern Guinea savanna region), Malamadori and Magaria, with the latter both located in the Sahel region (Table 3). Highly significant (P < 0.0001) genotypic di erences were observed in grain yield but location and year had highly significant (P < 0.01 to P < 0.0001) e ects (Table 4). Interactions between genotype, location, and year for grain yield and yields of N, IVOMD and ME were also significant, with most consistent interactions observed for location ⇥ year (Table 4).Greatest haulm yields were observed in Shika followed by Minjibir, Malamadori, Ibadan, and Magaria (Table 3). Highly significant (P < 0.0001) genotypic di erences were observed for haulm yield but location and year had highly significant (P < 0.01 to P < 0.0001) e ects (Table 4). Interactions between genotype, location and years were also significant, with most consistent interactions observed for location ⇥ year (Table 4). The broad sense heritability estimate for grain yield was moderate (h 2 = 0.50) and low (h 2 = 0.29) for haulm yield (Table 4).Some haulm fodder quality traits have positive relations to livestock nutrition, such as N, ME, and IVOMD, which should be high or negative, such as for the fiber fractions NDF, ADF, and ADL, which should be low. Across locations and years di erences in fodder quality traits observed between genotypes were greatest for N followed by fiber constituents and finally IVOMD and ME (Table 3). Highly significant (P < 0.0001) variations were observed for all fodder quality traits (Table 4). Except for one case, interactions between genotype, location and years were  Across locations and years, grain yield and fodder yield tended to be (P = 0.07) positively correlated (Table 5). Haulm fodder quality traits and grain yields were largely unrelated, except for ADL which was significantly (P < 0.05) negatively correlated with grain yield. Correlation of fodder yield and quality attributes revealed that N and NDF were not significant. Haulm yields were significantly (P < 0.01) negatively correlated with ADF and ADL and positively correlated with IVOMD (P < 0.01) and ME (P < 0.05).Surveys of crop residues sold in fodder markets can yield important information for crop improvement (Blümmel and Rao, 2006;Sharma et al., 2010;Teufel et al., 2010). The fact that crop residues are a tradable commodity and constitute a value chain requiring collection from the field, transport by middlemen and trading by wholesaler and retailers, is remarkable and challenges the notion of crop residues as minor by-products or even waste products. The cost of stover, straws, and haulms relative to the primary product of grains can inform crop improvement about whole plant value. Demand for fodder is high during the dry season and farmers in Nigeria may earn up to 25% of their annual income through sale of cowpea fodder (Dugje et al., 2009). As a proportion of income, the selling price of cowpea fodder may vary between 50 and 80% of the grain price (Singh et al., 2003). Importantly, changes in crop residue to primary product value alert crop improvement programs about changing demands and trait preferences (Blümmel and Rao, 2006;Sharma et al., 2010;Teufel et al., 2010). Price di erentiations within residues of specific crops, such as in sorghum stovers, wheat, and rice straws, traded at the same time and place, as observed by Blümmel and Rao (2006) and Teufel et al. (2010), suggest that crop residue fodder quality rather than only harvest indices needs to be considered in crop improvement programs (Sharma et al., 2010;Erenstein et al., 2013).In the current fodder market survey groundnut haulms were consistently priced higher than cowpea haulms and the value of the former relative to grain was 0.93 while that of the latter was 0.30. These findings are contrary to findings from fodder market surveys by Ayantunde et al. (2014) in Mali and Sapna et al. (2016a) in Niger, where cowpea haulms were always priced higher than groundnut haulms. However, in the current survey, the cowpea fodder quality traits of N, NDF, ADF, IVOMD, and ME where consistently inferior to those of groundnut haulms (Table 2), whereas the reverse was true in the Mali and Niger surveys (Ayantunde et al., 2014;Sapna et al., 2016a). Further Sapna et al. (2016a) reported that feed and fodder prices were significantly (P < 0.05) correlated with key laboratory fodder quality traits with nitrogen, ME IVOMD, and NDF. The findings from Nigeria, Mali, and Niger are therefore consistent in suggesting that haulm fodder quality is the guiding principle for pricing. Accepting these premises, the following proposition can be made for cowpea improvement: the observed cowpea Estimates of broad sense heritabilities (h 2 ) are included. Data are probability levels for the ratio of effect mean square to the appropriate error mean square ( ⇤ P < 0.05, ⇤⇤ P < 0.01, ⇤⇤⇤ P < 0.001, ⇤⇤⇤⇤ P < 0.0001; NS: P > 0.05).haulm value of roughly 30% that of the cowpea grain could be increased if cowpea haulm quality could be increased to equal that of groundnut haulms.Very substantial variations were observed among the 50 genotypes in grain and haulm yields, which varied about threefold (Table 3). Observed grain yields, except for those at Magaria, generally agreed with other reports from Northern Nigeria where yields averaged 737 kg/ha with one application of insecticide at flowering time and 904 kg/ha with two applications (Ajeigbe and Singh, 2006). These studies report higher yields than the reported average grain yield of 465 kg/ha for West Africa (FAO, 2008) and the average of 265 kg/ha for farmers' field in Niger (JAICAF, 2009). Haulm yields in the present study were greater than the mean yields for nine cowpea varieties tested at Niamey, Niger (Atta et al., 2011). However, grain and haulm yields in all the locations in the current study were lower than the average yield of 1.3 tons and 2.5 tons/ha recorded for average grain and haulm yield, respectively, in farmers' field using IT89KD-288 a promising dual purpose variety in Nigeria (Singh et al., 2003). Yields of grains and haulms reaching close to 7 tons/ha each have been reported from Ethiopia (Ayana et al., 2013). It is important to point out that several sites in the current study, such as Magaria and Malamadori are within the Sahelian agro-ecology, which has characteristically low rainfall, poor soil fertility, and striga attack. These factors depress grain and haulm yields. The diversity in agro-ecological zones also explains the G ⇥ E e ects observed (Table 4). Overall pooled grain to haulm ratio was around 2.2, while the variation across the locations was wider (1.2-11.9) than across years (2.1-2.5). Narrower grain to haulm ratios of 0.73-1.00 have been reported for top ten accessions of cowpea bred specifically for high grain yields in Ethiopia where the grain yields were almost 4.6-6.5 times the yields obtained in the present study (Ayana et al., 2013). Similarly, significant di erences in grain yield among the 60 cowpea genotypes were reported by Dalsaniya et al. (2009).Significant G ⇥ E e ects was also observed for cowpea haulm fodder quality traits (see Tables 3 and 4) even though genotypic variations in fodder quality were always highly significant. Similar findings of significant e ects of genotype and genotype by location interactions on haulm yield were reported for nine varieties tested over two locations in Niamey by Atta et al. (2011).For di erences in laboratory fodder quality traits to matter, they need to be nutritionally significant for livestock (Sharma et al., 2010). Laboratory fodder quality traits are proxies since true fodder quality is ultimately only reflected in meat, milk and fiber production and draught power output. Laboratory analyses are indispensable short cuts because animal experimentation is unsuitable for routine feed quality investigations, particularly where many entries are involved as is the case for crop improvement (Sharma et al., 2010). Laboratory fodder quality traits used in the present work relate to key nutrient requirements of livestock such as protein and energy, while the cell wall constituents NDF, ADF, and ADL all contribute negatively to overall IVOMD and ME (Van Soest, 1994). In contrast to cereal crop residues, which generally fall short of the minimum N content of 1-1.2% needed for ruminant microbes to e ciently digest feed in the rumen, legume haulms contain much more than the minimum N and can therefore serve as supplements to cereal crop residues. Nitrogen content of the haulms in the present study ranged from 1.8 to 3.0%, similar to reported values of 2.3 by FAO (1981), 1.3-3.5 by Kaasschieter et al. (1998), and 2.4-3.5 by Anele et al. (2011). Where legume haulms are mainly used as supplements, exploitable variations in N content would be of primary interest. Cowpea haulm N content varied with genotype by 1.7-fold (Table 3), or by one percentage point, itself equivalent to the minimum microbial N requirement. Thus, if cowpea haulms were used to supplement cereal stover containing 0.60% N to reach a dietary content of 1.1% N, the diet would need to contain only 26% cowpea haulms with a N content of 2.5%, in contrast to a diet of 56% haulms if they contained only 1.5% N. Such di erences have huge implication in practical feeding and economics. While, haulm N tended to be inversely associated (r = 0.26, P = 0.07) with grain yield (Table 5), an association also observed in groundnut (Blümmel et al., 2012b), the relationship was weak and haulm N content of about 2.4% can be realized without seriously jeopardizing grain yield. Significant variation in average IVOMD of cowpea haulms across genotypes, locations and years were observed (Table 3). An ex ante assessment by Kristjanson and Zerbini (1999) postulated that a one percent increase in digestibility of sorghum/pearl millet stover would lead to 6-8% greater outputs in milk, meat or draught power. This ex ante assessment was broadly supported by fodder market studies of sorghum stover reporting that a one percent unit increase in IVOMD was associated with a stover price premium of about 5% (Blümmel and Rao, 2006). Anandan et al. (2010) showed that feeding total mixed  rations di ering only in the quality of the basal sorghum stover (IVOMD of 47 and 52%, respectively) resulted in di erential milk potential of 5 kg per day in dairy bu alo. In other words, di erences in IVOMD of 3-5% units are important to livestock productivity. Approaches to multi-trait selection in cowpea are presented in Figures 1-4 that depict selections for either high grain or haulm yield with selection for high N and IVOMD. Overlap always occurred among the 10 highest performers in each category. In other words, selections were never exclusive. Among the 50 screened genotypes, selection of the top ten grain and haulms yielders both resulted in three genotypes-IT07K-291-69, IT06K-270, and IT98K-412-13 with both high grain and haulm yields that could potentially to be recommended as dual-purpose genotypes for adoption by farmers. While the very highest grain and haulm yielders did not have the highest haulm N or IVOMD, they were better than the average in haulm fodder quality. The grain: haulm price ratio in cowpea reported in Table 1 suggests that grain yield should be the primary trait in cowpea improvement. Grain and haulm yields only tended (P = 0.07) to be positively associated (r = 0.26), which agrees with the association observed by Grings et al. (2012) of r = 0.27. Such relationship is too weak to automatically increase haulm yield with selection for grain yield, and therefore haulm yield needs to be targeted as additional trait. In fact, it is conceivable that haulm yield might become the primary trait with an altered grain: haulm price ratio. To illustrate the likely impact of this e ect, income from the top three lines with either highest grain and/or highest haulm yields were used to calculate income from sale of grains and haulms at constant grain prices of 97 Naira (0.64 USD) per kg across Nigeria, Niger, and Mali. The price ratio of grain to haulm of 3.5:1 obtained in the market survey in Northern Nigeria was used for Nigeria while the price ratio of 2.4:1 reported by Sapna et al. (2016b) was used for Niger and the 0.6:1 reported by Ayantunde et al. (2014) was used for Mali. Results of the calculations show that a mere change in price ratio of grain to straw for the highest grain yielders improved the total income by 1.1 and 2.8 fold in Niger and Mali, respectively and for the highest haulm yielders the total income increased by 1.2 and 2.4 in Niger and Mali, respectively (Table 6). Apart from the changes in the income, changes in price ratios of grain to straw resulted in changes in income from haulms to grains. In general, the proportional income from haulms increased with a lower price ratio of grain to straw (Table 6). Thus in Niger and Mali income from cowpea cropping could be greater from cultivars with haulm yield as the primary and grain yield as the secondary trait.There are more opportunities for whole plant value optimization through multi-trait cowpea improvement. It is highly likely that the reason for the higher prices of groundnut compared to cowpea haulms observed in Nigerian fodder markets (Table 1) resides in the higher haulm fodder quality of groundnut haulms (Table 2) in these markets. The fact that the reverse was true for fodder markets in Niger (Sapna et al., 2016a) and Mali (Ayantunde et al., 2014), that is cowpea haulms were more expensive than groundnut haulms with cowpea haulms having superior fodder quality, is suggestive of \"fodder quality\" playing a decisive role in pricing. In the present work, the average N content of traded cowpea and groundnut haulms was 2.0 and 2.4%, respectively (Table 2). The findings in Figures 1 and 3 shows that cowpea lines exist that have 2.4% nitrogen in the haulms without serious trade-o s in grain or haulm yields. The same holds true for haulm IVOMD where cowpea line exists that surpass those found in traded groundnut haulms without serious trade-o s with grain or haulm yields (see Figures 2 and 4 and compare with Table 2). If such cowpea haulms could be sold at groundnut haulm prices, the overall value of the cowpea plant would substantially increase with a greater proportion of income coming from haulm sales.Given the fact that cowpea is a major legume crop cultivated in West Africa with an ability to meet food, feed and fertilizer needs through grain, fodder and nitrogen enrichment, greater emphasis is required for the development of full purpose cowpea genotypes. Absence of a negative correlation between grain and fodder yields; positive correlations between grain/fodder yield and fodder quality attributes coupled with wide variations in yield and fodder quality attributes in tested cowpea lines provides the ideal conditions for developing full purpose cowpea genotypes. Demand domains for cowpea in terms of yields of grains, haulms, quality of haulms and potential economic consequences are quite variable across the West Africa region. Understanding the demand domains and matching the cowpea lines specific to a particular domain is key to improving the economics of cowpea cropping. The availability of full purpose cowpea genotypes with multi-traits vis-à-vis conventional breeding approaches to promote superior grain or haulm lines o ers wider scope over a larger domain and user base. The growing demand for livestock products along with feed shortage in the West African region calls for greater attention by cowpea breeders and livestock nutritionists to collaborate on exploiting the existing genetic variation in yields and fodder quality attributes of cowpea to improve incomes and livestock productivity. This will lead to better crop and livestock integration, which is so important in West Africa.MB, IO, OB, CF, and AS designed the research. OB and CF were involved in the field trails and interpretation of agronomic data. EG and IO were involved in designing, conducting, and interpreting the market survey. PK was involved in the fodder quality analysis and its interpretation. RD was involved in the statistical analysis and its interpretation. MB and AS were involved in the writing of manuscript with contributions from all co-authors.","tokenCount":"4621"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e38f1a6f1ad8d912532f7a710a057fb3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3906dcd5-c103-4921-977b-a16d73d8f630/retrieve","id":"1818295454"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d0e75c80-6622-4b9f-91c0-ae967dc7cbcd","pagecount":"31","content":"This paper presents the R package PlackettLuce, which implements a generalization of the Plackett-Luce model for rankings data. The generalization accommodates both ties (of arbitrary order) and partial rankings (complete rankings of subsets of items). By default, the implementation adds a set of pseudo-comparisons with a hypothetical item, ensuring that the underlying network of wins and losses between items is always strongly connected. In this way, the worth of each item always has a finite maximum likelihood estimate, with finite standard error. The use of pseudo-comparisons also has a regularization effect, shrinking the estimated parameters towards equal item worth. In addition to standard methods for model summary, PlackettLuce provides a method to compute quasi standard errors for the item parameters. This provides the basis for comparison intervals that do not change with the choice of identifiability constraint placed on the item parameters. Finally, the package provides a method for modelbased partitioning using covariates whose values vary between rankings, enabling the identification of subgroups of judges or settings with different item worths. The features of the package are demonstrated through application to classic and novel data sets.Rankings data arise in a range of applications, such as sport tournaments and consumer studies. In rankings data, each observation is an ordering of a set of items. A classic model for such data is the Plackett-Luce model, which stems from Luce's axiom of choice (Luce 1959(Luce , 1977)). This axiom states that the odds of choosing one item, i 1 , over another, i 2 , do not depend on the other items available for selection in that choice.Suppose we have a set of J items S = {i 1 , i 2 , . . . , i J }.Under Luce's axiom, the probability of selecting some item i j from S is given bywhere α i ≥ 0 represents the worth of item i. The worth is a latent characteristic, with higher values indicating that an item is more likely to be selected. In practice, it could represent the ability of an athlete or the attractiveness of a product, for example.A ranking of J items can be viewed as a sequence of independent choices: first choosing the top-ranked item from all items, then choosing the second-ranked item from the remaining items and so on. Let a b denote that a is ranked higher than b. It follows from Luce's axiom that the probability of the ranking iwhere A j is the set of alternatives {i j , i j+1 , . . . , i J } from which item i j is chosen. The above model is also derived in Plackett (1975), hence the name Plackett-Luce model.In this paper, we present the R package PlackettLuce (Turner et al. 2019). This package implements an extension of the Plackett-Luce model that allows for ties in the rankings. The model can be applied to either complete or partial rankings (complete rankings of subsets of items). PlackettLuce offers a choice of algorithms to fit the model via maximum likelihood. Pseudo-rankings, i.e. pairwise comparisons with a hypothetical item, are used to ensure that the item worths always have finite maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) with finite standard error. Methods are provided to obtain different parameterizations with corresponding standard errors or quasistandard errors (that do not change with the identifiability constraint). There is also a method to fit Plackett-Luce trees, which partition the rankings by covariate values to identify subgroups with distinct Plackett-Luce models.In the next section, we review the available software for modelling rankings and make comparisons with PlackettLuce. Then in Sect. 3 we describe the Plackett-Luce model with ties and the methods implemented in the package for model-fitting and inference. Plackett-Luce trees are introduced in Sect. 4, before we conclude the paper with a discussion in Sect. 5.First, in Sect. 2.1, we consider software to fit the standard Plackett-Luce model. Then in Sect. 2.2, we review the key packages in terms of their support for features beyond fitting the standard model. Finally in Sect. 2.3 we review software implementing alternative models for rankings data and discuss how these approaches compare with the Plackett-Luce model.Sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 describe two ways the Plackett-Luce model can be fitted with standard statistical software. Section 2.1.3 reviews packages that have been specifically developed to fit the Plackett-Luce model or a related genralization. The performance of the key packages for R are compared in Sect. 2.1.4.Each choice in the ranking can be considered as a multinomial observation, with one item observed out of a possible set. The \"Poisson trick\" (see, for example, Baker 1994) expresses these multinomial observations as counts (one or zero) of each possible outcome within each choice. For example, the ranking {item 3} {item 1} {item 2} is equivalent to two multinomial observations: {item 3} from {item 1, item 2, item 3} and {item 1} from {item 2, item 3}. These observations are expressed as counts as follows:The Plackett-Luce model is then equivalent to a log-linear model of count, with choice included as a nuisance factor to ensure the multinomial probabilities sum to one, and the dummy variables for each item (item 1, item 2, item 3) included to estimate the item worth parameters.As a result, the Plackett-Luce model can be fitted using standard software for generalized linear models (GLMs). However, expanding the rankings to counts of each possible choice is a non-standard task. Also, the choice factor will have many levels: greater than the number of rankings, for rankings of more than two objects. A standard GLM fitting function such as glm in R will be slow to fit the model, or may even fail as the corresponding model matrix will be too large to fit in memory. This issue can be circumvented by \"eliminating\" the nuisance choice factor, by taking advantage of the diagonal submatrix that would appear in the Fisher Information matrix to compute updates without requiring the full design matrix. This feature is available, for example, in the gnm function from the R package gnm (Turner and Firth 2018). Even then, the model-fitting may be relatively slow, given the expansion in the number of observations when rankings are converted to counts. This issue is exacerbated when ties are allowed, since the number of possible outcomes increases quickly with the number of items.For complete rankings, the probability in Eq. ( 1) is equivalent to that for a special case of the rank-ordered logit model or exploded logit model (Allison and Christakis 1994). This model assumes a certain utility U ri for each item i and respondent r , which is modelled asHere μ ri may be decomposed into a linear function of explanatory variables, while the { ri } are independent and identically distributed with an extreme value distribution. The standard Plackett-Luce model is then given by a rank-ordered logit model with U ri = log(α i ) + ri . Allison and Christakis (1994) demonstrated that the rank-ordered logit model can be estimated by fitting a Cox proportional hazards model with equivalent partial likelihood. Therefore, specialist software is not required to fit the model. Software such as the rologit function in Stata or the rologit function from the R package ROlogit (Tan et al. 2017) provide wrappers to methods for the Cox proportional hazards model, so that users do not have to specify the equivalent survival model.Compared to the log-linear approach, the rank-ordered logit model has the advantage that the ranks can be modelled directly without expanding into counts. Nonetheless, the model fitting requires a dummy variable for each item and a stratification factor for each unique ranking. Therefore, the estimation becomes slow with a high number of items and/or unique rankings.Several software packages have been developed to model rankings data, which provide specialized functions to fit the Plackett-Luce model. Rather than re-expressing the model so that it can be estimated with a standard modelling function, these specialized functions take a direct approach to fitting the Plackett-Luce model.One such approach is Hunter's (2004) minorization-maximization (MM) algorithm to maximize the likelihood of the observed data under the Plackett-Luce model. This algorithm is used by the R package StatRank and is one of the algorithms available in the Python package choix (Maystre 2018). Alternatively the likelihood can be maximised directly using a generic optimisation method such as the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) algorithm. This is another option offered by choix and is the method used in the R packages pmr (Lee and Yu 2015) and hyper2 (Hankin 2019). A third option offered by choix is the \"Luce spectral algorithm\", which in a single iteration (LSR) gives a close approximation to the MLEs and may be used iteratively (I-LSR) to give a maximum likelihood solution (Maystre and Grossglauser 2015).In addition, a number of algorithms have been proposed to fit Plackett-Luce mixture models. These models assume the rankings are observations from G subgroups, each with a distinct Plackett-Luce model. The group membership probabilities are estimated as part of the model-fitting. Therefore, software to fit Plackett-Luce mixture models can be used fit the standard Plackett-Luce model by fixing the number of groups, G, to be one. The R package mixedMem (Wang and Erosheva 2015) implements a variational Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm, which returns MLEs in the case of a single group. The R package PLMIX (Mollica and Tardella 2014, 2017, 2020) uses a Bayesian framework and offers the choice to maximize the posterior distribution via an EM algorithm, which reduces to the MM algorithm with noninformative hyperparameters, or to simulate the posterior distribution using Markov-chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC) techniques.PlackettLuce offers both iterative scaling, which is equivalent to the MM algorithm for the standard Plackett-Luce model, and generic optimization using either BFGS or a limited memory variant (L-BFGS) via the R package lbfgs package (Coppola et al. 2014).Even using specialized software, the time taken to fit a Plackett-Luce model can scale poorly with the number of items and/or the number of rankings. Table 1 shows some example run times for fitting the Plackett-Luce model with specialized software available in R, including ROlogit for comparison. The run times are presented for three different data sets taken from the PrefLib library of preference data (Mattei and Walsh 2013). The data sets are selected to represent a range of features, as summarised in Table 2.As expected, ROlogit, based on R's coxph function, shows a marked drop in performance when the number of unique rankings is high. A similar drop off is seen for hyper2 where the time is spent specifying the likelihood function for each unique ranking. Although StatRank uses an MM algorithm, the same as used by Placket-tLuce and PLMIX in these benchmarks, it shows poor performance for a moderate number of items (≥ 10) and/or a high number of unique rankings. Similarly pmr which uses the same optimization method as hyper2 becomes impractical to use with a moderate number of items.Clearly, the details of the implementation are as important as the estimation method used. PlackettLuce copes well with these moderately-sized data sets and is comparable to mixedMem. PlackettLuce is faster than mixedMem on the Netflix data as it can work with aggregated unique rankings. PLMIX is consistently fast; the superior performance over PlackettLuce when both the number of items and the number of unique rankings is high can be explained by its core functionality being implemented in C++ rather than pure R code. So far, we have compared packages in terms of their ability to fit the standard Plackett-Luce model. In practice, rankings data can have features that require a generalization of the standard model, or that can cause issues with maximum likelihood estimation. In addition, not all packages provide facilities for inference on the estimated item worths.In this section, we compare the key packages for fitting the Plackett-Luce model in terms of their ability to meet these additional requirements.As the number of items increases, it is typically more common to observe partial rankings than complete rankings. Partial rankings can be of two types: subset rankings, where subsets of items are completely ranked in each observation, and top n rankings, where the top n items are selected and the remaining items are unranked, but implicitly ranked lower than the top n. Both types can be accommodated by the Plackett-Luce model but imply a different form for the likelihood. For subset rankings, the set of alternatives in the denominator of (1) will only comprise remaining items from the subset of items in the current ranking. For top n rankings the set of alternatives is always the full set of items minus the items that have been selected so far in the current ranking.Given this difference in the likelihood, implementations tend to support only one type of partial ranking. PlackettLuce and choix handle subset rankings only, while PLMIX, ROlogit and mixedMem handle top n rankings only. The documentation for StatRank suggests that it supports subset rankings, but we were unable to validate such support. hyper2 can handle both types of partial ranking, since it requires the All rankings are unique likelihood to be specified for each observation. However, hyper2 provides a utility function for subset rankings making these easier to fit with the package. Table 3 shows run times for fitting the Plackett-Luce model to the NASCAR subset rankings from Hunter (2004). These results illustrate that PlackettLuce is more efficient than hyper2 for modelling subset rankings of a relatively large number of items.ROlogit can handle tied ranks as tied survival times in the underlying Cox proportional hazards model. The ties are accommodated in the likelihood by summing over all possible strict rankings that could have resulted in the observed tie. This assumes that one of these strict rankings is correct, but a lack of precision means we observe a tie.However in some contexts, a tie is a valid outcome, for example, an equal number of goals in a sports match. As far as we are aware, PlackettLuce is the only software to model ties as an explicit outcome based on item worth, through an extension of the Plackett-Luce model described in Sect. 3.In order to conduct frequentist inference on the item parameters, it is necessary to compute standard errors. The only packages based on maximum likelihood estimation with this functionality are PlackettLuce and ROlogit. The computation of the variance-covariance matrix in PlackettLuce is currently based on the methodology for generalized linear models, so the rankings are internally expanded as counts as described in Sect. 2.1.1.PLMIX allows for a fully Bayesian inference based on the approximation of the posterior distribution.In some cases, the MLE does not exist, or has infinite standard error. This happens when the network of wins and losses implied by the rankings is not strongly connectedan issue explored further in Sect. 2.2.4. PlackettLuce ensures that the item worths can always be estimated by using pseudo-rankings. This approach can be viewed as incorporating a \"shrinkage\" prior as in a Bayesian analysis (but with estimation based on maximization of the posterior density). The choix package implements methods of regularization that have a similar effect.Since PLMIX uses a Bayesian framework that incorporates a prior, the package will always produce finite worth estimates.As noted in Sect. 2.1.3 PLMIX and mixedMem offer the facility to model heterogeneous rankings via mixture models, which allow for latent groups with different item worth. This is similar in spirit to the tree models offered by PlackettLuce, which define such groups through recursive binary splits on attributes of the judges or other variables that covary with the rankings. This partitioning approach does not rely on parametric assumptions, whereas the mixture models assume a heterogeneous sampling distribution.A summary of the features of the main software for Plackett-Luce models is given in Table 4. pmr and StatRank are not included as they do not support any of the features mentioned (with the possible exception of partial rankings in the case of StatRank, where the documented support could not be validated).Some of the software for Plackett-Luce models have features beyond the scope of PlackettLuce and these features are also included in Table 4. ROlogit can model the item worth as a linear function of covariates. hyper2 can handle rankings of combinations of items, for example, team rankings in sports. This feature is implemented by extending the Plackett-Luce model to describe the selection of a combination T j of items from the alternatives, that isAlthough we are focusing on the Plackett-Luce model in this paper, there are other approaches to modelling rankings data. This section reviews the main alternatives and the available implementations.For partial rankings of two items, i.e., paired comparisons, the Plackett-Luce model reduces to the Bradley-Terry model (Bradley and Terry 1952). Mallows' Bradley-Terry model (Mallows 1957) is an alternative way to extend the Bradley-Terry model for complete rankings. Each ranking is considered as a set of paired comparisons and their joint probability is modelled assuming independence, normalizing over all possible rankings. Mallows' Bradley-Terry model is implemented by the eba and prefmod packages for R (Wickelmaier and Schmid 2004;and Hatzinger and Dittrich 2012, respectively). Although both packages estimate item worths, neither eba nor prefmod provide methods for inference based on these estimates.The prefmod package implements Mallows' Bradley-Terry model as a special case of a wider class of pattern models, where a pattern is a set of paired comparisons considered simultaneously. Several extensions of the basic model are implemented in prefmod: allowing for dependencies between paired comparisons that involve the same item; allowing for ties and partial rankings; incorporating item, subject or order effects, and allowing for latent subject effects via mixture models. However, not all of these features can be combined. Specifically, item effects, subject effects due to continuous attributes, order effects and mixture models are not compatible with partial rankings. Partial rankings are implemented by treating unranked items as having missing ranks and all possible rankings including missing values must be considered. This means that the methods do not scale well to a large number of items (the package documentation suggests 8 items as a reasonable maximum).The Mallows distance-based model (Mallows 1957) does not model the worth of items, but rather a global ranking. Specifically, it models the modal ranking and a dispersion parameter, which describes how quickly the probability of a ranking decreases with increasing distance from the modal ranking. Extensions include the generalized Mallows model that allows a separate dispersion parameter for each free position in the ranking, which can give some indication of the relative worth. Standard and generalized versions of Mallows models are implemented in the pmr and PerMallows R packages (Irurozki et al. 2016).The rankdist R package implements mixtures of the standard Mallows model for complete or subset rankings via maximum likelihood (Qian and Yu 2019). The BayesMallow R package (Vitelli et al. 2018) implements mixtures of the standard Mallows model in a Bayesian framework. This has the advantage of facilitating inference on the global ranking (in each sub-population), e.g. 95% highest posterior density intervals on ranking position; probability of an item appearing in the top 10, etc. In addition, subset rankings, top n rankings, missing ranks and ties can all be accommodated in the Bayesian model. The Rankcluster package (Grimonprez and Jacques 2016) implements an alternative probabilistic model for rankings called the Insertion Sorting Rank model. This is based on a modal ranking and a parameter for the probability of a ranker making an implicit paired comparison consistent with the modal ranking. Heterogeneity is accommodated via a mixture model and the model can be applied to subset or top-n rankings. As the package name suggests, the focus is on clustering subjects by their modal ranking and the probability of membership, rather than inference on item worths.Table 5 provides an overview of software based on alternative models, compared to PlackettLuce.In this section, we describe and demonstrate the core features of the PlackettLuce package: modelling partial rankings with ties, conducting inference on the worth parameters, and handling ranking networks that are not strongly connected.The PlackettLuce package permits rankings of the formwhere the items in set C 1 are ranked higher than (better than) the items in C 2 , and so on. If there are multiple objects in set C j these items are tied in the ranking. To accommodate such ties, PlackettLuce models each choice in the ranking with the Davidson-Luce model as developed recently by Firth et al. (2019). For a set S, letwhere |S| is the cardinality of the set S, δ n is a parameter representing the prevalence of ties of order n (with δ 1 ≡ 1), and α i is the worth of item i. Then, the probability of a ranking R with ties up to order D is given by.(2)Here D j is the cardinality of A j , which is the set of items from which C j is chosen, and A j k denotes the set of all possible choices of k items from A j . The value of D can be set to the maximum number of tied items observed in the data, so that δ n = 0 for n > D.The scale of the worth parameters needs to be constrained for the parameters to be identifiable. PlackettLuce constrains the worth parameters to sum to one, so that they represent the probability that the corresponding item comes first in a ranking of all items, given that first place is not tied.The 2-way tie parameter δ 2 is related to the probability that two items of equal worth tie for first place, given that the first place is not a 3-way or higher tie. Specifically, that probability is δ 2 /(2 + δ 2 ). The 3-way and higher tie parameters are similarly interpretable, in terms of tie probabilities among equal-worth items.Further description of this general model for handling multi-item ties, including its origins and its most important properties, can be found in Firth et al. (2019).When each ranking contains only two items, the model in Eq. ( 2) reduces to the extended Bradley-Terry model proposed by Davidson (1970). In Davidson ((1970), Example 2), a case study is presented where respondents were asked to test two brands of chocolate pudding from a total of six brands. The results are provided as the pudding data set in PlackettLuce. For each pair of brands i and j, the data set gives the total number of paired comparisons (r i j ), along with the frequencies that brand i was preferred (w i j ), that brand j was preferred (w ji ) and that the brands were tied (t i j ). PlackettLuce(), the model-fitting function in PlackettLuce, requires each ranking to be specified by the numeric rank (1, 2, 3, . . .) assigned to each item. For the pudding data, it is easier to specify the ordering (winner, loser) initially. In particular, we can define the winner and loser for the three sets of paired comparions: the wins for brand i, the wins for brand j and the ties:R> i_wins <-data.frame(Winner = pudding$i, Loser = pudding$j) R> j_wins <-data.frame(Winner = pudding$j, Loser = pudding$i) R> ties <-data.frame(Winner = asplit(pudding[c(\"i\", \"j\")], 1), + Loser = rep(NA, 15)) R> head(ties, 2)In the last case, the base R function asplit() is used to split the i and j columns of pudding by row, giving a vector of items that we can specify as the winner, while the loser is missing.The combined orderings can be converted to numeric rankings using the as.rankings() function from PlackettLuce: R> pudding_rankings <-as.rankings(rbind(i_wins, j_wins, ties), + input = \"orderings\") R> head(pudding_rankings)[1] \"1 > 2\" \"1 > 3\" \"2 > 3\" \"1 > 4\" \"2 > 4\" \"3 > 4\" R> tail(pudding_rankings)[1] \"4 = 5\" \"1 = 6\" \"2 = 6\" \"3 = 6\" \"4 = 6\" \"5 = 6\"The result is an object of class \"rankings\". The print method displays the rankings in a readable form, indicating the ordering of the brands. However, the underlying data structure stores the rankings in the form of a matrix: R> head(unclass(pudding_rankings), 2)The six columns represent the pudding brands. In each row, 0 represents an unranked brand (not in the comparison), 1 represents the brand(s) ranked in first place and 2 represents the brand in second place, if applicable. PlackettLuce() will also accept rankings in this matrix form, which it will convert to a rankings object using as.rankings() with input = \"rankings\".To specify the full set of rankings, we need the frequency of each ranking, which will be specified to the model-fitting function as a weight vector: R> w <-unlist(pudding[c(\"w_ij\", \"w_ji\", \"t_ij\")])Now we can fit the model with PlackettLuce(), passing the rankings object and the weight vector as arguments. Setting npseudo = 0 means that standard maximum likelihood estimation is performed and maxit = 7 limits the number of iterations to obtain the same worth parameters as Davidson (1970):R> pudding_model <-PlackettLuce(pudding_rankings, weights = w, +npseudo = 0, maxit = 7)Warning in PlackettLuce(pudding_rankings, weights = w, npseudo = 0, maxit = 7): Iterations have not converged.R> coef(pudding_model, log = FALSE) 1 2 3 4 5 0.1388005 0.1729985 0.1617420 0.1653930 0.1586805 6 tie2 0.2023855 0.7468147Here we have specified log = FALSE to report the estimates in the parameterization of Eq. ( 2), with the worth parameters constrained to sum to one. In Sect. 2.2.3 we discuss why it is more appropriate to use the log scale for inference.As noted in Sect. 2.1.3, PlackettLuce() offers a selection of three fitting algorithms, which can be specified by setting the argument method to \"iterative scaling\", \"BFGS\" or \"L-BFGS\". Iterative scaling is the default because it is a reliable, albeit slow, method. Convergence is determined by direct comparison of the observed and expected values of the sufficient statistics for the parameters.The sufficient statistics are: for each item, the number of outright wins plus one nth of the number of n-way ties (n = 1, . . . , D); and for each tie of order n, the number of n-way ties. Assessing convergence by how close the sufficient statistics are to their expected value gives more control over the precision of the parameter estimates, compared to specifying a tolerance on the change in log-likelihood.Iterative scaling is slow because it does not use derivatives of the log-likelihood. However, PlackettLuce() uses Steffensen's method (see for example, Nievergelt 1991) to accelerate the algorithm when it gets close to the final solution.The BFGS and L-BFGS algorithms are implemented in PlackettLuce via the workhorse functions optim() (from base R) or lbfgs() (from lfbgs). Both algorithms use derivatives of the log-likelihood, therefore typically require fewer iterations than iterative scaling. However, BFGS approximates the Hessian matrix (matrix of second derivatives), which is computationally expensive, while L-BFGS uses past estimates of the first derivatives to avoid evaluating the Hessian. Overall then, L-BFGS typically has the quickest run time, followed by iterative scaling, then BFGS.A standard way to report model parameter estimates is to report them along with their corresponding standard error. This is an indication of the estimate's precision. However, implicitly this invites comparison with zero. Such comparison is made explicit in many summary methods for models in R, with the addition of partial t or Z tests. These are tests of the null hypothesis that a parameter is equal to zero, provided that the other parameters are in the model. However, this hypothesis is generally not of interest for the worth parameters in a Plackett-Luce model: we expect most items to have some worth, the question is whether the items differ in worth. Besides, when the worth parameters are constrained to sum to one, this constrains each parameter to lie between zero and one. A Z test based on asymptotic normality of the MLE is not appropriate for worth parameters near the limits, since it does not account for the constrained parameter space.On the log scale however, before identifiability constraints are applied, there are no bounds on the parameters. We can constrain the worth parameters by computing simple contrasts with a reference value. By default, the summary method for \"PlackettLuce\" objects contrasts with the worth of the first item (the first element of colnames(R)), which is equivalent to setting the worth parameter for that item to zero: The Z tests for the item parameters test the null hypothesis that the difference from the worth of item 1 is zero. None of the Z tests provide significant evidence against this hypothesis, which is consistent with the test for equal preferences presented in Davidson (1970). The tie parameter is also shown on the log scale here, but it is an integral part of the model rather than a parameter of interest for inference, and its scale is not as relevant as that of the worth parameters.The reference value for the item parameters can be changed via the ref argument, for example, setting to NULL sets the mean worth as the reference:Call: PlackettLuce(rankings = pudding_rankings, npseudo = 0, weights = w, maxit = 7) As shown by the two summaries of the model fitted to the pudding data in Sect. 3.2.1, the standard error of the item parameters changes with the reference level. In some cases, there will be a natural reference, for example, when comparing an own brand product with competing brands. When this is not the case, inference can depend on an arbitrary choice. This problem can be handled through the use of quasi standard errors (Firth and De Menezes 2004; see also Firth 2003) that remain constant for a given item regardless of the reference. In particular, the quasi standard error is not changed by setting an item as the reference, so even in cases where there is a natural reference, the uncertainty around the worth of that item can be represented. Quasi standard errors for the item parameters are implemented via a method for the qvcalc function from the qvcalc package: Again by default, the first item is taken as the reference, but this may be changed via the ref argument. The plot method for the returned object visualizes the item parameters (log worth parameters) along with comparison intervals: R> plot(pudding_qv, xlab = \"Brand of pudding\", + ylab = \"Worth (log)\", main = NULL)The output is shown in Fig. 1. There is evidence of a difference between any two item parameters if there is no overlap between the corresponding comparison intervals. The quasi-variances allow comparisons that are approximately correct, for every possible contrast among the parameters. The routine error report in the last two lines printed by summary(pudding_qv) tells us that, in this example, the approximation error has been very small: the approximation error for the standard error of any simple contrast among the parameters is less than 0.8%. Given a ranking of items, we can infer the wins and losses between pairs of items in the ranking. For example, the ranking {item 1} {item 3, item 4} {item 2}, implies that item 1 wins against items 2, 3 and 4; and items 3 and 4 win against item 2. These wins and losses can be represented as a directed network.For example, consider the following artificial set of paired comparisons: Here we have defined the paired comparisons as a matrix of numeric rankings, then used as.rankings() to create a formal rankings object (input is set to \"rankings\" by default). The as.rankings() function ensures that the rankings are coded as dense rankings, i.e. consecutive integers with no rank skipped for tied items; sets any rankings with less than two items to NA since these are uninformative, and adds item names if necessary.The adjacency() function from PlackettLuce can be used to convert these rankings to an adjacency matrix, where element (i, j) is the number of times item i is ranked higher than item j:A B C D A 0 1 0 1 B 1 0 1 0 C 1 0 0 0 D 0 0 0 0 attr(,\"class\") [1] \"adjacency\" \"matrix\" Using functions from the igraph R package (Csardi and Nepusz 2006) we can visualise the corresponding network (output shown in Fig. 2): A sufficient condition for the worth parameters (on the log scale) to have finite MLEs and standard errors is that the network is strongly connected (Hunter 2004). This means there is a path of wins and a path of losses between each pair of items. This condition is also necessary when there are no ties in the data.In our example data, A, B and C are strongly connected. For example, C directly loses against B; C never directly beats B, but C does beat A and A, in turn, beats B, so C indirectly beats B. Similar paths of wins and losses can be found for all pairs of A, B and C. On the other hand, D is only observed to lose, therefore the MLE of its log worth would be −∞, with infinite standard error.If one item always wins, the MLE of its log worth would be +∞ with infinite standard error. If the items form strongly connected clusters, that are not connected to each other, or connected only by wins or only by losses (weakly connected), then the maximum likelihood solution cannot be represented simply through a vector of relative worths. A variant of our artificial example illustrates this last point, through a pair of clusters that are not connected to one another:In this example, there is no information that allows the relative worths of items A and C to be estimated. While the within-cluster worth ratios α A /α B and α C /α D both have MLEs equal to 1 here, between-cluster ratios such as α A /α C are not estimable. When PlackettLuce() is applied to such a set of rankings, with argument npseudo = 0 to specify the use of maximum likelihood estimation, by design the result is an error message:R> try(PlackettLuce(disconnected_rankings, npseudo = 0))Error in PlackettLuce(disconnected_rankings, npseudo = 0) : Network is not fully connected -cannot estimate all item parameters with npseudo = 0The case of weakly connected clusters is similar. If, for example, a single further ranking \" A beats C\" is added to the example just shown, then the two clusters become weakly connected. The maximum likelihood solution in that case has αC / αA = αC / αB = αD / αA = αD / αB = 0, and requires the notion of a \"direction of recession\" (Geyer 2009) to describe it fully. This is beyond the scope of PlackettLuce(), which again by design gives an informative error message in such situations.The remainder of this section describes two distinct approaches to the use of PlackettLuce with disconnected networks: first, the separate analysis by maximum likelihood of an identified sub-network that is strongly connected within itself; and second, a general approach that uses pseudo-rankings to fully connect the network of items being compared.We return to the small \"toy\" set of rankings depicted in Fig. 2. The connectivity() function from PlackettLuce checks how connected the items are by the wins and losses recorded in the adjacency matrix:If the network of wins and losses is not strongly connected, information on the clusters within the network is returned. In this example, we might proceed by excluding item D: R> ABC_rankings <-ABCD_rankings [, -4] Rankings with only 1 item set to \"NA\" R> ABC_rankingsSince ABCD_rankings is a rankings object, the subset method checks the rankings are still valid after excluding item D. In this case, the paired comparison with item A only has one item left in the ranking, so it is set to NA.The handling of any rankings that are NA is determined by the na.action argument of PlackettLuce(). This is set to \"na.omit\" by default, so that missing rankings are dropped. In our example, the network corresponding to the remaining rankings is strongly connected, so the MLEs in the Plackett-Luce model all have finite worth estimates and standard errors: However, it is not necessary to exclude item D, since PlackettLuce provides a way to handle disconnected/weakly connected networks through the addition of pseudo-rankings. This works by adding wins and losses between each item and a hypothetical or ghost item with fixed worth, making the network strongly connected. This method has an interpretation as a Bayesian prior, in particular, an exchangeable prior in which all items have equal worth.The npseudo argument defines the number of wins and loses with the ghost item that are added for each real item. The larger npseudo is, the stronger the influence of the prior; by default npseudo is set to 0.5, so that each pseudo-ranking is weighted by 0.5. This fractional weight is enough to connect the network. Note that this weight is only applied to the pseudo-rankings, the weights argument defines the weights (frequencies) for the observed rankings.In this toy example, when we fit the model to the full data using pseudo-rankings the parameters for items B and C change quite considerably compared to the previous fit:This is because there are only 5 rankings, so weighting each pseudo-ranking by 0.5 gives them relatively large weight. In more realistic examples, with many rankings, the default prior will have a weak shrinkage effect, shrinking the items' worth parameters towards 1/J , where J is the number of items.Although it is only necessary to use pseudo-rankings when the network is not strongly connected, the default behaviour is always to use them (with a weight of 0.5). This is because the shrinkage that the pseudo-rankings deliver typically reduces both the bias and the variance of the estimators of the worth parameters.For a practical example of modelling rankings where the underlying network is weakly connected, we consider the NASCAR data from Hunter (2004) For example, in the first race, driver 83 came first, followed by driver 18 and so on. The names corresponding to the driver IDs are available as an attribute of nascar. We can provide these names when converting the orderings to rankings via the items argument: R> nascar_rankings <-as.rankings(nascar, input = \"orderings\", + items = attr(nascar, \"drivers\")) R> nascar_rankings[1:2][1] \"Ward Burton > Elliott Sadler > Geoff ...\"[2] \"Matt Kenseth > Sterling Marlin > Bob ...\"Maximum likelihood estimation cannot be used in this example, because four drivers placed last in each race they entered. For this reason, Hunter (2004) dropped these four drivers to fit the Plackett-Luce model, which we can reproduce as follows:R> driver_1_to_83_rankings <-nascar_rankings[, 1:83] R> driver_1_to_83_model <-PlackettLuce(driver_1_to_83_rankings, npseudo = 0)In order to demonstrate the correspondence with the results from Hunter (2004), we order the item parameters by the driver's average rank: We can plot the quasi-variances to visualise the relative ability of all drivers (output shown in Fig. 3): As in the pudding example, we can use summary(nascar_qv) to see a report on the accuracy of the quasi-variance approximation. In this example the error of approximation, across the standard errors of all 3741 possible simple contrasts (contrasts between pairs of the 87 driverspecific parameters), ranges between -0.7% and +6.7%. This is still remarkably accurate and means that the plot of comparison intervals is a good visual guide to the uncertainty about drivers' relative abilities. The results of using summary(nascar_qv) are not shown here, as they would occupy too much space.A Plackett-Luce model that assumes the same worth parameters across all rankings may sometimes be an over-simplification. For example, if rankings are made by different judges, the worth parameters may vary between groups of judges with different characteristics. Alternatively, the worth parameters may vary by conditions in which the ranking took place, such as the weather at the time of a race.Model-based partitioning provides an automatic way to determine subgroups with significantly different sets of worth parameters. The rankings are recursively split into two groups according to their value on covariates whose values vary between rankings, and a Plackett-Luce model is fitted to each subgroup formed. The method proceeds as follows:1. Fit a Plackett-Luce model to the full data. 2. Assess the stability of the worth parameters with respect to each covariate. That is, test for a structural change in the ranking-level contributions to the first derivatives of the log-likelihood, when these contributions are ordered by covariate values. 3. If there is significant instability, split the full data by the covariate with the strongest instability, using the cut-point that gives the highest improvement in model fit. 4. Repeat steps 1-3 for each subgroup until there are no more significant instabilities, or a split produces a subgroup below a given size threshold.The result is a Plackett-Luce tree, since the recursive binary splits may be represented in a tree diagram and a Plackett-Luce model is fitted to the subgroups defined by each branch. This is an extension of Bradley-Terry trees, implemented in the R package psychotree (Zeileis et al. 2018) and described in more detail by Strobl et al. (2011).To illustrate Plackett-Luce trees, we consider data from a trial in Nicaragua of ten different varieties of bean, run by Bioversity International (Van Etten et al. 2016). Farmers were asked to grow three out of the ten trial varieties in one of the growing seasons, Primera (May-August), Postrera (September-October) or Apante (November-January). At the end of the season, they were asked which variety they thought was best and which variety they thought was worst, to give a ranking of the three varieties. In addition, they were asked to compare each trial variety to the standard local variety and say whether it was better or worse.The data are provided as the dataset beans in PlackettLuce. The data require some preparation to collate the rankings, which is detailed in \"Appendix 2\". The same code is provided in the examples section of the help file of beans R> example(\"beans\", package = \"PlackettLuce\")The result is a rankings object R with all rankings of the three trial varieties and the output of their comparison with the local variety.In order to fit a Plackett-Luce tree, we need to create a \"grouped_rankings\" object, that defines how the rankings map to the covariate values. In this case we wish to group by each record in the original data set. So we group by an index that identifies the record number for each of the four rankings from each farmer (one ranking of order three plus three pairwise rankings with the local variety): For each record in the original data, we have three covariates: season the season-year the beans were planted, year the year of planting, and maxTN the maximum temperature at night during the vegetative cycle. The following code fits a Plackett-Luce tree with up to three nodes and at least 5% of the records in each node: The algorithm identifies three nodes, with the first split defined by high night-time temperatures and the second split separating the single Primera season from the others. So for early planting in regions where the night-time temperatures were not too high, INTA Rojo (variety 7) was most preferred, closely followed by the local variety. During the regular growing seasons (Postrera and Apante) in regions where the night-time temperatures were not too high, the local variety was most preferred, closely followed by INTA Sequia (8). Finally in regions where the maximum night-time temperature was high, INTA Sequia (8) was most preferred, closely followed by BRT 103-182 (2) and INTA Centro Sur (3). A plot method is provided to visualise the tree (output shown in Fig. 4):R> plot(beans_tree, names = FALSE, abbreviate = 2, ylines = 2) Note that when working with high dimensional data in particular, tree models can be quite unstable. For a more robust model, an ensemble method such as bagging or random forests could be employed (Strobl et al. 2009). PlackettLuce is a feature-rich package for the analysis of ranking data. The package provides methods for importing and handling partial rankings data, and for estimation and inference from a generalization of the Plackett-Luce model that can handle subset rankings and ties of arbitrary order. Disconnected item networks are handled by appropriately augmenting the data with pseudo-rankings for a hypothetical item. The package also facilitates the construction of Plackett-Luce trees, which allow item worth parameters to vary between rankings, according to available covariate information on the rankings. A disadvantage of modelling ties explicitly is that the normalising constant in Eq. ( 2), that normalises over all possible choices for a given rank, involves a number of terms that increases rapidly with the tie order D. This causes a corresponding increase in the run time of PlackettLuce(). Also, as noted in Sect. 2.2.3, our current method for estimating the variance-covariance matrix relies on the technique of expanding rankings into counts. When this expansion is large, estimating the standard errors for the model parameters can take almost as long as fitting the model, or can even become infeasible due to memory limits. Improving the efficiency of both the model-fitting and the variance-covariance estimation is a focus of current work.Meanwhile, we expect that PlackettLuce() and all its methods work well on data with ties up to order 4, for moderate numbers of items and unique rankings. As a guide, for 5000 subrankings of 10 items, out of 100 items in total, with ties up to order 4, a test model fit took 18.1 s and variance-covariance estimation took 14.8 s on the same machine used in the performance evaluation of Sect. 2.1.4. This makes PlackettLuce suitable for applications such as sport, where ties of order greater than 3 are typically extremely rare. For data with higher-order ties, a method that does not explicitly model tied events, such as the rank-ordered logit model or the Mallows distance-based model, may be more suitable.Our plans for future development of PlackettLuce include support for online estimation from streams of partial rankings and formally accounting for spatio-temporal heterogeneity in worth parameters. Algorithms for online estimation will be more efficient, enabling the package to handle larger data sets. To realise this potential, alternative data structures may be required for partial rankings, which are currently represented as full rankings with some zero ranks.Other potential directions for future work include implementing some of the features offered by other software. In particular, top n rankings often arise in practice and are compatible with the algorithms that are currently implemented. Modelling top n rankings is more computationally demanding than modelling subset rankings of the same length, since each choice in the ranking selects from a wider set of alternatives. So supporting top n rankings will have wider practical application if it is paired with a more efficient algorithm and/or a more efficient implementation using compiled code.R> # pmr excluded here as takes a long time to fail R> tshirt_timings <-timings(tshirt, 341, fun = no_pmr) R> sushi_timings <-timings (sushi, 5, fun = no_pmr) beans data preparation First we handle the best and worst rankings. These give the variety the farmer thought was best or worst, coded as A, B or C for the first, second or third variety assigned to the farmer, respectively.R> data(beans) R> head(beans[c(\"best\", \"worst\")], 2) best worstWe fill in the missing item using the complete() function from PlackettLuce:R> beans$middle <-complete(beans[c(\"best\", \"worst\")], + items = c(\"A\", \"B\", \"C\")) R> head(beans[c(\"best\", \"middle\", \"worst\")], 2) We can use the decode() function from PlackettLuce to decode the orderings, replacing the coded values with the actual varieties: R> order3 <-decode(beans[c(\"best\", \"middle\", \"worst\")], + items = beans[c(\"variety_a\", \"variety_b\", + \"variety_c\")], + code = c(\"A\", \"B\", \"C\"))The pairwise comparisons with the local variety are stored in another set of columns R> head(beans[c(\"var_a\", \"var_b\", \"var_c\")], 2)To convert these data to orderings we first create vectors of the trial variety and the outcome in each paired comparison:","tokenCount":"7892"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4e7148b9352c15f938661daa73a300e2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fb06aafa-51c2-4b9c-a8f4-9db1f395c73a/retrieve","id":"-1490071723"},"keywords":["Value chains","innovation platforms","4Ps","agribusinesses"],"sieverID":"401f5f2a-f7aa-447a-a754-f953ac63d0e4","pagecount":"5","content":"O ver the past 10 years, Tanzania has become a pioneer in leveraging public-private collaboration to transform its agricultural sector. One of the best examples is the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), an initiative conceived during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Dar-es-Salaam in 2010. SAGCOT officially started operations with a double launch, first in Dar-es-Salaam by retired Prime Minister Pinda, in January 2011, and subsequently during the WEF in Geneva by the retired Tanzanian President, Dr. Kikwete.SAGCOT is a public-private partnership (PPP) that seeks to develop the Tanzanian agricultural sector by fostering responsible agribusiness investments in the country's Southern Corridor. The SAGCOT Centre Ltd works as a broker and catalyst in the formation of partnerships among registered organisations to incubate initiatives that promote inclusive, sustainable and viable agricultural value chains.Through a coordinated multi-stakeholder effort the SAGCOT partnership hopes to:• Transform agriculture in the Southern Corridor;• Promote sustainable resource management;• Leverage public and private investments to spur growth;• Promote smallholder engagement models that enable inclusivity.SAGCOT is made up of registered partner organisations from a variety of sectors, including the government (both ministries and agencies), private sector companies, development organisations, research institutions, foundations, civil society organisations and farmers' groups.SAGCOT's cluster model approach for 'making it happen' seeks to connect investors to smallholder out-grower schemes in the vicinity of large-scale farms throughout the Corridor. The economies of scale stimulated by the cluster model approach depend on the cooperation of farmers, agribusinesses and service providers within the partnership. Importantly, this approach enables the participation of small, medium and large-scale farmers and makes it possible for them to share the benefits that derive from the clusters.SAGCOT has six clusters in specific locations: Ihemi, Mbarali, Kilombero, Ludewa, Rufiji and Sumbawanga. In an effort to ensure positive and measurable impact, SAGCOT has started to operationalise the Ihemi Cluster, which covers the Iringa and Njombe regions. The learnings derived from this cluster will inform operations of the next cluster, which is expected to be introduced in 2018.In 2016, 62 companies and initiatives committed themselves to action and described the concrete investments they planned to make. The SAGCOT Centre, in consultation with other partners, selected 17 of these investment proposals for intensive implementation in the Ihemi cluster. The companies chosen are listed in the table below.The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) initiative, established in 2011, is a publicprivate partnership that aims to promote sustainable agricultural growth in the region, and engage smallholder farmers in relevant policy dialogues.To ensure that the SAGCOT Investment Blueprint for accelerating agricultural development in Tanzania's Growth Corridor meets the needs of smallholder farmers and contributes to the valuable environmental assets of the Corridor, the SAGCOT Centre instituted the SAGCOT Green Reference Group (GRG).The SCL GRG works with partners to support sustainable agricultural intensification in the SAGCOT region by constructing a conceptual framework with decision support tools to be used by the SAGCOT partners, such as Tanzania Nature Conservancy, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wildlife Fund.In 2016, the SAGCOT Centre GRG continued promoting environmental sustainability in the six SAGCOT clusters through quarterly GRG meetings. These meetings addressed issues that affected cluster investments, including water use, relationships with local communities, land use, availability of technologies and sustainability.The SAGCOT Centre established a partnership with the Land Use Dialogue and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to facilitate cluster level GRG events in the SAGCOT region. The Land Use Dialogue platform, hosted by Yale University, can be used to address competing stakeholder interests in implementing a landscape approach to conservation. Opportunities still exist for the sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture, linking conservation to food production, developing valuechains and bioenergy production.SAGCOT is a showcase initiative for PPPs geared towards agricultural growth. In order for SAGCOT to be able to leverage public and private investments of up to €3 billion by 2030 to spur growth, Tanzania needs to have an enabling environment that attracts such investment. Policy reform, advocacy and dialogue promoting PPPs are all critical to achieve this objective.Since its inception in 2011, SAGCOT has facilitated policy dialogues through different avenues, including the Partnership Accountability Committee, the Policy Analysis Group and Compact. These dialogues have made concrete progress in ensuring that the government of Tanzania delivers on its policy commitments. The main objective of engagement through policy dialogue is to increase clarity and certainty with regards to policy formulation and implementation for the agricultural sector, as well as the implications that these policies have for priority regions such as SAGCOT.In October 2016, SAGCOT established a policy department to deal with its policy advocacy and dialogue agenda. This new department has shaped SAGCOT's policy direction and its focus on creating strategic policy partnerships in order to create a strong and robust policy network. Among the stakeholders, smallholder farmers have been singled out as critical to policy discussions related to the agricultural sector. to establish strategic policy partnerships that will pave the way for their participation. SAGCOT will learn from similar regional initiatives, like the EU-funded programme Enhancing Opportunities of Eastern Africa Farmers Organisations, in how to establish effective policy dialogue for food security, governance and the improvement of rural livelihoods.Through its Policy Department SAGCOT will partner with smallholder farmer organisations within the region, including National Networks of Farmers' Groups in Tanzania and the Kenya National Farmers' Federation. SAGCOT also aims to assess the current capacity of smallholder farmers to understand policy matters and their ability to engage in robust policy dialogues. This will lead to an understanding of the gaps that need to be bridged through strategic policy partnerships.SAGCOT believes that smallholder farmers are key stakeholders and that it is important to ensure their understanding of policy matters if they are to meaningfully participate in policy dialogues. In fact, SAGCOT's policy direction is guided by four main strategies:1. Foster policy research, analysis and dissemination on the priority policy constraints from the cluster 2. Establish strategic policy partnerships with key stakeholders at regional and national levels;3. Promote policy advocacy with key stakeholders at regional and national levels; and 4. Promote infrastructure development that supports agribusiness and smallholder farmers in the region.SAGCOT has adopted IFAD's Public Private Producer Partnership (4Ps) approach, which means that its policy calls for the inclusion of producers in partnership decision-making. SAGCOT needs to start actively engaging the 4th P -producers -and bring them closer to the partnership table because they play a critical role in further linkages with smallholder farmers.Recognising the importance of smallholder farmers' participation in policy dialogue, SAGCOT has startedMussa has been cultivating maize on his farm since 2014. However, in the season 2015/16 he allocated a fifth of his 2 ha farm to cultivating tomato. The timing coincided with the establishment of Darsh tomato processing industries in Iringa, which provided an extra market in addition to the region's existing fresh tomato market. With an assured market for his produce, Mussa is now earning increased income from his land through tomato farming. He says that \"farming is my passion and I have discovered that the tomato value chain is my preferred choice and gateway to transforming my life and that of my community in Ilula.\"Kayusi Musigwa, an emerging Tanzanian smallholder dairy farmer, was encouraged to venture into the dairy business as a result of the establishment of an ASAS milk collection centre near his 4 ha farm in 2012. This led him to buy two high breeding heifers to start his dairy farm and his stock has since grown from two to eight cows, producing about 65 l of milk daily. Now, he says that \"in the dairy business, the most important aspect is market assurance, which ASAS guarantees\". He is very grateful to the SAGCOT initiative for making this possible. when empowered, SAGCOT believes smallholder farmers can drive the agricultural policy and legislative agenda in Tanzania and beyond.To achieve greater smallholder farmer involvement SAGCOT will develop plans to enhance their participation in policy dialogues. It will:1. Conduct a situational analysis of smallholder farmers' current understanding of policy and legislation matters within the agricultural sector 2. Develop a training programme for smallholder farmers to enhance their policy and legislative understanding, and build their capacities to contribute to policy dialogue 3. Convene policy meetings between key stakeholder groups and smallholder farmersIn addition to the above, SAGCOT is already in the process of entering into strategic policy partnerships with key regulators within the agricultural sector. Among other activities, these policy partnerships will convene joint meetings aimed at raising the awareness of smallholder farmers about different policies, regulations and industry standards in the SAGCOT region, starting with the Ihemi cluster.To ensure key objectives are realised, such as sustainable smallholder commercialisation, green growth and inclusive value chain development, the SAGCOT initiative aims to create focused partnerships and increase the efficiency of its brokerage through \"priority value chains and lead partners\".Continuous dialogue is crucial in resolving policy constraints. The creation of an enabling environment for investments in the region will need a continuous approach to encourage dialogue amongst partners, with conversations broadened at all stages to include actors such as farmers' associations, civil society, local companies, financial institutions, and relevant Ministries, as well as other stakeholders in the agriculture sector.Sustainable market solutions motivate smallholder production. To sustain and reinforce smallholder production, and thereby support market development, it is important to clarify quality standards and requirements early on, and secure partnerships with private companies to guarantee a market for farmer produce.Finding the right partners for the innovative solutions in the clusters required SAGCOT to work with different models, depending on the cluster and the partners. All clusters face challenges in creating an enabling environment and require partners, such as aggregators and members of civil society organisations, to support their businesses. SAGCOT has a best practice model for joint monitoring visits to resolve bottlenecks and encourage the sharing of best practices from elsewhere between its partners.Neema Lugangira works as Head of Policy at the SAGCOT Centre ltd. E-mail: n.lugangira@sagcot.com","tokenCount":"1655"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d154ba078b4c520afd83a3294757208d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3394b984-3dd1-4a4d-830c-3e32580e6318/retrieve","id":"1128780627"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d261673c-1ede-4313-aa69-c713b053c011","pagecount":"4","content":"This policy note summarizes results from a Lab-in-the-field experiment 1 in eastern Uganda, where a representative sample of 760 smallholder maize farmers were given the opportunity to bargain over a bag of maize seed from either a male or female seller. Specifically, we test whether the gender of the seed seller impacts the seed buyer's negotiation strategies and the eventual outcomes in bilateral price negotiations. The findings reveal that buyers confronted with a female seller were less likely to accept the seller's initial offer price and responded with a lower counter price compared to farmers faced with a male seller. Negotiations, on average, took one additional round when the seller was a woman and resulted in a transaction price that was almost 9 percent lower. These results relate to previous research with agro-input dealers in Uganda which showed that female managed/owned agro-input shops are perceived less favorable in terms of quality of seed sold and price competitiveness. Policies and programs working to advance women's empowerment through agribusiness need to recognize these gendered biases, and increase investment in public campaigns, extension and training to change attitudes towards women entrepreneurs.In rural societies with strong gender norms and customs, small-scale informal agribusinesses may often be one of the few ways in which women can independently generate revenue. Research indeed shows that informal vendors often tend to be self-employed, or women owned/operated. 2 Unfortunately, even though women would be allowed in these roles, public perceptions may still be stacked against them. For instance, previous research with agro-input dealers in Uganda showed that female managed agroinput shops are perceived/rated less favorable on a range of attributes than their male counterparts. This includes perceptions that female managed shops sold seed of lower quality, while in reality the reverse seemed to be true 3 . The difference in perceptions was largest in terms of price competitiveness, despite the fact that we found no difference between average prices charged by male and female managed agro-input shops.other observational and experimental studies find overwhelming evidence of differences in the outcomes of market transactions when minorities (including women) are involved as a transacting party. Many of these studies find that consumer/buyerside discrimination is more prominent than seller-side discrimination. In our experiment, we POLICY NOTE DECEMBER 2023only test for buyer-side discrimination when the seller is a man or woman.We investigate if gender bias in perception extends into price bargaining processes and outcomes. In the context of rural Uganda, bargaining over prices is the rule rather than the exception. The bargaining process and outcome is likely to be influenced by range of variables, such as perceptions, power relationships, wellbeing of negotiating partners, etc. If some of these variables are skewed against female informal vendors (such as perceptions related to the quality of what they sell), gender bias may also manifest in the strategies that negotiating parties use, and the outcome of the process.Study design: Lab-in-the-field bargaining experiment.At the core of the study is a simple lab-inthe-field experiment where we offer a representative group of (both male and female) maize farmers the opportunity to buy a 1kg bag of hybrid maize seed (known as Bazooka).A trained enumerator, guided by a script implemented on a tablet computer, acts as a seller. After explaining the virtues of hybrid maize seed to the buyer, the seller asks if the buyer wants to buy the seed at an initial (randomly assigned) offer price (in Uganda shillings). If the buyer rejects the offer, he or she is encouraged to call out a first counter bid price (the minimal bid price was UGX. 3000). The algorithm on the tablet then determines if the seller agrees on the counter price (depending on the difference between the two bids being small enough) or to enter a second round of negotiations where the seller makes a second offer price (which is lower than the previous offer price but higher than the farmer's previous counter bid). This process continues until the farmer accepts an offer price, or the algorithm instructs the seller to accept because the difference between last bid price and new offer price is equal or lower than UGX.500.In the experiment, we randomly pair farmers to either a male or a female seller. This allows us to estimate the causal impact of the gender of the seller on the bargaining process and outcomes. Second, we also randomly assign the initial offer price that the (male or female) seller quotes to the farmer, allowing us to estimate the causal impact of initial offer price on the bargaining process and outcomes. The randomly assigned initial offer prices were UGX.12000 or 11,000 (high), or 10,000 or 9,000 (low), based on the market prices of Bazooka seed (1kg) that prevailed in the study areas. Our experiment allows us to investigate the effect of the seller's gender and/or initial offer price on the buyer's bargaining strategies and outcomes of the process. These include: (1) the likelihood that the buyer immediately accepts the initial offer prices (and hence no bargaining takes place); (2) the first counter bid following the initial offer price; (3) the likelihood that this first counter-bid is the minimum admissible counter-bid; (4) the likelihood that the buyer sticks with the initial counter bid throughout the process; (5) the number of negotiation rounds; and (6) the price at which the transaction occurs.The total sample consists of a representative sample of 760 smallholder maize farming households, drawn from 4 districts in eastern Uganda (Mayuge, Kamuli, Iganga and Bugiri). These districts were chosen because maize is an important crop, both for food and cash. In these 4 districts, 76 villages were randomly selected from a list of all villages, with the likelihood of a village being selected proportional to the number of households that live in the village. In each village, 10 households were then randomly selected.Enumerators visited these households and asked to speak with the person that generally makes most decisions related to maize growing and input use such as what maize seed to use. These individuals were then subjected to the bargaining experiment and after completing the experiment, we administered a survey. We find that 22 percent of interviewed individuals were women, and the average age was 49 years old. They live in households of about 8 people.About 40 percent of the farmers in the sample used an improved maize seed variety (open pollinated or hybrid maize variety) in the second season (Nsambya) of 2022 on any of their plots. However, only about percent of farmers indicate that they used the type of seed (Bazooka maize seed) that we offered them in the field experiment.Gender of the seller and the negotiation prices: Descriptive results in Figure 2 show that the bargaining process is more likely to end up in lower transaction price when the seller is a woman than when the seller is a man. The disadvantage of the female seller already manifests itself at the very start of the negotiation process, when the buyer names their first counter bid price after the seller named the initial (randomly assigned) offer price. When the seller is man, the buyer's first price to start from is higher than when the seller is a woman.Results show that fewer farmers accepted the seller's first offer price when the seller was a woman than when the seller was a man (Figure 3). We also do see that a higher percentage of buyers start with the lowest admissible price bid when the seller is a woman than when the seller is man. Another interesting negotiation strategy some buyers seem to use is to name an initial counter bid and stick to this price. A surprisingly large share of farmers use this strategy, especially when the seller is a man. Beyond the descriptive analysis, we conduct regression analysis to determine the size of the effect of the seller's gender on the buyer's bargaining strategies, and eventual outcomes. In the regression, we control for the seller's gender (where price level was the explanatory variable), the seller's initial price offer (where seller's gender was the explanatory variable), and gender of the buyer in all the models.Results show that when the seller is a woman, buyers/farmers are 19 percent less likely to accept the initial offer price and respond with a counter bid that is UGX.800 less than when faced with a male seller. Negotiations take on average one round longer when the seller is a woman, and the transaction price is almost 9 percent lower. For comparison, we also look at the effect of the starting price on the same bargaining outcomes and find that the gender disadvantage is roughly equal to the effect of a 20 percent higher starting price (UGX.12,000 or 11,000). Through the lab-in-the-field experiment, we find that gendered perceptions about market actors indeed have different consequences on market transaction outcomes for men and women. Specifically, the findings suggest that the bias against women market actors/sellers seems to reduce the price women receive and increase the time (negotiation rounds) needed to conclude a transaction as buyers try to achieve a lower price.Our findings are in line with similar studies which show that women owned microbusinesses are generally less profitable than male owned businesses.Policies and programs working to advance women's empowerment through agribusiness ought to recognize these gendered biases, and increase investment in public campaigns, extension and training to change attitudes and discrimination towards women entrepreneurs.Our experiment, however, only establishes the existence of discrimination, but it does not tell us anything about the source of discrimination. We believe more studies are needed to find out how context matters and establish if this discrimination is the result of prejudice, stereotypes or statistical discrimination.Bjorn Van Campenhout (b.vancampenhout@cgiar.org) is a Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Leuven, Belgium and an Associate Researcher at LICOS, KU Leuven, Belgium. Leocardia Nabwire (l.nabwire@cgiar.org) is a Research Analyst with IFPRI's Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit, Kampala, Uganda.","tokenCount":"1658"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"052389fd5af49c7b9e1cdb494ae7b9c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b41af4f2-e16e-49ac-8270-2d983ec44806/retrieve","id":"-148544980"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b4eb0c14-2eb7-4b42-b4ae-fb8ab01a4dd3","pagecount":"169","content":"Pig rearing continues to be an important source of food and serves for ritual use among highlanders in Northern Thailand. The review of Trichinellosis outbreak reports from the past ten years (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) suggests that more than 90 percent of the outbreaks have occurred in the highlands with several major foci scattered throughout the borderland provinces. To help us understand the transmission of the disease, the research applied an EcoHealth-One Health approach to develop a trandisciplinary framework considering the interaction of highlanders with the pigs they grow and their environment as a single system. The research identified four subsystems to investigate Trichinellosis risk, including, animal husbandry, food chain, environment, ix and economic conditions. The research reported the results of a trandisciplinary process involving the development of a Bayesian Belief Network model of Trichinellosis risk and in-depth study of two highlander villages, including one that experienced an outbreak. The models provided a better understanding of the transmission of Trichinella and solve the decision problems in management systems related with pig production and public health concern to reduce Trichinellosis. The models and the survey results suggested that the above subsystems are entirely interdependent, and thus must be considered as an integrated whole when devising disease interventions.xIn the upland areas in Northern Thailand culturally distinct ethnic minority groups reside scattered throughout the mountainous region along Thailand-Burma borders. They consist of mostly Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lahu, Lisu, and Yao ethnicities (Crooker, 2007). Overall, these ethnic minorities in 20 provinces of Thailand make up a population of about 750,000 persons; thereby they represent slightly more than 1% of the overall population (ADB, 2001: 5 cited in Krahl, 2011) (For more information about highlander population, see Appendix A). Throughout this paper the term \"highlanders\" will be used as it is the generally recognized term for this population.The notion of highlander historically has not only served to improve livelihoods but also aimed to control and incorporate the highland population into the nation, to secure the national boundary, to prevent the production of opium and later on to protect forests and watersheds (Gillogly, 2008: 119 cited in Krahl, 2011).Opium cultivation historically was a major source of income for many of the highlanders. The government worked hard to eradicate their cultivation through crop substitution and livestock farming by the end of 1980s (Crooker, 1988;Dirksen, 1997;Renard, 2001cited in Crooker, 2007). However, the cash crop-substitution policy led to the highlanders being accused of destroying the country's forests with their \"slash-and-burn\" agriculture, as their traditional swidden farming practice was labeled during this period. The government subsequently adopted a policy of relocation forcing highlanders to live on less land and restricting their land use rights.Unintended consequences of these policies have included intensification of land and resource use and permanent settlements. This has in turn contributed to deteriorated soil fertility, diminished crop yields and indigenous crops, increased water contamination from the fertilizer and pesticides use, and significant changes in livestock rearing practices; all of which have raised concerns about food security and health risks (Crooker, 2007).Recently, increased attention has been paid to addressing various issues concerning highlanders (Fujioka, 2002). Numerous institutions are concerned with highlander development. This includes 31 departments and 168 agencies within eleven government ministries involved in hill area development namely the ministries of Interior, Defense, Public Health, Education, University Affairs, Agriculture, Cooperatives, Science, Technology and Energy, Finance, Communication, Industry, and the Prime Minister's Office (Fujioka, 2002). In spite of this the livelihoods of many villagers are still in question (Hau, 2000).The highlanders are seen as the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups among Thailand's rural population. They largely depend on agriculture for income and employment (Fujioka, 2002). Besides crop production, livestock production in highlanders' farming systems is very important and its role varies widely. It provides draught power for crop production used for subsistence needs or market sale (McDermott et al., 1999). Pig rearing continues to be an important source of subsistence food and serves for sacramental purposes (Rattanaronchart, 1994;Tancho, Figure 1-1: Life cycle of TrichinellosisEven though there is no regularly updated data recording incidences of parasitic infections in the highland villages, interview of experts and review of literature confirms that Trichinellosis is endemic in these borderland highlands. The nature of occurrence, transmission, and circulation of Trichinellosis (Ramasoota, 1991) in these areas can be explained by the interaction of highlanders with the pigs they grow and of both with their environment. Epidemiological investigations reveal that outbreaks of this disease have taken place mostly in rural areas where pigs are most commonly raised on a free range basis and some are kept in low standard pens as a result of limited investment in husbandry beyond minimal needs (Khamboonruang, 1991;Ramasoota, 1991;Rattanaronchart, 1994;Willingham, 2003). Pigs will eat nearly anything, including garbage and wild animal carcasses often accessible to pigs. This fosters the transmission of the parasite to pigs and, in turn, to humans, as pork is popularly eaten raw or undercooked during rituals associated with local and traditional festivals (Ramasoota, 1991).Besides the distinct settings and practices and weak public health infrastructure placing them at higher risk of zoonosis, these populations are confronted with difficulties resulting from the lack of citizenship, language barriers, market pressure, social exclusion, and globalization. As these external factors continue to evolve, often resulting in increasing economic vulnerability of highland populations, concerns are being raised about the potential of the borderland area as an epicenter of outbreaks of zoonoses.1.2.1 Consistent with the EcoHealth-One Health approach, this study attempts to understand Trichinellosis risk in borderland highlanders as a basis for prevention and control measures by developing a transdisciplinary framework. This framework considers the interaction of highlanders with the pigs they grow and their environment as a single system.Network (BBN) are applied in this study to explain Trichinellosis risk in borderland highlanders and effects of uncertainty in the management system. Also, the concept of optimizing expected utility is applied in solving the BBN in order to indicate the options available and choices made as a basis for decision-making to reduce Trichinellosis risk.1.2.3 This study does not intend to suggest to that interventions aimed at highlander's livelihood systems should be launched in the form of a policy forcing villagers to change their modes of pig production to reduce disease risk. Rather, it encourages policy makers to better understand the underlying mechanism by which the livelihoods system affects disease risk in order to find the appropriate policy to control the emergence and spread of diseases.1.3.1 Most importantly this study will reveal a paradigm shift taking place in Economics research toward understanding a complex, real-world problem, such as emerging zoonoses, using the EcoHealth-One Health approach.1.3.2 This study will address the core concept of economics; that of the idea of utilizing scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants or needs of humans. In this case, Economics can help policy makers or planners make more effective and efficient decisions in terms of their potential to affect pig-rearing strategies and associated development to improve biosecurity and mitigate zoonoses risk.1.3.3 This study will be considered innovative research for its novel utilization of mixed methods including quantitative and qualitative methods in decision making.The study concentrates on the ethnic minority groups that reside scattered throughout the mountainous region along Thai-Myanmar border of Thailand's Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Mae Hong Son Provinces, including Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lahu, Lisu, and Yao ethnicities, using mixed methods including qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the risk of being infected with Trichinellosis in human associated with pig production modes. Its data gathering and analysis further concentrated on two villages in a single District, Mae Ae, Chiang Mai Province, of mainly Lahu ethnicity. The highlanders of the Northern Thailand borderland are quite heterogeneous group with substantial intra-as well as inter-ethnicity differences in terms of economic and environmental circumstances, cultural practices and so on.The expectation was not that the study could extrapolate findings based on two villages. Rather it was to use the two villages to further develop and test a novel approach and methods, as well as a disease risk model based on a framework constructed using existing information and data. This included theory from multiple disciplines as well as published and informant-provided data on the borderland highlanders in general, including that on their pig husbandry and eating practices,The village-level field study provided a basis for testing and further refining the model, including the BBN method, as well as documenting the people-pigenvironment interactions in their economic aspects for at least the two villages.1.5.1 EcoHealth-One Health approach can be applied to develop transdisciplinary Trichinellosis risk frame work in borderland highlanders.1.5.2 Highlanders make decisions on the allocation of scarce resources in livestock production to optimize their utility 1.5.3 Bayesian Belief Network Analysis can solve the decision-making problems based on the interconnection of human and animal health.1.5.4 Government institutions or non-governmental organizations can make effective and efficient decisions to reduce zoonoses risk if they understand the concept of EcoHealth-One Health approachBayesian Belief Network (BBN): A statistical method invented in the 1940's and 1950's to take into account the effects of uncertainty in management systems in decision making processes (Henrion et al., 1991cited in Dambacher et al., 2007). It is a graphical description of the conceptual model that captures the analyst beliefs in the causal relationships of significant variables in the system of interest (Dambacher et al., 2007).EcoHealth-One Health Approach: A systematic and participatory approach to understanding and promoting sustainable health and well-being of humans, animals and the environment thought of as all part of one ecosystem; as well as making decisions, taking action, and evaluating outcomes (Waltner-Toews, 2009).EcoHealth-One Health approach is an emerging field of study and practice that examines the biological, social and economic dynamics of an ecoystem and relates these changes to human and animal health, holistically. It brings together people from various disciplines such as veterinarians, ecologists, economists, social scientists, policy makers, and others to explore and understand how the above dynamics affect human and animal health (UNBC, n.d.).The term used within Thailand for all of the various tribal peoples who migrated from China and Tibet over the past few centuries (Srisoontorn, n.d.). They reside scattered throughout the mountainous region along Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar borders (Crooker, 2007). Some people also use the term 'Ethnic minority', but this must include Chinese, Laotians, Indians or Malaysians. Some people use the term 'Highlanders' to include Chinese people who live in the mountains as well. There are six major highlander groups within Thailand: Akha, Lahu, Karen, Hmong, Mien and Lisu reside in 20 provinces (Srisoontorn, n.d.).Influence diagram: A graphical and mathematical representation of a decision problem (Lumina Decision Systems, 2013) which is an extension of BBN (Watthayu and Peng, 2004) that includes decision making, uncertainties, utility maximization, and how they influence each other. It is also known as decision diagram or decision network (Lumina Decision Systems, 2013).Parasitic Zoonoses: Diseases hosted by animals which are caused by parasites that can be transmitted to humans (Westmount Animal Clinic, 2009). Besides, a number of livestock parasites also cause economic losses from the impact on the quality and quantity of animal products. In addition, the complex life cycles of most parasites, the distinct conditions of animal husbandry in rural areas, slaughtering facilities, and marketing practices can have a severe influence on the transmission and outbreak of the diseases.Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA): Application of probability distributions to identify variability or uncertainty in estimations of risk. It is a quantitative explanation of the degree of variability and uncertainty in risk estimates for unwanted events such as the outbreak of diseases (Mitchell, Smith, and Murphy, 2004: 1-10).Risk: Risk is fundamental to any decision making scheme. Risk can be defined as imperfect knowledge for stochastic events where the probabilities of the possible outcomes are known (Hardaker et al., 1997cited in Kaan, 2000;Siegel andAlwang, 1999 cited in Devereux, 2001). To put it simply, risk is uncertain consequences (Kaan, 2000) resulting in welfare losses (Devereux, 2001).  (Medterms, 2011).Zoonoses: Zoonoses, also called zoonotic diseases are diseases caused by infectious agents transmitted between animals whether wild or domesticated and humans through a variety of infection routes, including animal bites, vectors, and animal-to-human contact (Olsen, 2004;Koo, 2009). All zoonoses can create a serious health threat if not controlled (Stregowski, 2012).Chapter 2A review of existing literature was conducted to identify the critical points of current knowledge including findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions concerning the investigation of economic decisions and the assessment of zoonoses risk associated with livestock production. It focuses on four main themes: (1) introduction of animal health economics, (2) main contributions of veterinary economists to animal health economics development, (3) understanding zoonoses emergence through EcoHealth-One Health approach, (4) understanding risk assessment and probabilistic risk assessment, and (5) novel application of Bayesian Belief Network Analysis.Economic thinking was first used in the context of agriculture efficiency management between 394 and 365 BC (Backhouse, 2002cited in Rushton 2009). Lionel Robbins defines economics as \"the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses\" (Backhouse, 2002: 3 cited in Rushton, 2009). Likewise, Black and others mentioned that economics is concerned with decisions about how to allocate and use scarce resources, particularly the production, distribution and consumption of commodities (Perry andRandolph, 1999 cited in Black, 2006).\"Animal health economics is a discipline, which does not belong to the core of veterinary science\" (Otte and Chilonda, 2000cited in Ruston, 2009) and is relatively young in relation to other economic disciplines (Rushton, 2009).However, it is becoming more and more important as the assistance for decision making on animal health intervention at all levels (Otte and Chilonda, 2000 cited in Sudan, 2009) attempting to optimize animal health management (Marsh, 1999 cited in Sudan, 2009).In this field economics is not mainly dealing with money but rather with making rational choices in the allocation of scarce resources for achieving competing goals. With the hypothesis that people make decisions in order to optimize their satisfaction, utility or pleasure, some of these decisions have led to unintended consequences such as zoonoses emergence (Black, 2006). When outbreaks occur, scarce resources are used to care for both animals and humans that are sick and to prevent or control the transmission of infection. Productive capacity is constrained and trading relationships are disrupted by infection. Besides, there are likely to be missing markets for infection control caused by many reasons such as externalities, public goods, uncertainty and equity (Roberts, 2006, Ch.1: 12). As a consequence, infection poses a huge economic problem that needs to be addressed. The characteristics of zoonotic infectious diseases raise issues for economists seeking to apply their tools in this area.Evaluating interventions or controls is a central task for economists to contribute to the adoption of efficient policies to control infection (Roberts, 2006, Ch. 1: 8). Furthermore, economic instruments are becoming more and more important as the aids to understand behavior and decision-making processes, especially of small-scale farmers in animal health management (Chilonda and Huylenbroeck, 2001).Economic analysis of the optimal control of zoonoses associated with livestock production is complex as it depends on the nature of occurrence, transmission, and circulation of the diseases. It takes account of the benefits and costs of controlling diseases in monetary terms. Consequently, information from both economists and non-economists is important for this economic analysis (Tisdell, 2006).Economic approaches to infectious disease are embedded in many areas of work nowadays and cannot be ignored. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the United Kingdom, for instance now requires economic assessments included in guidelines for interventions. Specifications for grants to assess interventions used to prevent or control infections now often include economic assessments (Roberts, Ch. 2006, Ch.13: 237-240). Even though this was unpopular with the pure economist it is an innovative way of utilizing economics in explaining a complex, real-world problem.Health Economics Development (Rushton, 2009) Recent studies show that the emphasis of most of veterinary economists is usually on the economics of production disease (diseases induced by management practices) and in the evaluation of zoonoses intervention and control efforts. PeterEllis is considered one of the leading veterinary economists (Dijkhuizen andMorris, 1997 cited in Rushton, 2009). In 1970, he was the first to apply cost-benefit analysis techniques to an animal disease, specifically for the analysis of classical swine fever Organization of Animal Health (OIE) The World Bank and many other agencies (Rushton, 2009).Likewise, Tisdell (1995) and Harrison (1996) also investigated the application of cost-benefit analysis for evaluating animal disease programs. These economists examined how animal health programs can aid sustainable development (Harrison andTisdell, 1997 cited in Rushton, 2009) in Thailand.Furthermore, Perry at the International livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is one of the world's most noticeable epidemiologists specialized in a range of diseases. She concentrates on a number of important themes in animal health economics, including farm-level economic evaluations, trade implications of sanitary requirements and veterinary service delivery (Perry, 1999cited in Rushton, 2009).Additionally, many of veterinary economists such as Ramsay, Tisdell and Harrison (1997) have concentrated on how better information communication for animal health could enhance decision-making. Their findings demonstrate that for endemic diseases there are two options: do nothing or eradication (Harrison et al., 1999;Tisdell, et al., 1999cited in Rushton, 2009). Another pioneer in the field Richard Bennett initially worked on the advantages of information communication on animal health decisions (Bennett, 1991cited in Rushton, 2009) and on decisionmaking for leptospirosis control in cattle (Bennett, 1993cited in Rushton, 2009). This and other work by him and his colleagues is specifically in the field of animal welfare economics (Bennett, 1995(Bennett, , 1998;;Bennett and Larson, 1996;Blaney and Bennett, 1997;Anderson et al., 1999cited in Rushton, 2009). Some veterinary economists have been working on the development of economic analysis techniques in the study of diseases and their control. TimCarpenter was the first to examine the use of various economic analysis techniques such as decision tree analysis (Carpenter and Norman, 1983;Carpenter et al., 1987;Ruegg and Carpenter, 1989;Rodrigues et al., 1990cited in Rushton, 2009), microeconomics analysis of disease (Carpenter, 1983cited in Rushton, 2009), simulation models to assess animal disease (Carpenter and Thieme, 1980cited in Rushton, 2009), dynamic programming (Carpenter and Howitt, 1988cited in Rushton, 2009), dual estimation approach to derive shadow prices for diseases (Vagsholm et al., 1991cited in Rushton, 2009), estimation of consumer surplus (Mohammed et al., 1987cited in Rushton, 2009), willingness to pay for vaccination (Thorburn et al., 1987cited in Rushton, 2009), linear programming (Carpenter, 1978;Carpenter and Howitt, 1980;Chirstiansen andCarpenter, 1983 cited in Rushton, 2009), use of economic analysis to review subsidies to veterinary support institutions (Carpenter andHowitt, 1982 cited in Rushton, 2009), and the use of the cost-benefit analysis approach for selecting veterinary services (Zessin an Carpenter, 1985 cited in Rushton, 2009) He also has been involved in economic assessment using more conventional economic instruments such as financial and cost-benefit analysis (Carpenter et al., 1981(Carpenter et al., ,1988;;Davidson et al., 1981;Kimsey et al., 1985;Miusing et al., 1988;Vagsholm et al., 1988;Sischo et al., 1990cited in Rushton, 2009). His work has been based on the very detailed knowledge of a production system and the epidemiology of the disease concerned.Meanwhile Aalt Dijkhuizen at Wageningen Agricultural Univesrity of The Netherlands began researching the use of economic evaluation techniques for animal disease. Dijkhuizen and his team worked on problems including the economics of pig fertility and culling management, cattle problems and diseases, and the economics of Foot and Mouth Disease at a time when Europe was considering changing from a policy of annual vaccination to no vaccination. They also working the problems of a \"stamping out policy,\" exotic disease risk and the inclusion of risk analysis into economic analysis. Other research conducted by them was on the use of insurance against the outbreak of contagious diseases, and on animal welfare, food safety and animal health economics.Dijkhuizen utilized animal recording systems such as PORKCHOP and decision support systems such as CHESS in his work. His modeling inputs have assisted decision makers at the farm, national and region levels. His experience has \\ benefited from examining a wide range of techniques for the economic evaluation of diseases. His contributions to the field of animal health economic analysis have been significant in directing animal health policies in his own country.On the theoretical side some veterinary economists such asMcInerney and Howe began researching the economics of livestock disease through the development of conceptual models of farmer behavior towards disease (Howe, 1985;McInerney et al., 1992;Howe andChristiansen, 2004 cited in Rushton, 2009).This group is credited as being the first to apply a conceptual framework for economic analysis of disease and its control. However, their influence on the thinking of animal health economics has largely been limited to concepts and theory.All the above approaches are in the practical field of the economic evaluation of animal disease based on a detailed knowledge of the production system.This research is relatively limited in scope and focused on existing or endemic diseases of interest to the agricultural industry. It is true that they have demonstrated its value in understanding the problem of production disease or the way to maximize utility in this context. However, the field had not yet begun to address the more complex and real-world problem emerging diseases. Here, a more holistic approach such as that advocated by EcoHealth-One Health approaches is required.Source: Department of Environmental and Global Health, University of Florida, 2012 Dynasty in China (11-13 th century). This period had one of the earliest organizations of a holistic public health system including human and animal health (Driesch andPeters, 2003 cited in Zinsstag et al., 2010). Later on in the 19th century, based on the discovery of similar disease processes in humans and animals, Rudolf Virchow as a scientist had a strong interest in an interconnection of human and veterinary medicine (Saunders, 2000cited in Zinsstag et al., 2010). In the 20 th century, Calvin Schwabe originated the concept of 'one medicine' suggesting that human and veterinary medicine are interconnected and can contribute to the development of each other (Zinsstag et al., 2010). Later on, a broader approach to health and well-being of societies was introduced as 'one health'. In these years, given the global health thinking, ecosystem approaches to health have emerged. Based on multifaceted thinking that goes beyond humans and animals, these approaches consider as inseparable the interconnection between ecosystems and health.The idea of ecohealth, a term used as a contraction for \"ecology and health\"and \"ecosystem and human health,\" was first popularized internationally by the Canadian government's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) drawing on Lebel's (2003) \"ecosystem approaches to human health\". As described by Wilcox and colleagues (Wilcox et al., 2012), who are among the founders of ecohealth as an academic field, \"the ecosystem approach\" in general means applying an understanding of the properties of a whole entity of relevance to the health problem of concern, an infectious disease or otherwise. According to these researchers this includes \"contextualizing a problem by situating it geographically and identifying the biophysical as well as socio-cultural and economic conditions and forces contributing to a human or veterinary public health issues.\" They point out that the objective is to identify the proximal as well as the distal causative factors and how they interact to, for example, understand a zoonoses outbreak. Thus, they point out that in addition to conducting a routine epidemiological investigation, an ecohealth study would consider all the potentially relevant underlying factors as well as the source or origin of the agent(s) responsible, with the aim of targeting the critical variables that will limit the likelihood of emergence events involving existing disease-causing agents or \"new\" agents, for example, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1).Accordingly, to understand the complexities of causes behind zoonoses emergence, it is important to call for more holistic and comprehensive approaches to analyze and address this real-world problem (McDermott and Grace, 2011). In pointing this out, EcoHealth-One Health approach has emerged to capture the increasing potential risk of zoonoses at local, regional and global scales (AVMA, 2008).Risk is fundamental to any decision making scheme. Risk can be defined as imperfect knowledge for stochastic events where the probabilities of the possible outcomes are known (Hardaker et al., 1997cited in Kaan, 2000;Siegel andAlwang, 1999 cited in Devereux, 2001). To put it simply, stated in terms of economics, risk is uncertain consequences (Kaan, 2000) resulting in welfare losses (Devereux, 2001). Risk assessment models are important instruments in economic analysis of infectious disease. It has been described as the science of identifying and understanding unwanted events, of estimating the possibility of these events occurring and of the consequences if they do occur (Roberts, 2006: 237). Risk assessments will not be beneficial unless they provide guideline for management.Managing risk is significant for livestock farming. In agriculture, the sources of risk are various such as a fluctuation of price in market for agricultural products, financial viability, or a diversity of hazards related to weather and diseases.Risk management strategies involve decisions on the farm and the household to find out the amount of outputs to be produced, the allocation of land, the use of inputs, etc.Farmers can manage risk through market tools including insurance. However, not all risks are insurable because of a market failure from information asymmetries.Government can empower farmers to take responsibility for risk management by providing a variety of instruments so that they can choose the best that fits their needs (OECD, 2009).Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) utilizes probability distributions to identify variability or uncertainty in estimations of risk (Mitchell et al., 2004: 1-10). The method has been proved useful in many fields, including animal health (Roberts, 2006: 246). It is excellent tool for estimating the probability of an unwanted event occurring, such as contamination of food with pathogens (Roberts et al., 1995cited in Roberts, 2006: 246). The output of a PRA is a range or probability distribution of risks experienced by the receptors. The performance of a PRA is limited by the availability of distributional data that sufficiently describe one or more of the input parameters. PRA can provide a quantitative explanation of the degree of variability and uncertainty in risk estimates for unwanted events such as the outbreak of diseases. This can provide a more comprehensive identification of risk, additional information and potential flexibility that affords the risk manager (Mitchell et al., 2004: 1-10). Additionally, the beauty of PRA model is that it can illustrate the risk of trade-offs associated with various interventions. Once the risk trade-offs have been estimated, economic data can be added to estimate the benefits and costs of alternative options (Narrod et al., 1999cited in Roberts, 2006: 251). Usually PRA models are tackled by a team composed of decision scientists, economists, modelers and subject matter experts such as veterinarians. The team attempts to capture the scenarios that can lead to significant levels of unwanted events such as contamination in model (Roberts, 2006: 246). However, PRA may not be suitable for every analysis since it generally requires more time, resources, and expertise (Mitchell et al., 2004: 1-10).Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) was invented in the 1940's and 1950's for the purpose of incorporating the effects of uncertainty in management systems for decision making (Henrion et al., 1991cited in Dambacher et al., 2007). It is a graphical conceptual model that captures the components of analyst's beliefs and probabilistic data in relation to the causal relationships of significant interrelated variables in the system of interest (Dambacher et al., 2007;Wongthanavasu, 2008;Carmona et al., 2011). Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed in BBN to deliver advanced knowledge-based systems to solve real world problems (Harrison, 1997).The qualitative part represents causality, relevance and relationships between variables, while the quantitative part represents probability distributions that quantify these relationships. Once a complete BBN is constructed it is an efficient instrument for performing inferences (Campos, 2006).In BBN the nodes represent stochastic variables. Each variable is characterized by states that can be indicated as numerical, ordinal, interval or nominal values (Wongthanavasu, 2008;Carmona et al., 2011). The relationships between the variables in a BBN are strictly acyclic (Dambacher et al., 2007) illustrated by the arcs connecting variables (Suermondt, 1992, p.12 cited in Krieg, 2001). For each variable, a conditional probability table (CPT) has to be defined relying on the available information, including Bayesian or physical probabilities. Bayesian probabilities are derived from prior knowledge including elicited judgment of experts and stakeholders in the form of the subjective estimates, whereas physical probabilities are obtained from available data in terms of statistical and empirical frequencies (Heckerman, 1996 cited in Krieg, 2001;Carmona et al., 2011).Bayesian statistics is the probability language applied to BBNs to determine the probabilities of each variable from the predetermined conditional and prior probabilities (Krieg, 2001). Therefore, Bayesian probability is considered one of the evidential probabilities enabling reasoning under uncertainty (Paulos, 2011).There are three key concepts in Bayesian statistics: a posterior probability, a likelihood function and a priori probability. The a posterior probability of a random event, say parameter θ, is the conditional probability that is assigned after the relevant evidence, say X, is taken into account: pሺθ|Xሻ. It is different from the likelihood function, which is the probability of the evidence given the parameters:pሺX|θሻ. On the other hand, a priori probability is the probability distribution of the evidence. It is often the subjective assessment of experienced experts, regardless of any other information: pሺθሻ. Although prior probabilities have been criticized as a source of unwanted bias, they are considered as an integral part of human uncertainty reasoning (Jensen, 1996, p.19 cited in Krieg, 2001).The posterior probability is defined as;The term p(X) is a normalizing factor. Suppose, X = {x 1 , x 2 , x 3 ,…, x n } Using the law of total probability,For continuous distribution, p(X) = ‫‬ pሺx ୧ |θሻpሺx ୧ ሻdi ୬ ୧ (Krieg, 2001;Watthayu and Peng, 2004;Christopher, 2006) There are three elements to be considered in decision theory. The first element is actions which are the alternative choices that a decision maker can choose to make. Another element is states which are the uncertainties that the decision maker cannot control. The last element is consequences which are the outcomes of making that particular decision under the uncertainty (Lenk, 2001).Bayesian inference is a process of drawing conclusions from random events in which Bayesian interpretation is applied to illustrate how a subjective degree of belief should rationally alter the consideration of additional evidence. The advantage of Bayesian inference is that it always yields an accurate answer even when no data are available (de Finetti, 1974;Dawid, 1982;Ferson, 2005). Decision theory and Bayesian inference provide a consistent theoretical framework for decision making to solve complex and real-world problems. The management objectives are determined as a function, and the expected outcomes of management choices are calculated under the uncertainty (Dorazio and Johnson, 2003).Expected utility:For discrete function,For continuous function,Where, E[U(D)|p] = Expected utility or expected consequences from a decision making under uncertainty p(ω ୧ ሻ = Probability of events that decision maker cannot controlWe choose D to maximize EሾUሺDሻ|pሿ.However, in statistics, we normally use loss function instead of utility function;Expected loss:The objective is to make a decision (D * ) that minimize the expected loss (ρ * ) ρሺp, D * ሻ = ρ * ሺpሻ (Lenk, 2001) Bayesian Belief Network can be applied to solve decision problems by extending two additional types of nodes: decision nodes and utility nodes (Watthayu and Peng, 2004). A decision node is a node in an influence diagram that represents action alternatives under the control of the decision maker (Watthayu and Peng, 2004;Norsys Software Corp, 2013). When the net is solved a decision rule that indicates choices in making a certain decision for each possible condition will be found for the node that optimizes the expected utility (Norsys Software Corp, 2013).utility values imposed by the decision maker by manual calculation for all value configurations of its parent nodes that meet the optimization objective (Jensen, 1995 cited in Watthayu and Peng, 2004).Designing a BBN involves these following steps (Heckerman, Currently, BBN is becoming increasing popular for policy modeling of livelihoods and natural resource management problems such as water resource management (Cain, 2001;Ames et al., 2005), ecological risk management (Pollino et al., 2007), ecological modeling and conservation (Marcot et al., 2006), and wetland development (Gibbs, 2007). The study of Dambacher et al. (2007) proves that BBN is transparent, repeatable, makes experimental predictions statistically testable, and does not require large amounts of empirical data. However, the most significant drawback of BBN is the time, expertise and data needed to realistically represent complex problems.This part covers the research strategy and methodology; including(1) population and sampling design, (2) data collection, and (3) data analysis. This study has utilized the Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) as quantitative and qualitative instruments for the data analysis.The target population of this study includes ethnic minority groups residing scattered throughout the mountainous region along Thailand-Myanmar borders in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Mae Hong Son, including Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lahu, Lisu, and Yao ethnicities with a total population ofapproximately 378,000 persons or 1,200 villages (for more information, see appendix A).To determine the appropriate villages; it requires background The survey instruments including questionnaire, environmental survey, in-depth interview, evaluation form and focus group are used in this study.To understand the roles of institutions, we conducted in-depth interviews with staff working at the Department of Livestock Development, the Tambon Health Promoting Hospital, the Bureau of Epidemiology, and the Office of Disease Prevention and Control 10 in reducing parasitic zoonoses transmission.A questionnaire was developed for the household survey based on the Trichinellosis risk factors deriving from experts' opinion. Twelve enumerators including 8 students from the faculty of Veterinary Medicine and 4 students from the faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University were trained on how to conduct the questionnaire in the selected villages and at the same time the questionnaire is tested.An environmental survey form was developed by an expert to investigate environmental factors related with Trichinellosis risk. To help the enumerators to understand the transmission of the disease, they were trained by the experts to understand One Health Approach. This form considers the interaction of highlanders with the pigs they grow and their environment as a single system.After conducting the household survey, we developed a set of data preparing for the experts to evaluate the Trichinellosis risk circumstance in the selected villages using experts' meeting. Descriptive statistics were used to quantitatively describe the collected data. They are divided into 4 sub-systems, including: animal husbandry, food chain, environment, and economic condition.To conduct an in-depth household study within the limited time and financial resources, only 54 households were randomly selected. The complexity of these circumstances has led to model-based approaches for investigating the interconnections and for predicting management outcomes (Jakeman et al., 2006). A probabilistic graphical model for qualitative instrument called BBN is applied for this analysis since it does not need large amounts of empirical data. The conceptual transdisciplinary framework of Trichinellosis risk is developed by experts based on the existing knowledge and the experience from the field study to explain interconnection of the risk factors. It is also applied to solve decision problems related with management of the relevant institutions attempting to reduce the risk.When the net is solved, a decision rule which indicates choices for making a certain decision for each possible condition will be found for the node that optimizes the expected utility. Those who do crop farming as a primary career need to devote their time in a field whichis located far away from the village. Many of them decide to let their pigs roam freely because they do not have to prepare feed for them which takes hours to prepare.Assuming that an institution, for example, a governmental institution, has unlimited money to construct pig pens for villagers and that will not affect to its utility. The institution's decision whether to provide money to construct pig pens (3,981.43 Baht each, the average cost derived from the field study) for the pig growers is based on the satisfaction of a household from switching the practices and that we considered only the average gains (or losses) a household will face if it changes the practice. If the institution does not want to support the money to construct pig pens for the pig growers, they have to bear this cost by themselves. We calculated the average gains of each pig production mode and compared those with the average gain from raising pigs in pens (see Table C-1). We ignore the possible benefits from the reduction in the risk that pigs will be infected by the effort on other issues instead. On the other hand, if the decision makers know that some villagers are undereducated about the danger of consuming raw or undercooked meat and if they are educated they tend to change behavior, therefore, the effort that public health put will be quite effective and worth the money and time.Contrary to the previous decision, with this decision we assume that an institution, for example, a public health organization, has limited money to encourage people to stop eating raw or undercooked meat and that is its decision to allocate resources wisely. A local institution spends approximately 6,000Baht each time it visits village providing knowledge about hygiene.The decision of an institution whether to launch a campaign to encourage people to stop eating raw/undercooked meat depends on benefits a household will receive from stopping eating raw/undercooked meat. These benefits can be calculated from the reduction in the burden of illness or the loss from death from Trichinellosis. In so doing, we consider the risk that an individual can getTrichinellosis that is evaluated by human health experts. We also take the severity of the illness in to consideration. However, since we do not have enough information to calculate the severity of getting Trichinellosis, we assume that those who have higher risk may face higher severity. The higher severe case bears higher economic losses.There are three levels of severity including high, medium and low levels. We derived the data on the economic losses from the illness from the case outbreak in Nan Province. Assoc.Prof.Dr.Pichart Uparanukraw, a human health expert determined the levels of severity of the illness from the case outbreak. In addition, we also take the individual's decision whether to stop eating raw/undercooked meat or not and the costs that the institution bears in visiting a village in order to provide the knowledge to villagers into account. The economic losses of illness and death fromTrichinellosis in human can be seen in Where, i = Levels of the risk that pigs will be infected by Trichinella Where, EൣU ଵ ሺD ଵ ሻหpሺX ሻ൧ = Expected utility or expected consequences from a decision making of supporting pen construction for pig growers under uncertainty about Trichinellosis risk. j = {P,T,FU,FO,P+T,P+FU,P+FO,P+F,T+FU,T+F,P+T+F,P+FU+F,P+FO+F} k = {N,Y} l = {N,Y} However, X 22 = f(TIP), and we are interested to see the effect of TIP on the expected outcome (U 1 ). The posterior probability of X 22 is defined as,From the posterior probability of TIP,An institution will make a decision whether to support pen construction for pig growers or not based on expected utility maximization.However, in statistics, we normally use loss function instead of utility function;Expected loss:The objective is to make a decision (choose whether to support pen construction for pig growers or not) that minimizes the expected loss Where, EൣU ଶ ሺD ଶ ሻหpሺX B ሻ൧ = Expected utility or expected consequences from decision From the posterior probability of RTH,An institution will make a decision whether to encourage people to stop consuming raw/undercooked meat or not based on expected utility maximization.However, in statistics, we normally use loss function instead of utility function;Expected loss:The objective is to make a decision (choose whether to encourage people to stop consuming raw/undercooked meat or not) that minimizes the expected loss (ρ ଶ * ).The objective of this test is to evaluate the quality of the Bayesian Networks (Appendix B) using a set of real cases using Netica. This test will illustrate how well the models match the actual cases by considering the actual belief levels of the states in determining how well they agree with the value of the case file.We first incorporate 60% of the cases into the model. Then, the nodes in which we wish to find their inferences, including, TIP and RTH nodes were selected. We used 40% of the samples to verify the validity of the model. When the Netica was done, it printed a report called scoring rule results of each of the selected nodes (see ] Spherical payoff values are between zero and one. One represents the best performance.Where, P c = Probability predicted for the correct state P i = Probability predicted for state i, n is the number of states MOAC = Mean (average) over all cases (Norsys Software Corp., 2013) Another way to verify the validity of the models is to use Netica to pass through the case file by processing cases one-by-one. For each case, the software reads the case except the nodes that we wish to find their inferences.After that, the software will revise the actual value for those nodes and compare them with the beliefs the model generated. Netica accumulates all the comparisons as illustrated in Table C-4 and Table D-4. The models were selected based on the values of sum square error (SSE). The less SSE, the best the model is.For animal health perspective, the values of logarithmic loss and quadratic loss of the model 2 were slightly smaller than the model 1, while the value of spherical payoff value of the model 2 was slightly larger. Though, the model 2 yielded slightly larger of sum square error (SSE) than the model 1, the model 2 was selected since it yielded a lot less error rate of only 20%.For the human health perspective, the scoring rule results and the error rate yielded no difference values between the model 1 and the model 2.Though, model 2 yielded a slightly larger value of SSE, it was selected since it was much less complicated than model 1.After we derived the models, we incorporated all the data into the selected models. As a result, we would see the learned probability distributions appeared in each node (see Figure C-1, C-2, D-1 and D-2).In order to solve the decision problems, we augmented the decision node and the utility node into the models. For the human health perspective, we augmented the institution's decision whether to encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat or not. For animal health perspective, we augmented the institution's decision whether to support the constructing cost of pens to pig growers or not. Netica would attach a deterministic function which provided a value for the decision node for each possible configuration of parent values. The links into a decision node indicate what the decision maker will know when he is about to make the decision. For the human health perspective, we assume that the institution may know the knowledge of food-preparing persons and their attitudes to change the eating habits. On the other hand, for the animal health perspective, we assume that the institution may know the pig production mode that pig growers apply and their attitudes towards changing the practices. The decision function from the decision node will maximize the expected value of the sum of the utility node (see This chapter covers the results of a transdisciplinary Trichinellosis risk framework involving the descriptive results of two highlander villagers, including one that experienced an outbreak, and the results from the development of a Bayesian Belief Network model of Trichinellosis risk.This section used a One Health approach to develop a transdisciplinary framework considering the interaction of highlanders with the pigs they grow and their environment as a single system. The research identified four subsystems to investigate Trichinellosis risk, including animal husbandry, food chain, environment, and economic conditions. Descriptive statistics were used to quantitatively describe the collected data (see Appendix F).The in-depth household study was conducted in two highlander villages in Mae Ai District, Chiang Mai Province, including Huai Ma Fueang village and Huai Chan Si village which experienced an outbreak of Trichinellosis in 2004 (BOE, 2004). Fifty-four representative households were randomly selected from these two villages. Out of this number, twenty-three representative households raise In addition, those who are Buddhists or Christians, they also follow their own ethnic culture, including values, beliefs and special celebrations. Most of these households raise pigs for both consumption and commercial purposes (36 households). Some of them raise pigs for self subsistence only (8 households). Among these households, most of them raise pigs for ritual uses (28 households). On average, they have 11 years of experience in pig rearing, but some of them have raised pigs for up to 35 years. It takes approximately 10 months for growing a pig until they can sell for approximately 4,200 Baht for 38 kilograms weight.In considering the pigs these highlanders grow, they are all native pigs (black pigs). Some ritual ceremonies only allow black pigs as the oblation. One villager said that if they do not grow black pigs, when they need one for a ceremony they have to buy it from somewhere else and they have to accept at any price. This is the reason why these people tend to raise pigs by themselves since it saves more money. They will buy more pigs (usually piglets) from neighbors or sometimes from others outside the village when they think there are not enough pigs for their ritual uses or special celebrations such as the New Year, weddings, funerals, etc. Raising pigs can be seen as a kind of investment, and they can invest in a pig with little money. Then a pig grows with time and they can sell it out when they need money for contingency situations or they can wait until it is grown and consume it and save money instead of buying it from another farmer. This is quite a wise decision for them in utilizing their time, land space and other resources available. The profits they will earn from pig rearing depend largely on how they manage these resources and the kinds of pig production modes they apply.There are five kinds of pig production modes, including free range in which farmers allow pigs to wander around finding something to eat by themselves. For this kind of pig production mode, farmers do not need to construct a house for pigs and feed is rarely prepared for them. Usually piglets are allowed to wander around. Tethering pigs with ropes can be seen as another kind of pig production mode that farmers tie a pig with a rope, usually underneath the house for keeping it nearby and they have to prepare feed for it. The other two kinds are the fence located underneath the house and the fence located outdoors. Farmers construct fences for grounding pigs and feed needs to be prepared for them. The last kind of pig production mode is in pens. Farmers construct a pen as a house for pigs. The quality of the pen depends on the budget that farmers have. Most boars and sows are usually kept in pens. Most of these households keep pigs in pens (18 households) following by in fenced areas underneath the house (5 households), tethering (1 household) and outdoor-located fenced area (1 household). Many of them apply a combination of various pig production modes such as a combination of outdoorlocated fences and pens (4 households), a combination of fences underneath the house and pens (4 households), a combination of tethering and pens (3 households), etc.The majority of these households claim that they choose the kind of pig production mode depending on convenience. Some of them follow the community regulation of grounding pig in pen or fence. If a pig disturbs any other villagers' property, the pig owner has to be fined 300 Baht. Surprisingly, many of them are concerned about the hygienic security, and that is why they keep pigs in pens. In addition, they also claim that financial constraint plays a big part on their decision of choosing a pig production mode.A majority of these representative highlanders kill pigs by themselves in the backyard (44 households). Only one household goes to local butcher and one household kills pigs inside the pen.Major feeds that these people feed the pigs are banana trunk and rice chaff (43 households). Some of them use food scrap (23 households) and carcasses left over (3 households) as pig feed. These can be considered as a risk for infection with Trichinellosis in pigs since they have a chance to consume infected animal parts.In considering the pig raisers' knowledge about Trichinellosis, a majority of them (49 households) do not know anything about this disease. However, twenty-eight households know that keeping pigs in pens is hygienically safe for the pigs. For those who do not keep pigs in pens, most of them (27 households) tend to change the behavior by putting pigs in pens after they know that pens can lead to hygienic security in the pigs. However, only 15 households decide not to change the behavior mainly because of the financial constraint.In considering the health practices, most of the pig raisers (32 households) never check the health situation of their pigs, but the rest of them have checked the health situation of their pigs. They tend to check the health situation of their pigs by themselves (7 households). Furthermore, when their pigs gets sick most of them (18 households) usually treat them themselves. Some of them ( 12households) do nothing. Some of them (10 households) ask for someone such as the public health volunteers which are their neighbors to help. A few (5 households) use herbal remedies and only one person (1 household) sells the sick pig. Surprisingly, thirty-eight households apply deworming drugs for their pigs with almost two applications annually. Though, deworming drugs cannot effectively kill parasites located in muscles, the high tendency of applying deworming drugs amongst this population shows a good sign that they are aware of the parasitic diseases in pigs. For those who do not apply the deworming drug, they claim that it is not important to use it (4 households). Some of them claim that their pigs are already healthy (2 households), while one household thought that their pigs are too old, no need to use the deworming drug anymore. In addition, only two households do not even know that they should apply deworming drug for their pigs.Most of food-preparing persons (40 persons) in these representative households are female. Most of them are Red Lahu (45 persons) and most of them have already been granted Thai citizenship (52 persons). Thirty-five had never attended school. This probably is the reason why most of them (39 households) do not know that consuming raw or undercooked meat is harmful for their health.In these two villages, in each year, villagers usually kill native pigs on the Lahu New Year festival (or Kin Wor) (41 households), wedding ceremonies (28 households), funerals (27 households), merit making (24 households), sacrifices (17 households), and New Rice Alms' ceremony (15 households).Additionally, the pork is almost always shared with the neighbors and even with visitors or strangers.Nonetheless, the villagers also eat outside of the house. Most of them (31 households) go to their neighbor's house. From the interview, we found that they usually have alcoholic drinks with raw or undercooked meat. Twenty-six of them go to a restaurant and a few of them go to other villages, churches and markets.Twenty-nine households go to eat outside occasionally, especially when there is a special occasion. Only a couple households go to eat outside everyday and only 5 households never go to eat outside at all. Fortunately, most of the villagers in these representative households (69.44%) do not like consuming raw or undercooked meat, and most of those who do not like it (72.73%) said it is \"nasty\". Around 45.46% of them claim that it is harmful for health. Only a few of them said that their parents do not allow eating raw or undercooked meat (3.03%) and some (3.03%) claimed that the materials for preparing raw or undercooked meat are more expensive.However, for those who like to consume raw or undercooked meat, around 90% of them claimed that it is \"delicious\". Some of them (31.71%) believe that it is a tradition to eat it. Surprisingly, many of them (31.71%) believe that consuming rawor undercooked meat can give them strength. Around 12% of them love to eat it with alcohol and a few of them think it is \"cool\" (2.44%) and they feel used to consuming raw or undercooked (2.44%).After the enumerators educated the danger of consuming raw or undercooked meat to these people, only around 60% of them said they would stop eating raw or undercooked meat. All of them said they are scared of the danger.Surprisingly, around 21% of them insisted on continuing to eat it as usual and the rest claimed to eat it only on special occasions (14.89%). A few of them claimed that they will eat less (2.13%) and some are still unsure (2.13%).For those who insist on continuing to eat raw or undercooked meat, around 62% of them said that it is because of their own preference. A few of them said it is because nothing bad ever happened to them (12.5%). Some of them claimed that they eat the deworming drug after consuming raw or undercooked meat (12.5%). A few of them said it is because of the tradition (6.25%) and some claimed that they have to eat it with their husband (6.25%).From the questionnaire, we found out that there are nine different kinds of animals that the villagers eat, including, white pig, native pig, chicken, wild boar, water monitor, wild cat, snake, dog and rat. These animals can be infected by Trichinella if they consume infectious cysts in meat. Humans become infected when they eat raw or undercooked infected meat. The study found that the villagers do not eat raw or undercooked chicken, water monitor, wild cat, snake, dog and rat while they consume the rest as raw or undercooked. Most of the time they consume white pig (annually around 260 days on average as for cooked and around 86 days for raw or undercooked) that they can buy from other villagers (71.70%), from neighbor (28.30%) and with their own reproduction (3.77%). The villagers often consume native pig (annually around 73 days on average as for cooked and around 33 days as for raw or undercooked) that they can buy from other villagers (9.26%), from neighbors (50%) and from their own production (61.11%). Since the villagers' houses are located nearby a forest, they often hunt wild boar for consumption (25.93%). However, some of them buy it from other villages (14.81%), from neighbors (24.07%) and from their own production (3.70%). Annually, they consume wild boar around 12 days on average as for cooked and only around 2 days as for raw or undercooked.After slaughtering pigs or other animals, most of the representative households (26 households) use the carcasses left over as pet feed. Some of them (7 households) just sweep them down to the floor. Only a few of them put carcasses in the trash can or bury them. Thirty-eight households bury animals that died of sickness. Unfortunately, a few of these households eat animals that died of sickness within the family, share to neighbors, or sell it out to other neighbors. For the naturally dead animal, forty-one households usually bury it. Amongst these households, a couple of them clean pig areas twice a day, ten households do it once a day, four households do it every other days, four households do it every other two days, five households do it once a week, seven households rarely clean, and nine households never clean pig areas.In considering the pig waste disposal, a couple of these families dispose of it twice a day, eight households dispose of it once a day, seven households dispose of it every other day, a couple of households dispose of it every other two days, seven households dispose of it once a week, a few households rarely dispose of it and fourteen households never dispose of it at all.In considering disposal of the feed left over, twenty-two households dispose of it every time after feeding. Seven households dispose of it sometimes and thirteen households never dispose of it.In considering the cleanliness of surroundings, sixteen households clean surroundings every day, fourteen households do it every other day, fourteen households do it once a week and ten households rarely do it. Twenty-three households tend to use wet garbage as animal feed. Twelve households throw this trash in the forest nearby. Ten households sweep it down to the floor. Twelve households dispose it by burning. Eight households put it in a trash can, while only a couple households bury it. For solid waste, twenty-eight households dispose it by burning. Thirteen households put it in community trash can. Eight households throw it in forest. Seven households sell it out. A couple of households bury it and only one household reuses it. However, a couple households just sweep the trash down to the floor. Most households have seen around 1-5 rats a day. Most of these households do not recognize the danger of rats. In addition, twenty-five households use rat control.Furthermore, ten households have seen wildlife around the villages.As for a primary source of income, these representative households earn money from crop production (50 households), working as laborer (5 households), merchandise (3 households) and animal farming (2 households). As for a secondary source of income, they earn money from working as a laborer (29 households), animal farming (21 households), crop production (2 households) and selling merchandise (1 households). On average, a family earns 58,537.96 Baht annually. Forty households do save some money for different purposes, including, investment in agriculture (30 households), buying products (22 households), preparing for children's education (12 households), preparing for contingency purposes (7 households), preparing for vacation (1 household). Some of them also provide loans for others (3 households). Thirty-one households use the savings money for pig production investment, including buying deworming drugs (20 households), buying more pigs (15 households), buying pig feed (5 households) and also for improving pig hygiene (4 households).Forty-two of these representative households have fallen into debt. Twenty-one households borrow money from their neighbors. Nineteen households borrow money from village funds. Eleven households are able to access money from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC). Eight households access sources of funding through informal leasing. A few of them use private leasing or go to Government Saving Bank (GSB) to access sources of funding.Since most of these people are Thai citizens, they can access the universal coverage for health care service (50 households). A few of them can access the health care service for free through other alternative choices such as the free medical service for elderly, public health volunteer, low income people and as a community leader. A couple of them have private insurance or registered in the social security service. Usually, when these people are sick, they will go to a district hospital (40 households), Tambol health promoting hospital (36 households), nearby clinic (23 households), Maharat hospital (7 households) which is a provincial hospital, Prasat neurological hospital (6 households) which is another provincial hospital, or Fang hospital (5 households) which is district hospital in another district. However, some of them decide to buy medicine by themselves at the pharmacy store (34 households). Some of them use a traditional health care (13 households) or spiritual treatment (9 households).In considering the convenience products that these people possess, these households have motorbike (48 households) that facilitates convenient travel from house to the cropping farm or to the town. Only a few of them own a truck (5 households). They also have television (45 households) with satellite dish (43 households) and radio (21 households). Many of them have a cell phone (19 households) and only a couple them have laptops, etc. b) Access to Information Amongst these people, the most important source of information and news is television (47 households). Those who do not have television may watch it with their neighbors who have it. Word of mouth from neighbors is also seen as a channel to pass along information or news to other neighbors (38 households). Besides, some people receive news from the public announcement (38 households). Additionally, they also access information and news by listening to the radio (47 households), and through reading newspapers (5 households). A few of them use internet and read local journals or magazines. Furthermore, they also receive services from persons and institutions, including, headman (on average around 29 days visited in a year), teacher (on average around 13 days visited in a year), public health officers (on average around 3 days visited in a year), animal health volunteer (on average around 1 day visited in a year), public health volunteer (on average around 28 days visited in a year), animal health volunteer (on average around 2 days visited in a year), police (on average once in every other year), heifer officer (on average once in four years), tree bank officer (only once), sub district officer (on average once in four years) and district officer (only once). From the interview, we found out that, on average, most of these people are not satisfied with the services from these institutions. This may be because there are a lot of them do not receive some services from these people or institutions.The cost structure of pig rearing is composed of fixed cost from pig house and variable cost from feed cost, water supply and pig housing maintenance, and other miscellaneous variable cost. Different kinds of pig production modes have different cost structures and yield different revenue stream to the family as illustrated Appendix G.These costs are calculated until a farmer can sell a pig out.As overall, the cost of pig rearing per capita is 926.41 Baht. A pig can be sold for approximately 2,900 Baht. The profit per capita is approximately 2,300 Baht.However, if we consider the opportunity costs including the cost of time spent for raising pigs and the cost saved from not buying pigs, the profit per capita will be approximately 2,200 Baht.From the study, there are two kinds of pig production modes that yield a loss to households. They include pens (3 households) and fences underneath the house (2 households). The combination of raising pigs in pens and tethering yield the highest profit per capita (4,193.24 Baht) while the combination of raising pigs in outdoor-located fences, pens and free range yield the lowest profit per capita (423.13) to the householdThe conceptual transdisciplinary framework of Trichinellosis risk is developed (see Appendix B) by experts based on the existing knowledge and the experience from the field study to explain interconnection of the risk factors. It is also applied to solve decision problems associated with management of the relevant institutions attempting to reduce the risk. The decision problems include (1) institution's decision to support money for pig pen construction to pig growers and (2) institution's decision to encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat.After we incorporate the data into Model 2 (see Figure C-3), the outcome node illustrates the probability that pigs are at high risk to be infected by Trichinellais 31.48%, at medium risk is 37.04% and at low risk is 31.48%. For the attitudes toward changing the practices of the pig growers, without being educated, the probability that they will not change the practice is 50.27% and the probability that they will change is 49.73%. This means that they are reluctant whether to change the practice or not. With these circumstances, if the institution decides to launch a program to support money for pig pen construction to pig growers in attempting to reduce the risk that pigs will be infected by Trichinella, a household will receive a negative outcome of 3,912.20 Baht per household (in case that the household also agree to change the practice). However, if the institution decides not to launch the program, a household will receive a negative outcome of 5,747.80 Baht per household. Though, without taking possible benefits from the reduction in the risk that pigs will be infected by Trichinella from keeping pigs in pens into consideration and under the assumption that the institution has unlimited resources to construct the pen, we can say that a household will be better off if an institution supports a budget to construct pig pens. Moreover, if we assume that a household receives news from someone that the village has a high prevalence of Trichinella infection in pigs, the model shows that there will be a slight increase in the willingness to change the practice to keep pigs in pens and the decision from the institution to support pen construction costs for pig growers still outperformed the decision of not to support (see . This showed that the information that their pigs are at high risk to be infected with Trichinella has an effect on the decision of pig growers to switch to keep pigs in pens.After we incorporate the data into Model 1 (see Figure D-3), the outcome node illustrated the probability that people are at high risk to be infected with Trichinellosis is 16.50%, at medium risk 19.65% and at low risk 63.85%. For the attitudes toward changing the behaviors, without being educated about the danger of consuming raw or undercooked meat, the probability that they will not change the habits is 38.60% and the probability that they will change is 61.40%. This means that they tend to change the habits by themselves easily. With these circumstances, if the institution decides to launch a program to encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat in order to reduce the risk that people will be Trichinellosis, an individual will receive a negative outcome of 3,912.20 Baht. However, if the institution decides not to launch the program, an individual will receive a negative outcome of 5,747.80 Baht. Since we already include the cost of visiting the village into the model, in this case, we can say that an institution should go to the field and encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat because it yielded less loss than not to. Moreover, if an institution has heard news that a village is at high risk that people will be infected with Trichinellosis, this information can be updated the model and the decision making process. In this case, if the institution launches a program to encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat, an individual will receive a loss of 6,000 Baht which is much smaller than the decision of not to (as high as 20,681 Baht) (see Figure D-4).This chapter concludes this thesis. It presents a summary of the research.Findings of the study and are discussed and interpreted. Recommendations for further study are also provided at the end of each section.To help us understand the transmission of the disease the study used a One Health approach to develop a transdisciplinary framework. This framework considers interaction of highlanders with the pigs they grow and their environment as The study found that females have equal opportunity to be part of the pig rearing process. In fact, most of pig growers are females. On average, the pig growers have high experience in pig rearing.The study also presented that the pig growers acquire knowledge about pig rearing from public health officers who are their neighbors. Some households use local wisdom in healing sick pigs such as using herbs. From the interview, we can see that these people have naïve morality. They claimed that they never sell any sick pigs to others. Surprisingly, many households apply deworming drugs to their pigs twice annually. Though, this practice cannot effectively kill parasites located in muscles, it shows a good sign that they are aware of parasitic diseases in pigs. However, most of the pig growers in these villages do not recognize that keeping pigs in pens can prevent their pigs from parasitic zoonoses.After they were educated by the enumerators, most of them tended to change their practices to keep their pigs in pen. However, the main reason that some people decided not to change their practices is because of the financial constraint and time that they needed to devote to pig rearing.The study found that, each year, villagers kill native pigs on the special occasions related with traditions and beliefs. In addition, the pork is almost always shared with the neighbors and even with visitors or strangers and always served raw. These people may pass along meat that is infected by Trichinella or other parasitic diseases to others. These people have a high tendency to consume a large amount of infected meat in these special occasions. On the other hand, the parasitic zoonoses experts claimed that eating outside of the house such as at arestaurant, market or church haverelatively lower risk since the infected meat may mixed with non-infected meat and shared with several people.The study also found that eating habits and food choice depend largely on personal preference as well as the influence of peers or family members. There is a possibility that children will follow their parents' behavior and acquire the same eating habits as adults. Knowledge can prevent some people from eating raw meat.Additionally, for those who eat raw meat for pleasure (good taste), being informed about the dangers does not appear to dissuade them from continuing to eat it. Those who consume it mainly for its tonic affect tend to be more easily induced to stop.An area of future research that might provide valuable would be to investigate the impact of raw meat consumption on individual health, productivity in work, level of income, and overall wellbeing including the possibility to falling into a poverty trap. Furthermore, the preliminary results of this study are being used as basis for expanding the research to include a component of participatory prevention and control measures aimed at reducing disease risk in the highlander population.Environment is seen as the major risk factor explaining the transmission of Trichinella in highlanders. Since these people allow their pigs to wander around for food in the natural environment, this presents a high risk of infection from wild animals or rodents to their pigs. Though, a few households raise pigs in the forest, many households have seen wildlife around the villages and also lots of rodents. A few of them recognize the danger of these animals that could possibly bring diseases to their pigs or to themselves. This study considered the cleanliness of surroundings and pig areas since we believe they are important factors leading to Trichinella infection in pigs. Keeping pigs in pens can reduce the risk that pigs will be infected by Trichinella if pig growers do not feed their pigs with animal carcasses, cleaning pig areas frequently and removing feed after feeding every time.Economic factors seem to be a driving force for any decision making among these populations. These highlanders use the intuition in decisionmaking process in pig rearing based on their objectives and constraints such as time, money and knowledge. The study discovered that there are three objectives of pig rearing in highlanders, including self-subsistence, ritual uses and commercial purposes. In terms of the commercial purpose, it is more likely an acquaintanceship selling to neighbors or friends when they are in need. In this case, they can get a fair price considering the quality and weight of the pigs they sell and do not need to compete with each other over price. The objectives of pig rearing determine the kinds of pig production modes these people apply. Those who tend to raise pigs purposively for their own consumption or those who sell pigs to their friends do not pay a lot of attention to the welfare or productivity of pigs compared with those who attempt to sell the pigs out to market for good price. Therefore, the commercial farmers are willing to invest more income in constructing better housing or buying better feed for their pigs. This study also found out that different pig production modes lead to different cost structure and revenue. However, a more in-depth study concerning the mechanism of cost and the revenue stream of pig rearing, agricultural market mechanism and the adaptation of farmers in different situations related with pig rearing should be a focus in the next study.The conceptual transdisciplinary framework of Trichinellosis risk is developed by the transdisciplinary experts' team to explain interconnection of the risk factors. Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) offered convenient ways to solve the decision problems related with management of the relevant institutions in attempting to reduce the risk including (1) institution's decision to support money for pig pen construction to pig growers and (2) institution's decision to encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat. The accuracy of the models was based on experts' judgments. In addition, we used scoring rule results, including, logarithmic loss, quadratic loss, spherical payoff, error rate, and sum square errors to select models. We recommend using more advance qualitative statistical tools to measure the accuracy of a model and to select a model in the next study.Regarding the advantages of BBNs, they allowed us to make a decision under an uncertainty such as when we do not know the behaviors of target populations. They also allowed flexibility in the prediction about how the situation will behave which is very useful for policy making. In addition, they also provided an outcome of any decision, and the models are very adaptable. We can start constructing a model with limited knowledge and improve it later as we acquire new understanding. Therefore, we recommend conducting further research in other areas to refine the creditability of the models.In considering the disadvantages of BBNs, for this study we found a so-called curse of dimensionality problem that has often been a difficulty with Bayesian statistics when the posterior distributions often have many parameters.under-determined or under-constrained problem. This problem occurs when there are many more features than data points. This problem we can often find in some real world problems. It can create noise that impedes the learning algorithm from recognizing the features that are distinguishing with respect to the target concept (Pansombut et al., 2011). As a consequence, we recommend the further research to be aware of this problem and try to avoid variables that possess too many features.However, in case that we cannot include this kind of variable in the model, we may need to increase the sample size. In this study, we found this problem in the pig production mode. Indeed, there should be only 5 features. This variable has 13 features since we cannot calculate the cost structure and revenue stream from these 5 different features but we can for the 13 features. Therefore, for the further research, we can avoid the under-determined problem if we can find the cost structure and revenue stream of these 5 different kinds of pig production.The above constraints make these models not the perfect tools to make a decision. However, the research has fulfilled the obligations to explain the  Table C-1: Gains and losses from switching to keep pigs in pen Unit: Baht 1 Without cost of pig pen construction 2 Gains from switching to keep pigs in pen (with the support) = gains from original pig production mode -gain from raising pig in pen 3 Gains from switching to keep pigs in pen (without the support) = (gains from original pig production mode -gain from raising pig in pen)-cost of constructing a pen   1 U2 of these scenarios = cost saved from being Trichinellosis×probability to divert the behavior back to consume raw or undercooked meat (we assume to be 0.50).2These cases mean they continuing consume cooked meat.This scenario considers those who love to eat raw or undercooked meat. They are seen as the risk lovers. Without any intervention, these people continuing consuming raw or undercooked meat. They face the possibility of gettingTrichinellosis and may bear some economic losses from the illness. The size of the losses depends on the severity of the illness.This scenario considers those who previously love to eat raw or undercooked meat and then divert the behavior to stop consuming it without any intervention or being educated. To stop consuming raw or undercooked meat, we can say that the risk of being Trichinellosis will be 0%. However, we assume that these people can easily divert behaviors back to consume raw or undercooked meat.This scenario considers the situation when there is an intervention from an institution attempting to encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat. The institution bears the cost from introducing its campaign. Though people are educated about the danger of consuming raw or undercooked meat, they tend to not be aware of. The campaign is ineffective to change their behaviors. These people face the possibility of getting Trichinellosis and may bear some economic losses from the illness. The size of the losses depends on the severity of the illness.This scenario considers the situation when there is an intervention from an institution attempting to encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat. The institution bears the cost from introducing its campaign. After people are educated about the danger of consuming raw or undercooked meat, they tend to divert their behaviors. These people can save the economic losses from the illness. The size of the losses depends on the possibility that they could get Trichinellosis if they do not divert the behavior.This scenario considers those who already aware the danger of consuming raw or undercooked meat and never consuming some. Without the intervention, there are no gains and no losses.This scenario considers the situation when there is an intervention from an institution attempting to encourage people to stop consuming raw or undercooked meat. The institution bears the cost from introducing its campaign. However, the intervention does not have an effect on those who already aware the danger of consuming raw or undercooked meat because they never consuming some      5,546.69 6,631.08 18 5,363.26 6,597.85 18 2,477.08 2,113.13 18 21,017.86 27,247.17 18 17,653.09 22,106.48 13 2,308.31 1,197.35  ","tokenCount":"12995"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05c76a366772254afdd0cdcbf1cff6c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c905e156-f017-45b7-9bf7-e5e6936051dc/content","id":"97506469"},"keywords":["Soil Chemicophysical properties","soil testing","soil water content","plant soil relations","cereal crops","agronomic characters AGRIS category code: P33","P35; FOI Dewey classification: 631.417"],"sieverID":"4a7dcb84-1f37-4e71-afc2-2592128a8b18","pagecount":"46","content":"This wheat special report is a guide that outlines the procedures used for measuring many factors in small grains research. The actual observations taken, however, will depend on the objectives of the work in question.To assist with assessing the relevance of an observation, a small discussion, where applicable, is presented under each section outlining the advantages or application of that particular observation. In addition, the reader is referred to the key references that are included in each section to help with interpretation or application of the data collected.1 Soil Sampling 1.1 Sampling depth and number of samples Table 1 gives general guidelines for the number and depth of samples that can be taken for different types of studies. Table 2 shows the relative variability associated with some major soil properties. Factors with greater variability would require more sampling to have the same level of precision as a factor with less variability. Clearly, adequate sampling is important because variation decreases as the number of samples increases (Figure 1).The required number of samples to have a known level of precision can be estimated statistically from the degree of variation found in a field (See Peterson and Calvin 1986).Table 1. Depth of sampling and number of sub-samples/sampling unit recommended for determination of various soil characteristics (Adapted from Ward et al.). b Rooting depth should be determined to know adequate sampling depth, which typically could be 100 em, but may be more or less.Table 2. Relative spatial variability of some major soil chemical and physical properties. From M. Bell (unpublished data) and Landon (1984). The results of a soil analysis are of use only if the soil sample is truly representative. The amount of time and effort that should be invested in sampling depends on the objective of the study and the resources available. In general, the number and depth of samples depends on:The expected rooting depth of the crop. The bulk of the roots in cereal crops is concentrated in the top soil layers. Therefore soils are often sampled from 0-20 cm for nutrients, but to 100 cm or more for water.The element being studied. Mobile nutrients such as nitrogen may require sampling to the I-m depth, whereas elements such as phosphorus, which are essentially immobile, are concentrated in the surface layer of the soil.The tillage system. Under zero-tillage, banding of phosphorus necessitates increased sampling.The variation across the plot or field to be studied. The aim of sampling is to identify uniform sampling units-See Section 1.2.In collecting a soil sample, sampling units (Le., areas of soil that are relatively uniform) should be identified. Changes in slope and soil color, depth and texture, plus differences in the growth of present or past crops may give an indication of differences in soil properties and thus help identify sampling units.Sampling can be conducted with either a shovel (spade), a soil (bucket) auger, or a soil corer (of about 20-50 mm diameter). Soil corers are generally the quickest and most accurate for sampling to different depths. A shovel, which is quite adequate, but much more time consuming, requires care that a representative sample of the profile is taken (with shovels, there will be a tendency to sample more soil  Hauser (1985).from the top of the shovel cut). Samples within a sampling unit are normally bulked, mixed thoroughly, and then a subsample of the bulk is used for analysis. Table 3 shows the amount of soil needed for a number of common soil analyses.Surface residue (see Section 4.13) is usually not included in the soil sample, but may be collected and analyzed separately.Once the number of sampling units is determined, then the desired number of samples (see Table 1) are collected from within each sampling unit. Samples are collected at random, often collected by following a \"W\" shape pattern through the field.At times, stratified sampling is also used; this entails dividing the field into portions or sampling units that are considered more uniform. These stratified units can then be sampled and analyzed separately. Alternatively, a proportionate number of samples relative to the sampling unit area can be collected (i.e., if one sampling unit is twice as large as another, then the final bulk sample should contain twice as much soil from the larger sampling unit).With more tools now available for analyzing soil trends in space (e.g., Geostatistics), systematic sampling has gained in popularity (see Warrick et al. 1986). In systematic sampling, samples are generally collected at regular distances from each other in both dimensions so that final results can readily be mapped on a grid.For pH, texture, or nutrient analyses, the samples are usually air-dried and sieved to less than 2 mm; breaking up clods by hand when they reach an intermediate moisture content facilitates final sieving. Recent developments suggest that even samples to be analyzed for nitrates and ammonium can be airdried (if done quickly); a fan blowing over the samples speeds up the drying process. The samples should not be ground finer than 2 mm as this disrupts texture and may release elements otherwise not available. The soil not passing a 2-mm sieve is defined as gravel and should be weighed before discarding, so that the percent gravel by weight can be calculated.Many taxonomy systems have been used over the years. In more recent times, the 'U.s. Soil Taxonomy' (USDA 1975), combining both soil and climate characteristics, has gained in popularity. The system of classification starts with 11 orders (Table 4) and gradually expands on the classification increasing in detail through suborders, great groups, subgroups, and families, to series. To help with the numerous soil terms used in taxonomy, a glossary of soil terms (Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 1987) can be purchased from the Soil Science Society of America, 677 South Segoe Rd., Madison, Wisconsin, 53711, USA. 3 Soil Chemical and Physical Analyses 3.1 Laboratory analysis Detailed chemical analytical methodologies are beyond the scope of this publication. However, Table 3 shows the methods often used for determining a number of soil properties. The publication by Page et al. (1982) is recommended for details on the laboratory analytical methodologies.A number of portable test kits are available for field analysis of samples. As a minimum, however, a researcher should consider buying a soil pH test kit. The Hellige-Truogg pH test kit is particularly useful and easy to use, relying on the color reaction of a powder applied to the soil sample surface.Table 3 shows some critical values for a number of soil properties. It is stressed, however, that caution is needed in interpreting these values. Landon (1984) is a good reference for interpretation of soil analyses.4 Field Observations 4.1 Slope or gradient and slope length Slope is calculated as the change in height divided by the horizontal length of the slope. Thus, a slope with a fall of 5 m in 10 m has a slope of (5/10)*100 = 50% (Note that a slope of 1 in 1 or 45° has a 100% slope). The slope meter, shown in Figure 2, can be used to measure approximate slope directly. Another approximate method is to simply measure a short horizontal distance and the vertical fall within that distance as shown in Figure 3. Slope length is the length of land (measured in meters) between any natural or man-made barriers.   The length of slope in association with the slope per se is important in determining the amount of erosion. The importance of slope and slope length is demonstrated through the use of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) (Wisch meier 1976, Renard andFoster 1983).The expected erosion hazard can be used to give a land capability classification (Table 5). Table 6 shows the critical slope for soils differing in erodibility (see Section 4.2). Values for the slope steepness factor 5 and length factor L used in the USLE for estimating the erosion hazard are shown in Table 7. (For more on erosion see \"Information gained\" in Section 4.4).   Table 6 shows some examples of the soil erodibility factor (K) used in the universal soil loss equation for different classes of soil erodibility. (For more on erosion see \"Information gained\" in Section 4.4).Run-off is the amount of water that runs off the surface of a soil and arises due to either a rate of rainfall or irrigation that exceeds the rate of water infiltration into the soil.Run-off can be measured on a plot basis by first placing some form of barrier (soil, wood or metal sheeting) around the top and sides of a plot to prevent run-on. At the base (lowest end) of the plot the water is channeled into a collection device; generally a drum set into the ground. In this way, both water and eroded soil is collected. The size of the drum required will depend on calculations based on expected infiltration (Table 8) and rainfall intensity.For example, if a 4O-mm storm lasts 2 hours, then infiltration for a sandy loam will be about 2 x 15 = 30 mm (taken from Table 8). The difference implies 10 mm of runoff or 10 x 1()4 L/ha (1 mm = 10 4 L/ha).One method to collect run-off is to place a drum such that all flow passes through the drum. Ten holes can then be placed to allow nine of the holes to run free, while the tenth runs into a second drum. Thus 1/10 of the flow will be collected in the second drum. The holes must be exactly horizontal for equal outflow, which means the method is problematic in cracking soils. The second drum has 10 holes and the procedure can be further repeated depending on the expected run-off. The total run-off is calculated from the equation: collected in the nth drum.Run-off can also be measured using a more sophisticated collection tank and water stage recorder as shown by Peterson and Bubenzer (1986). Flumes or weirs can also be used to measure water flow (see Kincaid 1986).Run-off is a critical factor in soil water balance and in determining the potential extent of erosion in a field. Its latter application is demonstrated through the use of the U5LE (see \"Information gained\" in Section 4.4.).Soil erosion can be estimated visually, or by the stake, core, soil catchment, or buried-barrel methods. If erosion is measurable by the first two methods, then it is highly likely that erosion is a serious problem.Each of the methods are outlined below. (For more details on methods, see Zachar 1982 or Landon 1984).The stake method involves driving one or more wooden or metal stakes of suitable length (say 1 m) into the ground in the soil areas of interest. The length of stake left above ground level should be accurately measured and recorded. Periodically, the length of exposed stake should be measured; measuring on the downhill side. Care must be taken that the stake is solidly placed such that wind or animals can not displace the stake. In addition, check that natural soil movement (e.g., swelling or shrinking of soils) does not displace the stake and thus be erroneously mistaken as erosion.A modification of the stake method is to place two reference stakes perpendicular to the expected direction of water flow. At the time of measurement, a reference line (e.g., taut fishing line) is run between the reference stakes and the vertical soil-string height is measured at equidistant points across the plot.For the core method, a hollow tube is driven into the soil ensuring that the soil in the middle of the tube is not compacted and remains at the same height as the soil on the outside of the tube. The tube is then covered. The soil in the middle of the tube then acts as a reference point for soil loss outside of the tube.This is the most accurate method of measuring erosion, as the above methods only estimate depth of soil erosion at a point. The soil catchment method involves directing all the run-off from defined catchment areas (where a catchment area can be a single experimental plot) through a single outlet and then collecting and measuring all or a fraction of the run-off (see Zachar 1982).Soil in the run-off sample can be estimated by stirring the suspension well, taking a subsample of known volume, and accurately measuring the sample weight. As water weighs 1 g/ml, the soil in the run-off sample can be easily estimated.Example: For a sample volume of 1 L: Soil weight (g) = [(fotal sample weight (g» -1000]/0.6226The buried-barrel method:Erosion can also be estimated as outlined in Section 4.3.Erosion results in losses of nutrients and organic matter. Although rates of soil formation vary widely, the soiIloss tolerance (Le., where the rate of soiIloss equals the rate of soil formation) is generally very low being of the order of 750 kg/ha/yr (Zachar 1982). Such a soil loss tolerance rate equates to the annual loss of only 0.0625 mm soil depth/ha (assuming a bulk density of 1.2 g/cm 3 ). Clearly, such low rates of loss will not be measurable by the stake and core methods. In addition, where rill erosion is important, the soil catchment and buried barrels give better indications of soil loss.The factors affecting erosion are slope and slope length, rainfall intensity (erosivity), soil erodibility, crop management, and erosion control practices.Soil erosion tends to be greater in soils that lack structural stability of surface soil-such stability depends on texture, sodium saturation of the cation exchange, and the presence of cementing agents that assist aggregate stability (e.g., sesquioxides, and soil organic matter). Generally, soils high in sand and silt have poor structure, whereas high clay content tends to promote better structure.Soil lost by water erosion can be estimated by a number of means. One of the original methods was the Universal Soil Loss Equation, namely:A = R'\" K'\" L'\" S'\" C'\" P, where A = soil lost by erosion (in units of 2000 Ibs/acre = 2240 kg/ha), R = precipitation factor (dependent on rainfall intensity), K = soil factor (See Table 6), L = slope length factor (see Table 7), S = slope gradient factor (see Table 7), C = cropping factor, and P = conservation factor.4.5 Texture Soil texture (or particle size distribution) refers to the relative amount of sand, silt, and clay in a soil. Texture in the laboratory is the most accurate method of determination. Firstly, the organic matter must be destroyed and all aggregates dispersed (see Gee and Bauder 1986). The breakdown by textural class is: Clay <2 J,Lm, Silt 2-20 J,Lm, and Sand 21-2000 J,Lm.Texture can also be estimated by feel in the field (Figures 4 and 5).Soil texture is relatively easy to measure or estimate and extremely important due to the effects of texture on soil physical (Table 9) and chemical (Table 10) properties. From the soil physical properties, a general soil rating can be calculated (Figure 6). For example, a soil with a bulk density of 1.30 g/ cm 3 and a field capacity and permanent wilting point of 40 and 19% (by volume, respectively) has an inert volume of [(1.30/2.65)*100] + 19 = 68% at the wilting point (2.65 g/cm 3 is used as a measure of the particle density of soil). Available moisture = 40-19 = 21 %(by volume). Thus, the soil is classified as type III or medium.A direct count of earthworms can be made by digging a hole to a depth of 30 em (note that worms are generally only found in moist soil). The soil should be placed in a bucket. The hole should be dug quickly to avoid movement of the earthworms away from the study zone. The earthworms are counted Classification In the field A simple manual texture test is shown below.• A ball about 2.5 em diameter is formed from approximately 1 tablespoon of fine earth.• Water is slowly dripped onto the soil until it approaches the sticky point, Le., the point at which the soil just starts to stick to the hand. • The extent to which the moist soil can be shaped by hand is indicative of its texture.(A) Sand -Soil remains loose and single-grained; can only be heaped into a pyramid. (B) Loamy sand -The soil contains sufficient silt and clay to become somewhat cohesive: can be shaped into a ball that easily falls apart. (C) Silt loam -Same as for loamy sand but can be shaped by rolling into a short, thick cylinder. (0) Loam -About equal sand, silt, and clay means the soil can be rolled into a cylinder about 15 cm long that breaks when bent. (E) Clay loam -As for loam, although soil can be bent into a U, but no further, without being broken.  directly. Worms can be forced to the bottom by removing the superficial layer of soil every few minutes; this facilitates counting.Nondestructive sampling can be achieved by forcing the earthworms to come to the surface. To do this, an area of approximately 0.25 m 2 can be marked off and an irritant or electric charge applied to the area.• Chemical irritant: A solution of 100 g of detergent in 8 L of water often works satisfactorily. As not all detergents irritate worms, different detergents may need to be tested. The worms down to a distance of about 20 cm should come to the surface in 5 to 10 minutes. As many detergents contain phosphorus, care should be taken in the subsequent effect of the detergent on plant growth.   Alternatively, the number of casts in specified quadrats can be measured to estimate earthworm activity. However, this is at best an estimate as not all earthworms leave casts (Sarrantonio 1991).Earthworms are generally considered to have a beneficial effect on soil structure (see Section 4.11), are important in the decomposition of crop residues, and can greatly improve water infiltration due to the presence of continuous channels. A change to reduced tillage often results in an increase in earthworm activity.Soil depth iders to the depth of soil from the surface to the various natural or man-made contrasts or barriers tn\",t may occur. It is most important, however, in terms of its effect on rooting volume, and thus potential nutrient and water availability. The major abrupt change found in many soil types is that from the A (topsoil) to B (subsoil) horizons, often characterized by a change in texture and / or color.Soil depth is measured by first dividing the field into uniform areas (e.g., depth will probably be different on a slope versus the flat; plant growth or differences in soil color and / or texture may give an indication of uniform areas) and digging at least two holes in each area to about 1 m, or until any restriction layer is encountered. While digging, the presence or absence of roots should be noted. As digging holes is time-consuming, it is often possible to measure soil depth quite easily by using an auger or a soil corer. The samples should be taken in increments (e.g., 10-or IS-cm intervals) and laid out on the soil or other flat surface (a plastic pipe cut in half lengthwise with distance marked is quite useful). This allows visual assessment of color or texture (see Section 4.5) change through the profile. The depth at which changes occur should then be measured and noted. Field kits for measuring pH are useful for rapidly determining any changes in pH through the soil profile. Although a plow pan cannot be seen by augering; it may be detected visually in a shallow pit, or detected by changes in Bulk density (see section 4.8) or soil penetrability (see section 4.9).For accurate soil color determination, a Munsells color chart can be used.If no restriction layer is encountered above 1.0 m, then this indicates that soil depth is adequate. Root growth should be carefully observed as the absence of roots may indicate either a physical (e.g., hard pan) or a chemical (e.g., acid soil) barrier. Soil profile can be easily described in terms of texture (see Section 4.5), bulk density (see Section 4.8), and porosity (see Section 4.10), essential in determining the relevance of a given site for research.4.8 Bulk density and compact layers Bulk density (BD) is usually measured when the soil is moderately wet (often about field capacity) and is the measure of the equivalent dry weight of soil per volume sampled (expressed as g/ em 3 ). Measurement at times is also made at wilting point. A number of different apparati can be used to collect the sample. The easiest to use is a normal soil corer; however, extreme care is required to ensure that the sample is not compacted during sampling and / or that soil is not lost from the bottom as the sample is extracted. The latter can, in part, be overcome by sampling for example to 20 cm, extracting the sample and using only the upper 15 cm. Alternately, a special apparatus (Figure 7) designed specifically for measuring BD can be used. The number of recommended samples is shown in Table 1.The most precise method for measuring BD involves the coated clod method. This entails collecting undisturbed clods, drying and coating the clods with wax, and then establishing the volume displaced in liquid by the clod (Blake and Hartge 1982).In soils that crack (Le., shrink and swell), the bulk density changes substantially with moisture. In such soils, the bulk density is difficult to measure when either very wet or very dry. Anderson and Ingram (1989) outline the following: The minimum bulk density occurs in such soils when they are fully wet. By assuming a particle density of 2.65 g/ cm 3 and an air content when field saturated of 3% by volume (Shaw and Yule 1978), then BD is estimated as: BD = 1/ (Wmax + 0.4046), where Wmax = gravimetric moisture at field saturation (expressed as a decimaland measured shortly after a heavy rain or irrigation). Saturation can also be estimated in the laboratory as outlined in Section 4.10.An estimate of BD is necessary for converting from a concentration on a soil weight to a land area basis.(Example: Given a bulk density of 1.2 g/ cm 3 , then in 1 ha there are 2,400,000 kg to a depth of 20 em. Therefore,1 ppm equates to 2.4 kg/ha in the upper 20 em.) BD is also one of the primary indicators of soil compaction and thus conditions for root growth (e.g., Taylor 1971). Table 9 shows values typical for soils. Some care is required when interpreting BD through the profile and between soils, as a change in BD may be more related to a change in texture (Table 9) than to compaction per se.Although critical values for BD have been suggested (e.g., 1.75 g/ cm 3 for sands or 1.46 to 1.63 g/ cm 3 for silts and clays can hinder root growth, de Geus 1973), soil strength as measured by penetrability (see Section 4.9) may be more useful.• ~W.i9hl for hammering sampler F 9~'. Rings inserted in sampler body:\"1, +-Sampler body \\ \" '~+-Cutting tip 4.9 Soil penetrability or mechanical impedance Penetrability is often estimated by using penetrometers, where a cone penetrometer is pushed steadily through the soil (Brad ford 1986). Care is required that interpretation or comparisons of penetrometer readings are made across uniform conditions, as the penetration resistance is not only affected by bulk density (Figure 8) and texture, but is greatly affected by moisture content (less pressure is required to penetrate soil as soil moisture content increases). Therefore, a penetrometer should be used after an irrigation or rainfall event that ensures a uniformly moist profile (close to field capacity) to the soil depth of interest.Soil penetrability measures the ease with which the penetrometer can pass through the soil; thus the scientist attempts to relate penetrability to the development of plant roots and to soil physical properties such as changes in bulk density, which can arise due to plow pan formation or a switch from cultivation to zero tillage. Penetration can also be used as an estimate of changes in soil structure (Bradford 1986).Porosity is air space in the soil, and total porosity is air space at zero moisture. As total porosity increases bulk density (see Section 4.8) decreases. Total porosity (by volume) can be estimated from bulk density (BD g/cm 3 ) via the equation:Total porosity % = (I-BD/2.65) x 100.(2.65 g 1cm 3 is an adequate estimate of particle density for most soils.) Usually, however, the pore size distribution (PSD) is of greater interest than total porosity. For example, a clay has greater total porosity than a sand, but drains more slowly due to a greater number of smaller pores. The PSD is calculated from water retention curves using undisturbed core samples, which are saturated before being subjected to different suction pressures as outlined by Danielson and Sutherland (1986). If equipment is not available to do a full curve, then estimates of field capacity (FC) (see Section 5.7) and permanent wilting point (PWP) (see Section 5.8) give two points on the curve. Example: By using the above equation, total porosity can be calculated from BD. Then by subtracting the moisture by volume at FC and PWP, the porosity at three different moisture levels is obtained.Moisture (data from Notice that the air-filled pore space at PWP is very similar for the two soils, but very different at FCThe distribution of pores determines the amount of free drainage, air space, and water retention. Generally, a volume ratio of 1:1:1 solids:moisture:air is considered ideal for soils (llaco 1985). A loam with a BD of 1.4 g/cm 3 , at FC (31 %by volume) will have a solid:moisture:air ratio of 3.25:2:1.Table 11 shows the relationship between pF (the negative logarithm of soil moist -~ tension) and pore diameter and the general relationships for root growth and pore sizes. Porosity along with pore continuity controls moisture conductivity of soil. Management (e.g., tillage) will have little effect on pores below this size (Hill et al. 1985) and thus will have little effect on moisture retention (although, infiltration may be affected).Table 9 gives an indication of the relative proportion of pore space at FC and PWP for soils of different textures.Structure:Soil structure refers to the organization and characteristics of natural soil aggregates (often called 'peds').Structure is defined visually based on three criteria: grade, size, and type of ped. Grade refers to the distinctiveness and durability of the aggregates, size is self explanatory, while type refers to the shape and arrangement of the peds (Ilaco 1985). A simple methodology for evaluating soil structure is shown in Figure 9.Due to the difficulty in measuring soil structure (e.g., plot disruption), alternate methods are desirable. Penetrability (see Section 4.9) can be used a measure of soil structure.Stability of the aggregates can be assessed under wet and dry sieving (See Kemper and Rosenau 1986).If specialized equipment is not available, a somewhat cruder method of wet sieving involves taking an undisturbed soil sample of about 200 g of air-dried soil and weighing exactly (Sarrontonio 1991). Sieves of 2 mm (lO-mesh) and 5 mm (4-mesh) can be constructed from hardware cloth or metal screening. The screens can be fixed to the bottom of wooden frames 25 cm x 25 cm of 5 cm depth. The two frames must be the same size and fit on top of each other without leaving gaps. The 5-mm tray is placed on top of the 2-mm tray. Strap the trays together in a manner that allows them to be subsequently separated. Pour the soil sample gently onto the 5-mm tray and gently shake the dry sample until soil ceases to fall through the mesh. The two, still strapped together, are then lowered slowly into a large container of water and left immersed for about 5 seconds, before slowly removing and allowing to drain. Replace the water if it becomes muddy. Repeat this process four times. After the final dunking, the trays are separated and the soil remaining on each sieve is transferred to a labeled container, indicating the sieve size from which the sample comes. Rocks and nonsoil debris are removed, air-dried, and weighed. The sieved samples are then air-dried and weighed~ The percent water stable aggregates (WSA) for each sieve size are calculated as, for example:Percent WSA > 5 mm (g soil held by 5 mm sieve)'\" 100/ (X -g rock and nonsoil), where X =the total weight of the original air-dry sample.Structure is strongly dependent on soil texture and tillage (Unger et al. 1982) and can be greatly enhanced by increasing organic matter levels. Changes in structure greatly influence the pore size distribution (and thus bulk density) of a soil and thus root penetration can be affected. As a measure of soil productivity, structure is actually better than texture, but is not often assessed due to the difficulty of measurement and interpretation.A: Degree of development 1. Take a soil sod and break it open using hand pressure, exposing a nalural cleavage plane. Observe the number of distintictive peds and the degree of ped separation. 2. Disturb the soil more and observe the proportion of whole and broken aggregates, and unaggregated malerial.  Aggregate stability is related to the ability of the soil to maintain porosity when subject to mechanical action of raindrops or tillage. If soil tilth improves, then the number of aggregates in the 2-5 mm range increases (Sa rron tonio 1991).Crusting is the sealing of the soil surface due to soil particles filling the coarser pores in the soil surface. Measurement of crusting is more by presence or absence.Assessment of the importance of crusting on crop emergence is best made shortly after germination, when seedlings are dug up and checked for the presence of long yellow leaves that are bent and are having obvious problems in emerging.A pocket penetrometer can be used to assess the resistance of a surface crust (Bradford 1986).Crusting can also be assessed by measuring infiltration rates (see Section 5.10). Infiltration will be reduced, often substantially, as surface pores are blocked.Crusting: a) forms a physical barrier to the emergence of the young seedlings, b) reduces gaseous exchange between the soil and atmosphere, and c) substantially reduces the rate of water infiltration, thus increasing the risk of run-off and erosion. Therefore, crusting can affect the crop during germination, emergence, and crop growth. Crusting is more common on soils high in silt and in soils with low organic matter (Russell 1973). Although many people think soils high in clay should have more problems of crusting, this is not so, as the clay tends to bind together in colloids that resist slaking (i.e., the breaking up of the colloid). The principle cause of crusting is through the impact of raindrop or irrigation droplets. Factors that also contribute to the problem include high levels of Na, and lor inappropriate land preparation (generally excessive-pulverization). Surface residues, by intercepting rain or irrigation droplets, can reduce crusting.The strength of the crust decreases with increasing soil moisture. As a consequence, where irrigation is available and serious crusting occurs, irrigation may be applied to help seedlings emerge.Collect and bulk the straw or surface organic matter found within five random samples (or two per replicate) of at least 1.0 m 2 • Dry the material in an oven (70°C) and weigh. Convert g/m 2 to t/ha (g Im 2 /lOO = t/ha).When a researcher has some experience, residue cover can also be estimated visually (Figure 10).One of the main problems with estimating residue is the variation. Residue amount can be used for an assessment of soil cover and thus both potential evaporation reduction and erosion control (Table 12). Assuming uniform distribution, approximately 4 t of wheat straw are required to give 100% ground cover (Roth et al. 1988). Straw will also be a potential source of disease for infection of subsequent crops and may immobilize N during the decomposition process. Soil moisture can be expressed as percent by weight or volume, as depth of water or as soil water potential. It can be measured directly (see Section 5.2), indirectly (see Section 5.4) or estimated by feel (see Section 5.1) or by water budgeting (see Section 5.1).Soil moisture measurements should be taken from within the \"effective\" plot (i.e., leaving adequate border to avoid edge effects).Soil moisture values are usually used to assess irrigation requirements and/or the occurrence of stress. As a very general rule, if 50% of the water available to the plant in the soil profile has been used then the plant will begin to suffer water stress; Robins et al. (1976) state that stress begins in wheat when 75-80% of available moisture is used. This general rule does, however, have to be applied in association with knowledge of root distribution in the profile. Therefore, it is, in fact, better to define the profile throughout the season according to the known or expected distribution of roots (i.e., roots may be at 1.2 mat anthesis, but only at 30 cm during tillering; thus the amount of water available to the plant will be quite different).Soil moisture can be estimated by feel (Table 13) or by using estimates of evapotranspiration using climatic data as shown by Doorenbos and Pruitt (1984) and Doorenbos and Kassam (1979). The simplest calculation to estimate the evapotranspiration of a crop (ET crop ) is:(ET crop in mm) = kc\" ET o ' where kc is the crop coefficient (dependent on crop and crop stage of development; Table 14), and ET o is the product of the evaporation (E in mm) from a Class A pan evaporation tank and the pan coefficient (Kp-dependent on environmental conditions, Table 15).The number of samples recommended to accurately estimate moisture is shown in Table 1.Use a shovel, auger or soil corer to sample the soil to depth of interest. Take samples towards the center of the plot away from the borders. Soil profiles are often divided into different depths (e.g., 0-10,10-20, 20-40,40-60 cm). The soil snould be placed in a can (of known weight) that is immediately sealed. The can with the moist soil should be weighed as soon as possible, the lid removed and the sample placed in an oven to dry at 105°C. Alternatively, soil can be collected in plastic bags, which are subsequently emptied into or subsampled into moisture cans: often, however, moisture condenses on the inside walls of the plastic bag-such moisture must be returned to the soil sample by kneading the bag thoroughly before soil removal. After sufficient time to dry (generally 24 hours if the oven has a fan), the can and dry soil should be reweighed. If there are doubts about the sample being dry, the sample should be placed back in the oven and reweighed the next day. If sample weight does not change, then the sample is oven dry.Calculate soil water by weight as:Percent soil moisture by weight =Gravimetric moisture content =SM w % =Weight (can + wet soil) -Weight (can + dry soil) ... 100Weight (can + dry soil) -Weight (can)Moisture in soil (g)'\" IOO/Soil dry weight (g)    Remember that not all this moisture will be available to plants even if the roots reach 80 cm.Soil moisture by depth is required for most water budgets (e.g., given 120 mm of available water in the soil and an evapotranspiration rate of 5 mm / day, then 50% of moisture is used in (60/5) = 12 days. Time to stress or needed irrigation can then be estimated).5.4 Indirect measurement of soil water Soil moisture can be measured indirectly by a range of means (e.g., tensiometers, gypsum blocks, time domain reflectrometry (TOR) or neutron probes). Tensiometers are best used in wetter conditions (range 0 to 0.8 bars, FC is approximately -0.1 bars), while gypsum blocks function best in the range of from -1 to -10 bars. All the indirect methods require calibration by taking simultaneous direct measurements on appropriate occasions (e.g., when the soil profile is at its wettest and driest). The number of samples recommended to accurately estimate moisture is shown in Table 1. Take samples from within the plot, away from borders.TOR is quick but somewhat expensive and can have problems in soils when there are major contrasts of moisture through the soil profile.Psychrometry gives a direct measure of water potential in the range of from -1 to -50 bars (for details, see Hanks andAshcroft 1982 or Rawlins andCampbell 1982). Thermocouple psychrometry infers the water potential of the liquid phase from the vapor phase in equilibrium with it. The major difficulty is that .' vapor pressure changes very little in soils across the range of moisture at which plants grow. For example, at the permanent wilting point, the relative humidity in the soil gas phase is still about 99% (Rawlins and Campbell 1982).The filter paper method is a simple and inexpensive method of measuring water potential indirectly (Figure 12). It relies on the insertion of precalibrated filter papers (usually Whatmans #54 paper) into soil samples in moisture cans, which are subsequently sealed and held in a temperature stable room for 4 days or more. After this equilibration period, the paper is removed, rapidly brushed free of soil (for example using a camel hair brush), and quickly weighed, as the first step to determining its gravimetric water content, which in the absorption phase is uniquely related to water potential, which will be the same as that of the soil. Water content may also be determined on the soil sample after removal of the filter paper, thereby giving both its potential and water content.Alternatively, three filter papers can be used. Two papers are stapled together on one edge. One edge of the other paper is folded, and this paper inserted between the other two; thus being protected from contact with the soil. The papers are then allowed to equilibrate with the soil sample. The middle paper can then be removed and is thus relatively free of adhering soil particles (P. Wall, pers. comm.).Water potential refers to the chemical energy status of the water relative to that of free water. It consists of various parts, namely: Both 'JIm and 'JIo are negative. Of these, matric potential ('JIm) dominates in soil. Osmotic potential changes by approximately 0.32 bars per unit (S mol) increase in electrical conductivity, while the increase due to gravity is of the order of 0.1 bar per 1 m rise. The potential determines the flow of water as water moves along a gradient from high to lower water potential. Table 11 shows the water potential value in bars used to estimate field capacity and permanent wilting point.Field capacity is a rather imprecise term that refers to the upper drained water holding capacity of a soil; the major problem is to determine at what stage drainage has ceased (as drainage tends to be a continuing process).Field capacity (FC) is best estimated in the field, but estimates can also be made in the laboratory or from soil texture (Table 9). In the laboratory, soil samples of preferably undisturbed cores (or soils sieved to <2 mm) are saturated and then placed in pressure plates at a suction equivalent to 0.01 MPa. After 48 hours, water content is determined (for more details, see Cassel and Nielsen 1986).In the field, FC is estimated by constructing soil embankments (of about 5-10 cm height) around a small area (say 1-2 m 2 ) to form a reservoir (do not disturb the soil surface within the 'walled' area). Water is added to the enclosed area to ensure that the soil is saturated throughout the profile (see Table 9 to calculate how much water is approximately required to saturate soils of different texture; use total pore space and depth. For example, to wet a completely dry sandy soil ±38 cm/m water is needed. In one m 3 , this is equivalent to 380 L, if the soil is completely dry. However, due to the pOSSibility of lateral movement of added moisture more water should be added).After wetting, the area is covered by an impermeable cover (e.g., a plastic sheet) to prevent evaporation and/or water inflow (e.g., from rainfall). The soil is then allowed to drain for 2-7 days depending on soil texture and drainage. The heavier the soil, the more time required for drainage. Soil samples are taken with time (e.g., daily) from under the plastic and FC is determined as the moisture content when the rate of change is relatively small. Moisture content is determined as set out in Section 5.2. The soil water profile thus determined is also called the d rained upper limit.Alternatively, soil can be covered by plastic in the field after a thorough irrigation or after continuous rain. Similar to above, the soil is allowed to drain and soil samples are taken to measure moisture as outlined above.Field capacity can also be estimated from bulk density (BD) and porosity. Assuming that the soil particles have a density of 2.65 g / cm 3 then:(1-BD/2.65) x 100. = total porosity = (approximately) saturation volume.Table 9 (column 4) shows the approximate percent conversion that can be used to convert total porosity for different textured soils to give an estimate of field capacity.Alternate to estimation from BD, saturation can be roughly estimated by taking a soil sample of known volume (sieved soil can be used) and adding known quantities of water until the slurry sample will slide off the mixing plastic spatula. Care should be taken that the sample volume does not change. Note: About 3% air remains when a water-soil slurry is made to estimate water in the soil at saturation.Permanent wilting point (PWP) is the level of soil moisture at which a plant will not recover from wilting if placed in a humid chamber (Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 1987). PWP is a very inaccurate measurement, as the PWP varies somewhat between crops. The lower limit of soil moisture (see Section 5.9) is, in many instances, now being used in preference to PWP.Permanent wilting point can be reasonably estimated from texture and FC (Table 9). Alternately, PWP can be estimated in the glasshouse or laboratory.In the laboratory, sieved soil samples «2 mm) are placed in a pressure membrane apparatus and subjected to a suction pressure equivalent to -1.5 MPa (see Klute 1986b).PWP can be measured by growing sunflowers in pots with the soil in a greenhouse (see Furr and Reeve 1945). Wax or plastic beads are placed over the surface to prevent soil evaporation, when the plants have at least two leaves, and the third leaves are emerging. The plants are allowed to grow until they wilt. A practical way to assess if PWP has been reached is to place, in the afternoon, a plastic bag over both the pot and a bowl of water. If in the morning, the plant is still wilted, then PWP has been reached (P. Wall, pers. comm.).5.9 Lower limit of soil moisture The lower limit of soil moisture is usually determined after the root system has reached its maximum extent, i.e., at or after flowering (Actual moisture content is determined by methods outlined in Sections 5.1-5.4). Well grown crops are allowed to dry the soil profile to the fullest extent possible. Usually, this is achieved by withholding irrigation, waiting for occasions when there is no rain in the latter half of the crop cycle (or by protecting the crop, or a portion thereof from rain and run-on). Sampling the soil moisture distribution after such drying, e.g., at physiological maturity, reveals the full extent to which the crop can dry the soil (note that air drying of soil while the crop still covers the ground is likely to be small and confined to the top few centimeters).Information gained: This empirical measure is proving to be especially useful in understanding and modelling crop growth and soil water deficits (see Ritchie 1981). It integrates the effect of root density and soil texture down the profile. Therefore, however, it can be soil-and crop-specific and to a lesser extent stage of developmentspecific.The difference between the drained upper limit (or field capacity) and lower limit is often defined as the available water holding capacity (AWC) and a useful index of crop stress is the available water in the profile as a fraction of the AWC-defined as a fraction or percentage of the available water. Many physiological processes are affected once this falls below 0.5 to 0.4. Usually, available water ranges from 100-200 mm (see Table 9), but it should be remembered that this water is only fully available when the root system has completely explored the soil to the stated depth (Gregory et al. 1984).Figure 13 shows that available moisture as estimated using FC and PWP is somewhat greater than that as estimated by using the lower limit of soil moisture.Soil infiltration rate is the rate at which water enters the soil (cm/hr or mm/hr). It can refer to water entering from free or ponded water or from a water source under slight tension, which better simulates infiltration under rain. In a dry soil, it starts at a maximum and declines in a logarithmic manner until it generally reaches a low constant value (defined as the saturated hydraulic conductivity). The most common means of measuring infiltration is to use a set of double rings (see Bouwer 1986). The concentric rings (of 20 and 30 cm diameter, and 10 to 20 cm height) are placed (with minimal disturbance) to about 5 cm depth in the ground filled with water and the rate of infiltration is measured by recording over time the change in water level. When placing the water in the rings, care is required to not cause excessive disturbance of the soil surface and thus change the infiltration characteristics of the surface. This process can be facilitated by feeding the water slowly in through a tube and running the water onto a small disk or plastic sheet.A newer system that is emerging to overcome the problems associated with lateral flow is the measurement of infiltration while irrigation is underway. The equipment shown in Figure 14 is used to measure infiltration as follows (Wallender, pers. comm.).The systems are simple, and involve seven basic steps:• Water arrives at a point (X) in the field.• The infiltrometers are pressed into the already wet soil (being wet facilitates placement of the equipment). • The point gauge is set to the level of water inside the container.• Starting time (To) is noted, and rubber bungs (#15 are placed in holes).• 300-500 ml of water are added and the new water height is noted. Infiltration can also be measured by a sprinkler infiltrometer (see Peterson and Bubenzer 1986). This method attempts to simulate through the use of a sprinkle irrigation system, the effect of rainfalL It is useful for areas receiving the bulk of its moisture from rainfall. The system has the advantage in that both infiltration and run-off can be measured under different intensities of simulated rainfalL Appendix 1.  ","tokenCount":"7795"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bee0811015f37058c1aa55a2f4eb6b45","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4c052296-1f93-4c04-8c0e-d44bb285b036/retrieve","id":"-1682533522"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2cf852a1-125f-4229-853a-eb6a2e3eaf3a","pagecount":"12","content":"La biodiversité agricole et les espèces négligées et sous-utilisées NOTE D'ORIENTATION 2 La biodiversité, ou diversité biologique, représente la variété au sein des espèces et entre toutes les espèces de plantes, animaux et micro-organismes et les écosystèmes dans lesquels ils vivent et interagissent. La biodiversité agricole, un sous-groupe de la biodiversité, est le résultat du processus naturel d'évolution ainsi que de la sélection et l'amélioration par les agriculteurs au cours des millénaires.De nombreux agriculteurs, surtout dans les zones qui ne se prêtent pas aux variétés à haut rendement, s'appuient sur un grand nombre d'espèces négligées et sous-utilisées (NUS) 1 comme moyens de subsistance. Certaines espèces comme le pois bambara et le quinoa ont évolué au fil du temps et se sont adaptées aux conditions particulières où elles poussent, souvent dans des systèmes à faible niveau d'intrants et faible irrigation pluviale. Des centaines de plantes, d'arbres, de champignons et d'animaux dans les écosystèmes naturels fournissent également de la nourriture et des revenus. Pourtant, l'importance des NUS, également connues sous le nom de cultures mineures ou orphelines, est souvent ignorée. Les politiques et les marchés agricoles tendent à favoriser les variétés génétiquement uniformes de quelques cultures vivrières de base telles que le blé, le riz, le thé, le café et le cacao.Certaines NUS, comme que les céréales des Andes, les mils mineurs et les légumes-feuilles ont attiré l'attention des chercheurs et des bailleurs de fonds pendant au moins vingt ans. Cependant, ce n'est que récemment que leur contribution stratégique dans la lutte contre la pauvreté et l'insécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle a été largement reconnue. La Déclaration de Cordoue de 2012 sur les cultures prometteuses pour le XXIe siècle, l'Année internationale du quinoa de 2013 et le récent lancement de l'Académie africaine de sélection végétale (African Plant Breeding Academy) par le Consortium sur les cultures orphelines en Afrique ne sont que quelques exemples de l'intérêt accru pour ces espèces. De nombreuses organisations appuient les efforts visant à renforcer la conservation et l'utilisation des NUS 2 , mais des investissements supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour intégrer ces espèces dans les systèmes alimentaires et agricoles.Récemment, des organisations agricoles et des décideurs politiques ont reconnu le rôle actuel et le potentiel inexploité des NUS pour la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle, pour la génération de revenus dans les zones rurales, le renforcement de la résilience, l'adaptation au changement climatique ainsi que l'atténuation des risques climatiques, agronomiques et économiques. En 2008, un premier colloque international sur ce thème a été tenu à Arusha, en Tanzanie, suivi d'un événement similaire à Kuala Lumpur, en Malaisie, en 2011. En septembre 2013, le Ghana a accueilli la 3 ème Conférence internationale sur les espèces négligées et sous-utilisées: Pour la sécurité alimentaire en Afrique. 3   Tirant des enseignements des initiatives mentionnées ci-dessus, cette note de sensibilisation met en relief les rôles clés des NUS pour relever les cinq défis principaux du développement: la conservation de la biodiversité agricole; le développement agricole et rural; le changement climatique; la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle; et les questions relatives au genre, à l'autonomisation et la culture des femmes.  Sauvegarder la biodiversité agricole L'humanité dépend de la salubrité des agroécosystèmes et la salubrité des agroécosystèmes dépend de la biodiversité au niveau de l'écosystème, des espèces et de la génétique. À l'échelle mondiale, plus de 4 000 espèces végétales alimentaires sont couramment consommées (Proche et al., 2008) Le système de banques de gènes mondial pour conserver la biodiversité agricole ex situ comporte plus de 1740 banques de gènes et plus de 7,4 millions d'échantillons de cultures (FAO, 2010). Ces collections se concentrent principalement sur les cultures de base, les cultures commerciales et leurs espèces sauvages apparentées. De nombreuses NUS sont sous-représentées. Leur conservation et leur évolution continue dépendent principalement aussi bien de leur utilisation à la ferme que de leur conservation dans des écosystèmes naturels sains.grâce à la sélection végétale, la technologie agricole, l'irrigation, le recours aux engrais et aux produits agrochimiques, associés à l'accroissement des surfaces cultivées, la production céréalière mondiale a plus que doublé entre 1970 et 2010. L'augmentation de la production céréalière a contribué de manière déterminante à la lutte contre la faim et à l'alimentation d'une population mondiale croissante. Toutefois, les profits n'ont pas été les mêmes dans tous les pays et dans toutes les régions. Dans la plupart du territoire de l'Afrique subsaharienne, la production de céréales, au cours des trois dernières décennies, n'a pas progressé au même rythme que l'accroissement démographique, et le continent est surtout un importateur de ces cultures.Dans de nombreuses collectivités rurales, les NUS, dont les « aliments issus des forêts », complètent les principales cultures vivrières dans les régimes alimentaires et constituent une solution de repli si les cultures vivrières échouent. Ces espèces représentent souvent une importante source de revenus, en particulier pour les femmes. Dans les environnements marginaux, où la pauvreté et l'insécurité alimentaire sévissent fortement, les NUS sont souvent au coeur des stratégies paysannes pour réduire les risques climatiques et économiques. Les NUS peuvent jouer un rôle capital dans l'avancement du développement agricole et rural. Sur la scène internationale, l'intérêt croissant pour les ingrédients naturels dans les produits alimentaires, cosmétiques, pharmaceutiques, nutritionnels et de santé offre une multitude d'opportunités pour les NUS. Les communautés pauvres qui produisent des NUS peuvent également potentiellement tirer profit des initiatives de labels écologiques, d'appellation d'origine contrôlée, de commerce équitable et de « Slow Food ». Une prise en charge simultanée et intégrée d'un bout à l'autre de la chaîne de valeur, de la ferme au marché, est indispensable.Actuellement, cependant, les agriculteurs africains ont un accès limité aux semences de qualité de variétés de NUS ayant les caractères recherchés. Les communautés rurales ont également peu de moyens pour accéder aux marchés des NUS et des produits dérivant de ces espèces. Les chaînes de valeur sont souvent mal développées et insuffisamment soutenues par la recherche, les services de vulgarisation et La production et la consommation du quinoa, un grain andin, connaît un regain d'intérêt. En Bolivie, grâce à la tenue de plateformes multipartites impliquant des individus venant de communautés pauvres de différentes régions du pays, des chercheurs, professeurs d'université, représentants d'organisations non gouvernementales, experts en marketing et responsables politiques, le quinoa a pu être lancé sur les marchés nationaux et internationaux.Le succès du quinoa est le fruit d'un travail obstiné sur plusieurs fronts pour améliorer les pratiques agricoles et les techniques de post-récolte et de transformation, conserver sa diversité, donner aux agriculteurs l'accès aux marchés et renforcer les capacités productives du quinoa. Ce travail s'est avéré fondamental pour le développement de chaînes de valeur pour cette culture sous-utilisée sur les marchés nationaux et internationaux. Ces réalisations ont été possibles grâce aussi à la grande contribution de nombreux bailleurs de fonds, organismes de développement et acteurs locaux.Bien que l'industrie alimentaire préfère le quinoa blanc ou crème, la demande en variétés de quinoa coloré augmente, dûe au potentiel gastronomique de telles variétés. On a donc assisté à une diversification des produits, un phénomène bien connu observé pour de nombreuses autres denrées, avec des consommateurs souhaitant à présent acheter différentes variétés de quinoa (noir, rouge, avec des ingrédients spéciaux, etc.). La tendance actuelle qui privilégie l'alimentation saine représente également une occasion pour promouvoir des variétés de quinoa actuellement peu attrayantes sur le marché de l'exportation de quinoa. Par conséquent, la promotion et la recherche pour développer davantage les chaînes de valeur du quinoa se poursuit.PhytoTrade Afrique, une association commerciale à but non lucratif basée en Afrique australe, soutient le développement des chaînes de valeur et des marchés dans l'industrie des produits naturels dans la région. L'une de ses réalisations a été l'obtention de l'autorisation pour exporter le fruit du baobab en poudre vers l'Union européenne en tant qu'ingrédient alimentaire. Le baobab, qui pousse dans des zones de plaine chaudes et sèches, produit des fruits qui sont séchés puis broyés pour obtenir une poudre nourrissante. Cette poudre peut maintenant être exportée pour une utilisation dans l'industrie alimentaire européenne.Le changement et la variabilité climatiques ont de graves répercussions sur les systèmes agricoles et sur la biodiversité agricole qui y est associée, comme les pollinisateurs et les micro-organismes du sol. Afin d'assurer la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle, les agriculteurs devront, à court terme, gérer les sécheresses, les changements relatifs aux périodes de culture, les phénomènes météorologiques extrêmes plus fréquents et la propagation des maladies et des ravageurs. À plus long terme, les agriculteurs pourraient connaître une incompatibilité entre les conditions climatiques locales et les cultures et variétés auxquelles ils ont actuellement accès. Ils seront donc peut-être appelés à se réorienter vers d'autres cultures et variétés. Les pays devront alors adapter leurs systèmes de semences en conséquence.Les NUS cultivés en tant que compléments aux principales cultures aident les agriculteurs à répartir les risques. Généralement adaptés aux conditions locales, les NUS sont souvent perçus par les agriculteurs comme des espèces tolérantes aux contraintes et résistant davantage à la sécheresse et aux autres dangers liés au climat. Les NUS jouent ainsi un rôle primordial dans le renforcement de la résilience des systèmes de production agricole, comme le changement climatique.Cependant, pour faire en sorte que les NUS fassent partie des « agricultures intelligentes face au climat », les politiques de recherche et de développement agricoles doivent reconnaître et appuyer leur rôle. La prise de conscience du potentiel de telles espèces dans l'adaptation au changement climatique demande, entre autres actions, des investissements dans la recherche particulièrement bien dans les cas suivants: l'analyse des contraintes et opportunités; le renforcement des capacités; et l'introduction de nouvelles compétences en production, transformation et commercialisation, tout au long des chaînes de valeur. Les partenaires du secteur privé sont importants pour le développement de technologies de transformation et pour la commercialisation des produits, tandis que les partenaires issus du secteur non gouvernemental peuvent aider les agriculteurs à obtenir la reconnaissance de leurs droits.Les mils mineurs présentent une vaste diversité génétique. Au sein de cette diversité, certaines variétés s'adaptent à différents types de sols, à des environnements défavorables, arides et montagneux et à des zones où, en général, les principales céréales ne le peuvent pas. Les mils mineurs présentent un avantage comparatif là où l'eau est rare et les précipitations sont faibles, grâce à un cycle de vie court et à un système racinaire efficace, ce qui en fait de bons candidats pour remplacer le blé et le riz dans des pays tels que l'Inde, où ces cultures vivrières pourraient progressivement devenir moins productives en raison du changement climatique.  La plupart des organisations de recherche agricole, de développement et d'éducation sont mises en place pour soutenir les politiques agricoles qui se focalisent principalement sur les produits agricoles de base. Les capacités institutionnelles et humaines pour soutenir la recherche, la conservation et l'utilisation des NUS sont fragmentées, inégales et mal financées.Les problématiques limitant la réalisation du potentiel agronomique et de génération de revenus des NUS doivent être abordées à partir d'une perspective systémique plutôt que séparément. Des contraintes telles que le manque de semences et leur mauvaise qualité, la variabilité des caractères agronomiques, le traitement post-récolte laborieux, le manque de normes relatives à l'emballage et à la distribution et la perception des cultures négligées et sousutilisées en tant que « nourriture des pauvres », peuvent être résolues grâce à la recherche et aux systèmes de développement. Une vision holistique est néanmoins essentielle. Le renforcement des capacités est essentiel à la conduite de la recherche pluridisciplinaire participative, la facilitation des plateformes multipartites visant la mise à niveau des chaînes de valeur et la mise en oeuvre d'approches fondées sur le genre dans les interventions et la recherche.Observations finales, 3 ème Conférence internationale sur les espèces négligées et sous-utilisées, Accra, Ghana, septembre 2013 certaine variété d'aliments nutritifs. Les NUS ont beaucoup à offrir à cet égard. Nombre de ces espèces sont comparables aux cultures de base en termes de teneur en vitamines et micronutriments et pourraient être plus amplement utilisées pour diversifier les régimes alimentaires. Les fruits et les légumes sont particulièrement importants. Une nouvelle orientation vers une agriculture tenant compte de la nutrition renforce les liens entre le secteur agricole et les domaines de la santé et de la nutrition et inclut des objectifs en matière de nutrition dans des programmes agricoles.Valoriser le contexte culturel et de genre et l'autonomisation des femmes Le contexte culturel, social et de genre de la plupart des NUS diffère fondamentalement de celui des principales cultures. Il est capital de prendre en compte les traditions culturelles, les croyances religieuses ainsi que les motivations économiques et sociales des « gardiens » de ces cultures. Dans la plupart des cas, ce sont surtout les femmes qui prennent soin, cultivent et commercialisent les NUS, dont « les aliments issus de la forêt ». Ainsi, une perspective sexospécifique est primordiale lors du développement de chaînes de valeur pour ces cultures.La transformation de ce type de cultures peut être laborieuse et fait généralement partie du travail des femmes. En Bolivie et au Pérou, une technologie de transformation améliorée a contribué à l'augmentation de la consommation et des ventes locales de grains andins. La modernisation des chaînes de valeur, grâce à l'amélioration du triage et de l'emballage et le développement des produits sont autant de façons d'accroître le revenu des femmes. Aider les collectivités rurales, et particulièrement les femmes, à prendre conscience du potentiel des espèces qui ont été négligées est un puissant moyen de renforcer leur identité, d'accroître leur visibilité et de les autonomiser. ","tokenCount":"2231"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e30af25600928b3a9d2488d92f9d0aaa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/763bc586-8d67-4fc2-a2d0-5c5a8c1f14b5/retrieve","id":"-366129318"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"45a416f4-d698-4f99-830d-680aa2cb718e","pagecount":"2","content":"This leaflet is an extract from a study commissioned by SNV Support to Business Organisation and the Access to Markets Program (BOAM) in its Milk and Milk Products Value Chain Sub-program. The study focused on the client farmers' and members of dairy farmer cooperatives' state of knowledge and practice of feeding dairy animals in Jimma, Addis Alem, Debre Markos, Sululta and Selale. The leaflet highlights the major on the current status of feeding practices for dairy animals and some recommendations which can be used for most of the Central Highlands of Ethiopia. Current status of feeds and feeding in the study sites 1. Feed is scarce and costly: There are no food processing industries producing feed by-products such oil meals or flour meals in the environs of towns such as Jimma and Debre Markos. The breweries are too far from farmers to make haulage of wet brewer's grain practical and economical. Therefore, the local cooperatives/dairy farmers currently need to bring wheat bran, noug cake and mixed dairy ration from distant towns.2. Quality of forage is low and the price of forage high: Dairy farmers usually provide feed for their animals using the cut-and-carry system. However, the forage is of poor quality and is mainly consists of unimproved pasture grasses.3. Straw and forage are fed without being chopped. Farmers usually bring either cut-and-carry forage or straw and feed their animals without prior chopping. This leads to considerable wastage of straw and fresh forage.4. Shortage of land for forage development: Almost all farmers working with SNV clients or who are members of the Cooperative Association keep their animals in their homestead. Thus, at times there is almost no space for animals to exercise let alone to graze. This is particularly the case in the urban settings of Jimma and Debre Markos.5. Constraints to use of wet brewers' grain: Wet brewers' grain is fed in Sululta, Chancho and Debre Zeit. To prevent it being spoiled, farmers add salt and water to the top surface of the feed. The feed is difficult to transport and is also difficult to store without spoilage.Little utilization of improved forage species: There is limited utilization of improved forages by the smallholder farmers and this is surprising since many of the species (multipurpose trees) have economic value other than as fodder. In the Debre Markos area, Land O'Lakes has pursued popularization of back yard forage production.The forages involved are Elephant grass, fodder beet, alfalfa, vetch, Rhodes grass and Sesbania.Use of \"non conventional feeds\": Non conventional feeds such as false banana stem, local brewers' grain (\"Atela\") and fines from cereals threshing grounds (\"Geleba\") or cereal milling by products (\"Bitare\") are widely used by smallholder farmers. These ingredients could be incorporated into the dairy meal concentrate fraction of the herd in the formulation of least cost diets.International Livestock Research Institute 1. Chopping or grinding of straw: A small electric driven chopper for the dairy farmers is a potential input; this would decrease both the wastage of feeding long straws/hay and forages. Through chopping the feed, intake will increase and thereby reduce the need to purchase alternative costly feeds.2. Acquisition of land for sowing forage: The Jimma Cooperative for example has started along this line and the association has acquired a sizeable area of land for forage production. The land has been further apportioned to members of the association.3. Drying brewer's grain at the breweries: Drying the brewer's grain on site at the brewery, bagging it and transporting it to areas which are distant from the breweries is an option worth exploring.4. Maize and grass silage popularization using plastic bags: The study sites enjoy relatively high annual rainfall and during the main rainy season, farmers are theoretically able to prepare maize or grass silage. However, there are few cases of silage use. The unavailability of plastic sheet for the ensiling process and absence of knowledge and skill of silage making may be a problem. In addition, lack of silage chopper may also be a problem but this could be addressed by the association.5. Provision of improved seeds/seedlings along with a training package in forage management: Providing starter seed and supporting farmers with knowledge on proper raising, harvesting and feeding of the improved forages to the farmers is a promising intervention to minimize the scarcity of feed especially during the dry season.6. Mixing one's own ration (home mix): The prerequisite is the availability of the feed ingredients and the feed mixing know-how. The issue of availability of feed ingredients needs to be addressed first.7. Proper timing of harvest of forage and its proper drying: Hay preparation is widespread in most of the sites visited. However, the grass is normally cut at late maturity. The use hay of a drying tripod made of bamboo or eucalyptus sticks and the provision of shelter to protect the stack from rain would be worth considering. Furthermore, harvesting the hay forage at its nutritionally optimal stage of maturity is matter for 8.Treatment of crop residue: Treatment of shredded wheat and barley straw with urea, molasses, salt and water prior to feeding is a technology that should be considered.The author thanks the Multi Stakeholder Platform (the \"Coordination Group\") of the Milk Value Chain of SNV's BOAM Program for the initiation of this research; all value chain members -notably the producers visited in the course of the field work -for their co-operation and SNV Ethiopia for providing the funds for the project.Produced January 2011","tokenCount":"904"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"85f618a84a85ca6f7ee2973dc7636e76","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b5087771-ad6a-4b4d-a014-ae9041c0cc7f/retrieve","id":"-1826892904"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a0fd8fad-6bec-42e1-81b3-19b66b4df67b","pagecount":"47","content":"CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable across the developing world. The Program brings together five partners: the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with a mandate on livestock; WorldFish with a mandate on aquaculture; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which works on forages; the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which works on small ruminants; and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) which provides expertise particularly in animal health and genetics. http://livestockfish.cgiar.orgThe Program thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund.Table 1. Levels of capacities and core gender capacities 12 A key premise of a collaborative partnership approach is that it enables so called \"beneficiaries\" to become partners in development processes, which is empowering and facilitates mutual learning and will create more meaningful inclusive and sustainable development. There are many forms of collaboration, but \"true\" partnerships are defined as partnerships that: are voluntary collaborations; leverage the respective strengths and core competencies of each partner; optimize the allocation of resources; achieve mutually beneficial results over a sustained period; and create linkages that increase resources, scale and impact, and are a vehicle to progress sustainable development action and outcomes. 1An analysis of desired capacities against existing capacities which generates an understanding of capacity assets and needs that can serve as input for formulating a capacity development response that addresses those capacities that could be strengthened, and optimizes existing capacities that are already strong and well founded. It can also set the baseline for continuous monitoring and evaluation of progress against relevant indicators, and help create a solid foundation for long-term planning, implementation and sustainable results. 2The process through which individuals, organizations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time 3 . \"Capacity\" involves the ability of a society or a sector to continue to develop necessary skills, behaviors, networks, and institutions that enable communities and organizations to adapt and become resilient.The tailor-made six gender capacities that are required within the program partners in order to be able to design and implement gender responsive programs.Gender analysis explores and highlights the relationships of women and men in society, and the inequalities in those relationships, by asking: who does what? Who has what? Who decides? How? Who gains? Who loses? Gender analysis breaks down the divide between the private sphere (involving personal relationships) and the public sphere (which deals with relationships in wider society). It looks at how power relations within the household interrelate with those at the international, state, market, and community level. 4 In-depth value chain analysis describes both the market system and social context around the core commodity and how they interweave. They need to detail who does what, receives what, uses what resources and makes what positions at different points in the system, as well as explain why any existing social hierarchies exist and persist: e.g. why are more women and men concentrated in particular nodes, serving particular end markets? How does this affect chain performance? How does it relate to community norms or values, and to household rules and responsibilities? These explanations will illuminate the dynamics of power relations among value chain actors and how gender relations in the home, community, and market intersect to affect women's and men's positions and outcomes in the chain. 5 Tools are components of gender analytical methodologies or frameworks and include observation techniques such as participant observation, the wide range of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques, or the more formal surveys, which provide quantitative data. 6 Research and development interventions that do not acknowledge and respond to the different socio-economic positions of women and men from the outset risk worsening gender inequalities (e.g. in income).Programming that considers gender roles and relations, and responds to these, either through gender accommodating or through gender transformative approaches.Recognizes and responds to the specific needs and realities of men and women based on their existing roles and responsibilities. 7 A. Interventions tend to focus on the micro level and reducing identified gender gaps in access to resources, credit, technologies, information, and skills. B. Examples of such approaches are: improving women's skills in poultry farming (traditionally a women's commodity), designing trainings in a way that they are easily accessible for women who tend to be more tied to the house, developing credit mechanisms that can be accessed by women's savings groups. C. Such actions are important, given the evidence backing the breadth and depth of these disparities, and may be easier to implement since they are less challenging to the status quo. D. But, the interventions tend to not address women's ability to control the benefits, their decision-making power, their position in the household and society. They tend to focus more on involving women than on engaging directly with men about gender. E. And, they may only partially address the problem since they do not act on the underlying causes of the disparities-the systems, norms and attitudes making gender differences acceptable parts of everyday life. F. Providing women access to resources and technologies does not automatically translate into control over them or their benefits, or into social acceptance of new roles and opportunities. 8 G. Interventions that operate within the existing social system risk creating only incremental short-term improvements.Improving women's access and control over resources and technologies while explicitly aiming to change gender norms and relations in order to promote gender equality. 9  Such approaches understand that gender is a social construct, which influences how women and men conceive of themselves; how women and men interact in face of expectations; how opportunities and resources are allocated (Risman 2004).  Gender transformative approaches see the social context as not just something to understand and work within, but as something to act on (Kabeer 1994; Kabeer and Subrahmanian 1996). They, therefore, aim to address the causes of gender inequality and not just the symptoms.  Examples of interventions are: organizing women and creating awareness of their rights, increasing women's ownership of livestock and their ability to market on their own terms, interventions at household level that improve intra-household decision-making on livestock management including sales and distribution of income from sales.  In this way the intervention can define strategies to upgrade women's activities while including men in ways that they find relevant, avoiding interventions that only target women and may cause conflict.Gender responsive monitoring and evaluation systems are central to testing expected impact pathways and generating learning to document the outcomes of gender transformative interventions and the conditions under which they are achieved. They should track changes in: the material conditions and social positions of women and men participating in the chain; gender attitudes and practices of chain actors; and chain level performance, including women's and men's shares in chain employment and income across nodes. 10A gender-sensitive indicator can be defined as \"an indicator that captures gender-related changes in society over time\" (Beck 2000: 7). In order to carry out gender-sensitive monitoring, [sex] disaggregated data is required. 11Statistics disaggregated by sex or gender 12 and sometimes by age. Gender division of labor (productive, reproductive, community roles) and roles. Examples: Women tend to have more responsibilities and spend more time in productive, reproductive, and community roles. Often though, their roles in productive labor tend to be invisible and undervalued. For example, women play an important role in the dairy value chain, they may feed cattle, and take care of hygienic processes. Gender differences in access to markets and control of resources, technologies, labor, power and the benefits of their work, including financial resources. Examples: Gender division of labor do not map directly into livestock ownership. Women are more likely to own small livestock than large livestock. In East Africa, only about 30% of female-headed households owned livestock (EADD 2009). In cattle owning households, women owned less than 20% of the cattle. 13  Gender differences in decision-making and leadership.  Nature and level of participation of men and women in livestock and fish value chains;Examples: In India, women play a significant role in providing family labor for livestockkeeping, and among poorer families, their contribution often exceeds that of men (George and Nair 1990). 14 Women's participation in value chains of livestock and aquaculture often are concentrated in the informal economy, and are invisible. Roles (and relative power) in production, processing, and marketing differ by gender-for example, men commonly catch fish and women process or sell them locally.  Gender differences in education level and technical knowledge.The main innovation that systemic thinking introduces is that rather than prioritizing interventions that need immediate fixing, emphasis is given to defining the \"issue creating system\", which is made up of interacting parts, which can be used to better understand reality, problems and the context in which they arise. Practically, systemic thinking can be used in participation with value chain system actors, to identify issues, analyze their boundaries, design strategies and policy interventions, forecast and measure their expected impacts, implement them, and monitor and evaluate their successes and failures. 15Value chains include all the links that begin with an idea for a product or service and continue through to when that product/service is consumed, and sometimes also beyond to when it is deposed after use. Value chains also include the institutional and governance arrangements that enable these systems to function. 16 The framework for this gender capacity assessment and development guide consists of the Livestock and Fish capacity assessment guideline 17 , and capacity development approach as outlined in the Capacity Development Road Map 2014-2016 18 , and refers to the capacity assessment framework currently used by UNDP 19 and FAO. 20 It contributes to its gender strategy. 21 Capacity development was highlighted as a priority in both the Capacity Development Road Map 2014-2016 and its Gender Strategy, \"Increased gender capacity within CGIAR centers, partner organizations and value chain actors to diagnose and overcome gender based constraints within value chains\". 22 In 2014, ILRI undertook a survey with partners in targeted livestock and fish value chains in four countries (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Nicaragua) to ascertain their gaps in gender capacity related to integrating gender into agricultural programming. In all four countries, the primary obstacles to integrating gender included lack of financial resources, lack of staff training and lack of appropriate gender tools. 23 The results from the survey motivated the program to commission a more systematic gender capacity assessment. 24 This guide is developed by Transition International 25 , on the request of ILRI, in response to this. This second edition of the guide is an improved version using the experience of conducting the gender capacity assessment in the four mentioned countries. This assessment was done in 2015 and a report is available. 26 The second edition of the guide and the tools are developed so that assessments can be undertaken in any country. The second version has essential changes in the parameters, tools and methodology. Therefore, outcomes of any CA done with the second edition of the guide cannot be compared with outcomes from the first edition.The development of gender capacities is crucial for the achievement of development objectives, as well as program objectives. Gender capacity development helps to strengthen and sustain value chain upgrading. It therefore needs to be integrated in program implementation, from the start to the end. Capacity development interventions are designed based on a capacity assessment, e.g. the analysis of desired capacities against existing capacities.The overall objective of this gender capacity assessment and development guide is to guide the process of analyzing the current gender capacities against desired future gender capacities of the program's partners in any country where it is active, and to subsequently design tailor-made capacity development interventions per country.Gender capacity assessment (CA) is a key step because it: a) Identifies gender capacity gaps along the value chain; b) Fosters a discussion around priorities for actions in the context of specific impact pathways; c) Identifies opportunities for investments and leveraging capacity development activities with partners; d) Provides a starting point for the formulation of a gender capacity development responses; e) Establishes baselines and indicators for capturing learning, measuring, monitoring, and evaluating progress in capacity development; and f) Supports comparative analyses of gender capacities across value chains and countries. 27 The results of the assessments should lead to the formulation of capacity development responses so as to increase the ability of the different program partners to effectively and efficiently perform functions, solve problems, and set and achieve objectives in a gender responsive manner.This gender capacity assessment and development guide is developed for the Livestock and Fish program, which is led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).The guide aims to facilitate gender capacity assessment and development of ILRI's research and developmental partners who currently support joint delivery of outputs of the program and/or could be potentially involved. It does not aim to assess gender capacities of ILRI or its operational partners.The guide is tailor-made for ILRI, and guided by program's Theory of Change whose outcomes are defined by six Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs) and the program's five flagship projects. The guide therefore starts by providing some background information on the program, its approach to capacity development and the core gender issues in this program, which are summarized in chapter 2.Chapter 3, consequently, presents the tailor-made two-dimensional framework designed for the gender capacity assessment and development process. It differentiates two sets of variables, namely:1. The three levels of capacities (enabling environment, organizational and individual); and 2. The six Core Gender Capacities formulated based on insights and experiences from gender capacity assessments and the type of work partners are engaged in.This chapter then provides a comprehensive set of gender parameters along these three sets of variables, clustered per type of partner. These parameters are the basis for the capacity assessment and capacity development processes, as reflected in the three tools that have been developed to assess capacities at organizational (annex 1), individual (annex 2), and enabling environmental level (annex 3) for each partner.Finally, chapter 4 describes the six steps of the assessment process.  As described in the capacity development roadmap 31 , the program's capacity development interventions are based on the premise that the CRP's five flagships and Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs) along with Theories of Change (ToCs) and Impact Pathways (IPs) are the framing context for capacity development work. Developing capacities in institutions and value chain (agribusiness) markets is a subtle process in which key players (implementers), value chain actors (intermediate beneficiaries) and producers (primary clients), service providers / private sector partners and policy makers all play different roles. In practice that means that political and governance processes are required to function, that linkages are made across and between sectors to achieve shared goals and to deliver services and products. It also means that rural communities and organizations drive their own ongoing capacity development and mobilize resources to develop new capacities in the face of new challenges. \"Capacity\" needs to be seen as an emergent property of the functioning of different processes in a system. Capacity is, therefore, not a distinct \"outcome\" that can be influenced by a single intervention, training, or organization. 32The program's gender strategy was developed in a consultative process involving several scientists from different program partner institutions (ILRI, WorldFish and CIAT) from multiple VC countries (Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nicaragua). 33 The gender strategy operates along a continuum of gender integration approaches, from the accommodating to the transformative, and approaches gender as both an area of strategic research and as a cross-cutting thematic area that informs and deepens the relevance of other research themes. 34 Gender is mainstreamed and researched in all flagships and value chains. The strategic gender research agenda is housed in the fourth flagship (SASI). A special gender initiative was conceived to oversee the planning and delivery of gender-related outputs and associated reporting. 35 The main gender issues per flagship are listed in Annex 5.The gender strategy's outputs focus on: Gender capacity to diagnose and overcome gender-based constraints within value chains; The nature and level of participation in livestock and fish value chains;  Entitlements to access to markets and control over resources, technologies, labor, power, and the benefits of their work; and The level and equity in animal source food consumption within poor households. 36 The first output is concerned with gender capacity development. In-depth and representative capacity assessments are needed to inform the development of gender capacity materials and future trainings for partners. Further research is needed on the specific types of training and tools that would be most appropriate to partner needs, as the results will have implications for development of future gender materials and capacity development in the program. 37 The methodology for this guide is based on a systemic approach to capacity development. This chapter presents the two-dimensional framework designed for the gender capacity assessment and development process. It differentiates two sets of variables, namely:1. Three levels of capacities (enabling environment, organizational, and individual); 2. Six Core Gender Capacities formulated based on insights and experiences from gender capacity assessments and the type of work partners are engaged in.The above sets of variables can be visualized in the below matrix, which will be clarified in the sections below. In the first edition of this guide, National Research Partners and National Development Partners were assessed using a separate tool. This was found to be unnecessary, as the two types of organizations in reality do not differ that much, and both perform functions that can be categorized under development and research. Therefore, the second edition tool is developed in such a way that it can be used for both types of organizations. The distinction is therefore not used anymore in analysis and reporting.The first variable is the level of analysis (enabling environment, organizational and individual):Recognizing that gender capacities are required at these different levels in order to create maximum impact. Each of these levels can be the point of entry for the capacity assessment and consequent capacity development interventions: The enabling environment: The broader system, including downstream/upstream policies, rules and legislation, regulations, gender power relations, external partnerships, political space and gender norms and values;  The organizational level: The internal policies, arrangements, procedures and frameworks that allow an organization to mainstream gender in all its operations, enabling the coming together of individual capacities for achieving common goals; and  The individual level: The skills, experience, knowledge, leadership, and motivation of people enabling gender mainstreaming.The second variable is the six core gender capacities, which are identified for partner organizations in order to be able to co-design and co-implement gender responsive interventions within the CRP. Not every partner and country may require full capacities in all six areas, but the capacity assessment will consider all six. The main change is the addition of a core gender capacity on gender at the workplace (parameters already existed but were spread over the other capacities). The core capacities on leadership and innovative gender responsive approaches have been merged into one core capacity of leadership and transformation. This core capacity is focused on commitment to gender equality and applying transformative approaches. The descriptions of the core gender capacities have been simplified.Based on the above outlined sets of variables, the table below provides an overview of the parameters, which will be used for assessing partner's core gender capacities. Most of the parameters of the first version of the CA guide have remained, however, they have been reorganized, and some redundant ones were deleted. Parameters for research and development partners have been merged. The total number of parameters is now 48. The core gender capacity on gender responsive programming, budgeting and implementation now contains only the parameters concerned with the implementation of gender responsive programs and having a resourced gender mainstreaming strategy in place. One key parameter from the previous core capacity on innovative gender responsive approaches has remained, and is moved to the (rephrased) core capacity on leadership and transformation. A new core gender capacity on gender in the workplace now contains all parameters that were spread over the other capacities. At the level of enabling environments, a parameter has been added to each core capacity, which enables a better look on the effect of the partner organization on its environment. The gender capacity assessment and development will involve a number of steps, from preparation, to assessment, formulating and implementing a capacity development response, to evaluation and reporting. The steps are based on the program's capacity assessment guideline 42 , and capacity development approach as outlined in the Capacity Development Road Map 2014-2016. 43 The following six steps are required:Step 1: Engage stakeholders and design gender capacity assessment tools per country.Step 2: Conduct capacity assessments in-country.Step 3:Interpret and analyze capacity assessment data.Step 4: Formulate and implement a capacity development response per country.Step 5: Evaluate the process and outcomes of the capacity development response per country.Step 6:Finalize a capacity development response per country and present a gender capacity response implementation report.The steps proceed in a spiral, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and factfinding about the results of the action. Ideally, the gender assessment team consists of two or more (inter)national consultants, who are gender experts.Step 1.The gender capacity assessment process starts with identifying which organizations and individuals need to be involved in the assessment process, and what role they play and stake they have in bringing about a change. Rapid pre-assessment (desk) review of relevant documents, including country specific program reports and other documentation related to gender in the value chain in that particular country; Defining the objectives and scope of the gender capacity assessment in that particular country together with the Country Value Chain Coordinator; Sampling of partners. It is recommended to include both research and development partners (division should be representative to the whole country), to prioritize partners that are most active or important in the partnership, and partners that have shown interest in the integration of gender in their work. Total number should ideally be between 6 -10 organizations; Sampling of staff from the selected partners: include at least 2 senior and middle management, at least 2 operational staff, and 1 gender expert, if available. These people will be participating in the organizational and individual level assessments. Total number should ideally be between 6 -10 people. If the organization is large with various departments, the team should decide whether it would be best to sample from all departments, or only the ones actually engaged with the partnerships (preferred). Since many capacities are referring to organization wide strategies and processes, it is advisable to sample persons from management, HR and other general department as well as persons who have knowledge on gender policies and implementation; Sampling of key informants: key informants should be sampled from different organizations, in and external to the partnership, both from civil society, research, and government. Total number should ideally be between 6 -10 people; Develop a work plan detailing the objectives and relevant capacities to be assessed, how to do this, what activities need to be developed, by whom, when and what resources are required; Adapt capacity assessment tools (questions) to the specific context at hand;  Prepare detailed agenda including list of partners and/or persons to meet during the capacity assessment; and Procedure of reaching out to any of these stakeholders, including responsibilities and tasks of the assessment team and the national operational partner.These activities need to be finalized at least 2 weeks before visiting the country, in order to allow enough time for preparations, especially setting up meetings and workshops.Step 2.The gender capacity assessment will generate both a quantitative ranking of capacities and qualitative information, which will help to specify priorities for action on capacity development. During this step three different tools will be applied to gather information:Tool 1.The capacities of partners, at organizational level, will be assessed during a FGD that includes a questionnaire. Each organization will assess its own capacities, guided by the consultant(s). The capacities will be scored following the parameters. Aside from scoring, the tool gives sufficient space for detailed qualitative information. After scoring the capacities, participants will define priority capacities for capacity development, and decide upon desired capacities. It is important that the questionnaire is administered by a trained gender expert, as the questions need to be explained and sometimes adapted to the local situation. This tool will take approximately 3-4 hours.In order to get more in-depth information, from a different viewpoint, the same individuals that have participated in the FGD for organizations, are invited to fill in a short questionnaire (either printed out or on-line depending on the availability of internet. Google forms can be used for data collection) immediately after the organizational FGD. The questionnaire tool assesses capacities at individual level. If printed out, the questionnaire will have to be filled in the excel tool afterwards by the assessment team. Filling in the questionnaire will take less than 10 minutes.The third tool is developed to collect data at the level of the enabling environment. This tool is a semi-structured interview, to be held with (gender) experts who are part of the program, either operational, development or research partners. This can include experts working for organizations that are excluded from the assessment, such as SNV, CARE, GIZ, as well as ILRI or any of the other operational partners, since these people are expected to have a good overview and insight of national gender issues, legislation, civil society, etc. Key informant interviews can be done with one or several experts at the same time and will take approximately 45 minutes. Kick-off meeting with Country Value Chain Coordinator, Flagship and-or Cluster Leaders, gender focal point, and others (to be determined) to get more understanding of the partnership, validate work plan and agree on gender capacity issues relevant in the specific country/value chain that need to be assessed, as well as partners and experts to be involved; Key informant interviews to determine relevant gender issues and institutional context in that particular country and value chain; Refine capacity assessment tools (especially questions for each of the parameters) with relevant gender issues in that particular country and value chain; Assessments of selected partners existing and desired gender capacities at organizational and individual level through a facilitated discussion and questionnaire (since the tool takes approximately 3 hours, only 2 organizations can be assessed in one day); (Online) questionnaire to be filled in immediately after FGD by individuals (management, staff, gender experts) either on a printed or an online form; and Feedback/validation meeting with Country Value Chain Coordinator, Flagship and-or Cluster Leaders, gender focal points, key partners to discuss preliminary findings and to provide an opportunity to share additional contributions or correct/adjust earlier provided information.In this workshop, environmental factors and their influence on capacities, will be discussed, as well as key desired capacities.Step 3:Once meetings have been conducted, and interviews and questionnaires have been completed, the capacity assessment team will interpret the results. For the data entry, presentation and analysis of results, one excel worksheet will be used for each partner (individual and organizational data entry) and one other for the country as a whole. Results will be analyzed at country level for environmental, individual and organizational levels and core capacity. Data analysis will be both quantitative (analysis of scores) and qualitative (analysis of information coming from discussions and interviews).When interpreting the assessment results, the team will discern gender capacity strengths and gaps and the patterns of these gaps. Through triangulation, the assessment team may find that the data and information gathered from different sources provide conflicting insights, especially with data coming from organizational and individual questionnaires. Individual perceptions are influenced by many factors, and the same rankings may be interpreted differently by different people. It is, therefore, important to get a variety of perspectives and take into account different points of view when writing the (preliminarily) gender capacity assessment report (see annex 4 for the report template).The report will compare the level of desired capacity against the level of existing capacity. This helps determine whether the level of existing capacity is sufficient or needs improvement and helps the team identify priority topics for the initial capacity development response. The report will reflect upon an integrated set of deliberate and sequenced actions, attempting to build momentum for the capacity development process by outlining a combination of high-priority short-term initiatives and immediate quick-impact actions, as well as long-term activities that lead to the desired capacity development outcomes. 45 During the process of CA and CD, it is likely necessary to go back to an earlier step if information or knowledge is obtained as a consequence of the assessment. For example, after having done the capacity assessment (step 2) of partner organizations, we may wish to go back to refine tools and further interview other key stakeholders who can provide knowledge over an unresolved issue. In the same vein: during step 3, we may need to go back to assess some more, due to a new insight obtained from the analysis, and so on.Step 4.The gender capacity development response will be tailor-made per value chain country. The capacity assets and needs identified by the gender capacity assessment provide the starting point for the formulation of a capacity development response. The guiding capacity development response is based upon the two-dimensional matrix with the three levels of capacity and the six core gender capacities.The capacity development response will start from existing strengths rather than weaknesses. It will combine medium-term initiatives (one year) with short-term activities (less than one year). The capacity development response is focused both on the value chain country as a whole, as well as capacities per partner organization that need to be developed. The response will furthermore indicate how the capacity development needs to be done. The proposed response and the assessed capacities will be presented at country level before implementation to fine tune the results and get everyone's support. During this session the dates to implement the capacity development process will be defined together.The capacity development response shall be implemented under the coordination of the flagship coordinator with the facilitating support of the international consultancy team. During the CD process different types of learning methodologies will be applied, based on experiential learning (e.g. Kolb's adult learning cycle). This will require the inclusion of feedback loops in which results are systematized, analyzed and discussed, after which tools will be adjusted where necessary. Most adjustments will be done in the pilot country, but also in the other three countries, in order to respond to differences between the value chain countries.The capacity development responses per value chain country will be budgeted. The actual allocation of this budget is the responsibility of each country coordinator.Step 5.The results of the capacity development response will be evaluated after finalizing implementation (within one year), using the indicators that have been defined in step four. The capacity development is monitored throughout the implementation. Indicators for monitoring and evaluation will be defined for the relevant parameters as assessed in step three. These indicators will be used as basis for information collection, monitoring and evaluation of the capacity development response. Feedback loops based on appreciative Inquiry 46 , in other words starting from strengths and progress to remaining challenges, will indicate further action. In the iterative process, research leads to action, and action leads to evaluation and further action. The method generates new knowledge about the subject matter [= the \"how-to\" of the CD work that needs to take place] of the process as well as about the process itself. The process proceeds in a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the results of the action. 47Step 6.The results of the evaluation of the capacity development process are used to further refine gender capacity development responses for each country in the future. Annex 1. Organizational assessment tool Explanation Opening and introductions. Brief presentation on the background of the gender capacity assessment, development of a gender capacity development strategy and implementation of the strategy initiative, its purpose and scope (focused only on the targeted value chain).Fill in (in the grey cells) basic information on the organization, name of the interviewer, date and time of the interview, and notes, e.g. anything specific that happened before or during the interview that may have influenced the assessment. Explain the scoring 1-5 and practice with one parameter. Do the assessment: For each core gender capacity, facilitate a discussion around what that capacity would mean for this particular organization. Use the definitions in the guide and the explanations given. After a short discussion on each gender capacity (eg. A), several parameters (eg. A.II.1) that are related to this capacity, are scored. For each parameter, one or more questions need to be asked. The main question that needs to be answered, is the first one and more explanation or further questions are usually added and these are in between brackets (). Use these questions as a guide, to get more qualitative information. While the parameters cannot change, the questions can be adapted to the local situation and understanding of the organization. The scoring is done by all present staff members together after consensus. Scores are entered at the level of parameter. Also comments should be entered next to the parameter.Scoring • Gender division of labor and roles (productive, reproductive, community) • Gender differences in access to markets and control resources, technologies, labor, power and the benefits of their work, including financial resources • Gender differences in decision-making and leadership • Nature and level of participation of men and women in livestock and fish value chains • Gender differences in educational level and technical knowledge Give some examples. Are these gender issues analyzed by the organization? CurrentThe capacity to analyze gender dynamics within the value chain 0 Comments Does the organization analyze and understand gender dynamics within the value chain, e.g. gender roles and responsibilities, gendered access and control, differences in decision-making etc.? (Based on the FGD, the consultant can guide the organization in assessing its capacities) Are incentives and procedures in place to ensure that staff applies gender analysis in their work? (To what extent do staff always apply gender analysis in their work, e.g. before starting a project or intervention? Are projects checked on the existence and quality of gender analysis?) A.II.2The capacity to develop strategies to address gender dynamics in the value chain 0 Comments Does the organization use gender analysis to develop strategies to address gender dynamics in the value chain? Are systems and procedures in place to ensure that information from analysis is used to guide strategic program development? A.II.3The capacity to apply gender analysis tools and frameworks 0 Comments Does the organization apply gender analytical frameworks and tools? (Which frameworks and tools are normally used?) Are the gender analytical frameworks and tools that are used, relevant to the work and scope of the organization? Are they used to identify and address gender-based constraints and opportunities in the targeted value chains? Does the organization make use of a toolkit or inventory of tools? (Which toolkit?) A.II. 4  Providing access to gender (analysis) training for staff 0 Comments Does the organization provide training for its staff on gender (analysis)? If not, does it enable or support staff to be trained externally? Gender responsive programming, budgeting, and implementationThe capacity and commitment to implement gender responsive programs, to mainstream gender throughout all operations and programs and allocate financial and human resources for it.Gender responsive programming considers gender roles and relations, and responds to these, either through gender accommodating or through gender transformative approaches. Discuss the kind of programs that this organization implements, are gender issues taken into consideration? Examples:-gendered participation in livestock and fish value chains -gender roles and relations in feed resourcing and feeding and animal health, use of technologies and innovations, and breeds -women's access to markets and control over resources, technologies, labor, power and the benefits of their work -level and equity in animal source food consumption within poor households -preferences of male and female producers for certain breeds, etc.Current score ( The capacity to collect, interpret and report on sex-disaggregated data 0 Comments Does the organization collect sex-disaggregated data? Does the organization have mechanisms in place to ensure that all data collected is sex disaggregated? (What are they?) (To what extent) is sex-disaggregated data not only collected, but also interpreted/analyzed and reported on? (How many projects reported this in the previous year? Give an example of recommendations derived from interpretation of sex-disaggregated data collected in the previous year? What analysis was conducted on the data? By whom (qualification)?)Existence and quality of a gender responsive M&E system and ability to use it 0 Comments Is the M&E system gender responsive? (Give a specific example or evidence) Do reports include information on changes in gender norms and relations? (Please explain briefly and if available share a gender responsive M&E report and the tools used to collect the data used in the report.) Does the organization have guidelines, tools and methods in place for gender responsive M&E? C.II.3Access to and production of knowledge documents and publications on gender 0 Comments Does the organization produce documents and publications on gender? (Does it collect, develop and make such knowledge documents accessible to others? How many did you publish in the previous year? Who provided the gender expertise for each? Can you explain briefly their content and share one or two copies?)The capacity to build coalitions, to influence government and external partners, and to advocate for gender equality. Flagship 3 -Feeds and Forages: This flagship aims to ensure that livestock-owning smallholders can access the feed and forages they need to support profitable and sustainable livestock production, that non-livestock owning smallholders can benefit from small-scale feed businesses, and that the wider feed sector benefits from improved tools, analyses and information to facilitate better decision making at all levels. This flagship is organized around the following three clusters of activities:1. Feed technology platform to guide and support feed and forage work needs in the program and other systems and commodity CRPs; 2. Assessing current feed resources and devise options for using them more efficiently; and 3. Producing more and higher quality feed and forage biomass.The SASI flagship defines the process of intervention implementation. It will enable the program to understand complex value chain system dynamics and ensure that innovations formed through the animal health, genetics, and feed & forages flagships are positioned to stimulate transformative system change that benefits women and men. This is undertaken through two clusters of activity:1. Value chain intervention research; and 2. System assessments around, between and beyond value systems. Box 2. Main gender issues in flagship: Animal genetics  Developing robust strains and breeds that can perform in a range of farming systems, across the gender divide;  Robust delivery systems to ensure that poor female and male livestock and fish keepers can access these genetic resources, technology, and information systems equally; Recognizing the role of women in genetic resource management; and  Effective participation of all stakeholders at all levels of policy and program making and implementation, with a particular focus on participation of women (who own or manage a substantial amount of the genetic resources) in decision-making positions.Box 3. Main gender issues in flagship: Feed & forages  Understand gender roles and relations in feed resourcing and feeding;  Enable women's economic participation in feed production, processing, and trading;  Engagement of female smallholders in the livestock chain as service providers to livestock and fish production.  Access to land, forestry, and other natural resources for women; and  Control over income generated with feed and forage production and sales.The strategic gender research agenda is housed in this flagship, led by a dedicated research manager who is mandated to implement and support the integration and mainstreaming of gender research into the other flagships.  Conducting value chain analysis with a gender perspective, including mapping the chain, conducting a stakeholder analysis, conducting a market analysis, identifying constraints and opportunities for up-scaling or transforming the chain and redistributing values to improve equity and efficiency, developing a strategic and action plan; Gender sensitive information and tools for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers to assess and intervene in value chains to improve equitable performance; 6.2.1 Indicator: Group actions supporting smallholder farmers by advocating for effective policieswith special attention to poor and women.","tokenCount":"6773"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"adca59c9a1b3e435ae4851448df63814","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7541d79a-55b6-45f3-9d85-f10207326855/retrieve","id":"-305087582"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"10122b13-a691-4032-909c-30648a478ae2","pagecount":"4","content":"Empowering a local community to address climate risks and food insecurity in Lower Nyando, KenyaIn the Nyando Basin in western Kenya, climate change and variability are already evident. Droughts, floods and unpredictable rainfall have increased, affecting agriculture and food security. These problems are compounded by high poverty (about half of the population lives below the poverty line) and prevalent HIV (the adult infection rate is around 7.5 per cent) 1 leading to more widow-or orphan-headed households, lost productivity and labour shortages.Farming is Nyando's primary source of income and food (a mixed crop-livestock system), but Nyando farms are not diverse and show few agricultural innovations. 2 Lower Nyando also suffers serious land degradation. Soil erosion is rampant in two annual rainy seasons, and run off forms deep gullies that affect about 40 per cent of the landscape. 3 Poverty, lost labour and less diversified livelihoods and land degradation all make communities more vulnerable to climate risks, directly reducing household food supply and nutritional status. Up to 17 per cent of households are unable to meet their food needs for 3-4 months in a year. 2 Malnutrition is estimated to be 45 per cent among under-fives.To tackle these problems, people in Lower Nyando organised themselves into six self-help groups affiliated to a large 'umbrella' community-based organisation (CBO) called Friends of Katuk Odeyo (FOKO). Households join a group, contributing from KSh100-200 (equivalent to US$1.2-2.4) a month.FOKO now has 20 groups, which comprise 600 households. Of these 20, two are women's groups. In the others, 70 per cent of the active members are women. Two other CBOs have sprung up -Kapsokale and the North East Community Development Programme. Each CBO is a legal entity and has a bank account used by the member groups. Together, they aim to use community empowerment to tackle food insecurity, malnutrition and increasing dependency rates. In the Nyando basin 1,170 households now belong to a self-help group, and 70-85 per cent of the active members are women.Each self-help group is led by an elected chairperson, secretary and treasurer, and in most cases at least two of these are women. Representation for the groups within each CBO is based on geographical clusters (often villages). The CBOs, which are run by a five-member executive committee, are mainly responsible for linking communities with relevant government ministries, research and development organisations, and for mobilising resources, whereas local groups make decisions on capacity-building needs and activities.The self-help groups are empowering their communities through collective action. Initially, they simply pooled financial resources into a Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA) scheme andIn erosion-and drought-prone Nyando, self-help groups affiliated to large umbrella bodies are working with extension agents, researchers and development partners to improve local livestock and diversify crops, to improve soil and water management, and to pool financial and labour resources.Case studies: loCal solutions pooled labour (especially for planting and harvesting) based on principles similar to share-cropping. While this particularly helped widow-and orphan-headed households with subsistence food production and supply, many still relied on food aid during droughts. And limited access to improved farm inputs or better agronomic techniques meant food insecurity, malnutrition and land degradation persisted. Livelihood diversification empowers households, giving them a range of livelihood options to draw on, making them more food and income secure. Interventions in Nyando include beekeeping, improved small livestock production (goats, sheep and poultry) and crop diversification with improved agronomic practices. improved beekeeping. A participatory process identified beekeeping as a livelihood diversification option. Traditionally, beekeeping was labour intensive and dangerous, using hollowed out log hives to attract bees. Harvesting excluded women and fostered a fear of handling bees within the community. Average yields were very low, about 5kg of honey per beehive per year compared a potential yield of 90kg.In 2009, the Ministry of Livestock Development and World Neighbors started working with five of FOKO's self-help groups. The partnership introduced improved beehives, and trained farmers to be more productive beekeepers. Now, 15 beekeeping groups have spread across seven villages affiliated to the three CBOs, with 175 beehives between them. Three of the 15 are women's groups, while the other 12 have 70 per cent active women members. Eight artisans are now trained and equipped to build affordable theft-resistant hives, and shared learning is empowering farmers to exchange knowledge within and across self-help groups. Average honey yield now ranges from 10kg per beehive per harvest. Harvesting is three times a year, with potential for up to six harvests a year. improved livestock. From late 2011, CCAFS has been collaborating with World Neighbors, Vi Agroforestry and Kenya's Ministry of Livestock Development to work with farmers to improve productivity of small livestock. Small livestock (sheep, goats and poultry) is less labour intensive than cattle and gives women more control over livestock management and income. The Ministry's extension services help farmers improve management practices including animal healthcare. Through the partnership, 16 communitybased animal health workers, or 'para-vets', have been trained across the three CBOs. World Neighbors is identifying and sourcing improved breeds. Sixty faster maturing Gala goats and 10 Dorper sheep are being cross-bred with indigenous breeds.Poultry improvement focuses on early maturing and disease-resistant indigenous chicken. About 400 improved local chickens were sourced from a government programme and distributed to 100 farmers. The total population of these chickens is now probably over 3,000. With improved housing practices, they mature two months earlier than conventional free-range chicken.Overall, about 120 households in Nyando are now benefiting from interventions on small livestock. Of these households, 70 per cent are headed by women.Crop diversification. CCAFS, KARI and the Ministry of Agriculture are working to empower farmers to manage climate risk through a combination of crop diversification and improved practices. They are introducing sorghum, pigeon peas, cowpeas, green grams and sweet potatoes to supplement the traditional maize, cassava and bean staples.More than 250 households are using improved agronomic practices and KARI has started on-farm multiplication of an improved cassava variety (MH95/0183) that resists mosaic virus.Youth are particularly involved in horticulture. About nine youth groups (not affiliated to the three CBOs) and 20 individual farmers are intensively growing onions, tomatoes, butternuts and watermelons. Average yields per acre range from 500kg for onions to eight tonnes for watermelon.Agro-forestry, land and water management are among the mitigation interventions employed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Nyando basin. The partnership has supported 22 tree nurseries, some owned by the self-help groups (more than half of all the nurseries are female-owned). More than 50,000 high-quality tree seedlings have been produced, each worth KSh10-20. About 23,500 multipurpose trees have been planted in homesteads with a 75 per cent survival rate and the local community is establishing a two acre demonstration woodlot.To improve soil moisture retention and reduce erosion, the Ministry of Agriculture is working with farmers to promote contour farming and terracing, composting and conservation agriculture. Collectively, community members have also financed and built 40 new water storage 'pans' and rehabilitated 12 others.Through group savings and support from development organisations, the self-help groups affiliated to FOKO and NECODEP CBOs have established an agricultural supply shop at FOKO's resource centre along the Kisumu-Kisii highway. It offers farmers high quality inputs, affordable prices, advice and information and credit (for members of the CBOs). The shop seeks to make about 5 per cent profit and gets advice on the types and quality of the inputs to be stocked for every season from the Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock.And Nyando farmers have built on earlier community saving and credit schemes, in partnership with Vi Agroforestry and World Neighbors. The three CBOs -FOKO, NECODEP and Kapsokale -each has capital of at least KSh250,000 (US$3,000) that provides loans for self-help group members to invest in farming and other income generating activities. The scheme has made loans totalling KSh1,250,000 (US$15,000) to Nyando households in the past 12 months.Nyando's multi-stakeholder approach shows how research, development partners, extension agents and communities can work together towards a common outcome. John's three acre farm has three water pans and a woodlot. He owns a manual pump and pipes for irrigation, and receives advice and support from extension agents for improved agronomic practices. In the short rainy season he grows maize, green grams, kales, tomatoes, butternuts and indigenous vegetables. He also grows perennial crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas and pawpaws. His livestock include improved dairy and beef goats, poultry and beekeeping. In future, he plans to reinvest in a dairy cow.Development have gained capacity in improved agronomic practices, beekeeping and livestock management, and this has often particularly helped women, who are well represented in community groups (7 of the 16 community-based animal health workers that have been trained are women). Some of the groups are already looking further afield. For example, some of the beekeeping groups have joined other organisations outside their CBO to improve market access and increase their bargaining power.Households have gained better incomes, better nutrition and more control over their own food security. Crop productivity has increased while income from selling crops, honey, eggs, chicken and tree seedlings is providing extra income to meet other household needs.Other ","tokenCount":"1507"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"842a789701d5111bc3636d0f1d073eb1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0bad9d2f-fb95-4d3b-a874-e58637a0d135/retrieve","id":"697829864"},"keywords":["Contributing CRPs/Platforms:","BigData -Platform for Big Data in Agriculture","CCAFS -Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security"],"sieverID":"885713fe-7efb-4edf-af7d-b4d9743abc6c","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: Multiple satellite-missions have come around for crop monitoring. So, we've developed a tool aimed at extracting data from satellite-images in an easy and open way. Using Crop-field-geometries, the users, such as agricultural-extension-workers and researchers, can extract vegetation-index for multiple crop-events, this information's used for describing plant health status. Besides, the images can be used for precision agriculture, thus users can differentiate which specific areas, inside farmers' crop-fields, must be intervened to reduce production risks.","tokenCount":"78"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"883dfd6a7ead0db366a7a196828e3cea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/22758cc0-0649-4ffe-a626-0d73f38b8cb1/retrieve","id":"1166077051"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"358a89d1-f325-42ff-a665-411dfef54879","pagecount":"4","content":"One of the world's greatest challenges is to secure access for all to adequate supplies of food that is healthy, safe, and of high quality, and to do so in an environmentally sustainable manner. However, with the growing demands of an ever-increasing human population, it remains unclear how our current global food system will sustain itself. Additional factors such as climate change, urbanization, social conflict and extreme poverty, as well as overly stressed ecosystems and biodiversity, make it clear that there has never been a more urgent time for collective action to address food and nutrition security globally.An estimated 925 million people are hungry worldwide. In addition, 195 million children under five years of age are stunted. Of these children, 90% live in just 36 countries. Micronutrient deficiencies, otherwise known as hidden hunger, undermine the growth, development, health and productivity of over two billion people. At the same time, across the developed and developing world, an estimated one billion people are overweight and 300 million are obese, factors that contribute to increased risk of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.Redirecting the global agricultural system to ensure better nutrition is critical. The current global agricultural system produces enough food in total, although access to nutritious foods for all remains a challenge. For this reason, it is imperative that researchers and development professionals devise new and sustainable approaches to improve the quality and variety of food produced and consumed around the world. Other innovations in agriculture and food science will also be essential to improve dietary diversity and nutrition.To achieve these improvements, nutrition must be at the forefront of the major goals of agriculture and production systems, so that agricultural biodiversity can serve as an avenue to improve dietary diversity and quality and, in turn, health, at the same time as it aids in the restoration and preservation of ecosystems. To strengthen empirical evidence of agricultural biodiversity's role in nutrition and health.To generate better understanding of the links among agricultural biodiversity, diet quality, nutrition and health as well as the overall role of nutrition in agricultural systems. By establishing a robust set of interdisciplinary projects in relevant agro-ecological systems, research will determine the main drivers of agricultural biodiversity and establish the role of agrobiodiverse practices and landscapes in delivering better dietary quality and diversity and improved health and nutrition outcomes for rural communities.Component One: Agricultural biodiversity in diets, health and nutrition. To describe and define the role of agricultural biodiversity in diets, health and nutrition, including the nutritional value, use and consumption patterns of foods derived from agrobiodiverse landscapes and their impact on human nutrition and health outcomes.Component Two: Nutritional anthropology and sociology of agricultural biodiversity. To explore food sovereignty and the socio-cultural and traditional roles of foods in communities and households, including why we eat what we eat, the right to high-quality foods and the role of traditional food systems in decisions about consumption.Agricultural biodiversity is the basis of the food and nutrition value chain and its use is important for food and nutrition security. This agricultural biodiversity includes species with under-exploited potential for contributing to food security, health, income generation, and ecosystem services. Terms such as underutilized, neglected, orphan, minor, promising, niche, local and traditional are used interchangeably to describe these potentially useful species (both plant and animal) which are not mainstream, but which have significant local importance and considerable global potential to improve food and nutrition security.Bioversity is a leading research for development organization dedicated to the use and conservation of biodiversity in agriculture to combat poverty and malnutrition and to enhance the sustainability of agriculture. Bioversity's Nutrition Strategy for 2011-2021 centres on using food and nutrition system approaches to improve human nutrition and health. The major goal of the strategy and subsequent programme is to promote the use of biodiversity within food production systems and to provide nutritionally-rich food sources that contribute to dietary diversity and, potentially, to better nutrition and health.Bioversity's work will focus on agro-ecosystems that have a significant agricultural biodiversity potential in areas burdened with a high proportion of malnourished individuals and in developing, transitioning and middle income countries. The 36 countries that are home to 90% of the world's stunted children will receive priority attention. Of these countries, further priority will be given to those with functioning agricultural systems and with the potential to improve their agriculture, or which demonstrate a readiness to accelerate action in nutrition.Smallholder farmers and their communities in low-income countries will be the key beneficiaries of the strategy. Attention will be also dedicated to creating demand and providing access to nutritious foods among people living in urban and peri-urban settings. Communities at risk of losing traditional food systems will be a further focus.Agricultural biodiversity specifically pertains to the biological variety exhibited among crops, animals and other organisms used for food and agriculture, as well as the web of relationships that bind these forms of life at ecosystem, species, and genetic levels. It includes not only crops and livestock directly relevant to agriculture, but also many other organisms that have indirect effects on agriculture such as soil fauna, weeds, pests and predators.Objective two:To ensure that the production of more nutritious foods through commercial pathways reflects agrobiodiverse practices and cultural and consumer preferences.To understand the role of markets and value chains in improving nutrition and dietary diversification directly, through an increase in the production of nutritious foods sourced from biodiverse systems, as well as indirectly, through an increase in income for smallholder farmers.Smallholder farmers can diversify their diet and improve their nutritional status both by producing more biodiverse foods themselves and by accessing more nutritious and diverse foods in markets through a rise in their disposable incomes.Emphasis will be on understanding what role nutritious local and traditional foods and neglected and underutilised species play in creating demand for biodiverse products by rural and urban consumers and in boosting disposable income for smallholder farmers.Component One: Consumer demand, knowledge and access as drivers for smallholder farmers to produce and consume more nutritious, diversified foods. To increase understanding of how local and international consumer demand can increase the supply of nutritious food by smallholder farmers and how smallholder farmers, as net buyers of food, can access nutrient-rich foods sourced from agrobiodiverse farming systems in informal and formal markets.Component Two: Agricultural biodiversity as a mechanism for boosting disposable income for smallholder farmers allowing them to access more nutritious foods. To strengthen our understanding of how agricultural biodiversity and the production of local and traditional foods can lead to a rise in disposable income for smallholder farmers and what mechanisms can be put in place to use this additional income for nutritious items for the household.Objective three:To determine best practices and delivery systems of agricultural biodiversity in nutrition and health development programmes.To understand how best to integrate and implement the tools and methodologies of agricultural biodiversity in order to positively impact nutrition development programmes and food assistance on the ground. Bioversity will undertake operations research, through rigorous monitoring and evaluation of the delivery systems used in development and food systems approaches in various regional agro-ecosystem hubs. The ultimate goal is to ensure that dietary quality and diversity and eventually health and nutrition outcomes improve through integrated development activities.Component One: Integration of agricultural biodiversity in development programmes. In collaboration with partners, to design, monitor and evaluate development programmes that integrate agricultural biodiversity with agriculture and nutrition interventions and to generate evidence of these programmes' health and nutrition benefits and cost effectiveness.Component Two: Value of agricultural biodiversity in food and nutrition systems.To assess the added value of agricultural biodiversity when integrated with other components of a food system approach, including ecosystem services, health care, education, water and sanitation, infrastructure and agriculture production systems.To mainstream the role of agricultural biodiversity into public health and nutrition policy and practice by sharing evidence and providing local solutions.Bioversity's nutrition programme will avail itself of opportunities to contribute to international efforts that address global food concerns, such as the response to soaring food prices across the globe, food sovereignty and the effects of globalization of diets on health. Bioversity will achieve this contribution through its assessment of the nutritional and livelihood benefits of local food products derived from the rich agricultural biodiversity in the developing world. Similarly, the nutrition programme will establish cross-sectoral policy platforms to promote the mainstreaming of biodiversity, which will create synergies with relevant global initiatives and will provide linkages to national programmes and policy frameworks.The evidence gathered will be shared with partners, governments and organizations for integration into larger public health and agriculture policy discussions and large-scale programming. These efforts will help to promote the effective conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity.Bioversity will undertake thorough research and analysis of how food and nutrition systems function in different settings in order to better understand the challenges and opportunities the world faces. Bioversity will thus identify the gaps that can be filled to ensure improved system resiliency.Smallholder farmers and their communities, as the ultimate beneficiaries, will be involved at every level in the research. Bioversity will ensure that a diverse team of scientists and practitioners from different disciplines, including nutrition, public health, ethnobotany, economics, ecology, agronomy and anthropology will be engaged in the process. Most of the nutrition programme will focus on sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and South Asia.Bioversity collaborates with research organizations and universities in the developed and developing world. An integrated global framework to enhance the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity for dietary diversity, nutrition, health and sustainable development requires working towards further collaboration and convergence of priorities within the agriculture, health, business and environment sectors. To ensure this convergence, Bioversity will continue to work in collaboration with partners, ensuring that research is translated into better development practices and policies with a multisectoral impact.Work will be expanded within the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers which will ensure better collaborations within the Consortium on joint research initiatives. Bioversity will also work with the United Nations system in order to complement the UN's work at global and country levels. Bioversity will ensure that evidence gained from its nutrition programme is shared with the Scaling Up Nutrition movement for incorporation into country plans.In response to global mandates to assume a leading and coordinating role linking agricultural biodiversity conservation and use, Bioversity works to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to undertake biodiversity and nutrition research across disciplines. It recognizes that achieving longterm impact and the global potential of the strategy demands an improved capacity for promotion, social marketing and education regarding local food biodiversity, nutrition and ecosystem health at national, regional and global levels.Monitoring and evaluation will be an integral element of the research agenda within each objective of the strategy.A logical framework has been developed and over the years we will demonstrate clear, realistic, measurable and rational pathways needed to achieve impact in collaboration with our partners.Bioversity will be accountable for the provision of inputs, carrying out activities and producing both lower-order and higher-order outputs. Subsequently, we will become responsible, along with partners, for the research outcomes generated and we will be engaged in the delivery of the development outcomes. We give high importance to identifying partners who will share responsibility with us for the achievement of the research outcomes and who will play an important role in the delivery of the development results.Bioversity will monitor and evaluate the implementation of this strategy on an annual basis with an external Scientific Advisory Council.Objectives one and two, with their focus on evidence building, will be the major priorities in the first five years and through the life of the strategy. Objective three will be the focus of years six through nine and objective four will be the focus of years seven through ten.Key priority countries will include the 36 countries in which 90% of the world's stunted children live. Each component may require distinct partnerships and tailored research approaches, methods and programmatic designs. We plan to ensure that each objective, along with the different components, is addressed within holistic research projects on similar sites, because the various components are what together provide the impact on nutrition and livelihoods.Bioversity is excited by the task ahead and we believe we can meet the challenges we face. We aim to show that agricultural biodiversity, underutilized crops and local and traditional foods can be powerful tools to combat poverty and malnutrition while preserving healthy ecosystems. This innovative strategy will be used to channel and focus our efforts and will retain an inherent flexibility as we seek to improve and expand it. We see this as the beginning of a new and exciting journey and we hope that the work we do benefits the partners we work with, the development community and, most of all, the communities who are our beneficiaries.","tokenCount":"2127"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8fceb2109271d8b2902f9de4ac351a07","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/59a2bf0c-a2bc-4bdd-8711-6d89114aae49/content","id":"-281593425"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"657baf2b-e1c1-4af0-a997-a2625fc1ddde","pagecount":"2","content":"Animal traction direct planters place seed and apply basal fertilizer uniformly at correct application rates. However, poor calibration will result in lower or higher plant densities and over-or under-fertilization, which wastes seed and fertilizer and compromises yield and profitability. The direct planter should therefore be calibrated carefully and first tried in an area near the plots before seeding the plots themselves. Direct planters with horizontal seed plates, currently available from Brazil (e.g. Fitarelli) can be used for maize, soybean, cowpea, sorghum and sunflower crops. Direct planters with inclined seed plates (e.g. the Grownet planter from Zimbabwe) can also be used for groundnuts.The depth of sowing with chain-pulled planters can be adjusted by raising (deeper planting) or lowering (shallower planting) the hitch point at the front of the planter. With pole-drawn planters (i.e. Fitarelli and Grownet) the only way to change the seeding depth is by moving the cutting disc (coulter) up or down. The depth of the cutting disk will affect seeding depth differently in different soil moisture conditions, so you must check and adjust it each time you seed. The adjustment is made by removing the bolts that attach the coulter to the seeder frame and moving the disk up or down. If seed is applied at too shallow a depth, the coulter will have to be raised a little and vice versa.is seeded with a seed plate labeled \"\" and a single springloaded expeller (knocker). There is a range of plates to suit different seed shapes and sizes. However, if the maize seed is too big for any of the available plates, the holes in the seed plate will need to be adjusted with a metal file. If the seed size is very variable, sieve the seed to select a more uniform grain size. The middle bevel gear under the seed box on the direct seeder should be used, aiming at a seed rate of about 44,000 plants/ha at 90 cm inter-row spacing. The seed rate can be varied by changing the bevel gear which drives the seed plate gear ring. This can be done by loosening the retaining screw on the gear cluster and sliding it along the shaft to engage the required drive gear. The largest gear will give a plant population of about 53,000 plants/ha and the smallest about 36,000 plant/ha at 90 cm row spacing.The Fitarelli planter can be used for soybean, cowpea, sorghum and sunflower, but the seed plate has to be exchanged according to the seed size. For , a seed plate labelled \" \" is used. It has two rows of holes, for a higher plant population. Double row seed plates are used with a double seed expeller. To change the expeller, open the seed hopper by unscrewing the wing nut. The single-row expeller can then be exchanged by removing its locating bolt and substituting it by a double-row expeller. For soybean, use the smallest drive gear, aiming at a seed rate of about 444,000 plants/ha at 45 cm row spacing.The To check the calibration of the seeder in the field you can mark a specific distance (e.g. 50 m), attach a plastic bag on the seed tube and let animals pull the seeder for that distance. Calculation of seed rate:The Grownet planter operates with an inclined metal seed plate which has different hole sizes for seed metering. Depending on the type of seed, seed plates with hole sizes of 13, 15 or 17mm (small, medium, large) can be used. For sorghum a seed plate with smaller holes is provided. Similar to the Fitarelli planter, the middle bevel gear should be used for maize at 44,000 plants/ha. The same spacing and gear can be used for sunflower, cowpea and common beans.can be seeded with a seed plate that allows two seeds to enter each hole instead of just one. The smallest bevel gear should be used to plant a high density (440,000 plants/ha) of soybean with a 45 cm row spacing. The same small bevel gear is also used for seeding groundnuts. Groundnuts can only be seeded with the Grownet planter because the Fitarelli mechanism tends to grind and break the fragile seeds. Field calibration of the precise seed rate can be done the same way as done with the Fitarelli planter by collecting the seeds metered over a measured distance.Only basal fertilizer is applied using the direct seeder. There are different widths of plastic fluted metering wheels that can be added or removed in the fertilizer compartment:One large wheel will give a fertilizer rate of about 165 kg/ha at 90 cm row spacing, and 200 kg/ha at 75 cm row spacing.One small wheel will give a fertilizer rate of about 82 kg/ha at a 90 cm row spacing, and 165 kg/ha at 45 cm row spacing Two or three metering wheels can be used together to vary the dose rate. In the same way as for seed, the fertilizer calibration should be verified under field conditions. To do this, attach a plastic bag to the end of the fertilizer delivery tube and operate the machine over a measured distance (e.g. 50m). The amount of fertilizer in the plastic bag is then weighed and the delivery rate calculated as follows:Clean the direct planter after seeding. All fertilizer must be removed from the fertilizer hopper, and the hopper thoroughly washed with water. All moving parts should be greased or sprayed with a lubricant to reduce wear and corrosion.","tokenCount":"906"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"85b840086bea80c7e90fa8e04258d08a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cc4059dc-898b-466c-9059-b7da6a3286ec/retrieve","id":"-714442273"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f176070b-176f-493d-b0f0-030484202cdb","pagecount":"2","content":"Understanding how to best deal with climate change impacts using available resources and data can be a real challenge for developing country ministries. Often, these ministries lack human capacity, funding and information to develop efficient policy responses to new, unforeseen challenges. These countries are also the most vulnerable to climate impacts and in dire need of strong policy and development support.With this in mind a project led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is providing support for better climate and food security policy planning through knowledge exchange platforms in West Africa. Set up in 2014, districtlevel platforms in Ghana, Senegal Members of the nine districtlevel platforms, three in each country, consist of local policymakers, scientists, private sector representatives, farmers' associations and traditional and religious authorities. The common ground is that they are all engaged in the food industry or dealing with climate and environmental issues within agriculture production. Everybody wants to find joint, sustainable solutions to climate impacts on food security for their districts.Bridging the climate sciencepolicy gap through exchange platforms in West AfricaThe issues. Involved ministries will use the platforms' compiled knowledge to inform and enact climate-resilient food systems policies, and members will disseminate climate-smart farming options in their respective districts. The team expects that at least one policy will be enacted in each country, and that the local communities will be involved in the process for designing a food system and climate-related policy. tools and data. This helps build their capacity to engage in policy processes.To ensure food systems policies are flexible enough to deal with uncertain, climate-related impacts, platform members also engage in building future scenarios. The future scenarios processes help provide district-level stakeholders with the opportunity to jointly explore what their communities will look like under climate change, combined with other socio-economic factors. The participants examine potential policy gaps for local food systems and based on what they find suggest how to further improve current food and climate change policies and investments. These discussions take place during regular face-to-face meetings held throughout the year, where members can share their own experiences and express needs related to food and agriculture development. ","tokenCount":"359"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6bbbce878588d13baf16bd5e1a6f9809","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9b494627-b194-4f5b-a3b6-8c66ea9366a8/retrieve","id":"-2020033309"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d998d8e0-0de2-4c7b-83bb-9b7f1ca8078e","pagecount":"14","content":"But digital agriculture is an emerging sector in the developing world, and those trying to introduce it face enormous challenges to deliver impacts, at scale, while making a profit. This brief, based on findings from a recent workshop with entrepreneurs and practitioners from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, outlines some of these as a contribution to discussions about how to bring about the next agricultural revolutionthe digital agricultural revolution.Digital agriculture -the use of data and information technologies to increase the efficiency and profitability of agriculture and related value chains to deliver more and better food -has transformed agriculture and food production in North America, Europe and Australia. But we need to deliver its benefits to small-scale operations in developing countries to help them deal with the challenges they are facing.Agriculture globally is facing enormous challenges. Key among these are the prospect of feeding nearly 10 billion people by 2050 in the face of climate change and increasing shortages of land, water, and other inputs. To do this, agriculture needs a major shot in the arm -and digital agriculture offers the prospect of providing this.-4 -This brief outlines some of the key challenges as a contribution to discussions about how to bring about the next agricultural revolutionthe digital agricultural revolution.A big problem that all start-ups face is access to finance, and the digital agriculture sector is no different. Most digital agriculture start-ups in developing countries depend on financing from the development sector to get started. This has its challenges. This finance is by its nature very short term and usually targeted to support during only a pilot phase -not to the longer-term commercial growth of the business. It is also largely directed towards developmental rather than commercial objectives.This creates something of a conundrum. The clients who are most likely to be able to pay for services and inputs are larger farmers and traders, who see this as an investment rather than as a cost. But development-oriented donors are looking for interventions that will raise small-scale farmers and businesses out of poverty -and these are clients who are likely to be highly risk-averse and unwilling to pay for inputs and services that are less than a 'sure thing.' Maybe one way to address this is for projects to pursue multiple revenue streams. For example, one digital agriculture project in West Africa is generating only 20% of its revenue from small-scale farmers -its target audience. The other 80% comes from selling the data it is gathering about the farming sector to financial institutions and other businesses that want to target the agricultural sector.-5 -Many digital agriculture businesses have found that they have to be opportunistic and pursue multiple revenue streams in their early years in order to cover their costs Getting financing to scale up operations is also a major challenge, especially for businesses operating in emerging sectors such as digital agriculture. Banks and financial institutions have little knowledge or experience in these new areas and see them as highly risky. Businesses in their early years will struggle to demonstrate the kind of long-term financial history that many investors are looking for.The issue of financing also links in with possibly the single most important aspect of developing a new product or service -knowing you customer. This is one of the major data gaps that digital agriculture start-ups face -lack of reliable background data on potential clients, their needs and their circumstances (especially their financial circumstances and ability and willingness to pay for services). Without these data, it is difficult to formulate a good business model that has a realistic chance of becoming a sustainable business. And yet gathering such data is an area that donors are reluctant to fund because the return on investment is not immediately obvious.There are numerous examples where farmer profiling and the like is paying dividends, including the likes of NUCAFE and Igara Tea in Uganda. Not only have these brought benefits to the client group through delivery of tailored products and services, they are also piquing the interest of the agribusiness sector and financial institutions, who also need to know more about these potential clients to improve their own business intelligence. Some enterprises have already found that these data can become the basis for alternative revenue streams that can cross-subsidise the delivery of their core product to farmers.On the topic of data, digital agriculture start-ups often face challenges in accessing the data they need to deliver their services. Some key data are lacking, such as the detailed soil and vegetation maps commonly available across Europe and North America. Even weather data may be restricted and closely regulated -in some countries, for example, the government meteorological agency has monopolistic control over access to and dissemination of weather data. Digital agriculture initiatives have to invest heavily in generating their own data or buying it from commercial sources and finding ways to work around existing constraints, adding to their costs and challenges.As with any 'bleeding edge' initiatives anywhere in the world, digital agriculture entrepreneurs in developing countries are unlikely to find people with all the skills that they need. For example, several start-ups that are using drones in Africa found that they could not find trained -or even amateur -drone pilots. The only way forward was for them to identify the types of skills and experience that make someone a good prospect as a drone pilot and then to develop their own training programme. This is an additional expense that start-ups have to plan for (and for which they themselves do not necessarily have the skills to implement).Running a business is tricky for anyone, and even more so for those just starting out.All businesses need marketing and other business management expertise and business support services, but these are not always easy to come by. Start-ups also benefit from mentoring and coaching, but again this support is rarely available in developing countries.A strong entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem, including incubators, accelerators, corporate venture capital, angel investors and the like significantly increases the probability of new businesses succeeding. Establishing such an ecosystem is going to require an integrated approach involving the public and private sector to put all these pieces in place.While there has recently been growing interest in supporting entrepreneurial development, both among governments and among donors, many budding entrepreneurs find that finding staff with even basic literacy and numeracy skills is a challenge and this can constrain the development of their business. This highlights the ongoing need for public-sector investment in education at all levels. There is also a strong potential role here for incubators, accelerators, mentoring schemes and other initiatives to support business skills development at local levels.Many budding entrepreneurs find that finding staff with even basic literacy and numeracy skills is a challenge and this can constrain the development of their business.This is the elephant in the room. You have an idea for a great product that will change people's lives; you have clients that want it, and a business plan that shows how you will make a go of it. But what about the policy environment?The policy environment Delivering the service clients need Henry Ford famously said, \"If I had asked [my customers] what they had wanted, they would have said a faster horse.\" Farmers and others engaged in the agricultural value chains may not be aware of the potential of some of the technologies behind the current digital agriculture revolution, so there may be a case for such Fordian bluesky thinking in this sector. But this comes with its own challenges: Will your potential customers recognise the 'problem' that you are addressing? Will they be willing or able to pay for your solution? Do they have and know how to use the technology on which your solution is based (smart phone or feature phone, tablet, computer)?This depends on a number on other factors, including coverage of telecommunications infrastructure (which commonly declines rapidly the further one gets from major centres of habitation) and literacy generally and digital literacy in particular. One successful digital agriculture start-up stated that 80% of their marketing effort is expended on educating their audience about fundamentals, such as how to use a mobile phone to send and receive texts, and only 20% on their product per se. This will have to be borne in mind when planning marketing efforts.-11 -For some start-up's, 80% of the marketing effort is expended on educating their audience, and only 20% on their product per se.Language is also a major consideration. What language should your system work in? Should it be text-based, or does your target clientele want any messages in spoken or graphical form?-12 -This is a key question in planning your 'marketing' strategy. Do they trust government extension agents, or local traders, or do they look to innovative farmers in their community, for example? Are there existing farmers' organisations or trade bodies that would be a conduit to reaching a large number of possible target clients with your marketing efforts?Trust is also a very big issue when dealing with client data, such as in farmer profiling. This is a new area to many people, who will be unfamiliar with the risks and issues relating to giving people access to information about themselves and their operations. Clients will want to know how their data will be used, and who will have access to them. Digital agriculture businesses will need to be open and above board about these and spend time gaining the trust of their clients. Few developing countries have legislation in place yet concerning data privacy, and digital agriculture businesses will be at the forefront of dealing with this emergent issue.So you have your product and you have your target clientele. The next challenge is to build your customer base, and to persuade them to pay for your services. This is where many startups founder. With so many donors supporting so many initiatives in the digital agriculture space, farmers and others along the value chain are being inundated with offers for exciting new services, many of which will be free of charge. Many, if not all, are initially unproven and require a leap of faith from the client.Donors and entrepreneurs need to be mindful of the conditions that signal that the enterprise is on a path to sustainability (strategic linkages, access to competitively priced inputs, size of client base, revenue, policy environment) and design projects that include activities that are directly aimed at helping the digital agriculture start-up to achieve these conditions. Some start-ups have used the pilot phase of their operation to offer their services free of charge to their target audience, and then phased in charges once the users have seen the benefits for themselves. The start-up will have to make this clear to its clients from the beginning, and provide a clear indication of the likely scale of the fees if it is not to lose the trust of its clientele when it tries to introduce fees.As noted elsewhere, other operations have pursued multiple revenue streams, such as charging low fees to their target audience and supplementing this income by selling their market intelligence to other businesses who might want to target the same audience, e.g. banks, input suppliers and the like. This has parallels in the ecommerce world, but must be handled carefully to ensure that the operation does not fall foul of data privacy legislation or lose the trust of its clientele.Other projects have delivered their services through farmers' organisations or cooperatives, with the fee for the services being bundled up with membership fees. This has some promise as an approach, as the services -once shown to provide real benefits -add value to the membership of the organisation providing them, and the data generated through profiling of its members becomes a strong bargaining chip for negotiating with buyers and sellers of other goods and services. Whatever the approach adopted, success will not come overnight. As the head on one successful digital agriculture start-up said, \"The journey is long and painful. If you don't have patience and resilience, you will not succeed.\"","tokenCount":"2008"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c060651cef6f542ec3436b68902c7397","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5a00d4fc-fb53-4081-9d5d-18399d6c799d/retrieve","id":"-1867363117"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1bdaa41a-eaf9-4b42-b8af-e1c43c9be42c","pagecount":"6","content":"his sheet presents a useful way of planning your market information service. It is based on the business model canvas, developed by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010).You need to work out the answers to nine questions (Table 1), which are neatly arranged on the business model canvas (Figure 1This is what you want to sell to your customers. It may be information (prices, weather information, etc.), services (trends, comparisons, analysis, etc.), or tools (such as ready-to-use software or training). You may produce more than one type of product or service, for more than one type of customer. For example, you may provide price data to farmers, and analysis to traders and processing companies.See the sheet on Identifying clients and planning services in this series for more information.Deciding on your business model 4 Table 1. Questions about your business model 1. What is your product or service?These are marketing questions 3. What marketing channels will you use to provide your product to your customers? 4. How will you create and maintain a relationship with your customers? 5. What income streams can you generate? 6. What resources will you need to create your product or service? These are production questions 7. What activities will you need to undertake to create the product or service? 8. What business services and partners will you need? 9. What costs will you incur?Your customers may include:Market actors (those who produce, buy and sell the commodity): farmers, farmer groups, traders, processors, wholesalers, retailers, exporters and importers.Market supporters (others interested in the market or who provide services to the market actors): input suppliers, banks, insurers and other financial organizations, research institutes, donors and development agencies, extension organizations, cooperatives, industry associations, nongovernment organizations, transporters, government agencies, commodity analysts and commodity exchanges.See the sheet on Identifying your clients and planning services for more information.How will you get your product or service to your customers? You can use a range of traditional and non-traditional channels.Display: bulletin boards, notice boards and electronic media boards at marketplaces Printed: newsletters, bulletins, magazines and newspaper articlesComputers: websites, email and social media Mobile phones and tablets: SMSs, apps, webbased mobile service and social media.See the sheet on Disseminating information to your clients for more.How will you introduce your product or service to your potential clientele? How will you persuade them to pay for it? How will you handle the payments? How can you get feedback from them about whether they like the service, or on what other features they would like?The most effective mechanisms will depend on your target clientele. For farmers, for example, consider advertising on billboards, distributing flyers in your target area, and getting development organizations to promote the service with the farmers they work with.Once you have gained a toehold, the best recommendation is word-of-mouth: satisfied clients talking about your service to their friends, neighbours and business partners.You may decide to prioritize some of your clients, or to offer some products or services for free and to charge for others. Consider offering price discounts and additional products to attract customers.Revenue streams Some of your channels will generate revenue for you. For example, you can charge users to get information on their mobile phones. Others (such as notice boards) are harder to make money from -but you may still be able to use them to sell advertising. Below we focus on generating income from mobile information services.Consider the following income streams for your products or services. Work out how much money Staff : $15,0 00-2 0,00 0 Con nect ion: $1,00 0 Tran spor t: $3,0 00 Infor mat ion sour ces: $3,0 00 Prom otion : $2,0 00-1 0,00 0each stream can deliver in order to make your business sustainable.For each of these categories, you need to decide on your pricing strategy. Should you provide some information for free, but charge for more detailed information or analysis? How about offering an introductory service for free (or for a nominal fee), and charging only those users who exceed a certain limit? Or offering bulk subscriptions for the members of farmers' organizations? Should you charge more for premium services and use the additional income to cross-subsidize a basic service aimed at small-scale users?See the Income sections in Figures 1 and 2 for examples of the annual income received by two market information systems.These include monthly or annual subscriptions, or a pay-per-message arrangement (for example, charging the user for each SMS sent).Experience shows that the subscription model does not generally bring in enough revenue unless you can sign up a large number of individual users. You also have to share your revenues with the mobile network operators, which in general take around 75% of the total. It is possible to get around this by using internet-based SMS delivery channels or by issuing your own SIM cards for users to put in their phones. See the sheet on Choosing and working with partners for more information.To avoid having yourself (or your agents) handling a lot of tiny cash transactions, you will need an electronic system to collect the payments. One alternative is to sell subscriptions to farmers through farmers' organizations, cooperatives or development organizations to re-sell to their members using \"mobile money\" (payments made via a mobile phone).Questions to ask: How much is each user willing to pay for your service? Would they subscribe to a messaging service or a regular newsletter? Or would they prefer to pay per message sent or received? How can you collect these payments? Will you have to share the revenue with someone else, such as a mobile network operator? How many users do you need to break even?Bigger clients such as processors and large traders may be willing to pay for certain services, such as comparisons among markets, trends over time, or in-depth analysis of specific topics at their request.Questions to ask: Would firms be willing to pay for certain services? How much? How many such clients can you attract? Would they pay for regular updates, anytime access, or single datasets or ad hoc studies? Would they make repeat purchases?How big is your market?If you are a commercial provider, you will need to charge users for your services.Here's a rough way to work out how big the potential market is.Decide who your clients are, work out how many of them there are, then estimate how much each one will be willing to pay a year for your services. Multiply together to get an estimate of annual revenue from this source. Some development organizations pay an initial subscription (say, for one year) for their farmer clients. The hope is that the farmers will continue to pay the subscription themselves if they find the service useful. But persuading them to do so can be difficult: many will allow their subscriptions to expire at the end of the trial period.Questions to ask: Can you use donor support to get your service started and to help reach a critical mass of users? Will the donor support push your business in a direction that is not sustainable? Can you attract other donors to support your service? How can you persuade users to make the transition from a free service to one they have to pay for?Your system will generate a wide range of data, and your staff will gain expertise. You may be able to convert these assets into revenue. You could offer training courses, prepare training materials or write extension guides and newsletters. You could prepare detailed studies of markets on request, conduct surveys or do monitoring and evaluation work on contract.Questions to ask: What additional types of products or services can you develop based on the core of information and expertise you have? How much revenue might such sources bring in? Will the income exceed the costs of delivering these products or services?6. What resources will you need to create your product or service?So far we have been looking at the marketing side of the business model canvas in Figure 1. We can now move over to the production side. This is where you identify the resources you will need to produce and deliver your products or services. They will include some combination of these resources:Human: the team of field agents to gather data, software developers, analysts, marketing specialists, managers and support staff.Intellectual: these include the data you gather, your analysis, the software you develop or use, and your patents, partnerships and brand.Physical infrastructure: this category includes offices, computers and equipment.Financial: the cash, donor support or lines of credit that you will need to develop and market the product or service.7. What activities will you need to undertake to create the product or service?You will need to do research on your potential clients and the products and markets you want to cover. You then have to acquire or develop software and set up a system to gather, analyse and disseminate information, attract and retain customers, and process their payments.For more information see the other sheets in this series, especially Developing an agricultural market information system.8. What business services and partners will you need?You will need to collaborate with various organizations:Information sources such as the ministry of agriculture, the weather bureau and market administrators.Dissemination organizations such as mobile network operators and radio stations.Information analysis services such as software developers (if you do not have these inhouse) and university crop or livestock specialists (if you want to provide production advice).See the sheet on Choosing and working with partners for more information.Paul MundyWhat are the different types of costs that will you incur? See the Costs section of Figures 1 and 2 for examples of the annual costs incurred by two market information systems.Planning and development. You need to research your potential market, set up your market information system, buy, adapt or develop and test software, and train staff how to use it. Platforms and software are changing quickly, so adapting and upgrading them is a continuous task.Information management. You need to employ enumerators to gather information, staff to check and process the data, specialists to analyse the information and develop market advice, and experts to answer questions.Distribution. You need to get your service to your clients somehow. That may mean sharing revenue with a mobile operator, paying for radio or television airtime and newspaper space, and paying for printing and distribution of newsletters. Mobile operators may take around 75% of the revenue, leaving you with very little. On the other hand, they may be the only way to reach the number of subscribers you need to break even. In creating a new system, you will incur a lot of costs up front: planning and developing the system, attracting the first customers, and covering the running costs before the service starts generating revenue. You will need some initial capital to pay for these costs.  That makes it crucial to attract enough paying customers to reach the scale you need to break even. You need to work out how many customers, paying how much each, you will need in order to cover your costs.Achieving scale takes time. You must make a realistic prediction of how long it will take to become profitable, and make sure you can cover the costs in the meantime.It is very difficult to cut costs. Reduce the number of enumerators, and you cut the number of markets or commodities you can cover. Save money on software development, and your software will quickly get out of date. Save money on analysts, and you cannot produce the quality advice and reports you need.So the trick is to find ways to increase your revenue without incurring big new costs. That means attracting new subscribers, developing new products (such as sector reports) based on your historical data, and selling advertising to firms that want to reach your subscribers.Osterwalder, A. and Y. Pigneur. 2010. Business model generation. A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. www.businessmodelgeneration. com/book Groups of farmers who bulk their produce before selling it can use a market information service to identify traders and find out the current price.","tokenCount":"2005"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05deb9fbeff7b00c253e533a271fcb35","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fa01933d-08ab-45b5-8081-a575fec17f90/retrieve","id":"-377111911"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cd705fd5-59e0-403c-977d-16f65b97f183","pagecount":"52","content":"et le Réseau international pour l'amélioration de la banane et de la banane plantain (INIBAP). Le statut international a été conféré à l'IPGRI au titre d'un accord d'établissement qui, en janvier 2003, a été signé par les gouvernements des pays suivants: Algérie,MUSACO (Réseau de recherche sur Musa en Afrique centrale et de l'ouest), qui opère sous les auspices du CORAF (Conseil ouest et centrafricain pour la recherche et le développement), a été crée en 1997 par les Systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole du Cameroun, de la Côte d'Ivoire, du Gabon, du Ghana, de la Guinée, du Nigeria, de la République Centrafricaine, de la République démocratique du Congo et du Sénégal et des représentants de l'Institut international d'agriculture tropicale (IITA), du Centre africain de recherches sur bananiers et plantains (CARBAP) et du réseau international pour l'amélioration de la banane et de la banane plantain (INIBAP) L'IPGRI est un organisme scientifique autonome à caractère international dont le but est de promouvoir la conservation et l'utilisation des ressources phytogénétiques au profit des générations actuelles et futures. C'est l'un des 16 centres du Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale (GCRAI), une association de membres publics et privés qui appuie les efforts de recherche visant la réduction de la faim et de la pauvreté, l'amélioration de la nutrition humaine et de la santé et la protection de l'environnement. Le siège de l'IPGRI est à Macarrese, en Italie. L'IPGRI a également des bureaux dans vingt autres pays dans le monde. L'institut fonctionne sur la base de trois programmes : (1) le programme des ressources phytogénétiques, (2) le programme d'appui aux ressources génétiques du  Plusieurs allocutions ont ponctué la cérémonie d'ouverture de la réunion de MUSACO.Allocution du Directeur général de l'IRAG La première allocution a été prononcée par monsieur Sekou CISSE, Directeur Général de l'Institut de recherche agricole de Guinée (IRAG), l'institution hôte. Dans son discours, il a souhaité la bienvenue à tous les participants et exprimé son appréciation pour le choix de la Guinée pour abriter les travaux de la 6 ème réunion du Comité de pilotage. Il a en outre expliqué que la recherche bananière était devenue un enjeu important pour la Guinée et constituait un des 32 programmes de recherche de l'IRAG, mobilisant quatre chercheurs. Il a enfin souhaité un bon séjour à tous les participants.Le président de MUSACO a pris la parole à la suite du Directeur Général de l'IRAG. Après avoir souhaité la bienvenue à tous, Bernardin LOKOSSOU a indiqué que les bananes et les bananes plantain assuraient des fonctions alimentaires, économiques, culturelles et médicinales indéniables, constituant ainsi un enjeu très important en Afrique Centrale et de l'Ouest. Comme il l'a expliqué par la suite, la production des Musa dans la sous-région est essentiellement assurée par de petits producteurs à faible niveau de revenus et confrontés, par ailleurs, à d'énormes difficultés incluant la non-disponibilité du matériel végétal, la méconnaissance des techniques de conduite de la culture, la chute des rendements due aux parasites et ravageurs, etc. Il a conclu en donnant un aperçu des travaux de la réunion, qui devaient se dérouler en deux phases: d'abord l'atelier de formation sur les techniques d'évaluation en recherche participative et ensuite la réunion du Comité de pilotage de MUSACO proprement dite.Discours d'ouverture officielle de son excellence monsieur le Ministre de l'agriculture et de l'élevage Le discours officiel d'ouverture a été prononcé par le représentant du Ministre de l'agriculture et de l'élevage de Guinée. Parlant au nom du Ministre empêché, son représentant a d'abord souhaité la bienvenue à tous, puis expliqué que la banane occupait une place de choix dans les stratégies alimentaires et économiques de la sous-région mais que la production restait cependant très faible par rapport aux besoins, ceci en raison des contraintes diverses. Il a aussi fait savoir que la réunion de MUSACO revêtait une très grande importance, et que le gouvernement de la République de Guinée, par la voix du Ministre de l'agriculture et de l'élevage, appréciait cet événement et souhaitait par ailleurs que de telles rencontres puissent être organisées régulièrement dans le pays. Il a terminé son discours en souhaitant bon séjour aux participants et en remerciant l'INIBAP et le Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) pour leur contribution de qualité dans la réalisation du projet CFC-MUSA qui était en 2003 dans sa deuxième année d'exécution en Guinée. L'objectif général de l'atelier était de former et sensibiliser les participants sur la sélection participative, avec pour but de renforcer les dynamiques régionales dans le cadre de MUSACO. L'orientation retenue pour la conduite de cet atelier s'appuyait sur des principes simples : partir des expériences des participants, valoriser leur savoir-faire, favoriser les échanges entre les équipes présentes, fournir des apports théoriques et méthodologiques. L'animation de l'atelier a fait appel à une diversité de modalités pédagogiques pour atteindre les objectifs fixés.Deux propositions ont été soumises au Comité de Pilotage du réseau qui se tenait dans la foulée de l'atelier : 1) l'organisation d'ateliers régionaux pour affiner et compléter les cahiers des charges des projets de sélection participative en banane plantain ; 2) l'organisation d'un atelier régional pour concevoir et rédiger un projet régional de 'sélection participative en banane plantain'. Les travaux de l'atelier font l'objet d'un rapport distinct.Dès le début des travaux en commission, le secrétariat de MUSACO a procédé à la présentation du rapport de la 5 ème réunion du Comité de pilotage tenue l'année précédente à Cotonou, Bénin. L'objectif était d'évaluer jusqu'à quel degré les différentes recommandations inscrites dans ce document avaient été exécutées.Les représentants du CARBAP, de l'IITA, de l'INIBAP, ainsi que le secrétariat de MUSACO ont brièvement présenté un rapport des activités de leurs structures respectives, relevant au passage les réalisations récentes et la stratégie pour l'année à venir. En la circonstance, le nouveau coordinateur du réseau régional d'information a donné un bref aperçu des objectifs du futur système d'information régional, ainsi que le plan d'action à court terme. Ces activités ne disposant pas encore de budget de fonctionnement, un projet sur l'information et la documentation a été préparé au cours des travaux en atelier. Ce projet devait ensuite être finalisé avec l'appui de l'INIBAP et du CARBAP, avant soumission aux bailleurs de fonds.La 6ème réunion du Comité de pilotage de MUSACO a été exclusivement consacrée à l'identification des thèmes prioritaires et à l'élaboration de projets à soumettre aux bailleurs de fonds. Trois projets régionaux, répondant aux préoccupations des pays membres du réseau ont ainsi été identifiés. Les thématiques retenues par les participants sont 1) un meilleur accès à l'information, 2) la promotion des technologies post-récolte, 3) l'approche intégrée des systèmes de culture pour une production durables des bananiers. Des groupes de travail en atelier ont été constitués pour rédiger, séance tenante, des pré-projets qui, par la suite, ont été discutés en séance plénière. A la fin de la plénière, des personnes ressources ont été choisies pour s'occuper de la finalisation de chaque projet, avant sa soumission aux bailleurs de fonds. Sept projets nationaux, préparés à la suite de la 5 ème réunion du Comité de pilotage de MUSACO, ont aussi été présentés.Les projets, les équipes qui ont développé les premières ébauches des notes de concept, les personnes ressource qui les finaliseront et les pays où les projets seront implantés lorsqu'ils seront financés sont les suivants :Le concept information ici intègre non seulement l'information documentaire, mais aussi l'information du public, l'appui institutionnel pour faciliter les contacts entre les chercheurs des différents programmes bananiers membres des réseaux de recherche, l'accès à l'information sur les Musa et l'information scientifique et technique (IST). Les points visés sont la transformation, l'amélioration socioéconomique du producteur, le conditionnement, le stockage, la commercialisation, la collecte de données sur le marché (enquêtes/diagnostics sur la production, commercialisation, statistiques par pays, opportunités).Rôle de la personne ressource La personne ressource devra : -Communiquer avec les autres au sujet des contraintes, de l'évolution du projet.-Finaliser le document et le soumettre pour approbation -Etre en contact permanent avec le coordinateur régional de l'INIBAP pour être informé sur les bailleurs de fonds. -Identifier les types de fonds, les sources de financement existantes et avec le Président du MUSACO, contacter les bailleurs de fonds.-Etre disponible et respecter le calendrier d'exécution.-Travailler en collaboration avec les personnes qui lui sont associées.Il a été recommandé que chaque pays s'inspire des trois avant-projets élaborés pour réaliser ses propres projets nationaux. Les pays qui ont des préoccupations similaires peuvent s'associer pour élaborer des projets communs. Au niveau national, un responsable de projet devra être désigné et sera chargé de la finalisation du projet, de la recherche de fonds et du suivi des dossiers auprès des bailleurs de fonds. Les projets nationaux proposés par les membres à l'assemblée pour commentaire se trouvent en Annexe 2.Le programme suivant a été arrêté pour l'exécution des projets :-Finalisation des notes de concept avant fin mai 2003.-Finalisation du projet.- -CTA. Il offre des formations en réseau d'information. Ils aiment le cofinancement.Lorsqu'on approche un bailleur de fonds, il est important de lui signifier qu'il va seulement cofinancer le projet et lui préciser le montant ou le pourcentage de l'apport de l'entité qui soumet le projet. Cet aspect doit être clairement visible dans le budget. Généralement les bailleurs de fonds aiment le cofinancement. Il est important de présenter en détails les différents besoins/activités dans le projet afin de leur permettre de choisir, le cas échéant, la partie du projet qu'ils désirent financer. Les bailleurs de fonds sont plus enclins à financer la diffusion des résultats de recherche que la recherche elle-même. Ils apprécient les projets ayant pour but d'améliorer de façon concrète le niveau de vie des populations.Tous les membres de MUSACO ont été unanimes pour que M. Bernardin LOKOSSOU (INRAB, Bénin) continue de présider le réseau pour une nouvelle année. La prochaine réunion se tiendra en juin 2004 à Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo.Pour un meilleur accès a l'information sur les Musa en Afrique Justification Les bananes et les bananes plantain sont des aliments d'importance majeure dans de nombreux pays de l'Afrique tropicale. Environ 30 millions de tonnes sont produites annuellement dans la région, principalement dans la zone tropicale humide d'Afrique occidentale et centrale et dans la région des grands lacs. Presque toute la production est consommée ou commercialisée sur les marchés locaux ou dans les centres urbains proches, représentant une source de revenus essentielle pour les petits fermiers.Etant donné l'importance de ces cultures, chaque pays producteur de la région possède un programme de recherche spécialisé. Ces programmes produisent des résultats qui permettent dans une certaine mesure de résoudre partiellement et localement les problèmes rencontrés. Cependant, la mise à disposition, la valorisation et la vulgarisation de ces résultats restent insuffisantes.Deux réseaux de coordination de la recherche bananière existent dans la région : MUSACO pour l'Afrique occidentale et centrale, BARNESA pour l'Afrique orientale et australe. Depuis la mise en place de ces réseaux, les interactions entre leurs membres restent ponctuelles, principalement du fait des difficultés de communication, entraînant leur isolement et en conséquence l'absence de partage de l'information. De plus, les compétences et les moyens mis à disposition des gestionnaires de l'information sont insuffisants et/ou inadéquates, ce qui rend difficile, voire impossible l'accès à l'information actualisée. Afin de fonctionner de façon optimale, il est stratégique que ces réseaux soient soutenus par un mécanisme d'échange d'information et de documentation performant répondant aux besoins de la région.Objectif principal L'objectif principal de ce projet est de contribuer au développement durable des bananiers et bananiers plantain dans le but de sauvegarder la sécurité alimentaire et lutter contre la pauvreté en Afrique par le transfert d'une information spécialisée.• • formaliser la participation des centres au niveau institutionnel.• 2. Renforcer les capacités des partenaires du réseau • Organiser des ateliers (en anglais et en français) dans le but d'initier les partenaires nationaux et régionaux aux méthodologies utilisées dans le cadre du réseau et de résoudre les problèmes spécifiques au niveau national ;• mettre à la disposition des partenaires des outils disponibles dans le cadre du réseau d'information de l'INIBAP (bases de données, publications, CD-Roms, etc.) ; • apporter une assistance technique à la demande.• Inciter les chercheurs et les instituts de recherche à partager leurs résultats de recherche.• stimuler l'échange d'information entre les centres nationaux et le réseau régional d'information.• éditer et diffuser les produits d'information (MUSAfrica, dépliants, fiches, rapports, pages Web, CD-Rom…).• Actualiser les bases de données.• Créer un centre de documentation et d'information régional spécialisé.• Organiser des évènements spéciaux telle que les journées de promotion.• Tous les pays membres du réseau d'information y participent de façon active.• Les gestionnaires nationaux de l'information sont formés et utilisent des méthodes communes de traitement et de diffusion de l'information.• L'information bananière est centralisée dans la région, accessible et diffusée de manière efficace à tous les acteurs de la filière.• Les chercheurs et les centres d'information disposent d'équipements adéquats (ordinateurs, connexion Internet, etc.) pour mieux communiquer entre eux et avec le monde et partager leurs expériences.• Les chercheurs sortent de leur isolement et partagent plus facilement leurs expériences ainsi que les résultats de recherche, tout en accédant a temps réel à une information actualisée.• Le réseau régional d'information est reconnu et soutenu par l'ensemble des acteurs et des décideurs.• Les performances de la recherche sont accrues grâce à un échange plus efficace de l'information qui évite la duplication des efforts.• La durabilité des systèmes de production est renforcée en raison de l'accès plus facile à l'information et l'adoption par les agriculteurs des résultats de la recherche.• La sécurité alimentaire s'en trouve de fait renforcée, réduisant ainsi la pauvreté des plus démunis.• L'importance des Musa est reconnue et des moyens plus conséquents sont alloués à la recherche par les décideurs.• Le développement économique des pays de la région en est renforcé.Rôle/activités des représentants nationaux à MUSACO:• Identifier le centre national le mieux placé pour assurer les fonctions de réseau national d'information sur les Musa (facilités géographiques et techniques, fonds documentaire déjà existant).• Appuyer ce centre dans la recherche des fonds nécessaires à la mise en place du centre national de documentation et d'information sur Musa -Afrique (CENDIMA).Rôle/activités des coordinateurs nationaux de l'information • Obtenir un engagement institutionnel de participation au réseau régional de documentation et d'information sur Musa.• Participer à la recherche des fonds complémentaires nécessaires à son fonctionnement, tant au niveau national que pour les échanges au niveau régional.• Mettre en place un CENDIMA.• Sensibiliser les institutions sur l'importance de la mise en place et l'utilisation des nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication (NTIC) pour le traitement et le partage de l'information.• Développer au niveau national un mécanisme efficace facilitant l'accès à l'information sur Musa.• Inciter l'échange entre les chercheurs de toute information d'intérêt concernant les Musa.• Démontrer aux usagers l'importance du partage de l'information avec le CENDIMA.• Former les chercheurs à l'utilisation des outils et produits disponibles au CENDIMA (bases de données, CD-Rom, publications, etc.).• Participer à l'actualisation des bases de données régionales (bibliographique et de chercheurs) et à l'alimentation de la bibliothèque du Réseau régional de documentation et d'information sur les Musa en Afrique.Rôle/activités du réseau régional d'information du réseau • Organiser des ateliers (en anglais et en français) dans le but d'initier les partenaires nationaux et régionaux aux méthodologies utilisées dans le cadre du réseau et d'aider à résoudre les problèmes spécifiques au niveau national.• Mettre à disposition des partenaires régionaux des outils disponibles dans le cadre du réseau d'information de l'INIBAP (bases de données, publications, CD-Roms, etc.) • Apporter une assistance technique à la demande.• Assurer la promotion du réseau au niveau régional. L'IITA, le CARBAP et la FHIA ont mis au point et développé des hybrides de type plantain performants et à bon rendement en conditions de culture paysannes. Ces hybrides, bien que performants, restent souvent inadaptés à la consommation en fruits frais. Toutefois, leur transformation constitue une étape intéressante pour mieux valoriser les efforts des producteurs.Les options limitées de transformation des fruits occasionnent beaucoup de pertes aux producteurs. Les pertes post-récolte s'élèvent à plus de 10% et les technologies visant à réduire ces pertes sont absentes dans plusieurs pays producteurs.Ces pertes sont principalement dues aux récoltes précoces, à un stockage inadéquat, à l'éloignement des plantations, à un transport défectueux des régimes vers les marchés, à la méconnaissance des techniques de transformation, au mauvais état des routes et des pistes de desserte rurales.Les recherches documentaires sur les approches de solutions envisagent des pistes à valoriser, et notamment:• prolongement de la durée de vie verte des fruits• création de nouveaux usages comme les transformations en chips, farine, fruits séchés amidon, boissons (jus, nectar, bière, alcool) • création de plus values qui est une mesure incitatrice des petits producteurs. Les produits finis ont une valeur commerciale et nutritive très appréciable.L'objectif global du projet est d'augmenter le niveau de vie des producteurs et des transformateurs à travers des options de transformations efficaces et rentables de la banane plantain.• Améliorer et maîtriser les conditions de conservation des fruits après récolte  • les échelles de stades de maturation des doigts des fruits sont établies• une étude des différents facteurs qui influent sur la durée de verte des diverses bananes plantain est réalisée • les utilisateurs maîtrisent les technologies de transformation en chips, farine, fruits séchés, amidon, boissons (jus, nectar, bière, alcool) etc.• la valeur commerciale et nutritive des différents produits obtenus est connue Les pertes de bananes plantain dans la filière de commercialisation sont sensiblement réduites du fait de l'augmentation de l'offre en produits transformés. Les divers opérateurs de la filière banane plantain ont une sécurité de vie plus importante : leurs revenus augmentent et de leur niveau de vie est amélioré. Améliorer la durabilité de la productivité des exploitations de bananiers et bananiers plantain en Afrique Subsaharienne pour le bien être des producteurs.• Diffusion d'hybrides productifs et résistants aux parasites et ravageurs  • Préservation de l'environnement par la réduction de l'application des pesticides• Amélioration des capacités des producteurs de bananes plantain• Amélioration de la vitalité de l'économie des producteurs grâce aux possibilités d'exportation des produits vers les zones non productrices de bananes plantain • Réduction de la pauvreté• Renforcement de la sécurité alimentaire par une réduction des coûts, une meilleure accessibilité aux produits par les consommateurs.Guinée -Approche participative d'amélioration des secteurs de production du plantain en Guinée forestièreLe Gouvernement Guinéen a élaboré une stratégie de développement socio-économique à l'horizon 2010 (Guinée vision 2010). Il y est pleinement réaffirmé le rôle dévolu au secteur agricole à savoir le taux annuel de croissance de son PIB de 10% en l'an 2010.Dans ce cadre, quatre objectifs sont visés et exprimés dans la lettre de politique de développement agricole :• la sécurité alimentaire• la préservation de la base productive nationale• le développement dynamique du secteur privé (PMT/IRAG/1999).Pour répondre à ces objectifs globaux, la Guinée Forestière est un pôle d'attraction pour la promotion de plusieurs spéculations dont la banane plantain.Cette région qui représente 20% du territoire national avec une altitude de 500 à 1000 m, se caractérise par un climat équatorial marqué par une saison pluvieuse de 8 à 9 mois et une pluviométrie comprise entre 1700 et 2500 mm.La région est aussi constituée par une juxtaposition de massifs forestiers importants (en particulier la forêt du Zima de 120 000 ha) aux versants abrupts entrecoupés de plaines et de bas-fonds inondables (stratégie d'intervention concentrée des bailleurs de fonds dans le secteur rural en Guinée -Janvier 2003).La superficie cultivable est de 1 400 000 ha dont environ 400 000 ha sont cultivés chaque année, le plantain occupant 27 000 ha.La population rurale est estimée à 920 000 habitants et 1,5 ha de superficie cultivable par habitant. (PMT/IRAG/1999).Au plan économique, la région se caractérise par des sols fertiles favorables à une diversité de productions vivrières et de rente dont certaines ont une forte valeur ajoutée (café, cola, palmier à huile, hévéa, banane et plantain…) Par ailleurs, la région est située à proximité de la Côte d'Ivoire, du Libéria et de la Sierra Leone, ce qui, en temps normal, présente un intérêt certain pour les échanges interfrontaliers.La banane plantain occupe une place de choix dans l'économie régionale tant sur le plan alimentaire (47,5 kg/habitant) qu'au point de vue de l'augmentation du revenu des producteurs (350 000 T de plantain commercialisées en 1985, FAO 1987). Cette production est en dessous des potentialités de la région et ne couvre guère les besoins des consommateurs. Cet état de fait est dû à plusieurs facteurs limitant dont les systèmes traditionnels de culture, et interpelle la recherche à s'impliquer davantage dans la recherche des solutions y afférentes.Les principales contraintes (causes à rechercher) à la production du plantain sont :• les variétés -le matériel végétal (diversité, qualité et quantité)• les maladies et ravageurs• l'insuffisance de l'encadrement techniqueTrès peu de travaux scientifiques ont été consacrés au bananier plantain en Guinée Forestière. Cependant, une collection progressive a été mise en place au centre de recherche agronomique de Sérédou (CRAS) dans l'objectif de caractériser et d'évaluer les variétés. La caractérisation et l'évaluation des tendances ont porté sur des variétés locales telles que 'Gbagobèlè', 'Sakagui', 'Gwikpéli' et deux des variétés exotiques ('Orishèle', 'Kelong', 'Mbouroukou'…)Objectif global • Contribuer au renforcement de la sécurité alimentaire et à la réduction de la pauvreté des producteurs à travers l'amélioration des systèmes de production du plantain.• Accroître le rendement du plantain dans la région (de 6 T à 12T/ha pour le bien être du producteur • Former 150 paysans en groupements ou isolés.Les bénéficiaires des résultats attendus sont :• les groupements de producteurs de bananes plantain• les ONG évoluant dans la filière plantain• les projets de développement agricoles évoluant dans la filière plantain• les consommateurs.Le projet s'étendra sur quatre années, et son exécution vise les activités ci-après :Année 1 Act 1-Collecte à travers la région de matériel végétal habituellement cultivé, introduction de matériel génétique proposé par les sélectionneurs.Act 2-Etablissement d'une parcelle de démonstration, de multiplication au CRAS.Act 3-Suivi des parcelles et collectes des informations sur les parcelles de multiplication et de démonstration.Act 4-Sélection de 150 paysans producteurs de bananes plantain et visite des parcelles de multiplication et de démonstration (J.O)Act 5 -Rédaction des rapports (semestriels et annuels). Objectifs généraux • Améliorer les conditions de vie des exploitants périurbains ;• Procurer une nouvelle source de revenu aux ménages, à travers la culture du bananier plantain.Rapport de la 6 ème réunion du Comité de pilotageObjectifs spécifiques• Identifier les groupes cibles• Former les exploitants aux techniques culturales du bananier plantain• Mettre à la disposition des intéressés du matériel végétal de plantation performant• Suivre toutes les opérations de conduite des plantations• Evaluer le projet.Deux sites seront choisis, l'un dans la périphérie de Lomé, l'autre dans celle d'Adéta.  Année 1 • 500 vitroplants de variétés élites de la sous-région ouest africaine sont introduites par site et élevés en pépinière.• Une parcelle de démonstration existe par site Agricultural development programmes in Sierra Leone are predicated on the need to ensure food supplies to the population, expand export crop production and create rural employment opportunities. Farming contributes more than 45% of the country's GDP, while over 80% of the rural population are small farmers who suffer most from food shortage (GOSL statistics 2000). For the rapidly increasing rural and urban population, food must be provided in sufficient and wholesome forms to meet the using demand.Banana and plantain have been identified as important food crops, with immense potential to improve food security from the point of view of production, processing and utilization. They are grown in all the agro-ecological areas in the country. The climate being topical is very good with an average temperature of 25-30 o C and rainfall of at least 100 mm per month is ideal for these crops. The rainfall is well distributed throughout the year with very short dry season. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS) has recognized the role these crops could play in the realization of food security by the year 2007 and as such great premium is placed on research production and value addition work on them. Bananas and plantains have a high carbohydrate in low fat content making them particularly useful in the diet. They are a good source of money vitamins and minerals, particularly vitamins A, B6 and C and potassium.Despite the importance of banana and plantains there has been no significant increase in the quantity or quality of production. This has been attributed to several constraints including roar crop and soil management practices, inherent low soil fertility and significant post harvest loses (personal communication from the field). More recently it was reported that farmers considered an inadequate supply of good planting materials as the major agronomic constraint.Therefore it is envisaged that with the cooperation between INIBAP and research in Sierra Leone these constraints will be addressed and solutions arrived as that will result in the upgrading of the quality and quantity of both banana and plantains. This is essential, as the priority area identified is that of technology transfer to farmers. The scale of banana and plantain production areas varies widely from very small (0.1-0.5 ha) to medium and large (2.0-80 ha). The production management is mainly on a small scale by smallholder farmers for subsistence agriculture and in some instance as cash crops. The producers always work independently and as a result, the techniques of growing the crops are rarely the same. Therefore for banana and plantain to create any impact in the achievement of the government avowed goal of food self-sufficiency by the year 2007, improved technology in terms of good planting materials and cultural practices must be taken to the generality of the farming community.Les agents du MINAGRI, directement impliqués dans l'encadrement des paysans, font, depuis près de 2 ans, état d'une pourriture généralisée des plants de bananiers. Ce phénomène est jusqu'ici noté sur les bananiers plantain et se manifeste par une dégénérescence du coeur du plant. Il a été signalé dans les provinces de l'Ouest, du Littoral, du Sud et du Sud-Ouest, qui constituent les principales zones de production du pays.Le ravitaillement en bananes plantain des grands centres urbains du pays (Douala et Yaoundé), ainsi que les exportations vers les pays voisins (Gabon, RCA et Guinée Equatoriale) proviennent des zones concernées par cette pourriture.Le même problème a été signalé au Bénin (Fouré et Tomekpé, comm. pers.) et touche également les zones de forte production (Lokossou com. pers.).Les observations physiques réalisées à ce jour dans la zone littorale, ont permis de constater que:• -les feuilles jaunissent et se fanent (fusariose ?)• -la pourriture se développe du haut du cigare vers la tige• -la zone pourrie dégage une forte odeur (bactériose ?)Les espèces fongiques isolées au laboratoire sont essentiellement du genre Fusarium.Les informations disponibles sur cette problématique sont fragmentaires, très limitées et insuffisantes pour permettre d'engager une action d'assistance des producteurs dans le contrôle de cette maladie.Un projet de recherche y afférant devrait permettre : • d'évaluer l'importance du problème• initier des actions plus importantes de recherche pour :identifier les agents pathogènes les caractériser et envisager les mesures possibles de lutte.• Enquêtes dans des zones touchées La culture de la banane se fait dans les jardins ou champs de case et en plein champ. Elle est pratiquée en culture associée dans des jardins de case de même que dans certains champs, mais pour l'essentiel, elle est en monoculture avec des superficies beaucoup plus importantes.La production est soit entièrement auto consommée (cas des champs de case) ou vendue sur le marché national. Ainsi, elle contribue pour une part très importante dans l'alimentation des populations.Le Sénégal est un grand consommateur de bananes, un produit très apprécié de toutes les couches sociales. Compte tenu du faible niveau de sa production, le Sénégal est obligé, pour satisfaire ses besoins de consommation, de compter sur des importations. L'essentiel des bananes importées vient de la Côte d'Ivoire et de la République de Guinée et la presque totalité de ces bananes est constituée de la variété 'Poyo'. En 2001, les importations étaient de l'ordre de 10 500 tonnes (DSP 2001). Étant à la fois source d'alimentation (autoconsommation) et de revenus monétaires, la banane apparaît comme un élément important pour la sécurité alimentaire au Sénégal. Il existe trois principales zones de production bananière dans le pays :• la région du fleuve au Nord du pays dans les départements de Podor et de Dagana (2%)• la région du Sénégal oriental, département de Tambacounda (64%)• la Casamance, au sud du pays, départements de Sédhiou et de Ziguinchor (34%). La durée du projet est de trois ans.Eradiquer le BBTV en Afrique Centrale.• Evaluer l'incidence de cette maladie sur les bananiers et les bananiers plantain dans les zones de production • Evaluer la sensibilité variétale de matériel végétal actuellement propagé dans les zones de production • Capitaliser par des expérimentations, des informations relatives à la transmission de la maladie par voie végétative, c'est-à-dire par l'utilisation des drageons atteints de BBTV • Informer les producteurs sur les dangers d'une menace par le BBTV et sur les méthodes d'éradication de la maladie par une réduction de l'inoculum • Former des formateurs nationaux chargés de former par la suite les producteurs.• Le BBTV constitue bien une menace présente dans les bananeraies de cases, mais qui se rapproche de plus en plus des zones de production des bananiers et bananiers plantain.• Le lancement d'un programme d'information et de formation des producteurs constitue à juste titre une pratique destinée à réduire l'inoculum et de ce fait, elle est appelée à contribuer à une éradication de la maladie depuis les bananeraies de cases jusqu'aux zones de production.• Réduction de l'inoculum dans les zones de production et autour des villages• Organisation de 10 sessions de formation des formateurs nationaux et des producteurs en Afrique Centrale • Formation de dix formateurs nationaux par pays soit 40 formateurs au total.Production de 1000 posters noir et blanc illustrant la maladie et destinés à être distribués dans les zones de production ; préparation de 500 brochures d'information des producteurs sur le BBTV.Il faut pour cela : -1 rétroprojecteur -1 projecteur de diapositives -1 appareil photo pour réaliser des prises de vues -1 écran de projection d'images -1 groupe électrogène destiné à produire de l'énergie en campagne, des films et un mégaphone. Etude de la transmission de la maladie par voie végétative. Il est nécessaire de disposer : de drageons atteints de maladie d'une parcelle à préparer destinée à abriter un essai.Il devra être organisé dans les zones de production bananière des sessions de formation de ces derniers. Le programme de formation comprendra :des exposés présentant la maladie, ses symptômes, ses signes et ses conséquences, notamment l'absence de production de régime c'est-à-dire de fruits ( 2 à 3 exposés) des exposés décrivant les différentes méthodes de transmission de la maladie au sein d'une touffe ou d'une plante à une autre (2 à 3 exposés) des exposés présentant la méthode de réduction de la maladie par la destruction des plants atteints et par l'utilisation des drageons sains (2 à 3 exposés).Il devra être procédé à une distribution des brochures et des posters illustrant la maladie. dans les zones de productionDes prospections devront être réalisées dans les zones de production afin de procéder à des évaluations d'incidences à partir d'un échantillon de 500 ou de 1000 plants.Des prospections suivies d'inventaires de variétés de bananiers plantain ou de bananiers atteints seront effectués.Il sera mis en place une parcelle bouturée avec des drageons prélevés sur des touffes de plantes atteintes. Il sera secondairement procédé à un suivi de l'évolution de la maladie, d'une part, au niveau des drageons bouturés, et d'autre part, au niveau des rejets apparus au niveau de la touffe. Les conditions de développement de la maladie dans les deux cas seront précisées.Importance de la banane en République démocratique du Congo Le bananier est une culture très importante en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC). Au point de vue production, le bananier vient en 2 ème position après la culture du manioc. Le bananier n'a pas la même importance dans les différentes régions de ce vaste pays de 2 345 000 km². Plusieurs types de bananes sont produits : banane de table, banane plantain, banane à cuire et banane à bière. La banane plantain et la banane de table sont les plus cultivées à l'Ouest et au sud-ouest de la RDC. La banane de table est utilisée comme dessert et se vend un peu partout au marché, le long des routes et des rues des grands centres urbains. La banane plantain est utilisée comme condiment de base de même importance que le chikwangue obtenu du manioc.Sur les marchés de commercialisation, la banane est un produit cher considéré comme un produit de luxe non accessible à tous les consommateurs.Dans certains milieux non forestiers du pays, la banane est produite comme culture de case, c'est-à-dire dans les compostières traditionnelles placées derrière les cases et recevant les déchets de cuisine et les balayures de la cour de la maison. Cette pratique permet aux paysans de produire la banane pendant plusieurs années sans beaucoup d'investissement.Que ce soit en forêt, en savane ou au village, les paysans n'apportent pas beaucoup de soins à la culture : pas d'attention aux entretiens ni à l'oeilletonnage, ce qui résulte en de grandes densités de plants qui affaiblissent la touffe et qui réduisent le poids et la grosseur des régimes récoltés.Les paysans utilisent les rejets provenant des souches mères de leurs champs ou des rejets obtenus de leurs voisins. Le marché des rejets chez les producteurs est rare. Avant l'indépendance du pays (1960), la banane était une culture d'exportation mais elle ne l'est plus aujourd'hui. La plupart des variétés de bananes de table introduites par la colonisation belge dans le sud-ouest du pays (Province du Bas Congo) ont dégénéré. Cependant, la RDC continue à être considérée comme le 'bassin du plantain'. Le bananier souffre de grandes maladies qui souvent n'ont aucun traitement curatif. La production annuelle nationale baisse sensiblement à cause de nombreux facteurs, les maladies et les ravageurs constituant les contraintes les plus importantes. La cercosporiose noire causée par Mycosphaerella fijiensis et la maladie du bunchy top sont les maladies les plus importantes tandis que le charançon du bananier et les nématodes constituent des contraintes majeures presque dans toutes les zones de production de la banane en RDC.Les méthodes de lutte recommandées contre les maladies et les ravageurs sont essentiellement basées sur l'emploi de variétés résistantes et de bonnes pratiques culturales. Les producteurs ne sont pas assez informés sur les différentes recommandations, car le système d'encadrement de l'état fonctionne au ralenti à cause du manque de motivation de ses agents. Le matériel résistant aux maladies existe mais le manque de fonds empêche la multiplication des projets et la formation des planteurs.La réunion de pilotage du Comité directeur de MUSACO tenue à Cotonou en septembre 2002 a permis aux membres de recevoir une formation sur la préparation d'une proposition à soumettre aux bailleurs de fonds. Aussi, la RDC exécute, depuis novembre 2001, un projet sur l'évaluation participative des bananiers améliorés en milieu paysan qui pourra permettre à améliorer la situation phytosanitaire du bananier s'il s'avérait que quelques variétés en évaluation sont résistantes à la maladie des raies noires (MRN) et au bunchy top, et augmenter la production de la banane dans la province du Bas-Congo.-Mise à disposition des planteurs d'un système de multiplication rapide à grande échelle des variétés améliorées de bananiers -Formation des animateurs ruraux et les paysans aux pratiques culturales améliorées, à l'identification des maladies et à la gestion intégrée de la production et de la protection.Objectif global L'objectif global du projet est d'augmenter la production bananière dans la province du Bas-Congo afin d'améliorer les revenus des planteurs.Le projet vise spécifiquement à :• Former les agents de vulgarisation et les paysans sur les différents aspects de la culture des bananiers • Mettre en place un système de multiplication rapide de matériel de plantation des variétés du projet CFC/INIBAP en cours • Etablir un mécanisme efficace et économiquement moins coûteux pour la distribution de matériel de plantation sain.Les bénéficiaires immédiats sont les paysans et les grands fermiers impliqués dans la production bananière dans la province du Bas-Congo en particulier et dans d'autres provinces du pays en général. Le projet prévoit l'encadrement de l'installation de 200 ha de bananiers dans toute la province du Bas-Congo, avec un besoin d'environ 220 000 plantules : soit 100 ha dans le district du Bas-Fleuve,50 dans le district des cataractes et 50 dans le district de la Lukaya.Si chaque paysan peut installer un champ de 10 ares, le projet aura à encadrer 2000 planteurs (soit 1000 planteurs dans le district du Bas-Fleuve et 500 planteurs dans chacun des districts des Cataractes et de Lukaya).Multiplication et distribution rapide de matériel de plantation de variétés améliorées et résistantes à la maladie des raies noires et au bunchy top.• Développer un système de multiplication rapide des plantules par la technique durable de multiplication in vivo avec des partenaires (ONG, Associations paysannes) et créer un réseau provincial de distribution de matériel de plantation de bonne qualité.• Former des agents de vulgarisation et des paysans sur les techniques de multiplication rapide et de gestion des pépinières de sevrage et d'endurcissement des 'vivo plants' de bananiers.• Etablir des sites de multiplication dans les trois districts de la province du Bas-Congo • Fournir aux structures locales (ONG, associations paysannes, confessions religieuses, planteurs isolés, etc.), sous forme de crédit, le matériel de plantation de bonne qualité • Diffuser l'information par l'entremise des radios rurales locales communautaires et les scènes de télévision du Bas-Congo, de la presse locale, des journées agricoles, revues annuelles et autres.• Récupérer en nature au moyen de régimes de bananes une partie du crédit accordé aux structures locales et aux planteurs • Evaluer le comportement écologique du matériel de plantation fourni par le projet aux agriculteurs et déterminer l'impact financier sur le revenu des planteurs.Procédure pour les techniques de multiplication rapide des bananiers 1. Construire des bacs de germination des souches de rejets de bananiers améliorés. Les dimensions des bacs sont de 10 m x 1,5 m. le bac est installé dans une ombrière de 20 m x 9 m. 2. Construire une dalle en ciment bétonné de 8 m x 2 m pour servir à l'endurcissement des plants sevrés des souches de rejets. 3. Couvrir l'ombrière avec une toile para-soleil de 50%. 4. Extraire les rejets au champ, les décortiquer avec la technique PIF et les plonger dans le bac de germination contenant la sciure de bois. Le bac de germination est couvert d'un papier plastique hermétiquement fermé jusqu'au niveau du sol pour garder l'humidité et la chaleur dans les substrats. 5. Arroser copieusement le bac le premier jour de germination et répéter l'opération quand ceci s'avère nécessaire. 6. Sevrer les plants atteignant une hauteur convenable et les placer dans des sachets en plastique contenant un mélange de substrat terre noire + sable ou terre noire + parche de café. 7. Fournir les plantules aux planteurs pour l'installation en champ.  Les bananes et bananes plantain (Musa spp.) jouent un rôle important dans l'alimentation humaine et animale en Afrique sub-Saharienne. Elles contribuent à la sécurité alimentaire et à la réduction de la pauvreté. La pression démographique galopante induit la création de marchés potentiels des bananes et bananes plantain aussi bien dans les villes que dans les campagnes. L'engouement des producteurs, fonctionnaires, diplômés sans emploi, à la culture des bananes et bananes plantain est très manifeste de nos jours. Le Bénin produit à peine 12% de sa consommation et importe plus de 14 000 tonnes de bananes et bananes plantain par an.Mais, les plantations de bananes et bananes plantain ont généralement d'une faible durabilité au Bénin. De plus elles sont de petite taille et les rendements faibles. Ces faibles performances peuvent s'expliquer par diverses raisons : matériel de plantation de mauvaise qualité, très souvent infesté par les charançons et nématodes; quantité de matériel disponible généralement faible limitant les superficies à cultiver ; matériel de plantation sain et amélioré inaccessible aux paysans ; méconnaissance de techniques culturales ; méthodes de lutte contre les ennemis inadaptées pour une gestion durable des exploitations ; faible diffusion de matériel amélioré ; partenariat entre les institutions inexistant ou inefficace.Face à la rareté de matériel végétal sain et homogène les paysans s'en remettent au rejetonnage naturel qui est non seulement très lent mais produit peu de rejets, d'ailleurs souvent infestés de parasites telluriques.Quinze clones de bananiers et bananiers plantain résistants aux maladies ont été évalués au Centre de recherche agricole sud de Niaouli au Bénin. Certains ont été testés dans des sites pilotes à l'extérieur de la station de recherche. L'évaluation variétale a permis d'identifier, avec la participation de producteurs, huit variétés prometteuses.Le CARBAP, l'IITA et la FHIA ont mis au point des technologies de production de matériel végétal, de conduite de la culture et de contrôle des maladies et ravageurs majeurs des bananiers et bananiers plantain en vue d'une production durable des exploitations. Malheureusement, très peu d'effort a été fait pour que ces technologies atteignent le paysan.Ce projet de recherche et développement vise à promouvoir la production durable de bananiers et bananiers plantain par une approche intégrée des systèmes de culture à travers l'utilisation de matériel sain de variétés améliorées et l'application d'itinéraires performants.Ce projet vise à accroître la sécurité alimentaire et à diversifier les sources de revenus à travers un plan concerté de distribution, d'évaluation et de production des variétés améliorées de bananier et bananiers plantain. A la suite des évaluations variétales participatives, huit variétés prometteuses ont été sélectionnées par les producteurs. • la formation des producteurs aux techniques de multiplication rapide de plantules saines ainsi que des méthodes d'assainissement mises au point par l'IITAet le CARBAP • l'assistance de l'IITA dans l'établissement du réseau d'infrastructures de multiplication de matériel végétal amélioré dans les grandes zones de production du pays • la mise en place de parcelles de démonstration villageoises• la formation des producteurs aux techniques de gestion des bananeraies• le contrôle des parcelles de multiplication des matériels de plantation sous la direction du service de certification des semences et plants • la mise en place de parcelles de multiplication des plants de pré-base à partir des vitroplants sous gestion de la recherche/INRAB • la mise en place de parcelles de multiplication des plants de base sous la gestion de la DAGRI ou des ONG et représentants des multiplicateurs privés• la mise en place de parcelles de multiplication de plants certifiés sous gestion des multiplicateurs privés (producteurs) • l'évaluation ex ante et l'évaluation ex post du projet.• les partenaires du projet sont établis et leurs rôles respectifs connus • Petits producteursLe projet contribuera à diversifier les productions majeures du pays, améliorer la qualité de vie des acteurs de la filière banane et plantain, créer de nouveaux emplois, sédentariser les jeunes dans les villages. L'amélioration de la productivité créera des surplus de production et génèrera des revenus, voire améliorera la balance commerciale du pays. les aléas climatiques : qui, avec les diverses formes de sécheresse, ont porté un préjudice considérable à la production agricole en général les techniques culturales peu performantes limitant considérablement la production et les contraintes d'ordre biotique comme les maladies, les insectes ravageurs ou vecteurs de viroses. Ceci constitue un frein sérieux à l'établissement d'un accord d'exportation de la banane douce et de la banane plantain vers les marchés extérieurs, en particulier ceux de l'Europe très exigeants sur le plan qualitatif.Cette situation d'ensemble reflète celle spécifique à notre pays où effectivement la banane, indépendamment de son aspect alimentaire de par le fait qu'une partie de la production est auto-consommée, joue aussi le rôle sur le plan économique en tant que produit d'exportation. Nos statistiques montrent que depuis quelques années, la production augmente grâce aux efforts conjugués de la recherche et de la vulgarisation.C'est autant dire l'importance que revêt cette sixième réunion du Comité de pilotage du Réseau Musa pour l'Afrique Centrale et Occidentale et l'attachement du Gouvernement par le biais du Ministre de l'agriculture et de l'élevage à de telles rencontres porteuses d'espoir au moment où notre sous-région est dans une instabilité due aux attaques rebelles à nos différentes frontières.La création du Réseau international pour l'amélioration de la banane et de la banane plantain (INIBAP) vise à soutenir l'action des gouvernements en vue de la promotion de la culture bananière.Pendant une dizaine de jours vous allez dresser un bilan des acquis des recherches sur la banane et sur la banane plantain dans les disciplines agronomiques et surtout porter vos réflexions sur les perspectives pour la promotion d'une véritable politique de coopération scientifique et technique entre les différents pays. Sans nulle doute, vous allez aussi faire le point de l'état d'application des recommandations du précédent atelier qui a eu lieu en 2002 à Cotonou au Bénin.Pour notre part, nous sommes conscients des capacités limitées de nos états à financer tous les secteurs de la recherche. Aussi sommes nous convaincus que c'est à travers la coopération inter-États et les échanges entre équipes que nous optimisons nos ressources humaines et matérielles pour trouver les solutions aux divers problèmes qui en définitive sont les mêmes.Aussi profiterai-je de cette occasion pour remercier, au nom de Monsieur le Ministre, l'INIBAP et le Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) pour leurs contributions de qualité dans la réalisation du projet CFC-Musa qui est présentement à sa deuxième année d'exécution en Guinée ; ce projet qui est nécessaire à nos pays qui se doivent d'être aujourd'hui compétitifs à l'heure de la mondialisation et se doivent de sauvegarder la base matérielle de leurs productions.Sans préjuger des résultats de nos travaux, je suis persuadé que nos discussions permettront de dégager des orientations à court, moyen et long termes, basées sur mes principes ci-dessus énoncés.  ","tokenCount":"7577"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6ae7959b32305a3e470af0423c757281","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/683da2aa-be90-4988-a066-e5148cddf162/retrieve","id":"68604538"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3d41b51f-cefc-4d34-b833-8f86e2e2dc0b","pagecount":"4","content":"The game developed in collaboration between CIAT, the Mediae development communications firm, iShamba (the digital advisory service linked to the popular \"Shamba Shape Up\" television program) and the game developer Usiku saw 25,312 people play the Let it rain game and subsequently sign up to the iShamba farmer mobile service to receive weekly information on selected crops and livestock, weather and market prices.Outcome story for communications use: \"Let it rain\", encouraged viewers of the make over TV programme Shamba Shape Up (7 million weekly viewers in Kenya) to guess the onset of the long rains in their area in Kenya (watch promo here: https://vimeo.com/511134921). Farmers from 10 counties spread across the main farming zones in Kenya were eligible to play the game with a prize money of 100,000 Ksh (USD 1,000) allocated per county. Winners (those who guessed the correct onset of the rains), would share this prize money with other winners in their county. In placing their guess, the game encouraged farmers to seek out weather services and sources of information that would support them when planting and help them adapt to changing weather patterns. By playing the game, participants were signed up to the iShamba mobile farmer service (free of charge) and thereafter received timely, seasonal and regular agri-tips, for crops and livestock they are farming as well as market prices and notably weather updates for their area. The game saw 25,312 people play and subsequently sign up to the iShamba (see here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CddcUXcfpCPFFDWNUq1dj_ghKiSnT9MjQZegd3Wjy-A/edit ?ts=60263461#gid=2078049194). A total of 245 participants across the 10 counties guessed the correct date for onset of the rains. iShamba carried out a follow up survey to research what winners had done with their prize money. Winners of Let It Rain used their earnings to invest in their farms to increase income. A random sampling of the successful stories shows that 47% invested the cash in buying farm inputs ( improved seeds, fertilisers and crop protection chemicals; while 37% invested in livestock (buying new stock of chickens, cows and goats). One of the farmers who won 20,000 Ksh ($200) built a new house for the family. The rest of the winners used the cash to diversify their earnings by investing in non farm related businesses. Please see short farmer testimony here: https://twitter.com/theishamba/status/1360201418024644613, https://fb.watch/3Cc6Cs7Ytz/ The competition was promoted on Shamba Shape Up. Watch the full episode on climate change here (including promotion for \"Let it rain\"): https://shambashapeup.com/series/season-10/ep-1-climate-change/ Links to any communications materials relating to this outcome:• ","tokenCount":"411"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/5703926074.json b/data/part_6/5703926074.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e38c7a6d3f087798128d7655af16dc4b5aa6953b
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"55cd6c6b0cfb5d69d41c79fd3c27215b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5b9da821-e662-4491-81f2-02ddf6f53511/retrieve","id":"-1699035864"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a72cbbaf-8441-4b61-8015-da3df5049622","pagecount":"26","content":"de las metodologías/estándares para formular proyectos de reducción de emisiones de GEI para sistemas de producción de cacao bajo en emisiones en Caquetá y Cesar Autores: Javier Tomás Blanco, Angélica Quintana, Maria Claudia Garcia, Manuela Navarrete Supervisores: Carlos Borda y Martha Vanegas 1 SummaryThe report examines the suitability of standards and methodologies for REDD+ and agroforestry projects in the Colombian departments of Caquetá and Cesar, explicitly focusing on cacao agroforestry systems. The review addresses seven carbon standards used in the voluntary carbon market in Colombia: BioCarbon Registry, Clean Development Mechanism, ColCX, CSA, CERCARBONO, Gold Standard, and Verra -VCS. According to the report, the most prominent standards in terms of participation are Cercarbon, Verra -VCS and the Clean Development Mechanism.The analysis highlights differences between the standards, such as coverage of project types, transaction costs, offer of validation and verification bodies, treatment of additionality, nonpermanence management, and land ownership requirements. In addition, it is concluded that sustainable cocoa projects could use any of the four standards (Verra-VCS, ColCX, Cercarbon and Biocarbon Registry) for both REDD+ projects and carbon sequestration in agroforestry systems. Biocarbon Registry stands out for lower transaction costs and greater flexibility in eligible areas, while Cercarbon and ColCX also present specific advantages. The choice of the Verra standard could depend on its international recognition and the possibility of attracting buyers outside Colombia. However, it is suggested to wait for changes in its methodologies before selecting it for REDD+ projects.En este producto continúa con el análisis de los estándares y metodologías aplicables a los dos tipos de proyectos con mayor potencial. El producto se divide en cuatro secciones, incluyendo esta breve introducción. En la segunda sección se presenta un breve contexto de los principales actores que intervienen en el mercado voluntario de carbono y el rol de los estándares de carbono en dicho mercado. La tercera sección presenta el análisis de los estándares aplicables a los dos tipos de proyectos de mitigación con cacao sostenible, mientras que la cuarta, el análisis de las metodologías aplicables al proyecto, junto con recomendaciones para su implementación.Antes de abordar la evaluación en sí, se destaca la importancia de comprender los diferentes actores involucrados en los mercados de carbono, para lo cual es útil basarse en el ciclo que siguen dichos proyectos. Debido a su carácter de voluntarios, no existe una reglamentación que aplique a la totalidad de proyectos de carbono que se transan en dichos mercados, sin embargo, para efectos de mejorar su credibilidad, los proyectos de los mercados voluntarios han incorporaron los avances conceptuales y metodológicos que se establecieron en la reglamentación del Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio del Protocolo de Kioto, así como los posteriores avances en las normas ISO 14064.El ciclo que seguían los proyectos MDL (ver Ilustración 1) consistía en varias etapa cada una a cargo un actores como: los participantes del proyecto (PP), las entidades operacionales designadas (DOE), la autoridad nacional designada (DNA) y la Junta Ejecutiva (EB). Los mercados voluntarios adaptaron este ciclo eliminando la aprobación nacional (sustituyéndola por requisitos de cumplimiento de legislación nacional) y creando órganos que pudieran sustituir el rol de la Junta Ejecutiva. Las principales etapas de un proyecto en el mercado voluntario de carbono son: 1. Diseño del Proyecto: En esta etapa se definen los objetivos del proyecto, sus actividades y beneficios incluyendo la reducción de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) y otros beneficios socioambientales. El diseño del proyecto se realiza aplicando una metodología del estándar de carbono elegido y se presenta en un documento de diseño de proyecto en el formato también establecidos por el estándar. Dentro del diseño del proyecto, debe incluirse el plan de monitoreo de la reducción o captura de carbono.Esta etapa está a cargo de los participantes del proyecto en donde se incluyen los dueños de los predios o instalaciones donde se implementará la actividad del proyecto. En proyectos forestales (REDD+ o A/R) además de involucrarse a los dueños de los predios, por lo general también juega un rol importante las organizaciones de las comunidades y organizaciones no gubernamentales. Igualmente, debido a la complejidad del diseño del proyecto, en algunos casos se involucra como participante del proyecto a entidades consultoras o promotoras de proyectos de carbono. Los participantes del proyecto participan tanto en los costos como en los ingresos del componente de carbono del proyecto y los acuerdos de distribución de unidades entre los participantes deben ser enviados junto con el registro del proyecto.Esta etapa la realiza un organismo acreditado por el estándar elegido independiente a los participantes del proyecto, quién valida el documento de diseño del proyecto, asegurándose de que cumple con los requisitos y estándares aplicables. A estos organismos se les denomina Organismos de Validación y Verificación (OVV). La validación también cubre la revisión del plan de monitoreo de la reducción o captura de carbono.Con la validación, el proyecto se registra en el estándar de carbono o en el registro que el estándar haya designado, lo que confirma su elegibilidad para generar créditos de carbono.En esta etapa se lleva a cabo la implementación del proyecto de acuerdo con el diseño validado. Igualmente se realizan monitoreos periódicos para evaluar el progreso del proyecto y realizar ajustes si es necesario. Se generan informes de monitoreo periódicos que detallan las emisiones evitadas o capturas de carbono generadas por el proyecto.El organismo de validación y verificación acreditado por el estándar revisa la documentación, el monitoreo y los informes para verificar que las reducciones de emisiones sean reales y adicionales. Se emite un informe de verificación que respalda la cantidad de créditos de carbono generados.6. Expedición de unidades: Con base en la verificación exitosa, el registro o directamente el estándar de carbono emiten créditos de carbono, también conocidos como Certificados de Reducción de Emisiones (CER) o Unidades de Reducción de Emisiones (ERU), dependiendo del mercado. La expedición de los certificados o unidades de carbono es electrónica, acreditando unidades a las cuentas de los participantes del proyecto. Los créditos de carbono se pueden transferir a inversores, gobiernos u otras entidades que deseen compensar sus emisiones.En Colombia, existen dos normativas aplicables a los mercados de carbono. Por una parte, se encuentra la resolución 1447 de 2018 que reglamenta el sistema de monitoreo, reporte y verificación de acciones de mitigación a nivel nacional. Esta resolución regula a todas las personas que pretendan registrar una iniciativa de mitigación para optar por pago por resultados o compensaciones similares como consecuencia de las acciones que generen reducción de emisiones y remociones de gases efecto invernadero o para demostrar cumplimiento de las metas nacionales bajo la Convención de Cambio Climático. Dentro de los tipos de iniciativas que regula la resolución se incluyen los proyectos REDD+ y los proyectos sectoriales de mitigación, donde se inscriben los potenciales proyectos de cacao sostenible. La resolución establece requisitos para el uso de metodologías para la formulación de proyectos, establecimientos de líneas base y metas de mitigación, criterios de adicionalidad, criterios para la validación y verificación de proyectos, y procedimientos y requisitos para su registro en el registro nacional RENARE.Por otra parte, debido a la posibilidad de no causar el impuesto al carbono mediante la presentación de reducciones de emisiones certificadas, mediante el Decreto 926 de 2017 se establecieron las condiciones y requisitos para permitir la utilización de certificados de reducción provenientes de proyectos de mitigación tanto de esquemas regulados como el MDL, o estándares de carbono voluntarios. La siguiente tabla resume los principales requisitos establecidos en el Decreto para su validez como soporte de la no causación del impuesto al carbono: Como se aprecia en la tabla anterior, la mayor cantidad de requisitos se establecen para las iniciativas, las metodologías y los organismos de validación y verificación, mientras que existen pocos requisitos para los estándares de carbono.En la siguiente sección se analizarán los estándares de carbono que podrían ser seleccionados para adelantar los potenciales proyectos de carbono de cacao sostenible en los departamentos de Cesar y Caquetá.Para determinar cuál estándar y metodología es más adecuado para estos sistemas agroforestales de cacao, se realizó una revisión detallada de los estándares de carbono utilizados en el mercado voluntario de carbono en Colombia.De acuerdo con el más reciente informe sobre el estado del mercado de carbono colombiano ( (Asocarbono, 2023) Existen varias variables que hay que tener en cuenta para la selección de un estándar de carbono para el registro del proyecto potencial de cacao sostenible. La primera corresponde al destino de venta de los certificados de carbono. Si el proyecto tiene decidido el destino de venta de los certificados de carbono o si tiene un potencial comprador de los certificados, la decisión del estándar deberá ser consistente con los requisitos del mercado o del comprador. De los estándares que cubren los dos tipos de proyecto (REDD+ y A/R) sólo el estándar Verra-VCS tiene un amplio reconocimiento internacional, mientras que los demás estándares están principalmente enfocados al mercado nacional, y en particular la no causación del impuesto al carbono.Otra de las variables a considerar son los costos de transacción asociados al estándar. Los costos de transacción corresponden a los costos que debe asumir un proyecto de carbono para obtener y vender sus certificados. Algunos de estos costos de transacción dependen del estándar seleccionado y corresponde a los costos cobrados por los mismos para abrir una cuenta de registro, para el registro del proyecto y para expedir los certificados. Los costos se cobran en dólares y para la emisión, se cobra por tonelada de CO2 emitida diferenciando el costo según el volumen del proyecto. 0-10.000 $0,050 $0,09 $0,14 10.000-100.000 $0,140 100.001 -200.000 $0,08 200.001 -300.000 300.001 -400.000 $0,07 400.001 -500.000 500.001 -600.000 $0,13 600.001 -700.000 $0,06 700.001 -800.000 800.001 -900.000 900.001 -1.000.000 1.000.001 -2.000.000 $0,120 $0,05 $0,12 2.000.001 -3.000.000 $0,105 3.000.001 -4.000.000 $0,11 4.000.001 -5.000.000 $0,085 5.000.001 -6.000.000 $0,10 6.000.001 -7.000.000 $0,060 7.000.001 -8.000.000 8.000.001 -9.000.000 $0,040 9.000.001 -10.000.000 >10.000.001 $0,025 $0,09 ** El monto cobrado en el registro es posteriormente acreditado al costo de la expedición.Fuente: Verra, 2023, BioCarbon Registry, 2023 y Cercarbono, 2023COLCX no tiene públicas sus tarifas. Biocarbon Registry es el único estándar que cobra una tarifa de \"pre-registro\" que les permite a los proyectos aparecer en la base de Biocarbon bajo el estado de \"en preparación\", facilitando en algunos casos acuerdos entre los participantes o posibles compradores. Cercarbono es el estándar con menor costo de apertura de cuenta (USD$ 200/año), mientras que Verra es el de mayor costo (USD$500/año) y en menor medida Biocarbon registry (USD$300/año).Verra-VCS es el único estándar que cobra el registro del proyecto, dependiendo del tamaño del mismo. Sin embargo, el cobro tiene como límite USD$10.000 y es deducible de los costos de expedición. En todo caso dicho costo deberá ser cancelado por el proyecto en el momento del registro y antes de la expedición de los certificados, por lo que afecta el flujo de caja del proyecto.Respecto a los costos de expedición, los costos unitarios varían según los volúmenes de certificados que los proyectos soliciten expedir. Para volúmenes bajos, el precio es mayor y para volúmenes altos el precio disminuye. De acuerdo con las estimaciones presentadas en el producto 5 de esta consultoría, el potencial de captura o reducción de emisiones por hectárea por año de los proyectos de cacao sostenible están en el rango de 4 y 13 tCO2. Es decir que asumiendo que un proyecto agrupe entre 100 y 1000 hectáreas y acumule entre 3 a 5 años de beneficios de carbono para su expedición, el rango de expedición se ubicaría entre 1.200 y 65.000 tCO2e en cada evento de expedición. En estos rangos, VCS tiene el menor costo (USD$0,05) si la expedición es menor a 10.000 toneladas pero si es superior, el costo aumenta a USD$0,14; igualando la tarifa cobrada por Cercarbono. Para expediciones entre el rango de 10.000 a 100.000 Biocarbon registry tiene el menor costo USD$0,09/tCO2. El mejor precio de Biocarbon registry se mantiene para mayores volúmenes hasta los 8 millones de toneladas donde VCS vuelve a ser el de menor costo unitario.Otra variable a considerar es la disponibilidad de organismos de validación y verificación acreditados bajo el estándar. COLCX no tiene publicado el listado de entidades acreditadas.Aunque Verra-VCS es la entidad con mayor cantidad de OVV acreditados, muchos de ellos no tienen operaciones en Colombia, por lo que para efectos de comparación, se filtró el listado a las entidades que de acuerdo con (Asocarbono, 2023)  En general los tres estándares tienen una cantidad similar de organismos de validación y verificación acreditados para auditar sus proyectos. Existen organismos que están acreditados por los tres estándares y tienen un alto volumen de proyectos como ICONTEC y AENOR. Igualmente se resaltan organismos como Verifit y Versa que está acreditado por Cercarbono y Biocarbon Registry y es de origen colombiano, junto con ICONTEC, lo cual disminuye sus costos de desplazamiento.En el contexto de los proyectos de mitigación de carbono, la adicionalidad se refiere a la idea de que las reducciones de emisiones o capturas de carbono logradas por el proyecto son adicionales a las que habrían ocurrido en ausencia del proyecto. Es decir, para ser considerado adicional, el proyecto debe generar beneficios climáticos que no se producirían como parte del curso normal de los acontecimientos (Business as Usual) o como cumplimiento de un mandato legal. La adicionalidad es un requisito fundamental en los mercados voluntarios de carbono para garantizar que los créditos de carbono generados realmente representen una contribución real a la mitigación del cambio climático.Un proyecto REDD+ destinado a proteger un bosque amenazado puede demostrar adicionalidad al mostrar que, en ausencia del proyecto, habría una presión significativa para la deforestación debido a la tala ilegal o la conversión del bosque para la agricultura. Es decir, que el curso normal de los acontecimientos es que debido a las presiones y condiciones en el área del proyecto, el bosque se hubiera talado.Por otra parte, para un proyecto agroforestal que promueva prácticas agrícolas sostenibles, como la agroforestería, puede ser adicional al demostrar que los agricultores, sin el incentivo del proyecto, no habrían adoptado esas prácticas debido a limitaciones económicas. Es decir, que bajo el curso normal de los acontecimientos, los agricultores implementarían cultivos bajo prácticas tradicionales (p.ej. cacao bajo libre exposición) u otras prácticas agropecuarias (p.ej. continuación de actividad ganadera en las áreas del proyecto).La evaluación de la adicionalidad implica un análisis detallado de los riesgos y barreras que podrían obstaculizar la implementación del proyecto y que con los incentivos de carbono se superan. Los métodos estándar de evaluación de adicionalidad requieren comparar el escenario del proyecto con un escenario de referencia que representa la situación sin el proyecto. Este análisis es crucial para garantizar que los créditos de carbono generados sean reales y que el proyecto esté contribuyendo efectivamente a la mitigación del cambio climático. En general todos los estándares utilizan la misma aproximación del Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio para probar adicionalidad que incluye una serie de pasos donde se evalúa en primer lugar el cumplimiento legal, luego se realizan análisis de barreras o financieros sobre escenarios base y por último se realiza un análisis de práctica común.Sin embargo CERCARBONO y COLCX específican casos en donde consideran la actividad de proyecto adicional. CERCABONO incluye dentro de estos casos a los proyectos de mitigación cuyos ingresos se derivan exclusivamente del mercado de carbono. Este caso aplicaría a proyectos REDD+ donde la actividad de proyecto (p.ej. acuerdos de conservación) solo genera ingresos en la medida que se obtienen los certificados. El bosque natural conservado, no genera ingresos monetarios a sus propietarios. Un caso similar es el de la restauración sin fines comerciales, que aunque tiene grandes beneficios ambientales, no genera ingresos monetarios a los dueños de la tierra, excepto los derivados por la venta del carbono. Por lo tanto, el potencial proyecto REDD+ en fincas cacaoteras podría aplicar a la adicionalidad automática de CERCARBONO. Sin embargo, el proyecto agroforestal no aplicaría a esta opción, ya que los sistemas agroforestales si generan ingresos distintos a los créditos de carbono, como los derivados de la venta del cacao y las especies maderables.COLCX incluye, además del caso de ingresos exclusivos de carbono, el caso de cambio de sistemas pecuarios y agrícolas intensivos a sistemas agroforestales. Este caso, si podría incluir el potencial proyecto de captura de carbono en sistemas agroforestales de cacao para ser considerado como adicional. En consecuencia, las reglas de adicionalidad mas favorables para los dos potenciales proyectos de cacao sostenible corresponden a las de COLCX.Todos los estándares contienen disposiciones para manejar el riesgo de no permanencia en proyectos forestales, es decir, el riesgo que el carbono capturado (o evitado) vuelva a ser liberado a la atmósfera por un evento como un incendio forestal, plagas u otros. Para ello, los estándares establecen cuentas donde reservan un porcentaje de los créditos que acumula el proyecto durante su implementación y que sirve como un seguro el cual descontaría créditos si se presentan algún evento de no permanencia.Tabla 4-4. Aproximaciones para manejo de la no permanencia de la captura de proyectos forestales en los estándares y programasTratamiento de no permanencia (forestal)Evaluación del riesgo del proyecto según tabla con puntajes. Según puntaje de evaluación de riesgo se establece porcentaje de reserva que varía de: 10% -60% de los créditos expedidos. En la primera expedición, todos los créditos pasan a la reserva. En las siguientes expediciones si el puntaje de riesgo permanece igual, se puede solicitar la liberación del 15% o disminuye, se puede liberar el exceso de créditos reservados actualizando el riesgo del proyecto.Evaluación del riesgo del proyecto y porcentaje resultante debe ser validado por OVV.Reserva colectiva: 5% de los certificados expedidos Reserva individual: entre el 0% y el 43% de los certificados expedidos. Devolución proporcional al tiempo de implementación del proyecto. Retiro total cuando alcance el 80% de la vida útil.Evaluación y clasificación del nivel de riesgo del proyecto (alto, medio y bajo) Reserva del 20% de los créditos de cada evento de expedición (10% en una cuenta del proyecto, y 10% en una cuenta general). Sin no ha habido necesidad de usar la reserva, al finalizar la última verificación, se liberarán los certificados de la cuenta del proyecto.Evaluación del riesgo del proyecto según tabla con puntajes. Según puntaje de evaluación de riesgo se establece porcentaje de reserva que varía de: 10% -50% de los créditos expedidos Durante la implementación del proyecto, se puede implementar medidas y recalcular riesgo.Fuente: Elaboración propia a partir de la información de las respectivas páginas web.Existen diferencias significativas en el cálculo y manejo de las reservas de créditos entre los estándares. En términos de porcentaje de créditos reservados, el estándar con las reglas mas favorable es Biocarbon Registry debido a que tienen un techo de 20%, seguido por Cercarbono con un techo del 47%, Colcx con 50% y VCS con 60%. De igual importancia son las reglas para liberar los créditos reservados. Por una parte, Cercabono libera la reserva mediante la aplicación de una ecuación que depende del tiempo de implementación del proyecto llegando a liberar la totalidad de la reserva cuando se alcance el 80% de la vida útil del proyecto. Biocarbon registry libera la mitad de los créditos reservados con la última verificación y VCS libera el 15% de los créditos cada 5 años y el en la medida que el proyecto disminuya su puntaje de riesgo. COLCX no especifica las reglas de liberación de la reserva, pero podría ser similar al tratamiento de VCS ya que permite recalcular el puntaje de riesgo del proyecto.El último criterio importante de comparación entre estándares corresponde a las disposiciones y requisitos de soporte de propiedad de la tierra. Como aproximación general de todos los estándares es que los proponentes del proyecto deben demostrar propiedad directa sobre las áreas del proyecto o acuerdos legales con los que tienen derechos de propiedad de las áreas donde se implementará el proyecto. -Certificados de tradición y libertad o lo que corresponda.-Permisos o concesiones de uso del área.-Derechos de dominio.-Planes de uso del suelo.-Información de registros locales, como catastro, registro de propietarios, registro de uso o manejo de la tierra. -Otros que apliquen al contexto del PMCC COLCX Proporcionar una descripción de la titularidad que existe sobre cada área (porción de tierra) donde se lleva cabo la iniciativa de mitigación, incluyendo los títulos legales, las condiciones de tenencia actual de la tierra y los derechos que permitan determinar el real propietario de los resultados de mitigación que sean alcanzados (ej. en la forma de créditos de carbono).Fuente: Elaboración propia a partir de la información de las respectivas páginas web.Tanto Verra, COLCX y Biocarbon Registry tienen disposiciones generales relacionadas con derechos de propiedad de la tierra quedando en manos de los proponentes de aportar los soportes adecuados para soportar dichos derechos, y de los organismos de validación y verificación, de revisar y aceptar dichos soportes.Existen dos tipos de proyectos forestales que podría abarcar el proyecto piloto: un proyecto de captura de CO2 mediante el aumento de reservorios de carbono forestal (biomasa, madera muerta y carbono orgánico del suelo), y/o reducción de emisiones por deforestación o degradación forestal. En el primer tipo se incluye actividades como la reforestación comercial, la restauración de ecosistemas forestales, el establecimiento de sistemas agroforestales o silvo-pastoriles.Como se mencionó anteriormente, los estándares desarrollan metodologías propias para el cálculo de la reducción o captura de CO2 de proyectos forestales y todos los estándares evaluados tienen metodologías propias. En primer lugar se analizarán las metodologías aplicables a proyectos REDD+. Esta metodología cuantifica las reducciones y absorciones de emisiones de GEI generadas en proyectos REDD+ a escala de mosaico y de paisaje al permitir que dichas actividades de proyecto se combinen con actividades de gestión forestal mejorada, forestación, reforestación y revegetación, así como con iniciativas de estufas limpias.Esto permite un enfoque paisajístico más holístico de las actividades de REDD+ que integra los esfuerzos para proteger los bosques con programas para mejorar los medios de vida de las comunidades rurales.La deforestación y la degradación en la línea de base estarían causadas por 1) la conversión de bosques en tierras de cultivo o pastizales para la agricultura a pequeña escala, 2) la conversión de tierras forestales en asentamientos, 3) la tala de madera para la venta comercial, 4) la tala de madera para uso local y doméstico, 5) la recogida de leña para la producción de carbón vegetal o 6) los incendios forestales.Fuente: Elaboración propia a partir de (Biocarbon Registry, 2022), (Pedroni, 2012), (CERCARBONO, s.f.), (COLCX, 2023)Existe por lo menos una metodología aplicable en cada estándar para desarrollar el potencial proyecto REDD+ en fincas cacaoteras en los departamentos de Caquetá y Cesar. Sin embargo, a la fecha el estándar VERRA se encuentra en un proceso de revisión de sus metodologías REDD+ y las versiones que actualmente se encuentran publicadas no se pueden usar. Se espera que antes de terminar el año se publiquen las nuevas versiones que podrían traer cambios significativos en respuesta a las críticas que han recibido en medios internacionales.Respecto al alcance de las metodologías, todas cubren la actividad principal de reducir las emisiones por deforestación, que en el caso del potencial proyecto de cacao, se clasifica como deforestación no planeada. Igualmente, todas las metodologías cubren actividades para reducir emisiones por degradación forestal y para las metodologías de los estándares COLCX y CERCARBONO se incluyen actividades de gestión sostenible de los bosques y aumentos de reservas de carbono producto de actividades de restauración.El principal criterio a tener en cuenta al escoger la metodología es el cumplimiento de los requisitos de aplicabilidad y su cobertura en términos de reservorios de carbono.Tabla 5-2. Condiciones de aplicabilidad y cobertura de metodologías disponibles para formular proyectos REDD+Condiciones de elegibilidad de las áreas del proyecto Cobertura de reservorios de actividades de reducción de deforestación Cercarbono REDD+ V1.3.1Las áreas donde se desarrolle deben ser bosque o ser áreas de aptitud forestal para el establecimiento de procesos de restauración. La definición de bosque debe estar alineada con la establecida en el contexto internacional y la adaptada en el nacional donde se implemente el PMCC.-Pueden estar establecidos en tierras de humedales boscosos (manglares, humedales de agua dulce y turberas), siempre y cuando se consideren de manera adecuada (se controlen o se descuenten) los potenciales desplazamientos de GEI por fuera del ecosistema.Biomasa aérea vegetación arbórea Biomasa subterránea Madera muerta y hojarascas (opcional) Carbono orgánico del suelo (opcional) Fuentes de emisión: Quema de biomasa por procesos de deforestación Quema de biomasa por procesos de degradación Eliminación de biomasa por procesos de degradación (extracción de madera)Esta metodología es aplicable bajo las siguientes condiciones:-Se presentan áreas de bosque permanente en el año de inicio (bosque que permanece en esta categoría durante diez (10) años previos a la fecha de inicio del proyecto), de acuerdo con la definición oficial de bosque de cada país.-Si se incluyen áreas de manejo con autorización de aprovechamiento forestal, únicamente aplican actividades de degradación forestal no planeada.Esta metodología no es aplicable bajo las siguientes condiciones:-Proyectos que únicamente incluyen actividades de remoción de GEI por restauración ecológica o revegetación.-Coberturas boscosas dominadas por ecosistemas naturales inundables periódicamente, como, por ejemplo; humedales, paramos, manglares, entre otros, que presentan suelos con alto contenido de materia orgánica.Biomasa aérea vegetación arbórea Biomasa subterránea Madera muerta y hojarascas (opcional) Carbono orgánico del suelo (opcional) Fuentes de emisión: Degradación forestal. Incendios a gran y pequeña escala Cambios de uso del suelo Biocarbon RegistryEsta Metodología es aplicable bajo las siguientes condiciones: a) Las áreas en los límites geográficos del proyecto corresponden a la categoría de bosque (de acuerdo con las definiciones nacionales de bosque para el Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio) al inicio de las actividades del proyecto y diez años antes de la fecha de inicio del proyecto; b) Las causas de la deforestación identificadas pueden incluir, entre otras: ampliación de la frontera agropecuaria, minería, extracción de madera y expansión de infraestructura; c) Las causas de la degradación forestal identificadas pueden incluir, entre otras: tala selectiva, extracción de leña, incendios forestales, pastoreo en bosque y expansión de la frontera agropecuaria y cultivos de uso ilícito La metodología no tiene restricciones geográficas y es aplicable globalmente bajo las siguientes condiciones: a) Las actividades de la línea de base pueden incluir la tala planificada o no planificada de madera, la recolección de leña, la producción de carbón vegetal y las actividades agrícolas y de pastoreo, siempre que la categoría sea de deforestación no planificada de acuerdo con los requisitos VCS AFOLU más recientes. b) Las actividades del proyecto pueden incluir una o una combinación de las categorías elegibles definidas en la descripción del alcance de la metodología. c) El área del proyecto puede incluir diferentes tipos de bosques, tales como, pero no limitados a, bosques antiguos, bosques degradados, bosques secundarios, bosques plantados y sistemas agroforestales que cumplan con la definición de \"bosque\". d) Al inicio del proyecto, el área del proyecto incluirá únicamente tierras que hayan sido calificadas como \"bosque\" durante un mínimo de 10 años antes de la fecha de inicio del proyecto. e) El área del proyecto puede incluir humedales arbolados (tales como bosques de fondo, bosques de llanura aluvial, manglares) siempre y cuando no crezcan sobre turba. La turba se definirá como suelos orgánicos con al menos un 65% de materia orgánica y un espesor mínimo de 50 cm. Si la zona del proyecto incluye un humedal boscoso que crece sobre turba (por ejemplo, bosques pantanosos de turba), esta metodología no es aplicable. Las metodologías REDD+ no difieren significativamente respecto a sus criterios de aplicabilidad, o por lo menos en aspectos de interés para el proyecto de cacao sostenible. Todas ellas requieren que el área del proyecto cumpla con la definición nacional de bosque y que haya permanecido en dicha cobertura por lo menos durante 10 años previos al inicio del proyecto. La definición de bosque reportada por el país ante el Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio corresponde a un área mínima de 1 hectárea con cobertura de copa mayor a 30% y una altura in situ miníma de 5 metros (a edad madura). Esta definición es especialmente importante para determinar si las coberturas clasificadas como \"rastrojos\" o denominadas por lo finqueros como \"cañeros\" podrían ser consideradas como bosque. La inclusión de este tipo de coberturas aumentará la potencial área de proyecto y por lo tanto la generación de créditos de carbono. Por lo general para evaluar el cumplimiento del requisito de bosque se soporta en imágenes satelitales y otras fuentes documentales.Respecto al cubrimiento de reservorios, no se aprecian diferencias importantes entre estándares con excepción de la posibilidad de contabilizar biomasa no arbórea en la metodología del Biocarbon Registry. Dependiendo de las especies y el esfuerzo de monitoreo se justificaría la inclusión de estos reservorios en la contabilización de la reducción de emisiones.Todos los estándares cuentan con metodologías que cubrirían los proyectos agroforestales siempre y cuando cumplan con la definición de bosques presentada anteriormente. Aforestación, reforestación y revegetación La metodología se aplica a las actividades de forestación, reforestación y revegetación (ARR) y ofrece dos enfoques de cuantificación:1)Enfoque basado en el área: utiliza métodos tradicionales de muestreo basados en parcelas que escalan las estimaciones de biomasa por unidad de área al nivel del proyecto utilizando el área del proyecto como multiplicador (es decir, el área dentro de los límites del proyecto); 2)Enfoque basado en censos: aplicable cuando la actividad del proyecto no da lugar a un cambio en el uso de la tierra y cuando resulta práctico realizar un censo completo de las plantaciones (por ejemplo, silvicultura urbana, agrosilvicultura, cinturones forestales de protección, plantaciones dirigidas a hogares rurales, revegetación que no se ajuste a la definición de bosque) Las metodologías de Cercarbono y COLCX tienen incluido de forma explícita su aplicabilidad a sistemas agroforestales o sistemas agrícolas leñosos, y por lo tanto a los sistemas agroforestales y monocultivos de cacao. Respecto a las condiciones de aplicabilidad, todas las metodologías serían aplicables al potencial proyecto de carbono agroforestal en cacao, ya que en las áreas potenciales no corresponden a áreas de humedales y además hay suficiente áreas en las fincas con coberturas distintas a bosque para realizar los nuevos establecimientos de sistemas de cacao. -Actividades que se desarrollen de acuerdo con los cumplimientos legales de cada país y región, y presenten planes de aprovechamiento o de gestión de producción que permitan reconocer la trazabilidad de la actividad.-Áreas cuya aptitud de uso del suelo sea afín con la actividad elegible especifica (la actividad especifica hace referencia al tipo de cultivo, si es plantación forestal por ejemplo de pino blanco (Pinus patula Schltdl. & Cham.), pino caribe (Pinus caribea Morelet) …; si es frutal cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), caucho (Hevea brasilensis (A.Juss.) Müll.Arg.) ...; si es un SAF, si es silvopastoril de ganado vacuno con alguna especie de árbol particular o si es SAF de sombrío especificar la especie forestal asociada a café (Coffea arabica L.); si es restauración forestal a que ecosistema o tipo de bosque se quiere restaurar). Para Colombia, para actividades diferentes a restauración, se deben tener en cuenta las zonificaciones desarrolladas por la UPRA reportadas en el SIPRA o cualquier entidad que haga de sus veces en otro país; y para el caso de restauración, tener en cuenta el mapa de ecosistemas en su versión oficial más reciente procedente de la organización gubernamental en materia. En caso de tener diferencias edafoclimáticas del área del proyecto respecto a la zonificación se puede aportar información que muestre su aptitud de uso siempre y cuando esta sea especifica al área y cuente con un respaldo de fuente reconocida y aval de un experto en aptitud de uso del suelo.-Cuando se implementen actividades de Herramientas de Manejo del Paisaje HMP, que incorporen el enriquecimiento forestal o de relictos, se puede hacer uso del Módulo ARC de la metodología Marco REDD+, siempre y cuando se cumplan con los requerimientos técnicos de ese modulo.CERCARBONO METODOLOGÍA M/UT/F-A01Las áreas en las que se implementa el PMCC no deben haber estado cubiertas por bosque por lo menos durante los diez años previos a la fecha de inicio de la actividad.En el caso de las actividades en tierras agrícolas, el componente principal o exclusivo de los cultivos a ser establecidos debe incluir especies leñosas perennes, siempre y cuando las especies consideradas sean originarias o naturalizadas en el país donde se implementa el PMCC o, en caso contrario, que hayan sido utilizadas en cultivos tradicionales o comerciales por más de 10 años, en un área total como mínimo igual a la que será implementada por el PMCC. Esta metodología no aplica a humedales o terrenos inundables. No se permite el drenado de zonas húmedas (debido a las emisiones de N2O) ni el riego por inundación (debido a las emisiones de CH4).La metodología es aplicable en las siguientes condiciones: 1)Las actividades del proyecto aumentan la cubierta vegetal; y 2)Pueden utilizarse enfoques de cuantificación basados en el área, en el censo o una combinación de ambos, siempre que se cumplan las condiciones de aplicabilidad específicas de cada enfoque. Los enfoques deben seleccionarse en la fecha de inicio del proyecto y utilizarse durante todo el periodo de acreditación del proyecto. Cuando los dos enfoques se utilicen conjuntamente, deberán aplicarse en zonas que no se solapen definidas al inicio del proyecto. Un aspecto distintivo en los criterios de aplicabilidad de las metodologías radica en la exigencia de que, durante un periodo mínimo previo, las áreas del proyecto no hayan contenido coberturas boscosas. Para la metodología de Biocarbon registry, este periodo mínimo es de 5 años antes del inicio del proyecto, mientras que para el resto de las metodologías es de 10 años. Un plazo más corto resulta beneficioso para el posible proyecto de cacao, ya que amplía la extensión de tierra elegible en las fincas que podrían integrarse en el proyecto. Esto considera la dinámica de deforestación y la presencia de diversos tipos de cobertura vegetal en dichas fincas.Del análisis presentado en las secciones anteriores podemos concluir que los proyectos potenciales de carbono de cacao sostenible pueden utilizar cualquiera de los cuatro estándares analizados (Verra-VCS, ColCX, Cercarbono y Biocarbon Registry) tanto para el proyecto REDD+ como para el proyecto de captura de carbono en sistemas agroforestales.Aunque existen pocas diferencias entre los estándares, las secciones anteriores permitieron identificar algunos aspectos que serían mas favorables a las condiciones de los proyectos de carbono de cacao sostenible. El estándar que presenta mayores ventajas es Biocarbon Registry, principalmente debido a sus menores costos de transacción, la disponibilidad de Organismos de Validación y Verificación (OVV) acreditados en Colombia, un menor porcentaje requerido de reservas de créditos para gestionar los riesgos de no permanencia y una mayor flexibilidad para habilitar áreas elegibles en proyectos de reforestación. Le siguen en la calificación los estándares Cercarbono y COLCX. Cercarbono se destaca también por su oferta de OVV acreditadas y por incluir distintas alternativas bajo el contexto colombiano para respaldar la propiedad de la tierra. Por otro lado, COLCX se distingue por abordar de manera específica proyectos agroforestales en sus metodologías y criterios de adicionalidad.Por último, la ventaja de seleccionar Verra correspondería a su reconocimiento internacional y por lo tanto la posibilidad de buscar compradores de los créditos de carbono fuera de Colombia. Sin embargo, para el potencial proyecto REDD+ se deberá esperar a la publicación de los cambios de sus metodologías y si dichos cambios aumentan la exigencia de criterios de elegibilidad de las tierras y la complejidad del cálculo de los beneficios de carbono.","tokenCount":"5870"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"126ab913106d4888ae9ec7f5b9c1a8fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b827f313-bc5c-4245-84ab-63c55bc2f07c/retrieve","id":"-788188287"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78897bb8-dba6-4f64-ae5c-d841207c452f","pagecount":"40","content":"Si gnificant sections of populations in developing countries suffer from micronutrient malnutrition, especially children, and pregnant and lactating women (WHO 2008). This type of malnutrition results from insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, and zinc. Interventions to reduce this problem include food supplements and industrial fortification programs (Allen, 2003). More recently, biofortification-the breeding of staple food crops with higher micronutrient contents-was proposed and evaluated on a preliminary basis as a cost-effective complementary strategy for addressing micronutrient malnutrition in developing countries (Nestel et al. 2006;Qaim et al. 2007).When analyzing the impact of the nutritional intervention it is necessary to quantify and to value \"health\" to be able, for instance, to compare public health improvements achieved through biofortification with those achieved through other interventions such as fortification or pharmaceutical supplementation. Moreover, quantification of \"health impacts\" is necessary to contrast potential health benefits of the nutritional intervention with the related research and development (R&D) costs incurred.The major conceptual issue is how to measure health. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank have increasingly measured health-or rather its inverse, disease burden-in terms of \"disability-adjusted life years\" (DALYs) (Stein et al. 2005).Calculating DALYs is tedious. Hence, it would be useful to rely on software that can easily work 1 them out once the required data are entered. The MAIN (Model for Assessing the Impact of Nutritional Interventions) is a user-friendly system for the empirical estimation of the DALYs framework. It is used to evaluate the potential benefits and costs of developing the nutritional intervention to reduce deficiencies of vitamin A, iron, and/or zinc. The model was developed in Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA), coded in Microsoft® Excel 2000. It currently relies on three worksheets and a combination of menus and submenus that allows the user to easily and simply evaluate independently the potential impact on human health of food consumption to have higher micronutrient contents, which beta-carotene (precursors of vitamin A), iron, or zinc.The menus also have options for entering and correcting the different parameters needed, such as populations in the age groups of interest, mortality rates, prevalence, incidence rates, duration and disability weights of temporary and permanent disabilities, life expectancy, and discount rates. Other options include the definition (or elimination) of scenarios for sensitivity analysis, management of investments for developing new technology, and calculation of economic indicators such as the internal rate of return (IRR).The concept of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) is relatively underutilized in the economics literature as a metric for welfare. It is used to measure the potential health benefits of a nutritional intervention. The benefits can be quantified directly using DALYs saved 1 , and costs per DALY saved offer a consistent way of ranking a range of alternative health interventions.Benefits or DALYs saved are calculated by using a scenarios approach in which the health consequences of micronutrient deficiencies are quantified. This approach was developed by Murray and López (1996) and is promoted by WHO and the World Bank as a way of combining information on mortality and morbidity into one index: DALY slost = YLL + YLD temp + YLD perm where, YLL = number of years of life lost due to mortality YLD temp = number of years of life with temporary disability YLD perm = number of years of lfe with permanent disability Zimmerman and Qaim (2004) adapted the general DALYs framework to evaluate the impact of vitamin-A-rich \"Golden Rice\". They identified and quantified the specific health outcomes related to vitamin A deficiency in target populations. Given that their study required focusing on different groups of interest such as children, women, and men, the DALYs formula was rewritten as follows:where, Tj = total number of persons in target group j Mj = mortality rate associated with micronutrient deficiency in group j Lj = average remaining life expectancy for group j Iij = incidence rate of temporary illness i in group j Dij, Dkj = disability weights dij = duration of illness i in group j Ikj = incidence rate of permanet illness k in group j r = discount rate for future costs A monetary value is thus attributed to the DALYs saved, which otherwise would have been lost in a scenario without intervention. This benefit is then compared with the costs involved in developing new technology (e.g. biofortified crop, industrial fortification). By comparing this cost with the flow of benefits (monetary value of DALYs saved) we can generate economic indicators useful for evaluation such as the internal rate of return (IRR) and the benefit-cost ratio (B/C ratio).A monetary value is attributed to the DALYs saved, DALYs that otherwise should be lost in a scenario without intervention in population with micronutrient-deficient diets. This benefit is then compared with the costs involved in developing new technology. The comparison of this cost with the flow of benefits (DALYs saved) allow us to generateThe model incorporates other methodological concepts. These are \"adoption rate\" and \"disadoption\".On release, a new technology is first adopted slowly, becoming progressively accepted by potential users until a point of maximum adoption is reached The logistic function was used to simulate this process.Assuming the rate of adoption of the new technology is A, and that its adoption obeys a logistic function of the type:where At = adoption rate over period t C = rate of coverage of the technology (asymptote) α and β = parameters t = timeTo estimate the value of the adoption rate in every period t, using the previous logistic function, we must know: a. How much the new technology will be used by farmers and to what extent it will be available in the markets of consumers. This value constitutes the asymptote of the function and represents the rate of coverage or the maximum possible value of adoption. b. The percentage of the adoption rates A 1 and A 2 corresponding to periods t 1 and t 2 located in any place on the curve.With this information, parameters α and β of the logistic function can be estimated according to the following formulas: On knowing the values for C, α, and β, the logistic function is fully defined.Taking into account that, in addition to a new technology being adopted by consumers, it can likewise be abandoned or replaced with other new technologies that enter the market. Such elimination behavior constitutes disadoption.  For easy operation, the model has an interface of menus available to users. To guarantee correct operation, users first need to perform the following: a. To ensure that the security level selected in Excel is at Medium, the user selects the menu option Tools, and then Macro and Security... In the displayed window, the user selects the tab Security Level to verify that the option Medium is selected. b. On file Excel opening the user will see a message box in which three available options are presented (Figure 2). The option Enable Macros is then selected.Using MAIN c. Once the message box with the respective credits (Figure 3) is displayed, the user enters the model by selecting the option OK. Likewise, the model displays, in its left upper corner, the main menu made up of four options: VAD Menu, IDA Menu, Zinc Menu, and End (top red box in Figure 4). Each option gives access to another menu of options, which is described in the next section.Each spreadsheet lists the diseases or clinical manifestations that can be attributed to the existence of deficiency of the micronutrient being analyzed. Likewise, vulnerable population groups within the The \"VAD Menu\"This menu presents options to facilitate the analysis corresponding to biofortification with vitamin A (Figure 5).This submenu gives access to 12 options that define the different values needed for the model's calculations; in other words, this is the information that the user must compile and enter into the program. These are:  7. Incidence rates: Incidence is defined as the number of new cases of a disease that develop in a population over a given period (Tapia G 1994). The incidence rate or incidence density is calculated by dividing the incidence value by the sum of individual observation times.Because this type of information can be very difficult to obtain, if prevalence data are available¸ they can be used to approximate incidence rates using the formula:where, P = prevalence DI = density or incidence rate D = average time of duration of the disease.Prevalence quantifies the proportion of individuals of a population who suffer from a disease at a given time or over a given period (Tapia G 1995).The model requests the global incidence rate and the part attributable to vitamin A deficiency for each clinical manifestation in the different groups at risk (see the corresponding list under Disability weights).-Overall: This option requests information on incidence rates for each clinical manifestation in each group at risk, independent of the cause. Because this is an unknown parameter, different scenarios (Optimistic, Pessimistic, and others) can be proposed. This information is provided for calculating 4. This type of data can be obtained from the home pages of, for example, the International Food Information Council Foundation at http://ific.org/publications/other driupdateom.cfm?renderforprint=1 and the Food and Nutrition Information Center at http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/ nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=1. 5. \"The EAR is at the midpoint, where 50 percent of the population would meet the end-point criterion. The RDA, calculated as two standard deviations above the EAR, is the intake level at which, theoretically, 97.5 percent of the population would meet that end-point criterion. AIs are set when data are insufficient to establish an EAR. The AI for a nutrient is a recommended average daily intake level based on observed or experimentally determined approximations or estimates of nutrient intake by a group (or groups) of apparently healthy people and is assumed to be adequate.\" http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/DRI/DRI_Research Synthesis/Ch1_5-14.pdf?debugMode=false the degree of effectiveness with which the diet intervention will reduce vitamin A deficiency. In other words, efficacy refers to the proportion of the current total deficiency that is eliminated by the extra quantity of vitamin A obtained from the diet intervention (e.g. biofortified crop, fortified product, etc.).As for any other possibility, the information required for both of these scenarios is the following:-The additional amount of beta-carotene (μg/g) that is expected to be incorporated into the new diet intervention -The conversion factor beta-carotene to vitamin A, that is, the number of units of beta-carotene that the human body must absorb to produce one unit of retinol. -Estimated percentage of losses in betacarotene content generated between elaboration (or harvest for crops) and consumption of the food from factors such as postharvest handling, storage, exposure to temperature changes, and cooking -Technology coverage rate: Estimated percentage of actual crop production that is expected to be substituted by the use of the new technology (e.g. food fortified, biofortified crop). It is equivalent to the maximum possible value of adoption..1. New scenario: This function creates up to a maximum of 7 new scenarios, requesting, for each, information needed to calculate efficacy, as mentioned above.This function deletes the scenario that is not of interest. Hence, it requests the scenario's number to be deleted. This number should be more than 2, inasmuch as the numbers 1 and 2 are already assigned to the scenarios Optimistic and Pessimistic, respectively.This option permits analysis of economic benefits through indicators such as the IRR and the benefitcost ratio (B/C ratio).1. Investments: Requests data on costs incurred for research, development, dissemination, and maintenance of the new technology (biofortified crop, food fortified, etc). When this option is used, the model requests the following data:- 2. IRR calculate: This option calculates the IRR and B/C ratio for all proposed scenarios, with results displayed in a summary table entitled, \"Impact of parameter variations on results\".Refers to the speed, from one year to the next, at which the magnitude of benefits from biofortification diminishes as a consequence of dilution or genetic loss of the improved trait. In practice, this situation should be corrected by incorporating fresh new material to the seed market. If the technology refers to a type of food other than a biofortified crop, the value may be considered as \"zero\" for this parameter. Or, a value can be used to represent the rejection that the product may be exposed to on the market where it comes into competition with substitute products.This menu presents options to facilitate the analysis corresponding to biofortification with iron (Figure 6).This submenu gives access to 9 options that define the different values needed for the model's calculations:1. Crop and region names: Requests the names of the biofortified crop and the region where the effects of biofortified crop are to be evaluated.2. Population: Requests information on the population in each group at risk:-Children aged ≤5 years -Children aged 6-14 years -Women aged ≥15 years -Men aged ≥15 years.3. Disability weights: Requests information on the weighted value (%) assigned to the disability caused by iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) for each clinical manifestation in the different groups at risk, where 0 (zero) implies no disability and 1 (one) implies total and permanent disability or death:-Impaired physical activity (moderate, severe) for children -Impaired mental development (moderate, severe) for children -Impaired physical activity (moderate, severe) for adults.   This menu presents options to facilitate the analysis corresponding to biofortification with zinc (Figure 7).Using MAINThis submenu gives access to 10 options that define the different values needed for the model's calculations:1. Crop and region names: Requests the names of the biofortified crop and the region where the effects of the biofortified crop are to be evaluated.2. Population: Requests information on the total population in the study region and each group at risk:-Infants (aged 0-12 months) -Children aged 1-5 years.Requests information on the weighted value (%) assigned to the disability caused by zinc deficiency for each clinical manifestation in the different groups at risk, where 0 (zero) implies no disability and 1 (one) implies total and permanent disability or death.-Infants (aged 0-12 months) -Diarrhea -Pneumonia -Stunting -Children aged 1-5 years -Diarrhea -Pneumonia.The model requests the incidence rate for each clinical manifestation in the different groups at risk:-Infants (aged 0-12 months):-Diarrhea-average number of episodes per infant/year -Diarrhea-percentage of all cases attributable to zinc deficiency -Pneumonia-average number of episodes per infant/year -Pneumonia-percentage of all cases attributable to zinc deficiency -Incidence rate of stunting for infants -Children aged 1-5 year:-Diarrhea-average number of episodes per child/year -Diarrhea-percentage of all cases attributable to zinc deficiency -Pneumonia-average number of episodes per child/year -Pneumonia-percentage of all cases attributable to zinc deficiency.Defines the average duration of episodes of disease:-Infants (aged 0-12 months):-Diarrhea (days) -Pneumonia (days) -Children aged 1-5 years:-Diarrhea (days) -Pneumonia (days).6. Average age of onset of stunting: Requests age, in number of months, at which disease is suffered.Standard life expectancy at age of onset for:-Infants (aged 0-12 months) -Children aged 1-5 years.8. Data on mortality rate: This option requests the following information:-Crude births per 1000 -Percentage of all live births (as output of all pregnancies) -Percentage of all deaths attributable to zinc deficiency (infant and child mortality) -Mortality rate for infants per 1000 live births -Mortality rate for children aged 1-5 years per 1000 live births.Note: For the menu options listed below, see the descriptions given in the \"VAD Menu\". Results 2. New rates of incidence and the number of people who continue to be affected by micronutrient deficiency, even after intervention (Figure 9).4. DALYSs saved or potential annual benefits resulting from intervention (Figure 11).  ","tokenCount":"2549"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"365b7f6ece79e9140da27667a7c7ed87","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/653ec061-7411-42a8-a9e4-e4ccfb148c23/retrieve","id":"1970407419"},"keywords":["Leveraging legumes to combat poverty","hunger","malnutrition and environmental degradation"],"sieverID":"376bda95-87a9-4934-adaa-60476a61233e","pagecount":"1","content":"• Phenotyping for heat tolerance under field conditions at Armero, Colombia, using 36 SEF (Interspecific: P. vulgaris x P. acutifolius x P. coccineus) lines • Phenotyping for response to heat stress in common bean was conducted under controlled conditions using two polycarbonate greenhouses established at CIAT headquarters • Genome size measurements in addition with Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) and Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) data were analyzed with NGSEP to develop a SNPs marker data set along the bean genome to detect introgression blocks of P. acutifolious haplotypes in the P. vulgaris interspecific lines.• Phaseolus acutifolius and its progeny presented higher pollen viability under heat stress • Photosynthate mobilization from vegetative structures to pod formation and subsequently to grain formation are key processes in improving heat tolerance. • Several genotypes that combine traits related to heat tolerance were identified for use as parents in the breeding program for this limitation. • Several P. acutifolious introgression blocks were detected with interspecific lines on chromosomes 08 and 11. • Genome size differences reflect the amount of genetic information hidden in tepary. • Phenotypic differences in response to heat stress were observed in common bean under field and greenhouse conditions • Results from field and greenhouse evaluation confirmed that Phaseolus acutifolius is an important and useful genetic resource in improving heat tolerance (Figures 1 and 2). • In common bean pollen formation and viability is the reproductive period most sensitive to heat.(interspecific) breeding lines (Figures 3 and 4)• Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important food legume, cultivated by small farmers and usually exposed to unfavorable conditions. • Based on analysis using 19 global climate models, they concluded that, with current varieties, the area suited for bean production will have shrunk up to 50% by about 2050. • With heat-tolerant beans, the reduction will be only 5%, even assuming conservatively that the tolerant beans can handle a temperature rise of only 3 degrees. • In some parts of Africa and Latin America, farmers adopting the heat beaters will actually be able to expand production on land where it's normally too hot for beans. • Tepary bean (P. acutifolius) is an important source of heat tolerance due to its evolution under dry and hot environments.   View publication stats View publication stats","tokenCount":"378"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6b862630c3d27028394596ee653a788f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e47f26d8-6fd1-45c9-9655-3aaa6d884ebc/retrieve","id":"-1391871714"},"keywords":["Climate action","climate-smart agriculture","case study","SWOT"],"sieverID":"ca079a86-fc8f-425f-ad38-fe7542fe394d","pagecount":"53","content":"This paper documents the testimonials of those who implemented the Myanmar Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy (MCSAS) and accounts of those who experienced its application on the ground. Success stories and challenges in implementing MCSAS were documented. Based on the stakeholder interviews conducted, MCSAS is proven to be a valuable document in guiding the implementation of context-specific climate actions in Myanmar. Nineteen government and NGO programs, four policy documents, and an estimate of one billion USD investments were influenced by MCSAS. Following the MCSAS, the National Climate-Smart Agriculture Center of Yezin Agricultural University was established in 2018. Several projects focusing on farmers, particularly the Climate-Smart Village in the Dry Zone and the Farmer Field School in the Delta Zone, were also studied to understand the depth of the influence of MCSAS. In these cases, climate-smart practices adopted have helped farmers coped with climate change and increased their household incomes. Nevertheless, suggestions were made to further improve the Strategy with more specific actions that could be implemented and the funding options that implementers could pursue. The Strategy also needs to be integrated into the current programs of the government and its contents translated in the local language in a format that local people can understand.Moreover, the frequency of monsoon depressions and cyclone formation in the Bay of Bengal has declined since 1970, but their intensity is becoming stronger, causing severe floods and dealing damages to life and property (Parry et al., 2005).Based on the records in the last six decades , the rainfall in Myanmar has increased by an average of 29 millimetres per decade. Changes in rainfall have also influenced the duration of the monsoon season. The start of the southwest monsoon has been pushed at the latter part of the year while its withdrawal occurs earlier in the year (Aye, 2016). The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, with the aid of the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System, projected that from 2021-2050, the entire country would be warmed at 1.2-1.8 ºC every June-November.In the other months, the temperature would remain warm at the same magnitude but would be experienced only in the southern part of Myanmar and its deltaic region. Elsewhere in the country, warming would increase by 2.5-3.0 ºC from December-May.Meanwhile, precipitation was projected to increase by 10% over most parts of the country from March-November. In the northern, eastern, and central regions, rain would decrease by up to 80% during the cold months of December-February (Policarpio, 2015).The key features of probable climate trends at the country level for Myanmar are: (i) a general increase in temperature with more extremely hot days and more extreme rainfall, resulting in more droughts and floods; (ii) an increased risk of flooding as a result of higher average rainfall intensity in monsoon events; and (iii) more variable rainfall in the rainy season, with an increase across the country fromMarch to November and a decrease between December and February (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation [MONREC], 2018).Myanmar is now experiencing more intense floods, cyclones, and droughts that deal immense loss of lives and suffering, damages to infrastructure and assets, and economic impacts. The impacts of climate change are felt down to the societal level, as the people's wellbeing and productive capacities, particularly in agricultural farming, are affected. Specifically, the shortening monsoon season and the increasing average annual temperatures are reducing the productivity of agriculture, pushing the people out of the country to seek for livelihood opportunities abroad.This calls for more collective actions among relevant stakeholders, including the Government of Myanmar, civil society organizations (CSOs), non-government organizations, and local communities.The challenge now is for them to work together to build a climate-resilient and low-carbon Myanmar. This paper aimed to assess the relevance of the Strategy as a guide or reference of donors, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), international organizations, and government offices for their development/investment plan or curriculum development in Myanmar.The study involved several stakeholder interviews and case studies. Based on the desk review of the current agricultural projects that focus on climate change, food security, and agriculture in Myanmar, the key informants for stakeholder interview were chosen and contacted for their permission and availability. The interviews were conducted from 3-30 April 2019. A total of nine government officials from two ministries and eight personnel from NGOs and development agencies granted personal interviews. Stakeholder interview resultsIn examining the relevance of the MCSAS within the operations of government institutions in Myanmar, six major departments/institutions appeared to be relevant. MOALI was mandated to build the CSA system in the country. Under MOALI, the DOA, DAR, DOP, and YAU were tasked to formulate, implement, and coordinate in climate change, agriculture and food security matters. ECD under MONREC was the national focal point for all climate change policies and their related programs and projects in the country. Based on the extent of integration and incorporation of MCSAS into their activity, the discussions with the concerned departments were presented.1.1 Department of Agriculture, MOALI DOA implements the agricultural policies and strategies of MOALI, including the MCSAS. The main responsibilities of DOA are supporting the utilization of modern, advanced and sustainable production; processing and packaging technologies; and improving supply, transport and marketing technologies to increase the production of safe and nutritious agricultural, livestock, and fishery food products. These products are all capable of satisfying the growing needs and demands of local and external markets.Aside from these responsibilities, DOA is tasked to help farming communities in facing existing climate extremes and stresses in agriculture. As a response, DOA suggested the following points: One of the principles of CSA is mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As GHG emissions are mainly from soil process, soil management practices for GHG mitigation are being taught to staff and farmers. Moreover, since soil or land degradation is likely to bring more severe damages, soil and water conservation technologies such as Sloping Agricultural Land Technology, contouring, water harvesting, and conservation agriculture should be promoted. MCSAS should be translated in Myanmar language to be understood by the farmers. Specific action plans should be added but should be in line with the current agriculture-related policies and the Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS).DAR is mandated \"to develop improved high yielding varieties and hybrids with good quality and good regional adaptation to generate a profitable cropping system and production technology, to develop crop The Strategy guides DAR when it formulates its annual master plan of research programs. Specifically, Table 1 presents the ongoing research projects of DAR guided by the MCSAS. Although the Strategy was being adopted by relevant government offices, a few concerns still arose based on the experience of DAR. For example, DAR pointed out the lack of information on the implementation plan, as well as the monitoring and evaluation process of MCSAS. In relation to this concern, the Department also called for developing specific action plans that are consistent with the Strategy.Furthermore, public-private collaborations could improve its implementation. These collaborations could be formed by communicating the Strategy well to all relevant stakeholders. At the same time, the MCSAS must complement Myanmar's ADS and follow its sustainable development plan to catalyse an efficient implementation.The MCSAS was believed to be an effective guide to build the resilience of agriculture systems while minimizing their emissions, both of which could enhance food and nutritional security and improve the livelihoods in the country. It must overcome communication-related hurdles such as the awareness of rural communities and encourage their participation to ensure its proper implementation. The ECD also utilized the MCSAS in crafting its master plans on climate change and agriculture. This led to a comprehensive plan for the two interconnected issues, which was eventually launched by the Myanmar government this 2019. These were the guiding policy and strategic framework that would ensure that concrete, coordinated, and sustained actions over a long run could transform Myanmar into a low-carbon and resilient country.The MCSAS was deemed as a strategic document in crafting the master plan for the agriculture sector.After the Master Plan was crafted, the following activities were conducted by the Alliance: Agriculture is an important means of livelihood in Myanmar, making the adaptation actions on this sector priorities of the government. In this regard, UNEP is working on several projects that help reinforce the multisectoral TWG on climate change. These projects include the Least DevelopedCountries Negotiators Global Support Programme, National Adaptation Plan Global Support Programme, and two Least Developed Countries Fund projects that will help Myanmar adapt to climate change and maintain and strengthen the institutional capacity needed to deal with this issue.Based on the experience of MCCA and UN Environment, they highlighted the following points concerned with MCSAS. Following the MCSAS, the FAO SLM-GEF project collaborates with MOALI in integrating various related programs. A few priority programs stated from the MCSAS such as coherent policy institutional strengthening, R&D, enhanced crop varieties and farming practices, public awareness, and information and advisory service were integrated into the policy, strategy, and action plans of the SLM-GEF project.The activities in FFSs and the establishment of the CSA Center were only two of the success stories that arose from this collaboration.According to interview results, they viewed the MCSAS as a good reference to collaborate with governments and international organizations to address climate change issues in agriculture. The FAO SLM-GEF project representative explicitly stated that the MCSAS was a useful source of information for their program and some parts of the Strategy could be used as a training material when conducting trainings. MCSAS provided all stakeholders with an overall understanding of MOALI's priorities related with climate change issues in agriculture. The stakeholders learned about the contents of short-, medium-, and long-term steps of CSA implementation in Myanmar. However, the MOALI staff, specifically the junior personnel, are yet to be assessed if they can fully understand the Strategy because it is currently available only in the English language.Regarding the other plans of the FAO SLM-GEF project on climate change and agriculture, the CSA activities mentioned in the MCSAS will be implemented as much as possible during the project period.Furthermore, FAO actively collaborates with government institutions to craft coherent policies on priority programs of cross-cutting thrusts in the MCSAS.Similar with the stakeholders interviewed, the FAO SLM-GEF project provided recommendations to improve the MCSAS:  to provide complementary support in the implementation of the MCSAS; to contribute in the body of knowledge available for local and international organizations working towards the resilience of vulnerable communities in the country; to test and adopt the CSV approach as a platform for community-based adaptation processes and for developing and testing climate-smart and nutrition-smart technologies in each agroecological zone of Myanmar;Following the MCSAS, IIRR works in R&D, institutional strengthening, crop varieties and farming practices, crop and income loss risk management, disaster risk management, gender perspective in CSA, CSV approach, public awareness on climate change, information and advisory service, and climateresilient investment agenda of various projects. In doing so, IIRR believes that the MCSAS is an important piece of policy document because: (i) it provides the vision and direction on how Myanmar will build resilience on its agriculture sectors; (ii) it serves as a platform for collaboration between government, international NGOs, and donors to direct crucial investments to the components of building a climate-resilient agriculture sector in the country; and (iii) it laid out the priorities for government budget and personnel that needs action.The strengths of the MCSAS, as listed by the IIRR, are: MCSAS follows a systems approach to the entire agriculture sector and not only focusing on crops. It provides opportunities to anchor CSA in the broader program of rural development. MCSAS recognizes the role and value of stakeholders such as government, academe, private sector, and development organizations in achieving climate resilience in agriculture. MCSAS prioritizes knowledge generation and sharing, which is important in the process of climate adaptation.IIRR pointed out the following aspects in the MCSAS that could still be improved and strengthened: The current document lacks a provision for implementing mechanisms. It needs to define the lead office, the collaborating agencies, and their roles and responsibilities. The MCSAS lacks a long-term investment plan that will present how the implementation will be funded. The MCSAS must tackle other aspects that can improve the climate resilience of Myanmar.These include food security, nutrition, food systems, infrastructure development, and agriculture finance.The new project, \"Applying seasonal climate forecasting and innovative insurance solutions to climate risk management in the agriculture sector in South East Asia\" complements CSV activities, providing climate information services and crop advisory in Myanmar that will benefit farmers, institutions, and business sectors along the climate service value chain. Aside from this, IIRR-Myanmar is committed to develop and implement climate resilience in agriculture as its flagship program.The Network Activities Group (NAG) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to improving the lives of people in Myanmar. The main approaches of NAG are building the capacity of the people and community-based and CSOs, creating economic opportunities and promoting good governance in target areas. Overall, NAG aims to implement sustainable development activities for the poor and vulnerable people of Myanmar.The strategic aim of NAG are to (1) promote relevant and viable business opportunities for the communities through increased access to investments, technology, and capital; (2) establish strong policies, specifically in natural resource management, food security, and livelihood development, through active community participation; (3) empower communities by allowing them to speak up in decision-making processes; and (4) fulfilling their basic needs through accountability and transparency.These activities, many of which are focusing on livelihood development, food security, and natural resource management, started in 2015 and would end in 2020.Following the MCSAS, NAG implemented the following programs with international NGOs (Table 4). Based on the discussions with NAG, they recognized that the MCSAS is a valuable reference for implementing climate change-related projects in agriculture. Specifically, the following programs were attributed from the Strategy: coherent policy formulation, institutional strengthening, public awareness, improvement of crop varieties and farming practices, public awareness, crop and income loss risk management, disaster risk management, and information and advisory service. Following those programs, NAG's current activities on rice seed production and marketing became relevant to the MCSAS. A total of 700 smallholder rice farmers from 33 villages in two townships participated on these programs.The NAG added that the Strategy is relevant to local NGOs as well since it deals with preparing projects on climate change and agriculture. This must be translated to the local language, though, to be understood even by non-experts. From these activities, Cesvi was able to generate a few success stories: Enhanced knowledge and skills on CSA practices such as optimized plant population, minimum tillage, natural compost, and insecticide making and use and increased accessibility to the following: CSA advisory services at the community level government extension agents; and drought-, heat-tolerant, pest-resistant short-duration crop varieties  During the project intervention, farmers could harvest 15% more yield than those that practised monocropping (only groundnut) and could even reduce the risk of climate change and market instability. A total of 450 acres of lands established for agroforestry plantations  Over 3,000 farmers received climate-resilient crops and varieties through village-level seed multiplication farms even beyond the project support. Among the 500 seed growing farmers, 30% of them achieved a 10% increase in income by producing and distributing qualified seeds. Using locally made rice and multi-crop threshers, food loss was reduced from 38% to 24% in paddy, from 50% to 34% in groundnut, and from 53% to 35% in pulses (green gram, pigeon pea and green gram). Three kinds of heat-tolerant rice varieties were chosen by farmers and scientists through four times of mothers and baby trails in Shwe Bo and Myingyan Townships. A new variety, the YZG99013 groundnut, was chosen by farmers and scientists as the best drought-tolerant variety.The future plans of Cesvi related with climate change that are dependent on donor approval are: ( Based on the MCSAS, research and extension was deemed as an entry point to formulate coherent policies and build strong national and local institutions. Still, the Strategy must address sustainable management of natural resources such as crop lands, forest lands, and residues to promote rural and agricultural development.The Myanmar Institute for Integrated Development (MIID) is a non-profit institute collaborating with governments, communities, local CSOs and NGOs, international organizations, and technical specialists to strengthen capacities, governance processes, knowledge bases, and intervention models for an integrated development program. Several activities of MIID that could be related with the MCSAS are improving livelihoods, enhancing access to water supply, and equipping communities with relevant capacities to address key issues and manage natural resources in the Southern Shan State. These are conducted with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).Several action plans of MIID related with climate change and agriculture are natural resource management and agriculture, food security, and nutrition. All of these plans contribute to the adaptation and mitigation measures of Myanmar to its agriculture sector. The project of MIID that is specifically related with agriculture is the \"HIMILICA: Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation project,\" which was implemented in the Nyaung Shwe and Kalaw Townships in Southern Shan State from January 2014-December 2017. HIMILICA was a 700,000-dollar project whose primary beneficiaries were mountainous communities. The project reached 400 farmers with the help of ICIMOD.MIID has yet to fully access the MCSAS, keeping them from providing feedbacks about the Strategy's utilization on the ground. This calls for an improved availability and accessibility of the Strategy to local NGOs. It must be translated to the local language to enable them to fully grasp its contents.3. Strengths, Weaknesses of, Opportunities for, and Threats to the MCSAS  The current document does not define clearly how actions will be implemented. Specific action plans and map plans are missing; the roles and expected contributions of implementing offices are still vague. The MCSAS lacks a clear long-term investment plan. It should cover other related issues such as food security, nutrition, food systems, infrastructure development, and agriculture finance. Moreover, the Strategy must be in line with Myanmar's ADS. The MCSAS must be written in both English and Myanmar languages to improve its accessibility to relevant stakeholders. It is not yet known if the staff from MOALI can access or fully understand the MCSAS. The Strategy lacks complementing outreach materials written in the Myanmar language and suited for various audience groups. The sustainability of the action plans is still in question. Farmers have poor level of knowledge about climate change. Stakeholders can understand the overall picture of MOALI's climate change policy as the MCSAS mentioned its short-, medium-, and long-terms steps.  The MCSAS must be discussed in communities and schools through awareness campaigns and academic activities. It can be integrated with the discussions on climate change and disaster preparedness. Systematic observation and research activities are needed, together with technical, financial, and expert support. The farmers understanding, or lack thereof, may hinder their motivation to change their practices.Any intervention must be communicated in a format they can understand. The lack of clear guidelines on implementation, roles and responsibilities, investment plans, and other key information may discourage stakeholders to utilize the Strategy. The activities that can come from the MCSAS may be redundant if they are not properly integrated with the existing policies, strategies, and programs of the government. Integration with programs concerning related issues (food security, agricultural finance, and nutrition, among others) must be achieved as well.  They provided local farmers with rice seeds to apply CSA practices on their fields. Among those who received rice seeds, champions were selected to share their practices via farmer-to-farmer approach.These champions were obliged to showcase their lands and assist in the demonstrations. Aside from demonstration exercises, knowledge sharing and training programs were conducted under an FFS. On a normal program, a credible resource person would speak in the morning; the practical part of the program will follow in the afternoon.A farmer named U Win Naing shared his experiences as a farmer champion. At 52 years old, he already has 35 years of experiences on his 10-acre farm. Before adopting the SRI, he was practicing traditional methods that he believed would produce better yields. When he adopted the SRI, he saw that the seedlings were smaller and younger than those produced from traditional methods. He realized then that these seedlings had grown stronger and eventually convinced his fellow farmers to adopt the SRI and other CSA practices as well.By that time, they had believed that the CSA practices they adopted were suitable on their farms. He received various forms of incentives for his service as a champion of the SRI method. Even with these testimonials, the impacts of the FFS programs are difficult to view and measure since this intervention is only at the implementation stage. However, according to the interview results, the FFS programs has just achieved its desired results, some of which are even visible already: increased crop yields and increased CSA adoption rate of farmers. Their awareness on the relationship of climate change and agriculture has also improved significantly.The project implementation employed an educational approach, wherein participants learned in a classroom-like setting and applied the lessons in demonstration farms and site visits. By the end of this FFS program, there may be a sustainable application of CSA practices.The second case study is conducted in one of the CSVs managed by IIRR. The CSV is found in the dry zone of Myanmar. processing in toddy palm and tamarind as sources of livelihood. Crop cultivation accounts for 50% of the livelihood activities followed by livestock rearing at 15%. The village administrator reported that farmers were primarily growing pigeon pea, tomato, sesame, and groundnut on the 1000 acres of arable lands in the village.In 2017, the Htee Pu CSV was established by IIRR and the Community Development Association. They conducted participatory varietal selection on pigeon pea, ground nuts, and green grams, as well as smallscale livestock rearing, cultivation of perennial fruit trees at home, FFS, and trainings on agricultural practices. Among these activities, the farmers were most interested on school garden, small-scale livestock rearing, and home gardening.At the beginning of the project, IIRR gave some fruit trees such as mango, guava, and pomegranate to the farmers who owned 30 acres of farmlands. This was to promote income diversification and reduce potential losses from the effects of climate change. Currently, 20 women-led households were tapped to grow jackfruit, dragon fruit, and custard apple on their lands as additional source of income and contribution to nutrition security. Meanwhile, to establish small-scale livestock farming, the project provided two goats to those women-led households as they are deemed poor and lacking the capacity to conduct home-based businesses. He had received 50 mango seedlings from IIRR and eventually grown his mango plantation to 100 trees.He found this alternative better than monocropping since it reduces the frequency of land preparation. Now, using the knowledge and skills he learned from the other CSV programs implemented on his community, he plans to adopt rainwater harvesting and storage for his farm. He expressed his enthusiasm in leaning water-saving technologies.Neighboring farmers finally noticed the benefits of this alternative practice and planned to adopt it on their farms. Htee Pu Village is now becoming a potential area for mango production in the Naung U","tokenCount":"3860"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ee148ba7ae02ac9a714c6f91de9b141e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/dd811ce1-9300-4a90-bb99-d4a5e89be31e/content","id":"339213636"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2db3b44b-0d1a-402f-bd9e-eaf05d468a41","pagecount":"16","content":"The Item-Based Collaborative Filtering for Multitrait and Multienvironment Data (IBCF.MTME) package was developed to implement the item-based collaborative filtering (IBCF) algorithm for continuous phenotypic data in the context of plant breeding where data are collected for various traits and environments. The main difference between this package and the other available packages that can implement IBCF is that this one was developed for continuous phenotypic data, which cannot be implemented in the current packages because they can implement IBCF only for binary and ordinary phenotypes. In the following article, we will show how to both install the package and use it for studying the prediction accuracy of multitrait and multienvironment data under phenotypic and genomic selection. We illustrate its use with seven examples (with information from two datasets, Wheat_IBCF and Year_IBCF, which are included in the package) comprising multienvironment data, multitrait data, and both multitrait and multienvironment data that cover scenarios in which breeding scientists are interested. The package offers many advantages for studying the genomic-enabled prediction accuracy of multitrait and multienvironment data, ultimately helping plant breeders make better decisions.G lobal food production must increase by 70% by 2050 to feed an additional 2.3 billion people; in developing countries, it needs to almost double. Although production will not need to grow as fast as in previous decades because of a slowdown in population growth rates, it must be pointed out that incomes are growing, and the volume requirements are remarkable. For example, an additional one billion tons of cereals and 200 million tons of meat will need to be produced annually by 2050 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2009). Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase agricultural productivity to meet the enormous challenges facing humanity. Simply stated, current improvements in crop production through genetics and agronomy are insufficient (less than half of what isneeded) to support the predicted human activities caused by population growth and increased prosperity by 2050. The predicted 9 billion people in 2050 will consume the same amount of agricultural products that 12 billion people would consume today (Godfray et al., 2010).Consequently, breeding scientists need innovative methods to be able to reach the goal of increasing food production without significantly increasing the land used for agricultural production. Genomic selection (GS) facilitates the rapid selection of superior genotypes and accelerates the breeding cycle (Crossa et al., 2017), which could increase grain production in less time and revolutionize animal breeding and plant breeding. For example, in some beef breeds, GS is now applied on a large scale, as in the United States where more than 52,000 'Angus' cattle (Bos taurus L.) have now been genotyped for genomic estimated breeding value evaluation (Lourenco et al., 2015). Furthermore, the results of simulations and applications in some breeding programs show evidence of the power of GS (Meuwissen et al., 2001;Bernardo and Yu, 2007;Lorenzana and Bernardo, 2009;Heffner et al., 2009;2010), since it has been shown to improve genetic gains (Massman et al., 2013;Asoro et al., 2013;Combs and Bernardo, 2013;Beyene et al., 2015;Rutkoski et al., 2015) and significantly reduce the time needed to release new varieties of plants and animals. If we compare the results of maize (Zea mays L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding programs that use traditional selection to programs that use GS, though it is comparable to the traditional scheme, GS produces considerable savings in time and resources (Massman et al., 2013;Asoro et al., 2013;Combs and Bernardo, 2013;Beyene et al., 2015;Rutkoski et al., 2015).However, the GS approach depends heavily on the quality of the data at hand and on the statistical methods: GS uses statistical models for predicting individuals in the validation set that were genotyped by using only the individuals in the training set that were phenotyped and genotyped. As such, when the data quality is poor, we cannot expect good predictions. Along the same lines, when the training set is very small, the model will most probably not work well for prediction. When the structure and size of the data are complex, it is more difficult to make good predictions because we cannot process the very large datasets that are becoming more common in GS. Last but not least, the type of statistical model used is essential for making good predictions. Accordingly, plant breeders and statisticians are continuously searching for better statistical methods to improve the prediction power of the GS paradigm. Whereas this type of research has increased the number of statistical methods that are currently used in GS, there is still a need for better statistical methods to increase prediction power considerably.This lack of statistical methods for GS is more evident in the context of multitrait and multienvironment data, since many of today´s breeding programs want to improve lines with multiple traits tested in different environments simultaneously. In this sense, there are some models available, such as the Bayesian multitrait and multienvironment model proposed by Montesinos-López et al. (2016) for continuous data, and its Bayesian counterpart for count data (Montesinos-López et al., 2017). However, the main disadvantage of these models is that they are not at all efficient in the context of the large datasets that are becoming more and more common in the GS context. Therefore, to address the lack of methods for multitrait and multienvironment data, Montesinos-López et al. (2018) proposed the IBCF algorithm, which proved to be comparable to the conventional multitrait and multienvironment models, but had the advantage of being very efficient in terms of the time required for its implementation.The IBCF is an algorithm attributed to Amazon. com (Linden et al., 2003). It is a type of collaborative filtering method for recommender systems based on the similarity between items calculated from people's ratings of those items (Linden et al., 2003;Sarwar et al., 2001). This method first executes a model-building stage by finding the similarity between all pairs of items. This similarity function can take many forms, such as the correlation between ratings or the cosine of those rating vectors. Afterwards, the system executes a recommendation stage. It uses the items that are most similar to a user's already-rated items to generate a list of recommendations. Usually, this calculation is a weighted sum or linear regression. This form of recommendation is similar to \"People who rate Item X highly, like you, also tend to rate Item Y highly, and you haven't rated Item Y yet, so you should try it\" (Linden et al., 2003;Sarwar et al., 2001). This algorithm is used for making online recommendations of products like movies, music, news, books, research articles, search queries, social tags, and products in general. Although software for implementing this method is available, the available software for IBCF works only for binary or ordinal responses, since most products are rated on a binary or ordinal scale. The advantage of this method is that it can be successfully implemented in the context of plant breeding for continuous phenotypes to make predictions in the context of multitrait and multienvironment data, as was done by Montesinos-López et al. (2018). However, no software is available for its implementation in the context of plant breeding for continuous traits.Therefore, we propose an R package called IBCF. MTME for studying the prediction accuracy of datasets that are collected as multitrait and multienvironment data (R Core Team, 2018). However, it can only be used with multitrait or multienvironment data and is only appropriate for continuous phenotypes. We provide many useful tools that facilitate the study of the prediction accuracy of multitrait and multienvironment datasets, which are very common in plant breeding. We illustrate the use of the package by giving six examples that cover many practical scenarios of interest to plant breeders. Additionally, we provide tools for data transformation and summary plots to help breeders prepare the dataset the package requires as input, as well as explain how to interpret its results.The IBCF algorithm is very popular with electronic commerce websites for recommending items and products, in which they use inputs about a customer's interests to generate a list of recommended items. This algorithm was recently implemented in GS and proved to be comparable to conventional whole-genome prediction models when the correlation between traits and environments was moderate or high (Montesinos-López et al., 2018). The IBCF algorithm basically works by building a database of users' preferences (lines) for items (trait-environment combinations), as can be seen in Table 1, which provides the raw phenotypic data on six lines evaluated in two different environments (E1 and E2) for two different traits (T1 and T2), with both traits measured in different scales. This raw phenotypic dataset has four missing values. By column, we then standardize Eq. [1] for each column in Table 1 (except the first one):where i denotes the users (lines) and j denotes the columns (trait-environment combinations). We then use the standardized information to form Table 2. In this example, i = 1,…,6, j = 1,2…,4, μ j is the mean of column j, and σ j denotes the SD of Column j. In addition, for purposes of comparison, the true values of the missing values are: y 11 = 5.4387, y 24 = 80.009, y 42 = 6.979, and y 63 = 72.085. We then calculated Pearson's correlations among the columns of Table 2 (trait-environment combinations), which are given in Table 3. We used the following formula (Sarwar et al., 2001;Montesinos-López et al., 2018) to calculate the predictions for the missing phenotypes of line i in item j:.whereis the scaled predictive phenotype for user (line) i on item (trait-environment) j, N i (j) denotes the items rated by user (line) i as being most similar to item j, w jjʹ is the weight between items j and jʹ. The weights used in Eq. [2] are obtained from an item-to-item similarity matrix built from Pearson's correlation (given in Table 3), which provides information on how similar an item is to another item.Next, we illustrate how to calculate the four missing values via Eq. [2]. First, we calculate the scaled predicted value for y 11 : 11 1.2988 0.7103 0.0127 0.8838 0.6769 0.9912 0.6207 0.7103 0.8838 0.9912The predicted value of y 11 in its original scale is equal to 11 11 0.6207 1.2836 6.9719 6.17 . This means that the predicted value of Line 1 in traitenvironment Combination 1 ( 11 ŷ ) is 6.1752 , which is close to the true value of 5.4386873 . Next, we show how to calculate the predicted value of the missing value, 24 ˆ; y first, the scaled predicted value is equal to the following: 24 0.6815 0.9912 0.7465 0.7463 0.9406 0.9521 0.7913 0.9912 0.7463 0.9521The predicted value of 24 y in its original scale is then equal to = ´s + m = .[5]The predicted value of 42 y in its original scale is equal to . This means that the predicted value of Line 6 in trait-environment Combination 3 ( 63 ŷ ) is 71.1097, which is close to its true value, 72.0845 .As this example shows, the calculations are easy but laborious; however, the IBCF.MTME package does this job automatically for us and the dataset required can be on different scales (not standardized) for the traits; in other words, the traits can be measured on different scales. Internally, the IBCF.MTME package standardizes () in each column of the dataset given in Table 4 (which shows the format of the type of data required) for the training dataset obtained in each random partition. This implies that to use the formula given in Eq. [2] for making predictions about a particular traitenvironment combinations, the data are standardized and the similarity matrix resulting from the corresponding training dataset of a particular partition selected from the whole dataset in Table 4 is computed. Therefore, the predictions are obtained by using Eq. [2] with the parameters estimates obtained from the training dataset corresponding to each partition and the predictions are made for the observations in the testing dataset.The IBCF.MTME package can implement a random cross-validation. This method consists of randomly dividing the whole dataset into two subsets: the training (TRN) dataset and the testing (TST) dataset. The percentage of the whole dataset assigned to the TRN and TST datasets is fixed by the user. For example, for each random partition, 80% of the whole dataset can be assigned to the TRN and the remaining 20% to the TST dataset. Random cross-validation is different from K-fold cross-validation because the partitions are not mutually exclusive; this means that in the random cross-validation approach, one observation can appear in more than one partition. Consequently, some samples cannot be evaluated, whereas others can be evaluated more than once, meaning that the testing and training subsets can be superimposed.The random cross-validation procedure explained above is the best option when the data are not stratified. For this reason, the datasets for breeding programs in the context of multienvironment data are stratified by environments. Therefore, the random cross-validation explained above was modified so it could be implemented in the IBCF.MTME package. For multienvironment data on only one trait, the problem of predicting the performance of lines in environments where they have not been evaluated was considered. This validation design mimics the prediction problem faced by breeders in incomplete field trials where lines have been evaluated in some but not all target environments. The TRN-TST partitions for this prediction problem were obtained as follows: since the total number of records available for the dataset with multienvironments and only one trait is N = J × I, to select the lines in the TST data set, the user fixes the percentage of data to be used for TST (PTesting). We then chose PTesting × N (lines) at random; subsequently, one environment per line was randomly picked from the index of environments (i = 1, 2, …, I). The resulting cells (ij) were assigned to the TST dataset and the ones not selected through this algorithm were used for the TRN dataset. Lines were sampled without replacement if J ≥ PTesting × N and with replacement otherwise (López-Cruz et al., 2015). The construction of the TRN-TST datasets for multitrait and multienvironment data was similar to the construction of the multienvironment data explained above. However, since the data are now for multiple traits and multiple environments, we assume that the response variable is missing for all the traits under study and not just for the one missing in the multienvironment dataset. On the other hand, for multitrait data with only one environment, the construction of the TRN-TST datasets was exactly the same as the construction of the multienvironment data, with the assumption that environments are taken as traits.We also provide another type of cross-validation that is only useful when we want to predict certain traits of some lines that are missing in one or more years (or environments) but are present in others. However, in this type of cross-validation, there is only one partition (one testing set and one training set; no subsampling); subsequently, in the output for each year-trait or environment-trait combination for both metrics [Pearson's correlation and mean square error of prediction (MSEP)], it was impossible to estimate the SE. This type of crossvalidation is needed when breeders want to predict certain traits for some years (or environments) based on the information for all traits in other years or environments.Under all types of scenarios for constructing the TRN-TST dataset for each partition, the IBCF model is fitted with the TRN dataset and calculates predictions for the TST dataset. Finally, with the output of each TST Table 4. Phenotypic information in its original scale for building the rating matrix for multitrait and multienvironment data for J genotypes, I environments, and L traits.Trait-environment combinations. † G, genotypes; E, environment; T, trait; y ijl , the phenotype from the j th line in the i th environment for the l th trait.dataset, two metrics (in this package, they were Pearson's correlation and MSEP) were used to measure prediction accuracy; they were calculated with the information on the observed and predicted values of the testing dataset. The final outputs for both metrics are the arithmetic mean and SE of the random partitions implemented.A summary of prediction accuracies is given for traitenvironment combinations or trait-year combinations, since it is very important in varietal recommendations to evaluate prediction accuracy at the environment level for genotypes and traits because of the importance of genotype × environment and genotype × environment × trait interactions. As such, in this article, we use \"environment\" in its general connotation-that is, as synonymous to a region-because, when recommending cultivars, it is often more important to evaluate prediction accuracy when modeling the genotype × region interaction rather than the genotype × environment interaction.To start using the package, you will need to install the IBCF.MTME R package (R Core Team, 2018) from GitHub via the devtools package, with the command devtools::install_github('frahik/IBCF.MTME'). To adjust the model with the IBCF() function, first, you have to generate the partitions needed to implement the crossvalidation with the auxiliary function CV.RandomPart() as follows:CV.RandomPart(Dataset, NPartitions = 10, PTesting = .35, Traits.testing = NULL, Set_seed = NULL).By default, the function generates 10 random partitions of the dataset; in each partition, 65% of the data is assigned to the training sample and the rest (35%) is assigned to the validation sample. If you want to modify the default values, you can change both parameters. The NPartitions parameter represents the number of partitions generated to implement the cross-validation, PTesting is the percentage of observations used as a validation sample in each partition, and Traits.testing is null by default and uses all the traits in the TST to fit the model; otherwise, those traits specified in Traits.testing are assumed to be missing. On the other hand, Set_seed is the seed to be used when generating random numbers to form random partitions for reproducible research. In other words, the CV.RandomPart() function is used to generate training and validation samples to study the predictive ability under IBCF for the dataset. In addition, the output of this function is an input of the IBCF() function. The dataset object is a data.frame object that contains four columns in the \"Tidy Data\" format:• $Line: The line or genotype identifier; the name of this column can be changed.• $Env: The name of the evaluated environment(s); the name of this column must be respected.• $Trait: the name of the evaluated trait (s); this name must be respected.• $Response: The variable response obtained for the row corresponding to a line, environment, and trait combination; this name should not be modified. As output of the above function, a cross-validation object is returned with the following data:• Dataset: This is a data.frame object of size n × (m + 1),where n is the number of entered lines under study and m is the value that results from multiplying the number of environments under study by the number of evaluated traits. In addition, the first column corresponds to the identifier of each line.• CrossValidation_list: A list that contains the partitions, NPartitions, where each index contains an n × m dimension matrix, where n is the number of lines under study, and m is the length of the combination of traits and the environments evaluated; each value should be 1 if the observation will be present in TRN and 2 if the observation will be in TST.• Environments: The name of the evaluated environment(s).• Traits.testing: The names of the traits used as part of TST for traits; this means that the other traits are assumed to be known but these can be missing. If Traits.testing is null, all traits can be missing.• Traits: The name of the evaluated trait(s).• Observations: Unique identifiers found in the dataset.• Class: Cross-validation Once the object generated by the previous function has been successfully obtained, the IBCF method can be implemented as follows: IBCF(CrossValidation_Object, dec = 4), with the following parameters:• CrossValidation_Object: An object generated by the function CV.RandomPart().• Dec: The number of decimal places to be displayed in the output.By using the IBCF() function, an object of the IBCF class is generated, containing the following:• NPartitions: The number of random partitions evaluated.• predictions_Summary: A data.frame object with the data summary containing the following columns:• Trait_Env: The combination of traits and environments evaluated.• Pearson: The mean Pearson's correlation obtained from the number of the implemented random partitions.• SE_Cor: The SE of the mean Pearson's correlation,• MSEP: The mean square error of prediction calculated from the number of random partitions implemented.• SE_MSEP: The SE of the MSEP.• observed: All values used to fit the model.• yHat: All predicted values.• predicted_Partition: A list of matrices with the predicted values for each partition. • Data.Obs_Pred: A data.frame object in matrix form to obtain the $observed and the predicted values ($yHat) that contains the following columns:• Gids: Line or genotype identifier; the name of this column may be changed.• Traits_Env: Contains the entered traitenvironment combinations under study.• Traits_Env.1: Contains the predicted values of the trait-environment combinations evaluated.• Class: IBCF.The package also includes a variation of the IBCF() function dedicated to studying predictive ability. For example, when we are interested in predicting all lines in a year or years or if we want to use information from other years as TRN. This function is denoted as: IBCF.Years(Dataset, colYears = 1, Years.testing = \" \", Traits.testing = \" \"). For this, the parameters required as input are as follows:• Dataset: A data.frame with at least three columns distributed in the matrix format, where the first $Years column must contain the identifier of each year under study, the next column gives the identifier of each line or genotype, and the following columns give the traits evaluated for each line in each year.• colYears: The name or position of the column containing all years; by default, this column is the first column of the dataset.• Years.testing: A vector that contains some of the years entered in the first column of the dataset object to use as testing values to fit the model. It is important to mention that the vector Years.testing must contain at least 1 yr and should be less than all the years under study; otherwise, there will be no information for the training model.• Traits.testing: A vector that contains some of the names corresponding to the columns that identify the traits; this vector indicates the traits that will be used to form the validation sample. It is important for the length of the vector Traits.testing to be less than the total number of traits under study. The output of IBCF.Years() results in an object that contains the following:• Years.testing: Contains the names of the years used as testing.• Traits.testing: Contains the traits used as testing.• predictions_Summary: A data.frame object that contains the following columns:• Year_Trait: The combination of the year with the evaluated trait.• Pearson: The mean Pearson's correlation obtained.• MSEP: The mean square error of prediction calculated.• observed: A vector with the observed values;• predicted: A vector with the predicted values;• Data.Obs_Pred: A data.frame object that contains the following columns:• Years: Contains the years used in the crossvalidation as testing.• Gids: Line or genotype identifier; the name of this column may be changed.• Traits: Contains the entered observations of the evaluated traits.• Traits.1: Contains the predictions of the evaluated traits.• Class: IBCFY.The package includes two other tools for data transformation that make the user's work easier.The getMatrixForm(TidyDataset, onlyTrait = FALSE) function is used for transforming the tidy data into the matrix form required by the program and requires the following parameters:• TidyDataset: A data.frame object that contains four columns:• $Line: The line or genotype identifier; the name of this column may change.• $Env: The name of the evaluated environment(s); the name of this column cannot be changed.• $Trait: The name of the evaluated trait(s); the name of this column cannot be changed.• $Response: The variable response obtained for the rows corresponding to the combinations of line, environment and trait; the name of this column cannot be changed.• onlyTrait: Logical value that, by default, is FALSE and uses the $Trait and $Env columns for the matrix format; if true, it only uses the $Trait column.The output of this function is a data.frame object of n × (m + 1) dimensions, where n is the number of lines entered (without repetition) and m is the length of the combination of traits and environments plus the first column of the corresponding lines.The getTidyForm(Mat, onlyTrait = FALSE) is the inverse function of getMatrixForm() and converts a data matrix form to a Tidy Data form; to use this function, the following parameters are required:where n is the number of lines under study and m is the length of the combination of traits and environments under study plus the first column corresponding to the lines.• onlyTrait: A logical value; by default, it is false and ignores the first column to transform the rest of the columns with the expected 'Trait_Env' names format and summarizes the data in three columns: $Trait, $Env, and $Response. If the value is true, it ignores the first two columns to transform the rest of the columns, considering them as the evaluated traits, and summarizes them in two columns: $Trait and $Response. The output of this function is a data.frame object with transformed data of q × 4 dimensions, where q results from the product of the number of lines, the number of environments, and the number of traits evaluated and 4 represents the number of columns corresponding to lines, environments, traits, and responses.The package includes a dataset used in a study by Montesinos-López et al. (2018). This dataset, called Wheat_ IBCF, consists of 250 wheat lines evaluated in three environments with four traits (i.e., 3000 observations).You must use the data() function.data('Wheat_IBCF')The data are contained in a data.frame object divided as follows:• $GID: The genotype identifier (with 250 different identifiers).• $Trait: The name of the evaluated traits (with four different traits).• $Env: The name of the evaluated environments (with three different environments).• $Response: The wheat yield for the corresponding combination of traits, environments, and lines (with 3000 observations). To see more details on this dataset, we will use the head() function to obtain the first six observations: The dataset is in the Tidy Data format, meaning that each column represents a variable, each row is an observation, and each cell is the value belonging to the combination of trait, line, and environment. This way of preparing a dataset was proposed by Wickham (2014). To observe the entire structure of the dataset, we use the str() function: We have 3000 observations for four variables in this dataset, which is consistent with the explanation above.The package includes a dataset based on simulated data; Appendix A includes the code used to simulate this dataset. The dataset, called Year_IBCF, consists of 60 lines evaluated in the 3 yr under study (20 lines per year) for 12 traits, which gives a total of 720 observations. The data() function must be used to load the data.The data are contained in a data.frame object divided as follows:• Years: Each year where each line was evaluated,• Gid: The identifier of each line evaluated,• Trait: The name of each trait evaluated, and• Response: The response variable corresponding to a line or trait in each year. Again, to see how this dataset is composed, you can use head(Year_IBCF) to see the first six observations.Note that this dataset is also in Tidy Data format and the structure of the object is as follows: : num 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... ## $ Trait : chr \"T1\" \"T1\" \"T1\" \"T1\" ... ## $ Response: num 5.14 5.68 4.85 3.57 5.02 ... Note that it is consistent with the explanation above: 720 observations of four variables.This section illustrates the use of the IBCF.MTME package and gives several examples of GS to predict continuous traits.In this example, you will find more details about the two formats established in this package for data processing. First, you will find the Tidy Data format and then the matrix format. The function getMatrixForm() is useful for transforming a dataset from the Tidy Data format to the matrix format, whereas the getTidyForm() transforms a dataset from the matrix format to the Tidy Data format. The two datasets provided in the package are in Tidy Data format, so we will use the Wheat_IBCF dataset to exemplify how to use these two functions.First, in a clean R environment, the IBCF.MTME library should be loaded and, with it, the Wheat_IBCF dataset through the use of the data() command, as shown in the following code block: rm(list = ls()) library(IBCF.MTME) data('Wheat_IBCF')Once the data are loaded, the head() function shows that this dataset is in the Tidy Data format, since it only has four columns corresponding to lines [genotypic identifier of lines (GID)], traits (Trait), environments (Env), and the response variables (Response). In this dataset, GID is the identifier of the lines. The $GID column contains the identifier of each line, days to heading (DH) is the trait evaluated in the first six observations for the \"bed planting system with two irrigations\" (Bed2IR) environment, and the $Response column stores the responses obtained for each row that corresponds to a specific line, trait, or environment. We can observe the dimension of this dataset through the dim(Wheat_IBCF) command, which indicates that this dataset has 3000 rows and four columns. In addition, if we are looking to transform this format into the matrix format, we can do it through the getMa-trixForm() function. The first six observations can be seen with the head() command, as detailed below:M <-getMatrixForm(Wheat_IBCF) head(M) ## GID DH_Bed2IR DH_Bed5IR DH_Drip GY_ Bed2IR GY_Bed5IR GY_Drip ## 1 6569128 -17.565895 1.6923078 0.945047 -0.35188724 -0.38496851 -0.44365852 ## 2 6688880 -4.565895 -0.3076922 0.945047 -0.61107566 -0.29930171 -0.19868885 ## 3 6688916 -3.565895 -1.3076922 -2.054953 -0.03534797 -0.30202380 -0.09566196 ## 4 6688933 -4.565895 -3.3076922 -1.054953 -0.11721194 0.08545996 -0.03161493 ## 5 6688934 -7.565895 -3.3076922 -0.054953 0.05415546 -0.24010219 -0.35510868 ## 6 6688949 -7.565895 -6.3076922 -2.054953 -0.48406932 0.19542652 -0.04798615 ## NDVI_Bed2IR NDVI_Bed5IR NDVI_Drip PH_ Bed2IR PH_Bed5IR PH_Drip ## 1 -0.016692414 -0.002449404 0.006528357 -6.968964 -1.282471 3.6682234 ## 2 -0.016657172 -0.011380990 -0.022684209 -11.030829 -8.725086 -3.6481125 ## 3 0.002233731 -0.000877320 -0.030087900 -10.494572 -6.680635 -6.1052408 ## 4 -0.009772406 -0.011128989 0.003965353 -4.033027 -5.546853 0.7411906 ## 5 -0.002767986 -0.010064999 0.008624755 -12.103778 -11.590284 -6.4430134 ## 6 -0.015566957 0.002153392 -0.021943740 -5.316197 -1.954483 3.0296975Note that the first column does not appear to be completely altered; however, in this column, the identifiers of the line now appear without repetition but in subsequent columns, the names are the combinations of the traits and environments. Therefore, each value represents the observation measured in each line for a given trait-environment combination. The data have been considerably reduced, with the dim(M) function are shown to have 250 rows and 13 columns. The size of the dataset is now 250 rows that correspond to the unique identifiers of the lines; the columns correspond to 12 different trait-environment combinations plus the column of the line identifiers. This format is popular among researchers because of the compact way it represents the data. However, the cross-validation function of the package requires the tidy format to work, so if you do not have a set of data in this format, you need to convert them to the tidy format with the getTidyForm() function. In this example, we will obtain the original version of the dataset again, as shown in the following block form:With the head() command, the data are once again in the Tidy Data format: This fact can also be verified through the dimensions of the dataset with the dim(Tidy) function, which shows it has 3000 rows and four columns.This example shows how to study prediction accuracy when the data only have one environment and four traits. This is done with the Wheat_IBCF dataset included in the package. The following code block is used to load this dataset:With this, we loaded the object Wheat_IBCF, which was described in the wheat dataset section. Although this dataset has information from four environments, we will only work with the Bed5IR environment; therefore, the dataset to use is:With dim(Dataset), we get that the dimension of this dataset that is 1000 rows and four columns. The matrix has been reduced from 3000 rows (observations) to 1000. Next, we use the CV.RandomPart() function to obtain the partitions of the sample for cross-validation:CrossV <-CV.RandomPart(Dataset, NPartitions = 10, PTesting = 0.25, Set_seed = 5) \"Dataset\" is the dataset in tidy format that contains information on the multitrait and multienvironment experiment; with NPartitions = 10, you are specifying that you want to make a cross-validation with 10 random partitions; and with PTesting = 0.25, you are specifying that 25% of the whole dataset in each partition will be assigned to TST and the remaining 75% to TRN. In addition, you must specify the number of seeds needed to obtain a reproducible work, regardless of the operating system and the person who runs it.We now have an object of the \"CrossValidation\" class that has been named CrossV; its structure can be obtained via R with str(CrossV). This object contains the new $Dataset with the matrix format automatically, 10 matrices that are part of each random partition of the required cross-validation, the environments and features that were recognized by the function, and the number of observations.With this object, it is possible to perform a crossvalidation study with the model by simply calling the IBCF() function and inserting this object as a parameter; the predictive model will be adjusted automatically.To view the results provided by this function, simply use the summary() function on the object where the results were stored, as shown below:Trait_Env Pearson SE_Cor MSEP SE_MSEP ## 1 DH_Bed5IR 0.3488 0.0242 33.4035 1.5099 ## 2 GY_Bed5IR 0.1637 0.0325 0.1106 0.0062 ## 3 NDVI_Bed5IR 0.5794 0.0370 0.0001 0.0000 ## 4 PH_Bed5IR 0.0602 0.0241 41.7650 1.4914As a result of the summary() function, five columns are obtained. The first corresponds to the trait-environment combination for which prediction accuracies are provided under two metrics: Pearson's correlation and MSEP. The second column provides the average predictive ability of the partitions implemented in terms of Pearson's correlation and the third column provides the SE of the mean Pearson's correlation given in Column 2. In the fourth column, the average MSEP of the randomly implemented partitions are given, and in the last column, the corresponding SE for the MSEP are provided.To further understand the structure of this object, we can use the str(pm1) command. Use of this command shows that this object contains six components: the number of partitions evaluated; the summary of the predictions [which is retrieved through the summary() function]; the observed values and predicted values, which also appear in $Data.Obs_Pred ordered by the line identifier; and the trait-environment combination. The predictions obtained in each partition also appear. Below we show the first six observed and predicted values obtained by the model: 6923078 -0.38496851 -0.002449404 -1.282471 -3.42715638 ... -6.3549369 ## 2 6688880 -0.3076922 -0.29930171 -0.011380990 -8.725086 -6.81057189 ... -6.3010208 ## 3 6688916 -1.3076922 -0.30202380 -0.000877320 -6.680635 -3.53399864 ... -5.6198338 ## 4 6688933 -3.3076922 0.08545996 -0.011128989 -5.546853 -4.36973174 ... -2.6316550 ## 5 6688934 -3.3076922 -0.24010219 -0.010064999 -11.590284 -6.49925946 ... -6.3959559 ## 6 6688949 -6.3076922 0.19542652 0.002153392 -1.954483 -0.07608169 ... -0.7451675 These are the trait-environment combinations of observed and predicted values, those that appear in the output above without .1, after the name of the trait-environment combination correspond to the observed values, while those with .1 after the trait-environment combination correspond to the predicted values. In addition, a plot can be made with the summarized predictions for the trait-environment combinations under study. For example, Fig. 1a was obtained via the plot(…) function by entering the IBCF object, generated with the IBCF() function. The \"select\" parameter allows you to obtain a graph with a summary of the predictions with the Pearson's correlation or MSEP metric.Note that the code of the par() function has served as an auxiliary to adjust the margins of the plot, since the names on the x axis cannot be longer than what the plot's default parameters can support. The parameter mai allows us to modify the distance between the margins of the plot and the edge of the image. In other words, the first value corresponds to the margin with respect to the lower part of the graph, the second value with respect to the left part of the graph, the third value with respect to the upper part of the graph, and the last value with respect to the right part of the graph.Figure 1a shows Pearson's correlation along with its corresponding confidence interval for each trait-environment combination. The results are sorted: on the left side are the trait-environment combinations with the lowest prediction abilities; on the right side are the trait-environment combinations with the best prediction abilities.It is also possible to plot the results obtained with the MSEP metric; it is enough to change MSEP in the \"select\" parameter. Figure 1b was generated with the code shown below.plot(pm1, select = 'MSEP')This example shows how to study the prediction ability of a dataset containing three environments and four traits. The whole Wheat_IBCF dataset included in the package is also used for this purpose. The way the data are loaded is the same as in the previous example, so this step was omitted. Therefore, the partitions are first generated for cross-validation and then the model is adjusted with the IBCF() function, as shown below.CrossV <-CV.RandomPart(Wheat_IBCF, NPartitions = 10, PTesting = 0.25, Set_seed = 5) pm3 <-IBCF(CrossV)Once the model has been adjusted, the results can be consulted through the summary() function, as shown in the following code. The only difference between the output of the summary and that of the two previous examples is that now the first column contains predictions for all combinations of four traits and three environments (i.e., 12 combinations in total).Likewise, to obtain the summary of prediction ability with MSEP (or Pearson's correlation) for each trait-environment combination, the following code can be used:Figure 2 shows that the best predictions in terms of MSEP were observed for the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index trait in all environments under study, whereas the worst predictions were observed for the plant height trait in the 'bed planting system with five irrigations\" (Bed5IR) and drip irrigation (Drip) environments. If we want to plot the prediction accuracies in terms of Pearson's correlation, then change the select parameter to 'Pearson'.This example shows how to study the predictive capability of a dataset with multiple environments and multiple traits with only two traits as testing. The dataset used is the same as the one in the previous examples, so we omitted the process of loading the dataset. With the CV.RandomPart() function, we then obtained the partitions required for implementing cross-validation.CrossV <-CV.RandomPart(Wheat_IBCF, Traits.testing = c('DH', 'GY'), NPartitions = 10, PTesting = 0.25, Set_seed = 123)We also generated 10 random partitions; in each partition, 25% of the data should be assigned to the TST dataset and the remaining 75% to the TRN dataset. The only traits that should be predicted by the model are DH and grain yield (GY). With this object, we can perform a cross-validation study with the following code:  It is important to point out that now the summary of the prediction ability only contains information for all the environments evaluated and for the traits specified in the traits TST set. To obtain the plot of the summary of prediction abilities in terms of Pearson's correlation for each trait-environment combination, it is not necessary to specify the \"select\" parameter, as shown below.par(mai = c(2, 1, 1, 1)) plot(pm2)Figure 3a shows the results for only two traits (DH and GY) that were specified in the Traits.testing argument and for the three different environments, with their respective confidence intervals. Similarly, the following code can be used to observe predictive capability in MSEP terms (Fig. 3b):Example 5: Predictions for 2015 and 2016 with 2014 as Training This example shows how to make predictions with the IBCF package when you have several traits under study and you want to predict some of them for the following years, but with information on the remaining traits in all the years that conform the training and testing data sets. This is done with the Year_IBCF dataset included in the package. The following code is used to load this dataset: rm(list = ls()) library(IBCF.MTME) data (\"Year_IBCF\") This loads the Year_IBCF object into the R environment. However, the IBCF.Years command requires the data in matrix format and because now the dataset is in Tidy Data format, we will need to transform it into the matrix format so that can be used for the IBCF.Years command. This is achieved automatically with the get-MatrixForm() function, as shown below.Dataset <-getMatrixForm(Year_IBCF, onlyTrait = T)Notice that onlyTrait = T has been specified to take the years as the first column, respecting the formatting set for the package. The dataset has been transformed from a Tidy Data format to the matrix format required by the IBCF.MTME package by consulting the first six observations through the head() command.  .981920 5.651253 ... 6.540473 ## 6 2014 6 3.196160 6.835883 5.123118 7.398668 5.812636 4.805169 ... 5.847054 To fit the model, we will use a modified version of the main function, which we denote as IBCF.Years(), which receives the dataset in matrix format as a parameter and the years and traits to be used as the testing set.   Once the model is fitted, a summary of the predictions can be retrieved through the summary() command, as detailed below. Note that the function returns prediction accuracies for year-trait combinations under Pearson's correlation and MSEP. Other components that this object contains can be observed by using the str(pm4) command. This object of the IBCFY class contains a list with six values. In this case, it contains the 2 yr used for the testing set (2015 and 2016), as well as the traits in TST: T5 and T6. It also contains a data.frame object that contains the summary of the predictions, which is shown through the summary() function. The object also provides the $observed and $predicted values. Finally, we have another data.frame object that can be retrieved as $Data. Obs_Pred, which contains the original array, along with duplicate features that correspond to the predicted values. Columns that have been added with the suffix \".1\" represent the predictions made by the model for each of the traits in TST.Next, we show the first six observations for the testing of year 2015 with the observed predicted values that return the algorithm. Note that Columns T5 and T6 are the observed values of the original dataset for these traits, whereas Columns T5.1 and T6.1 are the predicted values generated by the model for these traits. We can also make a plot with the summary of the predictions in terms of Pearson's correlation (or MSEP) for the year-trait combinations, as shown in Fig. 4a. However, there are now no estimates of the SE because there was no resampling to form the TRN and TST dataset. This plot is obtained with the barplot() function: barplot(pm4, select = 'Pearson')Figure 4a shows that the worst predictions in terms of Pearson's correlation are observed in Trait T5 for 2016, whereas similar predictions are obtained in the other year-trait combinations.The \"select\" parameter can also be modified to obtain the predictions in terms of MSEP, as shown in Fig. 4b, using the following code: barplot(pm4, select = 'MSEP'). Figure 4b shows that the best predictions in terms of MSEP are observed for Trait T6 in all the years under study, whereas the worst predictions are for Trait T5.This example shows how to make predictions with the IBCF package when you have several traits under study and you want to predict Traits T5 and T6 in 2016 with 2 yr (2014 and 2015) as training but with information on the remaining traits in all the years that form the TRN and TST sets. To do this, we used the same dataset that was used in the previous example. To adjust the model, we will use the IBCF.Years() function. Once the model is adjusted, a summary of the predictions can be obtained through the summary() command, as detailed below. Finally, we obtain Fig. 5b through the command: barplot(pm5, select = 'Pearson'). Figure 5a shows that the best predictions in terms of Pearson's correlation are observed for Trait T6 in 2016 under study, whereas the worst predictions are observed for Trait T5 also for 2015.As in the previous examples, we used the first dataset for the IBCF() function (Wheat_IBCF). However, we are now interested in predicting the information of the whole environment with the remaining three environments used as TRN. To adjust the model, we will use the IBCF.Years() function again. The vector Years.testing specifies the environment to be used in the validation sample. In this dataset, we have information from three environments and, given that the Drip environment is being used for the validation sample, this implies that the information on the remaining environments will be used to train the model. However, in the environment that makes up TST, only the traits specified in the vector traits are missing, which, in this case, are the traits DH and GY only. Therefore, the predictive ability will be studied only for these two traits. We can use the barplot() function to obtain a bar plot of the summary of the predictions, as shown in the following code: barplot(pm4, select = 'Pearson'). Figure 5b shows that the best predictions in terms of Pearson´s correlation were observed for DH traits for the Drip environment, whereas the worst predictions were observed for GY traits in the Drip environment.Example 8: Predictions of Breeding Values Taking Marker or Genomic Information into Account This example was done with the purpose of showing how to use the IBCF.MTME package for making predictions of breeding values taking marker information or pedigree information into account. Since the IBCF.MTME package does not allow the direct incorporation of genomic (marker data) or pedigree information, to take this information into account, we need to do this in two steps. In the first step, we need to adjust the phenotypic data for the markers via a simple regression model (phenotype ~) Markers error + . For illustration purposes, we used a wheat dataset containing 599 lines that belong to the Bayesian Generalized Linear Regression package (de los Campos and Pérez-Rodríguez, 2014). This dataset has phenotypic information for four traits (T1, …, T4) and information on 1279 markers (in binary format). To load this dataset, we used the following code: library(BGLR) data(wheat)We then extracted the marker matrix and the responses of the traits, with the following code:   MTME algorithm has also been implemented for predicting GY in maize from correlated covariates resulting from high-throughput phenotyping datasets collected by highresolution imaging and environmental sensors. With these real applications, we found that the IBCF.MTME algorithm competes well with the conventional genomic mixed models, with the advantage that its implementation is not computationally expensive. However, more empirical evidence is required to get a clear picture of the performance of the IBCF.MTME approach.It is important to point out that the IBCF.MTME method is not a model-based approach and therefore cannot estimate genetic variances or variance components in general; however, it can be used as a new alternative for making predictions of phenotypic or genetic information in the context of GS, as shown here with the seven examples. We believe that it can also be used for imputation of phenotypic or genetic information when there is correlated information available. All these tasks can be implemented in the proposed IBCF.MTME R package.Finally, we believe that there are opportunities to improve this algorithm (or similar algorithms like the matrix factorization algorithm) to directly take genetic and pedigree information into account, which would be really helpful, since it would allow us to take advantage of all the information that breeders are generating. In addition, we believe that we need to be willing to test other prediction techniques that are being developed in other fields and that could be useful for genomic prediction. For this reason, we encourage people to do research on this topic because they could make a significant contribution to improving the prediction accuracy in breeding programs.The package we developed provides the user with a framework for studying the prediction accuracies of multitrait and multienvironment data, which are very common in plant breeding. The developed examples cover different scenarios that could be of interest to plant breeders: (i) assessing the prediction accuracy of multitrait and multienvironment data and (ii) the prediction accuracy of year (or environment) from information from one or more years (or environments) as training. Additionally, the package provides a very user-friendly framework for transforming a dataset to a matrix format, constructing random cross-validation scenarios that could be of interest to plant breeders, and studying the prediction abilities of trait-environment combinations or year-trait combinations of interest to plant breeders. In addition, the package can plot a summary of prediction accuracies (Pearson's correlation and MSEP) for the trait-environment or year-trait combinations that would facilitate the decision-making processes of plant breeders.","tokenCount":"8164"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d587b783c8a289615c98546cada8ed0d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b9a3462c-c790-41d4-803c-2c4686824011/retrieve","id":"370932130"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8abab8a3-3c38-4ea1-9300-0b6fde054718","pagecount":"1","content":"En la sierra Norte del Perú, los Departamentos de: La Libertad, Cajamarca y Ancash son las regiones representativas del cultivo de papa en el Perú, con un área sembrada de 60,000 has. Una de las limitantes más importantes en la producción de este cultivo es la Rancha causada por Phytophthora infestans, que si no se controla adecuada y oportunamente puede causar la pérdida del cultivo, en estos departamentos es muy importante la calidad culinaria. Motivo por el cual se evaluaron un grupo de clones con resistencia a esta enfermedad y con buena calidad culinaria procedente del programa de mejoramiento del Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP), estos clones provienen del cruce de variedades nativas de Solanum tuberosum subsp. andigena y pertenecen a la población B1C5. Este trabajo se realizó conjuntamente entre la Asociación Pataz, CIP, Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA) y los productores.El objetivo principal fue seleccionar un clon con resistencia a la rancha, altos rendimientos y buena calidad culinaria para ser liberado como una nueva variedad adaptada a la Sierra Norte del Perú.El estudio se inició en el año 2011, evaluando un grupo de 13 clones, durante las campañas 2011-2012 y 2012-2013, en siete localidades. Durante los años 2012-2013 se realizaron los ensayos de comprobación con los clones selectos en diez localidades, en La Libertad y Cajamarca, usando el diseño de Bloques Completos Randomizados con tres repeticiones de 210 plantas cada una y 63 m² por unidad experimental, se usó como testigo a la variedad comercial Amarilis. Con el clon selecto CIP399049.22, se realizó el ensayo de identificación. En la cosecha de todos los ensayos se realizó la prueba de calidad culinaria. Este trabajo se ejecutó bajo el enfoque de Selección Varietal Participativa (SVP), usando la metodología Mamá & Bebé que involucra a todos los actores de la cadena de valor de la papa.A través de los ensayos de evaluación, se seleccionaron dos de los 13 clones evaluados en siete ambientes comparativos, en todos estos ensayos ha sido evaluado el clon B1C5029.22. El análisis de variancia para rendimiento, muestra diferencias estadísticas para los clones en estudio, con un coeficiente de variación que varía de 12.72 hasta 26.98%. En los ensayos de comprobación, se encontró diferencias estadísticas significativas para los tratamientos; el rendimiento de tubérculos del clon CIP399049.22 denominado como variedad PODEROSA, varia de 11.27 a 59.38 t/ha, con un promedio de 38.12 t/ha superando significativamente a la variedad Amarilis con rendimiento de tubérculos de 11.77 a 33.57 t/ ha, con un promedio de 23.54 t/ha., los coeficientes de variabilidad oscilaron entre 7.95% y 32.35%. En el ensayo de identificación concluyó que la futura nueva variedad de papa denominada PODEROSA -B1C5029.22 (CIP 399049.22) tiene tubérculos de color de piel negruzco, color de pulpa amarillo claro con un anillo vascular delgado de color morado, su forma es oval con ojos superficiales, el número de tubérculos por planta varía entre 11 a 25, posee buena calidad comercial, las pruebas de calidad culinarianos mostraron que esta nueva variedad posee buena calidad culinaria por su textura harinosa, buen sabor y alto contenido de materia seca, mayor a 23 %.La nueva variedad de papa PODEROSA -B1C5029.22 (CIP 399049.22) con resistencia a rancha tiene un rendimiento promedio de 38.12 t/ha, y es de excelente calidad culinaria, con buena adaptabilidad a la Sierra Norte del Perú.","tokenCount":"550"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3fed926dcc9e9c3799d2076ab860ba91","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/cea56288-1a6b-4510-ae2d-1817eeae806f/content","id":"-322707878"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"75f7a44f-6331-48f8-b745-1fdfd2b37e49","pagecount":"16","content":"Various types of populations have been used in genetics, genomics and crop improvement, including bi-and multi-parental populations and natural ones. The latter has been widely used in genome-wide association study (GWAS). However, inbred-based GWAS cannot be used to reveal the mechanisms involved in hybrid performance. We developed a novel maize population, multiple-hybrid population (MHP), consisting of 724 hybrids produced using 28 temperate and 23 tropical inbreds. The hybrids can be divided into three subpopulations, two diallels and NC (North Carolina Design) II. Significant genetic differences were identified among parents, hybrids and heterotic groups. A cluster analysis revealed heterotic groups existing in the parental lines and the results showed that MHPs are well suitable for GWAS in hybrid crops. MHP-based GWAS was performed using 55 K SNP array for flowering time traits, days to tassel, days to silk, days to anthesis and anthesis-silking interval. Two independent methods, PEPIS developed for hybrids and TASSEL software designed for inbred line populations, revealed highly consistent results with five overlapping chromosomal regions identified and used for discovery of candidate genes and quantitative trait nucleotides. Our results indicate that MHPs are powerful in GWAS for hybrid-related traits with great potential applications in the molecular breeding era.Genetic mapping of important agronomic traits, followed by marker-assisted selection (MAS), provides a powerful tool for crop genetic improvement. Genes can be mapped through four basic approaches: linkage analysis using bi-or multi-parental populations, association or linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis using natural populations, comparative analysis using mutated populations and near-isogenic (introgression) lines, and selective analysis using sub-populations based on selective sweeps.Association mapping has been used to detect the underlying major genes in the gene pools and their introgression to improve traits in major crop breeding programs 1 . It has been based on two basic methods, one using candidate gene-based markers to confirm the association 2 and the other using whole genome scan 3 , the latter being called genome wide association studies (GWAS). GWAS using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker loci has successfully identified genes and pathways for agronomic traits in many crops of economic importance, including rice 4 , maize 5 , wheat 6 , sorghum 7 and barley 8 . This method generally consists of five stages: selection of diverse germplasm, estimation of the level of population structure, phenotypic evaluation, genotyping for candidate genes or whole genome genotyping, and statistical test for genotype-phenotype association 9 .In contrast to linkage mapping, GWAS based linkage disequilibrium (LD) offers a potentially useful and robust approach for mapping causal genes with moderate or large effects 10 , which has several advantages: extensive genetic variations in a more representative genetic background, higher resolution, and utilization of historic phenotypic data on cultivars without the need to develop special mapping populations 11 . The simple statistical model for GWAS is focusing on single-SNP tests, and the test results frequently show high false positives owing to specific problems such as population structure, relatedness and polygenic background effects. Therefore, a variety of statistical analytical methods have been developed, such as, the mixed linear model (Q + K model), which is the most popular method that effectively eliminates false positives by incorporating population structure (Q) and relative kinship matrix (K) 12 , multi-trait mixed model (MTMM) for multiple traits 13 , multi-locus mixed-model (MLMM) based on multiple loci 14 , factored spectrally transformed linear mixed model (FaST-LMM) with the number and square of rank of the relationship among individuals 15 , settlement of MLM under progressively exclusive relationship (SUPER) using influential bin markers and a small set of markers to define the relationship among the individuals 16 , multi-trait set linear mixed-model (mtSet-LMM) between sets of variants and multiple traits 17 , and a random-SNP-effect MLM (RMLM) with a modified Bonferroni correction and a multi-locus model with less rigorous selection criteria from RMLM (MRMLM) 18 .There are many types of populations that have been used in genetics, genomics and crop improvement 19,20 . These populations have been used individually, and in very few cases, in combination. The primary objective for this article was to review all available populations, and introduce the concept of multiple-hybrid population (MHP) as a new population type, which is more suitable for GWAS in hybrid crops using hybrid vigor. Using maize as an example, we developed an MHP from diallel and NC II mating designs. We will present the experimental design, parent classification, data analysis strategies and applications of the MHP in conventional quantitative genetics, GWAS, and breeding.Populations used in genetics, genomics and crop improvement have their advantages and disadvantages. For the convenience of comparison, we will first discuss all available populations and then focus on the MHP in the next section.Biparental populations. The populations derived from two parental lines are most widely used in genetics, genomics and breeding, with the following advantages and disadvantages: ▪ F 2 : containing sufficient genetic information, but failing to distinguish the genotypes just by phenotyping owing to the presence of heterozygotes, and thus the phenotyping is usually measured with its derived F 2:3 families, progenies produced by bulked pollination of F 2 individuals, and the F 2 genotypes maintained by multiple tillers and ratoning procedures 19,20 . ▪ BC 1 : including two types of genotypes which could be distinguished theoretically just by phenotyping if the target gene is dominant, but difficult to maintain the materials for long time, although the genotypes may be maintained by following the procedures for F 2 individuals as discussed above. ▪ RIL (recombinant inbred line): consisting of genetically stable genotypes, which can be maintained permanently without change of the population constitution, and suitable for distinguishing dominant and co-dominant statuses, but difficult to be bred for some species, especially for cross-pollinated plants 21,22 . ▪ DH (doubled haploid): including homogeneous and breeding-true genotypes and reflecting the gene segregation and recombination rate of F 1 gametes, with different protocols available for the development of DH lines including microspore culture, chromosome elimination, and haploid inducers, depending on crop species 19,20 .An immortalized F 2 population can be developed through crosses among RIL or DH populations, which can be used permanently for QTL analysis 20,23 .There are three major types of multi-parental populations, four-way crosses (4WC), NAM (nested association population) and MAGIC (multiparent advanced generation inter-cross). The 4WC were widely used in commercial animal and plant breeding, formed by a cross between two hybrids, F 1 (P1 × P2) and F 1 '(P3 × P4), by which genes and QTL can be identified 24 with epistatic QTL mapping developed using penalized maximum likelihood (PML) 25 .NAM population is developed by crossing a reference genotype (line) with a panel of lines maximizing the genetic diversity and RIL families are then developed. Different sets of RIL populations share a common parental line, while RILs within each population are derived from two parents. The NAM population combines the advantages of both bi-parental segregating and natural populations, which can be used for integrated linkage and association mapping 26 . The first NAM population in plants was developed by using 200 RILs from each of the 25 crosses derived from 25 diverse inbred lines crossed with a reference inbred line B73, which resulted in nearly 5000 RILs in total 27 . This NAM population has been successfully applied to the study of flowering time 28 , resistance to southern corn leaf blight 29 , leaf architecture 30 and carbon and nitrogen metabolism 31 . However, 48.7% of marker genotypes were from B73 among these RILs and allelic frequencies from common parent are much higher than those from other 25parents with phenotype deviation due to the only one common parent.The MAGIC population starts with multiple bi-parental intercrosses based on variety-specific founders selected, and then every two bi-parental F 1 s are intermated to produce a double hybrid. The two double hybrid F 1 s are intermated again to develop a hybrid with eight parents involved 20 . This process continues until all parental lines are included in a final hybrid, and then RILs can be developed by selfing at least five generations or DHs generated through an available protocol 32 . The first MAGIC population has been developed in Arabidopsis thaliana by using a set of 527 RILs descended from a heterogeneous stock of 19 intermated accessions 32 . MAGIC populations have been developed to significantly increase the effectiveness of whole genome scan in wheat 33 , rice 34 and maize 35 .▪ Diallel: multiple parents are crossed to produce all possible bi-parental F 1 s. ▪ North Carolina Design (NC) I: some individuals randomly selected as males from a biparental F 2 population are crossed with other randomly selected as females. ▪ NC II: n parental lines are divided into two groups, one group as males and the other as females, to produce hybrids of all possible combinations. ▪ NC III: n individuals are selected from an F 2 population to backcross its parents, P 1 and P 2 . ▪ TTC (triple test crosses): an extension of NC III, i.e., n individuals (n > 20) are selected from an F 2 population to backcross with both parental lines, P 1 and P 2 , and their F 1 s. ▪ sTTC (simplified triple testcrosses): n cultivars or strains are selected from the germplasm pool to cross with two varieties or strains, P H and P L , with the highest and lowest phenotypic values.Natural populations. The natural populations are those consisting of many individuals that are fixed or can be maintained individually through selfing or outcrossing, including inbred lines, varieties, landraces and wild relatives, which have been widely used in association mapping. There are two types of natural populations. The natural populations composed of elite lines have lower diversity and slower LD decay with a longer distance, while those with a core collection of diverse germplasm have rich genetic diversity and more rapid LD decay with a shorter distance. Both types can be combined in applications. First, rough mapping for a particular trait can be performed with the genetic populations with lower diversity and a small amount of markers to cover the whole genome; then, using natural populations with rich diversity in the genomic region of interest, a particular gene can be fine mapped for gene cloning 36 .Populations described above, except for those derived from various mating designs, are most appropriate for crops using inbreds or varieties for commercialization but not suitable for hybrid crops that use hybrids for production, as genetic researches based on inbreds reveal neither what are hidden in hybrids nor what are associated with hybrid performance. Populations for hybrid crops and hybrid performance may come from two sources, one with testcrosses using all individuals from each of the populations as parents to testcross with one or several testers, and the other with a large number of multiple hybrids generated from such as mating designs described in the previous section as a population, which can be simply called as multiple hybrid population (MHP). Considering all available mating designs that have been used in quantitative genetics, hybrids from a full diallel design with n parents would be one of the best MHPs, as the full set hybrids can be divided into three subsets, two diallels and one NC II, as needed. As such an attempt with a limited number of hybrids, a partial NC II was used for QTL mapping to test effects associated with traits, and the significant effects identified by empirical Bayesian were used to estimate genetic effects for the missing F 1 s with elite parents and hybrids predicted 37 . The generated hybrids, along with the parental genotype and phenotype, can be used to predict the missing hybrids and the rest hybrids. The relative sizes of the three subsets can be optimized to best match different ecotypes of parental lines, and the number of hybrids can be optimized so that a best design can be achieved with the smallest sample sizes as possible for the largest \"genetic gain\" (Fig. 1). As an example, we developed an MHP with hybrids from Griffing IV diallel crosses and NC II design using temperate and tropical elite maize inbreds as parental lines.The parents used for developing MHP can be a representative sample of the population to which inference is desired and a core collection from a gene bank, varieties or landraces representing the elite germplasm for a breeding program, or a set of inbred lines representing a synthetic outcrossing population. MHPs have several distinct characteristics that make them very unique compared to other types of populations and very useful in genetics and plant breeding.The evaluation of hybrids produced by inbred lines is an important step towards the development of hybrid varieties in crops such as maize and this process theoretically should be done for all possible ways of hybridization (diallel crosses), where selection of favorable traits for each inbred can be determined. The diallel and NC II design analysis can provide elaborate information on the genetic identity of genotypes especially on dominance-recessiveness relationships and some genetic interactions 38 . With diallel or NC designs, many studies have been conducted for combining ability and heterosis analysis. For example, 30 crosses developed in maize with six parents according to Griffing III method to identify hybrids expressing a high level of heterosis 39 . The overall increase of GCA and SCA was found in NC II design between some common testers and 25 mutant lines from SP 4 derived from three inbreds carried into satellite, providing useful information for maize breeding through mutation 40 . A Combined Relative Level (CRL) model using 112 metabolite levels in young roots from four parental inbred lines and their diallel hybrids in maize indicates that parental metabolite profiles can be used together with selected hybrids as a training set to predict biomass of all possible hybrids 41 . A complete diallel series of crosses involving eight parents was developed to evaluate GCA and SCA for corn grits 42 . A partial NC II design for cotton and rapeseed using epistatic association mapping revealed additive and additive by additive interaction effects for GCA, and dominance related effects for SCA. Mid-parent heterosis, dominance and dominance by dominance interaction effects affect heterosis more than over-dominance and complete dominance 43 . The MHP developed in our research will be used to estimate combining ability, heterosis, and genotype by environment interaction and details will be reported elsewhere.Compared to natural populations used for GWAS, which needs to share at least several hundreds, even thousands, of varieties, MHP just needs to maintain and share a much less number of samples. Sharing germplasm accessions that can be used as parental lines is more frequent for germplasm exchange. For n varieties, n(n− 1)/2 hybrids can be produced. For example, 100 varieties can be used to generate 99 × 100/2 = 4500 hybrids. It would be much more difficult to share 4500 samples compared with sharing 100 parental lines. In our study, the MHP, consists of 724 hybrids, generated through just crossing 51 maize inbreds with each other (Fig. 1), which is time-and labor-saving.Flexibility for testing across diverse environments. Diverse germplasm including inbreds and hybrids can be further investigated to identify new sources of genetic variations for fundamental experiments and commercial breeding. MHPs provide an opportunity for testing across diverse environments because of their better adaptation compared to inbred populations. The most typical example is the large-scale yield trials and multi-location tests before commercialization. Testing of multiple hybrids across diverse environments has been also used in genetic study. For example, testcrosses between Tx714 and 346 diverse inbreds evaluated under well watered and non-irrigated trials showed high genetic variance, and for 10 quantitative trait variants for agronomic traits as revealed by 60,000 SNPs, three of them explained 5-10% of phenotypic variation in grain yield under both water conditions 44 . In our research, hybrids from the MHP showed a high level of genetic and phenotypic variation across different environments (data not shown).Through multi-environmental trials, adapted hybrids can be identified for specific environments. The difficulty of choosing appropriate varieties has contributed to restricted breeding progress for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in highly variable target environments. Hybrids produced from diverse inbreds will show significantly different responses to diverse environments and thus the hybrids most adapted to a specific environment can be identified and used for further testing and breeding. In this regard, 91 hybrids made among seven high-and seven low-Fe-Zn  1 for the parent numbers and names. The 724 maize hybrids made in this study can be used to predict the missing hybrids (empty boxes) and the rest hybrids (empty areas) that can be made from all the parents (any of the 1275 hybrids that can be derived from the full diallel set with 51 parents). (b) A full diallel (largest triangle) can be divided into three subpopulations (including two diallels and one NC II). Depending on the numbers of parental lines from different ecotypes, the three subpopulations, represented by blue, green and red, may vary to optimize crossing designs. The maize MHP developed in this study is shown on the bottom left. content lines were evaluated in six locations, and one low-Fe-Zn parental line showed a significant positive GCA effect and its hybrids emerged as a highly promising variety 45 . A total of 84 hybrids were investigated for their resistance to parasitic weed Striga under artificial infestation and free environments in two locations, and three inbreds with high GCA effect for yield and Striga resistance and four high yielding hybrids showed the potential for further use 46 . In our MHP, some elite hybrids, especially large-scale commercialized ones, showed stronger adaptation under various environmental conditions.Progeny selection is one of the most important stages in plant breeding. Crossing patterns and hybrids as those generated in MHP are commonly used in both hybrid and inbred breeding programs. For hybrid crops, the crosses are usually made among heterotic groups to achieve a high level of heterosis and better adaptation to specific locations and crop seasons. A total of 91 hybrids, evaluated along with their parental lines for combining ability and heterotic pattern, showed extent differentiation for different yield traits, and three best heterotic patterns identified were potentially useful for commercial maize breeding 47 . In our MHP, diallel and NC II crosses made between temperate and tropical elite inbreds were used to explore the genetic factors associated with combining ability and heterosis for hybrids development. MHP can be also used in self-pollinated species, although production of hybrids is much more difficult than outcrossing species. There are numerous available examples using diallel crosses in self-pollinated crops. For example, non-additive gene effect for most of yield components was revealed based on 28 rice hybrids from a partial diallel crossing of eight inbreds, five of which showed significant favorable SCA effect on yield 48 . Earlier stem elongation in floating rice can greatly improve the chance of floating rice to survive in the flood, and therefore a set of 6 × 6 half-diallel crosses with four floating and two non-floating rice varieties was developed with results indicating that the additive effect was higher than dominant effects and the dominant alleles were concentrated in the floating parental lines 49 . A partial diallel based on six indica and seven japonica rice genotypes was used to investigate the genetic variations of yield and cold tolerance, with significant heterosis and combining ability revealed for tested characters 50 .As only the parental lines need to be genotyped, from which hybrid genotypes can be inferred, using MHP can save great investment in genotyping, compared to genotyping the same number of inbreds. As we calculated in the precious section, genotypes for 4,500 hybrids can be inferred from 100 parental lines genotyped, the former being 45 folds larger. In Brassica napus, 205 SSR markers were used to examine the polymorphisms among 441 parents (298 sterile and 143 restorer lines), and the genotypes for the partial NC II hybrids could be then deduced from their parents 37 , with 8 main-effect and 37 interacted QTL identified for oil content, which could be used to predict 10 elite restorer lines, 10 elite sterile lines and 10 elite hybrids.An MHP from diallel and NC II designs. A total of 51 maize inbred lines, representing a broad selection of breeding germplasm from temperate and tropical regions, were used for development of an MHP (Fig. 1; Table 1). These included 28 temperate and 23 tropical inbred lines as parents, by which three subpopulations of MHP were developed: (1) temperate diallel consisting of 325 crosses made in Griffing IV using 26 elite maize inbred lines, including 13 U.S. and 13 Chinese inbred lines that represent different heterotic groups; (2) temperate and tropical NC II consisting of 263 hybrids made between 13 temperate and 21 tropical inbred lines; (3) tropical diallel consisting of 136 crosses made in Griffing IV using 17 tropical inbred lines as parents, most of which come from CIMMYT.Chinese temperate inbreds used as MHP parents. Among 15 Chinese temperate inbreds used to develop the MHP (Table 2), Ye478, HZ4 (Huangzao 4), Dan340, Mo17, Tie7922 and Qi319 have been used as common tester lines for six Chinese heterotic groups, Reid, SPT, LRC, Lancaster, PA and PB, respectively 51 . These key inbreds have been playing a very important role in development of both inbreds and hybrids across maize regions in China. For example, Chang7-2 and LX9801 are among lines derived from HZ4 in summer maize region, Huang-Huai-Hai River Zone 52 . A total of 20 commercial hybrids have been developed by using Dan340-derived lines as parents, and 17 elite inbreds have been developed using Dan340's sister lines 53 . As a common tester line for heterotic group 'SPT' , HZ4 has been used to develop more than 40 hybrids and nearly 70 elite inbreds, including Ji853, LX9801 and Chang7-2 54 . H21, an inbred line with high drought tolerance derived from Pioneer hybrid P78599 55 , and two superior hybrids made directly were planted widely in Huang-Huai-Hai River Zone. Four elite hybrids widely used in production were developed by Nan21-3, which was developed by selfing the elite exotic hybrids 56 . Qi205, a quality protein maize (QPM), was a breakthrough progress in protein maize in China 57 . More than 50 varieties, including Ludan50, Ludan981 and Ludan963, were released with Qi319, highly resistant to southern corn rust, and its derived lines as parents 58 . Over twenty inbreds were derived from Si287 with two widely used hybrids, Jidan27and Jidan46. Developed by seven continuous selfings from a U.S. hybrid 3382, Tie 7922 was the parent for 30 hybrids and numerous inbreds, including TieC8605-2, Dan9046 and Liao2345 59 . Ye478 has been used to produce nearly 50 hybrids, such as Zhongdan8, Yedan12, Yedan13, and Yedan19. Zheng22, belonging to the heterotic group LRC, was used in Yuyu18, a hybrid widely used in production. Zheng58 is the female parent of 'Zhengdan958' , which had been planted over 4 million ha per year in three consecutive years 60 . Dan598, developed from Pioneer hybrid P78599 from tropical zone, was used to make several widely planted hybrids, mainly Danke series 61 . Huang C was the male for one of the best hybrids, Nongda108, which was awarded the First-Class Prize for China National Science and Technology Progress in 2002 54 . Improved from landrace China TropicalU.S. scientists made great efforts for utilization of tropical maize. With more than 20,000 varieties of tropical maize collected 62 , they found that maize inbreds containing tropical germplasm were not only a useful source to expand the genetic diversity of temperate inbreds, but also competitive in crosses with temperate materials, producing high yielding hybrids 63 . For example, temperate by tropical hybrids showed greater adaption than temperate hybrids under heat stress environment 64 . In China, some tropical germplasm, such as Tuxpeno, Suwan and Mohuang9, were introduced in 1980s, with several excellent inbreds developed, such as 8703, S37, Taixi113 and 8501. In our MHP, 23 tropical inbred lines widely used in breeding programs of China and CIMMYT were included as parental lines, and our results also showed that the tropical lines had great potential for improvement of yield traits for temperate maize. Among three Chinese tropical inbred lines, Jiao51 was selected from landrace 'Jiaomaerhuangzao' in Guizhou, by which three elite hybrids, Jiaosandanjiao, Andan136 and Yudan11, were released 65 . Chuan 29 Female was selected based on natural pollination seeds from a single cross using pedigree method, with hybrid Chuandan29 released 66 . 18-599 was an elite inbred line in southwest China, with three elite hybrids, Shengyu9, Dong315 and Chunxi11, released for planting in mountain and deep hillock regions.Temperate by tropical hybrids in maize production. Maize exhibits an astounding capacity for environmental adaptation with wide distribution around the world, but genetic bottlenecks resulting from natural and artificial selection for adaptation and productivity lead to the differentiation between temperate and tropical maize.Improving the adaptability of temperate maize largely depends upon the use of tropical maize germplasm, which hosts rich sources of favorable genes and alleles 67 , particularly for tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. A shortcut to the favorable alleles hosting in tropical maize is to develop temperate-tropical hybrids. Considering the significant differentiation between the two groups, the best way to test temperate-tropical crosses is by NC II, where a set of temperate inbreds are used as parents to cross with a set of tropical inbreds. Moving maize from tropical to temperate means the selection for adaptation to changing day length and temperature conditions. Such photo-thermal responses have been investigated intensively. An improved population BS16  was developed by selective adaption for ETO (developed at Estacion Tulio Ospina), with the characteristic of 21 days earlier in silking, increasing yield and combining ability 68 . Through GEM (Germplasm Enhancement of Maize) program that targeted at moving tropical lines into breeding program, six tropical lines were released 69 . A collection of 152 tropical populations were used to investigate photoperiod sensitivity under long-day conditions, showing that the highland populations displayed a weak photoperiod sensitivity 70 . Longer leaf stay-green has been considered as a visible character of temperate by tropical hybrids, and the ratio of visible source leaves (RSL) showed significant correlation with grain yield. As a result, RSL can be used as a selection criterion for improving stay-green and yield traits in maize breeding programs 71 .Because of the maize responses to photoperiod and temperature regimes, typical temperate or tropical maize hybrids have limited growing seasons or zones. However, temperate-tropical hybrids, which combine genetic merits from both ecotypes, show much stronger adaptation to environmental conditions. As a result, depending on the relative genetic contribution from two parental lines, some temperate-tropical hybrids may be planted in wider maize production areas from temperate to tropical zones, while others may only adapt to typical temperate, subtropical or typical tropical regions. A previous research indicated that temperate-tropical hybrids could adapt to more diverse growing environments than temperate-temperate or tropical-tropical hybrids 72 . A biofuel potential investigation with 12 temperate-tropical maize and two grain and silage hybrids indicated that temperate-tropical hybrids showed more stalk biomass and 50% more sugar with supplemental fertilizer N, and could produce equivalent ethanol with a small amount of nitrogen fertilizer 73 .Agronomic performance of parental lines and their hybrids. Agronomic traits for inbreds and hybrids included in our MHP were evaluated for three years (2013-2015) in two locations (Beijing and Henan) with randomized block design each with two replications. Phenotypic performance across environments was evaluated using the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) 74 estimated by SAS PROC MIXED procedure with genotype, environment and year as random effects (Table 3). Compared to temperate parental lines, tropical inbreds showed higher plant and ear heights, delayed growth and development with significant larger days to tassel, silk and anthesis. For yield traits, however, temperate inbreds were overall better than tropical lines with higher grain number, row number, hundred grain weight and grain weight per plant. Among three hybrid subpopulations, significant delayed flowering time were found in both NC II and tropical diallel hybrids, and greater flowering time interval, anthesis-silking interval, was shown in NC II hybrids. For yield traits, NC II crosses showed higher ear length, ear diameter and hundred grain weight, while temperate diallels had greater grain number.The 28 temperate inbreds used in the MHP could be divided into six heterotic groups, plus four Pioneer germplasms as an independent group (Fig. 1; Table 4). The hybrids from Lancaster parental lines showed the best performance for grain number per row, while the hybrids from PB parents showed the highest plant and ear heights, grain weight per plant, hundred grain weight and delayed flowering with a heterotic group-representative line, Dan340. Reid-derived hybrids had the shortest days to tassel while Pioneer hybrids had the shortest days to silk and anthesis. LRC hybrids showed lower ear height and greater row number and grain number, compared with other groups. Overall, PB germplasm have an edge on increasing yield, Pioneer germplasm can shorten flowering time, and LRC parents can be used to achieve high yielding by increasing grain number.In conclusion, tropical germplasm can be used to improve the yield potential for temperate lines, while temperate germplasm, such as those from the U.S., are important donors to broaden genetic basis for specific breeding programs. As high genetic diversity and great trait variation were observed among parental lines and hybrids, the MHP developed in this study can be used in GWAS for many important traits. With known pedigrees and genotypic information from high-density markers, the structure and relationship among parental lines and thus among the hybrids can be well estimated and thus controlled in GWAS.The 51 parental lines used to develop the MHP have been genotyped by a newly developed maize 55K-SNP chip 75 . The chip contains 30,133 SNPs selected from 600 K Affymetrix ® Axiom ® Maize Genotyping Array, which evenly distributed on the genome, 4,049 high polymorphic SNPs from widely used 56K-SNP chip MaizeSNP50, 9,395 SNPs from whole genome RNA-seq 76 , 4,067 SNPs that are tropical specific and generated by resequencing to fill the gaps in the B73 reference genome, and 132 SNPs from the tags for published transgenic events. Genotyping the parents with the improved 55K-SNP chip will benefit genetic and breeding studies because of the improved genome coverage, compared to other SNP chips available.The MHP proposed in this article can be used to estimate combining ability and heterosis for yield and yield components using hybrid phenotypes compared with their parents, which can be further analyzed in GWAS along with other traits such as hybrid phenotypes per se. Associated information can be used for genome-wide prediction of hybrid performance. The MHP and its derived secondary populations can be also used as populations in genetics, genomics and plant breeding. As basic information required for applications of the MHP, a cluster analysis was performed to classify the parental lines (Fig. 2a). A neighbor-joining tree was constructed based on Roger's genetic distance 77 , which clearly separated the parental lines into two major groups, temperate and tropical. The 28 temperate inbred lines were further divided into six heterotic groups, Lancaster, LRC, Reid, PA, SPT and PB, as revealed in previous studies [78][79][80] .heterosis is the first step for breeding inbred lines towards the development of commercial hybrids. This process theoretically should go through for all parental lines and their possible hybrids. Both diallel and NC II designs can provide elaborate information on the genetic identity of genotypes, especially on dominance-recessive relationships and some genetic interactions 38 . As an example, a complete diallel crosses involving eight parents was produced to evaluate GCA and SCA for corn grits 41 . The MHP used in this research can be used to understand combining ability, heterosis, hybrid performance and genotype × environment interaction. This large-scale diallel-NC II design not only increases the power of statistical analysis, but also improves combining ability-based breeding efficiency for both temperate and tropical maize.Genotyping of parental lines and then inferring their hybrid genotypes can be done through various genotyping platforms including sequencing (both whole genome and simplified genome sequencing or genotyping by sequencing, GBS) and chip-based genotyping. After genotyping, various markers such as SNP, copy number variations (CNV) and structure variation (SV), and their alleles and combinations (haplotypes) can be developed to cover the whole genome. For example, haplotypes have been used to construct HapMaps in maize with three different versions of HapMap developed [81][82][83] . RNA-seq and other sequencing technologies such as methylation-based sequencing have been used to identify expressed genes, epialleles and haplotypes associated with epigenetics 84,85 . Resequencing and GBS have been widely used in maize germplasm fingerprinting 86 , genetic diversity analysis 87 and GWAS 88 .Using numerous markers identified through various sequencing technologies, high density chips have been developed. In maize there are several high-density SNP chips available, including 56 K SNP chip 89 , 600K-SNP chip 90 and a new 55K-SNP chip with improved genome coverage 75 . In human, high-density chips containing SV markers have been also developed 91 . These high-density chips can be updated with functional-and gene-markers so that more gene-related information can be generated. High-density chips provide a quick approach to reveal alleles, genotypes, haplotypes for a large number of samples with fixed and comparable markers. They have been widely used in maize germplasm fingerprinting 27 , genetic diversity analysis 80 and GWAS 92 .The currently available studies are mostly limited in a single application of genotyping methods, each with specific disadvantages. For example, gene arrays can not determine accurate positions of the target genes in multiple cell type, GBS may generate large quantities of missing data, and whole-genome resequencing shows high coverage but poor pertinence versus targeted resequencing. Therefore, simultaneous use of multiple genotyping techniques might be imperative. In soybean, 1.4 million tag SNPs were used as a reference to impute a large set of SNPs with a panel of 301 soybean accessions through whole genome resequencing, GBS and SNP-array (SoySNP50K), and this imputation can be used to fill in missing genotypes and untyped loci with high accuracy 93 . In maize, CRTRB1, LCYE and other key genes or genomic regions that govern rate-critical steps in the upstream pathway were identified for various carotenoids using GWAS with 380 CIMMYT inbred lines genotyped by 55 K chip and GBS 94 .By genotyping the MHP parental lines with the 55 K chip, the genotypes of hybrids can be deduced. In the current MHP, 724 hybrids have been generated by using 51 parental lines, which is much less than what can be generated in all possible ways (51 × (51-1)/2 = 1275). The SNP loci that are heterozygous in one of the two parental lines are scored as missing. SNP markers with missing data rate < 20% were extracted to deduce hybrid genotypes. A total of 37,527 SNPs (with minor allele frequency > 5% and missing data rate less than 25%) for 724 hybrids were used for structure analysis and GWAS. Polygenic component and main effect (additive and dominant effect) analysis were estimated by a web tool PEPIS (the pipeline for estimating EPIStatic genetic effects, http://bioinfo.noble.org/ PolyGenic_QTL/) 95 (Fig. 3). For PEPIS, three files, including additive genotypic data, dominance data and phenotypic data, were uploaded. The genotype of each hybrid at each specific marker locus was coded as three genotypes, A for one homozygous genotype, B for the second and H for heterozygous genotype. The K matrix corresponding to the marker-generated kinship was calculated and used to estimate variance components with restricted maximum likelihood method (REML). The polygenic structure for the trait was examined with the given variance ratios, and genome scanning for main and epistatic effects was performed for each marker (main) effect and marker pair interaction (epistatic) effects 95 . With the sub-pipelines in PEPIS, the sub-pipeline 1 was used to calculate kinship matrix, and sub-pipeline 2 for polygenic component analysis and genome scanning for main and epistatic effect QTL. As a comparison, 'Q + K' model for classical GWAS analysis was also performed. Population structure (Q)  was determined by fastSTRUCTURE 96 , the number of subpopulation was corrected by neighbor-joining genetic distance 77 , a cluster dendrogram was constructed using FigTree v1.4.2 software (Fig. 2b), and the phenotypic contribution of population structure was estimated with SAS PROC GLM procedure. The kinship matrix (K) and its contribution to phenotype were calculated by TASSEL 5.0 software 97 . The LD (r 2 ) was calculated to estimate the degree of LD between pairwise SNPs and the sliding window size was set as 500 with a step of 50 markers using TASSEL 5.0 97 (Fig. 2c). Four flowering traits, DTT (days to tassel), DTS (days to silk), DTA (days to anthesis) and ASI (anthesis-silking interval) are taken as examples for GWAS in this report (Fig. 4). Association analysis were conducted using the compressed mixed linear mixed model (CMLM) and the P3D method including 37,527 SNP markers, population structure (Q), kinship matrix (K) and phenotypic information with TASSEL 5.0 software 97 . The casual genes or QTN associated were identified with a significant threshold (-log 10 P ≥ 5.81) corrected by the Bonferroni test. Population structure was assessed by fast STRUCTURE for K values ranging from 1 to 10, and the population was divided into six subgroups with the correction of NJ genetic distance (Fig. 2b). The phenotypic contribution of population structure for DTT, DTS, DTA and ASI were 0.56, 0.58, 0.58 and 0.03, respectively, and the kinship contribution for phenotype were 0.99, 0.99, 0.98 and 0.52, respectively. The distributions of r 2 over the whole genome were presented in Fig. 2c. The r 2 values declined sharply as the distance increased and the average r 2 was estimated at ∼ 100 kb, when the cut-off value for r 2 was set to 0.2. The polygenic variance component ratios for the flowering traits are shown in Fig. 3. Additive genetic variance accounted for 79.5%, 76.8% and 78.5% of trait variance for DTT, DTS and DTA, respectively, whereas additive by additive genetic variance accounted for 50.2% variance for ASI, dominant effects accounted secondarily for 16.3%, 18.6%, 16.4% and 20.7%, respectively. Our result is consistent with the previous study for the additive effects for the flowering traits with unimportant epistasis 28 . In PEPIS, polygenic model for additive, dominant, additive by additive, additive by dominant, dominant by additive and dominant by dominant adopted to hybrids and main-effect distribution including additive and dominant are shown in Fig. 4a, and it was confirmed by the results for additive model in TASSEL (Fig. 4b). Therefore, we can run GWAS with hybrid phenotypes using the TASSEL software for additive effect analysis for the traits that are largely controlled by additive genetic variance. Given the additive effect accounted for the most part for the flowering traits and the purpose for this paper is GWAS with maize MHP, dominant effects analysis will be discussed elsewhere.A large number of significant markers were identified for flowering traits and significant signals around known loci were used to identify candidate genes and QTN co-located with SNPs based on the B73 reference genome (http://www.maizegdb.org/gbowse). Comparing GWAS analyses from PEPIS and TASSEL, we found consistent results for flowering traits with five overlapping peak regions significant for pleiotropy allelic effects for four flowering traits on chromosomes 2, 3, 6 and 8 (Fig. 4). A peak was mapped closed to GRMZM2G065276 on bin2.06, a homolog of FCA on Arabidopsis chromosome 4 98 . Arabidopsis FCA combined with another gene FPA encoded RNA binding protein, downregulated transcription of FLC, and promoted flowering 99 . Similarly, two QTN were detected on bin3.07, which were significantly associated with DTS (as qdsilk1 and qdsilk8 mapped in a previous research 100 ). The related loci mdh3 (malate dehydrogenase3) showing four alleles in Kalmia latifolia 101 regulated maize pollen tube growth 102 and encoded a cytosolic malate dehydrogenase for glyoxylate cycle activity in Arabidopsis 103 . The peak on bin6.01 contained GRMZM2G004959 which had a homologous gene in Arabidopsis (AT3G61230.1) expressing in pollen and tube growth 104 . Peak SNPs on the short arm of chromosome 8 (bin 8.01) revealed a phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein (ZCN9) gene GRMZM2G021614 105 , the homologous gene in rice LOC_Os01g02120.1 promoting the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. The peak mapped on bin 8.05 was predicted with one candidate gene GRMZM2G091276, a homologous gene in rice (LOC_Os05g50890.1) OsGH3.5 coding JA-amino acid synthetase1 modulating light and JA signal in the photomorphogenesis 106 and flower opening and anther dehiscence 107 .  For ungenerated hybrids (1275-724 = 551), their performance can be predicted using genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) 108 or empirical Bayesian approach 37 , and in general Bayes and GBLUP possess high accuracy. With an optimized scheme, we should be able to predict performance for much more hybrids with much less hybrids tested. For example, we may be able to predict a full set of diallel hybrids based on the results from NC II mating design using the same set of the parental lines. A statistical method has been developed and applied to such prediction in rice 108 , where a set of 278 selected IMF2 hybrids, developed from a RIL population between Zhenshan 97 and Minghui 63 22 , was used as a training sample to predict the rest 21,667 hybrids, with 16% yield increase in the top 100 selection compared with the average of all hybrids. The results revealed GBLUP as the best method for prediction compared with LASSO and SSVS. The GBLUP involves three stages: construction of respective kinship matrix for training sample and all hybrids, parameter estimation via cross-validation and prediction for missing and rest hybrids 108 . The empirical Bayesian approach was developed and used for a partial NC II mating design in Brassica napus including 284 F 1 hybrids, and 143 restorers and 298 sterile lines were used to predict the phenotypes for missing hybrids, with QTL effects estimated by empirical Bayesian. GCA and SCA would be estimated and elite parents and hybrids could be predicted 37 . In our following research, the GBLUP approach 108 will be used for analysis of the MHP and reported elsewhere. A recent research showed that predictability of yield was nearly twofold with metabolomics data compared with genomic prediction, despite the latter would be the most efficient method for high-heritability traits 109 , and hybrid prediction by metabolomics data may be a novel pathway in crop breeding programs that should be explored more in the future.Breeding hybrid crops is an important tool that may remarkably promote yield enhancement from 30 to 400% resulting of the heterosis 110 , and hybrid crops were used to investigate heterosis for parental inbreds with maximum combining ability. The populations created should have a higher possibility of acquiring diverse and accurate phenotype performance than natural populations 111 . Diallel and NC mating designs have been widely used in plant breeding programs to maximize selection response and the opportunity for managing coancestry for breeding populations. A prominent feature of diallel and NC mating designs is that both designs provide breeding populations with known pedigrees, which can be used to estimate specific parental genetic effects for backward selection 112 . Estimation of combining ability and heterosis can be used to guide our future breeding activities using the hybrids and their parental lines and derivatives. GCA and SCA, two essential factors in developing breeding strategies, are two main genetic parameters that can be obtained from diallel and NC analysis. GCA reflects the stand or fall of the inbred lines per se while SCA is the ability to develop elite hybrids with specific partners. A line × tester population from a collection of 302 diverse inbreds with a common tester B73 was used to predict heterosis by inbred performance and genetic distance between parents for traits, and the result suggested that heterosis could be explained by trait-dependence 113 . An unbalanced NC II for 400 hybrids and 79 inbreds was used for joint analysis of hybrids and parental lines to predict the performance of untested hybrids 114 . A set of NC II crosses between 285 Dent and two Flint inbreds genotyped with 56,110 SNPs and 130 metabolites was used to predict combining ability, allowing a reliable screening of large collections of diverse inbred lines for the potential to create superior hybrids 115 . A set of 136 hybrids and 17 parental lines was used to estimate combining ability and heterosis for stress and non-stress environments 116 , and SCA was significantly correlated with genetic distance. The MHP used in this research contains three subpopulations from temperate, tropical and temperate by tropical hybrids, which can be used for breeding different ecotypes and for gene pyramiding and recombination to combine the merits from different maize germplasm sources.Secondary populations derived from the MHP. Many secondary populations can be generated from the parental lines and hybrids of MHP by selfing the hybrids or crossing among parental lines and hybrids. The secondary populations include not only F 2 , BC and RILs, but also MAGIC and NAM. MHP-based researches will provide important information on genetics and genomics such as genes, alleles, haplotypes and population structure about their parental lines and associated hybrids, which can be used to guide further researches on the secondary populations.As discussed in the previous section, the MHP developed in this study can be shared through distribution of the 51 parental lines, which is much simpler than sharing all possible hybrids (1275) that can be generated from the 51 parents. By sharing the parental lines, a flexible number of hybrids can be generated and tested for agronomic traits of interest to specific users. Genotypic information will be generated and accumulated through genotyping parental lines using different genotyping platforms conducted by collaborators worldwide, which can be shared through a website. As a start point of sharing, we are happy to distribute the 51 parental lines, along with their genotypic information available so far, to those who are interested in using the MHP in their genetics and breeding researches. As a return, we would appreciate all collaborators for sharing their phenotype information generated for specific traits in specific environments or locations and genotypic information generated with their own genotyping platforms.Compared with bi-and multi-parental populations and natural ones, MHPs are more suitable for hybrid crops. From various mating designs, a large number of hybrids can be generated to form MHPs, and a set of diallel hybrids from a relatively large number of parental lines would be the best. Each set of diallel hybrids can be divided into three subsets of hybrids with distinct genetic properties, two diallels each representing one ecotype and one NC II representing between-ecotype hybrids. A partial set of hybrids can be generated, selectively or randomly, from the full set, and then used to predict the rest ungenerated hybrids. By sharing parental lines along with their genotypic information, a large number of hybrids can be generated and tested by worldwide collaborators.In addition to conventional quantitative genetics on combining ability, heterosis and hybrid performance, MHPs can be widely used in modern genetics, genomics and breeding. By high-density genotyping, MHPs can be used in GWAS for phenotypic data collected under diverse environments, including traits of agronomic importance, and heterosis and combining ability as well, which can be based on markers, alleles and haplotypes. MHPs per se and their derived secondary populations can be used in breeding for both inbred lines and hybrids. Taking 724 hybrids derived from 51 parental lines and four flowering traits as an example, we compared two independent GWAS methods, PEPIS software developed for hybrids and TASSEL software designed for inbred line populations. The two  ","tokenCount":"7935"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1fd1a35f0a829e366da3902b9c40db42","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6dbe7a37-e074-4518-a5a4-21d5fcccbed7/retrieve","id":"1970068868"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b025575a-9173-4a90-a4be-56fd490bf7c3","pagecount":"22","content":"Mozambique is beef deficit country because of the low cattle population and the low offtake rates  There is a high demand and buyers who pay the best prices will benefit from the supply of finished cattle   • Groups are currently under registration as private companies.Registration will be finalized before the end of July.• Feedlot tender released and selection will be done on Wednesday 11 th July• Expect feed lot construction starting in 2 weeks and finalizing by end of August• Brachiaria seeds imported from ILRI-Kenya and duplication will start soon.• Soil samples were taken for analysis in Maputo. This will provide indication on the fertility of the soil• Initially 7 financial institutions were contacted to present the project and discuss interest and potential collaboration• Four (4) financial institutions were shortlisted for the second round of discussions (current meeting)• An MoU will be shared with the 4 shortlisted financial institutions by the 20 th July, asking each of them to provide inputs and comments.• PROSUL team will review the MoUs and finally select the one with the conditions that best fit to the project• By beginning of August we hope that the MoU will be signed","tokenCount":"195"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8aa086fe023c719738aeda2e53084d05","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4e1e9c2d-3b93-4d39-af38-1d58dc957a8f/retrieve","id":"-316552718"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"58d3af44-fe62-4fe0-b9c5-753b39c15853","pagecount":"34","content":"The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish (L&F) aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable to resource-poor consumers across the developing world. In Bangladesh, where L&F's value chain work is led by WorldFish, the program focuses on farmed fish value chains of tilapia (Oreochromis sp.), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), rohu carp (Labeo rohita), and mola (Amblypharyngodon mola), a small indigenous species from the southern region of Bangladesh. Farmed fish value chains of these species are of particular relevance to resource-poor producers, value chain actors and consumers. As many organizations are or have been active in the development of different aquaculture value chains, a review of existing literature on value chains of the selected speciespresented in this document-was commissioned to prepare for a field-based value chain assessment and benchmarking exercise.This literature review aims to provide a clear description of the state of present knowledge on the target value chains and guidance on existing gaps to inform planning of a field-based value chain assessment. This report summarizes the findings from studies undertaken by various organizations, including Innovision Consulting and WorldFish, that are published and available online or unpublished. The findings were synthesized to develop a list of priority topics relevant to L&F's focus on the resource-poor.A total of 32 documents were included in this review, the vast majority of which are unpublished project reports. Information from the peer-reviewed literature was limited.Most limited was the information available on small indigenous species. Also, information on carp is generally not very specific as to the particular carp species it relates to, despite the major importance of this species group to aquaculture production in Bangladesh and the substantial differences in prices and consumer access and preferences across species.This review identified the following main areas with gaps in information for the L&F target species value chains:  Contribution of target species to the national economy, including gross domestic product (GDP), agricultural income, animal protein intake, employment and annual export earnings. While the literature provides details on these issues for the fisheries and aquaculture sector as a whole, there is limited disaggregated information on the target species. Data is also commonly aggregated at country level, and specific information on the south is mostly unavailable. Likewise, data is available on aquaculture production at national level, but is not disaggregated by species. Disaggregated information on the contribution of aquaculture to improving livelihoods by species and region is needed.  Information on roles and responsibilities of women and men, and sex-disaggregated information on access to high-quality inputs and services, as well as markets. The engagement of women in fish culture is presented from the national point of view.There is also literature on the prospects and challenges of women's engagement in fish culture in the northern region. The available information could be used to develop hypotheses related to the engagement of women in carp, tilapia and small indigenous species culture in the southern region. Also, research on women's involvement in input supply and in trade and distribution is yet to be undertaken. This could be a key focus for the proposed value chain assessment.  Disaggregated data on the nutritional contribution of aquaculture. Data is needed on aquaculture's nutritional contribution to the diet of local households by species and by region.  Production and growth trends at regional level. These trends should be assessed for southern Bangladesh in particular. Factors that could contribute to the growth of the target species in the southern region of Bangladesh. Natural, economic and social aspects should be considered.  National demand and supply for small indigenous species.  Validation of constraints and opportunities related to carp and tilapia and better understanding the role of small indigenous species in the southern region of Bangladesh.  For carp and small indigenous species value chains only, the following gaps in data were noted: regional production and growth trends  regional demand and supply trends  value chain maps documenting the value chain actors, distribution channels and final markets  information on the current status of and challenges in input supply in southern Bangladesh  the current status of carp and small indigenous species production practices in the south, particularly related to the wider context and the enabling environment.In general, the pro-poor nature of the target species and value chains needs to be further addressed and analyzed, such as through the upcoming value chain assessment, to better inform research for development decisions, priorities and investments in the L&F program going forward.WorldFish is a partner in the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish (L&F), which aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable to resource-poor consumers across the developing world. In Bangladesh, the program focuses on farmed fish value chains of tilapia, carp and small indigenous species from the southern region of Bangladesh (specifically, the polder zone of Khulna division), as well as farmed shrimp and prawn, which typically are important components of polyculture farming systems. There have been many ongoing and past efforts in the aquaculture sector in Bangladesh, so a review of existing knowledge on the value chains of these species was commissioned in order to avoid duplication of effort in the value chain assessment and benchmarking to be conducted by the program. This literature review aims to provide a clear description of the present knowledge on these aquaculture value chains and provide some recommendations for filling gaps through a field-based value chain assessment.The purpose of this study was to conduct a review of existing value chain analyses of the key target species: tilapia, carp and small indigenous species. The review includes both gray and peer-reviewed literature and summarizes past research and development interventions, including gender analysis and gender-related interventions.The following topics were included in the literature review:  significance of target value chains in the Bangladesh economy  role of value chains in livelihoods (including employment), purposes for keeping fish (home consumption and market) and time spent on fish culture  accessibility of products to resource-poor consumers  value chain mapping (including different value chain strands, products, final markets and seasonality)  quantitative information (prices, margins, volumes, etc.)  access to technical assistance, market information, etc.  value chain linkages and collective action  gender issues, including roles and responsibilities, decision-making, control over assets and income, and gender-based constraints in the value chains  human health and food safety (history and records of major trade disruptions both international and domestic, major sources of food safety hazards in selected value chains, and status of national food safety monitoring program)  farm management practices and systems  feeds and feeding practices  animal health (any significant disease outbreaks recorded in the selected value chains, outbreak descriptions and quantification of economic impacts, expertise at the national level for disease diagnosis and management, national disease surveillance and reporting plans, management of live fish introductions)  fish breeding and seed inputs  constraints, opportunities and solutions.This report is based on three sources of information:1. prior research and project work done by Innovision Consulting Pvt. Ltd. 2. publications and research work by WorldFish 3. online search of other reports, documents, research papers and journal articles (using key words; see Annex).Information prior to 2009 was considered outdated and unsuitable for future decisionmaking.The review was further guided by four questions:1.What are the conclusions on the topic presented by the researchers? 2.Do different researchers agree on the conclusions on the topic? 3.If not, what are the major differences in views? Which observations are found to be more relevant and valid and why? For which topics is there a need to conduct a primary investigation to resolve the differences in views? 4.Is there sufficient and credible literature on the topic? If not, is there a need to conduct a primary investigation?The report begins with a sector overview detailing the impact of the aquaculture sector as a whole and the carp, tilapia and small indigenous species subsectors in particular. Emphasis is put on the contribution of the sector to the overall Bangladeshi economy in terms of livelihood and nutrition. The review continues with an overview of current knowledge on the value chain maps of the target species, including the main value chain actors and their functions, as well as the relationships between the actors. This includes an assessment of culture practices, access to the market for resource-poor producers, and the state of technical assistance and market information. After identifying the channels through which the fish move to consumers, the retail price and value addition at each stage are reviewed to identify the major benefactors and main influencers in the value chain. The review then moves to other aspects that have an impact on the subsectors, including the status of food safety and impact on human health, government support and policies, access to finance, and environmental issues. Finally, the report concludes with a summary of constraints and opportunities, interventions and probable outcomes, and gaps in existing knowledge to be covered in further research.Available literature sufficiently details the impact of fisheries on the national economy. Fisheries contribute 3.7% to the GDP, 20.9% of agricultural income, 58% of animal protein intake and 4% of annual export earnings (Barua et al. 2012). Bangladesh was the fifth largest global aquaculture producer in 2010 after China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia (Barua et al. 2012). However, we could not deduce from the available literature the economic contribution of the target species (carp, tilapia and small indigenous species) or of aquaculture in general, or the impact of fisheries specifically in the southern region of Bangladesh.There were an estimated 3.08 million fish and shrimp farmers (1.93 million fish farmers and 1.15 million shrimp farmers) in Bangladesh and 0.45 million fry (fish and shrimp) collectors in 2009 (BCAS 2009b). We were not able to source information on the impact of aquaculturespecifically of the three selected species-on employment in the southern region.It is estimated that about 15% of fish supplied in markets are Indian major carp, 10% are exotic carp, 5% are other carp, 25% are hilsha, 10% are catfish, 5% are snakehead, 3% are live fish, 5% are small indigenous fish, 7% are prawn and shrimp, 5% are tilapia and 10% are others, including small shrimp and marine fish (Alam et al. 2010). Information on the distribution of production of the target species in southern Bangladesh was unavailable.There is also insignificant research and literature on the demand, supply and economic impact of small indigenous species in Bangladesh and in the southern region in particular.Tilapia was introduced to Bangladesh from Thailand in 1954. A study conducted by Innovision Consulting details the significance of tilapia in the aquaculture sector in Bangladesh. In spite of a long history, tilapia culture has only become widespread in Bangladesh in recent years. Tilapia is ranked sixth in terms of pond fish production, which contributes 8.1% of total aquaculture production. A total of around 201,000 farmers were involved in tilapia culture in 2011-2012. It is projected that the number of tilapia farmers will be around 330,000 in 2016-2017(Katalyst 2013)). The literature does not report on the number of farmers engaged in tilapia culture in the southern region of Bangladesh.The Innovision study also details the growth trends in tilapia production in Bangladesh.  The significance of carp to the national aquaculture sector in Bangladesh is captured by Belton et al. (2011). They report that carp have been widely cultivated across Bangladesh for over a decade. When all other nonnative carp and Indian minor carp are considered, carp account for 88% of the fish recorded as produced in ponds in Bangladesh (Belton et al. 2011). It was not possible to report on regional distribution of production of carp species or the trends in growth in carp production in the southern region in Bangladesh due to lack of information in the available literature.Small indigenous species are traditionally consumed for their nutritional benefits but are yet to be adopted for commercial culture. Small indigenous species are rarely cultivated and mostly extracted from natural sources like haors (large wetland ecosystems) and rivers, or are found to occur naturally in ponds. A total of 57 small indigenous species of fish, in 23 families and 11 orders, were recorded from the river Padma. The most abundant fish families were Cyprinidae, Bagridae and Schilbeidae and Osphronemidae, Clupeidae and Sisoridae (Samad et al. 2010). Research on the potential of small indigenous species production has so far been limited and indicates that small indigenous species have been mostly looked at from a subsistence perspective; the commercial potential of small indigenous species culture is yet to be assessed.Our review revealed national data on economic impact-that is, impact on people's employment, income and livelihoods-of fisheries and aquaculture. Information related specifically to the southern region is largely unavailable. Findings suggest that around 11% of the country's total population is directly or indirectly dependent on fisheries and aquaculture for their income and livelihoods (BCAS 2009a). Fish is the main source of animal protein and micronutrients for the majority of the population, including the resource-poor, indicating the significance of the sector to the national economy. The average yearly income for a fish farmer of average farm size (1 acre) is about BDT 20,000 or USD 285, although fish farmers probably also have other sources of income (BCAS 2009a). It is estimated that the entire fisheries sector directly and indirectly supports the livelihoods of more than 16 million people (Apu 2014). This includes employment in hatcheries, nurseries, fingerling trading, fish farming, shrimp farming, shrimp processing, postlarvae collection, fish trading, transportation, export, service provision and capture fisheries. Aquaculture has shown positive results and sustainable impacts in livelihood improvements, especially in remote areas and among indigenous populations where various infrastructural and social challenges result in ultra-poor populations. For example, a project run in the north and northwest of Bangladesh found that the overall rate of retention of aquaculture and related livelihood options among Adivasi (the indigenous population) was relatively high for activities such as pond fish culture, pond netting, and food fish and fingerling trading. Overall, 80%-90% of the project participants were continuing the activities they had adopted during the earlier project period, and 20%-30% of participants expanded their enterprises in the years after the project ended (Pant et al. 2014).While reports mention the importance of aquaculture in the southern region, neither impacts of aquaculture in terms of livelihood improvement nor information on the culture of carp, tilapia and small indigenous species are present in current research. Even though available literature suggests that the intermediaries in the value chain benefit more than the farmers from the growth in production, it was not possible to conclusively establish the contribution of growth in production of the target species to the distribution of employment and income-earning opportunities across the value chains.While some information is available on general employment and industry profiles of carp, tilapia and small indigenous species, the information is not gender segregated. A report on the gender division of labor in aquaculture identifies female roles as important in household aquaculture, especially in homestead ponds (Ismail 2010), but other studies on commercial production do not mention any female engagement. The Ismail study also does not identify research findings on the involvement of women in the production of tilapia, carp and small indigenous species in Bangladesh nationally or in the southern region.Available literature provides credible insight into the importance of fisheries in nutritional intake of households in Bangladesh. Fish is the most important source of animal protein in Bangladesh, accounting for approximately 66% of total intake (BBS 2007). A household income and expenditure survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics indicates that approximately 55% of the households surveyed consumed no meat at all during the 14 days survey period, and over 85% ate meat on fewer than three occasions during this period.In contrast, 98.5% of households consumed fish on at least one occasion, and 60% ate fish at least every second day. These figures underline the critical and continuing importance of fish to the Bangladeshi diet. However, consumption can vary substantially depending on income, season and location (Belton et al. 2011).The available literature credibly highlights the importance of aquaculture and fisheries in general in supplementing the low-protein and high-carbohydrate diet common in Bangladesh. It suggests that a relatively small amount of fish protein in combination with a cereal-based diet enhances the nutritional quality of the cereal protein and improves the overall quality of the diet, including the taste (Pathak 1989). However, we could not ascertain the contribution of cultured carp, tilapia or small indigenous species, specifically, to Bangladeshi diets.There is no information available on intra-household distribution of food in Bangladesh. The available research also does not look into the dietary contribution of fish in general and our target species in particular to the nutrition of women and men.Value chain analysis is conducted with the objective of analyzing inequities in the distribution of benefits, as well as determining prospects for value addition that can lead to improvements in income, employment and livelihoods of the resource-poor households that participate or have the potential to participate in the value chain. Based on available literature, this section presents the value chain maps of the target species in order to identify the potential of the value chains, the key actors at present and major challenges and opportunities. The structure of the value chains and the key functions performed are quite similar for each of the target species.A general market map of the tilapia value chain is presented in Figure 2, derived from two studies conducted by Innovision on the tilapia value chain (WorldFish 2012b; Katalyst 2013).The map highlights the primary value chain actors and service and input providers, as well as their main activities. These are further described in the remainder of this section.Studies commissioned by WorldFish and Katalyst on the tilapia value chain in southern Bangladesh and the value chains of high-value fish (tilapia, Thai koi and pangasius) provide an overview of feeding practices and use of other inputs by tilapia farmers in the target area (WorldFish 2012b; Katalyst 2013). The application of fertilizer varies with respect to the farming system. Almost all tilapia farmers in Bangladesh use organic fertilizer (like cow dung) for their grow-out operations; the use of inorganic or chemical fertilizer has remained limited to better-off farmers adopting semi-intensive and commercial culture systems. These farmers use a mixture of chemical fertilizers, including urea and triple super phosphate, in combination with cow dung. Intensive farmers using pellet feeds reportedly apply more fertilizers than extensive and semi-extensive farmers. Chemical fertilizers are usually purchased from local input retailers, who collect it from the local office of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation. Extensive farmers who make use of supplementary feed use organic fertilizer for polyculture of tilapia with carp. The use of cow dung only is mainly attributed to a lack of technical expertise and an inability to afford more expensive chemical fertilizers (WorldFish 2012b).Source: Adapted from WorldFish 2012b; Katalyst 2013.The same study suggests that even though higher-grade factory-made feeds are available in the southern region, around 38% of small-scale farmers and 36% of large-scale farmers do not have access to good-quality feed. Floating feed is the most popular feed among farmers, followed by locally produced feed and homemade feed. The WorldFish study suggests that around 71% of the tilapia farmers in the region use floating feed (WorldFish 2012b), while another study reports that in 2009-2010 roughly 85% of tilapia was produced using milled dry pellets of both sinking and floating types (Anwar 2011). Some farmers also use a combination of homemade feed and factory-made feed. The homemade feed includes rice bran, boiled rice, oilcake and even cow dung (WorldFish 2012b).A lack of knowledge among farmers about feeding was found to be a major constraint with a significant negative impact on productivity and profitability. The increasing cost of fish seed has had a negative impact on the demand for quality feed. Small-scale farmers in particular are reported to have a limited adoption of improved technologies due to fear of increased cost of production. Furthermore, the cost of feed has also been increasing due to increases in import prices of the ingredients. Approximately 3200 feed retailers are engaged in selling feed, aqua-chemicals and other necessary inputs to the farmers. The available popular feed brands include Mega Feeds, Quality Feed and ACI-Godrej (WorldFish 2012b). The existing literature provides a satisfactory picture of the current situation with regard to the use of aqua-chemicals, fertilizers and feeds for tilapia production in the southern region.Tilapia farmers use lime in ponds for management of water quality and natural productivity. Farmers also apply feed additives, growth hormones, enzymes, antibiotics and probiotics, and other aqua products such as Aquaclean, Zeofresh, Oxylife, Aquamix, Gastrap, Cevit-Aqua, Panvit-Aqua and Antivirus. However, the use of these additives is currently limited to farmers adopting a semi-intensive culture system (WorldFish 2012b).A more in-depth assessment of farm size, farming practices and input requirements is recommended, especially with respect to the use of chemical inputs and medicine. The literature is also weak on the use of these inputs at the hatchery level, which is an important element of the value chain. Even though the reports cited highlight the constraints in demand and application of these inputs, specifically related to small farmers, a clear picture on the volume of demand and supply is lacking. Information related to market price for feed is available (ranging from BDT 25/kilogram [kg] to BDT 50/kg), but this needs to be reviewed and updated, since the price tends to fluctuate highly from season to season. It would also be relevant to determine the total cost of inputs and the percentage distribution of cost between the key inputs (aqua-chemicals, feed, medicine and fertilizer) for the different types of farmers (small and medium) and farming systems (semi-intensive, extensive, etc.).There is also no information on gender-based differences in access to inputs and services, and thus a need for more research in this area.Private hatcheries dominate the seed supply, and the supply is adequate to meet the market demand (Katalyst 2013). There are around 300 hatcheries, producing a total of 2.9 billion tilapia fry. This number is up from 1.4 billion in 2009-2010 as a result of increasing production and demand for tilapia in the country (Katalyst 2013). Large feed companies like CP, Paragon Feeds, Quality Feeds and Mega Feeds have established hatcheries and are selling high-quality fry. The price of BDT 1.0-1.2 per piece reported by Katalyst ( 2013) is higher than that found in WorldFish (2012b) of BDT 0.7-1.0 per piece. The Katalyst study suggests that these hatcheries will lead the growth in production of tilapia fry and will be instrumental in ensuring its quality (Katalyst 2013). The study also suggests that the industry experts are divided in their opinion of the number of operational tilapia hatcheries in Bangladesh. It would be interesting to assess to what degree the growth in supply has been due to establishment of new hatcheries or expansion of existing hatcheries. This would help to assess the competitive environment and the growth strategy of the hatcheries catering to the tilapia farmers in Bangladesh in general, as well as in the southern region in particular.The Katalyst study also details the national status of broodstock development, hatching and nursing, suggesting that the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) is a key source of quality broods. Some of the hatcheries are also reportedly importing broods from Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines (Katalyst 2013). The impact of the imported broods on the quality and price of fish seed could be investigated in the proposed value chain assessment.WorldFish (2012b) describes the demand for mono-and mixed-sex tilapia. Large-scale farmers in the southern region prefer mono-sex tilapia and usually purchase from the same hatchery every year, while small-scale farmers prefer mixed-sex tilapia, as they opt to breed tilapia in their ponds to decrease the cost of seed and as an additional source of income, as they can sell residual fry to fry traders and other farmers. These farmers apply a partial harvesting method and use the newborn fry for the next cultivation cycle. The quality of this fry is reportedly poor and results in poor output at the end of the production period. However, only 3% of the small-scale farmers interviewed in the study identified unavailability of quality fry as a problem, as opposed to 23% of the larger and medium-scale farmers. This suggests that the small-scale farmers in the southern region are either unwilling to increase the quality and productivity of their output as a risk and cost minimization strategy or are not aware of the potential gains of adopting quality fry. There is also concern about false claims by hatcheries, since many farmers reported having found 80% male fry in the mono-sex fry that they purchased from the hatcheries in contrast to the claim of 95% male made by the hatcheries (WorldFish 2012b).The Katalyst study identifies commercial nursing as an opportunity in the tilapia value chain because conventional hatcheries provide seed to farmers in the monsoon period (June-October) and are unable to provide seed in bulk before May: \"In late monsoon season, fish seed price declines dramatically due to less demand and hatcheries are forced to sell spawns/seeds at much lower rates. These low-priced spawns/fry are usually procured by non-conventional nursery owners for prolonged nursing though the winter period, popularly termed over-wintered nursing\" (Katalyst 2013, 30). However, the WorldFish study indicates that overwintering is still not practiced in the southern region and identifies it as an opportunity for intervention (WorldFish 2012b). This should be investigated in the proposed value chain assessment in the southern region.The WorldFish study identifies fish seed trading as an important value-added function, especially for small-scale tilapia farmers in the southern region. The study suggests that the fry traders (locally called patilwalas) play an important role in providing information to the farmers on farming of tilapia. These traders buy from the hatcheries in bulk and sell to the farmers. It is suggested that a patilwala is able to earn a monthly income of around BDT 30,000 with a 60% profit margin (WorldFish 2012b).It has been estimated that the area under tilapia culture nationally will reach around 330,000 hectares (ha) in 2016-2017, including ponds, ghers and floodplains (Katalyst 2013). The total annual tilapia production in Bangladesh was estimated at 177,682 tonnes in 2011-2012. It is projected that the total production of tilapia will reach around 311,000 tonnes in 2016-2017 (Katalyst 2013). In the southern region, around 13,000 farmers cultivate tilapia on roughly 10,000 ha of land (WorldFish 2012b). Of those farmers, about 56% are small farmers with an average of 0.22 ha of land, and the remainder are either medium-or largescale farmers with an average of 1.53 ha of ponds or water area (WorldFish 2012b).In Bangladesh, tilapia is produced in a wide range of culture systems, including small-scale, low-input, rural ponds and semi-intensive, intensive and commercial operations, and it can take place under a wide range of freshwater, brackish water and saline conditions (Katalyst 2013). Most farmers (70%) produce tilapia in polyculture, while the remainder practice monoculture. Around 30% of farmers are involved in extensive or improved extensive farming, while 50% and 20% of farmers practice semi-extensive and intensive farming, respectively (Katalyst 2013). It is suggested that there is a recent trend of farmers shifting from polyculture to monoculture, as it is perceived to have higher productivity (Katalyst 2013). The main season for tilapia farming is from April to December, a season of about 9 months. With a grow-out period of about 4 months, this means that two cycles can be produced each season (Katalyst 2013). The optimum stocking density for genetically improved farmed tilapia (GIFT) is reported to be 30,000 pieces per ha (Ahmed and Ahmed 2009).Low productivity is considered a challenge in the tilapia value chain. Overall productivity for Bangladesh was estimated at 1.37 tonnes/ha in 2010-2011 (Katalyst 2013). The productivity varies widely between divisions, with the highest productivity reported for the Dhaka division (6.29 tonnes/ha) and the lowest for the Khulna division (0.73 tonnes/ha). Khulna is also the division with the largest land area under tilapia production, as well as the highest volume of production. This is likely due to a high number of extensive polyculture systems of tilapia with prawn, shrimp and other finfish, including Mozambique sp. tilapia, in brackishwater ponds (Katalyst 2013).Most farmers practice partial harvesting of tilapia, which allows smaller fish to grow further, while a few farmers practice total harvesting methods. Farmers harvest tilapia by using cast nets and seine nets, usually netting several times at intervals of a few weeks. Harvested tilapia are cleaned with pond water and kept in aluminum containers or bamboo baskets until they are sold (Ahmed and Ahmed 2009).None of the available research details the practices related to pond preparation and water management. The use of hired labor as opposed to own labor has likewise not been researched. There is also limited information available on the roles of women in tilapia culture and farm management. These issues need to be studied in more detail in the proposed value chain assessment. The cost of production, profitability and value addition is reported in the WorldFish study on the tilapia value chain (WorldFish 2012b). However, it is strongly recommended that this information be further researched and analyzed, particularly taking into account the use of hired and own labor and land costs, which are critical cost inputs and key determinants of profitability.It is recommended that the following challenges be reassessed in the proposed value chain assessment:  lack of farming knowledge among farmers  inappropriate use of feed in ponds  increasing cost of feed  challenges and opportunities facing small-and medium-scale farmers and other value chain actors adopting new technologies and improving their enterprises  the effect of salinity on tilapia culture  the proportion of tilapia culture income in overall farm income.Depending on transaction volumes, farmers sell their harvested tilapia to local agents or suppliers (Ahmed and Ahmed 2009). The trading system is generally characterized by the presence of a large number of intermediaries. However, information on the volume of supply that flows through the different market channels is missing. It is also not clear how the power relations of intermediaries change with respect to intensity and volume of production or a farmer's wealth status.Farmers consume some of the tilapia they produce in their households; the proportion varies by farming system and household type. The rest is marketed through different channels that tend to be similar for all types of freshwater cultured species. The Katalyst study suggests that tilapia farmers usually take their produce to a nearby collection center on the roadside (Katalyst 2013). Here the produce is purchased by local traders, who then sell it to local wholesalers (referred to as arotdars) in nearby fish markets, which are usually located in government-designated haats or bazaars (different types of markets). The study does not report on the purchase price of the fish at the collection points or the process of purchase (whether through auction or through hackle). It is also not clear to what degree advance sales take place prior to the harvest, and this needs to be further assessed.Fish arots (wholesale markets) are prevalent in the southern region, since this region supplies the national markets for prawn, shrimp, white fish, tilapia, pangasius and rivercaught fish. Most large farmers tend to come directly to the wholesale market and sell their produce. Farias (collectors or intermediaries) are very active in this region, where they collect fish from the farm gate of medium and small farmers and sell to the arots. Farias who work regularly in these areas are able to obtain advance funds from the arots to purchase fish. These arots get a commission of BDT 2-3 per kg of fish that is traded through them (Alam et al. 2010).The trading channels for fish products in general are well established in the southern region and ensure speed of delivery to consumers (Katalyst 2013). The same study presents a direct linkage between small-scale farmers and district-level wholesalers, which is not reported by any other studies. The authors report that fish is sold from the district-level wholesalers to divisional trading hubs like Sylhet, Mymensingh and Jessore and eventually reaches the national-level wholesalers near Dhaka. At each of the wholesalers at district, divisional and national level, a part of the produce is sold to retailers to be sold to consumers in the respective areas (Katalyst 2013).Tilapia is iced and transported in locally made insulated wooden or bamboo boxes. Transport of live tilapia is not possible, but iced tilapia is traded in wholesale and retail markets in fresh condition. Medium-and large-sized fish are separated from a mixed group by species and size and are sold in hali (equivalent to four pieces). Most small-sized fish are sold on a maund (equivalent to 37.6 kg) basis. Wholesalers are reported to perform the crucial functions of sorting, grading and packaging, and take the risk of transporting the fish across long distances (Alam et al. 2010).Tilapia from the south seems to reach local, district and Dhaka markets. A higher market price for tilapia is reported in the southern region (BDT 120/kg at farm gate and BDT 140-150/kg in the final market) than in other districts in Bangladesh; for example, the price is BDT 100-110/kg in the fish wholesale market in Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka, which is primarily served by the produce from Mymensingh, Comilla and Bogra districts (WorldFish 2012b).There is a correlation between the size or weight and the price of the table fish (BDT 140-150/kg for six or seven pieces per kg versus 160-180/kg for four pieces per kg). Nevertheless, small-scale farmers prefer producing the smaller-sized tilapia because they want to avoid the lengthy cultivation period of 6-7 months needed to reach the larger size. Large-scale farmers were, however, reported to be serving the consumer segment for largersized tilapia (WorldFish 2012b).The prospect for export of tilapia from the region is low since the price in the domestic market is higher than the price in the international market. At the time this study was conducted, the price of table tilapia in the international market was USD 1-1.2 (Alibaba.com), far below the price of tilapia in the domestic markets of around USD 2. The prospect for processing tilapia fillets is also limited, because there is no support industry that could utilize the byproducts (bones, guts and heads), which constitute about 50% of the total fresh weight (WorldFish 2012b). It is recommended that the value chain assessment further investigate the current status of local market price in comparison to the national market price and implications for resourcepoor consumers. In addition, there is limited information on the profiles of consumers in the final market in terms of their location, wealth status, gender and other characteristics. The upcoming value chain assessment can help fill some of these information gaps.The carp value chain's functions are similar to those of tilapia; the only distinction is that the hatcheries do not need to do hormonal treatment to create mono-sex. WorldFish commissioned Innovision Consulting to conduct an assessment of the carp seed value chain in the southern region of Bangladesh (WorldFish 2012a), and this document remains the key source related to carp in the south. Other than this study, the literature only treats the carp value chain in the northern region of Bangladesh.There is no available literature on aqua-chemical, fertilizer, feed and medicine supply for the carp fish farmers in southern Bangladesh. Since most farmers adopt polyculture of carp, it is likely that the input supply functions and challenges are similar to those observed in the tilapia value chain, as carp is often mixed with tilapia in polyculture systems. Nevertheless, it is recommended that input supply for carp culture be assessed and key differences from the tilapia value chain reported.There are as many as 99 operational carp hatcheries in southern Bangladesh (in Jessore, Barisal and Khulna districts), which produced 135 tonnes of spawn (13.53 billion fry), or about 28% of the total national production in 2011 (WorldFish 2012a).Critical constraints related to the supply and use of quality carp fish seed include the following: Lack of consistent quality results in general distrust among farmers of the quality of spawn and fingerlings supplied by hatcheries and nurseries. As a result, farmers' choices are usually driven by price, which incentivizes supply of inferior-quality seed.  Volatility in price of table fish leads carp farmers to take a risk-averse approach of producing at the lowest cost possible. Thus, they prefer to stick to a low-input-lowoutput-low-profit model of business, which further reduces the incentive for production of quality fish seed (WorldFish 2012a).It is recommended that the value chain assessment research the following:  whether these constraints still exist, as WorldFish and development partners have intervened in the carp seed value chain, possibly addressing some of these constraints  the degree to which small farmers are concerned about the quality of fish seed and are therefore interested in purchasing better-quality fish seed for a higher price (the previous study having identified that the farmers are not particularly interested in investing in better-quality fish seed)  the current volume of supply of fish seed from commercial nurseries  the price of different sizes of seed (fry, fingerlings, etc.)  the size preferred by small-scale farmers as opposed to large-scale farmers  the correlation between farm size and linkage with hatcheries (direct or through intermediaries; small hatcheries or large hatcheries; private or public hatcheries)  the contribution of carp fry to the total income of the fry traders, which will provide insight into the demand for carp fry in comparison to other cultured species. It is unlikely that there are specialized fry traders for carp.Source: WorldFish 2012a. The current literature review did not find available information on carp culture in the southern region. National accounts suggest that the majority of fish farmers practice extensive or improved extensive farming systems, where no additional feed is used. Commercial carp culture is characterized as semi-intensive farming with occasional use of low-quality supplemental feed consisting of rice bran and oilcake (FAO 2014a).Research findings suggest that the production systems for carp are similar to those for tilapia because polyculture of carp and tilapia is highly prevalent. The key difference is in intensive tilapia farming, which is done in shallower water than carp farming.Commonly adopted carp farm management practices include pond culture (homestead and commercial), seasonal floodplain aquaculture, rice-fish culture and cage culture. Apu (2014) summarizes the freshwater pond farming systems in Bangladesh as follows:  Extensive: stocking with three Indian major carp species; no fertilization and feeding.  Improved extensive: stocking with three Indian major and three exotic (silver, common and grass) carp species; irregular use of fertilization (mostly cow dung) but without feeding. Silver barb is also occasionally stocked.  Semi-intensive: stocking with three Indian major and three exotic carp species or monoculture of striped catfish. Regular use of fertilizer (both organic and inorganic) with occasional use of supplemental feed consisting of rice bran and oilcake. Silver barb is generally stocked, as well as freshwater prawn and Nile tilapia.  Intensive: monoculture of striped catfish, tilapia, koi, shing and magur. Regular feeding with commercially manufactured pellet diet (Apu 2014).Based on literature from other regions of Bangladesh on carp culture, the following issues have been identified as potential areas of constraint for the carp value chain in southern Bangladesh:  ownership of ponds (leased or owned; multiple owner or single owner) and its significance for culture practices and adoption of improved methods  shifts from polyculture to monoculture production practices and their effect on productivity and profitability  source of seed for the farmers (private or public; small or large) and its effect on productivity and profitability  price of feed and seed and its effect on adoption of quality feed and seed  source of feed and its effect on quality and productivity  type of feed used and its effect on productivity and profitability  use of hired labor versus own labor and its effect on productivity and profitability  involvement of women in carp culture and harvesting and its effect on productivity and profitability  harvesting practices and their effect on farm-gate price  salinity intrusion and its effect on carp production.In addition, it is recommended that the following issues be investigated for the carp value chain in the southern region: species-wise production distribution  the culture practices adopted  pond preparation, water management and feeding practices  cost of production and productivity  involvement of women in carp culture  price at farm gate for different species  harvesting practices and weight at the time of harvest.The trading system for carp is expected to be similar to tilapia, but this needs to be confirmed through the value chain assessment. An additional aspect that should be looked at is the composition of carp in the total volume and value of fish traded by the intermediaries year round. This will help improve the understanding of the importance of carp in the overall aquaculture value chain in the southern region of Bangladesh. The correlation between farm size, productivity, volume of production and type of intermediary accessed by the farmers should also be reviewed, in addition to price at different trading points, with the objective to determine the factors contributing to price differentials.There has been no significant research on the carp value chain in the southern region in Bangladesh. However, Belton et al. (2011) conducted a national review of fish consumption in Bangladesh from which some deductions on the market prospect for carp species from southern Bangladesh can be made: \"[In Bangladesh,] carp possesses high affective value as a culturally preferred food item. Its production thus contributes to household wellbeing via emotional satisfaction as well as through purely monetary or calorific gains\" (Belton et al. 2011, 913-14). It is thus likely that small-scale carp producers consume a significant portion of their product at their households. Carp sales were also reported to be used strategically to cover expenses for irrigated winter rice and to take advantage of periods when carp attracts a high market value (Belton et al. 2011). Carp sales thereby fulfilled a function as a savings account to \"smooth seasonal cash shortages\" (Belton et al. 2011, 8).From a value chain point of view, these findings suggest that (i) small-scale farmers are likely to earn less than large-scale farmers from the sale of carp in the market since the proportion of household intake is expected to be higher for them than for large-scale farmers, and that (ii) farmers tend to deliberately plan their harvesting period to be able to meet their cash requirements for food security. It is recommended that these two aspects be further investigated in the proposed value chain assessment.The Belton et al. (2011) study also provides detailed insight into fish and carp consumption both in general and disaggregated by income bracket. It suggests that there is an emerging division between urban and rural consumption patterns, suggesting that high-value wild fish and commercially cultured species (pangasius, tilapia and climbing perch) are exported from rural areas to Dhaka, while cultured carp are mainly consumed in rural areas. The report further points out that smaller farmed fish (rohu, silver carp, etc.) and small captured fish (puti, bain, etc.) are the most commonly available species in rural markets, while larger farmed and wild fish are more abundant in the urban markets (Belton et al. 2011).From this review, it is concluded that a value chain analysis of carp in southern Bangladesh should investigate (i) access to different sources of fish for fish farmers; (ii) home consumption of different carp species by fish farmers; (iii) the relationship between size of carp, different carp species and the final market it is being sold in (rural or urban, rich or resource-poor); (iv) the volume of carp species supplied from the southern region to the local, regional and national markets; (v) the volume of import of carp species from other regions to the south; (vi) the seasonality of supply and the seasonal and locational variation in end market price; and (vii) trends of export of carp outside Bangladesh.It was not possible to construct a value chain map for small indigenous species in the southern region of Bangladesh based on secondary literature. National data on the small indigenous species value chain is also absent.Culture of small indigenous species has been insufficiently researched, with most materials describing naturally caught species. The existing literature suggests that exclusive culture of small indigenous species is not commercially feasible, and polyculture with tilapia, carp or both is recommended. The best feeding practices are yet to be defined for Bangladesh and require further investigation. Overall, information on feed management of small indigenous species in polyculture is the least researched area, and this needs to be thoroughly addressed in order to design interventions to improve feed management.A small indigenous species value chain analysis may be difficult in general because low volume of production and marketing might make it hard to identify the value chain actors.The value chain analysis needs to be conducted from the perspective of whether small indigenous species culture could be expanded in the southern region and if so, who should be the target farmers, how they could access seed and who they should be targeting when selling the product. The prospect of enhanced introduction of small indigenous species in the southern region could be assessed by the degree to which it could contribute to the income of the farmers, as well as to improved nutrition, through the existing and potential demand in southern Bangladesh and the rest of the country.The literature review suggests that the research on consumer preferences for small indigenous species is limited to one report conducted on captured species from Padma River in Rajshahi District. Small indigenous species were sold as single species or mixed, while a small number of species (7%) were considered trash fish (Samad et al. 2010). This study also revealed that more middle-income consumers (monthly income BDT 5001 to 20,000) buy small indigenous species than other consumers (91.2% of those interviewed indicated that they had bought small indigenous species). However, 68.4% of total volume of small indigenous species was bought by lower-income consumers (monthly income less than BDT 5000). Three species (lal chanda, chapchela and potka 1 ) were preferred only by the lowerincome consumers. The top choices in four major fish markets in Rajshahi District were chapila, nuna tengra, mola, puti, taki, chela, kachki, bata and tatkini 2 (Samad et al. 2010).Apart from this, Belton et al. (2011) report the importance of promoting small indigenous species culture. Specifically, the report pointed out that the production of 10 kg/pond/year of the vitamin A-rich small fish mola (Amblypharyngodon mola) could meet the annual recommended intake of 2 million children based on an estimate of 1.3 million ponds in Bangladesh. It is recommended that the volume of consumption of small indigenous species by income bracket be investigated in other parts of Bangladesh (including the south) in the proposed value chain assessment, as the study by Samad et al. (2010) only covered a small sample in Rajshahi District. The value chain assessment should also review the price paid for small indigenous species in comparison to other species (both wild and cultured, including carp and tilapia). This would help develop a strategy for increasing consumption of nutrientdense small indigenous species among the resource-poor.There are conflicting findings in reports on gender inclusivity in aquaculture. While some reports (such as Ismail 2010) define aquaculture as a viable sector for female employment due to potential for fish culture within the vicinity of the household, other reports (such as Practical Action 2011) indicate that since commercial fish farming requires less labor, there is not much scope for inclusion of women as labor or as fish farmers. Yet other reports (such as TraidCraft Exchange 2012) suggest that even if women work in the fish sector, they are most likely working as unpaid labor on their husband's farm, which means they may add value but not receive financial benefit from it. Thus, there is a clear need to better understand the social context that decides how women are able to participate in and benefit from the aquaculture sector.Overall, it is clear from this literature review that the roles of women in aquaculture, as well as specific gender-based constraints, have received little attention so far for the target species. Value chain analysis that considered a gender perspective only looked at employment opportunity and inclusivity at the producer level (e.g. Ismail 2010). For example, women are involved in activities such as preparation and repair of tools such as nets and gear, sorting of fingerlings, stocking of ponds, feeding of fish, pond management, fertilization, liming, fish harvesting and marketing (Ismail 2010). Other parts of the value chain analysis also have given less attention to gender issues. There are some reports of women being involved in nurseries, while opportunities to participate in marketing remain especially restricted for women (Ismail 2010).The challenges around enhancing women's involvement in aquaculture seem to originate from the social context these value chains operate in. According to a study commissioned by Practical Action around issues facing women in crop, fisheries and livestock value chains in Sirajganj and Rajbari districts, the majority of women indicated that their husband was reluctant to have his wife involved in fish farming and that there were restrictions related to women's direct interactions with input suppliers or buyers. Women also felt restricted by the community's perceptions of them fulfilling certain public roles and were limited in their decision-making power on how money is spent (Practical Action 2011). However, these issues need to be further investigated in the context of southern Bangladesh and the target value chains.Clearly, there is a need for a better understanding of men's and women's roles in the value chains of the target species, including an analysis of the social context, how this shapes what roles are acceptable, and how access to and control over resources are divided within the household. The upcoming value chain assessment with gendered tools will begin to address some of these issues.Prices of fish products in retail markets are negotiated through bargaining, depending on species, quality, freshness, size, weight, and the dynamics of supply and demand (Toufique and Ahmed 2013). In general, larger fish fetch a higher price per kilogram than smaller fish (Ahmed and Ahmed 2009; Ahmed 2011). Among the different freshwater fish species in Bangladesh, silver barb is reported to be the cheapest, followed by silver carp and assorted small fish. Among the Indian major carp, rohu is the most expensive, while mrigal is the cheapest (FAO 2001).In 2013, the local market price for tilapia (USD 1.11/kg) was low compared to Indian major carp (USD 1.85/kg). Also, the prices of climbing perch (USD 1.48/kg) and exotic carp (USD 1.36/kg) were considerably higher than tilapia. Among exotic carp, the price of silver carp was the lowest (USD 0.93-1.36/kg; Toufique and Ahmed 2013). The average difference between wholesale and retail prices of tilapia (standard sizes, three to six pieces per kilogram) consumed in rural and urban markets is 15%-20% based on proximity from production sites and wholesale or retail markets (Anwar 2010).The price of tilapia remains fairly stable throughout the year, as two to three cycles of tilapia can be produced in a year, compared to only one for most carp species. Therefore, as tilapia enters the market more often, the demand and supply are matched more easily, minimizing price fluctuations. For example, the highest and lowest price indices for wholesale tilapia ranged between 96.17 in October and 102.13 in July for Dhaka and between 94.55 in December and 105.39 in June for Mymensingh (Omar et al. 2014).Carp prices are more affected by the cyclical nature of the production cycle. In addition, prices are affected by the availability of substitute products for carp, such as tilapia or meat.During festivals and special occasions, meat is preferred for consumption over fish, and during these festivals the price of carp has been found to drop (Omar et al. 2014). Pricing behavior and value addition for small indigenous species are not detailed in available literature.High-value fish (climbing perch, Indian major carp, stinging catfish and walking catfish) have higher price elasticity, whereas low-value fish (exotic carp, pangasius and tilapia) have lower price elasticity (Ahmed and Lorica 2002 in Toufique and Ahmed 2013).The distribution of benefits along the chain has also been investigated. Farmers are reported to receive an average of 69% of the retail price for tilapia. The total marketing margin is 31%, which is subdivided into primary market (5%), secondary market (15%) and retail market (11%; Ahmed and Ahmed 2009). Another study suggests that tilapia farmers are more dependent on arotdars than carp farmers (42% for tilapia farmers in comparison to 38% for carp farmers) and on small retailers (46% for tilapia farmers in comparison to 43% for carp farmers). Value addition in the carp chain is reported to be 25% higher than tilapia. However, the shorter cycles of tilapia production mean that on an annual basis, revenue is earned through much quicker turnovers, reducing financing risks and liquidity bottlenecks (Winrock International 2014). The profitability and value addition of tilapia, carp and small indigenous species hatcheries and those of other input suppliers like feed, aqua-chemical and medicine sellers in the south is missing in current literature. Since inputs are a crucial factor behind profitable culture of fish, this requires further assessment.The income of fish fry traders (no species specified) in Sirajganj and Rajbari districts was found to be between BDT 75,000 and BDT 90,000 per annum. These numbers refer to the income generated through this particular service-providing activity, as well as various parttime efforts and rural household activities. Since fish fry is sold only during certain months of the year, most of the fish fry traders are engaged in either other businesses or fish cultivation in parallel with fry trading. The average annual income of each seller was found to be around BDT 50,000 through providing the fish seed selling service only (Practical Action 2011).It is concluded that the available literature can be used as a reference point to evaluate prices and the drivers of price fluctuations. However, the available literature is not sufficient to make a conclusive analysis of the current prices across the value chains or the value addition at different levels of the value chains. It is strongly recommended that the proposed L&F value chain assessment be conducted with the objective of establishing a credible analysis of the value added across the tilapia, carp and small indigenous species value chains in southern Bangladesh.Some of the main market-related challenges identified in various studies that need to be further investigated in the context of all three target species are the following:  Degradation of quality during transport and marketing. One major constraint is loss of fish quality in transit from farmer to end market. The highest loss of quality (35%) occurs due to long exposure of fish to high temperatures, followed by 25% loss due to rough handling and transport (Alam et al. 2010). This could be related to poor road and transport facilities, insufficient supply of ice, poor infrastructure of markets and unhygienic conditions (Ahmed and Ahmed 2009).  High cost of transport and its effect on profitability for both farmers and traders.This has been identified as the single most important constraint by almost half of the farmers that participated in a study on the tilapia value chain (Ahmed and Ahmed 2009).  Market gluts. Farmers in main pangasius-and tilapia-growing areas in Mymensingh and Bogra districts in northern Bangladesh reported occasional gluts in the market and price slides; however, it appeared that sudden market gluts are caused by uncoordinated harvest and marketing by bulk producers (Anwar 2011). The problem appears to be more serious for carp.Some potential interventions suggested in the literature include the following:  establishment of more ice plants, cold storage and preservation facilities  introduction of insulated and refrigerated fish vans and fish carriers to maintain cold chain during transportation  improvement of existing fish market structures  improvement of fish transport and handling facilities  establishment of modern wholesaling facilities  improvement of sanitation, hygiene, drainage, washing facilities and auction places  introduction of mechanical weighing equipment  consistent electricity supply for storage facilities  improved knowledge on existing credit systems  financial and technical assistance  training of market operators in fish preservation, handling, icing and curing  introduction of fish quality control measures  development of an information network among market actors  an independent act or ordinance for fish landing and marketing  provision of governmental, institutional and banking assistance  improving understanding of future supply-demand dynamics, particularly for markets supplying resource-poor consumersWith regard to the provision of general fish market information and the influence of established market infrastructure, government agencies like the Department of Fisheries and value chain intermediaries are well covered in the available literature from both national and regional perspectives. In established areas of Jessore and Mymensingh, well known for fish production, market information and technical assistance are readily available with few access challenges; however, in remote areas of northeast Bangladesh (Sylhet) and deep in the south, availability of information is scarcer (FAO 2014a;Alam et al. n.d.).Overall, the common analysis in the literature is that while government institutions such as the Department of Fisheries provide various types of technical assistance, low levels of labor power and resources impede the reach of these institutions, limiting access to these services. Although market information like price is readily available to farmers, the dominating influence of value chain intermediaries means that farmers can do very little with the information they have. In addition, transportation challenges and undeveloped roads in many remote locations mean that the market for the farmers is limited to the local buyers and wholesalers even if buyers in other districts give better prices (Alam et al. n.d.).Whether technical assistance covers all target species to the same degree is unclear and merits further investigation.Reports suggest that fish value chain intermediaries are generally the primary source of information to farmers rather than external agencies such as the Department of Fisheries. In Mymensingh in northern Bangladesh, it was found that the three top sources of information for farmers were nurseries or hatcheries (30.2%), patilwalas or fry traders (24.3%) and lead farmers (24.7%;TraidCraft Exchange 2009b). As a source of information and technical assistance, the government institutions scored much lower due to their operational challenges of low labor power and bureaucracy (TraidCraft Exchange 2009b).Farmer field schools may be an appropriate, albeit costly, model for technical assistance. For example, the Regional Fisheries and Livestock Development Component of the Danidafunded Agricultural Sector Program had an intervention creating farmer field schools in Noakhali that generated a 55% increase in production, 92% increase in sales and 145% increase in income for fish farmers (RFLDC 2013).Technical assistance and market information in aquaculture are likely to be more difficult for women to access, since there are social barriers to interacting with other market actors and government employees, who are usually male. The existing literature does not provide an account of access to technical assistance and market information for female aquaculture farmers and value chain actors.Further research is needed in the following areas:  the degree to which men and women fish farmers are able to access information related to disease control, new species, feeds, production techniques, etc., and the main sources of this information  the extent to which men and women fish farmers are able to translate information into practice, and if they are, which factors contribute to this ability (e.g. source)  the influence of agribusiness companies, research institutions like BFRI, hatcheries, development projects and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on the provision of technical and marketing information.Improper hatchery management has resulted in declines in the genetic quality of endemic and exotic fish populations. The main causes are (i) improper selection by breeders; (ii) repeated use of closely related and small stocks over many generations, resulting in inbreeding, genetic drift and reduced resistance to diseases; (iii) negative selection for smaller size at sexual maturation; (iv) failure to follow selection criteria for improved varieties of mirror carp and GIFT, resulting in loss of improved performance; and (v) hazardous hybridizations, resulting in genetic introgression of several species (Belton et al. 2011).This was confirmed by another study that reported that 75% of tilapia and pangasius hatchery staff, 65% of nursery operators, 60% of fish traders, and 67% of farmers interviewed indicated that inbreeding is the foremost problem in farmed fish, with deteriorating quality of pangasius and tilapia seed as a result (Anwar 2011). Specific causes of the issues related to the tilapia seed supply included (i) restrictions on brood import, which limits quality production of the hatcheries; (ii) hatcheries lacking skilled technicians;(iii) inefficient and inadequate use of hormones at hatchery level; (iv) farmers using recycled fry originating from the breeding of fry from their own ponds; (v) low number of hatcheries compared to fry demand in the region; and (vi) limited availability of commercial nurseries (WorldFish 2012b).Since these studies took place, several projects (including Katalyst, implemented by Swisscontact, and the Feed the Future Aquaculture for Income and Nutrition project implemented by WorldFish) have been intervening to address these issues in southern Bangladesh. It is highly recommended that the impact achieved by these projects and the areas for further interventions be reviewed. In addition, there is a need to assess the degree of these problems for each species.Wider context and the enabling environmentNot much research has been undertaken on the issue of human health and food safety related to the fisheries sector in Bangladesh even though the use of formalin for preservation of table fish has been a widely discussed topic in newspapers. There is also a gap in research on the factors that prompt the use of formalin to preserve table fish.Another issue is that due to industrial pollution of natural water bodies, natural fish supply has been rapidly decreasing, and the catch has also had human health and safety concerns.A recent report on socioeconomic challenges in aquaculture done by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reveals that pollution of inland and coastal waters by industrial effluent is increasing and has resulted in both lethal (i.e. massive fish kills) and sublethal (i.e. tainted flesh) impacts (FAO 2014b).Sewage treatment from all sources (urban, township, village and homestead) is almost nonexistent. Untreated sewage, which does not have the potential benefits of stabilized sewage, causes oxygen depletion in receiving waters and lower fish production. Levels of toxic chemical accumulation in fish flesh have not yet been monitored, and there is presently little capacity to conduct such analyses on a regular basis (FAO 2014b).This is an area that potentially may have negative long-term effects on the health of consumers and the sector's feasibility and deserves further assessment.The government has adopted policies, strategies and an action plan for augmenting fish production and improving the livelihoods of the resource-poor, but it lacks the capacity to implement these policies, strategies and laws. There is a lack of coordination and cooperation among the government agencies involved, hindering the development of the sector (BCAS 2009a).A recent review (TraidCraft Exchange 2009a) provides further insight into the relevance of current policies, the degree of implementation, the capacity of relevant agencies to implement the policies, and the degree of awareness among fish farmers of the current policies. The report suggests that fish farmers are quite aware of restrictive and conservation policies, such as the ban on using certain nets and the ban on fishing in open waters for a specific period of time during the year. However, fish farmers, especially those that farm in ponds, know little about policies relevant to them. Pro-poor government policies (such as access to leasing nearby water bodies for fish farming) are also not known by the relevant target groups, and they are therefore not taking advantage of them (TraidCraft Exchange 2009a).According to the same study, work on developing aquaculture zones that was planned by the government was yet to be undertaken by the relevant departments. This work could help farmers determine the required amount of inputs such as lime, geolite, and organic and inorganic fertilizers during pond preparation and cultivation. At present, only a general suggestion is given to the farmers (TraidCraft Exchange 2009a). Similarly, the Department of Fisheries is not currently organizing demonstrations or training programs at the union and upazila levels, due to a lack of labor power and resources, even though the National Fisheries Policy stipulates that they should do so. Brood fish is an essential input for fish farming, especially for the hatcheries. The quality of the brood largely determines the quality of fingerlings and of the final table fish. The government has some brood banks, but the quantity they produce is not sufficient for the hatcheries. The Department of Fisheries has started encouraging private hatcheries to establish brood banks on their own. This is highly recommendable, since a Department of Fisheries-led brood supply system is neither feasible nor conducive to market-based development of the sector. Established hatcheries could also be used as training centers by the Department of Fisheries, a practice that is already in use by NGOs. Moreover, there are government hatcheries that are meant to be used to transfer technologies on fish culture and management through training for the farmers and entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, there is no implementation direction given from the government to use private hatcheries as training centers as well (TraidCraft Exchange 2009a).From the above review, it is concluded that the proposed value chain assessment should focus on the following aspects of government policy for the target species:  the degree to which the Department of Fisheries is providing support on demonstration and training to the farmers, and whether the training and demonstration focuses on issues related to quality seed, brood management, feeding, pond management, water quality management and disease control  the degree to which government policy on supporting private hatcheries is in effect in southern Bangladesh  the degree to which local authorities are engaged in inspection of table fish at collection points and in retail channels  how current policies affect men and women differently.Commercially cultured fish, by nature, require a high degree of initial investment with relatively longer payback terms (usually one year). Thus, access to finance and business credit is crucial to sustained development of the aquaculture sector (FAO 2014b). In addition to lending policies and procedures, staffing and bank internal rules and regulations pose serious obstacles to an expansion of fisheries credit on a financially and economically viable basis (FAO 2014b).Access to loans is often limited to better-off households, as lending operations are strictly based on collateral, thereby excluding the rural resource-poor and the vast majority of rural and urban women. Lending procedures do not allow borrower participation and do not even encourage borrower education and savings mobilization (FAO 2014b). The same FAO report draws on the success of the large NGOs BRAC and Proshika in disbursing around BDT 200 million (equivalent to over USD 2.5 million) of collateral-free loans in the aquaculture sector, concluding that there is scope for formalized lending institutions to engage rural aquaculture farmers and that further study is required to identify the main operational challenges and viable strategies to overcome them (FAO 2014b).Several donor-funded projects have been operational in the southern region since Cyclone Aila in 2009. These projects provide various financial options to residents in the project areas. Many farmers are not partial to taking microcredit, because they are not satisfied with the weekly repayment system. They prefer crop-cycle-based microcredit products (Winrock International 2014).Intermediaries in the fish value chain also have a strong need for timely credit. A study in Mymensingh (northern Bangladesh) showed that a wholesaler typically operates with capital of around BDT 11,968 per day, ranging from BDT 8,350 to BDT 27,125 per day. About onethird of the wholesalers obtained loans for their business. The majority of loans (78%) came from moneylenders and the rest from banks. The average interest rate charged by a moneylender was 10% monthly (i.e. 120% yearly). Local branches of national banks also provided credit to the wholesalers with collateral of land at a 15% yearly interest rate (Ahmed and Ahmed 2009).However, information on the current state of access to finance for carp, tilapia and small indigenous species farmers and intermediaries in the south needs to be investigated further, including gender-based differences and constraints. This should include both formal and informal credit and also cover the interactions between these two sources. The impact of loans from institutional financing and microfinance organizations on poverty reduction in carp, tilapia and small indigenous species businesses in southern Bangladesh should receive specific attention.One of the major environmental factors that will impact on fish value chains is climate change. Unpredictable rainfall patterns have a negative impact on water availability, causing uncertainties for fisheries and aquaculture and for cultivation on fringe lands (McCarthy and Karna 2010). Rising sea levels pose a threat to southern Bangladesh in particular by increasing the salinity of water, making aquaculture of certain species increasingly difficult. Predictions from climate modeling have led to the conclusion that an annual increase in monsoon rainfall will lead to more frequent and more intense flooding, storm surges and cyclones. For small-scale fish farmers, this will result in a greater chance of valuable stock being washed out of culture ponds (WorldFish 2014). As waterways become increasingly brackish, carp, catfish and shrimp species familiar to the Bangladeshi fishers will struggle to survive in their changing environment. With increased salinity, a decrease in water oxygen content is forecast. This will result in an escalation of stress levels, placing fish populations at a greater risk of disease. Higher water temperatures will further exacerbate the environmental stresses the fish experience, as well as the subsequent potential losses to the fisheries and aquaculture industry (WorldFish 2014).Furthermore, environmental implications of intensification are poorly understood, particularly with the shift to formulated feeds and use of plant and marine ingredients, which may conflict with other human uses. Building on the information available, this literature review concludes that further research is needed on the specific environmental challenges of carp, tilapia and small indigenous species culture in southern Bangladesh. Among other topics, understanding environmental impacts of intensification, measuring the probable impact of increased salinity due to climate change and upstream freshwater abstraction, and suggesting possible measures to increase resilience of production systems and value chains should all be addressed.This report has highlighted that knowledge of the value chains of the target species varies from substantial on tilapia to very little on small indigenous species. The literature on carp is generally not very specific on the particular carp species that are being addressed, although there seem to be substantial differences in consumer preferences and prices between the different carp species. Even the tilapia value chain literature is limited on some of these details. In addition, recent and ongoing efforts have not been assessed in terms of their impacts on some of the challenges highlighted. The planned value chain assessment of the target species to be implemented in the context of L&F is thus timely and will help shed much-needed light on the pro-poor nature of and priority investments into these value chains.","tokenCount":"11895"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"945eed4f8226b24ec95bdf4f16d0ec63","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/87cf9f2b-6d8b-4331-86a1-66ae715aae00/content","id":"-1604703451"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1491a0ac-72dc-4f43-bd4a-bf4d87c50b5d","pagecount":"24","content":"The Adoption Pathways Project was conceived to contribute to the answers to the above questions. It is part of a portfolio of projects that contribute to the broader theme of sustainable intensification research led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and made possible by the contribution of a dedicated team from national and international research groups brought together by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The project is undertaken in the five ESA countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and TanzaniaNearly a decade and a half into the 21st century, hunger and malnutrition are still harsh realities for more than one billion people around the world. In addition to this, the challenge of feeding a growing world population that is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050 has to be met despite a declining resource base and in particular dwindling supplies of water and land. Achieving this challenge while protecting the natural ecosystem that supports agriculture and other human needs will involve finding smarter ways to produce more with less. To do this in ways that create opportunities for those on land, earning only a meagre income, is no easy task.It is clear that knowledge gaps about how ecosystems interact with managed agriculture led to farming becoming unsustainable across the world. To avoid that happening in the emerging farming systems of Africa, we need to improve our knowledge base on the economic, social, and environmental necessities for the sustainable growth of our farming systems. This involves a two-part effort:• First, a strong pillar of research in agricultural sciences (involving many disciplines) to support an intense effort to produce critical knowledge. • Second, sharing the knowledge that helps understand the puzzles of farming with farmers and testing on their fields to see what works better, and why.The pathways to sustainable agricultural intensification (SI) may involve two segments.The first pathway will lead farmers to adopt new knowledge and tools to help them cope better with what they do now and help them find what they could do better later. This would only be an intermediate outcome. The second, the lasting adoption-to-impact pathways would lead farmers to long-term adoption/adaptation; paving ways to increased production, profitability and improved livelihoods.This second segment involves identifying and understanding important drivers or critical enablers of technology adoption: ways to reduce risks and improve profits from farming. Addressing issues of knowledge transfer through better extension, improving credit markets, and identifying infrastructure needs and/or policy directions to make those support services possible would take time and resources. And, it would involve asking pertinent questions.What are the drivers/impediments of adoption of multiple sustainable agricultural intensification (SI) practices under different social, institutional, agroecology and market conditions? Does adoption of SI practices including new varieties lead to positive impact for productivity, incomes, food security and nutrition Does adoption of SI practices serve as coping strategies to climate-induced production risks?Can SI, including new varieties and production methods, help men and women on farm equally? Do existing agricultural policies (e.g. subsidy) trigger adoption of SI practices and improve households' welfare?What would be better ways to package the evidence and provide support services?And, how would this new knowledge help develop new policy directions?Why this Adoption Pathways Project? The Adoption Pathways Project has since its inception generated substantial outputs that can enrich existing agricultural information and change old agricultural information/data, build new knowledge and enable policy makers, donors and programs to enact research based decisions that facilitate technology adoption and improves livelihoods of smallholder farmers including women. A summary of these outputs include:A study on farm level exante and ex-post adaption strategies analysis in Malawi was finalized and is under peer-review.A study on the household level nutritional impacts of crop diversification has been completed and now under peer review.A study on the gender based intra-household differences in input use and implications for gender equitable agricultural input access has been published.What did the project do to deliver on the objectives? A summary.Private asset endowments (such as land, equipment, livestock) were consistently associated with higher probability of adoption of SIPs. Thus suggesting that those without these assets are less able to access liquidity (or credit markets) to finance adoption of SIPs while those with these assets are probably able to liquidate some of it to generate the finances for input purchases and other farm investments. Moreover ownership of farm equipment enables for timely operations and circumvents labor bottlenecks thereby making it possible for farmers to implement improved production practices more effectively. The policy message being that building up systems for financial inclusion is important, and strengthening and protecting the assets of the poor should be central to agricultural development policies.The influence of public goods on adoption was found in the strong positive association between extension contacts, and farmers' perceptions of these services on probability of adoption of various SIPs. Where farmers had favorable views of extension workers, there was also a greater chance that these farmers would adopt various improved practices. Moreover, the extension staff to farmer ratio was also a strong predictor of adoption of SIPs. Strengthening agricultural extension services and expanding the space of agricultural advisory services to include multiple players should be a policy priority.A variety of social capital indicators were found to be important for the adoption of SIPs. These included factors such as membership to various economic interest and social groups, availability of friends or relatives who could provide support in times of need, and acquaintances in positions of importance, power or influence. The message from this is that opportunities to build the social capital of farming communities, and formalizing and supporting farmers' groups is an important to create networks of information exchange, market access and resource mobilization.The empirical studies associating food security with intensity of adoption (acreage) of improved varieties suggests that own farm production; offer one of the most important opportunities among other alternative routes to food security in rural areas. A recently completed paper shows significant effect of adoption of maizelegume diversification and modern seeds on child stunting, per capita consumption of calorie, protein, and iron and diet diversity, These effects were especially manifest when modern seeds and maize-legume diversification occurred simultaneously. These results confirm the need to strengthen smallholder diversification in the face of limited access to diverse diets through local food markets.The project research outputs, based on cross-sectional data, provide evidence of win-win-win outcomes (in terms of crop income, food and nutrition security, environment and risk) if implemented as composites of practices. However, for farmers to successfully progress towards a more complete adoption of multiple combinations of practices; a number of information and resource constraints have to be overcome. Our research shows a large role for information, extension and adaptive research to improve farm management and produce evidence on where and when such benefits would occur. This is because the adoption of multiple practices combined in specific patterns and in a judicious manner is necessarily a knowledge intensive process.Strengthening and protecting the assets of the poor should be central to successful adoption of SIPs.LESSON 1:Win-win outcomes are possible with adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SIPs).With limited market access and few opportunities for specialization, food security and nutrition depends on autonomous production and crop diversification at the household level.The role of social capital is important for the adoption of SIPs.Investments in public goods needed for sustainable intensification.Gender equity in technology adoption and outcomes is still elusive. This is manifest both between households or between individuals within households.Gender gaps that disadvantage women in technology adoption, food security and market access were observed both between and within households. The need to devise positive interventions to facilitate equal access to resources and rectify social impediments to gender equality was confirmed. Especially paying attention to individual differences within households, cognizant that a household is an institution composed of unique individuals with complex social and economic interrelationships.The lessons emerging from the completed research activities can be summarized as follows.The achievements in the adoption pathways project are but milestones in the long journey towards impact. Much remains to be done for the project to meet its aim \"generating knowledge on constraints to, and incentives for, faster technology adoption\" and for the project to have impacts on the livelihood of rural African in East and Southern Africa and beyond. The research ideas summarized in this brief are based on lessons learned from the four years of the project. To make these results achieve impact, the following aspects will need to be sustained in the coming years.Sustaining long term panel data generation and analysis.An important activity for ensuring the sustainability of the Adoption Pathways project and to fill outstanding knowledge gaps on adoption and impact pathways analysis will require the development of long term panel data sets. A collaborative effort in panel data construction to supplement and sustain what has been achieved in this project is proposed. These collaborations are likely to involve Universities, think tanks and international institutions (both CGIAR and non-CIGAR) supported by regional counterparts such as Scaling up project research outputs and policy dialogue.To encourage scaling up of the promising suites of SIPs identified in this project, stakeholders need access to information about successes in adoption of SIPs that can inspire them to act. Despite comprehensive data and reasonable research results having been generated so far in this project, much work will remain to be done to take research products (including new data to replace outdated data) to policy makers, farmers, researchers, input suppliers, development partners, and other along the R4D continuum. In the project countries, there are significant gaps in the technical skills and staff time to advance high quality research and to undertake policy outreach. This has implications on sustainability of the results of a project like this one. New partnerships are essential for scaling up research results and undertaking policy dialogue to achieve lasting and meaningful changes at scale. To sustain the work of adoption pathways project, close collaboration between various institutions such national and regional think-tanks policy and research institutes is crucial to undertake policy dialogue and national policy consultations.How will Adoption Pathways project achieve impacts and leave a legacy?Using the results from this project to participate in scientific and policy forums should be an important avenue for integrating micro-data to policy making process and contributing to policy dialogue and formulation in the region. Prioritizing women empowerment as a critical pillar in sustainable agricultural intensification.In recent decades there has been an encouraging emphasis on the role of women in technology adoption, agricultural productivity and food security. However, the literature is limited on how, why and where the role of gender within a household (male headed households) matter for food security, technology adoption and agricultural productivity.The Adoption Pathways project is in a good position to answer these questions because it has developed unique gender disaggregated data sets. Nevertheless, questions remain on how women in multi-adult households can contribute to technology adoption, agricultural productivity and food and nutrition security. Some of these questions are about intra-household dynamics and how these affect women's participation in agriculture. For example: what are the pathways through which empowering women within a household can participate in accelerated technology adoption?: Is it through improving women's access to technologies on plots and crops that they already manage?• Or should women be involved in joint management in traditionally male managed crops and plots? Is household technology adoption and productivity best served through greater involvement of women in traditionally \"men's crops\" e.g. cash crops? • Is household technology adoption and productivity best served through improvements in access to resources and technologies targeted at \"women's crops\" e.g. vegetables and small livestock? • Does joint management of \"women and men's\" plots and crops lead to better technology adoption and productivity outcomes? • Are women empowered when resources are jointly or individually owned and/or managed?Seeking answers to outstanding questions on the dynamics of technology adoption and impact analysis.The micro-econometric adoption and impact analysis of SIPs carried out so far in the project relied on cross-sectional data. With crosssectional data; important policy and dynamics questions such as household adoption and welfare mobility pattern overtime cannot be answered. Analyses using longitudinal data will help in answering the questions as to who is persistently adopting and disadopting, who is getting ahead, who is falling behind and who is staying where they and so forth. Future research of Adoption Pathways should concentrate on understanding dynamics of adoption and uptake pathways and welfare dynamics including exploring the economies of scope and risk management benefits of dynamics adoption of SIPs. The study of the dynamics of adoption and the resulting impacts requires several waves of data collected at reasonable time intervals to get more variation on the myriad biophysical and socio-economic variables underpinning adoption and impacts of SIPs.The enablers and impacts of sustainable agricultural intensification practices: a summary of some research results To achieve sustained high productivity food systems, improved and resilient varieties, application of adequate amounts of fertilizer and high standards of agronomic practices are required. A research paper based on data from Ethiopia and Malawi showed that adopting a suite of SIPs (minimum tillage, legume intercropping and rotations) together with complementary inputs such as improved seeds can raise the net maize income in Ethiopia by 47 to 67 percent and 117 to 171 percent in Malawi and reduce (or at least not increase) fertilizer and chemical pesticides application without necessarily reducing farmers' net crop income.For more information contact: Menale Kassie at mkassie@icipe.org.117% -171% For more information contact: Menale Kassie at mkassie@icipe.orgIn a policy simulation study, the role of alternative policies such as input subsidy policies, investments in agricultural extension and access to markets in predicting the adoption of minimum tillage and mulching as components of SIPs was analysed. Using data from 2,700 households in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania, and controlling for household and farm level factors, the simulated probabilities of adoption of minimum tillage and mulching were carried out based on varying levels of extension to farmer ratio, credit availability and government expenditures on input subsidies. The results indicate that the impact of input subsidies in predicting the adoption of the SIPs studied implies that lowering costs of complementary inputs (fertilizers, seeds, herbicides, and equipment) is central in encouraging adoption of SIPs. Considering that subsidies are essentially ways to reduce prices of inputs, diverse options for structurally lowering inputoutput price ratios should be of much policy interest. Second, investing in agricultural extension systems and increasing the number of extension personnel (increasing the extension personnel to farmer ratio for example) and expanding the reach of publicly funded extension systems among other complimentary providers is a crucial element in the success of adoption of SIPs as was confirmed by the significant predictive power of high density of extension staff per farmer on probability of SIPs adoption in the policy simulations.For more information contact: Paswel Marenya at P.Marenya@cgiar.org Input subsidies or extension: which policy should take precedence when supporting farmers?When extension staff to farmer ratio is increased from base levels to the predicted probability of adoption increased from base levels i.e from:3.9% to 6.5%in Kenyain Malawi 10% to 21.4%in Tanzania.When extension staff to farmer ratio was increased to aboutin Tanzania.in Kenyain Malawi, then the predicted probability of adoption increased from base levels by: 16 per 10,000 farmers per 10,000 farmers and credit assumed unavailable5 Technology adoption and managing the risky business of smallholder farming \"…adoption of appropriate agronomic and resourcemanagement practices among smallholder farmers should be promoted as elements of productivity enhancement but also as opportunities for production risk mitigation\".Smallholder agricultural production in Africa is done under various abiotic and biotic stressors. It is a truism that risks are an unavoidable part of many economic and social undertakings. In smallholder agriculture, managing these risks is an important aspect of protecting livelihoods and opening up opportunities for investment and income growth. A higher crop yield and a reduction in the chance of crop failure were achieved when farmers jointly adopted crop diversification (legume intercropping and rotations) and minimum tillage. The adoption of these two SIPs was found to be associated with changing the distribution of maize yields above the mean suggesting reduced probability of crop failure. When analysing how to achieve productivity and resilience, these and other SIPs can be seen as important risk mitigation strategies.For more information contact: Menale Kassie at mkassie@icipe.org Even when research and extension systems have evidence that improved varieties are superior in terms of yield, their impact on household welfare cannot be taken for granted. Research that evaluated the impact of improved maize varieties on food security and other welfare indicators found strong empirical connections between the area planted under improved varieties. The empirical association of better varieties and food security outcomes suggests that few shortcuts exist for rural households to secure food security absent adequate or income and market mediated food access.For more information contact: Menale Kassie at mkassie@icipe.org $124 at 0.125 acresThe increase in the chance that a household would be food secure after growing improved maize varieties wasThe chance that a household would be in a food surplus category increased from An additional acre of land allocated to improved maize varieties reduced the probabilities of chronic food security from between increase in the probability of breakeven and food surplus food security after growing improved maize varietiesThe per capita food consumption more than doubled from under improved maize varietiesto $283 at 10-acres 1.4% at 0.125-acres to 25% at a 10-acres improved seed allocation 1.2% 0.7 -1.2%No shortcuts: Food security is tied to adoption of hybrids and other improved varietiesand a similar reduction in transitory food security from There was a Malawi has one of the highest population densities in East and Southern Africa. In the absence of alternative economic opportunities, many households can remain stuck in an endless poverty trap of low agricultural productivity and low incomes. The government of Malawi has in recent years implemented large scale fertilizer and seed subsides in an effort to boost maize production and avoid food crises.A major feature of the subsidy programme is to target households with reasonable amounts of land at the risk of ignoring the equity issues arising from the fact that near-landless or landless households may be by passed by the subsidy programme. To rectify this situation, one based the notion that fertilizer is a land augmenting technology, the subsidy need not ignore those with limited land. If this kind of inclusion is not possible, then safety net employment programs should be put in place to reach those with little or no land who may not benefit from input subsidy program. Otherwise a large portion of poor rural households may miss out on these public programs.For more information contact: Stein Holden at stein.holden@nmbu.no Land-poor households are much more vulnerable to price shocks and limited market access than more landrich households.Access to subsidized fertilizer can stimulate demand for land through the land rental markets and/or reduce the supply of land in these rental markets.Access to subsidized improved maize seeds can crowd out commercial demand for improved maize seeds.How to achieve inclusive policy support for rural households: results from an agricultural household model 6 Fertilizer subsidies need not ignore those with limited land Take-aways from the Malawi household modelsThe UQ research team, in close collaboration with the CIMMYT and national partners in Ethiopia, developed a new tool -a farm household decision analysis model that captures the reality of decision making by poor farm households. The model incorporates farmers' wellknown tendencies for risk aversion and the safety-first approach to ensuring family food security in determining options to improve livelihood attainments working within tight resource constraints and limited opportunities for trade-linked exchange. Initial results from the Central Rift Valley region of Ziway ,Ethiopia, indicate that farmers have limited ex post risk management measures, and hence they tend to discount potential gains more heavily and prefer farming systems that are more like the status quo. While those with access to irrigation and markets can improve income significantly through diversified farming systems involving multiple cropping, staggered planting and the use of improved varieties and practices, maize-legume farming systems appear to be the solution for more risk averse farmers who have limited abilities for risk mitigation. It is unlikely that the majority of farmers who own less than 0.9 ha of land will find full self-sufficiency of family food requirements from a family farm, unless intensive multi-crop farming systems can be supported with irrigation, making the farm less sensitive to variation in climate.For more information contact: Thilak Mallawaarachchi at t.mallawaarachchi@uq.edu.auBalancing risk and resource allocation: learning from farmersThe failure [of farmers to adopt what appear to be technically and economically superior technologies], it appears, is not in the farmers' way of thinking, but in the way economists and other analysts saw the farmers' operating context and failed to recognize their behavioural constraints. Generally, male headed households (MHHs) were found to be more likely to be net sellers of maize and female headed households were more likely to be net buyers of the commodity. An empirical decomposition of these gaps showed that factors related to returns to (rather than the observed levels of) assets such as farm size, human capital or social networks accounted for 74% of the gender gap in favor of MHHs in terms of ability to enter markets as net maize sellers. In terms of being net maize buyer, 65% of the gap was explained by these returns effects.Somewhat differently, the gap between FHH and MHHs regarding quantities of maize sold was largely explained by endowment effects. This is consistent with the notion that the ability to generate sellable surpluses is in fact driven largely by differences in input use levels, land size and other resources necessary to generate sellable quantities of maize. This agrees with the frequent finding in the literature that women are likely to be as productive as men once resource endowments are equalized. However, market access and participation appear to be mediated by overwhelming structural issues related to transactions costs, information and returns to assets that enable market access.For more information contact: Paswel Marenya at P.Marenya@cgiar.orgUsing plot level data, the study summarized in this section examined the differential fertilizer application rates on plots managed individually by men, women, or jointly in dual adult households in three districts in south-central Mozambique. The results suggest that-controlling for the demographics of the manager and plot characteristicsjoint management of agricultural plots was associated with higher fertilizer application rates on maize plots but with lower fertilizer application on non-food cash plots. The results seem to suggest that because jointly managed plots is not straightforward or assured received more inputs; if equitable sharing of proceeds from jointly managed plots, then efforts to increase access to inputs by women may need to be targeted at plots already managed by women themselves. In land-scarce environments where women are less likely to have parcels to cultivate autonomously, these results suggest that improving women's bargaining power regarding the destiny of crops produced and financial proceeds from jointly managed plots can be a critical factor in facilitating gender equality in input use and benefit accrual.For more information contact: Paswel Marenya at P.Marenya@cgiar.org  In order to achieve equity, both men and women have to be empowered to make informed decisions and participate meaningfully in agricultural production. Greater understanding of how the rural development context affects men and women in their participation in development activities is critical for the effectiveness of development of interventions. In relation to this, the APP data from Tanzania and Ethiopia were used to compute the Women Empowerment in Agricultural Index (WEAI). The data captured four domains of empowerment (4DE) 3 instead of the 5DE proposed by USAID. Findings from the two countries are discussed below.While a full-scale women empowerment index was not computed, the disempowerment measure suggests women may be empowered in terms of social capital (as defined by group membership), compared to men. Access to credit, participation in speaking in public, and control of assets and income are areas of disempowerment to be dealt with. Women's relative autonomy in production should be matched by the ability to make production decisions, control resultant incomes and participate in community governance.A similar story emerged in Ethiopia where women tended to be more disempowered compared to their male counterparts. The indicators that contributed the most to women's disempowerment in Ethiopia were input in productive decisions; ability to speak in public, ownership and control over resource use and control over use of income. Over half of the women were found to not belong to any group compared to only 35 percent men. On the other hand, almost half of the observed disempowerment among men is attributed to autonomy in production indicators and access to and use of credit.4 Developing the Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEIA). In summary, the comparisons of the national level analysis from the two countries bring out important differences that require focused attention when dealing with disempowerment in different contexts. Lack of autonomy in production is an area that makes a significant contribution to disempowerment in Ethiopia while in Tanzania access to and decision on use of credit is a major source of disempowerment. Access to and use of credit seemed to be a common constraint in both countries, but its level of importance was different being more significant in Tanzania.","tokenCount":"4211"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2fa04fbf4252bde0c1b3119a818af5c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2d8ebaba-7424-49ae-bb68-b174be3f90e6/retrieve","id":"795917168"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dddc7b5f-1710-447a-9df0-a869922b8dfd","pagecount":"6","content":"During the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers who were less dependent on the market for labor, machinery, fertilizer, and other inputs were less impacted than farmers who were more dependent on the supply of these inputs from the local market.Many household characteristics and input management strategies have a significant role in minimizing the impact of the pandemic on crop production.Reduction in inputs use such as fertilizer, irrigation, labor has a significant impact on crop yield and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Emissions from the rice production were reduced with less fertilizer and irrigation use by many farmers in the study areas.Addressing the disruption of pandemic conditions in farm input supply by government and private sector intervention and building resource base at household and community levels are two key strategies to manage current and future pandemic conditions.Although the COVID-19 pandemic has mainly been a public health concern, the limitations on the movement of agricultural labor and supply of inputs has created constraints in the food system in general, and crop production in particular. The immediate impacts on the food system included disruptions in the agri-value chains in the food markets, limited access to input supply, and employment losses in the agriculture sector. Rural agriculture-based economies continued to operate with minimal adjustments during the restrictions under severe COVID-19 conditions (Espino et al. 2021; Singh et al. 2020). In many regions, disruptions in agricultural production are expected due to labor shortages in the periods of peak seasonal labor demand or labor intensive-production, and farmers may face extra difficulties in sourcing intermediate inputs for farming (OECD 2020; Keith 2020). Other impacts include shifts in market prices of agricultural inputs and outputs and new competition for critical inputs (Stephen et al. 2020).India is one of many countries severely affected by COVID-19 where a large number of cases have been reported since mid-2020. The country started lockdown in March 2020, and it has since been prolonged several times. Indian farming systems have faced severe hits due to the unusual circumstances created by pandemic conditions (Kumar et al. 2021;Singh et al. 2020;Arumugam et al. 2020). Immediately after the nationwide lockdown, the Government of India declared a large support package, mainly to protect the vulnerable sectors, including farmers from any adverse impacts of the pandemic. Farmers across the country received income support under PM-KISAN schemes (Prime Minister Farmers Program) (Bahaduri and Ghosh 2021). In addition, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has issued state-wise guidelines for farmers to be followed during the lockdown period (ICAR 2020). The advisory in the guidelines includes specific practices during the cropping season and after crop harvest. Despite all these support measures, the continued restrictions on the movement of people has meant that millions of small and marginal farmers are still facing challenges in crop production.CCAFS assessed COVID-19 impacts on agricultural inputs availability (i.e., seed, fertilizer, agro-chemicals, and farm machinery), farmers' strategies to manage the COVID-19 effects on input use, and factors determining COVID-19 impacts on crop production in India. Theempirical assessment included the effect of household characteristics and crop management practices on the level of COVID-19 impact. The overall COVID-19 impact was assessed on crop yield and GHG emissions via the change in use of key inputs such as tillage practices, fertilizer use, water management, and use of farm machinery.This study was conducted in the Northwestern part of India, where rice-wheat is the dominant cropping system and a large number of rural households are engaged in agricultural activities for their livelihoods. The laborintensive rice crop was chosen to assess the impact of COVID-19 on inputs use, crop yield, and GHG emissions at the field level. The data collection included rice cultivation seasons during COVID-19 (2020COVID-19 ( -2021)). A COVID-19 impact survey was included in the 2020-2021 survey, including input-output data from farmers' surveys and crop cutting experiments for yield estimation.Overall, 4,796 farmers from the Haryana and Punjab states of India were included. All farmers were randomly selected.Figure 1 shows study locations (Haryana and Punjab) in India.Data analyses included COVID-19 impact on agricultural input availability (i.e., farm machinery, tillage practice, seed, fertilizers, agro-chemicals, and labor for different activities in rice cultivation). We also estimated input use difference between with and without COVID-19 impact in the study areas using 2020-2021 survey data. Farmers' strategies to manage the impact of COVID-19 on the use of inputs were evaluated based on their access to the inputs during the COVID-19 lockdown. An index for COVID-19 impact on inputs used was developed based on farmers' responses to five major inputs (seed, fertilizer, machinery, labor, and pesticides). The index represents the overall impact of COVID-19 on input use in rice cultivation.Factors affecting COVID-19 impacts and marginal impact on each outcome were assessed by using an ordered logit model. This model estimated the effect of household and input use parameters on COVID-19 implications for rice cultivation. Table 1 presents descriptive statistics of all variables used in the ordered logit model. The model includes household characteristics (i.e., labor supply, education), total landholding, and land under rice cultivation. This also included irrigation, machinery, labor, and seed management strategies during the COVID-19 period. A large number of farmers realized COVID-19 impact on the availability of fertilizer (31%), labor for rice transplanting (28%), and seed (24%). Farmers purchased these inputs from the market, and COVID-19 impacted supply or access to the market for these agricultural inputs. COVID-19 had a low impact on the availability of farm machinery, tillage practice, and weed control (Figure 2). The impact on these activities was minimum with the household supply of labor and own machinery available in the study locations. About 14% and 10% of farmers faced problems acessing agro-chemicals (insecticides) and harvesting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively.A more detailed analysis of labor supply in rice cultivation indicated that a large number of farmers (79%) reported a decrease in labor supply for transplanting (Table 2). In the study locations, the seasonal labor supply for rice transplanting was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, 43% of surveyed households faced a deficit in labor supply in land preparation for rice cultivation. However, some farmers in the study locations also had an increase in labor supply for land preparation, transplanting, weeding, and harvesting activities. Interestingly, a large number of farmers did not realize the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on labor supply for land preparation, weeding, and harvesting. In many households, seasonally migrated household members returned home due to the nation-wise lockdown and fulfilled the labor deficit in crop cultivation. Lockdown limits the farmers' visit to the market to purchase fertilizers and labor movement from one location to another. Many farmers used hired labor for irrigation management. Therefore, the labor supply may have impacted the number of irrigation. The majority of farmers visited the market with safety measures to get seed, fertilizer, and agro-chemicals (pesticide) during the COVID-19 pandemic (Table 4). More than 85% of farmers used labor available in their village or nearby locations. A significant proportion of farmers (> 25%) used seed, fertilizers, and pesticides available in the villages. About 23% (1,116 out of 4,795 respondents) have reported receiving relief input packages from the government and 7% (329) from the local non-government development organizations. The estimated difference in yield, global warming potential (GWP) and emission intensity between farmers with COVID-19 impact and no impact are presented in Table 5. This decrease in GHG emissions was largely influenced by the reduced use of fertilizers and irrigation water by the COVID-19 impacted farmers. The survey also indicated that a large number of farmers realized COVID-19 impact on the availability of fertilizers in the study areas. The average yield of rice was low under the COVID-19 impact situation. Farmers who were less dependent on the market for labor, machinery, fertilizer, and other inputs were less impacted than the farmers who were more dependent on the supply of these inputs in the local market. Other variables, such as seed, tillage, and agronomic practices, might have positively impacted yield despite a decrease in fertilizer use. Emission intensity under COVID-19 impact was significantly lower than without COVID-19 impact due to decreased emissions per hectare.Results of the ordered logit model are presented in Table 6. Results show that the effects of household characteristics and management variables on the probability of impact differ substantially by the agricultural inputs. Many household and management variables are helping to reduce the probability of COVID-19 impact (Y = 0|X) in rice cultivation. For instance, a household with a large number of its own labor supply and machines available, and large family size, have a low probability of COVID-19 impact in rice cultivation. However, higher level irrigation types (deep water and multiple drainages), households using their own seed, and long crop duration are more likely to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The marginal impact on each outcome is also presented in Table 6. Zero (Y=0|X) to five (Y=5|X) represent levels of COVID-19 impact. Zero represents no impact, and 5 represents the impact of all five major inputs (seed, fertilizer, machinery, labor, and tillage operation). It is interesting to note that the effects of household characteristics and management variables vary a lot over the different levels of impact. Results show that several factors influence the level of COVID-19 impact. For instance, the availability of machinery and labor owned by a household or village can reduce the probability of COVID-19 impact. But the intensity of impact can increase with more family members being engaged in agriculture, more area under rice, longer crop duration, and multiple drainage irrigation system.Farming communities are largely dependent on their mobility to the local and nearby markets to purchase inputs, particularly seed, agro-chemicals, and fertilizers. The interruption of public transportation services and the mobility restrictions under lockdown disrupted inputs provision for crop production. Though national and state governments are providing income support to the farmers by a direct cash transfer approach, this strategy is not effective in addressing disruptions of inputs supply to the farming households. Therefore, support to the local seed, fertilizer, and other input suppliers could help to overcome these disruptions at the community level.This study indicates that many household characteristics and inputs management strategies have a large role in minimizing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in crop production. Strategies used for seed, machinery, labor, and irrigation management by farming households are not only needed during the pandemic but also required in normal years. Building a strong seed supply system, provision of farm machinery through farm support programs or custom hiring centers, and promotion of water, nutrient and labor efficient technologies and practices help to build a resource base at the household and community levels. These resources are necessary during both the pandemic and normal years.Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as smartphones, television networks, and social media were largely used by the farming communities to share information about agricultural inputs and markets in the study areas. Expanded use of ICTs by governments, NGOs, and private agriculture extension services would help reach farmers and provide input and market information to them during and after pandemic conditions.","tokenCount":"1836"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1eb619b3cbd2c102909d350087e3e727","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bc42e3a8-dd81-4c1c-85ad-84569093bbe3/retrieve","id":"-1760794249"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d4edbde2-8ca3-451d-9f6b-0f1631d54574","pagecount":"83","content":"Fore word Acknowledgments 1. The Live stock Revo lu tion 2. Re cent Trans for ma tion of Live stock Food De mand 3. Ac com pa ny ing Trans for ma tion of Live stock Sup ply 4. Pro jec tions of Future De mand and Sup ply to 2020 5. Im pli ca tions of the Live stock Revo lu tion for World Trade and Food Prices 6. Nu tri tion, Food Se cu rity, and Pov erty Al le via tion 7. En vi ron men tal Sus tain abil ity 8. Pub lic Health 9. Tech no logy Needs and Prospect 10. Tak ing Stock and Mov ing For ward Ap pen dix: Re gional Clas si fi ca tion of Coun tries Used in this Paper Ref er ences 25. Dif fer ence be tween base line pro jec tions of net ex ports in 2020 and pro jec tions with changes in as sump tions about the Asian cri sis and In dian con sump tion 26. Dif fer ence be tween base line pro jec tions of net ex ports in 2020 and pro jec tions with changes in as sump tions about feed con ver sion ef fi ciency 27. Past trends in real prices of se lected crop, feed, and live stock prod ucts 28. Real prices of se lected crop and live stock prod ucts as pro jected by the IM PACT model 29. The place of live stock in the in come of the rich and poorThe com bined per cap ita con sump tion of meat, eggs, and milk in devel op ing coun tries grew by about 50 per cent from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. As incomes rise and cit ies swell, people in the devel op ing world are diver si fy ing their diets to include a vari ety of meats, eggs, and dairy prod ucts. This trend toward diver si fied eat ing hab its is likely to con tinue for some ti me to come and it has led to con sid er able con tro versy about the risks and oppor tu ni ties involved. Some observ ers fear that greatly increased demand for feed grains will raise the price of cere als to the poor. Oth ers are con cerned that higher con cen tra tion of live stock pro duc tion near ci t ies adds to pol lu tion. Still oth ers worry about the pub lic health effects of increased con sump tio n of ani mal fats and the rap idly increas ing inci dence of dis eases pass ing from ani mals to humans. On the other hand, many ana lysts point to the nutri tional bene fits of increased con sump tion of an imal prod ucts for popu la tions that are still largely defi cient in intake of pro tein and micro n u trients. Fur ther more, live stock tra di tion ally have been an impor tant source of income for the r ural poor in devel op ing coun tries. Finally, increased demand for live stock prod ucts may pro vide an engine for sus tain able inten si fi ca tion of small holder food and feed pro duc tion sys tems.A team of research ers from the Inter na tional Food Pol icy Research Insti tute (IFPRI), the Food and Agri cul tural Organi za tion of the United Nations (FAO), and the Inter na tional Live stock Research Insti tute (ILRI) col labo rated to pro duce this com pre hen sive and even-handed attemp t at defin ing the nature, extent, scope, and impli ca tions of what they term the \"Live stock Revo lu t ion\" in devel op ing coun tries. Look ing for ward to 2020, they argue con vinc ingly that the struc tu ral shifts in world agri cul ture being brought about by shifts in developing-country demand for foods of ani mal ori gin will con tinue and that increas ingly global mar kets have the abil ity to sup p ly both cereal and ani mal prod ucts in desired quan ti ties with out undue price rises. They empha size, h owever, that pol icy deci sions taken for the live stock sec tor of devel op ing coun tries will dete r mine whether the Live stock Revo lu tion helps or harms the world's poor and mal nour ished. The report empha sizes the impor tance of con tin ued invest ment in both research on and devel op ment of animal and feed grain pro duc tion and proc ess ing, and the need for pol icy action to help small, po or live stock pro duc ers become bet ter inte grated with com mer cial live stock mar ket ing and proc essing. It details a host of require ments in the area of tech nol ogy devel op ment for pro duc tion and proc ess ing of live stock prod ucts, poten tial bene fits from new tech nolo gies, and criti cal p ol icy issues for envi ron mental con ser va tion and pro tec tion of pub lic health. A revo lu tion is tak ing place in global agri cul ture that has pro found impli ca tions for our health, liveli hoods, and envi ron ment. Popu la tion growth, urbani za tion, and income growth in devel op ing coun tries are fuel ing a mas sive global increase in demand for food of ani mal ori gin. The result ing demand comes from changes in the diets of bil lions of peo ple and could pro vide income growth opportu ni ties for many rural poor. It is not inap pro pri ate to use the term \"Live stock Revo lu tion\" to describe the course of these events in world agri cul ture over the next 20 years. Like the well-known Green Revo lu tion, the label is a sim ple and con ven ient expres sion that sum ma rizes a com plex series of inter re lated processes and out comes in pro duc tion, con sump tion, and eco nomic growth. As in the case of cere als, the stakes for the poor in devel op ing coun tries are enor mous. And not unlike the Green Revo lu tion, the \"revo lu tion ary\" aspect comes from the par tici pa tion of devel op ing coun tries on a large scale in trans for ma tions that had pre vi ously occurred mostly in the tem per ate zones of developed coun tries. But the two revo lu tions dif fer in one fun da men tal respect: the Green Revo lu tion was supply-driven, whereas the Live stock Revo lution is driven by demand.The Live stock Revo lu tion will stretch the ca pacity of ex ist ing pro duc tion and dis tri bu tion sys tems and ex ac er bate en vi ron mental and pub lic health prob lems. Gov ern ments and in dus try must pre pare for this con tinu ing trans for ma tion with long-run poli cies and in vest ments that will sat isfy con sumer de mand, im prove nu tri tion, di rect in come growth op por tu ni ties to those who need them most, and al levi ate en vi ron mental and pub lic health stress.The 23 per cent of the world's popu la tion liv ing in devel oped coun tries pres ently con sume three to four times the meat and fish and five to six times the milk per cap ita as those in devel op ing coun tries 1  (Del gado, Cour bois, and Rosegrant 1998). But massive annual increases in the aggre gate con sump tion of ani mal prod ucts are occur ring in devel op ing countries. From the early 1970s to the mid 1990s, consump tion of meat in devel op ing coun tries grew by 70 mil lion met ric tons, whereas con sump tion in devel oped coun tries grew by only 26 mil lion met ric tons (Table 1). 2 In value and caloric terms, meat consump tion in devel op ing coun tries increased by more than three times the increases in devel oped coun tries. Milk con sump tion in the devel op ing world increased by more than twice as much as milk consumption in the devel oped world in terms of quan tity, money value, and calo ries.Even more re veal ing is the com pari son between developing-country in creases in meat, milk, and fish con sump tion dur ing the 1971-95 pe riod with the in crease in ce real con sump tion (Table 1). The pe riod spans the well known Green Revo lu tion, when seed-fertilizer in no va tions in ce real pro duction dra mati cally in creased wheat, rice, and maize out put in de vel op ing coun tries, mak ing more food avail able and in creas ing farm in comes. But dur ing the same pe riod there was also a dra matic, if often over looked, rise in con sump tion of animal-origin food prod ucts in de vel op ing coun tries. On a quantity basis, the ad di tional meat, milk, and fish consumed be tween 1971 and 1995 in de vel op ing countries was two-thirds as im por tant as the in crease in wheat, rice, and maize con sumed (Table 1). The Green Revo lu tion pro vided many more calo ries than the co in cid ing in crease in meat con sump tion, but the ad di tional meat con sumed was worth al most three times the in crease in ce real con sump tion at con stant world prices.Fur ther more, if the con sump tion pat terns in devel oped coun tries are an indi ca tion of where devel op ing coun tries are going, future growth in cereal con sump tion as food is likely to be much smaller than that in meat. Dur ing 1971-95 additional con sump tion of meat, milk, and fish in the devel oped coun tries was much larger than that of cereal in terms of weight and value. In devel op ing coun tries many peo ple will soon be reach ing satiation in their con sump tion of cere als, while meat and milk con sump tion is likely to con tinue to grow even more robus tly into the next cen tury.Not sur pris ingly, major trans for ma tions of the mag ni tude of the Live stock Revo lu tion are not with out prob lems. Although domes ti cated animals have been a source of human food, cloth ing, tools, trans por ta tion, and farm power since prehis toric times, the cur rent rapid changes in demand for ani mal foods in devel op ing coun tries are put ting unprece dented stress on the resources used in live stock pro duc tion. The com bi na tion of higher demand, more peo ple, and less space is rap idly lead ing to a global trans for ma tion of the live stock sec tor, from one that mobi lizes sur plus and waste resources (back yard slops, remote pas -tures, and grasses indi gesti ble by humans) to one that actively seeks new resources for the pro duction of ani mal food prod ucts (Ste in feld, de Haan, and Black burn 1997).The recent rapid expan sion of live stock food pro duc tion in devel op ing coun tries resulted primar ily from increased num bers of ani mals rather than higher car cass weight per ani mal. In devel oping coun tries this has con trib uted to large con centra tions of ani mals in urban envi ron ments where the regu la tory frame work gov ern ing live stock pro duc tion is weak (for exam ple, Addis Ababa, Bei jing, Lima, and Mum bai). Larger con cen trations of ani mals have also led to deg ra da tion of rural graz ing areas and the clear ing of for est. Grow ing con cen tra tions of ani mals and peo ple in the major cit ies of devel op ing coun tries also lead to rapid increases in the inci dence of zoono tic diseases, such as sal mo nella, E-coli, and avian flu, which can only be dealt with through enforce ment of zon ing and health regu la tions.Other pub lic health is sues raised by the Livestock Revo lu tion are also of major im por tance. The in ten si fi ca tion of live stock pro duc tion is lead ing in many parts of the world to a build-up of pes ti cides and an ti bi ot ics in the food chain. Fur ther more, as the scale of out put in creases, es pe cially in the tropics, food safety risks from mi cro bial con tami na tion are be com ing more preva lent. Sources: The changes in quan ti ties and in calo ries are from FAO 1998. Money val ues are com puted for the dis ag gre gated com modi ties (shown in the notes below) us ing the 1990-92 av er age price. The com mod ity prices used for beef, sheep an d goat meat, pork, poul try, wheat, rice, and maize are de tailed in Ta ble 28. Dis ag gre gated fish prices are 1990-92 av er age im port un it val ues cal cu lated from FAO (1998) im port data. Developed-country im port unit val ues are used for developed-country con sump tion and dev eloping-country im port unit val ues are used for developing-country con sump tion. Notes: Cal cu la tions rep re sent ag gre gate changes be tween three-year av er ages cen tered on 1971 a nd 1995.Over con sump tion of ani mal food prod ucts raises an other con cern. A grow ing con scious ness of the dan gers of large amounts of satu rated ani mal fats in diets ex ists in most de vel oped coun tries. Some experts have con cluded that poli cies should pre vent a simi lar over-consumption in de vel op ing coun tries by dis cour ag ing pub lic in vest ment in live stock pro duction (Brown and Kane 1994;Geissler forth com ing;Good land 1997;Pi men tel 1997).In creas ing live stock con sump tion may also affect ce real prices. Be cause ru mi nant live stock such as cat tle, sheep, and goats con sume grain, and monogas tric live stock such as pigs and poul try depend on grain in the in dus trial pro duc tion sys tems of de vel oped coun tries, some ana lysts argue that the high de mand for live stock prod ucts in de vel oped coun tries and rap idly in creas ing de mand and produc tion in de vel op ing coun tries de plete the grain avail able for di rect con sump tion by peo ple.Live stock pro duc tion and con sump tion have pro po nents as well. Live stock pro duc tion is an especially im por tant source of in come for the rural poor in de vel op ing coun tries. It en ables poor and landless farm ers to earn in come using pub lic, common-property re sources such as open rangeland. Live stock con sume many crop by-products that would oth er wise be come waste, they often can be raised on land that has no other sus tain able ag ricul tural use, and they can em ploy labor dur ing pe riods of slack in other ag ri cul tural ac tivi ties. Poor women in par ticu lar often rely on the cash in come from a dairy cow or a few chick ens kept in the house hold. As live stock con sump tion in creases there is con sid er able in ter est in how the poor can retain their mar ket share of live stock production.Live stock prod ucts are an ap peal ing and conven ient nu tri ent source. Pro tein and mi cro nu tri ent de fi cien cies re main wide spread in de vel op ing coun tries be cause peo ple sub sist on diets that are al most en tirely made up of starchy sta ples. The addition of milk and meat pro vides pro tein, calcium, vi ta mins, and other nu tri ents that go lack ing in diets that are ex clu sively made up of sta ples such as ce re als.Be sides pro vid ing food, the driv ing force behind in creased live stock pro duc tion, live stock have other valu able uses. Live stock re main the most impor tant if not the sole form of non hu man power avail able to poor farm ers in much of the de vel op ing world. The poor, in par ticu lar, use fer til izer from live stock op era tions, es pe cially when ris ing pe troleum prices make chemi cal fer til iz ers un af ford able. Live stock also store value and pro vide in sur ance for peo ple who have no other fi nan cial mar kets avail able to them. Skins, wool, oil, and other resources are used as in puts in other in dus tries.This re port will ex am ine in de tail the in terrelationships over time be tween sup ply and demand for live stock and feed grain, using IFPRI's IM PACT model. 3 It will in ves ti gate the plau si bility of the pro jected de mand in creases for live stock prod ucts and the im pli ca tions of these in creases for world mar kets in feed, milk, and meat. The paper will argue that world grain mar kets cur rently have suf fi cient ca pac ity to han dle the ad di tional de mand for feed com ing from in creas ing live stock pro duc tion, even under a va ri ety of dif fer ent scenar ios for tech no logi cal de vel op ment and global eco nomic per form ance.The paper will argue fur ther that the struc tural shift in developing-country diets to ward ani mal pro teins is a given that must be dealt with. It will review the evi dence on the im pact of live stock products on nu tri tion in de vel op ing coun tries and on the food de mand and in come growth of the poor. The in dus tri ali za tion of live stock pro duc tion in de velop ing coun tries can harm the wel fare of the poor if other poli cies ar ti fi cially re duce the cost of in dus -trial turn-key op era tions and oth er wise frus trate the par tici pa tion of small farm ers. The paper will suggest that un der stand ing the op por tu ni ties and dangers of the Live stock Revo lu tion is criti cal to design ing poli cies that pro mote the in cor po ra tion of the rural poor into eco nomi cally and en vi ron mentally sus tain able growth pat terns.The rapid in crease in de mand for live stock prod ucts in de vel op ing coun tries pres ents cru cially im por tant pol icy di lem mas that must be re solved for the well-being of both rural and urban peo ple in de vel op ing coun tries. These di lem mas in volve com plex en vi ron mental and pub lic health is sues in the con text of weak regu la tory en vi ron ments. Taken to gether, the many op por tu ni ties and dan gers of the Live stock Revo lu tion sug gest that it would be fool ish for de vel op ing coun tries to adopt a lais sez faire pol icy for live stock de vel op ment. Many specific rec om men da tions for con crete ac tion are given in chap ters ahead. The over all focus of the paper, how ever, is on the four broad pil lars on which to base a de sir able live stock de vel op ment strat egy for de vel op ing coun tries. These are (1) re mov ing policy dis tor tions that ar ti fi cially mag nify econo mies of scale in live stock pro duc tion; (2) build ing par -tici pa tory in sti tu tions of col lec tive ac tion for smallscale farm ers that allow them to be ver ti cally in tegrated with live stock proc es sors and input suppliers; (3) cre at ing the en vi ron ment in which farmers will in crease in vest ment in ways to im prove pro duc tiv ity in the live stock sec tor; and (4) pro moting ef fec tive regu la tory in sti tu tions to deal with the threat of en vi ron mental and health cri ses stem ming from live stock.Tech no logi cal prog ress in the pro duc tion, process ing, and dis tri bu tion of live stock prod ucts will be cen tral to the posi tive out come of the Live stock Revo lu tion. Rapid ad vances in feed im prove ment and ge netic and re pro duc tive tech nolo gies offer scope for over com ing many of the tech ni cal problems posed by in creased live stock pro duc tion. In stitu tional and regu la tory de vel op ment will also be criti cal to se cur ing de sir able en vi ron mental and pub lic health out comes. In sum, the demand-driven Live stock Revo lu tion is one of the larg est struc tural shifts to ever af fect food mar kets in de vel op ing coun tries and how it is han dled is cru cial for fu ture growth pros pects in de vel op ing coun try ag ri cul ture, for food se cu rity and the live li hoods of the rural poor, and for en vi ron mental sus tain abil ity.Per Cap ita Con sump tionPro gres sive eco nomic dif fer en tia tion be tween coun tries over the last few cen tu ries, has led to a situa tion where peo ple in de vel oped coun tries typi cally con sume three to four times the meat and five to six times the milk as do those in de vel op ing coun tries (Fig ure 1). But this pat tern is chang ing. Peo ple in de vel op ing coun tries have in creased their con sump tion of ani mal food prod ucts over the past 20 years, and the fac tors driv ing those increases are ro bust and un likely to sub side in the near fu ture. 4 Be tween 1983 (av er age of 1982-84) and 1993 (av er age of 1992-94) per cap ita an nual meat con sump tion rose from 14 to 21 kilo grams and milk con sump tion grew from 35 to 40 kilograms. Dur ing the same pe riod per cap ita consump tion of meat in de vel oped coun tries rose only 2 kilo grams and per cap ita milk con sump tion fell. At the regional level, Asia wit nessed the most dra matic increases in per cap ita con sump tion of ani mal food prod ucts. In China per cap ita con sumption of meat and milk dou bled between 1983 and 1993 (Table 2). Per cap ita meat con sump tion also increased in Other East Asia, South east Asia, and Latin Amer ica. Per cap ita milk con sump tion increased in India, Other South Asia, and Latin Amer ica. In Sub-Saharan Africa and West Asia and North Africa (WANA) per cap ita con sump tion of meat and milk stag nated or declined (see the Appen dix for the regional clas si fi ca tion of countries used in this paper).The rela tive im por tance of ani mal food products in the diets of peo ple in de vel op ing coun tries rose as well. Con sum ers ob tained a greater share of calo ries and pro tein from ani mal food prod ucts in 1993 than in 1983 (Table 3). Through out Asia the share of calo ries and pro tein com ing from ani mal food prod ucts in creased, al most dou bling in China, in di cat ing that many con sum ers are in creas ing con - sump tion of ani mal food prod ucts more rap idly than they are of other foods such as ce re als.But there re mains a great dis par ity be tween the per cap ita ani mal food con sumed in de vel oped and de vel op ing coun tries. Na tional in come is a criti cal de ter mi nant of this dis par ity. Fig ure 2 dis plays the posi tive, curved re la tion ship be tween na tional per cap ita in come and per cap ita meat con sump tion. Within this trend cer tain coun tries dif fer en ti ate them selves for cul tural or other rea sons. China, for ex am ple, lies above the trend, re flect ing the im portance of pork in Chi nese diets, and India lies below the trend be cause of re lig ious pref er ences against meat. At higher in comes, per cap ita con sump tion of meat lev els off be cause peo ple reach satu ra tion. This ex plains why de vel oped coun tries have had much smaller in creases in per cap ita meat and milk con sump tion over the past 20 years com pared to developing coun tries.Coun tries at lower in come lev els are far from reach ing the meat con sump tion sa tia tion point despite re cent in creases. In the first half of the 1990s, peo ple in de vel oped coun tries con sumed 76 kilograms of meat per cap ita per year as food, with higher amounts in the United States and lower amounts in some of the Euro pean coun tries (Table 2). Milk con sump tion in de vel oped countries was 192 kilo grams per cap ita. Peo ple in de velop ing coun tries con sumed on av er age 21 kilo grams of meat and 40 kilo grams of milk.In Latin Amer ica, peo ple con sume 46 kilograms of meat and 100 kilo grams of milk per cap ita, lev els that are much higher than else where in the devel op ing world, though still about half the developed-country aver age. Per cap ita meat consump tion in Other East Asia (44 kilo grams per cap-  Note:Each dot is an ob ser va tion for 1 of 78 de vel op ing and de vel oped coun tries ex am ined. The solid line is a sta tis ti cally sig nifi cant trend.ita) does come close to the Latin Ameri can aver age and exceeds the Chi nese aver age. Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the low est per cap ita con sumption lev els: 9 kilo grams of meat and 23 kilo grams of milk per cap ita per year. The share of calo ries and pro tein com ing from meat is also much lower in de vel op ing coun tries than in de vel oped ones (Table 3). In de vel oped coun tries peo ple ob tain an av er age of 27 per cent of their calo ries and 56 per cent of their pro tein from ani mal food prod ucts. The av er ages for de vel op ing coun tries are 11 per cent and 26 per cent, re spectively. Peo ple in Sub-Saharan Af rica, WANA, South east Asia, Other South Asia, and India get a third or less than a third as many calo ries and half as much pro tein from ani mal prod ucts as peo ple in de vel oped coun tries.These low con sump tion lev els give an in di cation of how far ani mal food prod uct con sump tion in de vel op ing coun tries could grow. The Live stock Revo lu tion of the past 20 years will begin to look mod est in com pari son to the one to come if the factors that pro mote meat and milk con sump tion exert their full in flu ence.The growth rate of per cap ita con sump tion of ani mal food prod ucts is de ter mined by eco nomic fac tors such as in comes and prices and life style changes that cause peo ple's die tary pat terns to evolve in quali tative ways. Per cap ita con sump tion in creased in the re gions where in comes grew rap idly dur ing the 1980-95 pe riod. For de vel op ing coun tries as a whole, GNP per cap ita grew at 2.1 per cent per year (Ta ble 4). In China, which had the most dra matic increases in per cap ita meat and milk con sump tion, GNP per cap ita grew at the ex traor di nary rate of 8.6 per cent per year. In dia and South east Asia also had high in come growth rates, fu el ing in creases in per cap ita ani mal food prod uct con sump tion. Latin Ameri can in come growth was about zero (-0.4 per cent), but the re gion still man aged a slight in crease in per cap ita meat and milk con sump tion. Sub-Saharan Af ri ca's per cap ita GNP fell sig nificantly, ex plain ing the re gion's drop in per cap ita con sump tion of meat and milk dur ing the pe riod.Prices of major meat and ce real food commodi ties have trended down ward over the past 20 years, mak ing food more af ford able to con sumers of all in comes (Fig ure 3). Real ce real prices fell 38-46 per cent (de pend ing on the grain in question) be tween the early 1980s and early 1990s, while de flated liq uid milk prices fell 37 per cent and real meat prices fell 23-35 per cent. Al though ce real prices fell faster than meat and milk prices, many con sum ers have begun to di ver sify their diets into meat and milk be cause they are nearly sa ti ated with ce re als. Some have even re duced their con sump tion of ce re als.The most im por tant life style change oc cur ring in re cent years is ur bani za tion. Con sum ers in urban areas are more likely to di ver sify their diets into meat and milk (Huang and Bouis 1996;An der son et al. 1997). Urban con sum ers have greater food choices and more di verse die tary and cul tural in fluences than those typi cally found in rural areas. Urban con sum ers also often pre fer foods that offer va ri ety and con ven ience rather than maxi mum caloric con tent.Urban popu la tion growth has been sub stan tial through out the de vel op ing world in re cent years (Table 4). Be tween 1970 and 1995 cit ies in Asia grew 3 per cent per year and higher. The high est rate of urban growth, 5 per cent, oc curred in Af rica. The av er age for all de vel op ing coun tries was 3.8 per cent, more than three times the developedcountry rate. In ad di tion to in come growth, price changes, and ur bani za tion, cul tural dif fer ences have played an im por tant role in con sump tion pat terns. Poul try meat and eggs are the most ac cept able live stock com modi ties through out the world. Lactoseintolerance, found par ticu larly in East Asia, has lim ited milk con sump tion. Pork, while par ticu larly val ued by East Asians and peo ple of Euro pean descent, is ex cluded from the diet of a large share of the world's popu la tion, es pe cially Mos lems in the Near East, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Af rica. South Asia has lower lev els of meat con sump tion than low in come alone would sug gest be cause of cul tural and re lig ious rea sons. Grow ing health con scious ness in de vel oped coun tries has in creased con sump tion of lean meats such as poul try and lim ited growth in the of con sump tion of red meat. These pref er ences are re flected in the ag gre gate changes in per cap ita consump tion be tween 1973 and 1993 (Table 5).The im por tance of even small in creases in per capita con sump tion is com pounded by rap idly in creasing popu la tions in many de vel op ing re gions. On average, popu la tion in de vel op ing coun tries grew by 2.1 per cent per year be tween 1970 and 1995 (Table 4). The popu la tion in Sub-Saharan Af rica grew the most-al most 3 per cent per year dur ing the pe riod. Rapid popu la tion growth cou pled with in creased per cap ita con sump tion re sulted in dramatic in creases in the total con sump tion of ani mal food prod ucts through out the de vel op ing world (Table 6). For de vel op ing coun tries as a whole, total meat con sump tion grew 5.4 per cent per year and total milk con sump tion grew 3.1 per cent. The compa ra ble fig ures for de vel oped coun tries were 1.0 per cent for meat and 0.5 per cent for milk. China ex pe ri enced an ex tremely high meat con sump tion growth rate of 8.6 per cent, a value that is dis puted. Chi na's role as the fast est grow ing mar ket for livestock prod ucts in the world is not in dis pute, but its growth rate may not have been so far ahead of the next fast est grow ing re gion, Other East Asia. The issue is con tro ver sial be cause China con sti tutes a large com po nent of world de mand.The food con sump tion fig ures used in this report are from the FAO sta tis ti cal da ta base (FAO 1997(FAO , 1998)). For China, as for most coun tries, the num bers are taken from food bal ance sheets prepared from na tional sources and are based pri mar ily on es ti mates of pro duc tion and net trade to de rive es ti mates of con sump tion. Re cently, the use of this meth od ol ogy for es ti mat ing live stock pro duc tion fig ures in China in the 1990s-but not in the 1980s-has been chal lenged (Ke 1997).Al though there is some un cer tainty here, in depend ent es ti mates of con sump tion based on household sur veys and feed use sug gest that meat con - sump tion in the early 1990s in China proba bly ran closer to 30 mil lion met ric tons (25 kilo grams per cap ita) than the 38 mil lion met ric tons (33 kilograms per cap ita) given in the ta bles in this re port (Ke 1997). If the lower fig ure is cor rect, the ac tual growth rate of meat con sump tion in China from the early 1980s to the early 1990s would be 6.3 per cent, closer to the 5.4 per cent per year ob served in the rest of Asia.Whether the true growth rate of meat con sumption in China was ex ceed ingly high (6.3 per cent per year) or as tro nomi cally high (8.3 per cent per year), Source: FAO 1997. Notes: Four meats in cludes beef, pork, mut ton and goat, and poul try. Val ues are three-year mov ing av er ages cen tered on the two years shown; per cent ages are cal cu lated from three-year mov ing av er ages. Milk is cow and buf falo milk a nd milk prod ucts in liq uid milk equiva lents. Food is used to dis tin guish di rect food con sump tion by hu mans from uses of ani mal prod ucts as feed, fuel, cos met ics, or cov er ings. Sources: An nual growth rate of to tal meat con sump tion for 1982-94 is the growth rate from re gres sions fit ted to FAO an nual data (FAO 1998).To tal milk and meat con sump tion for 1983 and 1993 are three-year mov ing av er ages cal cu late d from FAO 1998. Notes: Con sump tion re fers to di rect use as food, meas ured as un cooked weight, bone in. Meat in clude s beef, pork, mut ton, goat, and poul try. Milk is milk and milk prod ucts in liq uid milk equiva lents. Met ric tons are three-year mov ing av er ages cen tered on the two years shown. Milk is cow and buf falo milk and milk prod ucts in liq uid milk equiva lents. WANA is West ern Asia and No rth Af rica. a See text for quali fi ca tion on China. A lower es ti mate of 6.3 per cent per year growth, closer to the 5.4 per cent ob served in the rest of Asia, may be more ac cu rate. This would mean a 1993 to tal meat con sump tion of 30 mil lion met ric tons. the total amount in con ten tion is less than 5 per cent of es ti mated an nual world meat con sump tion in the early 1990s. It should also be noted that the con troversy does not in clude the dis tri bu tion of con sumption among meats in China, nor does it in volve international trade in meat, be cause the down ward re vi sion in the pro duc tion fig ures is matched by a cor re spond ing down ward re vi sion in the con sumption num bers.Ac cord ing to FAO, the total quan tity of meat con sumed world wide rose by 45 mil lion met ric tons be tween 1983 and 1993 (Table 6). Total milk consump tion rose by 57 mil lion met ric tons in liq uid milk equiva lents. In 1983 de vel op ing coun tries con sumed 36 per cent of all meat and 34 per cent of all milk con sumed world wide. By 1993 those per cent ages had risen to 48 per cent and 41 per cent, re spec tively.The break down of the growth rates of con sumption of par ticu lar com modi ties (Table 7) shows that in de vel oped coun tries total con sump tion grew slowly for all com modi ties ex cept poul try. In the developing coun tries poul try led the field as well with 7.6 per cent growth in con sump tion per year. Beef and milk grew at about 3 per cent, and pork consump tion grew at 6.2 per cent.Quan ti fy ing the effects of indi vid ual forces that are driv ing real con sump tion requires a mod el ing approach to sta tis ti cal esti ma tion that is capa ble of sort ing out the simul ta ne ous influ ences of a host of deter mi nants in order to iso late the con tri bu tion of each ele ment. Research ers typi cally use a mul ti pleregres sion economet ric approach, although the degree of com plex ity in their mod els var ies greatly. The end objec tive is the esti ma tion of robust elastici ties that meas ure the effect on con sump tion of a 1 per cent increase in the deter mi nant in ques tion. These esti mates often are obtained from a crosssection of house holds in a par ticu lar region at a particu lar time, yield ing elas tici ties that are usu ally quite sat is fac tory for the time period and region con cerned, but which are too spe cific to use across coun tries or over long time peri ods.Elas tici ties from na tional data over long time pe ri ods are rarely es ti mated be cause of the dif ficulty in gath er ing data sets that sat isfy the eco nomic and economet ric as sump tions of the un der ly ing demand model. Such es ti ma tion can, how ever, provide a bet ter fore cast of the evo lu tion of na tional con sump tion pat terns over time. De spite the dif ficul ties, Schroe der, Bar kley, and Schroe der (1995) es ti mated the ef fects of na tional per cap ita in come growth on na tional per cap ita con sump tion, using an nual data from 32 coun tries for 1975-90. The authors found that the larg est ef fect of a US$1 increase in in come on meat con sump tion oc curred in coun tries with the low est lev els of na tional in come and meat con sump tion. As coun tries got richer the im pact of an in crease in in come on meat con sumption got weaker.Schroe der, Bar kley, and Schroe der (1995) found that for coun tries with an nual per cap ita in comes in the neigh bor hood of US$1,000 (at 1985 prices), each 1 per cent in crease in per cap ita in come would increase con sump tion of pork by 1 per cent, poul try by nearly 2 per cent, beef by more than 2 per cent, and lamb by more than 3 per cent. At per cap ita income lev els above US$10,000, a 1 per cent increase in in come would in crease per cap ita consump tion of any of the com modi ties by ap prox imately 1 per cent or less. These re sults in di cate first, that an in crease in in come in a richer coun try will have a sub stan tially smaller im pact on meat con sump tion than the same in crease will have in poorer coun tries. Sec ond, the re sults in di cate that in coun tries with low but ris ing per cap ita in comes, per cap ita con sump tion of most meat com modi ties is likely to grow faster than growth of per cap ita in come.Schroe der, Bar kley, and Schroe der did not report price elas tici ties or the ef fects of other structural changes on per cap ita con sump tion. Del gado and Cour bois (1998) es ti mated ex pen di ture, price, and ur bani za tion elas tici ties based on data from 64 de vel op ing coun tries for 1970-95. They used a sys tem of equa tions that sorted out rela tive price effects among ani mal prod ucts and that con trolled for many cul tural, geo graphic, physi cal, and economic dif fer ences be tween coun tries.The re sult ing ex pen di ture elas tici ties (Table 8) es ti mate the per cent age in crease in the weight of beef, pork and mut ton, poul try, or milk con sumed due to a 1 per cent in crease in total ex pen di ture on all ani mal food prod ucts in the de vel op ing coun tries in the sam ple. Thus the whole-sample ex pen di ture elas tic ity of 1.36 for milk sug gests that the rela tive share of milk in total ani mal prod uct con sump tion in creases as real ex pen di ture on ani mal food products in creases across coun tries and over time, once the ef fects of rela tive prices, ur bani za tion, and other fac tors are taken into ac count. The 0.27 co ef fi cient for poul try sug gests that its share de creases with a 1 per cent in crease in total ex pen di ture on all ani mal food prod ucts, A com pari son of the poor est third of coun tries to the rich est third at subsam ple means sug gests that the pref er ence for ad di tional milk and beef decreases mar gin ally when mov ing from poorer to richer de vel op ing coun tries. Pref er ence for poul try  (Judge et al. 1985, 477) was 0.86. All co ef fi cients were sta tis ti cally sig nifi cant at a 10 percent level or bet ter. a Ex pen di ture is the to tal ex pen di ture on ani mal food prod ucts in cluded in the study. Ex pe n di ture elas tici ties are cal cu lated at the subsam ple mean, to proxy for in come elas tici ties for spe cific sub groups. b Mean per cap ita gross do mes tic prod uct dur ing the 1970-95 pe riod was used to clas sify all co un tries into one of three groups: poor est (<$800), middle ($800-$3,000), and rich est (>$3,000). The sam ple was di vided into thirds, with each third h av ing the same number of coun tries.is re marka bly sta ble across wealth groups of countries. Pref er ence for pork and mut ton rises with increas ing in come. 5 The last re sult may hide changes in the qual ity of meat prod ucts con sumed when mov ing to richer coun tries, es pe cially given the large varia tion in qual ity in pork/mut ton meats. Fur ther more, while these elas tici ties are use ful for in di cat ing the rela tive re spon sive ness of con sumption of dif fer ent prod ucts to in come, de mand for in di vid ual prod ucts in in di vid ual coun tries may be more or less re spon sive than these mul ti coun try es ti mates in di cate. De mand would de pend in large part on whether the coun try in ques tion ex hib ited more or less income-responsiveness for ani mal prod ucts as a group.The own-price elas tici ties in Table 8 meas ure the change in con sump tion of vari ous ani mal products in re sponse to rela tive price changes within the group of ani mal prod ucts. As ex pected, price rises for a given com mod ity are as so ci ated with decreased con sump tion of that com mod ity, other things being equal. The es ti mated price re spon siveness for both beef and poul try is rather mod est. The price re spon sive ness of pork and mut ton is higher, but still ine las tic. Only milk among the major livestock food items is some what price re spon sive in the cross-country re gres sions.It would be an error, how ever, to infer that there is lit tle scope for price poli cies to slow down the growth in de mand for meat. Del gado and Cour bois (1998) briefly sur veyed elas tici ties from sev eral rigor ous economet ric de mand analy ses that in cluded dis ag gre gated ani mal prod uct de mand using mul tiyear sam ples and na tional level data for in di vid ual coun tries. They found a con sump tion re sponse to own prices for meats of -0.5 to -1.0, sug gest ing that price re spon sive ness within coun tries is much higher than across coun tries.The cross-country re gres sion sys tem re ported in Table 8 in volved doz ens of vari ables to con trol for the many dif fer ences across time and coun tries that af fect con sump tion of ani mal food prod ucts.Most im por tant among these was the meas ure of urbanization. The ur bani za tion elas tici ties sug gest that as the per cent age of the popu la tion liv ing in cities in creased, so did the im por tance of pork, mut ton, and poul try in ani mal food prod uct consump tion, while the im por tance of beef and milk de creased.The two key mes sages of the data and analy sis sum ma rized in this chap ter are that ani mal food prod uct demand has increased dra mati cally in the past and that it is very likely to increase in the future. The same fac tors that drove the enor mous increases in total meat con sump tion are expected to exert their influ ence into the next cen tury. Popu lation is pro jected to grow more mod estly but still at an aver age of 1.5 per cent per year in devel op ing coun tries (UNDP 1998).With that rate of popu la tion growth, even without a change in per cap ita con sump tion, de mand for ani mal foods will grow enor mously. But per cap ita con sump tion is also ex pected to in crease. In the next 15 years, urban popu la tions are ex pected to grow 2.9 per cent per year on av er age for all de vel op ing coun tries (UNDP 1998). Per cap ita in come will also grow. Pro vided the poor bene fit from these trends, they will sig nifi cantly in crease their de mand for animal food prod ucts with that new in come. Other fac tors may fur ther boost de mand. Greater trade and com mu ni ca tions, for ex am ple, will ex pose peo ple even in re mote areas to other cul tures and foods.Whether the world has the capac ity to meet this surg ing new demand with increased animal food produc tion will be a major ques tion for the rest of this report. The next chap ter will look at the evolu tion of supply systems over the past two decades lead ing up to the Live stock Revo lu tion. Subse quent chap ters will exam ine whether future demand trends coin cide with future resource availabil ity and at what cost. Finally, the paper will address simi lar ques tions more quali ta tively and look at envi ron mental, health, nutri tional, food secu rity, and tech no logi cal issues.Pro duc tion of ani mal food prod ucts grew most rapidly in the same re gions where con sump tion did. Total meat pro duc tion in de vel op ing coun tries grew at 5.4 per cent per year be tween 1982 and 1994, almost five times the developed-country rate (Table 9). The high est pro duc tion growth rates for meat oc curred in Asia, es pe cially in China where total meat pro duc tion in creased by at least 6.3 percent and pos si bly as much as 8.4 per cent an nu ally (Table 10). 6  Per cap ita meat and milk pro duc tion rose between 1983 and 1993 in all re gions ex cept Sub-Saharan Af rica and WANA (where milk pro duc tion fell mar gin ally), in di cat ing that do mes tic sup ply kept up with popu la tion growth in most areas (Table 10). In 1993 both Other East Asia and WANA had substan tial dis crep an cies be tween per cap ita meat consump tion and pro duc tion, in di cat ing that those regions im ported large amounts of meat to keep up with grow ing de mand (Ta bles 2 and 10). South east Asia and Sub-Saharan Af rica had sub stan tially higher per cap ita milk con sump tion than pro duc tion in 1993.Poul try had the fast est total pro duc tion growth rate in both de vel op ing and de vel oped coun tries between 1982 and 1994 (Table 9). Pro duc tion grew slowly in de vel oped coun tries for all other live stock prod ucts, with total and per cap ita out put of beef and milk fal ling. In de vel op ing coun tries total meat and milk pro duc tion grew rap idly, es pe cially pork and poul try. Even the growth of beef pro duc tion, which was near zero in de vel oped coun tries, amounted to a ro bust 3.1 per cent per year in de velop ing coun tries. Per cap ita pro duc tion of pork, poul try, and milk in creased for de vel op ing countries as a group.The large dis crep an cies be tween de vel op ingand developed-country total pro duc tion growth rates are shift ing world ani mal pro duc tion, with all its bene fits and costs, from de vel oped to de vel op ing coun tries (Table 11). In one dec ade the de vel op ingcoun try share of world meat and milk pro duc tion rose from 36 to 47 per cent and from 24 to 32 per cent,  re spec tively. Chi na's share of global meat sup ply rose from 12 to 20 per cent. Milk pro duc tion is mainly con cen trated in the de vel oped world, but India in creased its share of world pro duc tion from 8 to 12 per cent dur ing the pe riod. At the rate that produc tion has been shift ing to developing coun tries, it is likely that more than 50 per cent of the world's meat is now pro duced in the de vel op ing world and that the same will be true for milk by 2020.The geo graphic dis tri bu tion of the world's livestock ani mals reflects dif fer ent con sump tion pref erences and trends (Table 12). Cat tle and buf falo are found where beef and milk are con sumed in large amounts, pri mar ily the devel oped world and Latin Amer ica, which are high beef-consuming regions, and South Asia, which is a high milk-consuming region. Growth in num bers of cat tle and buf falo occurred through out the devel op ing world, with most devel op ing regions increas ing their share. Pigs are con cen trated in the key porkconsuming coun tries of East and South east Asia. Chi na's share of the world's pigs rose from 38 to 44 per cent be tween 1983 and 1993, and the ma jority of the world's pigs re side now in Asia. Num bers of chicken and other fowl grew rap idly be tween 1983 and 1993, es pe cially in Asia where 40 per cent of all chick ens and other fowl were lo cated in 1993. China had the larg est in crease in num bers of chicken and other fowl as well. Sheep and goats were most highly rep re sented in WANA and Sub-Saharan Af rica. The re gional dis tri bu tion of sheep and goat num bers shifted lit tle from 1983 to 1993.In de vel op ing coun tries rap idly in creas ing meat and milk pro duc tion co in cided with rap idly in creasing num bers of ani mals. The developing-country share of the world's stock of ani mals rose to twothirds of all pigs, fowl, sheep, and goats, and threequarters of all cat tle and buf falo in 1993. By contrast, num bers of cat tle and pigs fell be tween 1983 and 1993 in the de vel oped coun tries, de spite increased beef and pork out put. In de vel oped countries growth in num bers of ani mals was im por tant only for poul try out put. In creased out put in de veloped coun tries was made pos si ble pri mar ily by increased pro duc tiv ity per ani mal, de fined as greater amounts of meat or milk out put per ani mal and per unit of in puts.Com par ing the lo ca tion of the world's live stock in Table 12 to out put shares in Table 11 pro vides an in di ca tion of the rela tive pro duc tiv ity lev els of the re gions. Al though three-quarters of the world's cattle and two-thirds of the world's pigs, poul try, sheep, and goats lived in de vel op ing coun tries in 1993, those coun tries pro duced less than half of the world's meat and a third of the world's milk. Table 13 com pares growth rates of ani mals slaugh tered or milked with growth rates in meat and milk out put, giv ing an in di ca tion of the ex tent to which pro duc tiv ity and in creased num bers of animals con trib uted to out put growth. Coun tries in the rela tively land-abundant Latin Amer ica and Sub-Saharan Af rica re lied mostly on growth in num bers of ani mals for their in creased live stock pro duc tion. In Latin Amer ica and Sub-Saharan Af rica, the number of cat tle that were slaugh tered or milked grew at rates nearly equal to, or above, the growth rate of beef and milk out put, in di cat ing that number of ani mals was more im por tant than pro duc tiv ity in pro vid ing the ad di tional meat. Pig num bers grew at about the same rate as pork out put in both re gions, in di cat ing lit tle pro duc tiv ity growth. The number of chick ens grew at about the same rate as poul try output in Af rica. In Latin Amer ica the number of chick ens grew more slowly than poul try out put, sug gest ing the ex is tence of pro duc tiv ity growth in poul try out put.In Asia, where land is scarce, growth in numbers of ani mals made up a smaller pro por tion of out put growth for beef and pork. Pro duc tiv ity growth was rela tively more im por tant. Not in cluding China, where re ported pro duc tiv ity growth was even greater, cat tle num bers grew less than 2 per -cent per year be tween 1982 and 1994, while both milk and beef out put grew by more than 3 per cent. Also in Asia with out China, pig num bers grew at about four-fifths the rate of pork out put, in di cat ing a small amount of pro duc tiv ity growth. Less produc tiv ity growth oc curred in poul try pro duc tion, as chicken num bers grew at ap proxi mately the same rate as out put.Pro duc tiv ity is much higher in de vel oped countries than that typi cally found in de vel op ing countries. Table 14 pres ents the number of kilo grams of meat or milk pro duced per ani mal. Pro duc tiv ity by this yard stick was clearly higher in de vel oped countries, es pe cially for beef and milk. Pork and poul try pro duc tiv ity lev els showed greater simi lar ity across re gions.Cer tain de vel op ing re gions ap pear to be catching up with developed-country rates for per ani mal pro duc tiv ity. Pro duc tiv ity growth rates in some devel op ing coun tries ex ceed those in de vel oped countries for some com modi ties (Table 14). Beef produc tiv ity through out Asia has been grow ing at rates higher than the 0.9 per cent growth rate in the de veloped world. Milk pro duc tiv ity growth rates in Asia, with the ex cep tion of China, also ex ceeded those in de vel oped coun tries. Beef and milk pro duc tiv ity in Latin Amer ica and Sub-Saharan Af rica fell in creas- ingly be hind the de vel oped coun tries. Pork pro ductiv ity growth rates ex ceeded developed-country lev els in Asia. Poul try pro duc tiv ity growth was on av er age more rapid in de vel oped coun tries than in de vel op ing coun tries ex clud ing China.Pro duc tiv ity growth in de vel oped re gions mainly oc curs through fur ther tech no logi cal prog ress. Farm ers can raise many more ani mals per unit of land by using capital-intensive mecha ni za tion that re duces labor re quire ments, by in creas ing per animal feed use and feed qual ity, and by in vest ing in im proved ani mal ge net ics and health. Nearly 37 per cent of the world's meat sup ply comes from indus tri al ized live stock pro duc tion (FAO 1995b). In re cent years, in dus trial live stock pro duc tion grew glob ally at twice the rate (4.3 per cent) of more tradi tional, mixed-farming sys tems (2.2 per cent), and more than six times the rate of graz ing sys tem (0.7 per cent) (Sere and Ste in feld 1996).In dus trial live stock pro duc tion is knowl edgeand management-intensive, es pe cially when de liv -er ing prod ucts for an in creas ingly quality-conscious urban popu la tion. In dus trial live stock pro duc tion maxi mizes the use of scarce re sources, no ta bly land, labor, and feed, and it in volves the de vel opment of geno types, ap pli ca tion of bio tech nol ogy, gen eral im prove ment in ani mal hus bandry and veterinary care, and ad vances in the back ward and for ward link ages of live stock out put (such as meat mar ket ing sys tems, feed mills). Pro duc tion costs of monogas trics, such as pigs and poul try, tend to fall faster than those for ru mi nants in land-scarce situa tions be cause monogas trics re quire less space and are more ef fi cient at con vert ing feed con centrates to meat.Live stock pro duc tion in de vel op ing coun tries re lies much more on tra di tional op era tions. A quarter of the world's land is used for graz ing, which sus tains about 10 per cent of world meat pro duc tion (FAO 1995b). Graz ing sys tems typi cally in crease pro duc tion by in creas ing the number of heads and the land area used. As land be comes scarce, graz ing sys tems lead to ei ther land deg ra da tion and economic de cline or mixed or in dus trial live stock produc tion sys tems. Mixed live stock and crop pro duc tion is the most com mon form of live stock op era tion in de velop ing coun tries, pro vid ing more than 50 per cent of the meat pro duced in the world (FAO 1995b). The crop com po nent of the farm pro vides resi dues for rough age, while the live stock com po nent pro vides ani mal trac tion, fer til izer, ani mal fi bers, a form of sav ings or col lat eral, and a role in so cial func tions. Live stock kept in mixed sys tems are pri mar ily large and small ru mi nants be cause they are ef fi cient at con vert ing pas tures, crop resi dues, and other roughages into meat. Such fi brous ma te ri als and grasses have lit tle or no al ter na tive use. Large ru mi nants can also pro vide farm power.Cur rently an es ti mated 250 mil lion work ing ani mals pro vide draft power for mixed farms that cover about 28 per cent of the world's ar able land. Ap proxi mately 52 per cent of avail able crop land in de vel op ing coun tries is farmed using ani mal draft power. The use of ani mal draft power in creased in the 1970s and 1980s in those parts of West Af rica where the tech nol ogy was rela tively new, dis ease was being con trolled, and in tro duc tion of new crops such as cot ton and maize re quired added farm power (Pin gali, Bigot, and Binswan ger 1987). East ern and South ern Af rica and South Asia in par ticu lar have longer tra di tions in the use of draft ani mals and are likely to con tinue to use them for some time to come.Mecha ni za tion is rap idly oc cur ring in other areas, such as East and South east Asia (Ste in feld 1998). In these areas mixed farm ing is evolv ing as the food value of ani mals in creases and the value of their other uses de clines. The dif fu sion of ma chinery, fer til izer, syn thetic fi bers, and fi nan cial services re duces the value of live stock's other roles. Mecha ni za tion im proves the pro duc tiv ity of ani mal food pro duc tion be cause ani mals no longer need to be kept into adult hood for draft power, ena bling more rapid slaugh ter rates. Mecha ni za tion also makes pos si ble a shift from large and small ru minants to ani mals such as pigs and chick ens that require less time and space for pro duc tion.In past dec ades live stock de vel op ment in Asia suf fered from an ex treme short age of land and quality feed but en joyed a rela tive abun dance of labor and water. Capi tal, first in short sup ply, be came less of a lim it ing fac tor as rapid in dus trial de vel op ment took place and in comes in creased. Pro gress in de -vel op ment led to the adop tion of a number of technolo gies that dealt first with land scar city and then re placed labor with capi tal.The first set of in no va tions in tro duced into Asian mixed-farming sys tems in cluded basic ani mal health care, such as con trol of in fec tious dis eases and para sites. Next came the pro vi sion of ad di tional feed, first from crop by prod ucts, but then in creas ingly from ce re als and other con cen trates. In In do ne sia and else where, cut and carry sys tems, es sen tially a com bi na tion of for age cul ti va tion and stall feed ing, de vel oped for milk pro duc tion. Breed ing con tin ued to be based on local se lec tion for pre ferred traits; cross breed ing was prac ticed to some ex tent.As demand for live stock foods expanded rapidly, mixed-farming sys tems could not keep up. Feed require ments could no longer be met from domes tic sup plies of cere als and other con cen trates. Asia began to import large amounts of feed grains, mainly from the devel oped coun tries. At this point the indus trial pro duc tion of pork, poul try, and eggs that emerged was more effi cient at using imported feeds. Indus trial sys tems make use of imported livestock genetic mate rial and sophis ti cated feed ing prac tices, such as phased feed ing, the use of feed addi tives, and, at an even more advanced stage, syn thetic amino-acids. As of this writ ing, in early 1999, these sys tems appear to have been dis pro portion ately dis ad van taged by the Asian eco nomic crisis, which raised the cost of imported feeds and depressed urban demand.WANA ex hib its dif fer ent trends. Land is not a lim it ing fac tor per se but ag ri cul tural po ten tial is, given the scar city of water. Tra di tional pas tor al ism and, to a lim ited ex tent, mixed farm ing con tinue to exist, but oil reve nues and the re sult ing eco nomic expan sion since 1973 have in tro duced im ported in dustrial pro duc tion units, for poul try and dairy in particu lar. These units have state-of the-art tech nol ogy but re quire many im ported in puts and the do mes tic pro duc tion of oth ers (for ex am ple, for age pro duc tion for dairy cows). For the most part they can not compete with world mar kets but are main tained through pro tec tion as a mat ter of po liti cal choice.Be cause of the emer gence of these sub si dized in dus trial pro duc tion sys tems, as well as other major dis tor tions in the food mar ket, lit tle tech nologi cal change has oc curred in the graz ing and small mixed-farming sec tors in WANA. Feed lots for small ru mi nants have de vel oped to some ex tent, mainly in re sponse to the mar ket re quire ments of the re gion. These re quire ments in clude the sea sonal de mand for whole ani mals dur ing re lig ious holidays. In more ecol ogi cally fa vor able en vi ron ments, no ta bly the Nile val ley in Egypt, com peti tive dairy sys tems have emerged that use a mix ture of do mestic and im ported feed re sources and in ter me di ate labor-intensive tech nol ogy.The rela tive abun dance of land and ex treme scar city of capi tal re sulted in lit tle pro duc tiv ity increase per ani mal in Sub-Saharan Af rica over the past two dec ades. With out sig nifi cant per cap ita income growth the re gion lacked the stim uli and the means for adopt ing meat pro duc tion tech nol ogy out side the poul try sec tor in large coastal mar kets. Dump ing of live stock prod ucts from de vel oped coun tries dur ing the late 1970s and through out the 1980s also dis cour aged pro duc tion in no va tion, as did over val ued ex change rates that fa vored im ports.Sub-Saharan Af ri ca's live stock sec tor con tinues to be largely made up of ru mi nants lo cated in tsetse-free areas and fed lo cally avail able feed. By and large health care is ru di men tary and only sim ple feed sup ple ments, such as min er als, are provided. Close to urban cen ters, and where agroecological con di tions per mit, semi-intensive and in ten sive dairy ing has de vel oped using cul ti vated fod der and agro-industrial by-products. Poul try pro duc tion has begun to in dus tri al ize. Apart from low in come and a short age of qual ity feed, live stock pro duc tion tech nol ogy in Af rica con tin ues to be severely con strained by dis ease, es pe cially try panosomia sis, which is spread by the tsetse fly (Al ex andra tos 1995). Cat tle pro duc tion is dif fi cult in areas in fested with the tsetse fly. Other dis eases must be con trolled as well be fore wide spread in ten si fi ca tion of pork and poul try pro duc tion can occur.Latin Amer ica is char ac ter ized by an abundance of land. The re gion ex pe ri enced con sid er able live stock de vel op ment prior to the 1960s. Ur baniza tion had al ready ad vanced by that point, un like in the rest of the de vel op ing world. In come stag na tion in the 1970s and early 1980s and low world mar ket prices for meat slowed pro duc tiv ity growth and tech nol ogy adop tion. It was gen er ally cheaper to ex pand live stock pro duc tion into new areas than invest in new tech nol ogy. Pas tures con tinue to be un im proved, ex cept for areas close to con sumer cen ters, and the tech nol ogy used in ex ten sive ranching only in volves such basic meas ures as fenc ing, dis ease pre ven tion and treat ment, and some ge netic de vel op ment.Re cently, in ten sive poul try pro duc tion and, to some ex tent, dairy ing have de vel oped in Latin Amer ica. These live stock sys tems took ad van tage of the tra di tion ally high ur bani za tion rate and a resurgence of eco nomic growth in the 1990s. In tensive in na ture, these sys tems use many of the same basic tech nolo gies found in de vel oped coun tries but use them at lower lev els of in ten si fi ca tion.Recent rapid increases in meat pro duc tion caused global use of cereal as feed to rise at 0.7 per cent annu ally between 1982 and 1994. This growth rate reflects neg li gi ble growth in use of cereal as feed in the devel oped coun tries and a more than 4 per cent per year growth rate in the devel op ing coun tries (Table 15). Despite the higher growth rate, devel oping coun tries still use less than half as much cereal for feed as do devel oped coun tries. In 1990-92 concen trated cereal feed pro vided between 59 and 80 per cent of the nutri tion pro vided to ani mals in the devel oped world. By con trast, cere als accounted for only 45 per cent of total con cen trate feed in South east Asia, the devel op ing region with the most inten sive use of feed grains.As out put of live stock prod ucts grows in develop ing regions, ani mal pro duc tion meth ods and feeding pat terns are shift ing rap idly. Graz ing sys tems are rap idly dimin ish ing in impor tance through out the world. Land avail able for graz ing is caught in a squeeze. Urbani za tion and crop pro duc tion are encroach ing on tra di tional graz ing areas. Pres er vation efforts are lim it ing expan sion of graz ing operations into vir gin areas.Mixed-farming sys tems also face lim its. In nova tions in crop pro duc tion have re duced crop residues and non grain bio mass avail able for feed ing. Crop re search has largely ig nored the feed value of crop resi dues. Un im proved va rie ties in low ex ter nal input sys tems typi cally pro duce three to four times as much non grain bio mass as grain, whereas modern hy brids often pro duce an equal share or less non grain bio mass as grain.House hold food waste, such as tuber skins, stems, and leaf tops, has tra di tion ally been an other im por tant feed re source, for back yard monogas tric pro duc tion in par ticu lar. But small-scale back yard op era tions are dis ap pear ing be cause of low re turns to labor and in creased com pe ti tion from large-scale pro duc ers. Al though each back yard op era tion is small, at the ag gre gate level such sys tems act as major trans form ers of waste into meat and milk. Be cause large op era tions are un likely to find it cost-effective to col lect small amounts of waste from many house holds, this source of ani mal feed may be un der used in in dus trial sys tems.The use of ce re als as feed has been fast est in Asia, where out put growth has risen the most and land is scarce (Table 15). In Other East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Af rica, ce real use as feed grew faster than meat pro duc tion, in di cat ing that those re gions are in ten si fy ing their use of feed per unit of meat out put (Ta bles 10 and 15).Most of Asia, WANA, and Sub-Saharan Af rica lack the ca pac ity to pro duce sub stan tial amounts of feed grain at com peti tive prices. The grow ing amounts of feed grains im ported into these re gions at test to this de fi ciency. Given that many de vel oping coun tries can not ex pand crop area, two pos sibili ties re main: in ten si fi ca tion of ex ist ing land resources and im por ta tion of feed. Be cause much of the gain from in ten si fi ca tion will proba bly go toward meet ing the in creas ing de mand for food crops, sub stan tially more feed grains will have to be imported by de vel op ing coun tries in the fu ture. Will feed grain avail abil ity, the in fra struc ture for mov ing large amounts of grain, and other access-related fac tors keep up with pro jected surges in de mand? Trends dur ing the past 15 years sug gest that the developing coun tries are in the midst of a demanddriven Live stock Revo lu tion that al ready has increased the shares of world live stock prod ucts consumed in those coun tries by a sub stan tial mar gin.Even more im por tant ef fects are ex pected in the fore see able fu ture. These fu ture changes are of such mag ni tude that they can not occur in a vac uum. They will af fect the global econ omy and in turn be af fected by it. This chap ter and the next will ex am ine the likely mag ni tude of the changes, the fea si bil ity of the changes given the world's ca pac ity to pro duce live stock and feed, the like li hood of the re quired pro duc tion in creases oc cur ring in de vel op ing or developed coun tries, and the im pli ca tions for world prices of meat, milk, and ce re als. This chap ter presents both an ap proach to ad dress ing these ques tions and some an swers in the form of base line re sults from a global eco nomic model. It also looks at what some plau si ble changes in fu ture sce nar ios might en tail for world milk and meat. Chap ter 5 ex am ines the pro jected im pact of the Live stock Revo lu tion on world trade in meat and milk and world food prices under dif fer ent sce nar ios.Global eco nomic mod els are sub ject to many un cer tain ties and are typi cally speci fied at such a high level of prod uct ag gre ga tion (meat and milk are usu ally lumped in with \"food\"), that they are not very use ful for the pur pose at hand. For tu nately, the authors have at their dis posal a model de vel oped at IFPRI (Rosegrant, Agcaoili-Sombilla, and Perez 1995;Rosegrant et al. 1997;Rosegrant, Leach, and Ger pa cio 1998;and Rosegrant and Ringler 1998) that is par ticu larly ap pro pri ate for look ing at these is sues and as sess ing the sen si tiv ity of re sults to different as sump tions. The tool in ques tion is the In ter na tional Model for Pol icy Analy sis of Ag ri cultural Com modi ties and Trade (IM PACT), June 1998 ver sion. 7 (For fur ther in for ma tion on the model, see the box.)The base line sce nario rep re sents the most re al is tic set of as sump tions gov ern ing in ter na tional and na tional econo mies. With the sole ex cep tions of beef in the de vel oped coun tries and milk in the developing coun tries, con sump tion of food products of ani mal ori gin is pro jected to grow at a substan tially lower an nual rate over the 1993-2020 pe riod than it did in the 1982-94 pe riod (Ta bles 16 and 7). The pro jected rates of growth to 2020 are ex pected to be about half those ob served in the last 15 years in most cases. Three fac tors pro duce these lower growth rates to 2020. First, re cent rapid growth in con sump tion means that the base for pro ject ing growth be yond 1993 is larger than that in 1983. Thus a given ab so lute an nual in cre -ment ac counts for an in creas ingly smaller percent age in cre ment. Sec ond, slow downs in the rate of over all in come and ur bani za tion growth will occur for the same rea son. Third, con sum ers begin to get sa ti ated as the im por tance of meat in their diets in creases.Even by 2020, per cap ita con sump tion of milk prod ucts in de vel op ing coun tries is ex pected to be on av er age only one-third that of de vel oped countries (up from less than one-fifth in the early 1990s). Per cap ita con sump tion of meat in de vel op ing coun tries is pro jected to be 36 per cent of that in developed coun tries in 2020, up from 28 per cent in the early 1990s. Yet in ag gre gate terms 62 per cent of the world's meat and 60 per cent of milk consump tion will take place in the de vel op ing countries in 2020. This is a major change from the early 1990s, when 52 per cent of the world's meat and 59 per cent of the world's milk were con sumed by the de vel oped world.The con sump tion trends by re gion and the annual growth rates to 2020 are given in Table 17. The pro jected con sump tion growth rates for China of 3 per cent for meat and 2.8 per cent forIM PACT is a global food model that di vides the world into 37 coun tries or coun try groups. Its base line ver sion rep re sents the most re al is tic set of as sump tions ac cording to the model team. The coun tries and groups can be con ven iently ag gre gated into re gions that are com patible with FAO defi ni tions (see the Ap pen dix). Fan and Agcaoili-Sombilla (1998) com pared the re sults of early ver sions of the model and other in ter na tional mod els for ce real pro duc tion and con sump tion in China in 2010 and 2020. They found that the pro jec tions from the IMPACT model are mid dle of the road in out look and nei ther pes si mis tic nor bull ish with re spect to the is sues raised at the be gin ning of this chap ter.The IM PACT model cov ers 18 com modi ties, includ ing beef, pork, poul try, sheep meat, goat meat, bovine milk, and eggs. The base data used in the cur rent ver sion are av er ages of the 1992-94 an nual data from the FAO Sta tis ti cal Da ta base (the same source used for the ta bles in pre vi ous chap ters, with 1993 data ex actly equiva lent to the IM PACT base year). Since each of the 37 coun try groups pro duces and/or con sumes at least some of each com mod ity, lit er ally thou sands of sup ply and de mand pa rame ters had to be speci fied (in come, price, and cross-price elas tici ties of de mand; pro duc tion pa rame ters in clud ing crop area, yield growth trends, and herd size and pro duc tiv ity; price re sponse pa rameters; ini tial lev els and trends in feed con ver sion; trade dis tor tion pa rame ters; and so on). Pa rame ter es ti mates were drawn from economet ric analy sis, as sess ment of past and chang ing trends, ex pert judge ment, and syn thesis of the ex ist ing lit era ture. The myr iad as sump tions are too de tailed to re port here, but at ten tion is given to those pa rame ters that mat ter the most, such as the detailed struc tural pa rame ters of shift ing meat de mand in China, taken from Huang and Bouis (1996).Na tional in come, popu la tion, and ur ban growth rates are also as sumed for each coun try group, along with an tici pated changes in these rates over time. The model uses the re vised United Na tions mediumvariant pro jec tions for 1996 for demo graphic as sumptions. Na tional in come pro jec tions are es ti mated based on a re view of pro jec tions drawn from sources such as the World Bank. The model is solved on an an nual basis by link ing each coun try model to the rest of the world through com mod ity trade. The market-clearing con di tion solves for the set of world prices that clears in ter na tional com mod ity mar kets, so that the to tal imports of each com mod ity equals to tal ex ports. World prices of com modi ties thus act as the equili brat ing mecha nism and main tain the model in equi lib rium. When an ex oge nous shock is in tro duced in the model, such as an in crease in crop yields from higher in vestment in crop re search, the world price will ad just and each ad just ment is passed back to the ef fec tive producer and con sumer prices. Changes in do mes tic prices sub se quently af fect the sup ply and de mand of the com modi ties, ne ces si tat ing their it era tive re ad justments un til world sup ply and de mand are in bal ance and world net trade again equals zero.The out come of this an nu al ized it era tive pro cess is an es ti mated an nual se ries of pro jected market-clearing prices, con sump tion lev els by com mod ity and coun try milk are on the low side of the lit era ture (Ke 1997). 8 They are fully com pa ra ble to those projected for other parts of Asia, but are sig nifi cantly above the 0.6 and 0.2 per cent av er ages pro jected for de vel oped coun tries as a whole. Per cap ita meat con sump tion in 2020 is pro jected to re main group, feed-use lev els, pro duc tion area, yield and produc tion lev els by com mod ity and re gion, and net trade across coun try groups by com mod ity. The analy sis extends to the year 2020. The in creas ing globali za tion of ag ri cul tural mar kets is rep re sented in the model by its set of en doge nous world prices es ti mated through annual it era tive so lu tions. Events af fect ing net ex ports from one coun try group will af fect prices in oth ers, in turn chang ing sup ply, de mand, and net trade, even tu ally con verg ing to a so lu tion.An im por tant ad van tage of a mod el ing ap proach such as IM PACT is that it can be used to in ves ti gate the fea si bil ity of pro duc tion in creases si mul ta ne ously with the de ter mi na tion of pro duc tion costs and out put prices. Ac tual pro duc tion of com modi ties in the model re quires the use of suf fi cient quan ti ties of all needed in puts in the coun try and year con cerned. Par ticu lar attention is de voted to cereal-based feeds. Ce real feed de mand in IM PACT is driven by live stock pro duc tion, ce real feed ra tios, own-and cross-price re la tion ships among feed crops, and an ex oge nously speci fied \"ef ficiency pa rame ter\" that can be used to model ex ogenous tech ni cal prog ress or other secu lar changes affect ing feed de mand.The mix of feeds used for a spe cific live stock product starts from actual aver ages in the 1992-94 base period. For each live stock prod uct, the feed ing ratio for each main feed com mod ity in the model-maize, other coarse grains, wheat, oil cakes, cas sava, sweet pota toes, and pota toes-is speci fied for the base period. What happens to the amount of each com mod ity fed after the base period is modi fied by the rela tive price move ments of feeds, which change in the model depend ing on both human and ani mal demand and by the speci fied rates of change in feed ing effi ciency due to tech ni cal prog ress. Browse, back yard slops, and other non ce real, nonoilcake feeds are implic itly costed as free, and are thus not explic itly mod eled. Report ing focuses on cere als used as feed, since this is the aspect of feed use that is con tro ver sial and it is also in all like li hood the bind ing con straint in pro duc ing ade quate mixed feed rations.The approach has the draw back that where produc tion sys tems are shift ing from low cereal use systems (as in back yard poul try or range-fed rumi nants) to indus trial feed lots, cur rent ratios of cereal feed to spe cific meat prod ucts may under es ti mate future ratios. The exoge nous feed ratio effi ciency parame ter in the feed demand equa tion is speci fied to com pen sate for this in some coun tries. It also allows fur ther sen sitiv ity test ing in this area.The ra tio of to tal ce real feed use to to tal meat produc tion (with feed use for milk and eggs net ted out) in the early 1990s was 1.40 to 1.00 in China and 3.64 to 1.00 in the United States. Be tween 1983 and 1993, feed con ver sion ef fi ciency in the United States increased by about 15 per cent across all meats, with the in creases for poul try out strip ping those for beef (CAST forth com ing). The pro por tion ately greater use of natu ral pas tures, house hold wastes, roots, tu bers, and by prod ucts for feed ing in de vel op ing coun tries explains why their ce real feed ra tios are lower than those in de vel oped coun tries. 8 As noted in Chap ter 2, the FAO con sump tion and pro duc tion fig ures for meat in China in the ea rly 1990s, used here for the 1992-94 base, may over state ac tual con sump tion and pro duc tion by up to 30 per cent (Ke 1997). Ke stud ied t he dis crep ancy be tween food-balance-sheet and sur vey es ti ma tions of meat con sump tion in China in de tail. He con cludes that ac tual to tal de mand for meat is only likely to grow at 3 to 5 per cent per year in China in the fore see able fu ture, a lower rate than that pre dicted by \"so me\" (un speci fied) per sons. While the IMPACT-estimated level of meat de mand in China in 2020 might be seen as some what high be cause o f a base pe riod es ti mate of meat con sump tion that is \"too high,\" the IMPACT es ti ma tion is also the re sult of pro jected an nua l growth over 27 years that is \"low\" be cause of the con ser va tive as sump tions built into the model. There is also lit tle con cern about the ef fect of an over es ti mate of Chi nese live stock produc tion in the base pe riod (1992-94) on im ports in IMPACT be cause the over es ti mate of pro du c tion, if there is one, is bal anced by an over es ti mate of con sump tion. There does not ap pear to be a com pel ling rea son to re vise th e es ti mates for China given here. low in Sub-Saharan Af rica, par tially vege tar ian India, and other coun tries in South Asia. The assumptions con cern ing tastes for meat in India will be tested below as part of the sen si tiv ity analy sis, as will as sump tions about pro duc tiv ity growth and the se ver ity of the Asian fi nan cial crisis.Pro jected pro duc tion trends for meat to 2020 closely fol low those pro jected for con sump tion, with the ex cep tion of WANA (Ta bles 17 and 18). Gen er ally IM PACT proj ects that in 2020 defi cit  coun tries will im port feed rather than meat. This con tra dicts the con ven tional wis dom that it is cheaper to trade the com mod ity with the higher value-added (meat as op posed to bulk ce re als). But it is con sis tent with cur rent trade pat terns and with the ex pe ri ence of rap idly de vel op ing coun tries such as Tai wan. These live stock trade pat terns may reflect the re ali ties of rela tive over all costs and benefits of pro duc ing and trad ing strate gies bet ter than a sim ple com pari son of value to bulk. Com pari son of pro jected milk pro duc tion and con sump tion in 2020 shows a some what dif fer ent story. Un like meat, milk is it self a major input into do mes tic live stock pro duc tion. The con sump tion fig ures in Table 17 in clude only what is con sumed by hu mans, but milk pro duc tion fig ures in clude milk used as feed. Milk pro duc tion in 2020 in the de vel oped coun tries is pro jected to ex ceed milk con sump tion by 108 mil lion met ric tons (or 29 percent of pro jected pro duc tion). Seventy-seven million met ric tons of milk will be used as feed and the re main ing sur plus will be ex ported to de vel op ing coun tries. Only 41 mil lion met ric tons (10 per cent of pro jected pro duc tion) are likely to be used as feed in de vel op ing coun tries, de spite a herd size larger than that in the de vel oped coun tries.In de vel oped coun tries the an nual growth rate of pro duc tion through 2020 is pro jected to be 0.7 per cent or less for each of the major live stock food com modi ties other than poul try (Table 19). In the de vel op ing coun tries the pro jected an nual rates of growth are 2.7 per cent for meat and 3.2 per cent for milk. The ma jor ity share of live stock pro duc tion will take place in de vel op ing coun tries, even though per cap ita pro duc tion lev els will be much higher in the de vel oped coun tries.The trends in ce real feed use since the early 1980s (Table 15) high lighted the fact that the growth rates of ce real feed use ex ceeded ce real pro duc tion growth rates in all re gions of the world ex cept WANA. Com pari son of pro jected and his tori cal growth rates of ce real feed use shows a slow down through 2020 in China, Other East Asia, South east Asia, and Sub-Saharan Af rica (Ta bles 15 and 20). But feed use ac cel er ates in India, Other South Asia, and WANA, largely due to fast-growing milk produc tion.Per cap ita ce real use as feed in creases by only 8.1 per cent in ag gre gate from the early 1990s to 2020 in de vel oped coun tries, but rises by 44 per cent in de vel op ing coun tries. Given this stag na tion in de vel oped coun tries, which pres ently have high cereal feed use, global ce real feed use is pro jected to in crease by only 46 per cent by 2020. This trans lates to a 1.4 per cent com pounded an nual rate of growth, no ticea bly higher than the 0.7 per cent an nual growth rate ob served from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. Ce real pro duc tion is pro jected to grow by 1.3 per cent per year through 2020.An ad di tional 292 mil lion met ric tons of ce re als will be used as feed in 2020 com pared to the early 1990s. For fur ther com pari son, a nor mal U.S. maize crop in the early 1990s to taled around 200 mil lion met ric tons of grain. The in crease in grain use as feed will be met pri mar ily through ex pan sion of yields in the tra di tional ex port ing coun tries and expan sion of cul ti vated area in South and East Asia.  Feed grain cul ti va tion has been of rela tively minor im por tance in South and East Asia com pared to food grain cul ti va tion, but maize pro duc tion is increas ing rap idly while rice pro duc tion is slow ing.Four ex peri ments that test some of the as sump tions in IM PACT and take into ac count some major changes that might occur in the world are dis cussed here: (1) a pro longed de cline in eco nomic growth in Asia;(2) a struc tural change in tastes in India toward in creased con sump tion of milk and meat; (3) a broad, secu lar in crease over time in feed con ver sion ef fi ciency (due to tech no logi cal prog ress, per haps); and (4) a broad secu lar de crease in ce real feed con -ver sion ef fi ciency over time (due per haps to increas ing use of ce real feeds as live stock pro duc tion in ten si fies).Be cause de mand from de vel op ing coun tries, primar ily in East Asia, drives the Live stock Revo lution, a pro longed Asian eco nomic cri sis could have a major ef fect on live stock trends through 2020. 9  The sce nario for a more se vere out come in Asia is laid out in Table 21. The sce nario in cludes an endur ing de pre cia tion of Asian ex change rates and a last ing de crease in in come growth rates. De pend ing on the coun try, price wedges be tween do mes tic and world prices are in creased by 5 to 13 per cent. Annual GDP growth rates are cut by 30 to 45 per cent. This sce nario, pre sented in de tail in Rosegrant and Ringler (1998), is a \"worst-case\" pes si mis tic scenario, es pe cially be cause the ef fects are as sumed to last until 2020. The re sults are pre sented here to illus trate the ro bust ness of the Live stock Revo lu tion, even in the face of a last ing slow down in Asia.A com pari son of the re sults of the se vere Asian sce nario to those of the base line model are given in Table 22. A se vere Asian cri sis would cause meat, milk, and feed con sump tion to fall, most no ta bly in China and India. But even where con sump tion declines by 20 per cent rela tive to the base line, the base line pro jec tions of 200-300 per cent growth for meat and milk in India and China by 2020 mean that con sump tion will grow 160-240 per cent in those coun tries, still a large increase.Even with a se vere Asian cri sis, the pros pects for long-term live stock ex pan sion in Asia and the world are quite ro bust. In Latin Amer ica and Sub-Saharan Af rica the se vere Asian sce nario in creases meat and milk con sump tion slightly be cause of price ef fects (cheaper world prices for meat and feed). For the world as a whole, con sump tion of live stock com modi ties de clines by 8 per cent or less rela tive to the base line, a neg li gi ble change con sider ing it is spread over 27 years.An other major struc tural change that could af fect the global live stock econ omy is a shift in In dian tastes that ac cel er ates meat con sump tion (Bhalla, Ha zell, and Kerr 1998). Ur bani za tion, in come growth, and secu lari za tion could cause peo ple in India to in crease their meat con sump tion at a rate simi lar to high milk con sump tion growth rates. Total milk con sump tion in India grew by 53 per cent be tween the early 1980s and 1990s (Table 6).This sce nario as sumes that In dian in come elastici ties in crease to be tween 1.5 and 2.0, de pend ing on the prod uct (Table 21). It also as sumes that Indian pro duc tion sys tems change in tan dem, with per ma nent in creases of 0.3-0.7 per cent in the trend of In dian herd-size growth rates. Fi nally, the scenario as sumes that live stock pro duc tion in landscarce India in creases pri mar ily through in ten si fi - Notes: The se vere Asian cri sis in cor po rates lower pro jected in come growth and de pre cia tion in ex change rates for coun tries in Asia. De pend ing on the coun try, in come growth pro jec tions are 30 -45 per cent lower than in the base line sce nario, and ex change rate de pre cia tion re sults in 5 -13 per cent higher do mes tic prices.The high In dian meat con sump tion sce nario in cor po rates a shift in tastes to ward con sump tion of ani mal foods and in creases in pro duction and feed use ra tios by In dian live stock pro duc ers. In come elas tici ties for ani mal pro d ucts rise to be tween 1.5 and 2.0, de pend ing on the com mod ity. The trend growth rate of In dian herd size rises by 0.3 -0.7 per cent (de pend ing on the com mod ity), and feed con ver sion ra tios rise above those typi cal in de vel op ing coun tries.Mut ton in cludes sheep and goat meat. Milk in cludes all dairy prod ucts in liq uid milk equiva lents.The large per cent age changes for meat and feed in In dia re flect a low ini tial base. Pro ject ed beef con sump tion in 2020, for ex am ple, is still only 31 kilo grams per cap ita un der the high meat sce nario, less than in China to day. WAN A is West Asia and North Af rica. ca tion and that the amount of ce real feed re quired per kilo gram of meat rises as a con se quence.The high In dian meat con sump tion sce nario pulls in the op po site di rec tion from the se vere Asian cri sis sce nario. The ef fect on the growth of In dian con sump tion is huge in both ab so lute and per centage terms, but still rela tively mod est in per cap ita terms (Table 22). Milk con sump tion and ce real feed use rise the most in ab so lute terms. For the world as a whole, milk con sump tion in 2020 would ex ceed the base line by 34 per cent and feed use by 8 per cent.Feed can make up to three-quarters of the vari able cost of live stock pro duc tion in in ten sive sys tems (Sere and Ste in feld 1996). Changes in the feed requirements of meat and milk pro duc tion play an im por tant role in de ter min ing the final cost of livestock pro duc tion. Tech no logi cal in no va tions that in crease the amount of meat ob tained per unit of high en ergy feed and in ten si fi ca tion of pro duc tion (sub sti tu tion of ce re als for browse or slops) both can change the amount of ce real used per unit of meat and milk pro duced. Two op po site sce nar ios are pre sented: an in crease in the rate that feed use ef fi ciency im proves and a de crease in that rate. These are both mod eled in some what ex treme form to test the sen si tiv ity of re sults to changes in the as sumed con ver sion ra tios in ei ther di rec tion. The base line sce nario ba si cally as sumes that these two ef fects can cel each other out.In the first, \"op ti mis tic\" sce nario, feed con version ra tios im prove pro gres sively. About 1 per cent more meat per year is pro duced per kilo gram of feed in de vel op ing coun tries, with a com pounded ef fect over time. This mir rors the rapid tech no logical prog ress ob served in the de vel oped coun tries from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. Under the op ti mis tic sce nario, feed con ver sion ef fi ciency in de vel oped coun tries im proves by only 0.5 per cent per year. This lower rate re flects less scope for adopt ing tech nol ogy from other re gions. The re sult is that in 2020 de vel op ing coun tries pro duce approxi mately 60 per cent more meat per kilo gram of feed than they do in the base line pro jec tions. The ef fect is half as large in de vel oped coun tries.In the sec ond, \"pes si mis tic\" sce nario, feed conver sion ra tios worsen pro gres sively. About 1 percent less meat per year is pro duced per kilo gram of feed in de vel op ing coun tries, with the ef fect compound ing over time. This sce nario re flects in creasing shifts from back yard pro duc tion to more in tensive feed ing in lots. Be cause in ten si fied feed ing prac tices have already taken hold in de vel oped coun tries for the most part, the wors en ing con version ratio for de vel oped coun tries is as sumed to be only 0.5 per cent per year. The re sult is that in 2020 Notes: The in creas ing feed con ver sion ef fi ciency sce nario as sumes an in crease in the ef fi ciency of con vert ing maize to meat. This re sults in a decreased rate of in crease for con ver sion ra tios in re gions where they are in creas ing, and an in creased rate of de crease for con ver sion ra tios in re gions where they are de creas ing. The de creas ing feed con ver sion ef fi ciency sce nario as sumes a de crease in the ef fi cienc y of con vert ing maize to meat. This re sults in an in creased rate of in crease for con ver sion ra tios in re gions where they are in creas ing, and a de creased rate of de crease for con ver sion ra tios in re gions where they are de creas ing.Mut ton in cludes sheep and goat meat. Milk in cludes all dairy prod ucts in liq uid milk equiva lents. WANA is West Asia and North Af rica.de vel op ing coun tries pro duce ap proxi mately 60 per cent less meat per kilo gram of feed than they do in the base line pro jec tions. The ef fect is half as large in de vel oped coun tries.Table 23 shows the ef fects of the op ti mis tic and pes si mis tic feed con ver sion sce nar ios on con sumption in 2020. The most strik ing re sult is that large changes in ei ther di rec tion have vir tu ally no im pact on live stock prod uct con sump tion. Large changes, how ever, are as so ci ated with dif fer ences in the amount of ce real used to pro duce live stock products. Al though not shown, changes in feed con version ra tios also cause changes in the lo ca tion of livestock pro duc tion in a com peti tive mar ket sys tem. A cru cial point to note in Table 23 is that the amount of ce real used for feed in 2020 changes by only 2 per cent in de vel oped coun tries and 13 to 16 percent in de vel op ing coun tries, rela tive to the base line. The change is small be cause in creased feed ef ficiency leads to fal ling ce real feed prices, which encourages sub sti tu tion back into ce real feeds among all pro duc ers, less en ing the over all ef fect of changes in ef fi ciency.Pro gres sively lower feed ef fi ciency raises the world price of ce real feed to the point where sub stitutes be come cost-effective. Pro duc tion shifts from re gions and com modi ties that can not un der take these sub sti tu tions at low enough cost to those that can. Coun tries such as Ar gen tina, with large pro duc tion ca pac ity on ranges, are fa vored in the \"pes si mis tic\" sce nario be cause they can com pete more eas ily, with more ex pen sive lot-fed beef, for ex am ple. The re verse is true under the \"op ti mis tic\" sce nario. Higher feed ef fi ciency (lower con ver sion ra tios) tends to en courage in creased use of ce re als as feed and favor those coun tries where ce real sup ply is rela tively cheap and ce real feed ing prac tices are well-established.A strik ing re sult is that as long as ce re als are avail able world wide in rela tively elas tic sup ply, feed con ver sion does not play a criti cal ele ment in de termin ing human con sump tion of live stock prod ucts, al though it does af fect the com peti tive ness of in divid ual pro duc ers of live stock prod uct. Feed ef ficiency and rela tive ce real prices, there fore, are likely to be quite im por tant in de ter min ing the geo graphic di rec tion of trade.An emerg ing, cen tral fea ture of world mar kets for meat, milk, and feed is that they are in creas ingly inter linked. IM PACT im plic itly takes this in ter linkage into ac count with its an nual market-clearing fea ture, which al lows prices to move until sup ply and de mand are in bal ance. Do mes tic mar kets are cleared in the model through back ward and for ward it era tions be tween sets of do mes tic and world prices. World prices dif fer from do mes tic ones by means of fixed price wedges speci fied for each coun try group that catch the ef fect of pro tec tion ist poli cies or major trans port costs to re mote mar kets. Do mes tic prices in equi lib rium may al ways be above or below world prices for meat and feed, depend ing on the coun try group in ques tion, but they are al ways af fected in the model by move ments in world prices. This in ter linked move ment of prices is a bet ter ap proxi ma tion of re al ity than de linked mar kets. In IM PACT, changes in de mand for livestock prod ucts in Asia, for ex am ple, af fect live stock and ce real feed prices eve ry where. No part of the world will be un af fected by the events in Asia or India or changes in feed use ef fi ciency.Trade flows are mod eled in IM PACT as the net an nual re sid ual be tween pro duc tion and con sumption at world market-clearing prices for each coun try group and com mod ity, lead ing to ei ther net ex ports or net im ports (nega tive net ex ports) for that commod ity and coun try group in the year in ques tion. The model does not de ter mine trad ing part ners, but the world wide sum of net ex ports for a given commod ity is zero for each year in equi lib rium.Net ex ports of spe cific com modi ties by re gion are given in Table 24, for 1993 and 2020. World beef trade was mini mal in the early 1990s. Roughly 0.4 mil lion met ric tons flowed on a net basis from the de vel oped to the de vel op ing world. WANA imported the most, while Latin Amer ica ac counted for 18 per cent of net world ex ports of beef. De vel oped coun tries im ported a net total of 0.7 mil lion met ric tons of pork from de vel op ing coun tries in the early 1990s, much of it from China. De vel oped coun tries had net ex ports of 0.5 mil lion met ric tons of poultry, al most 19 mil lion met ric tons of milk, and a little more than 93 mil lion met ric tons of ce re als.Beef is pro jected to be come the most sig nificant meat im port of de vel op ing coun tries in 2020, at 2.7 mil lion met ric tons net. Pork will re main a net ex port of de vel op ing coun tries, though only margin ally. Poul try im ports will rise to 1.8 mil lion metric tons. Milk will al most dou ble in size as a net export of the de vel oped world. Cere als will con tinue to be the most sig nifi cant net agricultural ex port from the de vel oped to the de vel op ing world. Compared to 1993, net ex ports from de vel oped to de velop ing coun tries are pro jected to rise by 133 mil lion met ric tons, an amount equiva lent to ap proxi mately 60 per cent of the en tire U.S. av er age corn crop in the early 1990s (FAO 1998).The live stock and feed trade pic ture in 2020 changes sig nifi cantly under the se vere Asian cri sis and high In dian meat con sump tion sce nar ios (Table 25). The ex treme as sump tions in the Asian cri sis sce nario do not change ag gre gate live stock con sump tion by much. How ever, they do pro mote large changes in pro jected world ce real feed flows. The changes in feed flows are in fact the most sig -  Notes: The se vere Asian cri sis in cor po rates lower pro jected in come growth and de pre cia tion in ex change rates for coun tries in Asia. De pend ing on the coun try, in come growth pro jec tions are 30 -45 per cent lower than in the base line sce nario, and ex change rate de pre cia tion re sults in 5 -13 per cent higher do mes tic prices.The high In dian meat con sump tion sce nario in cor po rates a shift in tastes to ward con sump tion of ani mal foods and in creases in pro duction and feed use ra tios by In dian live stock pro duc ers. In come elas tici ties for ani mal pro d ucts rise to be tween 1.5 and 2.0, de pend ing on the com mod ity. The trend growth rate of In dian herd size rises by 0.3 -0.7 per cent (de pend ing on the com mod ity), and feed con ver sion ra tios rise above those typi cal in de vel op ing coun tries.Mut ton in cludes sheep and goat meat and edi ble prod ucts. Milk in cludes all dairy prod ucts i n liq uid milk equiva lents.The large per cent age changes for meat and feed in In dia re flect a low ini tial base. WANA is West Asia and North Af rica.nifi cant re sult of the se vere Asian cri sis as sumptions, es pe cially be cause the ab so lute amounts of feed traded in the base line sce nario are al ready large. Base line live stock trade is rela tively mod est, which should be borne in mind when in ter pret ing the large per cent age changes shown for live stock items in most cases. Geo graphi cally the se vere Asian cri sis sce nario sharply de creases pro jected net im ports of live stock foods and de creases pro jected net ex ports from Latin Amer ica and Sub-Saharan Af rica. 10 Pro jections of net im ports of feed grains by Asia also decline ap pre cia bly, by as much as 27 per cent in China. Net ce real feed im ports by de vel op ing countries de cline by 4 per cent. Net Chi nese meat ex ports rise by 3.4 mil lion met ric tons and milk ex ports rise by 0.3 mil lion met ric tons.For Asia other than China and India, the se vere Asian cri sis sce nario changes the re gion from a net meat im porter in 2020 to a net ex porter of 3.2 million met ric tons. The re gion's net milk im ports decrease by 5.3 mil lion met ric tons. The ef fects of the Asian cri sis de crease do mes tic de mand and increase com peti tive ness in world mar kets. India remains a minor par tici pant in world trade of livestock prod ucts in 2020 under the base line and Asian cri sis sce nar ios. Coun tries out side Asia tend to increase their im ports of live stock prod ucts under severe Asian cri sis as sump tions be cause of lower world prices.The high In dian meat (and milk) con sump tion sce nario turns India into a major world im porter of meat, milk, and ce real feed in 2020, a sub stan tial shift from its minor trad ing role in the base line projec tions (Table 25). Other re gions of the world increase their net ex ports of meat and milk, al though China and Latin Amer ica ac tu ally mar gin ally increase their im ports of ce real feed in re sponse to the ex panded meat and milk ex port op por tu ni ties. The very large per cent age changes for India are caused by the very low pro jected trade lev els in the baseline pro jec tion. Base line net ex ports of 77,000 metric tons of liq uid milk equiva lents in 2020 turns into 42.6 mil lion met ric tons of net im ports in the high In dian meat con sump tion sce nario. Even in the face of the un re al is tic as sump tions of the high In dian sce nario, the world sys tem is flexi ble enough to adjust with out major dis lo ca tions in con sump tion.The pre vi ous chap ter as sessed the sen si tiv ity of base line re sults to as sump tions about feed con version ra tios and found that con sump tion pat terns of live stock prod ucts did not change much, but ce real use as feed rose or fell de pend ing on whether ef ficiency de creased or in creased. The re sults are differ ent for trade, as shown by the wide geo graphic varia tion in trade pro jec tions rela tive to the base line (Table 26).An equal per cent age increase in feed con ver sion ef fi ciency ap plied to all de vel op ing coun tries leads to dif fer ing re sults in dif fer ent coun tries, in clud ing a 25 per cent in crease in net ex ports of beef from India and a 9 per cent de cline in net beef ex ports from China. The price changes that re sult from de creas ing feed con ver sion ef fi ciency work to in crease net exports of ce real feed from the de vel oped coun tries, India, and Sub-Saharan Af rica, and in crease net imports of ce real feed by China and Latin Amer ica. The small per cent age of trade in total base line pro duc tion and con sump tion causes the large percentage trade re sponses seen in some cases.De bates over the use of ce re als as feed need to be cast in the con text of stead ily lower re turns to feeding cat tle for meat pro duc tion over the past 25 years. Real world ag ri cul tural prices have slipped stead ily rela tive to manu fac tured goods prices since the early 1970s (Table 27). Clearly, live stock producers have felt the pain in re cent years. Beef in 1994-96 was priced at only 34 per cent of its inflation-adjusted level in 1970-72, while maize was 54 per cent of its inflation-adjusted price in the same pe riod.Fur ther more, the 10 per cent global ex pan sion of ce real feed use by weight be tween the early 1980s and 1990s (Table 15) oc curred at a time when maize and soy beans de clined in price by more than one-third. This lends sup port to the ar gu ment that ad di tional con cen trate feeds will be sup plied with lit tle real in crease in price. This ar gu ment is tested by the IM PACT model, which pro duces a series of market-clearing world prices in equi lib rium Notes: The in creas ing feed con ver sion ef fi ciency sce nario as sumes an in crease in the ef fi ciency of con vert ing maize to meat. This re sults in a decreased rate of in crease for con ver sion ra tios in re gions where they are in creas ing, and an in creased rate of de crease for con ver sion ra tios in re gions where they are de creas ing.The de creas ing feed con ver sion ef fi ciency sce nario as sumes a de crease in the ef fi cienc y of con vert ing maize to meat. This re sults in an in creased rate of in crease for con ver sion ra tios in re gions where they are in creas ing, and a de creased rate of de crease for con ver sion ra tios in re gions where they are de creas ing.Mut ton in cludes sheep and goat meat and edi ble prod ucts. Milk in cludes all dairy prod ucts i n liq uid milk equiva lents. WANA is West Asia and North Af rica. (Table 28). For com pari son, single-equation price pro jec tions to 2010 by the World Bank are re ported at the bot tom of Table 27.Com pared to the World Bank pro jec tions to 2010, the IM PACT base line pro jec tions show 38 per cent higher maize prices and 3.5 per cent higher beef prices. The global food sup ply and de mand approach of IM PACT cap tures the ef fect of the Livestock Revo lu tion on ce re als prices, whereas singleequation meth od ol ogy does not. Even so, IM PACT proj ects that real world maize prices in 2010 will be only about 10 per cent above ac tual 1994-96 prices, which were his tori cally low. Thus, the Live stock Revo lu tion pre vents ce real prices in the base line projec tions from fal ling fur ther from their cur rently low lev els, and per haps even in creases them slightly, but no where near their level in the early 1980s.The se vere Asian cri sis as sump tions de crease real world prices in 2020 by 7 per cent for maize and 5 per cent for beef. These are sig nifi cant ef fects, but the as sump tions for this sce nario are ex treme because they posit that the cri sis lasts though 2020. The high In dian meat sce nario in creases world maize prices by 13 per cent and world beef prices by 9 per cent. Chang ing tastes in India have even greater ef fects on world live stock mar kets than does a se vere eco nomic cri sis in Asia, but in the op po site di rec tion.In creas ing feed con ver sion ef fi ciency low ers real world maize prices by 17 per cent rela tive to base line pro jec tions for 2020. De creas ing feed conver sion ef fi ciency in creases maize prices by 21 percent. Live stock prices, on the other hand, are hardly af fected. Ce real pro duc ers and con sum ers clearly have a lot at stake in feed con ver sion ef fi ciency. Live stock pro duc ers in in di vid ual coun tries have a lot at stake as well, even if tech nol ogy is shared by all pro duc ers, be cause in creas ing feed ef fi ciency favors some pro duc ers while de creased feed ef ficiency fa vors oth ers. Live stock con sum ers have sur pris ingly lit tle at stake, at least as far as the cost of live stock food prod ucts is con cerned.Com pari son of the IM PACT price pro jec tions under vari ous sce nar ios with the his tori cal rate of de crease of real food prices in the last quar ter century sug gests that the rate of de cline of food prices dur ing the next quar ter cen tury is likely to be much weaker than in the past. This is un doubt edly a re sult of the Live stock Revo lu tion. Real ce real prices, how ever, are not likely to rise very much by 2020, con trary to the fears of some re ported in Chap ter 1.The pri mary ex pla na tion for IM PACT's projec tion that ce real prices will con tinue to be low even as de mand for both food and feed in creases is that the world is thought to have con sid er able reserve ca pac ity for ad di tional ce real pro duc tion. This as sump tion not only fits the evi dence of the past 25 years, dur ing which world pro duc tion output changed in re sponse to price, but also ac cords with the doz ens of price re sponse pa rame ters for cere als (for 37 coun tries and re gions times a half dozen crops) built into the model and mostly taken from in de pend ent sources (Rosegrant, Agcaoili-Sombilla, and Perez 1995;Pinstrup-Andersen, Pandya-Lorch, and Rosegrant 1997).The tra di tional ex pla na tion for the high sup ply re spon sive ness of ce re als found in the em piri cal litera ture is that the large grain-exporting coun tries, such as Aus tra lia, Can ada, and the United States, have the abil ity to bring large amounts of land typically not sown to grain into ce real pro duc tion as prices rise. Fur ther more, ce real cul ti va tion by the large grain ex port ers usu ally is less input-intensive than in many im port ing coun tries. Av er age wheat yields in Brit ain, for ex am ple, are much higher than in the United States. This leaves con sid er able scope for ex port ing coun tries to in crease pro duc tion through higher fer til izer use, which be comes prof itable when ce real prices are high. The tre men dous pro duc tiv ity in creases in ce re als in re cent years also at test to the spur of prices. These in creases have come about to a large ex tent in re sponse to the higher ce real prices that made in vest ing in pro duc tion in nova tions eco nomic (Hayami and Rut tan 1985).An other ex pla na tion of the high sup ply re sponsive ness of ce re als is that in a sys tem of global markets, where ac tors all over the world re spond to chang ing price in cen tives, in di vid ual shocks are smoothed out over time through myr iad ad justments through out the sys tem. In other words, world sup ply will be more price-responsive than in di vidual coun try sup ply, a phe nome non well-captured in IM PACT.A final phe nome non of di rect rele vance to cereal sup ply is that in areas con tain ing a sig nifi cant share of the world's poor, the rise in the con sumption of calo ries from ani mal prod ucts is matched by a de crease in calo ries from starchy sta ples. Peo ple in Chi na's rural areas, for ex am ple, con sumed nearly 200 kilo grams per cap ita of grain di rectly as food in 1991, while peo ple in the richer urban areas con sumed an av er age of 130 kilo grams per cap ita, a fig ure much closer to av er age con sump tion lev els else where in the de vel op ing world (Huang and Bouis 1996). Rice and wheat are the grains typically con sumed in China. These grains have sig nificantly lower av er age yields per hec tare than maize, a feed grain in creas ingly cul ti vated by Chi nese farm ers. Thus, sub sti tu tion of meat and milk for grain in the diet lib er ates some grain from di rect con sump tion as food, and the con se quent in crease in ag gre gate grain sup ply is am pli fied by the relatively higher yields of feed grains per hec tare. All of this sug gests that the Live stock Revo lu tion is in timately wrapped up with nu tri tional and food se curity, the sub ject of the next chap ter.The trends noted in the pre vi ous chap ters strongly sug gest that live stock con sump tion pat terns in devel op ing coun tries are rap idly con verg ing with those in de vel oped coun tries, put ting se vere pressure on pro duc tion sys tems in de vel op ing coun tries to do the same. The con sid er able con tro versy in both the popu lar and sci en tific lit era ture about the de sir abil ity of live stock con sump tion and pro duction pat terns in the richer coun tries raises con cerns about what the Live stock Revo lu tion por tends for human wel fare in the poorer coun tries. It seems prob able, for ex am ple, that mas sively larger amounts of ce re als will be used as feed to pro duce items con sumed pri mar ily by better-off urban people in coun tries where out right lack of food is still com mon (Brown and Kane 1994;Good land 1997;Pi men tel 1997).These con cerns raise com plex nu tri tional, food se cu rity, and pov erty al le via tion is sues. Nu tri tional is sues in this con text in clude the ef fect of con sumption of spe cific ani mal food prod ucts on health and well-being in spe cific situa tions. Food se cu rity issues en com pass the abil ity of peo ple to se cure enough food on a regu lar basis for healthy and produc tive lives. Pov erty al le via tion is sues in clude the ex tent to which the pro duc tion and sale of ani mal prod ucts might lead to wide spread net im provement in the live li hood of the rural poor.The IM PACT pro jec tions shed light on likely trends in ce real and ani mal prod uct prices under differ ent sce nar ios for the Live stock Revo lu tion. The im pact of live stock on the pur chas ing power of the poor, the other side of the ce real af forda bil ity issue, must be as sessed with highly dis ag gre gated data. As will be seen below, evi dence from house hold stud ies around the de vel op ing world sug gests that in many cases the rural poor, es pe cially women, get a larger share of their in come from live stock sources than do the rela tively wealthy. These findings raise ques tions about the mo ral ity of blan ket \"anti-livestock\" po si tions in poli cy mak ing. But whether the tra di tional live stock en ter prises of the rural poor can co ex ist with in creased in dus tri ali zation of live stock pro duc tion is an open ques tion. Finally, in creas ing in ten si fi ca tion of pro duc tion raises other ethi cal is sues, in clud ing con cerns about ani mal wel fare and the un pleas ant ness suf fered by those who live down wind from major in dus trial hog farms.As with other struc tural changes in the food sec tor that are im por tant to human wel fare, such as the Green Revo lu tion in ce re als, popu lar dis cus sion of the ef fect of the Live stock Revo lu tion on de velop ing coun tries is oc ca sion ally highly emo tional and often im per fectly grounded in facts. The ob jective of this chap ter is to show how the re search presented in the rest of this paper re lates to the dis cussion of wel fare is sues.The dis cus sion of nu tri tional is sues in this sec tion does not ad dress the health ef fects of con sum ing con tami nated food prod ucts. Those ef fects are discussed in Chap ter 8. Even if con tami na tion can be dealt with, is in creased con sump tion of meat and milk a good thing? Con cerns about medi cal problems clearly as so ci ated with very high meat and milk con sump tion in so cie ties such as the United States must be taken se ri ously (Bar nard, Nichol son, and How ard 1995). But some times these con cerns are ex trapo lated di rectly to de vel op ing coun tries in fairly blan ket fash ion (Good land 1997; Pi men tel 1997) and some times se lec tively, as in the case of Chi na's cit ies (Geissler forth com ing).Sci en tific con clu sions about the ef fects ani mal prod ucts can have on nu tri tion in de vel op ing countries not only de pend on the demo graph ics and income lev els of tar get groups and the com modi ties under study (CAST 1997a), but they vary also because of the meth od olo gies em ployed (Hu and Willett 1998). And ran dom ized clini cal end point tri als or other forms of in ves ti ga tion de signed to con trol for spu ri ous cor re la tions when com par ing longterm \"be fore\" and \"after\" con di tions may be dif ficult to con duct.One often-cited ap proach to study ing the link be tween meat con sump tion and health re lies on corre la tions be tween dis ease rates and pat terns of livestock prod uct con sump tion across lo ca tions. A promi nent ex am ple is a study that looks at such corre la tions across 65 coun ties of rural China (Chen et al. 1990). Yet while this ap proach raises is sues quickly and ex ploits large amounts of data, its re liabil ity is open to ques tion as Chen et al. (1990) them selves point out. The China study could not fully con trol for other vari ables that might also explain the re sults (Hu and Wil lett 1998).Hu and Wil let re cently (1998) con ducted a thorough re view of the re la tion ship be tween con sumption of ani mal prod ucts and the risk of chronic disease for the World Bank. The goal was to sort through con flict ing evi dence in order to pro vide guid ance to the World Bank's in vest ment poli cies in de vel op ing coun tries. They drew in evi dence from all over the world, as sum ing that while diets and nutri tional needs change across en vi ron ments and work re gimes, human bi ol ogy proba bly does not.Hu and Wil lett found that red meat (beef, pork, lamb) con sump tion be yond a low thresh old level proba bly in creases the risks of coro nary heart disease (CHD); dairy prod ucts may also do so but to a lesser ex tent; eggs are proba bly un re lated to CHD up to one egg a day; and poul try and fish proba bly de crease CHD. Mod er ate red meat in take, how ever, may re duce the risk of hem or rhagic stroke in cases where ini tial in take lev els are very low. High lev els of red meat in take may in crease the risk of vari ous forms of can cer, but sub sti tu tion of poul try and fish for red meat proba bly re duces the risk. Dairy products may be a risk fac tor in pros tate can cer. Hu and Wil lett con clude that health pol icy in de vel op ing coun tries should dis tin guish poul try and fish from beef and pork be cause the former proba bly pro vide greater nu tri tional bene fit than the lat ter. Hu and Wil lett also see bene fits from ex pan sion of egg and dairy con sump tion where con sump tion lev els are as low as they are in de vel op ing coun tries.Authori ta tive lit era ture on human nu tri tion in the de vel op ing world stresses the wide spread preva lence of mild to mod er ate protein-energy malnu tri tion af fect ing up to one-third of all chil dren and per haps a higher share of preg nant or lac tat ing women. The lit era ture em pha sizes the criti cal role ade quate bal ance and ade quate lev els of bioa vailable pro tein, calo ries, and key mi cro nu tri ents (such as vi ta min A, io dine, and iron) play in men tal and physi cal de vel op ment (Cal lo way 1995; Sharma et al. 1996;Latham 1997; Neu mann and Har ris 1999; Geissler forth com ing). Re search also shows that ade quate, bal anced nu tri tion helps pre vent mor bidity. Ani mal prod ucts are por trayed in this lit era ture as ex cel lent sources of ab sorb able forms of iron, zinc, vi ta min B 12 , and re ti nol. Cer tain meats and milk prod ucts are cited as vari ously being good sources of thia min, cal cium, vi ta min B 6 , ri bo fla vin, vi ta min A, and other min er als re quired in higher amounts dur ing growth pe ri ods (Cal lo way 1995; Latham 1997; Neu mann and Har ris 1999).Al though a large com bi na tion of crop-based nu tri ents could also pro vide the nec es sary amino acids and trace nu tri ents to meet nu tri tional needs, se cur ing such a bal ance through out the year with vege ta ble mat ter alone is not easy for the rural poor in de vel op ing coun tries. On the other hand, increased con sump tion of even a rela tively small addi tional amount of meat and milk would sup ply the nec es sary pro tein and mi cro nu tri ents and a fair share of needed ad di tional calo ries, es pe cially to chil dren, and would do so with a much less var ied vegetable-matter diet than using crops alone (Latham 1997;Hu and Wil let 1998;Geissler forthcom ing;Neu mann and Har ris 1999).For all these rea sons the Live stock Revo lu tion ap pears to have many po ten tial bene fits for nu trition in de vel op ing coun tries. At pres ent these poten tial bene fits proba bly out weigh the po ten tial nutri tional costs. Whether nu tri ent bal ance is se cured through a wide va ri ety of crops or a smaller va ri ety of crop and ani mal prod ucts, good nu tri tion clearly re quires the over all in take of an ade quate amount of food. The pri mary nu tri tional issue for most poor peo ple in most de vel op ing coun tries proba bly remains se cur ing both an ade quate amount of food and a bal anced diet.Once a per son regu larly con sumes ex cess food calo ries, the sorts of health prob lems as so ci ated with ex cess con sump tion of cho les terol and saturated fatty acids in the de vel oped coun tries will proba bly be come more preva lent in de vel op ing coun tries, es pe cially among the rela tively wealthy in urban areas. How ever, av er age per cap ita consump tion of meat and milk in de vel op ing coun tries in 2020 are pro jected to be less than half the pres ent developed-country av er age (see Table 16). At levels that low in 2020, the ma jor ity of peo ple on the planet are un likely to face the prob lem of ex cess meat and milk con sump tion for quite some time.The pos si bil ity that the peo ple who could most bene fit from in creased meat con sump tion may not share in the Live stock Revo lu tion should be a greater con cern than over con sump tion. Whether they do bene fit will de pend prin ci pally on the evolu tion of food prices and the in comes of the needy, top ics dis cussed in the fol low ing sec tion.Both ecolo gists and ani mal sci en tists, un like economists, tend to view the ef fect of in creased ani mal pro duc tion on food sup plies in de vel op ing countries as a trade-off be tween using ce re als (and the land and water used to pro duce them) as food or feed. Cal cu la tions are then pre sented to argue whether extra pro duc tion of ani mal prod ucts adds or sub tracts from a hy po theti cal calo rie bal ance avail able for hu mans (CAST 1994;Pi men tel et al. 1997;Good land 1997;Brown and Kane 1997).Pro-livestock authors tend to stress that ru minant ani mals in de vel op ing coun tries mostly use natu ral grasses and other feed with lit tle use as food. They also stress the im por tant non food uses of live stock (Fitz hugh 1998; CAST forth coming). \"Anti-livestock\" authors em pha size that monogas tric live stock ac count for much of the growth of pro duc tion under the Live stock Revolu tion, that these ani mals re quire high en ergy feed such as ce re als, and that they do not fully replace the ce real calo ries used to pro duce them. These authors also argue that because live stock food prod uct con sump tion increases rap idly with in come, the rich proba bly will bid away the foodstuffs of the poor in the mar ket place (Pi men tel 1997; Brown and Kane 1997).Econo mists tend to re duce the issue to whether in creased ani mal pro duc tion in creases or de creases ce real and meat and milk prices rela tive to the incomes of poor peo ple, other things being equal. This ap proach has the merit of de fin ing food se curity in terms of the abil ity peo ple have to pur chase food sta ples. But it does not ad dress fully whether all mem bers of the house hold have physi cal ac cess to food at av er age world prices or whether peo ple who are sick can use fully ab sorb that food at all times. As sess ing the im pact of in creased live stock pro duc tion on house hold in comes and food prices is an im prove ment over non en ti tle ment ap proaches and about the best that can be done here.The pre vi ous chap ter showed that the sim ple infer ence that in creased live stock con sump tion will sig nifi cantly raise ce real prices by 2020 does not mesh with the rather dif fer ent and com plex pic ture drawn by the IM PACT pro jec tions. Re call that base line, inflation-adjusted rice and wheat prices in 2020 are pro jected to be 8 to 10 per cent below levels in the first half of the 1990s. Maize prices are pro jected to de cline by only 2 per cent. Fur ther more, av er age world ce real prices in the mid-1990s were only about two-thirds (maize) to half (rice) their aver age inflation-adjusted prices in the early 1980s (Table 27).In the \"worst-case\" sce nario in ves ti gated by IM PACT, rice and wheat prices ex ceed their inflation-adjusted lev els in 1992-94 by only 8-11 per cent (Table 28). The price of maize goes up 21 per cent. IM PACT also proj ects mod est long-term de clin ing price trends for vari ous meats and milk. The con sump tion pat terns of the rich may pre vent live stock prod ucts from be com ing even more afford able to the poor, but they do not ap pear to be likely to raise the price of live stock prod ucts much above their cur rent lev els.In sum, food prices have been de creas ing over the long term, de spite rapid in creases in the use of ce real feeds. The Live stock Revo lu tion is likely to slow this de creas ing trend some what by 2020. But the trend re verses only under ex treme con di tions, and even if it does, the price in creases are ex pected to be small rela tive to the real price de clines seen since the early 1980s. The Live stock Revo lu tion's ef fect on the food se cu rity of poor peo ple, through ce real prices, is likely to be far less im por tant than its ef fect on the in come of the poor.Live stock are cen tral to the live li hood of the rural poor in de vel op ing coun tries in at least six ways (Live stock in De vel op ment 1998). First, they are an im por tant source of cash in come. Sec ond, they are one of the few as sets avail able to the poor, es pecially poor women. Third, live stock ma nure and draft power are vital to the pres er va tion of soil fertil ity and the sus tain able in ten si fi ca tion of farm ing sys tems in many de vel op ing areas fac ing in creas ing popu la tion den sity. Fourth, live stock allow the poor to ex ploit com mon prop erty re sources, such as open graz ing areas, in order to earn in come. Fifth, livestock prod ucts en able farm ers to di ver sify in comes, help ing to re duce in come vari abil ity, es pe cially in semi arid sys tems char ac ter ized by one crop ping sea son per year. Sixth, live stock pro vide a vital and often the only source of in come for the poor est and most mar ginal of the rural poor, such as pas tor al ists, share crop pers, and wid ows.A broad va ri ety of an ec do tal evi dence from case stud ies in Af rica, Asia, and parts of Latin Amer ica shows that the poor and landless de rive a higher share of their house hold in come from live stock sources than do the rela tively better-off in the same rural com mu ni ties. Es ti mates of the share of household in come com ing from live stock for house holds with dif fer ent in come lev els, farm sizes, and die tary ade quacy from all over the world are pre sented in Table 29. In Paki stan in the late 1980s, for ex am ple, Adams and He (1995) found that about 25 per cent of the in come of the poor est 20 per cent of rural households in their sam ple came from live stock. The richest 20 per cent re ceived only 9 per cent of their income from live stock. In Egypt in the mid-1970s, Fitch and So liman (1983) found that an av er age of 63 per cent of the in come of landless or near landless house holds came from live stock. Only 14 per cent of the in come of large land own ers came from live stock. Von Braun and Pandya-Lorch (1991) iden tify four coun tries where the mal nour ished get more of their in comes from live stock than those who are not malnour ished. Vosti, Wit cover, and Car pen tier (1998) show an ex cep tion to this trend in their study of Brazil. In parts of Latin Amer ica, such as the Ama zon and Ar gen tine Pam pas, suc cess ful ani mal graz ing requires con trol of large amounts of land.Poor peo ple have few op por tu ni ties to in crease their in comes be cause of lim ited ac cess to land and capi tal. Small-scale and back yard live stock pro duction en ables the poor to earn in come from ani mals grazed on com mon prop erty pas tures or fed household waste. Live stock pro duc tion of fers one of the few rap idly grow ing mar kets that poor, rural peo ple can join even if they lack sub stan tial amounts of land, train ing, and capi tal.The im por tance of live stock for women's incomes in de vel op ing coun tries has been widely em -    (Quisumbing et al. 1995;Val di via, Dunn, and Sher bourne 1995). Dairy co op era tives have in fact been a major means of bring ing women in poor areas suc cess fully into the cash econ omy in East Af rica (Brok ken and Sey oum 1992), India (Schneider 1995), and Bo livia (Val di via, Dunn, and Sherbourne 1995).A pat tern that shows that the poor earn a higher share of their in come from live stock than do the wealthy raises the pos si bil ity that the Live stock Revo lu tion will be good for the poor. The revo lution of fers two main rea sons for op ti mism. First, the poor can more eas ily im prove their in comes when they have a major stake in a sec tor that is grow ing. Sec ond, the cur rent rapid in ten si fi ca tion of ani mal pro duc tion comes at a time when the rural poor desper ately need higher re turns to their shrink ing land than field crops alone can offer.The main rea son for con cern is that in creased in ten si fi ca tion might make small op era tors un competi tive com pared to large pro duc ers. But true econo mies of scale in live stock pro duc tion may not be great once ex plicit and im plicit gov ern ment subsi dies to larger pro duc ers are taken into ac count. Large pro duc ers in many areas enjoy capi tal sub sidies, tax holi days, free gov ern ment serv ices, ex onera tion from cer tain pol lu tion and health re quirements, and sub si dies on pub lic graz ing land rented in large units. Elimi na tion of sub si dies or their re direc tion to ward small-scale pro duc ers could shift the mar ket in favor of the poor.A less trac ta ble prob lem is that large pro duc ers often find it eas ier to con tract or ver ti cally in te grate with proc es sors than do small pro duc ers in de vel oping coun tries, and there are major econo mies of scale in the proc ess ing of per ish able prod ucts. Trade in per ish ables bene fits greatly from proc essing ar range ments that stan dard ize qual ity and make the quan tity sup plied plen ti ful and re li able. Large pro duc ers also bene fit greatly from mar ket ing in frastruc ture that al le vi ates the need to sell per ish ables the same day to the end user, as is tra di tion ally the case in the de vel op ing trop ics.Small op era tors can over come these bar ri ers by join ing in sti tu tions of col lec tive ac tion, such as out grower schemes or par tici pa tory pro ducer co op era tives (Staal, Del gado, and Nichol son 1997;Del gado 1998). But the es tab lish ment of such in sti tu tions re quires or gani za tion and investment that does not cur rently exist in most de vel op ing coun tries.Op por tu ni ties for rapid growth are rare in poor rural areas. Live stock pro duc tion may pro vide one such op por tu nity. The poor around the world have shown their abil ity to pro duce live stock, and the future for the sec tor as a whole looks good. How ever, poli cy mak ers and re search ers ur gently need to find the best market-oriented means for en sur ing that small op era tors bene fit from growth in the live stock sec tor. To ac com plish this, poli cies will have to focus on rural or gani za tion. Live stock pro duc tion may pro vide one of the major op era tional themes in ef fec tive rural pov erty al le via tion dur ing the next 20 years, but things could also go the other way. Fail ure to ad dress how poli cies have tended to skew livestock de vel op ment in favor of overly large pro duction units, and fail ure to pro mote the ver ti cal co or dina tion of small op era tors with proc es sors, will lead to a major missed op por tu nity. Worse, those who need the ac tiv ity most could be driven out of livestock pro duc tion.Some non food ethi cal is sues as so ci ated with the Live stock Revo lu tion can not be ne glected. To date these is sues have mani fested them selves pri mar ily in de vel oped coun tries, where in ten si fi ca tion has proceeded the most. But there is no rea son to think that these con cerns will not show up else where soon.Ani mal wel fare is a grow ing ethi cal con cern in the era of mas sive hog fac to ries and in dus trial chicken houses (CAST 1997b). As pro duc tion inten si fies in de vel op ing coun tries, con cerns over ani mal wel fare will surely sur face. Evi dence for this is sug gested by cul tural at ti tudes to ward cows in India, by the strong re lig ious views on rit ual slaugh ter held in many parts of the world, and by the es teem that tra di tional stock rais ers eve ry where hold for their cat tle.The air and water pol lu tion that in ten sive animal in dus tries oc ca sion ally cre ate for their neighbors, es pe cially in pe ri ur ban areas with lit tle par ticipa tory gov ern ment, is also likely to bring in creased con flict. Pure mar ket forces in the ab sence of ef fective po liti cal back lash could cre ate hog la goons along side resi den tial neigh bor hoods. Ad vance plan ning and ap pro pri ate regu la tion by ac count able gov ern ment authori ties can help over come the fact that mar kets do not al ways re flect the full costs borne by all par ties, in clud ing neigh bors.Fi nally, ge netic en gi neer ing could push the limits of ethi cal de bates in the next 20 years (see Chapter 9 for a dis cus sion of the tech nol ogy). Clon ing of ani mals raises un der stand able con cerns about pos sible abuses, par ticu larly given the temp ta tion to work next on hu mans. Yet the in ser tion of human genes into trans genic live stock in order to mass pro duce human pro teins in ani mal milk may be es sen tial for low er ing the pro duc tion costs of nu mer ous phar maceu ti cals that re main out of reach for all but the relatively rich. Such ex peri ments may also lead to the de vel op ment of new drugs, for ex am ple for the treatment of cys tic fi bro sis (Gil lis 1999). Re gard less of the view point adopted, few peo ple any where who are aware of the is sues will re main mor ally in dif fer ent.Rap idly in creas ing live stock pro duc tion can cause se ri ous dam age to the en vi ron ment, but it can also be har mo ni ous with or even bene fi cial to the en viron ment when ap pro pri ate types and lev els of produc tion are in place. 11 Tech no logi cal prog ress can fur ther re duce dam ag ing ef fects while in creas ing out put. This chap ter will iden tify the en vi ronmental prob lems that are now or likely to be come the most se vere and the poli cies that ex ac er bate these prob lems. It will also iden tify tech nolo gies and poli cies that can en hance the en vi ron mental sus tain abil ity of live stock pro duc tion as the Livestock Revo lu tion un folds.His tori cally, live stock have played a criti cal role in the pro cess of ag ri cul tural in ten si fi ca tion. Livestock re cy cle nu tri ents on the farm, pro duce valuable out put from land that is not suit able for sustained crop pro duc tion, and pro vide en ergy and capi tal for suc cess ful farm op era tions. The in te gration of live stock and crop op era tions is still the main ave nue for sus tain able in ten si fi ca tion of ag ricul ture in many re gions of the de vel op ing world. This is es pe cially true in semi arid and sub hu mid savanna areas re ceiv ing 600 to 1,200 mil li me ters of an nual rain fall. Much of the in te rior of West, East, and South ern Af rica, north east Bra zil, and much of South Asia be long to this agro cli matic cate gory.Live stock can help main tain soil fer til ity in soils lack ing ade quate or ganic con tent or nu tri ents (Ehui et al. 1998). Add ing ma nure to the soil increases the nu tri ent re ten tion ca pac ity (or cationexchange ca pac ity), im proves the soil's physi cal con di tion by in creas ing its water-holding ca pac ity, and im proves soil struc ture. Ani mal ma nure also helps main tain or cre ate a bet ter cli mate for micro flora and fauna in soils. Graz ing ani mals im prove soil cover by dis pers ing seeds, con trol ling shrub growth, break ing up soil crusts, and re mov ing biomass that oth er wise might be fuel for brush fires. These ac tivi ties stimu late grass til ler ing and improve seed ger mi na tion, and thus im prove land qual ity and vege ta tion growth.Live stock en able farm ers in the resource-poor areas of de vel op ing coun tries to al lo cate plant nu trients across time and space. Land that can not sus tain crop pro duc tion can be used for graz ing to pro duce ma nure that can make other land more pro duc tive. Graz ing live stock can ac cel er ate trans for ma tion of nu tri ents in crop by prod ucts to fer til izer, speed ing the pro cess of land re cov ery be tween crops.Large parts of the de vel op ing world, es pecially in sub hu mid Af rica, are only now be ginning to gain the bene fits of farm ing that mixes crops and live stock. As dis ease con straints are removed, large live stock ani mals can be in te grated into crop op era tions, pro vid ing farm power and ma nure. In other parts of the world, such as Asia, high crop ping and land-use in ten si ties have been sus tained over cen tu ries by in te grat ing crop and live stock ac tivi ties. Live stock con tinue to be kept for ma nure and power in these areas, but food pro duc tion is be com ing more promi nent with increas ing com mer ciali za tion.Mixed live stock and crop farm ing takes on a dif fer ent form in the more in ten si fied pro duc tion sys tems in both de vel oped and de vel op ing countries. Crop and live stock op era tions are in te grated into a local sys tem where waste from each op eration is proc essed and trans ported to be come a cheap input for the other. Re gion wide in te gra tion of livestock and crop op era tions emerges fairly soon in mixed farm ing. Small-scale rural in fra struc ture, such as feeder roads and light mo tor ized or ani mal trans port, fa cili tate this in te gra tion. In more in tensive in dus trial farm ing sys tems, the po ten tial for over load ing fields with nu tri ents from farm ma nure be comes a prob lem.Tra di tional, low-intensity live stock pro duc tion meth ods re main in many re gions of the world. Produc tion lev els in these sys tems are de ter mined by lo cally avail able re sources. In creased de mand pressure can push these sys tems to pro duce be yond their ca pac ity. This can bring them into con flict with the en vi ron ment, ne ces si tat ing changes in tra di tional prac tices to re duce dam age.Live stock graze on about 26 per cent of the world's land area. Graz ing sys tems in de vel op ing regions mainly rely on na tive grass land and are only par tially mixed with crops. These sys tems usu ally do not in volve in puts from out side the sys tem. Overgraz ing can cause soil com pac tion and ero sion, and can de crease soil fer til ity, or ganic mat ter con tent, and water in fil tra tion and stor age. Over graz ing in hilly en vi ron ments can ac cel er ate ero sion.The United Na tions En vi ron ment Programme (UNEP) es ti mates that since 1945 about 680 mil lion hec tares, or 20 per cent of the world's graz ing lands, have been sig nifi cantly de graded (Olde man, Hak keling, and Som broek 1991). Recent evi dence sug gests, how ever, that graz ing sys tems are more re sil ient than once thought, even in the worst cases, where drought has extended des ert mar gins. Sat el lite im agery shows re cent vege ta tion grow ing in the West Af ri can Sahel at the same north ern lim its where it once grew be fore the big droughts of the 1970s and 1980s (Tucker, Dregne, and New comb 1991).Arid graz ing sys tems have extremely lim ited poten tial for increas ing pro duc tiv ity and great poten tial for suf fer ing last ing dam age. Pro duc tion in these areas has adapted con tinu ously to highly vari able rain fall and feed avail abil ity (Behnke, Scoones, and Ker ven 1993). Where irri ga tion or crop pro duc tion have inter fered with live stock resources and move ment pat terns, ecol ogi cally sound sys tems often have been dis rupted. Popu lations have become sed en tary around water points in many cases. The result ing over graz ing and land deg ra da tion have threat ened the live li hood of pastoral com mu ni ties.Flexi bil ity and mo bil ity are es sen tial for achiev ing sus tain able range land use in arid areas. Un for tu nately, both were se ri ously im paired in the past by poli cies that set tled pas tor al ists and attempted to regu late stock ing rates from above rather than in con sul ta tion with stock rais ers. Wellintentioned changes often dis rupt tra di tional systems and some times make them un sus tain able. For ex am ple, new water points in duce set tle ment of large ani mal and human popu la tions in dry areas. They also make pos si ble year-round graz ing in stead of al low ing stock ing lev els to fluc tu ate so that they are low dur ing the dry sea son. The re sult ing overload of ani mals on the range se verely de grades graz ing re sources around the new source of water.Semi arid zones can sus tain more in ten sive ag ricul ture than arid zones, mak ing pos si ble greater human and live stock popu la tions. Crop en croachment on pas tures, de for es ta tion through fu el wood col lec tion, and over graz ing of re main ing pas tures can then ensue. Crop en croach ment on mar ginal land not only ex poses the soil di rectly to the ero sive ef fects of winds and heavy rains, but it ham pers the flexi bil ity of ani mal move ment by oblit er at ing passages be tween wet-and dry-season graz ing areas. Drought emer gency pro grams that hand out sub sidized con cen trate feed fur ther con trib ute to range deg ra da tion by ena bling too many ani mals to be main tained on the range and pre vent ing natu ral regen era tion of the range vege ta tion after drought. These feed sub si dies in creas ingly have be come an en ti tle ment for pas tor al ists, es pe cially in North Africa and the Mid dle East.Human popu la tion pres sure is a key con tribu tor to en vi ron mental deg ra da tion in many areas where live stock are kept. When in sti tu tional fail ure al lows peo ple to ex tract pri vate goods (live stock pro duction) from pub lic goods (com mon range land) without limit, the deg ra da tion is even greater. The situation is ag gra vated fur ther when stock num bers can be kept high at all times be cause of water de vel op -ment and local crop ping in pre vi ously pas toral areas. These well-intentioned but ecol ogi cally harm ful poli cies often ex plain why deg ra da tion tends to be more se vere in semi arid zones than in arid range lands.Tropi cal rain for ests cover about 720 mil lion hec tares and con tain ap proxi mately 50 per cent of the world's bio di ver sity. More than 200 mil lion hec tares of tropi cal rain for est have been lost since 1950. Con trib ut ing fac tors in clude ranch ing, crop cul ti va tion, and for est ex ploi ta tion. Ranchingassociated de for es ta tion has been linked to the loss of some unique plant and ani mal spe cies in South and Cen tral Amer ica, the world's rich est source of bio di ver sity. In Cen tral Amer ica the area under pasture has in creased from 3.5 mil lion to 9.5 mil lion hec tares since 1950, and cat tle popu la tions have more than dou bled from 4.2 mil lion to 9.6 mil lion head (Kai mo nitz 1995).Clear ing for est and sa vanna to es tab lish pastures in humid areas causes soil nu tri ents to leach out rap idly under high rain fall and high tem peratures. Weeds soon dis place grasses and ar ti fi cial pas tures can only be sus tained for a pe riod of up to 10 years. More than 50 per cent of the pas ture areas in the Ama zon are now un grazed fal low, with a signifi cant por tion being aban doned be cause of deg rada tion. Natu ral re gen era tion of for ests is dif fi cult, es pe cially when the cleared areas are large.Poli cies that make ti tling of land easy and provide fi nan cial in cen tives for large ranches have been the main rea sons for ranch-induced de for es tation (Kai mo nitz 1995). In the late 1960s and 1970s, Bra zil sub si dized ag ri cul tural loans and beef exports, play ing an im por tant role in ranch ex pan sion. These poli cies have now been phased out and invest ment in large ranches by ab sen tee own ers has de clined, and so has the rate of de for es ta tion. In Cen tral Amer ica in the 1980s rain for ests dis appeared at an an nual rate of 430,000 hec tares per year. In 1990-94 that rate was 320,000 hec tares annu ally. The les son of the 1960s and 1970s is that sub si diz ing hori zon tal ex pan sion of live stock produc tion can cause great en vi ron mental dam age and cre ate dis in cen tives for in ten si fi ca tion.In creas ingly evi dent in the Ama zon today are small crop farm ers who switch their cleared-forest fields over to live stock graz ing only after the soil nu tri ents nec es sary to raise crops have been ex -pended (Fami now and Vosti 1998). How these farm ers will sur vive on land that is in creas ingly degraded is un cer tain. No clear al ter na tives exist.In many re gions farm sizes may shrink be cause of popu la tion pres sure, urban en croach ment, and sub di vi sion among heirs. Ex pand ing farm op erations into com mu nal or new land under these con ditions often leads to de for es ta tion or over graz ing. As com mu nal graz ing and new land be come in creasingly scarce, whole farm ing sys tems may lose their live stock com po nent. First to go are large stock such as cat tle, jeop ard iz ing the nu tri ent bal ance in farms along with farm ers' live li hoods. Re ported nu tri ent defi cits range from about 15 kilo grams of ni tro gen per hec tare per year in Mali, to more than 100 kilo grams of ni tro gen per hec tare per year in the high lands of Ethio pia (de Wit, Wes tra, and Nell 1996).In vir tu ally all tropi cal high land areas (for exam ple, the Hi ma la yan hills, Af ri can high lands, Andean coun tries, and Java) rela tively high human popu la tion den si ties are tra di tion ally sus tained by com plex mixed farm ing sys tems. Fur ther popu lation growth in many of these re gions has made it im pos si ble for the tra di tional mixed sys tems to survive. Modi fied mixed small holder farm ing is pos sible when mar ket de vel op ment per mits in vest ment in in ten sive tech nolo gies and in puts.As live stock pro duc tion in ten si fies, pro duc ers adopt tech nolo gies that mini mize overt di rect costs as so ci ated with land and labor and take maxi mum ad van tage of free ac cess to en vi ron mental pub lic goods and capi tal sub si dies. These highly in ten sive in dus trial pro duc tion meth ods are the rule in de veloped coun tries and grow ing rap idly in im por tance in the de vel op ing world.Es ca lat ing de mand for ani mal prod ucts leads to ani mal con cen tra tions that are out of bal ance with the waste ab sorp tion and feed sup ply ca pac ity of avail able land. High con cen tra tions of ani mals close to human ag glom era tions often cause enormous pol lu tion prob lems. Large areas of West ern Europe (Neth er lands, north west ern Ger many, Brit -tany [France], the Ital ian Po val ley), the north eastern United States, and, in creas ingly, coastal Southeast Asia and large plain areas in China now show enor mous nu tri ent sur pluses that range from 200 to more than 1,000 kilo grams of ni tro gen per hec tare per year (Ste in feld, de Haan, and Black burn 1997).Glob ally pig and poul try in dus tries pro duce 6.9 mil lion tons of ni tro gen per year, equiva lent to 7 per cent of total in or ganic ni tro gen fer til izer produced in the world. Ex cess ni tro gen and phos pho rus leach or run off the land, af fect ing ground wa ter qual ity and dam ag ing aquatic and wet land eco systems. Tests in Penn syl va nia have shown that about 40 per cent of the soil sam ples from mixed dairy and crop farms ex hib ited ex ces sive phos pho rus and potas sium lev els. Sur plus nu tri ents from satu rated soils leach into sur face water and pol lute the en viron ment (Nar rod, Reyn nells, and Wells 1994). A simi lar sce nario is un fold ing in Brit tany, where one in eight dis tricts had soils with ni trate lev els of more than 40 mil li grams per liter in the 1980s. Now all eight dis tricts re port such ni trate lev els, which can cause ex ten sive dam age to the re gion's aquatic sys tems (Brand jes et al. 1995).Ex cess con cen tra tions of live stock and livestock waste also pro duce gases. Some, such as ammo nia, re main local. Oth ers, such as car bon di ox ide (CO 2 ), meth ane (CH 4 ), and ni trous oxide (N 2 O) affect the world's at mos phere by trap ping the sun's en ergy and con trib ut ing to global warm ing.There are three main sources of livestockrelated car bon di ox ide emis sions. First, do mes ticated ani mals emit car bon di ox ide as part of basic meta bolic func tion ing or res pi ra tion, at an es timated level of 2.8 bil lion met ric tons an nu ally. Second, car bon di ox ide emis sions re sult from bio mass burn ing, part of which can be at trib uted to land clear ing and bush fires on pas ture used to en hance pas ture growth. Third, car bon di ox ide is re leased when fos sil fuels are con sumed for livestockrelated manu fac tur ing and trans por ta tion.Live stock and ma nure man age ment con trib ute about 16 per cent of the global an nual pro duc tion of 550 mil lion tons of meth ane. Ru mi nants mainly pro duce the meth ane as a by-product of di gest ing large amounts of grasses and other fi brous feeds. Pigs and poul try emit rela tively low amounts of meth ane be cause they can not di gest these fi brous feeds. Meth ane emis sions per unit of prod uct are high est when feed qual ity is low, which is com mon, es pe cially in the low land trop ics and sub trop ics of de vel op ing coun tries.Twenty per cent of meth ane ema nat ing from ani mal pro duc tion comes from ma nure stored under an aero bic con di tions, such as in hold ing ponds (USEPA 1995). The high lev els of meth ane emanat ing from an aero bic con di tions are usu ally as soci ated with high lev els of pro duc tiv ity and in ten sity and large pro duc tion units.Ani mal ma nure also pro duces ni trous oxide, the most dam ag ing green house gas (320 times more so than car bon di ox ide). Ani mal waste con trib utes about 0.4 mil lion tons of ni tro gen per year, or 7 percent of the total global emis sions (Bouwman, Batjes, and Bridges 1992).The feed re quire ments of ex pand ing meat and milk pro duc tion ex ceed what can be sus tained by tra di tional feed re sources such as graz ing land and crop by-products. In creas ingly the world live stock sec tor re sorts to ex ter nal in puts, no ta bly highenergy feed such as ce re als and oil cakes. Rough age is de creas ing in im por tance as feed and being replaced by ce real and agro-industrial by-products. A cor re spond ing shift to ward pro duc ing monogas tric ani mals, mainly poul try and pigs, is tak ing place. While ru mi nant meat ac counted for 54 per cent of total meat pro duc tion in the de vel op ing coun tries in 1970 (FAO 1995a), it ac counted for 35 per cent in the early 1990s. This spe cies shift is driven in part by the bet ter con ver sion rates for con cen trate feeds of fered by monogas tric ani mals.Feed crops dif fer in their pes ti cide needs and pro pen sity to de plete soil mois ture, water, and nutri ents. In gen eral, ce real crops (maize in par ticu lar) have the po ten tial to cause greater en vi ron mental dam age than other crops. Ce re als re quire heavy fertil izer and pes ti cide use and a great deal of water and offer poor ground cover in the early stages of plant de vel op ment. Leg umes, such as soy beans and pulses, gen er ally have the least po ten tial for damage. Maize and wheat de plete ni trates and phosphates the most, while cas sava and sweet po ta toes de plete the most soil nu tri ents.In dus trial live stock pro duc tion is rap idly spring ing up close to urban cen ters in de vel op ing coun tries, be cause of weak in fra struc ture, high trans port costs, and weak regu la tion. Like many cit ies in East and South ern Af rica, Dar-es-Salaam, the capi tal of Tanza nia, now has 20,000 dairy cows kept within the city lim its. Urban pig ger ies are in creas ingly common in Asia, es pe cially coastal China. Large-scale poul try op era tions are found in pe ri ur ban areas through out the de vel op ing world.In dus trial and in ten sive mixed farm ing sys tems pres ent the most se vere en vi ron mental chal lenge in the live stock sec tor. These sys tems have often bene fited from pol icy dis tor tions and the ab sence of regu la tions or their lack of en force ment. The regula tory vac uum has often given this type of pro duction a com peti tive edge over land-based sys tems. Fur ther more, some poli cies have mis di rected resource use and en cour aged the de vel op ment of tech nolo gies that are in ef fi cient out side the distorted con text. Many de vel op ing coun tries not only pro vide di rect sub si dies for feed but also for en ergy and capi tal, which con sti tute some of the major direct costs of in dus trial pro duc tion. Econo my wide poli cies that offer sub si dies for en ergy and credit often end up fa vor ing in dus trial pro duc tion over less-intensive mixed farm ing and graz ing.Tech nol ogy can offer so lu tions to many en viron mental prob lems, es pe cially under in dus trial con di tions. But most pol icy frame works en able the cheap sup ply of ani mal prod ucts at the ex pense of the en vi ron ment. Self-sufficiency in ani mal prod -ucts and con tinu ous sup ply of high-value food commodi ties to urban popu la tions are often the over riding pol icy ob jec tives, par ticu larly in de vel op ing coun tries.In the de vel oped world the pol lu tion of land, water, and air has raised acute aware ness of the envi ron mental prob lems as so ci ated with in dus trial live stock pro duc tion. In many cases this has triggered the es tab lish ment of poli cies and regu la tory meas ures that ad dress these prob lems. De vel op ing coun tries, on the other hand, typi cally ex hibit an absence of ap pro pri ate and en force able regu la tions, to gether with a surge in de mand and a lack of ef fective po liti cal ex pres sion of con cern about grow ing en vi ron mental and health haz ards.Con cerns about the long-term pro duc tiv ity of natu ral re sources, in clud ing land, water, air, and bio di ver sity, will not be re flected in mar ket prices un less gov ern ments and in ter na tional or gani za tions de fine and es tab lish mecha nisms to re flect the present and fu ture value of natu ral re sources. In sti tutions that pro vide regu la tory frame works need to be de vel oped, local groups need to be em pow ered, and a legal author ity that im ple ments en vi ron mental poli cies needs to be es tab lished or re in forced. Prices should be ad justed through taxa tion to cor rect for uncharged en vi ron mental costs and en cour age ef fi cient re source use. Ap pro pri ate tech no logi cal change, the key to solv ing en vi ron mental prob lems, must be facili tated by gov ern ment sup port.Live stock pro duc tion is a source of risk to human health in both low-and high-in ten sity pro duc tion sys tems. Risks exist not only from the un con trolled en demic dis eases found in de vel op ing re gions, but also from those that ap pear in highly de vel oped produc tion sys tems when ani mal con cen tra tions are high, feeds con tain con tami nants, or meat and milk are im prop erly han dled. Hu mans are ex posed to these risks through sev eral path ways. Zoono tic diseases, those shared by hu mans and ani mals, can mu tate and spread in ani mal hosts be fore pass ing to hu mans. Ani mal wastes can carry dis ease or chemical tox ins into the en vi ron ment. And milk and meat can ex pose hu mans to dis ease and tox ins con tained in the ani mals or pro duced by im proper han dling and proc ess ing.Al though great prog ress has been made in control ling en demic dis eases of ani mals, in ten si fi cation of both tra di tional and mod ern live stock produc tion sys tems has brought about new risks. High con cen tra tions of ani mals, often mov ing be tween lo ca tions for dif fer ent stages of pro duc tion, can become breed ing grounds for dis ease. Prox im ity of these fa cili ties to high human popu la tions can magnify the po ten tial dam age of an out break.Live stock pose a par ticu lar risk in de vel op ing re gions, where ani mal con cen tra tions are often located near and around cit ies be cause of lim ited trans por ta tion fa cili ties and in fra struc ture. The risks are com pounded by in ade quate or non ex ist ent health in fra struc ture, regu la tions, moni tor ing, or en force ment. Zoono tic dis eases such as tu ber cu losis and brucel lo sis, which are nearly or en tirely controlled in de vel oped re gions, con tinue to pose major prob lems in these re gions.Health risks in de vel op ing coun tries are still often moni tored only at the house hold level. As live stock pro duc tion lev els rise, the abil ity of people to gauge the qual ity of the ani mal food prod ucts they pur chase in mar ket places be comes in creas -ingly dif fi cult. The clas sic worry in de vel op ing coun tries is the mi cro bial con tami na tion of food. Ba cilli or bac te ria such as Sal mo nella , Escheri chia coli, Clos trid ium botulinum, and Staphy lo coc cus are the most fre quently ob served causes of foodborne dis eases. They are usu ally re lated to im proper food prepa ra tion or in ade quate re frig era tion.The World Health Or gani za tion (WHO) reports that hun dreds of mil lions of peo ple worldwide suf fer from dis eases caused by con taminated food and that prod ucts of ani mal ori gin rank at the top of the list of causes (WHO 1997). More than 3 mil lion chil dren under five years of age die each year be cause of di ar rhea. Con taminated water and food-borne patho gens cause much of this di ar rhea. Sal mo nella in fec tions are also on the rise and threaten to be come major pub lic health con cerns, es pe cially in big Asian cit ies where large bird flocks are kept for food and fecal con tami na tion is hard to con trol.Risks from the in tense in dus tri ali za tion of livestock pro duc tion are also ap pear ing in de vel oped coun tries. Move ments of ani mals for birth ing, wean ing, and fat ten ing have ag gra vated health risks be cause ani mals from dif fer ent lo ca tions are exposed to each other and to hu mans. Risks of transmis sion are fur ther in creased by greater in ter national trade of live stock and live stock prod ucts.In ten sive live stock pro duc tion units can also breed new and more viru lent strains of zoono tic diseases. An ti bi ot ics used in in ten sive ani mal pro duction of poul try have led to the emer gence of Sal monella, Lis teria, and E. coli re sis tant to an ti bi ot ics. There is in creas ing con cern about new strains of influ enza de vel op ing in pigs and chick ens that could be trans mit ted to hu mans, such as the avian flu strain that forced eradi ca tion of chick ens in Hong Kong in 1997. Some re search ers go so far as to say that the next le thal flu pan demic might emerge from Eu ro pe's crowded pig barns (MacK en zie 1998).De spite long-established food qual ity as sur ance sys tems in de vel oped coun tries, new food con tamina tion risks have emerged. Ac cord ing to WHO, seven food-borne patho gens (Cam py lo bac ter je juni, Clos trid ium per frin gens, E. coli O157:H7, Lis teria mono cy to genes, Sal mo nella, Staphy lo coc cus aureus, and Toxo plasma gon dii) are re spon si ble for an es ti mated 3.3 to 12.3 mil lion in fec tions and 3,900 deaths an nu ally in the United States (WHO 1997). Fur ther more, global sur veys by WHO in di cate that food-borne dis eases may occur 300-350 times more fre quently than re ported.Sal mo nel lae are blamed for more than 50,000 cases of bac te rial food poi son ing in the United States every year (WHO 1997). Trans mis sion of this mi crobe usu ally oc curs through in suf fi ciently cooked meats and eggs. Chick ens are a major res ervoir of sal mo nella. In gest ing foods con tami nated with sig nifi cant amounts of sal mo nella can cause in tes ti nal in fec tion.The in creased size of pro duc tion units and frequency of con tact be tween ani mals greatly increases the over all im pact of out breaks of ill ness. Six mil lion pigs were de stroyed in Hol land to eradicate clas si cal swine fever in 1997. As this re port was being writ ten, Ma lay sians were in the pro cess of de stroy ing a mil lion pigs in their larg est pork pro duc ing re gion to stem an out break of a new form of viral en cepha li tis that has killed more than 100 peo ple in six months (Wash ing ton Post 1999; ProMed 1999).Use of new feed re sources has also brought new risks. In suf fi cient tem pera tures used in ren der ing ani mal tis sue into feed has been clearly linked to the ap pear ance of BSE (bo vine spongi forme en cephalo pa thy), or mad-cow dis ease, in cat tle. The in fectious pri ons in volved are simi lar to those that cause CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob dis ease). More than 20 human vic tims in the United King dom are thought to have con tracted the dis ease through in ges tion of ani mal nerve tis sue.In fec tion with Escheri chia coli O157:H7 (E. coli) was first de scribed in 1982. E. coli has emerged rap idly as a major cause of di ar rhea and acute renal fail ure. The in fec tion is some times fatal, par ticu larly in chil dren. Out breaks, gen er ally as soci ated with beef, have been re ported in Aus tra lia, Can ada, Japan, the United States, vari ous Euro pean coun tries, and south ern Af rica (WHO 1997).Beef that was con tami nated in the slaugh terhouse is the prin ci pal cause of E. coli in fec tion in hu mans. Bac te ria are trans mit ted when in fected meat is con sumed raw or un der cooked. Ground meats, such as ham burg ers, are par ticu larly as so ciated with in fec tions be cause the in fected ma te rial is mixed through out the prod uct dur ing the grind ing pro cess.Hy gi enic slaugh ter ing prac tices will re duce con tami na tion of car casses but will not guar an tee the ab sence of mi cro bial con tami na tion from products. Simi larly, the con tami na tion of raw milk on the farm can not be com pletely pre vented. The only ef fec tive method of elimi nat ing dan ger ous microbes is to heat (thor oughly cook or pas teur ize) or ir ra di ate food.Lis teria mono cy to genes (Lm ) has been rec ognized as a risk only re cently. It in fects cheese and meat that has been re frig er ated for a long time. Listeria mono cy to genes in fec tions can cause mis carriage in women and sep ti ce mia (blood poi son ing) and men in gi tis in in fants and per sons with weakened im mune sys tems.Non mi cro bial con tami na tion of food also poses a risk. Food-borne chemi cal tox ins in creas ingly preva lent in rap idly de vel op ing coun tries in clude pes ti cide resi dues (often con tain ing mer cury or arse nic), met als (zinc, cad mium, and cop per), and heavy met als (es pe cially mer cury from pigs eat ing fungicide-treated corn).Live stock feed ing is partly to blame as well for the ac cu mu la tion of toxic lev els of heavy met als in the en vi ron ment. Trace ele ments are often added to ani mal feeds to sup ply mi cro nu tri ents and en hance feed con ver sion ef fi ciency. Cop per and zinc are delib er ately added to a va ri ety of ani mal feed con centrates, while heavy met als like cad mium are in troduced in vol un tar ily via feed phos phates. Dur ing di ges tion the ele ments are con cen trated, re sult ing in ma nure and slur ries that can con tain high lev els of the toxic ele ments. Soils on which pig and poul try ma nure are regu larly ap plied at high rates can ac cumu late large amounts of heavy met als, which can in turn con tami nate crops and pose a health risk to humans. High con cen tra tions of toxic ele ments can also ac cu mu late in the meat of ani mals fed feeds with trace met als.Resi dues of growth hor mones, an ti bi ot ics, and in sec ti cides are in creas ingly found in the tis sues of ani mals raised in in dus trial pro duc tion sys tems. The pres ence of an ti bi ot ics in ani mal food prod ucts can cause al ler gies. Over doses of an ti bi ot ics are often used il le gally in feed to pro mote growth where en force ment sys tems are weak. Con sid er able de bate (and trade dis pute) also ex ists about the safety of growth hor mones such as BST (bo vine soma to tropin). The il le gal use and mis use of growth pro mot ers such as DES (diethyl-stilbetrol) and clen buterol can also cre ate prob lems.Tra di tion ally the health risks from live stock and live stock prod ucts have been borne by consum ers and farm ers. With in ten si fi ca tion has come rec og ni tion that many risks can not be controlled at the house hold and farm lev els alone. Con sum ers can not ade quately judge the safety of food that was pro duced and proc essed far from the house hold. Farm ers act ing in di vidu ally cannot fully pro tect their ani mals from dis eases that spread from farm to farm. In many cases in sti tutions are re quired to de velop, moni tor, and enforce qual ity stan dards across the mar ket ing chain. Un for tu nately, gov ern ment serv ices are being cur tailed in this area in many poor countries as the size of the over all pub lic sec tor is being re duced.In creases in the pro duc tiv ity of ani mal food pro duction come from the de vel op ment and trans fer of animal pro duc tion tech nolo gies, par ticu larly for ani mal health; im proved feed and feed use; ge netic enhance ment; and bet ter post har vest han dling. Livestock tech nol ogy pol icy faces two chal lenges in its ef forts to raise pro duc tiv ity. First, ap pro pri ate ex isting and new tech nolo gies and pro duc tion sys tems have to be adapted and dis semi nated to the de vel oping world to elimi nate low pro duc tiv ity. Sec ond, the lim its of live stock pro duc tion tech nol ogy and systems have to be ex tended to in crease ef fi ciency further and the en vi ron mental and pub lic health problems that have ap peared in high-intensity live stock pro duc tion have to be solved. This chap ter sur veys the tech nolo gies and poli cies avail able or in de vel opment to meet these chal lenges.In fec tious and para sitic dis eases af fect ing live stock re main im por tant con straints to prof it able live stock op era tions in many de vel op ing re gions. Dis eases re duce in comes di rectly by caus ing con sid er able live stock losses and in di rectly by ne ces si tat ing health re stric tions on ex ports. In some areas (includ ing the former so cial ist coun tries) the prob lem is wors en ing be cause of weak vet eri nary and admin is tra tive serv ices, the ab sence of ac count able local gov ern ment, and civil strife.In fec tious dis eases such as rinderpest, foot and mouth dis ease (FMD), con ta gious bo vine pleu ropneu monia (CBPP), and peste des pe tits ru mi nants (PPR) still pose major threats to live stock pro duction in de vel op ing coun tries. These epi zo otic diseases, so-called be cause they often mani fest themselves as epi dem ics af fect ing large num bers of ani mals of the same spe cies in a given area, are most preva lent in pro duc tion sys tems in which animals move un con trolled and un moni tored over large dis tances. Vac ci na tion and sur veil lance programs are needed to keep these dis eases in check. The global eradi ca tion of rinderpest by 2010, for ex am ple, re mains an achiev able and im por tant goal for de vel op ing coun tries.Live stock dis ease con trol has un der gone a para digm shift in re cent years. More flexi ble control strate gies that focus on re gions of high est returns within a coun try are re plac ing coun try wide eradi ca tion pro grams. Risk analy sis and ani mal health eco nom ics help de ter mine where dis ease con trol in vest ment will have its great est bene fit. The ac cep tance of disease-free or low-risk status for re gions (rather than for en tire coun tries) in in terna tional agree ments such as the sani tary and phy tosani tary (SPS) agree ment of the World Trade Organi za tion (WTO) il lus trates this trend. The treaty makes pos si ble ex port of meat and other live stock prod ucts from a coun try where a dis ease such as FMD ex ists, as long as the dis ease is ei ther not present in the re gion where the meat is pro duced or the risk of trans mis sion through mul ti ple con trols is extremely low.Bio tech nol ogy of fers prom ise for the improved di ag no sis and treat ment of ani mal disease. Even as the in ci dence of zoono tic dis eases rises be cause of in creased con cen tra tions of animals near peo ple, live stock health re search benefits from the greater re sources avail able to human health re search (Fitz hugh 1998). For ex am ple, ge nom ics is a new sci ence ap pli ca ble to hu mans and live stock that per mits se quenc ing and mapping of the ge nome (a ge netic map of a liv ing organ ism). Ge nom ics takes ad van tage of the work on the ge nomes of dis ease or gan isms and per mits the de vel op ment of new gen era tions of vac cines, in clud ing those that use re com bi nant an ti gens to patho logi cal agents. Live stock dis ease or gan isms can also pro vide use ful mod els for study ing human health (Ole Moi-Yoi 1995).Af ri can swine fever is a major con straint to expand ing pork pro duc tion in Af rica. In a se ries of recent out breaks, pig num bers have been re duced by be tween 30 and 70 per cent in a wide range of coastal Af ri can coun tries. Move ment and sani tary con trol can limit fu ture out breaks but re quire more ef fec tive vet eri nary in sti tu tions.Farm ers in de vel op ing re gions typi cally lack low-cost, easy-to-use di ag nos tics, vac cines, and con trol strate gies for dis ease or gan isms and vectors. Among the para sitic dis eases, try pano somia sis (sleep ing sick ness) trans mit ted by tsetse flies, poses an enor mous con straint to cat tle pro duc tion in most of the humid and sub hu mid zones of Af rica.Com bi na tions of aer ial in sec ti cide sprays, adhe sive py re the roid in sec ti cides, im preg nated screens and traps, ster ile in sect mat ing, and trypano cide drugs hold the prom ise of gradu ally recov er ing in fested areas for mixed farm ing and increased live stock out put. These strate gies also are likely to im prove crop out put.Other im por tant para sitic dis ease groups include hel minthia sis and tick-borne dis eases. Helminths are rarely fatal, but they limit pro duc tiv ity in many pro duc tion sys tems. They be come a lim it ing fac tor in the in ten si fi ca tion stage but can be controlled. Ticks have the ca pac ity to trans mit dis eases, no ta bly east coast fever in East ern and South ern Afri can coun tries. An ef fec tive vac cine for this disease may soon be avail able, with a po ten tially large im pact on ru mi nant pro duc tiv ity in these coun tries (ILRI 1998).A large number of the world's live stock, par ticularly ru mi nants in pas toral and low-input mixedfarming sys tems, suf fer ei ther per ma nent or seasonal nu tri tional stress. In many re gions these pressures have been al le vi ated through bet ter stor age of lo cally avail able re sources. Stor age and con ser vation of for age, use of high-protein le gu mi nous fodders and fod der trees in ra tions, treat ment of crop resi dues, and ad di tion of min eral nu tri ents to feed all offer ways to im prove for age in some areas.The po ten tial to gen er ate lo cally avail able fodder and ce real feed re sources is great. But gov ernments may need to cre ate the sci en tific and transpor ta tion in fra struc ture nec es sary to reap the bene fits of world feed re sources and new feed technolo gies as they be come avail able. The pro jec tions in Chap ter 4 in di cate that the nec es sary sup plies of feed con cen trates will be avail able on world markets with out undue price rises. These pro jec tions de pend on main tain ing trends in tech no logi cal prog ress that raise yields of major feed grains such as maize.But even if ag gre gate quan ti ties are avail able, en sur ing that hun dreds of mil lions of small pro ducers have ac cess to feed mar kets under developingcountry con di tions will be no small chal lenge. China's port and grain-importation in fra struc ture in dicates the kinds of prob lems re quir ing rem edy. In 1995 China im ported an ad di tional 15 mil lion metric tons of grain, put ting con sid er able stress on handling and dis tri bu tion fa cili ties (Pinstrup-Andersen, Pandya-Lorch, and Rosegrant 1997). Sig nifi cant bot tle necks oc curred. Yet the base line pro jec tion for 2020 in di cates that China will im port 45 mil lion met ric tons more ce re als than in 1993 (Table 24).Both de vel oped and de vel op ing re gions must con tinue to use ra tions more ef fi ciently. The require ments and the qual ity and quan tity of feed resources used for ra tions dif fer across spe cies, breeds, sys tems, and re gions. Re search to re duce costs and im prove ef fi ciency will have to be highly tar geted, but even so it will have spil lo ver ef fects. Re search that de fines chemi cal com po si tion and digesti bil ity char ac ter is tics will con trib ute to cropbreeding strate gies, par ticu larly the need to change the phy to chem is try of pri mary crop prod ucts and resi dues fed to live stock (Fitz hugh 1998).New tech nolo gies that en hance the quan tity and qual ity of avail able tropi cal feed re sources are being as sessed through nu tri tion re search. The iden ti fi ca tion of suit able traits and their mo lecu lar mark ers help im prove the qual ity of tropi cal feeds de rived from food crops. Breed ers use the mark ers to de velop dual-purpose crops with im proved grain yields and pro tein con tent for hu mans and non ru minants and higher-quality crop resi dues for ru minants.Plant ge nom ics and phy to chem is try will tackle an tinu tri tional fac tors (ANFs) in plants. Some of these ANFs can be poi son ous to ru mi nants. Mi crobio logi cal tech niques will help en rich ru mi nant eco sys tems with mi crobes that can bet ter de tox ify ANFs. Maize with re duced phytic acid con tent has re cently been re ported to im prove feed con ver sion for chicks by up to 11 per cent (CAST forth com ing).The abil ity to in crease starch con tent in feedgrains al ready evi dent in the de vel oped world may be come more at trac tive to de vel op ing coun tries by 2020. But these tech nolo gies for maize and sorghum are un likely to ex tend feed ing value per unit by more than 15 per cent, even in de vel oped countries. Pul ver iz ing grain with steam be fore feed ing proba bly will offer a more fea si ble and eco nomi cal means for im prov ing con ver sion ef fi ciency (CAST forth com ing).In de vel oped coun tries, and in creas ingly also in in ten sive pro duc tion sys tems in de vel op ing coun tries, a wide range of pro bi otic and an ti biotic feed ad di tives are part of the ra tion fed to live stock. Mi cro bial ac tion can help break down oth er wise hard-to-digest rough age so that nu trients are bet ter ab sorbed.Find ing bet ter ways to use the vast abun dance of fi brous bio mass avail able in the world of fers a par ticu larly ex cit ing area of re search. Rumen micro bi ol ogy re search fo cuses on the iso la tion of fiber-degrading en zymes. Bet ter use of fi brous feed ma te ri als will in crease the avail abil ity of feed resources in edi ble to hu mans. Chang ing the ca pac ity of the rumen to di gest high-fiber fod ders would dramati cally im prove the pros pects of ru mi nant produc tion in the sub hu mid sa van nas of Af rica and Latin Amer ica, where ex tremely large quan ti ties of bio mass of low feed qual ity are pro duced. In sert ing en hanced cellulase-producing ca pac ity into rumen bac te ria should be pos si ble in the not too dis tant future (de Haan, Ste in feld, and Black burn 1997; Cunning ham 1997). Mi cro bial ge nom ics will in crease the pace of prog ress in this area of re search (Wallace and Lahlou-Kasi 1995;Ode nyo, Osuji, and Negassa 1999).With the great ad vances tak ing place in ge netics, more prog ress should also be made in the feed con ver sion of monogas trics. Dur ing the past dec ade feed con ver sion rates for pigs and poul try have improved by 30-50 per cent, in part through breed ing and in part through ad di tion of en zymes to feeds. Still, monogas trics cap ture only 25 to 35 per cent of the nu tri ents in their feed. Ge netic im prove ment and bet ter bal anc ing of feed will en able this trend to con tinue. Pre ci sion in ani mal feed ing is fore see able in de vel oped coun tries. Nu tri ents ex creted by animals will be greatly re duced, so that nu tri ents needed and sup plied will be fairly equal (CAST forth com ing).Fi nally, using growth hor mones, such as bo vine so ma to tropin (BST), with high-energy feeds has the po ten tial to in crease milk yields. But the tech nol ogy is likely to bene fit farms in de vel oped coun tries more than those in de vel op ing coun tries. Es ti mated yield re sponses for BST vary widely, fa vor ing farms with feeds, breeds, and man age ment practices that are al ready ex tremely pro duc tive (Jar vis 1996).The harsh con di tions in de vel op ing coun tries are un likely to pro vide the en vi ron ment nec es sary for large-scale bene fits from BST. This will change in the long run, how ever, once live stock pro duc tivity in de vel op ing re gions has bene fited from other, less so phis ti cated tech nolo gies (Jar vis 1996).Ar ti fi cial in semi na tion has been used for more than 50 years in de vel oped coun tries, pri mar ily on commer cial dairy herds. An es tab lished tech nol ogy, its fur ther spread is likely to occur pri mar ily through mar ket pro cesses. In the early 1990s, no more than 17 per cent of the 50 mil lion first in semi na tions given an nu ally took place in de vel op ing coun tries. But usage is ad vanc ing rap idly in Asia, es pe cially India, where grow ing milk de mand has made it economi cal (Chu pin and Thi bier 1995; Chu pin and Schuh 1993). Ar ti fi cial in semi na tion has con sid erably spurred ge netic up grad ing as large-scale test ing of the prog eny of bulls and the sub se quent use of valu able breed ers has be come pos si ble. Widespread adop tion of ar ti fi cial in semi na tion is likely to occur in the more fa vored pro duc tion en vi ronments of de vel op ing coun tries, such as tem per ate high lands and peri-urban com mer cial pro duc tion areas. The de mand for milk will pro vide re turns for its in tro duc tion and the nec es sary tech nol ogy and in fra struc ture are be com ing avail able.The use of em bryo trans fer, al low ing cows of high ge netic po ten tial to pro duce a much larger number of calves than with nor mal re pro duc tion, is cur rently lim ited to only a small part of the commer cial herds in some de vel oped coun tries. This form of re pro duc tion proba bly will not be come wide spread in the de vel op ing coun tries within the next 20 years (Cun ning ham 1997).Cross ing of local breeds in de vel op ing coun tries with highly pro duc tive va rie ties from the de vel oped coun tries has be come com mon place for dairy cat tle in the trop ics. Con sid er able gains in pro duc tiv ity per ani mal (25 per cent) have been ob tained. Those gains can be main tained with ju di cious in ter breed ing or rota tional breed ing. How ever, the gains are typi cally lost in sub se quent gen era tions (Cun ning ham 1997). Other authors re port gains of up to 50 per cent, but stress the one-shot na ture of the trans fer and the restricted number of breeds that can be drawn upon (CAST forth com ing). Se lec tion from local breeds, es pe cially for mut ton and goat meat, may hold consid era bly more prom ise.The char ac teri za tion, con ser va tion, and use of tropi cal ani mal breeds are vital to the abil ity to respond to in evi ta bly chang ing pro duc tion en vi ronments. Adapted live stock are more re sis tant to disease and en vi ron mental chal lenges. They can main tain pro duc tiv ity with out the need for highvalue in puts, in crease farm in come, and con trib ute to pov erty al le via tion (Rege 1997;Ham mond and Leitch 1995).Ad vances in ge net ics also offer new means to im prove live stock. Marker-assisted se lec tion and de tec tion of quan ti ta tive trait loci, for ex am ple, com bine re sults from mo lecu lar and quan ti ta tive ge netic re search. In ter ac tions be tween ge netic traits and the en vi ron ment need to be ad dressed in order to em ploy ad ap ta tion traits, such as ge netic re sistance to para sites, as pro duc tion traits. As with disease re sis tance, in sights from human ge net ics research can be brought to bear on the ge netic im prove ment of live stock (Fitz hugh 1998).It be came pos si ble dur ing the past dec ade to pro duce maps of ge netic link ages in order to iden tify the gene lo ca tions of eco nomi cally impor tant traits (dis ease re sis tance, per form ance). This tech nol ogy, which is being de vel oped for a large range of traits by a number of re search in stitutes world wide, car ries the prom ise of a short cut to ge netic im prove ment in de vel op ing coun tries. Live stock can be bred for spe cific pro duc tive traits and the abil ity to adapt to harsh cli mates and re sist dis eases.Ge netic re search in de vel oped re gions fo cuses less on pro duc ing the hearty ani mals that are nec essary in stress ful developing-country en vi ron ments and more on mak ing ani mals that pro duce higher qual ity prod ucts at mini mum cost. Un der stand ing the ge netic make-up of ani mals has al lowed particu lar prod uct traits, such as low cho les terol lev els or the abil ity to pro duce high con cen tra tions of a phar ma ceu ti cal, to be added to ani mals. Re cent advances in clon ing of em bryos could po ten tially have a large im pact on live stock pro duc tion, particu larly of dairy cat tle in de vel oped coun tries. But this is still an area where a number of com plex ethical and sci en tific is sues have yet to be re solved (Cun ning ham 1997).In the next 20 years the trans fer of meat and milk proc ess ing tech nol ogy to de vel op ing coun tries by the pri vate sec tor under pub lic regu la tion is likely to be es pe cially im por tant for food pro duc tion. Growth rates for the out put of proc essed prod ucts will proba bly be even higher than the growth rates for meat and milk pro duc tion in de vel op ing countries. An in creas ing share of total food pro duc tion is ex pected to pass through mar ket ing and proc ess ing chan nels.The es tab lish ment of dairy plants and slaughter houses in pro duc ing areas, to gether with mar ket de vel op ment, will play an im por tant role in stimulat ing market-oriented pro duc tion. The in creas ing im por tance of trad ing meat and milk over long distances in tropi cal cli mates will also en cour age technol ogy de vel op ment and trans fer for food commodi ties such as ultra-pasteurized dairy prod ucts and vacuum-packed meat. Food safety is likely to pro vide the major im pe tus for tech nol ogy de vel opment over time. Food safety con cerns will oc casion ally con flict with the ob jec tive of small op erators to re main com peti tive. Cur rent de bates over milk pas teuri za tion in East Af rica bear wit ness to this con flict. East Af ri can con sum ers usu ally boil un pas teur ized fresh milk col lected ear lier in the day be cause pas teuri za tion makes prod ucts much more ex pen sive (Staal, Del gado, and Nichol son 1997).In the de vel oped coun tries risk analy sis is typically used to help evalu ate ex ist ing pro grams for food safety. The trend to ward globali za tion of trade makes this kind of analy sis in creas ingly im por tant. Risk analy sis will have to be widely in tro duced in de vel op ing coun tries over the next two dec ades. It in volves an it era tive pro cess with three sets of elements. First is risk as sess ment, es ti mat ing the probabil ity and po ten tial se ver ity of dam age re sult ing from food haz ards. Sec ond is risk man age ment, the de vel op ment of pol icy for food safety and food safety pro grams. Third is risk com mu ni ca tion, produc tive in ter ac tions be tween poli cy mak ers and stake hold ers.Haz ard Analy sis Criti cal Con trol Points (HACCP) analy sis is pres ently the tool of choice for han dling the risks noted above. It iden ti fies criti cal areas in the food chain that must be moni tored to en sure food safety. Four steps are in volved: as sessment of risks in the food chain, de ter mi na tion of the criti cal con trol points and criti cal lim its for en suring food safety, de vel op ment of moni tor ing systems, and im ple men ta tion of pro ce dures for veri fica tion. Post har vest meth ods that a short time ago seemed fea si ble only in the con text of developedcountry in dus trial proc ess ing are now be com ing com mon place in the shrimp and high-value fish eries ex port sec tor of de vel op ing coun tries. Simi lar pro ce dures for high-value meat and milk prod ucts should fol low suit in the next two dec ades.Live stock are of ten cited as the source of en vi ronmental woes (Chap ter 7). Not all of this nega tive pub lic ity is mer ited, es pe cially un der developingcountry con di tions. Where the prob lem does ex ist, it is of ten a mat ter of fun da men tal eco nomic struc tures and in sti tu tions that must be ad dressed through policy change rather than tech nol ogy per se. En vi ronmen tal deg ra da tion from de for es ta tion and overstock ing on the com mons are cases in point. Yet tech no logi cal de vel op ment can of fer some hope in de vel oped coun tries, and will be in creas ingly use ful in this re gard in de vel op ing coun tries.Live stock are cited as cul prits in global cli mate change be cause they emit green house gases. In devel oped coun tries live stock meth ane emis sions can be re duced through the use of treated feeds and a ration closer to nu tri tional re quire ments. While emissions will con tinue to grow in ab so lute terms in devel op ing coun tries, in ten si fi ca tion of pro duc tion will en hance the di gesti bil ity of feed, re duc ing emis sions per unit of out put.Live stock also af fect the en vi ron ment by compact ing the soil struc ture, which re sults in ac cel erated run-off and soil ero sion. High stock ing rates and un con trolled graz ing cre ate this prob lem, es pecially in the hilly areas of de vel op ing coun tries. In order to man age the bio mass needs of ani mals at vary ing graz ing in ten si ties and main tain a criti cal vege ta tive cover to mini mize soil ero sion, graz ing op tions and pas ture spe cies have to be de fined (Mwen dera and Mo hamed Saleem 1997; Mwendera, Mo hamed Saleem, and Woldu 1997). Graz ing sys tems will re main an im por tant source of ani mal prod ucts for the fore see able fu ture. To some ex tent these sys tems can sus taina bly in ten sify pro duc tion with stronger in sti tu tions, local em pow er ment, and regu la tion of ac cess to re sources.Mixed farm ing sys tems around the world will con tinue to in ten sify and grow in size. Graz ing systems may evolve into mixed farm ing sys tems where there is po ten tial for mixed farm ing, as there is in the semi arid and sub hu mid trop ics. Im por tant pro duc tivity gains can be achieved in mixed farm ing by further en hanc ing nu tri ent and en ergy flows be tween crops and live stock. In mixed sys tems live stock substi tute for natu ral and pur chased in puts, in ad di tion to pro duc ing meat and milk. The en vi ron mental and eco nomic sta bil ity of mixed sys tems make this form of farm ing in de vel op ing coun tries a prime can di date for tech nol ogy trans fer and de vel op ment.Novel con cepts are being devel oped to integrate crop and live stock pro duc tion in a farm ing area rather than on indi vid ual farms. Are awide crop-livestock inte gra tion allows indi vid ual, special ized enter prises to oper ate sepa rately but energy for farm ing and flows of organic and mineral mat ter to be linked by mar kets and regu lations. This pro duces the high est effi cien cies at the enter prise level while maxi miz ing social bene fits. A form of are awide mixed farm ing is already fairly com mon in devel op ing coun tries, where manure is bar tered for feed.In dus trial sys tems usu ally have a com peti tive edge over land-based sys tems. But in areas with high ani mal den si ties, in dus trial sys tems will have to ab sorb in creased pro duc tion costs as a re sult of more strin gent regu la tions and pol lu tion lev ies. In some cases, this will re move the com peti tive edge of in dus trial pro duc tion.Tech nol ogy will play an im por tant role in the proc ess ing of ani mal wastes into use ful prod ucts. Such tech nolo gies, for the pro duc tion of dry-pellet fer til izer from chicken waste, for ex am ple, are becom ing fairly com mon in de vel oped coun tries (CAST 1996). The eco nom ics of waste dis posal in crowded de vel op ing coun tries are likely to evolve in this di rec tion as well, though proba bly not in the next 15 years.A number of im por tant tech no logi cal de vel op ments are tak ing shape, par ticu larly in ge net ics and re produc tion, feed ing, and ani mal health. By 2020 these de vel op ments proba bly will be widely in use. Demand-driven pro duc tion sys tems in de vel op ing coun tries will likely adopt these tech nolo gies fairly rap idly. Most of these sys tems will be in East Asia, pe ri ur ban India, and Latin Amer ica out side the Andean areas. Where de mand is grow ing less quickly-most of South Asia, Sub-Saharan Af rica, and the An dean coun tries-tech nol ogy up take will be slower and im por tant pock ets of tech no logi cal stag na tion will re main. Public-sector re search and ex ten sion for live stock will have a high pay off in the fast-growing areas if they com ple ment privatesector ac tiv ity and fa cili tate ac cess to small farm ers. In the slow-growing areas public-sector re search and ex ten sion will pro vide the main tech no logi cal ve hi cle for ad dress ing these is sues.In demand-driven set tings, adop tion usu ally occurs through mar ket forces, as long as input prices re flect the rela tive scar city of in puts and cre ate the ap pro pri ate in cen tives. In par ticu lar, tech nolo gies for in creased pro duc tion of pork and poul try will be largely trans fer able.Is sues re lat ing to live stock and the en vi ron ment can not be solved with tech ni cal in no va tions alone. A com pre hen sive pol icy frame work is needed to facili tate the adop tion of ef fec tive tech nolo gies. Tech nol ogy re mains the key com po nent be cause fu ture de vel op ment, in clud ing that of the live stock sec tor, will de pend upon land-and water-saving tech nol ogy to sub sti tute for use of natu ral resources. This trend to ward knowledge-intensive sys tems can be widely ob served. Smart tech nologies, sup ported by as tute poli cies, can help to meet fu ture de mand while main tain ing the in teg rity of the natu ral re source base. Bet ter in for ma tion on which to base de ci sion mak ing is, there fore, urgently re quired.New forms of com mer cial and spe cial ized produc tion that are based upon the re source en dowments of a re gion and that main tain nu tri ent balances will have to be es tab lished. In ten sive sys tems need to be in te grated into a wider frame work for land use in order to blend resource-saving tech nologies with the ab sorp tive ca paci ties of the sur rounding land. This is par ticu larly nec es sary for pig and poul try pro duc tion. New or gan iza tional ar rangements will have to be found to allow spe cial ized units to capi tal ize on econo mies of scale. The fu ture is likely to bring a trans for ma tion of family-based mixed farms into spe cial ized and com mer cial en terprises in rural areas.Poli cies will need to pro mote are awide in te gration (as op posed to in di vid ual farm in te gra tion). This kind of pro duc tion or gani za tion is a long-term ob jec tive of en vi ron men tally sus tain able ag ri culture in high-potential zones. In the de vel oped world, ex ces sive ani mal con cen tra tion is being controlled through quan ti ta tive lim its on ani mal numbers and re lo ca tion of ani mal pro duc tion to areas of lower den sity. Regu la tions for in dus trial pro duc tion sys tems in urban and pe ri ur ban en vi ron ments need to en force vir tu ally zero green house gas emis sions and re stric tive li cens ing.To main tain the nu tri ent bal ance in nutrientdeficit mixed farm ing and to en hance croplivestock in te gra tion in de vel op ing coun tries, policies need to pro vide in cen tives and serv ices for tech nol ogy up take. To re duce nu tri ent sur plus in mixed farm ing sys tems, regu la tions to con trol ani -mal den si ties and waste dis charge and in cen tives for waste re duc tion are re quired. Often this im plies that sub si dies on con cen trate feed and in puts used in the pro duc tion of feed need to be re moved.To ad dress en vi ron mental deg ra da tion in the graz ing areas of de vel op ing coun tries, poli cies need to fa cili tate local em pow er ment and cre ate prop ertyrights in stru ments, while al low ing for the flexi bil ity of move ment of pas tor al ists. Land-tenure ar rangements can also help limit the ex pan sion of ranch ing into the rain for est fron tier in Latin Amer ica. Lack of mar ket ac cess also de grades the land and needs to be ad dressed. Other in cen tives may help to re duce graz ing pres sure in the semi arid zones, for ex am ple, the in tro duc tion of full cost re cov ery for water and ani mal health serv ices. Graz ing fees would pro vide in cen tives. Simi larly, taxa tion for pas ture and cropland in rain for est areas can dis cour age for est con version. This needs to be ac com pa nied by regu la tions pro tect ing the most valu able areas in terms of the environment or bio di ver sity.Fi nally, as poli cy mak ers and de vel op ment part ners be come in creas ingly aware of the key pov erty al le via tion role of live stock in de vel oping coun tries, agen cies charged with fa cili tat ing in creased live stock pro duc tiv ity are likely to put pov erty al le via tion con cerns higher on their agenda. This in turn is likely to bind tech nol ogy de vel op ment more tightly with co op era tives and other small-producer in sti tu tions that help small op era tors over come the trans ac tion costs of entry into a major com mer cial ac tiv ity.Truly it is not in ap pro pri ate to use the term \"Livestock Revo lu tion\" to de scribe events in world ag ricul ture in the next 20 years. Like the well-known Green Revo lu tion, the label is a sim ple and con venient ex pres sion that sum ma rizes a com plex se ries of in ter re lated pro cesses and out comes. As in the case of ce re als, the stakes for the poor in de vel op ing coun tries are enor mous. Not un like the Green Revo lu tion, the \"revo lu tion ary\" as pect comes from the par tici pa tion of de vel op ing coun tries on a large scale in trans for ma tions that had pre vi ously occurred mostly in the tem per ate zones of de vel oped coun tries. And like the gradu ally but stead ily ris ing ce real yields in the 1970s and 1980s that typi fied the Green Revo lu tion, the Live stock Revo lu tion started off gradu ally and in creased its rate of growth. But the simi lari ties end there.The Green Revo lu tion for ce re als was a supply-side phe nome non; it rested on fun da men tal tech no logi cal change and the ad ap ta tion and ex tension of seed-fertilizer in no va tions in de vel op ing coun tries. The Live stock Revo lu tion is demanddriven. With no ta ble ex cep tions for milk and poultry in the de vel oped coun tries, where tech no logi cal prog ress ar gua bly pre ceded and pre cipi tated changes in de mand through lower prices, the sup ply side of the Live stock Revo lu tion until now has mostly re sponded-often under dis torted in centives-to rapid in creases in de mand.This paper shows that the Revo lu tion has seven spe cific char ac ter is tics, each of which of fers both dan gers and posi tive op por tu ni ties for human welfare and en vi ron mental sus tain abil ity. The seven are: (1) rapid world wide in creases in con sump tion and pro duc tion of live stock prod ucts; (2) a major in crease in the share of de vel op ing coun tries in total live stock pro duc tion and con sump tion; (3) on go ing change in the status of live stock pro duc tion from a mul ti pur pose ac tiv ity with mostly non trad able output to food and feed pro duc tion in the con text of glob ally in te grated mar kets; (4) in creased sub sti tution of meat and milk for grain in the human diet;(5) rapid rise in the use of cereal-based feeds; (6) greater stress put on graz ing re sources along with more land-intensive pro duc tion closer to cities; and ( 7) the emer gence of rapid tech no logi cal change in live stock pro duc tion and proc ess ing in in dus trial sys tems.The dan gers and op por tu ni ties raised by each of the seven char ac ter is tics of the Live stock Revo lution will be ex am ined in turn. Then four major pillars on which to base forward-looking poli cy making for the live stock sec tors of de vel op ing coun tries will be sug gested. Many of the spe cific ac tions are dis cussed in more de tail in the con clu sions to Chapters 6 through 9 of the re port.Rapid de mand growth in de vel op ing coun tries propels the global Live stock Revo lu tion. Ex pand ing de mand is the re sult of a com bi na tion of high real in come growth, swel ling popu la tions, rapid ur baniza tion, and the on go ing di ver si fi ca tion of developing-country diets away from very high levels of starchy sta ples. Milk con sump tion has grown more than 3 per cent per year in de vel op ing countries since the early 1980s and is pro jected to grow even faster through 2020. Meat con sump tion has been grow ing about 5 per cent per year and is expected to grow 2.8 per cent per year through 2020.These developing-country growth rates can be com pared to the slow fore cast for con sumption growth in the de vel oped world: 0.7 per cent per year for meat and 0.4 per cent per year for milk through 2020. This low growth in de vel oped coun tries is largely ex plained by slow popu la tion growth, slow ing ur bani za tion, sa tia tion of diets, and grow ing health con cerns about high in takes of cho les terol and satu rated fatty acids from some ani mal prod ucts.The rapid growth in con sump tion of food from ani mals has not been and is not likely to be evenly dis trib uted across re gions or even within coun tries. Since the early 1980s, most growth in con sump tion of meat and milk has oc curred in the rap idly de velop ing coun tries of East and South east Asia and to a lesser ex tent in Latin Amer ica. Af rica has lagged be hind, as has India in the case of red meat, although India has re cently wit nessed rapid growth in milk and poul try con sump tion.Pro duc tion trends in the de vel op ing coun tries are fol low ing con sump tion trends. By 2020 the devel op ing coun tries are ex pected to pro duce 95 million met ric tons more meat per year and the de veloped coun tries 20 mil lion met ric tons more com pared to pro duc tion lev els ob served in the early 1990s. This pro duc tion level equals an ad di tional 15 kilo grams per cap ita of meat in the de vel op ing world, given ex pected popu la tion in 2020. The value of the an nual in crease in ani mal food pro duction in de vel op ing coun tries cur rently far ex ceeds that of the growth in pro duc tion of all the major cere als com bined. The ca loric value of ani mal livestock food prod uct in creases will ex ceed the ca loric value of ce re als some time in the next 10 years. The de vel oped coun tries are also ex pected to add an addi tional 15 kilo grams per cap ita of an nual meat produc tion by 2020, much of which will be sold to the de vel op ing coun tries.Such rapid change is cre at ing new op por tu nities for live stock pro duc ers in de vel op ing coun tries, where some of the world's poor est peo ple live. The in crease in live stock food prod ucts also holds prom ise for re liev ing wide spread mi cro nu tri ent and pro tein mal nu tri tion, while mak ing posi tive con tribu tions to the sus tain able in ten si fi ca tion of smallholder ag ri cul ture. Yet, sig nifi cant new dan gers are also aris ing. Some forms of live stock pro duc tion en cour aged by pol icy dis tor tions are lead ing to se rious en vi ron mental and health risks. Fur ther more, in creas ingly global live stock and feed mar kets are shar ing eco nomic pains faster and more di rectly, even as they share eco nomic pros per ity. Un der -stand ing the stakes in volved helps mo ti vate those who seek to meet the emerg ing chal lenges.A steady in crease is under way in the share of devel op ing coun tries in the world's pro duc tion of meat and milk. Shares for the lat ter com modi ties amounted to only 31 and 25 per cent, re spec tively, in the early 1980s. The base line pro jec tions es timate that developing-country shares in 2020 will be 60 per cent and 52 per cent. Clearly the brunt of the bene fits and costs ex pected from the Live stock Revo lu tion will ac crue to the de vel op ing coun tries.Sen si tiv ity analy sis sug gests that these projected trends are ro bust. Even under the as sump tion of pro longed eco nomic cri sis in Asia, the growth of ag gre gate con sump tion of live stock prod ucts remains strong in de vel op ing coun tries. Fur ther more, if tastes in India shift to ward in creased red meat con sump tion, as they al ready ap pear to have done for chicken, the nega tive ef fects of a se vere Asian eco nomic cri sis on world live stock mar kets are wiped out.Tra di tion ally, live stock in both the de vel oped and de vel op ing coun tries were kept on-farm for a va ri ety of pur poses, in clud ing food, sav ings, ani mal draft power, fiber, hides, and so forth. In de vel oped coun tries the use of live stock has become spe cial ized. The same trend is being observed in de vel op ing coun tries be cause the oppor tu nity for sell ing meat and milk has in creased and the share in pro duc tion of spe cial ized food ani mals, such as pigs and poul try, has risen in response to food de mand.Live stock food sec tors-tra di tion ally a major forum for non tar iff bar ri ers-are now un der go ing rapid changes in na tional poli cies, in clud ing trade lib er ali za tion; in vest ment in trade in fra struc ture (roads, ports, re frig era tion fa cili ties); pri va ti za tion of pro duc tion and mar ket ing; de regu la tion of in ternal mar kets; and re duced gov ern ment spend ing on re search, ex ten sion, and in spec tion. These changes have spurred con sump tion of live stock prod ucts and in creased trade.The ex pan sion and globali za tion of world markets for feed and live stock prod ucts in creases the ex tent to which de mand and sup ply shocks, and the over all ef fects of eco nomic boom or bust, are spread to feed and meat prices through out the world. Major ex port ing coun tries such as Ar gentina, Aus tra lia, and United States need to pay close at ten tion to Asia. The 50 per cent fall in prices for feed grains and meat dur ing 1998 in the mid western United States was largely at trib ut able to macroeconomic events in Asia and the former So viet Union. Even per sons solely in ter ested in the course of fu ture live stock prices in East Af ri can coun tries, for ex am ple, can not ne glect events af fect ing livestock in Asia at the pres ent time, al though doing so would not have been so un think able only a short time ago.Wide spread evi dence ex ists that as so cie ties grow wealth ier they sub sti tute higher-priced live stock calo ries for lower-priced starch calo ries, at a decreas ing rate as the sub sti tu tion pro ceeds. In rural China, for ex am ple, where meat and milk con sumption is still very low, peo ple may well re duce their di rect an nual per cap ita con sump tion of ce re als over the next few dec ades by 20 to 30 kilo grams. Their ce real con sump tion lev els will ap proach those in the wealth ier seg ments of de vel op ing socie ties today. On the other hand, the an nual per capita use of ce re als as feed is pro jected to rise by about 60 to 70 kilo grams in China by 2020. This widely re pro duced trend in de vel op ing coun tries will be hard to stop if in come and urban popu la tion growth con tinue.Con trary to the situa tion in de vel oped countries-es pe cially the United States, where live stock foods are heav ily con sumed-even small in creases in the con sump tion of meat and milk would be bene fi cial for most women and chil dren in de vel oping coun tries, at least out side the rich est urban areas. Pro tein and mi cro nu tri ent de fi cien cies remain wide spread in de vel op ing coun tries, as Chapter 6 points out. Some evi dence ex ists that in creased poul try and fish con sump tion would be pref er able to in creased red meat con sump tion above a cer tain level. As in come growth and ur bani za tion pro ceeds, the dis eases of af flu ence as so ci ated with ex cess cho les terol in take could well be come more of a prob lem, as they al ready are in much of the de veloped world.Avail able evi dence, both from his tori cal trends and from in-depth economet ric stud ies, sug gests that price re spon sive ness is con sid er able in world ce reals pro duc tion. Simu la tions under vari ous sce nar ios in di cate that the net ef fect of the Live stock Revo lution on ce real prices in 2020 would be to pre vent them from fal ling fur ther from their cur rently low lev els. Under pes si mis tic as sump tions prices may in crease by 10 to 20 per cent, but no where near the high lev els of the 1980s.This view of ce real prices is con firmed fur ther by events in world mar kets dur ing the past 25 years. De mand in creases for meat and milk have largely been met through ex pan sion of feed pro duc tion or im ports at world prices that are de clin ing in real terms. His tori cally, the live stock sec tor has helped sta bi lize world ce real sup ply. Evi dence from ce real price shocks in the 1970s and 1980s sug gests that re duc tions in ce real sup ply were largely ab sorbed by re duc tions in feed for live stock.In any event, IM PACT proj ects that an ad ditional 292 mil lion met ric tons of ce re als will be used an nu ally as feed by 2020, with mini mal im pact on ce real prices (a 2 per cent in crease in 2020 relative to the early 1990s in the base line simu la tion). In the worst case sce nario, maize prices rise 21 percent above the base line pro jec tions for 2020.Simu la tions test ing the ef fect of changes in the ef fi ciency of grain con ver sion to meat or milk show that ef fi ciency and cost mat ter greatly to the rela tive com peti tive ness of in di vid ual coun tries. Live stock ex ports in coun tries with ample graz ing re sources, such as Ar gen tina, did well when feed grain prices were high be cause they use less feed to pro duce a unit of meat. Coun tries with ample feed grain produc tion and feed-intensive pro duc tion prac tices, such as the United States, ex ported more live stock when feed grain prices were low. Feed con ver sion ef fi ciency also mat tered to the com po si tion of specific feeds used, ce real de mand gen er ally, and world trade pat terns, but it barely af fected the level and dis tri bu tion of live stock con sump tion across coun tries. In a price-responsive global sys tem of mar kets, in creased feed de mand will be met with in creased sup ply, with mini mal changes in the final sup ply of meat.Yet the soar ing feed de mand pro jected under the Live stock Revo lu tion also raises a major caveat. Just be cause world maize and other feedgrain yields ex panded stead ily under sig nifi cant pub lic and pri vate in vest ment in the past, does not guar an tee that this will con tinue in the fu ture, es pe cially if pro duc tiv ity re search stops or pub lic pol icy dis cards the yield po ten tial of bio tech nology. IM PACT pro jec tions show that an nual growth in maize yields for most coun tries av erages just above 1 per cent through 2020, a rate sig nifi cantly below his tori cal trends. If fu ture yield growth rates fall below those base line projec tions, ce real prices would be higher than predicted. Fur ther more, an un fore seen melt down in global maize pro duc tion, per haps due to dis eases spread be cause of de creased ge netic di ver sity in maize va rie ties, would in crease grain and meat prices in the im me di ate term be cause of the Livestock Revo lu tion.Demand-led in creases in live stock pro duc tion have led to the in ten si fi ca tion of pro duc tion near major urban mar kets and areas with plen ti ful sup plies of high en ergy feed. These in creases have de graded pro duc tion re sources, such as pas ture. To date, the high est lev els of in ten si fi ca tion have oc curred primar ily in the de vel oped coun tries. Developedcountry ex pe ri ences may pro vide ex am ples of pitfalls that de vel op ing coun tries can avoid.The past expan sion of live stock food pro duction in devel op ing coun tries has come pri mar ily from increased herd sizes. Range deg ra da tion has been observed in exten sive pro duc tion areas, such as graz ing land in the Sahel. In for est areas such as the Ama zon, per verse incen tives led to irre versi ble defor es ta tion by large cat tle ranches in the 1970s. As the Live stock Revo lu tion proceeds, incre ments to pro duc tion will have to come increas ingly from higher pro duc tiv ity of meat and milk per unit of land to avoid fur ther deg ra da tion of exten sive resources.Thirty-seven per cent of global live stock produc tion al ready oc curs under in dus trial farm ing con di tions. In creas ing the level of in dus trial produc tion in many cases is lead ing to dif fi cult problems of ma nure dis posal and nu tri ent over loads in ad join ing soils and bod ies of water. While these prob lems have raised con cerns pri mar ily in de veloped coun tries, they will soon be come se ri ous problems in a number of fast-growing de vel op ing countries as well.Grow ing con cen tra tion of ani mals and peo ple in the de vel op ing world's major cit ies (Addis Ababa, Bei jing, Lima, and Mum bai, for ex am ple) are lead ing to rapid in creases in food safety problems. In fec tions from sal mo nella and E. coli, and emerg ing dis eases such as the avian flu ob served in Asia, give much cause for con cern. Pes ti cides and an ti bi ot ics are also build ing up in the food chain because of live stock pro duc tion prac tices in the de veloped coun tries and in coun tries where moni tor ing and en force ment are lax. Fur ther more, as the consump tion of live stock prod ucts in creases in tropi cal cli mates, es pe cially among those popu la tions for whom eve ry day use of such prod ucts is rela tively new, food safety risks from mi cro bial in fec tion become more preva lent.While the list of dan gers above may seem uni formly nega tive, this is also the ap pro pri ate place to note that the pros pects for sus tain able inten si fi ca tion of small holder ag ri cul ture under rain fed con di tions would be much more dif fi cult with out a dy namic live stock sec tor. Fami lies living on a hec tare or two can not sur vive eco nomically with crops alone, es pe cially in pe ri ur ban areas. More in ten sive live stock pro duc tion on these farms pro vides both a higher re turn to farmers' labor and land and a source of or ganic ma terial and soil nu tri ents gen er ally lack ing in such sys tems. Women's small holder dairy de vel opment in East Af rica il lus trates the prom ise that a new live stock ac tiv ity can offer to a farm ing system under eco nomic stress.As set out in de tail in Chap ter 9, the last two or three dec ades have seen rapid tech no logi cal prog ress in in dus trial live stock pro duc tion, mostly in de veloped coun tries. Pro gress has come in the form of im proved feed con ver sion, higher out put per animal, and higher qual ity of final prod uct.In the de vel oped coun tries, tech no logi cal progress for both ru mi nants and monogas tric ani mals involved re pro duc tive and ge netic tech nol ogy, in cluding ad vances in bio tech nol ogy; feed im prove ment through blend ing, proc ess ing, ge netic means, and chemi cal treat ment; use of growth hor mones; and im prove ments in ani mal health main te nance. Some of these in dus trial tech nolo gies, es pe cially for pigs and poul try, have been fairly eas ily trans ferred to devel op ing coun tries.The pri vate sec tor has played an im por tant and often domi nant role in boost ing live stock pro ductiv ity and solv ing en vi ron mental prob lems in in dustrial sys tems. While live stock sys tems and pro ductiv ity lev els in some de vel op ing coun tries have begun to con verge with those in de vel oped countries, some whole re gions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, have fallen be hind. This raises the ques tion of how pro duc tiv ity in creases in those areas are best de vel oped and propa gated.Taken to gether, the many op por tu ni ties and dan gers of the Live stock Revo lu tion dis cussed above sug gest that it would be fool ish for de vel op ing coun tries to adopt a lais sez faire pol icy for live stock de vel opment. Many spe cific rec om men da tions for con crete ac tion are given in the in di vid ual con clu sions to Chap ters 6-9. The fo cus here, how ever, is on the four broad pil lars on which to base a de sir able livestock de vel op ment strat egy for de vel op ing countries. These are (1) re mov ing pol icy dis tor tions that ar ti fi cially mag nify econo mies of scale in live stock pro duc tion; (2) build ing par tici pa tory in sti tu tions of col lec tive ac tion for small-scale farm ers that al low them to be ver ti cally in te grated with live stock proces sors and in put sup pli ers; (3) cre at ing the en vi ronment in which farm ers will in crease in vest ment in ways to im prove pro duc tiv ity in the live stock sec tor; and (4) pro mot ing ef fec tive regu la tory in sti tu tions to deal with the threat of en vi ron mental and health crises stem ming from live stock.The po liti cal econ omy in de vel op ing coun tries often fa vors sys tems that sig nifi cantly bene fit a few tar geted in di vidu als or in sti tu tions rather than provid ing small in cre ments for large num bers of people. In ap pro pri ate live stock de vel op ment pat terns, such as high-cost and highly capi tal ized in dus trial pig, milk, and poul try pro duc tion in the pe ri ur ban areas of de vel op ing coun tries, are often the re sult of de lib er ate pol icy choices. Ar ti fi cially cre ated econo mies of scale in pro duc tion add to tech no logical econo mies of scale that may exist for poul try and pigs (though they proba bly do not exist for dairy or ru mi nant meat). The re sult may be a livestock in dus try domi nated by a few large pro duc ers, with few op por tu ni ties for poor farm ers and lit tle con trol of en vi ron mental or health risks.Even in the ab sence of spe cific tax breaks or sub si dies, dis tor tions in do mes tic capi tal mar kets that pro vide cheap capi tal to large en ter prises and lim ited or ex pen sive loans to small-scale op erations, favor the large over the small and the sub stitu tion of capi tal for labor. Poli cies deal ing with infra struc ture and ac cess to natu ral re sources can un in ten tion ally bene fit large-scale pro duc ers at the ex pense of smaller ones.Urban pig ger ies and dair ies that do not adequately dis pose of waste ma te ri als often op er ate in poor regu la tory en vi ron ments, under dis tor tions in the mar ket ing chain that pre vent com pe ti tion from rural areas, and with out legal ac count abil ity for pollu tion. Over graz ing often re sults from in ade quate prop erty rights de vel op ment and en force ment mecha nisms as well as po liti cally mo ti vated sub sidies to large pro duc ers. The point is that there is a de gree of choice in how gov ern ments pro mote livestock de vel op ment, and the deck is often stacked in favor of sys tems that harm the en vi ron ment and pro vide lesser bene fits to large num bers of poor rural peo ple.Al ter na tives to large, in dus trial pro duc tion sys tems might be de vel oped through ver ti cal coor di na tion of spe cial ized crop and live stock activi ties in high-potential areas. This would per mit spe cial ized en ter prises to per form ef fi ciently while main tain ing the bio physi cal links be tween crops and live stock. Such con tracts be tween special ized feed and live stock pro duc ers are more likely to emerge if ver ti cally in te grated com panies in the in dus trial sys tem have to bear the full costs of their use of the en vi ron ment.The main al ter na tive to an in dus trial pro duc tion sys tem in many de vel op ing coun tries is one that uses the labor and quality-control of many small farm ers in pro duc tion, but also bene fits from the exper tise, tech nol ogy and as sets of large-scale com panies that are under con tract for input pro vi sion, proc ess ing, and dis tri bu tion of out put. Such arrange ments in fact char ac ter ize the poul try in dus try in the United States and cor re spond to con tract farm ing of high-value crops in many de vel op ing coun tries. As dis cussed above, many ap par ent econo mies of scale are in fact lo cated in input supply and out put proc ess ing and dis tri bu tion. This sug gests that in sti tu tional in no va tions can allow the poor to enjoy a greater share of the bene fits of the Live stock Revo lu tion.Con sid er able evi dence from field stud ies around the world shows that the rural poor and landless pres ently earn a higher share of their in come from live stock than better-off rural peo ple. Pov erty al levia tion poli cies must find a way to help the rural poor par tici pate in the growth made pos si ble by the Live stock Revo lu tion. The al ter na tive might be that the poor are driven out by in dus trial live stock produc ers, and the one grow ing mar ket they pres ently com pete in will be closed to them.Small pro duc ers face many hid den costs under developing-country con di tions. They find it dif ficult to gain ac cess to pro duc tive as sets such as credit and re frig era tion fa cili ties and to in for ma tion such as knowl edge of mi cro bial con tami na tion preven tion pro ce dures. In ad di tion, the small pro ducer of per ish ables in the trop ics typi cally is at a bar gaining dis ad van tage with mar ket ing agents, be cause the prod uct must be moved im me di ately or lose its value. Con tract in sti tu tions re store the bal ance and also bene fit dis tribu tors by as sur ing qual ity and reli able sup ply. The prob able ex is tence of genu ine econo mies of scale in input sup ply to live stock en -ter prises and in proc ess ing and dis tri bu tion of perish able com modi ties gen er ally, sug gests ways should be found to in te grate small pro duc ers ver tically with live stock food proc es sors who are also in a po si tion to man age input sup ply. In de vel oped coun tries this has been ac com plished through contract farm ing or par tici pa tory pro ducer co op eratives, es pe cially in the case of milk and poul try.Gov ern ments and de vel op ment part ners seek ing to in vest in eco nomic capacity-building, while fa cili tat ing the par tici pa tion of the poor in com mer cially vi able ac tivi ties, need to fol low the Live stock Revo lu tion closely. The stakes are high and grow ing, and the rap idly ris ing de mand for out put in creases the prob abil ity of suc cess. The worst thing that well-motivated agen cies can do is to pre vent pub lic in vest ments that could facili tate sus tain able and market-oriented live stock pro duc tion by small pro duc ers. This will not stop the Live stock Revo lu tion, but it will help en sure that the form it takes is less fa vor able for pov erty al le via tion and sus tain abil ity.The bene fits pro vided by tech nol ogy de vel op ment and ex ten sion in the in dus trial live stock sec tors of de vel oped coun tries largely ac crue in the mar ketplace. The pri vate sec tor, there fore, will con tinue to play the lead ing role in fur ther live stock tech nol ogy de vel op ment and dif fu sion in developed-country in dus trial sys tems. In dus trial tech nolo gies for pigs and poul try are largely trans fer able to de vel op ing coun tries, sug gest ing that the need for pub lic goods pro vi sion for these items is mod est. The prob lem is that tech nol ogy de vel op ment and ex ten sion are also re quired for cat tle and other types of live stock produc tion. The role of the pub lic sec tor be comes an issue here, es pe cially in de vel op ing coun tries, where large pri vate com pa nies rarely op er ate outside the in dus trial live stock sec tor.As the stakes rise with the Live stock Revo lution, pol icy re gard ing the costs of live stock pro duction in de vel op ing coun tries be come even more criti cal than be fore. Edu ca tional, vet eri nary, research, ex ten sion, and input pro vi sion are not yet fully pri vat ized and in many cases can not yet be pri -vat ized at pre vail ing stages of de vel op ment. The pub lic goods as pect of live stock de vel op ment in devel op ing coun tries has al ways ex isted. The dif ference now is that be cause the mar ket is grow ing, creat ing op por tu ni ties and risks, the pub lic goods as pect really mat ters, es pe cially in disease-control for smallholder-produced ani mals in ver ti cally in tegrated in dus trial systems.Meat and milk pres ently con trib ute more than 40 per cent of the value of food and ag ri cul tural produc tion in the world, but re ceive a dis pro por tionately small al lo ca tion of pub lic in vest ments for facili tat ing pro duc tion. Greatly in creased at ten tion must be given to live stock pro duc tiv ity is sues in devel op ing coun tries, in clud ing post har vest proc essing and mar ket ing. Pol icy not only needs to fa cilitate the shift from in creas ing herd size to in creas ing pro duc tiv ity, but it needs to steer this de vel op ment away from over in ten si fi ca tion and en vi ron mental deg ra da tion.Above all, pub licly funded re search and ex tension should focus on ag ri cul tural re source man agement that com pre hen sively fur thers pol icy goals that re late to human needs. Rather than em pha siz ing output maxi mi za tion above all else, re search and ex tension should find ways to use a dy namic live stock sec tor to im prove food se cu rity and al le vi ate pov erty and at the same time mini mize ad verse ef fects on pub lic health and the en vi ron ment. The de sign of pub lic in vest ment must there fore go be yond a strict tech ni cal ori en ta tion and con sider the so cial, economic, and eco logi cal di men sions of the in ter ac tion of live stock with the bet ter ment of live li hoods.En hanc ing the de sign of pub lic in vest ment in the live stock sec tor of de vel op ing coun tries requires sub stan tial im prove ments in the crea tion, dis semi na tion, analy sis, and use of policy-relevant in for ma tion con cern ing live stock. Spe cifi cally, an im proved in ven tory and moni tor ing sys tem of the changes in the avail abil ity, use, and man age ment of the ag ri cul tural re source base world wide has to be cre ated. Dif fer ences and over laps be tween the ecologi cal and eco nomic ef fi ciency of live stock pro -duc tion need to be de fined. These steps will re quire the com pi la tion and dis semi na tion of ex ten sive eco logi cal and eco nomic data per tain ing to livestock pro duc tion to com ple ment the ex ten sive techni cal data avail able.In the pres ent phase of live stock de vel op ment in the more dy namic de vel op ing coun tries, the size, compo si tion, and end des ti na tion of live stock pro duction ar gua bly have out grown the lim ited in sti tutional ca pac ity of min is tries to cope with re sult ing en vi ron mental and pub lic health is sues. Regu la tory agen cies need to func tion in a way that is com mensu rate with the kinds of prob lems aris ing. For exam ple, meat hy giene needs to be bet ter en forced in urban China and graz ing bet ter man aged in West Af rica. Gen er ally, tech nolo gies that deal with en viron mental and pub lic health dan gers stem ming from the Live stock Revo lu tion will not work un less regu la tory en force ment backs them up. Such in stitu tional de vel op ments will likely occur only when the po liti cal de mands for bet ter regu la tion be come strong. Such was the case in an ear lier era in the devel oped coun tries. In de vel op ing coun tries, an ounce of pre ven tion may elimi nate the need for a pound of cure.In sum, it is un wise to think that the Live stock Revo lu tion will some how go away in re sponse to moral sua sion by well-meaning de vel op ment partners. It is a struc tural phe nome non that is here to stay. How bad or how good it will be for the popu lations of de vel op ing coun tries is in tri cately bound up with how coun tries choose to ap proach the Livestock Revo lu tion. Poli cies can sig nifi cantly improve pov erty al le via tion, en vi ron mental sus tainabil ity, and pub lic health, but only if new ac tions are un der taken. Fail ing to act risks throw ing away one of the few dy namic eco nomic trends that can be used to im prove the lives of poor rural peo ple in devel op ing coun tries.","tokenCount":"47323"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4227a3d754cf0e56d347c3d10223f8fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/FTA/WPapers/FAO-FTA-WP-10.pdf","id":"-478309978"},"keywords":["Forest Watcher","Community Forest","Forest Guardians SMART","law enforcement","forest monitoring","patrolling","technology Canopy Cover","Estimating Diameter","Estimating Height","Management Forest","Modeling","UAV Agroforestry","Ecology","Entomology","Drones","Insect decline Community-based tree nurseries","socio-economic and cultural implications","social research methods","community dynamics Philippine biodiversity","mechanized nurseries","mother trees","native trees","geotagging Wood microstructure","microscopy","SEM","non-invasive techniques","X-ray tomography"],"sieverID":"76a3c022-0f06-46f6-8699-71334c94c383","pagecount":"174","content":"and the Pacific in the Asia-Pacific region 11 . Nearly 300 forestry students and young professionals from more than 30 countries, consulted for this Outlook Study, found that the uptake of innovative technologies in the forest sector has been too slow and called for better opportunities for young people to learn and apply them.Following-up on this important outlook study, FAO and CIFOR, lead center of the CGIAR research programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), are jointly developing a roadmap on innovative forest technologies, including digital technologies, biological technologies, technical innovations on processes and products, innovative finance and social innovations, This roadmap is being developed through a participative process involving a wide range of key regional stakeholders and technical experts from governments and intergovernmental organizations, private sector, civil society organizations, academia and research 1 In terms of: regional cooperation, additional investments, infrastructure development, institutional changes, research and development, education and capacity building.More than ever forests are called upon to address the great challenges of our times: climate change, biodiversity erosion, poverty, food insecurity. Conflicting demands and pressures are particularly acute given strong demographic pressure, economic growth and increasing impacts of climate change.To answer competing demands, protect and sustainably manage natural resources while increasing production of ecosystem goods and services, while simultaneously maintaining and strengthening sustainable agriculture, foresters need to innovate.As shown by FAO's Third Asia-Pacific Forest Sector Outlook Study (FAO, 2019), the uptake and scaling-up of innovative technologies in the forest sector in the Asia-Pacific region can support sustainable forest management with more accurate and reactive monitoring and reporting; enhanced transparency and participation in decisionmaking, empowering local and small actors. Innovative technologies can contribute to increase productivity, profitability and reduce operational costs; increase energyand resource-use efficiency, reduce waste, enhance re-use and recycling, for low-carbon and circular bio-economies, reducing the pressure on natural forests. They create new products and services, new income opportunities; innovative, greener and safer jobs, making the forest sector more attractive for young people.FAO and CIFOR, lead center of the CGIAR research programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), are developing a roadmap on the application of innovative technologies in the forest sector in Asia and the Pacific to enhance sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management. This roadmap is being developed through a participative process involving a wide range of key regional stakeholders and technical experts from governments and intergovernmental organizations, private sector, civil society organizations, academia and research institutions.Young students and people, formally or informally engaged in the forest sector, will be the guardians and managers of tomorrow's forests. Technology savvy, the youth can play an instrumental role in the uptake and scaling-up of innovative technologies (whether digital technologies, biological technologies, technical innovations on processes and products, or innovative finance and social innovations), able to advance sustainable development in the forest sector in the region. Young people can bring in the innovation debate forward-looking perspectives and out-of-the-box thinking. This is why FAO and CIFOR/FTA decided to strengthen their voice in the debate, relaying their experiences and propositions for sustainable innovation in the forest sector. This FAO and CIFOR co-publication gathers 13 youth contributions, carefully selected. These contributions illustrate, in various contexts, the potential of innovative technologies to advance sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management in the Asia-Pacific region.We hope that this document provides useful food for thoughts for policy makers, investors, researchers and practitioners to enhance innovation in forest monitoring, forest management and along forest value chains, in big companies or in small-scale enterprises, at regional and national levels or in local communities. We hope it will help open new perspectives, create new opportunities, and address the economic, social and environmental challenges each actor faces in his/her own specific context.This publication assembles selected papers prepared by youth from the Asia-Pacific region on innovative forest technologies and their contribution to sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management.The 'Third Asia-Pacific Forest Sector Outlook Study' (APFSOS III: FAO, 2019), launched in June 2019 at the Asia-Pacific Forestry Week in Incheon, Republic of Korea, expressed concerns about the status, trends and future outlook for primary forest conservation and noted the importance of innovative technologies for sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management. The study highlighted that the uptake and scaling-up of innovative technologies creates significant opportunities and challenges for sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management institutions. Two online expert workshops were organized around this roadmap: the first one, in July 2020, to launch the whole process and start building a strong community around it; and the second, in November-December 2020, focusing on innovative technologies. The detailed results of these workshops have been published online (Pingault et al., 2020(Pingault et al., , 2021)).Young people have shown their capacity to generate and spearhead trans-national mobilization to address environmental challenges, such as climate change, and advance sustainable development. They can be instrumental in shaping a sustainable future, including: by taking leadership roles and generating momentum through collaboration and social media, by transforming rigid institutions from within and participating to the uptake and upscale of innovative technologies in the forest sector (FAO, 2019). This is why FAO and FTA decided to encourage students and young professionals to contribute actively to the roadmap. A call for abstracts was organized in Autumn 2020 (19 October -15 December) to invite contributions from students and young people engaged in formal or informal activities linked to the forest sector in the Asia-Pacific region. This call was directed to candidates of 18-35 years old, citizens or residents of countries or territories of the Asia-Pacific region.Seventy-one abstracts were received. The abstracts submitted were very diverse. They were carefully screened and evaluated by a team of CIFOR/ICRAF experts, based on a set of criteria including: clarity, originality and potential for transformative impact on the forest sector in the region. Some of the authors of the selected abstracts were invited to participate to the November 2020 expert workshop on innovative technologies where they made very valuable contributions and brought their unique forward-looking perspective (Pingault et al., 2021).Twenty of the youth authors were selected to develop a full paper. They were invited to focus on the main challenges and opportunities associated with the application of innovative technologies in the forest sector in the region, highlighting the transformations 2 needed to enhance technology transfer and dissemination and to ensure that these technologies effectively contribute to sustainable development. Each paper was carefully reviewed by a committee of CIFOR/ ICRAF experts, based on criteria including: the logical flow and clarity of the narrative, even for non-specialist readers, the scientific quality of the paper or the \"field\" insights it provides on a specific situation/context.This publication presents the 13 papers that went through the whole process of abstract submission, drafting, paper submission, review, revision, edition and final validation. These papers serve as technical inputs for the development of the roadmap. The papers are ordered in this publication, following the forest value chain: starting from the monitoring of deforestation, of forest degradation or of various forest characteristics; studying then innovations in forest management practices; and focusing finally on wood-based materials and other products and services.Bahar and Wicaksono (#1) 3 illustrate, with three concrete examples from Malaysia and Indonesia, how digital technologies (online platforms and mobile applications) can help effectively engage youth in satellitebased tropical forest monitoring. Focusing on seven districts in Nepal, Lama et al. (#2) show how Forest Watcher, a mobile application, can be used to facilitate and improve forest monitoring and reporting, enhance community-forest management, and strengthen local communities' participation in forest conservation. Sarzynski et al. (#3) demonstrate how Google Earth Engine can be used to ease the access to and analysis of millions of satellite images and to monitor, with high accuracy and in near real-time, oil palm and cashew plantations encroachment on forests in Indonesia and India. De Jesus (#4) suggests that combining various innovative digital technologies, for data collection, analysis, modelling and dissemination, in a \"Snitch\" open online platform, could provide new perspectives on how to raise awareness on the multiple impacts of deforestation on the environment and ultimately on human's life. Gabriel et al. (#5) present SMART (\"Smart Monitoring and Reporting Tool\"), an open-source digital tool aiming at supporting and facilitating patrolling and law enforcement in forests and other biodiversity hotspots. As of 2018, SMART is used in 765 protected areas in more than 60 countries, of which 400 protected areas located in 18 countries of the Asia-Pacific region.Lee (#6) shows, based on a pilot study conducted in Tum Phai Thai National Park, in Northern Thailand, how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), as well as imaging technologies and algorithms can help collecting and analysing data in a rapid and cost-effective way, thus enabling stakeholders to assess initial degradation levels, develop restoration plans, and monitor restoration progresses. Saputra et al. (#7) develop a model, based on UAV data, estimating tree height, canopy cover, and tree diameter for teak trees of varied age classes (AC) in the Ciamis Forest Management Unit, West Java, Indonesia. Kamran et al. (#8), considering the importance of flying insects as pollinators or feed for higher trophic levels, as well as the dramatic decline of insect populations around the world, show how static traps and sweepnet carrying drones can be used to catch and sample insect populations at different heights, and different times in the day, across various habitats, even with limited or difficult access.Tamang and Sharma (#9), focusing on invasive alien plant species (IAPS) management in Nepal, assessed and compared intensive and extensive management practices, opening new pathways for sustainable IAPS management. Mandawali (#10) explore the complex social and cultural dynamics affecting the establishment and maintenance of community-based tree nurseries (CBTNs) in five villages of the Ramu-Markham Valley, in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Almoite and Togado (#11) advocate for a greater focus on native tree species in the \"National Greening Program\" to preserve the Philippines' very rich biodiversity. They suggest innovative ways to improve the production of native tree species seedlings in the Philippines' modernized and mechanized forest nurseries (MMFNs). Gupta et al. (#12) show how innovations in microscopy techniques have enabled drastic advances in the science of wood anatomy. One of the major applications of wood microstructural studies is to facilitate wood species identification, which can be used for instance: in wood species identification, to track illegal timber trade, as forensic evidence in criminal investigations, or for proper conservation or restoration of historical monuments and wooden artefacts. The authors also present macroscopic techniques for timber identification. Ramatia et al. (#13) review two self-bonding mechanisms used to produce binderless particleboards -an alternative to conventional wood-based particleboards, with synthetic adhesives -that preserve human health and the environment. They also analyze the potential of non-wood lignocellulosic materials, including kenaf, oil palm, and bamboo, as raw materials for particleboard production.These papers provide valuable insights to many issues to be covered in the roadmap, feeding, in particular, in the debates around the three following structuring issues:• How can innovative technologies improve and facilitate monitoring and reporting? (See papers: #8, #6, #7, #4, #3, #5) • How can innovative technologies strengthen the engagement of civil society, local communities, small-scale actors and youth in forest monitoring and management? (See papers: #2, #1, #10) • How can innovative technologies support the optimization of processes and products for sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management? (See papers: #11, #9, #12, #13)Major advances in space technologies and their practical uses over the past three decades have made monitoring forest changes more accurate, steady, transparent, and inclusive. The recent decision by the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) to provide universal access to high-resolution satellite data of land cover and land-use in the tropics provides stakeholders with valuable opportunities to enhance forest monitoring activities and efforts to preserve tropical forests (NICFI 2020).Tropical forests are powerful assets in climate change mitigation. According to Gibbs et al. (2018), roughly 8 percent of global greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions originate from tree cover loss in tropical forests, but they can provide 23 percent of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed before 2030. At the same time, many tropical rainforest countries are also developing countries with large youth populations. For example, Indonesia, one of the world's deforestation hotspots, hosting about a tenth of the world's remaining tropical rainforests, is home to more than 63 million young people under the age of 30, or almost a quarter of the country's population (World Bank 2021).Solving the issue of deforestation clearly requires active youth participation, not least because they will be greatly impacted by existing approaches to forest and land management.Youth in tropical countries can be a positive force for rainforest protection and climate change mitigation provided that they are Initial stakeholder mapping has also been crucial in the case studies examined. Further, our analysis indicates the need for flexible planning and rapid prototyping (i.e. 'fail fast, fail small') to address setbacks due to technical issues and external challenges. Engaging stakeholders in current times, characterized by significant uncertainties, rapid technological changes, and information overload might necessitate frequent adjustments in the strategy. The Asia-Pacific roadmap shall take all of these factors into consideration.Keywords: tropical forest monitoring, remote sensing, youth, inclusivity, transparencygiven the knowledge, opportunities and tools to act. Satellite-based tropical forest monitoring can provide such opportunities. State-of-the art space technology combined with open access platforms can help the public, including the youth, hold relevant forest and land use actors to account.This study reviews three satellite-based forest monitoring initiatives from Indonesia and Malaysia, with a particular focus on youth, to study their key enabling and limiting factors.Through literature study and interviews with six individuals involved in the initiatives, it explores potential options to make tropical forest monitoring more inclusive, effective, sustainable, and transparent by constructively involving youth in tropical countries.Satellite-based forest monitoring initiatives in Indonesia and Malaysia, with a particular focus on youthThis study focuses on the use of satellite technology for tropical forest monitoring, analyzing the application of this innovation in specific contexts, based on three case studies from Indonesia and Malaysia, with a focus on youth. and complements satellite observations with ground monitoring and checking. HAkA's geographic information system (GIS) team utilizes Google mapping tools 3 to visualize forest cover data and detect deforestation (HAkA 2021a). To accelerate the monitoring exercises, the team takes advantage of near-real-time monitoring systems available in the GFW platform. In the field, HAkA has started to use the Forest Watcher mobile app, 4 which allows the offline use of GFW and data recording (Bourgault 2018). Recently, HAkA's monitoring has been supported with drone-based aerial surveillance (Global Conservation 2020).In Indonesia, law enforcement on deforestation often relies on field reports from civil society organizations (CSOs) and the public. The use of near-real-time satellite data by HAkA allows this approach to be conducted more efficiently. HAkA analyzes information from GFW's GLAD 5 Alert (a weekly deforestation alert) and Forest Watcher and shares it with law enforcers and FKL, leading to more rapid, targeted patrols by the forest rangers, FKL members, and HAkA staff (Bourgault 2018;Purnamasari 2018).Additionally, FKL and HAkA collate their ground-checking and remote sensing data, publicizing it every year in the provincial capital and using it to instigate policy change and raise awareness. Their work has also been documented and disseminated widely via Google Earth Voyager 6 (see Figure 1) (HAkA 2021a).efforts, HAkA has also conducted other types of training targeting different stakeholders, such as raising awareness for local women and citizen journalism training for local communities (HAkA 2021b).Their success stories include a crackdown on illegal gold mining and marijuana plantation in the forest zone by the police, and the use of GFW's fire hotspots data as a key reference to support the firefighting efforts of the government and local people (Bourgault 2018). The use of technology, combined with the enabling of government officials, local communities, and other relevant stakeholders with effective tools, as well as the mobilization of local, national and global campaigns, are HAkA and FKL's recipes to help reduce deforestation and improve forest governance in Aceh (Global Conservation 2020). However, challenges remain in ensuring that their efforts are sufficiently followed up by those of other actors. There have been reports of illegal actors resuming their operations after the crackdown periods.To improve the capability of law enforcement officials, 7 HAkA GIS staff have trained police officers and staff members of several forest management units, the conservation unit, and the national park management unit with the financial and technical support of the World Resources Institute (WRI)'s Global Forest Watch. As a result of HAkA's training program 8 and intensive communication with government officials, GFW and its derivative products have been adopted by the local government and the forest management units as part of their forest monitoring systems (Bourgault 2018;Purnamasari 2018). The evidence-based report from the civil society is acknowledged and accepted for further action by the government agencies in the Leuser Ecosystem. To complement these Case study 2. Hutanwatch: Who Watches the Watchmen?Hutanwatch 9 is an open data website that promotes forest transparency in Malaysia.The platform combines user-contributed information, datasets from GFW, and tools to monitor forest cover changes and investigate forest loss. Hutanwatch was launched by a group of young environmental professionals in response to the lack of consolidated maps of forest areas in Malaysia and limited access to such information (Barad and Jamilla 2019).Information on forest and land use in Malaysia is scattered across different agencies, depositories and databases, which hinder transparency, independent monitoring and public participation in forest management (Law 2020).Hutanwatch collates and curates spatial data provided by various users and integrates this data into customized map applications using GFW MapBuilder. 10 The spatial data are visualized using the GFW platform and categorized into multiple interactive maps covering Peninsular Malaysia (see Figure 2), Sarawak and Sabah, as well as parliamentary constituencies. The analysis tools, adopted from GFW, enable users to select the area of interest and analyze forest cover changes. On top of GFW key features such as tree cover loss or gain, GLAD alerts and active fire watch, Hutanwatch provides additional maps 9 \"Hutan\" means forest in both the Malaysian and Indonesian languages. See: https://www.hutanwatch. com/ 10 GFW MapBuilder is a tool to create and customize a forest monitoring application. It enables users to combine their own datasets with GFW's cutting-edge data and analysis tools. Applications can be deployed as standalone websites, embedded into existing websites or shared using integrated social media tools. See: https://www.globalforestwatch.org/mapbuilder/ of Permanent Reserve Forests (PRF) 11 , Totally Protected Areas and critical landscapes legally designated by Malaysian government. These maps are either contributed by various users or obtained through the digitization of maps and land boundaries from official government reports and documents. The availability of these additional data layers is a critical first step in identifying land boundaries and ownership (Barad and Jamilla 2019;Law 2020). In Malaysia, forestland is categorized as permanent reserved forests (PRF), stateland forests, national parks, and wildlife reserves. Each forest category is managed by separate state and federal government agencies. In the case of deforestation (illegal or otherwise), the responsible agency must be identified before further action is taken.The free and open access to data now creates a level playing field for all individuals and organizations working in the field on forest monitoring, advocacy and stewardship in Malaysia (Law 2020). Access to this information was previously restricted to government agencies, selected research institutions and consultancy firms. Using Hutanwatch, any interested party can investigate forest cover change, check whether tree loss occurs within or outside forest reserve boundaries, identify potentially illicit forest activities and encourage additional courses of action -for example, by informing Hutanwatch, journalists, local representatives, CSOs or enforcement agencies. The information transmitted to Hutanwatch is validated by cross-checking it with satellite images from the Planet platform, tree cover loss history from GFW and relevant environmental impact assessment 11 The Malaysian National Forestry Act (Act 313, 1984) allows the relevant State Authority to declare, by notification in the Gazette, any area as \"Permanent Reserved Forest (PRF)\". This Act defines PRF as \"any land constituted or deemed to have been constituted a permanent forest reserve under this Act\". See: https:// www.forestry.gov.my/images/JPSM/wargaperhutanan/ AktaAPN_en.pdfThe status of PRF of a given area is not linked to its current land cover. An area legally designated as PRF may have temporarily lost its forest cover. Conversely, some forested areas are not legally designated as PRF, as in the case of the Taman Negara/National Park (Hamid and Abd Rahman 2016).(EIA) reports, and also reports published by government agencies. Next, the validated information is uploaded to Hutanwatch's News page, 12 where the public can read and add further information on the incidents. As a storytelling tool, Hutanwatch empowers its users to substantiate their claims on suspicious or potentially illicit forest changes and activities with evidence from satellite observations. Users can make use of the information available in Hutanwatch, frame the issue in the context of local landscape and instigate public discussion. The news stories published in Hutanwatch platform are sometimes widely shared through social media, spark media pressure and lead to public outcry (Barad and Jamilla 2019). 1314   In addition to facilitating public participation and inclusiveness in forest management, the tools and features of Hutanwatch can be used to hold authorities accountable. For instance, Hutanwatch published a news article about the 'quiet excision' (i.e. degazettement) of a 6,000-ha Permanent Forest Reserve Source: Hutanwatch.com| 11in Endau-Rompin National Park. 15 Upon receiving tip-offs and evidence from its users, Hutanwatch validated the submission with satellite images from the Planet platform and tree cover loss history from GFW. Using these data, Hutanwatch alleged that the pristine Inspired by the popular Pokemon Go game (Taylor 2020), the second game, Jelantara, requests users to visit specific locations and ask them information related to land cover and evidence of land degradation. To overcome connectivity issues in the field, the RESTORE+ team has made it possible for users to collect information offline and upload it when they have internet access.The RESTORE+ team initially listed university students as the primary target users for Jelantara. Subsequently, the primary users were expanded to include village-based extension service officers in South Sumatra and East Kalimantan.This has led to the collection of millions of data inputs given by more than 1,000 participants (Savitri 2020). As of April 2021, there are 1,058 contributors and 4,410,415 observations collected through 21 Urundata campaigns. 18 These crowdsourced data, collected through Pilahpilih and Jelantara, are used to develop more accurate land cover and land degradation maps in South Sumatra and East Kalimantan, the two pilot provinces for RESTORE+. These results will be used to help develop a portfolio of sustainable restoration options. As the project emphasizes data transparency, the team plans to provide open access to these crowdsourced data (in a geospatial format) on their website, so that the public can explore and process them further.The Urundata approach appears to have generated plenty of interest from its existing target users (university students and extension service officers), many of which are young and technologically savvy Source: Urundata App (Savitri 2020). Interviews with RESTORE+ team members suggest that some users seem to be attracted by the incentives proposed (i.e. internships with one of the consortium members and online shopping vouchers), though many are attracted simply because the games are fun, impactful, and educational. The establishment of a direct line of communication between users and the RESTORE+ team members via WhatsApp groups enabled the team to quickly solve the many technical issues encountered and improve the Urundata platform and overall approach over time. While the Urundata app is currently used to support RESTORE+ objectives, the team hopes that it can be turned into a nationally-owned, collaborative data collection platform for various purposes in the future.The three case studies demonstrated the successful adoption of satellite technology in forest monitoring, advocacy and stewardship in diverse contexts. This section analyzes the enabling factors and associated constraints that contribute to the effective adoption of satellite monitoring, focusing on youth. The enabling factors and constraints are summarized in Table 1 and discussed.Stakeholder mapping, identification and engagementIdentifying and engaging relevant stakeholders is key to the successful adoption and deployment of innovations. First, target user groups must be identified according to their needs, interests, influence and impact. Then, the innovation must be tailored to match the profile (skills, interests and needs) of the target groups. In our case studies, satellite-based innovative monitoring approaches attract youth and match their affinity and familiarity with the latest technology. Through free access and some repackaging, data providers (e.g., GFW, RESTORE+, Google) can facilitate youth access to and use of satellite-monitoring data. Urundata citizen science campaigns target young university students and enrich its participatory monitoring approach, with the fun element of gamification and intensive use of social media (RESTORE+ 2019; Suwastoyo 2020). The use of satellite monitoring allows HAkA and Hutanwatch users to bypass certain resource-intensive steps in land and forest monitoring and shifts their resources to effective action to advocate, restore, conserve and protect the forests (Purnamasari 2018). In the case of Hutanwatch, there is pressing demand from CSOs, environmental practitioners and the general public for free, open access and consolidated maps of forest areas in Malaysia, which led to the creation of the Hutanwatch platform (Barad and Jamilla 2019;Law 2020). The team decided to keep the Hutanwatch platform anonymous upon considering safety and legal concerns and to stay independent and non-partisan.Young people can be empowered to interpret, integrate and manage the huge amount of satellite information by receiving further training in spatially referenced data (GIS), mapping, software operation, information technology, statistics and algorithms. The technical staff behind HAkA and Urundata received formal training in geography or information technology at university or work. 19 Varying degrees of expertise are required depending on the scope and scale of satellite monitoring application. Nevertheless, basic mapping and spatial analysis tools can be mastered in a relatively short time. In Urundata apps, the game starts with a basic introduction to satellite imagery interpretation. Hutanwatch was developed by building upon the wealth of resources available online for independent learning 20 (Barad and Jamilla 2019).  2019). Such an iterative process is observed in all three case studies.Various technical limitations could hinder the realization of the innovation's maximum potential in all three case studies. Technical glitches such as limited internet access and unstable connections can make it difficult to access the GFW website and download the app. Similarly, low internet connectivity slows down the process of uploading data to Pilahpilih and Jelantara app. During earlier campaigns, the Pilahpilih app often crashed due to bandwidth issues. Users persistently sent notifications via WhatsApp to the RESTORE+ team to verify whether their data had been submitted successfully.A lack of experience or expertise in using map applications like Hutanwatch and the GFW platform might also deter new users from utilizing these freely available tools.As mentioned in earlier sections, training, capacity building and community of practices could facilitate greater adoption of satellite monitoring technology by a broader user base.In all case studies, satellite monitoring data is complemented with ground-truthing, which is associated with a different set of challenges.A key challenge faced by the players of the Jelantara app is restricted access to certain locations due to road inaccessibility or restrictions by landowners. Consequently, no data is collected for these no-go areas, thus reducing the coverage of validation points.During the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of new submissions to Hutanwatch may be explained by travel and movement restrictions imposed by the Malaysian government. Hutanwatch relies on the submission of information and data by contributors, and many data gathering activities have been restricted during the pandemic. Similarly, the pandemic has also led to reduced reporting of illegal deforestation in Aceh, especially reporting by independent CSOs (HAkA 2021b). To circumvent this issue, HAkA has intensified trainings for citizens, including women, to maintain the momentum of environmental campaigns and advocacy in Aceh. This is also important because of the large size of the Leuser ecosystem, which needs constant monitoring. More people are needed to support law enforcement efforts.Advances in satellite technology continue to provide high-resolution data in massive quantities, which are coupled with advances in data processing and analysis. Most importantly, the data obtained from satellite technology needs to be appropriately validated and interpreted to ensure the accurate representation of what is being measured (e.g. forest or tree cover loss, level of degradation). For instance, the key data outputs from GFW are tree cover change and loss. 24 In many jurisdictions, tree cover loss may not always signify deforestation. 25  In Aceh, while law enforcement officials have widely adopted GFW in their work to fight illegal deforestation and forest fires and acknowledged the efficacy of GFW data 26 (Bourgault 2018, ACEHKINI 2020), the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia often questions GFW's definitions, methodology, and results (Siti Nurbaya 2021). This could potentially undermine the use of GFW by Aceh's officials, as the Ministry plays a role in the management of Aceh's forests.In a broader context, government agencies around the world may also disagree with the GFW approach and opt to ignore GFW data and observations.Moreover, the lack of contribution and participation by official institutions, which hold significant records of high-quality data (maps, satellite data at multiple resolutions, groundtruthed data, 27 etc.), can reduce data quality and interpretation. The RESTORE+ team has had relatively limited participation from the Jakarta-based Ministry of Environment and Forestry during the expert crowdsourcing stage. The Ministry's staff members are key experts and serve as one of the authorities in developing official land cover maps in Indonesia. Greater interaction with the Ministry's relevant staff could have boosted Urundata's technical credibility and policy relevance. Similarly, Hutanwatch also depends on the availability of high-quality, accurate maps and data from contributors, 24 According to GFW-GLAD, tree cover is defined as all vegetation greater than 5 m in height and may take the form of natural forests or plantations across a range of canopy densities. Tree cover loss is defined as \"stand replacement disturbance,\" or complete removal of the tree cover canopy at the Landsat pixel scale.  Reserve, and Shey Phoksundo National Park.The study area mainly comprises Himalayan subtropical pine forests, subalpine conifer forests, broadleaf forests, alpine shrubs and meadows. Intact forests can be found only in Jumla and Jajarkot districts. Some areas have warm and temperate climate with dry winters and warm summers, whilst others have a polar tundra and snowy climate with dry winters and cool summers. The Kalikot district is the westernmost distribution edge (81.66° E) for some of the world's most endangered animals like the Himalayan Red Panda.From 2001 to 2020, tree cover loss in the seven districts of the study area amounted to 4.63 kha. 3 Over the 20-year period, there were substantial variations in tree cover loss, including a steep surge in 2017 (Figure 2a).Figure 2b illustrates tree cover loss at the district level between 2001 and 2020. The greatest tree cover loss occurred in Jumla (1.12kha), 4 followed by Kalikot (912 ha), 5 Jajarkot (785 ha), 6 Rukum East (537 ha), 7 Dolpa (481 ha), 8 Rukum West (423 ha) 9 and Rolpa (375 ha). in western Nepal have increased by an average of 1.2°C over the last 36 years . This is also reflected in the climate change vulnerability index: 13 this ranking index refers to how vulnerable a system is to the negative impacts of climate change, such as climate variability and extremes, as well as how well it can deal with them (Houghton et al. 2001)   '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 Between 2001 and 2020, an average of 12.3kt per year was released into the atmosphere as a result of tree cover loss in Dolpa. In total, 245kt of CO2e was emitted in this period.'01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 Between 2001 and 2020, an average of 22.4kt per year was released into the atmosphere as a result of tree cover loss in Jajarkot. In total, 448kt of CO2e was emitted in this period.'01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 Between 2001 and 2020, an average of 33.0kt per year was released into the atmosphere as a result of tree cover loss in Jumla. In total, 660kt of CO2e was emitted in this period.'01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 Between 2001 and 2020, an average of 28.1kt per year was released into the atmosphere as a result of tree cover loss in Kalikot. In total, 562kt of CO2e was emitted in this period.  '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 Between 2001 and 2020, an average of 10.7kt per year was released into the atmosphere as a result of tree cover loss in Rolpa. In total, 214kt of CO2e was emitted in this period.'01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 Between 2001 and 2020, an average of 16.8kt per year was released into the atmosphere as a result of tree cover loss in Rukum East. In total, 336kt of CO2e was emitted in this period.'01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 Between 2001 and 2020, an average of 13.7kt per year was released into the atmosphere as a result of tree cover loss in Rukum West. In total, 274kt of CO2e was emitted in this period.35,374 wildfires reported between 2000 and 2016 via MODIS 14 15 satellite images, with a burnt area of 1,723,920 hectares (Bhujel et al. 2017). Wildfires are also frequent in the study area. Between 2003 and 2013, the number of annual active fire days in the study area varied from 1 to 24 days, with Jajarkot district experiencing the most fire days, ranging from 15 to 24 (Matin et al. 2017). Data on active fire days was collected from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites; this data identifies the location of the fire. The majority of the fire cases in the study area were reported in April, November, and December.The involvement of local communities is crucial for the success of a conservation Over the monitoring period, 285 VIIRS fire alerts were recorded within the study area (Figure 4a). At the district level (Figure 4b), 68 fire alerts were reported in Jajarkot, followed by Kalikot (65), Dolpa (62), Rukum West (39), Rukum East (30) and Jumla (21). No fire alerts were recorded in Rolpa.It Although tree cover loss in the study area has varied by district over the last 20 years, the overall rate appears to be decreasing. Shrestha et al. (2018) found that the districts with the most community forests experience the smallest tree cover losses and the largest tree cover gains. A total of 223 CFUGs manage community forests in Rolpa, and 101 in Jumla (Kanel et al. 2006) GEE is a cloud-based platform powered by Google Cloud Platform and can be operated seamlessly with other online services provided by Google. With the help of GEE, ready-to-use datasets can be easily loaded and processed. Then, the processed data and analyzed results can be stored and exported for future use. GEE has its own application programming interface (API), which includes a library of operators in both JavaScript and Python computer languages, These land use monitoring tools can help enforce forest protection laws and identify companies sourcing oil palm or cashew from protected areas. In addition, the information acquired using GEE can assist organizations managing oil palm sustainability certification schemes in excluding companies that drive deforestation or source material from protected areas. People equipped with GEE skills can play a key role in influencing landscape planning and making adequate policies in the forestry sector. These tools can help prevent or reduce CO2 emissions due to commodity-driven deforestation, as well as protect the abundant biodiversity present in natural forests.Keywords: remote sensing, google earth engine, deforestation, land-use change, oil palm.making it accessible to a wider community.The platform increases accessibility to high-performance computing resources for processing large geospatial datasets (Gorelick et al. 2017). GEE provides users with access to the computational power of thousands of computers from Google's data centers through its online code platforms.The GEE code platform 1 works with JavaScript, while Python users can deploy the computational power through Google Colab, 2 an online Python application for general purposes that also allows the use of GEE, as well as free access to the computing power of Google.It is worth mentioning that among its vast number of libraries, GEE incorporates most of the state-of -the-art machine learning (ML) methods, which can be easily called and applied to the loaded or processed geospatial datasets as the algorithms have been packed into three packages (namely Classifier, Clusters and Reducer). For example, the widely-used classification methods for land use classification, like random forest classifier and other tree-based classifiers, are all included in the Classifier package and can be called with a few lines of code.When dealing with more complex models or larger training datasets, GEE also works well with TensorFlow, which is an open access library to facilitate efficient ML analysis. The  Joshi et al. 2016). Apart from the wavelength bands used in the satellite images, a range of indices (e.g. NDVI -normalized difference vegetation index, 3 EVI -enhanced vegetation index, 4 etc.) were calculated and included in the classification process, which involved a random forest (RF) algorithm, 5 a common ML method based on building a large number of decision trees to classify six land cover types: forest, forest-shrub mosaic, oil palm, bareground crop, built-up area, and water. Both the analysis and accuracy assessment were conducted using the GEE API.The overall accuracy of the resulting map, which is the number of correctly classified pixels over the total number of pixels, reached 84 percent. The pixels used to calculate this overall accuracy were selected for each land cover type from polygons we delineated in Google Earth Pro. Our map estimation of oil palm area in the three provinces (4.4 million ha) compared well with the official Indonesian statistics (4 million ha). We compared our technique with those in two other studies to map oil palm in the same area. Our technique provided a closer estimate of oil palm extent to the official statistics than the other studies, but with a substantial number of discrepancies with the two maps of the other studies. Our map of oil palm was compared to a map of protected areas to detect potential illegal deforestation and encroachment. This comparison showed that oil palm plantations encroached on 3 percent of the protected areas in these provinces in 2015. Since its launch, GEE has been used worldwide in various fields spanning agriculture, ecology, economics, forestry and medicine (Kumar and Mutanga 2018). GEE is a very promising innovation that, by providing large datasets and high computation power to users, can facilitate the mapping of Earth's land cover at national, regional and planetary scales (Hansen et al. 2013).This article aims to introduce readers to GEE with two examples of its uses for land cover mapping: (i) industrial oil palm detection in Indonesia; and (ii) differentiating cashew from forest cover in India. These two case studies provide insights about the implementation, impact and constraints of this innovative technology for monitoring agricultural land cover that commonly encroaches into forests.The first author (TS) mapped oil palm plantations for the year 2015 in Riau, Jambi, and South Sumatra, three provinces of Indonesia known for their large areas dedicated to oil palm (Sarzynski et al. 2020).Imagery from two optical satellites, Landsat 7 and Landsat 8, and one radar satellite, Palsar, were all sourced and pre-processed on GEE. The analysis included running the classification of land cover separately for each type of satellite imagery and when optical and radar imagery were combined land use and land cover over time and inform policymakers and law enforcement officials on where natural resources are threatened. For example, a sustainable certification program could exclude oil palm companies establishing plantations on forested land.While many studies have already mapped crops such as oil palm and coffee, cashew monoculture has not yet received much research attention. Cashew is currently grown across 33 tropical countries that also host high levels of biodiversity (FAOSTAT). 1 The co-authors (SBW, AR and JL) are currently using GEE to map cashew monocultures in Sindhudurg district (southern Maharashtra, India). India is the second-largest cashew producer in the world, and Sindhudurg is one of the country's top cashew-producing districts (C-DAP Sindhudurg 2012; FAOSTAT 7 ).The forests in Sindhudurg fall in the Western Ghats global biodiversity hotspot 8 . Most of them are privately-owned forests and serve as a wildlife corridor (Myers et al. 2000;Punjabi and Kulkarni 2015). In recent years, cashew monocultures have increasingly replaced forests in this landscape.The authors obtained and pre-processed optical (LANDSAT-8) and radar (SENTINEL-1) imagery from February to May 2020 using GEE. Pre-processing involved speckle filtering and mosaicking the image to remove cloud cover. For analysis, random forest (RF) and classification and regression tree (CART) 9 algorithms were run on combined optical and radar imagery using polygons of the following land cover categories: forest, monoculture cashew, barren land, crop land, and water bodies (delineated in Google Earth Pro 10 using on-ground field observations).The total extent of land under cashew cultivation in Sindhudurg according to our preliminary GEE analysis was 118,000 ha using the RF algorithm, and 74,500 ha using the CART algorithm. The 58 percent difference between RF and CART algorithms is due to differences in how they work, with the CART algorithm being more robust for outlier predictors. In the absence of official government records for 2020 for Sindhudurg district, our preliminary results using the CART algorithm compare reasonably well with 2018 government statistics on cashew extent. However, this is an ongoing study, and future analyses should also evaluate the performance of other classifiers such as the support vector machines (SVM) 11 algorithm and use accuracy assessments to compare algorithms.This project will enable an evaluation of the most suitable methods that can be used to map cashew plantations in the Western Ghats, which could form the basis for future remote sensing studies that use GEE to map and detect cashew land use expansion.Mapping cashew monocultures using GEE can be a useful tool for conservation and land use planning. In the future, GEE could be used to monitor deforestation and cashew expansion and serve as a useful mapping tool for potential cashew sustainability certification programs.Results (implementation, impacts, constraints, enabling environment)The GEE web application was originally created by Google engineers and mostly used by academics based in the USA for forest and vegetation land use and land cover studies (Kumar and Mutanga 2018). GEE was first developed to facilitate access to and analysis of large amounts of remote sensing data. However, the first users had to learn the programming language of the software and develop their own code and program to run land cover analyses. Academics were the principal users and developers of GEE since they had the required knowledge to create and implement a GEE program in their research. For example, the twomapping projects described above were carried out by graduate students. The large effort of academics in developing GEE for land cover mapping and forest monitoring generated a new scientific literature about GEE implementation and thereby facilitated capacity building for individuals, who disseminated the technology to the private sector. Unfortunately, GEE has yet to be widely adopted by non-profit organizations (NGOs) or government agencies due to the knowledge gap in programming skills and geographical information system (GIS) software.Potential contribution of GEE to sustainable forest management GEE can have an impact by making satellite imagery accessible to a wide range of users and providing access to powerful computational tools for remote sensing through its web application. The use of remote sensing to generate information on land cover change, in particular on agricultural expansion into tropical forests, enhances our understanding of these processes. GEE can help monitor land cover changes and identify the main drivers of deforestation. However, on-the-ground interviews and field data collection is necessary to groundtruth the map resulting from remote sensing analysis using GEE and to gain a deeper The main constraint to implementation is the limited number of people proficient in using GIS software. GEE itself is not complicated to implement once the code is accessible; however, users need basic knowledge of GIS to use the software. While using a GIS software, users can format the retrieved maps from GEE and integrate them into reports for policy advocacy. Countries and organizations who want to use maps and geographic information in policymaking and advocacy require people with such expertise. Launched in 2010, GEE is a comparatively young platform and is yet to gain widespread use and popularity. Future efforts can be focused on reaching out across all sections of academia and policymakers alike so that the multi-faceted benefits of GEE can be realized in practice. A more costly solution is to develop a third-party software based on GEE to guide users in implementing a specific code. A handful of software based on GEE for land monitoring already exist: for example, Collect Earth, which provides users with highresolution satellite imagery to support the monitoring of agricultural lands, quantifying deforestation and land use changes (Saah et al. 2019).  Forests play an important role in water circulation across the Earth, affecting both rural and urban communities alike. Conversely, by following the cycle and path of water through forests and communities, local residents can better assess risks from deforestation, find a basis for legal actions to prevent further destruction, plan reforestation efforts efficiently, and even design future urban communities strategically.There are existing tools created specifically for mapping forest data, predicting floods and droughts, or managing forest data. However, there is currently no application that unifies these tools into a platform that pro-actively engages the mainstream public; nor is there a way to assess impacts of forest changes on the water cycle. Environmental information must be delivered to a broad audience as it develops and must not be limited to those who actively seek information, as this is a very limited demographic. To disseminate information more efficiently, a solution could be integrated into existing ubiquitous mobile applications that many people use on a daily basis, such as social media.Combining innovative technologies for data collection, analysis, modelling and dissemination can provide new perspectives on how to raise awareness on the multiple impacts of deforestation on the environment and ultimately on human livelihoods and well-being. In this paper, we introduce the concept of Snitch -an end-user application that integrates five primary technologies:1. real-time satellite data and forest monitoring applications to map out changes in forest areas; 2. machine learning for flood and drought forecasts based on changes documented in satellite data; Snitch would combine various technologies in order to provide users with realtime information about environmental developments that could potentially affect them. This can be done using machine learning to simulate how water will flow based on the changes in the landscape as well as predicted rainfall for the year. Snitch would also empower people and communities, encouraging them to take control of their environment by allowing them to participate directly in its management through reporting systems, collaboration and cooperation with other users.The functions that Snitch would offerMany advanced technologies, such as satellites, drones or sensor networks, can be used for forest monitoring and management.3. plant/tree identification applications that track plant species with geolocation, integrated with a database of native species to assist in preserving biodiversity in reforestation efforts, and in identifying ideal species for problem areas; 4. blockchain technology for recording, verifying, and dispersing forest data as well as data transparency; and, 5. web/mobile-based social network applications to effectively disseminate data to a mass audience.With mobile applications, data is made available and accessible to the worldwide public. This opens new avenues for both local and international attention -and possibly interventionto be enhanced in a more timely manner. What is needed is a platform that consolidates and combines data from these tools into a single, easily understandable user interface.The objective of Snitch is to make forest data available to the general public in as close to real time as possible, and to make information readily available to regular users, such as through daily social media notifications.Through machine learning, simulations of how water flow will change based on changes in forest data can be visualized and provided to users, along with warnings on potential dangers of flooding, drought, landslides, etc.Simply allowing simulations to be shared via social media can significantly raise the reach of information to a global scale. Snitch can also be integrated into other commonly used mobile applications with broad global reach such as Google Maps and social media.As illustrated in Figure 1, Snitch would combine five kinds of innovative technologies to streamline data dissemination and collaboration to support sustainable forest management. Source: AuthorThe Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) already supports National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) 3 for several countries. Tools such as Google Earth 4 and Collect Earth Online 5 can be used and integrated with other advanced technologies to help people monitor changes in forest areas in real time.Using satellite data and weather forecasts, machine learning can be used to generate simulations of water flows, along with their potential impacts, such as floods and landslides, depending on the expected rainfall level. It can also generate predictions on possible water supply disruptions in cities based on deforestation around dams and water sources.Plant identification mobile apps can be used to aggregate a list of species found in forest areas through user submissions and Global Positioning System (GPS) data. They are also useful in identifying whether a prominent species is native to an area or not, or whether it is invasive and potentially detrimental to local ecosystems. Users can also contribute to a database of native tree species and their best use in order to conserving biodiversity.Blockchain technology has a lot to offer in terms of recording, verifying, and instantly dispersing forest data on a massive scale. It offers the possibility of building identity and reputation systems to incentivize users to contribute accurate data. Reports from users can be time-stamped and archived in a record system that cannot be tampered.Financial incentives for deforestation are high, and mining corporations, illegal loggers and poachers and other actors are usually well-funded and possibly armed. Attacks on environmentalists have been on the rise in recent years. 66 Online profiles can be pseudonymous, which can help conceal the identities of foresters and environmental protectors. Anonymous users can easily take photos of environmental violations and violators and simply upload reports along with geodata and details to the network without fear of corporate or state-sponsored censorship. A dedicated archive web page can be made for this purpose.Additionally, blockchain networks enable peer-to-peer transfers. Environmental advocates, depending on their reputation on the platform, can be funded individually, launch crowdfunding efforts for their initiatives, and receive donations directly from donors anywhere in the world.Some plant identification mobile apps, like PictureThis and PlantSnap, already include a social component that usually only works within the app itself. By integrating such apps into ubiquitous social media, the need to market and educate users into an entirely new tool can be significantly cut down and usage can be significantly increased.Alarms on forest destruction can easily be disseminated on a large scale through social media notifications. The hope is that realtime information on undesirable changes to forest areas will push citizens to come together and take action as soon as possible.Through social network integration, users will also be able to discuss and collaborate on reforestation programs. Local communities will be enabled to work together to identify the best choices of tree and plant species for reforestation in a specific area, such as focusing on native and endemic species that would benefit native insect and bird populations.| 47Snitch still requires software development and testing before implementation.The Snitch platform could help prevent deforestation and forest degradation and support reforestation, improving livelihoods and enhancing health and safety. Snitch could help attract funding for local communities and contribute to boosting local micro-economies through ecotourism. The integration of even more advanced technologies such as virtual reality could be used to expand the tool to cover educational tours.One limit of the platform is that it will only disseminate information to citizens. Ultimately, any action and political change to support ecosystem health will depend on local action and government support. The Snitch platform could even be used by local government units to support reforestation efforts or urban planning, including green infrastructures such as trees and parks.Such tools also require public adhesion and education as well as an internet connection, which can be a challenge for poor communities in remote areas. This is expected to improve as satellite internet becomes more widely accessible worldwide.Funding is another constraint facing this solution and most (if not all) other environmental protection solutions. Such social impact projects usually rely on donations. A monetization and incentive model is still to be crafted in order to make the project at least self-sustaining. If such efforts can be made profitable, there will be greater incentives for investors to fund them. The national adoption of SMART means the government mandates its use in all PAs in the country. For instance, the forestry Global initiatives such as the Bonn Challenge and the New York Declaration on Forests have prompted large-scale forest restoration projects to combat land degradation, preserve biodiversity, improve local livelihoods and mitigate climate change. However, national and regional achievements to fulfill the quantitative targets set by these initiatives have been met largely outside natural forest areas, often in the form of conventional tree plantations, whilst degradation and deforestation continue in natural forests without much restoration being applied. Forest restoration in recently deforested sites can been achieved by nurturing natural regenerants and facilitating seed dispersal. This can result in more rapid carbon sequestration and biodiversity recovery compared to conventional tree plantations. Furthermore, many projects have been criticized for not matching restoration interventions with degradation levels. These insufficiencies have increased restoration costs while decreasing their effectiveness. Initial degradation assessment and restoration monitoring are essential for planning and managing restoration, but current surveys, which extrapolate degradation levels from small sample plots, are labor-intensive, expensive and inefficient. Meanwhile, drones and imaging technologies have become readily available and affordable and can rapidly cover entire restoration sites.This study presents innovative techniques and tools using consumer-grade unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) and imaging technologies, which offer a rapid and cost-effective way to collect data, enabling stakeholders to assess initial degradation levels, develop restoration plans, and monitor restoration progresses. Such data could be used to further develop a forestdegradation index (FDI) for restoration sites.To test the applicability and reliability of UAV-derived RGB imagery, a pilot study was conducted in Tum Pha Thai National Park, Northern Thailand. RGB images were captured using a consumergrade quadcopter (DJI Phantom 4 Pro) with an onboard camera. The images were processed  1).The analysis of raw RGB images can also yield useful data. For example, some of the more distinctive tree species can be distinguished using the color-threshold function in ImageJ 19 to adjust image hue, saturation and brightness (HSB). 20 However, the use of raw images has flaws, such as radial distortion (objects towards the edges of images appearing tilted) and pixels of several tree species and even ground vegetation sharing similar properties. Orthophotos can address the issue of radial distortion, and CHMs can distinguish between ground weeds and forest canopy by height. However, the resolution of orthophotos and CHMs is much 16 See: https://www.agisoft.com/ 17 A raster is a grid of pixels identified with their coordinates (x, y, and z), information (e.g. their latitude and longitude), and elevation above sea level. data (RGB forest imagery), allowing users to directly process their UAV-derived RGB images. Another groundbreaking tool, Picterra, provides a user-friendly interfaced platform allowing users to train the detector using their own spaceborne or airborne images by hand-drawing polygons (boundaries) of objects, without requiring any coding or AI expertise (Picterra 2018).Pilot  The stocking density, derived from the computer models, was compared with that estimated visually in 10 circular sample plots (5 m radius, used for the ground survey) (Table 1). ForestTools underestimated tree numbers in the CHM in seven of the 10 plots (omission error, -3.57 (mean) ± 0.78(SD)).Picterra also underestimated tree numbers in seven plots (-2.14 (mean) ± 1.07(SD) and overestimated them in two.Strengths and weaknesses of the tools are compared below (Figures 3 to 5). However, it should be noted that weaknesses might be overcome by better calibrating the tools, such as by setting different equations and minimum tree heights in the R package algorithm, or by adding training data to the deep learningbased platform. As illustrated in Figure 3, ForestTools often detected several tree top points within single large tree crowns. On the other hand, Picterra was successful at distinguishing tree crowns only when the trees were distinctively separated; edge-touching large crowns were often recognized as single trees.As illustrated in Figure 4, ForestTools often failed to detect small trees in the CHM. This was because the algorithm is based on point heights in the CHM. The minimum tree height can be set by the user, but when it is set too low, other weeds and debris (higher than the given height) are treated as trees. Conversely, when the minimum height is set too high, small trees cannot be detected. In this pilot study, the minimum height was set to 1.0 m. In contrast, tree detection with deep leaning using the orthophoto is based on training images provided to the system by the user. Therefore, if users include small trees in the training images, the detector will recognize them. Small trees can be more successfully detected when the background color is very different from that of the tree crowns (e.g. dry grass or soil). It is often difficult to visually distinguish tree crowns from dense, green weed cover in RGB images since their colors are similar. ForestTools was able to detect several small trees using height differences in the CHM instead of color. However, as mentioned above, when heights of weeds are similar to or taller than those of small trees, ForestTools is also limited in its ability to detect those trees. On the other hand, Picterra was less efficient at distinguishing between green weeds and tree crowns in the 2D orthophoto as shown in Figure 5.One limitation of using RGB imagery to generate CHMs is that many small trees are invisible beneath the crowns of larger trees, whereas LiDAR can \"see through\" the forest canopy to a certain extent. This problem is evident both with computer tools and with hand drawing, using 2D orthophotos and raw RGB images. Although this barrier is inevitable when using RGB imagery, it is still possible to evaluate the canopy cover and tree height of most trees. Furthermore, it may be possible to develop models to predict the number of undetected trees by relating tree-size frequency distributions in the target forest with other variables such as percentage canopy cover.A  doing so to collect high-quality images for the processing and construction of CHMs and 3D models requires considerable technical expertise and knowledge about how SfM works (e.g. matching aircraft speed with camera settings, designing flight missions to cover the site adequately within limited battery life, safety and weather issues, etc.).Training by specialists is usually necessary.However, using the types of data presented in this paper may save time and money in the long run and would certainly facilitate restoration planning and monitoring. Many people are needed for ground surveys.For the rapid site assessment of one small restoration project in northern Thailand, on about 0.5-3.0 hectares, at least three to four teams of two to three members each are needed to adequately sample data in a day. The surveyors require transport, food and salary payments. Costs are related to the number of people involved and to the area of the restoration site. On the other hand, over the same area, a single team of three people working for a few hours is sufficient for drone flying. Operational costs are therefore lower compared with ground surveys, although initial costs are considerably higher.Using UAV-derived parameters to develop a forest-degradation index (FDI) Therefore, this study emphasizes the appropriate assessment of forest degradation and monitoring of restoration progress as a solution to current problems. It introduces innovative techniques and tools using consumer-grade UAVs to do so. The pilot study at Tum Pha Thai National Park tested two tools and identified their relative strengths and weaknesses. Although further refinement of such tools may be needed, the pilot study demonstrated the potential for consumer-grade UAVs to detect parameters describing forest degradation and the effectiveness of restoration.Furthermore, their use for developing a forest degradation index (FDI) based on UAVderived data would support decision-making when planning restoration and subsequent monitoring, thus enabling restoration projects to be assessed in terms of their quality, numbers of trees planted and size of restored sites.A FDI may not be a perfect solution, and using UAV-acquired images may not be as precise as measuring every tree on the ground. However, the reduced precision of drone-derived data must be considered against the reduced operating costs of drone surveys and the fact that drones can cover Forest inventory aims at collecting information about a stand's structure, composition, and potential, serving as the basis for forest management (Putra 2015). Among the parameters measured in forest inventory are tree height, canopy cover, and tree diameter. Data on tree height and diameter at breast height (DBH) can be used to estimate aboveground biomass and carbon stock (Hashem 2019). Canopy cover information is used to estimate other ecosystem services, such as climate regulation, wildlife habitat, and emissions of organic compounds that can facilitate cloud formation (Ozanne et al. 2003).Canopy cover data is essential to monitor global changes that include climate change and land conversion that causes habitat loss. Tree canopies bring a lot of benefits for wildlife, such as shelter, cover, and places to find food and breed, especially for arboreal animals 1 . If habitat fragmentation occurs in a forest area, it affects the existence and sustainability of wildlife. Canopy cover measurements are useful in determining the forests' potential as habitat for arboreal animals.The estimation of tree height, canopy cover, and tree diameter has been performed in several prior studies using remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS). Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are expected to be more effective and efficient at estimating these stand parameters. This study is divided into four steps: (1) UAV flight and image acquisition, (2) UAV image processing, (3) data analysis and (4) estimation of field time -presented in the following sections.UAV cameras can take pictures, then used to estimate tree height, canopy cover, and tree diameter. The following actions were performed before the UAV flight: (i) pre-mark installation in an area of interest (AOI) (i.e., physical marking of ground control points (GCPs)); 2 and (ii) flight path creation with the DroneDeploy software. 3Images and data were collected directly with a drone (DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter) flying at an altitude of 100 meters. The images and data were calibrated by flying the drone over open land in each AC (see Figure 2). The objective was to keep the signal between the drone and the control steady so that the image result is not corrupted during processing. Overlap and sidelap 4 were adjusted respectively to 80 percent and 70 percent to ensure highquality photogrammetry (Zulkipli and Tahar 2018). The camera was pointing in the nadir direction (90°) 5 with a single grid pattern. 6  The single grid pattern was chosen because the camera was perpendicular to the AOI, so a single shot was enough during the aerial 4 The drone flies back and forth to cover the whole area of interest, dividing it in parallel lanes. \"Overlap\", \"frontlap\" or \"forward overlap\" denote the proportion of common content in two adjacent photos taken in the same lane, while \"sidelap\" or \"lateral overlap\" denotes the proportion of common content in two photos taken in adjacent lanes. Lower overlap and sidelap means higher productivity and reduced costs, while higher overlap and sidelap are associated with higher image quality. Typical sidelap and overlap requirements can range from 60 to 75 percent, depending on the end-use of the image acquired. See: https://sentera. com/6x-why-capture-rate-matters/ or https://www. aerotas.com/overlap-flight-pattern photography. Tree sampling was performed on each AOI on 30 trees to calibrate the model. The tree height measurement was carried out using a Leica Disto Touch D810 laser distance meter, 7 and the DBH was calculated with a push-broom hyperspectral imager band. 8 .The GCP benchmark data was measured with a Trimble R8s satellite navigation receiver 9 . Such dual frequency geodetic global positioning systems provide more accurate and precise coordinate information, i.e. with an error score level around a centimeter (Gerke and Przybilla 2016). The GCP data is used to calibrate UAV images and to enhance mapping accuracy.Data processing and analysis went through three stages as shown in Figure 3.The UAV aerial photography image went through a three-stage process. At stage 1, the UAV image was processed with the Pix4D    At stage 3, the canopy cover value was calculated using the data coming from both the CHM and from a \"visual classification\" method. The CHM value was used to define two classes of land: \"enclosed land\" (i.e., areas with tree cover: CHM > 5m), vs. \"open land\" (i.e., areas without tree cover: CHM <5 m) (Padró et al. 2018). In the visual classification method, enclosed vs. open land was identified manually based on visible features on orthophotos.Both datasets were then used to calculate the all return cover index (ARCI) 14 using a formula adapted from Ma et al. ( 2017 The ARCI, which ranges between 0 and 1, reflects the proportion of enclosed land in the AOI and can be used as a proxy for canopy cover. The higher the ARCI, the denser the canopy cover. Results obtained from both methods were then analyzed and compared.In remote sensing imagery, the ground sampling distance (GSD) is the distance between two adjacent pixels' centers as measured on the ground. The GSD reflects how sampling limits the spatial resolution of the resulting image. The higher the GSD, the lower the picture resolution and level of detail (Hernina et al. 2019). A GSD below 0.3 m is considered to produce high-quality images (Lillesand et al. 2015). According to Susetyo et al. (2017), UAV images can be categorized as high-resolution images because the resolution is two to four times higher than high-resolution satellite imagery. UAV images of various ACs and locations came with various average GSD and average density, as illustrated in Table 1. The average GSDs, obtained with a 12-megapixel camera with 2.5 mm zoom, ranged from 3.53 to 4.77 cm. These GSD values can be considered very low and are associated with very highresolution pictures.A point cloud is a set of data points, each associated with its spatial coordinates, representing a 3D shape or object. When point cloud data is processed into a 3D digital model, each point, with its coordinates, represents a pixel in the overall picture. A point cloud is used to create DTMs and contour lines at the end of the process in the Pix4D Mapper software (Sutanto and Ridwan 2016). Point cloud density refers to the number of coordinates collected per unit area. The higher the point cloud density, the higher the image resolution. The average point cloud density depends on canopy density level and on the slope of the location (Domingo et al. 2019). The shooting location for AC4 has a steeper slope compared to the other ACs. Therefore, the resulting point cloud density and the resulting quality of UAV images is lower for AC4.Table 2 shows that the use of drones (model time) saves a lot of time when compared to inventories realized directly by field workers and hence could reduce drastically the costs of forest inventories (see also Priyo and Paridi 2018). According to Yovi (2019), because of the drudgery of field work and because of their direct interaction with sources of danger in forests, forest rangers and field workers   Estimating tree height and tree diameterThe canopy height model (CHM) value, defined as the difference between DSM and DTM values in each pixel, is a proxy for tree height. The CHM value is shown in yellow to red in Figure 4, while the sampled tree coordinate position is shown in blue circles.In Figure 4, red reflects higher CHM values, while yellow shows the opposite. The average CHM value found for AC4, AC6, and AC8 were 19.46 m, 20.03 m, and 27.77 m respectively. Like previous studies (Zhao et al. 2013;Wu et al. 2019), this study sometimes found negative CHM values due to biases or errors produced by the model, in particular where the point cloud density obtained from UAV images was too low.A simple linear regression, illustrated in Figure 5 and Table 3, shows a very strong correlation between tree height and the CHM value. The strongest correlation is observed for AC6. Then, Figure 5 and Table 4 illustrate the very strong correlation between tree DBH and the CHM value. The correlation observed has similarities for all of the ACs. In all ACs, the percentage SE value is very low.Canopy cover area can be very useful for assessing and monitoring: deforestation rate; wildlife habitat, especially for arboreal animals; and other ecosystem services. Canopy cover area can be used as a proxy to estimate the extent and quality of wildlife habitat for these arboreal animals, as well as the related feed potential. Deforestation rate control contributes to preserving the temperature stability of the Earth's surface. Tree canopies play a crucial part in giving protection from direct solar radiation and thermal comfort, thus contributing to the mitigation of climate change impacts (Wu et al. 2016). Therefore, the effective and efficient estimation of canopy cover area is essential in supporting forest conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. High-quality UAV images can help monitor canopy cover and deforestation rate very precisely.As mentioned above, this study compares the canopy cover information derived both from CHM values and from visual classification. Canopy cover area is estimated at 7803.5 m 2 , 6053,5 m 2 and 1221 m 2 respectively in AC4, AC6, and AC8.Figure 6 shows the variety of canopy covers, from low to high density, present in each AC. As a result, the ARCI varies significantly across ACs, from 0.625 to 0.895, as shown in Table 5. Visually, there is no significant difference in the canopy cover obtained through the CHM or by visual classification. Table 5 (rightmost column) shows small numerical differences in the ARCI obtained by the two methods, demonstrating the relevance of the CHM to estimating canopy cover area. Note: R2 denotes the coefficient of determination: R2 ranges between 0 and 1. The higher the R2, the stronger the correlation between the two variables. SE denotes the standard error.| 83   This study shows the high potential of drones for estimating tree height, tree diameter and canopy cover area. Drones can acquire highquality pictures (high resolution and point cloud density) which, after processing, can lead to very precise estimates of these three parameters much more quickly and at a much lower cost than field forest inventories.In • Handheld suction (vacuum-type) samplers can trap flying insects that prefer to stay close to the ground vegetation. However, they are labour-intensive, bulky and costly, may suffer from low suction speeds, and can damage ground vegetation (Wheater et al., 2011). • Rothamsted suction (chimney-type) traps are fixed bulky structures (12.2 m above ground); they are set at a specific height to target a single species (aphids) (Bell et al. 2015).Malaise traps are used in this study along with drones and are also criticized for their transportation and setup time. From field experience:• Drones may experience calibration issues if transported roughly. • There is no significant difference in setup time between the two methods. • Malaise traps can be left alone, but drones require constant care and visual line of sight (VLOS). • Neither method is adapted to rainy and moist conditions.Considering the importance of flying insects, they must also be monitored at different heights. Using drones for entomological monitoring provides a larger degree of freedom to assess the abundance and diversity of insects at different heights.Insects can be sampled dynamically, not only vertically but also horizontally, over large areas. In other words, sampling places and times can be changed quickly, even in real time according to research needs. Innovative drone technologies have allowed entomologists and ecologists to study and monitor insects from varied spatial, trophic and pollination perspectives. However, the potential of drones for ecological (insect and other wildlife) monitoring is still largely untapped in many countries. So far, only two trial studies have been conducted on the use of drones to catch insects in the Asia-Pacific region: one in South Korea (Kim et al. 2018), and one in Australia (Christensen 2019;SWCCNRM 2019). Another study has been implemented in the USA (Neufeld et al. 2019).| 91This study compared three insect-catching methods: (i) two dynamic methods, using drones equipped with a hanging net or fixed net that can sample insects in different air layers and over large areas, and (ii) one static method (a malaise trap). The drones flew at heights of 1-33 m and the malaise trap was set up on the ground covering a height of up to 1 m. There were 17 sampling sites across the landscape matrix (comprising four grassland, five hedge, four rapeseed and four wheat sampling sites).The main objectives of the study were to:• compare the effectiveness of two different drones using different insect-trapping net designs; • test flight efficiency with respect to wind directions; • compare the number of insects caught between both drones and the malaise trap; • determine the diversity of insects caught across sampling sites, by height and by time of day; • identify the insects caught to their taxonomic order level (possibly species level);• suggest recommendations to improve the implementation of insect-catching methods.The implementation plan was divided into three main modules, further decomposed into varied packages and tasks, as illustrated in  Source: AuthorsThe first drone, a Mavic Pro, 1 was equipped with a single hanging net, hung with a long plastic thread (fishing line) from the drone like a fishing creel (Figure 2). The net was designed with double (external and internal) layers so that the insects could not escape after being trapped. To extract the insects out of the net, a specially designed cotton cap was attached with Velcro at the end of the trap. The overall length of the outer net layer was 80 cm, with a 40 cm inner net layer (Figure 2 left). The diameter of the net was about 38 cm (Figure 2). The net was approximately twice the size of a fixed-net design. It was attached with an almost 3 m fishing line 2 to avoid direct downward thrust from propellers. At heights of above 20 m, net orientation was an issue due to an increase in wind gusts, and inertia caused the drones to lose calibration, control and battery power.Phantom 2 with two fixed netsThe second drone, a Phantom 2, 3 had two nets fixed on both sides of a 1 m rod attached to the drone's special landing legs (Figure 3). The nets were fixed at far ends of the rod 1 Mavic Pro is a series of UAV developed by DJI, a Chinese technology company.2 Hence the drone must fly at 7 m to catch insects at a height of 4 m.3 Phantom is a series of UAV also developed by DJI.to avoid the thrust from the propeller. 4 The rod length was adjusted to best maintain the drones' centre of gravity but still faced some technical issues (i.e. instability in flight and a loss of hovering ability), which may have been caused by attaching the metal rod in close proximity to the drone sensors. An unsuccessful attempt was made to solve this technical issue by using a cane stick to avoid disturbance caused by the metal. Extending the legs with stilt-like cane sticks caused the drone to crash-land due to interference with its aerodynamic design. This issue was beyond the team's expertise and remained unresolved.The net frame consisted of easily obtainable knitting frames with a diameter of 25 cm. This drone was much more susceptible to loss of control than the Mavic Pro, such as during sudden changes in wind direction. Due to this instability issue, the Phantom 2 was kept in constant movement to avoid crashing. For reasons unknown, steady flight was possible only by controlling the drone manually, which made it difficult to maintain the correct height.A slender platform was arranged for the launch but required assisted hand-forced landings. However, on a few occasions, control of the drone was lost due to wind drag and it crashed.  The DJI GO 4 drone application was used for drone calibration, and Litchi (paid version) was used for flight path processing and manual control. The Airdata UAV (paid version) online platform was used for the processing of flight logs. UAV Forecast was used to determine flight conditions. DroneDeploy (trial version) was used for image processing. The AgrarWetter website was used for weather forecasts.The malaise trap was put in place to sample insect populations up to 1 m in height and always placed perpendicular to the wind (Figure 4). A fine netted vertical structure intercepts insects in flight. As they hit the centre partition, the sloping tent-like roof guides them to crawl upwards into a collecting jar fixed at the highest point, which contains a small quantity of alcohol (Wheater and Cook 2016). These traps face some limitations: they may attract vandals, and they cannot be used in wet and windy conditions. It is strongly recommended that these traps be supplemented with additional trapping methods such as drone sweep-netting methods (Wheater et al. 2011).This study took place in Dedelow, close to the town of Prenzlau, Brandenburg, in the northwestern Uckermark region of Germany.The study area is an open agricultural landscape (Figure 5 left). Four different habitat types were sampled (hedges, grasslands, rapeseed and wheat fields). Each habitat type was sampled four times in different areas (no repetition of the same sampling site). Hedges were sampled five times. 5 Drone regulations (Juniper 2016) were taken into account by applying a 150 m safety buffer around residential colonies, buildings and transmission lines, and a 100 m buffer around roads and dairy plants. In addition, permissions to access sites were obtained from the landowners, farmers and hunters.A U-shaped transect was designed with a single point for launching and landing (Figure 5). The planned length of the U-transect was 125 m (sampled at both sides, with a 10 m curve). However, drone flights were controlled 5 The project was carried out at 17 sampling sites in total (Figure 5 left). An additional hedge sampling site (H-ex or H_5) was selected to be on the safe side in case permission to other selected sites was denied. manually for various technical reasons, 6 and in real conditions, many factors can affect altitude and transect length. 7 As a result, the real U-transect length varied across flights (up to +-56 m). In general, both drones faced problems at heights above 20 m, such as mid-flight inertia and calibration issues. 8  Maintaining stable height was much more difficult with the Phantom 2 because of its aforementioned stability issues.The winds experienced during the field activity phase were usually very strong (often 23-36 km h -1 , compared to a recommended wind speed of 14-20 km h -1 ). Drones are capable of measuring average wind speed, direction and maximum gust during each flight. 9 Some flights were cancelled because of unsuitable wind conditions (average speed above 22 km h -1 and maximum gust speed of over 28 km h -1 ). Two proposed flight schemes were implemented (with or against the wind, versus perpendicular to the wind) to determine which scheme was the most effective at catching insects and to test the assumption that insects prefer to take flight perpendicularly to the wind. However, only one flight scheme was applicable to the hedges, i.e. following the hedge. 10 Similarly, for one grassland, only one flight scheme 6 e.g., to avoid inertia, sudden wind gusts and more drag on nets at higher altitudes; to control hanging net orientation; to address mid-flight drone calibration issues (for both drones). Moreover, the centre of gravity issue caused by attaching the net structure very close to the body of the Phantom 2 led to a series of other aerodynamic problems with hovering and launching/landing.7 Such as topography, wind conditions, branches and other obstacles, manual control, and hanging net orientation.8 Specifically related to the hanging net -Mavic Pro design, the drone was dragged by the hanging net due to sudden wind gusts. When attempting to regain control, the drone became highly unstable and showed a recalibration warning upon landing.9 All of these variables can be extracted from flight logs.Wind is calculated using the angle of the aircraft and the speed of the aircraft at each point of the flight.Wind values may not be recorded in the logs during sharp manoeuvres, such as steep decline or fast turns. See: https://airdata.com/.10 Because at lower altitudes, vegetation and trees were a major obstacle for flying perpendicular to the hedge.was tested because of the small size of the sampling site.To cover the large number of flights per site, at least three batteries per drone were necessary based on wind conditions, site accessibility and charging of battery units. To cover more sites in a day, it is recommended to carry extra sets of batteries, along with double charging units that can be connected with the vehicle's battery system.Data collected by the drones were partially recorded as a hardcopy, then partially recorded and processed using software, and finally recoded into Excel sheets. Data were later processed and organized for data handling in the R programming language. The initial data representation and descriptive analysis are being presented in this paper.Different methods were used to extract insects from the nets. Insects caught with the malaise trap were collected from the alcoholfilled containers attached. A battery-powered aspirator with specially-designed containers was also used to collect the live insects from the trap mesh (Figure 6 left). A cold spray (liquid refrigerant) was used to freeze the trapped flying insects so that they could be easily collected (Figure 6 Insects caught with the open drone nets were sprayed immediately after landing, 11 collected at the bottom of the net into the attached white cotton cloth, then counted, recorded and preserved with a solution of ethanol (96 percent). The specimens were then identified using a digital microscope in an ecological lab (Figure 7) up to their taxonomic order. 12 11 However, a few specimens still managed to escape.12 As we are currently lacking the expertise needed to identify aerial insects up to their species level, we plan to order a DNA analysis of selected samples for species-level identification at a later stage.A total of 2,204 insects were caught in this pilot study. This section presents the first initial results of this study, still under the process of further evaluation, analysis and improvements.In total, both across all sites (hedges included), and in most sites, the largest number of insects were caught at a height of 1 m with a malaise trap. This occurred despite the fact that the trap is static, because insect diversity and abundance are highest close to ground vegetation and because the malaise trap has the largest catching surface. Across all sites, 1,370 insects (62 percent of the total) were caught with malaise traps. The number of insects caught with drones decreases gradually with altitude, showing that only a few specialized insects fly at higher altitudes (Figure 8). As only one flight scheme was implemented along the hedges, they are not directly comparable with the other habitats where two flight schemes were implemented and their results were thus processed separately. Overall, the Phantom 2, with its two fixed nets, caught more insects than the Mavic Pro, with its single hanging net, with 616 and 218 insects caught in total respectively including hedges, and 396 and 129 insects caught respectively when excluding hedges (see Figures 9 and 10 for detailed results).Across all habitats, excluding hedges monitored following a single flight scheme, 794 insects were caught with a malaise trap always placed perpendicular to the wind, 281 insects with drones flying with or against the wind, and 244 with drones flying perpendicular to the wind (Figure 11).Hedges accounted for the largest number (885) of insects caught among all habitats, despite the fact that hedges were all surveyed following a single flight scheme (i.e. along the hedge), followed by rapeseed (623 individuals), wheat (484 individuals) and grasslands (212 individuals) (Figure 12).Across all sites, 2,204 individuals were caught in total, including 2,129 flying and 75 non-flying individuals of nine different taxonomic orders (seven insects and two non-insect orders) (Figure 13). Besides flying insects, the bycatches included classes like Entognatha, which includes springtails (58 individuals), and arachnids (16 individuals), comprising 11 spiders and 5 ticks. Although they are not flying insects, they contribute to site biodiversity. Interestingly, ticks were caught clinging onto other flying specimens observed during lab identifications. Springtails are good jumpers and may have been caught during take-off or landing or accidentally sucked in by the aspirator. Similarly, spiders may have been caught either during their ballooning or during drone take-off and landing.Total no. of insectsCaught at the ground level and at ve varied altitudes (hedges excluded) Now focusing on flying insects, across all sampling sites, Dipterans were the most frequently caught, followed by Thysanopterans and Hymenopterans (Figure 13). Conversely, the fourth most frequently encountered order proved to be habitatspecific, e.g. Entognatha in grasslands, Hemipterans in hedges, and Coleopterans 13 in both crop fields. Among the least encountered orders were Lepidopterans, 14 Neuropterans (one individual) and one unknown.Hedges were the most diverse sites, offering moist shady niches and less wind resistance on the levee side. Hedges with varied vertical and horizontal vegetation structures provide protection and foraging niches for a large community of insects.13 Including the family of the rove beetles (Staphylinidae).14 Butterflies and moths (Lepidopterans) were only found in malaise traps, showing that they are not found at higher altitudes.The three catching methods do not show significant differences in terms of the variety of insects caught: flying insects caught with the malaise trap covered seven taxonomic orders, while insects caught with each type of drone (with fixed and hanging nets) covered five taxonomic orders.The appropriate time of day for flying drones was in the early morning due to calmer wind conditions. However, while suitable for drones, such conditions may not favour insect activity due to lower temperatures. All of the grassland sites were covered in the early morning due to constraints on site accessibility, such as grant preferences, transportation options, and distance from the field research centre. Grasslands were approached with all equipment stored in backpacks and an attached carrier with a bicycle. 15 The sampling time in grasslands and hedges sites was shorter than at other sites due to less insect activity in the morning, which resulted in less time spent on counting, and calmer wind conditions, allowing flights to be carried out smoothly. 16   The initial results (without statistical analysis), illustrated in Figure 14, indicate that regardless of the habitat, the number of caught insects was consistently lower in the morning than in the afternoon and evening when temperatures are higher and lower respectively. This shows that entomological activity increases with temperature. Overall, the number of insects caught in grasslands (212 individuals) and the number of taxonomic 15 Drones may face calibration issues if handled roughly, such as when taken on bumpy bicycle rides. Recalibration in the field can sometimes be problematic due to poor internet reception at remote sites.16 Normally, two sites were sampled per day. However, it was possible to sample three sites consecutively in the morning for grasslands and hedges.orders observed were the lowest because all grassland sites were sampled in the morning. Fewer insects were caught at two rapeseed and two wheat sites that were sampled in the morning than at the other sites for these crops, which were sampled in the afternoon and evening.For hedges, three sites were sampled in the morning, one in the evening and one in the afternoon. At individual sampling sites, the highest activity was observed during the afternoon (301 insects caught in H_3 site) due to considerably high temperatures, followed by the evening (184 in H_4) and the morning (184 in H_1) (Figure 14). A similar number of individuals were caught at the H_1 and H_4 sites, probably because both sites experienced similar temperature ranges. The stakeholders involved in this pilot study were landowners (local farmers and hunters), two regional universities (HNEE and PU) 17 and two regional public research institutions (ZALF and IZW) 18 focusing on agricultural landscapes, ecology and entomology. All landowners involved granted access to the sample sites. Some were even interested in the technological concept being applied. However, stakeholders were generally slightly hesitant due to concerns about crop damage and wildlife disturbance during field activities.This pilot study, as well as former studies (Kim et al. 2018;Neufeld et al. 2019) This pilot study was conducted in combination with another study on the coexistence of different aerial insectivores (swallows, bats) threatened by the decline in insect prey availability. It paved the way for improved sampling of insects at different heights to deepen knowledge on trophic interactions, such as foraging ecology and predator-prey relations among aerial insectivores. Drones have already been used for entomologicallyrelated monitoring in a few case studies, such as monitoring for mosquitos (Richards 2021) and locusts (Rajesh 2021). These studies were not meant to sample or catch them but to focus on their habitat and feeding grounds respectively. In future, I believe that ecological researchers could get benefit from improvised drone-net designs that will be able to catch locust swarms. This pilot study has led to further recommendations for future applications of insect-catching drones. Earlier studies (e.g. Kim et al. 2018) showed how remotely controlling the net direction on commercial drones can help avoid catching unwanted insects. Similar ideas can be applied to hobby drones. It was beyond the team's expertise to remotely control the direction of the nets during flight.Besides the choice of net cover, choosing appropriate flight applications is another important task. Flight applications and data processing options can be selected from online hubs that provide various options depending on the site specifications and customization of drone use for different research projects. The choice of automated or manual flight controls depends on the user, the study objective and the technicalities to be faced. Sudden changes in wind speed and direction are difficult to control and may cause issues such as mid-flight calibration, sudden drag, inertia and missing recorded flight log parameters. 29 To avoid such wind issues, it is equally important to look for ideal times with calm wind conditions, but these times may not provide ideal temperatures for insect activity. These issues cannot be entirely solved within the scope of general-purpose hobby drones. Hobby or commercial drones specifically designed for such tasks will likely increase work efficiency.The functionality of the nets is another important consideration. It is recommended to use white lightweight netting material to allow insects to be easily extracted. Another critical issue was the loss of hovering ability of the Phantom 2 drone when a foreign object was attached close to the drone's body. This issue could be solved by using drones with special designs to fix the nets to the drone. Such a drone could be an expensive customized drone or a hobby drone with an unusual design.Furthermore, to choose a suitable sample site, it is recommended to look for appropriate wind conditions and surroundings, as not all sites will provide ideal conditions. Another factor to be taken into account is that the drones must be operated within the line of sight of the operator, which often limits their range. Conversely, surplus batteries and charging units can be used to increase the drone range and overall working efficiency.In theory, it is preferable to use a single line transect with launching and landing points at each end to fly from one point to another, which reduces labour, flight time and battery use. However, it is not feasible for a single operator to be available at both spots while keeping the drone within the line of sight, which is why a U-shaped transect was used in this study, with a single point for launching and landing. Many technical issues were experienced during this study, especially inflight instability, making it impossible for a single operator to simultaneously focus on immediate insect spraying and attempt to force the drone to land by hand. As the nets must be opened, a helping hand is needed to recover them if the drone lands far away from the operator.This pilot study revealed that hobby drones equipped with homemade special nets can be used for insect sampling, but only at low altitudes (up to 20 m) due to their limited performance at higher altitudes. Compared to static ground traps (malaise traps, sweepnetting and suction traps), insect-catching drones can provide more vertical and horizontal spatial freedom to sample insects while requiring less labour. This study showed that the number of insects caught with drones decreases with altitude, and only a few specialized insects can fly at higher altitudes. Furthermore, the results confirm that the number of insects captured were affected by time of day and also by wind direction. This study also found that fixed nets were more effective at catching insects than hanging nets. An idea for future developments is to divide the caught samples into their morphotypes 30 to improve the analysis in terms of population indices.Invasive alien species pose a huge challenge to forest management throughout the world.The economic cost of invasion in terms of management and adverse impacts has been estimated to reach hundreds of billion dollars (Pimentel et al. 2001). Invasive species are seriously jeopardizing forest health, disturbing regeneration and natural ecosystems. The IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group (2000) defined alien invasive species as \"an alien species which becomes established in natural or semi-natural ecosystems or habitat, is an agent of change and threatens native biological diversity.\" Unlike native species, alien invasive species spread unmanageably, propagate relatively rapidly and outnumber native species in their ecosystems because of their capacity to thrive upon foreign soil and climatic conditions (Tiwari et al. 2005). They play a key role in altering biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Vilà et al. 2011) and are known to decrease native plant diversity (Hejda et al. 2009). They may also threaten the existence of native biota (Jauni and Hyvonen 2010). Invasions by a single species have been identified to negatively impact native species richness in a similar magnitude than land use change, the main factor causing the decline of species richness (Murphy and Romanuk 2014). On the other hand, they have also been found to increase biomass production of the invaded area because of their competitive fast growth rate (Vilà et al. 2011).Biological invasion has threatened biodiversity and ecosystem functions in Nepal (MFSC 2014). The emergence of new invasive alien plant species (IAPS) in agroecosystems has been considered a challenge for achieving the goals of the Agriculture Development Strategy of Nepal (MAD 2014). At least 183 exotic vascular 1 plant species including four pteridophytes 2 and 179 flowering plants are naturalized in Nepal. Among these, according to Shrestha (2019), 26 are invasive angiosperm species, four of which appear in the IUCN list of the 100 world's worst invasive species (Lowe et al. 2000). The southern half of the country (Terai, Siwalik, and Middle Hills zones), which has a tropical and subtropical climate, has more IAPS than the northern half (High Mountains and High Himal) (Shrestha 2016). However, the distribution of IAPS is expanding to new regions of the country because preventive 1 A vascular plant is a plant with specialized vascular tissue, including xylem and phloem.2 A pteridophyte is a vascular plant that disperses spores. Pteridophytes do not produce flowers nor seeds: hence, because their means of reproduction is hidden, they are sometimes called \"cryptogams\".low-intensity extensive site management. Intensively managed sites were completely cleared, retaining only regenerations, whereas extensively managed sites were cleaned only around natural regeneration. After the government imposed a mandatory rule for yearly pro-poor fund allocation, CFUGs were encouraged to invest in invasive species removal, thereby creating short-term employment for the poor and highlighting the importance of IAPS management.Compost manure was produced from the biomass generated by IAPS removals, providing additional income and employment opportunities.This paper presents the experiences of different field operations of IAPS management. Different treatments were analyzed in terms of suitability and effectiveness. Comparative economic analyses were conducted to assess the feasibility for community groups. This paper shows the importance of adopting an integrated approach for IAPS management that considers forestry, agriculture and other socio-economic activities together; that facilitates the active participation of community members; and that integrates scientific knowledge and traditional practices in an organized way.Keywords: invasive species, community forestry, management | 109 measures have not yet been developed (Shrestha et al. 2018).Though a wide range of impacts have been observed (MFSC 2014;Chaudhary et al. 2016), management responses are inadequate to address this emerging environmental and economic problem (Shrestha 2019). The management of IAPS can be even more economically burdensome and technically complex when it comes to community management, as communities have limited access to financial resources, generated solely through the annual allowable harvest of timber (DoF, 2004). Furthermore, scientific data appears to be inadequate to guide management and contribute to the sciencepolicy interface (Shrestha 2019).This study focuses on the management of IAPS through participatory action research in Jalthal forest, a 6,000-ha remnant moist tropical forested 'island' amidst a densely populated area in southeastern Nepal. This forest is an important biodiversity area with several threatened plants (Cycas pectinata, Magnolia champaca, Rauvolfia serpentina, Dioscorea deltoidea) and animals (Manis spp., Elephas maximus, etc). Apart from its existence value, it is an important source of different forest products and environmental services, including freshwater for about 16,000 households comprising over 80,000 people (including indigenous tribes like Rajbanshis, Meches, and Santhals) living around the forest. The forest is currently being managed by 22 community forest user groups (CFUGs). It has been degraded by IAPS, particularly Mikania micrantha and Chromolaena odorata, which are among the 100 worst IAS in the world (Lowe et al. 2000).The study aims to develop a participatory model for sustainable IAPS management, incorporating both scientific and traditional knowledge.During the initial stage, IAPS were mapped through MaxEnt modeling 3 using different indicators and criteria across the whole forest based on both satellite imagery and a field survey. The survey distinguished four degrees of invasion (high, moderate, low and non-invaded) and showed that approximately 2937.7 ha of the Jalthal forest were infested with IAPS, mainly Mikania micrantha and Chromolaena odorata, of which 879 ha were highly infested (Shrestha 2020).Traditionally, weeding and cleaning used to be conducted annually as per the silvicultural requirements and forest management plan of CFUGs, which focused mainly on removing all weeds and bushes that impede the growth of valuable tree species. No regard was given to the long-term management or eradication of these weeds. We piloted periodic removals of IAPS in invaded areas with different intensities. One of the approaches, called intensive site management, involved complete site clearance, retaining only the regenerated seedlings and saplings. In contrast, extensive site management involved removing IAPS and other weeds only around the regenerations to rescue them from IAPS. The best time for carrying out these operations is from the start of the growing season till before the flowering season of Mikania micrantha. The techniques used for IAPS removal in intensive management include uprooting, stem cutting, and burning.The IAPS biomass collected during intensive site management operations was used to produce compost, whereas the small quantity of biomass removed during extensive site management operations was not used. This biomass represented about 50 percent of the total volume of raw materials used for compost preparation. The Indore method 4 was adopted for compost preparation, along with traditional practices. The compost was prepared either in pits or at ground level by making four layers: (i) a foundation layer of long stems and branches to allow air circulation, (ii) a layer of forest soil mixed with a solution of cow urine (50 percent) and water (50 percent), (iii) a layer of chopped green biomass of IAPS, and (iv) a layer of cow dung.Other additives, such as bone meal, ashes, husk, and sawdust, were added to improve the quality of the compost. Hollow bamboo stems, perforated with holes, were inserted vertically from the top layer to the bottom layer for ventilation purposes, while a testing stick was inserted vertically throughout the layer to regularly monitor decomposition status. The compost was covered with black polythene to retain heat and moisture. This simple low-cost method incorporating traditional knowledge has been adopted in four CFUGs. 5   The data for the financial analysis of compost preparation was collected from July 2020 to November 2020. A total of 20 sample plots of 10 m × 10 m were randomly laid out in the heavily infested sites. Intensive removal of IAPS was conducted in each sample plot.From each sample plot, we collected data on the biomass of IAPS, total labor needed to remove the IAPS, and time taken to remove the IAPS. We also noted and analyzed the other expenses accrued during compost preparation. However, the cost of establishing the infrastructure needed for compost preparation was not included in the analysis.The total cost of IAPS removal following the extensive management approach was estimated through a field experience over a 20-ha area based on information collected on the total labor needed, the total time taken for removal, the name of species for regeneration, and the total number of regenerations rescued.Forest areas in Jalthal have been prone to degradation due to heavy infestation by IAPS. Proper IAPS management is needed for long-term sustainable forest management, as well as to improve the livelihoods of local communities, which are heavily dependent upon forest resources. However, the management of IAPS entails high costs and requires scarce human labor. With their main income coming from the annual allowable cut of timber prescribed in the operational plan (approved by the Division Forest Office) and investment requirement in forest management, community development, and bureaucratic needs, CFUGs lack the capacity to continually invest in IAPS management in highly infested areas. In this context, compost preparation from IAPS biomass can fulfill the dual purpose of contributing to forest restoration while generating additional resources for financing IAPS management or improving livelihoods, thus ensuring sustainability. The cost of IAPS removal can be compensated by the income from compost production and sale.An economic analysis was conducted based on the data collected in the field from July 2020 to November 2020 across the sample plots to assess the costs and benefits associated with compost preparation from IAPS biomass. In the 20 intensively managed experimental sample plots, IAPS removals generated an average of about 9,605 kg of IAPS biomass per ha (i.e. an estimated dry weight of about 4,800 kg, representing a 50-percent reduction) and required a total of 27 working days (i.e. 162 working hours based on 6 working hours per day) per ha. At a labor rate of NPR 600 per day, 6 the total cost of IAPS removal reaches NPR 16,200 per ha for intensive site management. About 10,000kg of compost can be produced from the biomass removed from 1 ha. Detailed compost production costs, excluding the initial infrastructure cost, are illustrated in Table 1.Establishing the infrastructure needed for the | 111 compost preparation entails an additional cost of around NRS 80,000 in the first year.At current market prices (around NPR 20 per kg), 10,000 kg of compost could generate an additional income of NRS 200,000 for CFUGs, showing that compost preparation from IAPS biomass can contribute to forest restoration while providing an economic benefit to CFUGs. As such, because the benefits outweigh the costs, forest restoration efforts can be sustained in the long run and contribute to increase income and improve livelihoods in CFUGs. Since the production cost of compost is low, it can be made available at a relatively cheap price when compared to chemical fertilizers 7 . Thus, the demand for such compost is likely to increase, provided that the quality is maintained. As the CFUGs have many infested sites, they can scale up production for increased efficiency in compost preparation.Compost preparation also generates other indirect benefits for the CFUGs in addition to providing a direct revenue stream. For instance, income from compost preparation can be used for plantations in areas where conditions are too harsh for the establishment of natural regeneration and where natural regeneration has long been absent. In addition, the use of compost can increase soil productivity, improve texture and water-holding capacity in the long run, and decrease the dependency of local people 7 The price of chemical fertilizers is in the range of NPR 18-32 in normal conditions but can sometimes rise much higher.on chemical fertilizers, contributing to the sustainability, self-sufficiency and resilience of local farming systems.Furthermore, the Forests Act of Nepal ( 2019) 8 has made it mandatory for CFUGs to allocate at least 25 percent of their total income to forest management, and at least 50 percent of the remaining income to pro-poor related activities, women's empowerment and micro-enterprise development. CFUGs were encouraged to spend such allocated amount on IAPS management operations, which provide short-term employment opportunities and wages for poor people.In extensively managed sites, learning from field practice over a 20-ha area, cleaning 1 ha requires an average of 5 working days (i.e. 30 working hours). However, the amount of labor required increases significantly with the density of natural regeneration. The cost of Mikania micrantha removal in extensively managed sites is about NPR 3,000 per ha. Each year, at least three cleanings are needed to effectively control IAPS and promote natural regeneration: one at the start of the growing season, and two during the growing season. This brings the total cost to NPR 9,000 per ha per year. Extensive management is considered to generate more ecological and economic benefits than planting, as shown in Table 2 for the first year of implementation.The above table shows an economic comparative advantage of NPR 78,000-108,000 per hectare for extensive IAPS management over plantation in the same area, provided that the area has enough natural tree regeneration potential. Therefore, it is important to properly understand the site conditions before intervening.Moreover, extensive IAPS management also generates ecological advantages when compared to plantations. It preserves and supports higher biodiversity. Extensive IAPS removal over a 20-ha area contributed to rescuing about 12,750 individual regenerations from 58 different tree species.In addition, the introduction of exotic species without any due regard to the site condition and suitability often generates very high mortality rates, increasing the cost and limiting the success of planting operations. Conversely, extensive IAPS management facilitates the natural regeneration of alreadyestablished native species, thus minimizing costs and increasing the chances of success.Promoting natural tree regeneration makes this approach sustainable in the long run as the obstruction of light to the forest floor by the natural regeneration inhibits IAPS growth, especially in the case of Mikania micrantha. This option seems to be the most effective method of IAPS control in the long run. Its impact is already visible in the field, as rapid natural regeneration is observed in the managed sites. However, it should be noted that in areas of severe infestation where the natural regeneration has already been wiped out by IAPS and where low potential remains for natural regeneration, plantation of native species could be an appropriate option.Invasive species have become a major concern for forest management and biodiversity conservation in the Jalthal forest in Nepal, in the absence of any specific operations of invasion control. Both intensive and extensive site management have their importance in IAPS removal, depending on site conditions. Extensive cleaning is recommended for sites where regeneration is present, whereas intensive cleaning is recommended for heavily infested areas.The continuous removal of IAPS, rescuing of existing natural regeneration and continuous flow of income from compost manure in these two approaches suggests that such innovations can be sustainable in the long run, providing ecological benefits through forest restoration and biodiversity promotion, social benefits through improved collective    Compost preparation from IAPS biomass opens up an opportunity for the sustainability of forest restoration operations in heavily infested areas. Selling the compost generates additional resources that can be used to support CFUGs' restoration activities.Employment opportunities generated by IAPS removal operations also improve the livelihoods of poor community members. The CFUGs, which have less access to external funding than protected areas, depend more heavily on their annual allowable cuts of timber as their main source of income and could adopt these methods for controlling IAPS.Raising awareness on the impact of IAPS and the importance of simple and effective innovations such as those mentioned above is very important for the effective and timely The following recommendations emerge from this participatory research:• Proper site study before plantation: prioritize plantation only in highly infested areas with the lowest potential for natural regeneration. • Plantation with native species rather than exotic species. • Periodic and concentrated cleaning with a focus on rescuing natural regeneration.| 115• Connect communities with forest resources and link the livelihoods of local people with forest management and restoration. • IAPS can be controlled and generate a positive economic return if properly managed.Forest and land degradation is a worldwide challenge, and its mitigation requires multiple approaches, nearly all of which call for some level of plant establishment (Chazdon 2008, Halme et al. 2013, Laestadius et al. 2015, Lamb et al. 2005, Sabogal et al. 2015, Stanturf et al. 2014a, Stanturf et al. 2014b). Anticipated effects of global climate change suggest that future needs for restoration will increase (Stanturf et al. 2014a). In recent years, international leaders have pledged to restore millions of hectares of deforested and degraded lands, such as through the Bonn Challenge and the New York Declaration on Forests 1 .To help meet these unprecedented and ambitious commitments to forest and landscape restoration, the availability of high-quality nursery-grown seedlings will be crucial for successfully implemented forest and landscape restoration programs to create healthy, functional, sustainable and resilient ecosystems (Gregorio et al. 2015, Harrison et al. 2008). The domestication and commercialization of high-value tree products can contribute to alleviating poverty and hunger, encourage social equity and reduce environment degradation (Carandang et al. 2006) hence contributing to the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many large industrial nurseries in the world have the capacity to produce up to 50 million plants annually and do not necessarily contribute to community-based reforestation or community livelihood objectives (Haase et al. 2017). Establishing nurseries, including publicly-funded ones, has often a low level of priority for governments and other entities, as in the case of PNG. However, government nurseries can play a crucial role in improving the effectiveness of the forest nursery sector by diversifying their production to focus on species demanded by smallholder farmers and that cannot be supplied by individual or communal nurseries (Gregorio et al. 2015).1 See for instance: the Bonn Challenge (http://www. bonnchallenge.org), and the New York Declaration on Forests (http://forestdeclaration.org).In PNG, where climate change and human activities such as commercial agriculture, logging, and mining cause rapid deforestation and forest degradation, applicable administrative and management mechanisms are needed to refine policy dialogues and devise implementation procedures that are scientifically grounded. Institutional arrangements and legal frameworks in the country do not provide conducive tenets to execute global initiatives to address these issues. For instance, the PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA) is currently reviewing the Forestry Act through consultation workshops to seek views and inputs from key stakeholders regarding the application of the Forestry Act (1991, amended several times) 2 , with the view to further amending it to accommodate for emerging issues and development trends.As a party to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), PNG is committed to taking action by integrating their goals and targets into its national development plans and to devising ways to achieve them with appropriate institutions and implementation means. The PNG national development plan, entitled Vision 2050, 3 explicitly recognizes the significant role PNG's forests are playing as providers of ecosystem services and functions, as well as their contribution to local and global economies. It makes a call for all forestry stakeholders to work together on the elaboration of appropriate policies for the sustainable management of PNG's forest resources, including developing a policy framework for climate change mitigation and the carbon trade. This development plan will create opportunities for rural communities to engage in formal employment as well as improve their livelihoods.PNG has a unique land tenure system where 97 percent of the land is under customary ownership, a type of land ownership arising from and regulated by custom in indigenous communities (Kila Pat 2003)2003.Therefore, there are very strong synergies between sustainable forest management and local communities in PNG (Page et al. 2016). Changes in land use and forest management arise from the decisions of individual forest owners (Blanco et al. 2015).Hence understanding their decision-making processes and their implications for forest and land use changes is useful for the development of adapted policy dialogues and management programs. With the promotion of community forestry at national level, PNG is shifting from large-scale logging operations operated by preeminent companies, mostly owned by foreign investors, to smaller operations, with direct participation from the landowner indigenous communities.The PNG Government, in its efforts to promote and encourage landowner and community participation in the development, management and utilization of their forest resources, ensures that communities are actively involved in community-based forestry projects.The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) promotes community forestry research through funding assistance and research collaboration with partner countries like PNG. ACIAR has funded a lot of collaborative research in the field of agriculture and forestry in PNG and assisted many PNG researchers through human resource development. This paper presents a two-year social-science research project incorporating mixed methods of social surveys into the baseline phase of a study designed and funded by ACIAR to examine, develop and enhance the implementation of community forestry approaches in PNG 4 . This ACIAR project, focusing on the Ramu-Markham Valley, was initiated in 2012 and has been in the implementation phase since 2014. The project aimed at enhancing the implementation of community forestry approaches in PNG through the restoration of community-owned native forests and reforestation of community-owned grasslands, referred to as community-based reforestation.During the first year of the project, a mixed social science research approach was applied to understand the community dynamics at stake behind community forestry. This approach, facilitated by contact persons in local communities, included community gatherings and meetings along with a small livelihood survey with interested community members, based entirely on observation and dialogue.Focusing on community-based reforestation, this paper analyzes how local communities situated in the study area responded to the project, focusing in particular on the establishment of community-based tree nurseries (CBTNs) for reforestation purposes.It describes the challenges and opportunities observed when establishing and maintaining CBTNs in the target communities in the Ramu-Markham Valley. The paper further outlines how the study was conducted and discusses the small-scale participatory qualitative livelihood survey, exploring the value of community participation, as well as the socioeconomic aspects of CBTNs.The study was conducted in five villages of the Ramu-Markham Valley (Figure 1): Rangianpum, Waritsian, Marawasa, Ragidzaria and Musuam. The villages are situated 10 to 15 minutes' drive from each other along the Highlands Highway. Sites were chosen based on their community forestry situations, and site inspections suggested that community forestry has the greatest potential for scaling up in these areas. This enables the project to gather data on how the communities will react to the scaling-up initiatives provided by the project, allowing us to also observe their reactions through their participation and/or involvement in CBTNs.The research was conducted during 2014 and 2015 using the community dynamics and social situation analysis study guidelines provided by ACIAR for the major project (ACIAR 2019).Ethnography, as described by Genzuk (2003), is a social science research method that heavily relies on up-close personal experiences and possible participation.The method entails informal interviews through group discussions, observations and dialogues between groups of people and/or individuals within each of the communities. It incorporates our own understanding of indigenous PNG situations to approach individuals.Observation was the main tactic for gathering information. Being a Melanesian society, pen and paper seemed too formal, possibly raising questions that may have caused inconveniences for us as well as for the targeted communities. Hence data collected was based on hearsay and our judgement of the values and attitude of the community regarding forest use, reforestation and the establishment of tree nurseries.Forest owners' attitudes towards forests and forestry, and the objectives they assign to their forests, are perhaps the most important elements affecting management decisions (Ní Dhubháin et al. 2007, Nordlund et al. 2011). They likely have substantial impacts on land use arrangements and community forestry engagements within an indigenous society such as PNG, where land is held under customary tenure, with land and forest resource intrinsic to the indigenous groups or clans.Despite the key role of landowners in determining the expansion of forestry activities on their land, little or no attempt has been made by the national government | 121 to characterize forest owners in PNG. For instance, a National Forest Inventory (NFI) was conducted, with the technical and financial support of FAO, to collect forest use and biodiversity data in PNG. This NFI has captured very limited information on the participation and intentions of landowners. Such large-scale studies need to recognize that forest owners each have their own unique characteristics and circumstances, rendering attempts to fully account for individual behavior infeasible (Emtage et al. 2007). To fill this gap, we tried, during this study, to identify the intentions of landowners through their participation in nursery training, nursery construction and eventually the establishment of trial planting on clan land. We also observed their participation in the project, their perceptions through dialogue, and their opinions on the CBTNs and on the forestry opportunities offered to them.The purpose of establishing CBTNs in the study area was to observe the level of participation as well as the level of clan land user rights, and to assess the level and number of individuals who would participate in the actual CBTN program. Although CBTNs are for the purpose of seedling production, in this case, we used CBTNs to assess the participation impact from the community.In PNG, individuals belong to a group or clan that forms the basis of land and resources ownership. Hence, this arrangement regulates and determines any activity that happens on the clan land. In that aspect, it is essential to identify appropriate protocols as to how community members would participate in the establishment of a CBTN, and the institutional arrangements on the ground that impact their participation in reforestation.CBTNs, established in the study sites, are more adapted than larger centralized nurseries to support smallholder tree farming systems because they are located near smallholder farms, making them more convenient, safe and less costly. In this study, CBTNs were established to meet the farmer's immediate need for reforestation and forest restoration. Furthermore, it is an observation scenario for community dynamics and institutional arrangements required in executing these activities, allowing us to understand why communities react in certain ways toward reforestation and CBTN establishment.The concept of FLR and reforestation in PNGForest landscape restoration (FLR) is defined as \"a process that aims to regain ecological integrity and enhance human well-being in a deforested or degraded forest landscape\" (Stanturf et al. 2014b). Thus, FLR involves choices about how much and where restoration is undertaken, as well as the technical question of how to restore (Palik et al. 2000). Circumambient to this concept, this study attempted to understand how local communities can adapt FLR as a mechanism to drive CBTNs that are essential for the achievement of restoration goals.In PNG, local people and communities engage in tree planting for land demarcation, in agroforestry systems, or within their food gardens. However, FLR is a fairly new concept to them in terms of technical aspects and technologies used. Most seedlings raised from the CBTNs were outplanted in the field chosen by the group and/or clan members. The sites were either degraded, underutilized or mountainous, mostly covered by savannah vegetation. The utilization of such sites was important for the project as it emboldened the efforts for FLR. To the landowners, the FLR concept is promising as they can engage in tree planting by utilizing their underutilized land areas; hence they were keen on the idea.Our The clan plays a central role in social and economic interactions. Most members of the communities engage in activities that have interrelations with their clan and leadership ties, which they can freely engage in because, in a traditional society like PNG, clan members relate more with each other than with other clans. Most community members rely on their clan land arrangements to conduct activities such as planting trees. They actually participated in the project only when their clan had decided to allocate part of its clan land to it. Members of other clans did not participate because they did not feel that the project had to do with them. Members of a clan group withdrew from participating because they felt their clan wasn't part of the project, after realizing that other clans were taking the lead in the project.Rangianpum is a multi-clan, multi-ethnic village with about 6,000 inhabitants. The community is very active in various economic activities such as cocoa production.Rangianpum CBTN failed due to lack of participation and interest from other clans and villagers, since they had other economic activities to engage in such as cocoa farming, which was also in close proximity or adjacent to the CBTN setup. The initial community gathering saw all interested villagers, which eventually declined either due to a lack of proper community engagement by the project team or because they understood the project differently, and their perspective was not captured in this process. People who took part in the program did not take ownership of the CBTN or were simply not interested in tree farming at all.Based purely on observation and dialogues, it appears that people in this village do understand the value of trees but prioritize cocoa and other locally produced subsistence food and cash crops for immediate income. Furthermore, the National Forest Service (NFS) manages a forestry station, about 10 minutes' drive from the village, and it is apparent that the villagers frequent the station for their forestry-related issues, probably for technical advice or even seedlings to meet their immediate forestry needs. It is dubious that this particular village, regardless of countless forestry projects and their association with NFS, has the least interest in this project.Waritsian, with 3,000 inhabitants, is ideally located, close to the main road leading to the industrial township of Ramu, the Highlands region and Lae, PNG's second largest city. The village, is situated at about 1 km down the road from Rangiapum and 23 km from Ramu township, the oil palm industrial hub of the valley. Waritsian and Rangianpum have many things in common: they share a common language, have similar ancestral lineage, similar customary names, and they even share land boundaries. Further discussion revealed that historically, both communities used to be settled together as one village near the road but later moved further out in opposite directions. Thus, both communities have clan relations with each other.Waritsian is located in a landscape with streams, natural forests, foothills and savannah, ideal for its scenic value. From general observation and involvement with this community, the community members tend to be very respectful of their environment. There was a high level of community participation in the CBTN project. A full nursery training program was implemented successfully in this community, including nursery construction, seed collection, seed sowing, germination, transplanting, and hardening before field establishment.Among the factors of success of the CBTN project in this community were the number of visits conducted by the project and the level of awareness associated with each visit.The local councilor was also very supportive, showing that leadership within the community is determinant to the success of the CBTN.The location of the CBTN on the councilors' clan land was also an important factor of success. The only concern here was to raise awareness in the community of the fact that the CBTN project was not restricted only to the councilor and his clan but directed at the whole community. This has been stressed, and the councilor and his clan agreed to raise the seedlings and distribute them fairly among the different clans' families. In all three villages, people lived in their traditional huts surrounded by clan groups in their villages. All daily activities were done in relation to customs and traditions, and people hunted where permitted and tilled also where permitted and not outside of custom. In all three villages, it was discovered that land for gardening is shared among clan members, and people only built settlements on clan land and settled by clan association.Attempting to organize communities at a clan or multi-clan level is difficult. However, evidence shows that farmers are more comfortable with planting trees and establishing a CBTN on a land on which they have user rights and where leadership roles are honored among community members.Leadership roles in PNG are well respected and members of a clan or community members have high respect for their leaders, so members feel oblige to submit to their instructions out of respect. Therefore, in any PNG traditional society, when dealing with any form of development, including forestry and particularly nursery establishment, it is crucial to observe and identify the traditional, cultural values and systems in place to avoid disputes and facilitate successful implementation of activities.The lack of social capital, especially of intergroup relations, also emerged as a major obstacle to CBTNs in the three villages. Extension and technical assistance were given from the research team for the initial establishment of CBTNs. Only assistance to establish CBTNs was well received, and further utilization and expansion was poor.Communities appear to have the bonding social capital to operate as small family groups, but lack the bridging social capital 5 to work collectively with other groups in the broader community (Baynes et al. 2017).Lifting bridging social capital via a range of 5 Bonding social capital is used within a group or community whereas bridging social capital is between social groups.extension activities may enable communities to establish and maintain CBTNs, as observed in the Philippines (Cramb 2005). However, this can be a long-term and expensive requirement.Enabling conditions (Baynes et al. 2017)  There are opportunities to improve the process and to potentially expand CBTNs by properly considering social relations and community cohesion. In this study, CBTN establishment was used as a mechanism to strengthen community and clan members' participation in the reforestation of grasslands. Obviously, community members were more concerned about their immediate needs than participating in reforestation and tree planting activities.Local people and communities engage in tree planting for land demarcation and agroforestry within their food gardens. Current development trends and emerging issues such as climate change pose a threat to how they utilize their land for development.It is therefore necessary to understand community dynamics and institutional arrangements in order to effectively engage communities in reforestation as well as other development activities.The Philippines is unquestionably one of the world's wealthiest countries in terms of species biodiversity: it is listed among the 17 world's megadiverse countries 1 and among the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. 2 The Philippines shelters nearly 10,000 native species of vascular plants, or around 5 percent of the world's total plant species (Pelser et al. 2011) Studies showed the importance of securing high-quality forest genetic material. Specifically, Nyoka et al. (2014) found that germplasm supply systems did not efficiently meet farmers' demands and environmental expectations in terms of productivity, species and genetic diversity, and some seeds, mostly sourced from undocumented sources, are often untested for good quality.Similarly, Carandang et al. (2006) showed that smallholders tree nursery operations in the southern Philippines may have limited access to some basic resources such as propagation technologies and evidence proving the significance of using native species in the tree nurseries.This paper reviews and analyzes the current MMFN operations in the country and explores the potential of utilizing geotagging, mapping, and other available digital technologies to facilitate identification of mother trees in the wild to improve the production of seedlings of native species. How to enhance the contribution of MMFNs to the success of the E-NGPThis paper suggests further exploring the following three areas of work to maximize the potential of MMFNs and enhance their contribution to the success of the E-NGP.Use the MMFNs to promote the use of native tree speciesForests evolve over thousands of years with a mix of species and their populations reach an equilibrium with the carrying capacity 10 of their ecosystem. Anthropogenic introduction of exotic and invasive species upset this equilibrium and can even drive native and indigenous species to extinction (Fernando et al. 2018)      The COA (2019) report also indicates that MMFN seedlings are often rejected by POs because of their poor quality and high mortality rate, which can be attributed to long and stressful transport from MMFNs to the E-NGP planting sites, as well as inappropriate soil mixtures. To improve the production of the nurseries, it is worth sourcing out native tree seedlings from geotagged mother tree species. This can help build a documented and stable seed source for the nurseries and improve the quality of the native seeds and seedlings they produce. In addition, geotagged mother trees can be nurtured and protected by the POs surrounding the area with the help of local administrations.Mother trees are tall old-growth trees with vast root systems connected to hundreds of other trees via a large fungi network, allowing them to share information and resources (Simard 2021). 14 Gregorio et al. ( 2011) created an inventory and assessment of mother trees of indigenous timber species on Leyte Island in the Philippines, but there is no recent accurate record of the distribution of mother trees of native species covering the whole country. Available digital technologies can help carry out such an assessment, facilitating the successful identification of mother trees and hence the collection of high-quality seeds of native tree species for MMFNs.Today, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are used in the forestry sector to determine and navigate through a dense forest canopy in real time. A GNSS can be installed in a helicopter to assist in identifying the limits of a recent or past forest fire. GNSS can also be used to locate specific trees, most likely affected by fires and other threats, including activities affecting chunks of forest (Zou et al. 2019).LiDAR uses a pulsed laser to determine the distance of an object from the ground surface. Precise information on the object is produced if the data is collected by an airborne device that produces exact, three-dimensional data about the Earth's shape and surface properties. 15 Thermal imaging photographs can provide extensive spectral information of forests, whereas LiDAR can provide information on the vertical structure of forests (Dong et al. 2014).A GIS is a computer system that allows the capture, storage, display and analysis of geospatial datasets, defining both the position and attributes of spatial features (Chang 2016). GIS can provide information related to timber monitoring, quality, quantity and density of the forest at a given place, as well as related to the elevation and 3D digitization of the whole site.MTM is a means of consulting and coordinating with professionals to determine local conditions (soil pH level, soil type, elevation, and temperature), as well as the diameter at breast height (DBH) and canopy size of mother trees of native species, to provide guidance for seed collection for MMFNs. The E-NGP aims to preserve biodiversity. This paper reviews how the science of wood anatomy has evolved with the advent of different microscopic techniques. The study of plant cells can be dated back to the 17th century, with the invention of light microscopes, also referred to as optical microscopes. The invention of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) in 1937 allowed studies at greater depths of field and higher resolutions and provided the opportunity to observe 3D pictures of cells and tissues. SEMs have since been used by scientists to study the structure of vessel walls, perforation plates, vestured pits, tyloses, and other elements in wood microstructure.One of the challenges faced by wood anatomists is the study of archeological or historical wood samples, which are sometimes fragile and damaged and do not leave much scope for thin sectioning. Another challenge is preparing thin sections of charcoal wood for identification. 1 Scientists have overcome these challenges by exploring non-invasive methods of wood identification using advanced microscopic techniques. For instance, various studies illustrate the application of X-ray computed tomography in wood research, where even a small sample can be scanned at a high resolution without destruction, making it suitable for studying historical wooden artefacts. Furthermore, reflected light microscopy has also been employed for noninvasive wood identification. Recently, 3D-reflected light microscopy has shown promising results as a tool for charcoal wood identification. This innovative non-invasive technique saves times because it does not require extensive sample preparation (thin sectioning and/or surface treatment). However, wood research needs to combine techniques as each microscopy technique has its own limitations.Wood has been an integral part of human lives since time immemorial. Its many applications include the construction of tools, weapons, furniture, buildings, houses, shelters, barrels, machines, railway sleepers, bridges, and ships, as well as providing an energy source (Youngs 2009). Wood is also used as a raw material in the pulp and paper industry. The wide array of wood uses makes the study of wood anatomy indispensable.Wood anatomy has made significant contributions in resolving taxonomic conflicts, delimiting genera and subgenera, establishing evolutionary relationships among taxa and reconstructing data on past climatic conditions in dendroecology. 2 The study of wood microstructure is important to many scientific disciplines such as physiology, archeology, wood technology, forensics, paleobotany, systematics 3 , pathology and ecology.One of the major applications of wood micro-structural studies is wood species identification when only the wood is available and morphological taxonomic investigation is not possible. Wood species identification is a prerequisite to ensure the implementation of bans on the trade of wood from endangered species, as well as the proper enforcement of trade regulations as per International Timber Trade Organization (ITTO) guidelines (Baas 1994;Wheeler and Baas 1998).Wood identification is instrumental in wood industries where suitable wood processing can only be applied if the species of wood is known as processing varies depending on wood properties (Wheeler and Baas 1998). Wood identification also helps with investigating crime scenes in forensic sciences. Accurate wood identification and the proper documentation of species used is This paper reviews different microscopy techniques used to study wood anatomy and highlight their respective advantages and limitations. Additionally, macroscopic timber identification is also briefly described as new applications are being developed by anatomists for timber identification in the field.The different microscopy techniques described below are grouped under two broad categories:• Invasive techniques that require sectioning the wood sample; and• Non-invasive techniques that do not require sectioning the wood sample.These techniques are more commonly used as they give a comprehensive description of wood anatomical features. These techniques are time-consuming and labor-intensive and require extensive sample preparation. Three commonly used techniques are described here: light microscopy (LM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).Light microscopy (LM)The light microscope magnifies the sample to examine its fine details. It has a light source to illuminate the sample. In compound microscopes, the light passes through a condenser lens that focuses it on a small area of the sample. This light is then collected by the objective lens, situated close to the sample, which creates a real image of the sample. This image is then magnified by a second lens or group of lenses, called the eyepiece, which generates an enlarged virtual image of the sample for the user (Murphy 2002;Holgate and Webb 2003). The magnification of the microscope is the sum of objective and eyepiece lenses and can range from x10 to x1,000. The best resolution for a light microscope, based on the numerical aperture of an objective lens, is 200 nm (Holgate and Webb 2003).To study a wood sample using LM, blocks of wood are prepared with the proper orientation of tissues. Thin sections of wood are cut using a microtome along all three planes (i.e. transverse, radial longitudinal and tangential longitudinal). The sections are dehydrated, stained and mounted. Finally, the sections can be studied under a microscope. For digital analysis and for records, photomicrographs are taken to distinguish features. Anatomical features observed through LM are studied following the terminology published by the International Association of Wood Anatomists (IAWA) for hardwood (Wheeler et al. 1989) and softwood (Richter et al. 2004) identification.LM generally produces 2D pictures of wood structure. Hence the 3D analysis of wood structure using LM is tedious, laborious, time-consuming and impractical as it requires serial sectioning to study vessel networks (Brodersen 2013).Electron microscopy (EM)The light microscope has a limited resolution because it uses visible light. To achieve higher resolution, electrons are used as the source of illumination (Williams and Carter 1996). EM can be used to reveal the ultrastructure 5 of samples. In an electron microscope, an image viewing screen converts electron intensity into light intensity and generates a monochrome image visible to the viewer (Williams and Carter 1996). The two main types of EM are described below.Since the 1960s, TEM has been used in wood anatomy to study the detailed ultrastructure of wood cells and cell walls. Many studies have been conducted to understand the structure of cell walls of tracheids 6 and fibers. However, there have been limited and insufficient studies on the fundamental aspects of nonfibrous cells of xylem such as vessels, axial parenchyma and ray parenchyma 7 (Ma et al. 2013).In TEM, a high-energy electron beam is accelerated (typically 40-400 kV) from an electron gun. The sample must be ultrathin, i.e. electron transparent (typically <100 nm) to allow the electrons to penetrate (Reza et al. 2015;Daniel 2016). The sample transmits a stationary primary beam of electrons that is transformed into non-uniform electron intensity. This hits the screen or electron detector and is finally converted into a monochrome image that can be perceived by human eyes. The whole path from source to screen must be in an ultra-high vacuum so that electrons are not deflected by gas molecules (Reza et al. 2015). Modern TEMs have a resolution of over 0.5 ångström 8 and a magnification ratio ranging from x35 to x700,000 (Daniel 2016).For TEM analysis, the sample is dehydrated by passing through a graded series of alcohol and then embedded in resin. Resin protects the fine structure of the sample and helps with cutting thin sections. Ultrathin sections are then cut using an ultramicrotome, which is usually equipped with a glass knife (Reza et al. 2015). Sections are stained to improve the contrast of the image, most commonly with potassium permanganate, uranyl acetate and osmium tetroxide. For fairly small samples like cellulose microfibrils, isolated hemicelluloses and lignin, TEM can be used without embedding and sectioning. Traditional TEM techniques only give 2D images. However, due to advances in computer applications, TEM tomography 9 is now able to generate 3D tomograms of samples (Daniel 2016).Both LM and TEM, with their small depth of field, present the sample in one plane at a time, thus producing a 2D image of wood (Meylan and Butterfield 1972). SEM resolution (up to 20 nm, lower than that of TEM but much higher than that of LM) and field depth (300 times higher than that of LM) makes it possible to generate 3D detailed representations of the wood ultrastructure (Meylan and Butterfield 1972;Exley et al. 1974). SEM is used to gather detailed information on the morphology, topography, composition and tissue orientation of a sample's surface (Akhtar et al. 2018;Merela et al. 2020).In SEM, a high-energy beam of accelerated electrons (usually 10 to 40 kV) scans the 8 1 ångström (Å) equals 10-10 m. 9 Tomography is imaging by sections using any kind of penetrating wave.surface of the sample. These electrons interact with atomic electrons on the sample surface to produce secondary electrons.The scattered electrons are collected by the detector and an image is produced. For SEM studies, an appropriate size of cube of wood is cut, ensuring that surfaces have a clean cut to make sure no fractures or cutting lines are seen in the final image. The sample is cleaned and bleached with sodium hypochlorite and further dehydrated using alcohol. The cubes are finally mounted on sample stubs and then coated with gold in a high-vacuum evaporating unit (Jansen et al. 1998;Exley et al. 1974). A major limitation of SEM is that only the exposed surface can be examined.SEM has long been used in wood anatomy since its invention. Various anatomical features that cannot be properly recognized by LM can be studied with SEM (Carlquist 1980). SEM is used to investigate anatomical features such as vestured pits, 10 crystals, silica bodies, 11 tyloses, 12 perforation plates, starch grains, cell-wall structures, warts on the inner surface of walls, and helical thickenings 13 on walls. (Stant 1973;Carlquist 1980).Invasive techniques can give comprehensive information on wood anatomical structure and ultrastructure. However, they may not be adapted, for instance, to the study of archeological woods or artefacts of historical importance as it can be difficult to obtain authorization for sectioning them for microscopic investigations. Technological advancements have made it possible to study the structure of woods without sectioning.Two non-invasive microscopic techniques, widely explored in wood anatomy, are discussed below.Reflected light microscopy (RLM)The main difference between LM and RLM lies in their illumination system. In LM, light passes through the sample, whereas in RLM, light is reflected from the surface of the opaque sample. Different techniques of surfacing and finishing on the sample surface are used to improve the visibility and detection of the anatomical features (Ruffinatto et al. 2010).Unlike LM, RLM does not require sectioning and can be used on opaque wood samples. RLM has thus been explored for the non-invasive identification of precious wooden historical artefacts such as musical instruments, which cannot be feasibly sampled. Recently, Abdrabou et al. (2021) used RLM to identify four wood species used in ritual couches in ancient Egyptian royal tombs. RLM is gaining attention of wood anatomists as it can be directly used without extensive sample preparation.In anthracology, 14 the preparation of thin sections of charcoal wood is a tedious task, explaining why 3D RLM has also been used for charcoal identification (Ruffinatto et al. 2010;Zemke et al. 2020).However, the applicability of RLM depends greatly on the degree of visibility of anatomical features, which can help with species identification by comparing to wood anatomy databases, textbooks and IAWA lists (Ruffinatto et al. 2010;Ruffinatto et al. 2014). RLM cannot be applied on artefacts whose surfaces are generally treated and coated because this hinders the identification of anatomical features. Sometimes, very old historical structures and artefacts are deteriorated, which distorts their anatomical structure (Ruffinatto et al. 2010;Ruffinatto et al. 2014). In such cases, some anatomical features may be recognized but wood species identification cannot be confirmed conclusively.X-ray computed microtomography (X-ray CT)X-ray CT is one of the non-destructive, noninvasive techniques that can be utilized to construct virtual 3D images of wood microstructure.X-rays, which have a wavelength of less than 10 nm, can be used to illuminate and study samples. X-rays do not attenuate easily as compared to visible light and electrons. Applications are being developed for the quick on-the-spot identification of timbers based on macroscopic features. Such applications can help combat the illegal timber trade, but their usage is limited to identifying a few selected taxa. These applications must further be enhanced by adding more functions to improve image quality, such as multi-colored illumination. An international database of macroscopic features of traded timbers could be created to provide reference images to facilitate timber identification.Different techniques can be employed depending on the specific objectives of a given study. However, each method comes with its own advantages and limitations. A combination of different microscopic techniques could be used in wood research to attain a better understanding of the microstructure and ultrastructure of wood.Around 80%-90% of particleboard production is used for furniture (Oliveira et al. 2016).Particleboards represent about 57% of the total consumption of wood-based panels, and demand for particleboards is growing at a rate of 2%-5% per year (Tajuddin et al. 2016). This growing demand for wood and wood panels increases pressure on forest resources. Particleboards can be manufactured from scrap wood, recycled wood, short rotation species, and other alternative biomass resources, which are currently underutilized.Optimizing the use of these alternative biomass resources could add value to formerly underutilized species and contribute to reducing pressure on forests.Synthetic adhesives are widely used in particleboard production because of their low cost and fast drying time (Hashim et al. 2011a). Urea-formaldehyde (UF) and phenolformaldehyde (PF) resins are the most commonly used synthetic adhesives (Hashim et al. 2005). The main advantage of UF resin, which is the most popular interior adhesive in the wood composite industry, is its low cost (Hashim et al. 2005;Laemsak and Okuma 2000). Despite their affordability and small proportion (8%-10%) of the total weight of the oven-dry raw material, UF resins account for up to 60% of the total cost of the final product.In addition, synthetic adhesives release gaseous formaldehydes, which are harmful to both human health and the environment as they contaminate indoor air and cause sick building syndrome. 1 (Halvarsson et al. 2009;Hashim et al. 2010).Binderless particleboard is a sustainable, healthy and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional wood-based particleboards made with synthetic adhesives. This study reviews two selfbonding mechanisms used in binderless particleboard production processes, namely hot pressing and steam injection pressing.In these self-bonding mechanisms, heat and pressure cause the partial decomposition of hemicellulose and lignin, as well as chemical reactions that create natural bonds in binderless particleboard. The characteristics of the resulting particleboard, such as density or particle size vary according to the manufacturing process used.Binderless particleboards can also facilitate the use of non-wood lignocellulosic materials, such as kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L), oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), and bamboo (various species), further reducing pressure on wood demand and timber extraction from forests. Based on a review of the existing literature, this paper analyzes the potential of various non-wood lignocellulosic raw materials, chemical components, production processes, and self-bonding mechanisms in the production of binderless particleboards.Heat and pressure, when applied to lignocellulosic raw materials, provoke the partial degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose, as well as chemical reactions that create natural bonds in binderless particleboards (Okuda et al. 2006a;Hashim et al. 2011a;Zhang et al. 2014;Hill 2006;Xu et al. 2006;Inoue et al. 1993;Rowell and McSweeny 2008;Tshabalala et al. 2012;Cristescu and Karlsson 2013;Fahmy and Mobarak 2013). Chemical constituents such as lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose, starch, and sugar are important bonding agents in binderless particleboards. As a complex phenolic amorphous polymer in cell walls, lignin can act as a binding agent in particleboards. The decomposition of lignin and hemicellulose generates acetone, as well as organic and furfural acids that can further polymerize and act as binding agents, as illustrated in Figure 1. According to Quintana et al. (2009), covalent bonds in lignocellulosic raw materials can occur by molecular mechanical bonding when the lignin is softened and distributed. This self-bonding mechanism occurs when the surface of the raw material and lignin are bonded together under high pressure.Different parameters affect the self-bonding mechanism as well as the resulting properties of the corresponding particleboard, including temperature, pressure, and time and particle size. According to Tajuddin et al. (2016), the dimensional stability 2 of the particleboard is only affected by pressing pressure, while water absorption (WA) depends on pressing temperature, pressure, and time. Li and Liu (2000) argue that pressing time has no significant effect at high pressures, whereas according to Zhou et al. (2010), the longer the pressing time, the higher the IB strength of the resulting particleboard.Particle size and geometry also affect the mechanical properties of the particleboard. Previous studies (Munawar et al. 2007;Hashim et al. 2010) showed that smaller particles are associated with higher IB values. Smaller particles also generate better dimensional stability and a smoother surface in binderless particleboards (Mobarak et al. 1982;Hashim et al. 2010). However, smaller particles, especially when used in powder form, may require more energy and be more difficult to handle during the production process (Okuda and Sato 2004) because it takes extra time during the selection process and affects the area of bond contact in the board. 3   2 Dimensional stability reflects the changes occurring in the dimensions of a particleboard as a result of variations in moisture and water content.3 Strands are thinner, longer, and have a larger contact area with a better glue line, which leads to better strength characteristics. The roughness value of strands is higher because strands are coarser and have a rigid structure of vascular bundles.The following sections present two selfbonding mechanisms commonly used to produce binderless particleboards.Some lignocellulosic materials that can be used to produce binderless particleboards through hot pressing, such as with a hydraulic hot press, are listed in Table 1.Hot pressing, when the temperature and pressure are sufficient, activates chemical components in the raw material (Tajuddin et al. 2016). It causes lignin, cellulose, or hemicellulose to melt on the cell surface and form a natural bond (Hashim et al. 2011b). It is necessary to apply sufficient heat and pressure to melt lignin in all parts of the particleboard, allowing an even distribution of lignin in the lignocellulose feedstock during the manufacturing process (Mancera et al. 2008;Zhou et al. 2010). The higher the temperature, the higher the particleboard's modulus of rupture (MOR) and internal bond (IB) strength, and the lower the thickness swelling (TS) and the WA ratio, which reflect dimensional stability (Boon et al. 2013). However, the temperature should be limited to 200°C to avoid burning and reduce energy consumption. According to Hidayat et al. (2014), the optimum water content is 8% of the raw material in volume because higher water content can moisten the raw material and adversely affect particleboard's dimensional stability.   • Industrial waste such as used paper (Li and Liu 2000) and several other materials (Velásquez et al. 2003a(Velásquez et al. , 2003b;;Hunt and Supan 2006;Zhou et al. 2010;Marashdeh et al. 2011;Xie et al. 2012;Kurniati et al. 2015).The advantages and disadvantages of using natural fibers as raw materials to produce binderless particleboards are illustrated in Table 4.The chemical content of various lignocellulosic materials that can be used to produce sustainable binderless particleboards are provided in Table 5.The following sections illustrate the performance of various raw materials for binderless particleboard production.Kenaf cores can be used to produce lowdensity binderless particleboards with good sound and thermal insulation properties for building interiors. According to Xu et al. (2004), Kenaf core binderless particleboards have suitable mechanical properties, achieve    Note: This table presents percentages in weight.Source: Tajuddin et al. (2016) the same thermal conductivity values as traditional insulating materials, and have a high sound absorption coefficient. Okuda and Sato (2004) examined the properties of binderless particleboards produced from kenaf cores through hot pressing under a variety of different manufacturing conditions. They showed that the optimal pressure, temperature, and time were 5.3 MPa, 180°C, and 10 minutes respectively for a particleboard density of 1 g cm -3 . Okuda and Sato (2006) further showed that binderless particleboards from | 155 kenaf cores are more water-resistant than particleboards manufactured with synthetic adhesives. Okuda et al. (2006aOkuda et al. ( , 2006b) also studied the chemical properties of binderless particleboards obtained under various pressures and temperatures. They showed that the chemical changes caused by the degradation of lignin and hemicellulose during hot pressing can accelerate the production process. 4   Xu et al. (2003) compared the mechanical properties of binderless particleboards from kenaf cores (density 0.5 g cm -3 ) obtained through steam injection pressing or traditional hot pressing. The results showed that steam injection pressing performed better in terms of internal bond strength (IB = 0.43 MPa) and thickness swelling (TS = 11%) than the traditional hot pressing method (IB = 0.09 MPa; TS = 169%), but the resulting durability value did not meet the Japanese JIS-A5908 standard (JSA 2003). Widyorini et al. (2005b), studying the chemical properties of binderless particleboards from kenaf cores, found that hot steam injected with a pressure of 0.6 to 1 MPa for 7 to 20 minutes can increase and accelerate the degradation of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose compared to the traditional hot pressing method.4 Extractives form a category of diverse chemical compounds with low to moderately high molecular weights that are, by definition, soluble (extracted) in organic solvents or water.In Indonesia, the area devoted to oil palm plantation has increased from about 200,000 hectares in 1980 to almost 15 million hectares in 2019 (FAOSTAT; Figure 2). This rise in oil palm plantation generates increasing amounts of waste that can be used to produce binderless particleboards.As illustrated in Table 6, chemical composition varies between different parts of oil palm. The high content of holocellulose 5 and alpha cellulose in each part provides the chemical components needed for the production of binderless particleboards. Abdul Khalil et al. (2006) found that oil palm stems have a high content of holocellulose, amounting to 73.06%.The differences in starch and sugar content in oil palm parts (Hashim et al. 2011b) are shown in Table 7. Suzuki et al. (1998) studied the production of binderless particleboards from palm leaf pulp through hot steam injection. The mechanical strength of the resulting binderless particleboard complies with the JIS-A5908 standard and has a dark brown color with a smooth surface. Hashim et al. (2010Hashim et al. ( , 2011bHashim et al. ( , 2012) )   Note: This table presents percentages in weight.Source: Hashim et al. (2011b).  Note: Values between parentheses are standard deviations.Source: Hashim et al. (2011b). | 157According to Widyorini et al. (2011), particleboard production from bamboo particles, a byproduct of the bamboo processing industry, can contribute to achieving net zero carbon emissions. Suhasman et al. (2010) produced particleboards from Andong bamboo (Gigantochloa pseudoarundinaceae) using three types of pre-treatment, namely: (i) boiling water for 30 and 60 minutes, (ii) oxidation using hydrogen peroxide, and (iii) a combination of boiling water for 30 minutes and oxidation using hydrogen peroxide. The results show that the oxidation pre-treatment produces better results than the boiling water pre-treatment. The dimensional stability and MOE of particleboards pre-treated through oxidation are excellent, superior to those of conventional particleboards using melamineformaldehyde synthetic adhesives. The oxidation treatment strengthens the bond structure between bamboo particles, allowing the formation of cross-links, esterification, hydrogen bonds, lignin and furfural condensation, resulting in a high MOE value (Suhasman et al. 2010).In Betung bamboo (Backer dendrocalamus Asper or giant bamboo), holocellulose represents more than 50% of the total chemical constituents in volume (Dransfield and Widjaja 1995). Changes in the chemical structure of the bamboo particles can increase the particleboard's dimensional stability. Widyorini et al. (2011) studied the effect of particle size and moisture content on the physical and mechanical properties of binderless particleboard produced fromBetung bamboo under two moisture content (MC) conditions, namely air-dried and MC of 20±2%. The results show better mechanical properties and a higher dimensional stability for MC 20±2% than for air-dried particleboards.Suhasman et al. ( 2013) compared the production of binderless particleboards from three Sulawesi bamboo species 7 using hot pressing. They showed that the best results were obtained with Betung bamboo due to chemical differences, in particular in lignin content, across species. However, even with Betung bamboo, the particleboard's physical and mechanical properties did not meet the JIS-A5908 standard.A comparison of the mechanical properties of kenaf, oil palm and bamboo particleboardsThe mechanical properties of particleboards obtained from Kenaf cores, Betung bamboo or oil palm bark are compared in Table 8.  Luo and Yang (2011Yang ( , 2012) ) studied the effects of two pre-treatment methods (steam-blast method and liquid hot-water pretreatment) on the properties of the raw material (wheat straw or rice straw). Both methods appear to increase the degradation of chemical components. Kurniati et al. (2015) examined the effect of hot pressing at various temperatures 9 on the physical and mechanical properties of castor beans (Ricinus communis). Good physical and mechanical properties 10 were obtained with a binderless particleboard from jatropha (Jatropha curcas) seeds hot-pressed at a temperature below 170°C.As illustrated in Figure 3, binderless particleboards can also be manufactured using high-fiber agricultural waste instead 9 150, 160, 170, 180, and 190°C. 10 MOR = 8.17 MPa; MOE = 244.4 MPa; IB = 0.28 MPa; water absorption: 76.5%; thickness expansion: 29.5%.of formaldehyde synthetic adhesives. For instance, a combination of citric acid (CA) and maltodextrin (MD) in equal proportions 11 can be used to produce sorghum bagasse particleboards (Syamani et al. 2020). The sorghum bagasse was hot-pressed 12 with various proportions of CA:MD adhesive content 13 to produce a particleboard with a target density of 0.8 g cm -3 . The particleboard's MOR and MOE fulfilled the standard of type 8 particleboard according to 11 At a volume ratio of 1:1 (CA:MD).12 At a temperature of 200°C and a pressure of 5 MPa over 8 to 10 minutes.13 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% respectively. The CA:MD adhesive mixture was most efficient as binding agent at a content of 30%. Self-bonding mechanisms such as hot pressing or steam injection pressing are used to produce binderless particleboards, in which heat and pressure cause the partial decomposition of hemicellulose and lignin, as well as chemical reactions that create natural bonds, replacing synthetic adhesives in binderless particleboards. Binderless particleboards reduce the use of chemical adhesives, providing a sustainable, healthy and environmentally friendly sustainable alternative to conventional wood-based particleboards.This study also highlights the potential of previously underutilized non-wood lignocellulosic materials for binderless particleboard production. Kenaf cores can be used to produce low-density binderless particleboards with good sound and thermal insulation properties for building interiors. The significant lignin and hemicellulose content of oil palm make it an excellent raw material for binderless particleboard production. Bamboo binderless particleboards produced with waste from the bamboo processing industry is also a value-added product that can contribute to achieving net zero carbon emissions.  According to FAO's Third Asia-Pacific Forest Sector Outlook Study (2019), the uptake and scaling-up of innovative forest technologies in the Asia-Pacific region has been slow and uneven. Young people have a key role to play in amending this condition. As technology enthusiasts and forest managers of the future, they are the individuals and cohorts to take leadership and generate momentum through collaboration and social media, transform rigid institutions from within, and participate in the uptake and upscaling of innovative technologies in the forest sector of the region.This collection of papers illustrates, in various contexts, the potential of innovative technologies to advance sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management. It illustrates how technologies, both new and repurposed, can improve and facilitate monitoring and reporting; strengthen citizen engagement in forest monitoring and management; and support the optimization of processes and products for sustainable forestry and sustainable forest management.","tokenCount":"26683"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a71eba7a3283701af66c2c47c4a6c946","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1baa9431-20f1-42a1-9e3b-b344a1bf3f85/retrieve","id":"-244027018"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c867614a-459f-45c2-89c8-81e8ee6595ba","pagecount":"43","content":"The Board recognizes its fiduciary responsibility for the financial statements of the center as well as in setting the overall strategy for the Center and following up on its implementation in accordance with agreed policies, timelines and output/outcomes.The Board of Trustees of the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) met at the temporary headquarters in Cotonou, Benin, during the month of March and later the Board met in Cotonou, Benin in September 2014.The Board is pleased with the continued improvements in the financial health and stability of the Center during the financial year ended on 31 December 2014. The Center continued to operate 3 CRPs in 2014. Total CRP funding increased to US$ 10.2 million up from US$ 9.5 million in 2013. The partial payments from the Fund Council from W1 and W2 were received in February, April, October and December with as much as US$ 3.7 million pre-financed by the close of the year 2014, but because of the strong financial health of AfricaRice, the payment delay had no major disruptive effect on research activities. The Board is pleased to note that, AfricaRice recorded positive results and closed the year with a modest surplus of US$ 43,795 for the year-ended 31 December 2014. The Board wishes to commend the management for the sound and prudent manner in which it has managed the Center's resources in accordance with Board-approved program of work and budget.The total revenue during the year fell by US$ 1.330 million to US$ 29.275 million, down from US$ 30.605 million in 2013. The net expenditure decreased by US$ 0.797 million to US$ 29.231 million down from US$ 30.028 million in 2013. This resulted in a modest surplus of US$ 0.0438 million and increased the Center's net assets. The Center's Undesignated Net Assets decreased from US$ 12.484 million at end of 2013 to US$ 11.715 million at end of 2014. This decrease was due to the additional US$ 0.813 allocated towards designated net assets to bring it to the level of net book value of fixed assets as at 31 st December 2014 for the purpose of replacement of capital property, plant and equipment.The Center's liquidity and reserve indicator levels remained high at 153 days, slightly lower than the 156 days recorded in 2013. It is the eighth consecutive year that these financial indicators are above CGIAR recommended level. We expect that once again, AfricaRice will remain one of the CG Centers with the highest reserve indicator ratio. The audited Indirect Cost Rate for AfricaRice decreased to 10.3% during the year, down from 15.1% in 2013.Restricted Receivables to Restricted Payables from donors ratio increased from 1.35 up to 1.96 . This is partially explained by the level of unsettled donor debts resulting from the delayed payments budgeted in line with new funding processes within the CGIAR System. Like all CGIAR Centers in 2014, AfricaRice had to resort to pre-financing to maintain an adequate level of research activities for on-going projects, pending disbursement of funds through the new funding mechanisms, of which more than 36% of the GRiSP funding was unpaid as of year-end.The Board approved a risk management statement at its 26 th session in March 2006 and continues to monitor and manage identified risks as related to their likely impact and probability of occurrence. The Board, in close consultation with the Director General, sets the risk appetite for the Center.The Board of Trustees of the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) has the responsibility for ensuring that an appropriate mechanism is in place for Center-wide risk management in order to ensure the achievement of the Center's research objectives. These risks include strategic, operational, financial and reputational elements that are inherent to the nature, modus operandi and locations of the Center's activities. These risks evolve over time owing to the environment in which the Center operates. There is potential for negative impact arising from inadequate or failed internal processes, systems, human factors and/or external events.Most critical risks include:• Irrelevant priorities and poor strategy resulting in low impact science (and therefore inappropriate technology);• Misallocation of scientific efforts from agreed priorities;• Loss of reputation for scientific excellence and integrity;• Research disruption and information system failure;• Financial liquidity problems;• Transaction processing failures;• Loss of assets, including information assets;• Failure to recruit, retain and effectively utilize qualified and experienced staff;• Failures in staff health and safety systems;• Failures in the execution of Center's legal and fiduciary responsibilities; and• Failure on the part of donors to make appropriate level of investments to support research.The Board has adopted a risk management policy -communicated to all staff -that includes a framework by which the Center's management identifies, evaluates and prioritizes risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies which balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and periodically reports to the Board on results. This process draws upon risk assessments and analysis prepared by the staff of the Center's business units, internal auditors, Center-commissioned external reviewers and the external auditors.The risk assessments also incorporate the results of collaborative risk assessments with other CGIAR Centers, System Office components, and other entities in relation to shared risks arising from jointly managed activities. The risk management framework seeks to draw upon best practices, as promoted in codes and standards promulgated in a number of CGIAR member countries. It is subject to ongoing review as part of the Center's continuous improvement efforts.Risk mitigation strategies include the implementation of systems of internal controls, which, by their nature, are designed to manage rather than eliminate risk. The Center endeavors to manage risk by ensuring that the appropriate infrastructure, control systems and people are in place throughout the organization. Key practices employed in managing risks and opportunities include environmental reviews, clear policies and accountabilities, transaction approval frameworks, financial and management reporting, and the monitoring of metrics designed to highlight positive or negative performance of individuals and processes across a broad range of key performance areas. The design and effectiveness of the risk management system and internal controls is subject to coordination through a Risk Management Committee and ongoingA f r i c a R ice C e n t e r Ce n t r e d u r iz pou r l ' A f r i q u e review by the Center's Internal Audit Unit, which is independent of the operating units, and which reports on the results of its audits directly to the Director General and to the Board through its Audit Committee.The AfricaRice Board and management have reviewed the implementation of the risk management process during 2014 and the Board is satisfied with the progress made.The Board has monitored and satisfied themselves of the sound fiscal management of Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice). The Board monitored the effectiveness of internal controls through the interactions with the Internal and External Audit functions that report to the Audit Committee. In accordance with the requirement of Financial Guideline Number 2, the undersigned certify that:(i) The financial records of Africa Rice Center have been properly maintained;(ii) The financial statements, together with the explanatory notes thereto, comply in full with the provisions of the manual; and that (iii) The financial statements and the notes thereto give a true and fair view of the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the Africa Rice Center.Director General AfricaRice's management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with International Standards Auditing and with the CGIAR Manual, the Financial Guideline N°2 and the related Advisory Note issued by the CGIAR Consortium Office on November 2013 and again updated on 10th December 2014.This responsibility includes: designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial report that is free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies; and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. Those standards require that we comply with relevant ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial report is free of material misstatement.An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on our judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error.In making those risk assessments, we consider internal control relevant to the entity's preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity's internal control. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting principles used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements.We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) as of 31 December 2014 and of its surplus and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with the CGIAR Manual, the Financial Guideline N°2 and the related Advisory Note issued by the CGIAR Consortium Office on November 2013 and again updated on 10th December 2014. AfricaRice's management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with International Standards Auditing and with the CGIAR Manual, the Financial Guideline N°2 and the related Advisory Note issued by the CGIAR Consortium Office on November 2013 and again updated on 10 th December 2014.This responsibility includes: designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial report that is free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies; and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. Those standards require that we comply with relevant ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial report is free of material misstatement.An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on our judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. AfricaRice's management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with International Standards Auditing and with the CGIAR Manual, the Financial Guideline N°2 and the related Advisory Note issued by the CGIAR Consortium Office on November 2013 and again updated on 10 th December 2014.This responsibility includes: designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial report that is free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies; and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. Those standards require that we comply with relevant ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial report is free of material misstatement.An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on our judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. The accompanying notes to the financial statements (1-17) form part of this statement.  The Center receives funds from the CGIAR Fund, as well as from its member countries and other donors.The accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The significant accounting policies, which have been applied consistently with the previous year, are set out below.The financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with the recommendations made in the CGIAR Financial Guidelines Series No. 2: Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices Manual (March 2004updated in February 2006) which are in conformity with International Accounting Standards (IAS) for not-for-profit organizations.This guideline was last updated in 2006 and does not provide any guidance on the presentation of the financial aspects of CGIAR Research Programs (CRP). As a consequence, an \"Advisory Note\" has been issued from the CGIAR Consortium Office every year to all CGIAR centers to provide guidance for the centers and their auditors with regards to 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 Financial Statements reporting and accounting treatment by the individual centers for the funds disbursed through CGIAR Fund Windows( 1, 2, and 3).The latest revision of the \"Advisory Note\" was issued once again on 10 th December, 2014 with a view to clarify on issues relating to the preparation of the 2014 Audited Financial Statements. A comprehensive review of FG2 guidelines is still in progress to bring it into full compliance with IFRS. The planned implementation for full IFRS compliance has been set o start with the Financial Statements for 2016.The financial statements of AfricaRice have been presented using the accrual basis of accounting. Funds paid by Member States and other Donors are therefore credited to Revenue when they are received in accordance with the existing Board-approved Policy All grants whether restricted or unrestricted, are recognized as revenue upon fulfillment of the donor-imposed conditions, or the donor has explicitly waived the conditions.They are classified as follows according to the type of donor-imposed restrictions:  Unrestricted grants are funds made available to AfricaRice to meet normal operating costs or whatever other purpose AfricaRice may deem fit. Restricted bilateral grants, which may be pledged for more than one year, are funds that are used to finance and support specific projects identified and agreed upon by their donors and AfricaRice. Such projects mayNOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS include fixed assets acquisitions and replacement funds as well as research and training activities, and are recognized as revenue only to the extent that related expenses have been incurred. They are labeled as permanently or temporarily restricted.CGIAR Challenge Programs continue to be treated as bilateral grants based on the agrreements signed with the cordinating centers. The Genebank Stabilily Funds have been incorporated into the CRP mainstream grants. Restricted CGIAR Research Programs (CRP) that are funded through the CGIAR Funding Windows, are treated as restricted funds for carrying out the approved workplans and budgets under the Srategy and Results Framework (SRF) of the CGIAR Consortium.Since the currency for accounting at AfricaRice is the US dollar, AfricaRice accounts are maintained in US dollars.Local currency of various member states and other countries in which AfricaRice operates are recorded in the books of AfricaRice at the rate of exchange prevailing on the dates of the transactions.Pledges in currencies other than US dollars are recorded at the exchange rates prevailing at the time of receipt or, if outstanding, at the rate of exchange prevailing at the year end.Monetary assets and liabilities in currencies other than the US dollars are restated at market rates of exchange prevailing at the year-end. Differences in exchange are accounted for in the statement of activities.The CGIAR Accounting Financial Guidelines No. 2 effective from year 2004 and updated in February 2006 precscribes the depreciation rates for all purchases made from restricted project funds be made at a 100% of cost during the year of purchase.The threshold for capitaliation of individual assets is US$ 1,000.The assets constructed or purchased effective 1 January 2005 are capitalized in accordance with those guidelines.The annual depreciation rates are as follows: RatesPhysical Facilities (buildings and installations) 1.67%Heavy duty equipment 10.00% Agricultural equipment 10.00%Vehicles and tractors 14.29%Furniture and office equipment 10.00%Laboratory and scientific equipment 10.00%Computer equipment 20.00%A provision has been made to meet the end of contract relocation allowance in accordance with the contracted amount for each international staff member. This provision takes into account the Board-approved policy that no allowance is payable before one full year of service, and is further prorated for the period between one and two years of service before attaining the full sum contracted.Inventories of materials and supplies are stated at the lower of the acquisition cost and the net realizable values.Acquisition cost is determined using the moving average method.Materials in transit are stated at invoice cost, inclusive of insurance and freight.NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTSIn accordance with the agreements between AfricaRice and the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Benin, signed on 26 September 1989 and 14 December 2004 respectively, AfricaRice, its assets, income and any other property are exempted from any form of direct taxation in Côte d'Ivoire and Benin. AfricaRice may be reimbursed on its request value added tax on construction work for buildings, supplies and services used exclusively for official purposes, except for tax on services in the case of Benin. AfricaRice and its staff are not required to contribute to the social security plan of Côte d'Ivoire although in practice a certain number of staff are affiliated to the Social Security Organization in Côte d'Ivoire. Certain AfricaRice staff are exempt from all taxes on salaries and benefits for their activities at AfricaRice.Grants-in-kind are recorded at the fair value of the assets (or services) received or promised,or the fair value of the liabilities satisfied.The only grants-in-kind relating to seconded staff support that will be recognized by AfricaRice in the financial statements will be subject to the fulfillment of following conditions: (i) the donated staff must be fully engaged in a project within AfricaRice's agreed agenda activities;(ii) the project must be full-cost budgeted in AfricaRice's work program;(iii) the full cost as budgeted is borne by the in-kind provider; and (iv) the in-kind provider approves of the inclusion, and the value, of their support as revenue in AfricaRice's financial statements.The financial statements as a consequence do not include seconded staff grants in-kind, and these are disclosed as detailed below:The following countries and institutions provided support in the form of seconded scientific personnel to AfricaRice during the year. The costs were borne by the donors based on a fair valuation of the services provided by these personnel as shown below, whilst AfricaRice provided the necessary operational services and utilities. The nationally recruited staff, commonly referred to as General Support Staff (GSS), participate in a Contributory Contingency Fund where the employer and employee both contribute funds to the Fund on a monthly basis. The Contingency Fund is managed by an independent management committee comprising of elected representatives of the staff body and ex-officio representatives of the Center management. The Fund operates under an intra-Center constitution which lays out the guidelines for granting loans to its members as well as fund withdrawal options.AfricaRice has has withdrawn the invested part of the Contingency Provident Fund upon request by the management committee (see note 10(b)).The pooling of direct and indirect costs is based on the principle of attribution and assignability. Expenditures that are common to the different cost centers are allocated on the basis of resource drivers. Non-operating and non-recurring expenditures are excluded in the computation.The method of calcultating the indirect cost recovery rate is based in accordance with the CGIAR Financial Guidelines No.5 as amended by the Advisory Note issued in December 2014 (refer to Annex 12).(The indirect cost rates on restricted projects may vary depending on the rates agreed upon in the terms and conditions of the relevant agreements.Post year-end events and contingent liabilities that may have an impact on the Center's financial situation as at the end of the reporting period, if any, are reflected in the financial statement, and any significant non-adjusting post year-end events are disclosed in the notes to the financial statements.There is a pending Court Case in which a former employee has sued for TZS 105,000,000 (Tanzania Shillings equivalent to $60,555) in the very unlikely event that he wins the case (as confirmed by AfricaRice Lawyers to KPMG).AFRICA (b) This account payable was held under instruction from the donor USAID who had indicated a decision to have the amount transferred to a different project that has yet to be identified.It has been written back after 15 years of stagnation.No provision is made for donor accounts receivable based on past experience and a detailed review of restricted spending to ensure that the receivables fall within amounts pledged by the donors. The inventory is periodically reviewed to ensure that any slow moving item with a possible obsolescence risk are identified and disposed of. No general provision for inventory obsolecence is deemed necessary under these circumstances.NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS -(Continued)   We hereby certify that that the above amounts have been expended for Eligible Expenditures for the proper execution of the Programme in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement dated 20 March 2013.Name and Title: George MAINA Head of Finance","tokenCount":"3498"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"961caa68b5b531ebe7fc0fa756c7a99f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3691b758-4f3a-452e-adfe-572522fd6832/retrieve","id":"1463034358"},"keywords":["ecology","ecosystems","environmental science","plant science carbon","biodiversity","degradation","regeneration","tree planting","nature-based solutions"],"sieverID":"95f11d6c-664b-4d80-818a-d0827db4e26f","pagecount":"17","content":"Current policy is driving renewed impetus to restore forests to return ecological function, protect species, sequester carbon and secure livelihoods. Here we assess the contribution of tree planting to ecosystem restoration in tropical and sub-tropical Asia; we synthesize evidence on mortality and growth of planted trees at 176 sites and assess structural and biodiversity recovery of co-located actively restored and naturally regenerating forest plots. Mean mortality of planted trees was 18% 1 year after planting, increasing to 44% after 5 years. Mortality varied strongly by site and was typically ca 20% higher in open areas than degraded forest, with height at planting positively affecting survival. Size-standardized growth rates were negatively related to species-level wood density in degraded forest and plantations enrichment settings. Based on community-level data from 11 landscapes, active restoration resulted in faster accumulation of tree basal area and structural properties were closer to old-growth reference sites, relative to natural regeneration, but tree species richness did not differ. High variability in outcomes across sites indicates that planting for restoration is potentially rewarding but risky and context-dependent. Restoration projects must prepare for and manage commonly occurring challenges and align with efforts to protect and reconnect remaining forest areas.The abstract of this article is available in Bahasa Indonesia in the electronic supplementary material.This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.Despite the critical role of equatorial forests in the global carbon cycle and biodiversity conservation, recent decades have seen extensive tropical deforestation and degradation, with losses driven largely by logging and agricultural expansion [1][2][3]. Human-modified forests and secondary growth forests now account for the majority of forest cover [4]. Forest restoration is intended to mitigate damage from anthropogenic impacts by reinstating tree cover where forests occurred naturally. The growing focus on nature-based solutions (NbS) to address the climate crisis [5] has resulted in ambitious, high-level commitments for forest restoration and tree planting; for example, the Bonn Challenge aims to restore 350 million hectares of deforested land by 2030 (https://www.bonnchallenge.org/), with some countries pledging in excess of 10% of their land area to forest restoration [6]. With careful consideration of local priorities, forest restoration in developing countries could offer a so-called 'triple win' of reducing biodiversity losses and supporting sustainable development while contributing to local and global mitigation of and adaptation to climatic change.Despite ambitions for vastly scaling up restoration efforts, the evidence for the efficacy of forest restoration is heterogeneous. Outcomes of restoration activities can vary widely, suggesting implementation challenges or competition for other land-uses, and complicating prediction of the efficacy of future interventions [7][8][9]. In practice, there has been an over-emphasis on numbers of trees planted as a metric for forest restoration success, rather than managing, protecting and monitoring how these planted trees perform over longer timescales [10,11]. There is demand for an improved evidence-base of the longterm outcomes, the timeframes required and uncertainties around restoration, and the environmental factors and management practices that influence the growth and survival of planted trees. These knowledge advances will help to ensure that limited resources available for forest restoration are used optimally [12].Restoration may target some aspects of ecosystem functioning (termed ecosystem restoration) or attempt to recover the functions and biotic assemblages existing in native reference forest ecosystems (ecological restoration; see electronic supplementary material, box S1). Our study focuses on ecosystem restoration of tropical and subtropical forests in Asia, where forests have been subject to logging at varying intensities, fragmentation and conversion to other landuses, and where restoration has been undertaken to return structure and function of forests for the purposes of restoration and future harvesting. The most common intervention in forest restoration in tropical/subtropical Asia is the planting of nursery-grown saplings, which is often supplemented by other treatments such as weeding, cutting climbers, liberation thinning or planting of nurse plants (e.g. [13,14]). We focus on the outcomes of tree planting as a tool for restoration. Publications to date typically report on individual or a few sites, but syntheses of evidence are needed for improved predictions of the outcomes that can be expected from forest restoration (e.g. [8,[15][16][17]).Asian forests have several distinct ecological features that may present challenges for vegetation recovery. Large areas of tropical Asian forest are dominated by the single tree family Dipterocarpaceae [18,19] which has relatively short dispersal distances through gravity and gyration of winged fruits [20]. The clustered spatial structure of dipterocarp populations may limit the capacity of forests to regenerate naturally in parts of the landscape that are remote from a seed source, and where logging has removed a large proportion of the mature reproductive trees [20][21][22]. Interannual mast fruiting events also govern reproduction and royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 378: 20210090 the availability of seed for regeneration, as well as seedling stocks for reforestation [23,24]. Peat swamp forests are a distinctive variant of Southeast Asian lowland forests [25] that have been heavily degraded by drainage, timber extraction and clearance [26]. These activities have increased the susceptibility of degraded peat swamp forests to fire and flooding, resulting in a particularly challenging environment for restoration [27][28][29].(a) Potential environmental and biotic determinants of forest recoveryForest stands often show regeneration problems after harvesting or agricultural abandonment, including a failure of some tree species to recruit, which results in a shift in species composition [30,31]. Forest structural changes associated with disturbance and degradation alter microclimatic conditions, resulting in increased exposure to solar radiation, reduced humidity and more extreme temperatures [32][33][34][35]. In a global synthesis, Crouzeilles et al. [36] found that forest restoration was more successful when previous disturbance was less intensive, which may be driven by the availability of propagules for recovery, the environmental barriers to recovery and ongoing human disturbances. Assessment of the response of planted individuals helps to disentangle the first cause from the latter two. Microclimatic conditions, determined by vegetation structure, may interact with other broader scale environmental factors (e.g. rainfall seasonality, soil conditions, temperature, elevation) to exacerbate negative effects of disturbance. For instance, Qie et al. [37] found El Niño-driven tree mortality was higher at forest edges than in intact forest in Borneo. Forest recovery may also vary according to soil conditions and topography, with steep slopes, shallow soils and exposed ridges creating challenging conditions for regenerating stems [38].Heterogeneous environmental conditions in disturbed ecosystems can affect the relative performance of different tree species [31,39]. In an Indonesian restoration site, Kardiman et al. [40] found that growth and survival rates of 38 planted tree species varied in response to microhabitat, suggesting that species choice and site-species matching are critical for the success of planting programmes. Plant functional traits provide a framework for predicting whether species are welladapted to a specific environmental setting [41,42]. Wood density is considered a key functional trait on the acquisitiveconservative trait spectrum [43]. Higher community-average wood densities are typically found where dry seasons are more intense or in well-drained soil conditions, where high wood density may offer hydraulic safety [44][45][46]. Wood density was positively related to survival of trees planted into pasture in a restoration site in Australia and peat swamp forests in Asia [47,48] while greater allocation to rooting depth enhanced tree survival in a seasonally dry forest in Costa Rica [49]. The role of functional traits in explaining recovery and determining species-specific responses has not been widely explored in Asian forests and predictive site-species matching is hampered by a lack of trait data for most species [47]. The most widely available functional trait information is wood density [50] which presents a preliminary opportunity to explore relationships between species-level vital rates and traits.The diversity of plantings may affect long-term performance through 'insurance' and 'portfolio' effects that arise when species differ in their responses to environmental variation in space and time [13,51,52]. Diversity at multiple levels, including functional and genetic diversity, is important in building resilient communities for the future [53,54] but comes with the practical challenge of developing silvicultural and horticultural knowledge for many species.Assessments of restoration outcomes typically focus on survival and growth of planted trees at individual sites. These metrics are useful indicators of early barriers to restoration [55], but ultimately the longer-term goal of restoration is the structural and compositional recovery of the whole plant community and broader ecosystem. Syntheses of plot-based data have estimated the average above-ground carbon accumulation rate in moist tropical forests naturally regenerating after clearance as ca 4-5 Mg C ha −1 yr −1 depending on location and disturbance history [56]. Analyses to date have focused on secondary growth after clearing [57] and we have fewer estimates for actively restored forests (see electronic supplementary material, Box S1) or those recovering from varying degrees of degradation. A pan-tropical meta-analysis found that recovery of vegetation structure and biodiversity (plants and animals) had better outcomes in naturally regenerating forests than those under active restoration (defined broadly as assisted recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed) [58]. However, most sites in this analysis were not using different restoration methods in co-located plots and thus not often directly comparable [59]. Since tree planting is costly and upscaling is challenged by the need for supporting infrastructure, it is imperative to determine when and where tree planting is necessary to meet restoration goals [60].Establishing a sound evidence-base to understand the capacity, limitations and risks of restoration practices in terms of effects on carbon accumulation and plant community diversity and structure will benefit forest restoration decisionmaking. Here, we synthesize evidence on forest recovery and the efficacy of tree planting as an intervention for ecosystem restoration in the tropical and sub-tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia. Using a large database of published and primary data, we specifically ask the following questions:1. What are the observed rates of mortality for planted trees in ecosystem restoration of tropical and sub-tropical Asian forests? 2. How do rates of mortality and growth of planted trees vary according to the biophysical environment (elevation, temperature, rainfall, substrate type), habitat condition and biotic factors (taxa planted, species richness of plantings and species wood density)? 3. What are the differences in community-level basal area, above-ground carbon and tree species richness between forests actively restored via tree planting compared with neighbouring naturally regenerating forests, at the same time since disturbance?We compiled data on planted tree survival, planted tree size and/or growth and area-based metrics of forest structure and diversity in planted and unplanted adjacent plots. grey literature contributed by FOR-RESTOR network partners (www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/projects/for-restor). We included forest restoration studies from tropical or subtropical, moist or dry broadleaf forest regions [61] of South and Southeast Asia (figure 1). We compiled additional studies from references cited in these papers, allowing us to capture regional and non-ISI indexed journals. We conducted our final bibliometric search on 15 May 2021 using the Web of Science database for studies in the English language. Some additional peat swamp forest studies were read in Indonesian by co-author N.E.B.R.We screened studies to assess whether they contained data on planted tree survival (numbers or proportions of trees that survived or died at known census intervals) and/or size or growth (measures of height, diameter, biomass or leaf number at multiple time points or calculations of growth that could be converted to size at each census). We read relevant studies in full and recorded numerical data or extracted them from figures using WebPlotDigitiser [62]. We were interested in trees planted in field conditions, excluding studies focusing only on naturally regenerating seedlings or those conducted in greenhouses or nurseries. We excluded studies where the final recorded census date was less than six months after planting to ensure timescales relevant for restoration. We recorded survival and growth metrics individually for each combination of site, species and treatment (where studies had replicated experimental treatments) for trees planted at the same time. We required there to be some information on disturbance history prior to planting and/or a statement on the purpose of the planting to ensure relevance to the question of ecosystem restoration (electronic supplementary material, table S2) and exclude studies only planting exotic commercial monocultures. A greater proportion of studies reported change in plant height than other measures of size, so we selected height as our metric for growth analyses. For all relevant studies, we compiled data on ancillary variables to test for sources of variation in mortality and growth. We recorded the following information: location (country, latitude and longitude coordinates), duration of study, disturbance history type, site condition prior to planting, restoration methods, diversity of planting, planting density, seed source, tree age at planting and tree height at planting. We recorded diversity of planting and planting density at the treatment-within-species level, but for some studies it was necessary to apply site-wide average values. We categorized disturbance prior to restoration into the following classes: logging (clear fell and selective logging), agriculture (pasture, shifting cultivation, cultivation and grassland), plantation (oil palm, industrial monoculture), fire, mining or drainage based on the information provided on the most recent disturbance activity (usually the most severe). We classified the site condition at the time of planting into one of three categories: plantation enrichment (planting of native trees beneath nonnative or monoculture plantations as defined above), natural forest enrichment (for secondary and logged forest sites) or open (with little or no tree cover), indicating whether trees were planted into existing tree canopy cover or more exposed conditions. We recorded six additional categories of restoration methods alongside planting (removal of competition, fertilizing, protection, shading, water regulation and soil preparation; see electronic supplementary material, appendix S1 for details). Due to the inconsistent reporting of site biophysical data (altitude, climate, soil), we extracted these variables from global datasets, as reported below.We checked the taxonomic names given for the planted trees against global databases of known vascular plant species [63][64][65] and we unified synonyms by adopting the accepted scientific names given in World Flora Online [63]. In the few instances where there was uncertainty about the identification (e.g. trees were not identified at the genus level; species name was a synonym for multiple accepted scientific names; significant spelling errors), the data for that record were discarded. To test the role of functional traits in determining survival and growth, we extracted wood density data from the global wood density database [50,66,67] using the BIOMASS package in R [68]. Averages were calculated from globally distributed wood density values due to low sample sizes for some parts of Asia. From the 625 unique species included in our datasets, wood density values were assigned at the species (60.1%), genus (30.1%) or family level (8.8%) on the basis that wood density is known to be phylogenetically conserved in tropical Asia [69]. For five species, belonging to five families where family-level data were not available, the average of the entire dataset was used.Overall, we compiled planted tree data from 176 restoration sites (221 199 trees) across South and Southeast Asia of which 148 sites (207 224 trees) reported data on survival and 136 sites (102 412 trees) reported height growth. This included 108 sites on mineral soils and 68 tropical peat swamp forest sites. In total, 625 tree species (252 genera; 81 families) were planted but species richness of plantings at individual sites was typically low (median of three, range = 1-49 species planted per site; figure 1). The five most common species planted were the dipterocarp species Shorea balangeran planted at 39 sites, followed by Dyera polyphylla in the Apocynaceae (31 sites), and the dipterocarps Shorea leprosula (26 sites), Shorea parvifolia (25 sites) and Shorea ovalis (16 sites). The five most common genera planted were the dipterocarps Shorea (88 sites), Hopea (35 sites), Dipterocarpus (21 sites) and Dryobalanops (20 sites) and Dyera (35 sites) (see electronic supplementary material, figure S1).Although the maximum study duration was 33 years, only 49 (28%) sites conducted censuses 5 years or more after planting and the median study length was 2 years (figure 1). Median planting density was 1111 seedlings ha −1 (figure 1), but this information was only available for 42% of sites.For each site, we extracted biophysical and climatic variables from the WorldClim datasets [70] at 2.5-minute resolution, averaged across years 1970 to 2000. Based on their potential impact on tree growth and survival we extracted elevation, mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation and dry-season precipitation ( precipitation in the driest consecutive three months). Mean annual precipitation and dry-season precipitation were highly correlated so we elected to proceed with dry-season precipitation. The Harmonized World Soil Database [71] misclassified soil at some peat swamp sites, and most forests on mineral soil had a similar classification, so our analyses proceed without using soil property data and instead use the dichotomous forest type classification of forests on mineral soil or peat swamp forest.To establish differences in structure, biomass and biodiversity of naturally regenerating forest compared with sites where tree planting had taken place, we conducted a second search that focused on data available at the plot-level (electronic supplementary material, appendix S2). We screened 373 papers in total to identify studies that included monitoring of both natural regeneration and planted restoration plot(s) that were established within the same landscape at similar times and surveyed at least once for structural measures (basal area and/or above-ground biomass or carbon density) and indices of tree diversity. This resulted in 13 landscapes in total: data from 12 landscapes were extracted from 15 studies identified through the literature search, and co-authors provided data to derive additional metrics for two landscapes and one further unpublished landscape. The full dataset included a total area of 98.2 ha of restored forest across 452 plots (electronic supplementary material, table S5). Plots were surveyed from 0 to 50 years since disturbance and 0 to 30 years since planting took place.The community-level analysis was carried out on the three metrics recorded from the literature search: above-ground carbon density, basal area and tree species richness. The means of comparison between planted and unplanted areas differed among studies: (i) 11 studies recorded plot-level metrics at one time point, allowing for comparisons between planted and unplanted plots; (ii) three studies recorded basal area at two or more time points allowing comparisons of change over time, and (iii) seven studies had recorded an old-growth reference value, against which both planted and unplanted plot-level metrics could be compared. As such, we conducted three statistical analyses, reported below, and the studies used in each of these analyses are indicated in electronic supplementary material, table S4.To accommodate the heterogeneous census intervals among sites and studies and facilitate interpretation, we assessed mortality with separate models for each standardized time point (1, 2, 3, 4 years [±6 months], 5-10 years [54-114 months] and greater than 10 years [114-240 months] after planting). At each of the time points, we modelled mortality (number of dead and alive trees for a given site-species-treatment) via generalized linear mixed effects models with a binomial error distribution and a complementary log-log (cloglog) link function using the glmmTMB package [72]. To ascertain average mortality at each time point we fitted a model with an intercept term and royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 378: 20210090 random effects that accounted for variability associated with site, species and species-within-site (given that species may perform differently at different sites), and an observation-level random effect for overdispersion.We then tested for the effects of environmental variables (climatic terms: mean annual temperature, dry-season precipitation, elevation), forest type, forest condition, species richness of plantings and wood density as additional fixed effects, with interaction terms between wood density and forest type and wood density and forest condition. We used the same random effects structure as with the intercept-only models. For models capturing studies over 5 years, we also tested the inclusion of a covariate to account for differences in 'exposure to hazard' (ln[time in months]). Continuous predictor variables (wood density, climate terms) were centred and scaled to facilitate model fitting. We used an information-theoretic approach to model selection, using the dredge function in the MuMIn package [73] which fits all combinations of fixed effects terms, while always retaining the specified random effects structure. We assessed the top-performing models (lowest AIC and with ΔAIC < 2). In those models we identified variables with importance value greater than 0.8 (which is the proportion of models within the top subset that contained that variables) and these variables were included in the final selected model [74]. In addition, we ran separate models to test for the effects of planting density and mean height at planting on mortality on tree mortality at 1 and 2 years after planting in open degraded and forest enrichment habitat classes.We checked final models using the DHARMa package [75] and assessed the marginal effects of the fixed effects terms using the package ggeffects [76]. Model R 2 values were calculated for fixed effects terms only (marginal R 2 ) and fixed and random effects terms together (conditional R 2 ) [77]. We examined the variation explained by each random effect through intra-class correlations (ICC), which indicate the strength of the correlation between data points within a group [77].(ii) Annual size-standardized height growth rate Height growth was censused across varying intervals (from 6 to 396 months) and with large variability in size at planting (mean = 42 cm, range = 2 cm-357 cm, figure 1). Since plant growth rate is known to be size-dependent [78][79][80] we chose to analyse annual size-standardized growth rate (AGR) rather than absolute growth. For each case (treatment-within-species and site) that had height recorded at four or more time points, we modelled height growth over time using linear or nonlinear least squares regression using three candidate functions (linear, exponential and Gompertz). When there were only three time points, only the linear and exponential fits were tested (further details in electronic supplementary material, appendix S3). We selected the regression model with the lowest AIC and visually checked model fits. We used the fitted curves to estimate the height at six months either side of the time at which trees reached a standardized height (namely, 100, 200 and 300 cm) and calculated the AGR as the difference between these two values (i.e. growth in 1 year when the tree is a given size; see electronic supplementary material, appendix S3 for details). The three standardized heights were chosen to capture a large proportion of our data without the need for extrapolating growth rates outside the range of the data.AGR values were ln-transformed to meet the assumptions of a Gaussian regression model and modelled as response variables in linear mixed models using the lme4 package [81]. The maximal models followed the same fixed effects structure as the mortality models. We included crossed random effects for site and species because variation explained by species-in-site was very minimal and caused problems with model fitting; likewise, the growth model for tree growth at 300 cm only included a random effect term for site. We used the same model selection and evaluation process as for mortality. Once the best model had been selected, we re-fit the model using a simulation approach to propagate uncertainty associated with the growth curve fitting stage of the analysis (detailed in electronic supplementary material, appendix S5). We found little difference between the two approaches in terms of parameter estimates and their confidence intervals and overall uncertainty contributed by the curve-fitting step was low (electronic supplementary material, tables S8 and S9) so our inference proceeded with the original models fitted to the observed data.We analysed the three types of comparisons as follows. To compare naturally regenerating and actively restored plots we paired plots within a study based on the same time since disturbance; in the case of two studies [82,83] this matching meant we could not include data from all plots available. For each plot pairing we calculated a log-response ratio (equation (2.1)) that we term 'restoration response' for each metric, m (above-ground carbon density, basal area, tree species richness) which allowed us to unify comparisons where monitoring methods varied among sites (e.g. plot sizes, minimum tree size measured etc.) [84]. We tested the departure of the restoration response from zero for the three metrics by fitting a linear mixed effects model for each metric, where we included mean time since disturbance as a fixed effect, 'study' as a random factor and we weighted by total area surveyed in the plot pair.response ratio (restoration response) mActive restoration m Natural regeneration m ð2:1ÞTo test for differences in basal area growth over time between the two restoration types (active restoration and naturally regeneration) we fit a linear mixed effects model with interacting fixed effects terms of time since disturbance and restoration type, with a random effect allowing the intercept and slope for each forest survey plot within a study to vary based on time since disturbance. We compared the AIC of the model with and without inclusion of the interaction effect and selected the best model based on the lowest AIC.To compare the effect of restoration type (natural regeneration and active restoration) relative to undisturbed, reference forest for each of the three metrics, we calculated the 'recovery completeness' log-response ratio following Jones et al.[85] (equation (2.2)) for each metric, m (above-ground carbon density, basal area, tree species richness). We tested the difference in recovery completeness by fitting a linear mixed effects model, including time since disturbance and restoration type as fixed effects, 'study' as a random factor and we weighted by the area of the restoration plot. We compared the AIC with the model excluding each fixed effect and selected the best model based on the lowest AIC. At 1 year after planting, average tree mortality was 18.0% (95% CI = 14.5-22.2%; figure 2  ) in open sites. In general, there were fewer observations from restoration within plantation sites. At some time points, mortality rates of plantings in plantations were more similar to forest enrichment settings (years 2, 3, 5-10) and at some time points more similar to open areas (years 1, 4). Mortality was higher in peat swamp forests (28% [95% CI = 20-39%]) than in forests on mineral soil (14% [95% CI = 11-19%]) at 1 year after planting but not in subsequent years (electronic supplementary material, appendix S4; figure S3). At 5-10 years after planting, forest type was also selected in the best model, with mean mortality higher in forests on mineral soil (44% [95% CI = 37-51%]) than peat swamp forest (30% [95% CI = 19-45%]) but the confidence intervals were overlapping and sample size was low for peat swamp forests (n sites = 5, n cases = 35). Peat swamp sites were more frequently classed as open degraded than the other habitat classes; we checked the influence of peat swamp sites on our results and found the same effect of habitat condition on mortality on mineral soils alone as with the full dataset.Broadly, the other covariates we tested (elevation, climatic terms, planted species richness and wood density) were not important drivers of mortality in our models. In several instances, additional variables were selected in the best models-at 1 year after planting, elevation was positively associated with mortality rates; at 4 years after planting, temperature was negatively associated and dry-season precipitation positively associated with mortality (table 1). However, the explanatory power of the fixed effects was low (marginal R 2 ranging from 2 to 24% of variation explained across models, table 1) and confidence intervals broad (electronic supplementary material, figures S4-S8).A greater proportion of variation was captured by the random effects terms (conditional R 2 in table 1, ranging from 23% to 65%). In the first 3 years after planting, the site term explained the greatest variation (25-47%) (ICC; table 1); at 4 years after planting, inter-site variation was partially accounted for by fixed effect terms temperature and  dry-season precipitation. Variation explained by species across the dataset was generally lower (less than 7%), with a higher correlation between observations of the same species within sites (table 1). We found no effect of planting density on mortality (at 1 and 2 years after planting, in either open degraded or forest enrichment settings). However, greater height at planting reduced mortality rates in open degraded habitats at year 1 and marginally at year 2 (electronic supplementary material, appendix S4, figure S9) while in forest enrichment habitats height was negatively associated with mortality in year 1 but they were not related at year 2.Wood density (g cm −3 ) was generally negatively associated with tree growth rate (cm yr −1 ) at all three reference sizes (100, 200 and 300 cm), but the effect of wood density on growth varied according to habitat condition at the first two reference sizes. There was no effect of wood density on growth in open degraded conditions, but these terms were negatively related in forest and plantation enrichment environments (figure 3a,b; electronic supplementary material, table S9). At 100 cm and average wood density (0.54 g cm −3 ), growth rate was higher in open conditions (63.8 [95% CI = 54.1-75.4] cm yr −1 ) and plantations (59.0 [95% CI = 44.6-78.0] cm yr −1 ) than in degraded forest (40.0 [95% CI = 31.8-50.3] cm yr −1 ). Similarly, at 200 cm and average wood density (0.56 g cm −3 ), growth rate was higher in open conditions (92.5 [95% CI=74.9-114.3] cm yr -1 ) and plantations (107 [95% CI = 66.4-172.8] cm yr −1 ) than in degraded forest (65.9 [95% CI = 48.8-89.0] cm yr −1 ). There was no significant effect of habitat condition at 300 cm reference size which may indicate that this effect is size-dependent, but the number of sites with trees of this reference size was also fewer (n = 25; table 2).We did not detect any difference in growth rates between peat swamp forests and forests on mineral soils. None of the other environmental variables tested had an effect on growth, and in general the marginal R 2 values were low (0.145, 0.057 and 0.009 for the models for 100 cm, 200 cm and 300 cm reference sizes respectively; table 2). As with the mortality rates, more variation in growth was explained by the random effects terms (see conditional R 2 , table 2). The site-level random effect explained 38.4-65.4% of variation in growth rate across the models for the three size classes (see ICCs, table 2). Species (across the whole dataset) accounted for 8.6-13.4% of variation in growth at 100 cm and 200 cm respectively; it was not possible to calculate variation explained by species within site.When we compared actively restored ( planted) plots with naturally regenerating plots we found no significant effect of planting on above-ground carbon density (restoration response = 1.108, 95% CI = −0.199-2.414 at average time since disturbance = 20.2 years, n studies = 6, n plot pairings = 38), tree species richness (restoration response = 0.321, 95% CI = −0.078-0.720 at average time since disturbance = 20.6 years, n studies = 6, n plot pairings = 35) or basal area (restoration response = 0.149, 95% CI = −0.093-0.391, at average time since disturbance = 19 years, n studies = 7, n plot pairings = 43) (figure 4b, electronic supplementary material, appendix S6). While, on average, above-ground carbon density, basal area and tree species richness were higher in actively restored plots than in naturally regenerating plots, in all three metrics the 95% CI of the restoration response overlapped zero (figure 4b).When we modelled basal area change over time, we found that on average actively restored plots accumulated basal area more quickly (0.715 m 2 yr −1 , 95% CI = 0.617-0.813 m 2 yr −1 ) than nearby naturally regenerating plots (0.336 m 2 yr −1 , 95% CI = 0.136-0.436 m 2 yr −1 ), as indicated by a significant interaction between time since disturbance and restoration type (ΔAIC = 11.5, n studies = 3, n plots = 287; figure 4c).The above-ground carbon density and basal area of actively restored plots were significantly closer to reference values for old growth forests than naturally regenerating plots (the model including a term for restoration type had the lowest AIC), but there was no significant difference between actively restored and naturally regenerating Across the three analyses, there was a tendency for active restoration to have a positive effect on basal area and above-ground carbon density recovery relative to natural regeneration, but results were sensitive to the type of analysis and combination of sites.Our synthesis revealed that, on average, ca 20% of planted trees died within 1 year and ca 50% had died once plantings were beyond 10 years old. However, there was a large amount of variability around these mean mortality rates. Broad-scale climatic gradients explained very little of this variation, but mortality was highly correlated at the site level indicating there are environmental, methodological or social factors operating which affect whole sites and that restoration outcomes are highly context dependent.Mortality was consistently lower at forest enrichment sites than in open environments, supporting previous global and regional studies which also found habitat condition to be an important driver of outcomes. Crouzeilles et al. [36] found that, globally, forest restoration was more successful when previous disturbance was less intensive, and in a review of enrichment planting, Paquette et al. [30] found that survival of under-planted trees increased, up to a threshold, with increasing shade-tree cover. Transplanted seed and seedling survival were highest in older secondary forest versus young forest across a restoration chronosequence in tropical Australia [87]. Enhanced seedling survival under tree canopies may result from the amelioration of extremes in light, temperature and water availability which could be particularly problematic at early stages of establishment. Provision of shade may be important for certain tree species (e.g. some dipterocarps) which lack tolerance of high light and temperature [88,89]. Qie et al. [31] found naturally regenerating seedlings had species-specific responses to levels of forest degradation in Borneo, which is supported by evidence showing that some species have a capacity to acclimate to conditions in newly logged forests [90].Proximity to established trees may have several other ecosystem benefits. An established tree canopy facilitates rapid colonization of planted seedlings' root systems by mutualistic fungi, which are known to enhance seedling survival and growth [91], whereas soil physical, chemical and biological properties may be more disturbed in open sites as a result of their disturbance history. This could be particularly important in Asian dipterocarp forests because dipterocarps form obligate ectomycorrhizal associations [19,[91][92][93]. Lower rates of survival in open degraded forests may also result from increased competition and suppression by native and nonnative grasses, weeds, ferns and climbers; the presence of grasses was found to be one of the leading factors in determining natural regeneration outcomes in a Costa Rican landscape [94]. Overall, existing trees in the landscape support restoration by enhancing the survival of planted trees, for example, in or adjacent to degraded forest fragments; protecting forest remnants is vital to restoration and the creation of forest 'islands' (applied nucleation) may play a similar function [95,96].Tree mortality rates were higher in peat swamp forest than forest on mineral soil in the first year after planting, potentially reflecting additional environmental challenges posed in degraded peatlands including higher susceptibility to fire, peat subsidence and water table fluctuations following drainage [27,97]. However, a recent review of peat swamp Table 2. Testing drivers of seedling growth. Summaries of best linear mixed effects models for ln(growth rate (cm yr −1 )) at three reference sizes: 100 cm, 200 cm and 300 cm. Maximal models included environmental variables (mean annual temperature, dry-season precipitation, elevation), forest type, forest condition, species richness of plantings and wood density. Selected fixed effect terms are variables selected in best LMMs. Marginal R 2 , conditional R 2 and intra-class correlations (ICC) showing variation explained by fixed and random effects terms. studies showed no significant effect of prior drainage on seedling mortality, but found species choices to be important-slower growing tree species survived for longer [47].In our study, there were fewer peat swamp sites monitored over longer time periods, but a better ability to detect ongoing differences would help to elucidate drivers of differing outcomes between habitats. Predicted tree mortality in plantations was variable across time points, which may also have been driven by the low number of sites and the inherent variability among those that were available for analysis. The higher mortality rates in open degraded and peat swamp sites indicate that the future of plantings is more uncertain in these habitats, yet these sites may also be the least likely to recover spontaneously because of the low residual density of large adult trees and challenging environments in these settings. More intensive management and maintenance may reduce these risks and improve outcomes. Few studies gave a quantitative record of baseline conditions-this information would help to determine thresholds at which certain risks or outcomes may occur and guide restoration planning [12,98,99]. Risks may be mitigated, through more intense maintenance and/or appropriate seedling stocking densities to bring about rapid canopy closure in very degraded systems [94,98]. We found a positive effect of tree height at planting on survival in the open degraded sites, as has been found in other studies [100]. Larger seedlings are usually better equipped to withstand environmental challenges or maximize on opportunities for rapid growth, but they are also more costly to produce and plant so the cost− benefit trade-off must be carefully assessed.A large variety of tree species were used in restoration plantings across Asia (a minimum of 625 species) but, on average, species richness at any one site was low (median = 3 species), indicating that only a small fraction of the native species pool is used in restoration. This may reflect challenges associated with seedling supply [101], particularly of rare species, and the uncertainties over suitable propagation and silvicultural techniques for many species. Variability in mortality rates may arise because of species-specific responses and the appropriateness of selected species to the planting environment. Yet, we found that typically the effect of site was stronger than that of species. Partitioning individual species level effects is difficult when planting diversity is low and when higher-level drivers of mortality are affecting all species, but it could also be that some projects selected a few, well-known 'safe' species with broad tolerances. In Asian forests, species assemblages are often strongly habitat-associated and soil environments are heterogeneous [102][103][104]. This may pose challenges for restoration in the region because species may perform very differently over small spatial scales.We did not find a strong effect of the number of planted species on survival, although detecting the effects of richness on vital rates was hampered by the low species richness of plantings at most sites. The effect of planted species diversity will also depend on the diversity of the baseline community pre-planting and the spatial arrangement of planting (i.e. the local mixtures), for which we lacked data. More broadly, the effects of low diversity in plantings may play out over time spans longer than we were able to investigate, driven by increasing susceptibility to plant diseases [52] or reduced complementarity of space-filling and resource use among the planted cohort [13,105]. A positive relationship between diversity and survival was observed in a large-scale experiment included in our synthesis after 10 years [13]. Bongers et al. [106] showed an increasing importance of diversity on forest productivity with time, which emphasizes the need for long-term monitoring in restoration settings.Wood density was not an important determinant of tree mortality in our synthesis; this contrasted with a study of seedling survival in seasonally dry forest in Australia where Charles et al. [48] found a positive relationship between wood density and survival of seedlings in restored rainforest. Relationships between wood density and vital rates are likely to be nuanced and context dependent [43]. In our study, wood density displayed a negative relationship with height growth in degraded forest and plantation settings at smaller plant sizes (100 cm and 200 cm) where it may be particularly beneficial to allocate carbon to growth as opposed to wood density. Lack of competition from neighbouring trees and a high light environment may mean wood density is a less important driver of growth in open ecosystems [107,108]. A recent synthesis [100] found that in humid forests, acquisitive traits (high specific leaf area, low wood density) maximized the positive effect of seedling size on tree seedling survival in a restoration context, and achieving rapid canopy closure may help to provide the environment for recovery of species more sensitive to climatic stress [109,110]. We were only able to examine wood density as a measure of plant function, while other traits may be important in influencing survival, growth and their trade-offs. Furthermore, we lacked finer-resolution soil information which is likely to be important for contextualizing trait-rate relationships. Building further understanding in this area may help guide species choices when planning for restoration outcomes [111].The monitoring of over 200 000 seedlings represents a vast logistical effort by the original research teams, and the synthesis has allowed us to identify some high-level systematic effects. Nonetheless, our synthesis may suffer from several sources of bias. Firstly, we observed relatively low average mortality in the first 2 years after planting-closely monitored sites with the intention of reporting or scientific publishing may have had more tightly controlled conditions which might not apply in large-scale reforestation projects or those with less thorough monitoring. A recent review revealed that while organizations engaged in tree planting have increased by 288% in the last three decades, only 5% of project websites and reports mentioned monitoring [11]. Furthermore, only sites with sufficiently high survival will continue to be monitored over longer timescales-this combined with oftenlimited financial support for long-term remeasurement means that sample sizes of sites measured for over 10 years are low and almost certainly biased. While some data from unpublished sources and the grey literature were included in our database, evidence assembled from published literature may be biased in favour of sites displaying higher survival. Two studies in our synthesis reported survival rates after catastrophic fires [112,113], while one experimental site within the FOR-RESTOR network suffered significant mortality after the survival rates were published [40]. A few studies did report incidences where species or sites were not measured because they displayed unusually high mortality rates, for example, due to disturbance by animals [114,115] weeds [116], or unknown/unreported causes [117][118][119][120]. Ultimately, we expect our estimates are biased and perhaps better reflect restoration potential than a realistic average of all restoration projects being undertaken across a range of sectors.Our study largely focuses on the environmental and ecological controls on restoration outcomes, but governance, tenure and land-use likely contribute to the differences we observed among sites, and perhaps systematically so among habitat condition classes. Areas with an existing forest canopy are more likely to be owned or managed by a state forest service, and be remote from human settlements, than areas that lack a tree canopy. Forested areas may suffer less from encroaching domestic animals and spill-over fires from cultivated land than areas that are fully deforested; conversely local communities can form networks to protect land. Restoration practitioners more frequently reported social factors as important to restoration longevity that ecological factors [121] but these contextual factors are less frequently reported.Data on whole-community responses were spatially sparse, covering just 11 landscapes and ca 90 ha in area, with studies taking different approaches to assessing restoration impacts.royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 378: 20210090The findings indicate that active restoration through tree planting can be beneficial to increasing the speed at which basal area recovers in degraded forests (figure 4c) and in approaching the biomass and basal area found in neighbouring old growth forests (figure 4d). This supports the findings published by [82] who found that actively restored forests in Sabah gained 50% more above-ground carbon per hectare per year than naturally regenerating forests over the course of a decade. Despite these findings, we did not detect a significant difference between the basal area and above-ground carbon of actively restored and naturally regenerating forests directly; we attribute this to the fact all analyses have relatively low sample sizes and are sensitive to the particular mixture of sites, indicating the need for more evidence. Added to this, restoration projects are not often established as strict 'experiments' and thus there may be factors such as level of degradation and level of intervention that are not true paired comparisons, making it difficult to partition the effect of restoration treatment.The differences in above-ground carbon accumulation and basal area increment we found between planted and naturally regenerating areas were less pronounced than differences in wood volume change presented by Shoo et al. [122] in Australia, possibly because the Australian sites were recovering from clearance whereas many sites in our comparison were regenerating after selective logging (eight of 11 landscapes). The effects of active restoration in degraded forests (when compared with open areas) may be more subtle because natural regeneration is supported in untreated areas by remaining mature trees. We did not have the power to test for habitat condition effects but we did observe variation between studies within our own dataset, for example, the plots in Western Ghats [123] had especially positive responses to active restoration and we hypothesize this may result from the sites being in isolated fragments in an agricultural setting with the invasive shrub Lantana camara present; both of these factors may be reducing natural regeneration in the degraded forest, meaning that active restoration has a disproportionate effect on forest recovery [96].Our synthesis focused on the role of tree planting in delivering biomass and tree biodiversity recovery, driven by the availability of comparable data. Other interventions may be effective in accelerating forest recovery, particularly in less disturbed forests, for example, weed and climber cutting [124,125] and thinning of dominant or early successional species [126,127], applied alone or in combination with planting. In some of the studies we compiled, tree planting was undertaken concurrently with other restoration activities; it is therefore difficult to tease apart which treatment had the greatest effect, or the ways in which they may be complementary, creating conditions conducive to germination and treeseedling establishment. Controlled experiments that compare restoration techniques are needed, implemented over a wide range of forest types and environmental conditions, to identify the circumstances under which each intervention method would be most effective (e.g. [15,59]). While we did not detect strong effects of restoration on tree species richness, we advocate further research on changes in species composition and distributional or functional attributes of species that recover or fail to recruit under different restoration treatments.The ability to look in greater depth at differences between silvicultural treatments through time would be beneficial (e.g. [122])-are differences in structure and biodiversity related to restoration approach maintained over long timescales or do naturally regenerating sites 'catch up'? Evidence suggests that naturally regenerating forests can recover their structure after about six decades [128,129] but there are risks to natural regeneration if ecological or socio-political barriers persist or protection is lacking [130,131]. Landscape-level factors (e.g. distances to natural forest remnants) are likely to be influential in determining the extent to which natural regeneration is viable [36,132].Our synthesis has identified that: (i) the outcomes of tree planting are highly variable, but planting is a comparatively costly approach to restoration, so we must improve the understanding of 'permanence drivers' and assess the costbenefits of different restoration interventions in different landscape contexts. Ecological and social drivers of success are typically studied in isolation, while in reality an integrated assessment of the socioecological context is required to inform restoration outcomes [133]. The uncertainty in planting outcomes also emphasizes the critical value of protecting remaining functionally intact forests. (ii) Restoration outcomes are context-dependent, related to site conditions and species choices. Improved capture of quantitative data on baseline environmental and vegetation conditions (including competing floristic elements) and regular measurements will help elucidate drivers of restoration success more thoroughly. This requires valuing, involving and strengthening local knowledge. (iii) Species richness of plantings were generally low, which may affect future forest function. Barriers to incorporating greater diversity in plantings should be explored and addressed. (iv) Our synthesis showed that average seedling mortality increased by ca 30% between 2 and 5-10 years post-planting, but few sites were monitored to this point. Greater financial and institutional support for long-term monitoring and reporting of large-scale mortality events and their causes (environmental and anthropogenic) are needed [133]. (v) The main evidence gaps for tropical and subtropical Asia concern the relative success of natural regeneration, responses to restoration interventions at the scale of whole community and data from experiments with well-designed controls. This new research should address the relative roles of different restoration methods, how trajectories evolve over time and how different taxa may be affected. To improve our collective understanding of restoration outcomes, we advocate improved practices and institutional and financial support for collecting and sharing restoration evidence [134]. We hope to contribute to this with our growing FOR-RESTOR network (www.ceh.ac.uk/ourscience/projects/for-restor), an Asian regional hub for collaboration, information and data sharing, for archiving experience and disseminating good practice. Data accessibility. Data and code for the statistical models are made available through the UKCEH Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC).Supplementary material is available online [135].","tokenCount":"8184"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"adc364178b2b947a385145d99f596a2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/9d9dd1d4-c246-41c2-a53a-86add8f95cca/content","id":"-446792895"},"keywords":["Egg-parasitic fungi","Niessliaceae","new species","plant parasitic nematodes","taxonomy","molecular phylogeny","ITS","LSU","rpb1","tef"],"sieverID":"6cd3760c-a913-4d23-b9d1-7de2b449c3d6","pagecount":"18","content":"Monocillium gamsii sp. nov. (Ascomycota, Hypocreales, Niessliaceae) isolated from eggs of the cereal cyst nematode Heterodera filipjevi is described and illustrated based on morphological and molecular phylogenetic evidence. The new taxon discovered in wheat fields in Turkey destructively parasitises nematode eggs. The infected eggs were readily colonised by the fungus, which produced microsclerotia. The fungus could be grown on artificial media and the parasitism of M. gamsii towards H. filipjevi was reproducible in vitro. Hyphae penetrating the nematode eggs entirely colonised the embryo, developed into multicellular chlamydospore and dictyochlamydospore-like structures eventually forming microsclerotia. Molecular and morphological differences and similarities between M. gamsii and its phylogenetically related species are discussed. Monocillium bulbillosum was found to be closely related to the new species. The pathogenicity of M. bulbillosum against H. filipjevi was also assayed in vitro because of its sister group relationship to M. gamsii revealing that this species was also capable of colonising eggs of H. filipjevi.Various fungi have been reported as natural enemies of plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) (Nordbring-Hertz et al. 2011;Siddiqui and Mahmood 1996;Stirling 2014). A group of these fungi infect females and egg contents of endoparasitic nematodes such as cyst nematodes (Kerry 1988;Rodríguez-Kábana and Morgan-Jones 1988), which are biotrophic plant pathogens establishing a long-term parasitic interaction with their host plants. The unique sedentary life style of this group of PPN render them especially vulnerable of being colonised by their natural enemies (Lopez-Llorca et al. 2008). Cyst nematodes are globally distributed and were the first group of PPN reported to be parasitised by fungi (Kühn 1877), which spurred investigations to find additional nematode-antagonistic fungi ever since [ (Tribe 1977) and references therein]. Most egg-parasitic fungi belong to the ascomyceteous Hypocreales, e.g. Pochonia chlamydosporia (Goddard) Zare & W. Gams, Metapochonia rubescens (Zare, W. Gams & López-Llorca) Kepler, S.A. Rehner & Humber, Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimm.) Zare & W. Gams, Metarhizium spp., Purpureocillium lilacinum (Thom) Luangsa-ard, Houbraken, Hywel-Jones & Samson, and Trichoderma spp. (Kerry and Hirsch 2011;Khan et al. 2006;Szabó et al. 2012;Zhang et al. 2014). In contrast, none of the second important group of nematode-antagonistic Ascomycota, the Orbiliomycetes (Baral et al. 2017) has been reported to parasitise nematode cysts and eggs. Grant and Elliott (1984) reported Monocillium sp. parasitising the cysts of the soybean cyst nematode Heterodera glycines. This is so far the only report on Monocillium antagonising a plant parasitic nematode. The genus Monocillium Saksena, 1955 was emended and placed in the Niessliaceae by Gams (1971), and Monocillium spp. were regarded as the asexual morphs of the hypocrealean genus Niesslia Auersw., 1869. However, the types of both genera have not yet been connected conclusively by elucidation of the life cycle or by molecular data, hence we hesitate to regard these genera as synonymous and treat them as separate taxonomic entities for the time being. The genus Monocillium currently comprises eighteen species (http://www.mycobank. org/quicksearch.aspx) and is defined by showing acremonium-like morphology, but is characterised by unbranched conidiophores with phialides having thickened walls in the lower part. The known species were isolated from soil, plant materials such as dead leaves and wood, but also from other fungi, and building material (such as wall paper). Among all Monocillium species described so far (Barron 1961;Gams 1971;Gams and Turhan 1996;Girlanda and Luppi-Mosca 1997;Ramaley 2001) M. curvisetosum W. Gams & Turhan is the only species which was originally isolated from aphids as an unusual host for this genus. However its potential parasitic association with its host has not yet been reported.Egg-parasitic fungi attacking cyst nematodes have repeatedly been isolated from all agricultural soils in various geographic regions (Chen and Chen 2002;Dababat et al. 2015).Experimental wheat fields of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Turkey, where a significant reduction in population size of the cereal cyst nematode Heterodera filipjevi had been observed between two consecutive years (unpublished data), were sampled to isolate and study fungal candidates that could be causally involved in this drop of the nematode population size.Here we report a so-far undescribed hypocrealean species which destructively parasitised the eggs of H. filipjevi. The antagonistic interaction of this fungus with the nematode eggs was studied based on in vitro tests. We also report the antagonistic potential of M. bulbillosum as the most closely related species to the herein described fungus, towards the eggs of H. filipjevi.Cysts of H. filipjevi were collected from experimental wheat fields of CIMMYT in the Central Anatolian Plateau of Turkey in 2013. The fields located in Yozgat (39°08'N, 34°10'E; altitude 985 m.a.s.l) and Haymana (39°26'N, 39°29'E, altitude 1260 m.a.s.l) were naturally nematode infested. The samples including soil and roots were collected at random from the rhizosphere of wheat plants at the end of the growing season. Cysts were extracted from the collected samples using the modified flotation decanting method (Coyne et al. 2007). From the extracted suspensions, cysts were manually collected under a dissecting microscope and stored in 1.5 ml microtubes at 4 ˚C either in dry condition or in sterile tap water until further use. For taxonomic and phylogenetic inferences, additional fungal strains were obtained from the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (formerly CBS-KNAW, Utrecht, Netherlands).The field-collected cysts of H. filipjevi were scrutinised by using a dissecting microscope to separate symptomatic cysts showing defined discolourations or bearing discernible hyphae, from healthy-looking (i.e. homogeneously brown) or empty cysts. Symptomatic cysts were selected, surface-sterilised in 5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), and dissected to collect their egg contents. Only the nematode eggs showing symptoms of fungal infection were processed for fungal isolation and culture-dependent species identification. A portion of the fungal infected eggs were additionally used for culture-independent identification. The methods applied here, have been described in greater detail in Ashrafi et al. (2017).Growth rates were determined at various temperatures from 15 to 35 °C at 5 °C intervals in the dark or in ambient conditions by placing agar disks (5 mm diam.), excised from the margin of a young potato dextrose agar (PDA) culture onto five replicate plates of PDA, cornmeal agar (CMA), oatmeal agar (OA; 30 g oatmeal, 18 g agar-agar, 1L deionised water), synthetic nutrient-poor agar (SNA; Nirenberg (1976)), and malt extract agar (MEA). The colony diameter was measured weekly for a 3 week period. Colour changes of fungal structures formed in culture were checked using 3% potassium hydroxide (KOH) watery solution.The antagonistic potential of the below described species and M. bulbillosum, respectively, was assessed towards H. filipjevi in vitro as previously described (Ashrafi et al. 2017). Briefly, healthy cysts and eggs were surface-sterilised and placed either on or at the margin of the growing mycelium of one-month-old PDA or 2% water agar (WA) cultures of the two fungal species. To document the process of colonisation of eggs of H. filipjevi by the new fungal species, a slide culture technique was also performed using PDA 1/3 strength (compare Ashrafi et al. (2017)).Nematode eggs and fungal structures were examined and photographed by a Zeiss Axioskop 2 plus compound microscope and an Olympus SZX 12 stereo microscope equipped with a Jenoptik ProgRes® digital camera. Images were recorded using Cap-turePro 2.8 software (Jenoptic, Jena, Germany). Nematode eggs colonised by fungi, and fungal structures were mounted in water or lactic acid and photographed. Cysts were photographed in water in a square cavity dish (40×40×16 mm). To illustrate different stages of fungal development and fungal colonisation of nematode eggs, slide cultures were prepared (Gams et al. 1998) and then photographed. Nomarski Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) optic was used for observation and measurements. All measurements were taken in water, and are given as x1-x2 (x3 ± SD), with x1 = minimum value observed, x2 = maximum value observed, x3 = average, and standard deviation (SD), followed by the number of measurements (n).Scanning electron microscopy was performed on a Quanta 250 scanning electron microscope (FEI Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany). Fungal structures of interest were obtained from a one-month-old OA culture grown at 23 °C in the dark and directly analysed using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). For the experiment, pressures between 410 and 490 Pa at 4 °C were employed. For cooling the sample chamber was equipped with a Peltier stage. Fungal mycelia with abundant conidia were placed on non-conductive double-sided adhesive discs on a flat specimen stub and positioned on the Peltier stage for cooling. Images were taken at acceleration voltage of 12.5 kV. Scanning speed was 60 µsec. For imaging of beam sensitive fungal structures, the scanning modus was changed to 3 µsec with 20-fold line integration. Images were adjusted in brightness and contrast using Adobe Photoshop software CS 5.1.Fungal genomic DNA was isolated from mycelia grown on PDA using a modified CTAB method, and from individual nematode eggs infected by fungi using the Qiagen DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) as reported in Ashrafi et al. (2017).For each specimen, four nuclear loci were amplified: The internal transcribed spacers including the 5.8S rDNA gene (ITS) using the primers ITS1F (Gardes and Bruns 1993) and ITS4 (White et al. 1990); the 5' end of the ribosomal large subunit (LSU) DNA with the primers LROR (Rehner and Samuels 1994) and LR5 (Vilgalys and Hester 1990); partial RNA polymerase II largest subunit 1 (rpb1) using the primers cRP-B1af and RPB1cr (Castlebury et al. 2004); and partial translation-elongation factor 1-α (TEF) using the primers EF1-983f and EF1-2218r (Castlebury et al. 2004). All PCR reactions were performed as described previously (Ashrafi et al. 2017) with the following thermal programmes: 95 °C (2 min) for initial denaturation followed by 40 cycles of denaturation at 95 °C (30 s), annealing at 52 °C (ITS), 51 °C (LSU), 54 °C (rpb1), and 60 °C (TEF) (40 s), extension at 72 °C (1 min for ITS, LSU and rpb1, and 1 min and 20 sec for TEF), and a final extension at 72 °C (10 min). Amplicons were purified using the DNA Clean & Concentrator TM -5 kit (Zymo Research Corp., Irvine, California, USA) and sequenced by Eurofins Genomics GmbH, (Ebersberg, Germany) with the same primers as used for PCR amplification. Obtained sequences were assembled, edited and trimmed with Sequencher 5.4.1 (Gene Codes Corporation, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) and deposited in GenBank under the following accession numbers: MF681481-MF681514. The sequences generated were compared to sequences available in GenBank using a BLASTn search (http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi) (Altschul et al. 1990).The newly generated sequences together with closely related sequences selected as revealed by BLASTn searches were used for phylogenetic analyses (Table 1). The sequences were aligned using the online version of Mafft v.7 (Katoh and Standley 2013). All sequences were aligned using the iterative refinement methods: Sequences of the rpb1 and TEF gene regions were aligned using the algorithms implemented in L-INS-i, while LSU and ITS were aligned applying the Q-INS-i algorithm. Only the start and end of the alignments were trimmed manually in Se-Al v2.0 (Rambaut 1996). The following phylogenetic analyses were applied: a Bayesian method of phylogenetic inference using Metropolis Coupled Monte Carlo Markov chains (MC 3 ) as implemented in the computer program MrBayes v3.2 (Huelsenbeck and Ronquist 2001;Ronquist and Huelsenbeck 2003). We used MrModeltest v2.2 (Nylander 2004) to determine the best fitting DNA substitution model for the Bayesian approach. Both the hierarchical likelihood ratio test (hLRT) and the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) selected the general time reversible model of DNA substitution with gamma distributed substitution rates and invariate sites (GTR+I+G) as the best fitting model for all individual data sets and was implemented for the analyses accordingly. For the Bayesian analyses four incrementally heated simultaneous Monte Carlo Markov chains were run with 2.000.000 generations using random starting trees and flat prior distributions. Trees were sampled every 500 generations resulting in a total of 4001 sampled trees. A 50% majority rule consensus tree was computed only from trees of the plateau, and if, additionally, the split frequencies were below 0.01. Thus, 501 trees were discarded as \"burnin\". Maximum likelihood (ML) analyses were performed using RAxML 7.  (Kimura 1980) with a transition/transversion ratio of 2.0 to compute genetic distances. Support for internal nodes was estimated by 1000 bootstrap replicates (Felsenstein 1985). Two members of Bionectriaceae, Bionectria byssicola (Berk. & Broome) Schroers & Samuels and Ijuhya vitellina Ashrafi, W. Maier & Schroers, were selected as outgroup to root the trees. The phylogenetic trees were visualised using FigTree v. 1.4.2 (http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/ software/figtree).Among the field-collected samples, a high proportion of cysts was found containing blackish bodies resembling microsclerotia-like structures upon microscopy (Fig. 1A).By dissecting the infected cysts, microsclerotia-like black bodies were found to be colonising the individual nematode eggs (Fig. 1B, C). In some infected eggs the developing juveniles were found to be entirely destroyed exhibiting an olivaceous brownish appearance (Fig. 1D, E). Eggs were colonised by one or occasionally two microsclerotia. When cultured on PDA, hyphae grew out of the microsclerotia of the infected eggs (Fig. 1F), and formed colonies at first white creamy, later becoming blackish dotted centrally with a general dark appearance due to the dense pigmentation (Fig. 1G).The DNA sequences of four different gene regions obtained from the examined specimens of the here described nematode-parasitic fungus were either identical (in TEF and RPB1), or nearly identical (1 base pair (bp) substitution in LSU, and up to 2 bp substitutions in ITS). The most similar DNA sequences found in GenBank using BLASTn searches belonged to Hyaloseta nolinae, the sexual morph of Monocillium nolinae, and shared similarities of 96% in the ITS region, 99% in the LSU, and 89% in rpb1. A similar BLASTn search in MycoBank showed identities of the ITS sequence of 96.6% with M. bulbillosum, 93.9% with H. nolinae and 92.7% with Niesslia exosporioides, and of the LSU sequence of 99.5% with H. nolinae, and 99% with both M. bulbillosum and Niesslia exosporioides suggesting a close relationship with the representatives of the Niessliaceae. Fungal DNA could also be directly isolated and sequenced from individual eggs displaying the typical symptoms of fungal infection. These DNA sequences were identical to the sequences retrieved from pure cultures supporting the conspecificity of the symptom-causing structures within the egg with the isolated pure cultures derived from the eggs. The final combined ITS, LSU, rpb1 and tef dataset comprised 11 strains representing 7 species with a total alignment length of 2949 bp (603 ITS, 797 LSU, 649 rpb1, 900 tef). The topologies of the phylogenetic trees were identical using Bayesian inference (Fig. 2), neighbor-joining or maximum likelihood (not shown). The four sequenced strains of the here described nematode egg-colonising fungus were recovered as a highly supported monophyletic group with a close sister group relationship to M. bulbillosum and with H. nolinae as the next-closest relative. In the second monophyletic clade of Niessliaceae, two strains of the type species of Niesslia, N. exilis, proved to be paraphyletic with respect to M. ligusticum (Fig. 2).   GmbH, GenBank accession numbers: ITS: MF681485; LSU: MF681496; rpb1: MF681512; tef: MF681506.Additional material examined. From the same location: DSM 105459 (dried culture on PDA, B700016492), GenBank accession number: MF681483 (ITS), MF681493 (LSU), MF681511 (rpb1), MF681505 (tef); DSM 105460 (dried culture on PDA, B700016493), GenBank accession number: MF681482 (ITS), MF681492 (LSU), MF681510 (rpb1), MF681504 (tef); DSM 105461, GenBank accession number: MF681481 (ITS), MF681490 (LSU), MF681509 (rpb1), MF681503 (tef); and CBS 141176.Etymology. In honour and memory of Prof Walter Gams for his outstanding works on the genera Monocillium and Niesslia.Diagnosis. Naturally occurring infected eggs often accommodating one subglobose, strongly pigmented, dark brownish microsclerotium.Description. Colonies slow-growing, at 20 °C on PDA reaching 10-12 mm diam. (7d), 19-22 mm (14 d), 25-32 (21 d); optimum temperature for growth 25 °C, 14-16 mm (7 d), 22-25 mm (14 d), 31-34 mm (21d); at 30 °C 10-11 mm (7d), 15-17 (14 d), 22-25 mm (21 d), no growth observed at 35 °C; optimum temperature for growth in other examined cultural media 25 °C, after 21 d reaching 31-32 mm diam. (CMA), 36-40 mm (MEA), 40-50 mm (OA), 32-40 mm (SNA); colonies on PDA finely wrinkled, slightly elevated centrally, first pale creamy, later centrally becoming dotted, greyish-brown to fuscous black due to formation of darkly pigmented microsclerotia, margins and reverse pale creamy. Vegetative hyphae hyaline, thin-walled, forming strands or coils, often with dictyochlamydospore-like structures, occasionally bearing setae with elongate, ellipsoid tips, variable in size. Chlamydospores or dictyochlamydospores mostly developing intercalary, filled with small guttules, gradually pigmented, turning brownish firstly at cell walls, interweaving to form microsclerotia. Cells of microsclerotia angular, pigmented, first pale olivaceous brown filled with guttules, later dark brown, forming a textura angularis in surface view. Guttules often absent in mature and strongly melanised sclerotial cells. Microsclerotia later covering the entire colony, developing sclerotioid masses, not changing colour in KOH. Phialides often separated from hyphae by a basal septum, thick-walled in the lower part, the wall thickening distinct at about 1/3 to 1/2 of the total length from the base, thin-walled from ca. midpoint extending to the tip, occasionally slightly inflated in the middle part, gradually tapering to the tip, 21-39 µm (28.7 ± 4.4) in length, 1.0-2.1 µm (1.4 ± 0.2) wide at the base (n = 90), solitary, arising directly from hyphae or hyphal rope, occasionally arising from hyphal coils surrounding several conidia. Conidiogenesis abundant, conidia hydrophilic, adhering in watery droplets, oblong, rarely clavate or ampulliform, one-celled, smooth-walled, 4.1-7.4 × 1.4-2.9 µm (4.9 ± 0.6 × 2.1 ± 0.3) (n = 250). Sexual morph not observed.Monocillium gamsii infected cysts and eggs of H. filipjevi in vitro. Initial indications of infection were observed in healthy nematode cysts placed on the fungal colonies within 2-3 weeks (Fig. 4A, B). The fungus rendered the homogenously brown healthy looking cysts black-dotted, bearing a strong resemblance to the naturally infected cysts collected from fields. By dissecting the symptomatic cysts, nematode eggs were found to be colonised with darkly pigmented spherical to subglobous microsclerotia formed inside the body cavity of the developing juveniles (Fig. 4C). Similar to some naturally infected eggs, sclerotioid masses were also found in some artificially infected samples colonising almost the entire egg (Fig. 4D).In the slide cultures, fungal infection of eggs was initiated by individual hyphae directly penetrating the eggshell and body cuticle of developing juveniles (Fig. 4E, F). Following penetration, filamentous hyphae entirely colonised the unembryonated eggs (Fig. 4G, H) or the body cavity of the developing juveniles (Fig. 4I, J), enlarged (Fig. 4H-J), occasionally inflated, forming thick-walled, finely pigmented, and guttulesfilled cells (Fig. 3J), which eventually coalesced to form discrete microsclerotia with a textura angularis appearance (Fig. 4K-M). Infection studies revealed that such microsclerotia could be formed 7-10 d after the incubation of nematode eggs with the fungus.Pigmentation of microsclerotia occurred during fungal development from hyaline to olivaceous brown and later strongly brownish melanised cells (Fig. 4N-P). Microsclerotia developing inside the artificially infected eggs displayed a textura angularis and were indistinguishable from those found in the naturally infected samples. At the early stages of development, microsclerotial cells were often filled with guttules (oillike bodies), which were not observed in the mature microsclerotia. At the early stages of fungal infection (up to 10 d after inoculation), some vacuole-like structures were observed inside the eggs along the body cavity of developing juveniles (cf. Fig. 4E, F) with a glistening reflexive appearance, which were not observed at later stages of development, or in the field collected samples containing mature sclerotia.The antagonistic potential of M. bulbillosum was also examined against H. filipjevi in vitro. Eggs of H. filipjevi were infected by M. bulbillosum in the course of 2-4 weeks. The infection symptoms were similar to the symptoms described for M. gamsii. Monocillium bulbillosum rendered cysts black dotted, containing eggs colonised with microsclerotia. In early stages of infection, eggs were entirely colonised with filamentous hyphae which later developed into microsclerotia with a textura angularis on the surface (Fig. 5A-F).The results obtained from comparative morphological characteristics and molecular phylogenetic inference using four gene regions, suggested M. gamsii as a new species. Within the genus Monocillium, only M. bulbillosum, M. curvisetosum, M. indi-cum and M. ligusticum have been reported to form (micro-) sclerotia in culture, as is also the case in M. gamsii. In the (micro-) sclerotia forming group, M. gamsii can be separated from M. indicum by producing conidia cohering in watery heads instead of dry conidia. Monocillium curvisetosum produces dry and globose conidia, while M. gamsii produces oblong and watery conidia. The new taxon differs from M. ligusticum by having much shorter phialides: 21-39 µm vs (35-) 40-70 (-140) µm (Girlanda and Luppi-Mosca 1997). The difference between these two species is also strongly supported by sequence comparison (Fig 2). According to phylogenetic inference, M. bulbillosum is very closely related to but separable from M. gamsii. Both M. gamsii and M. bulbillosum form microsclerotia in culture, however M. bulbillosum forms mainly bulbillose and individually distinct microsclerotia while these structures in M. gamsii are mostly confluent and non-separable. Monocillium gamsii grows slightly faster in comparative growth tests on PDA. In addition, M. gamsii forms setae, and its conidia are clearly longer than those of M. bulbillosum (4.1-7.4 × 1.4-2.9 µm vs 2.9-3.5 × 1.8-2.1 µm). They also differ clearly by the habitat they were originally isolated from. While M. gamsii was isolated from the eggs of nematodes in a semiarid region in the Central Anatolian plateau of Turkey, M. bulbillosum was isolated only once from wall paper in Kiel Germany (Gams 1971). Interestingly though, M. bulbillosum was also able to parasitise eggs of H. filipjevi in our in vitro assays and formed microsclerotia in the infected eggs in a similar manner as M. gamsii.Hyaloseta nolinae (asexual morph: Monocillium nolinae) was included in this study according to a BLASTn search in GenBank, showing a high sequence similarity with the sequences of M. gamsii as query. In the phylogenetic analyses presented here it forms a highly supported monophyletic group with M. gamsii and M. bulbillosum (Fig. 2). In contrast to M. gamsii, M. nolinae (the asexual morph of H. nolinae) does not form microsclerotia in culture. Hyaloseta Ramaley, 2001 was described as a monotypic genus from Asparagaceae (formerly Agavaceae) in New Mexico developing both conidia and ascomata on the fibrous leaves of its host (Ramaley 2001). According to the limited phylogenetic evidence presented here M. gamsii and M. bulbillosum could be transferred to the holomorph genus Hyaloseta. However, the differential characters used to define Hyaloseta in comparison to Niesslia are subtle. Therefore, as long as an extensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of all representatives of Niesslia and Monocillium is pending, it seems less disruptive to place the new species in the 'anamorph genus' Monocillium.It is intriguing that microsclerotia, which represent the main symptoms of fungal infection of nematode cysts and eggs in both M. bulbillosum and M. gamsii were readily reproduced in fungal pure cultures and were also formed in artificially infected nematode eggs. Apart from the essential role of conidia in fungal reproduction and dispersal, it seems that microsclerotia also play an important part in the developmental cycle of these fungi, at least with respect to those parts of their life cycle that could be assayed in vitro here and during which it interacts with nematodes. Monocillium gamsii was found in field-collected dried cysts in the semiarid Central Anatolian Plateau. In nature, fungal sclerotia are generally considered as resting structures by which the fungus may tolerate abiotic stresses like dessication, and can thus survive until favourable conditions return. Support for this hypothesis comes from the observation that we were able to isolate M. gamsii from field-collected cysts obtained by culturing the microslerotium-containing infected eggs that had been kept for more than one year in dry conditions either at 4 °C or at room temperature. Furthermore, nematode cysts are protective structures in which nematode eggs can survive for many years in soil in the absence of host plants or in adverse environments. By colonising the cyst contents, i.e. the mucilaginous matrix and the eggs, the egg-colonising fungi for example M. gamsii and M. bulbillosum, may thus benefit from this \"specific\" niche where they may have equivalent prolonged-survival conditions.Our microscopic observations of the in vitro tests revealed that M. gamsii is capable of destructively and quickly parasiting the nematode eggs within the cysts first by penetrating the eggshell, followed by profilic formation of microsclerotia. We did not observe formation of any specific infecting structure like in the case of the recently described cyst and egg-parasitic fungus Ijuhya vitellina which developed appressoria (Ashrafi et al. 2017). Incubation of cysts on the colony of M. bulbillosum demonstrated that this species can also parasitise the nematode eggs in a similar manner, and even form microsclerotia. These observations suggest that both species may be candidates for nematode biocontrol.","tokenCount":"4074"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"00e0b1a3ec1132b0ef2d85d0ef9df9e0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f94a0e41-7d2d-494b-9f98-373b495f180b/retrieve","id":"-805612637"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4d48e9e1-5347-4e98-a7b9-3e9534a6d0c3","pagecount":"40","content":"1 2 3 4 2 TABLE OF CONTEl,lTS INTRODUCTION Hlghhghts of the Agrolndu.'ltrlal Cassava Program Inadt?quaC'll\"S of tht? Agrolndustrlal C'asaava Program Conclusl0ns amI ReC'ommendatlosn AppendlX 1 The In3tltutlonal Intl\"rE'st alld SUJ,>Púl't fol' the Cassava Program Appelldl\"\\{ 2 ThE' SC'ope of the Program ; • •It alao had caS3ava exrerlIDental :¡;lots 1n several states, In roan\" ca'les E'C'ononllC endoraE'roent had been jJrovIded by the NatIollal Bank for Rllral Cred:lt (Banrural) In 1976 the BallY of l1exlCo' a Trust for AgrlCu1 tural C'oncerlls (FlRA) illaJufeated Ita lllterest ~11 the j.ot\",ntlal uae of cassava as plg f\",ed by supportlng the orgalu:::atloll of an Internatlona1 SemInal' on Tro1,10a1 L1veatoC'v PrOductlon These lllat1tutlOllS agte\"'ll that l1exlco needed to ('reate a nat10nal cassava programThe flrst proposal defuung the Progl'am-s oblectlvea and strateg1ea was drafted III early 1977 at the request of Banrural AH offlc1al ProJ\",ct fol' R\",search on Cassava drafted bv CSAT INIA FlRA and CIAT ataff waa sanC'tJ.olled 111 ,hme 1977 A feH months later CSAT and INIA staff 1111tlated the NatlOllal Caaaava ProgramAs reseal'ch actlvltes By 1980 INIA a.3sess\",d that lt had made sufflc1ellt progreas on varIety selectlo11 alld rroductloll technology generatlon tú warrant tIle orgalll::;atlon of a tra1ll1ng eourse for eyten.510n agents INIA and INIP re3earchers and fu..'1ct10illlarles of agr1Ctütura1 support organlzatlons One year la ter the commerclal Cassava Program was latmcped Durlllg lts fIve years of development the commerclal Program has provlded farmers WI th lmpol'tant serVlces and large amounts of capItal and other resom ces have b\",ell Illv\",ated by the state ln tlns effort Yet the results art> stlll d.18C'oncertlllgly lffistable Tht> Program has beell orgatllzed III .3uch a wav that too manv erl tlC'al actlvltHH'l are controlled and managed by statt> agenCH?S Farmers have a vel'y l1rolt.ed opporttuuty to VOlC't> thelr Vl,\"'~8 on ways lD W}llC), the Program should opel'ate and could be lmjJroved ProduC'tlon alld proees.nng Input:. and output deel81011s martet outl\",t atld mal'het:lIlg strategy dt>fllutlon and even proflt dlstrlbutlon deC'181ons are all III the evcluslve domalll of Program offlclals TIllS al'rangement 13 llot efflelent TI1'\" Program dePE'lld.'l heavlly 011 rlgül and less thatl eff1.C'lent lnstlt.utlonal procedures WhlCh dlaCOllrages Incrementa not only 111 :¡;l'oduC'tlon but also In ¡:l'OCE's.'l1ng am' 3el1111/1: Very lltt1e effol't has 1::t>en l11vested to ta .. lorlllg ca.3stwa J,'!'OductlCll aC'cordlllg ¡ • • 4 COmn1e-rclal ofbclals to the partlcular condltlollS of the farmera and the :rroduct':¡ outlet Ther\", lS an eYCeS,llVe conce1'n on the {'art of state 1'egardll:lg the exranSlo11 of the area under C'aS8ava l1'oductlOIl ensurlllg the condl hons for suc11 grOl~th wlthout Cassava develolroellt unde1' the Program conhnuea to be a Jughly rlsky bUSlneS¡¡ Productlon p1'oce6s111g and marJ.r<\"tlllg are planned alld lmplem<\"llted wlthout coordlllatlon nor clear llllhages among each othe1' Productloll and profltab1l1ty are lo\",er than eX],>E'cted becaua6 of the \\Ulhmelv dehvery of state controlled 1111uts and servlCeS and the lack of lllcelltlvea for farmers to eareful1y tend thelr belds There lS plentN of processlllg technology rE'sourceS ava:tlable l)ut tll<\"y have been ut1Il:3<\"d 111 an ull11al1ned and lllefflclent faslllo11 l1arlretll1g of the rroduce has been cUllducted 1)1 an ad-hoe dnd rather paSSJve manner, and \"las concentrated lt efforts on very 11ml ted market outlets oftell Wl th 10'\" capltal hqUldl ty As a reslllt the Program lS ¡,.ercelved by a lllsturblnglv largt> proJ,>Ortloll of the farmers as a dlsappollltment and a post~\")J1ement of many hopes and <\"xpE'ctatlolls Tlus re¡,ort dt>scr lb\" S t.he el€'mellts that cOlltr1but.e to malung the CasSava Program fall short of ltS ~otentlal lt concludes that a broad spt>ctrum of llltervent.lons are reqm.red to reorH'nt the Program ln a \"'ay WhlCh t>llcourages the farmer,,' cumnlltti\"d and stabl€' parhcl¡,.atlon and the eCOllomle sO\\U1dnesa of the pro,lel't Tllese lllterventlollS are expE'cted to allevlate the ¡.reasure that resulta from the Program' 3 Aclnlles heels Hlghl1ghtB of the Afl:rO)'ldllstr¡al Cassaya PJ;ogram The Cassava Program has provlded farmel's \"'1 th 6everal beneÍl tsHaS marglDa] PrlOl' to the creahon of the Cassava Program farmer3 len a large ¡,.roportlon of thelr lota ln bush fallo\", wlt.ll no lllt€'ntlon to produce from t.hem Fo!' moat farmers €'xtells1ve cattle rrulehln~ on those lrulds lS ruled out due to the relatively h~gh ca¡,oltal requlremE'l1ts of tlllS enterprlse ruld the rt'latlve S!1Jall Sl:::e of the farffií\"rs' plots (l'1oilt famlly landholdlngs are lesa than 10 ht'ctaresl CaSilava f'roduet 1011 ha3 lller€'ased from appro;nlllately lX of thE' land lUlder cultlvat1011 1n tlle murllcllahty of Hlllmangu1l10 :tn 1981 to sorne 20% 111 1985 (These calculat lona al e baseu Oll data 1•rovlded ~n SPP 1985 Tl118 should be used \"'1 th cautloll however beeauae SPP' s erop data lS n,ot exhaustlve)Casaava rated hlghE'r 1n refE'rellCe to the savrumall reglon only Sllle€' th€'ll +Jle proportloll of cassava 111 the total agrlc'ul tural land has probahlv l'<\"ducE'd some hut 1 t ~s stII1 v<\"rv SlgJllflcant Tlle maln transfol'matlons ln r€'cellt years hav€' be€'ll el'€' eWam11011 1n the :;,roduetlOl1 of el trua rubber ruld 1'111eapple Plllea],>ple OCCU) 'led :::50 hectar es 111 1986 It 19 l>E'rhapa the moat ¡,rofltabl€' ero\" of the savallnah Although 1t l <\"<¡lures lllgher ea1'1 tal lnVE'5tn'E'llt 1\"'1' heetar\", there 15 !lut banlr eredlt avallabl€' fol' lts ],>roduct IOn R\"bb€'r trees were l'lant€'ll In 1982 am~ 1983, and eover some 100 hect.arE's FIDEHULI<: has 1 rovldE'tl credlt for plru;tlng and fertlllzatIOl1 110st plants how€'ver hav€' llot been grafted aud hence tllelr productlv\" dt'velolmt'nt has been sttmtedCltrua tr€'€'s were planted ln 1984 ruld 1985 ruld cov ... \" a total of 825 hectar\"s C0lJll>E'tlt 10n for The Cailsava Program has alao oreated a SOUNe of emlloyment for over 500 savannah Inhabüants who have l..artIclpated In the productlon of the cro1' amee 1981 and soroe 45 farmera who are engaged In eall.?ava drYlng sorne of whom are not eaasava 1Ir0<1,10erSIn add1 tion the Pro,,¡ aro has been Instrumental In aettmg \\11' 1.4 1\"114 farma and by J,>rov1dlng raw matenal for feed, lt has contnbuted to the operabon of alloa In the Plan C'hontal¡,a develolAllent ¡,rogram J plg farma In Yucatall and Puebla Albame\"<: of Menda and to a few uther feed lisera Another lnllortant gauI for eassava l •rouue€'rs but also farmera In general has been the ~on of 1Pfrastructural facllltles as a part of the atate su1'pvrt of the Program Perha1's t11e lllOst alglllflC'l.mt lnvestment of tlus aort haa been the bUl1dlng of roads It 13 calculatE'd that the most dlrect benefICIarle\" of tlns lntervent Ion arE' the SOlllE' 7 500 SaVall11¡¡}¡ IJlhabl tants sl!read throughout 5 commlUll tlE'S Farmers have alao J,>roÍl ttE'd fl'om the Progl'anl lnsofar aa they have been ahle to broaden . .the uS!L~f J,rOd\\ll'tlollÍi.\\QÍ.Q. In lH81 tl)e targE\"t area for 1986 was sellsülly redul'ed tu 10 000 hect ares Durmg the past four yeara quotlllS spel'lhc productlon goala has becom.;; both \\Ulfasll1onable and 1 -oh tlcally tUlW1se but the dramatlc l'hangE\" 113 st1l1 E\"..<pectE\"d to occur Tlle 11ll t1al aSseSSlllE\"nt of the potentlal demand for cassava as feed was perhaps too optlID1StlC but there was enough potentlal demand to warrant tIle Program Tlle Program was latUlclled Alas the way 1t was plallned and lmplemellted was 11apha::;ard and lUlccordlllated TI)e potentlal dE'mand was not systemahcal1v est1matE'd III a mar] et analyslS but 1n 1986 1 e ten years after the program was lllltlated (Sae::: lH8S)Furth\",rmore the Program d1d llOt defIne a elear alld COllil1stent strategy for the petE\"lltlal demand tú be real1zedIn 1977 the Program's plan6 rE\"Coglllzed the need for lllterventlons 111 the areas of productlon, processlllg and marketIng of cassava YE't ov\",r tlme tIlo;> Program's goalil and aetlvltl€'s became lIlcreaslllgly focused almost exclus1vE\"ly 011 produetl0nThla:lS explall1€'d 111 part by th€' fact tllat practlca11y a11 thE' l-rofE\"aS10llals 1nvolved 1n ono;> cal;aCl ty ol' another were speclahats on rroduct1oll but also because there was no plan shúwlng tlle way 1n wluch productlon processlng and market1ng would be 1ntegrated It should be atressed tbougl¡ that the costa J,resented In the 'rabI€' ar€' st 111 ahort oi thE' aC'tual prOd\\lctlon coats, and h€'llce better deacrlbe the anlOullt of credlt glven to farm€'rs than productlOn e..q:>ellses Wl111e th\",re ar€' no ofüc.lal re('ords avallable that readlly pr€'s€'l1t the actual cost 3 for an agr lClÜ tural year both farm€'rs and the program ataff agree that the CrE'dl t for cassava pr0ductloll Llo€'s !Jot fully cover a11 the coata for labor reqmr€'ments Farmers r€'('yon that under ld€'al condl hons they would need n1' to :35% more ca1'1 tal than that offlclally blldget€'d for laborLabor .:'oats consh tute the moat eIl:>ensive dlrect costs of the budget TabIe 1 ~t8 of prQductlon ,md benf:fl te wr ---------.... _ . _ . _ ------------ The bank'a loan dlsbursements for caS6ava or any otbE'r crop llave always been conalstentlv tmhme1v and a10wIn the ('ase of cassava those delays llave resulted III late fleld preparatlOlls shortagE'a of fertlllzer and other lllJ,utS overdue harvest6 alld the general reductlon of th€' capacüv to proceso, sel1 or buy ('assava Once the a¡;¡;.llcatloll 16 6ubnntted lt has to go through anothE'r lellgthv procese ¡,¡lllch 11lcludes fleld lns¡;.e;chons Onlv thel1 are the documenta presented to the hanl,'s legal advlsor who stlll mav veto the al?l?l1cat1onAs a result of tIlla p'ocedure a comnderable amount of tbe t'Yten61011 agenta' tlme la devoted to paper1'1orh for the bany lllstead of agrlcultural adV1ce for the farmer6Program 6taff provlde lllatrnctlons on llOl< to meet the requlr'ements for hallk loalla Tlley oft€'1l pres€'llt a¡,pl1catlOn on behalf of bewlldered farnl€'rs 'lb€'y a160 convokE' and lead meE't:l.llgs amollg farOlers before, dUrlng and after the credlt a¡;.¡;.llC'atlon perlod Tllev often go honse bv hous€' ask11lg peol'le III e ndos to Slgll on thE' 1 rogram 01' at least a\\lthor~:::e m!?mbers of th., commwlltv te' ,101n lt If Olle adds to these baM-related actlt~vles other adnlllllstratlve demanda ~t la not surprlslnr,¡ tbat tht' ertenslon agente' tlme tled to dE'sk actlvltles may well E'xoeed the the tlme for dlrect contact wlth farmers 111 thelr helds even dUrln¡;( mOllths of ]?€'ah agrIcultural act.lv1tvHlgh Illterst on hanh loalls hay€' aoted 1n thE' rec€'11t r8st as one of the most lm¡;.ortant defnnoentlves for caseava productloll Sllloe lt contrlbuted deCISIVE'lv tu l11CrE'afllng the total cost of productlon IntE'r€'st rates are calculated accordlllg to offlClal lnflatloll rates and hE'nc€' have lnoreased dramatlcally over tlffie Whereas 111 the 1981-82 agrlcultural cvcle the aViO'rage b~ loan 11ltE'rest rat€' was lt'\\% bv lH83-84 lt l'E'aoh!?d the 37% mark a'ld III 1986-67 1t cllmbed to ov,,!, 80% EVIdentlv Bal,rural ofhclals are In no way real?Qllsllü\", of 6€'ttlllg lllterest rates 'lbey slmply abld€' bv 111struotlo11s from the rhnlstrv of Economv Farmers feel 1l0netheles8 that the llltel'E'sts on loana have contrlbuted decIsIvely to Il1Crea,;ll11g the total coats of casaava productloll Tllev hOl<ever ar€' not allo1'1ed to ta}€' amall lc1alla to rE'duce these coste 'lbe bank seta a fu:ed amoullt of credlt fol' all cases regardless of the farruera-l-rOductlOll plan;; or the quahtv of theu' helda H€'nc€' farmers are forcE'd to €'1 ther tak€' th€' credl t aa 1 t lS E'VE'll If tlns mea1l3 lllCreaSl.llg th€'lr chances of .ll1debted!JE'ss or dro¡,¡;.mg out of tllE' Progr8lll It 18 llh€'ly that there would Le fe1'1er farmers JOlnlng the Program 111 the lnlmedlate future tmless thE' coata of productlol1 are consld€'rably r€'duced the credt pollC'lE'S chang€' so as to allo1'1 for the aJllO\\UJt of €'ach loan 1.0 vary accordlllg to farmers -preferrenc€'s and the Ylelds sales voluDle alld coruerclal pl'lCe of tht' crolO lnCreSE' TIle argument bolla clown to an a1'1:\"\"al for a transformat 10)1 of the aVdllable procesalng technology In order to solv€' tlle ]'rol'lem of casssva oversuPl•lv Tllere 18 a chance however that the ('urrE'llt t'ycess of fresh cassava w111 turn 1nto all E'XCE'SS of cassava flour 1'rodu(,E'd In the lndustnal planta unless marJ<€'t outleta are ldentlfled amI th€'rE' lS a guarantee that the product wlll be sold 111 other words 1'rocefJsing clearlv does not ellmluate but rather 111 aomE' 1I1stancea 111Orease8 the need far actlvelv searclung for a marhE't FocUt'llng on tlle patlO.3 l'urpoteu lneffectlvene.3a as tila saurce of the problems for the l'aS3ava progralll prevents program staff and farmers from l'erc-elvlllg the real probl€'mAccordlng to offlclal soureea the volume of fresh cassava haa amolillted to aome 3 000 tons 01' 15% of the total caasava sales It ¡¡eerns however that th€' real share of fr€'sh eassava 15 bell1g underrated TIlere are SOlll€' 15 000 tons whose sale lS not a<'c-otUlted for TIl~s flgurea r€'pres€'l1t the lhfference betwE'en total caasava hal vested and total cassava marhE'ted 111 the program (Tables 6 and 7 respectlvelv) Concelvably some of tlJat cassava \"as nsed for domestu' cOnatIDlptloll among the prcdncers' hous€'-holdsIt 18 1'1180 posslbl€' that som€' was tl:'ansformed lnto feed TIle most tradltlOnal ea3sava marl,E't b€'lng that of human consumphon though lt 13 eytremely llkelv that at least 1(1 000 ton:; oí cassava prodll('ed In th€' Program havE' been l11troduc€'d llltO customarv rnarkets If tlU8 la thE' ('aSe the freah ('assava outlet fol:' human commmptloll mav bE' as lm¡'Ortant as 01' eV€'ll more lm¡.'Ortant than cassava procea6111g ln .31106TIlls would a1ao mean tllat almoat half of th\" eaasava prodllced ln thE' market has been dlSpos<?d of ln one wav Ol:' allctber dlrectlv bv the producers TIllS goal lleceSSl tates the lntroduct 10n of llew var1etH's and technologv for lroductlon and proces.'l1ng as well as dev€'loplng a stable product marhet TIna 110tw1thstandlng lt also req\\ures a süund management of the technologv transfer and 1 t s 1mplementatlonIn tlllS aectloll 1 1'1111 dlSCUSS the form 1n 1'1}l1ch these eleme-nta have been artlculated In turn a11 of these factors are derlved from an EL.{ceaSlve adherence among h1gh leY\",1 offlclals to a strategy based 011 thle rap1d expan810n of the l'roductlon area of the Proe:ramThe area that farmers rer'0rt under C'assava product lon tenda to be SlgJllfwantly h1gber than thal actuallv C'roJ,>},>ed wlth cassava Th18 over-estlmat:lOl1 18 111 response to the 8tructure of ln¡,ut dlatrlbutlon Brleflv stated, thE' larger the area clalmed for cassava ¡,roductlon the larger the share of fertlllzers credlt for labor ano so on that. the producer 15 entlth,d to After harvest calculatlolls of the Yleld per hectare are based on the l'roducer's proposed area for caS5ava J,roductlon rather than the actual areas Thls resnlt ln the recon'llng of lower Yleld8 per hectare than those actuallv obtallled PrograDl staff are aware of 8uch 51 tuatloll but do Ilot exerClse hgbt control to prevent lt froro haprenlng rf lt was more closely monltored J,>rovlded that the staff l¡ad the resources reqlured to mea.'lUre the land under l,rOduct10n, the overall area of the Program would shrlllk TIlls decrease could then erroneously be llltE't preted by sorne hlgher level offH'lals as a SVDlJ,>tOIl of weakness both 11l the Program and tbe staff actlVltles Casaava',5 low vlelds lUlder the Program ale alBO l'e>lated to the lllcluslon of poor1v selE'cted flelds for culhvat10n and the farmers' lack of commlttment to casBava productJ.on Agaln, thl5 la allowed to halpen by staff 11' order to obta:m an :mcrease 111 the total area of +he Prograro In manv lllstanCE\"S lowIand flelds susceptIblE' to floodlllg are r lanted to cassava Alzo the Program lllCludE'5 small-to medHuu-,n::;e absentee landlords \\fho produC'e caS3ava wlth the sole purpoze of havlllg tl,elr land under productloll thus }reventl11g theee lande froro falllng under the lurHldlctloll of the Agrar1an Reform w!uch could leopard1:::e thelr owners}¡]p of 1dle fleld.a Nelther thes\" Iando¡.¡ners 1101' the overaeers manag111¡;t thelr lands ar'e lnterested 1n harveztlng cassava Addltlonallv, 101'1 Ylelds result from the fact that therE' are farmers ¡.¡ho J,.'E:rmanentlv mlgrate to other states mldwav through the agrIcultural cvcle abandOlnng tl1elr cassava plota 1Il searc]¡ of more profltable eCOllomlC actlvJ.tes SometlDles th16 happens wlth the consent of the local authontles Flllallv there are eJIdo farmers ~nth establlshed hIatones of ban .. u; loan defaul te who nevertheless are extended addltlOnal credl t for then contlnued partIcIJ,atlon H1 the Program and who Dlay !lot be-cODlnntted +0 agr~cultural productloll None of these farmers loartlclJ,.>ate ln the Program bacanse of theu' conunl tment to e'aasava TI1E'se free rlders however !lot onl;, damage the overall performance of the Caaaava Program but thev also reduce the ol}-'Ortunlt1ea for otller farmer.a J partlclpatlon It 15 lmI<>rtant to remember that Imil v1dual \"lldo producers al e not the dlrect renplents of bank loana Credlt lS awarded to the \"J Ido as a corporate entltv (,enerallv though onlv a f€'w endo members snbllllt a loan re\\luest togetherOnce the loan lS granted lt:la lnternallv dlstrlbuted amon¡; those farmers partaJrlllg 111 the COromOll proJect Theoretlcallv an e,lldo mav have more than one loan from the 11ank durlng anv f16ca1 year for dlfferent croys aud/or llvestoek prOlecta If the loan la l10t repald 111 fu11, the eJ lelO beoomes lIleleg1ble for fllrther erad1 tIf one eJ 1do member does not pav h13 debt to the banh the whole e,11do lS e.rc-lllded even lf a11 other loan reclplents fullv r€'¡.ald th€'lr shares of the collectlve debt Endo admllllstratlon regulatlon lne ludes mechatnsms to brlng preS8ure en llldJ.v1dual loan defanl tera HOlolever these regulatlOna are l11frequentlv enforced Credlt default la one of the roa lOr reaSOllS e1ldo farmers are prevented from contlmllng thelr partlolJ,>atlOll 111 the Progrl'.mDl.le to these reasons, lt lS erltlcal to weed out free loaders who deprlve lndustrloUs farmers of opportUllltles In the past, there have been cases where the ovo?rwhelnllllg caneern for rapldlv exPalldlng area of tho? program has led to the productl01l of eassava w1th httle regard to the Program s tedmologlca1 paC ' Cassava has frequentlv been platlted well beyond the deadl1neIn addItlOn 10101 vlelda have rt?':lUlt<\"d from frequent defohatlOns due to attacks of cassava horn worm (Errlllvls <,,1101, and lUleven atld deflclent treatment of the cassava atal,es Wl th funglClde l,rlOr to platlt1ng These factors can be eaallv controlled from th<\" tedullcal vlewl'>Olllt Thev however reqlUre tl1e tIme lv lllterventlOll of both Program ataff and farmers In the ¡.>ast thI3 11as heen the eveeptlon rather thatl tho? ruleThe use of mechallleal harvestera presenta several dlsadvantages ThlS oltuatlon 13 due 1U part to llJlll tatlonil ln tbe deslgll of the harvester bllt moreover te> the deflclent wav ln \",l11ch manv flelds are C'ultlvated A large pMportlon of the belda are earelesslv prepared bv tractor operators When harvestlng tlme eOll\\<\"S the oparato!' muat harveilt ro\"'s w]ueh ar€' not parallel Aloo throughout the fleld the spaC1l1g between the rows 18 freqmmtlv unevell Once the eaS6ava t0P;' have heen removed from the flelds there lS llO marll!lg to asaertall1 where the roota are ThHI sItuabon lS furthe! exacerbated bv the glowth of tlnel, vegetat1011 6lnee flelda are .. eeded verv ll1frequentlvWeeds l'revent the hanrester from movlng through atld the erOl S call llot be harvested Wl thout eauslllg a great deal of damage to the roots Oiten as a result of the C'omlnnatloll of those faC'tors crushes many roots and leavea froID one-fourth to olle-t.hIrd ground Untll reeentlv the 3vatem of IDatmal C'Oll<\"ct~llg of the harvester has unearthed them has beell u3ed 'I'hlS has .. tlle madll11erv of crop ln the the Mote once g<\"lle 1 a11 v beell arranged throllgh contract\" based on the area harvested rather than t':le guantltv of the cro1, collected liotlvated to com¡,..lete thE' Job qtllcJrlv. the contract laborers moved througb the fl,dd a5 fast as they cuuld w~ th no regard for thoroughness Pres\\lmablv the unharvested C8.5SaVa was C'ollect\",d and sold bv the farmers to the market of t.he~r cholce c'lrC'U!llVentlllg channels controlled bv thE' Pl: ogramThe latter regtures farmers to sell cassava pr1marlly and almost erClUS1VE'lv t.hrougll offlclallv establlshed outlets 1n ordel to lnsure that rroducE'rs rE'pay thE'lr loan s to thE' banh Because few fal\"l1lers have 1\"eallZeu eCOllom1C ga:m by follOlung thE'se channels, a partlal harVE'stlng of thelr flelds mav have been l-'E'rcelvE'd as ecollomlcallv advantageous AH the aboye !llelltloned shortcOlll1ngs of the Prograro can be r .. lated te the faet that the Prograru staff has been over1y cOllcerlled wlth meetIng ambl tlOUS ¡,.roductlon goaL;Dul'1ng tIJe hrst four vears of the cOl1ll1lercIal phase of the Program, 1,>011 tlcal cOl1ll1lltmenta were establlshed on pr0l1l1ses of raPld eX\"PanSlOll of cassava productlon ao as to effect an equallv dramatlc reductlon of graIn feed lmJ,>Orts These conunl tmenta tl ansformed the Program-s goals luto rlgld E'Y1'€'ctatlollS III tel\"l1ls of lllcreaaes of areas cropped wlth cassava Wlth no real foens 011 aacertallllng thE' E'X13tenee of necessarv condltlo1l3 for the eXl>€'cted lllcreaaes Productloll goals were set too hlgll In re latloll to tIJe then aval1able reaOllrCE'S for eassava produetlon plocesslllg and marketlllg Aa a result the ofbe lal standard\" for sE'lectlnc¡ farme1\"5 alld flelda as WE'll as tIJe technologlcal recornmendatlolls were f1\"equentlv overlooked The ])E'rceived advantages arE' double farme1\"s galn flE':ublll tv llot onlv III the }-roduetion procesa but alao III selllllg the 0rop Th1e euggE'ste that fal'lllers can flnd caasava l'r'oduC't Ion prof 1 tal)le p1\"ov1<1ed that lllst 1 tnt 10111'11 condl t 10n.1 allow more freedom for vroducers to e/\",rClse E'C'OllomlC' lJutlatlve After SIr vears of C'ommerC'lal Ol'6ratlon Incremental trend rega1\"dIng both the !lumber the area tUlder eultlvatlOll (Table 5) thE' Program sIJows a general of partlc1patlllg farmers and These flgtl1\"eS on the develol\"'!llent of the Program, howeve1\" cOllcE'al thE' dlsqtlletlllg fact that entlre commtmltles are droPPlng out of the J;rogram at a raPld pace TI1E' olllv factor preventlllg !llore COlllIDUlll tles fIO!ll W1 thdrawlns l5 the hlgb turnOVE'r rate of thE' lndlvldual partll'lpants who 11ve ln thE'se commUll1tlesIn faet 1\"ougbl\" ha1f of the cOlllIDmut1eB JOIllE'd tlle program for one agrICultural cve le and thrE'e-fourths remallled for two e¡reles (Table 6)The amount of chansE' among fal\"l1lers 18 even morE' J;ronounced Unce!\" the p1\"ogram 82% of thE' farmers produced caSBava for onlv Olle agrlctütu1\"al  The next atep vl111 llOt be full sC'ale productlOn of the selected dealglls but rathel' thelr C'onllllercual and teclllllcal test:1ng on a Slllall zcale-P110t studles are essent lal 1n th1S procesa AcC'ordlng to eXl'er1enced lndustr1allsta out of everv 100 concepts fol' new j.'roduets 33 are techn1cal1y feaalble and on1y 3 wül be coruruerclally 6uccessf\\l1 Pllot test1l1g lS the on1, wav to lllsure that tlle Program develoI's the r:1ght product for the rlght marlletThe Prograru should mOVe forward to full scale commerclal l!rOductlOn onlv when the refln111g of the-prodl'ct and lt5 technolog1cal reqtnrements ha\" been complt\"ted I\\Ild the produet has been successflllly tested W1 th a 3aruple of the target marl<et segment 2It lS cn heal for the Cassava Programs O sustall1abllltv that tlle Program offle:1als avold centrall:::111g processlllg as w€'ll as commerclal1zat:LOn through only olle channelIn proeesslng aS:1n other functlons redllndancv of 0rgaJllZatlollz provldlng tlle sarue servlces 16 ruore eff:lClent than eOllcentratlllg ftmctlons 1n l'lle orgaru:::atlon The co-ex~stence of several organ~zat10ns lllcr~ases the llkellhood that at least one of th~m cover,; serVlces WhlCh ruav llave been overlooked bv one slngle orgaxuzatlonEvtemnve teatlng and refll11ng ~s necessarv before the processlllg plarlts w111 or>erate efflclentlv Unhl tllat tratlSplres ard thereafter 1 t 16 lmf'Ortant to keep O!,>ell a3 matlV proces.3111g charmels e,s pos¡nble 3The curr~nt eml,hasls on l•rodu('tlon haa amply demonstrat.E'd that all th1ngs belng equal 1 t lS mueh eaSler to produl'e cassava than to sell 1 t The technologlcal ';\\lCC'€'SS of t.he Caasava Program 111 HUlml\\llglJlllo could lead t.o further researcll and eve11tuallv expantnon of cassava l'l'Oduct 1011 to other states of the countr, However a rap1d lncrement III the 3\\ll'ply of cassava would most llkelv create a glut and frustratl0n for all those :1nvolved 1n the Program, unIese a t'ommerclal outlet 13 gllarat1teed 4The Pr0gram ruuat formulate a new strategv for d\",velo1'll''llt 'lt the present tlme lt 16 crlt1cal that th\" plograru s}nft lt6 prlmarv emphaslS from produc~ng fresh cassava to marhetlllg processed cassava Program ofhcers should re-evaluate the goal of the Program not III terms of producl,ng a crop but rather 1n creatl1'g a cornmod~ty Untll now, the Program has exr>anded both El terms of ar€'s tUlder produot10n and total productl0n volume PrOdUl'tlon goals and the character1stlcs of prooessed cassava have been dE'hned lnde¡¿endE'ntlv of S011d analY313 of the market structureThe eX1shó'lK'e o! a l'assava dE'mand haa bE'en takE'1l as a glven ¡.nth no preVlOUS eVldence based on research As s result large amounts of cassava have heen produC'ed but 0111y a small fractlon of that cassava has actually become a cornmod1tyFor caesava to lmpaC't tlle feed ¡¡:raIn marhet by reduclng feed lmports, helpll1g to 1l1Creaas the aval1abIlltv of roed for the populatl0n at large and expand1ng the produc'ers fannlv l!lcome lt must becorne a cODllDmll tv 1 e 1 t rnust be sold TIllS persull would be expected to generat€' aolutlo1l3 for SpeCl!IC problem3 In addltion to d0111g other l'eaearch Th€' l'€'raon W1 th resl onslln11 tv for mal'l,etlng would devote lllS aet1v1tlea to eOOrdl'1atloll of cassava salea TIle goal of establlshlng tlns separate ¡iOSlt1011 13 to e113Ure tl'at sales requests materlahze TIle staff person In change of ProdllC'tloll would be rE'sJXlnsihle for Illcreasl11g produC't10n whlle d€'eL €'a¿nng tIme and cost lllvestments Fmal1y the staff 1ll charge of !WallC'es would aet as a comptroller str1v1llg fol' hlgb level €'cononllc performance on the Program as a whole 9In order to lllsurE' that aU thE' Program's f\\Ulctlons are equallv represented thE'! e should bE' onE' ],.'€!rS011 1'er fUllct:lOn 111 the coord111atlng comnnttee at the Programa's state level AU the people de.:ngl1ated for theae tasks should have the same hlerarC' l ucal lE'vel, and L'ooperatlOll froro rank-and-flle staff should be eguallv aval1able for aH A C'lear mandate and support should be glvell to those dE'Slgnated froro a seleC'ted groups of h1g!¡-ranlung author1hes who would assullle the coordlllatloll and general management of the Program Preo3umably the person 1n chargE' of research and development could l)e an INIFJlP rE'searC'her T11e :POSlt10IlS for marketmg and product1on coule) be fllled bv staff fro01 anv of the lllst 1 tut10llS which partlc1pate 1n the ProgramThe Ílnance offlce1' conld bE' a Ballrural 01' ANJlGSA employee Above all, lt Hl crlt1cal that these peopl€' cOlUlt W1 th the full support of the 111stüut1ons thev work for and that th€'v arE' ¡.uvell enough powe1' so that agreements slgned bv thelll are muumallv b111dmg on thelr lllstl tutlOn.3It 1S eY).'ected that by aSSunllng resl!Onsüull ty for olle Program component the organ1::;at10ns 11lVolved 111 the Program ¡HU be encouraged to partlc1pate more act1vltv and cOllstruct1velv 10 One of the most 1m1ortant tasks of thHl board of managers ¡Jonld be to JOlntlv establlsh evaluahon cr1tena for the Progr8Jll and to dE'hne Program obJeotlves at the ¿¡tate and 1000..1 1evelsBot.h the cr1terla and the obJectlves ShOllld be verv exr1wltFor lnstance, the Program-' managers should dehne the total maXlmUlll allowed l.nv€'stment for prodllct eng1neerlng and marketmg the maX1mUlll t1me for develo],.ment of a produ0t 0011cept or a technology Thev ahould also deflnE' the nlllll.nmID €'yP€'C'ted ubl1 tv after a deslgnated perwd the product> a growth rate, percentage of the ],.'roduct 6 market part1patlon nI' to a des1gnated deadhne the lowest a0C'eptable return on lnvestment and sales and the deadllnes for aal€,¿¡ r€,guests ObJectlves and crlt€'1'1a othe! than economlC alld flnanc1al should 0..160 be deflned Eyaroples of th1S tvpe 111(' lude cond1 tIons for the Program to promote farmers' perhC11'atlon, and the P1'ograro's 1'eputatlon and leadership to 1ncrease 11 JI COllS1dE'rable amotmt of enE'rgy ami lllstltutlonal reSOUN:'es should be mvested to su],.port thE' development of the adm1111strat.J.ve eaJ,~c1tv of program staff C:r€'at111g and o!!<\",ratlng a successful caS8ava rrog1'am lS an extremelv comple, task, and a large l'art of the plogram'o3 suC'cess rE\"sts 011 the cooperatlOn of reaearchers and lID¡.lementatlon program ataff Dua 1..0 these rE\"asons Ü would 'be worthwhllE' to develo]? as iloon as pos.51ble a trallllng program for researchers and prograril staff Wh1Ch provldes them w1th tools for 1m];rOv1l1g the1r admllllstrat1ve and plaruung sk1l1sThe obJectlVes of tlus program wOllld be to fam1ha1'1ze the traIllees wlt11 th\" theorv and praC'heE' of methlOds and teclungues of collectlng marl,etlng data olTer tIme and space budget1ng dE'Slg!1 and implementat  The Program should also recognl:::e the rrodueers' ngllt to defInE' the tE'rms lJl wlnch thev 1'1111 partlclpate In thE' market TIllS mean3 that farmers should be allowed and encouraged to declde who thev seU product to TIns lS perfectlv compatlb1e wlth coordlllatlon arnong farmers and even agreem€'nt on a eommon hottom commerclal prlce of cassava Tlle goal lS for farme18 to be th~ eenter of the econODnc declslol1-maklng pr0cess 22 At the same tlmE> farmers 3hould deCId., what klnd of product thev wl11 se11There are farmer3 W)10 are ollly lllterested In produclng eassava, whereas there are others who also want to proceas the erOI! In addltlOl1 there are thoae who do llot produce cassava but olllv ~rocess lt All of these groups should be glven tlle l'hance to o¡;erat€' at the same tIme Farmers Dlust be allowed to rent proees!nng patIos ThE>V ahould al so be allowed to sell thE'lr cro]. and obtal11 dll'€'ct and lD1lllecilate r€'turlli3 wlthout havl11g to vertlcallv• lntegrate llltO yroeesslng of anv sort HE'lleE', the practIce currelltlv €'nforeed that reqtures produeers to advance eaasava for processl11g In the llldustnal plants on ¡,rOllUiles that thE>jT wIll get a shap~ Ollce tlle procNi3ed cassava lS so Id should be dlScolltlllued 23 Farmers ilhould llave the nght to sE'lect tlle prOC€'.5alng m€'ans and the market outleta that best serv\" thelI' eCOllomlC 111terests Industrllü processlllg plants al1d sundr'V1J1g patIos Sllould be glven an equal op¡oortUllltv to suceeed 111 term.3 of cred:Lt for ope!'atloll faCl11 tles for access tu In the ¡,ast the phYs~cal mfrastructnre of pat106 has been buüt bv govel\"nmental agenc1es llldependel1tly from the orgalu;;atlOn oí farmers who are the target UoN'S TIllS pract1ce has not: bE'ell evenly efflclent There are patlos that were bmlt 601e1y w1th the asalIDlptlon that nearby farmel\"s would produce cassava DespJ.te thE'SE' farmers' good lntentlons todav they are not cult 1 vatlllg ca6save and llobodv use3 these patios There arE' also several abandollNl patlos III cassava prOducIng a.r eas where producers are not interested 1n the lIrOCes'31l1g phase At the SaIne t~me however there are eOmffilrnltles ln Whll'h two 01\" three groups of farmel\"s ol\" lndlviduals compete wlth \"ach other to obta:l.l1 accE'SS to patlt\"\\ facI11 tles The6e comnllUll t les author1:::e groups to sundr\\' cassava for a fortlllght to ensul\"E' access to all 26All patlos muat be egu1pred <11th all the neceasarv maclunerv fOl theu mdependellt oparatloll and rroV1alOned <11th teehnlCal baek tll for malntenance of motora and ChlH E're' bIadee TI11S outflttlng la lll~ely to be achieved ln 1988 because as sald before 1n 1987 govE'rnmE'nt agenCIE'il have provlded patloa wlth the most eS.3E'lltull lnlplE'ment,s However mure extenslve tra1nlng on the 1'l\"Oll€'r usE' and maIntauce of the motc-re bv farmers l.S urgent1y regu1redCredlt must bE' avallable to ¡,atlos ol\",ratora for buv1llg and prOCe5Sll1g cassava Slllce 1986, Banrul\"al has extended cred1t for thE' operatlon of sorne patlOs but dlsbursement has cons13telltly tal<;ell place after the offlClally defmed 01 t1mal drVlllg :;..erlOd O:lareh to May)Althoug.1]. some patlos eontlnue to sundrv cassava up to Octobel\" the late dellverv of caplta1 serlously undernnnes the COIDnl€'rclal vlab111ty of the P¡Ü10SThe prlce of dr1\"d cassava must be cOml'E'tltlve Vls-a-V1S fres~ cassava Producers complaln that the prlce of drIed c'assava general Iv 18 onlv sllghtlv hlgllE'r than the pr1ce of fre3h cas3avaTIm3 thev lrefer tI) sell the erop freahThe Prograru should refIne 1 ts mechalllsma for tassava 1'r.1Oe sett1ng so as to respond not onlv to costs of Pl\"Oductlo11 but a160 the conunercull avaIlab111 tv of sorghlUll 111 Southern l1ex1co 29Farmel\" organlzat1on 15 one of rile must cr1tlcal condltlolls for the sucessfull Oll€'ratlOll of patIos   It 13 e5peclally crucIal to encourage the growth of a ¡¿ermanent SO('lo-economlC unlt W3.th:lll INIFAP wluch acts as 13.a150n between farmers and researchers and betweeen researchers and ertemnon agents TIll.S un! t -s mput should be glven pnor to thE' formahon for the program's developroent as well as dUr'lng and after 3. ts lmplE'mentatloll Instead of aChng prl.marlly as an accountant for thE' program tha \\Uut should b€-lllvolved In and responslble for del51gmng the l'rogram-s o¡;oeratlollal strategy After the creatlon ei auch a Ulllt, support traIn3.llg fer 5ellIor agr Icul tural economIsts, anthropolog15ts and soclologlStS should be comndE'r as a prlorlty In INIFAP","tokenCount":"5286"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"814177427a1fbf91ddf8429510969e48","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/58af289c-44e9-4000-8b82-23b1ace94a1a/retrieve","id":"-159852512"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"958ddb81-704f-4ee2-a5e5-d7a24f5fb337","pagecount":"5","content":"The Global Stocktake (GST) is a critical step in helping ensure the Earth remains liveable. It will assess how well we are doing globally in meeting emissions goals (mitigation), adapting to climate impacts, and implementing the Paris Agreement. However, it needs to move beyond just telling us we haven't done enough. To support the necessary deep system transformations, we need to combine our treatment of adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development, and pursue climate-resilient development. We know what enables climate-resilient development: ecosystem stewardship, knowledge diversity, equity and justice, and inclusion across different arenas of engagement. The involvement of non-Party stakeholders to the Paris Agreement (e.g., cities, regions, local authorities) in the GST dialogues demonstrates that some of these enablers can be put into practice. However, it is easy to over-emphasize the GST process. What matters more is how the outcomes and necessary actions and ambitions are enacted at national and local levels. For this, we need political will, leadership, a systems approach, and re-prioritization, delivering inclusive development choices that emphasize risk reduction, equity, and justice across governance levels, sectors, and time frames, particularly concerning local level access to finance. If the GST can situate climate-resilient development at the core of its recommendations, it could be a pivotal mechanism for accelerating these necessary transformations. I really hope it succeeds because the window of opportunity to keep climate change in check is rapidly closing.Raise ambition and promote systemwide transformations Assessments of climate change such as those released by the IPCC, and the impacts of recent extreme climate events, have made it utterly clear that we cannot afford to lose the window of opportunity to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and substantially. The first Global Stocktake (GST) at COP28 comes at a pivotal time when the world is failing to curb emissions at a large scale and struggling to implement nationally determined contributions and net-zero targets while the level of these ambitions themselves are falling short of meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. COP28 is the time for reflection, time for re-composition, and addressing the shortcomings that had cropped up due to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic hardships, global conflicts, and other distractions.This first GST, therefore, must go beyond observations and assessments. Just knowing how far off the world is from achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement is not enough: what the world needs are concrete and implementable mechanisms for bridging those gaps. Incremental solutions in various sectors be it energy efficiency, industrial processes, specific technologies, or best practices are helpful starting points but are not sufficient. Parties to COP28 must consider systemwide transformation, deep-penetrating policies that enable solid and long-lasting outcomes, rapid upscaling of best-practice technologies and solutions, more climate finance to developing countries and capacity building, and more focus on implementation, just to name a few. Decarbonization of energy systems, land and forest systems, food systems, behavioral change, and just transition must be put at the core of the climate-mitigation agenda. The opportunity provided by the pivotal first GST must not be missed.From global learning to national politics The Global Stocktake (GST) has two linked aims: (1) review collective progress toward the global climate goals and identify remaining gaps and (2) drive increases in climate ambition and action. Two considerations are crucial for the effectiveness of this process.First, the GST's success will depend on its ability to facilitate learning and meaningmaking among Parties, who need to develop an up-to-date, shared understanding of the meaning of the global goals, the state of the climate and climate action, how much distance to the global goals has been closed, the likely pathways ahead, and new emerging challenges (e.g., climate tipping points). Scientific information will play an important role in this collective learning process, but other kinds and sources of information will also be needed. Importantly, the vast amount of available information must be effectively organized and analyzed to derive new and relevant insights and distill clear messages. Civil society actors, e.g., those associated with the Independent Global Stocktake, are providing much-needed capacity and new tools for synthesizing such information and making it useful.Second, the GST will only succeed if it can shape the interests, political dynamics, and decisions of actors at the national scale. However, the GST focuses exclusively on collective progress of the international community. Absent any country-specific insights, the outcomes of the GST will have to be translated and scaled down so that they can be taken up and used in domestic policymaking, especially in NDC revision processes. Civil society actors and independent knowledge providers (e.g., Carbon-Brief, Climate Action Tracker) will likely play a major role in making GST results relevant and salient for climate decision making around the world.Scaling up actions for small island developing states Human activities such as burning fossil energy have resulted in climate change that threatens the very survival of small island developing states (SIDSs) and low-lying coastal states via e.g., worsened storms and floods and loss of vibrant fisheries, which have caused US$153 billion in economic losses from 1970 to 2020. To lessen climate risks, the Paris Agreement aims to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, which requires countries to reach greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions peak as soon as possible and climate neutrality by 2050. Despite being responsible for <1% of global GHG emissions, SIDSs have set ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and committed firmly to reaching net-zero by 2050. For the Global Stocktake (GST) to be pivotal and not merely a checklist under the Paris Agreement, it must issue a strong political declaration with clear guidance on next steps. A successful GST for all SIDSs means the continued championing of increased ambition by all Parties through updated NDCs in 2025, including strengthened 2030 targets that align with the 1.5 C long-term temperature goal and concrete plans on how to get there. Importantly, for SIDSs, the GST mandate must place considerable attention on improving international cooperation on climate change, since the Paris Agreement calls for developed countries to consider the needs of developing countries particularly for adaptation efforts. This also means that the GST must provide solutions for climate finance accessibility and the support needed for building resilience and addressing the impacts of climate change including loss and damage. The outcome of this GST and future cycles could provide the vehicle and opportunity for continued renewal and capacity building for SIDSs in the fight against climate change.Director of Climate Change Impact Platform, CGIARThe science is clear. We need sustained emissions reductions in all sectors, including the agri-food sector, which contributes one-third of total GHG emissions, to keep global temperatures within the Paris goal of 1.5 to 2 degrees by the end of this century, but emissions reductions in this sector can compromise future food security for some of the poorest populations in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Unfortunately, given the diversity inherent in agri-food systems, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. For example, solutions that work for large mechanised farms in the US are not appropriate for small-holder farmers and pastoralists in sub-Saharan Africa.However, there are a range of solutions that can help take the agri-food sector on low-emission pathways: Reducing unsustainable consumption where it has harmful effects on health, climate, and the environment (e.g., introduction of alternative proteins in high-income countries); increasing production of healthy and nutritious food without expanding agriculture into new lands to prevent deforestation (e.g., adoption of climate resilient crops and breeds with higher yields); reducing damage to natural resources (e.g., through adoption of agroecological approaches); reducing emissions from agriculture (e.g., through adoption of low-emission fertilizers or innovations in feed and fodder supplements in livestock to reduce enteric methane emissions); and prioritizing the needs and interests of small-holder farmers (e.g., providing digital and agricultural climate services, particularly in the Global South). The Global Stocktake needs to provide a systematic assessment of these technologies, policies, and practices and their enabling conditions, including finance, for scaling across the agri-food sector globally.Head of climate finance, Perspectives Climate Research; executive director of Climate and Business Certificate, HEC ParisAs the world grapples with the urgent need to transition toward clean and sustainable energy sources, one significant barrier remains: continued official export finance support to fossil fuels. In fact, export credit agencies (ECAs) are the single largest group of public finance institutions supporting fossil fuel investments around the world. The focus of this support must shift towards the energy transition to avoid locking-in new carbon intensive infrastructure.At the national level, governments must therefore realign their export finance policies to prioritize clean energy. The Glasgow Statement launched at COP26 committed its signatories to end new direct public support for the international fossil fuels by the end of 2022. Some European countries have already implemented it by phasing out export finance to fossil fuels and ramping up clean energy support, notably through the Export Finance for Future Coalition. Other major exporters such as Canada and the US are lagging behind and must urgently implement policies to align their ECAs with the Paris Agreement.At the international level, the OECD banned export finance support to coal and agreed to expand support for climate-friendly technologies. These efforts must be bolstered, notably by restricting export finance for oil and gas projects. Indeed, continued use of limited public funds for expanding fossil fuel infrastructures is not compatible with the Paris Agreement and is particularly shocking given the failure to reach international climate finance targets.It is therefore vital that the Global Stocktake considers making export finance fit for the Paris Agreement. This can be achieved, for example, by incorporating metrics that evaluate the amount of export financing allocated to renewable energy projects compared to fossil fuels and highlighting best practice examples.UKRI Future Leadersprincipalresearchfellow, Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College LondonThe recent IPCC report from Working Group II shows us that adaptation to climate change has been largely incremental-tinkering round the edges of existing systems rather than making the step changes needed to adapt to a 2 C world, or even the almost 3 degrees we are currently heading for.The Global Stocktake (GST) can play an important role in highlighting neglected and politically challenging areas of adaptation, such as re-thinking trade rules to build resilience to climate shocks across supply chains and supporting people to move if their homes become uninhabitable. This will involve bringing together new coalitions around challenging and fragmented issues that have not been labeled as adaptation, or not been priorities. To do this, the GST needs to consider progress beyond national governments, such as the actions of corporations and the resilience of systems. For example, adapting to the potential failure of multiple breadbaskets across the global food system is a systemic issue and one that goes far beyond individual government action.The GST also needs to go beyond evaluating how well current adaptation policy and finance systems have delivered what they set out to do. Instead, it needs to re-evaluate if the ambition of these systems match the scale ofchange needed, and if they can address the political challenges and deliver transformative action. Finally, the GST needs to use measurement as a tool for change. Adaptation measurement shapes action through norms and incentives and the GST needs to ensure those incentives align to increase ambition for transformative changes in systems and learning rather than demonstrating short-term ''success.'' Finance for global adaptation implementation Adaptation needs are growing, yet the adaptation finance gap in developing countries is already 5-10 times greater than current international adaptation finance flows. The Global Stocktake (GST) must urgently show how finance flows can support the global goal on adaptation. Adaptation is generally cost-effective, but a key barrier to adaptation globally is the small proportion of global climate finance targeting adaptation compared with the overwhelming allocation of finance for mitigation. Also, public and private finance flows for fossil fuels are still greater than those for both climate adaptation and mitigation.Improved availability of, access to, and alignment of finance will enable accelerated adaptation. Elevating adaptation to high-level ministries of, such as finance or planning, will streamline flows, improve strategy and governance, and plan for cross-sector, cross-border, and cascading climate risks. Substantial investment is needed to assist the transition from household-level coping activities to scalable, institutionalized, and transformative interventions. Policy mixes need to align adaptation finance with more inclusive development choices that reduce vulnerability, avoid maladaptation, and prioritize access for local actors. For example, climate mobility can benefit from investing in social protection, climate information services, and boosting climate literacy. Also, financing technology transfer and integration of early-warning climate information and Indigenous and local knowledge can improve the adaptation of smallholder farmers.The GST must also show how finance for adaptation research can be strengthened to help reduce inequities in funding and research leadership, improve evidence of what works, and attribution of implemented adaptation outcomes.Peaking before 2025: The Global Stocktake must deliver The first Global Stocktake (GST) is the key mechanism to increase climate ambition and action under the Paris Agreement. It comes at a pivotal moment for climate action, where geopolitical rivalries challenge progress on climate, and the devastating impacts of the climate crisis at 1.2 C of global warming are being felt around the globe. Bold steps are required in all areas of climate action, from the expansion of renewables and the phasing out of fossil fuels to the provision of climate finance including muchneeded support for loss and damage and adaptation. However, the world is not on track. The 2030 emissions gap between countries' commitments and what's required to keep the 1.5 C goal of the Paris Agreement within reach is yawning. To close the gap, the latest IPCC report has been very clear that peaking of global greenhouse gas emissions is required before 2025 on the road to halving emissions by 2030. Given the current trajectory of global emissions, ''peaking as soon as possible''-as required according to the Paris Agreement's Article 4-would be challenging, but not impossible to achieve. Although global CO 2 emissions are still growing according to the latest estimates by the Global Carbon Project, it appears that the growth rate has slowed down and structural changes in the CO 2 intensity of the global economy are apparent. In response to the GST, the new round of national commitments under the Paris Agreement due by 2025 needs to substantially increase ambition to close the emission gap as much as possible and to restore faith in the global efforts to address the climate crisis. I would argue that a commitment to peaking before 2025 would be the ambitious outcome from the first GST the world will be looking for.","tokenCount":"2426"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"438b7646fd7f62ea0975533a8072117d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b907de0e-1143-467f-81b0-823ff71f360f/retrieve","id":"-520697036"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6e962cba-2b92-4e16-92e7-498d778894b5","pagecount":"146","content":"El presente documento hace referencia a los productos 1 y 3. El producto 1 se titula \"Un informe con la estructura y avance de la MTA en Nariño para identificar necesidades específicas de fortalecimiento de capacidades\"; y el 3 \"Presentación y planes de trabajo para MTA, basados en experiencias exitosas\". El informe incluye aspectos como origen de las MTA, función, frecuencia de reuniones, boletines, entidades líderes y participantes, entre otros.El informe incluye una base de datos de los miembros de la Mesa y la tipología de sus instituciones. Se presenta una recopilación y análisis de los documentos que históricamente ha producido la mesa.Como base de un diálogo institucional y a partir de los aprendizajes de experiencias exitosas, de mejores prácticas y de lecciones obtenidas de otras MTA de Colombia y de América Latina, se presenta una propuesta de plan de trabajo para la MTA Nariño, que está en proceso de diálogo con el IDEAM y el PMA.Abordaremos el marco normativo e institucional, ya que es imprescindible contar con el respaldo normativo a lo previsto y aplicado en Colombia y Nariño respecto a las MTA. De igual manera, se identifica y describe el papel de los principales actores institucionales que han jugado un papel importante en la promoción, desarrollo, y funcionamiento de las MTA de Nariño. Presentamos nuestra visión sobre el diagnóstico particular de la MTA de Nariño y la estrategia definida por la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño para su trabajo y actuación, tal como se puede percibir en los documentos producidos por la Mesa como sus boletines, de los cuales presentamos un resumen de sus ediciones, complementada con entrevistas semiestructuradas a miembros activos e históricos de la mesa y una encuesta específica de diagnóstico y proyección. Recogemos además las lecciones aprendidas, y los, retos y oportunidades de las MTA de Colombia y América Latina y el Caribe basados en la participación en un conversatorio internacional sobre \"Aportes de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA/MAP) de Centro-América y América Latina: lecciones aprendidas, retos y oportunidades\". Se tuvo en cuenta además el encuentro entre las MTA de Caldas, Risaralda y Nariño y los aportes en otros encuentros de las MTA de Sucre, Córdoba, Magdalena, Tolima Cauca y Putumayo . Con base en estos elementos se pone a consideración un Plan de trabajo para la Mesa.Consideramos importante señalar que la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño pasó por un gran período de inactividad entre Julio de 2019, fecha en que dejó de coordinar la FAO, hasta prácticamente septiembre de 2020, cuando el IDEAM retoma el trabajo y cita de nuevo a reunión. Sin embargo, en esta ocasión no se hace un balance, ni se presenta un plan de trabajo. Por el contrario, se trabaja sobre diagnósticos y proyecciones agroclimáticas, aspecto que no genera percepción de dinamización ni de integralidad en los servicios de la MTA de Nariño.A partir de la Ley 164 de 1994 Colombia ratificó su involucramiento como parte en la Convención Marco sobre Cambio Climático de las Naciones Unidas (CMNUCC), la cual tiene como mandato nivelar las concentraciones de gases de efecto invernadero en la atmósfera \"a un nivel que impida interferencias antropógenas (inducidas por el hombre) peligrosas en el sistema climático\" (UNFCCC). (Ley 164, 1994, Art. 2).Para el año 2013, la organización CCAFS facilitó una experiencia de intercambio entre las delegaciones de  A pesar de varios esfuerzos a nivel global por enfrentar el problema, el cambio climático sigue siendo una de las prioridades en las agendas de asuntos ambientales a nivel mundial, especialmente desde 2015, cuando se dio la firma del Acuerdo Climático de París.En ese año y durante la 21 Conferencia de las Partes (COP 25) de la CMNUCC se adoptó el Acuerdo de París como un compromiso vinculante y el único que hasta la fecha ha involucrado a todas las partes de la Convención.Con esa firma y su subsecuente ratificación bajo la Ley 1844 de 2017, Colombia adquirió el compromiso por impulsar la coordinación interinstitucional y sectorial para lograr el cumplimiento de su NDC (contribución nacional determinada) a través de acciones en adaptación y mitigación del cambio climático a nivel nacional y territorial.En el marco de la NDC el país prioriza 10 acciones hacia el 2030, las cuales son: i.El 100% del territorio nacional cubierto con planes de cambio climático formulados y en implementación.ii. El desarrollo de un Sistema Nacional de Indicadores de Adaptación que permita monitorear y evaluar la implementación de medidas de adaptación.iii. Definir las cuencas prioritarias del país que contarán con instrumentos de manejo del recurso hídrico con consideraciones de variabilidad y cambio climático.iv. Seis (6) sectores prioritarios de la economía (transporte, energía, agricultura, vivienda, salud, comercio, turismo e industria) incluirán consideraciones de cambio climático en sus instrumentos de planificación, y estarán implementando acciones de adaptación innovadoras.v. Fortalecimiento de la estrategia de sensibilización, formación y educación a públicos sobre cambio climático, enfocada en los diferentes actores de la sociedad colombiana.vi. La delimitación y protección de los 36 complejos de páramos que tiene Colombia (aproximadamente 3 millones de hectáreas).vii. El aumento en más de 2.5 millones de hectáreas en cobertura de nuevas áreas protegidas en el Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas -SINAP-, en coordinación con actores locales y regionales viii. La inclusión de consideraciones de cambio climático en Proyectos de Interés Nacional y Estratégicos -PINES-.ix. Diez (10) gremios del sector agrícola como el arrocero, cafetero, ganadero y silvopastoril, con capacidades mejoradas para adaptarse adecuadamente al cambio y variabilidad climática.x. Quince (15) departamentos del país participan en las mesas técnicas agroclimáticas, articuladas con la mesa nacional, y 1 millón de productores recibiendo información agroclimática para facilitar la toma de decisiones en actividades agropecuarias. junto con su adopción bajo ordenanza 042 de 2019, constituyen esfuerzos que se alinearon con los propósitos de la MTA en el departamento dentro de los lineamientos para todo el país.Para la creación de la mesa técnica agroclimática de Nariño, en primera instancia, se llevó a cabo un panel de acuerdo interinstitucional, el cual tenía como objetivo: establecer las bases para la construcción interinstitucional de espacios de diálogo entre actores que inciden en el sector agropecuario para la gestión de información agroclimática, con el fin de identificar las mejores prácticas de adaptación a fenómenos climáticos y su difusión a los actores del sector agropecuario de la región. Esta se llevó a cabo el 20 de octubre del 2017, por la Gobernación de Nariño y FAO.En esta reunión se abordó el concepto de las mesas técnicas agroclimáticas, y además, se realizó un diagnóstico de capacidades interinstitucionales, de los puntos de encuentro y se identificaron sinergias operativas, entre otros. Después de realizada la reunión para lograr el acuerdo interinstitucional, se organiza la primera reunión de la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño el 1 de diciembre de 2017, en la que se desarrollaron actividades de aprendizaje con respecto al pronóstico del tiempo.A partir de su apertura, se realizaron reuniones de la MTA con frecuencia mensual, siendo lideradas por FAO, con el apoyo con Gobernación de Nariño, Agrosavia, DIMAR y la Corporación Contactar, entre otros actores más que se unieron al propósito común de entregar la información climática a líderes y productores del sector agropecuario y contribuir a una agricultura climáticamente inteligente en el departamento. La Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño hasta la fecha ha desarrollado 17 boletines agroclimáticos mensuales y del Departamento de Nariño se han generado junto a los de la MTA Nariño otros 15 producidos por el IDEAM para el departamento completando 32 boletines agrometeorológicos mensuales.• Generar un informe con el origen, estructura y el progreso de la MTA en Nariño para identificar las necesidades específicas de fortalecimiento de capacidades.• Formular una propuesta de plan de trabajo con base en experiencias exitosas y buenas prácticas en Nariño a actores colombianos y/o guatemaltecos.El Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático \"Riesgo, Amenaza, Exposición\" Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible del 2016 define que el clima es uno de los factores que determinan las características de un determinado territorio a lo largo de las eras geológicas. De acuerdo con el Grupo Intergubernamental de Expertos sobre el Cambio Climático (IPCC), el cambio climático es la:Variación del estado del clima, identificable (por ejemplo, mediante pruebas estadísticas) en las variaciones del valor medio o en la variabilidad de sus propiedades, que persiste durante largos períodos de tiempo, generalmente decenios o períodos más largos\" (Pachauri et al., 2014).Cabe recordar que una de las principales características del cambio climático actual es la alta concentración de gases de efecto invernadero ocasionado por actividades humanas que se han intensificado desde el año 1850 en adelante (Benavides & León, 2007).Así mismo, los cambios en el clima constituyen una amenaza que se relaciona con la vulnerabilidad de los sistemas sociales y económicos y que deja entrever que:Los aspectos que conforman la vulnerabilidad son múltiples, pero en los sistemas humanos están relacionados con las condiciones sociales. La falta de infraestructura y recursos para enfrentar, y luego reducir las consecuencias del evento climático extremo son componentes centrales de la vulnerabilidad. (…) Otro componente importante de la vulnerabilidad de un determinado grupo humano es la calidad y fortaleza de las instituciones que deben prevenir y luego atender las consecuencias de los eventos extremos (Gobernación de Nariño, 2016, p 42) La vulnerabilidad es \"la predisposición que tiene un sistema de ser afectado negativamente ante una amenaza\" (Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible, 2013).Sobre el concepto de amenaza esta es descrita como:un fenómeno, sustancia, actividad humana o condición peligrosa que puede ocasionar la muerte, lesiones u otros impactos a la salud; al igual que daños a la propiedad, la pérdida de medios de sustento y de servicios; trastornos sociales y económicos, o daños ambientales. Esto incluye la pérdida de cultivos y/o ganado, el daño de infraestructura como por ejemplo establos o invernaderos. La amenaza se determina en función de la intensidad y la frecuencia (Andersen, 2017,10) Al respecto entonces, las acciones de adaptación conducentes a la disminución de la vulnerabilidad y la exposición:pueden abarcar un amplio espectro [que varía] según el caso, pero en general son coincidentes con la agenda del desarrollo socioeconómico; algunas pueden ser más específicas, como por ejemplo la educación sobre el riesgo por cambio climático y su relación con los riesgos de desastres climáticos locales y la mejora de los sistemas de alerta temprana y respuesta a los eventos climáticos extremos (Vulnerabilidad -IDEAM, 2017.). (Figura 1).Es decir que invertir en adaptación al cambio climático, es invertir en acciones integrales que aborden varias dimensiones que van desde la generación de información hasta el fortalecimiento de capacidades adaptativas que orienten a los sistemas sociales, económicos y humanos, a reducir la posibilidad de enfrentar pérdidas y daños asociados a los cambios del clima.Por consiguiente, el cambio climático plantea desafíos clave para el desarrollo social y económico sostenible de nuestro planeta. Sin embargo, la toma de decisiones implica, por lo general, grandes dificultades para comprender y responder de manera efectiva cuando se ponen en juego intereses de corto plazo y largo plazo. En general, las políticas públicas acerca del impacto climático deben establecerse a pesar de que en los acuerdos varios actores pueden sentirse vulnerados. Para el desarrollo de este documento se partió del desarrollo de las siguientes fases: 1) revisión documental de información técnica generada en los boletines agroclimáticos de Nariño generados en el período de 2017 a 2019, así como de artículos de prensa, sitios web y documentos técnicos de investigación desarrollados a nivel nacional y departamental sobre las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas; 2) la aplicación de instrumentos tales como entrevistas semiestructuradas y encuestas a las y los integrantes de la MTA Nariño, ; 3) la asistencia a sesiones de la MTA tanto de Nariño como de otros departamentos del país como Córdoba, Sucre, Magdalena, Cauca, Tolima, Caldas y Putumayo; y finalmente 4) la revisión de experiencias de las 7 Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas existentes en Colombia. Estas acciones se llevaron a cabo con el fin de proyectar sinergias y/o lecciones aprendidas para la mesa.(Figura 2)El proceso se resume a continuación:Figura 2. Síntesis de metodología con actores de la MTA de NariñoA nivel nacional, el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (MADR), con el apoyo técnico de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), ha liderado desde 2017 la gestión e implementación de las Mesas La Mesa Técnica Agroclimática en Nariño es \"fundamental para forjar un desarrollo bajo en carbono y resiliente con el clima\". (Boletín agroclimático de Nariño número 2, enero 5 de 2018).Como parte de la agenda de las reuniones de la mesa técnica agroclimática se encuentra el análisis de las condiciones climáticas recientes para dar contexto a predicciones climáticas usando el nuevo sistema #NextGen, co-desarrollado entre el IDEAM y el Proyecto de Columbia University \"ACToday\", liderado por el Instituto Internacional del Clima y la Sociedad (IRI). Estas actividades generalmente se desarrollan en la jornada de la mañana de la MTA Nariño y con el acompañamiento de un climatólogo. Durante la jornada de la tarde se realiza el ejercicio participativo con los y las asistentes a la mesa, quienes, en relación con las predicciones del clima esperado en los próximos meses generan recomendaciones de acuerdo con el sector y cultivo que representan, para reducir los riesgos agroclimáticos De acuerdo con las respuestas de las personas entrevistadas, su participación se ha desarrollado mayoritariamente de forma presencial, es decir, en las reuniones llevadas durante el 2019.A continuación, se relacionan los actores de la MTA Nariño y el papel que han desarrollado para la puesta en marcha de la mesa. Apoyo a la coordinación especialmente en asuntos de convocatoria, divulgación de recomendaciones y sostenibilidad de la MTA Nariño en el marco de las metas del PDD.Apoyo administrativo para el desarrollo de las reuniones y apoyo en la divulgación de la información del Boletín Agroclimático con pequeños productores.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño. Desde el sector que representa, se encuentra interesado en desarrollar procesos de producción limpia y de reducción de huella de carbono.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño. Desde el sector que representa, se encuentra interesado en desarrollar procesos de producción limpia y de reducción de huella de carbono.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Coordinación técnica y apoyo a la generación de información científica para la MTA Nariño. Desde 2019 asume rol de coordinación para la facilitación y desarrollo de la MTA Nariño.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño. Desde elsector que representa, se encuentra interesado en desarrollar procesos de producción limpia y de reducción de huella de carbono.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño. Desde el sector que representa, se encuentra interesado en desarrollar procesos de producción limpia y de reducción de huella de carbono.NACIONALES NATURALES DE COLOMBIA Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño. Desde el sector que representa, se encuentra interesado en desarrollar procesos de producción limpia y de reducción de huella de carbono.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Participante de la MTA Nariño que aporta en la generación de recomendaciones para el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño.Coordinación técnica y administrativa para la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática en Tumaco.De acuerdo con los resultados de la encuesta realizada a los y las integrantes de la MTA Nariño, el papel principal es divulgar la información agroclimática generada, revelando la importancia e interés de los actores del departamento por contar con información de calidad que permita reducir los riesgos de pérdidas y daños en los cultivos asociados con el cambio climático (gráfica 2). Es igualmente relevante para los y las participantes de la MTA Nariño encuestados y encuestadas, los contactos con los gremios y los agricultores para motivar el uso adecuado y oportuno de la información agroclimática. La mesa es vista como el escenario para congregar diversidad de actores, compartir información, usarla, y además proveer información técnica para los procesos de tomas de decisiones agroclimáticas, aspecto fundamental para la gestión de la información y la precisión en la elaboración de los boletines.Cabe señalar que a pesar de que uno de los objetivos de la mesa es ayudar a los tomadores de decisiones a desarrollar actividades de mitigación y adaptación con base en la información agroclimática de las mesas, ninguno de los entrevistados hizo mención a los aportes de los desarrollos de la MTA para medidas de mitigación y adaptación.Los resultados de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas dependen de aspectos multifactoriales, tales como el grado de interés, involucramiento y participación de los actores. Sobre los actores que integran la Mesa, es importante el papel que cumple la institución que coordina y facilita la MTA, la cual debe promover una serie de actividades de impulso, gestión institucional y motivación con los actores participantes, bien sean estos de instituciones gubernamentales, académicas, gremiales o de organizaciones de base.Es importante destacar que la MTA Nariño trabajó directamente con 68 personas, entre técnicos de instituciones, representantes de organizaciones, sector académico y tomadores de A continuación, se realiza un resumen de la composición y estructura de los boletines agroclimáticos de la MTA Nariño, desagregando sus contenidos en materia de información climática, tipo de recomendaciones y tipo de cultivos, los cuales constituyen insumos relevantes para la planificación frente a la variabilidad climática y sus impactos esperados en las cosechas. Tabla 2. Resumen Contenido Boletines MTA Nariño. Un aporte fundamental que se relaciona con la MTA del departamento, la planificación y el fortalecimiento de capacidades en materia de cambio climático es la sinergia de la MTA con otros escenarios de gobernanza ambiental y climática en Nariño. La MTA y algunos de sus actores están articulados con los procesos de planificación y política climática, por lo que, en el PIGCCT, Nariño, se destaca la importancia de fortalecer los procesos agroclimáticos en el departamento.Es importante destacar que dentro de las acciones priorizadas por el PIGCCT Nariño se encuentran la línea estratégica de \"Nariño rural y competitivo\" en donde se encuentra la medida denominada \"Mejorar conocimiento climático para la adaptación de ecosistemas marino-costeros\" donde se identifica la necesidad de fortalecer el conocimiento climático en el departamento. La medida identifica que:Si bien en la actualidad la información presentada en las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA) ha contribuido al desarrollo del sector productivo del departamento de Nariño, todavía es necesario contar con información detallada y oportuna del comportamiento de las variables climáticas que ejercen mayor influencia sobre el sector productivo, de tal forma que sea posible anticipar la posible ocurrencia de variaciones climáticas adversas, y con ello realizar una planificación de las actividades productivas de manera más acertada.Figura 4. Factores limitantes de la MTA Nariño Fuente: Elaboración propia, 2020.A partir de los acercamientos con integrantes de la MTA Nariño y de la revisión de otras experiencias exitosas de Colombia (Caldas, Sucre y Córdoba, principalmente) que participaron en el encuentro Aportes de las Mesas Agroclimáticas MAT/MAP de Centro América y América Latina: Lecciones Aprendidas Retos y Oportunidades, la participación en una revisión de las de la experiencias de PMA en Centroamérica acerca del trabajo en temas agroclimáticas, así como la participación en diferentes reuniones y eventos entre CIAT, IRI, IDEAM, y la revisión documental, se han consolidado aportes para la construcción de una propuesta de plan de trabajo para la MTA Nariño.Teniendo en cuenta el documento \"Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas Una guía detallada sobre la implementación de las MTA\" para consolidar una Mesa Técnica Agroclimática \"es indispensable abordar al menos cuatro etapas\". La siguiente gráfica describe estas etapas, que consisten en definir la misión de la mesa, los objetivos, los indicadores y las estrategias.(Gráfica 3): La primera etapa define la visión y misión de la mesa técnica agroclimática, lo que a su vez define su orientación y a dónde aspira a llegar, cuál es su razón de ser, sus principales productos, servicios y quiénes serán los beneficiarios; qué valores inspiran la mesa técnica agroclimática para alcanzar su visión y cumplir su misión. Además, se debe dejar explícito cuáles son las políticas de la mesa técnica agroclimática que establecen el marco de su accionar.• Indicadores de la MTA La segunda etapa permite analizar el ambiente interno y externo de la mesa agroclimática e identificar los factores que la afectan.• Objetivos de la MTA La tercera etapa debe ser definir los objetivos estratégicos para la acción de la mesa.• Estrategias de la MTA La cuarta etapa se refiere a la formulación de un plan operativo de la mesa agroclimática.Teniendo en cuenta el alcance esta consultoría, se brinda una propuesta de plan de acción.Producto de diálogos sostenidos con varios actores de la Mesa, se sugiere la necesidad de contar con un grupo dinamizador que impulse una mejor y más eficiente prestación de servicios de la MTA El paso siguiente es construir una propuesta de Plan de trabajo para la fase de reactivación de la Mesa, con un objetivo claro y realizable en un plazo de al menos un año.Esto debe estar asociado a la creación de condiciones favorables para la sostenibilidad de la Mesa en el mediano plazo, tal como se presentaremos más adelante.Para el proceso de implementación de este plan se proponen seis tareas específicas: 1) Planificación, 2) Gestión organizacional; Social y Política que incluye el diálogo, la incidencia y la articulación político-institucional, 3) Gestión técnica mediante el fortalecimiento de la acción colectiva, 4) Generación y gestión de información 5) Otros servicios de la MTA Nariño y 6) Monitoreo, seguimiento, y evaluación.En el siguiente cuadro se presenta el plan operativo en su versión de propuesta a ser presentada a la MTA Nariño para su discusión y aprobación con todos los miembros, y que ya fue entregada al IDEAM. A la par se acordó una reunión de la Mesa antes de terminar el año junto con quienes se ha ajustado, y se acordó presentarla en un escenario de la MTA Nariño. En este apartado recogemos las lecciones aprendidas, retos y oportunidades de las MTA de Colombia y América Latina, basados en la participación en un conversatorio internacional sobre Aportes de las Mesas Agroclimáticas (MTA/MAP) de Centro-América y América Latina: lecciones aprendidas, retos y oportunidades. Además, se retoman conocimientos del encuentro entre las MTA de Caldas Risaralda y Nariño, en reuniones con actores clave como CIAT. Este apartado también reconoce algunas de las experiencias de acompañamiento a las MTA por parte de PMA en América Latina.• Los Boletines son herramientas que permiten estar más preparados para las contingencias climáticas y aprovechar y manejar mejor los cultivos, estos deben ser continuos y oportunos con un lenguaje sencillo para el pequeño agricultor esto con boletines gráficos y dinámicos.• Impulsar mesas a una escala local por ej. Mesas municipales.• Es clave la participación de universidades, centros de educación media y escuelas.Estas se pueden vincular a la lectura de estaciones meteorológicas.• A partir de la formulación de los boletines se puede agrupar una serie de recomendaciones para la mitigación del Cambio climático.• Es importante tener amplia participación de las instituciones y de la mayor parte de actores comunitarios.• Una buena Red de pluviómetros cuyas lecturas son enviadas por grupos de WhasApp.• Información clave es compartidas por periódicos regionales y canales de radio y Televisión local, de las cuales los agricultores tienen conocimiento para que estén pendientes de dichas emisiones; podcast en radiodifusoras, boletines distribuidos en carros recolectores de leche.• Simulación para arroz de secano y maíz. (Comportamiento y rendimiento de cultivos acorde a días de siembra y variedades).• Diseñado diplomados sobre variables agroclimáticas.• Diseñados protocolos de atención a emergencias por sequía en apoyo del PMA.• Consejo técnico (Chiquimula Guatemala, conformado por 5 instituciones), estos elaboran protocolos y recomendaciones técnicas.• Posters informativos trimestrales en principales instituciones visitadas por los agricultores.• Sinergias con ONGS e Instituciones ambientalistas en agricultura familiar y ganadería sostenible.• Sistemas de alarmas con recomendaciones incluidas.A partir de la entrada en operación oficial de la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño el 1 de diciembre de 2017, impulsada desde la Gobernación de Nariño y que fue liderada por la FAO, se mantuvo cierto dinamismo, capacidad de convocatoria, progreso en sus enfoques y servicios. Una vez termina el convenio entre el Ministerio de Agricultura y DesarrolloAgricultura-FAO, esto es desde julio de 2019, la coordinación pasa de FAO al IDEAM entidad que a partir de ese momento se convierte en el encargado de facilitar la MTA en el departamento.Desde entonces la MTA de Nariño entra en una especie de baja actividad y dispersión de actores y acciones, lo que se ve reflejado en una reducción de encuentros y reuniones, se dejan de producir boletines y demás servicios agroclimáticos.De lo anterior podemos concluir que faltó cierto nivel de apropiación de parte de los actores locales, principalmente de los de carácter oficial directamente responsables de estos temas. Dicha apropiación puede deberse a diversos factores entre los que señalamos los siguientes:a. El carácter de cooperante externo del facilitador, que pudo haber reemplazado funciones de las instituciones públicas, en lugar de motivar y fortalecer la capacidad instalada en aspectos técnicos operativos y de gestión.La Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño tiene diferentes retos para poder cumplir con su objetivo central, siendo estos los siguientes:1. Definir un equipo coordinador de la MTA, una coordinación colegiada, en la que al menos deben aparecer entre tres y cuatro roles claramente definidos. Estos serían:a.Soporte técnico climático b.Soporte técnico de cultivos c.Entes gubernamentales tomadores de decisiones y de gestión de recursos y d.Un delegado del sector productivo Dicha coordinación de la MTA debe tener una base institucional de carácter local/regional, con presencia permanente en territorio, que se apoya en actores externos, llámese entidades de orden nacional, o internacional, pero cuya responsabilidad y misionalidad temática está relacionada tanto con el sector agropecuario, como con el territorio. Esto no debe entrar en demérito de sectores gremiales de carácter nacional, pero sería pertinente concentrarse en aquellos cuya operatividad tiene representación en el departamento.2. La MTA debe construir un enfoque diferencial que les permita a estas comunidades acceder a los servicios agroclimáticos. Actualmente el PMA trabaja algunos aspectos específicos en el territorio de la cuenca binacional Mira-Mataje, que incluyen comunidades de los Consejos comunitarios de Alto y Bajo Mira, así como comunidades Awa. Este referente debe servir para el resto de las comunidades étnicas.3. Fortalecer la capacidad técnica de los integrantes de las Mesas; constituir una red de instituciones locales, asociaciones campesinas, emisoras comunitarias, entre otros y bajar la información al nivel local. También es importante contar con la participación de campesinos y campesinas a nivel local, por lo que pueden gestionarse algunos medios habilitadores como aportes a la conectividad (paquetes de datos e internet) o alianzas con las instituciones educativas para divulgar la información.4. Mejorar la información generada para la agricultura familiar y su toma de decisiones, con información entendible y digerible para este tipo de población. Generar información diferencial para agricultores de agricultura familiar y de agricultura industrial.5. Impulsar una estrategia participativa y con amplia divulgación en la escala local puesto que la información debe \"bajar\" más de lo que está siendo divulgada. A la par, es preciso llegar con información pertinente y oportuna a las autoridades y tomadores de decisiones. (alcaldes, gobernadores, etc.)6. Vincular más instituciones para mejorar el conocimiento de los impactos de la variabilidad climática en los cultivos del departamento. En este sentido la Secretaría de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible de la Gobernación tiene en cuenta las metas del PIGCC de Nariño, por lo que se espera ampliar en un 30% la participación de actores y poner a disposición sus redes y estrategias comunicativas.7. Fortalecer el enfoque diferencial. Por ejemplo, a través de la divulgación oportuna de información en los sectores rurales, el uso de lenguajes diferenciados acorde a su contexto y cultura, y la búsqueda de una mayor calidad de comunicación local para lograr mayor conexión con agricultores.8. Es preciso además llegar con mecanismos de información, capacitación y formación de extensionistas, de manera que estos participen de la construcción de recomendaciones y las puedan incorporar en su trabajo con los agricultores. 9. Además, desarrollar un sistema de monitoreo y evaluación constante que permita medir, pero también, realizar ajustes a la dinámica de la MTA.10. Finalmente, crear un mecanismo para la sostenibilidad operativa yd e funcionamiento de las MTA, para poder sostenerse en el tiempo.• A partir de la formulación de los boletines se puede agrupar una serie de recomendaciones para la adaptación a la variabilidad climática.• Diseñar estrategias de educación formal o no formal sobre variables agroclimáticas.• Desarrollar sinergias con ONGS e instituciones ambientales, movimientos ambientales, y otras mesas del departamento tales como la mesa de ganadería sostenible, por ejemplo.• Impulsar el desarrollo de Sistemas Participativos de Alertas AgroclimáticasTempranas SPAAT (por sus siglas) con recomendaciones incluidas.Las MTA son una iniciativa que permite generar espacios de discusión entre actores del sector agrícola para la gestión de información agroclimática local y no local, con el fin se muestra las respuestas y las gráficas las cuales indican el valor numérico de las respuestas, por las cuales se conoció la importancia de la MTA de Nariño y cómo los actores de la mesa se familiarizan. Otros de los anexos son los siguientes:• Formato de encuestas• Matriz de actores MTA Nariño• Matriz de resultados de encuesta actores MTA Nariño• Matriz de análisis de boletines agroclimáticos de Nariño• Archivo de noticias sobre la MTA Nariño• Matriz plan de trabajo propuesto 12. SEGUIMIENTO DEL PLAN.13. RECOMENDACIONES.14. REFERENCIAS.Figura 1. Modelo de comunicación propuesto.Figura 2. Componentes del proceso del plan de comunicaciones MTA de Nariño Este documento tiene el propósito de identificar acciones en materia de comunicaciones que permita a la MTA Nariño alcanzar el mayor número de personas y dar respuesta a sus necesidades en este campo, para aumentar el impacto de sus actuaciones en públicos como comunidades indígenas, afrodescendientes y campesinas teniendo en cuenta que en el departamento la población afro, negra y mulata representa el 14.8% y la población indígena el 8.5% (DNP-Terridata, 2019).Proponer a la MTA Nariño una estrategia de comunicación para la información climática producida por las MTA en Nariño y su acceso por parte de los productores agropecuarios del departamento.Mediante los objetivos de la estrategia de comunicación de la MTA Nariño se busca ampliar los espacios de difusión de los temas que se desarrollan en el grupo. Es importante que la información sea adecuada para públicos generales y de diferentes niveles educativos, ya que se trata de impactar en la forma en que se comunica en los medios y poder realizar un correcto seguimiento a las acciones realizadas para mejorar el impacto de la mesa.Con el plan de comunicación se plantea la consecución de los siguientes objetivos: d) Alcanzar más del 50% de los municipios como actores en la MTA.e) Aumentar la participación activa de al menos 50% de los 64 municipios como actores de la MTA de Nariño.La Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño a partir de su creación ha realizado sus reuniones con frecuencia mensual desde diciembre de 2017 hasta julio de 2019 siendo liderada por FAO, con el apoyo con Gobernación de Nariño, Agrosavia, DIMAR y la Corporación Contactar, con el fin de entregar la información climática a líderes y productores del sector agropecuario; a partir de agosto de 2019 no se realizaron más reuniones ni se emitieron boletines agroclimáticos de la MTA de Nariño; las reuniones mensuales se reactivaron en octubre del 2020 con la coordinación del IDEAM. La estrategia de comunicación de la Mesa debe permitir fortalecer sus capacidades en la difusión de información y el desarrollo de nuevas alianzas que ayuden a motivar a los involucrados a trabajar en una propuesta comunicativa sólida que llegue a tener gran impacto en la comunidad.La Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño desde su creación ha generado 17 boletines agroclimáticos departamentales y el IDEAM desde el nivel nacional ha formulado 32 boletines agroclimáticos para el Departamento de Nariño, los últimos formulados por el IDEAM los cuales ha sido compartidos mediante: Grupo de WhatsApp en el cual se encuentran 77 participantes, y páginas web de aliados (Gobernación de Nariño, Agrosavia, Contactar, entre otros) y han sido replicados en varios medios de comunicación local.Para conocer las oportunidades con las que cuenta la MTA Nariño en materia de comunicaciones, se procede a realizar un análisis DOFA, el cual es un método sencillo y eficaz que ayudará a planear las acciones que se deben poner en marcha para aprovechar las oportunidades y contrarrestar las amenazas, teniendo presente las debilidades y fortalezas de la mesa y sus integrantes. -Experiencia en la formulación del boletín agroclimático.-Interdisciplinariedad de saberes e involucramiento de varios integrantes de municipios del departamento.-Los y las integrantes cuentan con grupo de WhatsApp desde el inicio de la MTA.-Inactividad de la Mesa desde julio 2019 hasta octubre 2020.-Falta de una estrategia de comunicación y de un plan de trabajo acordado.-Poca articulación con medios locales para la divulgación del boletín y la información agroclimática.-Inactividad en la publicación mensual del Boletín informativo.-Limitada presencia digital de la MTA Nariño (generalmente sólo 4 entidades publican boletines agroclimáticos).-Se realizaron varias sesiones de la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática en el municipio de Tumaco diversificando la presencia y alcance de la MTA Nariño.-Desarrollar nuevos canales de difusión y alianzas con medios locales y regionales de prensa escrita, radio y TV, y de medios digitales a partir de los aliados con los que cuenta la MTA Nariño tales como la Gobernación deNariño.-El convenio entre IDEAM y el PMA cuenta con un grupo de comunicaciones para el trabajo específico en la cuenca Mira y Mataje.A partir de esta experiencia se pueden desarrollar estrategias de comunicación que se pueden extrapolar a otras subregiones del departamento.-Se tiene el interés de desarrollar una posible Mesa Agroclimática Local, con enfoque diferencial Afro e indígena con sede en Tumaco.-Falta de organización en distribuir los roles dentro de la MTA Nariño.-Falta de continuidad de los procesos comunicativos y/o de coordinación de la MTA Nariño.-Poco avance en construir un equipo coordinador e impulsor de la MTA Nariño desde el nivel territorial que pueda trabajar de manera independiente, para evitar inactividad de la mesa si hay dinámicas nacionales que lo impidan.En la matriz DOFA se fundamentan dos pilares básicos, el análisis de factores externos y por factores internos, como lo son el análisis interno y el análisis externo de la MTA, dando a conocer las fortalezas, debilidades, oportunidades y amenazas. Por una parte, desde lo interno de la comunicación se considera necesario su autonomía y el fortalecimiento con el fin generar acciones que permitan mantener la confianza en los procesos desarrollados por la MTA, mientras que, por la comunicación externa, se establecerá generar interacción y retroalimentación entre los integrantes de la MTA Nariño para con la comunidad en general y en especial con gremios, productores agropecuarios y organizaciones étnicas vinculadas al sector agropecuario.El análisis DOFA como base en la estrategia, se basa en mejorar los puntos débiles en cuanto a las comunicaciones de la MTA de Nariño y reforzar los puntos de comunicación con los que la Mesa posee, ya que la MTA Nariño cuenta con un equipo cualificado y con experiencia, pero con desfavorabilidad por la inactividad y cambios de personas dentro del grupo.Una de las ventajas para la estrategia de comunicación de la mesa técnica agroclimática de Nariño es que facilita el intercambio de información de manera rápida, ya que con los integrantes actuales se podría difundir a varios municipios del departamento. A partir de la matriz de actores de la MTA en la que se incluyen gremios, entidades de gobierno con responsabilidades en el sector agropecuario, ambiental y de gestión del riesgo se analiza que estos podrían cubrir hasta 44 municipios de los 64 municipios del departamento de Nariño.Con respecto a la información para la comunidad de agricultores del departamento, se encontró que no se utilizan canales de redes sociales de la mesa limitando el alcance a páginas web institucionales y a sus medios de comunicación asociados, por lo que la estrategia de comunicaciones debe motivar e impulsar para que los integrantes de la mesa potencien el trabajo de divulgación del boletín en los municipios donde realizan sus actividades.Mediante el desarrollo de la estrategia de comunicación se pretende alcanzar más participación de actores institucionales en los municipios, y de actores étnicos y comunitarios que habitan en la ruralidad, quienes ven su participación e involucramiento en la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño limitada por factores de orden público por la presencia de actores armados ilegales que controlan de forma violenta los movimientos y cotidianidad de la población, los altos costos y distancias para el desplazamiento al municipio de Pasto y al de Tumaco (donde se realizaron varias sesiones de la MTA Nariño), el acceso a la energía y a la internet.Para que la información llegue a estas zonas, debe fortalecerse las alianzas con las emisoras comunitarias y los y las representantes de los grupos étnicos y comunitarios para bajar la información a esta escala. Por lo anterior, para la estrategia de comunicaciones se hace necesario definir los grupos de interés y los roles específicos que deben asumir y/o renovar para reactivar la comunicación y bajarla a una escala de última milla.Con el objetivo de contribuir a definir roles para los integrantes de la MTA Nariño que permitan la implementación de acciones en comunicaciones, se ponen en consideración los siguientes criterios:• Participación y asistencia a la MTA Nariño• Contar con página web institucional y/o equipo de comunicaciones.• Tener acceso a grupos y actores de zonas rurales y urbanas del departamento.De acuerdo a lo anterior, se definen los siguientes grupos y roles: grupo coordinador de comunicaciones, grupo de organizaciones étnicas, comunitarias y de sociedad civil, grupo de academia y entidades de soporte técnico, grupo de sector privado, grupo de sector público y gremios La Cooperación internacional debe jugar un papel de apoyo al funcionamiento y operación de los roles de los actores nacionales. Cabe mencionar que esta propuesta debe ser puesta en consideración a los integrantes de la Mesa para su retroalimentación e incorporación en el plan de trabajo. Publicar información generada por la MTA (convocatorias a reuniones, boletines, entre otros) en las páginas web de sus entidades.Facilitar información para difundir por redes institucionales.Apoyar la articulación con medios y difundir la información con actores dentro de sus bases de datos.Brindar insumos técnicos y otros insumos relevantes de corte agroclimático pertinente para el departamento.Publicar información generada por la MTA (convocatorias a reuniones, boletines, entre otros) en sus páginas web y entre sus clientes.Facilitar información para difundir por redes institucionales.Apoyar la identificación de medios de comunicación locales en los territorios de su campo de acción.En el caso de Contactar, esta entidad envía mensajes de texto SMS Aportar conocimiento de los equipos de comunicaciones existentes dentro de su personal.Masificar la información del boletín agroclimático dentro de sus beneficiarios por medio de su envío por correo electrónico.La comunicación interna de la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática debe fortalecer la participación y retroalimentación entre los miembros por medio de las reuniones mensuales y las reuniones previas de preparación a los encuentros mensuales. Estos integrantes deben converger para evaluar las acciones y efectividad en los roles que cada uno asuma.El proceso inicia con la planeación y evaluación de los roles presentados en la tabla 2, para proceder con el desarrollo de contenidos, mensajes y piezas de comunicación y termina con el seguimiento, control y medición de dichas estrategias para públicos externos y demás miembros de la mesa.Se sugiere que el rol de coordinación para la estrategia de comunicaciones de la MTA Nariño b) Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural de la Gobernación de Nariño: es la entidad especializada dentro del departamento en asuntos de agricultura, ha apoyado junto con la Secretaría de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible de Nariño la instalación y puesta en marcha de las actividades de la MTA Nariño. Junto con el IDEAM, debe realizar la convocatoria de actores, la divulgación de la información, puede apoyar la formulación y diagramación del boletín (junto con otros actores de la mesa tales como Contactar y Agrosavia). c) Asimismo, Caracol Radio que es uno de los medios de comunicación integrantes de la MTA Nariño por lo que su rol es fundamental para aportar a esta estrategia de comunicaciones desde su experiencia radial y su vínculo con la MTA.La comunicación de la MTA Nariño se debe orientar hacia el fortalecimiento de la apertura y visibilidad, con actitud de escucha y receptividad frente a la ciudadanía y las instituciones.La Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño mantendrá informados a sus públicos de interés sobre políticas, objetivos, resultados, decisiones, programas y proyectos misionales, mediante información que guarde coherencia con su misión.Es de gran importancia en cuenta cuales son los principales tipos de usuarios de la información producida por la Mesa (Agremiaciones, asociaciones de productores, pequeños productores de subsistencia, productores con acceso a tecnologías de información y altamente tecnificados, medianos o grandes, profesionales o técnicos, otros), ya que esto orienta el tipo de la información básica, los medios a utilizar, los procedimientos técnicos, la forma de presentar los pronósticos climáticos, las medidas recomendadas y la dinámica de la comunicación de la MTA.En el caso de las comunidades campesinas y grupos étnicos con niveles educativos oficiales más bajos se debe utilizar un lenguaje sencillo, verbal, o escrito en el caso de impresos es necesario contar con ayuda de gráficos, e imágenes cercanas a la vivencia del campo, y, mantener unos códigos de información con los que se sientan identificados y los que se determinen institucionalmente.La estrategia de comunicaciones para la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño se desarrolla con el fin aumentar el alcance de sus mensajes y recomendaciones en actores como gremios, comunidades indígenas, afrodescendientes y campesinas fortaleciendo la interacción de comunidades e instituciones para desarrollar acciones que permitan tener una respuesta preventiva frente a los impactos de la variabilidad climática en los cultivos.A partir de la identificación de las oportunidades, debilidades, fortalezas y amenazas que tiene la MTA Nariño frente al componente de comunicaciones y de identificar los grupos de interés y roles que pueden asumir para trabajar en este aspecto, la estrategia de comunicaciones propuesta parte de definir objetivos y construir la narrativa de la mesa, para luego identificar los públicos, y el seguimiento, control y medición del impacto, alcance y frecuencias obtenidas (Ceballos Márquez, 2019).La estrategia de comunicación (figura Esta estrategia permitirá crear mensajes adecuados a los públicos de interés, conformados por agricultores, medios de comunicaciones y público en general; se debe dar a conocer una buena información y generar una relación positiva con medios y entidades públicas para obtener publicaciones masivas sin costo, aprovechando los medios oficiales de los entes territoriales y haciendo uso de la radio comunitaria y de la fuerza pública (policía Nacional, Ejército Nacional y armada Nacional) que son las de mayor alcance en el área rural).En la estrategia se hace uso de medios digitales, con ello la información llega de manera simple e inmediata a más del 50% de la población Nariñense. Los medios digitales cumplen la función de informar y entretener; por eso es importante la creación de redes sociales MTA ya que con las nuevas tecnologías y medios digitales se puede llegar a más personas, donde pueden interactuar, educarse de forma no presencial y también cumple el objetivo principal que es la difusión de la información que contiene el boletín agroclimático de Nariño.Es necesario difundir información por medio de radio, un formato sonoro, un medio por excelencia por su fluidez, inmediatez y cobertura, que ha logrado contribuir a la educación, cultura y entretenimiento, además de informar de sucesos en la ruralidad colombiana, este medio de difusión será en articulación con entidades públicas para asegurar su permanencia y difusión en el plan de acción de las mismas. El plan de comunicaciones propuesto tiene tres componentes establecidos en la figura 2, con el fin de que la información recopilada sea proporcionada, analizada y permita a las comunidades utilizar la información para planificar y tomar decisiones en sus sistemas productivos, de acuerdo con sus circunstancias y necesidades, además de lograr el conocimiento, el entendimiento y la participación activa de los diferentes actores en el desarrollo y la implementación de la estrategia de comunicación de la MTA de Nariño.   Con la estrategia de comunicación de la MTA Nariño se trata de promover la articulación y retroalimentación (a los productos y mecanismos de comunicación de la Mesa, mediante aplicación de instrumentos de monitoreo y evaluación), de los actores que hacen parte de la mesa y ampliar el mensaje a públicos rurales del departamento de Nariño. Cabe resaltar que cada una de las acciones de la estrategia debe implementarse de manera participativa con todas las personas vinculadas a la mesa.En la retroalimentación de los actores se proponen sesiones de evaluación para ver el alcance del boletín agroclimático y recomendaciones para futuras publicaciones.En Nariño existen distintas manifestaciones culturales que expresan la variedad étnica, religiosa, de costumbres, tradiciones, lenguaje y formas de vida de su población, así como su riqueza natural y diversidad de climas, geografías y paisajes, entre otros, por ello es importante tener en cuenta los principios fundamentales de comunicación para que se reconozca, respete y proteja la diversidad de la región.Por último, se debe trabajar en la construcción de la imagen institucional de la Mesa, que debe cumplir no sólo con estándares de diseño sino basar su identidad en elementos representativos del departamento de los y las agricultores y agricultoras nariñenses.Las tácticas son el medio o herramienta que se lleva a cabo para alcanzar los objetivos fijados para el plan de comunicación.A continuación, se detallan las recomendadas para la MTA de Nariño:Relaciones con la prensa -Elaborar una rueda de prensa (presencial o virtual) para lanzar oficialmente en primer boletín agroclimático 2021 trabajado por la MTA de Nariño.-Enviar un paquete de información mensual que contiene, el boletín agroclimático, comunicado de prensa, audios e imágenes para que lo puedan replicar en los diferentes canales de comunicación de Nariño, con los que las entidades públicas tienen acuerdos con estos medios.-Publicar y enviar de manera continua el contenido del boletín que desarrolla la MTA de Nariño -Creación de redes sociales.-Creación de directorio de agricultores nariñenses y actores MTA.-Acompañamiento y visita en el territorio (por ejemplo, a través de la creación e implementación de la MTA Local indígena y afro).-Enviar mensajes a través de mensajería instantánea como WhatsApp En la estrategia de comunicación se propone como referente una agenda semanal con el objetivo de dar cumplimiento al Plan de Trabajo de comunicaciones en la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño, se pone a disposición el formato que en adelante deberá ser diligenciado por los encargados para lograr una programación eficiente de las actividades que semana a semana se desarrollan en la mesa técnica agroclimática de Nariño.El formato diligenciado permitirá hacer la programación de las piezas comunicacionales, tener un cubrimiento eficiente de los eventos y claridad sobre las responsabilidades a cumplir por los integrantes del equipo. 2:00 p.m. xLa MTA Nariño debe desarrollar las comunicaciones con un equipo de integrantes de la Mesa en el que delegue tal función particularmente, sin embargo por deber misional le corresponde a la Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural de la Gobernación de Nariño y al IDEAM como encargado de las MTA en Colombia liderar esta función de producción de comunicaciones y su seguimiento y deben plantearse acciones con temporalidad trimestral para que haya un buen desempeño y cumplimiento de medios comunicativos. La MTA Nariño debe consolidar indicadores de seguimiento a la implementación de la estrategia de comunicaciones.La Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño presenta varios desafíos y oportunidades en materia de comunicaciones tales como:1. Generar alianzas con las alcaldías municipales de las 13 subregiones del departamento de Nariño con la finalidad de involucrarles en la divulgación y sensibilización de la información agroclimática generada en los Boletines Agroclimáticos y apoyar el rol que tienen los municipios en prevenir las pérdidas y daños asociadas con la variabilidad climática en el sector agropecuario (tanto para la agricultura familiar, como para la mediana y la agricultura industrial). Por medio de estas alianzas estratégicas, la MTA Nariño puede incrementar el alcance de su misión a diferentes tipos de públicos, fuera de los municipios de Pasto, Ipiales y Tumaco que han sido epicentros de las actividades de la mesa agroclimática hasta la actualidad.2. Diseñar el Boletín Agroclimático de Nariño en un formato que permita ser visualizado adecuadamente desde un dispositivo móvil y cuyo peso no ocupe demasiado espacio, ni requiera alta velocidad de internet para descargas en zonas rurales. El lenguaje en el que se diseñe el boletín debe ser el más simple posible para poder ser comprendido por poblaciones rurales, inclusive los podcasts y audios pueden desarrollarse en las lenguas indígenas presentes en el departamento con el apoyo de representantes de grupos indígenas. Adicionalmente, formular recomendaciones con enfoque diferencial étnico debido al contexto culturalmente diverso que tiene Nariño.3. Vincular a las Cámaras de Comercio de Nariño como aliado estratégico que permita la participación de más gremios y representantes de la agricultura industrial del departamento, y de las pequeñas y medianas empresas dedicadas al agro. Serán actores importantes para fortalecer la toma de decisiones en asuntos agroclimáticos en Nariño.4. Vincular a las emisoras institucionales como la de la Policía Nacional, la Armada y la del ejército de Colombia para que programen de forma gratuita los audios y podcasts generados con la información del boletín agroclimático de Nariño.5. Finalmente, tener en cuenta que las recomendaciones para el manejo de los cultivos que se generan a partir del análisis de la proyección climática esperada, deben ser diferenciadas para la agricultura familiar y para la agricultura industrial puesto que, aunque ambos están expuestos a riesgos de variabilidad climática, tienen medios y capacidades distintas para ajustarse a los impactos presentes y esperados de la variabilidad climática.Arias García, E. (2019). Los efectos sonoros en las series radiofónicas: el caso de la serie policíaca Taxi Key. Para el desarrollo de este producto se realizaron sendas reuniones virtuales y presenciales con un equipo contratado por el IDEAM; personas de diversas profesiones y líderes comunitarios identificados por el PMA tanto de la comunidad Awá como de los consejos comunitarios de Alto y Bajo Mira y Frontera, quienes hacen parte de un equipo consultor en el marco del Convenio de cooperación PMA -IDEAM \"Implementación de Servicios Climáticos en el marco del Proyecto Binacional del Fondo de Adaptación\". Esta interacción se hizo con el fin de proponer un ejercicio más cercano a la realidad local y poder tener la oportunidad de hacer ajustes a un diseño meramente teórico, contando con líderes y lideresas comunitarias de la cuenca del río Mira -Mataje quienes a través de múltiples reuniones y eventos virtuales contribuyeron con la información que se presenta en este documento.Los Sistemas de Alerta Temprana (SAT), dentro de los que se enmarca el Sistema Participativo de Alertas Agroclimáticas Tempranas (SPAAT), son un conjunto de procedimientos e instrumentos, a través de los cuales se monitorea una amenaza o evento adverso (natural o antrópico) de carácter previsible, se recolectan y procesan datos e información, ofreciendo pronósticos o predicciones temporales sobre su acción y posibles efectos.Los Sistemas Operativos Standards (SOP) describen las tareas que forman parte de la explotación corriente del sistema, definen las funciones de las diferentes partes interesadas en diferentes momentos y facilitan el proceso de adopción de decisiones, en particular la delegación de autoridad, quienes deban adoptar decisiones con breve preaviso cuando no pueda localizarse a las instancias decisorias designadas en caso de fenómenos de aparición repentina. Estos deberían ponerse a prueba periódicamente e incluir un proceso de comunicación de comentarios que permita mejorar continuamente el sistema De esta manera, el SOP se constituye en la parte operativa del SPAAT, relacionada con la toma de decisiones para la puesta en marcha de las alertas.En el siguiente cuadro presentamos el equipo del IDEAM con quienes trabajamos a través de reuniones virtuales y con algunos presenciales, para obtener información básica para la formulación del SPAAT y SOP y a quienes les extiendo el agradecimiento al haber atendido mis consultas y las varias reuniones virtuales que compartimos. Socialización de las predicciones climáticas generada por el IDEAM, análisis de perspectivas agroclimáticos, gestión del recurso hídrico y riesgo hidrometeorológico en comunidades priorizadas en el marco del proyecto IDEAM-WFP Agroclimatológo OLEGARIO PRECIADO Implementación de herramientas disponibles para \"traducir\" las condiciones meteorológicas -climáticas observadaspronosticadas en probables impactos en las comunidades priorizadas.Fortalecimiento de las capacidades para acceder, comprender y utilizar la información agroclimática y meteorológica para la gestión y adaptación del riesgo del sector agropecuario en comunidades en el marco del proyecto IDEAM-WFP Profesional Gestión Riesgo Se espera que los líderes comunitarios y los técnicos de instituciones que accedan a la presente propuesta, desarrollen la capacidad de comprender y adoptar estas herramientas en sus procesos de asistencia técnica a las comunidades de la cuenca del río Mira.En este documento se proponen esquemas, diagramas, conclusiones y recomendaciones que orientan la aplicación de un SOP en el marco de un SPAAT. Posteriormente requerirá de una validación en terreno para su ajuste efectivo y aplicación; en última instancia, se espera dotar de herramientas a las comunidades e instituciones para enfrentar fenómenos adversos de variabilidad climática.Este ejercicio se enmarca en el proyecto Implementación de Servicios Climáticos en el marco del Proyecto Binacional del Fondo de Adaptación -basado en el convenio de cooperación PMA-IDEAM para aunar esfuerzos, recursos y capacidades entre las partes para desarrollar actividades que permitan la implementación de servicios climáticos en comunidades en el marco del proyecto \"Creación de capacidad de adaptación a través de acciones de seguridad alimentaria y nutricional en comunidades vulnerables afro e indígenas en la zona fronteriza colombo-ecuatoriana\" financiado por el Fondo de Adaptación del protocolo de Kioto (en adelante Proyecto Binacional) y liderado por el Programa Mundial de Alimentos de las Naciones Unidas PMA; y en articulación con la Universidad de Columbia a través del Instituto de Internacional de Investigación para el Clima y la Sociedad (IRI), como apoyo al desarrollo de este proceso.Partimos de la premisa que para diseñar el SOP para un territorio y unas comunidades en particular, es importante enmarcarlas en un proceso que se esté desarrollando en el territorio y con las comunidades, por ello, y dado, que en este momento se desarrolla un proceso de construcción del Sistema Participativo de Alertas Agroclimáticas Tempranas (SPAAT).La propuesta de SOP se incluirá como un capítulo en un documento del SPAAT, siendo la totalidad del capítulo del SOP de mi autoría y el documento SPAAT será en coautoría con Luis Ortega Consultor de IDEAM, consideramos importante integrarlo en un solo documento ya que desde nuestra visión y en específico para las condiciones en que se desarrolla el trabajo en el territorio son complementarios.Como señalamos anteriormente el plan de diseño del SOP está enmarcado en el proceso de construcción del SPAAT y se preparó siguiendo las actividades señaladas en la tabla que se presenta a continuación: Preparación de información de literatura y técnica de referencia para análisis de vulnerabilidad a variabilidad climática y de sistemas de alertas agroclimáticas Selección de información útil al proceso con base en información producida por PMA, en el marco del Proyecto Binacional del Fondo de adaptación -Cuenca del Río Mira Estructuración de la aplicación instrumentos para recopilación de información Diseño de instrumentos de recopilación de información tales como bioindicadores, sistemas productivos locales, relación de estaciones meteorológicas del territorio objeto de la propuesta, mediante diálogo con equipo consultor IDEAM-PMA que incluye líderes comunitarios de ambas etnias. Elaboración de informepropuesta SOP para la cuenca del MIRA , enmarcado en el proceso de construcción del SPAAT Preparación de informe y entrega producto de la consultoría.Construir elementos y procedimientos que permitan la mitigación o adaptación del impacto de la variabilidad climática en la región de la cuenca media y baja del Río Mira en los sistemas de producción local, que permita a los productores locales tomar las decisiones adecuadas para el manejo de sus sistemas Productivos.▪ Fortalecer las capacidades locales para el uso de información agroclimática adecuada para generar respuestas oportunas ante diversas amenazas asociadas con el clima en las comunidades Awá y afrodescendientes de la cuenca del río Mira, y sus medios de vida.▪ A partir de información técnico-científica y del saber popular sobre la variabilidad climática, proponer procedimientos locales que permitan la adaptación y toma de decisiones estratégicas y operacionales.El SOP define al IDEAM como la institución que provee información climática completa y oportuna, a los vigías del clima (integrantes de la comunidad) haciendo seguimiento y retroalimentación de indicadores y bioindicadores, a una Mesa Local Agroclimática MLA , como espacio de construcción de boletines con pronósticos agroclimáticos y recomendaciones apropiadas, a redes de comunicación y divulgación operando y a instituciones acompañantes que generan asistencia técnica con enfoque de adaptación variabilidad y cambio climático, por otra parte a instituciones que financian medidas de adaptación.Dada la diversidad de actores, se requiere de una estructura operativa y de unos procedimientos claros y secuenciados para generar alertas que permitan actuar de manera oportuna y estratégica frente a emergencias climáticas.De esta manera es deseable que el SOP sea el mecanismo que apropie un comité al interior de la de la Instancia Local Agroclimática, el cual deberá estar integrado como mínimo por:4.1 Integrantes de la comunidad \"Vigías del clima\" Las comunidades deberán delegar integrantes de este comité y su rol será el de establecer mecanismos de comunicación entre el comité y sus comunidades 4.2 Mesa Técnica Agroclimática Los integrantes de la Mesa deberán delegar participantes al comité y su rol será en mantener comunicación entre vigías del clima, el IDEAM, instancias locales del UNGRD, la Mesa Agroclimática Departamental, organismos de ayuda humanitaria y de cooperación.El nivel departamental y nacional de la UNGRD, los ministerios (Agricultura, ambiente, interior, etc.) y las agencias de ayuda humanitaria, deberán integrar el comité en el momento que se establezca una alerta roja.4.4 El Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales IDEAM El IDEAM es la institución pública de apoyo técnico y científico en articulación con el MADR está implementando las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas Departamentales, y para el caso específico de la cuenca del Río Mira, ha suscrito un convenio con el PMA, con el objetivo de Fomentar el intercambio de conocimiento y el fortalecimiento de las capacidades de los actores de las comunidades Afrodescendientes pertenecientes a los Consejos comunitarios Alto Mira y Bajo Mira y Frontera ubicados en el municipio de Tumaco y las organizaciones indígenas UNIPA (municipios de Barbacoas, Ricaurte y Tumaco), y Resguardo Nulpe (municipio de Ricaurte) en Colombia, para capacitar, comprender y socializar la evolución de las condiciones analizadas sobre el clima, definir las recomendaciones agroclimáticas en cuanto a su manejo, en función de las condiciones climáticas y agroclimáticas presentes y esperadas para los siguientes meses.Su rol, en relación con el SOP, se relaciona con el fortalecimiento de capacidades de los actores de las comunidades y suministrar información científica, oportuna y confiable a una posible Mesa Técnica Agroclimática Local.Locales para la Prevención y atención de desastres CLOPAD La Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres, establece en la Formulación del Plan Municipal de Gestión del Riesgo, la posibilidada para que las administraciones municipales constituyan los Comités o Comisiones de Gestión de Riesgo por escenarios, esto posibilita la promoción para la creación de este tipo de comités en el marco del SOP. Es de señalar que los procesos históricos de inundación del río Mira como el ocurrido \"El 16 de febrero de 2009 en la horas de la madrugada se presentó desbordamiento del Río Mira, afectando el municipio de Tumaco, Territorios Colectivos de Comunidades afrocolombianas en los Consejos Comunitarios Alto Mira y Frontera, Bajo Mira y Frontera, así como la zona de la Carretera que comunica a Pasto con el mar\" ha permitido activar el Comité Local para la Prevención y Atención de Desastres \"CLOPAD\" en específico para la atención de una situación en particular, como por ejemplo inundaciones, incendios Forestales, vendavales 4.6 Instituciones acompañantes Como parte del ejercicio de construcción tanto del SPAAT, como del SOP se han identificado de manera preliminar una serie de actores que tienen relación con los sistemas de alertas tempranas (Tabla 3). El rol de estos actores según su tipo, es el de apoyo técnico y científico; asistencia técnica, planificación, gestión y financiación; fortalecimiento de capacidades; prevención y atención de desastres y emergencias; y de comunicación y divulgación.  Su rol será el de incorporar en su estrategia de acción al SOP como integrante del sistema. De esta forma el Sistema Operativo tendrá mayor oportunidad de ser eficiente y eficaz.Según Sorensen (2000) \"una mejor gestión y toma de decisiones a nivel local en el proceso de alerta temprana son más importantes que promover la aplicación de tecnologías más avanzadas, aunque ambas serían de utilidad\"En este sentido el procedimiento operativo se fundamenta en la posibilidad que tengan las comunidades locales de poder hacer seguimiento a los pronósticos y predicciones suministradas por el IDEAM y los boletines que deberán ser generados por la Instancia Agroclimática Local o Mesa Local con apoyo de organizaciones acompañantes locales.En el proyecto de PMA-IDEAM, se contempla el diseño e implementación de una red de estaciones comunitarias locales para hacer seguimiento a variables de precipitación, temperatura y caudales. Para el seguimiento a caudales dicho proyecto planea establecer en lugares estratégicos un sistema de \"miras\" para hacer seguimiento a los niveles de caudales. Para hacer seguimiento al comportamiento de la precipitación se dispondrá de pluviómetros.Mientras que el sistema de miras está articulado al sistema de pronóstico y monitoreo hidrológico que coordina el IDEAM, la lectura de los pluviómetros estará relacionado con el comportamiento local de las precipitaciones; el sistema FEWS de IDEAM permite informar y alertar con suficiente tiempo de antelación al Sistema Nacional de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres y a población en general sobre el comportamiento de los principales cuerpos de agua del país y la probabilidad de ocurrencia de eventos extremos. Este seguimiento se encuentra en el Informe Hidrológico Diario que se publica en la página web de la institución. La subdirección de Hidrología del IDEAM monitorea de forma continua (24 horas del día, los 365 del año) el comportamiento hidrológico de los principales ríos del país\". IDEAM cuenta también con una herramienta denominada FEWS -Flood Early Warning System (Sistema de Alertas Tempranas de Inundación), plataforma que facilita la integración de información de la red hidrometeorológica e insumos del estado del tiempo para establecer las condiciones actuales y futuras de los principales ríos del país y generar las alertas correspondientes. (http://www.ideam.gov.co/web/agua/pronostico-hidrologico)De esta manera la Mesa Local Agroclimática recibirá la información de comportamiento de caudales y de los pronósticos de precipitación, directamente del IDEAM, y podrá hacer corroboración mediante la lectura diaria de miras y pluviómetros, de tal manera que se pueda generar con mayor confiabilidad las alertas.Otro elemento que servirá de seguimiento a los pronósticos según el ejercicio en desarrollo del PMA-IDEAM, será la incorporación de bioindicadores identificados por la comunidad; indicadores tipo biológicos (llegada de algunos animales, o su cambio de comportamiento), indicadores tipo astronómicos como cambios en la luminosidad y color visible de Sol, en la comunidad y la Luna, indicadores de tipo atmosférico cambios en temperatura, viento, nubes etc.; en el ejercicio se hará mediante corroborar la efectividad de los bioindicadores comparándolos con los pronósticos del IDEAM y las lecturas de las estaciones meteorológicas de las comunidades, y con ello llegar a indicadores locales de consenso. La identificación de lecciones aprendidas del proceso de adaptación a variabilidad climática desarrollado en las veredas del noroccidente de Popayán por la Fundación Ecohabitats, muestra que el acompañamiento de una organización local que se encargue de recibir la información de pronósticos y predicciones del IDEAM para preparar los boletines, generar fortalecimiento de capacidades y gestionar la implementación de planes prediales de adaptación (Ortega y Paz, 2014) genera una cultura de adaptación y por ende la disminución de impactos negativos de la variabilidad climática, situación que se viene desarrollando mediante el suministro permanente de pronósticos locales por parte del IDEAM y el seguimiento y verificación de pronósticos mediante los datos obtenidos de estaciones climáticas comunitarias instaladas desde el año 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-JdKOpguSg&ab_channel=luisalfonsoortegafernandez. El Ministerio de Educación de Panamá plantea en su Manual Sistema de Alerta Temprana: 10 preguntas 10 respuestas 1 que \"Es necesario contar con la participación directa de las comunidades, las cuales deben estar organizadas y preparadas con sus Planes de Respuesta debidamente actualizados, para actuar en caso de emergencias. ... Esta preparación local requiere del apoyo y coordinación con entidades nacionales para una mayor efectividad de la respuesta y de las acciones integrales de reducción de riesgo a desastres\".De este modo y producto del diálogo con el equipo de las comunidades, IDEAM y PMA, anteriormente señalado en la tabla 1, se acordó que dada las condiciones del territorio, los procesos de respuesta se han estructurado para dos escenarios:a. Comportamiento del déficit de precipitación (SPI) por debajo (sequía) o por encima (humedad) del valor neutro y, b. Inundaciones.Procedimiento para los escenario de comportamiento del déficit de humedad (SPI) por debajo (sequía) o por encima (humedad) del valor neutro.El sistema de alertas para la cuenca se enmarca en un escenario de riesgo por déficits y excesos hídricos y por inundaciones. Por lo consiguiente se hace necesario establecer los procedimientos operativos para cada escenario, a partir de la siguiente propuesta de estructura de procedimiento que se presenta a continuación en la Tabla 4. el procedimiento operativo para el comportamiento del déficit de precipitación (SPI) por debajo (sequía) o por encima (humedad) del valor neutro.Dado que este trabajo de SOP se realizará con comunidades étnicas afro e indígenas, de zonas de difícil acceso, se acordó en reuniones con el equipo anteriormente señalado, unificar los procedimientos de generación de alertas y gestiones derivadas unificando cambios climáticos de déficit o superávit, correspondiendo al SPAAT en sus orientaciones e instrumentos determinar las diferencias en las diferencias en las medidas adaptativas.Para la definición de los umbrales para el Sistema de Alertas Tempranas Participativas -SATP-se tomó como referencia el índice estandarizado de precipitación (SPI, por sus siglas en inglés) (OMM, 2016). Propiamente en el contexto colombiano se han desarrollado múltiples investigaciones enfocados al monitoreo de precipitación y sus índices asociados tales como las de (Hurtado & Cadena, 2006), (Gómez, 2017), (Cadena, 2006) entre otros, en las cuales se resalta que el índice SPI tiene un papel preponderante en este tema para el monitoreo de este fenómeno climático.1 15Como aproximación preliminar para la definición de los umbrales para el SATP se tomó como referencia las categorías definidas para el SPI definidas por (Hurtado & Cadena, 2006) enfocados a la definición de alertas tempranas, se muestran la definición de umbrales con base en el SPI. Como insumo principal para la emisión de alertas tempranas se tendrá en cuenta las predicciones climáticas elaboradas por el grupo de modelamiento de tiempo y clima de la Subdirección de Meteorología del IDEAM, adicionalmente, se tendrá en cuenta los pronósticos de precipitación NextGen estacionales y subestacionales co-desarrollados por IDEAM y el Instituto Internacional de Investigación para el Clima y Sociedad de la Universidad de Columbia (IRI, por sus siglas en inglés). Acorde al diálogo con el IDEAM, considerando el desarrollo y aplicación de los pronósticos NextGen por parte del IDEAM en sus diferentes productos, en este caso en el marco del Convenio entre el IDEAM y el PMA, se encuentra en una fase exploratoria, donde acorde con las necesidades de las comunidades se busca identificar los insumos que NextGen puede aportar para la toma de decisiones y planificación de los cultivos de la zona.Se tiene previsto en el año 2021, iniciar con la aplicación de los pronósticos de NextGen, de la mano con el desarrollo de los talleres, salidas a territorio y los pronósticos agroclimáticos en el contexto de la Mesa Agroclimática Local. Salidas mensuales determinísticas(cantidad de precipitación pronosticada para cada mes) en rango de lo normal, y la precipitación estimada incluyendo las barras de error. Se tendrá en cuenta en las salidas gráficas de los productos. índice de precipitación (la cantidad en porcentaje que se desvía el valor determinístico o pronosticado de la precipitación, con respecto a la climatología de referencia) en el rango de lo normal Brindar seguimiento a la predicción estacional con información semanal, perspectiva climática semanal, mapas de lluvia registrada, mapas de lluvia pronosticada a corto plazo, mapas de lluvia acumulada, generada por el IDEAM Índice estandarizado de precipitación asociado a las estaciones colindantes al área de estudio (SPI): -0.99 a 0.99 El Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y estudios Ambientales -IDEAM-cuenta con una plataforma de Sistema de Alertas Tempranas de Inundaciones el cual cuenta con una plataforma para la visualización y consulta de datos en tiempo cercano al real, dicha plataforma se conoce como FEWS-Colombia .(1)La unidad hidrográfica de análisis de FEWS-Colombia corresponde a nivel de Subzona hidrográfica -SZH-, para la SZH-del río Mira y río Tapaje (SZH: 5101), la cual circunscribe la gran mayoría de la zona de estudio cuenta con tres estaciones limnimétricas automáticas las cuales corresponden a: (I) Pilispi (51027020) (II) Pipiguay (51027050) (III) San Juan Mira Automática (51027060). No obstante, la única estación que cuenta con umbrales de alertas (alerta amarilla, naranja y roja) es la estación San Juan Mira Automática (51027060), a continuación, se muestran los niveles para las diferentes alertas definidas por FEWS-Colombia.  Con base en este procedimiento operativo y considerando que el enfoque del SOP fortalece la gobernanza local en relación con las respuestas a los impactos de la variabilidad climática, se propone en la Figura 3. proceso de respuesta al comportamiento de la precipitación. Del mismo modo en la Figura 4. se presenta la línea de tiempo de productos entregables de la Instancia Agroclimática Local o Mesa Local durante crisis climáticas. Presentamos a continuación de manera gráfica lo que debe ser la hoja de ruta a seguir los procesos de respuesta y las líneas de tiempo según los condicionantes y pronósticos agroclimáticos que se presenten en el territorio. Prevención y Atención de Desastres -CLOPAD, al ser ésta la instancia de coordinación, asesoría, planeación y seguimiento y debe en el marco de la Ley 1523 de 2012, garantizar la efectividad y la articulación de los procesos de la Gestión del Riesgo en la entidad territorial. 2. Mediante el Decreto 3199 de 2002 con el fin de reglamentar el principio de planificación que establece la Ley 607 de 2000 se señala que los Planes Generales de Asistencia Técnica Directa Rural -PGAT, permiten ordenar las actividades y los recursos para garantizar el cumplimiento de los objetivos del Servicio de Asistencia Técnica Directa Rural y asegurar la ampliación progresiva de su cobertura, calidad y pertinencia. En razón a los riesgos agroclimáticos dicha asistencia, para los municipios de la cuenca de Mira debe incorporar el SOP como un instrumento que fortalezca la asistencia técnica agropecuaria en especial en el fortalecimiento de capacidades locales para que las comunidades locales puedan entender y apropiar los pronósticos y boletines agroclimáticos como una adecuada actividad de planeación y prevención de pérdidas agropecuarias ocasionadas por eventos climáticos adversos. 3. En el marco de la autonomía de los pueblos indígenas y sus mandatos propios, al igual que en la gobernanza y autodeterminación de las comunidades afro, a través de sus estructuras organizativas y de planificación, es necesario promover el empoderamiento y adopción del SOP, mediante la designación de miembros de sus comunidades como \"vigías del clima\". Estos deberán ser capacitados y serán quienes sirvan de puente entre sus comunidades y la institucionalidad relacionada con la puesta en marcha y seguimiento de SOP. 4. A nivel de operación, se hace necesario fortalecer el diseño e implementación de la red de estaciones climáticas y sistema de miras, de tal forma que se puede disponer de información más local para la toma de decisiones a escala pertinente. Del mismo modo se recomienda a las organizaciones étnicas y a los entes territoriales que se gestionen los recursos necesarios para el diseño e implementación de un sistema de comunicación en tiempo real que permita la información y atención oportuna en el moco del sistema de alertas del SOP. El presente documento hace referencia a la revisión del marco de monitoreo y evaluación desarrollado por IRI, CIAT y el IDEAM para las MTA en Colombia y se presentan recomendaciones y sugerencias de ajustes de acuerdo a las dinámicas nariñenses.• Acciones realizadas A partir de esa revisión con representantes del IDEAM y con algunos actores de la Mesa, la encuesta desarrollada por el IDEAM fue aprobada y presentada oficialmente en la reunión del 30 de noviembre de la Mesa Técnica Agroclimática de Nariño. Asimismo la encuesta fue enviada a los y las integrantes de la MTA Nariño el día 4 de diciembre, dando de esta manera, alcance a la promoción de la incorporación e implementación del M&E en las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas existentes en el territorio nacional.La encuesta en mención se presenta en el anexo 1 de este documento. El IDEAM ha solicitado la percepción sobre la misma y se ha mencionado que ésta está adecuada a un contexto colombiano en el que las mesas técnicas agroclimáticas departamentales no están todas a un mismo nivel y que por el contrario las secciones identificadas por el IDEAM son aplicables de manera general a todas las existentes.Sin embargo, en la medida en que las MTA se sostengan en el tiempo, este instrumento de M & E deberá incorporar una sección que indague sobre el impacto en la optimización de recursos, prevención de pérdidas y daños en los cultivos, prevención de riesgos de desastres, y aprendizajes. Esto según contempla el Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática Paso a paso ( 2018) \"son necesarios si la MTA lleva implementada más de tres años\".Cabe recordar que en el plan de trabajo a un año se incorpora la aplicación de la Herramienta al menos una vez al año, con el fin de mantener un monitoreo períodico y realizar los ajustes que se consideren pertinentes.Sobre la encuesta de hogares, se procedió a revisar la que IRI suministró y se le realizaron ajustes en la redacción del español y opciones de respuestas y preguntas contextualizadas al departamento de Nariño.Este cuestionario diseñado por IRI y CIAT tiene la doble función de ser una encuesta para hogares nariñenses, pero también sus secciones aplican para conocer la percepción de las instituciones que integran la MTA.Para aplicar la encuesta a hogares del departamento de Nariño se recomienda que se aplique el instrumento hasta el final de la sección III, teniendo en cuenta que ésta está dedicada a Next Gen y esta herramienta aún no se aplica en las MTA del país, tal cual comentan funcionarios del IDEAM:\"Considerando el desarrollo y aplicación de los pronósticos NextGen por parte del Ideam en sus diferentes productos, en este caso en el marco del Convenio con WFP, se encuentra en una fase exploratoria, donde acorde con las necesidades de las comunidades se busca identificar los insumos que NextGen puede aportar para la toma de decisiones y planificación de los cultivos de la zona. Se tiene previsto en el año 2021, iniciar con la aplicación de los pronósticos de NextGen, de la mano con el desarrollo de los talleres, salidas a territorio y los pronósticos agroclimáticos en el contexto de la Mesa Agroclimática Local\".Finalmente, se recomienda que la aplicación de este instrumento en Nariño se haga mínimo 2 años después de la \"reactivación\" de la mesa técnica agroclimática en el departamento, esto debido a que varias de las secciones indagan sobre el impacto de la información agroclimática en los cultivos y cosechas y esto solo puede evidenciarse en el mediano y largo plazo y en la confluencia de varios factores adicionales tales como asistencia a las mesas, formulación del boletín agroclimático, implementación de las recomendaciones, por mencionar algunos que dependen del nivel nacional y departamental. Método: Recopilación de datos que se realiza utilizando un correo electrónico, una tableta o teléfono inteligente .Método: Recopilación de datos que se realiza en formularios Kobo ODK utilizando una tableta o teléfono inteligente (TBD).Metodología de muestreo y tamaño de la muestra: por determinar; n> 30 Tiempo estimado de aplicación: 1 hora. ¿Cómo comunica las recomendaciones de la MTA Nariño? a.Reuniones o talleres b.Extensionismo rural c.Medios digitales (WhatsApp, Facebook, correo electrónico, páginas web) d.Llamadas telefónicas e.Otros. Especifique _________ 1.¿A quién comunica los resultados de la MTA Nariño? a.A familiares o vecinos de su comunidad b.A miembros de su organización c.A miembros de otras organizaciones d.Otros. Especifique ___________ 1.Para usted ¿cuál es la parte más útil de la MTA Nariño? a.Evaluación de las condiciones climáticas del mes pasado b.Explicación del pronóstico climático c.Diálogo y formulación de las recomendaciones agrícolas d.Otro. Especifique ___________ Teniendo en cuenta que no existe un pronóstico perfecto, ¿cree que son útiles las predicciones climáticas para sus actividades productivas? a.Si su respuesta en I-P5 fue SÍ (agricultores):1.Los boletines agroclimáticos de Nariño son relevantes para su finca, parcela y/o actividad productiva: a.La mayor parte del tiempo c.Algunas veces d.Usualmente no e. Nunca 1.Los contenidos de los boletines agroclimáticos ayudan a mi proceso de toma de decisiones relacionadas con mi sistema productivo, parcela, finca u otros: a.La mayor parte del tiempo c.Algunas veces d.Usualmente no e. Nunca1.Antes de que participara de la MTA o recibiera los boletines agroclimáticos: a.¿Cómo decidió cuándo plantar (por ejemplo, fecha, inicio de la lluvia, humedad del suelo)? ¿Cómo decidió cuándo plantar (por ejemplo, fecha, inicio de la lluvia, humedad del suelo)? b.¿Cómo decidió qué cultivo plantar? c.¿Cómo decidió cuánta tierra sembrar? d.¿Cómo decidió cuánto o si utilizar insumos (mano de obra, fertilizantes, pesticidas)? e.¿Cómo decidió cuándo cosechar? f. ¿Cómo tomó decisiones sobre la gestión del agua? g.¿Cómo tomó decisiones sobre sus medios de vida o fuentes de ingresos?1. ¿Existe una actividad que se recomendó en la MTA o en el boletín agroclimático del departamento de Nariño que le hubiera gustado aplicar, pero no pudo? Si su respuesta es sí, especifique qué actividad. a.Si. Especifique ____________ b.NoSi, IIP 29 es SÍ:1. ¿Cuál fue la limitación que le impidió realizar esa actividad? a.Falta de fondos b.Falta de tiempo c.Falta de entendimiento d.Falta de relevancia de la recomendación e.Otros. Especificar: __________________ 1. ¿Antes de participar en las MTA cuáles eran los problemas más frecuentes de los cultivos o cosechas de su territorio? _______________________________________________________________","tokenCount":"13102"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"baf4a14602ce83a74ab14ae899e731f8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd58b0d6-e055-4ed8-af88-f3aaae406006/retrieve","id":"-1725015208"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c0ddf5fa-bf84-4cc2-9b91-718c26b9a28d","pagecount":"15","content":"Proyección del aumento de la demanda por productos de origen animal para el año 2020 Sur América 45% África 65%Centro América 74%• Más del 70% del hato y 40% de la leche, producidos en sist. Doble propósito, mayormente en fincas de pequeños productores Precipitación -2020 \"Livestock Plus\" en Centroamérica• Evaluar y mejorar potencial genético de ganado • Aplicar y evaluar mejores prácticas basadas en la intensificación de sistemas integrados basados en forrajes • Impactos directos (mejor productividad y eficiencia)• Impactos indirectos (medio ambiente, emisiones de GEI, secuestro de carbono) • Evaluar calidad nutricional y potencial de secuestro de carbono de diferentes categorías de forrajesIntensificación sostenible para mejorar productividad: Iniciativas de investigación para el desarrollo• Herramienta integral de toma de decisiones a nivel de cultivos y fincas• Relaciones entre paisaje, manejo y estado actual de fertilidad de suelos• Procesos de escalamiento y adopción de prácticas agroecológicas ","tokenCount":"145"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ec2ec1c6b3b5bbe9af4107b4eb51eb38","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/bf829fdd-57c6-4243-9238-ec6f3853274f/content","id":"-1015083810"},"keywords":["Montesinos-López, O.A.","Saint Pierre, C.","Gezan, S.A.","Bentley, A.R.","Mosqueda-González, B.A.","Montesinos-López, A.","van Eeuwijk, F.","Beyene, Y.","Gowda, M.","Gardner, K.","et al. Optimizing Sparse Testing for Genomic Prediction of Plant sparse testing","wheat","maize","genomic prediction","multi-trait","and uni-trait"],"sieverID":"31aaeb8c-ada9-4c7b-9f74-880a1d523af8","pagecount":"18","content":"While sparse testing methods have been proposed by researchers to improve the efficiency of genomic selection (GS) in breeding programs, there are several factors that can hinder this. In this research, we evaluated four methods (M1-M4) for sparse testing allocation of lines to environments under multi-environmental trails for genomic prediction of unobserved lines. The sparse testing methods described in this study are applied in a two-stage analysis to build the genomic training and testing sets in a strategy that allows each location or environment to evaluate only a subset of all genotypes rather than all of them. To ensure a valid implementation, the sparse testing methods presented here require BLUEs (or BLUPs) of the lines to be computed at the first stage using an appropriate experimental design and statistical analyses in each location (or environment). The evaluation of the four cultivar allocation methods to environments of the second stage was done with four data sets (two large and two small) under a multi-trait and uni-trait framework. We found that the multi-trait model produced better genomic prediction (GP) accuracy than the uni-trait model and that methods M3 and M4 were slightly better than methods M1 and M2 for the allocation of lines to environments. Some of the most important findings, however, were that even under a scenario where we used a training-testing relation of 15-85%, the prediction accuracy of the four methods barely decreased. This indicates that genomic sparse testing methods for data sets under these scenarios can save considerable operational and financial resources with only a small loss in precision, which can be shown in our cost-benefit analysis.To meet the demands of the growing global population, food production must increase, which is challenging because of the drastic fluctuations in climatic conditions, competition for land and deterioration of natural resources. For this reason, we must adopt novel alternatives for genetic improvement that can increase yield productivity, yield stability, improve disease resistance, nutrition, and the subsequent end-use quality of key crops such as maize, wheat and rice [1].In this vein, the genomic selection (GS) methodology uses statistical machine learning algorithms and data focused on genomic information to improve the selection of candidate lines, which is key for making crop breeding processes more efficient. GS is a predictive methodology proposed by Meuwissen [2] that trains a statistical machine learning method with data containing phenotypic and genotypic information. This trained model then predicts breeding values or phenotypic values of new (untested) lines that were only genotyped, meaning that lines can be selected earlier [3]. Successful GS methodology is found in many crops such as wheat, maize, cassava, rice, chickpea, groundnut, etc. [4][5][6]. However, the practical implementation of GS for breeders across the world is challenging because GS methodology and genomic prediction (GP) accuracy do not always guarantee moderate to high accuracies, as there are many other factors affecting prediction performance.To increase genetic gain, breeders must accurately predict breeding values. This is easy when the traits of interest have a simple genetic architecture; however, this is more challenging in traits such as grain yield with a complex, difficult-to-understand genetic architecture. For example, in complex trait prediction, it is difficult to accurately model genetic interactions such as epistatic effects, which are common in plant and animal sciences, as well as in biology [7][8][9][10]. For this reason, some model strategies are more appropriate to capture these complex interaction effects more efficiently, quantifying the level of influence in understanding the genetic architecture of these traits.Part of the challenge in plant breeding is selecting candidate genotypes that work both across and for specific environmental conditions. Genotypes were evaluated in multi-environmental trials (METs), where the goal is to select stable genotypes across environments and in specific environments considering the genotype × environment (GE) interaction. Precisely evaluating all genotypes once in each environment (that is, each environment is a complete replica of all lines) is more expensive, as it requires more extensive field-testing evaluations [11,12].\"Sparse testing\" in GS means that some lines have been evaluated in some environments and only predicted (not observed) in others. For this reason, sparse testing can save resources and can help improve the efficiency of the GS methodology by (a) increasing the number of lines tested and maintaining a fixed number of environments and financial costs or (b) increasing the number of testing environments while maintaining the cost and a fixed number of lines under evaluation. Sparse testing in plant breeding and genome prediction implies modifying the original multi-environment breeding trial system into a testing method where not all lines are sown in all environments because costs and availability of seed, land and water might impede observing all genotypes in all environments. The fundamental question is how to establish a multi-environmental trial system that will be economically acceptable without affecting the precision with which the performance of breeding lines is assessed, predicted, and selected.The information provided by the molecular markers assists breeders in predicting unobserved lines in some environments. Although, in most cases, it is impossible to evaluate all lines in all environments, observing some of these lines offers the possibility of assessing the marker alleles (or haplotypes) in all environments and the marker (or haplotype) × environment interaction. Therefore, the information on the response patterns of the markers can be used to improve the predictive ability of the unobserved lines in the environments. By using genome-enabled prediction when modeling genotype × environment, the unobserved genotype × environment combinations can be better predicted, and thus the overall costs of the testing can be reduced.Recently, Jarquín [13] and Crespo [1] studied genomic sparse evaluation in the context of maize and wheat genomic prediction, including extreme cases of (a) non-overlapping lines between environments, all lines tested in different environments; (b) lines completely overlapping across environments, all lines field evaluated in all the environments; and (c) varying numbers of different overlapping/non-overlapping lines. The results obtained by Jarquín [13] in maize and Crespo [1] in wheat multi-environment trials showed that the genome-based model, including genomic × environment interaction (GE), captured more portions of the total phenotypic variation than the models that did not include this component and provided higher prediction accuracy than other genomic prediction models that did not include GE when applied to multiple sparse testing designs. Thus, both studies clearly show that using sparse testing based on overlapping/non-overlapping methods can lead to substantial savings in testing resources when using appropriate GE genome-based models. However, the methods of Jarquín [13] in maize and Crespo [14] in wheat for assigning lines to environments by the overlapping/non-overlapping were based on a random assignation of lines to environments without any allocation optimization criterion. Also, it should be noted that these studies performed only uni-trait prediction.This study aimed to optimize allocation methods to improve the genomic prediction accuracy of sparse testing by evaluating four genomic sparse testing strategies for allocating cultivars to environments. This study addressed four objectives that have not been investigated in any previous studies: (1) to determine if there are differences in prediction ability between the four genomic sparse testing allocation methods; (2) to study if there are significant differences between the four strategies of sparse testing under a uni-trait (UT) and multi-trait prediction framework; (3) to evaluate the performance of the four sparse testing strategies with large and small trials; and (4) to quantify the various benefits of implementing this genomic sparse testing allocation of lines to environments strategies. To achieve these objectives, two real data sets from CIMMYT were used-one maize and one wheat-with one data set containing over 450 lines and the other over 4500 lines. To assess performance with small trial sizes from each of these two data sets, a random sample of 250 lines in each environment was obtained, and the four sparse testing methods were evaluated using this resulting data set.The original data set contains 4536 lines evaluated in four environments (B2IR, B5IR, BDRT, BLHT). The experimental design employed for arranging all the lines in each environment was an augmented row-column design [14,15] established using the DiGGeR package [16]. Due to some missing plots, only 4464 lines were ultimately evaluated in four environments (B2IR, B5IR, BDRT, BLHT). Four traits were evaluated: grain yield (ton per hectare), days to germination (Germination), days to heading (Heading) and plant height (cm). Since all lines were evaluated in each environment, the total number of observations in this data set is 17,856. This data set was used for the univariate implementation of the models but presented a high unbalance for the multi-trait implementation; hence, we implemented the multi-trait model with a subset of this original data set and guaranteed the presence of the response variables (traits) of all lines and environments. This subset contains 4437 lines, three environments (B2IR, B5IR, BDRT) and the same four traits.We performed a mixed model spatial analysis for grain yield in each environment and thus adjusted the data for local and overall spatial variability by spatial adjustment (autoregressive in the directions of rows and columns, AR1 × AR1) using ASReml-R [17]. The weighted BLUEs for each location were used to implement the prediction model described in the next statistical model section. When the complete data were used, this was denominated as the big wheat data set, but when only the sample of 250 lines was, this was called the small wheat data set.This data set contains 484 lines evaluated in locations within three major environments: drought stress environment (WS), low nitrogen environment (LN) and well water environment (WW). The traits evaluated were grain yield and plant height. Since all lines were evaluated in each environment, the total number of observations was 1452. The experimental design at each location for each major environment (WW, WS, and LN) was an α-lattice design with two replications.For the maize data, we used the two-stage analysis to initially account for the withinenvironmental variance in the first stage and to assess the genomic and genomic × envi-ronment effect in the second stage. The first-stage analysis consisted in computing the best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) of the maize testcrosses across locations for each major environment (WW, WS, LN) using the following linear mixed model:where Y irk is the response variable of testcross i at replicate r within the incomplete block k; µ is the general mean; R r is the fixed effect of the replicate r; B k [R r ] is the random effect of the incomplete block k within replicate r assumed to be independently and identically normally distributed with mean zero and variance σ 2 B(R) ; G i is the fixed effect of genotype i; and ε irk is the random residual error assumed independent and identically normally distributed with mean zero and variance σ 2 ε . This weighted BLUE data set in each major environment WW, WS, and LN was used for the evaluation of the uni-trait and multi-trait methods. From this data, a smaller data set with 250 lines was created to evaluate the performance of the four sparse methods under both the uni-trait and multi-trait frameworks. When we aggregate the summaries of the prediction performance of the two big (wheat and maize) and two small (wheat and maize) data sets, we call this across data sets.This model was used for the training process of the sparse testing designs:where Y is the matrix of phenotypic response variables of order n × n T , ordered first by environments and then by lines; n T denotes the number of traits, 1 n×n T is a matrix of ones of order n × n T , µ T is a vector of intercepts for each trait of length n T , T denotes the transpose of a vector or matrix, that is, µ = [µ 1 , . . . , µ n T ] T , X E is the design matrix of environments of order n × I, I denotes the number of environments, β E is the matrix of beta coefficients for environments with a dimension of I × n T , Z L is the design matrix of lines of order n × J, J denotes the number of lines, g is the matrix of random effects of lines of order J × n T distributed as g ∼ MN J×n T (0, G, Σ T ), that is, with a matrix-variate normal distribution with parameters M = 0, U = G and V = Σ T , G is the genomic relationship matrix [18] built with marker data of order J × J and Σ T is the variance-covariance matrix of traits of order n T × n T . Z EL is the design matrix of the genotype × environment interaction of order n × J I, gE is the matrix of genotype × environment interaction random effects distributed as gE ∼ MN J I×n T 0,where Σ T 2 is the variance-covariance matrix of traits of order n T × n T , denotes the Hadamard product. is the residual matrix of dimension n × n T distributed as ∼ MN n×n T 0, I I J , R , where R is the residual variance-covariance matrix of order n T × n T . This model was conducted in the BGLR library [19]. Moreover, a uni-trait version of this model given in equation ( 1) was implemented, assuming that the response variable (Y) was a vector, that is, training the model with only one trait at a time.We used the notation J as the number of lines, k as the number of lines per location, I as the number of environments (locations) and r as the number of replications for the jth line in the entire design. It should be noted that since the four methods are based on the incomplete block principle, k is less than J, since not all lines in each environment can be assigned. An equal concurrence of entries by location is the best way to ensure minimum variance when making all pair-wise comparisons. Therefore, since r i = r for all lines, the total number of observations in the experiment is N, where N = J × r = I × k.Genes 2023, 14, 927 5 of 18This was the simplest allocation method where a fraction (subset) of lines is selected and then allocated in all locations as a training set where the remaining lines are used as the testing set. In Figure 1A, we see how the partition is formed with this method; blue represents the lines used as the training set, and white represents the lines used as the testing set. Training lines are grouped at the beginning of Figure 1A, but the lines are not in numerical order, indicating they were randomly selected.jth line in the entire design. It should be noted that since the four methods are based on the incomplete block principle, \uD835\uDC58 is less than \uD835\uDC3D, since not all lines in each environment can be assigned. An equal concurrence of entries by location is the best way to ensure minimum variance when making all pair-wise comparisons. Therefore, since \uD835\uDC5F = \uD835\uDC5F for all lines, the total number of observations in the experiment is \uD835\uDC41 , where \uD835\uDC41 = \uD835\uDC3D × \uD835\uDC5F = \uD835\uDC3C × \uD835\uDC58.This was the simplest allocation method where a fraction (subset) of lines is selected and then allocated in all locations as a training set where the remaining lines are used as the testing set. In Figure 1A, we see how the partition is formed with this method; blue represents the lines used as the training set, and white represents the lines used as the testing set. Training lines are grouped at the beginning of Figure 1A, but the lines are not in numerical order, indicating they were randomly selected. M2 took a fraction (subset) of lines to be used as a training set and the remaining as a testing set in one location. For the other locations, the testing lines were divided into a number of locations-one part that is ideally the same size and one part that is interchanged from testing to training for each location. In this way, each location shared most of the training lines but contained some lines only in testing, as shown in Figure 1B.Starting from a balanced data set with \uD835\uDC3D lines and \uD835\uDC3C locations, the conformation of the random allocation of lines to locations was done in such a way that each line will be M2 took a fraction (subset) of lines to be used as a training set and the remaining as a testing set in one location. For the other locations, the testing lines were divided into a number of locations-one part that is ideally the same size and one part that is interchanged from testing to training for each location. In this way, each location shared most of the training lines but contained some lines only in testing, as shown in Figure 1B.Starting from a balanced data set with J lines and I locations, the conformation of the random allocation of lines to locations was done in such a way that each line will be repeated (approximately) in r out of I locations, and all locations will be of the same size (k). The algorithm of this random allocation is [20]:First, we computed k = J×r I (least integer greater than or equal to k = J×r I ). Then k lines out of J lines were randomly allocated to the first location. For the second location, k out of the J lines were once again randomly allocated. This process is repeated until the Ith location is completed, with the caveat that the lines allocated to a particular location are only present in less than or equal to r locations, ideally in exactly r locations. The lines that do not satisfy this restriction are not candidates for being allocated to a particular location.An example of this method with eight lines and four locations is shown in Figure 1C. Note that some locations appear up to three times in each line, while others appear only twice because it is a random process.Genes 2023, 14, 927 6 of 18This method of allocation of lines to environments is based on a balanced incomplete block design (IBD) principle, that is, when all pairs of lines occur together within a location an equal number of times (λ). In general, we specified λ jj as the number of times line j occurs within a location. To generate this sparse allocation of lines to locations [20], we used the function find.BIB() in the R package crossdes. Supposing there were J = 8 lines and I = 4 locations, this means that we need 8 × 4 = 32 plots to allocate the eight lines to the four locations. However, we used an IBD and a training set of size N TRN = 32 × 0.5 = 16, which accounts for (50%) of the total plots required under a randomized complete block design. Therefore, the number of lines by locations can be obtained by solving (kI = N_TRN) for k, which results in k = N_TRN/I. This results in k = 16/4 = 4 lines per location. The corresponding elements for the training set were obtained with the function find.BIB (8,4,4) using the package crossdes. The numbers used in the function find.BIB() denote the lines, the locations, and the lines per location, respectively. Figure 1D shows how a particular allocation for eight lines in four locations may appear. An important aspect to consider is that both lines are used at the same time, and all locations contain four lines. The final allocations of M3 and M4 in many cases look similar, with the relevant difference that M4 is allocated under the IBD principles, while M3 is under a kind of stratified random sampling.Since not all lines (treatment structure) will be allocated to each environment (plot structure), the four allocation methods described are sparse allocation methods. Each of these methods allocates lines to environments (locations) under different approaches, and some of them guarantee better connectivity of lines between environments, and for this reason, they provide different prediction performances. However, as pointed out by Montesinos-López [20], implementing the sparse allocation methods for genomic prediction is done in two stages, so each stage should be optimized. The four methods of allocation (M1 to M4) belong to the second stage, and these four allocation methods attempt to optimize the prediction performance of untested lines in tested environments.To obtain valid results in the second stage, we used valid BLUEs or best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) for each line. An optimal experimental design should be used in the first stage for allocating the lines that were allocated for each environment with any of the four methods of the second stage, in each environment to plots. Our two-stage approach of analysis is valid since it is like the BLUEs or BLUPs estimation in two stages, and there is strong empirical evidence that two-stage analysis produces similar outputs when the appropriate weighting methods are used [21,22].To evaluate and compare the predictive performance of the allocation methods, we used cross-validation with 10 partitions and 15, 25, 50, 75 and 85% of the data for training and 85, 75, 50, 25 and 15% for testing, respectively. The Pearson's correlation and the Normalized Root Mean Squared Error (NRMSE) were computed using the observed and predicted values [23] in each of the 10 random partitions with the testing sets. These metrics were then used to assess the predictive performance in each data set for each allocation method. The average of the NRMSEs and Average Pearson's correlations (APC) of the 10 partitions was reported as prediction accuracy in each data set. Since the allocation methods were evaluated under uni-trait and multi-trait frameworks, both metrics were computed for each trait separately, and then, the average of the 10 folds in the testing sets was reported as prediction performance. It is important to point out that we used different proportions of the testing set (15, 25, 50, 75 and 85%) to study that even with a small proportion of training sets, it is feasible to predict the testing set with reasonable accuracy.The results are provided in four sections; one for each complete (big) data set in maize and wheat, one for the results across data sets (summary of aggregating the four data sets: two big data sets and two small data sets) and one that illustrates the quantitative benefits of sparse testing methods when using all data. Figures and tables for the results obtained for the small data sets of maize and wheat (random selection of only 250 lines for each data set) are provided in the Supplementary Material (Figures S1 and S2 and Table S1 for Maize_250 small data set and Figures S3 and S4 and Table S2 for Wheat_250 small data set).In terms of APC, in all scenarios of testing proportions, the best prediction performance was observed under a multi-trait framework and the worst under a uni-trait framework (Figure 2, Table A1). Under the scenario with 85% (0.85) of testing, the GP accuracy does not deteriorate and is only slightly worse than under the scenario of predicting 15% testing. Between the four sparse testing methods, we observed no significant differences between them. Instead, we saw a relevant difference of 15% (0.15), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85) of testing M4 under the uni-trait framework. For example, under the 15% (0.15) of testing set uni-trait framework, M4 outperformed M1, M2 and M3 by 12.89, 7.08 and 7.33%, respectively. Under the 85% (0.85) testing uni-trait framework, M4 only outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 1.6% and 4.9%, respectively, but no difference was observed between methods in most of the proportion of testing evaluated (Figure 2, Table A1).portion of training sets, it is feasible to predict the testing set with reasonable accuracy.The results are provided in four sections; one for each complete (big) data set in maize and wheat, one for the results across data sets (summary of aggregating the four data sets: two big data sets and two small data sets) and one that illustrates the quantitative benefits of sparse testing methods when using all data. Figures and tables for the results obtained for the small data sets of maize and wheat (random selection of only 250 lines for each data set) are provided in the Supplementary Material (Figures S1 and S2 and Table S1 for Maize_250 small data set and Figures S3 and S4 and Table S2 for Wheat_250 small data set).In terms of APC, in all scenarios of testing proportions, the best prediction performance was observed under a multi-trait framework and the worst under a uni-trait framework (Figure 2, Table A1). Under the scenario with 85% (0.85) of testing, the GP accuracy does not deteriorate and is only slightly worse than under the scenario of predicting 15% testing. Between the four sparse testing methods, we observed no significant differences between them. Instead, we saw a relevant difference of 15% (0.15), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85) of testing M4 under the uni-trait framework. For example, under the 15% (0.15) of testing set uni-trait framework, M4 outperformed M1, M2 and M3 by 12.89, 7.08 and 7.33%, respectively. Under the 85% (0.85) testing uni-trait framework, M4 only outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 1.6% and 4.9%, respectively, but no difference was observed between methods in most of the proportion of testing evaluated (Figure 2, Table A1). In terms of NRMSE, we observed the best predictions in a multi-trait model and the worst in a uni-trait model (Figure 3, Table A1). In general, we also observed that the best predictions in terms of NRMSE were under methods M3 and M4. When the percentages of testing were 15% (0.15), 25% (0.25) and 50% (0.5), small differences were found between the four sparse testing methods; however, under 75% (0.75), methods M1 and M2 were worse than M3 by 2.3% and 56.33% (multi-trait) and by 4.6% and 31.6% (uni-trait). Under 85% (0.85), method M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 5% and 60.6% (multi-trait) and by 3.7% and 30.5% (uni-trait) (Figure 3, Table A1). In terms of NRMSE, we observed the best predictions in a multi-trait model and the worst in a uni-trait model (Figure 3, Table A1). In general, we also observed that the best predictions in terms of NRMSE were under methods M3 and M4. When the percentages of testing were 15% (0.15), 25% (0.25) and 50% (0.5), small differences were found between the four sparse testing methods; however, under 75% (0.75), methods M1 and M2 were worse than M3 by 2.3% and 56.33% (multi-trait) and by 4.6% and 31.6% (uni-trait). Under 85% (0.85), method M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 5% and 60.6% (multi-trait) and by 3.7% and 30.5% (uni-trait) (Figure 3, Table A1). In this data set in terms of APC, the multi-trait method was better than the uni-trait framework (Figure 4, Table A2). While we did not observe a superiority in all percentages of testing of a particular method, we noted that in all scenarios of percentages of testing, the prediction accuracies are quite similar; that is, the prediction performance does not decrease as the percentage of testing increases. Regarding the comparison between the four sparse methods, we observed that in some scenarios of percentage of testing, M4 was better than the remaining methods. For example, under 15% (0.15) of the uni-trait model, testing set M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 24.13 and 24.08, respectively, but did not outperform M3, while under the 25% (0.25) uni-trait testing, M4, M1 and M3 outperformed method M2 around 25%. In the remaining cases, no relevant differences were observed between methods in most of the proportion of testing evaluated (Figure 4, Table A2). It is important to note that for some scenarios, we were unable to estimate the prediction performance for methods M3 and M4 due to a lack of positive definite matrices for multi-trait models.Prediction performance for the complete (big) maize data set in terms of normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of the four methods of sparse testing (M1, M2, M3 and M4) under unit-trait and multi-trait models for 5 percentages of testing: 15% (0.1), 25% (0.25), 50% (0.5), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85).In this data set in terms of APC, the multi-trait method was better than the uni-trait framework (Figure 4, Table A2). While we did not observe a superiority in all percentages of testing of a particular method, we noted that in all scenarios of percentages of testing, the prediction accuracies are quite similar; that is, the prediction performance does not decrease as the percentage of testing increases. Regarding the comparison between the four sparse methods, we observed that in some scenarios of percentage of testing, M4 was better than the remaining methods. For example, under 15% (0.15) of the uni-trait model, testing set M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 24.13 and 24.08, respectively, but did not outperform M3, while under the 25% (0.25) uni-trait testing, M4, M1 and M3 outperformed method M2 around 25%. In the remaining cases, no relevant differences were observed between methods in most of the proportion of testing evaluated (Figure 4, Table A2). It is important to note that for some scenarios, we were unable to estimate the prediction performance for methods M3 and M4 due to a lack of positive definite matrices for multi-trait models.  In terms of NRMSE, the best predictions were obtained under a multi-trait method and the worst under a uni-trait method (Figure 5, Table A2). We also observed that under the 15% (0.15) and 25% (0.25) multi-trait framework, M3 was slightly better than the others. While under the 50% (0.50) multi-trait framework, M3 and M4 were slightly better than M1 and M2. In a small number of cases in the uni-trait model, M1 was better than the remaining methods (Figure 5, Table A2). In terms of NRMSE, the best predictions were obtained under a multi-trait method and the worst under a uni-trait method (Figure 5, Table A2). We also observed that under the 15% (0.15) and 25% (0.25) multi-trait framework, M3 was slightly better than the others. While under the 50% (0.50) multi-trait framework, M3 and M4 were slightly better than M1 and M2. In a small number of cases in the uni-trait model, M1 was better than the remaining methods (Figure 5, Table A2). In terms of NRMSE, the best predictions were obtained under a multi-trait method and the worst under a uni-trait method (Figure 5, Table A2). We also observed that under the 15% (0.15) and 25% (0.25) multi-trait framework, M3 was slightly better than the others. While under the 50% (0.50) multi-trait framework, M3 and M4 were slightly better than M1 and M2. In a small number of cases in the uni-trait model, M1 was better than the remaining methods (Figure 5, Table A2).Prediction performance for the complete wheat data set in terms of normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of the four methods of sparse testing (M1, M2, M3 and M4) under unit-trait and multi-trait models for 5 percentages of testing: 15% (0.1), 25% (0.25), 50% (0.5), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85).Across data sets, the best predictions were observed under the multi-trait model in terms of APC (Figure 6, Table A3). In most percentages of testing, there were no relevant differences among the four methods. For example, when the percentage of testing was 15% (0.15) in the uni-trait model, methods M3 and M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 8.6 and 3.9%, respectively. However, when the percentage of testing was 25% (0.25) in the uni-trait model, methods M3 and M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 3.6 and 2.4%, respectively. Similar performance was observed in the other percentages of testing.  Across data sets, the best predictions were observed under the multi-trait model in terms of APC (Figure 6, Table A3). In most percentages of testing, there were no relevant differences among the four methods. For example, when the percentage of testing was 15% (0.15) in the uni-trait model, methods M3 and M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 8.6 and 3.9%, respectively. However, when the percentage of testing was 25% (0.25) in the uni-trait model, methods M3 and M4 outperformed methods M1 and M2 by 3.6 and 2.4%, respectively. Similar performance was observed in the other percentages of testing. We saw a clear superiority in the multi-trait model across data sets in terms of NRMSE in all percentages of testing (Figure 7, Table A3). In the uni-trait context, we observed that within testing 15% (0.15), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 8.0 and 5.8%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 1.7%. While within testing 25% (0.25), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 5.8 and 0.9%, respectively, and M4 was worse than M3 by 2.3%. Under the 50% (0.50) percentage of testing, M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 3.9 and 0.6%, respectively, but M3 was better than M4 by 2.3%. Within testing 75% (0.75), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 2.6 and 7.5%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 0.3%. Finally, within testing 85% (0.85), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 0.6 and 4.9%, respec- We saw a clear superiority in the multi-trait model across data sets in terms of NRMSE in all percentages of testing (Figure 7, Table A3). In the uni-trait context, we observed that within testing 15% (0.15), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 8.0 and 5.8%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 1.7%. While within testing 25% (0.25), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 5.8 and 0.9%, respectively, and M4 was worse than M3 by 2.3%. Under the 50% (0.50) percentage of testing, M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 3.9 and 0.6%, respectively, but M3 was better than M4 by 2.3%. Within testing 75% (0.75), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 2.6 and 7.5%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 0.3%. Finally, within testing 85% (0.85), M4 outperformed M1 and M2 by 0.6 and 4.9%, respectively, but M4 was worse than M3 by 1.6%. In the case of the uni-trait method, similar performance was observed among the four methods (Figure 7, Table A3). In Table 1, we provide the comparison of two scenarios of breeding experiments: scenario 1 with 250 lines in each of the four environments (225 new lines + 25 checks) and 1000 plots available, and scenario 2 with 4500 lines in each of the four environments (4450 new lines + 50 checks) and 18,000 plots available. Each of these scenarios was compared with sparse designs with the following percentage of training data: 85, 75, 50, 25 and 15%. The standard is defined as the conventional breeding strategy, where all lines are evaluated in each environment.  In Table 1, we provide the comparison of two scenarios of breeding experiments: scenario 1 with 250 lines in each of the four environments (225 new lines + 25 checks) and 1000 plots available, and scenario 2 with 4500 lines in each of the four environments (4450 new lines + 50 checks) and 18,000 plots available. Each of these scenarios was compared with sparse designs with the following percentage of training data: 85, 75, 50, 25 and 15%. The standard is defined as the conventional breeding strategy, where all lines are evaluated in each environment. prediction accuracy. Additionally, we provided a cost-benefit analysis of implementing sparse testing methods.As expected, we found that the best performance of the sparse testing methods was observed under a multi-trait model, and M3 and M4 were slightly better than sparse M1 and M2. However, we found that M3 was more consistent and robust, in addition to being efficient from a computational point of view. Although M4 and M3 were the best in terms of prediction performance, it is important to note that for larger training and testing sets, M4 was computationally inefficient, and since M3 displayed similar performance, it provides a better alternative to M4. However, when possible, M4 is the preferred option because the machinery of IBD and comparing treatments (genotypes) under more uniform conditions also reduces experimental error and increases precision. The primary factor in explaining the better performance of M3 and M4 compared to M1 and M2 is that M3 and M4 guarantee better connectivity between training and testing sets. However, M4 does not always outperform M3, as we observed that the larger the data set, the less difference there is in prediction performance between M3 and M4.However, in the allocation of lines to environments, M4 is different from methods M1, M2 and M3 since M4 is based on the balanced incomplete block experimental design that uses a criterion of optimality to perform the allocation of lines to locations, thus potentially increasing efficiency. However, the nature of the data sets used for implementation plays an important role in the similar performance between M3 and M4 and among the four methods since the material (lines) of these data sets are homogeneous and possess a strong degree of relatedness. We also expect less differences in terms of prediction performance between methods M3 and M4 when the number of lines (treatments) increase because the numbers are large, making any randomization relatively good. The good performance of M3 is because it is also a type of incomplete block design but with not an optimal allocation as is done under an IBD experimental design providing less biased estimates.It is important to be aware that for the successful implementation of the sparse testing methods evaluated in this research, the analyses of data in two stages is required because these sparse testing methods are applied in a second stage for evaluating the prediction performance of untested lines in tested environments which, as illustrated in this research, can save significant resources as only a subset of lines are evaluated in each location (environments), and the remaining lines are predicted. However, the second stage requires valid BLUEs (or BLUPs) that should be computed considering the experimental design in which the lines were evaluated in each location (environment). Note that since a two-stage process was performed, those lines allocated to a location (environment) can be evaluated in any experimental design, and after harvesting the traits of interest, this experimental design should be used for computing the BLUEs (BLUPs) of the lines evaluated in each location.For this reason, when method M4 is used in the second stage, the implication is that a valid and efficient experimental design was already used in the first stage to estimate the appropriate BLUEs (or BLUPs) that consider the spatial variability of the field in which the cultivar was evaluated. In the second stage, we built the genomic training-testing with the aim of improving the prediction of the untested line in tested environments. However, in the second stage, when method M4 is used, the goal is to efficiently allocate the lines to locations to guarantee good connectivity between the lines in different locations, thus improving the prediction accuracy of the cultivar to be predicted.However, under the cost-benefits analysis (see Table 1), we clearly observed the savings breeders could achieved using a sparse genomic testing approach. For example, in a sparse testing design with a training-testing scenario of 85-15%, under a fixed budget, we can increase the number of lines under evaluation by at least 17%. Under a sparse testing scenario of 50-50% for training-testing, the same fixed budget increased the lines under evaluation by at least 101.12%. Certainly, the larger the percentage of testing regarding the percentage of training, the larger the benefits of the sparse testing method; however, we do not expect these scenarios to be successful in all breeding programs. Nevertheless, in the four data sets evaluated, even in the scenario of training-testing of 15-85%, we observed a strong prediction performance, and the percentage of increase of new lines evaluated was at least 573%. While this scenario is not practical because it implies a fraction of replicates (0.6) of each line in the experiment, it does illustrate the benefits that can be obtained using a sparse testing methodology.Using four data sets, we evaluated the prediction performance of four sparse testing methods (M1, M2, M3 and M4) under multi-trait and uni-trait models and under various scenarios of training-testing partitions. We found that the best accuracies were observed under a multi-trait model and the worst under a uni-trait model. We also observed that sparse testing methods M3 and M4 were slightly better than methods M1 and M2. Additionally, we found that the prediction accuracy, even in the more extreme scenario of training-testing (15-85%), is still competitive with the more relaxed scenario of trainingtesting (85-15%), which is of paramount importance since under this scenario the efficiency of the sparse testing methodology is very high. Even under a less extreme scenario of training-testing, 50-50% for training-testing, we increased the lines under evaluation by 101.12% with the same fixed budget, which helps to significantly increase the efficiency of the GS methodology. While these findings cannot be easily extrapolated for other data sets, they illustrate the great benefits that plant breeders can obtain from implementing sparse testing designs for genomic prediction.Table A3. Prediction performance across data sets in terms of normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) and Average Pearson's correlation (APC) of the four sparse testing methods (CV) under the following proportion of testing (Prop_testing): 15% (0.15), 25% (0.25), 50% (0.5), 75% (0.75) and 85% (0.85). NRMSE_SE denotes the standard error of NRMSE, and APC_SE denotes the standard error of APC. ","tokenCount":"6906"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a0057dfec99b96ba7721194465c726ee","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5c5032d4-b930-4f98-a08c-95ebb333979b/retrieve","id":"-664124877"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9ad59e01-6b1f-4f98-872f-2f08a07458c6","pagecount":"16","content":"Dans ce numéro Un numéro 101, ça sonne un peu comme un nouveau départ. Ce numéro 101 de Spore est peutêtre en effet le premier pour un certain nombre de nouveaux lecteurs qui se joignent à ceux de la première heure. Espérons qu'ils partageront notre sentiment que ce qui est complexe peut être expliqué simplement, et que certains rapprochements valent mieux qu'un long discours. Rapprochez par exemple l'article d'ouverture de plusieurs autres articles de ce numéro et vous constaterez que l'énergie dans l'agriculture est une notion transversale que l'on retrouve aussi bien en matière de productivité agricole que de marchés mondiaux, aussi bien dans les articles de Spore qui vous parlent de techniques nouvelles ou éprouvées, que dans les livres parus, ou comment le CTA répond à vos questions… Non, ce n'est pas un numéro spécial, l'énergie est partout et toujours présente dans les questions que nous nous posons avec vous. En tout cas, nous vous souhaitons qu'elle soit encore longtemps avec vous ! C omment dynamiser l'agriculture ? C'est l'une des questions qui revient constamment dans l'élaboration des programmes des nouveaux partenariats économiques pour le développement de l'Afrique, des Caraïbes, du Pacifique et d'autres régions du monde. C'est un peu comme si l'agriculture se dérobait à sa définition officielle de « science, art et métier de la culture du sol, de la production de végétaux et d'animaux » pour être considérée -et se considérer elle-même -comme une activité ringarde à l'écart de toute forme de progrès.L'agriculture est un des plus vieux métiers du monde. Elle daterait de 14 000 ans, quand l'humanité ne s'est plus contentée de chasse et de cueillette et a commencé à cultiver. Où ? En Mésopotamie, l'Irak d'aujourd'hui, dans la zone de confluence du Tigre et de l'Euphrate. Les civilisations se sont succédées dans cette région jusqu'à nos jours, mais il est intéressant de noter la cause du déclin des premières formes d'agriculture : la salinité des sols due à une irrigation non maîtrisée.Ce problème de salinisation a été le premier des nombreux revers qui ont jalonné l'histoire de l'agriculture, alternant avec de grands progrès. Et il y en a eu bien d'autres : l'accaparement des terres en Europe ou l'introduction de la peste bovine en Afrique de l'Est, toutes deux au XIX e siècle, ou encore la désastreuse désertification créée par l'homme en Amérique, au cours des années 30, pour n'en citer que trois. Et chaque fois, l'agriculture a marqué une pause, puis s'est redressée. Aujourd'hui, dans de nombreux pays ACP, Comment se fait-il que plus de la moitié des pays ACP, y compris la plupart des pays d'Afrique, le continent le plus fertile du monde, sont devenus importateurs nets de produits alimentaires, pas seulement en période de crise, mais chaque année ? Même le terme d''agriculture de subsistance' a perdu son sens, puisqu'elle ne nourrit plus vraiment ceux et celles qui la pratiquent.Le décri, le déclin, et puis ?Les politiciens avancent toujours la même liste d'excuses, ces 'facteurs extérieurs' qui jouent certes un rôle important dans la crise de l'agriculture ACP. Par exemple, la disparition quasi-totale des mécanismes de soutien tels que les offices de commercialisation et les services de vulgarisation, conséquence des programmes d'ajustement structurel. La vague de mondialisation érode depuis une dizaine d'années les barrières qui avaient longtemps protégé les agricultures locales des dures réalités de l'économie mondiale. Tout aussi prévisibles ont été les changements environnementaux liés au développement et accentués par le processus naturel des changements climatiques. D'autres facteurs étaient moins prévisibles, comme les changements dans l'environnement sanitaire et surtout le sida qui a bouleversé les données démographiques de la main-d'oeuvre agricole et rurale. Notons enfin des facteurs plus locaux, les problèmes qui peuvent être résolus par une intervention humaine de proximité : réformes foncières, redistribution des droits en fonction du genre, accès aux financements, au crédit et à la technologie.Il faut en finir avec la résignation! On ne construit pas l'avenir sur des promesses non tenues ou des rêves brisés. Ce qu'il faut, c'est la volonté de regrouper, de dynamiser et surtout de renouveler. Rien de tel qu'un électrochoc pour relancer une économie en déclin, sortir une mentalité ou même une organisation de sa torpeur. Il s'agit d'injecter de l'énergie dans une situation dégradée et de secouer les acteurs locaux afin qu'ils retrouvent ou qu'ils réinventent leur dynamisme perdu.Cela peut marcher ou pas marcher. De nombreux planificateurs et politiciens ont tendance -par naïveté ou inconséquence -à injecter de l'argent et des projets dans une zone en crise. Ces stratégies ont peu de chance de réussir.La dépression ou la stagnation d'une économie ou d'une mentalité vont souvent de pair avec des problèmes d'attitude : un état d'esprit de perdant entretient le processus de déclin. Le phénomène d'exode rural en est une claire illustration. Pourtant, les attitudes peuvent changer, comme l'ont prouvé divers projets, notamment au Sénégal, en Jamaïque et en Tanzanie, qui ont réussi à inciter les jeunes à rester cultiver pendant les périodes de trouble.D'autres aspects sont plus difficiles à modifier, peut-être parce que les conditions jadis propices au dynamisme agricole ont changé. Par exemple, les changements climatiques ont entraîné une baisse de rendement qui a modifié l'offre et la demande de produits ; les ressources naturelles se sont épuisées ; des maladies ont dévasté les plantes ou les troupeaux ; les goûts des consommateurs ont évolué sous l'impulsion de nouveaux produits ou de l'effondrement des systèmes d'approvisionnement en énergie et en intrants agricoles. Dans tous ces cas, aucune intervention ne peut faire revenir le bon vieux temps.L'important, c'est de déterminer où l'injection aura les meilleures chances de succès. Bien placée, elle peut libérer ou créer de l'énergie. Pour une bonne stratégie de relance de l'agriculture et pour susciter de nouvelles attitudes, il faut se concentrer sur deux secteurs essentiels : les infrastructures et les institutions.L'éloignement des marchés et l'isolement qui en découle sont d'énormes obstacles à la volonté d'entreprendre. Mettre fin à l'isolement ou au moins l'atténuer, c'est une question d'infrastructures, de réparation et d'entretien des voies de communication comme les routes ou les ponts. Leur durabilité dépend du contrôle de qualité dès la phase initiale, d'une bonne organisation et de l'appropriation des équipements.Décideur ou donateur, si vous voulez aider les agriculteurs, construisez cette route, bâtissez ce pont ! Il faut aussi investir dans les 'autoroutes de l'information', pour reprendre une expression un peu oubliée aujourd'hui. Ces 'autoroutes' promettaient de changer la nature de la distance pour réduire l'isolement. Au bout de dix ou vingt ans d'expérimentation, il est bien clair que la mise à disposition de systèmes et technologies durables d'information et de communication doit faire partie intégrante des stratégies de développement rural.Décideur ou donateur, si vous voulez aider un peu plus les agriculteurs, installez et entretenez ce réseau de télécommunication ! Et c'est là le défi pour les fédérations d'organisations paysannes, qui ont pour tâche de créer ces structures, sinon de les dominer. Elles peuvent choisir d'être si sensibles aux traditions de la vie rurale qu'elles constitueront un frein à l'élan d'énergie nécessaire dès maintenant. Ou elles peuvent choisir de jouer un rôle de moteur et d'accélérateur. Alors les étincelles fuseront, sûrement, mais d'une certaine façon, c'est tant mieux -cela réveille.La dynamisation et la renaissance de l'agriculture et des régions rurales en déclin passent par des approches bien ciblées :• une analyse approfondie des risques et des perspectives à long terme• une évaluation réaliste des possibilités de réformer l'accès à la terre, au capital et à la technologie• un investissement dans l'infrastructure• des organisations stables, saines et dynamiques.Photo Guy Trébuil -Ciradans le Spore Spécial 2000 (page 10), nous évoquions l'effarante statistique selon laquelle la productivité de certaines zones consommatrices de manioc devrait augmenter de 717 % pour satisfaire les besoins alimentaires régionaux en 2050. Tirés de projections élaborées pour le Sommet mondial de l'alimentation en 1996 et prenant en compte les changements dans les habitudes de consommation alimentaire, ces chiffres illustrent à l'extrême ce que l'on entend par « nourrir le monde ».C'est tellement impressionnant que la plupart des gens sont stupéfaits, puis incrédules : « il y a sûrement une erreur quelque part », « on ne peut pas sortir de tels rendements d'un chapeau comme par magie ! ».Ces chiffres circulent de plus en plus souvent dans les milieux politiques, comme si la planification agricole était devenue un de ces jeux musicaux où les gens disposés en cercle se lancent un ballon et, quand la musique s'arrête, le perdant est la dernière personne à avoir reçu le ballon et tous les autres ont gagné pour avoir su s'en débarrasser à temps.Les augmentations de productivité ont l'air de se faire par à-coups comme à sautemouton. En fait, les 717 % annoncés sont moins spectaculaires qu'il n'y paraît. Lorsqu'on les décompose, ils se traduisent en réalité par une augmentation annuelle de 'seulement' 3,8 %. Dans d'autres zones telles que le Sahel, consommateur de sorgho et de mil, les 480 % de gains de productivité annoncés se traduisent en un progrès annuel de moins de 3 %. Cela semble déjà plus faisable.Cependant, une telle amélioration année après année est un vrai défi pour la communauté scientifique, car elle signifie des progrès constants dans la conservation et l'amélioration des sols, les économies d'eau et la protection des cultures, tout en tenant compte des changements climatiques. Sans oublier les questions au revers de la pièce : une nourriture vraiment présente sur les marchés et une population en mesure de l'acheter pour satisfaire ses besoins. Ces universités ont compris ce que les centres de recherche devraient davantage intégrer : quand il y a nécessité, par exemple celle d'augmenter fortement la productivité, il y a toujours, au bout du chemin, un marché.our la majorité des pays ACP, le commerce des produits agricoles est vital, car il demeure la première source de devises, même si sa part dans le commerce mondial n'a cessé de diminuer au cours de ces trois dernières décennies. Par exemple, la part des pays ACP dans le marché de l'Union Européenne (UE), leur principal partenaire, est passée de 8 % à 3 % malgré le système des préférences -préférences que l'UE accorde aux produits ACP importés en Europe, sous forme de réduction des taxes par rapport aux produits concurrents en provenance des pays non ACP.Pourquoi cette réduction des parts de marché du commerce ACP ? Parce que les prix mondiaux ne cessent de baisser et que la demande mondiale de produits primaires diminue. Or les pays ACP concentrent près de 75 % de leurs exportations agricoles sur une dizaine de produits primaires. Ainsi, les boissons tropicales (cacao, café et thé) représentent près de 32 % des exportations agricoles de l'Afrique, le coton et le tabac 19 %, tandis que le sucre compte pour 13 % des exportations des régions Caraïbe et Pacifique. Dans le même temps, les pays ACP ont des difficultés à exploiter les préférences commerciales qui leur sont accordées L'agriculture et l'OMCet la plupart sont devenus importateurs nets de produits alimentaires.Libre-échange, libre concurrence C'est dans ce contexte que le commerce des produits agricoles s'est libéralisé dans les années 90. L'Accord sur l'agriculture (AsA) de l'OMC, signé en 1994 au terme du cycle de l'Uruguay, permettait pour la première fois d'éliminer des barrières comme les quotas et les limitations des importations, ainsi que de réduire les droits de douane, le soutien interne et les subventions aux exportations des produits agricoles (voir l'encadré).Mais avec quelles conséquences pour les pays ACP ? Avant la mise en oeuvre de l'AsA, une évaluation avait montré que ces pays allaient connaître une forte concurrence surLe régime commercial préférentiel accordé par l'UE aux pays ACP depuis 1975 sous forme des conventions successives de Lomé (1975Lomé ( -2000) ) a été profondément transformé suite à l'Accord de Cotonou signé en 2000 au Bénin. Cet accord prévoit qu'en 2008, des accords de partenariat économique (APE) devront être signés entre l'UE et les pays ACP. Il s'agit d'accords de libre échange réciproque compatibles avec les règles de l'OMC. Cependant, la non-réciprocité serait maintenue pour les pays les moins avancés (PMA). Avant même le début des négociations, il est indispensable de clarifier divers éléments dans le mandat de négociation proposé par l'UE : • les mesures d'accompagnement : la manière dont les problèmes de développement (contraintes de l'offre, ajustement des politiques fiscales, …) vont être pris en compte et financés ; • les alternatives à l'APE pour les pays non signataires d'APE ; • le calendrier : la Commission européenne prévoit des négociations au niveau régional dès janvier 2004, alors que les pays ACP semblent vouloir négocier ensemble avant de passer au niveau régional ; cela repousserait donc les dates des consultations régionales ; • l'avenir des protocoles ou règles de base qui guident les échanges ACP-UE ; • l'impact éventuel de la politique agricole commune de l'UE et des règles d'origine qui définissent si un produit est bien d'origine ACP; • la question de la compatibilité avec l'OMC reste ouverte avec la révision de l'article XXIV à l'OMC ; cet article définit la position des unions douanières et des autres dispositions spéciales de commerce ; • enfin, l'initiative « Tout sauf les armes » donnant libre accès aux PMA pour tous les produits à l'exception des armes pose la question de l'intérêt des PMA à signer des APE.Pour les pays ACP, il est crucial d'élargir les négociations sur l'aide, afin de prendre en compte les mesures d'accompagnement et les ajustements éventuels du passage d'un accord non réciproque à un accord réciproque.L'Accord sur l'agriculture, dont la mise en oeuvre a été de six ans pour les pays développés et de dix ans pour les pays en développement à partir de 1995, avait pour objectifs la réduction des droits de douane, du soutien interne et des subventions à l'exportation.Les pays développés ont réduit les droits de douane de 36 % en moyenne. Depuis la mise en oeuvre de l'AsA, aucune évaluation d'impact n'a été réalisée. Mais des études de cas ont montré que le commerce des produits agricoles des pays en développement s'est détérioré et que ces pays ont des difficultés à stabiliser leur marché intérieur et à préserver les intérêts des agriculteurs lorsqu'il y a de brusques écarts des prix mondiaux ou un accroissement des importations.En septembre 2002, l'UE et le groupe des pays ACP ont commencé à négocier de nouveaux accords de partenariat économique (APE) qui vont changer radicalement leurs relations commerciales. En effet, pour être compatibles avec les règles de l'OMC, les APE introduisent le principe de réciprocité (voir l'encadré sur l'Accord de Cotonou). Cela veut dire des taxes peu élevées ou même nulles à l'entrée des produits de l'UE sur les marchés des pays ACP tout comme pour l'entrée des produits ACP sur le marché européen. Pour les pays ACP, une telle ouverture de leurs marchés risque de provoquer une perte des recettes fiscales et une plus grande concurrence entre producteurs nationaux et producteurs européens sur les marchés intérieurs.Parallèlement aux discussions ACP-UE, les négociations ont repris à l'OMC. L'une des conséquences de ces négociations est que, à mesure que l'UE abaisse ou supprime ses bar-rières commerciales vis-à-vis de ses partenaires dans le cadre multilatéral de l'OMC, les préférences pour les pays ACP perdent leur valeur relative.À la fin de la mise en oeuvre de l'AsA en 2000, de nouvelles négociations ont débuté dans le cadre de l'OMC afin de continuer à réduire les droits de douane, le soutien interne et les subventions aux exportations. Un programme de travail a été arrêté lors de la Conférence ministérielle de Doha en novembre 2001(voir l'encadré).Deux tendances se sont dégagées au cours de la première étape, de février 2000 à novembre 2001. Un groupe de pays, mené par les États-Unis, est partisan d'appliquer à l'agriculture les mêmes règles commerciales qu'aux autres secteurs. D'autres pays (UE, Japon, Norvège) estiment que l'agriculture doit avoir des exceptions, car elle remplit des fonctions autres que commerciales, notamment par rapport au développement rural et à l'environnement. Les pays en développement souhaiteraient avant tout bénéficier d'un traitement spécial et différencié (TSD) plus efficace faisant partie intégrante de l'AsA. Par exemple, pour des raisons de sécurité alimentaire, ils ne seraient pas obligés à s'engager à des réductions sur certains produits : c'est la proposition appelée « boîte de développement ». Ils demandent aussi un meilleur accès aux marchés des pays développés, pour pouvoir mieux profiter des opportunités d'une libéralisation des échanges. Pour cela, il faudrait éliminer les tarifs les plus élevés (appelés « pics tarifaires ») et la progressivité des droits, qui consiste à imposer des droits de douane plus élevés pour les produits transformés que pour les produits primaires ou bruts.Les 54 pays ACP membres de l'OMC ont été actifs malgré leur dispersion dans divers groupes. Le groupe africain voudrait que le TSD soit étendu pour prendre en compte des préoccupations autres que commerciales, par exemple des droits de douane plus bas pour les pays les moins avancés (PMA) et une assistance technique et financière plus importante. Les pays des Caraïbes et Maurice, qui forment le groupe des petits États insulaires en développement, mettent davantage l'accent sur leur vulnérabilité géographique et voudraient se libérer de leurs obligations de réduction en cas de catastrophe naturelle.Les discussions sur le TSD et sur les considérations autres que commerciales se sont intensifiées au cours de la deuxième étape des négociations débutée en février 2002. Les pays développés et certains pays en développement trouvent qu'il faut éviter un accord à deux vitesses et donc imposer les mêmes règles de base à tous les membres, avec des mesures plus souples et transitoires pour les pays en développement. Les considérations autres que commerciales posent plus de difficultés : valent-elles uniquement pour les pays en développement ou, comme le soutiennent l'UE, le Japon et la Norvège, sont-elles aussi applicables aux pays développés ? Ensuite, comment les prendre en compte ? Les discussions semblent porter sur la redéfinition de la « boîte verte », en évitant que les considérations autres que commerciales des uns ne deviennent des considérations commerciales pour les autres.La dernière étape des négociations et certainement la plus difficile sera de concrétiser ces discussions en formules numériques et en règles spécifiques qui serviront ensuite à établir les premières listes d'engagement des pays membres pour mars 2003.Des objectifs clairement définis et plus et mieux d'aide pour s'intégrer, voilà le créneau des pays ACP. Pour eux, il faut négocier à l'OMC en gardant l'UE comme point de mire. Il s'agit d'obtenir un meilleur accès aux marchés agricoles et donc aux marchés européens pour les produits qui ont encore des droits de douane élevés et offrent de nouvelles possibilités d'exportation (par exemple, les produits tempérés). Mais une plus grande ouverture du marché européen au niveau multilatéral entraîne une plus forte concurrence des pays non ACP. Par ailleurs, compte tenu de la vulnérabilité de leur agriculture face à l'extérieur, les pays ACP ont besoin d'une flexibilité dans le cadre du TSD, permettant des périodes plus longues de transition et une protection au cas par cas des secteurs dits sensibles tels que les aliments de bases. Sésame, ouvre-toi!  Photo Jorgen Schytte -Still Pictures■ La conférence sur les progrès des technologies de l'information pour la nutrition en Afrique, ITANA 2002, qui s'est tenue du 21 au 25 juillet à Nairobi, Kenya, n'a pas été la banale réunion technique que certains attendaient. Au contraire, ce fut une rencontre passionnante de plus de 500 experts en nutrition et en technologies d'information et de communication (TIC), venus de 25 pays africains. Ensemble, ils ont mis au point de nouvelles recettes pour améliorer les programmes de nutrition grâce aux TIC. Plusieurs douzaines d'articles ont nourri toute une série d'ateliers, des articles qui émanaient principalement d'Afrique orientale et australe, mais aussi d'horizons aussi lointains que l'Australie, l'Inde, la Pologne et l'Amérique du Nord.La réflexion a surtout porté sur la gestion et l'analyse de données, de l'examen de la composition des aliments (où le potentiel d'échanges entre pays est considéré comme essentiel) à l'analyse des régimes alimentaires. Une autre question fort débattue a été celle de l'enseignement à distance qui permet aux nutritionnistes de se perfectionner grâce à des cédéroms et à des cours sur Internet.Aux dires de tous, cependant, ce sont les sessions 'affiches' où les participants s'expliquaient mutuellement leurs travaux qui ont été le menu le plus apprécié de la rencontre.La rencontre a été particulièrement tonique grâce à l'énergie inépuisable des organisateurs -pas toujours récompensée, puisque le pré-forum électronique, nouveau plat d'entrée à la mode dans les réunions, n'a pas réussi à susciter de vraie discussion sur le fond.Ouverte par le Président Moi du Kenya, la rencontre était organisée par les départements de nutrition de l'Université de Nairobi, de l'Université Kenyatta et de l'Université d'Egerton, avec le soutien du CTA, de l'Initiative Micronutriments, de la Fondation Nestlé et des agences de développement du Canada, d'Allemagne et de Suède. Le tilapia aime le café ■ Pendant longtemps, il était courant, pendant la saison sèche hivernale au Malawi, de voir une personne aux vêtements usés se diriger vers la rivière avec un bidon à la main. Cette image de petits exploitants travaillant dans leurs parcelles de fruits et de légumes le long de la rivière ou dans les bas-fonds les petits matins d'hiver n'attirait pas l'oeil des décideurs politiques, du moins jusqu'ici.Sans le moindre soutien extérieur, ces agriculteurs d'hiver ont persévéré au fil des ans, sachant que ces cultures leur procuraient une source supplémentaire de nourriture et de revenus. Aujourd'hui, il semble enfin que la crise alimentaire du Malawi ait mis ces cultivateurs en lumière.Le gouvernement et les bailleurs de fonds se sont lancés dans de nombreux projets pour les soutenir dans leurs cultures hivernales, car la sur-dépendance à l'agriculture pluviale n'a pas permis d'assurer la sécurité alimentaire. Dans les nouveaux projets, les petits exploitants ont abandonné leurs bidons pour des pompes à pédale qui leur sont fournies par le gouvernement et les bailleurs. Cette stratégie vise à éviter que la crise alimentaire ne s'aggrave de nouveau avant la récolte suivante de cultures pluviales.Dans un de ces projets, qui touche 50 000 agriculteurs dans le district de Salima au centre du pays, la FAO distribue également divers intrants comme les semences et les engrais.■ Les petits éleveurs de tilapias disposent désormais d'un aliment de plus pour leurs poissons : les déchets constitués de la pulpe et la peau des cerises de café. Dans les zones de production ou de transformation du café, ces déchets sont peu coûteux et abondants. J.U. Rojas, chercheur à l'Université nationale du Costa Rica, estime que les déchets de café peuvent fournir plus de 10 % de la nourriture des tilapias. Ils sont riches en protéines, mais ne peuvent servir à nourrir des mammifères à cause de leur forte teneur en caféine, tanins et polyphénol qui pourrait entraver les apports nutritifs et même stopper la croissance. Le tilapia, lui, ne connaît pas ce problème. Rojas affirme que les petits bassins d'élevage sont le meilleur environnement pour les nourrir avec des déchets de café, car d'autres organismes qui se trouvent dans les bassins peuvent pré-digérer les déchets et ainsi libérer les protéines pour les tilapias.Bien que les tilapias soient originaires d'Afrique, plusieurs autres régions dominent le marché mondial en pleine croissance dans ce secteur. Les premiers fournisseurs de filets frais sont des pays des Caraïbes, d'Amérique centrale et du nord de l'Amérique du Sud, dont le Costa Rica et la Colombie. L'essentiel de l'exportation des filets surgelés provient de Thaïlande, Indonésie et Taiwan.Selon la FAO, la production annuelle mondiale est de l'ordre de 1,7 millions de tonnes avec 1 million de tonnes produit en Asie, 0,5 million de tonnes en Afrique et le reste en Amérique. Les lianes sont utiles comme source de bois, comme plantes médicinales et pour permettre aux animaux de se déplacer de cime en cime. Mais, en s'immisçant dans la compétition des arbres entre eux -pour la lumière, l'eau et les nutriments -, elles perturbent leur régénération. À cet égard, elles se comportent comme des mauvaises herbes dans l'agriculture et peuvent être considérées comme des plantes colonisatrices. Dans les forêts ouvertes aux bûcherons, les lianes peuvent être deux fois plus denses que dans les forêts sans coupes.Au cours des dernières années, dans l'ouest de l'Amazonie, la densité des lianes a presque dou-blé, étouffant les arbres en place et bloquant la lumière. Dans les espaces laissés libres, des feuillages plus fins ont jailli, réduisant la biomasse. Les chercheurs ont montré que les lianes poussent plus vite avec les niveaux actuels de dioxyde de carbone (CO 2 ) qu'il y a cent ans. Le fait que les forêts tropicales soient considérées comme des réserves de carbone qui absorbent le CO 2 de l'air pour le transformer en bois pourrait conduire à un débat acharné si cela signifie que les forêts sont « tuées » par les lianes qu'elles accueillent. Comme bien d'autres confrontés à l'impact de leur moyen de transport sur l'environnement, même ce bon vieux Tarzan risque de devoir faire du vélo.Le magnifique réseau que les lianes tissent dans la forêt étouffe les arbres.■ Les petits agriculteurs doivent se montrer et se faire entendre dans toute discussion sur l'agriculture durable. Tel est le message qui a émané du centre de formation Shaft 17 où plus de 300 délégués d'organisations paysannes avaient organisé un 'regroupement paysan' en août/septembre 2002, dans le cadre du Sommet mondial sur le développement durable.Parmi quelque 30 000 participants et avec toutes les manifestations qui se déroulaient hors de la ville et dans la province voisine de Gauteng, les 300 personnes de Shaft 17 étaient à peine visibles. Mais si on y ajoute plus de 300 autres délégués d'organisations paysannes aux manifestations parallèles -sans oublier les nombreux chercheurs agronomes, les fournisseurs d'intrants, les négociants et autres fournisseurs de services -, on peut considérer que l'agriculture était très présente à ce Sommet. Les petits agriculteurs étaient bien visibles, grâce à l'Association sud-africaine PELUM qui préparait leur participation depuis des années.Leurs partisans, notamment quelques journalistes, se sont comportés comme si la controverse et l'opposition était la voie de l'avenir. Les agriculteurs euxmêmes ont préféré séduire pour négocier de nombreux nouveaux partenariats et s'assurer une place d'égal à égal dans des débats de haut niveau à l'occasion des manifestations des Nations unies. Leur argument de base était le suivant : « nous sommes ici pour célébrer l'agriculture et la pêche qui sont notre culture, notre mode de vie… en tant que petits exploitants, nous avons des réponseset nous montrerons la voie ». ■ Voici un bon livre qui a l'audace de franchir la frontière contrenature dressée entre l'agriculture et la nutrition. Après tout, l'agriculture n'est rien d'autre -au moins au sens littéral -que la culture d'aliments tandis que la nutrition s'occupe de leur consommation, de leur qualité et de leur utilisation. Sur le terrain, il y a souvent une barrière professionnelle entre les agents de la vulgarisation et ceux des programmes de nutrition en raison, dit-on, de la pression exercée sur les petits exploitants pour qu'ils produisent pour le marché, au détriment de l'alimentation directe de leurs propres familles.Cet ouvrage a une fonction pédagogique : il s'adresse spécifiquement aux enseignants agricoles pour améliorer leurs programmes d'enseignement et de formation, à partir du niveau secondaire. Il n'est pas étonnant que, partant de la problématique de la nutrition, il mette en relief les données nutritionnelles dans ses chapitres détaillés sur les prises de décision en matière de sécurité alimentaire. La rédactrice technique de ce livre, Professeur Ruth Oniang'o de l'Université d'agriculture et de technologie Jomo Kenyatta au Kenya, est reconnue comme l'un des principaux artisans du rapprochement entre agriculture et nutrition.Neuf chapitres détaillés et précis traitent de sujets comme la filière alimentaire, les rapports entre agriculture, nutrition et sécurité alimentaire, les systèmes agroalimentaires en Afrique, la diversification de la production alimentaire, le stockage des denrées et leur transformation, les nutriments et les régimes alimentaires, la malnutrition et les carences en micronutriments et enfin l'éducation nutritionnelle.Le chapitre sur la diversification est particulièrement utile et il aborde de nombreux thèmes pratiques comme les cultures associées, les jardins potagers, l'agriculture urbaine et les cultures vivrières traditionnelles sous-exploitées.L'éducation agricole est au coeur de ce livre de référence. Une petite faiblesse : ses références sont un peu datées, même si elles gardent leur intérêt, et vous pourriez peut-être y ajouter les vôtres par le biais du site Internet de la FAO, qui s'améliore de jour en jour. Il comprend même l'édition originale de cet ouvrage en anglais (1997) etqui sait -proposera bientôt peutêtre aussi cette version française gratuitement. Terroir-fiction Bonne nouvelle pour ceux qui n'ont pas encore commandé ce superbe ouvrage de référence sur la flore arbustive et forestière de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Il a été revu et augmenté de 40 pages, sans rien ajouter à la liste déjà impressionnante de 360 espèces illustrées par 1 300 photos.  ■ Les synergies (la mise en commun de plusieurs actions concourant à un effet unique) ne réussissent pas toujours, surtout quand elles sont trop promues et entourées. Mais ici, elles ont donné un beau résultat. Ce plaisant petit livre, composé par des journalistes et auteurs de huit pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest francophone, du Rwanda et de Madagascar, rassemble 25 articles sur les relations entre les arbres et les gens : des méthodes anciennes et modernes de gestion de la forêt aux effets de l'importation de vieux frigos et voitures d'Europe, en passant par la lutte biologique, les initiatives des femmes pour combattre la désertification, la gestion de la mangrove, les mesures légales et la pollution. Chacune de ces histoires est intéressante en soi et rend bien compte de l'efficacité des bonnes initiatives locales. Mais ensemble, elles ont encore plus de force, dégageant une vitalité empreinte d'optimisme apte à endiguer le pessimisme qui menace parfois de submerger l'Afrique.La synergie joue aussi à un autre niveau. Ces 25 articles célèbrent les grandes réalisations des dix années écoulées depuis la conférence de Rio, aussi appelée le Sommet de la Terre. Présenté à la conférence Rio+10 qui s'est tenue à Johannesburg en août 2002, ce livre a été, selon beau-coup d'observateurs, la vedette des nombreuses publications éditées à cette occasion.Synergie encore : l'ouvrage célèbre aussi l'émergence de Syfia International comme agence de presse indépendante regroupant neuf agences autonomes en Belgique, au Bénin, au Burkina Faso, au Cameroun, au Canada, en France, à Madagascar, au Sénégal et en Suisse. Une bonne façon d'expliquer au monde qui ils sont en montrant à quoi ils croient et ce qu'ils écrivent, plutôt qu'en parlant d'eux-mêmes. C'est ainsi que fonctionnent les synergies. Un nouveau distributeur P our satisfaire la demande croissante pour les publications du CTA, nous avons conclu un accord de partenariat avec un nouveau distributeur, ITDG Publishing. À partir du 1 er janvier 2003, ce distributeur s'occupera de la vente des publications aux lecteurs qui n'appartiennent pas au système d'unités de crédit du SDP. Il assurera également la promotion et la vente de nouveaux abonnements à Spore, pour ceux qui ne peuvent pas prétendre à un abonnement gratuit. L'abonnement annuel (6 numéros) coûte 36 t.ITDG Publishing fait partie du Groupe pour le développement des technologies intermédiaires, fondé au milieu des années 60. Son programme multilingue 'livres par la poste' assure depuis trente ans un excellent service à des centaines de milliers de personnes dans les pays ACP et ailleurs. En plus de son engagement dans la coédition de plusieurs titres avec le CTA, ITDG Publishing a participé au programme DORA pour la distribution d'ouvrages de référence. Nous sommes heureux de savoir que, grâce à ce distributeur, les publications du CTA sont désormais disponibles pour les lecteurs du monde entier, y compris ceux qui veulent commander en ligne par Internet ou qui peuvent se rendre directement à la librairie ITDG de Londres. En 1995, à Accra, Ghana, les autorités locales ont promulgué un Arrêté interdisant l'utilisation des eaux usées non traitées pour l'irrigation, mais aujourd'hui, sept ans plus tard, les agriculteurs les utilisent toujours. C'est une question de survie : je connais les risques liés à l'utilisation des eaux usées mais je ne peux pas les éviter.Utiliser les eaux usées présente des avantages, liés notamment à leur forte teneur en nutriments, qui réduit les besoins et les coûts des engrais. Par conséquent, de nombreux agriculteurs qui les utilisent s'en sortent mieux et peuvent même créer des emplois.De plus, il s'agit souvent de petits paysans pauvres, vivant aux abords des villes, et si nous voulons lutter contre la pauvreté, c'est vraiment de ce groupe que nous devons nous occuper. S'il n'y a pas d'autres sources d'eau -ce qui est le cas le plus fréquent -, nous devons trouver des stratégies pour réduire l'impact négatif de l'utilisation des eaux non traitées, car ces pratiques ne cesseront pas.La principale contrainte est l'image négative de santé publique liée aux éléments contaminateurs comme les métaux lourds et les agents microbiologiques pathogènes. Mais dans de nombreux pays ACP qui ont un secteur industriel limité, les métaux lourds ne représentent pas un problème majeur. Le gros problème, c'est plutôt la contamination des cultures par les agents microbiologiques pathogènes notamment par des bactéries et des helminthes Escherichia coli, à l'origine de dysenteries et diarrhées. Peu d'agriculteurs portent des vêtements de protection lorsqu'ils irriguent, car ils n'ont pas été sensibilisés et ils n'ont pas d'argent pour les acheter. Au Ghana, il est courant de voir un agriculteur manger en arrosant, ce qui peut provoquer des maladies et des infections de la peau. Pour éviter ces problèmes, il faudrait former les agriculteurs.Mon opinion -sans chercher à minimiser le phénomène -est que le problème sanitaire a été quelque peu exagéré. Les nombreuses recherches entreprises sur la question ont été centrées sur les conséquences négatives pour la santé plus que sur les conséquences positives pour la production alimentaire. Ce déséquilibre a conduit les décideurs politiques à promulguer des décrets contre l'utilisation des eaux usées. Cela a aussi faussé la perception des opinions publiques. Les gens prétendent que l'utilisation des eaux usées dans l'irrigation est responsable de la malaria, du choléra, de la lèpre et ainsi de suite. Mais ce n'est pas nécessairement le cas ; ces problèmes peuvent provenir d'autres activités agricoles ou d'intrants comme le fumier. La contamination des cultures peut tout aussi facilement se produire sur les marchés ou chez les consommateurs eux-mêmes. Nous devons approfondir la recherche pour identifier les effets réels de l'irrigation par les eaux usées et leur implication dans la santé humaine comme dans la sécurité alimentaire.Certaines pratiques de gestion permettent toutefois de réduire les effets négatifs. Plutôt que d'utiliser les méthodes d'irrigation pardessus la plante, il vaut mieux utiliser l'arrosage direct des racines dans la mesure où les sols et les plantes fonctionnent comme des filtres biologiques vivants. De plus, la plupart des agents pathogènes vivent 15 à 30 jours et on peut arrêter l'irrigation bien avant la récolte, ce qui réduit une partie des risques. L'impact sanitaire de l'irrigation par eaux usées est plus important sur des produits végétaux que l'on consomme crus, comme les salades ou les tomates, que sur les produits qui sont consommés cuits. La plupart des agents pathogènes meurent à moins de 60°C.En résumé, j'ai toutes les raisons de penser que l'irrigation par eaux usées continuera à se développer dans un futur proche. Avec des niveaux de traitement plus réduits que pour l'eau de consommation, il devrait être possible d'utiliser les eaux usées sans risques pour l'agriculture. Mais pour cela, il faut sensibiliser les décideurs, les donateurs et tous les acteurs pour qu'ils réalisent qu'il s'agit d'un besoin réel et que nous n'avons pas de solutions de rechange.  ","tokenCount":"5914"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dc8136c59354932a3c1ec1485fd169a1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0c017d23-156d-4c42-8f1a-243e6aa139e2/retrieve","id":"949360094"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4c0705ef-e519-4698-88c2-4000709c9f1c","pagecount":"21","content":"This document describes a monitoring instrument for efficiently tracking changes in resilience in agricultural initiatives.Operationalizing the concept of resilience (i.e. the ability to withstand change, stresses and shocks) poses significant challenges for project managers, particularly when required for performance reporting. This monitoring instrument aims to balance the demands for tracking and reporting changes in resilience with the scarcity of time and information typical of development initiatives. The instrument can be used to inform decisions on program planning and management where the program goal is to enhance the resilience of communities, to better manage ecosystem services, and to create positive and sustainable development impacts.The investment in efforts to reduce vulnerability to change, stresses and shocks at various scales has been significant in recent years. In relation to climate change, this high level of investment is likely to continue into the future given both the change already 'locked' into the climate system and the limited success to date in stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, stakeholders responsible for efforts to reduce vulnerability are increasingly interested in understanding the impact of these investments (Sanahuja 2011). More broadly, the aid effectiveness agenda has put considerable pressure on all sectors involved in development programming to empirically demonstrate their performance (GDPRD 2008). This paper describes a monitoring instrument that can track changes in resilience in agricultural systems, which will help in understanding how effective investments have been at building resilience.The instrument offers a flexible process to support those wishing to track resilience and can accommodate the diverse meanings given to the related concepts of adaptive capacity and resilience, and the highly context-specific factors that enhance or reduce resilience. The instrument is also able to disentangle the contribution that ecosystem services make towards building resilience.To be successful, the instrument must be embedded within the generic requirements of a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. The Theory of Change (TOC) is at the centre of many project-oriented M&E frameworks as it illustrates the expected contribution of project inputs towards the achievement of project impacts (Figure 1). Proposing a TOC will be a core requirement of the instrument proposed in this paper.Note that while the TOC in Figure 1 illustrates the terms used in this paper, it must be recognised that this is a simplification given that change is seldom linear.For the purposes of this monitoring instrument, a change in resilience is considered to be an outcome, rather than an impact. This is based on the argument that resilience is a useful predictor of relative impact (Brooks et al 2005, Brooks et al 2014) rather than an impact in itself; all else being equal, those systems with higher levels of resilience will be less impacted and recover faster when exposed to change, stresses and shocks. It should be acknowledged that this offers a very linear interpretation of complex relationships between elements of the system that can vary significantly over time and space, including in their ability to attenuate impacts, and which in reality require an iterative approach to their management. However, the rationale that resilience is a predictor of such impacts is central to the logic of this monitoring instrument.The judicious use of indicators 1 is considered to be an important part of monitoring and evaluation efforts; enabling planners and practitioners to improve their efforts by adjusting processes and targets (UNFCCC 2010). However, indicators are only a single component of an M&E system and they need to be considered as part of the broader understanding of adaptation processes (Bours et al 2013).The majority of investment into resilience to date has been in the context of climate change adaptation, so this investment offers a significant body of experience. Some reasons why the characterization of success from adaptation investments is difficult have been drawn from this experience, including the following (UNFCCC 2010): The lack of agreed metrics; as vulnerability is context and site-specific it is particularly difficult to find meaningful metrics that can be aggregated to national or global level (e.g. unlike mitigation which can be universally measured as CO2-eq). The nature of adaptation; adaptation can occur either proactively or in response to change, stresses and shocks, so both scenarios need to be accommodated in a performance framework. The latency of resilience; as resilience is a latent characteristic (i.e. it does not manifest itself prior to a change, stresses and shocks), it is difficult to be certain of the relative importance of the factors that underpin this characteristic. The risk of unintended negative impacts; referred to as 'maladaptation' in cases where an adaptation of an activity in one sector or area (e.g. coastal management) may have a negative impact in another (e.g. reducing the resilience of local fisheries).The concept that best parallels resilience in climate change adaptation is adaptive capacity, so an understanding of the relationship between these concepts is necessary to establish an instrument that is applicable across the widest range of project contexts.Adaptive capacity refers to the ability to adapt (Engle 2011) and useful distinctions have been made with the concept of 'coping capacity' to illustrate the concept. Adaptive capacity is generally considered to include characteristics that coping does not: permanence, transformation of structure, framework change and reform (Berman et al 2012). Adaptive capacity has parallels in sectors that pre-date a focus on climate change adaptation, such as in rural development, food security, disaster risk reduction and conservation. While these sectors typically have different institutions and fora to guide their management actions, there are potentially significant lessons that should be accommodated within a monitoring instrument.Resilience was first used as a reflection of the \"measure and persistence of systems and of their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same relationships between populations and variables\" (Holling 1973) with more recent interpretations adding concepts such as reorganisation, identity and feedback and the capacity to adapt and learn (Becken 2013). In the simplest terms, resilience refers to the ability to absorb and recover from change, stresses and shocks (e.g. extreme events), and it is in this form that we use the concept (Akter andMallick 2013, Engle 2011).There have been many efforts to operationalize these concepts within M&E frameworks. Our core requirements were that the instrument had to report on numbers of people with enhanced resilience, that it did indeed cover resilience rather than adaptive capacity, and that it includes ecosystem services that contribute to resilience. See Annex 1 for examples from others of resilience approaches and their coverage of the core requirements. Note that the DFID approach is the most comparable, but has a broader scope (focused on characterising hazard, resilience and human wellbeing impacts as opposed to just resilience) and offers a more complex approach to data collection and analysis (e.g. involving counterfactuals, control groups and use of normalised indices) (Brooks et al 2014).One of the challenges of an approach based on resilienceor adaptive capacityis the lack of consensus on the use of these concepts; the individual concepts are used in a variety of ways, at times contradictory (Gallopin 2006). There is a large degree of overlap in the concepts, with resilience more frequently used in some communities and adaptive capacity in others. Consistent with the approach recommended by Maru and colleagues (2014) in operationalizing a framework that links vulnerability and resilience in remote regions, this instrument accommodates both resilience and adaptive capacity, though the focus is on resilience. This requires that caution is taken to avoid areas of inconsistency. Awareness of such issues will help avoid challenges to the legitimacy of claims that are based on the application of the instrument, which may be particularly important given the vigorous way in which these words and their meanings continue to be debated.Commonalities between adaptive capacity and resilience include:  Both are latent characteristics (i.e. they only manifest themselves during (and after) change, stresses or shocks and impacts are unlikely to be measured in the absence of such a change, stresses or shocks) (Engle 2011). Both are locally-specific (i.e. their contribution to the minimisation of negative impacts is highly dependent on the local context, as with vulnerability) (Berman et al 2012). Both incorporate thinking around system transformation (Bennett et al 2014). Both are human centred (i.e. both concepts link people and ecosystems within complex adaptive systems) (Akter and Mallick 2013). More adaptive capacity is always better, but resilience can be good or bad (e.g. resilient pests) (Engle 2011). Adaptive capacity is a separate component from sensitivity in the IPCC vulnerability framework, while sensitivity is implicitly part of resilience (UNFCCC 2010).The approach proposed within the instrument closely links Indicators of resilience to its operational definition: the ability to absorb and recover from the occurrence of change, stresses and shocks. The ultimate indicators measure the extent to which components of the system of interest are impacted and the speed of recovery of those components, in relation to the magnitude of the change, stresses or shocks. It is also important that the instrument is flexible enough to be used in varied contexts, and this is reflected in the indicator options. For example, where a project has a strong poverty angle, the indicators could be the degree to which household assets and income are reduced by a shock and the speed by which they recover. If the focus is more at the crop plot level, perhaps one could track crop yield in relation to weather, or if the focus is at national levels, the impact of climate on GDP could be tracked.Clearly, some variables are more resource intensive to regularly monitor, such as household income.Hence, the instrument proposes the use of proxy indicators to bring down resource requirements. Such proxy indicators will be linked to resilience, through the TOC. For example, if ecosystem-based variables are hypothesised to be key to resilience, then it is those that are selected from the 'menu' and tracked. The three indicator categories proposed below each have a 'menu' of sub-categories (\"indicator dimensions\") and within those there are indicator examples which are potential proxiesoffering a hierarchy that links each indicator back to the locally relevant foundations of resilience through a well-defined TOC.The proposed monitoring instrument has three indicator categories:-Capacity of people to adapt (People) -Enhanced livelihoods and farm functioning (Livelihood and Farm Systems) -Ecosystem services that foster resilience (Ecosystems)Nine indicator dimensions are proposed, falling into the above three categories (Table 1). A selection of these dimensions considered:  Best practice principles for indicators for climate change adaptation;  Characteristics of resilience; Sensitivity of the indicators to early change detection, such as behavioural and early-stage physical changes expected within a 5-10 year time frame. Rationale: Awareness and knowledge of relevant 'information and skills' is a common indicator for resilience particularly in the rural sector (Marshall et al 2010, Jones et al 2010). The rationale is that increased awareness or knowledge of an approach gives the farmer a broader toolkit from which to prepare a response to local change. This indicator dimension acknowledges that there is a continuum that begins with exposure to an idea (i.e. creating awareness) to the capacity to apply that idea in the local context (knowledge).When selecting an indicator under this category, it is important that such awareness or knowledge relates to options that are both relevant and feasible in the local context, thus the phrase 'locally relevant'. In addition, demonstrated knowledge (i.e. observation of field application) should always be seen as a superior indicator to awareness (e.g. through participation in a workshop).Many projects identify specific practices which are expected to increase resilience of target groups, common for rural development programming and used by organisations such as the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD). An assessment of the distribution of decision-makers along the scale from awareness to adoption of these practices is a common approach to determine the success of the project.An example from the GDPRD ( 2013) is 'Total number of farmers which had knowledge of a specified technology disseminated by the extension service.'This is an Indicator of the confidence of the target group in being able to cope with experienced and perceived risks. This is useful to combine with Indicator 1.1 to determine if there is a correlation between the increased knowledge of resilience-building practices and reduced perceptions of risk.An example from the GPDRD ( 2013) is \"Total number of farmers that are aware of relevant sustainable production practices\".The level of awareness of reliable information on the likelihood of exposure to a given hazard may improve the resilience of a community or household.Example: Access to specific information services such as drought forecasts, cyclone warnings, ENSO Index or other early warning systems (such as in DFID's ICF -Brooks et al 2014).Level of awareness of risks by leaders, and commitment to the planning and implementation of solutions.Rationale: Without diminishing the importance of local self-organisation, leadership can be an important component of resilience, and is often accompanied with allocation of resources for assessment of risks and their management (Ford and King 2013). The 'political momentum' associated with such leadership can also offer the community access to a broader network of support, but it should be noted that such political momentum can be short lived.This Indicator acknowledges that adaptive capacity is influenced by the presence and quality of longterm visions and strategies at differing scales. A number of adaptation monitoring and evaluation frameworks use a comparable approach for institutional assessments.This Indicator is an acknowledgement that planning that is consistent with the principles of sustainable development influence adaptive capacity. This may include initiatives involving certification, zoning and protected area management strategies. This requires the development of a list of planning initiatives that are considered 'sustainable management'. As an example, USAID's Sustainable Landscape Programme (SLP) includes an indicator: Number of biological significant hectares under improved Sustainable Natural Resource Management (SNRM) and # of regulations, policies and plans for SNRM.Presence of processes that underpin innovation and learningRationale: Even without well-defined internal or external leadership, a community may have characteristics that help facilitate effective self-organisation for both preparation and response to change, stresses and shocks (Marshall et al 2010, Jones et al 2010, Smit and Wandel 2006).Limitations may include greater difficulty in mobilising external support (e.g. if donors will only work directly with national-level governments), but greater local influence over local decision-making (i.e. independent of the priorities of external donors).This Indicator acknowledges that an important part of behavioural change is the existence of mechanisms to deliver appropriate information to inform decisions of target groups. This can include government/private extension services, private, sectoral organisations and project-level engagement processes that are suitable for sharing information on resilience-building practices.An example may be: # of people who are receiving farmer advisories through cell phones.In addition to the presence of mechanisms for information sharing, it is important to examine the level of engagement with those information-sharing mechanisms. This is a reflection of perceived trust, affordability and utility of those mechanisms.An example may be: the # of people who are members of a local agricultural cooperative.The capacity of farmers to access reliable market services can help them prepare for changes, stresses or shocks and is particularly important when dealing with non-local markets. An example from the GDPRD is the number of farmers which are aware of market prices.There are a number of accepted proxies for household wealth that are in common use in rural development programming. This indicator acknowledges the role of different kinds of income streams in ensuring continued food access. Each income stream will have a level of sensitivity to change, stresses and shock based on the strength of its relationship with the parameters of those change, stresses and shocks. For example, those income streams which are less sensitive to climate variability will help to enable continued food access through climate shocks. The climate sensitivity element is used as an indicator in the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) program. An example from DFID's ICF is # of jobs from adaptation/resilience opportunities.This complements 6.1 by offering an Indicator of the diversity of 'things that are grown' rather than income streams. This is important in that it can distinguish between subsistence and incomegenerating opportunities and also stability of food access in the case of problems with formal supply chains.Indicator of inputs required per unit of production.Rationale: Increasing on-farm productivity can reduce the intensity of required inputs and lead to increased incomes (Marshall et al 2010). However, such improvements can be associated with expansion of production areas, and methods to assess whether such expansion undermines environmental objectives should be considered as a complementary indicator.This indicator is based on the assumption that more efficient use of water will make such resources available for other purposes, reduce operating costs and/or reduce sensitivity to water scarcity. As with all indicators under this indicator category, this involves the specification of a product unit that is applicable to the local operation.An example from DFID's ICF is the change in water use efficiency.This indicator is based on the assumption that more efficient use of land will make such resources available for other purposes, including for increased production or provision of ecosystem services under categories 9 and 10. This is an important component of sustainable intensification.An example from USAID's SLP is: % increase in yield/hectare as a result of improved production and management techniques.This indicator is based on the assumption that more efficient use of fertiliser will make such resources available for other purposes, reduce pressure on local ecosystems, or reduce operating costs.Indicator 7.4 -Number of people with increased efficiency of labour/product unit.As with other indicators within this category, this indicator is based on the assumption that more efficient use of human resources will make such resources available for other purposes (either within the operation or within the broader community) and reduce operating costs. However, the impact of mechanisation on local employment is also a consideration.Rationale: It is acknowledged that ecosystem services can play a significant role in increasing resilience of an agricultural system (Marshall et al 2010, Hannah et al 2013, Brussard et al 2010). As it is not practical to undertake detailed valuation exercises for each of the project sites, it is proposed that the valuation for each indicator is based on per-hectare benchmarks from literature, matched against the local context by using higher and lower bounds. In this category, access refers to whether the service is directly or indirectly benefitting each member of the community. It should also be noted that while it is common to quantify ecosystem services in terms of economic value, it is not compulsory under the instrument. Indicators such as 'number of people receiving improved water regulation services' would be legitimate.Water regulation services relate to the ecosystems capacity to reduce the impact of changes to quantity (including flooding and drought events) and quality (through the uptake of nutrients andValue of benefits associated with regulation of ecosystems based on ecosystem type and quality.other pollutants). This can include the role for vegetation in erosion control in the context of rural development, the preservation or construction of wetlands etc.For purposes of adaptation, climate regulation principally involves impacts to the local microclimate.It is suggested that carbon sequestration services are not included in this category as the benefits are not local unless they are monetised locally (e.g. through participation in a REDD program), in which case they will be accommodated through indicator 6.1 as an income stream.There is evidence that access to local pollination services can have a quantifiable impact on productivity in some contexts and changes to the ecosystem can affect the distribution, abundance and effectiveness of pollinators.There is evidence that ecosystems can help to reduce losses from pests and predators.Value of services, products and non-material benefits provided by ecosystems, based on ecosystem type and quality.Indicator 9.1 -Number of people with access to higher value soil formation services This is an important, indirect ecosystem service related to rural development, and a framework that accommodates its value will be better able to consider trade-offs and synergies, including the value of soil loss.Examples include areas with improve erosion management systems in place.This refers to the storage, internal cycling, processing and acquisition of nutrients, in particular N and P. This is an important, indirect ecosystem service related to rural development, and a monitoring instrument that accommodates its value will be better able to consider trade-offs and synergies. An important consideration for this indicator is that some modelling estimates the value of nutrient cycling as far in excess of food production so a focus on local service value is appropriate.This section describes the basic steps that each project manager should follow as part of the application of the instrument. This 6-step process is designed to be compatible with whatever tools are currently being applied within the project to collect performance data. On completion of this process, the project manager will be able to confidently make a defensible statement on project performance, such as: As a result of participation in Project A between year B and year C, 500,000 people in geographic area D have increased their resilience by increasing their awareness of relevant adaptation option E, F and G.The following are the specific steps involved:The TOC must adequately describe the activities that are expected to build resilience, and how this is expected to reduce impact from change, stresses and shocks. The TOC should also reflect the relationships amongst the various stakeholders.The TOC should clearly describe the inter-relationships between indicators and related time dependency or temporal dimensions (e.g. improvements under indicator A should happen first before improvements under indicator B can take place etc.). The TOC should also capture potential tradeoffs between different aspects of resilience that can be affected.The TOC is necessarily diverse in terms of process and format; they typically reflect the perspectives of a range of participants, the context and type of the intervention, and the purpose for which the theory of change has been developed. To guide TOC establishment, DFID (Vogel and Stephenson 2012) have established a checklist, which has been refined to accommodate the issues of resilience and adaptive capacity as follows:If all of these conditions can be met, then it is appropriate to move to Step 2. all lumped together?  Presenting the specifics of this research activity rather than just a generic type of intervention?  Are the beneficiaries of the research activity well defined?  Are assumptions made explicit (in the diagram or text) -about the causal links? Implementation?Context and external factors? The homogeneity of people within the system?  Does the narrative highlight and describe the overall logic of the intervention and the key hypotheses which the programme is based on? Is there a narrative assessment of the evidence for each key hypothesis?  Is the strength of the evidence assessed?  Does the assessment make sense given the evidence referred to? Is the theory of change and other project documentation consistent?STEP 2. Select or create 3-5 IndicatorsThese indicators must:  Be in the format: \"# of people with\" awareness/knowledge/access to/use of/participation in……….  Be consistent with an indicator dimension under each of the three indicator categories.  Include a short rationale for each indicator selected; and  Satisfy the requirements of Checklist 2. Is the relationship between the indicator and the TOC clear? Is it clear which scale the indicator is working at? (i.e. household, community, landscape, institutional and national).  Is change in the indictor expected over the project cycle (even in the absence of a shock?) Are there thresholds that can be considered for the indicator?  Will such thresholds be linked to a specific management decision? Can the indicator make appropriate use of secondary data?  Is a more efficient proxy indicator available? Is there a strong causal relationship between this and any of the other indicators selected?  Can the risk of double-counting be removed by using an alternative indicator? Can progress against this indicator be validated through more rigorous approach?  Does the indicator facilitate social learning, including flexibility for updating of indicators?The method for data collection should be clear for each indicator (i.e. preferably through the application of an existing tool involving survey, physical assessment or by project officer judgements) -This involves a detailed description or reference to the Method Column in Table 2. Where possible, opportunities to involve the beneficiaries of the project in the indicator selection process should be sought. Such approaches can greatly improve the legitimacy of the indicators.This should be undertaken by using the \"method\" described in Table 2 for \"# of people -baseline\" for each indicator. Be explicit about whether the numbers of people on the different indicators are different people or the same people (i.e. whether the indicator numbers are additive or not).By reapplying the method for each indicator, establish change from the baseline. Be explicit about whether the numbers of people on the different indicators are different people or the same people (i.e. whether the indicator numbers are additive or not).Following the completion of Table 2, a statement should be formed on the number of people that have experienced changes relevant to the IDOs.i.e.: \"2,500 people have improved resilience in the city of Brisbane based on increased knowledge of adaptation options from the Brisbane City adaptation project over 2010-2015\".The wealth of experience on both indicator use and characterisation of adaptive capacity in the last 20 years has yielded a number of lessons that can guide careful selection and use of such information. Most importantly, it is not possible to develop a perfect indicator set applicable in all contexts and so the examples presented in Section 4 should be considered as an illustration of practical application of each indicator category rather than a definitive list.Finally, while it is important that users of this tool are aware that there are a number of challenges associated with the quantification and aggregation of resilience 'performance', they should be reassured with the suggestion by Levine (2014) that linking existing good practice around analysis, assessment and monitoring to well defined decision needs will resolve many of these challenges; It is not necessary to 'reinvent the wheel' of M&E for use in the context of resilience.","tokenCount":"4322"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"34b3b231ede12c2bdaca42c9397c6c56","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c8cf62b2-584e-4670-b107-772e52b1fcd3/content","id":"-114842143"},"keywords":["Sub-Sahara Africa","climatesmart agriculture","improved livestock feeding","ex-ante impact assessment","bioeconomic household modelling"],"sieverID":"a822ba49-e423-4e4a-8552-dd5c4f0c1e51","pagecount":"20","content":"Livestock productivity in East Africa, and especially in Tanzania, remains persistently low, while greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensities are among the highest worldwide. This mixed methods study aims to explore sustainable livestock intensification options that reduce agro-environmental trade-offs across different smallholder farming systems in Northern Tanzania. A smallholder livestock systems typology was constructed, and representative farms simulated with a whole farm multi-objective optimization model. Livestock contributed more than 90% of onfarm GHG emissions, and DAIRY had the lowest GHG emission intensity (2.1 kg CO 2 e kg −1 milk). All livestock systems had alternative options available to reduce agro-environmental trade-offs, including reducing ruminant numbers, replacing local cattle with improved dairy breeds, improving feeding through onfarm forage cultivation, and minimizing crop residue feeding. Three obstacles to adoption of these technologies became apparent: they require a skillful reorganization of the entire production system, result in loss of some multifunctionality of livestock, and incur higher production risks. Sustainable livestock intensification can be a key building block to Tanzania's climate-smart agriculture portfolio, providing synergies between productivity and income increases, and climate change mitigation as co-benefit. A better understanding of the institutional settings, incentives and coordination between stakeholders is needed to sustainably transform the livestock sector.Two-thirds of smallholders in eastern and central Africa rely on mixed crop-livestock systems as a source of income and nutrition, employment, insurance, traction or clothing (Herrero et al., 2012). The rise in population and urbanization is expected to result in higher demand for livestock products, which increases pressure on natural resources. Environmental impacts include effects on climate, water, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, land degradation and deforestation (Herrero et al., 2015). In particular, livestock production systems in the region have one of the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensities, thus GHG per unit livestock product, worldwide due to poor diets, genetics, health, and husbandry (Herrero et al., 2013). Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is presented as one of the pathways to transform agricultural systems, aiming to sustain food security under climate change, while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although CSA strives to simultaneously improve three pillars of food security, adaptation and climate change mitigation, it acknowledges that not every recommended practice applied in every place can achieve such a triple win. Mitigation in developing countries is seen as a co-benefit, while food security and adaptation are the main priorities (Lipper et al., 2014).Tanzania has the third largest cattle population in Africa (25 million heads) after Ethiopia and Sudan. 50% of Tanzanian households keep livestock, contributing 14% to their income. However, livestock productivity remains low. 98% of the total cattle herd is indigenous Tanzania Shorthorn Zebu whose adult body weight lies at only 200-350 kg, annual off-take rate at 8-10%, and 400 l milk is yielded per lactation. Milk production in the dry season is only half of the amount produced in the rainy season. Tanzania's current milk consumption of 45 l person −1 year −1 is low when compared to Kenya (80 l), India (68 l), USA (261 l), and the FAO recommendation (200 l) (Katjiuongua & Nelgen, 2014;Kurwijila, Omore, & Grace, 2012). Following the ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement in November 2016, Tanzania has committed to reduce GHG emissions by 10-20% by 2013, conditional on sufficient financial support. This commitment is anchored in the National Climate Change Strategy (2012) which elaborates adaptation and mitigation options. Agriculture and livestock are sectors for intended adaptation contributions including increasing crop yields and sustainable pasture management systems (United Republic of Tanzania, 2015). Agricultural research for development needs to align closely to policy interests on climate and agriculture at the national and sub-national level. In doing so, research can critically support evidence-based design and implementation of policy, leading to climate-smart development outcomes and impacts (Thornton et al., 2017).Several sustainable intensification options have previously been proposed to increase the climate-smartness of livestock production. Feed use efficiency, the amount of dry matter feed required to produce a unit output such as milk or meat, has been identified as key to both increasing livestock productivity and reducing GHG emission intensities. Feed rations can be improved through planted forages, energy-dense concentrates, and treatment of low quality feeds such as crop residues. Improved animal management, including improved breeds, animal health, and reproductive management, can drastically increase herd productivity. Manure management and safe storage could reduce emissions as well (Herrero et al., 2016). Planted forage options have been developed and adapted to various agro-ecologies, farming systems and production objectives. In addition to improving feed digestibility, they can increase soil organic carbon (Peters et al., 2013). A combination of such approachesimproved animal nutrition, management, manurehas been shown to increase productivity, decrease herd size, and therefore lower overall emissions (Herrero et al., 2016).Finding a balance between multiple objectives and potential trade-offs, and forging synergies between agricultural production and environmental quality, lies at the heart of sustainable intensification and CSA (Campbell, Thornton, Zougmoré, van Asten, & Lipper, 2014). The field of agricultural trade-off analysis is growing, for trade-offs operating on many different scales, and affecting different stakeholders (Klapwijk et al., 2014). Since smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are highly diverse and dynamic, trade-offs play out differently. Understanding and classifying such complexity and diversity is the basis to understanding impacts and trade-offs (Giller et al., 2011;Tittonell et al., 2010). There is a wide array of indicators and metrics to assess productive, economic, environmental and social functions of farming systems, and to evaluate trade-offs between them (Smith et al., 2017). To address those multiple dimensions in one approach, trade-off analysis often employs interdisciplinary, bio-economic models. Multi-objective optimization in particular is considered a useful approach, as farmers are not ultimate profit maximizers (Kanter et al., 2018). Integrated, systemsoriented impact assessments and realistic consideration of adoption constraints are crucial to inform decisions for improved adaptation and mitigation of mixed crop-livestock systems in SSA (Descheemaeker et al., 2016). This study aims to explore sustainable livestock intensification options that reduce agro-environmental trade-offs across different smallholder livestock systems, taking Babati in Northern Tanzania as study case. Specifically, its objectives are to:(1) Describe and classify the diversity of livestock feeding and husbandry systems; (2) Quantify environmental efficiencies and agroenvironmental trade-offs of different ruminant livestock systems; (3) Explore livestock intensification options that reduce these agro-environmental trade-offs.Data were collected and analyzed in three steps. (i) A rapid household survey among 96 respondents was conducted in April 2013, and analyzed with exploratory statistics for description of general farming systems, and multivariate statistics to construct a smallholder livestock systems typology. (ii) Based on the typology, a sub-sample of 12 farms were characterized in detail including an intensive household survey, tree measurements and soil analysis in February 2015. (iii) From these 12 households, four were further selected for participatory bio-economic modelling and multi-objective optimization. Data were collected in January and February 2017 through indepth discussions following a list of semi-structured questions to validate model input data and preliminary results, and evaluate farming objectives and constraints, and discuss farmers' perspectives on proposed livestock intensification options.Babati is one of the five districts in the Manyara region, Northern Tanzania, representing a high agro-ecological and socio-economic diversity. Altitude ranges from 950 to 2450 m above sea level, and precipitation varies between 500 and 1200 mm year −1 (Figure 1). Soils include sandy loams to clay alluvials, have a pH around 6.5, and P, S and Zn availability is generally low. Mineral fertilizer application in the area is insignificant (Kihara, Tamene, Massawe, & Bekunda, 2015). Maize (Zea mays) is intercropped with pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the long rains from February to May, and beans are planted in the short rains from November to January. A wide range of cash crops are grown. In 2012, Babati district had almost 64,000 farming households and 420,000 heads of cattle. 40% of the population are ethnic Iraqw, and 30-35% Gorowa Sambrook, Kienzle, Mariki, Owenya, & Ribeiro, 2004;Hillbur, 2013).A rapid household survey (96 respondents) was conducted by eight trained enumerators in April 2013 in the villages of Hallu (1224 m), Mafuta (1022 m), Shaurimoyo (1002 m), Seloto (1646 m), Sabilo (1664 m), and Long (2154 m) (Figure 1). The survey assessed farm resources, management strategies, farm productivity and household economy, aiming to identify initial entry points for sustainable intensification in Tanzania (Timler et al., 2014). Exploratory statistics with the R statistical programming software (R Core Team, 2013) were conducted to describe the general farming systems. A quantitative, multivariate statistics method was used to construct a smallholder livestock systems typology (Alvarez et al., 2018). Expert knowledge and literature review resulted in the selection of 12 variables for the typology construction, which were extracted or calculated from the dataset (Table 1). Cattle number was closely correlated with total TLU (R2 = 0.93) and therefore not included. As multivariate analyses are sensitive to exceptional observations, the dataset was curated for missing and outlying data (Alvarez et al., 2018). The following farms were removed: five farms without livestock (TLU = 0), two farms with missing data, and six farms with exceptional data (two farms with >4 improved cattle, two farms with >25,000 kg cereal residue fed, one farm with >1000 kg other residue fed, and one farm with >3000 kg legume residue fed). A total of 83 out of the original 96 households were retained for analysis. We first ran a principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce the dimension of the dataset, and then used the scores of the PCA to obtain homogeneous groups of farms using hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward method) (e.g. Tittonell et al., 2010). All analyses were executed in R, using the ade4 package (Dray, Dufour, & Chessel, 2007, version 1.6-2) and the cluster package (Maechler, Rousseeuw, Struyf, Hubert, & Hornik, 2016, version 1.15.2). The household typology was validated with local extension officers, and found to be adequately representing the existing livestock system diversity.A sub-sample of 12 farms were chosen from the 96 respondents of the rapid household survey in discussion with extension officers to represent the targeted smallholder livestock system types. A detailed household characterization was administered in February 2015, using the IMPACTlite survey tool (Rufino et al., 2012). Trees on the farms were counted and diameter at breast height (DBH) measured if >2.5 cm. In case trees were too remote to measure, only the number of trees was recorded and the average DBH of the farm applied. Aboveground biomass of live trees was estimated using the following empirically derived allometric equation from Kuyah et al. (2012):where AGB is the aboveground biomass in kg dry weight (DW), and DBH tree diameter at breast height in cm. The carbon content of woody biomass was assumed to be 0.48 kg C kg DW −1 (Thomas & Martin, 2012) with which the total C stock of trees on farms and per hectare was computed. Annual growth and removal of C stocks were not taken into account.A total of 26 topsoil (0-20 cm) composite samples were taken from different land uses (cropland, grassland and fallow). The soil samples were air-dried and transported to the CIAT soil laboratories in Nairobi, Kenya for analysis. Total C and N were analyzed by total combustion technique using an elemental macro-analyzer (Elementar Vario Max Cube). PH was Model input data were derived from the detailed characterization (Section 2.3) and triangulated with information from the semi-structured interviews (Appendix 3), as well as literature-derived or expert-estimated parameters (Appendix 4). Farm performance was evaluated in FarmDESIGN in terms of livestock feed balance, organic matter (OM) balance, farm nitrogen (N) balance and cycle, GHG emissions, species richness, income, and labour requirements. Species richness relied on the Margalef index (M) by Oyarzun, Borja, Sherwood, and Parra (2013), which was computed from the number of crops and the farm area. Feed balances were calculated for energy and protein by matching available feeds with animal requirements and dry matter intake capacity. Animal requirements were related to body maintenance, growth, pregnancy and milk production. Feed intake was determined by the feed intake capacity saturation value of feeds. We used the Dutch VEM (feed unit milk) and DVE (intestinally degradable protein) systems (Tamminga et al., 1994;Van Es, 1975). Household net income calculations included revenues from all crop and livestock production, based on their production and prices minus production costs such as feeding, inputs, hired labour and land (Groot et al., 2012). Prices and costs were reported in Tanzanian Shilling (TSh), and converted to US dollar (USD), using an exchange rate of 2235 TSh. Off-farm income was not taken into account.A GHG emission estimation module was added to FarmDESIGN, including the following sources: (i) methane (CH 4 ) from livestock enteric fermentation, (ii) CH 4 and direct and indirect nitrous oxide (N 2 O) from manure storage and application, (iii) N 2 O from mineral fertilizer application; (iv) direct and indirect N 2 O from soils through N input from crop residue retention, N fixation and atmospheric deposition, (v) CO, CO 2 , N 2 O, NO x and CH 4 from burning of organic material. Input data on livestock numbers, manure production, crop residue use, and fertilizer and manure application were multiplied with IPCC Tier 1 emission factors (IPCC 2006) (Table 2). N manure excretion rate was calculated by the model taking into account protein intake by livestock and protein digestibility of the feed basket, so that manure related N 2 O emissions can be considered an IPCC Tier 2 method. Calculated N 2 O and CH 4 emissions were converted into CO 2 equivalents (CO 2 e) by multiplying by their respective global warming potentials (GWP) -21 for CH 4 and 310 for N 2 O.FarmDESIGN contains a multi-objective Paretobased optimization algorithm that can evaluate and minimize trade-offs between several production objectives. Based on available resources and provided with a limited room to reallocate these resources, the model generates clouds of alternative farm configurations. For this study, the objectives were set to: (a) maximize annual income (USD farm −1 ); (b) maximize the annual farm N balance (kg N ha −1 ); (c) minimize annual greenhouse gas emissions (t CO 2 e). These indicators were chosen to represent the three pillars of CSAfood security, climate change adaptation, and mitigation. In a systematic review of impacts of CSA technologies, Rosenstock et al. (2016) acknowledge that for each of the three pillars, there are many possible dimensions and indicators. Income and GHG emissions are included as indicators for food security and climate change mitigation respectively, while adaptive capacity is more difficult to approximate. Higher farm N balances was chosen represent increased farm and soil resources, and they increase the buffer capacity of households against shocks. Constraints were set to not exceed the current farm size, observe livestock feed balances, and keep the organic matter balance within ranges. Decision variables were based on options for sustainble intensification of livestock, namely (a) varying numbers of livestock species, and option of introducing improved dairy breeds; (b) choice in crop residue use between livestock feeding and soil cover, and (c) room for changes in livestock feeding, including Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) as introduced forage and local concentrates (Table A11, Appendix 5). The optimization was run for 1000 iterations to attain a stable model outcome. From the obtained trade-off curves for GHG vs. N balance, four alternative configurations per farm type were selected for further investigation and comparison to the baseline (B), representing very high (V), high (H), medium (M) and low (L) income and GHG emissions.Livestock feeding and husbandry in Babati was predominantly extensive with relatively large local cattle herd sizes, few improved breeds, day-time grazing, little purchased feed, wide-spread crop residue feeding and low productivity. Soils exhibited a moderate to good level of fertility. Differences between villages were apparent, reflecting varying agro-ecologies. Hallu had the lowest level of soil fertility, and Long the highest (Tables A1-A4, Appendix 1).The multivariate analysis identified five principal components (PCs) with an eigenvalue higher than 1.0, of which four were retained to maintain interpretability (Figure A5, Appendix 2). Together, these four PCs explained 63.9% of the variability within the dataset.Farm area, cereal and legume residues fed, and livestock herd size were negatively correlated with PC1, explaining 30% of the variability in the dataset; grazing time and livestock family labour were positively correlated with PC2 (13%); improved cattle and poultry were positively correlated with PC3 (11%); and purchased feed negatively and small ruminants positively with PC4 (10%) (Table 3). The subsequent cluster analysis resulted in the selection of five clusters, whose meanings were interpreted together with the PCs (Figures A6-A9, Appendix 2). The five types, and the representative case study farms for the subsequent bio-economic modelling, could be summarized as follows:SMALLEST (44.6%) was the smallest by area (1.3 ha), had the second smallest livestock herd (2.9 TLU), did not own improved cattle and only few small ruminants, but had the highest median amount of purchased concentrates (83.5 kg year −1 ) (Table 4). The case study farm was located in Long and had 1.6 ha divided in various fields under maize and beans, potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), eucalyptus treesand pasture. The household had two local cows, four goats and three sheep which grazed six hours day −1 off-farm and two hours day −1 on farm and otherwise stayed in the yard or stable (Tables A2-A3, Appendix 3). DAIRY (16.9%) had a medium farm (2.4 ha) and livestock herd size (4.6 TLU). It had the highest median number of improved cattle (1.5 heads), and relatively high purchased feed (52.4 kg year −1 ) (Table 4). The case study farm was located in Sabilo and cultivated 3.6 ha, of which one field was intercropped with maize, bean, and pigeon pea, 0.53 ha under Napier grass and 1.5 ha under local pasture. The 4 crossbred dairy cows were kept inside, while the six local cattle, five goats, and two sheep grazed ten hours day −1 on-farm (Tables A2-A3, Appendix 3). SHOAT (26.5%) had a medium farm size (1.8 ha), the second-largest livestock herd (7.3 TLU) with 14.6 small ruminants, the longest grazing time (8.9 h day −1 ), and purchased the lowest amount of feed concentrates (4.5 kg year −1 ) (Table 4). The case study farm was located in Sabilo and farmed on 8.4 ha, of which 3.1 ha were under several crops including maize, bean, pigeon pea, sunflower (Helianthus annuus), 1.6 ha under wheat (Triticum aestivum), and the remainder under natural pasture. The case study farm was considerably larger than the median value from the typology construction, as the household had initially not included the natural pasture as his farm land during the household survey, and had rented additional land for wheat cultivation after 2013. The household-owned 20 goats, seven sheep, and seven local cattle that all grazed exclusively on-farm on the pasture or in the open yard around the homestead (Tables A2-A3, Appendix 3). Notes: Values are expressed in median over the year. The variables are described in Table 3.POULTRY (7.2%) owned a relatively small farming area (1.6 ha), had the smallest herd (1.1 TLU) and most chicken of all types (20 heads). It had one of the lowest family labour requirements for livestock (6.5 h day −1 ) and relatively high purchased concentrates (Table 4). This type was omitted for the household modelling as the focus of this study lay on ruminant smallholder livestock systems. LARGE LIVESTOCK (4.8%) had the largest number household members (10), the largest farming area (7.8 ha) and the largest livestock herd size (13.7 TLU) (Table 4). The case study farm was located in Hallu and had 11.1 ha with a fully mechanized maize, pigeon pea and sunflower field (10.1 ha), and an Acacia and Senna tree plot of one ha around the house. The 15 local cattle and 5 calves grazed off-farm for 9 h day −1 , and otherwise stayed in the open yard around the house. None of the farms applied mineral fertilizer (Table A3, Appendix 3).Feed baskets of the four case study farms contained four to eight on-and off-farm items per household.Total DM intake per farm varied between 6619 kg (SMALLEST) and 28,065 kg (LARGE LIVESTOCK), corresponding to average daily values of 18-77 kg DM.SMALLEST and LARGE LIVESTOCK relied on off-farm grazing for more than 50%, while DAIRY fetched around 40% by cutting and carrying natural grasses outside of the farm. DAIRY was the only farm to cultivate on-farm forages (Napier grass), constituting 15% of its feed basket. SHOAT exclusively fed on-farm resources, with 41% constituted by its own pasture. SHOAT and LARGE LIVESTOCK farms were feeding higher proportions of various crop residues (40-50%) when compared to SMALLEST and DAIRY (20-30%) due to their larger farm sizes and crop production. Concentrate feed such as sunflower cake, maize bran and maize grain only made a marginal contribution to the SHOAT farm feed basket in terms of DM (Figure 2a), but contributed 22% of proteins to the diet (Figure 2b). Although DAIRY only had the second-highest TLU and fed the third-largest DM amount, it fed most proteins of all farms.Annual income per household was between 997 USD (SMALLEST) and 2977 USD (LARGE LIVESTOCK).Except LARGE LIVESTOCK, all farms lay below the poverty line. One third to half of all produce was consumed by the households themselves. When family labour was costed, SMALLEST was operating at a loss, and SHOAT just ran even. Despite its much lower farm area, DAIRY was generating higher income than SHOAT (Figure 3a). Total annual labour hours (Figure 3b) required were 3262 h (SMALLEST), 6327 (SHOAT), 6634 (DAIRY) and 8296 h (LARGE LIVE-STOCK). In total, livestock activities required more labour than crop activities, mainly due to grazing time. SMALLEST hired least labour, while LARGE LIVE-STOCK and SHOAT hired considerable amounts of labour for crop and livestock activities. Livestock labour intensity (hours TLU −1 ) was highest for SMAL-LEST and lowest for LARGE LIVESTOCK, as herding a small herd is less labour efficient than herding a large livestock herd. DAIRY needed the secondhighest amount of labour for livestock due to cut and carry feeding. Crop labour intensities were similar across farms.Enteric fermentation and manure together were responsible for >90% of total farm-level emissions. Therefore, emissions increased with livestock herd size, ranging between 2.9 t CO 2 e (SMALLEST) and 16.2 t CO 2 e (LARGE LIVESTOCK). Only LARGE LIVE-STOCK also had significant crop-related N 2 O emissions due to N inputs from crop residue retention on the field and N fixation by legumes. LARGE LIVE-STOCK was also the only farm that burned on-farm products such as timber and pigeon pea stalks for fire wood. Emission intensity per litre milk produced was highest for SHOAT (15.3 kg CO 2 e l −1 ) and SMAL-LEST (9.4 kg CO 2 e l −1 ) due to low production levels, and lowest for DAIRY (2.1 kg CO 2 e l −1 ). Emission intensity per hectare was highest for DAIRY (2.6 t CO 2e ha −1 ) due to a relatively higher stocking rate, and lowest for SHOATS (1.1 t CO 2 e ha −1 ) because of the large farm size (Figure 4a). SHOAT had the lowest N balance with 0 kg N ha −1 as it was the only farm with no nutrient influx from off-farm feeds. All other farms achieved positive farm-level N balances due to the import of grass from outside the farms. DAIRY exported the largest amount of N through milk sale, and SHOAT and LARGE LIVESTOCK through crop sales. None of the farms imported N in the form of manure or mineral fertilizers (Figure 4b).Overall relative scoring of agro-environmental and socio-economic indicators clearly illustrated differences in performance between the livestock systems. SMALLEST came out favourably in terms of environmental quality with the highest species richness, low GHG, and good C and N balances but it also generated the lowest income. DAIRY produced high income, highest C and N balances and only medium GHG, but had a relatively high feed and labour demands. SHOATS had medium income and highest tree C stock, but lowest C and N balances, high GHG emissions, and high feed and labour requirements. LARGE LIVESTOCK had the highest income, but low C and N balances, high GHG emissions, low species richness, and high feed and labour requirements (Figure 5).The model optimization runs illustrated that all farms faced trade-offs between income and GHG emissions.  However, all types had alternative options available to increase income while reducing GHG when compared to the baseline, with DAIRY and to a lesser extent SHOAT and LARGE LIVESTOCK having most options available (Figure 6a). When looking at the relationship between income and annual N balance, a trade-off was visible for SMALLEST and DAIRY while for SHOATS and LARGE LIVESTOCK there were only few options to increase their N balance (Figure 6b).Only a few of the chosen alternatives represented a triple win, thus an improvement on all three objectives when compared to the baseline. Farm constellation M (medium) for SMALLEST increased income by 40%, decreased GHG emissions by 30% and increased N balance by 76%. The overall cattle number was reduced from six to three, and goats and sheep from seven to one. Less maize and bean residues were fed but sunflower cake added, which enabled higher milk production for local and improved cows. The on-farm pasture was eliminated, potato and maize and bean fields slightly reduced and more residues retained in the field instead of fed. Farm alternatives V and H were triple-wins for DAIRY when compared to the baseline. Option V (high income and increased GHG emissions) increased DAIRY income by 109%, decreased GHG by 11% and increased N balance by 38%. This was reached through eliminating the local goats and cows, but increasing improved cows to seven, and raising their milk production to 4.9 kg day −1 by increasing the Napier grass field, decreasing on-farm pasture, and doubling the sunflower cake fed. Less maize and bean residues were fed but more retained on the field. Option M increased SHOAT income by 46%, decreased GHG by 39% and increased N balance by 1144%. This was obtained through eliminating local cows and goats, reducing sheep to one, and adding three improved cows with higher milk production of 5.4 kg day −1 . A Napier grass field of 0.4 ha was introduced, the onfarm pasture and crop fields reduced so that the total farming area decreased to 5.4 ha. Less maize and bean residues were fed and more retained on the soil. Option H was not a triple-win for LARGE LIVE-STOCK but came closest as it increased income by 33%, decreased GHG by 26%, but decreased N balance by 28%. Local cattle were reduced from 15 to eight, and one improved cow at high (5.8 kg day −1 ) milk production added. Off-farm grazing was reduced, but sunflower cake feeding (354 kg DM year −1 ) and a Napier grass field of 1.8 ha were introduced. Crop residue feeding was reduced but more retained on the field (Table 5). When asked about the relative importance of crop and livestock activities, all four case study farmers underlined cropping as the priority activity for income generation. Livestock was mainly seen as backup asset, insurance or risk buffer for funding events and emergencies such as travel, schooling and medical expenses. Except DAIRY, farmers also expressed the importance of livestock numbers, and not productivity, to elevate status and prestige within their community. DAIRY was the only farm that had experience with improved cattle at the time of data collection in 2015, and was planning to replace the remaining local cattle with improved cows (except one bull for draught power) when the children left home as there would be no herding labour available anymore. All farmers underlined the main advantage of improved cattle, being higher milk and manure production. Several challenges with improved cattle rearing was quoted, especially by SHOAT and SMALLEST: (a) they required a high amount and different type of labour as fetching of cut-and-carry feed and drinking water (around 80 l day −1 ) was physically demanding and could not be exercised by children or old people who normally herded local cattle; (b) they were susceptible to diseases and decease especially under hard conditions; (c) they could not provide draught power which was essential in the area; (d) they were not easy to sell as they had higher body weight and were more expensive; (e) they were difficult to impregnate naturally, and artificial insemination services and cooling facilities were difficult to access; (f) they required more and higher quality feed which is not sufficiently available from the local pastures; (g) lack of training and successful examples among their neighbours. After the detailed characterization in 2015 (thus not reflected in this study), SMAL-LEST started experimenting with Napier grass on a small plot, and LARGE LIVESTOCK commenced with one improved dairy cow, which was managed separately from the other cattle. Another commonly mentioned theme was the disappearance of off-farm, communal grazing areas. In Sabilo, there was already no grazing areas available anymore as they had disappeared over the last decade; in Long only the nearby forest could be grazed during parts of the year; only in Hallu, large communal grazing areas were available as recently the community received land from the neighbouring Tarangire National Park in exchange for strictly keeping their cattle outside of its boundaries. Part of this land was used for communal grazing,  while other parts were distributed to households as cropping land.Livestock feeding and husbandry in Babati was predominantly extensive, with relatively large livestock herds, local cattle breeds, reliance on grazing and crop residue feeding, small amounts of fed concentrates, and low productivity. Only few cattle of improved breeds were kept separately from the local cattle herds in zero-grazing units. The quantified feed baskets in Babati are in line with results from Mangesho, Loina, Diyu, Urassa, and Lukuyu (2013) from the same area. According to Hillbur (2013), the cultural history of the Iraqw and Gorowa as pastoralists and later agro-pastoralists can partly explain the current extensive livestock keeping. The experience of zero-grazing is still mainly limited to areas with high population pressure and Heifer Project International (HPI) intervention areas from the 1980s and 1990s (Hillbur, 2013). However, increasing land pressure and degradation is changing the context, leading to disappearance of grazing land, sub-division of farms, and increased conflicts between herders and farmers. Where communal grazing exists, there are bylaws in place within villages. All villages now have defined boundaries, and village land use plans are under way (Bishop-Sambrook et al., 2004;Hillbur, 2013). The diversity of agro-ecological environment and socio-economic characteristics is large across SSA. Understanding, considering, capturing and classifying the heterogeneity and diversity of smallholder farming systems in SSA is the basis to understanding the dynamics and exploring responses to interventions (Tittonell et al., 2010). Modelling few farming systems, types or classes that are considered representative for a wider area is a well-established approach. Farming system types are a population of individual farm systems that have broadly similar resource bases, enterprise patterns, household livelihoods and constraints, and for which similar development strategies and interventions would be appropriate. Different approaches can be used to construct farm typologies, such as qualitative, participatory, expert-based and quantitative typologies (Alvarez et al., 2018;Kuivanen et al., 2016;Tittonell et al., 2010). In this study, we chose a predominantly structural, quantitative approach to construct a farm typology, validated by local experts, and opted to model 'real' instead of 'constructed' farms. However, this approach has its inherent challenges: livestock holdings turned out to be highly fluctuating, with numbers that could between the farm visits in 2015 and 2017. Land sizes as verified in 2015 were larger as originally reported by farmers in the survey in 2013, especially for SHOATS. The discrepancies in land size were mainly due seasonal renting of land, and inaccuracies of farmers' estimations, e.g. on-farm pasture is often not considered and reported as farm plot during a household survey. This reflects findings from other rural areas with good urban linkages in Kenya and Tanzania, which studied changes in rural livelihoods over periods of three to ten years. Improving livelihoods in the area was called a 'moving target' as farmers coped and adapted quickly to the fast-changing local and regional environment (Valbuena, Groot, Mukalama, Gérard, & Tittonell, 2015;Fraval et al., 2018). Such rapid changes on farms limit the strength of structural farming system typologies, and pose challenges the selection of representative farms for modelling and targeting of interventions.An alternative approach to modelling of representative farming system types is modelling of entire farm populations (see for example Frelat et al., 2015;Paul et al., 2018;Shikuku et al., 2017). While this enables to analyze the variability and spread of intervention responses, tends to be more rapid, and avoids pitfalls of constructing and selecting representative farms, it only allows for calculation of relatively simple indicators that can only deliver a first picture or snapshot of a situation. Moreover, quality of outputs entirely depends on the quality of household survey data, which has often been questioned. Key data including land and plot sizes and yields are often over-or under-estimated by farmers themselves (Carletto, Zezza, & Banerjee, 2013;Fraval et al., 2019). Modelling few farming systems, and participatory validation and triangulation of input data using mixedmethods including actual on-farm measurements, such as performed in this study, enables more indepth understanding of complexities, underlying dynamics and relationships between farming systems components. Working with real farms allows for feedback loops and participatory modelling that can improve modelling quality and outputs, and allows mutual learning processes. However, mixed methods data collection and modelling can also be more time and resource-intensive, and less replicable across time and contexts (Thornton et al., 2018). It is a balancing act to obtain a sufficiently accurate picture without being overly simplifying, using the least resource-intensive approach available.This study confirms that livestock is the main contributor to agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in Tanzania (CIAT & World Bank, 2017) and other countries in East Africa (Ortiz-Gonzalo et al., 2017;Paul et al., 2018;Seebauer, 2014). As enteric fermentation and manure management are the main contributors to whole-farm GHG emissions, livestock is a key entry point for climate change mitigation in East Africa. On-farm farm emissions in Babati were higher than in other sites in the region due to the relatively large livestock herds, ranging from 2.9 t CO 2 e (SMALLEST) to 16.2 t CO 2 e (LARGE LIVESTOCK). In Rwanda for example, average annual GHG emissions per household only lay between 0.4 and 1.5 t CO 2 e (Paul et al., 2018). In Central Kenya, whole farm GHG emissions amounted to an average of 1.05 kg CO 2 e kg milk −1 (Ortiz- Gonzalo et al., 2017), while in this study they ranged from 2.1 to 15.3 kg CO 2 e kg milk −1 reflecting the lower milk production levels. However overall, Tanzania has negligible total and per capita GHG emissions (0.2 t CO 2 e per capita) and taking into account the 48.1 Mio. ha forests, the country is a net carbon sink (United Republic of Tanzania, 2015). In contrast to industrialized countries that need to reduce absolute emissions, the focus in East Africa should be on reducing emission intensities through efficiency gains (Salmon et al., 2018). Reducing ruminant numbers, replacing local cattle with improved dairy breeds, and improving feeding through on-farm Napier grass cultivation were synergetic options, decreasing GHG emission intensities without compromising income and food security. Fewer animals of improved dairy breeds, which are better managed and fed, has often been presented as promising climate-smart livestock intensification options (Bryan et al., 2013;CIAT & World Bank, 2017;Herrero et al., 2016;Paul et al., 2018;Shikuku et al., 2017). Smallholder dairy systems, when compared to more extensive livestock keeping, have lower GHG emission intensities per kg milk produced, but also lowest trade-offs with other farm performance dimensions. External drivers like increasing land pressure and policy reform might further favour transition towards dairy systems.This study also demonstrated that with diminishing off-farm grazing, and remaining large livestock and crop sales, nutrient mining is of potential concern. Unless cattle feed is imported from outside the farm, fodder and crop residue feeding are not sufficient nutrient replenishment. In low population pressure areas, potential trade-offs can be managed through temporal or spatial arrangements while in areas with high land pressures, these traditional nutrient transfer systems collapse (Vanlauwe et al., 2017). Babati illustrates this shift in systems, with Hallu (LARGE LIVESTOCK) representing the vanishing nutrient import systems. The village lies in an area that only recently received land from the Tarangire National Park, and farm areas are large and communal grazing areas still available. Long (SMALLEST) and Sabilo (DAIRY, SHOAT) represent the increasing reliance on on-farm resources, reducing farm sizes and zero-grazing systems. Already now, at least 52% of the fields in Babati had negative nutrient balances (Kihara et al., 2015). However, planted forages can also have other environmental benefits that were beyond this study. A study from Long in the 2014 rainy season demonstrated that although 75% of rainfall water was lost by evapotranspiration, runoff levels were significantly lower under forage grass-legume intercrop, resulting in 30% higher soil moisture (Kizito et al., 2016).Ex-ante impact assessment and prioritization studies are increasingly important to target scarce research and development resources, and support decisions for improved adaptation and mitigation of mixed crop-livestock systems in SSA (Descheemaeker et al., 2016). Studies like this aim to generate results that can inform policy makers, project designers, investors, donors and other decisionmakers on prioritizing options towards low emission livestock, despite the complexity of potential impacts and trade-offs. However, the uncertainty of simulation and optimization modelling is often unknown, and if known it might be large (Thornton et al., 2018). Future research in simulation and optimization modelling needs to take into account and communicate such uncertainty, and output from simulation modelling should be seen rather as discussion and not necessarily decision support (Kanter et al., 2018).Despite its bio-economic potential as a climate-smart livestock intensification pathway, adoption of improved dairy breed, feed and husbandry is affected by social and institutional settings. Smallholder dairying has been presented as fast-tracking development, and an advanced, 'modern' technology but Green (2017) argues that livestock modelling neglects the social context of smallholder dairying. Three main adoption obstacles can be distinguished: Firstly, the introduction of improved dairy breeds or feeds is not as simple as inserting a singular technological object, but a change or re-organization of the entire production system. For example, improved feeding needs to go hand in hand with a range of other technological changes including improved animal breeds, appropriate animal shed, provision of drinking water and availability of veterinary services in order to reap satisfactory production responses (Ndah, Schuler, Nkwain, Nzogela, & Paul, 2017). This re-organization in time and space requires capacities, investment and experience that might not be present among resource-constrained smallholders. This argumentation is reflected in the perceptions of farmers in Babati. If improved breeds were introduced in farming systems, they were kept as a completely separate and re-organized enterprise, and not integrated with the local cattle herds: different feeds and feeding system (zero grazing), different and high labour demands for fetching water and fodder. Farmers were reluctant to venture in improved dairy cows due to lack of training and experience. There is a lack of awareness and knowledge, support and investment from national and local authorities, and market linkages for inputs and outputs (Ndah et al., 2017).The second obstacle to adopting improved dairy breeds and feeds is the partial loss of the multi-functionality of livestock (Descheemaeker et al., 2016). Sumberg and Lankoandé (2013) showed in their study from Tanzania that income and nutritious food is only one function of livestock. Livestock intensification may not be the main priority for farmers that primarily keep livestock for providing drought power, as assets and risk management strategy, or for cultural reasons such as identity or status (Sumberg & Lankoandé, 2013;Thomas & Sumberg, 1995). Moving towards improved dairy for income and food, some farmers would be reluctant to accept the trade-offs of losing the savings, cultural and draught functions (Sumberg & Lankoandé, 2013). These functions provide incentives for keeping large livestock herds at low productivity levels, instead of reducing stocking rates and investing in increased productivity (Descheemaeker et al., 2016). This is reflected in farmers' quotes in Babati, mentioning the role of local cattle in social status, as well as draught power and asset and insurance function. The last major obstacle to adoption would be increased risk (Green, 2017;Sumberg & Lankoandé, 2013). Farmers reported high mortality, low fertility, sensitivity to heat, sun and tropical diseases, and high costs for disease prevention and veterinary care.This mixed-methods study from Northern Tanzania illustrates how sustainable livestock intensification options can be a key entry point to reduce agroenvironmental trade-offs across four diverse smallholder farming systems. Livestock was the main contributor to whole-farm GHG emissions, but GHG emission intensity was lowest for DAIRY (2.1 kg CO 2e kg −1 milk) when compared to the other livestock systems types (3.8-15.3 kg CO 2 e kg −1 ). Reducing ruminant numbers, replacing local cattle with improved dairy breeds, improve feeding through onfarm Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) cultivation to reach higher milk production levels, and reduce crop residue feeding to leave them on the field increased household incomes and N balances while decreasing GHG emissions. However, semi-structured interviews with farmers revealed three main obstacles to adoption: they require a skilful re-organization of the entire production system, result in loss of some multi-functionality of livestock, and incur higher production risks.These findings have implications for climate-smart agriculture in Tanzania. As enteric fermentation and manure management are the main contributors to whole-farm GHG emissions, livestock is a key entry point for climate change mitigation. However, mitigation cannot be a primary objective in East Africa but only a co-benefit of much-needed productivity increases as overall emission levels are low. Sustainable livestock intensification provides one of the few synergetic opportunities, increasing productivity and incomes while decreasing emission intensity as cobenefit. A better understanding of the wider institutional settings and incentives is needed to inform and accompany the sustainable transformation of the livestock sector. One of the priorities should be an investment in capacities and supporting infrastructure, and coordination between various actors including policy, private sector, extension and farmer associations. linkage grant through the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock. We thank all donors that globally support the CGIAR reserach programs through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund. The research activieties were further aligned to Africa RISING (Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation), a research program supported by USAID as part of the United States government's 'Feed the Future' initiative. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of results or decision to publish. A. Notenbaert started her career in 1995 as a GIS analyst but moved, during her 20+ years of experience in Africa, gradually from spatial analysis towards multi-disciplinary system analysis. In the process, she has built up a deep understanding of the variety of agricultural production systems in Africa. Joining the tropical forages team of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in 2013, allowed her to develop a thorough understanding of the multiple roles forages can play in food systems. An has a passion for interdisciplinary and participatory research ensuring evidence-based development of sustainable production systems. Her work has more specifically focused on supporting the transition towards more sustainable food systems and the role of livestock production therein. Such sustainable food systems provide benefits to people while conserving the natural resource base upon which they depend.Kassahun Woyessa holds a M.Sc. in Organic Agriculture, and conducted his professional internship with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in 2014/15. He has 8+ years' of professional experience in the nonprofit and public sectors providing support in agricultural development, research and extension in Ethiopia, specialized in livestock, apiculture, smallholder farming systems analysis, design and modelling. He currently works as value chain and entrepreneurship expert for the GFA Consulting Group within the GIZ supported Sustainable Use of Rehabilitated Land for Economic Development (SURED) project in Ethiopia. ","tokenCount":"7320"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b82b6f38728fbf3f5c4a082466b73829","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/350b19e5-f6da-441f-bab8-c8dc935d63c7/retrieve","id":"-1258798958"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d7b10cb1-9dbe-4041-9a5b-595079ffbfd4","pagecount":"4","content":"Mobile technology plays an important role helping people make decisions, policy makers assess options, and researchers collect data more effectively. Digital pens were a topic of keen attention in this week's plenary discussions on mobile devices. Joseph Matere from FAO Kenya explained that the digital pen is a rapid way to collect, collate and share information and data.He explained how it is being used as part of animal disease surveillance systems to identify and track disease outbreaks in Kenya.Previously, it took four to six weeks for a disease to be identified and mitigation measures provided. Often, animals had died and the disease was spread to a very large area.The digital pen helps us deliver rapid identification and diagnoses of diseases -and rapid responses!The digital pen is a 'simple' pen with a built in camera and processor that works with special 'dot matrix' paper. The Daily Tail team Bibi Giyose (Senior Food Security and Nutrition Advisor at the Africa Union Commission) facilitated a panel session on the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement. SUN is a country-led movement that brings organizations together across sectors to support national plans to scale up nutrition by helping to ensure that financial and technical resources are accessible, coordinated, predictable and ready to go to scale.-Juliawati Ontoro (Unicef)The SUN movement promotes the implementation of evidenced-based nutrition interventions, as well as integration of nutrition goals into sectors including health, social protection, development and agriculture.Three main points arising:1. Looking at how best nutrition can be managed within countries, nutrition coordination has to be at the highest level, nutrition has to be coordinated from ministries, or the offices of the prime minister, or the office of the president because only they have the authority, the mandate and the clout to hold all the other sectors accountable. 2. We need to build capacity so the various sectors are able to deliver according to their mandates, from the highest levels all the way down to where the action is. 3. There need to be sustainability mechanisms built into these programs. Through the SUN movement, the emphasis is on a countryled and country-owned approach. \"This means that resources have to be mobilized from within the government so that programs can be started and programs can be sustained, while at the same time agreeing that it is important to work across sectors, to work with the development partners to deliver on the best food and nutrition security.\" Colorful hands","tokenCount":"405"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8d76fda0f5d7715111e7cd354a7ff65b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/98a5436e-8c3c-4354-a9de-2c3329aae45c/retrieve","id":"-935100097"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"28fe7795-1b43-46e5-b18d-42d5ab072846","pagecount":"40","content":"Expanding Utilization of Roots, Tubers and Bananas and Reducing Their Postharvest Losses (RTB-ENDURE) is a 3 year project (2014)(2015)(2016)    List of Tables Table 1:   Cooking banana is the main staple crop in Uganda produced mostly by smallholders for food and income. However, actors along the cooking banana value chain in Uganda face risks high postharvest (PH) losses due to short green life of bananas and damage arising from poor postharvest handling, leading to high physical and economic losses. To understand and quantify the extent of the losses and other overarching issues along the value chain (VC), a detailed market study was conducted based on five specific objectives, including: (1) identify and describe the key players in the banana value chain; (2) establish the current demand and future growth prospects of the different banana presentation forms;(3) establish the level of sorting and grading in the banana value chain; (4) establish the level of use of the weight-based pricing system along the VC and the actor's willingness to pay for its introduction; and (5) determine the extent and causes of postharvest losses along the banana value chain.The study was conducted in south-western Uganda in the districts of Rakai and Isingiro betweenJuly and September 2015. The two districts were selected because they are among the main banana producing districts in Uganda. Isingiro is located about 310 km and Rakai about 208 km south-west of Kampala, Uganda's largest urban and capital city. One sub-county from each district was purposively selected, that is, Dwaniro sub-county in Rakai and Rugaaga sub-county in Isingiro district. 100 farmers (50 per sub-county) were randomly selected for the survey. Ten wholesalers (lorry traders), seven bicycle traders, and ten brokers were selected for the study to get acquainted with the roles played by various value chain actors. Similarly, eight markets (Kasubi, Kisaasi, Bugolobi, Kalerwe, Kawempe, Kibuye, Nakawa and Kansanga) in Kampala and Wakiso districts were also selected. In these markets a total of 40 retailers and 80 consumers were randomly selected. Eight market masters (one per market) were also interviewed to obtain an overall picture of the banana retail market. Lastly, five supermarkets and three exporters were also interviewed.Different tools were used for data collection. A pretested structured questionnaire (for face-to-face interviews) was administered to producers, traders, and consumers, while checklists were used to gather information from key informants (including market masters, bicycle traders, brokers, wholesalers, exporters, and supermarket representatives). Direct observations and literature review were also used. Data were coded and entered in SPSS (version 17), while analysis was done using STATA 13. Descriptive statistics such as means and percentages are presented in this report.The cooking banana value chain mainly comprises of producers, collectors (brokers and bicycle traders), wholesalers, exporters, retailers and consumers. The chain involves the movement of bananas from the producer to the lorry traders either directly by farmers or through brokers and bicycle traders. Lorry traders transport and distribute the bananas to the retailers who then sell to the final consumers. Some bananas move from producers directly to the exporters; who mainly sell to Europe and to the region, especially South Sudan. But, the volume of export is relatively very small. For the study 58 male (28 from Rakai and 30 from Isingiro) and 42 female (22 from Rakai and 20 from Isingiro) producers were interviewed. The average age of male farmers is 48 years, while that for the female is 46 years. The proportion of four market-preferred varieties (including, Nakitembe, Musakala and Mbwazirume plus Kibuzi which is known to have long intrinsic shelf-life) was estimated at farm level. Prior to the survey, the market-preferred varieties were identified and confirmed during two stakeholders meetings involving various VC actors and other stakeholders. Kibuzi is grown by 25% male and 20% female farmers in Isingiro district, while in Rakai district it is grown by 15% male and 13% female farmers. Mbwazirume was found to be grown only in Rakai by 8% male and 4% female farmers, while Nakitembe is grown by only 2% male farmers in Isingiro and 3% male farmers in Rakai. Equal numbers (2%) of both male and female farmers grow Musakala in Isingiro and Rakai. Other varieties are also grown (Entukura, Mbululu, Enzirabushera, Muvubo, Enjagata, and Entukura). Most farmers (71%) obtain their planting materials from their own farms. The majority of farmers belong to groups, but they mostly sell as individuals; hence they tend to have low bargaining power. All bicycle traders are males.They buy their banana from the dispersed farmer plots within the village, and they act as the initial  Market vendors incur few costs, including rent for stalls, own transport, meals and labor costs. The market margins along the value chain vary significantly with large differences between the farm gate price and the retail price. In the low production seasons, the total market margin for a small bunch (10-15Kg) is estimated at UGX 13,500 and UGX 16,500 for a large bunch (above 25Kg), while in the high production season it is estimated at an average of UGX 9,900 for a small and UGX 15,850 for a large bunch. 1 The node of the value chain with the highest market margin is the wholesale level, yet all actors at this level are men.Presentation forms across the value chain: All producers, all brokers and 90% of wholesalers sell their banana in form of bunches and/or sacks of unpeeled fingers. attributed to the ease of handling and high demand for a particularly presentation form, in particular, 32% of the retailers reported that there is an increased demand for peeled bananas .Sorting and grading of bananas across the value chain: VC actors practice some sort of grading. For instance, results show that all VC actors grade their banana bunches by size.However, with exception of exporters, all other VC actors do not grade their banana by varieties and/or quality. VC actors have varying perceptions in relation to quality and variety grading.Results show that 78% of the producers agree that sorting and grading by variety and quality is a good practice and would increase revenues from banana sales, and close to three quarters of such 1 Exchange rate 1 US$=3,150 UGX at the time of the survey.farmers (73%) believe that such practice would not require many (or any) additional skills since it can be done easily at farm level. However, the majority of farmers (80%) acknowledged that sorting and grading requires more time. Most farmers (80%) and bicycle traders (57%) are willing to accept and pay a premium for good quality and sorted bananas, respectively. 80% of retailers and 60% of wholesalers are also willing to accept and pay a premium for good quality and sorted bananas. Approximately 90% of the consumers are willing to purchase good quality and sorted bananas at a premium if availed on the market. About 55% of consumers are not satisfied with the quality of bunches sold in the market and 58% are not satisfied with the quality of peeled bananas sold in some open markets.The weight based pricing system: Unit prices are determined by visual inspection, as reported by all producers, brokers, bicycle traders and wholesalers, which is subjective and arbitrary and therefore presents risks for unfair marketing transactions. All exporters to Europe buy and sell banana in kilograms, yet their suppliers negotiate (through brokers) the bunch price using visual inspection at farm level and sell to exporters in kilograms. Only one of the five supermarkets visited had once sold bananas using the kilogram system, while only five female (12.5%) and three male retail traders (7.5%) in open markets sell (or have ever sold) their bananas by weight. However, the study shows that 98% of the producers, 40% retailers, 75% supermarkets and 50% consumers are willing to embrace the weight-based pricing system. Similarly, 40% of the interviewed consumers believe that other consumers (who were not interviewed) will purchase cooking bananas sold in kilograms. Most consumers (57%) would prefer to purchase unpeeled fingers using the weight-based pricing system. The most preferred pack of weighted unpeeled banana would be a 5kg pack, with 55% of the consumers stating that they are likely to purchase weighed bananas in such quantities (5kg). Most producers are willing to accept an average price of about UGX 750 per kilogram of banana, while bicycle traders are willing to pay an average of UGX 413 per kilogram of banana bought. Super market traders are willing to buy a kilogram at UGX 1,000 and would sell it at UGX 3,200. A big proportion of consumers (45%) are willing to pay between UGX 1,000 and UGX 2,000 per kilogram. Value chain actors ─ most producers and wholesalers, and all bicycle traders believe that the introduction of a weight-based pricing system along the value chain would improve efficiency and lead to fairer pricing in the banana business. These actors as well as half of the brokers also believe that sales by weight would improve trust among the banana VC actors. However, retailers and consumers appear less optimistic at this regard and are mainly afraid that traders would mostly use fake weighing scales, not properly calibrated as required by UNBS. Moreover, some actors believe that the weight-based pricing system will come with added costs in terms of labor for weighing as reported by most producers, bicycle traders and retailers. Results show some gender differences in perceptions. Male producers and retailers are more positive about the weight-based pricing system in terms of efficiency, fair pricing and trust compared to their female counter parts. However, female producers and retailers are more prone to think that the weight based pricing system will not add any extra cost.The postharvest losses across the value chain: Actors along the cooking banana VC face risks of high postharvest (PH) losses due to short green life of bananas and damage arising from poor postharvest handling. During low production (scarcity), on-farm postharvest losses affect about 3.3% (in form of physical losses) and 5.4% (in form of economic losses) of bananas, while during high production PH losses increases to 9.6% (physical losses) and 8.1% (economic losses). Onfarm economic PH losses translate into an average residual value of about UGX 7,500 during scarcity (e.g., a bunch that would have been sold at UGX 10,000 is sold at about UGX 7,500 due to quality deterioration) and UGX 2,400 during surplus per damaged bunch. The major causes of PH losses at farm level during scarcity are thefts (for physical losses) and sell of immature bananas (for economic losses), while ripening is the main cause of both physical and economic losses during surplus season. Though physical losses are not significantly different across gender, economic losses do differ. Female farmers exhibit more economic losses with approximately 8.3%of bananas affected by some degree of quality deterioration leading to lower prices compared to 5.6% of their male counterparts. Furthermore, this quality deterioration translates into higher price discounts for female than male farmers, with residual values of approximately UGX 4,700 compared to UGX 5,100 per bunch, respectively. PH losses in Isingiro are more than 50% higher than those in Rakai district. At retail level (for open market vendors) physical losses ranges from approximately 6.2%-9.8% (scarcity-surplus) and economic losses from approximately 6.5% to 12%selling at an average residual value of UGX 12,000 to 7,500 per bunch, respectively. The major causes of PH losses at retail level are thefts, bruising, finger-plucking and ripening. Losses due to ripening are mostly associated with production gluts, which are partly due to seasonal scheduling of follower sucker selection. Results also show that other chain actors experience PH losses as well. For brokers physical losses range from 2 to 4% while economic losses affect 2 to 5% of bananas. Bruising is the lead cause of physical losses while ripening causes the greatest economic losses in the scarce season. In the surplus season, ripening, bruising and scotching (browning of the fingers when exposed to the sun for long hours) stand out as the major causes.For wholesalers, physical losses range from 7 to 9% while economic ones range from 3 to 8%.Bruising and thefts are the lead causes of both the physical and economic losses in scarcity times, while ripening and bruising cause tremendous losses in the surplus season. The forms in which bananas are handled and transported lead to these high PH losses. Bananas are transported to the markets mainly as bunches on bicycles or stacked on trucks and unprotected. They are also transported as fingers tightly packed in poorly aerated polythene bags that build up heat around the bananas in transit. For the exporters, physical losses range from 2 to 3%, while economic losses are about 4 to 6%. Ripening is the major cause of physical losses in both scarcity and surplus seasons while bruising causes most of the economic losses during both seasons. The losses at export level are minimized by transporting banana clusters with great care and protected in cardboard boxes.Banana varieties Kibuzi, Nakitembe Mbwazirume and Musakala are only accessed by few farmers yet these are the most preferred varieties in the market. Farmers are willing to purchase clean planting materials of these varieties from the nurseries if availed. This presents a business opportunity to farmers who are willing to establish nurseries. Banana presentation forms of clusters and peeled fingers are missing at lower levels of the value chain. There is an increasing demand for peeled bananas at retail level therefore retailers could demand for peeled bananas right from the farm. Farmers are willing to provide peeled bananas as they would wish to use the banana peelings as manure for their gardens. Banana value chain actors are very positive and willing to embrace the weight based pricing system. This is expected to improve efficiency and fairness in the banana pricing system as well as improve transparency between buyers and sellers.The total postharvest losses across the value chain are high and thus require various interventions to reduce them tremendously. All these innovations are expected to improve margins along the value chain and thus reduce the difference between farm gate and retail prices.Cooking bananas are an important starchy food and cash crop in Uganda. About 24% of all agricultural households are engaged in banana production (Kalyebara et al. 2005) Bananas are a major staple food for more than a half of the Ugandan population, with per capita consumption of 172Kg/person/year (Haggblade and Dewina, 2010) , making Uganda the largest consumer of cooking banana in the world (Kabahenda and Kapirir, 2010). Banana is the single most important source of calories among Ugandans accounting for 17% of total daily per capita caloric food intake (Fiedler et al., 2013). Smallholder producers mostly sell their bananas to other agents at farm gate who finally deliver to the urban markets. Moreover, smallholder producers get the least share of the profits in the banana value chain due to a large number of middle men (about 5 to 7 according to Ngambeki et al., 2010). According to the New Vision newspaper (August, 2014), for a 40kg bunch sold at UGX 25,000 in Kampala, its farm gate price is UGX 4,000, yet the transport costs for the same bunch is just UGX 2,000. About 90% of the bananas produced are consumed within the domestic market and the rest exported as fresh or processed banana products (Smale and Tushemereirwe, 2007).However, actors along the cooking banana value chain in Uganda face risks of high postharvest (PH) losses due to short green life of bananas and damage arising from poor postharvest handling, leading to high physical and economic losses. To understand and quantify the extent of the losses and other overarching issues along the value chain, a detailed market study was conducted.The objectives of the study were:1. To identify and describe the key players in the banana value chain  One sub-county from each district was purposively selected: Dwaniro sub-county from Rakai and Rugaaga sub-county from Isingiro district. A total of 100 farmers, 50 per district, were randomly selected. Similarly, in the same districts, ten wholesalers (lorry traders), seven bicycle traders and ten brokers were also randomly selected. Data regarding retailers and consumers were obtained from the major banana markets in the greater Kampala region as indicated in table 1. A total of 40 retailers (market vendors) and 80 consumers were randomly selected. Eight banana market masters (one per market) were also interviewed to obtain an overall picture of the banana market.Lastly, five super markets and three banana (and fruit) exporters were also included in the study. Data were collected using different tools: a pretested structured questionnaire (for face-to-face interviews) was administered to producers, traders, and consumers, while checklists were used to gather information from key informants (including market masters, bicycle traders, brokers, wholesalers, exporters, and supermarket representatives). Direct observations and literature review were also used.Data were coded and entered in SPSS version 17 while analysis was done using STATA 13.Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations and percentages were used to obtain the baseline values regarding banana varieties grown, banana presentation forms, grading, use of the weight based pricing system, and extent of postharvest losses across the banana value chain.Descriptive statistics were also used to determine the gender distribution of males and females across the value chain. Results were presented in tables and figures.2. RESULTSThe majority of farmers (93%) are members of at least one famers group in the village. Each group has an average of 31 members, with 16 females and 15 males. There are four main joint activities carried out in the different groups, including, savings and credit management, collective marketing, pooling of labor and bulk procurement of inputs. The major group activity is savings and credit management as reported by 72% of the respondents. Through groups, farmers are able to easily access credit even without any collateral. The second major activity is collective marketing (25%).Though farmers agreed that collective marketing improves bargaining power and access to bulky markets, it was practiced by only 2% of farmers. Pooling of labor was practiced by 2%, while bulk procurement of inputs was practiced by 1% only. Farmers reported that if structured in groups they can easily organize and mobilize for trainings being much easier and cheaper to invite an extension worker in a group than on individual basis. Majority of the banana growing farmers in the study area are semi commercial (93%); i.e., they produce for both food and the market. Only 6% are exclusively subsistence farmers, while the least (1%) are commercial farmers. On average, the total land owned per household is 10.1 acres, of which more than a half (6.0 acres of land) is dedicated to crop production. An average of 5.4 acres of land is dedicated to banana production (table 2).  2).The Pearson chi square test shows that there is a strong association between the main banana farming objective and the type of variety that is mostly cultivated. Moreover this test is highly significant (pr=0.000). Results show that 63 out of 93 semi-commercial farmers would like to growKibuzi as their number one priority because this variety is more preferred in the market compared to other varieties. Kibuzi is preferred for its large finger size and longer shelf life (Spilsbury et al., 2004). However, farmers have a challenge in accessing clean planting materials. About 55% farmers report that it is not easy for them to access clean planting materials when they want to expand their banana plantations. 14% of the farmers are not sure whether the planting materials they use are clean, while 30% are able to reliably access clean planting materials. Results further show that 95% of the farmers do not get their planting materials from nurseries. The main source of planting materials is the farmer's own farm (as reported by 71%). 3% of the farmers obtain their planting material from neighbors, while those who obtain planting materials from both neighbors and their own farms are 26%. If obtained from a neighbor's plantation, each farmer will incur an average cost of UGX 500 per sucker. If nurseries were established in their respective localities, 86% of the farmers would be willing to purchase the clean planting materials at a cost of UGX 900 per sucker. Generally, farmers anticipate a high demand for clean planting materials if grown in nurseries near their homesteads. Other purchased inputs include manure and mulching materials.On average, farmers spend UGX 1.5 million on manure per annum, while mulching materials purchases contribute approximately UGX 645,000.Labor, including family and hired, is another input greatly required on banana farms. Both men and women participate in the day to day management of banana plots, with men participating more than women. Male family labor is mostly used in land preparation, while female labor is mainly used in weeding. Male household members generally work for more hours compared to the female. This can be explained by the fact that women have other roles (reproductive roles and household chores) to fulfill other than the productive roles. Similarly, more men are employed as laborers (hired labor) than their women counterparts. Hired labor is mostly used for land preparation, planting, weeding and manure spreading. On average, UGX 380,000 is spent on hired labor per annum.The average annual banana production per farmers is about 660 bunches in Rakai and 2,050 bunches in Isingiro (table 3). The difference is primarily due to larger acreage allocated to banana production in the latter. September-November). Generally, most farmers (77%) experienced an increase in their banana production over the last one year. In relation to attributes considered at the point of purchase at farm level, most buyers (55%)primarily pay attention to the size of the bunch and fingers while only 20% pay more attention to quality of the cooking banana. Producers mostly talk about prices (58%) when they meet their buyers, followed by quality of the banana (41%). Other issues discussed include, availability of bananas and the working relations. In addition, some buyers (13%) demand for varieties that are not currently grown by the producers.When asked about the most crucial issues affecting the banana market, most producers reported taxes (71.7%), followed by lack of access to market information (66.7%). In particular, most women producers (65%) do not have timely access to the prevailing market prices due to their immobility and thus they sell at lower prices than what could be fetched. 55% of the producers who sell to exporters reported that the export market has stringent regulations and standards and sometimes their bananas are rejected due to their poor quality. Similarly, another challenge reported by many producers (80%) is the lower prices caused by the production gluts (during the high supply seasons). Other challenges included lack of access to financial service (54%), lack of access to extension services (70%) and pest and disease outbreaks (30%).In general, women participates more in purchasing cooking bananas for consumption. In our sample across the market 72% of the respondents who buy cooking banana for consumption were women compared to 28% men. At farm level most (65%) of the banana produced is consumed and an average of about 30% is taken to the market. 60% of the banana sold in the open markets in the urban centers goes to individual households consumers, while the rest goes to other customers such as hotels and restaurants.Results indicate that consumers have developed strong relationships with their respective sellers over time. For instance, figure 3 shows that about 36% of the consumers are loyal to their sellers.The main reasons given for their commitment include: fair price, good quality bananas (in terms of color and finger size), ability to purchase on credit and good customer care. Nevertheless, a good number of consumers purchase from more than one seller. This is mainly to cater for the seasonal supply of bananas in the market. Consumers feel that they can obtain bananas from other sellers even in the low supply seasons.There is information sharing regarding cooking bananas through the established buyer-seller relationships. For instance, approximately 71% of the consumers reported that they mainly inquire about prices when they talk to their respective sellers, 36% talk more about the quality while only 1% pays more attention to availability of specific varieties. Similarly, some consumers often inform sellers of the type of bananas they need in case they do not find them on the market. The most common means of communication is through face to face interaction (75 %), while 16% of consumers reports use of telephones and 9% communicates to their sellers through other people.A number of attributes are considered when purchasing cooking banana as shown in table 4.Consumers often consider maturity of the banana as the key attribute, as indicated by 95% of the respondents who agreed that maturity of bananas is very important at the time of purchase. This is followed by affordability (in terms of price), freshness (from harvest time to purchase) and size of the fingers and bunch. Only 20% of the consumers pay attention to the variety of the banana. The cooking banana value chain mainly comprises of input suppliers, producers, collectors, wholesalers, retailers and consumers as depicted in figure 4.  5). Buloba town in Wakiso district, which is about 300 km away from the nursery operator's point of operation. When the nursey operator meets with the supplier at AGT, they often talk about price related issues, availability of different banana varieties and disease control methods. Generally, there is no variation in varietal prices, though purchase prices slightly increase in the wet (rainy)season. This is due to the high demand generated by farmers who wish to benefit from the rain.The main customers are mostly men (table 6). The input supplier reported that the majority of farmers (80%) does not use banana tissue plantlets. There are no other banana input suppliers known in the district except the interviewed one. The input supplier agrees that banana plantlet business presents future business opportunities for farmer entrepreneurs. The biggest challenge faced by the input supplier is disease outbreaks, specifically banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW). The main services received by the input supplier are trainings on agronomy and these are provided by MBADIFA and NAADS twice a year.A total of 100 farmers were interviewed from both Isingiro (50%) and Rakai (50%) districts for this study. Table 7 shows the demographic characteristics of producers. Both male and female farmers were included in the sample, of which 58% were males and 42% are female. The majority of respondents were married (84%). Results indicate that 93% of the respondents had formal education while only 7% did not have any kind of formal education. The majority attained primary level of education. The average household size was six in Rakai and nine in Isingiro. The study shows that all bicycle traders are males and self-employed, with an average age of 33 years. They buy bananas from dispersed farmer plots within the village. They operate as the initial collecting agents. They are well-known members of the community and they have established strong relationships with the farmers. The strong relationship helps the bicycle traders to collect enough volumes (quantities) and good quality bananas from farmers at reasonable prices.Nevertheless, competition amongst bicycle traders exists as barriers to entry are quite low. Bicycle traders mostly obtain information from fellow traders. There is also information sharing between bicycle traders and farmers in terms of price and quality of the product. Information is shared through telephones (50%) and face to face interaction (50%). About 57% of the traders inform the producers about customer needs in terms of quality (i.e., fresh, green and large finger size) and about 86% of the producers occasionally respond to such needs. On average, bicycle traders make four trips per day during the surplus season and three trips per day in the low supply season.Figure 5 shows that all bicycle traders look for fresh and mature bunches (with good bunch and finger size). Most traders (86%) also consider price and variety during purchase. Bicycle traders sell their produce to brokers at collection centers that are found at sub-county or district trading centers, while a smaller percentage (20%) of their sales go to local consumers, market vendors or lorry traders. The major challenge faced by bicycle traders is price fluctuation of the bananas (figure 6). About 30% of the bicycle traders reported that low supply in the scarcity season affects them as they waste a lot of time looking for bananas. 15% of the traders reported that it is hard for them to find the varieties mostly required by the market (Kibuzi, Musakala, Nakitembe and Mbwazirume).Losses during transportation to the point of sell reduce their revenue and these losses are mainly due to bruising, breakages and scotching (browning of the fingers when exposed to the sun for long hours).Bicycle traders receive services from banana traders (63.7%), banks (9%) and consumers (27%).All traders receive services at least once a year. Figure 6 shows the services rendered to the bicycle traders. Majority (50%) receive information on quality and quantity of bananas. Resultsshow that 86% of the bicycle traders have never received loans for banana business. All brokers were found to be male with an average age of 40 years. At least 50% of the brokers have attained primary level education and own their businesses. Brokers have been involved in the banana business for an average of ten years. Brokers, though might collect directly from the farmers, buy most (70%) of their banana from the bicycle traders. Brokers are commission agents linking bicycle traders with lorry traders who buy directly from them. Brokers, however, also engage in the transportation of banana to urban markets. Brokers sell primarily to lorry traders. Resultsshow that about 34% of the brokers have good relationships with the lorry traders, and as a result they get cash advances to consolidate stocks and, likewise, sometimes lorry traders are able to buy on credit. 47% of the brokers reported that the main information shared between the brokers, suppliers and the buyers is price-related, while 45% reported to mainly share information related to the quality of bananas. The most popular mode of communication is telephone as reported by 62%of the brokers while 38% communicate face to face. 40% of the banana producers occasionally respond to the brokers needs in the banana market. Results further show that 80% of the brokers look for large fingers, 100% look for mature bananas, 50% look for particular varieties and 80% look for freshness while buying bananas. Brokers reported some challenges in buying bananas as shown in figure 8. Due to the inability to meet the market demand, there are many immature bananas on the market during the scarcity season and, despite the higher market prices at this time, such bananas are low priced due to their low quality. Brokers are also challenged with  farmers, most (80%) are not organized into any group or association. These traders are selfemployed. However, most of them (70%) do not own the trucks. These are hired, which represents their highest operating cost. Traders tend to work with brokers because they prefer to buy bulked stocks which have already been quality screened by the brokers. Mainly price related information is shared between the lorry traders and the suppliers, where 70% communicate occur through telephones. Lorry traders transact mostly (71%) on cash basis but sometimes (21%) procure on credit. All lorry traders have obtained business loans at least once, with an average of UGX 7,500,000. The major constraints faced by lorry traders are high transportation costs, postharvest losses due to ripening and low supply in the scarcity season that leads to purchasing immature bananas. The scattered nature of farmers and the poor road infrastructure in the villages discourage lorry traders to transact directly with the farmers.Market vendors are largely women (about 70%) though for this study men were oversampled to get a better representation of their views. Most (43%) market vendors attained secondary level education. Retailers operate market stalls and most of them (90%) are self-employed. The major banana outlets are the open markets such as Kalerwe, Nakawa and Kasubi. There are several other markets mainly located nearby large communities. The vendors procure their entire banana stock from the lorry traders. They have long term relationships with 70% of their suppliers and at least 40% of their customers. They mostly communicate by mobile phone (52%) for pricing and delivery requirements. Most (83%) vendors do not belong to organized groups or associations.They are largely clients of microfinance institutions and SACCOs, from whom they derive most of their working capital requirements. The main micro finance institutions include FINCA, Pride microfinance and Brac. Market vendors sell their produce to household consumers, hotels, restaurants and schools are mostly paid (65%) on cash basis. Market vendors incur few costs, including rent for stalls, own transport, meals and labor costs resulting in high business profitability.Supermarkets are also involved in the retailing of bananas, and they prefer varieties with longer shelf life and large finger size. The greatest challenge faced by supermarkets is the inconsistent supply of bananas.67% of the exporters are male with an average age of 38 years and 9 years of working experience.The majority (67%) of exporters procure their bananas from farmers directly, while 38% obtain from brokers. Their main challenges are poor quality of bananas during the scarcity season. Exporters sell their bananas to South Sudan and Europe.Consumers play the end-user's role in the banana value chain. Eight markets in and around Kampala were visited from which 80 consumers were interviewed. Among those interviewed, 73%were female and 27% were male. The majority (95%) had acquired some level of formal education, where 24% had primary education, 43% secondary education, 13% tertiary and 15% university degrees. 66% of the respondents were married, with an average age of 34 years. The average household size is was five members per household. Decisions on whether to purchase bananas or not in a household are mainly (70%) taken by wives. About 35% of banana consumers earn below UGX 500,000, while 33% earn between UGX 500,000 and 1,000,000 per month. The average distance to the market is 2.5 kilometers. The majority of consumers (52%) mentioned rice as the typical substitute of banana, while 35% mentioned maize. The preference for these substitutes is because of their consistent availability in the market.At farm level, 77% of the banana business is managed by male household heads. Bananas are sold in form of bunches and sacks of fingers. The majority of farmers sell at farm gate, whereas 80% sell individually and only 20% sell in groups. About 12% of producers operate their banana business under contracts with buyers. Under these agreements, farmers are given advance payments before harvest. Producers rate their buyers as being trustworthy and bulk purchasers.Results show that majority of the males are positioned in the most profitable nodes of the value chains (table 8).The marketing margin (difference between the retail price and farm-gate price) is higher in the scarce season compared to the surplus season as shown in table 8. In the low production seasons, the total market margin for a small bunch is estimated at about UGX 13,500 and UGX 16,500 for a large bunch, while in the high production season it is estimated at an average of UGX 9,900 for a small and UGX 15,850 for a large bunch. Margins are higher in the scarcity season and for large bunches because of the higher prices of bananas. The least profitable node of the value chain is that of the producer. The most profitable node is the wholesale level (table 9), yet all actors at this level are men (table 10). Further analysis was done to determine the quality of packaging materials for peeled bananas.Results show that 33% of the consumers have bought peeled bananas at least once. These consumers rated the quality of packaging material as shown in figure 9. The majority of consumers are not satisfied with the quality of the packaging material as they think it is unhealthy. However, consumers suggest that a standard packaging material that is less harmful to man and the environment should be developed. About 60% of the producers reported an increased demand for bunches in the last one year, while 50% reported increase in demand for bags of unpeeled fingers. At retail level, 91% of the retailers reported an increased demand for bunches, 70% for heaps of unpeeled fingers, and 62% reported an increased demand for bags of fingers. Though the increase in demand for peeled fingers is not large (32%), retailers reported that the demand is steadily increasing over time. Bunches are the most highly demanded type of presentation, with 61% of the consumers demanding small bunches, particularly if they have a not too large household size. The results show that there is no significant difference between presentation type demanded and family size.Bananas can be graded according to variety, quality, size and form of presentation in the market.All value chain actors grade their bananas in terms of size and presentation form. However, there is no single actor grading in terms of variety and/or quality as shown in figure 10.Though grading in terms of quality and variety is not practiced in the banana value chain, different actors have different perceptions regarding this practice. Results show that 78% of the producers agree that sorting and grading is a good practice and would increase revenues from banana sales.Producers (73%) also believe that sorting and grading does not require any additional skill, however 80% of the producers agree that sorting and grading is tiresome and time consuming.Results also show that 60% of producers are willing to accept higher prices for good quality and sorted bananas. Majority of the bicycle traders (57%) are willing to occasionally pay higher prices for good sorted bananas while 43% are willing to regularly pay higher prices. 50% of brokers, 67%of wholesalers and 88% of the consumers reported that they are willing to pay higher prices for good quality and sorted bananas if availed on the market.The majority of bicycle traders (86 %) occasionally find the required quantities of the preferred banana varieties, while 14% rarely find the right quantities of the required varieties. About 32% of the retailers reported increased demand for particular varieties like Kibuzi, Nakitembe, Musakala and Mbwazirume. 55% of the consumers are not satisfied with the quality of bunches and 58% are not satisfied with the quality of peeled bananas.Figure 11 shows the proportion of value chain actors selling banana using the kilogram system.None of the producers, bicycle traders, brokers and wholesalers use a weight-based pricing system. All European exporters buy and sell banana in kilograms, yet their suppliers (brokers) negotiate the bunch price using visual inspection at farm level and sell to exporters in kilograms.Only one of the five supermarkets visited had once sold bananas using the kilogram system, while only five female and three male retailers in open markets sell (or have ever sold) their bananas by kilogram. All markets have at least one market vendor who has ever used (or is still using) the weight based price system except Kalerwe market (figure 12). Results show that 31% of the consumers (25 out of 80) buy or have bought at least once cooking bananas sold in kilograms. Value chain actors ─ most producers and wholesalers, and all bicycle traders believe that the introduction of a weight-based pricing system along the value chain would improve efficiency and lead to fairer pricing in the banana business (table 13). These actors as well as half of the brokers also believe that sales by weight would improve trust among the banana VC actors. However, retailers and consumers appear less optimistic at this regard and are mainly afraid that traders would mostly use fake weighing scales, not properly calibrated as required by UNBS. Moreover, some actors believe that the weight-based pricing system will come with added costs in terms of labor for weighing as reported by most producers, bicycle traders and retailers. Results show some gender differences in perceptions as shown in table 13. Male producers and retailers are more positive about the weight-based pricing system in terms of efficiency, fair pricing and trust 2.8.3. Postharvest losses at the wholesale level At wholesale level physical losses during scarcity are estimated at about 6.7% and economic losses at 3%. These economic losses result into a residual value of about UGX 20,000 per damaged large bunch in scarcity season. The major causes of such losses are thefts and bruising for physical losses and bruising and ripening for economic losses. However, in the surplus season, both physical and economic losses increase and are mainly caused by ripening and bruising.Likewise, the residual value also decreases significantly to approximately UGX 11,000 per bunch if damaged (table 17).  Bruising and ripening are the lead causes of postharvest (both physical and economic) losses during the surplus season at retail level. Bruising results into discoloration and exposes the banana to infections thus shortening the shelf life and lowering the quality. Other causes that have been mentioned include overstaying, scotching and finger plucking. Table 19 shows PH losses by gender. Though no significant differences were observed, males tend to incur more physical and economic losses during scarcity than females, while during surplus women tend to incur more economic losses compared to men. Residual values are not significantly different in both seasons. Banana varieties of Kibuzi, Nakitembe Mbwazirume and Musakala are only accessed by few farmers yet these are the most demanded varieties in the market. Farmers are willing to purchase clean planting materials of these varieties from the nurseries if availed. This presents a business opportunity to farmers who are willing to establish nurseries. Banana presentation forms of clusters and peeled fingers are missing at the production end of the value chain. There is an increasing demand for peeled bananas at retail level therefore retailers could demand for peeled bananas right from the farm. Farmers are willing to provide peeled bananas as they could use the banana peelings as manure for their gardens. Banana value chain actors are very positive and willing to embrace the weight based pricing system. This is expected to improve efficiency and fairness in the banana pricing system as well as improve transparency between buyers and sellers. The postharvest losses across the value chain are high and thus require various interventions to considerably reduce them. All these innovations are expected to improve margins along the value chain and thus reduce the gap between retail prices and farm gate prices.","tokenCount":"7047"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"778b2d3d90ce66dfa25c4c03ae3d080d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/WPapers/CIFOR-ICRAF-WP-23.pdf","id":"-435283491"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d630b192-f533-4504-8a52-ce04b4f7306f","pagecount":"47","content":"The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of CIFOR-ICRAF, its partners and donor agencies concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.The Mekong Delta accounts for 12% of Vietnam's total area and 19% of its population (MARD 2021). The region yields more than 50% of the country's total food, seafood and fruit production, making an important contribution to ensuring national food security (MARD 2021). GDP growth in the Mekong Delta is higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic. The region contributes 50% of the nation's rice output, 95% of its rice exports, 65% of its aquaculture output, and 70% of its fruits (Trung Duy 2021). Agricultural production in the Mekong Delta has been transformed towards establishing large-scale concentrated production areas specializing in key agricultural products such as shrimp, rice and fruits, together with associated processing technologies. However, Vietnamese agriculture remains fragmented and highly sensitive to climate change. Sea level rise is expected to create negative impacts for more than 40% of the Mekong Delta area and cause the loss of around 10% of national GDP over the next decade (Day et al. 2011;MARD 2021). Moreover, agriculture is a primary source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Vietnam.Farmers in the Mekong Delta are technologically less efficient than in other regions of Vietnam. At the same time, the region's infrastructure system remains underdeveloped, unable to meet economic development requirements, and struggles to attract foreign investment (Thu Cuc 2021). Sustainable agriculture development in the Mekong Delta is also impeded by overexploitation of sand and water resources in the upper reaches. The construction of hydroelectric dams, in particular, has changed river flows, reduced the amount of silt, depleted aquatic resources, lowered groundwater levels, and caused coastal erosion, landslides and coastal deforestation and forest degradation (Nhat Binh 2023). The average erosion rate of 20 to 25 metres per year in Ben Tre and the erosion of the province's coastline, for example, damaged 260 hectares (ha) of mangrove forests in the ten years from 2011 to 2020 (Ben Tre Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) 2022).With the Mekong Delta as its main food hub, Vietnam aims to produce and supply food in a transparent, responsible and sustainable manner (Thanh Lam 2022). An agricultural transformation strategy is being developed for the Mekong Delta with the reformulation of a strategic vision with appropriate strategies for nature-based solutions (Nhat Binh 2023). The climate change response for Vietnam in general, and the Mekong Delta region in particular, necessitates reducing emissions and increasing economic resilience, which will require a minimum of USD 114 million initially, and USD 254 million by 2040 (Nhat Binh 2023).Policy initiatives are in place to provide financial incentives and technical support for Mekong Delta farmers to employ more technologically efficient methods and/or shift to more balanced farming approaches to reduce GHG emissions. These include increasing seafood and fruit, and reducing rice production. As the conservation and restoration of forest and coastal wetland ecosystems are well-demonstrated and effective climate change mitigation options (Coppenolle and Temmerman 2020;Schlesinger and Bernhardt 2020) and contribute to sustainable food systems (HLPE 2017a), the Government of Vietnam has afforded significant political attention to protecting these vital ecosystems. Nevertheless, much still needs to be done -from the farm and landscape to global levels, and at different timescales -to fully integrate the different functions of forests and trees for enhanced food security and nutrition, and sustainable development (HLPE 2017b). This will require a comprehensive understanding of the potential of forestry for emissions reduction, its contribution to food security and transformative agriculture, and which stakeholders are influenced and impacted by decisions made regarding forests.Based on a literature review, this report provides an overview of the forestry sector, forestry stakeholders and forestry-based mitigation options in the Mekong Delta region, and discusses how these can help contribute to low-emission food systems in Vietnam. food systems Forests play an important role in low-emission food systems (HLPE 2017a, b, c). Avoiding and reversing deforestation, land degradation and desertification are key food system-related solutions for mitigating climate change (IPCC 2019).With increasing demand from a growing world population projected to reach nine billion by 2050, ensuring all people and nations have access to adequate and nutritious food produced in an environmentally, economically and socioculturally sustainable manner is one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century (Vinceti et al. 2013). Food security is defined as when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (WFS 1996). Even with enough food, a country can still be considered to be in a state of food insecurity if its food is unaffordable for the poor. Forests play a vital role in providing food, ensuring nutrition, and bringing cultural conservation values and income to people around the world (Temu and Msanga 1994;Härkönen andVainio-Mattila 1998, Kajembe et al. 2000;Ruffo et al. 2002;Nyambo et al. 2005;Caspersen et al. 2018;Chamberlain 2020;Miller et al. 2020).Studies have shown that over 30% of the world's population depends directly on forest-based food sources. Estimates suggest that globally, non-timber forest products provide 16.5 kcal per person per day, while firewood is an energy source for at least 2.4 billion people worldwide (FAO 2018). Forest foods contribute 30% of earnings for households living in and around forests (Seymour and Busch 2016). In the Congo Basin, 80% of people's fat and protein needs come from animals living in the surrounding forests (Smith 2012). Asian leaders have recognized the role of forests in food security and economic development for decades (Guerrero et al. 2015). Fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, wild game meat, fish, nuts and insects, flowers, stems, roots, leaves and tubers have all contributed to diversifying and ensuring nutrition in the diets of local communities and seasonal urban dwellers living near forests (Ruffo et al. 2002;Msuya et al. 2004;Vinceti et al. 2008;Jamnadass et al. 2015).Many reports have estimated that around 53% of fruit available for consumption globally is produced in mixed forest and agroforestry ecosystems. Forests provide 15% of the fruits and vegetables, and 106% of the meat and fish that people need to consume according to health agency recommendations (Rowland et al. 2017). As communities living around forests mainly collect firewood for cooking, it also constitutes an important component in ensuring human health (Jamnadass et al. 2015). Many studies have shown that, thanks to their harvesting of forest products, people have a source of income to buy other types of food (Ruffo et al. 2002), and in emergency situations such as the global Covid-19 pandemic or droughts, famines and wars (Vinceti et al. 2008), forests provide people with a source of nutrition to cope with food shortages resulting from economic shutdowns and job losses. Forest biodiversity also helps the sustainability of agriculture, especially in promoting and providing environmental services such as pollination, supplying water, and improving soil fertility and genetic resources, thereby increasing food production (Jamnadass et al. 2015).Each year, around 3.1 million children die from hunger and malnutrition around the world. Malnutrition also causes problems with motor and cognitive development, leading to poor educational outcomes and limited productivity in later life for many other children (Rasolofoson et al. 2020). Ensuring and supplementing nutrition for women and children is considered an important policy for many countries (Bronwen et al. 2013).Forest foods are not only more affordable, but are also important sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid, minerals, protein, carbohydrates and fats for many communities living around forests (Ogle 1996;Kilonzo 2009). A study conducted in 25 countries around the world showed that when people have access to forest resources, the incidence of stunting in children decreases by at least 7.11% per year on average (Rasolofoson et al. 2020). Okia et al. (2019) also found that countries with higher forest cover and people with access to forest resources have higher essential nutrition indicators than other countries. Forest foods currently provide 93% of the daily recommended intake of vitamin A for women and children in forest-dependent rural communities in many African countries, including Cameroon (Fungo et al. 2016a(Fungo et al. , 2016b;;Rasolofoson et al. 2020).In Laos, wild foods are consumed daily by 80% of the population. Similarly, in Cambodia, 50%-70% of meat and vegetables consumed are sourced from forests (Guerrero et al. 2015). In Nigeria, nontimber forest products appear in the meals of 47 million, or 43.20% of households (Chukwuone and Okeke 2012). In Europe and Africa, edible wild fruits are some of the most widely used non-timber forest products, and are important sources of nutrition, medicine and income (Sardeshpande and Shackleton 2019).Wild fruits also contain important organic acids such as malic, citric, and tartaric, which are essential for human health (Kochhar 1981). In addition, wild fruits and vegetables often contain fermented substances and prebiotic compounds that stimulate the growth of probiotics, which are highly beneficial for human health and help prevent various diseases. The demand for a healthy and sustainable diet that aims to eradicate poverty; improve environmental health; enhance human well-being and health; strengthen local food networks; adapt to poverty, increasing food demand and weather-related food shortages; enhance sustainable livelihoods; and preserve cultural heritage, is becoming increasingly popular among urban residents, and forests have the ability to supply sustainable dietary products (Ruffo et al. 2002;Vinceti et al. 2013). In addition to providing plant species, forests are also major sources of bush meat, nutrition and incomes for many local communities around the world (Wicander and Coad 2015;Alves and van Vliet 2018). In addition, with insects being considered delicacies in some cultures (470 insect species are eaten in Africa, for example) and sometimes being higher in micro and macronutrients than some animal-based foods, insect production is a growing industry in countries like Thailand and Cambodia for mitigating the negative impacts of climate change, improving biodiversity and contributing to food security (Imathiu 2020).Forests and forest products also play important roles in ensuring nutrition and livelihoods for people in Vietnam (Dang and Tran 2006). The collection and sale of non-timber forest products such as bamboo shoots, broom grass and wild vegetables have helped people overcome severe food shortages in many localities in Vietnam (Jakobsen 2006). Vietnam's Northern Highlands region has rapidly-developing commodity markets for forest products such as black cardamom (Amomum aromaticum), which is now the main source of income for many ethnic minority households in the region (Tugault-Lafleur and Turner 2009). In the Northwest region, ethnic H'mong people use at least 249 plant species for food, medicine and income generation (Dao and Hölscher 2018). Despite forests playing an important role in food security, they have been overlooked in food sector policies in Vietnam and the Mekong Delta region. Only a limited number of studies have explored the linkage, which highlights the need for future research to enrich our understanding of forests and the forest nexus in the Mekong Delta.Mekong DeltaOf the 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta region, Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Long An, An Giang and Soc Trang are the top five for forestry (Figures 1 and 2).Forest cover in most Mekong Delta provinces is generally low compared to those in the North and Central Coast regions of Vietnam. Kien Giang and Ca Mau have the highest forest cover, at 12% and 18% respectively (Figure 2).  According to Vietnam's latest NDC, Mekong Delta provinces will contribute 3.4% of forestry-based mitigation outcomes for emission reduction with domestic resources, and 0.1% if the country receives international support (Government of Vietnam 2022). Mangroves are the dominant forest type in the Mekong Delta region and play important roles in protecting its coastlines against soil erosion and strong waves, supplying seafood, and accumulating carbon. Mangroves also play an important role in socioeconomic development in the Mekong Delta. In Ca Mau province, which has the largest area of mangroves in the region, its 187,533 ha of mangrove ecosystems have an estimated value of USD 600 million annually with a mean value of USD 3,000 ha¯¹ year¯¹, which is significantly higher than the province's gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 1.25 million in 2010 (Vo 2013).Forests in the Mekong Delta have significant carbon potential (Table 1).  Mangrove area in the Mekong Delta region fell from 185,800 ha in 1973 to 102,160 ha in 2020, at an average rate of 2,150 ha yr¯¹ (Phan and Stive 2022). Mangrove loss in the region has been due mainly to land-use conversion; water pollution; sedimentation; coastal erosion and coastal mangrove squeeze (Weiler and McDonnell 2004;Phan and Stive 2022); resettlement and economic development policies; population growth and urbanization; demand for food and reclaiming wetland for agriculture; landslides; construction of canals and flood dyke protection systems; and expansion of travel systems (waterways and roads) (Nguyen et al. 2016;Luom and Nguyen 2021).Conversion of mangroves for commercial agriculture production: Mangroves in the Mekong Delta have often been converted to aquaculture production, mostly shrimp farms (Ben Tre DARD 2022;Ca Mau DARD 2022;Tra Vinh DARD 2022). Aquaculture area in the region increased rapidly from 445,300 ha in 2000 to 699,200 ha in 2006, with a total aquaculture output of 1,171,001 tons, accounting for over 70% of national aquaculture output and 60% of the country's seafood export turnover (Tran 2008). Hau Giang DARD (2022) also reported mangroves being converted for rice production.A large area of mangroves in Bac Lieu has been converted for wind power plant and LNG gas power plant projects (Bac Lieu DARD 2022), while others in Hau Giang have been converted to ecotourism sites (Hau Giang DARD 2022). Upstream hydropower development and sand mining have also led to riverbed incision and mangrove loss in the Mekong Delta (Boretti 2020;Doan et al. 2020).Natural drivers of mangrove loss: An average of 140 m was found to be the minimum critical width to sustain healthy mangrove forest for the southeastern and eastern Mekong Delta coast (Phan et al. 2015).In many areas, however, estuarine mangroves have degraded into narrow strips of <50 m. Riverbanks along the Mekong River have been eroding at a rate of 2-4 m year −1 (Truong et al. 2017). In Vinh Chau Town, Soc Trang Province, erosion rates of 3.0−16.9 m year −1 have led to gradual loss of mangrove forests and farmland (Tran et al. 2022). Further, the Mekong Delta is sinking and shrinking due to excessive groundwater withdrawal for agriculture and other uses; reduced water flow and sediments due to upstream dams; growing upstream water use and riverbed mining; reduced replenishment of aquifers (Gamboa-Álvarez et al. 2020); and thermo-steric sea level rise (Day et al. 2011). Food production from agriculture and fisheries has become more difficult due to the salinization of soil and aquifers (Eswar et al. 2021); depletion of aquifers; constraints to fish migration; increased pollution; reduced nutrient flows, deterioration of coastal mangrove belts; general degradation of ecosystems; and loss of emerged land (Zimdahl 2006). These have also limited the availability of clean fresh water for domestic use.The population in the Mekong Delta region increased from 15.33 million in 1995 to 17.42 million in 2022. The region has an unemployment rate of 4.52%, poverty rate of 9.25%, and average annual per capita income of only USD 560; lower than the national average (Tran 2008). These, and limited land, have led to significant pressures on natural resources, notably mangroves, as they are often considered low in economic value.Environmental pollution: Waste from households, industrial estates and business activities causes pollution and affects mangroves (Tran 2008). The total volume of sludge and aquaculture waste in the Mekong Delta reaches around 456 million m³ year −1 . Approximately two million tons of chemical fertilizers and 500,000 tons of pesticides and aquaculture products are used annually in agriculture (Tran 2008). Oil and gas exploration also cause environmental incidents and pollute rivers and coastal areas. The Mekong Delta has 81 locations where riverbank and coastal erosion and 37 where sedimentation pose environmental incident risks. In recent years, and especially in 2007, oil spills have affected marine and coastal environments in Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh and Tien Giang provinces, causing economic and environmental damage (Tran 2008).Production, businesses and services have developed rapidly in the Mekong Delta region, growing from 10,900 establishments in 2003 to 14,258 in 2007. In 2003, 68 industrial parks and industrial clusters covered a total area of 15,154 ha, but by 2007 the number had grown to 151 industrial parks and concentrated manufacturing clusters (Tran 2008).Forests in the Mekong Delta not only provide income sources for people, but also wild meat and vegetables (Ogle et al. 2009;Nuwer and Bell 2013) and medicines (Ogle et al. 2003) for local people, and play an essential role in providing important nutrients for women in the region (Ogle et al. 2010).In Cat Tien National Park, people harvest over 100 plant species for daily consumption and sale (Dinh et al. 2012). In the Mekong Delta and Central Highlands regions, wild forest vegetables contribute significantly to overall micronutrient intake, mainly carotenoids, vitamin C, and calcium for women in these areas (Britta et al. 2001). Melaleuca forests in the Mekong Delta provide a valuable harvest of honey from wild bees' nests, amounting to five or six litres of honey per hectare annually (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) 2016). Mangroves also serve as natural wastewater treatment areas for shrimp farming and aquaculture in the Mekong Delta (MONRE 2016).The production of foods, such as shrimps and rice, has led to mangrove loss in the Mekong Delta (Phan and Populus 2007;Tran et al. 2014;WBCSD 2023). Yet, the sustainability of rice-based and aquaculture-based production systems in the region depends to a large extent on the health of the landscapes they are part of (Thai 2019;WBCSD 2023). In particular, watershed wetlands and forests are vital for ensuring the stability of water supply needed by rice paddy systems (WBCSD 2023).While intensification and dyke construction programmes have significantly increased rice production, conversely farm household catches, collection and consumption of wild foods (animals, fish, vegetables) have all decreased (Nguyen et al. 2018;Nguyen et al. 2020). Stakeholders in the Mekong Delta have also expressed concerns over the loss of wildlife, including fish and plant species, in the Mekong Delta (VNA 2020). There has been significant wet and dry season variation in food availability, with poor households experiencing the greatest difficulties. Rice intensification policies aimed at global food security need to balance the wider population's access to this staple food with rice farming communities' need to access high quality wild foods from the fields and waterways of rice farming landscapes (Nguyen et al. 2018).Although most local people in the Mekong Delta earn their incomes from rice production, when their crops are damaged by natural disasters they often resort to harvesting wild mangrove resources as a strategy for dealing with livelihood stress (Fly 2002).According to the 2017 Forestry Law (Government of Vietnam 2017), Vietnamese forest owners are special-use forest management boards; protection forest management boards; economic organizations; the armed forces; science, technology and education organizations; households and individuals; and local communities. In the Mekong Delta, however, people's committees in communes, wards and towns take on the role of forest owners, though not all perform their forest protection and management roles (Soc Trang DARD 2022).The 2017 Forestry Law specifies that forest owners have the following rights:• To have their rights to use forests and the rights to own planted production forests recognized by competent state agencies in accordance with law; • To enjoy forest products as a result of their investments in natural forests or planted special-use or protection forests; • To use forests within the forest allocation or lease terms and the land allocation or lease terms for afforestation in accordance with this Law and the legislation on land; • To be provided with forest environmental services and benefit from such services;• To be provided with technical guidance and other support under regulations to protect and develop forests and conserve biodiversity; to benefit from state-invested infrastructure facilities serving forest protection and development; • To be compensated by the state for the values of forests and assets which they have lawfully invested in or built by the time of issuance of decisions to recover their forests; • To be provided with financial support by the state when their production forests are damaged due to a natural disaster; • To enter into cooperation and partnerships with organizations and individuals at home and abroad to protect and develop their forests; • To have other lawful rights and interests guaranteed.Depending on forest type (special-use, protection or production), forest owners have different rights and functions in the management, protection and utilization of forests and forest resources. Mangrove management in the Mekong Delta's coastal provinces is currently driven by two types of state-owned organizations -protection forest management boards and forest protection departments -either directly, which is most frequently the case, or by contracting households to protect mangrove areas, commonly with forest owners allocating forests to households for direct protection (Tran and Dinh 2021). In some localities, however, forest management and protection is allocated to private enterprises or police departments.  • Forest owners perform inventories, monitor developments in forest resources and report them to the Forest Protection Department. • In the event of a forest fire, the forest owner must promptly extinguish the fire and immediately report it to the competent state agency. • Forest owners take measures to prevent and eliminate organisms harmful to forests; If harmful organisms are detected in assigned or leased forest areas, they must immediately notify the nearest plant protection and quarantine agency for guidance and support in conducting prevention measures. • Forest owners take responsibility for the spread of any harmful forest epidemics resulting from their failure to take measures to prevent and eliminate them according to provisions of the Forestry Law, the law on plant protection and quarantine, and veterinary law; state recovery of forests is regulated in the 2017 Forestry Law. • When the state recovers all or part of a forest, the forest owner shall be compensated for their labour, investment, and recovered assets, except in cases specified in the Forestry Law.• Forest owners shall undertake fire prevention and firefighting preparatory work.• Forest owners shall implement forest protection contracts when funded.• Forest owner units organize 113 stations, checkpoints and camps with 928 personnel on standby 24 hours a day in key areas. • Forest owners must raise awareness and take greater responsibility for protecting and developing coastal forests.• Forest protection contracts should be implemented for ethnic minorities and local communities. Locals shall be compensated for forest protection costs, and shall be able to enjoy the fruits of integrated aquaculture under forest canopies in areas assigned to them, as well as the products of thinning and exploitation when their forests mature. • Forest owner units must develop production plans and organize forest protection forces, as well as establish forest protection stations throughout their forest areas, and ensure their proper management.  programme by monitoring payments from the private sector; • Providing input for environmental impact assessments on land conversion; • Advising provincial people's committees on land allocation, forest allocation and issuance of landuse rights certificates; and advising special-use forest and coastal forest protection management boards on using special-use and protection forests, and protecting and developing them according to planning and approved plans.All of these provincial government departments also need to report to, and follow instructions from Provincial People's Committees (PCPs), which have the following responsibilities:• Planning, developing and monitoring land-use, forest protection and development plans in coastal areas; recovering land areas belonging to dyke protection safety corridors; and restoring and replanting forests in accordance with regulations in areas planned for afforestation that have been illegally encroached upon or used by organizations and individuals, and land areas used improperly or ineffectively; • Monitoring and updating coastal forest databases for management and supervision purposes;• Organizing forest allocation in accordance with provisions of law, especially forest areas currently managed by commune-level people's committees, and strengthening community forest management; • Directing promotion and education to raise awareness of the roles and functions of forests in coastal areas in all strata of society; mobilizing people and economic sectors to participate actively in protecting and developing coastal forests in response to climate change.In addition to the above government-led forestry-based mitigation initiatives, donors and international organizations have also funded a large number of sustainable forest management projects in the Mekong Delta region (Table 3).Table 3 also provides an overview of other key initiatives in the region.continued on next page  Forestry-based mitigation options are also funded by the private sector (Table 4). • protecting existing natural forests in mountainous areas;• protecting coastal protection and special-use forests;• restoring protection and special-use forests;• improving the quality and carbon stock of poor natural forests;• enhancing the productivity and carbon stock of large timber plantation forests;• scaling-up agroforestry models to increase carbon stock and conserve soil;• reducing emissions through sustainable forest management and forest certification.Implementation of mitigation options proposed in the NDC for 2021-2030 could lead to a total emissions reduction (including increased carbon sequestration) of 82.54 Mt CO₂e through national efforts, and 186.5 Mt CO₂e with external support. Mangrove biomass in the Mekong Delta region may contribute 70-150 t ha −1 , but considerably larger storage of carbon occurs in sediments beneath mangroves (Warner et al. 2016), which have not been well studied. In addition to these seven forestrybased mitigation strategies, Government Decision 120 (Prime Minister 2015) and Decision 770 (Prime Minister 2019) also specify forestry-based mitigation strategies for Mekong coastal forests, including government agencies signing forest protection contracts with local communities; afforestation; restoration; and planting scattered trees.In addition, with support from international organizations, Mekong Delta provinces are also developing and piloting different agroforestry production and livelihood models in coastal areas so people can be more actively engaged in co-managing forests and reducing forest loss. For example, forest comanagement implemented in Ca Mau combines agriculture, forestry and fishery models involving beekeeping, chicken rearing, sea ducks, shrimp, crab and fish in mangrove forests. In the Mekong Delta region, Rhizophora-based agroforestry can potentially reconcile mangrove restoration and livelihood   improvements by combining mangrove planting and shrimp farming (Pham et al. 2022c). Through its mangrove forest shrimp farming model in Ca Mau province, for example, the MAM project has already expended VND 5.34 billion in payments for forest environmental services to 3,200 households certified for organic shrimp farming involved in protecting 15,600 ha of mangrove forests (Figure 4).Mekong Delta provinces are also developing their own forestry-based mitigation approaches to align with the NDC and national policies (Tables 5 and 6). These focus mainly on allocating forest land and developing sustainable livelihoods for local people to increase stakeholder participation in forest protection, provide training, develop infrastructure, and strengthen law enforcement and fire management.Between 2021 and 2025, the Government of Vietnam also proposed different forestry-based mitigation options (Table 6). In Vietnam, eco-shrimp production through sustainable mangrove management is considered a key policy for avoiding further destruction of mangrove forests and maintaining national economic development rooted in aquaculture production. Järviö et al. (2017) argued that sustainable shrimp production in mangrove areas can help reduce emissions and mitigate climate change, finding that mangrove deforestation resulted in 124 tCO 2 of emissions per hectare per year, while mangrove deforestation for Asian tiger shrimp farming in mixed mangrove concurrent farms since 2000 resulted in resulted in 533 kg methane and 1.67 kg dinitrogen monoxide emissions per hectare annually. Consequently, LULUC GHG emissions per ton of live shrimp at farm gate using mass and economic allocation, were 184 and 282 tCO 2 e, respectively; around an order of magnitude higher than from semiintensive or intensive shrimp farming systems. This highlights the urgency of conserving mangrove forests, and the need to quantify uncertainties around LULUC emissions (Järviö et al. 2017). Pham et al. ( 2021) summarized the challenges for mangrove restoration and forestry-based mitigation options in their earlier research (Table 7).  2017), many projects that had not completed the forest care period had their capital recovered and not re-granted, affecting the quality of planted forests. • Investment projects in silviculture works with specific characteristics are often implemented in remote, isolated, disadvantaged areas, and forest land for the implementation of projects is mainly assigned or contracted to households for management and protection, and is combined with production in small, scattered areas. Therefore, only local people can implement afforestation and forest care effectively and save costs (because it is associated with the interests of households). However, according to current regulations, silvicultural investment projects must be tendered, which takes a long time and involves additional costs. This makes it difficult for contractors to implement projects on allocated or contracted land because they must have the consent of the people involved. Consequently, the implementation of silvicultural investment projects in some places has encountered many difficulties and has had to be reviewed and adjusted many times.  These findings are supported by other studies as discussed below.Mangrove carbon sequestration is not widely recognized as an option by local communities and many government agencies (Moudingo et al. 2020;Nguyen et al. 2023). Research and understanding on the potential of mangroves for offsetting emissions from other sectors, such as transportation and logistics -which are important for food systems in the Mekong Delta -are also overlooked by the region's policymakers. Further, there is a need to closely examine the feasibility of forestry-based mitigation options such as mangrove restoration in the Mekong Delta region. For example, Pham et al. (2022a) found most provinces in the region having low and medium restoration potential due to their unfavourable conditions for mangrove restoration, including serious coastal erosion and coastal squeeze. Mangroves cannot accomplish their land-building and coastal protection roles under conditions of a failing sediment supply and prevailing erosion. Ignoring these overarching conditions implies that high expectations from mangroves in protecting and/or stabilizing the Mekong Delta shoreline, and eroding shorelines elsewhere, will meet with disappointment. False expectations include: a large and healthy mangrove fringe is sufficient to stabilize (eroding) shorelines; a reduction in the width of a large mangrove fringe to the benefit of other activities, such as shrimp-farming, is not deleterious to the shoreline position; and the effects of human-induced reductions in sediment supply to the coast can be offset by a large belt of fringing mangroves (Besset et al. 2019). Furthermore, short-term economic gains are often prioritized as the total economic value of mangroves is not fully recognized, and mangroves are often the easiest places to convert to other land uses. Whether potential sites for mangrove restoration can actually become successful mangrove restoration sites is dependent on strong political commitment from provincial leaders (Pham et al. 2022a, c).Investment capital for coastal forest protection and development is still limited. For example, total investments mobilized for Project 120 and National Program 886 for 2016-2020 only met 65.6% of the plan and 32.4% of total approved capital, respectively. Although the government has developed numerous forest conservation programmes in the Mekong Delta, the financial packages provided for forest plantation cannot meet the actual need. Provincial leaders and forest owners in the Mekong Delta have said the government pays VND 15 million per hectare for forest owners to protect and conserve forests, but these payments are insufficient for performing the tasks necessary to do so (Hoang and Chanh 2012). Stakeholders in Kien Giang have pointed out that payments to perform such tasks would need to be doubled to incentivise local people to take part in forest conservation and restoration in the Mekong Delta. Further, despite there being multiple funding schemes for forest protection and development in the region, forest owners and provincial government agencies have difficulties accessing these schemes due to their complex procedures, the requirement to have high-counterpart funding, and the high initial investment necessary to meet their access criteria (Pham et al. 2019). Mangrove restoration is not cheap, and requires sufficient funding for planting trees, selecting appropriate species, planting in the right places, and monitoring and protecting newly planted trees (Pham et al. 2020a).Diversifying income sources and food production through forest aquaculture (shrimp-mangrove) is seen as an effective way to reduce the Mekong Delta's vulnerability to variable environmental conditions, pests and diseases (Chau et al. 2020). Numerous studies have pointed out challenges for mangrove protection and conservation being the income shrimp farming can generate, and poor land-use planning and forest land allocation (Tran et al. 2012;Tran et al. 2014;Pham et al. 2022b). Current shrimp farming systems are economically and ecologically risky, and may negatively influence the environment and the sustainability of local people's livelihoods (Tran et al. 2013;Truong et al. 2021). In the long run, certain challenges may become difficult to resolve if changes do not occur. These challenges include farmers' increasing resistance to forest ratio rules; increased encroachment; and a disparity in opinions between farmers and other stakeholders regarding the impacts of co-management models on communes (Starmans 2023). Despite large numbers of policies and projects being aimed at mangrove restoration, they have been impeded by weak political will to preserve and protect mangroves due to other land uses having higher opportunity costs; increasing pressure from industrial infrastructure development; and urbanization and aquaculture expansion leading to mangrove loss (Pham et al. 2020a). Even though current policies and land-use planning indicate production forests being areas with potential for mangrove restoration, stakeholders have felt such areas have low or no potential for restoration where aquaculture is taking place, as there are neither strong financial incentives nor sustainable livelihood models encouraging farmers to increase the area of forest in and around their shrimp ponds (Pham et al. 2020a). Food production systems in the Mekong Delta region rely on healthy forest ecosystems. Forests can also contribute to low-emission food systems through their potential to remove and sequester carbon and provide food security, particularly for vulnerable groups including women and poor landless households.While provincial authorities, international organizations, the private sector and forest owners have developed and implemented numerous forestry-based mitigation options in the Mekong Delta, their policies have often overlooked potential contributions to food systems. Moreover, policies and practices initiated by such actors have also been impeded by drivers of deforestation and forest degradation rooted in political prioritization of economic development; weak coordination between different sectors and actors; unclear tenure systems; mismatches between funding required and available resources; and limited inclusion of vulnerable groups, including the poor, landless and women.Future food system policies in the Mekong Delta region need to consider well-established scientific evidence and local knowledge in forestry-based mitigation, particularly mangrove restoration. Macro policy changes, particularly in addressing drivers of deforestation, need to be coupled with cross-sectoral collaboration and inclusive governance to enable effective, efficient and equitable lowemission food systems.","tokenCount":"5774"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ad7c2823c2932df5b9acfc93578504d8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/Prendre-le-bon-chemin.pdf","id":"-87793985"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"670d5a95-56b2-4be5-b025-56153084cf66","pagecount":"72","content":"Toutes les opinions exprimées dans cette publication n'engagent que les auteurs. Elles ne représentent pas nécessairement la position officielle du CIFOR, des éditeurs, des relecteurs, des institutions auxquelles appartiennent les auteurs ou des soutiens financiers de cette publication.Ces travaux ont été entrepris dans le cadre de deux programmes de recherche du CGIAR : celui sur les politiques, les institutions et les marchés (PIM), conduit par l'Institut International de Recherche sur les Politiques Alimentaires (IFPRI), et celui sur les forêts, les arbres et l'agroforesterie (FTA) qui est dirigé par le CIFOR. Cette publication a fait l'objet d'une relecture par des pairs selon la procédure habituelle du CIFOR. Nous remercions l'Initiative des droits et ressources (Rights and Resources Initiative ou RRI) qui a financé ce travail de recherche et à ses collaborateurs pour leur profonde implication pendant toutes les phases de l'étude. Ce projet est lié à un travail soutenu par l'Agence norvégienne de coopération au développement (Norad).Nous adressons nos plus vifs remerciements aux organisations qui ont participé à cette étude et qui nous ont communiqué de précieuses informations sur leurs difficultés et leurs réussites, nous permettant ainsi de généraliser la prise en compte des questions de genre et de l'inclusion sociale dans les forums multipartites. Les personnes qui ont relu le texte pour nous faire part de   À quoi sert ce guide ? À qui s'adresse ce guide ? Comment ce guide a-t-il été créé ? Un guide inscrit dans une démarche axée sur les droits • Un forum multipartite (multi-stakeholder forum ou MSF) est « un espace interactif organisé spécifiquement pour rassembler un éventail de parties prenantes afin qu'elles puissent participer au dialogue, à la prise de décisions et/ou à la mise en oeuvre d'actions en vue de remédier à un problème commun ou d'atteindre un objectif pour le bénéfice de tous » (Sarmiento Barletti et al. 2020b, 2).• Le genre renvoie aux relations sociales fondées sur le sexe biologique, ainsi qu'à leur construction, à leur acceptation totale, et à leur contestation (Nightingale 2011). Nous traitons dans ce guide des expériences genrées individuelles et collectives des femmes dans les forums multipartites.• L'inclusion est « le processus d'amélioration des conditions de participation dans la société, en particulier des personnes défavorisées, en leur ouvrant des perspectives, en leur permettant d'accéder aux ressources et de s'exprimer, dans le respect de leurs droits » (Nations Unies 2016, 17). Dans le contexte des MSF, l'inclusion évite que les institutions, les normes culturelles ou les catégories identitaires n'influencent de manière partiale les processus décisionnels ou n'empêchent des personnes de s'engager ou de participer effectivement à toute décision qui les affecte.• En vertu de la reconnaissance qu'elles ont obtenue au niveau international, il est naturel que les populations autochtones 1 demandent à être représentées dans divers espaces publics où se prennent des décisions, de l'échelle locale à l'échelle mondiale (UNPFII 2020). Ces droits ont été officialisés par l'adoption en 1989 de la Convention n° 169 de l'Organisation Internationale du Travail (OIT) et en 2007 de la Déclaration des Nations Unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones (DNUDPA), deuxtextes qui plaident en faveur de la reconnaissance de ces peuples dans les espaces officiels de gouvernance.• Les groupes sous-représentés sont des sousgroupes qui n'ont pas jusqu'ici eu la possibilité de peser sur les décisions dans un contexte spécifique en raison d'un traitement inéquitable. Il s'agit notamment des femmes, des populations autochtones, des pauvres, des personnes âgées, des jeunes, des descendants d'Africains, des pasteurs, des personnes LGBT+, des personnes en situation de handicap, des personnes appartenant aux basses castes, aux minorités religieuses. Il convient de noter qu'il existe différents degrés de sous-représentation qui vont de la représentation symbolique à l'exclusion totale.• Les facteurs de succès sont les conditions propices, les caractéristiques, les activités, les attitudes ou les événements qui favorisent véritablement l'inclusion des femmes et d'autres personnes sous-représentées, ainsi que la prise en compte de leurs idées, valeurs, savoirs et priorités dans les MSF, notamment dans les décisions et les travaux.• Une démarche axée sur les droits part du principe que tous les individus sont nés avec des droits : droit à la dignité, à la liberté, à l'égalité, à la sécurité et à un niveau de vie acceptable (Shankor 2014). Ce type de démarche place les personnes et les groupes sous-représentés au centre des actions de développement, en les positionnant comme agents dans les processus qui affectent leur vie (Broberg and Sano 2018). C'est ainsi que cette démarche rebat les cartes en transformant, d'une part, le rôle des États qui passent de partenaires pour le développement à acteurs ayant des devoirs, tenus de rendre des comptes en toute transparence et, d'autre part, celui des citoyens qui, jusqu'ici bénéficiaires passifs, acquièrent des droits et obtiennent des moyens pour agir (Hamm 2001 ;Molyneux and Lazar 2003 ;Nelson and Dorsey 2018).• Dans une démarche axée sur les droits, les titulaires de droits et les acteurs ayant des devoirs doivent promouvoir leurs droits et les droits d'autrui en veillant à ce qu'ils soient respectés. Les titulaires de droits doivent s'employer à faire valoir, à défendre et à exercer leurs droits, notamment leur droit à la liberté. Les détenteurs de devoirs sont les personnes, groupes et organisations chargés de reconnaître le bien-fondé des droits et de rendre possible leur exécution ; ils ont l'obligation de protéger, de respecter et de mettre en oeuvre les droits d'autrui (Sen 2004 ;Broberg and Sano 2018). Tous les êtres humains détiennent des droits et peuvent être à la fois titulaires de droits et détenteurs de devoirs, en fonction du contexte, des enjeux et des relations concernées.• Les capacités qui concernent les titulaires de droits comprennent leur prise de conscience, leur faculté et leur motivation à exercer ceux-ci. Il s'agit de la capacité des détenteurs de devoirs à mettre en oeuvre les droits d'autrui. Les femmes sont souvent débordées par l'intendance de la maison, les enfants dont elles s'occupent, le ramassage des ressources, ce qui leur laisse peu de temps pour assister à des réunions.Les femmes ne peuvent pas se déplacer soit à cause des obligations familiales, soit d'un manque de ressources, soit parce que les hommes ne les y autorisent pas. Sans accès à la technologie, elles n'ont pas la possibilité de s'engager par internet.Le fait qu'elles soient peu instruites et disposent de peu de compétences empêche les femmes de se mobiliser pour les enjeux et mine leur con ance.Les femmes restent silencieuses par crainte, même si elles ont une opinion et des savoirs importants.Prendre le bon chemin vient compléter et enrichir les précédents travaux qui ont permis de développer un outil de suivi des MSF (Sarmiento Barletti and Larson 2019 ;Sarmiento Barletti et al. 2020a), avec des versions élaborées, plus précisément pour les comités de cogestion des aires protégées (Sarmiento Barletti et al. 2020c)  Les gouvernements ne reconnaissent pas toujours les droits des populations autochtones qui, parfois, ne les connaissent même pas elles-mêmes.Les populations autochtones ont souvent des procédures et des façons de faire di érentes pour organizer les réunions et prendre des décisions.Elles peuvent se sentir stigmatisées lorsque d'autres groupes s'attendent à ce qu'elles se comportent d'une certaine manière. La barrière de la langue peut aussi être importante, car les interprètes en langue locale sont rares.À cause de préjugés scienti ques, le savoir, les systèmes de connaissances et les points de vue des autochtones sont souvent mis de côté.Les Une démarche axée sur les droits est fondée sur les relations et les obligations des titulaires de droits et des détenteurs de devoirs. Tous les êtres humains sont titulaires de droits. Les titulaires de droits doivent s'employer à faire valoir, à défendre et à exercer leurs droits, notamment leur droit à la liberté. Les détenteurs de devoirs sont les personnes et les groupes chargés de reconnaître le bien-fondé des droits et de rendre possible leur exercice. Ces acteurs ont obligation de mettre en oeuvre, de protéger et de respecter les droits d'autrui (Sen 2004 ;Broberg and Sano 2018). Nous sommes tous titulaires de droits et détenteurs de devoirs, en fonction du contexte, des enjeux et des relations concernées. La figure 2 présente les obligations dans les MSF des titulaires de droits et des détenteurs de devoirs pour faire progresser l'autonomie et l'inclusion des femmes, des populations autochtones et d'autres personnes historiquement sous-représentées.Dans le cadre d'un forum multipartite, les acteurs ayant des devoirs peuvent être les concepteurs, les organisateurs et les pilotes du forum ainsi que les pouvoirs publics, les ONG et les bailleurs de fonds. Les parties prenantes d'un forum sont les titulaires de droits auxquels s'intéresse un mouvement qui s'amplifie afin qu'elles soient considérées ainsi (Ooft 2008 ;Rantala et al. 2013). Dans de nombreux cadres juridiques nationaux, on peut aussi trouver des arguments expliquant que les MSF ont le devoir d'inclure des personnes et des groupes sous-représentés. Partant de là, remédier aux inégalités n'est pas qu'un détail pour remplir des conditions, mais plutôt une obligation de reconnaître les droits des groupes sous-représentés. La figure 3 illustre les objectifs d'un MSF, organisés par échelle temporelle et par niveaux de contrôle et d'influence. Elle met en lumière certaines difficultés, les processus susceptibles d'accroître la reconnaissance et l'exercice des droits, ainsi que les espaces qui permettent l'action collective et le renforcement des capacités.Selon ce guide, les processus de transformation qui conduisent à des résultats plus équitables exigent que les MSF travaillent à la fois avec les titulaires de droits et avec les détenteurs de devoirs.Voici ce que peut apporter ce guide aux concepteurs et aux organisateurs d'un forum multipartite :• Des réflexions sur l'organisation d'un MSF, avec un processus structuré permettant aux organisateurs d'envisager des actions et des objectifs concrets qui améliorent l'inclusion au début de la planification de leur forum.• Des outils pour suivre le processus, grâce à une grille permettant de faire un bilan régulier des actions.• Des conseils pour réfléchir aux progrès, avec des questions pour encourager le débat et promouvoir l'apprentissage auto-réflexif et organisationnel.• Des idées pour une feuille de route qui peuvent guider les actions d'un MSF vers ses objectifs.  Pour que l'application de ces outils porte ses fruits, les parties prenantes essentielles d'un MSF (les titulaires de droits et les détenteurs de devoirs) doivent être représentées au cours du processus, que le forum soit à l'étape de conception ou de mise en oeuvre. Examiner régulièrement les progrès avec les parties prenantes.Ajuster les objectifs et les actions si nécessaire.Fixer des objectifs d'inclusion avec vos parties prenantes.Dé nir et mettre en oeuvre des actions spéci ques avec vos parties prenantes.Identi er les titulaires de droits et les détenteurs de devoirs.Examiner régulièrement les progrès avec les parties prenantes.Ajuster les actions si nécessaire.Passer en revue les facteurs de réussite pour trouver des idées.Dresser la liste des contraintes et des facteurs de réussite avec vos parties prenantes.Figure 5. Fonctionnement des outils Chacun invite ses usagers à réfléchir à deux questions essentielles : Où en sommes-nous ? Et sommes-nous sur la bonne voie ? Ces outils sont les plus utiles quand on s'en sert pour cadrer les débats et les prises de décisions, idéalement en groupe.Ils sont adaptables et peuvent s'appliquer de plusieurs façons. Par exemple, Mobiliser les structures peut servir d'exercice pour fixer les objectifs, ce qui peut s'avérer utile avant l'analyse des opportunités et des contraintes à l'aide de Libérer les capacités. Cependant, ces outils peuvent aussi s'utiliser indépendamment et/ou simultanément ; il n'est pas nécessaire de les utiliser tous les deux ou dans cet ordre. En fait, nous recommandons de les appliquer de manière répétée ou cyclique, en réexaminant les méthodes, en les ajustant et en les adaptant à chaque fois (voir la figure 5). Cette approche tient compte du fait que le contexte est en évolution constante, tout comme les aspirations du MSF ; l'engagement dans un apprentissage de groupe, délibéré et répété, permet de s'adapter à la nature dynamique de la participation d'un certain nombre de personnes à un projet concernant les ressources naturelles. Les forums multipartites de courte durée, qui ne se réunissent qu'une seule fois ou quelques fois seulement, ne peuvent pas suivre tous les cycles, mais la démarche n'en reste pas moins intéressante. Identifier les titulaires de droits et les détenteurs de devoirs dans le cadre de l'enjeu traité par votre forum : Qui sont les principaux titulaires de droits ? Quelles sont les capacités qui leur font défaut pour participer de manière effective ? Qui sont les détenteurs de devoirs ? Quelles sont les capacités qui leur font défaut pour remplir leurs obligations ? (Adapté de UNFPA 2010).Examiner les progrès régulièrement avant, pendant et après le forum avec les parties prenantes. Le suivi incombera à une personne précise ou à un comité qui sera responsable des activités y afférentes, des discussions sur les résultats, de leur diffusion et de leur prise en compte dans la planification des travaux du forum. Le suivi doit permettre de répondre à des questions fondamentales afin de savoir si l'on progresse. Vous pouvez vous reporter à l'outil intitulé « Où en sommes-nous ? » 3 , qui a été développé par le CIFOR pour réfléchir et assurer un suivi participatif. Vous pouvez aussi consulter les autres outils de suivi indiqués dans ce document (voir page 39).Nous avons identifié cinq objectifs pour lesquels les capacités des titulaires de droits et des détenteurs de devoirs peuvent être renforcées (voir la figure 4). L'espace où se prennent les décisions est un lieu social accessible qui offre la sécurité. La sécurité des personnes est prise au sérieux, que ce soit lors des déplacements ou pendant la participation à l'évènement.Cet espace où se prennent les décisions est propice à la participation, dans un climat de collaboration, de coopération, de confiance, de respect et de réciprocité. Les conflits sont réglés en suivant une stratégie.La langue locale est utilisée et, lorsque cela n'est pas possible, l'interprétation et la traduction des supports sont prévues.Les conflits sont gérés en repérant les dénominateurs communs et sans confrontation.On veillera particulièrement à l'inclusion dans le groupe des femmes pauvres ou appartenant à une basse caste. Il convient de tenir compte des disparités d'instruction, notamment de l'analphabétisme afin d'y remédier.Les pouvoirs publics, les bailleurs de fonds et les ONG font pression pour l'inclusion des femmes (politiques publiques, lignes directrices, dispositions, quotas).Le rôle des femmes et leur connaissance des ressources naturelles sont reconnus, appréciés et pris en compte.Les femmes prennent part aux décisions sur les questions importantes et stratégiques.Tous les membres peuvent inscrire des sujets à l'ordre du jour ; les femmes sont impliquées dans la définition de l'ordre du jour des réunions qui comporte les questions liées au genre afin d'y réfléchir.Tous les membres participent à la prise de décisions en disposant d'un véritable pouvoir de décision.Les femmes et les personnes pauvres sont activement invitées à participer au débat avant de prendre des décisions.Il existe des occasions d'échanger de manière informelle avec les autres parties prenantes, en se rendant à pied aux réunions, en parlant avec des amis et en recueillant des informations.La représentation des femmes aux comités exécutifs est équitable et leur présence est obligatoire lors de l'approbation de changements de procédure et de projets importants.Les femmes sont équitablement représentées parmi les intervenants, les panels, les experts et les modérateurs.La structure de gouvernance du forum est organisée en plusieurs niveaux, ce qui augmente le nombre total de fonctions d'encadrement et ouvre davantage d'opportunités et d'espaces pour les femmes à tous les niveaux (notamment les comités exécutifs, les sous-comités et les commissions), en veillant à ce que celles-ci puissent gagner en confiance et acquérir des compétences en encadrement et en leadership afin d'exercer des responsabilités. Ces structures favorisent aussi l'apprentissage et la diffusion des informations dans toutes les directions.Les personnes gagnent en autonomie grâce à la sensibilisation et à la connaissance de leurs droits au cours des formations et des ateliers où l'on insiste sur l'équité et les droits.Des activités de renforcement des capacités permettent de consolider les compétences techniques et les connaissances et d'instaurer la confiance.Le renforcement des capacités vise aussi à consolider l'encadrement et la gouvernance.Pour tenir compte du fait que la confiance des femmes augmente en fonction de leur niveau d'instruction, des programmes d'éducation et d'alphabétisation sont prévus dans le processus quand c'est possible.Les parties prenantes peuvent appliquer des stratégies précises pour instiller dans le groupe une mission et un objectif communs et susciter un « langage commun ».Les réseaux sont consolidés, tant à l'intérieur qu'à l'extérieur de la communauté ; la confiance et la réciprocité se développent ainsi que le capital social et les compétences. L'accès aux ressources est facilité.Concernant les femmes, leurs organisations, réseaux, collectifs et mouvements sociaux sont renforcés. Ils reçoivent l'aide nécessaire pour que les femmes s'engagent effectivement, acquièrent l'expérience de l'action collective, gagnent en confiance, puissent faire part des informations dont elles disposent, instaurent des partenariats, assurent la coordination d'activités et participent à la négociation.Les institutions locales sont démocratiques, participatives et inclusives et la prise décisionnelle s'effectue de manière ascendante.Des femmes leaders actives, visionnaires et pragmatiques sont présentes et épaulées.L'accent est mis à dessein sur l'apprentissage social, notamment pour réfléchir aux processus et à la culture de la prise décisionnelle afin de faire évoluer les normes, les comportements et les attentes.On crée un environnement porteur pour les femmes dans les ménages et la communauté.Le rôle des femmes dans l' agriculture et leurs connaissances des ressources naturelles sont reconnus et pris en compte.Les organisations locales ont une légitimité et une responsabilité véritables.Les avantages et les effets de la participation sont évidents.Tableau 3.Dès le départ, les attentes et les conditions sont claires en ce qui concerne le pouvoir décisionnel, les questions fiscales et le calendrier.L'intérêt et la légitimité du savoir autochtone sont acceptés. Un certain nombre de systèmes de connaissances sont abordés, coordonnés et compris : pratiques traditionnelles, réglementations des pouvoirs publics, attentes de la communauté scientifique internationale et attentes sur le plan de la gestion.Les ateliers et les réunions d'information ont lieu dans les langues locales, sinon une traduction est disponible.Les processus décisionnels ne laissent pas les minorités de côté (p. ex. vote à la majorité).L'organisation de la prise de décisions à plusieurs niveaux et les structures de gouvernance emboîtées permettent d'élargir la participation, notamment grâce aux groupes de travail, aux sous-comités et aux réunions de planification La reconnaissance des droits des populations autochtones est une composante fondamentale des processus décisionnels : entre autres, le droit à l'autodétermination, les droits à la terre, au consentement préalable, donné librement et en connaissance de cause , droit de ne pas être expulsé de leur territoire.Les peuples autochtones peuvent participer aux réunions, aux processus et aux diverses instances. Elles ont le droit de se déplacer et disposent de ressources pour cela. Elles participent aux délégations officielles.Les peuples autochtones sont équitablement représentés parmi les intervenants, les panels, les experts, les modérateurs et le comité exécutif.Les organisations autochtones tiennent des réunions préparatoires entre les séances.Un conseil autochtone est constitué spécialement afin de donner un avis sur les questions liées aux ressources naturelles.La discussion est libre sur les facteurs historiques, les relations avec la puissance coloniale et les échecs du passé (notamment la méfiance et la résistance à l'égard du développement et de la conservation en mode participatif à cause du manque de moyens de subsistance et d'autres bénéfices), et le fait que les agences ou les gouvernements n'honorent pas leurs engagements.Un temps suffisant est prévu pour que les peuples autochtones négocient leurs conditions de participation.Il existe un processus pour résoudre les conflits d'intérêts et ceux dus à des modes traditionnels de gouvernance qui ont induit des frustrations à l'égard des règles de participation et de délibération.Le forum dispose de suffisamment de temps, de ressources et d'expertise pour travailler avec succès dans un milieu multiculturel et dans des zones reculées.Les gouvernements, les ONG et les bailleurs de fonds font pression pour l'inclusion des peuples autochtones et des partenariats avec des ONG internationales existent pour protéger leurs droits.Les droits des peuples autochtones sont reconnus dans les politiques publiques et garantis ; les politiques et les lois prévoient également l'autonomie culturelle et l'inclusion des minorités dans l'exercice de responsabilités. Il y a des garanties et des mécanismes pour régler les conflits entre les lois et les coutumes, les pratiques et les droits des autochtones.Les façons de faire et les valeurs autochtones sont respectées et prises en compte dans les cadres de travail de co-gestion, p. ex. les méthodes de gestion des conflits, en conférant un pouvoir de décision aux institutions autochtones, en transférant le contrôle aux communautés locales et en intégrant le contrôle social.Le gouvernement dispose de politiques et de lignes directrices, assorties de garanties, pour impliquer les populations autochtones dans les décisions locales et pour mettre en oeuvre leurs droits.Le gouvernement est disposé à renforcer les démarches participatives en gestion forestière.Les parties prenantes sont considérées comme étant « titulaires de droits » sur les ressources naturelles, que ces droits soient coutumiers ou inscrits dans la loi. Les lois sur les ressources naturelles tiennent compte de l'inclusion sociale.Le gouvernement affecte un budget à l'amélioration de la participation des populations autochtones.On sait qu'il est possible de recourir à des acteurs externes, comme les tribunaux ou la pression internationale et l'on est prêt à le faire.Les valeurs et les décisions des populations autochtones sont respectées et prises en compte ; on leur confère un pouvoir de décision.La représentation des peuples autochtones est équitable dans les conseils locaux et les instances gouvernementales qui reflètent leur diversité et leur réservent des sièges.Les peuples autochtones sont dotées de droits et comprennent comment fonctionne un cadre de travail basé sur ceux-ci.Il existe des leaders autochtones actifs, visionnaires et pragmatiques et une gouvernance autochtone qui encouragent des processus justes et équitables.Les capacités se renforcent dans la gestion des bénéfices et des mesures incitatives, ainsi que dans les mécanismes qui améliorent la transparence et luttent contre la corruption.Les ONG renforcent la gouvernance locale et apportent l'assistance que les organismes publics ne peuvent fournir.Les capacités s'étoffent aussi grâce à la professionnalisation et à la formation à la négociation, notamment l'habileté des communautés autochtones à négocier avec les institutions publiques.Les peuples autochtones s'engagent avec des objectifs précis.L'apprentissage est encouragé dans les deux sens afin que les peuples autochtones et les scientifiques apprennent de leurs systèmes de connaissances respectifs.Des mécanismes existent pour surmonter les rivalités et régler les revendications de groupes autochtones portant sur les mêmes ressources.Il existe des réseaux communautaires, des institutions coutumières ou informelles et un dialogue plus général avec les institutions dans une optique d'apprentissage, d'échanges et de confiance.L'idéologie autochtone est utilisée pour renforcer la communauté et les traditions.Il existe localement des institutions et des organisations de la société civile (OSC) actives, qui n'hésitent pas à s'exprimer et qui mettent en commun leurs informations, ce qui favorise la production et la gestion de données permettant le développement de capital social, de la confiance et de la transparence.On constate que les parties prenantes ont des priorités, des méthodes et des objectifs, parfois communs parfois divergents. Les problèmes sont reconnus comme étant partagés.Les bénéfices pour la communauté sont garantis, comme d'autres mesures incitant à participer (p. ex. des avantages économiques, le renforcement des capacités), notamment le partage des bénéfices et/ou des coûts. C'est également vrai quand l'accès à la terre est restreint en raison de certaines actions de conservation.On parvient à une situation où les droits fonciers sont garantis et bien définis.On passe d'une ","tokenCount":"3875"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/6133339072.json b/data/part_6/6133339072.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1241460bb266ce2c3f044ae2a2ef96c6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2a0f9ed9-64ba-483d-8eca-bf9f0da0e017/retrieve","id":"-1368572473"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"44ad0c1e-7c93-4b74-8c1e-51dfce6fafd2","pagecount":"5","content":"The RTB-University Gender Partnership Initiative All prospective students must be enrolled in a MSc, MA or PhD program with universities in the USA and Canada and must have experience on gender analysis and other necessary social science research and cultural skills appropriate for their project of interest, as well as the agreement of a faculty member from their university to supervise the student's project to assure academic/research excellence.These are not paid positions, but opportunities to collaborate on gender-responsive, international agricultural field work in a professional setting. Allowances be provided by the host CGIAR center to support the student's field research and logistics. In 2014-2015, graduate students from the participating universities listed below undertook field research in various RTB project locations. The RTB-University Gender Partnership Initiative is also open to accepting students from other universities from other parts of the world. The GRC does a preliminary assessment with the project focal point to ensure the student is an appropriate match for the project.If the student is deemed a good match, the student and supporting faculty member then complete a formal Expression of Interest form to be submitted to the GRC for first review.Applications are reviewed by the selection committee.Confirmation of center hosting arrangement provided to the selected student, along with letter from the host center with clear indication of the research work, timeline and deliverables.During the research period the host Project Leader, GRC and RTB Gender Focal Points provide guidance and logistical support to the student.After completion of the field work, student submits field report along with all the raw data to the Project Leader and GRC, and a summary of their reflections to the GRC.If any findings are published in peer-reviewed journals, RTB and the project must be duly acknowledged. ","tokenCount":"290"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/6141964864.json b/data/part_6/6141964864.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4b8574fe9ab0bd9358184e64d04a79e07a8d4926
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"908be58c5a83306177da198e4fe9737e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/676cd864-2aaf-4a84-9ac5-cb3b881bfd36/retrieve","id":"1651773124"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7ce008c0-8b99-497b-8f71-8f3f451ca5f9","pagecount":"2","content":"In Sri Lanka, diets mainly consist of cereal grains, starchy staples, legumes and less frequently, meat and fish. Consumption of nutrient-dense fruit, vegetables and animalsourced foods (ASF) are less common. Significant portions of the population are at risk of micronutrient inadequacies due to limited dietary diversity. Low food affordability and recent climate shocks increase the vulnerability of Sri Lankan farmers and consumers.Average daily food intake was 805g per person, with an additional 303g of beverages per person per day. The average intake of F&V among the sample was approximately 190g (2.4 servings) per person per day.The Sri Lankan Food-based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG) recommends 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-3 servings of fruit per day, which amounts to 400-640g of F&V. Thus, participants consumed only one third of the national recommendation for F&V, and less than half of the recommendation from the World Health Organization (400 g/day). Average daily energy intake in the study sample was 1,921 kilocalories. Mean protein intake was 55g, fat intake was 59g and carbohydrate intake was 290g.Although F&V made up nearly one quarter of the diet by weight, intake of micronutrients remained low. Prevalence of adequacy of intake (PAI) was highest for thiamine (68%) and riboflavin (64%), and modest for vitamin A (35%), vitamin B6 (31%) and folate (29%). For all other nutrients, PAI was below 20%. Dietary intakes of calcium, iron and zinc were the most concerning, with <5% of the sample consuming adequate amounts.Refined grains provided the largest proportion of energy, iron, zinc, niacin, riboflavin and thiamine due to the large quantities consumed. White rice supplied 29% of the sample's average energy intake, but is a relatively poor source of micronutrients. A variety of nutrient-dense foods, including whole grains, pulses, leafy greens and tropical fruits, were also consumed.In total, F&V comprised 4% of total energy and 20% of food mass consumed by the sample. Dark leafy greens, capsicum/chilies, root vegetables, mango and other green vegetables were the primary F&V driving micronutrient intake.Findings are consistent with previous studies that have observed dietary quality and diversity in lowand middle-income countries well below what is recommended for optimal health. These results help improve understanding of nutrient gaps in the target population, as well as potential areas for improving micronutrient intake.Alarmingly, the adequacy of micronutrient intake was below 30% for all nutrients considered, except for thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin A, vitamin B6 and folate. Increasing F&V intake may help to close some micronutrient gaps in the population in a way that is sustainable for the environment. However, diversifying diets, including intake of nutrient-dense foods such as ASF or fortified foods, will be required to address gaps in nutrients like iron, zinc and calcium. Additional research is recommended to better understand and address the barriers to intake of F&V and ASF in the study population. Capsicum/ chilies Mango","tokenCount":"468"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/6153823897.json b/data/part_6/6153823897.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3e86b54441da2dad217e5f1f2de710e531212aa7
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c10c07a7f4a760e17dd64db1b6b322c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7d1a17ff-5dd6-4bda-ba9d-d989ae5901fc/retrieve","id":"-860564160"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c125e523-d342-46fa-9678-17a646509d48","pagecount":"123","content":". Egg production traits of five Ethiopian genotypes of chickens ........................................ 5 Table 2. Reported number of animals holding in the survey households..................................... 22 Table 3. Reported number of local breeds identified phenotypically from feather color......... 24 Table 4. Reported source of first foundation and replacement stock in the study area ........... 24 Table 5. Reported practices of selection, traits of selection and type of sex selection ............. 25 Table 6. Flock structure in the study households.............................................................................. 27 Table 7 Reported flock ownership pattern in the household and ownership in the family .......28 Table 8 Reported labor allocation for poultry farming in the study area.....................................30 Table 9. Reported purpose and importance of chicken farming in study households in the study area............................................................................................................................................. 31 Table 10. Reported use of different ecotypes of chicken by survey households in the study area....................................................................................................................................................... 32 Table 11. Reported priority in consumption of poultry and poultry products in the study households ........................................................................................................................................... 32 Table 12. Reported type of supplementary feeds provided to birds in the study area ............. 34 Table 13. Reported reason and season of offering supplementary feeds to chicken by households in the study area ............................................................................................................. 35 Table 14. Reported priority of supplementary feed to different classes of birds in the study area....................................................................................................................................................... 35 Table 15 Reported time and way of providing supplementary feeds and type of feed trough used in the study area ............................................................................................................................................................... 37 . Reported time and way of providing supplementary feeds and type of feed trough used in the study area...................................................................................................................................... 37 Table 16. Reported water source and distance from the homestead area of the study households ........................................................................................................................................... 37 Table 17. Reported type of housing and cleaning of poultry house in the study area.............. 38 Table 18. Reported Frequency of Cleaning Poultry Houses in the Study Area............................ 38 Table 19 Reported Type of disease, source of infection and access to veterinary services .. ............................................................................................................................................................. 39 Table 20. Reported main causes of chicken death and seasons of most chicken losses in the study area............................................................................................................................................. 40 Table 21. Reported price of chicken by color and comp type in the study area ...................... 42 Table 22 Reported means of transportation and marketing place of chicken...44  incubation and marketing. ............................................................................................................................................ 49 Table 26. Reported number of clutch per hen and number of eggs incubated in one clutch in the study area...................................................................................................................................... 50 Table 27. Reported numbers of chicks grow using different ways of brooding in the study area ............................................................................................................................................................... 50 Table 28. Reported culling practice, factors determining culling, and way of culling in the study households ................................................................................................................................. 51 Table 29 Summary of reported reproductive performance of local chicken .. ............................................................................................................................................................. 52 Table 30 Summary of plumage color of local Female chickens in the study flocks ...............................................................................................................................................................    ............................................................................................................................................................... Table 33. Summary of major morphological characters of local male chicken......................... Table 34. Average body measurement of female chicken in the study area ............................ Table 35. Reported weight in different age group of male ...........................................................61 Table 36. Reported hen production every 10 days on the basis of hen history in the studied households ........................................................................................................................................... Table 37. Reported weight in different age group.......................................................................... Table 38. Reported number of hen laying, sitting on egg, looking after chicks and idle .......... Table 39. Egg production characteristics of the studied hens during the monitoring................ Table 40. Flock size of the studied households in the study area .................................................. Table 41. Summary of Basic temperament,stress tolerance and conservation status of local chicken ................................................................................................................................................. xiv      Appendix Table 1. Availability of marketing and credit service . A study on characterization of local chicken eco-type for functional traits and production system was conducted at Fogera woreda of the Amhara National Regional state. Fogera woreda is one of the eight woredas bordering Lake Tana and it is predominantly classified as woinadega ecology while the annual temperature ranges form 22ºC to 29ºC. The survey report based on 72 household having chickens revealed that the flock size rage from 1 to 39. The nutritional management practices in the study area were of scavenging (main practice) and supplementary feeding. Wells and tap were the major sources of water. Most of the respondents (59.7%) used separate houses constructed exclusively for poultry. The flock management was without separation of sex or age groups and mating was random and nonseasonal. The prices of live chickens were affected by plumage color, comb type and seasonal demands (holidays and fasting seasons). Disease and shortage of supplementary feeds were the two major production barriers of expanding poultry production. Out of the 100 birds studied, the following plumage color pattern was observed in their respective proportions: complete white (Netch) (23%), complete black (Tikure) (7%), complete red (key) (39%), white with black or red tips (Netch Teterma) (4%), grayish mixture (Gebsima) (5%), red with white trips (key teterma) (2%), black with white tips (Tikure teterma) (2%) white with Brest part golden color (Libework) (8%), multi color (Anbsema) (2%), white with red strips (seran) (4%), and red brownish (Kokima) (4%). In term of body shape, most of the chicken population observed had a body shape of wedge and a crest (Gutya) head profile. Almost all of the male chicken had spur, while only half of the female chicken had spur. No shank feather was observed both in Male and Female chicken. For mature hens and cocks, the average shank length was 7.25 cm and 9.32 cm, respectively. The average body length was 17.75 cm and 21 cm for female and male, respectively. The ratio of cock to hen was found to be 1:3.21. On the other hand, the effective population size (Ne) and rate of change in inbreeding coefficient ( F) per year were 3.9 and 1.95, respectively. The monitoring data revealed that average number of eggs laid per clutch per hen was 13.19, while the average number of eggs incubated was 12.97, average number of chicks hatched was 10.23, the average number of chicks weaned was 7.63, the average of hen's age was 19.20 months and average weight of hens was 1.21 kg. The performance of egg production characters egg weight, yolk color, yolk weight albumin weight, shell weight and shell thickness were, 44.89m, 9.06, 16.28 gm, 22.13 gm, 5.52 gm, and 0.45 cm, respectively. On the other hand, the dressing percentage was found to be 58.5% for male and 49.38% for Female. All these findings indicated that the local eco-type, despite the relatively high temperature (it goes up to 30ºC) and the swampy (wet land) Fogera plain have good potential for egg and meat production. Thus they could be used in other places with similar weather and environmental conditions.Population growth, urbanization and rising income in many parts of the developing world have caused a growing demand for food of animal origin. Poultry meat and egg production account for more than 28% of the total animal protein produced in world in 1997. The proportional contribution of poultry by the year 2020 is believed to increase to 40%, the major increase being in the developing world (Delgado et al., 1999). According to Klober et al. (1991) chickens, ducks and turkey are the most common of all farm stock throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. He further noted that in most tropical countries every family-settled or nomadic-owns some kind of poultry.In Ethiopia, the word poultry is synonymous with domestic chicken (Gallus domesticus) because other types of poultry are almost unknown as sources of egg and meat (Alemu, 1995).Their size bestows micro-livestock advantages including low capital, low feed requirement, and little or no labor requirement. Further more, they are \"family sized,' easily killed and dressed with little or no spoilage. These poultry species help meet the protein needs of the poorest people in the world (klober, 1991). According to Kitaly (1996) village chicken products are often the only source of animal protein for resource poor households.Many researchers have indicated that poultry are a renewable resource, easy to prepare, and are among the best source of quality protein, many vitamins and some minerals. In spite of their numbers and potentials, Sonaiya (1990) pointed out that poultry rarely accorded primary consideration in economic development activities; most countries have little knowledge of the contribution household birds actually make to the well being and diets of their peoples. In most countries even those where birds are widely kept, there is little or no research or extension. Tadelle (1996) stated that the bulk of the research effort is being focused on intensive poultry production (with modern housing, and sophisticated feeding system), while the great majority of poultry production in Ethiopia is based on extensive rural production systems. As a result, Tadelle (1996) argues that the results of current research endeavors are often not applicable to the most common poultry production system in the country.Most of the poultry improvement programs in developing countries have been directed towards the introduction of specialized or exotic breeds, cross breeding, and management intensification. While there have been measurable improvements in egg and poultry production in the satellite layer and broiler production units, the high mortality of the introduced breeds, low feed resource base at the village level and lack of understanding of the complex biological, cultural and socio-economic relationships have limited the success of most of these programs.Surveys in developing countries have shown that farmers have preferred to maintain local stock i.e. the village chicken for social (e.g. wedding, religious holidays…) and economic reasons (e.g. income generation, job opportunities…) (Kitalyi, 1996). Most of the eggs and meat come from village chicken production systems with indigenous chickens. These indigenous chickens have existed for centuries as scavengers or reared in backyard in rural conditions (Parabakaran et al., 2003) and they produce more than 50% of poultry meat and egg of the tropical countries (Daghir, 2001).The over all chicken population of Ethiopia is estimated to be 55 million heads (FAO, 2000).On the other hand, the chicken population of the study area: Fogera Woreda is estimated at 246,496 (0.4%of the country's chicken population) (IPMS, 2005). Traditional chicken rearing is practiced by virtually every family in rural Ethiopia, indicating that chickens are affordable sources of animal protein (Solomon, 2003). Rural poultry production in Ethiopia represents a significant part of the national economy in general and the rural economy in particular. It contributes 98.5% and 99.2% of the national egg and poultry meat production respectively (AACMC,1984), with an annual output of 72,300 metric tons of meat and 78,000 metric tons of egg (ILCA,1993).Despite the importance of the poultry production in the economic and socio-cultural conditions of the country, very little attempt has been made to describe the indigenous birds in Ethiopia. As a result, the local chicken eco-type are known by their color but not by their breed type because of lack of a clear phenotypic or genetic evidence. The systematic characterization and documentation of livestock biodiversity in Ethiopia is now being carried out but restricted mostly to the breeds of cattle, sheep and goat in that priority. Even though there are many ecotypes none of them is described on physical, physiological and functional bases.Among the many prerequisites essential to frame sound poultry breeding strategy, the knowledge of prevailing agro-ecological conditions, existing poultry genetic resources, and the current poultry production systems, availability of feed and feeding, health status of poultry and market demand are important. Thus the objectives of this research work were: characterizing physical, functional, and adaptive traits of local ecotypes and their production system describing economic and social functions of these traits in their natural habitat As ecotypes are not identified based on their phenotypic or functional characters using the 1999 FAO recommendation, Alemu and Tadelle (1997) argue that it is not tangible enough to show the relative effects of genetic and non-genetic factors on the performance of the local stocks in Ethiopia and design appropriate breeding strategies.Indigenous village bird in Ethiopia lays about 36 eggs per year in three clutches of 12 to 13 eggs in about 16 days. If the hen incubates her eggs for three weeks and then rears the chicks for twelve weeks, then each reproductive cycle lasts for 17 weeks. Three cycles then make one year. Thus they are very efficient, productive and have essential traits for survival (FAO, 2004). Tables: 1 and 2 below provide reproductive performances of some chicken ecotypes of Ethiopia. Smith (1990) reported that local male may reach 1.5 kg of live weight at 6 months of age and females about 30 % less. Teketel (1986) also found that under station condition, local birds reach 61% and 85% of white Leghorn body weight at 6 months of age and at maturity, respectively. Abebe (1992) reported that local birds in Eastern Ethiopia attain 559g at 6 months of age, which was significantly lower than that of the white Leghorn that attains 875g at the same age (Teketel, 1986). Village chicken production systems are characterized by their low input-low output levels. A range of factors such as sub-optimal management, lack of supplementary feed, low genetic potential and high mortality rate are causes of the apparent low out put level. However, village chickens play important role in supplying high quality protein to balance the family food supply, and provide small disposable cash income in addition to the socio-religious functions that are important in the rural people's lives (Tadelle, et al., 2003b).Family production is an appropriate system that makes the best use of locally available resources (Tadelle, 1996;Sonaiya et al., 1998). It is important in low income and food deficit countries as it provides a good source of high quality protein for the rapidly growing human population and additional income to resource poor small scale farmers, especially women (Gueye, 2002). As an example, family poultry represents about 94% of the total poultry in Bangladesh (Sonaiya et al. 1998). In Ethiopia, of the total national egg and poultry meat production 98.5% and 99.2%, respectively are contributed by local birds (AACMC, 1984).A study conducted by Tadelle et al. (2003a) in five agro-ecological regions of Ethiopia revealed that indigenous chickens are the predominant poultry species in the study villages.Rural farm households in Ethiopia do not keep other domesticated birds (such as turkey, guinea fowl, ducks or geese). The same study indicated that the mean number of breeding females per households was 5.4 + 2; and the over all male to female ratio of the village flocks was: 1:2.5. The number of male birds in each household was more than required for breeding purpose. Having more male birds that required for breeding is a result of a preference for special colors and other features for cultural purpose and for sale in the forthcoming religious and traditional holidays to make advantage of the highest premium market price during such occasions. In another study conducted by Tadelle (1996) on village poultry production in the central highlands of Ethiopia, the typical number of birds per house hold in three study villages during 1980's was 10-15 but has decreased to: 4-10 birds per house hold. The male to female ratio of the flock was 1:3 to 1:4 (in most cases), although some families keep additional double combed male birds with special colors for cultural purposes. Sonaiya (1990) reported that family flocks are usually integrated with crops, fishes and other livestock species such as chicken/cattle, chicken/guinea fowl, chicken/duck, chicken/turkey, duck/rice/fish, duck/pig etc. Under the extensive system, production cycles are continuous with poultry, unsorted sex, at different stages present in the flock at any given time. Flock composition is heavily skewed to wards chicken in Africa and towards ducks in Asia and Latin America. Household flock size ranges from 3 to 97 in Africa, 10-31 in South America and 50-2000 in Asia (Sonaiya et al., 1998). In Ethiopia the flock are small in number (an average of 7-10 mature birds) in each household consisting of 2 to 4 adult hens, a male bird and a number of growers of various age (Tadelle,1996). AACMC (1984) reported an average of six indigenous birds per household.In rural Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 70% of chicken owners are women (Gueye, 1998).They look after the birds as earnings from sale of eggs and chicken are often a significant source of their cash income.A study in Rushinga district of Zimbabwe shows that women dominated most of the activities around chicken production (Mapiye and S Sibanda, 2005). The women dominated in feeding (37.7 % of house hold), watering (51.2%) and cleaning (37.2%). Men dominated in the shelter construction (60%) and treatment of chicken (40.5%). In the study conducted in five agroecological zones of Ethiopia, Tadelle (2003 a), reported that women have better knowledge about poultry and poultry production than their man counter part. Flocks are mainly managed by women. Hence, helping women to boost rural production increases equitable distribution of food in the house hold.Poultry production in tropical countries is based on the traditional scavenging system and characterized by low out put per bird (Aichi, 1998). In a study conducted by Mapiye and Sibanda (2005) in Rushinga district of Zimbabwe, about 6.2% of the households practice zero supplementation; 96.6% partial supplementation; and 0.2% always provides supplementary feed to their chickens.According to Tadelle (1996), in village chicken production systems, the major proportion of the feed is obtained through scavenging. Birds are usually kept in free range system, which means that they are allowed to roam more or less freely. The main scavenging chicken feed resource base was thought to be insects, worms, seeds, plant materials, etc with very small amount of grain and table left over supplements from the house hold. Sonaiya et al. (1998) mentioned that there are three distinguishable systems for managing family poultry namely the extensive system, free range and back yard, and the small scale intensive system. In the free range and in back yard system, a bird can certainly not find all nutrients it needs for optimal production all the year round. During the dry season, poultry can quickly develop vitamin deficiency because of the scarcity of succulent vegetables on the range. There is thus a need to supplement their scavenging chickens with sources of minerals and vitamins. Most of the materials available for scavenging are not concentrating enough in terms of energy because they contain a lot of crude fiber. There is a need to supplement scavenging poultry with energy sources. That is why grains are given to poultry in the traditional village system. Making well balanced feed is uncommon if not possible for small holder farmer in the semi-intensive system. The feed situation for birds in this sub system is therefore usually poorer than for birds in the extensive or fully scavenging system. Small holders using extensive system adopt cafeteria choice of feeding of nutrients. Energy supplements such as maize, sorghum and millet are offered early in the morning and late in the evening. Birds scavenge during the day mostly for protein (insect, worm larvae, etc), minerals (stone, grits, shell) and vitamins (leafy greens, pepper, oil palm nuts) in between these meals. It has been estimated that 35g grain supplement per hen per day is given to local chicken in the free range system in south western Nigeria (Obi and Sonaiya, 1995). Insects and their larvae are identified as protein sources for scavenging poultry. Atech and Oblogbenla (1993) reported that maggots could make up three percent of the diets of chicken with out compromising performance. In general, well fed chickens have high growth rates and are very fertile and less prone to disease and parasites. These results indicate that feeds and feeding systems are a potential for intervention since the majority of the farmers practiced supplementary feeding with locally produced feeds (Mapiye and Sibanda, 2005). Feed efficiency of local hens was also very low. About 20 kg of poultry feed was needed to produce 1kg of egg (Alemu and Tadelle, 1997). The scavenging feed resource should cover at least to their maintenance need plus the first 40 to 50 eggs, and is a system that makes the best use of source of food resource (SFR), which other wise be wasted (Tadelle, 2003a).Usually, there is no special housing provided for birds in rural villages of Ethiopia. In most cases (88.5 %) they roost in side the family dwelling at night, the roost being made of two or three raised planks of wood placed in parallel. A few households (11.5%) have constructed a small enclosure outside the house, and the poultry night shelter is occasionally cleaned by the house wife, depending on her work load (Taddelle,1996). Mapiye and Sibanda (2005) reported that in Rushinga district of Zimbabwe all farmers provide housing to their chicken.Brick and litter types were the most popular houses because farmers felt that they provide more warmth and security from both thieves and predators than other type of housing. Proper housing must not only provide an environment that moderates environmental impact but must provide adequate ventilation for birds to lay eggs in nest boxes, as well as to feed and sleep in comfort and security (Kaite, 1990). Lack of adequate housing can partly explain chicken mortalities and thus good housing is a prerequisite for any viable and sustainable chicken project.The mortality from hatching to maturity was higher for White Leg Horn than for local chickens kept under scavenging condition with or without supplementation.  2003).The problem of disease in village chickens is compounded by the interaction of different entities that are of significant importance to disease epidemiology. At village level, contacts between flocks of different households, exchange of birds as gifts or even entrusting sales and purchase are the main sources of infection transmission (Aichi, 1998;Tadelle et al., 2003a;Mapiye and Sibanda, 2005). According to Sonaiya (1990), the losses attributable to morbidity are not known, but it has been estimated that more than 750 million chicks, guineakeets, and ducklings in Africa die each year as a result of various infection. Similarly, Cumming (1992),and Tadelle and Ogle (2001) reported that chick mortality represents a major loss in village chicken production system. Reports from different countries show that 53% to 69% of chicks die between hatching and the end of brooding. Kingston (1980) and Kingston and Cress well (1982) in Indonesia, Roberts (1992) in Srilanka, Mathewman (1977) in Nigeria, Tadelle and Ogle (2001) in Ethiopia, reported mortality rates of chicks as big as 60 and 69 percent.Similarly, Tadelle et al., (2003b) reported chick mortality rate of 49% in the first two months after hatching with expected increase when disease outbreaks in the area. Various authors attribute these losses to different causes. For example, Robert (1992) reported that in Indonesia losses were due to a combination of poor nutrition, predators and various diseases factors and although predators were blamed for the majority of losses, other biological and environmental factors made significant contribution. The low input as regards health care may have contributed to the observed high mortality, which occurred mainly during the dry season (Mwalusanya, et al., 2002). Mapiye and Sibanda (2005) reported that in Rushing a district of Zimbabwe predation and disease attribute to 40.5 and 30.2 percent of the total death respectively. Sonaiya (1990 ) and Aichi (1998) in Africa, Aini (1990) in Asia, Sonaiya et al., (1998) in sub-Saharan Africa, Mallia (1999) in America, Mwalusanya et al. (2002) and Tadelle (2003b) in Ethiopia reported that among the diseases of village chicken, New Castle disease was ranked as the most important.Poultry, in one form or another, does make a considerable contribution to improve income and satisfy the animal protein needs of rural family. Scavenging chickens are particularly appropriate because they do not compete for their food stuffs with humans. According to Prabakaran (2003), in specific areas of India, popular local breeds are reared as well as the cross breeds derived from them.In Ethiopia, a hen lays about 36 eggs in three clutches of 16 days and 12 to 13 eggs per each clutch. If the hen incubates her eggs for three weeks and then rears the chicks for twelve weeks, then each reproductive cycle lasts 17 weeks which means that three cycles lasting one year (FAO, 2004).The average annual egg production of the native chicken was 30-60 egg under village condition and that this could be improved to 80-100 eggs on station. The other study at the Assela Livestock Farm revealed that the average egg production of local birds around Arsi was 34 eggs /hen/year, with an average egg weight of 38 gm that is total yearly egg mass of 1.3 kgs. Local birds had high mortality when kept in confinement at the live stock farm.Testing the response of the indigenous chicken under good housing, feeding and management at the Jimma University, it was found that there was an increase in the productive performance of the chicken with improvement in environment and management but not to an economically acceptable level. Compared with the production potential under improved management condition of local strains from southern Ethiopia with White Leghorns the comparison in egg production characteristics showed that the local eco-types had poorer rate of egg production (18 versus 26%) but had the capacity of sustained egg production at times of increased environmental temperatures. In a similar study at Alemaya on local chicken from eastern Ethiopia it was found that both hen-day and hen-housed egg production in local stock was about 70% of that achieved by White Leghorn stock (cited in Alemu and Tadelle, 1997) The average weight of eggs from local birds was found to be about 40 to 46 gram.Predictably, in view of their lower rate of productive performances local stocks produce eggs with thicker shells than leg horns, while fertility of eggs from local stocks was found to be higher than that from Leghorns, and the studies concluded that even under improved management, local stocks with their current genotypes could not compete successfully with White Leghorns (Alemu and Tadelle, 1997).The production performance of local breeds is relatively poor. They barely produce 40-60 brown shelled eggs in two cycles from which about 10-15 chicks are hatched and the rest of the eggs are sold or consumed as table eggs. The native hens still exhibit signs of broodiness and sit on their eggs for hatching. Egg production ceases during that period. Sonaiya (1998) reported that there are three production systems for family poultry-free range, backyard and small scale intensive with productivity of 20-60, 30-100 and 80-150 eggs/hen/year, respectively.Tadelle et al. (2003a) reported that a breeding female chicken can attain sexual maturity at the age of 6.8 months and the over all mean egg laying performances of hens for the first, second and third higher clutches were 17.0, 20.9 and 24.8 eggs respectively. In the same study the hen performance history revealed that the mean flock egg number/clutch/bird, clutch number /bird/year and egg number /bird/ year were 17.7 + 0.25, 2.6 + 0.06 and 46.4 + 0.86, respectively. It was noted that the productivity was related to agricultural calendar and age of birds. A laying hen needs about 120-130 days to accomplish one production cycle that is 40 -50 days of laying, 21 days of incubation and 60 days of brooding chicks. The time taken by the laying hen to incubate eggs and brood chicks that may eventually die represents a considerable loss of eggs that would have been consumed or sold.Studies on some of the indigenous birds have shown that their potential for egg production is very low. As an example, a study at the college of Agriculture, Alemaya, has indicated that the average annual egg production of native chicken was 40 eggs under farmer's management, but under experimental conditions with improved feeding housing and health care, the level of production was elevated to 99 eggs per hen per year (Bigbee, 1965).In a study at Soddo, by the Wolaita Agricultural Development Unit (WADU) by Kidane (1980), it was reported that the egg production of indigenous birds was 84 eggs /bird/ year.According to the study by the Ministry of Agriculture (1980), average annual egg production of the native chicken is 30 to 40 eggs under village conditions and that this could be increased to 80 eggs when birds are provided with an improved feeding, housing and health care.A study at the Assela Live Stock Farm revealed that the average production of local birds in Arsi was 34 eggs/ hen/ year with an average egg weight of 38gm under scavenging condition (Brannag and Pearson 1990). Similarly the average egg weight of local birds was found to be about 40g (AACMC, 1984;Abebe, 1992;Tadelle, 1996), but 46gm was also reported by Teketel (1986).The meat production ability of local stocks is limited. Local males may reach 1.5 kg live weight at 6 months of age and females about 30% less. The carcass weight of local stocks at 6 month of age was 550 gram which was significantly lower than that of Whit Leg Horn (875 gm). However, local stock has a higher dressing percentage (Alemu and Tadelle, 1997).Solomon (2003) showed that there was no difference between White Leghorn and local chickens raised under scavenging condition in mean daily body weight gain at 2 months.According to Tadelle (1996), local chickens are sold from 6-8 months of age for meat purpose when they weigh around 700-1400g. The average age at start of lay was 195 + 28 days, with a range of 183-245 days. Mean body weight at the start of lay was 1035 + 34g ranging from 985 to 1113g. Body weights of 1.2 kg and 800g are obtained at 32 weeks for normal size and dwarf breeds of local chicken in free range system.Poultry products have social and spiritual benefits and play important role in rural economies.In many customs of indigenous people, poultry is used for ceremonies, sacrifices, gifts and as savings in the village. Chickens are given or received to show or to accept good relationship or to say thanks for a favor or help (Sonaiya et al., 1998). Besides, poultry can serve as a unit of exchange in societies where, there is no circulation of money (Gueye, 1998). For example, in Gambia five adult hens can be bartered for one sheep and 25 hens for one head of cattle.Under normal conditions, birds are sold when the household is in need of money. The income from the sale of chickens is an additional revenue to earnings from cash crops from the field (Sonaiya et al., 1998).Tadelle 's study (1996) in the central highlands of Ethiopia revealed that the main objective of keeping poultry is for the production of egg for hatching (51.8%), sale (22.6%), and home consumption (20.2%) and production of birds for sale (26.6%), sacrifice for healing ceremonies (25%), replacement (20.3%) and home consumption (19.5%). In some cases, farmers give live birds (8.6%) and eggs (5.4%) as gifts and invite especial guests to partake of the popular dish \"doro watt\" which contains both chicken meat and egg and is considered to be one of the most exclusive national dishes.The sale of birds and eggs take place in the villages market. Prices fluctuate during the yearbeing low during the hungry season when the granaries are empty, and the crops are still growing and everybody needs ready cash. At such times, traders come to buy and to resell in big cities. Sometimes middle men are involved. Poultry products contribute about 15% of the annual financial income of the household (Sonaiya et al., 1998). Similarly, Tadelle (1996) indicated that farmers sell live birds and eggs, particularly during holidays and festivals; they also sell at the on set of local disease outbreak to prevent expected financial loss. In such circumstances prices fall dramatically due to the high supply of bird's relative to demand. In another study conducted in five agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia by Tadelle (2003b), live birds and eggs are usually sold in local market, to civil servants and occasionally to middle men for retail in the larger towns and cities of the market shedThis section describes the geographical location, climate, vegetation and human and livestock demography of the study area-Fogera Woreda. The information was obtained mainly from the Agricultural and Rural Development Office of the Fogera Woreda.The study was conducted in Fogera Woreda of the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS).Fogera Woreda is one of the eight Woredas bordering Lake Tana. It is situated at 11 0 58\"N latitude and 37 0 41\"E longitudes. Woreta, capital of the Fogera Woreda is found 625 kms from Addis Ababa and 55kms from the regional capital, Bahir Dar (IPMS, 2005)Figure 1. Map of Amhara National Regional State, Fogera Woreda Woreda is classified as one of the surplus producing Woredas of the ANRS.The total human population of the Woreda is estimated at 233,529. Of the total population, those living in rural areas account for 88.5% (206,717).The Fogera Woreda has great potential for livestock production. According to IMPS (2005) estimate, the Woreda has 157,128 cattle, 27, 867goats, 7,607 sheep, 246,496 chickens, 21,883 beehives, 13,189 donkeys, 339 mules, and 8 horses.Primary data for this study was collected through survey (structured questionnaire) and short period monitoring based on the 1990 Livestock Research System Manual of ILCA. Secondary data used in the literature review section and elsewhere in this paper was collected through meticulously reviewing published and unpublished information relevant to the work.A rapid field survey was done before the main survey, among others, to know the distribution and concentration of local chicken eco-types and the peasant associations (PAs). The three sample PAs (Weje, Wereta Zurea, and Kidist Hana) were selected based on the information gathered through the rapid field survey and consultations with Woreda Agricultural experts, extension agents, and some farmers. The three PAs were systematically selected to represent three different agro-climatic zones and extension activities in the Woreda: Dry land (Weji),Wetland (Kidist Hana), high extension activity (Woreta Zuria).However, the 72 households (24 HHs from each sample PA) studied were randomly selected by dividing the total number of chickens in the Woreda by the total number of households (HHs). Every 15 th HH (next HH if the 15 th one had no chicken) was surveyed in each of the three target PAs so as to have a fair geographical representation of sampled households. The survey questionnaire was pre-tested with 4 HHs from each of the target PAs and the necessary adjustments was made prior to the actual survey based on the pre-test. During this part of the study growth performance, reproductive performance, physical feature, some carcass characteristics, egg weight, egg shell thickness, yolk weight and albumin weight were measured. However, characterization was done only in the wetland part of the study area as it comprises more than three-fourth of the total area of the woreda.Based on the typical breed characters, from the wet land of the area, a total of 100 adult birds were selected (50 females and 50 males) and their metric characteristics (shank length, comb length, ear lob length, wattle length, wing span, body length, height at back, height at comb) and body weight measured, and categorical traits (feather characteristics, plumage color, shank color, pattern with in feather, skin color, shank color, comb type, head shape, body shape) observed using the FAO (1986) breed characterization tool. Also, slab records (elevation and topography climate, management systems, type of farm, degree of management supervision, meting systems, incubation method, flock size, nutritional management, physiology and stress tolerance) were described (Appendix 1 provides definitions and ways of measurement implemented).Out of the total surveyed HHs, 20 were randomly selected and monitored every ten days for 4 months duration to describe functional characteristics of the local chicken eco-types in the study area. During monitoring/home visits, such information as eggs laid per clutch, number of eggs incubated, number of chicks hatched, number of eggs wasted, age and average weight of the mother chicken and egg yolk weight, albumin weight, egg shell thickness, egg shell weight and egg color have been collected using devices like sensitive balance, diagmatic micrometer and color fun for weight, egg shell thickness and egg yolk color measurement, respectively. A total of 424 birds were available for the monitoring purpose. The traits recorded were categorized in to different age groups and the age was determined by information provided by flock owners.The complete history of productive and reproductive performances of chickens was recorded at the beginning of the study. Regular and frequent visits of sample HHs was made to collect data that need continuous monitoring/follow-up (E.g. eggs laid, number of day old chicks and their weight) by trained enumerators and the researcher.A total of ten animals (five female and five male) having typical characteristics of local birds within the age range of 8 to 12 months were purchased to see some of the carcass characteristics of local chicken eco-types in the study area. The live weight of each of the chickens was taken immediately after purchase using a weighing scale of 1gm precision.Before slaughtering them, the chickens were deprived of feed and water over night and weighted to get the slaughter live weight. Finally, all the ten chicken were slaughtered and the carcass separated from the offal. The offal in this case included feather, gastrointestinal tract, giblet shank, lung, head, kidney, and sex organ. This was collected and weighed by the same scale.All the data collected was checked for any mistake and corrected and coded. Data from the survey (physical characteristics, functional characteristics, and carcass characteristics) were analyzed descriptively by using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 12.0 for windows. Physical features were analyzed separately for the two sexes.Carcass weight and dressing percentage were calculated using the following formula: This section deals with: production system, reproductive performance, characterization of physical and functional traits; characters of basic temperament, and carcass characterization.Besides chicken, keeping cattle, donkey, goat, sheep, mule and horses were reported to be common in the study area.Most respondents had cattle (88.9%). A little less than half (47.2%) had donkeys while a little over a quarter (26.4%) of respondents had goats. On the other hand, sheep, mules and horses seemed to be not common in the study area. Only 6.9% of the respondents reported of having sheep while not more than 2% reported of owning mules and horses.Chicken farming seems to be an important activity in the study area as indicated by the average holding by household (12.38). The average holding of the study area was, for example, higher than that reported by Dereje (2001) in East Wellega which was 7.61. The reported pattern of livestock ownership and holding per household in the study area is presented in Table 6. The data on general management systems of the area and chicken performances were generated through the structured survey. According to the respondents, the chicken population in the area is increasing. This increase was largely attributed to the growth in demand and increasing prices of chicken and chicken products. In addition, the fact that keeping chicken does not require large area encouraged households to keep more animals. With regards the source of first foundation of birds, most of the respondents (43.7%) disclosed that they bought them. Very small proportion of respondents (5.6%) got their first chickens as gifts from friends or relatives. Close to one out of three (31%) and one out of five respondents (19.7%), respectively, disclosed that they homebred and hatched their replacement flocks. The higher prices of chicken and chicken products in area may have prevented from giving chickens as gift. Table 5 provides more information on source of first foundation and means of replacement. An attempt was also made to find out the selection practices of the sampled households based on different criteria. As indicated in Table 5, almost all of the respondents (94.4%) did select chicken based on one or more of criteria like: sex, color, egg production and growth rate. In terms of specific selection criteria, most respondents (66.7%) appeared to give priority to egg production. Next to egg production, color (66.5%) and growth rate (27.8%) were important selection criteria. Egg production was appeared to be the most important selection criteria because of the obvious benefits (selling eggs and hatching). On the other hand, color was important because such eco-types as Key, Nech, Seran and Ambesima cockerels had higher prices in the local market than other eco-types like Tikur, Gebsima, Kokima and Teterima for socio-cultural reasons.In terms of selection by sex, the largest proportion (81.9%) of respondents reported that they select for both sexes (hens and cocks). Very few respondents reported that they select only one of the sexes i.e. cocks (9.7%) and hen (2.8%). Thus it is important to take into consideration egg production capacity and weight of chickens into consideration in the development and evaluation of breeding programs. The survey finding revealed that color is also an important factor in terms of affecting prices of a chicken. However, as this is mainly a cultural issue, it could over time be addressed through effective extension services.  The recommended cock to hen ratio is 1:10. However, the data from the survey revealed a much higher ratio of 1:3.2. This higher number of cocks compared to hens can be due to a special color preference widely practiced in the study. The ratio of cocks to hens in the study area was higher than reported by Tadelle et al. (2003a) i.e. 1:2.5 in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia. The flock structure of surveyed chickens based on the total number of chicken in the household and the local chicken eco-type is given in Table 7.Table 6. Flock structure in the study householdsIn terms of ownership, most of the household members (55.6%) own the chickens themselves while a significant proportion of surveyed households (36.1%) also shared with other households (e.g. brothers or relatives). However, within the family, most of the chickens (50.77%) were owned by fathers, mothers and the whole family (23.88%). However, Gueye (1998) reported that more than 70% of chicken owners in rural Sub-Saharan Africa were women. As shown in Table 9, women were used to shoulder most of the responsibilities in chicken production. Respondents revealed that 59.72% of the responsibility of feeding and providing water, 62.5% of the responsibility of cleaning the houses and 56.95% of the responsibility for selling the chicken and 63.89% of the responsibility for selling the eggs is the responsibility of women. On the other hand, their counter parts (men) were primarily responsible for the construction of poultry houses. Similarly, Mapiye and Sibada's ( 2005) study in the Rushinga District of Zimbabwe revealed that women were responsible for feeding (37.7%), watering (51.2%), cleaning (37.2%).The fact that women are responsible for most of the production activity implies that women in the study area have good knowledge of poultry husbandry. The predominant role that women play in selling eggs and chicken (regardless of ownership) also signifies that women had decision making power.From the survey result, it can safely be deduced that women have lesser ownership rights but more responsibilities in the production process than men. Their grossly disproportionate role in the production function could be due to the fact that women spend more time at home than men. Such involvement also makes women more knowledgeable in poultry production than men. Women's greater role in selling products could be due to a cultural reason. In the study area, it seems more socially acceptable for women to carry chicken and eggs to markets than men. This almost exclusive responsibility of selling seemed to provide women with access to money to purchase what is needed for the family without always consulting men/husbands. Any project that aims at conserving and increasing productivity of local chicken eco-types in the study area should tap the rich knowledge and experiences of women in poultry husbandry.Surveyed households reported that the two most important reasons for engaging in poultry production were: income generation (1 st ) and improve family nutrition (2 nd ). Other reasons ranked from third to 5 th were: create job opportunities/full time self-employment, createadditional job/part-time work and for social functions (weddings, religious holiday), respectively. 6.9 5 6.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 Nech Teterma 45.6 5 6.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 Tikur Teterma 5 6.9 4 5.6 0 0.0 0 0.0 Kokma 5 6.9 5 6.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 It terms of who in the family gets priority in consuming poultry products, respondents provided the following rank: children (1st), pregnant women (2nd), women involved in breast feeding (3rd), adults (4th) and elderly people (5th) (Table 12). The different types of feed resources reported in the area were maize, finger millet, barley, rice, teff, wheat, sorghum-raw and/or processed. Maize and finger millet were reported to be the most common poultry feeds in the study area. Three out of 4 (75%) and 70% of respondents reported of feeding their chicken maize and finger millet, respectively. On the other hand, such feed types as barely, rice and Injera (made of cereals) were reported by 22.2%, 19.4%, and 16.7% respondents, respectively. Maize and finger millet were used by the great majority of survey participants as poultry feed due to probably their relatively cheaper price and availability in the household. A. Abdelqader et al (2007) reported that barley was the most common supplement (57.5% of the flocks) followed by cracked wheat and wheat byproducts (35% of the flocks); the least common supplement was corn or commercial ration (7.5%) in Jordan.As can be inferred from the survey data, the feed types used were rich in energy. However, as mentioned above, the supplementary feed they gave did not have concentrate and lack such important nutrition as protein. Sonaiya et al (1998) reported that most of the materials available for scavenging were not concentrated enough in terms of energy because they contain a lot of crude fiber. Future poultry improvement programs should thus try to address this limitation by popularizing protein rich feeds. Survey participants were also asked to rank to which class of chicken they provided supplementary feeds. Out of the total respondents, 52.8% reported that they feed all classes together (make no distinction). On the contrary, 45.8% (Table 14l) of respondents reported of giving more supplementary feeds to chicks (1st) followed by hen (2nd), pullet (3rd), cocks and cockerels (4th). Chicks are given priority attention in terms of supplementary feed because they could not scavenge. Hens got the second highest attention because farmers believe that supplemented hens lay more eggs. As to the time of supplementary feeding, the most important times appeared to be mornings, noon, evenings and afternoon, respectively. Close to a quarter of participants (23.6%) reported of providing supplementary feeds in the mornings and a little less than half (45.83%) of the respondents reported of giving supplementary feeds morning, noon and evening.Giving supplementary feeds in the afternoons is also less common than evenings.Respondents were also asked to answer whether or not they used feeding troughs or other materials for supplementary feeds. It was found out that most farmers did not use any sort of material to feed their chicken. Of the total respondents, 81.9% reported of not using any form of feeding materials rather throwing the feed on the ground for chickens to pick from there.Only 16.7% of respondents reported of using feed troughs to feed their birds.From the feeding practices mentioned above, it is clear that providing supplementary feeds to all classes together can create competition among the different age groups of chicken. This competition in turn results in less feed intake for chicks and over feed in take for adults. This unequal feed intake affects overall productivity of chickens. Furthermore, throwing feeds on the ground causes feed wastage and causes contamination. The practice of feeding different classes separately and using feeding trough should therefore be among the measures to be taken in order to improve poultry production in the study area. Survey participants reported of using different structures to house their chicken. Most (59.7%) of the respondents used separate houses constricted exclusively for poultry. On the other hand, 37.5% were kept their chickens in the main house. A study conducted in Northwestern part of Ethiopia (Halima, 2007) also revealed that 50.77% of farmers kept their chicken outside the main house in sheds built for the same purpose. The survey also tried to find out whether there were specific seasons for high incidence of mortality. More than half (55.6%) of the respondents said that most deaths happened during the dry season while 33.3% and 6.9% of the respondents reported rainy season and both rainy and dry seasons, respectively. The high incidence of mortality in the dry seasons could be due  Even within the same plumage color, prices were reported to be different due to the type of comb. As an example, non-single (Pea and Rose) comb Nech and Key cocks and cockerels had reportedly higher prices (as much as 5 Birr higher) than the single combs of the same color. On the other hand, Tikur, Gebsima, Teterima, Kokima eco-types had reported to have less price variations due to their comb types. The current low prices the consumer pay for Tikur, Gebsima, Teterima, Kokima plumage colors for such eco-types poses a huge danger to the conservation of the genes of these eco-types as farmers are less interested in keeping them.Another question asked was where they sell their poultry products. Most of the respondents (41.7%) reported that they sold their products in the nearest market during market days.Others responded that they sold their products in the Woreda capital (33.3%) during market days and within their respective kebeles on non-market days (19.4%). Even if they could sell their products at a relatively higher price in the Woreda capital, most farmers could not go to this town to avoid travelling as far as 22 kms. In his study in Jordan, Abdulkadir (2007) also reported that farmers sold chickens to their neighbors and in the main markets to other farmers and middle men.To help farmers get better value on all eco-types of chicken and thereby conserve the genes, it is very crucial, besides raising the awareness of farmers on selection based on color, to create market linkages with major urban centers/boarding schools, academic institutions, army basis, etc where color is not a major price determinant.There are middle traders who buy chickens from farmers but the price they offer is generally low. Such measures as establishing poultry farmers' cooperatives, providing critical support in poultry value chain, etc. could address the marketing and related challenges that farmers in the study area are facing.Almost all the respondents (97.2%) mentioned that they do not use other forms of transportation but carry their chickens (usually in an upside down position) by hand or on their shoulders tying them with a rope to a stick. These poor and inhuman methods of transporting chicken to markets creates, among others, physical injury and other complications on the chickens and reduce the quality of products and the income farmers could get. Credit facility for poultry production seemed quite limited in the study area. Most of the respondents (59.7%) reported that they did not get credit for poultry production. Only 27.4% of the respondents mentioned of getting credit. Expanding credit facilities could encourage landless or small land owning farmers and unemployed youth to improve their living conditions by starting or scaling up poultry production. Appendix Table 1 summarizes the response on credit facilities.  Like chickens, the price of eggs was also reported to show seasonal variation. However, the price of eggs seemed to vary with fasting seasons. Over all, the price of egg was reported to increase in the dry season (end of December to Mid-February; and end of March to June). Egg prices tended to go down in the rainy season (End of June to mid-August) and in the dry season (Mid-February to End of March) due to Orthodox fasting seasons. Another egg price determinant factor in the study area was size. The bigger the size, the higher the price was. .In terms of price differential, the price of a large size egg was reported to go up from 45 cents in August to 60 Cents in April. Similarly, the price of a small size eggs was reported to increase from 35 Cents in August to 45 cents in April. The price of eggs in rainy and dry seasons is shown in figures: 5 and 6. To prevent price reductions during fasting seasons, introducing appropriate and user-friendly technologies that could help farmers increase the shelf life of eggs is essential. As shown in Table 24, respondents disclosed that disease (48.6%) and shortage of supplementary feed (19.4%) were the two major production barriers for expanding poultry production in the area. Farmers in the study area seemed to had very limited sources of information. Most of the survey participants (72.2%) got poultry-related information from agricultural extension agents. Others reported were radio (13.9%) and other farmers (11.1%) as sources of information. In terms of place of contract with the single most important source of information in the study area (agricultural extension agent), most common meeting place (40.3%) was reported to be extension agent's office, second common place (23.6%) reported to be at the farmers' homes; another but less common reported place of meeting place (18.1%) was meeting at crop demonstration site. This more common practice of meeting farmers outside their homes where there are no chickens will impact the farmers' ability to get more practical advice from the extension agents. In order to provide a more problem solving technical support, it would be advisable for extension agents to make their contact hours at the homes of farmers. It seems that storing eggs in side grain and keeping eggs for sell and for incubation separately were a relatively more common practice in the study area. Out of the total respondents, 61.1% reported that they store eggs for incubation and market separately. However, 38.9% of the respondents mentioned that they store eggs for incubation and market in the same place.Most of the farmers in the study area seem to have a preferred season for incubation. The largest proportion of respondents (81.9%) reported of doing incubation during dry season.This was probably due to the availability of more supplementary feed and less risk from predators during the dry season. Farmers in the study area also seem to have good practice of selecting eggs and hens for incubation based on size. A very large proportion of respondents were reported of using large size eggs (84.7%) and large size broody hens (66.7%) for incubation. (See Appendix Table 2 for more information). Respondents disclosed that a broody hen incubated from 10 to 22 eggs and hatched 4 to 20 chicks during one incubation period (Table 24).None of the respondents reported of using artificial incubator. In order to increase production efficiency, increased volume of operation and effectiveness, it will be important to introduce and promote artificial incubators (especially those run by solar, hay, kerosene) (Appendix 2). Culling non-productive chicken was appeared to be a common practice in the study area, almost all (97.2%) of the survey participants reported of culling chickens. There were reportedly different factors that led farmers to cull their chicken. For 46.5% of respondents:poor productivity; for 25% of respondents: old age and poor productivity; and for 5.65% of the respondents: sickness, were the reasons mentioned for culling. Another study report in Northwestern Ethiopia (Halima, 2007) also revealed that farmers cull chickens because of poor productivity and old age.Selling and home consumption (62.59%) were reportedly the most common methods of chicken culling. As can be seen in Table 30, age at first egg for local chickens varied. This variation could be attributed to genotype, management, and season. The average age at first egg for local chickens in the study area was 5.9 ± 0.11. This result is much shorter than 6.10 to 8.16 months reported by Tadelle (1996). It was also found shorter than the 6.8 months reported by Tadelle et al. (2003). On the other hand, it is a bit longer than the 5 months average that was reported by Halima ( 2007) on the study report from Northwestern Ethiopia.High longevity under adverse condition is one of the adaptive traits of indigenous chicken.The average productive life span of hens and cocks, according to respondents, were: 26.61 ± 0.93 and 18.43 ± 0.54 months, respectively. According to this data, the reproductive life span of a female local chicken seems to be quite long compared to hens from exotic origin. Long term reproductive performance (long life, high fertility, high hatchability, and high number of egg per hen per year, high number of egg mass per hen per year, less or no number of broodiness per hen) of chicken should be given more importance in selection programs. As a base for initial selection, ancestral information is more important in the absence of any records.During monitoring, it was observed that a hen in the study area could produce 11 to 25 eggs with 2-6 clutches per hen during her reproductive life. A similar finding was reported by Tadelle et al. (2003)  The physical features of adult chickens were observed and measured separately for Female and Male.Female chickens have various types of plumage skin, shank, and ear lob color, comb type, and body and head shape. The plumage colors of local hens were Key (30%), Netch (18%),Libe Work (16%). Tikur (8%), Gebsima (6%), Teterma (8%) and Kokima (4%).Libe Work plumage color was observed only in the female chicken population. Most of the local female chickens observed had bluish black (50%) skin color. Other skin colors observed were white (34%) and yellow (16%). Over all three types of shank colors of local female chickens were observed. White and bluish-black, each accounted for 38% and Yellow 24%, respectively. Red (74%) and white (26%) colors were the most common earlobe colors observed among the local female chicken population in the study area.All female chicken observed had normal feather morphology and distribution; and fast feather growth rate. Regarding body shapes most were found to wedge (88%), while others (12%) blocky. In terms of head profile, most (86%), of the local female chickens were having crest (gutya) type head, while others had single (26%) and pea (24%) rose (50%) comb types. Of the 50 chickens observed, all had wattle, half of them had spur. However, no chicken had shank feather. Details of qualitative trait of Female chicken are presented in Table 32.The presence of such large variation in plumage color might be the result of their geographical isolation as well as long periods of natural and artificial selection. The plumage colors of the eco-types observed in the study area were more or less similar to those in Northwestern Ethiopia (Halima, 2007) and Central Highland Ethiopia (Alemu and Tadele, 1997). Out of the 50 cocks observed, 48% were Key, 18% were Netch, 8% were Seran, 4%were Gebsima, 3% were Tikure, 8% were Teterma, and 4% were Kokma plumage color. Even if most of the meat strain carry black feather (Rose, 1999), the number of this eco-type is decreasing from time to time. Seran 2 and Ambesima plumage colors were observed only in the male chicken population.2 Seran = white with red strips; Ambesima = multi color Like the females, the male chicken had normal feather morphology, feather distribution and fast feather growth type. Bluish-black (40%), white (30%) and yellow (30%) were found to be the most common skin colors observed in the male chicken population studied. Yellow (64%) was found to be the most dominant shank color of the male population. The other two common shank colors observed in the male chicken population were white (18%) and bluishblack (18%). Most of the male chicken studied had red earlobes (54%) while the rest (46%) had white and red earlobes. The male chicken population had wedge (72%), triangular (18%), blocky (10%) body shapes. Spur was observed in almost all of the cases (92%) while none had shank feather. Regarding comb type, most (56%) had rose type; others had single comb (22%), and pea (22%) comb types. All male chicken observed had crest (gutya) type head shape. No chicken had plain (Ibab Iras) type of head. The major morphological characters of male chicken are presented in Table 34.   The average body weight (1180 gram) of the local hens studied is higher than the value for the Central Highlands of Ethiopia (1,035 gram) reported by Alemu and Tadelle (1997) and less than the value obtained (1,316 gm) by Halima (2007) in Northwest Ethiopia.The average body weight of the Fogera local cocks (1,505 gram) is slightly higher than the average weight of the indigenous chicken of the Central Highlands of Ethiopia (1.5 kg) reported by Alemu and Tadelle (1997) and much lower than the average weight of indigenous chicken in Northwest Ethiopia (2049.07gm), (Halima, 2007). The average body length of the studied Fogera local cocks was: 21 cm ± 1.46), while the average shank length was 9.32 cm.Major quantitative traits under this category are presented in table 36. The following data was collected by monitoring a total of 424 local chicken eco-types from 20 HHs (10 from each wet and dry land parts).  , 1984;Tadelle, 1996); but a little lower than the value (46gm) obtained in southern Ethiopia (Teketel, 1986).Yolk weight and yolk color in the study area were ranging from 12.7 to 19.18 gm and 5 to 14, respectively. These values are higher than that of Halima (2007)   (Alemu and Tadelle, 1997).The average live weight of a male chicken at the age of 10.6 months was found to be higher by 28.6% than a female at an average age of 13.6 months.Figure 10: Caracas characters by sex (analyzed using statistical software: SPSS)The research was conducted in the Fogera Woreda of the Amhara National Regional State.Fogera Woreda is predominantly lowland with an annual average temperature ranging from 22 to 29ºC . Apart from chicken, farmers in the Woreda also bred different animals (cattle, cattle, sheep, Goat, and Donkeys).The study on the characterization of production system was conducted through a structured survey involving 72 households that owned local chicken eco-types. Characterization of physical features was done through observation and measurement of adult local chicken (N=100; M=50, F=50) for some traits. To this effect, a total of 424 chickens from dry and wetlands were monitored every ten days for a duration of four-month.The findings of the survey reveal that local chicken population represents the native breeds of chicken that are long-established in the study area. The local chickens of the study area had good adaptation characteristics to harsh environmental conditions (e.g. tolerance to heat and swampy conditions).The average flock size of local chickens in the area was found to be 12.38 ranging from 1 to 39. The major reported feed resources were: maize, finger millet, barely, rice, teff, wheat, and ingera, respectively. Giving supplementary feed was found to be a common practice, more so during the rainy season. While they are rich in energy, the most common supplementary feeds in the area appeared to be poor in their protein content.In terms of sources of water, wells, rivers and taps were reported to be the main ones. Some farmers reported of walking up to 45 minutes in search of water. As chicken production requires clean and adequate water, this relatively long distance to the nearest water source could impact on the farming activity. Most farmers reported constructing separate sheds for their chicken. However, a significant number still keep chicken in the main house.For mature hens and cocks the average shank length were 7.25cm and 9.32cm, respectively;the average body length measured were 17.75 cm and 21 cm, respectively.In terms of flock composition, the cock to hen ratio among the local chickens was found to be 1:3.21. On the other hand, the effective population size (Ne) per breeding population and rate of change in breeding coefficient ( F) were 3.9 and 1.95, respectively (only breeding cocks and breeding hens were included in the calculation). The average weight of day old chicks in the monitored flocks was 28.76 gm.The monitoring data revealed that average number of eggs laid per clutch per hen was 13.19;while the average number of eggs incubated was 12.97; average number of chicks hatched was 10.23, the average number of chicks weaned was 7.63, average of age of hens was 19.20 and average weight of hens was 1.21 kg.The performance of egg production characteristics including egg weight, yolk color, yolk weight, albumin weight, shell weight and shell thickness were 44.8 gm, 9.06, 16.28 gm, 22.13 gm, 5.52 gm, and 0.45 cm, respectively. On the other hand, the dressing percentage of chickens was found to be 58.5% for male and 49.38% for Female.The local eco-types had diversified colors. As an example, eleven different types of colors were observed among the chicken population monitored. The local chicken eco-types also had normal feather morphology and distribution and fast growing feather. The comb types were varied from single, pea and rose. Almost all of the males had spur, while only half of the females had spurs. For males: red, and white and red while for females white, and red and white were the most common ear lob colors. Common shank and skin colors for both sexes were: white, yellow, and bluish-black. Most of the female and male bird populations monitored had wedged body type. Despite at differential proportion, most of the female and male chickens monitored had crest head shape. Shank feathers were not observed in both sexes.The local chicken eco-type in the study area had high hatchability percentage, medium age of sexual maturity, and long reproductive life spans. The hens seem to be moderately tractable in terms of protecting chicks form predators and birds. Furthermore, hens was appeared to have high scavenging ability. The local eco-type chickens were seems to have good adaptation to harsh environmental conditions (e.g. tolerance to heat and swampy areas). All these findings indicated that the local eco-types, despite the relatively high temperature (it goes up to 30ºC)and the swampy (wetland), Fogera plain have good potential for egg and meat production.They could also be taken and used in other places with similar weather and environmental conditions.• To conserve the diversity of eco-types like Tikur, Gebsima, Kokima and Teterima who are now becoming increasingly vulnerable (their numbers are declining progressively) because farmers are discouraged from keeping them due to their low market value, it is essential to take a number of measures sooner than later. Among the measures that can address this challenge are:facilitating access to markets where weight and egg are the most important price determining factors than color of a chicken (e.g major urban centers like Bahir Dar, Gondar and Addis Ababa; boarding schools/higher institutions, uniformed groups, etc); public deduction against the taboo attached not to use chicken because they have this or that color through extension agents and religious and community leaders; and design and implement appropriate community based genetic improvement program for local chicken eco-types.• To maximize the benefits that farmers could get from chicken farming, government and ","tokenCount":"11098"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6f6a3ea73956b6296245e9b96e6e8f88","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/16ba3a5f-fa16-41dc-aec9-cb625067d778/retrieve","id":"-607461201"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"22adea4c-b871-4859-a32b-52ed2d43b5a4","pagecount":"418","content":"Plates xv Executive highlights 1 Primary contributors and collaborators Chapter 1: Review of rangelands and rangeland development in Ethiopia 1 .1 lntroduction 1 .2 The lowlands and pastoralism in a national perspective 1 .3 Climate and zonation of the lowlands 1 .4 Rangeland development 1 .4.1 Overview of livestock development projects 1 .4.2 History of lowlands development and the TLDP 1.4.2.1 JlRDU 1.4.2.2 NERDU 1 .4.2.3 SORDU 1 .4.2.4 lnfrastructural improvements 1 .4.3 The SERP and the Pilot Project 1 .4.4 Has national range development been successful? 1 .4.5 Development of the southern rangelands as coordinated by SORDU 1 .4.5.1 Range management 1 .4.5.2 Water development strategy 1 .4.5.3 Livestock health 1.4.5.4 Roads 1 .4.5.5 Ranch development 1 .4.5.6 Smallholder fattening programme 1 .4.5.7 Training 1 .4.5.8 Trials and studies 1 .4.6 Collaboration among research and development institutions in the southern rangelands 1 .4.7 lnteraction between research and development and project impact Chapter 2: Introduction to the Borana Plateau: Natural resources and pastoral society 2.1 lntroduction 2.2 Study area selection and system delineation 2.3 Methods 2.4 Results and discussion 2.4.1 Natural resources of the central Borana Plateau 2.4.1 .1 Geology 2.4.1 .2 Landscape 2.4.1 .3 Soils 2.4.1.4 Climate, primary production and carrying capacity 2.4.1 .5 Native vegetation 2.4.1 .6 Native fauna 2.4.1 .7 Water resources 2.4.2 lntroduction to Borana history and social organisation 2.4.2.1 History 2.4.2.2 Some cultural and organisational features 2.4.3 Human population growth Chapter 3: Vegetation dynamics and resource use 3.1 lntroduction The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Hi Per cent incidence of major causes of mortality among adult cattle and calves in a dry rainfall year in the southern rangelands during 1 976-87. Per cent incidence of major causes of mortality among adult cattle and calves in a drought year in the southern rangelands during 1 983-84. Equation used to predict calf growth based on milk intake. Livestock census results from the SORDU sub-project area conducted during February and March, 1987. Actual and projected cattle numbers, percentage and numbers of mature cows, annual milk production of the cattle herd and annual estimates of the human population and its energy requirements and milk-energy deficits, on the central Borana Plateau during 1959 and 1982-2006. Exotic and indigenous forage species and some possible establishment locations in the southern rangelands. The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Contents Primary contributors and collaborators Assefa EsheteThe late Assefa Eshete, Ethiopian, had a primary role as a photo-interpreter and ecologist with the aerial survey team at lLCA until 1991. Here he contributed results from aerial surveys conducted during the mid-1980s. He also had a leading role in the production of a comprehensive ecological map of the study area.. Rainfall on a monthly and annual basis for 1 0 sites in the SORDU sub-project area for the period 1980-89. Table A2. Per cent probabilities of monthly rainfall exceeding 60 mm for six stations in southern Ethiopia as derived from data collected during 1 957-1 981 . Table A3. Number of rainy days and total rainfall on a 1 0-day basis during the long rainy season for 10 sites in the SORDU sub-project area during 1980-89. Table A4. Number of rainy days and total rainfall on a 1 0-day basis during the short rainy season for 10 sites in the SORDU sub-project area during 1980-89. Table A5. Air temperature on a monthly and annual basis for seven sites in the SORDU sub-project area during 1980-89. Table A6. Altitudinal distribution of 55 important plant species in the SORDU sub-project area.Table A7. Soil colour distribution for sites containing 55 important plant species in the SORDU sub-project area. Table A8. Slope distribution of 55 important plant species in the SORDU sub-project area. Table A9. Vegetation structure distribution for 55 important plant species in the SORDU sub-project area. Table A10. Soil reactivity for sites containing 55 important plant species in the SORDU sub-project area.Annex B Table B1 . Distribution of six agro-ecological zones within 29 madda or madda groups in the southern rangelands. Table B2. Per cent average basal cover for herbaceous (grass, legume and forb) and small shrub vegetation on and off protected calf pastures (kalo) in the southern rangelands. Table B6. Summary of population trend, diet preference for livestock and abundance of browse species in the Beke Pond area of the southern rangelands.Table B7. Scientific and vernacular name, growth form, importance value and traditional household uses of native plants in the southern rangelands.Table B8. Occurrence of apparently encroaching woody species on the central Borana Plateau as recorded in a survey of 801 field sites in 1989.Table B9. Principal grass and shrub forages for hand-reared and grazing calves during dry seasons of average rainfall, dry and drought years in the southern rangelands as ranked by 32 Borana herd owners in 1 988.Figure B1 . Ecological map of south-western Borana Plateau. See Annec C for the accompanying legend. Figure B2a. Aerial extent of stands of Acacia drepanolobium in the north of the study area on the central Borana Plateau. Table D2. Reported importance rankings and total hours per week for various work activities of Borana women in Dubluk and Did Hara madda during the long rainy season.Table D3. Reported importance rankings and total hours per week for various work activities of Borana women in Dubluk and Did Hara madda during the warm dry season.Annex E Table E1.Table E2.Table E3.Table E4.Annex F Table F1 .Annex G Table G1.Table G2.Purchase origin, mean entry and exit weights and average total live-weight gain for male cattle processed at Sarite ranch during 1980-81.Per cent incidence of major causes of mortality among adult cattle and calves in an average rainfall year in the southern rangelands during 1976-1987.Table G3. Effects of legume, harvest dates and standing crop or regrowth on crude-protein (CP) concentration on a dry-matter basis for various plant parts at Dembel Wachu ranch in the southern rangelands during 1987. Table G4. Effects of legume, harvest date and standing crop or regrowth on dry-matter digestibility of various plant parts at Dembel Wachu ranch in the southern rangelands during 1 987. Table G5. Hay-making statistics for Borana households in the southern rangelands during May and June 1990. Table G6. Time budgets (%) of activities forgone for three priority persons observed in 62 Borana households involved in hay-making during May through June 1990. Table G7. Diet intake (dry-matter basis), water intake and growth for Boran calves under various feeding treatments at Dembel Wachu ranch in the southern rangelands during 1990. Table G8. Comparative growth rates (g/head/day) and sample size per treatment (N) for livestock under supplementation with isonitrogenous amounts of lucerne hay (Medicago sativa), cowpea hay (Vigna unguiculata), or Acacia materials in feeding trials conducted at Dembel Wachu ranch and Debre Zeit during 1987-88. Table G9. Per cent mortality (and sample size) of Acacia meliifera and Acacia busseiirom prescribed burning at two sites on Wollenso Ranch in the southern rangelands in 1989. Table G10. Per cent Acacia drepanolobium trees in two size classes that were apparently killed due to various treatments in the southern rangelands during August 1989. Table G11 . Maize grain yield (kg/ha) as affected by species of intercropped legume and maize planting density (no/ha) at Dembel Wachu ranch in the southern rangelands in 1 987. Table G12. Milk processing statistics for butter-making by Borana women using traditional methods. Table G13. Comparative household monetary income and food-energy yields for three feeding-management strategies for a Borana family managing an eight-cow breeding herd in the southern rangelands. Table G14. Effects of treatments conducted on nursing calves on absolute weight gain (kg) from birth to weaning and on live weight (kg), shoulder height (cm) and weight-to-height ratio at weaning for heifers in the southern rangelands in 1986-87. Table G15. Effects of treatments conducted on nursing calves on time to puberty (days), average daily gain (g/day), absolute gain (kg) from birth to puberty and on live weight (kg) and shoulder height (cm) at puberty for heifers in the southern rangelands, 1986-90.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia 1X List of Tables The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia xl Table 7.9. Absolute live-weight gain (kg) in water-supplemented and traditionally watered heifers from birth to weaning, weaning to puberty and birth to puberty in the southern Ethiopian rangelands, 1986Ethiopian rangelands, -1990 Table 7.1 0. Annual rates (%) of calf mortality as reportedly due to (1 ) nutrition-related or (2) all sources combined for animals held by various wealth classes of Borana households across different rainfall years in the southern rangelands    Executive highlightsThe Borana Plateau of southern Ethiopia: Synthesis of pastoral research, development and change, 1980-91 summarises results from work conducted in the southern Ethiopian rangelands between 1 980 and 1991. The global objectives of this inter-disciplinary project were to describe the evolving production system of the Borana pastoralists and prescribe best-bet component interventions and policies that might promote growth in the livestock sector, alleviate poverty among pastoral producers and encourage ecologically sustainable patterns of resource use. A large effort was also devoted to contrasting our research results with other findings in the pastoral literature, largely from eastern and southern Africa.This comprehensive system study is intended to serve two main audiences: (1) professionals within Ethiopia who deal with range research and development, who need detailed interpretation of local data but who also have poor access to the international literature and (2) an international audience concerned with more general implications of the work for pastoral research and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Borana society is in crisis today, mostly due to human over-population. Scholars of pastoral development will recognise many aspects of system change that have been observed elsewhere in Africa. Despite daunting challenges, we believe that a combination of policies, procedures and technical options could help manage the system to reverse the downward trend in human welfare. Such efforts, however, will require a high degree of creativity and commitment on the part of the Borana people, the Ethiopian Government and development agencies. Problems need to be addressed in new ways if major impact is to be achieved.These highlights are structured as responses to 1 3 major questions that decision makers are likely to have. 1 . Why focus on the Borana pastoral system?The original reason for focusing on the Borana pastoral systems was that the semi-arid southern rangelands are valuable to Ethiopia as a source of livestock for use by smallholders in the highlands and for export to generate foreign exchange. The region also had the highest ecological potential among major range-development areas and the semi-sedentary Boran were regarded as relatively easy to study and work with. Development of infrastructure in the south started in the 1960s and it was thought that this would facilitate the impact of research results on development.2. Does Ethiopia still have a stake in the rangelands?Yes. Although the highlands are justifiably the major focus of agricultural development efforts in Ethiopia, the rangelands cannot be ignored in a comprehensive national strategy. High rates of population growth throughout the country dictate that commerce should be allowed to flow freely and thus permit comparative production advantages of different agro-ecological zones to be expressed. The rangelands will increasingly serve as an important source of animals for highland small holders and for export. The Boran are now in dire need of grain from the highlands, at favourable terms of trade, to reduce risks of famine and lessen the need to expand cereal cultivation onto fragile upland range soils in the rangelands. A loop of mutual assistance can now be completed, achieving the vision set for Ethiopia by planners over 20 years ago. What is required are integrated policies and improved access to inputs that allow producers and traders to create mutually beneficial networks themselves.3. The Boran have persisted for a long time. Why bother to develop the southern rangelands now?Unless efforts are now made to improve human welfare among the Boran, future commercial linkages with the rest of the nation and the social welfare of urban centres in the rangelands will be in jeopardy. lncreased risk of famine, increasing poverty and the undermining of traditional cultural values may all erode the traditional social order of the Borana production system. lf the traditional social order is not maintained, there are acute dangers of increased regional insecurity and less efficient operation of the deep wells. Requiring large amounts of coordinated labour, the deep wells are virtually the only supply of water in dry seasons and their efficient operation underpins the viability of the entire livestock production system. Ecological sustainability, on the other hand, is threatened by the spectre of increased cereal cultivation on upland soils and by woody encroachment and soil erosion, which can be attributed to heavy cattle grazing. Starting mostly in the 1970s, there have been considerable efforts to develop infrastructure and provide veterinary services to the Boran. The intent was to stimulate livestock commercialisation. This involved the typical, but often erroneous, assumptions of pastoral behaviour that have characterised African pastoral development in general. lt was prominently assumed, for example, that if the Boran were given access to markets they would readily sell cattle and improve their lives by increasing their cash income. Sales of immature cattle were to form the basis of a stratified livestock industry. Today, however, instead of happy, prosperous pastoralists we find a situation in which 200 000 people are on food relief and half of the region's cattle died during the 1990-91 drought. Rates of cattle offtake remain low. Without economic development, food relief is likely to become a permanent fixture, regardless of drought. Woody vegetation has encroached on 40% of the land area and 19% of the area has suffered significant soil erosion. What went wrong?First, we contend that interventions to boost livestock production actually worked. New ponds increased access to underutilised productive lands and veterinary campaigns lessened risks to animal production. Herd size likely grew, but then so did the human population. lmprovements in animal production were probably largely absorbed by a growing subsistence population, rather than being marketed. The traditional Boran probably had little desire to routinely enter the market-place because they did not need to. They produced most of their own food as milk, traded for a bit of grain and used cash sparingly to buy discretionary items such as coffee, shoes or sugar. Their cattle had greater perceived utility as accumulated assets than as a cash crop. People with larger herds have fewer economic risks, are socially influential in the community and even have landmarks and encampments named after them. This is what people aspire to here.lt is also likely that a traditional Boran household waited until it had an acute need for cash before selling an animal. The main season for selling cattle was thus the warm dry season, when milk supply is lowest and the people needed to buy food. The terms of trade would often be unfavourable to the Boran during this season, but this was of only marginal relevance because the people commonly hoped to avoid the sale all together. They thus behaved more like optimistic gamblers, hoping that good rains or some other favourable circumstance would help them obtain the food they needed to carry them over to the next rainy period and allow them to avoid the sale. The people could endure considerable misery in waiting out a dry season. lf a household were forced to sell cattle, it would tend to sell an older, mature male rather than younger animals. This is because the higher gross proceeds from the sale of a large animal would be enough to buy both the commodities needed and replacement calves. lt would thus meet both the immediate need for cash and promote herd growth. Net proceeds are not very relevant where costs of production are almost nil and concern over how fast the animal grew would not have been prominent compared with efforts just to keep it alive. A poor household would typically have to sell more animals than would a wealthy household to buy food throughout the year. This is because poor households have more people per milk cow than do wealthy households and hence have too little milk to support them. Fewer cattle also implies less diversity in age and sex classes. Thus, a poor household would tend to sell an immature animal more commonly than would a wealthier household because of lack of choice. Selling an immature animal to buy food also offers less likelihood of money being left over to buy replacement stock and thus less opportunity for herd-building and a greater likelihood of continued poverty. Some views in this scenario above may be controversial but together they help explain (1) the traditional economic rationale; (2) why range development projects have commonly failed to meet expectations; (3) why droughts can decimate cattle herds and (4) why pastoralists are commonly victimised by poorer seasonal terms of trade of livestock for grain. ln sum, the traditional Borana household did not need much money but aspired to having a large cattle herd. lt preferred to sell older animals rather than immatures and probably was concerned only with low-input means to keep animals alive. ln addition to the problem that the goals of livestock commercialisation conflicted with the traditional production rationale, livestock prices within Ethiopia were regulated and kept low until 1991 and there were chronic difficulties in coordinating external market linkages from the southern rangelands. Little wonder, then, that development expectations were not fulfilled. This is not a society that would respond to widespread marketing initiatives or want to sell immatures as part of a stratified cattle production industry. This also suggests that efforts to provide early warning of droughts to encourage destocking may not work very well. What appears to be commonly misunderstood is the role of cattle as aThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Executive highlights primary asset, not as a cash crop, and what this implies for human economic behaviour.Lack of development impact has not been due to scarcity of technology or inappropriate behaviour on the part of the Boran. Expectations were unrealistic because Western-trained planners had an inadequate understanding of social values and a production rationale that differed from their own. This is not to say that development efforts have been fruitless but that impact has been more indirect than direct. Roads and markets, less used in the past, will soon become the critical lifeline for the Boran because they can no longer feed themselves using traditional methods. The small towns that have grown up as a result of improvements in infrastructure provide crucial market outlets and have led to widespread dissemination of new ideas among the pastoral population. We thus postulate that the response of the pastoral population to infrastructure is highly dependent on timing. The willingness of the Boran to receive innovations is dictated by population pressure; change occurs when the people have little choice. The stage is now set to accommodate a major economic shift in Borana society.5. Is the traditional system changing?Yes, and very quickly. lf cattle prices are competitive with those offered on the Kenyan black market and trade links within Ethiopia are made more efficient, the good news for planners is that rates of cattle offtake for Ethiopian markets should increase dramatically. More immature cattle will be sold. The original vision for increased marketing by pastoralists can be fulfilled. The bad news, however, is that this increased involvement in the market economy will largely result from the increasing poverty and risk of famine that is undermining Borana society. A larger segment of the society is becoming poor and acting in accordance with the schema of behaviour of the poor as reported above. Today, 51% of the households may be considered poor; these households control about 1 0% of the regional cattle herd. Around 18% may be wealthy and control 65% of the regional cattle herd.Traditionally, the poor would petition the wealthy to redistribute cattle at dozens of annual clan meetings. Such meetings are still held but needs are beginning to dwarf possibilities for redistribution.The long-term trend that drives increased commercialisation among the Boran is the declining ratio of cattle to people. The human population is increasing at a net rate of 2.5% per year, with a 50% increase in population possible within 14 years. Apparently, relatively few people are killed by drought; even births are reported during drought. ln contrast, land availability imposes a ceiling on cattle numbers and large numbers of cattle die during droughts. The net result is a downward \"ratchet\" effect: the steady decline in the ratio of cattle to people is periodically exacerbated by drought. More people are thus becoming poorer in cattle assets.A decline in the number of cows per person reduces per capita milk production and forces people to buy grain or grow crops. A decline in the number of male cattle per person limits, among other things, the ability of the people to rebuild their herds after drought by exchanging males for cows. More households are likely to be squeezed out of the system during drought because of the intensified competition of more people for a finite base of resources. Furthermore, this base is becoming even smaller due to ecological degradation and loss of traditional grazing reserves to encroachment by the growing population.People squeezed out of the system will increasingly become destitute farmers or peri-urban sellers of milk, chickens and firewood. Peri-urban dairy marketing results, in part, from these processes. For example, there are women living near towns who must sell a cup of milk from their single cow every day to buy a survival ration of grain for the family; this would not be possible except for the favourable terms of trade (both on a cash and per unit energy-yield basis).Most Boran will be unable to fully compensate for increasing poverty by becoming agropastoralists. This is not because of lack of rainfall but because less than 12% of the land (i.e. valley bottoms and swales) may be cultivated sustainably. lt is postulated that the people seek to grow grain and diversify herds to include more small ruminants to avoid selling cattle at a rate that would deplete their assets. Small ruminants are more of a cash crop than are cattle and would be a substitute sale item.The declining economic status of the Boran may result in famine if markets do not offer grain at favourable terms of trade. lt may also result in expansion of cultivation onto shallow upland soils, increased felling of trees to sell as firewood and charcoal and possible dilution of the Boran cattle breed. The last results from the Boran trading male Boran cattle for reportedly inferior cows from the southern highlands in an attempt to replace the large number of Boran cows killed during drought.These negative trends may have emerged because the pastoral sector has been too successful in terms of human reproduction. Now the Boran need links to the rest of Ethiopia to enable them to work their way out of crisis. The free flow of The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia D. Layne Coppock commerce is no longer a luxury for the Boran: it is now a necessity.6. What can be done to alleviate this situation?Overview: Despite the daunting nature of the task, the major premise of this research is that the entire system can be managed to (1 ) promote growth in the livestock sector; (2) alleviate poverty and (3) reduce risks to the environment. This requires an integrated set of policy measures, procedures, participatory development tactics and selective use of technology and management innovations. A focus on technological impact alone is not very useful. Even if there were, for example, a \"magic forage,\" planting it would do little to change the fundamental causes of instability and poverty in the system. Development impact is also increasingly dependent on linkages from the rangelands to the outside world, including markets, fuel, veterinary inputs, school teachers and accessible banking for pastoralists. lf such dependence is viewed as inappropriate, we must dramatically lower our expectations for impact and let the Boran fend for themselves.Attacking the problems requires a systems approach that recognises that livestock development has social, economic, biological and ecological dimensions. The time when one agency or a few technologies could improve the lot of the Boran is over. Agencies and government ministries must achieve a common vision of the problem at hand and collaborate on policy refinements. Technical innovations should first be extended with a priority for the peri-urban sector, which is compatible with the modest logistical capabilities of extension and would better meet the needs of a very poor, and growing, segment of pastoral society.The rate of human population growth is not excessive and is consistent with that of other semi-settled pastoral groups. We suggest, however, that the root cause of system problems is that too few Boran are able or willing to emigrate from the system to balance the net reproduction rate. This suggests that more must be done to educate the Boran in order to make inroads on their cultural isolation and give them a choice of life-style. lf attempts to develop human potential over the past 20 years had been similar to those directed towards stimulating cattle offtake, the need for crisis management today might have been lessened. Lack of emigration also suggests that economic underdevelopment of the urban sector is an important constraint with ramifications for the stability and sustainability of rural production systems in general.Over the short to medium term, efforts need to focus sequentially on (1) improving food security;(2) reducing risks to animal production and asset accumulation; (3) enhancing livestock production and herd turnover and (4) reducing risks to the environment. Assuming that the first goal can be achieved, attainment of the second goal is the key to everything else. Attempts to reduce risks for the environment will not be fruitful unless human welfare has been improved.Policies, procedures and technology for food security: Food security is ultimately tied to the human population density. For example, one way to improve the situation in the study area would be to reduce the human population by 50% (i.e. by 39 000) and then provide jobs outside the pastoral sector for the 2000 people reaching working age each year. Since the low level of economic development will permit this approach, food security must be dealt with in a step-wise manner. Over the short to medium term, relief organisations must be prepared to stay in Borana. lnter-regional commerce must be allowed to open up to facilitate trade of range livestock for surplus maize from the southern highlands. This involves complex national issues such as increasing cereal production in the highlands and solving regional transport and security problems. Markets for small ruminants should be expanded, since the Boran view sheep as more of a cash crop than are cattle and hence sheep offer better opportunities for increasing incomes rapidly. ln the longer term the Government should promote the economic growth of urban centres in the rangelands to provide more local market demand for animal products and future employment opportunities for pastoralists. The future of the Boran is closely linked to the future of such towns as Yabelo, Negele, Moyale and Mega.Using information provided in the Borana System Study, land-use planners can designate agro-ecological zones and sites within zones suitable for sustainable cereal cultivation in the rangelands. Extension could promote technical and management measures to increase maize yields in these locations and reduce the need of pastoralists to cultivate on more fragile sites elsewhere. Suitable locations include valley bottoms in higher rainfall areas but these may comprise a relatively small percentage of the region. This is not an endorsement of widespread cultivation in the rangelands, since cultivation may cause soil erosion on upland soils under a variable rainfall regime. Rather, it is a call to increase cereal production selectively to reduce some local risks of famine, particularly for people with poor market access. The only way to control the spread of The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Executive highlights cultivation over the short term is to forge a regulatory partnership between development agencies and the Boran. lncreased maize production on appropriate sites is recommended only as an emergency food-production measure over the short to medium term. We believe that widespread emergence of agropastoralism would be detrimental to the long-term ecological sustainability of the system. Cultivation can ultimately be discouraged through favourable marketing interventions, increasing options for investment other than in cattle and spurring human emigration in an ecosystem management approach.lnterventions to increase milk production from cows should focus on health measures, in particular the use of acaricides to reduce tick damage to cow udders. The problem, however, is that acaricides must be imported. Lack of acaricide use points to the fact that the absence of sustained extension of existing technology is a greater problem than generation of new technology. Despite the rangelands having been viewed as an important source of foreign exchange for the nation, range development programmes are commonly unable to extend technologies because of a lack of access to foreign exchange, because extension is poorly funded or because international procurement is excessively bureaucratic. As with other inter ventions, the Boran should pay for technological inputs and extension using local currency generated from livestock sales. This will provide a good test of the people's priorities.Primary attention to topics such as terms of trade of livestock for grain and selected improvement of cultivation is in recognition that the biggest problem in the system over the short term is securing more food energy for people. lt is clear that plants extended merely as forages will not be high on the Boran's list of priorities. The best way to introduce new forages is through sustainable cropping systems using dual-purpose legumes, such as cowpea, which produce both food for people and feed for livestock.Policies, procedures and technology for risk management: There are about six drought-grazing reserves that have been traditionally used as fall-back areas for cattle herds during the early stages of drought. These are now reportedly being routinely encroached upon by people and animals. This is occurring because of over-population and probably contributes markedly to the apparently increased instability of the cattle population in response to drought. These fall-back areas need to be re-established by relocating any residents and their carrying capacity increased through water distribution and forage improvements.Management plans specific to grazing territories (madda) under resource stress should also be implemented. Madda are highly variable in resource endowments, which requires site-specific re source-use strategies. Reclamation might include bush control, prescribed burning and site restoration using local methods and native forage species. Practices such as regulated charcoal making can generate funds from site reclamation: a profit of about US$ 3200.00 per hectare could be realised from making charcoal from dense stands of otherwise useless Acacia drepanolobium. The difficulty in implementing such projects lies, however, in regulation and the fear that charcoal production would spread uncontrolled. While this is a valid concern, it has been found elsewhere in Ethiopia that pastoralists in fixed territories can effectively regulate harvest of wood products in some situations. lt might thus be worthwhile conducting pilot projects to see if the Boran can regulate some profitable aspects of resource use themselves. Development agencies might serve as marketing conduits in this process. The Boran have ample knowledge of which plants are useful for the production system and which are not.Specific grazing territories that would benefit from improvements in carrying capacity should be identified according to their importance to the resource diversity and stability of the community at large. This could be assessed in consultation with local leaders.Given that the system is over-populated, we believe that the crucial risk management intervention is one that allows the Boran to hold some of their cattle assets in a non-livestock form. The ability to manipulate the asset function of cattle is vital to efforts to adjust stocking rates and relocate households from sensitive areas. This activity embodies \"efficient opportunism\" and involves storing a portion of the value of male cattle as simple savings accounts in local banks. There is evidence that some Boran may be doing this already.During the high-density phase of the cattle population, when about 300 000 head of cattle occupy the study area, roughly 25% of the herd is comprised of mature males. About 67% and 25% of these males may be held by wealthy and middle-class Boran, respectively. Mature males serve a valuable traditional economic role but at high stocking rates they also compete with milk cows and other productive stock for limited forage and water. This leads to social stress in the community. The males probably also contribute to sudden system crashes during drought in which many households lose all their cattle. Relieving pressure on the system by banking part of the male component each year as cash achieves many system-management goals simultaneously. The tendency, regardless, will be for the Boran to gradually increase the percentage of milk cows in their herds to cope with declining per capita milk production. This will come at the expense of traditional investment potential. Banking livestock capital is offered as a means to help them achieve traditional goals, possibly at a lower risk, despite population pressure.Constraints to implementing the banking innovation are numerous but are probably less formidable than those involved in extending technical interventions described thus far. Constraints include possible distrust and lack of knowledge of banking among the Boran, cultural mores which work against selling cattle, difficulties of illiterate people gaining access to the banking system and aspects of national currency management such as inflation which might erode wealth stored in non-livestock forms. Local constraints of banking access could be overcome but this would require creativity and incentives. We envision a portfolio-management approach that recognises the maximum benefit from a mix of assets held as livestock or cash in sequences of years in which production risks vary according to stocking rate and rainfall. Banking livestock capital is proposed as the keystone intervention for managing the system out of famine, poverty and increasing risk of environmental degradation.Policies, procedures and technology for im proved animal production: The notion that animal production is uniformly poor in rangeland systems is not supported here. lndeed, under near-average rainfall and low stocking rates, cattle productivity can be extremely high. At high stocking rates, how ever, risk of forage competition becomes paramount and animals are more likely to be in poor condition, give lower milk yields and die.Because the stocking rate of cattle changes somewhat cyclically in response to drought (see below), cattle productivity also varies in a cyclic fashion in an inter-drought sequence of five to 1 0 years. This may be relatively predictable. Using various risk-mitigation measures described above, particularly banking livestock capital, would provide a major stimulus to cattle production per head as a result of destocking during years of the high-density phase of the cattle population when stocking rates exceed on the order of 20 head/km2. This is because livestock production and mortality are density dependent, with stocking rate mediating effects of annual rainfall on the population. Any measures that increase animal sales to improve human welfare are also valuable; this includes sales of animals to fund water-development activities and construction of grain stores. These activities also build on traditional values of the community.Calf mortality in near-average rainfall years is the main production factor that requires technical attention. High calf mortality is attributable mainly to poor calf nutrition due to milk restriction in poorer households and to high incidence of diseases resulting from lower management inputs per calf in wealthier households. Shortage of water is also a problem, one that could be addressed by building cement cisterns in certain situations. Attempts to reduce calf mortality fit the cultural rationale of the people, are more consistent with effective use of small quantities of local resources and need an intervention that the Boran can extend among themselves.The main intervention to reduce calf mortality is making hay from native grasses to improve dry-season calf feeding. The Boran do not traditionally make hay but pilot trials suggest they can make large quantities of hay of suitable quality after the long rains. Feeding hay rather than the traditional cut-and-carry grass could increase the crude-protein content of calf diets by 60% and the digestibility of the diet by 45% during the dry seasons, both on a dry-matter basis. Grass hay can be supplemented with high-protein native legumes such as acacia fruits and leaves and with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) hay where this crop is grown.Performance of calves and small ruminants might also be improved by providing better veterinary services at the \"farm gate.\" Veterinary services have, however, been very difficult to sustain. New efforts to extend health services and calf feeding packages should initially be focused on peri-urban areas, with the Boran paying for services where possible. ln addition to reducing mortality rates, improved calf feeding could increase milk production by prolonging lactations and might also allow peri-urban households to take more milk from the calf and sell it. lmprovements in cattle recruitment would only be sustainable over the longer term if offtake is accelerated through commercial links or banking livestock capital. Policy and technical issues are thus inter-linked.Implications for poverty alleviation and ecologi cal sustainability: ln conjunction with attempts to spur human emigration, the policy and technical interventions described thus far should act in tandem to reduce chronic insecurities that now exist in the system. Banking livestock capital is the key to poverty alleviation and facilitating range man agement over the short to medium term. Opening markets, increasing milk production, encouraging pockets of sustainable cereal production andThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Executive highlights facilitating human emigration should all act to reduce the threats of widespread cultivation to the environment, but cumulative impacts of different innovations would be felt over different time frames.proposed as the keystone intervention?Banking livestock capital is the only intervention that would have large and simultaneous effects throughout the system. lt would improve food security and risk management, alleviate poverty and reduce threats of environmental degradation. lt would also help reduce the danger of genetic dilution of the Boran cattle breed by helping stabilise the cattle population, thus reducing the need for pastoralists to trade for highland cows during drought recovery. Banking livestock capital could be a nutritional intervention for cows, an ecological intervention for the plant community and an economic intervention for people. lt is thus a classic \"system intervention\" because it requires an inter-disciplinary knowledge of system function to know when to implement it and why. While pilot projects might attempt to extend this intervention concept soon, additional social and economic research is required to thoroughly assess its implications. Banking livestock capital may not have been a viable innovation as recently as 10 years ago. However, we believe that it is now viable because of the increased risks to households of holding all of their assets as livestock. This is because of a declining resource base and implications this has for increased system instability.even assist small towns?Yes. The Boran and the small towns in the rangelands are increasingly interdependent. To the extent that economic development of small towns is constrained by lending capital, banked livestock wealth may have important implications for development of small-scale industries in the urban sector. Conservative calculations suggest that if every wealthy and middle-class household in the study area banked from one to three male cattle each year this would generate about US$ 1 .7 million annually from the sale of 14 500 head. This represents only a modest percentage of the total male inventory. Animals would, however, have to be traded out of the system for the initiative to help stabilise cattle population dynamics and contribute to creating a sustainable yield scenario.lnterventions should be primarily directed to deal with two population phenomena: (1 ) the long-term trend (see above) and ( 2) inter-drought cycles, usually lasting 10 years or less, which consist of a drought-recovery phase followed by a phase of high stocking density. Changes in cattle stocking rates affect many ecological, agricultural, social and economic dynamics in the system. The high-density phase, with more than 20 head of cattle per square kilometre, is essentially a different system, with different constraints, than that in the droughtrecovery phase.The long-term trend: ln 1990, the long-term trend may have been an average system state in which the ratio of cattle to people was about 4.5:1 . ln 1 959 the average ratio is thought to have been near 7.4: 1 . ln 2006, barring a large change in net human population growth, the ratio should be 3.3:1 .The negative effects of this long-term trend in cattle-to-people ratio could be lessened using policies and procedures that increase commerce and allow more Boran to emigrate. For an example involving technical perspectives, the long-term trend militates against such interventions as improved dairy technology to process milk sur pluses and aspects of system extensification. The long-term trend is better confronted by focusing on the likes of facilitation of dairy marketing and intensification of some aspects of range man agement.The inter-drought cycle, drought-recovery phase and high-density phase: ln 1993 we are in the second year of the drought-recovery phase following the 1991 drought. There is a 75% probability, based on rainfall records, that the high-density phase will be reached by 1997, allowing for the effects of one dry year or less on the growth of the cattle herd. Once the high-density phase is reached, however, there is a 50% chance of a population crash during the first three years due to the combined effects of the high stocking rate and the risk of one or more years of below-average rainfall. lt is thus suggested that the impact of drought on the cattle population is now as much a function of high stocking rates as it is of belowaverage rainfall. Without adequate drought-grazing reserves, a modest dip in rainfall will now kill far more cattle than it would have 30 years ago.The drought-recovery phase should be characterised by more maize cultivation, peri-urban sales of milk and small ruminants, opportunistic production values of the Boran, high rates of cattle production and the honouring of reciprocal rights of The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia grazing among communities. The high-density phase will be more a time of risk management, negative density-dependent effects on livestock production, grazing-induced bush establishment, increased rates of cattle sales and conservative production values of the Boran.ln the drought-recovery phase of 1992-96, innovations should be employed that complement immediate food-procurement strategies of the Boran (e.g. obtaining maize or selling sheep and dairy products) or that are dependent on low stocking rates for their success (e.g. site reclamation). During the high-density phase, with its high stocking rates and higher risks of asset losses, efforts should encourage banking of livestock capital, sales of cattle to fund water development and promotion of improved calf feeding and grazing management.ln sum, the development strategy has to be opportunistic. There is, however, a reasonable degree of predictability of system dynamics that could guide planning for system management. Another important implication of this schema is that windows of development opportunity are not static; they may be gradually opening, gradually closing or opening and closing cyclically. At one extreme, some innovations would be adopted, dropped and re-adopted in a cyclic pattern. 10. What are the constraints on system transformation? ln past decades it has been common to blame pastoralists, or harsh rangeland environments, in Africa for the apparent failure of range development projects. However, this research indicates that the main constraints actually lie outside the pastoral sector. Planners and researchers commonly do not understand how the pastoral way of life differs from Western concepts such as ranching. They have also lacked appreciation of the complexity of pastoral strategies and how constraints change over time in response to internal and external pressures. Bottom-up approaches to development have been discounted in favour of exotic technologies and Western ideas. Extension is under-funded and personnel is limited and poorly trained. Access to existing technology is limited. The ability of agencies to monitor and regulate resource use is poor and this leads to blanket prohibition of certain practices that might be useful in some situations. True partnerships among pastoralists and development agencies are not traditional and may be difficult to create. Underdevelopment of the nation contributes to major uncertainties in urban employment, commerce and extension. Bureaucratic decision making is inimical to the opportunistic nature of range ecosystem management. Lack of coordi nation among government and development agencies obstructs coordinated policy and technical implementation.The Boran are open minded and can produce animals very well; they just need some stronger links to the outside world. ln contrast to many other African producers, the Boran can create large amounts of capital quickly if it can be better harnessed in a rapidly changing world. ln one sense, this is all good news. This is because it discounts the notion that this pastoral system is resistant to constructive change from within. 1 1 . What is the source of this systems approach? Does it have wider applicability?The dynamic view of system interactions requires a different way of thinking. lt has been inspired by knowledge of ( 1) population ecology and ( 2) predictable relationships among people, animals and the land. A large dose of participatory Farming Systems Research was also mixed in. Clues from producers and traders gave important insights as to how the system changes from year to year and decade to decade. The approach has no strong roots in traditional agricultural investigation. This philosophy recognises that the Borana system is at a particular point of change along a general continuum. This point has been passed by other African pastoral groups decades or even generations ago. The Borana system may be unusual in that the linkages between the pastoral and non-pastoral sectors are still restricted. This must change if the system is to avoid internal collapse. There are probably other pastoral groups in remote areas of Africa that have yet to reach this stage of change. Systems at different points along a continuum of change require different intervention concepts. The systems perspective is thus applicable beyond the southern rangelands.When commodity and systems perspectives are run in parallel, the combined answers help tell you what to do, when to do it and why. Neither perspective alone can do as much. Although it has its own scientific merit in terms of inter-disciplinary integration, the systems perspective has an added advantage in that it assists formulation of local strategies that will have an impact on people. We contend that this framework can be easily modified to suit a variety of animal-production circumstances, including smallholders.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Executive highlights 12. This all looks expensive. How can this approach be employed elsewhere at low cost?The systems approach is expensive but systems studies do not need to be repeated often. The key is that researchers and development people learn to think in terms of interacting system components while designing projects. This may require more inter-disciplinary training. ldeally, research should focus on extracting more systems principles from existing work and testing hypotheses concerning specific interactions. Using a systems approach to assess intervention strategies to be used by devel opment people requires more attention to con ceptualisation of the system of interest and perhaps examination of important system interactions using producer-participatory approaches along the lines of Rapid Rural Appraisal. ln sum, it is important to know where a system is at any point in time and what the future trends might be, based on probabilities. The practical outcome concerns how population pressures or outside influences might help or hinder uptake and impact of innovations.13. What are some other research and development implications?• Future research priorities involve sociology, economics and ecology in the context of risk management. Routine system monitoring is needed to test hypotheses embedded in the theory of local system dynamics, survey felt needs of the pastoralists, observe shifts in resource use and performance of markets and examine the fate of emigrants. Monitoring could be quantitative or qualitative, depending on research budgets. The theory of local system dynamics also has large implications for monitoring range trends. Given nearaverage rainfall, herbaceous dynamics may tend to be cyclic in response to cattle stocking rates rather than linear. Establishment of woody seedlings may also be more episodic than continuous, with eruptions of woody seedlings occurring more during high rainfall years in the high-density phase of the cattle population.The cattle population tends to exhibit equilibrial characteristics. This is not to say that the system does not change from year to year: it is very dynamic within certain limits. lt tends towards equilibrial features because cattle stocking rates reach levels that negatively affect the population. Relatively high rainfall and a dominance of perennial vegetation increase the likelihood of periodically intense plant-herbivore interactions. Stocking rate is a crucial filter that affects the response of the population to variation in rainfall. Both equilibrial and non-equilibrial systems may exist in East Africa, with non-equilibrial ones occurring more when systems are less bounded by resource limitations and/or are subject to very low and erratic levels of rainfall.The equilibrial tendencies of the Borana system periodically generate pressure in the system and motivates producers to consider new ways of doing things. Equilibrial dynamics have probably been promoted in the southern rangelands by infrastructure development and population growth.The cattle population appears to have substantially modified the environment, causing grazing-induced woody encroach ment and soil erosion. However, the extent of impact in relation to a pristine original condition of the study area has not been quantified. Many impacts observable today may have occurred in previous generations. The relatively high rainfall suggests that the region could naturally support a high density of woody plants and thus may have been densely wooded prior to the arrival of man hundreds of years ago. We may therefore now be witnessing the disappearance of a mixed savannah that has been traditionally maintained by people. Woody encroachment has probably been exacerbated recently by human population growth, which encourages sedentarisation, and by a Government policy that prohibited range burning from 1974 to 1991. Although the ultimate effects of encroachment by woody plants are probably detrimental to cattle grazing, intermediate stages may have a variety of positive, neutral and negative effects. We believe that, under proper management, many areas encroached by woody plants could be reclaimed. Cereal cultivation on upland soils may, however, pose a greater future threat to the environment than cattle grazing.Transfer of nutrients by cattle from grazing areas to encampments has been implicated in some aspects of environmental change here. lt has also been hypothesised that leaf fall from woody vegetation is an important contributor to the replenishment of soil nutrients on overgrazed sites. These questions require further investigation. Preliminary information on native plants and wildlife gathered by during the System Study provides a baseline from which to begin toThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia D. Layne Coppock address biodiversity issues. Biodiversity research is, however, a low priority until the human crisis can be alleviated. Borana leaders are aware of problems associated with the high human population and high cattle stocking rates and of links between heavy grazing and environmental degradation. They make political proclamations intended to protect their natural resources. The extent to which the traditional leadership can effectively control resource use today is, however, unclear.The critical measure of system sustainability is per capita production of milk and male animals as assets. Trends in both now appear to be in precipitous decline because the human population continues to grow while the cattle population is increasingly limited by land availability. Until this situation is dealt with, other aspects of improving social or ecological sustainability must be a lower priority for development.Human population dynamics and their effects on the system are poorly understood. The observed increase in the net population growth rate may be due to increased availability of relief grain and health inputs. lt may be due also to less adherence to traditional social norms that have regulated reproductive behaviour in the past and/or to a temporary decline in the effectiveness of reproduction rules that are dictated in the Gada generation system. For example, fewer people may be affected by certain Gada rules today than in the past because of recent shifts in the age composition of the society.As with other pastoral systems, the Borana system is more efficient than commercial ranching in terms of food-energy yield per person and per unit area. This is largely be cause of the high stocking rates and inclusion of milk as an output. The high stocking rates of pastoral systems can, however, pose greater risks for the environment and for system stability than does ranching. As elsewhere, the ranching concept has failed in Borana. Ranch lands are in the process of being transferred back to the Boran. There are several reasons for this failure here, but the key factor is that commercial ranching is fundamentally inimical to the Borana production rationale. lt is hypothesised that rapid growth in the regional cattle herd (i.e. from less than 10 to over 25 head/km2 during just a few years in the drought-recovery phase) leads to a sequence of nutritional constraints on cattle in successive years (i.e. from minerals to crude protein to energy). This would undermine the general rule of thumb that shortage of crude protein in dry periods is the most common nutritional constraint in the semi-arid zone at all times. Mineral and protein supplements may be more effective at lower stocking rates than at high stocking rates. At higher stocking rates, when competition for forage among cattle limits energy intake, the best intervention is destocking that is compensated along the lines of banking livestock capital. Boran cattle show considerable compensatory growth in recovering from early restriction of milk intake as calves. Under experimental conditions, reducing the amount of milk consumed by calves by 170 litres had no long-term effect of the productivity of the animals. Under ranch conditions, adult cattle also are able to compensate for weight lost because of restricted water intake during dry seasons. However, high stocking rates probably periodically hinder compensatory growth in calves and adults. Feeding calves forages to compensate for milk deprivation and to accelerate growth over the long term is not useful because weight advantages can be easily lost and are thus risky. Feeding to reduce calf mortality is much more viable. ldeally, small-scale water development should accompany improved feeding systems for calves, because seasonal lack of water limits dry-matter intake. Studies of the allocation of extra water available from the use of cement cisterns suggest that the major impact of increased availability of water for households is on the calves, not people. Besides a primary focus on dual-purpose legumes to provide food for people, forage improvements should focus on the best native grasses and woody species. Some of East Africa's best native forages are found in the southern rangelands. The pre-occupation of past development efforts with exotic forages is unwarranted and resulted from ignorance of the possibilities of using native plants. Trials with herbaceous exotics also have been disappointing; it appears that low rainfall and/or cool temperatures are major constraints to establishment and growth of Stylosanthes hamata cv Verano in particular. Despite their often low and variable productivity, native species are valuable because of their proven persistence in an often difficult environment and because valuable species are already recognised as such by the Boran. The dynamics of the Borana system can be most comprehensively described in the context of three states: (1) drought, (2) the drought-recovery phase and (3) the highdensity phase. From 1980 to 1991 there were roughly four years of drought, four years of drought recovery and three years of the highdensity phase. The 1 983-84 drought contributed to the death of 45% of the milk cows, 90% of the calves and 22% of the mature male cattle in five encamp ments. This testifies to the risk-mitigation role of hardy, mobile males during drought. Moreproductive cows may also be more vulnerable to starvation than are poorly productive cows.Drought may thus undermine attempts to up grade the genetic base of the regional herd.The main value of camels to peri-urban house holds during drought appeared to be their ability to maintain long lactations. This allowed households to sell milk to buy grain at favour able terms of trade. Cow milk was also sold but in smaller quantities. Dairy products were in very limited supply during the drought and were the only livestock product for which terms of trade for grain did not decline precipitously. ln the near future, management of drought effects will still rely largely on provision of relief grain. lt is envisioned that proper system management would reduce the negative effects of drought that result from high stocking rates and human over-population. lmportant measures over the short to medium-term could, however, include strategic restoration of drought-grazing reserves, provision of public-works jobs during drought, opening of market linkages between the highlands and lowlands and creation of grain stores both on a household and a regional basis. Banking livestock capital would also be expected to improve the commonly poor terms of trade between livestock and grain during drought.Considering recent patterns of prices and annual terms of trade, if the value of animals were banked during the inter-drought cycle and cash were withdrawn to buy grain during drought, households would on average liquidate only one-third of the animal assets otherwise needed to purchase grain to endure a two-or three-year drought. Male camels are important for hauling grain, construction materials and other goods from the market to distant encampments. Given their browsing habits, camels and goats are ecologically more compatible with cattle than are sheep, since both cattle and sheep are grazing animals and would compete for the same feed supplies. There is no evidence to link woody encroachment with camels or goats. Diversification of herds to include more camels and small ruminants is probably most dependent on improving access to camel markets and on veterinary extension; these interventions could be pursued. These observations suggest that agropastoralism, herd diversification and periurban dairy marketing have evolved in East Africa because of extreme pressure on the traditional livestock system as a result of human population growth. They do not, there fore, necessarily represent improvements in human welfare or an enhanced system state. Rather, they represent indigenous mechan isms for avoiding starvation and/or asset de pletion. The development goal for the Borana system should be sustainable, extensive pastoralism, not agropastoralism. Borana society is economically diverse and clearly stratified into wealthy, middle-class and poor components. There is also a rural sector and a peri-urban sector (i.e. within 30 km of towns) which are believed to behave differently from each other in social and economic terms. The concept of an overall average household thus has little meaning and does not offer much utility as a research tool.Two independent surveys showed that 20 to 25% of household heads were women, particularly in the poor and middle-class strata. lt is hypothesised that a higher percentage of households heads are women in the peri-urban sector. There is no information on whether a larger percentage of households are now headed by women than in the past or if the roles of women in the society are changing. Women reported that they worked long hours all year but direct observation suggested that about 30% of their time in the warm dry season consists of activities associated with \"leisure.\" An extension trial indicated that women apparently had enough \"free\" time at the end of the long rains to make up to 300 kg of grass hay. Whether or not production innovations are adopted probably depends largely on social values and whether the women are willing to give up some of their leisure time.The perverse supply hypothesis might be valid here for poorer households who are forced to sell cattle. That is to say that the Boran will seek to sell livestock in markets with higher prices but that the primary reason they do so is to minimise the number of animals sold. This hypothesis needs to be tested at the household level.Although all households will be forced to sell more cattle, informants report that true livestock commercialisation in the southern rangelands will emerge from a new class of individuals who have some education, wealth and ties to the traditional sector. Some of these people may have learned the livestock trade while working as government agents. lncreased competition and possible conflict between commercial and subsistence herds may occur. One irony is that, in the attempt to gradually guide the traditional pastoral system towards enhanced productivity, sustainability and social welfare, the Government may have to intervene to protect the subsistence population from intense competition with commercial producers. The Boran are innovative and have pioneered some of their own resource management concepts such as planned grazing allocations and fodder banks (kalo). Persistence of traditional leadership structures should facilitate introduction of appropriate interventions in this system. ln the southern rangelands, bottom-up approaches to development of innovations have been more effective than top-down approaches. This is because the producer's behaviour, values and daily life are more complex than, or counter-intuitive to, that imagined by researchers. Top-down concepts such as the pond scoop, the improved butter churn, pasture improvements using exotic forages, speeding-up calf growth through supplementary feeding or drought fodder banks based on Atriplex and Opuntia spp will not have an impact here for various reasons. Bottom-up concepts such as hay-making, using native legumes, intensified aspects of range management, cement cisterns, banking livestock capital and reducing calf mortality are far more likely to have an impact. ln this project, the interaction between researchers and development agents proved very fruitful in helping design research that had an impact on development. Development agents provided grass-roots links with the community that provided a better bridge to researchers. This permitted a true systemsresearch process to evolve.Tamene Yigezu, Ethiopian, obtained his master's degree at the University of New South Wales in 1990 and fulfilled the research requirement with a study of the population ecology of two Acacia species in the southern rangelands. He has recently served as sub-project manager for the Southern Rangelands Development Unit (SORDU) in Yabelo.Tarik Kassaye, Ethiopian, obtained her master's degree in food science at McGill University in 1990 and fulfilled the research requirement with a tech nical study of traditional milk processing as prac tised by the Boran, conducted in 1988-90. During this time she was a research assistant with the Dairy Technology Unit at lLCA.The former head of the Plant Science Division at lLCA during 1985-1990, Dr Tothill, Australian, helped supervise Ethiopian postgraduates in range ecology and forage agronomy in the southern rangelands. He now resides in Australia.Professor Martin Upton, a British national on the faculty of Reading University, served as a consultant to lLCA at various times during the mid-1980s. He contributed work concerning evaluation of pro duction interventions using modeling approaches as well as exploring issues in resource management and development policy in southern Ethiopia.A British national and research staff member of the lnternational Food Policy Research lnstitute (lFPRl) in Washington, D C, Dr Webb was the field director of a study of household responses to the 1 983-84 drought in agricultural systems throughout Ethiopia.The study was conducted during 1 988-90 and in cluded a site in the southern rangelands. A geogra pher by training, he currently works with lFPRl and is based in the United States.Dr Wilding served as a consultant to lLCA at various times during the mid-1980s. His work focussed on uses of indigenous plants by Borana households and historical aspects of the Boran in southern Ethiopia. At the time of his collaboration with lLCA, Dr Wilding was a staff historian with the National Museum system of Kenya.An American national, Dr Woodward obtained her doctorate at Cornell University in 1 988 with research requirements fulfilled from a study that focussed, in part, on use of browse forages by small ruminants and camels in the southern rangelands. She has recently worked as a biologist with the College of Forestry at the University of Washington.A former staff member of the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, Yohannes Alemseged, Ethiopian, ob tained his master's degree from the University of New South Wales in 1 989 with the research require ment fulfilled from his study of various forage legumes as intercrops with maize conducted in the southern rangelands during 1987. He is currently pursuing his PhD degree in Australia.Chapter 1The Ethiopian lowlands occur below 1500-m elevation and comprise 61% of the national land area. Climate in the lowlands includes arid (64%), semi-arid (21%) and subhumid (15%) zones largely defined by four rainfall and temperature regimes. These zones vary markedly in terms of number of plant growing days per year, forage production, common plant associations, livestock and human carrying capacities and incidence of important livestock diseases.Ethiopia today has about 42 million people and over 70 million head of livestock. The lowlands are home to 12% of the human population (or five million people) and 26% of the livestock (or 21 million head). Land use by the 29 ethnic groups of the lowlands is dominated by various forms of pastoralism and agropastoralism. Livestock depend upon rangelands consisting of native vegetation, with crop residues increasing in importance as livestock feed as annual rainfall increases. Calculated for the lowlands overall, roughly six people/km2 are dependent on 11 Tropical Livestock Units (TLUs), which are composed of cattle (49%), goats (16%), equines (16%), camels (12%) and sheep (7%). ln contrast, the highlands support 72 people/km2 dependent on 44 TLUs/km2 which are dominated by cattle (76%), equines (14%), sheep (8%) and goats (2%). Thus, although the lowlands comprise over 50% more land area than the highlands, the lowlands have only 40% as many TLUs at one-quarter the density.Although the lowlands have a lower abundance of animals than the highlands, the lowlands still play a crucial role in the national livestock economy. Livestock production is an important component of the national economy; in the mid-1980s livestock production comprised 33% of the gross value of annual agricultural output and 15% of gross domestic product. Besides supporting rural and urban lowlanders with milk, meat, employment and investment opportunities, lowland breeds of cattle and sheep made up over 90% of legal exports of live animals. ln the mid-1980s, export revenues for live animals came in a distant second after coffee and comprised 1 2% of gross annual export revenue overall. However, about 450 000 head of lowland livestock may be traded on the international black market each year and official statistics often do not reflect this volume. This situation resulted from black market prices being 150% higher than regulated, domestic livestock prices during the 1 980s. Lowland cattle may also provide around 20% of the draft animals for the highlands, particularly to the east, and smaller numbers are supplied for finishing on crop residues and cross-breeding in smallholder dairy programmes. The lowlands are thus an important source of livestock supply to the nation. This situation results, in part, because there are three times as many TLUs per person in the lowlands than in the highlands. This per capita \"surplus\" in the lowlands, however, may be declining because of rapid growth in the human population (i.e. 2.1% per annum, with a doubling time of 26 years) and environmental limits on growth in livestock populations.Although some development projects were targeted for lowland livestock systems in the 1 950s, large-scale development efforts did not occur regularly until after 1965. These projects were generally intended to foster greater integration among lowland and highland production systems. The Third Livestock Development Project (TLDP), originally budgeted at US$ 44 million, has been the dominant force in development of the pastoral livestock sector since 1 975. The TLDP has provided infrastructural improvements (roads, markets, water) and support services (veterinary and facilitation of inter-regional trade) to around one million pastoralists residing in 27% of the lowlands to the north, south and east of the country. The primary goal was to stimulate livestock com mercialisation. These regions were targeted because of proximity to national markets and infrastructure, the quality of indigenous livestock breeds and their higher ecological potential compared to other lowland areas. Despite chronic problems with regional security and the national economy, the TLDP has made a notable contribution, particularly in terms of infrastructure. As one of three sub-projects of TLDP, the Southern Rangelands Development Unit (SORDU) has been most successful in implementing programmes in the Borana pastoral system. ln large measure this has been due to the enhanced security situation in the south during the 1980s compared with lowland development regions in the north and east.More recent development initiatives have included the Pilot Project at SORDU in conjunctionThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia with the Fourth Livestock Development Project (FLDP) which was initiated in 1988 and the Southeast Rangelands Project (SERP) in the Ogaden, initiated in 1990. These projects were designed to incorporate participatory approaches to pastoral development in addition to provision of infrastructure and support services. Despite advances in pastoral-development concepts since 1 975, impact of pastoral-development activities has been routinely constrained by shortages of operating funds and trained manpower and periods of insecurity.Research and development organisations collaborated in the lowlands during 1982-90 to better understand the pastoral systems and design appropriate production interventions. These efforts included TLDP, lLCA, CARE-Ethiopia, the lnstitute of Agricultural Research and the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) working in the SORDU sub-project area since 1 985. Ultimately, the most effective approach involved research following the lead of insightful development agents who implemented a more participatory approach for identifying felt needs and production problems as perceived by the pastoralists. This evolved process appears to be a departure from traditional models of farming systems research and extension in which researchers take sole responsibility for problem identification.The Ethiopian lowlands support a great diversity of livestock production systems. These systems are fundamentally defined by interactions of rainfall and topography. This chapter reviews the Ethiopian lowlands in a national and regional context, including abiotic features, vegetation, populations of people and livestock and contributions of lowlands livestock to the national economy.Commercialisation of the livestock sector has been a prominent development strategy for Ethiopia. A series of livestock development projects that date from 1965 are highlighted in terms of their history, objectives, successes and problems. ln aggregate, these projects have attempted to foster more integration among highland and lowland production systems as elements of livestock demand and supply, respectively. Special attention is given to the Southern Rangelands Development Unit (SORDU), which has been the primary development agent in the Borana pastoral system. Finally, a synopsis is presented that outlines experiences resulting from collaboration of research and development organisations in SORDU during 1985-90.Calculated across 39 countries of tropical Africa, Ethiopia has 1 7% of the ruminant Tropical Livestock Units (TLUs, where 1 TLU = 250 kg live weight (Jahnke, 1982)) and about 60% of the equines (Jahnke, 1982: pp 13-14). Ethiopia thus has the largest national totals of these animals in tropical Africa. This is related to Ethiopia's large area (1 224 000 km2), high ecological diversity, large human population and historical and cultural factors.Ethiopia can be divided into highlands (39%) and lowlands (61%) using 1500-m elevation as a crude threshold. While the highlands typically have higher annual rainfall than the lowlands, this is not always the case. The highlands are characterised by relatively low mean temperatures during growing periods (Jahnke, 1982: p 16). The highlands have climates that vary from semi-arid to humid (i.e. sufficient moisture for 90 to over 270 growing days per year) and contain nearly all of the important areas for cereal cultivation and mixed croplivestock enterprise (Westphal, 1975). The lowlands, in contrast, are dominated by arid to semiarid climates (i.e. up to 180 growing days and 700 mm of precipitation per year). The lowlands are home to a diverse array of pastoral people who depend to a high degree on livestock for their sustenance. These livestock, in turn, depend nearly exclusively on native vegetation for forage, and net primary production is highly variable over time and space. The lowland regions that support wildlife and extensive livestock operations on native vegetation can also be referred to as rangelands (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 1).The uncertainties of rainfall and primary production in the rangelands have promoted animal-based life-styles that enable people to be mobile and opportunistic. Pastoralists typically rely on milk for food and also use animals to store and generate wealth. Animals are consequently important in social value systems. Pastoral social systems also commonly emphasise decentralised leadership that promotes flexibility in resource use (Jahnke, 1982;Coppock et al, 1985). Ethiopia's lowlanders are derived from 29 Nilotic and Cushitic ethnic groups. lt has been estimated that 93% of these people are pastoralists or agropastoralists, with the remainder being hunter-gatherers or pure cultivators (UNDP/ RRC, 1984).lt was recently reported (FLDP, nd: p 22) that Ethiopia had about 29 million cattle, 24 million sheep and 18 million goats in 1987-88. Jahnke (1982: p 14) estimated 6.8 million equines from FAO data for 18The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Review ofrangelands and rangeland development in Ethiopia Ethiopia in 1979. Distribution of animals differs sharply with elevation. The highlands have 80% of the cattle and 75% of the sheep but only 27% of the goats (FLDP,nd: p 22). Assuming two-thirds of the equines occur in the highlands (with a TLU equivalent of 0.6 each), this translates into a total of 44 TLUs/km2 in the highlands with 76% cattle, 14% equines, 8% sheep, and 2% goats. For the lowlands about one million camels need to be figured in (Jahnke, 1982: p 13), which brings the lowland total to 11 TLUs/km2 with 49% cattle, 16% goats, 16% equines, 12% camels and 7% sheep. Thus, despite being over 50% larger in area than the highlands, the lowlands have only about 40% as many TLUs at one-quarter the density. Lowland livestock, however, are more diverse in terms of species composition.The subsistence character of the livestock contribution to rural economies of Ethiopia is illustrated by ratios of animals to people. Considering that the human population is currently 42 million, with 1 2% in the lowlands and 95% in rural areas (EMA, 1988), the rural highlands support some 72 people/km2 on average, with 1.6 people/TLU. ln contrast, the lowlands support about six people/km2 with 1.8 TLU/person. Other estimates have ranged from 1 TLU/person in the highlands to 5 TLU/person in the lowlands (FLDP,nd: p 22). These ratios differ markedly from those of developed commercial systems. For example, successful commercial beef operations in Kenya may require a herd size of 70 head/person employed (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 201). Even pastoral systems may require at least 5 TLU/person for subsistence (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 38), which challenges the commonly held view that the lowlands have a large, marketable surplus of animals (FLDP,nd: p 22).Despite the low level of commercialisation, livestock production in Ethiopia overall contributed about 33% of the gross value of annual agricultural output and 1 5% of gross domestic product during the mid-1980s (lBRD, 1987. The per capita consumption of animal protein is relatively high for Africa and averages up to 13 kg/person annually, with 51% consisting of beef (lBRD, 1987). lmproved livestock marketing is viewed as an important national development strategy to increase both rural incomes and foreign exchange. A rising domestic demand is expected to compete more in the future with demand for live animal exports (FLDP, nd: pp 1, 10). During the mid-1980s coffee contributed about 60% of gross annual export revenue for Ethiopia, followed by hides and skins (12%). Revenue from live animals was far behind at 1% (lBRD, 1987). The recent volatility in coffee markets has probably increased the relative importance of livestock products in Ethiopia's exports, but room for improvement exists in absolute terms. lt is anticipated, for example, that expansion of live animal and carcass exports to Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates now offers one of the best opportunities for increased trade; the major competitor in this market has traditionally been Somalia (FLDP,. Australia has also recently become a competitor (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication).Although the lowlands have fewer animals than the highlands, the lowlands still play an important role in the national livestock economy. Overall, the Ethiopian highlands are considered as livestockdeficit areas with the lowlands as the major source of supply (FLDP,nd: p 29). Twenty per cent of the highland draught cattle are thought to come from the lowlands (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). Lowland breeds of cattle (e.g. unimproved Boran; Plate 1.1) and sheep (e.g. Somali blackheaded) are often regarded as superior to indigenous highland breeds in terms of size, durability, productivity and/or consumer prefer ences in the Middle East (Alberro, 1986;Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communi cation;Solomon Desta, TLDP Economist, personal communication). As a consequence, lowland stock may comprise over 90% of export animals (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, citing unpublished data from the Ethiopian Livestock Marketing and Development Corporation). Boran cattle have also played an important role in cross-breeding pro grammes with Friesians to provide dairy cattle for smallholders in the Rift Valley and highlands (Kiwuwa et al, 1983). Finally, lowland animals contribute to a very large flow of income from illegal exports, since all of Ethiopia's international borders occur in lowland areas. This trade may involve on the order of 150 000 cattle and 300 000 small ruminants per annum, and is encouraged by external prices averaging up to 1 50% higher than those within Ethiopia in recent years (FLDP,nd: P33).Livestock in the lowlands provide subsistence employment and investment opportunities for around five million people and a source of meat, milk and fibre for residents of some two dozen major towns and cities within and adjacent to lowland areas (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). lt has been estimated that the human population in the lowlands will grow at an average of 2.1 % per year with a doubling time of 26 years (EMA, 1988). Although this is lower than the 3 to 4% growth rates of the highlands (EMA, 1 988), it will still produce marked pressure on the lessproductive resource base. As will be discussed, economic interaction between the highlands and D. Layne Coppock Plate 1.1. lndigenous Boran cattle of the southern rangelands.Photograph: JEPSS lowlands will probably have to be intensified in response to population pressure. One objective for national development should be to strengthen interregional linkages to help buffer populations from local droughts and other perturbations. The lowlands can thus be expected to play a larger role in the national economy in the future. As elsewhere in Africa, however, livestock development in the lowlands will often occur in situations where human populations are rapidly increasing, prime grazing lands are being lost to cultivation, traditional leadership and cultural value systems are being diminished and where land in general may be increasingly under threat of degradation (Swift, 1977;RRC, 1985;Moris, 1988).The lowlands of Ethiopia form a wide apron surrounding the highland massif. Part of the lowlands is the Great Rift Valley, which divides the west-central highlands from the north-eastern, eastern and southern lowlands. A map depicting highlands and lowlands and climate regimes is provided in Figure 1.1. The Great Rift Valley is demarcated in this map by territories of the southern Afar, lssa and Kereyou to the north-east and Bodi to the south-west. The climate regimes are defined in terms of interactions between temperature and precipitation that largely define plant growing periods and variation in human exploitation patterns. This review closely follows Westphal (1975: pp 18-27), Workineh Degefu (1987) and EMA(1988).The main factor influencing air temperature in Ethiopia is elevation. As elevation increases air temperature falls. The lowlands below 1500-m elevation are thus the warmest parts of the country, with annual mean temperatures ranging from 20 to 25°C. Because the highland massif occupies such a large and central position in Ethiopia, gradients in altitude and air temperature can be visualised as a series of concentric belts radiating outwards from the geometric midpoint of the highlands. The warmest lowlands occur to the \"outside\" of the 25°C isotherm (EMA, 1988). ln the north this isotherm travels in a south-easterly direction parallel to, and about 100 km inland from the Red Sea. lt then descends into the Danakil Plain, cuts briefly north, and proceeds east parallel to the Gulf of Aden. Next it sweeps south, bisecting the Ogaden region, curls through the south-east portions of the Bale and Borana Administrative Regions, approximately coincident with 1000-m elevation. The 25°C isotherm occurs much closer to the highland 20The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaReview of rangelands and rangeland development in Ethiopia ource: Cossins and Upton (1985).escarpment in the west than in the east (EMA, 1988). ln contrast, the 20°C isotherm is coincident with 1500-m elevation all along the perimeter of the highland escarpment. Superimposed over this crude temperature pattern is a more diverse assortment of rainfall regimes. Westphal (1975: pp 22-23) lists six for the country overall. Detailed rainfall maps can be found in Workineh Degefu (1 987) and EMA (1 988). For the lowlands the basic dichotomy involves unimodal and bimodal systems. Four dominant systems are briefly described below. ln terms of extent of land affected, the most important unimodal system is to the extreme north and north-east (Afar territory in Figure 1.1), where the maximum (70 to 80%) of the annual precipitation of 200 to 600 mm occurs in December through February. This rainfall is partly cyclonic and partly orthographic in origin. Rainfall increases to the south towards the highland escarpment.Another unimodal system, referred to as the \"Sudan\" type, has most of the annual delivery of 800 to 1200 mm occurring during June through August. This occurs in the lowlands along the border withThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Sudan (Nuer and Topotha territories in Figure 1.1). This system also varies in terms of a latitudinal rainfall gradient with heavier and more reliable rainfall in the south.The most prominent bimodal system occurs in the Ogaden and Borana regions (Figure 1.1) and dominates much of the Horn of Africa. The total annual rainfall under this regime ranges from 250 (Ogaden) to 700 mm (northern Borana Plateau), with 50 to 60% occurring in March through May and 25 to 35% in September through November. The rainy periods coincide with equinoxes when low pressure over southern Sudan attracts moist winds from the lndian Ocean. A cool, foggy period, a result of the gradual warming of air as it passes inland, may occur from June through August. Rainfall is lowest in the central Ogaden and increases towards the west (Bale), south and south-east (Borana Plateau).Another bimodal regime occurs in the extreme south-west (Hamer and Bodi territories in Figure 1.1). This has lower and more variable annual rainfall (300-600 mm) than the Borana Plateau. Most (55-65%) of the rainfall occurs from March to May and from December to February. This system is influenced by the climate of the Lake Turkana basin in Kenya.The regional variation in temperature and rainfall in the lowlands provides a basis for understanding climatic variability. This, in turn, yields important differences in vegetation and primary production that influence human ecology and agricultural development potential. For example, very arid climates tend to occur under unimodal rainfall and warmer temperatures, while the semi-arid climates occur under bimodal rainfall and cooler tempera tures closer to the highland massif. Westphal (1 975: pp 25-27) describes in detail eight climate types for all of Ethiopia. Here a simpler categorisation (Pratt Gwynne, 1977;Jahnke, 1982) is used to partition the lowlands into three agro-ecological zones.The arid zone has up to 90 growing days per year. lt includes the lowest areas such as Dalol in Afar territory near Djibouti, which has the lowest elevation in the country at 1 00 m below sea level. The arid zone makes up nearly 64% of the lowlands, including territories of the Beni Amer, Afar and lssa to the north and north-east and the Somali in the eastern half of the Ogaden. The arid zone is composed of the warmest regions (including the 25°C isotherm) in combination with either lower annual rainfall (mostly unimodal, but some bimodal systems up to 400 mm/year) and often thin, weakly developed Xerosols and poorly differentiated sandy substrates or volcanics that contribute edaphic sources of moisture stress. Range plant communities have low production potential. Total dry-matter (DM) production is commonly <1 t DM/ha/year. On undegraded sites the carrying capacity can range from 4 to 1 6 TLU/km2, given the wide variability in annual rainfall (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 112) (The validity of the carrying-capacity concept is discussed further in Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions). Vegetation types include dwarf shrub grassland, shrub grassland and dry thorn bushland. Plant species include herbaceous peren nials and annuals (Aristida, Eragrostis, Cenchrus and Chrysopogon spp) and small to medium-sized woody plants (lndigofera, Sericocomopsis, Acacia and Commiphora spp). Livestock composition is diverse but tends to emphasise browsing species (camels and goats) that forage from woody vege tation. Human lifestyles are nomadic, involving frequent movements of households as well as animals. Social systems tend to be decentralised in terms of traditional leadership (Donaldson, 1982). Cultivation is very risky and often confined to early maturing drought-tolerant grain crops (e.g. sorghum or millet) planted in depressions or flood plains.The semi-arid zone has from 90 to 1 80 growing days per year. This zone clings to the periphery of the highland massif below 1500 m elevation, except in the west where it occurs below 1000 m. lt also includes higher elevations in the Rift Valley (near the Kereyou territory in Figure 1.1), the Nuer region to the north-west, the Gujji and Borana territories to the south and the western portion of the Ogaden. The semi-arid zone makes up about 21% of the lowlands. Annual temperatures tend to be cooler than in the arid zone (more representative of the 20°C isotherm) and rainfall (400 to 700 mm/year) is bimodal except in the Nuer region, which is under a unimodal regime. Soils include Xerosols and volcanics. Range plant communities have much higher potential productivity than those of the arid zone, with total DM production of 1 to 3 1 DM/ha/year (Cossins and Upton, 1988a). Carrying capacities are higher and less variable than in the arid zone. Means range from 14 to 28 TLU/km2, with variation ranging from 11 to 33 TLU/km2 overall (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 112). Plant communities com monly consist of perennial savannahs and dry woodlands with grasses such as Themeda, Cen chrus, Chloris and Chrysopogon spp. Overstories are typically dominated by Acacia and Commiphora spp, with Brachystegia and Combretum spp when conditions are more moist. Under higher rainfall the tendency is for woody plants to increase at the expense of grasses, but this can often be slowed by regular use of fire. Management can thus have an important role in shifting vegetation composition between conditions of woody and herbaceous dominance. The greater stability and productivity of the grass layer relative to the arid zone promotes more grazing cattle and sheep, although browsing goats and camels can thrive in wooded or bushed areas. People here tend to be semi-nomadic, with households sedentary in most years and livestock being mobile if necessary. Compared with the arid zone, livestock diseases appear to be a more serious production problem in general (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communication). Agropastoralism may also emerge on favourable water-collecting land-scapes and maize is an important food staple.The subhumid zone has from 180 to 270 growing days per year. This zone occurs near 1500-m elevation (particularly to the west) and has a longer growing season than the drier zones due to higher annual rainfall (800 to 1300 mm) and lower temperatures. Subhumid regions also extend into pockets of the highland massif and in total may comprise 15% of the lowlands. Native vegetation types commonly consist of moist perennial savannahs and woodlands. Taller grasses such as Hyparrhenia spp are more frequent than in drier zones, with an overstory dominated by Brachystegia, Terminalia and Combretum spp with some Acacia spp. Cultivation of cereals (especially maize) is important and tends to be limited more by soil fertility than by moisture (Jahnke, 1982). Sedentary, mixed crop-livestock operations are more the norm. Land availability is usually not a major limiting factor (Jahnke, 1982). Biomass yield of forage is on the order of 6 1 DM/ha/year and livestock nutrition tends to be limited by forage quality rather than forage quantity. Carrying capacities average around 66 TLU/km2 with low annual variation because of the greater predictability of rainfall. Livestock, however, tend to be relatively less important in the rural economy than in the drier zones, largely because of diseases such as trypanosomiasis. Common livestock are cattle, sheep and goats. Camels are not typically kept where annual rainfall is over 900 mm (Wilson, 1984).For in-depth reviews of climate, vegetation and land-use practices in the lowlands of Ethiopia and East Africa the reader is referred to Lind and Morrison (1974), Westphal (1975), Pratt and Gwynne (1977), Jahnke (1982), Workineh Degefu (1987) and EMA (1988).  (MoA). lt was directed by the LMB because the project emphasised development of a marketing and infrastructure network to promote sales and processing of livestock. This was supposed to initiate commercial links between the lowlands and highlands. Only half of the original budget was eventually used because of administrative problems and Ethiopia's conflict with Somalia, which inter rupted projects. The SLDP did succeed, however, in building a number of primary and terminal markets and slaughterhouses and 600 km of roads.After the SLDP was initiated the LMB funded studies of several pastoral areas that were thought to offer potential for supplying animals for the newly created infrastructure. The consultancy firm AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (see AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates, 1974a-l) was chosen to study the southern Borana rangelands because this was considered the most important region. Other consulting firms and experts supplied by the United States Agency for lnternational Development (USAlD) conducted surveys in two other rangelands to the east (LMB, 1974a) and north-east (LMB, 1974b). These studies included surveys of population demography, vegetation, water resources, pastoral socio-economics and animal husbandry. The final reports were used to generate proposals to finance a range project called the Third Livestock Development Project (TLDP), headquartered in Addis Ababa. Budgeted at EB 88 million, the TLDP was initiated in 1975 with the primary objective of developing infrastructure and natural resources to support livestock production and marketing. The three target regions totalled 203 000 km2. Details of the TLDP are reported in Section 1.4.2: History of lowlands development and the TLDP.The TLDP has traditionally operated as a semi-autonomous entity outside of the MoA. The general manager of TLDP has reported directly to the Vice Minister for Animal and Fisheries Resources Development Main Department (AFRDMD), who in turn has been charged with overseeing all aspects of livestock development as one of four vice ministers in the MoA. The TLDP received a couple of extensions to enable full use of the original funds, allowing it to operate through 1 987. The TLDP continues to function at the time of writing this, however, with the Ethiopian Govern ment funding much of the core administrative activity. Additional funds have also come into TLDP from the Fourth Livestock Development Project (FLDP), operational since 1988. The FLDP is very diverse and has focused on forage development, livestock epidemiology and livestock marketing in mixed farming systems of the highlands (FLDP, 1 987). A small portion of FLDP funds, however, were allocated to the Pilot Project, which operates with TLDP staff. The Pilot Project has been based in the southern rangelands since 1 988 and has focused on institution building and development of extension and monitoring capabilities for better outreach to the Borana pastoral community (Hogg, 1990a).lt was originally intended that the TLDP would gradually be phased out by the mid-1980s, but as of 1992 the TLDP remains as the only corps of national range professionals in Ethiopia. lt has subsequently become the management entity for the South-east Rangelands Project (SERP), initiated in fiscal 1990-91 with funding from ADF SERP will operate in what have been the Eastern Hararghe Administrative Region and Ogaden Autonomous Region. lt is intended to be a hybrid of previous range development projects, combining the infrastructural development emphasis of TLDP with the outreach approaches of the Pilot Project (ADF, 1989).When the TLDP is phased out there will be no permanent organisation to represent rangeland interests within the MoA. lt is possible that either a new range department would be created within the MoA, or that range development would fall under another semi-autonomous authority (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication).The problems of merging rangeland development interests within the farming-oriented MoA lies in important distinctions between lowland and highland projects in terms of staff skills, staff management and implementation of development activities (Tafesse Mesfin, TLDP General Manager, personal communication).A number of other rural development projects are currently operating in Ethiopia. These include smallholder dairying in the highlands and highland reclamation. A concise review of these and other projects is provided in FLDP (nd: pp 20-21). 1.4.2 History of lowlands development and the TLDP lnteractions among highlanders and lowlanders in Ethiopia historically have been characterised by a mix of trade and warfare (Luther, 1961;Kaplan et al, 1971;Wilding, 1985a). The establishment of contemporary trade routes between the highlands and lowlands is commonly attributed to Emperor Menelik. Following his victory over ltalian forces at Adowa in 1896, he sent his armies to consolidate a grip over the lowlands by 1908. Modern roads followed such military routes in many cases (Ethiopian Road Transport Authority, unpublished data). The preliminary results of the PRDP were considered encouraging and led the MoA to formulate a more comprehensive strategy on pastoral development. This, in conjunction with activities of the LMB reported in Section 1.4.1 (Overview of livestock development projects), led to the selection of the Southern Rangelands Development Unit (SORDU), North-east Rangeland Development Unit (NERDU) and the Jijiga Rangeland Development Unit (JlRDU) as the basis of the proposal for the TLDP in 1974. These target areas were considered superior because of their proximity to highland markets, their generally higher stocking potential and because they possessed the highest quality animal breeds in the largest numbers. They also offered good proximity to export markets and meat packing plants. The NERDU area was close to the port of Assab; the JlRDU area had rail access to Djibouti and the SORDU area was bisected by a tarmac road conceived as part of a transcontinental highway system. NERDU was close to the Kombolcha meat packing plant near Dessie; JlRDU was near a plant in Dire Dawa and SORDU was about 200 km south of the Melge-Wondo plant near Shashamene.Despite the excellent grazing potential of the lowlands to the west and south-west, these could not be considered for the TLDP because of remoteness and prevalence of trypanosomiasis (UNDP/RRC, 1984). The three TLDP sub-projects thus incorporated 27% of the lowlands in total, home to nearly one million pastoralists herding some three million TLUs in 1974. The overall purpose of each sub-project was to develop infrastructure (roads, market facilities, veterinary clinics) and natural resources (water and forage) to stimulate animal production and offtake and to increase incomes and welfare of pastoral producers (UNDP/RRC, 1984). The sub-projects are described below.Headquartered in Jijiga, this sub-project has been responsible for about 33 000 km2 of semi-arid (60%) and arid (40%) land in the eastern half of Ethiopia (Figure 1.2). ln 1974 the human population was estimated at about 500 000, with the majority being semi-nomadic Somali-speaking pastoralists. The livestock population was estimated at 600 000 cattle (57% of TLU), 1 .3 million small ruminants (12%) and 200 000 camels (31 %) for a total of over one million TLU (LMB, 1974a). This represented an average of 32 TLU/km2 in wet seasons and a ratio of TLU to humans of 2.1:1. Livestock numbers change dramatically depending on season, however. During the rainy season the population may be almost twice that in the dry season. Rainfall and forage production tend to decrease to the south and south-east but local forage conditions are greatly influenced by landscape. Of particular importance are the large valleys that extend west into the highlands near Harar. These collect soil moisture and offer higher forage production than the rest of the JlRDU area. These valleys have been traditionally used as dry-season grazing reserves for livestock which spend the rest of the year on the dry tablelands. The cattle population is dominated by a short-horned Bos indicus breed regarded as a good dual-purpose animal well adapted to difficult conditions. lt also has a commendable export value to the Middle East (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). The cattle are concentrated more to the north in the large valleys, while the smallstock and camels are more abundant to the south and south-east. Except for areas traditionally prioritised for cattle, access to sub-surface water using traditional means is very difficult. Market access to Jijiga and Harar is fair, but it is thought that the vast majority of animal offtake is illegally sold to Somalia (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication).Headquartered in Weldia, this sub-project has been responsible for about 75 000 km2 of arid (85%) and semi-arid (15%) land in north-central Ethiopia (Figure 1.2). ln 1974 the human population was estimated at 225 000, the majority of whom were nomadic Afar pastoralists. The livestock population was estimated at 734 000 cattle (62% of TLU), 1 .2 million small ruminants (10%) and 206 000 camels (28%) for a total of over 1.18 million TLU (LMB, 1974b). This was equivalent to 16 TLU/km2 and a ratio of TLU to humans of 5.3:1 . Severe drought in 1973-74 probably had reduced livestock numbers substantially compared to previous years (LMB, 1974b). The less-predictable nature of rainfall and forage production mitigate against reliable animal production and offtake in NERDU, despite good access to large markets in the region (UNDP/ RRC, 1984).Herbaceous forage production and dominance of cattle typically increase with greater proximity to the highland escarpment. Sites in the Teru Depression and basins of the Awash and Mille rivers have traditionally been dry-season retreats for livestock. The main development objectives for NERDU were similar to those for the other sub-projects except for a great emphasis on rehabilitation of drought-stricken pastoralists. This rehabilitation was intended to include irrigation schemes as an alternative life-style for those who had lost access to dry-season grazing because of irrigated cultivation of cash crops along the Awash river (LMB, 1974b).Headquartered in Yabelo, this sub-project has been responsible for about 95 000 km2 of semi-arid (70%) and arid (30%) land in southern Ethiopia (Figure 1.2). ln 1974 the human population was estimated at 500 000, dominated by the Boran (to the west) and Somali (to the east) whose life-styles vary from semi-nomadic to semi-settled. The livestock population was estimated at 1 .3 million cattle (74% of TLUs), three million small ruminants (17%) and 94 000 camels (9%) for a total of over 1 .75 million TLU (AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates, 1974f, g). This equated to 11 TLU/km2 and a ratio of TLUs to humans of 3.5:1 . SORDU was considered to have the highest ecological potential for livestock production of the three sub-project areas because of higher rainfall and lower temperatures (Bille, 1983). The more productive environment and reliance on wells for dry-season water also influenced the Borana people to be more sedentary and socially organised, which was expected to improve prospects for animal offtake. ln addition, the Boran breed of cattle was considered of high value for domestic use and export (Alberro, 1986;Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication).At its height in the early 1980s, the TLDP supported a permanent staff of over 1000 and a temporary staff of about 4000 (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). SORDU had the largest staff due to concentration of activities in the south and the absence of civil unrest there. Thus, SORDU used 44% of the TLDP budget (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). Until the change of government in June 1991, the region around NERDU had been a focal point of armed conflict. Administrative and natural resources at JlRDU have been strained in the last few years because of 250 000 refugees who have fled Somalia (A. Moussa, UNHCR Senior Programme Officer, personal communication).Although JlRDU, NERDU and SORDU shared common development goals, local variation in resource constraints required that different strategies be emphasised. Table 1.1 illustrates some of the achievements of the three sub-projects from 1 976 to 1 986 and a few details are presented below.Harar led to promotion of shallow wells in addition to ponds. The pond programme in JlRDU was constrained by soils that had high rates of seepage (Menwyelet Atsedu, Colorado State University, personal communication). Until 1986, additional efforts to develop water in the JlRDU area focused on promotion of cisterns (birka) to collect run-off water. Other water development in the SORDU area has involved maintenance and re-excavation of the traditional deep wells on the western half of the Borana Plateau (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources and Section 7.3.1 .1 : Water development activities).The NERDU area had the greatest constraints in forage supply, and it was intended to take advantage of the river system and landscape to promote water spreading (irrigation) to increase forage production (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). JlRDU also faced significant forage constraints. Most of the key forage supplies occurred in the large valleys, but this was under threat from encroachment by farmers, especially in the Fafen Valley north of Jijiga. ln contrast, SORDU was not perceived to have a major problem with forage supply.Out of 23 million vaccinations over 1 0 years, only 8% were given by NERDU (Table 1.1), primarily because NERDU had fewer problems with livestock diseases than the other areas; and the lowest density of easily accessible cattle (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). Cattle was the species targeted most often in vaccination campaigns.More attention was paid to road construction in SORDU than in the other areas because it had fewer roads. Of 3952 km constructed, 75% were in SORDU area followed by JlRDU (15%) and NERDU (10%).The SORDU area in particular was assessed to have problems regarding access to surface water by livestock. Although the NERDU area is more arid, animals there can drink from perennial rivers originating in the highlands. This helps explain, for example, why 78% of the 122 ponds constructed were in the SORDU area, followed by JlRDU (1 5%) and NERDU (7%). ln the JlRDU area the presence of accessible sub-surface water in the foothills near Cattle marketing networks ln recognition of the more productive forage base in the southern rangelands, three ranches were established under the administration of SORDU. lt was intended that cattle would be purchased in a lean condition from the pastoralists in the warm dry season (December through March), fattened during the ensuing long rains (April to May) and sold at a profit in June or July to highlands organisations. Part of the profit was to be shared with the pastoralists The SERP (introduced in Section 1.4.1: Overview of livestock development projects) will almost double the lowlands area under development in Ethiopia (Figure 1.2). ln the new organisational format JlRDU was brought under the auspices of the SERP in 1991. SORDU and NERDU will continue much as before, except that SORDU should include the Pilot Project at least through 1992 (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication). The TLDP staff may administer all of these components until 1996-97 when the first phase of the SERP expires.Although a small component of FLDP in terms of funding, the Pilot Project at SORDU is an important addition in terms of philosophy and strategy of pastoral development. Material reviewed here is only a brief synopsis, largely drawn from Hogg (1990a;1990b;1990c).The Pilot Project was initiated in 1988 to establish viable and sustainable service cooperatives (SCs) among Borana pastoralists. lt was intended to continue until 1992 but extension to 1995 may be needed to give enough time for adequate impact and evaluation (Hogg,1 990c). The Pilot Project is attempting to work in about one-third of the SORDU area (or 34 000 km2), with a human population of 150 000. The target area is largely around the town of Yabelo and south to the village of Dubluk, with a large portion to the far west near the Kenya border (see Figure 2.10). The Pilot Project involves a fundamental change for SORDU. The administration at SORDU used to plan and conduct infrastructural improvements and veterinary campaigns largely in isolation from the pastoralists. ln the Pilot Project, however, SORDU is to become more of an enabling institution that facilitates implementation of community projects that the pastoralists have prioritised for themselves. The Boran are also expected to pay for much of the cost of the new activities on a contractual basis. This is intended to make the interaction more sustainable by reducing dependency on external funding and should provide better indicators of whether projects are really desired by the community (Hogg,1 990c). lt is important to note that formation of SCs in the lowlands has traditionally been the domain of the MoA, while SORDU was in charge of the develop ment of pastoral and range resources (see below). Defining precisely the duties of these agencies has emerged as a more critical problem as development issues become more complex and interconnected (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).The SC concept that has evolved in the Pilot Project is a modified version of SCs that were implemented throughout rural Ethiopia during 1975-90 (Hogg, 1989;Hogg, 1990c). The original SCs were based on socialist agrarian strategies. The rural organisational structure during 1975-90 consisted of a system of Peasant/Pastoral Associations (PAs) which served administrative functions. Some of these functions were unpopular and included tax collection, filling government quotas for crops and livestock at below market prices, raising funds for building schools or clinics and recruiting young men for the army. Service cooperatives also served to inculcate political or administrative indoctrination. Membership in PAs was mandatory. Despite the pervasive influence of PAs in daily life, they did not exert much influence over traditional legal and social mechanisms for problem solving among the Boran (Hogg, 1990c; Takele Tilahun, TLDP/lLCA post-graduate re searcher, unpublished data). However, the PAs may have had some positive aspects with regard to augmenting traditional influence over resource allocation in the face of rising population pressure (see Section: 7.3.1 .4: Site reclamation).The PAs formed the foundation upon which cooperatives were created.Unlike PAs, cooperatives were intended to provide economic services and membership was more optional.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Cooperatives were to be formed from one or more PAs, depending on population density and resources, and were to use contributed labour and capital to create regional and national networks for the production and distribution of basic com modities. There were two main kinds of cooperatives: (1) SCs that focused more on the organisation needed to procure basic goods for the inhabitants of often remote locations; and (2) producer cooperatives (PCs) that focused more on organising the production of a single commodity or a group of related commodities.The cooperatives were designed and im plemented using a top-down approach. The core activity of the SCs was to obtain basic goods from government warehouse networks at subsidised prices. Theoretically, only cooperatives could gain access to these subsidised goods. The members of the SC would also constitute a legally recognised entity that could apply to the national banking system for low-interest group loans for local development projects. One problem in the lowlands was that pastoralists were not considered able to form the permanent residential groups upon which SCs were to be based. Thus pastoral SCs would not be legally recognised and could not apply for loans. ln sum, SCs and PCs were considered to be somewhat complementary and were supposed to be important conduits that avoided problems of corrupt middlemen and deficiencies in free markets. Such deficiencies theoretically included inability to efficiently network producers and consumers in remote areas.The PAs, PCs and SCs throughout the country largely began to collapse with the demise of central authority in 1990. Government bureaucracy, poor local management and shortages of desired goods effectively suffocated cooperatives in the highlands and it has been asserted that cooperatives never really emerged to a significant degree in the lowlands (Hogg, 1990c). Good examples of how unresponsive the cooperative system really was in meeting modest demands for grain and hand tools in the southern rangelands are reported in Hodgson (1990: pp 83-117).The Boran were organised into PAs in the 1975-76 Zemecha or Students' Campaign. Membership in a PA was based on residence in a particular madda, which is a watering and grazing entity in the traditional Borana system (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources). One problem that emerged was that herdowners were expected to pay taxes to the original PA in which they were registered even though they may have moved elsewhere in their search for better grazing or water (Hogg,1 990c). The first SC in the southern lowlands was formed from several PAs and was established by the local branch of the MoA near Teltele in 1977-78. By 1987 there were 112 PAs and 17 SCs in the southern rangelands, with average member ships of 336 and 534 household heads, respectively (Hogg,1 990c). The average number of PAs per SC was 3.6. While PAs provided blanket regional coverage, the few SCs were concentrated near urban areas in wetter upper semi-arid and subhumid regions, where membership was skewed towards farmers and agropastoralists. This was largely because the local MoA had insufficient resources to extend very far from their branch offices and because of the natural bias of the MoA to work in farming systems (Hogg, 1990c).One objective of the Pilot Project is to retain and modify the SC concept as a development tool for the southern rangelands. Despite problems in the past, the SC is still seen as a viable marketing aid in remote areas where commercial traders have not established. Fortunately, previous experience with cooperatives in the lowlands has been minimal but still some of the negative experiences with the PAs will probably be a constraint in getting the people to overcome their suspicions of new development organisations (Hodgson, 1990;Hogg, 1990c). The reason for continuing to use SCs for pastoral development is based on the proposition that improved market access is essential in stimulating monetisation and more commercial use of livestock, which should facilitate economic diversification and relieve some pressure on the grazing environment (see Section 3.4.2: Environmental change).The proposed SCs are quite unlike the old SCs. ln an effort to make SCs more meaningful to the people, the Pilot Project has focused on im plementing them with attention to the following details (Hogg, 1990c): (1) they are being structured to reflect traditional organisation and leadership; (2) they are being organised to help provide members with goods they really want and not those that used to be forced upon them; and (3) they are being designed to operate in a free-market setting, planned and implemented from the bottom up and are thus less encumbered by bureaucracy. The management and placement of SCs is being carefully rationalised in a pastoral (not farming) context, including a review of those that have existed for some time. Hogg (1990c) emphasised that there is no standard menu for success, as each SC must respond to the local situation in terms of management constraints, the demand for com modities and the costs of meeting demand. This process of institution building is arduous and will take many years. Constraints of an uneducated and skeptical pool of pastoralists are dominant. This strategy should also not be viewed as a \"quick fix\"; only four new SCs were established in two years (Hogg, 1990c).For more details of the Pilot Project the reader is referred to Hogg (1990a;1990c) and FLDP (1 987). Various sections in Chapter 7 (Development intervention concepts) review examples of pastoral organisation as they pertain to specific development concepts in animal marketing, grain storage and water and land management. 1 .4.4 Has national range development been successful?Considering the atmosphere of regional insecurity, political change and administrative problems that has prevailed for the TLDP during the last 1 8 years, it is remarkable that TLDP has had as much success as it has. lt is important to recognise, however, that the enumeration of total vaccinations or lengths of roads put in does not reveal whether the overall strategy has been effective, i.e. whether animal offtake has increased or the welfare of pastoralists has improved. Unfortunately, these questions cannot be rigorously addressed because hard data are lacking and many factors beyond TLDP performance influence outcomes. Monitoring of project impacts should improve evaluation but this has only recently been added to the TLDP under the Pilot Project (FLDP, 1987).The impact of TLDP interventions in the SORDU area was assessed by lLCA using detailed interviews of pastoral leaders in 1 990. Although this information is based on subjective perceptions, it is argued (see Section 7.1 .3: Review of dynamics and past interventions) that improvements of infra structure and veterinary service in the southern rangelands since the 1 960s have had fundamental effects on Borana society. These effects are important and widespread, but also often subtle and hard to detect in a superficial manner. Many of the effects may be positive, but more in the sense of providing a cushion for population growth, delaying the onset of poverty for a portion of a rapidly growing population and acting as a catalyst for future social and economic change.ln addition, whether project objectives are viewed as having been met is complicated by assumptions used in the project preparation stage. For example, suppose that animal offtake is increasing (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). This may indeed raise cash incomes, but it does not mean that the people are better off if essential goods to be purchased are too expensive or in short supply. A similar paradox arises in connection with the types of animals sold. Higher offtake rates of cattle less than two years old may be interpreted to mean that the system is becoming more \"modernised\" in terms of incorporating Western production ideals. Alternatively, it can suggest that older male cattle are in shorter supply and the human population is becoming poorer and more vulnerable to droughts. The Boran traditionally preferred to sell older and larger male animals because the producer can buy goods they want plus a young replacement animal (Coppock,1 992a; see Section 4.3.4.7: Marketing attitudes). Older males have the lowest risk of death during drought of any class of cattle, which makes them an important reserve of wealth during times of stress (see Section 6.3.1 1 : Livestock dispersal and herd composition). Such inferences seem radical compared with developed production systems, but this reflects fundamental differences between developed versus traditional African livestock operations (Behnke, 1984;Coppock etal, 1985;Coppock, 1992a). Both are logical when viewed within their own economic context.A common perception among TLDP senior staff has been that the roads, markets and veterinary campaigns have not stimulated animal offtake per se and that veterinary campaigns in particular have contributed to a greater inventory of animals now in a better position to over-utilise the land (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, and Solomon Dessalegn, former NERDU Manager, personal communication). These opinions are in agreement with mainstream views generated from rangeland development projects elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa (see lntroduction of Ellis and Swift, 1988;de Haan, 1990).lt is concluded in Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions that while the TLDP has made some important contributions in SORDU that should catalyse future opportunities for pastoral devel opment, this development is highly dependent on other social and economic processes that operate at national scales beyond the domain of the TLDP. Economic development and improved human welfare for the Boran are defined in Section 7.1.2: Development philosophy for the Boran and can be condensed as trends toward: (1 ) a sustainable level of per capita milk production and per capita asset accumulation largely in the form of livestock; (2) improved food security during times of environ mental perturbation; and (3) fewer risks of producers being squeezed out of the pastoral system. All of these trends should occur within a framework that also conserves valued aspects of the traditional culture. Given this scenario, it is hypothesised, based on several indicators, that economic development is not occurring in the southern rangelands (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). The Boran appear to be gradually altering some of their attitudes towards cultural and economic changes, but this is not being effectively tapped in a comprehensive development process. An apparently high rate of human population growth, in conjunction with environ mental limits on cattle production, suggest that food security, per capita production and other aspects of human welfare will decline. The system is thus overpopulated and education and urban job opportunities are needed to help release pressure and allow remaining residents to have a chance of improving their living standards. Also needed are other investment opportunities that give returns comparable with those from livestock production. Policies are needed to help open regional markets in order to promote efficient interregional trade and reduce the likelihood of local food shortages and famine.ln sum, this is not to say that some technologies or management strategies within the domain of the TLDP are not important but that they make up only a very small part of a multifaceted, long-term development strategy. While all of the lowland areas have unique constraints to economic development and are probably at various points along a continuum of induced change (Kidane Wolde Yohannes, TLDP range scientist, personal com munication) it is likely that the development problems observed in SORDU are relevant to the Ethiopian lowlands as a whole.The focal point of this report is SORDU and the Borana pastoral community that it serves (Plate 1 .2 a, b). Besides the sub-project headquarters in Yabelo, SORDU also has sub-offices at Negele to the east in the Borana Administrative Region and Awassa to the north in the Sidama Administrative Region. The base in Awassa helps coordinate linkages in animal marketing between the highlands and lowlands. This section briefly outlines SORDU activities in relation to eight original project components as outlined by Girma Bisrat (1988).Material here also includes comments on objectives and observations on recent achievements.The objective of this component was to develop a management plan that would promote a sustainable level of resource use. lt was hoped to describe various range areas in terms of vegetation composition, net primary production and stocking rates for livestock that would promote an optimal level of productivity in relation to maintenance of a \"desirable\" vegetation cover. lt was also intended to prohibit \"undesirable\" land-use practices such as indiscriminate burning of range vegetation, wood cutting and cereal cultivation.There have been two major constraints to implementing of this activity, namely lack of land-use plans for the lowlands and shortages of trained manpower. Land-use plans are primarily needed to identify sustainable farming areas near and within the rangelands. This would permit evolution of pockets of agropastoralism within the Borana system and provide a legal basis for rationalising user conflicts between farmers and pastoralists in contested areas on the periphery of the southern rangelands (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions). SORDU has not been able to deploy enough trained manpower in range management over the past 18 years. Hacker (1988a;1988b) devised monitoring methods for range trends. There is concern, however, that even if levels of optimal use and cattle density could be identified, there is insufficient means to enforce land-use regulations, especially under increasing population pressure and the short-term need of the people for maximum cattle production (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions). Whether the local administration or SORDU can control even the recent spread of maize cultivation is debatable (Kidane Wolde Yohannes, TLDP range scientist, personal communication).The traditional pastoral system was based on wet-season grazing with cattle watering at ephemeral ponds and dry-season grazing close to deep wells (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources). The longer animals could stay on wet-season range the better, because this would help conserve dry-season forage and delay use of the wells. This in turn would conserve ground water and postpone a high commitment of labour (see Section 4.3.2: The encampment and the role of cooperative labour).Studies showed that some vegetation far from wells was not evenly utilised and that new ephemeral ponds could improve access to this forage in wet seasons. Thus, during most of the first decade of SORDU, great emphasis was put on building ephemeral ponds that could theoretically double the length of grazing in \"wet-season areas\" from two to five months in average rainfall years (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication).About 95 ponds were constructed in under utilised sites throughout the region using heavy Plate 1 .2 (a,b). Borana men and a Borana woman of southern Ethiopia.Photograph: JEPSS machinery, paid for in full by SORDU. The ponds ranged in size from 1 0 000 to 60 000 m3. While some ponds functioned as intended and led to a more balanced and diverse pattern of resource use (Hodgson, 1990: p 52; see Section 7.3.1 .2: Grazing management), others suffered from high infiltration rates or high rates of siltation (Tilaye Bekele, 1987). Consultants prescribed a variety of improved management and siting methods but many of these were difficult to implement. Despite problems, the water development programme remains as one of the most popular activities with the Boran.Today SORDU focuses more on trying to help the people maintain existing ponds and wells, since opportunities to expand the area under grazing are now very limited. For several years development agents tried to promote animal-drawn scoops (Abiye Astatke et al, 1 986) so the people could desilt ponds themselves and conserve fuel and spare parts for heavy machinery. However, the Boran much prefer to collect money and pay for use of heavy machinery rather than use their draft animals to pull scraps (see Section 7.3.1 .1 : Water develop ment activities). Selling stock to pay for maintenance of water points is emerging as a major form of monetisation and participation of beneficiaries in the development of the southern rangelands.The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaThe livestock health programme started strongly but has had recent problems sustaining activities. One central and eight satellite clinics were established in towns during the late 1970s to provide health treatments for animals that could be walked in. Cattle were periodically reached in the field through large-scale vaccination campaigns against rinder pest and anthrax carried out up to twice a year. Cattle dips for tick control were established in several locations and field clinics were conducted for small ruminants and camels (Hill, 1982). However, activities have declined markedly since the early 1980s, mostly due to factors beyond the control of TLDP.By 1990 there were chronic shortages of imported drugs, reportedly because of procurement problems within the MoA. When TLDP was financially independent (until 1987), it handled its own procurement and drugs were imported more reliably. Now with other elements in the MoA controlling procurement for TLDP, it is felt that the animal health service in the lowlands has been compromised. This has been due to bureaucratic problems and attempts to save money by ordering inferior drugs (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communication). The greatest demand for veterinary drugs in the southern rangelands is reportedly for acaricides and antihelminthics, but these must be imported from Europe (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communi cation). Vaccines for rinderpest, blackleg and anthrax are produced at Debre Zeit in the Ethiopian highlands but supplies have been reduced in recent years. Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCP) is a major constraint to goat production in the southern rangelands (Section 5.3.7.1: Sheep and goats) and it is planned to produce this vaccine in Debre Zeit in the near future (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communication). Locally made antibiotics have also been available for human ailments through the Ministry of Health but it has been reported that Borana pastoralists obtain these from clinics and use them for livestock (Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Acaricides and vaccines have also been reportedly smuggled from Kenya.Today, there are severe shortages of vaccines, manpower and transport. SORDU staff are unable to engage in preventative measures, responding only to disease outbreaks and this is when the shortages are felt most acutely (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communication). lt is now envisioned to have the Boran pay for all health services, including vaccination campaigns. This would reduce the frequency of false alarms of disease outbreaks and improve the financial basis of the service (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communication). 1.4.5.4 Roads By 1 987, nearly 2800 km of trade and access roads had been constructed throughout the SORDU area, with about 30% built by hand labour and the remainder using heavy machinery. Ongoing activities focus on maintenance. This has probably had major impacts on growth of small towns in the region, provided jobs and facilitated grain distribution during drought. This remains as an outstanding achievement that will help catalyse future change (see Section 7.1.3: Review of dynamics and past interventions).Early on in the SORDU sub-project, land was set aside in three regions for use as holding and fatten ing areas for cattle to be sold to highland operations. The ranches were named Sarite (17 000 ha), Dembel Wachu (12 000 ha) and Wollenso (25 000 ha). Animals were bought from local producers and typically sold to the Ministry of State Farms which used them for domestic purposes or export. One justification for SORDU assuming control over these particular ranch sites was that they had inadequate water supplies in the dry season. lt was anticipated that, using SORDU's resources, water supplies could be developed on the ranches. However, difficulties were experienced at Dembel Wachu (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1983a) and Wollenso (Girma Bisrat, 1988) in particular. The five ponds established at Dembel Wachu had seepage problems, while attempts to drill boreholes at Wollenso were constrained by a very deep water table.The intent was to manage the ranches jointly through a collaboration of local PA members and SORDU staff and introduce concepts of ranch and range management to the Boran. Through a profit-sharing scheme, the project was supposed to provide money from livestock sales to the local community for development projects. lt was also intended to eventually turn over the ranches to the local people after a demonstration period of several years.SORDU directed ranch management, with Sarite having its first intake of cattle in 1979-80, followed by Dembel Wachu in 1980-81 andWollenso in 1985 (GRM, nd). lt was anticipated that the ranches would handle a total throughput of 36 000 head between 1981 and 1987 (6000 head/annum), but the actual number was only about 25% of this (Girma Bisrat, 1988). Low throughput and associated management and marketing problems led to a net loss of over EB 300 000 by June 1988 (GRM, nd). This lack of profitability, as well as a low popularity with the Boran (GRM, nd), led to the ranch concept being abandoned. lt was then decided to return the land to pastoral management. Hogg (1988) proposed that Sarite be turned over to the new local SC developed in the Pilot Project (see Section 1.4.3: The SERPandthe Pilot Project). He suggested that the ranch size should be halved and an SC committee would decide whether the ranch could be used in a different way to produce animals in more of a free-market setting.ln sum, the outcome of the ranch experiment at SORDU has been the same as elsewhere in pastoral Africa, i.e. the Western ranching concept has failed to transform traditional pastoralism (de Haan, 1990). lt was also pointed out by GRM (nd) that the ranch strategy in SORDU ran counter to the survival tactics of the Boran, which included a low priority for selling younger stock (Coppock, 1992a; see Section 4.3.4.7: Marketing attitudes). 1.4.5.6 Smallholder fattening programme Links among cooperatives in the highlands and lowlands were expected to form the basis of reciprocal help in the exchange of lowland livestock for highland grain. Young bulls from the rangelands were to be purchased on credit and distributed to highland farmers, who would finish them on grazing and crop residues and sell them for slaughter or use them as draught animals. The primary beneficiaries of this programme were thus highland smallholders (Menwyelet Atsedu, Colorado State University, personal communication). Cash could, however, be used by the Boran to buy grain directly from highland cooperatives, thereby avoiding expensive middle men and saving the Boran money.By 1 988 the programme involved 21 PAs and 74 cooperatives overall and nearly 5000 cattle were sold to the southern highlands (Girma Bisrat, 1 988). Manpower constraints limited the success of the programme, however. More staff were needed to follow up on collection of loan repayments. Lack of sustained effort led to many smallholders defaulting on their loans and many cases ended up in court (Menwyelet Atsedu, Colorado State University, personal communication).Another major constraint to the programme was shortage of transport. lt was intended that cattle trucks from the rangelands would return from the highlands with grain (Girma Bisrat, 1 988). The TLDP purchased its own fleet of trucks in the late 1980s. Privatisation of this activity today is hampered by inefficient remnants of government trucking monopolies, which remain a major constraint to interregional trade (Tafesse Mesfin, TLDP General Manager, personal communication). The Pilot Project envisions that trade between the highlands and the lowlands needs to be stimulated by the establishment of large grain stores at SCs on the Borana Plateau (Hogg, 1990c). 1.4.5.7 Training Project staff have been educated at home and abroad and pastoralists have been trained to provide field support to animal health activities (Table 1.1). One novel approach was to take over 1 00 Boran on trips to other pastoral and urban areas so they could get a better feel for the diversity of the nation (Girma Bisrat, 1988). Difficulties in training have occurred, however, indicating problems in sustaining field veterinary programmes and the low return rate (about 20% to date) of senior personnel sent overseas for further education since 1987. Those who have returned have also typically become administrators rather than scientists or resource managers (Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). ln sum, the success achieved by various project components varies. For some it is still too early to judge impact. TLDP management has routinely evaluated Project activities and dropped evenThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia high-profile activities (such as the ranches) that have not been successful (Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Shortages of educated manpower constrain management and research capability and problems with support services and operating funds commonly impede programme implementation. The JEPSS was intended to provide a framework for research and debate on lowland development strategies. lt was to focus initially on the Afar and Borana pastoral systems. Field research for the JEPSS in NERDU and JlRDU was abandoned in the early 1980s because of security problems. Some of this early work at NERDU is found in lLCA (1980), Donaldson (1982), Cossins (1983a), Bille (1983) and Negussie Tilahun (1983a;1 983b). Reports concerning JlRDU include Cossins et al (1984a-d) and Cossins and Bille (1984). The JEPSS continued to work in SORDU until 1985.After the JEPSS ended in 1985, CARE-Ethiopia (a non-governmental development and relief organization) became a major partner in the SORDU area through establishment of the Southern Sidamo Rangelands Project (SSRP). This project was based on a MoU among the MoA/TLDP, the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) of the Ethiopian Government, CARE-Ethiopia and lLCA from 1985 to 1988. CARE and lLCA combined staff and resources in field work, while the MoA/TLDP and RRC participated in liaison and strategy. The objectives of the SSRP were to provide tests of research hypotheses generated in the JEPSS for production interventions in the Borana system. For those interventions that appeared promising, preliminary modes of extension were also developed. lLCA focused on research while CARE worked more on extension and development. The main activities initially dealt with improved strategies for calf management, including water and forage intervention. This was later broadened to include many more development activities (Hodgson, 1990)  1.4.7 Interaction between research and development and project impact ln theory, the SSRP was to follow a standard formula: (1) research providing the understanding of the pastoral community using a farming systems research (FSR) approach and (2) developers following with extension (see Harwood, 1979).Research was supposed to have defined interventions for the production system and their entry points. By 1987, however, the nature of the SSRP began to change as work evolved into a more reciprocal partnership. Extension agents began to have a critical role in reshaping the research agenda. While research had successfully identified some key issues prior to 1985, it turned out that intervention was far more complex than anticipated. This complexity was revealed by the in-depth interaction of extension agents with the community. lt is fair to say in retrospect that the researchers never implemented a true FSR approach on their own. The extension agents completed the circle by forming a more effective feedback loop with the Boran. Research was then redesigned on the basis of this improved information (Coppock, 1990a). Extension agents ended up being more important than researchers in implementing the FSR process. Research then followed up by putting some development issues into a more dynamic systems context (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Research also has had a key role in dissemination of project information.ln sum, the model that evolved from the original SSRP turned out to be rather unlike that envisioned for FSR in Harwood (1 979). lt became more like the situation in the United States where extension is supposed to be the \"eyes and ears\" for research by providing timely feedback and new ideas (G.A. Rasmussen, Extension Specialist, Utah State University, personal communication). Our experience documents the crucial importance of clever extension agents as well as researchers who recognise that technical expertise must be shaped by development values if impact is to be rapidly achieved (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).Introduction to the Borana Plateau: Natural resources and pastoral society Summary This chapter reviews secondary information on geology and sociology, as well as original information on climate, soils, wildlife, plant ecology and water resources for the central Borana Plateau. A 1 5 475 km2 study area was selected because it represented an important region for the national livestock economy. Geology of the study area is dominated by quaternary deposits (40%), basement-complex formations (38%) and volcanics (20%). Except for a central mountain range and scattered volcanic cones and craters, the landscape is gently undulating across an elevation of 1 000 to 1 600 m. Vertisols occur more in valley bottoms while upland soils occur elsewhere. Valley bottoms are relatively scarce on the landscape and occupy about 12% of the study area. Vertisols are higher in nutrient content and water storage capacity than upland soils.The region is dominated by a semi-arid climate. Annual mean temperatures vary from 19 to 24°C with little seasonal variation and these decrease 1 °C with each 200-m increase in elevation. Average annual rainfall for 10 sites during 1980-89 varied from 440 to 1100 mm (with an overall average of 700 mm) and this increased by 64 mm with each 100-m increase in elevation. The average of 700 mm is probably biased on the high side because climate stations tend to be located at higher elevations. Rainfall delivery is bimodal: 59% of annual precipitation occurred from March to May and 27% from September to November. A \"dry\" year is defined as one in which annual rainfall is <75% of average and these may occur one year in five. The probability that two consecutive years will have average or above-average rainfall, one dry year, or two dry years is thus 0.64, 0.32 and 0.04, respectively.At least two consecutive dry years constitute a drought. ln an average-rainfall year the number of plant growing days ranges from 100 to 140 in the west and north of the study area, respectively. This corresponds to 1.5 to 2.0 t DM/ha/year of her baceous forage production. For the study area, conservative calculations suggest that annual mean carrying capacity in an average-rainfall year is on the order of 14 Tropical Livestock Units (TLU)/km2, or 217 000 head of cattle but this can decrease to 1 0 TLU/km2 (<1 55 000 head of cattle) in a dry year.Stocking rates for the near-average rainfall years of 1 982 to 1 983 and 1 988 to 1 990 suggest that mean animal density is commonly around 16 TLU/km2, or 250 000 head.The region is dominated by savannah vegetation containing mixtures of perennial herbaceous and woody vegetation. Several native species of grasses and woody plants provide excellent forage. Forage nutritive value increases in rainy seasons compared to dry seasons and browse often retains higher nitrogen content in dry seasons compared to grasses. Elevation, with concomitant effects on temperature, precipitation and associated with shifts in soil parent materials, is the most important factor governing distribution of key plant species. ln terms of fauna, the study area is home to at least 26 species of large, wild mammals and 45 species of commonly observed birds.The Borana Plateau is characterised by a general scarcity of surface water. There are over 540 hand-dug wells and these occur in some 40 clusters largely to the west. These wells provide over 95% of the permanent water points and about 84% of the total accessible water in a typical dry season. The wells also provide about half of the annual water requirements for people and livestock, with the remainder provided by ephemeral and permanent ponds. Wells require large inputs of labour and are thus important in the social and economic life of Borana pastoralists. They also form the basis for traditional units of resource allocation termed madda. There are about 35 madda with an average area of 500 km2. Each madda, on average, may contain several well clusters serving some 1 00 encampments, 4000 people and 10 000 cattle.The Borana Plateau represents part of the remaining core area or cradleland of the southern highlands and rangelands from which the original Oromo culture expanded and conquered half of present-day Ethiopia during the 1500s. The core rangeland area contains historical Oromo shrines still worshipped by the population. The Borana territory has been reportedly shrinking since the early 1900s, largely because of induced habitat change and Somali encroachment from the east. The Borana social structure includes two moieties, five sub-moieties, 20 clans and some 60 lineages based primarily on patterns of male descent. Clans are widely distributed among the madda and are the primary mechanism for wealth redistribution. Some 1 00 clan meetings are held each year whereby the poor petition the wealthy for cattle.The Boran achieve concensus on important community issues through open, participatory assembly. Concensus and enforcement of social norms is achieved under the umbrella of the \"Peace of the Boran\", which refers to traditional values and laws. Two peer-group structures for males, the age-set system (Hariya) and a generation system (Gada) figure in the distribution of social rights and responsibilities and/or regulation of human reproduction. These two systems share many similar attributes and ultimately are complementary in function. All males have a position in each. Hariya consists of 10, eight-year blocks of similarly aged individuals between the ages of 12 and 91 who share a collective identity that evolves with ascension into subsequent age sets. The Gada, in contrast, consists of seven grades and an increasing number of generation classes that are created every eight years. Gada grades can contain males of vastly differing ages. Among other attributes, the Gada grades confer political and ceremonial duties and subject members to different rules regarding sexual behaviour.lt has been hypothesised that the Gada was created during the 1600s to help the society cope with a population explosion. Computer models have suggested that Gada rules on reproduction served to reduce the population 50% by the mid-1 800s, and the population may have slowly grown since. The human population in the study area might have been on the order of seven persons/km2 (1 08 000) in 1 982 and may be growing at a rate of 2.5% per year. Hypotheses to explain this apparent surge in growth include: (1) improved food supply and medical services from outside agencies; (2) declining adherence of the population to traditional Gada norms; (3) external interference with the Gada system from national political interests; and (4) cyclic, functional aberrations in the effects of Gada rules due to demographic shifts.The Gumi Gayu (Assembly of the Multitudes) is chaired by the leadership and occurs once every eight years in the southern rangelands. lt is a foundation of Borana life attracting pilgrims from Ethiopia and Kenya. Assemblies of 1966 and 1988 ended with key cultural and political proclamations. The 1988 proclamations indicate a society under resource pressure. These included decrees to better maintain water points, restrict cultivation, establish calf-fodder reserves, protect valuable indigenous trees, reclaim grazing reserves for cattle and prohibit water sales and alcohol abuse.To understand the sustainable development potential of a pastoral system it is necessary to understand the natural resources upon which it is based. lt is also important to understand some social, organisational and demographic aspects of pastoral society whose features are shaped by interactions between people and their natural resources.The Borana Plateau is probably one of the most studied regions in Africa with many detailed accounts of its geology, hydrology, vegetation and sociology (see AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associ ates, 1974a-l). This chapter will not attempt to summarise all that has been done prior to 1980. lnstead, this material highlights key information from the literature and introduces recent findings from research and other empirical observations.As mentioned in Chapter 1 , the southern rangelands were selected for long-term research primarily because the region is important as a source of animals for domestic consumption and export. The Although the Borana Plateau comprises most of the 95 000 km2 of SORDU, the study area de marcated by the JEPSS programme in the early 1 980s was 1 5 475 km2 of the west-central portion (Figure 2.1). The \"H\" shape of the study area resulted from mountain ranges which cut into pastoral lowlands from the north and south. There were several reasons for selecting this study area, the most important being that it circumscribed the heartland of the Borana pastoral system. The Boran dominate the west-central region because they depend on deep wells associated with the geomorphology of the western Borana Plateau (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources). The area was also selected because it had a reasonable road network and contained government administrative centres.Ground and aerial surveys of human and livestock populations and extensive vegetation studies were conducted from 1982 to 1986 throughout the 15 475 km2 study area (Bille et al, 1983;Milligan, 1983;Cossins and Upton, 1985;Assefa Eshete et al, 1987). Most household surveys, however, were performed more commonly in the eastern half of the study area because of 40The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia lntroduction to the Borana Plateau: General household structure and economy in average rainfall years). Thus, research results from work conducted at the population or landscape level of resolution are more applicable to a sample area of 16% of the entire Borana Plateau while household-level results are applicable to about 1 % of the area. As will be shown, the Borana Plateau is extremely diverse in terms of natural resources, ecology and pastoral inhabitants. Because of this diversity, some of the development concepts forwarded later in this report (see Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts) may not be applicable to the Borana Plateau overall.Reference will be made throughout the rest of this volume to the Borana pastoral system. This will be loosely defined as the people, animals, vegetation and supporting resources that occur within the 1 5 475 km2 study area.This section highlights some of the technical methods used for collection of original data for soils, climate, plant ecology, forage chemical analysis and social surveys reported in this chapter. Methods used to collect secondary information reviewed here can be found in the cited literature.Eight pits were dug on soils representative of dominant upland and lowland substrates largely in the eastern half of the study area. Pits were analysed to a 2-m depth in 19862-m depth in to 1987. Standard . Standard The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia methods for the physical and chemical analyses of soils can be found in Kamara and Haque (1987: pp 12-14;1988: pp 7, 14-15). These include use of Munsell charts for soil colour, analysis of soil pH using a 1 :1 water to soil ratio, organic carbon by the Walkley-Black method, nitrogen by micro-kjeldahl, available phosphorus by the Bray ll method, bulk density by the core method and soil moisture by pressure plate and pressure membrane techniques.Air temperature and rainfall data were collected by SORDU staff on a daily basis from a network of seven and 10 monitoring stations, respectively, set up during 1979 as part of the national meteoro logical network with assistance from lLCA. Stations were set up in towns and field sites throughout the central plateau where data collectors could reside and equipment could be supervised. Because towns tend to be in wetter environments at higher elevations, the data are probably biased on the high side for rainfall and on the low side for temperature for the region as a whole. A map of the monitoring sites and a preliminary synthesis of data collected from 1980 to 1982 for SORDU (as well as JlRDU and NERDU) can be found in Bille (1983). The location of some of the major towns having key climate stations is shown in Figure 2.2. Linear regressions were used to relate annual mean rainfall or temperatures with elevation. Climate diagrams (Michel Corra, lLCA, unpublished data) were based on analytical assumptions of Walter et al (1975) in which plant growing periods were assumed to be those times when monthly rainfall (mm) was twice the ambient temperature (0C)these being times when soil moisture storage was most likely. Lengths of growing periods (LGPs) based on climate data were estimated in Cossins and Upton (1988a: pp 118-119) using a waterbalance model of FAO (1978). Monthly rainfall data for five sites were used to calculate LGPs based on the assumption that plant growth occurs only when monthly rainfall exceeds a threshold of half the potential evapotranspi ration. Length of growing period was also assumed to be normally distributed with a coefficient of variation of 30%. Dry-matter (DM) production of forage was assumed to be directly related to LGP on the basis of 17 kg DM/ha/day of growth (Cossins and Upton, 1988a).How environmental variables influenced distributions of native plant species was analysed by Corra (1986) using 134 one-hectare sites throughout the study area. Field procedures followed Goudron et al (1968): Each site was characterised in terms of: (1) dominant plant species (presence/absence); (2) vegetative physiognomy (i.e. bushland, grassland, woodland etc) scored into one of five categories as in Pratt and Gwynne (1977); (3) colour of the top soil into one of four groups (Munsell Color, 1975); (4) soil reactivity (positive or negative) to 4.0-M hydrochloric acid to assess acidity; (5) slope scored into one of four categories; (6) elevation measured with an altimeter and scored into one of six classes; (7) per cent tree crown cover, shrub crown cover, herbaceous (grass and forb) cover, bare soil and exposed bedrock; and (6) presence or absence of gulley or sheet erosion. These data were analysed in two ways: (1) frequency distributions of plant species across all categories of each environmental variable for tabular display; and (2) an integrative method using detrended, canonical correspondence analysis (CANOCO), a form of ordination (ter Braak, 1988). This was intended to quantify interactions among environmental variables in terms of their effects on plant species distribution. The ordination exercise was depicted as a graph which integrates all variables in explaining their effects on the occurrence of each plant species. Plant species occur as points on the graph and the environmental variables are shown as vector arrows or points, depending on whether the variables are continuous or discrete. Plant species nomenclature in this volume follows Pratt and Gwynne (1977) and AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974d).Chemical analyses of forage materials followed standard methods for organic matter, nitrogen, fibre and in vitro digestibility (Goering and Van Soest, 1970;AOAC, 1980;Van Soest and Robertson, 1980). Tannins in browse forage are reported from Woodward (1988) and her analytical methods followed Reed et al (1985) and Reed (1986).lnformation on social aspects of resource management and water production from wells was obtained through survey and/or systematic observation (Cossins, 1983c;Donaldson, 1983;Cossins and Upton, 1987). Methodological details will be reported in the discussion as warranted.  (1987: pp 55-59). Other descriptions of these formations are in Pratt and Gwynne (1977: pp 3-13). The formations include:This comprises about 38% of Figure 2.2, and consists of granites, gneisses and migmatites. This is part of the Mozambican Belt of East Africa and is between 600 and 950 million years old. These formations are the result of warping, folding and up-lifting of substrates from the earth's crust. Rocks are varied in colour and often have a banded appearance due to separation of mineral components under high temperature. Basementcomplex parent materials underlie areas having mountainous, undulating or flat relief. Basementcomplex parent materials tend to dominate soil formation at higher elevations on the Borana Plateau and this has implications for soil chemistry and plant associations (see Section 2.4.1 .5: Native vegetation). Fractured depths of the basementcomplex formation make up many of the discontinuous aquifers that supply the deep wells (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources).These were deposited during the Jurassic Period some 180 million years ago. They comprise about 2% of Figure 2.2 to the north-east, and are composed of shales, sandstones and limestones. These materials largely resulted from oceanic activity.These comprise about 20% of the area in  , 1987). Volcanics also contribute mountains and hills and underlie areas with undulating and flat relief. Volcanics tend to occur more, however, at lower elevations of the study area, which has implications for soil chemistry and plant associations (see Section 2.4.1 .5: Native vegetation). The few crater lakes in the study area are known for their salty water. Recovering salt from these lakes is a source of employment near Mega (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Salty water is reportedly also an important feed intake for camels at Dilo Goraye to the south-west (D. L.Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Some crater bottoms also harbour deep water wells (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources).These comprise about 40% of the area in Figure 2.2 and were deposited at least three million years ago.They have resulted from alluvial (river, lake or swamp deposition) or eluvial (in situ weathering of rock) processes. ln sum, the central Borana Plateau is diverse in terms of the types and ages of parent materials for soil formation. These factors influence soil fertility which, in turn, influences vegetation characteristics.The terrain of the central Borana Plateau includes a central mountain range, scattered volcanic cones and craters and gently undulating and flat plains. The basement-complex mountains largely run from north-west to south-east from Yabelo to Moyale and north from Arero (Figure 2.2); some peaks attain 2000 m in height. These peaks are often distinctive because they contain massive, protruding blocks of resistant rocks that have separated from the more readily erodible materials.lt is important to note that the undulations of the plains are too gentle and irregular to be described as a catena which is a common landform elsewhere in East Africa (Pratt and Gwynne, 1 977). There are distinctions, however, in soil and vegetation among lowland sites in valleys and depressions compared to upland sites and these have important implications for land use (see Section 2.4.1 .3: So/7s and Section 4.3.6: Cultivation). Except along the Dawa River (Figure 2.2), which was excluded from most of lLCA's research, there are no seasonally flooded areas or catchments which could support riverine vegetation or gallery forests. The study area is thus distinctive because it lacks reliable surface water during most of the year (see Section 2.4.1 .7: Water resources). These points are made because patches or corridors of seasonal or permanent wetlands have been increasingly recognised as crucial pastoral resources (Coppock et al, 1986a;Ellis et al, 1986;Scoones, 1991).Landscape units or land systems have been defined as \"areas in which there is a recurring pattern of topography, soils and vegetation\" (Christian andStewart, 1953 cited in Pratt andGwynne, 1977: p 9). Landscape classification systems thus attempt to incorporate climatic, topographic and edaphic criteria. Some 104 landscape facets have been proposed for the central Borana Plateau by Assefa Eshete et al (1986). This classification, integrating aspects of climate, soils, vegetation and land use, will be introduced in Chapter 3: Vegetation dynamics and land use and Annex C: Ecological map of southwestern Borana.Detailed technical descriptions of the geology of the southern rangelands are reported in AGROTEC/CRG/ SEDES Associates (1974i) andEWWCA (1987). Geological maps at a national scale can be found in Kazmin (1973). A physio graphic map of the study area can be found in EWWCA (1987: p 54). This map divides the region into four large drainages or watersheds: (1) Dawa Wenz to the north-east; (2) Laga Sure to the south east; (3) Laga Ririba to the north-west; and (4) Laga Walde to the south-west. (The general introduction to East African geology and landscapes in Pratt and Gwynne (1977) is also recommended reading).Soil develops over time from interactions of parent material, weathering and accumulation of organic matter. Overall, rangeland soils of East Africa are regarded as having low fertility. This is principally attributed to the very old age of common parent materials (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 9). Range soils may vary substantially in fertility, however. ln general, soils with more clay that are derived from lava or other materials low in quartz are often regarded as having higher fertility than lighter, sandier soils derived from granites and sandstones higher in quartz. This can be extrapolated to landscapes: Bottomlands of valleys and other sites with impeded drainage may be expected to have greater fertility than soils on slopes or hilltops. Despite their low fertility compared with soils in wetter zones, common range soils have a reduced risk of accelerated nutrient loss from leaching because of the lower rainfall. Precipitation regimes ranging from 500 to 900 mm/annum have been proposed as thresholds over which leaching can interfere with maintenance of soil fertility (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 13). The low rainfall of rangeland areas may also depress response of range soils to mineral fertilisers. This is because water is assumed to be the major limiting factor to plant growth in many rangeland systems (Noy-Meir, 1973;Pratt and Gwynne, 1977). Ludwig (1987) disputes this, however, and notes that nutrient limitations can be important constraints in run-on areas or patches in dry-land systems where water availability is less of a constraint.This section reports on soil surveys for lLCA research sites in Ethiopia conducted by Kamara and Haque (1 987;1 988). Sites analysed in the southern rangelands were near Mega, Sarite ranch, Dembel Wachu, Melbana, Yabelo, Medecho and Dubluk (see Figures 2.2 and 3.1 for map locations). The other sites included Debre Birhan, Debre Zeit, Gudder, Deneba, lLCA headquarters, Wogele, Woreta and Were llu distributed among the northern and north-central highlands, Soddo in the southern highlands and Zwai in the Rift Valley. The surveys were intended to provide baseline information from representative sites that could be used in designing agronomic trials. Sites were thus not selected randomly and data were not intended for statistical analysis. The survey does, however, provide some useful background for understanding variation in Ethiopian soils and edaphic constraints found in the southern rangelands.Vertisols near Mega and at Sarite ranch on the Borana Plateau were described by Kamara and Haque (1 987: pp 1 1 , 26, 64-67, 81 and 84). Upland soils at Dembel Wachu, Medecho, Dubluk, Melbana and near Yabelo were described by Kamara and Haque (1 988: pp 5,7,24,26,30,46,[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73]81 and 83). The following material will only briefly review some general results. Kamara and Haque (1987;1988) should be consulted for details and a standard soils text for clarification of technical parameters or methods employed.Vertisols are brown or grey soils that are often poorly drained, are high in organic matter and have a clay content of over 60% (Kamara and Haque, 1987). ln the rangelands Vertisols have a restricted distribution in valley bottoms, low-lying plains and on flat surfaces in the central mountain range.Compared to the surface soil (i.e. the top 20 cm) of 15 other Vertisol sites studied throughout the Ethiopian highlands and lowlands, the rangeland Vertisols were typically average in most respects (Kamara and Haque, 1987). For example: (1) available phosphorus (P) ranged from 0.3 to 39.4 ppm across all 1 7 sites with a mean of 7.8 ppm, and the average for the rangeland sites was 10.9 ppm;(2) per cent total nitrogen (N) ranged from 0.02 to 0.29% across all sites with a mean of 0. 1 3% and the average for the rangeland sites was 0.10%; (3) per cent organic matter (OM) ranged from 1 .5 to 5.7% across all sites with a mean of 3% and the average for the rangeland sites was 2.9%; (4) pH ranged from 4.98 to 7.52 across all sites with a mean of 6.02 and the average of the rangeland sites appeared more alkaline at 7.62; (5) bulk density (throughout the profiles) ranged from 0.83 to 1 .48 g/cm3 across all sites with a mean of 1 .18 g/cm3 and the average of the rangeland sites was 1.04 g/cm3; (6) total porosity (throughout the profiles) ranged from 54 to 84% across all sites with a mean of 65% and the average of the rangeland sites was 71%.Available water capacity (AWC) ranged from 1 .4 to 4 mm/cm over the 17 sites with a mean of 2.4 mm/cm. The average for the rangeland sites was at the low end with 1 .52 mm/cm. The picture changes somewhat for total AWC, which reflects variation throughout the profiles. Total AWC ranged from 362 to 686 mm over 17 sites with a mean of 515 mm. The average for the two rangeland sites was 573 mm. Soil depths were only evaluated either to a maximum depth of 2 m or until bedrock was reached. Only four out of the 1 7 sites had soil depths <2 m, and one of two in the rangelands was in this category (i.e. 180-cm depth). Nearly all of the Vertisol sites (including the rangeland sites) were judged to have an erosion risk of none to slight (Kamara and Haque, 1987: p 32).ln contrast to Vertisols, the upland soils in Ethiopia vary from yellow, brown, grey or red in colour. They are better drained and usually have more equitable proportions of sand, silt and clay (Kamara and Haque, 1988). The clay allows for greater ability to store moisture and nutrients while sand has the least ability in these respects. ln the rangelands, upland soils are widespread and occur on mountains, ridges, upland swales and hilly and level plains. The six rangeland sites averaged 53% sand, 17% silt and 30% clay. The eight sites elsewhere in Ethiopia had an average composition of 40% sand, 23% silt and 37% clay. Based on these patterns it could be stipulated that the upland soils of the rangelands have a lower ability to retain water and nutrients than upland soils elsewhere.Upland soils in the rangelands appeared similar to those found elsewhere in Ethiopia in most other respects (Kamara and Haque, 1988). For example:(1 ) for the non-rangeland sites available P averaged 3.25 ppm (range: 0.63 to 14.5 ppm) while the rangeland sites averaged 2.8 ppm (range: 1.19 to 5.29 ppm; three sites having values >44 ppm were excluded because this was thought to be related to past fertiliser use); (2) per cent total N for the non-rangeland sites averaged 0.11% (range: 0.01 to 0.1 6%) while the rangeland sites averaged 0.09% (range: 0.04 to 0.14%); (3) per cent organic matter (OM) for the non-rangeland sites averaged 2.8% (range: 1.6 to 4.8%) while the rangeland sitesThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia averaged 2.4% (range: 0.9 to 4.3%); (4) pH for the non-rangeland sites averaged 6.7 (range: 5.1 to 8.1 ) while the rangeland sites averaged 7.1 (range: 6.4 to 7.8); (5) bulk density for six non-rangeland sites averaged 1 .22 g/cm3 (range: 0.99 to 1 .35 g/cm3) while the rangeland sites averaged 1.41 g/cm3 (range: 1.19 to 1.63 g/cm3); (6) total porosity (five sites) ranged from 49 to 61 % across all sites with a mean of 54% and the one rangeland site had a value of 49%.ln terms of AWC the non-rangeland sites averaged 1 .54 mm/cm (range: 0.80 to 2.08 mm/cm) while the rangeland sites averaged 1.33 mm/cm (range: 0.32 to 2.66 mm/cm). For total AWC the non-rangelands sites averaged 31 2 mm (range: 1 76 to 405 mm) while the rangeland sites averaged 43% less at 179 mm (range: 35 to 409 mm). Three of eight non-rangeland sites had soil depths <2 m and these averaged 1 65 cm (range: 1 60 to 1 70 cm). All of the rangeland sites had soils <2 m deep (average: 144 cm; range: 125 to 170 cm). Three of eight non-rangeland sites were scored as having at least a slight-to-severe risk of erosion. Five of six sites were scored at the same level for the rangelands.The above material provides some basis for proposing hypotheses regarding regional variation within the major soil classes, but the data are notable for their lack of variability in most respects. For example, Kamara and Haque (1987;1988) concluded that all of the soils studied were markedly deficient in N and P content for sustained and intensified cultivation without fertilisation. Concerning site variation, it is reasonable to hypothesise, at least for the upland soils, that the rangeland sites are sandier and shallower. This suggests that the upland soils in the rangelands are less capable to store nutrients and moisture than sites elsewhere. This could be a major production constraint given that availability of nutrients and moisture are lower in the rangelands (see Section 2.4.4.1: Rainfall).Differences between Vertisols and upland soils appear to be greater than the regional variation within either group. lt is reasonable to postulate that compared to the upland soils, the Vertisols have a higher content of N, P and OM and a higher AWC conferred by their higher proportion of clay and silt and greater depth. The Vertisols are probably also far less vulnerable to erosion. ln sum, these postulated differences are in agreement with the contention that Vertisols offer a more reliable substrate for sustainable cultivation than upland soils (Kamara and Haque, 1987).Given these differences between soil groups, it is also evident that it is the relative proportion of each at the landscape level that would largely define the major contribution of soil to the character of agricultural enterprise in any given region. For example, it has been estimated that <10% of the southern rangelands is suitable for sustainable cultivation. This is largely related to the low proportion of Vertisols (and deep upland swales) that occur on the Borana Plateau. ln contrast, the northern Ethiopian highlands are regions of intense cultivation, probably because of the dominance of deep Vertisols (Westphal, 1975). Conversely, the very high proportion of shallow upland soils in the southern rangelands probably makes for a greater vulnerability of the system to opportunistic cultivation and/or heavy grazing pressure (see Section 3.3.1 : Ecological map and land use).This simple dichotomy supports the views of Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 9) who contend that categorising soils with regards to erodibility is really all that is needed for a fundamental understanding of how soil contributes to the stability and resilience of rangeland systems, and that agronomic studies of soil nutrient features in rangelands are less necessary. This also may support the idea that rangeland systems are more often regulated by moisture availability (Noy-Meir, 1973). A more recent view, however, is that one must take a site-specific approach to judge whether water or soil nutrients are the most limiting factor to plant production in a rangeland system (Ludwig, 1987). This may fit well in the southern rangelands where Vertisols and upland soils provide a testable dichotomy. lt is perhaps most relevant to hypothesise: (1 ) That plant production on the upland soils of the southern rangelands is more likely to be regulated by available water rather than soil nutrients during most of the year; and (2) that plant production on Vertisols or deep upland swales is more likely to be regulated by nutrient availability since soil moisture is relatively more plentiful.Recognition of this dichotomy is probably fundamental to understanding prospects for the long-term sustainability of the pastoral system in light of increasing pressure from cultivation and cattle grazing (see Sections 4.4.1.1: Pastoralism and cultivation and 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).Climate is principally defined by interactions of rainfall and air temperature that determine seasonality and the breadth of ecological niches for plant and animal species. Although AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates (1974d;1974i;and 1974j) dealt with aspects of climate in the southern rangelands, it was from a more limited data base than exists today.Monthly and annual rainfall statistics for 10 years over the period 1980 to 1989 can be found in Table A1 , Annex A. The following is a preliminary analysis and conclusions are not definitive because a minimum of 50 to 60 years may be required to establish accurate rainfall patterns in semi-arid areas (Bille, 1983). For example, the 1980-89 data include the 1983-84 drought and some annual means are probably biased downwards. This is because multi-year droughts are thought to occur at a lower frequency than once every 1 0 years (see below). Complete data were obtained for seven of 1 0 sites. Rainfall varied substantially with location. Annual mean rainfall in the seven sites varied from about 440 mm at Wachile to 1 1 00 mm at Moyale on the Kenya border, with an overall average of 700 mm (Table A1 , Annex A). Variability was uniformly high and ranged from 38 to 57% of annual means. Annual rainfall varied significantly with elevation in a simple linear regression for six sites (N=6; r2=0.94; ^=0.001 ; see Figure 2.3). This indicates that over the range of 1000 to 1700-m elevation, annual rainfall increased by 64 mm for each 100 m.The final regression deleted stations at Moyale, Yabelo, Did Hara and Dubluk. Moyale was dropped because its position on the escarpment with the northern Kenyan desert subjects it to a higher rainfall, and Yabelo and Did Hara were dropped Altitude (m) 1600 1800 because they occur in a rain shadow of the central mountain range (Bille, 1983). Dubluk was dropped because of a lower confidence in the data quality (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). A rainfall map of the study area in which five moisture zones are depicted is shown in Figure 2.4. Mean annual totals for rainfall alone do not indicate effectiveness of rainfall for plant production. Effectiveness is strongly influenced by seasonal concentration of moisture and reliability of receiving threshold amounts within certain time intervals (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 13). Data in Table A1, Annex A, indicate pronounced concentrations of rainfall in a bimodal pattern. As a first example, each rainy period is defined as being three months in length to illustrate seasonality. ln this case 59% of the annual rainfall occurred during March, April and May at all seven sites while another 27% fell during September, October and November. ln sum, 86% of the rain occurred during six months. Over twice as much rain fell from March through May as in September through November. Now considering a two-month duration for each rainy period, 48% of the annual rainfall occurred during April and May, with 20% falling during October and November. Sixty-eight per cent occurred during four months. Over 2.3 times as much rain fell in April and May as in October and November.Bille (1 983) considered that a monthly rainfall of 60 mm was the minimum required to stimulate green-up of herbaceous vegetation in the southern rangelands. He therefore calculated probabilities of rainfall exceeding 60 mm for six sites in each month based on data from 1957 to 1981. All of the sites were at higher elevations and could be considered representative of the study area as a whole (i.e. half occur on the periphery of the study area). The general perspective is useful, however, and the analysis is shown in Table A2, Annex A. Averaged across all sites, the probability of receiving 60 mm ranged from about 0.20 or less from June through August and December through February. The driest month was January with an average probability of 0.09. Probabilities ranged from 0.48 in March to 0.93 (April) and 0.78 (May) during the heavier rainfall period. For the lighter rainfall period probabilities ranged from 0.35 (September) to 0.78 (October) and 0.58 (November). Throughout the rest of this report the period March through May will be referred to as the long rains, while September through October will be referred to as the short rains (see also Bille, 1983;Cossins and Upton, 1988a).Numbers of rainy days for the long and short rains on a decade (10-day) basis are displayed in Tables A3 and A4, Annex A. These data illustrate some of the short-term, temporal variation in rainfall delivery that can have a bearing on plant growth (G. Source: EWWCA (1987) as adapted from Bille (1983).39°4tfKing, University of New South Wales, personal communication). Using drier Wachile and wetter Moyale as extremes, it can be seen from Table A3, Annex A, that the peak rainy month of April is characterised by a fairly even distribution of precipitation throughout the three decades. Wachile averaged 3.4 rainy days out of 10 while Moyale averaged 5.9. March and June were similar in the numbers of rainy days for Wachile (average of 1 .6 out of 10) or Moyale (average of 2.4 out of 10) and the increasing and decreasing trends in decade rainfall are apparent (Table A3, Annex A). For the peak rainy month of October during the short rains, Wachile averaged 2.1 rainy days out of 10 while Moyale averaged 3.4 (Table A4, Annex A). Sep tember and November were similar for Wachile with an average of 1 .3 rainy days out of 10, but Moyale showed 1 .5 for September and 3.5 for November.Compared to rainfall, air temperatures vary much less throughout the year in most of sub-Saharan Africa. Temperature thus plays a more minor role in defining seasonality in Africa than in temperate environments. The key issue in warmer climates is how temperature modifies effectiveness of rainfall by influencing evaporation. This in turn affects plant production and the distribution of plant species. Temperature also imposes limitations on whether introduced exotic plants can become established (Skerman, 1977).The seasonal homogeneity of air temperature on the Borana Plateau is illustrated in Table A5, Annex A. At Sarite ranch (the warmest site) and Yabelo (the coolest site), day-time maxima varied by only 4 to 5°C all year, while night-time minima varied by <2°C. Simple linear regressions relating maximum, mean 48The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia lntroduction to the Borana Plateau: .. and minimum temperatures with elevation across seven sites are shown in Figure 2.5. All relationships were significant (/v=6; r2=0.52; P<0.05) and indi cated that temperatures decreased on the order of 1 °C with each 200-m increase in elevation.Figure 2.5. Linear regression analysis of annual air temperatures as a function of altitude for seven sites in the southern rangelands. Altitude(m)Seasonality, forage production and carrying capacity in an average rainfall year Plant growing seasons for a selection of sites are depicted in Figure 2.6 (a-d). These diagrams were produced under assumptions for soil water balance (see Section 2.3: Methods). Moyale (Figure 2.6b) is merely shown for reference given the higher rainfall there. Others, however, illustrate, that compared to higher and wetter sites (i.e. Negele and Arero), sites at lower and drier elevations (such as Sarite) have a shorter growing period during the long rains and only a nominal growing period during the short rains. Sites such as Sarite could thus have more of a unimodal rainfall pattern which could yield regional variation in net primary production (NPP) and plant species composition. To be most accurate, waterbalance models should incorporate estimates of potential evapotranspi ration (PET), but there are insufficient field data from the Borana Plateau to make these calculations. The reader is referred to FAO (1984) andEWWCA (1987: p 63) for some estimates of PET for other regions in southern Ethiopia.Results from the LGP model used in Cossins and Upton (1988a) are shown in Table 2.1. There was a range of 65 to 95 growing days for the long rains and 46 to 67 growing days for the short rains during average rainfall years. The total annual growing period ranged from about 3.8 to 5.0 months. These estimates may be conservative because the authors assumed that there was a carry over of zero soil-moisture storage and rainfall alone contributed the moisture for plant growth at any given time (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 121).Figure 2.7 depicts regional patterns of numbers of plant growing days and NPP in an average rainfall year from Cossins and Upton (1 988a). This analysis indicates that because the northern zone has from 27 to 47% more growing days than other zones, annual forage production in the northern zone is 12 to 25% higher. ln the northern zone around 2.7 1 of dry matter (DM)/ha/year may be produced as a result of 140 growing days. ln the other zones this ranges from: (1 ) 1 .5 1 DM/ha/year from 1 02 growing days (west); (2) 2.0 1 DM/ha/year from 125 growing days (central); and (3) 1.9 t DM/ha/year from 110 growing days (east). Cossins and Upton (1987: p 202) reported stocking rates of livestock in the four zones throughout the study area in the \"average\" rainfall year of 1982 to 1983 (see Figure 2.7). ln the wet season cattle stocking rates varied from about 1 3 to 23 head/km2 in the western and eastern zones, respectively, with an overall density of about 20 head/km2. For small ruminants, figures ranged from 7 to 17 head/km2 in the western and central zones, respectively. The overall density for small ruminants was about 8 head/km2. For the 1 5 475 km2 study area this translates to 309 000 cattle and 1 24 000 small ruminants or a combined total of 17 Tropical Livestock Units (i.e. 250-kg equivalents/km2). ln the dry season the overall mean for cattle decreased by 20% to 16 head/km2 and thus 248 000 head for the study area overall. The total density of TLUs for the dry season was around 14 TLU/km2 while the weighted average density for the year was about 1 6 TLU/km2. Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 112) estimated that the \"safe\" carrying capacity for 600, 500 and 400 mm of annual rainfall in East Africa was 6, 7 and 11 ha/TLU/year, respectively. These are densities at which livestock productivity/head is not compro mised and vegetation is not appreciably altered by grazing. Conservatively assuming an average of 500 mm of annual rainfall for the study area overall, the \"safe\" carrying capacity is 14 TLU/km2. This suggests that for the central plateau overall, the livestock population was stocked at or near carrying capacity in 1982 to 1983. The livestock population was probably at this level again by 1 988 following the decimating effects of the 1983 to 1984 drought (Solomon Desta, nd; see also Chapter 6: Effects of drought and traditional tactics for drought mitigation, and Section 7.2: A theory oflocal system dynamics).Dry and drought years and their effects on net primary production and carrying capacity ln the LGP analysis of Cossins and Upton (1988a), a dry year and a drought (or very dry) year were defined as years in which the LGP is less than 75% or 50% of the long-term mean, respectively. Given their assumptions about annual rainfall distribution (see Section 2.3: Methods), they concluded that a dry year occurs once in five years and a drought Source: Cossins and Upton (1988a).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia lntroduction to the Borana Plateau: ... Figure 2.7. Regional variation in annual growing periods and zonal categorisation on the Borana Plateau.-5°00' 37°30'Source: Cossins and Upton (1987).year once in 20. lt was noted that this proposed frequency agreed with estimates for northern Kenya from the historical record as analysed by Hogg (1980). Cossins and Upton (1988a: pp 121-122) calculated how NPP could change in dry and drought years as a result of variation in LGP. Given the assumption that LGP and NPP are directly correlated, they estimated that for the study area overall, NPP would drop by 25 to 50% in dry and drought years, respectively. The relative effect may vary somewhat among zones, however, with the north affected less because of its more favourable position in the higher rainfall belts of the southern highlands (see Section 1 .3: Climate and zonation of the lowlands). Many cattle were reportedly moved to the north of the study area from other zones during the 1983-84 drought (see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition). lt thus may be anticipated that the carrying capacity for livestock would similarly decline by 25 to 50% in dry and very dry years to 10 and 7 4°00' 39°00 TLU/km2, respectively. There is evidence to support such dramatic declines in carrying capacity from the 1 983 to 1 984 drought (see Section 6.2.1 : Effects of drought in the lowersemi-aridzone). While the utility of the carrying capacity concept has been recently challenged (Ellis and Swift, 1988;de Leeuw and Tothill, 1990;Bartels etal, 1990), observations here indicate that carrying capacity is a relevant concept for interpreting system dynamics (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics, and Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).lt is important to note that the designation of drought as a one-year event is inconsistent with other analyses (e.g. Donaldson, 1986) which describe droughts on the Borana Plateau as multiple-year phenomena (see Section 6.1: lntroduction). Although a 25 to 50% reduction in NPP is a substantial shock to the system in any given year, the vast majority of cattle mortalities and risk of human famine usually occurs in the second of consecutive dry years. Thus, the definition of drought used henceforth in this report is when twoThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia or more consecutive dry years occur in which the LGP is less than 75% of the mean.A dry year is primarily indicated to the pastoralists by a substantial failure of the long rains. Two consecutive failures of the long rains mean a serious drought situation (see Section 6.1: lntroduction). From the rainfall analysis of Cossins and Upton (1988a), it can be calculated that the probability of any two consecutive years having near or above-average rainfall is 0.64. The probability of two consecutive years being a combination of an average and a dry year is 0.32. The probability of a two-year drought is 0.04.Dry years and drought obviously have major implications for animal production and human welfare (see Chapter 6: Effects of drought and traditional tactics for drought mitigation). Cossins and Upton (1988a) defined dry years and drought solely on the basis of metereological phenomena. ln Section 7.2 (A theory of local system dynamics) it is argued that higher populations of cattle and people today have increased the vulnerability of the production system to what could otherwise be inconsequential fluctuations in rainfall. This perspective considers that both rainfall deficiency and population density interact to exacerbate the negative effects on the production system.Plant communities on the flat and hilly plains of the central Borana Plateau consist of diverse mixtures of woody and herbaceous vegetation. The dominant community type may thus be characterised as tropical savannah (Plate 2.1); Pratt and Gwynne, 1977). Savannah systems are known for variation in their proportion of woody and herbaceous material as well as the marked shifts in composition that occur in response to heavy grazing, browsing, burning and drought, either alone or in various combinations (Norton-Griffiths, 1979;Walker and Noy-Meir, 1982). ln some cases grazing shifts the community toward more trees while browsing and fire favour grass. Much attention has been oriented towards studying the equilibrium behaviour of savannahs; i.e. understanding to what extent savannahs can be altered or degraded beyond recovery to a previous condition (Walker and Noy-Meir, 1982).Perennial woody plants contribute from 5 to 75% of total plant cover on the central Borana Plateau depending on location. Their recent dominance in many plant communities has been hypothesised to be related to heavy cattle grazing and/or the absence of burning (see Section 3.4.2: Environ mental change). Woody plants can have either positive, negative or no effect on the livestock system. lt has been observed, for example, that some woody plants are important as sources of forage, cover, fuel and other uses for the pastoral household economy. lt has also been hypothesised that woody plants contribute nutrients to soils of overgrazed sites from their annual leaf fall. Some of the negative attributes may include limiting access to herbaceous forage by cattle and reducing growth of herbaceous vegetation in the understorey through competition for light and moisture. These issues are reviewed in Sections 3.3.5.2: Household use of plants and pastoral perceptions of range trend and 3.4.2: Environmental change.lmportantly, the dominant herbaceous plants in the southern rangelands are perennial, rather than annual, grasses. The persistence of perennials is favoured here because of the relatively high rainfall and its bimodal delivery. Pratt and Gwynne (1977) contend that perennial grasses are more likely to occur in East African rangelands when annual rainfall exceeds 250 mm. Some of the important features of perennial grasses for African livestock systems have been reviewed by Ukkerman (1 991 ). He contends thatthe Plate 2.1. Perennial savannah communities in the southern rangelands vary from open grasslands to bush-encroached areas.Photograph: Shewangizaw Bekele productivity of perennials is usually considerably higher than that of annuals, but that some of this advantage is offset because a larger portion of the biomass of perennials is lower in nutritive value than annuals. The importance of perennials for livestock is that they are always ready to green up and grow in response to even small quantities of rainfall. Annuals require more rain over certain periods than perennials because soil moisture has to be high enough for annuals to germinate and successfully complete their life cycles (Harper,1 977). Perennials are thus a more reliable source of green forage at critical times of the year. These include the beginning and end of wet seasons and after brief showers in dry seasons (Ukkerman, 1991). Perennials are thus an important source of forage stability. Besides their quick greening up, this stability is conferred also by the internal circulation of nutrients within the plant, which allows smaller losses of nutrients in leaves from fire, weathering and grazing compared to annuals (Ukkerman, 1991 ). The permanent rooting system of perennials also better protects soil against erosion (Ukkerman, 1991).Perennials are preferred by livestock and are often sensitive to heavy grazing. This is because frequent grazing elicits regrowth which can exhaust root stores of nitrogen and carbon. Grazing also trims off above-ground growing points (see Ukkerman, 1991).Annuals are more tolerant of heavy grazing, but also risky and unstable. This is again because the production of annuals depends on receiving a certain threshold of moisture before any growth occurs. Annuals, in theory, could only be eliminated by grazing if the pressure is high enough to defoliate plants each year before they set seed and replenish the seed bank. Given that annual grasses may set seed within a month after the first rains (Coppock, 1985), it is unlikely that this degree of grazing pressure could be maintained over a large region. A discussion of the role of perennial and annual grasses in conferring varying degrees of population stability in African pastoral systems is presented in Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics. A hypothesis for episodic overgrazing of the perennial grasses of the southern rangelands, with implications for range manage ment and monitoring, is presented in Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics.For mature cattle to achieve a sustaining level of energy intake, dietary crude protein (CP; i.e. per cent nitrogen x 6.25) concentration of about 7% (on a dry-matter basis) is considered the minimum for a positive nitrogen balance (ARC, 1980). This threshold can increase for small ruminants, growing cattle and lactating cows, but 7% CP still serves as a useful guideline. Similarly, a suitable minimum digestibility of dry matter is commonly assumed to be on the order of 50% (Coppock et al, 1986b).The seasonal rainfall patterns in African rangelands are well known for bringing about fluctuations in forage CP content and digestibility (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977;Coppock et al, 1987a). Wet seasons are often characterised by dramatic increases in CP content and digestibility from new growth of forage; CP content can often rise to two to three times maintenance requirements. During dry seasons CP content and digestibility may decline to levels below maintenance. Livestock thus store protein and energy in wet periods and then may lose both in dry periods. Whether or not cattle survive a dry season is also related to the length of time they are on nutritionally deficient diets. Their endurance is related to the amounts of protein and energy they were able to store during the previous wet season.ln a perennial grass system like the southern rangelands, the concentration dynamics of forage nutrients are due to seasonal movements of nitrogen in the plant as well as differences in the degree of construction of cell wall (Coppock et al, 1987a;Ukkerman, 1991). During wet periods when grasses are actively growing, nitrogen is translocated to actively photosynthesising tissues which have lower ratios of carbon to nitrogen. New cell wall is also at a state of reduced lignification. The reverse occurs in dry periods when nutrients are translocated to the roots for storage and cell wall lignifies to a higher degree. Browse forage, in contrast to grass, tends to maintain higher nitrogen contents in leaves and stem apices longer into the dry season (Coppock et al, 1987a). ln part, this is because the growing season is longer for many woody plants because their roots provide access to moisture in deeper soil layers (Coppock et al, 1987a). This is not to say, however, that all green browse is suitable forage in dry periods. Some perennially leafy browse species have leathery leaves adapted to minimise water loss and are poor in nutritive value (Coppock, 1985). Getting nitrogen from other types of leaves can also be hindered by tannins which reduce forage palatability and nitrogen retention (Woodward, 1988;Coppock and Reed, 1992).Grab samples of seven common perennial grasses were collected during five different seasons in the southern rangelands during 1982 to 1983, which was an average rainfall year (lLCA Nutrition Unit, unpublished data). Species included Cenchrus ciliaris, Chloris mycrostachya, Chrysopogon plumulosus, Cynodon dactylon, Panicum maximum, Pennisetum stramineum, and Themeda triandra with an average of four samples/species/season. Some overall seasonal means (A/=27) are reported here because grab samples are only useful for showing general trends over time. Grab samples do not necessarily reflect material actually selected by livestock and the proportions of these species in cattle diets were also unknown. Average seasonal values ranged from 1 0% CP during the long rains in April 1982 to 5% CP at the end of the warm dry season in March 1983. From June 1982through February 1983 values remained relatively steady between 6 and 7% CP on average. ln a study of comparative benefits of hay making using local grasses (reported in Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improvements), Mulugeta Assefa (1990) estimated values for CP and in vitro digestible dry matter (lVDDM) for grab samples of standing grasses collected during the warm dry season of 1988 to 1989. He reported a mean of 4% CP and 30% lVDDM for these samples. The lVDDM value is exceptionally low for East African range forage. Similar values, however, were found for other grass material collected in the 1989 to 1990 dry season (Coppock, 1993a).While the results above have some utility, they probably underestimate the quality of the diverse diets selected by animals. Menwyelet Atsedu (1 990) conducted a study in which the composition and quality of calf diets were estimated through direct observation of grazing calves during the dry season of 1 988 to 1 989. Diet profiles were calculated based on the dry-weight contribution observed in bite counts. Forage samples were hand-plucked in an attempt to mimic the calf grazing and chemically analysed to characterise nutritive value. He reported an average of 11 .8% CP and 51 % lVDDM on a dry-matter basis for 40 grazing trials (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990: p 47). Woodward (1988) studied the nutritional dynamics of browse forages selected by goats, camels and sheep in the Beke Pond region near Yabelo during 1985-86. Data for 23 important species are provided in Woodward (1988: pp 166-172), and they illustrate the wide variation in chemical content across species and plant parts as well as some influence of season. Compared to browse stems, browse leaves were typically higher in nitrogen (N) content and lower in neutral detergent fibre (NDF) within a given species regardless of sampling period. Browse provided a relatively stable source of protein to browsing livestock throughout the year when evaluated with respect to the minimum dietary guideline of 7% CP. Averaged over all samples of leaves and stems, mean values for browse ranged from 18.7% CP during the long rains (/v=1 9) to 1 0.0% CP during the cool dry season (/v=21 ), 1 3.8% CP in the short rains (/v=19) and 13.1% CP in the warm dry season (A/=20). Standard errors were less than 12% of the means in all cases. The high levels of CP in browse forages over different seasons is a common phenomenon that has been reported elsewhere in East Africa (Pratt and Gwynne,1 977;Coppock et al,1 987a). lnterpretation of the feed value of the CP is made complicated, however, by the presence of tannins and proanthocyanidins in many forages (Woodward, 1988). These compounds have a variety of effects on nutrition, including reducing forage palatibility and the proportion of dietary N assimilated by the animal. The presence of tannins, however, does not always imply that negative effects on nitrogen balance will occur (Coppock and Reed, 1992; see Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improve ments).ln sum, while the nutritional studies based on grab samples or feeding observations were variously limited in design and scope, they do support the idea that forage nutritive value markedly fluctuates with season and that browse forages probably retain a higher CP content than grasses during dry periods. lt is also likely that selective feeding at least that of calves, achieves higher quality diets than that estimated by grab samples. lt is important to note that these studies can illuminate only a very small part of the picture of the nutritional ecology of livestock here. Since green forage probably provides more than enough CP con centration for compensatory growth and production of cattle in any given wet season (see Sections 5.3.2: Calf growth and milk offtake and 7.3.3.4: The calf: Prospects for growth acceleration), the main issue of interest becomes the role of rainfall and stocking rate in regulating the amount of time animals have in wet periods to achieve the body condition needed to reproduce and survive the following dry season. Of considerable importance, then, is whether animals are limited in the quantity of forage they consume during wet seasons and whether such limitations are due to wastage of forage and/or competition among livestock. Evidence will be presented (Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics) that the simple model of CP limitation for livestock in dry seasons of average rainfall years (Mosi et al, 1976;Coppock et al, 1 986b) needs to be significantly altered to include dynamics of livestock population cycles, if key constraints of nutrition on cattle production are to be understood. lt is likely that this simple CP model holds in the southern rangelands only for a few years after a drought has ended when cattle density is low. Once the herd has recovered its numbers, chronic deficits of energy may become the prime limiting nutritional factors for cattle production and 54The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia lntroduction to the Borana Plateau:this is postulated to be due to competition for forage within the cattle population throughout the year, not just in dry seasons (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).The flora of the southern rangelands has been previously described. For a comprehensive species list the reader is referred to AGROTEC/CRG/ SEDES Associates (1 974d) which has documented scientific names and authorities of some 300 species. Other species list are provided in Corra (1986), Woodward (1988) and Tamene Yigezu (1990). Jenkins et al (1974) lists important forages from the southern rangelands. Nomenclature reported below does not include authorities. Authorities follow those provided in AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates (1974d) and Pratt and Gwynne (1977).The more common woody genera include Acacia, Commiphora, Combretum, Cordia, Terminalia, Aspilia, Albizia, Juniperus, Rhus, Boscia, Boswellia, Cadaba, Balanites, Salvadora, Dobera, Pappea, Grewia, Delonix and Boswellia spp. Common herbaceous genera include Cenchrus, Cynodon, Themeda, Pennisetum, Enteropogon, Bothriochloa, Brachiaria, Sporobolus, Panicum, Chloris, Aristida, Dactyloctenium, Dichrostachys, Leptothrium, Heteropogon and Hyparrhenia.A number of plant species common to the southern rangelands are recognised as valuable livestock forages (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: pp 240-264). These primarily include dry, dehiscent fruits of Acacia tortilis and leaves of A. brevispica, Grewia and Cadaba spp. Some of the following are regarded as nutritious all year and at all growth stages (e.g. Cenchrus ciliaris, Themeda triandra, and Chloris roxburghiana) while others are of greatest value only during rapid growth phases (e.g. Pennisetum, Cynodon, Dactyloctenium, Enteropo gon and Leptothrium spp.Tables A6 to A1 0, Annex A, were derived from Corra (1986) and depict the distribution of 55 key plant species according to elevation, soil colour, slope, vegetation type and soil acidity. Species towards the middle of the list in each table tend to be broadly distributed over a given environmental factor while those listed at the top or bottom are more restricted in occurrence. These data can be used to construct crude niches for species that could be useful as guidelines for range rehabilitation and/or further research (see Section 7.3.1: Range management and improvements). For example: 1) Acacia tortilis, an important forage tree, has a wide range over all factors investigated; 2) A. horrida, an invading woody species in the vicinity of Sarite ranch, tends to be found more on flat terrain at elevations less than 1 550 m in bush grassland or bush thicket community types; 3) Juniperus procera, an important timber-producer for urban construction, tends to be found in woodlands on reddish soils derived from basement-complex substrates, on steep slopes and at elevations above 1600 m; 4) Cynodon dactylon and Cenchrus ciliaris, important herbaceous forages, have wide ranges over all factors investigated; and 5) Themeda triandra, another important herbaceous forage, tends to occur over 1200 m on a wide range of basement-complex soils and slopes in woodland and grassland formations.The interaction of environmental features on plant species distribution was clarified by the ordination exercise for 75 species using CANOCO (Figure 2.8). The diagram includes: (1) two main horizontal and vertical axes; (2) seven vectors (arrows) that represent increasing value for continu ous environmental variables; (3) discrete (presence/ absence) environmental variables whose geometric means are represented in the graph space by triangles only (not by vector arrows); and (4) 75 \"average location points\" on the graph for each species.The diagram is interpreted by understanding that: (1) the most influential continuous variables (i.e. vector arrows) on plant species distribution are those arrows which are: (i) closest to running parallel to the horizontal or vertical axes; and (ii) also happen to be greater in length; and ( 2    1) because their vectors were closest to the horizontal and vertical axes, altitude and percentage of exposed bedrock were the main explanatory variables for plant species distributions overall. Together, altitude and per cent exposed bedrock explained 82% of the total variation with about 60% explained by altitude alone (note that this is also indicated by the greater length of the altitude arrow); 2) bedrock exposure, however, was also related to several other factors. As per cent bedrock exposure increased, so did slope and per cent tree and shrub cover (Figure 2.8). These conditions are all consistent with ascending a mountain, for example. Similarly, as per cent bedrock decreased per cent grass cover increased, consistent with lowland sites. The vector for soil colour ran opposite that for altitude, indicating that as altitude decreased sites were dominated by more brown and grey soils. Soil colour, however, had relatively little influence in the analysis overall as indicated by the angle and short length of its vector arrow; and 3) overall, the distribution of species points is perhaps most notable because of the relative lack of distinct clustering. This suggests that over the range of environmental variables examined, most species appeared to be widespread in distribution. However, some key indicator species emerged and these help in interpreting the diagram: (1) J. procera appears in the upper right-hand corner with Aristida adscensionis, and this suggests an association of these species at high altitudes, on steep slopes and in concert with other associated factors previously described; (2) T. triandra (in the lower right quadrant) occurs at a somewhat lower elevation and flatter slopes on redder soils; and (3) A. horrida (near the top of the lower left quadrant) occurs on flatter slopes on brown/grey soils at lower elevations. ln sum, the main point is that altitude (and the corresponding factors of rainfall and temperature) is strongly related to other variables including exposure of bedrock, type of plant cover, soil colour and soil reactivity as the main explanatory factor overall for plant species distributions. The majority of plant species were notable, however, for their wide distribution in the study area. Because of this it was decided not to define specific plant communities or associations from the CANOCO analysis (Michel Corra, lLCA, personal com munication).To date there have not been any comprehensive studies of wildlife in the southern rangelands. lncluding wildlife issues into a comprehensive development and management strategy is desirable, however, and that is why wildlife resources are briefly reviewed here.The only systematic wildlife data collected by lLCA on the Borana Plateau are a few tabulations of ostriches (Struthio camelus) and large herbivorous mammals from aerial surveys in 1 983 to 1 985 (Assefa Eshete et al,1 987). Other efforts to inventory wildife or regulate its exploitation in the study area have been limited, being conducted out of a small government office in Yabelo.Wildlife interests are represented at higher levels on interdepartmental committees within the Ministry of Agriculture when key policy issues regarding local resource management come under review. One example is the re-introduction of prescribed fire in the southern rangelands to help control bush encroachment, a proposed policy change reviewed in 1990-1991 (see Section 7.3.1 .4: Site reclamation). There has been a recent and increasing interest in conducting formal surveys and studies to quantify wildlife resources in the southern rangelands as well as to better understand interactions among wildlife, livestock and pastoralists. Such work has been proposed to help form the basis for establishing a controlled system of nature preserves and would be a collaborative effort between Ethiopian and foreign institutions (C. Hillman et al, Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Organisation, personal communication).The large mammalian and avian species in the study area are generally those which thrive under conditions of restricted availability of drinking water. Most of the species are thus common elsewhere in arid and semi-arid East Africa. Some key species reported here were observed by lLCA staff in the study area during 1985-1990, usually from sightings of live animals or examination of road mortalities. What follows is not intended as a comprehensive listing. Common and Latin names given here follow Haltenorth and Diller (1977) and Williams and Arlott (1980)  (Hodgson, 1990) or raids by warthogs on maize fields (D. L.Coppock, lLCA, personal observation), it can be said that the large herbivores pose no constraint to the livelihood of the pastoralists. This is unlike situations for the pastoral Maasai where wildlife can be a major competitive factor for forage and habitat (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977); 3) primates include the olive baboon (Papio cynocephalus) and vervet monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops). Baboons, as elsewhere in Africa, are a threat to maize fields; 4) predatory and/or scavenging birds include:Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), whiteheaded vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis), hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus), Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), bateleur (Terathopius ecaudatus), pale chanting goshawk (Melierax poliopterus), tawny eagle (Aquila rapax), black kite (Milvus migrans) and black-shouldered kite (Elanus caeruleus); 5) other birds include: ostrich (Stwthio camelus), crested francolin (Francolinus sephaena), yellownecked spurfowl (F leucoscepus), helmeted and vulturine guinea fowl (Numida meleagris and Acryllium vulturinum, respectively), kori bustard (Ardeotis kori), white-and black-bellied bustards (Eupodotis senegalensis and E. melanogaster, respectively), crowned plover (Vanellus coronatus), ring-necked dove (Streptopelia capicola), namaqua dove (Oena capensis), orange-bellied parrot (Poicephalus rufiventris), white-bellied go-away-bird (Corythaixoides personata), nightjars (Caprimulgus sp), Abyssinian roller (Coracias abyssinica), African hoopoe (Upupa epops africana), red and yellow-billed hornbills (Tockus erythrorhynchus and T. flavirostris), Von Der Decken's hornbill (T. deckeni), D'Amaud's barbet (Trachyphonus darnaudii), rosy-patched shrike (Rhodophoneus cruentus), honeyguides (lndicator sp), taita fiscal (Lanius dorsalis), grey wren warbler (Camaroptera simplex), grey tit (Parus afer), golden-breasted bunting (Embe-riza flaviventris), paradise whydah (Steganura paradisaea), Speke's weaver (Ploceus spekei), red-billed buffalo weaver (Bubalornis niger), White-headed buffalo weaver (Dinemellia dinemelli), grey-headed social weaver (Pseudonigrita arnaudi), black-capped social weaver (P. cabanisi), white-crowned starling (Spreo albicapillus), superb starling (S. superbus), golden-breasted starling (Cosmopsarus regius), red-billed oxpecker (Buphagus erythorhynchus), black-headed oriole (Oriolus larvatus), dwarf raven (Corvus edithae) and the Abyssinian bush crow (Zavattariomis stresemanni). The last species is the only one endemic to the study area (Williams and Arlott, 1980: p 399); 6) common reptiles include a variety of nonvenomous and venomous [cobras (Naja spp), black mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps), puff adder (Bitis arietans)] snakes. Some of the poisonous snakes are responsible for a few livestock mortalities (Donaldson, 1986: p 40).Other reptiles include lizards (Agama sp) and leopard tortoises (Geochelone spp); and 7) termites (unknown spp) are widespread on both red and grey soils. They are mentioned here because they reportedly play important roles in nutrient processing and cycling in African savannahs (Morris et al,1 982). Termites are also an important constraint to several development activities such as grain storage and hay making among Borana pastoralists (Hodgson,1 990; see Section 7.3.1 .3: Forage improvements). Bruchid beetles (Callosobruchus spp) are important parasites on acacia seeds (Tamene Yigezu, 1990;Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990). They probably have a role in the population regulation of trees (see Section 3.3.4: Population ecology of woody species) and their infestation of A. tortilis fruits constrains storage of these materials for use as protein supplements for livestock in dry periods (see Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improvements). Tick species are numerous (Hill, 1982;Nicholson, 1985) and constitute major threats to animal health and milk production (see Section 5.4.3: Cattle mortality and health). Tsetse flies (Glossina spp) occur in woody habitats along the Dawa River (Figure 2.2) and are known to spread trypanosomiasis among camels which browse along the Dawa in dry periods (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal commu nication). Tsetse flies also occur along the Segen River near the border with Gamu Gofa. Boran in the Teltele area graze cattle along this river during dry periods (Menwyelet Atsedu, Colorado State University, personal communication).The study area thus has a rich fauna, but the status of key populations is unclear. lt seems reasonable to speculate, however, that the larger mammalian herbivores and carnivores are under chronic pressure from the pastoralists given the high densities of people and livestock in the region (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). lt has also been reported that a large decrease in the local wildlife populations occurred as a result of the conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia in the late 1970s. Larger herding mammals were driven to northern Kenya and apparently never returned (Menwyelet Atsedu, Colorado State University, personal communication). lLCA staff commonly observed the larger wildlife species on the government ranches at Dembel Wachu and Sarite, which appeared to provide superior forage biomass and cover. The ranches were typically understocked with SORDU cattle and excluded pastoral herds (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation; see Section 3.4.2: Environmental change). These ranches are in the process of being returned to the pastoralists (see Section 1.4.5.5: Ranch development) and this may bode ill for wildlife. Making proposed nature preserves compatible with the realities of intense livestock exploitation is a key priority in integrated resource management and requires surveys of possible refuge areas where the pastoralists have been less able to herd their stock because of lack of surface water. These include the steep mountainous sites throughout the study area. Getting local people involved in sharing the benefits of wildlife conservation may represent the most viable strategy over the long term (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977).Long-time residents of the southern rangelands do report that species such as giraffe appear much less abundant today than a generation ago (Tafesse Mesfin, TLDP General Manager, personal com munication). lt is reasonable to hypothesise that pressure on species such as giraffe has come from traditional use of their hides to make buckets for lifting water from the deep wells and collecting milk (see Sections 2.4.1 .7: Water resources and 4.3.5: Dairy processing and marketing). Other species like zebra may be desired for products traditionally perceived to have medicinal value (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).Despite the fact that the Borana pastoralists are heavily armed, there has never been any indication in 1 0 years of household surveys (see Section 4.3. 1 : General household structure and economy in average rainfall years and Section 6.3: Results) that wildlife products are routine or significant components of the pastoral household economy. The people have never been observed to eat wild mammals, game birds or eggs, although this may occur to some degree in the poorest households during difficult times. lt is thus speculated that competition for habitat would be the prime factor underlying most of the interactions among pastoralists and wildlife here, as postulated for other pastoral systems in East Africa (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 222). Hunting per se may only be an important factor for a few key species. For example, lions occasionally prey on pastoral stock in the study area, and groups of men attempt to hurt them (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Certain regions are also recognised as more favourable for lions for their increased bush cover (see Section 3.3.1 : Ecological map and land use).The Boran reportedly have a conservation ethos for flora and fauna that is highly developed (Kassam and Gemetchu Megerssa,1 990). Aspects of this will be reported in Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions.The water resource on the central plateau is perhaps the most fundamental feature that has shaped Borana society (Helland, 1980b;Cossins and Upton, 1987;Bassi, 1990). The deep wells in particular are a focal point for social organisation and ritual (Helland, 1980b). Surface water has traditionally been scarce in the southern rangelands, and during the past 1 6 years TLDP has espoused a conservative policy of water development in order to avoid problems of social disruption and range degradation observed elsewhere in Africa as a result of uncontrolled water development (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). This policy has been maintained in the face of local pressure and official influence to develop water access in the form of boreholes (AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates, 1974i;EWWCA, 1987). This section describes the major water resources traditionally used by Borana pastoralists. Activities to develop water resources by govern mental and non-governmental organisations are described in Section 7.3.1.1: Water development activities.Water resources in the study area are dominated by the deep wells which are not found elsewhere in SORDU. The study area is thus not representative of the southern rangelands as a whole in terms of water. ln over 70% of SORDU (particularly to the east, far north, south and west of the study area), water for livestock and people traditionally has been procured from ephemeral ponds, perennial springs, the perennial Dawa River, a very few seasonal streams and shallow temporary wells dug in stream beds during dry periods. The ethnic groups in these areas include Somali, Garri, Gabra, Burgi, Konso and others (AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates, 1 974e; 1 974f; 1 974g) who reportedly prefer to moveThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia animals to distant water sources in dry periods rather than invest a large effort in digging permanent wells (AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates, 1974i: p72).The Boran mostly use ponds in rainy periods and wells in dry periods to supply water for people and animals. These sources have different costs and benefits. The ponds are easily accessed but are available for only a short period of time. The wells are usually a permanent source of water, but require a large input of labour to lift water to the surface. Social rights of access vary with seasonal and perennial water sources (Helland,1 980b) and these are highlighted below.The wells: Associated resources and social institutions ln a comprehensive survey by AGROTEC/CRG/ SEDES Associates (1974i), the southern rangelands were demarcated into two large regions with differing water-bearing properties: (1 ) a basementcomplex formation dominant to the west with more favourable water storage characteristics; and (2) a stratigraphic sequence to the east. The survey also reported that there was a total of 543 hand-dug wells which occurred to the west, clustered in some 35 to 40 groups broadly classified as either crater, shallow (adadi), or deep (tula) wells (Helland, 1980b;Cossins, 1983c;Donaldson, 1983;Cossins and Upton, 1 987). AGROTEC/CRG/ SEDES Associates (1974i) estimated that all hand-dug wells represented 96% of the permanent traditional water points on the central plateau. Wells were mapped, and measures of well depth, water discharge and water quality (physical and chemical factors) reported in AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974i;1974j). The extractable water volume from all traditional sources of permanent water (wells and springs) was calculated to be about 13 800 m3/day during the dry season of 1972 to 1973, with the hand-dug wells providing 84% of this total. Wells located on alluvial substrates were estimated to yield 54% of the total well water, followed by 31% from those on basement-complex formations 9% from those on sedimentary formations and 6% from those on volcanics. The wells were estimated to provide about half of the annual water requirement for people and stock, with ephemeral ponds providing most of the remainder. Many of the largest and most reliable wells have been dug in the highly fractured Precambrian (gypsum and granite) rocks that offer numerous large and discrete aquifers. One conclusion of the work on water quality was that, while water from all wells was uniformly drinkable, the quality was generally regarded to be highest from wells on volcanic substrates (AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates, 1974i: pp 73-74); Nicholson, 1984).The wells usually occur in groups of four to 20. Crater wells can be found in the bottom of volcanic craters such as at Dilo Goraye or Medecho. Adadi wells consist of wide shafts dug into alluvium and can be up to 10 m deep (Helland, 1980b;Cossins and Upton, 1987). The tula (deep) and crater wells, however, are usually much deeper and require a massive excavation with shafts commonly sunk into rock. Shallow adadi wells may be dug at any time and thus can be an opportune source of water. Tiy/a and crater wells, in contrast, are old; it is often contended that they were dug by another ethnic group possibly more than 500 years ago (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal com munication). Helland (1980b) cites Haberland (1 963) who believed that the wells had been dug by an unknown Megalithic culture. Helland (1980b) reported that the Boran claim that the wells had been dug by the Warday, a southern Oromo people who were expelled by the Boran and now reside in Kenya (see Section 2.4.2.1: History). Helland (1980b), however, also cited Asmarom Legesse (1 973) as accepting the idea that the Boran dug the wells themselves.lf the Boran inherited the wells, they have had to adjust their original social system to provide sufficient labour for operation of the well system. Regardless, at least until very recently, new wells have not been excavated. Old wells, however, have been easily brought back into service since 1989, presumably to help cope with a high cattle population (see Section 7.2: A theory oflocal system dynamics). These are cases where old cave-ins or erosion had to be cleaned out. While this can be difficult, it represents a far easier task than starting a new excavation (Hodgson, 1990;Tamene Yigezu, SORDU manager, personal communication). There has been more pressure in the last few years from the Boran on SORDU to dig new wells using modern machinery, but this has been resisted. The Boran have proposed to pay for this with cattle sales (see Section 7.3.1.1: Water-development activities). Examples of new wells being initiated with pastoral resources are reported later in this section.The tula wells comprise the most reliable sources of water. They are reported to have a smaller discharge of water during dry and drought years (EWWCA, 1987), or when a watershed just happens to receive lower than average moisture in an otherwise average rainfall year (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Nine groups of tula wells to the east are reported to never dry up, even during severe drought (Cossins and Upton, 1987). lt is these wells and their surrounding foraging regions that comprise the last fall-back regions during a severe drought (see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition).The tula wells are impressive feats of engineering (Figure 2.9a,b;Plate 2.2 a,b;Helland, 1980b;Cossins, 1983c;Donaldson, 1983;Cossins and Upton, 1987). Animals and people enter the well site by travelling down a long (i.e. 50 to 150 m) narrow ramp flanked by high earthen walls. Entry is regulated by an individual on duty at the gate of a thorn fence who enforces the prescribed order of herds to be watered each day. The drinking area for animals is a large flat platform (dargula) some 5 to 10 m below the ground surface. The dargula also has a supervisor who helps keep the watering and exit of stock orderly. The well proper consists of several parts. The water source (madda ella) is accessed by a shaft up to 30 m deep which may be 1 to 3 m in diameter. At the top of the shaft is a large storage basin (of hundreds of litres capacity) called fetchana, several metres above which is a system of clay watering troughs (naninga) that services up to several dozen cattle and other stock at a time. A chain of 5 to 20 people (usually males and referred to as a gogessa) (Helland, 1 980b)] stands on lashed wooden platforms or rocky protrusions in the shaft and pass water from the madda ella to the fetchana. One to three more people (youths and adults of both sexes) pass water from the fetchana to the naninga. Water is passed using small durable leather buckets (2 to 5-litre capacity). These buckets (okole) often have a thumb hole in one of the two upper corners and are traditionally made of giraffe or buffalo hide (Donaldson, 1983;Cossins and Upton, 1987). With the increased scarcity of these wildlife species, plastic or metal containers are more commonly used nowadays. These are more awkward to handle than the traditional ones (Hodgson, 1990).Lifting water begins early in the morning to first fill the fetchana. After this a steady flow of water is maintained from the madda ellaXo the fetchana and from the fetchana to the naninga; this whole task is physically intense (Cossins and Upton, 1987) and is spurred by rhythmic chanting. After a few hours the work crews are replaced. Rates of water extraction have been estimated as 2.4 to 7.5 m3/hour (Cossins, 1983c). During periods when Photograph: JEPSS water discharge is low or the number of animals to be watered is high, watering may continue through the night aided by light from torches. Leakage of water from buckets, fetchana and naninga have been identified as sources of inefficiency in water lifting and some development solutions have been proposed and/or implemented (Cossins, 1983c;Cossins and Upton, 1988b;Hodgson, 1990; see Section 7.3.1 .1 : Water-development activities).A continuous and coordinated supply of labour is thus essential to the smooth functioning of tula wells (Helland, 1980b;Cossins, 1983c;Donaldson, 1 983;Cossins and Upton, 1 987). Labour is supplied by the users of each well. ln contrast to the demand for labour to herd cattle whereby one herder can manage some 50 cattle at least, the demand for labour to lift water is more of a direct linear relationship between numbers of people and animals and may underscore a key management constraint in the system. Members of poorer households may supply labour to water larger herds of the wealthy, and in exchange the poor receive food and an occasional promise of a future calf (Cossins and Upton, 1987). Labour is also needed to regulate animal traffic, constantly sweep the ramp and platform of loose soil, collect manure and to repair the naninga each morning with fresh clay.Water rights indirectly confer grazing rights by virtue of gained access to nearby forage. lt has been estimated that the grazing radius of cattle from a water source is on the order of 16 km (Helland, 1980b;Cossins and Upton, 1987). Access to local grazing due to water access is only mediated when needs of herds with different production priorities are considered. Lactating herds (loni warra) based at olla reportedly have the grazing priority over satellite herds of dry cows and males (loni forra). Haberland (1963), as cited by Helland (Chr Michelson lnstitute, personal communication), stated that a herd already occupying a given grazing area has priority over others that want to enter.The labour required to lift water places a very high demand on the population during dry periods. Data in Table 2.2 indicate that from 1 to 60% of available people in different regions may be required to lift water from various wells on a given day in the warm dry season.Wells are usually located within a two to four hour walk from encampments or villages (olla; see Section 4.3.2: The encampment and the role of cooperative labour). Olla can have anywhere from 4 to 60 households, but average 1 0 to 1 5. Many olla form a circle or semicircle within a 10 to 16-km radius of a given well group. Cossins and Upton (1 987: p 203) state that virtually all olla lie within 1 6 km of a well. The olla supply animals to be watered and labour to operate the wells. ln the dry season cattle are commonly watered once every three days, small ruminants once every five days and camels once every 8 to 14 days (Cossins and Upton, 1 987; see Section 5.4.4: Cattle productivity and watering frequency). These watering regimes represent an attempt to optimise labour input in livestock management (Cossins, 1983c;Cossins and Upton, 1987). The average number of 250-kg Tropical Livestock Units (TLUs) watered per 3-day cycle at particular wells may average from 5000 to 1 7 700 in the central and eastern zones of the study area, Source: Cossins (1983c).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia respectively (see Figure 2.7 for a map of zones (Cossins and Upton, 1987)). Donaldson (1983) estimated that individual well groups could service from 3500 head in a 3-day watering cycle at Arabelle in the west to 47 000 head at Burbur (or Borbor) to the east. Cossins and Upton (1987: p 205) calculated that the only region where well water is not a significant constraint, compared to forage, is to the east. Water shortages that result in unexploited grazing may be most acute to the west and north (Cossins and Upton, 1987).The watering schedule is formulated by a well council composed of well users (chora ella) (Helland, 1980b;Cossins and Upton, 1987;Bassi, 1990). Every well belongs to a particular clan (Helland, 1980b). Clans are intermediate levels of organisation in the kinship system (Asmarom Legesse, 1973: p 39). There are about 17 clans in the Borana system divided among two social moieties (Asmarom Legesse, 1973; M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communi cation). ln the classic sense, the clan in Borana is composed of families claiming descent from a common male ancestor. The clan affiliation of a particular well corresponds to the identity of the abba ella or well father (Helland, 1980b). The responsibilities and accompanying duties that underpin the relationship between an abba ella and his well is known as confi and is a sort of trusteeship. The confi is patrilinearly inherited and cannot be lost, even if the well collapses through disuse and someone else re-excavates it (Helland,1 980b). The confi may be transferred to a caretaker on a temporary basis if the abba ella moves elsewhere. ln this case the holder of the confi is under the scrutiny of clan elders who ensure that the caretaker fulfills his obligations in accordance with the Ada-Sera Borana, or the customs and laws of the Boran (Helland, 1980b).Daily routines at the well such as cleaning ramps, repairing small cave-ins and lifting water are supervised by an officer known as an abba hirega or father of the watering order, who is appointed by the well council (Helland, 1980b). The watering order (or rotation) usually lasts three or four days. On day one the holder of the confi usually functions as abba hirega (Helland, 1980b). Overall authority over use of the well is vested in the well council. Watering rights in any well must be gained and maintained through participation in the well council, and watering rights indirectly confer grazing access rights (Helland, 1980b;Bassi, 1990). Setting the watering rotation is the most important task of the well council, because this implies allocating watering privileges when water volume is a constraint, such as in a dry year or drought (Helland, 1980b;Bassi, 1990). A recent example of this was a situation where a non-resident herdowner with a very large cattle herd needed access to a certain well. He was not denied access, but instead was relegated to be last in the watering order. The constraints of having to water cattle at night because of low water discharge in this particular dry season meant that the herd had to be moved elsewhere (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communication).There are also limits on the number of cattle that can be watered for a given herdowner. Owners with more than 200 head can be turned away, particularly if they have not recruited enough labour and/or local forage resources are in short supply (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). This illustrates the contention that there are few explicit or formal rules governing access to wells, but that access is indirectly governed through contacts, persuasion and competition (Helland, 1980b). ln principle, a clansman of an abba ella cannot be formally excluded from a particular well but inspection of watering orders reveals that there are many exceptions (i.e. users who are not clansmen). Bassi (1 990) reported eight groups of clans that appeared to collaborate in the management and use of wells.Clan affiliation is thus just one factor needed to gain access to a given well, but clan organisation of the Boran is cross-cut by other organising principles such as the Gada system and age sets or Hariya (Helland, 1980b; see below). Clans are also linked by marriage, friendship and other alliances, and all are legitimate bases for claiming watering rights (Helland, 1980b). ln support of this view, Bassi (1990) noted that descent relationships other than clan-based ones allowed access to wells, but seniority within a clan usually had a prioritising function. Bassi (1990) also found that descendants of persons who had donated cattle in support of the original excavation of wells (abba mele) also had special access rights, regardless of other descent linkages. People who had certain personal relationships with the abba ella also gained access, as did those who merely joined their cattle with another herd which already had user rights (Bassi, 1990). Helland (1980b) reported that key decision makers can be bribed. Gaining access to a well also depends to a large extent on how successful a man is in presenting and defending a claim before the well council (Helland, 1980b). Council meetings are informal and any man can attend and voice his opinion. Decisions are made by gradually reaching consensus within the framework of continual reference to the Ada-Sera Borana (laws and customs). Concepts of legality and legitimacy are flexible to allow for individual interpretations of rules (Helland, 1980b;Bassi, 1990). lt is also likely that acute problems with forage supply enter the assess ment of whether well access can be granted in a particular area (Cossins and Upton, 1987) and this may override other considerations to favor local residents over immigrants during periods of crisis (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).Participation in well excavation can also be important to gain future access to water. Bassi (1990) reported that traditionally a well can be dug on behalf of an individual or clan. lf initiated by an individual, he pays at least a large part of the expenses himself. He can become the abba ella of the well and choose who uses the water with him. lf initiated by a clan, clan members share all expenses and use follows the traditional model described in Helland (1 980b). Bassi (1 990) reported the outcome of two general meetings held in 1989 where the excavation of new wells at Dubluk was discussed. The Dubluk well was dug at the initiative of a local Borana administrator who paid about EB 3300 of the expenses himself. lt was later determined, however, that a clan could use the well and the administrator was refunded by clan members. Bassi (1 990) noted that cash, not cattle, was collected for the reimbursement, showing the Boran had adapted to changed economic circumstances. Cattle have been the traditional form of remuneration for well excavation work (Asmarom Legesse, 1973).The wells influence one level of land use referred to as madda. Most Boran live and herd their milking animals in one madda (Hogg, 1990a). There are about 35 madda on the central plateau with an average size of 500 km2. These were first mapped in the early 1 980s and have been used as a basis for regional administration and tax collection by the government (Hogg, 1990a). A500-km2 madda can contain around 100 olla, 4000 people, and 10 000 cattle (see Section 4.3.2: The encampment and the role of cooperative labour). A madda map is shown in Figure 2.10. The delineation of fixed boundaries is misleading because tradition allows people and Source: Assefa Eshete et al (1986).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia animals to move among madda. Hogg (1990a) defines madda as regions in which the residents have defined rights of access and responsibility for the upkeep of a particular group of wells. ln a similar definition oriented towards water, the term madda links the life-giving properties of water to the Borana world view and can be translated from Oromigna as \"origin\", \"springs\" or \"wells\" (J. Helland, Chr Michelsen lnstitute, personal communication).People have the right to use wells in other madda with permission. This is more common for loni forra (satellite dry) herds which can roam outside their home maddato avoid resource competition with loni warra (resident milking) herds (Cossins and Upton, 1987;Hogg, 1990a). Some madda, particularly to the east, are prioritised for loni forra on a collective basis and have traditionally served more as reserved grazing areas during drought rather than madda having a large population of permanent residents (see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition). Haberland (1963) also emphasised that madda do not correspond to clan territories, but instead serve many clans.Clans have no norms for common residence and rather serve as regionally dispersed systems for social networking to obtain access to a wider array of resources (Bassi, 1990). For example, although each well in a cluster of 15 may primarily serve one clan, members of all of the 1 5 clans would probably have access to much of the same grazing. While Hogg (1990a) defines madda in terms of water rights, he also listed madda as only one level of territorial organisation. This interpretation may be disputed (J. Helland, Chr Michelsen lnstitute, personal communication). The role of madda as territorial units may be more implicit than explicit. lt is also possible that madda function as territories or common areas in a dynamic fashion depending on resource availability. Some madda boundaries were observed to be closed to non-residents during times of scarce grazing in the dry season of 1 989-90, but there was intense social pressure to reopen these borders (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal obser vation). lt is also possible that some functions of madda evolve over time in response to changing population pressure or social circumstances (see Section 7.2: A theory oflocal system dynamics). The social diversity of madda may not allow them to be regarded as a truly cohesive organisational unit (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communication). Despite this madda can be useful as units for the implementation of some types of development projects that focus on widely recog nised regional problems (Hogg, 1990a;Bassi, 1990).Figure 2.11 illustrates an example of dry-season grazing radii for cattle in relation to well groupings in the study area. Areas outside the grazing orbits are accessed during and soon after rainy periods using ephemeral ponds. lmproving efficiency of use for range outside of dry-season grazing orbits was a major objective behind the pond construction project undertaken by TLDP and described in Section 1.4.5.2: Water development strategy. Before the pond construction programme, it was estimated that <70% of the grazing on the central plateau was accessible to cattle using traditional water sources (N. J. Cossins, former lLCA rangelands team leader, unpublished data). Schematic diagrams of cattle grazing orbits in relation to use of ponds and wells in dry and wet seasons are shown in Figure 2.12a, b. These diagrams show a seasonally variable watering frequency of once every two to three days for loni warra (milking) herds in wet and dry seasons, respectively, while loni forra (dry) herds usually drink once every three days regardless of season. The warra herds are constrained in that they must return to the encampment each evening for milking.The critical nature of the wells in dry-season watering of livestock is demonstrated by the information presented in Table 2.3. Of the 337 000 head of livestock observed watering during the warm dry season of 1 982, about 77% were watered at wells and 23% were watered at springs.Other water sources ln their comprehensive survey, AGROTEC/CRG/ SEDES Associates (1974i) noted that there were some 25 mountain springs and 31 boreholes in the SORDU region during the early 1970s, and that these contributed only about 10% and 6%, respectively, of the daily water extraction estimated for the dry season of 1 972-1 973. The wells provided the remainder. The boreholes were constructed in earlier development efforts and ranged from 25 to 370 m in depth. They are of no real consequence to the pastoral system overall and will not be considered further.The springs occur mostly in sedimentary and alluvial formations (90% of the total), with the remainder located in the basement-complex and volcanic areas. Although a perennial source of water, springs are also too limited in water volume to be of anything but local consequence. Development of springs may involve simple pipe systems to better channel water to drinking areas for people and animals (Hodgson, 1990).Another minor source of water are temporary pools, puddles and run-off (see Section 7.3.1.1: Water development activities). These are common in rainy periods and are termed lola (Helland, 1980b). Use of this water is governed by free access, but priority may go to people who live closest to these sources (Helland, 1980b). lntroduction to the Borana Plateau: ... Source: Assefa Eshete et al (1986).After the wells, ponds are the most important water source on the central plateau and are termed hara (Helland, 1980b;Hodgson, 1990). There is no formal estimate of the number of ponds in the traditional system prior to mechanised ponddevelopment programmes which started in the 1950s (Tilaye Bekele, 1987). A map of all types of ponds in the SORDU area is provided in Tilaye Bekele (1987: p 18), but the scale may be inappropriate to enumerate all of the smaller ponds. Ponds were traditionally excavated during dry seasons when the people were still physically fit and the soil was suitably dry for easy removal. Soil removal employed simple wooden tools and hands for scooping. Metal hand tools were not widely available until the late 1 980s and animal power was also never used (see Section 1.4.5.2: Water development strategy. The initiative to excavate a pond usually comes from a local leader eventually referred to as the pond father or abba hara.Excavation starts in a place where water collects naturally and soil or silt is removed each year by individuals who expect to make use of the pond (Hodgson, 1990). lt is unclear if the abba hara provides food or cattle as remuneration to pond workers; he may only provide leadership. This may also depend on the size of the pond. The use of hara is not subject to the same degree of regulation invoked for wells, although they do need some regulation and upkeep as siltation is a recurrent problem (Tilaye Bekele, 1987). Helland (1980b) postulated that the more reliable a pond is each year, the more likely that it will receive regular maintenance of its thorn fence and use will be monitored more closely.ln sum, while this all serves as a useful initial survey of water resources on the Borana Plateau, much of the information regarding regulation of access and even location of water points can be improved upon. Recent work in the Pilot Project (see Figure 2.12 emphasis on some of the complex mechanisms by which the Boran attempt to regulate human population growth, settle disputes, interpret and enforce resource-use policies and redistribute wealth. These are essential factors in understand ing how best to implement technical improvements in the local economy, food security strategies and general well-being. This is not intended, however, as a comprehensive review of the large body of scholarly information on the structure, functions, rituals, politics and history of Borana society. That is beyond the scope of this volume. For an in-depth ethnographic analyses the reader is referred to Huntingford (1955), Haberland (1963) and Asmarom Legesse (1973). The last work is mostly referred to here as the benchmark source out of convenience, but it reportedly contains some contro versial material (Helland, 1980b; M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communication).The Boran are a branch of the Oromo (or Galla) peoples whose language belongs to the Cushitic subfamily common to most of north-eastern Africa (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). Most of the Oromo speak closely related dialects of the Oromigna (or Gallinna) language and share a common cultural heritage. The Oromo are regarded as one of the most expansive African cultures on record (Asmarom Legesse, 1 973). Their spread over much of what is now Ethiopia and Kenya during the 1 500s resulted from massive population growth combined with an aggressive, militaristic culture. About half of present-day Ethiopia fell under their dominance, including what are now the administrative regions of Gojjam and Tigre (Asmarom Legesse, 1973).The cradle of Oromo culture is generally recognised as a large, rectangular area that begins at the north-central edge of present-day SORDU and extends north to the Bale Administrative Region (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). This region has many hills and mountains and includes ecosystems in the lowlands as well as the southern highlands. lt is thus dominated by a much more mes/cclimate compared to the lLCA study area. Today these highland, humid, subhumid and upper semi-arid environ ments are exploited by a variety of agropastoral and farming peoples (Westphal, 1975). The closest other group to the lLCA study area are the agropastoral Gujji, another Oromo people who share many cultural features with the Boran (Asmarom Legesse, 1 973; Helland, 1 980b). Today some of the most important Borana shrines are found in Gujji territory (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). The centre for political and ritual activity for the Boran, however, is found in the southern rangelands.lt is unclear whether what is now the lLCA study area was invaded from the north during the Oromo expansion of the 1500s (expelling an indigenous group like the Warday; see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources), or had already been occupied as part of the Oromo cradleland (Asmarom Legesse, 1973;Helland, 1980b;Wilding, 1985a;Hogg, 1990a). This point also relates to the question of who originally dug the wells on the central plateau. Asmarom Legesse (1 973) contends that most of the traditional cultural institutions of the Oromo are still preserved among both the Gujji and Boran, implying that they have either always resided undisturbed in these areas or supplanted much weaker peoples who had little reciprocal influences on their original Oromo culture. ln the Ethiopian highlands the Oromo culture has been somewhat diluted by the Amharic and Tigrihna-speaking peoples (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). There is evidence that the present Borana territory in the southern rangelands has been somewhat reduced since 1910, mostly due to Somali encroachment from the east. This is reportedly due to drought and/or overgrazing that caused the Boran to move their cattle westward with the vacuum being filled by Somali herds of small ruminants and camels better suited to the induced habitat change (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). Pressure prevails on all sides of the Boran today, however, with Somali to the east, Gujji and Arsi to the north and north-east and Hamer to the west, among others. Low-elevation desert occurs to the south in Kenya. Large-scale conflicts occurred between the Boran and Somali in the late 1970s during the Somali invasion of Ethiopia. Small isolated conflicts between the Boran and Gujji occurred to the north during the 1983 to 1984 drought when both groups were pressed for resources (P. Webb, lFPRl, unpublished data). Numerous armed conflicts occurred among Boran, Gabra, Gujji and other groups throughout the last half of 1991 , largely as a result of stress from low rainfall, weapons proliferation and the demise of central governmental authority (D. L. Coppock, Utah State University, unpublished correspondence).The Oromo expansion period was reportedly spurred by aspects of the Gada system in which periodic, outward pulses for warfare were essential cultural components (Asmarom Legesse, 1973;1989). The Gada as a generation system (distinct from an age grade system) is introduced below. lt has also been hypothesised that after the Oromo expansion the people remaining in the cradleland modified some of the tenets of the Gada system in order to provide means for population regulation (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). This could have been an attempt at cultural adaptation to crowded conditions in a core region prone to degradation, with limited opportunities for emigration. The point is that apparently at least some segments of the society shifted their cultural ways from an orientation towards high population growth rates and expansionism to one of population regulation as a response to a limited resource base. Asmarom Legesse (1973) reported the likelihood of such population control among the Boran from his demographic analysis of the 1960s. The Boran reportedly had slow rates of population growth earlier this century (see Section 2.4.3: Human population growth). A major question today is whether the people are still able to regulate population growth given a shrinking or static resource base, destabilising effects from outside the traditional sector and with no opportunities for territorial expansion (Helland, 1980b).Kinship ln the Borana social system descent is recognised only through the male line and men and women descended from a common ancestor constitute a corporate group in that they share many collective rights and obligations. The social system is best described as a hierarchy (Asmarom Legesse, 1 973: p 39). The smallest unit is the hearth (ibidda) which corresponds to the nuclear family with one male head of household, his wife or wives and children. This is followed by the warra (extended family), mana (lineage) and gosa, which broadly nests clans within submoieties and moieties. When a woman marries she acquires the right to her own home and forms a new household unit with her husband. Married women are the household managers but are subordinate to men who serve as the household heads and represent the household to the outside world (Hogg, 1990a). The men are called abba warra or father of the households. They make the strategic decisions regarding livestock production and sales. The household is discussed further in Section 4.3.1: General household structure and economy in average rainfall years. Extended families may have all close relatives residing in the same olla, but this is not a requirement. The father of the encampment (or abba olla) is selected from among the abba warra. He is a respected individual who provides leadership, but otherwise has no special authority over other members of the olla (Haberland, 1963).Lineages are the basic component of the descent system and are usually reported as 6 to 1 0 generations deep. As the basic source of the privileges, duties and identity of members, lineages determine roles in ritual, water management and wealth redistribution (Asmarom Legesse, 1973).Clans are groups of lineages. lt has been speculated that lineage members are unable to trace their links to a common ancestor (J. Helland, Chr Michelsen lnstitute, personal communication). Hogg (1990a), however, contends that lineages within a clan share a common male ancestor. Clans are not corporate property-owning groups, nor is it desirable that they reside in the same location; the reverse is actually more advantageous (see Section 5.3.1 : General aspects of cattle management). Clan members are expected to help each other in times of hardship and clans can provide a wider network of mutual assistance than individual lineages (Bassi, 1990;Hogg, 1990a). Members of clans reportedly settle their disputes amicably at clan meetings in which clan elders (jarsigosa) use moral authority to settle disputes, imposing fines on wrongdoers and seizing property (Hogg, 1990a). Clans thus also have roles in ritual, maintenance and regulation of water resources and the redistribution of wealth (see below).There are two moieties (Sabbo and Gona) and these represent the highest social division of Borana society (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). Members of one moiety can only marry into the opposite moiety, and moieties are approximately equal in population size, distributed evenly throughout the central plateau at the olla level. The source of social justice in the system is the balance of power between Sabbo and Gona that permeate all aspects of collective decision making. The Sabbo moiety contains three submoieties with two clans each and each clan contains from 3 to 16 lineages or minor lineages. The number of lineages and minor lineages total about 60. The Gona moiety is different. lt contains two submoieties, each with seven clans, but no discernible lineages. The moieties, and occasionally the submoieties, can be involved in ritual and political conflict. Moieties play a prominent role in the election of Gada councillors (see below). The men, responsible for organising the election of Gada leaders every eight years, and act as the ultimate adjudicators of major conflict, are the heads of the two moieties referred to as Kallu. They also have ritual leadership duties (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). Bassi (1990) contends that the size and operation of functional descent groups such as clans may vary depending on moiety. Moieties share duties in politics through the Gada system and the age set system (see below).The Boran debate and reach consensus through assembly (Hogg, 1990a). Participation at meetings can cut across many levels in the social hierarchy. Local assemblies can deal with an issue at the household, olla, neighbourhood or madda level. Any household head can come and express his views (Hogg, 1990a). lf a problem cannot be resolved at lower levels it is passed to a clan assembly or to Gada officials. The ultimate body of appeal is the assembly of all Boran (the Gumi Gayu) held every eight years in southern Ethiopia. lt was last held in 1 988 (see below).Clans provide perhaps the best degree of networking required for reliable redistribution of wealth, as shown by the following account (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communication):Clan assemblies generally occur each year from April through August except during a drought. Meetings may be called by any wealthy clan member and anyone in the clan can attend, although people in need of cattle usually dominate. A small meeting would have some 30 to 40 people and lasts about a week. All clan leaders (Jalaba) must attend. There may be up to 1 00 such meetings each year in total, which suggests that some of the 1 7 or so clans have more than one meeting/year. Meetings may also be skewed towards one moiety over another; over 90% of the meetings enumerated by M. Bassi (lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communication) were in the Sabbo moiety. People who have lost virtually all of their cattle (referred to as quolle) petition the leaders for cows at these meetings. The clan must respond with some help, but if the quolle lost cattle through negligence or inappropriate sales the request may be denied. Losses of animals to disease may imply partial negligence while losses during drought are usually accepted as wholly legitimate. Traditionally, each of the several quolle would receive 5 to 10 milk cows, with each wealthy clan member giving at least one cow. However, it is reported that in the past decade, it has been more difficult to meet the demands of quolle, both because of an increasing number of quolle and the substantial losses of cows from herds of the wealthy during the 1983 to 1984 drought (see Section 6.3.2: Drought effects in the upper semi-arid zone).The Boran follow indigenous religious beliefs. lslam has been reported to be making inroads very recently, perhaps through the small sympatric groups of Muslim Gabra (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal observation).The Boran believe that God sent down Kallu, their supreme spiritual leader, who taught the Boran how to sacrifice animals and instructed them in the \"Peace of Borana\" or Naigaya Borana (Hogg, 1990a). The importance of the \"Peace of Borana\" should not be underestimated. lt is invoked in all aspects of collective decision-making and shapes debate and consensus according to traditional values of well-being and law (Asmarom Legesse, 1973;Helland, 1980b). lt helps ensure that internal disputes are settled in an egalitarian manner without violence; that cordial cooperation facilitates waterpoint maintenance and resource allocation; and that criminals are punished through exclusion from com munity resources. lt is unclear whether the \"Peace of Borana\" has ever been transcribed. This may be an important task that underpins design and imThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia plementation of appropriate development strategies (see Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts). lt is also unclear whether Borana philosophy contains prophetic predictions of future calamity. lt has been recently reported that some Boran in the lLCA study area are fearful of an imminent and ill-defined natural catastrophe perceived to be worse than the 1983 to 1984 drought (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal commu nication; D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). This is mentioned because such an outlook could have a decisive influence on the participation of the Boran in certain types of long-term development activities (see Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts).The Hariya age-set system, the Gada generation system and the Gumi Gayu (all Boran) assembly AsmaromLegesse(1973: p 50) noted that the Gada system offers one of the world's richest social contexts for the study of relationships between time and human society. Describing and interpreting such a complex system in full is beyond the scope of this volume. Readers interested in details are referred to Asmarom Legesse (1973).Asmarom Legesse noted that Borana society is stratified into two distinct, but interwoven, systems of peer-group structures for males. One is a system of age sets (Hariya) in which members are recruited on the basis of age. This is similar to age-set systems practised by other groups such as the Kikuyu, Maasai and Nuer. Age sets are listed in Asmarom Legesse (1973: p 60) and these consist of 1 0, 8-year blocks from age 1 2 to 91 . Each set thus consists of similarly aged males born in the same 8-year period who share a corporate identity that evolves over their lifetimes. The members of each age set share a series of basic and collective military, economic, political and ritual duties, with a rite of passage occurring between stages. For example, a common typology of an age-set system may consist of: (1) young boys herding stock; (2) young men acting as warriors and livestock raiders;(3) mature men being eligible for herd ownership and marriage; and (4) older men assuming ritual and political duties. One common interpretation of such systems is that they are authoritarian, governed by the elderly, and serve to maintain the social and economic status quo. Asmarom Legesse (1973: pp 112-113), however, disputes this in the case of the Boran. He argues that their age-set system serves to distribute privileges more equitably across generational lines. For example, the old and young Borana males tend to have more ritual power while those at the intermediate levels tend to have more political authority. This allows, what would otherwise be marginalised, generations to have meaningful roles within the system (Asmarom Legesse, 1973: p 1 1 7). For the purpose of clarity, in this review it is assumed that the ritual and political duties in the age-set system are largely distinct from those invoked in the Gada grades (see below), although this is only occasionally explicit in Asmarom Legesse (1973).The Gada, in contrast to age sets, is a system in which males are recruited into generation classes {luba) on the basis of genealogy (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). There are very many Gada classes, and these are in a perpetual state of being created every eight years, whereas age sets are a given. The members of a luba thus have a similar status of genealogical relatedness (but not necessarily a similarity in age), and they collectively pass through a series of Gada grades that last eight years in duration. These grades are 11 stages of social development and responsibility in relation to the philosophy of maintaining the \"Peace of Borana\" (see below). Compared with simple age sets, Gada systems are more unusual and complex. The Gada system of the Boran may have evolved from a simple age-set system some 500 years ago. Gada systems are also found in other Oromo people in Ethiopia such as the Gujji to the north of the study area (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). The Gada and age-set systems occur in parallel and cross-link each other at certain stages while their ultimate functions are complementary.All Borana males thus have a position in an age set as well as in a Gada class. They are simultaneously in the process of passing through a segment of the age set and a certain Gada grade (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). Females obtain an ancillary position in a Gada class through their fathers and later husbands, but have no position in the age sets. ln some respects Gada grades have roles that are grossly similar to those of age sets with the degree of similarity depending on the particular age set and grade taken. Whether a male in a certain Gada grade can perform all pertinent duties must be related to age to some degree (but this also is not explicit in Asmarom Legesse, 1973).The key functional difference between recruits for age sets and Gada classes is that while cohorts in the age sets are similar in age, a given Gada class can contain persons that are vastly different in age. The genealogical association, for example, could be that members of a certain class are grandsons of brothers but one grandson could be an infant and the other 20 years old. The basic rule is that regardless of the age of the father, his infant son enters the grade system 40 years (i.e. five grades) behind.The Gada grades described in Asmarom Legesse (1973: pp 52-69) and occupied by a large number of genealogical luba include: 1) Grade l (daballe) which includes all the sons born to the senior men currently in the powerful Gada grade Vl (see below). These sons have a feminine appearance in terms of hairstyles and dress and are treated preferentially. They are considered to be among the principle mediators between man and God; 2) Grade ll (Junior Gamme) which includes 8-yearold initiates from among the daballe, who consequently receive a name and a masculine status. They are now eligible to become herders of small ruminants and calves. This grade could also include infants born to men in Grade Vll; 3) Grade lll (Senior Gamme) which includes 16-year-old initiates from grade ll who are old enough to herd cattle on forra and participate in hunting and raiding. lt also includes infants born to men in Grade Vlll; 4) Grades lV and V members (Cusa and Junior and Senior Raba) includes 24-year-old initiates from grade lll who can become mature warriors or raiders. Junior Raba after age 32 can marry. These two grades each span 24 years in total with a maximum age of 45; it is not 48 because the Senior Raba period is preempted by a period of transfer of power to the next grade. These grades can also include infants born to men in Grades lX and X; 5) Grade Vl members (Gada) are the ones who can be elected to positions of Gada councillors. The initial age range upon entry into Grade Vl is from birth to 45 years and thus includes infants born to men in the final Grade Xl (see below). The political roles thus must vary markedly from junior to senior members, but all (including young children) can enjoy a similar status in ritual (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). The senior elected members of the Gada CQuncil act as upholders of the \"Peace of the Boran\" philosophy by serving as \"supreme court\" members for conflict mitigation and as leaders for ritual prayer and sacrifice (Asmarom Legesse, 1973;Helland, 1980b;Hogg, 1990a); 6) Grades Vll through X cover 27 years and are referred to as Yuba as a whole. The Yuba contain males having an entry age of anywhere from 8 to 53 years and an exit age of 35 to 80 years.There are no infants in this grade because there is no grade above 11 (see no. 5 above). The roles include politics and ritual and at least partial retirement for older members. Men in Grade Vll also have important ritual and political duties during the Gumi Gayu assembly; and 7) the terminal and sacred grade is Gada Mojji, with an entry age of 35 to 80 years. This grade is followed by full retirement, but it is unclear if this is mandatory for all members regardless of age. This description of the Gada grades is slightly at variance with some details of the model of Asmarom Legesse (1 973: p 1 31 ). lt portrays, however, a basic and informative picture. The apparent high virility of the very old men in Grades lX, X, Xl (i.e. at 72 years of age at least) is attributable to two factors: (1 ) they marry very young fertile wives (starting at age 13); and ( 2) their wives can carry on with an active cicisbeism, or extramarital relations with lovers from their husband's luba. The children born from these liaisons are recognised as children of the husband.Asmarom Legesse conducted a computer simulation analysis on the demographic stability of the Gada system given that members of different grades have different and absolute rules regarding child rearing. These fundamental rules have traditionally included: (1 ) no man is allowed to have children before a minimum age of 40 (note that this would be in Grade V and there is no entry slot for newborn sons five grades lower); and (2) no man is allowed to marry before a minimum age of 32. Details that underscore these major rules include:(1 ) since the children of cicisbeism are regarded as children of husbands, this effectively stops recruitment from wives as well; (2) junior males in Gada grade Vl also are not allowed to father children; (3) senior males in the Gada grade Vl are allowed to procreate only sons; and (4) men are only supposed to raise sons starting at age 40 after their fatherhood ceremony, can raise daughters only after they are 48. Asmarom Legesse (1973: p 68) also stated that the traditional premarital sex rules for men support the structure of the Gada system. Marriage for men can also be delayed by economics in terms of the need to attain a modest bridewealth (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).For these rules to be enforced it is apparent, given that young men are not celibate (Asmarom Legesse, 1 973), that something must happen to: (1 ) all children born before a husband turns 40; (2) those children born to junior men in the Gada grades; (3) those daughters born to senior men in the Gada grades; and (4) those daughters born to men between the ages of 40 to 48. Asmarom Legesse concluded from demographic analysis that various forms of infanticide and putting infants up for adoption outside the system were occurring during his field work in the early 1960s. This occurred despite an official ban on infanticide from the Ethiopian Government (Asmarom Legesse, 1973).Asmarom Legesse also concluded from his simulation analysis that the Gada system has had considerable effects on Borana population growth for hundreds of years. He hypothesised that the transformation of the Gada, from a simple age set system to its present forms, was related to the period of rapid population growth in the 1 6th century. Calculating back from the computer simulation and his demographic survey of 1 963, he stipulated the year 1623 as a likely time when rules limiting reproduction that are in effect at the present came into being. Starting with a normal age-graded population structure in 1623, and then imposing Gada rules on reproduction, he simulated a 40% decline in population until the year 1703. The decline continued until 1863 when the population stabilised at about 50% of the original density. After a period of steady-state performance, the population then exhibited a modest degree of growth. This huge effect of the Gada on population dynamics was in part due to the postulated large portion (30%) that the affected male cohort, aged 1 6 to 40, comprised of the original population.Population regulation, cultivation in the highlands and massive territorial expansion throughout Kenya and Ethiopia (see Section 2.4.2.1: History) were all strategies to accomodate high population density in Oromo society during the 1600s. ln the 1960s, however, Asmarom Legesse noted that only 18% of the male population was aged 16 to 40 so that Gada practices would be anticipated to have a smaller effect on population regulation. There was also no indication that the position of the population on the Gada cycle had stabilised since the late 1800s, and it was unclear if it would ever stabilise in the future. Asmarom Legesse also noted that the numbers of retirees in the advanced Gada grades were increasing while numbers in the lower grades were dwindling. The Boran however, perceived this to be due to declines in fertility and not to instability in the Gada cycle.Other factors may thus come into play regarding population regulation in the southern rangelands, and these prominently include effects of an improved delivery of health care, food aid and a decline of traditional leadership and values plus routine regulation of conception, topics addressed in the next section.The Gumi Gayo (Assembly of the Multitudes) is a pan-Borana meeting that takes place for a week once every eight years in the southern rangelands. lt last occurred in 1 988. This is regarded as the most inclusive event in Borana life (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). The Gumi, which holds the ultimate authority regarding all matters, is an assemblage of representatives of all Boran. But it is actually the multitude that sits in judgement, often led by an Abba Gada. A transcript of a meeting in 1966, attended by 600 persons, is reported in Asmarom Legesse (1973: pp 94-99). The agenda dealt with resource conflicts, divination for the future, patching-up schisms among submoieties, intertribal issues involving the Rendille and debate on 12 cardinal rules that had been violated as a result of a decline in customs and carelessness. These codes involved routine administration, social behaviour, the care of horses, sale of water, feminine modesty and rules of bridewealth. ln the debates there was a deliberate attempt at rethinking and modifying customary laws where appropriate (Asmarom Legesse, 1 973: p 97).The outcome of the meeting in 1 988 included proclamations on a wide range of topics (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). These included that: (1) encouragement be given to keep water points in good condition; (2) owners of ponds and wells must not accept money from users; (3) everyone establish kalo or fodder reserves for calves and sick cattle in the dry season; (4) everyone make an effort to determine where forra cattle can freely graze; (5) everyone try to stop unnecessary cultivation of land; (6) trees with value for forage and shade must not be disturbed; and (7) government tax on salt from salt craters (Soda, Dilo Goraye, etc) be reduced to former levels.There was also a debate on alcohol abuse in the community. All points above except (7) have a fundamental bearing on the implementation of technical improvements in the system as well as managing it well enough for sustainable output, topics dealt with in detail in Chapter 7: Developmentintervention concepts.Helland (1980b) reviewed the Gada system and rules on reproduction as proposed by Asmarom Legesse (1973) and Haberland (1963), and noted the importance of population regulation for the Boran as an ecological adaptation because of their reliance on a finite resource base. Citing AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974e) for estimates of population growth, he found the net rate of natural increase in the Borana population in 1972-73 to be on the order of 1.5 to 1.8% per annum. An annual outmigration and urbanisation rate of 5% was also stipulated, which would lead to a net growth rate of 1 to 1 .3% per year. This means that the population would double every 55 years, a very low growth rate for semi-settled pastoralists such as the Boran (Meir, 1987). Helland (1980b), however, expressed concern about the degree of control that the Gada system retained given increasing outside influences on the society. The demise of traditional regulation of population growth among Somali pastoralists due to external forces was noted by Swift (1 977). Sindiga (1987) noted that improved human services facilitated population growth among the Maasai. Surveys of Borana society conducted in 1990 (Coppock, 1992b) confirm that wide generation gaps are perceived by the elders, and that mush rooming small towns on the plateau are probably having a pervasive effect on social attitudes and economic trends. The generation gaps involve variation in traditional values and changes in economic attitudes towards livestock commerciali sation. Respondents from the older generation in the survey felt, for example, that male youths were being increasingly attracted to opportunities outside the traditional sector, such as participating in the cattle black market to Kenya and routine selling of more cattle than the elders felt was prudent. The elders were also very concerned about the looming critical labour shortage that would occur as a result of young men leaving the system (Coppock,1 992b). lt must be said, however, that the younger generation probably has fewer options to diversify their economic activities given current population pressure and lower per capita numbers of cattle (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Herding cattle appears to be a lessattractive option for young men contemplating their future today compared to the past, as it is probably more difficult to become wealthy from herding cattle today. Besides, they are now aware from contacts with outsiders that there may be more attractive options elsewhere (see Section 7.1.3: Review of dynamics and past interventions).Regarding the importance of Gada, Helland (1 980b) added that it was not clear how many Boran really follow the Gada rules today or how the rules are articulated in general throughout the population. Demographic studies on the Borana Plateau carried out by B. Lindtjorn (University of Bergen, un published data) in the late 1980s estimated a net population growth rate of 2.5%, consistent with that for other semi-settled pastoral groups (Meir, 1987). This growth rate has a population-doubling time of 28 years. Menwyelet Atsedu (1 990: p 31 ) presented data from AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974e) and SORDU in 1988 that suggest that the human population in the western half of the Borana Plateau doubled from 261 000 to 520 000 over 15 years. This means a population growth rate closer to 5% per annum, but it should be expected to include a large component of highland immigrants moving into small towns in the rangelands. lt is unclear whether the exact same areas were sampled in the surveys by AGROTEC/CRG/CEDES Associates (1 974e) and SORDU whose survey also may have included a larger area (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990: p 31). From an aerial survey in 1982, Milligan (1983) estimated a human population of about 91 000 to 1 35 000 for the study area giving a mean density of 7.3 persons/km2. lt seems reasonable to hypothesise from the data of AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974e) and B. Lindtjorn (University of Bergen, unpublished data) that the net population growth rates among the Boran are increasing. Several factors could be contributing to this: (1 ) Gada rules and values are becoming less adhered to; (2) rural systems of social surveillance imposed by the Ethiopian Government during 1 978 to 1 991 were an effective check on illegal practices such as infanticide; (3) improvements in health delivery and access to cereals through food aid and markets enhance the health and fertility of women in their child-bearing years. Another factor that may become more important in the future is the reported recent and growing interest in lslam by the Boran (C. Fiitterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal com munication). Given that Muslims have larger families, the spread of lslam has important implications for population growth (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal com munication). lt may also pose some threat to the Gada system itself in the future.ln one sense there appear to be contradictions between some of the Gada tenets and other aspects of contemporary ritual. For example, M. Bassi (lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communi cation) noted that fertility is greatly emphasised in the ritual ideology and Borana women want many children, but in practice fertility may be curtailedtwo sons being the desired norm. Besides the Gada rules (above), the Boran practise some form of contraception. This may be as simple as women breast-feeding their young children for several years, which may contribute to long-term anoestrus. Birth control also has an economic function in that each household tries to have children in proportion to their economic condition as reflected in herd size. Drought and other perturbations, however, make it more difficult for the Boran to plan family size in this manner given their often unpredictable losses of cattle (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communication).Although human morbidity was widespread during the 1983 to 1984 drought (see Section 6.3.1.4: Human diet and mortality), the human population appeared to be little affected in terms of drought-related mortality. Cossins and Upton (1988a) reported negligible deaths from the survey of five olla at Did Hara, Medecho and Melbana. ln a survey of 48 Borana and Gabra households near the Beke Pond in 1987 (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data), no deaths were reported due to the drought. More than 35 families, however,The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia reported one birth each during the drought (see Section 6.3.2.2: Human welfare). Although regional variation relating famine and human mortality is to be expected, there was no evidence from these limited surveys that human mortality rates were affected by this drought in a density-dependent manner (i.e. higher drought-induced mortality because of a larger pre-drought population). This was in marked contrast to cattle, as 45% of milk cows, 57% of calves and 22% of mature males died (Donaldson, 1986; see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition).This thus introduces a concept that is probably fundamental to understanding the hypothesis that the Borana production system is becoming increasingly vulnerable to drought and poverty (introduced in full in Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). This hypothesis proposes that cattle mortality can be affected in a densitydependent manner as a result of environmental perturbation while human mortality, at least during recent times, has not been appreciably affected. For a comprehensive view of integrated research and development perspectives, the reader should consult Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions.Chapter 3Vegetation dynamics and resource use Summary This chapter reviews ecological site classification and mapping of the central Borana Plateau and aspects of environmental change induced by pastoral land use. A secondary objective is to highlight use of native vegetation by pastoral households and livestock. An ecological map (at a scale of 1:500 000) is presented that integrates soils, vegetation and climate in defining six agro-ecological zones for a 26 600-km2 area: subhumid (6.5% of the region), upper semi-arid (22.4%), lower semi-arid (40.3%), arid (19.2%) and bottomlands (1 1 .6%). These zones vary in resource dynamics and management. For example, while the subhumid zone has recently been stable in terms of the aereal extent of forests, the upper semi-arid zone has been vulnerable to grazing-induced bush encroachment. Roughly 1 6 species of woody plants have been implicated as encroachers in the southern rangelands. Traditional pastoral units of resource allocation (or madda) vary in extent of zonal diversity. Three of 29 madda contain all the six zones while 10 others contain three zones or less. By the mid-1 980s about 40% of the study area had experienced significant bush encroachment, while erosion attributable to grazing pressure affected 1 9% of the study area. These trends are coincident and most apparent in upper semi-arid regions having hilly relief and in the vicinity of permanent water development where pastoralists have become more sedentary. Less than 2% of the study area was under small-scale cultivation in 1 986 following the 1983 to 1984 drought, and this was concentrated in bottomlands and upland sites in the subhumid and upper semi-arid zones.lt is postulated that variation in the long-term grazing history of madda can be assessed using inventories of woody plant populations. A primary mechanism is hypothesised to be effects of heavy grazing of herbaceous plants by cattle on promoting woody cover by reducing fire risk. For example, sites currently enduring heavy grazing pressure could be diagnosed by high densities of very young woody plants, while sites that had heavy grazing pressure in the past that was discontinued several decades ago could be diagnosed as having moderate to high densities of mature woody plants. lt is contended that the Boran used to exploit the rangeland in terms of a sustainable patch dynamic but that this has recently been compromised by high population growth. The patch dynamic may have consisted of the following stages: (1) pastoralists settled around a well group characterised by mixed savannah vegetation; (2) cattle depleted the local environment by overutilising the grass layer and transporting nutrients to corrals at encampments; (3) woody plants invaded as competition from grasses was lessened and fire risks reduced; (4) negative change in vegetation for cattle encouraged pastoralists to abandon the area; (5) maturing stands of woody plants restricted access by herbivores and added nutrients to soils through leaf litter; and (6) the grass layer gradually recovered to an extent where fire risk increased and fires re-established mixed savannah vegetation by thinning stands of woody plants. lt is at this stage that the site could be re-occupied by pastoralists; it has been speculated that this cycle could take 60 to 1 00 years for completion.Comparative analyses of upland sites subjected to continuous grazing versus those protected for seven years suggest that perennial grasses are relatively resilient in terms of cover and productivity in response to grazing; the major effect of continuous grazing over the short term appears to encourage forbs that probably have a lower grazing value for cattle. Other studies indicate that it is difficult to generalise concerning interactions among woody and herbaceous vegetation of species, woody plant density and site. Tree-removal experiments suggest that some woody species can reduce herbaceous production by over 50%. Other research indicates that herbaceous cover can increase under canopies of large tree species. Local informants report that a moderate degree of woody encroachment can be beneficial to the diversity of the grazing system overall, but once encroachment becomes advanced it usually has negative consequences for pastoralism.During the 1 980s the Boran noted that they were less able to burn the rangelands compared to earlier times because of: (1 ) government policy prohibiting burning; and (2) the need to use standing herbage as forage, not fuel, because of the high numbers of cattle. The Boran commonly voice the view that range trend is declining as a result of high stocking rates. Higher densities of people also reportedly preclude the freer movements of households as in previous generations.Studies of population ecology of two en croaching woody species (Acacia brevispica and A. drepanolobium) indicate that: (1 ) large quantities of seeds are produced during the warm, dry season (i.e. November through March); (2) seed pools are largely at the soil surface; (3) despite substantial seed production, recruitment of seedlings is very low, probably due in large measure to parasitism and seed loss because of predatory insects; and (4) seeds vary in terms of ecological cues required for germination. Acacia brevispica seeds may be stimulated to germinate by fire. Seeds of both species germinate more in response to additional moisture and shallow planting depths (<3 cm). Neither species appears to rely on maintaining a large seed pool in the soil. Seedling establishment is probably thus an episodic phenomenon dependent on coincident factors related to grazing pressure, insect populations and rainfall in the current year of seed production.Analysis of livestock feeding habits in the upper semi-arid zone indicates that cattle are exclusively grazers while camels are browsers. Sheep (with 36% dietary browse) and goats (84% dietary browse) are mixed feeders. Only two of 29 browse species provided most of the browse forage overall, and one (A brevispica) is commonly regarded by range managers as an encroacher. Other important species that should receive development attention as forage resources include browses such as: Euclea shiperi, Dichrostachys cinera, Rhus natalensis, Pappea capensis, A. etbaica, Grewia tembensis, G. bicolor, Ormocarpum mimosoides, A. tortilis, Balanites spp, Cadaba farinosa, and Capparis tomentosa. Browse species vary markedly in morphology and concentrations of tannins and other anti-nutritional elements for livestock. Goats, camels and sheep appeared to select against browses with higher levels of phenolic compounds especially during wet seasons when forage abundance and diversity were greatest. A variety of native grasses are also critical for the pro duction system. Grasses important for calf feeding include: Pennisetum, Chrysopogon, Cynodon, and Cenchrus spp. Native plants have many uses as human food, medicine, construction materials and for other cultural purposes. A list of 1 1 4 plant species and their uses in the Borana traditional economy is provided. Few common species are without any utility. Woody species that are increasing in the environment and apparently with low forage value and household use include: A drepanolobium, Albizia amare, A. horrida and A. mellifera.There is much debate over the effects of pastoralists and their livestock on the sustainable productivity of drier environments. Negative trends such as desertification and bush encroachment have been commonly attributed to overgrazing and/or cultivation inappropriate to pastoral systems (Charney et al, 1975;Lamprey and Yussef, 1981;Lamprey, 1983;Bille, 1985;Sinclair and Fryxelf, 1985;Cloudsley-Thompson, 1988). ln contrast, others contend that vegetation dynamics are more attributable to rainfall fluctuations independent of human activity (Rasmusson, 1987;Ellis and Swift, 1988). One central aspect of the debate is thus defining the degree to which climate or people influence environmental trends.The primary objective of this chapter is to review and synthesise results that pertain to the effects of the Borana pastoralists and their livestock on vegetation composition and trend, as well as those which deal with the competitive interactions among woody and herbaceous plants and aspects of seed production and germination of important woody species. A secondary objective is to review pastoral use of vegetation, including livestock feeding habits, uses of plants by households and perceptions of the Boran regarding environmental change. The third objective is to present current patterns of land use based on an ecological mapping exercise.Surveys of twelve 20 x 20-km regional blocks (see below), Landsat imagery and other reconnaissance data collected during 1982 to 1985 were used to prepare an ecological map at a scale of 1 :500 000 for a 26 600-km2 region (Assefa Eshete et al,1 986; for a review of the study area see Section 2.2: Study area selection and system delineation). This approach delineated six agro-ecological zones, with three to six ecological units/zone and an average of four subunits/ecological unit. Key issues relevant to resource use, range management and ecological sustainability were noted at unit and subunit levels, with trends overtime identified using previous maps by AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974d, aerial photographs and satellite imagery (Assefa Eshete et al, 1986: pp 3, 21). The new map was justified because previous maps of the region had insufficient detail for land-use planning (Assefa Eshete et al, 1986: p 1).Research reported here was primarily conducted during 1 982 to 1 986 (Bille, nd; 1 982, 1 985; Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1983a;1983b;1984;Bille et al, 1983;Bille and Corra, nd;1986;Assefa Eshete et al, 1986). One objective of this work was to formulate hypotheses that linked livestock pressure to compositional dynamics in plant communities and conduct preliminary tests. ln total this work focused on twelve 20 x 20-km blocks selected based on ecological and development criteria (Bille, 1982). Two blocks were located in the arid zone, eight in the lower semi-arid zone, and two in the upper semi-arid zone. The arid zone (19% of the study area) occurs at <1200 metres above sea level with an annual rainfall <450 mm, while the upper semiarid zone (22% of the study area) occurs between 1500 to 1700 with an annual rainfall of 600 to 700 mm. The lower semi-arid zone (40% of the study area) occurs between the arid and upper semi-arid zones and is intermediate in rainfall. Observations from other work on range trend in the subhumid zone will also be referred to in this chapter, but this work did not involve analysis of blocks (Assefa Eshete et al, 1986;Pratt, 1987a,b). The subhumid zone (7% of the study area) typically occurs over 1600 m and has 700 to 1200 mm of annual rainfall. The arid and lower semi-arid zones occur on a diverse assortment of granitic and volcanic soils and their mixtures, and in many instances shallow soils significantly contribute to an edaphic source of aridity. Basement-complex soils tend to dominate higher elevations (see Section 2.4.1 .1 : Geology).Analysis of the 20 x 20-km blocks was designed to compare environmental trends by contrasting frequency distributions of grazing intensity, degree of erosion, grass and woody cover and density and age structures of woody populations from extensive rapid sampling. Blocks were compared that varied in historical intensity of pastoral use and thus would serve as natural treatments (Figure 3.1). These analyses compared: (1) four blocks in the lower semi-arid zone (in the Dass, Goff, Melbana and Web madda) that represented various stages of pastoral impact in the deep-wells area (Bille et al, 1983); (2) two blocks in the lower and upper semi-arid zones (at Medecho and Did Hara madda, respectively) that varied in recent duration of pastoral use due to immigration in response to water development at Did Hara or emigration from Medecho (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1983b); and (3) data from one block at Gololcha (1600 to 1900 m elevation) at the boundary between upper semi-arid and subhumid zones where development of a large, permanent pond recently allowed a high degree of pastoral sedentarisation (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1 984) and a high density of resident livestock. A cattle density of 52 head/km2 was recorded in Gololcha in 1 982, roughly twice the density for the rest of the study area overall (Milligan, 1983: p 37). The annual rainfall at Gololcha is about 700 mm (see Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity).The four semi-arid blocks studied by Bille et al (1983) at Dass, Goff, Melbana and Web rep resented regions that had been used by pastoralists for centuries. All four regions were assessed to be generally similar in terms of density of well groups, soils, landscape, altitude and potential vegetative physiognomy. Aerial surveys during June 1982 indicated that the average stocking rate for the four regions was 24.6 head/km2 (Milligan, 1983: p 37). Recent grazing history varied as Goff, located to the east, was abandoned by pastoralists for a few years during the late 1970s due to security problems, but was reoccupied by 1980. ln contrast, the other regions have been continuously occupied during the past few decades.The second study, conducted at Medecho and Did Hara, involved regions regarded as generally similar in terms of cattle density (average of 24 head/km2; Milligan (1983: p 37), annual rainfall (550 to 650 mm), soil parent materials (mixtures of volcanics and granitic materials) and density of water points. They differed principally, however, in recent intensity of use. Over the previous six years (1976 to 1982) Did Hara had endured a doubling of human population in response to the construction of permanent ponds that opened the area to sedentary encampments (some of which began to resemble large permanent villages). Medecho, in contrast, had been occupied for centuries but was in a state of population decline by the early 1980s (some of its residents may have moved 60 km north to Did Hara). Evidence for the different population dynamics of the two regions was inferred (in part) from variation in the proportions of occupied vs unoccupied encampment sites. There will always be some unoccupied sites because encampments move every five to eight years (Cossins and Upton, 1 987). However, of 1 39 sites in Did Hara, 39% were occupied in 1982-83, while at Medecho only 14% of 1 84 sites were occupied (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1 983b: pp 30-31 ). Year-round access to permanent ponds in Did Hara probably also encouraged less mobile grazing strategies compared to Medecho. Cattle in Medecho radiate out in wet seasons to access forage near ephemeral ponds and return to graze closer to the central wells in dry seasons.The 20 x 20-km blocks were initially mapped using aerial photographs from 1965 and 1967 at a scale of 1 :50 000 to delineate landscape facets with reference to previous surveys by AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates (1974d;1974i;1974j). Ecological units of similar vegetation and soil features were identified using two-colour composite prints from Landsat (ERTS E 2368 070 20501 in bands 5 and 7 of 25 January 1 976) and transcribed to a topographic map at a scale of 1:250 000. Ecological units were mapped and described further from ground-truthing during 1982 to 1983. The number of ecological units/block ranged from four to eight. Detailed maps of each block may be found in Bille and Assefa Eshete (1983a;1983b;1984) and Bille etal (1983). Quantification of environmental variables in each block was based on an ocular survey method developed by Bille (nd) which employed up to 50 sample points per block, located along a driving route at 1 km intervals. The route was designed to maximise observation of dominant ecological units in each block. At each sampling point a 1-ha site was described in terms of: (1) per cent of canopy cover for herbaceous and woody layers, estimated into one of five classes; (2) density of woody plants; and (3) scores of 1 to 5 for topographic class, slope, degree of erosion, and grazing pressure (Bille, 1982). Random sampling of woody plants was used to obtain age structures of populations. Age class was estimated by measuring circumference of single or central boles and placing them into one of seven categories from 1 to 70 cm in circumference. Plants with a bole circumference of 20 cm were considered to be at least 70 years old (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1983a: p 7).Other extensive surveys which documented soil erosion, bush encroachment and incidence of cultivation throughout the study area were conducted using systematic aerial reconnaissance. These methods are described elsewhere (see Section 4.2.6: Grain cultivation).The Boran have recently started a system of kalo or dry-season grazing reserves for calves (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990; see Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing man agement). Over 90% of surveyed encampments (A/=127) now have these reserves (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985;Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990), averaging about seven years old and 12 ha in size and protected against open grazing by bush fencing and/or decree. They are typically used by women to collect grass for handfeeding young calves, although some grazing may occur in the dry season. Kalo usually occur on sites with deeper soils where grass production is higher and some green biomass persists into the dry season. The presence of similar but unprotected sites adjacent to these reserves gave an opportunity to measure effects of continuous versus restricted use on soil and vegetation characteristics, showing greater cover, diversity and productivity of vegetation and an improved soil nutrient status for Kalo compared to unprotected sites (Smoliak et al, 1972;Brand and Goetz, 1986).Eight pairs of sites (six on red and two on grey soil) were analysed in terms of: (1) per cent cover composition and species diversity of herbaceous and woody plants; (2) net primary production (NPP) of herbaceous functional groups (i.e. grasses, forbs, legumes and total); and (3) nutrient characteristics of top soil. Percentage basal cover was determined for herbaceous plants on 1-ha sites using sixty 0.1 -m2 quadrats (Daubenmire, 1959) placed in a stratified-random fashion. Four 15 x 150-m belt transects were used in parallel for cover of woody plants on 5-ha sites with total counts and crowndiameter measurements taken for intercepted plants. Species diversity was quantified using the Shannon-Wiener index (Shannon, 1948). Net primary production of herbaceous components (grasses, forbs, legumes and total) was estimated over the long wet season (April to May) of 1 989 by subtracting the terminal standing crop of the previous dry season (March) from the peak standing crop near the end of the wet season. Biomass of each 1-ha site was estimated from clipping forty 0.25-m2 quadrats placed in a stratified-random fashion. Sites were protected from grazing in order to allow standing crop data to be used in this fashion. Soil texture and concentrations of organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and exchangeable cations were analysed using standard techniques (Kamara and Haque, 1987: pp 12-14), and compared among paired sites using four samples each. Each sample was a composite of eight cores, 30 cm in depth, collected on a transect that traversed several hectares/site. Statistical analyses for all variables employed a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) blocked by soil type. Details are available in Menwyelet Atsedu (1990).Effects of woody plants on productivity and composition of herbaceous vegetation is significant for interpretating impacts due to bush encroach ment. As part of the analysis of Sarite ranch (Figure 3.1), Solomon Kebede (1989) studied effects of Acacia horrida and A. seyal on the understorey during the long rainy season of 1987. He performed an experiment in which trees were paired and one was cut down with the stump being treated with arboricide to kill the root. Sites were bush fenced to prevent grazing so that herbaceous NPP could be measured in controlled and treated situations up to a radius of 4 m from tree trunks. Sixteen 0.25-m2 quadrats were clipped to ground level in a stratified design and biomass was separated into various components prior to drying. Production was estimated by subtracting standing crop at the end of the dry season from that at the end of the following long rainy season, sampled 1 20 days apart. Overall, the analysis was based on 144 trees/species distributed among four size classes and three sites. Data were analysed using a four-way ANOVA with species and site as main factors and size class and distance from trunk as sub-factors. Roots were excavated to assess tree-root morphology (Solomon Kebede, 1989: pp 119-131).Bille and Corra (nd) investigated effects of five Acacia and Balanites species on understorey cover during the long rainy season of 1 986 at the Dembel Wachu ranch (Figure 3.1). One large tree (with a trunk diameter of 15 to 35 cm) was randomly selected on a level site for each species. Herbaceous cover around each tree was measured using about 500 reflectance readings from a portable radiometer held 1 m above ground level. Each reading measured green reflectance from 4x4-m plots located within a series of concentric circles up to a maximum of 8 m from each tree. These readings, referred to as normalised difference vegetation index (or NDVl), were highly correlated with standing biomass (Bille and Corra, nd) showing that the trees had no effect on understorey cover (Boutton and Tieszen, 1983;Kennedy, 1989).Research was directed towards the population ecology of Acacia brevispica and A. drepanolobium, which are increasing in the study area on upland soils and Vertisols, respectively (Tamene Yigezu, 1990). A laboratory study examined effects of various treatments on germination rates of seeds to determine germination strategy. Seeds with a hard coat have a conservative strategy because they can stay in the soil for years before germination, while those with a soft coat can germinate shortly after deposition (Harper, 1977: p 99). Treatments included a background of constant (280C) or variable (15/30°C) air temperature, with or without scarification of seed coats using sand paper or by immersion of seeds in hot water (98°C for 7 min).The sandpaper treatment was meant to achieve maximum germination while the hot water was intended to reveal to what extent germination was controlled by a waxy layer. Seeds with waxy layers may be more able to germinate after heat treatment caused by natural phenomena such as fire (J.The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaHanson, lLCA, personal communication). Data were collected on per cent of seed germinated over a 21 -day period for four replications/species/ treatment with 100 seeds/replicate. Data were analysed using a factorial ANOVA to determine effects of species, temperature and scarification method. ln addition, there was a one-month trial conducted under nursery conditions where effects of species, soil type (red and black), planting depth (0, 1 or 3 cm below the soil surface) and watering frequency (initially only or weekly) on germination rate were studied. There were eight replicates/ treatment. One replicate consisted of 25 seeds in a plastic pot. Data were analysed using an ANOVA for a randomised-block design. Phenology was characterised in the field at 11 monthly intervals for plants of both species along two replicated transects at three sites. Each replicate consisted of 35 plants distributed among several height classes. Data were analysed using an ANOVA with phenology scores as dependent variables and species, site, height class and month as independent variables. Seed production was estimated from data on numbers of dry dehiscent fruits and seeds/fruit for 35 individuals and 100 fruits/species. An ANOVA on fruit yield/tree utilised species, sites and height class as independent variables. Seed pools were quantified using fifty 30-cm soil cores/site at different seasons. Root morphologies were characterised using ex cavations. Seedling recruitment in the current year was gauged using random plots associated with line transects. Details are available in Tamene Yigezu (1990: pp 93, 108-114, 147-150, 198-200).Maps of the extent of A. drepanolobium populations in the north-central region of the Borana Plateau were compiled by Tamene Yigezu (TLDP/lLCA postgraduate researcher, unpublished data) based on aerial surveys conducted in 1988.Working in the Beke Pond region in the upper semi-arid zone near Gololcha, Woodward (1988) studied feeding ecology of livestock in relation to a local community of trees and shrubs. One objective of the work was to evaluate local browses in terms of development potential by assessing their nutritive value, phenology, abundance, relative use by livestock and population trend. Seasonal feeding habits of cattle, camels, sheep and goats were quantified from observations of eight adults of each species for five hours/animal/day in two wet and two dry seasons during 1985-86. This gave a total of 128 animals observed for 640 hours. Forage consumption was recorded as was the time an animal spent eating each species, bite rates per forage species and bite sizes per forage species. The relative availability of each woody species to different livestock species was estimated by measurements of density, phenology, leaf production and leaf accessibility as a function of height from the ground (Woodward, 1988: p 25). Dietary selectivity was expressed for each browse species as a ratio of intake to abundance. Forage samples were collected for nutritional analyses including kjeldahl nitrogen (AOAC, 1980), fibre (Van Soest and Robertson, 1980) and tannins (Reed et al, 1985;Reed, 1986).Ruminants are known to select forages of above-average quality, and features of body size and gut anatomy dictate that smaller animals such as goats can be more selective than cattle (Kay et al, 1980). Smaller ruminants will select forages with higher concentrations of crude protein and lower content of fibre or tannins that can reduce palatability and digestive efficiency (Kay et al, 1 980;Cooper and Owen-Smith, 1985). Thus, the seasonal influence of forage chemical composition on livestock diet selection was analysed by Woodward and Coppock (1989) by calculating dietary preference indices as in Johnson (1 980) and using Kendall's TAU B nonparametric method (Kendall, 1970) to correlate ranked preference of forages in diets with those ranked according to content of available N, neutral-detergent fibre (NDF), in vitro dry-matter digestibility (lVDMD), or tannins (e.g. soluble phenolics and insoluble proanthocyanidins; Reed, 1986). Details for feeding ecology studies are available in Woodward (1988: pp 20-27) and Woodward and Coppock (1989).Belete Dessalegn's (1985) work on the feeding habits of goats and camels in the Beke pond region during 1 983 to 1 985 used: (1 ) four camels observed an average of seven hours/day in each of four seasons; and (2) five goats observed for eight hours/day during two months in four seasons. Feeding habits were quantified by recording the forage species eaten by an animal at 5-min intervals (Belete Dessalegn, 1985: pp 9, 43).perceptions of range trend lnterviews of rural people can be useful in assessing the value of native vegetation. Such exercises with pastoralists can be enlightening since they often have an excellent knowledge of plant species. A survey of local names and uses of nearly 450 plant species was undertaken by Wilding (1984;1985b) and subsequently refined and validated by Tesfaye Wogayehu (CARE-Ethiopia, unpublished data) using household interviews in 1988 to 1989. A survey of critical grasses for hand feeding calves in different seasons was conducted by Menwyelet Atsedu (1990). Responses were ranked and analysed using the Friedman's two-way ANOVA (Steel and Torrie, 1980). Opinions of pastoralists on range trends were gathered using:(1) group interviews in 60 encampments throughout the Did Hara, Web, Melbana and Medecho regions by Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo (1985); (2) individual interviews of leaders in four regions (i.e. Did Hara, Did Yabelo, Harwe-U and Gobso) by Solomon Dessalegn (TLDP/lLCA postgraduate researcher, unpublished data); and (3) interviews of 30 leaders of the Did Hara, Melbana, Areri, Dubluk, Medecho and Dilo madda by Coppock (lLCA, unpublished data;Coppock, 1992b). All interviews were conducted in an open-ended fashion with sufficient time to gather details from respondents. ln all cases questions were asked regarding perceptions of long-term vegetation change and its causes and characteristics.An ecological map (scale of 1 :500 000) is presented as a fold-out at the back of this volume (see Figure B1 , Annex B). lt illustrates the ecological diversity of a 26 600-km2 area in the western region of the Borana Plateau. This is roughly 70% larger than the area for which aerial surveys were conducted for population and land-use studies (see Section 4.2.6: Grain cultivation).Overall, the 26 600-km2 area is comprised of the following six agro-ecological zones: (1) subhumid (6.5% of the mapped area); ( 2) upper semi-arid (22.4% of the mapped area); (3) lower semi-arid on basement-complex soil (19.9%); (4) lower semi-arid on other mixed soils, including volcanics (20.4%);(5) arid (1 9.2%); and (6) bottomlands, dominated by Vertisols (11.6%). lt is important to note that both climate and soils are integrated in this classification scheme, with soil type contributing the degree of moisture stress (Assefa Eshete et al, 1986).The six zones were broadly differentiated on the basis of elevation and rainfall while other aspects of classification were based on vegetation structure as influenced by soil depth and fertility (Assefa Eshete et al, 1986). For example:(1) subhumid environments (annual rainfall averag ing approximately 900 mm) are either currently or formerly densely wooded with juniper (Juniperus procera) or mixed associations of trees such as Olea, Euclea, Dodonea, Tarconanthus and Terminalia spp; Considering the importance of traditional socioterritorial units of the Boran (or madda; see Section 2.4.1 .7: Water resources) for development planning (Hogg, 1990c), a breakdown of agro-ecological zones for 29 madda is depicted in Table B1 , Annex B. A madda map is provided in Figure 2.1 0. The key finding regarding the distribution of agro-ecological zones is the variation in zonal diversity among madda. Bottomlands, regarded as critical for sustainable cultivation and dry-season forage (see Section 2.4.1.3: Soils), did not occur in nine of the 29 madda but comprised over 1 0% of the area of seven others (Table B1, Annex B). The high elevation subhumid zone, probably the most stable and predictable in terms of annual forage production (see Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity), did not occur in 12 madda, but comprised over 20% of six others. The arid zone, probably the least stable and predictable in terms of The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia annual forage production, was absent in eight madda but comprised over 25% of nine others. Madda thus vary substantially in terms of zonal diversity. Three madda possessed all six zones; 1 6 possessed four to five and 10 possessed two to three. The most diverse madda were Gobso, Harwe-U/Deritu and Orbate Gedi and the least were Dubluk and Kadim.Variation in types and diversity of ecological zones within madda strongly influences develop ment potential, and thus mitigates against having only one resource-intervention strategy (see Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts). Dif ferent properties of zones, ecological units and subunits in terms of suitability for grazing, cultivation and other aspects of sustainable use are reviewed in detail in Annex C and Assefa Eshete et al (1 986). ln general, these investigators concluded that the subhumid zone has been fairly stable in terms of the conservation of the juniper forest and mixed woodlands since 1970. This is largely a tribute to enforcement of local forestry regulations, since most major towns occur in these areas and demand for wood for fuel and construction is high. The upper semi-arid zone is regarded as the most vulnerable to bush encroachment as a result of heavy grazing. The lower semi-arid zones may require the most flexible herd management strategies for warra/forra herds of cattle (see Section 5.3.1 : General aspects of cattle management) because of the higher annual variability in rainfall and forage production (Assefa Eshete et al, 1986; see Annex C).Results from satellite imagery and ground surveys revealed a large extent of dense woody cover and a significant degree of soil erosion. Roughly two-fifths of the region had a woody cover exceeding 40% in the mid-1 980s, largely in the east, south and north-central sections (Figure 3.2). Source: Assefa Eshete et al (1986).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Madda such as Web, Gayu, Hidi Lola, Chen Liche, Megado, Gololcha, Orbate Gedi, Gelchet, Uotalo, Deritu, Did Yabelo and Did Hara appeared to have the greatest extent of dense woody cover. Severe erosion was observed in the north-central and western portions of the study area (Figure 3.3), amounting to 4% in the mid-1980s. Moderate erosion was observed throughout an east-to-west belt and comprised 15% of the area overall. ln total nearly one-third of the study area was assessed as degraded and in need of grazing control (Assefa Eshete et al, 1986). This is important given that degradation was defined by these investigators as instances where perennial plant cover had been \"substantially\" reduced and erosion occurred as sheets or gullies. These impacts were supposed to have occurred over many generations and largely due to heavy grazing during rainy seasons, with effects magnified on shallow soits (Assefa Eshete etal, 1986: pp 23-24). Assefa Eshete et al (1987) reported widespread instances of small cultivated plots in the study area after the 1983 to 1984 drought (see Section 4.3.6: Cultivation). ln terms of extent, cultivation was most significant at higher elevations near towns such as Yabelo, Mega, Arero, Hidi Lola and in rural areas to the north-central, north-west and north-east and at higher elevations near the Kenya escarpment (Figure 3.4). Roughly 4% of the study area was covered by cultivated fields in the mid-1 980s. The ultimate area possible for cultivation, however, may be on the order of 30% overall (Assefa Eshete et al, 1 986, 1 987). Much of this would occur on slopes at higher elevations and may not be sustainable except under careful management. Note that lower-elevation sites in the semi-arid interior that Source: Assefa Eshete et al (1986).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Highlights of results are presented here. Details may be found elsewhere (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1983b;Bille et al, 1983, Bille andAssefa Eshete, 1984).Based on an average of 43 sample points/block, canopy cover of herbaceous plants was similar among blocks and ranged from an average of 20% for Web, Goff and Dass to 29% for Melbana. Blocks were more variable, however, in terms of woody cover. Goff had a woody canopy cover of 70% while the other three blocks were similar and averaged 45%. This difference in woody cover represented variation in density and size of woody plants. Size-class distributions for woody populations are shown in Figure 3.5 (a-d). These data were interpreted to show a relatively mature and stable woody population in Melbana, a more hetero geneous population in Dass and younger populations in Web and Goff. lnspection of areas under the curves in  •^cBole circumference (cm) Source: Bille et al (1983).were considered to be reaching maximum densities (i.e. 800/ha). Bille et al (1983: p 24) noted that despite the general similarity of population curves for Web and Goff, there were important differences in the number of very old trees (i.e. those having a bole circumference of over 30 cm). Less than 10% of the trees were in this category at Web, but this increased to about 30% (or 260/ha) in Goff. 1) Dass was hypothesised to represent an initial stage of impact in which a high intensity of grazing had been occurring for a relatively short period of time. Some grazing-induced erosion had occurred but the scattered woody population had not yet been affected in terms of age structure or density;2) Web represented the next stage of impact in which the incidence of erosion increased and widespread establishment of young woody plants had occurred;3) Melbana represented the third stage. Woody plants had increased here many years ago and the pastoralists subsequently abandoned the region (perhaps due in part to heavy utilisation of grasses). The herbaceous layer then recovered in many places, establishment of more woody plants was curtailed and the woody population stabilised and matured. The recovery of the grass layer probably started in the 1960s and was still in progress in the early 1 980s; and 4) Goff was hypothesised to be a variant of the third stage. lt had apparently been heavily grazed for many decades and a high degree of erosion was noted to have markedly changed the landscape. The mixture of very young and very old trees suggested that successive waves of cattle grazing had not permitted recovery of the grass layer as observed in Melbana.Based on an average of 39 sample points/block, blocks at Medecho and Did Hara were similar in terms of herbaceous canopy cover (28 to 32%), but less so in terms of woody plant density (460/ha at Medecho versus 640/ha at Did Hara). However, the most interesting differences were in terms of the age structure of woody populations (Figure 3.7). Did Hara had a younger Com/77/p/7ora-dominated community with 64% of the population having a bole circumference of <10 cm while the same-size class at Medecho comprised only 25% of the aggregate population. Conversely, Medecho had a higher percentage (26%) of very old trees (bole circumferences of over 30 cm) compared to Did Hara (2%). Both blocks were being heavily utilised by cattle at the time of the study, with grazing pressure rated from high to very high for an average of 65% of the sample points in both blocks (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1983b: p 25).The impacts of recent pond development (especially Beke Pond) on vegetation in Gololcha in the upper semi-arid zone were reported by Bille and The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia  Assefa Eshete (1984: pp 22-27). Based on 47 sample points, average density of woody plants in this block was estimated to be 1170/ha. The age structure of these populations was not assessed because of the density and complexity of the vegetation (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1984: p 23). Gololcha was thus regarded to be threatened by severe encroachment from species such as Acacia brevispica and Commiphora spp (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1984: p 23). Erosion and grazing intensity appeared to be interrelated and both were ranked from high to very high at over half of the sample points, the most for any block. Marked erosion occurred when grass cover was less than 20% (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1 984: p 26). Compared to other blocks, the pronounced impact in Gololcha was probably due to a combination of a higher density of livestock throughout the year (see Section 3.2.2: Long-term vegetation change), higher rainfall that favoured faster establishment of woody vegetation and a greater degree of hilliness that predisposes the area to cattle-induced erosion (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1984; D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal ob servation). Bille and Assefa Eshete suggested (1984) that environmental impacts of livestock at Medecho, Did Hara and Gololcha illustrated the same principles as those inferred from conditions at Dass, Web, Melbana and Goff. Recent and heavy grazing pressure in Did Hara, which had previously been relatively undisturbed by livestock because of poor access to water, elicited a new wave of woody encroachment. Heavy grazing at Medecho in the past was evident in the mature age structure of the woody populations. Gololcha, under the highest rainfall regime, exhibited a particularly strong tendency for woody encroachment from grazing perturbation.ln sum, traditional pastoral exploitation patterns under lower population densities of humans and livestock were hypothesised to consist of the following stages (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1 983b: pp 32-34; Bille and Corra, 1986):(1) pastoral settlements would be maintained around a given well group until the area was overgrazed to the extent that cattle productivity was compromised. Besides heavy grazing, negative effects on the herbaceous layer could also accrue from a possible reduction in availability of top-soil nutrients (due to nutrient redistribution from forage in grazing areas to corrals at settlements via livestock faeces) and from encroachment of woody vegetation which could limit herbaceous growth through competi tive effects for light, moisture and nutrients; (2) these sites are eventually abandoned, and the grass layer then begins to recover in the absence of grazing. Recruitment in the woody population consequently slows down due to increased competition from grasses, and woody populations mature. To some degree grass recovery could be facilitated by the physical obstruction of woody plants which limit livestock access, and annual leaf litter from deciduous woody plants that could help replenish top-soil nutrients. Nitrogen fixation by woody legumes may also provide important inputs. As the herbaceous layer recovers further, fuel loads would build up and set the stage for fires to thin the woody populations. A fertile, open savannah is thus re-established; and (3) pastoralists then recolonise the site in a cycle that could take from 60 to 100 years for completion.ln terms of soil properties, seven years of protection from continuous grazing only had minor effects (P<0.05) on exchangeable cations (Table 3There was also no significant trend (P>0.05) amongThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia 2 Where OM = organic matter, N = total nitrogen, P = phosphorus, Na = sodium, K = potassium, Ca = calcium and Mg = magnesium.Percentages are expressed on an oven-dried basis. 3 Based on paired t-tests for eight pairs of sites. NS denotes not significant with P>0.05. Asterisks denote significant variation for their respective columns at P<0.05.Source: Menwyelet Atsedu (1990).protected kalo and unprotected sites in terms of: (1 ) per cent basal cover of herbaceous vegetation or small shrubs (Table B2, Annex B); ( 2) density of medium-to large-sized woody plants (an average of 1350/ha within kalo versus 1180/ha off kalo; (3) crown cover of medium-to large-sized woody plants (an average of 1 6% within kalo versus 1 3% off kalo; and (4) plant species diversity. More resolution, however, is provided from production data for herbaceous functional groups (Table 3.2). Subtracting standing-crop values before the long rains from those after suggests that total dry-matter production in kalo over the wet season was 158 g/m2 (or 1.58 t/ha), while that for unprotected sites was 83% higher at 299 g/m2 (or 2.99 t/ha). The composition of production was also markedly different. Production on kalo consisted of 62% grasses, 12% legumes and 26% forbs while that for off-kalo sites was 38% grasses, 7% legumes and 55% forbs (Table 3.2). ln sum, these findings are interpreted to show that seven years of protection from continuous grazing on these particular sites did not confer notable changes in soil nutrient status or total herbaceous cover. ln terms of herbaceous biomass, however, off-/ca/o sites appeared to be more productive overall than kalo sites, but this was due to a greater representation of forbs. Forbs probably have lower grazing value for cattle compared to grasses (see Section 3.3.5.1 : Livestock food habits) and may be regarded as invaders. Similarity in grass production on and off kalo suggests that the perennial grasses are somewhat resilient in response to continuous grazing.Considered across four size classes of two species of woody plants on three sites at the Sarite ranch, herbaceous production over an average 50-m2 area increased by 58% when woody plants were removed prior to the long rains of 1987 (Table 3.3). lnfluence of both woody species on the understorey gradually declined up to a distance of 4 m from the Where protected sites had been kept from continuous grazing pressure for at least seven years. ANPP refers to above-ground net primary production on an oven-dried basis, determined by comparing biomass from exclosure sites between sampling dates before and after the rains of 1 989 (i.e. over a period of about 60 days). 2 Asterisks denote significant differences between means in a given row at P< 0.05. NS denotes non-significance.Source: Menwyelet Atsedu (1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Vegetation dynamics and resource use  Kebede (1989). central trunk (Figure 3.8). The negative effect of Acacia seyal and A. horrida on herbaceous production in this locale is understandably large given that they comprised over 60% of a woody community that averaged 337 plants/ha (Solomon Kebede, 1 989: p 70). Removal of woody plants also shifted the understorey composition to greater domination by perennial and annual grasses (Solomon Kebede, 1989: pp 182, 188). lt was speculated that competition for moisture in the top soil was the critical factor in observed patterns, principally because the influence of woody plants extended beyond their canopies, indicating negative effects on the understorey could not be Distance from bole (m)Source: Solomon Kebede (1989).interpreted just in terms of shading effects. Evidence of competition for water was provided by studies of roots. Excavations showed that a 3-m tall A. seyal had lateral roots at a soil depth of only 10 to 1 5 cm that extended outward over 1 3 m, but a tap root only 1 .2 m in length. An A. horrida specimen of similar height had lateral roots up to 7.5 m in length.Even a 20-cm tall seedling of A. horrida had a tap root nearly 1 m long (Solomon Kebede, 1989: p 167). Acacia horrida may also compete with the understorey for rain water interception; the funnel-shaped crown captures rain water and channels it to the central point of stem emergence (Solomon Kebede, 1989: pp 165, 169). Bille and Corra (nd) reported different results of effects of trees on understorey cover at the Dembel Wachu ranch. Except for two large specimens of A. tortilis and A. bussei, NDVl tended to gradually increase in a linear fashion as distance from tree trunks decreased (Figure 3.9). Bille and Corra (nd) noted, however, that herbaceous species composition sometimes changed from grasses to less desirable forbs directly under tree canopies, so the increased NDVl could not be interpreted strictly with regards to grazing potential for cattle.Although the laboratory experiment did not reveal an effect of temperature regime on germination rate (P>0.05), there were significant effects (P<0.05) due to species and an interaction among species and seed treatment (Table 3.4). Overall, seeds of Acacia drepanolobium germinated to a greater extent (83%) than those of A. brevispica (62%).Compared to other treatments, seeds of A. brevispica germinated to a higher extent after soaking in hot water. Seeds of A. drepanolobium germinated at similar rates regardless of treatment.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia ln the nursery trial, germination rates were lower overall than in the laboratory experiment with main effects coming from species, watering regime and planting depth (Table 3.5). The only significant species interaction was due to planting depth (Figure 3.10). Other interactions are described in Tamene Yigezu (1990: p 133).Phenological studies indicated that both species produced fruits starting in October and November (i.e. during the later stages of the short rains) and seed fall occurred between January and April. Specimens at a minimum height of 1 m produced seeds but the largest standing crop of seeds was observed for those over 4 m in height (Tamene Yigezu, 1990: p 153). Standing crop of fruits was influenced (P<0.01) by the main effects of height class and site, with evident height class x site interaction (Tamene Yigezu, 1990: p 204). Standing crops of fruits and seeds per tree ranged from around 500 fruits (with 3100 seeds) for trees 1 to 2-m tall in December to over 30 000 fruits (and 180 000 seeds) for trees over 6 m tall in January. Although this seed yield is impressive, about 40% of a random sample of seeds had been damaged by insect larvae (Tamene Yigezu, 1990: pp 202, 206). After seed fall, nearly all seeds were located near the soil surface. Analysis of seed pools Source: Tamene Yigezu (1990).   Source: Tamene Yigezu (1990).indicated that no seeds were below 5 cm in the profile (Tamene Yigezu, 1990: p 170).Recruitment rates of young plants was low as more mortality occurred before and during the seedling stage. Seasonal dynamics of seedlings in established stands indicated that densities ranged from a maximum of 2 to 4 plants/m2 within two months after the long rains, but this dropped to <1 plant/m2 in the following long dry season (Tamene Yigezu, 1990: p 180).Once established, seedlings grew rapidly. A mature A. drepanolobium that was 4 m in height had a tap root 5 to 6 m in length. An A. brevispica of similar size also had a 6-m tap root, but in addition had an extensive system of lateral roots (Tamene Yigezu, 1990: pp 17-19). These differences in root morphology may partially explain why the grass understory appears much more reduced in the vicinity of A. brevispica compared to that of A. drepanolobium; lateral roots may confer greater competition for grasses (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).Acacia ln sum, these studies indicated that seeds were produced in the long dry season, but seed quantity was variable depending on several factors. The seed pool was on or near the soil surface and the majority of these seeds were capable of rapid germination depending on rainfall. A significant percentage of A. brevispica seeds, however, may be dormant and depend on other stimuli such as fire for germination. Larger individuals of both dormant and rapid germinating species may produce large quantities of seeds, but annual population recruitment is low due to a variety of factors, the most important of which may be parasitism and predation by insects at the seed-formation stage.3.3.5 Use of native vegetation 3.3.5.1 Livestock food habits ln the analysis of livestock feeding habits in the Beke pond region, browsing comprised an average of 2, 36, 84 and 1 00% of the feeding time of cattle, sheep, goats and camels, respectively, when averaged over four seasons (Woodward,1 988: p 40). Camels and goats browsed to a similar degree regardless of season, but sheep appeared to browse more during dry periods. Averaged over four seasons, consumption of A. brevispica comprised 39, 29 and 1 6% of the feeding time of camels, goats and sheep, respectively, and thus was the most important browse (Tables B3, B4 and B5, Annex B). Other commonly used species included Rhus natalensis, A. tortilis, Grewia tembensis, Cadaba farinosa, Dichrostchyus cinera and Ormocarpum mimosoides. Some of these species (i.e. A. brevispica, D. cinerea, E. shimperi and ft natalensis) also elicited high rates of dry-matter intake, usually because their forage was accessible and less protected by physical or chemical defenses (Woodward, 1988). Of 16 dominant species in the study area, 11 were ranked as increasing in the environment and two were ranked as stable. Eight produced preferred forage based on relative occurrence in livestock diets and the environment (Table B6, Annex B).Chemical composition of 23 important browse forages is shown in Woodward (1988); these data illustrate wide variation in chemical content across species and across seasons within species. Forages were usually higher in nitrogen content and digestibility during wet seasons. During seasonal feeding observations (see Woodward and Coppock, 1 989) livestock encountered forages widely ranging in concentrations of polyphenols (9.6 to 57% of DM), proanthocyanidins (A550 absorbance readings from 0.01 to 2.78), total nitrogen (1 .4 to 5.9% of DM) and available nitrogen (0.8 to 4.0% of DM). ln general, browse with lower nutritive values seem more abundant (Woodward, 1988). Rank corre lations of animal dietary preference and chemical attributes of browse indicated that livestock mostly responded to phenolic compounds and nitrogen (Table 3.6). During the long rains, when forage was abundant and animals could afford to be selective, they appeared to avoid those materials having  (Kendall, 1970) with the probability that the coefficient equals zero underneath in brackets. Negative signs proceeding correlation coefficients suggest avoidance. Other entries suggest positive selectivity. Probability values less than 0.1 were considered significant. This is denoted by an asterisk (*). 2 Where the long rains are a time of high forage abundance and diversity and the warm dry season is a time of low forage abundance and diversity. 3 See text for references concerning chemical constituents.Source: Woodward and Coppock (1989). higher concentrations of polyphenols and pro anthocyanidins. Also at this time, sheep selected for forages higher in total and available nitrogen. ln contrast, during the long dry season when forage was scarce, camels were apparently not selective for or against any particular compound, but small ruminants selected forages that had higher avail able nitrogen and lower levels of proanthocyanidins (Table 3.6). Livestock were not observed to select forages on the basis of fibre content or digestibility (Woodward and Coppock, 1989: p 7). lt was concluded that 29 woody species could be divided into four categories of development potential. Two species provided the mainstay of the browsing system already; 10 species could have greater impact if they were more abundant and the rest were either not feed resources or there was insufficient information on them (Table 3.7). Of the four species that were not feed resources, three (Acacia drepanolobium, Albizia amara, and C. africana) have been considered as invaders in range trend evaluations (Bille and Assefa Eshete,94 The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Source : Woodward (1988).1983; Michel Corra, lLCA, personal communication; Tamene Yigezu, 1 990). Despite A. brevispica being labelled as an encroacher, it is serving an important role as a forage. This was previously noted by Belete Dessalegn (1985).A list of 114 plant species used in pastoral households is presented in Table B7, Annex B. These plants have many traditional uses including fencing and firewood (26 species); home construction (16 species); wood and fibres for making household utensils (38 species); medicines for people and livestock (44 species); food for people during years of average or below-average rainfall (49 species); extracts for leather tanning and dyes (10 species); charcoal for incense, fumigation of insects and microbial fumigation of milk-processing containers (15 species); and for spiritual or ceremonial purposes (12 species). On average, each species listed has about two uses but some have over seven to nine uses. Degree of traditional use should influence range management strategies. For example, of the 1 3 woody species regarded as invaders in the rangeiands by Hacker (1990;see Table B8, Annex B), 11 have at least minor uses as food, construction material, medicine and fumigants (Table B7, Annex B). (Readers interested in the vernacular names of native plants throughout Ethiopia should consult Wolde Michael Kelecha, 1987).Grasses and shrubs mentioned by pastoralists as valuable for calf feeding (grazing or cut and carry) during dry seasons of different degrees of rainfall years are shown in Table B9, Annex B. Pennisetum spp were consistently ranked as the most important grasses especially in drier years. Located on deep black soils, Pennisetum spp may be the only herbaceous plants with green tissue during dry periods, which explains their utility (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990). Shrubs were more important in drought years (Table B9, Annex B). The most important fruit-producing trees for livestock were reported to be A. tortilis in dry seasons of all years and A. tortilis and A. nilotica in drought years (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1 990).There was a nearly unanimous opinion in eight of nine madda that substantial increases in woody cover had occurred in recent times ( /v=60 group interviews of olla residents (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985); N=5 group interviews of madda leaders (Solomon Dessalegn, lLCA/TLDP post graduate researcher, unpublished data). lncreased woody cover reportedly varied from local to regional scales of resolution and trends were attributed to overgrazing and government policy which restricted range burning by pastoralists (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985; Solomon Dessalegn, lLCA/ TLDP postgraduate researcher, unpublished data). The Boran appreciated, however, that different types and/or stages of woody encroachment can have a variety of effects on the environment (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985; see Section 3.3.3.2: lnteractions among woody and herbaceous plants). At the early stages of encroachment, shading and associated effects of some woody plants are perceived to encourage valuable forage grasses in certain locations. Encroachment also provides easy access to fuelwood and construction materials. Once encroachment becomes pro nounced, however, the situation deteriorates in terms of reduced herbaceous cover and hide-out for livestock predators such as lions.The Boran also report that households are less mobile than in the past and this has contributed to resource-use problems (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data;Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990). Reduced mobility by households, as a result of population growth and full occupation of preferred land, has led to changing opinions regarding participation by the Boran in bush-control pro grammes. This is reported in Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation.Solomon Dessalegn (lLCATLDP postgraduate researcher, unpublished data) reported a general concern among leaders of five madda regarding a declining range condition for grazing over the past 10 years. Coppock (lLCA research scientist, unpublished data) reported similar pastoral perceptions of range trend based on N=30 interviews of leaders in six madda. Concerns with overpopulation, overgrazing and bush encroach ment as consequences of high stocking rates were commonly stated by respondents. Strategies to deal with balancing resource demand and use are forwarded in Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts.Livestock have been implicated as a major factor in environmental changes whereby 40% of the western Borana Plateau has endured bush encroachment and 19% has significant erosion. This perspective conforms to the mainstream view that pastoralists and their livestock can have widespread negative effects on natural resources, irrespective of climatic factors (see citations in Section 3.1: lntroduction and Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dy namics). Tendencies towards trends such as bush encroachment, however, have also been exacerbated by government policy.Two major findings from the ecological mapping exercise are: (1) documentation of the high spatial diversity in forage resources conferred by the 104 ecological site types and ( 2) the high variability in access to the six ecological zones by residents of the 29 madda. To recap, sustainable rain-fed cultivation may be very viable on suitable landscapes in the subhumid and upper semi-arid zones as well as in bottomlands. Zonal criteria should be reviewed in the formulation of policy providing for cereal cultivation (see Section 7.3.2: Land-use policy and agronomic interventions). The subhumid and upper semi-arid zones have conditions that are conducive to woody encroach ment and the arid zone requires the most flexibility in pastoral management due to patterns of past degradation as well as its variable availability of forage and water. This all implies that rather than embracing one comprehensive approach for range management and pastoral development, efforts need to be tailored, at minimum, to deal with region-specific issues at the madda level of resolution. This would require, however, a level of site-specific research and coordination that greatly exceeds the capabilities of local governmental and nongovernmental organisations. A reasonable 96The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia compromise could promote collaborative, par ticipatory approaches which involve the Borana leadership and repealing controversial land-use policies (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and con clusions). Despite the diversity in ecological communities, the diversity of readily accessible landscape types with marked seasonal variation in access to strategic production resources (e.g. uplands vs bottomlands or mountain ranges) appears low on the central Borana Plateau compared with other pastoral systems in East Africa for which use of different landscapes is well documented. This is largely because bottomlands occur on <12% of the total area and because mountains are usually inaccessible to livestock because of poor water availability (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources). Bottomlands are also unevenly distributed. Coppock et al (1986a) and Ellis et al (1986) illustrated the critical role of forested riverine areas and mountain savannahs in promoting livestock species diversity and the perseverance of Turkana pastoral subsystems in arid north-western Kenya. Scoones (1991) noted the increasingly critical role of bottomlands in African pastoral systems. They serve as sources of dry season forage and offer opportunities for the development of agropastoralism. As a result, bottomlands are commonly a source of land-use conflicts where population pressure is acute (Scoones, 1991). On the central Borana Plateau bottomlands are exploited mainly for collection of calf forages in dry seasons (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1 990) while northern subhumid and upper semi-arid zones at higher elevations are used by cattle during extended dry seasons and drought (see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition). Use of reliable tula well systems during drought also leads to herds gathering in \"fall-back\" madda (see Section 2.4.1 .7: Water resources). Such trans-madda movements of cattle reduce the relevance of madda-specific estimates of carrying capacity during times of stress. lnstead, resource managers need to consider population and resource-use dynamics at a level of resolution which encompasses the entire western half of the Borana Plateau (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).As perhaps the most ubiquitous consequence of heavy grazing pressure in the Borana plateau, bush encroachment is not unusual in semi-arid East Africa. lncreases in woody vegetation have been commonly reported as a response to heavy grazing elsewhere (Norton-Griffiths, 1979;Cumming, 1982;Sabiiti and Wein, 1988;Belsky, 1989;a Tchie and Gakahu, 1989;Msafiri and Pieper, 1989).Other investigators in the southern rangelands made similar conclusions regarding impacts of pastoralists on the environment. During the early 1970s when human and livestock numbers were just beginning to increase in the Did Hara region in response to pond development, consultants from AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974d: pp 85-87) noted that woody encroachment was a risk there. They also stated that woody encroachment had already advanced in a number of other semi-arid regions.Reporting on a brief consulting survey, Pratt (1987a: pp 15, 17) noted that given the favourable rainfall of the region, natural succession would lead to a dominance of woody plants in most communities regardless of grazing. He recognised the heightened soil erosion on slopes at higher elevations and speculated that it was caused by high stocking rates and the trekking of cattle to up-country markets. Pratt (1987a: p 18) also reported extensive bushland and thickets below 1 500 m elevation. He hypothesised that the overall increase in woody plants appeared to be due to a gradual thickening of existing stands as a result of seedling recruitment rather than expansion of plants into new sites. Pratt (1987a: pp 17-18) concluded that although woody encroachment was marked, the rangeland was still in \"reasonable\" condition because: (1) patches of high-quality perennial grasses remained in heavily grazed sites that could respond well to adequate rainfall; and (2) similarity in grass cover between government ranches (managed at lower stocking rates) and adjacent communal rangeland. Pratt (1987a) felt that priority attention should be given to arrest trends toward rapid resource deterioration at higher elevations where population pressure was most acute.Summarising another consulting survey, Hacker (1990: pp 5-24) also confirmed a high incidence of soil erosion and the presence of young woody plants in 68% of 801 survey sites. He noted that erosion appeared to be greatest on slopes comprised of red soil (i.e. yellow-red Haplic Xerosols) where grass cover was reduced by grazing, but that the amount of grass cover was not strongly associated with abundance of young woody plants. ln contrast to the more favourable assessments three years earlier in the same region by Pratt (1987a), Hacker (1990) ranked 43% of his sample sites from poor to very poor grazing condition and felt that the government ranches had markedly higher grass cover than areas outside (note that the discrepancy between the range condition surveys of Pratt,1987a andHacker, 1990 may be explained by growth in the cattle population during 1987-90; see Section 7.2:The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia A theory of local system dynamics). From a comparison of 15 sample points near Yabelo town using aerial photos from 1967and 1984, Hacker (1990: pp 27-37) : pp 27-37) estimated that woody canopy cover had increased only slightly (from 24.1 to 28.5%) and that cover had increased at only four and decreased at only one of the sites. He concluded that changes in woody cover in this particular region were thus more local than general in nature, which supports Pratt's (1987a) contentions.ln sum, the concensus appears to be that soil erosion and woody encroachment have occurred to varying degrees throughout the study area. While livestock pressure can probably be directly linked to soil erosion along trekking routes and high-elevation slopes, mechanistic ways that link cattle to woody encroachment are less clear. The tendency for woody plants to proliferate under grazing perturbation is greatest in the upper semi-arid and subhumid zones because higher soil moisture increases the likelihood of establishing woody vegetation (Tamene Yigezu, 1990).ln addition, woody encroachment could also be facilitated if grazing modifies the competitive relations among grasses and woody seedlings for soil moisture and nutrients, an interaction which may be most pronounced on fine-textured, rather than sandy, soils (Walker et al, 1981 ;Walker, 1985;Knoop and Walker, 1985). Most of the soils on the Borana Plateau are relatively fine-textured (Kamara and Haque, 1988).Another factor that has probably facilitated woody encroachment may be the national policy banning burning of grazing and agricultural lands since the mid-1970s. Prior to this the Boran burned rangeland to improve forage quality and control woody plants and ticks (Coppock, 1990b). This policy constraint has been noted by several investigators (Bille, 1985;Pratt, 1987a: p 18;Hacker, 1 990: p 20). However, it is noteworthy that extensive woody encroachment predated the ban (AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates, 1974d: pp 85-87;Bille et al, 1983). This suggests that traditional use of fire was only partially effective in controlling woody vegetation. The local ban on range fires was lifted by government administrators in 1 990. This is discussed further in Section 7.3.1 .4: Site reclamation.Bille and Assefa Eshete (1983b: p 34) noted the traditional importance of the hypothesised cycle of patch use by cattle and shifts in vegetation composition in maintaining a long-term dynamic stability and diversity of the Borana ecosystem.Factors that could disrupt the cycle, such as higher human and cattle populations that re-use sites before grass recovery has taken place (as at Goff), or higher populations of browsing stock (e.g. goats) that prevent establishment of woody vegetation, could negatively affect the sustainability of pastoral production. The same would hold if fire were too frequent (see Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation). Woody encroachment could be beneficial in the long run by forcing pastoralists to migrate from overgrazed sites thereby providing the degraded areas with an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1 983b). ln a rigorous sense, the elements that underpin the hypothesis of a cycle of grazing-induced dynamics of woody encroachment remain untested although some of its key elements are supported by other work in Borana and research from similar systems elsewhere: Migration of pastoralists in response to condition of the local resource base. Observations that the Boran occupy areas until they are severely overgrazed is only supported by the anecdotal reports of Bille and Assefa Eshete (1983b) for Medecho madda. Pastoral response to advanced stages of woody encroachment can only be surmised from interviews. Herd owners have said that instead of attempting to control local woody encroachment they would prefer to move elsewhere (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). This is a logical response for households that have considerable labour constraints (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990), as benefits accrued to individuals from implementing difficult tasks such as bush clearing in communal grazing areas are probably only a fraction of the cost. Although the Boran are semi-settled, they can be highly mobile when the need arises. Encampments usually change location once every five to eight years and this is commonly related to the search for better grazing (Donaldson, 1 986; Cossins and Upton, 1 987). Herd owners have reported that today, however, it is increasingly difficult to relocate to improved grazing sites because of the general increase in the numbers of both people and cattle (see Section 7.1.3: Review of dynamics and past interventions). They also think they are becoming more sedentary than in previous generations and this is reportedly due to the attraction of roads, markets and permanent water development that encourage settlement (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990). The role of livestock grazing and corralling in relation to nutrient redistribution. Heavy grazing could serve to concentrate a significant quantity of nutrients from surrounding foraging areas because 98The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia cattle are corralled nightly at encampments, but this has not been quantified. Tonnes of manure are neatly piled into small hills at each Borana encampment and this often represents many years of accumulation (Donaldson, 1986). Elsewhere in pastoral Africa it is well known that corralling confines animals for about 50% of the time and consequently serves to concentrate large quantities of nutrients (Jahnke, 1982: p 35;Powell, 1986;Coppock et al, 1988). ln addition to nutrient transport, frequent defoliation of perennial grasses during growing seasons could serve to deplete nutrients in the top soils of foraging areas by stimulating translocation (Botkin et al, 1981).The role of woody encroachment in facilitating recovery of the herbaceous layer. lf nutrient depletion in top soils is a factor in the decline of herbaceous productivity under heavy grazing on the Borana Plateau, there is other evidence that woody encroachment could have some beneficial effects on recovery of herbaceous vegetation by improving soil fertility. First, since woody seedlings can grow deep roots quickly (Gates and Brown, 1988;Solomon Kebede, 1989;Tamene Yigezu, 1990) they could establish and tolerate nutrient-depleted top soils to a higher degree than shallower-rooted grasses. Second, woody plants have been shown to have a potentially significant role in nutrient turnover and the replenishment of soil fertility in semi-arid savannahs. Bille and Corra (1986) made some initial calculations of nutrient budgets for sites on the central Borana Plateau and estimated that leaf litter from at least 200 woody plants/ha could provide roughly 57% and 21% of the annual turnover for nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively. Hatton and Smart (1984) described the effects of a 24-year exclusion of wild herbivores from a Ugandan savannah. Under natural conditions, elephants prevented the persistence of woody populations through their feeding and clearing activities. Once elephants were excluded, however, an increase in acacias occurred and these extracted nutrients from the soil profile and deposited litter on the soil surface. Compared to unprotected sites, top soils of protected sites showed up to a five-fold increase in exchangeable cations, a 50% increase in nitrogen and up to a 30% increase in organic matter. Similarly, Radwanski and Wickens (1967) in the Sudan and Radwanski (1969) Nigeria found Acacia albida and Azadirachta indica, respectively, to improve the fertility of top soils. Bosch and Van Wyk (1970), Charley and West (1975) and Weltzin and Coughenour (1990) also found woody plants to improve soils and/or micro-climate for herbaceous plants. Dreyfus and Dommergues (1981) highlighted the potential role of nitrogen fixation by native woody legumes in improving soil fertility when colonising new sites.lt is important to note, however, that whether interactions among woody and herbaceous plants are positive, neutral or negative depends on soil texture (Walker, 1985), soil fertility (P. N. de Leeuw, lLCA, personal communication), harshness of climate (Weltzin and Coughenour, 1990), density and maturity of the woody layer, and potential for species-specific competition based on compatibility of the seeds, juveniles and mature forms of the plants (Harper,1 977). Of particular importance for species-specific interactions are root morphology and distribution (Walker, 1985) and the degree to which woody crowns intercept light from the understorey. Whether plants are adaptable to drought and/or fire would also complicate interactions.Examples of the diverse interactions among plants on the Borana Plateau include the apparently positive or neutral effects of A. tortilis (Bille and Corra, nd) and A. drepanolobium (Tamene Yigezu, 1 990) on the herbaceous layer as well as negative effects of A. horrida and A. seyal (Solomon Kebede, 1989). A major hypothesis to explaining these diverse interactions is variation in the root and crown morphologies of the woody plants. The most marked contrasts include those species with lateral roots, short boles and low spreading crowns (i.e. A. horrida) having the most negative effects and those with tap roots, tall boles and elevated open crowns (i.e. A. drepanolobium) having only minor effects.Results of Menwyelet Atsedu (1 990) on and off kalo (traditional reserves) sites were most notable in terms of the lack of significant effects that seven years of protection from continuous grazing had on soil chemistry, woody populations, herbaceous cover and species composition, or grass production. These findings are also striking because ott-kalo sites occurred in the immediate vicinity of encampments where grazing pressure is expected to be high. Work also was conducted during the high-density phase of the cattle population in the interdrought cycle (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). This suggests that these particular plant communities are resilient enough to cope with heavy use (as noted by Pratt, 1 987a: pp 17-18). This could, in part, be to their being established on deep soils (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990) and may not be widely generalisable. That forb production markedly increased oW-kalo, however, suggests that the plant community did respond at least in a minor way to heavy grazing.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia pastoral systems, although they may be more important for small ruminants (Belete Dessalegn, 1985;Coppock et al 1987a). Forbs are low in fibre which is the major dietary constituent for energy for cattle (Kay et al, 1980). The increase in forbs may thus have no effect on cattle in the Borana system as long as grass production is not compromised. Food habits and nutritional studies would be required for an adequate assessment of the situation regarding small ruminants.There are roughly 1 6 species of woody plant in the Borana Plateau that are thought to be encroachers (see Table B8, Annex B). Trials conducted by Tamene Yigezu (1990) on two species are thus limited in scope, but offer some potentially important insights. That heat treatment in the laboratory stimulated germination of A. brevispica seeds significantly more than other treatments serves as a caution for prescribed burning as a management tool for bush control in the upper semi-arid and subhumid zones. Field research involving heat treatment of A. brevispica should be designed to detect effects on seedling emergence. Heat scarification of seeds may well be an important survival strategy for woody plants in zones where plant communities have evolved under frequent fire disturbance.Although limited in regional extent, livestock food habits observed on the Borana Plateau are typical of those recorded for the same livestock species elsewhere in East Africa in terms of relative emphasis on grazing or browsing (Migongo-Bake and Hansen, 1 987; Coppock et al, 1 986a). Our work documents the potentially high degree of dietary overlap between grazing cattle and sheep on a forage-class basis, while browsing goats and camels appear to have more distinctive diets. Although goats and camels share some preferences for certain woody species (Woodward, 1988), differences based on feeding height in the canopy are to be expected.There were no studies of forage competition per se among livestock on the Borana Plateau that should increase in one livestock species leading to production constraints in another as a result of reduced intake of preferred forages. lt is speculated, however, that the potential for competition exists between cattle and sheep in some situations. Cattle comprise over 90% of the livestock biomass on the central plateau and cattle productivity may be significantly compromised during average rainfall years when cattle density exceeds 25 head/km2, creating a situation for possible forage competition (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).Given such hypothesised intra-species pressure for cattle, inter-species pressure from cattle to sheep may also be likely during the high-density phases of cattle population. During other times disease may be the most pervasive constraint for sheep production. ln contrast, disease may be the most chronic limiting factor for goats and camels given their low population densities and abundant browse resources (see Sections 5.3.7.1 : Sheep and goats and 5.3.7.2: Camels). These perspectives are important given the apparent opportunities for increasing livestock species diversity as a development strategy among the Boran (Section 7.3.3.2: Camels, donkeys and small ruminants). While marketing opportunities may best justify promoting them (Section 4.4.3: Livestock supply to markets), sheep are the least complementary species to cattle in terms of food habits on a forage-class basis. By virtue of their food habits, the scope to increase goat and camel populations appears greater. Neither, however, are able to control bush encroachment according to Borana informants (see Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation).Results from Woodward (1988) and Woodward and Coppock (1989) indicate an abundance and a variety of browse species although not all are suitable forage based on morphological features and/or variable concentrations and types of polyphenol^compounds. Woodward (1988) noted that species higher in polyphenols tended to be more abundant in this upland study site. While this suggests that past browsing pressure may have led to the persistence of less palatable species, site-specific effects may also be a factor. Coley et al (1 985) theorised that plants on nutrient-poor soils have \"more to lose\" from excessive herbivory, and may consequently invest more resources into concentrating defensive secondary compounds. Conversely, plants growing on more fertile sites may tolerate more herbivory because nutrients lost to herbivores may be more readily replaced. These plants may thus invest fewer scarce resources in secondary compounds. This suggests a hypothesis that browse species growing in bottomlands may be more palatable than those growing in uplands (see Section 2.4.1.3: Soils).lmportantly, the mere presence of tannins does not indicate that forage has inferior feeding value; nutritional variation occurs with respect to types and concentrations of polyphenolics and the level of intake. Forages therefore need to be tested on a case-by-case basis using feeding trials. lt is envisioned that small quantities of various types of tanniferous acacia leaves and dry dehiscent fruits could be useful as protein supplements for calves on grass hay diets (see Section 7.3. 1.3: Forage improvements). This underscores the claim that, given the generally poor results from numerous establishment trials with exotic forages (Hodgson, 1990), more benefits could accrue from identifying promising indigenous grasses and trees and attempting to promote these more widely in the Borana system. Some valuable grasses are Pennisetum, Chrysopogon, Cenchrus, Chloris, Cynodon and Themeda spp to others (also see Section 2.4.1 .5: Native vegetation). Valuable woody plants are A. brevispica, Euclea shimperi, A. tortilis, Dichrostachys cinera, Rhus natalensis, Pappea capensis, A. etbaica, Grewia spp, Ormocarpum mimosoides, Balanites spp, Cadaba spp and Caparis tomentosa among others. Those regarded as encroachers and with little apparent value for animals or households include A. drepanolobium, Albizia amare, A. horrida and A. mellifera. Strategies to make economic use of encroaching species are reviewed in Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation.Not surprisingly, the Boran have an excellent knowledge of native vegetation, a common fact among rural people in Africa that has spurred interest in ethnobotany (Morgan, 1981;Stiles and Kassam, 1984;Marx and Wiegand, 1987;Mathias-Mundy and McCorkle, 1989). ln this regard, plants used as traditional medicines for people or animals may have a role in developing more sustainable health practices in situations where imported drugs are expensive or unavailable (Tafesse Mesfin, 1990). Research to confirm stated properties of various plant compounds is thus required. Where range management goals focus on reduction or promotion of certain plant species, information should be solicited regarding household use. Forage value of plants should not be the sole criteria for management objectives. Government policy also impinges on the use of plants for cultural items and/or handicrafts. Blanket bans against taking out certain wooden handicrafts from the Borana Plateau to market in Addis Ababa are based on the premise that the tree species involved are endangered (Hodgson, 1990). While caution is commendable, policy makers need updated information on the abundance and trends of key tree species to guide policy. Pastoral households should not be deprived of needed ancillary income from handicraft sales if the species in question are abundant and increasing.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Chapter 4Borana household economy Summary This chapter reviews aspects of Borana household composition and economy as they pertain to average rainfall years during the 1980s. Related topics include labour allocation, livestock marketing, milk processing, dairy marketing and cultivation. Production units are defined as typically consisting of a male household head, one wife, two to three children and perhaps several other live-in relatives dependent upon the livestock for which the household head assumes management res ponsibility. Men are largely the decision makers for livestock production, while women carry on day-to-day management and retain primary responsibility for dairy-related activities. Widowed women may comprise 20 to 25% of household heads, especially within 30 km of urban areas. These women probably have greater managerial and strategic roles in the society than married women in general. Labour allocation is profiled on a daily basis for married women in different seasons, as well as for both males and females at the encampment and regional level of resolution. Herding and watering animals dominate labour requirements overall with related manpower shortages common during dry seasons.The average production unit may include some 1 5 cattle (with eight milking cows), seven small rumi nants, an occasional equine or camel for transport and a few chickens. Marked wealth stratification is evident. Some families have only one or two milk cows while others may have over 40. Fifty-one per cent of a sampled population (N=633) were considered poor in terms of per capita livestock holdings, while 31% and 18% were intermediate and wealthy, respectively. Annual cash income may range from US$ 45 (poor) to US$ 217 (intermediate) and US$ 382 (wealthy), but cash income is not entirely indicative of wealth. Annual gross revenue, commercial plus subsistence production, may average US$ 975 and at least 90% of this is derived from cattle, of which 40% accrues from milk production. Gross revenue is divided between pro duction for marketing (31 %) and subsistence (69%).Probably less than 1% of animal outputs are used as crop inputs, thus the average household retains a pastoral, rather than agropastoral, orientation with little crop-livestock integration. Small agropastoral communities appear to be growing in the wetter parts of the study area and the immigrants include poor people who have dropped out of the pastoral sector. Cultivated plots (<0.5 ha/plot on average) occur throughout the plateau (at an average of 3.2 plots/km2) and these are largely planted with maize in the long rains and cowpea (Vigna spp,) in the short rains. lncreased cultivation is attributable to a declining ratio of livestock:people as exacerbated by human population growth and drought.Men and women share duties in cultivation and animals are occasionally used for ploughing. About 1.4% of the study area was cultivated in 1986, representing 5% of the arable land.Going by recent high rates of crop expansion in the post-drought period of 1984-86 (i.e. 90 km2/year), all arable land could be utilised in the next two generations. This estimate may be conservative if animal traction becomes more pervasive and other assumptions hold untrue. Compared to similar African systems, densities of people and livestock suggest that preconditions now exist to force a widespread shift to agropastoral ism on the plateau where the environment permits and in the absence of other development opportunities. The population, however, has been partially dependent on grain purchases for at least the past 25 years. A shift to agropastoralism could allow some Boran to procure more food and still restrict sales of animals for grain purchases so that herd capital can be retained for other purposes.Analysis of 67 803 records of livestock sales from the early 1980s confirmed that: (1) cattle were by far the dominant species marketed; (2) cattle sales were dominated by mature males (52% of volume) and (3) supply of animals was highly variable among markets and years. Studies of livestock marketing rationale suggest that the Boran: (1) prefer to avoid cattle sales in light of the need for animal accumulation; (2) are increasingly forced to sell cattle to procure food grain; (3) may diversify more into small ruminants as a replacement commodity to reduce prospects of having to sell cattle; (4) tend to sell in dry seasons when they have an acute need for money; and (5) prefer to sell mature male cattle because the income is sufficient to procure goods as well as replacement calves, thus satisfying several objectives. The poor are often forced to sell immature cattle because of a low number and diversity of animals held. This further diminishes their prospects for animal replacement. lncreased numbers of immature cattle in markets may thus be an indicator of increasing poverty, and not a sign that the production system is being transformed in a \"progressive\" fashion according to Western models of production where cattle are fattened for market. A pastoralist does not plan to sell and when he does it is in response to an acute need for money.Boran herd owners disclosed that should cattle prices increase, and the prices of consumer goods remain constant, the ultimate result overtime would be a lower throughput of cattle through marketing channels. The Boran seek higher prices precisely to reduce the number of cattle households have to sell over the longterm. This is the main incentive for selling cattle on the black market with Kenya. lf the same scenario were to occur for small ruminants, the ultimate response would be a higher throughput because these species are perceived to have a lower socio-economic value and greater production risks than cattle. Despite the persistence of such traditional values, younger herd owners in peri-urban locations are becoming more interested in trade. There is also a general and increasing awareness of the necessity for markets to promote the survival of the society at large. Herd owners reported that should Ethiopian prices for livestock become similar to those offered by Kenyan buyers, they would prefer to sell to Ethiopian interests.Coming to traditional livestock outputs, common products are fresh milk, butter, buttermilk, soured milks and ghee. Butter and fresh milk are commonly sold by households residing within 30 km of market. Butter tends to be sold more by wealthier households further from market while fresh milk is sold relatively more by poorer households living closer to market. Proceeds from dairy sales are controlled by women and are important to all families, averaging around 20% of annual income. Dairy sales decline markedly in dry seasons compared to wet seasons, and families residing within 10 km of market reportedly sold 16 times more products than those residing 21-30 km from market. Dairy sales are often the main source of regular income for the poorest households who have little else to sell. This justifies the settlement of poorer households in peri-urban areas and underscores the importance of local market opportunities generated by small towns. lncreased dairy sales by poorer households with easy access to market but with low-producing milk cows may pose health risks for calves because of nutritional stress resulting from reduced milk intake. This could jeopardise calf recruitment, and thus prospects for herd growth for the peri-urban poor.The organisational structure of a pastoral society can be described in terms of a hierarchy which includes households, extended families, encamp ments or villages, neighbourhoods containing encampments and regional associations of neighbourhoods. Functional aspects of pastoral society include decision making and allocation of responsibilities and resources in support of its production and management systems. Material in this chapter focuses on structure and function of the Borana household and the relationship of households to the encampment (or olla). Relationships of encampments to each other and the roles of neighbourhoods and regional units of resource allocation are respectively reviewed in Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing management and Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources. The objective of this chapter is to provide a synthesis of studies conducted largely during average rainfall years in the 1980s. Specific topics of investigation included household composition and livestock holdings, marketing behaviour principally involving livestock and dairy products, labour allocation, patterns of cash income and expenditure, allocation of animal production to subsistence and commercial purposes and degree of crop-livestock integration and patterns of emergent agropastoralism.These topics were prioritised in a series of independent investigations.A profile of Borana households during average rainfall years in the 1 980s was primarily developed using results of three independent surveys that involved a total of 247 households (i.e. Negussie Tilahun, 1984;Holden, 1988;and Mulugeta Assefa, 1990) and one preliminary synthesis (Cossins and Upton, 1 987). ln sum, the objectives of these studies were to: (1) define production units and describe households in terms of people and livestock holdings; ( 2  Holden (1988) selected 108 households on a stratified-random basis for interview from encampments located within 30 km of the towns of Dubluk and Mega during 1987. This was a year of average rainfall and moderate population density of cattle (Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Her study primarily dealt with dairy marketing and the methods are reported in full later in this section. Selected data pertaining to household structure and cash income from Holden (1988) are compared and contrasted to those in Negussie Tilahun (1984). ln a third survey, Mulugeta Assefa (1990) profiled 633 households in terms of per capita cattle holdings and conducted detailed interviews with 90 households concerning cattle production and management during 1988 in the Did Hara and Dubluk madda. This was a year of average rainfall and a higher population density of cattle compared to 1987. Selected data pertaining to wealth stratification in Mulugeta Assefa (1990) will be presented here. His main body of results are presented in full elsewhere (see Section 5.3.3: Cattle production and pastoral wealth and Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation).Conceptual models for resource use and food production and demand for an average Borana household (i.e. one that managed eight breeding cows plus followers) were analysed by Donaldson (1 986)  and Cossins and Upton (1 987, 1 988b). They calculated average numbers of stock/household based on aerial survey data (Milligan, 1983;Assefa Eshete et al, 1987; for methods see Section 4.2.6: Grain cultivation). Estimates of numbers of people and households/encampment were based on hut counts from the air (Milligan, 1983;Assefa Eshete et al, 1987) supplemented with ground surveys (Negussie Tilahun, 1984;Donaldson, 1986;Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985). Human diets were collated from survey data in 1982 (Negussie Tilahun, 1984;Donaldson, 1986) in which 20 families reported daily intakes of common foods that were standardised on a gross energy (GE) basis.Profiles of labour supply and demand at the encampment level of resolution were compiled from data presented in Cossins and Upton (1987) and Negussie Tilahun (1984). This mainly focused on labour required to raise water from the deep wells and that needed for herding. Descriptions of how labour is organised at the deep wells is described elsewhere (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources).A preliminary study of seasonal time budgets for married women was carried out by Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 62-64) to clarify implications of labour constraints for interventions related to improved calf management (see Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation). A total of 30 Borana women were interviewed from Dubluk and Did Hara madda (15 in each) and asked to estimate the frequency and average duration/event in which some 20 independent activities were carried out in each of four seasons (i.e. long rains, cool dry, short rains and warm dry; see Section 2.4.1 .4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity). Composited labour profiles were calculated based on mean values. Each activity was scored as more or less important against others using Friedman's nonparametric ranking test (Steel and Torrie,1 980). This provided a means to value seasonal priorities independent of time allocation. Details are in Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 62-64).Monitoring of livestock markets was conducted from 1981 to 1984 in the following locations: Moyale (for 27 months); Hidi Lola (34 months); Mega (26 months); Yabelo (27 months); Teltele (23 months); Negele (24 months); Agere Mariam (28 months); Kera (9 months); and Finchewha (5 months). The last two sites varied with regards to year of observation, but otherwise data roughly covered the same period elsewhere. More details can be found in Dyce (1987: p 33) and Negussie Tilahun (nd).The objectives of this work were to characterise: (1) who supplied animals to markets and why; (2) who purchased animals and why; (3) volume and composition of throughput in terms of species, age and sex; and (4) sources of variation in supply of livestock over time. On market days the following information was collected (Dyce, 1987: pp 33-34):(1 ) number of animals brought to market, reasons for sale, type of supplier and time taken to reach market; (2) livestock species, age, sex, colour, body condition and live weight or heart girth; (3) number of animals purchased, prices paid, reasons for purchase, and type and origin of buyers; and (4) opinions of buyers and suppliers as to market prices, price expectations and reasons for unsold animals. Data analysis involved collation of nearly 70 000 records (Negussie Tilahun, nd). Simple linear regressions were used to correlate relationships between: (1) monthly rainfall and number of cattle marketed for two locations; and (2) prices for mature cattle/unit of live weight at five markets over 21 months from August 1981 to April 1983. Prices were determined by assuming the average live weight for mature males and females to be 318 and 225 kg, respectively (Alberro, 1986), and summing recorded prices on a monthly basis (Dyce, 1987: p 73). Selected results from these studies are presented here.Coppock (1992b) conducted extensive interviews with 30 leaders of Borana society to examine hypotheses concerning the traditional rationale for animal production. Topics investigated included cultural constraints on livestock sales, motivations for retaining or selling livestock, perceived changes in Borana society in terms of livestock marketing behaviour and to what degree perverse supply factors could be expected to operate (Doran et al, 1979;Sandford, 1983a). Perverse supply response is the concept that throughput of marketed animals could decline over time in response to higher prices. This considers that pastoralists only need a certain amount of cash income per year and manage herd assets in a manner which minimises sales. This is because herd assets have other traditional social and economic functions besides income generation. Sandford (1983a) contends that the evidence to support or refute the perverse supply hypotheses for pastoral systems is equivocal. Some 100 logic questions were formulated. Respondents were selected nonrandomly and ranged from 35 to 60 years of age. lnterviews were open-ended to adequately solicit unstructured responses and were carried out for several hours over two consecutive days per person. Respondents were widely distributed throughout a 10 000 km2 region on the central plateau.Studies of household milk allocation and processing were conducted during 1986-88 and are summarised in Coppock et al (1992) and Coppock et al (in press). Seasonal patterns of milk production and use were quantified for two households at each of four encampments in the Melbana, Medecho and Did Hara madda. One enumerator lived in each encampment and collected data for the two households for seven consecutive days during each of four main seasons (long rains, cool dry, short rains and warm dry) during 1987-88. Daily data collection consisted of interviews and measure ments to establish major pathways of milk allocation. This primarily included use of fresh milk for consumption, sale or storage and fermentation. Milk was typically stored to produce: (1) milk fermented for a short term (stored for <5 days) for family consumption or butter-making; or (2) milk fermented for a longer term (typically stored for up to 30 days, but reportedly as long as 60 days), as ititu (a special food commonly reserved for guests). Data were also collected on use of stored products including production and use of butter and buttermilk. Seasonal allocation patterns were standardised on a gross energy (GE) basis (i.e. where 1 kg of fresh whole milk = 3.3 MJ GE; 1 kg of fermented milk = 3.9 MJ GE and 1 kg of butter = 29.8 MJ GE (ENl, 1980;Nicholson, 1983a)).The role of dairy marketing in the household economy and its possible consequences for animal production was the focus of several studies (Holden, 1988;Holden et al, 1991;Coppock et al, in press;Holden and Coppock, 1 992). Wealth stratification of households evident in Negussie Tilahun (1984) served as a basis for work designed to analyse effects of per capita livestock wealth, distance to market and season on quantity of dairy products sold/person/day and the role of dairy income in the household economy. A sample of households was drawn within a 30-km radius of the market towns of Dubluk (population 500) and Mega (population 3000), located within 40 km of each other on the main tarmac road that runs south from Addis Ababa to Moyale. Demand for dairy products in these towns is a combination of local demand plus a demand for butter for export to the southern highlands via traders on the public transport system (Holden, 1988). The 2800-km2 study area surrounding each market town was divided up into three concentric sub-areas (i.e. 0 to 10, 11 to 20 and 21 to 30 km from market). Six encampments were randomly selected within each sub-area using compass coordinates. One family from each of the wealthy, intermediate and poor wealth classes was selected by the senior male leader (aba olla) in each encampment and interviewed for a total of 108, or 54 from each market area.Although similar scalars were used to quantify livestock units and people as used in Negussie Tilahun (1984), they were amended in the dairy study to be lactating livestock units (LLU) while people were scored as African adult male equivalents (AAME) as in lLCA (1981). This is reviewed in Holden (1988: p 20).106The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Data for different seasons that influenced milk production were collected from all families using a one-time questionnaire that recorded reported dairy sales for the current dry period of August/September 1987 and for the rainy and transition (or post-rainy) seasons in the previous 12 months. The senior woman (i.e. the key person for dairy marketing) in each household was asked to recall: (1) maximum and minimum sale volumes/market trip/season (calibrated using local containers); ( 2) frequency of market trips; (3) number and type of livestock milked/day in each season; (4) daily milk offtake (also calibrated using local containers; and (5) income from dairy sales and uses of the money.lncome from livestock sales and other domains controlled by men was reported by husbands. Dependent variables were calculated on a seasonal or time-weighted annual basis and included daily quantity of dairy products sold per AAME and per LLU, and dairy income as a per cent of reported total income. Dairy products were expressed in litres of fresh milk equivalents derived from GE content (above). lndependent variables were distance class to market (km), wealth class, season and market site. A four-way ANOVA calculating least-squares means with repeated measures was used to analyse the data (SAS, 1987). The ANOVA of dairy income as a per cent of seasonal cash income had to employ two, rather than three, distance categories because of empty cells due to some reports of zero income. Simple linear regressions were used to analyse marketing behaviour by correlating: (1) frequency of marketing or (2) quantity of dairy products sold/market trip with: (1 ) annual dairy sales/AAME, (2) wealth or (3) distance to market. Details are available in Holden (1988: pp 17-21) and Holden and Coppock (1992).Data from 1 5 encampments in the Dubluk marketing area in Holden (1988) were combined with information on calf morbidity and mortality (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990) to analyse risks of milk marketing to calf management in households of varying wealth (Holden et al, 1 991 ). The hypothesis was that poorer families living closer to a market would be affected by the opportunity to sell dairy products and that this would intensify competition between people and calves for milk, with negative implications for the vigour and health of calves. ln addition to the data collection and scaling reported in Section 4.2.4, one woman/household was asked to report amounts of milk and grain consumed by themselves and one child under the age of four during the previous 24 hours and these were converted to metabolisable energy equivalents (see appendix 3 in Holden, 1988). Quantities were estimated by calibrating local containers. As part of another questionnaire on livestock production that was similarly set up to measure variability due to distance from market and wealth, the perceived daily milk yield, daily milk offtake and calf performance (births, deaths and morbidity) were recorded for offsprings of up to six randomly selected lactating cows in each of the 45 households (or five per wealth and distance class). The 233 cows were evenly divided into \"good\", \"average\" and \"poor\" milking classes (as defined by the respondents) with milk offtakes ranging from 2.3 litres/day over nine months for the highestproducing cows to 1 .5 litres/day over seven months for the lowest-producing cows (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 19).Calf morbidity and mortality were reported only for animals prior to weaning and rates were calculated based on two samples of calves born in three years previous to the survey (i.e. 1985-87). These years had average rainfall (see Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity). A calf was considered to have experienced morbidity if it had recovered at least once from a life-threatening ailment related to nutrition management. Respondents apparently had no difficulty reporting such information and data were cross-checked with other family members.Effects of wealth class and distance to market on human food intake were analysed using a two-way ANOVA. Milk offtake/lactating cow was analysed using a split-plot three-factor design with families as the main plot with the two factors of wealth and distance to market. Cows were sub-plots within the factor cow class. Binomial data for calf mortality and morbidity were analysed using a \"maximum likelihood\" logistic analysis for the same three factors using PROC CATMOD procedures in SAS (1987). Details are available in Holden et al (1991).Cereal cultivation has important implications for change in the Borana System. lncidence of cultivation and pastoral opinions concerning farming among the Boran and Gabra were assessed from a series of household surveys (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985;EWWCA, 1987;D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data;R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, unpublished data;Coppock, 1988;Webb et al, 1992). The extent of cultivation before and after the 1983-84 drought was determined by Assefa Eshete et al (1 987) using aerial survey methods.The 15 475-km2 study area was divided into a 10x10-km UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) grid which was further sub-divided into 61 9 (5x5 km) sampling cells. Forty parallel flight lines, 5 km apart and running north to south, were sampled along the midline of each cell. The sampled area was limited to a fixed width along each side of the flight line using a sighting device composed of parallel rods. At a flying height of 180 m the projected sighting strip at ground level was 300 m wide, which gave a sampling intensity of 12% (Assefa Eshete et al, 1987: p 4). Counts of huts, farming plots and livestock in the sampling strips were supplemented by photography if numbers were high (i.e. above 1 0) and validated in the office.The following results attempt to profile various aspects of Borana household economy. The attempt to convey information in a straightforward way, however, sometimes erroneously infers that household features are relatively static. ln reality, the Borana system is exceedingly dynamic and household attributes vary from year to year. This dynamic nature of the system is profiled in Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics.Production units were defined by Negussie Tilahun (1984) as households consisting of a male herd owner, his wife, two to three children and up to four other relatives who lived and ate with the herd owner's family, for an average of 8.5 people/ household (N=49 households). These persons shared management duties for the family's livestock and were the prime recipients of the products from these animals.A Borana man could have more than one spouse if he is wealthy enough. However, the vast majority of them today have only one wife (Cossins and Upton, 1987). One major exception to the household leadership and composition noted above are widows who had typically married much older men and now preside over households in the intermediate or poor economic strata. Negussie Tilahun (1984: pp 6, 9-10) reported 20% (/v=49) of households headed by women, while Holden (1 988) found 25% (AM 05) headed by women in peri-urban locations. These women apparently controlled their livestock and other household resources as male heads of households do, but may seek advice or help from senior male relatives when necessary (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).The first survey by Negussie Tilahun (1984) revealed a wide range in household statistics (Table D1 , Annex D). His average sample household in the early 1980s had 5.6 AAME, 77 LSU and a ratio of LSU:AAME of 13.8:1. A high degree of wealth stratification was also evident: 3 of 49 households reported over 300 head of livestock. Annual reported income averaged EB 803 (US$ 392).Subsequent research which incorporated wealth stratification into the study design suggests that reported annual income levels in Negussie Tilahun (1984) may be biased on the high side in favour of wealthier households. Mulugeta Assefa (1990) surveyed 633 households in the Did Hara and Dubluk madda and considered 51% as poor, 31% as intermediate and 18% as wealthy. These categories corresponded to 0.8, 2.9 and 6.0 milk cows per family member, or 2.3, 7.3 and 14.2 head per family member when the entire inventory was considered for a subsample (see Table 5.5 in Section 5.3.3: Cattle production and pastoral wealth). Holden and Coppock (1992) reported annual income ranging from EB 93 to 445 and 784 for poor, intermediate and wealthy households, respectively, based on stratified random sampling in the vicinity of Dubluk and Mega towns. When results of Mulugeta Assefa (1990) and Holden and Coppock (1992) are combined, a weighted mean annual income of EB 326 is obtained, which is 40% of the figure from Negussie Tilahun (1984).The grand total of reported income for the 49 families during 1981-82 was EB 78 694. Sources of income detailed in Negussie Tilahun (1984: p 15) were: (1 ) cattle (90.9% of annual income); ( 2) other livestock products (milk, butter, hides, etc) at 5.3% of annual income; (3) small ruminants (1 .2%); and (4) camels and camel products (0.9%).An average of 52% of total income was accounted for in detailed expenditures, with high variability (17 to 93%) among locations (Table D1, Annex D). On average, 39% of documented expenses were on food, with nearly half of this (17%) for grain and the remainder for sugar, tea, coffee and miscellaneous items. The remaining 61% was spent on replacement livestock and household items with clothing making up nearly three-fourths of this total (Negussie Tilahun, 1984: p 16). There was significant (P<0.05) regional variation among households in absolute monthly expenditure on clothing, grain and other foodstuffs. This was speculated to be due to regional variation in cultivation and proximity to markets: Families able to cultivate likely spent less on grain while those closer to market spent more on consumer goods (Negussie Tilahun, 1984: pp 17-19). A pie chart of dietary patterns for years of average rainfall is contrasted with that which occurred during the 108The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia 1983-84 drought in Figure 6.2a,b. Diets in average rainfall years were dominated by milk (55%) and cereal grains (32%) on a gross-energy (GE) basis, most of the latter was inferred to have been purchased and not home grown. Milk was almost exclusively from cows. Negussie Tilahun (1984) found a significant and positive correlation (N=49; 1^=0.54; P=0.01) between the size of the household in AAME (x) and reported herd size in LSU (y):Log y = 2.59 + 0.1 8xThis was interpreted to illustrate a positive relationship between herd size and labour requirements: lf well endowed with cattle, a herd owner can marry additional women and/or recruit relatives to improve his management capability (Negussie Tilahun, 1984: pp 12-13).ln contrast to findings of Negussie Tilahun (1984), a combination of aerial survey and more extensive household data collected from 1 982-85 revealed that the average Borana family in the study area consisted of only three AAME, dependent upon 14.6 cattle (with eight milk cows) and seven small ruminants for food and income generation plus an occasional camel or equine for transport (Cossins and Upton, 1987). This roughly translates into 66 000 people (4.3/km2), 325 000 cattle (21 /km2), 100 000 small ruminants (6.5/km2), 7500 camels (0.5/km2), and 2500 equines (0.2/km2) for the 15 475-km2 study area in 1981-82. Population dynamics are reported elsewhere (Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition and Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Donaldson (1986: pp 13-14)  and Cossins and  Upton (1 987: pp 1 31 , 212-21 3) compiled an annual energy budget for an eight-cow household for an average rainfall year. Given a live weight of an adult Borana male as 55 kg, and considering additional energy expenditure for work, the daily energy demand for such a person is on the order of 10.6 MJ GE based on nutritional costs in FAO (1973). Assuming this person represents 1 AAME, the model household with 3 AAME would require 1 1 607 MJ GE per year. Domestic production, dominated by cow milk, would account for 64% of this requirement based on 75% of cows in milk and production levels determined by Nicholson (1983a; see Section 5.3.2: Calf growth and milk offtake). Most of the remaining energy (4178 MJ GE) would have to be obtained from cultivation and/or bought grain because other livestock sources of food production are nominal. Assuming that the balance was obtained from grain purchases (Cossins and Upton, 1 987), this means that 278 kg of maize grain would be required with an energy content of 15 MJ GE/kg (Cossins and Upton, 1987). One kilogram of cattle live weight was exchanged for 2.5 kg of grain in an average rainfall year in the early 1980s (Cossins and Upton, 1 987); so this implies that each household would have to sell at least 111 kg of live weight. On a TLU per household basis, this represents an offtake of 3% per year, or 9750 head out of 325 000 head for the study area. While this rate agrees with estimates of 5% per annum by FLDP (nd), it is less than one-sixth of the rate of 1 9% estimated by Donaldson (1986) for 1981-82 from herd monitoring. One source of variation is that additional offtake is required for purchases of other goods besides food, but at most this would probably double the offtake estimate to 6%. This discrepancy is explored further in Section 4.4.2: Economic comparisons among pastoral systems.Cossins and Upton (1987: pp 209-210, 213) reviewed some general aspects of labour allocation and relationships of labour to the organisation of households into encampments (olla). A typical olla is depicted in Figure 4.1 .Although the household is the basic unit of production and consumption, some types of work are carried out cooperatively by households. These labour-sharing activities include herding, watering animals, marketing dairy products and constructing corrals and fences. Advantages in terms of social activities, group security and information sharing are likely to have played important role in the development of the encampment as the next level of social organisation after the household.Herding may involve males and females from 6 to 25 years of age. Younger children, and females in general, do most of the tending of small ruminants and calf herds near encampments while young men and older boys are more responsible for warra (resident milking cattle) and forra (dry cattle that are far-ranging; see Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle management). Older girls (in their late teens) may herd warra animals if labour is in short supply (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 209).Watering animals from the deep wells (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources) is an arduous dry-season activity which is the responsibility of mainly young men, but it is also common to see older youths of both sexes involved. Labour allocation and watering schedules are complicated schemes committed to memory by leaders who regulate and coordinate water access. This is a major form of labour sharing in an encampment.Women share marketing duties especially if they reside far from market and thus have a large opportunity cost in terms of the time needed to walkThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia to market (Holden, 1988: p 22). Women rotate market duty and the designated woman will take dairy products and other items to sell on behalf of friends. Cooperation among women and youths in the construction of communal corrals and bush fence to protect encampments and cultivated plots is also important (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990).Encampments are named for a wealthy and/or influential male individual called the aba olla (see Section 2.4.2.2: Some cultural and organisational features) who may have herds large enough that he requires labour beyond the capability of his immediate family. Recruitment of families, poor in livestock but able to work, into an encampment is thus related to whether they could provide labour to wealthier households in return for food or other compensation. For example, a poorer neighbour may take care of a milk cow for a wealthier family and receive the milk offtake and a future male calf in return (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 210). Cash remuneration for labour is rare but small payments have been reported (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990). Poor families are taken into an encampment undoubtedly because of other considerations such as kinship. Clan networks offer possibilities that allow access to different resources that reduce vulnerabilities (see Section 2.4.2.2: Some cultural and organ isational features).A general labour budget for the major cooperative tasks of herding and watering animals can be crudely estimated for an encampment to illustrate the potential labour constraints. A typical encampment may contain from 1 0 to 30 households (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 209;Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985). Taking the larger number as an example, the total work force for one encampment could thus consist of about 30 adult males, 30 adult females and around 75 youths, based on demographic data in Negussie Tilahun (1984: p 8). Of the youths (defined as less than 25 years old) about 20 would be under six years of age. This leaves 55 available for substantive work.This typical encampment could have two to three resident forra herds and five to seven far-ranging warra herds with a maximum of 70 head/herd (Milligan, 1983, cited in Cossins andUpton, 1987: 110 The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia p 210). This gives a grand total of 630 head over one year old and about 250 nursing calves. About 70% of these calves would be old enough to require herding (see Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle management) and could be grouped into about three herds of 60 animals each. This estimate of calf numbers is based on 55% of all cattle over one year of age being mature cows and 75% of these having a calf in an average rainfall year (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 207). The ratio of lactating cows to AAME would be 2.3:1. The total small ruminants would be about 200 (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 213) herded perhaps as two flocks.The few camels and equines (see below) may not require herding except when they go to water. Camels may be hobbled so they browse near the encampment and equines seem to stay in the vicinity without much supervision (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Cattle herding for the typical encampment would thus require about 20 young men and boys for all the warra and forra herds, with two to three per herd on a rotating basis (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 209). Tending calves and small ruminants, respectively, requires another six and four young boys or older girls. ln sum, a minimum of 30 persons are required only for herding, which is nearly 60% of the youth work force. lf it is further assumed that females over the age of 11, and comprising 28% of all youths between the ages of 6 to 25 (Negussie Tilahun, 1984: p 8), then herding could fully occupy 75% of the available pool of 40. Labour allocation for herding would thus be consistently demanding regardless of season, but the need to look for adequate grazing in dry periods would heighten labour requirements then (see Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle management).During the later stages of the cool dry season (August through September) and throughout most of the warm dry season (December to March), the high demands of watering livestock at the wells are superimposed upon routine duties of herding and household chores. Cossins and Upton (1 987: p 21 0) noted that the number of livestock watered at the wells per man-day worked ranged from 15 to 155 livestock units. This high variation is due to differing flow rates of water in wells, variable efficiency of raising water to the surface and well depth which determines the number of people required to do the job. Data concerning animals watered at wells and regional labour allocation to well operations are shown in Tables 2.2 and 2.3. lf the average family owns about 12 livestock units Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 213) and on average these are watered once every three days (see Section 5.3.4: Water restriction and cattle productivity), the family needs at most to supply about one man-day of labour twice/week based on a minimal watering rate of 1 5 head/man/day. For an entire encampment of 500 livestock units, the labour force required would be about 67 man-day/week. The 10 youths remaining after herding needs are filled (see above) could provide a maximum of 70 man-day/week, assuming they worked in the wells every day (but they do not; Cossins, 1983c). A key factor in these calculations is the watering rate/man-day. lf an average of 85 livestock units/man-day is assumed (as the mean of 1 5 and 1 55), then the 500 livestock units only require about 12 man-day of labour/week for watering. This stipulation giving 35 man-day week is more consistent with the capability of the 10 youths working on an alternate-day basis. Such calculations also reveal the labour-saving advantages of watering once every three days versus once daily or once every other day (Nicholson, 1987a). Using the 500 livestock units with 85 watered/man-day, the once-every-third-day watering regime requires, respectively, only 28 and 58% of the labour needed for a daily or alternate-day watering.ln sum, this analysis is interpreted to show that encampment labour schedules in dry seasons are likely to be tight. As will be shown, married women may have the most demanding work schedules and thus are unable to assist in most of the tasks described thus far. Senior men spend more time dealing with herding strategies, cattle marketing and related issues and usually do not perform menial labour unless they are poor (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).Married women are critical to the household economy. They have the major role in determining milk offtake (Holden, 1988: p 66), carry on the home-based forage feeding and health man agement of nursing calves (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 65; D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). They may also be increasingly important as herd managers and decision makers in the society (see Section 4.3.1: General household structure and economy in average rainfall years).Composited activity budgets reported by women in two locations are shown in Tables D2 and D3, Annex D, for the long rains and warm dry seasons, respectively. Time budgets were similar across locations in terms of seasonal work priorities and total worked hours reported for each season. On average, over 14 important activities were reported for each season. When averaged across all rainy periods women reportedly worked 10.7 hours/day, increasing to an average of 14.1 hours/day in dry seasons. The warm dry season required the The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia greatest reported work commitment at 15.8 hours/day, while work priorities were similar for both locations within seasons. Not surprisingly, milking cattle was ranked as the most important activity in nearly all instances, but the absolute time required for milking varied seasonally. The highest time needed for milking was reported in the long rainy season and the least in the warm dry season.Other dominant activities in wet seasons included collecting fuelwood (more fires being needed due to cooler air temperatures) and churning milk to make butter (due to a higher milk volume). ln contrast, priorities during dry periods commonly involved the more time-consuming and arduous tasks of collecting water for people and calves, getting forage for calves and taking other animals to water. Food preparation, going to market and cleaning and repairing pond catchments, corrals and huts were apparently common throughout the year.The following categorisations of livestock supply were based on a sample of 67 803 animals marketed from 1981 to 1984. Much of the information was originally compiled by Negussie Tilahun (nd) but was later consolidated and analysed by Dyce (1987: pp 35-57).The dominant ethnic group supplying livestock to market were the Boran, with 48% of the total (32 545 head). They were followed by the Gujji agropastoralists with 12% (8136 head) which were mostly marketed at northern centres in the periphery of the study area such as Agere Mariam. Other local groups supplying much smaller numbers were the urban Amhara (6%) and Konso, Burji and Gabra with 2% each. Most of the remainder were supplied by Somali, Arsi and Walayita groups (Negussie Tilahun, nd: p 2).Nearly all of the Boran and Gujji suppliers were breeders producing stock under low-input range conditions. Breeders supplied 46% of the 26 991 animals brought to primary collection markets in Teltele, Yabelo and Negele and 82% of 17 538 animals brought to primary collection markets at Hidi Lola and Mega.Traders, people dealing in livestock exclusively for business purposes, were more common among the Amhara and other local urban minorities. Traders supplied 59% of the 28 306 animals brought to secondary collection markets that bordered the rangelands such as Moyale and Agere Mariam. Sixteen per cent of the 7109 animals supplied to Moyale were from Borana breeders. Many of the suppliers to Moyale markets were traders from Somalia and Kenya. The highest concentration of traders was in Agere Mariam (Negussie Tilahun, nd: PP2.6).Overall, the most common reason for breeders selling an animal was to engage in animal trading (34% of 67 803 responses). This was followed by the need to acquire money to purchase clothing (26%) or food grain (17%). Payment of taxes, purchase of breeding stock and household items or other nonessential commodities were the other minor reasons for selling stock. At Hidi Lola and Mega the Borana suppliers of marketed livestock reported purchase of clothing (43%) and grain (15%) as the most important reasons for animal sales, out of 35 1 81 responses.Based on a sample of 25 31 2 head 60% traveled for less than one day to reach market (most of the immatures were in this category), 1 1 % traveled one day and the rest took from 1 .5 to 4 days (nearly all matures). ln an extreme case for Agere Mariam (to the north of the rangelands), 60% of mature cattle had to travel four days or more to reach market.The Boran were the leading ethnic group buying all types of livestock (21% of a sample of 98 213 purchases) followed closely by the Amhara (17%). Thirty-eight per cent of all purchased stock were bought by traders, followed by breeders seeking replacements (1 9%) with the remainder by butchers and others (Negussie Tilahun, nd: pp 6-7). Breeders and traders were the most prevalent at primary collection markets while traders and urban con-sumers were more prevalent at secondary markets. Traders bought the highest proportions of animals in the primary markets of Yabelo (40% of 5112 observed), Negele (40% of 6993 observed), Mega (64% of 6680 observed) and Teltele (37% of 2330 observed). Breeders bought a high percentage of the animals in the primary markets at Hidi Lola (45% of 6225 observed), Teltele (28% of 1794 observed) and Moyale (23% of 1710 observed).Purchases for butchering were the most common at secondary markets such as Agere Mariam (50% of 12045 observed), Moyale (15% of 1109 observed) and Negele (14% of 2502 observed). Most of the animals bought by butchers in Agere Mariam were slaughtered in Dilla, a large urban centre 200 km further north (Negussie Tilahun, nd: p 15). About 5% (5000) of all marketed animals (namely cattle) made it to a terminal market in Addis Ababa for slaughter (Negussie Tilahun, nd: pp 10, 15). ln summary, for animals headed northwards, markets such as Yabelo, Mega and Hidi Lola serve as collection centres from smaller local markets in the interior of the southern rangelands.These intermediate markets then channel animals to secondary markets such as Agere Mariam (Negussie Tilahun, nd: p 18).Cattle purchases (69% of all animal purchases or 67 767 observations) were dominated by mature males over four years of age (52% or 35 238) bought primarily for trading (54% of transactions). They were followed by mature females (39% or 2678) which were usually cull cows procured for slaughter. lmmature males came next (8% or 5431) with immature females the most rare (1% or 680). lmmature cattle were usually purchased by breeders for herd building or to bring up for resale (91% or 5561).Goats comprised 25% of total animal sales (24 553 observed), sheep 5% (4910 observed) and camels negligible at less than 1% (558 observed). Mature male goats were purchased for trading while others were for breeding and growing out. Mature male sheep were mainly purchased for direct consumption while other sheep were bought for breeding and growing out. The small number of camel transactions were not analysed. More details are available in Negussie Tilahun (nd) and Dyce (1987).Summary of the relative contribution of each livestock species to the seven markets with about 23 months of data collection is provided in Detailed analyses of animal trade only used data from the six markets at Negele, Moyale, Mega, Hidi Lola, Agere Mariam and Yabelo (Dyce, 1987: p 41). Time series of livestock supply at these markets are shown in Figure 4.2 a-c. Although cattle were usually supplied in the greatest numbers, they showed the most fluctuation. Maximum monthly variation in throughput calculated across the six markets indicated that cattle numbers fluctuated almost eightfold, followed distantly by sheep (tenfold) and goats or camels (sixfold). The average monthly supply was 4076 head and coefficients of variation varied nearly 1 3 percentage points (Table 4.2).Except for Hidi Lola where immatures commonly comprised up to 50% of the monthly cattle market supply, immatures usually made up a small proportion of the cattle, although patterns were variable (Dyce, 1987: pp 50-53). Moyale con sistently received the lowest proportion of immature cattle of all markets (<1%). The supply of immature cattle to Negele was also consistent and low (5 to 1 0%) while that for Mega was low and more variable (usually less than 5%, but sometimes 20 to 40%). The number of immature male cattle was always greater than that of immature females. The overall ratio of male to female immatures was 7.6:1 (Dyce, 1987: p 54). ln contrast, while males usually outnumbered females in the market supply of immature small ruminants, the ratios of males to females were typically 1 .3:1 (goats) and 3:1 (sheep) (Dyce, 1987: p 71).The average price for mature cattle was calculated for Moyale, Hidi Lola, Mega, Yabelo and Agere Mariam where suitable data were obtained from August 1981 to April 1983. Twenty-five correlations (N = 21 each) were conducted to test for intermarket price relationships (Dyce, 1 987: pp 56-57). The highest correlation coefficient was r=0.5 (for Mega and Hidi Lola), which was significant (P<0.05) (Steel and Torrie, 1980: p 597).  The types of traders operating in the southern rangelands are reviewed by Negussie Tilahun (nd: pp 28-34). He distinguished between part-time and full-time (i.e. small, medium and large-scale) traders. The scale of trading was associated with the time invested, amount of working capital and the number of buying agents employed. lnvestment was increased to enable operation in remote primary or secondary markets. A mediumscale trader in a secondary market like Agere Mariam is one that can deliver from 30 to 50 head of cattle at one time. The large-scale traders may also operate butcher shops and may also lend operating funds to medium and small-scale traders. Traders may sell inventories on credit depending on the uncertainties of the market and scarcity of forage or water along trekking routes or at holding grounds. More details on traders are provided in Negussie Tilahun (nd: pp 28-34).Negussie Tilahun (nd: pp 72-79) gives average monthly price estimates for various age and sex classes of livestock purchased at seven markets from March 1981 to January 1984. lmmature males and females were sold for an average of EB 1 06 and 129, respectively; mature males and females sold for an average of EB 251 and 205, respectively. These price patterns were related to the higher value of immature females than males and the greater demand for mature males (as slaughter stock) than cull cows (Negussie Tilahun, nd: pp 49-50). Average prices for sheep or goats ranged from about EB 12 for immatures to EB 32 for matures. Camel prices ranged from EB 198 to 412 for immature males and mature females, respectively. There appeared to be a gradual increase in the price/head of all livestock (EB 7.30), cattle (EB 6.44) and small ruminants (EB 0.43) during the study period. This was interpreted as resulting from an increased demand due to favourable rainfall and production conditions Seasonality in cattle prices, given a general upward trend across years, are also described in Negussie Tilahun (nd: pp 46-47) and they showed a rise at the beginning of the long rains (April) until the middle of the cool dry season (June or July) followed by a variable decline from July until the middle of the warm dry season (February). This was interpreted as a tendency for demand for cattle to rise during favourable rainfall periods and decline during dry periods. Deviations from this general pattern could be related to variation in rainfall during the long and short rains. Different patterns among some markets are discussed by Negussie Tilahun (nd: pp 47^8).Marketing attitude study results are detailed in Coppock (1992b). Only highlights will be presented here with conclusions based on a sample of Borana leaders who were independently interviewed. Cattle production objectives: The prevailing view of respondents was that Borana herd owners seek to accumulate cattle as social and economic assets rather than to generate cash income. They realise, however, that herd building is becoming increasingly difficult under today's conditions of higher population and restricted resources in the southern rangelands, while increasing food deficits force them to dispose more of their herd to buy food (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Despite this situation, increasing herd size is still seen by most herd owners as the main means available to generate wealth and attain prestige. Afar less important reason is to have large numbers of animals to endure drought; respondents stated that a household doesn't actually need many animals to purchase grain to last it through a two-year drought (see Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact) so that the primary reason for selling an animal is to meet an acute need of money in general. This usually arises when milk production drops and food is needed, and is why herd owners always wait until a dry period to sell animals even though they realise terms of trade are less favourable than compared to other times of the year (see Section 6.4.3: Decline in terms of trade). Their attitude may be best described as \"optimistic gambling\": hope that the unfavourable weather or economic straits will break before they have to sell an animal (Coppock, 1992b). Households will thus undergo great deprivation before they succumb to selling cattle (see Section 6.3.2.2: Human welfare) Priority ranking of animals for sale: A compiled ranking by 30 herd owners was as follows: (a) As long as cash demands are modest (less than US$ 40), the top priority is to sell a sheep or goat. These species are valued because they can substitute for sales of cattle and there are fewer social regulations that constrain their sale; (b) when cash demands are higher then cattle can be sold. The sale of cattle usually requires deliberations within the extended family before it can proceed. Priority sale cattle were as follows (from highest to lowest): (i) cull cows (1 0+ years old); (ii) mature males in descending order of age (from 10 to 5 years old); (iii) immature males (1 to 4 years old); (iv) male calves (<1 year old); (v) female calves (<1 year old); (vi) immature females (1 to 4 years old); (vii) heifers (4 to 5 years old); and (viii) prime cows (5 to 9 years old). Wealthy herd owners would have all these classes of cattle at their disposal. The poor, however, may only have a few cows and immatures (see Section 5.3.3: Cattle production and pastoral wealth). Animals are thus reportedly sold in reverse order of their importance to herd generating capacity. Larger males tend to be sold as a priority because the price received is the highest and permits the purchase of the needed goods plus one or more replacement calves thereby attaining two objectives simultaneously. The poor, in contrast, may often be forced to selling immatures to buy commodities only. Perceptions ofperverse supply: lf cattle prices were to double and the prices of goods were to remain constant, the 30 leaders concurred that the net result over time would be for marketed throughput of cattle to decrease. They felt that this was largely because poor and intermediate households seek to build their herds and would sell cattle only to meet their acute needs for money. The wealthy, however, may move more animals to market initially in the hope that they could buy up more immatures per adult animal sold and build their herds. For small ruminants in contrast, all respondents said that under the same scenario the net result would be a higher marketed throughput. The Boran would move these animals to market because they are riskier to produce (because of disease sus ceptibility), lack the social and economic utility of cattle in the culture and do not require family negotiations to approve a sale. Despite the view that market throughput would decline over the long term, this does not imply that producers do not seek higher prices; they do, to reduce the numbers they have to sell. That is reportedly why a thriving black market exists for Ethiopian cattle in northern Kenya (FLDP, nd; Hodgson, 1990). The herd owners noted, however, that should Ethiopian prices become similar to those offered from Kenya, they would prefer to sell to Ethiopian buyers because of lower marketing risks. Ethiopian prices have been held to below-market levels in the past (FLDP, nd; Hodgson, 1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Animal condition and sale: The herd owners all appreciated that better conditioned animals bring higher prices. Most agreed that they would sell a bull in an excellent condition in a dry season to obtain more money; this would reduce the chance of having to sell more. Herd owners attempt to fatten bulls in an opportunistic fashion depending on rainfall. Calves and other immatures are not fattened for marketing as everyone wants to avoid their sale. Social and economic change: Despite the traditional \"barriers\" to commercialisation reported above, the 30 leaders unanimously attested to the effects of markets and a changing generation in altering traditional attitudes. They felt that younger herd owners within a day's walk to a market did not \"behave\" like Boran anymore: they use money more freely, are more aware of prices and tend to be more active livestock traders.Aspects of traditional milk processing by the Boran are reviewed in Ephraim Bekele and Tarik Kassaye (1987), Coppock et al (1992) and Coppock et al (in press). Results of studies of peri-urban dairy marketing on the Borana Plateau are reviewed in Holden (1988), lLCA(1990: pp 12-14), Coppock et al (in press), and Holden and Coppock (1992). Some of the main findings are summarised here.The Borana system for milk processing was first described by Ephraim Bekele and Tarik Kassaye (1987). Cows are the main source of milk and it is cow's milk that is the focus of processing. Milk from other livestock species plays little or no role in processing here. Milk from small ruminants or camels may occasionally be added to top-up a larger volume of cow's milk when it is to be sold or consumed (S. J. Holden, lLCA, personal com munication) and thus some of this milk probably gets processed. Although camels produce large quantities of milk, this is considered unsuitable for making butter (see Section 7.3.3.3: Dairy processing and marketing).The Boran use four types of milk containers that are illustrated in Ephraim Bekele and Tarik Kassaye (1987). These include the okole, gorfa, golondiand amuyou and are described as follows:The okole is used for collecting milk. These are traditionally made from the skin of buffalo, giraffe or the neck hide of oxen. They are sturdy and stout \"buckets\", roughly cylindrical, around two litres capacity, and have a large mouth and finger holes at one of two pinched corners surrounding the mouth. Okoles serve \"double duty\" as they are also commonly used for lifting water from the deep wells. Before being used, Okole are rinsed with milk and smoked with wood chips from Balanites aegyptica. This likely has a sterilisation effect and coats the inside of the okole with a charcoal sealant, which also flavours the milk.The gorfa is a pear-shaped, lidded container woven from root fibres of Asparagus sp. Gorfa also have an average capacity of about two litres and are used for storing (souring) and churning milk (Figure 4.3). They are smoked using a variety of charcoals (from Acacia nilotica, Cordia gharaf, Cordia ovalis, and Combretum molle). This also probably serves to sterilise and seal the container and burns off loose fibres on the inside to create a smooth surface. Smoking and rinsing the gorfa with milk occurs just prior to adding fresh milk that is to be stored for several days. The process of smoking and rinsing is repeated prior to pouring the next batch of fresh milk. The golondi is a vase-shaped vessel made by carving trunk sections of Erythrina abyssinica. lt has a lid and is enclosed in fresh animal skin. lt can also be smoked and rinsed prior to receiving up to five litres of fresh milk. These are primarily carried by herders to provide milk during their time away from the encampment.The amuyou is a larger bottle-shaped vessel with a lid that is used for souring and churning milk, and it is also carved from E. abyssinica. These hold up to 15 litres of milk and are found most often in households that have a large number of milk cows.Milk is consumed fresh in the household daily. Surplus milk may be given to relatives and neighbours or be stored as the first step in processing (Ephraim Bekele and Tarik Kassaye, 1987). Soured milk is referred to as ititu in the Borana vernacular and refers to all milk that is soured. lnformation on the microbiological and bio chemical aspects of the souring process is available (Tarik Kassaye, 1990). General observations of milk processing reported by Ephraim Bekele and Tarik Kassaye (1987) suggest that the pastoralists are very skilled in milk processing and able to manipu late efficiently a variety of subtle factors despite their lack of sophisticated technology.After a minimum of one day of fermentation, milk is churned to make butter. Milk is usually churned in the morning during warm weather, as the Boran appreciate the role of cooler temperatures in butter production. The gorfa is filled to 50-70% capacity with fermented milk and is cradled by a woman who gently rocks it back and forth. Pressure in the gorfa is occasionally released by removing a small wooden plug in the centre of the lid. This also releases a small drop of milk, which when rubbed between the fingers indicates whether butter grains have formed. The presence of butter is also indicated by a change in the pitch of the churning sound. Churning takes less than one hour (also see Section 7.3.3.3: Dairy processing and marketing). Butter is removed from the gorfa using a wooden spoon. The butter is used as a cosmetic for the skin and hair of both sexes, for roasting coffee beans, as food, or sold. The low-fat buttermilk that remains may be consumed by children or adults, used for rinsing milk containers, or given to animals. A small quantity of buttermilk that remains in the gorfa acts as a \"starter\" for the next batch of soured milk. The process is repeated about every 15 days, during which time four to five batches of butter prepared. After this the gorfa is washed with hot water, dried and smoked before being used for another cycle.Butter may also be melted in a clay saucepan over fire, with fresh leaves and stems of Ocimum basilicum added for flavour, to make a dehydrated butter (ghee). The moisture is driven off and before the liquid clarifies a handful of maize, sorghum or other cereal flour is added along with some clean fresh grass and a pinch of salt. The mixture is then poured into a cattle horn or a small wooden container with a tight lid. This product is reported to keep up to three years. The long shelf life may be due to the hygienic handling of the milk, absence of moisture and/or the addition of salt (Ephraim Bekele and Tarik Kassaye, 1 987). Ghee can be used in the dry season to prepare porridge or is consumed alone or as a supplement to coffee or tea.For milk fermented from 5 to 60 days, surplus fresh milk is added to a designated gorfa or amuyou each day. As the curd coagulates, serum is removed by women using a wooden pipette (Ephraim Bekele and Tarik Kassaye, 1987). The serum is drunk. This process is repeated until the container is full of curds and all of the serum has been removed. The curds are then occasionally checked for mould. When mould forms the surface of the curd is removed and the lid is washed with hot water and cleaned with the leaves and stems of O. basilicum. When the lid is replaced some smoke from a charred piece of wood is captured in the container; this is repeated once in a while to help keep the surface of the curds free from undesirable microbes. Before con sumption, the curd must be stirred to liquify it.Milk allocation patterns were analysed for eight households over two years (1987-88) of average rainfall. Details of this study are reported in Coppock et al (1992) and Coppock et al (in press). The average milk offtake in litre/AAME/week ranged from 5.5 in the warm dry seasons to 1 1 .5 during the long rains (Figure 4.4). Over eight consecutive seasons the average offtake was 7.3 litres/AAME/ week. Sixty-nine per cent of total offtake was variously used as fresh milk, 24% stored and soured to make butter, 6% used otherwise as short-term soured milk and 1% was used as long-term soured milk (>5 days of fermentation). Seasonal means indicated that the amount of milk allocated for fermentation and processing (y) was positively related to milk offtake and thus to potential surplus (x) by the equation: y=0.484(x)+1.152 (r2 =0.91; P<0.01; o7=6). Seasonal patterns suggested that when there was surplus milk, butter making took precedence over other uses of short-term fermented milk, which in turn took priority over the production of long-term fermented milk (Coppock et al, in press).The long rains and warm dry periods of 1987 provided the best contrast of seasonal quantities and uses of milk products (Table 4.3). Daily milk offtake ranged from 14.7 litres/AAME/week in the long rains to 7.5 litres/AAME/week during the preceding warm dry season. Although absolute quantities of products varied by season, the relative allocation tended to be consistent for a given product across seasons. Fresh milk was usually consumed and sold/gifted; long-term fermented milk was consumed; short-term fermented milk was mostly processed to make butter; and buttermilk was consumed by children in both seasons but also given to calves during the long rains. RespondentsThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia also indicated that in times of plenty, buttermilk may be given to dogs and cats. Butter allocation was poorly documented in the study, but interviews confirmed that butter is used as a hair dressing and skin cosmetic by both sexes, for roasting coffee beans, direct consumption or sale (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data).The 108 sample families surveyed in Holden (1988) and Holden and Coppock (1992) averaged 3.6 AAME/family and the mean annual ratio (x ± SE) of LLU:AAME ranged from 2 ± 0.1 (wealthy) to 1.1 ± 0.1 (intermediate) and 0.5 ± 0.1 (poor) overall, with the ratio increasing during the wet and transition periods compared to dry periods. Over 90% of LLUs were cows.The ANOVAfor daily dairy sales/AAME revealed a significant (P=0.002) three-way interaction with no influence of market site. The interaction is shown in Figure 4.5 (a-c) and was caused by differences in supply by the different wealth classes in connection with interrelated effects of season on milk production and distance on marketing behaviour. Averaged across all distances to market, wealthy households sold six times more products than poor households in the wet season (0.56 vs 0.09 litre/ AAME/day), but this difference increased another eightfold in the dry season. When distance to market was reduced from 21 to 30 km to <10 km, the dryseason effect ranged from nil within poor house holds to plus fourfold and 1 8-fold within middle-class or wealthy households, respectively.Calculated across seasons and distances, wealthy families marketed about two to seven times more dairy products (0.26 litre/AAME/day) than the middle-class (0.14 litre/AAME/day) or poor (0.04 litre/AAME/day) ones, respectively. Across all wealth classes and distances, sales in wet periods (x=0.28 litre/AAME/day) were over two to five times greater than those of transition (x=0.12) or dry  Source: Coppock and Holden (1992).(x=0.05 litre/AAME/day) seasons, respectively. Dairy sales within a market radius of 10 km averaged 0.32 litre/AAME/day overall, which was over 3 to 1 6 times greater than that for the distance class of 11 to 20 km (x=0.10 litre/AAME/day) or 21 to 30 km (x=0.02 litre/AAME/day). These main effects were highly significant (P<0.001) and are reported in detail in Holden and Coppock (1992). Linear correlations revealed several important features of marketing behaviour (Holden and Coppock,1 992). Considered across all households, total annual quantity of dairy products sold was positively correlated with total annual frequency of sales (r2 =0.90; P<0.0001 ; /v=95). The total annual frequency of dairy sales was negatively correlated with distance from market (r2 =-0.60; P<0.0001; /v=95). On an annual basis, households within 10 km of market sold dairy products twice/week on average, whereas those beyond 20 km only sold once/month. The quantity of products sold ap peared to remain constant across distance overall, but as families became wealthier they tended to sell more/market trip (r2 =0.60; P=0.0001; /v=95; Holden and Coppock, 1992).Dairy income as a per cent of annual income was highly variable. Total average income reportedly ranged from EB 93 445 and 784 for poor (/v=37), intermediate (/v=39) and wealthy families (/v=19), respectively. Distribution of results for poor and middle-class households was sharply divided into those who derived a minor (<10%) or major (>80%) proportion of their income from dairy marketing. The 120 The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Borana household economy ANOVA revealed only a significant (P=0.002) main effect of distance on dairy income as a per cent of total income; the proportion increased from 1 0% (21 to 30 km) to 17% (11 to 20 km) and 30% (<10 km) across all wealth classes throughout the year. Although not significantly different (P>0.05), calculations were interpreted to suggest that the different wealth classes derived varied proportions of their annual income from dairy sales. The poor derived 24% over all seasons while the wealthy and middle class derived 1 6% and 1 7%, respectively.The contribution of dairy sales to seasonal cash income showed a significant (P=0.007) interaction of wealth and season that occurred only because the poor and middle class appeared to rely more on dairy sales throughout the year compared to the wealthy. The poor derived 58, 56 and 24% of their income from dairy sales in the wet, transition and dry seasons, respectively. For the same sequence the middle class derived 67, 21 and 12%, while the wealthy derived 38, 24 and 11%. Across all households dairy sales contributed 57, 35 and 16% to total income in the wet, transition and dry seasons, respectively (Holden and Coppock, 1992).lncome from dairy sales belonged to the women and appeared to be their only regular source of money (Holden and Coppock, 1 992). All women, but especially the poor, used some of this money to buy grain. Overall, purchase of grain tended to increase in the dry season relative to other times of the year. Purchase of non-food items was more common among the wealthy or middle-class women than the poor ones as higher milk supply allowed the former more discretionary use of dairy income (Holden and Coppock, 1992).Wealth and distance to market also influenced the types of dairy products sold (Coppock et al, in press). To illustrate the overall pattern using some extreme examples, poorer households closer to market tended to sell relatively more fresh milk while wealthier households far from market tended to sell relatively more butter. This is because of product shelf life and household surplus. Families tend to sell more butter if they live over 20 km from market because it doesn't spoil during the two-hour walk to town. So butter has a low marketing risk and is easy to sell at a good price. This is not the case with fresh milk. Because butter-making requires the ac cumulation and storage of about two litres of soured milk for up to five days, the production and sale of butter is done more by wealthy and middle-class families who have daily surpluses. ln contrast, the poor may be forced to sell fresh milk because their milk supply can be insufficient for subsistence and must be traded for a greater supply of energy as grain. Holden et al (1 991 ) noted that about 3.5 kg of grain (52.5 MJ GE) can be purchased from the sale of 1 litre of milk equivalent (3.3 MJ GE) in the dry season. Poor families close to town can sell fresh milk every day if necessary; this may be an important reason for the poor to reside closer to market centres (Coppock et al, in press). 4.3.5.4 Dairy marketing, human welfare and calf managementThe implications of dairy marketing for the welfare of humans and calves were illustrated by Holden et al (1991). The main points are summarised here.Across all families the average rate (x± SE) of milk offtake/cow was 4 litre2.5% (A/=45) with 5.2 cows documented for each household. Significant (P< 0.02) main effects on milk offtake rate were revealed for wealth class (N=15 each), cow class (N=77 each) and distance to market (N=1 5 each). The poor took a higher rate (53%) than the middle class (36%) or wealthy (34%). The best-producing cows had higher rates of offtake (54%) than average cows (49%), which in turn had higher rates than cows that were poor producers (20%). Across all wealth strata and cow classes, offtake rates were highest within 5 km of market (44%) compared to within 6 to 1 0 km (40%) or 11 to 15 km (37%). There were no significant effects of any factors on rates of calf mortality (P>0.56) with annual mortality averaging 18%. ln contrast, there were significant (P<0.05) main effects of wealth and distance to market on calf morbidity rates which were based on an average of 1 7 calves/family over three years for a total of 750 observations. Morbidity rates were higher in: (1) wealthy (28%) and poor (25%) households than the middle class ones (1 6%) and ( 2) households <10 km from market (24% morbidity) versus those between 1 1 to 1 5 km (1 7%).The three-way interaction of wealth x cow class x distance was significant (P=0.01 ) which indicated that the incidence of morbidity increased among calves of lower-producing cows held by poorer households as distance to market decreased to less than 10 km (Figure 4.6). Overall morbidity rates averaged 23%.The reported daily intakes of dairy products by women or young children were not significantly affected by distance to market (P >0.05), but they were affected by wealth class (P < 0.03). With each increase in wealth level (N=~\\8 each) intake of dairy products rose 1 20% for women and 45% for children but only wealthy families were significantly different (P< 0.05) from the others (Holden et al, 1991). ln contrast, grain intake for women was significantly affected (P = 0.001) by distance toThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Distance to market (km)Source: Holden et al (1991).market, as women residing within 5 km of town reportedly consumed about 50% more grain than those living further away. lntake of grain energy as a proportion of total energy intake showed no significant effects among children (x=1 6%; P> 0.56) and only the main effect of wealth was significant among the women (P=0.035). Poor, middle-class and wealthy women got 97, 92 and 87% of their energy intake as grain, respectively, and only the poor and wealthy differed significantly (P=0.01).The general pattern of cultivation by pastoralists on the Borana Plateau suggests a relatively recent increase in cropping activities. Apparently the pastoralists learn rapidly what crops are more appropriate for long or short rainy seasons, and adopt new methods such as animal traction (Hodgson, 1990). EWWCA (1987) conducted some preliminary surveys with lLCA and CARE-Ethiopia concerning farming practices around the towns of Yabelo and Mega in the upper semi-arid and subhumid zones (see Section 3.3.1: Ecological map and land use). Towns such as these provide the focal point for the introduction of cultivation into the rangelands. From a sample of 38 peri-urban farmers, 21 were Boran, 10 Burji and the rest Amhara, Somali, Konso and Oromo. The mean duration of their farming activity was 32 years. They all worked plots about one hectare in size and held an average of six cattle and four small ruminants. Six of these farmers relied on handtools for land preparation while the rest used draft oxen for ploughing. Preferred crops were maize, teff (Eragrostis tef) and wheat.ln their field survey of 60 olla in four madda during November 1985, Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo (1 985) found 49 olla had some area under cultivation. Maize, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), haricot bean, sorghum and teff were commonly observed. lnformants reported that cultivation had been going on for two years. Seed was purchased from markets and ground preparation was done with sticks and hoes. Crops were frequently seen on heavily manured corrals that were recently made available because of dispersal and the high mortality of cattle during the 1983-84 drought (see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition). Despite the unanimous appreciation of the beneficial effects of fertilisation on crop yields, none of the respondents took the trouble to use manure on their fields even though every encampment had tonnes of manure piled next to corrals from years of corral cleaning. Regional variation in cultivation was indicated because nearly all of the encampments in Did Hara, Web and Melbana were farming, but only 7 of 15 were doing so in drier Medecho. Out of the 49 encampments farming, 10 reported feeding crop residues to calves. Holden and Coppock (1992) reported from their survey of peri-urban dairy marketing that 33% of 1 08 households were involved in grain cultivation in 1987. These were mainly middle-class and poor households.Other cropping surveys were conducted by CARE-Ethiopia and lLCA in Web, Medecho, Melbana and Did Hara madda during the long and short rains of 1986 (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data; R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, unpublished data). Questionnaires on farming practices were conducted on a larger sample of families while a subset of households were randomly selected to measure the size of their fields and estimate maize production using counts of cobs/stalk and stalk density.ln sum, the questionnaires during the long rainy season (N=50) indicated that most sites had been cultivated from one to four years. All family members participated in land clearing, seedbed preparation, weeding and harvest. Men commonly took the lead in these activities. Women constructed elevated storage bins for maize. Manual work was usually done with digging sticks and hoes (66% of respondents) with the remainder using oxen or camels for ploughing. Harnesses were locally designed. Eight olla in four madda were selected for detailed analysis. ln these, 35 of 77 families were farming. Plot size averaged 0.42 ha and over 95% of the area under cultivation was planted with maize, 122The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia with traces of cowpea, haricot bean, sorghum and teff. Seed was procured from markets, neighbours and Pastoral Associations (PAs; see Section 1 .4.3:The SERP and the Pilot Project). Crop residues were fed to young calves. Like in the 1985 survey, crops were planted in abandoned corrals when possible, but no effort was made to add manure to fields. Crude estimates of maize density and cobs/stalk suggested that grain production was low and on the order of 1 1 00 kg/ha on an air-dried basis (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). Surveys in the same eight olla during the short rains of 1 986 indicated that 53 of 60 families were farming and the average plot size was about 0.15 ha. Crop composition of cultivated area shifted to 82% cowpea, 15% maize, and 3% other minor crops. lncreases in the proportion of legume was apparently due to the perception that probability of a successful harvest being greater for these species during the less predictable short rains (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Crop yields were not measured.ln the upper semi-arid zone near Beke Pond, Coppock (1988: pp 19-20) found that 17 out of 24 Gabra and 19 of 23 Borana households were farming and these represented all wealth strata. Fourteen of the Borana households reported that they had farmed for an average of 10 years (range: 1 to 27 years). They started either out of the necessity for food (8 of 1 3) or by seeing others (5 of 13). Fifteen Gabra households reported that they had farmed for an average of five years (range: 1 to 7 years). Six reported that they started to farm because of famine and nine because they had learned it from the Pastoral Association. Three of 1 8 Gabra families said that they hoped to stop farming when their herds build to a satisfactory level. The rest of the Gabra and all of the Borana respondents (20) indicated they would continue to farm regardless of the status of their livestock holdings. On a regional scale, there is evidence that the area under cultivation had increased during the 1 980s, it being speculated that this is directly related to impacts of the 1983-84 drought (see Section 3.3.1: Ecological map and land use). Citing aerial survey data collected from the 15 475-km2 study area, Cossins and Upton (1988b: pp 272-273) noted that cultivated area increased fivefold (from 44 to 220 km2, or from 0.3 to 1 .4% of the total land area) between pre-drought 1 982 and post-drought 1986. Seventy per cent of the total 220 km2 under cultivation in 1 986 was associated with towns and villages, while the remainder consisted of about 5300 plots scattered throughout the rangelands at an average of 3.2 plots/km2 (Assefa Eshete et al, 1987: pp 12-13)  plus other useful animal products such as hides (EB 50) for a grand total of EB 1994. Roughly 40% of gross revenue is derived from milk and the remainder from live animals or meat. lt is likely that less than 1 % of animal outputs are used as crop inputs. For example, there is apparently no effort made to manually apply the large quantities of manure that have accumulated at encampments, which is a common practice with other low-input extensive farming systems (Massey, 1987: p 93). The main interactions between crops and livestock in Borana occur when oxen or camels are sometimes used to plough fields (direct linkage), when crop residues are fed to calves in dry seasons (direct linkage) and when small amounts of cash from sales of livestock products are used to purchase seeds (indirect linkage).ln sum, this is all interpreted to show that the vast majority of the Boran still operate a largely pastoral, rather than agropastoral economy (considering the criteria of Mclntire and Gryseels, 1 987; R. T Wilson, lLCA, unpublished data). Nearly all of their food and income is ultimately derived from livestock. Cash remittances from relatives outside the system were virtually nonexistent in average rainfall years during the early 1980s (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 212). The preliminary findings of AGROTEC/CRG/ SEDES Associates (1974f: pp 70-74) are similar to many reported here with other details provided. However, it is interesting to note that the mean cash income of Borana households in 1972 (EB 86) reported by AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974f: p 67) is only 14% of the mean of (EB 623) for 1983. Assuming the data are accurate, this may reflect changes in the prices of commodities as well as a previously lower need for market involvement (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). To this day the majority of Boran have apparently little need or opportunity for integratingThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia 123 livestock and crops. Such integration is commonly considered to be slow and uncertain under semi-arid conditions (Mclntire and Gryseels, 1 987: p 239). Possible development opportunities to facilitate future crop/livestock integration in Borana are presented in Chapter 7: Developmentintervention concepts.There are conflicting reports as to whether cultivation has been an important aspect of the Borana economy traditionally. On one hand, Asmarom Legesse (1973) reported that the Boran during the early 1960s had only negative feeling towards farmers and farming and this implied that the Boran would never engage in cultivation unless faced with no other alternative. ln contrast, Negussie Tilahun (1984: p 6) noted that cultivation has occurred in the Borana Plateau for over 40 years and that farmed acreage expanded after a drought in the mid-1970s.The widespread potential of cultivation in the Borana Plateau was first reported by AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates (1974e: pp 24, 27) where it was stated that \"one third of the breeders practice cultivation, but only on a very small scale.\" lt is likely, however, that this estimate was biased on the high side since their surveys focused on households residing near roads and towns. Even today these areas remain the dominant centres for cultivation due to favourable local environments and proximity to influences of migrant highland farmers (Hodgson, 1990;Assefa Eshete et al, 1987). A drought in the early 1 970s was cited as a factor in the spread of farming on the Borana Plateau (AGROTEC/CRG/ SEDES Associates, 1974e).Assefa Eshete et al (1 987: p 1 2) noted that it may be possible to cultivate about 30% (4600 km2) of the study area with 21% of this taking place in valleys and the remainder above 1650 m elevation. Given this figure of 4600 km2 as the maximum possible to cultivate, about 5% of this total may have been cultivated during 1986. Assuming estimates of Cossins and Upton (1988b: pp 272-273) to be correct, the increase of 176 km2 in cropped area during the mid-1980s was actually achieved in only two years after the 1 983-84 drought. lf it is assumed that another 90 km2 could be brought under cultivation each year, it would still take about 48 years to use all the arable land. This is, of course, highly speculative and would vary depending on population growth (in towns as well as the rangelands), cultural commitment and the economic need to farm, uptake of animal traction which could double the rate of cropland expansion (Pingali, 1987: p 11), land use and agricultural policies, the creation of other nonagrarian economic options for people and long-term rainfall patterns. lt is also assumed in this scenario that all arable land is accessible for cultivation, which is not likely to be the case. Since crops need supervision to reduce losses from wildlife and thievery and encampments must be located within 16 km of the deep wells (Cossins and Upton, 1 987: p 203), arable sites outside such radii would probably not be used. While the long-term trend in the rangelands may be towards increases in cultivated area, over the short-term farming intensity would probably ebb and flow, largely depending on rainfall.ln more mesic situations where cropping carries less risk, pockets of agropastoralism have developed and will continue to expand. An example of such an area may be Dadim (10 km north of Yabelo), where a settled community of negligible numbers in 1973 had grown to over 4000 persons by 1990 (l. De Lange, Dadim Mission, personal communication). Local informants have speculated that poor pastoralists make up the majority of the new farmers that populate such villages on the edge of the rangelands today (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).Drought has been found to elicit at least a temporary reliance on cultivation by pastoralists until livestock productivity and numbers recover (Hogg, 1980;Toulmin, 1986: p 2;Moris, 1988: p 276). However, whether or not farming persists and is intensified may depend to a large degree on population pressure (Boserup, 1965: pp 63-64). Under recent conditions of restricted resources farming can persist in a pastoral society because a mixed system has greater proven flexibility and resilience (Campbell, 1984: p 55;Massey, 1987: p 83;Johnson et al, 1989). Droughts todate in the Borana system usually kill far more livestock than people (see Chapter 6: Effects of drought and traditional tactics for drought mitigation) and thus should accelerate a decline in pastoral production and welfare in the face of increasing population density. Opportunistic cultivation is one of the few alternatives that pastoralists have to partially compensate for such a long-term trend (Evangelou, 1984: p 258). lt may be illustrative that there were 3.2 TLU/person and 10 people/km2 in semi-arid Maasailand during 1980, a time when cultivation was considered to be a growing and permanent feature in the economic diversification of that society (Evangelou, 1984: pp 17-38).Estimates for the entire 95 000-km2 SORDU project area showed 4. indicates that local densities of livestock and people are considerably higher than the overall mean. lf about 50% of the potential grazing area is actually used in the dry season (Milligan, 1983: p 28), then population pressure could be more on the order of 1 5 persons/km2. ln other words, preconditions for a general shift to agropastoralism do in fact exist on the Borana Plateau today. Drought can permanently turn poor pastoralists into farmers by the unfortunate depletion of their smaller herds; and can at least turn wealthier pastoralists into temporary or part-time farmers by reducing milk production and killing milk cows and their replacements. ln such cases households would be forced to cultivate for a few years until herds recover their milk-production potential. This is the hypothesis behind the observation that several pastoral groups have abandoned cultivation a few years after a drought has ended (Hogg, 1980: Toulmin, 1986). lt is believed that while cultivation used to be a sporadic response to drought for the Boran, it will now persist, even in average rainfall years. The agropastoral Gujji represent a neighbouring group that were once pure pastoralists (Asmarom Legesse, 1973).Borana men are the heads of households and make the major decisions regarding production strategies and disposal of ruminant and equine livestock. Most of the money from the sale of these livestock apparently goes to men. lnheritance of livestock follows along male lines of descent also (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). Women, on the other hand, make the day-to-day decisions regarding milk offtake, management of calves, goat kids and lambs, and derive their cash income from sales of dairy products and possibily poultry (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Socio-economic patterns reported elsewhere in Africa support this generally inferior economic status of pastoral and agropastoral women but it has also been noted that these women may have more subtle rights and claims to livestock than is immediately apparent (Broch-Due et al, 1981;Wienpahl, 1984;Massey, 1987: pp 111, 171). This has not been studied in detail among the Boran to verify, so general conclusions need to be qualified. The picture is complicated by the fact that a significant proportion (perhaps 20%) of household heads among the Boran are now women. Many of the female household heads in the survey of Holden (1988) were in the poorest wealth class (S. J. Holden, lLCA, personal communication). lt is reasonable to specu late that the incidence of female household heads may increase in peri-urban settings as a reflection of their frequent poverty status and thus their need to sell milk to purchase grain (Holden et al, 1991).Some useful contrasts can be made between the Borana system and the Maasai System in Kenya because they are both in semi-arid environments, with the Maasai being considered further along a continuum of pastoral change (Evangelou, 1984: Solomon Bekure et al, 1991). lncome wise the Borana cash budget is based on a 40:60 split between milk and meat, respectively, similar to the 46:54 split for Maasai families on group ranches (Evangelou, 1984: p 187). Compared to the Maasai system, however, the relative contribution of small ruminants to the household economy among the Boran seems very small (Evangelou, 1984: p 105).The Maasai have a higher population density and as a result appear to be shifting to various forms of livestock diversification and agropastoralism (Campbell, 1984;Evangelou, 1984).Although livestock production forms the basis for the Borana economy, the opportunity to sell livestock and livestock products in order to purchase grain at favourable terms of trade is critical in providing the food that enables a higher density of people to live on the Borana Plateau. Over 35% of the annual energy requirements of households are met by purchasing nonpastoral foods (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 213). Similarly, Upton (1986a: pp 21-22) estimated from data in Milligan (1983) that the 1 4.3 LSU/km2 on the central plateau yield 1 1 1 54 MJ GE/year, which could support a human population density of 4.8/km2. This is only 68% of the measured density of 7/km2 in 1 983. Considering information in Milligan (1983) and Upton (1986a) and assuming an annual growth rate of 2.5% in the human population (see Section 2.4.3: Human population growth) the Boran may have numbered 4.8/km2 back in 1966. Assuming that livestock productivity and density have been similar over the years of average rainfall, this suggests that the population has become dependent on imported grain for about 24 years or one generation. Maize was reported in the Borana diet in 1972 (AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates, 1974f: p73). Other population perspectives related to dietary shifts are reviewed in Section 7.2.1: Empirical modeling.The combination of a higher density of people and increasing flows of grain at present means that dependence on grain will continue (and increase) as a permanent and growing feature of the Borana economy, depending on climate, population dynamics and related factors. Trade for grain has probably been going on in the area for centuries and may have fluctuated with the fortunes and size of the human population (Wilding, 1985a). ln one sense, while recent population growth may be viewed as a linear process, it is likely that there has been a high degree of flactuation historically as a result of climate changes, migration, warfare and disease (Wilding, 1985a; see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Various degrees of agropastoralism have probably come and gone over time. lt is unclear if the present density of people in the study area has ever been equalled in the past, or whether the current trajectory of the production system is indeed unique.Upton (1986a: pp 31-33) noted the key role of trade in providing subsistence as well as surplus in average rainfall years, and calculated that even if grain prices rose (or livestock prices fell) by up to 470%, trade would still be beneficial to the Boran. However, higher population densities of people become more vulnerable to less favourable terms of trade (Upton, 1986a: p 33). The subsidy effect of grain on pastoral population density has been noted elsewhere (Dahl and Hjort, 1976: p 155;Bates and Lees, 1977). Dahl and Hjort (1976: p 155-156) and Evangelou (1984: p 108) cited examples of a gradual increase in the proportion of agricultural produce in the Maasai diet over the past 40 years as one result of population pressure. ln a 1990 survey of Borana elders, it was found that they believed regular grain consumption to be a relatively new aspect of their society (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data).Offtake rates (largely sales to few slaughters) were estimated to be 1 9% for cattle on the Borana Plateau in a normal rainfall year (Donaldson, 1986: pp 13, 57;Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 211). Cattle offtake rates were apparently higher during the drought as markets were saturated, but no reliable regional figures were obtained (see Section 6.3.1 .1 : Livestock dispersal and herd composition). An offtake rate of 1 9% appears high in relation to some long-term estimates for other pastoral systems under conditions of average rainfall and traditional production objectives. Although the Borana system exhibits some symptoms of range degradation (see Section 3.3: Results) and the people are increasingly dependent on grain, during years of average rainfall grazing is still regarded as adequate (Cossins and Upton, 1987). Dahl and Hjort (1976: p 181) cited Morgan (1972) as saying that pastoral herds in overgrazed areas had higher offtake of 10-12% versus those in moderately grazed areas (4-9%). Dahl and Hjort (1976: p 181) noted that such a shift in offtake does not reflect \"progressiveness\", but rather a reaction to low per capita productivity in the traditional system. Evangelou (1984: p 109) quoted an average of 1 0% offtake for cattle by pastoralists versus 25% for commercial ranchers in Kenya. He also noted that cattle offtake for the Maasai system could vary from 10% (at times of post-drought herd building) to an average of 13 to 17% once recovery is well underway or complete. The higher rate (1 7%) is thus similar to estimates for Borana (19%) before the 1983-84 drought. During the 1973-74 drought in Maasailand cattle offtake rates jumped to 38% (Evangelou, 1984: p 109). Meadows and White (1979) saw this as an increased demand for cash that had to be met by the Maasai in order to buy nonpastoral food. Coppock (1992b) found that Borana elders expected livestock offtake to increase among them because of a growing need to buy grain and the changing attitudes among the younger generation towards buying consumer goods. Although sampling methods were unclear, the observation of AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES As sociates (1974f: p 67) that the annual marketed offtake of livestock averaged 5.2% on the Borana Plateau in 1972 lends some credence to the stipulation that offtake rates have gone up (see Section 7.2: A theory local system dynamics).Negussie Tilahun (1 984) found a high correlation between income and purchase of food and dry goods such as clothes. lncome was derived from the sale of cattle and this increased with higher absolute holdings of animals. ln one sense these findings are paradoxical: While it could be anticipated that increased wealth would result in a higher demand for some nonfood items, on the other hand wealthier families would be expected to have a higher ratio of milk cows per person and hence less of a need to purchase grain, regardless of season. Grandin and Solomon Bekure (1982) also noted that wealthier Maasai households sold a larger absolute number of animals, but that the rate of herd offtake was lower compared to poorer households. lt is possible that some of the grain obtained through cattle sales by the wealthy is for impoverished relatives or friends, as redistribution of food is reportedly common among the Boran (Cossins and Upton, 1987).Although the households studied by Negussie Tilahun (1984) on average showed a wide range of income and livestock holdings, compared to subsequent surveys (Donaldson, 1986;Holden, 1988) the sample appeared wealthier. Families were larger (over eight persons), several men had two wives and the ratio of 1 3.8 livestock unit/AAME is nearly three times the mean from more extensive work (Milligan, 1983). lt is common that initial household studies in a pastoral society may be associated with the wealthier or more influential persons (D. L. Coppock,lLCA,personal obser 126 The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Borana household economy vation), so that if more very poor families had been included in the survey, correlation relationships may have been stronger. Negussie Tilahun (1984) speculated that offtake rate could be stimulated if the flow of appropriate consumer goods was increased to the southern rangelands. This was mentioned previously as a constraint by AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates (1974f: p 70) and UNDP/ RRC (1984: p 46). This topic is reviewed further in Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing.The market supply analysis confirmed the supreme role of cattle in the Borana cash economy (Dyce, 1987: pp 58-59): the number of cattle marketed was roughly double that for goats, eight times that for sheep and 80 times that for camels. The dominance of cattle was most pronounced at Negele and Agere Mariam to the north, which reflects the highland demand and the ability of cattle to be trekked long distances out of the system. Except for Moyale, where the supply of goats was greatest, all markets conformed to this species pattern. The location of Moyale on the Kenya border, where there may be a higher demand for goats as well as a \"loss\" of cattle to cross-border blackmarket trade, may best explain this pattern. ln addition, the environment around Moyale may be more ecologically conducive to rearing small ruminants (Dyce, 1987: p 58).Although the data base for the Boran only covered 35 months, there were some features that can be compared to other pastoral areas. Sandford (1983a: pp 208-210) asserted that compared to other systems, pastoral systems are more commonly characterised by high seasonal and annual fluctuations in the number of livestock marketed. Data were cited from Kenya (18 years) and Upper Volta (nine years) that showed annual coefficients of variation of 51% and 31%, respectively. Sandford also noted that a higher proportion of the cattle sold in pastoral systems consists of immature males and older females, and that less emphasis is placed on selling mature males ready for slaughter, although this may vary with environmental conditions. For example, if forage is abundant young stock may not be marketed. An example was shown from Herman (1983) who compared pastoral and nonpastoral systems in Upper Volta in 1976-77. Both systems were similar in that about three-fourths of all sales were male cattle, but they differed in that 46% of all sales in the pastoral system were males less than two years old. For the nonpastoral system the same group accounted for only 4% of all sales (Sandford, 1983a: p 210). Dyce (1987: p 60) calculated an annual co efficient of variation for the Borana markets of 54%, which is in agreement with Sandford (1 983a). There was no clear overall pattern, suggesting that the Borana marketing flows varied by season or rainfall pattern; arguably the data set may have been too limited to address this question (Dyce, 1987: p 61). However, information from other re-searchers (Negussie Tilahun, 1984;Holden, 1988;Mulugeta Assefa, 1990), local informants (Coppock, 1992b) and government agents (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication) and non government purchasing agents (R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication) all indicate that the tendency is for the Boran to try to avoid selling cattle in wet periods when forage (and thus milk) production is high and to sell during dry periods of stress when they are forced to purchase grain. This supports the general observations that pastoralists principally sell animals to remedy a specific cash need that usually appears in a dry season or drought (Dahl and Hjort, 1976: p 180;Meadows and White, 1979;Cossins and Upton, 1988b: p 255).ln terms of the sex and age composition of marketed stock, Dyce (1987: p 61) noted that the most frequently marketed cattle on the Borana Plateau were mature males; this was consistent with patterns in the Sahel reported by Herman (1983) who said that the typical marketed animal was a male four to seven years old (note the contrast to the earlier citation of Herman (1983) by Sandford (1983a)). Data from a small sample collected by Evangelou (1984: pp 216, 228) showed mature males made up 56% (N=203) and 67% (A/=177) of cattle marketed in Maasailand during 1980. Likewise except for one market at Hidi Lola, there was no indication in the southern rangelands to suggest that immature cattle played a significant role in the supply of cattle to formal markets. This is in contrast to speculation by Sandford (1983a: p 21 0), although sale of young calves may have been greater among producers at innermost bush markets far from town; (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 211). Their under-representation at larger market centers may have been due to their lower ability to walk long distances. Other factors contravening the sale of immatures may include: (1) a low per kilogram price; (2) the need for milk by delaying weaning for over a year in many cases; and (3) maximising income by selling a mature animal. Nicholson (1983b: pp 27, 37) noted the highest price/kilogram was achieved for animals over 282 kg-Wealth differences also affect livestockmarketing patterns. lnformants reported that a poor herd owner does not have the choice to wait for an The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia 127 animal to reach optimum weight before marketing if he has to buy grain to survive (Coppock, 1992b). Thus, it is usually the poor herd owner who must sell an immature animal. lf more immature cattle appear on local markets, it is assumed that this is caused by more households becoming poorer (Coppock, 1992b). As first noted by Jahnke (1982: p 92), Dyce (1987: p 61) mentioned that the low and variable market supply of immature cattle in Borana would be a major constraint to the development of an appropriately stratified beef industry in which, for example, immatures are taken off and fattened in higher potential environments (von Kaufmann, 1976: pp 273-274;Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 140;Jahnke, 1982: p 91;UNDP/RRC, 1984: p 46). This perspective fits the Boran especially in light of their resistance to sell younger stock (see next section).Although sales of goats and sheep were secondary to the Borana economy in the early 1980s, they may have become more important recently because of the increased activity of gov ernment buyers collecting animals for export starting in 1984 (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 211). This can quadruple the price of mature male sheep, although variation in foreign demand greatly alters local marketing opportunities (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). lt has been suggested that the Boran are diversifying their holdings to include more small ruminants (Belete Dessalegn, 1985: p 26). Although this hypothesis remains untested, it would be consistent with a stress response manifest when cattle pastoralists are increasingly pauperised by high population densities and/or drought (Evangelou, 1984: p 35). The diversification into small ruminants may also indicate an interest to use the latter as saleable substitutes for cattle in light of possible increased pressure to purchase grain. The sale of small ruminants does not cut into the herd capital as deeply as would the sale of cattle, nor does it require the concensus of relatives as is the case with cattle (Coppock, 1992b).Camels were almost negligible in the market analysis of Dyce (1987). The only reliable markets to find a few camels for sale are to the south at Moyale and to the east at Negele (Hodgson, 1990: p 123). Facilitating development of camels among the Boran is discussed in Section 7.3.3.2: Camels, donkeys and small ruminants.The interview data used to interpret pastoral rationale are limited in that they may reveal how people think they behave rather than how they actually behave (S. Sandford, lLCA, personal communication). The results are interpreted, however, as offering important explanatory insights into herd accumulation and animal marketing behaviour that would be very difficult to obtain in a more objective fashion. That the Boran sell animals to satisfy acute cash needs, do so at sub-optimal times of the year in light of the seasonal terms of trade, and prefer to sell certain classes of cattle (older males) that tend to be different from those sold in developed animal production systems (immature males) are important findings consistent with empirical observations (Doran et al, 1979: see reviews in Sandford, 1983a;Dyce, 1987). This preference of the Boran to sell males that have completed growth explains the difficulties purchasing agents have had over the years attempting to buy younger males for ranching and stocker/feeder programmes (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication). lf more immature cattle are seen in markets in the future, it implies that the people are becoming poorer and have fewer mature males for sale (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics) and should not be erroneously interpreted as a shift towards \"more progressive\" marketing behaviour by the Boran consistent with Western production concepts. lt also undermines concepts such as a stratified regional production systems in which immatures are taken off the rangelands and grown out in higher potential areas (von Kaufmann, 1976).That the Boran seek to accumulate animals to promote prestige and protect themselves from perturbations have been long recognised as important elements of pastoral behaviour (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977). That the Boran attempt to avoid cattle sales by diversification into small ruminants and cultivation to help them endure increasing population pressure is another important side effect of their behaviour with implications for system transformation (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).The \"perverse supply concept\" is controversial (Doran et al, 1979;Jarvis, 1980;Low et al, 1980;Sandford, 1983a). Results suggest that perverse supply factors operate here, but vary according to the wealth class of the seller and the species of livestock. The hypothesis is thus very difficult to test using aggregated empirical data. lt is also often misinterpreted (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Perverse supply in this context implies that marketed throughput of animals over a given period of time would be lower in response to higher prices; this would be true in situations where accumulation of animals is a traditional value and cash needs are limited. lt is not to say that pastoralists will not respond in general to a market offering higher prices; in the southern rangelands the black market with Kenya thrives because the Boran seek higher prices for their cattle. The 128 The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Borana household economy prediction, however, is that the throughput per household would be lower over a specified time interval as a result of higher prices. Marketing patterns over time are also confounded by increasing pauperisation of the Boran as a result of population growth and drought (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).This suggests that, with traditional values held relatively constant, perverse supply behaviour would occur more acutely in the future than it does today as a result of a change in the wealth structure of the society. A change in marketing values over time, however, would confound patterns. At least in the peri-urban areas, values reportedly are changing among younger herd owners towards increased monetisation and market involvement and all respondents noted the increasing importance of markets to the survival of the Borana system (Coppock, 1992b). lt is important to emphasise, however, that a transition to increased livestock marketing is only welcome if the desired commodities are regularly available at reasonable prices since market dependence has its own risks. ln summary, this framework may offer a basis for understanding system-level variation in perverse supply responses due to culture and/or livestock wealth. Such a framework is needed to help elucidate why research on perverse supply phenomena has yielded such equivocal inter pretations (Sandford, 1983a).The idea that the Boran act like \"optimistic gamblers\" and delay cattle sales until they apparently have no other choice, has large implications for system stability and food security. These topics are explored in Section 6.4.4: Traditional drought mitigation tactics and Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact.Cossins and Upton (1988b: pp 254-256) reviewed marketing concepts relevant to the southern rangelands. They noted that marketing strategies to increase offtake through provision of infrastructure assume that the existing marketing system is inefficient and that pastoralists will increase offtake if prices are increased. They stated that without radical changes in the traditional system there is little scope for increasing offtake, making the supply of marketable stock rather inelastic. They argued from the work of Negussie Tilahun (nd) that the structure and performance of the Borana market system to be \"reasonably good\" because of the ready access of primary markets and the presence of large numbers of buyers and sellers; the latter feature discounts the notion that price fixing or excessive marketing margins apply. They stated the major marketing constraint to be the decline in the terms of trade of livestock for grain during drought, which reflects problems in national policies for food production and distribution rather than deficiencies in the local characteristics of local markets. ln his review, Sandford (1983a: pp 199-229) concluded that the available evidence did not consistently support or reject the notion that pastoralists respond positively to price increases by increasing the supply of animals to market, pointing out the improbability that a single generalisation could explain response in such a diversity of pastoral situations. The second point about pastoral markets being dificient in their terms of trade during drought was contrary to evidence found for Africa by Sandford (1983a).4.4.6 Market evolution Evangelou (1984: p 239) cited Johnston and Clark (1982) as stating that the distinctive feature of the development process is the expansion and evolution of markets. Market systems are therefore not static but in a continuing process of change. There has not been any testing of hypotheses regarding market evolution in the southern rangelands, but looking into some of the experiences and speculation of local traders and others is useful in defining some likely elements of change.Local informants feel (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation) that markets on the Borana Plateau in 1990 are more organised and diverse compared to the early 1980s. According to these informants, government efforts were initiated in 1983 to organise large-scale purchases of sheep and cattle for export. This served to train a cadre of local traders that reportedly dominated marketing in 1 990. These men are often Boran who have strong ties to local urban centres. Some reportedly attained their initial wealth dealing in sheep during years of average rainfall while others did so by buying up cheap cattle during the 1983-84 drought, securing the grazing and water to keep many of them alive and subsequently making windfall profits two years later when normal weather conditions resumed. These traders allegedly maintain large herds of mature males managed as forra animals. They purchase animals during dry seasons when prices are low and fill a seasonal marketing gap by selling animals at high prices during the rainy seasons when the traditional pastoralists are apparently less willing to do so (Coppock, 1992b). Thus, there are probably now distinct groups of sellers in the rangelands that have different seasonal strategies.Data of Negussie Tilahun (nd) collected for 35 months prior to the 1983-84 drought, suggested that livestock prices were slowly rising. Cattle prices in 1990 for mature and immature males increased (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication) on the order of 30% compared to those recorded by Negussie Tilahun (nd). Local informants (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation) have speculated that this increase in price may be due to a greater diversity of outside buyers (government and private operators) and local traders since 1985. This reflects higher demand from the Ethiopian highlands as well as for export (FLDP, nd), a continuing strong black market trade to Kenya and the relaxation of regional controls on commodity movements within Ethiopia starting in 1990 (Ethiopian Herald, 1990).AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974f: p 67) reported that in October 1972 the \"farm-gate\" prices on the Borana Plateau averaged from EB 30 (cull cows) to EB 70 (heifers), EB 50 (four-year-old bulls) and EB 95 (six-year-old steers). Prices for purchased commodities were not reported. lt was also stated that even in 1972 about 60% of all marketed Boran cattle entered Kenyan markets. This trade remains very active today. Based on estimates from informants, Hodgson (1990: p 77) stipulated that around 17 000 head of Borana cattle crossed to Kenyan markets in 1988. lt is not clear to what extent the early 1 970s and late 1 980s are comparable in terms of climate and livestock population dynamics in relation to drought impact, which complicates direct price comparisons. However, it is likely that a general inflation has occurred and the true value of cattle has increased (R. Brokken, lLCA, personal communication).among systems Cossins (1985) and Cossins and Upton (1987: p 216) contrasted the secondary productivity of the Borana system with that of Kenya commercial ranches (Laikipia) and three Australian cattle stations. All were considered to have grossly similar environments in terms of rainfall and net primary production. Secondary productivity was expressed per hectare. ln the pastoral systems secondary productivity was variously composed of offtake of milk, meat and offal while in the ranching systems offtake was limited to meat. lt was concluded that the Borana pastoral system yielded 119 MJ GE of offtake/ha/year (based largely on 6.25 kg of meat and 21 kg of milk) and thus outperformed both the average Laikipia Ranch by 24% (96 MJ GE based on 19 kg of meat) and the cattle stations by over fivefold (22 MJ GE based on 4.3 kg of meat). Similar perspectives were previously forwarded by de Ridder and Wagenaar (1986a,b) in their analyses of production systems in eastern Botswana. They concluded from a preliminary analysis that the traditional systems were 95% more productive than ranching systems on a per hectare basis. This calculation reflected higher stocking rates, milk offtake and the use of draft power in the traditional sector, which offset their lower cattle productivity per head compared to ranching (de Ridder and Wagenaar, 1986a). They followed this up with a more complete analysis of how efficiently forage energy (GE) and crude protein (CP) are harvested and assimilated in the two systems. For example, in terms of the net energy in animal products as a per cent of total maintenance energy, they found ranching to average 1 1 0% more efficient. This primarily occurred because of differences in the age and sex structure of herds in each system. However, the traditional systems were from 119 to 233% more efficient in terms of energy consumed as a per cent of plant energy produced, and 6 to 61 % more efficient in terms of net energy in animal products per unit of plant energy produced. Similar results were obtained for CP efficiencies (de Ridder and Wagenaar, 1986b: pp 10-11). They concluded that although ranching systems were more efficient on a per animal basis, a shift from traditional production to ranching results in serious losses of efficiency and productivity per hectare. The higher stocking rates in traditional production systems, however, could pose a higher risk of pasture degradation in years of low rainfall (de Ridder and Wagenaar, 1986b: p 14). Other crucial biological, social and economic transformations required to convert a pastoral system into a ranching system are reviewed in Behnke (1984).Cossins and Upton (1 987: p 21 7) also compared annual outputs of energy and cash income between a mixed crop-livestock system in the Ethiopian highlands at 845 mm of annual rainfall (Gryseels and Anderson, 1 983) with that in the Borana system. Compared to the pastoral system, the mixed system yielded about 63, 2 and 1 .75 times more energy per hectare, household and person, respectively. The mixed system also yielded nearly 12 times more cash income per hectare than the pastoral one. However, the Borana system yields about three times more cash income per household and per person. lt was concluded that although the pastoralists have an energy-deficit situation in terms of food production, they do receive more cash income. Cossins and Upton (1987: p 217) concluded that the Borana system is productive and efficient and most viable as long as livestock products can be sold to purchase energy at reasonable terms of trade. Labour coordination is likely a major reason why the encampment-level of organisation has evolved on the Borana Plateau. Certain forms of labour sharing also are probably more important in this process than others. Helland (1980b: p 23) considered labour for watering animals from the wells as far more important than that used for herding, for example. He speculated that the increase in herd size is primarily limited by labour availability for well watering. This may imply that coordination of watering from the wells in dry seasons constitutes the major cohesive function of the encampment.AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974f: p 25) reported that family heads within each encampment meet each morning at a breakfast ceremony to decide on matters of household concern (this presumably includes labour coordination). They also noted that the association of families within a Borana encampment (olla) shows a remarkable stability over time, characterised by much cooperation. Other social and production factors are obviously also important in the cohesion of the encampment throughout the year, otherwise encampment would disband in the wet season with families going in different directions. There are regular seasonal shifts of a few families in some regions that are typically caused by forage shortages and/or the need to minimise distance to water in dry periods (Hodgson, 1990: p 30). ln contrast, it should be noted that extensive seasonal gathering and dispersing of families characterise some pastoral groups in more arid regions of East Africa (McCabe, 1983).lf the labour organisation for working wells is a fundamental influence on the size and composition of encampments, it might be expected that those that are found outside of well areas would differ from those within. However, this hypothesis is not substantiated by general observations of Somali encampments immediately to the east (AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates, 1 974g: p 21 ) or of Borana or Gabra encampments to the north served by the large ponds. More differences in social organisation and labour coordination between the Boran and Somali in SORDU may be expected at the level of grazing resource allocation.The strict allocation of tasks to various age and sex groups in Borana encampments is typical of pastoral systems in general (Evangelou, 1984: pp 99-101: Fratkin, 1987). AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1 974f: pp 52-53) describing these task in 1972 noted that farming was a distinct activity of males, in contrast to observations in this study that showed both males and females participating in cultivation. This latter point is consistent with the idea that newer activities such as farming may be somewhat more flexible in relation to gender roles, as has been observed in agropastoral societies (Massey, 1987: p65).The relatively precise allocation of duties within the Borana household means that technical interventions to improve labour efficiency in performing certain tasks would have to be targeted at particular age and sex groups. Examples include improvements to well systems (largely to the benefit of young men), construction of water cisterns near encampments (benefit to women) and hay making for dry-season calf feed (benefit to women). These concepts are reviewed further in Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts.Although the important and arduous roles of women in mixed farming systems in Africa has received more recent attention (Lowe, 1986: pp 19-21;Gladwin and McMillan, 1989;Kumar, 1989;Webb, 1 989), relatively less attention has been given to the study of gender issues in the pastoral sector (Broch-Due et al, 1981). However, Fratkin (1989) lists some references dating back to 1965 that deal with gender inequality in the rights and ownership of pastoral livestock.Detailed studies dealing with the allocation of time and labour of pastoral women are rare. Massey (1987: pp 66-67) described general duties of women in agropastoral Somalia. He noted that after tending to food preparation and child care, women in the dry season spent nearly all of their time hauling water (on a daily or semi-daily basis). At other times of the year the women divided their time mostly among domestic chores, care of livestock and cultivation. While Somali men shared milking of the camels, the women always milked the cows and goats by themselves. Other domestic tasks of Somali women included managing chickens, processing milk, collecting firewood, fodder collection for young stock (shared sometimes with men), making mats and vessels and erecting and taking down the camp. Fratkin (1989) cited Dahl (1987) as noting that pastoral women are commonly responsible for running the household as well as herding and other aspects of livestock care. Field studies of Fratkin (1989) of 39 Ariaal households in northern Kenya revealed that married women worked harder (65% of the time between 0530 and 2000 hrs) than married men (43% of the time), and consequently had about two-thirds of the leisure and rest time enjoyed by men (35 vs 52%). Wealthier men and women worked less than their poorer counterparts. ln sum the woman's active day of 14.7 hrs was composed of domestic tasks (37%), livestock tasks (14%), manufacturing (such as weaving) tasks (14%) and others (35%).The general findings of the above studies are consistent with patterns observed among the Boran. Women's work days are reportedly long and dominated by numerous household-support tasks and care of livestock. Verbal data also indicated significant seasonal shifts in work loads and types of activities prioritised. Alleviation of women's labour burdens has been identified as a priority for development interventions described in Section 7.1.2: Development philosophy for the Boran. Observational studies on wet and dry-season labour budgets of women in experimental formats were conducted by Coppock (1992a)  On the Borana Plateau the processing and marketing of dairy products is under the control of the women. This has been commonly reported elsewhere in African pastoral and agropastoral systems (Dahl and Hjort, 1976: p 159;Kerven, 1987a,b;Grandin, 1988;Waters-Bayer, 1988). However, as pastoralists become more linked to peri-urban markets and milk sales become more important, it has been noted that women lose control of milk marketing activities to men. Waters-Bayer (1988) noted among settled Fulani that men began to milk animals out of concern that women would take too much from calves. Likewise Salih (1985) noted among peri-urban Sudanese pastoralists that men had usurped the traditional role of women in milk marketing leaving the women only with control over poultry production and sales.Milk available for processing in Borana house holds is seasonally influenced by the total milk supply. When milk supply exceeds daily household demand such as during and soon after extended rainy periods, secondary products such as butter, ghee or long-term fermented milk are most likely to be produced. This principle also applies when considering wealth differentiation in the society. Wealthier families having a higher ratio of lactating cows/person will more commonly have a larger surplus throughout the year. This means that wealthier families could produce products like butter or ghee for a longer period each year than poorer families. Kerven (1987b: p 20) reported from work in the Sudan that poorer pastoral women processed and sold milk for about five months from when the rains started, while wealthier women were able to do so for an additional three months. lt follows that wealthier households should more offen have surpluses that allow them to make and sell butter and store ghee for the dry season.The basic patterns of milk processing observed here such as churning soured milk to make butter, dehydrating butter to make ghee and removing whey to better regulate milk fermentation are all common traditional practices in the pastoral, agropastoral and mixed farming systems of Africa (O'Mahony, 1 988: p 1 ). ln addition to these products, farmers in the Ethiopian highlands make a cottage cheese (ayib) by heating skimmed milk, which precipitates casein and some of the remaining fat. This is not produced by the Boran nor do they express interest in doing so; they stated that they don't like the taste of ayib (Tarik Kassaye and C. O'Connor, lLCA, unpublished data). Ayib may also be inappropriate for the Boran enviroment because of its short shelf-life owing to its high moisture content (O'Mahony, 1988: p 48) that precludes storage and marketing. Perhaps for some of the same reasons, making of soft cheeses by pastoralists is apparently uncommon in northern Kenya (Dahl and Hjort, 1976: p 160;Galvin, 1985) or in the Sudan (Kerven, 1 987b: p 1 9). For a review of the biological principles involved in milk processing and their applicability to the African rural producer the reader should consult O'Mahony (1988).Ghee provides the Boran with a high-energy food with an excellent shelf-life of seven months to one year (Tarik Kassaye and C. O'Connor, lLCA, un published data; D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). However, quantities of stored ghee per household are likely small and relatively unimportant forfood security during dry seasons (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Ghee may have been more important in the past when according to informants milk surpluses were more common as a result of a lower density of people (see below; Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).Butter has important uses in the preparation of local coffee and porridge, as a cosmetic and for cooking. The storage stability of butter, while not comparable to ghee, is still on the order of four to six weeks (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Hence butter has a distinct advantage over fresh milk in terms of more temporal flexibility for household use and marketing. Butter collected in Borana markets such as Yabelo, Dubluk and Mega can even be taken by traders to the southern highlands via the public transport system. Furthermore, even when slightly rancid, butter still has market value in Ethiopia. Most urban con sumers all over Ethiopia and highland peasants use butter for making traditional wot that is eaten with a bread-like injera made from teff. A degree of rancidity of the butter is actually desired to improve the flavour of wot (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). ln sum, it is apparent that butter has outstanding features as a marketable commodity even in semi-arid Ethiopia.ln contrast to butter, fresh milk may become rancid within one day. Consequently, it can only be sold by families within a close proximity to markets. These are usually poor families that cannot store enough sour milk to make butter. Tittarelli (1990: pp 54-57), in his study of dairy marketing in the Ethiopian highlands at Selale, also found an effect of marketing distance on the sale of various types of dairy products. He found that smallholders within 5 km of collection centres or roads sold fresh milk more often, while those further away processed and sold more butter.Besides being easier to sell in terms of spoilage risk, butter also commands a higher price than milk per kilogram throughout the year (see appendix 4 in Holden, 1988). Averaged for two markets, butter varied from EB 6.26/kg (wet season) to EB 7.36/kg (transition) and EB9.00/kg (dry season). ln contrast, fresh milk varied from EB 0.68/kg (wet season), to EB 1 .04/kg (transition) and EB 1 .11/kg (dry season). All seasonal means within each commodity were significantly (P<0.05) different (Holden, 1988). However, Holden (1988) also noted that on an energy basis fresh milk (3.34 MJ GE/kg) was a bit more expensive than butter (29.8 MJ GE/kg) with annual means from EB 0.25/MJ GE (butter) to EB 0.28/MJ GE (fresh milk).As practised by the Boran and others, the souring of milk offers several practical advantages over fresh milk. The acidity retards the growth of undesirable microbes and to a certain point improves efficiency of milk churning (O 'Mahony, 1988: pp 19, 46). Smoking of containers prior to use for milk storage likely provides important bacteriostatic (cleansing) effects (Ephraim Bekele and Tarik Kassaye, 1987). lt is not known to what extent the smoke of wood chips from different tree species affects bacteria, or if species are selected merely on the basis of the flavors they impart to the milk. Both factors are probably important. lnformants reported that A. nilotica chips are the most commonly used material for smoking gorfa. When a gorfa is smoked with A. nilotica chips milk reportedly takes a bit longer to sour and has a superior taste (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). This suggests that the volatile compounds present in these chips are effective in killing bacteria.The production of long-term fermented milk with a shelf life of up to 60 days has stimulated particular research interest in its microbiological and chemical processes (Tarik Kassaye, 1990). However, it is important to note that household studies of milk processing and allocation indicate that in terms of annual volume it is virtually insignificant.On the Borana Plateau cattle provide most of the milk for processing, followed distantly by small ruminants. The inability of camel's milk to yield an apparently suitable butter (even after vigorous churning) may be an important species difference that could affect the choice, given limited management resources, of whether a cattle-owning household should also acquire camels (see Section 7.3.3.3: Dairy processing and marketing). Even though the evidence regarding the suitability of camel's milk for processing is equivocal, Dahl and Hjort (1976: p 185) stated that camel's milk sours quickly. They also mentioned that some camelkeeping groups process camel's milk by heating it and preparing the curds into storable cheeses. The Gabra have demonstrated to lLCA staff how they make a waxy butter from camel's milk using a process that involved heating and extended agitation (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal obser vation). But Dahl and Hjort (1976) did also cite a variety of other conflicting references regarding the suitability of camel's milk for processing. Other perspectives on the subject are provided in Rao et al (1970) and Galvin and Waweru (1987).Results from milk processing studies that evaluated the efficiency of butter making are presented in Section 7.3.3.3: Dairy processing and marketing including a discussion of the feasibility of implementing dairy technology interventions. As is discussed below, the presumed steady decline in the ratios of livestock to people on the plateau may preclude much optimism regarding the im plementation of milk processing interventions, since it is anticipated that surpluses will become smaller. The practice of milk sharing within encampments may further reduce available surpluses even though the actual degree of milk sharing may be exaggerated (Coppock et al, in press).Detailed discussions of Borana dairy marketing may be found in Holden (1988) and Holden et al (1991) while the main points are summarised here:Market access is a critical factor in the participation of pastoral women in dairy marketing. Households closer to market are able to sell more frequently and this was a reflection of the The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia opportunity cost of women's travel time to market, which influences net returns (Askari and Cummings, 1976). Effects of distance to market varied with household wealth, and wealth has been found elsewhere to be a critical factor in pastoral dairy marketing (Kerven,1 987b;Grandin,1 988). Very low levels of milk supply in poor households during dry seasons precluded their ability to increase marketable output in response to a given reduction in distance. ln contrast, during the wet season poor households had a higher milk supply and a greater marketing response over distance. The pattern was somewhat similar for other wealth classes, but they had greater flexibility in supply and could be more responsive over distance regardless of season.Compared to poor ones wealthy households sold greater absolute quantities of dairy products, but on average retained four times more milk for household and calf consumption than poor households. The poor had only about 25% as much milk per person as the wealthy. lt also appeared that, when milk supply per household increased, either because of effects of wealth or season, people first increased their consumption of dairy products in preference to maximising dairy sales. This seems in contrast to highland smallholders with cross-bred cattle who may first use milk for sale (Wagenaar-Brouwer, nd).Consumption was a priority with wealthy households as sales of surpluses are used primarily for nonessential purchases (Nestel, 1985: Kerven, 1987b: Waters-Bayer, 1988). By contrast, the poor appeared compelled to buy grain because their levels of milk offtake were below subsistence requirements. Again, one litre of milk (3.3 MJ GE) sold bought 3.5 kg of grain (52.5 MJ GE) in the dry season, providing nearly a 14-fold increase in energy. This illustrates that having surplus milk is not a prerequisite for dairy marketing to be important. lndeed, the reverse is more true for a pastoral society.Despite their lower absolute volume of dairy sales, income from dairy sales provided 37% of the annual income of poor households when close to market; for the wealthy this was 22%. The poor, with few animals to sell without endangering their herd capital (Swift et al, 1984;Behnke, 1987), had no viable alternatives to selling milk in order to get money. As long as the lives of nursing calves are not endangered, dairy marketing would generally contribute to the food security of poor households. That is from the direct effect of providing cash income and the indirect effect of delaying sales of animals for some other crisis in the future. Also that compared to animal sales, dairy sales permit purchasing of quantities of grain that are more convenient to handle by the household. For example, Nestel (1985) noted that the Maasai who purchased large volumes of grain from an animal sale often lost a significant amount to neighbours and relatives who came to request hand-outs. 4.4.10.1 Dairy marketing and welfare of humans and calves Field data supported some, but not all, elements of the hypothesis that poorer households closer to market would be relatively more affected by trade in dairy products. lmproved access to market only appeared to reduce the proportion of milk allocated to calves in poorer households. As there was no clear effect of proximity to market on intake of dairy products by women or young children, the increase in milk offtake by poor households closer to town is probably best attributed to increased daily sales.The nutritional consequences of trading dairy product for grain by poorer families can be illustrated by assuming: ( 1) such households to have 3.5 AAME and 3.8 lactating cows (evenly distributed among the three productivity classes); ( 2) a nutrient content of milk of 3.3% crude protein (CP) and 3.7 MJ GE/kg (Roy, 1980;Nicholson, 1983a); (3) maize grain having 15 MJ GE and 7.4% CP per kg on a dry-matter basis (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 213; lLCA Nutrition Unit, unpublished data); and (4) the nutritional guidelines for a 55-kg average adult male (Cossins and Upton, 1987) as recommended in FAO (1973) and NAS (1974).lf this family resides far from town and sells no milk, the daily milk offtake rate of 48% (1 .8 litre) found among the modal poor family could provide about 39% and 1 8% of the daily total requirements for CP (154 g) and GE (37 MJ), respectively. This implies that the family must either reduce demand for food and/or receive more food from their social network, gathering bush foods or relief grain. lf the family increases milk offtake to 63% (2.3 l), then about 49% and 23% of its daily requirements for CP and GE, respectively, are provided, but this is still short of meeting needs. However, if the increment of 15 percentage points of increased offtake (0.5 litre) is sold at a ratio of 3.5:1 that means for 1.75 kg of maize about 1 25% and 87% of the CP and GE requirements, respectively, will be met (Holden, 1988). This shows that proximity to market and favourable terms of trade are especially important for poor families. A chronic pressure to trade even more milk could compromise the nutritional status of people for vitamins or amino acids foregone in milk and not found in grain (Nestel, 1985: pp 158-163;Shrimpton, 1985); and nutritional balance of grain and milk is desirable (Nestel, 1985: p 158).lt was not confirmed by the researchers that poorer families closer to town would have more 134The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia grain in their diets. lnformants, however, reported that it is \"common knowledge\" that poor people close to town sell milk daily and live on purchased grain, often to the detriment of their children (D. L.Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). A significant effect of wealth on intake of dairy products by women and children was observed, unlike patterns observed for Maasailand where all wealth classes had similar intakes (Grandin, 1988). This discrepancy may have been due to the extreme poverty of many of the Boran spreading the differences among all wealth classes. lt could also be because of the lingering effect of the 1983-84 drought on herd-level milk production (Holden et al, 1991).The overall calf mortality rate of 1 8% and milk offtake of 41% recorded by Holden et al were consistent with other findings for an average rainfall year in the study area (see below). Despite the more restricted milk intake of calves in poor households overall, this did not appear to affect the mortality rate at the time. Households were able to minimise acute effects on their calves (Wagenaar et al, 1986).Paradoxically, calf morbidity rates were reportedly high in both wealthy and poor house holds, despite their differences in milk offtake. One hypothesis is that morbidity of calves in poor households was due more to nutritional stress from milk restriction, while that for calves in wealthier households was probably due more to health management problems that arose from more calves being concentrated in a small area and hence getting less individual management attention (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 26).The increase of 15 percentage points in milk offtake for cows of poorer households closer to market may be equivalent to 150 ml/calf/day in the dry season. This is 28% of the calculated intake for calves of poor families at the time and represented a substantial decrement that could reduce vigour and increase the loss of calves to nutrition-related diseases. lnformants reported that this is a common pattern among the poorer families nearer to market that must sell milk to survive (Coppock et al, 1992).Considering the conceptual model of economic stress responses in pastoral societies addressed thus far, some of the literature on pastoralism suggests that dairy marketing is symptomatic of increasing poverty (Dahl and Hjort, 1976: p 181;Toulmin, 1983;Waters-Bayer, 1988). This is illuminated further by the contention that the Borana used to have taboos against selling dairy products but have probably been forced to do so more recently (Dahl and Hjort, 1976: p 181). lf pastoral poverty is defined as a decline in per capita milk production and livestock holdings, then it is anticipated that the long-term trend would be for most of the Boran to become poorer. This would result from a steady increase in the human population, low rates of emigration and economic diversification and limits on the livestock that can be carried by the system (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Effects of drought (such as killing a high percentage of cattle and largely sparing people; see Chapter 6: Effects of drought and traditional tactics of drought mitigation) would be in addition to these pressures. This means that drought could periodically exacerbate the poverty among the Boran. lf it is assumed that the primary reason for selling dairy products is to buy grain because the milk supply is insufficient for survival in terms of energy, this suggests that an increasing number of families would be regularly involved in dairy marketing over the long term (at least from the pool of encampments within reach of a marketing town), and that a big upsurge in dairy marketing activity could be expected during the early stages of a drought and during the post-drought recovery period when there is sufficient milk to sell, but not enough to sustain households. The degree of dairy marketing therefore is likely to be variable from year to year.Lack of a standardised time series for the Boran precludes a test of this hypothesis and existing data often lumps dairy sales with those of other com modities. For example, AGROTEC/CRG/ SEDES Associates (1974f: p 71) noted that about 22% of the annual household income of EB 86 in 1 972 was derived from the sale of \"animal products\" other than live animals and presumably some of this was milk and butter. Negussie Tilahun (1984) reported that an average of 5% of the annual income of EB 830 in 1983 was from the sale of \"animal products\" that included butter and milk and that dairy income was important for the purchase of dry goods (another indicator that these families were wealthier than average; see Section 4.4.1: Genreal aspects of household economy). Donaldson (1986: pp 50-51) found that 30% of the household budget of EB 384 during five months at the height of the drought in 1983-84 was from sales of dairy products, hides, handicrafts and other mis-cellaneous items. Holden and Coppock (1992), whose peri-urban sampling approach probably provided the most accurate range of data, figured that 20% of the average annual income of EB 440 was derived from dairy products. Holden (1988: p 42) found that about 30 of 105 households reported that the income from the sale of dairy products was more important to them than consuming the milk itself. However, the fact that the study reported in Holden (1988) and Holden and Coppock (1992) was carried out in 1 987, only three years after the end of the 1 983-84 drought, may imply that a period of particularly high levels of dairy marketing was witnessed in view of the drought-recovery scenario proposed above.Like livestock, formal dairy markets were perhaps small and less well organised prior to the 1980s. Urban populations were smaller and the number of milk or butter traders was limited. ln contrast for 1987, S. J. Holden (lLCA, personal communication) noted the complexity of trading interactions in the towns of Mega and Yabelo (with populations of 3000 and 7000, respectively); many pastoralists had private arrangements to supply dairy products directly to urban families and restaurants in addition to regular market-day activities. lnformants reported, that milk was sold prior to 1 980, but that the Boran used this income more commonly to purchase items like coffee and sugar, not grain (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). At least in the small town of Dubluk, butter traders reported in 1 987 that competition to buy from producers was far less in the early 1 980s than in the late 1980s. ln sum, these studied observations provide useful focal points for system monitoring and tests of hypotheses. They also point to important dynamic constraints in the consideration of dairy processing or marketing interventions. This perspective, as well as a comprehensive theory of pastoral development and change that takes into account long-term trends and short-term cycles, is presented in Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts.Chapter 5Livestock husbandry and production Summary This chapter highlights work from experimental trials and producer surveys concerning livestock man agement and productivity in the Borana system. Most of these studies were conducted in average rainfall years under conditions of moderate to high stocking rates of cattle. The primary focus is on cattle which are the most important livestock species to the Boran overall. Ancillary livestock in clude small ruminants, camels, equines and poultry.General aspects of cattle husbandry here including maintaining a female-dominated herd structure, dividing up animals into satellite herds to conserve local resources, uncontrolled breeding, milking management of cows, intensive handrearing of nursing calves and aportioning tasks according to gender and age are similar to those observed elsewhere in semi-arid Africa. One unusual feature of Boran, however, is the high degree of water restriction of cattle during dry seasons such that animals may be watered once every three to four days. This practice is permitted probably, in part, by the relatively cool ambient temperatures which help cattle conserve body water otherwise used for thermo-regulation. Restricted watering is a long-held practice of the Boran that has positive attributes in terms of saving human labour, extending grazing radii from water points and increasing water-use efficiency.Results from trials conducted under conditions indicate that while cattle watered once every three days during dry seasons may lose weight faster than those on daily watering, because restricted watering reduces forage intake, cattle on restricted watering can compensate for it by regaining weight faster during subsequent rainy periods. One significant short-term cost of restricted watering is a reduction in milk production of around 13%. The ability of cattle on restricted watering to regain weight or minimise fall in milk production, is probably constrained to a higher degree under the high stocking rates characteristic of pastoral manage ment compared to those observed under ex perimental conditions.A general synthesis of key aspects of productivity and management for mature cattle indicates that: (1 ) the ratio of females to males in the regional cattle herd is on the order of 71 :29; (2) cows have their first calf at 4 to 4.5 years of age and may produce 6 to 6.5 calves over a reproductive life of 8 to 8.5 years; (3) the average calving interval is 14 to 1 5 months; (4) milk yield/cow ranges from 680 to 1000 kg for lactations which vary from 7 to 13 months in duration, respectively; (5) the median milk yield/cow is about 850 kg over 320 days (or 2.6 kg/ head/day); (6) annual calving rates average around 70%; (7) mature weights for Boran bulls and cows are on the order of 400 and 225 kg, respectively; and (8) mortality rates for animals older than 2 years of age are less than 5% per annum in average rainfall to dry years. These productivity figures appear reasonably good for cattle under traditional pastoral management, and are even comparable to the lower range of productivity values for animals reared under ing and research station conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. This provides some evidence to support contentions that indigenous Boran cattle are relatively productive compared to other African breeds and that the central Borana Plateau is a particularly good environment for cattle production.Season has a dramatic effect on cattle breeding and milk production. Nearly 70% of calf births occur during the long rains and another 17% during the short rains. Daily milk production per cow roughly doubles in rainy seasons compared to dry seasons, and during dry seasons fewer cows are lactating. Lactation curves are unusual in that they may have a bimodal, rather than unimodal, shape. This probably shows acute seasonal constraints in cow nutrition during some years.Cattle productivity may also vary with regards to the wealth class of pastoral households. Compared to cows held by wealthier households with a higher ratio of milk cows per person, those held by the poor reportedly have lower calving rates, lower milk production, lower absolute milk offtake for human consumption, lower milk intake for calves and higher rates of calf mortality. These patterns may be largely attributable to a higher milking intensity practised in poorer households.Productivity may also be influenced by grade of cow. The Boran recognise three classes of milk cows (high, intermediate and low producers) and these vary substantially in terms of daily yields with high producers yielding over 50% more milk than low producers. Household surveys suggest that despite their greater milk production, compared to lower producers high producers may have a longer calving interval. Costs of higher milk yield may thus be related to the extent to which higher-producing cows must mine body reserves in support of lactation, which may then compromise repro duction. Different productivity classes of cows may also vary in terms of their vulnerability to resource restriction during dry years and drought. lnformants reported that high producers are among the first to perish during difficult circumstances. Another important factor that affects milk production are ticks. A survey of 560 milk cows indicated that 13% of teats were closed as a result of tick-induced damage. This implies that an average eight-cow household may need one extra cow simply to offset this loss in milk production capacity.Compared to other aspects of cattle productivity, calf growth rates appear to be low. Birth weights average 18 kg and are affected by season of parturition. Field studies that quantified growth from birth to 210 days of age indicate that average daily gains for nursing calves are variable but on the order of 136 g/head/ day, typically less than 1% of live weight. Growth is probably substantially influenced by competition with humans for milk as milk offtake for people averages 30 to 40% of total yields in general. At 250 days of age a calf which consumes 195 kg of the milk yield (35% of production) may weigh around 60 kg which is only 45% of the live weight of 1 32 kg projected if the calf were to have all the milk.Calf mortality rates appear high and similar to that in other pastoral systems in Africa. Producer surveys suggest mortality rates and causes vary according to interactions between the wealth of pastoral households and the type of rainfall year. Averaged over all years, wealthy, intermediate and poor households reported calf mortality rates of 24%, 16% and 30%, respectively. lt has been postulated that the high mortality rates for calves of the wealthy are primarily caused by disease-related factors that result from a reduced management input per calf. The higher mortality rates for calves held by the poor are probably more related to nutritional stress arising from competition with people for milk. Across all households in a modal rainfall year, calf mortality may average 22 to 25%, with roughly half of the deaths primarily due to poor nutrition and the other half caused by health complications such as calf scours, black leg, pasteurolosis and foot-and-mouth disease. For a dry year mortality rates are similar but two-thirds of losses being directly attributable to nutrition. ln a drought year 70 to 90% of the calf crop may be lost, all primarily due to poor nutrition.Calf management is typically performed by married women and the pattern of management changes depending on the season of birth of the calf. Calves born during the dry seasons or short rains usually receive more intensive care reflecting the greater scarcity of resources and higher competition with people for milk. Management by women includes gathering cut-and-carry forage and hauling water for relatively immobile calves which are kept in or near the family hut.More limited observations on ancillary livestock suggest that productivity and management practices in Borana for goats, sheep and camels are similar to those found elsewhere in semi-arid Africa. Exceptions may include the fact that sheep are apparently rarely milked in average rainfall years and breeding among small ruminants being uncontrolled. Camels serve various purposes depending on ethnic group; the minority Gabra rely on camels mostly for milk while the Boran use them more for hauling goods and occasionally for pulling ploughs. ln contrast to cattle, disease appears to be a more pervasive constraint for the production of small ruminants and camels. This may be a consequence of the relatively moist conditions in which these species are commonly held, in upper semi-arid and subhumid locations. Equines are often observed on the Borana Plateau but occur at low population densities. Donkeys are used to haul goods while mules and horses are ridden by men. Little is known concerning the importance of chickens to Borana households even though they can be frequently seen in encampments. lt is thought that chickens may be an increasingly important market item for Borana households in peri-urban locations.Pastoralists are largely dependent on livestock for their wellbeing. Therefore, studies of livestock production and management in terms of milk, repro duction, weight gains, health and mortality are critical in understanding constraints and opportunities for improvements. The objective of this chapter is to review such studies for the Borana system that were conducted during the 1 980s. The primary emphasis is on cattle, because cattle are the dominant species herded by the Boran in the southern rangelands. Other species covered to a lesser degree include small ruminants, camels and equines.Relationships among milk production, milk offtake and calf growth were investigated at encampments in six madda by Nicholson (1 983a) during 1 981 -82. Lactation curves and total milk production were quantified for 23 cows by measuring offtake and estimating milk consumption of calves from their growth, composition of milk, and assumptions concerning conversion of milk to live-weight gain (Nicholson, 1983a: pp 28-29). An equation was developed to predict calf growth based on milk 138The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Livestock husbandry and production intake. The equation includes the formula of Tyrrell and Reid (1965) and includes the empirical requirement of 1 3.6 MJ ME for a kilogram of growth for pre-ruminant calves (Roy, 1980). This equation is presented in Figure 1 , Annex E. Birth dates, birth weights and growth of 1 33 calves were recorded at encampments in eight locations. Growth was recorded weekly by weighing calves with hanging scales from birth until 210 days of age. Data were analysed with a four-way ANOVA to detect main effects and interactions of sex, location and month and season of birth from least-squares means (Nicholson, 1983a). Effects of household wealth, cow milking class and type of rainfall year (normal, dry or drought) were variously considered on aspects of cattle holdings and cattle production including rates and causes of calf mortality, age at first calving, calving interval, duration of lactation and milk production by Mulugeta Assefa (1 990). These data were also used for economic modeling (see Section 7.3.3.4: The calf: prospects for growth acceleration) and were generated from interviews of 90 households in 1 988 from 30 randomly selected encampments in Did Hara and Dubluk madda (1 5 each; see Figure 2.10). Wealth strata were as described in Section 4.2.4: Dairy processing and marketing. Household members provided details on lifetime production history for 482 cows. One, two or three-way ANOVAs were performed on 1 6 response variables (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: pp 11-12).One unusual feature of the Borana pastoral system is the role of water restriction on livestock production. Labour constraints and restricted access to water and grazing, in conjunction with the relatively cool climate, have promoted a system whereby cattle may be watered once every three to four days at the height of the dry season (Alberro, 1986 Response variables included: (1) monthly live weights for cows, nursing calves and weaned animals; (2) a monthly condition score for mature cows; and (3) water consumption for cows by weighing animals before and after drinking. Ancillary studies included: (1) effects of treatment on milk intake of calves, measured during three 10-day periods using live weights before and after suckling as well as a tritiated water method (Coward et al, 1982); and (2) effects of treatments on dry-matter intake and digestibility for steers and cows. lntake for the steers was indirectly measured using a natural marker of indigestible acid detergent fibre (Van Soest, 1 982) which was determined from forage and faeces and combined with whole faecal collections for 10 days. For cows, intake was determined under stall-feeding conditions where this marker method could be validated. Statistical analyses employed a least-squares ANOVA for feed intake experiments. Dynamics of live weight and condition scores were displayed as time-series graphs. More details are available in Nicholson (1987a;b).Growth characteristics of over 2600 immature male cattle purchased during 1979-82 for the Sarite cooperative (see Section 1.4.5.5: development) were analysed by Nicholson (1983b). Although the concept in the southern rangelands is being phased out, the work is useful in terms of documenting variability in growth attributable to season, differing regional origin of animals and castration practices.For Group 1 , monthly weights were analysed over seven months from November 1980 to June 1981. For Group 2, entry and exit weights were analysed over an average of five months from March to August 1 982. lmbalances in data sets led to different analyses for both groups. Average daily gain (ADG) was analysed for Group 1 using a three-way ANOVA with least-squares means to detect effects of origin, and castration. A two-way analysis (origin x herding group) was conducted for Group 2. Some preliminary data were collected on production performance of about 100 goats and sheep and a few camels managed at Gabra encampments near Beke Pond during average rainfall years by Belete Dessalegn (1985) and reviewed in Cossins and Upton (1987). Some aspects of these studies will be reported here.Descriptions of management practices were conducted for cattle (Belete Dessalegn, 1983;Donaldson, 1986;Cossins and Upton, 1987;Kabaija The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia and Little, 1987;Holden, 1988;Mulugeta Assefa, 1990;Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990), small ruminants (Belete Dessalegn, 1 985; Cossins and Upton, 1 987) and camels (Belete Dessalegn, 1985;Donaldson, 1986). Surveys documenting presence of camels and equines in Borana encampments were conducted by Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo (1 985).Except for Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 34-37), who recorded information on health problems related to calf mortality during interviews on cow history, animal health was never a significant focus of research. The Southern Rangelands Development Unit (SORDU) collated data on cause of mortality for animals which received veterinary attention during 1976-1987, and these are reported here. Donaldson (1986: pp 38-40) noted causes of cattle mortality during drought including incidence of disease. Coppock (1 990b) conducted a dry-season survey of the incidence of probable tick-induced damage to cow udders. This survey involved examination of 560 randomly selected cows from 63 herds at water points in the Dubluk, Medecho, Melbana and Beke Pond regions during September, 1989. Response of 24 Gabra herd owners to another questionnaire on camel production problems in the Beke Pond area (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data) indicated disease was the most common production problem. Respondents were asked to list diseases in order of perceived importance and ranked data were analysed using Friedman's nonparametric test (Steel and Torrie,1 980). The heavy reliance on interview information, without professional necropsy or physical examinations, is a significant limitation on these results. The pastoralists demonstrated an ability, however, in naming diseases and associated symptoms consistent with those provided by local veterinary staff (Abakanou Kereyou, TLDP Animal Health Coordinator, personal communication).Preliminary identification of some tick species common to the southern rangelands was conducted at the lnternational Centre for lnsect Physiology and Ecology (lClPE) in Nairobi. This is reported by Nicholson (1985).The Where water and grazing resources permit, the Boran lead a semi-settled existence (Cossins and Upton, 1987). The household may remain sedentary throughout a given year or succession of years and family residences in a given madda may last for generations. Cattle are herded either as less mobile warra groups or far-ranging forra groups, depending on conditions of the resource base, availability of labour and according to the sex and age class of animals and whether or not cows are in milk. As described by Donaldson (1 986: pp 9-1 0, 31-36), the primary purpose of the warra-forra system is to distribute animals away from the home area during times of restricted availability of forage (and sometimes water). Strong and less-productive animals are sent with the forra herds that are usually managed by older boys and young men (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 210). At the extreme, warra herds are comprised of milking cows and some weak or sick yearlings that return to the encampment each night. These are kept within closer grazing orbits whose radii vary depending on whether the day is used for grazing or grazing and watering (Figure 2.1 2a, b). ln contrast, the forra herd is composed of dry cows and males of diverse ages and ranges widely (sometimes across the Kenya border if the local resource base is depleted). The composition and size of warra and forra herds is dynamic across seasons and type of average rainfall, dry or drought years. Years of high rainfall may be characterised by warra herds of larger size 140The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaLivestock husbandry and production and a more heterogeneous composition while the inverse holds for forra herds. Examples of the dynamic nature of assigning animals to warra or forra herds in response to drought are given in Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition.Both warra and forra herds may be watered once every three to four days during dry periods. This is considered a management adaptation to minimise labour required to raise water from the deep wells (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources) and maximise size of grazing orbits (Nicholson, 1987a).Calf management was initially described by Donaldson (1 986: pp 34-36). During the first 7 to 1 2 months of life the calf diet consists of milk from restricted suckling and a combination of grazed and cut-and-carry forage. Nursing calves may be tethered near the hearth in the main room of the family hut or in special pens near corrals. Pens are constructed from wood and are often topped by a mud roof. The amount of milk a calf receives varies with season, milking class of the dam (high, average or low) and human demand for milk. ln general, milk intake for calves will be the highest during wet seasons for those born to high-producing dams owned by wealthier families that put less demand on the milk supply because the ratio of milk cows to people is high (see Section 5.3.3: Cattle production and pastoral wealth).The married women are mainly responsible for day-to-day management of nursing calves. This includes construction, maintenance and cleaning of calf pens, forage collection, removal of external parasites, transport of water for calf consumption during dry seasons and the allocation of milk to calves and people (see Section 5.3.3: Cattle production and pastoral wealth). The household heads (usually male) receive the income from the sale of cattle and they can oversee day-to-day management of calves, especially in the case of a new and inexperienced wife (Holden, 1988: p 40). Women control income from sales of dairy products (see Section 4.3.5.3: Effects of distance to market, wealth and season on dairy marketing).The household investment in calf rearing varies depending on the health and vigour of the calf, work-force available and the season when the calf is born. lf a calf is sickly there will typically be a higher investment in hand-rearing for as long as necessary. The innovation of the Borana kalo (fodder bank), described in Section 7.3.1 .2: Grazing management, is in part a strategy to facilitate access to grazing by sick or injured immatures that cannot travel far. The calf-management pattern is thus highly variable but generally has these features: 1) During the first one or two months calves are continuously tethered inside the family hut or in pens except the when they suckle in the morning and evening or allowed to bask in the sunshine and wander around the encampment. All of their food at this time is milk under restricted access.Calves are typically allowed to suckle two teats while the women milk the other two. Calves are always used to stimulate milk let-down (Donaldson, 1986: p 34). lf a calf dies the skin may be stuffed and used to stimulate milk let-down (Donaldson, 1986). Milk intake by calves is regulated to ensure that they don't get too much milk and become ill (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation; Roy, 1980); 2) Calves born during the long rains (April to early June and a time of high forage quality, abundance and diversity), in the third month of life they may be allowed to graze around the encampment and/or receive cut-and-carry forage in addition to restricted access to milk. Donaldson (1 986: p 35) estimated the average (±SE) daily quantity of cut-and-carry forage to be 0.22±0.07 kg/calf on an as-fed basis (/V=10). This feeding pattern continues until weaning at 7 to 12 months of age. Forage from grazing gradually makes up a larger proportion of the diet until weaning. Grazing may be initially delayed during the wet season if local outbreaks of ticks or other parasites are considered too risky for calf health. 3) lf calves are born during the short rains (October and November) or in either dry season, the reliance on cut-and-carry forage may be much greater. These calves may not graze until the following long rains. Women may spend many hours per week collecting forages for calf feeding, an investment of time and energy that can substantially increase during dry seasons (see Section 4.3.3: The labour of married women). The greater emphasis on handfeeding young calves during stressful periods is probably because by the time dry seasons are well underway, forages in proximity to encampments become heavily grazed. Another reason for hand-feeding at the height of the warm dry season may be to minimise exposure of young calves to excessive heat and possible dehydration while grazing (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). 4) Depending on health and general condition, a calf as young as four months of age can join a calf herd (supervised by children) that roams within a kilometer of the encampment. By the time the calf is one year old and able to travel greater distances, it may join the forra herd (Donaldson, 1986: p 34).Given limited resources, investment in calf rearing by the Boran is relatively intensive. Efforts to keep animals under confinement during most of their first year is important in helping calves thermoregulate in what can often be a cold and windy environment during rainy periods. This minimises risks of predation. Manure is regularly removed from calf pens and women attend to health problems such as removal of ticks using kerosene application and traditional remedies to heal wounds and internal ailments (see Section 3.3.5.2: Household use of plants and pastoral perceptions of range trend).Another major activity is bringing water to young immobile calves during dry periods. During wet seasons local ponds fill up and calves can either walk short distances to water or it can be brought to them by women or older children using traditional containers or plastic jerry cans. During dry seasons, however, milk yields drop, forage dries out and it becomes necessary for women to haul water from distant wells. ln an analysis of management for seven calves, Donaldson (1986: pp 34-35) estimated that on average (±SE), calves received their first hand-carried water at 59±1 7 days of age, were watered once every 5.5±0.6 days and consumed 278±78 ml of water/day. Menwyelet Atsedu (1990) found that 86% of 67 respondents stated that calves were watered every other day in dry periods. The range of distances from encampments to wells (7 to 16 km) is probably dictated to a large extent by how far women and calves can walk in dry seasons to get to water supplies and cut-and-carry forage (Cossins and Upton, 1987;Hodgson, 1990).Average live weights of nursing calves reared under pastoral management during 1 981-62 are shown in Table 5.1 , and suggest that prior to weaning at 21 0 days of age, animals gained only 28.6 kg for an overall average daily gain (ADG) of 1 36 g/head/day. At 90 days of age only 15 of 106 calves were growing at or above a rate of 1% of live weight per day (Nicholson, 1983a: p 17). Births (AM 33) were seasonally distributed. Most (65%) occurred during March to May (before and during the long rains) followed by another 17% during the short rains in October and November (Nicholson, 1983a: p 16). Significant main effects and interactions among location, birth month, and birth season on calf weight up to 210 days were evident (Nicholson 1983a: pp 9, 16-19). Effects of location were speculated to be related to differences in local pastoral management and/or ecology that influenced animal health, milk production, watering frequency and/or forage intake. Effects of time of birth were attributable to seasonal effects on the nutrition of dams during their last few weeks of pregnancy and during lactation. Calves born during the long rains thus tended to have higher birth weights than those born during dry seasons when dams were under more stressful nutritional conditions. Likewise, compared to those born in the middle of the long rains, calves born during the short rains had access to a milk yield that would be substantially modified by harsh nutritional conditions as a result of the following warm dry season from December through March. Growth curves for calves from the different regions are provided in Nicholson (1983a: pp 10-15) and are quite variable.ln relative and absolute terms, milk offtake for human consumption varied according to season, stage of lactation, location, cow, and the time of day that milking was done (Nicholson, 1983a: p 20). Evening offtake averaged 18% greater than morning offtake, probably as a result of the longer interval between morning and evening milking than the reverse (i.e. 14 vs 10 hours, respectively). Mean monthly offtake/cow (±SE) varied from 39+15.9 (Melbana madda; /v=60) to 25±16.8 kg (Hobok madda; N=76). Total offtake for 51 lactations (x±SE) averaged 313±15.2 kg. Total offtake appeared to increase as duration of lactation increased; this is illustrated in Table 5.2. lnfluence of season and year on total and mean offtake is shown in Figure 5.1. Maximum deviations occurred between the long rains and the end of the dry periods. For example, the mean offtake/cow during the month of May in 1 981 (52 kg) was over twice that of September 1 981 The peak cumulative milk offtake in May 1982 (nearly 2000 kg) reflected a higher number of cows in milk (43 out of 51 ) compared to May 1 981 (22 out of 51). The low cumulative yields in dry seasons reflected more of a reduction in output/cow rather than a large decline in numbers lactating (usually around 30). Nicholson (1 983a: pp 25-26) also noted that offtake followed a bimodal distribution in reflection of the strong nutritional effects on lactation in different seasons (Figure 5.2 a, b). lf a cow gave birth in the long rains, offtake would have a pronounced early peak soon after calving and a smaller secondary peak during the short rains in October and November. However, if a cow calved in the short rains, the first peak would be smaller, followed by a larger peak during the subsequent long rains. This seasonal effect obscured effects of stage of lactation on milk yield.Median and mean lactation lengths of 23 cows were 250 and 320 days, respectively (Nicholson, 1983a: p 33). The highest total milk yield was 1952 kg over 1 3 months (5 kg/day) while the lowest was 554 kg over 7 months (2.6 kg/day). The mean yield (+SE) was 922+66.7 kg over 10.6 months (2.9 kg/head/day). However, Nicholson (1983a: p 38) considered the median value of 843 kg to be the best estimate because it was not unduly biased by a few excessively large lactations. Table 5.3 gives the distribution of milk yields and duration of lactation for the 23 cows. For lactations longer than   Where milk yields were estimated from offtake for human consumption plus milk intake required for observed growth of calves. See also Figure E1.Source: Nicholson (1983a).seven months or shorter than 11 months, season of birth strongly affected milk yield; lactations that started in March or April were 31 % higher than those started in October or November (Nicholson, 1983a: p 33). Ratios of milk used for human offtake versus calf intake across location and month of lactation are presented in Nicholson (1983a: pp 36-37).Overall, the offtake rate (±SE) was 39±0.24% for lactations that began in the long rains and 29+0. 1 2% for those which began in the short rains. There were 24 calves with complete records for milk intake and growth (Nicholson, 1983a). A comparison of the actual weights of calves at an average of 250 days of age with their estimated weights based on consumption of milk otherwise \"losf to humans is presented in Table 5.4. The actual weight (x±SE) averaged 61 ±2.6 kg while the projected weights based on an additional milk intake of 312 kg were 131 ±6.6 kg, an increase of 115%. This reflected an increase in milk intake from 1 95 kg (35% of yield) to 607 kg (1 00% of yield). Conversion of the additional milk to live weight incorporated estimates of milk composition (Nicholson,1 983a: p 33). Total solids comprised 14.54% and fat 5.4%. The remaining composition was nonfat solids (9.14%), protein (3.3%), lactose (4.9%) and ash (0.8%). Conversion of offtake into predicted calf growth suggested that calf growth was considerably retarded by a restricted nutrient intake and it was hypothesised that such nutritional stress could result in delayed pubertal development with negative consequences for lifetime productivity of females (Nicholson, 1983a: p 26).The 30 encampments studied by Mulugeta Assefa (1990)   5.5). The percentage of female cattle for all herds was estimated at 74% (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 22).Although no significant differences (P>0.05) were observed among cattle of the various wealth classes in terms of reported age at first calving, calving interval, or daily milk offtake per cow for human consumption, all other aspects did vary. ln   Source: Mulugeta Assefa (1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia general, poorer households had fewer cows and these reportedly had lower calving rates, longer lactation periods, lower daily milk production and lower milk intake for calves. Poorer families also milked their cows more frequently and intensively.Poorer families had the highest rates of calf mortality averaged across all types of rainfall years but rates were similar to those of wealthy families when average rainfall, dry and drought years were considered separately. Middle-class families had the lowest rates of calf mortality in dry and drought years (Table 5.5).Productivity parameters of cattle were also affected by the productivity class (high, medium or low) to which they were assigned by the Boran (Table 5.6). These categories seemed to be determined by milking characteristics such as length of lactation, daily milk output as measured by daily milk offtake. Animals in the high producer class were consequently milked more frequently and more intensively, with more milk still remaining for calves compared to low producing cows. Para doxically, however, compared to low-producing cows, the high producers were reported to have their first calf slightly later and a slightly longer calving interval over their lifetime (Table 5.6). Overall, the 482 cows had an average of 3.2 calves at the time of the survey. With an average age at first calving of 4.46 years and an average calving interval of 15 months, the average age of cows surveyed was about nine years. The Boran reported that a cow may continue to calve until it is 17 years old (Mulugeta Assefa, TLDP/lLCA postgraduate researcher, personal communication).Using interviews and empirical methods, Nicholson and Cossins (1984) and Cossins and Upton (1 987: p 207) reported results similar to those of Mulugeta Assefa (1990) for average age at first calving (four years), annual calving rate (75%), calving interval (15 months) and mortality rate of nursing calves (25%).Results similar to those from Nicholson (1983a) were also obtained by Mulugeta Assefa (1990) regarding seasonal effects on calving and milk production (Table 5.7). Out of the 1 549 calves in the cow history analysis, 69% were reportedly born in the long rains, 17% in the short rains and the remaining 14% during the dry periods. Reported milk production, offtake per cow, and milk intake per calf all roughly doubled in wet compared to dry periods, while offtake rate averaged 46% in each season. The average total milk production per cow over a 7.9-month lactation was estimated as 436 kg, with 201 kg (46%) for people and the rest for the calf (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 20) July to September and the short rains from October to November.Source: Mulugeta Assefa (1990).watering, trends indicated that when watering was limited to once every three days, 210-day weights decreased on the order of 12% across all three years. The animals watered ad libitum could not be followed after the first year, so only live weights of the remaining treatments up to two years of age are available (Table 5.9). Despite an apparent spread of 21 kg (11% of the overall mean) at one year of age, weights of animals from all treatments had converged by two years of age with a spread of 6 kg (2% of the overall mean).Seasonal weights of lactating cows changed markedly and ranged from around 400 kg during and soon after wet seasons to about 320 kg at the end of the long dry season. As a per cent of live weight prior to the dry season, the variation in weight loss was from about 20% for groups watered daily or every other day to 27% for those watered once every three days (Nicholson, 1 987a: p 1 23). Weight dynamics were confounded by pregnancies. Timeseries graphs indicated no clear differences among Source: Nicholson (1987a).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia treatments. During the wet season all groups regained weight that they had lost in the previous dry season. Non-lactating cows also showed seasonal changes in live weight but these fluctuations were not as dramatic as those of the lactating ones. Time-series graphs suggested that when these cows were watered daily, they were only 20 kg heavier than those watered once every three days (415 vs 395 kg, respectively). The group watered every second day had weights that fell in between the two groups. Differences in live weight were most apparent during the height of the dry season when cows watered daily weighed about 405 kg vs an average of 375 kg for the others (Nicholson, 1 987a: p 1 24). Condition scores for both lactating and non-lactating cows suggested that animals watered daily were usually in a higher plane of condition throughout the trial than animals in other groups (Nicholson, 1987a: p 125).Relative water consumption per unit live weight of cows in the dry season is shown in Table 5.10. Maximum observed intake was 90 litres/head for a lactating cow with a dehydrated weight of 301 kg. Maximum water intake as a percentage of dehydrated weight was 34.4%. Cows under restricted watering were more efficient in their water use. Water consumption by lactating cows watered once every three days was up to 34% lower compared to those watered daily. For non-lactating cows the same contrast varied by 22%.Faecal output and estimated feed intake are presented in Table 5.11. These data were interpreted to suggest that subjecting cattle to restricted watering depressed dry-matter intake by 13 to 20% for steers.Results for milk intake by calves in the third month of lactation shown in Table 5.12 suggested that milk intake was depressed by about 12 to 14% in animals whose dams were watered once every three days compared to the others.Of the 1535 animals in Group 1 (see section 5.2.3 above), only 1179 (77%) were analysed because these had complete data on sex (entire or castrate), purchase origin and herder group (Nicholson, 1983b: p 4). Over seven months (212 days), from November 1980 during the short rains right through the long dry season to June 1981 (the end of the Source: Nicholson (1987a).long rains), all animals on average gained about 40 kg from an initial weight of 1 67 kg (Table 1 , Annex E). Weight gains of bulls and steers were similar, but there were significant effects (P<0.001 ) due to origin and herder group. Nicholson (1983b: p 9) noted some minor data problems of where animal was purchased and herd groups as well as some initial differences in weight, but pointed out differences in weight gain that could have been influenced by location of purchase. Animals from Mega and Marmaro regions had similar initial weights (Table 1 , Annex E) and were evenly distributed among herd groups. However, the animals from Mega gained only 140 g/day versus 237 g/day for those from Marmaro. Nicholson (1983b: p 9) hypothesised that this difference was related to interactions between genotype and environment. Animals from Mega (located in a mountain range at 1900 m in the upper semi-arid and subhumid zones) were supposed to have been crosses of local Borans and highland zebus that were less adapted to the arid conditions of Sarite. ln contrast, animals from Maramaro were presumed to have been reared under conditions similar to those at Sarite. Other superior performers ( in terms of ADG) came from Orbati and Hobok which are also hot and dry areas. The second worst performers after those from Mega came from Dubluk located at 1500 m and only 40 km from high-altitude Mega.Of the 1104 animals purchased for Group 2 between January 1 982 (the warm dry season) and March 1982 (beginning of the long rains), only 734 (65%) had complete records on weight, purchase origin, herd group and purchase and sale price. Whether or not an animal had been castrated was not recorded (Nicholson, 1983b: p 15). Although weights were recorded several times, the final analysis of ADG used only the second weight after entry into the (22 March) and the final sale weight in the cool dry season two months after the long rains had ended (around 1 5 August 1 982). This was intended to standardise the time frame of the analysis since animals had variable weight dynamics as a result of their time of arrival during the previous dry season (Nicholson, 1983b: p 15).Weight gains significantly varied (P<0.001) according to origin over the 143-day period as calculated by least-squares regression.ln contrast to the previous analysis, a clear pattern of ADG that varied according to climate (place of origin) was not evident. This was likely due in part to the less stressful production conditions during this seasonal sequence as well as a low number and small sample sizes of animals from high-altitude sites. ln addition, there was some confounding of animal origin and date of entry into the (Nicholson, 1983b: p 23). The rive weight at which the best price was received was predicted from differentiation of a least-squares quadratic equation fit (P<0.001) to the final sale data (Nicholson, 1983b: pp 27, 37). The most profitable sale weight was about 410 kg with EB 1.26/kg received. This was only 9% higher, however, than the EB 1.15/kg received for an average-sized animal of 282 kg. Differentiation of another leastsquares quadratic equation significantly fitted to purchase data (P<0.001 ) suggested that the most profitable purchase weight was 211 kg (Nicholson, 1983b: pp 38-39).From cow-history questionnaires, Mulugeta Assefa (1990) noted general sources of calf mortality according to: (1 ) purely disease-related factors; and(2) nutrition-related factors that included deaths caused by interactions of disease with a low plane of nutrition. Calculated across all pastoral wealth classes, disease alone may have been responsible for about half of the annual calf mortality of 22% in an average rainfall year (Table 5.5). As annual rainfall declines, the importance of purely diseaserelated mortality may also decline. ln an isolated dry year, disease may account for only one-third of the 21% annual calf mortality. Disease alone may account for only a negligible number of calf deaths in a multiple-year drought. Health problems reported by the Boran as most important overall were calf scours, black leg, pasteurolosis and foot-and-mouth disease (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Tables 2 to 4, Annex E, enumerate causes of death for mature cattle and calves during average rainfall dry, and drought years on the Borana Plateau from 1976-1987. Results suggest that deaths of adult cattle from pasteurolosis, black leg and anthrax occur in all types of rainfall years while tick-related diseases may increase in years of average or above average precipitation. Strongy losis also appeared to be more common in dry years. For calves, calf scours, foot-and-mouth and black leg were commonly reported in all years. Deaths due to poor nutrition were far more prevalent in calves than adult cattle.After they reach two years of age, cattle have relatively low rates of mortality during years of average rainfall or during isolated dry years. Cossins and Upton (1987: p 207) gave annual mortality rates of 5% and 2% for cattle aged two to three and three to four years, respectively.Complications from tick bites on sensitive tissues like cow udders have important implications for milk production (Coppock, 1990b). The inspection of 560 randomly selected cows from 63 herds in four madda revealed that 291 out of 2240 teats (13%) were badly damaged by complications from tick bites, some being completely sealed off.Cattle are undoubtedly the most important livestock species in the Borana system, but other species play useful secondary roles. The next most important animals that produce food and generate income are small ruminants, which comprise about 7.4% of the TLUs on the Borana Plateau overall (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 208). An average Borana household may have seven small ruminants of which 70% are goats (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 21 3), that add to about 6% of an average families' TLUs and livestock capital value based on 14.6 cattle/family (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 215) and average prices reported in Negussie Tilahun (nd: p 71 ). The dominant breed of sheep is the fat-rumped, black-headed Somali while the goats consist of both the Somali and small East African breeds. The Somali goat is distinguished from the small East African one by its white coat and larger body size (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 163).Sheep and goats are very important to the household economy in terms of providing a source of convenient amounts of cash (about EB 50/head) on a more frequent basis. This can partially sub stitute for sales of cattle (Coppock, 1992b; see Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale). Like the case of cattle, however, the main decision maker and beneficiary of a sale of a goat or sheep is probably the male head of household (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communi cation). Small quantities of milk from goats provide a useful supplement for children during average rainfall years and for all family members during drought (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 208). lt may also be expected that small ruminants are relatively more important for poorer families with few cattle (Coppock, 1992b). Despite the ability of small ruminants to proliferate better than larger stock, they are probably more susceptible to disease, especially in the wetter parts of the Borana Plateau, thus making their production a more risky enterprise (Cossins and Upton, 1 987: p 208).Day-to-day management of small ruminants is usually performed by women and children. Children act as herders (Cossins and Upton, 1 987: p 208) while women build and clean corrals of adult animals and construct elevated wooden pens in the family hut for kids and lambs. Sheep and goats may be watered once every five days during the dry season (Donaldson, 1986: p 8;Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 208). Belete Dessalegn (1985: pp 41-55) noted that goats were corralled about 14 hours per day and spent an average of eight hours per day feeding throughout the year (with 1 5% more feeding time in wet seasons). They were observed to travel on average 5.7 and 1 3 km/day during the long rains and warm dry seasons, respectively (Belete Dessalegn, 1985).Preliminary production data for small ruminants are presented in Belete Dessalegn (1985: pp 25-38) who monitored animals at a Gabra encampment in the Beke Pond area from May 1 984 to May 1 985, a drought year in the southern rangelands (see Chapter 6: Effects of drought and traditional tactics of drought mitigation). A sample of 59 does and 60 ewes produced 1.4 and 0.9 young each, with twinning in 7% and 4% of goat and sheep par turitions, respectively. Animals were born through out the year, especially goats. Age at first parturition was about 1 7.5 months for both species. Average birth weights were 2.4 kg for both kids (/v=93) and lambs (/v=56). Both species were weaned at about five months of age. Average daily weight gains of nursing young ranged from 82 g/day (sheep) to 76 g/day (goats). Parturition interval (x±SD) averaged 219±27 days for goats and 248±36 days for sheep. Milk offtake averaged 46 kg for goat lactations over an average of 147±31 days (N=5). Sheep were not milked. Milk offtake for humans followed stimulation of milk let-down by the young. Offtake appeared to be the highest during rainy periods (Belete Dessalegn, 1985: p 38). The average daily offtake throughout all lactations and seasons was 0.32 kg/head. This decreased to 0.26 kg/head/day at the height of the long dry season in 1985.Mortality of nursing young was 32% (/V=83) for goats and 45% for sheep (N=54). Post-weaning mortality was 10% (/V=57) for goats and 12% for sheep (N=30). Total losses added to 39% (A/=83) for goats and 46% (N=54) for sheep. Belete Dessalegn (1985: pp 36-37) enumerated sources of mortality for these 57 animals plus 62 others in the same encampment. Disease apparently killed 80% (N=1 1 9) of animals of both sexes of all age classes, with minor losses from accidents or predators. Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) was diagnosed as the cause of at least 12 of 95 deaths from disease. lnternal parasites were also thought to be a major factor limiting production, aggravated perhaps by the unsanitary conditions under which small stock were reared (Belete Dessalegn, 1985: p 40).Dromedary camels constitute a very small fraction of livestock on the Borana Plateau (Cossins and Upton, 1987: 208-209), although they serve very useful functions for several pastoral groups. On the central plateau the Gabra minority rely on camel milk as the mainstay of their diets. The Gabra also use camels to transport their portable huts when they need to move. The locations of Gabra and Gari settlements largely account for the pockets of camels on the central plateau. Camels become more abundant as one travels eastwards past Negele where Somali pastoralists become dominant. lt has been speculated that camels have become more abundant on the Borana Plateau as a result of bush encroachment during the last 200 years (ERP, 1984: p 29).Even though camel management has not been studied in detail, nursing camels are usually corralled separately from the adults and herded near encampments by children. Belete Dessalegn (1985: pp 10-17) noted that camels were corralled about 12 h/day. Distance traveled by adult camels varied from about 7 km/day in rainy periods to 26 km/day in the warm dry season. Travel in the dry season comprised almost 30% of diurnal activity. Daily feeding time ranged from about 7.5 h (long rains) to 5.2 h (warm dry season). Camels are watered once every 7 to 15 days in dry seasons (Donaldson, 1986: p 8). Feeding wise they were observed to be exclusively browsers with diets dominated by Acacia brevispica, Rhus natalensis, Cadaba farinosa and Balanites spp (Woodward, 1988; see Section 3.3.5.1: Livestock food habits).lnterviewees of Gabra herd owners from the Beke Pond region ranked various diseases and ailments as the most important constraints in camel production affecting both immatures and matures, although the rank order differed (Tables 5.13 and 5.14). Trypanosomiasis, otherwise rare on the plateau, is reportedly picked up by camels when they travel east along the Dawa river to browse in gallery forests during the dry season (Sileshi Rabies lnfected ear wounds 1 Derived from household interviews. Problems were listed and ranked from most common (1) to least common (12). Only health problems were mentioned. 2 Entries accompanied by the same letter (w, x, y, z) were not ranked differently (P>0.05) according to Friedman's test (Steel and Tome, 1980). 3 Translations of terminology in Oromigna and Somaligna were provided by Abakano Kereyu (TLDP Animal Health Coordinator, personal communication).Source : Coppock (1988).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia  (v, w, x, y, z) were not ranked differently (P>0.05) according to Friedman's test (Steel andTorrie, 1980). 3 Translations of terminology in Oromigna and Somaligna were provided by Dr Abakano Kereyu (TLDP Animal Health Coordinator, personal communication).Source : Coppock (1988).Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, persona] communi cation). Most Borana encampments in the central region have at least one camel. A survey of 60 encamp ments in four madda indicated that 56 had at least one camel, with an overall average of three/ encampment (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985). The Boran use camels mainly as work animals (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 209), in commercial operations for hauling salt mined from volcanic craters to markets or for just domestic needs such as: (1) carrying grain and other commodities from market; (2) carrying large quantities of drinking water from wells for both people and calves in dry seasons; and (3) ploughing fields. Camels are not ridden by the Boran or Gabra. The most important uses or values of camels were ranked by 24 Gabra herd owners (Table 5.15). Camels on the central plateau may represent two races, the smaller slender geleb and the large quorti (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Mature specimens of the quorti may weigh over 500 kg and are heavily built.ln an analysis limited to three camels during 18 months of the 1 983-84 drought, Belete Dessalegn (1985: p 3) reported a mean offtake (±SD) of 1 045±58 litre/lactation that lasted an average (+SD) of 430±35 days. Camels were milked three times/ day (morning, afternoon and evening) when forage conditions were favourable, but this changed to twice/day (early morning and late evening) when they had to travel longer distances to feed. This translated into about 3.6, 3 and 1 .7 litres of daily offtake during the first month, second to sixth Rental for transport Meat 1 Derived from household interviews. Attributes were listed and ranked from most important (1 ) to least important (6). 2 Entries accompanied by the same letter (x, y, z) were not ranked differently (P>0.05) according to Friedman's test (Steel and Torrie, 1 980).Source : Coppock (1988).152The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia months and seventh to fourteenth months of lactation, respectively (Belete Dessalegn, 1985: p 4). Laboratory analysis revealed an average com position of camel's milk as 14.1% total solids, 4.6% fat, 3.6% protein, 4.6% lactose and 0.8% ash (Belete Dessalegn, 1985: p 3). Camel milk is apparently unsuitable for making marketable butter (see Section 7.3.3.3: Dairy processing and marketing).Equines are also found in small numbers on the plateau (see Section 4.3.1: General household structure and economy in average rainfall years). A survey of 60 encampments (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985) indicated that 45 had donkeys (with an average of four each), 34 had mules (two each) and only 13 had horses (seven each; these results were skewed by four encampments at Medecho madda that had 10, 12, 15 and 35 horses). Donkeys are used as pack animals and may haul water, firewood, cut-and-carry forage for calves and salt. Mules are routinely ridden by men, using locally made saddles and bridles. Mules may also be used as pack animals. Horses are primarily reared as a prestige animal (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 209) and are ridden by wealthy men to important meetings and ceremonies. Equines are not ridden by women. Horses and donkeys are watered once every two or three days in dry seasons, respectively (Donaldson, 1986: p 8).Chickens are common at Borana encampments and the women build elevated hen houses out of local materials. Women manage chickens and sell them to town dwellers (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication). Chickens thus could be an important (and often overlooked) source of women's income. lt is unclear whether the pastoralists ever eat mature birds or the eggs, as this has never been recorded in household surveys (NegussieTilahun, 1984;Donaldson, 1986;Holden, 1988). Chickens are probably most valuable as marketable commodity.Typical patterns of cattle management, including separation of adults and immatures, nightly corralling of adults, milking cows with the calf at foot, allocation of milking quarters to human or calf consumption, intensive hand-rearing of calves, water restriction of adult cattle and calves in dry seasons, splitting cattle into home-based and satellite herds and differentiation of management roles according to sex and age among household members have been commonly observed to various degrees in similar systems throughout sub-Saharan Africa (Dahl and Hjort, 1976;McCabe, 1983;Wagenaar et al, 1986;de Leeuw and Wilson, 1987;Massey, 1987;Coppock et al, 1988;Grandin et al, 1991). Alberro (1986: p 37) commented that the Boran sustain an ecological balance in their system in part by not desiring to accumulate large numbers of cattle and by slaughtering unwanted calves in the dry season. This was speculated to be a management adaptation to a restricted resource base. lt is notable that there is no support for such speculation based on observations reported here. Like other pastoralists, Borana herd owners seek to accumulate cattle for various social and economic reasons (see Section 4.5.4: Traditional marketing rationale).The standard practice of watering cattle once every three to four days in dry periods in response to local constraints of forage, water and labour is somewhat unusual, but such practices are permitted by the relatively cool temperatures (Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity) which facilitate maintenance of cattle water budgets by reducing evaporative losses for thermo-regulation (King, 1983). ln interviews with Borana elders, the hypothesis that restricted watering of cattle is a relatively recent innovation due to population pressure was rejected (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). According to the elders, the practice has apparently lasted for many generations. This suggests that labour and/or water limitations have been historically important in the region.The proportion of females to males in Borana cattle herds found by Mulugeta Assefa (1990: p 19) of 74:26 is in agreement with previous surveys by AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974h) who found a ratio of 69:31 . This is also similar to results for other pastoral and agropastoral groups through out sub-Saharan Africa with an average of 65% females: (de Leeuw and Wilson, 1987). The high proportion of females is thought to help stabilise milk production by offsetting the longer calving intervals characteristic of these systems (Jahnke, 1 982 cited by Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 20).The average age at first calving of four years found by Nicholson and Cossins (1984) and 4.5 years by Mulugeta Assefa (1990: p 21) also agree with earlier surveys done on the Borana Plateau by AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974h) and Faulkner (cited in Donaldson, 1986). These figures are higher than the mean of 3.6 years for Bos indicus found in a number of traditional systems reviewed by Mukasa-Mugerwa (1989: p 59). Age at first calving is highly influenced by the nutritional environment (Mukasa-Mugerwa, 1989: p 59). Mulugeta Assefa (1 990) also found cows among the low-producer class that reportedly had their first calf two months earlier than the high-yielding ones, which may underlie some fundamental differences among cow classes (see below). Nicholson and Cossins (1984) noted that age of first calving of improved Borana cattle on Kenya commercial ranches was only 2.4 years. This may be a particularly exceptional situation, as Pratt and Gywnne (1 977: p 1 49) gave a range of 3 to 4.3 years for Borans managed on ranches and research stations in East Africa. Trail and Gregory (1981), in a study of 10 years of data from the Kenya Rift Valley, found 3.3 years to first calving for Borans. lt may thus be concluded that age at first calving of Borana cattle on the plateau is at the upper end of the range for animals reared on traditional settings. The ability of some Borans to calve markedly earlier under improved management is presumably related to the secure forage base and upgrading of the genotype.Estimates of weights for mature Boran cattle vary markedly. Nicholson (1 983b) found an average size for male cattle at Sarite of 282 kg, less than the mean of 318 kg for mature males reported by Alberro (1986: p 33). The animals studied by Nicholson were probably younger than those considered by Alberro. Nicholson and Cossins (1984: p 19) reported that it takes five years to produce a maximum-sized male of 350 to 450 kg and this is in contrast to Church et al (1957) who estimated the time to be six to seven years. Alberro (1986) also noted a maximum size of about 500 kg for males and an average mature weight of 225 kg for females on the plateau. Genetic upgrading of animals under conditions reportedly produces mature males and females that weigh from 550 to 850 and 400 to 550 kg, respectively (Alberro, 1986: p 33).Annual calving rates of 67% (Mulugeta Assefa, 1 990: p 21 ) and 75% (Nicholson and Cossins, 1 984: p 2) in average rainfall years exceed earlier estimates of 50 to 60 % by AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974h). Considering uncontrolled breeding and the variable environment, a rate of 67 to 75% is at the upper end of the scale for either traditional production systems (34 to 69%) or for research and commercial conditions (53 to 82%) in Africa (Mukasa-Mugerwa, 1989: p 64). Uncontrolled breeding is the norm in African traditional systems (Wagenaar et al, 1 986; de Leeuw and Wilson, 1 987; Mukasa-Mugerwa, 1989: p 59; Wilson, 1989) with the hope of having calving distributed through all seasons to provide milk year round. Higher calving rates are correlated with higher rainfall (Cossins and Upton, 1 988a: p 1 22; Mukasa-Mugerwa, 1 989: p 66) which underscores the fundamental role of the nutritional environment in regulating conception. Disease, genetics and management may also play key roles otherwise (Mukasa-Mugerwa, 1 989: p 63). De Leeuw et al (1 991 ) noted for Kenya's Maasailand (which, like the southern Ethiopian rangelands, is also under a bimodal rainfall regime) that with two seasons of average or above-average rainfall per year, the calving percentage would come to 75%. One average or above-average rainy season per year would yield an annual rate of 58% while two below-average rainy seasons in a year would yield 43% . This perspective is very relevant for the Borana Plateau, but it must also be qualified by stocking rate and competition for forage (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).Mulugeta Assefa (1990) found markedly lower calving rates for cows held by poor households (56%) versus those of middle-class or wealthy households (70-71%). This could be related to the higher milking intensity he observed within poor households. The poor reportedly milked each cow more often, using more quarters and one month longer than wealthy families. Similar patterns of milking pressure were found among the Maasai (de Leeuw and Wilson, 1987: Grandin, 1988). More intensive milking has been noted to increase the period or lactation anoestrus in zebu cattle, the hormonal mechanism is reviewed by Mukasa-Mugerwa (1 989: p 72). Evidence from other pastoral systems suggests milking effects on lactation anoestrus are minor. De Leeuw et al (1991) found that when milking is prolonged by one month the calving interval increased only by three days, as cows milked for four or five months calved 20 or 21 months later, respectively. For Mali, de Leeuw and Wilson (1 987) estimated that every additional month of milking increased calving intervals by 10 days.The generally higher level of milk deprivation of calves of poor families (see below) may also have a long-term effect on calving rates. Despite the ability of calves to compensate for the effects of early milk deprivation and reach maturity at a similar time across all wealth classes (see Section 7.3.3.4: The calf: Prospects for growth acceleration), they may be impaired in terms of subsequent breeding success. Mulugeta Assefa (1990: p 23) cited Clutton-Brock et al (1987) who noted that the lifetime breeding success of different cohorts of red deer (Cervus elaphus) were strongly related to the differences in nutritional conditions of the years of their birth.Calving intervals overall were estimated at 14 to 15 months (Nicholson and Cossins, 1984: p 3;Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 23) which agrees with 154The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974h). This estimate is lower than the 20-26 months reviewed by de Leeuw and Wilson (1987) and is at the lower end of the 1 2 to 26 month range for zebus proposed by Mukasa-Mugerwa (1989). Calving intervals on the Borana Plateau are strongly influenced by the environment, as over 90% of conceptions and births occur either in the long or short rains or shortly thereafter (Nicholson, 1983a;Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 24;Sovani, 1990). This effect of the environment has also been observed on ranches (Trail and Gregory,1 981 ). The different calving rates found among wealth classes by Mulugeta Assefa (1990) also imply that calving intervals may vary at most from about 14 months for animals owned by the wealthy to around 20 months for those owned by the poor. Assuming a succession of average rainfall years, Nicholson and Cossins (1 984) reported that having reached four years of age a heifer will likely produce 6 to 6.5 calves in a reproductive lifetime of 8 to 8.5 years. Culling commonly starts around 12 years of age. A few animals in their survey were between 15 to 20 years old and reportedly still calving. Anecdotal observations of Alberro (1986: p 34) agreed with this assessment. This is a marked increase in performance over zebus in the Ethiopian highlands that reportedly yield only three to four calves over a reproductive life of 7.6 years (Mukasa-Mugerwa et al, 1989). Data from Trail and Gregory (1981) suggest that improved Borans under conditions produced seven calves over a productive life of 7.7 years, only moderately higher than that observed on the Borana Plateau. Data from Trail and Gregory (1981) also indicated that the cows were culled around 11 years of age, which on average is only several years younger than that observed by Nicholson and Cossins (1984).The results of Nicholson (1 983a) for average calf birth weight (18 kg) and a low ADG for nursing calves (136 g/day) are similar to estimates for pastoral systems elsewhere (Wagenaar et al, 1 986; de Leeuw et al, 1991; R. T. Wilson, lLCA, un published data). The estimates of median milk yield (843 kg) and lactation length (320 days) by Nicholson (1983a) were higher than those of Belete Dessalegn (1982; 488 kg over 249 days) or that of Mulugeta Assefa (1990; 436 kg over 237 days). These substantial differences reflect differences in research methods and the effects of the different sites and years, Nicholson (1983a) probably provides the most accurate baseline set of data. Nicholson and Cossins (1984) stated that milk production ranged from 680 to 1000 kg/lactation. lt is noteworthy that milk output of Borana cattle under highly seasonal range conditions appears: (1 ) similar to that of native cattle of the Ethiopian high lands under conditions; and (2) higher compared to native cattle of the Ethiopian highlands under smallholder conditions. Kiwuwa et al (1 983: p 1 3) reported yields for Arsis and zebus as averaging 869 kg over a 287-day lactation. Mukasa-Mugerwa et al (1989) noted that zebus under traditional management yielded about 524 litres over a 239day lactation, roughly 62% of that for Borans reported by Nicholson (1983a). ln sum, these contrasts give some credence to claims that the indigenous Boran is, even at minimum a moderately good and efficient milk producer (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 147;Alberro, 1986). Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 149) indicated that Borana cows under management in East Africa may yield up to 2641 kg/lactation, over three times the mean value for pastoral management found by Nicholson (1983a). Such production levels are presumably related to genetic effects as well as a secure forage base resulting from moderate stocking rates.Mulugeta Assefa (1990) noted that there are three classes of milking cows in the Borana system that vary significantly with respect to several production aspects. Although the lowest producers were milked less intensively over the shortest length of time, compared to the highest producing cows, they had a slightly lower age at first calving and a shorter calving interval that could lead to a slightly higher lifetime productivity. The shorter calving interval could be due to a reduced period of lactation anoestrus; the high producing animals sacrifice more of their body stores to support milk production and the next conception is thus delayed (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 24). This difference among cow classes is most likely to be genetic but it is doubtful that the Boran have a breeding regime that promotes one class of cow over another given that animals of various owners are herded together and breeding is uncontrolled. lt is more likely that selection is fortuitous. lf the high producing cows are more susceptible to death during droughts (Cossins and Upton, 1985;lLCA, 1986: p 25), a selective breeding regimen would be fruitless over the long term, anyway.ln their study of different cattle breeds in a seasonal environment, Vercoe and Frisch (1983) argued that Bos taurus breeds and their crosses were more productive under favourable conditions than Bos indicus because the former have a higher basal metabolic rate. However, Bos indicus was postulated to be more likely to survive unfavourable enviromental conditions. This illustrates the important trade-off between productivity and survival and may apply to the different classes of milk cows in Borana.The finding of Nicholson (1983a) that the shape of the lactation curve of Boran cows in the rangelands as being typically bimodal fluctuating markedly with season, is in sharp contrast to the classical lactation curve (Wood,1 967). This under scores the great influence of the nutritional environ ment under traditional production conditions. But with shifts in animal density, the bimodal lactation curve may vary in its occurrence from year to year (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Nicholson (1983a) found that milk offtake for human use ranged from 30 to 40% of production and that the average daily offtake was about 0.92 litre/cow. Work done by Holden et al (1991) and Mulugeta Assefa (1990) indicated similar average rates of offtake overall, but again considerably more resolution was provided by differentiating house holds into wealth classes. The findings of Nicholson (1983a) are remarkably similar to those for Maasailand (40% offtake with 0.94 litre/cow/day; de Leeuw et al, 1991), a transhumant system in Mali (20 to 35% offtake with 0.7 kg/cow/day; Wagenaar et al, 1 986) and other pastoral and agropastoral systems reviewed by de Leeuw and Wilson (1987; up to 1 .1 kg/cow/day). Even smallholders may take 45% of the yield of local zebus (producing 2.2 litres/cow/ day) in the Ethiopian highlands (Mukasa-Mugerwa etal, 1989).The low growth rates of nursing calves on the Borana Plateau were hypothesised to be related to milk deprivation due to high offtake (Nicholson, 1983a;Nicholson and Cossins, 1984;Cossins and Upton, 1988b). The same relation has been proposed by Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 36), Wagenaar et al (1986), Wilson (1987), Preston (1989) and de Leeuw et al (1991; see Section 7.3.3.4: The calf: Prospects for growth accele ration). lt was also found in the Borana Plateau that this competitive relation will vary markedly according to proximity to market, wealth strata and cow productivity class (Holden et al, 1991; see Section 4.3.5.3: Effects of distance to market, wealth and season on pastoral dairy marketing). lt is thus a hypothesis that requires caution in generalising. Wagenaar et al (1 986: p 50) noted that higher absolute offtakes of milk from Fulani cows were positively correlated with better calf performance, rather than the reverse. This has relevance to the work done by Mulugeta Assefa (1990) and Holden et al (1991) in which it was commonly stated by producers that they tried to avoid milking low-yielding cows so that their calves could have all the milk, milking only the high-yielding cows and sharing the milk with their calves. Even in this situation, calves of the high-yielding cows are likely to have more milk than calyes of low-yielding ones. Thus, the relation between milk offtake and calf performance is underpinned by cow productivity, which probably explains the result of Wagenaar etal (1986).lt has been further speculated that milk restriction for Borana calves could have a carry-over effect in causing permanent stunting, delaying time to puberty and therefore reducing lifetime pro ductivity of females (Nicholson, 1983a;Nicholson and Cossins, 1984;Cossins and Upton, 1988b). This has also been postulated by Preston (1989). However, these claims have been tested and rejected to be invalid in the southern rangelands. Animal weight tends to become harmonised during the post-weaning period as a result of com pensatory growth and seasonal effects (see Section 7.3.3.4: The calf: Prospects for growth accele ration).ln sum, considering the vagaries of the southern rangelands environment, there is no indication that the fundamental productivity of Borana cows is unusually poor. ln fact, productivity appears to be similar to the lower end of the range for animals kept under African and research station conditions and even superior to that of indigenous breeds in the Ethiopian highlands. Major differences in pro ductivity likely arise from genetic improvements, but institutionalising breeding to this end is very risky under existing conditions of drought vulnerability where survival capability, and not merely high productivity, is the ultimate measure of success. Although calves grow slowly, this may mean little in a system where high turnover of the inventory is not a production value, production costs are low, and increasing growth rates via more forage feeding and provision of extra water is expensive and very difficult (Section 7.3.3.4: The calf: Prospects for growth acceleration).Excluding drought impacts, mortality rates for adult cattle were reported to be low after two years of age, with an annual rate of about 5% due mostly to disease and accidents (Cossins and Upton, 1 988b). This low rate is in agreement with values for cows reported by de Leeuw and Wilson (1987) who concluded that adult cattle mortality is a minor determinant of overall herd productivity in pastoral systems. This relatively stable state of affairs on the Borana Plateau has been so probably more during the past 20 years or so, because of veterinary campaigns. Nicholson and Cossins (1 984: p 5) cited Church et al (1957) as reporting large losses of stock on the plateau as a result of unchecked rinderpest outbreaks in the 1950s. Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 38) contended that rinderpest control was still ineffective in southern Ethiopia in 156The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaLivestock husbandry and production the early to mid-1970s; but this has changed since then (SORDU, 1988). Long-term destabilising effects of disease control on livestock populations have been mentioned by Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 38) and Lamprey (1983;cited in Ellis and Swift, 1988). Wood (1989) noted the role of veterinary activities in the growth of cattle herds in western Zambia during the 1980s. Nicholson and Cossins (1984: p 5) reported that mortality rates of calves, in contrast to those of mature cattle, varied markedly across seasons and years. Their estimates were 1 0% for average rainfall years and 23% in dry years. The sequence should also include the 90% losses in a drought (Donaldson, 1986; see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition). Mulugeta Assefa (1 990) calculated calf death rates of 21 , 1 9 and 69% for average rainfall, dry and drought years, respectively. He also found that lowest mortality rates were rigisterd for animals held by middle-class households, which again justifies the segregation of data by wealth classes. Data from AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates (1974h) and Church et al (1957) suggested that up to two years of age calf mortality was about 40%, presumably in average rainfall years. However, these claims were discounted by Nicholson and Cossins (1984: p 5) as inaccurate.The overall average calf mortality rate of 1 8 to 25% for Borana calves up to one year of age during nondrought years is comparable to the 15 to 21% rates found for some agropastoral systems in the review by de Leeuw and Wilson (1987), and that is markedly lower than that for transhumant systems with rates of 27 to 36% including peri-and post natal losses (Wagenaar et al, 1986;de Leeuw and Wilson, 1987). De Leeuw et al (1991) noted that Maasai calves have particularly low rates of mortality (1 2% for calves up to seven months of age) and they attributed this to intensive hand rearing and the high cultural value placed on calves. Calf survival was mentioned as the top production priority of the Maasai, exceeding even milk supply for the family. The Boran also rear calves intensively but they have probably poorer access to veterinary inputs compared to Kenya's Maasai (Evangelou, 1984: pp 76-84; see Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation).De Leeuw and Wilson (1987) concluded that high calf mortality is the most important factor causing the low output of traditionally managed herds. Likewise, Dahl and Hjort (1976) cited Williamson and Payne (1965) as recommending that calf mortality rates over 15% should attract serious attention for interventions. ln contrast, Cossins and Upton (1988b: p 267) speculated that only very modest overall production gains would result from substantial reductions in calf mortality in the Borana system. This view was derived from modeling that employed a \"steady state\" approach which allowed no net herd growth and contrasted intervention options that shifted the proportion of various age and sex classes of cattle. An increase in the proportion of calves tended to increase overall herd mortality and decrease output by slightly reducing the proportion of milking cows. This approach was later critiqued by Upton (1989) concluding that the benefits of calf mortality mitigation were underestimated by Cossins and Upton (1988b). This is discussed further in Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation.Nicholson and Cossins (1984: p 7) list seven major causes of mortality for calves and suspected pasteurellosis as the most important, followed by five other diseases and finally starvation. A more recent review of calf diseases is found in Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 31-34). Mulugeta Assefa (1990) more clearly segregated reports of calf deaths according to disease and starvation and noted that losses because of diseases were more common in average rainfall and dry years but that during drought nearly all deaths were due to starvation. Nutrition-related losses were most likely the result of competition for milk in poor households while losses from disease of calves belonging to wealthy households were most likely because of lower labour investment (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990).The limited capability of the regional veterinary unit at SORDU to provide \"farm-gate\" services to immobile calves means that this large cohort, comprising 24.6% of the regional cattle herd according to Cossins and Upton (1987), remains particularly vulnerable to disease. Mulugeta Assefa (1990: p 33) cited SORDU's (1988) summary of animal health statistics from 1 976-87 as estimating that although 25% of calf deaths on the plateau were caused by disease, only 2.6 and 6.1% of the calf population had been vaccinated or otherwise treated, respectively. The logistical difficulties in implementing disease control programmes for calves dictate that at least appropriate feeding management tactics must be devised to reduce calf mortality (see Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation).The pre-eminent importance of milk production to the welfare of the Boran indicates that health problems specific to cows should receive more attention. Besides spreading several dangerous diseases on the Borana Plateau (but not East Coast Fever), ticks may cause swellings and lesions of soft tissues of cattle (Hill, 1982). The results of the survey on cow udders and teats damaged by ticks (Coppock, 1990b) have important implications for milk yields. A 1 3% damage rate for teats implies that a household with an average of eight cows may require one more cow simply to maintain current level of milk production. Assuming these data are representative of the entire study area, and if cows make up 45% of the total cattle population of 250 000 head (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 206;Assefa Eshete et al, 1987), it suggests that the number of cows would need to be increased by 14 600. At current high stocking levels these additional cows would have to compete with or displace other cattle that are also valuable for economic security (Coppock, 1992b). Because a cow only loses one or two teats from tick damage (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation), it is impaired but remains productive; so that ticks are a burden on the system in terms of milk production efficiency. lt is unclear, however, whether or not the undamaged portions of the udder increase production of milk to compensate for damaged portions. This should be a topic for future research.One solution for tick control is implementation of appropriate chemical prophylaxis and range management practices such as prescribed burning (see Section 7.3.3.1: Mature cattle and Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation). Concern has been raised, however, if an unsustainable introduction of acaricides would not reduce the natural resistance of Boran cattle to tick-borne diseases (G. Smith, former TLDP consultant, personal communication). The literature is conflicting on the degree to which Boran cattle are immune to tick-borne diseases. On the basis of anecdotal observations, Alberro (1986: p 32) noted that Boran cattle were infested with ticks and yet they seemed to have a high degree of tolerance to disease due to early exposure as calves. He also remarked that the Boran herd owners do not feel it necessary to remove ticks because they believe their cattle possess such immunity. This is an understandable response to overwhelming tick problems since they consistently express concern about tick control in lLCA surveys (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). ln contrast, Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 145) mentioned that Boran cattle are more susceptible to tick-borne diseases than the East African Zebu, but this remark may be biased because of the occurrence in Kenya of East Coast Fever which is deadly (Stobbs,1 966). Hill (1 982) cited AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates (1974h) as listing 21 different types of ticks on the Borana Plateau and that the local stock are resistant to tick-borne piroplasmosis, anaplasmosis, theileriosis and rickettsiosis except when nutritionally stressed. Despite these conflicting comments, still use of acaricides could be useful for adult animals that have been exposed to tick-borne diseases as juveniles while the topic requires further investigation (see Section 7.3.3.1: Mature cattle).One of the most important findings of the work of Nicholson (1987a) was that cattle possess the ability to compensate in the wet seasons for moderate amounts of live weight lost in dry periods as a result of water restriction. Water restriction acted primarily to overheat animals and thus depress their dry-matter intake, a fact which had been noted previously (King, 1983). The fundamental problem of water shortage in dry periods tends to discount the effectiveness of forage interventions specifically targeted to improve the nutrition of adult cattle in dry seasons. ln contrast, because of their smaller size, improvements of forage and water resources for calves in dry seasons appear more feasible (Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation). This ability to compensate for the ill effects of water restriction is significant for beef production and the recovery of cows to allow conception. However, the results obtained by Nicholson were probably positively influenced by conditions at Abernossa compared to the pastoral situation because of the high availability of forage at the and because the animals were apparently not corralled at night, which would allow them to forage when temperatures were cooler. Dry season standing crops may vary 10-fold between Abernossa and pastoral systems (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation), animals on the Borana Plateau are confined, for example nightly for about 11 hours (Belete Dessalegn, 1983). This suggests that compared to the pastoral situation, the animals may have lost weight more slowly in dry periods and while being able to recover more quickly in wet seasons. The biggest difference in animal response between the two systems may occur in dry periods. Assuming that forage quality is similar, cattle could probably have more opportunity to consume a higher quantity of forage during the first one or two days after watering compared to those grazing communal rangeland. Conversely, differences in animal response in the two systems may be less in rainy seasons, and this would depend more on differences in the quality and productivity of forage. Despite these points, however, it is clear that watering cattle once every three days is common during dry seasons on the Borana Plateau. Further study would be needed to assess the degree to which weight compensation by cattle is impaired under pastoral, as opposed to ranch, conditions.The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaLivestock husbandry and productionCattle watering once every four days was observed at some well groups on the Borana Plateau during the long dry seasons of 1988 and 1989, and this was reportedly due to a low volume of ground water in particular areas (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). This variation with year may be related to the possibility that certain watersheds receive lighter precipitation during the long rains. ln any case it supports comments by Alberro (1986: pp 34-35) that Borana cattle can be watered once every four days and are thus particularly tolerant to water deprivation, although as previously mentioned the relatively cool climate probably contribute to this through slower rates of dehydration (King, 1983). The Boran recognise that cattle need to be adapted to thr regime of watering every three days. They thus refrain from daily watering of calves in dry seasons even when sufficient water is available (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). The role of water restriction in calf growth and the effects of small-scale water development for use by calves and households is reviewed in Sections 7.3.3.4: The calf: Prospects for growth acceleration and 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation.Nicholson (1 987a) concluded that overall effects of water restriction were negligible and recom mended restricted watering practices particularly for ers. Significant benefits such as water use efficiency (30%), extension of grazing area (ninefold), forage conservation and savings of labour and/or fuel were noted from restricted watering. ln one striking example, Nicholson (1987a) noted a potential annual savings of 1 .9 million tonnes of water as a result of increased water-use efficiency by 800 000 cattle throughout the southern rangelands if they were all to go on a once every three days watering regime. Such advantages of water restriction probably outweigh most disadvantages to the Boran and are instrumental in helping a high density of both people and animals survive despite their being restricted to areas around the deep wells for a habitat (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources). ln addition, implicit recognition that cattle can compensate for certain seasonal stresses such as water restriction is probably one reason why the Boran are apparently uninterested in supplementing the diet of cattle during dry seasons as long as the situation is not life threatening (see Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale).Cossins and Upton (1988b: p 259) echoed the benefits of watering every three days and stated there were no apparent costs associated with the practice. While this may be true in terms of live weight loss and physical condition, the conclusion needs to be qualified with respect to milk yield, which is the key production parameter and of acute importance to the Boran in dry periods. Nicholson (1987a) noted that the reduced calf growth among the group watered every three days was indicative of a drop in milk production. The water turnover and weighing trials indicated that this reduction was about 1 3%. This is a considerable depravation for the calves, but the Boran obviously have the perspective that the interacting constraints of labour, water and forage outweigh this. ln a related eight-month experiment with four treatments not reported here, Nicholson (1987b) examined the interactive effects of corralling nightly and trekking to water once every three days on live weight and physical condition dynamics and activity budgets of growing and breeding cattle at Abemossa. The main effect of walking and corralling combined was to reduce grazing time by 40% when compared to control animals. Walking and corralling also depressed dry-matter intake but only 12% (compared to the controls), indicating that the restricted animals fed at faster rates when given the opportunity (Nicholson, 1987b). The overall effects of corralling and walking a total of 3040 km on animal response variables were interpreted to be small and overshadowed by the generally poor base level of nutrition, as reported earlier by Payne (1965).Using calculations of maximum live-weight differences between walked and sedentary groups (20 kg) and the assumption that this live weight should contain 480 MJ GE (MAFF, 1 984), Nicholson (1987b) calculated that the cost of walking was 0.6 KJ/kg/km, roughly one-third of the value reported by King (1983). Nicholson (1987b) speculated that this apparent energy saving may have been caused by walking adaptation, physical fitness and/or other energy-conserving mechanisms, but he also acknowledged that the true energy value of the lost live weight was unknown and involved complicated interpretation. The role of energy-sparing mechanisms in Bos indicus under stress has been dealt with by others (Ledger and Sayers, 1977;Western and Finch, 1986) but detailed and properly designed metabolic trials appear to be lacking. Nicholson (1987b) also commented that there was no evidence that walking caused dramatic declines in milk yield. This had been postulated by Sandford (1 983a) as a likely energy trade-off with implications for improving the distribution of water points in a way that minimised travel. lt is important to distinguish, however, whether the possible cause of such a trade-off is indeed energy allocation or merely foraging time and if productivity lost is because of walking. The latter is a simpler explanation as it is a more pervasive seasonal constraint for cattle in pastoral systems (Coppock et al,1 988). Once again the direct transferability of results to a pastoral system may be questioned here because of the superior foraging conditions on ranches. Further details on this point are available in Nicholson (1987b).The question of poor adaptability of cattle from higher elevations when taken to the lowlands was raised in the analysis of Sarite cattle by Nicholson (1983b) and this may be relevant to whether or not highland genotypes could have a sustained influence on diluting the Boran breed in the rangelands. Borana herd owners have been noted to obtain highland cattle in their attempts to re-stock after droughts (Negussie Based on preliminary growth data, Nicholson (1983b) hypothesised that cattle procured from higher elevations on the plateau were poorer performers in the warmer and drier lowlands. He also speculated that these animals were probably genetically related more to highland stock than to the Boran. lf the growth data are considered indicative, it may be further speculated that longterm climate patterns (including droughts that induce high levels of stress and cattle mortality; see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition) may serve to keep highland genotypes out of much of the lower elevations of the southern rangelands on a sustainable basis. Research to test this hypothesis should precede any large invest ment in an attempt to conserve the Borana genotype from alleged dilution by highland breeds.To sum up, when the vagaries of the southern rangelands are considered, performance of Borana cattle appears quite satisfactory. Results for production parameters, however, are only indicative and must not be regarded as static. As often noted, the environment is the supreme regulator of production here and this interacts with a dynamic population density that competes with cattle for resources. Wagenaar et al (1986: p 50) noted that only a detailed time series of data, systematically collected over many consecutive years, could provide the most useful insights into production dynamics and system function. All that was presented in this chapter has been a group of discrete studies, often difficult tojcompare with each other and impossible to compare with work conducted 20 to 35 years earlier.Although hard evidence is lacking, it appears that the current population densities of both humans and cattle on the Borana Plateau may be the highest on record (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). This may set the stage for more regular density-dependent influences on cattle productivity. This depends on climatic patterns and whether such key inputs as veterinary campaigns and manpower can be maintained. lf it is assumed that veterinary and labour inputs improve or remain constant, a long period of average rainfall will allow the cattle population to reach and maintain a density where it impacts the environment and consumes forage reserves otherwise saved for droughts.Under these conditions it can be expected that milk production, weaning weights, cow condition and calving rates will fall and calving intervals will increase. Heavy wet-season grazing could even impair the ability of cattle to regain weight lost during the dry season as a result of restricted watering. Some herd owners reported that lower milk yields and a reduced condition of cattle are already occurring as a result of heavy grazing in 1990, less than six years after the 1983-84 drought (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). On the other hand, if there is regular drought, this will kill animals, de-couple interactions to more of a densityindependent situation, help preserve the environment and create years of high productivity per cow in drought-recovery years as a result of low competition for forage. These scenarios of variable environmental check on production parameters are supported by the observation that Borana cows managed under conditions at Abernossa have reproduction cycles occurring throughout the year (S. Sovani, lLCA, personal communication). This presumably is related to the low stocking rates and high standing crops of forage on the ranch as well as the stock being upgraded genotypes.General observations of small-stock management indicate that patterns of milking, herding, corralling and intensive rearing of kids and lambs practised by the Gabra and Borana are similar to many reported for elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa (Wilson,1 988). Two notable differences may be the lower likelihood of Boran or Gabra milking sheep compared to goats (Cossins and Upton, 1988b: p 265) and the apparent lack of any breeding control. De Leeuw et al (1 991 ) noted that the Maasai use breeding aprons in an attempt to control the seasonality of con ceptions in small ruminants. ln his review, Wilson (1989) commented that uncontrolled breeding systems typical of indigenous management are 160The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaLivestock husbandry and production usually more productive than those on research stations where restricted breeding occurs.Small ruminants comprise about 5% of the livestock biomass held by the average, eight-cow Borana family (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 213). This is considerably less than the 1 5 to 25% range reported for small ruminants in other pastoral settings (Wilson, 1988). The mean age at first parturition for sheep and goats at Beke Pond (17.4 months) is near the average (17 months) for both species reviewed by Wilson (1989), but the mean birth interval of 7.7 months appears lower than that given by Wilson (10 months). Litter sizes on the Borana Plateau of (1 for sheep and 1.1 for goats) also appear to be slightly lower than those in Wilson's (1989) review of 1.38 (goats) and 1.16 (sheep).The greatest constraint to small ruminant production in the Beke Pond area is apparently disease, which is in agreement with the assessment of Wilson (1988: p 324) for sub-Saharan Africa in general. Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) is reportedly the most pervasive disease of small ruminants on the Borana Plateau (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communi cation). ln the past there has been no vaccine for CCPP manufactured in Ethiopia but it is anticipated that production will commence in the early 1990s (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communication). The lack of veterinary service for small ruminants in the SORDU project area today means they will continue to be high-risk species to produce, although the management costs are much less compared to cattle in terms of herding, milking and watering. To compensate for the lack of veterinary drugs some pastoralists reportedly use human antibiotics from clinics to treat illnesses of small ruminants. That special health programmes for small ruminants are hard to sustain is apparent from remarks by Hill (1982: p 5) who noted that mobile clinics for small ruminants and camels were routinely sponsored by the Ethiopian Government prior to 1980.Perhaps the most important information collected to date on small ruminants on the Borana Plateau is from aerial surveys which indicated that numbers of sheep and goats were less affected by the 1 983-84 drought compared to cattle in general (see Sections 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition and 6.3.1.3: Small ruminant productivity). Small ruminants probably contribute to household income diversification and stability. They may also offer a higher rate of economic return compared to cattle (Cossins and Upton, 1988b). Browsing goats in particular use vegetation in a fashion that is complementary to grazing cattle (Belete Dessalegn, 1985;Coppock et al, 1986a;Woodward, 1988; see Section 3.3.5.1: Livestock food habits). Wilson (1 988) noted a keen awareness regarding the value of small ruminants in rural African systems, and this is applicable here. 5.4.7 Camels and donkeys Wilson (1984: pp 17-18) noted that the upper limit of the camel's habitat range is around 550 mm of annual rainfall, and that lslam is an important factor in its distribution. Observations on the Borana Plateau confirmed these points as camels are most abundant in the 650-mm rainfall zone and appear to become very rare some 75 km north of Yabelo where annual rainfall approaches 750 mm. Disease in these more mesic locations may be an important limiting factor (see below). ln addition, the camel's presence further north is also restricted by there being other ethnic groups. The pockets of Muslim Gabra to the north, south and south-west of the study area have been instrumental in introducing camels to the Boran.Many of the Gabra moved to various pockets on the Borana Plateau from the Kenya border during the conflict with Somalia in the late 1970s. The concentration of Gabra in the upper semi-arid zone near Yabelo is most likely due to their free access to the large communal ponds constructed in the 1960s (see Section 1.4.5.2: Water development strategy). The Gabra are not allowed to have easy access to the traditional deep wells to the south that are the property of the Boran and therefore under their control. Ethnic conflicts in 1991 led to reported evacuation of Gabra from Borana-held territory (D.L. Coppock, Utah State University, unpublished correspondence). Wilson (1984: p 44) stated that Gabra camels of northern Kenya are typically small and compact in form. While this somewhat fits the description of the geleb, it does not describe the massive quorti. The quorti more resembles the Somali milk camel (Wilson, 1984: p 42). lt is thus apparent that some diversification of camel holdings may have occurred among the Gabra.Limited observations regarding camels indicate that their most common use by Borana and Gabra pastoralists is to transport grain, water, salt and other goods. They also have a critical role in milk production for the minority Gabra. The Borana, however, have insufficient numbers of camels to provide a meaningful supply of milk to their diets. A few Borana innovators have been observed using male camels to pull ploughs for cultivation.Although limited in scope, data of Belete Dessalegn (1985) verifies the high milk yields and long lactation period of camels compared to cattle (1045 litres over 430 days), which is at the low end of the scale for camel milk production according toThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia the review by Mukasa-Mugerwa (1981: p 61). Camels in East Africa may produce up to 21 00 litres over an 18-month lactation (Dahl and Hjort (1976) cited by Mukasa-Mugerwa (1 981 : p 61 )). Data from Coppock (1988) also illustrates that camels reportedly produced over 1 0 times more milk than cattle during the height of the 1 983-84 drought (1 vs 0.095 litre/head/day; see Section 6.3.2.1: Livestock). Similar perspectives on the role of camels in improving stability of pastoral production systems have been reported by Coughenour et al (1 985), Coppock et al (1 986c) and McCabe (1 987). The higher milk yields of camels are not only significant in terms of household milk consumption but also provided the Gabra with the chance to sell milk when prices were high so that they could buy grain (Coppock, 1988; see below).Disease is reportedly the most important constraint of camel production in the Beke Pond region. Sileshi Zewdie (former SORDU veterinarian, personal communication) considered trypano somiasis as the biggest threat to camels and he felt that infections are incurred by browsing along riverine location and during long-distance commercial treks out of the study area. Tick-borne diseases and skin infections are also prominent (Coppock, 1988). Today SORDU is unable to provide veterinary care for camels.The Boran are very interested in acquiring camels but they often mention problems of cost and market access as major constraints in their attempts to procure them (see Section 7.3.3.2: Camels, donkeys and small ruminants). Other constraints may include low rates of reproduction (Wilson, 1984: p 136), the additional labour inputs required for their management and some peculiar aspects of biology such as inducible ovulation that requires management training (Wilson, 1984: p 84). Despite these obstacles, camels can play a more useful role on the Borana Plateau (Section 7.3.3.2: Camels, donkeys and small ruminants).The very small population of donkeys and mules indicated from surveys is unexplained. This should receive more research attention in the future. lt is possible that water shortage may be a factor in limiting the donkey population. Research in Kenya's arid zone, however, has demonstrated that donkeys perform adequately on a restricted-watering regime as well as on very poor quality forage (Coppock et al, 1986a, b;1988). Another constraint on donkeys could be forage competition from numerically superior cattle (see Section 3.4.3: Use of native plants). lf equines are restricted to graze in the vicinity of encampments, this may make them even more vulnerable to forage competition and hence to death during drought. The high loss of 60% of the equines during the 1983-84 drought attests to this situation (see Section 6.3.1.1: Livestock dispersal and herd composition). Donkeys could play a greater role in alleviating labour burdens on women (see Section 4.3.3: The labour of married women).This chapter has reviewed some baseline features of livestock management and production in an attempt to provide a general perspective on the system. As will be shown in Chapter 7, however, the proper orientation is to view livestock production and management as potentially highly dynamic from year to year. Livestock production and management vary in terms of short-term cycles and long-term trends as defined by interactions of the cattle popu lation with the environment. lntegrated research and development perspectives are presented in Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions. Once these reserves were depleted, satellite herds began to endure higher rates of loss and moved off the central plateau during the second year to secure grazing in the southern Ethiopian highlands and northern Kenya. The net result was a reduction in cattle density in the study area on the order of 50% by 1985. Patterns for other livestock species are less well documented. Sheep and goat flocks may have travelled extensively in some situations during the drought, but overall they appeared to maintain their population densities in most locales compared to cattle during the drought. The small camel population appeared to increase during the drought by 45% and this was probably due to migration from adjacent regions.The main effect of the drought on the production system was deminished cow nutrition due to reduced forage production. Compared to a dry season in an average rainfall year, the acute effects of the 1983-84 drought reduced daily milk offtake to an average household by 92% (i.e. from five litres/family per day to 41 6 ml/family per day). Eighty per cent of this decline was caused by a drop in calving rate from 75 to 9%, with the remainder contributed by a drop in daily offtake per lactating cow from 500 to 260 ml. However, a minor part of this milk deficit was made up by small ruminants at Borana encampments, as 60% of 200 female goats and 50% of 1 1 3 female sheep were lactating during the height of the drought.Considered overall, human diets, normally dominated by cow's milk (55%) and cereals (32%) on a gross energy basis sufficient for maintenance and growth in average rainfall years, shifted to a situation during the drought in which cereals dominated (52%) compared to milk (1 4%) and meat and blood combined (2%), with an average per capita caloric deficit of 27%. Reported duration of acute hunger was 32 months from August 1983 to April 1 986. People compensated for reduced food production by: (1 ) giving priority to young children to receive milk; (2) shifting diet composition for other age groups to include more cereals, meat and blood to accomodate the needs of children; (3) reducing the size and frequency of meals for adults and older youths; and (4) sending the elderly or other volunteers to famine relief camps as a last resort. Roughly 27% of surveyed households in 60 encampments changed location during the drought, but there was no evidence of mass migration. The general impression was that most people attempted to stay in one place and wait out the drought. Maize, sorghum, enset (Ensete ventricosum) and sugar were sources of food energy in the surveyed regions. Gathered bush foods (bulbs, fruits, gum and roots) assumed greater importance during the drought but still represented opportunistic sources of nutrients rather than staples. Hunting was not important. Cattle hides were reportedly boiled and eaten in some instances. Famine relief did not occur until late 1985 and thus was largely unimportant during the two years of low rainfall (i.e. 1983-84). Human diets began to improve rapidly with the onset of average rainfall in April 1 985. Although morbidity in the human population was widespread during the drought, surveys indicated that the incidence of drought-induced mortality was low (i.e. <5%). AboutThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia 18% of the population had moved to famine relief camps by 1985. ln a survey of 48 families in the upper semi-arid zone, most families reported one birth during the drought, suggesting that the human population grew, although it did so more slowly than normal.Besides dramatic declines in milk production, the other major effect of the drought was to reduce pastoral terms of trade by 90%. Pre-drought prices of EB 1.00 per kilogram of live weight for cattle declined to EB 0.30 by 1984. This was mirrored by an increase in maize prices from EB 0.40 per kilogram to EB 1.00 over the same time. Other important consumer goods and livestock species increased or decreased in price accordingly. Cereals were thus commonly available in markets, but their high cost relative to livestock cost reduced effective demand. Low livestock prices resulted from high supply and low demand, particularly in the second drought year. The strategy of families during the first year may have been to sell the same number of animals as in average rainfall years, but to use more of the income to purchase food grains (i.e. 66% versus 30% of income used to buy food). ln contrast to the first year, animal offtake rates probably increased markedly in the second drought year in response to a much greater need for food. Although cattle were often reported to have been sold to buy grain near the end of the drought, livestock were not always mentioned as the most important sources of income. A peri-urban sample of 48 pastoral households in the upper semi-arid zone revealed that milk, household utensils, firewood and other bush commodities were more important than livestock as frequent sources of income. Credit was not available from merchants for food purchases. Temporary employment as labourers was secured by members of 27% of 43 peri-urban households in the upper semi-arid zone.Loss of assets due to drought was high. Monitored cattle herds experienced a net loss on the order of 60% (N = 4143), with 42% lost to mortality, 14% to sale and 4% to slaughter. Losses occurred differentially depending on age and sex class. Researches hypothesise that cattle mortality occurs in distinct waves over time, with the most productive cows perishing earlier on. Cattle losses ranged from 40 to 90% of immatures, 45% of mature cows and 22% of mature males. lmmatures were vulnerable owing to lack of milk and low mobility. Milking cows were vulnerable because of their higher nutritional requirements and the tendency to keep them nearer to overused encampment areas. Mature males were less vulnerable because of their general hardiness and high mobility. They were commonly sold to purchase grain. Small ruminants (N = 788) experienced a 16% mortality rate, with 15% sold and 7% slaughtered. Net reduction in this population throughout the drought was minimal, however, because births tended to balance losses. A survey of 96 Borana and Gabra households in the upper semi-arid zone indicated that the effects of ethnic group and household wealth were important factors in mitigating asset losses. Poor households tended to have lower producing cows than wealthier households. Poor Borana and Gabra households lost 52% of their cattle compared with 28% for wealthy households due to higher rates of mortality, sales and slaughter. Poor Gabra lost over 60% of their camels compared to an average of 40% for other Gabra wealth classes. There was thus no evidence that camels were any less susceptible to drought than cattle in terms of mortality in this instance. Key advantages in having camels, however, may lie more in terms of persistence of milk production for home consumption, and sale and use of male camels for transporting grain. lnterviews in the upper semi-arid zone suggested that on average at the height of the drought, cows yielded a milk offtake of 1 40 ml/head per day over a lactation period of six months, while camels yielded 770 ml/head per day over nine months. The overall pattern of livestock use during drought suggests that animals were not held for quick disposal or sale during times of stress. lnstead, they appear to be assets that are held as long as possible in anticipation of improving conditions. Families are apparently willing to undergo great hardship before they are forced to sell animals. This behaviour has significant implications for exacerbating the effects of drought on the population.Owing to favourable rainfall from 1 985 onwards, the mature-cow component of the regional herd had probably recovered in terms of numbers and productivity by 1989 (or even earlier); thus the impact of the 1983-84 drought was six years overall. Opportunistic cultivation of cereals by pastoralists during 1985-89 was an important means to ameliorate hunger, as were emergency feeding programs during 1985-87. However, deficient rainfall in 1 990-91 again resulted in large losses of livestock, hardship for pastoralists and re-initiation of famine-relief activities. The cattle production system seems remarkably resilient, but density-dependent factors increasingly have negative effects on livestock populations and human welfare. ln terms of cattle performance, the Borana system thus appears to be an equilibrial production system in which increased stocking rates raise the risk of negative impacts on animal mortality rates and productivity. A hypothesis is forwarded that the apparent increased frequency and severity of drought on the Borana Plateau is ultimately a consequence of the high and unsustainable density of people, and not a changing rainfall pattern. Traditional drought reserves are probably being increasingly compromised during normal rainfall years as a result of overflow human settlement and unregulated grazing. Opportunities for widespread dispersal of stock during drought are also becoming more limited as a result of general population increases in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. The human condition on the Borana Plateau has recently been disrupted further by weapons proliferation, ethnic clashes and marketing interruptions culminating from the demise of the previous government in 1990. Ethnic clashes, in part, are probably attributable to competition for increasingly scarce grazing and water resources.The mitigation of the effects of drought on pastoral populations in sub-Saharan Africa has received much attention in the literature (Wade, 1974;Charney et al, 1975;Hogg, 1980;Campbell, 1984;Sinclair and Fryxell, 1985;Moris, 1988). With few exceptions (e.g. McCabe and Ellis, 1987), the commonly held view is that traditional pastoral societies are increasingly unable to cope with drought, as indicated by large losses of herd capital, widening poverty and frequent famine. Traditional pastoral systems are thus thought by many to be in the process of gradual destruction through the combined effects of internal and external forces as exacerbated by drought. The primary objective of this chapter is to review information collected during and after the 1983-84 drought on the Borana Plateau in terms of livestock and human response and to compare the findings with those from other pastoral systems. A secondary objective is to highlight more cursory observations of the effects of the 1990-91 drought to determine whether cattle population dynamics in the Borana system during 1981-91 resemble equilibrial or non-equilibrial patterns (Ellis and Swift, 1988;Behnke and Scoones, 1991). An integrated perspective will be introduced in Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics in which the general effects of subsequent droughts on the Borana system can be predicted.Before the 1 980s, the last drought on the Borana Plateau occurred in the mid-1970s (Donaldson, 1986: p 28). ln contrast to an isolated dry year, a drought is defined here as two or more consecutive years when rainfall [or length of growing period (LGP)] is less than 75% of the long-term average (see Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity).The 1 983-84 drought began with the long rains (April to June) in 1983 when precipitation was roughly 50% of the long-term average. This was followed by three consecutive rainy seasons with deficient rainfall: (1) the short rains in October and November 1983; (2) the long rains in 1984; and (3) the short rains in 1984. These wet seasons commonly had enough rainfall to green-up the rangelands for a short period of time, but new forage was quickly consumed (Donaldson, 1986: p 38).ln terms of rainfall, the drought ended during the long rains of 1 985. The total period for which rainfall was below average was thus two years. Forage pro duction was high and crops of maize were produced during the long rains of 1985 as an opportunistic means of recovery for the Boran (Cossins and Upton, 1988b: p 272). However, response lags in the food chain dictated that milk production would not significantly resume until April 1986 and that recovery of near pre-drought levels of milk offtake by people was probably delayed until 1988 (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Duration of acute drought impact on the production system was thus on the order of five years.Negussie Tilahun (1984) provided a baseline description of Borana households for average rainfall years during 1981-82 (see Section 4.3.1: General household structure and economy in average rainfall years). This work was followed by another survey of 20 households conducted for 21 months from March 1984 to November 1985 coincident with the 1983-84 drought (Donaldson, 1986: p 28).The families in the drought survey of 1 984-85 were distributed among five encampments in three madda (Did Hara, Medecho and Melbana). During November 1984 to November 1985 data were collected weekly for 15 families; observations of family structure and food intake were recorded, and sources and amounts of cash income and expenditure elicited using questionnaires. For the diet study, one enumerator in each encampment recorded total food consumption for members of four families for 24 h/week (Donaldson, 1986: p 52). Amounts of each food consumed were estimated by calibrating appropriate household containers. Gross energy (GE) intake was quantified by multiplying dry-matter intake of each food item by its calorific value from nutritional tables (Donaldson, 1986: p 53). Daily requirements for GE were based on 10.6 MJ GEforan African Adult Male Equivalent (AAME), where a male >16 years of age=1 AAME; a female >1 6=0.8 AAME; and all youths <1 6=0.6 AAME (FAO, 1973, cited in Cossins andUpton, 1987: p 120). Cossins and Upton (1988a) and Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo (1985) reported on human mortality during the drought based on samples of five and 60 encampments, respectively.An important aspect of resource management is the use of resident (warra) and satellite (forra) cattle herds (Helland, 1980b). The former are dominated by milk cows, calves and yearlings, whereas the latter consist of dry cows, bulls, steers and others that do not produce milk but that are hardy and able to travel (see Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle management). The warra/forra system serves to reduce grazing pressure near wells and encampments by sending away animals that are not contributing to immediate subsistence needs (Helland,1 980b). One objective of the drought study was to examine the dynamics of warra/forra allocation. The age and sex structure and size of warra and forra herds were recorded at five encampments for eight months between November 1 984 and June 1 985 and research noted, why cattle were shifted from one herd to another and tallied all births, deaths, slaughters, sales and purchases. Age and sex structure and size of warra and forra herds were obtained for November 1 983 (in the first dry year) using recall from the same herd owners (Donaldson, 1986: p 29). Description of drought dynamics of cattle dispersal and composition of cattle herds were based either on an average of 621 head (forra; four sample dates) and 509 head (warra; eight sample dates). Pre-drought data were based on several thousand head enumerated in a water-point survey during 1982 (Donaldson, 1986: p29).Detailed data on cattle allocation dynamics were supplemented with information from five aerial surveys conducted during March 1983, March and September 1984and March and June 1985(Milligan, 1983;Cossins and Upton, 1985: pp 138-142;Assefa Eshete et al, 1987). A follow-up, post-drought survey was conducted during July 1986 (Assefa Eshete et al, 1987). General aspects of the systematic reconnaissance flight (SRF) methodology were reviewed in Section 4.2.6: Grain cultivation. Results were combined from 1983-85 for surveys that had subtle differences in methodology. The main difference in methods between Milligan (1983) and subsequent surveys was that Milligan (1983) collated data according to madda and particular range units, whereas Assefa Eshete et al (1987) collated data in 1984-85 according to six regions distinguished by spatial and ecological criteria. Regions included Did Hara (2400 km2) and Sarite (3125 km2) to the north, Web (3200 km2) and Gayu (3050 km2) to the east, Medecho (1 700 km2) in the central region and Dilo (2000 km2) to the west. These are depicted by Assefa Eshete et al (1987: map 1). Data collection of Milligan (1 983) was expanded by Assefa Eshete et al (1 987: p 4) to include visual estimates of per cent canopy cover for grasses, woody plants, crop cultivation, potentially arable landscapes and hardpan soil surfaces. This chapter will emphasise the effects of drought on population densities of cattle, small ruminants, camels, equines and people as derived from these surveys.Milk cows are the critical group of animals to pastoralists, and as will be shown, they may be particularly vulnerable to drought (Donaldson, 1986). The subsequent recovery of the cow population after drought in several different regions was analysed by Cossins and Upton (1 988a: p 1 24) using a standard-herd growth model (Upton, 1986b), with parameters for production features characteristic of average rainfall years in 1981-82 (Cossins and Upton, 1 987: p 207). Actual recovery of the regional livestock population was assessed by Solomon Desta (nd) in a comprehensive census of animals using over 3000 water points throughout the SORDU sub-project area during five weeks in February and March 1987.Milk offtake from cattle during the height of the drought was measured one day per week for five months from November 1984 to March 1985 for each lactating cow in the warra herds at the five olla (Donaldson, 1986: p 44). Offtake included milk from morning and evening milkings. Milk intake of calves was not measured. Heart-girth measurements were taken monthly on warra cattle of all age and sex classes during the same period and converted to live weight by the equation: LW = e-8.88(HG + 1)2.87 where LW is live weight (kilograms) and HG is heart girth (centimetres) [from Nicholson (1983)   (Donaldson, 1986: p 42).Fewer studies were conducted on other livestock species. Milk offtake was monitored for 1 29 sheep and 1 97 goats one day per week from November 1 984 to March 1 985 at the five encamp ments (Donaldson, 1986: pp 53-55). A population of 788 goats and sheep were monitored at the five encampments for incidence of mortality, sales and slaughter from November 1 983 through March 1 985 (Donaldson, 1986: pp 127-128). Complete daily records of milk offtake were compiled for lactations for three camels over 14 months during 1983-84 (Belete Dessalegn, 1985). The camel data are reported in Section 5.3.7.2: Camels.The effects of drought on the household economy of 96 sympatric Borana and Gabra families (48 each) in the Beke Pond area were evaluated using questionnaires in two separate surveys conducted in 1987 and 1989 (Coppock, 1988;Webb et al, 1992) Cattle herd dynamics at encampmentsThe following results are primarily based on monitoring that began with pre-drought cattle holdings of 4143 head in March 1982. The drought from April 1 983 to March 1 985 was characterised by cattle death and offtake from the pre-drought inventory as well as the birth of 650 calves that experienced very high rates of mortality. Results were compiled mainly from Donaldson's (1986) study. An earlier synthesis is reported in Cossins and Upton (1988a).The initial effects of the drought were felt within a short time after the failure of the long rains in April 1983. An early response was to move a portion of warra animals to join forra herds (Donaldson, 1986: pp 33-34). Records on the dispersal of 289 head from warra to forra indicated that 91 % of the animals were moved in response to a depleted base of local forage. While the net trend was for warra animals to move to forra, it is notable that cattle were occasionally moved back from forra to warra throughout the drought. From 817 records, cattle were returned to warra herds if local access to forage improved temporarily (57% of records), labour shortages occurred on forra (1 8% of records) or when animals had become weakened and required hands-on care by the householder (1 5% of records).The drought was characterised by a relatively rapid shift of warra animals to forra early on. The pre-drought allocation of 71% of all cattle to warra and 29% to forra in 1982 (/v=4143) had shifted to 34% (warra) and 66% (forra) by November 1983, only seven months into the drought. Subsequent shifts were minor; the peak allocation to forra was 69% by November 1984. Within three months after average rainfall returned in April 1985, the warra.forra allocation had shifted back to 45:55. Data collection was terminated at this time.As a result of shifts in cattle allocation between warra and forra, partuition and differential rates of sex and age-specific mortality and offtake and the sex and age composition of warra and forra herds also changed in a dynamic fashion (Donaldson,. The pre-drought structure of warra herds (A/=2941 ) was 51% mature cows, 8% mature males, 6% immature males (1-4 years old) 10% immature females (1-4 years old) and 25% calves of both sexes ( <1 year old). Nineteen months intoThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia the drought (i.e. by November 1984) this had changed to 52% cows, 3% mature males, 15% immature males, 28% immature females and 2% calves (W=323). The composition of warra herds became similar to that for pre-drought holdings by June 1985, although the numbers of animals had decreased significantly (see below). For forra herds the pre-drought composition (N=120'\\) was 38% cows, 15% mature males, 26% immature females, 9% immature males and 1 2% calves. This shifted to 34% cows, 8% mature males, 38% immature females, 17% immature males and 3% calves by November 1984 (A/=913). Overall dynamics for warra and forra herds are shown in Figure 6.1 .Estimates of cattle mortality were based on records of individual animals at the five olla commencing in November 1 983. Although this study neglected the first seven months of the drought, animal losses should be expected to be lower during this time compared to those occurring during the ensuing 1 7 months. Thus, based on a total herd size of 3493 cattle in November 1 983 plus 650 calves born between November 1983 and March 1985 a total of 1 738 animals subsequently died giving an overall drought-induced mortality rate of 42%. Mortality rates for various age and sex classes were as follows: (1) calves, 443 of 777 or 57%; (2) immature females 196 of 728 or 27%; (3) immature males, 225 of 511 or 44%; (4) mature cows, 791 of 1 759 or 45%; and (5) mature males 83 of 368, 22%. Mature cows constituted 45% of the 1738 cattle deaths followed by calves (25%), immature males (13%), immature females (11%) and mature males (6%). Donaldson (1986: pp 77-78) derived cattle mortality rates for 10 age and sex classes in a drought year based on observed herd structure changes in 1984. For females categorised as mature (i.e. four years old), 3-4, 2-3, 1-2 and <1 year old, he calculated annual mortality rates of 20, 10, 5, 10 and 90%, respectively. For males in the same age classes he calculated annual mortality rates of 7, 5, 5, 10 and 90%.The death of 78 cattle in the warra and forra herds was witnessed, and the leading cause of death for adult cattle was speculated to be starvation (67%); mortality rates were probably higher for lactating cattle under severe nutritional stress (Donaldson, 1986: pp 39-40). The leading causes of calf mortality were speculated to be starvation and the interaction of poor nutrition with diarrhoeal diseases (Donaldson, 1986: p 40). Based on data of Donaldson (1986), Cossins and Upton (1985: pp 141-143) noted that cattle mortality appeared to occur in \"waves\" and a depiction of this is shown in lLCA (1986: p 25). The most vulnerable adults were postulated to have died during December March 1 984 less than a year after the drought commenced and this was followed by smaller peaks in July October 1 984 and December-March 1985. This pattern is also reflected in calf mortality data (lLCA, 1986: p 25). Cossins and Upton (1985: pp 142, 144) hypothesised that the most productive animals died in the first couple of waves and the net result was a smaller population of hardy, but less productive, cows by June 1985. Some support for this hypothesis comes from Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 1-26) who recorded three classes of milking cows recognised by the Boran. ln cow-history questionnaires he found that the highest producers were commonly regarded as being most susceptible to drought (see Section 5.4.2: Cattle production). The best explanation for this hypothesis is that higher-producing animals are more susceptibile because their higher nutritional requirements are more quicky compromised.Cattle were also sold to purchase grain and occasionaly slaughtered. Roughly 584 of 4143 animals, or 14%, were reportedly sold. These were mainly older stock. Another 1 58 mature males were unaccounted for, and these were presumably sold or slaughtered. Based on herd structure analysis by Donaldson (1986: pp 77-78), offtake rates for females in a drought year were estimated to be 5% for those 2-4 years old, with no offtake for other age classes. For males, he estimated that 35% of mature males were taken off, followed by 20% and 1 0% of those 3-4 and 2-3 years old, respectively. The total reduction of inventory not attributable to mortality was on the order of 18%. ln sum, total herd inventory was reduced by around 60% from the combined effects of mortality, sale and slaughter. lmportantly, such dramatic losses of animals may not be representative for the study area as a whole, as these study olla were primarily located in the central zone, which was among the worst-hit regions (Donaldson, 1986: p 30).Aerial survey results combined for all regions of the 1 5 475-km2 study area from 1 983 to 1 985 are shown in Tables 6.1 and 6.2 and demonstrate large species differences in the maintenance of population density on the plateau during drought. These data suggest that cattle density declined by 54% from March 1 983 to the end of the drought in March 1985 and Source: Cossins and Upton (1985).subsequently recovered to 88% of the 1983 numbers by June 1985. ln contrast, the small ruminant population appeared less affected in a negative fashion. Cossins and Upton (1 985: p 1 39) noted that flocks may have immigrated to the plateau during the drought. Compared to 1983, camel numbers (from a base level of around 4000 head; dynamics are not tabulated) increased by 46% during the drought and returned to 94% of pre-drought numbers by June 1985. This was probably also owing to migration of camels into the study area (Cossins and Upton, 1985: p 139).The lack of agreement between cattle losses observed at the household level of resolution versus net changes observed by aerial survey is unexplained. Cattle losses for households, however, were recorded for encampments in the hardest-hit regions. Migration of cattle from adjacent areas may also have influenced the aerial survey results.Another comparison of livestock populations between 1982 and after one year of post-drought recovery in 1986 is provided in Table 6.3. These data are interpreted to indicate that the net change in population due to drought was on the order of minus 24% (cattle), plus 7% (small ruminants), minus 38% (camels) and minus 60% (equines).ln their analysis of regional data, Cossins and Upton (1985: pp 138-142) noted the redistribution of remaining cattle within the plateau during drought. Forra cattle were dispersed to the periphery of the plateau during the first year of drought; subsequent population declines in these regions during the second drought year likely indicated that many animals died and/or were moved out of the study area entirely. Donaldson (1986: p 32) reported that forra cattle ranged as far north as the southern Ethiopian highlands and as far south as Marsabit in Kenya. Cossins and Upton (1988a: p 127) noted that up to 75% of forra herds had moved off the central plateau during 1984. Numbers in Did Hara (to the north-east) increased from 65 000 head in March 1 983 to 79 000 head by September 1 984 and declined to 23 000 head by March 1985. Similar temporal patterns, respectively, were evident for Web to the east (31 000, 52 000 and 9000 head) and Sarite to the north-west (39 000, 51 000 and 26 000 head). The initial flow of animals in March 1 983 was likely from the central zone (Medecho), the west (Dilo) and the south-east (Gayu) as these zones experienced linear declines in livestock populations as the drought progressed (Cossins and Upton, 1985: p 139). The attraction of these regional forra areas probably lay in the availability of forage and water, particularly in the case of Web which has many reliable wells. Scattered rain to the north in Did Hara during the middle of the drought in September 1984 attracted cattle herds (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 126).Cow productivity is primarily a function of herd calving rate, the calving interval and individual milk production (Mukasa-Mugerwa, 1989). Seasonal weight dynamics and conditions can also be useful performance indices. All these production aspects were profoundly affected by the low level of nutrition caused by drought. Donaldson (1986: p 41) noted from cow-history interviews that the calving interval for 61 cows in four encampments was at least 18 months during the drought, about 20% longer than the pre-drought value of 15 months. Calving percentage (the proportion of cows that produce a calf per year) declined dramatically however, from 75% before the drought to 9% (15 of 176 cows) during the drought (Donaldson, 1986: pp 22, 42).The percentage of lactating cows averaged 20% (36 of 1 76) during the second year of the drought, considerably lower than the 75% in average rainfall years (Donaldson, 1986: pp 22, 42). Average daily milk offtake per cow during the height of the drought (based on four daily milk-yield measurements of 36 cows per month) dropped from about 500 ml/head/ per day from November 1 984 through January 1 985 to about 260 ml/head per day in March 1985 just before the drought ended (Donaldson, 1986: pp 43-44).Compared to the total daily milk offtake for an average family in the dry season of an average rainfall year (i.e. about five litres/family per day), daily offtake during the worst time of the drought was reduced by about 92% (i.e. about 416 ml/family per day). This calculation assumes that an average, eight cow family in an average rainfall year has six lactating animals (Cossins and Upton, 1 987: pp 207, 21 3) and that each cow has an offtake of about 830 ml/head per day in the warm dry season (Nicholson,1 983a: p 21 ). The low calving rate during the drought suggests that only 1 .6 cows were lactating. The drop in offtake of 4584 ml/family per day is thus mostly due to the drop in calving rate (accounting for 80% of the decline in milk offtake), with the reduction in yield per cow accounting the remaining 20%. lt is difficult to generalise too broadly, however, as regions varied in terms of drought impact on milk production. Other calculations of drought impact on milk production are provided in Donaldson (1986: p 47). Donaldson (1986: pp 42-43) reported monthly live-weight dynamics, based on heart-girth measure ments, of eight age and sex classes of cattle during the last five months of the drought through the end of the long rains in June 1 985. Mature cattle (275 to 325 kg in December 1984) lost 11 to 14% of their live weight by April, but regained most of this by June. Young calves (averaging 27 kg from December to January) lost about 20% of their weight by April, but also regained it quickly after the rains. Paradoxi cally, immature animals 1-4 years of age appeared either to grow slowly or maintain their weight over the same period (Donaldson, 1986: p 43).This is reviewed by Donaldson (1986: pp 53-54) and Cossins and Upton (1988a: pp 127-128). Based on an initial population of 788 goats and sheep (63% goats) at five encampments in November 1 983, small ruminant mortality during the next 18 months was relatively low with an average rate across both species of 16% (126 total). About 15% were sold and 7% were slaughtered. The net reduction in flock size by March 1 985, however, was only 3%, suggesting that about 275 animals were born or otherwise acquired during the drought. Roughly 60% of the 200 mature female goats were lactating during the height of the drought (i.e. November 1 984 to March 1 985), versus about 50% of the 1 1 3 mature female sheep. Although sheep are not milked and goat's milk provides little more than a dietary supplement for children under average rainfall conditions (see Section 5.3.7.1 : Sheep and goats), during the height of the drought the importance of these products increased (Cossins and Upton, 1988a). Mean milk offtake from goats ranged from 4.4 to 6.3 litres/head per month while for sheep it was 2 to 5.3 litres/head per month. The total daily yield of 28 litres/day from 177 small ruminants provided from 10 to 16% of total food needs on a gross energy basis in encampments in the central region, but only two to three per cent of that elsewhere (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 128).Because of their small numbers, camels were not significant food producers in the five Borana encampments studied in the lower semi-arid zone. However, as will be described, camels were important milk producers for the Gabra in the upper semi-arid zone.A comparison of the aggregate human diet (on an energy basis) for an average household before (/v=20) and at the height of the drought (/v=20) is shown in Figure 6.2 a,b. These estimates are based on food intake values of individuals who lived in encampments and thus do not include forra herders, whose diet would have higher proportions of bush foods and cattle products such as blood (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 129). ln contrast to the pre-drought diet dominated by milk, the drought diet was composed mostly of grain and was sub stantially below minimum daily energy requirements (Figure 6.2a, b). Thus, purchased grain only partially compensated for the drop in milk consumption (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 130). Consumption of meat and blood increased in absolute terms during the drought and occasionally these goods provided up to 40% of the daily energy intake for adults. Many animals died far from encampments and could not be retrieved, so wastage of meat was probably significant (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: pp 129-130). Consumption of blood is rarely reported in household surveys in average rainfall years (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). During the height of the drought, however, Donaldson (1986: pp 47-48) reported that about 7% of warra and 28% of forra cattle were bled monthly and yielded around 2000 litres of blood in total for human diets. Both male and female cattle were bled.  Source: Cossins and Upton (1988a).172The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaEffects of drought and traditional tactics for drought mitigation Donaldson (1986: pp 52-53, 85-86) and Cossins and Upton (1988a: p 130) noted that children under five years old received milk on a priority basis during the drought. ln addition, it was speculated that adults restricted their food ration and altered their diet to permit these children to have what they needed. This is illustrated by Donaldson (1986: p 85) who found that the gross energy (GE) total daily intake for children under five years (=1 0.96 MJ GE; A/=1 8 individuals each observed for 20 days) was 54% higher compared to that for four groups of older youths and adults (=7.14 MJ GE; /v=18 individuals per group with each observed for 20 days). Children under five also appeared to receive the highest percentage of their dietary energy from milk (40%) and this steadily declined to 33, 13, 7 and 4%, respectively, for youths aged 6-10, 11-16, adult males and adult females. Consequently, across the same sequence the per cent grain consumed increased from 56% to 62, 82, 83 and 83%, respectively. Older family members had more diverse diets to help them compensate for a restricted intake of milk. Adults consumed more meat and blood (7% of GE intake for both sexes) and sugared tea (5% of GE intake for both sexes).During the last six months of the drought, milk and grain constituted about 21 and 72%, respectively, of the average diet for the five sex and age classes and the mean daily-energy intake was 7.9 MJ GE. Energy intake increased and diet composition shifted rapidly after the drought ended. From April to June 1 985 the average GE intake per person increased by 26% (to 9.99 MJ GE); milk made up 59% of the total, while grain declined to account for 25% of energy intake (AM 080 person observation days; Donaldson, 1986: p 85). During the cool dry season from July to September 1985 average energy intake (8.78 MJ GE) declined again by 13% compared to the wet season, milk dropped to account for 41 % of energy intake and grain rose once again to account for 54% (/v=1080 person observation days; Donaldson, 1986: p 86).Cossins and Upton (1 988a: p 1 30) reported that, on an annual basis, about 5% of the human population at the five encampments died during the 18 months of observation and that most of these persons were elderly. lt is unclear, however, what proportion of these deaths was directly attributable to famine. Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo (1985) in a survey of 60 encampments in the same region reported that only one person apparently died in each encampment as a result of hunger. They also reported that local movement of families on the central plateau was significant; an average of four out of 15 households per olla (or 27%) left their encampment to search for grazing and food elsewhere. Human morbidity levels were assessed during the drought surveys. lt is speculated, however, that incidence of morbidity was high.The general picture presented thus far indicates that the Boran experienced a dramatic shortfall of milk during the drought and a major response to this was to increase the purchase of grain through priority sale of male animals. The reported cash budgets for 15 families were recorded during the last five months of the drought and are summarised by Donaldson (1986: pp 50-51) and Cossins and Upton (1988a: pp 128-129).From November 1 984 to March 1 985 the mean cash income from products sold for each household was EB 384, with 62% derived from cattle, 8% from other stock (probably small ruminants or poultry) and 30% from milk, butter, hides, handicrafts and other miscellaneous items. All this money was reportedly spent, with 43% used to purchase grain followed by sugar (10%), clothing (10%), other foods and beverages (13%), other items (7%); 17% was unaccounted for. Donaldson (1986: pp 13-14) noted that a household budget in an average rainfall year of EB 570 (for 12 months) was spent mostly on clothing (38%), followed by grain (1 7%), sugar (7%), other food and beverages (7%) and other goods (1 6%), savings accounted for 1 6%. lt was noted that the expenditure on food at the height of the drought was 66%, considerably more than during the average rainfall year (30%). Donaldson (1986) speculated that absolute and relative food expenditures increased as milk production declined. Goods such as clothing were obviously given lower priority in a drought year. Trade-offs in budget priorities, expenditures and animal offtake occur among average, dry and drought years (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 125). Routine animal sales in an average rainfall year provide funds for clothing, food and miscellaneous items (see Section 4.3.1: General household structure and economy in average rainfall years). ln an isolated dry year the same number of animals may be sold, but income is used primarily to buy food. This results in a temporary drop in living standards. During drought, however, the increase in animal deaths and in animal sales necessary for the purchase of the minimum amount of food have short and long-term effects on the household. Changing economic terms of trade between grain and livestock in different types of rainfall years also have a significant effect on pastoral welfare (Cossins and Upton, 1988a).During a multi-year drought economic strategies vary each year. Cossins and Upton (1988a: p 129) noted that, during the first drought year (1983), the Boran were able to maintain their energy intake by selling the routine number of animals and spending most of their income on grain. However, during the second drought year of 1984, sales of all livestock had to be increased by 0.75 to 1 .25 head per person, with about 70% of this consisting of cattle.With a deficit in milk offtake of over 90%, the main survival option for the Boran is to trade animals and animal products in the market place for grain to secure adequate energy. Donaldson (1986: p 15) and Cossins and Upton (1 987: p 21 3) noted that the price for cattle during pre-drought 1981-83 was around EB 1/kg live weight versus EB 0.40/kg for maize. Assuming 5.4 MJ GE/kg for livestock (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 21 3) and 15 MJ GE/kg for maize (Holden,1 988), livestock cost EB 0.1 9/MJ GE whereas grain costs about EB 0.03/MJ GE. Selling 1 kg of live weight at 5.4 MJ GE thus yields money to purchase around 38 MJ GE of energy as grain. At 10.6 MJ GE/day required for one AAME, 1 kg of live weight would provide sustenance for about half a day, versus about 3.5 days for the monetary equivalent in grain. Thus, the availability of grain at favourable terms of trade enables a higher number of people to subsist than if they lived off of livestock alone (Donaldson, 1986: p 15;Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 128). This simple relationship also explains why animals are not routinely slaughtered for food.The decline in terms of trade between livestock and grain during the 1983-84 drought was documented by Donaldson (1986: pp 49-50) and Cossins and Upton (1988a: pp 128-129). After one year of drought the dramatic increase in number of cattle marketed and reduction in local demand forced cattle prices down from about EB 1/kg in November 1982 to EB 0.30/kg in March 1984. Over the same period grain prices rose from EB 0.40/kg to EB 1/kg (Donaldson, 1986: pp 49-50). Prices for other commodities such as sugar and coffee also increased (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 128). The terms of trade for grainxattle calculated in Megajoules general energy (MJ GE) therefore fell from a pre-drought value of 7:1 to 0.8:1 at the height of the drought in mid-1 984, a decline of nearly 90%. Terms of trade were more favourable between dairy products and grain, as pre-drought market prices for butter (EB 3.67/kg) and milk (EB 0.4/litre) increased by 300 and 250%, respectively, in 1984 (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 128). Few families, however, had reliable access to markets or sufficient milk to benefit from this option (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 128-129).Cossins and Upton (1988a: p 124) used a herd growth model (Upton, 1986b) with parameters for cattle production levels during years of average rainfall (Cossins and Upton, 1987: p 207) to predict the length of time required for the mature cow class to regain their numbers after the 1983-84 drought. Drought mortality for cows in different regions was calculated from data of Donaldson (1986) and yielded rates of 25% (north) to 35% (east) and 50% (central). Assuming a series of average rainfall years post-drought, the model predicted that complete recovery in cow numbers would take from six years in the north to nine and 1 4 years in the east and central regions, respectively.The modeling assessment by Cossins and Upton (1988a) was probably too conservative. Some results from Solomon Desta (nd) are shown in Table 1, Annex F, as they are the most comprehensive data on livestock populations ever collected in the southern rangelands. Results were interpreted by Solomon Desta (nd) to show that the cattle population was well on the way to full recovery from drought as early as 1987. This was confirmed by interviews of Borana leaders who contended in 1989 that the cattle population had already recovered from drought and was again vulnerable to future perturbation from a year of below-average rainfall (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data; see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).semi-arid zone 6.3.2.1 Livestock ln a combined survey of 96 households by Coppock (1988) and Webb et al (1992), pastoral households in the Beke Pond region were divided into economic classes on the basis of reported TLU/AAME ratio before the 1983-84 drought. For camel-keeping Gabra the groups were defined as: ( 1) wealthy (i.e. having a ratio >5; A/=13); ( 2) intermediate (2< ratio <5; /v=20), and (3) poor (ratio <2; /v=14). For cattle-keeping Boran, the groups were defined as:(1) wealthy (ratio >9; /v=11); ( 2) intermediate (4< ratio <9; /v=22); and (3) poor (ratio <4; AM 4).Reported livestock holdings across all wealth classes were distinct between ethnic groups before the drought. The average of 22.6 TLUs held by the Gabra (3.86 TLU/AAME) were composed of an even balance of cattle (50%) and camels (47%), with a few small ruminants (3%). ln contrast, the average of 36.1 TLUs held by the Boran (6.56 TLU/AAME) were dominated by cattle (93%), with a few small ruminants (6%) and an occasional camel (1%). These figures suggest that the Boran in this sample were wealthier in animal holdings than the Gabra. Reportedly in possession of far more animals in the mid-1970s, these Gabra claimed to have been impoverished as a result of warfare and relocation from the Moyale area during the conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1978-79 (Coppock, 1 988: p 4; Hodgson, 1 990). The following are notable points from the analysis. Cattle: Based on a reported pre-drought population of 3144 head, 1066 (or 34%) were lost during the drought as a result of mortality, sale and slaughter when calculated across all 96 households. Out of these 1066 head, 759 (or 24% of the pre-drought number) died, 136 (or 4% of the pre-drought number) were sold and 171 (or 5% of the predrought number) were slaughtered. Wealth had a significant effect on cattle losses. Overall, the wealthy lost 28%, the middle class lost 35% and the poor lost 54% (P<0.001). Because the wealth classes differed in absolute numbers of cattle before the drought (i.e. from 53 head for wealthy Boran to four and 13 head for poor Gabra and Borana households, respectively), the absolute impacts were greater on the wealthy. Compared to the wealthy and middle class, the herds of the poor experienced greater losses from mortality (i.e. 30% versus an average of 23% for the others; P<0.001 ), slaughter (i.e. 9% versus an average of 5%; F=0.02), and sales (15% versus an average of 3%; P<0.001). The poor also lost more mature cows overall (i.e. 39% versus an average of 29%; P=0.002). Ethnic group was an important factor. The Boran lost relatively more cattle than the Gabra overall (i.e. 36% versus 28%; P=0.03), but the Boran held roughly 3.5 times more cattle per household before the drought (i.e. an average of 51 versus 15 head). Small ruminants: Based on a reported pre-drought population of 530 head, 135 (or 25%) were lost during the drought as a result of mortality, sale and slaughter when calculated across all 96 house holds. Of these 135 head, 108 (or 20% of the pre-drought number) died, 21 (or 4% of the predrought number) were sold and only six (or 1 % of the pre-drought number) were slaughtered. There were no apparent effects related to ethnic group or wealth class in the breakdown of these data. This was attributable to the consistently small number of small ruminants held per household and high variability in the data. Camels: Based on a reported pre-drought population of 933 head, 436 (or 47%) were lost during the drought as a result of mortality, sales and slaughter when calculated across all 96 house holds. The vast majority (i.e. 90%) of camels were held by the Gabra. Of these 436 head, 391 (or 42% of the pre-drought number) died, 35 (or 4% of the pre-drought number) were sold and 1 0 (or 1 % of the pre-drought number) were slaughtered. Wealth had a significant effect on camel losses. Overall, the wealthy lost 26%, the middle class lost 32% and the poor lost 44% (P<0.001 ). Because wealth classes differed in numbers of camels held before the drought (i.e. from 1 9 head for wealthy Gabra to 6 for poor Gabra, respectively), the absolute loss in assets was greater for the wealthy. Compared to the wealthy and middle classes, the herds of the poor experienced relatively higher losses from mortality (i.e. 64% versus an average of 40% for the others; P<0.001) and slaughter (i.e. 4% versus an average <1%; P=0.04). Sale data were equivocal among wealth classes.These data provide evidence that drought has a differential impact on the herd assets of various wealth classes. ln relative terms, the poor appeared to be hardest hit. There was no evidence, however, that herd assets of the camel-keeping Gabra were affected much differently from those of the cattle-keeping Boran. The advantages of having camels during a drought relate probably more to grain-transport capability, milk production for household consumption and sale in urban markets (see below). The apparent vulnerabilty of camels to drought, despite their seemingly abundant browse resources, may have been exacerbated by disease (Section 5.3.7.2: Camels).The reported duration of hunger (x±SE) was consistent among all wealth classes of both ethnic groups (32+0.5 months; /v=48; Coppock, 1 988: p 4). People reportedly started to experience hunger by August 1 983 (five months after the first failure of the long rains in April and May), and the hunger ended by April 1986 (i.e. one year after the return of average precipitation). Movement of people into or out of the area was apparently minimal. A net gain of six people for 48 families was calculated based on reported migration during the drought (Coppock, 1 988: p 7). There were no human deaths reported as resulting from hunger. Paradoxically, family size actually increased for both Boran and Gabra households largely from births. The average Borana family size of 7.42 before the drought increased to 8.46 after the drought, the net result of an average of 1.21 births, 0.25 deaths, 0.04 departures and 0.08 immigrants (N=24). A similar pattern was evident for the Gabra. The pre-drought average family size of 8.29 increased to 9.42 by the end of the drought, the net result of 1 birth, 0.04 death, 0.04 departure and 0.13 immigrant (N=24).During the height of the drought, Borana families (/v=8 per wealth class) reported median numbers of lactating cattle and milk yields as: (1) 18.6 cows each giving 177 ml of offtake for a total of 3.29 litres/household per day (wealthy); (2) 6.4 cows each giving 154 ml of offtake for a total of 0.99 litre/ household per day (intermediate); and (3) three cows each giving 95 ml of offtake for a total of 285 ml/household per day (poor). Median reported lengths of lactations ranged from 7.1 months (wealthy) to 6.4 months (intermediate) and 3.9 months (poor). All families reported a negligible amount of daily milk offtake from small ruminants or from the very few camels (Coppock, 1 988: pp 9-1 2).During the same period, Gabra families (N=8 per wealth class) reported median numbers of lactating camels and milk yields as: (1) 4.3 camels each giving 1 litre of offtake for a total of 4.3 litres/ household per day (wealthy); (2) 1 .9 camels each giving 620 ml of offtake for a total of 1.2 litres/ household per day (intermediate); and (3) 1.3 camels each giving 700 ml of offtake for a total of 880 ml/household per day (poor). Median reported length of lactations ranged from 1 0 months (poor) to 8.7 months (intermediate) and 7.4 months (wealthy). Gabra families also reported receiving total offtakes of: (1 ) 700 ml/household per day from four cows (wealthy); (2) 400 ml/household per day from two cows (intermediate); and (3) 116 ml/ household per day from one cow (poor). The Gabra reported that they received a negligible amount of milk from small ruminants during the height of the drought (Coppock, 1988: pp 9-12).Priority foods for adults or children (Coppock, *1988: pp 14-15) were similar between both ethnic groups and thus were composited for the final analyses shown in Tables 6.4 and 6.5. Particularly noteworthy was the high reliance on false banana (enset or quocho (Ensete ventricosum)) by adults and use of powdered milk for children. False banana was procured from trade with farmers in the adjacent southern highlands and was probably not readily available in other regions of the central plateau.  (Coppock, 1988: p 18). Famine relief did not reach the study area in large quantities until late 1 985 (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal communication) so it can be inferred that much of the powdered milk referred to in Tables 6.4 and 6.5 was probably purchased in local shops. Famine relief was delayed, in part, because of the emergency famine situation in the highlands (RRC, 1 985). The majority of sample households at Beke Pond had gained access to famine relief, Food-for-Work and donated agricultural inputs by 1986 (Webb et al, 1992). Pastoralists at Beke Pond, however, were probably better off than most in the study area because of their proximity to Yabelo town and the main tarmac road.Except for the wild onion, bush foods did not appear to rank as important compared to foods produced in the home or purchased in the marketplace. Eight common foods from native vegetation are listed in Table 6.6. Hunting was not mentioned as a viable option. Animal hides were reportedly boiled and eaten on occasion (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). Consumption of blood by Gabra households but not by Borana households was reported by Webb et al (1992).For both Borana and Gabra households, trends suggested that milk, mainly from camels (Gebra) or cattle (Boran), was the most important item for market (Table 6.7). Natural gum from trees, household utensils, firewood and charcoal rounded out priority items for sale. Opinion was unanimous that no credit was available from merchants during the drought for purchasing food. lnterestingly, livestock did not appear in these ranking exercises, suggesting that livestock were not primarily held for sale to purchase food during drought (see Section 4.3.4.7: Marketing attitudes).Only 4 of 23 Gabra households had a member who found employment during the drought, while 9 of 24 Borana households were able to do so  (1 ) to least important (9). Gums are extracts from trees. Utensils included hand-carved pots, stools, milk churns and ornate walking sticks. That Gabra could transport firewood and charcoal to market may have reflected use of camels. Milk sales were important because these households lived within 30 km of the town of Yabelo. 2 Entries within the same column that are accompanied by the same letter (x, y) were not ranked significantly different (P>0.05) according to Friedman's test (Steel and Torrie, 1980).Source : Coppock (1988).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia (Coppock, 1988: p 17). All jobs were taken by men between the ages of 20 and 60. Jobs included pond digging, road maintenance, farm labour, urban construction and tree planting. Duration of employ ment averaged 29 days for the Boran and ranged widely from 1 2 days to 1 0 months for the Gabra (the 10-month job was working on construction in the town of Moyale). Wages varied from Food-for-Work (i.e. 2.75-4 kg grain per day) to EB 1 .50-3.00 per day. Webb et al (1992) reported that during the drought pastoralists at Beke Pond assisted each other to a higher degree than did to highland farmers. Sixty-one per cent of pastoral households (W=48), versus 41% of farming households, commonly borrowed money or food from neigh bours and relatives, and 90% of the pastoral households reported that this networking occurred to a greater degree during the drought than during years of average rainfall. Ninety per cent of pastoral households reported no internal conflicts over resource allocation; the few problems included disputes over water rights. External altercations occurred between the Boran and agropastoral Gujji to the north, when the Gujji attempted to move livestock into the Beke Pond area (Webb et al, 1992).During interviews with 30 Borana leaders during September 1 989, many expressed a concern that the cattle density was high enough so that the production system was again vulnerable to a year of below-average rainfall (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). One key insight from respondents was the observation that the average to above-average level of rainfall received during the long rains of 1989 had been insufficient in eliciting \"normal\" rates of milk production or compensatory growth in cattle recovering from the 1988-89 dry season. This was interpreted as suggesting that the cattle population density had grown to the extent that forage competition among cattle was acting as a major force and that this would have repercussions for cattle survival in the coming dry season of 1 989-90. lndeed, during the 1 989-90 dry season at least 1 5 000 head of cattle reportedly died in the lLCA study area as enumerated in extensive surveys by SORDU (unpublished data). This was interpreted to be a density-dependent population response in an average rainfall year, with more of a \"fine-tuning\" character in which about 5% of the cattle population died. ln contrast, no significant cattle die-off had occurred since the second drought year in 1 984.The Borana leaders also expressed concern about maintaining the integrity of traditional drought reserves (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data).According to respondents, drought reserves surrounding large well systems to the east had been recently subjected to unrestricted grazing in dry seasons of average rainfall years and were also the focal points for new settlements. This, in part, was a reflection of seasonal forage deficits in support of a high density of cattle and dwindling settlement options for larger numbers of people. Depletion of the forage in these reserves would then restrict use by forra cattle during the first year of a drought and perhaps lead to a more precipitous decline in the cattle herd.There are no formal data available to document the effects of the 1990-91 drought, but it was reported that losses of cattle were on the order of 50% of pre-drought holdings (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication). The short rains of 1992 were also deficient and led to more deaths of immature cattle (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication). Part of this massive cattle die-off had been speculated to be related to the coincidence of drought with an epidemic health problem, but this has not been confirmed (C. Schloeder, Ethiopian Wildlife Con servation Organisation, personal communication). Emergency feeding for the Boran was re-instated by CARE-Ethiopia in 1 991 and is expected to continue into 1993; 100 000 people were receiving food aid in November 1992 (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication). Problems for people were compounded by proliferation of weapons resulting from the demise of the previous government in June 1990. Numerous and violent clashes among a half dozen ethnic groups have been reported, including skirmishes between the Gabra and Boran and the Garri and Boran (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communi cation; Eshetu Zerihun, lLCA, personal communi cation). Lack of vehicles and fuel in 1990-91 also hindered delivery of food relief and cut market linkages between the southern rangelands and southern highlands. Localfarmers in the rangelands were observed to deplete their seed reserves and prices for maize reportedly exceeded EB 6/kg the highest price in recent times (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication).Compared to the dry season in an average rainfall year, the net production impact of the 1983-84 drought on Borana households found by Donaldson (1986) was a 92% reduction in milk offtake for human consumption due to a 90% reduction in the number of cows in milk and a 65% reduction in offtake per lactating cow. The major effect was on calving percentage owing to poor nutrition. Around 60% of the pre-drought inventory of cattle was lost due to mortality (largely cows and immatures) and from the sale of males and other followers to purchase grain. Drought-related animal losses appeared to vary according to region (Cossins and Upton, 1988a). lt is assumed that calves are highly vulnerable because of restricted milk supply and immobility. Milk cows may be more vulnerable owing to the energy demands of lactation and because they are kept near encampments where forage is commonly depleted. Prime cows are often the last animals to be sold because of their high future production value and pastoralists retain them in the hope that the next rainy season will be good (Coppock, 1992b).The lower death rates for males is a testament to their value as a risk-mitigating investment (de Leeuw and Wilson, 1987). Seemingly non productive, mature male cattle held in large numbers have been traditionally regarded by pastoral development agents as a commodity of little apparent value (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). This view is inappropriate, however, given the high value of males for offsetting asset losses during drought and as item to trade for cows during post-drought recovery on the Borana Plateau (see Section 5.4.5: Cattle growth and implications for breed persistence).Small ruminants appear to have fared better than cattle during the 1983-84 drought. ln part this is probably because of their lower absolute nutritional requirements and mixed food habits that include drought-resistant browse (see Section 3.3.5. 1 : Livestock food habits).There was no evidence that camel mortality rates were appreciably lower than those for cattle in the Beke Pond area. There was evidence that camels were superior to cattle in terms of maintaining milk production. Such conclusions, however, must be tempered in light of the accuracy of verbal recall data. Overall, there is some support for these findings concerning drought impacts on livestock from the literature, but researchers also suggest that there may be significant systemspecific differences in response to drought.The marked loss of cattle and the apparent greater susceptibility of cows and immatures to starvation and disease during droughts has been variously reported for other pastoral systems in East Africa in the 1 980s. Rodgers and Homewood (1 986) found a net 52% loss of cattle among the Maasai in semi-arid Tanzania, a 75% loss of lactating cows and a 20% decline in calving rate. Homewood and Lewis (1987) working in semi-arid Baringo, Kenya, revealed regionally variable loss of cattle, sheep and goats during the first nine months of drought that averaged 50% overall for each species. ln the next four months of drought per cent loss of remaining animals was less than one-half or one-third of that for the first period for cattle and smallstock overall, and there was also evidence that some herds had begun to recover. Calving rates ranged from 70 to 90% before the drought, but declined to 64 to 77% during the drought; these relatively high rates may be related to the moderate density of stock in the study area before the drought. A case study revealed that cow mortality was 62%, with 88% for calves <1 year old (Homewood and Lewis, 1987). The percentage loss of cattle for a given region during the first nine months of drought was positively correlated (P<0.01) with cattle density at the start of the survey, suggesting that density-dependent factors were operating. This relationship was not found for small ruminants (Homewood and Lewis, 1987). ln a study of five Turkana herd owners in very arid northwest Kenya, McCabe (1987) calculated net drought losses of 63% for cattle, 45% for camels and 55% for smallstock. Most of these animals died of starvation and disease. Calving rates declined to 24% for cattle at the peak of the drought and lactating cows were particularly vulnerable to starvation. Male cattle were depleted as a result of slaughter and sale to purchase grain. Relatively more small ruminants than cattle or camels reportedly died of starvation and this was attributed to their reduced mobility in this patchy, arid environment. Fratkin and Roth (1990) noted that camel keepers tended to lose fewer stock than keepers of cattle or small ruminants among the Ariaal of arid Kenya. Grandin et al (1989: p 256-258) reported for Maasailand in semi-arid Kenya that household cattle herds declined by over 40% on average as a result of drought and most of these deaths were caused by nutritionally mediated diseases. Cows and immatures <1 year of age died most readily while older immatures and adult males had the highest survival rates. Aside from an outbreak of Nairobi sheep disease which reduced some flocks, small ruminants were largely unaffected by drought compared to cattle and played valuable roles as food and marketable commodity (Grandin et al, 1989). The situation observed by Grandin et al (1 989) seems to be similar to that for the Boran and this may be related to general similarity in the semi-arid environment and production systems between the Kenya Maasai and the Boran (see Section 4.4.2: Economic comparisons among pastoral systems).That the cattle herds in the southern rangelands may have recovered from drought much more quickly than predicted from computer models is not surprising. Herd growth rates on the order of 10% per annum have been observed in favourable situations elsewhere (see review in Mulugeta Assefa, 1990). Assuming that cow mortality rates reported by Donaldson (1986) and Cossins and Upton (1988a) were accurate the discrepancy probably stems from two main issues. First, the models used production values for an average rainfall year in 1981-82. lt is now known, however, that although 1981-82 was a time of average rainfall, it was also a time of high stocking rates and these high stocking rates probably reduced cow productivity through forage competition (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Therefore, actual calving rates in 1985-87 during the time of average rainfall but lower cattle density could have been markedly higher than the 75% recorded in 1981-82. Second, in post-drought periods the Boran reportedly actively trade mature males for milk cows from the southern highlands. Although these cows may be somewhat less durable over the long term than the range-adapted Boran (see Section 5.4.5: Cattle growth and implications for breed persistence), they may give the system a considerable boost when resource availability is high. lt is this practice of trading for presumably inferior highland genotypes that has led to official concern about dilution of the valuable Boran breed (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and con clusions).That drought has a greater impact on the assets of poor Borana and Gabra households compared to those of the middle and wealthy classes has been reported for other groups. Grandin et al 1989 (pp 256-258) found that the wealthy Maasai had a net loss of 40% of cattle holdings (range 18 to 60%), while the poor lost 70% (range 30 to 90%). Fratkin and Roth (1990) also noted that the 1984 drought exacerbated wealth differentiation among the Ariaal of arid Kenya. Despite large animal losses the wealthy tended to remain so while the middle class and poor became poorer. Although the need for poorer households to sell or slaughter a higher percentage of stock than the wealthy is straight forward and is because of lower per capita food production among the poor, it is less clear why the herds of the poor should have higher mortality rates. Sperling (1989) speculated that the herds of wealthier households should have lower mortality rates because the animals would be milked less intensively and thus have more body reserves to endure stress. She also noted that the wealthy can better afford veterinary care and may distribute their animals to a greater extent during drought than poorer households.The findings of Grandin et al (1989) and Fratkin and Roth (1 990) were interpreted to indicate that the strategy of attempting to maximise herd size so as to increase the likelihood that they will survive in the system after drought is valid. Although the wealthy suffer larger absolute losses compared to their poorer counterparts, they usually retained a sufficiently large nucleus herd to rebound in an efficient manner while the poor may lose enough to be pushed out. This is also a valid hypothesis for the motivations of the Boran, who reportedly desire large cattle herds (Coppock, 1992b). Their stated primary motivation for cattle accumulation, however, is to accrue social and economic status and not to mitigate drought (see Section 4.3.4.7: Marketing attitudes). lmportantly, most of the Borana pastoralists have only livestock assets to buffer them from drought, in contrast to the farmers who can sell assets such as farm implements and personal effects in addition to animals when in dire need of cash (Corbett, 1988;Webb et al, 1992).The decline in terms of trade between live animals and grain observed by researchers in the central region of the Borana Plateau equates to a 70% reduction in the monetary value of cattle, a 1 50% increase in the price of grain and 90% net loss in pastoral purchasing power. This may represent the worst local terms of trade on the plateau, as cattle losses in the central region were the highest reported (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 124).Solomon Desta et al (nd) recorded prices for livestock products and cereals in five to seven markets throughout the southern rangelands during March and April 1984 when the drought was entering the second year. They compared these findings to pre-drought prices and found that, overall, cattle prices declined by 26 to 45% and grain prices increased from 20 to 103%. ln contrast, the price of milk and butter (which by the middle of the drought were in very short supply) increased by an average of 142%. Price changes over the same period for animals were -40% (bulls), -38% (heifers), -30% (steers), -46% (cows), -34% (goats) and -35% (sheep). Detail price changes for cereals were +86% (maize), +82% (sorghum), +42% (teff), +57% (barley) and +45% (wheat). For animals these data can be interpreted as suggesting that cows suffered the greatest relative fall in price, possibly because of their increased vulnerability to drought. No prices were reported for calves and it is likely that supply was small and there was no effective demand. Somewhat surprising was the large drop in small ruminant prices which belies the notion that they would maintain their market value during drought because they could persist better in the local environment. There were no prices reported for camels. Although some Boran probably wanted to have milk camels at this time, there may not have been sufficient demand for these animals which normally cost at least twice as much as cows (see Section 4.3.4.6: Prices). The Gabra may also have restricted the flow of camels to market. lt has been reported that if a Gabra were forced to sell a camel, his peers would try to assist him so he would not have to sell, or would ensure the camel was purchased by a wealthier individual and kept within the Gabra clan network (Coppock, 1988). Thus, except for small quantities of milk and butter, the majority of pastoralists had no animal resources that did not drop markedly in value during the drought. Dairy sales may have been very important in peri-urban locations during this period as they partially substitute for live animals sales in average rainfall years (Holden and Coppock, 1992). Paradoxically milk is commonly sold in time of milk scarcity because favourable terms of trade permit the purchase of a survival ration of energy in the form of grain (see Section 4.4.10: Dairy marketing). Regional differences may have given some pastoralists an advantage in procuring cheaper sources of carbohydrate compared to grains. Households in the upper semi-arid zone near Beke Pond commonly mentioned that enset (or false banana) was cheaper than maize during the drought (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). ln summary, patterns observed here support the axiom that a decline in pastoral terms of trade is a consequence of drought (Toulmin, 1986: p2;Moris, 1988: p 291). More severe drought situations have been reported elsewhere in East Africa where grain is only sporadically available and in these cases pastoralists are commonly unable to procure grain regardless of the low value of their livestock (Sperling, 1989).As one of the first management responses to deficient rainfall, the dispersal of cattle from homebased warra herds to satellite forra herds is an attempt to expand grazing area in relation to a decline in net primary production (Donaldson, 1 986: Cossins and Upton, 1988a). Herd segregation and reliance on fallback regions or drought reserves is a common traditional response to drought in African pastoral systems (McCabe, 1983(McCabe, , 1987;;Homewood and Lewis, 1987;Moris, 1988;Grandin et al, 1989;Sperling, 1989). As on the Borana Plateau, cattle and camels are usually widely dispersed while small ruminants tend to be kept nearer to home areas (McCabe, 1 987; Homewood and Lewis, 1 987; Grandin et al, 1989). Moris (1988)  At the household level, Donaldson (1986), Cossins and Upton (1988a), Coppock (1988) and Webb et al (1992) observed that internal adjust ments by the Boran in response to restricted resources included the following tactics (1 ) Youths were dispersed for forra herding, which decreased food demand at encampments; (2) young children were given priority to receive milk while older youths and adults consumed more grain, meat, blood and other commodities; (3) more income was allocated to food purchases, along with attempts made to diversify income-earning activities, intensify social networking, and increase efforts to collect bush food and consume other unusual food items; (4) older adults voluntarily received restricted food rations; and (5) some older individuals emigrated to famine relief camps. At the encampment level, 27% of the households in 60 encampments moved locally in response to drought, but no mass migrations were observed (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985). Opportunistic cultivation of maize was commonly observed as a post-drought response in 1985 to compensate for a lag in milk production (see Section: 4.4.1 .1 : Pastoralism and cultivation).Most of the adjustments listed above have been observed in other pastoral systems. That the milk-dominated diet of pastoralists is subsidised with nonpastoral grain and an increased use of suchThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia ancillary pastoral foods as blood, meat and native plant material during drought is well known (Ellis et al, 1986;Sperling, 1989). Sperling (1989: p 269) noted that use of collected forage has declined among the Samburu in the last few decades because of loss of land, livestock pressure and purchased grain which has gradually replaced these items in the diet. Traditional knowledge of foraging has thus been lost to a large extent and taste preferences have moved towards grain. One example of the effects of livestock pressure is the use of dry dehiscent acacia fruits. Before the 1 940s these fruits were a dry-season staple while today they are allocated only as a critical dry-season feed for livestock (Sperling, 1989: p 269). Dessalegn Rahmato's (1987) study of farmers in Wollo, Ethiopia, during the 1984-85 famine (cited in Corbett, 1988Corbett, : p 1104Corbett, -1105) noted a reduction in:(1) food variety and quality and ( 2) number of daily meals. Finally, the need for pastoralists to seek employment or engage in otherwise unusual economic activities during drought is also common (Campbell, 1984;Mortimore, 1987;Hay, 1986; see Section 4.4.1 .1 : Pastoralism and cultivation). Gifting and social networking among pastoralists is frequent and regarded as a social tactic to ameliorate risks; networking may increase among households during times of stress (Campbell, 1 984;Galvin, 1985;Nestel, 1985).There does not appear to be much literature on food allocation within pastoral households during drought. lt is thus unclear whether the Borana practice of buffering young children and sacrificing elders is unusual or not. One implication of this practice, however, is that children less than five years of age may not be a suitable group to monitor in nutrition or anthropometric surveys that seek to detect indicators of famine onset or drought recovery (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal obser vation).Human response to drought can be charac terised as a hierarchy of adjustments over time. Corbett (1988Corbett ( : pp 1107Corbett ( -1108) ) proposed a frame work for subsistence farmers which consists of three major stages: 1) lnsurance stage: households first attempt to buffer themselves by selling small ruminants or other \"less essential\" and more readily replace able animals, reducing food demand; collecting wild foods; conducting inter-household transfers of assets and loans; increasing production of \"petty commodities\" for sale; migrating in search of employment; and selling personal posses sions. 2) Crisis stage: households then begin to dispose of productive assets which may include larger, more durable livestock such as cattle; sell agricultural tools; seek credit; and initiate further reductions in food demand. 3) Distress migration stage: people embark on mass migrations in search of food. This is a stage at which numerous deaths can occur.Based on this model and observations in 1983-84, it is hypothesised that, on average, pastoral families in Borana probably spent most of the drought in the insurance stage, with the crisis stage encountered only when households were forced to sell prime cattle or camels, commonly during the second drought year. There was no distress migration stage in Borana during 1983-84 (Webb et al, 1992). ln contrast to Borana, drought impact in the Ethiopian highlands commonly appeared to elicit distress migration among farming peoples (RRC, 1985). lt is likely that, simply because of a lower number and diversity of livestock holdings, poor pastoralists entered the crisis stage considerably sooner than the middle class or wealthy. A third consecutive year of drought would probably elicit a distress-migration stage in the Borana system. An analysis of the numbers of animals the various wealth classes would need to sell to endure two-and three-year droughts is reported in Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact.As discussed in Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale, the Boran appear to sell cattle mostly when they have an acute need for money. Their ultimate goal is not income generation but animal accumulation for status. They thus try to endure periods of stress so they do not have to make a \"withdrawal\" from their pool of herd capital. That households with marketable animals restrict food intake and undergo other severe hardships during drought (Webb et al,1 992) is hypothesised to be a manifestation of this behaviour. When given no other income-generating option, the Boran reportedly prefer to sell mature male cattle because the gross income received allows them to purchase food plus replacement calves; and thus attain two goals, namely commodity procurement and herd building. Because of a lower diversity and number of cattle, the poor are often forced to sell more immature cattle which permits only commodity procurement. Diversification of the traditional economy into small ruminants and cultivation, in part, reflects attempts to substitute other products and food-procurement activities for sales of cattle (see Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale).The predominant management behaviour may thus be described as \"optimistic gambling\", in which the hope is that the next wet season will be good and that households can survive without having to sell cattle. The Boran do not seem to sell in anticipation of a future crisis, but instead wait until they have no other recourse. To illustrate, they appear to understand the implications of seasonal fluctuations in terms of trade of livestock for grain, but do not sell cattle at the time of year which would maximise their returns. They merely wait until they have no choice, regardless of how detrimental the terms of trade happen to be (Coppock, 1992b). Overall, this behaviour probably has implications for delaying cattle offtake during the initial stages of drought, which promotes the maintenance of higher than appropriate densities of cattle that rapidly consume forage in fallback areas and accelerate negative, density-dependent feedback on the system. These effects manifest themselves in lower milk production, poorer animal conditions and higher mortality rates (see below). That per cent loss of cattle to mortality during drought was at least three to four times higher than per cent cattle sold and slaughtered. During drought, most dead cattle are speculated to be completely lost to households in economic terms because animals on forra die far from encampments and the meat spoils rapidly. This large loss of capital assets would justify some degree of investment alternatives other than in male cattle for risk mitigation, at least for the wealthy and middle class (see Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle market ing). The \"optimistic gambling\" mentality also presents important constraints for interventions such as grain storage in normal rainfall years (see Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact). Certainly, low livestock prices are another disincentive for selling cattle during drought. Although the Boran hope to avoid cattle sales, when they sell they seek higher prices which enable them to sell fewer head over the long term (see Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale).The scope of the famine in the southern rangelands during 1 983-84 was far less than that observed within the mixed farming systems of the northern Ethiopian highlands (RRC, 1985: Webb et al, 1992). Livestock assets thus served effectively to buffer most pastoralists during the early stages of drought (Webb et al, 1992). The counter to this, however, is that purely pastoral systems probably have a longer drought-recovery period; the best situation may be an opportunistic mix of farming and pastoralism in drought-prone environments (Campbell, 1984). The size of the famine relief camps in the southern rangelands was relatively small in 1983-86, with about 12 000 occupants in total for two camps near Yabelo and Mega. This may have represented 18% of the local population, but assessments are complicated because of immi grants from as far as Kenya resided in these camps (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Again, mortality due to famine appeared quite low at all 65 encampments studied by lLCA. This small sample may not be representative of the southern rangelands overall, however; human mortality may have been more pronounced in remote locations (B. Lindtj<J>rn, University of Bergen, personal communi cation).The apparent widespread occurrence of diet restriction and human morbidity belies the reported increase in family size due to childbirth among a high percentage of sample families at Beke Pond (Coppock, 1988). However, human reproduction under stress is not unusual. For example, conception and births commonly occur in famine relief camps (C. Toulmin, University of East Anglia, personal communication). Research is required to ascertain what social factors contribute to increased reproduction during drought, as the Boran have traditionally practiced various forms of population regulation under stress in the past (Asmarom Legesse, 1973: pp 154-155;Helland, 1980b; see Section 2.4.3: Human population growth). Such practices have been found to decrease with the decline in traditional social values that accompanies commercialisation (Swift, 1977: p 276). Perhaps a related explanation deals with privileges afforded families with infants during drought. lnformants reported that it was easier to obtain food relief on the Borana Plateau if a person had a young infant (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).There has been recent debate concerning the degree to which climate, pastoralists and their livestock cause apparent degradative trends in rangeland resources. The mainstream view has been that heavy grazing by livestock, commonly exacerbated by inappropriate development such as proliferation of water points or extensive veterinary campaigns in the absence of stimuli for animal offtake, has served to cause erosion and detrimental changes in vegetation, reducing system productivity and sustainability over the long term (Lamprey, 1983). Another view is that changes in vegetation are more commonly driven by medium and long-term rainfall trends and that livestock play a relatively minor role in vegetation change; i.e. livestock are merely \"along for the ride\" and are also victimised by the vagaries of rainfall (Horowitz and Little, 1987;Ellis and Swift, 1988). lmplicit in the first model is the assumption that livestock populations are tightly coupled to the vegetation. These systems are regarded as equilibrial in the sense that heavy grazing by livestock can affect a negative trend in forage production, whichThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia eventually loops back to reduce animal per formance and numbers. Animal performance equates to primary production and thus internal interactions are important. Concepts such as carrying capacity were developed for managing such systems. Berryman (1989) argues that the defining process for equilibrial systems is the occurrence of density-induced negative feedback.lmplicit in the second model is the assumption that livestock never are able to reach densities at which they fundamentally affect vegetation. Plant production, cover and species composition are more affected by annual rainfall or other external events than livestock and vegetation. Feedback loops are thus tenuous but may change in intensity depending on sequences of higher or lower rainfall years. The system is more chaotic and nonequilibrial. Concepts such as carrying capacity are less relevant for the management of these systems because stocking rates have little influence on vegetation performance from year to year. Behnke and Scoones (1991) attempted to synthesise the results from several papers that examined equilibrial and non-equilibrial system phenomena in African rangelands. Coppock (1987b) concluded that the Borana system appeared to be equilibrial in light of cattle population dynamics observed from 1982-1989. Loss of internal and external fallback regions for use during drought should increase density-induced negative feedback on the cattle populations. He also hypothesised that both equilibrial and non-equilibrial pastoral systems exist in East Africa. The equilibrial system in the semi-arid southern Ethiopian rangelands is funda mentally defined by a more favourable rainfall regime (i.e. 600 mm/year) in which frequency of severe drought is low enough (i.e. once in 10-20 years) compared to cattle generation time (i.e. four years). Epidemic diseases are also apparently under control. There is thus a high probability that cattle can reach population levels that ultimately make them susceptible to modest fluctuations in rainfall in dry years, resulting in competition for forage. Perennial grasses and woody plants dominate the system on fine-textured soils and their prevalence over the medium to long term is probably dependent on cattle-stocking rates, especially during episodic high-density phases of the cattle population (see Chapter 3: Vegetation dynamics and resource use and Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). ln contrast, the very arid pastoral system of north-western Kenya in South Turkana has a non-equilibrial character (Ellis and Swift, 1988). Droughts may occur at a high frequency which commonly disrupts growth and survival of slowmaturing larger species such as cattle and camels. The low annual rainfall in South Turkana (350 mm) has resulted in an annual community of grasses produced from seed in a \"boom or busf mode depending, almost exclusively, on annual rainfall. Linking cattle density to annual plants production would therefore be tenuous. Even if livestock were periodically to attain high densities in South Turkana, the dominance of flat terrain and sandy soils at lower elevations would make the system relatively immune to livestock-induced erosion and degradation. The key concept is that, considering the contingencies of landscape and soil erodibility, systems with an annual rainfall of more than 450 mm on hilly, fine-textured soils with perennial vegetation should exhibit equilibrial properties; those having less rainfall on flat terrain with coarse soils and annual vegetation should be somewhat less equilibrial (Coppock, 1987b). Equilibrial systems behaviour occurs when people and live stock are spatially confined (as in Borana), essentially creating an unstable \"pressure cooker\". ln this chapter cattle population dynamics in response to drought were interpreted to illustrate several important interactions involving pastoral households, regional populations and ecosystem function. A lack of empirical information concerning resource allocation among households, or response of regional marketing networks meant that these important issues could not be addressed. The total picture is thus incomplete.Any attempt to understand trends towards increased frequency of famine, poverty and environ mental degradation in the southern rangelands must include consideration of the population dynamics of people in conjunction with those of cattle. That the human population may have remained stable, or even have grown slowly, during the 1 983-84 drought, while there was dramatic loss of livestock assets and production resources, is a crucial finding. The sustainability of the system is utimately linked to an inappropriately high density of people and this threshold may have been exceeded within the context of our study period during 1 980-91 . A global synthesis that unites these concepts is provided in Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics.  4) a mechanistic and comprehensive theory within which future social, economic, ecological and agricultural dynamics of the system can be predicted; and (5) a practical framework for development impact which employs a systems approach combined with commodity-based research and insights derived from local development experience.Despite spending millions of dollars on infrastructural improvements and livestock sevices in the southern rangelands since the 1960s, range development planners concede that the impact of interventions has been far below their expectations. Planners had assumed that once animal-health status was improved, and market outlets were available by the late 1970s, dramatic increases in cattle offtake for domestic consumption and export would occur. This was supposed to lead to higher incomes and an improved standard of living for the Boran. lnstead, the net result appears to be a larger population of cattle capable of degrading the land and a human population increasingly dependent on relief and rehabilitation. This negative outcome is consistent with the mainstream view of pastoral development problems observed throughout Africa. While the situation for the Boran is indeed deteriorating today, it is argued that past inter ventions had value by helping delay an inevitable decline in the production system that ultimately results from rapid growth of a human population that is dependent on a finite resource base. lt is postulated that impact of future interventions can be maximised if implementation is properly timed with respect to population pressure. Thus population pressure can create new opportunities for positive change.Rather than discount the value of past interventions, Borana leaders have noted numerous positive impacts on their lives from veterinary campaigns and the development of roads, ponds and markets. Population studies suggest that while marketed offtake of cattle has been slow to respond to improved infrastructure, it should greatly increase by the turn of the century as a result of population pressure and food deficits which will force the Boran to trade more animal products for cereals. lncreased dependency on external resources, however, will be very dangerous for the Boran if markets do not operate efficiently and at favourable terms of trade.Underutilised in the past, roads and markets will become the future lifeline for Borana society. The ponds and veterinary services offered during the 1 970s and 1 980s have reportedly delayed the onset of poverty for many households by improving access to new land and providing more cattle. lt thus appears that increased cattle production from extensive interventions tended to be absorbed by a growing population for subsistence rather than marketable production. Opportunities to extensify further are now limited, however, and windows are opening for the application of new policies and technical innovations which were nonexistent a decade ago. lncreased bottom-up demand for interventions will result from heightened human competition for resources. Use of an inter disciplinary systems approach suggests that changes in Borana society, economy and environment are somewhat predictable and can thus help shape a framework for development intervention.Based on seven years of observation, it is hypothesised that the production system is subjected to two simultaneous processes: (1) a long-term trend which results from a declining ratio of cattle to people; and (2) short-term cycles which occur as a result of variable stocking rates of cattle. The long-term trend occurs because growth in the human population is rapid and steady while growth in the cattle population is limited primarily by scarcity of land. The short-term cycles occur because a two-year drought can reduce total cattle inventory by over 50%. Stocking rates can thus vary from <1 0 head/km2 during early years of drought recovery to >20 head/km2 a few years later if rainfall during the intervening period is adequate. These periods are referred to as the drought-recovery phase and high-density phase, respectively. This dramatic shift in stocking rate is postulated to cause large variation in livestock output per head and per unit area. Milk output per cow gradually declines as a function of an increasing stocking rate; from this it is inferred that cow productivity is strongly influenced by forage competition. Milk output per unit area, however, which reflects stocking rate of cows as well as productivity per cow, is the most important variable. Milk output per unit area probably gradually rises during drought recovery, briefly peaks and then declines as a result of forage competition among cattle. This optimisation pattern is postulated to drive a cycle of short-term social and economic adjustments by the Boran.1n the absence of development interventions, there should be a number of predictable natural outcomes for the Boran over the long term from existing conditions. These have been deduced from observations in the southern rangelands as well as from the pastoral literature. They include: (1) an increasing annual deficit in food energy as produced by traditional means, for the people that will approach 60% by the turn of the century; (2) a permanent and expanding effort to cultivate; (3) increased offtake of cattle to buy grain; ( 4) annexation of higher-potential land for forage reserves serving calves and immobile cows; (5) increased emigration of young males leading to key labour shortages; (6) increased wealth stratification; (7) a growing population of peri-urban poor dependent on dairy sales for survival; (8) increased interest in small ruminant and camel production; (9) an increased milking intensity of cows and enhanced percentage of cows in the regional herd; (10) a decreasing percentage of mature male cattle as a result of increasing sales and increases in cows which will reduce risk-mitigation capability of households; (11 ) a decline in the use of bush foods;(1 2) a decline in traditional milk processing because of a lower milk surplus; (13) increased risk of environmental degradation in the form of bush encroachment; and (14) threats to the intergenerational transfer of social mores, leading to uncertainties in the maintenance of traditional rights and responsibilities. Dynamics focusing on food procurement are attributable to a declining per capita supply of cow's milk. lncreased efforts by the Boran to sell dairy products and produce cereals or small ruminants are all hypothesised to result from attempts to engage in alternative activities which allow them to avoid or delay selling cattle, which are the major form of wealth generation and insurance and social security in the society. lt would be difficult to observe long-term trends from year to year because the short-term cycles are superimposed over the long-term trends and confuse interpretation. The interdrought cycle is speculated to result from adjustments by the Boran to secure resources when facing annually variable constraints on their food supply. The droughtrecovery phase was apparently observed during 1 985-87 and was characterised by: (1 ) increasing rates of milk output per unit area due to a growing stocking rate of cows; (2) aggressive and opportunistic production values being manifested by households seeking to rapidly rebuild their cattle herds; (3) intensive efforts to cultivate cereals to make up for milk deficit per unit area; (4) extensive recovery of the grass layer from previous heavy grazing, the extent of recovery being dependent on rainfall; (5) increased sales of milk from peri-urban households needing grain to cover large deficits in food energy; (6) increased sales of small ruminants to buy grain; and (7) traditional, reciprocal grazing rights among territorial groups being honoured, allowing unrestricted access.Near-recovery of per capita milk production following the 1 983-64 drought is presumed to have occurred around 1 988 when the number of lactating cows peaked, but before density-dependent inter actions took hold. Full recovery to pre-drought levels would not have occurred, however, if the steady growth in the human population during the interim had not lowered the ceiling on per capita yields. This recovery year was a time of the lowest annual food-energy deficit for the Boran in the interdrought cycle. They must have still needed to buy or cultivate cereals, but to a slightly lower extent compared to 1985-87 or 1989-91 (below).The high-density phase is postulated to have occurred from 1989 until the severe drought year 1991. This was probably characterised by: (1) declining rates of cattle production per head and per hectare due to increasing forage competition; (2) more conservative production values of wealthier households in response to increased production risks and social pressure from their peers to destock; (3) re-initiated efforts to cultivate cereals more intensively; (4) heavy grazing pressure and the increased likelihood of widespread establish ment of bush seedlings, the latter dependent on rainfall; (5) increased sales of milk and butter from peri-urban households needing grain to cover food-energy deficits; (6) increased sales of small ruminants and cattle to purchase grain; and (7) reciprocal grazing rights being periodically refused among territorial groups.The development philosophy to be pursued in this system is one that first and foremost must achieve security for the Boran in terms of food procurement and asset accumulation and diversifi cation to mitigate risks. Secondary goals would be to promote better life-style choices through access to education and local urban development. Other goals include use of livestock assets to achieve improvements in access to water and other basic essentials of day-to-day life. While the challenges are daunting, changes are feasible here because of two factors: (1) the Boran have the capability to rapidly generate capital assets in the form of livestock; and ( 2 Because of these development priorities, system sustainability is first defined in terms of per capita production of milk and per capita accumulation of male cattle as assets.Protecting the environment and measuring environmental sustainability is very complex, and is a goal that can only be addressed after acute human needs have been met. At present per capita food production and asset accumulation are in a decline as spurred by human population growth. Sustainability of these attributes could largely be enhanced by: (1) alternative investments for a portion of the cattle portfolio; and (2) increased rates of emigration of pastoralists out of the system.Specific means to initiate development action must address the increasing need to: (1) provide more human food in all types of rainfall years; (2) stabilise the system in response to drought through risk management of herd assets; (3) focus on improving aspects of livestock production that are already intensive and have a lower risk; (4) make more efficient use of existing resources; (5) facilitate use of livestock assets for economic growth and community development; and (6) nurture and complement traditional aspects of social organi sation to promote indigenous management of resources and protect valued aspects of the culture.A review of component research and recent development experience suggests that the following intervention concepts are most appropriate for Borana (1 ) promotion of monetisation, risk manage ment of herd assets and improved human welfare through projects to maintain wells and ponds using heavy machinery being funded by livestock sales of the wealthy and middle class; (2) promotion of human welfare, improved labour efficiency, and risk management of herd assets by extending cement cisterns to increase water supplies to households and calves and to be funded by livestock sales; (3) promotion of grazing management schemes tailored to meet the needs of specific communities; (4) rehabilitation of bush-encroached areas using prescribed burning, arboricides and charcoal production to recover labour costs; (5) hay making with local grasses to improve nutrition of handreared calves and reduce rates of calf mortality; (6) use of small quantities of local legume forage including acacia fruits and leaves to provide protein supplements to calf diets based on grass hay; (7) improved management of cultivated fields in appropriate sites including diversification with cereals such as cowpea ( Vigna spp) with its seeds for human consumption and residue for sup plementing calf diets based on grass hay; (8) provision of acaricides in a way that protects cow udders from tick damage and thereby promote milk production; (9) promotion of herd diversification to include more small ruminants and camels to be achieved, respectively, by improvement in the delivery of veterinary services and access to camel markets; and (10) promotion of local below-ground grain stores and/or regional grain stores funded through livestock sales.The impact of technical interventions would be enhanced within a framework of policies and procedures that facilitate: (1) access of pastoral development projects to modest amounts of foreign exchange to support acquisition of fuel, spare parts, chemicals and veterinary inputs; (2) timely collection and proper administration of funds collected from organised livestock sales in support of community development projects; (3) local and interregional trade in grain, livestock, dairy products, cement, hand tools and other basic essentials; (4) allocation of appropriate sites to be used for sustainable cultivation and charcoal production by pastoralists; (5) risk management of cattle assets including alternative investment for wealthy and middle-class households in the form of simple savings accounts in banks; (6) provision of employment on public works projects during the second consecutive year of droughts; (7) establishment of a reasonably staffed and equipped range development agency within the Ministry of Agriculture with a mandate to work in partnership with the pastoralists to find and prioritise solutions to felt needs of the community; and (9) education of pastoralists and stimulation of local urban development that would improve the likelihood that pastoralists could successfully emigrate out of the traditional system. A scrutiny of these technical and policy interventions strongly suggests that most of the ultimate constraints to effective implementation lie outside, not within, the pastoral system.The intervention philosophy is based on meeting bottom-up demand for technology and services that the Boran are willing and able to pay for through livestock sales. This is the perfect test criterion for judging whether a certain intervention is meeting priorities of the people. Many ideas that originated from top-down thinking have failed in the 1980s. Such attempts usually fail because they lack a practical appreciation of people's priorities and constraints. For example, interventions using animaldrawn pond scoops to maintain ponds were promoted to save foreign exchange required for maintaining heavy machinery. The scoops tuned out to be inappropriate because the Boran appear unwilling to risk valuable animals in extensive communal work commitments. By contrast, use of animal traction for short-term cultivation should be very successful. Forage improvements based on exotics have also commonly yielded disappointing results due to constraints of rainfall and air temperature. Exotic forages also have the limitation of not directly meeting their needs in terms of more food for themselves or in helping them manage existing resources more efficiently. That is why local range-management tactics such as extension of dual-purpose cowpea and efforts to improve cereal crop development on appropriate sites should be very successful. Forage intervention should also be focused on low-input strategies to make better use of valuable indigenous grasses and trees. While the trees have the disadvantage of low and variable productivity, they persist well in the environment. Hay-making is an excellent example of a bottom-up solution to a calf management problem using local resources. Hay-making can result in marked nu tritional improvement for calf performance, it is an easily transferred innovation and converts a communal grazing or cut-and-carry resource into a private resource. Strategies to enhance cattle growth to improve lifetime performance were also found to be ill-conceived in terms of a lack of an appropriate social or ecological perspective and were deemed far too risky for implementation. ln essence, there is no long-term cost for cattle production accruing from levels of milk offtake that averaged 170 litres/head/lactation. Compensatory growth in young cattle is a powerful attribute that may often overcome the effects of early nutritional deprivation due to milk restriction. Mitigating calf mortality, in contrast to speeding up growth, is much more appropriate culturally, ecologically and economically.Drought-mitigating tactics based on fodder reserves of Atriplex and Opuntia spp were also found to be ill conceived. Although also beset by daunting constraints, alternative investment for a portion of cattle assets in the form of simple saving accounts for households is the only dramatic means to quickly achieve increased rates of cattle offtake, faster herd turnover, increased animal production, stabilisation of the cattle population in response to drought, improved risk management of assets for households, minimised risk of famine by fair terms of trade, and encourage economic growth for households and local urban centres. This strategy could be most effective if managed in the form of a sustainable yield scenario with the regional herd held at <20 head/km2. The biological and ecological postulates that underpin this strategy would hold true because high stocking rates can reduce animal production and increase pastoral risks. The system thus exhibits strong equilibrial characteristics.Use of the dynamic systems model involving long-term trends and short-term cycles, in conjunction with commodity-intervention concepts, reveals that windows of opportunity for different interventions may be gradually closing, gradually opening, or opening and closing in a cyclic or episodic fashion. Windows of opportunity based on system extensification or utilisation of traditional surplus products are closing; these include pros pects for new large-scale water developments and milk-processing technologies. Wheras windows of opportunity based on system intensification and marketing are gradually opening; these include interventions for cultivation, calf management, water management, site reclamation, grazing management, dairy and livestock marketing, risk management of livestock assets, herd diversifi cation and promotion of human development through education.The short-term cycles will affect the success of these interventions. Those interventions dependent on low stocking rates for their success (such as site reclamation) would be most effectively carried out during a drought-recovery phase of the cattle population wheras those dependent on high stocking rates for their success (such as livestockfunded water development and grain stores, banking of livestock assets, grazing management, hay-making etc) should be promoted during highdensity phases of the cattle population. Some interventions would thus be adopted, dropped and re-adopted as part of a cyclic process. This illustrates that pastoral development activities should be opportunistic and planned around anticipated, but probabilistic, dynamics of the production system. This also illustrates that systems and commodity research should be run in parallel to gain insights relevant to achieving development impact. The commodity work helps us understand what and how to implement. The systems work helps us understand when to implement commodity interventions and why.This chapter unites concepts from previous chapters with practical ideas for development intervention among the Borana pastoralists. The practical ideas are based on information generated from development experiences as well as technology-based research. This synthesis is the critical contribution of this systems study to the pastoral development literature. A new development approach is forwarded that outlines intervention opportunities that change in relation to short-term cycles and long-term trends that are produced by population dynamics of cattle and people. The synthesis is preceeded by: (1) brief review of the debate regarding the effectiveness of pastoral development strategies in Africa; (2) a statement of development objectives appropriate to the Borana situation; and (3) a description of recent and anticipated changes in the Borana system. The structure of this chapter differs from others in that studies are reported as units in full (i.e. including methods, results and discussion) as they pertain to a hierarchy of intervention concepts. Sandford (1 983a: pp 1 1 -1 9) interpreted what he felt was the \"mainstream view\" of pastoralism and rangeland dynamics commonly held by re searchers, policy makers and developers. One cornerstone of this view is that traditional pastoral strategies for livestock production and land use are inappropriate in relation to promoting commerciali sation and change. ln addition, pastoral livestock are thought to pose a great threat in degrading rangeland environments because of the apparent reluctance of pastoralists to market animals and destock. This situation is exacerbated by veterinary campaigns and water developments that serve to increase livestock population in the absence of increased offtake.Despite the prevalence of this view, Sandford (1983a) noted that it is supported by flimsy evidence. Ellis and Swift (1988: p 451) stated that perceptions of pastoral systems emphasise negative features such as low productivity, over stocking, range degradation and drought impacts. They also remarked that after years of apparently ineffective interventions in pastoral systems, African governments, donors and research organisations appear to be giving up any hope that they can relieve these problems. Jahnke (1982: pp 102-103) thus concluded that the scope for pastoral development is extremely limited. ln his review he noted the relatively high efficiency of traditional pastoralism in extracting livelihood from marginal environments and advocated the priority need for human rather than livestock development so as to facilitate emigration of excess pastoralists to gainfull employ ment outside of pastoral systems. Otherwise, development, he felt, must take on a defensive stance by reducing effects of drought and over grazing and by improving the pastoral subsistence base through introduction of grain. ln effect, Jahnke (1982: p 103) noted that pastoralists are relegated to the \"waiting room\" of development, with policy makers only able to implement relief and rehabilitation measures aimed at mitigating the effect catastrophes.One interpretation of the above synopsis is that pastoralists and pastoral systems are relatively static in terms of the perserverance of traditional norms and modes of production. Experiences cited throughout this volume, however, attest to significant changes in the pastoral lifestyles under pressure on the Borana Plateau and elsewhere. Unfortunately, most of these changes have apparently been negative (in terms of human welfare). Human population growth, drought, in appropriate water development, land appropriation, peri-urban influences and even livestock commercialisation have reportedly contributed to an increased pauperisation, wealth stratification and the cultural alienation of pastoralists (Swift, 1977;Evangelou, 1984;Salih, 1985;Moris, 1988). Perhaps the best documented example of pastoral change over time is provided by Kenya's Maasailand (Evangelou, 1984;Solomon Bekure et al, 1991). Ensconced within one of sub-Saharan Africa's healthiest economies, with a welldocumented increase in commercial livestock activity, it is still difficult to ascertain whether the Maasai are \"better off' today than several generations ago. lt is thus apparent that while the scope for internal change, primarily driven by human population growth, is significant in pastoral systems the ability of African societies at large to facilitate absorption of pastoralists and buffer pastoral systems from destructive effect of perturbations remains low.Central to pastoral development, yet often ignored, is the problem of modernising subsistence societies in general. Smooth and yet rapid transitions are probably unprecedented. The complex social, cultural and productive features of pastoral systems adapted to risky rangeland environments are well documented (Jahnke, 1982: pp 74-77). But these are commonly inimical to those features required for commercial transformation (Behnke, 1983;1984;1987;Coppocketal, 1985). One key difference is population density; while ratios of people to head of livestock in commercial beef systems may be on the order of 1 :50, most African pastoral systems have a ratio of 1 :5 or less (Coppock et al,1 985). Pastoral systems are densely populated with people, and a large segment of the population would have to be removed, for example, for commercial ranching to be successful.lt is instructive to remember that range devel opment in the Western world was achieved largely through warfare. lndigenous subsistence peoples were defeated and replaced by colonisers having radically different production rationales and resources. The social cost of \"development\" to these indigenous peoples has been veritable extinction. Western models of change are thus an inappropriate ideal for the transformation of tradi tional African pastoralism (Sandford, 1983a: p 6). Even if only viewed on moral grounds, con temporary development of African pastoralism faces the challenge of facilitating gradual economic transformation within the context of conserving valued aspects of pastoral cultures. lt is apparent, however, that in many cases little sustainable facilitation really comes by as a result of pastoral development projects and pastoralists are therefore left to their own meager devices to cope with change (Boserup, 1965: Evangelou 1984;Solomon Bekure etal, 1991).This lack of facilitation of change is not unique to pastoral systems, as there are few concrete examples of successful livestock commercialisation elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Jahnke (1982: pp 1 64-1 71 ) pointed to smallholder dairy development in the Kenyan highlands as one of the only welldocumented success stories and he detailed the complex history of political and economic pre conditions, both on national and local levels, that led to the impact there. This is instructive in that it illuminates the fact that preconditions exist for technological impact and economic development. For the Kenyan highlands, these social and economic preconditions were necessary for impact even when market access was good, ratios of labour to land were high and forage and water resources were abundant. This illustrates another problem related to interpreting development impact: suc cessful livestock development is typically equated with a higher level of intensification (i.e. stall-feeding and other aspects of intensive management).lt will be argued here that increases in the number of animals in low-input systems is another form of development. This is especially true in situations where low-input production values dominate, as is especially the case for pastoral situations where intensification is inappropriate because risks of losing hard-won production improvements can be very high. Thus the objectives and measures of development impact must be redefined for pastoral systems. Finally, pastoral development projects so far have been essentially \"experiments\" on societies, with careful articulation of goals and monitoring of impact to test hypotheses and assumptions that underly expectations of impact and change rarely taking place (Helland, 1980a). So it is not surprising that perceptions of causes and effects of pastoral development tactics remain unclear. And the main value of long-term integrative studies such as this is to provide a framework for better understanding cause and effect in complex systems.appropriate for the Boran ln some important respects the Borana pastoral system is unusual and some of the possibilities for development intervention are directly linked to these characteristics. As reviewed in Chapter 2: lntroduction to the Borana Plateau: Natural resources and pastoral society, the relatively predictable rainfall and labour coordination required to operate the deep wells have encouraged a somewhat stable and territorial subdivision of grazing and water resources, this in turn is supported by a sophisticated tradition of legal and social values. Tapping into this network and using development tactics that complement and facilitate traditional resource-use strategies would be the key to success in many development programmes.Because of the current situation of overcrowding and instability (see Chapter 6: Effects of droughtand traditional tactics for drought mitigation), the upcoming decade may offer the best opportunities for constructive development interaction. This is because the society at large perceives a need for change as a result of population pressure (Coppock, 1992b). Jahnke (1982: p 101) noted that an appropriate end point of pastoral development may be seen as a situation in which \"...the pastoralists manage their own resources at a higher level of productivity and in accordance with ecological principles of sustained yield, while basically maintaining their characteristic life style.\" lt is agreed that this is a desired goal of the Boran. Development should be viewed, however, more as an evolving process rather than as an end point, but with some framework for evaluation. The end point of Jahnke (1982) could be amended to include that the Boran should be better fed, clothed and housed as culturally appropriate, gain more reliable access to health care, be subjected to less drudgery in terms of labour, have more options to help them manage the risk to their capital assets (livestock) and enable them to make lifestyle choices (pastoralism or not). This broader definition of the end point is consistent with both human and livestock development, since livestock represent the source of capital with which living standards can be improved. More importantly, with this approach livestock development is not narrowly viewed as merely increased animal offtake, a reduced calving interval or other technical aspect of livestock production while changes in human welfare could be monitored and progress towards \"development\" be periodically evaluated.The ability to attain this ideal end point is constrained by internal and external factors as well as their interactions, as will be shown in this chapter. Household-intervention concepts have been tailored for the Boran in recognition of the following priorities: (1 ) that there is an increasingly acute need for more human food in the system in all types of rainfall years; (2) that there is a need to stabilise the production system in relations to drought; (3) that opportunities exist to improve aspects of livestock production that are already intensive and have a lower risk; (4) that opportunities exist for more efficient use of forage, water and labour; (5) that there is a chance to facilitate using livestock assets for risk mitigation and community development projects; (7) that the opportunity exists for promoting appropriate levels of livestock turnover and monetisation in the society; and (8) that it is possible to nurture and complement traditional aspects of social organisation so as to facilitate opportunism, help enforce appropriate use and maintenance of land and water resources and protect the economic rights and roles of women.lmplicit in this development strategy is the promotion of system sustainability. Sustainability, however, is a complex concept subjected to many interpretations. Sustainability may be described as a stable or upward trend in a key resource over the long term. Disciplinarians may view soil, plants or livestock performance as key indicators of sustainability while systems scientists see sustainability more as a composite attribute that integrates several variables. For example, Flora (1992) considers a system sustainable when the positive attributes of various agricultural, ecological and social variables are concurrently optimised.Material reviewed in Chapter 3: Vegetation dynamics and resource use and Chapter 5: Livestock husbandry and production, suggests that the central Borana Plateau has endured a large degree of livestock-induced bush encroachment and erosion. Livestock has also been reportedly lost to tick infestation. lf sustainability were defined as maintenance of resources in support of livestock production, it would be tempting to speculate that the Borana system is in a downward trend, although much of the lost land could be recoverable (see Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation). Despite this circumstantial evidence, documenting further change in soil and plant resources that could affect sustainability of the system would be very difficult. ln part this is due to the dynamic nature of grazing pressure and plant community response (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).Since the dominant problem in the system today is food and economic security for people, a simpler and more direct measure of system sustainability could involve per capita production of milk and animals on an annual basis. The milk would be a measure of food security while animal numbers measure economic growth in the durable assets. These sustainability indices are thus influenced by human population as well as livestock output. For example, increased animal production, or increased human emigration, would increase either index of sustainability. lt is note worthy that per capita cash income is not considered as a viable measure of sustainability here. lncreasing incomes mean little if markets are unable to meet demands for consumer goods. And markets can be unreliable as a result of transport and infrastructural constraints; such problems have recently driven up grain prices and have put human lives in jeopardy (see Section 6.3.3: Drought effects in 1990-91). lt is argued that using human and livestock-based indicators simplifies interpretation of the acute nature of system sustainability; this is most effectively illustrated using empirical population and production models (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics).As in many African range development projects, the first priorities in the southern rangelands were construction of ponds starting in 1965 to allow pastoral herds to expand into underutilised savannah to the north (i.e. areas not served by wells), improvement of infrastructure (roads, and livestock markets) starting in 1 974 and implemen tation of veterinary campaigns in 1974 (see Section 1 .4.2: History of lowlands development and the TLDP). The overall philosophy was that these improvements would lead to increased cattle offtake, with a strong emphasis on increasing live animal exports. There has not, however, been any evidence that this strategy was successful. The concensus among Ethiopian range professionals has been that the interventions have merely permitted a larger cattle herd now to roam the southern rangelands, placing the environment at greater risk of degradation (see Section 1 .4.4: Has national range development been successful?). One irony, then, is that in the eyes of local leaders, the infrastructural improvements have had a wide array of positive social, economic and animal production effects (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data; Coppock, 1 992b). Thus both time frame and human population factors must be taken into account for a proper evaluation. That the Boran were very isolated from the rest of Ethiopia even as late as 1980 cannot be overemphasised. For example, an informant who purchased livestock for lLCA trials in 1981 noted that herd owners in more remote locations often could not even discriminate among various denominations of Ethiopian paper currency (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal obser vation).The tarmac road from Addis Ababa to Moyale, completed in 1976, has led to immigration byThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia highlanders that has contributed to the substantial growth of towns such as Yabelo, Mega and Negele (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication). The urban-based demand for meat, milk and butter has consequently also grown in the southern rangelands, as prices have reportedly gradually increased during the 1980s (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).Today, local market centres such as these provide opportunities for Borana women to sell dairy products and buy grain in a vital link for food security that was not needed a generation ago (see Section 4.4.10: Dairy marketing). Far from displaying conservative attitudes, Borana leaders emphasise the critical importance of markets to their wellbeing today and in the future, and complain that market access is still insufficient. This changing attitude is related to population pressure and the evolved dependence of the Boran on nonpastoral sources of food available at favourable terms in exchange of animal products (Coppock, 1992b; see Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale).lmmigrants to the towns have introduced farming and animal draft technologies that the Boran are readily adopting, and while this may have some negative environmental possibilities, it can lead to pockets of agropastoralism that provide new options for destitute pastoralists (Section 4.4.1.1: Pastoralism and cultivation). Elders also reported that the younger generations have been definetely influenced by urban trading and thus exposed to the idea that there may be easier and more profitable means of earning a living today than raising cattle. This has raised fears among the pastoral community that serious labour shortages will occur in the future as young men drop out of the traditional system (Coppock, 1992b). ln sum, this is all interpreted to illustrate on the one hand the key role of small towns as conduits of new ideas and technologies and on the other the flexible response of Borana culture in receiving the latter. These small towns developed largely as a result of infrastructure improvements.Although the permanent ponds to the north have led to environmental degradation (see Section 3.4.1: Ecology and land use), they allowed hundreds of families to leave dilapidated areas in the central region and move out to the periphery to new and more productive locations (Bille and Assefa Eshete, 1983b). Although current prospects for improved productivity from livestock in the north are now declining due to population pressure [i.e. it has been recently debated whether a portion of the Borana households residing in madda such as Did Hara should be moved out of the area with government assistance (SORDU, 1991)], this intervention essentially provided a 20-year reprieve for households that migrated to Did Hara and for those that stayed behind in places like Medecho in terms of more per capita resources that likely enhanced cattle productivity.Similarly, although some problems continue to be reported for ephemeral ponds constructed during the 1970s and early 1980s (lrwin, 1986a; 1986b; 1986c; see Section 7.3.1.1: Water-development activities), many of them have allowed improved use of wet-season range within a number of madda (Hodgson, 1990: p 24). Thirty Borana elders all reported the positive effect of veterinary campaigns on reducing risks of cattle epidemics and they concurred that as a consequence the cattle population has indeed increased (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). Offtake rates have apparently not increased in line with reduced cattle mortality afforded by veterinary campaigns. The critical effect of the veterinary campaigns has been to delay the onset of a higher incidence of poverty by preventing losses and providing the growing population with more animals for subsistence.Reducing the risk of catastrophic losses of cattle to disease probably also improves planning horizons for households and sets the stage for increased commercialisation in the future. Whether growth in the livestock population also facilitated growth in the human population remains unclear. Borana respondents felt that recent higher rates of growth in the human population may be due more to there being no major disease outbreaks and less to having grain in the diets, famine relief, health interventions or a social breakdown of reproductive behaviour (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). lt is more likely that a higher human population has allowed the society to keep more cattle; this could be related to increased availability of labour for watering cattle from the deep wells (Helland, 1980b).Borana elders were concerned in 1 989 about a cattle population that was on the verge of exceeding the resource capacity of their territory which was being increasingly crowded and circumscribed by other ethnic groups; their premonition was correct and large losses of cattle were reported as a result of insufficient rainfall (see Section 6.3.3: Drought effects in 1990-91 and Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). Although such phenomena reveal substantial stress in Borana society, it will be argued later in this chapter that in fact stress offers a significant opportunity for introducing technical and economic interventions that otherwise may not be easily implemented.ln sum, Borana society is rapidly changing in response to contingencies of climate, population and external influences. lnterventions such as development of ponds and veterinary service have probably increased the grazing area and livestock on it. These are, however, extensive interventions that are appropriate to conditions where intensification is risky and difficult. Evaluating these interventions in terms of cattle productivity per head or marketed offtake is not very relevant, even though these are the indicators commonly employed (Jahnke, 1982). These extensive interventions have probably facilitated the per capita acquisition of resources and thus delayed a wider onset of poverty. Limits to the benefits of such interventions have probably been reached recently. For example, there may not be any inaccessible areas anymore where water development could release pressure. When this point has been reached the extensive approach is no longer very useful and the Boran will inevitably become poorer unless some members diversify their economic activities internally or emigrate to another area. Hence this is the time when options for intensification such as land use and/or animal production, alternative investment and improved market access become important prospects that the people would be interested in.Material reviewed in Section 4.4.2: Economic comparisons among pastoral systems, suggests that the Borana system currently represents one stage of a continuum of change precipitated by a higher human population growth rate than that for cattle and characterised by shifts in human diets from being dominated by milk to being subsidised by grain. This in turn sets the stage for other anticipated changes in economic behaviour. Although underpinned by differences in national and local conditions, it is speculated here that the Boran are one or two generations behind Kenya's Maasai on a continuum of change (Evangelou, 1984;Solomon Bekure et al, 1 991 ). Using Maasailand and other semi-arid systems as a model, it may be expected that Borana society will undergo a similar sequence of change in the future in terms of household and livestock diversification and agropastoralism.The challenge for development in the southern rangelands is to anticipate both positive and negative aspects of change and facilitate the former while minimising effects of the latter. The following points are presented under the assumption that: the future climate will remain significantly unchanged; the land area for Borana cattle cannot be expanded much further; gradual liberalisation of local and national policies evident in late 1990 (Ethiopian Herald, 1990) will continue; control of epidemic diseases for livestock will be maintained; the human population would continue to grow; and prospects for widespread emigration of the Boran out of the system will remain limited in the near future.This section describes a comprehensive theory within which the dynamics of animal production, range trend, socio-economic aspects of pastoral households and shifting development opportunities could be predicted, predictions tested and hence knowledge advanced. The theory is based on a series of hypotheses deduced from the literature and observations in the southern rangelands during 1980-1991 and the empirical model used in illustrating the theory is given below. The system's dynamics are divided into two components: (1) those due to continuous long-term trends; and ( 2) those due to short-term cycles driven by episodic events such as low annual rainfall. Understanding each component is relatively straightforward. lnter preting field data to test a component is made difficult because dynamics caused by the cyclic events are superimposed over those caused by the long-term trend.Past and future dynamics of the Borana system are illustrated using a simple computer simulation model based on observed population trends of cattle and humans. The cattle population was observed during 1980-1991 to be periodically subjected to resource scarcity. Resource limitation is usually instigated by below-average rainfall, which is a variable external to the production system. The magnitude of the effects of low rainfall on the production system, however, is influenced by cattle stocking rate. Stocking rate is an internal system factor that dictates the potential intensity of forage competition among cattle (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). ln any given year the cattle herd varies between a lower range of stocking rates following a multi-year drought, to a higher range of \"ceiling\" stocking rates that reflect a yearly variable carrying capacity during non-drought years. The higher the stocking rate the greater the risk of negative, density-dependent effects on the herd from low rainfall. This pattern is hypothesised to operate to a greater extent here than in more arid pastoral systems where the frequency of severe drought disrupts herd growth. lt has also been hypothesised that the intensity of density-dependent interactions on the Borana Plateau is greater today than in the past because of the loss of traditional internal and external grazing reserves to population pressure,The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia which limits management flexibility (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions). ln contrast to cattle, the human population may exhibit a rapid and steady increase in size regardless of annual rainfall (see Section 2.4.3: Human population growth and Section 6.3.2.2: Human welfare). Patterns of marketing behaviour are predicted based on the attempts by the Boran to make up for annual deficits in food energy by selling livestock and livestock products to buy grain. Annual food-energy balances for the human population in the 15 475-km2 study area were calculated as functions of annual fluctuations in cattle numbers and productivity in relation to a steady growth in food demand by the human population.The computer-simulated model was parameterised using data collected in the southern rangelands along with some simplifying assumptions. The model was run for 25 years representing the period 1982 to 2006. This period includes the drought of 1983-84 as well as a hypothetical drought in 1 995-96, with all other years assumed to have average rainfall. The modeling work was conducted just prior to the 1 990-91 drought. While this affects the accuracy of year-to-year predictions when model results are compared with the field situation, it does not undermine the general validity of the approach.The pre-drought herd size in 1 982 was derived from aerial surveys of Milligan (1983) and drought impact and initial recovery of cattle numbers during 1 983-86 were derived from herd monitoring results of Donaldson (1986) and aerial surveys reported in Cossins and Upton (1 985: p 1 39) and Assefa Eshete et al (1987: p 9). Herd growth in average rainfall years during interdrought periods (i.e. 1986-1994; 1 997-2006) was assumed to be density dependent (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). The first year of drought recovery (i.e. 1985 or 1997) was assumed to have herds showing an annual growth rate of 10.4%, evident from aerial survey data from 1 985-86 and found to be an upper limit of growth in other modeling work (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 135). Herds in subsequent drought-recovery years (1 986-89; 1 998-2001 ) were assumed to have an annual growth rate of 8% (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 135). The high-density phase was assumed to be reached when the herd size went over 300 000 or 19.4 head/km2 following a guideline on an upper limit for carrying capacity for the semi-arid zone from Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 112; also see empirical observations confirming density dependence in Section 6.3.3: Drought effects in 1990-91). According to the model the cattle herd crossed this threshold of 300 000 head in 1 989 and 2001 . Herds in subsequent high-density phases (i.e. 1990-94; 2002-2006) were arbitrarily assumed to have net rates of growth that gradually declined from 6 to 2% per annum. Relative impacts on the cattle herd of the projected 1 995-96 drought were assumed to be similar to those observed in 1983-84 and 226 000 head was assigned to be the post-drought stocking rate in 1997.The optimal percentage of mature cows in the regional herd during average rainfall years was expected to vary between 45% (Cossins and Upton, 1 988b) and 50% (Solomon Desta, nd), with the latter figure presumed to be more likely over the long term as demand for milk increases with human population growth. lf the proportion of cows were to exceed 50%, it is envisioned that although milk supply would improve, the cost would be more limitations on investment and risk-mitigating capability since fewer mature male cattle could be maintained (Coppock, 1992b). The proportional decline of mature cows in the regional herd from 45 or 50% in average years to 38% during the peak of drought was inferred from Donaldson (1986).The fraction of mature cows in milk was assumed to be 0.75 before the 1983-84 drought (Cossins and Upton, 1987) and during other years of drought recovery. During high-density phases, however, this fraction was assumed to be density dependent and was arbitrarily reduced by 0.01 unit each year to a low of 0.68. Milk yield per milking cow was quantified in energy terms as 840 MJ GE/ cow/year (Cossins and Upton, 1988b) and this was initially used in pre-drought 1982 and in droughtrecovery years. A linear decline from 840 to 420 MJ GE/cow/year (Donaldson, 1986) was assumed during the first to the second drought year. During the high-density phases milk production was assumed to be density dependent and was arbitrarily reduced by 2% each year to a low of 722 MJ GE/cow/year. Total annual energy production from milk was calculated as the number of milk cows times yield per cow.The most accurate statistics for the human population were assumed to be those of Assefa Eshete et al (1987: p 11) for 1986, which relied on aerial counts of huts along with a ground truth of 4.5 persons per hut based on a survey of 60 encampments (600 households) by Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo (1985). lt is important to note that these data yielded a baseline population of about 66 000 people for the study area during 1982. This is roughly 60% of the 108 000 estimated by Upton (1986a). The main difference in the calculations originated from variation in the estimated number of occupied huts per unit area obtained by aerial survey. The number of people per hut were more similar, as Upton (1986a) used an estimate of four persons per hut, comparable to the 4.5 of Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo (1985). Estimates of Milligan (1983), cited in Upton (1986a), were based on 1.7 occupied huts/km2. Assefa Eshete et al (1987) estimated about 1 .1 occupied huts/km2. While these discrepancies will remain unresolved, the research theme remains the same: the steadily increasing dependence on nonpastoral foods by the Boran because of human population growth exceeding the traditional support capabilities of the system.A net annual growth rate of 2.5% was assumed for the human population in average rainfall years (Lindtjorn, University of Bergen, unpublished data) and this was assumed to be density independent. The human population growth rate assumed during drought was 1% per year (see Section 6.3.2.2: Human welfare). Using the baseline year of 1986 and the growth rate of 2.5%, figures for the human population were back-calculated to estimate how long it is likely that the Boran have been forced to supplement milk-deficient diets with \"grain. Human immigration and emigration for the pastoral sector were assumed to be neglible overall (AGROTEC/ CRG/SEDES Associates 1974f; see Section 2.4.3: Human population growth). The total annual energy requirements for the human population were calculated by multiplying population size times 2336 MJ GE/person/year (FAO/WHO (1973) cited in Upton (1986a): p 21).Annual dynamics of populations, milk-energy yield and human energy demand derived from these calculations are shown in Table G1 , Annex G. Figure 7.1 (a,c) depicts dynamics for the cattle population and food-energy deficit. Assuming the cattle population periodically reached 275 000 head prior to the 1980s, and that 45% of these were mature cows with 0.75 in milk and a milk yield 10% higher than the maximum in the 1980s, it is apparent that this level of cattle productivity could fully support some 37 000 people. This suggests that the Boran have been increasingly dependent on grain since around 1960. This is in contrast to the projected dynamics of annual energy deficits from 1982 to 2006 (Figure 7.1c). Even in 1982 the population needed 40% of their energy from grain (note that 32% of dietary energy was provided by grain in household surveys summarised in Figure 6.2a).Examination of the interdrought periods indicates that the energy deficit will increase to a minimum of 46% in 1986-1994 to 58% in 1998-2006. This is primarily due to a steady increase in the size of the human population. These low points (or troughs) in interdrought periods are bounded by gradual post-drought declines and pre-drought increases in energy deficits (Figure 7.1c). These were caused, respectively, by gradual recovery of milk-production potential or by subtle increases in Year Source: Coppock (1993c) density-dependent interactions which reduced milk production. Droughts, in contrast, are times of sharp increases in the milk-energy deficit, primarilyThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia caused by a reduced calving percentage, and secondarily by a decline in the milk yield per lactating cow (see Section 6.3.1.2: Cattle pro ductivity). The peak milk-energy deficit of 92% in the 1983-84 drought is similar to the 85% deficit observed in late 1 984-85 (see Figure 6.2b). People survive an 85% deficit by collecting bush foods, buying more grain and reducing food intake (see Section 6.3.2.2: Human welfare). lt is notable that the projected energy deficit grows during the 1995-96 drought and this is due to the increase in the human population.Using milking cows per person as a proxy for per capita milk production, the system appears unsustainable in terms of food security (Figure 7.1b). The long-term decline results from human population growth in conjunction with constraints that limit the size of the regional herd with cows not exceeding 50% of the regional herd. The decline would continue until rates of human mortality and emigration balanced rates of birth and immigration. The slope of the decline could be lessened if cows made up an increasing portion of the herd, but this would compromise the economic assets stored as male cattle for drought endurance and recovery, for example. lncreasing the proportion of cows is hypothesised as a stimulus to the Boran's practice of trading bulls for cows with highlanders during drought recovery (see Section 5.4.5: Cattle growth and implications for breed persistence). Dynamics for per capita holdings of male cattle are not illustrated but the pattern would be similar to those in Figure 7.1b. Drought-induced mortality rates for mature male cattle in 1983-84 (22%) were roughly half of that for mature cows (45%); thus the deep drops in the per capita asset index due to drought would not be as severe as that for cows. Similar perspectives have been forwarded for other pastoral systems (see Figure 3.3 on p 26 in Grandin (1991)).The implications of cattle offtake to buy grain to make up energy deficits are displayed in Figure 7.2. The analysis assumes that the sale of one 250-kg animal will enable the purchase of 625 kg of grain during average rainfall years but that these terms of trade will change in a linear fashion to 209 kg of grain per animal at the peak of a drought (see Section 6.4.3: Decline in terms of trade). This fall in the terms of trade is more conservative than the 75 kg of grain/animal reported in Cossins and Upton (1988a), and is a compromise between this value and higher estimates of Solomon Desta et al (nd). While an offtake of 5516 head (1.7% of total inventory) would enable the purchase of the grain requirement in 1 982, this increases to a minimum of 7200 head (2.5% of inventory) and 12 000 head (4.1% of inventory) during the 1986-1994 and 1997-2006 inter-drought periods, respectively. These are increases of 30 and 117% compared to 1982. Gradual declines and increases in cattle offtake in inter-drought periods reflect milk production dynamics (above). The overall increase in offtake over time reflects human population growth. Projected offtakes during drought are high both in 1 983-84 (36 000 head or 1 6% of inventory) and 1 996 (56 000 head or 46% of inventory). These are thought to be unrealistically high, however, because of a reduction in pastoral food demand and sales of alternative commodities where possible (Section 6.3.2.2: Human welfare).The above analysis undoubtedly contains errors and assumptions that have not been rigorously tested. The overall conclusion, however, is that the Boran will become increasingly dependent on grain imports and this has implications for increased cattle marketing. The apparent trend of the system is towards unsustainability in terms of per capita milk production and asset accumulation; fewer assets imply greater risk of not recovering from drought, especially for poor and middle-class households (see Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact).Per capita incomes will probably increase for the Boran, but they could also easily be victimised by risky markets and high grain prices. This could be mitigated, however, by activities such as cultivation and diversification into small ruminants for market (see Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale). Cultivation carries risks because less than 10% of the landscape may be suitable for sustainable farming (see Section 3.4.1: Ecology and land use). Likewise small ruminants are risky in light of the poor access to veterinary service (see Section 5.4.6: Small ruminants). The general pattern is testable as the interpretation given here is consistent with long-term trends reported for semi-arid Maasailand (Meadows and White, 1979;Grandin, 1987;Solomon Bekure et al, 1991).Long-term trends in the production system largely result from population dynamics of both cattle and people. Fundamental shifts in pastoral behaviour are predicted on the basis of the need to acquire more food energy from nonpastoral sources to make up for growing deficits in per capita milk production.Some aspects of long-term change such as cultivation are well underway today. Although there has been sporadic cultivation among the Boran in the past (see Section 4.4.1.1: Pastoralism and cultivation), it is predicted that cereal cultivation will now become permanent in madda having higher rainfall and water-collecting landscapes that reduce risks of cropping. This will be a natural response of the Boran to per capita milk production declining below a minimum survival threshold. The human population will become increasingly settled in these farming areas and those involved in cultivation will be from all wealth classes with poor households that abandon the pastoral way becoming more common, however.Draft technology using cattle and camels will expand in farming areas, with intensification of cultivation (including use of manure and better management of plots) taking place only when the best land is all filled, labour is not limiting and when production of grain is perceived by the Boran to decline as a result of reduced soil fertility (Hodgson, 1990). Extensive or low-input farming will thus predominate in the near future. Besides draft power, crop-livestock interactions will be dominated by feeding crop residues to cattle. Because these cultivated areas will happen to be closer to larger towns, and Boran nearer to towns are reportedly to be more amenable to social and economic change (Coppock, 1992b), it is speculated that these situations will offer special opportunities to introduce new technologies and management concepts that could facilitate development of agropastoralism first in certain suitable sites and later filtering elsewhere. Although range-development policy has never officially endorsed cultivation in the southern rangelands, the short-term alternative is widespread hunger and famine vulnerability among the Boran if cultivation is not permitted. Alternatives are discussed later in this chapter.People in drier madda with less favourable landscapes for cultivation will continue to crop on an opportunistic basis only, with frequent failures. Hand cultivation of small plots may predominate and only opportunistic feeding of calves on crop residues will occur. But for the most part, households located in these drier areas will remain as pure pastoral operations.As a response to overcrowding, fodder banks (kalo) have emerged during the past 20 years on the Borana Plateau (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990; described in Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing management). Kalo are forage reserves \"owned\" by local residents that have been annexed from communal grazing resources at the madda level of resolution. lt is understood that kalo are now a permanent feature of higher potential sites near encampments. Since nearly all encampments surveyed now have kalo, the rapid uptake phase of adoption may already be over (see the analytical framework in Rogers, 1 983).Despite a growing human population, 30 Borana elders expressed concern that labour constraints for livestock rearing were markedly worse in 1 990 than in 1980 (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). The source of this problem is the recent increases in emigration rates for younger and poorer male Boran. This group represents the main labour pool for forra herding and raising well water, activities that are less suitable for women and children (see Section 4.3.2: The encampment and the role of cooperative labour). lt is anticipated that emigration rates for this group and their male cohorts will continue to increase as the Boran become more aware of outside economic opportunities; and they acknowledge that, compared to their fathers and forefathers, they will have more difficulty gaining livestock wealth in the traditional system because of overpopulation. Emigration of mature males will place additional labour burdens on adult females, youths and children who are less able to leave the traditional sector (Coppock, 1992b). The increased The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia burden of these activities could detract from women's substantial inputs into the management of both households and livestock (see Section 4.3.3: The labour of married women). Fear of labour shortages has contributed to reservations of sending children to school, but leaders acknowl edge the increasing importance of education for their youth (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). Another outcome of key labour shortages may be increased human birth rates with families attempting to compensate for future labour shortages (Condon, 1991).The decreasing ratio of cattle to people, in conjunction with drought and other perturbations, will serve to pauperise a growing proportion of the population. This is due to intensification of densitydependent competitive interactions (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). These interactions increase the risks of animal losses for all Boran but the chance that the poor could lose even the critical number of cattle needed for survival is greater (see Section 6.4.2: Wealth effects on herd losses). Below a certain threshold, household heads would have to decide whether to remain in the system or not. Male house hold heads could easily leave but women household heads may face greater difficulty doing so (above). This could contribute to a higher proportion of women heads of poorer households. Poorer families in food energy-deficit situations should move to peri-urban locations to sell dairy products to buy grain because their small herds prohibit animal sales (see Section 4.4.10: Dairy marketing).The rate of livestock offtake will increase soonest in drier madda (i.e. where cultivation is not sustainable) as pastoralists are forced to buy more grain to supplement their diets. lncreased rates of offtake may be delayed in madda with extensive cultivation but may eventually increase there also.Pressure to sell more cattle should manifest itself in several other ways: (1) younger male cattle will increasingly be sold compared to the past because of a gradual depletion of mature male stock traditionally preferred for sale (Coppock,1 992b); ( 2) where labour and disease risks permit, herd owners will attempt to produce more small ruminants as a replacement tactic to delay selling more cattle (Coppock,1 992b); and (3) additional emphasis may be placed on selling dairy products. Peri-urban dairy marketing will be far more prevalent than in the past, but flows of products will be highly variable due to climate, market access of households and wealth class (see Section 4.4.10: Dairy marketing). lf prices are allowed to increase for cattle to a level comparable with those offered by the crossborder black market with Kenya as appears feasible (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication), the net effect will be: (1) for Ethiopia to harvest more cattle otherwise lost to Kenya; (2) other factors held constant, a substantial price increase may serve to reduce offtake rates overall given the relatively low need of pastoralists for cash income and increasing poverty of the society (Coppock,1 992b); and (3) herd owners whose main goal is to produce livestock for commercial sale will increase (see Section 4.4.6: Market evolution). These persons often have strong links to the traditional sector, but are commonly urban-based and may be absentee owners in some cases. Although this activity will facilitate livestock purchasing by outsiders as adequate types and numbers of animals can be more readily delivered to buyers, commercial herds will increasingly compete with pastoral subsistence herds for resources.lncreased rates of offtake may gradually decrease the proportion of male animals in cattle herds. This will also reduce security during drought, however, because males have important survival and trade attributes important for drought recovery. House holds may increasingly trade Boran bulls for highland cows after droughts and the percentage of mature cows in the regional herd could slowly increase (see Section 6.4.4: Traditional drought mitigation tactics).Although some aspects of dairy marketing may intensify over time (see below), amounts of milk allocated for processing, especially for secondary products such as long-term fermented milk (ititu) and ghee (see Section 4.3.5.1: Milk processing procedures), will steadily decrease as a result of increased demand for fresh milk for home consumption or sale. This will arise from the gradual decrease in the ratio of milking cows to people. Use of non-dairy foods such as bush foods as dietary supplements for people will be undermined by the increasing reliance on grain; and with the traditional knowledge regarding them will thus be lost increasingly (Sperling, 1989).ln the absence of extensive range burning, the long-term trend will probably be for the woody population to gradually increase (see Section 3.3. Observations of Salih (1985) and Waters-Bayer (1988) suggest that as pastoral societies become more commercialised, men increasingly gain control over various aspects of dairy production and marketing previously in the domain of women. This possibility cannot be ruled out for the Boran.Short-term cycles are best understood in relation to drought frequency. While these cycles may contribute to long-term trends in terms of wealth stratification, livestock productivity and marketing behaviour, they are most easily visualised as affected by density-dependent dynamics in the cattle population as driven by fluctuation in rainfall. lt is important to recall that the cattle population can vary from <10 to >20 head/km2 in just a few years. Elucidating the role of drought frequency in the regulation of livestock productivity, capital accumu lation and loss, and environmental degradation is essential for understanding the dynamism of development opportunities and constraints. lt is also important to note that these hypothesised patterns are probably relatively new developments to the cattle system connected with the removal of disease on the one hand and watering constraints in conjunction with a loss of grazing reserves on the other (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus nonequilibrial population dynamics).These issues have been previously recognised, but they have not been looked into adequately to better understand pastoral development. As with the long-term trends hypothesised above, the following scenarios also assume that: (1) epidemic diseases of livestock will continue to be controlled; ( 2) labour constraints will have a relatively minor role in limiting animal numbers; (3) opportunities for land expansion remain minimal; (4) and the mortality of cattle in future two-year droughts will be similar to that observed in 1983-84.To best illustrate the role of drought in Borana it is assumed that a two-year drought occurs once every 1 0 to 1 5 years and that cattle herds take about five years to recover their numbers (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). Thus, if droughts are 10 years apart the last five years proceeding the second drought will be the time when livestock populations are high enough to impact the perennial savannah; if droughts are spaced 15 years apart, the herds have 10 years to impact the environment. Thus, the longer the interdrought period, the greater the probability that impacts will be severe. This will be further complicated by whether the intervening rainfall is above or below average. lf above average, some impacts will be less than if it is below average. (ln the following discussion the five years of herd recovery will be termed as the drought-recovery phase, while the remaining period before the next drought will be the high-density phase).lf it is assumed that bush encroachment is encouraged by heavy cattle grazing (see Section 3.4.2: Environmental change), then the high-density phase will be the time when establishment of woody seedlings is most likely to occur. More seedlings may establish if the interdrought period is longer. Establishment may also be facilitated by aboveaverage rainfall (Tamene Yigezu, 1990), but this would be true only to the extent that the grass layer is not in competition with seedlings.The high-density phase will also be the time when livestock-induced erosion and changes in herbaceous composition and cover will most likely occur. The high-density phase will probably be the time when the pastoralists feel the greatest need to burn the rangeland in order to improve marginal grazing resources.The standing crop of perennial grasses will be the highest throughout the year during the droughtrecovery phase. The extent to which perennial grasses recover from grazing pressure during the previous high-density phase will be largely related to the chance that rainfall will be above average during the recovery phase. The worst scenario for the sustainable productivity of range vegetation is when interdrought periods are long and the rainfall is slightly below average, i.e. high enough for livestock not to die but low enough to not permit adequate recovery of vegetation from heavy grazing. lf this happens for several interdrought periods in a row, it could translate into a long-term trend of declining range productivity. lf interdrought periods are variable in duration and the volume of rainfall exhibits no clear trends, bush encroachment would occur in a series of irregular pulses.Per head productivity of cattle in terms of milk output, calving rate, calving interval, average daily weight gain and nutritionally mediated calf survival rates will all be the highest in the recovery phase, even though affected by moderate seasonal fluctuations. This is deduced from producer surveys (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics) and literature that links animal performance with stocking rate (Jones and Sandland, 1974;Hart et al, 1988). Conversely, these production attributes will all be constrained to a greater degree in the high-density phase, when seasonal fluctuations in production will also be more pronounced.The environment will thus exert greater limitation over livestock productivity in the high-density phase. This control could be mediated through cattle nutrition. Seasonal limitation of nutrition in the drought-recovery phase will primarily be that of protein in dry periods. Minerals may constitute a minor problem during the later stages of the long wet seasons early in the recovery phase as well. ln contrast, food energy will become the primary constraint during the high-density phase. At the highest densities of cattle, energy will be insufficient even during the long rains, and thus compromise compensatory weight gain, milk production and reproduction. lt was during the highdensity phase of 1981-82 that the unusual bimodal lactation curve of Boran cows was observed, probably indicative of a severe seasonal nutritional stress (see Section 5.3.2: Calf growth and milk offtake). lt is hypothesised that the bimodal lactation curve is less likely to be observed during droughtrecovery phases.Cattle productivity per unit area, particularly in terms of milk, is hypothesised to be a major driving variable on human behaviour in the system. This is translateable into per capita milk yield at the household level of resolution. Cattle milk production per unit area, overall, will be the lowest in the first few years of the recovery phase and the highest during the first years of the high-density phase, after which it will gradually decrease because of densitydependent interactions (Figure 7.3). ln contrast, nutritionally mediated productivity of browsing camels and goats, either per animal or per unit area, will be largely unaffected during the interdrought Source: Coppock (1993c).cycle except for variation induced by fluctuation in rainfall but grazing sheep could suffer from competition from cows in the high-density phase (see Section 3.4.3: Use of native plants). The populations of camels and goats are assumed to be well below any limits imposed by availability of browse in the study area. Disease likely constitutes the most pervasive constraint regarding small ruminants and camels, regardless of population density and rainfall (see Section 5.3.7: Ancillary livestock).lt has been shown that the composition of cattle herds changes to a higher proportion of male animals following drought (see Section 6.4.1: Drought impacts on livestock). Thus a higher proportion of males will characterise the droughtrecovery phase and this will gradually lessen in the high-density phase. This contributes to the cycle of milk-production dynamics per hectare noted above, as mediated by resource competition between milk cows and other cattle.Pastoralists sell livestock and dairy products primarily to buy grain to compensate for a shortage of milk. Thus, from hypotheses for livestock production (above), and assuming no cultivation for simplicity, the need to sell livestock and livestock products would decline sharply during a drought recovery phase, bottom out briefly during one or two years of full herd recovery and then gradually increases again during the high-density phase as a result of a decline in cow productivity per unit area resulting from forage competition (i.e. compare Figure 7.1c on interdrought energy deficits with Figure 7.3 on cow productivity per unit area).Overall, the need to sell will increase if rainfall is below average during the entire interdrought period, and vice versa. What to sell is a more complicated matter. Households located more than 30 km from market are probably relegated to selling only animals while those located within 30 km can sell both dairy products and animals, giving rise two subsystems. During the recovery phase, no herd owner will want to sell cattle (because what males they have they would want to trade for cows), and thus may opt instead to sell more fresh milk or small ruminants. Fresh milk, sold from a milk-deficit situation, will be the preferred sale item in the recovery phase in the peri-urban subsystem because per capita yields will be insufficient to make butter (see Section 4.3.5: Dairy processing and marketing). Poorer herd owners will always have fewer choices of what to sell compared to wealthy ones. During the highdensity phase when capital accumulation and management risks are higher, wealthy herd owners may be more inclined to divert animals toward their social benefits (see below).lt is important to note that these cyclic patterns take place within a gradual long-term trend of increased per capita dairy marketing resulting from a declining ratio of cattle to people, which may be offset by cultivated food production depending on favourable conditions. lt is predicted that there will be episodic increases in sales during droughtrecovery phases in addition to the generally increased flow of dairy products associated with poor women residing near towns. This will also be influenced by the local contingenies of cultivation. Nevertheless it is predicted that denial of reciprocal grazing rights will become more common during dry seasons in the high-density phase while normal access will be granted during drought-recovery phases.This section reviews intervention concepts based on development experiences backed up by research. Development and research are integrated because the most effective approach involved extension providing appropriate ideas for commodity-oriented research, not the other way around (see Section 1 .4.7: lnteraction between research and development and project impact). Systems research was then used to generate the population-based models of long-term trends and short-term cycles (above). This was intended to provide insights as to when commodity-based interventions should be extended for maximum impact (see Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics).One fundamental goal of range management is to promote an optimal and sustainable level of animal production consistent with maintaining and/or improving a given forage base. This goal may be achieved in a hierarchical fashion (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: pp 100-138). First, access of livestock to underutilised land must be achieved; and this is usually implemented through water development. Second, once access is secured the timing and intensity of herbivory may be regulated, which involves manipulation of the species, types, numbers and/or distribution of livestock. Third, some intensive inputs may be required to improve the level or distribution of primary production to increase carrying capacity. Fourth and lastly, additional intensive inputs may be required to rehabilitate sites in the event of failing to attain the second or third stages of the hierarchy. ln this strategy extensive approaches precede intensive approaches (Herbel, 1983). This is an important point because African range development agents often focus more on intensive approaches consistent with expectations of higher-potential production systems in less risky environments. As a result they put fewer resources towards extensive management. lt is thus understandable why efforts involving intensive interventions often fail (D. L. This review was organised in a hierarchical fashion according to the conceptual framework of Pratt and Gwynne (1977: pp 100-138) while at the same time attempting to merge range-management concerns with the needs of improved human welfare. As such it recognises that the constraints and objectives of range management in traditional pastoral systems are different from those in commercial ranching (Behnke, 1983;1984;1987). The review starts with a section on water develop ment followed by material on grazing management, range improvements, and site rehabilitation.For pastoral systems improved access to land is most readily achieved through water development. ln addition, if water development is designed to be ephemeral it can also be an element of the second stage of range management in terms of seasonal regulation of livestock density and distribution. For the Borana pastoral system, where water for people is in short supply and human labour is a critical input for watering animals, water development must also be more broadly defined in terms of improving human welfare through increased access to water for households and the need to improve labour efficiency. ldeally, the amount and temporal availability of water must only be sufficient to sustain a density of stock commensurate with optimal use of vegetation in a given area. Provision of water in excess of this amount can otherwise lead to environmental damage (Sandford, 1983b).Lack of surface water is perhaps the most defining characteristic of the central Borana Plateau (see Section 1.4.2: History of lowlands development and the TLDP). Partly because the lack of water provided a traditional constraint on cattle numbers, the southern rangelands have been regarded as one of Africa's premier rangelands in terms of vegetation condition and trend (Pratt, 1987a). Starting in 1976, development efforts in SORDU were originally focused on expansion of the wet-season grazing area for cattle through construction of strategically placed ephemeral ponds that were intended to augment the traditional ponds system maintained by the Boran through hand labour. The new ponds were to have moderate capacities in line with promoting sustainable use of adjacent forage resources.TLDP management was sensistive to problems of unregulated water development that had occurred in other African pastoral systems (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communi cation). Prior to undertaking this activity it was estimated that only 66% of the wet-season range was accessible to cattle because of scarcity of surface water (Cossins, 1983d).Expansion of wet-season grazing was expected to: ( 1) prolong a higher level of wet-season nutrition for cattle for one to three more months each year (Cossins, 1983d; Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication); ( 2) promote higher levels of milk production (see Section 5.3.2: Calf growth and milk offtake); (3) improve conditions for animals as they enter dry seasons; (4) reduce pressure on dry-season range adjacent to the deep wells; and (5) help delay the large labour commitment for raising well water (Cossins, 1983c; see Section 2.4.1.7: loafer resources). A secondary emphasis was placed on the maintenance and re-excavation of deep wells used in dry seasons. SORDU did most of the work involving deep wells, but ancillary contributions were made by non-governmental organisations such as CARE-Ethiopia and the Norwegian Church. The material here will only briefly highlight important perspectives related to large-scale water development. Readers should consult Section 2.4.1 .7: Water resources for back ground on main types of water sources and their annual contribution to the production system. Other details on water resources may be found in AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974i), Cossins (1983c;1983d), Donaldson (1983Donaldson ( ), lrwin (1986a;;1986b;1986c), EWWCA (1987)), Tilaye Bekele (1987), andHodgson (1990).The following review does not consider some 40 ponds constructed in projects involving the Ministry of Agriculture or USAlD starting in the 1 950s. Large permanent ponds such as Beke Pond constructed prior to the initiation of the TLDP have had considerable positive and negative impacts on the production system, outlined in Section 7.1.3: Review of pastoral system dynamics and past interventions. Boreholes and hand pumps nave been recently recommended as a means to alleviate water constraints in urban situations (EWWCA, 1 987) but have never been strongly considered for the pastoral sector. This is because development philosophy has focused more on augmenting traditional water resources and because pumps used to extract water from boreholes have commonly been unsustainable (Hodgson, 1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern EthiopiaPonds SORDU constructed some 95 ponds, ranging in size from 10 000 to 60 000 m3 capacity, during 1976-1986 using heavy machinery. SORDU bore all costs. Roughly 12 ponds were constructed to support three holding ranches (see Section 1 .4.5.5: Ranch development) while the rest were built in the traditional pastoral sector. lt was expected that the Boran would help maintain the ponds in the pastoral sector. While some ponds have been successful (see Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing management), major problems in sustaining the intervention have involved excessive losses of water through seepage and high rates of siltation through poor watershed management (lrwin, 1986a;1986b;1986c;Tilaye Bekele, 1987). Of 37 ponds constructed by 1982, 30% were judged as out of use, another 54% as silted-up but still in use and 5% with substantial seepage problems (Cossins,1 983d: p 6). ln another sample of 38 SORDU ponds inspected in 1986, 17 (44%) were reported as nonfunctional or \"doubtful\" (lrwin, 1986a; 1986b). ln contrast, only three of 14 ponds constructed by the joint Ministry of Agriculture/USAlD activity were scored as nonfunctional (lrwin, 1986a; 1986b). Failure of pond development at Dembel Wachu Ranch because of seepage problems (Cossins, 1983d) and difficulties in establishing ponds or boreholes at Wollenso Ranch (Menwyelet Atsedu, Colorado State University, personal comunication) seriously undermined implementation of the ranch concept during the 1980s. Some ponds were reportedly built having a larger capacity than warranted by the local ecology (Cossins, 1983d). Water development problems have thus involved both technical and social issues.While there is evidence that permanent ponds to the north of the study area provided critical and sustained access to previously underutilised grazing resources (see Section 7.1.3: Review of pastoral system dynamics and past interventions), there are no hard data concerning to what degree the SORDU pond programme increased Boran access to wet-season range. Even if it is assumed that increased access is significant, difficulties in maintaining ponds suggest that it is not permanent. One of the key questions is why the Boran have apparently been reluctant to maintain SORDU ponds. A major part of the strategy was that the Boran would desilt ponds using large, metal cattle-drawn scoops (Cossins, 1 983d;Abiye Astatke et al, 1986). SORDU hoped to promote this approach in order to reduce demand for foreign exchange for purchasing fuel and spare parts for heavy machinery. While the Boran are willing to train cattle to pull ploughs for cultivation, they have been far less willing to do the same for pond scooping (Hodgson, 1990). This is ironic in view of the fact that Boran have been observed to use pond scoops at their own initiative, to clean manure from cattle corrals manually (R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication).These issues seem to bear on the reluctance of the Boran to maintain the SORDU ponds: the simplest hypothesis is that the Boran are unwilling to risk the condition and health of cattle for pond maintenance at stressful times of the year. Cattle have a high socio-economic value being highly prized household assets (Coppock, 1992b). Desilting pond using scoops is laborious, often requiring many days even for moderately sized ponds (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). The best time of year to desilt ponds is the warm dry season when soils are dry and easier to handle. Since ponds are located far from wells and in sites where forage has been often depleted, it is difficult to maintain cattle at work sites in terms of providing adequate forage and water. This necessitates a work rotation for cattle that has been difficult to organise and sustain (R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication).Since the Boran commonly desilt ponds in the traditional networks using their bare hands (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources), it is understood that they are willing to endure relatively worse personal hardships in terms of labour compared to what they are willing to subject their prized animal assets to. Camels have also been used to pull pond scoops. While technically feasible, camels are low in number on the central plateau and are roughly twice the price of cattle (see Section 4.3.4.6: Prices). Camel owners should be no more willing to sacrifice them for a community project than cattle owners, despite requirements for forage and water that make camels easier to manage at dry-season work sites (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).Finally, efforts have been directed at reducing the scoop size and weight by half with the thought that work animals would then be under less stress (R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, personal commu nication). However, this did not appear to elicit much more interest among the Boran in spite of the modest extension efforts made (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Compared to the apparent failure of the pond scoop, it is noteworthy that a hand-tools programme initiated by CARE-Ethiopia that sold shovels to the Boran was very successful (Hodgson, 1990). This may illustrate critical differences in technology uptake related to felt needs of the people. The pond scoop was created and implemented using a top-down approach that ignored the cultural values that the Boran have for cattle as socio-economic assets, not as work animals (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).Another constraint against participatory pond maintenance is the likely expectation of the Boran that since SORDU built the ponds for them for free, SORDU should also maintain them (Cossins, 1983d). This attitude may not have occurred if the Boran had paid or donated labour for the pond construction in the first place. That the Boran become conditioned to receiving \"gifts\" from development agents, and that this apparently lowers their initiative, has been observed (Hodgson, 1990). ln the late 1980s, SORDU policy shifted to promoting a cost-sharing approach in which the Boran helped pay for maintenance of water resources through livestock sales. This is viewed as a positive step to encourage responsibility among the Boran for infrastructural improvements and to promote monetisation. lt has been reported that madda residents in Did Hara began to collect substantial sums of money for SORDU to desilt large ponds using heavy machinery in 1989-90 (Shewangizaw Bekele, lLCA, personal communi cation). Following through on this initiative has been constrained by several factors, however: (1) fuel shortages at that time precluded the chance that SORDU could undertake the work quickly; ( 2) the longer such a project is delayed, the greater the chance that collected money would be pilfered by some Borana leaders; and (3) the 1990-91 drought subsequently devastated cattle herds (see Section 6.3.3: Drought effects in 1990-91). This meant that capital assets for large projects would have to be delayed until the next high-density phase of the cattle population, likely to start in 1996.Efforts to improve well systems have focused on:(1) maintaining physical integrity of operational wells; (2) re-excavation of abandoned wells; and (3) improving efficiency of water extraction. There have been relatively few efforts to consider excavations of new wells. This is not surprising given the large size and depth of tula wells (see Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources).Efficiency of water extraction involves every aspect of the operations from leaky buckets (okole) used to pass water up the human chains to leaky troughs [fetchana and naninga). The buckets have traditionally been made from buffalo or giraffe hide. Given the scarcity of these species today (see Section 2.4.1.6: Native fauna), there has been concern that replacing worn buckets will be increasingly difficult (Cossins, 1983c;Hodgson, 1990). Plastic or metal buckets may become the norm in the future, but they are often viewed as inferior in terms of ease of handling (Hodgson, 1990). Leaky troughs can be a serious source of inefficiency (Cossins, 1983c). SORDU and other nongovernmental organisations have helped provide cement to repair troughs which were traditionally reinforced with clay. Cement is an important technology that is widely appreciated by the Boran but remains difficult to obtain because of the country's low production (Hodgson, 1990). Cave-ins of well walls occur after heavy rains and projects have been regularly undertaken to reinforce well structures. Other popular projects have involved redesigning and/or adding more well-access ramps for livestock. These projects have commonly involved contributions by the Boran for buying materials and labour in the form of food for work (Hodgson, 1990).Occasionally there is an initiative by a non governmental organisation or government ministry that usually work outside of the southern rangelands to install diesel or solar pumps in wells to reduce the need for human labour. This is technically feasible in many wells except perhaps in situations where subsurface recharge rates are very low (EWWCA, 1 987). There is a great excitement among the Boran when a demonstration pump is installed (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation); this is not surprising given the possible reduction in drudgery pumps could offer. Following a study, however, these initiatives have been dropped since 1980s. Diesel pumps were apparently installed in some wells at Dubluk in the late 1970s or early 1980s (Shewangizaw Bekele, lLCA, personal communication). One reported outcome was that influential people then gained control over the wells with pumps since they no longer had to coerce or carry favour among poorer labourers. That poorer people assist in watering herds of the wealthy in return for food and future calves is an important aspect of social leverage in the community (see Section 4.3.2: The encampment and the role of cooperative labour). lt is thus not surprising that Boran leaders would favour the use of pumps more than the poor.More recent initiatives have involved requests by the Boran for SORDU to use heavy machinery at 1 3 tula wells to lower their floors so as to reduce the shaft distance from well floors (where the troughs are) to the ella or water source by half (Tafesse Mesfin, TLDP General Manager, personal com munication). This in turn would shorten the human chains required to lift water. While this could have similar negative effects on the social structure that installing pumps would, at some time SORDU does have to be aware of a looming labour shortages among the Boran in the future and seek a balanced approach to the problem (see Section 7.2.2.3: Labour availability). SORDU must also consider 204The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Development-intervention concepts whether water development could help in the reclamation or expansion of key forra or drought reserve areas (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). ln 1987-1990 there were numerous requests from the Boran for SORDU to assist with well maintenance and re-excavation using heavy machinery. Work was to be largely paid for by the Boran under the cost-sharing philosophy (above). Over three years activities involved 23 wells and the collection of the equivalent of USD 40 000 for operating costs from the Boran (Tamene Yigezu, SORDU manager, personal communication). Well re-excavations have been carefully considered in light of their potential for contributing to local overgrazing; the Boran may attempt, however, to re-excavate wells themselves if they do not get the cooperation from SORDU that they want (Bassi, 1990). lt is hypothesised that the increase in requests to conduct well-related help during 1987-1990 reflected increased demand for resources from a cattle herd in a high-density phase. This was also a time when risky cattle assets might have been more readily given up by the wealthy to support status-giving community projects (see Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics).Water tanks and holes Although there was an emphasis at TLDP on building birka cisterns in Jirdu (Kidane Wolde Yohannes, TLDP Range Ecologist, personal com munication), SORDU never promoted watercollecting structures among the Boran. As a result of extension efforts in 1986-87, CARE-Ethiopia responded to a felt need of the Boran for improved houshold access to water by initiating a cistern programme (Hodgson, 1990). The intent was that local cisterns could provide water for households and calves and hence reduce the drudgery of women who had to collect it from ponds and distant wells. Construction aspects: Cisterns were either: (1) large, rectangular-shaped water tanks (90 000 to 150 000-litre capacity) for encampments; or ( 2 large rocky shelfs while water holes were to be filled from runoff or manually using containers to transport water from nearby ponds in wet seasons, i.e. using water otherwise lost to evaporation and seepage. Cisterns can have roofs (for the tanks) or lids (for the holes) made from local materials that reduce evaporation and fouling of water. The water tanks also have a cement channel and silt trap that funnel and hold water before it spills into the tank; water holes may also have these. The idea that water holes could be an appropriate intervention came from observations that women were filling under ground grain stores (promoted earlier by CARE-Ethiopia) with hand-carried water (R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication). lt took several years to improve the design and minimise cracking of both types of cistern (Tesfaye Wogayehu, 1990). Materials required for a large water tank (with dimensions of 5 x 4 x 4 m) include about 50 kg of cement, clean sand, stone, nails, water and chicken wire. The size of a water tank is determined by the length of the warm dry season (typically 90 days), number of families in the targeted encampment(s) and daily water require ments per family (10 litres) and per calf (4-5 litres). An excavation is made in which an initial and final ■■■■RB I: layers of pure cement sandwich five layers of a cement/sand mixture on the walls and floor. After three layers of a cement/sand mixture have set, one layer of chicken wire is nailed to the walls upon which the last two layers of cement/sand mixture are applied. Stone can replace chicken wire if necessary (Hodgson, 1990: p 31). Depending on the size, the total cost of materials, transport and masonry work for a tank ranges from EB 2300 to 3000, roughly the equivalent of selling six to eight bulls.More details are provided in Tesfaye Wogayehu (1990). This information is reported here only to illustrate the complexity of construction. Once properly built the structure can last for many years with minor maintenance. CARE-Ethiopia has trained locals to undertake masonry work, but the degree of skill required is considerable. ln contrast to water tanks, water holes require much smaller amounts of construction materials. Layering of the walls is similar to that for water tanks (Tesfaye Wogayehu, 1990). The cost for the holes is also much cheaper, less than EB 200. Social and economic implications: lnitial experiences in extending the use of cisterns have been reported by Hodgson (1990: pp 30-34, 40, 206 The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Development-intervention concepts 45). The philosophy is to prioritise those encamp ments over 20 km from the deep wells as they would be under particular stress in terms of this distance women and calves have to walk to get water in dry seasons. By 1990 less than 10 water tanks and a couple dozen water holes had been built or were on order (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).The first people interested in water tanks were wealthier Borana entrepreneurs and they were implemented as community demonstrations. Female heads of poorer households were able to have water holes built (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). lnitial problems revolved around subsequent attempts to privatise the water. Some of the new owners of water tanks and holes tried to sell water, a violation of Borana tradition that elicited complaints. This has subsequently been solved to a large degree by promoting community ownership of water tanks. The poor contribute labour in the construction while the wealthy donate cattle to be sold to finance costs (Coppock,1 990a). Everyone who participates thus gains access. The large size of the tanks and increased likelihood of communal use makes these the priority intervention (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal com munication).Rather than donate cattle to build water tanks on a charitable basis to help ease the workloads of women in hauling water, it appears as though the motives of wealthy men in these projects are more to acquire status associated with the construction of a large semi-permanent structure that may be named after them (C. Futterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication). This fits with traditions of well and pond building (see Section 2.4.7.1: Water resources) and with the fact that encampments are also named after the influential aba olla (encamp ment \"fathers\"). Water tanks may thus give an outlet for those men of high or intermediate wealth for whom there are not enough status-giving com munity projects to contribute to.The concern that the people would be unable or unwilling to pay for the water tanks was dispelled by findings of an external review team. The apparent willingness of the wealthy to translate animals into this novel form of prestige and influence is important in promoting increased livestock marketing and monetisation in the society. This apparent willingness to translate cattle assets into a physical structure may be related to the increased management risks associated with the high-density phase of the cattle population during 1989-90 (see Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics). With an average of seven head sold per water tank, there are significant local implications for destocking. The major constraints in meeting the high demand for cisterns are the difficulties in procuring construction supplies and perfecting construction techniques to minimise cracking (Futterknecht, 1990).The main questions that remain in this regard are whether or not cisterns will be incorporated into the broader reciprocal patterns of resource use among madda, how user rights are transferred over time among different individuals, or what impli cations this has for increased sedentarisation of the population. ln a survey of 67 encampments throughout the central plateau, Menwyelet Atsedu (TLDP/lLCA postgraduate researcher, unpublished data) noted that the Boran felt they were more sedentary compared to the past and that this was largely due to the attractions of roads and markets. lt is unclear if increased sedentarisation of households is undesirable in normal rainfall years. The regular attempts of madda residents to try to regulate grazing pressure (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data) indicate that sedentarisation is manageable as long as labour and land are sufficient to allow forra herds to move out of the area when necessary (see Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle management). lndeed, water tanks could be very beneficial because they could allow more families to reside in sites of lower grazing pressure further from the deep wells (Hodgson, 1990: p 30). Implications for labour, water use and herd productivity: Coppock (1992a) reported a study of the effects of water tanks on women's time allocation, water procurement efficiency and household water use based on an analysis of 64 households during the warm dry season of 1990. Data included: (1 ) direct observation of 32 married women who had access to cisterns and 32 who did not on a 24-hour basis for one week (distributed over two months); and (2) nightly household interviews to quantify daily water budgets based on recall. Water tanks were located within 1 -km distance from households while wells were within 7 km. Time for collecting water included walking and drawing water. Collecting water was undertaken for household use and calves. Women carry water in 20-litre jerry cans on their backs. One hypothesis was that access to a water tank would have dramatic effects in reducing the time women spend collecting water and a major result would be that women, freed of excessive water-collecting duties, would use their newly acquired time in other productive activities (see Section 4.3.3: The labour of married women). Another hypothesis was that water use by house holds and calves with access to water tanks would increase over those with no access to water tanks. Data were analysed using a factorial ANOVA (time budgets) or f-tests (water budgets); results are briefly highlighted here. lt was surprising to find that water tanks had only a nominal effect (P<0.05) on time women spent collecting water each week. An average of 3.6 h/woman/week was spent collecting water if they did not have access to a water tank, while those with access spent 3.2 h/woman/week. This suggests that the time women spent collecting water in dry seasons was greatly over estimated, even though this was based on many pre-trial interviews of women (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990).The paradox of insignificant time savings accruing to women with water tanks was due to the fact that they collected water twice as often. Women with water tanks also appeared to draw water in a more leisurely fashion. Overall time budgets of women in the two treatments did not appreciably differ. Women were active some 16 h/day dominated by leisure (33%), general household management (31 %), water collection (1 2%), milking cows (7%), child care (6%), other livestock management (5%) and firewood collection (4%). Women with water tanks, however, drew water twice as efficiently as those without access (42 vs 20 litres/hour worked). Water budgets are depicted in Tables 7.1 and 7.2. Families with cisterns collected about 72% more water than those without and the increment largely went to calves, not people. This may have increased calf water intake from 8 to 26 litres/calf/week, and could have been significant in terms of promoting higher intakes of forage also. 1 Data include water transported to the hut and used at the source as reported in nightly group interviews. Water procured at the source may have been estimated less accurately. All means may be divided by 3.9 to obtain litre/person/week. 2 Means within a row accompanied by the same letter (x, y) were not significantly different (P>0.05) in t-test comparisons (N=32).Entries in which zero liters were recorded could not be included in statistical tests.Source: Coppock (1992a). This could be significant in mitigating calf mortality (Coppock, 1992a: see Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mor tality mitigation).The high interest of the Boran in the water tanks belies some of the research results. The Boran believe that water tanks reduce time needed for collecting water and this is an important reason for their strong interest in this intervention. The effects of water tanks on women's work efficiency and organising their daily work load, however, may be more important cues than time savings per se. Water tanks would probably also confer a great benefit by reducing women's time for having water if households are located further than 7 km from the deep wells. Results also suggested that the impact of water tanks may be greater on calves than people through increased water intake. People were very conservative with water from the tanks because they knew that it was a finite supply, and they did not know how long the dry season would be. Other economic implications: Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 46-105) studied the water-tank inter vention in the context of improved calf management for households over a 10-year production cycle using a herd-modeling approach. lt was assumed in the analysis that improved water intake would occur for calves that had access to water tanks and that this was a key component in the mitigation of calf mortality (Coppock, 1989b). The cost/benefit analysis suggested that use of water tanks should be highly profitable in the long term given the above assumptions. This analysis is described further in Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation.Other aspects of water development CARE-Ethiopia and SORDU have engaged in other minor forms of water development on the Borana Plateau. These experiences are reviewed in Hodgson (1990). ln sum, large and small-scale water develop ment has involved many projects and has generally been successful. This success is due in large measure to the perception of the Boran that reliable water resources are crucial to their survival. To what extent, however, the pond programme is sustainable and to what degree ponds have contributed to stabilisation or destabilisation of the system during the past 1 5 years remains unclear. The cost-sharing philosophy for ponds, wells and cisterns will help identify projects most important to the Boran and encourage livestock offtake and monetisation in support of improvements in human welfare.One remaining question on the use of cisterns involves how they could contribute to sedentarisation and local environmental degradation. This can only be addressed through research. For the pond and well programmes the most effective approach is to orient them towards use of heavy machinery and discount the notion that animal traction will ever be a crucial input. The only exception to this would be if animal traction could be marketed as a consumer service; not as something that requires herd owners to sacrifice their own animals for. Cement, shovels and similar technologies are the most important for uptake by the Boran. Access to these is most constrained by the external economy while access to foreign exchange is the ultimate constraint against using heavy machinery. External factors thus may exceed internal factors as root causes of underdevelopment on the Borana Plateau (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).The large-scale water interventions are essentially extensive improvements. The availability of new land for water development, however, has rapidly declined (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication). Lack of space may now provide some incentives to the Boran to engage in more intensive activities for range management including aspects of controlled grazing. Some of these perspectives are treated in this section.As reviewed in Section 2.4.1.7: Water resources, the wells are the critical resource on the Borana Plateau to which access is largely gained through the descent system. Although traditionally no herd owner may be verbally denied access to a given grazing area or madda, rules governing the use of wells can provide some de facto control over access to grazing, especially in times of stress (Bassi, 1 990: p263;Hogg, 1990a;D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Even if a herd owner gains access to a new well during time of stress, his herd may be relegated to being last in the watering queue, and rather than water his animals late in the day or at night, he may be forced to go elsewhere (Bassi,1 990: p 272). Wealthy and influential men with large herds can also be denied well access if doing so would compromise other but more indigenous users (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communication). Traditionally, cattle are crudely inventoried in terms of 200-head groups, con sidered to be the maximum size for herding control (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). lf a nerd owner has two of these groups or less, the community will provide labour for watering. lf the herd owner has more animals than this, he must provide his own labour to water the increment above 400 (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).The Borana social system shows a high degree of egalitarianism and this has a great bearing onThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia resource sharing (Asmarom Legesse, 1973;Bassi, 1990;Hogg, 1990a). The pattern of de facto boundary enforcement of madda as mediated by water access, however, appears to be in contrast to some observations to the effect that territorial boundaries seem to disintegrate in a \"free for all\" when other aspects of the pastoral system are under stress (Holland, 1980a). While the Borana system may superficially appear to be managed as a \"grazing commons\", this may be more the case within certain madda than among all madda in general. Even within madda there are other subtle means of allocating grazing resources (below). Considerable internal stress can occur when madda are perceived by residents to be overstocked.The problem today, however, is that there are fewer fallback options outside of the home madda because of a general increase in the population (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). The \"tragedy of the commons\" model, with inevitable misuse of resources by pastoralists, appears too general for practical application here as elsewhere (see Feeny et al, 1990). Here it is more a case of human overpopulation leading to a breakdown of the traditional regulatory processes that constitutes the main threat to sustainable resource use, not that traditional regulations were never in place (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).Hogg (1 990a) described the traditional territorial organisation of the Boran which still exists today. Madda are regional grazing areas associated with well group(s); there are some 35 madda on the central Borana Plateau (see Section 2.4.1 .7: Water resources). Madda can be composed of sub-units called deda which are grazing areas customarily used by clusters of neighbouring encampments (olla). Non-residents of these olla, however, may also use the deda on occasion. Council meetings are held to discuss aspects of deda management, including demarcation of wet and dry-season grazing areas. Deda residents must obey rules set down by the council. Deda, not madda, are thus the fundamental grazing management units (Hogg, 1990a). Hence Deda are the appropriate unit to consider when it comes to traditional grazing management practices and whether interventions are feasible.Deda and forra management lncreased populations of people and cattle have served to first undermine the forra (satellite) grazing system for cattle (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). Traditionally, forra herds would be moved out of their home madda soon after the long rainy season to exploit underutilised areas elsewhere. Out of some 35 madda, roughly seven have been traditionally used by others as fallback forra regions in addition to their role as home madd a for their residents. These madda typically have reliable deep wells that function during droughts, and include Burbur (or Borbor), Das, Dubluk, Gayo, Goray, Medecho and Web (see Figure 2.10). The availability of these sites for forra in the late 1 980s had been reduced by the growth of the resident population because of immigration of new residents from nearby madda that were overcrowded (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). As one response to this crisis, the leadership of the Dubluk madda decided to prohibit entry of nonresident (forra) herds in 1989 . Emboldened by this a similar action was taken by six other forra madda shortly thereafter. An uproar ensued and the Gumi Gayu council, the supreme decision-making body (see Section 2.4.2.2: Some cultural and organisational features), declared that closure of traditional forra madda was unlawful and insisted they be re-opened. The leaders of the forra madda had to comply with this ruling and re-open them (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). lt is noteworthy that the crisis of 1 989 ensued during the high-density phase of cattle population (see Section 7.2.3: Anticipated short-term cycles). No such crisis was perceived during the drought-recovery phase of 1985-88. Land tenure crises are thus hypoth esised to be more of a cyclic, rather than permanent, feature of Boran society (see Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics). The frequency of such crises, however, may now increase because of growth in the human popu lation.Another response to increasing pressure has been to accomodate both warra (home-based) and forra cattle herds within madda for a longer period each year. Traditionally, madda reserved certain restricted local sites for year-round forra grazing, but these were rarely used. They were often symbolic in nature (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). Some madda residents have responded to in creased population pressure by devising inno vations in land use and these provide illustrations of how creative thinking can help alleviate grazing problems.The residents of Gobso madda (Figure 2.10) received recognition from the local government administration in the late 1 980s for their new grazing system. The former and current systems are depicted in Figure 7.4 (a,b). The former system was based on warra grazing throughout the year in the vicinity of the deep wells with forra animals being sent outside. This resulted in year-long heavy use of vegetation within the grazing orbit of the wells. The need in recent years to accomodate more people and animals has led the residents of Gobso to dig new ponds away from their existing deep wells so as to gain access to underutilised grazing; these ponds augmented one original pond constructed by SORDU (Figure 7.4b).The high utility of these new ponds has led to increased mobility in the madda. Residents now live in the region with ponds during the wet seasons and retreat to the region near the wells in the dry season; with this the vegetation has benefited from a wet season with no grazing. The families maintain encampments in both regions and these are thus vacated for part of the year. Furthermore, the two wet and dry-season regions have been subdivided into warra and forra zones to accomodate forra cattle throughout the year; the madda as a whole is thus divided into four large blocks (Figure 7.4b). This last aspect of the system reduces major uncertainties of forage supply that may otherwise be caused by continuous grazing. Some rest for the vegetation is provided, but the four blocks are not rotated according to seasonal use because of the fundamental problem of uniform water access in the dry season.The residents of Gobso madda have shown ingenuity in improving their grazing system at the deda level of resolution. Further detail improve ments such as rotation grazing may have a scope for implementation in the future but this would probably be influenced in a dynamic fashion by the proposed interdrought cycle (see Section 7.2.3: Anticipated short-term cycles). During the herdrecovery phase no further grazing management is likely required because cattle density is lower. During the high-density phase, however, some aspects of rotation grazing may be implemented when the system is heavily stocked.ln drier pastoral systems, de facto rotation grazing may be practised simply because of the variable distribution of rainfall; for example herds tracking patches of green-flush may not hit the same patch in successive years. ln the Borana system, high population densities and the relatively reliable rainfall give a higher probability that sites are grazed on an annual basis. Thus, while the Gobso example provides an impetus for improved grazing man agement, it may still ultimately be limited by the spectre of range degradation from heavy grazing of wet-season areas. Again, this would be most likely in the high-density phase of cattle population and particularly if rainfall is slightly below average (see Section 7.2.3.1 : Range ecology).Plants may be most suceptible to heavy use by livestock during wet seasons (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 112). ln contrast, heavy grazing during dry seasons may have little permanent effect on vegetation that is largely dormant. Thus, without implementation of rotations, it is necessary that the wet-season grazing area be relatively large in relation to the number of animals and the size of the dry-season grazing area (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 114). ln a review of temperate-zone recom mendations, Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 95) noted that removal of standing biomass should not exceed 50%. lt is likely that grazing pressure in Borana commonly exceeds this, especially in the highdensity phase of the cattle population (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).The ultimate grazing management problem then becomes how to implement grazing rotations under conditions of high population density and the lack of an even distribution of a permanent water supply. Pratt and Gwynne (1977: pp 112-120) give a number of examples of rotational schemes based on two to five blocks, with the general objective to rest at least one of the blocks on successive years. Such approaches are appropriate to ranches, but would have to be significantly modified to accomodate constraints in a pastoral system. The target area may have to be restricted to wet-season areas only and the proportion of land rested each year would have to be small because enlarging them would endanger human welfare over the short term. Herlocker (1 986: p 29) reported that for devel opment of Somali grazing areas (degaans), the land area to be rested each year was on the order of 1 0%, but this was also considered flexible given the variable conditions in different degaans. Despite initial resistance, this plan was reportedly accepted and provided another benefit in terms of a dryseason forage reserve (Herlocker, 1986: p 29).At another level of resolution, the degree of rest for vegetation during the wet season can be altered from rest-rotation (complete protection) to deferredrotation, in which use is delayed until seed-set is assured (Heady, 1975). lt is speculated that some form of deferred-rotation grazing, with land area on the order of 15% or less, may be applicable for extension to some situations on the Borana Plateau, especially during the high-density phase of the cattle population. lmplementation would need to be highly flexible in recognition of the differing resources of madda (see Section 3.3.1: Ecological map and land use), and the residents' having to feel some acute pressure on resources in order for them to be interested. ln contrast, the drought-recovery phase of the cattle population presents a natural period for resting vegetation and the effect of the rest would depend on the chance that rainfall during this time is above or below average (see Section 7.2.3.1: Range ecology). Middle-level grazing management such as this on the Borana Plateau has received insufficient attention from research or development. lt may be that some forms of a rotational system are already in use during the high-density phase and these should be examined.More case studies of grazing management in madda are required and this should be a high priority.Kalo and their management Hogg (1990a) reported that the deda grazing units are further subdivided into ardha (localities), populated by olla (encampments). lt is at the encampment level that kalo reserves have been recently carved out of the traditional system and reserved for use by livestock owned by olla residents. Kalo are the ultimate form of land annexation in the Borana system.Kalo were studied by Menwyelet Atsedu (1990: pp 10-53). Two surveys were conducted in 1988 that included 67 encampments in six madda. lnformation was collected on the incidence, history, physical features and management of kalo. Other studies were undertaken to assess the effects of kalo on vegetation, results are reported in Section 3.3.3: Short-term vegetation change.Survey results were interpreted to indicate that the idea for kalo originated from the agropastoral Gujji to the north of the study area. Kalo have been used on the Borana Plateau during the past 20-30 years, and in part this was stimulated by local government administrators. Virtually all surveyed encampments had kalo (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990). The average age (6.4 years) of kalo was similar to that for the encampments they served. Some (26%) were older then 6.4 years and passed from one nearby encampment to the next over time. Kalo averaged 12 ha in size, with a range of 1-80 ha. lf they were less than 5 ha, they were commonly bush-fenced; larger ones were more typically delineated by natural features and protected by decree. Kalo size was determined by the number of young or sick calves anticipated in the coming year for a given encampment as well as by the local forage conditions. lf conditions for a given year are expected to be poor, kalo are expanded in size. Most kalo were located on flat land or gentle slopes. These sites commonly had deeper soils and more productive vegetation.Olla residents all participate in kalo site selection, although the leader (aba olla) has a particularly important role in the final decision. When and how to use kalo is also decided in a similar fashion. Calves may graze kalo in wet seasons when they are at least two months old. ln the dry season, however, such young animals are handreared in the home (see Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle management) but cut-and-carry forage for them is often collected in the kalo. The main period of use for kalo is the warm dry season and, besides calves, older or sickly milk cows and small ruminants may be allowed access. The most important grasses in calf diets during the dry season obtained in kalo were ranked by Borana respondents as Pennisetum spp, Chysopogon sp, Cenchrus ciliaris and Cynodon sp. Shrubs such as Pappea capensis and Grewia spp were also regarded as important (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990; see Table B9, Annex B).Menwyelet Atsedu (1 990: pp 43, 45-46) studied implications of kalo for the diet quality of grazing calves in the dry season of 1 989. Grazing trials were conducted on and off five kalo. The feeding behaviour of four Boran calves was observed in each site for 1 .5 h. Bites of all forage were recorded as to plant species and plant part as in Coppock et al (1986b) and forage samples were analysed for nitrogen, in vitro digestible dry matter (lVDDM), fibre fractions, and ash according to procedures of Van Soest and Robertson (1980). Diet composition was calculated based on bite frequency and bite size (dry-matter basis). The nutritive value of diets was estimated by multiplying forage-specific chemical 212The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Development-intervention concepts values times the amount of the respective forages in the diet profile to obtain weighted averages (Coppock et al, 1986b). Data were analysed using an ANOVA; and the hypothesis was that diets in kalo would be nutritionally superior to those outside because of a greater diversity of higher quality forages inside kalo, due to protection from continuous grazing.Results indicated that while cal6 diets did not differ (P>0.05) between on and ofi-kalo sites in terms of total bites, bites per minute, or per cent of stem, they did differ (P<0.05) in terms of per cent of leaf in diets, which was greater on /ca/othan off. This, however, did not translate into a significant difference in diet quality (P>0.05). lt was concluded that the major effect of kalo was to provide a higher standing crop of forage for the dry season. ln terms other than biomass they did not have any substantial nutritional advantages for calves.ln terms of social control of kalo, Menwyelet Atsedu (1990: p 20) reported that Borana regulation requires a fine of EB 50 to 300 for unauthorised use, but this rarely needed to be enforced. Warnings were more common. ln one instance, however, a serious altercation among herd owners over unauthorised use of a kalo was reported in the Dubluk madda in 1989 (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).The emergence of kalo on the Borana Plateau is consistent with recent patterns of protected pastoral lands in Syria (Draz, 1978), Kenya (Oba, 1987;Grandin, 1987), Somalia (MASCOTT, 1986: p 95) and the Sudan (Behnke, 1985). This is considered as a means to protect and conserve local resources under threat from increasing populations. Other interpretations have been made, however, that consider fodder reserves as traditional innovations with implications for improved health management of livestock (G. Perrier, Utah State University, Utah, USA, personal communication).Kalo have become most prominent in madda such as Dubluk and Gayo under threat of internal population growth as well as from forra herds of nonresidents (see previous material in this section).Menwyelet Atsedu (1990: pp 27-28) concluded that kalo may provide an opportunity to implement forage improvements. While there is a chance that some interventions could be appropriate, it is more likely that these would involve low-input activities consistent with labour constraints such as prescribed burning (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). lt is less likely that introduced herbaceous legumes would be successful (see Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improvements). This is principally because of the high competition from indigenous species (e.g. Pennisetum spp) on deeper soils, high-management inputs required for establishment and poor performance of exotic pasture legumes in the region to date. lt must be remembered that the purpose of kalo is to reserve an increased standing crop of forage for the dry season. Cutting or trampling measures needed to establish new forages early in the wet season (see Mohamed-Saleem et al, 1986) could compromise wet-season forage production and thus bring increased risk for the utility of kalo later in the year (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).The idea that the kalo site could be rotated each year, and thus serve the two purposes of resting wet-season grazing areas (above) and as fodder reserve, is attractive. However, Menwyelet Atsedu (TLDP/lLCA postgraduate researcher; unpublished data) found resistance to this concept because kalo are usually located in the most productive and accessible locations. Changing kalo location from year to year thus incurs risks; i.e. in the event that a poor site is demarcated as kalo for a year in which there is a drought the people could be worse off. lt was thought also that degraded pond catchments could be good candidates for kalo as protection would create a fodder reserve and at the same time reduce erosion into the pond (see Section 7.3.1.1: Water development activities). The Boran indicated, however, that this is not feasible: Ponds are used in the wet season when forage is abundant; when the dry season comes the people and calves are taken to the vicinity of deep wells and it is inconvenient to return them to the pond area for grazing (Menwyelet Atsedu, TLDP/lLCA postgraduate researcher, un published data).Synopsis of the Borana situation: Range planners are commonly preoccupied with the idea that communal pastoral systems need to be routinely destocked to preserve the environment (Sandford, 1983a). This concept has been mentioned in recent SORDU plans for monitoring range trend. When range trend is observed to be declining from transect surveys in a given madda, facilitation of local destocking is offered as one solution (Hacker, 1988a).Even if destocking were unanimously regarded as a wise strategy for the southern rangelands (it is controversial; see below), how this would be accomplished is another matter. During the 1980s the Boran reportedly preferred to sell cattle to Kenya on the black market because they received a much higher price than in Ethiopia. lt is argued elsewhere (Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale) that one reason households sought higher prices in Kenya was to reduce the number of cattle they had to sell over the long term, thus giving them a betterThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia chance of building their herds. Cattle prices within Ethiopia were regulated and low until 1990, and buyers were mostly government agents whose difficulties in procuring cattle at low prices were widespread (see Section 1 .4.4: Has national range development been successful?).Perhaps the biggest impact of this practice on cattle inventories were registered when the socialist government attempted to periodically fill large demands of cattle in attempts to provide beef for the military, then one of Africa's largest with over 250 000 soldiers. Each Pastoral Association (see Section 1 .4.3: The SERP and the Pilot Projectlor a review of PAs) had a quota to fill from among its members, by selling cattle for the low prices offered. This resulted in particularly poor public relations with the Boran (Hodgson, '1990: p 54).ln sum, there have not been large incentives for the Boran to destock even if they had an inclination to do so. The prospects are, however, that cattle offtake will increase as the Boran are forced to buy more grain in the future (see Figure 7.2). ln addition, there have been no attempts by the government in the 1 980s to destock the southern rangelands in the name of conserving the environment. lt is doubtful that there has ever been such an attempt.While ecological research suggests that the central Borana Plateau has been degraded in terms of bush encroachment and soil erosion (see Section 3.4.2: Environmental change), it is speculated that much of the change due to bush encroachment is reversible with a wise plan of prescribed burning and if grazing is regulated at the deda level of resolution (Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation). A more serious environmental problem, however, may involve opportunistic cultivation, which is a response to too few cattle on a per capita basis (see Section 4.4.1.1: Pastoralism and cultivation). Even if stocking rates could be linked to degradation of range productivity, the cyclic pattern of impact resulting from flactuations in the livestock popu lation would make this trend hard to detect (see Section 7.2.3.1: Range ecology). ln other words, while a long-term negative trend in range productivity may exist, it would be obscured by post-drought periods of low cattle numbers and improving range trend, followed by high-density phases of declining range trend. This is hypoth esised to be the reason Pratt (1987a) judged SORDU to be in \"reasonable\" range condition in 1987 (unknown to him this was the droughtrecovery phase) while Hacker (1990) concluded SORDU range was in poor condition in 1989 (being in the high-density phase). And yet both are experienced professionals who surveyed sites in the same regions. The guiding philosophy on range trend should be to what extent post-drought recovery of vegetation cancels out deleterious trends that result from the previous high-density phase (see discussion of Walker et al ( 1 987) below). To a large extent this depends on rainfall in the drought-recovery phase, and thus is a probabilistic phenomenon; i. e. sometimes drought-recovery will reverse earlier trends and other times it will not (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).Destocking is universally and fiercely resisted by pastoralists. That is because in reality there are always fewer and fewer \"surplus\" animals per capita to supply milk or wealth creating capability so that destocking means increasing poverty and risks for survival. ln other words, there are everywhere too many people living in an already marginal situation and land scarcity does not allow increases in herd inventory. Borana leaders acknowledge that the central plateau is overstocked during high-density phases and they associate this with bush encroachment, lower cattle productivity and a declining welfare of the society (see Section 3.3.5.2: Household use of plants and pastoral perceptions of range trend and Section 6.3.3: Drought effects in 1990-91).The problem is that for the vast majority of the population there is no alternative but to suffer perturbations and hope that a string of favourable rainfall years will minimise their difficulties. Most are unable to leave the system. Madda residents may argue among themselves in the high-density phase about possible actions to take to conserve re sources (see below) but the declining availability of fallback areas limits their options (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). The Boran say that either such problems need to be solved by the next generation of leaders, or they be provided with government assistance to help them regulate aspects of resource use that the Boran culture is unable to impose upon itself. lmposition of some aspects of resource regulation has been reported as one favourable attribute of the former PAs implemented by the socialist government until 1 990 (Solomon Dessalegn, TLDP/lLCA postgraduate researcher, unpublished data).An increasingly acute \"boom and bust\" cycle of the cattle population could now be anticipated about every five to ten years in which milk production is chronically compromised and animal assets are needlessly lost (Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). This could be partially remedied by an alternative investment scheme for the middle class and wealthy whereby livestock assets are translated into status-giving community projects and/or banked in the form of simple savings accounts (see Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing). Only in this context could destocking be pursued as a positive intervention 214The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Development-intervention concepts because it still permits economic growth and attainment of social status for individuals despite increased population pressure. lt has been hypothesised that social attitudes regarding enforcement of resource-use regulations among the Boran will exhibit cyclic patterns depending on cattle density (see Section 7.2.3.4: Marketing of livestock products and Section 7.2.3.5: Land tenure). Research surveys and development experiences have indeed revealed important cyclic change in the attitudes of the Boran towards destocking (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). For example, during the drought-recovery phase it is anticipated that attitudes toward selling cattle will be very conservative and consistent with herd-building objectives. Some animals that have to be sold are done so to satisfy immediate cash needs. All will try to sell milk or small ruminants instead of cattle if possible, but the poor will be forced into selling more cattle because of a lack of any other option (Coppock, 1992b). ln the highdensity phase the picture is probably different. Poorer households will still behave as before, but wealthier herd owners may be far more inclined to dispose of some cattle. This is not related to any need to purchase food or clothing, however, but rather as implicit recognition that density-dependent factors are causing a decline in cattle productivity and increasing risks of possible losses in their inventories. ln addition, the high-density phase is a time of increased social pressure on the wealthy to destock excess animals so that the milk cows of poorer households can find adequate forage (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).Selling livestock merely for the sake of cash is inconsistent with Borana culture and the practical desires of herd owners to maximise their size. Although it is getting increasingly difficult to maintain a large herd Borana men still aspire for large holdings that in turn increase their wealth, status and political influence (Coppock, 1992b). During the high-density phase it appears that wealthier herd owners are more inclined to destock if they can transfer this form of animal wealth status to one of patronage to a popular community project (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). They thus can sell an animal, ingratiate themselves with their peers for destocking and retain some of the money. Of course, the real benefits that accure to a benefactor of an important project are both social prestige and future access to resources. Certainly these returns in sum are by far greater than losing the animal to density-dependent factors or sudden drought.Examples of this behaviour in the high-density phase of 1989-90 are numerous on the Borana Plateau. Roughly EB 20 000 was collected from herd owners in the Did Hara madda to desilt a large pond, and this was obtained from cattle sales. Bassi (1990: p 275-276) reported that EB 3265 was collected to repair a well at Dubluk madda and other contributions of money for projects have replaced traditional donation of animals to be slaughtered for food at work sites.Showing the risks of cattle keeping by wealthier herd owners in the high-density phase may convince them of alternate and more secure forms of investment safeguard against risk. The recent interest towards opening bank accounts in Yabelo by some wealthy herd owners is a critical finding in this respect and will be reported in detail in Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing. Other views on destocking: lt is important to note that investigators commonly question whether destocking is worthwhile to pastoral systems. Sandford (1983a: pp 38-43) distinguished between conservative and opportunistic strategies of pastoral livestock production. The conservative approach is to keep a constant number of livestock that could not damage the range during years of lowest rainfall while providing net primary production. The opportunistic approach is to adjust the number of stock up or down in response to variation in forage resources; this may involve timely (efficient) or tardy (inefficent) adjustments. While the conservative strategy has advantages during low-rainfall years (i.e. animal losses would be few and the environment would not be damaged), during times of higher rainfall surplus forage would go unutilised. An assessment of the higher probability of average and above-average rainfall years may indicate that there are great costs for a conservative strategy in terms of livestock production foregone. Sandford (1983a: p 40) illustrated this by a hypothetical example in which a conservative herd owner would produce from 1 7 to 42% less than an opportunistic herd owner under varied degrees of conservatism in relation to climate. Although the opportunistic strategy may show more livestock production overall, it more consistently threatens to degrade the environment, particularly if adjustments in animal numbers in relation to resources are inefficient.This last point is critical in evaluating the relative balance of advantages of either strategy. lf numbers can be adjusted at the right moment, and if there are no negative carry-over effects of intensive grazing to the future, the opportunistic strategy is probably superior overall. However, Sandford (1983a: p 41) noted that the range management argument is that under an opportunistic strategy livestock numbers are not adjusted properly and that negative carry-over effects on the environment do occur.ln conclusion, Sandford (1983a: pp 40-42) noted that: (1) pastoralists are neither entirely oppor tunistic nor conservative, but the tendency appears to be more towards the former; (2) the greater the variation in rainfall the greater the opportunity cost of conservatism; and (3) effects of the environment, livestock species, local economy and culture would all be expected to influence the balance of benefits and costs accruing to either strategy. Abel (1990) and Abel and Blaikie (1990) have explored the consequences of destocking policies for southern Africa. Abel conducted a preliminary analysis of the costs and benefits of opportunistic pastoralism versus conservative ranching in central Botswana by parameterising a simulation model with livestock and soil data for an 1 1 -year run. lt was noted that overall rates of energy output and the gross margin/livestock unit were higher in the ranching system but that energy output and gross margin/hectare were higher in the pastoral system (see Section 4.4.2: Economic comparisons among pastoral systems). The soil erosion resulting from opportunistic pastoral stocking was three times higher than that from ranches, which appeared to support the idea that environmental damage was a cost of opportunism. However, Abel cited Biot (1988) who had concluded that similar rates of soil loss for granitic landscape would not be expected to reduce herbaceous production for 400 years. Abel remarked in a preliminary conclusion that given this information, efforts to destock communal rangelands in Botswana would not be worth the social costs. Walker et al (1987) studied wildlife population dynamics in response to drought in four conser vation areas in southern Africa. The key issue was whether it was necessary to cull wildlife populations under the assumption that overuse of vegetation leads to a progressive deterioration in the habitat, or alternatively, were the habitats resilient enough to recover from overutilisation during periods of decline in wildlife populations due to drought? Con servation areas differed in ecological heterogeneity and management varied from heavy culling to no culling during periods of average rainfall. The dynamics were described for each in a comparative analysis. Drought intensity was similar for all areas. Walker et al concluded that pre-drought culling to preserve habitats was unnecessary if the herbivores had access to sufficient areas of reserved forage, but in instances where forage reserves had been eliminated by water development, pre-drought culling could prevent environmental degradation as well as catastrophic losses of animals during drought.Relating these views to experience on the Borana Plateau, it must first be stated that the Boran in general appear to be opportunistic producers for social as well as biological reasons (Coppock, 1992b). Differences in behaviour, however, may occur especially among the wealthy in the drought-recovery phase (opportunistic) versus the high-density phase (conservative). Facilitation of incremental destocking among the middle-class and wealthy in the high-density phase is speculated (above) to be an important means to achieve efficient opportunism of production, reduce risk of permanent environmental degradation and reduce potentially wasteful losses of livestock capital. This strategy appears to capture the best elements of opportunism as outlined by Sandford (1 983a). While the preliminary conclusion of Abel (1990) regarding the relatively minor costs of erosion is important, evidence from the Borana Plateau suggests that heavy grazing encourages bush encroachment, which likely occurs long before effects of erosion become evident. Even though some degree of bush encroachment is reversible, over the short to medium term it can reduce the utility of land (see Section 3.4.2: Environmental change).Under these circumstances attention to destocking is warranted but better risk management for human beings is still the main benefit of creative destocking strategies. Experience among the Boran fully supports the perspectives of Walker et al (1 987): the pre-drought occupation of forra areas by pastoralists fundamentally undermines the capacity of the system to adjust to future drought impacts (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial popuation dynamics). Furthermore.if a high-density phase is long enough and rainfall is slightly below average, environmental degradation will be more likely to have a carry-over effect and undermine prospects for efficient recovery. Attempts to destock even incrementally during the high-density phase could provide safeguards against intense competition and density-dependent effects on cattle productivity and catastrophic herd losses in drought. Another useful, but socially difficult, strategy is to prohibit occupation of forra areas except in years of below average rainfall (Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact). ln summary, there is no reason to assume that the Boran have a vested interest in system sustainability beyond their immediate needs for asset accumulation and survival (see Swift, 1990). Destocking in the context of alternative investment is best justified in terms of system stabilisation to improve the immediate welfare of human beings. lt is less justified in terms of promoting sustainability of the environment, which would be difficult to measure and is not as important a problem today as immediate human welfare (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).The next stage in the range management hierarchy is introduction of new forages. lt is important to note that forage interventions may be very difficult to implement in semi-arid environments under com munal grazing tenure. Strategies to introduce new forages tend to receive more emphasis than better grazing management in African national pro grammes. This is because grazing management appears more complex and falls within the realm of social change. Apparently simple technical solutions like planting forages are easier to con ceptualise and appear to fall more in the domain of research and development programmes. This does not confirm, however, that forage introductions should be the priority over better grazing man agement. As noted by Pratt (1987a: p 30) if overgrazing is the problem, it will not be solved by planting something new. New forages will also be eventually exhausted. The high inputs to sustain forage introductions are thus best justified, and will yield more sustainable benefits, if they are within a framework of grazing control. Other constraints related to problems of labour and cultural values regarding improvement of forage resources on the Borana Plateau will also be highlighted in this section.Compared to higher-potential zones, drier regions of sub-Saharan Africa present fewer options for intervention with exotic leguminous forages, either for herbaceous or woody perennials (Tothill, 1986). Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 122) noted that most attempts to introduce legumes into East African rangelands have been unsuccessful (apparently including efforts by private ranchers). They mentioned that more trials on legumes were needed but in the meantime all that could be safely recommended is promotion of the best indigenous grasses. ln the semi-arid zone the debate about whether to promote indigenous or exotic forages must be tempered by consideration of adaptation to local conditions, including competitive ability against local vegetation tolerance to pests, diseases and a high degree of environmental variability. Plant performance must thus ultimately be judged in terms of persistence, not merely drymatter yield over the short term.ln their analysis of the ability of African savannah ecosystems to recover from environmental dis turbances, Walker and Noy-Meir (1982: pp 584-585) highlighted some attributes of plant species that contribute to system resilience. These included higher reproduction rates under stress, increased net primary production at low levels of above ground biomass, large root reserves and complex seeddormancy mechanisms. This illustrates the large role of evolution in shaping persistence mech anisms in successful species of indigenous vege tation and suggests that the chance that an exotic would persist in such an environment is likely to be poor. Even in developed range systems with a suc cessful history of legume establishment, persistence of legumes can be threatened by biological and economic changes.ln their review of Australian experiences, Gramshaw et al (1989) variously implicated the reduced use of phosphorus fertilisers, overgrazing, land degradation, new diseases and expansion of cultivation in the decline of introduced pasture legumes; some \"of these trends were related to general changes in management practices as a result of the falling profitability of ranching since 1 970. One other factor calling for a critical review is the presumed role of legumes in fixing large quantities of nitrogen in rangelands. Nitrogen fixation demands considerable energy and it is less likely that plants under stressful rangeland conditions would have much energy to spare. Farnsworth et al (1978) reported that the evidence for nitrogen fixation by legumes in drier ecosystems is often equivocal. They also mentioned, however, that possibilities exist for nonsymbiotic nitrogen fixation in the rhizosphere of non-leguminous, native range species.Screening and establishment in native rangeland vegetation: The experience to date for the screening and establishing forage legumes in rangeland vegetation in southern Ethiopia is largely based on a series of trials carried out by lLCA (Migongo-Bake, 1986), CARE-Ethiopia (Hodgson, 1990: pp 60-65) and Yohannes Alemseged (1989: pp 136-150). For the most part only summary points will be highlighted here. This is largely because no species or cultivar was viewed as offering out standing possibilities (Hodgson, 1990: p 62), despite the average or above-average rainfall during the study period from 1985-89. More rigorous evaluation may also be required for firm conclusions to be warranted. ln addition, whether because of modest performance or other reasons, the pastoralists have shown little interest in the introduction of species that only serve as livestock forage.ln a review of 10 screening and establishment trials, Hodgson concluded that the most promising lines (with growth form in brackets and in descending order of performance) were: Stylosanthes hamata cv Verano (prone); S. hamata #1 67 (prone); S. scabra cv Seca (erect); Cassia rotundifolia cv Wynn (prone); Centrosema pascuorum cv Bundy (prone); C. schottii (climber); Desmanthus The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia virgatus (prone); Macrotyloma axillare (climber) and Desmodium discolor (erect).Comments are warranted regarding S. hamata cv Verano which was consistently ranked among the best of some 20 forage species initially screened by Migongo-Bake (1986). These results, in conjunction with the availability of seed in Ethiopia, led to its evaluation in most establishment trials. Stylosanthes hamata is regarded elsewhere as an outstanding plant well adapted to drier production conditions (Williams and Burt, 1 983). lt has, for example, made an important contribution to the beef industry in Australia (Gramshaw et al, 1989: pp 15-16).Methods of legume establishment reported in Hodgson (1990: p 61) followed the approach of Mohamed-Saleem et al (1986). Sixteen 0.25-ha sites dominated by native vegetation were bushfenced near encampments at Did Hara, Medecho, Melbana and Web madda. The sites were subjected to grazing and trampling by confined cattle after the starting of the long rains in March 1986. This disturbance was intended to reduce potential competition. To judge soil chemical constraints, triple superphosphate was applied to half of each site (Migongo-Bake, 1986: see Haque et al (1986) for a review of the role of phosphate deficiency in limiting performance of legumes). Seed was scarified, innoculated and broadcast at a rate of 10 kg/ha within a week of site preparation.Germination rates were evaluated in May and were typically less than 10% at each site; this also was not influenced by the phosphate application (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). Seedling survival monitored through July was generally poor (i.e. <1%). A few instances of spreading were observed during the next two years but growth rates were uniformly low; plants usually never exceeded 7 cm in height. Abiotic constraints were likely important in the failure of S. hamata to perform adequately (see below). lt is also speculated that another constraint for establishment could be competition from indigenous grasses (Robertson, 1988;Hodgson, 1990: p 63-64). Establishment was usually attempted on deeper soils (>1 m deep) that would have higher water-storage capacity. These sites, however, were commonly dominated by deeprooted aggressive Pennisetum bunch grasses. These plants were also relatively unpalatable to cattle in rainy periods and this undermined using grazing as an implementation technique.Better performance of S. hamata cv Verano was observed in cultivated plots (1 x 1 m in size) at Did Hara prepared in 1985 as a yield trial (Migongo-Bake, 1986). Pure swards of S. hamata persisted for the next six years but plants never exceeded 20 cm in height (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation; Hodgson, 1990: p 64). Robertson (1988) visited Did Hara in 1989 and was encouraged by the seeding and spread of S. hamata cv Verano, S. scabra cv Seca, C. rotundifolia cv Wynn, D. virgatus, C. pascuorum and Macroptilium atropurpureum. Did Hara was the best site of the lLCA/CARE forage-screening programme (Hodgson, 1990: p 62). This was probably because Did Hara receives slightly more annual rainfall (600 mm; see Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity).ln another approach SORDU broadcast S. hamata cv Verano from a moving vehicle along roadsides throughout the subproject area in 1 989. Follow-up surveys indicated very poor establish ment (Gossaye Fida, SORDU, personal communi cation) even though roadside broad-casting had been successful in the Ethiopian highlands with higher rainfall (A. Robertson, FLDP consultant, personal communication).Yohannes Alemseged (1989: pp 136-150) conducted an experiment to examine effects of ground preparation and manuring on germination and establishment of S. hamata cv Verano on a deep red soil site dominated by Pennisetum mezianum. The experimental design was a randomised split plot with three replicates per treatment. Plots consisted of one of two levels of manuring (0 and 2 kg/m2) and the sub-plots consisted of three types of soil preparation (no preparation, hoeing to 20-cm depth and scratching to 3-cm depth). Seed was scarified, innoculated and broadcast at a rate of 6.6 kg/ha over all plots which were 3 x 3 m in size. Seedlings were counted at 1 5 and 105 days after sowing.Results indicated the main positive effects of manuring (P<0.01) and soil preparation (P<0.001) on both germination (within 15 days) and establishment (within 15 to 105 days). Manuring increased germination and establishment by 100 and 49%, respectively. Differences between scratching and hoeing were minor, but relative to no soil preparation both increased germination and establishment by an average of 700 and 83%, respectively. Despite these results, Yohannes Alemseged (1989: p 149) concluded that per formance of S. hamata cv Verano was unsatis factory, which was also based on its very poor performance in another yield trial (see below). Poor performance was attributed to low rates of germination, perhaps due to seed quality. ln sum, even for a relatively superior exotic herbaceous legume, such as S. hamata cv Verano result are at best equivocal and at worst poor in the southern rangelands. Besides problems of management implementation, it is likely that the 218The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Development-intervention concepts environment limited performance. Humphreys (1980: p 91) gives 600 mm of annual rainfall as the lower limit for S. hamata and this may explain its better performance at Did Hara. ln addition, growth may be limited by the relatively cool temperatures (22 and 15°C on average for the mean and minimum, respectively, for seven sites throughout the year; see Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity). This was deduced from short intemodes and the low growth habit of the mature plants (J. C. Tothill, lLCA, personal communication). Burt et al (1983: p 149) and Gramshaw et al (1989: p 15) listed S. hamata as a semi-arid species best adapted to warmer temperatures without specifying an optimum range. Williams and Gardener (1984: p 184) stated that dry-matter production and stem elongation of S. hamata cv Verano was limited by mean nighttime temperatures below 22°C and mean daily tempera tures below 25°C. Temperature is thus probably a significant constraint in the southern rangelands.ln reference to the establishment methods of Mohamed-Saleem et al (1986), Robertson (1988) remarked that it was unfortunate that it had not been attempted on sites subjected to high levels of naturally heavy grazing, consistent with the success of the Ministry of Agriculture in the Ethiopian high lands. Researchers agree that in the event a truly superior legume is identified, the approach of Robertson (1988) could be more viable, and this is for social as well as biological reasons. Experiences on the Borana Plateau have indicated that labour is a common constraint (see Section 4.4.8: Labour and the encampment). Under such conditions it is unrealistic to expect pastoralists to put much effort into legume establishment.Taking advantage of natural grazing pressure reduces this constraint. Areas near the deep wells may seem viable sites because of the high grazing pressure but this is so only during dry seasons. Wet season production of native grasses near wells is high and this would mean severe competition for introduced legumes (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). ln contrast, establishing legumes near encampments offers these benefits: (1 ) year-round grazing gradient to reduce competition; (2) a fertility gradient from manure probably containing enhanced levels of phosphorus; and (3) a local forage resource for young calves which are restricted to graze far from the encampments (see Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle manage ment). This approach could be attempted in the future. Hodgson (1990: p 197) listed appropriate establishment sites for 21 leguminous species based on his experiences. This is shown in Table G2, Annex G.Yohannes Alemseged (1989: pp 106-135) conducted a trial to assess biomass yield and nutrititve value of 1 0 promising annual and perennial legumes targeted for forage or dual-purpose use (seed for people and forage for livestock). These were selected on the basis of seed availability and screening trials conducted by Migongo-Bake (1986), Hodgson (1990: pp 60-65) and the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) in Yabelo (Yohannes Alemseged, 1989: p 107-108). The trial employed a complete randomised block design with four replicates per legume and a plot size of 2 x 3 m. Native vegetation was cleared from a fenced area ploughed by oxen. The site was leveled and plots were demarcated with wooden pegs. Six 2-m long rows, 50 cm apart, were sown in each plot on 24 March 1 987, at the beginning of the long rains. All seeds were scarified and innoculated using standard methods (Yohannes Alemseged, 1989: p 110). Plots were harvested 1 1 6 days later on 1 8 July. Annual species were harvested at 6 cm aboveground level from the middle 45% of the plot to minimise edge effects. Perennials were harvested at the same height using a variant of a split-plot procedure. Plots were divided length wise and one was randomly selected and harvested on 18 July with the outer two rows discarded to eliminate edge effects. This plot was harvested again for regrowth at the end of the cool dry season (September), after the short rains (November) and in the long dry season (December). Out of the remaining four rows in the other half of the plots, one was randomly selected for harvest in September, November or December to sequentially contrast performance overtime. Crude-protein (CP) content of leaves and stems were determined for five species from per cent kjeldahl nitrogen x 6.25 as in AOAC (1980) while estimation of per cent in vitro dry-matter digestibility (lVDDM) followed procedures of Goering and Van Soest (1 970). The same analytical procedures were used for determination of wholeplant chemical characteristics of C. rotundifolia and C. schottii, due to their morphology.Total dry-matter fodder yields of legumes from July to December are presented in Table 7.3 and indicated C. rotundifolia cv Wynn, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata cv White Wonder Trailing) and Lablab purpureus to be the most productive. Effects of harvest date on yields of the five perennials are shown in Table 7.4 and indicated that Macroptilium lathyroides and Cajanus cajan had the highest average productivity. ln contrast, there were no differences (P>0.05) among perennials in terms of regrowth. Regrowth typically decreased with sub  2 Entries in this column of means that varied by > 590 were different (P < 0.05) according to an LSD test.Source: Yohannes Alemseged (1989).sequent cuttings except for C. cajan and M. lathyroides (Table 7.4). Crude-protein content of plant parts is shown in Table G3, Annex G. Values for leaves were commonly two to three times higher than that for stems. Crude protein content of stems and leaves was affected (P<0.05) by legume at the July harvest date; various interactions also were observed (P<0.05) for legume x harvest date for C. cajan and D. discolor. Whole-plant values for C. rotundifolia and C. schottii typically declined (P<0.05) from July to December.Digestibility values are shown in Table G4, Annex G. Leaf lVDDM averaged 17 percentage points higher than that for stems over all legumes and sample dates. Stem and leaf lVDDM was affected (P<0.05) by legume and by the July harvest date. Whole-plant values indicated interactions (P<0.05) among legume x harvest dates between C. rotundifolia and C. schottii.Yohannes Alemseged (1989: pp 128-134) con cluded that the annual legumes typically produced more biomass than the perennials, but there was no evidence that annuals and perennials differed in terms of per cent CP or lVDDM. The difference in nutritive value among plant parts, the decline in nutritive value over time and the higher value of regrowth was consistent with previous research literature (Minson, 1977). The nutritive value of all forages was considered outstanding for livestock but the search for dual-purpose crops to feed people as well as livestock was noted as being most appropriate. This need in conjunction with trial per formance, suggested that the annual V. unguiculata and L purpureus as well as perennial C. cajan be prioritised for extension into appropriate inter cropping systems in the southern rangelands. Results for an intercropping trial will be reported later.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Development-intervention concepts Exotic woody plants Screening and establishment trials: Hodgson (1 990: pp 69-72) reviewed efforts to establish exotic trees by lLCA (Migongo-Bake, 1986), CARE-Ethiopia and SORDU. Seeds were usually scarified and inoculated and seedlings were reared under nursery conditions and transplanted to the field. Although most sample sizes were small and conclusions therefore limited, a number of species had done well and may merit further research (Hodgson, 1990: pp 69-71). On well-drained, red upland soils largely at Did Hara and Melbana madda, the most reliable performances have been observed for A. albida (a native elsewhere in Ethiopia), Cassia artemesioides, Prosopis chilensis and P. juliflora. Enterolobium cyclocarpum, Gliricidia sepium, Leuceana diversifolia, L shannoni, Parkinsonia acculeata, Samanea saman and Sesbania sesban have also established. ln depressions and other favourable sites where soil moisture was higher, L leucocephala (cv unstated) has performed adequately. ln general, most trees appeared to grow faster at wetter sites in Did Hara (Hodgson, 1990: pp 69-70). For lowland soils (Vertisols) that are seasonally waterlogged, notable performances of S. sesban and L. leucocephala cv Cunningham and cv Peruvian have occurred. Hodgson (1 990: p 70) mentioned growth rates of 3 m in six months for S. sesban. These observations for L. leucocephala in particular are somewhat surprising given environ mental guidelines for this species. The minimum temperature limit of 15.5°C (lLCA Plant Sciences Division, unpublished data) suggests that L leucocephala would perform best below 1400 m elevation on the Borana Plateau, and yet Did Hara is at 1500 m. Skerman (1977) noted a minimum annual rainfall requirement of 750 mm for this species but Did Hara showed less rainfall than this during most of the 1 980s. This paradox may be due to landscape effects and L leucocephala may have a very limited range outside of water-collecting depressions.ln contrast, S. sesban can thrive at 500 mm annual precipitation under cooler temperatures (A. Russell-Smith, lLCA, nd) and appears better adapted for the Borana Plateau. Sesbania sesban may be vulnerable to drought, however. A stand of trees established at Dembel Wachu Ranch in 1 986 appeared to be weakened by lack of moisture during the 1987-88 warm dry season and were sub sequently killed by termites (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). ln summary, Hodgson (1990: p 71) mentioned that S. sesban could be directly planted as seeds in moist sites such as pond catchments. Glyricidia sepium and L. leucocephala could be planted as seeds or seedlings in moist depressions (see Table G2, Annex G). Although based on limited ex periences, it is apparent that exotic trees have been easier to establish than exotic herbaceous plants, but both may be vulnerable to drought and pests. As with exotic herbaceous legumes, Hodgson (1990: p 71) again expressed reservations regard ing the Boran interest in exotic trees. An example from Kenya was cited in Hodgson (1990) that indicated efforts to get the Turkana pastoralists interested in several tree-planting projects had failed.Native grasses: As noted earlier, experience in East African rangelands supports promotion of promising indigenous species because these are best adapted to local conditions (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 122). While grasses may not be associated with nitrogen fixation (Famsworth et al, 1978), it cannot be assumed that introduced legumes will always be capable of nitrogen fixation either. The necessity to innoculate seeds of introduced species with specific rhizobia may also undermine the sustainability of intervention if the rhizobia are unable to persist in a new environment.Common grasses on the Borana Plateau include Cenchrus ciliaris, Cynodon plectostachyus, Chloris roxburghiana and Themeda triandra (see Section 2.4.1 .5: Native vegetation). These represent genera that are regarded as superior forages (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: pp 122-123, 240-246). Their relative advantage may be best realised in terms of improved grazing management, range burning (especially for T. triandra; Pratt and Gywnne, 1 977: p 246), site rehabilitation (see below) and feed storage such as hay-making (Hodgson, 1990: pp 57-58). Hay-making: After three years of often frustrating trials, CARE-Ethiopia achieved success with hay making from local grasses (Plate 7.2). The Boran have had no tradition of feed preparation and storage. This intervention, targeted towards im proved feeding management of calves by women (Hodgson, 1990: pp 57-58), has implications for reducing women's labour in dry seasons because women may invest up to 1 6% of their time collecting standing grass for calves reared in the home (see Section 4.3.3: Labour of married women). Having a hay stack on hand that was prepared in the previous wet season could substantially reduce this time commitment in dry seasons when women's work loads are higher. Hay-making also could improve calf nutrition because it conserves forage nutrients. Standing grass collected in dry seasons is expected Plate 7.2. A Borana woman and her haystack.Photograph: Shewangizaw Bekele to be poor in protein content and digestibility (Coppock, 1990a) and improved calf management has been viewed as the major intervention pathway in this system (see Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation).Effects of hay-making on dry-season labour for women were examined in conjunction with the study on the effects of water tanks on women's time and household water budgets (see Section 7.3.1.1: Water-development activities). Access or lack of access to a hay stack was included with access or lack of access to water tanks in the factorial design in which 64 women were continuously observed for one week, with 1 6 per treatment (Coppock, 1992a). Research methods for recording time budgets for collection of standing grass or using hay were the same as previously reported for water collection.Households with hay stacks had put up 50 to 300 kg of hay after the long rains as part of an extension activity. Hay stacks were located adjacent to family huts. During the warm dry season of 1990 the women in the control group (/v=32) on average spent 2.7 h/woman/week collecting standing grass for calves in the traditional fashion. This was 2.4% of total active time per week, which was con siderably lower than the 16% anticipated from interviews (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990). Women who had hay stacks (/V=32) on average spent less than 30 min/woman/week preparing hay for calf feeding. This time saving was significant (P<0.05) but it was less than expected given the overestimated time that women were supposed to spend collecting standing grass. As with the water tanks, the time savings of having hay stacks were small. This belied the enthusiasm for making hay that existed among women in the community, who believed time savings to be the major advantage of hay-making (Brandstetter et al, 1991;Hodgson, 1990). The women also believed that the hay was more nuitritious than standing grass and allowed calves to be fed more regularly (Coppock, 1992a).ln a related study (Coppock, 1991), the opportunity cost of hay-making was evaluated for 62 households during five weeks in May and June after the long rains in 1990. The work was conducted to see if any major labour constraints existed that would prevent women from making hay in a timely fashion. Records were kept for all households in terms of time spent building support platforms, locating, cutting and drying suitable grasses for hay making, transporting and stacking hay. All household labour was inventoried daily as it was expected that women, children and older youths would participate. For any given worker on any given day, the opportunity cost of a hay-making activity was evaluated through interviews that ranked what perceived activities were foregone as a result of time invested in hay-making. Results of the study are briefly highlighted hereunder.Total hay prepared averaged 121 kg per house hold (range: 20 to 300 kg). Hay-making statistics are shown in Tables G5 and G6, Annex G. Households made 121 kg of hay in 18 hours over 16 days on average. Rate of hay production was thus 6.2 kg/h. Married women contributed over 80% of the labour but all family members participated. Time taken away from other activities included an average of three hours each for child care and household chores and two hours of leisure. Women could delegate most activities to other family members, however. Women felt that the work demands of hay making could be easily incorporated into existing schedules. Seventy-three per cent of 85 families that made hay in 1 990 said they planned to do so again in 1991 (Coppock, 1991).lt has long been known that hay-making with grasses has advantages for animal feeding (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 128). Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 52-55) analysed samples of grass hay put up by Borana women and compared this to samples of standing grass collected from inside and outside nearby kalo enclosures in the long dry season of 1989. Chemical procedures were the same as reported for work of Yohannes Alemseged (1989). Results are shown in Table 7.5 and demonstrate that hay-making improved both forage crude protein (CP) and digestibility (lVDDM) by over 70%. Different grass species may also provide hay of varying quality. Coppock et al (1 990: p 8) reported CP values for hay made by the Boran from seven species of local grasses in 1989 and these are shown in Table 7.6. These data reflect species differences as well as variation among households in their ability to make nutritious hay, but results suggest that species such as C. ciliaris and P. stramineum may be superior for hay-making.A 90-day feeding trial was also undertaken with yearling calves to assess benefits of hay-making in terms of calf growth and body condition (Coppock, 1993a). Sixteen calves per treatment were fed under confinement and given water once every three days as is done normally (see Section 5.3.4:Water restriction and cattle productivity). Treat ments included: (1 ) poor quality standing grass (with 4% CP and 30% digestibility on a dry-matter basis) collected in the dry season offered ad libitum; (2) grass hay prepared after the long rains (with 7.5% CP and 44% digestibility on a dry-matter basis) offered ad libitum; and (3) grass hay plus 500 g/head/day of local Acacia tortilis fruits (with 1 3% CP and 58% digestibility on a dry-matter basis) as a protein supplement. (Using acacia fruits as protein supplements is reviewed later in this section).Calves were weighed weekly and given a condition score at the beginning and end of the trial using the method of Nicholson and Butterworth (1985). Selected results are shown in Table G8, Annex G. The data indicated that while calves on hay plus acacia fruit diet gained weight, those on hay only maintained their weight and those on traditional standing grass lost weight. Only the 1 Where management includes: (1) hay made from grass at the end of the previous wet season; (2) standing grass collected from continuously grazed sites (i.e. off-Jca/o); or (3) standing grass collected from inside kalo, which are local exclosures to promote deferred use of vegetation (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1 990). 2 Entries within the same row accompanied by the same letters (x, y) were not significantly different (P< 0.01 ) according to a one-way ANOVA (N= 8 random samples per forage category).Source: Mulugeta Assefa (1990).Table 7.6. Crude-protein concentrations (per cent on a dry-matter basis) for native grass hay produced by pastoralists under pilot trials in the southern rangelands supervised by CARE-tthiopia staff in 1989. 3.5z1 Per cent kjeldahl N x 6.25; N = 4 per species. Entries accompanied by the same letter (w, x, y, z) were not significantly different (P<0.05) in a one-way ANOVA using an LSD (least significant difference) test. As a guideline, it may be considered that a 6% crude-protein content and above is more suitable as forage for young calves. 2 Genera and species regarded as good indigenous forages (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977). 3 New growth can be palatable but mature growth generally is not (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977). 4 Sometimes this species is not so nutritious when mature, but it is often consumed by livestock (Pratt and Gwynne, 1 977).Source: Coppock et al (1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia animals receiving acacia fruits showed no change in condition score during the trial; animals in the other two treatments showed similar decline in condition score (Coppock, 1993a). There were no differences among treatments in terms of intake of dry matter or organic matter, but both hay diets were superior to the standing-grass diet in terms of nitrogen intake. Calves on the hay diets consumed 27% more water than those on the standing-grass diet. These results suggested that simple hay making could offer substantial benefits to calf performance over traditional practices, especially when subsistent feeding is a major objective.ln an economic cost/benefit analysis of improved calf management systems, Mulugeta Assefa (1 990) included hay-making as one component which he found to be profitable under the assumption that feeding hay would result in reduced calf mortality. This study is reported in Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation. ln summary, advantages of hay-making in terms of women's labour savings in the warm dry season were assessed by research to be minor, but Borana women apparently have time to make hay after the long rains and hay offers improved nutrition for calves. lt is likely that hay-making will be rapidly taken up by the Boran (Brandstetter et al, 1 991 ) and while it may be judged as a modest achievement, hay-making does illustrate the principles of suc cessful intervention based on a bottom-up focus on felt needs in the community (Hodgson, 1990;Coppock, 1991). Hay-making is also new to some smallholders in the Ethiopian highlands (T. Varvikko, lLCA, personal communication) and thus it should not be overlooked in favour of introduced technology especially since it is also easily transferred. From experience women already know how much hay they will need for coming years based on the numbers of young calves expected. Key problems involve proper stacking to minimise moisture penetration and spoilage so that some technical oversight from SORDU extension is important. Hay making represents only a minor alteration of an aspect of animal management here that traditionally is intensive (see Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle management). lt also transforms a communal forage resource into a private one. However, hay making would only be taken up by households that do not have to move seasonally in response to shortages of water or grazing (Hodgson, 1990) as households would be unable to take hay stacks with them if they move. Hay-making is exclusively for calves in this situation, which is appropriate given seasonal scarcity of resources. Others have proposed feeding hay to milk cows in semi-arid systems (Sullivan et al, 1980) but this would not be viable here. Considering the model of system dynamics given above, hay-making would be most advantageous in the high-density phase of the cattle population (Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics).One final question is why hay-making is treated as an innovation here, given that the Boran are clever producers and have exploited this environ ment for centuries. The simplest answer, of course, is that no Boran ever thought of it before even though it was always necessary and appropriate. An alternative and more interesting explanation is that the need for hay-making is relatively recent. lt is probable that hay-making was less necessary or more difficult to implement in the past because of a lower density and higher mobility of the population. Today, under the presumed conditions of a higher livestock density, competition among women who need to collect forage is probably more pronounced. One stimulus for the recent innovation of kalo is probably to improve efficiency of forage collection by women (see Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing manage ment). Native trees: Results in Section 3.3.5.1 : Livestock food habits and Section 3.3.5.2: Household use of plants and pastoral perceptions of range trend illustrate the diversity of native woody plants used as forage, fibre, human food, medicines, fuel and construction materials. This section will focus on the uses of tree as fodder for nutritional supplemen tation of calves in cut-and-carry feeding systems. A critical resource in this respect are the dry, dehiscent fruits of acacias. These fruits include a spiralshaped casing (pod) containing seeds. Although indigenous trees usually grow more slowly than exotics, they have advantages in terms of adaptating persistence and forage stability to African pastoral systems (Coughenour et al, 1985). Products from native trees such as dry fruits also have an advantage over leaf fodder from exotic trees in that the fruits are produced in dry seasons when they are most needed. Even though exotics such as Sesbania and Leuceana spp may be established in some situations on the Borana Plateau, they commonly drop their leaves during dry seasons and thus offer no utility at these times (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Screening trials: ln addition to reporting on screening of exotic trees (above), Hodgson (1990: pp 69-72) noted performances of species indigenous to Ethiopia that were uncommon or absent on the Borana Plateau. Good establishment and growth was observed on well-drained red soils for Acacia albida, Moringa stenopetela, Pappea capensis and Tamarindus indica. All should be considered for further research. Acacia albida is well known in Africa as a producer of nutritious dry fruits for livestock (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 257;Tanner et al, 1990). Moringa stenopetela also produces fruits that can be consumed by people and P. capensis is regarded well among the Boran as a dry-season forage for calves in kalo (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990: p 23). Hodgson (1990: p 71-72) reserved his greatest enthusiasm, however, for A. tortilis. Acacia tortilis is well-known elsewhere for its persistence and production of fruits consumed by livestock and people (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 258;Coughenour et al, 1985;Galvin, 1985;Coppock et al, 1986a;1986b;Gates and Brown, 1988;Sperling, 1989). Use of key species: Menwyelet Atsedu (1990: pp 1 0-28) studied several aspects of the ecology and utility of A. tortilis and A. nilotica fruits on the Borana Plateau. These species were selected because they were ranked as the most important among fruit-producing species by the Boran in a survey (Plate 7.3 a, b). ln another survey of 67 encamp ments, residents of 54 reported that they used acacia fruits as supplements for cattle in dry periods. Fruits are allowed to dry prior to feeding, but are otherwise untreated. Calves most commonly graze fruits off the ground, but some people collect them for calf feeding inside the family hut if the fruits are locally abundant. The contribution of A. tortilis fruits to livestock in dry seasons was universally appreciated. Use of fruits from A. nilotica, however, was restricted to times of drought when other forages are less available. This is because of their inferior palatability and feeding value due to high levels of tannins that have been found elsewhere to have negative effects on livestock nutrition (see below). Feeding trials: Use of small quantities of high-protein forage from indigenous legumes like acacia trees could improve utilisation of roughage in traditional calf diets on the Borana Plateau. Native legumes, however, may also contain high levels of tannins which may impair protein utilisation.Coppock and Reed (1992) examined these questions using feeding trials with sheep and calves. Animal performance based on supplemen tation with Acacia tortilis fruits or A. brevispica leaves was compared to that based on sup plementation with non-tanniniferous legumes, namely cowpea hay (Vigna unguiculata) and lucerne hay (Medicago sativa). Acacia brevispica leaves were chosen as one treatment because they had been found important in diets of browsing stock (see Section 3.3.5.1: Livestock food habits), and means to better utilise this species are important Plate 7.3 (a, b). Acacia tortilis is a valuable native tree; (a) Borana man using a stick to shake fruits from a mature tree, and (b) a close-up of the fruits.Photograph: Shewangizaw BekeleThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia because it is an encroacher at higher elevations (see Section 3.4.2.4: Population ecology of woody species). Leaves of A. brevispica are also commonly available in dry seasons (Woodward, 1988). Cowpea hay could be important in agropastoral situations on the Borana Plateau (Section 7.3.2: Land-use policy and agronomic inten/entions). Lucerne is not a viable forage for the southern rangelands but its hay was included as a \"positive control\". Thirty male sheep (average age seven months; average live weight 17.6 kg) were stratified by weight and allocated into five groups of six animals each for feeding under confinement at Debre Zeit in the highlands. All groups recieved ad libitum access to poor quality grass hay (6.25% CP on a dry-matter basis) as the basal diet. Supplements were offered on an iso-nitrogenous basis to provide nitrogen for 50 g of live-weight gain/head/day (ARC, 1980). Animals had ad libitum access to water and salt lick. Treatments included: (1 ) control diet of grass hay or the grass hay plus; (2) lucerne hay (13.1% CP); (3) cowpea hay (11.3% CP); (4) A brevispica leaves (18.8% CP); or (5) A tortilis fruits (14.4% CP). The first experiment was an 84-day growth trial with forage intake and live weight measured daily and weekly, respectively. Average daily gain (ADG) was calculated as the slope from linear regressions. The growth trial was followed by a 1 0-day metabolism trial with collections of urine and faeces to assess protein utilisation. Preparation and analysis of feed samples followed AOAC (1980) and Van Soest and Robertson (1980). Tannins were divided into two components: tannins and other phenolics soluble in aqueous acetone (soluble phenolics) were quantified as in Reed et al (1985) while proanthocyanidin polymers associated with fibre (insoluble proanthocyanidins) were measured as in Reed (1 986). Urinary and faecal nitrogen was determined by kjeldahl analysis (AOAC, 1980) and faecal nitrogen was partitioned into soluble and insoluble forms (Mason, 1969). Retained nitrogen was calculated as the difference between intake and excretion. A one-way ANOVA analysed treatment effects on ADG, forage and nutrient intake, diet conversion efficiency, diet digestibility, and nitrogen retention and losses. ln a second trial 125 Boran calves (average age 3.5 months; average live weight 37.4 kg) were stratified by weight and allocated into five groups of 25 animals each for feeding under simulated pastoral management at Dembel Wachu ranch. The experiment consisted of a 94-day growth trial with forage intake and live weights measured daily or weekly, respectively. Milk intake was measured biweekly using a weigh-suckle-weigh method, and water intake was measured biweekly as consumption from buckets. Treatments included:(1) control of restricted suckling that allowed intake of 50% of milk production, grazing for 8 h/day (with a diet quality of 6.3% CP (Coppock and Reed, 1 992)) and a once-daily access to water and local salt lick; or the control condition plus: (2) lucerne hay (21.3% CP); (3) cowpea hay (13.1% CP); (4) A brevispica leaves (16.9% CP); and (5) A tortilis fruits (15% CP). Supplements were offered to provide nitrogen for 250 g of live-weight gain/head/ day (ARC, 1 980). Average daily gain was estimated and chemical analyses were performed as in the sheep trial. A one-way ANOVA-analysed treatment effects on ADG intake of supplements and water.Only highlights of results from growth trials are presented here. Other details are in Coppock and Reed (1992). Compared to supplements, basal hay or grazing diets were consistently lower in nitrogen content and digestibility and higher in per cent fibre and fibre-bound nitrogen. Compared to cowpea or lucerne hay, the acacia materials had a lower percentage of fibre and were higher in tannin content. Acacia brevispica leaves had higher levels of lignin and insoluble proanthocyanidins than A tortilis fruits, but the fruits were higher in soluble phenolics. ln the sheep growth trial animals consumed from 78 to 91% of supplements on offer. All supplements increased (P<0.05) nitrogen intake by an average of 71% compared to the control. Acacia materials contributed to higher nitrogen intakes than the cowpea hay or lucerne hay (P<0.01). Compared to the control growth rates were increased (P<0.01 ) by supplementation by an average of 74% (Table G9, Annex G). Results from the sheep metabolism trial indicated that while all supplemented sheep had similar levels of nitrogen retention, this was accomplished in different ways. The acacia diets contributed to higher losses of nitrogen in the faeces because of the binding effects of tannins in the rumen. The cowpea and lucerne diets contributed to higher levels of nitrogen loss in the urine.ln the calf trial animals consumed from 71 to 86% of the supplements on offer. Nitrogen intakes from supplements ranged from 8.1 g/head/day (A. brevispica) to 14.9 g/head/day (lucerne). Sup plementation increased (P<0.01 ) calf growth rates by 44 to 95% compared to the controls, with lucerne eliciting higher growth rates than other supplements (P<0.01 ; see Table G9, Annex G). Supplementation increased (P<0.01) water intake by 15% overall compared to the controls. Calculations of theoretical nitrogen requirements for observed calf per formance in relation to actual nitrogen intake from supplements and milk indicated that the sup plements probably replaced 40 to 80% of the grazing diet. Use of legumes was thus more on the order of diet substitution rather than supplemen tation (Coppock and Reed, 1992). Coppock and Reed (1992) concluded that despite containing tannins, the acacia materials were suitable protein supplements for dry-season diets. They were readily consumed and often produced growth rates similar to those based on lucerne or cowpea hay. The net effect of tannins was thus minor. Such perspectives have been reported elsewhere (Nastis and Malechek, 1981;Tanner, 1988;Woodward, 1988;Nunez-Hernandez et al, 1989).Variation in concentration and type of tannins in other acacia species have elicited a diversity of feeding responses (Reed et al, 1990;Tanner, 1988;Woodward, 1988;Tanner et al, 1990). Other research indicates that like the acacia materials tested here, leaves of A. seyal or fruits of A. albida can be suitable protein supplements. But fruits of A. nilotica or A. sieberiana are more marginal in value because they elicit excretion rates of faecal nitrogen that can be markedly higher than what is lost as urinary nitrogen from feeding non-tanniniferous forages. For example, phyllodes (modified leaves) of A. cyanophylla can yield pronounced negative imbalances of nitrogen in sheep because of excessive losses of faecal nitrogen (Woodward, 1988). Productivity of acacias: Nutritive value is only one measure of the utility of a forage. Another critical aspect is productivity and ecological distribution. Despite the high nutritive value of acacia fruits and leaves, the main obstacle to enhancing their use is low productivity.Mulugeta Assefa (1990: p 57) harvested leaves from 18 A. brevispica shrubs after the short rainy season that ranged in size from 1 to 6 m or more in height. He found an average of 0.7 kg air-dried weight of leaves per shrub. Only shrubs taller than 6 m had leaf biomass that exceeded 4 kg air-dried weight. This problem of low yield per shrub is somewhat offset, however, by the high density of A. brevispica shrubs at higher elevations on the Borana Plateau. Control measures are needed to reduce these thickets.Menwyelet Atsedu (1 990: pp 54-76) studied fruit production of A. tortilis and A. nilotica during an average rainfall year. He selected 50 mature trees of each species at five sites. Understories were cleared and bush-fenced to facilitate collection of fallen fruits three times per week for seven months from early September 1988 to mid-March 1989. Trees were measured for diameter-at-breast height (DBH) and crown area in an attempt to correlate fruit production with tree size using linear regression. Analysis of variance was used to gauge effects of species, site and season on total fruit production. Results indicated that 87 of 100 trees produced fruits, but that production was low and variable over time. Total fruit production on an air-dried basis ranged from 0.1 to 43.9 kg/ tree for A. tortilis ( =6.7 kg) and 0.03 to 44.5 kg/tree for A. nilotica ( =5.0 kg). About 75% of A. tortilis trees and 85% of A. nilotica trees produced less than 10 kg of fruits during the seven months.There were no significant correlations of DBH or crown area with fruit production despite large-size differences among trees. lt was concluded that such low and variable levels of productivity were not conducive to a sustained use of fruits for livestock feeding at these sites. ln a review of the literature, Menwyelet Atsedu (1990: p 72) noted that fruit production in this trial appeared lower than that recorded for other pastoral areas in Africa. Landscape may be an important factor. Large A. tortilis trees along drainages with concentrated moisture have been shown to be quite productive in Kenya (Coughenouretal, 1985). Menwyelet Atsedu (1 990: p 73) noted that the most productive trees in his study were found in large bowl-shaped sites that probably collect more moisture. Other than these infrequent bowls, the Borana landscape consists of relatively uniform undulations without drainages (see Section 2.4.1.2: Landscape) which may be unfavourable for maximum fruit production from A. tortilis. The Boran pointed to (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1 990: p 1 9) low and variable fruit production as the major constraints to improved use of these trees for calf-feeding interventions. They said that production varies sharply from year to year. lt was thus concluded that one seven-month period is insufficient to assess fruit production. Monitoring for several consecutive years would yield more meaningful results. The variable production of acacias may also be genetically influenced; this masting behaviour is well known among many species of trees. Unpredictability in seed output may be a means of discouraging high levels of seed loss to parasites such as bruchid beetle larvae (Harper, 1977;Southgate, 1983;Pellew and Southgate, 1984). Other perspectives: ln summary, strategic use of local leguminous forages may be important in this system. The low production of A. tortilis fruits and difficulties in harvesting A. brevispica leaves dictate against their use as sole components of improved feeding for calves, however. This is because labour demands may be too high to be practical (Coppock, 1990a). One solution could be to use such supplements with grass hay to replace grazing or the traditional cut-and-carry use of standing grass. Results reported earlier in Table G8, Annex G, illustrate these beneficial and additive effects. What is more the higher the hay quality, the less legume would be needed to \"top it up\" (Coppock, 1990a). This illustrates that efforts to make better-quality hay could result in less dry-season labour needed for legume collection. ln addition, increased water intake for calves as a result of water-tank im plementation (Section 7.3.1.1: Water-development activities) may also have positive interactive effects (Coppock, 1989b; see Section 7.3.3.5: Calf mortality mitigation). All this shows the interdependency among calf feeding innovations (Coppock, 1990a).Forage evaluation reported here as well as other cited work suggests that A. tortilis fruits, A. brevispica leaves, A. seyal leaves and A. albida pods could be combined with grass hay in a diverse regional approach that takes advantage of different distributions of woody plants in the environment (see Section 2.4.1 .5: Native vegetation). This could be carried out with selective bush control strategies in mind and the pastoralists may be able to recommend other browses that could be utilised in this fashion. ln this regard CARE-Ethiopia has had some success encouraging the Boran to collect and store A. tortilis fruits for the dry season (Hodgson, 1990: pp 56-57, 173-175). ln some cases only helping the people get burlap sacks was all that was needed (Hodgson, 1 990: p 56). As with hay-making, it may be that increased competition among people for resources is a key factor in the relative ease that CARE-Ethiopia has had in apparently changing some aspects of resource use among the Boran. The Boran have been reported to actively collect acacia fruits during drought when they are desperate for calf forages (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Hence they may do likewise in norma! rainfall years under a higher density of consumers.Development agents should consider planting valuable indigenous trees in suitable sites such as kalo enclosures (see Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing management). Forage stabilisation in times of drought, as well as calf feeding in normal years, could benefit from it (Coughenour et al, 1985;Coppock, 1990a). However, Hodgson (1990: p 71) did express concern about whether the Boran would be interested in planting indigenous trees. The reason being individuals are unlikelly to personally benefit from tree planting because while the costs are endured today, the benefits would not be realised until years later. Menwyelet Atsedu (1990: p 26) reported that the Boran think that A. tortilis, like other trees in general, is increasing. This may be due to the absence of bush fires (see Section 3.3.2: Long-term vegetation change). This is not to say that the people have not collectively expressed concern over the future of A. Jortilis. ln fact the Borana Gumi Gayu council declared in 1 988 that A. tortilis should be a protected tree in 1988 (see Section 2.4.2.2: Some cultural and organisational features).Finally, if a household has hay of a suitable quality, the added labour needed to collect supple ments may not be necessary. Supplementation of hay may only be worth the extra cost if the hay is poor quality or calves are in need of a drastically improved feeding. Households with a pronounced pressure to sell milk, such as the poor who reside near towns (Holden et al, 1991), may be most in need of improved feeding packages for calves. The appropriate goal is to supply feeding to improve the chance of survival and not so much for faster growth of calves per se. This is because the apparent advantage of weight gains is easily lost as the animal matures; feeding above survival needs is thus likely to be wasted (Coppock, 1989b).As the last stage in the range management hierarchy, reclamation of degraded sites is the most intensive and expensive management activity per unit area (Pratt and Gwynne, 1 977: p 122). Because of this, site reclamation may initially appear as an unsuitable activity for communal pastoral systems. Recent experience on the Borana Plateau suggests, however, that when a confined pastoral society is under increasing pressure to secure adequate grazing resources, it may be easier to achieve a concensus on actions to rehabilitate land compared to those intended to slow degradation of land; the latter appears, at least superficially, to be inadequate. From surveys it is apparent that the Boran are interested in participating with SORDU to reclaim sites, but feel that there has been insufficient dialogue to date (Solomon Dessalegn, TLDP/lLCA postgraduate researcher, unpublished data). lt is anticipated that effective participation within the community by development agents could achieve a satisfactory level of site-specific control as long as the local community agrees that action is warranted. While some strong leaders in Borana society may help implement local programmes to change several aspects of resource use (Hodgson, 1990), many others require the assistance of outside authorities (Solomon Dessalegn, TLDP/lLCA post graduate researcher, unpublished data).Herbaceous layer Pratt and Gwynne (1977: pp 121-126) reviewed aspects of reseeding degraded land, and only some species useful for reclamation will be noted here. lt must be emphasised that given a nucleus of good perennial grasses, it is easiest to achieve recla mation by bush-fencing or declaring areas off limit by the Boran to permit natural recovery. Some form of protection must be implemented in any case, and if this cannot be done, no amount of seeding will make a difference. According to the proposed model of cattle population dynamics in relation to drought (see Section 7.2.3: Anticipated short-term cycles), it is most likely that successful site rehabilitation will occur during the drought-recovery phase when cattle densities and demand on forage are lower. Pratt and Gwynne recommend East African perennial grasses for reseeding sites and these include some prominent local species such as C. ciliaris, C. roxburghiana, C. dactylon and Enteropogon macrostachyus. Tables A6 to A10, Annex A, give environmental guidelines for some of these species. lf in doubt, inspection of similar sites can provide additional information. A discussion of reseeding procedures is provided in Pratt and Gwynne (1977: pp 123-126).lt is envisioned that priority sites for reclamation of the herbaceous layer include those in the upper semi-arid and subhumid zones that are rapidly degrading due to pressure from increasingly sedentary pastoralists (Section 3.4.2: Environ mental change). These sites have higher rainfall and cooler temperatures than the rest of the plateau, and thus offer better possibilities for success although not for exotics like S. hamata cv Verano because of the cooler temperatures (Section 7.3.1 .3: Forage improvements). One disadvantage, however, is that these regions to the north (not served by wells) occur outside of the traditional madda system and have been in the domain of PA organisational structures. This may require a different approach in terms of getting support from the local people. ln addition, the trekking routes through this area that are used to move cattle up-country (Assefa Eshete et at, 1987) present other social challenges for implementation. Bush control: Field methods and policies Bush encroachment has occurred on the Borana Plateau over many years and may be exacerbated by the grazing impacts of cattle (Section 3.4.2: Environmental change). lf this hypothesis is correct, increases in cattle density should aggravate bush encroachment under suitable rainfall conditions. Bush establishment thus may be most likely to occur as an episodic phenomenon during prolongued periods in the high-density phase of cattle population. Although bush encroachment can limit using land for cattle grazing, it may serve a useful purpose in site protection and rehabilitation (Section 3.3.2: Long-term vegetation change). Bush control programmes must thus be tempered by this consideration.Prescribed burning: Woody plants may be vari ously controlled using manual labour, chemicals, prescribed burning, machinery and browsing livestock. Pratt and Gwynne (1977: pp 128-138) provided a review of experiences from East Africa. Although it is acknowledged that fire has variable effects on controlling woody vegetation and more research is needed, it is still the most cost-effective means for bush control in East Africa (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 132).Solomon Dessalegn (nd) used prescribed burning to assess impact on an acacia community at Wollenso Ranch during the warm dry season of 1989 (Table G10, Annex G). These data indicate that overall mortality rates of trees on two sites were about 30%. Younger trees (<2 m tall) suffered mortalities of 35% while larger specimens lost only 1 1 % of their numbers. The finding that younger age classes are more susceptible to fire has been reported elsewhere (Norton-Griffiths, 1979;Pellew, 1983;a Tchie and Gakahu, 1989). The protection afforded older trees may be due to increased trunk thickness (which protects vascular tissues), elev ation of buds and foliage and whether accumulation of sufficient herbaceous fuel load in the understory is inhibited by shading and/or root competition. Fire is thus only a partial management solution in that it mostly inhibits recruitment of young trees but it still can gradually shift the advantage to grasses. Older trees survive fires to produce seed for the future, however. lt is important to note that fire has variable effects related to site and species. For example, it may stimulate germination in some woody species that are adapted to respond positively to burning (e.g. A. brevispica). Adult trees less than 2 m tall may be destroyed by one fire. A large stand of Commiphora sp was completely killed by a wild fire at Dembel Wachu Ranch in 1987 (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Effects of site and species on the susceptibility of trees to fire are reviewed in Pratt and Gwynne (1977: pp 128-138).Solomon Dessalegn (nd) interviewed leaders of five Pastoral Associations (PAs) in 1989 and found that the Boran used to burn sites once every three years to kill bush, control ticks and improve the nutritional quality and accessibility of grasses. These benefits from burning are well known elsewhere (Hobbs and Spowart, 1984;Coppock and Detling, 1986;Mbui and Stuth, 1986). ln the view of the Boran, cattle grazing and absence of fires were mostly responsible for bush encroach ment. Government policy restricting range fires was considered by these leaders as a major manage ment constraint. Reserving sites for burning, however, was reportedly more difficult than in the past because of forage demand from a large cattle The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia population (Section 3.2.5.2: Household use of plants and pastoral perceptions of range trend).A sound range-management programme based on prescribed burning requires years of detailed site-specific research (Pratt and Gwynne, 1 977: pp 128-138). This may be a luxury, however, that few national programmes like SORDU can afford. lt is noteworthy that the policy prohibiting burning on the Borana Plateau was lifted in 1990 (Tafesse Mesfin, TLDP General Manager, personal communication) because of the perception by local administrators that bush encroachment was a significant threat to the production system. lt is expected that the Boran will now be able to recommend sites for burning and SORDU will provide regulation through site evaluation, approval of methods and by helping organise the work (Kidane Wolde Yohannes, TLDP range ecologist, personal communication). The Boran have indicated that they would work with SORDU on bush control (Coppock et al, 1990: pp 21-22). Pratt (1987a: p 22) recommended that with the ban lifted, controlled burning should be allowed in the semi-arid and arid zones where appropriate, but not allowed in upper semi-arid and subhumid zones that are more in need of rehabilitation of the herbaceous layer (see Section 3.4.2: Environmental change).Without regulation, the danger is that sites may be burned too frequently under today's conditions of higher human and livestock populations. The tendency may be to burn more for short-term gains such as stimulating green flush. Effects of burning on improving forage quality are only short-lived (McGinty et al, 1983;Mbui and Stuth, 1986) and more frequent burning can damage microbes in the topsoil (Biederbeck et al, 1980), expose soil to erosion (Ali et al, 1986) and kill important forages such as Chloris roxburghiana (Pratt et al, 1966). ln contrast, appropriate burning may stimulate in creases in Themeda triandra (Pratt and Gwynne, 1 977: p 246). This species is an important forage in the north-central part of the Plateau and it has been noted to be in decline possibly as a result, in part, of the absence of fire (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990: p83).Optimal burning frequencies are thus antici pated. Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 133) noted that a burning interval of three to six years checks most bush encroachment in relatively open areas. Burning experiments with thick bush based on an initial series of annual and biannual fires are also proposed in Pratt (1987a: p 23). lf careful records are maintained and site monitoring is carried out, it may be wise to use sites nominated by the Boran as part of a comprehensive research and manage ment programme. One other danger of loosely regulated burning is the threat it may pose to juveniles of useful tree species. For example, Pellew (1 983) and a Tchie and Gakahu (1 989) noted that younger age classes of A. tortilis are vulnerable to fire.The likelihood that higher populations of livestock may reduce the capability to implement burning programmes is a significant constraint, but this will vary among madda. Consideration of the cattle population cycle in response to drought (see Section 7.2.3: Anticipatedshort-term cycles) may be useful in evaluating opportunities for burning. Early in the drought-recovery phase cattle populations would be lower and forage (fuel load) more abundant. A lighter grazing pressure could also encourage more grass growth that could further keep tree seedlings from emerging after fire. lt is stipulated that if burning can be focused to occur in this time frame implementation could be more successful. lt may also be expected, however, that the pastoralists will be most interested in burning during the high-density phase, largely for short-term goals of improving cattle nutrition or controlling ticks. Mechanical and chemical methods: Focusing on Acacia drepanolobium, Solomon Dessalegn (nd) conducted an experiment that included various treatments of manual cutting (stumping), ringbarking and application of used motor oil or TORDON 101 arboricide to stumps. Subsequent mortality rates are shown in Table G11 , Annex G. lt is apparent that without the use of arboricide, other forms of control were largely ineffective. ln addition, A. drepanolobium resprouted easily from stumps not treated with the arboricide, which results in a bushier growth form that is more likely to be obstructive to livestock (Plate 7.4). The ability to regenerate after simple cutting is common among East African trees (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: pp 1 33-1 34). Although the use of an imported chemical may be regarded as inappropriate, it certainly was the most cost-effective means of ensuring kills in this trial. lt has been calculated (Coppock et al, 1 990: p 24) that with only 1 ml of arboricide/stump, the cost to kill 600 trees/hectare is less than EB 1 0 which is a small addition to the cost of labour that is otherwise much less effective. One other drawback with chemicals, however, is that their safe use requires careful supervision. Attempts to control bush purely through human labour are thus thought to be expensive, time consuming and largely ineffective. Not surprisingly, the Boran do not express much interest in engaging in such activities unless they are paid or receive Food-for-Work (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). The lack of interest in labour-intensive methods for bush clearing among the Boran may reflect time constraints as well as the labile land tenure; i.e. if a location becomes unusable because of bush encroachment, the people can probably still move 230The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Development-intervention concepts Plate 7.4. A specimen ofAcacia drepanolobium a few months afteran attempt to kill it by stumping using manual labour.Photograph: Shewangizaw Bekele elsewhere. Options to move are probably declining, however, and this may stimulate interest in bush control among the Boran. Wood collection: Bille and Assefa Eshete (1983b) noted that while the general effect of pastoralists on trees through wood collection may be locally significant around individual encampments, this is not important for bush control in a regional context. This agrees with the interviews of pastoral leaders by Solomon Dessalegn (nd) in which they indicated that routine harvest of wood for cooking and construction has little effect on tree populations overall (Coppock et al, 1990: p 21). Charcoal production: Charcoal production from undesirable woody plants is a cost-effective means of bush clearing (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977: p 129;Cossins and Upton, 1988b). Solomon Dessalegn (nd) conducted initial trials using local methods to assess whether some of the encroaching species could be turned into suitable charcoal. There was concern that abundant and apparently useless species such as A. drepanolobium may not make suitable charcoal because of their slender trunks, commonly less than 20 cm in circumference. lt was found that the dry-matter yield of charcoal from a standard fresh weight of 350 kg ranged from 1 6 to 25% for five species (Table 7.7). A good predictor for efficiency of charcoal conversion was per cent moisture of wood (Coppock et al, 1990: p 24). As per cent moisture increased (x) so did the per cent charcoal yield (y) in a significant correlation (y=0.715x-38.6; r2=0.40, P=0.003, N=20). Samples of charcoal were taken to Addis Ababa to see if traders could evaluate the quality (Coppock et al, 1990: p 27). There were no repeatable differences among rankings of samples by five traders; so all were judged as similar. The traders, however, regarded acacia charcoal as superior to the nonacacia charcoal that dominates the Addis Ababa market. The lump size was considered adequate and the dull matte finish suggested a good com bustibility and absence of sparking (Coppock et al, 1990: p 27).A cost-benefit study suggested that 9400 kg of charcoal from 600 A. drepanolobium trees/ha could provide a gross return of over EB 7400 if marketed in Addis Ababa (Coppock et al,1 990: p 27). The total cost for 1 35 man-days of labour, local transport, field supplies and arboricides was estimated as EB 1 1 25/ ha. The net profit was on the order of EB 6600/ha. This also assumes that SORDU could transport the charcoal to Addis Ababa at neglible cost when empty cattle trucks go for maintenance. Even if transport costs were included the activity would still be highly profitable (Coppock et al, 1990: p 27). 1 Each entry is the mean of four replications. Entries accompanied by the same letter (x, y, z) were not significantly different (P<0.01 ) in a one-way ANOVA with an LSD (least significant difference) test. ln addition, there was a significant effect of replication over time (P = 0.01 ) which indicated that after the second or third use of the same charcoal-production pit, better conversion was achieved.Source: Coppock et al (1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia lt is thus apparent that bush-encroached sites could be reclaimed using a combination of burning (to eliminate young trees), stumping and chemical application to kill larger trees, which could then be converted into charcoal to recoup the costs and provide profits for other local projects such as water tanks or maintenance of wells and ponds (see Section 7.3.1.1: Water-development activities). Chemicals are still needed because the stemmy regrowth of stumped trees is probably not useful for further conversion into charcoal (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). This approach may be most successful during drought-recovery phases when grazing pressure is lower and cattle are less available for donation for community projects. Organised charcoal-making alone could also provide jobs for pastoralists during drought (see Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact). lt is envisioned that this activity could be coordinated and regulated by SORDU. Alternatively, the Boran could attempt to control it themselves as part of bush clearing projects at the deda or madda level of resolution. Other pastoral groups near Awash Park have reportedly taken keen interest in conserving trees that are under pressure from neighbouring urban dwellers. The fact that the pastoralists are armed and the urban dwellers are not allows the pastoralists to regulate collection of fuel wood by the former (C. Schloeder, Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Organisation, personal communication).Despite the economic attractiveness of charcoal production, the main concern of SORDU is whether it could be controlled once knowledge of charcoalmaking is more widely disseminated (Coppock, 1990b). Experiences elsewhere in Africa support this view (Moris, 1988). Charcoal-making is illegal on the Borana Plateau but small quantities are still produced (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal obser vation). lt is likely that in addition to existing regu lations, problems of labour, local transport and a low local demand would discourage wider production of charcoal (Coppock, 1990b). Conservatism is warranted as the continued rapid growth of local towns and a declining prosperity of many pas toralists may encourage faster rates of charcoalmaking (and/or wood collection) in the future. ln addition, there are no assurances that unregulated charcoal production could always be confined to less useful species of trees. To conclude, the major constraint against charcoal production is the ability of SORDU or the Boran themselves to regulate such activities. Site selection for bush control: At this point it is important to again address the issue of the possible role of bush encroachment in protecting overgrazed sites and contributing to rehabilitation of the top soil through leaf litter (see Section 3..4.2: Environmental change). There are no easy rules for site selection for bush control but a conservative approach would be to avoid bush control in those locations where a very reduced grass cover and heightened soil erosion is apparent. These would be difficult to burn, regardless. ln contrast, those sites where the grass cover has recovered, but is only limited in terms of its accessibility, may be considered as priority sites for bush clearing. This would also provide management that is consistent with the hypotheses of the useful role of bush encroachment. Site selection must be undertaken in collaboration with the local people. As with other aspects of range improvements and site rehabilitation, the deda is probably the most appropriate level of social organisation with which to undertake bush control (Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing management) . Role of browsing stock: Pratt and Gwynne (1977: p 138) give examples where goats can be effective in controlling woody plants. They cite an example in Kenya (probably a well-managed ranch) where running goats at a rate of four goats per steer reduced the need for burning to once every six to eight years versus once every three to four years when cattle were managed alone. The Borana pastoralists, however, have stated that browsing stock cannot control bush encroachment (Coppock et al, 1990: p 21). This response is probably due to several factors: (1) the relatively low population density of browsers; (2) the high level of herding coordination probably required to assemble enough browsers to impact trees in a given site; and (3) once woody plants have reached a certain size, browsers can probably inflict only minor damage. ln some local instances, however, browsing by small ruminants has probably contributed a degree of regulation. The closely pruned stands of stunted Commiphora spp at Did Hara may be one example (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Goats probably are most useful for controlling bush at the seedling stage and some detailed food-habits trials would be required to test this hypothesis. However, goats could also eat seedlings of valuable tree species and compete with calves for forages such as A. tortilis fruits (Coppock et al, 1986a; see below). Because of their large size and need to consume foods from large abundant trees, camels are relatively useless for bush control compared to small ruminants (Coppock et al, 1986a). ln addition, with the exception of A. brevispica, camels do not appear to consume species that are regarded as encroachers (see Section 3.3.5.1 .Livestock food habits). With the understanding that too many small ruminants may also be ecologically undesireable, the most effective policy to encourage more targeted impacts by small ruminants could be to provide better veterinary services (see Section 5.4.6: Small ruminants), by prioritising such interventions on a site-specific basis to madda or deda with emerging populations of seedlings of undesireable bush species.Dealing with the anticipated spread of cultivation on the Borana Plateau represents a major challenge. Central to this is the problem of the conflict between the short-term survival goals of the pastoralists and the longer-term interests of the nation in promoting sustainable use of rangeland resources. ln many cases the literature notes the negative effects of opportunistic cultivation on soil fertility and structure as key factors in the degradation of rangelands (Moris,1 988). lt is also evident, however, that mixed cropping and livestock systems offer economic advantages to populations by providing a buffering capacity in variable environments (Campbell, 1984). The ideal situation would be to accomodate cultivation only where it is environmentally appropriate, but this places significant burdens on regulatory agencies. The spread of cultivation in more mesic valleys in the north and south-central portions of the study area (see Section 3.3.1: Ecological map and land use) is speculated to become a permanent fixture in the system (see Section 7.2.2: Anticipated longterm trends). Black soils in valley bottoms are more fertile than red upland soils and far less likely to be degraded (l. Haque, lLCA, personal communi cation; see Section 2.4.1.3: Soils). Valley land scapes will also be the best sites for reliable accumulation of soil moisture and plant growth each year will be less dependent on annual rainfall compared to that on red upland soils. Thus, cultivation in valley bottoms is expected to be less risky and probably could be practised every year. The main danger of cultivating valley bottoms is the threat to the Pennisetum spp community that characterises these sites. Hodgson (1990: p 66) cited speculation by R. Hacker (TLDP consultant) that the Pennisetum community is of little value to the livestock production system. However, work reported by Menwyelet Atsedu (1990) indicates that Pennisetum spp have value as dry-season forage for calves and other domestic use as roofing material for Borana huts. The stem my brown appearance of Pennisetum spp in dry seasons gives the impression that it has little feeding value but the Boran report that persistent green tissues are usually available in the tussocks even late in the dry season when no other green herbaceous material is available (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). lt is thought that the Boran are aware of local trade-offs between cultivation and maintenance of Pennisetum spp communities, and opt to cultivate. This decision is likely dictated by the need for grain, but the Boran are probably also aware that if they produce their own grain, they need to sell less milk that can benefit calves (Section 5.3.2: Calf growth and milk offtake). ln addition, they probably recognise that crop residues can substitute to some degree for the forage lost in the form of Pennisetum spp. Even in a dry year some crop residues will be produced (Cossins and Upton, 1988b) so the land is unlikely to be lost to the production system even during times of stress. lt is also important to note that all surveyed encampments in cropping areas such as Did Hara madda have kalo enclosures of Pennisetum spp for calves (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1 990). Thus, actions have apparently been taken to accomodate both calf needs as well as cultivation.ln contrast to valley bottoms, cultivation will be more opportunistic and risky on red upland soils. The frequency of cultivation on these sites will be more episodic in nature and most common in the drought-recovery phase of the cattle population because of a shortage of milk for human con sumption (Section 7.2.3: Anticipated short-term cycles).Cultivation has been variously encouraged and discouraged among the Boran by local officials. Some administrators, PAs and nongovernmental organisations have been implicated in encouraging the spread of cultivation while SORDU and other development agents seek to ban cultivation from the rangelands. The lack of a coordinated policy is a hindrance.The pronounced need for grain among the pastoralists will increase in the future because of population growth, and cultivation is one response to avoid having to sell milk or animals to buy grain (Section 7.2.2: Anticipated long-term trends). Banning cultivation entirely would particularly jeopardise the poor and it would be highly resisted and difficult to enforce. The most appropriate course of action would be to permit cultivation in suitable valley sites but not allow opportunistic farming on red upland soils. Food production and environ mental sustainability could thus both be accom modated. Regulatory agents should act through existing pastoral organisations to communicate such strategies and facilitate implementation of regulatory norms where traditional means are not available (see Chapter 8: Synthesis and con clusions). The Boran commonly contend that they recognise the dangers of cultivation for the land and can regulate cultivation themselves; but it is unclear how well they have thought through the issues (Hodgson, 1990: p 85).A total ban on cultivation has disadvantages to the pastoralists that could also result in costs to the nation in terms of more of the poor moving into local towns. A ban, however, does offer the advantages in forcing increased marketing of livestock and in simplifying the work of regulatory agents that are often incapable of enforcing a piece-meal super visory approach. The critical issue is thus regulation. lt is assumed here that valley bottoms are appro priate for sustained cultivation. Some results from agronomy trials thus warrant mention. Agronomy trials: Yohannes Alemseged (1989: pp 57-105) investigated legume intercropping strategies for maize. The objective was to assess the complementary or competitive nature of legumes with yields of maize grain. The experiment employed a complete randomised block design with four replicates per treatment. Treatments included:(1) four planting densities of maize (0 (controls for the legumes), 20 000, 30 000 and 55 000 plants/ha);(2) two planting times for legumes (i.e. at the same time as the maize or 20 days later); and (3) four species of annual legumes. Maize was also planted alone in four replicates of each planting density. The legumes included two dual-purpose species (L. purpureus (lablab) and V. unguiculata cv White Wonder Trailing (cowpea)) and two forage species (C. rotundifolia cv Wynn and C. schottii). All legumes were deemed as superior performers from previous screening trials.Maize seeds were obtained locally while legume seeds were obtained from lLCA. Plots (2 x 3 m) and seeds were prepared as in the forage yield trial reported earlier (see Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improvements). The site was located in a small valley of red soil at Dembel Wachu Ranch. Rows of maize were evenly spaced by 75 cm, and variation in plant density was achieved by altering the distance between seeds within rows. Maize was planted before the main rains on 23 March 1987. Legumes were planted in the middle of the interrow spaces of maize. Seeds of cowpea and lablab were spaced 20 cm within rows while seeds of C. rotundifolia and C. schottii were planted at rates of 10 and 15 kg/ha, respectively. Legume planting dates were either on 23 March or 11 April in an attempt to gauge temporal effects of competition; the 20-day interval was chosen given the short duration of the long rainy season.Rainfall was initially delayed but subsequently heavy during the next six weeks. Maize was harvested when ripe 109 days later on 9 July, air-dried for 10 days and separated into grain and residue components. Cowpea was harvested from 30 June to 14 July because of uneven ripening. Lablab was harvested on 14 August when ripe. Biomass of both legumes was air-dried. Grain was removed from pods and weighed and residue was separated out. Forage legumes were harvested when the maize was harvested. Cassia rotundifolia was setting seed and C. schottii was beginning to flower at this time. This biomass was also air-dried. Sub-samples of all components for maize and legumes were oven-dried at 60°C for 24 h for determination of dry matter. Data were analysed on a dry-matter basis using ANOVAs with LSD tests to separate means.Only highlights of results will be presented here. Details are available in Yohannes Alemseged (1989: pp 66-92). The main effects of legumes on yields of maize grain over both planting dates of legume are shown in Table G12, Annex G. Overall, the dual-purpose legumes had a much greater effect on reducing maize yields compared to the forage legumes. This was related to the higher productivity of the dual-purpose species. Over both planting dates and three densities of maize (excluding zero), the highest total dry-matter yields were reported for cowpea (4791 kg/ha; 39% grain), lablab (4051 kg/ha; 26% grain), C. rotundifolia (267 kg/ha) and C. schottii (144 kg/ha). Grain yields overall for cowpea (1991 kg/ha) and lablab (869 kg/ha) were significantly different (P<0.001 ). Maize, in turn, depressed grain yields of both cowpea and lablab by 46% compared to respective controls (P<0.05), with negligible variation due to maize density and planting date.Delaying planting time of legumes by 20 days reduced competition and maize yields increased (P<0.05) from 8 to 17% at densities of 20 000 and 55 000 plants per hectare, respectively. The later planting time for dual-purpose legumes, however, reduced (P<0.05) their grain yields by 57% overall.Total grain yield (maize plus legume) was only marginally affected by legume planting date, but the proportion comprised of maize tended to increase when legumes were planted later. Over both planting dates and three maize densities (excluding zero), the average total grain yield was highest for cowpea plus maize (4280 kg/ha), followed by maize only (3824 kg/ha), maize plus the forage legumes (=3579 kg/ha) and lablab plus maize (3359 kg/ha). Total yield of residue followed similar patterns. Considered across both planting dates and for three densities of maize (excluding zero), the highest average residue yields were for cowpea plus maize (5241 kg/ha), lablab plus maize (4140 kg/ha), maize only (3777 kg/ha) and maize plus the forage legumes (=3382 kg/ha).ln sum, it is apparent that despite competitive effects, planting cowpea plus maize yielded greater benefits compared to maize alone in terms of total yield of grain and residue. The lower yields of legume grain at the later planting date, the relatively Development-intervention concepts moderate effect of later planting on yields of maize grain at the lower planting densities of maize, labour considerations and the uncertainties of good rainfall all indicate that planting maize and cowpea at the same time is the best strategy.Although not observed in this trial, the Boran perceive that cowpea requires less time to mature under a given amount of rainfall than local maize. This is reflected in the observations that cowpea is commonly planted during the short rains (October-November) when prospects for a successful maize harvest are poor (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). The true value of intercropping here is thus the mixture of a lower-risk crop (cowpea) with a higher risk crop (maize) under conditions of uncertain precipitation. Production of grain, not forage, is thus more likely, and grain is what the people are most interested in (Hodgson, 1990: p 80). Legume grain may also have a valuable role in diversifying the nutritional base of human diets which focus on milk and maize (Holden et al, 1 991 ). Crop residues for livestock are definitely secondary. This indicates that promotion of dual-purpose legumes, with the priority towards production of human food, would be far more successful than promotion of those intended only as forage.Management perspectives: The inclusion of a dual-purpose legume such as cowpea also offers possibilities to enhance crop/livestock interactions, particularly through improved calf feeding (also see Table G9, Annex G). The mixture of cowpea and maize not only yielded more crop residues but also of higher nutritional value for animals because of the contribution of cowpea (12.2% CP on a dry-matter basis) (Coppock and Reed, 1992). Dried maize leaves typically only have a CP content of 2.6% on a DM basis (Urio and Kategile, 1987) and thus mixing the two in feeding packages would allow improved utilisation of low-quality maize residues (Tanner et al, 1990). A ratio of cowpea residue to maize leaves on the order of 1:1 would achieve a diet quality of 7.4% CP for young calves, slightly above a minimum requirement of 7% for susten ance. Cowpea hay could also be incorporated into feeding packages based on grass hay (see Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improvements; Plate 7.5). Just in terms of readily accessible biomass, cowpea offers advantages over A. tortilis fruits or A. brevispica leaves in considering constraints of time and labour (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 62-71). Field obser vations (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation; Tesfaye Wogayehu, CARE-Ethiopia, personal observation) also indicated that management of Plate 7.5. Calf feeding on a mixture of cowpea hay residue and grass hay in a slight modification of the traditional system.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia cowpea residue is a problem. Higher-quality leaves are deciduous and fall from the plants at harvest and thus are likely to be lost. Besides promoting calffeeding packages, extension agents need to inform and encourage the people regarding efficient collection and storage of crop residues. The Boran already build corn cribs and put up grass hay (Coppock, 1991) so these concepts are no longer foreign. Harvest comes at a time when seasonal labour burdens are somewhat reduced (see Section 4.3.3: The labour of married women).Cowpea is already present in the Borana system but more widespread use could be encouraged in appropriate sites. A major problem is the availability of seed. Nongovernmental organisations like the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) have long been involved in promoting improved cultivation practices among farmers who live on the periphery of the pastoral system. Cultivation of cowpea has been a cornerstone of some of these programmes (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). The most sustainable means to improve the availability of cowpea seed among the Boran is for development agents to promote more economic interactions between farmers and pastoralists.The contribution of cowpea or other dualpurpose legumes to the sustainable use of cultivated areas is unclear. Working in Mali, Hulet and Gosseye (1986) noted that compared to sites planted only with millet, sites where millet was intercropped with cowpea showed a higher soil fertility. Although this is also reportedly known by the Boran in some cases (R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication), there is no evidence that cowpea fixes nitrogen in this environ ment. What legumes contribute to the maintaining of soil structure is another issue. Highly productive annuals such as cowpea or lablab would probably be much more desired by the Boran than less productive dual-purpose perennials such as C. cajan which performed adequately under multiple harvest treatments. Although as a perennial C. cajan may promote more stability of soil structure as an intercrop, it produces less human food over the short term.The Boran will not be concerned about the ecological sustainability of cropping sites as long as the suitable cropping area can expand. lndeed, they often do not express a concern about declining soil fertility. This may be because they think it has not happened yet to a significant degree (Hodgson, 1 990: p 68) and because they recognise the resilient nature of valley landscapes which are cultivated most often. When people in Did Hara madda were asked why they refrained from adding manure from encampments to their fields in the valley below, they remarked that they did not have to; rainfall washes it down there for them (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).The main point is that intensification of cropping, whether by promotion of soil ridging, intercropping or manure application will fail until such time as the Boran regard it as necessary. When that time comes such activities may still not be implemented because of a shortage of labour. Manure application is a case in point. Encampments are characterised by enormous mounds of manure that has been cleaned from corrals over the years (Donaldson, 1986: p 61), but it is unutilised. lmproved use of manure must alleviate the labour problems of transporting it to fields up to 1 km away.CARE-Ethiopia has attempted to extend twowheeled carts that can be drawn by oxen or donkeys that cost on the order of EB 325 (Hodgson, 1990: p 36). The Boran are interested in the carts but the problem to date has been the supply as well as the maintenance of these carts. Alternatively, the people may be interested to rent SORDU vehicles to transport manure and this should also be investi gated. Hodgson (1 990: p 68) reported a distinct lack of interest by the Boran in the intensification of farming although this may change in the future. The Boran at present appear unmotivated to even inter crop legumes. They state that cowpea broadcasted among maize yields suitable results. (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data).lf cultivation in valleys is considered to be a viable proposition in terms of local policy and regulation, it must be recognised that increased use of draft power will be required. Draft technology would facilitate expansion of cultivation in all suitable sites and forego the need to rely on human labour alone. Despite the fact that men and women share tasks of cultivation today (Section 4.3.6: Cultivation), it is anticipated that more of the responsibilities of cultivation will fall to women in the future in view of the postulated increase in the emigration rates for men (Section 7.2.2.3: Labour availability). lnitial transfer of oxen draft technology has been stimulated by the Boran observing local farmers as well as other pastoralists using animals for farming that were originally trained for pulling scoops to desilt ponds (Section 7.3.1.1: Waterdevelopment activities).This section explores the potential for sustainable improvements in livestock production with their ramifications as regards the cost of implementation and the risks involved in realising their benefits. lnterventions that superficially appear to offer the greatest economic returns over the long term may in reality be too risky or difficult to implement. The most appropriate interventions may be those that bring only an incremental improvement. lt was demonstrated in Chapter 5 (Livestock husbandry and production) that the Boran are skilled livestock producers and so the scope for sustained improvement may be limited. Risks and costs of intervention are largely dictated by the environment, labour pool and stocking rate. Earlier in this chapter (Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics) it was hypothesised that these three factors interact to periodically constrain cattle production. This concept helps illustrate the utility of a systems approach for implementing development inter ventions.The most important production feature of adult cattle to the Boran is milk production, and low offtake of milk in dry periods is the most critical factor affecting human welfare over the short term. As mentioned in Section 7.2.1 : Empirical modeling, calving rate and milk production are supposed to be influenced by annual rainfall as mediated by stocking rate. Milk production should thus be dramatically affected by the interdrought cycle (Section 7.2.3: Anticipated short-term cycles). To illustrate, assuming average rainfall throughout an interdrought period, during the first several years of drought-recovery, milk production per cow should be the highest because of low forage competition (i.e. the stocking rate would be <15 head/km2). As the stocking rate increases each year thereafter, milk production per cow should gradually decline. Although dry seasons would cause spot deficits of protein for cow nutrition, the decline would primarily be in response to decreasing availability of forage energy (i.e. forage quantity).Although scientists commonly think that pro ductivity per head is very important, survival of a subsistence society like the Boran is more influenced by production per unit area, which incorporates stocking rate and productivity per head. This is not to say, however, that households percejve changes in production per unit area, responding only to changes in milk supply for family members. lt is to say that as an ecological factor, milk production per unit area is a decisive variable at the population level of resolution. Compared to milk production per cow, milk production per unit area probably shows far more interesting patterns in the interdrought cycle. For example, milk offtake per hectare would be low but increasing in the drought-recovery phase because of a low stocking rate of cows that survived the drought. Milk offtake per hectare would then peak some five years after the end of the drought when the cow component of the regional herd had recovered its numbers through a combination of recruitment and trade. ln the following high-density phase, milk offtake per hectare should gradually decline because of competition for forage among cows and a gradual decline in output per cow. These dynamics are shown in Figure 7.3 and reflect patterns reported in research from Jones and Sandland (1 974) and Hart et al (1 988). lf these patterns are correct, over the short term the Boran would probably perceive milk offtake at the household level as slowly rising, peaking and then falling, as long as annual rainfall is near average throughout. Over the long term, however, they might perceive milk yield per person as declining because of rapid human population growth (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data).Appreciation of these milk production patterns is important because they illustrate that: (1) even if widespread supplementation was feasible, nutri tional constraints for milk production would change depending on the kind of year; and ( 2) it would be difficult to assure sustainable increases in milk production without expanding the grazing area or decreasing the male component of the regional herd. For an example of the first scenario, lack of minerals could limit milk productivity during wet seasons of years early in the drought-recovery phase when forage supply is high. Once the herd grew, seasonal protein deficits could become the next main limiting factor. ln the high-density phase energy shortage would be the main constraint. For the second scenario, land expansion is difficult because neighbouring areas are likely occupied by other people. While cutting down on male cattle compromises asset accumulation and the ability to recover from drought (see below). lntensification is difficult and risky because internal resources are already scarce due to low rainfall and high densities of consumers. The people have developed attitudes of aversion to taking risk shaped by generations of extensive management.Besides drought, the other times of greatest per capita shortages in milk production would be in a warm dry season of a below-average rainfall year in either the drought-recovery or the high-density phase of the cattle population. During both phases the quickest and least risky means for a household to increase milk supply is to trade bulls for more cows. Such activity is reportedly on the increase. lt is viewed by TLDP as a move that undermines the integrity of the Boran genotype when pastoralists trade for inferior cows from the southern highlands (see Section 5.4.5: Cattle growth and implications for breed persistence). Even if the Boran had the means to intensify cow management in the The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia high-density phase, the high stocking rates in conjunction with chance deficits in annual rainfall makes this very risky. ln sum, pervasive constraints of access to forage and water supplies dictate that little can be done directly to improve milk production through enhanced feeding management of cows.There could be more ways, however, of indirectly enhancing people's access to milk such as improved calf feeding using grass hay, crop residues and acacia supplements and providing supplemental water from cisterns (see Section 7.3.1.1: Water-development activities and Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improvements). These materials could substitute for calf milk intake to some degree and allow people a higher consumption of milk. lf calf mortality is mitigated through improved feeding their dams may also remain lactating longer (Donaldson, 1986). Another indirect means to increase fodder for cows is to reduce competition from male cattle. The forra system (Section 5.3.1: General aspects of cattle management) mediates competition between cows and bulls for forage, but madda are under increasing pressure to accom modate forra cattle within (Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing management). Milk production of cows would benefit from enlargement of deda grazing areas through local water development, bush and tick control (see below) and improving forage quality through prescribed burning. Enlargement of forra fall-back areas through carefully planned largescale water development could ease the pressure. Finally, tactics that encourage selling of males to bank the money or finance community projects would also relieve pressure. Most of these interventions would have their greatest effects on milk production, and be the easiest to implement, during the high-density phase of the cattle population when the people are forced to consider innovations (see Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics). All of these interventions have been previously discussed except banking which is reviewed in Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing.Perhaps the most straightforward means to increase milk production is through mitigation of tick damage to cow udders. Milk production may be reduced by about 15% simply because of tick challenge which closes off teats (see Section 5.4.3: Cattle mortality and health). ln the upper semi-arid and subhumid zones it has been reported that large tracts of grazing land have been abandoned in response to heavy tick infestation (l. DeLange, Holy Ghost Mission, personal communication). Lack of acaricides and prohibition of range burning have reportedly contributed the most to this problem (Coppock, 1990b).Acaricides have been generally unavailable in Ethiopia during the past 10 to 15 years (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communi cation). Lack of foreign exchange for rural devel opment has been the ultimate constraint since acaricides have to be imported. Bureaucratic procurement problems in Addis Ababa have also been reported to limit use of acaricides (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communi cation). Acaricides and dipping facilities were available on the Borana Plateau during the Second Livestock Development Project from 1973-1981 when livestock development projects could control procurement of their own imports (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communication). Cost in local currency seems to be a minor issue as the Boran are willing to pay for acaricides (Coppock,1 990b). lt is remarkable that the use of acaricides is not institutionalised given that they were developed over 50 years ago (Jahnke, 1982: p 164).One argument against acaricides is speculation that frequent use undermines attainment of a natural resistance to tick-borne diseases. Having introduced their widespread use procurement of acaricides becomes subsequently irregular, it is thought cattle may thus be rendered more vulnerable (G. Smith, former FLDP consultant, personal communication). lt is unclear if this assumption is correct. lt would be useful to know to what degree immunity to tick-borne diseases is inducible over a cow's lifetime, and whether or not animals can attain lifetime immunity as calves. Even if acaricide use in the form of dipping is deemed inappropriate, implementation of acaricides or other repellents in the form of a salve for udders could be a valuable contribution.Prescribed burning has been reported as being effective in tick control (Barnett, 1961 ;Rodgers and Homewood, 1986). This can be another benefit of implementing comprehensive burning programme (Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation). lt remains unclear, however, which seasons and site types are best for using fire to control tick and whether these approaches would be compatible with those needed for other objectives such as bush control or management of grass swards. lt is likely, because of environmental conditions, that most burning would occur at the end of either of the two dry seasons in September and/or March. The population and reproductive status of tick species at these times are presently unknown in the southern rangelands and this requires research.There are two approaches for improving endurance of mature cattle during dry seasons of average rainfall years: (1) dry season supplementation; or (2) promoting an improved body condition of animals before they enter the dry season. As just indicated, resource scarcity during dry seasons makes attempts to supplement diets of large stock with energy or protein impractical. Facilitating weight gain during wet seasons, however, by providing small amounts of mineral supplements could be more feasible in meeting the second objective. This is a time when energy and protein requirements are more reliably met. The Boran traditionally supplement livestock with salt obtained from local volcanic craters. The composition of this salt was found to be 41 % NaCl with minor quantities of macro and trace minerals (Kabaija and Little, 1987). Kabaija and Little (1991) hypothesised that supplementing the diet of growing male cattle with phosphorus (P) and copper (Cu) would show benefits in terms of improved weight gains. The study was conducted for animals kept on Dembel Wachu Ranch from June 1987 to May 1988, a year of average rainfall. Sixty-four male Boran cattle (averaging two years old with a mean live weight of 200 kg) were vaccinated against common diseases, stratified by weight and randomly distributed among four treatments: (1) supplemented with both P and Cu; (2) supplemented with P only; (3) supplemented with Cu only; and (4) the control (no supplement). Phosporus was offered as bone meal mixed with local salt at a ratio of 2:1 in troughs inside corrals where animals passed the night. Copper was administered in the form of calcium copper acetate given subcutaneously at a rate of one 1 00-mg dose per animal every six months. Local salt was also offered to treatments 3 and 4 in troughs. Animals were weighed initially and every 45 days thereafter. At each weighing except the last, blood was collected from the jugular vein of all animals and analysed for serum concentrations of Cu, Zn, Ca and Mg using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Every 45 days samples of grass species and parts commonly eaten by the cattle were hand plucked, separated into species and analysed for con centrations of K, Na, Ca, P, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu using atomic absorption spectrophotometry after a wet digestion. A representative sample of soil collected from a depth of up to 15 cm at 90 day intervals was composited from dominant substrate that was well drained and derived from a gneiss/ quartz parent material. Soil was analysed for pH and concentrations of the same minerals by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Data on average daily gain (ADG) and blood-mineral content were analysed using a general linear model procedure.Only a brief summary of results of this study is presented here. Details are in Kabaija and Little (1991). Averaged across the year, the 16 dominant forage species varied markedly in mineral content and in relation to the minimum mineral con centrations required for ruminants (McDowell, 1985). All species were sufficient in terms of K and Fe; 9, 13 and 14 out of 16 were sufficient in terms of Ca, Zn and Mn, respectively. ln contrast, 0, 1 , 2 and 2 out of 16 were sufficient in terms of Na, Cu, Mg and P, respectively. The soil had a pH of 6.65 and was below critical levels for concentrations of available P and Cu. Treatment effects considered throughout the year were not significant (P>0.05) for either ADG (1 95 to 225 g/head/day) or blood serum values. lnspection of seasonal weight dynamics for the treatments (see Figure 1 in Kabaija and Little, 1991) did not indicate any meaningful variation in wet-season gains or dry-season losses. (Also previously noted by AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates (1974h).Despite indications that forage mineral con centrations were deficient in P and Cu the animals were not affected by supplementation and all showed similar serum values for these elements (Kabaija and Little, 1989: pp 4-5). This seeming paradox may be explained by: (1) the unsuitability of general mineral-nutrition guidelines (McDowell, 1 985) for local African conditions; (2) the ability of cattle to obtain their mineral requirements by foraging on a greater variety of grasses and sites than measured in this trial; and/or (3) water as a source of minerals. The animals in the trial watered at the Dubluk well area, some 1 4 km from the ranch. Nicholson (1984) reported mineral concentrations for water samples from several wells on the plateau and noted significant concentrations of P and Cu. This shows that drinking water could provide important supplemental minerals and vegetation analysis alone may not be an adequate assess ment. ln conclusion, while some aspects of mineral nutrition may constrain livestock performance on the plateau, this remains to be proven. ln addition, in the attempt to isolate key constraining minerals, development agents must also consider the most appropriate means to rectify the situation. More research may be required on this topic within the framework of improving wet-season performance by cattle early in the drought-recovery phase. 7.3.3.2 Camels, donkeys and small ruminants Studies reviewed in Section 5.4.6: Small ruminants and Section 5.4.7: Camels and donkeys indicated that: (1) disease control is the priority production intervention for camels and small ruminants; and (2) basic research is required to assess what constrains growth in donkeys. Small ruminants have their greatest value in diversifying food production and cash income options for households (Coppock, 1992b). Camels and donkeys have their greatest value as beasts of burden alleviating the demand on women. Camels also have value for milk production during drought and, through their capacity for long-distance transport, in contributing to calf management (hauling water), food security (hauling grain) and rural development (hauling various construction materials).Work reported elsewhere supports the philosophy of herd diversification by pastoralists. Keeping camels and small ruminants with cattle can lead to more efficient use of grazing and browse resources (Coppock et al, 1986a). The most beneficial mix of species for households may vary with their wealth. Optimal mixes reportedly confer higher chances of household economic viability in response to drought (Mace and Houston, 1989;Mace, 1990).Until disease among small ruminants on the Borana Plateau can be better controlled, their production will be perceived by the Boran as a more risky activity than keeping cattle and will thus remain ancillary (Coppock, 1992b). Small ruminant pro duction could, however, serve a valuable role in generating income among the peri-urban poor who must sell their meagre amounts of cow's milk in order to purchase a survival ration of grain (Holden et al, 1991). Despite large efforts by authorities to stimulate cattle commercialisation among the Boran, cattle offtake has been generally dis appointing (Section 1.4.4: Has national range development been successful?). And it is ironic that such efforts may have worked much better for small ruminants. This is because cattle have been traditionally viewed by the Boran as a means of generating and storing household wealth; by contrast, small ruminants are valued relatively more for meat and income generation. ln addition, when small ruminants are to be sold the seller is not subjected to the social restrictions that may prevent a cattle sale (Coppock,1 992b; see Section 4.3.4.7: Marketing attitudes). Even export markets may be more favourable for sheep compared to cattle and Middle East markets for sheep tend to be less volatile (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication).Survey of 70 encampments in the semi-arid and upper subhumid zones confirmed that most Boran are interested in acquiring more camels both for transport and milk production (Coppock and Mulugeta Mamo, 1985;Coppock, 1988). For 24 Borana households at Beke Pond, holdings of food-producing stock (excluding equines) were assessed to be an average of 70% cattle, 24% goats, 5% sheep and 1 % camels on numerical value basis (Coppock,1 988). The households were asked to express their desired herd composition and they responded in favour of diversification, the average desired composition was 42% cattle, 14% goats, 1 3% sheep and 31 % camels. They were then asked what their biggest problems were in acquiring more camels. Wealthier households cited lack of management knowledge for camels as their major constraint while the intermediate and poor classes stated that camels were too expensive to acquire (camels cost roughly twice as much as cattle; see Section 4.3.4.6: Prices). Strategies by wealthier families to procure camels involved attempts to trade cattle for camels. Population stress may be a contributing factor to a shift in attitudes. So that forward-looking leaders of a few madda groups are actively promoting camel procurement as part of a general strategy for diversification (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).The low availability and poor quality of camels for sale in markets accessible to the Boran have been identified as a major drawback for herd diversification (Hodgson, 1990: pp 122-124;Fiitterknecht, 1990: p 16). Camel-keeping Gabra living among the Boran reportedly strive to retain camels within their clan networks and rarely offer prime animals for sale to non-Gabra (Coppock, 1988). The other major camel sources are markets to the south and east of the study area and the Boran feel they must travel through hostile regions to get to these markets.To tackle this problem, CARE-Ethiopia began to assemble buyers and transport them to camel markets. Purchases were made and animals were herded back to Borana madda. lt is hoped that once more of the Boran get used to the idea they would learn to take public transport to markets and help others procure camels (Hodgson, 1990: p 125). lf larger numbers are interested, SORDU could coordinate marketing trips on a routine basis and the new owners would require extension help on camel management. For example, in contrast to cattle, camels are inducible ovulators and would require a different approach for breeding manage ment (Section 5.4.7: Camels and donkeys).Expanding the development role of camels on the Borana Plateau has been constrained because local administrators have believed that: (1 ) camels cause bush encroachment; and (2) camels are \"primitive\", useless for export and thus not worthy of development attention (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). This is consistent with prevailing official attitudes elsewhere (Wilson,1 984: p 173). Contrary to these views, evidence suggests that grazing cattle, not camels, are the major factor 240The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Development-intervention concepts in bush encroachment (see Section 3.4.2: Environmental change) and that they are highly desired by the pastoral community. That camels can contribute to economic development was amply shown by Wilson (1984: pp 27, 173) who emphasised their triple-purpose value (i.e. for milk, meat and draft) while pointing out the critical contributions of camel power to the development of railways, telegraph and wool-export capacities in rural Australia in the late 1800 and early 1900s.Although not an export animal for Ethiopia, camel development on the Borana Plateau is viewed as a concession to local needs and values and facilitates opportunism in Borana society.Milk processing Section 4.3.5.1: Milk processing procedures described traditional methods of milk processing. Data were collected from 31 instances of buttermaking by 20 Borana women to assess whether technical improvements were possible (Coppock et al, in press). Data collection included: (1) milk temperature before and after churning; (2) per cent of lactic acid in whole milk before churning using 1 0 N sodium hydroxide for titration; (3) churning time; and (4) fat content of whole milk and buttermilk using the Gerber method. Chemical procedures followed O'Mahony (1988). Per cent milk-fat recovery was calculated by subtracting the fat in buttermilk from that of whole milk, dividing this difference by the fat yield of the whole milk and then multiplying by 100. Calculations included specific gravity of 1 .032 and 1.036 for whole milk and buttermilk, respectively (O'Mahony, 1988). Butter yields were recorded but were not an adequate assessment of fat recovery because moisture content of the butter was not measured.Only highlights of results are presented here. Details are in Coppock et al (in press). Measure ments of butter-making involved women using a traditional gorfa churn having an average volume of 1 .7 litres (see Figure 4.3 for a depiction of a gorfa). Gorfa were filled to 60% capacity with milk that had been soured for an average of two days (range: one to five days). Processing statistics are shown in Table G13, Annex G. The average rate of milk-fat recovery was 84%. Butter yields averaged 67±5.6 g, including moisture. Churning time averaged 40 minutes.The results suggest that technical improvements in butter-making would be difficult. Efforts have been made here and elsewhere in Ethiopia to introduce a larger milk churn with interior agitators (wooden paddles) to improve butter-making efficiency and reduce the amount of time women spend churning (O'Mahony and Ephraim Bekele, 1985). The strategy is probably inappropriate for Borana, however, for several reasons (Coppock et al, in press). First, the Boran appear to be very efficient at milk processing despite their crude methods, as they appreciate the subtle factors involved. For example, women churn milk early in the morning when temperatures are cooler, and this facilitates milk-fat recovery (O'Mahony, 1988). The 84% milk-fat recovery rate observed among the Boran compares favourably with the 76% recovery rate for Ethiopian highlanders (also using traditional methods) reported in O'Mahony and Ephraim Bekele (1985). Second, since buttermilk is consumed, milk fat is never \"lost\" by Borana households making higher levels of efficiency un warranted. Third, there is no evidence that Borana women consider milk processing tedious. On the contrary, it seems to be regarded as an \"enjoyable\" social activity (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Fourth, one important long-term trend in the system is postulated to be a declining per capita surplus of milk (see Section 7.2.2.7: Miscellaneous household activities). This suggests that all forms of milk processing involving surpluses will become less common in the future. Fifth and finally, the volume of the improved milk chum in O'Mahony and Ephraim Bekele (1985) is over 10 times that of the Borana gorta. The size of the gorfa is more appropriate for the small scale of milk processing here.For an improved milk churn to be successful among the Boran, it must thus improve the efficiency of butter-making for larger-than-average quantities of milk and in that case labour would be an obvious constraint. The only group to which the suggested improvements apply would be a small number of very wealthy households (i.e. those with many cows and few workers) that reside near towns and market butter. Seasonal dynamics of butter production also suggest that improved churns would only be used during the long rains (April through May; see Section 4.3.5: Dairy processing and marketing). The irony is that improved milk churns might have been more widely applicable in this society 30 years ago when per capita milk surpluses were more common; but now this technological window is probably closing (see Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics).Milk processing will be highly variable from year to year on the Borana Plateau in light of the interdrought cycle proposed in Section 7.2.3: Anticipated short-term cycles. lt would be most widespread at the end of the drought-recovery phase of the cattle population because this is the time when per capita surpluses are the greatest. There will be less chance of a surplus: (1 ) earlyThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia during the drought-recovery phase because of a shortage of cows or (2) during the high-density phase because of declining production per cow as a result of density-dependent interactions. Gradual increase in the human population will also dictate that the potential peak milk surplus of each interdrought period will become sequentially smaller over time. ln summary, these perspectives are in marked contrast to other situations where improved milk processing and/or dairy development are viewed as viable options for pastoralists (Kerven, 1987a) or agropastoralists (Waters-Bayer, 1988). The differences are probably because these other groups have a lower demand on milk as the dietary mainstay compared to the Boran, either because of less population pressure or because of significant alteration of human diets to include more nonpastoral foods. ln addition, while cheese-making has been proposed as a diversification goal in dairy development proposals for pastoralists (Kerven, 1987a), this is unlikely in the southern rangelands because of the small quantity of milk surpluses and lack of technology that prohibits manufacture of hard cheese. Even if hard cheese could be produced, it is unlikely that there is any appreciable local demand for it . By contrast, local demand for soft cheeses is probably higher due to use of cottage cheese in Ethiopian injera and wot cuisine. Making cottage cheese by heating buttermilk, however, is mostly the domain of urban producers or traders who buy milk in the market place. This is because cottage cheese has a very short shelf-life and would spoil during a typical trip to market undertaken by Borana women (Coppock et al, in press).Dairy marketing Section 4.3.5: Dairy processing and marketing reviews the increasing importance of dairy marketing to Borana households in the peri-urban subsystem. Dairy income is important for women and may enhance household security by delaying sales of capital livestock. The opportunity to sell dairy products may be particularly important for poorer households. Poorer women would preferbly reside nearer to markets so they may sell small quantities of fresh milk on a daily basis in order to buy a survival ration of grain. While this helps meet short-term survival needs, the cost could be in terms of increased risks to malnourished calves and children who consume grain deficient in protein.Today and in the near future, interventions that facilitate dairy marketing, but which also mitigate its risks, are far more important to the welfare of the Boran than milk-processing technology.A gradual increase in dairy marketing may be expected over the long term from a growing population of peri-urban poor (see Section 7.2.2.5: Livestock and dairy marketing and herd diversification). This should have important patterns induced by the interdrought cycle. For example, marketing of fresh milk should be the highest early in the drought-recovery phase when the Boran will be selling from a milk-deficit situation to buy grain and have insufficient animals to sell because of the drought-induced mortalities. Dairy marketing should be the lowest a few years later when cow herds have recovered their numbers, but this would only be for a short time before density-dependent factors begin to reduce milk production per unit area during the high-density phase. Milk and butter marketing should increase during the high-density phase. Marketed milk would increase from poorer households selling from a milk-deficit situation while marketed butter would increase from wealthier households further from town. Butter is better marketed from outlying areas because it does not spoil as rapidly as fresh milk while fetching a higher price per given unit (see Section 4.3.5.3: Effects of distance to market, wealth and season on pastoral dairy marketing). Wealthier households are the ones that would have the quantities of milk necessary to make butter after their cows had recovered their numbers. lnterviews of Borana women and dairy traders were very enlightening in clarifying these cyclic patterns (Holden, 1988;D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). For example, women interviewed the same year during the drought-recovery phase commonly stated that selling milk at that time was more important than consuming it directly (Holden, 1988). Butter traders interviewed in 1987 lamented that butter supplies were in a general downward trend, but that periodic increases in butter supply could be expected in markets after \"a few more years\" (i.e. after recovery of cow numbers following the 1983-84 drought).ln the past dairy income was reportedly used more to purchase nonessential items such as coffee beans or shoes (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). Nowadays it is used more to buy food for subsistence. Thus, it is understood that the need for food energy is the primary reason behind dairy marketing. Assuming similar population pressures for the different regions, where the Boran are able to grow their own grain (such as Did Hara), dairy marketing flows tend to vary inversely with rainfall and crop production so that in years of high maize production dairy marketing would decrease. ln drier regions (but near markets) where cultivation is unreliable (such as Medecho), it is more likely that gradual increases in dairy marketing would be observed over the long term. Because per capita surpluses of milk will become increasingly rare over the long term, fresh milk will gradually make up a larger proportion of total dairy sales. Butter will become less common and traditional products based on surpluses such as long-term fermented ititu and ghee will gradually become more scarce. Dairy marketing may have become more complex because of urban growth in the study area and it is reported that prices for dairy products have also increased (see Section 4.4.10.2: Dairy marketing in a widerperspective). The crucial role of small towns in providing opportunities for selling dairy products cannot be overemphasised.Given these conditions maintaining an un hindered flow of grain from the farming highlands to the rangelands is crucial in reducing insecurities of food supply and maintaining favourable terms of trade of dairy products for grain (Holden and Coppock, 1992). Likewise, policies and procedures that facilitate the movement of butter from the rangelands to markets in the southern highlands could also be useful because this would increase both demand and prices. Traders have traditionally collected butter from markets in the rangelands and taken it using the public transport to sell in market in the southern highlands (Holden, 1988). This was viable because butter was only periodically regulated at road check points (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation).Policy issues related to freeing up grain move ments are also related to freeing up livestock marketing channels. These are discussed in Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing. Policies and procedures that improve access by Borana women to local markets by improving infrastructure and transport are also very important. There is scope for reducing the acute need of very poor women in peri-urban settings to sell their little amount of milk for a survival ration of grain, or at least better protect their households from the consequences of this activity. Most of the interventions in this connection have been discussed earlier in this chapter. For example, use of hay-making and water tanks to improve the feeding of calves, deprived of milk because it is sold, would lessen the risk of these calves dying. lmproved agronomic practices such as growing dual-purpose legumes (Vigna spp) on suitable sites could help diversify human diets. Ancillary sources of income are needed and could include sales of small ruminants (this requires better veterinary support), poultry production, handicraft production and employment in regulated charcoal manufacturing, site reclamation or infrastructural maintenance projects. The one advantage of targeting peri-urban women for these activities is their enhanced accessibility by urban-based extension agents from SORDU or the Ministry of Agriculture that often do not have sufficient resources to work far from towns anyway.As a scenario put forth earlier in this chapter indicated life may become more difficult for Borana women in the future. One aspect of this is experience from elsewhere that has shown women gradually losing control of dairying activities and dairy income to men as pastoral societies come under increasing pressure (Salih, 1985;Waters-Bayer, 1988). Even at present, it is occasionally reported that Borana men take their wives' milk money and spend it for themselves; such behaviour is said to be in violation of traditional laws of Borana society (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation; see Section 2.4.2.2: Some cultural and organi sational features). The only feasible means to control such violations in the future is to transcribe tenets of traditional law and incorporate their enforcement within new regulatory bodies that may gradually replace the traditional order. This relates also relates to regulation of resource use and is discussed further in Section 7.4: Component inter ventions and system dynamics.As summarised in Chapter 5: Livestock husbandry and production, slow rates of calf growth have been proposed as a major constraint in the Borana production system. The hypotheis that competition between calves and people for milk leads to low weaning weights, slow calf growth, delayed time to puberty and limited life-time performance in terms of total calves produced per cow were initially forwarded by Nicholson (1983a) and Cossins and Upton (1988b). Competition between calves and people for milk has been cited as an important constraint for livestock production in other pastoral and agropastoral systems (Dahl and Hjort, 1 976: pp 1 43-1 46; Pratt and Gwynne, 1 977: p 36; Wagenaar et al, 1986: p 51;Waters-Bayer, 1988;Preston, 1989;de Leeuw et al, 1991; R. von Kaufmann and R. Blench, lLCA, unpublished data; R. T Wilson, lLCA, unpublished data). Competition for milk may even be a factor in farming systems having low-yielding breeds of cattle because milk is consumed or sold by households. For example, Mukasa-Mugerwa et al (1989) reported poor calf performance and milk offtakes of 45% for small holder herds in the Ethiopian highlands; this level of milk offtake is comparable to that observed in pastoral systems (Section 5.4.1: Cattle manage ment). Milk restriction as a reason for poor animal performance is thus probably relevant throughout rural Africa. Cossins and Upton (1988b: pp 267-272) hypo thesised that low weaning weight hinders cattleThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia reproduction. In a review of production data from East Africa, they estimated that, compared to Boran cattle reared under pastoral conditions, Boran heifers raised on commercial ranches have their first calf 14 to 16 months earlier while males from ranches attain mature weights at three years of age rather than five. lt was stipulated that the crucial difference in performance occurs during the first 21 0 days of life when growth rates for pastoral calves average 20% of that for ranch calves (i.e. 140 vs 656 g/head/day). This difference in growth rates was thought to be due to ranch animals having unrestricted access to milk. Cossins and Upton (1988b) stated that milk has a greater economic value than merely to increase weaning weight. They pointed out that, if acceleration of growth prior to weaning could have carry-over effects in terms of a reduced time to puberty, increased mature sale weights, or reduced calf mortality, then the benefits of calf nutritional interventions could substantially increase.Cossins and Upton (1988b: pp 269-270) used analytical modeling methods to examine the economic effects of halving milk offtake for people from 312 to 156 kg per lactation in the Borana system. This represents a decline in offtake from 37 to 18% of total yield (see Section 5.3.2: Calf growth and milk offtake). ln the absence of experimental data, an increased milk intake of 1 56 kg per calf was assumed to allow males and females to reach maturity at 320 kg and 230 kg, respectively. (This is roughly 18% higher than the traditional situation (Cossins and Upton, 1987;1988b)), and is supposed to allow animals to reach mature weights at three years of age rather than four. lt was also assumed that compared to the traditional situation, live weights would be increased by 50% at all other intermediate ages while calf mortalities would be reduced by 5%. Results were derived by using a steady-state herd model (Upton, 1986b) structured under the assumption that herd owners seek to manage a fixed number of cattle; this fixed herd size is maintained by offtake counterbalanced by increases in numbers as a result of production improvements. This approach allowed a more straight forward monetary evaluation of production intervention. The analytical unit was the average eight-cow herd introduced in Section 4.3.1 : General household structure and economy in average rainfall years.The benefits of intervention were evaluated in terms of accumulation of food energy from domestic consumption and cash income from sales (Upton, 1986b;Upton, 1989). Results indicated that reducing milk offtake by 50% would not be profitable. When offtake was lowered the output per 250-kg livestock unit was reduced in terms of cash (-11%) and food energy (-26%), compared to the traditional situation. The traditional practice was interpreted as being valid because it maximised returns of cash and food energy per livestock unit (Cossins and Upton, 1988b: p 270).Modeling results led Cossins and Upton (1 988b: pp 270-272) to hypothesise that supplementation of nursing calves with good quality forage, and possibly water, could compensate calves for milk deprivation and help achieve higher lifetime performance. They also estimated, however, the alternative of providing such resources to milk cows instead of calves. Using the steady-state herd model they contrasted: (1 ) a cow-feeding option with an increased milk offtake of 3%; (2) a calf-feeding option \"A\", where feeding results in a reduction of mortality from 25 to 1 5% in calves and 1 3 to 1 0% in yearlings, weaning weights are doubled from 47 to 94 kg/head, culling rates of immature females increased from 40 to 55% and offtake of immature males is maximised; and (3) a calf-feeding option \"B\" which is similar to option \"A\" but milk offtake is also increased by 1 1 %. Results shown in Table G1 4, Annex G, indicate that substantial gains in terms of self-sufficiency, animal offtake and cash income could accrue from either calf-feeding options as compared to the cow-feeding one. Cossins and Upton (1988b: p 274) concluded that sup plementation of calves through improved forage feeding could result in increased calf growth, earlier maturity, increased productivity and improved human welfare. Similar intervention strategies have been proposed by Wagenaar et al (1 986: p 51 ) and deLeeuwetal (1991).Objectives and methods: A six-year experiment was initiated in early 1986 to test model assumptions used by Cossins and Upton (1988b). The work was designed to examine the globally accepted hypothesis that supplementation of traditionally managed nursing calves with forage and/or water could compensate them for milk deprivation and result in sustained improvements in growth, live weight, body frame characteristics and time to puberty. The trial ended in late 1991. Preliminary results briefly summarised here for females have been analysed by Sovani (1990) and provide a sound test of the above hypothesis; other preliminary results are provided in Coppock (1989b) andlLCA (1989: pp 2-5). Comprehensive results will be reported in a future publication (Coppock and Sovani, in preparation).Each calf born in 1986 (N=21 per treatment) and 1987 (M=17 per treatment) was stratified according to sex and birth date and allocated to one of seven treatments. Six of the treatments were based on a factorial combination of legume hay (three levels offered) and supplemental water (two levels offered) superimposed over a background of traditional pastoral management (for treatment combinations) (Table 7.8). Water was thus considered to be a production constraint. The limited access of Boran calves to water and the role of water restriction in cattle management are reviewed in Section 5.4.1: Cattle management. rather, this selection was based on using a well-recognised forage that would provide the best chance of sustained production improvements. lf sustained improvements could not be achieved with lucerne, it would be much less likely that another forage could do so.Supplementation began at two months of age when the calves began to graze and ceased at the beginning of the subsequent long rains some nine  (Coppock, 1989; see text).2 Traditional management (no supplements of forage or water).Source: Sovani (1990).Another objective of this trial was to assess the effects of traditional levels of milk restriction on cattle performance, and this required a seventh treatment (described below). The background of simulated pastoral management was characterised by separation of calves from their mothers except for suckling. This consisted of: (1 ) restricted access to the dam's milk, implemented by allowing calves to suckle two of four quarters once each morning and evening with the goal that they would get roughly 50% of the milk (the remainder being milked out by hand, measured and consumed by people);(2) housing calves individually at night in mud huts where they received hay supplements in buckets;(3) subsistence on a milk diet for the first two months of life, followed by a diet of milk plus grazing with a calf herd for up to eight hours/day in a Pennisetum mezianum community for nine months; and (4) restricted access to water that varied from once every two to three days in wet and dry seasons, respectively. The seventh treatment group received no supplemental hay or water and was managed traditionally in all respects except that animals received access to their mother's milk overnight, which was presumed to be nearly complete access.The forage supplement consisted of a medium-quality lucerne hay (Medicago sativa) with 1 7% CP as a legume \"standard\". lt was not expected that lucerne would be grown in the rangelands; months later when all calves were forcibly weaned. Supplementation thus largely occurred during the dry seasons from July through March in 1 986-87 and 1 987-88. Hay and water refusals were weighed and removed each morning. Milk intake of calves was estimated using a weigh-suckle-weigh method once every other week (Coppock and Reed, 1992). Background water intake for calves was measured once every other week quantifying consumption from buckets. Empty body weights and shoulder heights were measured bi-weekly prior to weaning. The grazing diet quality of nursing calves was estimated once per month as reported in Coppock and Reed (1992). Calves had access to local salt lick before and after grazing. Animals were vaccinated against important local diseases soon after birth.After weaning the supplementation phase of the trial was over and all animals were run together under traditional management until the females reached puberty. The animals were held at neighbouring encampments where they were corralled at night, grazed during the day and watered once every day in wet and once every four days in dry seasons. They walked long distances to feed and water in dry periods. The wells at Dubluk were the dry-season water source and this was over a 20 km round trip from the encampments. During this time males were weighed and measuredThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia monthly for frame features until four years of age. The females were measured in a similar fashion until two years of age which was anticipated to be the earliest possible age when puberty could occur. After two years the females were run with breeding bulls at a ratio of 20:1 . Every 1 0 days females were weighed and blood was collected from their jugular veins for analysis of plasma progesterone. Blood was centrifuged on site and plasma was stored at -20°C for future analysis using the Enzyme Linked lmmuno Assay (ELlSA) technique (Sovani, 1990).Onset of puberty was verified using three complementary methods: (1) animals were observed during daylight hours for successful mounts that were recorded as to date and hour; (2) rectal palpations to detect the presence of a corpus luteum at 40 and 60 days post-mating; and (3) analysis of plasma progesterone levels for four samples collected within 10 days before and 30 days after the observed mount. Plasma pro gesterone levels over 1 .3 ng/ml were indicative of a significant rise in hormone concentrations associated with oestrous. lf the palpation and progesterone analyses were found to be positive, the date of mating was considered to be the date of puberty. Routine rectal palpations were also conducted on all animals monthly to provide a back-up in case matings were not observed. Nocturnal mounts were found to be rare.Analyses for females born in 1 986 conducted by Sovani (1990) are reported here. These results are representative of those for other females and males in the trial (D. L. Coppock, lLCA research scientist, unpublished data). Seventy-seven per cent of 62 heifers born in 1 986 had become pregnant by July 1 990. Data for these animals were analysed using a two-way factorial (hay x water) ANOVA for: (1) weight, height and weight: height ratio at weaning and puberty; (2) average daily gain (ADG) and absolute weight gain from birth to weaning, weaning to puberty, birth to puberty; and (3) time to puberty. All ANOVAs used least-squared means (SAS, 1 987) and milk intake (ml/kg LW075) as a covariate. Variation among means was considered significant at P<0.05. Background information on treatments is from Coppock (lLCA, unpublished data). Results: The average birth weight for animals born in 1 986 was 1 8.6 kg and calves were weaned at an average of 333 days. Calves in the six factorial treatments received an average of 1.1 litres/head/ day of milk, which represented about 65% of total yield. The average cow produced 511 litres/ lactation, which suggested that these cows were poor producers by local standards (see Section 5.3.2: Calf growth and milk offtake). Supplemental water was consumed by calves at a rate of 2.6 litres/head/day. This increased water intake for supplemented animals by 142% (i.e. from a back ground of 1 .9 litres/head/day to 4.5 litres/head/ day). lntakes of hay averaged 227 g/head/day for the medium level and 388 g/head/day for the high level offered. Calves offered supplemental water plus hay ate 27% more hay on average.There was an interaction for ADG prior to weaning as a function of hay and water sup plementation (P<0.05) (Figure 7.5); also at weaning there were main effects of hay (all linear; P<0.05) and water (P<0.001) on absolute weight gain, weight and weight-to-height ratio (Table G1 5, Annex G). The milk intake covariate was not significant (P>0.05) in any case. A hay x water interaction occurred (P=0.05) for age at puberty with a maximum spread of 177 days between the average of the control and the group which received the high level of hay plus supplemental water (not illus trated). There were also persistent effects (P<0.05) of water supplementation on ADG from birth to puberty and height at puberty, with the milk intake covariate significant for several variables (Table G16, Annex G). A schematic diagram of overall growth relationships is presented in Figure 7.6. ln sum, although supplemental water resulted in almost a 30% increase in weaning weight, this did not persist because animals in the control group gained significantly more weight from weaning to puberty, thus nullifying earlier differences (Table 7.9). Average daily gain from weaning to puberty was not different among groups (1 26 g/head/day for water-supplemented vs 1 20 g/head/day for those on traditional watering) because animals under Figure 7.5. Average daily gain of female calves in response to supplementation with legume hay (three levels) and/or water (two levels). This interaction is based on 11 calves per treatment for animals bom in 1986.Average daily gain(g) Source: Sovani (1990).traditional watering management took about two months longer to reach puberty, although this was not significant (FS0.05; Figure 7.6).Results for weaning weights confirmed that both water and hay were required for maximum early growth (Donaldson, 1986;Cossins and Upton, 1988b). Work reported by Coppock (1989b) and lLCA (1989: pp 2-5) from analyses of male and female calves showed similar interactions over both 1986 and 1987. ln addition, the best treatment of high level of hay plus water resulted in weaning weights that were 96% of those for the seventh treatment, which received traditional management but unrestricted access to milk; it is thus apparent that supplementation with a total of 1 05 kg of legume hay and 700 litres of water compensated for some 1 79 litres of milk otherwise lost to each calf. lt is notable that supplemental water was required to elicit an improved growth response of calves; hence forage development in the absence of water development may only have a negligible effect on production (Coppock, 1989b).lmprovements of most aspects of production cattle obtained through supplementation did not persist long after weaning (Sovani,1 990). The water x hay interaction was significant for accelerating puberty but this advantage of six months is probably not important for cows that continue to calve after 10 years of age (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990). The sixmonth advantage may also be heavily influenced by a succission, by chance, of favourable rainfall years and other density-dependent interactions (see below). The ability of control animals to compensate for early nutritional deprivation agrees with other studies (Richardson et al, 1978;Tawonezvi, 1989). All of this research found differences in weaning weight to persist from 1.5 to 11 months past weaning. The significant effects of the milk intake covariate for several parameters at puberty indicates that there is a long-term consequence for milk deprivation and this may be reflected in frame development which could influence mature weight to some degree (Berg and Butterfield, 1976). Under the experimental conditions applied here, however, such long-term costs of milk restriction were small. Results do not support the contention that milk restriction under pastoral conditions constitutes a significant cost to the life-time productivity of cattle, as long as the calf survives (Coppock, 1989b;Sovani, 1 990). Another key point is that it is the long period of the post-weaning environment, not the relatively brief pre-weaning conditions, that more likely influences the time to puberty according to the different environments. For example, nearly all of the conceptions studied by Sovani (1990) occurred in the rainy seasons, as previously found by Nicholson (1983a) and Mulugeta Assefa (1990). Had one or two of these rainy periods have failed, there is a high probability that animals would not have come into their first oestrus for many more months, which would give even more time for the  Source: Sovani (1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia gradual harmonisation of growth rates and attain ment of puberty. This also underscores the big risks of attempting to improve long-term production parameters in variable environments (Coppock, 1989b). It was fortunate that 1986-90 were largely years of average rainfall; there were no very dry or drought years that could have resulted in big weight losses and thus in wasted expensive inputs.Based on this preliminary analysis, it is thus apparent that advocates of interventions to accelerate cattle growth in variable environments have failed to recognise the considerable risks as well as the effect of compensatory growth and environmental influence in harmonising production dynamics over time. Their intervention strategy has, at least on the Borana Plateau, also ignored the production values of the pastoralists. While it could be argued that supplementing, at least, nursing male calves so that they may achieve a more profitable sale weight at one year of age is a reasonable approach, this is not an objective of producers here (Coppock, 1992b). The Boran do not want to sell an immature male if they can avoid it; this is done by the poor that have fewer other options (see Section 4.3.4.7: Marketing attitudes). Producers much prefer to sell animals at least three years old because they bring a greater income.The idea of speeding up cattle growth, whether to achieve a higher market weight for immatures or to reduce age of first calving, is inimical to values of low-input animal production in risky environments. Low-input production has minimal overheads and thus may not count time as a critical management variable. Despite the apparent advantages of improved watering for calves from experimental work, the Boran have repeatedly stated that they will always be conservative in watering calves, because they believe that restricted watering prepares calves to endure restricted watering as adults (D. L.Coppock, lLCA research scientist, personal obser vation; R. J. Hodgson, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication).ln sum, hypotheses regarding calf feeding to accelerate growth in a pastoral setting are relatively easy to falsify. ln one respect this is because they are conceived within a uni-disciplinary framework; i.e. they make sense as animal production hypoth eses but fail because they do not consider the ecological or socio-economic circumstances within which animal production is imbedded. Even in terms of just animal production some of their underpinning logic is faulty. Attempting to compare cattle pro duction parameters within traditional and modern ranching environments, with the assumption that the production levels of ranches represent some form of an attainable standard for the traditional system, is inadvisable given the experience here.The observation that calves grow faster on ranches, and that this is primarily due to milk intake (Nicholson, 1983b;Cossins and Upton, 1988b), is heavily confounded with other characteristics of ranches such as improved breeds and ample forage resources throughout the year. To illustrate this using data from Cossins and Upton (1988b;Figure 2 on p 268), it is likely that much of the difference in four-year weights of Boran cattle between the best animals reared on Laikipia (Kenya) ranches (575 kg) and on the Borana Plateau (275 kg) is probably strongly influenced by breeding and environment as much (if not more than) by calf management. Both Alberro (1986) and Trail and Gregory (1981) reported large increases in mature weights by improved breeds compared to indigenous animals. S. Sovani (lLCA, personal communication) reported that there is little phenotypic similarity between improved Boran cattle at Ethiopia's Abernossa Ranch and the indigenous stock on the Borana Plateau. The point is that when 21 0-day weights are calculated as percentages of four-year weights, animals on the Borana Plateau achieved 1 7% while the others achieved 39%, which is a much lower differential than the 325% increase for ranch animals when 210-day weights are compared directly. By three years of age the improved animals had achieved 87% of their four-year weight and the indigenous animals 76%. This suggests that the relative difference in growth had been made up to a higher degree by the indigenous animals between 210 days and three years of age. This undermines the postulate that milk deprivation has a key role in constraining faster attainment of weights at four years.Furthermore, influences of milk deprivation on calf growth in the Borana system will be subjected to fluctuations caused by density-dependent inter actions (see Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). Calf growth may be higher in the recovery phase of the cattle population after drought and lower in the high-density phase. Observations of Nicholson (1983b) on milk production and calf growth (see Section 5.3.2: Calf growth and milk offtake) may have been biased toward low because they occurred in the high-density phase preceeding the 1983-84 drought. Similar work conducted in 1985-86 during the early recovery phase could have revealed a different picture, with higher milk production and faster rates of calf growth. 7.3.3.5 Calf mortality mitigation ln contrast to accelerating cattle growth, inter ventions to mitigate calf mortality are more consistent with traditional pastoral values and the shortfalls of risky low-input systems (Coppock, 1989b). Compared to other interventions, attempts to save the life of a calf are more short term, require a lower quantity of resources and the outcome is more of a direct reflection of the management effort with less influence from uncontrollable environ mental conditions. Thus, not surprisingly, calf mortality mitigation appears to be a priority of cultural Boran livestock mangement (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Calf management is consequently their most intensive production activity and includes substantial time invested in hand-rearing (see Section 5.3.1 : General aspects of cattle management}.ln their modeling analyses, Cossins and Upton (1988b) noted that mitigation of calf mortality was unlikely to yield the economic benefits that could accrue from faster calf growth. However, this conclusion is invalid because producer risk was not considered. Another problem is their use of the steady-state herd model (Upton, 1989) with the assumption that herd owners seek to maintain a fixed number of cattle, increases in one age class could detract from benefits derived from others. For example, an increase in calves as a result of mortality mitigation could ultimately have costs in terms of a reduced output from fewer mature cows. ln contrast to model assumptions, the Boran seek to expand herd size and calf recruitment is central to this goal (Coppock, 1992b).Opportunities exist for building upon traditional production values and further intensify calf man agement using hay-making, small quantities of local legumes and an improved access to water (see Section 7.3.1.1: Water-development activities and Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improvements). The goals of intensification would be to reduce calf mortality in years of average or slightly below average rainfall and improve labour efficiency for women in the process. There is an impetus among the Boran to intensify calf management because of increasing resource competition arising from population pressure (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990; see Section 7.2.2: Anticipated long-term trends).lt could be argued that sustained reductions in calf mortality, without increased cattle offtake, will ultimately be unsustainable given the conceptual model of density-dependent production (Section 7.2.3: Anticipated short-term cycles). lncreases in cattle recruitment, however, could contribute to economic growth, improved food security and sustained overall development if herd turnover is stimulated in the context of food supply, contributions to community projects and banking a portion of livestock capital. These topics are covered in Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing.Background: Mulugeta Assefa (1 990) conducted a statistical analysis of the effect of family wealth on calf mortality, as reported in Section 5.3.3: Cattle production and pastoral wealth. He (1990: pp 27-45) also quantified (Table 7.10) calf mortality due to disease or nutrition deficiecy from producer interviews. During wetter years relatively more calves were reportedly lost to disease while during drier years more were lost to poor nutrition. Although the highest mortality rates occurred during drought, these probably constitute only a small proportion of total losses for any given decade. This is because of the low drought frequency and the large decline in calving rate induced by drought (Section 6.3.1 .2: Cattle productivity). For example, considering an average eight-cow household during 1980-89 and calving rates reported in Section 5.3.3: Cattle  1990). 2 Where an average year has a 60:40 distribution of 600+ mm of rainfall across long and short wet seasons, respectively; a dry year is an isolated year of lower rainfall (i.e. 450 mm or less); and a drought year is a second consecutive dry year. 3 Where wealth is defined as the ratio of lactating cattle: reference adults as in lLCA (1 981) and Holden and Coppock (1992). See text for details.Source: Coppock et al (1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia production andpastoral wealth and Section 6.3.1 .2, on average 14 of 54 calves would have died in the dry years while the one born during the second drought year of 1984 would have had a high risk of dying. This implies, overall, that about 7% of calf deaths would have occurred as a result of drought compared to 93% at other times.Objectives and methods: The main objective of the study by Mulugeta Assefa (1990) was to judge the potential profitability of reducing calf mortality using internal resources in average rainfall and dry years and external resources during drought. The tool used for the analysis was a bio-economic herd model by von Kaufmann et al (1 990) that simulates herd performance for households over a 10-year period. This model had to be parameterised, however, for biological and economic conditions applicable on the Borana Plateau. Mulugeta Assefa calculated costs of collecting sufficient forage, providing water and implementing veterinary services that could reduce calf mortality by 75% for households in all wealth classes in average rainfall and dry years. Two-thirds of the impact was hypothesised to result from improved nutrition and the remainder from veterinary intervention. lncreasing water supply in conjunction with improved feeding (Coppock, 1989b) was hypothesised to increase calf growth rates by 40%. The specific resources included grass hay (Coppock, 1991), local legumes (Yohannes Alemseged, 1 989; Coppock and Reed, 1 992), water tanks (Hodgson;1990) and veterinary extension in the context of Service Cooperatives (SCs).ln addition, Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 40-43) considered the hypothetical provision of a 97:03 mixture by weight of molasses and urea to reduce calf mortality during drought by 50%. ln contrast to the other resources which are locally available, molasses and urea would have had to be brought from the highlands. Molasses and urea were previously found to be useful feed supplementation of Boran cattle during the 1983-84 drought (Donaldson, 1986). lmplementation costs of interventions were primarily calculated on the basis of the value of women's labour in collecting forage and in terms of community monetary expenses for construction and maintenance of water tanks and veterinary services. Benefits were calculated as the summed cash value of cattle and cattle products generated over time as a result of interventions to reduce calf mortality. Cumulative costs were subtracted from cumulative benefits. The resulting statistic from the model was a measure of the Net Present Value or NPV (Workman,1 986) of cattle herd output as a function of intervention. lntervention scenarios are thus contrasted with traditional management to assess economic impacts. Model inputs were modified to accomodate the special characteristics of the Borana system as described in Mulugeta Assefa (1990).Feeding packages for average rainfall and dry years were calculated to obtain sustenance requirements of energy during a 120-day dry season (i.e. December through March). Sustenance energy requirements for calves (ARC, 1980) added 20% of the cost of the activity, calculations incorporated energy metabolisability and efficiency of use (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: pp 74-75). lt was stipulated that women would collect 110% of the forage required for half of their calves, with an additional 10% lost through wastage.Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 35-82) conducted numerous field studies to parameterise the model for local conditions. Yabelo and Mega markets were surveyed to obtain price data for milk, meat, offal, hides and grain for different seasons and rainfall years, a statistical analysis of these data is provided elsewhere (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 50). Nutri tional assessments were made of grass hay, A tortilis fruits and A. brevispica leaves for nitrogen content (AOAC, 1980) and in vitro dry-matter digestibility lVDDM; (Goering and Van Soest, 1970) for determining calf rations. Standing crops of leaves of A. brevispica shrubs in the dry season were assessed by a total harvest of 23 shrubs of varied size classes. Production of fruits from A. tortilis trees was obtained from Menwyelet Atsedu (1 990). Use of forage from these woody plants was expected to occur only where they were abundant so that costs of searching for fruits or leaves were discounted in the analysis. Yields and nutritive values of cowpea hay and pidgeon pea (C. cajari) forage were obtained from Yohannes Alemseged (1 989) for consideration of calf feeding in a cropping situation.Labour required to implement forage activities was assessed in Did Hara and Dubluk madda for 60 families (Mulugeta Assefa, 1 990: pp 57-73) using interviews of Borana women. Twenty-two of 60 families reported significant seasonal constraints for forage collection while 34 reported shortage of preferred grass as the biggest problem for hay making. For the majority of households, women's labour was most commonly reported as the main option for improving efforts for forage collection. Calculations were based on forage yields, walking and collecting time, and appropriate backloads/ woman/trip to estimate the effort required to collect enough material on a dry-matter basis. Using sickles to cut grasses to make hay, for example, was determined to yield about 40 kg of fresh weight from a 200-m2 area at the end of the long rainy season. Three 10-kg loads of fresh grass could be cut and carried back to encampments in six hours. Further drying and stacking costs of hay-making were determined to be negligible. Consideration of the incremental time (man-days) used in land preparation for forages intercropped with maize was included in the budgets for cowpea and pidgeon pea, along with an opportunity cost penalty for loss of maize grain yield. Grain yield of legumes was considered as additional revenue (Yohannes Alemseged, 1989).Projected activities reduced or foregone as a result of increased labour allocation for forage collection or cultivation were specified either for the wet season when cultivation and preparation of grass hay would occur, or for the dry season when harvest of cultivated legumes or collection of A. tortilis fruits or A. brevispica leaves would occur. Respondents largely indicated (58 of 60) that more wet-season activities could be incorporated into their existing schedules, but only 40 of 60 reported the same for the dry season (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990).Monetary costs for collection of each forage were derived from estimating total quantity required per year for half of the calves of each modal family in each wealth class. Seasonal market values for grain used as payment in food-for-work projects were employed to value hourly labour. Rates for food-for-work ranged from 3 to 5 kg of grain per person per six-hour work day in dry and wet periods, respectively (CARE-Ethiopia, unpublished data). This resulted in an estimate of EB 0.12/person/hour in dry seasons versus EB 0.14/person/hour in wet seasons. This translates into a minimum daily wage of EB 0.73 to 0.85, roughly 26% on average of the official national minimum wage of EB 3 /person/day. Costs of the collecting sacks and locally made storage structures for feeds were added in, as were market values for cowpea and pidgeon pea seeds. An additional 15% miscellaneous overhead was included.Costs for water were based on the construction outlay for a 60 000-litre water tank in Hodgson (1990: pp 30-35). The straight-line depreciation method was used to determine cost of the tank each year over a 10-year lifespan, with a salvage value of 0% (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 83). Cost of each litre of water per year was derived by dividing yearly cost of the water tank by the volume.Losses of calves to disease were estimated to be 25% of total mortalities during average years (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communication cited in Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 83). This confirmed results in Table 7.10. Although medicines for livestock have been offered free of charge to date, a payment system will come into effect in the future (Tafesse Mesfin, TLDP General Manager, personal communication). Mulugeta Assefa (1 990: pp 83-84) thus calculated total health costs as if they were covered by the Boran and by assuming that one local veterinary scout could serve four encampments. lnformation on the costs of simple equipment, vaccinations and other medicines as well as the optimal periodicity of interventions were obtained from upublished SORDU statistics. lmplementation of molasses and urea mixtures in a drought year was based on nutritive value (lLCA Nutrition Unit, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unpublished data) and costs of feeds (Ethiopian Sugar Corporation, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unpublished data; Ministry of Agriculture, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unpublished data), barrels and transport from the highlands to the Borana Plateau (Ethiopian Transport Authority, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unpublished data). A 1 0% loss and 15% miscellaneous overhead were added in the final calculations.The herd model was programmed as an application of the Lotus 1-2-3 release 2.01 pro gramming language (von Kaufmann et al, 1990). The model requires an initial herd structure and production parameter values based on field data. These include age, year-specific mortality rates, calving rates, animal offtake rates, milk production/ cow/ lactation, length of lactation and dry periods, per cent milk offtake, per cent milk intake, carcass dressing percentage and commodity prices. These data were obtained through cow history docu mentation from 90 producer interviews (Section 5.3.3: Cattle production and pastoral wealth) and interviews of traders and merchants (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990). Parameter estimates stratified by household wealth and type of rainfall year can be found in Mulugeta Assefa (1990). These include data for herd structures, live weights, dressing per centages, productivity of cattle, commodity prices, per cent of cattle sold, slaughtered or gifted. Results: Table 7. 1 1 summarises daily costs per calf for routine inputs of forage, water and prophyllaxis as well as emergency provision of molasses and urea. Legumes were costed from 60 to 125% more than the grass hay. Health and watering inter ventions were cheapest and ranged from 7 to 1 5% of the costs of grass hay. The molasses and urea mix had a similar per unit cost as the more expensive legumes. Forage and water interventions were to be implemented in the model for 120 and 210 days in both average rainfall and dry years while provision of veterinary care was to be continuous in all years. Molasses and urea mixtures were to be implemented for 180 days in a drought year. Details for price calculations are available in Mulugeta Assefa (1990;Appendix 3).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Source: Mulugeta Assefa (1990).The first analysis was a run of 1 0 average rainfall years for the control condition (no intervention) for each wealth class. Results were interpreted to indicate that all herds were capable of considerable net rates of growth under optimal conditions. Herds for wealthy, middle class and poor households grew from 91 to 265 head (+191%), 35 to 80 head (+128%) and 14 to 34 head (+143%), respectively (Figure 7.7a). Tabular data for herd sizes, outputs and monetary returns under this scenario are displayed in Mulugeta Assefa (1990: p 133). That pastoral herds can grow rapidly under good rainfall conditions has been shown elsewhere in East Africa. Meadows and White (1 979) noted that cattle herds tripled in size during 10 years of high rainfall in Marsabit, Kenya. Other evidence from the southern rangelands suggests that cattle recovered very quickly from the 1 983-84 drought during years of average rainfall (Solomon Desta, nd; see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics).The next simulation was carried out assuming a varied and random sequence of rainfall years. Years 1 , 3-6, 9 and 10 were considered to have average rainfall while years 2 and 7 were dry. Year 8 was a second consecutive dry year regarded as a drought year (see Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary pro duction and carrying capacity). This sequence was run using the control (no-intervention) scenario as well as with various interventions.The control scenario under variable rainfall produced markedly different results compared to those derived under a continuous regime of average rainfall. The net result was that herds of wealthy households grew from 91 to 124 head (+36%), but those for the middle class and poor declined by 9 and 6%, respectively. Dynamics for the herd of the middle-class household are shown in Figure 7.7b. Mulugeta Assefa (1 990) used an \"average\" feed input over 1 0 years to represent the modeled impact of the nutritional intervention. This consisted of using an average-priced forage for 9 out of 1 0 years and the molasses and urea mix for the drought year. This intervention under the variable rainfall scenario resulted in net increases in herd size of 37, 1 7 and 7% for wealthy, middle class and poor households, respectively. This suggested, compared to the control runs, that effects of this intervention could result in a greater impact on the middle class and poor than on the wealthy. This was due to nutrition being a less frequent cause of calf mortality in wealthy households compared to disease (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990; see Section 5.3.3: Cattle production and pastoral wealth). Adding a health package to the feed intervention nearly doubled the positive effect of intervention by causing increases in herd size on the order of 75, 34 and 14% for the wealthy, middle class and poor. Herd dynamics for a middle-class household under variable rainfall conditions based on feed and feed plus health interventions are shown in Figure 7.7b.Herd dynamics have been portrayed to illustrate general features of the production system and the role of climate variability. lmprovements in herd growth resulting from interventions, however, were dictated by modeling objectives. Analysis of NPVs is required to assess profitability. Tables 7. 1 2 to 7.1 4 give details regarding effects of interventions on the NPV of cumulative net herd output per household in each wealth class. Because it was the cheapest feed, the grass hay yielded, relative to the control, the greatest effect of all forages in increasing NPV, for each wealth class. The middle class and poor appeared to be the most positively affected (Table 7.12). Adding the health package to the hay raised benefits further but the middle class and wealthy apppeared to be the most positively affected by the 252The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia  1 Where NPV is defined as the net total of the discounted values of gross revenues and costs (von Kaufmann et al, 1990). NPV entries equal the sum of 10 annual net returns from implementation of the respective intervention. Source: Mulugeta Assefa (1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia households in close proximity to valuable acacia trees and shrubs could make the best use of these while those cultivating valleys could so of cowpea or pidgeon pea residues. ln general, even more expensive interventions such as veterinary extension and cement cisterns are profitable if they contribute to reduced rates of calf mortality.The study of Mulugeta Assefa (1990) is very useful as a first step in integrating the many factors required for a comprehensive economic evaluation of calf mortality mitigation. Transferability of model results to real world production situations, however, is limited in several respects. First, being able to price inputs infers that there is certainty of their availability. That is commonly not the case. Whether it is cement, vaccines, health extension staff or molasses, the uncertainties about their availability are a more serious obstacle than price. For example, even smallholders in the Ethiopian high lands have difficulty in procuring reliably industrial by-products such as molasses and wheat-milling residues despite the fact they are in the vicinity of factories (D. L. Coppock, lLCA research scientist, unpublished data). The modeling also does not portray adequately day-to-day risks of implementing interventions. Risks of hay spoilage, cracking of water tanks, variable productivity of native legumes over space and time, distance to trek calves to clinics and shortage of grass for hay are all examples of the obstacles that keep more Boran from adopting such innovations. Thus, profitability should not imply that implementation is easy.The second main problem is that the modeling methodology did not consider production risks of density-dependent interactions. These modeling scenarios are thus probably more relevant to conditions found in the drought-recovery phase rather than those in the high-density phase of the cattle population (see Section 7.2.3: Anticipated short-term cycles).Offtake dynamics lf reducing calf mortality rates is the most viable production intervention, it has to be conceded that this could ultimately be unsustainable given the resource limitations. For example, without increased offtake, reductions in calf mortality could accelerate manifestation of the negative effects of the high-density phase of the cattle population in the form of reduced milk production, reduced animal condition and increased mortality. Even without calfmanagement interventions, strategies to increase offtake may be warranted given the apparent increase in the cattle population over the past 1 5 years, losses of drought reserves and the advent of severe drought-induced losses of livestock capital (AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES Associates, 1974h;Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990; Solomon Desta, nd; see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics).lt is contended that leaving regulation of the cattle population to the environment does not create a viable development situation. Creative means to increase offtake are well justified to help stabilise the system during high-density phases and limit impoverishing losses of livestock capital during drought. While increasing offtake could lessen risks of environmental degradation, degradation is rather too difficult to monitor and evaluate in the context of promoting sustainability of production (see Section 7.2.2: Anticipated long-term trends). One solution is to maintain an increasing cattle wealth through enhanced calf recruitment but transformed into other forms of security compatible with traditional goals. As previously mentioned, this is consistent with the conceptual model of Sandford (1 983a: pp 39-43) in which efficient opportunism is the ultimate development goal for African pastoralism (Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). Stimulating cattle offtake: Despite the contention that cattle marketing may substantially increase as the Boran become more dependent on grain purchases (see Section 7.2.2: Anticipated long-term trends), it remains unclear whether such increases in offtake would be sufficient to markedly reduce the risks of system destabilisation, losses of herd capital or environmental degradation. The extent to which increased cereal cultivation or small ruminant production would compensate for a growing need to sell cattle is also unclear. The following discussion offers some practical considerations for stimulating cattle offtake in the context of improving the standard of living and economic security of the Boran. Promoting offtake merely for cash accumu lation is recognised as a nontraditional value and is not a viable approach. Cattle offtake that is not translated into other forms of security for the people undermines their immediate survival (see Section 7.3.1.2: Grazing management).The graph depicting results from empirical modeling of cattle population dynamics from 1982-2006 was augmented with a horizontal line at a stocking rate of 20 head/km2. This represents a risk threshold for the cattle population entering the high-density phase (Figure 7.1a). This threshold comes from an analysis in Pratt and Gwynne (1 977: p 1 1 2) who considered 20 cattle/km2 as the optimal stocking density for 600 mm of annual rainfall in East Africa. Above this threshold density-dependent interactions that reduce cattle productivity were postulated to increase. This is also consistent, in general, with opinions of Borana herd owners expressed during the high-density phase in 1 989-90 (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus nonequilibrial population dynamics). lt is recognised here, however, that variation in annual rainfall will play a very large role in the effectiveness of such a guideline; for example, in a dry year 15 head/km2 could be the threshold while in an unusually wet year 30 head/km2 may be the threshold.The reason the threshold concept is postulated to work here is largely because the regional herd is under a high degree of spatial confinement and rainfall is reasonably predictable (with the probability of having a near-average rainfall year being around 0.8 (see Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity). When the regional herds exceed a density of about 20 head/km2, the risk of the herd suffering losses from a moderate decline in annual rainfall becomes greater. A more conservative approach would emphasise a carrying capacity of 217 000 head for the region (Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity). The figure of 300 000 head is used here for illustrative purposes and represents a compromise between short-term economic security and risk management over the medium term. Controversies concerning the carrying capacity concept are addressed in Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions. lf a regional population of over 31 0 000 head (20 head/km2) becomes risky, it is noteworthy that this population level was reached during 13 out of 25 modeled years (Figure 7.1a). Annual modeling results illustrated in Table G1 , Annex G, indicate that in 1 990 there was a cattle population of 334 000 head supporting some 77 500 people or 13 839 households at 5.6 persons each (Mulugeta Assefa, (1990: p 15). The ratio of cattle to people in 1990 was 4.3:1, with a food-energy deficit of 46%. Livestock census data from Solomon Desta (nd) for Arero district in the late 1 980s suggested that some 23% of the cattle were mature males, 50% mature females, 12% immature males and 15% immature females.Extrapolating from data collected by Mulugeta Assefa (1990: pp 1, 15) it is further stipulated that 18% (2491) of all households were wealthy, 31% (4290) middle class and 51 % (7058) poor. Sixty-five per cent of all cattle (21 7 1 00 head) may thus have been owned by the wealthy, 25% (83 500 head) by the middle class and 1 0% (33 400) by the poor. For mature males (the most marketable component), of the total population of 76 820 most (67% or 51 469) were owned by the wealthy, 25% (19 205) by the middle class and 8% (6145) by the poor. ln terms of households, this indicates that wealthy households had 20.6 mature males each, the middle class 4.5 and the poor 0.9 each.To avoid undesirable effects during the highdensity phase, the ideal situation should have been to encourage an offtake of at least 34 000 head and attempted to keep the high-density phase of the population at around 300 000 head, or even less in the future. The 34 000 head represented roughly half of the inventory of mature males and 66% of the numbers held by the wealthy. The challenge, then, is how to translate a potential loss of 34 000 head into an alternative investment for these households. Such investments only need to be less risky than the risk of losing animals during the high-density phase. Considering that 15% of the regional herd was lost in 1 989-90 and perhaps another 50% in 1991, these risks are considered to be very high (see Section 6.3.3: Drought effects in 1990-91). There are costs and risks to households and the society at large from keeping too many mature males in the high-density phase. These include the forage consumed by unproductive males that could otherwise be eaten by milk cows, a higher probability that forage in drought reserves will be compromised before it is acutely needed and a higher risk of mature females dying should there be a dry year. These problems are appreciated by Borana elders (D. L. Coppock, lLCA research scientist, unpublished data; Section 6.4.5: Equi librial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). The role of local development projects: The wealthier households could be expected to shoulder the burden of increasing offtake during critical times for the good of the community. The wealthy already destock by contributing animals to fund projects that develop or maintain wells and large ponds. This can involve hundreds of animals in any given year (see Section 7.3.1 .1 : Water-development activities). By contrast, while construction of cement water tanks may be important to the community overall, it offers less scope for stimulating animal offtake. This is because of logistical problems which constrain building a large number of tanks in any given year as well as their low cost. For example, with an average of 10 households per encampment, there may be around 1300 encampments in the study area; and if only half of these desired water tanks, with eight bulls sold per tank (Hodgson, 1990), this implies an offtake of 5200 head in total. The reality is that less than 1 0 tanks have been built per year in the past (C. Fiitterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication). Even if 20 tanks could be built each year, it would take over 30 years to satisfy demand. Water tanks are thus a means to provide for only small increments of offtake each year. Banking: Another option is banking livestock wealth in the form of simple savings accounts. There have  (1986) reviewed the local banking situation in the southern rangelands. He noted that even though the agropastoral Burji to the north of the Boran were using the bank in Agere Mariam, pastoralists throughout southern Ethiopia in general showed no similar inclination, using banks mainly to replace worn or damaged currency. lt was recommended that more seminars be conducted to inform all local people about the use of banks (Bekele Tadesse, 1986). Banking obviously offers substantial barriers and risks, especially for the uneducated. Lack of education outreach to the Boran thus becomes a major constraint in this regard (Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions). Furthermore, banking has also been traditionally viewed by agricultural scientists as economically noncompetitive with livestock in terms of returns on investment (J. Eckert, Colorado State University, personal communication). Live stock traditionally serve as a hedge against inflation and a means to mitigate the effect of droughts (Section 6.4.4:Traditional drought-mitigation tactics). lt is speculated here, however, that the scientists have failed to consider financial interventions on the basis of risk management. Research into risk management of animal assets may be very timely for systems under increased population pressure. As will be reviewed in this and later sections, strategic banking is justified for the Boran in terms of risk reduction and famine mitigation for the pastoral households as well as capital generation for communities.lt is understood that the risks of maintaining large herds as traditional investment are becoming greater today than in the past because of overpopulation. That large herds are kept by the Boran primarily as investment yielding social and economic benefits was confirmed by interviews (Coppock, 1992b). lf a wealthy herd owner was to sell a fully grown male under the favourable market conditions during the high-density phase, he or she would eliminate the risk of losing that animal should a dry year suddenly arise or because of incompetent herding as this is reportedly an increasing problem for the wealthy (Coppock,1 992b). lf an animal is lost while on forra in a remote area, there is no certainty that the carcass will be put to use, in many cases only the hide may be retrieved (Coppock, 1988). Besides reducing household vulnerabilities banking could also benefit poorer neighbours and kins since it would mean less competition for forage to their herds. This assumes, however, that households would not produce more animals to quickly fill a void left by banked animals. Social pressure on the wealthy to move excess animals elsewhere has been reported in some madda during the highdensity phase of the cattle population (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data).Since a mature animal wouldn't grow any more, the herd owner's main risk of banking it would be in the form of inflation estimated at 2.6% per annum in Ethiopia during 1980-67 (lBRD, 1989: p 164): p 164). But this would be somewhat offset by the 6% interest on the saving accounts (Bekele Tadesse, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, personal communication). lnflation has probably accelerated recently following the change of government in 1991 and currency devaluation in 1992 (D. L. Coppock, Utah State University, personal observation). lt is important to note that a diversification of assets should ideally provide an improved combination of returns and low risk. That bank funds could be subjected to devaluation by inflation, monetary policy and political instability suggests that a major drawback of this intervention lies in the dynamics of the national government (Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions).Banking interventions would have to be implemented in a step-wise manner. For example, three males banked per wealthy household (1 4% of the mature male inventory per wealthy household) would yield an offtake of 7473 head. With a value of EB 250/head this would yield a total of EB 1.8 million. ln addition, if one male were banked for each middle-class household (22% of mature male inventory per middle-class household) this would yield an offtake of 7058 head with a value of around EB 1.7 million. The increase in savings accounts would constitute a major infusion of capital for local urban development; but it is important to note that urban ethnic groups other than the Boran would probably benefit from an increased flow of loans.Step-wise destocking could also have important effects in terms of conserving resources in certain madda, but the greatest initial effects would probably be in terms of improving terms of trade for pastoralists during times of drought (Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact) and providing capital for banks.There may already be banking occuring among the Boran. There were 106 savings accounts under Borana names held at the Yabelo Branch of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia in 1991 (Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, unpublished data). While many of these account holders are probably educated urban dwellers, it is suspected that some are influential pastoralists from the traditional sector with urban connections (Bekele Tadesse, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, personal communication). These bank accounts have an average balance of EB 1 260, with a range from EB 6 to 40 000. Wealthy herd owners in some madda were under increasing peer pressure to bank a portion of their cattle wealth during the high-density phase of the late 1980s (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data). A survey of 30 leaders throughout the western Borana Plateau revealed that they realised that their traditional way of living was changing rapidly (Coppock, 1992b). Nineteen of the 30 were aware of the banking system, and 10 of the 19 were interested in becoming involved in banking. They reportedly sufferfrom lack of knowledge concerning alternative means of keeping wealth (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data).There are significant problems in making banking a reality for a large segment of the Borana population. Suspicions regarding the practice must be overcome and those who have used banks to date could be useful in a public relations pro gramme. New administrative procedures may have to be devised to accommodate illiteracy in the population and facilitation of deposit and withdrawal of funds may have to include some degree of bank decentralisation and/or mobility in remote areas. Some social costs of banking have to be anticipated. While the ultimate decision to sell an animal may rest with the herd owner, this can be strongly influenced by communal debate (Coppock, 1992b). This implies that people have vested interests in each other's cattle. To what extent banking could \"privatise\" an animal is unclear.Having more animals out of the system by way of creating another form of wealth may also compromise the ability of the poor to stake claims for animals from the wealthy of the same clan, which is a traditional means of wealth re-distribution (Section 2.4.2.2: Some cultural and organisational features). The social rewards of contributing cattle to community projects and to the poor likely outweigh any that can accrue from banking. Perhaps the ultimate constraint to banking is the cultural value of pastoralists to possess large herds and a lesser interest in saving large sums of money. But this could change with generational shift of values (Coppock,1 992b). A sustainable yield scenario: Given the above scenario that around 30 to 50% of the herd (34 000 head) could be taken off through a combination of local development projects and banking, it needs to be stressed that there would be little interest in such activities during the drought-recovery phase. lnter ventions of increasing offtake are only viable during the high-density phase (Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics). lndeed, recovery from drought would be a time of bank withdrawals and efforts to stimulate growth in livestock assets. The next issue then becomes how to maintain a level of sustainable harvest to keep the herd size in the vicinity of 300 000 head on an annual basis in normal rainfall and dry years during the high-density phases. lf animal wealth were banked, the net result would be increased economic security and growth per pastoral households.The following analysis dealing with sustainable yield assumes that: (1) the composition of the regional herd is similar to that previously mentioned (Solomon Desta, nd); ( 2) calving rates vary from 0.75 to 0.53 in average rainfall and dry years, respectively; (3) average rate of calf mortality is 21 % in average rainfall and dry years with no inter ventions; (4) death rates of other immatures vary from 8% (average year) to 10% (dry year; Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 90); and (5) death rates for mature animals vary from 6% (average rainfall year) to 1 0% for dry year (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990: p 90). The annual intrinsic rate of increase (births minus deaths) for a herd of 300 000 head is on the order of 23% and 11% in average rainfall and dry years, respectively. Canceling this out would require offtakes of 69 000 or 33 000 head per annum while the net annual increase after routine sales is lower than that.Assuming at least 80% of annual household income is derived from cattle sales and that being EB 74, 356 and 627 for poor, middle-class and wealthy households, respectively (Holden and Coppock, 1992), this implies a total annual cash demand for EB 3 611 389. At EB 250 per head, 14 445 animals would need to be sold to cover this figure. This makes the rate of herd increase in an average rainfall year more on the order of 1 8% or 54 000 head. ln a dry year the need for grain almost doubles. lf it is assumed that: (1) nonessential purchases are foregone and most of the income is spent on grain so that overall cash needs do not increase (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 125); and (2) cattle prices drop to EB 175 per head as a midpoint between average rainfall year and drought conditions (Cossins and Upton, 1988a: p 128), it may be inferred that routine offtake in a dry year could climb to some 21 000 head. The net rate of increase in a dry year would thus be 4% or 12 000 head. All considerations of stimulating offtake assume that animals which are sold leave the system.We note from this analysis that attempts to maintain a yearly level of 300 000 head is a greater challenge in average rainfall years than destocking from 334 000 to 300 000 head taking the benchmark year of 1990 (above). However, the net increase in dry years may be negligible. lf calf management interventions served to reduce mortality rates by half, in average rainfall years the net increase after sales would be 65 000 head or 21 .7%, while in dry years it would be 20 000 head or 6.6%. ln the future higher offtakes may be facilitated by an increasing need to purchase ever more grain as a result of population growth (Figure 7.2) and this may control livestock population pressure, failing that it is unlikely that there will always be sufficient community projects to encourage offtakes of a regulatory magnitude given a succession of average rainfall years. Given the reported increased use of money in recent years (Coppock, 1992b), development of Service Cooperatives (see Section 1.4.3: The SERP and the Pilot Project) should stimulate additional offtake if locally desired consumer goods such as grain, clothing, hand tools and cement are offered for sale (Hodgson, 1990;Hogg, 1 990b). Still this may only have a minor effect on the cattle population, however. Banking may thus remain as an important option to stimulate offtake but the scale of offtake required to stabilise the system may be unmanageable. Even if every wealthy and middle-class household anually banked from five to two animals, respectively, this would only account for 39% of the annual herd increase in an average rainfall year.Some comments regarding effects of accel erated offtake on the human component of the system warrant mention. The low ratios of livestock to people in pastoral systems often indicate that the scope for increased offtake is poor (Coppock et al, 1985). lt is argued, however, that if such offtake is confined to male animals held by wealthier households, opportunity may exist to shift herd composition in favour of more milk cows and thus increase food security during interdrought periods. As will be discussed, protection against drought should also be improved as a result of banking males because of the poor terms of trade during drought between livestock and grain (Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact). lf the present composition of 23% mature males and 50% mature females were shifted to 1 2% mature males and 61 % mature females in a herd of 300 000 head, this would mean an annual yield of 115 million MJ GE from milk and this could reduce the current annual energy deficit from 46% to 35% (Figure 7.1c).Although the task of managing risk through growing cattle offtake may appear daunting, a major effort to coordinate cattle sales to finance local development projects and promote banking of livestock wealth is needed. Average rainfall years are interrupted by dry years and this may serve to regulate cattle population growth to a high degree (Mulugeta Assefa, 1990). Around 15 000 cattle reportedly died in the dry season of 1991 (Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). Regulation by the vagaries of climate implies, however, wastage, so that ways to conserve wealth through an intervention such as banking are important. Arguments that banking is not a viable economic option for pastoral producers need to be reassessed in the light of risk management. Research needs to determine the break-even rates of return from banking that could justify banking interventions. lt is also contended that activities in public relations by development agents such as SORDU to promote banking may be more consistent with their technical, logistical and budgetary constraints than are large projects in range management. Increase in cattle prices: A recent loosening of price controls and transport restrictions for some agricultural commodities in -Ethiopia (Ethiopian Herald, 1 990) may mean prices for Borana cattle will increase. By early 1991 cattle prices reportedly had risen to about 30% over the previous year (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication). Should prices rise to a level competitive with those offered by the black-market trade with Kenya, the Boran would prefer to sell within Ethiopia because it is logistically simpler (Coppock,1 992b). But prices would need to increase considerably for this to occur as black-market prices may average at least 1 50% greater than those offered internally (FLDP, nd). Should Ethiopian prices become competitive this coul mean capturing about 1 7 000 head of cattle per year otherwise sold to Kenya (Hodgson, 1990: p 177). Despite the fact that the Boran seek higher prices for their cattle, general increases in price are hypothesised to reduce the overall throughput of cattle sold by them (Coppock,1 992b: see Section 4.4.4: Traditional marketing rationale). This would work against the trend among the Boran toward increased cattle sale to buy grain as a result of population pressure (Section 7.2.2: Anticipated long-term trends).Mitigation of drought impacts on pastoralists has been the subject of much research. Generally it is thought that pastoral populations are increasingly vulnerable to drought due to the effects of overpopulation, range degradation and loss of traditional forage reserves with their buffering capacity (see Section 6.1: lntroduction). Con sequences of such a generally destablised systemThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia include increased pauperisation of pastoral peoples with a declining capacity for post-drought recovery (Moris, 1988;Sperling, 1989). This may also be exacerbated by inappropriate development tactics (Hogg, 1980;Toulmin, 1986).The Borana system of southern Ethiopia, long considered one of Africa's most productive and stable rangeland environments (Pratt, 1987a), is now thought to be sliding into a situation of increasing poverty, severe density-dependent inter actions and increasing susceptibility to drought as experienced by other pastoral peoples (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics). Although drought-induced mortality of people may have been negligible in the 1980s, the spectre is one of a growing risk of large-scale human catastrophe in the future, traceable ultimately to a growing human population that remains isolated, has restricted opportunities to emigrate and is increasingly dependent on un-reliable grain markets.Prioritising rehabilitation measures following drought implicitly acknowledges that little can be done in terms of prevention. Rehabilitation can also be expensive, while it is unlikely that the needs of the Boran for post-drought credit or donations to reconstitute herds (Toulmin, 1986) could compete favourably with other groups in Ethiopia. When droughts occur in the country the entire nation can be affected (RRC, 1 985). Farming populations in the highlands that are more vulnerable to drought than pastoralists (Webb et al, 1992) also carry more weight both agriculturally and politically in Ethiopia so limited aid for drought-recovery would most likely be directed to highland systems first. Employment options: Current strategies to better protect the Boran from the effects of drought are necessary, but some of those are less realistic than others in terms of effective implementation. For one thing, they should be implemented with special consideration of certain groups (e.g. poor female heads of households) that are more vulnerable than others and should receive priority for interventions (Holdenetal, 1991).The simplest option is to provide more nonpastoral employment opportunities at strategic times. This requires agencies to plan in advance and yet be flexible in program delivery. For example, setting aside major projects in bush control for times of drought not only provides, and jobs hence income during the hard times, but may also prepare range sites for faster rehabilitation during the droughtrecovery phase of the cattle population (Section 7.2.3.1 : Range ecology). These projects could pay for themselves through charcoal production provided that lack of the capability for restricting the scope of charcoal-making, once techniques become widely known, can be dealt with (Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation). Similar timing of projects in construction and/or maintenance of water points and roads would also be useful. But planners should see to it that a high percentage of the population are targeted to participate which means that projects should be widely distributed. Provision of jobs would be most useful during November through March in a second consecutive drought year (Section 6.3.1.5: Household economy).The next advocated tactic of mitigating the effects of drought is promotion of camels for transport (for hauling grain from town) and milk production (Section 6.3.2: Drought effects in the upper semi-arid zone). The effective numbers of camels for each intervention would vary markedly across the study area. For example, if the target is to facilitate acquisition of two male draft camels per encampment, about 2700 will be required. But if the goal is to facilitate acquisition of one milk camel per household, nearly 14 000 of them would be required. Given the existing population of 4700 camels in the study area during 1986 (Assefa Eshete et al, 1987: p 9), these proposed additions are quite large. lf the Boran were to trade cattle for camels, this could only be achieved during the high-density phase of the cattle population when cattle assets are high. Another intervention using livestock involves promotion of small ruminant production, but sustaining this may be relatively more dependent on timely (and logistically difficult) veterinary support.Little has been studied on the Borana Plateau regarding nutrition and disease interactions that have been observed to kill many cattle in other pastoral systems during drought (Grandin et al,1 989). lt is hoped that even though animals may be predisposed to disease through poor nutrition, a considerable proportion of losses may be avoided if more attention was given to identifying and controlling key diseases. But this requires more investigation.lnterventions which are less likely to succeed are those that involve large inputs of resources to implement or those of which success is dependent on external factors. A good example of the latter is supplementation of milk cows or calves with molasses and urea mixtures (Cossins and Upton, 1988a;Mulugeta Assefa, 1990). Although Mulugeta Assefa (1990) found molasses and urea sup plementation of calves to be potentially profitable even when transport costs were included, difficulties in securing sufficient quantities during times of drought could be enormous.A good example of an intensive intervention are the drought fodder banks based on Opuntia and Atriplex spp, with test plots at several sites in the southern rangelands (Pratt, 1987a,c). The concept involves using Atriplex spp for protein and energy and spineless cactus for moisture as the basis for a survival ration for animals during drought (de Kock, 1 980; Shoop et al, 1 977). Menwyelet Atsedu (1 990: pp 54-78) contrasted the nutritive values of standing crops and established species in SORDU propagation sites. These included A. nummularia, A. canescens, A. rhagioides and A. undulata as well as introduced and local lines of O. ficus indica var inermis. Details of this evaluation are reported in Menwyelet Atsedu (1990).Among the Atriplex species, A. undulata had the highest values (P<0.05) per plant for total and edible biomass (1932 and 365 g dry-matter per plant, respectively). Atriplex undulata and A. nummularia had the highest (P<0.05) CP content (22.5 and 21 % on a dry-matter basis, respectively), and both were among the highest in terms of lVDDM (67% for A. nummularia and 60.7% for A. undulata). Compared to the local cactus, the exotic line had over twice the dry weight with a slightly lower (P<0.05) moisture content (85.9 vs 92.6%). No differences were apparent among cacti in terms of per cent CP (=6.35%) but the local line had a higher (P<0.05) lVDDM (81 vs 76%). This was interpreted to indicate that A. undulata and the exotic cactus would be the best combination for drought fodder banks on the Borana Plateau.Although such fodder banks are reportedly successful in Saudi Arabia and the USA (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990: p 54), it is debatable whether they would be useful in the southern rangelands. This is because: (1) unless sexual reproduction is controlled, the spineless cactus can revert to unusable spiny forms (Turner and Costello, 1942;Benson, 1969;Hyder, 1981); ( 2) consumption of salty Atriplex can increase water requirements and instill a reduced tolerance of saline water (Wilson, 1966) especially since water in the Borana wells is often saline (Nicholson, 1984)); and (3) feeding Opuntia can result in laxative effects and diarrhoea (Samish and Ellern, 1 975; Gibson and Nobel,1 986).Even if these did not exist, a more significant problem may be amounts of the fodder bank necessary to have an effect on reducing mortality of calves during drought. For example, if the first year of a drought is targeted (because it would be a time of higher absolute calf mortality; Section 6.3.1.2: Cattle productivity) it is assumed that: (1) a 40-kg calf requires 7.3 MJ of metabolisable energy (ME) per day for sustenance (Mulugeta Assefa, 1 990: p 74); ( 2) the calf needs four litres of water per day (Tesfaye Wogayehu, 1990: p 1); (3) calves need to be fed for six months; and (4) an average encampment of 1 0 households has 39 calves (as inferred from the number of milk cows in 1 983 (Table G1 , Annex G)). The metabolisable energy in edible A. undulata is 365 g x 18 MJ GE/kg x .607 lVDDM x 0.81 (ME coefficient)=3.23 MJ ME/plant. The 39 calves require 51 246 MJ ME for six months, so 15 865 plants would be required for the fodder bank. Given an optimal density of 1 plant/3 m2 (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990: p 61), an area of 4.7 ha is required only for the Atriplex. Each cactus would yield 30 litres of water (Menwyelet Atsedu, 1990: p 69) and the calves would require 28 080 litres over six months. Assuming that the cacti are also spaced at 1 plant/3 m2, the number of plants required is 936, or an additional 0.28 ha. ln total about 5 ha is thus needed per encampment. For 1383 encampments this would total 691 5 ha, or 0.44% of the study area. The opportunity cost of land close to encampments that would be planted with Atriplex and Opuntia needs to be considered for other types of rainfall years. This analysis itself does not consider the implementation costs or logistical problems of supplying seedlings and clearing an area (Pratt, 1987c: p 2). Whether the pastoralists are willing to engage themselves in such a labour-intensive activity is another question; they have been commonly unwilling to do so even in simpler range development projects (Hodgson, 1990). ln addition, the fact that families may periodically move their place of residence would be another disincentive for individual investment in such sites. The Boran are willing to pay for interventions that they feel are important (Hodgson, 1990), so that should always provide the ultimate test.Finally, it has often been inferred that the Borana have little to sell during drought that has any significant value, but one commodity has been overlooked. Each encampment has tonnes of manure stacked in large mounds that could be marketed to the highlands as fertiliser if an organisation such as SORDU could facilitate the activity by making cattle trucks available for manure transport. The economics of such an effort are unclear, but it merits consideration. A long-term question is whether exporting nutrients from the rangelands would undermine productivity. Policy options and infrastructural constraints: Cossins and Upton (1988b: p 256) noted the importance of the rapid decline of the terms of trade during drought for the Boran. They further stated that the solution would not be found in local improvements in marketing but instead in national policies for increased food security. Presumably this was referring to policies that encourage more grain production in the highlands, and policies which facilitate more opportunistic and free-flowing movement of grain to the lowlands and livestock to the highlands during times of stress.One element of the decline in the terms of trade is an increased price for grain due to a low supply and high demand. Local grain production is virtually eliminated during drought and the capacity for deliveries from the highlands is also reduced because, at least in the 1980s, drought occurred at the same time there too. This reduced national grain production and precluded the possibility of sur pluses for the rangelands (Maxwell, 1986 cited in Cossins andUpton, 1988a: p 128). Franzel et al (1989) reviewed the negative impacts of marketing regulations on grain production and distribution in Ethiopia as implemented by the socialist government. They noted that the fixed production quotas and producer prices, as well as regulation of interregional trade and markets, had compromised the national objectives of increased grain production and food self-sufficiency. lt was contended that quotas were often inequitable, low producer prices yielded disincentives for grain production and use of inputs and interregional trade restrictions limited access of consumers to grain at cheaper prices. They noted that at current fixed prices, using fertilisers was economic at only one of 35 sites for maize and 1 2 of 28 sites for wheat. They speculated that price rises on the order of 90% for maize and 73% for wheat would make fertilizers profitable at over 70% of these sites. They felt that the quota system should initially be adjusted in recognition of region-specific characteristics and eventually reduced in favour of providing more incentives and services to private producers. Finally, it was stated that relaxing interregional trade restrictions would be an inexpensive means to help ensure that grain-deficit regions are adequately supplied, with better prices for both producers and consumers as a result. Recent policy initiatives in Ethiopia (Ethiopian Herald, 1990) may result in some improvements in grain production and marketing that could benefit the lowlands in the future. Peasant producers in 1 990 will be allowed to sell all their production on the open market as interregional trade restrictions have been loosened (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication). One lingering problem has been the effects of government trucking monopolies and rural insecurity due to weapons proliferation. This constrained delivery of grain to the rangelands during the 1990-91 drought, resulting in some of the highest cereal prices in memory and putting the Boran at risk of famine (Section 6.3.3: Drought effects in 1990-91).The other element of the unfavourable terms of trade on the Borana Plateau is the low price of livestock due to high market supply and low local demand. This kind of squeeze may periodically eliminate any advantages accrued from general increases in livestock price that may avail the Boran better terms of trade in average rainfall or dry years. Presumably one way to help alleviate this problem would be to facilitate purchase of stock by external agents who can sell animals in more favourable markets elsewhere in the country. Solomon Desta et al (nd) noted the problems the Boran had in selling their animals locally during the drought in the past and remarked that external purchasing agents had to cease activities as well. SORDU stopped purchasing stock because of insufficient watering capacity from rainfed ponds on their holding ranches. Cattle bought by the national meat board and taken north of the study area to the Alem Tena and Kuriftu holding grounds did not bring good prices and the spread of disease among the animals led it to halt operations. The Ethiopian Livestock Development Project usually would buy animals and trek them to Melge Wordo for slaughter during nondrought years. During the 1983-84 drought, however, the lack of grazing and water along travel routes led it to cease the activity. These examples all point to the lack of adequate resources to hold and/or trek animals out of the rangelands during drought. Either more attention needs to be given to secure these resources in advance or external agents must be able to rely on trucking to move animals further up country.Avoiding the ill effects of drought Banking: Review of options presented thus far makes it apparent that, despite cultural and logistical barriers, promotion of offtake of cattle through banking would be the most effective means of buffering the population from the ill effects of drought. This is because: (1) pre-drought banking would help conserve the monetary value of cattle and thus somewhat cushion the decline in the terms of trade for grain; (2) wasteful losses of stock could be reduced; (3) competition for forage would be lessened in the early stages of a drought to the benefit of milk cows and would serve to reduce pressure on forage reserves; and (4) following a drought there could be a source of local credit for people interested in restocking while a stabilised population could offer a viable local source of animals for redistribution. The key is not only getting the pastoralists interested in banking but also devising a system that allows people in remote areas easy access to their money. Thus, bank personnel should be able to anticipate needs by monitoring the situation through a technical agent such as SORDU. Presumably the failure of the long rains in any given year should be a sufficient indicator that a stressful situation is underway.The next question is to compare banking options versus the traditional strategy of attempting to outlive a drought by gradual herd depletion. Twoand three-year droughts are considered in this analysis. Data on family sizes and cattle holdings are derived from Mulugeta Assefa (1990: p 15) and Table 7.15 displays the major findings. These are summarised by wealth class: Wealthy families: A wealthy family is supposed to have 6.4 persons and 24 mature male cattle and is dependent on milk from 39 cows. During the first year of a drought the calving percentage may drop to 53%, with a decline in the milk yield per cow of 1 6% (Section 6.3.1 .2: Cattle productivity). The total yield of 14 584 MJ GE would just about cover total human energy demand of 14 950 MJ GE and with out any livestock having to be sold or slaughtered. ln an extreme case during the second drought year, if the percentage of cows in milk dropped to 10% and milk yield per cow to 50% of pre-drought figures, the total yield of 1638 MJ GE covers only 11% of household energy demand (Table 7.15). Assuming a worst-case terms of trade of 75 kg of grain per every 250-kg animal sold (Cossins and Upton, 1 988a), the family would have to sell 1 0 males (42% of the pre-drought inventory) in the second year to have sufficient food energy from grain, but this is based on the tenuous assumption that there would be no voluntary reduction in energy demand (Webb et al, 1992). A three-year drought may occur only once in a century (Cossins and Upton, 1988a) and if it assumed that one occurs and milk production stops totally, and the terms of trade remain at the level of the previous normal year, another 1 1 head would have to be sold to cover grain requirements, resulting in near depletion of the mature male component of the herd. Despite such loss of capital livestock, the wealthy families would have food throughout and would be less likely to have to sell productive elements of the herd such as cows or heifers. The situation for the middle class and poor would be much worse. Middle-class families: With the middle class having 4.8 persons, nine mature males and 1 4 cows per household, these families could get only 47% of their energy needs from milk during the first drought year and, assuming an intermediate terms of trade of 350 kg of grain per male animal sold, one such would have to be sold to cover the deficit. By the third year of the drought the remaining eight males would have to be sold to cover the 95% energy deficit. By the second year of the drought eight more animals have to be sold and this has to include cows and heifers. ln sum, the middle class could have enough food but at a substantial loss to their productive resources.  Poor families: For the poor, with 5.6 persons, three mature males and five cows per household, only 1 4% of their energy demand is provided as milk, and two males need to be sold in the first year of drought. ln the second year another 1 0 must be sold to cover a 99% energy deficit, virtually decimating their herd. ln year three the poor face starvation.The preceding discussion does not even consider cattle losses as a result of starvation or disease. Material presented in Section 6.3.2.1: Livestock indicates that mortality losses typically exceed sales by 10-fold. The reason that the Boran emerged from the last drought without total herd decimation was probably because human food intake dropped dramatically and some income was derived from nontraditional sources (Section 6.3.2.2: Human welfare). Relatively few animals were slaughtered and most that died on forra were probably unutilised.lf the pastoralists were to bank some animals prior to the above hypothetical drought, it is argued that the situation would be much better because the value of cattle would have been conserved. The calculations presented in Table 7.15 contrast drought induced sales versus banking and consider variation in terms of trade for each year. Had families banked in anticipation of a two-year drought, the losses of livestock through trade would have been reduced on average by 67%. The middle class would not have lost all of their male cattle capital while the poor would not have had to dig as deeply into their pool of cows and heifers and these would not have been decimated. For a three-year drought the losses of stock through trade would have been reduced on the order of 69%, considered here for the wealthy and middle class only. The middle class would have been saved from selling cows or heifers. The poor would have to bank over seven animals to keep them supplied with grain over three years, but this is unrealistic (Table 7.15). The poor, however, could benefit from the increased stability of the inventory of the wealthier classes through food sharing (Webb et al, 1992).ln anticipation of a two-year drought, if wealthy and middle-class households banked three head each and half of all poor households banked one head each, the total offtake would be about 24 000 head with a pre-drought value of EB 6 million. Such action would reduce pressure on forage reserves during the high-density phase and bring environ mental security. This analysis suggests that under the present reality of high population densities and dependence on grain, retention of males for drought security is a very poor alternative to banking. The practice was more valid in previous generations when per capita resources were more abundant and grain was less necessary to supplement human diets during times of stress. Mature males have other uses in the society, such as for gifts and ceremonial slaughter (Asmarom Legesse, 1973). These uses, however, are probably relatively minor overall and it is not expected that the number of animals banked would affect the supply of animals used for these social purposes. Grain storage: Another pre drought measure for food security is grain storage. Although the Boran already have built corn cribs to store home-grown maize, they have no experience with grain storage for dry or drought years. Both CARE-Ethiopia and SORDU have initiated grain storage projects. The philosophy behind these projects is to have the Boran save money and animals by purchasing grain when the terms of trade for livestock are favourable, usually after the long rains in July and August. The typical pattern to date, however, has been for the Boran to wait and sell stock in the dry season when they have a specific food problem and hence suffering from poorer terms of trade even in years of average rainfall (Coppock, 1992b). The Boran reportedly understand this shortcoming on their part. The problem is that in general the Boran deal with emergencies after they occur. They thus act as \"optimistic gamblers\", hoping the weather will break in their favour and that procrastinated sales will be avoided altogether (Coppock, 1992b). Hodgson (1990: pp 86-97) reviewed attempts by CARE-Ethiopia to get the Boran interested in underground, bottle-shaped grain stores already employed by farmers to the north of the rangelands. To make them, after a hole is excavated in the ground its walls are lined with cement (at a cost of EB 50) or hardened by a week-long fire fueled with wood. After filling the store with grain (the capacity can be several hundred kilograms), a tight-fitting lid is put on and covered with soil so as to maintain an anaerobic environment and protect against insects. ln a comparison of the two types of stores, it was found that the cement-lined variety reduced moisture losses of grain to 2% versus 16% for the fire-hardened one. But it was conceded that improvements could be made to the latter in terms of a longer period of firing and lining the sides with dried grass to better insulate the grain. Besides loss of moisture, grain stores have problems with termites penetrating cracks, frequent opening of the lid allowing oxygen to enter and immobility. The other problem is the difficulty the Boran have in buying cheap grain locally in bulk. Supplies are somewhat limited and merchants buy and hoard grain right after harvest in order to make higher profits during the coming dry season (Hodgson,1 990). ln addition, if pastoralists wanted to buy grain from the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) in the highlands, they would have to overcome a Development-intervention concepts number of bureaucratic obstacles in the process. Such purchases had to come through Service Cooperative (SC) channels and very few of these were developed in the rangelands (see 1 .4.3: The SERP and the Pilot Project).As part of the development of SCs on the Borana Plateau, SORDU has planned to construct large central grain stores for each. These are expensive, however, and administrative and logistical details have yet to be finalised (R. S. Hogg, TLDP consultant, personal communication). Fundamental to the success of these large grain stores is the evolution of SCs into viable entities that benefit the people and gain their trust (Hodgson, 1 990: pp 93, 102; see Section 1.4.3: The SERP and the Pilot Project). Surveys by CARE-Ethiopia indicated that given a choice the people prefer to store grain at home (Hodgson, 1990: p 93).Considering the foregoing scenarios reviewed for food security and banking, it is apparent that in an average rainfall year (with calving rates of 0.75 and milk energy yield per head of 840 MJ GE), middle-class and poor households would require something on the order of 137 and 552 kg of grain for complete food security while the wealthy would need grain on a discretionary basis only. But in a dry year the same situation holds for the wealthy and the grain needed increases for the middle class and poor to 330 and 625 kg per household, respectively. For a two-year drought the wealthy would require some 764 kg, the middle class 921 kg and the poor 1 351 kg. Even if these estimates are 50% too high, they still serve to show that home storage of grain is probably only realistic for a normal rainfall year, based on the grain store capacity indicated above. The SC stores would be more practical in dry and drought years.The underlying assumption of this chapter is that the Borana system is now changing rapidly as a result of internal and external forces. lncreased pressure on resources has created problems but new windows of opportunity for development are also opening that did not exist 10 years ago. ln this scenario former intervention approaches can now shift from extensive and top-down to more intensive and bottom-up ones, augmented with thoughtful policies. This is true, however, only for production processes that are not too risky. lntensification here mostly implies more efficient management of exist ing resources. Pastoralists should not be held to intensification standards applicable to smallholders in higher potential systems because rangeland en vironments are inherently more variable. Hard-won production improvements could easily be lost as a result of environmental perturbation. lmportantly, it is accepted that the Boran are not becoming more interested in land management, for example, because they desire to intensify and \"develop\" their economy. Rather, they are being forced to consider intensification so as to promote their survival. This perspective agrees with the theory of rural change advocated by Boserup (1965). Table 7.16 summarises windows of develop ment opportunity that are postulated to be either gradually closing or opening in the Borana system over the long term. Those that are closing are based on increasing access to ecological resources or technical interventions targeted towards traditional production surpluses that are now in inevitable decline. Far more windows may be opening than closing, however. Opportunities to intensify cultivation on appropriate sites, improve access to  Source: Coppock et al (1990).The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia markets and enhance management of calves, other herd assets and human emigration are all widening. This is because there will be more demand for these technologies, services and policies in the future compared to the recent past, Table 7.17 summarises windows of develop ment opportunity that are postulated to open or close in the context of the interdrought cycle of the cattle population over the short term. lnterventions which have greater chance of succeeding under low stocking rates should be implemented in the drought-recovery phase. Those which rely on increased resource pressure and producer risks to promote adoption should be implemented in the high-density phase. All this implies that these interventions could be adopted, dropped and readopted in a cyclic fashion. Thus, the fact that a particular innovation may be discontinued after a few years does not mean that it would not be re adopted. This poses a major difficulty to developers or scientists who observe this system for only one or two years because the problems one observes may be largely dependent on whether the person was present during the drought-recovery phase or the high-density phase of the cattle population.For short-term management of the interdrought cycle, this analysis implies that agencies which promote innovations in a pastoral setting must be very opportunistic and flexible in programme delivery. This agrees with Westoby et al (1 989) who noted that bureaucratic constraints often preclude more effective and opportunistic implementation of management and research programmes in variable environments. Administrative and project-planning procedures too often commit organisations to programmes that suddenly become obsolete.The pastoral population on the central Borana Plateau may be growing at a rate of 2.5% per year, consistent with estimates for semi -settled pastoralists elsewhere (see Section 2.4.3: Human population growth). Human population growth has been postulated as a major source of system instability in terms of declining per capita supply of resources (Section 7.2: Anticipated long-term trends).Because there are relatively few opportunities for expansion of grazing area, development of sustain able agropastoralism and because markets are commonly unreliable, increased grain dependence aggravated by a growing population increases the risk of famine. For 1 989 it was estimated for the study area that 75 000 people were dependent on some 314 000 cattle for an overall ratio of cattle to people of 4.2:1 . This means an annual energy deficit of 46% (Table G1, Annex G). lf it is assumed that 300 000 cattle represents a reasonable compromise between short-term human welfare and reducing risk of negative density-dependent interactions (Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing), halving the annual energy deficit to 23% would require a reduction in the human population of 39 000 to yield a cattle to human ratio of 8.4:1 . Towns and villages in or near the rangelands are characterised by high unemploy ment rates, even among urban dwellers, so prospects for increasing employment opportunities for pastoralists over the short term are nil (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal communi cation). Even if it were only desired to stabilise the population in the study area at current levels, this would require creating around 2000 jobs per year to offset the intrinsic rate of increase. Boran leaders express concern that despite population growth, they expect that indispensable younger males will be leaving the system and that this will create labour shortages for well-watering and herding cattle (Coppock,1 992b). This suggests that young males view their chance of a good life and gaining wealth in the traditional sector as slim. This outflow of males may bode unfavourably for women and children who will have to assume duties of these males in addition to their owen traditional roles (Coppock, 1992a). Attempting to ameliorate future labour constraints with more births could be adopted as a strategy by the herd owners thus spurring population growth further (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation). Where the emigrating males go, how many there are and what they do where they go remain unclear. lt is speculated that some reside in agropastoral communities near the rangelands and others are supposed to work in the livestock black market with Kenya or other contraband trade (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal observation; P. Webb, lFPRl, personal communi cation). Emigration rates among the Boran have been assumed to be low (AGROTEC/CRG/SEDES/ Associates, 1974e;1974f) but more research is needed on this.Despite the fact that human population density is the acute cause of increasing poverty and higher risks of famine, the main opportunities to manage population growth are medium to long-term in nature. The only short-term option is birth control but it is felt that this would be exceedingly difficult to implement. The Boran may have traditional forms of birth control, still the fundamental social value for women remains having many children (M. Bassi, lnstitute of Ethiopian Studies, personal communi cation). ln any event this is a priority topic for future research.The Boran can emigrate only if given some education or training and a job opportunity. lt is unclear how many pastoral children attend elementary schools in the southern rangelands but it is believed to be very low. lt is also assumed that boys rather than girls tend to receive educational opportunities (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, personal obser vation). Boran leaders say that they increasingly understand the value of education for their youth, but have been fearful of sending their children to school because it deprives them of their current and future labour pool. They realise that educated youths will probably leave (D. L. Coppock, lLCA, unpublished data).A cadre of educated Boran could greatly facilitate some aspects of community development, especially diversification of assets (Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing) while banking livestock capital could also provide funds for the development of towns if promoted in the context of a larger development strategy. The future of the Boran is thus highly dependent on the future growth and development of towns such as Yabelo, Mega, Negele and Moyale (Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions). Even if thousands more Boran children started school today, the effect on Boran society of emigration as a result would not be felt for at least 5 to 10 years.Chapter 8The objectives of this chapter are to: (1) offer justification for continued investments in rangeland development in Ethiopia; ( 2) forward an integrated goal for developing the Borana pastoral system; (3) outline tactics for a best-bet development strategy to meet this goal; (4) note major constraints for implementing these tactics; and (5) summarise major research implications of this systems study.The current development picture in the southern rangelands is bleak. As a result of the 1990-91 drought, around 50% of the regional cattle herd perished and roughly 200 000 pastoralists are re ceiving food relief. What used to be referred to as a model of sustainable pastoralism in Africa is now suffering problems regarded as endemic to pastoral Africa in general. The fundamental cause is multifaceted. Human population growth appears rapid, but it is not appreciably different from that of similar systems. The lack of a means to release human population pressure is hypothesised as the root cause of the problem, and this has been exacer bated by the cultural isolation of the Boran from the rest of Ethiopia and limited economic opportunities outside the pastoral sector. The cattle population is increasingly limited by land availability and the ratio of milk cows to people is probably in a precipitous decline. This has led to economic adjustments which include peri-urban dairy marketing and emergent agropastoralism. Negative effects are magnified as the finite resource base is becoming smaller. Population growth, both for the Boran and neighbouring ethnic groups, is now harming their production systems because people are reportedly residing in, or otherwise using, internal and external grazing reserves, which used to be held as buffers to protect cattle herds against drought to an increasing degree. Mix these problems with a dryyear probability of 0.2, and the recipe is disaster.This negative trend has occurred despite large investments during the 1970s and 1980s. Although it is fortunate that roads and markets are now in place to accomodate future changes in the system, there are several reasons why development planners and expert consultants failed to envision the current situation. First, it was wrongly assumed that the Boran had Western values and were eager to raise cattle for cash; second, there was a poor understanding of how population pressure drives social and economic change. Earlier interventions mostly occurred when it was not necessary for the Boran to change their traditional lifestyle. Now, because of a high population density, they have to change in order to better feed themselves, but the problem today resembles more crisis management rather than development. Some of today's crises could have been averted if the same attention had been given to education and development of human potential as was given to stimulateing cattle production and offtake. Planners will be pleased to know that the Boran would market a higher percentage of cattle in the future and, on average, these will be younger animals. This is not, however, due to a revolution in commercial attitudes but rather to the Boran being forced to sell more animals to buy grain. One consequence of this is that as the Boran are now vulnerable to unstable markets, cattle inventories could be depleted to an extent that endangers asset accumulation and drought recovery, and hence aggravate poverty.The goals of rural development should include: (1) agricultural growth in the form of livestock production; (2) poverty alleviation; and (3) increased ecological sustainability. lf no measures are taken to promote economic development of the Borana system, the chance for agricultural growth will decline, poverty will increase, and ecological sustainability will be compromised by increased cereal cultivation on fragile upland soils to mitigate famine risk and from additional bush encroachment and soil erosion induced by cattle grazing.Because of their large areal and high population density, the highlands should receive priority for agricultural development in Ethiopia. The rangelands cannot be ignored in the national interest, however, because they will increasingly serve as the extensive breeding grounds for animals used in the highlands and for diversification of exports. lt is speculated that the highlands of the future will become crowded to the extent that smallholders will be less able to control the entire process of pro ducing large stock from birth to finishing and will demand a greater supply of cattle for finishing or draft that have been bred elsewhere. Pre conditions may now exist, in both the highlands and lowlands, to achieve the goal of national agricultural integration envisioned in the early 1970s if policies and provision of technology and inputs are adequate. The highlands and lowlands offer comp lementary production advantages which can be exploited. Benefits of national integration now occur in two directions; besides smallholders benefitting from an enhanced supply of range-bred stock,The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia populations like the Boran are in dire need for highland grain at reasonable terms of trade to offset chronic risk of famine.The broad view is that interventions in the southern rangelands need to promote sustainability of the traditional social order as well as ecological sustainability of livestock production. Both are inter related. Famine risk, poverty and the undermining of cultural values threaten the social order. lncreased competition and density-dependent patterns of livestock production will be gradually forced more households out of the traditional sector during droughts, the population of peri-urban poor would increase and this could become a negative factor in the social welfare of small towns. The failure to deal with these problems could cause the system to collapse possibly as a result of increased regional insecurity and enhanced difficulties in maintaining operation of the deep wells without coordinated human inputs. Without the deep wells in full operation, the livestock production system could be markedly less efficient and unsustainable. The technology for raising well water under lowinput conditions is deemed inappropriate at this time. Enhancing prospects for ecological sustain ability is a longer-term issue that requires a hierarchical, step-wise approach to rural develop ment. lf the production system is not stabilised in response to drought, there are negative implications for the Boran in terms of loss of animals that could otherwise be marketed and growing commercial offtake for the nation.Although the challenge is daunting, the fundamental premise of this chapter is that the entire Borana system can be managed to increase agri cultural growth, alleviate poverty and reduce risks to the environment using several key interventions in tandem. These measures should also help stabilise the system in response to drought. This has positive implications for reducing the outward flow of destitute people over the short term and reducing loss of milk cows. Reducing milk cow losses deminishes the need for unsustainable cereal cultivation during drought recovery. lt also could assist efforts to preserve the Boran cattle breed, because the need for the Boran to trade for inferior highland cows during drought recovery would be lessened.The time when one development agency or a few technologies could have a significant impact on the Borana system is now over. Managing the system for widespread impact today requires a greater focus on policy and coordinated action among several development agencies and govern ment ministries. The strategy advocated here is also not unduly expensive to implement.The theory of local system dynamics forwarded in the previous chapter, implies that development action must deal with two phenomena: (1 ) the longterm trend of a decline in the ratio of cattle to people; and (2) the inter-drought cycle consisting of droughtrecovery and high-density phases. Development action must also deal with problems in order of their immediate importance to Borana society: (1) improve food security; (2) reduce risks of animal production and asset accumulation; (3) enhance livestock production and herd turnover and (4) deal with ecological sustainability and poverty over the longer term through population management.Assuming that the first goal can be achieved, attainment of the second goal is the key to everything else. Some interventions can address both the long-term trend and interdrought cycle simultaneously.Using the framework above, means to deal with the long-term trend can be started now, but the effects will not be felt for a few years. ln contrast, the interdrought cycle can be dealt now and produce results more rapidly. An example is described in which the drought-recovery occurs from 1992 to 1996 and the high-density phase occurs after 1997. ln general terms, the drought-recovery phase is reached when cattle stocking rates are <20 head/km2 and the high-density phase when stocking rates are >20 head/km2. This schema is overly simplistic because variability in rainfall or incidence of epidemic disease could disrupt herd growth patterns. The interdrought cycle may be quite predictable, however, considering rainfall. For example, there is a 0.75 chance that the years 1 992-96 will have one dry year or less and will thus support rapid herd growth. There is a 0.25 chance that lack of rainfall would slow herd growth. Once the high-density phase occurs, there is a 0.5 chance of low rainfall in at least one of the first three years and thus a high probability of a drought-induced population crash. This underscores the impression that drought impact is as much influenced by cattle population as by rainfall and leads to the speculation that a major crash could now occur once every 5 to 10 years unless action is taken to stabilise the system.Measures to deal with the long-term trend are needed to maintain favourable terms of trade of livestock for grain, stabilise the cattle population in response to drought and stimulate Borana migration. Ultimately, the future of the Boran will be greatly influenced by the growth of small towns in the rangelands, both as market outlets and sources of employment. The step-wise approach is to (1) improve food security through local cereal pro duction as a temporary measure and by opening regional marketing channels and ( 2) to increase the ratio of cattle to people by incrementally increasing livestock-carrying capacity and stimulating human emigration. Major activities include national, regional and local policy initiatives to: (1 ) stimulate maize production to promote surpluses in the south ern highlands, encourage interregional commerce and de-regulate producer prices for livestock and grain; (2) encourage local maintenance and devel opment of infrastructure and transport networks in the southern rangelands to improve market access and promote growth of towns like Yabelo, Moyale, Mega and Negele; (3) support development agencies in the southern rangelands and encourage their interaction with the Boran on the basis of participatory development that focuses on felt needs of the community; (4) devise a land-use policy in recognition of the need for the Boran to cultivate only on ecologically sustainable sites and maintain viable grazing areas within madda, which will provide a framework for reclaiming drought reserves from human encroachment; (5) increase Boran access to elementary education; and (6) initiate plans to increase access of the Boran to the commercial banking sector and consider strategies to use banked livestock capital to stimulate economic growth in the small towns.Strategies developed to deal with the droughtrecovery phase during 1992-96 should comple ment those employed by the Boran and should include: (1 ) growing maize; (2) selling milk and small ruminants to town dwellers; and (3) attempting to build-up cattle herds. Policy measures should aim at (1) improving food relief activities; (2) promoting favourable terms of trade of livestock and milk for grain by improving market channels (above); (3) taking advantage of opportunities to export sheep from the southern rangelands; and (4) allowing cereal cultivation in ecologically sustainable sites. Technical interventions should be focused in periurban locations for both pastoralists and farmers; this acknowledges logistical constraints for ex tension and that good ideas will be disseminated to outlying areas by Boran who visit market centres. Technical perspectives should give priority to (1) crop management to improve sustainable yields on appropriate sites, enhance crop diversity to reduce risks and promote crop-livestock interactions; ( 2) extending household-level grain storing, concepts to improve seasonal terms of trade; (3) enhancing cow milk production through extension of acaricides; other health measures and improved calf management using grass hay and native legumes to reduce risk of calf mortality and thus lengthen the duration of lactations; (4) improving veterinary service for small ruminants; and (5) developing options and incentives for the Boran to bank livestock capital. For outlying communities, the drought-recovery phase is also the time to: (1) promote site-restoration activities, including burning and regulated charcoal production for bush control; and (2) give encampments easier access by camels thereby enhancing their ability to transport grain from market. All supplies and services should be paid for by the Boran as this will encourage to test their priorities. As the Boran will be unwilling to sell cattle at this time, small ruminants may have to be sold to generate funds.Tactics to deal with the high-density phase could start around 1997 and these should also comp lement those employed by the Boran. Some such as growing maize and selling dairy products are similar to those in the drought-recovery phase but others include: (1) accomodating increased cattle grazing; and (2) reducing the risks incurred by holding more cattle under more precarious en vironmental circumstances. Additional policies or procedures should ensure that agencies are prepared to: (1 ) cope with distributing food relief; (2) encourage projects that develop or maintain water points or build grain stores funded by cattle sales;(3) encourage the banking of livestock capital; (4) ensure that drought reserves are capable of hand ling an adequate number of cattle during a dry year and (5) market cattle to the highlands or for export. For activities 3 and 4 traders should coordinate their efforts to remove marketed cattle from the system. Technical perspectives should give priority to (1) adapting grazing management plans tailored for a particular madda under resource stress; (2) improving drought reserves including distribution of water and grazing; and (3) improving calf-feeding management by using hay and native legumes. Assuming that many strategies will be implemented, the next interdrought cycle after 1 997 should be less catastrophic than that from 1992 to 1997. ln summary, interventions can be grouped according to objective: (1 ) food security is dealt with by encouraging maize production on suitable sites, opening regional markets, de-regulating producer prices and extending health services to livestock;(2) risk mitigation is achieved in part by improving food security, but also by banking livestock capital, reclaiming drought reserves and stimulating offtake to fund community projects; (3) livestock production and herd turnover should be enhanced by factors listed in item 2, because increased offtake during the high-density phase should reduce the densitydependent effects on cow milk production and animal mortality; (4) poverty is alleviated over the short term by banking livestock capital and increasing livestock production and herd turnover; and (5) risks of ecological unsustainability should be reduced by banking livestock capital, reclaiming drought reserves, using restoration methods andThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia grazing management to increase grazing resources available to select madda, and by improving food security which would lessen the need for cultivation. The effects of increased human migration would not be felt for a number of years, but would include improved food security, risk mitigation and poverty alleviation.One intervention, the \"keystone\" intervention, exceeds all others by having positive impact on food security, risk mitigation, livestock production and poverty alleviation; this is banking livestock capital. The constraints for implementing this intervention include: (1) potential distrust by the Boran of banking; (2) barriers that exclude illiterate people from using the banking system; (3) lack of bank branches in the area; and (4) factors such as inflation which are subject to national currency management. Even under conditions of moderate inflation, banking livestock capital could be an effective means to ensure asset accumulation that is less dependent on ecological system dynamics.Although the other interventions in combination could have significant impact, they are more difficult to implement compared to banking livestock capital. Constraints include: (1 ) limited manpower and funds for extension and land-use monitoring; (2) inadequate access to sufficient foreign exchange to procure veterinary supplies, spare parts and other necessities (this is despite the fact that range livestock are intended to be a major generator of foreign exchange); (3) difficulties in development agencies and government coordinating their efforts to affect policy changes and work together to solve important problems; and (4) difficulties of the national economy in producing and distributing consumer goods. Projects perceived as important to the Boran can be paid for in local currency from livestock sales, and this is not viewed as a major obstacle. The irony is that lack of substantial development impact is not due to a lack of technology or inappropriate resistance on the part of the pastoralists.Efficient implementation of the development programme referred to above requires that some routine information be collected concerning cattle herd dynamics, land use, range trend and felt needs of the community on an annual basis. This information could be quantitative or qualitative in nature, and could also be used to validate and/or improve upon ideas proposed in the theory of local system dynamics. lnterpretation of range trend data, in particular, may be complicated by the cyclic pattern of cattle herd dynamics. Herbaceous cover dynamics may appear cyclic rather than linear and trends may be difficult to discern. Similarly, bush establishment may appear as an episodic phenomenon during the high-density phase of the cattle population.Future research priorities should largely involve sociology and economics. These could include study of: (1 ) banking livestock capital to recommend asset management strategies for pastoral house holds and the role banked funds could play in urban development; (2) human population growth and the fate of Borana emigrants; (3) the degree to which the traditional social order can cope with stress and eventual loss of labourers; and (4) implications of system change for vulnerable groups such as women and children. Adaptive research could be directed towards problems involving sustainable cereal cultivation. The need for traditional livestock research is relatively minor.Finally, implications of research findings for 28 major themes are highlighted. These include equilibrial system features, effects of the Boran on the environment, system sustainability, biodiversity, conservation of indigenous livestock breeds, gender issues, livestock production, pastoral production efficiency, upstream versus downstream research, production interventions versus those which mitigate risks, evolution of dairy marketing and agropastoralism, collaboration between research and development agents, and the value of systems science for research, development thinking and education.This chapter attempts to summarise key ideas from previous chapters into a concise development strategy for the southern rangelands. The chapter has several interrelated objectives. One objective is to offer a justification for continued investment in rangeland development. Another is to relate aspects of a proposed development strategy to making progress in attaining three desired outcomes of agricultural growth, poverty alleviation and increased ecological sustainability (Vosti et al, 1991). Another objective is to outline the practical implications of a best-bet strategy in terms of development priorities and tactics, as well as needs for further research. Readers are urged to consult other chapter summaries for details on the structure and function of the Borana production system. These are not reiterated here. Because highland systems in Ethiopia comprise nearly 40% of the land area, over 85% of the human population, over 70% of the livestock and nearly all of the cereal production of the nation, it is clearly appropriate that the highlands should receive priority attention for agricultural development compared to the rangelands. lt is argued, however, that the rangelands cannot be ignored in a national strategy emphasising the highlands because the rangelands will remain as the critical breeding grounds for livestock used domestically and for export. lt is contended that a sustainable increase in the supply of livestock from the rangelands can be promoted by very cost-effective policies and procedures that are in line with national priorities. Livestock development in the highlands today may be largely defined as promotion of more efficient crop-livestock interactions to enhance the important economic roles that livestock play for smallholders (Mclntire and Gryseels, 1987). Re search about the evolution of agricultural systems, however, suggests that production priorities and constraints will continue to change in the highlands as a result of population pressure and competition for resources (Boserup, 1965;Jahnke, 1982). Such continual change is assured by the fact that rates of net population growth in many highland systems exceed 3.5% per year, with a doubling time of 20 years (EMA, 1988). lf urban absorption of rural people remains low, highland systems will become more crowded and cereal cultivation will take up an even higher percentage of grazing land, making it increasingly difficult for highlanders to raise large number of livestock, particularly under extensive conditions. One result of this may be, for example, that rather than raise cattle from calves, highlanders may be forced to trade more for feeder cattle for short-term finishing on crop residues and procure mature or near-mature oxen for draft. ln effect, demand for linkages, as described in Section 1 .4.5.6: Smallholder fattening programme, should intensify. ln addition to domestic demand, demand for livestock for export may also increase. Ethiopia has a dire need for hard currency to help rebuild the national economy. Live sheep and cattle will remain as key options for strengthening and diversifying exports (FLDP, nd).The source of animals to meet increasing demand will be the rangelands. One irony is that while insufficient rainfall is often viewed as the primary constraint for livestock production in rangeland systems, it is variable rainfall which will preserve the rangelands as the centre for extensive livestock production by excluding most other agricultural activities. The potential for the rangelands to supply the rest of the nation with animals remains largely unexploited. lf the Borana situation can be considered as representative of Ethiopian pastoral situations in general, the demographic, economic and social pre-conditions are now in place to accelerate rates of animal offtake given adequate market access and reasonable prices.The Boran have an acute and increasing need for highland grain. Without this grain at favourable terms of trade, risk of famine is now high. A national strategy should recognise comparative advantages for commodity production in different agroecological zones and exploit this through policies and procedures which: (1) encourage increased cereal production in the highlands to promote surpluses for export to the rangelands (especially maize); ( 2) promote settlement of regional political disputes which threaten security and commerce; (3) improve infrastructure and transport capability; (4) deregulate prices; and (5) diversify trade and promote competition among traders. Such scenario of interzonal integration was envisioned for Ethiopia at least by the early 1 970s and was the justification for the SLDP and TLDP. Despite past frustrations, recent efforts to liberalise interregional trade, together with increased population pressures that will continue to force both farmers and pastoralists to become more market oriented, may now help speed the attainment of national agricultural integration. ln terms of promoting the flow of livestock from the lowlands, Ethiopia has a large stake in the ecological sustainability of rangeland ecosystems and in maintaining a viable population of pastoral producers. Policies and interventions in the rangelands should promote: (1 )  As reviewed in Chapter 7, the perceived outcome of development activities in the southern rangelands since the 1960s includes: (1) creation of a larger, and potentially less stable, regional cattle herd that periodically degrades the environment; and (2) the rise of a human population that is increasingly dependent on famine relief and rehabilitation. There has been no documented increase in cattle offtake or a widespread and sustained improvement in human welfare as a result of veterinary campaigns or the development of ponds, roads or markets. Any increased production accruing from interventions has probably been absorbed to a large extent by a growing subsistent population rather thanThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia marketed. Livestock commercialisation has probably also been hindered by interregional trade barriers, poor transport capability and low domestic prices that encourage rather than discourage international black-market activity. These are common pastoral development problems also experienced elsewhere in Africa.lt is nevertheless concluded that, while past impact of infrastructural improvements appears minimal, it is now fortunate that roads and markets are in place. They will become the lifeline for a society increasingly dependent on nonpastoral resources as a result of rapid population growth. lmpact of development intervention is thus a function of timing in relation to population pressure. The Boran are not becoming more commerceoriented because they want to, but because they have to. This picture fits general conceptual models of agrarian change (Boserup, 1965;1980).Expectations for rapid pastoral development in the 1970s and 1980s were unrealistic, and in part this was due to faulty assumptions in the project planning stage. That pastoralists desire to increase cattle sales to make money is an example of cultural bias of the West. The Boran clearly have their own traditional social and economic value for cattle, and have traditionally had a low demand for money. Their tendency has always been to try to accumulate cattle and avoid sales as much as possible (Coppock,1 992b). lt is the increased need for human food that propels livestock commercial isation and diversification today, not a new rationale among the Boran to raise incomes and acquire material possessions. Development planners thus failed to appreciate a cultural rationale for animal production that differed from their own. Another example deals with the desire of planners to see more marketed offtake of immature cattle to benefit fattening schemes of smallholders in the highlands, also consistent with a Western ideal (von Kaufmann, 1976). This perspective fails to take into account that sales of immatures are contrary to the traditional rationale of herd accumu lation through trade. Matures are traditionally prioritised by pastoralists for sale because production costs are negligible and gross income is higher, allowing purchase of needed commodities with left-over funds to buy replacement calves. This simple strategy allows for both the purchase of commodities plus herd growth of households.Availability of immatures for sale will increase in the Borana system, thus satisfing the vision of planners. This trend will not come, however, because the Boran desire to develop cattle production in the Western fashion, but rather because the increasing need to sell animals to purchase grain will gradually deplete older classes of animals traditionally preferred for sale. More immatures for sale thus indicate an increasing level of poverty in Borana society, a decline in herd assets per capita and lower capability for animal replacement. Like the postulated increase in cattle offtake in general, the increase in sales of immatures will please development planners, but it is happening as a result of the economic destruction of traditional Borana society. While a shift to live stock commercialisation is necessary because of a rising population, this involves painful social costs.Another Western development bias involves the apparent lack of appreciation that some planners and researchers have for extensive interventions in the promotion of increased animal production and human welfare. The perceived lack of appropriate production technology for rangeland systems means that range science has been relegated to an inferior status within agricultural research. Extensive interventions are those which tend to increase animal numbers rather than productivity per head. An increase in animal numbers can actually be more valuable to households than increased production per head because this can lead to more marketing and production options and can better mitigate risks. lncreasing numbers is also less dependent on labour inputs and less risk.The Boran have noted the many positive effects of veterinary campaigns, roads, ponds and markets on their lives; these benefits have been commonly reported in terms of increased animal numbers. Aside from using interviews, the effects of devel opment projects on their lives besides increasing their herd, are difficult to monitor or measure. Still, extensive interventions implemented in the southern rangelands since the 1 960s have probably played a valuable role in delaying the onset of widespread poverty in Borana society. Oppor tunities to extensify further are now limited, however, which opens windows of opportunity for improvement of some aspects of resource management and animal production that were not considered a decade ago. This again is so largely because the people have no other choice.Finally, another major strategy that underpinned livestock development activities in the southern rangelands was to obtain animals for export to generate foreign exchange. The essence of the overall strategy was thus extractive in terms of demands for the highlands and for export; and the focus was on more animal production and stimulat ing offtake. Although Borana leaders participated in some aspects of infrastructure planning in the 1 970s and 1980s (Menwyelet Atsedu, Colorado State University, personal communication), only recently has the primary project emphasis shifted to participatory development involving the Borana people as a whole (see Section 1 .4.3: The SERP and the Pilot Project). Even if TLDP management had desired to broaden their mandate to include more participatory development in earlier activities, they would have been constrained by fund allocation restrictions. Project management usually has had to obtain permission from donors outside Ethiopia before even minor modifications in project delivery could be considered (Menwyelet Atsedu, Colorado State University, personal communi cation).The emphasis on extracting animals from the system has probably had both positive and negative attributes. lt is positive in that it has resulted in development of local infrastructure. The region could have easily been ignored otherwise. The negative side is that initiatives to improve the lives of producers did not receive the same kind of attention as stimulating livestock production from the beginning. lt is unfortunate that resources were not directed towards human development through education, vocational training or other participatory development back in the 1960s or 1970s. The greatest challenge today in the southern rangelands is dealing with human overpopulation. lt has been estimated, just for the study area, that dramatic improvements in food security would only result from reducing the human population by 50% (i.e. by 39 000) and by providing employment for a net increase of 2000 people each year. With no education or training possibilities combined with lack of employment opportunities a potentially explosive situation is created. The extreme cultural and political isolation of pastoralists in Ethiopia has erected barriers against their emigration into urban areas; and this has contributed greatly to their precarious circumstances today. This problem would have obviously been easier to address 20 years ago than today when it has become a case of crisis management. ln sum, past livestock development in the southern rangelands is a disappointment in some respects, but it has not completely failed. There have been some notable achievements. The improved infrastructure, in particular, is becoming tremendously important and will contribute to saving and improving the lives of pastoralists. Expectations of development activites were inappropriate in many respects, and development and system change take a long time. lmportantly, pastoral development did not perform poorly because of a lack of technology, but rather because Western-trained planners and expert consultants had a faulty understanding of the social, cultural and demo graphic features of Borana society. The task is for national personnel and expert consultants to become more familiar with the dynamics of pastoral systems. This will enable the design of more appropriate development strategies.As will be seen below, Borana society is in acute crisis today. This is largely due to human population growth, compounded by few emigration outlets, both for the Boran and their neighbouring ethnic groups. This has led to dangerous densities of population in an inherently risky environment; population growth has begun to swallow up traditional grazing reserves and related resources which used to promote stability under drought perturbation. lmportantly, the crisis does not mean that traditional pastoralism has failed or is unsuitable for the rangelands. ln another sense, the cirisis can be interpreted to show that pastoralism has been too successful for its own good, in terms of promoting a growing population of producers. Most of the constraints for ameliorating the crisis are found outside, not inside, the pastoral sector. The current situation in the southern rangelands is disastrous (Bocresion, 1992; C. Fiitterknecht, CARE-Ethiopia, personal communication). Roughly 200 000 beneficiaries in the region are now re ceiving food relief, and around 50% of the cattle population was lost as a result of the 1990-91 drought. Some \"good news\", however, is that different ethnic groups are seeking ways to improve their situation by reaching agreements aimed at promoting improved regional security (Bocresion, 1992). The scenario of worsening poverty and instability in Borana supports the view that African pastoral systems are in jeopardy and must receive priority attention for urgent relief and rehabilitation rather than the \"luxury\" of well-planned efforts to promote economic development (Jahnke, 1982). lt will be argued, however, that there are some aspects of economic change which could swiftly mitigate the current crisis. Jahnke's (1982) perspective may thus be too simplistic. Again, this dire situation of the Boran appears to be relatively recent (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus nonequilibrial population dynamics). This undermines the long-held view that the Borana system is an exemplary model of sustainable range animal production in Africa (Alberro, 1986;Pratt, 1987a).Whether at national, regional or local scales of resolution, rural development can be thought of as an attempt to attain progress towards three desired outcomes of: (1) agricultural growth; (2) poverty alleviation; and (3) increased ecological sustainability of agricultural enterprises (Vosti et al, 1991). lf we were to ignore the situation in Borana by not facilitating interregional market linkages, avoiding opportunities for participatory develop  2) increasing poverty; and (3) increased scope for environmental degradation. Food relief will no longer be an occasional measure; it will always be needed. An increasing number of Boran will attempt to leave the system, but without facilitation this flow is expected to be minor. Young men, in particular, will seek opportunities to participate in black-market trade, try marginal farming in areas adjacent to the rangelands and the few with some education may hope to become shop keepers in local towns. Others may essentially live off the streets of small towns. Women probably will have fewer options. Details for the main trends are as follows: 1 ) Declining cattle production and asset accumu lation per capita occurs because the cattle population is limited by the available land yet the human population continues to grow. See Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics. lf agricultural growth is defined as a per capita sum of annual production of crops and livestock in energy terms, and averaged over five consecutive years to see trends, the trend may be for agricultural growth to initially increase as cultivation expands. Once the most viable cropping areas have been cultivated and the human population continues to surge, the forecast is that agricultural growth will decline. lf land is permanently degraded by either upland cultivation or bush encroachment (see below), its carrying capacity for cattle may be com promised and agricultural growth would decline more quickly. 2) lncreased poverty results from high human population growth on a finite resource base.Because per capita cattle holdings will decline, a growing percentage of households will dip below an animal-asset threshold that makes them vulnerable to dropping out of the system in the event of drought or animal disease epidemics. ln the case of drought, the severity of its impact will be greater because of the loss of internal and external grazing reserves. Fewer households will be able to return to the system because the competition for cattle and other resources will be intensified. The most visible result of this trend will be an increased periurban population pockets of the poor. They will depend on daily sales of things like milk, eggs, firewood and charcoal for their survival. Producers who remain in the system will, on average, have a smaller cattle holding consisting of younger cattle with a higher percentage of females; more small ruminants may be held as a diversification strategy (Coppock, 1992b). 3) Cultivation would spread because of a chronic threat of famine. Cultivation could be increas ingly difficult to control and its practice on upland soils is expected to be the major source of rangeland degradation in the future. Cultivation on lowland soils will be far more sustainable, but will compete with other strategic uses of valley bottoms. The future of traditional leadership structures will have a large bearing on resource regulation, whether it is the spread of cultivation or charcoal-making. The future of the Gada and related social structures is not clear. lf the male youths do not embrace traditional leadership duties, the prospect is that traditional knowledge and enforcement of resource use regulations could wane (see Section 2.4.2.2: Some cultural and organisational features). Granted that all this paints a dismal portrait of the future of the Boran, what are the consequences of these trends for local urban centres and the nation at large? ln other words, does it make any difference outside the traditional system how bad the situation becomes for the Boran? For local urban centres such as Yabelo, Mega, Moyale and Negele, it is likely that a growing number of unemployed pastoral emigrants would negatively affect the general social welfare. The needs of the nation in terms of animal offtake could also be affected, and it is possible that both positive and negative results could occur: lt is conceivable, for example, that one benefit could be an increased supply of marketable sheep from producers diversifying to cope with increasing poverty, as long as epidemic diseases of sheep are controlled. lncreased sheep production and offtake, however, could also result from higher prices and improved marketing channels and without the spectre of negative system change.For cattle, it is assumed that prices will increase to become more competitive with those of the Kenya black market (Solomon Desta, TLDP economist, personal communication). lf the extent of poverty increases, cattle inventories per capita would become smaller and less diverse for producers who 276The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia remain in the system. This could result in an increasing pressure on households in trying to retain cattle for wealth accumulation; marketed offtake could then decline over time in conjunction with an increase in price. This tendency would be somewhat offset by an increased need to sell cattle to buy food, unless small ruminants emerged as a viable substitute. One negative means to spur cattle offtake over the longer term would be to keep cattle prices low, but this strategy would only redirect offtake to Kenya. The strategy could also undermine survival of poor households and lead to more emigration of poor people to local urban centres.A positive solution would be to promote inter ventions that improve household wealth and security and obtain offtake from a sustainable population of producers. The encroachment of people and livestock into traditonal grazing reserves is another critical issue. A more stable cattle population, with highlands grain available at favourable terms of trade, should help stem the need for the Boran to cultivate. There should thus be long-term implications of this strategy for ecological sustainability of the system.Finally, it is proposed that it is in the long-term interest of the Ethiopian Government to encourage development among the Boran to help preserve the traditional social order. lf this is not done, the entire production system could become unsustainable. There would be no other means to ensure, for example, that the wells operate efficiently in dry seasons. Without other viable technical options, human labour remains as the best means to ensure that the system continues to provide animals for the rest of the nation. The social order ensures well operation and maintenance. A loss of social traditions also implies that indigenous productionrelated knowledge about land use, forage and animal management could be lost. ln sum, the problem becomes how to achieve agricultural growth, reduce poverty, improve prospects for ecological sustainability, enhance stability and predictability in the production system, and increase the economic contribution of the Boran to the rest of the nation. A possible solution to this dilemma is described below.The following scenario offers a number of options.These options are structured to deal with a hierarchy of priorities. The options also vary in their degree of immediate applicability. Despite that some ideas cannot be readily implemented, they are forwarded to illustrate important system interactions and constraints that must be overcome if sustainable development has any chance of happening.Although the Boran find themselves in a difficult situation today, they do have two major advantages that could help them dig their way out of the crisis and create wealth: (1 ) the Boran have an explosive capability to generate animals; and (2) they have a high degree of open-mindedness concerning the adoption of appropriate innovations. The main challenge is how to help the Boran better manage and accumulate wealth accrued from animal pro duction to benefit themselves and the society at large.Priorities are listed in order of their importance as follows. Each priority has a short and long-term dimension. Priorities are interrelated in that attainment of one goal increases the likelihood that subsequent goals can be realised. The priorities are: (1) improve food security; (2) reduce risks associated with animal production and asset accumulation; (3) improve livestock production and herd turnover; and (4) enhance emigration of pastoralists out of the system in a fashion which is beneficial to the society at large; and (5) increase prospects for the long-term sustainability of the system based on social and ecological factors. lmportantly, the applicable time scales for the attainment of each goal vary. Efforts to improve food security must be tried now. lnterventions to reduce producer risks can begin now, but the benefits would not be realised for a few years. lnterventions to enhance system sustainability are intertwined with the others and could begin soon. Realising the goal of system sustainability, however, would require a time frame of a generation or more.lf it is assumed that the first priority of food security can be dealt with, attainment of the second priority is the key to everything else that follows. The one linch-pin of the entire strategy is instituting an alternative wealth storage from cattle to simple savings accounts in local banks. Over the long term, it is proposed that the future of Boran society be strongly linked to the growth and economic development of local towns such as Yabelo, Mega, Negele and Moyale. These are the source of market outlets and jobs. The banking linkage would actually help the towns prosper with the help of the Boran, thereby completing an economic loop of mutual assistance. Storage of animal wealth in banks may not always offer the best mix of returns and risk reduction compared to investment in urban commercial opportunities, but banking is thought to be the most appropriate option for the largest proportion of the pastoral population.Pastoral development in the southern rangelands has to be fundamentally based on further expansion and development of major towns. ln total these towns may have an urban population of The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia around 30 000 today. Considering the 1 5 475-km2 study area, the total pastoral population may be around 85 000 (Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics). The urban population may thus con stitute a surprising 35% of the regional population of 115 000.The towns currently provide the major local markets to absorb sales of animals and dairy products. The major employment opportunities in these towns appears to be shop keeping and government administration. ldeally these towns should offer more job opportunities for unskilled labourers in the future to facilitate emigration of people out of the pastoral sector. There is little doubt, however, that there are high rates of unemployment among urban dwellers in these towns today; so it is recognised that prospects for job creation based on existing resources are nil (Girma Bisrat, PADEP Coordinator, personal com munication). Officials responsible for regional development planning must consider creation of labour-intensive industries in these towns. These could include efforts to create value-added products based on local resources such as hides and skins or industries which complement or substitute for cross-border commodity trade with Kenya. These are important topics for investigation by expert consultants. lf capital is a major constraint for developing local industries, it is to be recalled from Chapter 7 that there is tremendous potential for generating such capital if the Boran could be enticed to manage some of their cattle assets as savings accounts in local banks as part of their riskmanagement strategy.lt was calculated that if each middle class and wealthy family in the study area were to bank the value of one to three head of male cattle per household, respectively, this would generate the equivalent of US$1 .7 million peryearfrom an offtake of 14 500 head. lf the regional cattle herd could be held at less than 300 000 head, this could also reduce risks of animal mortality and production decreases due to density-dependent interactions. This invokes concepts of sustainable yield. The offtake of 14 500 head is just 26% of a net annual increase of 54 000 head in an average rainfall year, which was calculated after subtracting 14 000 head for routine purchase of grain and other essentials. ln a dry year, the net increase may be much smaller (on the order of 12 000 head) because grain purchases rise and cattle production slightly declines.Implications of the systems theory: ln Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics, it is proposed that two fundamental patterns influence system change: (1) a long-term trend based on the declining ratio of cattle to people; and (2) interdrought cycles based on variable stocking rates of cattle that force social, economic and production adjustments by the Boran on a year-to-year basis. The interdrought cycle consists of a multi-year drought-recovery phase followed by a potentially multi-year high-density phase. The most important period to exploit for faster development impact is the interdrought cycle. For long-term system manage ment, it is important to deal with long-term trends. ln addition to the drought-recovery and the highdensity phases, drought itself comprises a third system phase. Means to deal with drought are considered more in the context of relief and rehabilitation, however, and measures to deal with drought are described in Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact.lt is proposed that following the aftermath of the 1990-91 drought, the years 1992-96 will constitute the drought-recovery phase. There is a high probability that the years 1992-96 would have adequate rainfall to allow substantial herd growth with roughly a 75% chance that these five years would contain one dry year or shorter. There is thus about a 25% chance that rainfall would be markedly below average for two or more years, which could disrupt rapid growth of the regional cattle herd that is otherwise anticipated during the drought-recovery phase.Many Boran will go hungry throughout the drought-recovery phase and thus will try to expand cultivation. Those in peri-urban locations that are unable to secure enough home grown grain will try to purchase it by selling milk and small ruminants. Milk will be sold from a food-deficit situation and small ruminants will substitute cattle for sale, where possible. The people will try to produce and accumulate cattle as quickly as they can. Male cattle will be traded for cows, where possible, to obtain milk cows from farmers in the southern highlands. The southern highlands will increasingly serve as a reservoir for cattle to restock the southern rangelands after droughts. Crossbreeding highland and lowland stocks may endanger genetic conservation of the Boran breed (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics and Section 5.4.5: Cattle growth and implications for breed persistence).Around 1996-97, it is postulated that cattle production per unit area would peak. This assumes near-average rainfall during these years. Densitydependent factors, due to increased competition among cattle for a finite base of forage, will then begin to cause cattle productivity to decline per head and per unit area in subsequent years. Fewer Boran will be hungry compared to the drought-recovery phase, but they will need to increase their efforts to cultivate once again. Cattle sales to procure grain will increase from a larger standing herd, in addition to sales of small ruminants. Sales of milk and butter from peri-urban producers will surge from an increasing food-deficit situation.The high-density phase would begin around 1997. There is a 50% chance, based on rainfall probabilities, that the first three years of the highdensity phase (i.e. 1997-2000) would have nearnormal rainfall. Under these conditions it would be a time of subtle, but chronic, decline in livestock productivity, increased cultivation, increased conservatism and risk-averse behaviour among producers, and increased chance for grazinginduced establishment of bush seedlings and other forms of range degradation. Prospects for range degradation may increase if rainfall is slightly above average (Section 7.2.3.1: Range ecology). Calf mortality should rise and milk production should decrease, even if adult cattle are able to hang on and survive. As argued in Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics, the devastation on the production system from drought in recent times is caused by low rainfall in conjunction with high stocking rates and gradual loss of grazing reserves. All this combines to dramatically increase risks of widespread animal mortality because of insufficient supplies of forage energy. There is a 36% chance that there would be one dry year in the three-year period from 1997-2000 and a 1 4% chance of two or more dry years. The problem then becomes that at high stocking rates, there is about a 50% chance overall of a drought-induced population crash during the first three years of the high-density phase.There are key technical and policy interventions which should be implemented to: (1) lessen the negative effects of the long-term trend; or (2) promote step-wise development impacts during the interdrought cycles. lmpact of interventions employed during the interdrought cycle will vary depending upon whether they are implemented during: (1) the drought-recovery phase or (2) highdensity phase.Whether it is short or long-term, impact on human welfare can only be achieved if there is the political will and logistical capability for implement ing development intervention. lmportantly, wide spread impact from policy and technical inter ventions can only be achieved if the various governmental and nongovernmental agencies arrive at a new plane of dialogue and cooperation. Mobilising the human population for improved range development over the long term is far beyond the capability of SORDU to undertake on its own. Other key players include the Borana leadership, the commercial banking sector, the Ministries of Agriculture and Education, local politicians and international organisations.Best-bet interventions are described below according to development objective and the time scale of impact. Readers should consult previous chapters for particulars that underpin development concepts.Managing the long-term trend primarily involves policies and procedures which affect patterns of human settlement, carrying capacity for livestock, food production in the form of per capita milk yields and rates of human emigration out of the pastoral sector. Some of the key ideas are as follows:1 ) lt has been proposed that the recent severity of crashes of the cattle herd because of low rainfall is to a large extent the result of a gradual loss of reliable grazing reserves or fallback areas, both internally in the southern rangelands and externally in adjacent regions. Hence reclaiming internal fallback areas should be a high priority for stabilising the system. lt needs to be considered, however, whether people now forced to live in fallback areas could be moved elsewhere if water and other supporting resources could be developed. SORDU has considered moving households at Did Hara madda in response to environmental de gradation (SORDU, 1991), so such concepts have been considered before. A partnership needs to be formed between Borana leaders and local development agents to study possible solutions to this problem now. This may also require research as to current use patterns of fallback regions and whether traditional resource-use customs of the Boran are being enforced or not (see Section 8.3: Research implications). The intervention involving banking livestock capital (see below) could be important in this activity. People using drought reserves should be identified with respect to their home madda. Adjustments to destock the home madda in order to re-accomodate the migrants could be made by banking the value of excess animals. 2) As shown in Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts, there are many opportunities for small-scale production impact at the madda or deda level of resolution. These involve opportunities for technical intervention and resource management that together could have a marked effect on range reclaimation and thus increase its carrying capacity and improveThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia pastoral flexibility over time. A sustained and routine dialogue needs to be opened between the Borana leadership and development agents to prioritise self-help projects with this long-term goal in mind. Ultimately, the most effective approach may involve initial technical assistance from the development agents, with the Boran taking responsibility for financing, implementing and managing any given project. The success of any given project may depend on whether it is implemented in the droughtrecovery phase or high-density phase of an interdrought cycle (see below). Along these lines, development and governmental agents should determine whether the Boran desire outside support to augment traditional resourceuse regulations that have become less effective under population pressure (see Section 7.3.1 .4: Site reclamation). Development agents should become more familiar with such customs, even to the extent of transcribing them and using them as a basis for local resource-use policy. The senior leadership of the Boran should be intimately involved in such a process. 3) Policies and procedures which increase widespread access of young Boran to primary education need to be implemented soon, although effects of education on increasing rates of emigration may not be felt for a number of years. Emigration is also dependent on opportunities outside the pastoral sector. Costs of extending education could be borne, at least in part, by the Boran if creative approaches are pursued. lt is anticipated that the Boran are much more open to educating some of their youth compared to a generation ago, although fear that education could accelerate loss of key labourers may remain a prominent concern especially among large herd owners (see Section 7.5: Management ofhuman emigration).The degree to which females as well as males could receive education is subject to the gender biases and priorities of Borana society. lt is speculated that males with primary education may have a greater tendency to leave the system permanently compared to females. Economic diversification of the production system may thus depend to a greater degree on educated females who remain. Educated females could thus have a key role in facilitating risk management initiatives such as banking livestock capital on a sustained basis, because this requires some degree of literacy in the population (see below). lf efforts to stimulate emigration out of the Borana system are successful, one negative result may be that shortages of key manpower may ultimately occur. One example is the need for strong men to raise water in the shaft of the deep wells. lt is not likely that women or children could substitute very effectively in this regard. lf shortages of key labour begin to occur, SORDU and other agents need to consider replacement innovations. One such example is the recent effort to reduce the depth of some well shafts by lowering the surface access area using excavation with heavy machinery (Tilaye Bekele, TLDP, personal communication). Such an intervention could reduce the labour requirement by reducing the length of the human chain needed to raise the water.The negative aspect of such an innovation, however, is that the well modification may need to be accompanied by new practices that protect the right of the poor to access resources. Like installation of diesel pumps, any intervention that dramatically reduces the need for labour in the wells runs the risk that influential people can then take control of wells for watering only their large herds. Traditionally the wealthy have been dependent upon the poor for labour, and compensation is made accordingly. Rapid removal of this dependency could accelerate wealth stratification and bode unfavourably for the society overall. ln sum, SORDU needs to have a periodic policy review of its intervention concepts and weigh impacts of its actions taking into consideration the system dynamics at all times. 4) Policies which continue to stimulate population growth of the small towns in the rangelands are important if growth can be managed and negative aspects of resource use minimised.Recent growth of the small towns has reportedly been due in a large measure to immigration from other parts of the country. Since urban growth could translate into an increasing local demand for milk, butter, beef, small ruminants and poultry products, it has significant implications for oreating larger market opportunities for the Boran. One negative aspect of urban growth, however, could be increased peri-urban cultivation on fragile upland soils by immigrant farmers and an increasing demand for firewood and charcoal that could place new and growing pressure on the surrounding areas, leading to environmental degradation. Lack of a high demand for fuel locally in the past may have discouraged illegal charcoal production. lmproved cultivation practices among urban farmers could be a first step in promoting integrated resource use in the southern rangelands, and this is also within the logistical capability of the Ministry of Agriculture with branches in the Borana towns (see technical perspectives below). With regard to the use of fire wood, it is proposed that SORDU initiate some pilot study as to whether the Boran in madda surrounding urban areas could control this themselves. While this may not appear as a sound idea at first, experiences near Awash Park in the Ethiopian Rift Valley suggest that pastoralists can be very effective in monitoring resource use by town dwellers (C. Schloeder, Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Organisation, personal communication). Pastoralists near towns have a vested interest in not allowing urban dwellers to exploit resources without payment such as maintaining a viable com munity of indigenous trees for their browsing livestock especially since these are in decline. The fact that the Afar and Kereyou pastoralists, like the Boran, are heavily armed, makes merely the threat of enforcement sufficient to dis courage overharvesting of trees. 5) Another long-term perspective that should receive attention now is whether a viable urban development strategy for towns such as Yabelo, Mega, Negele and Moyale based on local industries is feasible. As already proposed earlier in this section an economic link of mutual benefit between these towns and the pastoral population is a vital concept in regional develop ment. Development of labour-intensive industries should be linked to provision of capital loans by local banks made possible by Borana livestock sales. Recommendations for urban develop ment strategies require considerable creativity and know-how. Such task falls in the domain of expertise consultants and experienced planners.To the extent that government offices support the economy of these small towns, considerable thought needs to be given as to whether government presence should be consolidated or diversified in terms of location. Abruptly closing government offices would probably have considerable negative effects on the economy of towns such as Yabelo and Negele. 6) Banking livestock capital in the form of male cattle is envisioned as an intervention with major implications for managing the system over the short to medium term, and as such is forwarded as an intervention in the context of the interdrought cycle (below). The alternative of keeping cattle wealth as bank accounts also has implications for risk management and food production over the long term in that it could promote a gradual increase in the proportion of milk cows in the regional herd without compromising the asset accumulating and risk mitigating capability of households. Otherwise it is envisioned that the Boran will increase the proportion of milk cows as a tactic to offset human population pressure and maintain per capita milk production with a proportional decline in their capability to mitigate economic risks. Without opportunities to bank livestock capital the outcome of the situation would probably be one of increased rates of households dropping out of the system following droughts and other perturbations, along with increased expansion of cultivation. ln order to ensure that banking livestock capital has a positive effect on the production system, by reducing competition for forage among cattle, measures should be taken to facilitate purchases that result in animals being taken out of the system after they are sold. 7) Export of cattle and sheep from the rangelands is reported to comprise one of the most important sources of foreign exchange for the nation. Given this, it is unfortunate that rangedevelopment groups such as SORDU are unable to come by even very modest amounts of foreign exchange on a regular basis to secure resources they need for efforts to improve livestock production and human welfare among the Boran. There is, for example, a need to import veterinary supplies, arboricides, acaricides and a regular allotment of fuel for the maintenance of infrastructure. Policies which serve to recognise the return from livestock production to the nations' foreign exchange balance, and hence facilitate access by rangedevelopment groups to a modest amount of foreign exchange, are desireable. The Boran have repeatedly stressed that they can compensate investment for water develop ment and veterinary support projects through increased livestock sales. Such compensation even in local currency is better than nothing. lt may be argued that to be truly sustainable, development of the southern rangelands should never rely on any foreign exchange. While there is some validity to this argument, if this is to be the case, then expectations for development impact should be lowered. Earlier in this chapter it is argued that increased famine and other disruptions to the social order in Borana will bode unfavourably for the national economy. The long-term picture suggests that in the absence of reliance on foreign exchange, Ethiopia must develop its own capabilities to produce pharmaceuticals, chemicals and fossil fuel.The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia cycle. Those dependent on low stocking rates would be more successful in the drought-recovery phase; those dependent on high stocking rates would be more successful in the high-density phase. The current interdrought cycle is stipulated for the period covering 1992-97. There are some policy inter ventions described in the context of the inter drought cycle that could also be forwarded with the aim of mitigating the long-term negative trend (above). They are listed here, however, because their impacts could be felt over the short or medium term as well. Impact in the drought-recovery phase, 1 992-96:The top priority overall is to improve food security. Secondary priorities are to begin setting the stage for improvements in risk management of pastoral assets and reducing environmental degradation.The following interventions are considered important because they complement tactics that the Boran would be employing any way during 1 992-96. These tactics include: (1 ) growing maize for food (2) selling milk in peri-urban areas; (3) selling more small ruminants; and (4) trying to build up their cattle herds through recruitment and trade. Policies: The concepts governing intervention policies and procedures should be as follows: 1) Today the top national priority is to facilitate the continued presence of international organis ations which are actively feeding people in the southern rangelands. 2) At regional and national levels, policies that could have the most positive impact in reducing the need for relief grain within a couple of years would be those that encourage higher pro duction of maize in and facilitate its free flow to the southern highlands. lt is recognised that increased cereal production and promotion of a freer flow of commerce involves complex regional and national issues (see Section 8.2.1 : Future role of the lowlands in the national economy). Allowing, for example, animal prices to rise in Borana to levels that are competitive with Kenya could also shift the flow of marketed livestock from Kenya back to Ethiopia. This could help complete regional linkages in the livestock-for-grain trade at more favourable terms for producers. lmproved terms of trade and the increased reliability of markets should have a big and relatively rapid impact in helping peri-urban Boran feed themselves by selling animals and possibly reduce their need to expand cereal cultivation on fragile upland soils. lf the international market for sheep exports is promising, or if it is deemed that the domestic demand could be better supplied, then another policy initiative should be to actively push for increased sheep offtake from the southern rangelands. The Boran have shown themselves to be responsive to such demand in the past. This is not the time to push for increased cattle offtake because sales could work against the interests of many Borana households who are primarily interested in building up herd numbers.3) Measures originating from regional or national levels and directed at improving access of pastoralists in remote areas to regional markets, so they can sell perishable commodities such as milk and butter, are also important. These include supporting road-maintenance activities, grass-roots service cooperatives (Hogg, 1990a) and rural bus service and other means of transport. Local policy makers should also consider whether the activities of itinerant traders could be facilitated. 4) At the local level, policy makers and land-use planners should be guided by perspectives given in Section 2.4.1.4: Climate, primary production and carrying capacity and Chapter 3: Vegetation dynamics and resource use, to identify valleys where cultivation by the Boran could be permitted with little risk to the sustainability of soil resources. ln total area these may comprise less than 10% of the study area. Ways should be explored to convince the Borana leadership that it is to their self-interest to restrict cereal cultivation to conserve range resources for livestock and limit ecological damage to upland soils. Ultimately, it is conceded that cultivation can only be controlled if the Boran are convinced that a balance between livestock production and cultivation is in their best interest as a society. Proclamations made at the 1 988 Gumi Gayu assembly suggest that the leadership seeks to sustain their natural resource base (Section 2.4.2.2: Some cultural and organisational features). 5) Policies that promote saving accounts in banks by pastoralists need to be reviewed now. Considerations as to whether more branch banks should be opened in the local towns and whether bank procedures can be creatively modified to accomodate illiterate people should figure prominently in these policies as well as incentives for pastoralists who are wiling to bank some of their livestock assets. Extension services dealing with banking livestock capital should focus on those Boran who apparently are already involved in the banking system (see Section 7.3.3.6: Cattle marketing and Section 7.3.3.7: Mitigation of drought impact). lmple mentation of such measures would have to forge new partnerships among the Borana leadership, SORDU, nongovernmental organisations, the banking sector and local government administrators. Given the right information and easy access, some Boran could begin banking a few animals even during the drought-recovery phase. The most favourable time for promoting the practice, however, would be in the highdensity phase (see below). Pastoralists that take to this strategy would accumulate cash assets for coping with unfavourable terms of trade during drought.Banking is also an intervention with a prospect for major impact that is more consistent with the highly constrained extension capabilites of de velopment organisations. But detailed research that focuses on the risk, in the different phases of the interdrought cycle, of banking versus holding livestock may need to be undertaken (see Section 8.3: Research implications).Banking livestock capital is forwarded as the single most comprehensive measure to encourage agricultural growth, reduce poverty, increase system stability and minimise the possibilities of environmental degradation. The key is that increased animal offtake can benefit production, and if offtake can be conserved as wealth, the producers benefit in several ways. lf means can be found to give illiterate people access to the banking system, and their anxiety about this new practice can be reduced if not removed, the only constraint of this intervention may be national policy involving management of inflation. Technical interventions: Technical interventions fall more in the traditional realm of efforts targeted at improving commodity production and the priority concepts for the drought-recovery phase involve improving food production (especially grain and milk). Compared to policy interventions, technical interventions will be much more difficult to imple ment, especially if they require significant extension work. This is not because of constraints arising from the indigenous environment per se, but because lack of manpower, fuel and vehicles greatly limits the capability of extension services in meeting routine needs in a pastoral community in which producers are widely dispersed. Priority inter ventions should thus be those that the Boran can carry out themselves. An example of this is hay making using local grasses. Development agents need to make good use of group seminar formats and community meetings to extend new ideas to the Boran. This could partially compensate for the lack of easy mobility that now characterises extension service. ln any event some of the technical concepts are: 1) Cultivation will expand. However, if it does not expand over the short term, there is a serious risk of famine. One means to discourage expansion of cultivation to unsuitable sites is to enhance production on the more suitable ones such as valley bottoms. By doing that the negative consequences of expanding cultivation on the system could be minimised, especially if provisions could be made to also maintain strategic grazing resources. lf the long-term trend is well managed, the need for cultivation may decline in the future which implies that cultivation may be a solution for crisis man agement only over the medium term.Nothing short of sending in the army would discourage the Boran from cultivating now. So SORDU, the Ministry of Agriculture, and non governmental organisations need to make a combined effort to diagnose sources of inefficency in local maize production and promote basic interventions for sustainable crop production. These could include introducing and improving site selection, tillage, planting, weeding, intercropping and managing soil nutrients using crop rotation and manure. Such efforts should begin with the peri-urban farmers. Experience has shown that the Boran learn quickly, taking good farming ideas back to remote locations. The problem is that yields are probably low and extensive methods pose a larger threat to the environment. lt was stated in Section 7.3.2: Land-use policy and agronomic interventions, that the Boran will probably not intensify cultivation until they perceive that the benefits of intensification outweigh the costs of the additional labour. A case in point is the better use of the mountains of manure at encamp ments. Simply providing a better means for the people to transport manure from corrals to the fields could do if soil fertility is the primary cropproduction constraint. Hodgson (1990) demon strated that even simple two-wheeled carts were not sustainable in the southern rangelands because of a lack of welding and metal-working capability in the urban sector.Three guiding principles are important for crop production interventions: (1) introduction of forage intercrops with maize will fail unless they are dual purpose and also provide food for people; (2) new intercrops should lower the risks of cultivation by providing food for people under rainfall conditions when maize fails because of other reasons; and (3) a major problem with sustaining new crop varieties in the rangelands is merely a reliable source of seeds. Yohannes Alemseged (1989) convincingly demonstrated that dual-purpose cowpea was the best intercrop among the species he tested in terms of yield of seeds and forage and with low competition with maize. Cowpea is also perceived by the Boran to be more successful under less rain than maize. Dual-purpose cowpea should thus form the basis of crop production intervention strategies. Access to seed could be facilitated by improved interactions among the Boran and local farmers. Procedures that facilitate these interactions would have to be sought and actively promoted.2) A related topic includes extending improved means to store grain and thereby reduce losses to pests and capitalise on seasonal marketing strategies to improve terms of trade of livestock for grain (Hodgson, 1990;Coppock, 1992b). lmproved grain storage at the household or encampment level can involve storage below or above ground; more effort needs to be made as to whether regional grain stores managed by development agencies are feasible. While the need for improved grain storage will be high during the drought-recovery phase, this will be a time when the average Boran household will be less able to pay for interventions through cattle sales. However, both ability and willingness to pay should increase during the high-density phase.3) The next priority is to increase milk production.As shown earlier in this volume, fundamental shortages of water and forage prohibit improved and sustainable feeding strategies for milk cows under existing conditions. This is true even though forage quantity is less of a problem for cows during the drought-recovery phase because of reduced competition resulting from lower stocking rates. So solutions connected with increased milk production lie more in the realm of animal health.With a decline in central government authority in 1991, it is expected that the Boran now routinely burn the rangeland to cope with bush encroachment, improve forage quality and control tick infestation. While the ultimate danger may be that the Boran will burn areas too often because of a growing demand for resources some benefits are probably already being realised for the production system over the short term. Asurvey of 560 milk cows in 1 989 revealed that 1 5% of their teats were closed off due to tick damage. lf the healthy teats are unable to compensate for the damaged ones, this problem may have very significant implications in reducing milk production in the system. Ticks have been mentioned as one of the major constraints for animal production here. Acaricides were invented over 50 years ago, and yet they have not been available in Ethiopia for some time. The notion that range development requires new technology is undermined by the fact that existing technologies have gone unimplemented. There have been several reasons forwarded as to why acaricides are not available in the southern rangelands since the SLDP . The ultimate constraint is the fact SORDU cannot gain access to sufficient foreign exchange to import acaricides; this is viewed as ironic since the southern rangelands have been expected to be a major generator of foreign exchange from exports of cattle and sheep (as discussed above). But even given the acaricides, SORDU would have a difficult time extending this service because of shortages of vehicles and trained manpower. Devising sustainable means of extending the use of acaricides in Borana could have important impacts on livestock productivity and human welfare. lt would also give a much needed boost to improved public relations with the pastoralists. 4) lncreased milk production is related also to the ability of cows to maintain long lactations. Lactations in the Boran cattle breed can easily be lengthened by simply keeping calves alive (Donaldson, 1986). lmproved calf-feeding management in the form of grass hay, with local legumes providing protein supplements, should be extended soon. While it is envisioned that hay-making would be beneficial to milk production, human labour and calf nutrition during the high-density phase, there could be significant impact for some households during the drought-recovery phase as well.The major benefit of hay-making intervention should be in terms of improved calf condition and reduced mortality rates with the associated effect of extending lactations, especially in dry seasons. The initial target population should be the poorer households in peri-urban locations that have a higher risk of losing calves connected with their daily need to sell milk to purchase survival rations of grain (Holden et al, 1991). That the initial target population should be in peri-urban locations is fortunate since this reduces logistical demands on extension agents. Extension should focus on proper hay preparation to minimise risks of spoilage and means to protect hay fields from grazing stock using the kalo concept or integrating hay fields within crop exclosures. Establishing new grass swards for hay production should focus on the best local species, considering ecological niches and other facto;s mentioned in Section 2.4.1.5: Native vegetation and Section 7.3.1.4: Site reclamation. Feeding packages involving native legumes should be tailored to the local availability of nutritious browses and crop residues such as cowpea (Section 7.3.1.3: Forage improvements). lmproved management of cowpea residue in terms of encouraging leaf retention at harvest and proper storage should also be a priority. 5) Other means to promote longer lactations by avoiding calf mortality involve improved veterinary extension services. Mulugeta Assefa (1990) found a marked contrast between the likelihood of health delivery for adult cattle versus that for calves. Adult cattle have an advantage because they can be walked to clinics for attention, not calves. Hence priority intervention in this respect must involve improved health care for calves delived at the \"farm gate\", and animals held by all wealth classes should receive this attention. Calves of the poor are more vulnerable to diseases exacerbated by lower planes of nutrition caused by milk restriction. Calves of the wealthy have a higher plane of nutrition, but are still vulnerable to disease outbreaks encouraged by lower management inputs per calf. Just improving health extension for calves in peri-urban locations would be a major achievement, and would again be consistent with the limited logistical capabilities of the SORDU veterinary service. As reviewed in Section 5.4.3: Cattle mortality and health, SORDU's veterinary service has been difficult to sustain. This is due to difficulties in importing veterinary supplies and shortages of vehicles and fuel for extension. Earlier attempts have been made to train Boran as \"veterinary scouts\" and serve as local extension agents, but this has also proven unsustainable. There have been recent initiatives to have the Boran pay for veterinary service and this should improve prospects for sustainability as far as funding in local currency is concerned. Until problems of logistics and funding are solved, there is little hope that widespread improvements in veter inary service will take place. This is why hay making should be the top priority in coping with calf losses caused by interactions between poor nutrition and disease. 6) Small ruminants reproduce quickly and can help households recover from drought by providing a substitute for cattle as sale item (Coppock, 1992b). Given that providing health care appears to be the major production constraint, improved veterinary extension service for sheep and goats is desirable, even if restricted to focus on households in peri-urban locations. 7) The drought-recovery phase is characterised by lower stocking rates of cattle compared to the high-density phase. Because lower stocking rates result in less demand on grazing resources, efforts to reclaim or rehabilitate degraded sites should be undertaken in the drought-recovery phase on a macfafa-specific basis. While the effects of site reclamation on carrying capacity and milk production may not be felt for several years, the possibilites for implementing such projects are greater in the drought-recovery phase, mainly because a smaller cattle population increases the chance that standing swards can be set aside for burning during dry periods. ln general, the Boran should prioritise sites for attention, and should be responsible for implementing and funding projects with initial technical assistance from SORDU. Pilot projects could focus on madda either in peri-urban areas or those involved in the development of SCs (Hogg, 1990a). lnter ventions directed at site reclamation could include prescribed burning of bush-encroached sites where the grass layer has recovered, followed by hand-felling of noxious adult trees, application of arboricides to stumps and charcoal-making to recoup labour costs (Section 7.3.1 .4: Site reclamation). While using fire alone may be the only sustainable management practice at this time, fire may not get rid of all adult trees. Arboricides have been shown to be necessary to prohibit bushy regrowth of some species, and are very cost effective. Some bushcontrol projects could be delayed, however, until the next drought to provide a source of employment if regulated charcoal-making is deemed as an appropriate means of generating income. 8) Given the acute need of the Boran for better access to markets, development agents should consider means to help people far from markets procure preferably male camels to transport goods. This may involve organising prospective buyers to visit as a group camel markets outside of Borana territory. The primary advantage camels have for the Boran is in increasing their capability to obtain large quantities of grain from markets away from their encampments. While initiatives regarding camel acquisition could start during the drought-recovery phase, the ability of the Boran to pay for them would be greater in the high-density phase after their cattle herds have recovered their numbers. Intervention impact in the high-density phase, 1997-?: The top priority overall is to help the Boran better manage risks of retaining their accumulated assets of cattle. This involves economic and ecological management concepts. Food security will still be a problem as long as the long-term trend is not being effectively arrested, and this also remains as a priority. The next priority would be facilitating using livestock capital to improve the production system in terms of maintenance of water points and related activities.The following interventions have been evaluated as important because they complement tactics or attitudes that should characterise the Boran more during the high-density phase. These include: (1) greater attention to local and regional grazing management under high stocking rates to maintain milk production and reduce risks of cattle mortality;(2) selling more cattle and butter in addition to small ruminants and milk; (3) efforts to improve water resources in order to diversify grazing resources; and (4) more conservative production attitudes, especially among the wealthy.All of the activities initiated during the droughtrecovery phase (see above) should be on-going except perhaps site reclamation based on pre scribed burning since heavy cattle grazing would reduce the likelihood that large standing crops of grass could be maintained in the high-density phase. Because herd inventories will have grown, the capability for the Boran to pay for any service during the high-density phase will be much improved. They will also be conscious of the greatly increased risks of cattle mortality resulting from low rainfall so that the wealthy or others desiring more influence in the community may use the opportunity to divest of some cattle to gain social benefits and status by contributing donating to important community projects (Coppock,1 992b).lt is assumed that by 1 997 a rational strategy to de-populate grazing areas reserved for times of drought will have been employed (see above). lf not, the danger of catastrophic herd loss due to drought will remain. Policies: Concepts for policies and procedures for the high-density phase are as follows: 1) Assuming that the regional cattle herd will grow steadily during the drought-recovery phase, by the mid-1 990s the risk of climate-induced herd losses and famine will begin to rise once again.Relief and rehabilitation agencies should be prepared for this scenario. ln addition, planners could delay community works projects (i.e. road maintenance, bush clearing etc) that require large inputs of labour for implementation after the onset of drought to help meet a higher demand for paid employment. 2) Given some initial years with near normal rainfall, development should be prepared to deal, during the high-density phase, with an improved opportunity for projects funded by proceeds from cattle sales. 3) Range planners should consider whether technical improvements in maximising forage abundance or water distribution are warranted as regards grazing ranges reserved for times of drought. ln consultation with Borana leaders, such grazing reserves should be well understood in terms of their areal extent, site diversity, likely standing crops of forage at the beginning of a drought, water resources and temporal patterns of use by cattle during a multi-year drought. Armed with such knowledge, planners could better anticipate the capacity of grazing reserves to buffer the effects of cattle overpopulation. Estimates of potential cattle mortality due to the insufficient capacity of grazing reserves could provide quantitative targets for regional initiatives to bank livestock capital and help to minimise losses of pastoral assets.Assuming that markets are opened, inflation managed, some cattle assets banked, grazing reserves reclaimed, and some groups of the pastoral population emigrate out of the system at increased rates, the subsequent drought-recovery phase after 1 997 should be less catastrophic than the one during 1 992-96. A larger percentage of the population would have some cash assets, fewer milk cows would have died as a result of densitydependent interactions and there would be a declining need for the Boran to cultivate. Under proper management the system would essentially become less dynamic in terms of the \"boom and bust\" cycle as driven by dramatic changes in the cattle stocking rate. Consequently, the droughtrecovery phase starting after 1 997 would be shorter than the one in 1992-96, and this could slightly reduce the length of time in which to implement range rehabilitation projects which are dependent upon low stocking rates. Virtually all of the devel opment-intervention concepts employed in the first interdrought cycle would remain very useful and valid; it is just that the need could be less acute. Offtake of cattle could be more predictable, possibly to the benefit of national economic planning. By the late 1980s SORDU was focused on monitoring and evaluating range trend (Hacker, 1988a,b). The theory of local system dynamics forwarded in Chapter 7 has great implications for the interpretation of range trend survey results. lf cattle stocking rate has the greatest effect on range utilisation, then it would be expected that the long-term pattern for basal cover and standing crop of herbaceous species would appear cyclic, rather than linear, despite variation caused by annual fluctuation in rainfall. During the drought-recovery phase of the early 1 990s, basal cover and standing crop of herbaceous plants might have higher values compared to those collected in the high-density phase of the mid-to late-1990s. Measures of these attributes could increase again during the sub sequent drought-recovery phase. Patterns would also be greatly complicated by variation in rainfall during either phase. ln sum, definite trend could be exceedingly difficult to detect; this is especially true if sampling precision is poor. To conserve operating resources, it could be useful to restrict data collection to high-density phases only. Monitoring bush encroachment is a bit more straightforward, but may also be subject to problems of interpretation. The theory of system dynamics predicts that establishment of woody seedlings is not a gradual phenomenon, but is more episodic in nature. Some years have an explosive increase in seedlings while in many other years establishment is negligible. The greatest rate of seedling establishment should occur during years of above-average rainfall in the high-density phase of the cattle population, with other ecological factors held relatively constant (Section 7.2.3.1: Range ecology).The framework proposed in Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics is essentially a series of hypotheses concerning important interactions. These require testing using interdisciplinary methods. There may not be scope to do so in the forseeable future, however, given other urgent priorities for collecting information to help mitigate the effects of the current crisis in the southern rangelands.lt is forwarded that the most important research questions in the southern rangelands today involve social science and economics. ln particular, it is important to know how the human population is coping with problems that have arisen from high population growth and perennial drought. ForThe Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia example, little is known concerning: (1) detailed dynamics of human population growth, including effects of changing social values and outside inputs on rates of birth and mortality; (2) whether there have been recent changes in settlement patterns and their implications for resource use; (3) who is emigrating out of the system, why and what happens to emigrants; (4) whether the traditional social order (the Gada) is able to cope with severe stress or not; and (5) implications of change for the most vulnerable groups in Borana society, namely women and children. lt is also important to consider adaptive research regarding factors that could promote sustainable cereal cultivation. Needs for livestock research are relatively minor, except for a study dealing with alleged dilution of the Boran breed by highland stock.lt has been argued in Section 8.2.3.1 : Overview of strategy that using banked livestock capital as a stimulus for local urban development is important for completing a development loop of mutual assistance between the Boran and town dwellers over the longer term.lnvestigation is required as to whether feasible options exist for initiating small-scale industries in towns such as Yabelo, Negele, Mega and Moyale. Research is also needed to better quantify risks of banking versus holding wealth as livestock so that a portfolio management approach to maximise returns can be recommended.A brief summary of the major implications drawn from research findings is presented here. There are implications here for basic and applied science.Perspectives are organised with respect to 28 important themes. For detailed discussion of research results, readers should consult sections of preceding chapters. 1) Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial systems:Currently there is a controversy concerning to what degree range-production systems exhibit equilibrial or non-equilibrial dynamics (Ellis and Swift, 1988;Westoby and Noy-Meir, 1989;Bartels et al, 1990;de Leeuw and Tothill, 1990;Behnke and Scoones, 1991). To recapitulate, equilibrial systems are characterised by more internal and negative feedback loops between vegetation and people. At certain stocking rates livestock productivity can be depressed due to stringent competition for resources; such competition may be exacerbated by consumerinduced declines in the productivity of the forage resources themselves. Livestock can affect major changes in plant species composition and vegetation structure.And people can be more important than climate in affecting ecological trends; in this respect concepts such as carrying capacity are more relevant.Dynamics of non-equilibrial systems, in contrast, are more strongly affected by climate. lnternal interactions are less important in causing trends, and carrying capacity is thus a less relevant concept. One key implication of this distinction in system behaviour is that environ mental degradation in non-equilibrial systems can be more attributable to variation in long-term patterns of climatic conditions such as rainfall. Degradation in equilibrial systems, in contrast, is more easily traceable to activities of humans and livestock. Both types of systems probably exist in East Africa (see Section 6.4.5: Equilibrial versus non-equilibrial population dynamics).lndicators here suggest that the Borana system tends to exhibit equilibrial characteristics with stocking rate strongly mediating effects of annual rainfall on livestock and human popu lations. This agrees with more classical concepts of pastoral system dynamics (Pratt and Gwynne, 1977;Lamprey, 1983). Density-dependent effects on cattle productivity and mortality rates appear to occur. Cattle grazing probably facilitates bush encroachment, and thus system structure, by reducing risk of fire for woody seedlings. Grazing also encourages erosion on some landscapes. To infer that the system is equilibrial, however, should not imply that it is static. lt is very dynamic within broad limits of stocking rates (i.e. within 10 to 30 head of cattle/km2). Annual stocking rates that vary so widely require different tactics to manage the system as a whole. Westoby and Noy-Meir (1989) contend that in contrast to equilibrial systems, non-equilibrial systems require oppor tunistic management. This perspective seems to equate an equilibrial with a static state. lt is clear, however, that the equilibrial system of Borana also requires opportunistic management to deal with the long-term trend and phases in the interdrought cycle (see Section 7.4: Component interventions and system dynamics).One problem seems to be how the term \"equilibrium\" is defined and interpreted. lf an equilibrium implies that populations of plants and people vary little from year to year, it is difficult to conceive of any range environment that would conform to this. On a continuum of equilibrial to non-equilibrial system behaviour, the Borana system appears to exhibit a higher degree of equilibrial characteristics within broad limits of stocking rates. The cattle population is very dynamic, and the situation requires opportunistic management. Because the system tends to be equilibrial, more development options are possible than if it were non-equilibrial. Predict able pressures on the system can create opportunity for positive change.The Borana system tends to be equilibrial due to: (1) the relatively high annual rainfall; (2) dominance of perennial herbaceous species; (3) soils and landscapes that have tendencies to erode under high levels of livestock use; and because (4) cattle and human populations are spatially confined (access to land by both is limited). lncreased population growth, both within Borana society and among other neighbouring ethnic groups, appears to be the major contributor to increased spatial confinement. Development interventions which have served to improve access to permanent water source and reduce risk of disease to both livestock and people have probably helped to promote population growth. lt is therefore likely that both population growth and development processes have contributed to encouraging a more pronounced, equilibrial behaviour of the Borana system in recent years. But this assessment may also be a creation of the inability to better observe population dynamics over narrower spatial and temporal scales of resolution.2) Effects of pastoralism on the environment:As alluded to above, the Boran have certainly had important effects on their environment. Roughly 40% of the study area is now occupied by dense woody vegetation while 19% has suffered soil eroision. lt is very likely that both trends are attributable in large measure to cattle grazing. While some aspects of degradation may have happened recently, others have probably taken hundreds of years. lt was stated in Section 3.4.2: Environmental change, that high rates of population growth have recently compromised traditional patterns of resource use. The pattern is decribed as a \"patch dynamic\"; i.e. the Boran used a mixed-savannah region intensively for a number of years, bush encroachment occurred, the people moved elsewhere allowing the original vegetation to gradually recover as a result of rest from grazing, plus successional processes and bush fires. This cycle may have taken several generations to complete. The problem today, however, is that the people have been forced to become more sedentary because a high population density restricts options to move. The net result is a general increase in bush encroachment, with less opportunity for sites to rest and recover from grazing. Hence the only means to re-establish the traditional pattern is to dramatically reduce the human population.While less than 5% of the study area was under cultivation through the mid-1980s, the prospect remains that cultivation could dramatically increase to offset risks of famine. lf cultivation spreads unabated to shallow upland soils, it is foreseen that the danger for erosion over the short or medium term could greatly exceed that observed from decades of past use by cattle.While it is more straightforward to assess grazing or cultivation-induced erosion as having negative impacts on system productivity, it is more difficult to generalise concerning effects of bush encroachment. Effects of woody species on the herbaceous community vary according to the type of woody species and site. Effects can be positive, neutral or negative. Overall, however, it is concluded that effects are eventually negative with respect to cattle production.Given the relatively high rainfall, vegetation communities dominated by woody plants may represent the most stable condition for this system (Pratt, 1987a). lf this is the case, the Borana Plateau may have been densely wooded prior to the arrival of pastoral peoples thousands of years ago (Lind and Morrison,1 974). Habitual burning by pastoralists may have established and maintained the mixed savannah which we see disappearing today. The ability to maintain this less stable ecological system may thus have been compromised by high population growth and government policy which prohibited range burning from 1 974 to 1 991 .While impacts from severe erosion could be taken as permanent, impact from bush encroachment could be reversible to a high degree. lf population pressure can eventually be reduced by facilitating emigration of people out of the system, and if traditional management practices such as prescribed burning can be re-established, many bush-encroached areas could probably be recovered.Effects of pastoralism on rangeland environ ments have recently received much attention (Winrock lnternational, 1992). ln a broader sense, however, it remains unclear which situation constitutes the greatest threat to Ethiopia, degradation of the highlands or the lowlands. lt is thought that degradation in the highlands may be more critical. This is because the highlands have much higher densities of people and animals, higher rainfall, greater opportunities for expansion of cultivation and a larger prevalence of readily erodible landscapes (EMA, 1988).Finally, it has been hypothesised that nutrient transfer by cattle from grazing areas to encampments via faeces is important in encouraging bush encroachment within the framework of the traditional patch dynamic. There are no data, however, to test this assertion and this could be a topic for future research.3) Awareness of the Boran concerning environmental issues: Borana leaders are aware that their system is becoming overpopulated with people and that stocking rates of cattle are often high. They also equate heavy cattle grazing with bush encroachment and soil erosion. Proclamations made at the 1988 Gumi Gayu assembly were dominated by concern over resource use, and included measures to protect valuable trees, promote fodder banks, secure grazing for forra cattle herds and encourage better maintenance of water points. Many leaders appear to realise that their traditional way of life is coming to an end in several respects. They rarely offered, however, ideas as to how the traditional social order could better cope with stress and change. lt has been mentioned that on some issues, the Boran need the help of government to regulate some aspects of resource use that the traditional system is unable to deal with. 4) Sustainability: This study was never intended to address concepts of system sustainability as they occur in the literature today (Vosti et al, 1 991 ; Flora, 1 992). Sustainability can be viewed from ecological, agricultural, social and/or economic perspectives. Precise definitions of sustainability remain elusive. lt is reasonable, however, to offer some insights on sustainability of the Borana system based on our experiences here.Concerning ecology, it is claimed that the cumulative effects of bush encroachment and erosion have indeed reduced land access, and thus carrying capacity, for cattle over the longer term. lnformants have reported that the Borana system was dominated by more grasslands and open savannahs 30 years ago. We have no means, however, to determine what a reasonable baseline condition is and thus what the true extent of the impact has been. lt is also debatable how important the loss of grasslands and savannahs is for system resilience compared to acute loss of grazing reserves due to human population growth in recent times.For animal-based agriculture and economics, empirical models suggest that per capita food production in terms of milk and asset accumulation measured in herd size are both in a rapid downward trend. This is due to the increasing imbalance between the numbers of people and those of cattle. The acute nature of this trend dictates that this is the first \"sustainability issue\" to be dealt with in development strategies. Until people's needs can be better met over the short term, questions of long-term sustainability of the environment are less relevant.lt has also been forwarded that the Ethiopian Government has a stake in maintaining the social sustainability of the Boran system to promote the production of livestock for the rest of the nation. The immediate threats to the social order are famine and increasing poverty. Without a viable social order to coordinate labour to extract water from the deep wells in dry seasons, it is conceivable that the livestock system could suddenly become much less productive. A collapse in the social order could thus undermine system sustainability much faster than ecological degradation could.lt is important to note that the primary benefit of destocking, with compensation in the form of banked livestock capital, is in terms of system stabilisation and improvement of human welfare over the short to medium term. lt is less justifiable at present to advocate destocking to preserve the environment. 5) Sources of system destabiiisation: The crisis in Borana today, similar to that of other pastoral systems, is due to high rates of human population growth in an environment which is increasingly finite in terms of resources. The rate of population growth, however, is not excessive and is comparable to that for other semi-settled pastoral groups. The main problem appears to be lack of opportunities for people to emigrate outside of the pastoral sector. Lack of urban job opportunities is an important bottleneck, but so is the lack of education. lt is unfortunate that efforts to develop the human resource in the southern rangelands have been far less than those employed to stimulate livestock market ing. The situation has probably been greatly exacerbated by the cultural and political isolation of the Boran from mainstream Ethiopian society. Farming peoples in the highlands are also experiencing population bottlenecks that continue to spur emigration in ever-growing numbers. lt is supposed that farming people can emigrate much more easily to the urban sector than pastoral people like the Boran. 6) Change in human population growth: A review of secondary information suggests that 290The Borana Plateau of Southern Ethiopia Synthesis and conclusions the human population in Borana is growing at about 2.5% per year, with a doubling time of 28 years. This is in line with estimates of population growth for other semi-settled pastoralists. lt has been speculated that the net rate of population growth is increasing, and sources of this increase could involve increased provision of food grain and health care, less adherence to traditional rules concerning reproductive behaviour and/or that the Gada cycle which imposes rules on reproduction is temporarily affecting only a smaller cohort of individuals in the population. The Boran believe, however, that any recent increase and there being no epidemic diseases is due to luck. 7) Biodiversity and the conservation of nature:As with sustainability, this study project was not originally intended to examine concepts of biodiversity as they occur in the contemporary literature. ln perhaps the most comprehensive range-oriented review to date, West (1993) defines biodiversity as a multi-faceted phenomenon involving a variety of organisms, their genetic variability and the ecological units in which they occur. What are included as important components of biodiversity are largely shaped by the values of the observer; some argue, for example, that indigenous people be included as well. Despite problems with definitions and functional interpretation of the importance of biodiversity, West (1993) argues that concern for maintaining or enhancing biodiversity will increase among donors who fund projects in the developing world. ln the developed world debate may increasingly centre on which species are functionally redundant, and whether or not species per se are the best currency to deal with. ln the developing world, however, the problem is more basic and deals with a lack of information on types of organisms that occur and how they could be affected by land use.Given the acute nature of human crisis in the Borana system, it is offered that biodiversity is not a research priority at present. Our survey results provide only some preliminary information on the types of plants and animals present in the Borana system and one view of an appropriate schema of ecological site classification. Traditional uses of many plants by people and livestock have also been tabulated along with some possible trends regarding the abundance of woody species under heavy cattle grazing (see Section 2.4.1 .5: Native vegetation, Section 2.4.1.6: Native fauna and Section 3.3.5.2: Household use of plants and pastoral perceptions of range trend). The region has a rich flora and fauna, but trends in abundance or diversity of these organisms as affected by human activity are not documented.Future studies that try to assess biodiversity in the southern rangelands may first need to consider how woody encroachment affects biodiversity at the site and landscape levels of resolution. Attempts to enhance biodiversity could conflict with strategies to maintain the southern rangelands for cattle grazing. For example, although a high degree of woody encroachment may be unfavourable for cattle production, this may represent the best system state for biodiversity in terms of the number of plant species and a suitable habitat for wildlife.Policy issues also bear on biodiversity, at least, with respect to highly visible species of wildlife. lnformants report that there has been a decline in the abundance of large wild mammals in the past 30 years and this is thought to be due, in part, to the lingering effects of conflict between Ethiopian and Somali forces during the late 1970s. One impression is that the three government cattle ranches, which have existed since the late 1970s, appear to have served as refuge for wildlife because of low stocking rates and the exclusion of the Boran and their herds (see Section 2.4.1 .6: Native fauna). lt has been recently decided to return these areas to the Boran. This is an important gesture in light of severe resource constraints in the system, but it may bode unfavourably for wildlife. Similarly, pond development that increased access of the Boran to previously underutilised areas since the 1 960s may have affected the local abundance and diversity of native organisms. Future strategies to maintain water development projects may consider effects on native organisms in addition to effects on the Boran production system as a whole. 8) Drought impact: Monitoring of drought impacts in 1 983-84 suggested that: (1 ) people were only marginally affected in terms of famine-induced mortality;(2) many households in one region even reported births during the drought; and (3) the drought had differing effect on various sex and age classes of cattle. Still herds were decimated overall; the difference in the effect of drought on cattle versus people underscores the role of drought in exacerbating poverty. Roughly 45% of the milk cows, 90% of the calves, but only 22% of the mature males died (Donaldson, 1986). The higher survival rate of males is speculated to be due to their lower nutritional requirements compared to cows and their greater mobility. This result testifies as to the value of mature males in reducing the risk of cattle loss during drought. Patterns of cattle mortality suggested that deaths occurred in \"waves\"; it was hypothesised that the more productive animals died first, leaving a nucleus of less productive but hardier animals. This was also confirmed by cow-history analyses. This suggests that attempts to improve the local Boran cattle via breeding to enhance productivity would not be sustainable.Finally, a recall survey in one region suggested that camels died to a similar extent as cattle during the 1983-84 drought. The advantage of camels, however, appears to be their continued milk production, which allows camel owners to sell milk during drought when prices are high. This is in stark contrast with the terms of trade of other livestock products for grain that fell dramatically. 9) Efficiency of pastoral production systems:As in other African pastoral systems, once the high stocking rate is factored in and milk is included as a major product for people, the efficiency of the traditional pastoral production of the Borana system exceeds that for commercial ranching in a comparable setting in terms of energy yield per person and per unit area.Commercial ranching produces more meat per head, however. This shows, in general, that commercial ranching is a poor alternative for a subsistence-oriented pastoral society. This anomally, however, has been amply demonstrated here and elsewhere in terms of the incongruity of production objectives and human demographics between the two modes of operation. The one problem with the pastoral system compared to modern ranching, however, is that the higher stocking rates of pastoral systems increase the danger of risks for environmental degradation and system instability in some situations. 10) Productivity of range livestock: lt is commonly assumed that compared to unimproved animals in higher potential areas, range livestock have a lower level of productivity, whether caused by breed characteristics, climate or both. There is no strong evidence to support this view for the southern rangelands. Limited data on small ruminants suggest that their productivity is similar to that in other systems. Performance of unimproved Boran cattle under pastoral conditions appears similar to the lower end of the spectrum for unimproved animals reared on research stations elsewhere in Africa. Under low stocking rates and favourable rainfall, it is hypothesised that the productivity of the Borana cattle system can be extremely high. Compared to higher rainfall areas, range systems also have the advantage of a lower incidence of many important diseases (Sileshi Zewdie, SORDU veterinarian, personal communication). Provided adequate rainfall, the highest rates of production per head would have occurred in 1985-86 and again in 1992-93.Production is thus cyclic in nature as mediated by stocking rate. A related issue is the precision of cattle production studies in different environments. lt has been hypothesised that cattle productivity in the southern rangelands is markedly affected by rainfall and stocking rate. Research results thus need to be qualified with respect to these variables in any given year. One result of the failure to do this are studies that do include sufficient animals but that yield widely differing statistics for the same system in different years. ldeally, productivity should be evaluated under experimental conditions at an assortment of stocking rates and rainfall years. Mean figures could then be calculated as weighted averages that consider the relative frequency of different background conditions.The one major production feature that requires intervention in the Borana system is the problem of calf mortality. This is an appropriate strategy because it builds on traditional values and requires a small amount of strategic resources that are locally available. Tactics would vary, however, according to the type of rainfall year and wealth of the producer household. Wealthy households appear to have more problems with calf diseases while poorer households appear to have more problems with calf nutrition. lt is also proposed that calf mortality can be density dependent under high stocking rates. The most sustainable improvement in reducing of calf mortality would probably be achieved along with a concomitant increase in animal offtake.The typical nutritional research concept in seasonal African environments is that ruminants are primarily limited by crude protein in dry seasons. This implies that other nutrients are less limiting. From Section 7.2: A theory of local system dynamics, it is offered that sequential changes in stocking rate during the interdrought cycle affect nutritional constraints in a stepwise manner. This is an ecological, rather than mainstream agricultural, view of nutritional dynamics.Using the period 1 985 to 1 990 as an example, it is hypothesised that minor nutrients like minerals could have been a more pervasive constraint for cattle nutrition when the stocking rate was less than 10 head/km2 in 1985. When herds began to recover during 1986 to 1988, protein might have emerged as the principal problem in dry seasons. By 1989, however, herd owners reported that cattle were unable to regain condition even during the long rains even though precipitation was above average. From 1989 onwards, when the stocking rate was greater than 20 head/km2, energy was likely the problem because of forage competition. When energy is the problem in a risky rangeland environment, the best measure is some creative destocking to avoid system collapse. The point is that the model of protein limitation has only limited utility, even in situations where protein supplementation of mature cattle is feasible. This illustrates the value of an interdisciplinary view that involves animal production and ecology.As with other pastoral systems, the central question in Borana seems to be how to stimulate more offtake of animals in such a way as to not compromise pastoral security based on animal assets. lmprovement of cattle productivity overall should benefit from increased offtake. And to bank livestock capital (described above) are forwarded as the best-bet means to achieve greater cattle offtake. 11) Compensatory growth of cattle: Claims that adult range cattle are unable to compensate for periodic deprivation of water or for nutritional deprivation as calves, are results falsified by controlled trials. ln fact, the animals have exhibited considerable ability for compensatory growth under the experimental conditions employed. One implication of the calf growth trial is that as long as the calf lives, regardless of the level of early nutritional deprivation, the odds are that it will attain a level of lifetime productivity similar to animals that have not been deprived. Under conditions imposed in our trials, calves were eventually abe to compensate for milk \"lost\" to people as offtake.Long-term growth patterns are thus controlled to a large extent by the environment. Risks of extensive weight loss by cows at some point during their productive lifetime are very high. This can effectively cancel out expensive inputs administered to the animal as calves. Calf feeding for sustainable improvements in growth is thus very risky and inappropriate. As long as cattle are marketed as matures, calf feeding for improved selling weights is irrelevant.Calf growth rates were improved to the greatest degree by provision of improved forage and water in contolled trials. This suggests that in drier environments, water availability may be a significant constraint in the ability of animals to make use of improved forage supplies. 1 2) Conservation of indigenous livestock breeds:As reviewed in Section 1 .2: The lowlands and pastoralism in a national perspective, the Boran cattle breed is important in terms of its productivity, durability and marketability for domestic use and export. There has been concern as to whether this breed is in danger of genetic dilution from inferior breeds from the southern highlands. This concern may have already spurred action, as one of the objectives of the Ministry of Agriculture in establishing a ranch at Did Tayura, north of Yabelo, was to promote the genetic integrity of the Boran through on-station breeding programmes.The Boran trade their male cattle for highland cows during drought-recovery periods to speed up recovery of milk production and herd growth potential (Tafesse Mesfin, TLDP General Manager, personal communication). This under scores the value of male cattle for post-drought trade in the Borana system, and it also shows that cattle in the southern highlands are serving as a stable reservoir to add resilience to the performance of the range sector. The extent of the trade remains unquantified. lt also remains for research to document whether the alleged genetic dilution is truly a long-term threat. lf highland cows perform poorly under stress in the rangelands environment, it is possible that the long-term effect on the Boran gene pool is negligible (see Section 5.4.5: Cattle growth and implications for breed persistence). lt is also unclear whether this trade is a recent strategy to help cope with increasing equilibrial dynamics of the production system or a practice that has gone on for many generations. lf the former situation is true, preservation of the Boran breed may be yet another benefit of attempts to better manage and stabilise the pastoral system in response to drought. 13) Pastoral social organisation and resistance to change: lt has almost become folklore in African development circles that pastoralists are very independent, conservative and fiercely resist outside efforts to improve their lot in life.There is no evidence, however, to support this position from the southern rangelands as observed during the 1 980s. The Boran are openminded to appropriate ideas and have in fact pioneered some of their own concepts in resource management. ln this they could be an appropriate model for the introduction of new development concepts in semi-arid Africa. Part of this may be due to the persistence of their traditional social structure which can greatly facilitate communication with development agents, and it has aided project implementation in the past. Research that can enable outsiders to better understand the internal workings of the society and show how the social order can or cannot cope with new pressures would be very valuable.Even though it has been relatively easy to work among the Boran in the past, they have become rightly suspicious of government from their experiences with Peasant Associations, national recruitment for the military and fulfilling mandatory quaotas for livestock sales in the 1 970s and 1 980s (see Section 1 .4.3: The SERP and the Pilot Project). To what extent their full trust can be won back by the new government remains unclear. 14) Development constraints: One of the only intervention concepts that is entirely independent of external resources is hay making using local grasses and native legumes to provide improved feed for calves. Most of the others, either directly or indirectly, rely on some degree of external support. Granted the sustainability and appropriateness of such inter ventions are open to debate, the problem then becomes whether any substantial improvement in human welfare is possible without stronger linkages to the rest of Ethiopia. The Boran are willing to pay for innovations they consider valuable; so realistic demand for development for which they will contribute at least in kind is presumed to exist. Most of the production and development constraints enumerated in Chapter 7: Development-intervention concepts, are considered to lie outside of the pastoral sector. This discounts the notion that the main constraints to change are caused by inappropriate pastoral attitudes or behaviour. The inability of the nation to meet adequately many routine needs of food or other commodities is paramount. To the extent that national development initiatives improve the functioning of commerce and the creation of urban job opportunities, they should also have positive effects on Borana society. 15) Top-down versus bottom-up innovation concepts: Experience here suggests that top-down innovation concepts such as the pond scoop, the improved butter churn, pasture improvements using exotic herbaceous forages, drought fodder banks using Atriplex and Opuntia forages and stimulating cattle growth through early nutritional supplementation of nursing calves will not succeed. Because the Boran appear unwilling to risk valuable cattle to pull the pond scoop which seems an extended project to them; the butter churn may have been more relevant 30 years ago when per capita milk surpluses were more common; exotic herbaceous forages appear unproductive due to constraints of rainfall and/or air temperature; drought fodder banks are impractical given the scope of the problem of sustaining thousands of cattle during drought; and attempting to stimulate cattle growth over a three or four-year time horizon is simply too risky according to the Boran. ln contrast, innovations devised on the basis of grass-roots knowledge of the community such as hay making, use of native legumes, cement cisterns, banking livestock capital and strategies to mitigate calf mortality appear far more appropriate given the cultural attitudes and their greater reliance on local resources. These innovations are thus much more likely to have their impact.There has been a debate recently regarding an appropriate mix of \"upstream\" (i.e. high-tech) versus \"downstream\" research activities in sub-Saharan Africa (Winrock lnternational, 1992). Whether it involves developing appropriate technology or gaining key insights for the interdisciplinary systems approach, this study project of the Boran system speaks for the value of downstream research in which the beneficiaries of development play a significant role. The value of upstream research in this project has been relatively played down. 16) Linkages among development entities and research institutions: ln our experience, the collaboration between grass-roots development agencies and researchers has proven to be fruitful (see Section 1 .4.7: lnteraction between research and development and project impact).Creative development agents helped complete the loop between the Boran and researchers to create a more participatory farming systems research approach. One paradox is that while researchers are pre-occupied with creating technological interventions and generalisable system perspectives, they can be blind as to the complexity of the day-to-day lives of rural people and how this complexity constrains adoption of innovations. Development agents can help provide the eyes and ears for research. Today, the research establishment is under increasing pressure to demonstrate the impact of their efforts on people. Both in terms of helping understand real problems, extending appropriate technology more rapidly and the widespread dispersal of project results in the scientific literature, collaboration between research and development workers can be mutually beneficial. One drawback in this respect is the fact that researchers and develop ment agents have different perspectives, education, values and goals. This makes truly mutualistic collaboration difficult, unless the focus is clearly agreed to be solving acute problems of people in a given setting. That was the source of our success at integration here. 17) Interventions that increase production versus those that mitigate risks: Whether the intervention is reclaiming drought grazing reserves, banking livestock capital, facilitating sustainable agropastoralism, educating pastoralists to leave the pastoral sector, forging durable links between pastoralists and farmers or assisting the smooth functioning of markets and viable terms of trade, the most important initiatives for the Boran today involve dealing with a crisis situation. This means expanding the social and economic options for the people to enable them to be more opportunistic in coping with a rapidly changing world. Such action gets its mandate, in part, from populations being in a very precarious position with respect to their baseline resources compared to the past, and embodies the philosophy of Sandford (1983a) who considered \"efficient opportunism\" to be the fundamental element of sustainable pastoralism. ln this view technological improvements, are considered very minor in their potential impact and are said to serve more of an ancillary role. Today the questions should revolve more around how livestock assets can be used to improve the human condition rather than a singular focus on livestock productivity perse. The irony remains, however, that most research and extension personnel are inculcated with the ideology that improved technology is the only solution. Risk mitigation appears more complex and beyond the domain of any one development agency. lt is proposed that while individual agencies can each make a positive contribution to pastoral risk mitigation, the most effective approaches would involve interagency efforts that coordinate policies and procedures that deal major blows to the problem. The issue then becomes one of effective dialogue and policy formulation among institutions which increasingly affect the destinies of people like the Boran. 18) Forage improvements: Forage trials indicated that dual-purpose annuals such as cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and lablab (Lablab purpureus) were the highest producers of seed and forage. lt is contended that forage extension should focus on plants that help the people feed themselves first. Cowpea appears to offer the best possibilities as an intercrop with maize. For range improvements, the best bet is to stick with the most promising native species of grasses and browse. These have the advantage of proven persistence in the environment. Herbaceous exotics, in particular, appear to have their growth constrained by low rainfall and/or cool ambient temperatures. For calf forages, the best intervention by far is hay making using indigenous grasses. 19) Gender issues: From two independent surveys, it was somewhat surprising to find that 20 to 25% of household heads were women. This tendency may be more pronounced in peri-urban areas occupied by a higher proportion of poor and middle-class households (Holden and Coppock, 1992). Many of the technical intervention concepts forwarded in this volume should be targeted towards women in peri-urban locations. The social and economic status of women, and whether their roles are changing in Boran society, should be more a focus of research. lf more young men leave the system, the spectre is that women and children will assume more labour responsibilities.Whether new duties for women will include more strategic and managerial tasks is unclear. 20) Impact of cement cisterns on labour and water use: Provision of local water tanks did not appear to reduce the time women spent collecting water in dry seasons nor did it seem to alter markedly the pattern of water usage by people in the household. The additional water provided by water tanks appeared to be directed towards calves. Uncertainty in the length of any given dry season means that water will still be used very conservatively. The fact that water tanks did not alter women's work schedules should not imply that they don't have other benefits in terms of improving the quality of life for women. Despite results of oral surveys in which women always indicated that they worked long hours every day, direct observation of married Borana women on a 24-hour basis suggested that they spend around 30% of their waking hours in activities associated with leisure in the dry season (Coppock, 1992a). Other studies of time allocation in wet periods indicated that they have ample time to incorporate activities such as hay making into their schedules (Coppock, 1991). Ultimately, whether women would use more of their time to implement innovations will depend, to a large extent, on how they value leisure time in comparison to benefits perceived to result from innovations. 21) Livestock marketing: Analyses of market records from the early 1980s confirmed that cattle were the dominant species sold and mature male cattle were the most common age and sex group marketed. This is common elsewhere in pastoral Africa. Studies of livestock marketing behaviour as reported by the Boran suggested that many behave as \"optimistic gamblers\" (Coppock, 1992b). Far from being predisposed to sell cattle readily to buy food when a drought occurs, they struggle to endure considerable misery before they capitulate to a sale. Cattle thus appear to be held more as a lasting asset rather than an expendable resource. They hold out as long as they can and hope that the next rainy season will be adequate and thus allow them to avoid sales. This explains drought-marketing dynamics in the southern rangelands. The attitude has negative implications for the stability of the system under drought perturbation because the collective effect of such behaviour can translate into disastrous herd losses for the community when more animals have to compete for less forage in drought grazing reserves. This behaviour of waiting to sell \"until you have no choice\" has negative implications also for seasonal strategies intended to improve terms of trade between livestock and grain. Although the post-harvest season is the best time to maximise favourable terms of trade, the Boran are reluctant to sell then because \"they don't yet have a problem.\" lnnovations such as grain storage and banking livestock capital thus face considerable cultural obstacles. Confronting these obstacles is the key to system trans formation and development.Adult male animals, followed distantly by cull cows, are preferably sold because a herd owner receives the greatest net return from their sale, given that production costs are minimal. Cash received is used to buy commodities plus replacement calves so that selling mature cattle can meet the two objectives of generating income and herd building. The Boran do not want to sell immatures except the poor because they have no choice.Borana marketing behaviour and cultural values strongly suggest that the perverse supply rule (Sandford, 1983a) operates here, although this will vary with livestock species and household wealth. This is not to say that animals will not be drawn to markets that have higher prices, they will. lt is to say, however, that households seek higher prices so they have to sell fewer cattle over the long term, and thus avoid herd depletion. Except for households actively trying to build their herd through trade by buying immatures, the majority of households have relatively fixed cash needs and that this is a disincentive for livestock commercialisation. Stimulating cash income among the Boran may be far easier using sheep rather than cattle markets; this is because the two species serve different economic functions in different households. Sheep are more of a cash crop while cattle are for milk production and a means to store wealth. 22) Livestock commercialisation: While it is expected that most households will engage in more livestock sales in the future, this will be essentially a coping reaction to pressure to secure more food grain. Unless markets are stable and offer grain at favourable terms of trade, such increased market dependence would be dangerous. lnformants have, for example, expresed the fear that producers who are exclusively commercially oriented may gradually emerge from the ranks of the educated wealthy and/or from those with strong ties to the urban sector; some of these people may have been government export agents in the early 1 980s and that is how they learned the business. lf commercial herds ever have to compete with subsistence herds for water and forage, this could be a source of social conflict in the future. Overall, it is hypothesised that traditional producers are unlikely to be transformed into purely commercial operators. 23) Evolution of agropastoralism: Demographic preconditions could now force a widespread shift to agropastoralism in the Borana system. The extent of this shift will, however, be limitted by a landscape that offers relatively few opportunities for sustainable cultivation. Rainfall may be less of a drawback while the patches of valley bottoms, swales and vertisols, where cultivation is viable, may comprise less than 12% of the study area. lt remains unclear the extent to which competition for these valuable sites is a problem for the production system (Scoones, 1991). ln a few documented cases, the Boran appear to be attempting to accomodate both cultivation and forage production on these sites even though they seem to be aware of the negative implications that extensive cultivation could have for the grazing system overall in terms of competition for key resources and environ mental degradation.Mclntire and Gryseels (1987) noted the uncertain nature of forging a working linkage between crops and livestock in the semi-arid zone. Our observations support this contention because, at least in respect to the recent past, cultivation seems to be pursued when the livestock sector fails, and vice versa. lntegration of cultivation with livestock production would probably happen only when the ratio of cattle to people becomes low enough for cultivation to be attempted on yearly basis. This suggests that agropastoralism would emerge as a result of chronic negative pressures on the system. Agropastoralism thus does not necessarily equate with \"progress\" and improvement of human welfare here. Because of constraints of arable land it is expected crop-livestock mixed production possibilities will remain relatively tenuous for most households in the forseeable future. This is particularly true if development strategies advocated earlier in this chapter succeed in managing the system in such a way to release pressure. lf this occurs, the most desirable situation, especially in terms of promotion of environmental sustainability, would be for cultivation to remain as an opportunistic activity only. The future strategies for the system should thus keep a primary focus on sustainable extensive livestock production. 24) Evolution of dairy marketing: Observations here suggest that peri-urban dairy marketing evolves in response to increasing poverty and food deficits. Dairy products are renewable sale items that provide a regular income and allow producers to avoid selling from a small supply of animals. ln the past producers used to sell dairy products occasionally to buy some discretionary items; today more of them sell to buy grain for survival. Wealthy producers sell more products in absolute terms if they reside closer to a market; in relative terms, however, dairy marketing is more important for the poor because they have little else to sell. Hence dairy markets provide ample reason for the poor to migrate to peri-urban locations where the favourable terms of trade allow them to sell an otherwise inadequate food-energy source (milk) to be sold to purchase a survival ration of grain. Dairy marketing is expected to be strongly influenced by the long-term system trend and by the interdrought cycle. When the poor sell more milk, it is likely to be taken from the calf. Calves of poor households near towns are therefore expected to be at increased risk of morbidity and death due to malnutrition. 25) Evolution of herd diversification: Trends suggest that herd owners seek to diversify into small ruminants to take pressure off the need to sell more cattle to buy grain. Cattle represent a collective family asset for which the producer needs to obtain a concensus that a sale is in the best interest of the household. Small ruminants, by contrast, are truly \"small change\" and appear to be sold whenever a need arises. lt is unclear whether men or women control small ruminant production and sales. 26) Pastoral household diversity: The Boran, like other African pastoralists, are a diverse society so that the idea of the \"average household\" has little use in understanding the dynamics of the system or in prescribing blanket intervention approaches today. Similarly, households exhibit great regional variability in their access to natural resources and local variability in their access to urban markets. The system should be appropriately segregated into peri-urban and rural sectors, with the former consisting of areas within a radius of 30 km of major towns.Compared to people far from towns, those in peri-urban areas are expected, on average, to be poorer in livestock holdings, more marketoriented, more aware of a changing world in general and more likely dominated by female heads of households. One interesting point is that the \"average household\" may have been a more relevant concept 30 years ago when the society was not as diverse as it is today. Trends towards greater wealth stratification and periurban economic dependence may be exacerbated by increased competition for resources and equilibrial system dyanmics. Greater wealth stratification is evident from statistics that suggest that the wealthy, which may comprise around 18% of the population, control 65% of the cattle while the poor with 51 % of the population may control only around 1 0%. 27) Urban-pastoral linkages: Over the long term, it is proposed that promoting the development of towns such as Yabelo, Mega, Negele and Moyale holds potentially great benefits for the Boran in terms of providing local markets and job opportunities. lt appears, by contrast, that only a very few Boran have ever emigrated to distant urban centres such as Addis Ababa. This difference means that urban development initiatives which focus on the smaller towns and cities in the countryside, rather than on the major metropolis, would offer many more associated benefits to livestock producers like the Boran. lt is also proposed that banking livestock capital could add considerable impetus for funding rural development initiatives in small towns by providing funding in addition to helping the Boran better manage their personal assets. lnterest in stimulating urban development among international donors has been spurred, in part, by the current crisis of widespread migration of rural people to the cities (Winrock lnternational, 1992). One important question involves where the capital will come from to facilitate the growth of small businesses and urban enterprises. lt is argued here that some of this capital could come from livestock otherwise used as traditional stores of wealth. Policies and incentives which promote banking livestock capital could be useful in a pan-African context and could have the ancillary benefits of relieving pressure on grazing lands, stimulating animal production per head and stabilising system dynamics. Research is needed, however, to study the economic risks involved for livestock producers in the context of portfolio management of assets. 28) Systems science, interdisciplinarity and education: lt may be argued that systems research is inherently site specific (Winrock lnternational, 1992). lt is contended, however, that the systems perspectives described in this volume are founded on basic principles that can be applied to any livestock production system in Africa. One implication of the extended chapter discussions and literature reviews is that, while pastoral systems appear diverse superficially, they are remarkably similar in many fundamental respects. The diversity, in part, results from any one system being at a different point along a more or less similar continuum of change. For example, the Maasai of Kenya are probably a couple of generations ahead of the Boran in terms of coping with system pressure. The effect of their proximity to Nairobi has led to system dynamics proceeding in some directions that will not hold for the Boran. The Boran, in turn, may be \"ahead\" of other pastoral groups in Ethiopia that remain more isolated from the outside world.The key for getting at appropriate possibilities for development impact is knowing the status of any given system at any point in time. While commodity work can point to what to do in a given situation, systems work conducted in parallel can show us when to intervene and why. Systems analysis is thus appropriate to facilitate impact of technology and management inno vations. lt may also be argued that the long time frame and the expenses involved make the future of systems work uncertain in Africa. While in part this is true, it is offered that, rather than merely funding more long-term work, the challenge is to extract principles of system function from existing studies, compare these and boil them down to a series of key interactions. These hypotheses can then be tested in an economical fashion in a variety of situations so that systems science can make progress. Verified principles can then be used more widely in the diagnosis of local problems and for their solutions within the framework of rapid appraisal of rural communities (Chambers, 1992). The intellectual source for the systems approach we have employed is diverse; it has called upon material in population ecology, theories of agrarian change (Boserup,1 965) and classical farming systems research. lt has not been founded on concepts dealing with ecological community structure, energy flow or nutrient cycling as have been invoked in other pastoral research projects (Coughenour et al, 1985).The most useful computer models in our approach were of the simple empirical variety that illustrated some consequences of population dynamics on a finite resource base. Cheap and easy to construct, these models were used sparingly but provided good general insights. ln contrast, models involving projected herd performance or economic outcomes of various production strategies (Upton, 1986b;Cossins and Upton, 1988b;von Kaufmann et al, 1990) helped formulate ideas and organise thinking, but these were ultimately assessed to have limited utility in predicting real-world outcomes or prescribing best-bet innovations. lt is speculated that these problems arise from several factors that include: (1) limited depiction of the true complexity of ecological dynamics and human behaviour; and more specifically (2) the difficulty in portraying risk as viewed by rural livestock producers. More data are needed on biological, ecological and sociological inter actions for inclusion into computer models.The framework outlined in Section 7.2: A theory oflocal system dynamics may be unusual compared to previous systems theories because: (1) it presents a very dynamic view of system interactions; and (2) the most important interactions can only be understood if one sees that system forces act across disciplines. For one simple example, stocking rate influences milk production per head and per hectare and milk production influences the social and economic behaviour of households. The suite of these interactions can shift from year to year, and also depend on rainfall and other external events.All this implies that to understand system dynamics, analyses of cause and effect must be interdisciplinary. lt is proposed that this represents a wide open field of scientific investigation. ln contrast to viewing cause and effect as interdisciplinary, independent scientists who conduct multi-disciplinary work in parallel probably tend to examine issues of cause and effect as isolated and by confining them within their narrow world view. These situations offer little opportunity to advance systems science.Another case in point is the intervention involving banking livestock capital. This is an interdisciplinary intervention in terms of what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Again, banking livestock capital is as much a nutritional inter vention for cattle as it is an economic intervention for people. Knowledge of livestock production and ecological concepts of carrying capacity and competition allows one to under stand variability in risk over time and see when the intervention should be implemented; knowledge of traditional, social and economic values allows one to see why the intervention could be resisted; and knowledge of economic forces operating in the commercial banking sector allows one to see other economic trade offs involved, all pointing to the vital need for interdisciplinary and systems-oriented edu cation for people involved in researching or developing systems and requiring capabilities to deal with problems concerning agriculture and natural resources.    during 1 9 8 0 -8 9 .   1.110.1 110.1 1.210.1 1.210.1 1.110     1 Based on a survey of 1 34 sites. Solid lines indicate greater probability of occurrence in respective soil-colour classes.2 Categories determined by Corra (1986).3 Where T = tree, S = shrub, G = grass and D = dwarf shrub.Source: Raw data from Corra (1986).  Source: Raw data from Corra (1986).     Extracts for tanning, pigments; hard wood for fencing, firewood and utensils; indicator of onset of wet seasons by green flush; bark strips for rope and matting.Edible gum during drought.Firewood; fencing.Firewood; fencing; shade tree.Wood for fencing and incense; ceremonial and shade tree; bark extracts for red dyes; charcoal for fumigation of milk utensils and people (sauna).Bark burned for fumigation; wood for fencing.Firewood; fencing; bark extract for red dyes; pod extract for black dyes.Bark extract has medicinal value (boiled for colds); bark tied around fence at encampment for disease prevention (spiritual belief).Fencing; medicinal paste from bark; rope from bark and cortex; wood for corral doors.Gum Arabic; firewood; fencing.Extracts for red pigments; bark extracts to make paint for wooden handicrafts; fencing; firewood; gum; root has medicinal value for camels.Shade tree; wood for axe handles.Soup from boiled seeds and pods for people during drought.Ceremonial branches; construction wood for making weapons and traditional beds.Root extracts used for treatment of tape-worm and roundworm.Pith chewed for snakebite cure; sap protects wounds; root extracts in milk as medicine for colds, flu; extracts for stomach ache, eye drops; when a son is born, a piece of Aloe will be placed on the top of the hut.1 Borana Oromigna.2 Where growth form is indicated as S (multi-stemmed shrub), T (single-stemmed tree), P (pods or dry, dehiscent fruits), F (herbaceous forb or dicot), and Su (succulent). 3 Where value is categorised as Vl (very important) or l (important) according to Borana informants. Blanks suggest moderate or minor importance. Values are scored for use by people. Use by livestock as forage is reviewed in Section 3.3.5.1: Livestock food habits. 4 Considered as an encroaching species in the rangelands. 5 Economic value for handicrafts. Source: Wilding (1984) and Tesfaye Wogayehu (CARE-Ethiopia, unpublished data). -Medicinal sap for stomach problems.-Leaves chewed as a stimulant.-Edible leaves and stems.-Edible roots which contain water in dry seasons.-Dried leaves chewed as a tobacco-like stimulant; root extracts have medicinal value for children.Scent wood; shade tree.  Wood used for carving utensils; edible fruit; shade tree.Extract added to milk as medicine for stomach ailments.Edible fruit; branches used for arrows and construction.Similar to Grewia tembensis.Edible fruit; wood used for construction, spears and sticks; tea from boiled seeds; fibre for rope.Edible fruit; fibres used for weaving; edible root during drought.Edible fruit.Twigs for toothbrush.lncense; fumigation charcoal for animal skins used for bedding. Extracts for hair dye.Extracts for perfume used with butter for skin; scent wood; fibres for rope.Edible portions; extracts have medicinal value for eye infections.Edible fruit; shade tree.Leaves added to butter to improve taste.Edible leaf extracts as a tobacco-like stimulant.Edible fruit; bark strips for construction; fumigation wood; firewood; strong construction wood; shade tree; sticks have ceremonial value.Edible fruit.Wood for fencing; extracts have medicinal value.Edible fruit; firewood; shade tree.Used for thatching roofs of huts.Bark strips for fencing and bed construction; fibres for construction and weaving water containers.Similar to Phylanthus sepialis.Leaf extracts have medicinal value for toothache.Twig extracts have medicinal value for punctures and cuts.Edible fruit; fumigation wood.Edible fruit. Extracts have medicinal value.Seed extracts have medicinal value for venereal disease.Twigs for toothbrush; extracts have medicinal value; fruit fermented for local alcoholic beverage.     Source: Assefa Eshete et al (1986).See Annex C for the accompanying legen.See fold-out map.  Annex D   (Steel and Torrie, 1251).Source: Mulugeta ASSefa (120).Annex E      ","tokenCount":"197167"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"21b6feed43b5c6b52ddd0c114ac8828e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/7b50e21c-f7d8-432f-a53c-eeb65b1b3904/content","id":"-2030450868"},"keywords":["food security","smallholders farming systems","western highlands of Guatemala","malnutrition","machine learning algorithms"],"sieverID":"00e9501c-797e-4840-85cb-5f524237639b","pagecount":"14","content":"In the western highlands of Guatemala, the indigenous population is one of the most marginalized communities. The food security of subsistence and infrasubsistence smallholders within this population still relies on domestic agricultural production as the principal livelihood activity and the main source of food. Smallholder production systems in the region are complex, with multiple interacting subsystems functioning at different integration levels and with different temporal dynamics. Previous results, based on a data set of nearly 5,000 farm households using a robust food availability indicator (that quantifies agricultural production, consumption, transformation, and commercialization of produce), have shown large differences in food security between farmers in the western highlands of Guatemala. Another important finding was that more than half of the farm households do not have the means to produce enough energy for home consumption from their agricultural activities. Identifying the constraints, patterns, and underlying processes driving food security could give rise to a set of easy-to-measure variables that quickly and reliably assess household food security status; such a tool would be helpful for decision and policy makers trying to focus on actions more likely to succeed in improving food security in the region. In this study, we developed a predictive model of food security, through the application of machine learning techniques, to identify the most important factors, and their interactions, which account for variability in food security. The resulting \"artificial neural network\" model performed well, explaining nearly 85% of the variance in food security status. By applying different sensitivity analysis methods, we were able to detect highly non-linear interactions between the different factors driving food security. Land availability per person is detected as the main constraint for attaining food security. The median value of land availability per person in the region is 0.085 ha, explaining why 52% of the farm household population does not produce enough food energy from agriculture. Many other interactions were found between crop land allocation, diversity, yields, and food security, which can help to target interventions to improve the food security status in the region.Guatemala is the country with the fourth highest level of children with undernutrition in the world [WFP (World Food Programme), 2018]. Poverty is widespread, and ∼70% of the poor live in rural areas, where traditional agricultural production is the main source of food and income. Poverty and malnutrition are especially predominant among indigenous population, where only 19% of its inhabitants are food-secure (Gobierno de Guatemala, 2012).Traditional campesino systems, in which landless and smallscale subsistence farmers are the least food-secure (Taylor et al., 2006), predominate in large areas of Guatemala. Food insecurity in the country is caused by a lack of food access that is, in turn, rooted in structural problems such as inequality (Guardiola et al., 2006;Gobierno de Guatemala, 2012). Inequality in Guatemala is characterized by a stratified society based on ethnicity, land ownership, health, education, gender, and age (Bruni et al., 2009).The western highlands of Guatemala (WHGs) concentrate the most marginalized communities in Guatemala, where indigenous communities, implementing traditional agroecological practices (such as milpa), predominate. This region has also historically suffered exclusion, social inequality, and violence (Steinberg and Taylor, 2008). As in many rural areas of the world, food security in the WHGs is a complex phenomenon, as its inhabitants are simultaneously producers and consumers of food, and their livelihoods depend on agricultural as well as nonagricultural activities. This complexity is compounded in the WHGs by a high population density and limited land availability. The Ministry of Agriculture of Guatemala states that 62% of households in the region have <0.7 ha of arable land and 85% <1.4 ha [MAGA (Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación de la República de Guatemala), 2011]. With such limitations on land availability, the rural population of the WHGs has developed alternative sources of food and income (wages, migration, handcrafting, etc.). However, agriculture is still the most important livelihood for most of the population and the main contributor to local food security [IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), 2011].Food security is defined as \"everyone having continued access to a sufficient quantity and quality of food\" (FAO, 2003). Four dimensions of food security have been defined: availability, access, utilization, and stability (FAO, 2016). Recently, Lopez-Ridaura et al. (2019) conducted an analysis to assess one of these, food availability, among farm households (FHHs) in the WHGs, based on a data set of nearly 5,000 households and a simple indicator of food security, that is, potential food availability (PFA) measured in kcal/male adult equivalent per day. It was found that in the WHGs the most important agricultural production systems consist of maize and coffee as main crops and that there exist six types of contrasting FHHs in terms of the crops they produce and their food output level. These types also contrast in how many households attain food security. Three farm types [i.e., (a) diversified maize-based, (b) coffee-based, and (c) specialized coffee FHHs] had higher percentages of food-secure households, with values of 60, 83, and 74%, respectively. Farm households specialized in maize production and resource-constrained households were the types with the lowest percentage of food-secure households. According to Lopez-Ridaura et al. (2019), the contribution of agriculture to the Potential Food Availability (PFA) for the FHHs in the WHGs varies from almost zero to up to 10 times the kcal needs of the household members, and agricultural activities do not meet the needs of the habitants in more than half of the households (52%).Food security in the WHGs can be considered an intricate multiscale complex process in which a multitude of interacting subsystems within smallholder FHHs play a very important role. Smallholder systems are very diverse, in terms of both the configuration of their structural components and the dynamics of crop production, consumption, and commercialization (Camacho-Villa et al., 2019). How crop production affects food security in the region has been studied for many years since the 1990s. These studies, for example, showed that when farmers shift from traditional maize to only potato they are more likely to get less income, lower food security, and lower nutritional status. Other farmers growing wheat, vegetables, and potato in farms with large land sizes have increased household incomes. However, these increased incomes were not associated with significant improvements in their food security status (Immink and Alarcon, 1991). Commercial FHHs have also been shown to become more dependent on market access for adequate availability of food, with cash crops even further displacing food crops. In these commercial households, the consumption of own-produced staple foods is reduced, and this reduction has resulted in a nutritionally diminished diet (Immink and Alarcon, 1993).The Need for Quick Reliable Methods to Detect Food Insecurity Feed the Future (USAID) and the Western Highlands Integrated Program (WHIP) developed the Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) Country Plan for Guatemala to address, among other issues, food security and nutrition in the country in 2018-2022. The plan is intended to identify the key drivers of food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty. These drivers are recognized to stem from a complex set of underlying conditions at the individual, household, community, and system levels. Notably, the most vulnerable and poor, with limited resources, skills, and capabilities to participate in market operations, will need to be supported to improve their food production and participate in reliable value chains so that agriculture becomes a viable livelihood option. The need for the identification of the most vulnerable and poor is a call for quick alternative methods of food security assessment necessary for targeted policy interventions (Feed the Future, 2018, GFSS, Guatemala).Different modeling approaches have been used to assess and predict agricultural productivity, as well as food security of smallscale farming systems in different conditions (e.g., Frelat et al., 2016, Ritzema et al., 2017). Process-based models (usually a set of differential equations) are powerful tools for prediction for yield estimation of crops at the field scale, for example, as they simulate several interactions between the crops and the environment. These models, however, require intensive data collection and calibration of each of the processes that are incorporated in the model. On the other hand, statistical models estimate direct relationships between predictor variables, without considering the underlying processes (Jones et al., 2017) and can be applied easily if enough empirical observations are available.\"Machine learning\" is a technique used for finding significant rules to explain or find patterns in data. We as humans have always been interested in finding rules that allow us to better understand a given system and accurately predict its future behavior. Historically, finding such rules has not been an easy task, but as data availability and computing power increase, it gets easier to try various rules and see which ones more accurately represent a process or phenomenon. Machine learning is a term used to describe a broad collection of pattern-finding algorithms designed for finding system rules empirically, the use of which has grown dramatically (Watt et al., 2020).The models resulting from machine learning algorithms are sometimes referred to as black boxes: data go in, and outputs come out, but the relationships between input and output remain obscure (Zhang et al., 2018). An extensive literature attests to the superiority of machine learning in minimizing predictive error compared to traditional statistics model fitting as simple interpretable functions may not always make the most accurate predictions. Increasing accuracy of prediction in many cases requires methods that are able to deal with more complex interactions between the model inputs. This can be achieved by machine learning algorithms; however, what we may gain in predictive power we may lose in interpretability of the complex interactions (Goldstein et al., 2015).The use of machine learning algorithms has a great potential to discover patterns and in consequence explore alternatives to fight poverty and also help in decision-making processes aiming to alleviate it (Blumenstock, 2016;Jean et al., 2016); particularly, it has been applied for predicting famine or food security aspects in sub-Saharan Africa. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used in Frelat et al. (2016) for an across-Africa study and in Egypt for predicting country-level future crop production needs (Khedr et al., 2015), whereas support vector machine algorithms were used in Uganda and Brazil for detecting famine-prone households (Okori and Obua, 2011;Barbosa and Nelson, 2016). A worldwide initiative to fight hunger with big data and artificial intelligence is also being developed (Worldbank, 2018).The food security status indicator developed by Lopez-Ridaura et al. (2019) managed to capture the complex dynamics of the inputs and outputs of household nutritional energy through consumption, transformation, and commercialization of farm products. We hypothesize that a small set of simple variables can be found to capture the complexities of food production at the plot level and predict the food security status of the smallholders' FHHs of WHGs. In this study, (i) we develop, train, and test a model to predict the food security status of WHGs FHHs and (ii) explore the complex interactions between the input variables of this model, to better understand the relationships between agricultural production, land use, and food security.The USAID's WHIP aims at fighting poverty and malnutrition and augmenting access to health services, access to markets, and improved agricultural production in the region. In 2013, as part of the impact evaluation of the program, a baseline survey targeting 6,301 households in the WHGs was conducted in 55 municipalities in five departments (Figure 1) (Ángeles et al., 2014).The survey, Encuesta de Monitoreo y Evaluación del Programa del Altiplano Occidental, was developed to measure the program's impact and followed rigorous randomized sampling methods, considering the influence zone regarding two components: the rural value chains (RVCs) and the health program. The program directs its actions to different population sectors divided in three domains: those members to an association related to RVCs and health program beneficiaries, those with no direct participation in the RVCs, and those that are beneficiaries of the health program. Two other domains were profiled for comparison and evaluation. The survey includes detailed information on households members and characteristics, food security status, expenses, and consumption levels, empowerment, women reproductive dynamics, communities' basic infrastructure characteristics, and health services (see full details in Ángeles et al., 2014).We did not consider households reporting no agricultural activity or with inconsistent data (e.g., more land reported on a crop than the total area, or areas on crops with no production data). In total, we selected 4,790 households for analysis.The availability dimension of food security (FAO, 1996) quantified for WHGs smallholders by Lopez-Ridaura et al. (2019) consisted of calculating an indicator (Figure 2) that approximates the PFA at household level. This indicator is based on the transformation into kilocalories of all products derived from the farm (Frelat et al., 2016), regardless of whether those products are consumed directly inside the household or sold. The energy intake due to the consumption of each product (maize grain, beans, meat, etc.) can be calculated based on their caloric content and the number of kilograms consumed on a yearly basis. The potential energy intake generated from selling farm products is obtained by transforming all income from the sales into whatever quantity of staple food grain (maize) could potentially be bought with it and then converting this amount of \"virtual grain\" into energy as well. The total food energy potentially available to a farm family is thus obtained by adding the energy due to consuming some products, which is directly available, and the energy derived from selling others, which is indirect. The yearly energy requirement for the household is calculated based on the total number of household members (transformed to male adult equivalents), and an energy need of 2,500 kcal/day for each male adult equivalent. The indicator quantifies how much energy (expressed in kcals) is potentially available daily per male adult equivalent. When PFA is ≥2,500 kcal/day, the household has enough or more food than needed per day per family member and is, in consequence, food-secure. If PFA is <2,500 kcal/day, the household energy requirement is larger than what is available, and thus, the household is not food-secure.The data underpinning the PFA indicator can be complex as it is composed of inputs from a wide variety of sources. Different farm products might be directly consumed or might be sold for cash raw or converted, and the diversity of farm produce is described next. Livestock production involves several species, including horses, goats, sheep, chicken, turkey, pigs, cows, and even fish or bees. These animals can be commercialized either through live sales, or as their products, for example, honey, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, cream, fat, wool, or even sausages. The crop diversity of the Western Guatemalan systems includes maize, beans, coffee, fava, pea, potato, and, to a lesser extent, green beans, carrots, and Brussels sprouts. The average price of each product or crop included in the analysis is included in the Appendix 1, as well as the average amount of its production, consumption, and income generation. Household size, expressed in male adult equivalents, had a median value of 4.1 MAE and a mean value of 4.38 [standard deviation (SD) = 1.97], with a range (max. -min.) of 13.1 MAE.Several methods for forecasting and prediction have been developed, and machine learning algorithms have proved particularly to be able to provide raw material for sensitivity analyses, which allow the disentanglement of coupled effects between predictors and pickup signals in massive amounts of data, something that becomes more time and resource consuming with traditional statistics methods (Kantardzic, 2020).We fitted and compared several methods of supervised learning to find the best one for PFA prediction. Besides a multiple linear regression, we assessed machine learning classifiers random forest (Breiman, 2001) and ANN (Rosenblatt, 1958), ANN performed best in terms of prediction accuracy, and the results are presented in this study.Many factors are related to food production, quantity, quality, and diversity in the WHGs, and we selected variables to allow for a comprehensive representation of the FHHs, regarding land availability and its management. Another consideration for selecting variables was that they should be easy to capture or measure. We selected as predictor variables those related to land size, land allocation to crops, and crop diversity, as well as crop production levels. More specifically, we selected 14 variables for the 4,970 households analyzed: total land, land availability per person, total number of crops grown, land allocated to maize, land allocated to coffee, land allocated to potato, land allocated to other crops, livestock holdings [expressed in tropical livestock units (TLUs)], and the yield of each of the following crops: maize, coffee, bean, fava bean, pea, and potato.First, the data were screened to detect variables with zero or near-zero variance. These numerical variables may have a unique constant value or have very few unique values relative to the number of samples and thus are not useful for modeling approaches as they show no variation when other predictors change. Land under potato, fava bean, pea, and potato yield proved to possess zero or near-zero variance and therefore excluded at this point. Also, outliers were removed using a cutoff of the above 99% quantile and the below 1% quantile. This resulted in a data set of 4,499 FHHs for analyses.To detect collinearity between the predictors, as well as their correlation with the target variable, we followed a pairwise Pearson product-moment correlation analysis and constructed scatterplots (see Appendix 2 for the results). We also quantified the descriptive statistics of the target variable (PFA) and predictors.Artificial neural network models could be considered as frameworks that represent non-linear mappings between multidimensional spaces, avoiding rigorous assumptions on data distribution. The use of these algorithms is gaining popularity in research areas not only where large amounts of data are available but also when the relationships between the variables are unknown or expected to present high-non-linear behavior (Jiang et al., 2017). The structure of an ANN is represented by layers, each composed of nodes. Normally, at least three layers (the input, hidden and output layers) are required for building an ANN model. The nodes are connected, layer by layer, by arrows that represent the strength of their interrelationship. The nodes of the input layer represent the input variables or predictors, whereas the nodes of the output layer represent the output variables. This structure is inspired on the neural processes in the brain, as information is shared across the network of neurons (nodes or processors). The network as a whole learns patterns by observing inputs (perceiving the environment) and outputs by adjusting the relationship between the variables and the internal nodes (by changing the weight of each connection connection) in the network. This so-called shallow neural network architecture is actually already quite old and has been around since 1960s (Rosenblatt, 1958;Schmidhuber, 2015). Other methods may overlook non-linear relationships, which ANNs can approximate through this flexible layer, node, and connection weighting setup (Landi et al., 2010;Dalatu et al., 2017).The input and output layers correspond to input and output variables, respectively. In our case, the output layer is a single node, the PFA values, whereas the input layer consists of the set of predictor variables. As the model is trained, the weighted connections are adjusted using backpropagation, a gradient descent method (Schmidhuber, 2015). Each single node receives information from the nodes from the previous layer and calculates the weighted sum from these inputs as follows:where t represents the weighted value to which a function is applied to calculate the node output, w represents the weight of the connection between nodes i and j, whereas x represents the input from node j, and n is the number of inputs. To generate the output node values, a transfer function is applied to t:We used the most common transfer functions: these are a logistic transfer function for the output layer nodes and a linear transfer function for the hidden layer nodes. The number of connections between inputs and outputs is determined by the number of nodes in the hidden layer. The appropriate number of hidden nodes may vary depending on the complexity of the relationships. If too many nodes are used, this can lead to overtraining during the calibration exercise, resulting in poor prediction (Garro and Vázquez, 2015). To control for this, a data set is normally split into two parts: one for the calibration and one for testing. When using a small number of hidden nodes, normally the model performance for both the calibration and testing data sets increases when adding extra hidden nodes. However, at a certain moment, the model performance for the testing set does not improve anymore by adding more hidden nodes and can actually start to decline. The latter indicates overtraining and means that the number of hidden nodes is getting too large (Chai and Draxler, 2014).Input data were preprocessed for the ANN. To control for different ranges of input variables, all values were standardized [0, 1] intervals usingwhere x i = (x 1 . . . ..x n ), x is the set of points of the variable to be transformed, and z i is the transformed data point.To properly assess and compare model performance, data were split into training and testing sets in a proportion of 0.75 (n = 3,375 FHHs) and 0.25 (n = 1,124 FHHs), respectively.We used the package nnet combined with caret in R. The two packages combined allow for tuning the weight decay during the training and the number of nodes in the hidden layer. We tried several numbers of iterations to check the minimum length of training that would allow for a converged result. Then, several combinations of weight decay and number of nodes were tested to find the most accurate model. A 10-fold cross-validation was performed on each training procedure, using the root mean square error (RMSE with kcal/day per MAE unit) and R 2 of observed vs. predicted values as metrics. The testing data set was used to validate the ANN model performance. Also, for the testing data, RMSE and R 2 of observed vs. predicted values were computed from the predicted PFA vs. the food security indicator PFA to determine the precision and bias of the predictions, respectively. RMSE is computed as follows:where n is the number of observations in the data set, and X obs,i are the values of the target variable from the testing or training data set, and X model,i are the values predicted by the model. Also, a scatterplot of predicted vs. observed values was constructed to assess visually the model's accuracy, linear model, and regression equation line, and 1:1 line was added for ease of interpretation.We used three methods for interpretation of the ANN model. First, we determined variable importance to identify the most significant explanatory variables and their influence on the output variable (PFA). For this, we used Garson's (1991)  (Goh, 1995) and Olden et al.'s (2004) algorithms. Garson's algorithm is based on partitioning neural network connection weights and uses them to define relationships between variables. Garson's algorithm reports relative importance of each input variable expressed as a percentage. The value of connection weight indicates the influence of the input variables on the output variable, and the higher the value of connection, the stronger importance of corresponding input variable. Olden's method, contrary to Garson's, uses raw connection weight values instead of absolute values, and therefore it accounts for negative and positive effects of the variables. Negative values account for a negative effect of the input variable over the output. Using both algorithms helps to confirm the absolute influence of input over output variables.Partial dependence plots (PDPs) were developed by Friedman (2001) to help visualize the relationship between a subset of predictors and the response variable while considering the average effect of other predictors in the model. This could mask important interactions and heterogeneities that the model captures. Individual conditional expectation plots (ICEplots) extend on PDPs and disaggregate the average effect by displaying for each observation the estimated functional relationship that exists with the output when the predictor variable changes. The resulting curve for each observation helps to identify possible interactions of the predictor with other variables in the model, as well as to detect extrapolations in predictor space. We constructed ICEplots for each variable included in the model to detect such interactions. Partial dependency plots were used for visualizing the simultaneous interactions between 3 variables.All analyses were done with R (R version 3.4.1; R Core Team, 2017) with the IDE Rstudio (version 1.1.423), caret (6.0-80, Kuhn et al., 2018)   Olden's and Garson's variable importance analysis, and pdp (0.7.0, Greenwell, 2017) for visualization of PDPs.The data showed high variation in PFA intermediate variation in land availability, yields and land allocation, and low variation in TLU and number of crops (Table 1). Land availability is very low, and plot sizes are small with a mean of 0.127 (SD = 0.131) and a median of 0.085 ha per person. Maize yield is on average low but highly variable: average yield was 2.25 ton/ha with an SD of 2 ton/ha. For coffee, the average yield is 0.374 ton/ha and a SD = 0.6, which is close to double of the average, so high variation in yield is found in the region. Most of the land is allocated to maize with an average value of 53%, although the variation between farms is large with an SD of 35%. Coffee is the second most important crop in terms of land allocation with an average value of 23%. But variation is also large for coffee, and the SD of 35% indicates that some farmers may allocate more than 50% of their land to coffee or have no land under coffee at all. Area under other crops is, on average, 8.6%, meaning that maize and coffee are indeed by far the two most important crops. On average, smallholders cultivate 2.5, but with an SD of 1.4, this value does mask quite a range of different crop diversity strategies. In general, the farms possess few livestock, with an average holding of 0.47 TLU and an SD of 0.66. This large diversity of farming systems in the WHGs region also manifests as large differences in their PFA. From the sample, 52% of FHHs in the region do not attain enough energy production from their farms (Lopez-Ridaura et al., 2019). It has been estimated that approximately 50% of children younger than 5 years in the western highlands are stunted because of chronic food insecurity. Also, indigenous people are concentrated in this region, and it is reported that the prevalence of chronically malnourished population may reach nearly 70% (USAID, 2018).Despite the large data variability typical for household survey data (e.g., Fraval et al., 2019), we have been able to provide an accurate prediction of the food security status (i.e., food availability) of FHHs in the WHGs. A model that predicts PFA with a high level of precision was constructed using only a small set of input variables and the application of ANNs. We chose to keep the ANN because of its superior performance predicting PFA with the testing data set as compared to the other methods: the linear regression resulted in an RMSE = 4,766 kcal/day per MAE and an R 2 = 0.52, and the random forest algorithm gave an RMSE = 3,490 kcal/day per MAE and an R 2 = 0.78. For the ANN, after trying several maximum numbers of iterations by trial and error, 1,500 iterations allowed the model to converge in all the training rounds, while computing times were reasonable. Using this setting and evaluating different weight decay and number of hidden units using 10-fold cross-validation, the best-performing neural network was one with eight hidden nodes and a weight decay of 0.0009. This ANN setup resulted in an R 2 = 0.80 (RMSE = 3,410 kcal/day per MAE) in cross-validation. When validating with testing data set, the observed vs. predicted values yield an R 2 = 0.85 (RMSE of 2,891 kcal/day per MAE), meaning this simple response model can account for nearly 85% of variation of PFA, as seen in Figure 3. The resulting ANN model can then be used as an analytical tool to assess the effect of the single variables as well as their interactions, the thresholds and frontiers affecting the food security of smallholders generated through the decisions on agricultural activities, especially land allocation (i.e., to coffee or maize) and their yield levels.The Variables Importance Based on Garson's and Olden's AlgorithmsThe most important variables for the prediction of households' PFA according to Garson's algorithm (Figure 4A) are, in diminishing importance, as follows: coffee yield > land under coffee > hectares per person > maize yield > land under maize > crops number > land under other crops > TLU.According to Olden's algorithm (Figure 4B), the most important variables are hectares per person, with a positive effect on PFA (increasing land availability increases PFA); and land under coffee, with a negative impact on PFA. Other, less important, variables, such as land under maize, crops number, and land under other crops, have a negative effect on PFA. According to Olden's method, maize and coffee yields affect PFA positively, although not in a great manner, whereas Garson's algorithm identifies coffee and maize yields as highly important.We can conclude that both algorithms find that the altogether least important variables, in terms of accounting for PFA variation, are livestock holdings, land on other crops, and crops number, and the most important are hectares per person and land under coffee. We found that land availability (hectares per person) and land under coffee (or inversely land under maize) are the variables with the highest predictive value (i.e., the ones sharing a larger proportion of the weights in the neural networks).The ICEplots (individual conditional expectation plots) allowed us to identify how large is the effect of each predictor on PFA and if non-linear relationships between the predictors and PFA exist (Figure 5). The ICEplots show that, in general, the effect of single predictors on PFA is non-linear. For land availability, maize and coffee yield land under other crops, land under maize, and land under coffee, contrasting behaviors between households are evident; PFA either increases or decreases. The fact that there exists a contrasting behavior is indicative of the interaction with other variables; also, the PFA growth curves may present different growth rates (slopes) with either a positive or negative sign.The land availability variable, hectares per person, has a positive relation with PFA, but this relation shows large variation; that is, the same value of hectares per person can yield a large range of PFA values-possibly driven by the non-linear relationships with other variables. Small increases in hectares per person, especially below the value of 0.25 ha per person, result in a substantial increase of PFA, but further increases in farm size enhance PFA only in modest amounts.That PFA curves reach a saturation point as land availability increases agrees with other studies, such as that of Frelat et al. (2016), where they postulate that this saturation could be explained by a decline in productivity per unit land (kcal/ha), when land availability increases. This pattern of inverse land size productivity is also found in many studies of smallholder farmers (Larson et al., 2013;Ali and Deininger, 2014), showing that medium-sized farmers are more efficient per unit area (Muyanga and Jayne, 2014). The main concern here is that the minimum amount of ha per person needed to achieve 2,500 kcal/day per MAE is around 0.06 ha; land availability of the sample is on average 0.13 ha with a median of 0.08 ha, which means that only nearly half of the households' population may possess enough land to achieve 2,500 kcal/day per MAE, and possibly the other half might be not reaching even the 0.06 ha per person value. Even with excellent crops yields, PFA does not reach high values in situations in which land availability is very limited, so just trying to increase productivity might not be a useful intervention for households that lack a critical amount of land.Given this information, increasing crops yield might be not the proper intervention for all FHHs because attaining high yield, with still very limited land availability, PFA would not reach high values. On the other hand, some farmers that possess enough land (e.g., 0.19 ha per person) but still present low food security may benefit from agroecological options for intensification and diversification.This type of saturation effect is seen in other plots in Figure 5. Maize yield, coffee yield, and land on coffee individual curves present a growing trend but stabilize after certain point, although the average response curve for these variables is a relatively straight line. Land under maize shows a negative relation with PFA, again with a clear saturation signal, indicating that although maize is an important food security crop, there are other crops that generate more value on the same amount of land. The response curves of the other variables are all straight lines and close to zero value, indicating that they not have such a large effect on PFA as the variables already discussed.While Figure 5 showed the single variable effects, we are also interested in the interactions between the drivers of PFA. We used contour partial dependency plots of three variables to analyze how they simultaneously affect PFA. Figure 6 presents the non-linear relationships between some of the variables with highest explanatory power for PFA prediction. Figure 6A shows the relationship between hectares per person, yield of coffee, and yield of maize (the latter divided in ranges pertaining each quartile in each panel). The most important limiting factor for attaining high values of PFA is, again, land availability (hectares per person). Even when coffee and maize yields are low, more land availability increases PFA substantially. Again, even when maize yields and coffee yields are high, it is difficult to reach PFA values that represent a food-secure household at low values of land availability. The area of PFA values representing food-secure households logically increases with higher yields of both crops. This allows us to identify under which levels of land availability and productivity household can be food-secure using the PFA indicator, and thereby given the current levels of land availability and productivity of the different household, we can identify land and productivity \"gaps.\"A general trend found when three-variable interactions are analyzed is that PFA grows when land size increases in terms of land availability per person (Figure 6) and when maize and coffee crops yields are higher (Figure 6A). Although the results of Figures 5, 6 show a large variability, results indicate that there is a typical 0.25 ha per person threshold, under which land availability is the most constraining factor for achieving food security. Surprisingly, this threshold seems to be quite independent of the crop productivity values.The average value for land availability in the households' sample in the WHGs is 0.13 ha per person (red line in Figure 6), for coffee yield 0.37 t/ha, and maize yield 2.25 t/ha. Following the interpretation of the relationship between these variables in Figure 6A, reaching a PFA on the limit of 2,500 kcal/day per MAE is possible only for land availabilities with values in the range of 0.19-0.3 ha per person that lie above the sample mean (green lines in Figure 6). Food security could only be attained for a land availability of 0.19 ha per person (fourth panel Figure 6A), with the highest yields predicted to be 8.7-11.6 t/ha for maize and 3.2 to 4.2 t/ha for coffee on the upper quartile, but these values are rare in the sample. With lower yields, land availability above the sample mean is mandatory. Something similar happens in Figure 6B; only the highest yield on maize in monocrop (i.e., zero land under other crops) could provide enough kcals, but the land availability necessary is even higher than when growing maize and coffee, as the lowest threshold (green line, fourth panel, Figure 6B) is 0.20 ha per person.Our three simultaneous variables partial dependency plots approach allows seeing how important it is increasing yield when land is limited. Increasing the yield and yield stability of crops might become transcendent if we consider that land shows to be the most critical point defining food security of smallholders in the WHGs. It is important to see that those households that reach 2,500 kcal/MAE per day have, on average, some differences from those who do not, for example, more land availability, higher yields of coffee less land under maize, higher lands under coffee, and less land under other crops (Table 2).For most FHHs in the WHGs, maize contributes with a high percentage to the PFA and therefore is critical for food security. Maize yields in the region have been reported previously to be in a range from 1 to 2 t/ha (Hellin et al., 2017), and in our sample, the yields are, on average, 2.25 t/ha. Small-scale farmers in Guatemala are key actors in maize production-consumption. Farmers owning <7 ha of land represent 53% of the farmers growing maize. More than two-thirds of the maize they produce is for self-consumption, covering ∼8 months of their needs (USAID/Guatemala, 2009). However, these subsistence farmers have experienced accelerated land fragmentation (Isakson, 2014). Currently, 55% of the national maize production is produced by farmers with <3.5 ha (Fuentes-López et al., 2005). This land fragmentation has been more dramatic in the WHGs. Hellin et al. (2017) found that, in 2016, farmers from this region owned an average of 4.3 ha in the 1980s, but currently they have only 0.4 ha. These findings coincide with Bellow et al. (2008) and Sigüenza Ramírez et al. ( 2010), who found that the average land size for a small-scale farmer was 0.34 ha. Hellin et al. (2017) also found a large variability in maize farmers' average landholdings, depending on their location within the five departments that comprise the western highlands.For those still growing maize and coffee in different agroecologies, some alternatives could be explored for increasing crops yield and stability, for example, participatory breeding in which adapted maize seeds could be spread in regions with higher yield potential; also, as most of the farms are located in mountainous regions with steep slopes, soil could be retained or its qualities could be restored or improved through soil and water conservation strategies.Another general trend shows that increasing land on other crops leads to decreasing PFA and that only with high maize yields and enough land available the window to diversity production opens up (Figure 6B). Analyzing the interactions between land availability, maize yield, and land under other crops, we again see the effect of increasing land availability on PFA, but more interestingly, we see a trade-off between more land under other crops and PFA. This means that the other crops add less value per unit hectare than maize and coffee (especially the latter, which is the major cash crop of the region). So, from a purely PFA perspective, diversifying production does not make much sense, but we need to take into account the limitations of the PFA indicator, which is only based on energy (kcal) production and consumption. Other crops are likely to have positive effects on other aspects of food security such as dietary diversity and/or risk management, among other functions of diversification. This analysis therefore shows the window of opportunity to bring in these other crops in these production systems: after satisfying the PFA indicator (basic energetic food security), it will be important to bring in other crops to improve dietary diversity. The model shows under which combinations of land availability and crop productivity such opportunities arise.The dynamics and the effects of crops diversification in the WHGs in the past have shown that including commercial crops in the farming activity of smallholders in the region may affect their food security, posing risks to their availability dimension (Immink andAlarcon, 1991, 1993). This is reflected in our results as we can see that not necessarily having land allocated to fully commercial crops or to food crops alone has a positive effect on food security; our results support the need for diversification, but in an equivalent proportion regarding the land that is shared between the crops, especially coffee and maize.When land availability per person is large, higher values of PFA are possible independently of the crop produced or the surface cultivated. Nevertheless, increasing crops diversity is to be considered carefully for these systems as we show that high crops diversity affects PFA. For some plots with high land availability, food security might be attained with a high-diversity mix of crops, but there is a threshold in the number of crops that can be cultivated in small plots to attain large PFA values. It is possible also that monocrop cultivation on large plots outputs high values of PFA.The analyses' results show that, along the split into staple crop-cash crops (i.e., land under maize vs. land under coffee), roughly an equal share of both crops seems to give the highest probability of attaining food security. Again, this is possible only if enough land is available (>0.25 ha per person), and such an equal mix makes sure both basic calories and cash are available to the household.For those FHHs possessing larger land extensions as diversifying crops seems to be beneficial, exploring alternatives to improve the systems efficiency could be beneficial, for example, crops rotations and systems integration of fruit trees which may add even more nutrients to diets or possibly provide even more products to commercialize while helping to avoid soil erosion as well.For others, greatly limited by land availability, other strategies would need to be assessed. Previously, life history studies have revealed that besides growing coffee in small plots, which is a common practice, off-farm activities are of great importance for coping with food insecurity when land is limited (Beveridge et al., 2019) and also describe the way smallholders get involved in other activities such as selling their labor in nearby big farms or near big cities, raising chicken in home gardens as a way for making income, and timber wood production. Also, some positive factors are is highlighted that would help in improving food security such as women's own income production dependent on home garden activities and even handicrafts (Feed the Future, 2018).An additional important analysis that could be performed would be to identify the effect of market access on increased PFA. As Frelat et al. (2016) found, access or means of commercialization are crucial to ensure or improve the livelihoods of smallholders and might impact more than crop productivity interventions. As the present study is only a snapshot of the food security in the region, crossing information about regional PFA and the access to markets, including how climatic and price variations would affect smallholders land allocation decisions and production, could aid in projecting PFA in the future and profiling the interventions that could take place.Food security in the WHGs is the result of a socioecological complex dynamic system, with many layers interacting in many ways, and with bottom-up and top-down effects. However, it is interesting that through the application of machine learning algorithms we have been able to construct a tool that predicts the FHHs' PFA with an acceptable degree of precision. With a sample of nearly 5,000 smallholders, we were able to fit a model with an R 2 ∼0.85.The best-performing model for the prediction of the continuous PFA values (kcal/male adult equivalents per day) is an ANN based on a short set of simple variables (i.e., land availability, crops yields, land share of crops) than can be easily obtained with only a few questions to the farmers. Also, by using model interpretation and visualization techniques, certain patterns are found on the effects of land availability, the share of land of commercial and staple food crops, and their yields on food availability. This analytical framework represents an opportunity as these approaches could be easily implemented as quick and (to a certain extent) reliable tools for screening the food security status of FHHs. That could be helpful during baselining and evaluation for projects which objectives would be to improve food security in the WHGs or regions alike, with high population densities and high diversity of farming systems and activities. The power to quickly assess the food security status of a population would be that interventions would be easily targeted as the population could be sectorized.The relationship of some of the predictor variables with PFA, extracted with the machine learning algorithm, reveals some non-linear patterns and allows us to extract some conclusions referring to the main constraints that prevent households from achieving food security. Large land availability and high yields of crops seem to ensure food security, but approximately half of the population does not possess enough land.","tokenCount":"7418"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"46a3006114bb981a1f79dd8c6444bd02","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/48653bef-c4d8-4c11-8f31-a95ead75991e/content","id":"-2026414769"},"keywords":["Comparative analysis","characterization","livelihoods","drought","production systems","varietal use","seed use AGRIS category codes: F01 Crop-husbandry","F02 Plant-propagation","F08 Croppingpatterns-and-systems","E10 Agricultural-economics-andpolicies","E15 Farm-organization-and-management","U40 Surveying-methods Dewey decimal classif.: 338.16676 ISBN: 978-970-648-183-2"],"sieverID":"43b1c42b-3b2b-4050-bfb1-5f5d06a10a97","pagecount":"78","content":"Headquartered in Mexico, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT) is a not-for-profit agriculture research and training organization. The Center works to reduce poverty and hunger by sustainably increasing the productivity of maize and wheat in the developing world. CIMMYT maintains the world's largest maize and wheat seed bank and is best known for initiating the Green Revolution, which saved millions of lives across Asia and for which CIMMYT's Dr. Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium and receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies.The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project is jointly implemented by CIMMYT and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). It's funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The project is part of a broad partnership also involving national agricultural research and extension systems, seed companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and advanced research institutes, together known as the DTMA Initiative. Its activities build on longer-term support by other donors, including the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Eiselen Foundation. The project aims to develop and disseminate drought tolerant, high-yielding, locally-adapted maize varieties and to reach 30-40 million people in sub-Saharan Africa with these varieties in 10 years.The CIMMYT Socioeconomics Program (SEP) Working Papers series contain preliminary material and research results from CIMMYT social scientists and its partners. The papers are subject to an internal peer review. They are circulated in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment. The opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of their home institutions or supporting organizations. For more information on this series contact the CIMMYT website. CIMMYT 2012. All rights reserved. The designations employed in the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of CIMMYT or its contributory organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and are not necessarily those of CIMMYT or our partners. CIMMYT encourages fair use of this material. Proper citation is requested.Selected characteristics of the study countries in eastern Africa. ........................ Table 2.Selected characteristics of the study areas in eastern Africa. ............................... Table 3.Sample characteristics in the drought prone study areas of eastern Africa. .........  Maize is the most important cereal food crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly in eastern and southern Africa where it accounts for 53% of the total cereal area (FAO, 2010) and 30-70% of total caloric consumption (Langyintuo et al., 2010). Maize production in SSA is typically rainfed and drought prone. Drought has an overwhelming importance to SSA, affecting people's livelihoods, food security and economic development. CIMMYT (1990) initially estimated that some 40% of the maize area in SSA experience occasional drought (defined as causing yield losses of 10-25%) and 25% experience frequent drought (defined as causing yield losses of 25-50%). Frequent drought is particularly problematic for tropical and subtropical maize in SSA, and causes a 33% further maize yield reduction compared to less stressed areas (Heisey and Edmeades, 1999). Effective approaches to combat current impacts of drought are of utmost importance, more so as the situation is set to become even worse as climate change progresses (Cooper et al., 2008;Jones and Thornton, 2003;Thornton et al., 2009;Thornton et al., 2008).When recurrent droughts in SSA ruin harvests, lives and livelihoods are threatened, even destroyed.Developing, distributing and cultivating drought tolerant maize varieties in SSA is one highly relevant intervention to reduce vulnerability, food insecurity and damage to local markets due to food aid. But to succeed it needs to be embedded in local reality. Unfortunately for much of SSA basic descriptive statistics and data on farm livelihoods and practices that would inform such an intervention are not available. It is for this reason that rapid community assessments and detailed household surveys were conducted in drought prone areas of eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) to characterize the maize producing households.The original country level studies provide detailed descriptive accounts of the household survey findings (Legese et al., 2010;Mugisha et al., 2011;Muhammad et al., 2010;Temu et al., 2011). The present report synthesizes the findings of these four parallel household surveys in drought prone regions of eastern Africa. This synthesis thereby revisits and reanalyzes the original primary data and focuses on the sub-regional contrasts, similarities and implications. The present study is complemented by similar synthesis of parallel household surveys in southern Africa (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Angola, and Mozambique) and western Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Mali).The present report is organized into six chapters. The second chapter presents the drought prone study areas of eastern Africa and the methodology. The third chapter characterizes the households based on their livelihood assets whereas the fourth chapter characterizes the household livelihood strategies. The fifth chapter presents the technology use in crop production, with an emphasis on maize and maize seed. The sixth chapter concludes.The four eastern Africa study countries-Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzaniaencompass a total population of some 200 million living in an area of 2.9 million km 2 . At a country level, Ethiopia and Kenya have about average population densities, but Uganda is more densely populated and Tanzania least (Table 1). Only 12% of the area is considered arable (0.34 million km 2 ), although this share is about double in Uganda. In Kenya, agriculture contributes a quarter of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared to over a third in the other countries. There is still widespread poverty, particularly in rural areas, although indicators vary as to the depth of poverty (Table 1). Maize is an important crop in the region, annually planted on 7.3 million ha (corresponding to 21% of the arable area and 41% of land under cereals). However, there are some marked regional variations in relative maize area (Table 1), being highest in Kenya and lowest in Ethiopia where maize comes second after teff (Eragrostis tef). Ethiopia has also quite diverse and substantial areas under sorghum, wheat and barley. Regional maize yields average only 1.6 tons per ha (Table 1). The study focuses on the drought prone maize producing areas in these four eastern Africa countries. In each country, two maize growing districts were purposively selected from the medium drought risk zone, defined as having a 20-40% probability of failed season (Thornton et al., 2006). This indicator reflects the percentage of years in which an annual crop is expected to fail due to severe water stress based on simulated data using a weather generator and the estimated actual and potential evapo-transpiration and length of the growing period (Thornton et al., 2006).The selected study areas primarily fall in the dry-subtropical ecology (i.e. 900-1500 meters above sea level [masl] with < 1000 mm pa, CIMMYT, 1990) -Table 2. This dry subtropical ecology typically represents a substantial share of the maize area in the respective countries, although its share in the total production is typically more limited due to the incidence of drought and correspondingly lower productivity levels. The study areas are characterized primarily by small-scale mixed crop-livestock systems. Irrigation is largely absent, with maize being a major crop in the main rain season. In areas with bimodal rainfall, maize is also grown in the second rain season, albeit that the main season remains dominant in terms of maize area and production.The study areas in Ethiopia and Tanzania are centrally located and situated within or adjacent to the Rift Valley. In Kenya the study areas are in Eastern Kenya -east of the Rift Valley and Nairobi. In Uganda the study sites are located in the countries central-eastern parts, on opposite sides of Lake Kyoga, north of Kampala (Figure 1). With the exception of Uganda, the population densities in the study areas (Table 2) tend to be higher than for their respective countries (Table 1), reflecting that large swathes of the respective countries are even less favorable for agriculture. Note: 1 ATJK: Adami Tulu -Jido Kombolcha. In case of Kenya survey focused on a sub-district or constituency (name mentioned in brackets). In Tanzania Dodoma Rural district was divided in 2007 into 2 new districts -Bahi and Chamwino (http://en.wikipedia.org/), with the survey being implemented in the latter. Source: derived from country reports (Legese et al., 2010;Mugisha et al., 2011;Muhammad et al., 2010;Temu et al., 2011). Population density based on combined districts, except for Tanzania based on aggregate regional data (http://en.wikipedia.org/ accessed 26 Jan 2011). For Ethiopia rural population density for Adama was used. From the two selected drought prone maize producing districts, a multi-stage random sample of farm households was selected -with a number of random villages selected first (Annex 1) and from these, a number of random farmers. In the first batch of survey countries (Ethiopia and Kenya), the sample amounted to some 350 farm households with the survey being implemented mid-2007 (Table 3). The survey was subsequently extended to a second batch of survey countries (Uganda and Tanzania) with a sample size of some 150 farm households with the survey being implemented in mid-2008 (Table 3). The comprehensive questionnaire was basically the same across the four countries -albeit that some additional questions were added to the second batch of survey countries. 1 In each country, the survey was collected by dedicated enumerators during a single visit. The information collected reflects the respondents' responses, with no additional measurements from the surveyor side (except for global-positioning system coordinates where collected).The enumerators typically interviewed the household head (80% of cases), with on average 28% of respondents being female (Table 4). Ethiopia and Kenya however stand out: in Ethiopia female and non-household head respondents were virtually absent, whereas in Kenya these amounted to about half the respondents. Household heads are typically male.Having the non-household head as respondent was typically associated with the temporary non-availability of the household head (Table 4). The data was originally entered, analyzed and reported at the country level using a common data template and report outline (Legese et al., 2010;Mugisha et al., 2011;Muhammad et al., 2010;Temu et al., 2011). Since these are parallel studies, a synthesis based on the country reports alone is typically problematic (e.g. see Doss et al., 2003). For the purpose of this synthesis, the datasets were merged and standardized to allow for cross-site analysis. The data presented here may therefore differ somewhat from that reported in the original country studies in view of standardization of approach and data across the country studies.The data analysis presented here is primarily descriptive -substantiated by simple statistics to the extent possible. Variances were typically not equal over the countries. The analysis therefore uses the Welch statistic to test for the equality of group means (which is preferable to the F statistic when the assumption of equal variances does not hold); and Tamhane's T2 for a conservative pair-wise comparison test of means (based on a t test which is appropriate when the variances are unequal -SPSS 16). Principal component analysis is used to assess the households' resource endowments. Limited dependent variable models are used to analyze improved maize seed purchases.The present report aims to provide a comprehensive synthesis of a substantive survey. As such, all relevant variables for the four countries have been summarized in the numerous tables. However, to keep the report to a manageable length, the text tends to only summarize the pertinent findings. The interested reader is referred to the respective tables or underlying country reports for further substantiation.To facilitate comparison, all monetary values have been converted to US dollars using the bank exchange rate for the survey year (http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/ accessed October 2010). 2The original survey collected information on maize and other crops grown by the surveyed farm households. For the purpose of the present report and underlying analysis, the information on these other crops is typically categorized into either other cereals, legume crops, roots & tubers or other crops. Maize is categorized as local, improved openpollinated variety (OPV) and hybrid based on the actual maize varieties reported by the surveyed farmers. However not all farmers are fully conversant with such categorization and the analysis thereby typically uses the prevailing categorization within the surveyed communities. Even so, this categorization remains indicative, for instance, the local category may include some of the older recycled improved varieties. The use of improved OPVs or hybrids also does not necessarily imply the use of fresh seed, as recycling of both categories is common.It should be recalled that the surveys targeted the drought prone maize producing areas, and are limited to only two districts per country. The study results are thus not representative for the country as a whole, but were intended to be representative for the target area. Care should thus be taken when interpreting references to specific countries in the tables or text, with most instances unless otherwise specified, referring to the drought prone study areas and not to the country as a whole. Furthermore, the present synthesis aggregates the two study districts per country. Within country differences are explored in the respective country reports.In the pursuit of their livelihood strategies, farm households in the drought prone areas of eastern Africa draw on a portfolio of assets. The present chapter characterizes the livelihoods assets of the farm households namely, human, natural, physical, financial and social capital. The chapter ends with a principal component analysis of the household asset base.The size of the surveyed rural households averages seven people, of which only half can be considered as economically active (i.e. being aged between 16-60 years) and the remainder primarily being children (i.e. less than 16 years old -Table 5). Households are typically male headed (90%) with households' head being married (87%), 46 years old and having completed only primary education (Table 5; Table 6).The surveyed rural households are typically small-scale family farms, drawing on the family as their main labor source. Each household comprises an average of 4.3 adult equivalents, which implies 3.3 adult equivalents per ha of farm land and 0.6 adult units per capita. An annual average of 51 months of family labor (including children) is reportedly dedicated to the family farm. The household head is the main decision maker for farming activitieseither solely (68%) or in consultation with other (27% -Table 5). Households are thereby somewhat constrained by the relatively limited educational level of the household headwith the household's educational status only being marginally better (i.e. when considering the highest educational status across household members), with an average of only 5 years of schooling per capita (Table 6).The sample averages mask some substantial variations between the countries surveyed (Table 5; Table 6). For instance, household size in the study areas was substantially higher in Uganda and Ethiopia (8) and lowest in Tanzania (5), the latter also having the highest incidence of female headed households (18%). The Kenya study area combined relatively aged households (as illustrated by average household age; limited share of children; oldest household heads) with the most decentralized decision making with respect to farming; whereas the Ethiopia study area combined relatively young households, male dominance and relative low educational attainment levels of particularly the household head.  Land and livestock are the main natural assets of the farm households, averaging 3 ha of land and 2.6 tropical livestock units, equivalent to about half a unit of each per capita. Land is primarily used for the cultivation of annual crops (2.1 ha), with only 0.2 ha under perennial crops and 0.6 ha under pasture/fallow (Table 7). These averages again mask substantial regional variation. The drought prone study areas in Kenya combine relatively small farms with a modest livestock herd -although this still implies relatively high livestock densities per unit farm area (Table 7). Farm and herd size was the largest in the Uganda study areas, but included a substantial area under fallow/pasture. Perennial crops were primarily limited to the Uganda study areas, linked inter alia to the more favorable rainfall regime (amount and bimodal distribution). Indeed, perennial crops were virtually absent in the study areas of Ethiopia and Tanzania with their limited and mono-modal rainfall. The rural households in these drought prone study areas are relatively poor, and the physical assets correspondingly limited (Table 8). Indeed, despite the importance of farming for their livelihoods (see next chapter) and the incidence of drought, investments in irrigation have been limited, and largely restricted to Kenya and small-scale vegetable cultivation. Only about half of the households have been able to upgrade their lodging in terms of having improved walls or roofs, although both of these are common place in the Kenya study areas (Table 8).Households were queried with respect to possession of specific physical asset types. On average about two assets were reported per household, although varying from less than one in Tanzania study areas to nearly three in Uganda (Table 8). The most common asset types are radio (64% overall, particularly common in Uganda and Kenya), draft animals (42% overall, particularly common in Ethiopia) and bicycles (40% overall, particularly common in Uganda). Mobile phones were owned by 22% of the surveyed farm households, but primarily concentrated in Kenya and Uganda (nearly 40%) and relatively absent in Ethiopia and Tanzania (5-7%, Table 8). The scarcity of funds reiterates the relative poverty of the rural households in these drought prone study areas (Table 9). The use of credit can help alleviate fund shortages, but was reported by only 15% of households, primarily for production purposes and for fertilizer. Credit use was primarily limited to the study areas in Ethiopia (28% of households reporting) and Uganda (21%). The non-use of credit was mainly linked to unavailability in the vicinity (39%) or lack of collateral (19%), whereas 31% reported not having sought credit (Table 9).The relatively limited use of credit implies a limited sample size for various specific credit indicators. The credit-using households reported a variety of credit sources, but government programs were relatively important in Ethiopia. Repayments are mainly done in cash. The reported credit amounts (for those receiving) were relatively limited, be it production credit (average US$ 176, n=79), input credit (fertilizer 128 kg, n=49; maize seed 42 kg, n=24) or consumption credit (US$ 273, n=11). Social capital provides households with important additional social entitlements that are however problematic to measure empirically. The questionnaire did include a number of institutional support indicators that can be used as a proxy (Table 10). About two-fifths of the surveyed farm households were members of a farmers' association/cooperative, although this was markedly more common in Ethiopia (associated with access to inputs) and relatively uncommon in Tanzania. About a third of the surveyed farm households reported having received some aid/relief, mainly in the form of food relief or seed relief. Some 28% attended selected agricultural extension activities (i.e. field days, field demonstrations and/or maize discussions), such activities mainly being organized by agricultural extension services. About half the surveyed farm households reported the extension service as a frequent source of agricultural information, with 19% reporting mass media (i.e. radio, newspaper, television) and 34% other sources, including other farmers (e.g. reported by 35% of households in Kenya). Interestingly, the extension service was near universally reported as information source in Ethiopia compared to less than a fifth in Kenya. About half of the surveyed farm households in Ethiopia and Uganda reported any interaction with extension agents during the survey year against a quarter to a third elsewhere. Overall, surveyed farm households in Tanzania reported limited institutional support in terms of relief or extension, particularly compared to Uganda (Table 10). The foregoing sections show that the surveyed farm households present different endowments in terms of the various livelihood assets. An asset based wealth index can be used to create a single cross-cutting indicator of the household's endowments. One way of creating such an index is the use of principal component analysis (PCA), which has been variously used to create wealth indices (Erenstein, 2011;Filmer and Pritchett, 2001;Langyintuo and Mungoma, 2008).PCA is a popular data reduction tool. It has however two limitations for the construction of wealth/asset indices (Howe et al., 2008). Discrete data are particularly problematic, and thereby inherently limit the choice of asset variables available for inclusion in the PCA. PCA wealth/asset indices also tend to use only the first principal component which actually explains only a low proportion of the total variation in the asset data. In the current study we thereby exclude discrete asset data and also present all principal components having an eigen value larger than 1.The PCA was applied to a set of eight non-discrete variables spanning the range of asset categories for the surveyed farm households both for the combined study areas (Table 11) and for each of the country specific study areas (Table 12). The number of principal components is two for the combined application (explaining 41% of variance) and threefour in the country specific applications (explaining 50-62%). The first principal component (PC) alone typically explains 21% to 33% of variance, but tends to be variously associated to the underlying assets. At the country level, the first PC is mainly associated with herd size (Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania), physical assets (Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya), farm size (Ethiopia and Uganda), family labor (measured as adult equivalent units, Ethiopia and Uganda) and schooling (Kenya and Tanzania).Based on the first PC alone and using zero as a cut-off point, some two-fifths of the households would be classified as well-endowed and the remainder as less-endowed in each study area. 3 At the regional level the first PC is most closely associated with herd size and physical assets. As a result, more than two-thirds of Ugandan surveyed farm households would be classified as relatively well-endowed based on the first regional PC alone, whereas Tanzanian households would be primarily classified as less-endowed. 4 The ease of interpretation of the PCs' could be enhanced by rotation, but this would reduce the explanatory power of the first PC.  The surveyed farm households in the drought prone areas of eastern Africa variously use their portfolio of assets reviewed in the previous chapter as building blocks for their livelihood strategies. The present chapter characterizes the livelihoods strategies pursued by the farm households, particularly in terms of crop production, livestock production and offfarm income. It subsequently provides profiles of reported household cash income and expenditures and summarizes the households' profitability and risk perceptions. The chapter ends with the outlook and implications for the farm households' livelihoods.Overall, annual crops average 83% of the farm area (Table 13). Fallow/pasture was reported by 36% of the households and occupying 13% of the farm area overall, albeit being more common in the Uganda and Tanzania study areas where the average farm size is relatively large. Perennial crops are relatively uncommon in the drought-prone study areas, reported by about a fifth of the households and occupying 4% of the farm area overall, and markedly concentrated in the Kenya and Uganda study areas (e.g. coffee:, 20% of households Kenya and13% in Uganda)The study was targeted at maize growing drought prone districts in eastern Africa. The survey confirms the importance of maize in the study area, with maize cultivation nearuniversal and the maize area averaging 1 ha per household corresponding to some two-fifths of the farm area (Table 13). Maize thereby occupies about half the annually cropped area. In Kenya, maize intercropping prevails and intercrops include legumes, other cereals and roots and tubers.Across the study areas, 75% of the surveyed farm households grow at least one legume, which account for 19% of the farm area. Legumes include:-Beans (61% of households overall, albeit variously reported -Kenya 93%, Ethiopia 69%, Uganda 23% and Tanzania4%);-Groundnut (17% of households overall, Uganda 77% and Tanzania 36%); -Cowpea (10% of households overall, Kenya 25%, Uganda 7%); and -Pigeon pea (Kenya 47%).About a third of the surveyed farm households reported other cereals and a similar share of roots and tubers, which respectively accounted for 11% and 8% of the farm area. Other cereals include:-Sorghum (9% of households overall, Uganda 29%, Tanzania 24%); -Millet (9% of households overall, Uganda 37%, Tanzania 17%); -Rice (2% of households overall, Tanzania 11%),-Teff (Ethiopia only, 55%); -Wheat (Ethiopia only, 3%). Roots and tubers include:-Sweet potato (26% of household overall, Uganda 71%, Ethiopia 36%); -Cassava (5% of households overall, kenya11%; Uganda 3%); and -Yam (UG 91%). Only 14% of households reported other annual crops accounting for 3% of the farm area, including vegetables (Kenya 12%; Uganda 4%), sunflower (Tanzania 28%), sesame (Tanzania 13%) and cotton (Uganda 12%). -Fallow/pasture 25 32 58 51 36 Notes: sd: standard deviation; n: sample size (=1019 unless otherwise indicated); all p's (Welch or Chi-square) highly significant (0.00). Data preceding different letters differ significantly -Tamhane's T2 (significance level: 0.10), within row comparison.The total cultivated area was determined by a combination of food needs, cash availability for inputs and seed availability (Table 14), with food needs being particularly common in Kenya and Tanzania. There was no clear trend in terms of the household's maize area in the study areas (Table 15). A constant maize area was primarily associated with a constant farm size, whereas rainfall was the prime determinant in case of maize area changes followed by resource availability indicators (Table 15).  Maize production is primarily dual purpose in the study areas: to meet household food needs and sale of surplus. Maize consumption is thereby near universally reported by the surveyed farm households, with 58% (overall) reporting maize sales (Table 16). The relative volume of maize consumed (61% of produce, over the four sites) is about double the maize volume sold (31%) with the remainder (8%) either retained as seed, gifted or lost (Table 16). Only in the Uganda study areas is maize consumption more limited with the bulk of maize production being marketed (Table 16). Production of other cereals, legumes and roots and tubers are generally also dual purpose -reiterating that these are primarily small-scale family farms. Maize is primarily sold to traders. In the case of Uganda and Tanzania, maize tends to be sold at the time of harvest from the farmer's home. In Kenya, and particularly in Ethiopia, farmers tend to take their maize grain to the market. Marketing patterns for other cereals are largely similar (Table 17). Grain prices are primarily determined by the buying agent, although in Tanzania prices tended to follow the government set prices and in Kenya prices were influenced by the neighboring markets (Table 17). Livestock are an important component of the livelihood portfolio of the surveyed farm households, with over 90% of the surveyed households reporting some livestock. With the exception of Tanzania (with only a fifth reporting), three quarters of the surveyed farm households reported having cattle (Table 18). Cattle are primarily local, with an average herd size of 4.5 heads per household -with the largest average number in Ethiopia and Uganda. Reported ownership and numbers of small stock as a group (goats, sheep and pigs) are similar to cattle (Table 18). Goats are the main small stock in these drought prone areas, with pigs primarily limited to Uganda and sheep being relatively more common in Ethiopia. As a group poultry was the most commonly reported across the study areas -being reported by at least half the surveyed households in each area. Transport animals (like donkeys) were primarily only reported in Ethiopia, where they averaged one per farm household (Table 18).Livestock play a varied role in the livelihood portfolio of the surveyed farm householdsincluding the provision of food and income (and cash), asset accumulation, diversification/insurance and services (e.g. draft for tillage, particularly important in Ethiopia). Nearly half (45%) of the surveyed farm households reported having sold some livestock during the survey year, with 18% having acquired and 39% having consumed some of their livestock units during the same period. The reported herd value averaged US$ 750 per surveyed farm household (Table 18). The surveyed farm households further complement their livelihood portfolio with off-farm income sources. Some 82% of the surveyed farm households reportedly had some of their household members engaged in off-farm income generating activities. Such off-farm income sources were markedly more common (near universal) in Ethiopia and Kenya, where they involved more than half the household members and most commonly related to farm labor (Table 19). Petty trading was the next most common off-farm income source based on household member activities, and actually the most commonly reported source in Uganda and Tanzania whereas it was virtually absent in Ethiopia. An array of other off-farm income sources was reported based on household member activities, particularly in Kenya and Uganda, including some relatively skilled and non-agricultural endeavors (Table 19). The foregoing off-farm indicators are based on the off-farm activities as reported for individual household members aggregated to the household level. The reported sources of household cash income (see next section) however provide a somewhat different categorization. Based on these reported cash income sources, two-thirds of the surveyed farm households (overall) reported some sort of off-farm cash income, and half the households (overall) reported any labor related off-farm cash income -such as petty trading, paid employment or self employed. Off-farm cash income sources were nearly universally reported by the surveyed farm households in Kenya, against about half elsewhere (Table 19).This study sought to establish cash income sources and expenditures of the surveyed farm households during the survey year. The monetary responses should however be interpreted with the necessary caution in view of the sensitivity of the data and the survey being a single visit survey. It should also be recalled that this relates to cash only, whereas a substantial share of household income is in-kind, particularly the self-produced crops which are to a large extent consumed over the year by the household to meet daily food needs. Still, the results provide rough indicators of annual cash income and expenditures and their breakdown over categories (Table 20; Table 21).As a category, crop sales were most frequently reported as a cash income source by the surveyed farm households (79% of households overall), followed by other farm sources such as livestock sales (42%) and fruit and vegetable sales (23% -Table 20). Overall, 91% of the surveyed farm households reported some cash income from their farm, whereas 65% of households reported some cash income from off-farm sources. Various off-farm cash income sources were reported at relatively similar rates overall, including remittances (25%), petty trading (22%), paid employment (22%) and self employed (19% -Table 20). The Kenya study site shows a marked deviation from the other study areas, with crops being least commonly reported, whereas the incidence of the various off-farm sources is markedly higher (Table 20).Annual reported cash income averaged about US$900 per surveyed farm household, with a marked regional variation: being less than US$ 400 (i.e. less than half the regional average) in Ethiopia and Tanzania, and US$1200-1500 in Uganda and Kenya (Table 20). Overall, sales of crop products (including fruit and vegetables) accounted for nearly half the reported cash income (48%), followed at a distance by a portfolio of other sources, including livestock sales (12%) and paid employment (12% -Table 20). The contribution of crop products was least for the surveyed farm households in Kenya (24%), where paid employment provided a similar share and with a more even spread over the various other income sources -off-farm income sources thereby contributing 65% of annual cash income (Table 20). Overall, the farm contributed 61% to annual cash income with off-farm sources contributing the remaining 39% (Table 20). The surveyed farm households reported a range of expenditure categories, typically including clothing, fuel and medical expenses (Table 21). Although these are farm households, food expenditures were similarly widely reported. Annual reported cash expenditure averaged US$640 per surveyed farm household, with a marked regional variation similar to income (Table 21). Overall, food expenditure made up the largest expense category (37% overall, and about half in Kenya and Tanzania), despite these being farm households. This was followed by clothing (15%), education (13%), medical (9%) and array of smaller categories (Table 21). Overall a third of the surveyed farm households thereby was a net food buyer (i.e. reported expenditures on food exceed reported on-farm cash income), whereas this amounted to three-fifths in Kenya and Tanzania study areas (Table 21).Somewhat less (29%) of the surveyed farm households reportedly were cash deficient (i.e. reported expenditures exceed reported cash income), although this amounted to two-thirds in the Tanzania study areas (Table 21). To enhance our understanding of the current livelihood portfolio of the surveyed farm households, we sought their perceptions of relative profitability and risk. These perceptions are summarized below, whereas in the next section we review the outlook and implications for their livelihoods.Overall, surveyed farm households generally rated improved maize (open pollinated variety [OPV] or hybrid) as relatively profitable and roots and tubers as least profitable, with local maize, other cereals and legumes in-between. There are however some marked regional variations (Table 22) -typically associated with the underlying cropping pattern. Profitability of local maize was generally rated relatively medium, but scored favorably in Kenya where it is widely grown (see next chapter). In contrast, improved OPVs scored relatively high in Uganda and Tanzania and hybrids in Ethiopia and Kenya, again in line with their use. The profitability of other cereals scored relatively high in Ethiopia, associated with teff cultivation. Notes: sd: standard deviation; n: sample size; all ps ( * ANOVA, Welch or Chi-square) highly significant (0.00) unless otherwise indicated (ns: not significant). Data preceding different letters differ significantly -Tamhane's T2 (significance level: 0.10), within row comparison.Overall, the surveyed farm households generally perceived a positive profitability trend for the various crop types (Table 22). An exception was the profitability trend for local maize, which was generally perceived as static and even as declining in Ethiopia. Increasing production was reported as the main plan to enhance crop profitability, followed by growing profitable crops, with less than a quarter reporting diversification or cost reduction (Table 22).Surveyed farm households were presented with a number of crop production scenarios and asked how they would respond (Table 23). Crop area was relatively inelastic in face of unfavorable conditions-low produce price, low yield, fertilizer unavailability-with only about a third of the households intending to reduce area in response (Table 23). Crop area was more elastic in face of favorable conditions-high produce price, high yield, fertilizer availability, credit availability-with some two-thirds intending to increase area (Table 23). In part, these responses reflect the dual purpose nature of crop production (particularly the importance of home consumption) and the limited alternative income generating options available-whereby crop production will thus persist even under unfavorable conditions. The farm household's asset portfolio provides an important buffer against crop production and crop price risks. Farmers thereby reportedly tend to accumulate such assets when conditions are favorable-higher yields, higher crop prices-whereas they may have to sell some when conditions are dire-crop failure, low crop prices (Table 23). The dual purpose nature of crop production also explains the relative importance of the selling price for crop sales. Over half the surveyed farm households would also increase input and credit use in response to favorable crop prices (Table 23). There are some regional variations in the reported responses, particularly in terms of the magnitude, but overall the direction of responses is relatively similar across study sites (Table 23). Overall, surveyed farm households generally rated roots and tubers (particularly sweet potato) as less drought susceptible and legumes as most drought susceptible (Table 24).Local maize and improved OPVs were also rated as relatively susceptible, whereas hybrid maize rated at par with other cereals. Except for hybrid maize, there are again marked regional variations (Table 24). Yield risk was rated relatively similar to drought susceptibility, with roots and tubers rated as the least risky in terms of yield and legumes and local maize as relatively risky (Table 25). Agricultural diversification was the prevailing coping strategy for yield risk among the surveyed farm households (70% overall), followed by asset accumulation (27%) and nonagricultural diversification (21% -Table 25). Other farmers were the main information source on yield risk (63%) followed by extension (36%) and the mass media (16% -Table 25).Price risk was rated relatively high for maize (especially local and improved OPVs) and relatively low for roots and tubers (Table 26). Asset accumulation was the prevailing coping strategy for price risk among the surveyed farm households (74% overall) followed by participation in government/NGO programs (18% -Table 26). For price risk, other farmers were again the main information source (65%) followed by extension (22%) and the radio (18% -Table 26).  Notes: n: sample size; all p's ( * ANOVA, Welch or Chi-square) highly significant (0.00) unless otherwise indicated (ns: not significant). Data preceding different letters differ significantly-Tamhane's T2 (significance level: 0.10), within row comparison.The study targeted the maize producing drought prone areas. It is therefore not surprising that the surveyed farm households nearly universally reported at least one crop failure due to drought during the last decade (>99% overall, with the lowest average being 96% Tanzania).The number of crop failures due to drought during the last decade averaged 3, with the lowest average being reported in Kenya and Tanzania (2.6-2.8) and the highest in Ethiopia and Uganda (3.3-3.7 -Table 27). What is more, the site selection thereby proved robust in each of the countries as the study targeted areas with a probability of failed season of 20-40%. Still, although the survey averages fell within the target range, individual responses oscillated widely (from 0 to 10). About half (46% overall) of the surveyed farm households had been compelled to sell off some assets during the survey year due to difficulties (i.e. for some reason or another, not necessarily due to drought), a fraction that was relatively similar across the study sites (Table 27). The need to buy food was the main reason (48% overall) for those that had to sell assets (Table 27).Somewhat more than half (58% overall) of the surveyed farm households considered themselves as food secure during the survey year (Table 27). The remaining 42% averaged four months without adequate food, a duration that was again relatively similar across the study sites (Table 27). The actual timing of food shortage varied, typically associated with the incidence of rains-e.g. falling during the main rains in the Ethiopia and Tanzania study sites. The surveyed farm households reported an array of food shortage coping mechanisms, the most frequent being reducing other expenditures (38% overall), working more off-farm (30%), selling small animals (27%) and selling cattle (24% -Table 27). Drought (71% overall) and food security issues (61%) also prevailed as the most widely reported threats to the livelihoods of the surveyed farm households (Table 28). Health issues were reported as a threat by half the households, followed by an array of other threats that include poverty (15%), pest and diseases (13%) and insecurity (10% -Table 28). Other weather related threats included erratic weather/rain/climate (including climate change, 6%), floods (4%) and excess rains (2%). Drought (17% overall) was also reported as a constraint to livelihood improvement by the surveyed farm households (Table 29). However, a number of other constraints were more widely reported, including health (36% overall), input issues (36%), market issues (32%) and agricultural productivity (23%). Other reported constraints partly associated with drought included erratic weather/rain/climate (11%) and crop failure/production risk (5%). The surveyed farm households were also requested to enlist the most serious shocks they had been affected by during the last decade (Table 30). As expected, these overlap in part with the reported threats to their livelihoods reported earlier (Table 28). Drought again prevailed as the most widely reported shock (89% overall), but this time followed by floods/excess rain (38%) and plant pests/diseases (34%). The health status and even death of the breadwinner/wife was another common shock (23% and 10% respectively). An array of other shocks was reported, including erratic rain (14%), price shocks (maize & input prices, 21% each), livestock shocks (death/loss and disease, 18% and 14% respectively) and damage to crops by animals (including wildlife) and birds (17% and 8% respectively -Table 30). Notes: n: sample size; all p's (Chi-square) highly significant (0.00), unless otherwise indicated (ns: not significant).Agriculture remains the pivot in the livelihood portfolio of farm households. Despite their location in drought prone areas, the large majority of the surveyed farm households (80% overall) thereby sought to increase agricultural production as their preferred strategy to enhance their livelihoods-with only a negligible few considering an exit from agriculture (Table 31). An array of complementary strategies was reported by the surveyed farm households with some regional variation, including increasing food security (50% overall, especially common in Tanzania), improving educational status (31%), increasing land ownership (26%) and improving health status (25% -Table 31). Notes: n: sample size; all p's (Chi-square) highly significant (0.00), unless otherwise indicated (ns: not significant).Crop and particularly maize production plays a pivotal role in the livelihoods of the surveyed farm households in the drought prone areas of eastern Africa as reviewed in the previous chapter. The present chapter characterizes maize production further with a particular emphasis on technology use in general and seed use in particular. The chapter ends with an analysis of the factors affecting improved maize seed purchases.Surveyed farm households enlisted 2.8 known maize varieties per household on average, including 1 local maize variety, 0.8 improved Open Pollinated Varieties (OPVs) and 1 hybrid (Table 32). This relatively even distribution across the three distinguished maize seed types however masks some marked regional variations. Particularly striking is the contrast between the surveyed households in Uganda and those in Kenya, with a marked contrast in terms of knowledge of OPVs and hybrids, in line with the prevailing seed availability in the respective countries. Knowledge of local varieties was relatively evenly distributed over the countries, although the surveyed households in Uganda also enlisted the most local varieties (Table 32).The surveyed farm households were asked about the perceived drought tolerance of the known varieties. Overall, the perceived tolerance was somewhat higher for known hybrids compared to known local maize varieties, with known OPVs in-between (Table 32). However, these perceptions again showed marked regional differences. Striking is that the perceived drought tolerance of known OPVs were rated highest in Uganda (particularly compared to known local there), but lowest in Ethiopia (Table 32). Surveyed farm households were queried as to what they perceived as the best known maize variety for local, improved OPV and hybrid (Table 33) and to make subsequent pair-wise contrasts for a number of attributes (Table 34). In line with expectations, (the best known) local maize was perceived to have the lowest seed price and lowest yield potential and (the best known) hybrid the highest on both accounts (Table 34). 5 The perceived seed availability showed a marked opposite trend; whereas cob and grain size showed similar contrasts as the yield potential. OPVs were markedly shorter duration than the two other types. OPVs were also reportedly better performing under low soil moisture, followed by hybrid and with local maize rated poorest. OPVs also performed better under low soil fertility, although hybrid and local swapped places, with hybrid now lowest, perhaps associated with the perceived need for chemical fertilizer. OPVs however ranked poorly in terms of the perceived resistance to pests and diseases, with hybrids being most prone to storage pests. Local maize was perceived to be particularly lodge prone. OPVs were also rated favorably in terms for various post harvest attributes, particularly poundability, thereby contributing to local maize having the lowest maize grain price (Table 34). Surveyed farm households were queried about the desired attributes of their ideal maize variety (Table 35). In line with expectations, yield potential was the most widely reported (69% overall). However next most common were early maturity (56%) and drought tolerance (43%), whereas performance under poor rainfall was reported by an additional 14%. Early maturity typically has a dual purpose-being associated with shortening the hungry season and being drought escaping. Drought thereby featured prominently, clearly associated with the study targeting drought prone areas. The factors determining maize varietal choice thereby were relatively similar, with yield potential being most prominent followed by maturity period and drought resistance (Table 36).  Reasons for not using any of the maize varieties known to the households typically revolved around grain yield (particularly prominent for non-use of local maize varieties), expensive seed (particularly for non-use of hybrids) and non-availability of seed (most common for non-use of OPVs, although also reported by a fifth to a fourth for the non-use of the two other seed types -Table 37). Notes: multiple response for household for known specific maize varieties not used during survey year; n: sample size.The surveyed farm households planted some 35 kg of maize seed per year overall, although this oscillated around the 20 kg for Tanzania and about 50 for Ethiopia (Table 38). Although the surveyed farm households knew 2.8 maize varieties on average, they actually only used 1.3 varieties in the survey year-an average that was similar in the two preceding years and somewhat higher in Uganda and Kenya (Table 38). Except in Ethiopia, the portfolio of maize varieties used by the surveyed farm households typically featured two-three prominent varieties in each study area (Table 39). In the case of Uganda three improved Longe varieties were most prominent, being grown by at least a quarter of the households, whereas in Tanzania local varieties were most widely reported. Kenya presents an interesting contrast, with the portfolio being dominated by one popular local maize and a third of the households reporting one particular hybrid. In Ethiopia, the most popular variety was only grown by 16% of the surveyed households, with the top spot being shared between a local variety and a hybrid, followed by a range of other varieties (Table 39). -Improved OPVs 2.3 c 0.3 a 1.6 b 3.5 c 2.0 (±1.9, 363)-Hybrids 1.8 b 0.5 a 0.4 a 1.9 b 1.0 (±1.6, 271)-Any maize variety 3.0 b 1.6 a 3.6 bc 5.7 c 3.2 (±5.1, 717)Notes: sd: standard deviation; n: sample size; all ps (Welch, * ANOVA or Chi-square) highly significant (0.00) unless otherwise indicated (ns: not significant). Data preceding different letters differ significantly -Tamhane's T2 (significance level: 0.10), within row comparison.Overall, improved and local maize varieties were about equally common among the surveyed farm households-be it in terms of households reporting their use (respectively 62% and 59% overall) or their share in reported seed use (49% and 51% -Table 38). However, local varieties are particularly widespread in the Kenya and Tanzania study areas, being reported by about a third of the surveyed households in Ethiopia and Uganda (Table 38).Interestingly, the Kenya study thereby combines the highest use rate of local varieties with the highest penetration of hybrids (41% of households) and a relative absence of (improved) OPVs. In contrast, the use of OPVs is widespread in the Ethiopian and Ugandan study areas (Table 38).Farmers have been growing the maize varieties they use for an average of five years -this being somewhat shorter in the Ethiopian and Kenyan study areas (Table 38). In line with expectations, local varieties have the longest durations of use (9.4 years overall), followed by OPVs and hybrids (Table 38). On average, surveyed farmers reported recycling their maize varieties for 3.2 years -this duration again being longest for local varieties as expected (Table 38). However, even hybrids were reportedly recycled for an average of one year, a practice particularly common in the Ethiopian and Tanzanian study areas (Table 38). OPVs were reportedly recycled for an average of two years (Table 38). Recycling of maize seed is indeed commonplace-with 70% of surveyed households (overall) reportedly retaining some of their maize harvest as seed, amounting to 4% of the maize produced on average (see earlier  Overall, 70% of the surveyed farm households reported having used improved maize varieties (OPVs or hybrids) during the five years preceding the survey, with about three quarters of users reporting continuous use (Table 40). Lack of money was the main reasons for those not using any improved varieties, followed by them being satisfied with existing varieties and not having heard/seen any better varieties (Table 40). Lack of money and satisfaction with existing varieties were also reported as the main reasons for not using improved varieties in the survey year (Table 40), whereas non-continuous use of improved varieties was primarily associated with non-satisfaction and again lack of money (Table 40).  -Other 5 0 0 3 0 9Notes: n: sample size; all p's (Chi-square) highly significant (0.00) unless otherwise indicated (nr: not relevant [empty cells]).The surveyed farm households started using improved maize seed varieties relatively recently-on average some five years before the survey (2002-03 across study sites). The maize varieties that were first used by the surveyed farm households are listed in Table 41many of which were still in use during the survey year (Table 39). The households were queried as to their sources of improved variety seed and related information (Table 42). 6 The main information sources were fellow farmers and the public extension-reported about equally overall but with a marked regional variation. Public extension is strikingly prominent in Ethiopia and Tanzania whereas fellow farmers are much more prominent in the Kenya and Uganda study areas. Improved maize variety seed was primarily acquired through purchases, mainly from agro-dealers. In the Ethiopia and Tanzania study areas it was relatively more common for farmers to acquire seed through public channels. A quarter of the surveyed farm households used saved seed and 16% seed from another farmer. About half the surveyed households reported availability as the main reason for the choice of seed source.   Notes: only for 716 households that used any improved variety during the 5 years preceding the survey. n: sample size [valid responses]; all p's (Chi-square) highly significant (0.00). Responses do not sum to 100% as multiple responses for household possible.About half (55% overall) of the surveyed farm households reported purchasing maize seed during the survey year, this being more common in the Kenya study site (63%) and least common in Tanzania (42% -Table 43). The maize varieties reportedly purchased by the surveyed farm households during the survey year are listed in Table 44. In line with expectations, the majority of the households that purchase maize seed, purchased improved varieties. However, a substantial number also purchase local varieties (32% of households overall), be it alone (20%) or in combination with improved varieties (12% -Table 43). Purchase of local varieties was most commonly reported in Kenya (54% of households), with the local Kikamba being the main maize variety being purchased in both major and minor seasons. For those that purchased, an average of 1.7 maize varieties were purchased, amounting to 30 kg of maize seed at an average cost of US$1 per kg-the reported seed prices being lowest in Ethiopia (US$ 0.4/kg) and highest in Kenya (US$ 1.6 -Table 43). The main time for maize seed purchases is in the run-up to the main season, although in Kenya and Uganda purchases for the minor season are also common (Table 43). This, in combination with varying rain seasons across the region, results in marked maize sales peaks per country, but with peaks spread throughout the year for the region as a whole (Figure 2).  Notes: % of households reporting the maize variety for households that purchase maize seed. Listed here are varieties that were named at least 5 times by country, with remainder lumped under others. Column % do not add up to 100% as multiple responses (up to 3 per season) possible across main and minor season. * Primarily reported as local varieties Maize is the major crop for the surveyed farm households. Maize seed alone thereby comprises half of the reported household's seed grain use (by weight -Table 45). Legumes accounted for the bulk of the remaining seed weight, with other cereals only contributing a fraction (Table 45). Whereas over half of the surveyed households purchased maize seed, purchases of other seeds was relatively uncommon (Table 45). Most common was the The use of animal manure and chemical fertilizers showed a marked regional variation, being largely limited to the Ethiopia and Kenya study areas (Table 47). Animal manure originated from the farm, with no purchases being reported. Chemical fertilizer use averaged less than 100 kg per surveyed household in Ethiopia and Kenya, with usage being somewhat more common in Kenya but application rates somewhat higher in Ethiopia (Table 47). Chemical fertilizer primarily included basal fertilizer, and to a lesser extent top dress. The chemical fertilizer cost averaged US$ 0.5 per kg, with the average transport costs amounting to an additional 10% (Table 47). In the case of the Kenya study areas, the use of chemical fertilizer and animal manure is primarily associated with maize production, with only limited application to other crops (Table 48). However, in the case of Ethiopia study areas the situation is mixed -animal manure being primarily applied to maize but maize only receiving a third of the chemical fertilizer and only a quarter of the surveyed households applying chemical fertilizer to maize (Table 48). Maize area also varies between the two study sites, and as a result the fertilizer rate in Ethiopian study sites only averages 12 kg per ha of maize, a fraction of the average 162 applied in Kenya (Table 48). Mechanization in land preparation for maize is limited (5% overall), and largely confined to a tenth of surveyed households in Ethiopia (Table 49). Sole manual land preparation still prevailed amongst the Tanzanian surveyed households, whereas the other study areas relied on a combination of animal traction and manual tillage, with animal traction being particularly prominent in Ethiopia (Table 49). Maize weeding was near universally reported, primarily using physical weeding practices, herbicide purchases being relatively uncommon amongst the surveyed households (9% overall), and largely confined to a fifth of surveyed households in Ethiopia. Insecticide purchases were reported by a tenth of the surveyed households, but largely confined to a quarter of surveyed households in Kenya (Table 49).The surveyed farm households nearly universally relied on family labor for maize production. About half the households used hired labor, although this was markedly more common in Kenya and Uganda study areas (Table 49). Communal labor and particularly shared labor were not commonly reported, with occurrences mainly in the Ethiopian study areas (Table 49). On average, family labor comprises at least three quarters of the labor used in the various maize production activities (Table 50). The contribution of other labor sources is highest for land preparation and weeding, with hired labor contributing about a fifth (Table 50).Weevils were the most common storage problem reported for maize grain and seed (87% overall), with less common problems including rodents (31%), moulds (3%, but largely confined to Uganda) and others (7%, including other insects -Table 51). The number of observations for storage problems of other cereals and legume (both grain and seed) are more limited, but in the case of legumes were similar to maize (mainly weevils, followed by rodents) whereas in the case of other cereals these two problems were equally common (Table 51). Farmers frequently used pesticides to combat the storage problems. Post-harvest losses of maize were reported by 29% of surveyed households (overall), although estimated losses amounted to only 1% of the maize produced on average (see earlier    The study also sought to establish surveyed farm households seasonal maize production patterns and areas planted during the survey year and preceding years. Maize yields were subsequently derived from these farmer reported estimates. The maize yield estimates should thus be interpreted with the necessary caution in view of the various potential measurement errors, including in terms of reported area, production levels and units and recall and enumeration error. Encouragingly though, the thus estimated yields compare reasonably with the regional average and country averages reported earlier (Table 1), also keeping in mind that the study targets the drought prone maize growing areas.Farmer reported maize yields averaged 1.4 ton per ha in the survey year, and 100-200 kg per ha less in the two preceding years (Table 52). Maize yields in the Tanzania study area were markedly lower (only 0.7 ton per ha), but were similar in the other study areas (1.5 ton per ha -Table 52). Average yields also varied by maize type: 1.2 ton per ha for local maize, 1.4 ton for OPVs and 1.9 ton for hybrids. A similar yield trend over maize types was apparent in each of the study areas, except for Tanzania where yields were similar for each maize seed type (Table 52). The particular case of the Tanzania study area is perhaps associated with its marked home consumption orientation of maize production and the prevailing maize management practices there, including prevalence of local varieties and non-use of chemical fertilizer. Only in the case of Kenya and Uganda is a seasonal contrast of maize yields possible, but whereas in Uganda yields for the two seasons are similar, they are markedly higher for the main season in Kenya, a reflection of maize production being markedly riskier in the minor season and management practices correspondingly less intensive (Table 52). The present chapter illustrates the diversity in maize varietal use in the drought prone study areas of eastern Africa. Although knowledge of maize varieties is widespread, the number of varieties actually in use is substantially less. Although improved maize varieties comprise about half the seed volume used, there is widespread and long-lasting seed recycling of both local as improved varieties. Improved maize varieties also show marked variation in terms of the relative importance of hybrids vs. OPVs. Finally, a substantial number of households purchase local maize varieties. In line with expectations, the various maize varietal indicators are positively associated with the household's resource endowment (Table 53). This particular classification of the household's resource endowment is however based solely on the first principal component, whereas it is variously associated with the various household assets depending on the study site. The present section provides a further exploration of the various factors associated with maize varietal use. Amongst the various seed use indicators, it focuses on the determinants of improved maize seed purchases. This was perceived as the most relevant and reliable indicator across study sites. Indeed, it was the sole indicator that showed a significant association with asset endowments across all study sites (Table 53). The factors associated with improved maize seed purchases can be variously analyzed, with limited dependent variable models such as Probit particularly popular (CIMMYT, 1993). Probit models were variously used here to explore the improved maize seed purchases by the surveyed farmers both for the eastern Africa study areas as a whole and for the individual study sites. To facilitate comparison the models use the same dependent and independent variables (Table 54). The dichotomous dependent variable represents whether the surveyed farm household purchased improved maize seed varieties during the survey year (0: no purchases; 1: purchases). As independent variables we used various uncorrelated structural variables that characterize the farm household. The regional model also includes country dummies whereas the country models contain district dummies. The district dummy takes a value of 1 for the first of the two districts in each country (as listed in Table 3). To correct for the survey sampling design the cluster option was used in Stata 11 (clustering by country at the regional level and by district at the country level). Overall, we expect asset and income indicators to be positively associated with the purchase of improved maize seed. We would however expect the incidence of drought to be negatively associated. Female headed ownership primarily reflects mobile phones and thereby a willingness of the household to invest in modern communication technology, which thus appears associated with the willingness to invest in modern maize production technology. Notes: See previous table for variable description. For regional model, model coefficients, standard errors, marginal effects and significance presented; for country models only marginal effects and their significance presented. Coefficients preceding * 's differ significantly from 0 ( *** significant at 1% level; ** at 5%; * at 10%). For dummy variables dF/dx is for discrete change from 0 to 1. a In case of Kenya access to credit predicts success perfectly and dropped from model estimation.The study targets drought prone maize producing districts. Still, the share of the farm allocated to maize was positively associated with the IMS purchases in four of the models except for Ethiopia. Reported drought incidence was however only significant and negatively associated with IMS purchases in Ethiopia, although it generally had a negative coefficient in line with expectations. When farm households attended agricultural related extension activities the likelihood of IMS purchases was enhanced at the regional level and in Uganda and Tanzania. Fallowing also enhanced the likelihood of IMS purchases in three models (regional, Ethiopia and Tanzania). Fallowing is associated with abundant land. Similarly households with abundant land (on a per capita basis) were more likely to purchase IMS (regional and Uganda). Abundant labor (on a per capita basis) was negatively associated with IMS purchases in Kenya and Tanzania, but positively in Ethiopia. This reflects the underlying household composition and factor scarcities. Amongst the study sites, Ethiopia combines the lowest average labor availability on a per capita basis with relatively young households. This suggests that Ethiopia farm households have many young dependants and may thus actually be labor constrained. In contrast, the Kenya study site has the highest labor to land ratios, suggesting surplus labor; whereas the Tanzania study site appears particularly capital constrained.IMS purchases are generally cash based and hence facilitated by cash availability. The positive sign of abundant cash income (on a per capita basis) across models is thus in line with expectations, but the coefficient was only significant in the regional and Uganda models. Similarly, access to credit enhanced the likelihood of IMS purchases at the regional level and was even a perfect predictor in the case for Kenya. Contrary to expectations, having an off-farm income source reduced the likelihood of IMS purchases in Tanzania. This is likely associated with the surveyed Tanzanian households being highly cash deficient and maize production being primarily consumption oriented (Tanzania having the lowest share marketed with the highest share consumed), whereby farm households may prefer to allocate resources to off-farm activities instead of maize production. This may partially also explain the earlier observed negative association between phone ownership and IMS purchases in Tanzania.The household head's years of schooling enhanced the likelihood of IMS purchases at the regional level and in Kenya. Having a female headed household head reduced the likelihood of IMS purchases in Kenya (likely reflecting resource constraints), but somewhat surprisingly enhanced the likelihood in Uganda. Having other assets enhanced the likelihood of IMS purchases, including draft animals (Ethiopia and Tanzania), livestock (regional), transport means (regional) and a radio and/or TV (Kenya). Only in Kenya was the district level dummy significant-i.e. the likelihood of IMS purchases was higher in Machakos district compared to Makeuni districts, associated inter alia with Machakos being closer to Nairobi, having a higher population density and a lower incidence of poverty (Muhammad et al., 2010). All the country dummies were negative and significant reflecting the higher average incidence of IMS purchases in the Ethiopia study site.The Probit models thereby reiterate the positive association between the farm household's assets and income and the likelihood of purchasing improved maize seed. This is in line with expectations. However, it also reiterates the challenge of disseminating improved maize varieties in general and drought tolerant maize in particular to the poorer strata of the farming communities in drought prone areas of eastern Africa.The study characterized farm households in the drought prone maize growing areas of eastern Africa synthesizing household survey data collected in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (Legese et al., 2010;Mugisha et al., 2011;Muhammad et al., 2010;Temu et al., 2011). The study results are not representative for the respective countries as a whole, but were intended to be representative for the target area-maize growing areas in the medium drought risk zone having a 20-40% probability of failed season. From a methodological perspective, it was encouraging that the study site selection proved robust with the average number of crop failures due to drought during the last decade falling within this target range in each of the countries, although individual responses still oscillated widely (from 0 to 10). However, from a humanitarian and development perspective, such a prevalence of drought proves particularly challenging. Indeed, drought risk was both the most widely reported threat to the livelihoods of the surveyed households (76% overall) as well as the most serious shock that affected the surveyed households during the last decade (89% overall).The surveyed rural households in the drought prone study areas are typically small-scale family farms. Family labor is a key asset and the main labor source for farming activities; whereas land and livestock are the main natural assets. The rural households are relatively poor, and the physical and financial assets correspondingly limited. The livelihood asset base shows some marked variations between the countries surveyed. The Ugandan surveyed households combined the largest average family, farm and herd size and were relatively wellendowed compared to the other survey locations. Tanzanian surveyed households were relatively less-endowed; with intermediate classifications for the Kenya surveyed households (which combined the smallest average farm size with reasonable housing) and the Ethiopia surveyed households (which are relatively young and have relatively large families and herds). The household's asset endowment has a marked influence on the households' livelihood strategy, technology use and risk coping ability. A clear exponent is the positive association between the household's asset endowment and their use of improved maize varieties. 8The surveyed farm households are primarily mixed maize-livestock producers. Granted the study targeted maize growing districts, but the overarching presence of maize in terms of crop production was particularly striking. Maize cultivation in the sample was near-universal with an average 1 ha of maize per household, corresponding to some two-fifths of the farm area and about half the annually cropped area. Maize production is primarily dual purpose in the study areas: to meet household food needs and marketing of surplus. Overall, the relative volume of maize consumed is about double the maize volume sold; and only in the Uganda study areas do maize sales dominate consumption. Livestock are an important component of the livelihood portfolio of the surveyed farm households, ownership being near universal in the various study areas except in Tanzania; and primarily comprising cattle, goats and poultry. The surveyed farm households further complement their livelihood portfolio with off-farm income sources-with off-farm cash income sources nearly universally reported by the surveyed farm households in Kenya against about half elsewhere. Off-farm cash income thereby comprises 39% of annual reported cash income over all sites; with the highest cash incomes reported in Kenya followed by Uganda. Despite being farm households, food expenditure made up the largest expense category, with a third of the households being a net food buyer and only 58% considering themselves as food secure during the survey year. Indeed, after drought, food security issues were the most widely reported threat to the livelihoods of the surveyed farm households (63% overall). Some 29% of surveyed households were reportedly cash deficient-with Tanzanian households being particularly cash strapped. The precarious cash flow is illustrated by about half the surveyed households (overall) having had to sell off some assets during the survey year, most commonly so as to be able to buy food.Despite their location in drought prone areas, agriculture remains the pivot in the livelihood portfolio of the surveyed farm households with 80% seeking to increase agricultural production as their preferred strategy to enhance their livelihoods. Maize was rated as relatively profitable -but also as relatively susceptible to drought and to yield and price risk.The farm households rely on various coping strategies that typically revolve around agricultural diversification, asset accumulation and non-agricultural diversification. The dual purpose nature of maize production implies maize production is relatively sticky downwards-i.e. farmers stated their reluctance to reduce maize production. This suggests great scope for drought tolerant maize varieties as these would reduce the drought and yield risk while maintaining maize production as the central and preferred livelihoods activity.Drought tolerance and early maturity were indeed commonly reported as desired characteristics of the ideal maize variety and as influencing maize varietal choice, only being out-reported by yield potential. Although knowledge of maize varieties is widespread (2.8 varieties on average), the number of varieties actually in use is substantially less (1.3 varieties in the survey year), with non-use typically revolving around grain yield, expensive seed and non-availability of seed. Overall, 70% of the surveyed farm households reported having used improved maize varieties (OPVs or hybrids) during the five years preceding the survey. In the survey year the use of improved and local maize varieties were about equally commonbe it in terms of households reporting their use (respectively 62% and 59% overall) or their share in reported seed use (49% and 51%). However, local varieties are particularly widespread in the Kenya and Tanzania study areas. Improved maize varieties also show marked variation in terms of the relative importance of hybrids vs. OPVs. Interestingly, the Kenya study combines the highest use rate of local varieties with the highest penetration of hybrids and a relative absence of (improved) OPVs. In contrast, the use of OPVs is widespread in the Ethiopian and particularly in the Ugandan study areas.The surveyed farm households started using improved maize seed varieties relatively recently (on average 2002-03 across study sites). There is widespread and long-lasting seed recycling of both local as improved varieties. Lack of money was commonly reported as reason for not (continuously) using improved varieties, reiterating the prevailing cash constraints.Nearly half the farm households reported purchasing improved maize seed during the survey year; but a third also reported purchasing local varieties, something particularly common in the Kenya study site; whereas seed purchases for other grains are uncommon. Limited dependent variable models illustrate the positive association between the farm household's assets and income and the likelihood of purchasing improved maize seed. This is in line with expectations, but also reiterates the challenge of disseminating improved maize varieties in general and drought tolerant maize in particular to the poorer strata of the farming communities in drought prone areas of eastern Africa.Other external input use for maize production is relatively uncommon and limited. Soil fertility is managed by a varying combination of fallowing (particularly Uganda and Tanzania) and animal manure and chemical fertilizers (particularly Kenya and Ethiopia). Land preparation primarily relied on a combination of manual tillage and animal traction and weeding was primarily manual. Family labor comprised at least three-quarters of the labor used in the various maize production activities; with about half the households using some hired labor. Farmer-reported maize yields averaged 1.4 ton per ha in the survey year overall; albeit being markedly lower in the Tanzania study area. Overall maize yields averaged 1.2 ton per ha for local maize, 1.4 ton for OPVs and 1.9 ton for hybrids.The prevailing maize production practices and limited system productivity reiterate the great scope for drought tolerant maize varieties. Indeed, a greater drought tolerance will reduce productivity risk and enhance the expected returns to productivity enhancing investments. Still, the relatively extensive production practices and limited system productivity suggest a need for more comprehensive approaches that combine drought tolerant maize varieties with other productivity enhancing and risk reducing innovations. At the same time the prevailing poverty, the associated marked cash constraints and the dual purpose orientation of maize production call for a portfolio of improved drought tolerant maize varietal options. The Kenya study site is a case in point, whereby the farmers typically lack access to improved OPVs and buy hybrids and local maize varieties side by side. OPVs indeed provide a much needed option to drought prone areas with their inherent system constraints. Yet drought tolerant hybrids are also needed for those maize producing smallholders that are willing and able to invest in such seed. At the same time varietal options should extend beyond mere short duration or drought escaping. Medium duration varieties may provide viable and productive options provided they are drought tolerant.Enhancing the options of drought tolerant maize varieties available to farmers would have a number of implications. Such diversity offers new opportunities to maize seed companies, although it would also increase the number of their products and competition among products, increase transaction costs and perhaps reduce the scope of any single dominant product. It would also call for the strengthening of innovation pathways and information provision to the smallholder farming community. Many stakeholders, and particularly the less educated and poorer smallholders, already have difficulty in fully understanding the difference between OPVs and hybrids; between drought escaping and drought tolerance. It should thereby be acknowledged that farmers rely on a variety of information sources that often extend beyond the traditional public extension services, and increasingly rely on novel communication channels such as mobile phones.The present synthesis and underlying country studies were primarily intended as an initial characterization of the maize producing households in the drought prone areas of eastern Africa. This intended to provide the necessary context and enhance our understanding of the potential contribution of drought tolerant maize. Still, this only provides an initial piece of the puzzle. To address the complex challenges of realizing and enhancing the potential of drought tolerant maize in SSA this needs to be complemented by further socio-economic studies and interdisciplinary research. These will particularly enhance our ability to monitor, provide feedback and assess impacts and help facilitate enhanced research and development procedures and targeting of drought tolerant maize.The present study also allows us to draw some useful lessons for future characterization endeavors. By adhering to a common research approach, questionnaire and dataset, the synthesis and regional contrasts were greatly facilitated vis-à-vis earlier regional studies (e.g. Doss et al., 2003). Still, the synthesis would have benefitted from a stronger adherence to the common research approach for at least the core data-including sample selection and data entry. The study would also have potentially benefitted from a larger sample size (particularly for the second batch countries, but also for the first batch countries) and more nationally representative samples (i.e. beyond the two drought prone districts). This would have enhanced the potential relevance of the characterization data to achieve the secondary objective of using the same as a baseline for future impact assessment. The study would also have benefitted from a shorter questionnaire to collect the core minimal data, perhaps supplemented with additional modules as appropriate. Such proposed adjustments have the benefit of hindsight but also imply trade-offs (e.g. single vs. multiple visits). Indeed, research resources and particularly staff time are typically limited and thereby directly imply trade-offs of any adjustments. For instance, the underlying country studies were originally intended only in the first batch countries (Kenya and Ethiopia in the case of eastern Africa), but were subsequently extended to the second batch countries. This clearly was advantageous in terms of providing a broader geographic coverage and perspective, but at the same time diluted the available resources and delayed the completion of the present synthesis.Finally, it should be recalled that the present study purposively targeted the 20-40% probability of failed season (PFS) zone. For the characterization purposes of the present study, this proved adequate. The incidence of drought is however not limited to that area. Higher probabilities of failed season (i.e. 40-100% PFS) would correspond with even more frequent and severe droughts -but such areas become increasingly marginal for maize production and crop production for that matter. Some may argue that even the 20-40% PFS zone is not suitable to maize and that farmers would be better off cultivating other crops generally perceived as more drought tolerant than maize such as cassava and the array of semi-arid coarse cereals. However, such arguments miss the overarching rationale for growing maize in the first place -the widespread preference of the market and farm households alike for maize over other coarse cereals in large swathes of SSA. The drought risk in the 20-40% PFS target area thereby seems to affect how the maize is grown, not whether maize is grown. At the same time, a lower PFS (i.e. 0-20%) only implies a lower probability of failed season. Indeed, maize growing areas with higher potential also are subjected to random drought events. The most severe may lead to the occasional failed season, but even less severe drought can imply substantial maize production losses (also in view of the higher productivity levels and associated input use). Their lower probability and less visible incidence make understanding and quantifying the drought impact in such environments more problematic. Indeed, drought discussions with stakeholders and farmers tend to automatically gravitate towards situations where drought is tangible -such as the targeted 20-40% PFS zone and/or drier areas. It is therefore important to note that the potential contribution of drought tolerant maize varieties is not limited to the 20-40% PFS zone targeted here. Yet at the same time understanding that potential beyond the 20-40% PFS zone through household surveys and the like will be challenging. One may thus need to complement characterization studies such as the present with crop simulation endeavors to quantify the impact of drought in the more favorable areas.","tokenCount":"12885"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2524ab212dff94e8c4bba339b7596757","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e9bbd485-951a-4027-8933-a4c55f345897/retrieve","id":"-1989289518"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e131f36e-c691-4f28-b439-a6d64255a562","pagecount":"2","content":"In September 2020, 304 smallholder farmers were interviewed in the Mai Son district of North West Vietnam.They were asked about the impacts of COVID-19 over the previous month and during April 2020 (the peak of Vietnam's first wave).No respondents were aware of any confirmed or suspected cases in their area, but over two thirds of households surveyed reported substantial income losses as result of COVID-19 related restrictions, and 40% of households had to reduce the amount of food they ate. In order to cope, assets and farm produce were sold at very low prices.While the restrictions were effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19, they also increased the vulnerability of already poor households. Stabilising sale prices of agricultural commodities would help, and a more nuanced approach to travel restrictions would support value chains and non-farm work. The households more deeply impacted were slower to recover -sucked into a poverty trap?Vietnam team: S.Douxchamps@cgiar.org; T.Mai@cgiar.org Analysis team: J.Hammond@cgiar.org  ","tokenCount":"156"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/6302402752.json b/data/part_6/6302402752.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2a0c8179a6d6d54aa7aa2bc2cc140baf6522dd8c
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cfedf1dc7ad401513d36091a06bba7d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b333289a-db2c-4b31-9e2c-de890985b6d5/retrieve","id":"-1576783533"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ce5e496-f78c-45aa-bff7-f4f74ade4461","pagecount":"2","content":"Livestock can be highly effective forces for good, such as by enhancing food and nutritional security and providing incomes for the poor. But they can also have detrimental impacts on public and environmental health. The annual costs of infectious diseases that spread from livestock to people is around USD 125 billion per year. These largely neglected diseases, which mostly affect the poor in developing countries, also represent a potential threat to rich countries.But livestock can also have significant negative impacts on public and environmental health. For example, sixty percent of all human infectious diseases are zoonotic -that is they are spread to people from animals (and vice versa). Although wildlife is also implicated, many human infections come from the world's 24 billion farm animals.The costs on the poor are very high ILRI has shown that in poor countries, at least one in seven cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry are affected by zoonotic diseases each year -which not only reduces their productivity, resulting in less meat, milk and eggs, but also represents a direct threat to human health and life. About 27% of livestock in developing countries show signs of current or past infection with bacterial diseases that result in contaminated meat, milk and eggs.Sick people cannot work and the death of a working adult has huge impacts on those left behind.The main burden of zoonotic disease falls on the shoulders of the poor, especially the one billion of the world's poorest citizens who depend on livestock for their livelihoods. The headline figure above of USD 125 billion total cost comprises response and resources valued at USD 10 billion, averting pandemics 30 billion and controlling zoonoses 85 billion. Further, the occurrence, or even suspicion, of zoonotic diseases can also result in export trade restrictions, which can impact not only on households and jobs, but also on national economies.In short, zoonotic diseases are a major reason why many poor livestock keepers stay poor.The United States, Western Europe, Brazil and Southeast Asia are all hotspots of emerging zoonoses -some of which are becoming more virulent or are newly drug resistant.Exploding global demand for livestock products, especially in the rapidly emerging economies such as China and India, is likely to fuel the spread of a wider range of zoonotic diseases.A recent ILRI-led study revealed that zoonotic diseasesincluding such scourges as bovine TB, brucellosis and pig tapeworm -cause 2.5 billion human illnesses and 2.7 million deaths every year. An 'unlucky 13' zoonotic diseases account for the vast majority of these cases. More than a third of global diarrheal diseases in people have been attributed to animals or animal agriculture, making this the biggest zoonotic threat to public health.ILRI is helping to lead a 'One Health' approach for diseases that pass between animals and people. This brings together people from the medical, veterinary and environmental sectors -currently, these sectors mostly work independently of each other. Analysis by ILRI researchers shows that there are significant benefits to be reaped from a coordinated approach: every dollar invested in One Health could yield five dollars of benefits.Increased investment in One Health on a large scale therefore has the potential to transform the management of emerging and neglected zoonotic diseases, saving the lives of millions of people and animals, massively reducing the burden these diseases place on poor people, and minimising the risks faced by people in wealthier countries.A 2012 mapping study carried out by ILRI has revealed some particular zoonoses 'hotspots': Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania in Africa, and India in Asia, have the highest burden of zoonotic diseases causing illness and death. It makes sense, therefore, to focus measures to improve disease prevention and control in these unlucky countries.Knowing about the global distribution of livestock is also very useful. A recent pivotal study led by ILRI has built on prior work by others and mapped the world's livestock to very high accuracy -a spatial resolution of just 1 square kilometre for cattle, pigs, chickens and (partially) ducks. These maps will be key to studying disease risk and estimating the impacts of diseases -not only in livestock, but also for those zoonotic diseases that spill over into the human population.ILRI's current work in this area is in four major areas: emerging infectious diseases, food safety, neglected zoonoses and One Health/Ecohealth. Livestock foods are amongst the riskiest food types in terms of food-borne disease, while diseases associated with agricultural intensification include malaria, resulting from creation of irrigation dams, with the unintended consequence of also creating habitat for mosquitoes to breed.A particular focus for ILRI is approaches to food safety and disease control that can work in informal markets and marginal areas -the places where the poor buy and sell food, farm and live. This involves testing and adapting appropriate options for food safety assurance and control of zoonotic diseases within the context of developing countries.1. A five-year project in six countries in Southeast Asia:Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.The project generated useful lessons on a One Health approach to zoonoses control that combines human, animal and environmental health aspects, and it built onthe-ground capacity in these countries to do so. 2. A participatory rural surveillance and appraisal method to collect information about diseases to inform decisionmaking and action -by involving livestock owners and community members as well as health and other professionals. This approach was applied in Africa and Asia as part of emergency programs to address the highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) pandemic. This resulted in markedly increased case detection in countries experiencing bird flu, and a better understanding of the situation. ","tokenCount":"925"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/6303847808.json b/data/part_6/6303847808.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e13ab4d250aed4b9b50ed61b01db18e7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e572dba6-a261-44a3-9d07-074b60cc5b14/retrieve","id":"-2049748594"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"44ba591a-b7de-4764-8494-22babde79f2d","pagecount":"4","content":"When severe market shortages of dairy products occurred in Kenya in early 1992, the government decontrolled dairy prices and revoked the monopoly of the Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) on sales of processed milk in urban areas. The general opinion among policy makers in Kenya then was that the price liberalisation would adversely affect the KCC. That the KCC has actually not lost its grip on the market is illustrated in this study of the impact of the 1992 policy reform on smallholder periurban dairy producers, using a Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) approach.shortages of dairy products had developed in the formal market.With a view of stimulating supply, the Kenyan government announced the decontrol of dairy prices and the lifting of the KCC monopoly on processed milk sales in May 1992. The KCC subsequently raised its producer prices and its prices to retailers. The result of these price changes was an immediate increase in milk supply to the KCC, and a reappearance of processed milk and dairy products on retail shelves. The policy change also increased the activity of small private milk processors and informal raw milk traders in the market, the informal traders incorrectly perceiving the policy liberalisation (which did not apply to raw milk sales) as tacit acceptance of raw milk sales in urban areas.The simple manner in which it presents overlapping and contradictory policy effects is one of the major attractions of the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM). The PAM provides a systematic framework to identify patterns of incentives for economic agents under relevant technological alternatives at each level of the commodity marketing chain. At each level and for each technology the PAM compares private with social prices, the social prices being potentially available in an open market. Besides analysing policy effects on private profitability, the PAM also examines the relative social optimality of alternative economic activities, thus incorporating the protection coefficient approach commonly used in price policy studies. Further, since the PAM evaluates each level of a commodity marketing chain, comparisons can be made between farm and postfarm welfare changes.The PAM budget data used in the current study are derived from surveys carried out in several regions of the Kenyan highlands, from 1988 to 1990, by the Research and Training in Agricultural Policy Analysis Project (RTAPAP) of Egerton University (Kenya), in collaboration with Stanford University and the University of Arizona. Representative farms were characterised for three milk production technologies: semizero, zero and open grazing. These budget data were updated by the authors to reflect the prices and policy environment of 1992.A case study of representative smallholder periurban dairy producers in the densely populated Nyeri District, located some 200 km north of Nairobi, was used in the analysis. Dairy production in Nyeri takes the form of zero or semizero grazing. The zerograzing farms differ from semizero grazing farms by the absence of pasture and by higher levels of input use. In the open grazing farms, found in some areas, milk yields are much lower than in the zero and semizero systems. Because informal sales opportunities are limited, most milk in Nyeri District is sold to cooperatives, which in turn sell to individuals and institutions, including the KCC which sells to the Nairobi market. Milk from open grazing farms is mostly sold to dairy cooperatives which sell to the KCC; some of this milk finds its way to the local informal market.The PAM was applied to the updated farm budgets, using private and social values of pre and post decontrol revenues, costs and profits for the three dairy production systems. In all cases, the largest divergence between private and social values occurred under revenues. Farm level results further showed that, because of the increase in producer prices, the private profits of producers per tonne of milk increased by 77 to 215%, depending on the production technology considered.However, KCC controlled milk prices, held below importparity levels, had a negative impact on producer social revenues and profits, both before and after the price decontrol. As a result, both private value producer profits and revenues were lower than their social value equivalents. In light of these results, it is not surprising that by early 1992, producers were increasingly diverting milk sales to the informal market where higher prices could be obtained and that widespread milk shortages were experienced in urban areas.PAM budgets calculated for postfarm milk handling, processing and packaging show that the largest policy impact results from higher wholesale prices. The price liberalisation increased postfarm costs, but raised revenues by a greater amount. The policy shift brought revenues and profits in the dairy system nearly in line with social cost values. However, incentives in the form of producer profits remained lower than optimal, while postfarm activities earned greater than socially optimal profits. System indicators like private and domestic resource cost ratios, nominal and effective protection coefficients, and overall system and producer subsidy or tax ratios, further substantiate the above findings. Producer returns under the new policy still fall short of opportunities represented by milk import parity prices. The price decontrol has not led to marketefficient prices because of market failure which can be attributed to the continued dominance of the KCC in the formal liquid milk market and its ability to hold producer prices below import parity and informal market levels.According to the PAM results based on the Nyeri case study, the 1992 price policy reform, removed only about 20-30% of the negative policy effects of producer price controls. Producer profits and welfare were improved by the policy change, but producer disincentives still exist.While these are case study results, Nyeri District is representative of high potential dairy zones around Nairobi, and as such the results can be considered indicative of the impact of the policy change on the Kenyan dairy industry as a whole. Accepting this, it is clear that the dairy market in Kenya remains non competitive, and that a single large dairy processor, the KCC, supported at higher than socially optimal level, continues to be the biggest beneficiary of the policy change.The continuing market power wielded by the KCC after the policy change appears to have enabled it to exert monopsony (a market where there is one buyer and many sellers) power in influencing producer prices and to extract noncompetitive rents from producers and consumers alike. Indeed, under either export or import parity valuation, the KCC was found to have taxed producers before and after the price decontrol.The difficulty of breaking down such a powerful monopoly through price policy alone is evident. But field observations a year after the liberalisation confirm the prevalence of continued distortions in Kenya's dairy market identified by the PAM analysis. Important barriers to entry remain for small processors, and non price factors like market dominance, political power, licenses, regulations and credit restrictions hinder dairy development despite positive improvements in price policies.It is thus necessary that structural change be encouraged by policy actions and other supportive interventions. Barriers to entry will have to be removed to increase competition and reinforce the positive effects of recent policy liberalisation. Regulatory changes also have to be formalised and carried out systematically, especially with regard to access to credit by smallscale processors. Initiatives need to be continued to encourage secondary processors and other marketers. The ability of Kenya to realise its potential in dairy production rests not only on price decontrol but also on the ability of secondary processors and marketers to alter the structure of the Kenyan dairy market.For further information on this issue see: Staal S. and Shapiro B.I. 1994. The effects of recent price liberalization on Kenyan periurban dairy: A case study using the Policy Analysis Matrix approach. Food Policy 19(6):533-549.","tokenCount":"1273"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/6310877236.json b/data/part_6/6310877236.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d7c8f2dc53a0cd2f90809bdff88e60d1a0523431
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"498103f0d0a6fbd9b918637934c9ac26","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/461c6ce3-32e5-4909-ba8b-90cf55078571/retrieve","id":"1347505282"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e86e3fda-f089-42a7-90d3-2305c6e2e3df","pagecount":"9","content":"We present raw sequence reads and genome assemblies derived from 17 accessions of the Ethiopian orphan crop plant enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) using the Illumina HiSeq and MiSeq platforms. Also presented is a catalogue of singlenucleotide polymorphisms inferred from the sequence data at an average density of approximately one per kilobase of genomic DNA.Biology More specific subject area Here we present the first genome-wide sequence data available for enset accessions cultivated or growing wild in Ethiopia.There is potential to exploit genetic diversity (e.g. large numbers of single-nucleotide polymorphisms) to generate markers to assist enset selection for key agronomic traits.Given the long lifespan of enset, patterns of genetic variation can be used to classify germplasm and to prioritise and select germplasm for use in breeding.The data presented here include enset genomic resequencing data, in the form of sequence reads generated using the Illumina massively parallel deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing platform. Also included are draft genome assemblies, a catalogue of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) inferred from the sequence data, and images of agarose gels containing results of genotyping assays for several SNPs. Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) is a perennial, herbaceous plant belonging to the same botanical family as bananas and plantains, namely the Musaceae [1]. Although it does not yield edible fruits, it is the most important cultivated staple food crop in the highlands of central, south and southwestern Ethiopia with cultural significance [2] as well as a key role in food security [3,4]. The main food value is in the large starch-rich corm, which can be boiled and consumed in a similar manner to tubers such as potato or can be used to generate a fermented product known as kocho [3,[5][6][7][8][9].Enset varieties display a great range of genetic and phenotypic variation [7,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] (Fig. 1) and 15 phenotypic traits have been assayed for a collection of 387 enset accessions [17]. Integration of phenotypic measurements with genetic markers could be of great value in breeding improved varieties with enhanced resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Despite its importance for food security of millions in Ethiopia, enset has been relatively neglected in molecular research and few genomic resources are available. We previously published a first draft genome sequence of E. ventricosum [18], but the sequenced individual was obtained from the nursery trade (from the UK-based company Jungle Seeds) and its provenance is unknown and therefore its relevance to Ethiopian agriculture is Fig. 2. Phylogenetic positions of the enset accessions sequenced here compared to that of the previously sequenced enset genome based on sequences of the trnF -trnT barcode voucher region of the chloroplast DNA. This locus has previously been used as a barcode and phylogenetic indicator and sequence data for this locus are available from previously published studies (Bekele and Shigeta, [36]; Li et al. [19]; Harrison et al. [18]). There was no sequence variation at this locus among the 17 genomes presented here, as judged by BWA alignments of raw sequence reads against trnF-trnT sequence. Thus, the branch indicated by the black circle represents the phylogenetic position of all 17 sequenced accessions. A black triangle highlights the position of the \"Jungle Seeds\" individual whose genome was previously sequenced. The Maximum Likelihood tree presented here is based on a multiple sequence alignment of trnF-trnT sequences generated using MUSCLE (Edgar, 2004). Evolutionary history was inferred by using the Maximum Likelihood method based on the Tamura-Nei model (Tamura and Nei [37]). The tree with the highest log likelihood (-1249.11) is shown. The percentage of trees in which the associated taxa clustered together is shown next to the branches. Initial tree(s) for the heuristic search were obtained automatically by applying Neighbor-Join and BioNJ algorithms to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated using the Maximum Composite Likelihood (MCL) approach, and then selecting the topology with superior log likelihood value. The tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the number of substitutions per site. The analysis involved 32 nucleotide sequences. All positions containing gaps and missing data were eliminated. There were a total of 666 positions in the final dataset. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA7 (Kumar et al. [38]). uncertain. Its phylogenetic relationship with Ethiopian varieties is rather distant (Fig. 2), clustering much more closely with E. ventricosum e4 (GenBank: FJ428156.1) [19], whose provenance is also unknown. In contrast, the data presented here originate from enset accessions collected in Ethiopia. Most of these enset accessions are sourced from the germplasm collection of the Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), with the exception of Bedadeti, which originated from the collection of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The data presented here complement previously published genomic resequencing data from Ensete species: targetted sequencing of repeats in Ensete gilletii [20] and E. ventricosum variety Gena [21] and exon sequencing of Ensete superbum and E. ventricosum [22].Genomic DNA was extracted from the young emerging (cigar) leaves using a previously published mini-prep protocol [23]. Between 0.2 and 0.5 g of young and clean leaf was collected per plant and dried in silica gel. From these dried leaves 0.2 g was taken from each sample and ground with sterile pestle and mortar. Genomic DNA was isolated from about 0.2 g of pulverized leaf sample using a modified triple cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) extraction technique [24]. The yield and quality of DNA were assessed by agarose gel electrophoresis and by a NanoDrop spectrophotometer (NanoDrop Technologies, Wilmington, Delaware) and quantified by Qubit broad range assay (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Illumina sequencing libraries were prepared, after fragmenting 500 ng of DNA to an average size of 500 bp, using Nextflex Rapid DNAseq kit for Illumina sequencing (Bioo Scientific) with adapters containing indexes and 5-8 cycles polymerase chain reaction (PCR) [25]. Library quality was determined using D1000 screen-tapes (Agilent) and libraries were either sequenced individually or combined in equimolar pools. We sequenced the enset genomic DNA using a combination of Illumina [26,27] MiSeq and/or Illumina HiSeq. 2500 in either normal or rapid-run modes, as detailed in Table 1. The 17 sequenced accessions included 15 distinct named varieties. We sequenced two different accessions for cultivar Mazia and two different accessions for cultivar Lochingie (a result of complex vernacular naming systems for enset landraces arising from multiple ethno-linguistic communities); one accession was sequenced for each of the other varieties. Raw sequence reads were submitted to the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) [28] under the accession numbers listed in Table 1.Prior to further analysis, sequence reads were trimmed and filtered using TrimGalore with options \"-q 30 -paired\". We performed de novo sequence assembly for sequence reads from Bedadeti, Derea and Onjamo (Table 2). For Bedadeti, we used St. Petersburg genome assembler (SPAdes) v. 3.6.1 [29] to assemble contigs and then scaffolded these using Short Sequence Assembly by progressive K-mer search and 3′ read Extension (SSAKE)-based Scaffolding of Pre-Assembled Contigs after Extension (SSPACE) v. 3.0 [30]. For Onjamo, we generated contigs and scaffolds using SPAdes v. 3.9.0 and for Derea generated contigs only using SPAdes v. 3.9.0. SPAdes assemblies were performed using the \"-careful\" option.We identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms by alignment against the reference genome sequence, according to the following procedure. After trimming and filtering with TrimGalore, sequence reads were aligned against the Bedadeti reference genome sequence (GenBank: GCA_000818735.2) using Burrows-Wheeler Aligner (BWA) mem [31,32] version 0.7.15-r1140 with default options and parameter values.Candidate SNVs were identified using Sequence Alignment/Map tools (SAMtools)/binary call format tools (BCFtools) package [33], version 1.6, using the following command-lines: samtools mpileup -u -f genome.fasta alignment.bam 4 alignment.bcf and.bcftools call -m -v -Ov alignment.bcf 4 alignment.vcfThe candidate variants were then filtered using the following command line:  Colour indicates the relative frequency of aligned sequence reads with the variant nucleotide at that site in that genome, on a yellow-orange-red palette. Thus, heterozygous sites would be expected to be orange, while homozygous sites would be yellow (same as Bedadeti reference genome sequence) or red (variant from the Bedadeti reference genome sequence). These frequency values were inferred from mpileup-formatted files, generated by aligning genomic sequence reads against the Bedadeti reference genome sequence. The Perl script used to extract these from the mpileup files is included in the Supplementary Material. This filtering step eliminates indels with low-confidence single-nucleotide variant calls. It also eliminates candidate SNVs within 10 base pairs of an indel, since alignment artefacts are relatively common in the close vicinity of indels.Allele frequencies at each SNP site were estimated from frequencies of each base (adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) or thymine (T)) among the aligned reads. Thus, we would expect an allele frequency of close to zero or one for homozygous sites and approximately 0.5 for heterozygous sites in a diploid genome. The binary alignment/map (BAM)-formatted BWA-mem alignments were converted to pileup format using the samtools mpileup command in SAMtools [33] version 1.6 with default options and parameter values. From the resulting pileup files, we used a custom Perl script (included in Supplementary material) to detect SNPs. For SNP detection, we considered only sites where depth of coverage by aligned reads was at least 5× for all 17 datasets. The distribution of a random sample of variants across the 17 accessions is summarized in Fig. 3.The identification of relatively high-confidence SNPs, distributed throughout the genome at a density of approximately one SNP per kilobase, provides the possibility to develop markers that could be used for genotyping large numbers of plant accessions without the need for large-scale sequencing. One straightforward approach is polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment digest polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) [34]. Another is co-dominant amplified polymorphism (CAPS) [35]. In the PCR-RFLP assay, oligonucleotide primers are designed to amplify a PCR product that flanks a SNP that falls within the recognition site for a restriction enzyme such that one variant is cleavable by the restriction enzyme whilst the other variant is not. Thus, by examining the pattern of bands in agarose electrophoresis of the product after restriction digestion, it is possible to assess the genotype at that SNP location. As a proof of principle, we designed 22 pairs of oligonucleotide primers targeting SNPs identified from the genome sequencing data; these are listed in Table 3. We applied 5 of these assays to several hundred E. ventricosum accessions; agarose gels showing the products of digesting the PCR products can be found in the Supplementary material.","tokenCount":"1703"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"68be092ffabd705af1944175d80632a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.mel.cgiar.org/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=hdl:20.500.11766.1/FK2/QJYCUW/EVWDWH","id":"-450538921"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"855e2f53-e6f5-41da-b6d2-2591ac5920c1","pagecount":"30","content":"a la coordinadora de Mujeres Rurales, donde en esa organización, se logro la ley 717, que es la ley creadora de fondo de tierras para las mujeres. Entrevistador ¿Y esa ley de las mujeres, cuales son los puntos mas graves de esta ley? Persona 3Ósea, que la ley esta aprobada, pero una debilidad que tenemos fuertemente, es para que nos sirvió una ley aprobada, pero el gobierno no asigna fondo para la compra de tierra para esa mujer; es la lucha que seguimos tras esa lucha.pueden dar 5 positivos y 5 negativos, por ejemplo, que han dicho, sobre la organización, cosas asi; a lo mejor esas son las positivas.Ósea, cosas positivas que ustedes piensen que la alianza y les han servido y otras 5 cosas 5 negativas que tengan que hablar de la alianza.Pues no la consideramos una alianza porque, nos pertenece la organización, porque estamos asociada a ella; no la vemos como una alianza, sino que la vemos como (No entendí 08:54) SMR. Entonces somos propias, aparte de la organización, no es una alianza; como alianza tenemos por ejemplo, el María Elena cuadra que se defiende la ley 779, que es la ley contra la violencia; ahí si tenemos alianza.Con la alianza de ADA, quiere saber el. Es que ellas son miembros. Entrevistador Para los miembros es una alianza. Ustedes como (No entendí 09:29), pero igual de estas informaciones que llegan a ustedes, ¿Cuáles son las lecciones positivas que aprendieron? O tal ves llegaron informaciones que no sean útiles, que no ayudaron a ustedes y que era una perdida de tiempo.Yo creo que nunca escuche algo que fuera negativo, que todo era en bienestar, para fortalecer mas, del poder lograr nuestros objetivos, como organización; es mas fue mas una auto evaluación, haber como estábamos marchando en nuestras organizaciones, porque nos sentimos a ver como se llama, no teníamos pertenencia a veces de lo que pensábamos, al evaluarnos nos vimos que no estábamos funcionando, como tenia que ser, en la evaluación de la organizacional. Entrevistador ¿Y sabían antes que podían mejorar algo o en la auto evaluación realizaron que puede mejorar algo o antes sabían que puede mejorar algo y no saben que, como eran? Persona 3Por eso yo le decía una cosa positiva en esta alianza de aprendizaje, que ellas obtuvieron y es que nosotros antes de buscar un proyecto, para gestionar un proyecto, siempre andábamos buscando quien nos ayudara o a quien pagarle y con esto es un beneficio porque ahora con ellas pueden elaborar una misión, una visión, un plan estratégico, en grupo, con los insumos de todas nosotras, hacia donde queremos ir, entonces, por medio de ella, se esta haciendo la misión y la visión, lo único que no tenemos, le dimos todos los insumos, lo negativo, lo negativo, pues que a mi parecer yo tengo una copia, de mi visión, de mi misión para yo tenerla bien clara, hacia donde vamos y con quien vamos cumpliendo y que es lo que no hemos cumplido, porque ahí es donde andamos un poquito perdidas, pues, no se; ella creo que tiene copia si; eso es lo único que necesitamos como negativo, si. Que a veces andamos en otras organizaciones y estamos entablando una nueva misión, una nueva visión; tenemos que tener una sola visión y a donde vamos y andar una copia, por lo menos de eso; para asi nosotros actualizarnos hacia que rumbo vamos; porque si vamos andar, restaurando una aquí, otra allá, entonces no tenemos como una formalidad de donde vamos, una sola visión, una sola misión. Entrevistador Perfecto.¿Y ustedes notan una diferencia entre los distintos actores, por ejemplo si llegan con, las informaciones de las guías, ustedes notan una diferencia, que hay distintos actores, distintos conocimientos, como enseñan las cosas? Persona 3Es que ellos lo hicieron grupal, las que andaban ahí les dieron insumos, y lo hicieron grupal y ellas llegaron a presentarse y parecía (No entendí 12:53) y nosotros debimos de haberle quitado esto; ellas fueron bien claras en su presentación. Entrevistador Entonces había muy pocas personas enseñando las cosas, pero eso lo hicieron muy bien, de enseñarlo, era muy practico que lo hicieron.Si, es que mira Diego, fuimos 4, dos por cada cooperativa; yo pertenezco a Copemac y la otra compañera que es la presidenta, también recibió el diplomado; entonces la idea era que fuéramos 2 de cada cooperativa; ósea por la central íbamos 4. Inicialmente íbamos; nosotros somos 5 cooperativas. Pero como en ese momento el proyecto que se estaba trabajando (No entendí 13:44) entonces se decidió, porque es un costo muy elevado; ósea el costo de cada una de nosotros en ese diplomado era de 5,000 dólares, fue 5,000 participar en ese diplomado, cada uno de nosotros; que eso incluye comida, transporte, todo lo que nos dieron y el aprendizaje; eso valía el diplomado; entonces se decidió que solo fuéramos 4; 2 de cada cooperativa, entonces en este caso, fue 2 de Copemac.No, eran dos proveedores de servicio y dos socias.En este caso, 2 socias y 2 proveedoras de servicio; entonces en el caso de Copemac, la presidenta era, como decir digamos socia, y yo iba como proveedora de servicio, que iba como central; en el caso de Copemuchi, iba, Persona 2 que es ella, como socia y la técnica, que fue la Arelis que iba como proveedora de servicios. Entonces que pasa, para las 5 nosotras, las 5 cooperativas de la central, nosotras íbamos mas por las 2 cooperativas, porque estaba el proyecto en ese momento, porque es el que estaba financiando la alianza; ósea no el proyecto, un fondo extra de becos, que se hizo fuera del presupuesto que tenia el proyecto. Entonces en ese caso, nosotros lo que decidimos fue hacer la replica, en cada cooperativa; entonces por eso es que nosotras te podemos decir, cosas, pero la mayor parte de lo que recibimos de metodología en cuanto se dio, fue a las que estamos aquí; en el caso de las muchachas, fueron las replicas, que nosotros dimos ahí. Algunas de las metodologías, las obviamos porque como que las sintetizamos, porque eran mucho tiempo y las muchachas se cansan, porque además de eso tenían capacitaciones con la ADA, capacitaciones con el proyecto, capacitaciones con la coordinadora de mujeres y además de eso, gestión es con el Ministerio de Economía Familiar, que ese año fue terrible, que era una salidera casi toda la semPersona 4; entonces no podes vos estar a tiempo completo con capacitaciones; entonces tuvimos que ajustar el tiempo en eso. Entrevistador Entonces aunque lo replicaron de esa manera, había un socio y un proveedor de servicio, ¿Y ellas dos enseñaron a un grupo de cuanto? Persona 1Depende, porque habían 16 socias y en algunas eran 13 o otros solo eran los consejos de administración, los comités, pues conformados. Pero en este caso, nosotros, como hay alianza entre las dos cooperativas, casi siempre lo hacíamos en alianza, en distintos grupos.Se trabajaba por cooperativa, pero en el mismo lugar.En el mismo edificio en el mismo sector, pero cada quien con su organización.Porque la problemática de una cooperativa, no es la misma que la otra; tienen sus similitudes, pero hay algo diferente. Entrevistador Y esas informaciones que ustedes reciben, de esa organización, también lo comparten con otros productores, con otras personas afuera de la cooperativa, o con digamos vecinos, conocidos, amigos, familiares.Por ejemplo con la coordinadora de mujeres rurales, acabamos de venir de hacer trabajo, hace dos días y nosotros compartimos esos avances y ellas nos admira por los avances y el gran conocimiento que tenemos nosotros, con otras cooperativas a nivel nacional; porque van de todos los departamentos, en esa organización; van de Matagalpa, Chinandega, Masaya, toditas nos miramos ahí. Entrevistador ¿Y eso les ayuda mucho, compartir las informaciones ahí? Persona 3Si, porque ellas nos miran que estamos súper avanzadas, pero es debido a todo esos conocimientos y esas grandes ventajas que nos han dado, esas ventPersona 4s abiertas.Es que una de las ventajas que hay en estas dos cooperativas, es el nivel de organización adquirido, porque diego, una organización es buena desde, desde su inicio, desde su nacimiento; entonces la ventaja que hay en estas dos cooperativas que tiene la central, que es una consecuencia de funcionamiento desde su conformación pues y ha vivido una búsqueda de aprendizaje, porque no creas, la alianza no fue todo lo que se aprendió, ya había un aprendizaje de otras capacitaciones, lo que la alianza hizo mas, yo lo que sentí pues; es que lo que alianza hace es prestarte herramientas, para que vos podas mejorar la información; porque por ejemplo, Copemuchi y Copemac, ya tenían su plan estratégico y tenían un plan de negocio, que fue elaborado hace mucho tiempo con estas cooperativas, con otras organizaciones, de otras formas pues. Entonces con la alianza lo que se hizo fue actualizarlo y reformar el plan estratégico y el plan de negocio; actualizarlo y tener mejores información y herramientas y fue hecho desde la participación de nosotras, porque en aquel momento, fue contratado otra persona, pidió la información, lluvia de ideas y lo elaboro el; mientras que nosotras si elaboramos la misión, elaboramos la visión porque no existía, había que hacerlo, porque estaba el plan y no había misión, ni visión. Es lo que yo siento, no se las muchachas como lo ven, porque realmente esto es un esfuerzo de muchos años, de todas. Porque la alianza lo que te da es herramientas. Entrevistador ¿Y que tipo de mejoramiento lo ven con estas informaciones le dan en su parte de producción, lo ven el mejoramiento, especifico? Persona 1 ¿Explícalo mejor Diego? Entrevistador Es como por ejemplo, si producen plátanos, ¿donde lo ven el mejoramiento?, ahí con los papeles, la burocracia o lo ven ahí produciendo plátanos; ¿En cual campo de actividad lo ven? ¿Cómo ustedes sienten ese mejoramiento, como lo ven, como lo perciben? ¿Qué se ha mejorado en los últimos años, por ejemplo? Persona 3Mejoramiento en la producción, porque Becoma, nos ayuda en la parte; son los tres eslabones de la cadena, que serian producción, comercialización, acopio y comercialización. Si nos vamos a la producción, hemos mejorado con la asistencia técnica, por el que nos enseñaron a escalonar la producción, ese es uno. Si nos vamos a la parte de la comercialización, logramos con el mercado, ya teníamos los mercados, trabajábamos de gratis, no quedaba nada, solo para operar, a través de Becoma, el nos vino ha asesorar, en ese mejoramiento que en virtud de 10 centavos, cobramos 15 o 20 centavos, donde hemos tenido una rentabilidad del negocio, 2012, 2013, nos a quedado una rentabilidad, si es en la parte de comercialización de acopio y en la comercialización no hemos cambiado mucho el mercado porque Walmark ya ha estado mucho con nosotros y tenemos como una relación estable, no hemos logrado otro mercado mas allá; solo lo que logramos ahí, fue el mercado alternativo, a través de ese aprendizaje, con la ayuda de becoma.Pero yo creo que hay otra cosa importante que ella nos puede compartir; tal ves se acuerda como estaba, antes que empezáramos a discutir el funcionamiento del centro de acopio, a partir de esa reflexión.Si, también, porque lo hemos expresado. No pude identificar la vos.(No entendí 22:49) los controles que se llevan.Que ahora se esta trabajando de manera distinta, que antes era Junacito el que comercializaba, ahora lo hacemos dos socias de la cooperativa, porque, mas que todo nos han puesto a practicar mas que todo seria, ya casi nos estamos volviendo expertas, mas que todo en el trabajo, porque antes lo hacia un socio de la Copemuchi, pero era varón, ahora lo hacemos dos socias que somos mujeres. Entrevistador Ok, perfecto, entonces tienen como expertos dentro de la cooperativa, que se especializaron en ciertos puntos de la comercialización.Es que a través de la central ellas recibieron unos cursos de computación y ellos ya pueden ingresar esos datos al sistema. Y eso no es una ayuda para el productor. Entrevistador ¿Si ustedes pueden cambiar tres cosas, de esta actividad de la organización, cual seria? Puede ser una lista de tres cosas que quieren cambiar, pueden hacer una lista. Antes habían dicho que les entregaban un papel con la misión y la visión, como función, cosas asi, digamos.Si, porque esa visión y esa misión, trabajaron con todos los insumos de todas nosotras, pero nosotros como debilidad es no tener un banner, ya en un banner tener nuestra misión y visión; porque ya tenerlas en un banner ya saben cual es nuestra visión y misión y te la vas aprendiendo, cuando te pregunten en un sector, en una alianza, en una organización, ya la anda en mente.No estarla haciendo cada ves y cuando.Porque ya te la vas a saber de memoria. Entrevistador ¿Y hay mas cosas que les gusta cambiar o como diseños, por ejemplo, pueden decir, cualquier cosa, que les gusta cambiar? Persona Otro de los cambios que nosotros hemos querido cambiar, es que hemos querido darle valor agregado a nuestros productos, porque sabemos que ahí vamos a tener mejor precio al darle un valor agregado y vamos a mejorar la calidad de la familia, que es lo mas importante para todas nosotras.Mejorar la producción también, porque si no se mejora la producción.Si, no esta el producto, no se puede mejorar, no se puede pensar en valor agregado, otra cosa seria eso.Mejorar la producción.La producción primaria.También el establecimiento de los servicios que ofrece el centro de acopio; por decir, hacer alianzas con los productores aledaños y comprar el producto a ellos, aunque no sean socios. Entrevistador Bueno eso era como un sección general, ahora, quiero saber un poco mas sobre la confianza y por ejemplo que significa confianza para ustedes. ¿Cómo lo entienden la palabra confianza? Persona 3Confianza es confi9ar en una persona que sea transparente, una persona que no me obstaculice y no me ocupe solo, como muchas veces decimos, me ocupan de tapa puerta; entonces siempre nosotros expresamos eso de trabajar algo transparente, donde la información llegue correcta, donde los avances sean correctos.La confianza no solamente esta en esa parte, pero también la confianza es creer en vos mismo, confió en mi mismo, confió en mi mismo y en mis capacidades, confió en mi organización, confió en lo que hago; porque la confianza también es eso, si yo parto en que no tengo confianza en mi misma, mucho menos creer en los demás; ósea la confianza parte de uno mismo; si yo no tengo confianza en mi y digo esto y no puedo andar desconfianza de todo el mundo, no puedo ver platicando a ellas, porque ya pienso que es de mi; entonces yo no tengo confianza en mi misma, entonces desde ahí es la confianza, desde ahí, porque no es solamente la confianza que tiene el líder o la líder, si no es como me veo yo a mi misma.Como me veo primero, para como me miren a mi. Entrevistador Entonces son como dos pasos, primero.Uno mismo, personal; asi exactamente. Entrevistador ¿Y existe como un entendimiento en común, sobre la confianza entre las cooperativas, entre los grupos? Persona 1Si. Entrevistador ¿Cuál seria? Persona 3Por lo menos entre nosotros, entre las dos cooperativas, yo considero que la relación es buena.Hay transparencia. Entrevistador Entonces hay transparencia entre las informaciones.Si. Entrevistador ¿Eso si hacen actividades como se nota la confianza? Persona 3Igual, nosotros, creo que somos mas que hermPersona 4s, que las actividades las hacemos en conjunta, todas participamos en conjunta. Entrevistador ¿Pero solo hacen las cosas juntas que tienen en común, las cosas que no tienen en común? Persona 3Por ejemplo, lo que tenemos nosotros muy aparte es nuestras asambleas, cada quien hace su asamblea con sus asociados y un pequeñito fondo que tienen la cooperativa, cada quien lo administra por su lugar; ahí la relación del negocio es toda igual. Entrevistador Si ustedes, por ejemplo, hacen algo como negocio o trabajan con los otros socios de la cadena de valor o con otras organizaciones, ¿Cómo dijeron que la transparencia es muy importante?, por ejemplo, si llega una persona aquí, un proveedor de servicio, ¿Cómo lo van a ver si tienen confianza o no? ¿Cuál son los puntos en que se fijan? Persona 3Por ejemplo, cuando nosotros, porque ya hemos participado en las contrataciones de técnicos o gerentes, este se hace la licitación y ahí se convocan dos o tres; ahí valoramos según su referencia, asi los contactamos y vemos si esa persona nos conviene para el negocio. Entrevistador ¿Y la referencia como la ven? ¿Van a preguntar a otras personas o van a ver si hay un papel o? Persona 3No, ellos traen su curriculum. Persona 1 Y personas que los están recomendando, recomendaciones.De otros expertos. Entrevistador Y eso con el curriculum, ¿Ustedes como lo ven, también es una cosa de confianza, en este curriculum, tiene confianza en ese papel, donde salen las cosas que hay? Persona 3Pues a veces el papel suena bonito, verdad, pero a la hora de llegada, para trabajar es otra cosa; por ejemplo cuando nosotros contratamos los primeros técnicos, fueron muy buenos, porque a demás ya tenían experiencia en el sector. Entrevistador ¿Qué les importa mas, ver el papel o escuchar a otra gente, llamar a otras cooperativas, preguntar a otras personas? ¿Cuál es mas importante? Persona 2Yo creo que escuchar otras opiniones.Entrevistador Ha ok, como recomendaciones, cosas asi. ¿Y si tiene una relación perfecta, como entre los negocios, como lo ven en el punto de confianza, como seria la situación perfecta? Persona 3Pues yo considero que los primeros técnicos que nosotros contratamos fueron muy buenos, nos ayudaron a buscar negocio e insertar mercado. Entrevistador ¿Y estos primeros técnicos, era una relación casi perfecta? Persona 3Muy buena, muy buena, muy eficiente, porque el se encargaba de la parte de nuevos mercados para comercializar y la muchacha era buena en los talleres, ella replicaba los talleres, si visitaba mucho el campo. Entrevistador ¿La situación de la confianza se mejoro en los últimos años, desde que empezaron a trabajar en las organizaciones y trabajar juntas en la cooperativas, hay un mejoramiento o se siente que mejoro? ¿Antes no había mas confianza como ahora? Persona 3Es que lo que pasa es que si estamos hablando de esas contrataciones, ellos no duraron mucho, contratamos a otros y estamos viviendo una nueva experiencia y nos ha costado adaptarnos a eso.Es que ya se había acostumbrado uno a ellos. Pero si, siempre se tiene confianza.Estamos relacionándonos con un nuevo técnico.Hasta el momento no ha habido ninguna anomalía, que no se este trabajando bien, se esta trabajando bien, hay transparencia, hay confianza. Entrevistador ¿Y ha habido por lo menos técnicos o gente de servicios en los cuales no han tenido confianza? Persona 2No, lo único fue con el gerente que tuvimos, fue que no hubo un avance asi, que no duro, porque el era como muy lento para negociar en el mercado.Pero es que yo creo que la confianza también tiene que ver desde la perspectiva personal; porque si yo por ejemplo siembro plátano y yo no confió en la capacidad que tengo para producir, desde ahí yo pierdo la confianza; entonces para mi la confianza se ha incrementado desde el nivel personal que es lo principal, hasta el nivel colectivo, porque realmente, estas organizaciones, han tenido avances tanto en infraestructura, como en vienes, en recursos, entonces ya por lo menos estas dos cooperativas cuentan con un fondo que ellas mismas manejan y las socias tiene confianza en su organización, tal ves no la plena al 100%, eso es difícil encontrar que vos estas al 100% feliz con todo, no conozco una experiencia que sea al 100%, pero si ha habido un incremento de la confianza de las socias en cuanto a su organización, en la formas mas productiva para trabajar es la organización. Entrevistador Si. Persona 1 Y no la individual; entonces a mi me parece que si ha crecido la confianza, porque yo puedo tener desconfianza de Persona 7, de que tal ves no vaya a llegar a una reunión si, quien dice que no y estoy en mi derecho de desconfiar, pero eso no quiere decir que no tengo confianza en ella.Pero es que el nos estaba preguntando en cuanto a los servicios que nos han brindado y la gente de servicios han sido gerentes, los técnicos.Si, pero a nivel de la central de las 5 cooperativas, pero a nivel de cada cooperativa; ósea las mismas socias se dan servicio. Entrevistador Si, entonces la confianza existe de todos los lados; yo abro la botella y tengo confianza que no hay nada adentro, eso también es una confianza en un producto; entonces la confianza es una palabra que tiene tantas caras y cada uno lo ve distinto y por eso también lo quiero ver como lo ven ustedes, en quien confían y eso es muy importante entre las relaciones. Persona 1 Y de la organización, porque yo te voy a decir, que la gente; las socias creemos en la organización de la cooperativa, si no creyéramos ya estuviéramos desorganizadas, no tuviéramos proyectos, no vinieran los proyectos a la organización y la prueba de esto es que Copemac tiene en ejecución un proyecto con una alianza, digamos las dos cooperativas, tienen alianzas con (No entendí 42:19) en este caso , pero es por la organización, porque por ejemplo walmark, no lo da a alguien en particular, lo da a la organización y la confianza se ha gPersona 4do la organización, producto de un cumplimiento de un montón de cosas que no es de un día, es de años; la cooperativa tiene 8 años de estar funcionando. Entonces es una suma de cosas.Entrevistador Y esa estructura de la ADA, es como una pirámide, hay algunas organizaciones arriba que esta produciendo guías y lo pasan hasta los productores, ¿esa estructura les da mas confianza o que piensan ustedes es mejor tener menos pasos en la pirámide o como lo ven la pirámide en sentido de confianza, se mejoro esta estructura, se mejoro la confianza aquí en la cooperativa? Persona 1La pirámide es los eslabones, la cooperativa de base, mas después la central, mas la federación; el pregunta que si es necesario, que si se ha mejorado, que se ha servido de algo.Este, si nos ha servido de algo, pero en lo que es las federaciones, no hay mucha confianza. Yo lo expresaba también, porque tocamos ese tema; la federación es la fuerza mayor para traer proyectos y la federación esta en un pleito mas bien de quien va a la plancha, quien no va a la plancha; ni ellos se entienden con ellos mismos y que nos van a atraer proyectos a nosotros, a las cooperativas de base; entonces no me esta dando la confianza la federación a mi también. Persona 2 Y no se le esta dando espacio a la mujer.Aja, no se le estad ando espacio a la mujer, porque quieren que vaya el poco de varones a esa plancha.Es que nosotros tenemos las cooperativas de base y la central, después las centrales, son socias de una federación.Pero nosotras realmente, nosotras hemos llegado, por lo menos como yo lo veo, tal ves las muchachas si lo comparten, conmigo; de la cooperativa de base, hasta la central, hasta ahí hemos llegado que si funcione, pero mas allá, piensan mas bien, quien agarra los cargos, a quien pongo, quien es mi aliado; no se si será que la organización es muy joven, la federación es muy joven; pero la estrategia no ha sido muy puntual, al menos en Chinandega.Imagínese que es el cuarto eslabón de las cooperativas y me debería de dar desconfianza botar por esa gente, porque se que mañPersona 4 va a venir un beneficio para nuestra organización y viendo ese revoltijo que se están peleando, que confianza me van a dar de que me van a atraer algo; yo no les estoy dando ninguna confianza, mas bien fui a perder mi tiempo y mejor me hubiera quedado trabajando en mi parcela, antes que darle tiempo a esa gente. Entrevistador Entonces si lo tenemos, como lo podemos decir como grandes, como becoma, como aquí, esas organizaciones tienen mas confianza que en la federación.Yo digo que si, me da mas confianza porque es alguien que te a puesto el dinero ahí, que lo manejen es otra cosa y que lo manejen bien, pero son personas que vienen apostar algo a esta organización.Son más notables los beneficios.Es que realmente las organizaciones asi, como las federaciones, son como cargos políticos, de incidencia, de incidir y muy pocas veces, por lo menos de las federaciones que yo conozco, han servido mas que todo para figurar, al menos la que conozco es la del campo, que es un ejemplo que lo venia poniendo Fausto desde hace rato, ahí influyen otras cosas. Pero lo mas importante siempre digo yo, lo que vale mas es la base; porque si vos en una estructura, en un edificio, no tenes buenas bases, el edificio se nos cae, entonces la ventaja de nosotros es que las cooperativas nacen, del producto de la organización familiar de cada comunidad y luego se forman las cooperativas, en este caso que se empezaron 13 socias en cada cooperativa, en cada una de estas dos cooperativas, las otras igual en las otras 5; luego que estas cooperativas tuvieron un recorrido de trabajo, de todo lo que ha habido en el camino y se fueron fortaleciendo y no todas están fortalecidas, en el caso de lo de la central, porque no todas tienen la misma oportunidad. En el caso de esta central que son 5 cooperativas quienes tienen mas ventaja y mas apoyo han recibido son estas dos cooperativas que estan acá, en las otras no ha sido igual, por cualquier razón, pero no ha sido la misma oportunidad, ya sean porque no quieren, porque si quieren, por lo que sea, peor no han tenido la misma oportunidad.Es que si principalmente si va a venir alguna ayuda, venga directamente a las bases, porque el que esta en las bases, es el productor que esta en la tierra y ya sobrevive, pero el que viene del primer escalón, ya vienen repartiéndose su tajada y cuando llega al productor, ya llego mínimo; entonces es mejor directamente porque va a quedar ahí. Entrevistador Entonces ustedes se fijan mas en la producción aquí y no tanto en las leyes (No entendí 48:36) Persona 3Porque casi en todo pasa eso, porque si lo ves, vía gobierno, pasa lo mismo; tal ves el presidente quiere que las cosas vayan bien, hasta quien lo necesita, pero cuando quiere llegar, ya no llega, llega una migaja. Entrevistador ¿Y como lo ven las organizaciones, que pasan la información sobre producción a ustedes? ¿Lo miran mas importante que le pasen la información sobre la producción o ustedes también piensan que esas organizaciones tienen su oficina en MPersona 4gua, porque ellos también , trabajan mas con la federación, lo van a empujar mas o como lo ven ¿es mas importante trabajar con los productores aquí y quedarse aquí o es mas importante que empujen la federación? Persona 3Es mas importante porque eso que de las federaciones, yo no lo hayo; yo me decepcione de oír ese pleito ahí; porque yo fui porque se esta formado una nueva directiva, pero no hombre, no se llego a nada llegamos, ha asolearnos, ha estar ahí peleando para que le den un espacio a las mujeres, porque una plancha era de tres mujeres y dos varones, que eran de Fecaruna, que Fecaruna, que son créditos para socios, con bajos intereses, porque son muy buenos, iban como le digo yo, iba un diputado, de que dicen que tienen mucha cola que arrastran, que me decís, que confianza me puede dar ese hombre a mi; es un demás irme a descartar yo ahí.Es que eso, no se hace asi, eso es mal hecho; las cosas cuando no se hacen de buena fe, no salen bien; yo se lo dije a Javier cuando me llamo por teléfono, me estaba diciendo que yo no fuera y efectivamente fui; entonces yo dije, aquí, yo no voy a pleitos, que gPersona 4s con andar peleando esos casos, hay que vayan las que quieran asumir, porque estar peleando con casos políticos es arrecho; además de que cargas con tus problemas personales, problemas familiares, ir a cargar (No entendí 50:41) . Que pasa cuando se hizo esta plancha, hubo una actitud aquí, entonces mejor te metes, como dicen ellas, es trabajar con las bases. Entrevistador ¿A la gente a quienes les venden sus rubros, el plátano, que hacer para garantizar una confianza con ustedes? Si alguien viene o como venden los plátanos, ¿Cómo funciona? Persona 3Pues, nosotros se los entregamos a walmark, con walmark si estamos gPersona 4do confianza, tanto ellos hacia nosotros, como nosotros hacia ellos, tanto asi que no hemos querido cambiar de mercado. Entrevistador ¿Con Walmark trabajan con una persona o vienen otras personas de walmark? Persona 3No, siempre estamos con el mismo.Contarle a el como es que funciona (No entendí 51:56) Persona 2Si, es lo que el quiere saber es como funciona. Primeramente el productor es el que lleva al centro de acopio el producto, el plátano y ahí es donde se recibe, bueno los recibos sobre todos y bueno, ya ahí, las muchachas que trabajan en pila son las que se encargan de hacer la selección del producto; sacando las distintas calidades, ahorita por lo menos se están entregando de dos tipos, el \"A\" y el \"AA\", que también le llaman especial.Ahí en el centro de acopio es donde se maquila y se entrega y después walmark, el trato lo hace con la cooperativa, la cooperativa tiene un compromiso con walmark, las dos cooperativas en este caso, tienen ese compromiso con walmark y walmark, le deposita en una de las dos cuentas el pago de ese producto. Entrevistador Entonces primero lo van a evaluar el producto y después dicen, tienen esta clase y pagamos eso.Ellos piden las calidades, uno les avisa a ellos, los llama uno y uno les dice, cuantas cajas tiene y ellos piden, que cantidad de calidad hay y que cantidad de especial. Entrevistador ¿Y ese contrato para cuanto tiempo lo tienen? Persona 6Se esta renovando, pero yo no se cada cuanto, eso si no lo se.Es que aquí hay un contrato abierto. Entrevistador ¿Pero pueden cambiar el mercado de un día a otro si quieren? Persona 1Es que Diego, ya existen de parte de walmart, las calidades que ellos quieren, ya ellos tienen un estándar y ya como aquí ya se sabe como es que lo quieren; entonces no es como que viene walmart, y elige lo que quiere, porque ya hay un estándar y se respeta verdad.Si, ellos dan las medidas y el grosor, entonces ellos no tienen que estar escribiendo cual pasa y cual no pasa.El pago se gira, hasta los 8 días y el centro de acopio ya tiene su fondito y se paga cuando llega el productor; al siguiente día le están cancelando su plata. Entrevistador ¿Ustedes piensan que la confianza para la gente, para las organizaciones con las que trabajan con ustedes, también es importante, ustedes que también las organizaciones se fijan en ese punto? ¿Y que también quieren trabajar la confianza o sienten que no lo? Persona 3Nos han visitado mucha gente a nivel nacional, en intercambio de experiencia y también a nivel internacional; porque aquí han venido los de Cuba, aquí han venido Salvadoreños, Guatemaltecos, hemos estado en constante visita que vienen a ver el avance de nosotras. Entrevistador Y ustedes, tengo la pregunta otra ves, con la gente que no tenían confianza, ¿Hay algún agente de servicio que no tenían mucha confianza, que no desarrollaron como quería o tenían mas por ejemplo vendedores o personas asi, en las cual no tenían confianza y lo cambiaron después de un rato?Es que mira diego, aquí la cooperativa no son como esos monstruos que tiene la alianza de aprendizaje, esa es una de las cosas que yo sentí, que la metodología que ustedes utilizaron, no encaja mucho con nosotras; porque porque fue diseñado para una empresa mas grande que nosotras; ósea los servicios que la cooperativa; no es mas que la asistencia técnica, hay un técnico que es subsidiado en este caso por becoma, ese es el servicio técnico que la cooperativa da; dos el otro servicio que la cooperativa da, es que las mismas socias funcionan como crédito; por ejempló la Clelia y Copemuchi; tienen su comité de crédito; pero esas socias, no devengan un salario; ahí nadie gPersona 4 un salario, ahí todo el mundo lo hace como manera solidaria; el único que es pagado aquí es el técnico, subsidiado por beco, pero después todos los servicios, son por amor, no hay capacidad para tener un sueldo; entonces la cooperativa, los servicios que da lo hace de manera gratuita, me explico; entonces yo no le puedo exigir a la Clelia, que me de un servicio como comité de crédito, si ella es una voluntaria, ella va a poner su tiempo y yo ajustarme a su tiempo, me explico, todo lo que la alianza decía ahí, en uno de esos cuestionarios, era, mas para empresas que tienen un personal completo, que devengan un salario; ni siquiera la contabilidad se paga.Es voluntario. Persona 1 (No entendí 57:50) entonces no podemos medir de la misma manera a las cooperativas sobre sus mismos servicios. Entrevistador Ok, eso es una gran diferencia.Yo quiero dar un buen servicio, por ejemplo ella, que es responsable del comité de crédito o la Persona 2 o la Iveth, que es tesorera, ella pone su tiempo, pero nadie, ninguna de estas cooperativas, recibe salario, no hay asalariados. Ósea podemos tener la estructura, podemos tener un responsable de acopio, podemos tener un responsable de comercialización, pero todo es voluntario, entonces, no le podes exigir vos como si jueras un asalariado.Entonces que ha pasado en la ADA, habían preguntas casi, que para la gente que da ese servicio que tienen una remuneración, nosotros llegamos a un momento que decíamos como hacemos, el caso de la Persona 2, la china y yo que éramos las que estábamos, mas, como decirte, mas comprometidas en la replica, habían cosas que te preguntaban ahí y yo decía, \"No, ahí no estamos nosotros, nosotros nos somos asalariadas, nadie recibe un salario\". Entrevistador Pero igual lo ven en el producto, si lo compran o agentes de servicios (No entendí 59:21) Persona 3Ha si, por ejemplo en el centro de acopio de compra el cloro, el axe, el cepillo, la escoba, el aceite, todo eso.Pues lo podemos comprar en cualquier pulpería, no lo tenes exclusivo. Entrevistador Y ahí lo compran con el precio y lo ven, por donde es mas barato y lo compran ahí.Ósea, no estamos todavía como esos niveles que tiene la alianza, como hizo su cuestionario, por ejemplo, dice, había una parte que decía, la cooperativa, la gerencia administra y dirige su empresa, con eficiencia y eficacia. Ósea cuando tenias un (No entendí 01:00:09) que te subsidiaba durante un año.Pero, la organización o el centro de acopio, no tiene ningún asalariado.Todavía no es sostenible para pagarle a un gerente. Entonces por ejemplo dice, la gerencia transmite y comunica toda la información, desde arriba, hacia abajo; aquí nosotras en este caso, como lo hacemos, vamos a poner como la presidenta y el consejo de administración informa y dirige todas las acciones en función de la organización; obviamente lo tiene que hacer, porque si no funciona la estructura; pero asi como fue diseñado, te lo juro que para estos niveles no nos sirve mucho, no se que piensan las muchachas o vos Persona 2 que viste los formatos.Si, porque cuando mas o menos leímos la presentación y todo, supuestamente estaba diseñado, para organizaciones o productores de pequeña escala; ya en el trabajarlo, los ejercicios y todo eso, si daba a entender que era como para mas desarrollo, organizaciones que tenían negocios mas desarrollados. Persona 1 O personal.Si,si. Entrevistador ¿Pero la confianza de hacer negocios, como lo veían? ¿Cómo que si van a comprar algo para producir? Persona 3Es que eso lo hace a manera personal, cada quien, cada productor. Pero yo digo que si hay servido de algo, porque por lo menos Copemac esta administrando el proyecto de las 5 parcelas; donde ahí si se compro el abono grupal de todo en una sola línea y eso viene con factura, viene con precio, mas rebajado y ella lo esta manejando muy bien.Pero es una cosa puntual, como un proyecto; porque asi se va ese financiamiento, se acabo.Pero ya le quedo el conocimiento.Yo no discuto eso, pero lo que yo veo como organización; por ejemplo el insumo, ese porque fue puntual, el proyecto, pero que nosotros después; eso para 5 parcelas, pero para el resto de productores, cada quien lo compra. No se compra, aquí la cooperativa no lo compra junto.Si, no hemos llegado a esos niveles.Que tenga definido una casa comercial que le provea insumos, de igual forma para todos, no. Pero de hecho existen, esas casas comerciales existen para todos, para abastecer, pero que nosotros tengamos.Una estructura.Aja, no la tenemos, no hemos llegado ahí.Como dice ella, hay para un proyecto especifico, para un año especifico, pero vos sabes ya para un negocio; pero si existe ese tipo de confianza en su consejo de administración, para administrar sus recursos.Si, porque ahorita que vaya al Ministerio de Economía con esas ideas, yo le dije \"Ya muy tarde vinieron, porque las mujeres andan el crédito en mano y reunirlo, para hacer eso, para comenzar hacerlo, esta bien difícil ahora\"; eso de compara el abono y entregárselo a los productores a manera de crédito, eso seria una opción de empezar por ahí; pero a estas alturas, ella lo tiene para 6 meses, ella lo tiene para un año; cuando recogemos esa plata para hacerlo.Eso, no se si te acordas que Beco, pago un estudio a crediticio, que es una cosa que estamos luchando desde hace rato; pero que lo iba a dar Ramac, literalmente, (No entendí 01:04:12) Persona Eso, fue lo que se dijo, por lo menos los que se los visnean, esos lo venden mas barato.Yo prefiero, comprar un quintal de urea, que me va a salir mas confiable.A veces es confiable, a veces no, le venden tierra.Aunque me vayan a vender una urea que me va a valer 300, 400 pesos; a mi esposo no le gusta, porque no sabe que es lo que esta vendiendo y que es lo que le va a echar al cepa y que es lo que le va a perjudicar a la cepa.Que ha pasado, que ahorita en occidente, en Chinandega, se descubrieron lugares que venden productos para los cultivos y estaban adulterados, que no son confiables, pues; les agregaban como piedra pone y entonces revuelto con el producto y entonces no son confiables; entonces el productor por comprar mas cómodo, se va a esos lugares, entonces los resultados, no son los mismo. Entrevistador ¿Y cuando paso eso? ¿Paso hace poco? Persona 2Hace como la semPersona 4 pasada. Pero no sabemos desde cuando están haciendo eso. Entrevistador ¿Y ahora que hacen, para saber si el producto es bueno o no? Persona 2Bueno, la alternativa es buscar una casa comercial, bien certificada.Porque esos tienen certificación y todo y saco y todo; yo lo vi en Estelí eso.Da la impresión que eran originales.Si, porque si ellos no me dan, no me entregan un producto con todo el procedimiento que va a dar, yo los demando, yo los demandaría, si no me venden un producto del cual yo estoy necesitando.Usted no sabe cuando le vendieron uno asi, es que es parecidito.Pero es que no hay asi como colectivo comprarlo. Entrevistador Si, van a una casa comercial, ahí pagan mas para tener papel de donde sale? Persona 2Si. Entrevistador Y no pueden decir que les gusta pagar mas, pero prefieren pagar y tener un producto.Seguro.Echarle un producto seguro a la plantación.Pero entonces en eso, nosotras como organización, tenemos que trabajar, en adquirir esos productos, que estén certificados, que sean confiables.Seria muy bueno hacerlo, pero si tuviéramos un fondo que pudiéramos alcanzarlo, tal ves comenzando hacerle conciencia al productor, lleguemos a concientizarnos y a comprarlo por esa via.Como que ha sido también, falta de gestión.No es falta de gestión.Acordate que vino Ramac, hace dos años, vino (No entendí 01:07:13), vino la San Cristóbal y estuvimos reunidos, pero todos ellos te piden garantía y si vos no tenes su garantía, entonces que garantía pones, decíamos nosotros \"Vamos a poner la producción\", pero ellos no están como muy convencidos de eso.Es que Ada, le pasa lo de Walmark; por eso decimos, mientras la persona no es productor, sufre los debates que sufre el productor, porque el productor vino un mal invierno que acabo, vino una mal sequia que acabo; pero como tu tierra es tuya y de eso sobrevivís, volves a empezar de nuevo, aunque sea con baldecitos, ya eso es tu tradición, entonces la gente es necia, el productor es necio, siempre esta buscando superarse; pero otro que mete su dinero y dice \"Yo voy a meter mi dinero para perder\". Nosotros le dijimos a walmark, cuando se vuelve exigente, \"Porque ustedes como walmark no siembran sus propios terrenos y lo comercializa\", \"Es que no estamos para perder\", pero que el productor si pierda; entonces hay ventajas y desventajas ahí, entre el supermercado, con nosotros.Por falta de recursos.Mira, beco, pago ese estudio a crediticio (No entendí 01:08:53) y nadie quiso.Porque las garantías tienen que ser solidas y muchas no tienen tierras, propias y una garantía solida.Lo podemos hacer como productor individual porque, vos podes ir con tus tierras y poder decir \"Una manzPersona 4 y me provees\" Persona 2Asi es.Pero la cooperativa como tal, no puede decir, \"Aquí tienen y yo respaldo\" Entrevistador Si, cambiamos al último grupo digamos, desarrollar capacidades, ¿para ustedes que significa desarrollar capacidades? ¿Qué entienden, si yo digo eso entre esas dos palabras? Persona 1 Desarrollar las capacidades; bueno que nos capacitemos cada ves mas, en todos los aspectos, tanto agro ecológicos, lo que es la comercialización, en la inocuidad también, porque en lo que es la mano factura, es muy importante la BPA, que es una agricultura, que tenemos que cultivar de una manera mas sPersona 4 y amigable con el medio ambiente. Entrevistador Pero eso es difícil, no, porque walmark, no se fija mucho en el ambiente, es mas.Si, como no; eso es uno de los requisitos que nos esta costando bastante, porque hay que ver.Tanta cosa que esta pidiendo ahora.Todas esas cosas, el las ha venido exigiendo. Entrevistador ¿Y eso es una ventaja de ustedes, que ustedes pueden cumplir las cosas que están pidiendo ustedes, de la producción agro ecológico? Persona 6Si es una ventaja, porque además de eso, estamos alimentándonos mas sanos. Hay mas conciencia ahora.La Arelis, me lo dijo y entonces yo lo exprese en la asamblea, que nos felicitaba, porque estan haciendo conciencia con el medio ambiente.Que alegre y que dicha, porque ha habido un pleito, en mi parcela, vos no tenes idea cuantas botellas de gaseosa hay ahí. Entrevistador ¿De los factores que son importantes, para cambiar y para desarrollar capacidad, la alianza y la información que llega de la alianza, les ayuda a cambiar o ha desarrollar las capacidades? Persona 1Claro que si, con las herramientas que nos dieron eso nos hacen, para fortalecernos mejor, ósea trabajar de una manera mas coordinada y concertada.Entrevistador ¿Y cual cambios hubieron en los últimos años en la producción, aparte de la alianza, de la información, cual eran los cambios de los mas grandes que lo observaron y adaptaron? Persona 3Yo ya les decía hace rato, del escalonamiento de la producción, debido a la asistencia técnica que obtuvimos, aprendimos a escalonar. Persona 6 Y a diversificar.Para diversificar los cultivos, para llevar control de la producción, la planificación, porque.Mas coordinado todo. Ha costado, pero hay unos que hacen su control.Porque se ha trabajado de una manera que uno lleve mas control de todo de los gastos, de las ventas. En una cadena de valor, quien tiene mas peso.Para mi que lo tienen los productores, si no hay producción, no hay mercado, desde los productores, productoras pues; productoras y productores, porque si nosotros no producimos no hay mercado. Tenemos mayor peso nosotros.No hay que vender.No hay plátano y no hay ayote. ¿Y si lo ven esto en el sentido de la pirámide, con la organizaciones, donde estan los grandes, los pequeños, después tan las cooperativas y los productores, en esa pirámide a cual lo ven el mas poderoso ahí? Ese es el proceso, por eso yo siempre les he dicho a las muchachas; es bonito que vengan a decir, yo hice esto, pero yo que he trabajado con ellas, se donde esta el mayor esfuerzo; pero ahora que estan avanzadas, cualquiera te dice \"Te voy apoyar\" y luego dicen \"Yo hice\" todos hemos construidos, la familia, la comunidad, las autoridades municipales, los ONGs; pero la verdad, verdad, es que aquí es un proceso de años que pueda funcionar y yo lo digo con orgullos, (No entendí 01:26:29) no han avanzado como ellas, pero te apuesto que si hay un acercamiento mas cumplido con ellas, lo logran. Yo he medido las capacidades, todos tenemos las capacidades.Solo hay que fortalecerlas.Solamente es el acompañamiento; entonces con un acompañamiento ella empezaron comercializando; se empezó a gestionar y vivían con un dilema que cuando se comercializaban, de repente llegaba el comerciante, se llevaba el producto fiado y de ahí pues ellos andaban buscándolos, pues otros nunca mas volvieron.Entonces la cooperativa aquí es fundamental en la comercialización, que no cayeran en esas garras de los comerciantes, por eso yo lo veo ahí, la ventaja de la comercialización; en ese eslabón la cooperativa nos da un apoyo fundamental.En la producción primaria, la cooperativa también ha sido, fue importante porque también en las gestiones se ha logrado que los productores, se (No entendí 01:27:44) yo no se muchachas si ustedes lo ven asi. Por ejemplo cuando se inicio este rubro del plátano, pues a darle mayor fuerza, se gestiono con un programa que hay aquí en occidente, la cuanta retro del milenio; pero fue a través de la organización que se hizo, se gestionaron recursos y la cooperativa le dio fortalecimiento al productor en recursos, en tecnología, en sistemas de riego, pero la cooperativa jugo un papel fundamental ahí. Luego después con esa misma organización con un programa que se llamaba PRPR, que es un instituto autónomo de Nicaragua, que era el IDR, que ahora es el Ministerio de Economía Familiar y otras hiervas aromáticas jajajajaja se hizo también otra gestión para que vinieran insumos; entonces si se les apoyo con insumos al productor, de parte de la organización.De la capacidad de gestión de la cooperativa.Si, de eso estoy hablando de la cooperativa. Ahora con el programa de Beco, igual con los proyectos, Becos, fortaleció, la producción primaria, ha pesar de que no es su principal trabajo; ellos trabajan mas el desarrollo de capacidades; si hubo un fortalecimiento a la producción primaria, pero fue a través de la organización. Todos los productores hemos recibido beneficio a traves de la organización; yo asi lo miro. Entrevistador Y la cooperativa de ustedes como lo ven en esta región, lo ven por ejemplo la cooperativa de ustedes, tienen mas ventajas que los otros o si estan casi en el mismo nivel en comparación de los otros de la región.Creo que estas dos cooperativas son las mas relevantes; es decir, estas dos cooperativas son las dos que mas estan avanzadas.Son mas vistas pues.Mas reconocidas.Con mas recursos, ms reconocidas, porque tal ves no hemos tenido el gran monto de recursos, como otras cooperativas, porque yo he visto a las del Marañón, la de los camaroneros que ya hasta exportan pues, pero ellos han tenido otro tipo de ayuda.Y no han perseverado como aquí, porque a como sea se produce.Si, luchando.Porque la verdad de las cosas cuesta mucho.Porque no es lo mismo producir plátanos que producir marañón.Las otras cooperativas que estan en la CMR, que las del café, las que estan en el café tienen un rollo las pobrecitas, son productoras pero hay un tercero que las comercializa, no son ellas y las estan reventando por ahí.Pero acordate que el café es de exportación; el problema que la mayor parte del café (No entendí 01:31:00) PersonaPor eso, yo veía a ellas quejándose.Lo que pasa es que es distinto producir café.Por eso, nosotros lo producimos y nosotras mismas lo comercializamos; no hay un segundo y un tercero entre nosotras.Además que el café siempre va a tener siempre ese problema, porque es el mayor producto de exportación de Nicaragua y siempre va haber ese problema.Según como dice ustedes, si se unieron los grandes, porque no se unen los chiquitos, es cuestión de estrategia.Mira lo que cuesta cultivarlo, decime a mi, porque eso si cuesta. Entrevistador Bien, bien, muchas gracias entonces, si me gustaría que si pueden rellenar la lista.","tokenCount":"8171"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b0394c9ce1e1681c8d276fd245c00868","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/48e5971b-4e0a-4eaf-83f4-465d8f66a1a0/retrieve","id":"-1957426413"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c8a21dc2-9527-4b1d-b818-0f5ddfefb46c","pagecount":"7","content":"from Dalle wereda, Dagia Kebele. In today's programme we broadcast about avocado and mango seedling grafting from Dalle wereda, Hajawa kebele. We invite you to stay tuned with us and would enjoy our programme. Music follows.Programme narrator: Respected listeners, from the 21 wide weredas in the Sidama zone, we briefly describe about one, Dalle wereda. In Dalle wereda there are 36 interconnected kebeles. Of which Hajawa kebele is one of these. We now are in Hajawa kebele in the farm of one strong farmer who now enjoys better living condition for him and his family by raising his income level as a result of introducing and producing the new improved avocado tree. He gave us explanation about the new improved avocado tree.Farmer Speaks: My name is Wedo Guye; we are now in Hajawa kebele, Ewicha village. This seedling in the shade is avocado to be grafted. First we fill soil in pole bad and plant the seed in it. To protect from the sun it is kept in this shade and is now ready for grafting.My name is Aregash Ashalo; I'm chairwoman of females' in Tulla kebele. Why I planted the new imporved avocado tree is, I have the former avocado tree. It took seven years to give fruits. But the new improved tree showed a difference in two and half years' time.Female (speaks): The difference is in growth and now can see it flowering. Flowering is a sign of preparation to develop fruits.Female (speaks): I see a big difference. The former tree is only one species. The new one is a crossbreed of two species.Programme narrator: You mean two species made one? Female (speaks): Yes. Two species are made one. We are told that one is different. We have seen the difference from the nature of the tree.The difference is the former one is taller and grows high up to 12 metres; and yields fruits in six years' time. While the grafted one called integer, fruit, bazen, and haze yields fruits in one year time. In one year time it can't carry fruits and will be removed. After two years can carry well fruits and in height can't grow more than three metres. You can collect fruits while standing on the ground. Like a project coffee plant [project coffee is a new and high yield coffee plant introduced many years ago] it continually yields fruits. The reason why the new branch is grafted on the former seedling is because the new species is not adapted to the soil of this type and only adapted to the weather condition. Being grafted to the former avocado tree adapted to yield fruits. The new and improved species is useful in three ways: first, it yields good fruits; second you can cut a small branch and sell it for 50 cents; third, you can crossbreed the branch here and sell the seedling for birr 20. Thus it has three different advantages.Programme narrator: Our listeners, as you followed, the new variety of avocado and mango trees within a short period, at least in three years' time bears fruits and generates good income. It is also short in height. It has many advantages. Many people also got a good lesson about it. Following different persons will give us their sharing.Because of grafting the lower and upper parts are very different. Because of protection you can also observe different on the trunk. On the row fruits also you can see a difference.What difference did you observe on the fruits? Where did you get instruction about the new improved seedlings and how did you get it to plant, W/ro Aregash? Female (speaks): From rural development agriculture office workers.Female (speaks): Yes. They taught us in the field. And when we ask them where to get, they told us that they will get for us crossbred seedlings from the breeding place.Female farmer speaks: Yes. They bought and brought to us and told us that here after you not only buy seedlings but you can reproduce them and sell it. So that we can teach you how to graft; now they are ready to teach us how to graft.Why it is grafted on the former seedling is that the part that has already yielding improved fruit can give fruits quickly. You know for the former one it takes six years to yield. When you graft the new improved branch, it yields fruit in two years time. It means that you cut and remove four years waiting time from the former tree. Thus the economic condition improves within two years instead of waiting for six years.Programme narrator: At Hajawa village in Dalle wereda many people who can reproduce and spread the new improved avocado and mango trees are created. Following some of them will explain to us how to income from seedling reproducing and spreading other than earning from sell of fruits.Leave alone what I sold, I also earned up to 1,000 Birr from sell of seedlings in my capacity.Another Female farmer speaks: Crossbreed avocado yields in two years' time. The former tree takes six years to yield fruits. To collect fruits one has to climb up, and when collecting fruits are thrown on the floor, gets broken and spoiled. But from the new improved tree fruits can be collected while standing on the ground.Male farmer speaks: When deeply think I see that it sells for quite high income. From this I expect that our living condition can be improved. For this reason I am now planning to plant it. Getachew Gega: I have planted the new seedling in my farm. I got it from Mude Guye. First I heard that Mude Guye has brought and planted the new seedlings. Then I heard that he has started reproducing it. I went to him and saw it; and confirmed what was said is true. His way of doing was very nice and attractive; the fruits on the tree are also appealing. I felt that if he did this; can't I do the same? Later I bought from him 20 seedlings and planted them. Then I desired to plant three fold of this. In the future I have planned in mind to expand it. The result is also visible at sight.Mother calls her daughter: Kaye! Kayitu! You Kasha, don't you hear me?Daughter responds: Yes mom; I hear you. I'm coming; it is just till I am closer to you. Mother speaks: Is it from heaven or earth?Daughter: Mom, it is not like that. It is the new species brought this time; I heard people saying, has many uses. To be fed on, grows quick, and generates a lot of money. Father: Oh my daughter, you did well. May you be wise to know things! It is good to know timely events and make them applicable. To make it practical it is good to tell what is heard. You are right. Mother of Kayitu (calling the wife)! We were called for gathering and were informed about it. Taken to Dagia. We were taught how to reproduce, how to take care; that it grows quick. We were informed that there are people who earned a lot from selling seedlings. Further more it yields in three years time and provide much fruits big in size; short in size. We were told to collect money to buy seedlings. Each seedling costs birr 20. A lot of money can be generated from the sell of fruits from a single tree. Our daughter is right. She reminded us what I forgot. We have to cut the old tree behind our house and replace with the new one. Therefore, what you said about the old tree, why we cut it, is useful only for firewood. Its fruit is small in amount. People who followed the training and planted the new seedlings are now living better life. We need to plant the new seedlings. It is good to listen what others say; it helps. What our daughter says is correct. She reminded me what I forgot. What do you think about it?Mother: well! When she told me that the new species is short, I thought for the tall tree can make better fruits. It is good to use what the time provides. Then we can plant it.Father: Did you listen? Kasha! Daughter: Yes, Dad. Now I am happy. Why do we waste time? Can't we go and get the seedlings?Father: Well, I will bring the new seedlings; will be planted. But to get fruits soon you need to remove weeds, put local composite, and water them not to die. If we do so we can get good fruits soon. Do you agree?","tokenCount":"1441"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5f2254393ce67f098b4710a135e0c247","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8e170b14-1700-424b-a330-2f859338f753/retrieve","id":"-1662863423"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"795940a4-e378-4f63-9a0a-0d65a45bdc70","pagecount":"3","content":"A location-specific, tailored, season-smart agro-advisory decision support tool (DST) in the Highlands of Ethiopia increased wheat yields of smallholder farmers by up to 25% with an average partial profitability of USD 600 per ha per season. The data-driven DST was developed by integrating over 25,000 crop responses to fertilizer application datasets and corresponding biophysical co-variants, using machine learning algorithms. Currently, the DST is being piloted across the highlands of Ethiopia. Documented here, as part of INIT EIA Excellence in Agronomy STATUS Updated Outcome Impact Case at new level of maturity YEAR 2022 COUNTRY: Ethiopia GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE: NATIONAL TITLE Tailored, Climate-Informed and Location-Specific Agro-advisory Services in the Highlands of Ethiopia increased smallholder farmers' wheat grain yields and profitabilityAcross all testing locations, our calculations show that partial profit per hectare per season increased by 24% (USD 580) and 16% (USD 412) when location-specific fertilizer rates were compared to local and national blanket recommendations, respectively. Considering average productivity of 2.995 t/ha and 1.75 million ha land allocated to wheat [5,6], location-specific rate would result in profit gain of USD 2.31 billion for Ethiopia. Based on these outcomes, the DST is being scaled across five districts in three major regions in Ethiopia. Despite the huge cost of fertilizer during the summer of 2022, over 3500 farmers have implemented the new DST, out of the over 10,000 farmers reached, with high levels of performance [7]. In recognition of the successful piloting of the advisory, one district has presented the project team with a certificate of appreciation [7]. Other district and zonal officials have requested support to scale the advisory and expand the DST to reach thousands of farmers within their respective areas [4]. The project followed an entirely participatory approach, obtaining, collating, and analyzing over 25,000 wheat response datasets from willing participants across the 'data' value chain. Silva, JV; Pytrik Reidsma P; Baudron F; Jaleta M; Kindie Tesfaye K; van Ittersum MK. (2021). Wheat yield gaps across smallholder farming systems in Ethiopia. Agronomy for Sustainable Development. accessible here Abera W., Tamene L., Tesfaye K., Jiménez D., Dorado H., Erkossa T., Kihara J., Ahmed J.S., Amede T., and Ramirez-Villegas J. 2022. A datamining approach for developing site-specific fertilizer response functions across the wheat growing environments in Ethiopia. Experimental Agriculture. NextGen Agroadvsory DST: https://nextgenagroadvisory.com/fertilizer_advisories Liben FM, Ebrahim M, Abera W, Erkossa T, Bogale B, Kebede F, Ayele M, Alitaseb T, Haji A, Tsegu A, Girmaw M, Ayele K, Chernet M, and Tamene L. (2022). Co-developing and co-validating location-specific fertilizer and agroclimate advisory service for Wheat in Ethiopia: The Digital Green Use Case. here CSA (2019) Agriculture sample survey 2018/2019: volume I report on area and production of major crops. 589 Statistical Bulletin. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Technical report FAOSTAT. 2020. Available at: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC. Accessed 9 Nov 2022. Liben FM, Abera W, Ebrahim M, Tamene T (2023). For Ethiopian farmers, location-specific fertilizer makes a difference Alliance Blog, here Liben FM, Abera W, Ebrahim M, Tilaye A, Erkossa T, Kebebe F, Bogale B, Girmaw M, Ayele K and Tamene L (2022). Developing and piloting1.3. 4.6. 7. 8.CapDev relevance: 1 -Significant. Several trainings have been conducted for national partners and farmers as well as extension workers (Ref. 3 and 5).Climate change relevance: 1 -Significant.The advisory is 'season-smart' and considers climate forecast as its key component (Ref. 4) Gender relevance: 1 -Significant. We use agronomic survey, farmer segmentation analysis and human centered design approaches to understand gender, address and transform gender gaps in agroadvisory services in Ethiopia ( LINK)In Ethiopia, wheat is grown by about 4.8 million farmers and is the second most important food staple. However, Ethiopia is a net importer of wheat. Ethiopian wheat farmers only achieve 35-45% of attainable yield, with most smallholders producing an average of 2.5 t/ha, compared to a potential of close to 6-7 t/ha [1,2]. Some reasons include climate and input use constraints, lack of access to site-specific agro-advisories, poor soil fertility, and rainfall variability. The Alliance project collaborated with partners to co-develop and co-pilot an integrated location-specific, season-smart decision support tool (DST). ","tokenCount":"668"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e515d069f1d0e47bfcb2b4b4d332c2252ff855e6
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6546ebb432561bde5b595a221f2307dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1073413d-a0c7-4fd6-8e9c-d1f20e31cf1c/content","id":"-1809631467"},"keywords":["Zea mays","Maize","Wheats","Triticum","Transgenic plants","Genetic engineering","Gene transfer","Genetic transformation","DNA hybridization","Phenotypes","Selection","Tissue culture","In vitro culture","Biolistics","Research projects","Methods","Molecular cloning","PCR AGRIS category codes: F02 Plant Propagation F30 Plant Genetics and Breeding Dewey decimal classification: 631.523"],"sieverID":"880b6141-1be7-450d-ac4d-3d7dfae23696","pagecount":"48","content":"ii The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT® (www.cimmyt.org), is an international, not-for-profit research and training organization. With partners in over 100 countries, the center applies science to increase food security, improve the productivity and profitability of maize and wheat farming systems, and sustain natural resources in the developing world. The center's outputs and services include improved maize and wheat varieties and cropping systems, the conservation of maize and wheat genetic resources, and capacity building. CIMMYT belongs to and is funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) and also receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies.Biochemical and chemical analysis of seeds and green plant tissues are essential in several breeding programs including nutritional and industrial enhancement, plant physiology, and plant pathology.The objective of CIMMYT's maize nutritional quality and plant analysis laboratory is to develop and/or adopt methodologies to support the breeding programs. Therefore, wherever possible, we seek robust, cheap, and fast methodologies that allow us to provide accurate data to breeders for further field decisions. Ninety-six well microplate readers and near infrared reflectance (NIR) are two of the options we are currently using in the establishment of the biochemical and chemical platform for analysis.All methodologies presented here have been validated either by comparison with other methods or by inter-laboratory assessments.This manual compiles all current methodologies used in the laboratory and aims to serve as a guide for other laboratories or institutions that are interested in the methodologies.For quality protein maize assurance we present the tryptophan, lysine, and protein • determination protocols.For provitamin A enhancement, the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) • carotenoid protocol is included.For micronutrient analysis we present current iron and zinc determination by inductively • coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES).Other analysis performed in our lab are soluble sugars determination, anthocyanin • content, total and free phenols, ash content, oil content, starch determination and amylase/ amylopectin determination.For further information please contact us the maize nutritional quality and plant analysis laboratory, CIMMYT (Natalia Palacios: n.palacios@cgiar.org).Some of the presented methodologies involve chemicals that must be handled with caution. As a general rule, the use of a lab coat, gloves, goggles, and a mask is recommended. The use of a fume hood is also very important in the preparation of some of the reagents. Please check safety recommendation sheets given by suppliers to ensure proper handling, storage of the chemicals, and appropriate procedures in case of an accident.Samples must be representative of the study area, type of material (i.e. open pollinated maize varieties vs. inbred lines), and purpose of the study. Chemical composition varies according to growth, environmental conditions, physiological age, and the part of the plant sampled. It is recommended to carefully sample the material according to the experimental design and objectives of the analysis. When analyzing maize kernels, we recommend avoiding kernels from the edges of the cob.For micro-element analysis like iron and zinc, special care must be taken in the field (Stangoulis, J. and Sision, C., 2008): 1. Ensure field team is aware of contamination risks. 2. Harvest after physiological maturity without removing the husk.3. Place the ears (in husk) in a clean bag and avoid soil contact until in a clean area. 4. Dehusk manually (remember to remove all jewelry as it can be a source of contamination). 5. Put the cobs into a clean basket (e.g. clean plastic woven bag that is kept solely for this purpose). 6. Put in clean drying trays (e.g. clean plastic) and dry at 40 o C for five days in a noncontaminating oven. It is also possible to dry the cobs with the husk in the sun (but over a clean area) and then dehusk and shell them. 7. Shell with clean, bare hands onto a clean plastic tray or paper envelops and thoroughly mix kernels. 8. To gain a representative sample for analysis, pile the grains evenly on a clean surface, flatten the pile and spread it into a circle (Figure 1). Make a cross by dividing the circle into four roughly equal parts. Discard two diametrically opposite quarters and re-mix the remaining two parts. Repeat the quartering procedure until the amount is reduced to approximately 250 g. 9. Mill fine (grains to pass through a 30-mesh sieve) using a non-contaminant analytical mill (e.g. Retsch mill with teflon chambers and zirconium balls) and then sub-sample, taking sample for analysis, being careful to place each sample in new, clean, labeled paper bags or tubes. Decontamination by washing must be done prior to drying plant tissue. This can be done in the field as plants are collected, or by keeping collected plant tissue in a fully turgid state in a cool and moist atmosphere until washed in the laboratory.It is known that metabolic activity can alter the composition of plant tissue material. To keep metabolic activity to a minimum, keep the samples cold, frozen, or as dry matter.Drying fresh plant tissue should be done in a dust-free, forced draft oven at a temperature of 80 °C, to remove moisture without appreciable thermal decomposition. Drying temperatures less than 80 °C may not be sufficient to remove all the moisture, and temperatures above 80 °C can result in thermal decomposition.In order to reduce the dried plant tissue to a particle size suitable for laboratory analysis, and to ensure a greater degree of uniformity in sample composition, the tissue is mechanically ground using an intermediate Wiley Mill with stainless steel contact points or the Tecator Cyclotec Mill, to pass through a 0.5 mm mesh sieve of stainless steel. Large samples are first ground through a standard Wiley Mill using a 2 mm sieve of stainless steel.Sample homogeneity is a key issue for reliable results in both chemical and non-destructive analysis. Particle size is of great importance when samples are analyzed by near infrared reflectance (NIR). Ground samples are transferred to glass bottles, paper bags, or sealed polyethylene bags, labeled clearly, and stored for further analysis.When maize or wheat seeds for lab analysis are treated with a preservative or chemical product, you must:Wash seeds with tap water, then with distilled water, and lastly with deionized water.Personnel protection must be worn in case the products being washing are toxic. Place washed seeds in plastic trays with a laboratory identification number and dry them at • room temperature for 24 hours. Weight dry samples and pack them into yellow paper bags, with correct laboratory number. •For endosperm analysis, soak seeds in distilled water for 20-30 minutes. Peel off the • pericarp and remove the germ with tweezers and a scalpel. Air dry the remaining endosperm material overnight at room temperature. •Near infrared reflectance curve is in place for ash quantification in maize leaves. The chemical method of reference is Total Ash, AACC Method 08-01, 1995. This method is also used for ash determination in maize kernels. Sampling and grinding Take a random sample of 20-30 seeds as a representative of your material.Be sure all seed samples have similar moisture content.Grind each sample to a very fine powder. 3.Dry the samples for 24 hours at 80 ºC.Label all ashing dishes according to laboratory number.Place the ashing dishes in a muffle furnace for 1 hour at 600 ºC. 6.Cool the samples and ashing dishes in a desiccator. 7.Weigh the ashing dishes and record their weight. 8.Weigh 2 g of the sample. 9.Place in a muffle furnace for 6 to 8 hours at 600 ºC. 10.Cool in a desiccator and weigh soon after room temperature is reached. 11.Sample weightNear infrared reflectance curve is in place for nitrogen determination in ground wheat tissue and maize flour. We have used the two methodologies described below as reference methods.The determination of nitrogen is based on a colorimetric method in which an emerald-green color is formed by the reaction of salicylate and hypochloride with ammonia. Weigh between 40 mg of ground sample. Include two check samples. 1.Transfer the sample to the bottom of a 75 ml digestion tube. 2.Include one or two tubes as blanks for digestion (without any samples). 3.Add 2.0 g of catalyst mixture to each tube and 2.5 ml concentrated H 4.2 SO 4 . Let stand until the reaction ceases. Digest, under the fume hood, in pre-heated digester block at 380 5. o C for 90 minutes.Remove the rack of tubes from the digester, let them cool to room temperature and add 75 6.ml of distilled water to avoid crystal formation. Ensure the digest solution is totally clear.Close tubes tightly with a rubber cap and mix by inverting the tubes several times. 7.Transfer 2 ml of the solution to Technicon vials and place the samples into the Technicon 8.AutoAnalyzer.Establish the baseline by pumping each of the four reagents: reagent mixture 1, reagent 9. mixture 3, reagent mixture 4, and sodium hypochloride.Set at 0% on the chart using the blank digestion solution. 10.Run four vials of blank digestion solution and recheck the 0% baseline. 11.Run four vials of 20 μg N/ml standard and set the peak at 70% on the chart. 12.Run check samples and unknown samples. 13.1. Prepare 100 μg/ml of ammonium sulphate solution in distilled water. 2. Every time you analyze samples, make a dilution of 20 μg/ml of ammonium sulphate in blank digestion solution.Calculation of nitrogen percentage: 20 μg N/ml is set at 70% on the chart.Where: 1% on the chart = 0.2857 μg N/ml in digest. μg N/ml in digest = %chart reading x 0.2857 μg N/ml or μg N in 75 ml digest = %chart reading x 0.2857 μ x 75 20 μg N/ml Calculation factor = - ------------------------x Digestion volume x 100% Set of chart divisions x 1,000 -------------------- Thus the protein can be estimated from nitrogen value and in the case of maize the calculation is:% Protein = % of nitrogen x 6.25 (conversion factor for maize)Tryptophan Determination in Maize Grain Using Glyooxilic Acid Sampling and grinding Take a random sample of 20-30 seeds as a representative of your material. 1.Grind each sample to a very fine powder. 2.Transfer each sample in a commercial filter paper envelope (for example, 10x11 cm).Defat samples for 6 hours with approximately 300 ml of hexane per balloon in a Soxhlet-4.type continuous extractor.Air dry samples and ensure all hexane is evaporated. 5.For each sample, weigh 80 mg of defatted powder in a 15 ml falcon tube. A technical 6.replicate per sample is recommended to be done. Add 3 ml of papain solution. 7.Always include at least 2 blank controls, 4 checks (of known tryptophan concentration: 2 8.QPM, 2 normal), and the standard curve (see details below).Close the tubes, ensuring no evaporation will take place during incubation 9.Vortex thoroughly the samples and place them in an oven at 64 ºC for 16 hours (overnight). 10.If possible, vortex them twice more-one hour after being placed in the oven, and one hour before they complete the 16 hour incubation time.Take the tubes out of the oven and let them cool down at room temperature. 11.Vortex the tubes immediately before centrifuging them at 3600 g for 5 minutes. Ensure that 12.the supernatant does not have sample particles floating in it; if it does, centrifuge again.Take 1 ml of hydrolysate (supernatant) and carefully transfer it to a glass tube. 13.Add 3 ml of reagent D (colorimetric reagent). 14.Vortex thoroughly each sample for 3 to 5 seconds. 15.Incubate tubes at 64 ºC for 30 minutes for color development. 16.Take the samples out of the oven and let them cool down at room temperature. 17.Read absorbance at 560 nm in a spectrophotometer. 18.a) Defatting of maize flour is important to improve accuracy and repeatability of results. When samples are not defatted, an average of 0.8% less tryptophan is detected using this protocol. b) Make sure that there are no particles of samples stuck to the wall of the tube or floating in the supernatant after centrifuging your samples in step 17. If there are some particles, vortex the sample again and centrifuge it for 15 minutes. c) The reaction, as any analytical method, is very sensitive to pipetting precision. Ensure that your pipettes and/or dispensers are properly calibrated. d) Always include one standard curve for every set of samples analyzed in a day. e) Always measure the papain blank from the same batch. Papain is a protein that contains large amounts of tryptophan itself (every papain molecule contains 7 tryptophan units). This has to be subtracted for the calculations of each sample. Prepare a stock solution of 100 μg/ml tryptophan in 0.1 M sodium acetate solution pH 7 1.(Prepare it weekly and store it a 4 ºC).In 15 ml falcon tubes, prepare daily 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 μg/ml dilutions (in 0.1 M sodium 2.acetate solution pH 7). Vortex properly before further use. Do a colorimetric reaction (steps 16 to 20) using 1 ml of those dilutions. 3. Calculations:Develop a calibration curve using known amounts of tryptophan, ranging from 0 to 30 μg/ml. Plot the absorbance readings at 560 nm as a function of concentration and calculate the slope (m) of that standard curve. Note that the slope has the unit of OD*ml/μg.The amount of tryptophan (trp) for each sample is then estimated using the following equation: --------------x ------------------x  Example:However, this amount includes the tryptophan of the sample plus the tryptophan from the papain. To calculate the trp content of the biological material (defatted grain powder) you need to subtract the papain value.Therefore, % trp should be calculated from the corrected absorption value:Where:OD 560nm corrected = OD 560nm sample -OD 560nm average of papain blanks.Factor = --------slope 3 ml Note that: ---------*100 = 0.00375 80,000 μgIn general, a sample with more than 0.070% of tryptophan in whole grain is considered as QPM. However, this also depends on the protein content and therefore the quality index value (%trp/ protein).No color development in the reaction 1. Test another batch of colorimetric reagent.Changes in factor curve values / OD 2. Ensure quality of tryptophan standard curve. measurements of tryptophan standard curve 3. Ensure that sulfuric acid is 30 N.4. Ensure quality of all reagents. Prepare new ones. 5. Ensure that all quantities of reagents are properly measured.OD for the Papain blank is too high 6. Ensure that the amount of papain is correct. 7. Use another batch of papain.OD for the Papain blank is too low 8. Ensure that the amount of papain is correct. 9. Use another batch of papain.Low values of control samples 10. Ensure that samples have been properly defatted (we recommend 6 hours defatting using hexane). 11. Ensure digestion of samples is done properly: a. Be sure that after sample digestion there are no particles on tube wall. If so, vortex the sample and centrifuge them again for 15 minutes. b. Ensure incubation was done at 64 °C for 16 hours. 12. Ensure quality and quantity of the reagents used. 13. Ensure quality of your tryptophan standard curve: a. Be sure that stock solution of tryptophan is properly dissolved before you do the dilutions. b. Mix well the stock solution of tryptophan before you do the dilutions. c. Prepare new stock solution of tryptophan.OD measurements between replicates 14. Ensure that samples have been grinded properly to a fine powder. vary too much 15. Ensure accuracy of the sample weights. 16. Ensure replicates are analyzed equally, using the same batch of reagents. 17. Ensure samples have cooled down to room temperature before reading. 18. Set \"zero\" again in the spectrophotometer and be sure it is stable before you read your samples.Papain does not dissolve 19. Ensure that the acetate solution is at room temperature.The colorimetric procedure for lysine quantification is based on two steps. The first step is the protection of the amino group in ∝ of lysine chain by reaction with copper which also blocked the amino group of low molecular weight peptides presents in the hydrolysate. The second step is the reaction of the 2-chloro-3-, 5-dinitropyridine with the amino group in ξ of protected lysine chain to give a colored ξ-dinitropyridil lysine which is determined spectroscopically at 390 nm. Sampling and grinding Take a random sample of 20-30 seeds as a representative of your material. 1.Be sure all seed samples have similar moisture content.Grind each sample to a very fine powder. 3.Transfer each sample in a commercial filter paper envelope (for example, 10x11 cm). 4.Defat samples for 6 hours with approximately 300 ml of hexane per balloon in a Soxhlet-5.type continuous extractor.Air dry samples and ensure all hexane is evaporated. 6.For each sample, weigh 100 mg of defatted powder in a falcon tube. 7.Add 5 ml of papain solution. 8.Always include at least 2 blank controls, 4 checks (of known lysine concentration: 2 QPM, 2 9. normal).Close the tubes, ensuring no evaporation will take place during incubation. 10.Vortex thoroughly the samples and place them in an oven at 64 ºC for 16 hours (overnight). 11.If possible, vortex them twice more-one hour after being placed in the oven, and one hour before they complete the 16 hour incubation time. Take the tubes out of the oven and let them cool down at room temperature. 12.Vortex the tubes immediately before centrifuging them at 2500 rpm for 5 minutes Ensure 13.that the supernatant does not have sample particles floating in it; if it does, centrifuge again.Transfer 1 ml to centrifuge tube and add 0.5 ml of carbonates buffer solution and 0.5 ml 14.cupper phosphate suspension. Shake for 5 minutes and centrifuge at 2000 rpm for 5 minutes. 15.Transfer 1 ml of supernatant in a new tube. 16.Add 0.1 ml of 2-Chloro-3,5-dinitropyridine reagent and vortex thoroughly. 17.Keep the tubes at room temperature for 2 hours and shake each 30 minutes. 18.Add 5 ml 1.2 N HCl to each tube and vortex. 19.Add 5 ml of ethyl acetate. 20.Cover the tubes; mix the solution inverting the tubes 10 times. 21.Remove the up phase using a syringe with a polyethylene tube connected. Repeat two 22.times.Read absorbance at 390 nm in a spectrophotometer. 23.Prepare a stock solution of 2500 μg/ml lysine in carbonates buffer solution. 1.In 15 ml falcon tubes, prepare 0, 250, 500, 750, and 1000 μg/ml dilutions (in carbonates 2.buffer solution 0.05 M at pH 9). Vortex properly before further use. In new15 ml falcon tubes, prepare new concentrations of lysine from the first stock 3.solution, using 1 ml each tube and 4 ml of 5 mg/ml papain solution. Vortex properly before further use. Do a colorimetric reaction (steps 15 to 23) using 1 ml of those dilutions, for make the 4.standard curve, using the 0.05 M carbonates buffer solution pH 9.0 with the aminoacids mix.Amino acid mix in 0.05 M carbonates Cupper phosphate number Papain μg Lys / ml (ml) buffer solution, pH 9.0 (ml) suspension (ml) 1 1 0.5 0.5 2 1 0.5 0.5 3 1 0.5 0.5 4 1 0.5 0.5 5 1 0.5 0.5The amount of lysine for each sample is then estimated using the following equation: --------------x ------------------x   --------------x ---------x 100% 0.00165 OD 100,000μgμg/mL 0.005Factor = --------slope 5 ml Note that: ---------*100 = 0.005 10,000 μgFolin-Ciocalteu ReagentThe F-C assay is based on the transfer of electrons in alkaline medium from phenolic compounds to phosphomolybdic/phosphotungstic acid complexes, which are determined spectroscopically at 765 nm. This assay is performed in microcentrifuge tubes and assessed in a 96-well plate reader. Sampling and grinding Take a random sample of 20-30 seeds as a representative of your material 1.Be sure all seed samples have similar moisture content.Grind each sample to a very fine powder. 3.Dry the powder at 64-65 ºC for 16 hours. 4.For each sample, weigh 20 mg of powder in an eppendorf tube. 5.Add 1.3 ml of methanol. 6.Close the tubes, ensuring no evaporation will take place during extraction. 7.Vortex thoroughly the samples and place them in a thermomixer for microtubes at 65 ºC and 8. 900 rpm for 30 minutes. Take the tubes out of the thermomixer and let them cool at room temperature. 9.Centrifuge the tubes at 14,000 rpm for 5 minutes. Ensure that the supernatant does not have 10.sample particles floating in it; if it does, centrifuge again. Make the colorimetric reaction. 11.For each sample, weigh 20 mg of powder in an eppendorf. 12.Add 1.3 ml of 1.2 M hydrochloric acid in methanol. 13.Close the tubes, ensuring no evaporation will take place during extraction. 14.Vortex thoroughly the samples and place them in a thermomixer for microtubes at 42 ºC and 15.1100 rpm for 30 minutes. Take the tubes out of the thermomixer and let them cool at room temperature. 16.Centrifuge the tubes at 14,000 rpm for 5 minutes. Ensure that the supernatant does not have 17.sample particles floating in it; if it does, centrifuge again. Take 500 μL of supernatant, put it in new eppendorf. 18.Reduce to dryness and resuspend the precipitate resulting in 1.3 ml of methanol. 19.Vortex thoroughly and make the colorimetric reaction. 20.Take 50 μL of supernatant and carefully transfer it to a hole of microplate. 21.Add 40 μL of 25 % Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. The F-C reagent should be added before the 22.alkali to avoid the air-oxidation of phenolics. Add 110 μL of 400 mM Na 23.2 CO 3 . Cover the microplates with adhesive aluminum tape to avoid dropping of samples. 24.Vortex the microplate at 800 rpm for 10 seconds. 25.Incubate microplate at 42 ºC for 9 minutes for color development.Take the microplates out of the oven and let them cool at room temperature, protect them 27.from direct light. Read absorbance at 765 nm in a spectrophotometer. 28.Prepare a stock solution of 100 μg/ml gallic acid in 50 % methanol (Prepare it weekly and 1.store it a 4 ºC) In 15 ml falcon tubes, prepare daily 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 μg/ml dilutions (in 50 % 2. methanol). Vortex properly before further use. Make a colorimetric reaction (steps 14 to 20) using 1 ml of those dilutions. 3. Develop a calibration curve using known amounts of gallic acid, ranging from 0 to 30 μg/ml. Plot the absorbance readings at 765 nm as a function of concentration and calculate the slope of that standard curve. Note that the slope has the unit of OD*ml/μg.No color development in the reaction 1. Test another batch of colorimetric reagents.Changes in factor curve values/ OD 2. Ensure quality of gallic acid standard curve. measurements of gallic acid standard curve 3. Ensure that sodium carbonate is 400 mM. 4. Ensure quality of all reagents. Prepare new ones. 5. Ensure that all quantities of reagents are properly measured.OD for the 50% methanol or blank is too high 6. Ensure that the concentration of sodium carbonate is correct.Low values of control samples 7. Ensure extraction of samples is made properly: a) Be sure that after sample extraction there are not particles on the tube wall. If so, vortex the sample and centrifuge them again for 5 minutes. b) Ensure extraction was made at 65 °C and 900 rpm for free phenollics or at 42 °C and 1100 rpm for total phenollics. 8. Ensure quality and quantity of the reagents used. 9. Ensure quality of your gallic acid standard curve: a) Be sure that stock solution of gallic acid is properly dissolved before you make the dilutions. b) Prepare new stock solution of gallic acid.OD measurements between replicates 10. Ensure accuracy of the sample weights. vary too much 11. Ensure samples have cooled down to room temperature before reading.Near infrared reflectance curve is in place for soluble sugars determination in grinded wheat tissue. We have used the anthrone methodology described below as reference methods.The anthrone procedure is based on the reaction of the anthrone (9,10-dihydro-9-oxoantraceno) with furfural conformation of carbohydates (treatment of carbohydrate in strong sulfuric acid) to give a colored hemiacetal which is determined spectroscopically at 630 nm. Prepare it weekly and solution (100 μg/ml)• Dissolve 25 mg of sucrose in 250 ml store at 4 ºC. of deionized water.Vortexes thoroughly before Sucrose stock• Dilute 30 ml of 100 μg/ml solution you prepare dilutions for solution (30 μg/ml) in a 100 ml volumetric flask with standard curve. deionized water.Take a random sample of 20-30 seeds as a representative of your material 1.Be sure all seed samples have similar moisture content.Grind each sample to a very fine powder. 3.Dry samples for 4 hours at 60 ºC. 4.For each sample, weigh duplicate 20 mg of dried powder in a 15 ml falcon tube.Add 4 ml of deionized water, immediately covering and vortex thoroughly. 6.Put the sample rack in a water bath for 45 minutes at 70 ºC. 7.Vortex thoroughly every 15 minutes. 8.After incubation, place the samples on ice. 9.Centrifuge at 3,000 rpm for 10 minutes. 10.Use the supernatant to make the necessary dilutions depending on the material: 11.Wheat: 1:50 (100 μl of supernatant in 4.9 ml deionized water) Maize: 1:20 (250 μl of supernatant in 4.75 ml deionized water)Take 2.5 ml of dilution and carefully transfer it to a new falcon tube in cold water. 12.Using a burette, slowly add 5 ml of anthrone solution to each tube; keep shaking the tube in 13.water with ice. Vortex thoroughly each tube. 14.Close the tubes and put them in a water bath at ebullition for 7.5 minutes. 15.Take the tubes out of the water bath and let them cool at room temperature. 16.Read absorbance at 630 nm in a spectrophotometer. 17.Step 15 ml tubes Microplate Hydrolysate Colorimetric reaction 2.5 ml 50 μL Colorimetric reagent Colorimetric reaction 5 ml 100 μL a) Each sample has to be analyzed in triplicate in microplate.b) The 96 well plates have to be maintained on ice. c) Add the anthrone solution using a digital multichannel pipette. Do it carefully to ensure all 100 μl goes to the well. d) Cover the plate with aluminum tape and vortex it very carefully until homogenous solution in each well is observed. e) Incubate the plates at 100 °C for 20 minutes with maize samples, and for 10 minutes with wheat samples. f) Cool the plates in the fridge for 10 minutes before reading them at 630 nm in a microplate reader.Prepare a stock solution of 100 μg/ml dried sucrose in deionized water. 1.In 15 ml falcon tubes, prepare 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 μg/ml dilutions (in deionized water).Do the dilutions daily and vortex properly before further use. Make a colorimetric reaction (steps 14 to 18) using 2.5 ml of those dilutions.Always include one standard curve in duplicate for every set of samples analyzed in a day. 4. Standard curve for microplate 1. Prepare two stock solutions of dried sucrose 100 μg/ml and 30 μg/ml. 2. In 15 ml falcon tubes, prepare 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 40, and 60 ug/ml dilutions. Prepare dilutions daily and vortex properly before further use. 3. Make a colorimetric reaction (steps 14 to 18) using 50 μl of those dilutions. 4. Always include one standard curve in duplicate for every set of samples analyzed in a day. Develop a calibration curve using known amounts of sucrose, ranging from 0 to 75μg (0 to 3 μg in microplate). Plot the absorbance readings at 630 nm as a function of the amount in μg and calculate the slope of that standard curve. Note that the slope has the unit of OD/μg.The amount of sucrose for each sample is then estimated using the following equation: --------------x ------------------x   = ---------------x ---------x  Where:OD 630nm corrected = OD 630nm sample -OD 630nm average of anthrone blanks.Standards: Lutein, beta-cryptoxanthin, beta-carotene, alpha-carotene all resuspended in acetonitrile: metanol: metilencloride (75:20:5) containing 0.05% triethylamine (TEA) and 0.1% BHT.Spectroscopically determine the concentration of the standard based on its extinction 1.coefficient (E1%) at the maximum wavelength (450nm) of the carotenoid. In a standard 1 cm quartz cuvette, the E1% are:β-carotene: 2592 Zeaxanthin: 2348 Lutein: 2550Concentration of the standard (ng/ul) = Absrobance x 10,000 + E1%2. Verify the purity of the standard by running it on the HPLC, it should be more than 98% pure. 3. Perform standard curve that includes the peak area of the maize carotenoid. Use linear regression to establish an equation to convert peak area to the amount of carotenoid.Example standard curve. Purified β-carotene has an absorbance of 0.7425. The concentration of β-carotene in this solution is 0.7425 × 10 000 ÷ 2592 = 2.86 ng/μl. If you inject 10, 50, 100, and 150 μL, you might observe areas of 420,000; 2,000,000; 4,250,000; 6,250,000. You can then plot ng injected vs area (or vice-versa) and using linear regression you can obtain a standard curve that can be used to calculate the amount of β-carotene in an injection from the area of the β-carotene peak. If you plot area (x-axis) versus ng β-carotene injected (y-axis), the resulting standard curve is y = 6.8015 x 10-5x + 1.9609 with an r2 = 0.9994 (make sure you use enough significant figures). If your sample has a β-carotene peak of 5,000,000 then you injected 342 ng β-carotene. You must next calculate the ng β-carotene/g maize analyzed. If 50 μL were injected into the HPLC and the total volume of the sample at the end of the analysis was 500 μL, then 10% of the sample was injected into the HPLC. So, 342 ng/50 μL × 500 μL = 3420 ng/μL in the sample. But, the 500 μL sample is equivalent to the 0.6 g maize used in the analysis procedure, so 3420 ng/μL × 0.6g = 2,052 ng β-carotene/g maize. If you used an internal standard, you would then divide 2,052 by the extraction efficiency in decimal form. If your extraction efficiency was 91%, then 2,052 ÷ 0.91 = 2,255 ng β-carotene/g maize. Mill the samples in the mixer using zirconium containers and balls to avoid contamination. 1.Always include control samples.Transfer powder to non-contaminant paper envelopes. 2.Dry the samples at 60 ºC for 24 hours.Weigh the appropriate amount of sucrose (500 mg) for each acid blank. 4.Place the samples into an appropriate desiccator and allow all samples to cool to room 5.temperature.Weigh 600 mg of each control and sample into its marked digestion tube. 6.Cover the samples with saran wrap. 7.Place the rack of weighed samples into a fume hood and add 10 ml of the mixture nitric / 8. perchloric acid. It is recommended to use special acid dispensers.Leave the tubes in the fume hood overnight (12-14 hours) for a cold pre-digestion. 9.Vortex tubes after cold pre-digestion to ensure all sample is mixed with the acid. 10.Place the tubes on the aluminum blocks at room temperature and carry out the nitric / 11. perchloric acid digestion using the digestion program.A range of temperature regimes can be used depending on sample types and weights; 12.usually, we use the next regime temperature. Step No. Temperature (ºC) Time (min.) Temperature (ºC) Time (min.)Step to 50 Approx. 15 -20Step to 90 Approx. 20 -30 2 Hold @ 50 30 Hold @ 90 50 3Step to 100 Approx. 10Step to 96 Approx. 5 4 Hold @ 100 30 Hold @ 96 30 5Step to 120 Approx. 10Step to 100 Approx. 7 6 Hold @ 120 45 Hold @ 100 25 7Step to 124 Approx. 7Step to 106 Approx. 7 8 Hold @ 124 20 Hold @ 106 40 9Step to 130 Approx. 7Step to 116 Approx. 7 10 Hold @ 130 20 Hold @ 116 20 11Step to 140 Approx. 7Step to 120 Approx. 7 12 Hold @ 140 10 Hold @ 120 60 13Step to 150 Approx. 7Step to 126 Approx. 7 14 Hold @ 150 10 Hold @ 126 10 15Step to 160 Approx. 7Step to 145 Approx. 7 16Hold @ 160 10 Hold @ 145 30 17Step to 225 Approx. 15Step to 160 Approx. 10 18 Hold @ 225 5 Hold @ 160 30 19Step to 230 Approx. 7 END 5 -10 20 Hold @ 230 5 END 21 END 5 -10 ENDWhen the program has finished, remove the baffle and the rack to let the tubes stand by 13.themselves in the block. Allow the tubes to cool down for 5-10 minutes and then remove the tubes from the block.Cool the digests in a plastic racks for 10-15 minutes under the fume hood. 14.Add 20 ml of nitric acid 10%. 15.Cover tubes with saran wrap and place them overnight in constant temperature room 16.(20 -22 ºC)The next day make volume to correct calibration point with fine tipped squeeze bottle. 17.Mix diluted samples thoroughly on the vortex mixer (ensure liquid vortex comes down 18.to the bottom of the tube).Transfer the clear solutions to 50 ml tubes. 19.Prepare tubes in racks: 20.i. Mark tubes with I.D.ii. Transfer clear sample solutions to tubes, then transfer into 10 ml tubes, close them and keep them at room temperature before analysis by ICP-OES. Deliver capped digest solutions to the ICP-OES ready for analysis. 21.Solutions are analyzed and reported as indicated below. 22.All raw results (ppm in solution) are generated by an ICP-OES. Color of the digest is yellow The digestion is not complete and needs to continue until a clear colorless solution has been obtained.After digestion the tube is dry or the Allow the tube to cool down and add up 1 ml of concentrated solution very low in volume perchloric acid.Presence of perchlorate crystals in the Place tubes on the block digest which is < ~140 ºC for 2-5 minutes dilution after the digestion to dissolve the perchlorate crystals.The perchlorate crystals will dissolve when the solution is warm. Remove the tubes before the solutions boil as the temperature can reach above point.Problems with the ICP Check the equipment manual. Sampling and grinding Take a random sample of 20-30 seeds as a representative of your material 1.Be sure all seed samples have similar moisture content.Grind each sample to a very fine powder. 3.Dry the powder at 64-65 ºC for 16 hours. 4.For each sample, weigh 20 mg of powder in an eppendorf tube. 5.Add 1.3 ml of 1% TFA. 6.Close the tubes properly. 7.Thoroughly vortex the samples and place them horizontally under ice (4 ºC). 8.Shake the samples for 90 minutes at 150 rpm. 9.After ice incubation, centrifuge the tubes at 14,000 rpm for 5 minutes. Ensure that the 10.supernatant does not have sample particles floating in it; if it does, centrifuge again. Read absorbances at 520 nm (first extraction). 11.Re-extract the pellet with 1.3 ml of 1% TFA. 12.Repeat steps 7 to 10. The incubation on ice is done for 1 hour only. 13.Read absorbances at 520 nm (second extraction). 14.For each extraction, take 200 μL of supernatant and carefully transfer it to the microplate. Do 15.a technical replicate. Always include blank samples which correspond to 1% TFA and control samples with 16.known values.Cover the microplate with aluminum tape. 17.Vortex the microplate at 800 rpm for 5 seconds. 18.Read absorbance at 520 nm in a spectrophotometer. 19.For estimation of total anthocyanins content it is necessary to add the quantity of both 20.extractions.Prepare a stock solution of 100 μg/ml pelargonidin chloride in 1% TFA. 1.Prepare daily 0, 1, 3, 5, 10, and 15 μg/ml dilutions (in 1% TFA) in 5 ml glass tubes 2.Vortex properly before use. 3. Calibration curve Develop a calibration curve using known amounts of pelargonidin, ranging from 0 to 15 μg. Plot the absorbance readings at 520 nm as a function of the amount in μg and calculate the slope of that standard curve. Note that the slope has the unit of OD/μg.The amount of pelargonidin for each sample is then estimated using the following equation:  --------------x ------------------x   --------------x ---------x 100% 0.032 D 20,000μg μg/ml However, this amount includes the absorbance of the plate and methanol. To calculate the pelargonidin content of the biological material (grain powder) you need to subtract the absorbance value of the plate and methanol.Where:OD 520nm corrected = OD 520nm sample -OD 520nm average of methanol blanks.Factor = --------slope 1.3ml Note that: ---------x 100 = 0.0065 20,000Take a random sample of 20-30 seeds as a representative of your material. 1.Be sure all seed samples have similar moisture content. 2.If the seeds have been treated, wash thoroughly with tap water and then rinse with distilled 3.water. Let the seeds dry out.Grind each sample to a very fine powder. If possible use a 0.5 mm setting of a cyclone mill. 4.Transfer each sample in a commercial filter paper envelope (for example, 10x11 cm). 5.Defat samples for 6 hours with approximately 300 ml of hexane per balloon in a Soxhlet-6.type continuous extractor.Air dry samples and ensure all hexane is evaporated. 7.For each sample, weigh 20 mg of flour sample in a glass tube (20*150 mm). Tap the tube to 8. ensure all of the sample drops to the bottom of the tube. Always include two tubes with the standard of starch. 9.Wet with 40 μL of aqueous ethanol (80% v/v) to aid dispersion, wait 5 minutes and stir the 10.tube on a vortex mixer.Immediately add 600 μL of 11.α-Amylase in MOPS buffer (50 mM, pH 7.0) and vigorously stir the tube on a vortex mixer. Incubate the tube in a boiling water bath for 6 minutes (stir the tube vigorously after 2 minutes and 4 minutes).Note: In this step it is essential that the tube is stirred vigorously to ensure complete homogeneity of the slurry (removal of lumps). Also stirring after 2 minutes prevents the possibility of some of the sample expelling from the top of the tube when the alcohol is evaporating.Place the tube in a bath at 50 °C (wait 5 minutes to cool down the tube at 50°C); add sodium 12.acetate buffer (800 μL, 200 mM, pH 4.5), followed by amyloglucosidase (20 μL, with a digital pipette.). Stir the tube on a vortex mixer and incubate it at 50 °C for 30 minutes.Transfer the entire contents of the test tube to a 50 ml corning plastic tube. Pipette 540 μl of 13.deionized water and use it to rinse the glass tube content. Mix the tube and transfer it to the 50 ml corning plastic tube. Using a bottle dispenser, rinse three times with 6 ml of deionized water the glass tube, mix thoroughly each time and transfer it to the 50 ml corning plastic tube.Centrifuge the 50 ml corning plastic tube at 3,000 rpm for 10 minutes. Ensure that the 14.supernatant does not have sample particles floating in it; if it does, centrifuge again. Take 1 ml of hydrolyzate (supernatant) and carefully transfer it to a glass tube (20*150 mm). 15.Add 9 ml of deionized water, immediately covering and vortex thoroughly. 16.With a digital pipette take 50 μL of dilution and carefully transfer it in a 96 wells plate, 17.maintain in an ice bath.Each sample has to be analyzed in triplicate. 18.Add 100 μL of the anthrone solution using a digital multi-channel pipette. (Ensure the 100 μl 19.has been well distributed as the solution is very viscous).The plate has to be covered with an aluminum paper and vortexed very carefully until you 20.see a homogenous solution in each well.Plates have to be incubating at 100 °C for 10 minutes.Plates have to be cooled in the fridge for 10 minutes and then have to be vortexed before 22.reading them at 630 nm in a spectrophotometer.Prepare a stock solution of 0.5 mg/ml dried glucose in deionized water (prepare it weekly 1.and store it a 4 ºC).In 50 ml glass tubes, prepare daily 0, 12.5, 25, 37.5, 75, 100 μg/mL dilutions (in deionized 2.water). Vortex properly before further use. Make a colorimetric reaction (steps 17 to 22) using 50 μl of those dilutions.Always include one standard curve in duplicate for every set of samples analyzed in a day. 4. Standard curve for glucose (calibration curve) Develop a calibration curve using known amounts of glucose, ranging from 0 to 0.1 mg/ml. Plot the absorbance readings at 630 nm as a function of concentration and calculate the slope of that standard curve. Note that the slope has the unit of OD*ml/mg.The amount of glucose for each sample is then estimated using the following equation:1. Determine regression equation relating glucose concentrations in standard solutions to absorbance reading on the spectrophotometer. The regression formula appears as:Where Yg is the absorbance units at 630 nm, b is the slope, and x is the glucose concentrations.2. Calculate glucose concentrations in the samples by removing blank value to sample absorbance reading and dividing the absorbance reading by the slope. The general equation for calculating the milligrams of starch in the sample is:Where x is the glucose concentrations (mg/ml), d f is the dilution factor (e.g., 10 for 1:9 dilution), v is the original volume of starch extract (20 ml), d w is the original weight of flours (20 mg), and h f is the starch hydrolysis factor 0.9.To express the results as a percent of dry weight, moisture content has to be evaluated and the following formula is used:=Starch % (as is) x (100)/ (100-moisture content (% w/w)Starch, the major storage component in mature maize kernels, is composed of two macromolecules with different structures: amylose, essentially a linear polymer of glucoses residues, linked by α(1→4)-glucosidic bond plus occasional α(1→6)glucosidic linkages, and amylopectin, a highly branched polymer.In the presence of tri-iodide, a complex is formed giving a blue color with λ max at 620 nm.The iodine reaction has been proposed to quantify amylose content in maize starches using measurement made at one wavelength (620nm).Ethanol, 95% (V/V).Sodium hydroxide 1 M Dissolve 4 g sodium hydroxide 100 ml deionized water.Sodium hydroxide 0.09 M Dilute 9 ml NaOH 1M in 100 ml deionized waterAcetic acid 1 M Acetic acid glacial 5.72 ml / 100 ml deionized water.Lugol's solution Weigh 2.000g of KI and transfer it in a Prepare it daily. baker. Add a little bit of ddH20 in a way to Protect it from light. obtain a saturate solution, and then add 0.2 g of I2. Assume all the iodine is dissolve before transfer of the entire baker content in a volumetric flask of 100 ml, complete with ddH 2 0 and homogenize the solution.Amylose from Weigh 100 mg of amylose in a 100 ml Prepare it weekly (1 mg/ml) potatoes type III, volumetric flask. Add 1 ml of ethanol 95% and store it at 4 ºC. Sigma cat.and try to rinse the wall of the flask (make No A0512sure that there are no particles of samples stuck to the wall of the flask). Add 9 ml of sodium hydroxide 1 M and let it rest at room temperature for 20 to 24 hours. The next day adjust volume to 100 ml with deionized water and vigorously shake the flask.Sampling and grinding Take a random sample of 20-30 seeds as a representative of your material. 1.Be sure all seed samples have similar moisture content. 2.If the seeds have been treated, wash thoroughly with tap water and then rinse with distilled 3.water. Let the seeds dry out.Grind each sample to a very fine powder. If possible use a 0.5 mm setting of a cyclone mill. 4.Transfer each sample in a commercial filter paper envelope (for example, 10x11 cm). 5.Defat samples for 6 hours with approximately 300 ml of hexane per balloon in a Soxhlet-6.type continuous extractor. Air dry samples and ensure all hexane is evaporated. 7.For each sample weigh 20 mg of defatted powder in a 50 ml corning tube. 8.Include always two tubes with the standard of amylose. 9.Add 0.2 ml of ethanol 95% and try to rinse the wall of the tube (make sure that there are no 10.particles of samples stuck to the wall of the tube). Add 1.8 ml of sodium hydroxide 1 M and let it sit at room temperature for 20 to 24 hours 11.(don't shake the tube).The next day adjust volume to 20 ml with deionized water (18 ml) and vigorously shake 12.the tube.Take 1 ml of solution and carefully transfer it to a 50 ml corning tube. 13.Add 0.2 ml of acetic acid 1 M and shake vigorously. 14.Then add 0.4 ml of Lugol's solution and adjust volume to 20 ml (18.4 ml deionized water). 15.The mixture is mixed and the color allowed to develop for 20 minutes (protect the tubes from light). Pipette 200 μL of standard curve solution and of each sample and transfer it to a 96 well-16.plate. Read them at 620 nm in a spectrophotometer.Prepare a stock solution of 1 mg/ml amylose in deionized water (prepare it weekly and 1.store it at 4 ºC).In 50 ml corning tubes, prepare daily 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1 g of amylose in a final 2.volume of 20 ml. Vortex properly before further use. Make a colorimetric reaction (steps 13 to 16) using 200 μL of those dilutions.Always include one standard curve in duplicate for every set of samples analyzed in a day. 4. Standard curve for amylose (calibration curve) Develop a calibration curve using known amounts of amylose, ranging from 0 to 1 mg. Plot the absorbance readings at 620 nm as a function of amount and calculate the slope of that standard curve.The amount of amylose for each sample is then estimated using the following equations:1. Determine regression equation relating amylose amount in standard solutions to absorbance reading on the spectrophotometer. The regression formula appears as: ","tokenCount":"7501"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2703088405c2bc34b57bb7a5e67907a3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8ef4b5dc-a5df-4c72-b476-fb9ae853f2cd/retrieve","id":"505868813"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e8cf5e70-6c5a-4d96-b1c7-1983d29b5e1e","pagecount":"11","content":"The Agroecology and Safe food System Transitions (ASSET) project is a regional project funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the European Union (EU), and the Fond Français pour l'Environnement Mondial (FFEM) over five years from 2020 to 2025 in four targeted countries of Cambodia, Laos PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam.The overall objective of the project is to harness the potential of agroecology to transform food and agricultural systems into more sustainable systems, through notably:• The development of a shared vision, partnership, awareness, and capacity building,• Support to technical and organizational innovations in flagship sites in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam,• Support for bringing innovative approaches to scale, linking agricultural and market transformations, and mainstreaming innovative approaches and enabling conditions through policy dialogue.The National Animal Health and Fair Food (SFFF) for Cambodia project. Linkages will be ensured between the Taskforce and the existing multi-sectoral Food Safety Technical Working Group (FSTWG) to strengthen synergies between both groups.The objectives of the full-day meeting are:• To provide a platform for sharing recent food safety research in Cambodia and in the region with a focus on the traditional sectors among the taskforce members,• To inform and discuss taking up project interventions for scaling up in Cambodia with emphasis on the recently completed SFFF project,• To inform on progress made on collaborations between the multi-sectoral FSTWG of Cambodia and the taskforce to support food safety policymakers.The meeting on 21 October 2022 brought together 25 experts from six governmental ministries involved in managing food safety and food quality in the country, international organisations and donors. These included representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).The workshop participants are representatives from six governmental ministries, international organisations and donors (photo credit: NAHPRI/Rortana Chea).The workshop started with an opening remark by Bun Chan, deputy director of NAHPRI. He acknowledged the contributions of three previous meetings of the Taskforce in 2017, 2019 and 2021 to the evolution of the country's food safety policies, which were supported by the SFFF for Cambodia project and expected this meeting would help the taskforce fit well with the newly enacted food safety law in Cambodia.Following the opening, participants at the meeting were introduced to the current situation of food safety in Cambodia and about ASSET project. Later on, Dim Theng, deputy director general of the Directorate General of Consumer Protection, Competition, Fraud Repression (CCF) presented the new 'Law on Food Safety' which was promulgated in June 2022, is designed to meet the needs of international and domestic trade and protect public health. The lawconsisting of 11 chapters with 43 articlessets out the framework and mechanism for managing and ensuring the safety, quality, hygiene and legitimacy of food at all stages of the food production chain. It also provides health and food safety protection for consumers and ensures honest food trading.Other key issues discussed were outbreak investigation and response from the public health sector, lessons learned from the risked-based approach and management from the SFFF Cambodia project, and experience in food safety management from its neighbouring country-Vietnam.In the afternoon, participants joined a group work session which focused on the following guiding questions:1. How can the taskforce contribute to the new food safety law?-How to strengthen risk-based approaches? -How evidence-based intervention can be scaled?2. What do we need to learn on agroecological to integrate food safety more effective?3. How to make the taskforce more visible and sustainable?During the discussion facilitated by Hung Nguyen, ILRI, participants agreed on the following points:-Integrating results of SFFF and summarizing key messages to all stakeholders -Extending the intervention and research activities regarding to pathogen, including from supermarket and slaughterhouse -Conducting risk communication and raising awareness of involved stakeholders -Improving taskforce activities and sharing information platform -NAHPRI to focus on other species of foodborne pathogens in the future -Conducting another study on proof or certified meat quality that can help improve consumer truth or can help build ranking for safety of meat, for example, Ministry of Health has ranking for good practice of restaurants -Calling for attention and action on critical points that biological contamination can happenThe group discussion was followed by the reflection section that focused on:-The important role of the taskforce on linking science and policy -Enabling environment can facilitate the implementation of food safety projects in Cambodia, for example, the Feed the Future's food safety innovation lab projects -The momentum, meetings and joint ouputs (policy brief, technical reports, recommendations) are needed -The importance of institutionalizing the taskforce Participants at the meeting proposed strengthening the capacity for taskforce members by developing guidelines and a manual on risk-based approaches, strengthening collaboration among members through regular meetings to update on food safety in the country, and establishing a core group to facilitate the operation of the taskforce. Partners agreed to set up a communication channel for taskforce members on Telegrama favourite social platform in Cambodia. They also suggested that the national taskforce participate in relevant national and international events and platforms such as the National Food Security Nutrition Forum and the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS).","tokenCount":"881"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ced075a26178381689ffd903e7f9b3f6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/00920e1f-ef4b-464d-9dfb-b1ff1a2f2f86/retrieve","id":"-394154085"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d4e0ab4a-85c7-4e11-9697-eabf5ef4efd7","pagecount":"44","content":"Director General 'extensive frontier' needs are the most basic forms of infrastructure and services. With these at hand, the world's extensive mixed farmers will be in good position to scale up their food production to meet future needs.We recommend that interested readers read the full research report by the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme, which you will find here:Scientists at ILRI and seven other leading international agricultural research organizations around the world recently looked at the future of this form of farming and determined that it is 'mixed farms'-not breadbaskets or ricebowlsthat will feed most people over the next two decades.Their report shows that it is not big efficient farms on high potential lands but rather one billion small 'mixed' family farmers tending rice paddies or cultivating maize and beans while raising a few chickens and pigs, a herd of goats or a cow or two on relatively extensive rainfed lands who feed most of the world's poor people today. This same group, the report indicates, is likely to play the biggest role in global food security over the next several decades, as world population grows and peaks (at 9 billion or so) with the addition of another 3 billion people.Remarkably, this is the first study ever to investigate the state of the world's most prevalent kind of farmers-those who keep animals as well as grow crops. A major implication of the new report is that governments and researchers are A hitherto disregarded vast group of farmers-those mixing crops with livestock on 'in between' landsneither high-potential farmlands nor low-potential rangelands-are heavyweights in global food security. mistaken to continue looking to high-potential lands and single-commodity farming systems as the answer to world hunger. As the study shows, many highly intensive agricultural systems are reaching their peak capacity to produce food and should now focus on sustaining rather than increasing yields.The authors of this multi-institutional and multidisciplinary study, most belonging to centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), agree with many other experts that we need to bring our focus back to small-scale farms. But this report goes further, distinguishing one particular kind of small-scale farmer that should be our focus: this is the mixed farmer growing crops and raising animals in the world's more extensive agricultural systems, which are described in detail on the next page.These 'mixed extensive' farms make up the biggest, poorest and most environmentally sustainable agricultural system in the world. It is time we invested heavily in this particular kind of farming system. Here is where there remain the biggest yield gaps. Here is where we can make the biggest difference. Exploiting the extensive frontier: While we continue to invest in the short term in highpotential intensive farming systems, an opportunity exists over the medium term to make greater investments in the extensive frontier so as to exploit large yield gaps that still exist there.Taking systems approaches: This synthesis makes the case for mixed crop-livestock production systems as being at the heart of global food security-now and in the future. As such, these mixed systems need to be addressed by researchers as whole systems. Such systems approaches to the development of small-scale agriculture worldwide are those most likely to lead to efficiencies not only in food production but also in such related fundamental areas as recycling nutrients and managing biomass. In addition, policymakers will increasingly require analyses transcending the traditional agricultural sector and incorporating issues of food security and systems, human health and employment, migrations and political stability, and global trade and energy. Perhaps no global challenge facing us today is as daunting as the need to produce much more food, and do so in ways that are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, for our fast-growing human population, which is predicted to rise from nearly 6.9 billion today to more than 9 billion in the next four decades, after which the world population is expected to stabilize and in some regions decline. (The global population growth rate has been declining since the 1960s.) Almost all population growth is occurring in the developing world, predominantly in Africa and Asia. Africa's population alone is on track to double in the first three decades of this century.We need to find ways to feed the growing numbers of people until world population stabilizes. We need to help the 'bottom' billions of poor people, including the estimated two billion people today who are living on less than US$2 a day, to lift themselves out of poverty through agriculture and other means. We need to invent agricultural systems that both mitigate global warming and help small-scale farmers adapt to climate change. And we need to develop global food systems that conserve rather than deplete our land, water, forests, biodiversity and other natural resources.Those are all, individually as well as together, tall orders. To meet these food challenges, we shall have to gain much more solid, refined and local understandings of the various agricultural systems we are relying on and the different pressures these systems are facing in different parts of the world.  The framework is based on the idea that a set of drivers, both direct and indirect, changes a system over time. The local development context determines which direct and indirect drivers play important roles in a given system and location.   ESSAY 13Rationale for the study Developing-country demand is increasing for meat, milk and eggs, especially as incomes rise in many formerly very poor countries and people become newly able to afford more nourishing foods (Table 2). Demand in these countries is also increasing for better quality meat, milk and eggs, particularly among urban consumers who purchase their perishable foods from supermarkets. The environmental consequences of these two trends could be enormous, given that these increases in animal-source foods will need to be made from basically the same land and water resources we have today.It appears that the increasing demand for meat will be met mostly by increased monogastric (chicken and pig) production, which has large consequences for cereal production, which will also have to increase to feed these monogastrics.It is predicted that by 2050, people and animals will be consuming roughly the same amount of grains (Figure 1). Populations of cattle, sheep, goats and other animals are likely also to increase substantially. The synergies of crop and animal components of these mixed production systems are as old as agriculture itself: the stover and other wastes from the crops help to feed the animals while the animal traction helps to plough the lands and the animal manure to fertilize them (Figure 2).In addition, regular sales of milk, meat and eggs as well as surplus animal stock help to smooth   (Figure 3). It is these mixed smallholdings in poor countries-not, as many people believe, the breadbaskets of rich countries-that most of the world's 2 billion poor rely on for their food today. Even greater numbers of marginalized people will rely on these smallholdings in future.We need to make greater investments in these mixed smallholder food systems of the developing world, which we are so greatly relying on for global food security.  Mixed systems produce almost 50 per cent of the cereals of the world today and this share will increase to over 60 per cent by 2030. Most production currently comes from intensive systems but in the future the greatest potential to increase yields is likely to be in the more extensive areas. Source: Herrero et al. 2009  There are four main reasons for this.(1) First, the study reveals that smallholder crop and livestock farmers already produce 50 per cent of the world's cereals (Figure 4). Mixed farmers also produce most of the staples consumed by the world's poor: 41 per cent of maize, 86 per cent of rice, 66 per cent of sorghum and 74 per cent of millet production (Figure 5).Source: Herrero et al. 2009 Mixed farms also produce the bulk of livestock products in the developing world-75 per cent of the milk and 60 per cent of the meat (Figures 6   and 7).(2) The second reason mixed farming is key to food security is that mixed farms employ many hundreds of millions of people along the whole chain of activities needed to produce, harvest, store, transport, sell and consume foods.(3) Third, only 5-10 per cent of even the most heavily traded livestock commodities are ever traded internationally; the rest is produced and consumed locally. Surpluses produced in rich countries provide at the most no more than 10 per cent of milk, meat and eggs to the world.Local food systems, then, are where most of the action is in global food security-and must be given much greater attention and support.(4) Fourth, the study data indicate that by 2030 the mixed crop-livestock systems of the developing world will surpass farms in the developed world in their production of cereals and some livestock products as their production growth rates are significantly higher than growth rates in the developed world (Figure 8).But even these substantial increases in production of cereals and livestock products will be insufficient to stay abreast of population growth.If these mixed farms are to provide enough food to feed the swelling numbers of people in the developing world, and do so largely in sustainable ways, agricultural policy must be reoriented, first to embrace the centrality of mixed crop-livestock systems to food security, second to resolve major problems affecting these systems in particular, and third to find ways to further refine the integration of crop and livestock production so that each can better sustain the other. The percentages of these livestock foods now produced by developing countries are all projected to increase significantly over the next two decades. Source: Herrero et al. 2009.In many regions of the developing world, farmlands long viewed as having the highest potential for production-the intensively cultivated areas where farmers concentrate both crops and livestock-are either already maxed out or are nearing their peak capacity (IAASTD 2009 andMA 2005).Essentially, the resource pressures faced by these intensively farmed lands are retarding, and in some cases ending, the substantial food growth rates of recent decades. The pressures are larger in some systems than in others, but all are caused by the increasing demands of fast-growing human populations, with their rising incomes and urbanization.Water, for example, is becoming a severe  Yet prices will continue to rise for livestock products, even if not at the pace of crops. Higher costs for animal products will make it harder for poor people to meet their dietary requirements for protein through meat and milk.The livestock revolution will sharply increase production of all types of farm animalsThe demand for livestock products is rising globally and will increase significantly in the coming decades in developing countries because of income shifts, population growth, urbanization and changes in dietary preferences in these countries. This increased demand will vary across regions. animal. The result will be feed deficits. To feed the greater number of ruminant animals, crop yields will have to increase and crop stover be further amended for greater livestock intake.Changes in stover production are expected to vary widely from region to region over the next two decades (Figure 9). In Africa, predicted increases in maize, sorghum and millet production due to an expansion of croplands can be expected to increase the amount of stover available for animals. But the availability of stover per animal will decrease in other areas, such as much of East Asia, with high growth rates in ruminant production.Where animals can no longer be maintained on leftover crop materials available on the farm, farmers will have to purchase feed. While in some areas animal feed can be obtained relatively easily and locally, there is reason to be alarmed about how this feed shortage will play out in parts of Asia, where animal and human needs for feed and food appear to be on a collision course, with  Although there will be an increasing percentage of people living in cities in the future (already, about half the world's population inhabits urban areas), there will still be a huge increase in the coming decades in the numbers of people living in the rural areas. We should thus not expect to have more land per capita for developing-country farmers in the future. Farm plots are bound to get smaller in most regions, not larger.Smallholder farm plots will get smaller still sweet potato are other key biofuel crops and will experience large increases in area and production, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. The expansion of biofuels will likely reduce household food consumption in the developing world, particularly among poor urban households and the many rural households that are net buyers of food.Growing demand for food crops as biofuel feedstock is already pushing up the price of livestock feed. Developing technology that will allow other plant materials to serve as feedstock for biofuels is often touted as a solution to the conflict between food and fuel production. But that solution could make the problem worse, with biofuel production also competing with livestock for pasture lands, stover and fodder.Improving the efficiency of intensive mixed farms of the developing worldIn the near future, many of the breadbaskets and ricebowls of the developing world will require significant efficiency gains to produce more food without using more land, water and other inputs.When it comes to producing more meat and milk, there are considerable opportunities to increase efficiencies and yields. Over the last 30 years, for example, researchers have doubled the efficiency with which chickens and pigs convert grain into meat, thereby reducing the amount of grain needed to produce a unit of poultry and pig meat.In some regions, making more efficient use  ","tokenCount":"2268"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"54d3336fbaf55c984286eb9873a460d4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a4d62ddc-9b43-400f-9fa6-86dd296e18d6/retrieve","id":"-400885004"},"keywords":["Fortification","food safety","choice experiment","consumer","nutrition message"],"sieverID":"081c0f5c-09e6-4315-9cf3-c70c9084d81f","pagecount":"176","content":"the food value chain element of the food system, while the last one falls under the consumer behaviour element of the system as it has an empowerment effect on women by reducing home labour. These technological innovations do not have significant negative environmental impacts and are cost-effective (Bouis and Saltzman, 2017). Moreover, they do not require radical changes in people's eating habits. This is important, at least in the short run, as these habits are deeply entrenched aspects of many cultures (Mead, 1943) and cannot be easily changed. Finally, the innovation examined in this thesis addresses key bottlenecks in the food 1.2. Promoting healthy diets Fortification of foods and biofortification of staple crops are recognized as effective public health interventions to reduce micronutrient deficiencies in poor countries. The core chapters of this thesis contribute to the efforts of promoting these innovations. The role of food fortification in ensuring a healthy diet has been widely recognized throughout the world. The success of fortified foods essentially relies on whether they are accepted and consumed by the target population. To ensure adequate consumption, there is a need to design effective behaviour change communication interventions. Designing such interventions requires a deeper understanding of the food choice motives of the target consumers. In this regard, nutrition knowledge gaps have long been identified as a major bottleneck (Spronk et al., 2014a), and information interventions have been implemented as key entry points to assist individuals in making optimal food choices (Miller and Cassady, 2015). However, despite the rising concerns regarding food fraud, adulteration, and toxic residues from pesticides and feed additives in developing countries (Ortega and Tschirley, 2017), the effects of food safety on consumer food choice as well as its moderating effect on information interventions have not been explored well. In addition, there is a dearth of evidence that shows how fortification interacts with food safety concerns.Biofortification-the process of creating micronutrient-dense staple crops-is an important intervention to overcome micronutrient deficiency among a population that may have limited access to diverse diets (Bouis and Saltzman, 2017). For this intervention to achieve its intended goal -reduction of micronutrient deficiencies-the target population (rural population) needs to consume food prepared from biofortified crops. Encouraging consumption of biofortified crops in rural areas usually involves working with smallholder farmers and persuading them to adopt these crops. This is because most staples are produced by smallholders and smallholders form an important group of people with nutrient deficiencies. One of the strategies that have been used to encourage adoption of these crops is provision of nutrition information. However, the impact of such intervention on the adoption rate is found to be negligible (De Brauw et al., 2018). Insights from psychology such as normative messaging and messaging framing have been successfully used to increase the effectiveness of informationMalnutrition is a persistent problem for most developing countries, and Ethiopia is no exception. Globally, one in ten people are considered to be undernourished and though the problem exists in every country, not surprisingly, the extent is more severe in low-income countries where the figure is one in four people (World Bank 2017). Notwithstanding an impressive economic growth in the past decades, Ethiopia still struggles to ensure food security for its people. Undernourishment is highly prevalent in the country, particularly among children and women (CSA Ethiopia and ICF, 2017). Macronutrient intake, such as protein, is far below the recommended level (EPHI, 2013). The situation with micronutrient intake is no different. For example, vitamin A deficiency poses a serious public health problem (CSA Ethiopia and ICF, 2017). Both availability and utilization are shown to be the main culprits here. Cognizant of this, food and nutrition security has been given high priority and is included in the Sustainable Development Goals-which among others aims to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030.Tackling malnutrition is invariably linked with the other key challenge that humanity faces to an unprecedented degree: namely climate change. According to a recent study, food production and consumption account for more than a quarter of all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Crippa et al., 2021). At the same time, the problem of malnutrition is expected to become worse in the face of climate change (Niles et al., 2021). The implication is that solutions that aim to address the problem of malnutrition should take into account this potential linkage with climate change. A recent report that came out of a three-year project led by 26 experts from 14 countries concluded that these issues should not be tackled separately and there is a need for synergistic actions to bring about long-lasting changes (Swinburn et al., 2019).Efforts that aim to address the problem of malnutrition should also be based on an understanding of the food system of the global south where malnutrition is most severe. In the global south, smallholder farmers (defined as operating less than 2 ha) play a significant role in the production and consumption of diverse foods. Globally smallholders produce a third of the food supply using only a quarter of the gross agricultural area (Ricciardi et al., 2018). A strategy to counter malnutrition in the global south should take into account the important role of smallholders in food production and consumption. Smallholders are well placed to address malnutrition and food security problems in the global south as they produce diverse and culturally appropriate food.The multidimensional nature of the cause of malnutrition creates challenges in finding viable solutions. Key sectors that have a direct bearing on malnutrition are agriculture, health, environment, water and sanitation, infrastructure, gender, and education (Reinhardt and Fanzo, 2014). Due to its multidimensional nature, tackling malnutrition requires mobilization of huge resources and efficient multi-sectoral collaboration. For example, to achieve the goal of ending malnutrition in all its forms by the year 2030, globally $70 billion is needed for the next 8 years (World Bank, 2016a). Thus, identifying cost-effective interventions is an important step toward improving the lives of the rural poor who disproportionately bear the burden associated with malnutrition. This is particularly imperative in the face of the slowly decreasing trend of development aid in real terms to the poorest (OECD, 2019).The question is thus how to tackle malnutrition in the global south with limited and decreasing development aid, without putting more pressure on the planet and without failing to protect smallholders. The solutions should conserve agricultural biodiversity and should be affordable as well as feasible to scale up effectively.The thesis looks at innovations (fortification, biofortification and improved cook stoves) that can be leveraged to tackle malnutrition. In terms of the food system innovation typology of de Brauw et al. (2019), the first two fall under technological innovations that take place within system. Fortification and biofortification provide safe and affordable solutions to the micronutrient gap among vulnerable populations.The studies in this thesis also explore the role of certification-innovation within the food environment-and information interventions that are informed by insights from the field of psychology and targeted at consumers. Thus, innovations examined in this thesis focus on the three primary elements of the food system namely, the food value chain, the food environment and consumer behaviour.Fortification and biofortification of staple food both are effective and cost-efficient in delivering nutrients to both urban and rural populations. These innovations do not require radical changes in both production and consumption patterns as the target foods are already being consumed widely by the target population. The environmental footprint of these innovations is also minimal as the strategy does not require the target population to eat more of these targeted foods rather it encourages them to switch to a more nutritious variety. Given that the significant majority of those in the global south cannot afford or are unable to access healthy and diverse diets, delivering important nutrients through familiar staple foods ensures that people receive the required nutrients adequately. However, studies that identify effective strategies to promote these innovations are lacking.The improved cookstove may seem a rather odd technology in the fight against malnutrition. This technology is usually promoted primarily to address the problems of indoor pollution and deforestation. However, these technologies have also the potential to contribute positively to addressing malnutrition. Improved cookstoves can achieve multiple development goals which directly and indirectly have a bearing on household food and nutrition security status. This technology does not require a radical change in the consumption pattern of the target populations, positively contributes to the environment and due to its multiple development outcomes can be a cost-effective way of improving food and nutrition security, particularly in rural areas. However, spillover effects of this pro-poor intervention as a cost-effective entry point to improve household food security have not been explored in the empirical literature. Ye et al., 2021). However, little has been done to leverage these insights in the domain of agriculture.Winning the battle against malnutrition requires understanding the multidimensional nature of the problem and devising an equally multidimensional approach. In this regard, empowering women is receiving ever-increasing attention as a way to improve food and nutrition outcomes. It has long been noted that innovations that reduce home labour disproportionately improve the lives of women. These innovations free up women's time and contribute to women's economic empowerment. One of those innovations that are increasingly promoted in the global South is improved cook stoves (ICSs). What makes this innovation attractive is that it has the potential to achieve multiple development goals apart from its women empowerment effect. ICSs reduce indoor air pollution (Grieshop et al., 2011;Grimsby et al., 2016;Pant, 2013), mitigate forest degradation (Chan et al., 2015;Jeuland and Pattanayak, 2012) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Agurto Adrianzén, 2013;Bensch and Peters, 2011;Grieshop et al., 2011;Mehetre et al., 2017;Pennise et al., 2009). These effects are well documented. What is not studied and documented as much is the potential contribution of these technologies to food and nutrition security. There are multiple pathways, direct and indirect, from ICSs to nutrition outcomes. However, this effect of ICSs has not been studied and documented well.This thesis addresses the gaps identified above. It also contributes to the effort of addressing malnutrition by identifying effective interventions to promote innovations that have limited environmental impacts and do not require radical rearrangement of the way of life and food choices of the target populations, which enhances the likelihood of their success. It also aims to identify the potential role of innovations that reduce home labour in the fight against food insecurity. The thesis has four stand-alone chapters with distinct theoretical frameworks and empirical strategies.The next three chapters focus on fortification and biofortification of widely and regularly consumed foods, incorporate insights from psychology into information intervention, and employ field experiments to identify ways that help to unleash the potential of (bio) fortification in Ethiopia by focusing on maize in rural areas and on cooking oil in urban areas.The fifth chapter seeks to examine how ownership of improved-cook stoves, which have the potential to economically empower women, affect food and nutrition outcomes. It uses observational data and leverages the availability of instrument variables to study the link between improved cook-stoves and food and nutrition outcomes. Formally, the research questions break down to:1. To what extent can information provision affect consumers' willingness to pay for fortified cooking oil, and how does information intervention interact with food safety certification and consumers' interest in nutritious and safe foods? 2. How does a social norm intervention coupled with health messaging affect farmers' willingness to pay for biofortified maize seeds? 3. What is the most effective framing technique in behaviour change communication for healthy diets, and how does it interact with motivational orientation and risk perception? 4. How does empowering women economically through improved cook stoves affect household food and nutrition security outcomes?Feeding the ever-expanding world population requires sustainable solutions that consider the access, availability, utilization and stability dimensions of food and nutrition security. On top of that, different sectors such as agriculture, health, education, water, and sanitation interact with each other and their effects on food security and nutrition would be compounded through the food system. Thus, a system approach is required to incorporate technical, economic, social, and environmental processes and actors of food production, processing, transport, and consumption. There is a realization among the global community that a system approach is the way to create sustainable food systems that facilitate healthy and sustainable food choices which in turn is key to ensuring food and nutrition security. Conceptualization of the food system draws from the HLPE framework (HLPE, 2017). The framework clearly demonstrates how individuals' or collective decisions and choices regarding production and consumption influence food systems and how efficient food systems improve their ability to deliver healthy and sustainable diets. The other advantage of the framework is that since it identifies the key elements of the food system-food supply chains, food environment and consumer behaviour-and how they interact, it allows policymakers to identify key bottlenecks and design effective policies and programmes that have the potential to shape food systems, contributing to improved food and nutrition security. The chapters in the thesis focus on the different aspects of food systems. The chapters explore aspects of food value chains, the food environment and consumer behaviour.At the food value chain level, chapter two touches up on the issue of seed quality and how it would affect adoption of nutritionally enhanced food crops. Access to quality input is one of the interventions identified across food supply chains (HLPE, 2017) and the results of chapter 2 would provide empirical evidence on the importance of quality inputs in the food supply chain. At the marketing end, the effect of the selling price of biofortified crops as it pertains to farmers' crop choice is also assessed in chapter 2.Regarding food environment aspects, the chapters in the thesis study effective communication and messaging approaches to disseminate nutrition information, such as nutrition information regarding fortified cooking oil (chapter 2), bundling nutrition information with normative messages (chapter 3), and message framing (chapter 4). Still focusing on the food environment, the thesis examines how food safety and certification issues can be leveraged to promote nutritionally enhanced food and explore the role of government and the private sector in the areas of food certification (chapter 2). Chapter 3 also investigates seed quality, which falls within the food environment-and how it affects farmers' adoption decisions.Regarding consumer behaviour, how product-intrinsic sensory cues (colour) factor into people's food choices is examined as it relates to biofortified maize (chapter 2). Food colour is shown to exert a huge impact on expectations which in turn affect consumers' food choices (Spence, 2015). Since improving the nutritional quality of food crops might also lead to a change in colour, examining how the colour of a crop interacts with adoption decisions would provide invaluable input in promoting these crops.Apart from the key elements of the food system, within the sociocultural driver, the role of technologies that reduce women's home labour (improved cookstove) and its effect on nutritional outcomes is examined in chapter 4. This chapter directly responds to the priority as identified by HLPE (2017) in orienting consumer behaviour toward healthier diets.Overall, chapters in the thesis are interlinked as they relate to the food system and explore its key elements-food value chains, food environments and consumer behaviours and fill some of the evidence gaps in the food system.All the chapters in this thesis aim to establish a cause-and-effect relationship and estimate the average treatment effect. For three of the four chapters, the main outcome of interest is participants' willingness to pay. Willingness-to-pay is the maximum price a customer is willing to pay for a product or service (Wertenbroch and Skiera, 2002). In the economic literature, this corresponds to a reservation price at or below which a consumer will demand a unit of the good or services (Varian, 1992). Willingness-to-pay reveals individual preferences and can be used to study the demand for a product or service. Discrete choice experiments and the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism (BDM) are commonly used bidding methods for eliciting this willingness to pay (Becker et al., 1964). A discrete choice experiment is a quantitative method that is used to estimate willingness to pay indirectly based on participants' choices among several alternatives (Mangham et al., 2009). When they are incentive compatible, bidding methods are also effective in eliciting true willingness to pay because they tie the act of revealing one's preference for a product or service to the probability of obtaining it. I used both Experimental (chapter 2-4) and non-experimental designs (chapter 5). For the experimental design, I conducted three separate experiments where treatments were assigned randomly, and outcome variables were measured for both treatment and control groups. I conducted discrete choice experiments combined with treatment in urban (chapter 2) and rural settings (chapter 3) and estimated participants' willingness to pay using a mixed logit model (Revelt and Train, 1998;K. E. Train, 2009). The treatments were provision of nutrition information (chapter 2) and nutrition and normative messaging (chapter 3).For chapter 4, I conducted a field experiment where participants were assigned to two treatment groups and a control group. The treatment involved providing gain and loss-framed messages for treatment groups 1 and 2, respectively. To solicit participants' willingness to pay I use a BDM mechanism. The mechanism is an incentive-compatible procedure both theoretically (Becker et al., 1964) and behaviourally (Bohm et al., 1997) and is widely used in economic experiments to measure willingness to pay.Participants for these experiments were selected randomly and they were assigned to different treatment groups randomly. Since the treatment assignment was random on a randomly drawn participant the effect of the treatment is calculated as the difference in the outcomes with and without treatment (Wooldridge, 2010).For the non-experimental design (Chapter 5), I used a huge cross-sectional household dataset collected by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The aim was to study the effect of improved cook stove ownership on household food and nutrition security status.Since ownership of improved cook stoves might be endogenous, the existence of instrumental variables was leveraged, and the instrument variable estimator was used to establish the causal relationship. Since the proposed instrument variables fulfilled the identification assumptions-exclusion restriction (tested indirectly using overidentification test) and the rank condition for identification-the treatment effects are identified and can be estimated by the method of instrumental variables (Wooldridge, 2010).The rest of the thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 2 presents the results of the choice experiment in urban settings that aim to quantify the extent to which information provision Chapter 1 affects consumers' willingness to pay for fortified cooking oil and how that interacts with certification and consumers' interest in nutritious and safe foods. Chapter 3 examines how bundling the provision of a health message with normative messaging affects smallholder farmers' preference regarding biofortified maize. Chapter 4, still focusing on nutritionsensitive agricultural technologies, looks at how messaging framing can be leveraged to encourage the production and consumption of foods prepared from nutritionally enhanced maize and its interaction with motivational orientation and risk perception of the target population. Chapter 5 shifts away from nutrition-focused innovations and examines if improved cookstoves, which are expected to lead to women empowerment in rural areas, can be leveraged to improve food and nutrition security. Finally, chapter 6 synthesizes the results.The chapter briefly presents answers to the research questions, discusses the contribution to the broad scientific debates, identifies the limitations and offers some recommendations for future research.In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to reduce micronutrient malnutrition, which contributes substantially to the global burden of disease (Tulchinsky, 2010). While adequately tackling multiple burdens of micronutrient deficiency could require several complementary approaches, food fortification is arguably the most effective, economical and practically feasible method to enhance the availability of the most limiting micronutrients: vitamin A, iron, and zinc (Das et al., 2013;WHO, 2006). Food fortification involves improving the nutritional value of processed staple foods, mostly flours and edible oils, by adding essential vitamins and minerals. It often targets urban people, who are most likely to consume processed foods. While fortification has been a well-established strategy to prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies in industrialised countries for many decades (Bishai and Nalubola, 2002;WHO, 2006), large-scale fortification has only recently been applied in developing countries (Miller and Welch, 2013;Osendarp et al., 2018).The success of fortified foods essentially relies on whether they are accepted and consumed by the target population. Fortification programs can be mandatory, whereby producers of specific fortifiable products must comply with national standards, or voluntary, whereby producers may choose whether they fortify or not. When fortification is voluntary, it is important to establish whether there is a demand for fortified food. It is also important to have evidence-based interventions to encourage healthier food choices.Several studies have shown that African consumers are willing to pay a premium for nutritionally enhanced foods and that the provision of nutrition information is an important lever (Birol et al., 2015;Chege et al., 2019;De Groote et al., 2017;Mabaya et al., 2010;Oni, 2012). Most of these studies focus on rural consumers, while evidence is limited for the urban setting. In addition, these studies do not explicitly examine food safety issues and the role of safety certification. The implicit assumption is that food safety issues are not of great concern.This seems an unrealistic assumption, given the rising concerns in developing countries regarding food fraud, adulteration, and toxic residues from pesticides and feed additives (Ortega and Tschirley, 2017).One country in which the above-mentioned problems are prevalent is Ethiopia. Diets in Ethiopia are often dominated by starchy staple foods and do not provide the required amounts of important micronutrients (EPHI, 2013;Gebru et al., 2018), making micronutrient deficiencies a widespread public health problem (EPHI, 2016). Nor is the country free of food safety incidents. In mid-2008, there was a major incident of poisonous edible oil in Addis Ababa with 12 confirmed deaths (Alebachew et al., 2013;Assefa et al., 2013), and more recently local media has contained reports of unsafe cooking oil. As a result of such incidents, urban consumers in Ethiopia are more concerned about the safety of their food than about its nutritional content (Melese et al., 2019). Food fortification has been identified as an important strategy in nutrition programme documents (EPHI, 2016;Head et al., 2014), but it may be a difficult goal to achieve. Given the visibility and acuteness of food safety problems, people might be prepared to pay only a smaller premium for fortified food than for food that is certified safe. More importantly, poor people may be willing or able to pay only one premium and prioritise safety at the cost of fortification. However, the interaction between food safety concerns and fortification in Ethiopia has not received empirical scrutiny.This study aims to fill this knowledge gap. We implemented a stated-choice experiment on 996 randomly selected consumers in the city of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to study consumers' WTP for biofortification and the impacts of food safety certification and nutrition messaging.We focused specifically on WTP for cooking oil because it has been identified as an ideal candidate for vitamin A fortification. The consumption of cooking oil is widespread and consistent throughout the year (EPHI, 2013;Head et al., 2014). Vitamin A is found to be more stable in oils than in any other food, and oil aids vitamin A absorption (Diósady and Venkatesh-Mannar, 2013). Besides, the fortification process does not change the appearance, taste, texture, flavour, or shelf life of edible oils (Chaudhry, 2018). Finally, the risk of excessive intake of micronutrients by young children is lower for cooking oil than for the alternative option wheat flour (EPHI, 2013).Our study yielded the following findings. First, the urban consumers were willing to pay a premium for food that is certified to be safe for human consumption. Second, they were willing to pay a premium for vitamin A fortification, yet this premium was lower than for safety certification. Third, nutrition messaging increased WTP for fortification, albeit slightly. Finally, we found that the effect of safety certification on WTP was higher for fortified cooking oil than for non-fortified oil, indicating that urban consumers value certification, even more, when fortification is involved. Taken together, these results suggest that, to support increased consumption of fortified foods, certification and provision of health messages are feasible behavioural change intervention strategies.The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 outlines the design of the choice experiment, the sampling strategy and the methods used to analyse the data. Section 3 presents and discusses the results of the paper. Section 4 draws policy implications and Section 5 concludes the paper.We used discrete choice experiments to elicit the preferences of consumers for edible oil with different characteristics. Discrete choice experiments are based on Lancasterian consumer theory, which postulates that goods and services are essentially bundles of various attributes and that the value of particular goods or services to a consumer is determined by the relative importance of these attributes (Lancaster, 1966). In choice experiments, choice sets are typically framed in a way that closely reflects the actual purchase decisions of consumers. As a result, choice experiments allow the investigation of the valuation of a new product with one or more new attributes for which there is no revealed preference history. This is the case for our experimental study. In our experiment, participants are asked to choose between hypothetical alternatives, and there are no real consequences associated with the choice.Such responses to hypothetical choices may differ from real-world behaviour (Hensher et al., 2015). Nevertheless, discrete choice experiments have successfully tested theoretical links with real behaviour, and they allow researchers to gain an understanding of how people actually make choices (Louviere et al., 2010).Our two core attributes are 'fortification' and 'certification'. The 'fortification' attribute refers to whether the cooking oil is fortified with vitamin A or not and therefore has two levels. While certification could in theory reflect fortification status, in the study context, it reflects food safety. More specifically, we are referring to a third-party verification that the food is free of contaminants and has met accepted food safety standards that are set to lower the incidence of foodborne illness. We included three levels: public certification, private certification, and no certification. In Ethiopia, a government agency, namely the Food, Medicine and Health Care Administration and Control Authority, is responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of food manufactured, imported, exported, distributed or made available for human consumption (FDRE, 2014). As a response to current contamination and adulteration problems, the Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE) has started an initiative for testing and certification of edible oil together with development partners (MDG Achievement Fund, 2011), but this has yet to reach the implementation stage. Currently, the involvement of the private sector in food safety inspection and certification is limited. However, as the food chain becomes more complex and the pressure to enhance food safety increases, it is expected that public efforts will need to be supported by engaging the private sector in certification activities. We included private certification as one of the levels of the certification attribute to assess the preference for this approach by consumers.We included two additional attributes: 'price' and 'origin'. We limited the attributes to four so as to reduce the cognitive burden on respondents and thereby increase the quality of our data. The 'price' attribute is the price of cooking oil per litre in Ethiopian Birr (ETB). This attribute is relevant in the estimation of the utility derived from the other attributes of the product. Based on a realistic average price in the oil market, three levels were proposed: 38, 51, and 64 ETB/litre. 1 The 'origin' attribute describes the place where the cooking oil was produced. The origin attribute has two levels: the oil is either produced domestically, or it is imported. The inclusion of this attribute results from the findings of a relevant study (Sertse et al., 2011) and our understanding of the cooking oil market.We conducted a pre-test to see whether the attributes included were relevant and whether the levels for each attribute were plausible and understandable. The test results show that respondents paid attention to the proposed attributes and the attribute levels made sense from their perspective. However, we had to revise the levels for the price attribute, as the initial price range was found to be too narrow to trigger relevant trade-offs. Table 1 shows the final set of attributes and their respective levels.1 During the survey period, 1 USD was about 26.81 ETB. We used the D-optimal approach of fractional factorial to design the experiment with the help of SAS software (Kuhfeld, 2010). This design approach generates choice sets that allow the estimation of all main and key interaction effects. The other advantage of this approach is that it reduces the predicted standard errors of parameter estimates and gives unbiased estimates (Carlsson and Martinsson, 2003;Hoyos, 2010;Rose et al., 2008). Using a D-optimal design, we generated 24 choice sets using random selection without replacement. To promote response efficiency and reduce the cognitive burden on respondents, the choice sets were optimally divided into four equal blocks using SAS macros to ensure orthogonality between the blocking factor and all of the attributes of all alternatives (Kuhfeld, 2010). Each choice set consisted of two cooking oil alternatives (Options 1 and 2) and a no-buy option (Option 3). The design has a maximum between-attributes covariance of 0.04, suggesting a highly optimal and balanced orthogonal design.Data collection took place in Addis Ababa in the fall of 2017 using a computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) method. We used a multi-stage sampling procedure to select respondents. In the first stage, we purposively grouped the ten sub-cities of Addis Ababa into six strata based on location and on food expenditure per capita and total calorie (gross) intake per individual per day (CSA, 2008). Four of the strata consisted of two similar and in most cases neighbouring sub-cities. The remaining two strata consisted of one sub-city each, Bole sub-city and Akaki-Kaliti sub-city. We then randomly selected one sub-city from each of the four strata and included the two other sub-cities, giving us six sub-cities in total.In the second stage, all the woredas (districts) in each of the study sub-cities were clustered into three development strata, high, medium, and low, based on a qualitative assessment by local experts. From four sub-cities we randomly selected three woredas, one from each stratum. From two sub-cities with a relatively large number of woredas (Bole and Yeka), we randomly selected four woredas: one woreda from each stratum, and one additional woreda from the stratum that had the highest number of woredas. This process resulted in a total of 20 woredas. In the third stage, two ketanas , or further sub-divisions of the woredas, were randomly chosen from each woreda, giving us in total 40 ketanas or clusters as primary sampling units. We then randomly selected 25 households from a list of residents in each of the ketanas.Since the number of districts to be sampled was chosen with probability proportional to size, our sample is said to be self-weighting. This simplified the analysis and allowed us to draw precise conclusions about consumers in Addis Ababa by ensuring that sub-groups were properly represented in the sample.We visited all selected households at their home and conducted a face-to-face interview in the local language. From each household, we interviewed the person who was mainly responsible for household food choice decisions (food purchase and/or preparation).Replacements were randomly drawn from the same list.Respondents received a short description of the experiment, clear definitions of the product attributes, an explanation of how to respond to questions, and assurance of the confidentiality of their responses. We especially paid attention to the careful explanation of fortification.Fortification is not uncommon in the study area. The government of Ethiopia introduced a mandatory iodised salt programme in 2011 and there has been an intensive campaign to increase awareness about the benefits of consuming salts fortified with iodine. We, therefore, feel confident in our assumption that our urban research participants were familiar with fortification. We explained the attribute of fortification as the addition of vitamin A into the cooking oil, drawing parallels with the iodine in salt when necessary.Participation was completely voluntary. Moreover, respondents were informed that they could opt out of the experiment at any time with no penalty. They were informed that the cooking oils presented to them differed only in terms of the four attributes described and that all other attributes were identical. In total, responses to 5,976 choice sets were obtained from 996 surveyed household representatives, with each consumer providing responses to six trinary choice sets.In each choice set, participants were asked to choose their preferred alternative between two cooking oil profiles and a 'no-buy' option. The no-buy option intends to capture consumers'preferences for edible oil alternatives with other attributes in the choice set as well as for a decision not to buy oil altogether. The inclusion of the no-buy option has been recommended by previous literature (Hoefkens et al., 2012;Louviere et al., 2000). This also reflects real market choices, where consumers can decide not to purchase, to purchase something else, or to purchase elsewhere (e.g., Enneking, 2004). Figure 2 presents a sample choice set.  To encourage participants to provide their realistic evaluations of the choices, we informed them prior to the experiment that it was important that they evaluate each alternative as if they were actually facing these exact choices at a shop or supermarket. In addition, we included a consequentiality clause to attenuate the hypothetical bias (the script is provided in Appendix A). The consequentiality clause indicates that the results of the study may be used by policymakers. Finally, to increase the likelihood that participants understood each attribute, we conducted the experiment in the local language.To examine the effect of nutrition messaging on participants' WTP for fortified cooking oil, participants (996) were randomly assigned to the treatment (n=518) and control (n=478)groups. The treatment group listened to a recorded message about the benefits of vitamin A before being asked to evaluate the choice sets. The control group did not hear the message.The message highlighted the benefits of vitamin A for eyesight, the skin, and the immune system. The full script of the nutrition message is provided in Appendix B. The message was translated into the local language and an audio recording was made by a native speaker.Participants were assigned randomly to the treatment group so that any differences between the treatment and control groups as to their WTP for fortified cooking oil could be attributed to the nutrition message.Finally, ethical approval for research protocols, process, data management and risks related to participation in the research was obtained from the Social Sciences Ethics Committee at Wageningen University. Addis Ababa sub-city administrations granted permission to conduct the study. All participants provided written informed consent before participation.The theoretical foundation of discrete choice models is provided by Hendler's (1975) and Lancaster's (1966) consumer theory, andMcFadden's (1974) random utility theory. Lancaster argues that utilities are derived not only from the goods as a whole but also from their characteristics or attributes. Technically, consumers are supposed to make choices based not on the simple marginal rate of substitution between goods but on preferences for attributes of the goods. Random utility theory assumes that individuals select the alternative that yields the highest utility given their information set, and that any variation can be treated as random.Since our interest was to estimate consumers' WTP for individual attributes, we specified utility in the WTP space. This re-parametrisation is convenient (Hess and Train, 2017) and provides more reasonable distributions of WTP than the conventional specification of utility, which is defined on the preference space (Train and Weeks, 2005). Indexing an individual consumer by n, cooking oil type (alternatives) by j, and a choice occasion by t, the utility can be written as:where \uD835\uDF06 \uD835\uDC5B is a price-scale coefficient, \uD835\uDC5D \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC61 is price, \uD835\uDC64\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5D \uD835\uDC5B is a vector of WTP for each of the nonprice attributes, \uD835\uDC65 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC61 are non-price attributes, and \uD835\uDF00 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC61 is an i. (2)However, we do not observe the price coefficients and WTP for the individual attributes.Instead, the cumulative distribution function of these coefficients in the population is given by \uD835\uDC39(\uD835\uDEFD). Let \uD835\uDC39 be discrete with a finite support set \uD835\uDC46 and let the probability mass at any \uD835\uDF06 \uD835\uDC5F \uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC64\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5D \uD835\uDC5F \uD835\uDF16 \uD835\uDC46 be expressed as a logit formula. Using a logit formula as a representation of the mixing distribution allows for easy and flexible specification of relative probabilities (Train, 2016). The unconditional probability of consumer n choosing j is then given by:where \uD835\uDC4D(λ \uD835\uDC5F , \uD835\uDC64\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5D \uD835\uDC5F ) is a vector-valued function of λ \uD835\uDC5F \uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC64\uD835\uDC61\uD835\uDC5D \uD835\uDC5F , and α is a corresponding vector of coefficients. The Z variables are used to specify the shape of the probability distributions of the coefficients. In this paper, we specified the Z variables as orthogonal polynomials and compared the goodness-of-fit of this model with models estimated under the assumption that the coefficients are distributed normally and are uncorrelated. that 848 respondents out of 996 stated the per capita income of their household to be greater than 600 birr per month 2 . The implication is that about 15% of the households earned an income under the national poverty line. This is close to the urban poverty headcount ratio (14.8%) based on the national poverty line reported for urban areas in Ethiopia in 2016(PDC, 2016). Of the 996 respondents, 406 (41%) reported that they trusted health claims on food packages, and for 285 (29%), the nutritional value was an important food choice motive. The estimates for the different models in the WTP space are reported in Table 3. We first estimated the model using the maximum simulated likelihood (MSL) estimation method by applying the command \"mixlogitWTP\" in Stata. The WTPs are specified to be jointly normal and the price or scale coefficient is lognormal. Following the procedure in Train (2016), we then estimated logit-mixed logit (LML) models. The first column reports the MSL estimates with uncorrelated coefficients. For LML models, two models were estimated by specifying a second-and sixth-order polynomial, respectively. The LML models were estimated in MATLAB using the code made available by Train (2016). The respective LML estimates are presented in the second and third columns. The WTP estimates are the premium of the corresponding attribute as compared with the reference point stated in Table 1. Looking at the results of the three specifications (Model 1-Model 3), the estimated means have the same signs and orders of magnitude across models.Overall, the signs are plausible and as expected. In addition, though the stated preferences seem to overestimate WTP, the relative orders are in line with expectations given the context of the study areas.Focusing on the results of the model that fits our data well (Model 3) the estimated coefficients for the attributes are statistically very significant (p<0.01) indicating that respondents had considered each attribute carefully when choosing among the alternatives.The estimated coefficient for the 'origin' attribute was 1.59 and is statistically significant, indicating that consumers are willing to pay 1.59 more for domestically produced cooking oil than for imported oils. The implication is that respondents preferred domestically produced oil to imported oil, supposedly due to its perceived quality. The safety and quality of imported oils are frequently discussed in the food market by consumers. Most imported oils are palm oils that are often partially solid, an attribute viewed as highly negative by consumers. That may partly explain why consumers preferred domestically produced oils, which are mainly produced from niger seeds (FBPIDI and GAIN, 2018) and are in liquid form, even though they are relatively expensive and in limited supply. These preferences may partly explain consumers' WTP for nationally produced cooking oils is higher than their WTP for imported oils, despite the availability of quality imported cooking oils.Consumers were willing to pay a significant premium for safety certification. The estimated WTP for certification was 7.33 birr per litre if certification was issued by a government entity, but 3.70 birr per litre for a private entity. Because we interact certification with fortification in our model, the WTP for certification depends on the fortification status and the WTPs stated above are for certification of cooking oil that is not fortified with vitamin A. The results suggest that consumers worry about food safety and seek assurance that the food they purchase is safe. This is not surprising as adulteration of cooking oil with an inferior substance is not uncommon in Ethiopia (Gobena et al., 2018), and this has been reported in the media. The results also show that consumers' WTP for government certification is higher than their WTP for private certification and the difference is found to be statistically significant (p <0.01). This is probably because respondents considered government agencies as more trustworthy and capable of assessing the safety of food products than the private sector. At the same time, the results also suggest that respondents recognise the role of the private sector in food certification programs, which is encouraging as this indicates the feasibility of engaging the private sector in addressing the ever-increasing demand for safe foods. Furthermore, food safety issues such as food adulteration were the focus of media attention prior to the experiment, which partly explains the high willingness to pay for certification. Studies have shown that extensive media coverage of food-related risks can lead to a heightened perception of risk that affects consumer perceptions of products and can consequently influence demand for safer services and products (Frewer et al., 2002;McCluskey and Swinnen, 2011).The results indicate that urban consumers are willing to pay 4.64 birr per litre on average for vitamin A fortification of cooking oil. Again, because of the interaction term, this refers to an estimated WTP for vitamin A fortification of cooking oil that has not been certified. The results may suggest that the majority of the respondents are aware of the benefits of vitamin A.Comparing the WTP for certification with the WTP for fortification shows that respondents are more concerned about the safety of the cooking oil than its nutritional value. The difference in WTP for the two attributes is found to be statistically significant (p<0.01), and this holds for both private and government certification.The interaction between fortification and certification captures the effect of certification on the WTP for vitamin A fortification of cooking oil. The estimated WTPs for certification of fortified cooking oils are positive (4.9 for government and 4.2 for private certification) and statistically significant (p-value <0.01), suggesting that the effect of safety certification on consumers' WTP for fortified cooking oil is higher than its effect on WTP for non-fortified oil.This indicates that urban consumers value certification, even more, when fortification is involved.To calculate the effect of nutrition messaging on WTP for fortified cooking oil, we interacted the treatment status with fortification status so that the coefficient of the interaction term is interpreted as the treatment effect on a participant's WTP. The results show that informing respondents about the nutritional benefit of vitamin A increased the WTP for fortification, albeit slightly, and the effect is found to be statistically significant (p-value <0.01). On average, the information treatment increased WTP by 0.55 birr per litre. Providing nutrition information about vitamin A presumably increased the consumers' awareness level of the product, and awareness plays a crucial role in the decision process. In the field of public health, a number of studies in developing countries have shown that provision of nutrition information is effective in stimulating consumers to make healthier food choices (Barreiro-Hurlé et al., 2010;Bonaccio et al., 2013;Drichoutis et al., 2005;Miller and Cassady, 2015).The fact that urban consumers are willing to pay a premium for fortification indicates that there may be a market-mediated solution for malnutrition. For such a solution to work, supplying fortified cooking oil should be profitable for the private sector. However, a detailed cost-benefit analysis of supplying fortified cooking oil by the private sector is not available.Such an analysis would help to identify potential constraints which can be acted upon to encourage the participation of the private sector. As fortification is highly cost-effective from a public health perspective (Horton, 2006), both price and non-price incentives should be considered to facilitate private sector action.The estimated standard deviations of the attributes are statistically different from zero, indicating that there are identifiable differences across respondents in the extent to which they valued each attribute. To further investigate variability in the direction and magnitude of the effect of certification and nutrition messaging on consumers' WTP for vitamin A fortification, we plot the respective distributions.  The effect of nutrition messagingThe distribution for WTP for fortification as shown in the top left corner of Figure 2 is bimodal and U-shaped, indicating that people either are willing to pay a considerable amount for fortified cooking oil or are only willing to pay a relatively small amount.The shape of the distributions of the joint effects of fortification and certification either by a government entity (Figure 2, top right) or by a private entity (Figure 2, bottom left) also suggests heterogeneity among respondents. Similarly, the graph in Figure 2 bottom right suggests that most people are slightly more willing to pay for fortification after having received information about the benefits of consuming fortified cooking oil than they would have without the information treatment. However, for a small group of respondents (14%), the information treatment decreased the premium they were willing to pay for fortified cooking oil. This is an unintended effect of the nutrition messaging which is not uncommon in health communication (Hornik, 2002). Persuasion attempts can pose a threat to people's autonomy and self-determination, triggering a negative reaction, which is termed as psychological reactance (Brehm and Brehm, 1981). This phenomenon can undermine the effectiveness of nutrition messaging (Dillard and Shen, 2007;Quick et al., 2013;Steindl et al., 2015).Factors that may drive this observed heterogeneity are presented in Table 4. For example, government certification combined with fortification had the highest effect on older people (>60 years of age) as compared to the other age groups. This is probably because older people have a more favourable view of government institutions than the other age groups.The information treatment, however, was less effective for older people. This may not be surprising because communication is shown to be hindered by the normal ageing process, which may involve a decline in memory and slower processing of information (Halter, 1999).As a result, the older people get, the less likely they may be to incorporate new information in their decision process. This explanation is speculative, as we did not collect information on the cognitive processing speed of our participants. There may be other explanations for the results, such as a lack of trust in information.Fortification has a higher effect on WTP for females than for males. The effect of information on WTP for fortification is twice as strong in females. This is consistent with the growing literature that shows that increasing women's human capital (by filling the nutrition knowledge gap, for example) improves the nutritional outcomes of their household (Kurz and Johnson-Welch, 2016;Madzorera and Fawzi, 2020;Malapit and Quisumbing, 2015). The certification and the nutrition messaging seem to have the highest effect for those respondents with more than secondary education, presumably because they are more likely to understand the content of the message than those with less than secondary education.Wealthy respondents-per capita income greater than 1,455 birr -are less likely to increase their WTP for fortified cooking oil and respond weakly to the nutrition messaging. Perhaps this is because they do not necessarily need to consume fortified cooking oil to meet their nutritional requirements, as they may get the necessary nutrients from other food sources to which the poorer respondents may not have access. However, this wealthy group responds more strongly to certification, but only if it is issued by a government entity. Those with per capita income slightly above the national poverty line respond strongly to fortification as well as to certification. Compared to those with per capita income less than the national poverty line, those who earn between 600 and 1,455 birr per capita per month respond more positively to nutrition information.Apart from the above socioeconomic characteristics of respondents, respondents' trust in nutrients and health claims and their food choice motives also moderates the effect of the information treatment. Those respondents who indicated high trust in nutrient and health claims also expressed a higher WTP for fortified cooking oil. This group also responded positively to the nutrition messaging: their WTP for fortification increased after they received the information treatment. The implication is that, apart from providing information, it is also important to pay attention to the credibility of the information.Individuals whose food choices are motivated by the nutritional values of food are more willing to pay for fortification. They will also pay more for certification if the certificate is issued by the government. This is probably because if individuals take nutritional values in their food choices into account, then they are more likely to take heed of other health considerations in their food choices as well. The information treatment is found to be more effective to those for whom nutrient value was one of the main motives underlying their food choices. These results are consistent with food choice literature that documents the link between food choice motive and food choice behaviour (Konttinen et al., 2013;Naughton et al., 2015). These results highlight the importance of conducting general nutrition campaigns in addition to providing specific nutrition information on fortified foods.Malnutrition is a complex issue, and winning the battle requires multiple interventions within the food system. The specific policy implications of this study are summarised as follows. First, nutrition awareness creation campaigns that aim at raising people's awareness of the nutritive value of foods and their benefits are effective in encouraging healthy food choices. This statement is in line with previous studies which show that making nutritional information accessible helps consumers to make better food choices (Berning et al., 2010;Miller and Welch, 2013). In the case of fortified cooking oil, campaigns should encourage the substitution of regular oil for fortified oil and be cautious not to inadvertently encourage overconsumption, especially in a country like Ethiopia where the dominant cooking oil is palm oil, which is high in saturated fat and thus associated with risk of heart disease (Brouwer, 2016). In addition, increased consumption of refined oils has been associated with the nutrition transition toward diets rich in sweeteners, fats and highly processed foods (Popkin, 2015).Second, introducing a safety certification mechanism can be used effectively to promote a healthy diet. Certification allows consumers to easily identify foods that are deemed safe and thereby facilitates the shift to healthy diets. Sanogo and Masters (2002) reported similar findings for Mali, where people showed increased willingness to pay for quality certification.Third, nutritional messaging and certification have heterogeneous effects depending on the education level, trust in institutions and people's food choice motives. Liu et al (2019) reported similar results, where consumers' degree of trust in food safety inspection and certificate authority affects their willingness to pay for food certified to be safe. Policymakers who wish to encourage healthy food choice behaviour among the community should be aware of the following points: information interventions need to be tailored to the audience's level of education, attention should be given to building consumer trust in institutions, and interventions need to be informed by the targeted population's food choice motives.This study investigated the acceptability of vitamin A fortified cooking oil among urban consumers in Ethiopia and estimated the effect of certification and nutrition messaging on customers' willingness to pay for fortified oil. We conducted a stated choice experiment augmented by nutrition messaging. The experiment was conducted in an urban setting and 996 subjects selected randomly participated. We estimated WTP distributions for key attributes of cooking oil using flexible models parameterised in WTP space. The estimation resulted from the more general LML model in WTP space with correlated terms, which fits the data best.We found that the average consumer preferred domestically produced cooking oil and was willing to pay for safety certification as well as for fortification. Even though consumers were willing to pay more for nationally produced oil, the magnitude of the WTP for certified and fortified cooking oil indicates that consumers would pay a significant premium for certified and fortified cooking oil even if it were imported. We also find that provision of information about the benefit of vitamin A increased consumers' WTP for fortified cooking oil, albeit slightly. Providing nutrition information is expected to increase the consumers' nutrition knowledge, which in turn allows them to make an informed decision. Finally, we found that the effect of safety certification on consumers' WTP for fortified cooking oil was higher than its effect on WTP for non-fortified oil, indicating that urban consumers value certification, even more, when fortification is involved. Among the product attributes studied, consumers attached higher importance to safety certification, followed by fortification. This is consistent with the study of Addis Ababa consumers by Melesse et al (2019), which reported that food safety issues loom larger in people's decisions than nutrition in the study areaThe fact that consumers value fortification and safety certification is encouraging. From a public health perspective, this supports the government's effort to reduce micronutrient deficiency through food fortification. However, in a country like Ethiopia, where market competition and institutional regulations are limited, policymakers need to be aware that producers and traders may use consumer willingness to pay a premium to extract additional surplus from poor consumers. Thus, the distributional aspect is expected to be critical. There could be potential for public-private partnerships to work jointly to mitigate this concern, particularly during the early stage of introducing fortified cooking oil in the market. In addition, there may be a need to establish a regulatory mechanism to prevent the private sector from exploiting consumers' need for safe and nutritious options. This is particularly important given the recent trend in the Ethiopian cooking oil market, whereby market and non-market shocks seem to give the private sector an excuse to charge an exorbitant price 4 .Heterogeneity analysis revealed that the effects of certification and nutrition messaging on consumers' willingness to pay for fortified cooking oil are moderated by socioeconomic characteristics, people's level of trust in institutions and their food choice motives.Your responses will be used to assist policymakers to determine whether fortified cooking oil is acceptable for consumers like you. Based on your preferences, policymakers could also determine whether foreign oil should be able to enter Ethiopia. Your preferences could also help the policymakers design an effective certification/food safety inspection mechanism that is acceptable to urban consumers like you.Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for humans. It helps people to stay healthy. It is needed for good eyesight, maintaining healthy skin, producing red blood cells and supporting the immune system. Therefore, we all need vitamin A, but young children especially need it because their bodies are at their developmental stage. Pregnant and nursing mothers should have diets rich in vitamin A because they are providing food for growing babies. A study showed that vitamin A deficiency affects 94% of the people in Addis Ababa.healthy skin and even lead to death, particularly in children.Good sources of vitamin A in the diet include fruits and vegetables, especially those that are deep orange or dark green in colour. Vitamin A can also be found in dairy products, liver and egg yolks. Vitamin A-fortified cooking oil can also be an excellent source for getting the amount of vitamin A that our bodies need.Social norm, nutrition messaging demand for biofortified staple crops: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment in EthiopiaSocial norms play an important role in any society. They influence how people behave in a given situation. Since the tendency to follow a norm is strong, useful social norms can be used to encourage behaviour change. We examine this possibility in the context of stimulating demand for nutritionally enhanced (biofortified) crops among smallholder farmers.Biofortification of staple crops is recognized as an effective public health intervention to prevent micronutrient deficiencies among smallholder farm households. Though biofortified maize has been introduced in Ethiopia, the adoption rate is low and empirical evidence as to how to effectively encourage the consumption of food prepared from these crops is limited.In this chapter, we explored the extent to which information interventions can be used to stimulate demand for biofortified maize. We examine the effect of a nutrition messageinformation on the benefits of biofortified maize and a social norm intervention--information on the acceptability of biofortified maize by other farmers-on farmers' willingness to pay (wtp) for biofortified maize. The experiment is conducted on 2022 smallholder households, selected randomly from high maize-producing highland regions of Ethiopia. Our resultsindicate that the nutrition message alone is found to be effective in stimulating demand for biofortified maize while the social norm intervention alone does not seem to be effective in that regard. However, combining the two treatments is found to be even more effective in stimulating demand for biofortified maize, indicating the existence of synergistic effects of the two treatments.Keywords: Social norm; nutrition; health messaging, willingness to pay; choice experiment; biofortified maize JEL-code: Q1 D9 C9 H1Publication status: Kaleb, J. and van den Berg 2022. Social norm, nutrition messaging demand for biofortified staple crops: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment in Ethiopia. Under review at Agricultural Economics.Overcoming all forms of malnutrition worldwide is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. Malnutrition in children is especially harmful as it has long-term and substantial negative impacts on the child's future. Globally it is estimated that childhood stunting, wasting, and underweight, which all are manifestation of nutrient deficiencies, causes over 1 million deaths (GBD 2016Risk Factors Collaborators, 2017). Malnutrition is also associated with lower cognitive ability in children (Grantham-McGregor and Ani, 2001;Kar et al., 2008;Liu et al., 2003). This in turn hampers future productivity (Siddiqui et al., 2020) restricting income-earning potential. The problem is especially acute for countries in the global south.For lower-and middle-income countries, the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight is reported to be 29.1%, 6.3% and 13.7%, respectively (Ssentongo et al., 2021).In Malnutrition arises from insufficient or excess intake of nutrients. In developing countries, however, inadequate food intake is observed most frequently (Bain et al., 2013). In these settings, biofortification has been recognized as an effective and cost-efficient intervention to deliver essential nutrients (Nuss and Tanumihardjo, 2011;Ruel and Alderman, 2013). For biofortification to be effective, the biofortified crops need to be consumed by the target population at scale. Cereals (maize, sorghum, teff) form the bulk of the Ethiopian diet and are therefore good biofortification candidates. While these grains provide cheap energy, they lack key micronutrients and essential amino acids such as lysine and tryptophan (Hafebo et al., 2015;Nuss and Tanumihardjo, 2011). By enriching cereals with micronutrients, it is possible to improve nutrition without significantly disrupting the food system and diets.The majority (79%, 2019 estimate) of the Ethiopian population lives in rural areas and a large share of these people depends on agriculture for their livelihood. One of the salient challenges agrarian households in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face is failure of factor markets (Sheahan and Barrett, 2017). As a consequence, household production and consumption decisions are nonseparable and own consumption of agricultural produce is salient (Allen, 2018;Dillon and Barrett, 2017). Hence strategies that support the consumption of biofortified crops should also support their production. Effectively promoting improved crop varieties requires a clear understanding of crop characteristics or attributes that are considered by the target population in their decision process. This is even more so for biofortified crops as the process of biofortification changes the characteristics of a crop. Moreover, since the key selling point of biofortification is its nutritional value, there is a need to understand how much the target population values the nutritional contents of a crop relative to other crop attributes and how one can increase this value.The study focuses on maize. In Ethiopia, maize is the single most important cereal crop with 74.4 percent of produce used for own consumption in 2014/15 (CSA, 2020a). It is also the most important and cheapest source of calorie intake in the country, providing 23% of per capita calorie intake (Berhane et al., 2012). Recognizing its potential, maize has been an ideal candidate for biofortification interventions in Ethiopia. It has been successfully biofortified with proteins (Asare- Marfo et al., 2013), and the resulting varieties have been promoted in Ethiopia since 2012 (Teklewold et al., 2015). There is strong interest by the government of Ethiopia to cover 10% of the total maize growing area with biofortified maize, which is more than 227 thousand hectares by the latest estimate (CSA, 2020b). However, adoption is disappointingly low (Tessema et al., 2016).We conducted a behavioural choice experiment among 2022 smallholder households from 184 rural kebeles in the maize-producing highlands of Ethiopia to assess their willingness to pay (wtp) for biofortified maize. This large and rich dataset allows us to estimate the effect sizes precisely and to make valid generalizations. We also study the impact of two interventions: nutrition and normative messaging. Provision of nutrition information can effectively stimulate healthy consumption by altering the information set on which people base their decision, though the evidence is relatively sparse for low and middle-income countries (Bonaccio et al., 2013;Chege et al., 2019;Donato et al., 2020;Miller and Cassady, 2015;Shimokawa, 2013). Similarly, social norm treatments have been effectively used to nudge consumers towards healthier choices (Bucher et al., 2016;Higgs et al., 2019;Lehner et al., 2015;Lycett et al., 2017). Social norms have long been recognized to influence individual behaviour (Fehr and Falk, 2002;Lindbeck et al., 1999;Moffitt, 1983). Pointing people at social norms can motivate conformity (Cialdini, 2008) due to the two psychological phenomena of \"herd behaviour\" and the \"bandwagon effect\" (Corneo and Jeanne, 1997). People tend to make social comparisons and evaluate their own performance, possessions, and well-being, not in absolute terms, but relative to others (Smith et al., 2012). In addition, descriptive norms often function as shortcuts (i.e., heuristic cues) in the decision-making process and thereby influence behaviour (Cialdini, 2008).We contribute to this literature in two main ways. First, we explicitly place nutrition in the context of own consumption of farm produce. The effect of information on food choice is generally limited to the consumption aspects of this choice, even when it involves poor rural populations (e.g., Chege et al. 2019). The notable exceptions are (Hotz et al., 2012)  2020) study the effect of information and storage tools on the feeding of ownproduced biofortified maize to young children in Ethiopia. Yet, while we focus on willingness to pay for the biofortified seeds, they focus on the use of the produce after the seeds have been provided. Like us, De Groote et al ( 2016) study the impact of information on the adoption of biofortified maize in Ethiopia. However, their study is observational, considering the association between participation in extension activities and adoption.Second, this is one of the first papers to look at shifting social norms in the domain of agriculture. The impact of social norms in affecting people's behaviour has long been recognized in the economics literature (Bagwell and Bernheim, 1996;Bernheim, 1994;Leibenstein, 1950) and continues to be a topic of study in recent years (Acemoglu and Jackson, 2017;Bursztyn et al., 2020). This growing literature has found that the willingness to conform to social norms has strong effects on a range of behaviours (Bursztyn and Jensen, 2017).However, in the agricultural domain, people's tendency to follow norms has not been exploited in encouraging the adoption of technologies. We explore to what extent normative messaging is effective in stimulating demand for agricultural technology. In addition, we assess if there is a complementarity between normative messaging and information interventions in encouraging adoption of new crops. Since the two interventions can be combined cost-effectively, our result would be useful in designing messaging campaigns.The results indicate that farmers are willing to pay a premium for biofortification. However, without messaging treatments, this premium is not enough to compensate for their dislike of the colour of biofortified maize, which is yellow whereas commonly consumed maize is white.Both treatments had a statistically significant positive effect on the wtp for biofortification, though the effect of the social norm treatment was too small to compensate for the negative effect of the yellow colour of the maize. The two treatments are found to be complementary and have synergistic effects indicating that combining the health message with a social norm treatment is more effective in stimulating demand for biofortification.The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 briefly describes the conceptual framework of the study and how it fits into the food system. Section 2 describes the experimental design, the treatment, the data source, and the methods used to analyse the data. Section 3 presents the theoretical foundation of the experiment and describes the empirical strategy. Section 4 presents the results of the experiment. Section 5 discusses the results and section 6 concludes the paper with policy implications.We conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to answer the research questions. Choice experiments are based on Lancasterian consumer theory that goods and services are essentially bundles of various attributes, and the value of a good or service to a consumer is determined by the relative importance of these attributes (Lancaster, 1966). In the experiment, participants were asked to choose between hypothetical alternatives and there were no real consequences associated with the choice. As such, responses may differ from real-world behaviour (Hensher et al., 2015). To reduce the potential bias, choice sets were framed in a way that closely reflects the actual purchase decisions of farmers and an opt-out option was included. In this set-up, participants are informed that if they do not prefer either of the two alternatives, they have the option of choosing neither. Thus, though the results should be used with caution, DCEs are still useful and they allow researchers to gain an understanding of people's preferences (Louviere et al., 2010).Based on the pilot survey and objective of the paper, we considered five attributes-seed price, producers' price, nutritional value, source of seed, and colour. Though there are other interesting crop attributes, we limited the attributes to five so as to reduce the cognitive burden on respondents and thereby increase the quality of our data. The choice of these attributes was guided by an extensive literature review, experts' opinions, and the results of a pilot testing the experimental design. Each attribute has various levels, which we selected to reflect actual situations respondents experience in the market. However, not all combinations of attributes are feasible in practice: as indicated before white biofortified maizeis not yet available. We conducted a pilot test to see whether the attributes included were relevant and whether the levels for each attribute were plausible and understandable. The test results showed that respondents pay attention to the proposed attributes and that the attribute levels make sense from their perspective. Table 5 shows the final set of attributes and their respective levels.Table 5. Attributes and attribute levels for the choice experiment.Price of one kg of maize seed in Ethiopian birr.3 levels (24, 35, 47)The selling price of one kg of maize in Ethiopian birr.3 levels (7.00, 8.25, 9.50)Origin of the seed Source of the seed 4 levels (Other farmers, private traders, government, NGOs) Bio-fortification status Whether or not the maize is bio-fortified 2 level (bio-fortified, not biofortified) Colour of the grainThe colour of the maize grain. 2 levels (yellow, and white)The D-optimal approach of fractional factorial was used to design the experiment with the help of SAS software (Kuhfeld, 2010). This design approach generates choice sets that allow the estimation of all main and key interaction effects. It reduces the predicted standard errors of parameter estimates and gives unbiased estimates (Carlsson and Martinsson, 2003;Hoyos, 2010;Rose et al., 2008). Using D-optimal design, we generated 48 choice sets using random selection without replacement. To promote response efficiency and reduce the cognitive effort for respondents, the choice sets were optimally divided into 6 equal blocks of 8 choice sets using SAS macros to ensure orthogonality between the blocking factor and all of the attributes of all alternatives (Kuhfeld, 2010). Each choice set consisted of two maize seed types (Options 1 and 2) and a no-buy option (Option 3). Inclusion of the no-buy option has been recommended by previous literature (Hoefkens et al., 2012;Louviere et al., 2000), as it reflects real market choices, where consumers can decide not to purchase maize seed. Figure 4 presents a sample choice set. The design has a maximum between attributes covariance of 0.04, suggesting a highly optimal and balanced orthogonal design. Group one was provided with nutrition information; Group two with a social norm treatment.Group three was provided with both nutrition information and the social norm treatment.The last group served as a control.The nutrition information treatment involved informing participants of the benefits of consuming food produced from nutritionally enhanced maize. The information included in the nutrition message is adapted from a guide prepared by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) (Teklewold et al., 2015) to promote nutritionally enhanced maize in Ethiopia and incorporated inputs from Nutritionist from Ethiopia Public Health Institute 7 . The exact text of the message is:\"Consumption of nutritionally enhanced maize leads to better growth in children for whom maize is the major food staple. This is because nutritionally enhanced maize provides more high-quality protein for the human body than conventional maize.\"The social norm treatment involved informing participants that consumption of foods prepared from nutritionally enhanced maize is both common and socially desirable among their peers. Studies have demonstrated that behaviourally informed interventions induce substantial behaviour change in rural settings with regard to adopting pro-poor technologies (Benhassine et al., 2015;Donato et al., 2020;Hummel and Maedche, 2019) and influencing people's food choices (Bucher et al., 2016;Lehner et al., 2015;Lycett et al., 2017). More importantly, studies show that knowledge about what others who are close to the target population are doing can be leveraged to promote new technologies (Bandiera and Rasul, 2006;BenYishay and Mobarak, 2019;Krishnan and Patnam, 2014). In the economics literature, the tendency to follow norms has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena ranging from prosocial behaviour (Bénabou and Tirole, 2006;Tabellini, 2008) to the development and evolution of culture (Bernheim, 1994;Bisin and Verdier, 2001) to conspicuous consumption (Bagwell and Bernheim, 1996) to educational effort (Bursztyn et al., 2019). Social pressure or social image concern has also been exploited to design effective rule and punishment structures (Acemoglu and Jackson, 2017). In economics, social image concern or status is studied under the utility maximization framework. It is usually introduced into the utility function and assumed that apart from deriving utility directly from consumption, individuals also derive utility from their public image, which itself depends on their behaviour or actions (Bernheim, 1994;Bursztyn and Jensen, 2017). The literature also highlights that the need to conform to social norms is so strong that people are willing to incur costs or forgo benefits to not depart from social norms (Bursztyn and Jensen, 2017).Close to our paper is a recent study by Bursztyn et al. (2020) about misperceived norms and women's labour market participation. The authors show that misperceived social norms negatively affect women's participation in labour markets and that correcting these beliefs increased women's labour participation. We bring these insights into a technology adoption context in the domain of agriculture and investigate if carefully crafted normative messages stimulate demand for a new crop variety.Though the biofortified seed is not widely available in Ethiopia, the social norm treatment is based on the findings of studies conducted in places where the seeds were available. In these studies, subjects were asked to evaluate foods prepared from biofortified maize and conventional maize and most of them preferred foods prepared from biofortified maize (De Groote et al., 2014;Gunaratna et al., 2016;Teklewold et al., 2015). The text used for the social norm treatment was:\"A lot of people aren't aware that farmers prefer food prepared from nutritionally enhanced maize. When asked to choose between foods prepared from nutritionally enhanced and conventional maize, most farmers chose foods prepared from nutritionally enhanced maize variety\"Farmers who are provided with these two types of information are expected to update their beliefs about the benefits of consuming biofortified maize, and this in turn is expected to be reflected in a higher wtp. More formally, farmers make decisions based on their information set. Their posterior belief or perception about bio-fortified maize is assumed to be a function of their prior belief and how they incorporate the information they received. Farmers adjust their choices if their posterior assessment is sufficiently different from their prior. The implication is that even if farmers incorporated the new information they received and update their belief on biofortified maize, they are not expected to change their actions if their posterior belief is not sufficiently different from their prior. Farmers may incorporate the information differently depending on their capacity to process information (age, education level), the level of trust in the information and information sources, and the relevance of the information for their choices (interest in nutrition, the importance of own produced maize in their diets). In addition, people may respond differently to the type of information provided: information about nutrition or social norms.The experiment was carried out as part of the nationally representative survey of the Respondents first received the treatment and then were asked to state their choices. The treatments involved audio recordings of messages prepared in a professional studio. The messages were translated into four local languages (Amharic, Oromifa, Gamo-Gofa-Dawro and Sidamo) and the respective audio recordings were prepared using native speakers. Before they were presented with the choice sets, respondents received a short description of the experiment, clear definitions of the product attributes, an explanation of how to respond to questions, and assurance of the confidentiality of their responses. Participation was completely voluntarily. Moreover, participants were informed that they could opt out of the experiment at any time with no penalty. During the experiment, participants were asked to evaluate very carefully the attributes of the maize seed before deciding which option they choose to buy. They were reminded repeatedly that the two maize seeds were identical in terms of agronomical properties such as productivity, diseases, and drought resistance, but different in terms of the five attributes. This information was highlighted to minimize the likelihood of participants evaluating the two maize seeds in terms of attributes not included in the choice experiments. They were also instructed that if they did not prefer any of the two options, they could choose none.The study protocols, process, data management and risks related to participation in the experimental study are as per ILRI Policy and Guidelines of Research Ethics. The Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the relevant Regional Bureaus of Agriculture granted permission to conduct the survey. All participants provided written informed consent before participation.The theoretical foundation of discrete choice models is provided by Hendler's (1975) and Lancaster's (1966) consumer theory, andMcFadden's (1974) random utility theory. A decision maker faces a choice among j alternatives. Indexing an individual consumer by n, maize seed type (alternatives) by j and in choice situation t, the utility can be written as:Where \uD835\uDC5D \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC61 is price and \uD835\uDC65 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57 are non-price attributes, \uD835\uDEFC \uD835\uDC5B and \uD835\uDEFD \uD835\uDC5B is a vector of coefficients of these variables for person n representing that person's tastes, and \uD835\uDF00 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57 is a random term that is iid type-one extreme value. The variance of \uD835\uDF00 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57 can be different for different decision makers:, where \uD835\uDC58 \uD835\uDC5B is the scale parameter for decisionmaker \uD835\uDC5B. The coefficients are expected to vary over decision-makers in the population with density \uD835\uDC53(\uD835\uDEFD).Consumer \uD835\uDC5B chooses alternative \uD835\uDC57 if and only if \uD835\uDC48 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC61 > \uD835\uDC48 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC61 ∀ \uD835\uDC57 ≠ \uD835\uDC56. Since a person's tastes (\uD835\uDEFD \uD835\uDC5B ) are not observed by the researcher, the unconditional choice probability will be used to extract the estimates, and this is given as.To estimate the parameters, an assumption was made about the specific functional form \uD835\uDC53(\uD835\uDEFD) would take.To show how willingness to pay will be extracted, equation 1 can be specified utility as separable in price, p, and non-price attributes, x * and divided by the scale parameter \uD835\uDC58 \uD835\uDC5B .where \uD835\uDF02 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC61 is iid type-one extreme value, with constant variance ). Then, willingness to pay for an attribute is the ratio of the attribute's coefficient to the price coefficient: wtp \uD835\uDC5B = \uD835\uDC50 \uD835\uDC5B \uD835\uDF06 \uD835\uDC5B ⁄ .Let y \uD835\uDC5B = (y \uD835\uDC5B1 , . . . , y \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC47 ) denote the person's sequence of chosen alternatives and \uD835\uDF03 denote the parameters of the distribution, such as the mean and variance. Following (Train, 2009), individual level estimates are given by;Different econometric models are available to estimate the parameters in equation 2. We used a mixed logit (MXL) model. MXL models provide several advantages to most choice models. The MXL model provides an extended framework to better capture the true behavioural variability in choice making and is more consistent with the reality of making choices than most other discrete choice models (Hensher and Greene, 2002). MXL also allows greater flexibility in model specification and can handle correlation among parameters and choice situations (Hess and Train, 2017). MXL does not require any restrictions on the choice model or distribution of preferences. Finally, the MXL model relaxes the key assumption of independence from irrelevant alternatives (IIA), which is important for the most commonly used multinomial logit (MNL) regression models (Cheng and Long, 2007). We used different specifications to check the robustness of the results. Likelihood ratio test and information criteria such as Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC)were used to discriminate between alternative models.The empirical analysis also involves estimating the average effects of the two treatments on respondents' wtp for the biofortified crop. Our randomized assignment of participants into the different treatment arms permits us to present clear evidence of the impacts of the two treatments. Using the framework of Equation 3, individual preference is specified as follows.\uD835\uDC48 \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC61 = Table 6 shows the descriptive statistics for the sample and the balance test. 82.5% of the sample is male and the mean age of the sample is 48.6 years. Most of the participants are married (82.7%) and a little more than half of the participants (51.6%) have no formal education. Among those with education, primary education is the highest level achieved for 86.8% while the remaining 13.2% had some post-primary education.The study was conducted in maize surplus-producing areas where farms are expected to participate in the maize market. Of 2,022 participants, 1,411 (67.4%) participated in the maize market as a seller. Use of improved maize seeds was common among the sample: 60.4% reported using improved seeds, which is more than the national average of 34% in 2017 (CSA, 2017). This characterizes the nature of the study areas as the main maize-producing regions.Maize is a main staple in the study areas, and almost 87% consume food prepared from maize regularly. 37.7% reported eating food prepared from maize every day, while another 21.3% consume foods prepared from maize at least twice a week. 41.6% of the sample had been exposed to nutritionally enhanced maize varieties previous. Participants were asked questions to measure their trust level. The results indicate that more than half of the sample (58.2%)answered the question, \"when dealing with strangers, one is better off using caution before trusting\" 10 affirmatively.Table 6 also presents the means and the statistics of mean differences tests across the treatment groups for demographic characteristics and other pre-treatment measures.Scanning across each row reveals no significant difference among the different treatment groups in terms of observable characteristics. Though not conclusive evidence against randomization problems, the absence of notable imbalances provides some evidence that the randomization plan was successful. The p-values are for the test of association among the treatment groups. The test used for categorical variables is chi squared. For continuous variables ( †) the statistics is F.We estimated four models with different assumptions about the correlation of parameters (no correlations and full covariance) and about the interaction effect (with and without interaction), and two estimation methods (maximum simulated likelihood (MSL) and Hierarchical Bayes (HB)). The models are estimated in Stata using the user-written command \"mixlogit\" and MATLAB using the estimation command made available by Train (2006). The coefficients for sources, colour, and biofortification status are assumed to follow a normal distribution, while the monetary attribute -producer selling price of maize, is assumed to follow a lognormal distribution. The cost attribute-the price of maize seed-is assumed to be fixed. However, as we progress to the estimation of wtp, these assumptions have been relaxedand a more flexible mixing distribution-a logit formula -is adopted. The estimates are reasonably stable across models and the coefficients have the expected signs (see table 7). All else equal, farmers preferred nutritionally enhanced maize seeds to seeds that are not nutritionally enhanced. However, if the seeds turned out to be yellow, their interest decreased significantly. Respondents preferred white maize to yellow, and the coefficient for the interaction of biofortification status with the colour attribute is significant and negative. White maize is more widely cultivated in Ethiopia, and a significant proportion of maize produced is consumed at home. The Colour of food has long been shown to affect how appealing or unappealing food is (Clydesdale, 1991;Delwiche, 2012). Since white maize is what the study participants are used to eating, uncertainty about the taste and flavour of food prepared from yellow maize may explain their hesitancy toward yellow maize. The preference for white maize is reported in other Sub-Saharan African countries where consumers showed a strong preference for white maize and required a significant price discount (37%) to accept yellow maize (De Groote and Kimenju, 2008). A study on orange sweet potato in rural Mozambique finds different results where the colour of the crops was found to be not a barrier to adoption (Hotz et al., 2012). However, there is a small but significant difference between these two settings. The sweet potato study was conducted in areas where different coloured crops are commonly produced and consumed, which eased the resistance to one additional colour, while the current study was conducted in areas where most of the farmers produced only white maize. This result may partially explain why the adoption of nutritionally enhanced maize is limited in the country.The respondents preferred maize seeds sourced from the government. Though the private sector and NGOs play a role in the seed market, the government is currently the main source of seeds for smallholder farmers. The least popular source of seed is the private sector. This is not surprising since the role of the private sector in seed supply is limited, and farmers might not have had adequate opportunities to try seeds from the private sector and form beliefs about their quality and performance.Farmers preferred maize seeds that command a higher price in the market. In Ethiopia, farmers produce maize mainly for consumption. However, the study participants are in high maize producing zone and market considerations are incorporated in the farming decision.The variance of each random coefficient is highly significant, indicating that there is heterogeneity in the preferences for the various attributes of maize seeds. For instance, white maize was preferred by 82.9% of farmers, and 82.6% of farmers were estimated to prefer having biofortified white maize, while the other one-fifth preferred the regular white maize.We used the results of Model 4 in table 8 to estimate the wtp for each attribute. The parameters of the wtp were estimated by maximum simulated likelihood method in Matlab using the code made available by (Train, 2015). The results are based on a random sample of 1500 points drawn independently for each person in the sample. The mixing distribution is specified as a sixth-order polynomial and standard errors are calculated by bootstrapping.Biofortification had a positive effect on farmers' wtp for maize seed. Compared to nonbiofortified white maize, farmers were willing to pay 12.18 birr per kg more for white biofortified maize seeds. However, as indicated before, the colour of the maize affected their preferences: On average, farmers were willing to pay 12 birr less per kilo of non-biofortified maize seeds if the colour of the maize was yellow. Though a significant proportion of maize production is used for household consumption, the results indicated that farmers were willing to pay more for maize seeds if they could sell the produce at a higher price. The estimates indicate that farmers were willing to pay 10.4 birr per kilo of maize seed to avoid seeds from private traders (Table 8). The output price of maize is positively associated with farmers' willingness to pay for seeds.The effects of the treatments on farmers' wtp for biofortified yellow maize seed can be The effect is significant and consistent with a recent study conducted in Ethiopia, which showed a positive effect of nutrition messaging in changing consumption behaviours (Donato et al., 2020). The result is also consistent with a study conducted in Kenya and Uganda that also showed that availing nutrition information increases consumers' wtp for improved porridge flour (Chege et al., 2019). De Groote et al., (2017) also reported a positive relationship between nutrition information and wtp for fortified pearl millet in SenegalSimilarly, the effect of the social norm treatment is found to be positive and statistically significant. In terms of magnitude, however, the effect on wtp is only 1.17 (0.63+1.50-0.96) birr per kg, which was not enough to counter the disinclination among farmers towards yellow maize, as demonstrated by a negative wtp (-2.34).The two treatments are complementary and have a synergetic effect: Combining the treatments increased the wtp for biofortified yellow maize by 9.3 birr more (2.66+ 4.30+2.34), which is higher than the sum of the individual treatment effects (6.38 + 1.17= 7.55) and the difference is found to be statistically significant (F1, 2013 = 21.30, p =0.000) We thus find evidence of information strengthening the effect of the social norm treatment. As the costs of adding social norm information to a regular information campaign are small, combining the treatments in suggested in future behaviour change campaigns.We tested two interventions -nutrition education and normative messaging; to provide insights into the effect of these interventions on farmers' willingness to pay for biofortified maize in Ethiopia. Our approach is novel in the sense that the impact of nutrition education in conjunction with social norm messaging has not been explored before.We find that nutrition education increased farmers' wtp for yellow biofortified maize. The social norm treatment also affected farmers' wtp positively but was not enough to compensate for the reluctance farmers showed towards yellow maize. However, combining the two treatments had synergistic effects in stimulating demand for biofortified maize.Our study builds on public health literature examining nutrition and health education interventions on food choice. Our results are in line with the consistent pattern emerging from this literature that there is a strong relationship between nutrition knowledge and healthy food choice (Scalvedi et al., 2021;Snyder, 2007;Spronk et al., 2014;Wardle et al., 2000). Also, several studies in developing countries identify gaps in nutrition knowledge as one of the barriers to eating healthy. In Uganda, a nutrition knowledge gap is observed, and this in turn is shown to influence household dietary diversity (Nabuuma et al., 2021). Similar findings in reported for rural South Africa (Taruvinga et al., 2013) and Tanzania (Mbwana et al., 2016).Limited access to nutrition knowledge is also linked with worsened household nutrition outcomes in Bangladesh (Zongrone et al., 2018), Nepal (Osei et al., 2017), and Cambodia (Michaux et al., 2019). Based on randomized field experiments and causal mediation analysis, de Brauw et al. (2018) showed that maternal knowledge of nutrition messages had an effect, albeit small, on the adoption of nutritionally enhanced potato varieties in both Mozambique and Uganda.Our study also builds on the health communication literature examining how social norms can be leveraged to promote healthy diets. Higgs et al. (2019) argued that the eating habits of others are used by people to guide their consumption. In their study, the authors demonstrated that exposure to a descriptive social norm message increased intake of vegetables in both laboratory and field settings. In addition, our results contribute to the growing literature that demonstrates the utility of using nudging interventions to influence people's food choices (Bucher et al., 2016;Hollands et al., 2017;Lehner et al., 2015;Lycett et al., 2017). Our results are also consistent with the findings that knowledge about the social norms with regard to a new technology affects people's behaviour and that this, in turn, affects the decision to adopt the new technology (Bandiera and Rasul, 2006;BenYishay and Mobarak, 2019;Donato et al., 2020;Krishnan and Patnam, 2014).To our knowledge, this is the first study that explores nutrition education and social norm intervention in a single study. As such, our results are a contribution to the limited literature that combines psychological insights into education interventions. The synergetic effect of the two treatments is consistent with the idea that people tend to conform to norms because they find it rewarding to do so (Higgs, 2015), such that knowing the consequence of following norms makes the tendency to conform even more strong.Malnutrition remains an important public health problem in Ethiopia, where the prevalence of child stunting and underweight is high. Biofortification is effective in availing essential nutrients to poor rural populations who have little access to nutritious food. A key concern, however, is how to effectively promote the adoption and consumption of nutritionally enhanced crops.Nutrition messages have long been an important component of such efforts. In addition, describing how most people behave in a given situation -social norm treatment-has beenshown to affect agents' information set and this, in turn, is expected to affect people's preferences. Combining these two approaches represents one potential solution that helps to prompt the adoption and consumption of biofortified crops. Overall, our results suggest that a nutrition message can be made more effective in bringing about behaviour change needed to adopt and consume biofortified crops by combining it with information about how common consumption of biofortified crops is.Our results should be considered in light of the following limitations. First, the study assessed the short-term effect of the two interventions only. We measured the wtp of participants for nutritionally enhanced maize seeds immediately after exposure to the treatments and did not document the long-term effects. Second, the effect of the social norm messages is expected to be more effective if the target population strongly identifies with the reference group (Higgs, 2015). People's eating behaviour is influenced by knowledge of how people with whom they are socially connected eat (Higgs et al., 2019). Our social norm message referred to the behaviour of farmers in general. The effects could be stronger for more specific reference groups. Third, the credibility and familiarity of the information provided under the two treatments are expected to affect the effectiveness of our treatment. If participants do not believe the information contained in the nutrition message or are already familiar with it, they are unlikely to update their information set and their choice would not be impacted by the treatment. Likewise, if different people evaluate the credibility and familiarity of the messages differently, then the effects of the treatment are likely to vary among the participants. In this study, we assumed that the majority of participants believed the information contained in our treatment and that the information was new to them. We did not explore the potential treatment heterogeneity that would emanate from variation in perceived credibility and familiarity of the information. Finally, though the two interventions are cost-effective to implement and have the potential to reach those who suffer the most from lack of inadequate intake of nutrients, whether the potential effect would be clinically relevant or meaningful is unclear.From our results, we draw the following implications. First, our findings suggest that provision of nutrition education may be effective in promoting the production and consumption of biofortified staple crops. Our results also suggest that effort to encourage consumption of foods prepared from biofortified crops may find it useful to leverage people's tendency to follow norms and combine normative messages with nutrition education. Second, future studies that aim to improve the effectiveness of nutrition education by combining it with normative messages need to pay attention to the extent to which the target population identifies with the reference group. Finally, whether the positive impact of the two interventions considered here would have clinically meaningful effects remains an open question. This is an important consideration for future research for proposing the best policies to improve adoption of biofortified staple crops and ultimately promote intake of food prepared from these crops.Chapter 4There is an increasing interest in using insights from behavioural economics and psychology to influence people's decisions. However, little is known as to how to leverage these insights to inform educational campaigns in the context of nutrition-sensitive agriculture. We help to fill this void by investigating the effect of framed messages (gain vs loss) in stimulating demand for nutritionally-enhanced crops. We conducted a field experiment with 648 farmers and found the following key results. First, nutrition education stimulates demand for nutritionallyenhanced crops among smallholder farmers. Without nutrition education, farmers are less likely to switch from producing conventional maize to nutritionally-enhanced maize.Second, gain-framed messages are slightly more effective: they result in a higher willingness to pay for nutritionally-enhanced maize than loss-framed messages. Third, motivational orientations and risk perceptions of individuals moderate the effect of the framed messages. Transforming food systems in order to deliver better nutritional outcomes to the growing global population is an immediate challenge and requires new ways of thinking and new approaches. The importance of agriculture as a core determinant of nutrition has long been recognized, and agricultural policies that incorporate nutritional outcomes have been promoted particularly in developing countries to address food and nutrition insecurity (Gillespie and van den Bold, 2017;IFPRI, 2011;Ruel et al., 2018;Ruel and Alderman, 2013). In recent years, the call to increase the nutritional status of smallholder farmers and their families through nutrition-sensitive agriculture has received a lot of attention (Kennedy et al., 2021; The EAT-Lancet Commission, 2019).Promoting nutritionally-enhanced food crops is one of the efforts resulting from such calls (Ruel et al., 2018). As smallholder families consume a substantial share of their produce, the cultivation of such crops would directly improve the quality of their diets. However, as is the case for many agricultural technologies, adoption rates are still low (Ruzzante et al., 2021).One factor that has hindered the wide adoption of nutritionally-enhanced crops is the lack of information about their nutritional benefits (Ruel et al., 2018;van Campenhout, 2021). As a result, raising awareness and filling the knowledge gap are used to stimulate demand (FAO, 2016;Kodish et al., 2015). Yet, motivating and sustaining a behaviour change may require moving beyond the provision of knowledge to the engagement of emotions and activation of motivations. It has long been noted that individuals' motivational orientation guides behaviour (Craig, 1917) and that framed messages may activate this motivational system (Updegraff et al., 2007;Yan et al., 2012Yan et al., , 2010)).In this study, we aim to explore how insights from behavioural economics as well as from psychology can be leveraged to inform educational campaigns in the context of nutritionsensitive agriculture. The education campaigns are meant to educate farmers about the consequences of their production choices for the health of their families through home consumption of their produce. The following questions guide our study: 1) Is providing nutrition education messages effective in stimulating demand for nutritionally-enhanced seeds? 2) How do differently framed nutrition messages affect farmers' willingness to pay (wtp) for nutritionally-enhanced seeds? 3) How do individuals' motivational orientation and risk perception moderate the effectiveness of framed messages?The framing effect is derived from the prospect theory of Tversky and Kahneman (1981), who demonstrated that preferences depend on the formulation of decision problems. A key conclusion is that people tend to be risk-avoiding when contemplating gains and risk-seeking when contemplating losses. The health communication literature examines framing effects in a variety of settings ranging from encouraging health-seeking behaviour (Banks et al., 1995;Ye et al., 2021) to physical activities (Drouin et al., 2018) to shaping attitude (Jean et al., 2021) to promoting healthy food choice (Binder et al., 2020;Elbert and Ots, 2018;Godinho et al., 2016). These studies explored the framing effect by providing gain-or loss-framed health messages and find support for the hypothesis that gain(loss)-framed messages would be effective in promoting safe(risky) behaviours in the health domain (Meyerowitz and Chaiken, 1987;Rothman and Salovey, 1997). The key insight here is that the perceived risk associated with the advocated behaviour determines which message framing would be more effective in bringing about the intended behaviour changes. If there is significant variability in the way behaviour is construed (e.g., whether the behaviour is perceived risky or less risky), then messaging strategies that do not take these insights into account tend to be less effective.However, the empirical results on the relationship between risk perception and framed messages are mixed ( Van 't Riet et al., 2014), indicating that there may be other relevant interindividual differences that interact with risk perception. One of such differences is individuals' regulatory focus. For instance, Mann et al. (2004) show that the dominant regulatory focus of individuals moderates the effectiveness of differently framed messages. This approach categorizes people into two groups: promotion-focused individuals and prevention-focused individuals. Promotion-focussed individuals are geared towards achieving something, while prevention focussed individuals are geared towards preventing negative things from happening (Cesario et al., 2008). By framing messages such that they fit the regulatory focus of individuals, it is possible to increase their impact (Higgins, 2000): With proper regulatory fit, decision-makers feel right about the message; and their engagement is strong (Cesario et al., 2008). Put differently, a promotion-focused individual would respond better to a gain-framed message, whereas a prevention-focused individual would respond better to a loss-framed message. The implication is that apart from risk perception, an individual's dominant motivation system also moderates the framing effect. However, the interaction of these two moderators has not been studiedA notable work in the health economic literature is by List and Samek (2015), who leveraged the framing effect to tackle child food choice and consumption. Unlike the literature in health communication, List and Samek (2015) explored the framing effect by using framed incentives.Children were given the choice between a healthy and an unhealthy snack. A random selection received a small price if they selected the healthy snack (gain-framed incentive), and another random selection received a price, but it was taken away if they selected the unhealthy snack (loss frame incentive). Contrary to the hypothesis that children would be loss averse and thus more responsive to the loss-framed incentive, List and Samek (2015) found both incentives to be equally effective in stimulating the choice of the healthy snack. In their set-up, List and Samek (2015) did not explore the role of key moderators such as risk perceptions of the promoted behaviour and motivational orientation of participants. Since the promoted behaviour in the study-switching to healthy snacks-can be thought of as of limited risk, risk perception might not be an important moderator. However, the motivational orientation can still be relevant in this context.In this paper, we study the framing effect together with the two moderators discussed above -risk perception and motivational orientations-in the context of stimulating demand for nutritionally-enhanced maize among Ethiopian farmers. In Ethiopia, maize is the single most important cereal crop with 74% of the produce used for own consumption in 2014/15 (CSA, 2015). It is also the most important and cheapest source of calories in the country, providing 23% of per capita calorie intake (Berhane et al., 2012). Recognizing its potential, maize has been identified as an ideal candidate for biofortification interventions in Ethiopia, (Asare-Marfo et al., 2013). However, the adoption of biofortified (nutritionally-enhanced) 11 seeds is disappointingly low (Tessema et al., 2016). This paper seeks to assess whether active promotion with carefully framed messages could stimulate adoption.This paper seeks to contribute to the literature in two ways. First, we document the framing effect in the context of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture intervention among smallholders.Most message framing studies are conducted on college students and have focussed on the health domain -disease detection (Williams et al., 2001), vaccination (Ferguson and Gallagher, 2007;Van 't Riet et al., 2014), and smoking cessation (Toll et al., 2008). Our results provide empirical evidence about the utility of using framed messages in a context markedly different from the context of these previous studies. Second, we contribute to the growing literature exploring the cross-fertilization of ideas and methods from economics and other social science fields such as psychology to refine strategies to promote healthy diets. From behavioural economics, we took the insight that people have reference-dependent preferences and that framing of choice problems affects behaviour. From the auction literature, we took the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) method to elicit willingness to pay. BDM is an incentivecompatible valuation methods method that is widely used by economists in field studies. From psychology, we took the idea that people are more likely to engage in a given task when there is a match between orientation to a goal and the means used to approach that goal. Our results suggest that, by marrying concepts from different disciplines, it is possible to finetune behaviour change communication strategies in the promotion of healthy diets.We find that nutrition education messages stimulate demand for nutritionally-enhanced crops among smallholder farmers. Without nutrition education, farmers are less likely to switch from producing conventional maize to nutritionally-enhanced maize. We also find that, on average, a gain-framed message is slightly more effective than a loss-framed message. This contradicts our hypothesis that farmers are loss averse and thus more responsive to lossframed messages. Our results hold when controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, farm characteristics and behavioural tendencies of participants.We show that message framing, risk perception, and individual motivational orientation interact in important ways that determine which framing is most effective. For instance, a gain-framed message is more effective than a loss-framed one when the perceived risk associated with the new crop is low. The converse is true when the perceived risk is high. On the other hand, if the perceived risk is medium both gain-and loss-framed are equally effective. The implication is that the framing effect becomes more noticeable when the perceived risk is sufficiently high or low. This is consistent with the notion that perceived risk associated with the advocated behaviour affects the relative effectiveness of gain-and lossframed messages (Rothman and Salovey, 1997).With regards to motivational orientation, we find that gain-framed messages are more effective than loss-framed messages for promotion-oriented individuals in stimulating demand for nutritionally-enhanced maize seed. For prevention-oriented individuals, both gain-and loss-framed messages seem to be equally effective.These results suggest that insights from behavioural economics and psychology can be used to inform nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions. We study the utility of these insights in the context of nutritionally-enhanced crops. Nevertheless, we believe that our findings on the framing effect and the moderating role of risk perception and motivation orientation could be generalized to other types of agricultural and nutrition interventions.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 summarizes the underlying theoretical framework and related literature and presents the hypotheses.Section 3 describes the context and provides details on the experimental tasks and procedures, as well as the empirical strategy. Section 4 presents the empirical results, and section 5 discusses the findings. Finally, section 6 concludes the paper by discussing policy implications.We expect that the information value contained in the messages has a positive effect on participants' wtp for nutritionally-enhanced maize seeds because farmers are currently badly informed about the benefits of this new technology. There is ample evidence that shows informational interventions can make a substantive difference in people's behaviour (e.g. Bundala et al., 2020;Kulwa et al., 2014;Reinbott et al., 2016;Reinbott and Jordan, 2016).Consequently, we state our first hypothesis as follows.Hypothesis 1: The respondents who received a nutrition message are willing to pay more for nutritionally-enhanced maize seed than those in the control.The core of our study is about the comparison of gain-framed and loss-framed messages. The relative attractiveness of two options can be influenced by the way decision problems are framed. The theoretical underpinning of this phenomenon can be found in Kahneman and Tversky (1979), who argue that people have a tendency to avoid risk when a decision is framed in terms of potential gains but become risk-seeking when a choice is framed in terms of potential losses. Let's assume that overall utility \uD835\uDC49( * ) for a representative agent depends on consumption bundle c and a reference bundle r and is given aswhere \uD835\uDC62( * ) is consumption utility increasing and concave in c and \uD835\uDC45( * ) is a value function of prospect theory that satisfies the conditions stated in Kahneman and Tversky (1979). The formulation states that first, people encode information relevant to risky decisions in relation to a reference point r. Second, the value function is increasing (\uD835\uDC45′(\uD835\uDC50) > 0 ) and concave (\uD835\uDC45′′(\uD835\uDC50) < 0) for consumption above the reference point and is steeper, increasing (\uD835\uDC45 ′ (\uD835\uDC50) > 0) and convex ( \uD835\uDC45 ′′ (\uD835\uDC50) > 0) below it.The reference point may be determined by a diversity of factors such as social norms, expectations, aspirations, or by the way outcomes are framed. Tversky and Kahneman (1981) showed that a different way of framing choices (gain or loss for example) induces different reference points by implicitly designating the higher or the lower states as a normal reference.The important prediction of the above formulation as it relates to this study is that people are loss averse such that they are more likely to engage in risky behaviour (to adopt a new crop variety) when potential outcomes are framed in terms of losses (not adopting can have negative consequences) rather than as gains (adopting has positive consequences). This is because the value function is steeper for losses than for gains. Thus, we specify the following hypothesis.Hypothesis 2: Messages promoting nutritionally-enhanced maize seeds are more effective if they stress the negative consequences of nonadherence rather than the positive consequences of compliance. More specifically, the effect of a loss-framed message on participant wtp for a nutritionally-enhanced maize seed is higher than the effect of a gain-framed message.Building on this, Meyerowitz and Chaiken's (1987) argued that in health communication, framing effects -the effectiveness of gain-vs. loss-framed information-is moderated by the perceived risk that is associated with the advocated behaviour. Risk perception refers to people's subjective evaluation of the likelihood of a negative outcome of a given decision problem. It determines which threats people care about and how they deal with them (Paek and Hove, 2017). It is important to note that risk perception is not the same as risk preference, which refers to the decision maker's attitude to risks. While risk preferences appear to be moderately stable over time (Schildberg-Hörisch, 2018), risk perceptions are contextdependent (Ferrer and Klein, 2015). As such, different decision problems may elicit different risk perceptions from the same decision-maker.The specific prediction is that gain(loss)-framed messages are expected to elicit stronger responses when recipients perceived the advocated behaviour as less(more) risky. Several empirical studies provide evidence for this hypothesis (e.g., Ferguson and Gallagher, 2007;Hwang et al., 2012;Rothman et al., 2006a;Rothman and Salovey, 1997). After conducting a meta-analysis on 94 peer-reviewed studies, Gallagher and Updegraff (2012) concluded that gain-framed messages appear to be more effective than loss-framed messages in promoting health behaviours perceived to be minimally risky to carry out. Translating this to our study, we expect farmers' risk perception to moderate the effect of our treatment. We exploit variation in risk perception among our study participants and specify the following hypothesis.• Hypothesis 3: Loss(gain)-framed messages are more effective for farmers who perceive the risk associated with producing and marketing nutritionally-enhanced maize to be high(low).As risk perceptions are not experimentally varied, we cannot formally test this hypothesis and any results must be interpreted as correlations rather than causal relations.Another key moderator that has received much attention in framed message research is the motivational system of individuals (Mann et al., 2004;Sherman et al., 2008Sherman et al., , 2006)). In the psychology literature, the importance of making an approach-avoidance distinction has long been recognized as a useful conceptualization of peoples' motivational systems (Lewin, 1935).In approach motivation, behaviour is directed by a positive/desirable possibility, whereas in approach motivation, behaviour is directed by a negative/undesirable possibility (Elliot, 1999).Higgins (1997) introduced a similar characterization of the motivational system, namely promotion and prevention. Promotion-oriented individuals are concerned with accomplishments and aspirations and focus on making progress toward their hopes and aspirations, whereas prevention-oriented individuals are more concerned about safety and security and tend to focus on avoiding mistakes. Under this framework, regulatory fit is assumed to be achieved when there is a match between motivational orientation and means used to pursue desired goals. Regulatory fit increases the value of what is being pursued and strengthens engagement (Higgins, 2005(Higgins, , 2000)). The literature refers to this as regulatory fit theory. As it relates to framed messages, regulatory fit theory predicts that gain-framed messages are more effective for approach-oriented and promotion-focused people, whereas loss-framed messages are more effective for avoidance-oriented and prevention-focussed people.This prediction is confirmed in several studies (Cesario et al., 2004;Mann et al., 2004). These studies showed that by directing gain-framed messages to approach-oriented individuals and loss-framed messages to avoidance-oriented focus individuals, it is possible to increase the effectiveness of messaging campaigns.Cesario et al. ( 2008) provide a possible explanation as to why matching the framing of messages with the motivational orientation of individuals works. They argue that when messages are framed congruent with recipients' mindsets, message receipts feel right when receiving the message and their engagement with the messages increases. In the economics literature, confirmation bias -the tendency to interpret and use new information in a manner that fits existing beliefs-has long been identified as one of the heuristics that people employ when making decisions (Jones and Sugden, 2001). By combining brain imaging with financial decision tasks, De Martino et al. (2006) showed that the pattern of brain activation of subjects is different when decisions are in line with their general behavioural tendency and when they are not. This suggests that there is a neurobiological basis for the regulatory fit theory.The key point is that the motivational orientation of individuals may accentuate (attenuate) the recipient's subjective experience of feeling right towards the advocated behaviour when exposed to framed messages so that the message recipients are more (less) likely to adopt the advocated behaviour.Hypothesis 4.1: For prevention-oriented individuals, loss-framed messages elicit higher wtp than gain-framed messages.Hypothesis 4.2: For Promotion-oriented individuals, gain-framed messages elicit higher wtp than loss-framed messages.Like risk perceptions, we did not experimentally alter motivational orientation, so the results reflect correlation rather than causation. The two moderator variables may reinforce or weaken each other.The research was conducted in West Gojjam Zone of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. The Zone accounts for about 46% of maize produced in the region, and the region generates 25% of maize produced in the country (CSA, 2017). More than 70% of maize produced in the zone is used for own consumption. Child undernutrition is high 12 : prevalence of stunting is 38%, underweight 23%, and wasting around 19% (Motbainor et al., 2015). Thus, identifying effective nutrition interventions, like biofortification, is expected to lead to significant health and welfare gains.The experiment was conducted on 648 participants in total selected from 7 districts. Districts were selected randomly from the list of maize-producing districts. From each district, three or four kebeles were selected randomly from the list of maize-producing kebeles. From each kebele, two villages were selected randomly. From each village, 12 farm households (four districts) or 15 farm households (three districts) were selected randomly from lists of maizeproducing households. These farmers were stratified randomly divided into two treatment groups and a control group. Randomization was done at the village level. Each farmer was asked to express wtp for both conventional and biofortified maize in an incentive-compatible procedure.A power analysis was conducted prior to the fieldwork and showed that the sample size allows us to detect small effect sizes. 13 A pre-analysis plan (PAP) was registered in advance of carrying out the experiment. 14 Ethical approval for research protocols, process, data management and risks related to participation in the research was obtained from the Social Sciences EthicsCommittee at Wageningen University. The Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture and Amhara regional state Bureau of Agriculture granted permission to conduct the experiment. All participants provided written informed consent.To solicit the wtp for biofortified maize seeds for each participant, we used the BDM approach, as detailed below. In the BDM elicitation procedure, subjects individually submit sealed bids for a good. A random price is then drawn from a prespecified distribution. Individuals with bids greater than the randomly drawn price \"win\" the auction and purchase a unit of the good at the randomly drawn price.While the BDM mechanism is in theory incentive-compatible, it is not the only mechanism with this property. It has been shown that the choice of auction mechanism can influence the level of bids, despite their theoretical equivalence (Lusk et al., 2004). From a practical point of view, however, one is left to choose one method, since it is generally not feasible to use multiple incentive-compatible mechanisms to elicit preferences. We chose the BDM mechanism, which has been shown to be suited in low-literacy environments (Cole et al., 2020). While this may, for example, have resulted in higher bids than random nth price bids (Lusk et al., 2004, we have no reason to expect that this choice has affected our conclusions, which do not depend on the level of the bids but only on the relative effects of the different information treatments compared to each other.Before the BDM procedure, an audio-recorded message with nutritional information was played to the two treatment groups. Group one received a gain-framed message and group two a loss-framed message about food prepared from biofortified maize. In constructing the messages, care was taken to ensure that the two messages delivered the same information and referred to the same outcomes but used different framing. (See table 9 for the exact messages.) The third group did not receive any treatment and served as a control. Initially, the experiment was planned to be executed in groups where those assigned to a specific group would be brought into a room. However, in response to the COVID 19 pandemic, that idea was abandoned, and the procedure was executed with each participant individually.In each village, 12 or 15 participants were invited to participate in the experiment. On the day of the experiment, each participant was informed about the objective of the experiment and that participation was voluntary. After obtaining their informed consent, participants were asked to pick a number from a box, which contained 12 or 15 pieces of paper numbered 1 through 12 or 15. Then Stata's \"splitsample\" command was used to split participants into three random samples of equal sizes.To compensate for their time, farmers were given a participation fee that they could use in the auction experiment. Since participation fees can be considered as windfall income and can influence the bid, we used two levels of fee (120 and 240 birr, or 3.6 and 7.2 USD) to control for this effect on farmers bidding behaviour 15 .To increase the extent that the context in which subjects cast decisions resembles the real-life context we did the following. First, we conducted the experiment just before the planting period of maize, which is when farmers typically buy seeds. Second, we asked participants to bid for two types of maize seed: conventional maize and biofortified maize seed. In a market setting, farmers naturally compare new varieties with the conventional maize seed that they are accustomed to. By availing both seeds, we tried to make the experimental context resemble the natural environment that farmers would normally face. To control for ordering effects, the two maize varieties were offered in alternate orders. Third, participants were asked to bid for the quantity of maize seeds a typical farmer would buy (3-kg 16 ). One of the two bids was selected randomly, and the bid was evaluated against a randomly drawn offer price. When the participant's bid was equal to or higher than the offer price, the respondent was asked to buy the maize at the offer price, and money was exchanged for the product.We explained the BDM procedure in detail to the participants, emphasizing that the transaction must be executed if a participant's bid was higher than the random offer price (unknown to the bidders) drawn from a distribution. We informed participants that it was to their advantage to bid the highest price they were willing to pay. Otherwise, they would run the risk that they would not be able to buy the seed, although they would have liked to buy the product at the drawn price. We also explained carefully that they could buy a maximum of one bag of seeds. The type of seeds would be determined by a random draw, and whether they should purchase the seed would depend on their wtp and the offer price. This procedure was intended to ensure the independence of the two bids: the farmers did not have to worry 15 To avoid possible tension the same fee was be given to all participants from the same village and the higher fee was given to the second of the two villages in a kebele. 16 Discussions with maize farmers in the study areas revealed that a typical farmer buys around 3kg of maize seeds for a single production season.to end up with more seeds than they needed or with a combination of more preferred and less preferred seeds.To help the participants understand the procedure better, a test round with a polypropylene grain storage bag was organized. The participants were provided with 10 Ethiopian Birr (ETB) (ETB1=US$0.030 in May 2020). Participants were then asked to make a bid for the grain bag.Their bid was compared to an offer price previously unknown to the bidders. They were then asked if they thought they won the bid or not and to explain why. When the bid was equal to or higher than the offer price, the respondent was reminded that this implied purchasing the grain bag. It was only after the participants understood the auction procedure that the actual experiment proceeded.As a manipulation check, all participants were asked an open-ended question to list reasons for consuming food prepared from nutritionally-enhanced maize immediately after they placed their bid. Placing the manipulation check after measuring the outcome variables rather than before is a slightly better approach in terms of reducing potential distortions (Kane and Barabas, 2019).Finally, participants were interviewed to collect data on socioeconomic characteristics, farm characteristics, motivational orientation, and risk perception. These variables are used to study heterogeneity in treatment effects within the sample.We collected information about the motivational orientation of participants using a modified version of the Promotion/Prevention Scale by Lockwood et al. (2002). We excluded four questions from the original list of eighteen that are directly related to academic motivations (e.g., schoolwork, exams). The remaining list contained eight items related to the endeavour of aspirations and an ideal self (the promotion subscale), and eight items related to the avoidance of negative events and a feared self (the prevention subscale). Two items were very similar when translated into the local language, and during the pilot test, participants indicated that they found it difficult to distinguish between the two. So, we only retained one of these, resulting in seven promotion questions and six prevention questions. Responses were given on a 9-point scale ranging from 1 ('not at all true of me') to 9 ('very true of me').To construct an index of motivational orientation, we used principal component analysis of factor extraction and varimax rotation of factor loads. We used an iteration approach to get the final index, removing those items that showed very low communalities and repeating the whole procedure. 17 The final set of items comprised a total of eight items, four items for the promotion and prevention sub-scale, each. These items load highly on two factors with factor loadings > 0.65 and >0.71 for promotion and prevention factors, respectively. The two extracted factors have an eigenvalue greater than 1 and account for 74.2% of the variances observed. Cronbach's alpha is 0.70 for the promotion factor and 0.76 for the prevention factor, suggesting that the items have an acceptable level of internal consistency (>0.70). Since all items are measured using the same scale, the average score of items linked with the prevention sub-scale was subtracted from the average score of items linked with the promotion sub-scale to arrive at the motivational orientation score. Negative values are considered indicative of prevention focus and positive values are considered as promotion focus. We convert this into a dummy with 0 prevention-oriented and 1 promotion-oriented.Risk perception is measured using the widely used agricultural risk assessment framework of the World Bank (World Bank, 2016). This framework takes into account multiple risks to provide a better understanding of participants' risk perception (Komarek et al., 2020).Participants were asked to state their perceived risk of planting nutritionally-enhanced maize seeds. Specifically, they were asked about their perception of the production (yield and diseases resistance) and marketing (output price and lack of demand) risks of the biofortified maize as compared to regular maize in terms of probability of occurrence and their perception of the intensity of the impact of these risks on their food availability and farm income (World Bank, 2016). A combined score was created by taking the mean 18 for each type of risk and categorized as highly probable (1 in 3), probable (1 in 5) and occasional (1 in 10) with regards to the probability of the event, and negligible (losses <5%), moderate (losses 5-15%), considerable (losses 15-50%) catastrophic (losses >50%) with regards to the intensity of the impact. Using the categorization rule of Table 10, participants' risk perception was coded as high, medium or low (World Bank, 2016). 17 The output of the analysis is presented in the annexe 18 The mean values are rounded to the nearest unit. different treatment conditions are expected to be similar in every respect except for their treatment. Any difference in outcome between treatment groups can thus be attributed to the difference in treatment. As indicated before, our moderating variables are endogenous, so results for these variables must be interpreted with care.We are primarily concerned with estimating the average effect of the two treatments on participants' absolute and relative wtp for biofortified maize seed, with relative wtp defined as the difference in wtp between biofortified and conventional maize. The main effect of the two treatments is estimated by a regression equation of the following form: Where Y, R, M, and X are defined as in Equation 2; \uD835\uDC3F\uD835\uDC42\uD835\uDC46\uD835\uDC46 and \uD835\uDC3A\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC3C\uD835\uDC41 are binary response variables indicating whether a farmer is subjected to a loss or a gain-framed message; and \uD835\uDF02 \uD835\uDC56 is the disturbance term for the regression. We predict that \uD835\uDEFD 21 > \uD835\uDEFD 22 .As noted previously, our two treatments are expected to work differently for promotion and prevention-oriented individuals. The interaction effects of the treatments with these covariates are estimated by a regression equation of the following form:Where Y, R, M, and X are defined as in Equation 2; and ∈ \uD835\uDC56 is the disturbance term.To study how differences in risk perception for a given motivational orientation affect the treatment effect, we specify the following regression equation: Where Y, R, M, and X are defined as in Equation 2; and \uD835\uDF07 \uD835\uDC56 is the disturbance term.Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) was used to estimate the treatment effects. We used robust standard errors, following the recommended practice of not clustering standard errors if treatment is assigned at the individual level (Abadie et al., 2017). We have largely followed the PAP. The only additional ex-post analysis that we did was the inclusion of risk perception.We corrected p-values for family-wise error rate using the highly conservative Bonferroni method accounting for the number of hypotheses ultimately tested. Descriptive statistics of variables that characterize the study sample are presented in Table 11. Three-quarters of the sampled households are headed by men. On average, study participants are about 44 years old with about 3 years of schooling. About two-thirds of the sample had heard about nutritionally-enhanced maize seed but only 16.2% had cultivated it.On average 4 people live in a household owning about 1.5 hectares of agricultural land and 4 livestock units (in TLU). The farm size is higher than the national average (0.9 hectares) but is similar to the average holding in high maize potential areas in the country (Headey et al., 2014).During the production season preceding the survey period, the farmers planted 0.26 ha of maize on average, resulting in 0.115 tonnes of produce of which 25% was sold in the market.These figures are higher than the country averages, where a typical maize farmer grows maize on 0.20 hectares of land producing 39 quintals/ha and selling about 12% of the harvest. This is not surprising, since the study is conducted in high maize-producing areas.Most study participants (58.3%) rated the risk associated with adopting nutritionallyenhanced maize as medium (33.3%) or high (25%).The average motivation orientation index is -0.66 with a standard deviation of 1.88, indicating that the regulatory focus for the majority (65.4%) of the study participants is preventionoriented -they have a heightened sensitivity to losses. The distribution of the index among the study participants is moderately skewed to the right and has slightly high excess kurtosis.We do not find significant differences among the treatment groups except for the proportion of maize sold, which is somewhat higher for treatment group 2. This absence of notable imbalances is the result of our individual-level randomization.  (Jahnke, 1982).The test statistics are for the test of association among the treatment groups with pvalues in parenthesis. The test used for categorical variables (ƒ) is chi squared. For continuous variables, the statistic is F. Motivational orientation of participants is measured using a modified version of the Promotion/Prevention Scale by Lockwood et al (Lockwood et al., 2002). To capture participant risk perception, they were asked to assess the production (yield and disease resistance) and marketing (output price and lack of demand) risks in terms of probability of occurrence and their perception of the intensity of the impact of these risks on their food availability and farm income.All participants were asked to list reasons for consuming food prepared from nutritionallyenhanced maize immediately after they placed their bid. The responses to this question were categorized into two groups -reasons related to possible gains/benefits from consuming and reasons related to potential losses from not consuming. To check whether those provided with gain(loss)-framed messages mentioned more gain(loss)-related reasons on average, we then ran linear regressions of the number of gain (loss) related reasons that participants mentioned as a dependent variable and treatment status as an explanatory variable. Two specifications -with (1) and without (2) sociodemographic covariates were estimated to check the robustness of the results (Table 12).As expected, those provided with gain-framed messages mentioned more gain-related reasons on average as compared to either of the remaining groups. Similarly, those provided with loss-framed messages stated more loss-related reasons than the remaining groups. The inclusion of socio-demographic covariates does not alter the results. In addition, the control group that did not receive any messages scored lower on both gain-related and loss-related reasons than either treatment group. The results provide evidence that the treatments elicited the expected difference among the treatment groups. This in turn allows us to estimate more precisely the effect of the treatment on the outcome variable. We start by presenting the results of Equation 2. As summarized in Figure 6a, wtp for biofortified maize seed was higher for those who received either of the two messages than those who did not (32.2 birr as compared to 26.1). The difference between the two groups is statistically significant (p-value<0.01). Since participants were asked to bid for two types of maize seeds -conventional and biofortified-we also compared the wtp differences for these two maize seed varieties, which we termed in this study as relative wtp. We find that those in the treatment groups are willing to pay 5.0 birr/kg more for biofortified maize seeds than conventional maize, and this was higher than for those in the control group, which are willing to pay 2.2 birr/kg less (Figure 6b). The difference between the two groups is statistically significant (p-value<0.01). This gives our first result:Result 1: Nutrition education messages stimulate demand for nutritionally-enhanced seeds among smallholder farmers. Without nutrition education, farmers are unlikely to switch from producing the conventional maize to biofortified maize, as they are willing to pay less for nutritionally-enhanced seeds which are yellow than for conventional seeds which are white.Farmers' preferences for white maize in our study areas mainly explain this result.The effectiveness of health educational messages is consistent with results emerging from the public health literature that shows a strong relationship between nutrition knowledge and healthy food choice (e.g. Bundala et al., 2019;Scalvedi et al., 2021;Snyder, 2007;Spronk et al., 2014;Wardle et al., 2000;Worsley, 2002).Figure 6. The effect of an information intervention on wtp for biofortified maize seed. Note: for (a) the dependent variable is participants' wtp for biofortified maize seed and for (b) the dependent variable is the wtp difference for biofortified and conventional maize seed. The estimates are average predictions where covariates are set at the observed value in the sample. The different shades of the bar graph represent confidence intervals at 99, 95 and 90 % levels. For the results in both figures, we control for household head sex, age, wealth, education level, household sizes, participation fee, previous awareness about a biofortified crop, risk perception, motivational orientation, land size, herd size (in TLU), previous maize harvest and proportion sold.We also compared the relative effectiveness of the two treatments to test the predictions of the theoretical models. Contrary to the predictions of prospect theory, on average gainframed messages (denoted GAIN) resulted in higher wtp for biofortified maize seed than the loss-framed message (denoted LOSS). As presented in Figures 7a and b, the wtp for biofortified maize of farmers in GAIN was 33.3 birr/kg, which is only slightly higher than those in LOSS, which is 31.2 birr/kg, but the difference is statistically significant (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value =0.052). We find similar results when using the relative wtp as the dependent variable. The relative wtp of farmers in GAIN is again higher than in LOSS (6.1 as compared to 4.0) and the difference is statistically significant (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value = 0.069). These two findings lead to our next result:Result 2: Gain-framed messages are on average slightly more effective than loss-framed messages in stimulating demand for nutritionally-enhanced seeds among smallholder farmers.Figure 7. The effect of an information intervention on wtp for biofortified maize seed. Note: for (a) the dependent variable is participants' wtp for biofortified maize seed and for (b) the dependent variable is the wtp difference for biofortified and conventional maize seed. The estimates are average predictions where covariates are set at the observed value in the sample. The different shades of the bar graph represent confidence intervals at 99, 95 and 90 % levels. For the results in both figures, we control for household head sex, age, wealth, education level, household sizes, participation fee, previous awareness about a biofortified crop, risk perception, motivational orientation, land size, herd size (in TLU), previous maize harvest and proportion sold. Hypothesis testing is based on robust standard errors.We further explore the effectiveness of the differently framed messages by assessing the moderating role of risk perceptions. We, therefore, estimated the coefficients in equation 4.The regression results are presented in appendix 4.3 and the relevant results are summarised in Figure 8. We reject the null that the added interaction terms are not statistically different from zero (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value <0.01). Consistent with theoretical predictions assuming loss aversion, loss-framed messages resulted in higher wtp for nutritionallyenhanced maize seed than gain-framed for farmers who perceived the risk to be high ( 34birr/kg as compared to 31 birr/ kg), and the difference is statistically significant (Bonferroniadjusted p-value=0.018). For farmers who perceived the risk to be low, gain-framed messages were more effective. The wtp for biofortified maize of farmers in GAIN was 34 birr/kg, which is higher than those in LOSS, which is 29.1 birr/kg, and the difference is statistically significant (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value<0.01). By comparison, there is no statistically significant difference in wtp for nutritionally-enhanced maize between the two framing types for those who assessed the risk associated with adopting the new crop to be medium (Bonferroniadjusted p-value= 0.696). We repeated the comparisons using the relative wtp as a dependent variable and we found similar results (not shown here). These insights lead to our next result:Result 3: Gain-framed messages are more effective than loss-framed messages when the perceived risk associated with the new crop is low. The converse is true when the perceived risk is high. When the perceived risk is medium, the gain-and loss-framed messages are equally effective in stimulating demand for nutritionally-enhanced maize seeds among smallholders.The moderating effect of risk perception on framed messages that we observe is consistent with several studies in health messaging literature. For instance, Hwang et al. (2012) find that the perceived risk of sunburn moderates the effect of framed messages in promoting sun safety behaviour in adolescents. Similarly, Gainforth and Latimer (2012) found that risk perception moderate framed messages that aim to motivate women to get vaccinated. Other studies that report significant interaction between perception of risk and framed message include Maheswaran and Meyers-Levy (1990) in the areas of cholesterol screening and Gallagher et al. (2011) in the areas of screening mammography.Figure 8: Average wtp of GAIN, LOSS, and the Control groups by perceived risk. The estimates are average predictions where covariates are set at the observed value in the sample. Due to multiple hypothesis testing, the reported p-values are corrected for Family-Wise Error Rate (FWER) using Bonferroni corrections. For the results, we control for household head sex, age, wealth, education level, household sizes, participation fee, previous awareness about a biofortified crop, land size, herd size (in TLU), previous maize harvest and proportion sold. *, ** and *** denote statistical significance at 0.1,0.05 and 0.01 level.We also examined if motivational orientation moderates the relative effectiveness of loss and gain-framed messages. As summarized in Figure 9, loss and gain-framed messages induce significantly different wtp for biofortified maize seed only for promotion-oriented individuals.For promotion-oriented individuals, gain-framed messages resulted in higher wtp than lossframed messages (35.3 birr/kg as compared to 30.7 birr/ kg), and the difference is statistically significant (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value=0.046). By comparison, there is no statistically significant difference in wtp for nutritionally-enhanced maize between LOSS and GAIN for prevention-oriented individuals (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value= 0.804). These data lead to our next result: Result 4: Gain-framed messages are more effective than loss-framed messages for promotionoriented individuals in stimulating demand for nutritionally-enhanced maize seed. For prevention-oriented individuals, both gain-and loss-framed messages seem to be equally effective.These results are in line with the prediction of the regulatory fit theory, albeit partially. These Similar results are reported by Lee and Aaker (2004) who showed that motivational orientation moderates the effect of message framing on persuasion and by Kim (2006) who demonstrated that by matching framed messages with people's motivational orientation it is possible to increase the effectiveness of educational interventions in preventing smoking among adolescents. After conducting a systematic review of 30 studies, Ludolph and Schulz (2015) concluded that regulatory fit enhances the effectiveness of health messages. The implication is that apart from perceived risk, the motivational orientation of individuals also affects the effectiveness of framed messages. Our results are also consistent with the findings of research on health behaviour change interventions where gain-framed messages were found to be more effective in promoting healthy behaviour (e.g. Gerend and Shepherd, 2013;Mann et al., 2004).  Perceived risk and motivational orientation moderate the effect of the frame messages and the effects are not necessarily in the same direction. To investigate whether perceived risk reinforces or cancels the moderating effect of motivational orientation, we did a three-way interaction analysis: Treatment X perceived risk X motivational orientation. We estimated equation 5 and conducted a joint significance test of the interaction terms. The results are presented in Appendix 4.3 and the relevant coefficients are summarized in figure 10. We reject the null that the added interaction terms are not statistically different from zero (Bonferroniadjusted p-value<0.01). We examine the relative effectiveness of the treatment (GAIN vs LOSS) on participants' wtp for nutritionally-enhanced maize seeds whose risk perception is either high or low for a given motivational orientation.We find that the two moderating variables interact with the framed message in a complex yet expected way. For prevention-oriented individuals whose perceived risk is high, we find that the average wtp for those in LOSS is 34.3 birr/kg, which is statistically significantly higher than those in GAIN which is 29.7 birr/kg (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value=0.027). This was expected, as both moderating variables strengthen the effects of the loss-framed messages.For prevention-oriented individuals whose perceived risk was low, wtp for the biofortified seeds was significantly higher for farmers in GAIN than LOSS (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value=0.040). We don't have theoretical predictions, a priori for this scenario. This is because the moderating effects of the two variables work in opposite directions and the net effect depends on the relative strength of the two effects. In this case, the moderating effect of risk perception is found to be stronger than the effect of motivational orientation, which results in GAIN being more effective than LOSS.We find related results for promotion-oriented individuals. When the perceived risk is low, theory suggests that both moderating factors favour gain-framed messages for this group, and indeed GAIN resulted in higher wtps for nutritionally-enhanced maize seed than LOSS (Bonferroni-adjusted p-value<0.01). When the perceived risk is high, the two moderating factors are predicted to work in opposite directions. For these cases, we did not detect any discernable difference between LOSS and GAIN. . This brings us to our last results, which we summarize in a table format.Results 5: Different combination of motivational orientation and risk perception requires different framing as shown below. We use a field experiment to investigate the relative effectiveness of framed messaging in stimulating demand for nutritionally-enhanced seeds. We find that without the nutrition messages, farmers preferred the conventional maize variety over the nutritionally-enhanced seeds. Educational messages significantly increased wtp for nutritionally-enhanced maize to a level higher than wtp for conventional seeds Prospect theory suggests that loss framing is more effective in stimulating demand for a new crop than gain-framing since it induces more risk-seeking behaviour. We find very limited evidence for this hypothesis. Instead, this paper shows that risk perception and motivational orientation interact in a complex way, and the prediction from prospect theory only holds for a specific combination of risk perception and motivational orientation. We argue that this may be because the combination of these two variables either reinforces or cancels out their moderating effect on the effectiveness of framed messages. Though the two moderating variables are studied well in the health domain, our study is the first to study the three-way interaction of risk perception, motivational orientation, and framed messages in the agriculture domain.It is important to note that promotion and prevention focus can be induced experimentally over very brief periods of time (Higgins, 1998). As such, framed message campaign may need to induce a specific motivational orientation congruent with the way the message is framed to increase its effectiveness of the messages. However, we did not examine the feasibility of experimentally inducing different motivational orientations in our study context, but rather detected the current state. This could be a consideration for future research in this area.We base our conclusions on a short-term experiment. While our procedure was incentive compatible, we cannot be fully certain that the results translate fully to an actual market situation. In addition, we did not follow participants post-intervention to determine whether the nutrition education message resulted in an increased intake of food prepared from nutritionally-enhanced maize, which ultimately is the objective of the information treatment.We only speculate that since maize is a staple and most of the produce is used for home consumption, if the nutrition education message encourages farmers to buy nutritionallyenhanced maize then they are more likely to produce it and consume food prepared from that crop. Moreover, we cannot assess the spillover effects of the intervention. Those who receive the treatment might share their knowledge about nutritionally-enhanced maize seed or neighbouring farmers might observe the performance of the new seed and adjust their perception and decide to adopt the new crop.Despite these limitations, our study provides important insight relevant to agricultural technology adoption literature. Future research should investigate the impact pathways from nutrition education interventions to improvement in food and nutrition outcomes and investigate potential spillover effects of interventions similar to ours.Our findings have important policy implications. The context of the experiment resembles the context of the rural setting of most developing countries where biofortified crops are expected to have a significant impact on nutritional status. Our results would be relevant to those areas.Overall, gain-framed messages are generally more effective in promoting nutritionallyenhanced crops. Yet for the subgroup of people who perceived the new crop as risky, lossframed messages were more effective, suggesting the need for a targeted approach when disseminating messages.Our findings also have implications for future studies that aim to explore the theory behind the framed effect. We showed that framed nutrition education messages have a differential effect, and their effectiveness is moderated by risk perception and motivational orientation thus highlighting the importance of considering these moderators when studying framing effects.Combining the insights from different disciplinary fields-here behavioural economics, auction literature and psychology -is key to having a comprehensive understanding of how people respond to interventions. The enhanced understanding then provides better input for policymakers. By applying multiple perspectives and ways of thinking, our paper shows that it is possible to design more effective promotion strategies to support nutrition-sensitive agricultural development. Leveraging insights from psychology to promote agricultural technologies is nothing new (Moser and Barrett, 2006;Streletskaya et al., 2020) and here we provide further evidence that economically important behaviours can be explained better and model predictions can be improved by borrowing concepts and ideas from psychology.Using a 1-9 where 1 \"Not at all true of me\" and 9 \"Very true of me\" please rate yourself concerning the following statement.1. In general, I am focussed on preventing negative events in my life. Q1 2. I am anxious that I will fall short of my responsibilities and obligations. Q2 3. I frequently imagine how I will achieve my hopes and aspirations. Q3 4. I often think about the person I am afraid I might become in the future. Q4 5. I often think about the person I would ideally like to be in the future. Q5 6. I typically focus on the success I hope to achieve in the future. Q6 7. I often imagine myself experiencing bad things that I fear might happen to me. Q7 8. I frequently think about how I can prevent failures in my life. Q8 9. I am more oriented toward preventing losses than I am toward achieving gains.10. I see myself as someone who is primarily striving to reach my \"ideal self\"to fulfil my hopes, wishes, and aspirations. Q10 11. I see myself as someone who is primarily striving to become the self I \"ought\" to be-to fulfil my duties, responsibilities, and obligations.12. In general, I am focused on achieving positive outcomes in my life. Q12 13. I often imagine myself experiencing good things that I hope will happen to me. Q13 14. Overall, I am more oriented toward achieving success than preventing failure.Adopted from Lockwood, P. et.al (2002).Notes: This list does not include four items related to academic achievements. Statement 5 was dropped after the pilot, as participants could not see a clear difference between 4 and 5Factor loadings (pattern matrix) and unique variances Development efforts that aim to improve food and nutrition outcomes are increasingly paying attention to empower women. Women empowerment is an intrinsic goal that should be valued as an end by itself (Kabeer, 2005). At the same time, it can also serve as an instrumental goal to achieve better child outcomes (Duflo, 2012). In particular, based on a growing body of literature (Malapit et al., 2015;Malapit and Quisumbing, 2015), nutrition-sensitive programs often make empowering women one of their pillars (Heckert et al., 2019). Recently, an international and intergovernmental platform for food security and nutrition has highlighted the influence that women have on food systems and diets, and how better nutritional outcomes can be achieved by reducing unpaid work performed by women around the world (HLPE, 2017).Harnessing technological innovations that reduce home labour is one of the ways to unleash women's potential in improving nutritional outcomes. Improved cook stoves are one of such innovations. These stoves, at the same time, have a positive impact on the climate and human health (e.g., reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and indoor air pollution). The fact that improved cookstoves (ICSs) can contribute to multiple development goals makes them an efficient weapon in the fight against malnutrition. This is particularly important since efforts to achieve key development goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals may have negative spill-over effects on the environment.Advances in food security, for example, often come with a cost to the environment (Donini et al., 2016;Godfray et al., 2010;Grafton et al., 2015;Tilman et al., 2011). Accordingly, there has been a call for food security interventions that have low environmental impacts (Johnston et al., 2014;Lairon, 2012).Leveraging improved cookstoves to reduce the prevalence of malnutrition is also timely. More than three billion people lack access to modern cooking (Troncoso et al., 2013) to the detriment of their health and the environment. Hence, there is a big push by governments and international development partners to expand access to clean cookstoves. In fact, achieving universal access to clean cooking solutions by 2030 is one of the SDG goals (SDG -7).Traditional cookstoves are highly inefficient and significantly contribute to indoor air pollution.Improved stoves, on the other hand, increase fuel efficiency leading to lower fuel consumption and can reduce indoor pollution (Grieshop et al., 2011;Grimsby et al., 2016;Pant, 2013), pressure on forests (Chan et al., 2015;Jeuland and Pattanayak, 2012) and greenhouse gas emissions (Agurto Adrianzén, 2013;Bensch and Peters, 2011;Grieshop et al., 2011;Mehetre et al., 2017;Pennise et al., 2009).Improved cookstoves also are linked with improved health outcomes. However, the empirical evidence in this regard is not conclusive. On one hand, some studies did not find significant improvement in health outcomes that are expected to be affected by these technologies such as the risk of pneumonia (Mortimer et al., 2017;Smith et al., 2011). Similarly, Hanna et al.(2016) reported that inappropriate use of ICSs was found to limit their long-run impacts on health outcomes and greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, Romieu et al. (2009) and van Gemert et al. (2019) found that ICSs significantly reduce the risk of respiratory problems.Overall, though the second-order effects (e.g. on health outcomes) of these technologies are less clear, their effect on household firewood consumption is well established (Munyehirwe et al., 2022) and ICS are increasingly sought by energy-poor households (Bensch and Peters, 2020;Pattanayak et al., 2019).We argue that, apart from these relatively well-known benefits, ICSs have the potential to improve food security through their empowering effects on women. Improved cook-stoves are expected to substantially reduce the time spent on fuelwood collection and food preparation, which are usually the responsibility of women (Guzmán et al., 2020;Jagoe et al., 2020). This would directly empower women with respect to time allocation, which is one of the five empowerment domains distinguished by the Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (Alkire et al., 2013). Indirectly, this may create opportunities for women to engage in income-generating activities and ultimately may positively affect households' food and nutrition security outcomes. In addition, women may spend some of the saved time on the preparation of more nutritious meals.This paper aims to examine to what extent the adoption of ICSs affects household food and nutrition security status and to identify the associated impact pathway. We seek to contribute to the literature in two important ways. First, building on a large body of work on the benefits of ICSs, we analyse an additional potential benefit with the associated pathway. Second, we study the impact of ICSs in a natural setting where the decision to adopt ICSs was based on market prices and perceived benefits. Most literature on the benefits of ICSs is based on artificial settings, such as demonstration sites (Habermehl, 2007;Mamuye et al., 2018) or simulated kitchens (Grabow et al., 2013;Jagger et al., 2017). We can study the impact in a natural setting by leveraging the availability of instrumental variables: the prices of cement and sand, important raw materials to produce ICSs.From a policy perspective, the results of our paper provide evidence-based arguments for development practitioners to promote these technologies. Messages and awareness campaigns can be developed around the link between ICSs and food and nutrition security to encourage the use of these innovations.We use a dataset that is representative of rural households in highland areas of Ethiopia. In rural Ethiopia, a significant majority (about 77 per cent of households) use traditional threestone stoves made from clay. These are pots balanced on three stones over an open fire with poor ventilation and about 90 per cent energy loss (Padam et al., 2018). Wood is the most common fuel source, and women are generally responsible for cooking and collecting fuelwood. Improved cook stoves, specifically insulated fire stoves, are available in the marketbut not yet widely adopted (Padam et al., 2018). The lack of effective marketing messages that communicate product benefits contributes to this low adoption rate (`Orange, 2011;Fekadu Kedir et al., 2019). Understanding the potential impact of improved cook-stove ownership on household nutrition status in this setting is important for the following reasons. First, providing empirical evidence of the link between ownership of an improved cook-stove and household nutrition status is expected to improve the uptake of this technology. Second, there is a big push by the Government of Ethiopia to distribute 31 million improved stoves by 2030 and the empirical evidence could be used to encourage and push the government and its development partners to solidify their commitment.We find the following. First, households who adopt ICSs have better food and nutrition security status than those who did not. These results are consistent with our hypothesis. On average, in households that use improved cookstoves, the household dietary diversity score increased by 1.1, the individual dietary diversity score for children under five increased by 1.4, the number of foods groups that are a rich source of vitamin A consumed by the household increased by 0.6, and the incidence of food insecurity decreased by 25 percentage points.Second, the adoption of ICSs is linked with women's economic empowerment. Households who adopt ICS spent 14.4 minutes less per day collecting fuelwood time and women in the household are more likely (40 percentage points more) to work in paid jobs.Taken together, our results suggest that ICSs can improve household food and nutrition security status and one of the impact pathways seems to be through women empowerment by reducing unpaid work. The effect of ICSs in reducing women's burden is well established.Similarly, the link between women's empowerment and household food security status is also well documented. Here we linked these two findings and showed that technologies that have the potential to reduce home labour can contribute to women's empowerment as well as to efforts to improve food and nutrition security.The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, we discuss the analytical framework and present the hypotheses. In Section 3, we describe the data, define key outcome indicators, and outline our identification strategy. In Section 4, we present the results. Section 5 concludes.There is a growing literature that links women's empowerment with other development outcomes. In the food and nutrition domain, studies have shown a link between women's empowerment and child health and nutritional status (Annan et al., 2021;Carlson et al., 2015;Galiè et al., 2019;Heckert et al., 2019;Pratley, 2016). This evidence suggests promoting innovations that contribute to women's empowerment ultimately could also improve household food and nutrition security.Here, we take the ICS as a pro-poor innovation that has the potential to empower women and show how it could lead to better food and nutritional security. Following Kabeer (1999), empowerment refers to the expansion of people's capacity to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them. While empowerment also has psychological and political dimensions (Malhotra and Schuler, 2005), we narrowly focus on economic aspects which are relatively easy to quantify using survey data and that are expected to be affected by the use of ICSs. The specific measure revolves around women's time use and, more specifically, time spent on fuelwood collection and on paid work.ICSs use less fuel and reduce cooking time compared to traditional stoves (Habermehl, 2007;Mamuye et al., 2018). Since women are primarily responsible for food preparation and the collection of fuelwood, the use of ICSs is associated with women spending less time on fuelwood collection and more time engaging in economically productive tasks (Jagoe et al., 2020). Hence, we pose the following hypothesis:Compared to households with no ICSs, for households that use ICSs, women spent less time on household chores (fuelwood collection) and more time on activities that allow them to earn income.A review of the literature on the relationship between women's empowerment and household nutrition outcome provides support to the idea that women's empowerment is positively associated with households' and particularly children's nutritional status (Carlson et al., 2015;Pratley, 2016). Using mixed methods, (Galiè et al., 2019) reported a positive correlation between women's empowerment and their nutrition security, while based on a randomized controlled trial Heckert et al. (2019) showed that empowering women is an effective strategy to achieve nutritional goals in developing countries. More importantly, income earned by women is more likely to be used to improve household nutrition than income earned by men in the household (UNICEF, 2011).Apart from the women empowerment channel, ICSs can contribute to a household's food security through the health channel. ICSs are expected to reduce health risks associated with indoor pollution (Bruce et al., 2015) and potentially improve productivity and ultimately increase income. However, inconsistent usage, stacking of stoves (use the traditional and ICSs stoves within the same household) and lack of ICSs that are appropriate for the local cooking contexts may hamper the long-term impact of ICSs on health outcomes (Hanna et al., 2016).There is also a direct path from ICSs to food and nutrition security. ICS have higher energy efficiency as compared to the traditional stove, the use of ICS is likely to reduce time spent on meal preparation (Vahlne and Ahlgren, 2014). This in turn creates opportunities for households to prepare extra dishes. In addition, having ICSs means there is an additional burner in the household which makes the preparation of more dishes less burdensome. Taking these together, we specify the following hypothesis:Compared to households with no ICSs, for households that use ICSs food and nutrition security is higher.The specific indicators are defined and discussed in the next section.The aim is to estimate the effect of using an improved cookstove on household food security and diets. Let y represent the outcome indicators where \uD835\uDC66 1 and \uD835\uDC66 0 denote household food and nutrition security status with and without ICSs, respectively. We are interested in the difference between the two outcomes, \uD835\uDC66 1 − \uD835\uDC66 0 . Since \uD835\uDC66 1 and \uD835\uDC66 0 are individual specific variables, we are interested in the average treatment effect (ATE) which is given byEquation 1 represents the expected effect of the ICS on a randomly drawn person from the population. Since individuals either own or do not own ICS at a given point in time, we cannot observe both y1 and y0, and hence we cannot estimate equation 1. Let the variable w be a binary indicator where w=1 denotes ownership of ICS and w=0 otherwise. If the ownership of ICS (w) is statistically independent of a participant's food and nutrition security status, then estimating the following regression equation gives ATE (Wooldridge, 2010).where \uD835\uDF0F is ATE; X denotes a vector of observed covariates and μ is the error term. Estimating ATE from (2) is complicated by the fact that ownership of ICSs is not random. Since our analysis is based on observational data, the assumption that w is independent of y may not hold. For instance, wealthy households are more likely to own an ICS as they can afford them more easily. At the same time, wealthier households are likely to have a better food and nutrition status compared to poor households. To address the problem of endogeneity of w, we leverage the availability of instruments and use a control function estimator. This estimator is chosen because it handles endogeneity in nonlinear models similar to the one we are estimating in this paper (Wooldridge, 2010). Let Z denote a vector of instruments that satisfies the rank and exogeneity conditions. Roughly speaking this means Z is correlated with w and does not directly affect y. The reduced-from equation for the endogenous variable w is given bywhere \uD835\uDF00 has zero mean and is uncorrelated with X and Z. Since w is assumed to be endogenous, \uD835\uDF00 and μ are correlated and their relationship is assumed to take the following form.where \uD835\uDF0C = \uD835\uDC38(\uD835\uDF00μ)/\uD835\uDC38(\uD835\uDF00 2 ), and \uD835\uDC38(\uD835\uDF00\uD835\uDC63) = \uD835\uDC38(\uD835\uDC4D\uD835\uDC63) = \uD835\uDC38(\uD835\uDC4B\uD835\uDC63)=0. Plugging (4) into (2) gives the following reduced form equation for the outcome variable.Since \uD835\uDF00 is the error term in the reduced form equation for w, it is not observed. However, it can be replaced with \uD835\uDF00, a probit residual from the first stage regression of w on X and Z in (3).Then ( 5) can be estimated by the appropriate model depending on the type of the outcome variable: OLS for continuous and probit for binary outcome variables. Here we estimate both(3) and ( 5) but \uD835\uDF00 replaced with \uD835\uDF00̂ using the generalized method of moments in Stata.We used two instruments, namely the price of cement and sand at the time of 2017/18. A household that owns ICS at the time of the survey (2018) may not necessarily make the purchase in 2017/18. Nevertheless, since the average life of the stoves is around 2.5 years, the time of the purchases is expected to be not too far in the past, and the 2017/18 prices represent the situation at purchase fairly well.Discussion with rural energy experts at regional and district levels revealed that affordability plays a key role in household decisions to adopt an ICS. In fact, adoption studies identified affordability as one of the main factors that limit the wide usage of ICS in Ethiopia (Fekadu Kedir et al., 2019;Mamuye et al., 2018). The price of ICSs varies locally and could therefore be a valid instrument. However, we do not have price data on ICSs. Further discussions with rural energy experts and manufacturers/suppliers of ICSs revealed that the stoves are constructed locally and that the cost of inputs used to manufacture ICSs; cement and sand, are the main contributing factors to their price. The local price of cement and sand is thus expected to be correlated with the adoption of ICSs. For these prices to be valid instruments, they should not be directly correlated with food security. This is referred to as the exclusion restriction assumption. This assumption would obviously not hold if prices of construction inputs are correlated with food prices, for example, due to correlated transportation and other transaction costs. This is not the case in our study area. Most rural households in Ethiopia depend heavily on their own production for the consumption of staple foods. In addition, different factors affect the price of construction inputs and food crops. For instance, the absolute values of the correlation coefficients between the two construction inputs and the price of teff, wheat and maize-the top three crops produced, consumed, and sold by smallholder farmers-range from 0.02 to 0.11 and are statistically insignificant even at the 10% level (Table A1 in the appendix). Another threat to our exclusion restriction assumption is if the price of cement and sand drives employment in construction, hence income and consumption of respondents. However, for the study area agriculture is the main occupation (about 85% of farm households) and less than 2% of the households work in the construction sector. Even if construction input prices would drive employment in construction, its effect on household income and consumption is likely to be insignificant.Another potential threat to our identification strategy is that measured at the district level.Hence, if district-level factors affect food and nutrition outcomes and if these factors are not controlled for in the reduced form outcome equation (equation 4), then the exogeneity conduction will be violated. To address this issue, we control for district-level factors in the reduced form outcome regression equation as detailed below. Overall, the context and our approach increase the plausibility of the assumptions that the proposed variables are correlated with the decision to adopt ICSs but do not directly affect the outcome variables and are thus uncorrelated with the error term.As a robustness check, we carried out a fixed effect (FE) estimation to compute the treatment effect. One of the key assumptions that we need for FE estimation to work is the strict exogeneity of explanatory variables conditional on unobserved effects. It basically means ownership of ICS is as good as random after unobserved individual-level factors that are time constant are controlled for. In policy evaluation literature, FE methods are widely applied to deal with this kind of endogeneity (Imbens and Wooldridge, 2009). To conduct FE analysis, we use information that was collected at two periods of time: 2014 and 2018. During the 2014 survey, fuelwood collection time, the number of days women household members spent on paid jobs was not collected. To fill the missing data, a recall method was used during the endline survey. Due to the lengthy recall period, these variables may be measured with some error. Thus, it is important to exercise caution while interpreting the relevant results. Here we present the results from the FE analysis to check the robustness of the IV results, which are what drives our main conclusions. For those of our outcome variables are binary (faced food security or not; employed in paid jobs or not and the existence of a female-owned business or not), we use the random effect probit effect estimator to obtain the average treatment effect.This estimator requires a strong assumption about the relationship between the observed covariates and unobserved effects: unobserved effects and observed covariates are independent and the unobserved effect has a normal distribution.We use data from the Livestock and irrigation value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES)project from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI-Ethiopia). The project focuses on high-value livestock and irrigated crop commodities and identifies and promotes improved technologies as well as organizational and institutional innovations along the respective value chains to make the value chains competitive, sustainable, and more equitable. This dataset is representative of rural households in the four highland regions of Ethiopia (Tigray; Amhara; For our main analysis, we mostly use the end-line survey. However, we use information from the baseline survey for several control variables to ensure exogeneity. This results in a total of 4,338 households of which 8.3% (362) owned and used ICSs. The use of ICSs was not associated with project treatment status: 8.6% of treatment households and 8.1T of control households owned and used an ICS and the chi-square test of independence between these variables is insignificant (χ2 = 0.470, and p =0.493). The average operating lifetime of ICS is only 2-3 years, so all user households have only recently purchased their device.Household food and nutrition security status is the main outcome indicator of the study. Food security is widely thought of as comprising four pillars, namely: availability, access, utilization, and stability (CFS, 2009). Recognizing the importance of food composition and nutrient requirements for an active and healthy life, the concept of food security is further elaborated.Thus, food security is achieved when \"... all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life\" (CFS, 2009). This conceptualization highlights the nutrient aspect of food security. In this paper food and nutrition security is taken to be the application of the above concept as it pertains to households as well as individuals within the households.Due to its multidimensional nature, there is no single indicator that captures the whole concept. Given the information contained in our dataset, this study uses four indicators that measure different aspects of household food and nutrition security. These are the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), the number of food groups that are rich in vitamin A consumed by the household (Micronutrient sensitive HDDS, or MHDDS), the number of food groups consumed by children in the household (CDDS), and the incidence of food shortage. The combined measures give a clearer picture of a household's food and nutrition security status and are more robust than any single measure.HDDS is a widely used survey-based tool that is used to assess household food security status.HDDS captures the number of food groups consumed by a household during a fixed reference time usually, 24 hours or the last 7 days (WFP, 2009). It measures the food availability and access component of food security. Participants were asked about foods eaten by any member of the household during the last seven days preceding the survey date. A tool comprising 16food groups was then used to record the answers (Kennedy, Ballard, & Dop, 2010: p8). To compute HDDS, the 16 food groups were recategorized into 12 food groups as suggested by Kennedy, Ballard, & Dop (2010: p24), and HDDS was calculated by counting the total number of food groups consumed.The same data is used to calculate the MHDDS. Instead of adding all food groups, now only those food groups that are rich in vitamin A are included in the calculation. These are: vitamin A rich vegetables or tubers (such as pumpkin, carrot, squash, or orange-fleshed sweet potato), dark green leafy vegetables, vitamin A rich fruits (e.g. mangos, apricots, ripe papaya), Organ meat, Eggs, and Milk and milk products (Swindale and Bilinsky, 2006: p27). The benefit of using this measure is that it highlights the nutritional aspect of food security by measuring household access to food groups that are rich in one of the key micronutrients.CDDS is also measured using the same tools, but instead of being based on food consumed by any household member, this measures food consumed specifically by the child/children under the age of 5. Diet diversity score for children is expected to reflect the nutritional quality of the diet (Kennedy, Ballard, & Dop, 2010). To compute the score, the 16 food groups were aggregated into 10 food groups following (Kennedy, Ballard, & Dop, 2010:p24).Finally, to measure the incidence of food shortage, the respondent was asked if they had faced the situation of not having enough food to feed the household during the last 12 months prior to the survey period. This is a binary variable where 1 indicates food insecurity incidence and 0 otherwise.Regarding mediator variables, three indicators are the focus of the analysis: fuelwood collection time; if at any time over the 12 months preceding the survey, any female household members were employed in any paid job; and income generating activities owned and operated by women household members. As control variables, we use wealth, livestock ownership, and land size from the baseline survey, and sex and education level of household head, household size, distance to the nearest market town, distance to the nearest health post, and the amount of forest and woodlots available per capital in the kebele from the endline survey.Summary statistics of the sample households are presented in table 13. The summaries are presented for the whole sample and separately for those who owned improved cookstoves (ICS group) and for those who don't (Non-ICS group). In our sample, a slightly higher proportion of female-headed households own ICS (82% as compared to 78% and the difference is found to be statistically significant. This is consistent with the ICS adoption literature where female-headed households are more likely to adopt ICSs (Lewis and Pattanayak, 2012). Literacy level is very low: On average a household head completed only 2.2 years of schooling, owns about 1.43 hectares of land and 4.1 livestock (in TLU). The farm size is higher than the national average (0.9 hectares) but is close to the average holding reported by Headey et al., (2014) for high agricultural potential areas in Ethiopia. The value of household physical assets is estimated at 19.62 thousand birr 21 and this is slightly higher for those who own ICSs. Lewis and Pattanayak (2012) report similar findings. They find a statistically significant association between ICS adoption and income. The large standard deviation for wealth indicates that wealth varied quite a bit among the sampled households. Turning to outcome variables, summary statistics in table 14 show that HDDS was 6.55, indicating that for the seven-consecutive days before the survey, a household consumed on average 6.55 food groups out of the possible 12 food groups. This is slightly higher than the national average reported by Mekonnen et al., (2020) for around the same time period (which is 6.2.) For those households with at least one child under the age of 5, the average number of food groups consumed by children was 4.9 out of the 8 food groups used to construct the CDDS. About one in four (25%) reported that they have faced a situation where they did not have enough food to feed the household in the 12 months preceding the baseline survey. This indicates undernutrition is not uncommon in our study population.  Comparing household with and without ICS, we see that both food and nutrition security and women empowerment was significantly higher for the ICS owners. However, based on the descriptive statistics alone it is not possible to say whether these differences are the result of ICS since factors that affect ICSs ownership can also affect food and nutrition outcomes. To tease out the impact of ICSs we rely on the quasi-experimental methods described above, and the results are presented in the next sections.Before presenting the results, we tested the key assumptions. For the instruments to be valid, they need to predict the treatment and should be unrelated to unobserved heterogeneity. We run a battery of tests to check under identification, weak identification, overidentification, and  As a robustness check, we also present the results of fixed (for continuous outcome variables) and random effect (for binary outcome variables) estimators. All coefficients are significant and point in the same direction and are of a similar order of magnitude as the results of the control-function estimator.The effect of ICS on nutrition goes through women's empowerment and time use. Looking across the three panels, the results indicate that ICSs adopters spent less time collecting fuelwood and that the number of days their female members engaged in paid work was higher. However, there seems to be no difference between adopters and non-adopters of ICSs with regard to operating small businesses run by female household members. Looking at the control-function estimator results, those households who adopted ICSs spend 14.4 minutes less collecting fuelwood per day (table 16 column 2 panel B, significant at 5%), and the likelihood of women in the household worked in paid jobs in the 12 months preceding the survey is 0.4 more (table 16 column 3 panel B, significant at 5%). These results are consistent with a recent study in Ethiopia, where adoption of ICSs was linked with lower fuel consumption (Gebreegziabher et al., 2018). The results of the other two estimators are fairly consistent both in terms of significance and direction of effect.These results provide support for our hypothesis that one of the ways ICSs affect a household's food and nutrition security is through the empowerment of women. However, there could be other pathways that we have not analysed in this paper.We investigate the impact of ICSs on household nutrition status. We use a large household dataset representative of the rural highlands of Ethiopia and exploit the availability of instrumental variables for ownership of ICSs. We measure household nutrition status by the household dietary diversity score, the child dietary diversity score, the consumption of vitamin A rich foods, and the incidence of food insecurity. We also examine possible pathways focusing on women empowerment since ICSs have been shown to decrease home labour, and free up women's time.We find that ownership of ICSs leads to better food and nutrition outcomes. Those who own ICSs have higher HDDS, MDDS, CDDS than those who did not own ICS and the difference is statistically significant. In addition, ICSs result in a lower likelihood of facing food insecurity.Ownership of ICSs may affect food and nutrition outcomes both directly and indirectly. The direct impact pathway may go like this: Since ICS have higher energy efficiency as compared to the traditional stove, the use of ICS is likely to reduce time spent on meal preparation (Vahlne and Ahlgren, 2014). This in turn creates opportunities for households to prepare extra dishes. Since we do not have information on the number of dishes per day or per stove at a household level, we are not able to determine this effect empirically.We also find that time spent on fuelwood collection was lower for households who owned ICSs as compared to those who did not. This is one of the indirect impact pathways from ICSs to a household's food and nutrition security. This finding is in line with Jagger and Jumbe (2016) who found that ICSs lead to a reduction in time spent collecting wood. The findings are also consistent with the empirical evidence that links ICS with lower fuelwood consumption (Gebreegziabher et al., 2018;Wassie and Adaramola, 2021). In the study setting, fuelwood collection and cooking are usually performed by women. The implication is that ICS reduces women's home labour and frees up their time. However, it should be noted that though ICSs significantly reduce fuelwood collection time (14.4 minutes per day on average) the economic significance is limited if women do not have control over household resources.It is worth noting that in addition to reducing fuelwood collection time, ICSs also reduce time spent preparing meals. The additional burner in the household allows for simultaneous cooking which greatly reduces cooking time (Ochieng et al., 2020). The implication is that the actual time saved because of ICSs adoption is expected to be more than 14.4 minutes per day.However, the economic significance is limited if women do not have control over household resources.We observe that women in households with ICS were more likely to work paid jobs. A possible explanation for the observed effect is that women now have more free time as ICS reduces cooking as well as fuelwood collection time. The link between women's empowerment and household wellbeing has long been recognized in the literature, and our results add more evidence to this growing literature.Taken together, our results suggest that ICS may affect food and nutrition security outcomes directly and indirectly. Our results also provide some evidence that one of the ways ICS affect nutrition outcomes is by reducing the time women spend collecting fuelwood which allows women to engage in paid jobs. Apart from the obvious selling points such as reduction of firewood consumption and deforestation, ICSs can lead to better nutritional outcomes and contribute to women's empowerment. This is consistent with the growing literature that links ICSs with improved welfare in energy-poor settings (Bensch and Peters, 2020;Onyeneke et al., 2018;Pattanayak et al., 2019).Our study has some limitations. Using observational data to establish causal relationships invariably requires making assumptions. Here our results rely on the validity of our instruments which require assumptions that we cannot test directly. For instance, for estimating the treatment effect using IV, we assumed that the proposed instruments are independent of our outcome indicators. For the fixed effect estimator, we assumed that ownership of ICS is as good as randomly assigned conditional on observed and unobserved but fixed individual characteristics. Through indirect methods, we tested the key assumptions, and the results lend support to the assertion that the instruments are valid. Nevertheless, they are still assumptions and our results should be seen considering these key assumptions.Moreover, the use of ICSs could have had heterogeneous effects that we were not able to detect. For example, the intensity of use and the quality of the ICS may differ between households. In addition, impacts may change over time and be different in different locations, especially where the role of women in the household is different. Finally, the impact pathways from adoption of ICSs to food and nutrition security are complex. Given our dataset, we only considered the women's economic empowerment channel, which still provided important indicative results. Research using data from other countries or regions could contribute to a further understanding of the benefits of ICSs and the pathways of change.Development actors and other development actors interested in reducing energy poverty would do well to recognize the potential impact of ICSs on food and nutrition outcomes and incorporate it into their messaging campaigns when promoting ICSs. Chapter 6 SynthesisThe thesis set out to identify strategies to promote food system innovations. It also examined the role of innovations that reduce home labour in the fight against food insecurity. These innovations are shown to be effective in narrowing the nutrition gap and are cost-effective.The implication is that these innovations can realistically be scaled up. The studied innovations also have limited carbon footprints which is important in the face of ever-growing awareness of the environmental impact of transforming the food system. An additional benefit of these innovations is that they do not require a radical change in the way of life and food choices of the target populations, which enhances the likelihood of their success.In Overall, the results of the four studies paint a fairly positive picture. It is possible to improve dietary outcomes and ultimately the well-being of those in the global south by strategically implementing interventions across multiple fronts within the food system. In both urban and rural areas, health messaging seems to be effective in encouraging the intake of nutritionallyenhanced food, indicating that inadequate knowledge was one of the constraints contributing to unhealthy diets and, ultimately, malnutrition.The studies also show that apart from imparting health information, addressing the target population's uneasiness about food safety and understanding the psychological makeup of the target population can help to bring about the intended behavioural change with regards to food choice. The results of chapter 2 show that addressing consumers' concerns about food safety through certification increased their willingness to pay. This is particularly important since food safety is expected to be a growing concern for consumers in the global south as their income increases. Moreover, food safety threats are expected to be on the rise as food systems modernise and food value chains become longer.Chapter 3 and 4 borrow insights from the psychology literature and explore how they can be leveraged to increase the effectiveness of information interventions. Chapter 3 combined normative messaging, which is widely recognised to be effective in changing behaviour and habits (Cialdini, 2003), with an information treatment and examined its effectiveness in the context of promoting nutritionally-enhanced crops in rural areas. Consistent with previous literature, bundling the awareness campaign with normative messaging is found to be more effective than providing just the information treatment. Chapter 4 explores another widely recognized insight from psychology, namely the framing effect (Levin et al., 1998) With regards to pro-poor innovations, the results in this thesis show that improved cookstoves -an innovation that reduces home labour-improve food and nutrition outcomes. This technology frees up women's time as women perform the lion's share of household chores.Women seem to spend part of the saved time on income-generating activities. Taken together the results suggest that one of the mechanisms through which these stoves bring about better food and nutritional outcomes is through their effect on empowering women to use their time more effectively.The findings of the studies taken together provide the following additional insights.adoption of agricultural technologies: Low adoption of improved technology and practices has been implicated as one of the causes of low agricultural productivity for sub-Saharan African countries (Minten and Barrett, 2008). Lack of knowledge about the existence and the associated benefits of improved practices and technologies has long been shown to partially explain the observed dismal adoption rate (Foster and Rosenzweig, 1995). The behaviour change literature shows that motivating and sustaining a behavioural change requires moving beyond the provision of information to the engagement of emotions, which can be achieved by leveraging individuals' behavioural tendencies and cultural and social norms (Aunger and Curtis, 2013). The results from Chapter three and four show the utility of incorporating psychological insights into the traditional technology adoption approach for increasing the uptake of new technologies. Chapter three shows how one can leverage the propensity to follow social norms to improve the effectiveness of information campaigns to promote nutritionally enhanced crops. Chapter four demonstrates how message framing and individuals' tendency to respond more strongly to information when it is aligned to their behaviour tendencies (motivational orientation) can be used to increase the uptake of new crop varieties. The utility of these insights is presumably not limited to a specific technology and can be used to increase the uptake of a wide variety of improved agricultural technologies and practices.Closing farmers' nutrition knowledge gap and building upon the existing production pattern is key to leveraging their unique role in transforming the food system: The food system in the global south is changing rapidly with an increasing role of supermarkets in supply chains from farm to fork (Dakora, 2012;Reardon and Timmer, 2012). From a global perspective, change in the food system is marked by consolidation at both the production and distribution level, the emergence of longer and more complex value chains, and overall interconnectedness which become possible due to information and communications technologies (de Brauw & Bulte, 2021). Interestingly, however, smallholders still play a large role and contribute about onethird of the food supply, using a quarter of the agricultural land (Ricciardi et al., 2018). Thus, any intervention that aims to transform the food system should recognize the unique role and opportunities they present. By addressing information barriers, the studies (Chapter three and four) showed that it is possible to encourage farmers to switch to biofortified crop varieties.Since the crop selected for biofortification is already known and widely grown and consumed by the targeted population, switching to new crop varieties is not expected to require radical change. This increases the likelihood of adopting these crop varieties. Given that the tested information interventions are presumed not to require huge upfront investments, the studies showed one approach of incorporating smallholders in food system intervention moreefficiently.An integrated approach that promotes both food safety and nutrition is needed: Food safety issues are expected to be a growing concern for consumers in the global south as the awareness level and purchasing power of consumers in these countries increases.Safeguarding food safety is also increasingly important in the face of intensification of agriculture which requires the use of agrochemicals. Failure to address food safety issues is costly as contaminated foods are a significant impediment to economic development worldwide (Havelaar et al., 2015). In fact, promoting food safety is linked to efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (FAO, 2021(FAO, , 2018)). The findings of this thesis (Chapter 2) are in line with this consensus about the importance of food safety in efforts to improve nutrition. The findings of chapter two indicate that food safety is an important concern for urban consumers, and even more so than the nutritional content of food. The results further indicate that if consumers have misgivings about the safety of the food or do not trust the source of the food, information interventions would be less effective in encouraging consumers to switch to nutritionally-enhanced foods. Thus, the study highlights the fact that an integrated approach to promoting food safety and nutrition is likely efficient.Nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions have been recognized as viable strategies to achieve better nutritional outcomes (Black et al., 2013).Among other things, this involves promoting nutritionally enhanced crops. However, limited access to quality inputs has contributed to the low adoption of these inputs. The implication is that access to quality agricultural inputs is key for transforming smallholder livelihood in Africa (Tilman et al., 2011). Recently de Brauw and Bulte (2021) have argued that the absence of effective quality certification mechanisms -for both agricultural input and output-could lead to market failures and to poor quality products in the market.Apart from the actual quality of inputs, our results (chapter 3) showed that perceived quality of input (which is subjective) also matters in farmers' technology adoption decisions. Any doubt about the quality of the seeds negatively affects the likelihood of adoption of nutritionally enhanced seeds even if farmers are made aware of the benefits of consuming food prepared from nutritionally enhanced crops.The results in this thesis show that consumers would pay a premium for food they deem safe. Assuming that consumers' concern about food safety is not limited to processed food (cooking oil) but is an emerging trend that would extend to other food items (Melesse et al., 2019), it is conceivable that urban consumers would pay a premium price for safe and quality food products. Since smallholders are at the core of the food economy, addressing food safety issues should also include smallholders. However, research on quality certification on crops that are widely grown by smallholders is thin. The studies in the thesis contribute to this thin literature. The findings of chapter two provide suggestive evidence that encouraging smallholder farmers to produce quality products and certify their products would allow them to earn more income as consumers are willing to pay premium prices.An intervention that aims to alleviate constraints on multiple fronts would be more effective: The advantage of adopting systems thinking rather than breaking down a system into its components and studying them separately has long been recognized. The systemic approach began to spill over into thinking about global supply chains and then to rural development. As it pertains to the supply and consumption of healthy food, a food system approach has been introduced as a useful conceptual framework for research and policy. The key insight that came out of the food system thinking is that relaxing constraints in a piecemeal fashion is unlikely to change the status quo sustainably. This insight has been made in the context of agricultural development in Africa (de Brauw and Bulte, 2021). The food system in the global south faces multiple constraints and addressing them on multiple fronts is expected to be more effective. The results of the chapters taken as whole lends support to this realization. For instance, in addition to availing nutritionally enhanced foods, it is important to address the key constraints related to lack of nutrition knowledge at the same time addressing consumer uneasiness about food safety. The thesis also showed a link between rural energy uses and the role of technologies in empowering women which ultimately is shown to improve food and nutrition security status.The selection of innovations and strategies to promote them should consider the local context: The chapters in the thesis also contribute to the growing body of work that recognizes the importance of devising context-specific solutions for problems faced by farmers in the global south. In the rural development literature, there seems to be a consensus that development interventions should be informed by the local context (Donovan et al., 2015;Ika, 2012;Stoian et al., 2016). Recent work gave the issue more impetus as it argued that though African farmers face similar development challenges, interventions must take local context into account (de Brauw and Bulte, 2021). The studies in this thesis contribute to this debate.The thesis demonstrates how one can leverage the local context to improve diet quality. In urban areas, inadequate consumption of Vitamin A is found to be one of the public health problems. In this setting, cooking oil is usually used in food preparation. Taking this into consideration the innovation that we tested in urban areas is cooking oil fortified with vitamin A. Another relevant context that informs our study is the fact that since there is a shortage of cooking oil in the market, adulterated/unsafe products are also available in the market. This leads to a loss in consumer confidence and makes consumers more sensitive to safety issues.Cognizant of this we incorporate food safety issues and study the role of safety certification in the context of promoting fortified cooking oil. We find that an educational intervention bundled with the introduction of food certification is effective in increasing consumers' wtp for fortified cooking oil. The results highlight the importance of understanding the context and designing interventions in a way that addresses the important issues of the target population.In rural areas, production and consumption decisions are inseparable and maize is a widely consumed staple. In this setting, biofortification is shown to be effective in delivering important nutrients. Another peculiarity of our study areas that informs our study is the fact that the colour of maize is one of the key considerations for farmers. In this setting what farmers are accustomed to is white maize, and the current process of increasing the nutritional value of maize usually leads to colour changes (in the study areas the colour of biofortified maize is yellow). If farmers have a strong colour preference, their preference for white maize may outweigh their willingness to adopt yellow but nutritionally enhanced maize.Thus, the innovation that we chose to study in this area is nutritionally enhanced maize (chapter 3 and 4) since maize is already a staple food there. In addition, we study how the colour of the crop affects farmers' wtp for nutritionally enhanced maize (Chapter 3). Our results highlight the fact that the colour of the crop is an important consideration in farmer crop choice and educational information is needed to induce farmers to switch to these more nutritious crops.Finally, in areas where there is a fertile ground to introduce alternative rural energy sources, improved cookstoves can be leveraged to improve diets as they are shown to increase women's access to resources which in turn have a positive effect on household food and nutrition outcomes. Without losing sight of the overall food system, it is not only possible but imperative to win local battles.In terms of policy, the thesis has the following implications. Specific policy implications from each of the core studies (chapter 2-chapter 5) are discussed in the relevant chapter. Here I highlight three policy implications. Firstly, the fact that consumers are willing to pay more for food they consider safe than food that is fortified with nutrients (Chapter 2) suggests that Finally, the fact that risk perceptions and people's motivational orientations moderate the effectiveness of information interventions (Chapter 4) suggests that educational intervention can be made more effective by crafting educational materials that are in line with people's behavioural tendencies.Important limitations of the study are discussed separately in each chapter. Here limitations that cut through the chapters are discussed along with considerations for future research.One of the limitations of this thesis that runs through the core chapters is that we make assumptions that we are not able to directly test empirically. For instance, in chapter 2 and 3 participants are asked to make a choice between hypothetical alternatives, and there are no real consequences associated with the choice. Such responses to hypothetical choices may differ from real-world behaviour (Hensher et al., 2015). Nevertheless, since discrete choice experiments are well tested in the field and have theoretical links with real behaviour, they still allow researchers to gain an understanding of how people actually make choices (Louviere et al., 2010). Furthermore, to reduce the potential hypothetical bias, we present choice sets in a way that closely resembles the actual choice tasks farmers face. To further reduce the hypothetical bias and get more precise results, future studies should use incentive-compatible methods of eliciting preferences.In chapter 5, we make another assumption to infer the causal impact that ICSs exert on food security and nutritional status. In this chapter, we harness observational data and use IV methods to estimate the impact of ICSs ownership. To attribute the difference in food security and nutritional status between ICSs and non-ICSs households, we assume that construction input (cement and sand) prices do not directly affect households' food security and nutritional status. In the literature, this is called the exclusion restriction. Through indirect methods, we tested this key assumption, and the results lend support to the assertion that the instruments are valid. Nevertheless, it is still an assumption and our results should be seen in light of these key assumptions. Thus, future studies that aim to establish the impact of ICSs on food security and nutritional status should preferably use experimental methods. If conducting experiments is not feasible, observational data with multiple data points (ideally more than two)-for both pre-and post-treatment periods-can be combined with quasi-experimental methods that are appropriate for panel data (for example, Difference in Difference, two-way fixed effects or even the fixed effects IV estimator). Multiple data points would allow researchers to examine if the set of identifying assumptions is likely to hold and derive robust results (Cunningham, 2021).Chapter 3 and 4 look at the impact of information interventions in farmers wtp for nutritionally enhanced seed. The implicit assumption is that increasing farmers' wtp for nutritionally enhanced seeds will lead to the consumption of food prepared from nutritionally enhanced crops. This is expected to improve nutrition security and eventually contribute positively to health outcomes. However, there are many steps from wtp for seeds to improved nutritional outcomes and ultimately health. Consideration for future study is thus to understand if the promoted behaviour-consumption of fortified cooking oil in chapter 2, and production and consumption of food prepared from biofortified maize (chapter 3 and 4) will actually translate into measurable changes in people's diet and have health impacts both in short and long terms. Along these paths, there may be key barriers that need to be identified and addressed for the envisioned food system transformation to materialize.The results also revealed that seed quality is one of the key attributes that smallholders take into account in their production decisions (Chapter 3) and that they are willing to pay a premium for quality seeds. The next logical step is thus to examine the feasibility of supplying these nutritionally-enhanced crop varieties given the reservation price of farmers. Both the public and the private sector have a role in supplying agricultural inputs. Thus, a cost-benefit analysis needs to be conducted from the perspective of both the private as well as the public sector.Another limitation is that the research in this thesis mainly focuses on a short time horizon with the required mathematical rigour may limit our understanding of why they work or did not work. Formal models would also provide additional insights that may not be so obvious at first glance. Empirical results backed by formal theoretical models would also increase the confidence in the results. Another consideration for future research that aims to assess the impact of interventions that leverage insights from different fields such as psychology is to incorporate formal behavioural models that help to explain key results and lay bare the mechanism. Such studies would be useful to identify which interventions have a high likelihood of success if they are implemented in another context or scaled up (Ioannidis et al., 2021).The current food system is very efficient in one way -it allows for the production of enough food to feed everyone (Holt-Giménez et al., 2012). However, it is inefficient in another wayit fails to deliver nutritious diets for 2.4 billion people (WHO, 2021). Clearly, there is a need to identify interventions that would be effective in transforming the food system in a way that works for the world's poor. The research presented in this thesis responds to this need. It is informed by the food system framework of HLPE (2017). The core chapters deal with the different aspects of food systems: they explore aspects of food value chains, the food environment and consumer behaviour. Notwithstanding the above limitations, the results of the thesis contribute to the global wide effort of transforming the food systems to better deliver healthy and sustainable diets in a socially equitable way.food and nutrition security outcomes. Further analysis shows that ICSs reduce home labour and this, in turn, allows women household members to engage in income-generating activities, suggesting that the impact is driven by women empowerment channels. These findings suggest innovations that relieve women from the time constraint and domestic drudgery empower women economically and have positive spillover effects that affect their households and presumably their community.Finally, chapter 6 synthesizes the results. The chapter briefly discusses answers to the research questions, spells out the contribution of the studies as it relates to the broad scientific debates, and puts forward consideration for future research.","tokenCount":"32905"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ee09d3e3ce442224eeb1e131bdb6e917","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H042757.pdf","id":"874400227"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0f9e8f82-a8f4-4ed2-8d9f-a64e92429ef5","pagecount":"29","content":"The objective of this paper is to analyze the Participatory Irrigation Management approach in the country and suggest some strategic directions for this institutional mechanism for further improvement of its effectiveness to face the ongoing and future challenges in irrigation management. In achieving the main objective of the paper three aspects of PIM will be addressed. As a first step of the analyses the evolution of PIM is briefly reviewed. The current progress of the PIM approaches in managing irrigation schemes is in . tep involves the analysis likelihood challenges for the PIM approach to be further progressed and sustained in the long run. In this context the paper is organized into sections section 2 followed by this introductory section descrievolution of PIM in Sri Lanka. ection 3 provides key information on the progress/outcomes of PIM approach in managing irrigation schemes. The challenges being faced and also to be faced in future are discussed in section 4. The final section, section 5 suggests some strategic directions PIM and progressive.The analysis of this paper is mainly based on information obtained from IWMI/HARTI conducted research. International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Hector Kobbakaduwe grarian Research and raining Institute (HARTI) carried out a year and evaluation study during 1992 to 1994 covering significant number of irrigation schemes that are managed with PIM approaches. The irrigation schemes managed by (edium and large irrigation schemes) and the Mahaweli Authority managed schemes were selected for the study. The PIM approach in large irrigation schemes is known as INMAS and the schemes are managed by a program called MANIS. This study adopted several methods for data collection from schemes these programs, six irrigation schemes from programs were selected for documenting the process of irrigation management during the entire study period Process documentation in each scheme was carried out by full time stationed esearch ssistant in the specific irrigation scheme. Research officers of IWMI and HARTI carried out recurrent surveys in 18 schemes covering 30 FOs. Finally a largescale questionnaire survey was carried out in 49 irrigation schemes from programs covering 172 FOs.The key components of PIM were assessed based on certain criteria and indicators. These indicators were used to assess the progress outcomes and impacts of irrigation schemes that are managed through PIM. Since there are no common or universally accepted criteria and indicators to measure the performance of PIM these indicators would provide objectively verifiable values for the readers interested to know the progress of PIM approach used for managing irrigation schemes. Three different indicator values were developed to measure the conceptual base, performance and outcome of different components of PIM. Different aspects are used to develop conceptual base, performance and outcome indicators under different criteria summarized in able 1. The detail scoring system used for measuring the values of each indicator is shown in Annex 1. The main purpose of criteria and indicators developed was to apply them in assessing the degree of achievement in objectives of PIM. The government expectedtwo primary objectives from PIM policy when it was formally passed in 1988 in a cabinet paper. These primary objectives improv productivity of irrigation systems and redction of overnment cost routine O&M of irrigation system management. The government expected to achieve these two objectives by enhancing farmer involvement/contribution in irrigation system management and also implementing strategies for both farmers and irrigation managers to work together planning andimplementation of irrigation management functions in the systems. The indicators under each criterion have logical sequence to measure the effectiveness of different components of PIM model in achieving enhanced performance of irrigation system management. The usefulness of criteria applied for the assessment is depicted in igure 1.Participatory irrigation management that was formally accepted as a policy in 1988 has a long history. The small irrigation systems (small tanks and anicut systems) originally constructed by communities reliable water for their agricultural land completely dependon rainfall. small irrigation systems can be regarded as farmer managed systems historically. Even the major irrigation systems constructed ancient kings had some farmer involved management systems. This is because water distribution in canals cannot be done without participation of farmers. The overnment of Sri Lanka after attempted to intervene in irrigated agriculture system to enhance its productivity. The series of government interventions later became participatory irrigation management policy accepted by the government by a cabinet paper in 1988. All the historical events had a basis fordue to political economical reasons. The major events changing irrigation management are summarized below:The Paddy Land Act No. 1 of 1958 established cultivation committees replacing the traditional Velvidane ystem. This committee consisted of elected farmer representative and was responsible for resolution of land disputes, coordination of rice cultivation activities and distribution of water. Irrigation committees were established in irrigation schemes. The Velvidane was elected in each village tank system by cultivators. The village headman arranged a meeting with cultivators to elect the Velvidane. He was mainly responsible for water distribution, maintenance and conflict resolution. Handing over to farmer organizations some management and operational functions of the system Maintain irrigation systems at optimum level of performance Identify major systems needing urgent rehabilitationThe performance of major components of PIM is used as basis for assessment. These components include farmer organizations, joint management committee systems and turnover of irrigation management to farmer organizations. It was assumed that grater performance of these components would need to contribute overall performance of irrigation schemes and achiev objective of the PIM system.In almost all the sample irrigation schemes studied by IMI and ARTI it was found that the farmers have been mobilized into Farmer Organizations. The structure prescribed by PIM (FC groupsgroups, Systemlevel FOs) has not been followed in some of the MANIS. This mainly due to lack of inputs MANIS schemes to . The INMAS and Mahaweli irrigation schemes have separate organization units to deal with farmer rganization whereas MANIS schemes are managed by technical assistants of ID without other additional assistance. Even in Mahaweli systemlevel farmer organizations have not been established, system level needs of farmers are handled by the system level joint committees. This may be the reason INMAS irrigation schemes neglect organiz farmers into system level organizations (58% of schemes in INMAS and 20% of MANIS schemes).  Finding leaders committed and also acceptable to most of the farmer members is a difficult task according to the qualitative information collected in the study. Therefore, the farmer members tend to satisf with the available leaders who are prepared to work on voluntary basis. Although most of the farmers have certain personal opinions in the survey they have expressed that they are satisfied with the voluntary leaders of FOs. For example 82% farmers interviewed in INMAS schemes, 75% in MANIS, 80% in Mahaweli scheme stated that they are satisfied with their leaders.ost of the FOs except few organizations in Mahaweli ha small FO fund. considerable percentage of FOs no funds in their bank accounts. For example 80% FOs in INMAS, 90% in MANIS and 95% in Mahaweli re reported as organizations having some funds in their bank accounts. The average funds available in FOs of irrigation schemes in programs ranged from Rs 5000 to 40,000Nearly 80% or more FOs collected membership fees. But only less than 50% of the FOs earn money from construction contracts undertaken. ajority of general farmers expressed in the survey that they are satisfied with the method applied for managing funds. This high-level of satisfaction is due two reasons the money each individual farmer contributes for FO fund is small, and. More than 80% of the individIn INMAS and Mahaweli systems more than 75% farmer organizations hld monthly meetings with their committee members47% in MANIS system. Most of the farmer leaders reported that they have number of general farmer meetings. The general farmer meetings are held when there conflict between farmer. Only about 10% to 32% of farmer leaders mentioned that they hold general meetings. he MANIS system only about 15% or less hold their general meetings.Farmer organizations play critical role in water distribution at level of all the irrigation schemes. The results of the study indicate that farmer involvement is much more relevant and essential in irrigation scheme where water is resource. The water distribution problems are due to different reasons according to the study. reasons and their magnitude in sample schemes studied are shown in able 5 In all the irrigation schemes under programs, joint management committees or at least some arrangements for joint meetings have been established to provide forum for different stakeholders and also to farmer leaders to meet together to discuss significant activities of cultivation programs in the particular irrigation scheme. These committees especially project management committees play critically important role in planning of cultivation seasons (seasonal planning) and also monitoring and evaluation of the cultivation program and also some other functions of irrigation management. ach irrigation scheme has Project anagement ommittee compris key stakeholder agencies and representatives of farmer organizations. This committee is organized by the project manager in IMD he same structure can be observed in MANIS schemes IMD is not involved in management functions of MANIS system assistants of rrigation epartment act as the project managers system. Mahaweli has threetier oint anagement ommittee (JMC) system. The JMCs have been established based on the Mahaweli management structure. The lowest level of Mahaweli management structure is unit and therefore unit management committees have been organized at unit level. econd tier is block management committees established at administrative block of the Mahaweli management structure. A project management committee is the highest JMC that is based Resident Project Manger evel (Scheme Level).The consultative seasonal planning procedure established by the joint management committees has led to benefits to the farmers and also agency officers. The farmers benefited by voicing their concerns about the seasonal plans. The agencies benefited by learning from farmer experience for improved seasonal planning. The monthly meetings of JMCs have helped to give effect to the basic principals of participatory management such as frequent dialogue between stakeholders, learning from each other and seeking solutions jointly and effectively.The JMC is not a management unit responsible for the performance of the system. JMCs can design plans and discuss various problems existing in irrigation systems but the success in implementing these plans is heavily dependent on the performance of functional agencies and their officials. For example the PMCs in INMAS can design various plans but unless the epartment of Agriculture, the Irrigation epartment, the Land Commissioners Department and the Irrigation Management Division play their relevant roles, these plans cannot be . On the other hand, farmer organizations also play a key role in implementing the decisions of JMCs. Some FOs become ineffective due to the inability to implement decisions in the field through the farmers. It can therefore the success of the JMCs in implementing plans heavily dependent also on the strength of the FOs.Under the participatory management policy of the government, it is intended to turnover some of the system management responsibilities at and below the level to farmers. Before this became government policy some attempts had been made to implement this policy informally in certain schemes such as Kimbulwanaoya and Minipe through the efforts of few enthusiastic irrigation officials. Turnover was later initiated in other schemes under programs we studied, INMAS, MANIS and Mahaweli. The cabinet paper specially stated that those farmers who accept turnover O&M for will be exempted of irrigation fees. The amended rrigation rdinance authorizes FOs to takeover O&M of their areasn return they are exempted paying irrigation fees. Turnover has occurred in programs at various levels and in different forms. In the sample irrigation schemes studied several categories of turnover ha taken place under operation and maintenance. Operation of FC and DC gates and above have taken place under operations and DC jungle clearing, desilting , minor repairs, greasing and painting of structures and main canal level cleaning and desilting have taken place under maintenance category. Slow progress reported on turnover in programs we studied. Table 12 includes the information on sample FOs reported as turnedover and responsibilities turned over in the FOs. Operating DC gates C-DC jungle clearing and desilting At present the operation of FC gated and jungle clearing and the desilting of DCs are the major activities taken over by FOs. Whether paid or not, farmers now clearly know that certain operating and maintenance responsibilities will be handed over to them hat is now necessary to decide how turnover can be continued so agencies and farmers will know what the goal of program is. The study found that water distribution has improved due to turnoverDC and FC maintenance has not suffered from turnover. The study also found that farmers can turnover as long as the profitability of irrigated agriculture dose not fall. Full turnover would mean that FOs are given the full responsibility for O&M below the DC head or an equivalent point systems without DCs. Full responsibility would include paying all of the cost there would be no subsidies beyond provided in the O&M of the main system. The arguments in favor of full turnover include  Making farmers completely responsible for maintenance of canals and below clarifies and simplifies responsibilities. At the moment, some FOs only the maintenance work they are paid for and others do not repairs to get the government to make the repairs. Once responsibilities are clarified, this would not happen.  turnover will make it possible for the agencies to focus their attention maintenance of the main system and may improve the sustainability of the systems as a whole.  Completing turnover means that financing maintenance of distributaries and below will not be subject to problems of public finance.The current situation is unsatisfactory because some farmers continue to expect government assistance that is only partially provided. It has been found that full turnover in operation responsibilities for DCs and below to FOs would be possible and even now it is taking place successfully in many irrigation schemes. The problem is maintenance. This alternatives mentioned below to full turnover of responsibilities to FOs.o FOs would take complete responsibil for jungle cleaning and desilting (except when the silt is exceptionally heavy) for both FC and DC. As pointed out, FOs already doing this and farmers have come to accept it.  Alternative 2 (low technical moderate financial burden on farmers) o FOs would take complete responsibility for jungle clearing and desilting (except when the silt is exceptionally heavy) for both FOs and DCs o FOs would take responsibility for painting, greasing etc o FOs would take responsibility for small earth work repairs.o All other work, including heavy desilting and major earth work would be the responsibility of the .  Alternative 3 (moderate technical financial burden of farmers) o FOs would take complete responsibility for jungle clearing and desilting (except when the silt is exceptionally heavy) for both FCs and DCs o FOs would take responsibility for painting, greasing etc o FOs would take responsibility for small earth repairs o FOs would take responsibility for simple structur repairs o All other work, including heavy desilting, major earth work, and large or complicated structure repairs, would be the responsibility of the irrigation agency.Participatory management policy clearly succeeded in getting farmers much more involved in system management than they were in the some MANIS systems studied that had been neglected by the irrigation agencies. However, turnover has not progressed as expected in different ways  On the one hand, fewer than expected agreements have been reached in all programs.Only the INMAS program has made much progress in achieving some form of turnover, although the MEA is now seriously trying to make turnover work. There has been very little progress in MANIS schemes, although the NIRP mandated turnover in its post rehabilitation phase. . On the other hand, full turnover has not occurred in any of the three systems and progress has stopped at a joint management stage. In particular, there is reluctance o the part of both agencies and farmers to have the full responsibilities for maintenance turned over to the FOs. Payments continue to be made by agencies for O&M activities to FOs that ha taken over responsibilities, either informally or formally.As explained in the methodology performance of aspects of PIM was measured using scoring system developed. The details of scoring system used for the assessment are shown in Annex 1. The intensive data collect using recurrent surveys and process documentation methods used to calculate the scores obtained by sample FOs in different irrigation schemes under programs. The potential scores for each indicator area and the average scores and also the range actually obtained by different programs studied are summarized in able 13. The scores obtained by each sample FO studied using recurrent survey and process documentations in programs are shown in Annex 2. The major conclusion is that, despite its partial failure to achieve some of the main goals participatory management has clear benefits and should be continued and supported. Also, basic participatory management of formal multifunctional farmer organizations and joint management committees should be continued. At the end of the IMII/HARTI study a national workshop was held to discuss the study results and recommendations for strengthening PIM policy. It is found that most of these main recommendations are still realistically valid to improve the PIM in the present context.Recommendation No.1The IMII/HARTI team recommended that steps be taken to make government agencies dealing with agriculture more responsive and more supportive of farmer organizations and joint management committees. These steps include: agency should redefine the job descriptions of officers to reflect the tasks and attitudes needed to provide explicit support for farmer organizations and joint management committees. This redefinition should make certain activities mandatory, including attendance at JMC meetings and providing technical assistance and advice to FOs and JMCs. In particular, the job descriptions of Technical Assistants/ Project Managers in MANIS schemes should be redefined to ensure that the TA/PMs have the time and motivation to play their roles as Project Managers effectively. (orkshop) n Inter-agency committee may be set up redefine job descriptions.  Intensive training be provided to government officers in all relevant agencies about their roles and functions with respect to farmer organizations and joint management committees and about the rights and responsibilities of the FOs and JMCs.  In order to ensure that officers act in supportive ways, their performance in supporting farmer organizations and joint management committees may be made an explicit part of their performance evaluations.  The government may make it a policy to support farmer organization and JMC decisions.This may mean delegating greater authority to local agencies so that they can respond effectively to JMC decisions. It also means that government officers should support farmer organization decisions against complaints from individual members.  (Workshop) The Secretaries of rrigation and Agriculture may issue a joint declaration of the participatory management policy. The policy should be widely publicized through various media. A major effort may be made to publicize among the farmers the rights and responsibilities of farmer organizations and joint management committees as defined in by-laws to the amended Agrarian Services Act and in the amended Irrigation Ordinance.  (Workshop) Farmers should be consulted about any future amendments to the relevant legal acts.  (Workshop) Regular monitoring and evaluation of the progress of the policy should be undertaken. An annual workshop may be held as a routine task to review the performance of the irrigation management policy activities.Recommendation No. We recommend that catalyst efforts, farmer training, and other direct support activities for FOs and JMCs be continued. These efforts are needed for the following: Catalyst efforts are needed to facilitate the organization of farmers in schemes where no farmer organizations exist. Catalysts are also needed to assist agencies and farmer representatives in the creation of joint management committees in schemes where they do not exist (relevant to MANIS schemes).  Catalyst efforts, training, and publicity should focus on educating all farmers, not just farmer organization leaders, about participatory management. Specific efforts should be made to educate farmers about organizational management, including handling finances, selecting leaders, etc.  (Workshop) Training should be provided to the farmers at the appropriate time on the functions and responsibilities of the farmer organization during each stage (initial, joint management, and turnover) of farmer organizational development.  (Workshop) When needs arise, farmer organizations should be encouraged to hire trained persons e.g. bookkeepers auditors) to carry out specific organizational management tasks.  Widespread training about technical aspects of irrigation should be continued.The relevant government agencies should make technical information on the irrigation schemes available to the farmer organizations.  Where special problems exist, e.g. land tenure problems, support efforts should focus on finding solution to those problems.  Special efforts should be made to offer opportunities to farmer organizations to take up new businesses. One business that should be fully supported by the government agencies is paddy marketing. Government agencies should assist in establishing linkages to other relevant markets.  Efforts should be made to prevent development of dependency of the farmers on the catalyst agents as has been reported from some INMAS schemes. This can be done by constant monitoring of catalyst activities; catalyst should not provide direct services but only instruction, advice, and guidance. Catalyst assistance should be time-bound.  (Workshop) Efforts should be made to mobilize other community members, such as teachers, Grama Niladharies and religious leaders in support of participatory management.Recommendation NoWe recommended that alternative organizational forms be developed for the various types of schemes for which the INMAS model is not appropriate. (Workshop) Farmer organizations should be organized on the basis of hydrological units whenever possible (ostly relevant to MANIS schemes).Recommendation No.4We recommend that the government clarif the policy on turnover, including defining what powers and responsibilities will be turned over and how the government will continue to support irrigation services. We suggest that the following should be part of this clarification: Turnover should be publicly declared to be a fixed policy that applies to all FOs in all schemes. If necessary, it can be explained that this is an alternative to imposing the irrigation service fee mandated by law.  (Workshop) o ensure an effective and united policy, both agriculture and irrigation should be place under one ministry. Alternatively, the policy can be implemented and supervised by a unified secretariat under a board drawn from both ministries. These measures will ensure a unified policy.  (Workshop) unding forfarmer organization and turnover activities should be provided on a program basis to deal with the whole sector rather than on a project basis that deals with only a few schemes at a time.  (Workshop) or turnover, farmer organizations must be formally recognized by the government; for this many farmer organizations need to be strengthened.  (Workshop) The irrigation agency personnel in a turnedover scheme will be answerable to the Project Management Committee for that scheme.  Operations of canals and below, or equivalent portions of systems without canals, should be turned over to farmer organizations as soon as the canals are repaired to make them operable.  Operations of canal head gates, branch canals, main canals and headworks should be turned over to appropriate level farmer organizations or joint management committees upon the request of the farmer organizations or joint management committees with the proviso that the farmer organizations or joint management committees take full responsibility for hiring, paying and supervising the necessary operating personnel. The exact details can be negotiated following a request from the relevant group of farmers to the Project Management Committee in each scheme.  (Workshop) For operation of canal head gates, it is suggested that they be jointly operated for a period of less than years, following which operations should be handed over to farmer organizations.  (Workshop) Farmer organizations should be made responsible for the safety of structures and protecting reservations from encroachments and damage.  Jungle clearing and regular desilting of and or their equivalents should be made the unambiguous sole responsibility of farmer organizations; no funds should be provided to farmers for this activity.  The government should come to a decision about how much it is willing to subsidize other aspect of canal and maintenance, including painting and greasing of metal controls, major and minor earthworks such as the repairs of scours and washouts, and repair of concrete and masonry structures. (Workshop) nce the basic decision about the obligations of farmer organizations and government are worked out at national level, specific subsidies and subsidy levels should be worked out at scheme level based on an assessment of needs. These subsidies can include salaries, equipment, operation funds and others.  The mechanism for providing subsidies should be defined. There are several alternatives ranging from giving the irrigation agency full responsibility and the necessary funds to making the FOs responsible but giving them a simple annual cash grant  The government should define a period of time by the end of which the transfer of responsibilities must be accomplished. No more than years following completion of needed repairs to complete the transfer. During this period, a time of joint management should be defined during which the agency officers supervise and assist the farmer organizations in undertaking responsibilities.As part of the study, the IMI/ARTI team documented the monitoring and evaluation systems being used by the implementing agencies, interviewed managers about their information needs, developed indicators of key characteristics of farmer organization and joint management committee performance, and tested these in the field in an experiment in improved monitoring. At present, the uses the Monitoring, Evaluation and Feedback (ME&F) System. A major problem is that many FO office-bearers do not prepare the required monthly reports. These are given in Annex 1. roperly used the indicators provide a reasonabl accurate way to measure FO and JMC progress. To provide an objective way to evaluate the strength and performance of FOs before considering them for turnover, the study team suggested a first approximation of minimum acceptable percentage scores for turnover. These numbers can be refined over time as more experience is gained in rating FOs and JMCs.The study team believed that the government should have an effective way of keeping track of the progress of FOs, JMCs and turnover. Based on these experiences and findings, they recommended:1. The IMD could consider the idea that FOs will be interested in collecting data for themselves and for the IMD.2. That the considers developing a recurrent survey-type monitoring program for MANIS schemes based in the IMACs.A 1 -Detailed riteria and ndicators for easuring PIM Note: or purposes of judging membership, potential members is defined as all farmers (ncluding renters) served by the canal. The number of active members is defined by asking the DCO officers to identity the member of active members their organizations ","tokenCount":"4461"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bc5be9d1a609cc832ef81e478eb28a68","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ecd6c064-567c-4684-a0e1-6f24108edf85/retrieve","id":"1916777169"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"da0103ca-612c-4fda-b7e7-28445a033079","pagecount":"2","content":"There is a longstanding debate among agricultural development stakeholders: state-led versus market-led strategies to transform food systems. While narratives provide an important framework to better understand this policy dichotomy and the choices of decision-makers, they are often neglected in food systems policy-making processes. Our authors recommend making use of policy narratives to find a way to solve real-world problems.Disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, desert locust swarms and looming food security crises are creating a renewed sense of urgency among scientists, decision-makers, the private sector, civil society and development organisations to fix broken food systems. The upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit in 2021 presents an opportunity to harness this momentum for tackling the challenges affecting global food systems and chart a course forward. To do so effectively, stakeholders must address the longstanding debate over the policy instruments needed to transform the agricultural sector.For years, food system stakeholders have deliberated over questions such as: What role should governments play? Are input subsidy programmes an effective strategy to increase agricultural productivity? What are the merits of agroecology versus sustainable agricultural intensification or blended sustainability? Do small-scale farms have development potential, or is supporting them ''romantic populism\"? Disagreement over these points and the ensuing divergent narratives have led to fragmented initiatives and policy choices that do not offer adequate solutions to the situations at hand. Given the current confluence of crises facing global food systems, we must look to bridge these differences by developing a reconciling perspective to real-world problems.While development dichotomies are not new, pressure is mounting to resolve the policy impasse they create. For decades, fundamental divisions in ideas and beliefs have been observed among development economists. These differences have been described by Paul Streeten as ''development dichotomies\". Streeten highlighted the fundamental divisions in ideas and beliefs that he observed among development economists. For example, there is the division between those who believe ''bigger is better\" and those who advocate ''small is beautiful\". Such dichotomies exist within agricultural development as well. In particular, there is a divide between those who put their faith in state-led approaches and those who favour market-led approaches to promoting agricultural development. In our recent paper published by World Development, we identify two food systems coalitions with divergent policy narratives: the agricultural support critique coalition and the agricultural support coalition.Analysis of the two coalitions reveals distinct and oppositional narratives. While the agricultural support critique coalition demonstrates a preference for market-oriented fertiliser policy reforms, the agricultural support coalition emphasises the need for strong government support, especially by providing input subsidies. The former coalition, in addition to promoting a market-based approach, also back a second narrative against agricultural subsidies. They emphasise that the prevailing government input subsidy programmes are ineffective and inefficient and stress the need for the private sector to lead investment, arguing that public sector finance crowds out private sector investment. In Senegal, Ghana, and Uganda, these arguments can be seen in policy actors' statements such as \"Subsidies are an expensive component of the government budget\", \"There is lack of transparency regarding the fertiliser and seed input subsidy distribution\", \"Subsidies crowd out private investment\", and \"Subsidies are politically efficient but not economically efficient\".In contrast, the agricultural support coalition position themselves as advocates of farmers' welfare in setting policy priorities. The agricultural support actors frame their narratives (ideas and policy beliefs) in the context of wider national and global debates on agricultural modernisation (e.g. irrigation infrastructure and farm mechanisation), job creation, and Photo: Uni Hohenheim/ Jan Winkler food sovereignty. Policy concerns regarding agricultural productivity problems are captured in food and nutrition security narratives to provide a justification for government-oriented subsidy programmes. Within this coalition, the use of tractors and other modern inputs (e.g. seeds, fertiliser, irrigation, tractor services, etc.) is indispensable in moving smallholders out of their current ''hoe and cutlass'' nature of farming, a metaphor they use for \"traditional\" or \"old\" farming systems.The narrative analysis of the two advocacy coalitions exposes their contrasting argumentative strategies. However, the coalitions share common ground on the view that low agricultural productivity is the major problem facing the agricultural sector. Utilising this problem as the argument's premise makes for a stronger case in support of government subsidies because it is well established in the agricultural economics literature that market failures are widespread in agriculture and contribute to the problem of low productivity. Therefore, the agricultural support coalition are able to construct a more straightforward narrative. They present a range of stories that explain why government support is necessary and how much support will address the problems of low agricultural productivity. The support coalition's narratives can be summarised as follows: ''Productivity is low due to limited access of smallholders to inputs and lack of guaranteed prices. The proposed policy instruments (block farming, fertiliser and tractor subsidies, and price stabilisation through buffer stocks) are essential to address these problems, and hence productivity will be increased. Agriculture will become more attractive to the youth and serve as an engine of growth.''In contrast, the coalition that promotes market-based approaches formulates the majority of its critiques on government subsidies and lacks clear-cut narratives that tell a better story. Rather than presenting a convincing alternative, the critique coalition focuses on explaining why government support strategies are difficult (governance problems, political capture) and why they will not be successful. While the agricultural support coalition seem to have a \"better story\" as far as the structure of their narrative is concerned, this does not imply that their story is better in a normative sense, that the prescribed policies are indeed better suited to reach their intended goals than the policies suggested by the agricultural support critique coalition.The dichotomous perspectives regarding solutions to low agricultural productivity and sustainable agriculture, which is crucial for economic development in Africa, has led to a policy deadlock: decision-makers continue to implement input subsidy programmes that have only limited effects in increasing agricultural productivity but are supported by a strong narrative.As disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are progressing and likely to have further impacts on the food systems, it is more urgent than ever to bridge the prevailing divergent perspectives and make meaningful progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. We need to develop a reconciling perspective on this real-world problem.Meta-narratives are an underexplored solution to bridging the two narrative worlds. One such concept that had the potential of a meta-narrative is market-smart subsidies. The term refers to temporary subsidies that are designed to promote, rather than undermine, the development of input markets (e.g. using fertiliser vouchers), as defined in a study led by Michael Morris. The concept had potential because it contained elements of both the agricultural support coalition and the agricultural support critique coalition. However, the study led by Morris did not develop a straightforward narrative to promote market-smart subsidies. Rather, they are portrayed as an option that \"may be justifiable on a temporary basis\".Additionally, although market-smart subsidy schemes have, indeed, been implemented in several African countries, a recent review led by Thom Jayne found that such subsidies had only a limited effect on productivity, partly because the market-smart principles were \"watered down or overturned during implementation\".Thus, it appears that neither of the two coalitions fully embraced market-smart subsidies, and they did not become the basis of a powerful meta-narrative that could promote policy-oriented learning across coalitions and other food systems stakeholders. While a successful meta-narrative has not arisen out of market-smart subsidies, other opportunities for reconciliation may present themselves. Paying more attention to the narrative foundations of development dichotomies can help overcome deadlock among agricultural policy stakeholders and clear the path forward towards sustainable, resilient global food systems and improved food security. ","tokenCount":"1271"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e1f45590875897f0320dcd91dbae31d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a59ba462-e003-4ced-84a6-180e57871fb3/retrieve","id":"861139329"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"05b0e68a-3e54-4418-8a8e-6773e3f9ff0f","pagecount":"2","content":"A team under the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB), led by David Hughes of Penn State and James Legg of IITA, together with scientists from CIAT, CIP and Bioversity International, are working on a revolutionary app to accurately diagnose diseases in the field, which will be combined with SMS services to send alerts to rural farmers.The concept leverages three critical advances in how knowledge is communicated to the farm level: 1) the democratization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) via open access platforms like Google's TensorFlow, 2) the miniaturization of technology allowing affordable deployment and 3) the development of massive communication and money exchange platforms like M-Pesa that allow rural extension to scale as a viable economic model enabling last mile delivery in local languages.Painstaking field work using cameras, spectrophotometers and drones at RTB cassava field sites in coastal Tanzania and on farms in western Kenya has already generated >200,000 images of diseased crops to train AI algorithms. Using many of these images, Hughes, Legg and collaborators were able to develop an AI algorithm with TensorFlow that can automatically classify five cassava diseases, and by collaborating with Google, the team have been able to develop a TensorFlow smartphone app that is currently being field-tested in Tanzania. ","tokenCount":"208"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/6554394995.json b/data/part_6/6554394995.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0dc9b4ccf0f0887bba01bbc899633d92","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5cf9b2e1-c331-4851-8632-d78268a2d639/retrieve","id":"1943111029"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3bba2b06-2f31-4007-b326-b9e2ed741810","pagecount":"2","content":"La papa es un cultivo indispensable para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria a nivel mundial, pues asegura la nutrición de la población y la sostenibilidad de quienes la cultivan. El Perú se ha convertido en el primer productor de papa de América Latina, produciendo casi 4.700.000 de toneladas de este tubérculo al año, inclusive superando a Brasil. Además, su consumo per cápita ha crecido de 65 a 85 kg en los últimos 12 años.En el Perú se siembran más de 35 cultivares entre mejorados (25) y nativos (15) que tienen presencia significativa en el mercado local y en el extranjero. A pesar del incremento per cápita, rendimiento y área cultivable de la papa en el país, según la Cámara de Comercio de Lima en 2016, la importación de papa prefrita se ha incrementado en un 37%. Esto a pesar de que estudios realizados en el 2012 indicaban que las papas nacionales eran más baratas que las importadas.Esta situación, sumada a la creciente demanda, es una oportunidad para liberar una nueva variedad producida en el Perú que sea idónea para la industrialización y que cumpla con las condiciones exigidas por las cadenas internacionales. En el marco de la ley 30309 (Promoción de la Investigación Científica, Desarrollo Tecnológico e Innovación Tecnológica) y financiado por la minera Poderosa y el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) presentaron el proyecto 'Selección de clones de papa con aptitud para procesamiento industrial en bastones y horneado, resistencia a la rancha y producción de semilla de alta calidad fitosanitaria' .El objetivo principal del proyecto es liberar una variedad de papa con características idóneas para el procesamiento industrial, resistencia a la rancha y la producción de semillas de alta calidad de acuerdo con la normatividad peruana vigente.De esta manera, se fortalece la cadena productiva y de procesamiento del cultivo de papa y se reduce el impacto ambiental del uso indiscriminado de fungicidas sustituyendo cultivares susceptibles a la rancha (Canchán y UNICA) por otros más resistentes.Selección de clones de papa con aptitud para procesamiento industrial en bastones y horneado, resistencia a la rancha y producción de semilla de alta calidad fitosanitaria 2. Incrementar el rendimiento del cultivo de papa en al menos 50% con respecto a las variedades tradicionales, teniendo en cuenta que el rendimiento actual es de 13 t/ha.3. Incrementar la venta de semilla certificada en al menos 15% de agricultores asociados en comités de productores de semilla promovidos por la empresa minera.4. Incrementar la oferta de papa con buena aptitud para procesamiento industrial en un 30%.5. Propiciar el desarrollo de cinco jóvenes investigadores de las universidades locales a través de la promoción de tesis para licenciatura o grado de ingeniero. ","tokenCount":"442"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/6560214201.json b/data/part_6/6560214201.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"200f8cb8079f75dc538da548febbac70","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/94842a51-ac93-444b-819b-2ab53a12534d/retrieve","id":"1226542638"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eab1daf5-43bc-47b8-b1a0-a69af02e14ce","pagecount":"30","content":"The fourth year of operation of the Seed Unit has resulted in the highest level of activi ty to date as program objectives hove been achieved. The objectives of the Unit continue to be : 1. lncrease the number and competence of seed technologists 2. Strengthen the seed programs and seed enterprises within countries through technical collaboration 3. Stimulate seed production and accelerate use of the most promising varieties and hybrids 4. Help solve problems limiting seed production and distribution. through research 5. Disseminote informotion on seed activities,odvances in seed technology and the availobility of promising materiols in the region. In •its operations the Seed Unit works both as a service unit to support of the commodity programs of CIAT os well as o development orientE~d activity to accelerate the growth of seed progroms ond enterprises in the region. Training ond Conferences Since 1978, when the first Seed Technology Course was offered by CIA T, tr:oining through multidisciplinary ond advanced courses, in-service training, M. Se. degree thesis programs, in-country training and workshops hale been increasing progressively.Fig.1 illustrates this progress for training . The Seed Unit's fi~t priority continues to be to increase the number and competence of seed technologists in the Latin American and Caribbean region. The highlights of the training and conference activities during 1982 are : Two postgraduate courses on Seed Technology including one given in English (for the first time) • An Advanced Postgraduate Course on Seed Conditioning. Two Workshops with one on Strategies for Seed Technology Training and another on lmproved Seed for the Small Farmer.For the first time 1 a Postgraduate Course in Seed Conditionin' g was offered that covered seed drying 1 conditioning and storage for plant managers. The 29 participants from 13 countries dedicated one and one half of the four weeks toan analysis of seven conditioning plants located in the Tolima Valley of Colombia • This teaching method preved to be an excellent application of the concepts taught.Their analyseswere presented to the seed enterprise managers and ultimately it is expected that the trainees will rroke similar applications in their own plants. The Seed Unit is indebted to the Colombian seed enterprises that contributed time and effort to make this course the success it was. Review of training at CIA T Table 1 indicates the number of professionals trained, by categories,cluring 1982 o nd F i g . 2 ilo.vs the number of profess i o na ls tra i ned by coun t~y of orig in.From Fig. 2 i t can be 'seen thot Colombia and Brazil had the largest number of JX1rticifx:mts. 1l-e higerrurrber for these countries reflects .both level of interest and size of the program. However, training six participants from the Dominican Republic is a much heavier input to that program than is having 12 trainees from Brazil because of the vast differences in numbers of people needed.Through training, the See d Unit collaborated with national institutions and seed enterprises in 27 countries in 1982. Table 2 lists the organizations and number of participants by countries.   When the request for assistonce in seed conditioning reached the Seed Unit,the staff was previously committe•d• and support was provided for an experienced Colombian to help with Seed Unit assistance. Thus,• the horizontal tronsfer .of knowledge was possible through the Unit.Another kind of assisfance to training from CIA T was by helping a regional seed testing course conducted in Costa Rica and cosponsored by the lnternational Seed Testing Association and the University of Costa Rica. The head of the Qua lity Control activi ti es of the Seed Unit was a lso a participant in that course.lt is e xpected that more countries will develop a total seed training plan 6. and incorporare increased in-county training into their programs. As this happens, the Seed Unit will provide the kind of assistance desired ranging from helping with training moterials to organizing and conducting a course in cooperation with national leaders. The Unit also cooperate5with other international and bilateral agencies interested in seed training at the country leve l.  7) ** These f.our peopl~ worked as consu~tants for the Seed Unit and t~chnically were not classified as Visiting Research Associatesbut a training element was involved in many of their activities.No.Months 47 e7 3) 29e29)3 e 9) 4( 19)84 ( 131)  The other priority oreo resulted in the workshop on 11 lmproved Seed for the Small Farmers\". This workshop, the first of its kind, brought together 65 participants who focused on the mechanisms to help the small farmer improve the quality oHhe seed he plants, on better ways to promote improved varieties through appropriate technology and the transfer of results to the small farmer, and on ways to increase the utilization of improved seed by the small farmer. The workshop brought forward many useful suggestions on how the small farmer could be 8.more effective in saving his own seed of beans, rice, cassava, maize, sorghum and potato. The need for increased on-farm evaluation of varieties was stressed to help assure that only materials acceptable to small farmers were introduced.Be ca v~e of the logistic problems of reaching small farmers, emphasis was placed on the need to initiate programs to encourage the development of seed production among sele.cted small farmers or groups of them as a business.The interest in both of these workshops was excellent. The ultima te volue of the workshops will show in future octivities developed by the institutions involved and the follow up done by the Seed Unit.Through the yeor, the evoluotions from porti ciponts in training octivities hove show n thot they feel they hove greatly benefited.Reoctions to workshops hove olso been quitepositive. The follow-up of people associoted with training ond conferences in previous yeors indicotes on increased motivotion ond applicotion of technicol skills. These reactions help to reossure the Seed Unit staff that they are fulfilling their first priority of increasing the quantity ond quolity of seed technologists in the region.Techni cal collaboration takes the form of personal contocts with national seed prograrns and seed enterprises, universities, sub-regional groups , sister interna tionol GlXItemala and Bolivia are four countries with a great level of int~rest • in giving their programs more clearly focused direction at this time. Former trainees in severo! countries ore beginning to make an impact in programs in the ir countries. T he continued contacts with many of them hove been achieved through a newsletter , personal correspondence and visits.The work on a sub-regional level has continued to focus on Central America  For the purpose of this report seed production includes the growing 1 drying 1 conditioning, storage 1 qua lity control and distribution of seed through the Unit.A rotating fund has been established to cover the expenditure and re ceive income for these activities with the objective that seed production can operare on a self-'financed basis. Seed growing is arranged through the Farm Operations Unit at Palmiro or Quilichao 1 on land on the CIA T farm utilized by the Seed Unit for training,on land utilized by a progrom,or in the case of one bean variety with a grower outside CIA T. The seed produced and sold is shown in Table 4 •The seed not sold is stored in the warehouse and available to meet future requests.In addition plantings have been made of tropical legumes at the reque~t of the Tropical Pasture Programas shown in Table 5 •The new production of the tropical legumes was possible through the use of a visiting scientist. who cou ld concentrate on this a spect of the progrom. The number of in-bred fines availa ble of maize and sorghum hove been increased and supplies maintained to answer requests for this publically available material.• . The seed drying a nd condi tioning facility has bee n utilized for troining, hand ling the above production and to provide a servi ce to the commodity progroms , ICA and local seed enterprises. lncome for this service has amounted to about $47 1 000 and covered the operational cos ts including the cost of the extra laborers and technicians needed to handl e the production 1 d rying, conditioning and quality control work.  Mr. Robert Gri ffi ths , Seed Spec io 1 i s t, Un i ted K i ngdom ,. two n:~on.ths Mr. Griffiths oss isted the English Longuoge Course on Seed T echnology with lecture s ond os on externo! evo luotor of the co urse for the Seed Unit He olso reviewed seed ond beo n deve lopment informotion in relotion to t os tA frica with the Beon Progrom.Dr . Rober t K. Waugh, retired , The Rockefeller Foundation, Colorado, USA , six weeks . Dr. Waugh assisted preparation for the workshop on lmproved Seed fo r the Sma ll Farmer, contributed to the Workshop and prepared the first draft for the workshop proceedings. Mrs. Cl ov is Wetzel, Researcher, CENARGEN/EMBRAPA, Brazil, one week . Mrs . We tze l reviewed seed pathology work with the bean, rice and tropica l pa sture programs and the work in the Gene tic Resources Unit. She prepared a report fo r the Seed Un it on steps tha t could be token to strengthen the linka ges of the various activi t ies with a special emphasis on what the See d Unit could do : to improve its application of current seed health tes ti ng me thodo logies through the help of the programs • . Her report also included sugge sti ons for strengthening training in seed . health testing o Many o the r specia lists01d organizations within Latín America and the Ca.ribbeon a s well os outside hove contributed to courses, workshops and the ach ievement of t he Unit' ~ object ives • Among these ore ICA, Colombia; mony seed firms in Co lombia ¡ and Mississippi State University with ossistonce from USAID • The od mi ni strotion, the commodity progroms ond oll of the service ond support g roups in CI A T hove contributed immeosurobly to the ochievement of progrom ob jecti ves. Spe ciol recognition olso goes to the Swiss Development C. ooperotion tho t finon ciall y supported most of these octivities ond mode the Seed Unit a reolity with its ogreement to support this five year project . starting in 1979. A complete li sting of individual s a nd their organizations outside CIAT who assisted the Seed Un i t during 198? is given in Appendix l .","tokenCount":"1749"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fd3d7aed18ee4c9eef315024cee40f74","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6e979582-f4c1-432c-ad74-f19201ff8e06/retrieve","id":"-187935344"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"95600729-7dd0-4774-9841-c5bb2cd24de8","pagecount":"10","content":"Our 2020 report on responses to COVID-19 discussed national pandemic response plans in developing countries (Díaz-Bonilla 2020). Those integrated plans, it was argued, would require a centralized crisis-management office led by the president, prime minister, or equivalent, with participation of the relevant public and private sector representatives. A strong fiscal and monetary response was needed to support these plans, including unconventional monetary policies, such as those used by what were labeled \"developmental central banks\" during the 1960s and 1970s (Díaz-Bonilla 2015). Expansion in money supply during the pandemic would finance the fiscal deficit related to public expenditures on health and non-health programs as well as programs to maintain private sector production. We noted that central banks in developed countries have followed a similar monetary approach, now called \"quantitative easing,\" since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, an approach they ramped up during the pandemic.Other recommendations included strong support from the international organizations through capital increases at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and multilateral development banks (MDBs); an additional allocation of special drawing rights (SDRs 1 ) (double the amount provided in the 2008-2009 crisis was suggested); establishment of a debt-resolution mechanism for developing countries focused on debt coming due in the next two years; and the use of co-lending by MDBs and private sector banks and investors.In this chapter, we provide an update on relevant economic developments, and close with a brief discussion of the fiscal and monetary challenges ahead.interventions, many countries resorted to strong fiscal and monetary expansions (see Table 1 for 2020 data reported by the IMF). 2   Fiscal and monetary responses were strongest in the advanced economies and more restrained in lower-income countries. On the fiscal side, differences have been greater in the non-health components of the fiscal packages, while expenditures on health as a percentage of GDP have been similar. However, in value terms, there are also large differences in health spending; of the US$1,346 billion spent on health measures, almost 90 percent was spent in the advanced economies (and more than half in the United States alone) (IMF Covid Tracker). On the monetary side, developing countries have less margin for expanding money supply -primarily because of the likely impacts on exchange rates for their currencies -so liquidity expansion in developing countries (and particularly low-income countries) trailed the advanced economies (Table 1). The fiscal expansion increased public debt 3 (see Table 2).While advanced economies significantly increased their debt (as percent of GDP) from levels that were already high, their central banks financed part of that increase, meaning that their net debt increase 4 has been smaller (14.1 percent of GDP, rather than the 15.5 percent shown in Table 2). 5 Lowincome countries, which have implemented smaller fiscal packages, have also experienced relatively lower increases in debt-to-GDP ratios. However, the emerging economies and middle-income countries, which increased spending but did not have the option of strong monetary expansion, are facing greater debt problems. Here it is important to separate China from other developing countries, given its size and particularly large debt increase (projected to jump from 57.1 percent of GDP in 2019 to 74.5 percent in 2023). Among the other developing countries, the greatest debt problems are emerging in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), where the IMF projects debt will reach 74.2 percent of GDP in 2023, up from 68.3 percent in 2019. 6   Several international initiatives have aimed to alleviate the economic impact of the pandemic. Multilateral financial institutions more than doubled annual net financial lending in the first year of the pandemic, from US$64 billion to almost $129 billion (World Bank, International Debt Statistics, 2021), which financed part of the increase in spending in all developing countries. In April 2020, the G-20 countries launched the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to assist 73 of the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries. The DSSI instituted a suspension period, allowing countries to temporarily pause debt payments to some international financial organizations falling due from May through December 2020, and later extended to end-December 2021. However, the DSSI is only a temporary remedy and leaves out many middle-income countries, some of which have been hard hit by the pandemic.6 Public debt can be internal or external. Looking at external debt, which can be public or private, World Bank data show that the largest increase in debt-to-GNI (gross national income) in 2020 compared to 2019 also occurred in LAC. However, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (excluding India) saw the largest increases in the debt-to-exports ratio (World Bank, International Debt Statistics, 2021). Source: Data from IMF Fiscal Monitor.Note: *Gross debt includes intragovernmental debt.In addition, the IMF approved the largest-ever emission of SDRs (US$650 billion), more than double the response to the 2008-2009 crisis ($250 billion). However, following the rules on allocation of SDRs (which is proportional to country shares in IMF capital), about 60 percent of the new SDRs were allocated to developed countries. Because of that, IMF members are considering ways to reallocate a share of the SDRs from rich countries, which will not use them, to the developing countries that will.Options include expanding the existing Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, 7 which would provide highly concessional loans to low-income countries; a possible new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), now being discussed at the IMF, that would finance poor and vulnerable countries facing structural transformation challenges, including climate-related challenges; and supporting multilateral development banks (MDBs) in their direct lending to developing countries.These initiatives are commendable, but they may not be enough in terms of the scale of funding needs, the coverage of countries, or the activities they are considering.The pandemic has affected developing regions' economies very differently. Table 3 shows growth rates in 2020, projections for 2021, and the overall change from 2019. Latin America and the Caribbean has been particularly affected. Among developing regions, LAC experienced the deepest economic recession in 2020 and is projected to recover more slowlyit is the only region where 2021 GDP will be lower than 2019 GDP. 8 Many countries in the region were experiencing economic problems before the pandemic (median growth in 2019 was a meager 1 percent 9 ) as a result of downswing of the commodity cycle (Díaz-Bonilla 2019). But in 2020, the region's decline in economic activity was general: all countries, except Guyana (driven by oil discoveries), experienced negative growth in 2020, with a median rate of almost −9 percent. LAC's economic recession reflects its relatively tough mobility restrictions compared to other (and more rural) developing regions, which were a response to the region's larger health shock. With only about 8 percent of the global population, LAC has suffered about a third of the world's confirmed COVID-19-related deaths as of this writing (Johns Hopkins Database). The health calamity in LAC appears to be related to several regional characteristics, namely high levels of inequality, significant urbanization, and high prevalence of obesity (a risk factor for COVID-19) (Díaz-Bonilla and Piñeiro 2021). Moreover, regional economic stagnation prior to the pandemic had affected investments in health systems, the vitality of LAC's democracies, and people's confidence in governments, making it difficult to manage the political aspects of the pandemic.In 2021, a global economic recovery is expected: advanced economies are projected to grow at 5.2 percent while developing countries are projected to grow at 6.4 percent (Table 3). Overall, the rebound from the lockdown, advances in controlling the pandemic, and the fiscal and monetary expansion have supported the recovery. 10In the context of overall economic contraction, agricultural production (with forestry and fishing) generally did better in 2020 than other economic sectors. Table 4 provides World Bank agriculture sector data for 2020: no region saw declines in agricultural GDP, but LAC again underperformed other regions (projections for 2021 are not yet available). The relatively strong global supply performance of the agriculture sector has been due in part to both governments' support to the sector and to the fact that food production and distribution were considered essential activities by most countries and so faced fewer mobility restrictions. However, impacts on the demand for agrifood products were larger, due to declines in incomes and employment (see, for example, Graziano da Silva et al. 2021).Inflation in general was subdued in 2020, despite the fiscal and monetary stimulus, but projections suggest an acceleration of inflation in 2021, which should be monitored. Figure 1 shows average and median consumer price inflation in 191 countries (IMF, WEO database). 11 Still, inflation remains below the values observed during the rebound from the last global price shock in 2011, when the average was 6.5 percent and the median was 4.7 percent; and certainly, it has not reached the levels driven by the shocks of 1970s, when inflation rates were in the double digits, and even triple digits for some countries. The process of withdrawing the current expansionary monetary policies in developed countries will also have a negative impact on many developing countries, if it leads to sustained increases in interest rates.As we look forward, we are handicapped by our weak understanding of the relationship between health and economic disruptions, responses, and interactions. Initially, countries hoped to eliminate COVID-19, but it now appears that it will become an endemic disease -the world will need to learn to manage it and live with it. This continuing health problem will compound both existing and new challenges arising in low-and middle-income countries.Key issues we need to understand are why some countries were more severely affected than others, and what policies worked or did not work to address the pandemic. Studies have shown that lockdowns slowed the spread of COVID-19, but their effectiveness differed across continents (Sulyok and Walker 2020) and their impact on employment and incomes was both heavy and unequal. For example, Peru imposed a strict lockdown but has suffered a very high death rate (as of this writing, it is the highest in the world at more than 600 deaths per 100,000 people). Mexico and Brazil, however, which did not impose strict lockdowns, reported fewer deaths per capita (Mexico: 225 deaths per 100,000; Brazil: 287 deaths Average per 100,000). Moreover, Peru pursued a strong fiscal and monetary response to the economic downturn, spending about 18 percent of GDP, but still suffered a deep recession (an 11 percent drop in GDP). Yet in Brazil, where the combined fiscal and monetary stimulus was 14 percent of GDP, and Mexico, where it was less than 2 percent of GDP, the economic declines were smaller, at −4 percent and −8 percent, respectively. Looking across all developing countries, we found no correlation between the percentage of GDP spent on health-related COVID-19 measures and the per capita death rate (the simple correlation between those two variables in 2020 was very small and negative; p=-0.04).While important questions about how best to address the pandemic's impacts remain, the recommendation we made in 2020 still holds true: Countries need to design integrated pandemic recovery programs under a centralized crisis-management office with high-level leadership (Díaz-Bonilla 2020). Those recovery programs will require strong support from the international community, which must encompass not only lower-income countries but also middle-income countries.To address the ongoing crisis, the first step is for developing countries to accelerate vaccinations, which are progressing slowly, while strengthening their health systems to cope with future epidemics (see Financing the Global Commons 2021).As of late August 2021, almost 60 percent of the population in advanced economies was fully vaccinated, and almost 70 percent by the end of October 2021 (Our World in Data). However, in the developing countries, the vaccination rate had not reached 20 percent by the end of August, with much lower rates in low-income countries. Some African countries had not even reached 10 percent by the end of October 2021. This situation leaves the less-developed countries and their populations particularly vulnerable to more dangerous COVID-19 variants and the economic impacts that threaten already fragile economies. Using the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) emitted during the pandemic to de-risk the issuance of \"pandemic recovery bonds\" by developing countries could mobilize private investors with broader social goals, while offering an adequate balance of risk and reward. Such recovery bonds, or similar options, could crowd-in the large private liquidity existing in global markets to help finance credible pathways out of the pandemic for developing countries. How would these bonds work? Advanced economies (which collectively are receiving about US$375 billion in SDRs and which hold about $180 billion from previous allocations) could assign a percentage (say 10 percent, or about $55 billion) to establish a Guarantee Trust Fund (GTF) to support the issuance of special pandemic recovery bonds (PRBs). These bonds would be consoles or perpetual bonds; 1 issued in dollars; paying an adjustable rate with a cap (perhaps 5 percent 2 ); and callable, with call protection (for example, until 2050). With a GFT of $55 billion guaranteeing the interest rate payments on the PRBs, the value of the bonds that can be issued by developing countries is multiplied several times, depending on how the guarantee is structured.For instance, assuming a maximum interest rate of 5 percent, and maintaining a rolling guarantee of three to five years in interest payments, the total amount of PRBs that can be guaranteed may be between $220 and $367 billion (as a comparison, the current allocation of SDRs to developing countries was about $275 billion). That multiplier effect may be larger, depending on the interest rates assumed; the potential defaults on interest payments (which may be similar to the lower levels of the IMF or the MDBs); and whether the losses in the GFT can be covered by additional international public money.To ensure the funds are used effectively, middle-and low-income countries would only be eligible to issue the guaranteed bonds if they have a credible and sustainable pandemic recovery program with a multilateral development bank (MDB), encompassing health, social, economic, and environmental components. Part of the issuance of the PRBs may be used to replace the shorter-term and more expensive debt that some countries had to issue during the pandemic, thus helping with debt sustainability. The quota of PRBs by country may be determined by a combination of indicators such as poverty, health impact of the pandemic (total deaths and deaths as percentage of population), and the depth of the economic recession. This scheme could be especially relevant for LAC countries, perhaps as a component of the program to be agreed at the Summit of the Americas that will take place in mid-2022.The GFT would also help capital markets by supporting an additional asset with an attractive combination of risk and return, which can help absorb some of the global liquidity while supporting broader humanitarian and developmental objectives. It would also benefit advanced economies by helping to put an earlier end to COVID-19 and its global consequences.There may be other options for applying the additional SDRs strategically (such as using them to strengthen the lending capabilities of MDBs, as mentioned). And this proposal may not be the best alternative for every low-and middle-income country, some of which will need direct debt relief. Yet, using a share of the SDRs to create a guarantee fund for the type of pandemic recovery bonds outlined here is worth considering as another weapon in the arsenal to defeat the virus and thus improve global health, economic, social, and political conditions.Getting vaccines to everyone will require additional financing. According to the Rockefeller Foundation (2021), getting shots to half the adult population of the world's lowest-income countries in 2021 will require US$9.3 billion. That estimate includes 92 nations (representing about 3.8 billion people) that are eligible for vaccine access through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a public-private global health partnership. With that money, the Alliance could purchase 1.8 billion vaccine doses. A recent IMF study estimates the additional cost of vaccinating at least 60 percent of the global population by mid-2022, plus the costs of diagnostics, therapeutics, and personal protective equipment, at $50 billion ($35 billion in donor grants and $15 billion from national sources) (Agarwal and Gopinath 2021). Yet, the additional funding required is far less than the costs that further waves of the virus could impose.Second, in addition to the vaccination and health interventions, developing countries need additional fiscal and monetary resources to recover from the economic and human costs of the pandemic. Human capital in developing countries has been affected by the gap in education for the current generation of students; the nutritional problems associated with insufficient and less-healthy diets; and the weakening of job abilities due to long unemployment periods. Yet, while needing further financial resources, these countries are already burdened by the pandemic-related increases in debt. They also continue to contend with a host of pre-existing economic and social problems, while tackling the current and future challenges of climate change. Doing all that is a very tall order.The international community can take some important steps to help ensure fiscal sustainability for these countries, while also helping to normalize monetary policies: Support debt relief. Several countries will need debt restructurings and write-offs (Díaz-Bonilla 2020), for which speedier and better methods must be designed. It will be important to recognize differences in solvency and liquidity problems among the different developing countries to devise appropriate debt relief programs (Kharas and Dooley 2020).Increase capital of MDbs. While some MDBs have recently received capital increases (World Bank in 2018; African Development Bank in 2019), others will need similar treatment. At a minimum, all MDBs must optimize their balance sheets, increasing their leverage ratios and negotiating with the rating agencies for more flexible criteria that account for the current market and pandemic conditions. leverage global liquidity. Scarce international development funds must be used more strategically to leverage and mobilize the vast liquidity in global private capital markets, orienting those markets toward larger humanitarian and developmental objectives. This is particularly relevant in relation to the debate about more effective use of the IMF's SDRs. The Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and the proposed Resilience and Sustainability Trust do not seem to have the needed multiplier effect. The option of allocating the SDRs to MDBs may create greater leverage (about $3-4 of additional financing per dollar of SDRs reallocated). Another option with potential for a greater multiplier effect (from 4 to close to 7) would use a share of the SDRs to create a trust fund to guarantee the emission of \"pandemic recovery bonds\" (Box 1; Díaz-Bonilla 2021b; also Diaz-Bonilla 2021a; von Braun and Díaz-Bonilla 2021).Today, the world is still in the midst of the pandemic, with the possibility of new waves and strains of COVID-19. It is imperative to act now to address both the health crisis and the economic crisis. ","tokenCount":"3099"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"adadb7e4a0691286126260e2e05f9bff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ef40be5a-16a4-463f-bf84-065b23a5e806/retrieve","id":"144891381"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bfcfcfea-c6ba-4e07-ad3f-b4232a996e39","pagecount":"7","content":"\"Lessons learned\" in the annual reports include good reflection on program design as well as administration and management. There has been significant progress in developing impact pathways since the initial GRiSP proposal of 2010, and the extension proposal describes a series of generic and comprehensive pathways. These pathways also include valuable information on the assumptions, risks and enabling action that makes them more useful as strategy and management tools.The ISPC identified the following as areas where improvements could be made:1. It is important to see more real \"partnership\" between the commodity and system CRPs. Therefore, the \"added value\" from more engagement and coordination with other relevant CRPs such as AAS and WLE should be explored. 2. The CRP IDO targets and indicators should be further refined; coordination with other linked CRPs on measurement of IDO indicators common to more than one program is recommended. 3. More clarity of the power dynamics within and between partnerships is needed, i.e. mapping out who is doing what in the scaling out activities as well as more details in the allocation of the GRiSP budget to NARES partners for these activities.GRiSP, the first CRP approved by the Fund Council, is one of few CRPs with non-CGIAR centres as key partners. The lead centre is IRRI in partnership with AfricaRice, CIAT, CIRAD/IRD and JIRCAS. GRiSP was initiated in 2011 and shows good evidence of progress and achievement. It is notable that 190 new improved rice varieties have been released in various countries. Significant impacts of the adoption of GRiSP technologies are reported in the 2013 Annual Report. Worth mentioning are GRiSP's outputs from its work on natural resource management that demonstrate novel and innovative thinking and technologies. 1 Although the GRiSP proposal was initially strongly supported, six areas were recommended by the ISPC for further improvement during the CRP's evolution: i) strategic coherence and clarity of Program objectives; ii) delivery focus and plausibility of impact; iii) quality of science; iv) quality of R&D partners and partnership management; v) appropriateness and efficiency of Program management; and, vi) clear accountability and financial soundness, and efficiency of governance. It was also expected that more attention would be paid to the prioritization of research, the evolution of partnerships and increased support for capacity building during the first phase.The extension proposal demonstrates that the CRP has begun to address the highlighted areas. It takes note of lessons learnt from the first phase as GRiSP prepares for the second phase expected to start in 2017. GRiSP's initial research themes have now been integrated into five Flagship Projects (FPs), which each contribute to multiple IDOs. The CRP has six IDOs which align with the set of common IDOs (referred to in the extension proposal as System-Level IDOs -SLIDOs). The CRP has put great effort into the formulation of IDOs and their links to SLOs, and medium and long term quantified targets have been set for specific geographic regions/action sites. As a result, R4D priorities have now been identified.There has been great progress in developing impact pathways (IPs) since the funding proposal of 2010. The CRP maintains a \"pipeline\" approach for its IPs, i.e. upstream research for discovery and innovation whose outputs are translated into concrete products. These are tested, improved, used by intermediate user partners, and finally become adopted by end users through many possible pathways. IPs are developed for each product describing the enabling environment and how GRiSP can enhance that environment. The proposal, refreshingly, incorporates new methods based on scientific discovery. GRiSP reported 231 ISI Publications in its 2013 annual report.The CRP has established a wide range of partnerships and \"rice hubs\" and the program is generating research outputs (although some may be from projects begun before the CRP started). However, strategic management of partnerships still needs to evolve; the CRP needs to provide greater clarity regarding the balance of GRiSP funds flowing to the partners and to distinguish this from the coinvestment to the CRP from partners. Finally, there is a lack of clarity about what research elements have come to an end.During 2013, thematic IPs and ToCs were developed, and an initial set of indicators of progress were identified along the IPs. GRiSP's IP and ToC are grounded in an historical evidence base which was taken forward through conceptual and quantitative foresight exercises. There is clear evidence of the use of the ISPC documents on ToCs and Value Chains; Priority setting; and SLO linkages.A generic ToC associated with an impact pathway leading to one of its IDO indicators -increased productivity-is provided in the extension proposal. GRiSP research leads to scientific discoveries that are used to produce products and services (outputs), which are \"brought to market\" by intermediate users (resulting in research outcomes), adopted large-scale by end users (resulting in IDOs), and from there contribute to common IDOs and SLOs (see section 1.2). GRiSP's IDOs are: increased rice production that meets local and global demand; increased profitability of rice producers and increased rice affordability to rice consumers; increased efficiency and value added along the rice value chain; increased sustainability and reduced environmental footprint of rice production; increased health and nutrition from rice and from diversification; and increased capacity, gender equity, and resilience in the rice sector.The ToC acknowledges many possible pathways to scaling up and adoption and also shows the assumptions and risks at each step and the GRiSP enabling actions needed. Of note is that GRISP has not simply analyzed assumptions but is deciding what it should do about them. The ToC also emphasizes the important role for GRiSP in strengthening the enabling environment for out-scaling and product uptake across spatial scales thus acknowledging that even the most useful products often need facilitated uptake. This is a good example of the value of targeted capacity building. The one feature that is missing in the ToC is the need to convey a strong impression that all of the research themes need to work in concert to produce the desired impacts.GRiSP may also find it helpful to include in the \"lessons learned\" section of annual reports some reflections about the management of very large and complex programs and the reasons for good or poor progress along impact pathways.A major development is the formulation of IDOs and their relation to the SLOs. It maps the CRP's six IDOs against 10 of the common IDOs. Quantified global aspirational targets (for 2020 and 2035) linked to IDOs as well as some of the concrete outcome targets for specific geographic regions/action sites are provided. Output targets are tracked through annual milestones and measures of improved efficiency.There is a focus on tracking science while adding a capacity for tracking outcome indicators at three levels -development action sites, national and global. Of these, GRiSP will be engaged in the collection of information at the action sites and benchmarking specific GRiSP outcomes at the national level. The global targets are aspirational, built for ex ante impact assessment and global supply and demand studies. All of these definitely indicate serious thought, comprehensive engagement with partners, and meticulous planning for the extension period and beyond; however there is a need to further refine the CRP IDO targets and indicators.GRiSP collaborates with at least seven other CRPs and with the Genebank Support Project. Collaboration with these CRPs is mainly done through large cross-cutting projects (e.g., CSISA, Global Futures, HarvestPlus). GRiSP focuses on the development of novel technologies at the level of plant (and below), field, crop, and farm, whereas the other CRPs look at larger geographic scales and at the wider enabling environment (e.g., policies and institutions). Attribution and transparency are critical where different CRPs contribute to different activities in the same value chain. In order to document \"shared impact\", linkages should be clearly defined in matrices or on impact pathway schematics. The ISPC would recommend that GRiSP communicate with linked CRPs on measurement of indicators common to more than one program; the ongoing ISPC strategic study on Metrics may also prove useful in this exercise.The extension proposal not only describes clear impact pathways but also includes valuable information on risks and assumption (potential barriers) and acknowledges the crucial need for an enabling environment for uptake, realisation of outcomes and large scale impact on IDOs and SLOs. This reflects the high degree of feasibility of tested IPs.The pipeline pathway has the advantage of simplicity and ability to focus on science and on CGIAR appropriate enabling activities for outcome -the core strengths of the CGIAR. Its disadvantage is that it does not capture the needs of integrated systems as do the impact pathways of the System based CRPs. It is therefore important to see more real \"partnership\" between the commodity and system CRPs. The ISPC would encourage GRiSP to explore the \"added value\" from more engagement and coordination with other relevant CRPs such as AAS and WLE.The previous six themes have been realigned into five Flagship Projects (FPs): Harnessing genetic diversity; Developing improved rice varieties; Sustainable and efficient rice value chains; Technology targeting and evaluation; Innovation and advisory systems. The focus on monitoring science outputs is through \"results\", rather than production lines, that are delivered through clusters of activities. Results are defined by concrete products and services (outputs) and outcomes.The main change is a new FP, called \"Sustainable and efficient rice value chains,\" which includes and links the development and delivery of sustainable practices along the whole value chain from production to postproduction. This FP fills an important gap and seems to be a good step forward.Each FP includes gender components in its research, product development, and delivery. FPs 1 to 3 develop science-based products that contribute to the sustainable increase in productivity along the rice value chain. Under FPs 4 (targeting and evaluation) and 5 (outscaling and capacity building), GRiSP facilitates and speed up the outcome and impact processes (enabling actions). These are wellaligned with the main objective of GRiSP and the SLOs.GRiSP has made excellent progress in the integration of gender into research. Notable developments include the development of a new Gender Strategy, with full impact pathways and ToCs for each FP, in which main entry points for technology development that respond to gender-specific needs and preferences are identified. Gender-disaggregated information on gender balance in the main target domains, on the impacts of adoption of GRiSP technologies, and on the impacts of climate change on men and women and on their specific response strategies has been collected and analyzed. There has been considerable advancement in women's capacity building and training activities. There has also been progress in publishing the outcomes of gender analyses and impacts of the adoption of GRiSP technologies for a broad audience. GRiSP allocates 10% of its budget to gender activities.The one obvious discrepancy to an otherwise gender-sensitive strategy is that none of the targets for IDOs 1-5 has a gender dimension. This means that the program is only required to deliver on gender capacity (although, given the content of the research program, it is likely that there will be measurable benefits to women and youth as well as men and that the program will be able to demonstrate this).The \"challenge\" for GRiSP is in harnessing the highly diverse, large and proven, capacities of its partners in science at global and local level, and, increasingly, partners, including the private sector, for development outcomes. This appears to have been achieved -GRiSP has devoted a great deal of time and attention to finding the best organizations to partner with. GRiSP aligns and links highly effective consortia, networks, platforms, programs, and collaborative projects with more than 900 partners from the governmental, nongovernmental, public, private, and civil society sectors. In total, around 17% of the total GRiSP budget of the CGIAR Centers flows through to non-CGIAR partners. Collaboration with partners from all sectors is probably at an all-time high in terms of numbers, diversity (academic, public, private, NGO), and effectiveness-in terms of science, agenda setting, and product development, delivery, and impact. However, more clarity of the power dynamics within and between partnerships is needed. The ISPC would suggest mapping out who is doing what in the scaling out activities as well as more details in the allocation of the GRiSP budget to NARES partners for these activities. There is a possibility of \"crowding out\" NARES in the more downstream activities particularly if there are external funds for this purpose.The CRP, in common with other CRPs, comments on the problem of working with non-CGIAR partners whose organizations already have strict reporting requirements and find it difficult to comply in addition with a separate set of requirements from the CGIAR. The ISPC recognizes the heavy burden of reporting. When the current streamlining initiative is more advanced and there is time available, it would be useful to hear more about feedback mechanisms in the field and how these influence research directions.4.1. Relevance of main changes in CRP governance, structure, partnerships that will be implemented between 2015 and 2016: The recently concluded Review of CGIAR Research Programs' Governance and Management rated the GRiSP Oversight Committee as having high independence. Moreover, the 2013 internal audit of implementation and management of CRPs at IRRI headquarters gave the overall implementation and management of CRPs the highest rating possible. There does not appear to be any need to modify this structure which will continue in 2015 and 2016.A new public-private partnership has been created -the Sustainable Rice Platformwhich is a global multi-stakeholder platform, co-convened by the United Nations Environment Programme and IRRI, to promote resource efficiency and sustainable trade flows, production and consumption operations, and supply chains in the global rice sector. Partners include the food sector, international traders, agroinput suppliers, public R&D, and national government agencies. This partnership will be important in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of rice value chains.GRiSP's level of involvement with regional partners is high in the three major regions where it is active. The program has a long history of planning meetings with NARES in Asia to define joint activities. In Africa, AfricaRice's National Expert Committee (NEC), composed of NARES directorsgeneral of the 25 member countries meets to align work plans with national priorities and programs. In Latin America, the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (convened by CIAT, including 17 member countries) is the main mechanism for both national and regional coordination. GRiSP interacts closely with all major regional fora and economic communities that have a stake in the development of the rice sector.As GRiSP has an already agreed workplan which is funded through 2015, the extended workplan covers the year 2016 which is seen as an intermediate year between the end of the phase I of GRiSP and the anticipated next phase that will start in 2017. Some changes will be implemented in response to experience obtained to date and to major drivers of change (urbanization, population growth, consumer preferences, etc.) which should be commended. GRiSP is evolving its plans based on new knowledge and the changing external environment and is cognizant of the ISPC cross-cutting foresight study on Farm size and Urbanization.The most significant change/new element of GRiSP in 2016 will be its transition to a more outcomedriven and results-based management. The CRP will implement a new results framework as an outcome of its \"fast-track project\" on developing a results-based M&E system. Other new components include more effort in gender R&D activities (particularly linked to the FP on Value Chains), mainstreaming of nutritional traits through QTL analysis into all breeding lines, and the use of a new Genetic Diversity Platform for genotype-phenotype prediction. The new components should contribute to improving GRiSP's overall expected outcomes.The budget proposed for the extension is for 2016 (the 2015 budget was approved as part of Phase I). The budget for W1 + W2 is 10% more than the 2015 budget which is in keeping with GRiSP's requests since 2013. However, the W1 + W2 investment builds on the fact that the CRP continues to attract about 65% of funding from bilateral sources. The budget for 2016 appears to be coherent with the original proposed and based on past years appears to be feasible.The budget breakdown for the FPs shows FP 2 (Developing improved rice varieties) continues to be more than twice as much as any of the other four FPs. This is an inevitable consequence of this being the core strength/advantage of a commodity CRP. FP 3 receives the second highest funding allocation. It would be helpful to see the allocation of the budget to partners for the out-scaling activities in FPs 4 and 5 (how much of the out scaling is done the CGIAR Centers versus the national partners?).","tokenCount":"2756"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"849959ca3ddc422bfd115fce696f70f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5f5bd466-c6e9-40d6-b2ad-d13fc948d070/content","id":"620739426"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1b1c17da-fe5f-4452-b744-6b972ba26997","pagecount":"10","content":"Maize is the most important staple in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with highly seasonal production. High storage losses affect food security, but good estimations are lacking. A new method using focus group discussions (FGDs) was tested with 121 communities (1439 farmers, 52% women) in Kenya's six maize-growing zones, to estimate the maize losses to storage pests and analyze farmer practices. As control strategies, half of the farmers used chemical pesticides (49%), while hermetic bags (16%) and botanicals (15%) were also popular. Relative loss from weevils in the long rains was estimated at 23%, in the short rains 18%, and annually 21%. Fewer farmers were affected by the larger grain borer (LGB) than by maize weevils: 42% in the long rainy season and 32% in the short rainy season; losses from LGB were also smaller: 19% in the long season, 17% in the short season, and 18% over the year. Total storage loss, from both species combined, was estimated at 36%, or 671,000 tonnes per year. The greatest losses occur in the humid areas, especially the moist mid-altitudes (56%), and with smaller loss in the drylands (20-23%). Extrapolating the point data and overlaying with the maize production map shows the geographic distribution of the losses, with the most important area found around Lake Victoria. FGDs provide convenient and cheap tools to estimate storage losses in representative communities, but a total loss estimate of 36% is higher than is found in other studies, so its accuracy and framing effects need to be assessed. We conclude that storage pests remain a major problem, especially in western Kenya, and that the use of environmentally friendly technologies such as hermetic storage and botanicals needs more attention, both by the public extension service and private agrodealers.Postharvest losses (PHL) remain a key focus area of discussion, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where most households rely heavily on farm produce for their income (Sheahan and Barrett, 2017). Food losses imply reduced availability of food to feed the growing population, particularly in developing countries (Kumar and Kalita, 2017). In SSA storage losses threaten households' food security and undermine their market returns (Midega et al., 2016;Stathers et al., 2013). Farmers commonly indicate storage pest problems as major constraints to their livelihood (De Groote et al., 2004;Likhayo et al., 2016). Reducing postharvest losses has been identified as a sustainable strategy to reduce hunger and improve grain farmers' livelihoods without increasing pressure on the natural environment (Tefera, 2012). However, the estimation of PHL remains controversial. Previous studies have shown that PHL could range from 20% to 40% in African countries (Kumar and Kalita, 2017). However, specific estimates of storage losses in maize due to insect infestations in Africa range from 40 to 50% -loss estimates frequently quoted by the development community and cited in Zorya et al. (2011)-although a recent meta-analysis estimates the range at 4-21%, with the upper limit representing losses without interventions (Affognon et al., 2015). Despite the controversy, scientific studies and national estimates are lacking in many countries, including Kenya. However, good estimates of these losses are needed to target and prioritize interventions, either technologies or policies (Kaminski and Christiaensen, 2014) and to compare their costs and benefits (Affognon et al., 2015). Some of the common pests associated with this damage are maize weevils (Sitophilus zeamais) and the larger grain borers (Prostephanus truncatus) (Tefera, 2012). The maize weevil is a pest of economic importance that infests the fields, but causes most damage during storage (Giga and Mazarura, 2011). In Africa the larger grain borer (LGB) was first observed in Tanzania in the late 1970s and from there spread to eastern and southern Africa. The LGB caused severe losses in stored maize, three to four times higher than the losses before its arrival (Farrell and Schulten, 2002). In Kenya the LGB was first reported in 1983 in the Taveta division, which borders Tanzania (Kega and Warui, 1983). Several studies have been conducted on the LGB and the losses that it causes (Boxall, 2002).Several innovations have been developed to reduce losses from storage pests, including chemical pesticides specifically designed to control storage insects, such as actellic (Urono, 1999) and super actellic (Stathers et al., 2008). Alternatives that pose less risks to the environment and human health include botanicals (Eticha and Tadesse, 1998;Isman, 2006) and hermetic storage such as metal silos (Tefera et al., 2011) and hermetic bags (Quezada et al., 2006). Hermetic technologies were found to be effective on station (De Groote et al., 2013) as well as on-farm (Ndegwa et al., 2016). Hermetic bags were potentially profitable if farmers stored maize for four months per season and the bags lasted four years (Ndegwa et al., 2016).Despite the broad literature on storage pests that often describes their spread and provides estimates of the losses that they cause, scientifically sound and nationally representative studies to estimate losses and assess economic impact are rare, and so far, none have been conducted in Kenya. Close monitoring could help determine the losses caused by storage pests, especially the common maize weevil and LGB that cause substantial losses. However, scientific and systematic observations of storage losses on a national scale would be expensive. An alternative approach is the use of farmer surveys, for example the Living Standards Measurement (LSM) surveys. In some countries these have included estimates of storage losses, for example in Ethiopia (Hengsdijk and de Boer, 2017), and Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania (Kaminski and Christiaensen, 2014). However, individual farmer surveys are expensive, while estimates obtained from systematic and representative Focus Group Discussions (FDGs), on the other hand, are much more economical and also provide good results. This has been shown with studies on maize lethal necrosis (MLN) (De Groote et al., 2016, 2021) and the fall armyworm (FAW) (De Groote et al., 2021).In this study we used focus group discussions conducted in randomly selected communities that were representative of the different maize agroecological zones (AEZs) in Kenya to assess storage losses. Specific objectives of the study were: i) to assess farmers' knowledge of maize weevils and LGBs and their observations of both pests in the two seasons before the survey; ii) to estimate the proportion of farmers affected by both storage pests and the percentage of maize lost in storage on affected farms; iii) to estimate the total relative loss on all farms (as a percentage) by multiplying these two variables; and iv) to extrapolate the results to estimate the total loss (in tonnes) in each of the six agroecological zones of Kenya and for the whole country.Storage loss is defined as the difference in maize quantity at the beginning of the storage period Y 0 and at the end, Y t , expressed as a proportion or percentageInstead of trying to measure Y 0 and Y t directly, we asked farmers during group discussions to estimate the proportion of farmers affected by storage insect pests (F a ) in their community and the estimated storage loss (in %) experienced by the affected farmers (r a ). Relative loss among all farmers in the community was then calculated as r = F a x r a(2)As the communities were selected randomly from the major maize production zones, average storage losses can be multiplied by the estimated maize stored in each zone to estimate maize quantities lost. The quantity of maize stored is the quantity produced minus the amount marketed. Using group discussions for pest problems was first used in Kenya in 2000 to assess the importance of different maize pests (De Groote et al., 2004), and later to quantify crop loss and distribution from maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease in 2013 (De Groote et al., 2016) and FAW in 2018(De Groote et al., 2020). In this paper we expand the methodology of using FGDs to quantify pest losses due to storage pests.A community survey was executed in Kenya in 2018, with a design very similar to the community survey of 2013, from which the losses due to maize lethal necrosis (MLN) were estimated (De Groote et al., 2016). The 2018 study targeted the same 121 communities interviewed in 2013, who had been randomly selected to represent Kenya's six main maize production areas (Fig. 1). The primary purpose of the 2018 community survey was to assess farmer prioritization of various stresses and measure the impact of these for the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project, and was driven by the sudden arrival of the fall armyworm (FAW). Data were collected through focus group discussions (FGDs), and the results for other pests have been presented elsewhere, in particular for MLN (De Groote et al., 2021) and FAW (De Groote et al., 2020).CIMMYT contracted Agri-Food Economics Africa, a research company based in Kenya, to undertake the study. The development of the questionnaire was a consultative process undertaken during the first half of 2018, involving CIMMYT and its partners who had a special interest in the FAW: the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the CAB International (CABI), as well as CIMMYT economists and entomologists. Comments from these partners were considered, and efforts were made to harmonize sections of the tools with those of the partners, such as FAO's FAW modules.The study's primary goal was to assess the importance of different maize production and storage stresses, as perceived by farmers in the different agroecological zones where maize is produced. A draft questionnaire was developed and tested, with separate modules addressing different pests, including MLN, FAW, maize stem borer, and two storage pests: the maize weevil and the larger grain borer.The questionnaire was pre-tested for two days in June 2018, with two communities in Embu County not participating in the survey. In addition to economists from CIMMYT and Agri-Food Economics Africa, a CIMMYT entomologist and an economist from ICIPE participated in the pre-test. After the pre-testing, adjustments were made, and the questionnaire was uploaded onto the Survey CTO platform. After two days of enumerator training, the survey was piloted in Murang'a County, followed by a recap to raise and discuss all the issues observed. The researchers discussed all the additional issues observed during training and piloting and finalized the questionnaire for data collection.To discuss the different pests with the participants in the group discussions, photographs of the pests were used (see pictures for the storage pests in Fig. 2) and shown to farmers. The photos also provided a way to gauge farmers' awareness and knowledge of the weevils and larger grain borers. CIMMYT entomologists and pathologists assisted in gathering these pictures and in refining the descriptions of the various stresses. The final version of the images was printed and laminated for use in data collection.Data collection was undertaken by Agri-Food Economics Africa, which recruited two teams, each consisting of an experienced supervisor and two experienced enumerators. All team members were adequately trained in all aspects of the survey and questionnaire and participated in the survey pilot as part of the training and preparation. Data collection took place over 41 days, from June 18th to July 28th. Each field team was given a list of the communities to interview, with the previously allocated identification number, location details (division, location, and sub-location), and contacts of the members who participated in the FGDs. The contacts in the communities, usually a leader from a farmer group or the local administration, were each asked to invite between and 15 maize farmers. A more detailed description of the exercise is provided in the previous paper on FAW (De Groote et al., 2020). At the end of the data collection, all the targeted 121 communities were interviewed, representing 100% coverage with no replacements, and 1439 farmers participated, of which 742 were women. In each community, farmers were asked to estimate the proportion of farmers affected (F a ) and the relative losses among affected farmers (r a ), both for weevils (w) and for LGB (g) and for both the long (1) and the short rains (s). All survey data were uploaded to the CIMMYT repository (De Groote et al., 2022).Multiplying the proportion of farmers affected with the relative loss among affected farmers led to estimates of relative loss (r ijk ) by insect species (i), by season (j) and by AEZ (k). To estimate relative losses over the whole year, a weighted average was calculated using the maize production in each season as weights, for each species (i) and each AEZ (k):where w ik is the proportion of maize produced in season j for AEZ k.Seasonal weights for each season were obtained from the 2013 CIMMYT household survey (Wainaina et al., 2016). Zonal weights were obtained from calculating the zonal maize production by overlaying the map of  maize production zones (Hassan et al., 1998) with the 2017 SPAM maize production map for Africa (IFPRI, 2020) (Table 1). Total relative loss per species i was calculated again by weighted average over the AEZs:where w k is the proportion of annual maize production in AEZ k. Absolute losses, or the quantity of actual maize lost to each species (i), were calculated by multiplying the relative loss r ijk with the respective production P jk of season j and AEZ k:To calculate total storage loss over both species we needed to avoid double counting, as one insect cannot cause losses in the part that is already lost through the other species. If the amount of maize stored is Y, and the loss caused by weevils is calculated first as r w Y, then the amount lost to LGB can be calculated as r l Y (1-r w ). The total amount lost (absolute loss) is then:The total relative losses are thus:For geographic analysis, we extrapolated the annual relative losses for weevil, LGB and combined using kriging with the software ArcMap (REF) to create maps of relative losses. We overlayed the combined map of relative losses with the SPAM 2017 grid map of maize production (IFPRI, 2020) and multiplied the two layers to obtain a map of absolute losses.At the beginning of the focus group discussions, participants were shown pictures of the maize weevil and the LGB (Fig. 2) and asked if they could recognize the pests. Almost all participants (97%) could recognize the maize weevil, and most participants (74%) could also recognize the LGB (Fig. 2). There was hardly any variation between regions for weevils, but substantial variation for the LGB. Weevils were most recognized in the moist mid-altitudes (98%) and least in the dry mid-altitudes and dry transitional zones (94%). For LGBs, recognition was highest among participants in the coastal lowland and dry midaltitudes (83%) and lowest in the high tropics (38%), which is linked to the relative importance of the pest in these zones (Fig. 3).  After identifying the two storage pests, weevils and LGB, participants were asked whether they had ever observed them in their community, and if they had observed them during the last two seasons, the long and short rainy seasons of 2017. All communities but one (99%) reported that they had observed maize weevils at some point in time (Fig. 4). Observation of maize weevils was widespread in all zones: in each AEZ, weevils had been observed by at least 93% of communities. Most communities (85%) had also observed weevils during the last long rainy season, but fewer (71%) during the last short rains. Weevils in the long rains were observed in all zones and observed by at least 59% of the communities (this was the lowest level, in the dry mid-altitudes). During the last short rainy season, weevils were also observed by most communities in all zones except for the high tropics, where it was only observed by 10% of communities. This is understandable as there is hardly any maize grown in the highlands in the short season.The LGB had also been observed by most communities (83%), although not as frequently as weevils. A majority of communities had observed them during the long rains of 2017 (58%), but less than half during the last short rains (43%). During the long rains, observations of LGB varied from almost all communities in the moist mid-altitudes (89%) to about half at the coast (47%). The LGB was clearly less important in the short rains; it was observed by more than half of communities in the moist mid-altitudes (63%), but by less than half the communities in the other zones, down to 10% in the highlands.The results also show that storage pests are more important in the long rains, except for the drylands, where pests (and maize production) are more important in the short season.Next, participants were asked to estimate the percentage of farmers in their communities affected by the pests, and the percentage loss among affected farmers. Maize weevils were more important during the long rainy season, when three quarters of farmers were affected (76%), than in the short season, when two-thirds (63%) of farmers were affected (Fig. 5). Loss among affected farmers was also greater in the long rains (at 28%) than in the short rains (23%). Similarly, loss from maize weevils among all farmers, calculated by multiplying the percentage of farmers affected with the loss among affected farmers, was also higher in the long rains (23%) than in the short rains (18%). There were substantial differences between zones, and hot and humid zones were more affected by maize weevils than dry and colder zones. Losses among all farmers were particularly low in the drylands (13% for dry transitional and 14% for dry mid-altitudes) and high in the humid areas (26% in the moist transitional and 33% in the moist mid-altitudes). In the short season, losses from maize weevils among all farmers were still highest in the moist mid-altitudes (27%), but also at the coast (25%). Losses were higher in the short season in the drylands (16%), where the short season is more important, but there were almost no losses in the highlands, where only a little maize is produced and stored during that season.For the larger grain borer, less than half of the farmers were affected (42% in the long season and 32% in the short season), but the losses among affected farmers were larger (37% and 29%), so losses among all farmers were similar to those from weevils: 21% in the long season and 17% in the short season (Fig. 6). Differences in losses caused by LGB between zones were similar to those for weevils but more pronounced; in the long rains, losses from LGB for all farmers ranged from 7% in the dry transitional zone to 37% in the moist transitional zone, while in the short season they ranged from 3% in the highlands to 24% in the moist mid-altitudes. Using weighted means, annual relative losses were estimated at 20.5% for the maize weevil and 17.9% for the LGB (Fig. 7). Losses to both pests were highest in the warmer and humid areas, in particular the moist mid-and transitional altitudes and the coastal lowlands, and lowest in the drylands and high tropics. Total relative losses from both species, based on farmer estimates, were calculated using Equation ( 7); the results indicate that more than a third of maize stored (35.7%) is lost to storage pests, ranging from a fifth in the dry mid-altitudes to more than half in the moist mid-altitudes.As the storage losses are higher in moist zones and lower in dry zones, we explored the link between losses and climate through correlation analysis (Table 2). We found a strong correlation between losses from the two species with both relative humidity and temperature during the short season (>0.3), but not during the long season.  Moreover, the two climate variables were highly correlated (0.8) and incorporating them into a regression model did not yield significant coefficients.Finally, extrapolation of the point estimates of relative losses provided a map with the geographic distribution of relative losses for each storage pest (Fig. 8). The circles represent the georeferenced communities, and the different colors show the level of relative losses, extrapolated from the point data. The map shows two distinct zones of high relative storage losses, both with high humidity and temperature: the first in the west, around Lake Victoria, and the second, with somewhat lower losses, in the south from the coast inwards to Taita Taveta. The areas with high losses from weevils and LGBs largely overlap, with the LGB showing more contrast, with small areas with high losses of over 30%, and large areas of low losses. The area in between the high loss zones is relatively less affected, although with substantial variation; the red dots indicate communities with high losses, even in green areas with generally low losses.To estimate absolute lossesthe actual quantities of maize lostwe multiplied the total annual relative losses for each AEZ (Fig. 7), with maize production calculated for each AEZ from SPAM 2017 (Table 1), using Equation ( 6). The calculations showed that each storage pest caused similar absolute losses: about one-fifth of production or almost 400,000 tonnes each year, with losses from maize weevils slightly higher (Table 3). In all maize production zones combined, a total of 671,000 tonnes per year were lost in storage due to insect pests. Almost half the loss occurred in the moist mid-altitudes (45%) and most of the rest (43%) in the high potential zones, equally divided over the moist transitional and the high tropics. The marginal zones, especially the lowlands and the dry transitional zone, accounted for only a small proportion of overall absolute storage losses in the country.Finally, we multiplied the grid map of relative losses (Fig. 8, combining panels A and B using Equation ( 7)) with the grid of maize production (Fig. 9, Panel A) using Equation ( 6), which resulted in a grid map with the quantities of maize lost (Fig. 9, Panel B). The map shows two distinct areas of high absolute losses: the most important one is in   western Kenya, around Lake Victoria, with large areas that suffered maize losses above 35 tonnes per km 2 . A second area of large absolute losses is found in the dry areas of eastern Kenya, roughly from Machakos to Meru, with losses of 10-20 tonnes/km 2 (Fig. 9).Participants of the study reported eighteen different control methods that they used against storage pests, grouped by us into five major categories: chemical, mechanical, traditional, botanical, and natural methods (Table 4). The most popular method was chemical insecticides, used by almost half of the communities (49%), followed by hermetic bags (16%). Botanical methods were used by 15% of communities and included treatments with pepper, neem, and ferns (each used by less than 10% of communities). Traditional methods were used by 10% of communities and included heat treatment, and smoking and burning of the granary.The popularity of control methods differed by AEZ (Fig. 10). Chemicals were used by more than half of the communities in all zones except the moist mid-altitudes and dry transitional, with the highest levels in the high tropics (64%). Hermetic bags, on the other hand, were more popular in the dry transitional zones (29%) and in the moist midand transitional altitudes (17%) but not in the high tropics (7%). Botanical control methods were mainly used in the drylands and were less common in the high tropics. Traditional fire-based methods were mostly used at the coast (by 70% of communities). Natural methods, involving proper drying before storage, were most popular in the humid areas although not used by many communities. Plastic containers were used by 21% of communities at the coast but by less than 5% in all other zones. Other mechanical methods were only used in the coastal lowlands and dry mid-altitudes, and only by a small number of communities.This study was undertaken to assess farmers' knowledge and observations of storage pests, and to estimate the relative and absolute losses they cause. Our results show that farmers are well aware of storage pests, with almost all participants recognizing maize weevils from the pictures, and most also recognizing the LGB. Farmers' good knowledge of storage pests has been observed before in Western Kenya (Midega et al., 2016) and Southern Africa (Kamanula et al., 2010). We also find that most farmers were affected by maize weevils, especially in the long rainy season, but less than half were affected by the LGB. In the previous studies, in Wester Kenya LGB affected more farmers than weevils (Midega et al., 2016), while in Malawi both pests affected the same number of farmers and in Zambia weevils affected more farmers (Kamanula et al., 2010).Relative losses as estimated by participants in the FGDs were high and similar for both species: 21% for weevils and 18% for LGB over the year, or a combined loss of 36%. Relative losses were highest in the humid areas, especially moist mid-altitudes (56%) but lower in the drylands (20-23%). Losses were higher in the long season except in the drylands, where maize production and storage pests were more important in the short season. Total losses in stored maize were estimated at almost 1 million tonnes annually, most of it in the moist mid-altitudes (45%) and the high potential areas (43%). Extrapolating the point  data and overlaying them with the maize production map showed the geographic distribution of the losses, with the most important area in western Kenya, around Lake Victoria.The losses as estimated by FGDs here are not as high as those commonly cited in the early stages of postharvest loss (PHL) studies. Still, the combined losses of both species, 36%, are higher than previous estimates based on physical measurements or synthesis. Early estimates of postharvest food lost in Africa, largely obtained through expert opinion, were typically large round numbers such as 20-40% (Madeley, 1979), 30-50% (Lipton, 1982), or even 40-50% (Zorya et al., 2011), in line with the results of this study. However, physical PHL measurements, including the count and weigh method (Compton et al., 1998) and visual scores of cobs (Compton and Sherington, 1999) led to much lower loss estimates, with an estimate of 4.5% in Kenya (de Lima, 1979). Experimental studies with artificial infestation, finally, found similar results to our study: 19.2% losses from maize weevils and 27.1% from LGB (Edoh Ognakossan et al., 2013).As these methods are expensive, they are typically only used on small areas, which is problematic because of the high geographic variation. Several reviews tried to synthesize the results of earlier studies. A first review estimated losses at 4%-5% before the arrival of the LGB, but up to 10% afterwards, and even up to 18% under small-scale farming conditions (Tefera, 2012). Similarly, a meta-analysis found PHL in maize in Africa to be between 4% (with interventions) to 21% (without interventions) (Affognon et al., 2015). A synthesis by the African Postharvest Loss Information System (APHLIS found PHL to range between 12% and 20% (Zorya et al., 2011), with a specific estimate for Kenya of 16.7% (https://www.aphlis.net/).In summary, our estimates of storage losses based on farmer estimates through FGDs are substantially higher than those in the more recent literature, except for the artificial infestation experiments (Edoh Ognakossan et al., 2013). Several possible reasons can be identified. First, in this study farmers were asked to estimate losses from two storage pests separately, and this might have led to double counting; farmers would, for example, estimate relative losses from each species at 50%. Second, farmers' storage practices change over time, which might increase losses. In Kenya, farmers have moved away from traditional storage in cribs towards storage in bags (Ndegwa et al., 2016). Third, the high geographic variation, and its link with climate as shown in Zambia (De Groote et al., 2023, forthcoming), means that estimates must be taken from a good sample of locations, both sufficiently large and representative of different climates, and this has not been the case in previous studies. Finally, estimates through farmer surveys and FGDs are relatively cheap and can thus solve the problem of representation (hence their recent popularity). Moreover, our experience showed that FGDs can provide farmers with better understanding of pest problems, in particular storage pests. However, the accuracy of loss estimates from farmer surveys and FGDs is not known. These estimates are affected by the way the questions are framed, and asking separately for loss estimates for different insects as was done here might lead to higher estimates than first asking for an overall loss estimate and afterward dividing the loss over different pests, as was done for field pests in Ethiopia (Abro et al., 2021). Methodological studies comparing physical measurements, farmer surveys, and the effect of the way questions are framed, are therefore urgently needed.In summary, we find that farmers are well aware and knowledgeable on maize weevils and LGB. Further, we found that most farmers are affected by maize weevils, but less than half were affected by the LGB, Still, estimated relative losses were high for both species: 21% for weevils and 18% for LGB over the year, or a combined loss of 36%, leading to absolute losses of 1 million tonnes of maize annually. We concluded that storage pests remain a major problem, especially in western Kenya, and that the problem might be increasing with changing practices. In particular, few farmers nowadays use traditional methods, but almost half use chemical pesticides. Farmers have started using the more environmentally friendly hermetic bags (16%) and botanicals (15%), which should now be the focus of agricultural extension and agrodealers, especially in the most affected areas identified through this study, in particular Western Kenya.Ethical clearance for the survey was sought by CIMMYT from CIM-MYT's Institutional Research Ethics Committee (IREC), and the research was cleared for implementation on June 11, 2018 (clearance number IREC 2018.004).","tokenCount":"4936"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d2084fd3710dcde1c4bbbce8b7b79c10","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e76a7436-5e1e-408e-b292-be2d586c4246/retrieve","id":"1797150081"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e537072d-a891-43f3-b754-9b1e0d458bf7","pagecount":"9","content":"Age 01 household head (ye.rs)Livestock fonns an important and integral part of the fanning system and, among other things, provides a major source of nutrients (Le., manure) for plants. Buffalo, cattle, goats, and chickens are the main kínds oflivestock in the area, wíth an average lívestock unít of2.8 per household. The average livestock unít ís highest among households in the rich and BeJ categories and lowest in poor and KDS households. This difference is significant across wealth (p < .0001) and ethnic (p < .01) categories. Simílarly, the female•headed households have lower livestock units per household than the male-headed households, but this dífference is not statistícaI1y significant. The resource analysis thus indícates that BeJ households have the most resources, followed by GMN households, while KDS households have the fewest resources. Similarly, female-headed households have comparatívely fewer resources than rnale-headed households.The access farmers have to improved maize varieties suitable to local environments and their own needs ís quite límited (table 1). Only 13% ofthe fanners reported growing improved varieties of maize; however, they know the value of changing theír old seeds. Ahout 39% ofthe households reported exchanging their seeds during last five years with other fanners. The users' and gender analysis showed that access to new maíze seeds is similar across al! wealth categories. However, GMN and KDS households have a complete lack of access to new maíze seeds, and a lower proportion of rnale-headed households reported cultívating improved varieties than díd female-headed households. The proportíon of households changing seeds over the last five years, however, ís greater in the poor wealth category, suggesting that farmers in t1ús category change seed more frequently than do the others. Since these households are also híghly food deficit, they may be consuming the seed and, therefore, bOITowing seeds from other farmers. The proportion ofhouseholds changing maize seeds ¡s, however, similar across ethnic categories and between male and female-headed households.Símilarly, fanners' access to teclurical services and inforrnation on technology is also poor. On1y about 3% of the maize-growing households reported participating in agriculture-related training, and on1y 6% participated in educational tours. Likewise, about 15% of the households reported receiving infonnation on improved technology for rnaize production. This reveals that externa! technica! support to farrners in their attempts to develop better maize varieties is quite limited. The proportion ofhouseholds particípatíng in agricultura! training and tours is lower in the average and poor households than in rich households. A chi-square analysis shows significant dífferences (p < .05) in access to infonnation on ímproved technology for maize production across wealth categories. Similarly, on1y BeJ households reported having participated in agricultural training and tours or receiving ínfonnation on improved maize production. The proportíon of ferna!e-headed households particípating in agricultural training and tours and receiving infonnation on improved maize production is lower than male-headed households.Farmers have been found to grow about eight dífferent types ofmaize varieties, which they broadly categorize into two maize types: one is a large type (Thulo makai) with taU plants, big cobs, large grains and long rnaturity, while the other is a srnall type (Sano makai) with short plants, small cobs and grains, and short maturity. A majority ofthe farmers grow large-type maize, and it covers about 87.7% of lhe total maíze area. Among the large varieties, Thulo pyanlo alone covers about 80% of the area planted to this type, which reflects that, although farmers grow a large numberofvarieties, a large portion ofthe maize-growing area is covered by a relatively small number ofvarietíes.A majority ofthe households grow one to two varieties ofmaize (46.5% to 45.5%, respectively) in a season (table 2). Onlyabout 8% ofthe total maize-growing households grow more than tbree varieties per season. The varietal diversity maintained at household level, therefore, is low (figure 1).The ANOVA result shows that the difference in the number of maize varieties grown at household level is significant (p < .05) across wealth categories but not significant across ethnic categories and between male-and female-headed households. A higher proportion of poor households grows one variety of rnaize, compared to rich and average households. This is contrary to !he currently held view that small farmers maintain significant amounts of crop genetic diversity (Jarvis et al. 1997) and agrees with the fmdings of other studies (Rana and Kadayat 1999). Similarly, though no! significant, a very high proportion ofKDS households (90%) grows only one variety of maize.' \"'tl 90%\"O 80%.c: ., 70%' \" Farmers who grow more tban one variety mentioned various reasons fur this (table2): to prepare different food items, to harvest at different times, to suit dífferent land types, to use as animal feed, and to meet fodder requirements. However, a majority ofthe farmers (67.9%) grow to suit dífferent types of land, and this is true across all wealfu and ethnic categories and between male-and fernale-headed households. Ihe ANOVA result suggests that fue number ofmaíze varieties grown at household leve! is not signifieantly related to the size of the hari land but is highly signifieantly related to the number ofparcels of bari land the farmer is planting to maize (p < .0001). This indicates tbat with the increase in the number of parcels of bari land, the number of maize varieties grown at household level also increases. This also confirms ¡he PRA finding that farmers in the area grow large-type maize on more fertile land while small-type maize is grown on less fertile soil. The number of bari pareels, therefore, appears to be the strongest determining factor in deciding the number of maíze varieties to be grown per season. It is, however, true tbat farmers use multiple eriteria to select maize varieties for their household production.The gender differences in the use of sorne eriteria to choose maize varieties are striking. A large proportion of fernale-headed households (more than tbree times !he number of male-headed households) mentioned growing more than one variety to meet fodder requirernents for their livestock.Ihis is also confirmed by the PRA findíngs. During the focus-group díscussions, women farmers 5.0 3,1 7,0 0.9 13,3Note; Elhnicity is represented as BCi = BrahminlChhelrilJogi; GMN = Gurung/MagarlNewar; KDS = KamiIDam.i!Sarki.strongly expressed their preference for tall varieties ofmaize Iike their local varieties because taller varielies produce more fodder than short varíeties. Women appear 10 be more concemed with this issue because managing livestock fodder is largely theír responsibility. Similarly, women fanners are very particular aboul Ihe suitability of maize varieties for inlercropping, especíally wíth legumes (cowpeas and beans), because these help them meel the vegetable and pulse requirements of their families. The latter sometimes leads to conflicts with their male counterparts because intercropping with cowpeas and beans makes maize plants vulnerable to lodging and can cause big 105ses in the maize yield.Maize is the staple food for fanning households in the study area. Different preparations of maize are made for household consumption, ofwhich steamed grit (makai ka bhat) i5 the mos! common preparation, reported by 77% oftotal production (table 2). Farmers, therefore, prefer maize varíeties thal have high grit recovery. They perceive that ye!low (colored) maize has higher grit recovery and, therefore, prefer colored varieties over the white ones. The food preparation ofmaize is similar across households of different wealth, elhnic, and gender categories, and a majority ofhouseholds use it in grit formo Users' and genderdifferences in the choice ofvariety, Iherefore, do not appear lo be influenced by differences in the use of maize.The analysis díscussed aboye indicates that fanners' choíces for maíze varíeties are not greatly influenced by theír differences in weallh, ethnicity, and gender, Le., different categories of fanners have preferences for similar types of maize varietíes. F anners across all wealth, ethnic, and gender categories grow only one or two maize varieties per household and, therefore, their varíetal needs are not very diverse. However, farmers use multíple criteria ín selectíng the varietíes they grow.They prefer to have as many traits oftheír preference as possíble ín one lo two maize varietíes. InIhis way, they are able to maintaín and manage the variety of their-preference fora long•duration. Since maize ís an open-pollinated crop, a large number of varieties is difficult lo maintain and manage. Thi5 analysis ís also confirmed by the findings of the PRA conducted al the project research siles. The participatory breeding program, therefore, should focus on developing fewer maize varíelies with multíple traits lhat reflect fanners' preferences. Priority should be given lo the maize varieties Ihat have higher grit recovery, grow welI under different land conditions, produce high biomass for use as fodder, and alIow good intercropping with legumes.The informalÍon on gender roles in maize production and utilization is based on a participatory gender analysis done with 30 maize-growing households selected for lhat purpose. The results show that there are distinct gender roles for men, women, and children in the production and utilizalÍon of maize in lhe hilIs ofNepaL Women supersede men in their involvement in all three major functions ofmaize production and utilization: namely, (1) production, (2) household utilization and marketing, and (3) seed managemen! (table 3). Their involvement is particularly high in the application of compost and farmyard manure lo the maize fie1d; seed processing, treatment, storage, and preparation for sowing in the next season; and intercroppíng of maize with beans, cowpeas, pumpkins, and other crops.The results ofthe gender analysis show lhat women are also the prime decision makers in the family and lheir contribution to decision making in actívities related to maize production and utilization is higher than that their male counterparts in the fumily (table 4). Their contribution to decisions is particularly high in the selection of crops fOT intercropping with maize, deciding on date and time of weeding and earthing-up in the maize fields, and in most ofthe activities relaled lo utilizatíon and marketing and seed management The gender analysis thus suggests that women have important roles and a stake in the varietal-improvement programs designed to develop farmers' preferred varieties. Their particípation in the whole process of variety development should be ensured and properly utilized.Particípatoryplant breeding seeks to use the knowledge and experiences farmers have accwnulated over generations. It al so creates an environment for mutual learning and sharing, which closes the knowledge gap and sets the stage for a working partnership between the farmers and researchers.al Users' and Gender Perspective in Farm Quantity 01 grilslflour lo be milled al a limeWhen lo carry maíze grains lo the mili (tor milling)Food ítems lo be cooked daily 5. Whelher lo sale maize or nol 6. Facilitating and supporting farmers in their plant-hreeding activities then becomes easy and smooth. Based on this understanding, farmers' breeding knowledge was assessed by surveying a sample of 113 households selected randomly. An analysis of the influence of gender, wealth, and ethnicity on the distribution of such knowledge was also done and ís presented in table 5.Ibe majority ofthe households (more than 90%) separate seed and graín in advance, but the seed selection is almost entírely done from the cobs, and generally righ! after the barvest Farmers virtually do no! practice seed selection on standing crops. Ibe majority of the households select big, good-Iooking cobs with big, bold grains for seed. Similarly, almos! all farmers follow tbe practice of discarding grains on the tips ofthe cob when the cobs are shelled for seed. Only about a quarter of the farmers are knowledgeable about the role ofseed replacement in maintaining varietal purity and vigor. Farmers' knowledge on the more technical side ofbreeding, such as identification ofmale Table 5. Distribution oC Breeding Knowledge by Gender, WeaIth and Ethnicity (% Households) ----------------. -------------------------1----Weallh .alellori ., On standing ClOp 0,1 10,0 0,0 0,0 1,0 0,0 0,0 1,0 0,0 No/e: Ethnicíty is represeoled as BeJ = BrahminlChhetri/Jogi; GMN = Guruog/Magar/Newar; KDS = Kami/DamaiISarki, lncorparation al Users' and Gender_FerspecthJe in Fan and femate plants and theír functions, was found te be very pOOL Similarly, a majority ofthe farmers also do not know the actual mechanism tha! causes new maize varieties to rapidly deteriorate, compared to other cereal crops like rice and wheat. The survey thus revealed that there is good scope and a need for sharing scientífic breedíng knowledge prior to the inception of a partícipatory plant breedíng program in order to enhance farmers' confidenee and thereby inerease theír ínterest and participation,The project on fanner-Ied participatory plant breeding of maize has just completed one season of work. A number of consíderations have be en made, as suggested by the analysis of the users' and genderperspeetive ofmaize produetion and utilization. These are briefly discussed below.The breeding objective has been redefined to ímprove the production performance of a widely grown maíze variety, Thulo pyanlo, rather than creating a large díversity of maize varieties in order to improve the productivity ofthe niche envíronment. This variety has all the traits preferred by the farmers except one, i.e., lodging resistance, Reducing lodging in this variety is now the maín objective of the breeding program. In addition, the selection of improved maize varieties to be used as one ofthe parents for crossing with Thulo pyanlo was done in a way that ensured that they met most ofthe farmers' preferences for different traits, These included relatively taller, stout plant varieties like Ganesh I and 2, Rampur composit, Rampur 1, Khumal yellow, and Pop 22. This would help to combine good traits from a large number of varieties into a few fanners' preferred maize varieties. At the same time, attention has also been gíven to meeting the specific needs of the niche environment through a participatory variety-selection program, which provides farmers with a choice from a large number of maize varieties.Farmers have fonned their own research cornmíttee at both the research sites to ensure their partieipation in and influence on the ｾ ･ ｳ ･ ｡ ｲ ｣ ｨ ＠ process, These research cornmittees are well represented by different categories offarmers and 41% ofits members are women, The Farmers' Research Committee. in consultation with the farmers at large, decide the breeding objectives and the research process. They also select research farmers to participate in the farmer-led maize breeding prograrns implemented at the research sites, Since farmers themselves select research farmers, it is envísaged that this wílllead to the development of maize varieties preferred by a large number of fanners. Similarly, under participalory variety-selection program, care is taken to distribute the seed of new maize varieties to different categories of frmners.Based on the findings ofthe survey on the distribution of maize-breeding knowledge among farmers, field-based training was provided lo the research farmers in order lo supplement farmers' knowledge with practical scientific breeding knowledge, Attentíon was given to representation of different categories of farmers, inc\\uding women. Forty-five percent of the total trainees were women. This consideration will also be made in future farmers' training programs.","tokenCount":"2437"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5b95aa301b6e101a952428482316a062","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b0ae112e-3939-4dea-922c-279583b96075/retrieve","id":"-1494359527"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1ad9c597-ebef-4099-be09-cac4fe352d91","pagecount":"14","content":"A key recommendation for One CGIAR is to \"Organize CGIAR's presence and engagement at the national and regional levels under a new One CGIAR engagement model based on a country strategic framework in support of national priorities and a country coordination function, and clear partnership management with key regional bodies\" Dedicated positions and people for One CGIAR to interact with regional stakeholders in a strengthened and coordinated way -Regional Groups dedicated to ESA and WCA led by a Regional Director and an in-country One CGIAR led by Country Managers in strategic countriesCommitment to engagement and partnership with ESA and WCAthrough strategic engagement and communication with key regional and country stakeholdersImportance of stakeholder demand/alignment to regions' prioritiesalign research, innovation and engagement activities between One CGIAR and the regions; partnerships in the Initiatives. • Promoting digitalized information systems in bundling innovations at landscape level for enhancing agro-ecology.• Addressing social barriers to create equality for women and youth doing business in value chains and markets.• Validating the CGIAR Scaling Readiness Framework as a tool for planning, scaling, impact enhancement and coordinated action.Regional Integrated Initiative and other initiatives provide opportunities to address key regional priorities in WCA At least 4 governments will use inclusive approaches towards landscape management and 100 rural communities will have developed informed and inclusive land and water management plans. 20,000 youth and 15,000 women will be engaged in value-added activities related to agriculture and at least 50% of these will have access to credit.At least 10 key partners will be using 3 validated scaling tools consistently.","tokenCount":"256"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"434972f74250933e492d7f7d9851a867","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4ce5055d-8d22-4ce0-939e-4b35ae0020a5/retrieve","id":"-819186146"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b9ca9c04-dbfc-42e6-8b02-9d4106ed3e97","pagecount":"24","content":"All too often, strategic plans go on the shelf within months after they're completed. In contrast, CIAT's strategy for 2014-2020 went on the road over the last year, and in many ways, it went into effect. We shared the strategy widely with donors and partners, and engaged them in planning innovative initiatives that flow from it. This audience included many distinguished visitors to CIAT, among them Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, and a group of global science and industry leaders associated with the Latin America Conservation Council (LACC), which works in partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). LACC held its fourth annual meeting at our headquarters in November.In parallel with strategy outreach, we did some \"inreach\" as well -holding launch events at Center headquarters and our Asia regional hub in Hanoi, Vietnam, where CIAT is expanding its team, strengthening its partnerships, and widening the scope of its work. The launch events were followed by internal dialogues involving hundreds of staff to discuss each team's role in implementing the strategy.One strategic undertaking to which we're giving special attention involves the creation of a new plant genetic resources hub at Center headquarters in Colombia. For nearly 4 decades, CIAT's genebank has resided at the heart of our efforts to make tropical agriculture more productive and resilient.By creating a new state-of-the-art facility, CIAT will be able to provide not only valuable seed but also digital genetic information that helps researchers harness the seed's development power. CIAT's host country, Colombia -considered the second most biodiverse country in the world, after Brazil -stands to gain significantly from the new genebank and is actively involved in its planning. The novel facility will conserve biodiversity and play a critical role in making Colombia's agriculture more competitive, sustainable, and climate smart -key aims of our collaboration with the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) and Colombian Corporation of Agricultural Research (Corpoica).The German government recently provided funding for infrastructure that facilitates genebank functions, and this augurs well for our campaign to build further support. The new hub will closely complement the efforts of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, whose executive director, Marie Haga, honored us with a visit this year.Center scientists are pursuing several other avenues opened up by the strategy, including these forwardlooking initiatives:• LivestockPlus -Fast-tracking tropical forages for twin-win agricultural systems • Ecosystem Action -Renewing rural landscapes for improved food security and livelihoods • FoodLens -Sharpening the focus of research on sustainable food systems All three form a critical part of CIAT's effort to make more robust contributions to the evolving CGIAR research agenda.The initiatives now have well-defined research agendas and are rapidly gaining buy-in through new partnerships. A widely publicized study on changes in global food supplies over the last 50 years -which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) -stimulated global interest in our perspectives on food systems. Sizable grants have already been approved for LivestockPlus and Ecosystem Action, one of which (from Germany's environmental ministry) supports development of sustainable land-use options for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon.In recent months, developments on another major front -climate-smart agriculture (CSA) -have cleared the way for rapid progress toward CIAT's strategic objectives. Last October, Center experts in climate change presented profiles on CSA for seven countries across Latin America and the Caribbean to a standingroom-only audience at World Bank headquarters. The products prompted support for a similarly ambitious effort with African countries, to be conducted through the CGIAR The other winner of the Big Data Climate Challenge was the Global Forest Watch system of the World Resources Institute (WRI), which has recently adopted CIAT's Terra-i tool for near real-time monitoring of landuse change. We worked with WRI to showcase this joint effort at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) 2014, a major event held in December at Lima, Peru, alongside the 20 th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP20.During GLF, CIAT also joined WRI and other partners in the high-level launch of Initiative 20×20, which aims to get the restoration of 20 million hectares of degraded land on track in Latin America by 2020. Attended by a half dozen agricultural and environmental ministers and an equal number of CEOs from private investment funds, the launch marked an auspicious beginning for this exciting effort.The launch was followed by a lively discussion forum, which examined conditions for the success of efforts like Initiative 20×20 and the potential of such schemes for reversing land degradation in sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout 2015 -declared the International Year of Soils by the United Nations General Assembly -CIAT will work with its partners to heighten the profile of soil and ecosystem health.Those and other advances highlighted in CIAT Annual Report 2014-2015 represent key milestones along the path to eco-efficient agriculture. We invite all of our partners and donors to join us in making the arduous journey to this vital destination, which none of us can reach on our own.Chair, Board of TrusteesCIAT Annual Report 2014-2015More than 30,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda have adopted the forage grass Brachiaria as part of the novel \"push-pull\" crop production technology. They are highly pleased with the dramatic boost in milk yields that results from feeding cattle with Brachiaria and also about its deterrent effect on stem borers attacking maize and sorghum.Much research has shown that tropical forage grasses, including Brachiaria, can help overcome Africa's feed shortage, which constrains milk and meat production. But progress in exploiting the grasses' potential has been slow -until now. A few years ago, entomologists at the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, determined that Brachiaria serves quite well to attract and help destroy stem borers and decided to incorporate the grass into the push-pull technology.Brachiaria originated in Africa but was then improved in Latin America. Its drought tolerance makes the latest version of push-pull \"climate smart,\" permitting its extension into drier areas. As a result, the stage is set for integrating tropical forages into mixed farming systems on a large scale to raise farm incomes and help livestock production keep pace with burgeoning food demand, while also improving soil fertility and reducing erosion.Through a new approach, researchers have obtained data that better reflect the true diversity of soils in the landscape around Lushoto, Tanzania, thus enabling them to advise farmers on changes needed to reduce erosion and boost soil fertility on their farms. Called the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework, this approach provides a biophysical baseline of soil and land health across the landscape, so variability can be mapped more efficiently than with conventional methods.Soil health is measured on the basis of indicators, like soil organic carbon, which influence what crops can be grown, where, and how well. The more organic carbon there is in the soil, the healthier it is. A difference between 15 and 150 grams of carbon per kilogram of soil reflects the diversity of crops that can be grown in the soil -from vegetables, beans, and cassava to trees. But this may also show that current farming practices are reducing soil organic carbon and leadingto soil erosion. The framework thus makes it possible to identify opportunities for strategic land management interventions that can improve soil health and agricultural productivity.Soil Scientist, Soils Research Area l.a.winowiecki@cgiar.orgIn Colombia's Córdoba Department, 170 rice growers with 1,800 hectares followed a recommendation not to plant in one of two growing seasons and thus avoided losing money they would have spent to cover production costs, according to Patricia Guzmán, who manages the technical department of Fedearroz, the national rice growers association. The recommendation was based on climate simulations carried out by CIAT, which projected low yields under expected weather conditions, including lower rainfall and reduced solar radiation.To come up with such conclusions, CIAT and Fedearroz have analyzed mounds of data from the latter's annual rice survey, harvest monitoring dataset, and treasure trove of experimental results on crop management.Researchers also tapped into weather data collected by Fedearroz and the Colombian Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies (IDEAM).The findings coincide with results from many years of field research. But the difference is that the big data approach reached this conclusion in just 6 months. In March 2015, CIAT joined The Nature Conservancy and other partners to launch the Tana-Nairobi Water Fund -the first of its kind in Africa. The Fund will safeguard one of Kenya's most productive agricultural areas and also protect a watershed that provides 60% of the country's energy production and water for more than 9.3 million people.The Fund is a public-private scheme uniting big business, utilities, conservation groups, government, researchers, and farmers. It aims to increase farm productivity upstream, while improving water supplies and cutting the costs of hydropower and clean water for users downstream. In the long term, it is expected to generate US$21.5 million benefits for Kenyan citizens, including farmers and businesses.Research has played a major role in developing the Fund and is vital for ensuring it delivers the benefits it promises. With support from the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE),CONTACT Fred Kizito Soil Scientist, Soils Research Area f.kizito@cgiar.orgCIAT uses its expertise in detecting and mapping landuse change to inform targeted investments.Working in partnership with Kenya's Water and Resource Management Authority, CIAT will measure real-time water quality at specific points along the watershed. Center scientists will also inform decisions about land management options by measuring the effectiveness of different interventions, so they can be tailored to specific areas of the watershed.Usually, agribusinesses rely almost exclusively on a small number of large-scale suppliers and ignore the 85% of farms worldwide that are managed by smallholders. But Unilever, the world's third largest consumer goods company, has adopted a researchbased methodology to foster business practices that benefit smallholder farmers. Its supply and distribution networks involve millions of smallholder farmers, distributors, and retailers around the world. In 2010 -the year it launched its Sustainable Living Planthe company was already sourcing products from approximately 1.3 million smallholders globally, many of whom are women.Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan helps farmers improve their agricultural practices and crop yields, and enhance their access to markets. The result is a winwin relationship, in which Unilever also benefits from higher yields, sustainably produced crops, and more secure supplies.In support of this effort, Unilever is using the LINK Methodology, a participatory guide developed by CIAT and partners in 2007 for the purpose of fostering As part of a major regional effort to stamp out a pest devastating cassava in Southeast Asia, researchers released around 3,000 tiny parasitic wasps in Indonesia during September 2014. Their target was the cassava pink mealybug (Phenacoccus manihoti), which is capable of reducing cassava yields by up to 84%. Reported in Thailand during 2008, it spread to other countries of the region, devastating Indonesia's second major staple crop after rice, jeopardizing cassava-based livelihoods, food security, and the starch industry.The tiny Anagyrus lopezi wasps were released by a team co-led by the Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia with CIAT and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. According to researchers, the wasps pose no threat to humans, animals, or other insects, and feed only on cassava mealybug. Biological control eliminates the need to spray cassava fields with pesticides, which could have harmful environmental impacts. The wasps have already proven their effectiveness in sub-SaharanEntomologist, Agrobiodiversity Research Area k.wyckhuys@cgiar.org Africa, where they averted a major food-security crisis in the 1980s.CIAT together with national and international partners will continue developing more resilient cassava varieties and better crop and integrated pest management systems as well as quarantine measures to stem the spread of pests and diseases in the region. The complete set of profiles (available in Spanish and English) was presented last October to a standingroom-only audience at World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., USA. Now, the Bank has asked CIAT to prepare profiles with selected countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya and Rwanda) and SouthAsia (Sri Lanka) as well as additional countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Nicaragua and Uruguay).\"These profiles show the huge power of linking research with operational work and represent a basis for informed and deliberate interaction with our counterparts,\" explained Juergen Voegele, the World Bank's senior director for agriculture global practice.To combat chronic malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, a team led by Madagascar's Office for National Nutrition (ONN) has kicked off an ambitious national program that involves, among other measures, a revival of the national primary school feeding system.Children receive a nutritious breakfast consisting of porridge composed of 40% bean flour, complemented with 28% maize flour, 17% soya flour, 15% sugar, and added vitamins and micronutrients.Why beans? A 2013 CIAT study showed that beans are a particularly good option for school meals. The traditional Malagasy diet is dominated by rice. Beans complement this crop nutritionally and are widely grown in rotation with it across Madagascar. Initial results of a school pilot in the capital, Antananarivo, showed improvements in children's weight as well as a substantial reduction in school absenteeism.The improved bean variety (CAL98) used for the pilot is known for its high protein, iron, and zinc content,which are sorely lacking in the Malagasy people's diet. In the future, ONN and partners hope to replace CAL98 with a biofortified variety that possesses even higher iron and zinc content. Biofortified beans are the result of research carried out as part of the CGIAR HarvestPlus Program, in collaboration with the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), which is coordinated by CIAT.Social Scientist, Agrobiodiversity Research Area r.muthoni@cgiar.orgAlleviating fears that bean production will take a big hit from global warming, CIAT researchers have identified about 30 \"elite\" lines showing tolerance to temperatures 4 degrees Centigrade above the crop's normal \"comfort zone.\" This research represents a major contribution to the CGIAR Research Programs on Grain Legumes and on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).Beans are highly sensitive to heat. Based on analysis using 19 global climate models, with current varieties, the area suited for bean production is expected to shrink up to 50% by 2050. With heat-tolerant beans, the reduction will be only 5%, even assuming conservatively that the tolerant beans can handle a temperature rise of only 3 degrees.Many of the heat-tolerant lines resulted from crosses between common bean and tepary bean, a related species that is well adapted to arid conditions. \"The discovery of heat-tolerant beans illustrates very well why it's so important to safeguard and experiment with plant genetic diversity,\" said Ruben Echeverría, CIAT's director general.Leader, Bean Program, Agrobiodiversity Research Area s.beebe@cgiar.orgBeans contribute to the daily diet of more than 400 million people across the tropics. They are a highly nutritious food, providing an inexpensive source of protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, and micronutrients. As such, beans strongly reinforce food and nutrition security among low-income consumers, while also reducing the risk of cardio-vascular disease and diabetes.Haiti's agriculture, which was seriously damaged by the major earthquake that struck the country in 2010, is further threatened by the effects of climate change, according to a recent study by CIAT and Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The coffee sector is particularly vulnerable to changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, which are expected to reduce the area suitable for cultivating this crop.The study recommends that coffee growers start adopting drought-tolerant varieties, irrigation, and shade management in areas that will lose suitability, mostly between 1,200 and 1,500 meters above sea level. Growers need to start diversifying production in areas below 1,200 meters, which will soon completely cease to be suitable for coffee.Climate-resilient options include mango, cocoa, groundnut, sorghum, and yam. Haiti's exports of mango generated US$11 million in 2011. Cocoa is especially promising, because its economic prospects are good and it is grown in agroforestry systems that deliver environmental services (such as carbonClimate Proof its Agriculture sequestration, biodiversity, and water storage) equivalent to those provided by coffee-based systems.The impacts of climate change, if understood and addressed in a timely manner, can be turned into opportunities for the country's agricultural sector.Based on its experience in helping climate proof agriculture in Colombia, CIAT stands ready to provide further support for Haiti's farmers and other key decision makers.Spatial Analyst and Climate Change Specialist, Decision and Policy Analysis (DAPA) Research Area a.eitzinger@cgiar.org CIAT scientists lent their support this year to demonstrating proof of concept for transgenic rice lines being developed for sub-Saharan Africa. Referred to as NEWEST rice, the lines contain three genes that together contribute to improved uptake of nitrogen from the soil, more efficient use of water, and increased tolerance to saline soils. The potential benefits of large-scale land restoration -such as reduced deforestation, increased agricultural productivity, and better rural livelihoods -are ample, but science is needed to help ensure investments meet these objectives. \"CIAT is committed to supporting Initiative 20×20, because large-scale land restoration is critical for realizing this region's potential as a global food basket and provider of ecosystem services,\" said Ruben Echeverría, the Center's director general.facilities at its headquarters in Colombia and by identifying the best performers in terms of nutrientuse efficiency for field trials in Africa. Our researchers will continue to evaluate NEWEST rice over the next 3 years in full compliance with Colombian biosafety regulations.Crop Physiologist, Agrobiodiversity Research Area m.selvaraj@cgiar.orgWith more than 1 million farmers already growing nutrient-rich, biofortified crop varieties, the goal now is to reach more than 100 million people suffering from micronutrient malnutrition by 2018. Fortunately, HarvestPlus -the CGIAR program dedicated to developing and promoting such varieties -has some good ideas about how to achieve this. Logically for a research organization, the program relies heavily on the power of modern crop science. But in an unusual twist, HarvestPlus has also recruited into its science-based program a full cast of characters from the world of popular culture.Last year, HarvestPlus joined up with top directors from Nollywood -Nigeria's growing film industry. The result was four movies that entertain and inform viewers about health and nutrition, including vitamin A cassava in the storyline. Released at the 11 th Abuja International Film Festival in September 2014, the films reinforce the efforts of Nigeria's Ministry of Agriculture to promote vitamin A cassava under its ambitious Agricultural Transformation Agenda.In Rwanda, top musicians -King James, Miss Jojo, Riderman, Tom Close, and Urban Boyz -promoted better nutrition and health through a catchy new music video released during late 2014. The song celebrates the nutritional benefits of high-iron beans now available in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda. Through a series of live performances, the campaign reached more than 30,000 people.Building on a 4-year effort with partners, CCAFS helped bring about the Global Alliance on Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA), which was launched in parallel with the UN Secretary General's Climate Summit during September 2014. With more than 70 members from 20 countries, the Alliance brings together governments, civil society, and the private sector to share progress and lessons learned.In addition to providing research outputs, CGIAR and CCAFS will play four distinct roles in the Alliance:(1) serving as a CSA standard bearer, (2) contributing to outreach, (3) expediting knowledge sharing, and (4) delivering expert advice. CGIAR pledged to bring CSA innovations to half a billion farmers over the next 15 years.CCAFS underwent significant reorientation in 2014, sharpening its focus on theories of change and impact pathways, and ensuring that all activities are linked to clear indicators of progress. The program is on track to reach ambitious outcome targets by the end of 2015, as highlighted by the following samples of achievements in 2014.In April 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fifth Assessment Report, which finds that climate change impacts are already evident in farming worldwide. CCAFS scientists played key roles both by providing scientific input for the report and by raising awareness of its findings and their implications for food and farming.As part of a major public awareness effort, CCAFS produced a summary of IPCC findings on climate change impacts and adaptation options for agriculture. Published within days after release of IPCC's Working Group 2 report and accompanied by infographics that highlight key findings, the summary was downloaded over 18,000 times in 2014.In two major events co-hosted by CCAFS and partners, experts shared their views on the IPCC findings. An event on adaptation, held in London on 3 April, focused on agricultural growth, food security, and climate. An event on mitigation, held in Washington, D.C., on 16 April, identified opportunities for reducing agriculture's emissions, while also enhancing its resilience and strengthening food security. In relation to the IPCC report, CCAFS work was covered by several media outlets, including The Guardian, Forbes.com, Deutsche Welle, the Hindu Business Line, and Xinhua News Agency. Safeguarding biodiversity is essential for achieving food security. We need crop diversity to be preserved both in farmers' fields and in modern genebanks. And we need to make it available to all through an efficient global system, now and forever.To help ensure long-term conservation and use of crop diversity for food security worldwide, CIAT will construct a new state-of-the-art genebank with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification at our headquarters near Cali, Colombia. The new genebank will aim to inspire innovation and international cooperation, not only providing seed and genetic data but also leveraging the power of information to drive transformative agricultural growth. Our goal is to have a new home for CIAT's bean, cassava, and tropical forages collections ready for inauguration on the occasion of CIAT's 50 th anniversary in 2017.\"Much more than a seed museum, this new genebank will serve as a global knowledge hub for crop diversity, sharing the know-how and genetic resources that developing countries need for responding successfully to pressures like population growth, market shifts, and climate change.\" Cristián Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society Crop diversity is rapidly disappearing as a result of urbanization and other pressures, and is also threatened by climate change. Once biodiversity is lost, it's gone forever. Since 1900, India has lost 90% of its rice varieties, and the USA has lost 90% of its fruit and vegetable varieties. While no one knows the total number of plant varieties that have disappeared, many can be found today only in genebanks like CIAT's. To further boost the supply of nutritionally improved crops, HarvestPlus is mainstreaming genetic improvement for enhanced nutritional value, while also fine-tuning the systems that deliver new varieties to farmers.With traditional fodder sources failing during times of drought, high-quality forage grasses are giving hope to millions of small farmers in Rwanda and other countries of Eastern and Central Africa, where livestock production must be intensified in response to rising demand for milk and meat.Using germplasm from CIAT and other CGIAR collections, Brazilian researchers and international partners have developed biofortified varieties of crops that include sweetpotato, squash, beans, and cassava, which farmers in Itaguaí are growing to supply nutritionally enriched foods for 13 pre-schools with about 8,000 students.Cassava breeders in Asia have developed new varieties that are better adapted to a wide variety of growing conditions, are resistant to pests and diseases, and offer higher starch content, making them more attractive for industrial markets.CIAT is reaching out to governments, foundations, the private sector, and individuals to establish a global genebank and knowledge hub for agrobiodiversity. We look forward to showing you around the iconic new home for humanity's crop diversity in 2017.Discovering new options for crop improvementMaintaining the greatest possible amount of crop diversity is critical for securing food supplies in the face of unprecedented demand and pressures. We need this diversity to ensure that nutritious food will be available at stable and affordable prices, without expanding agriculture's environmental footprint. The CIAT genebank is a key resource for meeting these challenges.The new facility will be oriented to: • Excluding the HarvestPlus adjustment, our revenues thus exceeded budget by 8%. A significant part of the surplus resulted from self-generated income (obtained through investments, fees, sale of assets, and farm operations), which amounted to $2.2 million and accounted for nearly 60% of the surplus.• CIAT managed the volatility of the Colombian peso by protecting the budget exchange rate with forward hedges. Our investments were at all times in full compliance with the investment policy approved by the Center's Board of Trustees. ","tokenCount":"4035"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e0dc737d27e85b93edf44dbbedc92976","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b211e86d-97b6-42df-a0a2-88d287c51859/retrieve","id":"-777527754"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b7e17e05-dd17-4e0e-b7f5-3d95d74fc7f3","pagecount":"4","content":"The GCS project in Uganda sought to examine the relationship between statutory and customary land tenure and how these relationships affected the tenure security of forest -dependent communities, particularly women, youth and other marginalized groups. Through a transdisciplinary research effort, the GCS produced new information, analysis and tools that were directly relevant to policymakers, practitioners and forest -dependent communities.Evidence from interviews suggests that PPA enabled participants to recognize their own capacity to improve their future. The evaluation also found that the study's regular project advisory committee meetings allowed researchers to make mid-course corrections to the project, convey updated information to key stakeholders, and create lasting coalitions around the topic of land tenure. By working through local research and implementation partners, the study adapted to the local context and built networks with local organizations and government representatives far more effectively than it would have through CIFOR researchers, consultants or PhD students alone. What made this project so effective is that it combined research with action and shifted iteratively between research, community/actor feedback, capacity building and engagement in platforms that allowed experience-sharing, joint foresighting and collective problem-solving. In this way, the project responded to local needs and was flexible enough to accommodate emerging ones.The project raised awareness among communities of their legal rights and the institutional channels to claim them or address grievances, and brought together legislators/parliamentarians to debate with and learn from researchers. Beyond that, it also provided concrete proposals on how best to integrate gender into collaborative forest management guidelines -drafted more than a decade ago -and motivated local government officials to increase the number and balance the gender ratio of staff in their environment departments.Gender, Youth, Capacity Development and Climate Change: Gender relevance: 1 -Significant Main achievements with specific Gender relevance: At the national level, the success of the GCS in promoting gender rights was the product of conscientiously pursuing the rights of women, through multiple activities (e.g., engagement, PPA and inception workshops, and awareness raising), combined serendipitously with good timing (e.g., the NFA and FSSD had recently taken an increased interest in gender).Youth relevance: 1 -Significant Main achievements with specific Youth relevance: At the national level, the success of the GCS in promoting gender rights was the product of conscientiously pursuing the rights of women, through multiple activities (e.g., engagement, PPA and inception workshops, and awareness raising), combined serendipitously with good timing (e.g., the NFA and FSSD had recently taken an increased interest in gender). ","tokenCount":"407"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a14d37828f7ba63ca02b86f3be76e954","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9f1fa745-6dc1-44b3-bee2-aa776445297e/retrieve","id":"-588441235"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d85c0c25-b06f-4f23-9302-2e9926faac03","pagecount":"22","content":"Herd health, animal welfare and managing rangeland for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Miyo and Moyale districts, Borana, Ethiopia: Training report Contents Tables iv Figues v Abbreviations and acronyms vi v Herd health, animal welfare and managing rangeland for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Miyo and Moyale districts, Borana, Ethiopia: Training report Herd health, animal welfare and managing rangeland for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Miyo and Moyale districts, Borana, Ethiopia: Training report Annex 3. Results from the group work (herd health risk, seasonal occurrence and season classification in Borana)The livelihood of pastoralists in rural areas is dependent on the health and quality of the rangelands and their livestock. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the two components are functioning well. To maximally benefit this component, pastoralists must be equipped with technical skills on how to manage and care for their animals and rangeland. Furthermore, climate change is creating additional pressures on landscape and livestock that pastoralists rely on for their livelihood. This makes effective pastoral herd health management, animal disease control and rangeland health increasingly important for the area.Over the years, various organizations have taken an interest in providing pastoral herd health and managing rangeland training. International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is among the organizations working on this initiative in collaboration with other stakeholders. Different organizations use different approaches that include training, technical assistance and awareness programs. Our training was designed to offer pastoral herd health and managing rangeland training for veterinarians, animal health workers and experts chosen from Miyo and Moyale districts in the Borana zone. Experts who engaged in pastoral herd health and managing rangeland become valuable sources of information for other experts and pastoralists in the district, disseminating knowledge. Likewise, as herd owners acquire new skills, they will be able to manage their animals and rangeland better and improve their productivity. Thus, pastoral herd health and managing rangeland training is an essential aspect of livestock farming as it ensures the health and productivity of the pastoral herd and the range system.The training introduced herd health principles to experts working in the Moyale and Miyo districts of the Borana zone. It has also contributed to the acquisition of knowledge and expertise needed to detect and prevent herd health risks and implementing suitable managing rangeland techniques. Improving the abilities of professionals to manage the health of pastoral herds and rangelands is crucial for advancing the pastoralist economy and ensuring the wellbeing of animals and rangelands in the area.After the training session, experts, veterinarians and district animal health workers will educate pastoralists on herd care to enhance the health and wellbeing of livestock and rangeland during their interactions. The participants will also instruct pastoralists on managing grazing, preserving rangeland health, feeding techniques, hygiene and cleanliness for their herds. Moreover, pastoralists will be instructed on disease prevention, early detection and treatment.The training on pastoral herd health and managing rangeland go beyond enhancing livestock and rangeland wellbeing and productivity. It can contribute significantly to protecting human health by reducing the transmission of diseases from animals to humans.This report outlines the entire activities of the training session to offer an understanding of the entire process and to impact organizing future sessions. 3 Trainers and participantsThe trainers were subject matter experts with knowledge of Borana rangeland, pastoral herds and managing strategies for both the herd and the rangeland. The trainers who led the herd health session were experienced veterinarians capable of diagnosing and treating animal health problems and proficient in giving advice on preventing and controlling animal disease techniques. Likewise, trainers in rangeland health had technical expertise in preserving, managing and creating rangeland grazing strategies that support the regeneration of rangeland vegetation (Table 1). The training participants included professionals from Moyale and Miyo districts, such as animal health specialists, veterinarians, epidemiologists, natural resource management (NRM) specialists and plant science professionals. A total of 18 experts, 12 males and 6 females, participated in the training. These experts were from institutions like the agriculture office, regional veterinary laboratory, national research centre, Borana University and kebele administrations. They play a crucial role in providing animal health services, maintaining rangeland health and implementing managing practices in the region.Herd health, animal welfare and managing rangeland for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Miyo and Moyale districts, Borana, Ethiopia: Training reportThe pastoral herd health and managing rangeland training are aimed to:• Providing the necessary knowledge and skills for professionals to enhance managing herd health and productivity in the area.• Promoting optimal animal care practices and proactive managing herd health to reduce the likelihood of disease outbreaks.• Raising experts' awareness and understanding the specific risks associated with managing pastoral herds and environment and developing strategies to mitigate the challenges.• Highlighting managing rangeland skills to promote effective rangeland management, including vegetation monitoring, grazing practices and environment health.• Instructing experts on sustainable grazing practices that uphold the health of rangelands and pastoral herds, while advocating for comprehensive monitoring and assessing rangeland attributes.• Emphasizing the importance of community involvement and stakeholders' engagement for effective herd health and managing rangeland practices.  Photo credit: ILRI/Eyob Gelan.The trainers addressed the various topics of pastoral herd health and managing rangeland by using different approaches including presentations, interactive discussions, group work and participant presentations. The training was given for two days, covering managing rangeland on one day and managing herd health on the other day (Annex 1).To ensure training effectiveness, assessing pre and post training are conducted to measure the level of improvement in knowledge and skill gaps resulting from the training. Similar knowledge and skill questions were asked before and after the training. The data gathered from these assessments identified areas where trainees may need further training to enhance their knowledge and skills in the future. After the training presentation and open discussion, the trainees were split into three groups and given a group assignment. Each group was given an assignment focused on different herd health risks. After group discussion and consultation, they presented their work through a representative.Group one was tasked with creating a seasonal calendar showing when internal parasites are more prevalent on livestock in the Borana area, along with the best prevention methods and time for intervention. The second group had a similar assignment but focused on infectious diseases in the herd, while the third group addressed major ectoparasites and toxic plants in the region which are affecting herd health.The results from the group work result are presented below (also see Annex 3).After their discussion, group one members identified babesiosis, trypanosomiasis, various roundworm infections, especially Coenurus cerebralis as significant herd health issues concerning internal parasites in the area. The training participant agreed that Coenurus cerebralis can occur at any time during the year. The group recommended regular deworming of animals, controlling stray dogs and raising public awareness as prevention and control strategies that should be implemented year round. Concerning roundworm infections, most outbreaks happen in 'Addolessaa' from June to August, during the cool dry season. The group suggested managing pasture, herd deworming and public awareness campaigns as preventive measures. They also proposed the first week of May as the ideal time to implement those preventive methods (Table 2).This group also recognized babesiosis, a tick borne protozoal as herd health risk which is locally called 'Birte'. This disease typically occurs during the 'Bona season', the dry season from December to February. To prevent and control the disease, they suggested implementing external parasite/vector control, treating sick animals and managing pastures. The recommended time for applying these preventive measures are from October to November.Another parasitic disease mentioned as a herd health risk was trypanosomiasis, which is known to occur during the dry season, 'Bona'. The group recommended tsetse fly control and prophylactic treatment as prevention and control methods to be conducted between October and November. Trypanosomiasis locally called 'Suuraa' December to February Tsetse fly control, using prophylactic medicine (Isometamidium)October to NovemberThis group worked on infectious disease health risk and they identified seven infectious diseases as a herd health risk in the area: foot and mouth disease (FMD), contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP), contagious bovineHerd health, animal welfare and managing rangeland for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Miyo and Moyale districts, Borana, Ethiopia: Training report pleuropneumonia (CBPP), bovine pasteurellosis, ovine pasteurellosis and sheep and goat pox and peste des petits ruminants (PPR). FMD typically occurs during the dry season (December-February), with vaccination being the recommended prevention and control measure, ideally administered in August. CCPP is identified as a year-round concern in pastoral herds, with similar prevention, control methods and vaccination time with FMD (Table 3).CBPP and bovine pasteurellosis are prevalent in the wet season within the herd, while Bovine pasteurellosis occurs during the dry season. The group recommended vaccination as the most effective method for preventing and controlling both diseases. The optimal time for vaccinating the herd against CBPP is September, while September and April are recommended for Bovine pasteurellosis. Ovine pasteurellosis affects sheep and goats in both wet and dry seasons, whereas shoat pox only appears in the dry season. In contrast to the two diseases of small ruminant, PPR can occur at any time throughout the year in the herd. Vaccination was mentioned as the best option for preventing and managing these three small ruminant diseases. September was identified as the best month for administering vaccine for pox disease, while September and April being the preferred months for Ovine pasteurellosis vaccination. Mange mite and tick infestation are the two significant ectoparasites identified as external parasite health risks for the herd by group 3 (Table 4). The occurrence of these diseases varies within the herd. Mange infection typically occurs during the cool, dry season from June to July, while tick infestation occurs at the beginning of the rainy season from March to the end of April. The group has suggested mass acaricide spraying and using drug (Ivermectin) as a control method for tick infestation and using burnt oil topically on the animal's body as a control method for mange mites. The group recommended using injectable antiparasitic drugs from June to July for both diseases, whereas acaricide use is advised from March to April. Group 3 worked on poisonous plants and identified four plants as heard health risks in the area: 'Gadala', 'Finco', 'Tabari', (locally named) and 'Parthenium'. Gadala and Tabari are present in the dry season, Parthenium in the rainy season and Finco in the middle of the rainy season (Table 5). To control Gadala, it is recommended to manage herd movement and remove the plant from pastureland. The optimal timing for implementing control measures is in January, February and August. For Parthenium control, uprooting the plant from grazing land in April and May and burning the infested area in November and December were proposed as control methods and as ideal intervention times by the group. To manage the risk of herd exposure to 'Tabari', controlling herd movement and removing the plant from the grazing area, preferably during the dry season was suggested by the group. Likewise, to prevent the risk of herd exposure to 'Finco', restricting herd movement into infested areas, typically in the middle of the rainy season was recommended. Classifying the year into seasons is a customary practice in many cultures around the world. Similarly, the Borana pastoralist classify the year into four seasons, namely: 'Bona', the long dry season; 'Ganna', the main rainy season; 'Addolessa', the cool dry season and 'Hagayaa', the short rainy season, each having unique characteristics that set it apart from one another. Classifying the year into seasons has important implications for different activities, such as agriculture, animal husbandry and animal disease prevention and control, as well as for phenomena, such as animal behaviour, plant growth and weather patterns.The 'Bona' season spans from December to February, 'Ganna' covers March to mid-May, 'Addolessa' runs from June to August and 'Hagayaa' spans from September to November.Knowing how the year is divided into seasons can assist in scheduling various activities impacted by the seasons in the pastoral community. For instance, it can help determine the times when herd health is at risk and when it is optimal for risk prevention and control measures. The trainees compiled these seasonal distinctions in their efforts to identify and prevent the different herd health risks at the right time.Following the training, participants were asked to assess their level of knowledge and skills on topics covered before the training and after the training (1 = lowest, 5 = highest). Assessing post training result showed that on average the trainee improved their knowledge and skills from 3.3 to 4.4 in rangeland and managing herd health. Details of the survey subjects and findings from assessing before and after training are found in Figure 2.The trainees had most confidence in 'Disease surveillance and critical point of identification' (DSCCP) and 'Climate change and vulnerability of pastoral community' (CCV) prior to training. After the training, all knowledge and skills scores were increased. The greatest increase was seen for concepts and the defining 'characteristics of herd health and principles' (CHHP) and 'Common pastoral herd health risks' (CPHR) with scores increasing by 1.4 points each.The least improvement was seen in DSCCP. Even though it is the topic which participants are most confident about before the training, still there is improvement in their understanding after the training. After training, participants were most confident in CCV and CHHP and competent, in their knowledge and skills of Defining pastoralism and trends of pastoralism's pillars (DPT).Herd health, animal welfare and managing rangeland for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Miyo and Moyale districts, Borana, Ethiopia: Training report 6 Summary and recommendationsIt is important to implement a participatory strategy for mapping risks in pastoral herds, predicting seasonal events and identifying preventive measures for each risk. Appropriate risk mapping in pastoral herd and environment will aid early detecting risks and preventing diseases, rather than treating them after they occur.2. Trainees were aware of the different herd health risks specific to their area and their typical timelines. However, there is a lack of preparation for the anticipated risk.3. Despite the knowledge improvement in all topics after training, the trainees require further developing their knowledge/skills on herd health topics covered.4. Assessing trainees' responses to post training questions were subjective, indicating that their confidence may not yet be at the highest level, even if knowledge is gained. Understanding this with more tone in future trainings can help to refine further capacity development needs.5. Implementing herd health principles requires collaboration across different sectors. Pastoralists are the most affected group by positive and negative changes to herd health situation. Therefore, pastoralists, who directly manage the herd and providing essential information about herd status, should receive similar training.6. Developing capacity of district specialists is important to scale knowledge sharing and skills development within communities and ultimately it is anticipated that they can share knowledge and approaches learnt in this training with pastoralists. Trainees will be able to share what they learnt here during their extension services in the area.","tokenCount":"2480"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8606bf31f3de829506b10f41d05b0582","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/89deea54-1a57-4ea0-b26b-79564998be01/retrieve","id":"1606973125"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"269c846a-e60f-49cf-b8ca-2fc7f88ba8c0","pagecount":"52","content":"En la industria avícola la principal materia prima como fuente de energía es el maíz; los productores de este cereal no cubren la demanda que acarrea el sector avícola en Colombia, por esta razón el país se ve en la necesidad de importar grandes volúmenes al precio que indique el mercado; por otra parte, la globalización abre los mercados y por lo tanto hay que buscar competitividad con materias primas que se produzcan en el trópico y sean fuentes de nutrientes en la alimentación animal; la yuca y la batata que son productos tropicales, se presentan como una alternativa que puedan reemplazar el maíz como fuentes de energía ya que poseen rendimientos productivos mejores o iguales que este cereal.Por ello, este trabajo se presenta como el resultado de una validación y ajuste a un trabajo de investigación (grado) con Harina de yuca y Harina de batata en la alimentación de pollos de engorde realizado anteriormente con el objetivo de comparar biológica y económicamente y de este modo al seleccionar la mejor o las mejores alternativas promover el uso de la harina de yuca y harina de batata como una propuestas para mejorar los ingresos de los productores pequeños y medianos y d e este modo generar empleo. Desarrollar mediante pruebas de ajuste y validación adecuación de resultados expertmentales para el empleo de harina de batata(lpomoea batatas Lam) y harina de yuca (Manihot esculen,ta Crantz) en la alimentación de aves para medianos y pequeños productores.• Evaluar el efecto en el rendimiento productivo (consumo de alimento, aumento de peso, conversión alimenticia, relación de eficiencia) debido al empleo de diferentes niveles y sistemas de suministro de harina de yuca y harina de batata en dietas para pollos de engorde de 1 a 42 días de edad.• Determinar el rendimiento de la canal y nivel de pigmentación de piel, pico y patas en pollos de engorde de 1 a 42 días de edad debido al empleo de las dietas empleadas en el punto anterior.• Establecer mediante análisis económico cual o cuales de las propuestas constituyen la m ejor opción para el productor de pollos de engorde.La batata pertenece a la familia de las Convolvuláceas ( Convolvulaceae).y especie Ipomoea batatas. La enredadera ornamental no comestible esIpomoea pandurata, (Enciclopedia Microsoft Encarta, 2000.) El camote o batata tiene lo que los botánicos llaman un centro secundarto de diversidad genética; áreas geográficas donde el cultivo evolucionó separadamente de sus ancestros americanos. En Asia, se encuentran muchos tipos de camote genéticamente distintos de los hallados en las áreas de origen. La forma cómo llegaron al sudoeste del Pacífico es tema de debate. Se cree que los exploradores europeos lo llevaron en los albores de la conquista española de América Latina; otros se inclinan a pensar que mucho antes de que ello ocurriera, el camote cruzó el Pacífico moviéndose de una a otra isla, a bordo de las embarcaciones de los indígenas. El camote o batata es rico en carbohidratos y vitamina A. Tiene una gran diversidad de usos que incluyen el consumo de las raíces frescas, o de las hojas procesadas como follaje, almidón, harina, caramelos.Debido a su versatilidad y adaptabilidad, el camote es el séptimo cultivo alimenticio más importante del mundo, después del trigo, arroz, maíz, Papa, cebada y yuca. Más de 133 millones de toneladas de batata se producen globalmente cada año. El continente asiático es el principal productor de camote o batata, con 125 millones de toneladas de producción anual. De China procede el 90 o/o de la producción total (117 millones de toneladas) cerca de la mitad de la batata producido en Asia es usado para la alimentación animal, tanto en forma fresca como en productos procesados (CLAYUCA, 2003).En contraste, aunque los agricultores africanos producen solamente alrededor de 7 millones de toneladas al año, gran parte de la producción es dedicada al consumo humano. Los rendimientos africanos son absolutamente bajos, aproximadamente un tercio de los rendimientos asiáticos, pero indican el enorme potencial de crecimiento futuro (CLAYUCA, 2003).Según Argenti, 1999 la batata es un cultivo altamente rendidor, con producciones entre 1 O y 50 ton 1 ha y un rendimiento promedio entre 6.2 y 6.8 toneladas, destinadas para consumo humano. De este producto se puede aprovechar la raíz y el follaje. Es altamente digestible, rico en carbohidratos solubles y contiene vitaminas en cantidades suficientes para cubrir parcialmente los requerimientos nutricionales de los cerdos. Se considera uno de los cultivos energéticos más completos.Además, se pueden obtener dos ciclos 1 año, es de fácil propagación y se adapta a diferentes ecosistemas. Posee un contenido de proteína en la raíz de 2,8 a 9%. dependiendo de la variedad y de 17 % en el follaje.El valor energético está entre 3.160 y 3.220 kcalED 1 kg de MS, equivalente a 90 y 96% de lo aportado por la yuca y el sorgo, respectivamente. Un contenido de extracto libre de nitrógeno (ELN) de 88,6%; 3,2% de fibra cruda; 3,5% de ceniza y 0 ,04% de fósforo disponible (ARGENTI y ESPINOZA, 1999). El primer inhibidor de proteínas encontrado en plantas es el inhibidor de tripsina cristalizado de la soya. Otros inhibidores de proteínas que se describen en variedades de plantas. especialmente las gramíneas son las pertenecientes a la familia de las Solanáceas.La función fisiológica exacta de los inhibidores de tripsina en plantas esta aun sin responder, ellos juegan un papel de protección en las plantas contra insectos o patógenos.Las primeras plantas no leguminosas reportadas con contenidos de inhibidores de tripsina fue la batata (SOHONIE Y BHANDARKAR. 1954 citado por: WOOLFE, 1992}.La fu erte inhibición de tripsina como se ha demostrado en proceso Ú1 vitro con inhibidores tripsinicos de batata puede indicare con una interferencia en la digestión de la proteína Ú1 vivo esto teniendo implicaciones en la nutrición humana especialmente en la ingesta de la proteína. Además algunos inhibidores tripsinos pueden generar enteritis necrótica. y reducir la eficiencia alimenticia (WOOLFE, 1992}.La yuca pertenece a la familia Euphorbiaceae constituida por unas 7200 especies que se caracterizan por su notable desarrollo de los vasos laticíferos, compuestos por células secretoras llamadas galactositos.Esto es lo que produce la secreción lechosa lo que caracteriza las plantas de esta familia. Un género muy importante de esta familia esManihot al que pertenece la yuca, y se encuentra distribuido desde el suroeste de los estados unidos hasta Argentina. Naturalmente solo se encuentran especies del genero Manihot en las Américas (Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación-FAO. 2003)Agrega la FAO 2003, que la mayor parte de las raíces cosechadas en el país (más de 2 millones de ton/ año) se destinan a la alimentación humana; sin embargo, su uso en la alimentación animal, como producto fresco en raciones para bovinos y porcinos, ha aumentado moderadamente ( 100 mil ton/ año en la actualidad), esta cifra se incrementará sustancialmente en el futuro cuando se establezcan las nuevas tecnologías de producción y utilización de raíces y el follaje, de procesamiento en poscosecha, y de industrialización de nuevas variedades.La yuca es una especie eficiente en la producción por hectárea de carbohidratos, según reportes suministrados por el Consorcio Latinoamericano y del Caribe de apoyo a la investigación y desarrollo de la yuca-CLAYUCA 1 hectárea de yuca puede producir 25 toneladas de raíces frescas las cuales se pueden convertir (factor de conversión de 2.51) en 9.96 toneladas de raíces secas y aportar 30 millones de calorías de EM, por lo tanto es un alimento energético básico en gran parte de la industria de alimentos balanceados para animales, ya sea en forma de harina o pellets.En el año del 2002 se estimó en 184 millones de toneladas en equivalente de raíces frescas, es decir alrededor de un 2 % más que el nivel récord alcanzado en el 200 l. debido a un aumento de su cultivo en África y en América Latina y el Caribe que ha compensado con creces la contracción registrada en Asia (FAO, 2003).La yuca en Colombia, y en general en América Latina y el Caribe, posee grandes ventajas que pueden ser utilizadas en beneficio de todos los integrantes de la cadena agroalimentaria. Es un cultivo con alto potencial de producción de raíces (25 ton/ha en promedio El almidón de las raíces es el principal alimento animal que ofrece la yuca, normalmente el contenido de materia seca (M.S.) de la raíz esta entre 34 y 38%. y el almidón entre 75 y 80%. De la producción de 25 toneladas se obtiene 9.5 de M.S. de estas son 5 de almidones. Un pequeño porcentaje esta constituido por proteínas (3%) y fibra (4%)Los componentes principales del Extracto No Nitrogenado-ENN de la raíz de yuca son los carbohidratos solubles constitu idos por almidones y azúcares, el almidón constituye el 80% de dicho extracto. El nivel de fibra cruda en la yuca presenta pequeñas variaciones según la variedad de la yuca, edad de la raíz; normalmente su valor no pasa del 1.5% en la raíz fresca y del 4% en harina. Los nutrientes grasos se encuentran en concentraciones mínimas en la raíz de la yuca, constituidos principalmente por galactosil-diglicéridos y ácidos grasos saturados. el Extracto Etéreo-EE es mayor en la corteza que en la pulpa. las xantofilas, clorofilas, resinas entre otros están más concentradas en las hojas (ARAUJO et al, s.f).Por otra parte, la raíz de yuca presenta valores de energía digestible de 3.296 Kcal/kg mientras que las hojas tienen un contenido de Proteína Cruda-PC de 30.15% y una digestibilidad del 58% con un nivel de Fibra Detergente Neutra-FDN de 41.5% (ARAUJO et al, s.f).Las concentraciones de Fósforo son mayores en la raíz y la del Calcio en el follaje. El alto contenido de humedad de las raíces de yuca diluye la energía metabolizable en los productos frescos, no así en los secos, por esta razón en casi todos los animales monogástricos el uso de los productos frescos esta limitado. El contenido de vitaminas y minerales de las raíces es mínimo.Las raíces de la yuca se caracterizan por su bajo contenido de proteína cruda y de aminoácidos; es notable su deficiencia en aminoácidos esenciales como la Metionina, Cistina, Tiiptofano, y en exceso contiene Arginina, Ácido Aspártico, Ácido Glutámico. Aproximadamente el 50% de la proteína cruda de la raíz corresponde a proteína verdadera mientras En trabajos experimentales realizados recientemente a través del proyecto conjunto CLAYUCA-MADR y la Federación Nacional de Avicultores de Colombia-FENAVI se han evaluado dietas para pollos de engorde. Las dietas fueron elaboradas con harina de yuca (raíces y hojas) y soya integral y se compararon con una ración comercial basada en maíz y soya integral. En el caso de las raciones con harina de yuca, se tuvo la oportunidad de comparar el efecto de harina deshidratada al sol con harinas deshidratadas en equipos disponibles comercialmente.Todos los grupos que consumieron harina de yuca (45 y 49%) y soya integral tuvieron un rendimiento en peso y conversión alimenticia igual o superior al grupo testigo de maíz y soya integral, este efecto se observó tanto en iniciación como en finalización. El consumo de alimento no se afectó en los tratamientos con niveles altos de harina de yuca. Los índices de mortalidad en todos los tratamientos no fueron influenciados por el tipo de dieta suministrada. Los grupos con dietas a base de harina de raíces, se caracterizaron por una pobre pigmentación de piel, picos y patas durante todo el tiempo, sin embargo el grupo con harina de raíces complementado con harina de las hojas, mostró una pigmentación igual a la del grupo testigo con maíz amarillo en calificación de 4 y los del grupo de harina sin hojas, no superaron la calificación 2 de la escala, donde (1 es pálido y 5 es más pigmentado) en una escala subjetiva propuestas por los autores (GIL y BUITRAGO, 2002).GARCÍA Y CEDEÑO (1998) compararon la adición de un 15% o 30% de harina de yuca en la dieta de pollos de engorde formulada por aminoácidos dejando la proteína libre los resultados produjeron igual aumento de peso y peso final, pero, con un menor consumo de alimento y por consiguiente una mejor conversión alimenticia y relación de eficiencia en los pollos que consumieron la dieta con el 15% de harina de yuca.VARGAS Y VI LLEGAS ( 2004) evaluaron el suministro de diferentes niveles de 0% a 50% solas o combinadas de Harina e Yuca y 1 o batata en Udietas para pollos de engorde de 1 a 42 días de edad y encontraron que la mejor opción de manejo biológica y económicamente fue la combinación de 12.5% de Harina de yuca y 12.5% de Harina de batata en la dieta en diferentes fases de producción.La parte aérea de la yuca que se considera útil para alimentación animal esta constituida, principalmente, por hojas, pecíolos, tallos secundarios y algunos tallos primarios.También debe tenerse en cuenta que la calidad de la harina esta influenciada por la variedad de la planta. edad, fertilización, medio ambiente y distancias de siembras. Uno de los factores que más influye sobre la calidad y la cantidad de nutrientes del follaje se relaciona con la edad del material al momento del corte. Cuando se realizan cortes desde una edad temprana en cultivos orientados a la producción de follaje. se logra obtener el máximo rendimientos en términos de calidad y cantidad de nutrientes. Las mayores variaciones nutricionales en la harina de follaje, se refieren a la concentración de proteína, fibra y energía metabolizable. Mientras que el nivel de fibra se incrementa con la edad de la planta, las concentraciones de proteína y energía disminuyen.El contenido de proteína puede variar desde el 25%, en cortes de follaje tiemo {2 a 3 meses), h asta valores inferiores a 20%, en follaje con madurez y poca densidad de hojas.Así mismo, las variaciones en fibra pueden flu ctu ar desde 10%, en producto con muchas hojas. hasta más de 20%, en el caso de muestras con mucho tallo. De acuerdo con el contenido de fibra y cenizas, la concentración de energía metabolizable se calcula entre 1.300 y 1.800 kilocalorías por kg. aproximadamente {BUITRAGO et al, 2001).El factor extemo más limitante, se relaciona con la característica de follaje fibroso, que, tal como sucede con otros tipos de follaje, no permite la inclusión de niveles superiores a 6-8% de la dieta final. La concentración alta de fibra y los problemas de palatabilidad de los follajes esta asociados directamente con el bajo nivel que se acepta en dietas para aves, sin embargo estos bajos niveles de inclusión proporcionan, de todas maneras, un aporte importante de proteína y de pigmentos naturales, tanto para pollos como para ponedoras (BUITRAGO et al, 200 1).El trabajo de campo se realizó en la unidad de investigación avícola de la El CIAT, cuenta actualmente con 15 hectáreas de yuca en total, 13 sembradas y 2 en proceso de siembra, y 1.5 hectáreas de batata con 18 clones de las cuales en la actualidad CLA YUCA tiene destinadas a la investigación, parte de este material fue utilizado en esta validación durante el periodo de la practica, las variedades implementadas de Yuca fue la MCol 1505 y de Batata variedad 440045.Para el desarrollo de la practica profesional se tomo como base los datos obtenidos en el trabajo de grado \"Evaluación del uso d e la harina de batata (Ipomoea batatas Larn) y de harina de yuca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) en dietas para pollos de engorde de l a 42 días de edad\", como continuación del empleo de materias primas tropicales en la inclusión de dietas para avesSe realizó un ajuste a las dietas en niveles incrementales de harina de yuca y harina de batata, se fortificó los niveles de aminoácidos en las dietas y se adicionó harina de follaje de yuca.l. Sistemas de alimentación en niveles incrementales 5% , 10% y 15% Harina de Yuca+ Harina de Batata de acuerdo a las fases l-14, 14 a 28 y 28 a 42 días de edad respectivamente.2. Requerimientos nutricionales fortificando en 10% los Aminoácidos (metionina + cistina y lisina) .3. Adición de follaje de yuca como fuente pigmentante para coloración en piel, pico y patas.Comprendió de l a 42 días de edad dividida en tres subfases: l . Cría de l a 14 días de edad.2. Desarrollo o levante de 14 a 28 días de edad.3. Ceba 28 a 42 días de edad.Luego de ser cosechadas la yuca y la batata fueron sometidas a un lavado para extraer tierra adherida a las raíces, si este proceso no se realizaba el producto fmal podría tener un alto contenido de cenizas, reduciendo la calidad, para esto se empleo una lavadora de yuca con tambor rotatorio.Figura 2. Lavadora con tambor rotatorio Para facilitar el secado de las raíces fue necesario exponer al aire una mayor superficie de las mismas, se empleo una picadora de yuca con disco de tipo tailandés.Figura 3. Picadora con disco tailandés Figura 4. Trozos de yucaEl secado de las raíces de yuca y batata permitió eliminar la mayor parte de humedad para obtener un producto que se pudiera almacenar por largos periodos sin que se deteriorara, además de ayudar a disminuir (en el caso de la yuca) factores antinutricionales.Se empleo el sistema d e secado natural (secado en patio en piso de cemento y en bandejas) para el secado de batata.Se esparcieron los trozos de batata en el suelo de cemento formando una capa uniforme; para determinar cual o cuales eran las cantidades adecu adas para secar batata por metro cuadrado se pueden secar bajo las condiciones de CIAT.Se emplearon 6 cu adros de 1 m 2 cada uno y se llenaron con cantidades crecientes de batata 4, 6, 8, 10,12 y 14 Kg.Todas las muestras estuvieron expuestas durante 4 días y en horas de la noche eran cubiertas con un plástico debido a la presencia de lluvias, las muestras fueron volteadas 3 veces 1 día cada 3 horas.Pasado estos cuatro días se determinó que la mejor opción para el secado en piso era la de 1 O kg 1 m2 porque en mayores cantidades las muestras no estaban totalmente secas, y en las cantidades de 4, 6, y 8 Kg las muestras estaban secas pero sé no se aprovechaba el espacio.Otro de los métodos de secado fue en bandejas cada una de 1.20 x 2.40 m en cada bandeja se distribuyeron 16, 18, 20 y 22 Kg del material fresco.Estas muestras también estuvieron expuestas durante 4 días y en horas de la noche fueron cubiertas con un plástico debido a la presencia de lluvias, con una frecuencia de volteo de 3 veces 1 día cada 3 horas.Luego de hacer este muestreo se determinó que la cantidad de 20 Kg por bandeja era la que mejor aprovecha las corrientes de aire y los rayos del sol para su secado, ya que al comprimir las cantidades de 22 Kg las muestras presentaban un poco de humedad y las de 18 Kg tenían una apariencia bastante deshidratada.Figura 5. Secado en Piso de cemento Figura 6 . Secado en BandejasLos trozos secos de yuca, batata, maíz y torta de soya fueron molidos en un molino de martillo con unan criba con orificio de ~ pulgada para facilitar su mezcla en las dietas a utilizar. Para la elaboración de las dietas como primer paso se procedió a seleccionar y pesar en una balanza electrónica cada una de las materias primas a utilizar; iniciando con los macro elementos (maíz, torta de soya, soya integral extruida, harina de yuca, harina de batata, harina de follaje de yuca), seguido por los micro elementos o premezcla (fosfato bicálcico, carbonato de calcio, sal común, metionina sintética al ggo;o, arena cernida) y por último el aceite de palma.Figura 21. Balanza electrónica Luego de ser pesadas cada una de las materia primas se adicionaban en una mezcladora tipo horizontal con capacidad de 500 kg la soya integral extruida como primer ingrediente para disminuir la polvosidad de la harina de yuca, harina de batata y harina de follaje de yuca, luego la torta de soya y por último el maíz esta mezcla se dejaba rotar durante 10 minutos, pasado este tiempo se le adicionaba la premezcla (fosfato bicálcico, carbonato de calcio, sal común, premezcla, metionina) que 5 minutos antes se había elaborado en una mezcladora tipo horizontal con capacidad de 25 kg y se dejaba mezclar durante 5 minutos; luego se le adicionaba la arena durante 5 minutos más y por último se le adicionaba el aceite de palma y la mezcla se dejaba 10 minutos y pasado este tiempo se empacaba en bolsas de polipropileno de 40 o SO Kg. Se utilizaron 800 pollos de un día de nacidos machos y hembras de la línea Cobb, los cuales fueron distribuidos por sexos en cubículos de 40 animales para cada dieta, para un total de 160 animales por tratamiento.Figura 25. Pollos en la prueba de validaciónLa presentación del alimento fue en forma de harina.El suministro de alimento y el agua se hizo a voluntad para todos los tratamientos.Figura 26. Alimento en forma de harina Se suministró agua fresca proveniente del acueducto de Palmira almacenada en tanques con capacidad de 250 litros.Figura 27. Tanque almacenamiento de agua 250 litrosPara la desinfección del galpón y equipos, se empleo un producto con base en hipoclorito de sodio, detergente y agua. Con esta mezcla se lavaron los equipos (comederos, bebederos, redondeles, tanque de almacenamiento de agua y lámparas de calefacción), cortinas y el piso del galpón. Adicionalmente las instalaciones fueron flameadas.A la entrada del galpón se colocó cal en una poceta para desinfección de botas y jo calzado de visitantes a la unidad.Veterinario, siguiendo los parámetros empleados por el Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario-leA.Se empleó la vacuna contra New Castle (cepa 81) a los 14 días de edad de los animales; su aplicación se hizo de forma ocular.Figura 28. Vacunación contra New Castle en forma ocularLos animales fueron alojados en galpones de ladrillo con cortinas laterales para el manejo de la ventilación y evitar las corrientes directas del aire distribuidos en 20 cubículos de 3.66 m 2 (3.03m de largo x 1.21m de ancho) en piso de cemento y a una densidad de 10 pollos por metro cuadrado, cada cubículo estaba dotado con cama de viruta, lámpara de calefacción con bombillos de 100 voltios, comedero de tolva y bebedero de galón en la fase de cría y bebederos automáticos en la fase de engorde.Figura 29. Distribución de los anima]es en cubículos de 3 .66 m2Se realizaron con troles de peso y alimento cada dos semanas ( 1 día, 14 días, 28 días y 42 días de edad) para obtener datos de incremento de peso y consumo de alimento, los pesajes correspondientes se realizaron el mismo día a todo el lote completo.Figura 30. Pesaje a los 14 días Figura 31. Pesaje a los 42 díasLos animales fueron tratados con un antibiótico (Enrofloxacina al 10°/o) con previo diagnostico del Medico Veterinario a la cuarta semana de la validación durante tres días seguidos debido a una infección respiratoria.En forma preventiva se suministró un antiestresante cada vez que se realizaban pesajes para disminuir la incidencia de estrés.f,?C20~7 Composición y análisis calculado de las dietas de validación con harina de batata y harina de yuca (raíces y follaje) en niveles incrementales para pollos de engorde en fase de cría (1-14 días de edad). Se utilizó el análisis de presupuestos parciales, análisis de dominancia y tasa retomo marginal, según la metodología del CIMMYT. México ( 1988). 4 .2 .12 .1 Análisis de presupuesto parcial: Esta técnica permite organizar los datos del experimento y ayuda a tomar una decisión sobre el tratarrúento más conveniente, destacando las alternativas que tienen más posibilidad d e ser adoptados por los avicultores y resaltando aquellas cuya utilización resultaría antieconómico; estos se denominan presupuestos parciales porque no se incluyen todos los costos y retribuciones de la producción, sino aqu ellos cuyos valores varían en las diferentes alternativas consideradas (CIMMYT, 1988). En este análisis, para cada tratamiento se considera, en la fase de cria, ceba y total, los siguientes rubros: 4 .2.12.2 Aumento de peso (g) : Se refiere a la diferencia entre el peso inicial y final promedio del ave, para cada una de las fases analizadas y para la fase consolidada. 4 .2.12.3 Beneficio bruto de campo ($/ave): Equivale al peso promedio ganado para el periodo analizado (bien sea por fase o fase consolidada), multiplicado por el precio promedio del Kg de pollo en pie al momento del mercado.Se estima considerando el consumo promedio por pollo en la respectiva fase por el costo del kilo de alimento.4 .2.12.5 Beneficio neto ($/ave) : Equivale a la diferen cia entre el valor del beneficio bruto de campo y el valor de los costos variables y se hace un orden de priorización de mayor a menor beneficio neto entre tratamientos (CIMMIT, 1988). 4 .2.12.6 Análisis marginal: Se realizará para establecer la forma en que los b eneficios n etos cambian conforme cambian los costos variables. Se realizará m ediante el análisis d e dominancia de las alternativas y la estimación del retomo marginal. 4.2. 12. 7 Análisis de dominancia de las alternativas: Permite efectuar el análisis marginal de los datos, para h acerlo se listan todas las alternativas en orden de mayor a menor beneficio neto colocando otra columna con los costos variables correspondientes, después se revisa de arriba h acia abajo la columna de costos para identificar y eliminar las alternativas domin adas, o sea, los tratamientos con los costos variables iguales o s u periores al del anterior no dominado. 4 .2 . 12.8 Tasa de retomo marginal: Es el criterio de selección del tratamiento a recomendar entre los tratamientos no dominados. Se estima mediante los valores de beneficio neto marginal y el costo variable marginal. El costo y beneficio neto marginal es el incremento correspondiente al pasar de un tratamiento no dominado a otro del menor al mayor beneficio neto y costo marginal. Para calcular la tasa retomo marginal se divide el valor del beneficio neto marginal entre los costos variables marginales correspondientes, para expresarla en forma porcentual se multiplica por cien (CIMM1Y, 1988).Para el periodo analizado Cría ( l -14 días de edad) no se encontraron diferencias apreciables en el rendimiento productivo debido a l empleo de diferentes niveles y sistemas de suministro de harina de yuca y harina de batata en dietas para pollos de engorde de l a 14 días de ed a d.No obstante, la dieta de validación con el mejor rendimiento productivo para esta fase fue la dieta 3 (Incremental 5% de Harina d e Yuca y 5% Harina de Batata), seguido por la dietas 1 (Control Convencional) y 5 (Increm ental+ 5% Follaje de yuca) .Tabla 5. Para m edir el grado de pigmentación de piel. pico y p atas como referen cia se tomó el abanico de Roch e el cual es el m ás u sado para medir la pigmentación en la yema huevo, este abanico cu enta con una escala de 1 a 14 donde l es la coloración más pálida y 14 la más intensa.El grupo de animales alimentados con las dietas a b ase de harina de follaj e de yuca, se caracterizó por su pigmentación más marcada en la piel (5) mientras que los demás grupos control convencional y demás con Harina de yuca y Harina de ba tata sin follaje no superaron la calificación de 3.En cuanto a la pigmentación d e pico y patas no se encontraron diferen cias a preciables entre las dietas implem entadas en esta validación como se muestra en la ta bla 10.Tabla 10. Efecto de la Harina de Yuca (raíces y follaje) y Harina de Batata y Harina de follaje de yuca en la pigmentación de piel, pico y patas en pollos de engorde a los 42 días de edad. Al realizar el anális is de retom o m arginal para comprobar la consisten cia de la recomendación antertor se observa que la dieta m ás ren table fue el 1 con u na tasa de retomo m arginal mayor , esto s ignifica que por cada $100 que se invierte se obtiene u na ganancia extr a d e$ 62.6 . Para la fase d e cría ( 1-14 días de edad) y la fase de desarrollo ( 14-28 días de edad) la dieta con mejor rendimiento productivo fue la 3 (5% harina de yuca + 5% harina de batata y l 0% harina de yuca + l 0% harina de b atata respectivamente) .Para la fase d e engorde (28-42 días de edad) la dieta con mejor comportamiento productivo fue la 2 ( 10% harina de yuca + 10% harina de batata}, es decir que al implementar dietas a base yuca y batata no se deb e exceder más del 10% siempre y cuando la presentación de la dieta sea en forma de harina, para obtener rendimientos productivos similares a los de un concentrado convencional disminuyendo así los costos de producción, brindando una buena opción para los pequeños y medianos productores avícolas. Se elaboró un plegable informativo sobre el procesamiento y empleo de yuca y batata en la alimentación de pollos de engorde a grupos relevantes de productores avícolas interesados en implementar el uso de estas materias primas en alimentación animal.","tokenCount":"4857"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dba58acc0c972e92cc8a89805878f6f3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3a8aaeaf-4964-4447-91e0-5c933e96e056/content","id":"460034401"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"18b9379d-0511-4548-9d4d-e70d3f127aac","pagecount":"3","content":"If 1% of the milk produced is procured by the processors at a 5% higher price due to rainfall disruption (over price paid by aggregators to farmers) , increase in cost of procurement is estimated to be worth BDT 350 miliion 4 .If 1% of the milk produced in the country is procured at approximately 20% higher prices, due to heavy rainfall or high temperature related yield decline, it results in an addtional procurement cost estimated at BDT 1.38 billion3.An app or IVR system offering location-specific forecast-based warnings for heavy rainfall, high temperature and cold wave events to assist dairy farmers.Any intervention that can offset 10% of the additional procurement cost by reducing the weather induced milk yield decline, is valued at BDT 138 million³ (in case of 1%supply of milk is being affected by weather stress).any intervention can offset 10%of production decline due to weather impact on dairy cattle producing 1%of milk supply, the service can be valued at an estimated BDT 132 million to BDT 198 million¹.If dairy cattle producing 1% of the milk supply are impacted by heavy rainfall, high temperature, and cold wave events, causing approximately a 20%-30%decline in milk production, the revenue loss for farmers is estimated to be BDT 1.32 billion to BDT 1.98 billion 1 .Mobile app with forecasted temperature, rainfall and temperature-humidity Index (THI) information at short and seasonal scale for taking management measures to enhance milk production.If approximately 1 million (Out of the estimated 12 million) dairy farmers avail agricultural loans, the total outstanding loan value is estimated to be BDT 40 billion².If approximately 100,000 of the cattle loanees are protected from weather stress, the portfolio of loans guarded from default or delay in repayment will be estimated at BDT 4 billion.Interventions that can offset potential milk yield decline due to heavy rainfall, high temperature, and cold waves related stress in dairy cattle, producing of 1% milk supply, they can offset addtional procurement cost for processing sector estimated at BDT 1.73 billion³.Digital display devices for weather information at milk processing locations. Digital interventions for reducing weather related milk yield decline for farmers\"The anticipated climate service value estimations are prepared using available data and reasonable assumptions.The study has omitted some of the value chain actors and potential climate services due to unavailability of data or information on potential weather related damages or limited value porposition of creating the service. All images remain the sole property of their source and may not be used for any purpose without written permission of the source.The Initiative on Asian Mega-Deltas (AMD) aims to create resilient, inclusive and productive deltas, which maintain socio-ecological integrity, adapt to climatic and other stressors, and support human prosperity and wellbeing, by removing systemic barriers to the scaling of transformative technologies and practices at community, national and regional levels.The Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) is a One CGIAR regional integrated initiative to support actions that improve equitable access to sustainable healthy diets, improve farmers' livelihoods and resilience, and conserve land, air, and water resources in South Asia.","tokenCount":"507"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cc36c9e7d0b850dd209ccaa8e61b77c3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Brief/8880-SWB-Brief-9.pdf","id":"1087185900"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4dc74c8a-bee8-4286-8d97-94f87aed5ac6","pagecount":"17","content":"Cette publication fait partie d'une série de dossiers décrivant les résultats du projet financé par l'Union européenne, intitulé « Gouvernance des paysages multifonctionnels : le bois-énergie durable » (Governing Multifunctional Landscapes: Sustainable Woodfuel), qui vise à susciter une mobilisation en faveur de la pérennité des chaînes de valeur du bois-énergie à travers l'Afrique subsaharienne, à contribuer aux connaissances et à trouver des solutions alternatives. cifor.org/gml/sustainable-woodfuelLes forêts de mangroves, aussi appelées marais à mangroves, sont des écosystèmes forestiers spécifiques des bords de mer. Leur importance pour les communautés côtières est capitale car elles offrent à la fois des produits forestiers, une ressource halieutique, du bois-énergie et des services écosystémiques. À l'échelle mondiale, un grand nombre d'activités menace les mangroves, parmi lesquelles la récolte de bois et l'élévation du niveau de la mer (UNEP 2014). En Afrique subsaharienne, le ramassage du bois de feu et la production de charbon de bois constituent des dangers grandissants pour les écosystèmes de mangroves (Feka 2015). Le Cameroun abrite environ 200 000 hectares de mangroves. Considérées comme les plus étendues d'Afrique et les plus productives du golfe de Guinée (FAO 2007), ces mangroves couvrent trois grandes zones du littoral camerounais : Rio Del Rey, Rio Ntem et l'estuaire du Wouri, dans lequel se trouve l'île de Manoka, proche de la ville de Douala. Les mangroves du Cameroun contribuent aux moyens de subsistance des populations locales, des commerçants de Douala et d'autres pays (Nigéria et Ghana). L'île de Manoka, unique zone de mangroves au Cameroun comprenant une forêt communautaire (FC), constitue le site idéal pour le projet Gouvernance des paysages multifonctionnels en Afrique subsaharienne (GML), dont l'objectif est de trouver des solutions contre la surexploitation du bois de mangrove pour le fumage du poisson, entre autres utilisations.Le présent dossier décrit les écosystèmes de l'île de Manoka et les défis qui s'y posent, la démarche utilisée pour inciter les communautés locales et les autres parties prenantes à prendre part au développement et à la mise en oeuvre des solutions pour une chaîne de valeur du bois-énergie plus durable, ainsi que les résultats obtenus à ce jour sur la réduction des pressions menaçant l'écosystème des mangroves et l'amélioration les moyens de subsistance locaux.• Les forêts de mangroves, véritables niches pour les alevins et les crustacés, contribuent aux moyens de subsistance des communautés vivant sur l'île de Manoka, au Cameroun. La surexploitation du bois utilisé pour le fumage des poissons et l'absence de mécanismes de gestion durable font peser de fortes pressions sur ces mêmes mangroves et moyens de subsistance.•   ","tokenCount":"420"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5fe70167178f08221167afcfdf3db052","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d2f813b0-103f-499d-864a-df73de81e61a/retrieve","id":"-583180317"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cdbbdbb2-1404-45af-9bf4-15d8bcea6729","pagecount":"10","content":"More than 5.4 million people in Kenya were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity between March and June 2023. The situation is worse in arid and semi-arid areas where 27% are facing very high levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition. Recent COVID-19 lockdowns and economic downturns, locust invasion, and poor rainfall have impacted household income and overall crop and livestock productivity.The Russia-Ukraine war has further exacerbated Kenya' s challenges in food security, health, and poverty alleviation since it is heavily dependent on importing wheat, edible oils, and fuels.Necessary short-term recommendations that can increase resilience to food systems in Kenya include protecting vulnerable groups, ending universal food subsidy approaches, and removing import tariffs on maize if early warning predictions indicate the need for maize imports.The Russia-Ukraine war resulted in high fuel and fertilizer prices in Kenya, and this has negatively impacted overall crop productivity, agricultural sector employment and, by extension, the entire economy.These impacts have caused severe destabilization of food systems, necessitating actionable policy responses that focus on building resilient food systems in cities and rural areas.The Kenyan government adopted some measures, such as an emergency fertilizer subsidy, the suspension of taxes on maize importation, 'Unga,' and fuel subsidies, as a response to the increasing cost of living as a result of the Russian-Ukraine War.Kenya is East Africa's economic powerhouse with a population of more than 55 million, a robust financial sector, and a fairly mature logistics network, making it a hub in the region (Snyder & Kamau, 2023). The agricultural sector plays an important role in the country's economy as it contributes 22% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employs over 40% of the total population and over 70% of the rural population (CBK, 2022). Kenya generates most of its revenue through exports of various agricultural products such as coffee, tea, cut flowers, and vegetables (Kiptoo, 2022). In 2021, Kenya's agricultural exports were valued at USD 3.26 billion compared to imports of consumer-oriented products at USD 484 million (Snyder & Kamau, 2023). However, despite Kenya's economic and agriculture sector progress, recent March to June 2023 estimates show that over 5.4 million Kenyans are facing acute food insecurity (FEWS NET, 2022). This situation is projected to worsen in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) counties where about 4.4 million (27% of the ASAL population) are facing very high levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition. Kenya's food insecurity status is attributed to the minimal rainfall recorded between March and May, which has caused a decrease in livestock productivity and crop production (FEWS NET, 2022).The onset of the Russia-Ukraine war on 24 February 2022 and the subsequent sanctions imposed on Russia directly impacted Kenya's economy and food security and disrupted the export and import of commodities such as flowers, wheat, maize, fuel, and edible oils (Kiptoo, 2022;UNDP, 2022). The war also exacerbated significant increases in international food, fertilizer, and fuel prices, which had been on the rise since late 2020 due to supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 (Hatab, 2022;Mather et al., 2022). The high fuel and fertilizer prices negatively impacted the overall crop productivity and agricultural sector employment and, by extension, the entire Kenyan economy (UNDP, 2022). This policy brief aims to examine the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war on the prices of fertilizers and food products in Kenya and the policy measures put in place in response to counter the effects of the war. This policy brief analyzed data from official institutions on food, fertilizer, fuel prices, inflation, and other key indicators. This analysis was based on the literature review of published articles, official institution reports, and selected online newspaper articles. The date range of January 2019 to February 2023 was chosen to understand the context before and during the war.Considering that Russia is the world's largest exporter of fertilizer and supplies a significant amount of fertilizer to East African countries, the disruption in fertilizer production and exports due to the war caused a spike in fertilizer prices in Kenya (Kiptoo, 2022;UNDP, 2022). In terms of quantities, Russia was the sixth largest international fertilizer supplier for Kenya in 2021, accounting for 3.1% of Kenya's fertilizer imports (WITS, 2022). Figure 1 shows the prices of most fertilizers used in Kenya's agricultural sector, namely urea, DAP, and MOP. Fertilizer prices were relatively stable between January 2019 and April 2021, with urea selling between 20-30 USD/50 kg. The onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022 further exacerbated fertilizer prices, causing urea and DAP prices to increase by 11.3% and 10%, respectively, just four months later, while MOP prices did not have significant variations. This increase in fertilizer prices led small-holder farmers to reduce fertilizer use in maize and other food crops. In March 2022, the average fertilizer application rate decreased by 20% compared to October 2021, representing a decline from 41 kg/ha to 33 kg/ha (Mather et al., 2022).Regarding fertilizer availability, by April 2022, Kenya's fertilizer reserves were estimated to be severely depleted due to a decline of 71% in the country's fertilizer imports in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021 (IFDC, 2022). This caused prices to rise leading to the abandonment of phosphate and potash fertilizers in favor of nitrogen fertilizers, also resulting in only cash crops, such as tea and coffee, being eligible for the usual fertilizer subsidies (Watson, 2022). The increase in fertilizer, fuel, and domestic food prices as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine was significant in Kenya since all its fuel, half of its edible oil, fertilizer, and a large amount of maize and wheat are imported from Russia, Ukraine, and other countries (Mather et al., 2022).Given that international oil prices recorded a drop of 13% in early 2020 before increasing by 57% from January 2022 just before the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the war further exacerbated the prices by an additional 39% between February 2022 and June 2022. Despite this, the value of edible oil imports in Kenya recorded minimal fluctuations. However, the months of May and August 2022 each recorded a monthly increase of 90% in the value of edible oil imports. Similarly, the month of November recorded a growth rate of 109% in terms of edible oil imports compared to October of the same year (CBK, 2023). On the other hand, the fuel prices (petrol, diesel, and kerosene) in Kenya increased from November 2020 and were further accelerated in March 2022 after the start of the war, with an average monthly increase of 7.6% (EPRA, 2O23).Fuel and oil prices influence the cost of production because they are used in making fertilizers, operating agricultural machinery, transportation and marketing of food products. Therefore, an increase in the price of oil would lead to an increase in all costs associated with the production, processing, and transportation of food products (Mather et al., 2022;Ngare, 2021). Consequently, the high cost of fuels and edible oil products has impactedSource: Own elaboration based on AfricaFertilizer (2023a).the overall cost of living in Kenya (UNDP, 2022). This can be evidenced by the evolution of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) between 2019 and 2022 (Figure 2). Although the CPI had been on an upward trend, indicating a general increase in the prices of goods and services, after the outbreak of the war, there was a notable acceleration in the CPI. Specifically, while the CPI had been growing by an average of 0.5% per month in the first quarter of 2022, this rate more than doubled to an average of 1.1% per month in the third quarter of the same year (KNBS, 2023). price inflation in Kenya in the past three years (Figure 3). Food inflation by 7% from May 2020 to January 2021. However, since the Russia-Ukraine war, this inflation rate doubled (14%) between March 2022 and September 2022. The rising food prices contribute to food insecurity by making essential food commodities unaffordable for households, especially the poor households that are more vulnerable to price increases (Mather et al., 2022).Kenya imports approximately 67%, 22%, and 11% of wheat from Russia, Ukraine, and the rest of the world, respectively (Kiptoo, 2022, UNDP, 2022). Other commodities imported by Kenya from Russia and Ukraine are cereals, edible vegetables, certain roots and tubers, animal or vegetable fats and oils (Trade Map, 2023). Food commodity prices mostly affected by the Russia-Ukraine war were maize flour, wheat flour, and rice (UNDP, 2022). These products are the three most important cereals in Kenya, making them a priority for Kenya's food security. Maize is a fundamental food crop and a primary source of carbohydrates for nearly 96% of the Kenyan population (Njagi et al., 2017). On the other hand, wheat is the second most important cereal in the country with an average consumption of 39.3 kg per person per year in 2020 (FAOSTAT, 2023). Rice is also key to the food security of the poorest populations (Ouma, 2014).It is also in high demand, with an average consumption of 21.6kg per person per year in 2020 (FAOSTAT, 2023).Figure 4 illustrates the monthly change in the prices of rice, wheat flour, and maize flour, between August 2020 and February 2023. The price of rice increased by 22% from January 2022 to May 2022 but then stabilized in April 2022 before slightly decreasing. Similarly, wheat flour prices increased by 9.1% from February 2022 to May 2022 before stabilizing at high prices of more than USD 0.8/kg after June (Krishnaswamy et al., 2022). Maize flour recorded a 54% price increase from January to May 2022. These high prices were partly caused by high demand created by the short supply of local maize since in anticipation of better prices, most farmers stocked 8.5 million bags of maize (each). This left local millers with a shortage of grain, thereby increasing the price of maize flour (Nhemachena et al., 2022). The rising prices of maize and wheat further contributed to food inflation, household poverty, and dietary inequalities in the country (Breisinger et al., 2022a).  Price of wheat flourSource: Own elaboration based on World Food Programme-WFP (2023).Faced with the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war on agriculture and food security, the government of Kenya took several policy responses, which are summarized in Figure 5. Prior to the outbreak of the war, the Kenyan government had enacted fertilizer subsidies through an E-voucher program in which registered farmers could purchase fertilizers, lime, agrochemicals, insurance, and seeds. Farmers were responsible for paying 60% and the government 40%.Although this program continued in 2022, the government had a need to intervene in the face of war-related price shocks. In April 2022, the government implemented an emergency subsidy in which the government expected to purchase 114,000 tonnes of different fertilizers fromlocal importers (AfricaFertilizer, 2023b). The government allocated USD 29.58 million to subsidize 1.42 million 50-kg bags of fertilizer for food crops during the short rainy season of 2022 (Nhlengethwa et al., 2023). In this case, each producer could access a maximum of 100 50kg bags of fertilizer at a maximum subsidized price of USD 29 per bag, which reduced costs to the producer by 46% per bag (Nhlengethwa et al., 2023).Maize prices were also strongly affected by the Russian-Ukrainian war. This cereal is essential in agriculture considering that 57% of small farmers are net maize buyers. Therefore, elevated maize prices adversely affect the well-being and food security of most small-scale farmers as well as a significant portion of urban households (Mather et al., 2022). For this reason, in March 2022, the government of Kenya lowered the yellow corn purity requirement for imports from 100% to 99.1%, meaning that it will allow imports to have traces of genetically modified organisms (AGRA, 2022). This measure was implemented to help lower yellow maize prices, which were expected to increase every week due to shortages and white maize prices on the market. Subsequently, in April 2022, the government through the Kenya National Grain and Commodities Board put 200,000 bags of maize on sale to millers in an effort to reduce maize flour prices, which reached record levels (AGRA, 2022). After this measure, efforts continued to counter escalating maize flour prices and guarantee the country's maize supply.On 1 July 2022, the government suspended taxes on imported maize (KNA, 2022). In the same month, the 'Unga' government introduced the maize subsidy, which aimed at reducing the price of 2 kg of maize flour to USD 0.84/kg while the excess production costs by the millers paid by the government at USD 68 million (Andae, 2023). However, this 'Unga' subsidy was suspended by the new government when the new government ascended to power in September 2022 -a move that has left the prices of maize flour barely unaffordable by vulnerable citizens (USD 1.76/kg in February 2023). The government lowered the purity requirement for yellow maize. The African Union Commission views the Russia-Ukraine war as an opportunity for African countries to produce more food domestically and reduce their dependence on imports (Sacko & Mayaki, 2022). Kenya should prioritize short-and long-term solutions to respond to the impacts of war and build robust and resilient food systems.Researchers suggest short-term recommendations, such as protecting vulnerable groups, removing universal food subsidy approaches, and waiving import tariffs on maize if early warning predictions suggest the need for importation (Mather et al.,2022). These interventions can contribute to Kenya's food security and resilience by reducing food, fertilizer, and fuel prices. Similarly, Kenya has the opportunity to reduce its dependence on imported fertilizers and create social safety nets for vulnerable populations. These strategies include expanding domestic fertilizer production, allowing private sector partners to import and blend fertilizers in the country, encouraging private sector investments in fertilizer production, and expanding social safety net programs for the poor.The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war continues to pose a significant threat to food security, health, and poverty reduction in Kenya, since the country is highly dependent on imports of wheat, edible oils, and fuels (Braimoh, 2020;Breisinger et al., 2022b;Omega et al., 2021, UNDP, 2022). This crisis has led to severe destabilization of food systems, which requires actionable policy responses focused on building resilient food systems in the everyday business environment in both cities and rural areas. The Kenyan government took several measures to counter these effects, including the implementation of emergency fertilizer subsidies and maize sales, the suspension of taxes on imported maize, and the introduction of the maize 'Unga' subsidy. However, these measures were not always effective, and the new government's decision to suspend the 'Unga' subsidy and remove fuel subsidies has left vulnerable citizens struggling to afford basic necessities.Despite the challenges, it is crucial that the government continues to prioritize the development of resilient food systems and agricultural policies to ensure long-term food security and reduce poverty in the country.","tokenCount":"2443"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"78089188f16122a3d4eabdba6a6cdc3b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9518cf92-e087-4865-89f1-d9206b9bb3e0/retrieve","id":"-117304817"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6b987805-9464-4f8d-8a3b-aada72cd945d","pagecount":"25","content":"The CGIAR Financial Report consolidates information from the independently audited Financial Statements of the Center within the Integrated Partnership and CGIAR System Organization. Here are some administrative technical notes:• All figures are in US Dollars.• ICRISAT data will be included in future reports after joining the Integrated Framework Agreement in October 2023.• Inter-Center revenue and expense transactions are eliminated to avoid duplication.• This report is a supplement to, not a replacement for the audited financial statements of individual legal entities. For detailed disclosures, refer to those statements.• Net results are presented before Other Comprehensive Income e.g. unrealized gain (loss) in investment on post-retirement related changes.• Funding represents recognized revenue, not cash inflows for the year.• Visit the One CGIAR Dashboards for infographics, historical analysis, and more detailed information.Towards a world free of poverty, hunger and environmental degradation, CGIAR is the world's largest global agricultural innovation network.This report focuses on the financial aspects of our activities in the past year.Our mission is to deliver science and innovation that advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.In 2023, CGIAR solidified its role as the world's leading research partnership for a food-secure future, marked by significant financial growth and impactful research outcomes. This report focuses on our significant progress toward realizing our mission and achieving long-term sustainability.CGIAR's aggregated revenue in 2023 reached $870 million, a 13% increase from 2022. This growth reflects the confidence and trust placed in us by our diverse funder base. Expenditures grew to $859 million, aligning with our strategic investments in high-impact research areas. CGIAR Centers and the System Organization achieved an aggregated net surplus of $10.5 million, up from $2.5 million in the year prior, underscoring our commitment to financial efficiency and sustainable growth.The CGIAR Trust Fund, contributing $510 million, remains our largest funding source. This multi-donor mechanism supports system-wide investments, allowing us to efficiently address critical challenges in agriculture and natural resources. Window 1 funding, supporting broad initiatives and platforms, significantly increased, reflecting our funders' increasing dedication to our mission. Window 3 allows for direct funding of projects at the donor's discretion aligned with CGIAR priorities.Towards a world free of poverty, hunger and environmental degradation, CGIAR is the world's largest global agricultural innovation network.Our worldwide workforce expanded by 6%, totalling 8,414 dedicated staff members. This growth expands our capacity to deliver innovative research solutions globally. Collaboration remains at the heart of our success, with hundreds of partners encompassing national and regional research institutes, civil society groups, academia, development organizations, and the private sector.The outlook for 2024 is promising, with funders pledging an additional $890 million at COP28. Our ambitious $4 billion Investment Case sets the stage for continued stability and moderate growth. However, we remain vigilant of risks, such as global fiscal constraints and political changes.2023 was a landmark year for CGIAR, characterized by financial resilience, impactful research, and strategic growth. As we move forward, our commitment to a food-secure future remains unwavering. Together with our partners and supporters, we will continue to drive innovations that transform agriculture and improve lives worldwide.Investments in CGIAR are contributed through the multi-funder CGIAR Trust Fund or directly to specific projects at CGIAR Research Centers, referred to as Bilateral Funding. The CGIAR Trust Fund channels funding through two windows (Window 1 and Window 3) with varying levels of funder support.Window 1 funding comprises unrestricted contributions from various funders. The System Council is responsible for setting priorities and determining the allocation of these funds to CGIAR Centers, Initiatives, and Platforms, ensuring efficient cash flow across the system. Currently, within Window 1, funders have the following options:a) System-wide Investments:Funders can contribute to supporting the entire CGIAR portfolio of approved system-wide investments. These investments are prioritized and allocated collectively by the System Council.Funders may allocate some of their Window 1 funding towards specific CGIAR Initiatives or Impact Area Platforms that align with their interests.As part of the One CGIAR reforms, the Trust Fund's Window 2 funding has been discontinued. Funding previously allocated to specific programs through Window 2 is now directed to Window 1. From 2025, Window 2 will be reinstated in the 2025-2030 new CGIAR Portfolio .Project Investments leverage Window 3 funding, where funders directly contribute to projects they define (in collaboration with partners). These projects must demonstrably align with the broader systemwide investments prioritized by CGIAR. The CGIAR financial results include the revenue and expenditures of both the Centers and the CGIAR System Organization. The CGIAR System Organization, which consists of three key pillars that support institutional effectiveness and provide overarching governance and independent functions, encompasses the activities of 'System Entities.'In Independent assessment of the financial statements.All Centers received clean audit opinions and were found to have made progress in addressing prior year audit observations.Overall, CGIAR's Financial Indicators demonstrate consistency with prior years, performing above target ranges. We will strive to ensure that target ranges are maintained or improved for cash flow, liquidity, current ratio, and operating reserves.Centers' Financial KPIs Window 1 (also referred to as Portfolio and Designated contributions amounted to $323 million, a 10-year record high, marking a growth of 15% in pooled funds raised over 2022 and a 71% increase compared to the 2020 CRP baseline.This exceptional performance underscores our Funders' continued trust in our institution and commitment to the science and innovation we deliver. It also reflects the fruits of our ongoing campaign and pledging model we initiated in 2021 and various successful Funder engagement strategies, such as:• The Netherlands significantly increased its contributions, becoming one of 2023's top pooled funders.• The United Kingdom reaffirmed its commitment to CGIAR, reverting to its past funding levels, and initiating a UK-CGIAR science hub.• Germany's first-time sizeable contribution through W1 Portfolio contribution.• The EC materialized its 2021 pledge with a Pooled contribution. This represented an institutional innovation for the EC, which previously could not work with Trust Funds managed by the World Bank.• New Zealand designated climate funds to CGIAR Initiatives.• Denmark returned as a CGIAR Pooled funding donor. This section reflects the aggregated revenue and expenditure of the 12 Centers participating in the CGIAR Integration Framework Agreement (IFA). The report excludes inter-center activities, as explained below.For the year ended 31 December 2023, Centers reported a net surplus of $10.4 1 million compared to an original budget deficit of $0.7 million and a net surplus of $2.5 million in 2022. Revenue from Centers, net of inter-center related activities, amounted to $830.5 million (up from $742.3 million in 2022), and total expenditures were $820.1 million (up from $739.9 million in 2022).6 CENTERS' FINANCIAL SUMMARY  • Bilateral Grants: For bilateral grants, which are agreements directly between individual funders and CGIAR Centers, the Centers are responsible for collecting the CSP from the funder. The Centers may also choose to self-fund CSP for these grants and then remit the relevant amount to the System Organization.The CGIAR System incurs costs associated with overall management, coordination, and support activities that benefit all research programs. The Cost-Sharing Percentage (CSP) is a mechanism to recover a portion of these system-level costs from CGIAR programs and projects.The CSP is applied to all Funder contributions aligned with CGIAR's Strategic Results Framework (SRF). The CSP does not apply to infrastructure grants, legacy grants, or grants financing research activities outside CGIAR.The current CSP rate is set at 2%, subject to applicable terms and conditions. The External Auditors, while conducting the Center level Statutory audit, undertake the following • Verification of Financial Statements: External auditors provide an unbiased and expert assessment of the Centers financial statements. They verify the accuracy and completeness of the financial information presented, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.• Detection of Errors and Fraud: External auditors detect errors, irregularities, and potential instances of fraud within financial records. They uncover discrepancies or inconsistencies that may have gone unnoticed by internal personnel. The external auditor's fraud reports may identify individual frauds and fraud committed at the Center level, both intentionally or lack of information.• Compliance with Regulatory Standards: As Centers with specific legal entities, we are subject to specific regulatory requirements regarding financial reporting. External audits ensure we comply with standards and regulations, such as the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) globally. Compliance with these standards fosters transparency and enhances the organization's credibility.• Board and Management Oversight: External audits provide an independent evaluation of an organization's financial management practices and internal controls, in this case, to each Center. The audit process includes assessing the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting, identifying weaknesses or deficiencies, and making recommendations for improvement. This feedback is valuable for the board of directors and management in fulfilling their oversight responsibilities and strengthening the organization's governance framework. Annex 1 -One CGIAR DashboardsPlease visit the One CGIAR Dashboards to view info graphics and more detailed information.","tokenCount":"1466"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4a6d47eb2ab1148f65c6e57f01f121ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7a7837fc-7562-43aa-973e-89971c4eae24/retrieve","id":"1454402390"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5e1bbf65-3362-4385-9c83-0f2432c88eca","pagecount":"13","content":"determine if a person or animal is suffering from the disease trypanosomiasis, and if so, precisely what species or strain of parasite is causing the disease. With this knowledge, disease control workers can prescribe better treatment.Perhaps of even greater importance in the long run is ILRAD's use of DNA probes to understand how the disease behaves in the field-what trypanosome species occur in what areas and how often the parasites infect their tsetse fly and mammalian hosts. This kind of information will give epidemiologists a better understanding of how the disease is spread and in what areas people or livestock are at risk. These sophisticated molecular probes are now being tailored at ILRAD for use in the field.IN TROPICAL AFRICA, parasitic diseases remain widespread, largely because the climate is ideal for the survival of many parasites and their insect vectors. To develop new or better methods to control these parasitic diseases, scientists must understand their epidemiology, that is, their distribution and behaviour in the field. To do this, they must obtain large amounts of data on the prevalence and transmission, from one host to another, of the parasites causing disease. The basic task of identifying some parasite species and subspecies, however, has until recently been exceptionally difficult.Control of trypanosomiasis, one of the most important livestock diseases in Africa (the disease is called sleeping sickness when it occurs in people), has been particularly hindered by such diagnostic difficulties. The life cycle of the trypanosome is complex. The parasite spends part of its life cycle in the tsetse fly and part in human or other animal hosts. In passing through several developmental stages, the parasite changes its form to suit new environments. This occurs, for example, when parasites are ingested by a tsetse fly taking a blood meal from an animal and again when parasites are inoculated by a feeding fly into the animal's bloodstream.Another factor complicating the epidemiology of trypanosomiasis is the existence of several trypanosome species, subspecies (groups of trypanosomes within a species that show genetic differences) and strains (groups of trypanosomes within a subspecies that show significant phenotypic differences). The characteristic physical appearance of a trypanosome of one subspecies may be similar to that of other subspecies, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to identify a parasite solely on the basis of its appearance.TRADITIONAL METHODS used to identify trypanosomes include microscopic examination of mammalian blood smears and tsetse fly organs for the presence of the parasites. But many trypanosomes can be distinguished from others only by inoculating samples of each parasite type into experimental animal and then observing the responses of the animals, which will differ according to the type of infecting parasite.These traditional methods are often inadequate and unreliable. Scientists have long required new laboratory methods that will more precisely and efficiently distinguish closely related trypanosomes from each other. Epidemiologists and disease control workers have also needed better diagnostic tools to rapidly detect and identify trypanosome infections in the field, and thus determine such important factors as the occurrence and infection rates of parasites in endemic area.The new method these workers have been waiting for is now available in the laboratory and is being refined for use in the field. Tools created by molecular biologists over the last decade to enable them to discriminate among cells at the molecular level are also enabling parasitologists to make exquisitely sensitive distinctions among parasite populations. The new tool in diagnostic microbiology-called the nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) probe-is revolutionizing the diagnosis and, scientists hope, ultimately the treatment of parasitic diseases such as trypanosomiasis.Molecular biology research at ILRAD and elsewhere on the genetic material of trypanosomes led scientists to identify fragments of DNA each of which is characteristic of a single trypanosome species or subspecies. Having determined the nucleic acid sequences of these fragments, the scientists then made smaller DNA probes (oligonucleotides)-single strands of the doublestranded parasite DNA fragmenteach of which combines, or hybridizes, only with genetic material obtained from trypanosomes of the same species or subspecies.By screening field samples of parasites with a panel of DNA probes for different species, laboratory workers can identify trypanosomes with unequalled precision. For this reason, the trypanosome DNA probe panels developed at ILRAD in the last few years are in increasing demand for use in epidemiological field studies.ILRAD's research progress in diagnostic technology for trypanosomiasis was last featured in the January 1988 issue of this newsletter and in short reviews in Parasitology Today (O.K. oleMoiYoi, December 1987) and Discovery and Innovation (P.A.O. Majiwa, June 1989). This issue brings those reports uptodate and outlines the possibilities and current limitations of using this new form of diagnostic test in the field.A DNA molecule, anywhere from 15 to thousands of nucleotides long, used to detect the occurrence of its complementary sequence of DNA (or RNA) in a mixture of nucleic acids obtained from cells.Two types of probes are used to detect and characterize parasites: one type is based on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and the other on ribonucleic acid (RNA). DNA and RNA are long threadlike macromolecules made up of a large number of nucleotides, each of which is composed of a nitrogenous base, a sugar (deoxyribose in DNA, ribose in RNA) and one or more phosphate groups. The base is a derivative of purine or pyrimidine. The purines in DNA are adenine (A) and guanine (G); the pyrimidines are thymine (T) (uridine [U] in RNA) and cytosine (C). A always pairs with T (or with U in RNA), and G always pairs with C. The pairs are known as base pairs. The four bases carry genetic information and are the basic building blocks of DNA and RNA. The sugar and phosphate groups perform structural roles.In a DNA molecule, each nucleotide (in the molecule's long chain of nucleotides) binds to a complementary nucleotide on a second chain of DNA, thus giving rise to a double stranded macromolecule. The two strands are intertwined, forming a double helix. For several decades scientists have known how to 'denature', or separate, the two strands of the double helix: boiling the DNA disrupts the bonding so that the complementary base pairs that normally hold the two strands of DNA together come apart. This denaturation process was at first thought to be irreversible, but then it was discovered that complementary single strands of DNA will readily reform double helices if they are kept for a prolonged period at lower temperatures. This process is called DNA renaturation or reannealing.In a DNA hybridization assay, DNA from a mammalian cell or parasite of interest is heated to separate the two strands of the double helix. A pure singlestranded DNA fragment complementary in sequence to the DNA or RNA one wishes to detect is obtained by cloning from the organism of interest or, if the sequence is short, synthesized by chemical means. This is the DNA probe. The cloned or synthesized DNA probe is tagged with a label, usually a radioisotope, so that its incorporation into doublestranded molecules can be followed during the course of hybridization reactions.When the DNA sample is kept under appropriate conditions, the single strands re anneal only with complementary strands to reform the double helix (Figure 1). (Although RNA is usually singlestranded, its hybridization to DNA, in the formation of what are called 'heterodimers', follows the same process. In this article, 'DNA probe' refers to both DNA and RNA probes.) FIGURE 1. Diagram of the nucleic acid hybridization process. Singlestranded DNA from the organism of interest is allowed to attach itself to a membrane. The single stranded DNA probe binds to its immobilized complementary strand. This binding can be detected by labelling the probes with radioisotopes or with nonradioactive reporter molecules, such as the biotinstreptavidinenzyme complex shown in this figure . The stringent requirement of complementarity for the reassociation of single strands to form either DNADNA, RNADNA or RNARNA hybrid molecules is the basis for the unsurpassed specificity of nucleic acid probes. Indeed, hybridization reactions using DNA probes are so sensitive and selective that complementary sequences can be detected that occur at a concentration of as low as one molecule per cell.In the diagnosis of microbial infections, a specific piece of parasite nucleic acid is radiolabelled and then used to detect its complementary copy, which is usually immobilized on a solid support. (The specific steps followed in developing a DNA probe, and those for preparing parasite DNA samples for hybridization with the probe, are outlined in the sidebar on this page.) Scientists at ILRAD and other institutes have used these procedures to isolate DNA sequences from trypanosomes that can be used to precisely identify species and subspecies of the parasite. (See p. 6 for a discussion of how molecular techniques are revolutionizing taxonomic and epidemiological studies in parasitology.) Nucleic acidbased hybridization probes are superior to other available techniques in terms of specificity, sensitivity and ease of use when large numbers of samples need to be examined for parasite detection and characterization. Hybridization assays using DNA probes will prove most useful in the diagnosis of diseases caused by parasites whose isolation and identification is difficult, and thus timeconsuming, or is impossible.Use of DNA probes to detect and characterize viral, bacterial and protozoal infections is already widespread. Because small amounts of homologous DNA from a parasite are detected reliably by nucleic acid hybridization, the technique is applicable not only for identifying specific organisms, as originally envisaged, but also for detecting pathogens in crude clinical or pathological specimens.Since the first ILRAD report on progress in this research area, published only three years ago, use of DNA probes for diagnosing disease has been greatly accelerated by the exploitation of the enzyme Taq polymerase (found in thermophylic bacteria), which remains stable at high temperatures. This unusual property enables the enzyme to amplify DNA with remarkable efficiency in a process called the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.In addition to being particularly useful for screening many samples, DNA probes used in conjunction with the PCR are best exploited where little test material is available for analysis. They are thus useful for identifying trypanosomes in the parasite's tsetse vector and animal host, because the numbers of parasites in fly organs and mammalian blood can be very low.Each of the DNA probes developed at ILRAD and collaborating institutes to detect and characterize infection by African trypanosomes has proved highly specific for a parasite subgenus, species or subspecies: under appropriate conditions, each hybridizes only to homologous DNA. Because the sequences that make up the probes are present in high copy number in the genomes of trypanosome populations, these sequences have been used to develop highly sensitive hybridization tests.The total genetic constitution of an organism. The DNA content of even a bacterial cell is very large; the much larger genome of a mammalian cell carries about 3 billion base pairs of information, most of which is arrayed along its chromosomal DNA.The base sequences are arranged in discrete compartments of information: the individual genes. There are between 50,000 and 100,000 genes in the genome of a mammal; each one is responsible for specifying the structure of a particular gene product, usually a protein.Adapted from Robert Weinberg. in The Molecules of Life: Readings from Scientific American published by W.H. Freeman, 1985, p. 4. Steps in making a DNA probe for the hybridization assay 1. A nucleic acid sequence of interest in the DNA of the parasite under study is identified.2. DNA with this sequence is isolated.3. The isolated DNA fragment is cloned by digestion with enzymes that cut the DNA in such a way as to leave the ends compatible with the ends of DNA from a 'cloning vector', which is usually a bacterial plasmid or phage.4. The plasmid or phage vector containing the foreign DNA, now called a recombinant vector, is amplified by its infection of bacteria or another host. The recombinant vector multiplies with the bacteria and thus produces many copies of DNA with the nucleic acid sequence of interest. 5. The recombinant vector is purified by separating it from bacterial proteins and nucleic acids, after which the DNA may be used as a probe. (RNA may also be used as a probe, either directly or after being copied in a reverse direction to its complementary DNA copy.) 6. The probe is labelled so that its hybridization can be detected.7. The specificity and sensitivity of the probe is determined using characterized isolates of the organism of its origin.Steps in preparing DNA samples for the hybridization assay 1. Trypanosomes are isolated from the blood of an infected animal.2. DNA from the parasites is purified.3. The DNA molecules are split into fragments by digestion with restriction enzymes, which cleave the molecules at specific sites.4. The DNA fragments are separated according to size on agarose gels by electrophoresis.5. DNA from the gels is transferred onto nitrocellulose filters by Southern (capillarity) blotting.6. The DNA probes are hybridized with the DNA on these filters.7. The filters are exposed to Xray film; spots where DNA hybridization has occurred will appear on the film as dark bands.Since their discovery in the early 1960s, techniques based on DNA hybridization have been used as powerful tools for tracing the flow of genetic information in cells. The flow is normally from DNA to RNA to protein and is essentially the same in all organisms. The genetic code is the relation between the sequence of the four kinds of bases in DNA and RNA and the sequence of the twenty kinds of amino acids in proteins. The code is beautiful in its simplicity and is nearly 'universal', that is, messenger RNA molecules are translated correctly into the same amino acid sequences by cells of very different species. Bacteria, for example, efficiently express recombinant DNA molecules for human proteins, such as insulin.At ILRAD, scientists are using bacteria to express recombinant DNA molecules that encode proteins on the surface of two diseasecausing protozoan parasites. These surface proteins appear to be the major antigens that induce immune responses to these diseases in livestock. The new recombinant DNA technology should enable researchers to use proteins synthesized in the laboratory rather than whole parasites as vaccines and thus avoid some of the risk and expense of making and using vaccines that contain living parasites.Two probes have been developed for the Trypanosoma subgenus Trypanozoon: pgDRl (ingi) and a 177base pair repetitive sequence that occurs in this subgenus. The latter probe was developed by scientists at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. The ingi sequence, which can detect the DNA equivalent of 100 trypanosomes on a spot on a filter, occurs in about 150-250 copies in parasite species belonging to this subgenus. (This high copy number gave rise to its name, ingi, a Kiswahili root adjective meaning 'abundant'.) The ingi sequence is particularly interesting because it belongs to a class of mobile genetic elements, called 'retrotransposons', which are capable of self replicating backwards from their copies of RNA. The resultant complementary DNA is reinserted in a variety of places in the parasite genome. The ingi sequence has been used to detect trypanosome infection in tsetse flies and in blood obtained from naturally infected cattle. The ingi probe detects T. brucei brucei in the midgut, salivary glands and proboscides of tsetse flies and also detects T. brucei gambiense, T. brucei rhodesiense and T. evansi.Three probes have been developed at ILRAD for the Trypanosoma subgenus Nannomonas. The probe pgNRE372* hybridizes only with DNA from a type of T. congolense that occurs in savannah habitat; the probe pgNIK450 hybridizes only with DNA from a type of T. congolense first found at Kilifi, on the Kenya Coast; and the probe pgNS600 hybridizes only with DNA from T. simiae. ______________________________ * The abbreviations in the names of the probes give information about the vector in which the DNA is cloned and the origin, kind and size of the probe. Thus, 'p' stands for 'plasmid', 'g' for 'genomic', 'Ig' for 'lambda (phage) genomic', 'k' for 'kinetoplast', 'NRE' for 'Nannomonas repetitive element', 'NIK' for 'Nannomonas ILRAD Kilifitype', 'NS' for 'Nannomonas simiae', 'DIL' for 'Duttonella ILRAD' and 'DR' for 'dispersed repeat'. The figure following the hyphen is the number of base pairs (bp) in the probe.Since the 1988 ILRAD Reports article, scientists at the University of Bristol have developed probes specific for two more types of T. congolense: one occurs in a forest/riverine habitat and the other has been identified in parts of West Africa. Repetitive sequence probes made from DNA of these T. congolense do not hybridize with DNA from each other or with DNA from the other two T. congolense types or from T. simiae. These four types of T. congolense cannot easily be distinguished from each other or from T. simiae on a morphological basis. Indeed, classical techniques resort to host range to distinguish T. congolense from T. simiae (lethal infection in pigs is usually caused by T. simiae). But use of the hybridization assay has revealed, unequivocally, that the four T. congolense types differ genetically both from each other and from T. simiae. Their chromosome profiles also differ. It is likely that parasites with such clear differences at the genetic level will also manifest phenotypic differences that may account, for example, for the different levels of virulence and drug resistance observed among the parasite types.By 1987, only one probe had been made to detect T. vivax. Named 1gDILl0kbp, the probe has a sequence consisting of 10,000 base pairs. The sequence was cloned from DNA obtained from a West African clone of T. vivax called ILDat 1.2. The West African IgDILl0kbp probe not only hybridized strongly with DNA from West African isolates of T. vivax, as one would expect, but also gave faint signals when hybridized with DNA isolated from clones of T. vivax obtained from the Coast Province of Kenya, in East Africa.To detect T. vivax parasites from East Africa, ILRAD scientists prepared a probe based on kinetoplast DNA (pkDIL900) from a clone of T. vivax from the Kenya Coast. (The kinetoplast is a specialized structure in the mitochondria of trypanosomes that contains DNA). Another kinetoplast DNA probe has also been prepared from West African T. vivax. Interestingly, these East and West African probes hybridized not only with DNA of parasites from their respective regions of isolation, but also with DNA of T. vivax from Uganda, with which they gave signal intensities of intermediate strength compared to those of homologous DNA. Another probe, based on 'satellite DNA' (described on page 6) of a West African T. vivax, developed at the University of Bristol, gives similar results when hybridized with DNA made from East and West African isolates of T. vivax.Disease syndromes caused by infections with the East and West African T. vivax populations differ clinically. For this reason, more isolates will have to be obtained and characterized before firm conclusions can be drawn about differences between T. vivax isolates from different parts of Africa, or, indeed, from other parts of the world, such as the Caribbean and South America, where this parasite also occurs.A panel of species and subspeciesspecific DNA probes has been developed and used to detect and characterize trypanosome samples collected from experimental infections of tsetse flies and laboratory animals and from natural infections of flies and animals in western and eastern Africa. Use of this panel of probes at ILRAD has revealed the following. SPECIFICITY. Each of the DNA probes developed to date has proved specific for the trypanosome species or subspecies of the probe's origin. SENSITIVITY. Using 32 Pradiolabelled probes, the sensitivities of the trypanosome species or subspeciesspecific probes have ranged from 5genome equivalents (DNA from five trypanosomes on a spot on a filter), for the highcopynumber probes based on satellite DNA for Nannomonas, up to 240genome equivalents for the less abundant 1gDIL10kbp T. vivax probe. Under these conditions, the sensitivity of a probe is clearly a function of the probe sequence copy number in the parasite genome. (The sensitivity of each of these probes improves manifold when used in combination with PCR technology, in which case as few as one parasite among a million other organisms can reliably be revealed.) NANNOMONAS. The development and use of probes based on abundant and repetitive DNA for parasites belonging to the subgenus Nannomonas has provided conclusive evidence that a clear distinction exists between T. simiae and T. congolense. It has also made clear that T. congolense has at least four distinct genotypes-savannah, forest/riverine, West African and Kilifi-which are morphologically indistinguishable from each other. These data suggest that the subgenus Nannomonas may have a much wider genetic repertoire in the field than has been appreciated. Whether these genotypes should be considered subspecies of T. congolense or as different species altogether will depend on what (new) criteria are used to define speciation.TRYPANOZOON. The main repetitive sequences identified in trypanosomes of the subgenus Trypanozoon-ingi and the 177basepair repeat sequence-are present in parasites of the T. brucei group as well as in T. evansi. These parasites have traditionally been considered different species due to their different vectors and host ranges. The question of which criteria should be used to determine speciation among trypanosomes of the subgenus Nannomonas may also need to be addressed for determining speciation in the subgenus Trypanozoon. MIXED INFECTIONS. By using DNA probes and optimizing the preparation of crude parasite samples for analysis, researchers have detected many more 'mixed infections' in naturally infected tsetse flies and cattle than have been reported in the past (see Figure 2). Parasite samples collected from two areas in Uganda where human and animal trypanosomiasis had recently occurred were analysed with subspeciesspecific trypanosome probes. The cattle herds surveyed had an infection rate of 9.3%. Most infections were with T. brucei or T. congolense. Of a total of 33 infections, 28 (85%) were mixed. In one animal the DNA probes detected a mixed infection of T. vivax, T. brucei and the Kilif and savannahtypes of T. congolense. Although T. brucei was shown to be the agent of some single infections, this parasite was present in all mixed infections. The significance of this finding is still unknown. The DNA probes failed to detect parasites in 25% of samples identified by parasitological means as being infected with trypanosomes; most of these 'false negative' infections were thought to be T. congolense.Tailoring DNA probes for use in the field Simplified means of preparing field samples for laboratory analysis using DNA probes have been described elsewhere (see 'Further reading'). Such preparation includes impregnating filters with buffers containing bacteriostatic reagents and inhibitors of the enzymes that degrade DNA.Other ways ILRAD is using recombinant DNA technology Recombinant DNA technology is a fruit of several decades of basic research on DNA and RNA. Already extensively used in research laboratories, it is hard to imagine what biological and medical studies would be like today without this technology.Scientists at ILRAD are using recombinant DNA technology for a wide variety of research purposes. They are making recombinant DNA, for example, to use in synthesizing large quantities of selected proteins that occur on the surface of two diseasecausing parasites. With large amounts of these parasite proteins now available, scientists can analyse the structure and function of the proteins in detail for the first time. Proteins that in laboratory work appear most likely to help an animal's immune system fight infection are inoculated into experimental cattle. Those that demonstrably induce protective immune responses in the animals are then further tested for their potential use as vaccine candidates.Use of DNA hybridization assays is also enabling researchers at ILRAD to answer the following kinds of questions.How many copies of a particular DNA sequence (contained in the probe) are present in a parasite's genome? Does a particular parasite contain a gene that is related but nonidentical to a gene in another species, subspecies or strain of the parasite? Is a parasite expressing a given gene? At each stage in a parasite's life cycle, certain genes are expressed (the DNA code is transcribed to RNA, which in turn is translated to protein), while other genes are not expressed (they are not transcribed, so the proteins they encode are not made by the cell). By determining whether a given gene is 'on' or 'off', a scientist can often say precisely which lifecycle stage a parasite has reached. This is important to know because parasites are able to infect different hosts only during specific stages of their life cycle.Methods developed at ILRAD to optimize the collection of blood from animals and materials from tsetse flies have been tested and shown to be useful for the proper storage of samples isolated in the field before transportation to the laboratory for analysis. Samples collected from infected animals in the field and analysed in the laboratory for the presence of trypanosomal DNA have given positive signals up to five months after collection.Although employing DNA probes to detect microorganisms has great advantages over conventional detection methods, namely, their unequalled specificity and sensitivity, the technique also has disadvantages. Hybridization assays require, for example, waterbaths for the hybridization process and for washing filters as well as dark rooms for developing Xray films. By far the greatest disadvantage these assays have is their reliance on radioisotope labelling. Because of the hazards, short shelflives and high costs and operational difficulties involved in using radioisotopes, alternative approaches to labelling DNA probes are now being explored. ILRAD staff aim to develop probes that are both safer than the radiolabelled probes now widely used in advanced laboratories and easier to use in the field.The bestdeveloped nonradioactive techniques for labelling probes depend on enzymatic detection. Among these reporter systems, perhaps the most promising is one that uses biotinylated probes. This technique exploits a high affinity between biotin and avidin. The specificity, rapidity and tenacity with which biotin binds to avidin is rivalled only by nucleic acidnucleic acid interactions. The original versions of this technique employed a variety of avidinbound enzymes, including horseradish peroxidase, alkaline phosphatase,galatosidase and luciferase. Similar assays, using antinitrophenol antibodies bound to a variety of enzymes, have been developed and used to detect the hybridization of nitrophenylderivatized DNA probes. Unfortunately, most of these probes to date have shown poor sensitivity and have given false positive results when tested on field materials. However, another antigenbased detection system, where antibody binds specifically to a digoxigenin molecule (the antigen) incorporated into the nucleic acid probe, has given good results at ILRAD, although it has not yet been used to detect trypanosomes. Labelling the ends of probes with reagents has proved unsatisfactory to date because in this technique each strand carries only one label, and this makes the probe relatively insensitive.Most nonradiolabelled DNA probes are based on biotin detection employing avidin enzyme complexes and most involve DNAbase derivatization to form a variety of N substituted residues. These residues are joined by means of 'spacer arms' to biotin or other reporter molecules. Some of these modified bases are then used in labelling the DNA probes. The difficulties encountered in making these biotinylated probes include lack of labelling uniformity among the probes and poor incorporation of modified bases into the probes. However, recent improvements may make techniques based on biotin derivatized probes as sensitive as autoradiography. Moreover, the safety and long shelflife of these probelabelling and detection techniques make them likely candidates for use in epidemiological surveys. For these reasons, ILRAD scientists are currently attempting to improve the following two techniques. SUBSTITUTED CYTOSINE ADDUCTS IN THE SYNTHESIS OF OLIGONUCLEOTIDES. Perhaps the most promising of the biotinavidinenzyme complex based DNA probe hybridization techniques is one employing substituted cytosine adducts in the synthesis of oligonucleotides (short, singlestranded synthetic DNA molecules). The reagents required for this method are cheap, commercially available and noncarcinogenic. Unlike the other methods that incorporate biotin into bases during labelling, oligonucleotides with derivatized cytosines can be prepared in a reproducible manner. This method detects between 1 and 2 pg of filterbound DNA (about 0.01 to 0.02 of a trypanosome). SANDWICHCAPTURE ASSAYS. Sandwichcapture assays are based on 'split probes'. These assays have proved promising when used on both mixed and fluid phase formats. In a mixedphase sandwich hybridization, half the DNA probe is bound to a filter, while the other labelled half is incubated with the test sample in solution.Incubation of the fluidphase hybrid with the filter allows the DNA in the fluid phase to be captured on the solid support. A variety of these sandwich hybridization techniques are being developed, including some in the form of an enzymelinked immunosorbent assay. The techniques are especially promising because they are sensitive (0.02 trypanosomegenome equivalents), they are not usually affected by extraneous components in properly prepared crude samples, and they eliminate tedious and time consuming hybridization procedures.Probes developed for other protozoal diseases DNA hybridization probes have been or are being developed for use in the diagnosis of most of the important diseases caused by protozoans. However, the extent to which the probes are being applied varies widely from one disease to another, depending on, among other things, the reliability of the diagnostic tests already available for the causative organism.The probes developed for diagnosing Leishmania, which are based on kinetoplast DNA (kDNA), have proved particularly useful because they can detect parasites obtained directly from lesions of the human host and from samples prepared from the sand fly vector. A combination of kDNA and genomic repetitive sequence probes for distinguishing subspecies, and sometimes distinct isolates, of Leishmania has been produced as well.DNA probes have also been used successfully to detect malarial parasites in human blood and in mosquitoes. Applying the nucleic acid hybridization technique minimizes reader bias, which may occur when using thick smears stained with Giemsa. The molecular technique is especially superior when large numbers of blood samples need to be examined. DNA probes have also been developed to detect infections of African livestock with parasites other than the trypanosome. The economically important livestock diseases caused by these parasites include theileriosis (East Coast fever), babesiosis, anaplasmosis, rinderpest and bovine herpes virus.Understanding the genetic variation that occurs in parasite populations is particularly important to epidemiologists and disease control workers because populations of a species may look alike while exhibiting marked differences in such important factors as host preferences, infectivity, virulence and susceptibility to drugs. It was not until the late 1960s that biologists began to understand how much of the variation in natural populations was due to genetic differences rather than environmental effects.Closely related species can be distinguished from each other using molecular techniques because each organism is a 'living fossil' and contains, in the sequence of nucleotides of its DNA, its own evolutionary record. To date, the best studied DNA sequences in eukaryotic cells (cells with a nucleus) are those that code for proteins. This is understandable since proteins play crucial roles in all known biological processes.A substantial amount of DNA in eukaryotes, however, does not code for proteins, but rather consists of moderately or highly repeated sequence clusters, called 'satellite DNA'. Although we don't yet know the function of these repetitive sequences, they make especially suitable DNA probes for distinguishing closely related organisms because, unlike the proteincoding DNA sequences (genes), which are 'highly conserved' (the same in many related species), these sequences tend to differ among different species and subspecies. A sequence unique to a particular parasite type will precisely identify that type.By applying DNA hybridization assays, ILRAD researchers have discovered an unexpectedly large amount of genetic variation not only among closely related species, subspecies and strains of trypanosomes and theilerial parasites but also among individuals within those populations. Scientists now know, in fact, that genetic differences among parasites rarely produce morphological differences. Experimental results of using the new molecular techniques are thus causing parasitologists to rethink precisely what they mean by a species, subspecies or strain of an organism. Satellite DNA, for example, has been well characterized in many species. Its predominant localization in what are known as 'centromeric regions' of chromosomes suggests that satellite DNA may confer stability on smaller chromosomes and thus perhaps function as a mediator of homologous chromosomal pairing. If it does prove to play this role, satellite DNA will become an important determinant of speciation. DNA technology in human medicine-Researchers are developing and applying DNA hybridization techniques not only for better detection of diseasecausing organisms, such as the trypanosomal and theilerial parasites studied at ILRAD, but also, in human medicine, for diagnosing genetic diseases, for characterizing malignancies, for screening blood to be used in transfusions, for characterizing tissue samples for graft and transplant operations, and, in forensic medicine, for DNA fingerprinting for use at the witness stand. These diverse applications, and the promise of many more, have caused an explosion of interest in recombinant DNA technology.Single copies of reprints may be requested from the ILRAD Library. Please mention the ILRAD accession number given in brackets at the end of each reference. ","tokenCount":"5445"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5a91453be4a3b5e1c7eb14df56749db","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc0b7bed-7dcf-4196-9d46-c5a31812f8fd/retrieve","id":"1139406603"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4ae2b3f6-56a6-4142-bea1-6653a9d9adf1","pagecount":"6","content":" AMIA villages have the necessary ingredients to develop into system-wide innovation platforms. AMIA village leaders act at the nexus between farmer communities, the local governments and the wider enabling environment. With technical knowledge on CRA widely being available, they developed functional capacities like fostering ownership and stakeholder linkages, and applying an adaptive management. Tacit knowledge, in combination with technical knowledge, played a strong role in their choice of tools, capacity and learning formats, and M&E. Main challenges referred to technical capacities of the AMIA village leaders' home institutions and the enabling environment. Recurrent needs assessments of the innovation capacities could help the AMIA village project to tailor their capacity building and learning curricula with a systems-wide perspective.The fast advancing climate change calls for accelerated scaling of agricultural innovations. The Climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) concept in the Philippines integrates agricultural development with climate responsiveness. Similar to climate-smart agriculture, CRA is highly context-specific and requires a systems approach.The need for constant adaptation in a changing climate points to an increased importance of the main actors' adaptation capacities across all levels. This also means that efforts to scale community-based approaches need to foster innovation capacities along all phases of the scaling processes. Innovation means to bring knowledge into use.The \"know what\" is as important as the \"know-how\". Therefore, capacities to innovate require both technical and tacit knowledge, and technical and functional capacities at all levels.Innovation platforms can create innovation capacities at individual and organizational levels, which in turn can positively change the institutional environment. However, addressing the complex challenges of food systems in climate change requires a system-wide approach (Chuluunbaatar and LeGrand, 2015). In the Philippines, the local government units (LGU) are the main implementing units for agricultural policies, while the Regional Field Offices (DA-RFOs) are responsible for the overall coordination and management, e.g. of the AMIA villages, and the liaison between the LGUs and the national government. In July 2019, IIRR interviewed 12 AMIA representatives about their current implementation process. Open questions included lessons learnt and challenges, the use of tools and capacity building processes. This Info Note aims to feed dialogue and exchange among AMIA village implementers, outline further areas for action, and provide learnings for the CCAFS and the wider scaling community.Textbox 2: The different dimensions of AMIA villages Ownership at the different levels \"A progressive community greatly depends on the farmers or people themselves!\" Climate change is irreversible, but farmers are intrinsically able to adapt to and even mitigate climate change, thus strengthening the resiliency of their communities. Most respondents emphasized strongly that this effort takes collective learning and action.\"It is important that all actors understand their roles and responsibilities.\" The local government units (LGU) have a crucial role in guiding the AMIA process. They facilitate on the ground implementation, e.g. the introduction of CRA technologies and practices to farmers and farmers' trainings. They also coordinate with stakeholders at the field level to take on and enact their respective roles and responsibilities. Stakeholders include farmer associations, community officials, local and regional technical working groups, State Universities and Colleges and local, provincial and regional government units. The DA-Regional Field Offices (RFOs), in turn, liaise with the LGUs and the national government, and have the national coordinating responsibility of the AMIA village project.\"The AMIA team must be resilient to adapt to the client's unique distinction.\" Each AMIA village has distinct geographic, political, social and demographic characteristics, and every village has its own priorities. This calls for an adaptive management approach. Communities need to be equipped to identify their own problems and come up with locally viable solutions. This entails proper and regular coordination and planning with the farmers from the very beginning.\"If you do not level off with the locals, you will never understand how they behave and why.\" Another crucial ingredient was having presence on the ground. Being hands-on and directly working with the farmers and fisherfolks builds trust in relationships. Open communication spaces allow that technicians and farmers effectively convey and understand their messages. Explaining the project thoroughly before starting field activities and having continued interaction will further increase the probability that farmer-learning groups keep agreements and adhere to research protocols.\"The project can't work if you don't have smooth linkages with all the partners.\" Partnerships and multi-stakeholder platforms are very important elements to ensure sustainability. DA-RFOs and the LGUs shall facilitate and coordinate multi-stakeholder platforms from the very beginning of community planning to market linkage establishment for farmer associations and cooperatives.Organizing and strengthening the community were other important elements of sustainability. One AMIA village leader observed that farmers who organized themselves during or after project implementation became more confident, active and maintained better relations among themselves than those who already had been members of existing organizations when the project started.In July 2019, the AMIA villages were in different stages of implementation:Understanding the concept, goals and concept: Some AMIA villages were in the initial stage of raising stakeholders' awareness on the project, using the AMIA framework and Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessments (CRVA) as basis for establishing the AMIA villages.Community mobilization and planning: Some AMIA villages were in the phase of community mobilization, using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools to build a basic understanding on weather and climate, and how agriculture both contributes to and is affected by climate change, influencing daily lives in the communities.Other AMIA villages were currently engaged in community participatory action, organizing learning groups of future farmer cooperators, and introducing participatory action research to identify CRA technologies and practices.Incremental strategies: Some AMIA villages currently developed strategies to integrate business enterprise development in their community-based approaches, e.g. by diversifying cropping systems with crops or commodities that have a market, while at the same being adaptive to climate hazards and/or protecting the environment.Sustaining and scaling: Some AMIA villages already approached the end of their project and were concerned with sustaining the AMIA villages, while others were already planning to expand to other provinces or municipalities vulnerable to climate change.Textbox 3: The AMIA villages' narrative on CRAGenerally, all AMIA Focal Persons found the available tools and methodologies very useful and important throughout the different steps of AMIA village establishment and implementation: \"If the methodology is erroneous, then the output of the project will also be erroneous.\"\"Talking with the people in the community is the most effective approach …\" AMIA village implementers valued participatory assessment tools as most effective approaches, because \"we directly talk with the people in the community, men, women, children, old, young, official or not, poor or rich.\" Dialogue tools included participatory rapid assessment (PRA), focus group discussions and key informant panels.\"… more importantly, PRA made them appreciate the value of their own resources.\" AMIA Focal Persons considered PRA the most important tool, as it helped communities to understand the risks of climate change, and how climate-resilient technologies can address these risks. Since CRA practices are location-and context specific, PRA supported farmers in identifying their own problems and the most suitable CRA, tailored to their respective needs. Some interviewees further described how by applying PRA, the AMIA staff learnt that communities have indigenous and traditional ways of dealing with the impacts of climate change, and how the CRA practices can be adjusted to complement these. Knowing their own historical practices, in turn, helped also the farmers to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the newly introduced CRA practices.\"Learning trials are most useful for farmers to get to know their adaptive capacities.\" Farmer field schools on different CRA practices were most useful for capacitating farmer leaders and integrating CRA in their respective agricultural production systems. Actual field implementation and demonstrations fully involved the farmers and communities in the discussion, planning and resource allocation. Furthermore, LGUs and farmers cooperated for accompanying site-specific technological and financial innovations. PAR also laid the ground for participatory monitoring, supervised by the AMIA staff, to obtain accurate research results and progress indicators.\"Maps served as guide in prioritizing the pilot municipalities with the most impact.\" AMIA Focal Persons found maps, especially climate risk and vulnerability assessment (CRVA) maps, very helpful for the geographical targeting of the AMIA sites. They utilized these maps to identify the areas most vulnerable to climate hazards. Other useful tools were enterprise-and hydrology maps, hazard maps and the National Color-coded Agricultural Guide Map.Some AMIA village implementers found economic analysis and M&E tools useful to make decisions and measure their impacts. These tools were cost-benefit analyses for selected CRA and measuring the return on investment for focus commodities, and correlating baselines (e.g. on income) with the current developments, thus being able to observe transformations. One interviewee suggested conducting in depth studies on how to sustain technologies from production to marketing. Needs based learning \"As to the kind of capacity building that we promote, we first assess the needs of everyone.\" The AMIA staff used the PRA as means for identifying training needs and for drafting capacity-building plans of and for the farmers.Needs assessments were also used to propose capacitybuilding activities targeting the LGUs' and RFOs' staff.\"Share peer knowledge, experiences and practices.\" AMIA village implementers found that farmers' capacity building already started with the involvement of the communities in planning workshops, and continued through introducing new CRA practices, developing the participatory research trials, and conducting regular meetings and farm visits. They encouraged farmers to share their knowledge, experiences and practices in farmer field schools andThe AMIA villages' narrative on CRA \"… a holistic approach to foster the adaptive capacities of farmers and fisherfolks.\"Not two communities or villages are alike. AMIA villages promote a combination of the respective traditional and best-adapted climate-resilient practices and technologies, as well as livelihood and income diversification, summed up as climate-resilient agriculture (CRA). They see this as a holistic approach to enhance the adaptive capacities of farmers and fisherfolks. Their main aim is to increase communities' resilience in the face of economic, human-induced and natural risks.Depending on the respective contexts and development aims, some AMIA villages hereby focus more on climate change adaptation, livelihood enhancement and diversification. Some AMIA villages explicitly promote opportunities for women (e.g. low cost investments that women can manage); while other villages focus on supporting indigenous people's communities.farmer field days, thus rolling out the technologies to other non-beneficiaries.Also for their own capacity building, the AMIA staff valued a \"mixture of lectures and hands-on activities\". As one interviewee put it: \"I don't have formal training nor studied climate change. To build my competence, I need to understand more and have mastery of the subject.\" This already started with the first roving and review workshops to the IIRR Learning Sites, where the AMIA Focal Persons learnt from the actual implementation experiences shared by project beneficiaries and other AMIA teams. As one participant said: \"I am sure these experiences or some of them will also happen in our AMIA village process.\" LGUs invested in farmer-learning groups' capacity building by providing a small honorarium to resource persons.Figure 1. DA-AMIA regional field officers visit farmer leaders in the advanced AMIA village Guinayangan.\"All learnings should be documented and published, as a ready reference.\" AMIA staff continuously monitors the process, \"with or without project\", during the regular visits to the AMIA villages. Main activities were following up on the learning groups' memberships, and documenting their progress with photo documentations, video recordings, interviews and storytelling. The AMIA village implementers proposed to institutionalize and mainstream learnings not only among the LGUs, but also among the RFOs, the DA agencies and bureaus, and other stakeholders and implementing agencies.  Sustaining engagement at all levels \"Farmers' practices and mindsets don't change overnight.\" Some AMIA staff wished for a \"value re-orientation\" of farmers, since they faced challenges like farmers not cooperating, putting little efforts in the process, not following the research protocols, not attending village events without AMIA staff being present, or \"attending events only for free inputs and food\". Another challenge was that farmers would go back to their usual practice after the field trials.LGU and DA programs, for sustainability?\" AMIA village implementers found that a great challenge was to hand over the ownership to the municipal, city-and provincial local governments. Since it was the LGU's responsibility to make their farming communities adaptive to climate change, the LGUs would have to build their own capacities and include the AMIA village into their priorities. DA's role would be to assist LGUs in practicing and integrating the AMIA village approach in their regular activities.In some cases, seeds for climate resilient varieties (e.g. drought tolerant varieties) were not available when needed, especially after a climate hazard. Climate information advisories were seen as valuable tool for preparation, but still unreliable and inconsistent.\"We have only few hands working in this big initiative.\" Several AMIA leaders identified staff time as their main challenge. They felt that there was a lack of commitment at the management level to assign or hire more staff, which led to additional workload and inefficiencies. One AMIA Focal Person described a conflict of activities, because of her triple function as AMIA project leader, regional seed coordinator and focal point for disaster risk reduction and management. A related challenge was the risk of staff turnover. Some staff are project-based or contracted. Their contract ends with the end of the project. Good practice was to have a staff succession plan --train and assign several staff members for the various AMIA village activities, to have a backup for the taking-over.\"A lot of paperwork, and much time in waiting.\" Several AMIA villages experienced delays in their implementation due to long internal processes of budget approval, preparation of fund release orders, and final fund releases. Lengthy procurement processes for supplies and materials, with extensive paperwork and rigid bidding processes was said to cause further delays. Some AMIA village implementers faced mobility challenges, with limited vehicles available, or poor road networks that allowed travelling only by the local \"habal habal\" system.Changes in political power, e.g. after elections of Local Chief Executives, might change the priorities of the municipalities, which in turn could lead to a shift in attention from some communities of the AMIA villages to others. In other cases, situations of insurgence near the project sites affected the progress of implementation. In regions with many indigenous people, it was said to be difficult to organize farmer-learning groups because people belonged to communities with different tribal leaders.What would be helpful for the future? Investments in infrastructure for CRA Several AMIA village leaders emphasized having access to updated and reliable climate information services as key priority. This would ideally come as a \"complete package\", and with the installation of more automated weather stations and agricultural climate information centers. Other needs referred to improving the irrigation system, and to investing in transportation and roads, especially improving access to the AMIA learning centers.AMIA village leaders would appreciate more seminars, trainings and trainings-of-trainers, since these were \"a big help\" for project implementers, be it AMIA staff, LGU or RFO officials. Several AMIA villages would benefit from more information, education and communication materials, as well as from support in developing and producing these themselves. Advocacy for the AMIA village project \"Finding support for the AMIA project\" was one priority of several AMIA village leaders. This could be in frame of a promotional campaign for AMIA in the region, which in turn might help to commit more staff, and increase collaboration with experts and other concerned agencies.Textbox 5: The scaling mindsetThe Philippine AMIA villages can be seen as platforms for agricultural innovations. AMIA Focal Persons have the complex task to foster adaptation and innovation capacities at different levels and dimensions. They need to develop technical and functional capacities among the farmers' communities, as well as within their own institutions (e.g. LGUs and RFOs), and within the larger enabling environment (e.g. DA national programs and related institutions and departments.Since technical knowledge on CRA was already widely available in the AMIA context, it is not surprising that the main learnings and best practices of the AMIA village implementers refer to functional capacities, like fostering ownership and linkages with partners and stakeholders at all levels, and applying an adaptive management.Similarly, tools that fostered exchange of tacit knowledge were widely used to enhance ownership, relationships, traditional knowledge and adaptive capacity among farmers, while the more technical tools were used for earlyThe scaling mindset \"The seeds we sow as AMIA village develop and bear fruits\"Most of the AMIA Focal Persons were deeply motivated by helping the farmer and fisher familiesamong them often the most vulnerable and poor -to become highly adaptive for the future. For a government employee, \"nothing is more fulfilling than seeing our villages equipped and resilient in facing the hazards of climate change, and living a peaceful and happy life.\" Some interviewees also thrived on making the AMIA villages \"go-to\" places, lighthouses or model villages, which other vulnerable communities could follow on, and which would be sustainably integrated in projects all over the regions, linking key players from the \"top management to the farmers\". One AMIA village had a dream of becoming an agri-eco-tourism site.They also loved to see the farmers transforming from \"idealistic farmers\" into \"organized farmers\", in associations and agricultural cooperatives, with many diverse economic activities, and being tapped by other agencies as partners in their project. Others enjoyed seeing indigenous community members becoming educators for sustainable lifestyles themselves.decision-making on targeting, economic assessments and impact monitoring. All AMIA villages further had a strong component on capacity building and learning. The used formats fostered the exchange of technical, but more importantly of tacit knowledge, at and across all levels. This helped to develop self-confidence and inter-personal communication skills among all actors.Challenges, however, related to both the functional and technical spheres. One set of challenges related to sustaining the engagement and commitment at all levels, from farmer groups to the AMIA implementers' own organizations, and within the DA and wider enabling environment. Lack of resources for innovation within the AMIA village leaders' home institutions had effects on their technical capacities for implementation, e.g. with regard to staff availability and transport. In some cases, this correlated with the home institutions' degree of commitment for the AMIA project.At the same time, AMIA village implementers themselves found it very rewarding and motivating to experience how the communities developed their own capacities for adaptation and innovation, and how farmers transformed into organized groups with agri-preneurial mindsets, and became leaders themselves. This points to an opportunity to strengthen the narrative of the AMIA villages as platforms for innovation, providing a shared vision and opportunities to improve adaptation and innovation capacities at all levels, aspiring the shared future goals.The learnings from this study suggest that the AMIA villages already possess the needed ingredients for developing into sustained innovation platforms. The functional capacities of the AMIA village leaders could still be strengthened with regard to addressing institutional bottlenecks at all levels, e.g. by developing further change management, negotiation and advocacy skills. This is not surprising given the early stage of implementation of many AMIA villages, and the iterative design of the process.The learnings from this study also point to an opportunity for the AMIA program to strengthen the system-wide innovation capacities more systematically. One tool could be the dynamic Innovation Capacity Development Cycle of FAO (Chuluunbaatar and LeGrand, 2015), which builds on best practices such as they are already used by the AMIA village implementers, with regard to their participatory planning, implementation and monitoring processes, and their capacity building and learning formats. It suggests to recurrently assess the three dimensions \"Where are we now?\", \"Where do we want to go?\" and \"How are we going to get there?\", and provides tools for each dimension.In the degree that the AMIA villages are progressing, such recurrent innovation capacities needs assessments would probably lead to a broadened, systems-wide perspective.Correspondingly, the tailored-to-the needs learning and exchange events could strongly draw on the experiences of the advanced and advancing AMIA villages.Chuluunbaatar ","tokenCount":"3296"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"43d56b5d36c16fb9301cf6c0cec49797","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3cbe56ff-761a-45f1-bff3-a21f92bf74e7/retrieve","id":"182694381"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1382a659-8ba7-42d9-b94c-3d65036b950b","pagecount":"214","content":"The goal of this training is to increase your awareness and use of participatory epidemiology.The training will also provide you with a valuable opportunity to become a public health advocate. Integrating data for action into your work comes with the responsibility to act on the information gathered. While responding to community needs is not within the scope of the training module, it is the responsibility of certain key stakeholders. In order to make the greatest use of the training and the participation of the communities, please share the findings and recommendations obtained during our field visits with individuals and agencies positioned to respond effectively.Please keep a log of the names and locations of the villages you visit, their health concerns and your recommendations. Observations not discussed with the community may be included as appropriate (e.g. school aged children not in school).At the end of this training, you will identify common themes, priority health issues and recommendations, and will summarize the findings into a presentable report format. You will also need to identify key stakeholders and responsible individuals or agencies that will be able to act on your recommendations. Contributing communities may also benefit from receiving your report. You are encouraged to complete the handout on Participatory Epidemiology Field Practice Recommendations in stages as you complete the field practices.Having completed this training, participants will be able to:1. Describe the roles, principles, and methods of participatory epidemiology Please review and be prepared to discuss the learning objectives for this training, found under 'Objectives, Priorities and Considerations'. Your facilitators will lead you through a review of our training objectives.By the end of the session, participants will be able to: Please take a few minutes to note your ground rules. What do you understand by the word participation? Many people use the term in their work and personal lives in different ways, because they have different understandings. Please take a few moments to think about what participation is, and note your ideas.By the end of the session, participants will be able to:1. Discuss the principles of participation 2. Describe the methods used in participatory epidemiology, and their applications 3. Recognize the value of existing veterinary knowledge 4. Write a participatory epidemiology case definition 5. Describe the principles of qualitative data analysis, and the types of bias that can impact participatory epidemiological studies 6. Interpret one's own behavior and attitudes, as well as othersParticipation empowers people to find solutions to their own development challenges. It is both an attitude and a philosophy that encourages learning, discovery and flexibility.No type of participation is better than the others. Sometimes different types are required. In participatory epidemiology, the level of participation may range from information giving, where the focus is on data collection, to interactive, where the focus is on external agents and communities working together to identify problems, solutions and action plans.  Participation by consultation: People participate by being consulted, and external people listen to views. These external professionals define both problems and solutions, and may modify these in the light of people's responses. Such a consultative process does not concede any share in decision-making, and professionals are under no obligation to take on board people's views. Participation for material incentives: People participate by providing resources, for example labor, in return for food, cash or other material incentives. Much on-farm research falls in this category, as farmers provide the fields but are not involved in the experimentation or the process of learning. It is very common to see this called participation, yet people have no stake in prolonging activities when the incentives end. Functional participation: People participate by forming groups to meet predetermined project objectives related to the project; which can involve the development or promotion of externally initiated social organizations. Such involvement tends to occur after major decisions have been made rather than in the early stages of project development. These institutions tend to be dependent on external initiators and facilitators, but may become self-dependent. Interactive participation: People participate in joint analysis, which leads to action plans and the formation of new local institutions or the strengthening of existing ones. It 1 From Pretty, J.N., Guit, I., Thompson, J. and Scoones, I (1995). A Trainer's Guide for Participatory Learning and Action, London: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)  tends to involve interdisciplinary methodologies that seek multiple perspectives and make use of systematic and structured learning processes. These groups take control over local decisions so people have a stake in maintaining structures or practices. Self-mobilization: People participate by taking initiatives independently of external institutions to change systems. They develop contacts with external institutions for resources and technical advice they need, but retain control over how resources are used.Such self-initiated mobilization and collective action may or may not challenge existing inequitable distributions of wealth and power.What is participatory appraisal? When can it be used? Do you have experience with it? If so, how was it used and what was your role? Please take a few moments to describe participatory appraisal and your personal experience with the methodology.Example: PRA is when a team of experts works with a community to develop descriptive information and a plan of action. I was the agronomist on a team of five experts that worked with coffee farmers in Kabarole District, Uganda, to find solutions to deforestation. I found out that harvests were decreasing because of climate change related temperature increases, so farmers were clearing more forest to plant more coffee. The physician found that respiratory disease in children was increasing, because of the increased burning to clear forest. As a result we are working with conservation and health NGOs to increase coffee/banana intercropping in Kabarole, so that the coffee trees are shaded and less heat stressed, and kids spend less time cutting and burning forest.Participatory appraisal is a family of approaches and methods that enable people to present, share and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, so as to plan and act. It is participatory, flexible, lightly structured, adaptable, exploratory, empowering and inventive. Some examples of participatory appraisal approaches are rapid rural appraisal, participatory rural appraisal, farming systems research, and participatory impact assessment. Behavior and attitude Example: In Nigeria, an NGO was proposing to supply chickens as part of a livelihoods improvement program. After community meetings it was determined that goats were more useful, because chickens were used exclusively for ceremonial purposes and not for commercial gain.Participatory epidemiology is based on communication and transfer of knowledge, using a variety of tools. Different participatory epidemiology tools can be used to investigate the same issues or diseases. Although the methods are intended primarily to explore different aspects of the issue, there will be some overlap in the information generated. Three main groups of tools will be presented during this training: Informal interviewing: semi-structured interviews, key informant meetings, focus-group discussions  Ranking and scoring: simple ranking, pair-wise ranking, proportional piling, matrix scoring  Visualization: mapping, timelines, seasonal calendars, Venn diagrams In a participatory epidemiology study, information gathered using these tools is complemented by:  Secondary information sources: obtained before you go to your study area and as the study is conducted  Direct observation: people, animals, housing, environment, etc. while in the study area  Laboratory diagnostics: field diagnostic tests complemented by sample collection and analysis by a regional or national laboratory for confirmation Participatory disease surveillance (PDS) is the application of participatory epidemiology to surveillance. Disease occurs due to the interaction between the host (human or animal), the agent (virus or bacteria) and the environment in which the host and the agent are present. PDS is a useful methodology for exploring the social context in which a disease is occurring, as well as other aspects of the host-agent-environment interaction.Qualitative research methods require data checking and analysis. In participatory epidemiology, this process begins during fieldwork. Throughout an investigation the practitioner is analyzing information, and as a result the hypothesis guiding the investigation is continually evolving.There are several ways in which data is crosschecked, validated and analyzed. Probing: during an interview, information provided by informants is explored for internal consistency. When an interviewee responds to a question, the interviewer usually asks additional questions to verify and deepen his or her understanding of the interviewee's viewpoint. Triangulation: an analytical process where data collected by different methods and from different sources is compared. Triangulation is used to explore patterns and coherence, as well as to understand the bias of different informants. Triangulation occurs during an interview, when comparing secondary information and interview results, and during final analysis. Conflict of interest: it is important to understand any potential conflict of interest your informants might have in order to interpret the information you gather. Weighing of evidence: the practitioner needs to weigh the evidence gathered from different sources to make a judgment on which to prioritize and investigate further. Laboratory diagnostics: results, particularly regarding a diagnosis, should be confirmed with biological testing.Different types of data can be collected during an epidemiological study. Quantitative: a measure of \"how much\" of something, expressed as a specific quantity with a unit. For example, a distance of 10 km is a quantitative measure. Qualitative: descriptive and considered more subjective than quantitative data. Instead of a specific quantity and unit of measure, in qualitative terms a distance might be described as \"farther\" than another. Semi-quantitative: information that has been assigned a numeric quantity but the unit of measure may be irregular. Semi-quantitative data is often created from qualitative data by using systems of ranking or prioritization.Participatory epidemiology allows for the collection of all types of data. What are the pros and cons related to each type of epidemiological data? Please take a few minutes to complete the following table. Every epidemiological study has qualitative elements. Whereas statistics measure association, causality is a subjective judgment. Quantitative data should always be interpreted in a context. In quantitative epidemiology, data is validated by probabilities whereas in qualitative epidemiology, the researchers weigh the evidence.The strength of participatory epidemiology is that it allows for the rapid collection of data and is flexible enough to allow the investigators to fill in gaps in knowledge that might be missed in a study utilizing only quantitative methods. With participatory epidemiology, we can contextualize associations and improve the data available for assessments of causality.Participatory epidemiology is complementary to conventional epidemiology. It can be used as a hypothesis generation tool, as a complement to quantitative methods or as a stand-alone discovery process.Participatory epidemiology is best conducted by trained field personnel who are able to contextualize information on the spot and direct questioning in ways that expose sources of bias.Data analysis begins during fieldwork in participatory studies.PUBLIC HEALTH PARTICIPATORY EPIDEMIOLOGY 24As Bias affects all human observations and perceptions. It is a propensity to present one perspective, or a partial perspective, even though there are other equally valid alternatives. In research bias is a deviation from the truth, or a systematic tendency in the collection, analysis, interpretation, publication, or review of data that leads to conclusions that are different from the truth. This does not imply that the deviation is intentional. As scientists we must always be aware of the potential for bias in our work. Understanding bias is a key requirement for being an effective participatory epidemiology practitioner.Randomization of informants is difficult during an investigation, and can make selection bias (systematic differences in participants included in the study) an important problem. It is critical that practitioners of participatory epidemiology understand this from the beginning, so that they are able to probe for information and understand the motivators driving informants to respond the way they do. Practitioners can seek to balance the perspective of one informant by seeking information from someone who may have a different opinion. For example, if after interviewing three middle-class community members and finding that their highest disease priority is high blood pressure, you might interview three poor members of the community. You might find their disease priority is different, perhaps diarrhea. Practitioners of participatory epidemiology seek to understand bias rather than to eliminate it. Why are the viewpoints of the middle class and poor different in the community? By answering that you can begin to understand the drivers behind the different disease problems.Understanding the different types of bias that may affect a study can decrease the likelihood that bias will affect the overall conclusions drawn by the investigator. Selection of a variety of informants, as well as cross checking data through probing and triangulation, will decrease the likelihood that a systematic deviation from the truth will affect the results of a study. How participatory epidemiology tools are designed to reduce bias will be discussed further during this course. In participatory epidemiology we take into consideration how some kinds of bias tend to influence participatory work. These types of bias are 2 : Spatial bias: The selection of a study area based on convenience and access.Investigators often travel by road, leading to study areas identified by proximity of villages to good roads. The people in more remote communities (often the poorest) remain unrepresented in the study.The selection of a study area based on the presence of other projects, because of the increased level of activities in the village and comfort with outside investigators. Visitors and researchers are often channeled to areas where projects have been active and most of the work will then concentrate on these places.The selection of respondents who are easy to access and interact with. The views of certain types of people (influential, rich, vocal, etc.) can overrepresented in the interviewing process, and those people may be biased against poor people, or ignorant of their needs. The \"rural elite,\" while not at all representative of the cross-section of the community, is often the most vociferous during group interviews, drowning out the voices of others. The investigator must make a special effort to include marginalized members of the community in a study, such as women, approaching them in settings where they feel comfortable enough to express their views. Seasonal bias: The collection of data during one part of the year, which may not be representative of the pattern of disease during other parts of the year. For example, malnutrition, morbidity and mortality may be highest at the end of the dry season.Surveys carried out at other times of the year may miss these phenomena. Diplomatic bias: The reporting of information by informants that hides certain problems, out of respect or embarrassment because the problem may have a negative social stigma.For many communities, poverty is the subject of shame, and the needs of the poorest are sometimes glossed over or even concealed, either by the poor themselves or by officials working with them. Professional bias: The filtering of information through the lens of one's professional training, rather than objectively considering it as reported. Health professionals may introduce bias, preventing them from really understanding what informants are trying to tell them. In epidemiology, professional bias can cause problems at the technical level, preventing study teams from correctly understanding the traditional knowledge base.In the blank spaces provided below, please identify the type of bias associated with each situation.1. A mother says that there is a new disease affecting her children. She describes clinical signs similar to those seen in kwashiorkor, which has been in the area for quite some time. The investigator assumes that the mother is incorrect about this being a new disease. Type of bias: _____________________________________________.2. An investigator asks a Ministry of Health official for locations of communities experiencing elevated incidences of childhood pneumonia. The official points the investigator in the direction of villages on a main road between two major towns.Type of bias: ____________________________________________________.3. Fieldwork is conducted between the months of June and August. The investigator asks community members about the disease problems that occur in their village. Type of bias: _________________________________________________________.A village leader is asked about a zoonotic disease that is associated with poor hygiene and poverty. He denies that it exists in his village, but says that it has occurred in a nearby village. Type of bias: ________________________________________.5. An investigator conducts a focus group interview where she suspects a new disease is affecting women. The men answer the majority of the questions with confidence, while the women sit on the periphery and do not offer their opinions. Type of bias: ________________________________________________________________.6. Several villages in a region have community health workers (CHW) who have been trained by an NGO to conduct childhood vaccination. A health official recommends that these would be the best villages to include in a study, because the CHW are very knowledgeable about the childhood diseases in their village. Type of bias:________________________________________________________________.PUBLIC HEALTH PARTICIPATORY EPIDEMIOLOGY 28It is important to be aware of our own attitudes and behavior, and how they might influence our work. Human beings communicate with all five of our senses: sound, sight, hearing, touch and smell. Most of us are used to communicating primarily with the sense of sound, by speaking.However, when we interact with others we are consciously or subconsciously communicating in other ways. Our attitudes are often displayed through these other means of communication; we exhibit behavior that the people become aware of and respond to in unanticipated ways. Our Example: 1) Boredom. During an interview the scientist can look bored, looking around the room rather than at the respondent, interrupting the respondent, or talking to the interview team rather than listening to the respondent. This can lead to diplomatic bias, because respondents can see that you don't want to hear about something, and professional bias, because you might not even take notes on information you find boring.2)3)It is also important to be aware of the attitudes and behaviors of those with whom we are Example: 1) Relaxed. The respondent might smile, sit comfortably, breath easily, look at the interviewer, and willingly answer questions. This is good during an interview because the respondent will provide detailed answers and welcome probing questions. To encourage a respondent to be relaxed, we should be relaxed ourselves, and treat the respondent as our equal.1) Angry3) Suspicious 4) 5)Existing medical or veterinary knowledge is the source of information from which participatory epidemiology practitioners learn. Community members know a lot about human and animal diseases and their clinical presentations. They likely have local names for disease manifestations, especially if the disease has been present in the area for quite some time. For some diseases with clear clinical signs, such as cholera, measles or plague, community members may be able to diagnose the disease and understand the pathology, vectors, reservoirs and other risk factors linked to the occurrence of disease. This type of information has also been called local knowledge, traditional knowledge, ethnoveterinary knowledge and existing knowledge.When working with communities, we frequently seek to build a lexicon for local disease terms.The name for a disease in a local language can tell us a lot about the disease itself. For example, Somali pastoralists call Rift Valley fever sandik, which translates literally as 'bloody nose', because of the bloody nasal exudate they observe in some infected sheep. They even refer to the human form of Rift Valley fever as sandik, because they know it is the same disease affecting livestock and people. Please take a few minutes to reflect on experience you've had with existing knowledge in your work or family. We may develop a clinical case definition for a particular study or investigation, or we may develop a standard case definition to search for a disease at national, regional or global scales. A clinical case definition should provide enough criteria so that the practitioner can arrive at the expected level of certainty in his or her diagnosis, while not being too prescriptive so that important cases go undetected. This will vary, depending on the objective of the study or investigation. For example, if the clinical case definition was the only diagnostic tool forAny person who has an unexplained illness with fever and bleeding from any part of the body or who died after an unexplained severe illness with fever and bleedingdetecting an affected individual, the definition may be very specific. This may be possible when a disease has a pathognomonic sign, such as a pseudomembrane on the tonsils in the case of diphtheria. However, when a clinical case definition is being used for early detection of outbreaks, it may be quite broad so as to pick up all potential cases. Then a laboratory test is required to confirm the diagnosis. For example, a clinical case definition for the earliest possible detection of avian influenza in poultry might simply be sudden, rapid die-off in one or more birds. In such situations, a rapid laboratory diagnosis will be critical to confirming true outbreaks and controlling the disease. Objective:Case definition:Surveillance is the collection of action-oriented information and intelligence within a realistic time frame. Surveillance is information for action! A national public health surveillance system provides for the continuous collection of information, leading to the prevention and control of diseases of public health importance. The structure of the system, what activities are undertaken and how action is implemented, is guided by national policies such as priority public health diseases. All health professionals have some role to play in a national public health surveillance system, and it is important that you have a good understanding of your role. Please take a minute to consider the notifiable diseases in your country. What is the reporting mechanism for these diseases, how does information move through the system, and what do national databases tell you and fail to tell you about these diseases?By the end of the session, participants will be able to:1. Understand national public health surveillance structures 2. Be knowledgeable of government public health policies and initiatives 3. Have a list of nationally notifiable diseases of public health concern Consider the strengths and weaknesses of your current public health surveillance system. As you develop new skills and ideas during this training, take time to reflect on how participatory epidemiology can be used most effectively to fill gaps in the system.Interviewing is a specialized skill that improves with practice. Although just about anyone can collect information through an interview, the amount and reliability of information obtained can be greatly improved with experience. By the end of the session, participants will be able to:1. Describe the elements of a semi-structured interview Take a minute to think about all the things a team needs to do to prepare before leaving for the field to conduct an interview.Please make a list of things that a participatory epidemiology team needs to do and prepare before leaving for the field to conduct an interview.Examples: 1) Agree on roles. 2) Prepare biological sampling kit.A checklist allows the interview to be flexible and permits the respondents to express their thoughts in their own words within their own conceptual frameworks. It provides overall direction and ensures that no major points are missed in the interview. Respondents can discuss issues of special interest to them, and the appraisal team can investigate specific themes raised by the respondents. Not all items on a checklist/interview guide need to be covered with every group of participants; this is a matter of judgment.Mental checklists are a type of checklist that is not written down on paper. These are things you want to keep in mind in case certain subjects come up during an interview. They are commonly used when probing information about a disease, so that you can arrive at a diagnosis. For example, if respondents mention that they are afraid of a disease that caused several people to suddenly die in the village last year, you want to have a mental checklist of the different causes of sudden death in people, their symptoms and epidemiological patterns that will help youChecklist for the identification and prioritization of childhood health issues:1. Introduce the appraisal team and purpose of the visit You and your team have been asked to investigate a rumor of an outbreak of cholera.In the space below please develop a checklist to guide your investigation.1) Introductions of team and community members7) Questions from the respondentsThe place and time when interviews are conducted influence their success. Unfortunately, the study team does not always have control over these aspects, but every effort should be made to arrange a quiet and comfortable location. Ideally, the interview team and respondents should feel relaxed and on equal footing with each other. Traditional community meeting places make good group interview sites. Although community and training centers may make acceptable interview sites, official offices or the appearance of an official enquiry should be avoided.The best time for an interview varies from community to community, and an initial exploratory visit is often needed to make sure that you plan the interview for a suitable time. Always ask if it is a convenient time and if not, when you could meet. The interview should be planned to last 60-90 minutes. If it lasts too long, participants will begin to lose interest and the quality of information provided will decline. Learn to watch for signs of fatigue and boredom. Fidgeting and side conversations are a sign that either the interview needs to be enlivened by a shift to topics of greater interest or that it is time to wrap up and ask any key questions that may remain.The first step in any interview is introductions. The members of the study team should introduce themselves and ask the participants to introduce themselves, assuming that it is culturally acceptable. The introduction and the reason for the visit should be accurate, but should not bias the response of the participants. For instance, if you place emphasis on a particular subject such as diabetes or tuberculosis in your introduction, the respondents will frequently put undue emphasis on these topics in their replies.The study team must be careful not to raise community expectations concerning future projects or services. The introduction is a good opportunity to diffuse some of these expectations by stating that the appraisal is only a study and the members of the appraisal team are not the decision-makers for future programs.Open-ended questions are designed to encourage full, meaningful answers using the responder's own knowledge and feelings. Questions should be ordered so that the interview progresses from general themes to specifics.As much as possible, the respondents should determine the direction of the interview. As a result, the majority of questions cannot be pre-planned. They must be designed on the spot in light of the information already presented, and the investigator must be able to think on his or her feet.The appraisal team may have a special interest in unraveling the local epidemiology of kwashiorkor, for example, and wish to ask about the last occurrence of kwashiorkor in every interview. This can be done, but very careful attention must be paid to when the question is asked in the flow of the interview to avoid leading the discussion. If the condition is endemic, the participants will probably raise the subject of kwashiorkor, and then the appraisal team can safely ask their standard questions. If the participants never introduce kwashiorkor, the kwashiorkor questions can be asked at the end of the interview. However, the appraisal team should note that the community did not introduce the subject and that this probably reflects that kwashiorkor is not a local priority.In public health interviews, quantitative questions on subjects such as the number of people in a household or family size may not receive very accurate responses, and it may be best to avoid these questions. The number of people in a household may vary over time, and in many societies defining relationships is complex and may be seen as intrusive. For instance, 'sons' may actually be nephews or cousins. Clearly identifying which child belongs to which parent may be considered impolite. Amongst farmers, the number of animals is a sign of wealth. It is generally impolite to ask exactly how many animals a farmer owns. If farmers do respond, poor farmers may exaggerate and rich ones may depreciate their holdings. It is possible to collect accurate data on family or herd sizes to calculate mortality rates by triangulating owner information with direct observation of the herd and information from neighbors about the subject's livestock holdings. 4 In some societies, though, it is unacceptable to ask one person about another person's livestock holdings.Probing means to ask detailed questions on a specific subject raised by a respondent. Probing is both a data gathering and quality control technique. Probing can be used to verify the internal consistency of information or simply to gather more detailed information on a particular subject.In participatory epidemiology, probing is often used to obtain a more detailed description of a particular disease entity volunteered by a respondent. For example, respondents might describe a disease that causes a child to cough. The appraisal team could inquire if there is an adult in the same household with a cough for more than two weeks and if so, does the adult have other symptoms like weight loss, evening fevers, loss of appetite, chest pain with or without productive cough and with or without blood in the sputum. A positive response is a characteristic description of pulmonary tuberculosis and further testing will confirm the diagnosis.Verifying the internal consistency of information is an important means of data quality control.Probing helps to establish the plausibility of statements made by informants by gathering more detailed information about an issue. This does not mean that 'trick questions' or attempts to lead the participants into self-contradiction should be made. PRA is founded on enlightened respect for individual opinions and observations. The interviewer respectfully evaluates the quality and merit of all statements from all individuals.It is very important to observe as well as listen. Are the respondents relaxed and confident? Is there eye contact? What types of body language are being expressed? Are some topics sensitive?Is everyone participating? Who is not participating? Are some people comfortable and others not? What are the differences in appearance between those participating and those who are not?Is gender, wealth or age the issue (don't ask, observe)? Follow-up interviews can be arranged with 'non-participating' respondents in groupings where they may feel more comfortable.During a socio-ethnographic survey of the Upper Juba Valley in Somalia, aimed at understanding the land tenure system of riverine farmers, initial questioning with official informants and interviewees seemed to confirm that ownership and rights to land were on an individual basis. However, the interviewers' personal observations of the ratio of people to land made them question the possibility that so many could own so little land. For verification, they measured every field and interviewed each individual claimant and discovered that many people had varying claims on the same piece of land. Believing they had misheard, the interviewers asked again about land ownership. Further probing clarified that claims were in proportion to the genealogical distance from the claimant to the farmer and hence, several people could be said to \"own a particular piece of land. Contrary to official information as well as what the interviewers thought they had heard, land rights and tenure were fluid and evolving rather than fixed.From Mitchell J & Slim H. 1991. Listening to rural people in Africa: the semi-structured interview in rapid rural appraisal. Disasters, 15(1):68-72.With few notable exceptions, people will readily talk about their health concerns. Participatory epidemiology is about letting people share their knowledge and learning from them. Listen. Be patient and open-minded.Usually a participatory epidemiology interview is conducted by a team. There are three important roles, the interviewer, the note taker, and the analyst.A good interviewer is a good communicator. Remember communication involves two things, speaking and listening. When asking questions, the interviewer uses simple language. After asking a question, the interviewer gives the respondent all the time he/she needs to answer. Be diplomatic and adopt a positive attitude. Be informal, following the customs of your respondents, but also be confident and make sure that dominant personalities do not take over the interview and drown out the voices of other respondents.A good note taker listens to both the questions and the response. Note the nature of the question.Was it open or closed? How was it asked? These things will influence the response. Monitor the respondents and note any interesting behaviours. Did they become uncomfortable when a certain question was asked? Observe group dynamics. Note who within the group is contributing to which questions and who is keeping quiet. Listen and note if bias is introduced during an interview, and potential underlying reasons. Don't judge responses, note exactly what respondents say even if it does not seem rational to you. Even before the interview starts, the note-taker is at work: date, location, setting, number of respondents, gender, ages, ethnicities, start and end times. Many of these notes about the interview setting and implementation will help the team when it comes time for analysis.A good analyst listens closely to the interview, and is noting issues like subjects that have not been fully probed, subjects that may have been forgotten, confusing or conflicting responses, bias and discomfort among the respondents. The analyst does not interrupt the interviewer when an issue is noted. Often the analyst will find that an issue is rectified later in the interview and no intervention is necessary. Before the interview, however, the interviewer and analyst should agree on a protocol for how the analyst will notify the interviewer if something needs to be handled. For instance, the team may agree that at the end of each subject on a checklist the interviewer will stop and ask the analyst if there is anything else that needs to be clarified. Or the analyst might pass a small note to the interviewer to tell him or her of an issue or problem.This means that teamwork is critical to the success of an interview. If the facilitator is acting alone, he or she should record only the main points during the interview. Full notes can be made at the end in order to not slow down or interrupt the interview process. Regardless of whether the facilitator is working with a team or acting alone, notes should be reviewed immediately following the interview and overlooked details should be added. Use open-ended questions (start with Where? Who? What? How? When? Why?) Order questions from general to specific  Probe areas of interest when they arise  Organize and prepare the interview team before heading out  In general, the disease under investigation is not disclosed until part way through the interview. Some situations will require disclosure before the interview begins to allow participants to choose whether to participate (e.g. domestic violence). Now take a minute to review the list of all the things a team needs to do to prepare before leaving for the field to conduct an interview. Do you need to add to or revise your list? What should the team do immediately together after the semi-structured interview?Please make a list of things that a participatory epidemiology team needs to do together as soon as they return from the field where they conducted an interview.Examples PUBLIC HEALTH PARTICIPATORY EPIDEMIOLOGY 56A community is a group of people who share the same norms, attitudes, culture, behavior, values or geographic location.Community structures are support mechanisms or systems within the community to help members respond to day-to-day issues. They can be formal or informal and be linked to social roles, such as age group mentors. Examples of political structures are councils and elders groups. Health examples include village health teams, community health workers and veterinary health teams.Community entry points include: local authorities (politicians), religious leaders, elders, the chairlady of a women's groups, councilors, teachers, relief coordination mechanisms, aunties/Senga for HIV/sexual education (in Bantu culture) and celebrities.By the end of the session, participants will be able to:1. Describe the elements of community structures, assets, organization and entry pointsThere are five forms of capital available within a community. Access to these assets by community members is mediated by different transforming structures and processes, which can either facilitate or hinder access and utilization by different sections of the community. Financial capital: banks, lending or credit facilities then the result will be undesired outcomes like increased vulnerability and increased poverty.Note that the five forms of capital are not fixed as one can be converted into another depending on needs. For example, sand, which is a natural capital, can be used in the construction of a health facility, which becomes a physical capital. Water and soil (natural capital) can be converted into crops and livestock, which are then sold and converted into financial capital.Financial capital is used for education, which becomes human capital.A framework for analyzing community assets is called asset pentagon. Please take a few minutes to imagine that you have been asked to carry out a survey of zoonotic disease problems in a remote pastoral community in your country. In particular, you are to focus on zoonotic diseases that women are exposed to because of their livelihood activities. How does knowledge of the community asset pentagon help you plan you study? 1) How will you find an entry point into the community, so that you have freedom to interview different community members?2) What forms of capital should you include on your checklist for discussion with community informants, and why?3) What structures should you include on your checklist for discussion with community informants, and why?4) What livelihood strategies should you include on your checklist for discussion with community informants, and why? There are both advantages and disadvantages to the use of the asset pentagon as a framework for organizing one's work in a community. Therefore the use of this framework should be flexible and adaptable.Highlights core influences and processes and can help the analyst order his/her thoughts. Key issues, questions and contradictions show area where action is possible.Two-dimensional representation of processes is limited and simplification cannot capture the dynamic elements of livelihood systems.Good for analysis of micro policies relating to poverty reduction as it emphasizes the links between various components that affect livelihood.It is only a tool for analysis. It can be taken too rigidly and not be adapted appropriately to circumstances.It points the effects of macro policies at local level.It is complex and can be used even where simpler tools are equally useful.It can be used at various levels, from individual household to village to large geographical zone.The framework may be too abstract for people working in the field.There is danger of being overambitious in using the approach.Obstacles to participation may exist within community structures. Other obstacles can be norms and cultural rules, lack of organization and organizational skills, poor communication infrastructure, poverty and other issues that marginalize some members of the community, and corruption. All of these issues can throw up barriers to meaningful participation.Please return to you study of zoonotic diseases that pastoral women and children are exposed to because of their livelihood activities. Think about the obstacles women and children in the community will face to participate in your study, and how you can help them overcome those obstacles so that your study is representative of all community members. Example: 1) Women likely won't speak English because they are less educated. I'll need a translator, who should be a woman from the same culture.2)3) 4) One strategy for developing an organization is to make it location specific, and either work with an existing organization or form a new one. Type of activity or resources to be managed On a questionnaire we might ask how many cattle a man owns, or how many children a woman has. There is a high risk that the response we get will not be true, because if the respondent gave true information he or she would violate norms and traditions regarding giving others such information. The advantages of using ranking and scoring techniques include: They do not require actual numbers to be revealed, because the scores given are relative.Therefore, potentially sensitive questions such as, 'how many children live in this household?' are not necessary. Like other participatory epidemiology tools, the method does not require literacy on the part of the informants. Semi-quantitative data is collected that can be evaluated statistically. Comparisons can be made between different regions and different categories of informants. Data collected can be used to triangulate information from the semi-structured interview.By the end of the session, participants will be able to:1. Demonstrate the use of simple ranking 2. Demonstrate the use of pairwise ranking 3. Demonstrate the use of proportional pilingWhen using any type of scoring technique, you will be able to group and analyze the data at the end of your study. Therefore, it is important that your question is quite specific and consistent, so different respondents don't end up scoring different things.The first question lacks specificity. The respondent can answer for the village, her family or herself. She can give you current health problems, recent issues, or issues that she worries about because her mother told her that in the past they frequently occurred. And each respondent can interpret these things differently, so in the end you will not be able to compare their answers.The second question lets the informant know that you are interested in childhood diseases in her home, but still lacks specificity concerning time period. The third question lets the informant know exactly what your units of evaluation are: childhood diseases, household level, past 12 months.Sometimes certain health conditions are a stigma, for instance AIDS, and you know that respondents will not admit to them occurring in their family. Then you need to clearly decide on a unit of evaluation that will allow you to gather useful information, but will not make the respondent uncomfortable. Your units of evaluation can be: diseases, village level, past 12What are the health problems here?What kinds of health problems have your children experienced? Always remember to probe responses. By probing you will have semi-quantitative data that you can analyze statistically, and you will have a rich body of qualitative data that will provide you background information for each result. Please take a few minutes to think about why it is important to have the qualitative information. In the exercise above you were given an example of a village in which respondents said three childhood diseases occurred over the past year, diarrhea, ringworm and a wasting disease. You were asked to anticipate which disease would have the highest morbidity, mortality and impact in terms of missed school days. Now put yourself in the shoes of a decision-maker, and consider how you will act on this information. What further information will the committee ask for? 1)2)3)What concrete actions can the committee take now, while it is waiting for the above information? 1)2)3)Now lets' move on and learn how to carry out ranking exercises in three different ways.In simple ranking the informants are requested to order a list of items based on a defined set of criteria. Simple ranking is a fast and easy tool that allows many people to participate. It is an easy way to make sure there is a consensus among the group being interviewed, and gives the investigator the opportunity to probe more deeply into the meaning behind the ranking. Ranking criteria could include prevalence, mortality, impact on the household, and many others. represents. Remember, not everyone will be able to read or understand each drawing, so be careful to clearly explain what each card represents. Some of your respondents will memorize the cards in this way.5. Ask the group to rank the diseases based on your defined criteria. For example, 'Please show me which of these diseases affected the most children in your village in the last year by placing that card on top, and continue ranking them until the disease that affected the fewest children is on the bottom.\"6. Give them time to discuss and rank the cards by consensus. Encourage them to make adjustments if they want to. When they appear to have finished, ask them if they all agree on the result.7. Leave the cards in place. Summarize and crosscheck their ranking. For example, 'You have put pneumonia first, followed by diarrheal diseases, then malnutrition, then HIV/AIDS. Is this correct?' 8. Probe the results. \"Why did you put pneumonia first and HIV/AIDS last, and why is malnutrition above HIV/AIDS?\"9. Record the ranking question, the results, and notes of any discussion during the ranking and probing.It might help to think of participatory epidemiology tools in terms of steps the first few times you try them.Simple ranking is a quick way of gathering data to help the researcher understand issues from the respondents' point of view. It is usually best to conduct this exercise with small groups, although it can be done with individuals or quite large groups. Respondents should discuss the ranking and arrive at their decision by consensus. Listening to the discussion and probing the results of the ranking provides as much or more information than the final ranking.It is really important that all participants understand the ranking criteria during the exercise. For instance, it is easy to confuse prevalence with impact when ranking diseases.Pair-wise ranking is a slightly more complex method than simple ranking. Each item is compared individually with all the other items one-by-one. In pair-wise ranking, the interviewer compares two items from the list and asks the participants to name the most important. This is repeated for every possible combination in the list. This is approach is considered more reliable than simple ranking as it assists the participants to consider every possible relationship. It is especially useful if informants cannot reach a consensus using simple ranking or if they scoreCommunity members in an irrigated village of Mwea division, Kenya, were asked to rank health and social problems in order of importance to them and other stakeholders. They provided the BMC Public Health, 7:133.Proportional piling is a tool that allows respondents to give relative scores to a number of different items or categories according to one criterion. The scoring is done by asking participants to divide 100 counters (beans, stones or similar items that are familiar to the community and locally available) into different piles that represent the categories. For example, the community could give scores to a set of disease problems (the categories) according to the impact the diseases have on their livelihood (the parameter). Alternately, the community could be asked to score the diseases according to how commonly they occur. Semi-quantitative data is collected by recording the number of counters in each category.In veterinary participatory epidemiology, uses of proportional piling during a semi-structured interview include the demonstration of: Circles can also be made from construction paper or drawn on flipchart paper.5. Make sure everyone recognizes each category by its drawing or card.6. Place 100 counters in a pile, and ask the respondents to divide them according to a particular characteristic or parameter. Respondents should not count the counters, but divide them visually. Record the question now if you haven't already. For example, 'Please divide these beans to represent the impact each disease had on your livelihood in the past year'.7. Allow time to discuss and divide the piles by consensus. When the group appears to be finished, summarize and crosscheck the result. \"Does everyone agree? Does anyone disagree that tuberculosis has such a big impact?\" 8. Count the counters, but leave them in place so that the result can be discussed. 9. Probe the results. Why did they make these choices? For example, 'HIV/AIDS ranks second with 20 beans and malaria third with 5 beans, but there is a big difference between 20 and 5. Why do you say that tuberculosis had such a greater impact on your livelihoods than malaria in the past year?'It is usually best to conduct this exercise with small groups, although it can be used with larger groups or with individuals. The group should discuss the division of the counters and arrive at their decision by consensus. Listening to the discussion and probing the results of the piling provides as much or more information than the final score. This information tells you why the respondents gave the scores that they did and tells a lot about how they view the problems. Have your proportional piling question clear in your own mind and write it down in your notebook.Proportional piling to demonstrate relative sources of household income or food during wet and dry seasons, Turkana, Kenya. A group of Ugandans were asked to list the major drivers for new HIV infections. They listed: cross-generational sex, lack of access to health care, poor attitude towards prevention, multiple partners, commercial sex workers and alcohol consumption. We drew six circles and label them with words representing the participants' responses.The group was asked to distribute 100 counters relative to the degree that each parameter drives new HIV infections. The results are below.Probing questions included: Why are multiple partners the biggest driver? Who is most affected by having a poor attitude towards prevention? Do all of the commercial sex workers practice safe sex? The results of proportional piling exercises from different groups can be averaged to derive an aggregate score. You should pay close attention to the types of stakeholders or key informants who participate in the interviews. Often different stakeholders or key informant groups will provide very different scores and probing differences provide a lot of insight into the different perceptions and priorities of the groups.Probing differences and calculating average scores for different segments of the community is known as analyzing the disaggregated results. For example, women often score diseases very differently from men because their needs and concerns differ from men.More information about analyzing ranking data will be provided later in the training.Are Visualization techniques demonstrate information that cannot be easily communicated orally.The information collected can be used to triangulate information from the semi-structured interview.Participatory mapping is a technique for diagramming key physical resources, hazards, and land use patterns. It is one of the most useful tools of participatory epidemiology because sometimes it is easier to draw a map than to describe spatial relationships orally. Mapping can be used at the beginning of an interview to define the spatial boundary of the area under investigation. It can also be referenced through the rest of the interview whenever spatial issues arise. Once a map has been drawn it can be used to demonstrate the location of disease outbreaks, the spread of disease through an area over time and to show risk factors for disease occurrence or spread.By the end of the session, participants will be able to:1. Demonstrate the use of participatory mapping, including geographical features and risk factors for disease Key points to remember: Spatial information on human and animal population density, distribution, movements, interactions, diseases and disease vectors is extremely useful in epidemiology. Some information is easier to describe and analyze visually than in written form. It is easier to draw a map than describe a map in words. Mapping is useful at the beginning of an inquiry as an icebreaker to get many people involved right from the start. Maps produced on the ground using locally available materials are easy to adjust until informants are happy that the map is correct. As with other activities, it is useful to prepare a mental or written checklist of items to be probed during the mapping exercise. Respondents should not only be asked to illustrate locations on the map, but to provide underlying reasons for movements and resource use. At the end of the interview, maps can be used to plan disease control activities.A mapping exercise to identify areas for malaria vector mosquito control through targeted larval source management in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The sketch map is linked to areal maps, with important boundaries defined by participants.Credit: Dongus S, Nyika D, Kannady K, Mtasiwa D, Mshinda H, fillinger U, Drescher AW, Tanner M, Castro MC, Killeen GF.2007. Participatory mapping of target areas to enable operational larval source management to suppress malaria vector mosquitoes in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. International Journal of Health Geography, 6:37.1. Request the informants to draw geographic and physical features of their village or area on a map: the place of the meeting, main roads, rivers, lakes, important public places, health posts and clinics, fields, bore holes, etc.2. Make sure that features important to your study are included: health clinics, immunization centers, maternal-child services, family planning services, mode of delivery (no cost or need to pay), approximate distance, etc.3. Once the map is completed, or while participants are drawing the map, ask probing questions, such as, 'what services are available to perinatal women? How far do they need to travel to the center? Are referral centers available for complicated pregnancies?Where did an outbreak of neonatal diarrhea occur?' 4. To finalize the map, find out which direction is north and mark it on the map. Also try to obtain an idea of scale by asking the distance between two key points, and then add an approximate scale. If symbols are used to represent features, add a key to the map.Copy the map into a notebook or take a photograph of the map. Depending on the location of the meeting and the type of participants, the map may be drawn on the ground and features represented by objects such as stones or sticks, or it can be drawn on flip chart paper with colored markers. It is important that the map is large so that everyone can see it and contribute to its development. Maps can be drawn on different scales depending on the objective of the study being carried out. The map could be of a health center and its surrounding area, a village and its surrounding area, a district or even a country. The map can be drawn either interactively (with suggestions and probing questions from the investigator) or the informants can be left alone to draw the map and then asked to explain the map to investigator. A blank sheet of paper can be intimidating. If the participants have trouble getting going, start by adding a feature that the informants have mentioned and then ask where another feature is located relative to the first. Ask them to draw or place this feature on the map themselves. Some informants may not know the directions (north, south, east, west). You may ask them in which direction the sun rises and mark this on the map. If the informants cannot estimate approximate distances (in kilometers), ask them how long it takes to walk from one location to another and mark this on the map. The informants may appreciate if you leave a copy of the map behind for them to reference. This is a way of giving back to the community. Be sure that the results are adequately documented.Please take a few minutes to think about a disease that recently occurred in your neighborhood, or in a village that you worked in. What aspects of that outbreak could have been mapped, particularly disease determinants, to help you better understand the pattern of the outbreak? A disease determinant is a variable, such an environmental factor, that influences the pattern of that disease or outbreak. Map:New learning about the outbreak pattern:A risk map is an image that shows the spatial distribution of disease risk. The principle behind risk maps is that the spatial distribution of a risk factor will influence the spatial distribution of disease risk. If different risk factors exist for a given disease, and they have different degrees of association between the risk factors and the disease, it becomes difficult to estimate the likely spatial distribution of the risk of disease. One option then is to overlay and combine the spatial distribution of multiple risk factors, in order to obtain a combined indication of disease risk. This is the approach used for creating risk maps. These days risk maps are often generated using geographic information software so that epidemiologists can identify areas that may be at high risk for a disease. However, risk factors for disease can be mapped without needing sophisticated equipment. A risk factor is something likely to increase the chances that a particular event will occur. For example, smoking is a strong risk factor for lung cancer, and use of mobile phone while driving is a risk factor for accidents. The presence of Anopheles mosquitoes is a risk factor for malaria, because mosquitoes are vectors for malaria and transmission of the disease from human to human occurs by the bite of infected mosquito. 7. Remember that there may be sensitivities about an outbreak. Be careful not to create an atmosphere of recrimination, where some people begin blaming others for their disease problems. For example, the informants may want to hold the person in the first affected household responsible if they begin to feel that he is responsible for the outbreak. Make Sometimes it is not in the scope of our activities to target behavior change, and we simply provide information. However, our impact is lasting when we target changing the behaviors that lead to a disease or problem. Behavior change communication is about facilitating change, assisting people to identify determinants of their behavior (e.g. why people smoke) and strategies to adopt more healthy behaviors (e.g. quitting smoking).For example, for Guinea worm disease eradication, we could inform people to filter all their drinking water, and even demonstrate how to filter water. A behavior change communication approach would engage the community in identifying why people don't filter their drinking water, as well as how the community could act to ensure everyone always filters their water.Providing education and information about how to prevent diseases is important. However,where people already have the information and the disease still occurs, giving more information will not prevent more infections. This is where facilitation is required to change the behaviors that lead to disease. In the case of Guinea worm, behaviors which help disease transmission are not filtering water, not reporting cases, not keeping affected people out of water sources and not cleaning home water containers. If communities already know that by doing these things theyBy the end of the session, the participants should:1. Describe the principles of behavior change communication believes God causes the disease rather than contaminated water, it is very unlikely that any one member of the community will be able to change his/her beliefs and behaviors in the context of the more widely held community belief.While there are multiple theories about behaviors that affect how we act, a few noteworthy models are outlined briefly below. Health Belief Model: Health-related behavior change is based on the perceived severity of the threat to health. Theory of Reasoned Action: Individuals consider a behavior's consequences before performing that particular behavior. Specifically, an individual's personal attitude and social pressures shape intention, which determines behavior and behavior change.  Perception of Divine Will: The perception that all aspects of life are determined by Divine will (e.g. God's will).The factor most predictive of the effort an individual will expend in initiating and maintaining a new behavior is self-efficacy, an individual's impression of their own ability to perform a task.Self-efficacy is shaped by previous success in performing the task, the individual's psychological state as well as external sources of influence.Comparing those who do a behavior (doers) to those who do not do the behavior (non-doers) is one method of identifying the most important determinants on which to focus interventions. This PUBLIC HEALTH PARTICIPATORY EPIDEMIOLOGY 100 method helps identify specific barriers and facilitators for particular behaviors. Understanding the reasons why doers do a behavior can assist non-doers in modifying their own.A behavioral determinant is a reason why someone does or does not do something. They can be classified as either: Barriers: things that prevent a behavior This rapid assessment tool is used in community projects to identify behavioral determinants associated with a particular behavior, in order to develop more effective communication messages and support activities. Barrier analysis helps to identify determinants that block people from taking actions, and positive attributes of behavior in order for individuals to improve their lives. The framework 5 consists of exploring and working with various behavioral determinants. Before you go to the field you need to make sure you are well prepared. Study objective: discuss the objective of the study in your team, and make sure you have a common understanding. Hypothesis: what is the hypothesis for you study? For example, it might be 'there are several communicable diseases that are common in this village, including HIV/AIDS'. Secondary sources of information: what sources of information would you like to consult before you start your fieldwork? These may include the World Wide Web, government records, laboratory results, published papers, ethnographic texts, health texts, etc. Checklist: develop a checklist for your study. Discuss it to make sure each member of the team has a common understanding of what information is to be gathered with each topic, the criterion for each topic, and what tools will be used for each. So far you have learned about semi-structured interviews, ranking and mapping. Team roles: determine what role each team member will play to start with, and when you will change roles. Come to agreement on how the interviewer and analyst will work together. When you return from the field go through a routine review. Team debrief: What went well? What did not go well? What should we do in the future? Community: what was the comportment of the respondents during your fieldwork? Did their comportment change over time, or between interviews? Discuss: body language, posture, eye contact, talking time, active listening, attitude, language and phrasing of questions, seating/standing arrangements, fatigue, comfort/sensitivity, mood, judgments/impartiality, professionalism, dress code. Overall, how do you feel as facilitators after your first practice day? Notes: Review the notes to make sure they are accurate and complete. Make sure observations are also recorded in the notes: types of questions asked, when biased was introduced, the comportment of the respondents, etc. Hypothesis: review your hypothesis and determine if you would like to modify it. However, in participatory epidemiology we can also use the term 'transect walk' loosely. We can conduct a transect walk in a straight line through a village or area of interest. Or we may decide we want to probe a certain issue deeply, like water sources. So we choose to visit eachwater source in the village, making observations as we move towards and away from each point of interest.Transect walks have been referred to as 'walking surveys' and 'mobile interviews'. Transects can be time consuming, but a lot of information is missed by field teams who drive into an area and drive out after an interview or questionnaire is administered. A wealth of information is available to a relaxed observer who takes the time to look around, allowing for a deeper understanding of the data gathered using other participatory epidemiology tools.The following are regarded as some of the strengths of transect walks: where the carcasses of poultry who die suddenly are being tossed?2. Find a community member to accompany you on the transect walk. Make sure this is the right person. For example, if you want to meet women during your walk and your guide is a man, will the women feel comfortable? Explain to your guide the objective of your walk.3. During the transect walk, directly observe and note community life and physical features of the area. Community members said during the interview that they do not share housing with their animals. However, during a transect walk, no animal enclosures or huts were observed. As the only shelters were for human habitation, it became evident that animals and humans must share the same dwellings at night. This helped the research team understand housing patters, but it also helped them understand that the sharing of housing was a sensitive issue in this community, and the reasons behind both the lack of animal housing and the community sensitivity would need to be understood if behavior change communication about zoonotic diseases would be effective.In the early days of a refugee crisis in eastern Chad it was not possible to implement the good standard of sanitation of one latrine for every 20 people, because of the rapid influx of refugees. As the conflict continued, latrine building became a priority until the standard was achieved. However, on a transect walk it was observed that only a small number of latrines were being used while the rest showed little sign of use. Questions to a camp resident clarified that the new latrines were incorrectly placed, causing one's back to face Mecca. As a consequence, everyone avoided those latrines even if it meant sharing the other ones with as many as 50 people!during the interview. Transect walks may be more useful at the end of an interview, however, so that respondents can demonstrate some of the topics that were raised during the interview. There may be situations when a complete transect is not possible, such as inclement weather, or there is too large of an area to be covered. In these scenarios, it may be helpful to conduct purposive walks to key sites recommended by informants.Conducting a 'transect drive' may also be appropriate in these scenarios. Explaining the purpose and objective of the transect walk is a very important first step before the activity begins. Informants must clearly understand that everyday sites and activities are of interest, and that main roads are fine but it is also desirable to observe hidden areas of the community that demonstrate daily life. Do not follow the main road through a village. It is equally important to note that a transect walk provides a snapshot in time. To get a better idea of what goes on in a village, it is best to stay and camp or live in the village for several days. This will provide a more in depth understanding of routine activities, both during the day and night.Accompanied by a community representative, a transect walk was undertaken through the Itereleng informal settlement. The purpose of the transect walk was to determine the vulnerabilities of the community.The walk started at the entrance to the informal settlement commencing down the second road until the end of the settlement, then up along the outskirts until the last road was reached. Finally the return walk commenced by going back across through the settlement, detouring among some of the houses and back down to the entrance.A steady flow of residents walked alongside explaining some of the hardships they encounter, providing an indication of what community life entails.Certain hardships and health dangers were obvious. These included a lack of working taps, pit latrines rather than proper sanitation and locked cubicles on several of the temporary toilets. The settlement was also built on a steep incline: when flooding occurred, water would surge through the settlement with great force and speed.The residents communicated that the greatest risk to the community was fire. Large areas of dry grass surrounded the settlement and fire hydrants and hoses were absent. Residents also identified that the roads were in poor condition and rescue vehicles could not access the community easily.In the far south corner of the settlement, the dwellings were not partitioned by roads but were nearly on top of each other. If a fire did break out in this area, it would spread quickly to surrounding dwellings and make escape and rescue difficult. Developed by Research Methods Group (RMG),Nairobi, Kenya, October 2009The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a location system based on a constellation of about 24 satellites orbiting the earth at altitudes of approximately 11,000 miles. GPS was developed by the United States Department of Defense (DOD), for its tremendous application as a military locating utility. However, over the past several years, GPS has proven to be a useful tool in nonmilitary mapping applications as well.GPS satellites are orbited high enough to avoid the problems associated with land based systems, yet can provide accurate positioning 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world. Uncorrected positions determined from GPS satellite signals produce accuracies in the range of 2 to 10 meters. When using a technique called differential correction, users can get positions accurate to within millimeters.As GPS units are becoming smaller and less expensive, there are an expanding number of applications for GPS. In transportation applications, GPS assists pilots and drivers in pinpointing their locations and avoiding collisions. Farmers can use GPS to guide equipment and control accurate distribution of fertilizers and other chemicals.Recreationally, GPS is used for providing accurate locations and as a navigation tool for hikers, hunters and boaters. Many would argue that GPS has found its greatest utility in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). With some consideration for error, GPS can provide any point on earth with a unique address (its precise location). A GIS is basically a descriptive database of the earth (or a specific part of the earth). GPS tells you that you are at point X,Y,Z while GIS tells you that X,Y,Z is an oak tree, or a spot in a stream with a pH level of 5.4. GPS tells us the \"where\". GIS tells us the \"what\". GPS/GIS is therefore reshaping the way we locate, organize, analyze and map our resources.GPS is based on satellite ranging -calculating the distances between the receiver and the position of 3 or more satellites (4 or more if elevation is desired) and then applying some good old mathematics. Assuming the positions of the satellites are known, the location of the receiver can be calculated by determining the distance from each of the satellites to the receiver. GPS takes these 3 or more known references and measured distances and \"triangulates\" an additional position.As an example, assume that I have asked you to find me at a stationary position based upon a few clues that I am willing to give you. First, I tell you that I am exactly 10 miles away from your house. You would know I am somewhere on the perimeter of a sphere that has an origin as your house and a radius of 10km. With this information alone, you would have a difficult time to find me since there are an infinite number of locations on the perimeter of that sphere.Second, I tell you that I am also exactly 12km away from the ABC Grocery Store. Now you can define a second sphere with its origin at the store and a radius of 12km. You know that I am located somewhere in the space where the perimeters of these two spheres intersect -but there are still many possibilities to define my location.Adding additional spheres will further reduce the number of possible locations. In fact, a third origin and distance (I tell you am 8km away from the City Clock) narrows my position down to just 2 points. By adding one more sphere, you can pinpoint my exact location. Actually, the 4th sphere may not be necessary. One of the possibilities may not make sense, and therefore can be eliminated.For example, if you know I am above sea level, you can reject a point that has negative elevation. Mathematics and computers allow us to determine the correct point with only 3 satellites.GPS determines distance between a GPS satellite and a GPS receiver by measuring the amount of time it takes a radio signal (the GPS signal) to travel from the satellite to the receiver. Radio waves travel at the speed of light, which is about 186,000 miles per second. So, if the amount of time it takes for the signal to travel from the satellite to the receiver is known, the distance from the satellite to the receiver (distance = speed x time) can be determined. If the exact time when the signal was transmitted and the exact time when it was received are known, the signal's travel time can be determined.In order to do this, the satellites and the receivers use very accurate clocks that are synchronized so that they generate the same code at exactly the same time. The code received from the satellite can be compared with the code generated by the receiver. By comparing the codes, the time difference between when the satellite generated the code and when the receiver generated the code can be determined. This interval is the travel time of the code. Multiplying this travel time, in seconds, by 186,000 miles per second gives the distance from the receiver position to the satellite in miles.In the previous example, you saw that it took only 3 measurements to \"triangulate\" a 3D position. However, GPS needs a 4th satellite to provide a 3D position. Why??Three measurements can be used to locate a point, assuming the GPS receiver and satellite clocks are precisely and continually synchronized, thereby allowing the distance calculations to be accurately determined. Unfortunately, it is impossible to synchronize these two clocks, since the clocks in GPS receivers are not as accurate as the very precise and expensive atomic clocks in the satellites. The GPS signals travel from the satellite to the receiver very fast, so if the two clocks are off by only a small fraction, the determined position data may be considerably distorted.The atomic clocks aboard the satellites maintain their time to a very high degree of accuracy.However, there will always be a slight variation in clock rates from satellite to satellite. Close monitoring of the clock of each satellite from the ground permits the control station to insert a message in the signal of each satellite that precisely describes the drift rate of that satellite's clock. The insertion of the drift rate effectively synchronizes all of the GPS satellite clocks.The same procedure cannot be applied to the clock in a GPS receiver. Therefore, a fourth variable (in addition to x, y and z), time, must be determined in order to calculate a precise location. Mathematically, to solve for four unknowns (x,y,z, and t), there must be four equations.In determining GPS positions, the four equations are represented by signals from four different satellites.The GPS system has been designed to be as nearly accurate as possible. However, there are still errors. Added together, these errors can cause a deviation of +/-50 meters from the actual GPS receiver position. There are several sources for these errors, the most significant of which are discussed below:The ionosphere and troposphere both refract the GPS signals. This causes the speed of the GPS signal in the ionosphere and troposphere to be different from the speed of the GPS signal in space. Therefore, the distance calculated from \"Signal Speed x Time\" will be different for the portion of the GPS signal path that passes through the ionosphere and troposphere and for the portion that passes through space. Ephemeris errors should not be confused with Selective Availability (SA), which is the intentional alteration of the time and epherimis signal by the Department of Defense. SA can introduce 0-70 meters of positional error. Fortunately, positional errors caused by SA can be removed by differential correction.A GPS signal bouncing off a reflective surface prior to reaching the GPS receiver antenna is referred to as multi path. Because it is difficult to completely correct multi path error, even in high precision GPS units, multi path error is a serious concern to the GPS user.The chart below lists the most common sources of error in GPS positions. This chart is commonly known as the GPS Error Budget: Some GPS receivers can analyze the positions of the satellites available, based upon the almanac, and choose those satellites with the best geometry in order to make the DOP as low as possible.Another important GPS receiver feature is to be able to ignore or eliminate GPS readings with DOP values that exceed user-defined limits. Other GPS receivers may have the ability to use all of the satellites in view, thus minimizing the DOP as much as possible.As powerful as GPS is, +/-50 -100 meters of uncertainty is not acceptable in many applications.A technique called differential correction is necessary to get accuracies within 1 -5 meters, or even better, with advanced equipment. Differential correction requires a second GPS receiver, a base station, collecting data at a stationary position on a precisely known point (typically it is a surveyed benchmark). Because the physical location of the base station is known, a correction factor can be computed by comparing the known location with the GPS location determined by using the satellites.The differential correction process takes this correction factor and applies it to the GPS data collected by a GPS receiver in the field. Differential correction eliminates most of the errors listed in the GPS Error Budget discussed earlier. After differential correction, the GPS Error Budget changes as follows: By eliminating many of the above errors, differential correction allows GPS positions to be computed at a much higher level of accuracy.There are three types of GPS receivers that are available in today's marketplace. Each of the three types offers different levels of accuracy, and has different requirements to obtain those accuracies. To this point, the discussion in this book has focused on Coarse Acquisition (C/A code) GPS receivers. The two remaining types of GPS receiver are Carrier Phase receivers and Dual Frequency receivers.C/A Code receivers typically provide 1-5 meter GPS position accuracy with differential correction. C/A Code GPS receivers provide a sufficient degree of accuracy to make them useful in most GIS applications.C/A Code receivers can provide 1-5 meter GPS position accuracy with an occupation time of 1 second. Longer occupation times (up to 3 minutes) will provide GPS position accuracies consistently within 1-3 meters. Recent advances in GPS receiver design will now allow a C/A Code receiver to provide sub-meter accuracy, down to 30 cm.Carrier Phase receivers typically provide 10-30 cm GPS position accuracy with differential correction. Carrier Phase receivers provide the higher level of accuracy demanded by certain GIS applications.Carrier Phase receivers measure the distance from the receiver to the satellites by counting the number of waves that carry the C/A Code signal. This method of determining position is much more accurate; however, it does require a substantially higher occupation time to attain 10-30 cm accuracy. Initializing a Carrier Phase GPS job on a known point requires an occupation time of about 5 minutes. Initializing a Carrier Phase GPS job on an unknown point requires an occupation time of about 30-40 minutes.Additional requirements, such as maintaining the same satellite constellation throughout the job, performance under canopy and the need to be very close to a base station, limit the applicability of Carrier Phase GPS receivers to many GIS applications.Dual-Frequency receivers are capable of providing sub-centimeter GPS position accuracy with differential correction. Dual-Frequency receivers provide \"survey grade\" accuracies not often required for GIS applications.Dual-Frequency receivers receive signals from the satellites on two frequencies simultaneously.Receiving GPS signals on two frequencies simultaneously allows the receiver to determine very precise positions.GPS receivers require a line of sight to the satellites in order to obtain a signal representative of the true distance from the satellite to the receiver. Therefore, any object in the path of the signal has the potential to interfere with the reception of that signal. Objects that can block a GPS signal include tree canopy, buildings and terrain features.Further, reflective surfaces can cause the GPS signals to bounce before arriving at a receiver, thus causing an error in the distance calculation. This problem, known as multi path, can be caused by a variety of materials including water, glass and metal. The water contained in the leaves of vegetation can produce multi path error. In some instances, operating under heavy, wet forest canopy can degrade the ability of a GPS receiver to track satellites.There are several data collection techniques that can mitigate the effects of signal blockage by tree canopy or other objects. For example, many GPS receivers can be instructed to track only the highest satellites in the sky, as opposed to those satellites that provide the best DOP.Increasing the elevation of the GPS antenna can also dramatically increase the ability of the receiver to track satellites.Unfortunately, there will be locations where GPS signals simply are not available due to obstruction. In these cases, there are additional techniques that can help to solve the problem.Some GPS receivers have the ability to collect an offset point, which involves recording a GPS position at a location where GPS signals are available while also recording the distance, bearing and slope from the GPS antenna to the position of interest where the GPS signals are not available. This technique is useful for avoiding a dense timber stand or building.Further, a traditional traverse program can be used to manually enter a series of bearings and ranges to generate positions until satellite signals can again be received. This position data can then be used to augment position data collected with the GPS receiver.Up to this point, the discussion has focused on describing how GPS determines a location on the surface of the Earth. Now the discussion can shift to the process of describing what is at the location. The \"what\" is the object or objects that will be mapped. These objects are referred to as \"Features\", and are used to build a GIS. It is the power of GPS to precisely locate these Features that adds so much to the utility of the GIS system. On the other hand, without Feature data, a coordinate location is of little value.There are three types of Feature that can be mapped: Points, Lines and Areas. A Point Feature is a single GPS coordinate position that is identified with a specific Object. A Line Feature is a collection of GPS positions that are identified with the same Object and linked together to form a line. An Area Feature is very similar to a Line Feature, except that the ends of the line are tied to each other to form a closed area.As stated above, a Feature is the object that will be mapped by the GPS system. The ability to describe a Feature in terms of a multi-layered database is essential for successful integration with any GIS system. For example, it is possible to map the location of each house on a city block and simply label each coordinate position as a house. However, the addition of information such as color, size, cost, occupants, etc. will provide the ability to sort and classify the houses by these categories.These categories of descriptions for a Feature are known as Attributes. Attributes can be thought of as questions that are asked about the Feature. Using the example above, the Attributes of the Feature \"house\" would be \"color\", \"size\", \"cost\" and \"occupants\".Logically, each question asked by the Attributes must have an answer. The answers to the questions posed by the Attributes are called Values. In the example above, an appropriate Value (answer) for the Attribute (question) \"color\" may be \"blue\".The following table illustrates the relationship between Features, Attributes and Values:Occupants 5By collecting the same type of data for each house that is mapped, a database is created. Tying this database to position information is the core philosophy underlying any GIS system.The field data entry process can be streamlined by the use of a Feature List. The Feature List is a database that contains a listing of the Features that will be mapped, as well as the associated Attributes for each Feature. In addition, the Feature List contains a selection of appropriateValues for each Attribute. The Feature List can be created on the CMT hand-held GPS data collector, or on a PC.When a Feature List is used in the field, the first step is to select the Feature to be mapped. Once a Feature is selected, the Attributes for that Feature are automatically listed. A Value for each Attribute can then be selected from the displayed list of predetermined Values.The use of a Feature List streamlines the data entry process and also ensures consistent data entry among different users in the same organization.The final step in incorporating GPS data with a GIS system is to export the GPS and Feature data into the GIS system. During this process, a GIS \"layer\" is created for each Feature in the GPS job. For example, the process of exporting a GPS job that contains data for House, Road and Lot Features would create a House layer, a Road layer and a Lot layer in the GIS system. These layers can then be incorporated with existing GIS data.Once the GPS job has been exported, the full power of the GIS system can be used to classify and evaluate the data.In this section, the participants will be taught how to configure the GPS in order to avoid errors when capturing data in the field. Emphasis will be put on the need to make proper configurations when changing zones. The second exercise will deal with practical work on the various data capture methods upon proper configuration i.e. data capture from simple points to polygons where terms such as waypoints and tracks will be explained and their relevance to the participants work shown. The third and last section will deal with the process of converting field data into readable GIS maps through export and cleaning to obtain the final products which could be used for decision making processes.At the end of this training course participants will be expected to participate in any form of mapping in the field from simple data capture e.g. forage, water resources, market places and diseases hotspots to complex real time data capture on animal migration routes etc. Matrix scoring is essentially a series of proportional piling exercises in two dimensions, where a list of items such as diseases is scored against a list of indicators such as clinical signs. This method can be used to better understand the local characterization of diseases, and the meanings of local disease names. This tool can take some time to complete, so make sure you plan your time well.When interviewing community members, technical terms are rarely used. An important first step in any study is to understand how community members think about and characterize diseases.You may find, for example, that your respondents mention several diseases, each with their own name in the local language, but to you they seem very similar. Matrix scoring can be a very useful tool for understanding the symptoms and epidemiological characteristics of the different diseases respondents mention.By the end of the session, participants will be able to:1. Demonstrate the use of matrix scoring 2. Explain why matrix scoring is more valuable than proportional piling in certain situationsImagine that you would like to conduct a matrix scoring exercise to understand the clinical signs a community associates with different diseases.1. Use the diseases mentioned by your respondents. When your respondents tell you the name for a disease in their language, use that name during the interview rather than an English or scientific name. That way everybody, respondents and research team alike, are on the same page.2. For each disease obtain a list of clinical signs and epidemiological features.3. Draw a matrix on the ground or on flip chart paper. Make sure it is big so that everyone can see it. Put enough columns for each of the diseases. Use pictures, objects or cards to represent the diseases and place these across the top of the matrix. Be sure to mention what disease each card represents, using the local language name, as you place it on the ground. This way those that cannot read or understand the picture can memorize the cards as they appear. for agreement between the respondents. Leave the counters where they are.6. Repeat the exercise for each indicator one by one, gradually building up the matrix.Leave the matrix in place so that everyone can view the results and discuss as a group.7. During the exercise and after the matrix is complete, it is essential that the investigator carefully probe the informants as to why they are scoring the way they are. After the matrix is complete, summarize the results and give the informants the opportunity to make changes if they wish. Rash 30The research team diagnosed these diseases as:  Use the names of diseases or syndromes as given by the community members. Be patient. Do not interfere with the discussion or try to hurry the informants. Avoid 'correcting' the results. It is a common mistake for investigators to give their opinions and 'correct' the participants. Sometimes this develops into the investigator lecturing the informants about the right answer. Do not offer your views, but instead use probing questions to reveal reasoning behind scores that seem strange to you. Too many items to score with a long list of indicators will cause the participants to get bored and lose interest. If the informants make a long list of items or indicators, use simple ranking to determine which are the most important. Be aware of literacy. Just as with proportional piling, it is better to use pictures or everyday items to represent items and indicators. Carefully explain the meaning of the symbols and repeat throughout the exercise to remind the informants of the meanings. Do not make the mistake of totaling the columns. Indicators will often have different levels of importance or 'weights' and summating the scores for each item has limited value. Let the matrix grow and leave it. Do not clear the matrix until after you have interviewed the participants about the results. This will reveal more about the scores and open further areas for discussion. Visualizing the matrix allows the informants to better understand the differences between the diseases as well. Be clear about the question. Often investigators will ask the participants to pile the counters based on the 'importance' of an indicator to the diseases listed in the matrix. It is important to define 'important' as meaning that the indicator is either always associated with the disease or linked to the severity of the disease. If you are going to compare matrix results from different interviews, the criteria used must be the same between interviews. Leave copies of the matrix for the informants. This will allow them to discuss the results and learn from one another after the interview has come to an end.When conducting research using participatory epidemiology, it may be desirable to have a uniform matrix to be used across space and time to improve comparison of the results. In this Human activities, namely political, religious and cultural events such as festivals, holidays and times when cash is needed can affect movements and disease spread. Other seasonal factors such as availability of water or presence of vectors may be of interest, depending on the disease of interest. Management and marketing practices for livestock may be seasonal due to movements, calving, housing and buying stock or off-take, and may be significant in terms of zoonoses risk.School calendars may be important, as schools are important sources of exposure for children, as is travel during holidays. Other important uses of seasonal calendars include vulnerable periods for child-care and exposure to infectious agents.Having developed a seasonal calendar, the results are discussed and probed with respondents to find out why things happen at certain times and how they may or may not be related to other factors.The interviewer should be familiar with local customs and practices, common disease problems and factors that may affect disease occurrence. This information can be gathered during the interview, or from other sources. From this information a list of indicators is developed, and the following method used to explore seasonality.1. Draw a line on the ground or at the top of a piece of flip chart paper and indicate that this represents one year.2. Ask the informants to describe the seasons that they experience during the year. Record the local names for these seasons. Ask the participants to divide the line into seasons based on their occurrence and length during the year. 5. Repeat this with other types indicators (health event or disease), so that gradually a matrix is built up. The name of the indicator may be written on the flip chart or on a card and placed at the side of the matrix. For illiterate participants, a picture or object may represent the indicator.6. Once the calendar has been completed, the results should be discussed with the informants using open and probing questions. For example, you could ask, 'Why is this disease more common in this season? Do you know what causes this disease? So this disease seems to occur when there is a lot of rain, why is that?'This method simply indicates the presence or absence of an indicator by season rather than scoring, and therefore gives useful but less detailed information. 5. Ask the participants to think about rainfall and how it varies with the seasons. Ask them to mark on the matrix when rainfall occurs; draw on ground with a stick or on flip chart paper with a marker pen.6. Repeat this with each indicator (activity, event, disease). The name of the indicator may be written on a card or on the flip chart and placed at the side of the matrix. For illiterate participants, a picture or object may represent the indicator. The indicators used will be linked to the species or disease(s) of interest. They may be determined before the participatory epidemiology interview, but are likely to be added to or modified as a result of discussions during the interview.7. Once the calendar has been completed, the results should be discussed with the participants using open and probing questions, for example, 'Why is this disease more common in this season?' 'Do you know what causes this disease?' 'So this disease seems to occur when there is a lot of rain, why is that?' 8. Ask the respondents if they have any new ideas after having done the exercise.9. Record the calendar in your notebook. A seasonal calendar shows the seasonal patterns of diseases, events and activities over a normal year. Later we will learn about timelines, which show what happened during a given period of timea few weeks, months, years or decades depending on the issue of interest. Use the local names for seasons and months. Try to obtain this information beforehand so you just need to crosscheck during the interview. Not all cultures use the Gregorian calendar based on 12 months in a year (January -December). This is why it is important to start by asking informants to describe the seasons before correlating them to months. While they are describing the seasons, ask how long the seasons last and when they begin and end. Some examples of alternative calendars include: Lunar calendar: a calendar based on the phases of the moon. This calendar is widely used in Muslim cultures. Julian calendar: a precursor to the Gregorian calendar. Still in use by the Berber people in North Africa and some Orthodox Christian sects. During calendar construction, participants will often mention key risk factors such as humidity, vector populations, water scarcity, etc. Thus, not only do calendars provide information on seasonality, they are also useful tools for identifying predisposing factors. As with all participatory epidemiology tools, it is important to have a clear question in mind when conducting the activity, and to write the question down in your notebook.Sometimes you may be interested in the quantity of an indicator or the incidence of disease while other times you make ask the informants to pile counters based on the importance of an indicator. Seasonal calendars may be best used at a late stage in a study or interview after other methods have been used to determine meanings of local terminology for diseases. This will allow for more in depth probing of disease occurrence and help prevent misunderstandings when interpreting a seasonal calendar during follow-up data analysis. When discussing risk factors such as vectors, it may be helpful to carry preserved specimens in clear bottles, or ask informants to collect specimens during the study. This will create interest and enthusiasm on the part of the community members. Notes taken during the probing phase of the seasonal calendar activity should be written up as part of the results, as these are important for understanding why the informants piled the counters the way they did. It is nice to leave behind a copy of the calendar for the informants to discuss with other members of the community. This helps prevent the problems associated with extractive research techniques in which communities are not provided with feedback or results after a study is conducted.Many diseases of interest occur as epidemics at finite time points, or as flare-ups of endemic disease. The interviewer may note the years of major epidemics for various diseases on a timeline. Timelines are a useful tool for exploring the frequency of key disease events and patterns over time. Information on major events, such as droughts and famines or political events may also be included to assist informants in remembering the timing of key disease events. These events may also have an impact on disease occurrence because of the changing movements and habits of animals and people. Their inclusion may allow for triangulation of reported risk factors for disease occurrence. Local names for events should be used as much as possible.Besides providing information in itself, the timeline will provide a useful reference for triangulating the reports made by the community with information in the official government surveillance system.Timelines are useful for: Helping to clarify the details of disease events mentioned by respondents, because it prompts them to remember things that happened before or during the disease event  Prompting participants to remember additional information, such as other disease outbreaks not already mentioned  Estimating the duration of events like outbreaks, and how frequently they occur  Showing the cause and effect relationship between events, such as the timing of heavy rainfall and occurrence of Rift Valley fever in cattle and humans  Enabling the surveillance team to involve the communities in evaluating targets, e.g. how soon after a disease report did implementation of disease control interventions startThe timescale can vary depending on the disease of interest. For example, it could be five years to capture information for diseases that occur fairly frequently such as measles and meningitis. It could be 50 years of more for diseases with long epidemic cycles such as Rift Valley fever. It is also interesting to create a timeline if you are exploring events around a specific disease outbreak. For example, the days, weeks or months over which a new disease was introduced into an area and the time it took for authorities to respond.Timelines have many uses, including understanding trends in disease incidence, epidemics, women and child-care patterns, nutrition and feeding related practices, and traditional and conventional health care practices.1. Decide on the timescale to be used, based on the issues of interest.2. To set the scene, ask the participants to indicate key events during the timeframeevents affecting the community, political, social or cultural events, major harvest or climatic events. This will help everyone, researchers and respondents alike, to have a common frame of reference. 4. Probe the completed timeline. For instance, you could ask, \"Did the disease ever occur in this area before that year?\" \"Did anything different or significant happen in the few months before the outbreak?' 5. Ask the respondents if they have any new ideas after having done the exercise.6. Record the timeline in your notebook.Venn diagrams show logical relationships between sets or groups of items or characteristics.They are comprised of various sized circles based on the importance of the item or characteristic.The degree of overlap (or non-overlap) indicates the inter-relatedness of the items. There is a great degree of overlap between chronic conditions and increased use of health services, and less overlap with limited mobility and severe health difficulty. Some children suffer from all four indicators but their numbers are small. 6 Venn diagrams can provide useful information on relationships that are difficult to describe orally. The ways in which informants organize the diagram can provide insight into their thinking about management practices, health policies and other topics of interest, etc.  practice study is to determine the main non-communicable diseases that affect a community.Please make a point to practice each of the tools used in participatory epidemiology that you have learned. Follow the same three phases to organizing your fieldwork: preparation, field and review, including preparation of a report to be presented for feedback.Analysis is a continuous process that happens throughout an interview, throughout a study and after the study. Continuous crosschecking should be carried out. If necessary, the hypothesis, the checklist and tools used can be updated based on information gathered during earlier interviews, so that new leads can be followed and new information verified. The analysis can be summarized during the interview and discussed with the community. A report can be submitted to the appropriate authorities.Triangulation should be performed: Between questions and tools used with the same informants  Between questions and tools repeated with different informants  Between information collected from interviews and laboratory resultsBy the end of the session, participants will be able to:1. Explain when and how to use triangulation, and to obtain a reliable level of consistency in their results through the use of triangulation Often we will find that data we generate will have a normal distribution. If we were to create a histogram of our data, we will find that it fits into a bell-shaped curve, like this:From: Economics.help, http://www.economicshelp.org/dictionary/b/bell-curve.html, download 28 June 2011 However, we may find that our data has a Poisson distribution or a geometric distribution,where the slope on one side of the bell is steeper than the slope on the other. This means we have more observations to one side of the mean than the other side. If our set of observations for a variable is small, there is a greater risk that our data will not have a normal distribution.Central tendency is an estimate of the center of a distribution of values. Determine the median and range for each event. Describe the patterns manifested in the RVF timeline and compare this with the expected sequence of events based on conventional epidemiological knowledge. List the observations that can be drawn from the   The lower quartile is the median of the numbers that occur before the median of a set of observations, and the upper quartile is the median of numbers that occur the median of a Five interviews were conducted with different groups of community members. In each interview the respondents were asked to rank childhood health conditions by the greatest risk they pose in terms of mortality. The results, analyzed to derive final rankings, are shown below: Based on the results from the five groups, pneumonia causes the greatest amount of childhood mortality, malnutrition and diarrheal diseases the least. However, a sixth group was interviewed, and added the following information: The respondents in the sixth group did not mention malnutrition, but added another health conditioninjuries and accidents.With the information from the new group, you may want to analyze the data like this: However the above is incorrect, because there are groups who did not score every condition.Convert the original ranks to scores. Because the number of health conditions is six, the lowest score would be 1 and highest 6. For each group the health condition ranked 1 is given a score of 6, the condition ranked 2 is given a score of 5, etc. Our results are: Now we can see that pneumonia causes the greatest amount of childhood mortality, injuries and accidents the least.However, before analyzing data derived from ranking exercises, it is good to assess the data to make sure that the rankings provided by the different groups are substantially in agreement with one another. In other words, we estimate rank correlation coefficients. Only after ascertaining that the observers are in agreement should we derive and report a composite rank.The method for computing rank correlation coefficient depends on the number of rankings (m).If we only have two rankings (m = 2), Spearman's rank correlation coefficient is computed.This is denoted by s r , and is derived as:where d i equals the difference between the two ranks assigned to the ith individual, and n is the number of objects. (range from -1 to +1) If we have more than two rankings (m > 2), a measure known as coefficient of concordance is computed. This is denoted by W, and is derived as:where S equals the sum of squares of the deviations of the total of the ranks assigned to eachis the average value of the totals of the ranks, and hence the S is the usual sum of squares of the deviations from the mean. W ranges from 0 to 1, 0 denoting no agreement and 1 complete agreement.Inferential analysis allows one to evaluate association between variables, usually an exposure of interest and outcome of interest. This is important for assessing the impact of interventions, such as an intervention to control a disease. Three conventional study designs are most often used to assess impact, or the association between an exposure and an outcome: Cross-sectional: A sample of subjects is identified, and information on the exposure and outcome of interest is collected at a specific point in time. This type of study is often used to assess prevalence. Cohort (longitudinal): Like in a cross-sectional study, a sample of subjects is identified.The subjects are then followed over time to see who develops the outcome of interest and who does not. The histories of the subjects can then be analysed to identify exposures, usually called risk factors, positively associated with the individuals who develop the outcome of interest, but not associated with those who don't. This type of study is often used to assess incidence. Case-control: A sample of subjects with the outcome of interest, which serves as the 'cases', is paired with a sample of similar subjects that do not have the outcome of interest, who serve as the 'controls'. Data is collected from both groups to find the exposure(s) positively associated with the cases, but negatively associated with the controls.With all of three of these study designs, the investigator should have some idea about the exposure of interest, and the variables related to them, so that they can be measured during the When designing a participatory epidemiology study, the objective should be achievable and focused, not too broad and of finite scope. An example could be to determine the relative prevalence and importance of meningitis in a district.A hypothesis is a question you want to answer in a way that scientists raise questions. The goal is to determine whether the hypothesis is true or not. In participatory epidemiology, you can refine your hypothesis as you carry out the study. This added flexibility allows us to discover new and unanticipated information that would not be evident were we to stick to a rigid study  The checklist should be designed to meet the study's objectives, not to exhaust all possible information related to a disease or issue. A frequent beginners mistake is to develop a checklist that is too ambitious to be achievable. If relative incidence and importance to the community is essential, a scoring exercise such as proportional piling is required. Get out of town as soon as possible. Rural areas tend to be less complicated working environments. A common problem is that it may be difficult to determine the best location for the first visit based on information gathered in town. The only truly valid way to determine prevalence is by conducting random sampling.Participatory epidemiology may be best used to provide an overview from which a quantitative survey can make better use of resources. Selecting appropriate key informants and secondary sources of information is critical.Don't shortchange your study by limiting the amount of this type of information you gather. Crosscheck everything you hear from various sources, including health centers and key informants. Remember, a good rule of thumb is confirmation of information by at least three sources makes it a finding. Begin your study in a place thought to be most affected by the disease you are investigating. Take a risk-based approach to identifying the place. This will help you become quickly familiar with the disease as it occurs in your study area. In preparation for your fieldwork, consider and discuss with your team the following questions: Why do some individuals not treat their drinking water? Why do some communities not treat their drinking water? What are some solutions at the individual level to overcome not treating drinking water? What are some solutions at the community level to overcome not treating drinking water?Based on the insights you gain, generate a checklist for your discussions with the community.Items that you may want to consider including are: It is important that you have a reasonable understanding of common and important health problems affecting children, and are conversant to the degree that you can comfortably and accurately address the concerns of stakeholders when they arise during your work. If you are a physician, this may not be challenging. But if you are veterinarian or wildlife ecologist, it may be very intimidating indeed! Please take a minute to think about the diseases that children suffer from in the area where you work. Can you list them, their disease determinants, and prevention and control measures? They most likely include some or all of the following: diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, malaria, malnutrition, measles, congenital disorders, accidents/injuries, epilepsy, skin infections, etc.Please make a note to familiarize yourself with standard advice for various conditions, such as government policies on access to treatment for malaria or epilepsy, and recipes for oral rehydration solutions. Also familiarize yourself with the public and non-governmental initiatives for disease prevention and control that are being implemented in the area where you work.Questions regarding resources and policies often come up during interviews in communities that have public health problems. Make sure to discuss your work with public health resource persons in your area and have their contact information on file, so that if you cannot address the questions of community members you can put them in contact with resource persons who can.By the end of the session, participants will be able to: 3. Using the list of diseases already given during the interview, put the disease names on cards, or use pictures to represent the diseases. In general it is best to use no more than 4-5 diseases, otherwise the division of the counters will get difficult near the end of the exercise. You can put all other mentioned diseases under a category \"other diseases\".4. Using the counters representing all those who became sick in the last year, ask the members to divide the counters to show the proportion that suffered from each of the diseases on the cards.By the end of the session, participants will be able to: 6. Count the counters at the end, when the group has finished scoring every condition.7. Summarize and crosscheck the results with the participants.The exercise can be repeated for different age groups and genders within a community.For example, the exercise could be conducted with older women and then repeated for younger women and girls to determine if different morbidity, mortality or case fatality rates are seen for unsafe abortions. The method works well with either individuals or groups of informants. If working with a group of informants, it is important that they are able to reach a consensus. Listen carefully to the discussion while they are debating the proportion of counters to place with each category. This debate can provide important information for probing and triangulation. Having the criteria for the exercise in mind before beginning to avoid confusion. Movements of individuals into and out of the community can be very complex. In some cases, it makes sense to define 'community' as the group of individuals living in a defined area over a particular time period, or to ask the informants to classify all of the individuals present in their village. This method looks at the relative proportion of diseases observed during a given time period, rather than diseases affecting individuals. So if a given individual suffers from two or more diseases during the period in question, it doesn't matter, as the purpose is to avoid categorizing individuals. The strength of this exercise is that we do not need to know the number of people in the community. The method gives us proportions, not absolute numbers.The approaches most commonly used in national surveillance systems include: Passive surveillance involves the collection of disease reports, often from facilities that are designated reporting centers or through designated reporting channels. In national animal health surveillance systems, reports may be received from animal owners, veterinarians and other animal health care professionals, field-based and other public veterinary staff, laboratories, etc. A public health surveillance system may capture information from animal health surveillance, as well as physicians, hospitals, field-based and other public health staff, laboratories, members of the public, etc. Passive surveillance usually involves standardized reporting forms that flow through linear systems from the field to the national level. Large amounts of data can be easily collected, collated, stored and analyzed in this fashion. However, we must remember that case reporting is not a passive activity for the reporter. Therefore, limitations include non-reporting or under-reporting so that the information generated does not reflect the real situation, the perception on the part of the health care provider that a suspicion should not be reported unless a definitive diagnosis can be made, the perception on the part of the health care provider that nothing will be done if a report is made, lack of interest or compliance with the system, etc. Active surveillance involves outreach to detect specific diseases of interest, or for early detection of emerging or re-emerging diseases. In animal and human surveillance systems, outreach may involve visits to communities to learn from people if there are any disease problems, biological sampling of subjects, etc. Active surveillance is often guided by an understanding of risk, rather than randomized, so that the likelihood that the outreach will find a disease problem, if it exists, is enhanced. It usually involves personnel who have been trained in the active surveillance technique being used.Limitations may include scale, as active surveillance activities are best targeted rather than implemented on a large scale, variable results depending on the capacity of those carrying out the activity including the potential for misleading laboratory results, potential to miss cases if subjects mistrust the team or activity and hide cases from investigators, etc. Sentinel surveillance involves collecting case data from part of the total population to learn something about the larger population. The advantages of sentinel surveillance data are that they can be less expensive than those gained through active surveillance of the total population, and the data can be of higher quality than data collected through passive systems. Sentinels may be members of the normal population, or placed in the population for surveillance purposes. For example, a few unvaccinated individuals placed in populations of vaccinated chickens so as to detect a disease that would otherwise be subclinical in the population. Limitations include representativeness of the sample, scale, and human capacity to regularly sample the sentinel population. Special approaches are occasionally implemented to generate surveillance information that is not possible to acquire using other approaches. Special systems include targeted studies to better understand an epidemiological issue for inclusion in surveillance, and targeted surveillance in which high risk individuals, communities or areas are targeted to increase the likelihood of finding the disease. Participatory disease surveillance is a form of targeted active surveillance.A well-designed surveillance system often includes elements of all four types of surveillance.By combining approaches, decision-makers are able to gather a variety of information to help them meet their surveillance objectives. The exact design of a system is often a reflection of objectives and available human and financial resources. Surveillance personnel need to have the capacity and time to effectively and accurately carry out the intended surveillance activities, and the necessary resources to conduct the activities on a meaningful scale. The cost of surveillance is more of a reflection of design than type of surveillance. For example, biological sampling is an effective way to find pathogens. However, when it used in isolation it must be carried out on a large and costly scale, usually randomized, to be effective in detecting diseases of concern. On the other hand, when less costly methods such as participatory disease surveillance or risk mapping are used to identify high risk areas, and then samples are taken from subjects in those areas, the scale and therefore the cost of the biological sampling activity is greatly reduced.The seven attributes of effective surveillance systems are 7 : Simplicity: The structure and ease of operation of a surveillance system. Surveillance systems should be as simple as possible while still meeting their objectives.  The strength of PDS is that it is sensitive, timely, and cost-effective compared to conventional methods involving random sampling and laboratory testing, because the method of sampling is purposive or risk-based rather than random. Surveillance using conventional methods tends to be costly, logistically complicated and slow; the result may also be difficult to interpret in the absence of qualitative intelligence. The objectivity and specificity of the quantitative data collected using these methods is necessary for declaring disease freedom to international standards. A surveillance system is most powerful when a combination of both qualitative and conventional methods are applied. PDS should be linked to a field or laboratory diagnostic test to maximize the accuracy of the case finding methodology. Laboratory-based tests for definitive diagnosis are critical in disease-free situations. Now create a checklist for your study. If all the practice groups will be working on the same objective, you may decide to produce a single checklist to be used by all the groups, or different checklists for each group. For each item on the checklist, decide on participatory epidemiology tools that you will use to explore that topic. If all the groups are using the same checklist, then you will likely want to group all the data together in the end for analysis. So be sure that everyone in the training is very clear on the criteria to be used for each topic. For example, will you be determining the importance of childhood diarrhea in terms of prevalence or its impact of on kid's livelihoods, or both?It is important to remember to crosscheck information. Comparing information from the other teams is a valuable method. Recall the importance of probing, triangulation, weighing of evidence, identifying conflicts of interest, and obtaining laboratory diagnostics.Most likely, community members will ask you for advice on the topics that are discussed. If propose a follow-on study, how would you design that study?Disease impact matrix scoring is the same as simple matrix scoring except that the indicators (the impacts the different diseases have on livelihoods) are weighted before they are compared the categories (diseases). In effect, a proportional piling exercise is conducted with the indicators before the counters are distributed across the categories to create a matrix.The step-by-step example below shows how disease impact matrix scoring is done:1. Use the diseases mentioned by your respondents. When your respondents tell you the name for a disease in their language, use that name during the interview rather than an English or scientific name. That way everybody, respondents and research team alike, are on the same page. It is important that all of the diseases on your list pertain to the same category. For example, diseases of adults, diseases of children, or diseases of livestock.2. Also develop a list of the benefits that the family receives from the category of individual being discussed. For example, if the category is adults, they may bring in an income, produce food on the farm, care for the children, provide shelter and teach the children about family traditions. If the category is chickens, they may provide food for the family, income from sales of eggs and hens, manure for the garden, feathers for pillows and animals for traditional sacrifices.3. Use pictures, objects or cards to represent the benefits and place them on the ground. It will help you construct your matrix later if you place them vertically rather than horizontally (place them in a column rather than a row). Give your respondents 100 counters, and ask them to divide them to show the relative importance of the different benefits to the family's livelihood.4. Record the results in your notebook. Each benefit will now serve as a row.5. Now create the start or a matrix by placing the diseases mentioned by your respondents across the top of the matrix.6. For the first benefit, ask your informants to use the counters they gave to that benefit to show how strongly each disease impacts a family's ability to have the benefit. For example, your respondents might show that HIV/AIDS has the greatest impact on a family's ability to bring in an income, flus the least. For chickens, your respondents might show that Newcastle disease has the greatest impact on their ability to earn an income from their chickens, coccidiosis the least.7. Summarize and crosscheck for agreement on how they have scored.8. Repeat for each benefit, gradually building up the matrix. Leave the matrix in place so that everyone can view the results and discuss as a group. 9. During the exercise and after the matrix is complete, it is essential that the investigator carefully probe the informants as to why they are scoring the way they are. After the matrix is complete, summarize the results and give the informants the opportunity to make changes if they wish. Ask your respondents what new learning or insights they have gained from the exercise.10. Record the results in a matrix in your notebook. By adding up the columns you will derive the total score for each disease, showing which disease has the greatest negative impact on a family's livelihood.","tokenCount":"20331"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"570a4336412f9fda30af324f282c38d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3105d4b4-aa97-447e-88dc-af47fd81be9b/retrieve","id":"-1275250146"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3f6f4c4e-6287-4be9-8553-56cf647aa675","pagecount":"102","content":"Fotografía e imágenes: Banco de imágenes de FONTAGRO y sus proyectos, BID, y otras de los autores e instituciones participantes con sus respectivas autorizaciones.FONTAGRO opera como un fondo dotal, utilizando los intereses generados por el capital para cofinanciar, junto con otras agencias, proyectos de investigación e innovación agroalimentaria. A través de su historia, y hasta diciembre de 2019, FONTAGRO ha cofinanciado 160 operaciones por un monto aproximado de US$126 millones, de los cuales US$27 millones han sido aportados por FONTAGRO, US$18 millones por otras agencias y US$80 millones en recursos de contrapartida de las instituciones ejecutoras.Los proyectos financiados son plataformas regionales constituidas, como mínimo, por dos países miembros de FONTAGRO, aunque también han participado otros países no miembros, aportando sus propios fondos. A lo largo de los años, se han financiado diferentes temas de investigación, todos prioritarios para la región de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC), que han generado gran cantidad de conocimientos y, al mismo tiempo, han contribuido en el desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías e innovaciones de valor para la agricultura de la región.Invitamos a los lectores a conocer nuestro sitio de Internet, nuestros proyectos y, a la vez, a participar de las iniciativas activas y por venir.FONTAGRO desea manifestar su agradecimiento a todos aquellos que hacen posible la generación de nuevo conocimiento para mejorar las condiciones de vida de los agricultores familiares de América Latina y el Caribe.En especial, deseamos agradecer a los científicos y técnicos que lideraron y llevaron adelante los proyectos de FONTAGRO en los últimos veinte años, demostrando que el trabajo en red es clave para potenciar la creación de nuevos saberes, tecnologías e innovaciones que favorezcan la agricultura de nuestra región y que puedan tener impacto en el resto del mundo.Que dichas redes han fomentado la formación de estudiantes, técnicos, productores, generando un capital social clave para su sostenibilidad, y que han colaborado desde todos los ángulos a enriquecer los resultados que se han obtenido.Que, gracias a ese trabajo, se generaron plataformas regionales público-privadas en donde participó gran diversidad de instituciones académicas, de investigación, el sector privado y los organismos regionales e internacionales.También es clave destacar el apoyo constante del personal técnico, administrativo y financiero, que hicieron posible que los proyectos contaran con los insumos necesarios para desarrollar los trabajos.La participación de los agricultores familiares permitió a los investigadores poder testear sus iniciativas de investigación y adaptarlas a cada contexto, generando conocimiento local y único.La labor de todos aquellos que apoyaron la búsqueda de información que fue necesaria para poder realizar esta evaluación de resultados ex post.A los miembros de Consejo Directivo de FONTAGRO, representado por sus 15 países, les agradecemos el apoyo constante a la inversión en investigación, desarrollo e innovación en el sector agropecuario. Sin duda, las decisiones tomadas en los últimos años destacan cómo se puede transformar el conocimiento en nuevas soluciones tecnológicas que mejoran la competitividad, la gestión sostenible de los recursos naturales y colaboran con la disminución de la pobreza.Finalmente, deseamos agradecer el apoyo de los patrocinadores, BID e IICA, por sus aportes constantes, y al resto de las organizaciones que participaron como alianzas estratégicas para el desarrollo de los proyectos que en este estudio se presentan.Mensaje del Comité Ejecutivo de FONTAGRO Desde hace dos décadas, y con el propósito de promover el incremento de la competitividad del sector agroalimentario, contribuyendo, además, al manejo sostenible de los recursos naturales y a la reducción de la pobreza en la región, fue creado FONTAGRO.El objetivo principal es ser un mecanismo de financiamiento sostenible para el desarrollo de tecnologías e innovaciones agropecuarias y agroalimentarias en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC), a la vez que constituir un foro para la discusión de temas prioritarios de la región.En nuestros veinte años de operación, hemos apoyado a más de 29 países, con 160 proyectos de cooperación técnica regional, en alianza público-privada, en los cuales participan más de 230 organizaciones nacionales de investigación, universidades, el sector privado y organizaciones regionales e internacionales. Gracias a ello, FONTAGRO ha fomentado un modelo único de convergencia de disciplinas y cooperación e inclusión de actores para el desarrollo de nuestra agricultura.Informes recientes de evaluación de la gestión de FONTAGRO han resaltado la importancia que este ha tenido en fortalecer alianzas estratégicas público-privadas especializadas en temas de investigación, desarrollo e innovación para el sector agroalimentario de nuestra región.Estas alianzas, consideradas verdaderos laboratorios de innovación, han incrementado las oportunidades de fortalecimiento de capacidades institucionales y nacionales de los países miembros y no miembros de FONTAGRO, la creación de nuevas dinámicas de trabajo para fomentar la innovación agrotecnológica, como también importantes aportes a los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible. Después de dos décadas, hacemos este balance, el cual nos señala tanto el potencial de impacto que tiene la inversión en ciencia y tecnología, el valor del trabajo en red, como también lo que aún nos resta por trabajar. Este primer estudio de estimación de los beneficios económicos de un grupo de proyectos de FONTAGRO ha creado evidencia del potencial de este mecanismo de cooperación, como así también enseñanzas que permitirán fortalecernos a futuro.Finalmente, en nombre de los 15 países miembros deseamos agradecer a todos los que nos han acompañado en estos veinte años, en el camino hacia la mejora de la vida de las familias agricultoras en nuestra región.Director Nacional de INIA ChileDirector General de IDIAP de PanamáSecretaria Ejecutiva de FONTAGROLa agricultura juega un papel clave en América Latina y el Caribe, no solo por ser la principal fuente de alimentos, sino también por su relación con el medio ambiente, por su participación en el empleo y por su contribución al crecimiento y desarrollo económico de los países de la región.FONTAGRO es un actor importante para el desarrollo de la agricultura de la región, pues fomenta la investigación científica aplicada y crea, de ese modo, bienes públicos que pueden beneficiar a la agricultura de toda la región. Efectivamente, durante los últimos 20 años, FONTAGRO ha fortalecido la creación de redes de científicos y técnicos, quienes con gran dedicación han contribuido a desarrollar nuevo conocimiento, tecnologías e innovaciones de gran valor para los productores agropecuarios, especialmente aquellos de la agricultura familiar.Este estudio presenta un esfuerzo por estimar mediante una metodología rigurosa el potencial beneficio económico de un grupo de proyectos financiados por FONTAGRO. Dadas las dificultades técnicas usuales para evaluar y analizar proyectos financiados con fondos concursables, los proyectos analizados aquí representan una muestra selectaJefe de la División de Medio Ambiente, Desarrollo Rural y Administración de Riesgos por Desastres.Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo de casos ricos en información y con beneficios que podían preverse como altos. De esta manera, el estudio ayuda a conocer el beneficio económico potencial que la generación de nuevos conocimientos y tecnologías puede llegar a generar. Al mismo tiempo, el estudio, ayuda a identificar lecciones aprendidas que ayudarán a mejorar el desempeño futuro de proyectos semejantes.Desde los inicios de FONTAGRO, en 1998, el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) ha apoyado a FONTAGRO tanto en aspectos técnicos, como administrativo-financieros y estratégicos. Para el BID, es un honor y una satisfacción poder contribuir con la importante labor de FONTAGRO y esperamos seguir haciéndolo durante todo el tiempo que los productores agrícolas de la región lo requieran.Durante la Reunión de la Junta Interamericana de Agricultura (JIA) de 2019, los ministros de Agricultura reiteraron que la cooperación técnica multilateral continúa siendo útil e importante para fortalecer la relación entre los países, superar los esfuerzos individuales, enfrentar conjuntamente los retos y aprovechar las oportunidades que el futuro presenta. El IICA adquirió con la JIA, entre otros, dos compromisos importantes:1. Promover una nueva generación de instituciones, políticas públicas y acciones de cooperación internacional que aseguren los niveles suficientes de inversión pública y privada, particularmente para la investigación, desarrollo e innovación requeridos para alcanzar el máximo equilibrio entre la productividad y la sostenibilidad ambiental, económica y social de la producción agropecuaria.2. Impulsar el desarrollo de infraestructuras de conectividad, así como diseñar nuevos sistemas de educación, capacitación y extensión, para posibilitar el acceso y el uso de las nuevas Manuel Otero Director General Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura tecnologías y aprovechar las oportunidades que ofrecen para incrementar la productividad y la inclusión de la agricultura familiar, especialmente de la juventud y las mujeres rurales.El esfuerzo de evaluación de los resultados de FONTAGRO, que se presenta en este documento, contribuye con evidencia científica sólida a cumplir con estos compromisos.En este sentido, el patrocinio del IICA para FONTAGRO, sostenido por más de veinte años, implica un reconocimiento a la capacidad de FONTAGRO para atender los retos que requieren.Esta publicación es producto de una serie de estudios de evaluación de mecanismos de gestión y análisis de resultados de proyectos que FONTAGRO realiza en forma frecuente desde el año 2003.Los estudios iniciales tuvieron como objeto conocer cuál era el desempeño de los mecanismos de gestión de FONTAGRO, específicamente de las primeras convocatorias de proyectos y sus resultados. FONTAGRO implementó convocatorias desde el 1998, sin embargo, existieron años en los que estas no se realizaron (2000, 2002, 2009, 2011 y 2012). A partir del 2012, el Consejo Directivo solicitó implementar nuevos mecanismos de financiamiento, entonces surgió el concurso de casos exitosos (que se realiza cada dos años), los fondos semilla y los proyectos consensuados.Esta publicación presenta una síntesis en perspectiva histórica de los diferentes estudios de evaluación de los mecanismos de gestión y de los proyectos de FONTAGRO, destacando dos etapas: i) una etapa inicial que abarca desde el 2003 a 2007, en la cual los estudios se centran en el análisis de las convocatorias y de resultados preliminares de los primeros proyectos que habían finalizado recientemente; y ii) una etapa más reciente, de 2010 a 2018, en la cual los proyectos finalizados se analizaron en forma multidimensional abarcando aspectos productivos, sociales y ambientales. En estos últimos estudios, se identificó que los proyectos habían generado nuevas tecnologías promisorias y se empezó a distinguir la importancia del rol de FONTAGRO como mecanismo clave para articular y fortalecer la colaboración entre países miembros y no miembros de FONTAGRO, entre instituciones público-privadas y entre programas de investigación nacionales, regionales e internacionales. Estas plataformas que se fueron formando a través del tiempo incluso se mantuvieron una vez finalizados los proyectos, destacando entonces a FONTAGRO como un mecanismo que facilitó la creación de redes inter y multidisciplinarias de actores que se transformaron hoy en un capital social único para la región de ALC.Luego de veinte años de historia, es importante recuperar y revisar lo hecho en temas de análisis y evaluación de resultados de proyectos. Las evaluaciones y análisis anteriores entregaron información clave sobre lo logrado a nivel de resultados, por país y en diferentes dimensiones de análisis, y muy especialmente sobre aquellos aspectos que aún se deben mejorar. Sin embargo, no existió un estudio de análisis económico de los resultados de los proyectos finalizados.En relación a lo anterior, esta publicación presenta el primer análisis de retornos económicos generados por los resultados de los proyectos cofinanciados por FONTAGRO y una revisión e identificación de otros, cuyos resultados promisorios deberían ser sujeto de análisis ex post.FONTAGRO (Fondo Regional de Tecnología Agropecuaria) es un mecanismo de cooperación para promover la competitividad agropecuaria y agroalimentaria en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) y funciona como un laboratorio de innovación regional a través de la inversión en investigación, desarrollo e innovación (I+D+i).FONTAGRO en veinte años ha logrado promover y consolidar plataformas de cooperación interinstitucional a lo largo de la región y ha contribuido a la generación de innovaciones y otra serie de resultados claves para la agricultura de ALC. Sin embargo, pocos estudios han logrado cuantificar y analizar los resultados que pueden atribuirse a las inversiones realizadas por FONTAGRO y, más importante aún, para estimarlos económicamente. Generar evidencia de los resultados de FONTAGRO es imprescindible para resaltar el rol que juega este mecanismo de cooperación y articulación interinstitucional estratégica en el desarrollo de nuevo conocimiento.Una evaluación de resultados en proyectos de investigación, desarrollo e innovación (I+D+i) agropecuaria se puede definir como un conjunto de procedimientos, métodos y herramientas que buscan documentar evidencia del beneficio que ha generado el conocimiento científico y el uso de innovaciones derivadas de este, en la sociedad. Y, en ese sentido, la evaluación de resultados se transforma en un insumo fundamental para distintos actores, especialmente para aquellos que toman decisiones de inversión en I+D+i en el sector.Las evaluaciones de resultados en FONTAGRO no son nuevas. Desde 2003, se han comisionado hasta cuatro estudios de evaluación que se centraron en estimar los resultados potenciales que podrían generar los proyectos cofinanciados por FONTAGRO (Ávila, 2003;Ardila, Flavio, Saín y Filho, 2007; Ávila y Saín, 2007;Saín, Sepúlveda, Ardila, Chalabi, Henríquez y Li Pun, 2014). En la etapa inicial, los proyectos empezaron a mostrar los primeros resultados. Sin embargo, por el tiempo trascurrido entre la finalización de los proyectos y la diseminación del nuevo conocimiento científico y las innovaciones agropecuarias generadas, las evaluaciones de resultados se hicieron con métodos ex ante, utilizando supuestos sobre lo que se esperaba sea la adopción futura de las innovaciones e información experimental sobre los posibles impactos del uso de ellas. Estas primeras evaluaciones predecían que FONTAGRO podría generar un retorno potencial suficiente para cubrir los costos invertidos y sugerían, también, que había mucho potencial para producir beneficios ambientales y sociales.En 2014, se realiza la primera documentación de evidencia sobre repercusiones económicas, sociales y ambientales generadas directa o indirectamente por los proyectos cofinanciados por FONTAGRO hasta 2012 (Saín y otros, 2014). El estudio pudo valorar la contribución de los proyectos para resolver desafíos específicos a través del cambio tecnológico y la innovación. En este sentido, el estudio realizó nuevos aportes en cuanto a la contribución en el fortalecimiento de las instituciones participantes y el desarrollo de plataformas de cooperación, en la mejora de las publicaciones científicas y redes de colaboración y en la percepción que tienen los participantes de los proyectos sobre el rol de FONTAGRO.Durante 2018, FONTAGRO decidió realizar un nuevo ejercicio de evaluación que permitiera documentar los resultados económicos ex post generados por proyectos cofinanciado desde el 1998. Esto no solo permitió evaluar la relevancia de FONTAGRO como mecanismo de articulación y cooperación dentro del sistema de innovación regional, sino que también permitió identificar factores de éxito y otros desafíos que deberán ser tenidos en cuenta para futuras evaluaciones.Esta publicación presenta el primer estudio de los resultados económicos de un grupo de proyectos, y también propone recomendaciones de mejoras para implementar en lo referente a metodologías y criterios de evaluación (ex ante y ex post). Simultáneamente, se intentó buscar evidencia sobre la atribución a FONTAGRO de los resultados analizados, señalándose la dificultad de su estimación, porque en todos los casos los temas de investigación pertenecen a programas que fueron financiados por otras agencias, ya sea antes o después de la finalización de cofinanciamiento de FONTAGRO.Luego de una extensa revisión de los proyectos, se identificó un grupo de ellos que proveyeron información cuantitativa y cualitativa suficiente para implementar el análisis. Esta información fue recuperada de los informes técnicos finales y de información secundaria proveniente de los participantes de los proyectos y otras fuentes disponibles. La evaluación de resultados realizada estimó que el beneficio económico total alcanzado, expresado como valor presente neto (VPN), fue de US$83.753.240, superando ampliamente la inversión realizada de US$8.112.428. Adicionalmente, el estudio destaca que, en muchos de los casos analizados, solo fue posible evaluar uno o algunos pocos de los múltiples componentes que constituían el proyecto, y solo en uno o algunos de los países participantes de este, como tampoco se pudieron incluir los spillovers y/o spinoffs que se generaron. De esta forma, se estima que el beneficio económico total generado podría ser incluso mayor. En esta publicación, se presentan, para cada uno de los casos analizados, los principales logros y contribuciones. Este estudio resalta, según la evidencia presentada, no solo que FONTAGRO a través del tiempo se ha transformado en un instrumento financiero importante para ALC, sino que además destaca su rol en promover la investigación, el desarrollo y la innovación (I+D+i) a través de la creación de redes de actores multidisciplinarios y del sector públicoprivado que promueven el desarrollo de nuevo conocimiento, tecnologías e innovaciones que pueden ser escaladas a mayor nivel.Esta publicación está organizada en cinco capítulos, con una sección adicional de resumen ejecutivo, recomendaciones y anexos al final. En el Capítulo I, se presentan antecedentes de los estudios de evaluación de resultados de FONTAGRO en los últimos años. En el Capítulo II, se presenta el marco conceptual utilizado para el análisis de resultados ex post de los proyectos, y también se destaca el tipo y origen de información utilizada. En el Capítulo III, se presentan ocho casos de proyectos analizados con la metodología de excedente económico (siete estudios de caso ex post y uno ex ante), en donde se resumen además los principales hallazgos. En el Capítulo IV, se describen los casos promisorios identificados durante la realización de este estudio. Si bien estos casos no pudieron ser incorporados al análisis de excedentes del capítulo anterior, poseen resultados preliminares que permiten distinguirlos como promisorios de lograr importantes tecnologías y/o innovaciones en los próximos años. En el Capítulo V, se señalan las principales conclusiones.Secretaría Técnica Administrativa (STA) Executive Summary FONTAGRO (Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology) is a cooperation mechanism for promoting agricultural and agrifood competitiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and functions as a regional innovation laboratory by investing in research, development and innovation (RDI).In 20 years, FONTAGRO has successfully promoted and consolidated platforms for inter-institutional cooperation throughout the region and has contributed to the generation of agricultural innovations and other results for the agricultural sector in LAC. However, few studies have been able to quantify and analyze the results that can be attributed to FONTAGRO's investments and, more importantly, estimate them in economic terms. Generating evidence of FONTAGRO's results is essential for highlighting the role played by this mechanism for cooperation and strategic interinstitutional coordination in the development of the regional agricultural sector.To document these results associated with FONTAGRO's investments in RDI, an evaluation study was carried out to measure FONTAGRO's contributions to the agricultural sector in LAC. Given the very particular characteristics and diversity of the projects implemented, the first challenge was to define the type of evaluation to be used and, above all, the feasibility of implementation based on the information available over the past 20 years.An evaluation of results in agricultural research and innovation projects can be defined as a set of procedures, methods and tools aimed at documenting evidence of the benefits that the scientific knowledge and use of innovations derived from the projects have created for society. In this respect, evaluation of results becomes a fundamental input for different actors, especially for those who make RDI investment decisions in the sector.Evaluations of results in FONTAGRO are not new. Since 2003, as many as four evaluation studies have been commissioned focusing on estimating the potential results that could be generated by projects cofinanced by FONTAGRO (Ávila, 2003;Ardila et al. 2007;Ávila and Saín, 2007;Saín et al. 2014). In the initial stage of FONTAGRO, the projects began to show the first results. However, because of the time elapsed between completion of projects and dissemination of the new scientific knowledge and the agricultural innovations generated, results were evaluated with ex-ante methods using assumptions about the expected future adoption of the innovations and experimental information on the possible impacts of their use. These early evaluations predicted that FONTAGRO could generate a potential return sufficient to cover the costs invested and also suggested that there was a great deal of potential for generating environmental and social benefits.In 2014 the first documentation was produced of evidence of the economic, social and environmental repercussions generated directly or indirectly by projects cofinanced by FONTAGRO up to 2012 (Saín et al. 2014). The study was able to assess the projects' contribution to solving specific challenges through technological change and innovation. The study produced new information on FONTAGRO's contribution to building the participating institutions and developing cooperation platforms, and to improving scientific publications and collaboration networks, as well as on the perception that participants in projects have of FONTAGRO's role.During 2018, FONTAGRO decided to carry out a new evaluation exercise to document the expost economic results generated by cofinanced projects since 1998. This exercise not only evaluated FONTAGRO's relevance as a mechanism for linkage and cooperation in the regional innovation system, but also identified factors of success and challenges that future evaluations need to take into account.This publication presents the first study of the economic results of a group of projects cofinanced by FONTAGRO and recommends improvements to be implemented in future projects in relation to methodologies and evaluation criteria (ex-ante and ex-post). At the same time, an attempt was made to find evidence of attribution to FONTAGRO of the results analyzed, pointing out the difficulty of estimating this aspect, since in all cases the research themes belong to programs that were financed by other agencies, either before or after the end of the project cofinanced by FONTAGRO. This publication presents the first economic evaluation study of the results of projects cofinanced by FONTAGRO. After an extensive review of these studies, a group was identified which provided sufficient quantitative and qualitative information to implement the analyses. This information was retrieved from the final technical reports and from secondary information coming from project participants and other available sources. This evaluation estimated that the total economic benefit achieved, expressed as net present value (NPV), was US$83,753,240, far exceeding the amount invested of US$8,112,428. The study also finds that in many of the cases analyzed it was only possible to evaluate one or a few of the multiple components that formed the project, and only in one or other of the countries participating in the project; likewise it was not possible to include the spillovers and/or spinoffs created. As a result, it is considered that the total economic benefit generated could be even greater. In this study, the main achievements and contributions are presented for each case analyzed. The study concludes, based on the evidence presented, that over time FONTAGRO has become not only an important financial instrument for LAC, but also plays a significant role in promoting research, development and innovation (RDI) by creating networks of multidisciplinary actors and of the public-private sector which promote development of new knowledge, technologies and innovations with potential for scaling up.The study is organized into five chapters, with an additional section of executive summary, recommendations and annexes at the end. Chapter I presents the background to the evaluation studies of FONTAGRO's results in recent years. Chapter II presents the conceptual framework used for the analysis of ex-post project results, highlighting the type and source of information used. Chapter III presents seven cases of projects analyzed using the economic surplus methodology (six ex-post case studies, one ex-ante), and summarizes the main findings. Chapter IV describes the promising cases identified during this study. Although these cases could not be incorporated into the analysis of surpluses in the previous chapter, their preliminary results mark them as having potential for achieving important new technologies and/or innovations in the coming years. Chapter V sets out the main conclusions of the study.Capítulo I. Antecendentes FONTAGRO, creado en 1998, posee la misión de \"contribuir a la innovación de la agricultura familiar por medio de la cooperación entre los países miembros, promoviendo la competitividad y la seguridad alimentaria con criterios de equidad y sostenibilidad\". Durante 21 años de actividad, FONTAGRO cofinanció más de 140 proyectos por un monto total de US$112 millones, dentro de los cuales $22 millones fueron aportes directos de FONTAGRO, US$19 millones de otras agencias y US$71 millones de aporte de contrapartida de las instituciones socias de los proyectos.En este capítulo, se realiza una síntesis en perspectiva histórica de los diferentes estudios de evaluación realizados sobre los mecanismos de gestión y resultados de los proyectos de FONTAGRO. En la revisión se identificaron dos etapas: i) una etapa inicial, que abarca desde 2003 a 2007, en donde los estudios se centraron en el análisis de las convocatorias y de resultados preliminares de los primeros proyectos que habían finalizado; y ii) una etapa más reciente, de 2010 a 2018, en donde los proyectos se analizaron en forma multidimensional.En los primeros años, el CD comisionó estudios de evaluación del mecanismo de gestión y resultados e impactos potenciales de proyectos que habían sido cofinanciados (Días Avila, 2003, Medina Castro, Toro Briones y Campos, 2003;Ardila, Flavio, Saín y Salles Filho, 2007;Días Ávila, 2007). En la etapa inicial, los proyectos empezaron a mostrar los primeros resultados promisorios. Sin embargo, dado el tiempo trascurrido necesario entre la finalización de los proyectos y la diseminación de las nuevas tecnologías o innovaciones generadas, las evaluaciones tuvieron que realizarse con el método ex ante. Estas evaluaciones utilizaron supuestos sobre los que se esperaba que fuera la adopción futura de las innovaciones e información experimental sobre los posibles impactos del uso de estas. Los resultados de estas primeras evaluaciones predecían que FONTAGRO podría generar un retorno potencial suficiente para cubrir los costos invertidos y sugerían también que había mucho potencial para generar beneficios ambientales y sociales (como una mejor nutrición).El primer estudio, denominado \"Análisis de los mecanismos de gestión del FONTAGRO\" (Medina Castro, Toro Briones y Campos, 2003) , realizó el análisis de la primera convocatoria realizada en 1998. Como resultado de estas primeras convocatorias, se observó la organización de consorcios por subregión (Cono Sur, Región Andina y Centro América y el Caribe), destacándose la participación de las instituciones de los países miembros de FONTAGRO que fungieron de conexión con los países vecinos y también con organismos internacionales como CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, IFPRI, INIBAP, IPGRI, y centros regionales como el CATIE, RIMISP e IICA. Desde los 90, se había buscado implementar diversos mecanismos de financiamiento para mejorar la eficacia y eficiencia de la investigación. Este estudio reconoció que FONTAGRO es un mecanismo innovador para articular, facilitar e impulsar la investigación agropecuaria multinacional, en el marco de la globalización.Durante el 2003, también se generó un segundo estudio denominado \"Evaluación de proyectos y mecanismos de operación de FONTAGRO\" (Días Avila, 2003), que destacó que los proyectos financiados por FONTAGRO eran innovadores, con impactos esperados (ex ante) promisorios en términos económicos, sociales, ambientales y del conocimiento. El estudio también resaltó que los resultados de los proyectos tienen alto potencial para ser adoptados a nivel regional y subregional (spillovers), señalando que FONTAGRO está cumpliendo con sus objetivos. Al mismo tiempo, se realizaron recomendaciones de mejora, que FONTAGRO fue incorporando en los años siguientes.\"En vista de la reducción de la inversión en investigación agropecuaria del sector público de ALC, el FONTAGRO es un mecanismo innovador para articular e impulsar la investigación multinacional, en el marco de la globalización. En particular, al promover la investigación focalizada en megadominios (regiones fitogeográficas), el FONTAGRO puede contribuir a formar o estrechar más los vínculos entre instituciones de investigación de países y regiones diferentes, creando mecanismos de relaciones institucionales orientados a expandir el desarrollo en intercambio de conocimientos y tecnología en la región\". (Días Avila, 2003) Hacia principios del año 2004, se inició un nuevo estudio denominado \"Inversión en ciencia y tecnología para generar bienes públicos regionales. Resúmenes de resultados\" (FONTAGRO, marzo, 2004). Este documento sostiene que, además de los resultados técnicos obtenidos, existen otros efectos menos tangibles, pero igualmente importantes, como \"la capacidad del FONTAGRO de responder a la diversidad de temas de interés regional, la oportunidad de lograr una mejor definición de las prioridades regionales y subregionales, la posibilidad de complementar recursos y experiencias entre países y el establecimiento de un mecanismo institucional novedoso y relevante.\" Entre 1998 y 2000, se habían implementado tres convocatorias y, al mismo tiempo, se iba logrando la consolidación de FONTAGRO, no solo en aspectos financieros, sino también -y muy especialmente-en cómo implementaba las convocatorias, el proceso de decisión de financiamiento de los proyectos regionales de investigación, cómo se priorizaban las demandas, se creaban redes de científicos, técnicos, académicos, productores, y cómo podían medir resultados de los primeros proyectos que iban finalizando.En el año 2005, se publicó el estudio \"Evaluación de los impactos potenciales de los proyectos financiados por FONTAGRO\" (Ardila, Flavio, Días Avila, Salles Filho y Saín, 2005) 2 . Este estudio destacó a FONTAGRO como \"una notable Innovación Institucional en el contexto del Sistema Regional de I+D, que fue diseñado como un mecanismo competitivo de financiamiento noreembolsable de proyectos de interés regional\", para \"desarrollar investigaciones de carácter estratégico fundamentales para la productividad y la sostenibilidad dirigidas a generar tecnologías con carácter de bienes públicos de carácter transnacional, buscando al mismo tiempo articular los esfuerzos de los países participantes, para la ejecución conjunta de las actividades de investigación.\"En septiembre de 2007, se realizó una serie de análisis complementarios entre sí, que derivaron en la publicación \"Evaluación de los impactos potenciales de los proyectos regionales de investigación financiados por FONTAGRO\" (Ardila, Flavio, Saín y Salles Filho, 2007). Esta publicación destacó a FONTAGRO como una \"notable innovación institucional en el contexto del sistema regional de investigación y desarrollo, diseñado como un mecanismo competitivo de financiamiento no-reembolsable de proyectos de interés regional\". El objetivo de las inversiones es promover consorcios de investigación que colaboren con encontrar desarrollos tecnológicos que mejoren la productividad, la sostenibilidad y que se generen tecnologías con carácter de bienes públicos transnacionales, buscando, al mismo tiempo, articular los esfuerzos de los países participantes para la ejecución conjunta de las actividades de investigación. El mismo estudio señala que las inversiones en FONTAGRO tienen un retorno potencial suficiente para cubrir los costos invertidos en la investigación (tasa interna de retorno de las inversiones del 28,6%). Adicionalmente, se señala que los resultados de los proyectos tendrían potencial impacto positivo en la dimensión institucional, ambiental, social y, especialmente, en temas de capacitación y aprendizaje. El estudio también realizó una serie de recomendaciones que fueron incorporadas en períodos siguientes.Hasta aquí se habían realizado los primeros esfuerzos por analizar los primeros resultados de los proyectos financiados por FONTAGRO en las primeras convocatorias. Según los estudios anteriores, a partir de 2010 comenzaron a elaborarse una serie de nuevos análisis que identificaron nuevos hallazgos de importancia para el rol de FONTAGRO como articulador de necesidades de inversión en I+D+i en ALC.En 2010, se publicó el trabajo \"Evolución de los mecanismos de gestión de FONTAGRO\" (Días Avila, Gianoni, Salles Filho y Alonso, 2010) que hizo hincapié muy especialmente en el análisis de la implementación de los procesos de las convocatorias, identificándose las siguientes conclusiones:• \"El arreglo institucional de 'consorcios regionales' propuesto por el FONTAGRO contribuye significativamente para el cumplimiento del objetivo del fondo de constituir una plataforma de cooperación para la integración tecnológica en la región. (…) Los consorcios contribuyen significativamente en la complementación de las capacidades nacionales, ya sea en la mejora de las capacidades técnicas y de los resultados alcanzados por el proyecto, en la complementación para la preparación y gestión de los proyectos, como en la constitución de redes de I+D+I\".• \"Los investigadores opinan que, por un lado, los consorcios promueven la obtención de mejores resultados respecto de aquellos provenientes de proyectos individuales y, por otro, favorecen una rápida difusión de los conocimientos generados entre los países participantes, lo cual conjuntamente con la interacción dada entre los varios miembros, genera cambios e impactos positivos en las capacidades técnicas de las instituciones nacionales. Los consorcios son un modelo significativamente valorado por todos los investigadores\".• \"La evaluación del tipo de resultados (bienes o servicios) generados a partir de los proyectos FONTAGRO muestra que fueron identificadas 35 tecnologías en 13 proyectos, que se clasificaron en 'nuevas técnicas y conocimiento para la reducción de pérdidas en la producción y comercialización (poscosecha)', 'nuevas variedades, razas y cepas', 'nuevas prácticas de producción' y 'mapeamiento de la biodiversidad'\".• \"En promedio, la atribución que los líderes de proyecto dieron a la influencia del modelo de consorcios sobre los resultados alcanzados fue de 80%. En este sentido, algunos líderes manifiestan que la participación de instituciones de otros países garantizó la aplicación de técnicas de punta específicas que, de otra forma, no hubiesen sido aplicadas y que la mejora en los resultados por el trabajo colaborativo no se restringe solamente al proyecto en cuestión, sino también a otros proyectos que se están implementando en temáticas similares\".• \"Dentro de los resultados tecnológicos declarados, un 86% de ellos está siendo usado y/o comercializado, dato reforzado por la constatación de impactos económicos, ambientales y sociales observados por 11 de los 13 líderes que contestaron la pregunta. En lo que refiere al nivel de novedad de la innovación, existen 11 resultados considerados novedad para la región y 4, novedad para el mundo\".Sin lugar a dudas, este trabajo generó información clave respecto de la importancia del rol facilitador de FONTAGRO para promover \"consorcios y redes\" de investigación regional, y además -y muy especialmente-de complementar fortalezas tecnológicas entre países, facilitando el desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías adaptadas a las condiciones locales y de contexto.Continuando con la serie de estudios, en el 2014 se finalizó un nuevo trabajo titulado \"Contribución de FONTAGRO al desarrollo agrícola de América Latina y el Caribe. Evaluación ex post de proyectos colaborativos\" (Saín, Sepúlveda, Ardila, Chalabi, Henríquez, Li Pun, 2014). Este trabajo realizó el primer esfuerzo por documentar evidencia sobre repercusiones económicas, sociales y ambientales generadas directa o indirectamente por los proyectos cofinanciados por FONTAGRO hasta el 2012. El estudio valoró la contribución de las investigaciones implementadas para resolver problemas y limitaciones a través del cambio tecnológico, y para analizar el potencial en términos de visibilidad de FONTAGRO. En este estudio, se realizaron nuevos aportes en cuanto a la contribución de FONTAGRO en el fortalecimiento de las instituciones participantes y el desarrollo de plataformas de cooperación, y a la mejora de las publicaciones científicas y redes de colaboración. Asimismo, hizo un primer esfuerzo para discutir cualitativamente el potencial de impacto que podría generar FONTAGRO en estas direcciones, pero no generó evidencia cuantificable y rigurosa de que esto ya esté ocurriendo. Este trabajo empleó una combinación de técnicas de análisis cualitativas y cuantitativas tales como: (1) valorar la contribución de las investigaciones para resolver los problemas o limitaciones de la agricultura desde la perspectiva del cambio tecnológico y (2) analizar el potencial en términos de la visibilidad de FONTAGRO para atraer coinversión en convocatorias futuras y en la ejecución de proyectos específicos venideros. El estudio presentó ocho casos derivados de siete proyectos cofinanciados por FONTAGRO, en donde se evaluó lo siguiente: (1) los sistemas de innovación de los países participantes en cuanto al alcance de las tecnologías y los conocimientos generados, (2) el fortalecimiento de las instituciones participantes y el desarrollo de plataformas de cooperación y (3) la producción de publicaciones científicas y la creación de redes de colaboración científica. Este estudio concluyó que:• \"FONTAGRO es un modelo para el sistema de investigación agrícola, una verdadera innovación institucional, en su esfuerzo por promover la investigación y la innovación agrícola, y llenar, así, el vacío que se produjo con la reducción de los portes de los donantes en ALC\".• \"La inversión realizada por FONTAGRO cumple un papel relevante en la generación de conocimiento y en la incorporación de nuevas tecnologías a la oferta tecnológica de ALC. Sin embargo, la escala de inversión se encuentra muy por debajo de lo que se necesitaría para poder tener un impacto integral en la producción agropecuaria en general\".• \"El Fondo tiene un valioso efecto multiplicador. Por cada dólar aportado por FONTAGRO, los cofinanciadores y las entidades participantes aportan US$5.0, de los cuales US$3.7 son en concepto de contrapartidas\".En cuanto a la diseminación y adopción de tecnologías, la evaluación indicó que tanto los resultados directos como indirectos de los proyectos están siendo utilizados por los beneficiarios finales, con diferente intensidad. La mayor parte de los resultados (cerca del 74% de ellos) son bienes públicos regionales. Los resultados precompetitivos (es decir, aquellos dirigidos a beneficiarios institucionales, investigadores y técnicos) se utilizan en los procesos de investigación y desarrollo (I+D) en los sistemas nacionales.Los autores destacaron la influencia positiva de FONTAGRO en temas de fortalecimiento de capacidades, específicamente en cuanto a formación de capital científico-técnico, infraestructura y producción de publicaciones, entre otros; en mejora de la capacidad relacional que se genera en los proyectos y el potencial de generar spillovers y spinoffs. En la Caja 1, a continuación, se destacan las conclusiones más importantes del mencionado estudio.Además, sobre los resultados socioeconómicos y ambientales, el estudio concluye que \"los proyectos apoyados por el fondo han buscado mejorar los rendimientos y los costos de producción, y, en general, lo han hecho de manera amigable con el ambiente. Los proyectos generaron tecnologías con un impacto potencial positivo en la rentabilidad de la producción agropecuaria primaria, pero menos importante en poscosecha, empacado y procesamiento\". (Saín y otros, 2014) Caja 1. Síntesis de algunos de los aportes de FONTAGRO a los sistemas de innovación agropecuarios en ALC, hasta el 2014• La innovación generada por los proyectos tuvo un alcance principalmente regional, en segundo lugar, nacional e internacional. En la dimensión económica, los impactos positivos de los proyectos se reflejan sobre todo en el costo de producción y en la productividad en el campo.• El 77% de los resultados alcanzados por los proyectos FONTAGRO ha entrado a formar parte del acervo científico de los sistemas nacionales de investigación agropecuaria (SNIA), mientras que el 69% está siendo aprovechado por los beneficiarios finales. Es alta la influencia de FONTAGRO en la adopción social de los resultados precompetitivos de los proyectos.• El 98.8% de la propiedad intelectual creada desde los proyectos FONTAGRO está bajo la forma de autoría en publicaciones. Estas publicaciones se generaron a partir del 24% de los resultados de los proyectos relevados. La mayor parte de los resultados finales alcanzados (cerca del 74% de los resultados declarados) son bienes públicos regionales.• Respecto del fortalecimiento de las capacidades de las instituciones participantes, el instrumental bibliográfico es la consecuencia positiva más evidente. El equipo de investigación destaca el fomento del trabajo en equipo en las actividades de I+D. FONTAGRO influyó de manera positiva en la formación superior de muchos de los integrantes de los equipos de investigación, dadas las limitadas oportunidades de capacitación de muchos de los INIA de ALC. FONTAGRO ha promovido la cooperación interinstitucional en I+D de forma sostenible, y fomentado la transferencia tecnológica a través de actividades de comunicación, divulgación, cursos, unidades demostrativas, eventos, entre otros, incluso después de finalizados los proyectos.Sobre la contribución de las investigaciones para resolver las limitaciones de la agricultura desde la perspectiva del cambio tecnológico:• FONTAGRO es un mecanismo modelo de financiamiento para el sistema hemisférico de I+D+i, en su esfuerzo por promover la investigación y la innovación y llenar, así, el vacío de inversión que se produjo con la disminución de esta de las últimas décadas en los países de ALC.• FONTAGRO tiene un importante efecto multiplicador. Por cada dólar aportado, los cofinanciadores y las entidades participantes han aportado hasta cinco dólares. Por ello, FONTAGRO tiene un significativo potencial de spillover; por el aprovechamiento de los resultados generados mediante asociaciones y por su trabajo \"sin fronteras\".• El aporte de FONTAGRO a la generación de conocimiento y nuevas tecnologías en ALC ha sido, sin lugar a duda, valioso. Sin embargo, la escala de inversión se encuentra muy por debajo de la que se necesita para poder tener un impacto integral a nivel de producción agropecuaria en general.• Los proyectos apoyados por FONTAGRO han buscado la innovación en los sistemas productivos, a fin de mejorar los rendimientos y disminuir los costos de producción, y han procurado hacerlo de manera amigable con el ambiente. Las tecnologías surgidas de los proyectos FONTAGRO han tenido, en general, un impacto positivo en la rentabilidad de la producción agropecuaria, enfocándose en el eslabón primario.• La mayor parte de los resultados finales, aproximadamente un 74% de los resultados declarados, son bienes públicos regionales. Tanto los resultados directos como los resultados indirectos de los proyectos están siendo utilizados por los beneficiarios finales. No obstante, la intensidad de uso todavía es baja con respecto al tamaño de la población objetivo. Entre las principales limitaciones para un mayor uso de las tecnologías por parte de los usuarios finales, están la falta de información y difusión y la limitada inversión del sector privado. Después del término formal de los proyectos, en la mayoría de los casos, se llevaron a cabo actividades de difusión relacionadas con I+D y transferencia tecnológica en los propios centros de investigación y financiadas con fuentes externas.• FONTAGRO ha fortalecido significativamente la capacidad física y humana de las instituciones participantes. El acervo bibliográfico aportado es la consecuencia positiva más evidente del fortalecimiento de la 'capacidad instalada e infraestructura' de las instituciones participantes. Las publicaciones generadas, sin embargo, son básicamente de uso interno o difusión local, y muy poca producción científico-técnica de nivel internacional. La productividad de las publicaciones creció luego de la finalización de los proyectos. FONTAGRO ha contribuido de forma significativa a la formación de profesionales (a nivel de educación superior) y de investigadores junior, favoreciendo el recambio generacional.Sobre la influencia de FONTAGRO en la constitución de plataformas de cooperación:• El mecanismo de consorcios ha sido un catalizador para fortalecer la institucionalidad y la capacidad relacional de las organizaciones participantes. Esos efectos virtuosos han continuado después del término formal del proyecto. La participación en los consorcios favorece la interacción entre los investigadores líderes, que aprovechan este espacio para crear redes de cooperación en investigación agropecuaria, que perduran y se acrecientan aun cuando los proyectos han terminado. Las redes de cooperación de los líderes de los proyectos se caracterizan por abarcar un número elevado de coautores, países e instituciones.• A pesar de que las retribuciones que otorga la participación en los consorcios y redes de investigación son calificadas como insuficientes, los directivos tienen una percepción positiva del trabajo de FONTAGRO, por propiciar el cofinanciamiento de proyectos de interés y por favorecer la colaboración interinstitucional, tanto local como internacional. A los proyectos se suman investigadores de países no miembros de FONTAGRO, lo que demuestra que se trata de un espacio valioso. Parece oportuno, entonces, analizar nuevas posibilidades de cooperación y diálogo con instituciones de países no miembros, para que FONTAGRO pueda ampliar su espacio de colaboración, lograr mayores impactos y adquirir mayor relevancia y visibilidad.Luego de veinte años de historia, es importante recuperar y revisar lo hecho. Los análisis de resultados anteriores entregaron información clave sobre lo logrado por país y en diferentes dimensiones de análisis, y también dejaron lecciones aprendidas respecto de aquello sobre lo que aún se puede mejorar. En este último aspecto, era necesario conocer si se podía estimar, de algún modo, el beneficio económico generado por los resultados de los proyectos de FONTAGRO. Hacia el 2018, se decidió realizar un primer análisis económico de tales beneficios, los cuales se presentan a continuación.Evaluar los resultados de un programa de cooperación regional como FONTAGRO es un desafío. Las razones de ello son que los proyectos son plataformas de cooperación regional entre varios países, el aporte de FONTAGRO es complementario a otros realizados anteriormente (o que se realizarán en el futuro), y requiere que los proyectos posean un diseño de evaluación previo a su inicio.Aun así, y a través de los últimos veinte años, FONTAGRO ha fomentado la creación de hasta 160 plataformas regionales de cooperación técnica, consideradas verdaderos laboratorios de innovación que han generado conocimientos científicos y técnicos claves para el desarrollo agropecuario y económico de los países en ALC. Los temas de investigación han sido diversos, y los resultados y productos tecnológicos resultantes poseen distinto nivel de madurez, disponibilidad y acceso para los beneficiarios.Esta evaluación de resultados ex post evaluó un grupo de innovaciones agropecuarias que fueron generadas por proyectos cofinanciados por FONTAGRO entre 1998 y el 2018. Para ello, se realizó un relevamiento y análisis previo de la información disponible de 130 proyectos, se recurrió a información secundaria de cada uno de los países donde se implementaron dichos proyectos, y se contactó a expertos que estuvieron vinculados a tales iniciativas. El estudio contó con la coordinación y apoyo permanente de la Secretaría Técnica Administrativa (STA) de FONTAGRO.De esta revisión inicial, se seleccionaron 46 proyectos que podían ser sujetos de una evaluación de resultados ex post. Los criterios utilizados para esta primera selección fueron: (i) el potencial de las innovaciones desarrolladas para generar impactos; (ii) la posible madurez en la diseminación de las innovaciones; (iii) la disponibilidad de información reportada por los proyectos; y (iv) la representatividad para las diferentes áreas de trabajo que ha identificado FONTAGRO. Sobre ellos, se realizó una revisión exhaustiva de los informes finales y búsqueda de otra información complementaria sobre las innovaciones desarrolladas en ellos. También se contactó a los miembros participantes para solicitarles información adicional que pudiera haber sido recogida durante o después del proyecto. Como resultado de este primer proceso de revisión, se identificaron aquellos proyectos que cumplían con las condiciones mínimas para poder recibir la evaluación de resultados económicos ex post. Luego de esta revisión, se logró contar con siete proyectos para realizar una evaluación ex post, y un octavo proyecto preseleccionado contaba ya con una evaluación económica ex ante implementada en años recientes por uno de los integrantes que participó en el proyecto, la cual se incluyó en este estudio.A continuación, se presenta el marco conceptual utilizado en este trabajo, como también un detalle de la información complementaria utilizada. Durante la descripción de los casos, se han utilizado secciones textuales de los informes técnicos finales presentados por los investigadores al cierre del proyecto, para mantener la coherencia entre los resultados señalados en tales informes y aquellos presentados en este estudio.En la evaluación de impacto moderna, los experimentos aleatorizados (RCT, por sus siglas en inglés) son reconocidos como el estándar de oro para llevar a cabo evaluaciones de resultados e impacto. Sin embargo, su aplicación en la agricultura es muy limitada por las restricciones que ofrece para medir impactos a gran escala y en regiones con alto nivel de heterogeneidad en sus condiciones de producción y mercadeo. El uso de métodos cuasi experimentales es también empleado ampliamente en evaluación de impacto, pero estos métodos (variables instrumentales, métodos de emparejamiento, diferencias en diferencias, regresión discontinua) requieren de un diseño de evaluación al inicio del proyecto y, más importante, el registro de indicadores e información. En el caso de FONTAGRO, los proyectos de cooperación técnica no habían sido diseñados para recibir este tipo de evaluaciones y, por tanto, muchos proyectos no contaron con la información necesaria.En consecuencia, para este estudio se decidió utilizar el modelo de excedentes económicos como enfoque Donde K es el desplazamiento vertical de la curva de oferta, expresado como proporción del precio inicial; es el valor absoluto de la elasticidad de demanda del bien; es la elasticidad de la oferta del bien; y Z es la reducción relativa del precio, debido al desplazamiento. metodológico más apropiado. Si bien son conocidas las limitaciones de este enfoque (de Janvry y otros, 2011), con la estimación adecuada de los parámetros claves del modelo y bajo ciertos supuestos, este método puede brindar una buena estimación de los impactos agregados que una innovación agropecuaria puede haber producido en una región o país (Alston y otros, 1995, Maredia y otros, 2013).El modelo de excedentes económicos es de origen marshalliano y plantea que el desarrollo de una innovación tecnológica trae consigo un desplazamiento de la oferta de un determinado bien, gracias a un incremento en la productividad. Este aumento en las cantidades producidas vendrá acompañado por una disminución en el precio del bien, lo cual da origen a un nuevo punto de equilibrio. Desde el punto de vista social, es deseable conocer los efectos que tiene sobre el bienestar de los productores y consumidores este desplazamiento. Alston y otros (1995) proponen un modelo con el cual poder medir el impacto de la tecnología sobre ambos agentes económicos. El modelo estándar supone que las funciones oferta y demanda de un producto homogéneo están dadas por:El modelo de excedentes económicos facilita la evaluación de innovaciones mediante la estimación de los beneficios sociales generados producto de su adopción, de la distribución de dichos beneficios entre productores y consumidores y de indicadores de rentabilidad social, como el valor presente neto (VPN), la relación beneficio/costo (B/C) y la tasa interna de retorno (TIR).La relación \"beneficio/costo\" (B/C) se entiende como el cociente entre el flujo de beneficios que ha generado una innovación desde el año 1 hasta el año en el que se produce la evaluación y el flujo de costos incurridos en el mismo período. En ambos casos, beneficios y costos totales a lo largo del tiempo son ajustados utilizando la tasa de descuento mencionada anteriormente. Al utilizarse para este cálculo una tasa de descuento, en la práctica, los costos que se incurren durante la vida del proyecto tienen un mayor peso comparado La tasa interna de retorno (TIR), también conocida como la tasa interna de rentabilidad, se define como la tasa de descuento que iguala los flujos de beneficios y costos asociados al desarrollo y adopción de una innovación. La fórmula de la cual se deriva la TIR es:En el contexto de la evaluación de impacto de los proyectos FONTAGRO, la manera más rigurosa de implementar el método de excedentes económicos fue utilizar las mejores estimaciones de cada uno de los parámetros del modelo. En seis de los siete estudios con condiciones para realizar una evaluación ex post, se utilizó el modelo de excedentes económicos. El estudio preliminar de evaluación ex ante incluido en este informe también utilizó el mismo enfoque metodológico. Finalmente, en un solo caso de los estudios de evaluación ex post no fue posible el uso del modelo de excedentes económicos por ser un proyecto piloto y con poca evidencia de un escalamiento importante. En este caso, utilizamos una metodología estándar beneficio/costo con datos de productividad, ingresos y costos proporcionados por los participantes del proyecto. En la siguiente sección, se detalla el tipo de datos e información que se utilizó para la estimación del excedente económico y el resto de los indicadores en cada uno de los proyectos.En este estudio, los indicadores claves que se utilizaron en el análisis de evaluación de resultados e impacto fueron:(i) el nivel de adopción de la innovación agropecuaria (observada para ex post, proyectada para ex ante), (ii) el cambio en rendimientos del cultivo (que representa el efecto de la innovación en los rendimientos a nivel de finca), (iii) la probabilidad de éxito de la innovación analizada, (iv) la elasticidad de oferta y de demanda esperada en la innovación 4 , (v) el precio inicial de los productos o cultivos en evaluación al momento del lanzamiento de la innovación, y (vi) el precio de los productos o cultivos al 2017, después de unos años de uso de la innovación por parte de los productores agropecuarios y el nivel de producción del cultivo o producto antes de haberse diseminado la innovación.La información sobre estos indicadores de resultado e impacto se recolectó, cuando estuvo disponible, de los informes técnicos finales y de fuentes secundarias (como literatura vinculada a los proyectos, datos de seguimiento posteriores a la finalización de ellos, comunicaciones personales con los participantes y estadísticas, entre otros). En el Anexo I, se describe en detalle el tipo de datos que se utilizaron en cada uno de los ocho casos seleccionados para evaluación y su fuente de información.Durante el estudio, se recopilaron los principales resultados y logros de los proyectos según los informes técnicos finales presentados a la finalización de cada proyecto. En algunos casos, se decidió considerar el texto provisto en tales informes y, en otros, se realizó una síntesis de estos. En cada uno de los casos, se presenta al pie de página el código de la operación con un vínculo a la página del proyecto en el sitio de Internet de FONTAGRO, en donde podrán encontrarse los informes técnicos finales completos y otra información complementaria.4. Las elasticidades de oferta y de demanda se refieren a los cambios que se esperan en la cantidad ofertada o la cantidad demandada ante cambios en el precio del producto o cultivo en evaluación.Los proyectos inicialmente preseleccionados para la evaluación comprendieron una inversión total de US$49,56 millones, de los cuales FONTAGRO cofinanció US$13,10 millones, US$3,83 fueron aportados por otras agencias y el resto por aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes (US$32,62 millones) (Gráfico 1 y Gráfico 2). Los proyectos fueron agrupados según el tipo de investigación en cuatro categorías: básica, aplicada, adaptativa y estratégica. Sin embargo, es importante destacar que, aunque los proyectos puedan inicialmente ser clasificados en una categoría en particular, estos pueden generar aportes en las otras.Del grupo de proyectos preseleccionados, el 65% se clasificaron como investigación básica y, por lo tanto, están enfocadas especialmente en la generación de conocimiento científico básico. En esta categoría, hay proyectos como la evaluación, identificación y selección de materiales genéticos resistentes, la caracterización de genotipos y estudios por zonas geográficas, entre otros. Esta característica puso desafíos a la evaluación por la necesidad de continuar el seguimiento al desarrollo científico y la posterior diseminación de la tecnología.Los proyectos adaptativos y aplicativos corresponden al 13% y 11%, respectivamente, y refieren a aquellos que utilizan conocimiento científico básico para aplicarlo a determinadas soluciones tecnológicas promisorias y/o adaptan tal conocimiento a algún contexto en particular. Ejemplos de este tipo de proyectos son las estrategias para la producción de semilla limpia, el manejo integrado del cultivo, y las variedades mejoradas testeadas en condiciones de campo, entre otros. Aquí encontramos proyectos como \"Innovaciones tecnológicas y mercados diferenciados: Papas nativas\" y \"Fortalecimiento de cadenas de valor de plátano: Innovaciones tecnológicas para reducir agroquímicos\".El 11% restante corresponde a los proyectos de carácter estratégico, y refieren a aquellos cuyo objetivo contribuye a resolver problemas que son clave para un sector, país o región; y tiene como fin facilitar el diseño de políticas. Un ejemplo de esta categoría es el proyecto \"Estrategia de innovación tecnológica para mejorar la productividad y competitividad de cadenas producto para América Central y República Dominicana (PRESICA)\".Contrapartida 66%Otras Agencias 8%Las estimaciones de resultados ex post de los proyectos evidencian que se han generado beneficios económicos que, en su mayoría, superaron a la inversión realizada. En total, los siete proyectos evaluados alcanzaron beneficios económicos por US$83.753.240 (Cuadro 1). Estos beneficios superaron a la inversión total realizada por FONTAGRO y sus socios entre los años 1998 a 2009 5 , que fue de US$61,740,30. Sin embargo, este beneficio aún podría ser mayor si se consideran los siguientes aspectos: i) que en algunos proyectos solo fue posible la evaluación de uno de los varios componentes y actividades de este, y ii) que solo se realizó la evaluación en uno o algunos países participantes (pero no en todos). Por otro lado, también es necesario destacar que, en los beneficios totales estimados, FONTAGRO participó con un porcentaje de atribución, ya que otras instituciones también aportaron fondos antes o después del cofinanciamiento de FONTAGRO y, por tanto, parte de tales beneficios deberían ser atribuibles a ellas. Este porcentaje de atribución no ha sido estimado en este estudio.5. Este período corresponde a los proyectos evaluados en este estudio.Gráfico 2. Distribución de proyectos según tipo de investigación.Fuente: Elaboración propia. Nota (*): Refieren a cifras provenientes únicamente del grupo de proyectos analizados.Adaptativa 13%Básica 66%Aplicada 11%A continuación, se presenta una breve descripción de cada proyecto, indicando los principales resultados y el beneficio económico generado.Cuadro 1. Ocho casos de proyectos evaluados con la metodología de excedente económico. Este proyecto tuvo dos objetivos claves. Por un lado, identificar variedades de camote (Ipomoea batatas) con aptitud para consumo humano, animal e industrial y, por el otro, desarrollar nuevos productos para mejorar las dietas infantiles y animales, y evaluar el efecto de algunos procesos poscosecha en la calidad de las raíces. Se realizaron diversas actividades como evaluación de variedades en los tres países, conforme a los destinos comerciales y de agregado de valor. Específicamente, se realizaron las siguientes actividades: i) identificación de variedades de camote para procesamiento, ii) desarrollo de tecnologías poscosecha para el mercado de exportación, iii) desarrollo de papillas alimenticias para niños de 6 meses a 3 años de edad, y iv) obtención de cultivares doble propósito y otros con destinos industriales. Según el reporte final de este proyecto:• En Argentina se encontró que las variedades introducidas Morado Maraví (Ecuador) y Satsumahikari (Japón) superaron a la variedad local Morada INTA en rendimiento y en contenido de materia seca a los 150 días del cultivo. Estas tres variedades, junto con \"Arapey\" (variedad introducida desde Uruguay) tuvieron aptitud para consumo fresco y procesamiento industrial (por ejemplo, en la alta calidad de hojuelas fritas). Otros clones (BGC197 y BGC104) presentaron alto rendimiento y contenido de materia seca a los 90 días, mientras que los clones EC 161 INTA y EC 157 INTA presentaron rendimientos de follaje mayores a Morada INTA (113.4 y 84.6 vs 73.7 t/ha), aunque menor porcentaje de materia seca (9.4% y 9.9% vs 11.3%). Las ganancias de peso diarias de los vacunos fueron mayores con EC 161 y EC 157 que con Morada INTA (227 g y 215 g vs 157 g), debido a su mayor cantidad de proteína bruta y menor cantidad de fibra detergente neutra.• En República Dominicana, se encontró que la variedad Forrajera (introducida desde Perú) superó a las variedades locales Montecarlo, Manecera y Copelá en productividad de materia seca de raíces (10.5 vs 7.7, 7.2 y 5.0 kg/10 m 2 , respectivamente). No obstante, rindió menos en follaje seco que las dos últimas (4.0 vs 3.5, 4.56. Código de proyecto: ATN/SF-6486-RG (propuesta #22/98).CASO 1. Desarrollo de productos de camote en América Latina (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) 7. Comunicación personal con redes de referencia.y 5.6 kg/10m 2 , respectivamente). La frecuencia del corte del follaje afectó directamente la producción de raíces, pero no la de follaje.• En Perú, se han seleccionado cinco clones promisorios de doble propósito (consumo humano y animal) de la colección de germoplasma del CIP. A los 75 días, permitieron obtener follaje, y a los 150 días, follaje y raíces, permitiendo mayores ingresos por la venta de estas últimas y ofreciendo mayor disponibilidad de forraje para uso animal. Por otro lado, en el 2001 se liberó la variedad Huambachero, con aptitudes para diferentes usos, y fue rápidamente aceptada por agricultores y consumidores. Además, se han identificado más de 50 clones promisorios con una productividad entre 9 y 20 t/ha de materia seca de raíces, la mitad de los cuales fueron producidos in vitro libre de patógenos y, por tanto, disponible para su distribución internacional. Envíos de variedades al INTA Nicaragua y CLAYUCA-CIAT (Colombia) han tenido un impacto significativo. Se produjeron más de 125.000 semillas, de las cuales el CIP ha empleado el 15% y distribuido el resto.La variedad local Huachano fue mejorada genéticamente para incrementar la calidad de su harina, con fines de uso en panificación u otra industria. Se estableció un procedimiento más corto (dos meses) para producir plantas través de la organogénesis, en comparación a los seis empleados convencionalmente para embriogénesis somática de este cultivo. En cuanto al uso del camote en alimentación animal, la Universidad ISA de República Dominicana determinó que la harina de raíces de camote puede sustituir hasta el 80% del maíz en dietas para ovinos de engorde, sin detrimento del rendimiento y calidad de la carne.El CIP encontró que la incorporación de camote entre el 25% y el 50% incrementa la producción de leche con un mínimo uso de concentrado. También se encontró que la harina de camote puede emplearse satisfactoriamente para complementar las dietas de tilapias (10%) y pollos (<30%).El CIP y el INN desarrollaron una \"papilla\" (harina enriquecida) instantánea para niños a base de camote (variedad Huambachero). Se realizaron pruebas de aceptabilidad y estudios de mercado con resultados favorables. Se comprobó que existió una predisposición para el consumo de camote en la población infantil, principalmente en forma sancochada y aplastada, llamada \"papilla casera\".La evaluación implementada se centró en el análisis de resultados generados por una de las actividades de investigación del proyecto, pero solo en Perú. • Variedad de Camote Huambachero liberada en 2001 en Perú.• Clones promisorios identificados para alimentación humana y animal.• Papilla instantánea a base de camote para niños, desarrollada cumpliendo con las reglamentaciones del Ministerio de Salud del Perú.CASO 2. Innovaciones tecnológicas y mercados diferenciados para productores de papa nativa (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) Este proyecto fue desarrollado en los países de Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú y Venezuela con un presupuesto total de US$1.066,405, de los cuales US$500.000 fueron aportados por FONTAGRO y el resto fueron aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes. El objetivo fue desarrollar innovaciones tecnológicas y oportunidades de mercados diferenciados para el aprovechamiento de la biodiversidad de papas nativas y contribuir a mejorar la calidad de vida de pequeños productores altoandinos. Como objetivos específicos se buscó además: (i) caracterizar la diversidad de papas nativas por atributos especiales, que agregan valor por el uso en procesamiento industrial y la gastronomía regional andina, (ii) desarrollar y promocionar productos con valor agregado para mercados diferenciados considerando atributos especiales de las papas nativas, (iii) desarrollar innovaciones tecnológicas de producción y poscosecha para incrementar la oferta biodiversa de papas nativas en forma oportuna y duradera, y (iv) fortalecer organizaciones de productores de papas nativas para la comercialización y el fomento de cultura empresarial.Dentro de los principales resultados, se realizó la caracterización de la diversidad de papas nativas analizándose un total de 573 cultivares por atributos que agregan valor al uso industrial y gastronómico, en Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú y Venezuela. Las caracterizaciones se realizaron sobre aspectos morfológicos, organolépticos, funcionales, de uso industrial y gastronómico. Se establecieron \"jardines o parcelas de caracterización\" en varias localidades de cada uno de los países. Estas parcelas cumplieron el rol de preservación, multiplicación de las papas nativas y, además, sirvieron para impartir capacitación. Se publicó un catálogo de papas nativas por país. Con la participación de expertos gastronómicos, se efectuaron eventos culinarios que permitieron la elaboración de recetarios por país y uno regional.Al mismo tiempo, desde el lado organizacional, en cada país se fue trabajando con organizaciones de pequeños productores familiares, para integrarlos a la cadena de valor, y así lograr un mejor precio, por un producto que hasta entonces era desechado. Se realizaron mesas de negocios para producto fresco y procesado, y se invitó a todos los actores de la cadena, tanto desde el sector privado como público. Estos resultados iniciales permitieron el desarrollo y promoción de un nuevo mercado para las papas nativas, específicamente, se logró un mercado diferenciado tanto local (restaurantes gourmet y hotelería) como internacional.El proyecto generó innovaciones tecnológicas que mejoraron la productividad, como la poscosecha de papas nativas. Resultados del proyecto indican que los rendimientos se incrementaron un 20% y se mejoró la calidad de los tubérculos, lo cual permitió acceder al mercado interno con mejores precios. En Colombia, se logró aumentar la disponibilidad de variedades de papas nativas, teniendo mayor reconocimiento en el mercado hotelero. En Ecuador, el uso de semilla de calidad permitió alcanzar incrementos de rendimiento de hasta 20%. A su vez, las asociaciones de productores tomaron contacto con restaurantes gourmet y el sector hotelero, quienes mejoraron el precio pagado a los productores. En Perú, las innovaciones tecnológicas en producción y poscosecha contribuyeron a mejorar los rendimientos en 24%. Esto, sumado al reconocimiento por el mercado de este producto, promovió la organización de dos asociaciones de productores: Nuevo amanecer (en Quisisni) y la Asociación de conservacionistas y productores de papa nativa (ACOPPNA, en Canchis). El proyecto benefició, en forma directa e indirecta, a alrededor de 4.500 productores.El análisis económico de resultados de este proyecto se centró en evaluar los beneficios recibidos por los pequeños agricultores de papa nativa de Ecuador y Perú, que resultaron del procesamiento de hojuelas fritas de colores que ya han sido ampliamente aceptadas en el mercado de estos dos países. El análisis de evaluación se basó en datos de costos y beneficios estimados a partir de información suministrada por los investigadores del proyecto. Del análisis se obtuvo:Agricultores CONPAPA promoviendo las papas nativas en la feria tecnológica en Guranda -Bolivar. Fuente INIAP.• En Ecuador, después de la culminación del proyecto, el Consorcio de Pequeños Agricultores de la Sierra Ecuatoriana (CONPAPA) en sociedad con INALPROCES dieron continuidad al cultivo y venta de papa nativa. En total, 70 productores con un área estimada de 21 hectáreas producen alrededor de 300 toneladas de papa por año, mientras que tradicionalmente la producción de papa nativa alcanzaba 6.75 toneladas por año. Por otra parte, durante el período 2011-2017 se han generado en promedio 1,265 empleos directos (jornales/año), los planes de siembra de papa nativa se han incrementado a una tasa anual promedio de 39.8%, y la empresa INALPROCES al 2017 ha generado 70 empleos directos entre puestos administrativos y operativos para el procesamiento y producción de las hojuelas fritas de colores. Los resultados del análisis de evaluación muestran que, durante el período 2011-2017, el cultivo de papa nativa para la producción de hojuelas de colores generó beneficios económicos a los productores por US$144.880 con una relación beneficio/costo de 1,72 dólares.• En Perú, la Asociación de Productores Agropecuarios para la Industria Andina (AGROPIA), constituida en el marco del proyecto, creció durante los últimos años, exportando sus productos a Francia, Bélgica, España, Holanda, Alemania y Estados Unidos. Esto benefició a alrededor de 120 pequeños agricultores que al 2018 producen aproximadamente 360 toneladas de papa nativa. AGROPIA cuenta con la Certificación Orgánica bajo las normas europeas, de Estados Unidos (NOP) y de Alemania (NATURLAND). También cuenta con la Certificación de Comercio Justo y Responsabilidad Social por ECOCERT, NATURLAND y SPP (Sello de Pequeños Productores). Además, recibió el Galardón Arqueros de Oro. Se destaca que los productores involucrados en este proyecto se han beneficiado no solo por la capacitación y apoyo en manejo del cultivo, sino también por mejores precios. Los resultados del análisis muestran que durante el período 2009-2017, como consecuencia de la siembra de papa nativa para la producción de hojuelas de colores, los productores de la muestra analizada han obtenido beneficios económicos de US$59.377 con una relación beneficio/costo de 1,25 dólares. Se destaca que estos resultados solo corresponden a los ingresos recibidos por los agricultores que están destinando su producción a las empresas INALPROCES (Ecuador) y AGROPIA (Perú).En resumen, lo presentado anteriormente es un resultado parcial de una porción de los resultados del proyecto. La dificultad de acceder a información posterior limitó la estimación completa de los resultados del proyecto en todos los países que participaron de esta iniciativa.• Catálogo de papas nativas por país.• Nuevos productos elaborados: hojuelas fritas de colores de papa.• Estrategia de manejo integrado del cultivo Ecuador, en Venezuela, y en Colombia. Durante toda la implementación del proyecto, se fortalecieron capacidades de 900 agricultores y técnicos, en las estrategias nuevas de manejo del cultivo de plátano, producción de semilla limpia y de lixiviado de raquis, como biofungicida y biofertilizante.El análisis de resultados económicos de este proyecto abarcó solo los resultados generados por la multiplicación y adopción de semillas de plátano a partir del sistema de cámara térmica (termoterapia) e implementado únicamente en el departamento de Quindío (Colombia), que refieren al primer objetivo específico del proyecto. Este objetivo tenía además cuatro metas: (a) desarrollo e instalación y operación de cámaras térmicas, b) generar disponibilidad de semilla para productores, c) realizar análisis de plantas madre y plántulas para presencia de patógenos, y d) multiplicación de 5 genotipos comerciales. Este sistema de cámara térmica demostró ser capaz de multiplicar entre tres y ocho colinos más por cormo en comparación con el método convencional que se utilizaba. Además, el uso de esta semilla limpia generó un incremento promedio en los rendimientos del 25% y una reducción aproximada del 15% en los costos directos de producción de los agricultores, en comparación con los resultados obtenidos de la siembra de semillas tradicionales (dado el menor uso de agroquímicos y la menor duración del ciclo).El análisis realizado de excedente económico ex post se basó en datos correspondientes a costos, beneficios y adopción de esta tecnología que se obtuvieron a partir de información suministrada por los investigadores del proyecto. Los costos considerados en el análisis incluyen los costos variables en los que incurre el productor al acceder a semilla proveniente de cámara térmica en lugar de la semilla tradicional. El nivel de adopción se estimó a partir del total de semillas producidas en la cámara térmica del Quindío y que han sido distribuidas anualmente. Como supuesto se consideró, demás, una densidad de siembra de 2.000 colinos (brotes)/hectáreas y renovación anual del cultivo con la nueva tecnología. Adicionalmente, se utilizó información sobre los niveles de producción y precios reportados por la Red de Información y Comunicación del Sector Agropecuario Colombiano (Agronet).Los resultados del análisis de evaluación ex post muestran que, durante el período 2008-2017, gracias a la implementación del sistema de termoterapia en la producción de semilla limpia de plátano, en la región del Quindío se generaron beneficios económicos de US$703.734, con una relación beneficio/costo de 2,3 dólares y una TIR de 87,2%. Se destaca que, a pesar de que el análisis de resultado de este componente se centró en solo un país, los beneficios generados ya superaron toda la inversión hecha en el proyecto.Conducción de brotes con inductores de resistencia.• Innovación en la producción de semilla de plátano a través de un Sistema de cámara térmica.• Implementación de prácticas ecológicas para el control de Sigatoka y Moko.CASO 4. Desarrollo y aplicación de prácticas ecológicas en el manejo de plagas para incrementar la producción sostenible de papa de los agricultores de bajos recursos en las regiones andinas de Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011) Este proyecto fue desarrollado en los países de Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú, con un presupuesto total de US$900.000, de los cuales US$450.000 fueron provisto por el Banco Mundial y el resto fueron aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes. La iniciativa fue liderada por el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) y contó con la participación de otras dos organizaciones: el Instituto Nacional Autónomo de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP) de Ecuador y la Fundación para la Promoción e Investigación de Productos Andinos (PROINPA) de Bolivia 10 .La papa (Solanum tuberosum) es el principal alimento de los pobladores andinos. El gorgojo de los Andes (Premnotrypes spp.) y las polillas de la papa (Phthorimaea operculella, Symmetrischema tangolias, Tecia solanivora) son las plagas claves que limitan la producción y la calidad de la cosecha en Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú. Las pérdidas causadas por estas plagas pueden llegar a más de 50% a campo y hasta 80% durante el almacenamiento; son pérdidas económicas de US$500 a US$1.000 por hectárea y año. Para controlar estas plagas, los agricultores utilizan tradicionalmente insecticidas muy tóxicos, lo cual pone en riesgo su salud y el medioambiente.El objetivo de este proyecto fue mejorar los medios de subsistencia de los productores de papa de bajos recursos de la Región Andina, buscando reducir las pérdidas económicas causadas por estas plagas y uso de pesticidas. Para ello, se desarrollaron e implementaron estrategias de Manejo Integrado de Plagas (MIP) a fin de mejorar la competitividad del cultivo, favorecer los sistemas sostenibles de producción de papa, y en especial disminuir el riesgo de uso de pesticidas en la salud humana. El proyecto incluyó los siguientes objetivos específicos: (i) desarrollar herramientas de toma de decisiones para MIP, (ii) mejorar la eficacia de los enemigos naturales para evitar la infestación por parte de plagas, (iii) desarrollar intervenciones de manejo integrado de plagas (MIP) sostenibles basadas en el control biológico, control físico y atracticidas, y (iv) validar y adaptar nuevos componentes de MIP en investigación-acción (action research) con agricultores y reducir pérdidas económicas.Barreras de plástico para el control del gorgojo de los Andes.10. Código de proyecto: FTG/RF-0513-RG.Para contribuir con una solución, el CIP, el INIAP de Ecuador y la Fundación PRONIPA de Bolivia lograron desarrollar una nueva estrategia de Manejo Integrado de Plagas (MIP) con herramientas ecológicas que redujeron el uso de pesticidas que constituyen la práctica tradicional de los productores. Esta estrategia incluyó el uso de barreras de plástico, atracticidas (feromonas), el incremento de diversidad funcional y el uso del talco Bt (el CIP ha reformulado el Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki® -Btk en talco Bt para su uso durante el almacenamiento) para el control de polilla en el almacenamiento, que demostró ser tan efectivo como el control químico, con las ventajas adicionales de proteger a los enemigos naturales, el ambiente y la salud humana.Entre otros resultados destacados, se cita el desarrollo de modelos fenológicos para las dos plagas (Symmetrsichema tangolias y Tecia solanivora); el desarrollo de un software Insect Life Cycle Modeling (ILCYM), herramienta para predecir el crecimiento potencial de poblaciones de plagas en diferentes agroecosistemas de papa, evaluar las zonas potenciales de riesgo en nuevas áreas de cultivo y predecir futuros cambios poblacionales debido al cambio climático (CIP, 2011). A la fecha, este modelo sigue siendo empleado y ha sido mejorado a través de fondos del BMZ/GIZ de Alemania. El proyecto incluyó el desarrollo de estrategias de control biológico de la polilla de la papa en Ecuador (Tecia solanivora Povolny). Si bien no se logró identificar ningún parasitoide en el lugar de origen (Guatemala), se consideró la introducción de otros parasitoides Se destaca que en el año 2012 FONTAGRO apoyó la iniciativa \"Sustitución de los insecticidas en el cultivo de papa\" con un aporte total de US$65.000, con el que se realizaron actividades complementarias de difusión en Perú, entre ellas, la instalación de las parcelas demostrativas. Esta ampliación del proyecto liderada por el CIP permitió también la conformación de la plataforma REDMIPAPA, la cual integra alrededor de 20 organizaciones realizando trabajo de investigación y desarrollo.El sitio de Internet 13 de la red se encuentra activo y permite el acceso a información y materiales de capacitación, así como intercambio de experiencias. Al 2015 se habían realizado más de 11.000 descargas.• Validación y difusión de la tecnología de barreras de plástico para el control de gorgojo de los Andes.• Desarrollo del software Insect Life Cycle Modeling (ILCYM).• Validación de atracticidas (attract and kill technology).Al 2015, se logró la instalación de 80 parcelas demostrativas en 68 comunidades ubicadas en ocho regiones del Perú.12. El análisis incluyó el relevamiento de los productos logrados por el proyecto, información brindada por los investigadores asociados, entre ellos el Dr. Jürgen Kroschel, y resultados generados por una de las actividades de investigación en Perú, específicamente la adopción de la tecnología de barreras de plástico.13. REDMIPAPA: https://research.cip.cgiar.org/confluence/display/MiPapa/Home.CASO 5. Red de innovación de investigación y desarrollo: hacia la diseminación eficiente y mecanismos de impacto pro-pobre con nuevas variedades de papa en la zona andina (2007-2013) El objetivo fue mejorar el bienestar de pequeños productores de papa por medio del acceso facilitado a tecnología de punta e integración a sistemas de innovación articulados a cadenas de valor. Los objetivos específicos fueron: i) lograr que actores de la cadena y del sistema de investigación, desarrollo y producción de papa en la Región Andina cuenten con acceso facilitado a germoplasma y procedimientos de evaluación estandarizados, ii) lanzar y liberar nuevas variedades y adoptar tempranamente esquemas innovadores de diseminación, difusión y promoción adaptados a múltiples necesidades y oportunidades, iii) promover tecnologías diversas, eficientes y económicamente viables de producción de semilla (buscar desarrollar vínculos de interacción adaptados a sectores formales e informales y capacidades fortalecidas de los actores principales, incrementar la disponibilidad de semilla de calidad de nuevas variedades), iv) y promover la red de socios estratégicos y actores de cadenas de valor para que cuenten con un sistema de información y comunicación compartido.Durante el proyecto, se fomentó la colaboración científica y multilateral entre los socios (programas nacionales, universidades, empresa privada y centros internacionales) y, al mismo tiempo, la cooperación técnica nacional entre los programas de mejoramiento y los usuarios de nuevas variedades de papa (agricultores, empresas). Se buscó incrementar la base genética de papa con materiales resistentes, de alta productividad, precocidad y calidad. Se realizó la distribución internacional de materiales y se logró la incorporación a los programas de mejoramiento local. De esta manera, los investigadores y Productores de la región andina.14. Código de proyecto: CGIAR #7027.agricultores tuvieron la oportunidad de acceder en forma anticipada a nuevas variedades, mediante la selección varietal participativa (SPV). Se incrementó la diseminación de resultados a través de acciones combinadas, como el Enfoque Participativo en Cadenas Productivas (EPCP), las redes de parcelas demostrativas, catálogos comerciales nacionales de nuevas variedades y clones avanzados, estudios de impacto sobre diseminación informal en zonas montañosas, entre otros. Se desarrolló un sistema de producción de semilla limpia de papa que logró mayor eficiencia en la producción de semilla prebásica, con la instalación de unidades de aeroponía en tres de los cuatro países del proyecto. Se publicó un manual de aeroponía y más de 34 semilleristas e investigadores fueron entrenados en este sistema. También se implementaron casos piloto de producción de semilla de calidad declarada y producción de un volumen considerable de semilla de nuevas variedades. Se han realizado estudios y la sistematización económica de las principales innovaciones de producción de minitubérculos. Muchas asociaciones de semilleristas, en cada país socio, han fortalecido su capacidad de proveer semilla.Por último, se entrenó a doce fitomejoradores en el uso de una plataforma de información de GIS -AMMI; se diseñó y lanzó la página de Internet Red LatinPapa donde se publicaron boletines InnovaPapa, se cuenta con el sistema virtual de selección de materiales del CIP y un sistema de información sobre semilla de papa en América Latina. Además, se facilitó el acceso a otros materiales de capacitación, como el video en línea sobre tamizado para resistencia virus y múltiples fuentes de información. A continuación, se describen los logros por país e institución.• En Perú, el CIP fortaleció el trabajo en red a nivel internacional con los cuatro países andinos. Se realizó la caracterización de nuevas fuentes de resistencia a patógenos, estudios de precocidad y estabilidad. Se continuó apoyando la selección participativa de variedades y se lograron al menos tres nuevas variedades aptas para liberarse. El CIP distribuyó más de 500 accesiones a los países del proyecto. Se realizaron estudios de impacto potencial de la adopción y difusión de variedades, como también el análisis económico de los sistemas de producción de semilla prebásica y el estudio sobre la producción de minitubérculos de papa bajo condiciones de aeroponía en Perú. Se realizaron talleres de entrenamiento a técnicos y productores y un curso internacional de producción de semilla de papa. También se elaboraron publicaciones, protocolos, materiales de capacitación, catálogo de variedades, los boletines InnovaPapa y otros a través del sitio web de la Red LatinPapa. Se emitieron 26 trabajos, como artículos para revistas científicas. Por otro lado, el INIA realizó evaluaciones de estabilidad para rendimiento y calidad de procesamiento de clones avanzados de papa. Instaló parcelas de comprobación en Cajamarca, Junín y Puno para la obtención de nuevas variedades (clones previamente identificados por selección participativa). Se liberaron tres nuevas variedades de papa durante el 2008-2011, y se seleccionaron nuevas variedades de papa resistentes a Tizón Tardío. INIA continuó con la producción de semilla Durante el proyecto, se fomentó la colaboración científica y multilateral entre los socios (programas nacionales, universidades, empresa privada y centros internacionales) y, al mismo tiempo, la cooperación técnica nacional entre los programas de mejoramiento y los usuarios de nuevas variedades de papa (agricultores, empresas). prebásica de nuevas variedades en aeroponía, así como con alianzas para la producción de semilla declarada QDS (Junín y Cusco). Se creó una base de datos de clones avanzados y variedades de papa a nivel nacional.• En Bolivia, la Fundación PROINPA realizó la caracterización y selección agronómica, morfológica y por calidad culinaria, de clones avanzados y promisorios, y especialmente la selección participativa de cinco variedades potenciales de papa. Se instalaron parcelas en comunidades locales para la difusión de nuevas variedades, como también infraestructura de invernaderos de multiplicación de materiales de mejoramiento. Se realizó la difusión de nuevas variedades con agricultores semilleristas de Villa Flores (provincia Tiraque, Cochabamba), y se designó un Comité de Gestión para la fiscalización. Se diseñó una estrategia de difusión con actores de la cadena de valor. Entre los estudios, se destaca la realización de un análisis del consumo de papa en Cochabamba, y la elaboración de documentos técnicos científicos, como también el \"Catálogo de nuevas variedades de papa en Bolivia\".• En Colombia, AGROSAVIA logró la multiplicación de 25 clones avanzados del CIP, trabajando con socios nacionales (municipios, empresas, y agricultores). Se desarrollaron experimentos para la evaluación de parámetros morfológicos y características de calidad industrial en alianza con la empresa Yupi Ltda. La selección participativa se realizó con pequeños agricultores. Además, se implementó el sistema aeropónico para producción de semilla de variedades selectas. Se elaboraron materiales de difusión de la variedad NOVA en colaboración con McCain. Se organizaron talleres y se elaboraron publicaciones y otros productos de conocimiento. Por otro lado, la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNC) realizó la multiplicación de clones en su programa de mejoramiento, conjuntamente con el CIP y PROINPA. La evaluación fue realizada en fincas de agricultores, y otros experimentos fueron nacionales e internacionales. Al menos dos materiales fueron propuestos para su liberación. Se concretaron alianzas con el sector privado para la producción de semilla prebásica de nuevas variedades. Se evaluaron cuatro variedades de papa criolla en localidades de Cundinamarca y Boyacá, en colaboración con la Corporación PBA y la Federación Colombiana de productores de papa (Fedepapa). Se publicó el catálogo \"Variedades colombianas de papa\" y otros estudios. La empresa McCain realizó la selección de dos clones de los que multiplicó semilla, y realizó siembras semicomerciales, habiéndose gestionado el registro de prueba y evaluación agronómica (PEA) ante el ICA para Productores de la región andina.Productores de la región andina. inscribirlos como variedades. Continuaron con los trabajos de evaluación de clones avanzados promisorios en parcelas de rendimiento, en algunos casos con participación activa de otros actores de la cadena de papa. Continuación de la alianza AGROSAVIA/McCain/CIP para la selección varietal en Colombia (que permitió la liberación de la variedad NOVA en el 2009).• En Ecuador, el INIAP realizó evaluaciones participativas de clones promisorios de papa en Carchi y Tungurahua. Algunas variedades fueron identificadas con actores de la cadena. Entre otros logros, se generó una base de datos del germoplasma nativo y mejorado para la implementación del catálogo en Internet. Se alcanzó a incrementar el volumen de producción de semilla de las variedades lanzadas. Se realizaron estudios sobre soluciones nutritivas y efecto de microorganismos para la producción de tubérculo semilla en aeroponía.• La Alianza Cambio Andino acompañó el proceso de selección participativa de variedades (SPV) a cinco consorcios de Perú y dos de Colombia. En el enfoque participativo, se incluyó a intermediarios, procesadores y supermercados, además de agricultores, y se dio énfasis a la capacitación. Se publicó un artículo sobre selección participativa sistematizada que facilitó la aplicación de la metodología a campo.De acuerdo con los logros del proyecto y la información disponible al momento de este trabajo, el análisis se basó en la estimación del resultado económico generado en Perú, y solo para el caso de la multiplicación y adopción de semillas de papa producidas a partir del sistema de aeroponía propuesto. Los sistemas aeropónicos se caracterizan por producir semilla prebásica 15 sin la necesidad de utilizar suelo o sustratos. Este sistema ha demostrado ser capaz de multiplicar de entre cinco a diez veces más tubérculos por planta a un menor costo, en comparación con el método convencional, además de generar un aumento de calidad y rendimiento final (Rodríguez, Chuquinllanquí y Mateus, 2018).El presente análisis ex post se basó en datos correspondientes a los costos, beneficios y adopción de esta tecnología que se obtuvieron a partir de revisión de literatura asociada e información suministrada por los investigadores del proyecto. Los costos considerados en el análisis incluyen los costos fijos de las unidades de aeroponía con una vida útil de siete años y los costos variables para multiplicar semilla registrada en una primera etapa y semilla certificada en una segunda etapa.Adicionalmente, se incluyen los costos en que incurre un productor comercial por usar la semilla certificada de papa en lugar de la semilla tradicional del tubérculo. El nivel de adopción de la semilla Evaluación participativa con productores andinos.Evaluación participativa con productores 15. La semilla prebásica es la primera generación de semilla de papa que se crea en ambientes controlados (invernaderos) a partir de plántulas de material limpio de enfermedades. Son también conocidos como minitubérculos certificada se estimó a partir de la semilla prebásica obtenida en las unidades de aeroponía ubicadas en Perú y tasas de multiplicación conservadoras de semilla registrada (15 toneladas/hectárea) y de semilla certificada (25 toneladas/hectárea). Los niveles de producción y precio corresponden a los reportados por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO, por sus siglas en inglés). Al 2018, se reportan 37 unidades de aeroponía instaladas en América Latina. 24 de ellas ubicadas en Perú con niveles de producción entre 766.500-941.500 minitubérculos por año.Producción de semilla por aeropinia en invernadero.de los sistemas de aeroponía en la producción de semilla de papa, se han generado beneficios económicos de US$52.185.897, con una relación beneficio/costo de 13 y una TIR de 314.1%. Este análisis preliminar no incluye el resultado generado en el mercado de semillas de papa a consecuencia de la disminución en los costos de producción de la semilla por aeroponía y por la introducción de variedades mejoradas.CASO 6. Desarrollo de bioinsumos para la producción sostenible de hortalizas con pequeños agricultores para una soberanía alimentaria en los andes (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) Este proyecto fue desarrollado en los países de Bolivia, Colombia y Perú, con un presupuesto total de US$924.400, siendo US$461.500 aportados por el BID y el resto fueron aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes. El proyecto fue liderado por Fundación PROINPA (Bolivia) y contó con la participación de la Corporación PBA (Colombia) y el CIP (Perú) 16 .La Región Andina se caracteriza por una importante diversidad de ecosistemas con diferentes condiciones climáticas y geomorfológicas que han generado una gran diversidad genética de microorganismos en el suelo. Sin embargo, estos ecosistemas están siendo amenazados por la degradación causada por el uso excesivo de agroquímicos, que afectan la productividad de cultivos y el medioambiente.El objetivo de este proyecto fue investigar y desarrollar bioinsumos para contribuir a la producción agrícola sostenible, responsable, y de bajo costo. Los objetivos específicos fueron: i) desarrollar un banco de germoplasma de microorganismos nativos enfocado a la producción y uso de bioinsumos que permitan contribuir con el desarrollo de una agricultura libre de agroquímicos sintéticos, ii) adaptar y desarrollar técnicas ajustadas a las condiciones locales para la producción de biofertilizantes con microorganismos y abonos mejorados, para mejorar la fertilidad del suelo y los ingresos de los agricultores, iii) desarrollar y adaptar técnicas ajustadas a condiciones locales para la producción de bioinsecticidas y biofungicidas sobre la base de microorganismos nativos seleccionados para contribuir con el desarrollo de una agricultura ecológica y disminuir los costos de producción de los pequeños productores, iv) diseñar e implementar plantas piloto ajustadas a condiciones locales para la producción de bioinsumos, v) evaluar participativamente con pequeños horticultores el potencial uso de los bioinsumos desarrollados, y vi) difundir el conocimiento y experiencias probadas con investigadores de otros países, técnicos locales y agricultores en las zonas piloto de cada país.De acuerdo con esta problemática, los científicos y técnicos del proyecto trabajaron en el desarrollo de un banco de germoplasma 16. Proyecto ATN/SF-10914-RG (FTG-7075/07).Diferentes tratamientos de bioles instalados a campo abierto en el CIP-Lima (7 noviembre 2008 a 9 de marzo del 2009).de microorganismos nativos de los Andes para la producción de bioinsumos (bioinsecticidas, biofungicidas biofertilizantes), adaptando las técnicas de producción a otras más ecológicas para las condiciones locales. El proyecto promovió innovaciones en cuanto a la producción industrial de bioinsumos y, especialmente, la evaluación y difusión compartida de los logros entre los productores. La investigación básica y aplicada sobre la microbiología nativa del suelo permitió la identificación de cepas bacterianas cuya acción benéfica colaboró en la producción de bioinsumos adaptados a los sistemas de producción local de los principales sistemas agrícolas de la región. Se encontraron microbios con alta capacidad de adaptación a diversos ambientes y a la vez con función de bioinsecticidas, biofungicidas y biofertilizantes. Durante el proceso de investigación, la metodología con enfoque participativo fue decisiva para lograr efectividad en cuanto a diseminación de conocimientos y adopción de las tecnologías. Estos aspectos fueron indispensables para garantizar la apropiación, aplicación y sostenibilidad de los procesos de innovación tecnológica que se adelantaron con esta propuesta.En el marco del proyecto, se desarrollaron bioinsumos agrícolas basados en microorganismos, que fueron la base para la generación posterior de estrategias de manejo orgánico para diferentes cultivos. Bioinsumos como Acaritop (bioinsecticida), Vigortop (abono líquido), Biobull (bioestimulante) y Tricobal (biocontrolador) están actualmente disponibles para los productores de quinua, sésamo, papa, frutales, flores y hortalizas en general, de los departamentos de La Paz, Oruro, Potosí, Chuquisaca, Tarija y Santa Cruz (Bolivia).Para el caso de quinua, se ha realizado un seguimiento a productores en seis comunidades del Altiplano de Oruro y Potosí. Los resultados del proyecto indican que las parcelas con aplicación de la estrategia de manejo orgánico alcanzaron un incremento promedio de rendimiento del 55.1%, alrededor de 6.5 quintales/hectárea . Se estima que los beneficios para los agricultores, luego de la cosecha y venta, alcanzaron los US$571 por hectárea en la comunidad de Chijllapata y US$248 por hectárea en Lequepata. Durante las últimas cinco campañas agrícolas, se estima que 78.306 hectáreas 17 (promedio de 15.671 hectárea por año) han sido cultivadas con el uso de los bioinsumos en la zona de producción de quinua en Bolivia, que corresponden a 2,807 familias por año que utilizan los bioinsumos en el manejo de este cultivo.Al implementar el análisis ex post de excedentes económicos para las campañas agrícolas comprendidas entre 2013-2016, se estimó que la utilización de bioinsumos en el manejo orgánico de la quinua generó beneficios económicos con un valor presente neto de US$1.085.739, una relación beneficio/costo de 2.4 y una TIR de 33,5%. No obstante, y solo en Bolivia, los beneficios podrían ser mayores considerando que durante las campañas agrícolas comprendidas entre 2014-2018, productores de papa, sésamo, soya, frutales, maíz y tomate han sembrado alrededor de 244.885 hectáreas empleando esta tecnología.El análisis ex post presentado se realizó utilizando el nivel de incremento promedio en rendimiento y costo adicional observado en las comunidades de Oruro y Potosí. El nivel de adopción se estimó a partir del número de hectáreas sembradas que han usado esta tecnología de bioinsumos. Además, se utilizó información sobre los niveles de producción, precio y área cosechada reportados por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO, por sus siglas en inglés). Por otra parte, el proyecto realizó recomendaciones para la preparación de los abonos sólidos (compost) haciendo uso de bioinsumos, cuyas características son un menor costo y tiempo de producción. El análisis beneficio/costo indica que por cada peso boliviano (Bs, o US$0,14) invertido en la producción de compost con bioinsumos, los agricultores obtienen 12,88 Bs (US$1,86), mientras que quienes no los utilizan obtienen 2,61 Bs (US$0,37) por cada peso boliviano.Se destaca que la Fundación PROINPA, creó la empresa BIOTOP, que produce y comercializa los bioinsumos en Bolivia. Esta acción complementó el proceso de investigación del proyecto, que permitió que la tecnología se convierta en innovación, es decir, que sean utilizados por los agricultores. Los ingresos generados son reinvertidos en los procesos de investigación e innovación que promueve PROINPA, generando un proceso sostenible de inversión. Para el caso del cultivo de sésamo, la Fundación PROINPA ha dado seguimiento a la investigación desarrollando una nueva tecnología para el manejo de enfermedades, basada en los bioinsumos que se obtuvieron con el proyecto financiado por FONTAGRO. Con esta tecnología, Fundación Evaluación participativa de fertilizantes, bioabonos y fertilizantes foliares con agricultores de dos comunidades. A y B: San José de Aymará; C: Comunidad de Sotopampa.Al implementar el análisis ex post de excedentes económicos para las campañas agrícolas comprendidas entre 2013-2016, se estimó que la utilización de bioinsumos en el manejo orgánico de la quinua generó beneficios económicos con un valor presente neto de US$1.085.739, una relación beneficio/costo de 2,4 y una TIR de 33,5%.PROINPA recibió el Premio INNOVARE 2018 en la categoría \"Generador de conocimiento\". PROINPA reportó incrementos del rendimiento entre 108% y 220% respecto a los testigos en las zonas de Carmencita, Nueva Esperanza, 15 de Agosto y San Silvestre. Por otro lado, estimó un beneficio neto entre 2,395 y 3,759 Bs/hectárea (US$347-544/ha) con una tasa de retorno marginal entre 14% y 22% 18 . Además, debe mencionarse que el trabajo realizado ha servido para que instancias gubernamentales en Bolivia, apoyen iniciativas de asociaciones de productores para la construcción de plantas de producción de bioinsumos. Este logro es gracias a los procesos de difusión que se han realizado a nivel público y privado, local e internacional 19 .En forma similar a casos anteriores, debe tenerse en cuenta que no todos los beneficios generados a la fecha de este estudio pueden atribuirse al proyecto cofinanciado por FONTAGRO, ya que la continuación de actividades de investigación, desarrollo de mercado y comercialización han sido continuadas posteriormente por los participantes de esta iniciativa, y han sido claves para la obtención de estos resultados.Fuente: Antonio Gandarillas. Productores evaluando daño de insectos en quinua 15 días después de la siembra.PROINPA reportó incrementos del rendimiento entre 108% y 220% respecto a los testigos en las zonas de Carmencita, Nueva Esperanza, 15 de Agosto y San Silvestre. Por otro lado, estimó un beneficio neto entre 2,395 y 3,759 Bs/hectárea (US$347-544/ ha) con una tasa de retorno marginal entre 14% y 22%.• Desarrollo de bioinsumos como: Acaritop, Vigortop y Tricobal.• Estrategia de manejo orgánico de quinua.18. Información suministrada por la Fundación PROINPA. 19. Los aportes mencionados, a excepción de los resultados del análisis de excedentes económicos, corresponden a información colectada y suministrada por el Dr. Edson Gandarillas, gerente de Emprendimientos Productivos en la Fundación PROINPA. CASO 7. Estrategia de innovación tecnológica para mejorar la productividad y competitividad de cadenas-producto para América Central y República Dominicana (PRESICA) (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) Este proyecto fue desarrollado en los países de Belice, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá y República Dominicana, con un presupuesto total de US$1.533.458 de los cuales US$1.000.000 fueron aportados por el BID y el resto fueron aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes. El objetivo del proyecto fue contribuir al fortalecimiento de capacidades en los países de la región de Centro América y República Dominicana para mitigar los efectos negativos del alza de precios de los alimentos y reducir los niveles de inseguridad alimentaria y desnutrición.El proyecto se implementó bajo el contexto de las cadenas agroalimentarias y con un enfoque territorial. Se crearon 22 consorcios locales de innovación agrícola en toda la región, los cuales han implementado una amplia gama de trabajos de base tecnológica. Entre ellos, la liberación de nuevas variedades de semillas, el desarrollo de capacidades locales para la producción y comercialización de productos, el fortalecimiento de esquemas asociativos entre pequeños productores y otros actores de la cadena de valor local, la validación y transferencia de nuevas tecnologías de manejo en finca de cultivos y también de poscosecha, y el fortalecimiento local de producción de semilla, por mencionar algunos. Uno de los primeros logros del proyecto fue el relevamiento de las demandas tecnológicas de los pequeños productores en cada uno de los países y para los cultivos bajo análisis. El relevamiento se realizó a través del trabajo conjunto del productor con los científicos y técnicos de terreno. Esta estrategia de trabajo permitió desarrollar perfiles de prioridad regional. Una de las principales demandas identificadas fue la necesidad de nuevas variedades de semillas adaptadas a las condiciones locales de producción y tolerantes al cambio y variabilidad climática, la disponibilidad de semilla de calidad, el acceso a tecnologías de conservación y el manejo poscosecha para el almacenamiento de granos.El caso más destacado fue el del Consorcio Local de Innovación para la Cadena de chile dulce conformado en Costa Rica, el cual, tras haber realizado todas las actividades para la configuración de la red, logró articular sus esfuerzos en dos temas: i) la generación de una nueva variedad de chile, y ii) la reducción del costo de la semilla. El trabajo generado previamente por la Universidad de Costa Rica de más de 15 años de investigación contaba con materiales disponibles para ser validados, lo cual a través de la coordinación del Instituto Nacional de Investigación e Innovación Agrícola (INTA) y la Dirección del Ministerio de Agricultura para la Región Central Occidental, en la figura de sus agencias de servicios agropecuarios, permitió avanzar en la fase de validación, registro y difusión de la nueva variedad. De esta forma, se demostraron las bondades del híbrido 4212 Dulcitico, el cual superó al híbrido Nathalie (proveniente de una empresa internacional) en las pruebas de campo y en diversas condiciones ecológicas y sistemas productivos. El Dulcitico tiene frutos más grandes y atractivos y pedúnculo grande, lo que permite la confección de trenzas y el acomodo de más unidades por java durante la poscosecha. Adicionalmente, es un material genético estable, productivo y mucho más dulce (grados Brix). Al cierre del proyecto, este híbrido no había sido evaluado en grandes extensiones ni sometido a presiones de inóculo en sistemas intensivos, sin embargo, el desarrollo de progenitores sí estuvo expuesto a la contaminación proveniente del Río Alajuela. Tampoco se ha determinado o certificado su tolerancia o resistencia a las diferentes razas de patógenos, una desventaja importante, dado que se acostumbra hacerlo antes de comercializar un nuevo material genético utilizando los kits disponibles en el mercado.Otro aspecto distintivo del proyecto fue que, según el análisis estadístico y la interpretación de las encuestas hechas a los productores, resultó que Al 2017, se ha logrado colocar a lo largo del territorio costarricense alrededor de 2.360.800 semillas de \"Dulcitico\". se obtuvieron a partir de revisión de literatura asociada y de información suministrada por los investigadores del proyecto. Los costos considerados en el análisis incluyen los costos variables en los que incurre el productor al acceder a una semilla local, en lugar de la semilla tradicional que debe ser importada. El nivel de adopción se estimó a partir del total de semillas distribuidas al 2017 y una densidad de siembra de 20.000 semillas/hectárea. Además, se utilizó información sobre los niveles de producción reportados por la Secretaría Ejecutiva de Planificación Sectorial y Agropecuaria (SEPSA) y los precios reportados por el Programa Integral de Mercadeo Agropecuario (PIMA).Los resultados indican que durante el período 2014-2017 gracias a la distribución y adopción de la variedad mejorada de chile dulce Dulcitico se han generado beneficios económicos de US$508.842; con una relación beneficio/costo de 1,4 y una TIR del 16,4%. Sin embargo, al igual que los casos anteriores, dada la dificultad para acceder a información posterior al cierre del proyecto, en este caso no se incluyen los resultados generados en los demás países involucrados, por lo que los beneficios totales podrían ser mayores. los agricultores valoran el poder acceder a semilla mejorada y a la asistencia técnica; pero que lo que recibe una valoración más alta es la capacitación.En este caso, se presenta un análisis preliminar de los resultados económicos generados por una de las actividades de investigación del proyecto y solo en Costa Rica, relacionada a la adopción de la variedad de chile dulce Dulcitico liberada en el 2014. Dulcitico es una variedad híbrida costarricense, tolerante a enfermedades, adaptada a altitudes de hasta 2.100 m.s.n.m y con altos rendimientos. La adopción de esta semilla ha generado un incremento promedio en los rendimientos del 15% y una reducción aproximada del 3% en los costos de producción de los agricultores, en comparación con los resultados obtenidos de la siembra de semillas tradicionales, como la variedad Nathalie.Se estima que por cada dólar invertido en el proyecto solo por la liberación de la variedad \"Dulcitico\" se han generado 1,43 dólares, alcanzando unos beneficios económicos de US$ 508.842.Costa Rica: Acto de liberación de la variedad \"Dulcitico\". El proyecto buscó optimizar la productividad y calidad de lulo o naranjilla de jugo (Solanum quitoense Lam) y mora (Rubus glaucus Benth) para fortalecer las cadenas de valor, mejorar los ingresos de los productores y proteger el ambiente. Para ello, se seleccionaron materiales genéticos élite y se buscaron alternativas para el manejo integrado de estos cultivos. Estas especies frutales de la Región Andina tienen gran importancia en la agricultura familiar de Ecuador y Colombia y especial interés del sector industrial de pulpas y jugos. El proyecto incluyó actividades como la selección y evaluación del material genético, el desarrollo de tecnologías para la multiplicación masiva de material de siembra y prácticas de manejo sostenibles (uso de bioinsumos y producción limpia).Durante la implementación del proyecto se desarrollaron alianzas estratégicas entre instituciones público-privadas de Colombia y Ecuador, y con los centros avanzados de investigación agrícola internacional y nacional, entidades educativas (que tuvieron la función de capacitar y formar los futuros líderes), productores, y la industria procesadora y comercializadora (claves para el desarrollo de productos con acceso al mercado nacional e internacional). El proyecto se enfocó en los siguientes objetivos específicos: (i) selección participativa de materiales élite de lulo y mora (con criterios de adaptabilidad, resistencia a enfermedades, productividad y aceptación del mercado), (ii) caracterización de germoplasma (por variabilidad genética y resistencia a plagas y enfermedades), (iii) desarrollo y evaluación de estrategias de biocontrol de las plagas y enfermedades, (iv) evaluación del comportamiento, calidad y rentabilidad de los clones élite seleccionados para diferentes mercados, (v) fortalecimiento de capacidades de agricultores y técnicos, y (vii) establecimiento de sistemas de innovación para el desarrollo de estos cultivos en Colombia y Ecuador. A través de esta iniciativa, se caracterizaron 71 accesiones de mora y 43 de lulo en Colombia, y 108 accesiones de mora y 100 híbridos interespecíficos de lulo en Ecuador. En ambos países se encontraron 23 accesiones de mora con características superiores a las comerciales (14 en Ecuador y 9 en Colombia), y 18 accesiones de lulo (9 en Colombia con potencial para programas de mejoramiento o producción comercial y 9 en Ecuador). La caracterización molecular incluyó la identificación de materiales genéticos con características superiores de rendimiento, calidad de fruta y/o resistencia a enfermedades. En Ecuador se liberó la variedad de naranjilla de jugo INIAP Quitoense 2009, tolerante a Meloidogyne incognita y Fusarium spp. Esta variedad representa una innovación tecnológica al ser la primera que se comercializa injertada sobre patrones con tolerancia a plagas y enfermedades. Esto hace que se reduzca el uso de pesticidas, generando efectos positivos a la salud humana, el medioambiente, y el retorno económico al productor. En Colombia se generaron alternativas de propagación masiva de material de mora con calidad genética y fitosanitaria, y de bajo costo para productores. En una de las regiones con más tradición en su cultivo, se establecieron instalaciones de multiplicación masiva por estacas enraizadas con Trichoderma, las cuales presentaron un mayor porcentaje de brotes, raíces y una tendencia a que se produzcan más plántulas. Entre las ventajas que tiene esta metodología con relación a la que usan los agricultores tradicionalmente, podemos mencionar la mayor productividad, obtención de plantas sanas y la no propagación de la perla de tierra (Eurhizoccocus colombianus).En el caso de lulo, se desarrolló un sistema de propagación in vitro de bajo costo, en un laboratorio de propagación de materiales junto con la organización de productores ASLUBEL.En el proyecto también se caracterizaron las principales enfermedades y plagas, a través de aislamientos y caracterización molecular, morfológica y patológica de los agentes causales. evaluación ex ante donde documentaron una baja adopción de la tecnología (220 hectáreas al 2010), a pesar de los altos beneficios de la tecnología que se estimaron a nivel experimental. Lo anterior se debe, entre otras cosas, a las dificultades para entrenar agricultores en la producción de semillas injertadas o en el transporte de estas. Los autores de la evaluación ex ante utilizaron un análisis de excedentes económicos para un período de veinte años, considerando las características particulares del cultivo. Se detallaron las diferencias en los perfiles de costos y flujos de ingresos entre las variedades injertadas y las comunes y se consideró que la naranjilla es un cultivo semiperenne.Bajo el supuesto de que los productores reemplazaran el 100% de lulo común y el 50% de los híbridos por la nueva variedad INIAP Quitoense a lo largo de un período de veinte años, se estima que se pueden alcanzar beneficios económicos de US$15.51 millones, con un valor presente neto de US$7.770.000. También se estimó que los productores podrían obtener beneficios adicionales, al poder prescindir del uso del agroquímico 2,4-D, altamente tóxico y empleado regularmente en el manejo agronómico tradicional. En el escenario más optimista del análisis, se estima que los beneficios económicos podrían alcanzar un valor presente neto de US$17,52 millones. Por otro lado, en el escenario más conservador, se estima que estos beneficios económicos llegarían a US$2,32 millones. Finalmente, el análisis realizado encuentra que los resultados están fuertemente influenciados por la tasa de adopción y el precio de la fruta de alta calidad (Clements, Alwang, Barrera y Domínguez, 2017).Los resultados alcanzados en la evaluación previa y presentados en este análisis son fruto del trabajo de los investigadores del INIAP de Ecuador, quienes a través de la implementación de diversos proyectos y trabajos colaborativos han dado seguimiento a esta tecnología. Es decir, el apoyo de FONTAGRO colaboró en una parte del desarrollo total de la tecnología, la cual no puede estimarse de acuerdo con la información disponible al momento de este estudio.• 322 accesiones de lulo y mora identificadas.• Liberación de variedad INIAP-Quitoense 2009 de naranjilla tolerante aMeloidogyne incógnita y Fusarium spp.• Conformación de tres grupos GIAR (Gestores de Innovación en la Agroindustria Rural).Capítulo IV. Casos de proyectos destacados El objetivo del proyecto fue evaluar la variable distribución e incidencia de las plagas y enfermedades del maíz y determinar su impacto económico en los países participantes de esta iniciativa. Los objetivos específicos fueron: i) identificar las fuentes de resistencia genética contra plagas y enfermedades, ii) incorporar estas fuentes de resistencia en líneas y poblaciones de maíz con un alto nivel de tolerancia a suelos ácidos, iii) evaluar y diseminar germoplasma con niveles adecuados de resistencia contra los problemas mencionados en localidades con suelos ácidos en donde la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades es alta, iv) promover el uso de materiales seleccionados por su resistencia como cultivares para ser usados directamente por los agricultores, y v) capacitar a los jóvenes científicos de los programas en las áreas de manejo integrado de plagas.Se realizaron ensayos agronómicos para evaluar y seleccionar los materiales genéticos más apropiados para los programas nacionales de mejoramiento y su posible liberación posterior. Se generaron los ciclos de mejoramiento de diez poblaciones con resistencia a achaparramiento, mosaico de caña de azúcar, a la mancha foliar, el gusano cogollero y roya, además de 466 materiales genéticos sintéticos con resistencia a los diferentes problemas sanitarios mencionados. en la generación del ciclo 2 (C2) de selección de las poblaciones base con resistencia específica a un determinado estrés.El proyecto facilitó el aumento de nuevo material genético y posibles futuras liberaciones del germoplasma resistentes a la plaga y enfermedades antes mencionadas y, de esta manera, el potencial de mantener y/o incrementar los rendimientos de maíz en regiones con problemas sanitarios endémicos.Adicionalmente a la distribución de germoplasma de maíz con gran variación genética, se identificaron nuevos problemas sanitarios en los diferentes países participantes, incluyendo el complejo de especies de Cercospora presentes en Perú y Colombia, y la presencia del downy mildew (Peronosclerospora sorghi) en Colombia. Esto abrió posibilidades para establecer viveros de selección de resistencia contra estas enfermedades. Se logró hacer trabajo conjunto con investigadores de los países involucrados, con beneficios para todos los países al desarrollar germoplasma resistente útil. Se demostró que se puede acumular resistencia a los diferentes estreses considerados. La liberación del germoplasma resistente obtenido estuvo en proceso de legalización en varios países, incluyendo Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay y Perú. Además, con el proyecto, se elaboraron 32 publicaciones.Al momento de realizar este estudio, fue posible hacer seguimiento a los productos alcanzados por este proyecto en Colombia, que se relacionan con incrementos significativos observados en la producción de maíz, por tanto, representan un componente con potencial de impacto 24 . En Colombia, la mayor contribución del proyecto fue en el desarrollo de nuevos cultivares de maíz a intercalar en socas de café (\"Programa café y maíz, un matrimonio feliz\"). Así, en la zona cafetera se lograron liberar los híbridos de maíz amarillo FNC 317 y FNC 318, los cuales se caracterizan por tener un mayor rendimiento y tolerancia a enfermedades en comparación con las variedades cultivadas tradicionalmente. • En la zona cafetera colombiana al 2006, se observó un incremento del 75% en los rendimientos en comparación con el 2000 (año base).• El indicador de kilos de producción de maíz por kilogramo de semilla sembrada paso de 1:200 a 1:300.24. Al momento de preparar este informe no había disponible información similar para los otros países participantes.CASO 2. Mitigar el efecto de altas temperaturas en la productividad de maíz (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) Este proyecto fue desarrollado en los países de España, México y Argentina, con un presupuesto total de US$1.293.888 de los cuales US$500.000 fueron aportados por FONTAGRO, y el resto fueron aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes. Fue liderado por la Universidad de Lleida (UDL) de España y contó con la participación del Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) y la Facultad de Agronomía de la Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (UBA) de Argentina 25 .De todos los cambios ambientales asociados al cambio climático, uno de los más importantes para el cultivo de maíz es el aumento en las temperaturas. Altas temperaturas en períodos críticos de este cultivo afectan negativamente al rendimiento, por tanto, la productividad, comprometiendo la seguridad alimentaria. En el cultivo de maíz, la sensibilidad del rendimiento a un estrés ya sea por altas temperaturas, hídrico (sequía) o de deficiencia de nutrientes, es generalmente mucho mayor si este ocurre durante el período alrededor de la floración o de llenado de los granos. Las causas fisiológicas que generan este impacto en la productividad no han sido claramente dilucidadas, como tampoco la variabilidad genotípica que podría ser de utilidad en el contexto de programas de mejoramiento, o las prácticas culturales derivadas de un mejor conocimiento de la fisiología de la tolerancia a las altas temperaturas por parte de este cultivo. Así, eventos de elevadas temperaturas perjudican los dos principales componentes del rendimiento del maíz: el número de granos por unidad de área (principal componente agronómico del rendimiento) y el peso medio de los granos (que, a diferencia de otros cultivos, en el caso de maíz parece ser muy sensible a reducciones en la disponibilidad de recursos durante posfloración).De acuerdo con lo anterior, este proyecto tuvo como objetivo identificar la variabilidad genotípica y factores ambientales de susceptibilidad de la productividad del maíz a altas temperaturas que pudieran ser de utilidad tanto en la mejora genética como en el diseño de prácticas agronómicas. Para ello, se plantearon los siguientes objetivos específicos: (i) dilucidar el origen fisiológico que las elevadas temperaturas afectan en la productividad del maíz, (ii) determinar variabilidad de respuesta en el número de granos como de su peso, frente a eventos de altas temperaturas, estudiada a nivel fenotípico (identificando materiales genéticos de mejor comportamiento para ser utilizados en cruzamientos orientados a mejorar la tolerancia) y genotípico (identificando factores genéticos responsables de dicha tolerancia a elevadas temperaturas y estreses abióticos relacionados), (iii) cuantificar en qué medida la racionalización de la fertilización nitrogenada y la aplicación de un inhibidor de etileno (1-MCP) puede reducir la susceptibilidad del rendimiento a elevadas temperaturas, con el objeto de aportar posibles herramientas para diseñar prácticas de manejo de bajo coste que puedan mitigar el efecto de elevadas temperaturas, y (iv) diseminar los resultados científicos que se alcancen en el proyecto a un amplio espectro de agentes sociales: agricultores y mejoradores de compañías privadas de la región, los institutos nacionales de investigación agropecuaria y el resto de la comunidad científica interesada.Para cumplir con los objetivos se realizaron experimentos, siempre en condiciones de campo, para maximizar la extrapolabilidad de los resultados y ofrecer mayores garantías de aplicabilidad de las conclusiones. Los experimentos de determinación de atributos fisiológicos han incluido, en la mayoría de los casos, dispositivos de incremento de temperaturas en condiciones de campo, lo que ha dado como resultado un aporte sumamente original de este proyecto (ya que la mayoría de la literatura en este tema usa condiciones controladas, cuya extrapolabilidad a condiciones reales es muy discutible) o asume como proxy al efecto de altas temperaturas el usar diferentes fechas de siembra o diferentes localidades (con el consiguiente efecto confundido de las otras variables que también cambian con la fecha de siembra o la localidad). Los principales resultados del proyecto fueron: i. Con relación al componente de estudios ecofisiológicos se realizaron nueve experimentos en condiciones de campo, tanto en Argentina como en España. En términos generales se observó que la sensibilidad del rendimiento fue muy grande cuando los tratamientos de estrés térmico se impusieron alrededor de floración. Se corroboró que el efecto deletéreo de elevadas temperaturas parece actuar directamente sobre las estructuras reproductivas del cultivo, antes que a través de la disminución de la capacidad de crecimiento por acelerar la senescencia foliar. Ni la eliminación de granos revirtió el efecto negativo de las altas temperaturas, ni la defoliación lo acentuó, indicando que el estrés térmico ha afectado principalmente de modo directo a las estructuras reproductivas.El efecto más deletéreo de eventos de altas temperaturas es el que ocurre en el momento de floración y no durante el llenado de los granos. El componente más importante que se ve afectado por el estrés térmico es el número de granos, aun cuando el estrés ocurre durante la primera mitad del llenado de los granos, y mucho más marcadamente si ocurre en floración o en prefloración. Cuando el estrés afecta el peso de los granos, parece hacerlo con independencia del efecto que también produce sobre la aceleración de la senescencia foliar y parece ser un efecto directo sobre la capacidad de crecimiento de los granos.ii. Con relación a la variabilidad y bases genéticas, se hicieron experimentos a campo en CIMMYT (México) con fenotipado y genotipado de poblaciones grandes, y de menor magnitud en España, evaluando variabilidad entre híbridos de diferente grupo de madurez. En el CIMMYT se identificaron algunos potenciales donantes de estos atributos, entre ellos la línea La Posta Sequía C7-F64-2-6-2-2. Se comprobó que existe amplia variabilidad genotípica en tolerancia al estrés térmico (y a la combinación de estrés térmico e hídrico). Se identificaron marcadores moleculares asociados a esta tolerancia y a progenitores de futuros cruzamientos orientados a mejorar esta tolerancia. También se identificó la posibilidad de utilizar el índice de vegetación de diferencia normalizada (o Normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI, por sus siglas en inglés), como criterio Experimento conducido en el campo experimental de la UBA en Buenos Aires Uso de material genético \"criollo\" para identificar genes de resistencia a estreses.de selección asociado al mantenimiento de canopeos más frescos y consiguientemente más verdes en condiciones de estrés.iii. Con relación a las prácticas de manejo para mitigar el estrés, se hicieron cuatro experimentos a campo en España, en los que se evaluó el efecto de la disponibilidad de nitrógeno al aumentar el efecto deletéreo del estrés térmico, confirmando la hipótesis, nunca testeada hasta la actualidad en maíz, de que la magnitud del efecto deletreo de elevadas temperaturas se mitiga parcialmente por un manejo más racional (evitando excesos) de la fertilización nitrogenada. También se realizaron tres experimentos en Argentina y en CIMMYT (México) para determinar si existe un efecto mitigador de la aplicación de reguladores del crecimiento vinculados al metabolismo del etileno. En sequía, la aplicación de un inhibidor de etileno (1-MCP) antes de antesis y durante el llenado de granos mejoró el rendimiento comparado con los controles o con la aplicación de etefon en algunos de los experimentos, pero no hubo un efecto claro en otros. iv. Con relación a la diseminación, se creó y se mantuvo la página de Internet del proyecto (http://www.meatmaiz.udl.cat). Se publicó en revistas científicas y se presentaron trabajos en congresos nacionales e internacionales. Se han dictado charlas de extensión en los tres países, y se realizaron cursos de capacitación. Se realizaron tesinas doctorales en los tres países. El conocimiento generado se ha visto reflejado en la publicación de al menos 11 trabajos científicos derivados del proyecto que han sido utilizados por profesionales del sector agropecuario. Se destaca también que los resultados obtenidos ya han sido aplicados. Las líneas donantes identificadas han sido incluidas en el 10% de las nuevas poblaciones de relevancia global generadas por el CIMMYT. Por otro lado, en Argentina se observa una adopción aproximada de 50% del maíz tardío, lo que ha permitido la estabilización del rendimiento en el país. Esta tecnología se vio facilitada por la disponibilidad de evaluar los beneficios de un cambio en la fecha de siembra de manera probabilística, mediante el uso del modelo de simulación CERES-Maize en una versión adaptada y simplificada desarrollada con los datos del proyecto 26 . Con todos estos resultados destacados y documentados, se espera un impacto potencial en la capacidad de adaptación a los efectos del cambio climático, que permitirán mantener el rendimiento del cultivo, en la medida en que las nuevas variedades sean adoptadas por los agricultores.26. Los aportes mencionados corresponden a información colectada y suministrada por el Dr. Gustavo A. Slafer, investigador líder del proyecto.• Modelos de simulación de aplicación agronómica modificados.• Inclusión de las líneas de tolerancia identificadas en el 10% de las nuevas poblaciones generadas por el CIMMYT.• Seis híbridos comerciales producidos usando la tolerancia detectada.• Recomendación de modificar las fechas de siembra (maíz tardío) en Argentina con el fin de minimizar el riesgo climático.CASO 3. Desarrollo e implementación de herramientas genómicas de avanzada para contribuir a la adaptación de la caficultura al cambio climático (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) Este proyecto fue desarrollado en los países de Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panamá, Honduras, y República Dominicana, con un presupuesto total de US$1.520.000 de los cuales US$770.000 fueron aportados por el BID, y el resto fueron aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes. Fue liderado por la Federación Nacional de Cafeteros (FEDECAFE) en Colombia y permitió el establecimiento de una red de siete instituciones en los países de Costa Rica (ICAFE, CATIE), Guatemala (PROMECAFE), Panamá (MIDA), Colombia (CIAT), República Dominicana (CODOCAFE) y Honduras (IHCAFE) 27 . Sin embargo, también participaron de la iniciativa el Programa Cooperativo Regional para el Desarrollo Tecnológico y Modernización de la Caficultura en Centro América, Panamá, República Dominicana y Jamaica (PROMECAFE), el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), el Institut De Recherche Pour Le Développement (IRD) de Francia, Cornell University (USA). Arizona Genomics Institute (AGI0 de la Unviersidad de Arizona (USA), y el Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CBCB) de la Unviersidad de Maryland (USA).El cultivo del café es de importancia estratégica para la estabilidad económica, social y política de la mayoría de los países de América Latina y el Caribe, debido a que es uno de los principales productos agrícolas de exportación y generación de divisas de la región. A pesar de la gran importancia a nivel económico y social, el café ha recibido muy poco apoyo internacional para estudios moleculares genéticos y genómicos, y especialmente en estudios que ayuden a conocer el modo de adaptarse a las consecuencias del cambio y la variabilidad climática. En este sentido, estudios sobre el genoma del café y su biología son clave para incrementar calidad, productividad y proteger el cultivo de daños causados plagas, enfermedades y otros estreses abióticos asociado a cambios climáticos (variabilidad en la temperatura ambiente, precipitación, sequías, salinidad, etcétera).Para ello, este proyecto tuvo como objetivo lograr un mejor conocimiento del genoma del café para promover el desarrollo de variedades resistentes y mejor adaptadas a cambios climáticos y a una mayor utilización y preservación del germoplasma del género Coffea. Los objetivos específicos fueron: i) la construcción del mapa físico del café C. arabica basado en librerías genómicas de largo inserto BAC 28 de sus dos parentales ancestrales diploides (C. canephora y C. eugenioides), ii) la secuenciación del genoma del café utilizando las nuevas tecnologías con énfasis en ensamblaje, anotación y caracterización de áreas del genoma que contengan genes de importancia para la producción de café en el contexto de cambio climático, y iii) el desarrollo de herramientas genómicas de avanzada para caracterización, conservación, y utilización de germoplasma de Coffea que permitan el desarrollo y mejoramiento genético de variedades con potencial de adaptación a efectos de cambios climáticos (temperatura, sequía, inundaciones, etcétera).27. Código de proyecto: ATN/OC-12235-RG. 28. Metodología de Cromosomas Artificiales de Bacterias (BAC, por sus siglas en inglés).Presentación comercial variedades Castillo y Cenicafé 1.De esta forma, un mejor conocimiento del genoma del café facilitó el desarrollo de variedades resistentes y mejor adaptadas al cambio y la variabilidad climática, y una mejor caracterización, utilización y conservación del germoplasma del género Coffea. Igualmente, el proyecto buscó contribuir a la reducción en los costos de producción, facilitando el desarrollo de variedades resistentes y más adaptadas a estrés bióticos/ abióticos, el aumento en la producción y el énfasis en calidad, en el contexto de cambio climático para hacer sostenible la caficultura para pequeños productores. Entre los resultados más destacados, se citan a los siguientes:i. Se destaca que, por ser un proyecto de genética básica, los principales aportes se encuentran en el conocimiento generado y en su uso posterior para la generación de nuevas tecnologías.Se adaptó el uso de nuevas tecnologías en secuenciación del genoma de las especies Coffea eugenioides y C. arabica, y se continuó con la exploración genómica de materiales de café importantes para los programas de mejoramiento alrededor del mundo, donde equipos de científicos pueden hacer uso de los ensamblajes entregados por este proyecto y por un costo muy bajo resecuenciar a escasa profundidad sus materiales de interés que ofrezcan respuestas específicas a los problemas particulares de cada zona o país. En este sentido, la información generada del genoma del café ha sido incorporada por el equipo de mejoramiento genético de Cenicafé con el fin de identificar marcadores moleculares y genes con resistencia a enfermedades como el CBD (Coffee Berry Disease) y a la roya (Hemileia vastatrix), principal enfermedad del café en el mundo. Además, los conocimientos generados fueron aplicados en los estudios de diversidad genética de la colección de germoplasma y de la variabilidad intraespecífica de las variedades comerciales que se utilizan en Colombia en una estrategia de resistencia durable por el uso de variedades multilínea.ii. Se identificaron híbridos para realizar estudios por grupos de acuerdo con su mayor o menor adaptabilidad a condiciones de sol y de sombra. Estos estudios fueron fundamentales dados los nuevos escenarios de cambio climático a los cuales se debe adaptar la caficultora en los países productores. En este caso, se generaron variedades de café resistente y mejor adaptadas al cambio climático, y se utilizaron en la conservación del germoplasma.iii. Durante el proyecto se realizaron talleres de capacitación, tesis de doctorado, creación de bases de datos públicas con las secuencias identificadas durante la implementación de las actividades en el sitio de Internet Cenicafe Bioinformatics, y otras acciones de diseminación de resultados regionales e internacionales.Es así que, como resultado de la continuidad a la investigación en el área, en el 2016 se liberó la variedad Cenicafé 1, y se entregaron alrededor de cuatro toneladas de semillas con las que se esperan cubrir las primeras 1.000 hectáreas. Esta variedad se caracteriza por ser resistente a la roya, lo que permitirá a los productores de café un ahorro en fungicidas, mano de obra y pérdidas de rendimiento, por un valor aproximado de 200 millones de dólares al año.Adicionalmente, se tenía previsto que para el segundo semestre de 2018 se liberarán tres variedades Castillo regionales, cuya recomposición fue terminada en el 2017 . El impacto potencial se podrá materializar una vez que estas variedades sean adoptadas por caficultores colombianos.29. Los aportes mencionados corresponden a información colectada y suministrada por el Dr. Álvaro Gaitán B., investigador líder del proyecto.• Secuenciación del genoma del café.• Red de países.CASO 4. Aumento de la competitividad de los sistemas productivos de papa y trigo en sudamérica ante el cambio climático (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) Este proyecto fue desarrollado en los países de Chile, Uruguay y Perú, con un presupuesto total de US$920.000, de los cuales US$470.000 fueron aportes del BID y US$450.000 fueron aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes. Fue liderado por el INIA de Chile, y contó con la participación del INIA de Uruguay y el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) de Perú 30 .Como la agricultura depende de la disponibilidad de agua, la sequía y cualquier otro cambio en el régimen normal de precipitaciones y temperaturas afectan a gran parte de los cultivos y frutales de la región del Cono Sur. En conjunto con un alza en las temperaturas promedio también se han observado variaciones en los patrones de precipitaciones y mayor frecuencia de eventos climáticos extremos. Este escenario afecta en especial a los sistemas productivos de secano. Fundamentalmente, el estrés hídrico durante la floración, polinización y llenado de granos es dañino en cultivos como el trigo, y también afecta la tuberización (o llenado de tubérculos) y la calidad industrial en el cultivo de papa. De esta manera, países más avanzados tecnológicamente ya han desarrollado investigación para adaptarse a los efectos del cambio climático en aspectos como uso más eficiente del agua, mejoramiento genético y la búsqueda de genes para dar tolerancia a los distintos tipos de estrés que enfrentarán las plantas. Este proyecto buscó determinar el potencial impacto del cambio climático en dos cultivos claves de la región, trigo y papa, para así colocar a disposición, tanto de programas de mejoramiento locales como de productores, los genotipos y genes tolerantes a sequía y altas temperaturas que permitan obtener rendimientos competitivos frente al nuevo escenario climático.Este proyecto tuvo por objetivo aumentar la competitividad de los sistemas productivos de papa y trigo, a través de la selección y desarrollo de genotipos con mayor tolerancia a sequía y altas temperaturas. Para ello, se establecieron los siguientes objetivos específicos: (i) lograr un modelo que permita identificar los probables impactos inducidos por las nuevas condiciones climáticas sobre el sistema productivo de papa y trigo e identificar las zonas de producción más vulnerables en términos de sequía y aumento de las temperaturas, (ii) lograr colecciones de germoplasma de papa y trigo (clones, líneas y variedades) caracterizadas por su respuesta a sequía y altas temperaturas, (iii) establecer grupo de papas y trigo tolerante a sequía y altas temperaturas identificadas, diseminados e incorporadas como progenitores a los programas de mejoramiento genético de la región, (iv) establecer métodos eficientes de selección de genotipos tolerantes a sequía y altas temperaturas, desarrollados y transferidos a los programa de mejoramiento de la región, y (v) lograr acuerdos de cooperación y entendimiento, para transferencia y evaluación de materiales mejorados suscritos, y divulgación de resultados.De acuerdo con las conclusiones del informe técnico final del proyecto, se destacan los siguientes logros:i. El proyecto permitió evaluar 380 genotipos de trigo y 200 genotipos de papa en los diferentes países con el apoyo de un grupo interdisciplinarios de profesionales en las áreas de mejoramiento genético, fisiología vegetal, biología molecular y manejo agronómico. Los materiales de trigo evaluados en el contexto del consorcio provienen de los programas nacionales de mejoramiento genético de INIA-Chile (55 genotipos), del CIMMYT (143 genotipos) e INIA-Uruguay (186 genotipos). Mientras que, para papa, se han evaluado sobre 200 genotipos entre Chile y el CIP, incluyendo germoplasma nativo, líneas segregantes, líneas avanzadas y cultivares, los cuales han sido caracterizados por su respuesta a sequía y altas temperaturas. El protocolo de evaluación considera evaluaciones en campo bajo riego y sequía, evaluaciones fisiológicas detalladas para genotipos contrastantes (sensibles y tolerantes) y evaluaciones moleculares que incluyen expresión génica y genotipado. El proyecto permitió validar e implementar una plataforma de caracterización fenotípica bajo condiciones de campo. La que actualmente se encuentra disponible para los programas de mejoramiento genético de trigo de los países del Cono Sur. La plataforma considera protocolos para la evaluación de caracteres fisiológicos de forma rápida y económica. Además, integra elementos computacionales que facilitan la digitalización instantánea de la información colectada. La plataforma fenotípica permite identificar variabilidad genética en caracteres agronómicos y fisiológicos relacionados con la tolerancia a sequía del cultivo de trigo y papa, lo que facilita la selección y mejora genética del carácter. Con la información fisiológica obtenida, en términos de su control sobre el comportamiento agronómico del cultivo bajo condiciones de sequía, se avanzará en la automatización de los procesos de fenotipeo.ii. Se caracterizaron genéticamente las 384 líneas de trigo, trabajo que se realizó en colaboración con Kansas State University (EEUU) y el Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Université Laval (Quebec, Canadá). Esta técnica permite la selección de genotipos sobresalientes en caracteres que se buscan mejorar, como tolerancia a sequía o rendimiento de grano, mediante la integración de información fenotípica y genotípica en modelos de predicción. En papa y gracias a fondos del proyecto se utilizó la misma metodología de secuenciación, trabajo realizado junto con el Institute for Genomic Diversity, de Cornell University (EE. UU.).iii. AvSe calibró y validó el modelo de simulación AQUACROP (creado por FAO) en cinco genotipos de trigo y cuatro cultivares de papa, en Chile y Perú, y en condiciones de riego y secano. Esta herramienta permitió predecir los cambios en rendimientos de los cultivos en respuesta a las variaciones climáticas y también ayudó a diseñar y evaluar estrategias de manejo del cultivo para mantener o incrementar los rendimientos. 501364 -15 (2013-2017). Adicionalmente, varias líneas experimentales han sido puestas en la lista de intercambio con otros países. Para el caso de trigo en Chile por lo menos treinta genotipos han sido utilizados como progenitores en el programa de mejoramiento genético de trigo, quince continúan siendo evaluados en diversos experimentos asociados con tolerancia a sequía y un genotipo derivado de este germoplasma se encuentra en ensayos de genotipos candidatos a variedades 31 .v. Este proyecto ha permitido presentar sus resultados en, por lo menos, veinte congresos nacionales e internacionales, cinco publicaciones científicas de alto impacto, seis publicaciones divulgativas, por lo menos diez días de campo, tres talleres regionales entre los países miembros del consorcio, y países como España, Estados Unidos y otros países latinoamericanos en temas como estrategias de genética asociativa, evaluación de la tolerancia a factores abióticos, metodología de secuenciación de última generación y la formación de por lo menos diez tesistas en esta temática.31. Los aportes mencionados corresponden a información disponible en el Informe final entregado a FONTAGRO, además de información colectada y suministrada por la Dra. María Teresa Pino, coordinadora del proyecto.• Evaluación e identificación de materiales promisorios.• Validación e implementación de plataforma para la caracterización fenotípica.• Calibración y validación del modelo de simulación AQUACROP (creado por FAO).Presentación comercial variedades Castillo y Cenicafé 1.dirigida a la adaptación de maíz y frijol al cambio climático, fortaleciendo la seguridad alimentaria y bienestar de las comunidades. Para ello, se establecieron cinco objetivos específicos: (i)Identificación y registro del germoplasma de maíz y frijol con características de alta productividad, adaptabilidad al cambio climático; (ii) evaluación participativa en comunidades piloto en los países;(iii) seguimiento y análisis de información climática;(iv) identificación de factores que orienten la investigación en maíz y frijol; y v) divulgación de los conocimientos e información generada.Según las conclusiones del informe técnico final del proyecto, se destacan los siguientes logros:i. El proyecto diseñó una estrategia regional de investigación articulada con los INIA y las redes El maíz y frijol constituyen el principal sustento alimenticio y de ingreso en los productores familiares de la región de Centro América y el Caribe. El cambio y la variabilidad climática, especialmente manifestado a través de sequías cada vez más frecuentes y otros eventos extremos, no solo afectan al período de cultivo, sino que también favorece la aparición de plagas y enfermedades que afectan a la productividad, disminuyéndola. Sin embargo, en la región existe gran diversidad genética de estos cultivos, lo cual constituye una oportunidad para los programas de selección, mejoramiento y evaluación de nuevos híbridos y variedades.De acuerdo con lo anterior, se definió como objetivo del proyecto contribuir a la reducción de la pobreza en la región a través de la investigación regionales de maíz y frijol en la región. Se buscó crear un modelo coordinado de investigación e innovación que integre las instituciones y que sirva de espacio de cooperación para atender las demandas tecnológicas de los productores para la optimización y adaptación al cambio climático de dichos cultivos.ii. Se identificó y registró germoplasma de maíz y frijol con características de alta productividad, resistencia y adaptabilidad al cambio climático. Los investigadores de las redes regionales de maíz y frijol del SICTA identificaron y evaluaron genotipos de frijol y maíz tolerantes a sequía y a altas temperaturas, los cuales fueron multiplicados y utilizados para establecer ensayos. En el caso de frijol, se establecieron ensayos regionales con énfasis en sequía y altas temperaturas. Se han recolectado, multiplicado, distribuido y evaluado 32 líneas de frijol (rojo y negro) y 22 líneas de maíz (blanco y amarillo) con características de tolerancia a estrés hídrico. En el estudio de maíz, existe disponibilidad de tres materiales sintéticos promisorios seleccionados para su validación en el ámbito regional. Se han registrado dos materiales (grano amarillo y uno blanco, QPM). En el estudio de frijol, se han identificado y evaluado veinte genotipos tolerantes a la sequía, y más de diez líneas promisorias están identificadas.En el caso de frijol, fueron identificadas diez líneas promisorias con tolerancia potencial a estrés hídrico (sequía). Una de ellas, la línea SEN 52, fue recomendada en Costa Rica para su inscripción como nueva variedad de frijol bajo la denominación de Nambí en el 2018, después de conducirse investigaciones complementarias. Los resultados de validación en parcelas establecidas en Costa Rica muestran que, en condiciones de sequía, la variedad Nambí alcanza un rendimiento 75% superior en comparación con a la variedad Matambú (variedad más utilizada en el país). Aun cuando la variedad Nambí no enfrenta el estrés de sequía, su rendimiento sigue siendo un 5% mayor a la variedad Matambú. En Nicaragua, se lograron liberar los materiales INTA SEQUIA PRECOZ e INTA NEGRO SUREÑO, con muestra de resistencia y tolerancia a principales enfermedades de importancia económica como mosaico común (I), mosaico dorado (bgm-1), mancha angular y antracnosis. En el caso de maíz, se identificaron diez variedades de grano amarillo y ocho de grano blanco para ser evaluadas bajo condiciones de humedad limitada. Estos materiales fueron evaluados en Costa Rica en la zona piloto seleccionada durante el período de septiembre 2012-febrero 2013, lo que permitió identificar una variedad promisoria de maíz de grano amarillo (S13LTWQHGAB02) con características de tolerancia a condiciones de humedad limitada 34 .iii. Se realizaron evaluaciones participativas dentro de las comunidades piloto de la región. Las redes de maíz y frijol identificaron cinco áreas piloto por país que presentaban una mayor vulnerabilidad a la sequía. Mediante criterios e indicadores de germoplasma superior, iniciaron un proceso de evaluación de este material en las comunidades seleccionadas en cada país y con la participación de productores. Este proceso permitió la caracterización mediante marcadores del germoplasma promisorio desde el punto de vista agronómico, sensorial y molecular y la distribución y multiplicación de semillas de materiales promisorios a los INIA para la siembra de parcelas de validación en las comunidades.iv. Se identificaron las variables o factores que delinean las áreas de investigación más importantes a futuro y para cada país. Además de señalarse las condiciones climáticas • Estrategia regional de investigación en maíz y frijol.• Identificación de materiales promisorios. El cambio y la variabilidad climática provocan cambios en los patrones regulares de precipitaciones y temperatura, aun generando eventos extremos que afectan a la distribución geográfica y temporal de plagas y enfermedades, y a la productividad en general. Para disminuir la incidencia de estos efectos del clima, además de trabajar en temas de manejo o prácticas culturales, es necesario desarrollar nuevas variedades adaptadas a las condiciones adversas, aprovechando la biodiversidad natural existente en la región.La papa tiene un papel clave en la cadena alimenticia global debido a su elevado valor nutricional y productividad. Sin embargo, este cultivo es muy sensible a estreses abióticos y bioticos, lo que causa importantes reducciones en el rendimiento y por tanto compromete la seguridad alimentaria. La mayoría de las variedades tradicionales de papa no están adaptadas a las condiciones que enfrenta el cultivo ante el cambio climático.El objetivo del proyecto fue identificar y/o desarrollar variedades de papa con mejor adaptación a condiciones ambientales adversas en zonas productoras o aptas para el cultivo en zonas desfavorecidas. Para ello, se plantearon los siguientes objetivos especificos: (i) realizar evaluaciones fenotípicas de resistencias/tolerancias a diferentes estreses; (ii) evaluar marcadores específicos de genes candidatos para estreses bióticos y abióticos y caracterizar la composición alélica de variedades y germoplasma; (iii) realizar actividades de mejoramiento genético integrando los resultados de los componentes anteriores para combinar características superiores de adaptación en el futuro próximo; y (iv) realizar actvidades de difusión, transferencia y demostración para lograr la implantación efectiva de los resultados obtenidos tanto en el mundo científico como a nivel de agricultores y sus asociaciones.Este proyecto buscó contribuir a la adaptación del cultivo de la papa a las posibles amenazas causadas por el cambio climático y evitar en el Ejemplo de germoplasma resistenta a sequía.35. Código de proyecto: FTG/RF-1025-RG.futuro las pérdidas considerables en la producción. El proyecto facilitó una mayor disponibilidad de variedades apropiadas para condiciones ambientales adversas y que permitan una mejora de la competitividad del cultivo, aumentar su superficie y diversificar la producción. De acuerdo con las conclusiones del informe técnico final del proyecto, se destacan los siguientes logros 36 :i. Identificación de 68 variedades comerciales de papa adaptadas a condiciones climáticas adversas en cada país, especialmente con resistencia/tolerancia a sequía, calor y frío, y resistentes al tizón tardío a través de 72 ensayos de campo o invernadero. Estas variedades también se están utilizando ahora prioritariamente en los programas de mejora de papa de cada socio. Identificación de 280 progenitores útiles y progenies prometedoras (350) para los programas de mejoramiento genético como base para generar variedades con características superiores de adaptación en el futuro próximo. Se han identificado en las progenies ensayadas genotipos con tolerancias/ resistencias combinadas que muestran un comportamiento agronómico superior.ii. Identificación de 59 genes candidatos para diferentes estreses abióticos y desarrollo de marcadores moleculares para 31 alelos superiores de estos genes que se pueden aplicar en la selección asistida de material genético adaptado al cambio climático. De esta forma, se agiliza el proceso de selección y la obtención de nuevas variedades con características superiores. En algunos casos pueden aumentar el rendimiento hasta el 50% en condiciones de estrés.iii. También se ha evaluado en variedades y clones de mejora genética de los socios la variación alélica existente de estos genes candidatos prometedores, identificando tanto nuevos alelos como la presencia de alelos superiores en cada caso. Esta información es muy útil para los correspondientes programas de mejora. Se han identificado siete variedades con cierta tolerancia al frío que permiten establecer la producción de patata de siembra en el norte de España en otoño después de cereal, e incrementar de esta forma el beneficio del agricultor en un 30%.Inicialmente, las actividades del proyecto se centraron en la identificación de variedades comerciales resistentes al frío, calor, sequía y Phytophora infestans. El resultado fue la recomendación de catorce variedades resistentes en España, ocho en el Perú y dos en Argentina. Con esto se esperaba mejorar los beneficios de los agricultores gracias al incremento en el rendimiento, resultado de la adopción de dichas variedades. Se documentó que el incremento de área bajo estas variedades llegó a por lo menos menos 1.200 ha. En España, por ejemplo, se estima que el uso de siete de las variedades seleccionadas con tolerancia al frío incrementaron el beneficio de los agricultores en un 30%. Además, como beneficio adicional, en el caso de Perú se documentó que el uso de algunas de estas variedades llevó a requerir menos aplicaciones de herbicidas que algunas de las variedades tradicionales.Posteriormente, las actividades se centraron en la identificación de materiales promisorios útiles para la futura liberación de variedades, Experimento de difusion de variedades en marco y acolla (Perú). Por otra parte, en Perú el Grupo Yanapai ha seleccionado por su resistencia al tizón tardío el clon BIC5003.3 y lo ha evaluado en varias comunidades durante el período del proyecto. Dicho material, si bien no ha podido ser lanzado oficialmente, ha sido aceptado por los agricultores y se estima que 100 de ellos, de las comunidades de Junín y Huancavelica tienen la semilla, la multiplican, la consumen e intercambian.iv. Desarrollo de la metodología adecuada para la evaluación eficiente de adaptación a estreses abióticos que es superior a la metodología que se utilizaba hasta la fecha.v. Capacitación de 990 agricultores en el uso de variedades recomendadas. Realización de 26 publicaciones, 41 presentaciones en congresos, 74 actividades de diseminación de resultados y transferencia tecnológica que han incrementado el interés en la problemática del cambio climático y la adopción paulatina de las variedades identificadas que muestran tolerancias a diferentes estreses. Ocho de estas publicaciones han alcanzado un total de 64 citas, la más reciente realizada por el INIA Perú en dos nuevas comunicaciones preparadas; la primera presentada en la reunión de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Papa (ALAP) en el 2018 y la segunda se espera presentar en ALAP 2020 37 .vi. Aumento de superficie con variedades/ clones recomendados (1200 Ha).Ejemplo de germoplasma resistenta a sequí.• Evaluación e identificación de materiales resistentes al frío, calor, sequía y Phytophthora infestans.• Detección de marcadores moleculares específicos útiles para la selección asistida de material genético adaptado al cambio climático.• Identificación de materiales promisorios para la generación de variedades adaptadas en el futuro.Este proyecto es un claro ejemplo de que los beneficios esperados pueden exceder el tiempo de ejecución, así como el hecho de que estarán limitados por el uso que se dé a los conocimientos generados, y por los recursos disponibles para dar continuidad al proceso.CASO 7. Plataforma para consolidar la apicultura como herramienta de desarrollo en américa latina y el caribe (2013-2017) Centroamérica y el Caribe tienen un alto potencial de recursos naturales como bosques y otros agroecosistemas que facilitan la expansión de la frontera apícola. Sin embargo, para que la apicultura pueda desplegar su extraordinario potencial de crecimiento en América Latina y el Caribe y transformarse en una genuina herramienta de desarrollo, es necesario superar una serie de restricciones sociales, ambientales, tecnológicas y de mercado, que interactúan entre sí. Entre los desafíos tecnológicos, se necesita identificar y validar nuevo conocimiento para ambientes tropicales y subtropicales. Adicionalmente, experiencias anteriores de trabajo en apicultura en Argentina y República Dominicana demostraron que esta actividad productiva es un medio para que modelos asociativos de pequeños apicultores puedan vincularse al mercado.Económicas de la Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata desarrollaron las capacidades para el análisis de cinco cadenas de valor local y dos a nivel global. Se desarrollaron siete nuevos procesos y diez productos con valor agregado a las materias primas producidas por las abejas. Se apoyó la vinculación de diez modelos asociativos con los mercados de productos con valor agregado y gestión de la calidad en República Dominicana, Costa Rica y Argentina. Se lograron modelos asociativos sustentables en los territorios. Se trabajó en planificación estratégica con cuatro clusters y un plan estratégico de la plataforma. Se elaboró y presentó a los decisores de políticas el plan estratégico \"Dominicana apícola 2030 -Desarrollo inclusivo con cuidado del ambiente\" que se encuentra en ejecución y dio origen al \"Seminario de Innovación para la agricultura familiar\" con apoyo de FAO. Se logró un proyecto FOAR con apoyo de la Cancillería Argentina para desarrollar en el período 2017/19 el Plan Estratégico Apícola de Costa Rica. Se sentaron las bases de una red de comunicación y difusión combinando el sitio colaborativo restringido a los 400 miembros del equipo con la Web del proyecto, las de las instituciones participantes, redes sociales y medios masivos desde los que se llega a alrededor de 20,000 apicultores.iii. Con la Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias (Universidad Nacional del Centro) se diseñó la Licenciatura en Apicultura para el Desarrollo. Se elaboró un Plan de Capacitación a distancia para los técnicos territoriales (en conjunto con el Programa de Capacitación a Distancia del INTA) y se iniciaron las gestiones para implementarlo conjuntamente con la Universidad Tecnológica Nacional de Costa Rica. Se desarrolló una tecnicatura en conjunto con la Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Se desarrollaron 230 jornadas de capacitación en los territorios, seis cursos y seminarios de posgrado presenciales y a distancia y doce capacitaciones específicas respondiendo a necesidades puntuales de cada país. iv. Se ajustaron 48 senderos tecnológicos; se desarrollaron los sensores remotos para medición de temperatura y humedad a partir de los cuales se implementaron ensayos de evaluación para adaptación al cambio climático. Se evaluaron y preservaron seis materiales genéticos (incluido uno con tolerancia a varroosis no previsto 41 ). Se diseñaron los protocolos e implementaron cinco modelos SAP, se desarrollaron los protocolos e implementaron treinta ensayos para evaluación del servicio de polinización en doce cultivos. Como principales productos no previstos por el proyecto, se diseñó una estrategia de diagnóstico y control del pequeño escarabajo de la colmena, un proyecto de investigación FONDOCyT en República Dominicana y una presentación a Foundation For Food And Agriculture Research -Pollinator Health Fund. A 2017, se estima que la adopción del sendero tecnológico genera alrededor de US$2.000 adicionales al año a cada agricultor en República Dominicana, mientras que en Argentina se observa un incremento en US$2.041/año (225%) en la retribución a la mano de obra familiar, alcanzando beneficios netos de hasta US$6.874/año. Adicionalmente, fueron desarrollados los siguientes productos: extracto blando de propóleos (EBP), solución hidroalcohólica de propóleos al 10% (SHAP10), gel hidroalcohólico con propóleos, miel con propóleos, crema hidratante con miel, crema hidrosoluble con propóleos, emulsión con propóleos, caramelos con miel y propóleos, hidromiel e hidromiel lupulada (cerveza de miel) y miel con identidad de origen geográfico (IG) y gestión de calidad. Se destaca que por lo menos cinco de estos productos están siendo comercializados por diferentes asociaciones en Argentina, Costa Rica y República Dominicana alcanzando 41. Varroa sp. es un ácaro, parásito externo, que constituye el principal enemigo de las abejas a nivel global. 42. Los aportes mencionados corresponden a información colectada y suministrada por el Dr. Enrique Bedascarrasbure, investigador líder del proyecto. alrededor de 7.200 apicultores. Siendo el caso de la miel certificada con trazabilidad el producto de mayor éxito ya que la Exportadora NEXCO SA lidera el mercado con un 30% de la oferta, pero además el proyecto integra alrededor de 6.000 apicultores que participan activamente del proceso de innovación.v. Se desarrolló un sitio colaborativo para el trabajo de los más de 400 miembros del equipo, una página web y se realizó un trabajo exploratorio con las redes sociales. El producto más avanzado en este sentido se logró en el marco del Cluster Apícola de la Cuenca del Salado (Argentina) donde se llegó hasta el programa radial \"La miel en tu mesa\". Se realizaron 238 publicaciones, más de veinte folletos (uno en castellano e inglés), una gacetilla de distribución mensual en conjunto con el MINAGRO en Argentina que ya alcanza a 3.000 apicultores, un boletín que se pondrá en marcha en República Dominicana y videos de casos exitosos. Se presentó la REDLAC en nueve congresos nacionales e internacionales y se organizó un seminario sobre innovación para la agricultura familiar en conjunto con el Ministerio de Agricultura y Ministerio de Industria de República Dominicana y FAO.vi. Los investigadores han dado continuidad a las actividades del proyecto y actualmente se • Tecnicatura universitaria.• Licenciatura virtual en Apicultura para el desarrollo.• 40 senderos tecnológicos ajustados.• Red de Unidades Demostrativas.• Desarrollo de diez nuevos productos comerciales.está realizando seguimiento en las diferentes zonas intervenidas, lo que permitirá obtener a futuro una mayor visión del impacto alcanzado. Tal es el caso de los senderos de COSAR y Flor de Garabato en Argentina donde, de acuerdo con el trabajo de Castignani, Masiangelo y Cabrera (2018), se observa que estas unidades están presentando una rentabilidad mayor en comparación con quienes no lo aplican, alcanzando once puntos porcentuales más en COSAR y treinta y tres puntos porcentuales más en Flor de Garabato 42 .Fuente: Investigador líder del proyecto Enrique Bedascarrasbure. Resumen del análisis realizado por el INTA-PROAPI. Nota: En el lado izquierdo la escala es de 150 col/apic mientras en la derecha la escala es de 450 col/apic. Además, los cálculos fueron realizados con un dólar a $15.42 Los aportes mencionados corresponden a información colectada y suministrada por el Dr. Enrique Bedascarrasbure, investigador líder del proyecto. CASO 8. Modelo de plataforma para el aprovechamiento integral, adición de valor y competitividad de frutales comerciales andinos (2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017) Este proyecto fue desarrollado en Colombia y España, con un presupuesto total de US$1.014.059 de los cuales US$390.000 fueron aportes de FONTAGRO y US$624.069 aportes de contrapartida de las instituciones participantes. Fue liderado por el Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria de la Universidad de Colombia (Sede Manizales) y contó con la participación de cuatro instituciones más, AGROSAVIA, Frugy S.A, IRTA y AKIS (España) 43 . La fruticultura es una actividad económica de importancia creciente en América Latina y el Caribe y en especial en Colombia, con especial referencia a pequeños y medianos productores. Sin embargo, las cadenas frutícolas andinas tienen desafíos comunes relacionados a temas de mercado y precio, intermediación comercial, necesidad de asistencia técnica y agroindustria poco desarrollada, entre otros. Sin embargo, en lo referente a producción primaria existen aspectos que sí pueden mejorarse como la planificación de siembra, manejo de desechos y subproductos, estandarización de procesos de cosecha y poscosecha y manejo deficiente de suelo y agua, entre otros.Este proyecto tuvo como objetivo construir un modelo sostenible y sustentable de innovación de la cadena de frutas andinas de mora (Rubus glaucus Benth), lulo (Solanum quitoense Lam), maracuyá (Passiflora Edulis Sims), guayaba (Psidium guajaba L), y tomate de árbol (Cyphomandia betacea Cav Sendt). El proyecto también buscaba el empoderamiento de pequeños productores y transformadores involucrados por medio del desarrollo de un modelo de plataforma para el aprovechamiento integral, adición de valor y competitividad de frutales comerciales de la zona andina. Las actividades del proyecto se centraron en cuatro componentes: i) caracterización, tipificación y zonificación de cultivos en el área geográfica de influencia, ii) preservación de la calidad de frutas en poscosecha y transformación, iii) promoción al consumo a través de dos prototipos de producto (barras de mora y de guayaba-pera orgánica) que fueron puestos a prueba de concepto y ii. Se caracterizaron, tipificaron y zonificaron cultivos en el área geográfica de influencia, el control y supervisión de uso de plaguicidas, la evaluación de las necesidades hídricas de los cultivos, la valoración de vías de acceso y el monitoreo de parcelas de agricultura orgánica. En la segunda etapa, se realizaron estudios de preservación de la calidad de frutas en poscosecha, en busca de alternativas innovadoras de transformación y reutilización de sus residuos. Para la tercera etapa, los prototipos de productos obtenidos fueron evaluados por consumidores nacionales e internacionales para conocer los niveles de aceptabilidad y las reformulaciones y/o mejoras. Finalmente, se plantearon diferentes estrategias de comunicación a través de productos académicos (libros, artículos, ponencias), productos de divulgación (revistas, noticias, videos, página web) y actividades de contacto masivo (talleres de campo, conferencias y capacitaciones).iii. Se estudiaron nueve zonas agroecológicas, ubicadas entre los pisos térmicos cálido (0-1.000 msnm, temperatura mayor de 24 °C), medio (1.000-2.000 msnm, 18 a 24 °C), y frío (2.000-3.000 msnm, 12 a 18 °C). Se generaron 24 mapas relacionados con la localización y distribución espacial para las fincas y las subregiones de los departamentos de Caldas y Risaralda. • Capacitación y acompañamiento en el uso de productos biológicos y producción orgánica.• Alternativas de productos a partir de residuos de fruta.iv. Además, el proyecto ha beneficiado 37 parcelas que fueron directamente monitoreadas y alrededor de 1.276 productores que participaron en las acciones de supervisión, acompañamiento y capacitación. Entre los principales aportes, se encuentra la recomendación de reemplazar el uso de productos químicos por productos de origen biológico. En particular, el uso de hongos entomopatógenos y antagonistas para el manejo de plagas que, de acuerdo con las evaluaciones preliminares realizadas, permiten una reducción de los problemas de plagas hasta de un 60% para el caso de mora y de un 80% para lulo y maracuyá. Al respecto, se observó un incremento en el uso de estos productos del 16% entre los fruticultores, monitoreados y asesorados. Adicionalmente, en el marco del proyecto, la empresa Frugy logró la certificación orgánica de sus pulpas de fruta.v. Por otra parte, se desarrollaron prototipos de productos basados en distintos tipos de residuos, así como de aquellas frutas denominadas de segunda y tercera calidad.A la fecha, estos productos no están siendo comercializados. No obstante, el grupo de investigación que coordinó el proyecto continúa investigando y tiene planeado en un futuro cercano incursionar en el mercado.Como se presentó, este proyecto ha desarrollado no solo nuevos conocimientos para mejorar la gestión productiva y agronómica de las fincas, sino además ha avanzado en la cadena de valor, vinculando al productor con los procesadores, y desarrollando nuevos productos y subproductos derivados de las frutas andinas con valor agregado y acceso a mercado. Estos resultados podrían ser evaluados en un futuro cercano, para conocer el efecto de la inversión de FONTAGRO en este tema. La yuca constituye un alimento básico en la dieta de millones de personas en el mundo, además de ser un cultivo industrial con alto potencial que genera ingresos permanentes para pequeños y medianos agricultores, aportando al desarrollo social de las regiones donde se cultiva. El Cuero de sapo (CS) es considerado como una de las enfermedades más limitantes para el cultivo de yuca puesto que afecta directamente la producción de raíces, y provoca pérdidas en el rendimiento del cultivo de entre 90% o más (Pineda, 1983, Calvert y Cuervo, 2002). La enfermedad retrasa incluso el mejoramiento de los rendimientos de las variedades para asegurar la estabilidad de la producción. Lo anterior se suma al escaso conocimiento que se tenía sobre la etiología de la enfermedad y por la falta de metodologías eficientes para la detección de los posibles patógenos involucrados que permitan la selección de materiales libres de la enfermedad en campo o invernadero.46. Código de proyecto: ATN/OC-12909-RG.Entrega de 4.500 plantas de yuca a asociaciones de agricultores en mayo de 2015.certificada, mediante el uso de un sistema in vitro y de cámaras térmicas de multiplicación de material de siembra; (iii) evaluar el efecto de micronutrientes, fertilizantes y extractos vegetales sobre el comportamiento de la enfermedad del CS en variedades locales; y (iv) seleccionar genotipos de yuca resistentes o tolerantes al CS para las zonas de estudio.Según las conclusiones del informe técnico final del proyecto, se destacan los siguientes logros 47 : i. Con el proyecto se fortaleció la cadena de valor de la yuca en Colombia, Costa Rica y Paraguay, a través del desarrollo de nuevo conocimiento y validación de tecnologías que mostraron afectar la productividad.ii. Se georreferenciaron zonas de cultivos de yuca con presencia de la enfermedad del Cuero de sapo (CS) en los tres países, se hizo el modelamiento de la distribución de la enfermedad, para lo cual se utilizó información climática de las bases de datos WorldClim y posteriormente se generaron los mapas de distribución de la enfermedad utilizando los softwares Maxent y EcoCrop. En zonas con presencia de CS en los tres países, se recolectaron muestras vegetales e insectos. En Colombia se georreferenciaron 253 puntos de zonas con presencia y ausencia de la enfermedad en los departamentos de Cauca, Tolima, Córdoba, Sucre, Casanare, Meta, Vaupés. Se estableció la correlación de las dos zonas (con presencia y ausencia de la enfermedad), y se concluyó en que factores climáticos de precipitación y temperatura están relacionados con la expresión natural de la enfermedad. iii. Se construyeron cinco cámaras térmicas con sistema automatizado PLC para regular humedad, riego y temperatura. Se sembró semilla vegetativa (estacas). El proceso de macropropagación y limpieza duró treinta días durante los cuales las plantas crecieron a una temperatura entre 45-50 °C. Al terminar el proceso de macropropagación y limpieza, las plantas fueron evaluadas por presencia o ausencia del fitoplasma utilizando la técnica de PCR en tiempo real, estandarizada e implementada en CIAT (Colombia), INTA (Costa Rica) e IPTA (Paraguay). La técnica permitió certificar el material de siembra limpio en los tres países. Se produjeron 40.520 plantas en las cámaras térmicas. Por cultivo in vitro a partir de yemas apicales se produjeron 6.200 plantas, y se distribuyeron a agricultores 47. Código de proyecto: ATN/OC-12909-RG.Material in vitro de yuca (Izquierda) y entrega del material libre de la enfermedad a agricultores del consejo comunitario del PILAMO en el municipio de Guachené (Derecha).en Colombia y Costa Rica. En Paraguay se introdujeron 55 genotipos de yuca in vitro y se multiplicaron en CODIPSA 5.800 plantas in vitro para su evaluación y distribución posterior a los agricultores. Con las actividades realizadas, se logró iniciar la construcción de una cámara térmica en Costa Rica, la cual ha sido terminada a comienzos de 2018 y se han iniciado experimentos para la posterior distribución de la semilla. En Colombia, se produjeron cerca de 37.500 plantas bajo el sistema de cámaras térmicas y 8,000 plántulas mediante la técnica de yemas apicales en la cámara térmica de CIAT. Además, la tecnología ha sido implementada por iniciativa privada en Colombia y Brasil y se tiene conocimiento de que estas cámaras están funcionando de manera exitosa.iv. Se obtuvo un incremento en el rendimiento del 20% con el uso del inductor de resistencia Kendal y una disminución en el porcentaje de incidencia de la enfermedad del 10%.v. Se identificaron como tolerantes los genotipos HMC-1, Amarga (genotipo local del Departamento del Cauca) y CM 1495-7 los cuales presentaron altos rendimientos y una incidencia de Cuero de sapo inferior al 5% y severidad grado. El genotipo de yuca MPER-183 se identificó como resistente, no presentó síntomas de la enfermedad del Cuero de sapo.vi. Este proyecto logró la capacitación de alrededor de 456 agricultores ubicados en los diferentes países participantes en temas de manejo de la enfermedad del CS, la macro propagación de material de siembra de yuca, la selección de material de siembra limpio, entre otros.vii. La metodología de detecciones moleculares ha sido adoptada y mejorada por el Banco de Germoplasma de CIAT. Como resultado, se obtuvo una nueva metodología más sensible y eficiente, que permitió una disminución significativa del tiempo de evaluación del material. En el pasado, la evaluación de la colección de yuca del Banco de Germoplasma de yuca tomó alrededor de veinte años; con esta innovación, se espera realizar este proceso enaproximadamente-dos años. También, a través de este proyecto, han llegado a agricultores de Centroamérica variedades de yuca mejoradas con un rendimiento de hasta 63% mayor que el que se obtiene con las variedades tradicionales, que han sido evaluadas con la nueva metodología. Finalmente, se destaca que estos resultados han sido posibles gracias a la continuidad de investigación y el apoyo de otras instituciones en la realización de nuevos proyectos 48 .48. Zonas con presencia de la enfermedad fueron georreferenciadas en los 3 países.Investigadores de CIAT e IPTA de Paraguay realizando detecciones moleculares de fitoplasma 16SrIII mediante la técnica de qPCR.• Zonas con presencia de la enfermedad fueron georreferenciadas en los 3 países.• Desarrollo de sistemas para la producción de semilla vegetativa certificada.• Capacitación y estandarización de las condiciones de PCR en tiempo real para la certificación de semilla de yuca.Capítulo V. ConclusionesDesde 1998, FONTAGRO se ha consolidado como un importante mecanismo de cooperación científicotécnica regional a la vez que como promotor de plataformas interinstitucionales, público-privadas, que actúan a la manera de verdaderos laboratorios de innovación para el sector agropecuario de América Latina y el Caribe. Sus logros son considerados bienes públicos regionales claves para el desarrollo regional.Desde 2003, FONTAGRO implementó análisis frecuentes de resultados e impacto potencial de las inversiones realizadas a través del cofinanciamiento de proyectos junto con otras agencias. Dichos análisis señalan la contribución de FONTAGRO a la generación de conocimiento científico, al desarrollo de innovaciones tecnológicas y, muy especialmente, al fortalecimiento de capacidades tecnológicas y la creación de capital social. En 2014, se realizó el primer análisis ex post, en el cual se generó evidencia sobre repercusiones económicas, sociales y ambientales producida directa o indirectamente por dichos proyectos.El análisis brindó nuevos aportes en cuanto a la contribución de FONTAGRO al fortalecimiento de las instituciones participantes y, fundamentalmente, a la creación de redes de científicos y técnicos que perduran más allá de la vida del proyecto. Sin embargo, aún estaba pendiente generar evidencia del beneficio económico que estas inversiones podrían haber originado. En ese sentido, este estudio tuvo por objetivo estimar el retorno económico de un grupo de proyectos, para documentar de manera ex post y ex ante, según el caso, parte del flujo de beneficios producidos a partir de las innovaciones desarrolladas en ellos.En un inicio, se esperaba poder incluir en este análisis hasta veinte proyectos. No obstante, este objetivo no pudo lograrse debido a lo siguiente: i) que los proyectos no fueron diseñados inicialmente para recibir este tipo de análisis y evaluación, ii) que existe gran espacio de tiempo transcurrido desde la finalización del proyecto hasta el momento actual del análisis, iii) que existió dificultad de acceso a la información necesaria, y iv) que las innovaciones generadas se encuentran en distinta etapa de madurez (algunas más cerca del conocimiento aplicado, y otras ya están siendo adoptadas por los beneficiarios), entre otras razones.El estudio tuvo como horizonte de evaluación el período 1998-2018, y utilizó en la mayoría de los casos la metodología de excedentes económicos (Alston y otros, 1995). Para cada caso, se estimó el valor presente neto (VPN), la relación beneficio/costo y la tasa interna de retorno (TIR).En los siete casos ex post considerados, se buscó documentar la evidencia que existe sobre los impactos que se pueden atribuir al cofinanciamiento de FONTAGRO. Este grupo de proyectos tenía información primaria y secundaria suficiente para realizar la evaluación ex post, y en solo un caso se presentó una evaluación ex ante realizada por uno de los participantes del proyecto. Por otro lado, este estudio también destaca otros nueve casos de proyectos con resultados preliminares promisorios para generar nuevas tecnologías e innovaciones para el sector agropecuario.Se demostró, además, que el grupo de proyectos seleccionados para análisis evidenció beneficios económicos que, en su mayoría, superaron la inversión realizada. Sin embargo, se destaca que, en muchos de estos casos, solo fue posible evaluar uno o algunos de los múltiples componentes que desarrolló cada proyecto, como también solo pudo realizarse el análisis en un solo país o alguno de los países participantes del proyecto, pero no en todos aquellos en los que podría haber tenido efecto (spillovers); por lo que el beneficio total generado por dichos proyectos podría ser mucho mayor.Asimismo, este estudio estimó que el beneficio generado solo por siete proyectos evaluados ex post alcanzó un valor presente neto de US$75.983.240 y, si se considera el proyecto que recibió el análisis ex ante, el beneficio alcanzado es de US$83.753,240. En promedio, para estos proyectos evaluados de manera ex post, se calculó un VPN promedio de US$10,854.749. Respecto a la relación beneficio/ costo estimada, el análisis muestra un rango de entre 1,4 hasta 30,6. Finalmente, la TIR estimada para estos mismos siete proyectos fluctúa entre 16.4 y 314,1.Es interesante destacar algunos logros, tales como las variedades mejoradas de camote (con alto impacto en la nutrición humana y animal), el rescate de la papa nativa en los Andes (que mejoró el nivel de ingreso de los productores y por tanto su nivel de vida) y promovió la creación de productos certificados de exportación (chips de papa de colores), la producción de semilla sana de banano (aumentando el 25% de rendimientos y una disminución de costos del 15%), el desarrollo de bioinsumos para la quinua y otros cultivos de los Andes que facilitaron el desarrollo de un nuevo negocio y la creación de la empresa Biotop (además de afectar positivamente disminuyendo el impacto al ambiente, los costos y mejorando el ingreso de los productores), entre otros.Este estudio también destacó nueve proyectos adicionales donde, si bien no existe información suficiente para completar un análisis de resultados y retornos económicos ex post, se documentaron resultados preliminares promisorios y otros avances que se lograron después de su culminación.Finalmente, el ejercicio de analizar los retornos económicos sobre los proyectos de cooperación técnica regional ha dejado lecciones aprendidas. Entre ellas, podemos destacar la necesidad de incluir el diseño de evaluación de proyectos desde el inicio de estos, como así también definir los indicadores de cambio que deberán monitorearse. Por otro lado, la necesidad de unificar y digitalizar el sistema de información de resultados de dichos indicadores, de modo que pueda accederse fácilmente a la información. Adicionalmente, incluir al sector privado es clave para fomentar el escalamiento de las innovaciones más promisorias, y así poder alcanzar a mayor número de beneficiarios. Para finalizar, la necesidad de fortalecer capacidades de evaluación de resultados e impactos en las instituciones participantes.FONTAGRO ha cumplido su rol estratégico de establecer un mecanismo de financiamiento sostenible para el desarrollo de la tecnología agropecuaria en América Latina y el Caribe e instituir un foro para la discusión de temas prioritarios de innovación tecnológica. Este estudio ex post que estima retornos económicos de solo una parte de las numerosas tecnologías e innovaciones que se han generado por proyectos cofinanciados por FONTAGRO ofrece resultados alentadores y da una muestra del valor que ha tenido FONTAGRO como mecanismo de cooperación dentro del desarrollo del sector agropecuario de América Latina y el Caribe.Este estudio ha dejado lecciones aprendidas que deben tomarse en cuenta para mejorar futuras evaluaciones de proyectos de cooperación técnica regional. A continuación, se señalan algunas recomendaciones:1. Institucionalizar la evaluación de resultados e impactos entre las instituciones participantes de los proyectos de cooperación regional Si bien las instituciones participantes formulan proyectos de cooperación técnica regional para FONTAGRO, al no estar institucionalizado/s internamente en ellas el/los mecanismos de evaluación de resultados e impactos, se dificulta la implementación de las actividades y, por tanto, la generación de la evidencia sobre los resultados e impactos que los proyectos pueden alcanzar. Esta es una de las principales causas observadas y que ha hecho que este estudio no haya podido explotar todo su potencial.La inclusión de la evaluación de impacto en la etapa de preparación del proyecto permitirá identificar el método de evaluación de impacto más apropiado y la información e indicadores que se necesitarían recolectar a lo largo de la implementación y a posteriori. La mayor parte de los proyectos que han sido financiados por FONTAGRO hasta la fecha no han incorporado explícitamente desde su concepción las estrategias sobre cómo serían evaluados luego de su finalización, ni han tenido un plan de recolección de información relevante para poder implementarla. Ante la heterogeneidad observada en los informes e indicadores reportados, se recomienda a FONTAGRO continuar sus esfuerzos de promover la capacitación para el diseño de proyectos, como también para el seguimiento del progreso de las actividades, productos y resultados.Es necesario solicitar una estrategia de recolección y gestión digital de datos dentro de la ejecución del proyecto y a posteriori, para poder apoyar la documentación y generación de evidencia de resultados. Esta estrategia debe incluir un plan de seguimiento de indicadores claves del proyecto, de manera que, más allá de los investigadores involucrados, se tenga institucionalizada la necesidad de recolectar la información necesaria para las futuras evaluaciones de impacto y su propiedad. Para facilitar el mapeo de resultados e impactos potenciales, así como otras contribuciones que un proyecto pueda originar, se sugiere el desarrollo de la teoría de cambio en cada proyecto, para así anticipar todos los resultados e impactos que se pueden atribuir a cada proyecto.Se sugiere hacer esfuerzos para incorporar a los estudios de resultados e impactos otras dimensiones de análisis, como por ejemplo, sociales, institucionales, organizacionales y ambientales, y spill-overs y spin-offs, entre otras. Es clave poder documentar en forma más amplia los beneficios que los proyectos financiados por FONTAGRO y sus socios generan, como así también el potencial de apalancamiento con otras inversiones.Que la madurez de una innovación tecnológica, o el tiempo que se requiere para que dicha innovación pueda ser ampliamente diseminada, se encuentre a disposición y sea adoptada por los beneficiaros finales, es también un desafío para plantear y diseñar una evaluación de impacto rigurosa. Muchas de las innovaciones que se desarrollan alcanzarán la madurez más allá de la duración del proyecto apoyado por FONTAGRO y, por tanto, debe considerarse este aspecto en el diseño de evaluación de la iniciativa.Anexo I. Fuentes de datos utilizados en el estudio ","tokenCount":"28081"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"738f58d7054d73ea4c85b7c3605f9833","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/644ff2c6-79ff-4b2a-9462-0cf654a0d7c4/retrieve","id":"-1970495977"},"keywords":["Tuber yield","NPK","nutrient uptake","use efficiency","farmyard manure, combined application","blended fertilizer"],"sieverID":"2c83bb25-5636-4272-88dd-d2256ff88fc0","pagecount":"74","content":"Low soil fertility and crop nutrient imbalances are major obstacles preventing Ethiopian farmers from realizing high agricultural productivity. This study was conducted with the objectives of evaluating effect of the sole and integrated farmyard manure (FYM) and inorganic fertilizers on growth, tuber yield, and nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) balance, uptake and use efficiency of Irish potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Field experiment carried out in Arbegona district of Sidama zone in Southern Ethiopia. The experiment encompass; control (without fertilizer), nationally recommended dose of N and P (111-40-0 kg ha -1 ), half recommended NP and FYM (55.5-20-0 kg ha -1 NP + 14.4 t ha -1 FYM), sole organic manure (28.8 t ha -1 FYM), blended fertilizer (264 kg ha -1 blended 17.3N34.7P2O57.41S2.23Zn0.3B + 100 kg K ha -1 fertilizer) and half blended and FYM (132 kg ha -1 blended 17.3N34.7P2O57.41S2.23Zn0.3B + 50 kg K ha -1+ 14.4 t ha -1 FYM). The treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design with three replications. Selected physicochemical properties of soil were measured before planting and after harvest. The result revealed that the experimental soil was loamy and very strongly acidic, low in organic carbon and available P, medium in total N and available K. Positive N, P and K balances were observed in all amended plots, except the plots treated with half FYM plus RNP and sole FYM which exhibited Negative NP and P balance, respectively. Yield and yield components of potato were significantly affected by soil amendments. Potato plants amended with sole blended fertilizer, half FYM combined with half recommended NP and half FYM combined with half blended fertilizers improved fresh yield, dry tubers yield and total NPK uptakes more than twofold (100%) as compared to the control. The average agronomic efficiencies of N, P and K supply were 48, 138 and 107 kg dry tubers, respectively. In addition, physiological efficiencies of 46, 238 and 32 kg dry tubers were obtained for N, P and K uptake, respectively. Furthermore, 112, 59  and 342% of apparent recovery efficiencies of N, P and K were obtained across the treatments. Fresh tuber yield of potato was positively and strongly correlated with number of plants per hill, number of tubers per hill and fresh tuber weight per plant. Total dry tuber yield of potato was positively and strongly correlated with total NPK uptakes. Applications of sole recommended NP, sole blended and combined half FYM with either half recommended NP or half blended fertilizer resulted in the highest net benefit with acceptable marginal rate of return (above 100%). Generally, soil amendments either in sole or combined inorganic and organic fertilizers could be considered to improve soil fertility status and potato yield in the study area. To attain the highest net benefits, application of half FYM combined with half blended fertilizer can preferably be used as the most appropriate soil amendment technique in the study area and other similar agroecology with similar soil properties in the Sidama highlands of Southern Ethiopia. However, the experiment should be repeated in the fields to draw sound conclusion.iI declare that this MSc thesis is my bonafied work and all sources of materials used for this thesis have been duly acknowledged. I solemnly declare that this thesis is not submitted to any other institution anywhere for the award of any academic degree, diploma or certificate. Ethiopia is fundamentally an agrarian country where agriculture is the base for livelihood of the overwhelming majority of the population. With a population of 102 million and a population growth rate of 2.88 percent (CIA, 2016), Ethiopia faces increased levels of food insecurity (Manuela et al., 2015). According to MoFED (2014), agriculture contributes about 42.9 % of the GDP employing nearly 80 % of the economically active populations.Agriculture is the main stay of many population as a source of food and cash as well (CACC, 2003).Root crops are good sources of foof, cash and foreign exchange for the majority of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. The economic and nutritional importance of root crops has been a factor for producing them both under rainfed and irrigated conditions in all potato producing regions and growing the crops more than one time in a year (Mesfin, 2009).According to Vita (2015), Ethiopia has possibly high potential for potato production with 70% of the 13.5 million ha of arable land suitable for potato cultivation. However, potato is widely regarded as a secondary non-cereal crop in part because it has never reached the potential that it has in supporting food security. The Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) Region of Ethiopia contributed 38 thousand hectares (22.93%) of the area under potatoes and 3.6 million (38.71%) quintals of the production to the country's total. It is estimated that 160,000 ha are now planted annually by approximately one million potato farmers. Sidama Zone is one of the major potato producing zones in the SNNPR. Potato tubers are produced both under rainfed and irrigation conditions.Low soil fertility and crop nutrient imbalances are two major obstacles preventing Ethiopia's farmers from realizing the high agricultural productivity. The extensive nutrient depletion, soil degradation, and soil quality deterioration found throughout Ethiopia are due in large part to ineffective agricultural practices and inefficient fertilizer applications.Although some of the practices that could address these issues are occasionally utilized independently, a fully integrated package of interventions that is popularized throughout the country is needed to properly impact soil health and the related potential increase in crop yields (ATA, 2014).Most soils cannot supply all essential plant nutrients in sufficient amounts to support good growth of crops, and hence, the application of fertilizer is one of the most effective means to increase nutrient uptake in crop plants and improve yields. Nutrients applied to the soil are either taken up by the crop or retained in the soil as soil nutrient stocks or lost from the soil through various processes (Kumar et al., 2012). Actual nutrient uptake will vary with crop yield and variety. The nutrient requirement of the crops can be met by nutrients available in the soil and by nutrient additions (Warncke et al., 2004).When fertilizer prices represent a large portion of a producer's costs, it is very important to maximize fertilizer nutrient use efficiency. Fertilizer use efficiency by most crops and farming systems is still very poor in most developing countries like Ethiopia (ATA, 2014).Therefore, improving agronomic efficiency provides both direct and indirect economic benefits and hence larger yield increases can be achieved for a given quantity of fertilizer applied; or less fertilizer is required to achieve a particular yield target. Integrated nutrient management (INM) by involving the combination of organic manure and fertilizers is an essential tool for balanced fertilization and sustainability of crop production on long term basis (Kumar et al., 2012).The farmers in southern Ethiopia use traditional soil fertility improvement mechanisms such as intercropping and farmyard manure application rather than depending only on inorganic fertilizer (Mesfin, 2009). However, organic manure alone is not sufficient (and often not available in large quantities) for the level of crop production the farmer is aiming at. Hence, additional mineral fertilizers have to be applied (FAO and IFA, 2000). However, there is a lack of scientific studies to examine the effect of separate and combined applications of organic and inorganic fertilizers in improving the yield and nutrient uptake efficiency of potatoes in Sidama highlands. General objective  The study aimed at identifying appropriate nutrient management option to maximize potato production through improving nutrient use efficiency in the Arbegona district of Sidama zone in southern Ethiopia. Specific objectives  To evaluate the effects of sole and combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers on potato growth, tuber yield and yield components, and soil chemical properties and nutrient balances  To determine appropriate combinations of organic and inorganic fertilizer use for economic yield production  To identify NPK levels in dry matter accumulation and partitioning in plant parts and their use efficiency in response to different levels of organic and inorganic fertilizer applicationsThe potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) belongs to the family Solanaceae and is a herbaceous annual plant grown for edible tubers. Actually, tubers are underground stems and are high in carbohydrates, exceedingly low in sodium and relatively rich in potassium and vitamin C, making it a good dietary complement to meats and pulses (Nand et al., 2011).Potatoes grow well on a wide variety of soils. In some areas where potatoes are commercially grown the soils are acid, whereas in others they are alkaline. Ideal soil for potato growing is deep, well-drained and friable and pH between 5 and 6.5. Soils high in organic matter such as peat or muck, if adequately drained, can also produce high quality potatoes, particularly for the fresh market. Sandy soils, which contain little clay or little organic matter and have almost no soil structure, when properly irrigated and fertilized, will produce high yields of tubers with excellent culinary and processing quality (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Republic of South Africa, 2013).Potato is the world's most important tuber crop worldwide. It is grown in more than 125 countries (FAO, 2009) of the world with a total production of 308 million tons (Kumar et al., 2012). It is consumed almost daily by more than a billion people. Hundreds of millions of people in developing countries depend on potatoes for their survival. Potato cultivation is expanding strongly in the developing world, where the potato's ease of cultivation and nutritive content has made it a valuable food security and cash crop for millions of farmers.Developing countries are now the world's biggest producers and importers of potatoes and potato products (FAO, 2009).In Ethiopia, root crops are also a good source of food, cash and foreign exchange for the growers and the country, respectively (Mesfin, 2009). According to Vita (2015) Ethiopia has possibly the highest potential for potato production of any country in Africa with 70% of the 13.5 million ha of arable land suitable for potato cultivation. However, potato is widely regarded as a secondary non-cereal crop in part because it has never reached the potential that it has in supporting food security (Vita, 2015). In the major potato produced areas of the country, the average yield (less than 10 Mg ha −1 ) is far below the potential, however, there are improved varieties that yield 19-38 Mg ha −1 on farmers' fields (Hirpa and Meuwissen, 2010).The total amount of plant nutrients available to the crop is a key factor determining yield (FAO, 1998). These nutrients are added to the soil from external sources of organic, mineral or biological sources (FAO, 2006), to maintain soil fertility and sustainable production. The two most widely used sources are organic manures and mineral fertilizers (Chandrasekaran et al., 2010). These sources are used by farmers according to their availability and affordability (FAO, 1998). Mineral fertilizers are concentrated sources of essential nutrients in a form that is readily available for plant uptake. They can supply main nutrients, secondary nutrients, micronutrients or mixtures of nutrients (FAO, 1998). Organic nutrient sources are often described as manures, bulky organic manures or organic fertilizers (FAO, 2006). Animal manure is a good source of plant nutrients and contains many of the elements essential for plant growth (David et al., 2005). Clain and Jacobsen (2001) explained that organic matter has a high surface area and a high CEC, making it an excellent supplier of nutrients to plants.Farm yard manure (FYM) is the manure produced in the farm which is made up of excreta (dung and urine) of farm animals, the bedding materials provided for them and miscellaneous farm and household wastes. In general FYM contains 0.5 to 1% N, 0.41% P2O5 and 0.74% K2O (Chandrasekaran et al., 2010;Roy et al., 2006). The desired C:N ratio in FYM is 15-20:1. In addition to NPK, it contains other macro and micro nutrients.As with fertilizer, the greatest return obtained from manure by applying it to crops that require N and that are grown in fields testing the lowest in P and K. Under the best of conditions, only about one-half to three quarters of the nitrogen (N) in the manure is equivalent to fertilizer for the crop in the year it is spread, however, the remaining nitrogen will become available slowly over a period of years. The phosphorus (P) in manure is available only slowly to a crop; however, manure P is not fixed readily into unavailable forms in soil like highly soluble P fertilizers are. The net result is that the P in manure is very similar to the P in fertilizer for building soil P levels and supplying crop needs. Thus, in most cases, manure P can be substituted for P in fertilizer on a one-to-one basis. With the exception to this rule manure P cannot be substituted for starter fertilizer P. The potassium (K) in manure occurs mostly in a soluble form similar to the K in fertilizer (Kirsten, 2014).Plants build up their biomass using water from the soil, carbon dioxide from the air, energy from sunlight and nutrients taken up from the soil and water. For optimum plant growth, nutrients must be available: as solutes in the soil water; in adequate and balanced amounts, corresponding to the instant demand of the crop; in a form which is accessible to the root system, except when provided through foliage (FAO, 1998). Nutrients are continuously removed from the soil by crops in addition to losses by leaching, volatilization and erosion (Chandrasekaran et al., 2010).Development of a cost-effective nutrient management program needs to take into account the nutrient requirements of the crop being grown and the nutrient status of the soil (Warncke et al., 2004). In contrast to most agronomic crops, potatoes are relatively shallow rooted crop and require intensive management to promote growth and yield (Carl and Peter, 2015). Management factors, including fertility decisions, will influence potato yield, quality, and storage properties (Mikkelsen, 2006). For efficient soil management, a farmer must improve the desirable soil characteristics by means of good agricultural practices. In order to ensure sustainable and high agricultural productivity, an appropriate choice of fertilizers, with balanced rates, method and time of application and replenishment of organic matter are from the important components of good agricultural practices (FAO & IFA, 2000).Due to its relatively poorly developed and shallow root system, the potato demands a high level of soil nutrients. Without balanced fertilization management, growth and development of the crop are poor and both yield and quality of tubers are diminished (FAO, 2009).Efficient potato nutrient management systems are designed to ensure that all essential plant nutrients are available in appropriate amounts and at the most beneficial time to provide for optimal vine and tuber growth (Stark et al., 2004). Fertilizer requirement of potato is very high as compared to cereal crops. It responds well to applied fertilizers and gives good yield per unit area and time (Bationo et al., 2012). Potatoes require optimal levels of essential nutrients throughout the growing season to ensure rapid, steady tuber growth and normal tuber development. Tuber quality is also significantly affected by plant nutrition. Nitrogen and potassium are removed in large quantities, both by tops and tubers. This means these two elements are most likely to be deficient in normal agricultural soils and must be supplied in adequate quantities to obtain higher yields (Nand et al., 2011).Growing healthy potatoes for maximum yield and quality requires that all the essential nutrients be supplied at the 4R principles (right source, right rate, the right time and the right place. For potatoes, either deficient or excessive plant nutrition can reduce tuber bulking and quality. Nutrient deficiencies may limit the leaf canopy growth and its duration, resulting in reduced carbohydrate production and tuber growth. Maintaining healthy leaves is a key to producing high yields. However, excessive nutrient applications may cause nutrient imbalances or over-stimulate vegetative growth at the expense of tuber production (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Republic of South Africa, 2013;Mikkelsen, 2006).Actual nutrient uptake will vary with crop yield and variety. The nutrient requirement of the crop can be met by nutrients available in the soil and by nutrient additions. When fertilizer prices represent a large portion of a producer's costs, it is very important to maximize fertilizer nutrient use efficiency (Warncke et al., 2004). According to Mengel and Kirkby (1987) the nutrient content of plant tissue reflects soil availability. The amounts of nutrients exploited in the harvested portion of the crop will depend on the yield and the concentration of the nutrients in time and space, variety, soil and environmental factors (Fageria et al., 2011;Nand et al., 2011) In potato production to attain higher tubers, the plants need nutrient fertilization in adequate quantity (Fageria et al., 2011). Potato is a high nutrient feeder (El-Khider, 2003;Kirsten, 2014) relatively more potash than N and P (Marschner, 1993). Therefore, high yielding potatoes cultivars can uptake more than 415 kg K ha -1 (Trehan, 2009); or as high as 422, 47 and 520 kg N, P, K ha -1 , respectively (Fageria et al., 2011).Fertilizer use efficiency depends to large extent on soil fertility conditions. To use fertilizer in a sustainable manner, management practices must aim at maximizing the amount of nutrients that are taken up by the crop and minimizing the amount of nutrients that are lost from the soil (Bationo et al., 2012). Improving agronomic efficiency provides both direct and indirect economic benefits: larger yield increases can be achieved for a given quantity of fertilizer applied; or less fertilizer is required to achieve a particular yield target (Bationo et al., 2012). Best management practices such as addition of crop residues, green manure, compost, animal manure, use of cover crops, reduced tillage and avoiding burning of crop residues can significantly improve the level of soil organic manure and contribute to the sustainability of the cropping systems and higher nutrient use efficiency (NUE) (Gruhn et al., 2000).Balanced and adequate supply of plant nutrients is important in order to achieve a high degree of nutrient utilization by crops, which also results in lower losses (FAO, 2006).Integrated plant nutrition systems (IPNS) are the maintenance or adjustment of soil fertility and of plant nutrient supply to sustain a desired level of crop production. It is achieved by optimizing the benefits from all possible sources of plant nutrients and by improving the overall management of the farm (FAO, 2000). Bulky organic manures and green manures have an important place in the nutrient management of potato. They add nutrients and also improve the physical environment for better plant and tuber growth. In spite of their low nutrient content, they help in fertilizer economy. The tuber yields obtained with the combined use of organic manures and fertilizers are higher than those with the use of fertilizers or organic manures alone. Thus, the combined use of organic and mineral sources of nutrients is essential for sustaining high levels of potato production (Roy et al., 2006).Potato plant dry matter and nutrient accumulation and partitioning patterns into various parts of the plant are important to fine-tune management practices that optimize the nutrient uptake efficiency and tuber production (Alva et al., 2007). The dry matter production of potatoes is commonly divided into three components: roots, tops, and tubers. Actually, tubers are the principal organ, which accumulates a major part of the total dry matter production.This study was carried out in Arbegona district of Sidama zone, Southern Ethiopia. The woreda (Arbegona) geographically lies between 6°35'18\" to 6°56'37\"N and 38°35'60\" to 38°53'36\"E (Fig. 1). The experimental site is located at 74 km east of Hawassa town at geographic coordinate of 06 0 41 ' N and 38 0 43 ' E with elevation of 2,521 masl. The study area has a mean annual rainfall of 1400 mm and a mean annual reference evapotranspiration of 1123 mm. According to FAO (2016), the study district has dominantly three soil types of chromic Luvisols, eutric Vertisols and humic Nitosols. However, the trial site is humic Nitosols.Major crops grown in the study area are sorghum, wheat, maize, pea, field pea, enset, potato, cabbage, carrot, beat root, Ethiopian cabbage and onion. In the mixed crop livestock, the farming practices in the area is dominated by inter cropping.The field experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with six treatments (five nutrient management options and one control) (Table 1) replicated three times within a farm. Blended fertilizer rate identified for the woreda containing the most deficient nutrients (NPSZnB+K) was selected based on the soil fertility map produced by ATA (2016). Farm yard manure that was used for the experiment had 28.75% moisture content on average correction factors (mcf). Nutrients in FYM other than NPK were not considered and 100 kg blended has (17.3N34.7P2O57.41S2.23Zn0.3B) and 100 kg K from (KCl)The experiments were carried out under rain-fed condition. However, during rain shortage, supplemental irrigation was applied. Irish potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) variety of Belete was used as a test crop with spacing of 75 and 30 cm between rows and plants, respectively.The total plot size was 3.75 m wide and 3 m long having 1 m space between the blocks.Potato, one seed per hill was planted on 19 th December 2015. The FYM and inorganic fertilizer were banded in an open row on the ridges of the potatoes at 10 cm from the seeds and were covered by 2 cm layer of soil. All the recommended rates of P, K, S, Zn and B were applied at planting, whereas N was applied in split: half at planting and the remaining half at about 35 days after planting. FYM, Urea, DAP, KCl and blended (NPSZnB+K) fertilizers were used as sources of the nutrients and applied as banded. First earthing-up or hilling and weeding followed immediately after urea application. The second weeding and hilling were done 8 weeks after planting and the plants were harvested on 15 April 2016.Before the start of the experiment, twenty surface soil sub-samples (0-20 cm) were randomly collected and composited for laboratory analyses of major physical and chemical soil properties. After harvest, six surface soil sub-samples were collected from each plot (three per ridge and three per row) and a composite was made for each treatment.Data on plant height, numbers of plants and tubers per hill, shot, root and tubers weight per plant, marketable and unmarketable yield were collected. These values were measured in fresh and the dry masses were determined after oven drying. The harvest index (HI) was computed by dividing the harvestable yield by the total biomass. Plant height was collected at 50% flowering that is approximately at about 9 weeks after planting by measuring from the base of the plants to the apex. At harvest, five plants were randomly selected from the three central rows to determine above ground biomass and tuber yields. Hence, these values were converted to t ha -1 . Tubers size less than 35 mm, infected and potato with defects were considered as unmarketable (Fahmy et al., 2008;Kavvadias et al., 2012). Furthermore, these plants were lifted with the aid of a spade and separated into above ground shoot (stems and leaves), below ground (roots and stolen) and tubers and measurements on fresh weights were taken. The plant materials were immediately transported to the laboratory and then washed (with tap and distilled water, respectively) to remove dust.Dry weights of shoot, root and tubers were determined after drying in oven at 65 0 C to a constant weight. Five-hundred-gram fresh weight was used for determination of dry matter content. Uptake of NPK, use efficiency, concentration and partitioning were done separately for shoots (stems and leaves), roots plus stolen. The nutrient accumulation and partitioning were calculated by multiplying nutrient concentration with dry matter of the respective plant parts (Nand et al., 2011) and the uptake of NPK in economic and by-product of potato plant parts were estimated following the procedure outlined by Salam et al. (2013).Soil samples collected from the experimental field before planting and those from each plot after harvest were analyzed for particle-size distribution, pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available P and K. Soil samples passed through 2 mm sieve were used for analyses, except for organic carbon and total N where 0.5 mm sieve was used.Determination of particle-size distribution was done by using hydrometer procedure as outlined by Sahlemedhin and Taye, (2000). The contents of sand, silt and clay were computed and the soil textural class was identified from textural triangle (Motsara and Roy, 2008).The soil pH was potentio-metrically measured using pH meter in supernatant suspension of a 1:2.5 soil to water mixture (Estefan et al., 2013;Sahlemedhin and Taye, (2000). Total nitrogen (TN) was analyzed by wet-oxidation procedure of the Kjeldahal methods.Available P was determined spectrophotometrically (development of blue color) at 882 nm wavelength by Bray II method. In determination of available K, the soil sample was extracted by Morgan's extracting solution and then K measured by flame photometer. Soil organic carbon (OC) was determined by Walkley and Black method the procedure as outlined by Sahlemedhin and Taye (2000).Plant samples were subjected to the analysis of total N, P and K concentration. The oven dried (65 0 C) plant samples which passed through 200 mesh sieve were used. Total nitrogen The nutrients use efficiencies were calculated the formulas as outlined by Bationo et al. (2012), andSalam et al.,2013) and Syers et al.,2008),.Where Gf and Gu are tubers yield from the fertilized and unfertilized plot (kg), respectively and Na is the quantity of nutrient applied (NPK) (kg).Where Gf and Gu as described above, and Ntf and Ntu are the nutrient (NPK) (kg) accumulation by (total shoot and tuber) in the fertilized and unfertilized plot, respectively. Apparent recovery (AR):Where Nf and Nu are the nutrient accumulation by the total biological yield (shoot and tuber) in the fertilized and unfertilized plot (kg). Partial Nutrient Balances: The assessment of NPK balances were considering nutrients added from amendments as inputs and nutrients taken up by total crop materials (economic and biological yield) as out from the soil system (Scoones 2001)Correlation tells us the direction and strength of association between to variable, while path regression coefficient has a utility to explain and decompose the proportions of variance and the correlations between the dependent and independent variables (Carey, 1998). Path coefficient is the standardized (i.e., with means of 0 and standard deviations of 1.0) regression coefficients. Hence, the correlation between an independent and a dependent variable is the sum of the direct and all indirect effects and the residual for the dependent variable is the square root of (1 -R 2 ) (Carey, 1998). In line with this, to see the association among the variables and their contribution in explaining the yield, the correlation and path regression coefficient were analyzed.In their economic benefit, to make a rational choice among the alternative amendments of potato production, partial budget and marginal rate of return (MRR) were analyzed (CIMMYT, 1988). Partial budget analysis is concerned with evaluating the consequences of changes in farm methods that affect only a part rather than the whole farm. Also used as a planning tool to estimate the effect on farm profit of a particular change within the farm (Berhanu et al., 2012). Partial budget was computed at 10 % yield adjusted, multiplied by the local field price (650 Ethiopian Birr per quintal of tubers) of potato at the time of harvesting (Tables 10; Appendix Tables 1). A dominance analysis is thus carried out by first listing the treatments. In order of increasing costs that vary. Any treatment that has net benefits that are less than or equal to those of a treatment with lower costs that vary is dominated (CIMMYT, 1988)Data collected on growth and yields parameter, and the uptake of NPK and use efficiency in economic and by-product of potato plant parts were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS software (version 9.0) to detect variations among treatments with LSD (P<0.05) level of significant. Also Pearson correlation and path coefficients were analyzed. blended fertilizer have resulted in significantly (P≤0.05) higher number of plant hill -1 as compared to FYM alone, RNP and the control with the lowest number of tubers hill -1 (Table 2). Also, significantly (P≤0.05) the lowest plant height was recorded in the control and in plots amended with RNP while the tallest plants were observed in plots treated by combined application of half FYM with half RNP and half FYM with blended fertilizer (Table 2).Similar findings were reported by Das et al. (2015) on number of plants hill -1 and plant height on variety Kufri Shailja. Also the current results in tubers number hill -1 are in line with the findings of El-Khider, (2003). However, relatively higher number of plants and tubers hill -1 and plant height were obtained from the present research as compared to those reported by Ezzat et al. (2011). This might be resulted due to the varietal difference.For potatoes and similar root crops, the yield components are the number of plants ha -1 , the number of tubers plant -1 and tuber size (Mengel and Kirkby, 1987). With high number of plants and tubers hill -1 , the tubers yield can be improved. Accordingly, in plot treated by half FYM along with half blended fertilizer, higher comparative advantages of 22.2 and 26.8% were obtained on number of plants hill -1 and plant height, respectively, than that of control. However, the highest (81.6%) advantage on tubers number hill -1 was obtained from plot that received half FYM along with half RNP as compared to control (Table 2).The N nutrition of the plant to a large extent controls the growth rate of the plant: vegetative growth and formation of new leaves, stem and roots (Mengel & Kirkby, 1987). A high rate of growth only occurs when abundant N is available. In addition to fertilizer N, nitrogen from organic sources can supply sufficient N for optimum crop production (Havlin et al., 1999). Furthermore, FYM is the good source of NPK and other macro and micro nutrients;and can substitute PK in fertilizers especially K that is required by most root crops in large quantities (Havlin et al., 1999;Kirsten, 2014;Mengel & Kirkby, 1987). Ahmad (2014) reported that integrated management of fertilizers highly favored plant growth by conditioning the soil physical and chemical properties. And organic manure enhances crop production by providing the macro-and micro-nutrients (Fernandes & Soratto, 2012;Kirsten, 2014). The results showed that the mean values of fresh shoot, root and tubers weight plant -1 were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected by soil amendments. The lowest fresh shoot, tuber, and root and stolen weights were recorded from the control (Table 3). The shoot weights obtained from plots treated by blended fertilizer alone, and half FYM in combination with half blended fertilizer and half RNP were also significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher than those received sole FYM and recommended NP (Table 3). The roots and stolen weight obtained from sole FYM treatment was at par with that of control. Integrated application of half FYM with half blended fertilizers resulted in the highest and significant fresh tuber weight plant -1 followed by its integrated application with half recommended doses of NP (Table 3). El-Khider (2003) reported similar findings with respect to fresh root weight. The tuber weight advantages obtained due to usage of sole FYM, RNP, and blended fertilizer alone, half FYM with half RNP and half FYM and blended fertilizer were 34. 8, 40, 44.3, 75 and 95.7% respectively as compared to the control (Table 3). The observed variation might be due to the direct contribution of nutrients and/or conditioning the soil physical and chemical properties from amendments (Fahmy et al., 2008). Because, fertilization with mineral and/or organic manures (FYM) improves crop production; thus are also a good source of plant nutrients (Havlin et al., 1999;Kirsten, 2014;Mengel & Kirkby, 1987). Adequate fertilization of surface soil encourages greater vegetative growth and also a more vigorous and extensive root system (Havlin et al., 1999).In contrast, a limited supply of one of the essential nutrients can limit crop yield (Jones & Jacobsen 2001). Under limited soil nutrient conditions, the required nutrients may come from soil reserves, added fertilizer or manure, and crop residues (Kirsten, 2014).Mengel and Kirkby, (1987) indicated that in root crops, tubers are the main storage organ of photosynthates, which are more dependent on number of plants and tubers number, size, and weight. Vigorous leaf growth during this stage and the development of a large leaf area per plant is essential for voluminous root. This was supported by making high positive correlation to NPK uptakes, as affected by the amendments (Table 10; Appendix Table 2).Fresh and dry shoot biomass, marketable and unmarketable tubers yields were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected by the different treatments (Table 4). The lowest fresh and dry shoot biomass, marketable and total dry tuber yields were obtained from the control plot while the highest values of these parameters were observed in plots treated with combined applications of half FYM either with half NP or half blended fertilizer, and sole application of blended fertilizer alone (Table 4). In the amendments, the fresh shoot biomass increased between 18 and 57% due to the application of organic and inorganic soil amendments over the control. The findings are in agreement with Ahmad (2014) and Sandhu et al. (2014) who obtained 26 to 40 % increment on fresh shoot biomass yield due to the application of different levels of FYM and NPK fertilizer rates. The combined application of half FYM and RNP improved fresh and dry shoot biomass by 56.5 and 86%, respectively over the control. The fresh marketable and total dry tuber yields also increased by more than twice (100%) due to the applications of either blended fertilizer only or combined application of half FYM either with half RNP or half blended fertilizer as compared to the control.Similarly, Singh and Lal (2012)  Different authors, Chen (2010), Fahmy et al. (2008) and Mohammadi et al. (2013) have also reported similar results in line with the current findings. However, the results of marketable yield in the present study was higher than that reported by Das et al. (2015), Pervez et al. (2000) and Singh and Lal (2012) and which might be due to amendments effect and/or the varietal difference on potential yield production. According to Mengel and Kirkby, (1987), tubers are the main storage organ of photosynthates in root crops like potatoes. The most important factor that determines dry matter production is the photosynthetic efficiency of the crop, which varies with cultivar, environmental conditions (Fageria et al,. 2011). The variation might also from the sink strength in accumulating or storing the photosynthates (Marschner, 1993).Harvest index of potato differed significantly (P ≤ 0.05) between the different treatments (Table 4). The highest harvest index values were observed from application of FYM alone and combined application of half FYM with half blended fertilizer, whereas the lowest value was recorded in the control treatment (Table 4). Harvest index was increased by 15 and 16 % due to application of FYM alone and combined half FYM and blended fertilizer over the control. Similarly, HI of potato was reported by Ahmad et al. (2014) who found HI advantages raging 5.5 to 14% due to different levels of sole and combined applications of FYM and inorganic K fertilizer.Significantly lower tuber percent of dry matter was recorded in plot amended with recommended doses of NP than that all other treatments, whose dry matter contents were statistically at par (Table 4). The finding from this investigation in terms of dry matter yield is similar to that of Ezzat et al. (2011), who found low dry matter increment due to balanced fertilization over control. The author noted decreased dry matter percentage when the N level and K fertilization increased, which in turn reduce tuber DM% by increasing tuber water content. In obtaining high HI, Marschner (1993), stated that dry matter yield might be severely restricted, not because of the limited capacity of the source to supply carbohydrates, but rather because of the limited amount of mineral nutrients such as N, P, K, and Mg that are available for re-translocation from source to sink.Parts of PotatoThe highest N uptake by potato shoots and tubers were observed from plots treated with sole application of blended fertilizer and half FYM combined with either half RNP or half blended fertilizer (Table 5). The uptake increase due to these treatments were more than double (100%) as compared to the control. Application of recommended NP alone did not result in significantly higher (P > 0.05) N uptake by potato shoots as compared to the control.However, the potato tuber N uptake of RNP treated plot was significantly higher than that of the control. Banerjee et al. (2015) have found a similar total N (shoot plus tuber) uptake more than two to threefold depending on level of N and potato cultivars with the present result. Similar finding was also reported by Haifa (2016) who indicated that the amount of nutrients removed by a potato crop is closely related to yield. Usually, twice the yield improvement will result twice the removal of nutrients.The amounts of nutrients exploited in the harvested portion of the crop will depend on the yield and the concentration of the nutrients in time and space, variety, soil and environmental factors. The N accumulations in shoot and tubers for Russet Burbank potatoes yielding 79 t ha −1 , on average are about 140 and 282 kg ha -1 , respectively (Fageria et al., 2011). The author also stated that N is removed in large quantities, both by shoot and tubers. Thus, it must be supplied in adequate quantities to obtain higher yields. In addition to fertilizer N, FYM is also the good source of N, and with long term application of FYM, the N supplying power of the soil is improved (Cooke, 1977 as cited by Mengel & Kirkby, 1987).The effect of soil amendments on N concentration was different in different plant parts of the potato. The application of recommended NP did not show any significant (P>0.05) increment in shoot and tuber N concentrations as compared to the control, whereas all the other treatments resulted in significantly (P≤0.05) higher values in shoot and tuber N concentrations than that of control (Table 6). On the other hand, the root N concentrations of all plants with amendments were significant (P≤0.05) higher than that of the control. Neshev andManolov (2015 &2016) reported similar findings on N concentrations in different parts of potato as affected by K sources and levels and the authors noted that increasing of N concentration with increasing K levels. The nutrient contents of the plant tissues reflect the availability of the respective elements from the soil (Mengel and Kirkby, 1987), and hence the amendments might be having improved the N availability. In addition to N from the inorganic sources, FYM can also supply sufficient N for optimum production (Havlin et al., 1999).Significant (P≤0.05) differences in P uptake by potato plant parts were observed due to the use of different amendments (Table 5). The lowest P uptakes in the shoot and tubers were exhibited by the control while significantly higher P uptakes were measured all plants received different treatments. The highest shoot and tuber P uptakes were recorded in plants treated with blended fertilizer alone and half FYM combined with either half RNP or half blended fertilizer over the control and other amendments (Table 5). Similar findings were reported by Fageria et al. (2011), Haifa, (2016) and Sandana (2016) and the differences in uptakes were attributed to the supply of P from the amendments and/or the varietal difference. The quantities of P taken up by shoot and tubers were more than double (100%) with applications of sole blended fertilizer, half FYM combined with half RNP and integrated half FYM and blended fertilizer over the control. The uptake of P might have been pronounced by availability of K and other micronutrients (S, Zn and B) from the blended fertilizer. The significantly (P≤0.05) lowest P concentration in the shoots and roots of potato were recorded in control followed by plants treated with recommended rate of NP while the remaining treatments exhibited significantly higher concentrations than control and RNP treatment (Table 6). The highest P concentrations in shoots and roots were obtained from plants treated with sole blended fertilizer and half FYM in conjunction with either half RNP or half blended fertilizer and sole FYM equally recorded the highest P concentrations in shoots. However, the highest P concentration in tubers was recorded with sole application of blended fertilizer and half FYM and blended fertilizer. The increments in P uptake and concentrations in the plant parts might be attributed to synergistic effects of K and other micronutrients from blended fertilizer. Similar findings were reported by Neshev andManolov (2015 &2016 ) and who observed that the application of K in the form of K2SO4 led to increase of P uptake by potatoes.According to Mengel and Kirkby (1987) the nutrient content of plant tissue reflects soil availability. The low P uptake and concentrations in plant materials of the control might therefore be attributed to low P availability in the experimental soil; as was also confirmed by soil analysis before planting (Table 8). Additionally, phosphorus availability to plants is determined by the chemical characteristics of the soil and the P fertilizer source (Havlin et al., 1999;Kirsten, 2014). Thus, the use of blended fertilizer alone and in combination with FYM could be considered as best source for P availability. Applications of sole blended fertilizer, and combinations of half FYM ether with half NP or half blended fertilizer resulted in highest K uptakes, which were significantly higher than control, RNP alone and sole FYM treated plants (Table 5). Treatment with sole FYM alone was also found to be significantly better than RNP alone and control in terms of K uptake in plant parts. These show K uptake in shoot and tuber were improved by its supply from blended fertilizer and/or FYM. Potassium in FYM is almost totally water soluble as K + and is thus readily available (Mengel and Kirkby, 1987). Additionally, the response to K + uptake by crops depends to a considerable extent on the level of N nutrition. According to Havlin et al. (1999), the uptake of K + in solanaceous crop highly favored with high NO3 -/NH4 + ratio, and hence increasing NO3nutrition stimulate organic anion synthesis (Mengel and Kirkby, 1987). Improvements of K uptakes by shoot more than threefold and tubers more than twofold were recorded due to integrated use of half FYM with half RNP and half FYM and blended fertilizes, respectively as compared to the control. Similarly, more than twofold of tuber K uptake was reported by Singh & Lal, (2012) with increasing levels of N application. Similar trend was observed by Sharma & Sud (2015) who indicated that the potato responses were subsequently higher with K application in the experiment of K levels and methods of application as compared to the control.In potato production to attain higher tuber, the plants need K fertilization in adequate quantity (Fageria et al., 2011). Potato is a high nutrient feeder (Kirsten, 2014;and El-Khider, 2003) relatively more potash than N and P (Marschner, 1993). Therefore, high yielding potatoes cultivars can uptake more than 415 kg K ha -1 (Trehan, 2009) or as high as 520 kg K ha -1 , 200 and 320 kg K ha -1 in the shoot and tubers, respectively (Fageria et al., 2011).Plants adapted to high altitudes could have store more nutrients which can be utilized when supply is limited (Marschner, 1993).Shoot K concentration in the control plot was significantly (P≤0.05) lower compared that of the plants from amended plots (Table 6). The tuber K concentration in plots received recommended NP and FYM alone did not also show any significant variations with that of the control. Additionally, application of recommended doses of NP alone did not significantly increase the K concentration in roots compared to control (Table 6). The exhibited highest K-concentrations in the amended plots might be due to the direct contribution of K from the amendments (Fahmy et al., 2008) or better K availability in the amended plots due to the amendments effect (Mengel and Kirkby, 1987). Depending on the rate applied, organic material can supply sufficient quantity of plant available K; and K in which occur predominantly as soluble inorganic K + (Havlin et al. (1999).Nitrogen, P and K Efficiency as Influenced by Soil AmendmentsApplications of FYM combined with half RNP, half FYM with half blended and sole blended fertilizer resulted in significantly (P≤0.05) higher agronomic efficiency of N as compared to the plot treated by RNP alone (Figure 2). There is no variation in agronomic efficiency of N due to application of sole FYM and RNP alone, whereas the combined application of half FYM with half RNP, combined half FYM and blended and sole blended fertilizer improved the N use efficiency more than twice (100%) over RNP. Similar agronomic efficiency of N more than threefold was reported by Banerjee et al. (2015) from the lower levels of N fertilization as compared to the higher levels. This was due to the fact that input-output relationship follows the law of diminishing return as far as the relationship between N and yield is concerned (Das et al., 2015). In the manner AE of N was reported by Das et al. (2015) and Trehan (2009) from the experiments of different dose of N fertilization. In the current study, the observed differences at application of the same N rate might be due to the improvement in N efficiency (yield production per unit N supply) might be the amendments effect from balanced fertilization.Agronomic efficiency of P was significantly (P≤0.05) lower at application of RNP as compared with all other amendments (Figure 2). The highest values were obtained when half FYM was used in conjunction with either half RNP or half blended fertilizer over RNP.Similar findings on AE of P were reported by Salam et al. (2014), Sandana (2016) and Trehan (2009) when P supplied from organic and inorganic sources and the authors stated that AE of P decreased when P fertilization increased. On the other hand, fertilization with sole blended resulted in the lowest AE of K. According to Fageria et al. (2015) an efficient plant is one that produces higher economic yield with a limited quantity of applied or absorbed nutrient. Potassium AE decreases with increasing K supply due to the opposite relationship between increasing nutrient supply and yield production (Salam et al,. 2014). The higher value of K agronomic efficiency was obtained from sole application of FYM and half FYM and RNP that of blended fertilizer (Figure 2).The application of combined half FYM and RNP did not show any significant difference in terms of K agronomic efficiency as compared with plots treated with FYM alone and half FYM in combination with half blended fertilizer. Further combined application of half FYM  and blended fertilizer and blended fertilizer alone did not show any significant distinction (P>0.05) on AE of potassium (Figure 2). The application of sole FYM increased AE of K more than twofold than that of the plot treated with blended fertilizer alone (Figure 2).Potassium AE results in the current study were similar to those reported by Salam et al. (2014), potassium AE decreases with increasing K supply this might due to relatively higher yield produced with low supply of K as compared with high supply of potassium.Physiological efficiency of N was significantly (P≤0.05) higher with application of RNP as compared to all other amendments (Figure 3). Application of RNP increased PE of N between 39.6 and 60.6 % against the rest of amendments. Here, the observed higher PE at application of RNP might be due to relatively higher yield produced with low absorption of N against other amendments. Related finding on PE of N was reported by Banerjee et al.(2015) however, the current results were lower in contrast to the reports of Grzebisz et al. (2015 andTrehan, (2009). The authors indicated that at high uptake of N the AE decreases, which might be due to a luxury consumption of N that might not contribute to physiological processes.On the other hand, a plot amended with sole application of blended fertilizer resulted in significantly (P≤0.05) lower phosphorous PE than that of other amendments except the combined application of half FYM with half blended fertilizer (Figure 3). Fertilization with sole FYM increased PE of P by 29% against the plot treated with blended fertilizer.Phosphorous PE in the present study was in agreements with the reports of Salam et al.(2014) and Sandana (2016) from P level and variety experiments in different cropping system. These authors showed that at high P uptake the PE of crops decreases and the PE of P would depend on varieties.Furthermore, application of recommended NP resulted in the highest PE of K, which was significantly (P≤0.05) different from all other amendments except FYM alone while other treatments were at par (Figure 2). However, there was no observed significant difference among plots treated by applications of sole FYM, combined half FYM and blended and blended fertilizer alone (Figure 3). Application of RNP improved PE of K by 38% against the plot treated with combined application of half FYM and NP. The potato might be efficient in nutrient utilization to produce a high yield with low absorbed nutrient, in a soil that is limiting in one or more mineral nutrients ( Fageria et al., 2015;Marschner, 1993). Nutrient efficient plants produce high yield with low uptake of nutrients (Fageria et al. 2015). Salam et al. (2014) reported that in potato-rice cropping system the yield produced per unit K uptake could be high at low absorption of the K. the author noted that potassium AE decreases with increasing K supply due to the opposite relationship between increasing nutrient supply and yield production. The observed variations on NPK use efficiency in the amended plots, might be due to luxury consumption of NPK, which may not contribute to physiological processes but may be accumulated in storage organs (Marschner, 1993). Furthermore, Banerjee et al. (2015), Havlin et al. (1999) and Sandana (2016) stated that nutrient efficiency of plants depends on: soil factor of production potential, chemical species of the fertilizer used and plant factors of interaction with environmental factor and root microbe.From all amended plots, significantly (P≤0.05) the lowest ARE of N and P were attained in plots amended with RNP alone (Figure 4). Additionally, plots amended with sole FYM application showed significantly lower ARE of N and P as compared to those with combined applications of half FYM with half NP, combined half FYM and blended and sole blended fertilization (Figure 3). Nitrogen and P ARE were improved four times and more than threefold, respectively at application of combined half FYM and blended fertilizer over RNP. The N recovery has similar trend to Banerjee et al. (2015), who found the recovery efficiency higher than 100%, between 112 and 272%. Due to the variation in variety and from the applied N rates of 225 and 75 kg N ha -1 , the lower and the higher values, respectively; however, when N supply raised to 300 kg N recovery efficiency lower than 100%. The N recovery was higher than that of Grzebisz et al. (2015); Salam et al. (2014) and Trehan (2009). The authors indicated that at higher supply of N, the nutrient availability in the soil might be low affecting the nutrient recover efficiency of plants. Havlin et al. (1999), Trehan, (2009), Li et al. (2015) and Sandana, (2016) have also reported that variation in ARE is common due to the dissimilarities of cultivars. Phosphorous ARE is in line with the findings of Salam et al. (2014), Sandana (2016) and Trehan (2009) which indicate that the level of nutrient fertilization affects the nutrient availability in soil, and at high contents of soil nutrients and their availability more nutrients might be taken up by plants. These authors have also discussed that depending upon the nutrient absorption power of the crops and their utilization at the biochemical levels, crops may vary in the recovery of the applied nutrients.Sole blended fertilization resulted in significantly the lowest ARE of K (Figure 4). The ARE of K obtained from combined application of half FYM with blended fertilizer was also lower than that of plots amended with FYM alone and half FYM in combination with half RNP.The applications of FYM alone improved ARE of K more than twofold (100%) over sole blended fertilizer. This might be resulted due to the potato highly efficient in utilizing nutrients from soil reserves and from low input fertilizer. Or, high K recovery efficiency in these treatments might be attributed K was released slowly from organic resources compared with mineral (inorganic) fertilizers, and provide a continuous supply of K over the cropping season (Bationo et al., 2012). In addition, organic manuring is beneficial and maintain nonexchangeable K and increasing exchangeable K (Trehan, 2009). Potassium is relatively easily soluble in water and hence washed off in the soil (Tantowijoyo & Fliert, 2006), however due to their high negative charge, organic manuring might be contributed in reduced nutrient loss trough leaching by improving soil K retention capacity and availability as compared with inorganic fertilization. Potassium ARE is higher as compared to the report of Salam et al. (2014) and Trehan (2009), the variation might be caused due to the varietal differences to their capacity to take up more K per unit K supply. These authors also reported that the potatoes were take up more K at K stress condition and K recovery efficiency decreased when k supply increased with slight variation as compared to the current results.  In general, the high AR recorded in the current investigation might be due to an excellent respond of potato to the amendments, which might have been advantageous for high nutrient uptake. Furthermore, the high difference between the control and treated plots might be due to a limited inherent contribution of the experimental soil to yield production and nutrient uptake in the control. As reported by El-Khider (2003) and Kirsten (2014), potato is a high nutrient feeder, relatively taking up more potash than N and P (Marschner, 1993). Syers et al. (2008) have suggested apparent recovery of more than 100%, implies more nutrients are absorbed from the soil in addition to the supplied nutrients.The ratio of nutrients within the plant is also an important criterion for balanced nutrition.On soil of high fertility status, crop nutrient uptake ratios correspond very close to crop nutrient requirements. In the current study, N:P:K ratio of 1:0.2:1:3 averaged across the amendments was recorded, which was in line with the report of Mengle and Kirkby (1987) which indicate of the N, P and K ratio taken up by potato is in the order of 1:0.3:1.8. Hence, potato requires high proportions of K (Mengel and Kirkby, 1987).  The soil of the study area was loamy textured having 43, 39 and 18% of sand, silt and clay, respectively. Loam textured soils are usually considered to be fertile and also have the ability to hold sufficient available water. Tantowijoyo and Fliert (2006) indicated that such types of soils are often found in mountainous regions and are suitable to grow potatoes.The soil reaction is rated as very strongly acidic (Table 7) in accordance with Landon (2013). Analysis of the experimental soil before planting revealed that it was low in OC, medium in total N, low in available P and medium in K contents in accordance with the rating of the same author for tropical soils (Table 7). Similarly, ATA (2016) has also reported the soil pH and available P of the study area in line with that of Landon (2013), whereas, Hazelton and Murphy (2007) grouped OC contents ranging between 2.00 and 2.99 as very high.After harvest, the soil chemical characteristics varied due to the effects of soil amendments, except soil pH. Manure like FYM is a good source of N and organic anions which in turn are the primary sources of the potential alkalinity that could cause an increase in soil pH, if decomposed by soil microorganisms (Rengel, 2003). However, the variation in soil pH values amongst the treatments was not significant (P >0.05) probably due to the long time required by organic sources to bring a significant change in soil pH. The plots that received FYM alone had significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher OC content than that of the other treatments, whereas the lowest OC content was recorded in plots treated with blended fertilizer alone (Table 7). Nedunchezhiyan et al. (2009) indicated that the release of available nutrients from applied FYM increases organic carbon level, which in turn increases microbial population, microbial biomass carbon and elevates the enzyme activities (urease, phosphatase and β-glucosidase) of the soil. On the other hand, significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher values of TN were obtained with application of FYM alone and half FYM in combination with half blended fertilizer as compared to the control and the plot treated by recommended NP (Table 7). Furthermore, available P and K were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher at application of sole FYM, sole blended fertilizer and their half combined usage over that of the control and the other amended plots (Table 7). This reveals that applying FYM is important to at least partially address the problem of P fixation in the strongly acidic soils of the study area and the consequent low crop productivity due to P shortage. The positive advantages of the organic amendments in improving soil chemical properties compared to initial sample and the control were also reported by previous similar works (Abay & Tesfaye 2011;Lal et al., 2014;Nedunchezhiyan et al., 2009;Tilahun et al., 2013a;Yilmaz & Alagoz, 2010)  Significant correlations were found between TN and OC (r=0.623), and TN and available K (r=0.416) (Appendix Table 2). According to Coris et al. (2012) a strong linkage exists between soil organic matter accumulations and conservation of nutrient, in condition soil chemical properties. Nutrients added in the form of manure (FYM) is a good source NPK which release slowly from it (Kirsten 2014;Mengel & Kirkby 1987) and has good C/N ratio.Similar positive association between TN and OC was reported by Alemayehu (2007). The positive association between TN and available K might be attributed to the effect of amendments in improving the availability of both nutrients.Negative TN balances were obtained from application of recommended NP and control, while net positive total N balances resulted from applications of blended fertilizer alone, sole FYM and half FYM in combination with half NP and blended fertilizer (Table 8).Tilahun et al. (2013b) also found net negative TN balance in the control. Plots treated with RNP and FYM alone had net negative available P balances, whereas positive available K balances were obtained from all treatments including the control (Table 8). The positive P and K balances in the control might be attributed both available nutrients replenished in more quantities from the soil exchangeable site as compared to the uptake. Similar findings in net available P balances were reported by Tilahun et al. (2013); and also in net available K by Li et al. (2015).Farm yard manure is a good source of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) and other macro-and micro-nutrients; P and K occur mostly in a soluble form similar to the PK in fertilizer (Kirsten 2014;Mengel & Kirkby 1987). In long term application of FYM, the nutrient supplying power of the soil is improved, so that treatment with FYM may be The observed high NPK balances with the application of FYM might be due to the advancement on nutrient availability in conditioning the soil status and/or the direct contributions of nutrients from amendments coupled with low uptake (Abay & Tesfaye, 2011;Nedunchezhiyan et al., 2009). In many soils the rate of removal of plant nutrients by crops, leaching and denitrification is well in excess of nutrient release by weathering and mineralization (Mengel and Kirkby, 1987). As reported by El-Khider (2003) and Kirsten (2014), potato is a high nutrient feeder, relatively more potash than N and P (Marschner, 1993). The observed net positive K balance might be the relative high content of the experimental soil with medium available K 0.25 to 0.5 cmol(+) Kg -1 soil (Landon, 2013) to support plant growth. A negative nutrient balance thus resulted unless nutrients are supplied in the form of fertilizers or manures to make up the difference (Mengel and Kirkby 1987).The observed net negative N and P balances might been imposed by low N and P availabilities coupled with high uptake of the nutrients (Tilahun et al., 2013). Loss of nitrogen and P fixation might have also occurred in plots.There were significant and strong correlations among numbers of plants per hill, number of tubers per hill, fresh tuber weight per plant and marketable tuber yields (Table 9). exhibited higher positive indirect effects on dry total tuber yield against their direct effect (Table 10). Thus, even though the observed correlation among the independent and dependent variables are significant (P≤0.05), the path interpretation suggests that the correlation arises because each of the predictor variable could be correlated with one another, and having direct effects upon their respective dependent variables, but not because the individual predictor variables per se directly predicts the dependent variables.With the acceptable marginal rate of return (MRR), all soil amendments except FYM alone resulted in higher net benefits than the control (Table 11). The application of half FYM combined with half blended fertilizer resulted in the highest net benefit followed by the combinations of half FYM and RNP fertilizer (Tables 10). However, the dominancy analyses indicated that sole application of FYM could be less profitable as the cost incurred increases.For every 1.00 Birr invested at application of FYM combined with blended fertilizer, farmers can expect to recover the 1.00 Birr, and obtain an additional 29.24 Birr ha -1 (Tables 10). Similarly, comparable MRR was reported by Wassie & Shiferaw (2011) from the benefit of different rate of K fertilization on potato production. The trend of net benefits curve of potato sell against total cost showed that the net benefits turn down at application of FYM alone while increasing the cost (Figure 3).  All the studied soil amendment techniques could be acceptable for potato producer farmers in the study area, except FYM alone. This is because marginal rate of return below 100% is low and unacceptable to farmers (CIMMYT, 1988). that the nutrients were depleted from the soil reserve, and the importance of N and K management.Number of plants hill -1 , tubers number hill -1 and fresh tuber weight hill -1 had higher positive indirect effects on fresh marketable tuber yield of potato over their direct effect All the predictor variables of total NPK uptake exhibited higher positive indirect effects on dry total tubers yield against their direct effect.Applications of sole blended fertilizer, combined half FYM and RNP fertilizer, and combined half FYM and blended fertilizer resulted in higher net benefits with the acceptable marginal rate of return (above 100%). In general, it can be concluded that from the range of tested amendments, the applied recommended dose of NP and blended fertilizers alone and their combination with FYM provided an economic yield response over control. Therefore, smallholder potato producers can benefit, if they apply either of these soil amendment techniques depending on their accessibility. The study indicated that the highest benefit could be obtained from combined application of FYM and blended fertilizers. In the mixed crop-livestock farming system of the Sidama highlands, where livestock is an important component of their livelihood, cattle manure is abundantly available. Hence, they should be encouraged to widely utilize FYM to amend the inherently poor and very acidic soils where P availability is a severe challenge. Further researches need to be undertaken to replicate the study in a wider spatial and temporal aspects.    ","tokenCount":"10623"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b4afb9ffbc68a7f032becc503731aef","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7a0e3359-eca3-4cd3-bf2a-376367bb4ba7/retrieve","id":"1743066235"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f6dce95c-ed38-4586-9c1c-3325bc3d8300","pagecount":"21","content":"CIMMYT, the lead for work package one under the Ukama Ustawi: Diversification in East and Southern Africa (UU), successfully convened a highly engaging, 2-day planning and evaluation meeting at Radisson Blue in Lusaka, Zambia from 21 st to 22 nd September 2023. This reflective meeting strived to comprehensively review and analyze the outcomes of the previous farming season, acknowledge achievements, and strategically outline a roadmap for the forthcoming agricultural season. With participants drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture (Zambia), CGIAR centers including IWMI and ILRI and other project partners from various countries. The object of the meet was to examine the results, reflect on the path trudged on, document key insights and pave the way for the upcoming season. During the introductory session, particparticipants were encouraged to share about their hobbies, and this livened up the atmosphere and fostered more open and engaging interactions among colleagues.During the review and planning meeting for Ukama Ustawi, the representative from the Ministry of Agriculture (Zambia) Mr Sylvester Nyendwa the provincial agriculture coordinator (PACO) for Northern Zambia shared with participants on the significance of the initiative whose focus has been on research, livestock, mechanization, and nutrition. These areas have garnered considerable attention and efforts. He reflected on some notable achievements and identified shortcomings, articulating these observations to facilitate constructive discussions aimed at realigning activities for the upcoming seasons with the set objectives. He further encouraged participants to embrace a refocused approach, actively contributing to the discussions and sharing their valuable knowledge. He emphasized the need for a fresh and critical thinking spirit, considering a bundled approach that encompasses all aspects.Setting the scene, Christian delved into the purpose of the meeting as it was on the foundation of reflecting on progress made on the work being implemented across the countries falling under work package 1. He shared on how Ukama Ustawi has multiple work packages, from diversification, digital advisory and services, agribusiness accelerators, policies and enabling environment, gender and social inclusion and scaling. In addition, he highlighted that as we diversify farming systems, it should not be looked at in isolation. As most farmers tend to grow and consume maize across ESA, growing conventionally, it is important to break these challenges by providing new options and integrating within farming systems, which have a broader scope in farming opportunities. He further advised presenters to openly discuss, unpacking challenges and issues in implementation as the project progresses to the next phase, whilst broadening the work to other countries and within. In addition, he advised participants to think like a team (soccer), coming together to achieve a common goal, which is to improve farmers' livelihoods which can be done by addressing issues related to agriculture.Esau provided an extensive overview of the socio-economic activities in the four countries, from unpacking planned activities, progress made and future plans. With regard to planned activities, the socio-economic team will strive to undertake socio-economic assessments of CSA, mechanization and spatial targeting of CA, among others. On the progress made, results show that the adoption of CSA improves household incomes more so for improved varieties. In terms of the next steps, the team will undertake an analysis of economic returns to CA and mechanization, finalize a meta-analysis on the impacts of CSA, analysis on the business models for mechanization and production of CA adoption atlases among others.Question: I am curious to find out if you have integrated gender and youth, with regards to adoption of CA practices, policy changes among some variables?Response: During our interviews, we looked at policy, youth, and gender aspects. Tinashe highlighted how they essentially moved from theory to implementation with his presentation hinging on unpacking the process of suitability mapping, feasibility studies conducted, solar based irrigation pilots and scaling. He highlighted that suitability mapping forms part one of a two-phased project on irrigation suitability mapping in districts of selected countries. Classification was achieved using the following physical factors: slope, rainfall, land use, closeness to waterbodies and soil characteristics during conducting part 1 of two stages of feasibility studies in two districts in Zimbabwe. He further mentioned how they conducted feasibility studies, matching technology to the end user (through disaggregated gender), and deployed surveys in the UU target countries that assess to develop fit-for-purpose and regionally differentiated water management solutions for intensifying maize-based systems. He further unpacked on key factors like water sources, types of technology, clusters targeting which matters on who uses the technology and how beneficial, how do we mechanize to release, influence the adoption of CSA, possible entry points, and scale up opportunities. He said that the next phase poses questions on what will inform the methodological approach, the need for accelerating, how we identify niches and what works in the different sites. Further highlighted about solar based Irrigation pilots working with Zone (from cocreating and CB in generating such maps, design irrigation, cost of materials, identifying water holes, aquifer identification, and baked by action. As proposed activities, Tinashe shared with participants potential avenues including establishing farmer support groups, scale pilots moving further to drier areas, and exploring feasibility in that, while investigating alternatives Question: On mapping of the boreholes, is that the maximum?Response: It is a detailed process including ground trip suitability, ground truthing, identifying data. Part of the process is to identify water points, aquifer identification and characterize its capacity so that when farmers adopt, will the water be enough during the peak backed by evidence from geophysicists.Question: With regards to powering with solar system, we have seen them more popular in the region, but do we have the necessary support system which is needed after 2/3 months it breaks down?Response: The national Agriculture policy in Zimbabwe recognizes solar powering with a pillar on renewable energy, but the space remains polarized as it doesn't offer an enabling environment by not charging duty. Pillar recognizes the need for training of local capacity. Next phases need to pull in relevant stakeholders, as government has done its job and lowered the prices of locally manufactured components.Question: With regards to connectivity of other components, what are the crop systems that are being borrowed from SIP to show the connectivity between solar versus the cropping systems. What is happening in agronomy and cropping so that you can see the value?Response: On intensification, within some of the trials are demo farmers, so we seek to do in continuation of production, putting irrigation component so that production doesn't stopQuestion: follow up question on space of the 3 farmers that are supported, what is the approximate area, it's only for a garden 10 by 10mResponse: Land area is 1ha and the borehole will support 10ha. The funding component is not large, but we want to scale Question: How do you envision to find the acceleration to help bring to scaleIn 2 days, we wrote to NORAD for additional funding as in our financial outlook, we anticipate doing a scoping study on alternatives as it is important to note that solar is not a silver bullet. In some parts of Malawi, they receive good rains and it is a good opportunity to invest more in rainwater harvest. We envision that with more locally sources, we can scale out in the arid areas of Zimbabwe.Question: IWMI has conducted several studies on El Nino, but curious about how it linked up as this will affect the water supply?Response: Adaptive scaling and working closely with IWMI on innovative packaging so the accelerating component talk about creating enabling environment. We need to create and capitalize to publicize the new policy that is supporting the initiative. Our job is to come through and provide irrigation scheduling and teach farmers on not only installation of hardware but on the software component.Mechanization & Irrigation Workplan_UUSet the scene unpacking on the agronomic activities across the different countries, with most work on CA, with a broad spectrum of partners with the biggest client being farmers who are testing and trying the tech to see how beneficial. Most countries are maize based systems with several variations across countries with existing cropping systems and different scales From Southern Africa, testing and validation of CSA practices like diversification in mother trials and scaling the technologies in baby trials is underway. In addition, testing of CSA technologies is being done in innovation trials of new learnings. Same applies in Eastern Africa with the mother and baby trials. Highlighted how Ethiopia is the next country to be included. Key learnings to take forward include one example from Kenya (2023) which had a prevailing drought season. This brought to the fore many questions for attention ranging from what was learned from this season, how are we changing crops and integrating, and which new partnerships we are bringing on board and presenting actual data and overall integration. Left the discussion to continue with country presentations feeding into key learnings at country level.From the warm heart of Africa, feedback and success stories are shared, originating from the implementation areas of Central and Southern Malawi. The Southern part faced severe impacts from Tropical Cyclone Freddy, significantly affecting yields, especially in groundnuts. Noteworthy yield differences were observed groundnuts. In the integrated innovation trials, the sole maize and maize/groundnut combinations showed no significant distinctions, in terms of crop yield.Challenges faced in implementation included theft of harvest towards the end of the farming season (highlighting the need for continuous sensitization of farming communities), excessive rainfall, poor field management, and staff transfers. Feedback from farmers ranged from appreciating the benefits of the four-row strip cropping system in limited land situations. Success stories are emerging, with some noting improved food security, particularly among mother trial host farmers, with better land coverage than baby trial host farmers.In conclusion, the technologies being advanced have proven their worth, and the next step is to scale them up.Response: CA is being taken up in Mwansambo and gone further. In our case we are emphasizing on the importance of implementing CA principles and we have gone further to use groundnut shell.Question: One of the challenges -storage-how have you treated this with regards to data?We are clever and know data is important as soon we put most of our efforts and doing that curbed that problem Farmer feedback harvested highlighted widespread community appreciation for the project and the CA trials. Additionally, intercropping emerged as the most favored practice among farmers due to its reduced labor intensity and diversified income streams, leading to increased maize yields in the east. However, cowpea did not perform well due to the selected variety. Furthermore, farmers expressed interest in cultivating fodder for livestock. The innovation trials, notably in the Southern region, stood out.Strong female participation was noted to promote gender balance. Celebrated success stories included Gabriel Mwale from Sinda district, who, after cultivating 5 hectares of land using CA, harvested 475 bags of maize and 11 bags of soybeans. He used his profits to purchase a vehicle and build a house.In conclusion, the first year of the project successfully addressed challenges, helping farmers increase yields, enhance soil fertility, and improve household nutrition.Question: On the success stories on the gender and youth side, we only saw men. Where are the women?Response: Due to time, not able to add all success stories drawn from women. We do have a lady from Sinda, who has a 6ha field and harvested 430 bags of maize. She built a house and sent her daughter to school. She hopes to get more.Question: Some of the yields from the baby trials in Mazabuka are high, clarify.Response: These baby trials are small which is 200 square meters and farmers tend to manage the plots in a meticulous way hence the yield was on the high, and we were impressed by the maize cobs and yield Comment: Saw the table on trainings, and numbers where similar, need actual numbers of farmers trained as we can't expect all of them to participate in all trainings. Project Implemention is taking place across six sites in three provinces (Masvingo, Mashonaland East, and Central), focusing on crop-livestock integration and diversification trials. The mother trials feature six treatments, assessing the productivity of various maizelegume rotations and intercrop combinations within an integrated mixed crop-livestock system. Meanwhile, the innovation trials consist of eight treatments.In conclusion, Conventional Practice (CP) and Conservation Agriculture (CA) sole maize, as well as rotational maize, were not affected by the system or treatment. However, intercrop maize yields was affected in the mother trials. Conversely, in the innovation trials, maize grain yield remained unaffected by the system.A success story emerged from Mutoko, where the host farmer exhibited strong interest in Brachiaria. They not only harvested, processed, and baked it but also stored it for feeding livestock during the off-season, managing to harvest the seed as well. The challenges faced included late delivery of inputs, inadequate labor, and a lack of draught power.Zimbabwe ReportWith the country lead as Alliance of Bioversity International (CIAT), implementation sites are mapped out in 5 counties, namely Nakuru, Makueni, Embu, Kakamega and Narok. The site represents major diverse maize systems, mechanization types and agroecologies.Organized sensitization meetings with stakeholders on the UU activities, mapped scaling partners, co-developed protocols to guide implementation and established mother and baby trials. One success story highlighted was of Agnes Ndia, a host farmer in Kiamugaa village, who has farmed for some years but reaping low yields. Her encounter with UU has changed her farming life for the better; improving her yields tremendously, minimizing labour cost, allowing her to get enough food and income to support her livelihood.Challenges were shared ranging from erratic rainfall patterns to high cost of inputs, limited access to CA mechanization options and delays in procurement of inputs. Mapping a way forward, recommended the need for adjustments on the spacing for strip cropping.Comment: With regards to the success stories for Agnes Ndia, key to quantifying yield increases, from where she was before and where she is now, beyond qualitative.Question: Data seemed to suggest the strip cropping trials reduce yields, and farmers preferred strip cropping.Response: On the beginning, reducing tillage struggled and tends to recover but conventional approach has many disadvantages. Delving on the work done from the previous season, Peter shared with participants the work in six provinces with 18 service providers (people who get mechanization equipment at certain agreed terms, and then give services to their community at a cost). First and foremost, we want to test and adapt as well as validate this small machinery that we want to introduce to the communities. So, the more appropriate they are, the more useful they become to the farmers. Further, it is also important to test if the service provider model works well, hence doing the mechanization research. Questions are centered on how to scale and promote it. From the equipment, SPs have whatever works for them, what is of demand among other reasons. Demonstrated the available machinery, ranging from a 2wheel tractor, sheller, and multiple crop thresher, among others. From results at the East, it was noted that one can reduce the amount of labor needed by 51% when you mechanize without diversifying, but by 49% when you mechanize and diversify, as compared to conventional systems. In addition, when you mechanize, tend to get more yields, which shows the power of diversification as well. Mechanization specialists have a big task to consistently modify equipment to meet the growing demands. For example, some farmers complain that the direct seeder is not dropping seeds, hence specialists have to go back on the drawing board and redesign to suit the conditions.Question: For the starter pack equipment, how were these selected, and was it based on a farmer needs assessment to identify the key equipment in demand?Answer: It was in response to what farmers really need on the ground.Question: Whether it's the attachments, whether it's these units that are waiting to be repaired or the tractor. In most cases I don't think the tractor is the problem, it's more of the ancillary equipment, shellers that have the metal sheets that are too thin, so modifications have to be done, Answer: Yes, I can confirm that. The shellers and the pressures, the strength of the moldwise and whatever, it's too thin and too thick. Yes. Sometimes when the wheels are breaking, it creates positions with the tractor heads. Yes!The idea of this all is not to continue importing machinery all the time. The idea is to get production and reasonable quality established and that's why at CIMMYT, we have tried to make available information on how these machines work, how efficient they are, and what is the business case actually for mechanization. We have also started to do what we call second generation engineering, based on the farmer's feedback. Initially, for example, we brought in the tractor-drawn direct seeders. And we felt after one or two years that maybe that step from an animal traction implement to a two-row direct seeder is a step too large for some of the farmers or service providers. That's why we are focusing much more on the two-row ripping system right now.Question: From the activities and the profits, there was one service provider in Mazabuka who was showing very low activity. Can you explain?Answer: The tractor is not actually working. For that particular tractor, we ordered the parts and will be fixed.Comment: You mentioned that weeding seems to be a very labor demanding task, for those crops shown. Reflecting from the beginning of the project, we tried to bring in this hand mechanized weeder, or the hand tool. So far, we only got positive comments from one team, on the quality, that the farmers liked it. It's important that we find solutions and develop tools that work towards addressing the weeding challenge, which is raised by farmers. Tractor-powered systems are only tools, but I think we need solutions there.Question: From your presentation, the thresher reduces drudgery. Answer: I would link to the socio-economic research to help capture that, identifying how they use the extra time saved for example have more time to go to the market, or for childcare then it has value to the householdDelved into the more general understanding of cropping systems and to eventually to come up with recommendations.In the first phase of SIFAZ, we managed to publish seven papers and are currently working on more papers. The focus on the presentation was on \"Two crops are better than one\" published paper. Focusing specifically on strip cropping or mixed cropping systems, this paper advocates for the profitability of strip cropping or intercropping. The primary emphasis is on how strip cropping and intercropping can enhance nutritional and economic value within Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems for specific crops. Sustainable intensification is identified as a means to improve farmers' livelihoods.Analyzing data from the past three cropping seasons across all these systems, the standout observation is that the rotational system leads to a slightly higher yield. Further analysis reveals that, from both a benefit and nutritional perspective, the best-performing systems are all the intercropping systems or the soil cropping systems. Additionally, the paper highlights that some farmers are more constrained by labor than land, prompting a preference for practices that reduce labor.Comment: I was wondering if you or anyone else in the room is worried with the pH decline. One case that comes into mind was about the long-term experiment which was using ammonia and nitrate on sand and soils, eventually leading to the acidification of the crops which started to fade every year. One professor, with our team last year commented a lot about the acidification of the cropping systems and the need for liming and so on. I think he has a valid comment there and we really have to be careful.Question: What do you do when assessing the rotation versus the calibration?Answer: We assess both phases of the rotationStudy investigates productivity and environmental performance across different agroecologies of Zambia. The major objective of the study is to determine the effect of sustainable intensification methods on the smallholder farming systems to improve the system's productivity and environmental performance with regards to varying agroecology. This PhD study has four objectives, but in this context, discusses the fourth objective which is to determine the comparative performance of sustainable intensification methods across different agroecologies, looking at \"Do rotations and intercrops matter?\" supported by several experts on sustainable intensification.With two sites per country, in Zambia (Chipangali and Sinda) and Zimbabwe (Murewa and Shamva), ILRI has been working with 5 lead farmers in Zambia and 14 lead farmers in Zimbabwe. Key livestock innovations that were profiles for scaling readiness included legume (Mucuna pruriens), diversifying and intensifying maize-based systems with new fodder varieties. In addition, ILRI is working with CIMMYT using CA techniques even in the fodder system. With regards to activity 3, ILRI has developed an inventory of Forage Seed suppliers for both Zambia and Zimbabwe. Challenges faced in implementation ranged from the theileriosis outbreak in Zimbabwe that decimated the national cattle herd with high mortalities in Murewa and Madziwa. The absence of a vibrant commercial livestock market, elections in Zimbabwe and unidentified aggressive root-rot diseases on Mucuna in Chipangali were some of the challenges faced along the way. They have been testing diets over a decade and at the state to release commercially, within the communities. Currently working on identifying what farmer groups are interested in producing using local resources to make it cheap.Response: There is a benefit with regard to manure. The quality you take in is the quality you get out. Hence, quality will improve and the environmental footprint, that is less emissions on the other end.Question: With regards to fodder drops, and competition with livestock, how are you handling this matter Response: We chose mucuna which is good at fixing nitrogen in the soil, 50-70 nitrogen you can get free of charge but the Mucuna grain is 26% crude protein which diminish. The energy content in mucuna is the same as maize so it is suitable, playing a dual role on our diets. Formulated diets utilizing the wild fruits, like monkey bread.Response: We are trying to, but we have handicaps in terms of upskilling and staff. Taking the case of Zambia where the ILRI team needed to work in both East and Southern region, (with no support to link in the South), hence ended up measuring everything.Question: With the focus on ruminants, the food conversion for monogastric is higher than ruminants. Is there room to diversify with chickens, pigs which is another income stream?Question: For the gross margins have clarity for people to conceptualize feeding. What are the gains from doing that and what does it mean to the farmers?Response: In previous research, we did that, noting liveweight gain, getting from 0.6 to 1kg per day in terms of weight gain and animals could fatten for 60 and 90 days to raise incomes. In Murewa district, it has been taken up in a big way and people building houses and it's a year-round activity in wet and dry business. In terms of cost, we have reduced cost by 42 cents per 50kg.Workplan LivestockCurrently deployed in 6 countries, that is 4 UU countries (Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Zimbabwe) and 2 PABRA countries (Uganda and Burundi). With regards to dissemination of nutritional focused materials, fliers and brochures were distributed in Malawi during trainings, in Zimbabwe and Kenya. With regards to influencing country policies to support inclusion of nutrient dense foods, policy briefs were produced in Malawi and Zambia, while in Zimbabwe, the team participated in developing a policy \"'National pathways for Food Systems Transformation in Support of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda. In pursuit of national vision 2030.\" Nutrition activities will encompass extending nutrition innovation beyond beans, catalyzing partner investments, scaling and delivering impact at scale. The team has faced challenges along the way, including a lack of harmony in a set of proposed technologies, confusion of biofortified crops with GMOs, seasonality, bureaucracies and climate change among others.From the outcomes, we need to tell the story really well, identifying how to tie this together. However, we need more and more of this.Comment: Communication of the results to the farmers is not always obvious, let's reflect on how to bring this back to the community as the community-based approach is at the heart of Ukama Ustawi. It is important to have feedback and share back key benefits we can see and how they materialize. Indeed, 2 crops are better than 1 in terms of economics. With climate change we talk of having different crops the field, hence important to package such information into our work and embrace change component.Nutrition Challenges and Solutions Nutrition WORKPLANShared with participants on the HER+ initiative, which will enable a range of diverse partners and stakeholders to transform, empower, protect and voice. She further highlighted how several technical innovations to address climate change in agriculture, land and water systems exist, but the uptake by women is low and the evidence on whether they empower women is inconclusive.Highlighted that the New Zealand government is visiting some of the projects they fund including Ukama Ustawi, to have an in-depth appreciation of the work on the ground, and showcase impact while interacting with the different work packages which leads have contributed. Further, she showed how they are trying to get everyone together and create a knowledge exchange, hence the anticipated Shair Fair event scheduled in Masvingo, Zimbabwe (dates to be confirmed). Sessions will be around challenges and sharing of success stories from farmers, as this a showcase opportunity to explore on-site work being done. In addition, Nora stated that IWMI are establishing a risk and governance committee from across the region that can strategically position the initiative by pointing out opportunities while making sure they don't miss out on valuable events. Nominations are currently being collected. In closing, she informed the meeting that there has been an introduction of an intern grant to support partners, which is not open to CG centres. The idea behind this is that local governments could use the extra competence in the form of interns who can support either from research focus to communication among others.Christian emphasized to participants that at the end of the initiative, the key outcome is \"Farmers, value chain actors and consumers in maize mixed systems are using climate smart intensification diversification practices with improved water and land management.\", with a target of 100,000 farmers that must use the technologies across 5 countries.\" An ecological aspect has been embedded in the initiative, to promote 50% of practices to be biodiversity friendly. He further added the three outcomes to be achieved. One deals with partners promoting the uptake of climate-smart agriculture, sustainable intensification practices, and related mechanization. With this, tools will developed and support the uptake. What has been done all along and will conclude includes viability studies, feasibility studies, and socio-economic studies are in this output. The next outcome is about smallholder farmers implementing climate-smart agriculture and animal husbandry practices. Under this, we have the main thrust of this work package, the work on agronomy, on livestock interaction, and mechanization technologies. Hence all the work being done for mother and baby trials will be under this outcome. Finally, 1.3 is about consumers and consumers that should improve their diets through increasing consumption of more diversified and nutrient-dense crops. Here, they are hopeful that this collaboration with PABRA will continue to help increase the nutrient benefits through the consumption of nutrient-dense crops and the communication to those two target communities. In a nutshell, these are the new results framework. By 2025, at the latest, they have to show that they have reached at least these numbers of farmers who practice those technologies. Surveys with the teams will be done to determine whether or not these numbers will be achieved, while also tracking adoption. Further, the socio-economic team wanted to look deeper into assessing technology infusion in mother and baby trials for example, which is an area where they will increase the work. The agronomy team wanted to increase the experimentation in the different areas. Further interests have been made for an expansion of mechanization activities and service providers models in Malawi and Kenya, so there will be a push for service provision in these countries.Boaz used the opportunity to share some thoughts from the Ethiopian team, in mind of the new focus. He stated that there is interest to intensifying the work on forages for livestock interactions and deepening the diversification work including mechanization in Ethiopia. He added that the team put together a set of activities, while indicating what they had already started to do and plans moving forward into 2024. In terms of location, he added that there are sites that are being relocated. Two sites have been selected for the work, including Arsi Negele and Toke Kutaye districts. Arsi Negele is characterized with extreme climate conditions, drought, water scarcity and heat stress. Investment being considered is diversification, CSA and resource use efficiency. On the other hand, Toke Kutaye is midland with diverse cropping systems. With high population pressure, erratic rainfall, declining water resources, temperature extremes, soil erosion and land degradation. These challenges are also interventions to do in the landscape. In addition, management will be considered and will integrate the mother-baby trial approach and learn from the experience. A number of activities have been proposed including trials with some of the technologies, same way with codesign and implementation. Planned activities include inventory of climate and sustainable diversification practices (which is planned by end of the year) and surveys of solar and water conservation practices. Additional activities will be around seed and forage seed systems. A market study is also planned before end or the year and scale irrigation by IWMI. Priorities before the end of 2023 will be more on piloting proven technologies will be done, exploring, and designing development of climate smart, mechanization technologies, collaboration with local innovators on mechanization solutions and deepening the seed and forage seed systems, piloting response and irrigation solutions.Question: I wanted to know if this learning will be done across the landscape where you are doing, or maybe it is inclined to be done within Answer: The effort is to try and co-locate the activities, so as the teams are planning, as I mentioned, we just got the node for Ethiopia to be part of, and so it's a very initial stage as the teams are planning. And so, the learning activities, the training activities, we hope that they will be synthesized in a way that they build on each other, center contributing to the other, and see the nodes for collaboration.Ukama Ustawi Presentation_Plans_2023-24 _ ETHIOPIA","tokenCount":"5092"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8d8d9152e198b737adad15c9032275bc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/75297c04-ccdb-40a4-9588-a3f9f6516a73/retrieve","id":"1746739709"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3bfa36dd-b1ab-4d80-93c8-ab4576fe18e5","pagecount":"17","content":"The Cassava Demand Studies and Implicatiens fer the Strategies fer the CIA T Cassava Program Attached to this document is an executive summary of the Cassava Demand Studies in Asia and Latín America Version as approved by the CIAT Board of Trustees at its 26th Meeting on 4•Cassava ia something of an enigma in the international center system. Research on cassava was initially funded heeause of its ohvious importance (third after rice and msize) as a starchy staple in the tropies and hecause of its phenomenonal yield potential, even under significant stresses. However, ignorance about the crop has often unjustifiably resulted in the image of cassava as something of a pariah, heing accused of impoverishing soil, causing cretinism among eassava consumers, and stymieing the economic progress of cassava producers. A crop produced hy poor farmers on poor lands for poor consumera was perceived to he the antithesis to the modernization process being pursued hy developing eountries. As growth in funding for the CGIAR system slowed and resouree allocation between commodities beeome a central issue, eassava was affeeted by this image problem, as douhts were raised--not about the eurrent importanee of the crop, but about eassava's future as countries within the tropics developed. Douhts ahout the amount of research resourees that should be devoted to cassava found their expression (1) in the 1983 decision hy CIAT Board and management to reduce the Cassava Program significantly in a period of very tight budgetary constraintsj (2) in the 1984 External Program Review of CIAT, which recommended that funding for the Cassava Program be frozen (at the 1983 reduced level) until the future demsnd for cassava was better eharacteri;>:ed; and (3) in the TAC' s eurrent \"Review of CGIAR Priorities and Future Strategies,\" which sees future funding on eassava to he held to current levels. These actions must be seen as a vote of no-confidenee. not in the CIAT Cassava Program, hut in the eassava crop itself.The coneerns ahout cassaVa focused on the demsnd for the commodity. Cassava was seen, if not as an inferior good, then as a commodity with very inelastic demsnd and therefore with limited growth prospects as the overall economy developed. Such inelastic demand would result in significantly r~duced payoffs to research lnvestment. Rowever, the problem 18 not unique to cassava. At some point in a eountry's economic development, per eapita consumption of basie food staples wil1 decline. Almost by definition. demand for food staples is inelastic, particularly when they bulk large in the dieto However, this fact has not hindered researeh investment in grain or legume staples, if nothing else beeause of the benefits to be derived by consumers. One could conclude then that CaSSava was being unfairly singled out, especially when appropriate processing makes it possible for eassava to enter alternative markets with signiflcant growth potential.The other dimension of the cassava enigma is that the erop in most respecta contradicts the paradlgm created by the Green Revolutlon wheat and rice' I J -1varieties. A singular focus on development of improved var1eties is not sufficient to achieve impact in cassava. A research strategy for cassava has to focus on the complete commodity system; that ia, production, processing, marketing and demando lt is very apparent that a lack of investment in research on postharvest technology can significantly reduce the payoff on investment in production technology and vice versa. The analysis of demand for cassava in different markets at different atages of economic development is an integral part of the research process, helping to define strategy, priorities snd outreach activities. Understandlng demand is key to understandlng the potential impact of research on socioeconomic goals and, ln turn, in designing technology introduction strategies that wlll maxlmize the achievement of CGlAR objectivea. Unlike the rice and wheat model, a cassava research strategy ia complexo There ls no one-to-one correspondence between release of a new variety and impact on farmer income and food consumption objectives. In cassava research, complexity ls necessary to be effective; it also breeds uncertainty and doubts among those who would support it.The commitment of resources by the celAR to cassava indeed should be defined by the future potential of the crop and the contribution cassava can make to the stated objectives of the CGIAR system. As will be shown, cassava is uniquely placed to make a contribution to some of the more intractable of those objectives, especially by maximizing this multifarious demand for the crop.A world economic study of cassava, focusing on the future potential demand for the crop, is beset from the beginning by the problema of a very weak data base and considerable methodological complexity. The sources of that complexity arise from the following:Cassava is a multiuse commodity, comparable on1y to maize in the range of its uses. The potential demand for cassava is, therefore, an aggregation of the demand in each individual market. These markets in turo are independent of one another, yet must compete among themse1ves for the roots. Even within cassaVa food markets, different cassava products have distinctly different demand characteristics.The postwar period has witnessed a sign1ficant increase in the possibilities for commodity substitution, especially in markets for carbohydrate sources.Cassava often competes with different substitutes in different markets. Moreover, although cassava has remained outside the poliey arena, policy interventions in the markets for competing substitutes have an obvious impact on the demand for CaSsava. These policy interventions vary by eountry. To understand the potential demand for eassava requires an understanding of the complete grain (both food and feed grains)-livestock sector in each country.Under certain conditiona eassava is considered a tradable commodity (and thereby directly influenced by trade aud exchange rate policies); hut under other conditions, cassava is a nontradable (in which case an I 1assumption of autarky would apply in the analysis of demand). Moreover, because cassava moves in s semiprocessed form, there is no one international market for the commodity; rather there ie a starch market, a pellet and chip market, snd a flour market. These markets, in turn, have been hesvily influenced by trade and tariff policies established by importing countries (there is virtually no market intervention by the exporting countries themselves).The research problem--the potential world demand for cassava--therefore had to be significsntly simplified by comparting the problem into independent components. The first, and absolutely necessary, division was an analysis of cassava production and demand country by country aS food consumption patteros, price and trade policies, agroclimatic characteristics, crop production patterns, and overall economic development all vary. As these factors affect cassava demand, the country had to be the unit oí analysis. The second level of analytical subdivision was the market. Individual cassava markets were assumed to be independent, and the potential demand in each market was analyzed separately--market size, growth prospects, and the price at which cassava would compete with principal substitutes. A simultaneous evaluation of cassava supply and demand within a multiplicity of markets in ea eh country Was beyond the scope of the data base and the manpower ava11able. Two questions then followed from the market analysis:(1) Are production costs for cassava below the market entry price? and ( 2) what 1s the potential for bringing the implied root price in the different markets into line; that i8, expanding the production base?The study, in the end. does not give a quantitative projection of the future demand for cassava in the world. Rather the study adopts a positive (rather than normativa) approach, asking whether cassava can compete at current production costs snd under current pr1ces of substitutes and policy regímes in markets with significant growth prospects. For this study a positive answer imp11es a basis for demand growth for cassava. The country-by-country analysis, in turn, offers something of a comparative framework for assessing cassava' s potential at different stages of development. Cassava already playa a role in all the markets considered in at lcast a few countries. Understanding what factore have been responsible for cassava' s use in these markets gives some basis for understanding whether these same cassava markets w111 develop in othar countries.Demand ia a neceseary, but altogether limitad, criterion for evaluating the future of cassaVa in the tropics. Inetead, cassava should be evaluated in a broader context, focueing on the crop as a vehicle tor development. Ironically, cassava has remained outside the putview of agricultural planners and policymakers; yet it has contributed significantly to meeting policy goal a in many developing nations. In other countries this role has been curtailed because policies on grain substitutes have 1ndirectly discriminated against cassava.The role of cassava in the food and agricultural sector changes as the overall economy develops.In the initial stages when most of the population lives in rural areas, cassava has generally served as a basicfood staple. Cassava' s high-yielding ability, adaptation to drought, tolerance to disease and pest attack, and indeterminate harvest period have made it a subsistence crop par excellence, providing a se cure food supply even under quite risky conditions. In many areas processed products were developed in order to eliminate the HCN in the roots, as a means of storage, and as a staple for trade. In traditional, rural, cassavaconsuming areas per capita consumption levels are usually very high.In Asia and Latin America today, it is unusual to find farmers who produce cassava purely for subsistence purposes. As urban markets develop and farmers enter into the market economy, cassava shifts increasingly to a cash crop, first supplying food markets. Because processed cassava is relatively inexpensive, it often becomes the staple of the urban poor, such as farinha de mandioca in Northeast Brazil or gari in many parts of West Africa. However, these processed staples usually face a very inelastic demand in urban areas; and it is the growth of other markets such as starch and animal feed that provides the potential for further increases in demand for the crop. Unlike most other carbohydrate staples, cassava is able to maintain a significant elasticity in demand throughout the growth process by shifting into increasingly expansive, alternative markets.Nevertheless, the transition to a multimarket cassava system has often been inhibited by a number of constraints including grain price policies that discriminate against cassava; capital constraints for investment in processing; insufficient technical information; and inefficient price formation in cassava markets. Knowledge of this unexploited demand, however, opens up cassava's potential as a development tool. Potentially elastic product demand, together with competitive production costs, implies significant income-generation potential for cassava producers.As these are almost always small-scale farmers operating under some principal agroclimatic constraint, cassava is a rare case where the benefits of new technology can be targeted to that stratum which has normally remained outside the development process. The improved equity in rural income distribution will, in many cases, coincide with a positive benefit for consumers of traditional cassava products, usually the lower income strata.Thus market development, tied to improved cassavaproduction technology, can set in motion the type of dynamic growth that has occurred in Northeast Thailand over the past 15 years. Development of cassava markets with elastic demand will depend upon the economy's overall stage of development, as well as on the policy environment for competing substitutes. Two points follow from this. First, the strategy adopted for the development of cassava will vary by continent. No single strategy will apply across tropical Asia, Africa and Latin America. Second, cassava has thus far remained outside the policymaking process, often to its disadvantage. Because of the increasing possibilities for commodity substitution, greater consistency in input, credit and pricing policies is needed across commodities in order to ensure the most efficient utilization of agricultural resources. That cassava production has managed to grow despite these policies is an indication of the existing low production costs for the crop. The Cassava Economy of Asia A multiple cassava market system is already well developed in Asia, w1th cassava uses spann1ng a range from a basic food source through dried pellets for animal feed to high fructose syrup. Cassava is the second most important starchy ataple produced in tropical Asia and is a major cash crop in the upland areas of che region. Cassava has achieved chis prominence because of the responsiveness of investment, mostly in small-scale proeessing capacity, and because of the versatility of cassava as an upland erop (Annex Table 1). Its high-yielding ability makes cassava suitable for the needs of very intensive systems, as reflected in yields reaehing as high as 60 t/ha in Tamil Nadu, India, Moreover, cassava is also well adapted to the more extensive systems on the agricultural frontier of tropical Asia and to the speetrum of upland areas with major rainfall or soil eonstraints.Rice ia the dominant calorie source in the diet of tropical Asia. Like a1l the other grains, eassava is a secondary staple. As a food source, cassava's main role, particularly in Indonesia and India, has been to augment the calorie consumption of the low-income strata, essentially because of its lower calorie costs. Because of its different forms, cassava has the ability, even as a food cornmodity, to segment its market, thereby maximizing overall market demando In Indonesia, for example, the poor consume gaplek, a dried form of cassava. Average iucome elastieities suggest that gaplek is an inferior good; but because of the positive elastieity in the lower income atrata, lower pricea and increased supplies of gaplek would target benefits to the very poor. Fresh cassava, on the other hand, has a positive income elasticity and is a more preferred form of consumption; nevertheless, high marketing margins and lack of convenience have limited eonsumption in urban areas. Finally, a very elastic demand for krupuk, a flavored toasted wafer of cassava starch consumed primarily by the high income strata, has resulted in a positive overall growth in demand for cassava as a food.Cassava market diversification in Asia over the last two deeades has been heavily influenced by the export market. Export prices are set by a preferred (as compared to feed grains) tariff rate tor cassava entering the European Economic Community. As a result there ia no price integration between world markets for feed grains and for cassava pellets. In general Asian countriea have found it more profitable to export eassava and utilize domestic or even imported maize in their animal feed industries. A corollary to this point 1s that while cassava could have competed in world feed grain markets on a cost basis (Annex Table 2), it could not compete on a price basia; nor did it need to, as the EEC absorbed all that eould be produced. Tbe year 1983, however, saw the imposition by the ERC of voluntary export restraints (quotas) on cassava. Tbailand was most affected because the quota was below its export capacity. Nevertheless, through effective poliey measures, cassava production and exports have continued to grow during the quota period, and farm-level prices Were maintained above what eould have been aehieved by linking the Thai casssva market to the world maize market. Moreover, during this period, when prices of maize and cssssva eame into line for periods of time, casssva was utilized in the domestic mixed-feed industry in both Tbailand and Malaysis. Thls point 16 important as it shows that if prices are competitive, cassava -6will be uaed by feed manufacturera in Asia and that cassava pricea, for however short a period of time, do sometimes come in line with world feed grain prices.The world market in most countries in Asia sets a price floor under domes tic markets; all major producing countries, except the Philippines, have at some point been exporters. However, in the 1980's, except for Thaíland, Asian countries have either reduced export levels or moved to net import positions, especially in cassava starch. Starch demand has been rising rapidly in all these countries, to the extent that countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have had to import large amounts. Many countries have expanded demand by moving to modified starch production, and Indonesia has begun to produce high-fructose syrups based on cassava starch. Growth markets exist for cassava in Asia, to the point that production is not keeping up with demando To date, little improved production technology for cassava has reached the farm level.Declining costs of production could accelerate the diversification of markets in Asia (Table 1), especially into the animal feed market. The market structure already in place has the capacity to  -7absorb significant increases in production, without drastic declines in prices. This multiple-market structure allows cassava to attain a range of benefits, including simultaneous improvements in the welfare of the low-income consumer (in India and Indonesia) and in the income of the small-scale farmer in the upland areas. Cassava has already been a major source of income growth for farmers in areas such as Northeast Thailand and Lampung, Indonesia. New cassava technology could bring benefits to farmers bypassed by the Green Revolution, especially those that start from a much poorer resource base than those that benefited from the new rice technology.The Cassava Economy of Latin America Latin American economies have undergone rapid structural change in the postwar period, accompanied by a number of adjustment problems, as reflected in strains on urban services, high inflation rates, malnutrltion among a significant portian of the urban population, a rising external debt, and high rates of unemployment. Many of these problems have been due, directly or indirectly, to the excess rate of rural-urban migration, induced by the very skewed distribution of land resources. The growing number of urban poor has induced an often contradictory agricultural policy, whose two elements have been low urban food prices and income supports to farmers (through intervention in input and output markets). Not surprisingly, policies have often had to resort to subsidies in order to fullfill both objectives.Cassava has remained outside this policy process; yet it has been strongly affected by policies on grain substitutes. Moreover, cassava has also been affected by the shift in the locus of overall food demand from rural to urban areas. Whereas changing food consumption patterns and restructuring of food markets should have provided an opportunity for growth in market demand for cassava. the fact is that cassava production has stagnated. Unlike Asia, cassava has not been able to make the transition to a multiple market system in Latin America; traditional food markets continue to dominate in the overall demand for cassava.Pr1ces of substitutes and the \"urbanization\" of food consumption have been the majar influences on overall demand for cassava in Latin America. Only traditional dried cassava products, such as farinha de mandioca in Brazil, are inferior goods (i.e., the income elasticity i5 negative); and only in Brazil do these products dominate in overall cassava demando Even here, policy has been the dominant influence on declining consumption, as the very heavy subsidies on wheat flour have completely shifted relative prices and consumption levels for the two commodities (Annex Table 3). For fresh cassava, on the other hand, in come elasticities are positive (except in Paraguay), with a very significant elasticity in demand in urban areas. In this case the very high costs of marketing fresh cassava in urban areas have shifted relative prices between rural snd urban areas. Per capita consumption levels are much lower in urban than in rural areas although< market demand ia much more elasticj and with the shift in residence of the population to urban areas, average per cap ita consumption levels haveHowever, as the locus of consumption shifts from rural, subsistence consumption to purchased cassava, actual market demand for cassava has been increasing at a significant rate (Annex Table 4). Recent advances in storage technology for fresh cassava promise to lower marketing costs and improve consumer convenience, thereby increasing market demand even further.Nevertheless, the major potential growth in demand for cassava exists in the market for animal feed components (Table 2). Technical change in rates, reduction in subsidies, and rationalization of prices in response to the 1982 debt crisis, cassava is now competitive on a cost basia with domestically produced feed grains in all major producing countries except Venezuela, where a differential exchange rate policy for feed grain imports still makes cassava uncompetitive (Annex Table 5).Even though economic growth and structural chango in Latin Ameriea have fostered market diversification in many agricultural eommodities, there has been little development of multimarket systems in cassava. This is partly due to polieies on substitutes, as well as to lack of efficient price formation within cassava markets. Developing the market for cassava as an animal feed souree provides a virtually unique opportunity for developing more well-integrated cassava markets and for raising incomes of small-scale farmers in Latin America, especially those in more marginal agroclimatic are as such as northeastern Brazil, the Atlantic Coast of Colombia, or the eoastal plain of Ecuador. Excess capacity exists in these systems becauae of limited cropping alternatives and inelastic demand for those that are growo. Development of a processing capacity for dried cassava puts a prlce floor under existing markets, providing the incentive to expand production.Increased production in turn brings greater priee stability to cassava food markets, thereby benefiting consumers. These initial interventions are organized as integrated cassava development projects, which develop the market ehannels, provide the credit and technical assistance for the processing technology, and extend production technology. Projects are now functioning in Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Mexlco and Brazil. Dried cassava is now being competitively produced for the feed industry in Latin Ameriea, and tbe benefits are being targeted on tbe small-scale producer.Cassava ia the most important food crop in aub-Sabaran Africa, providlng more than 200 calorles per day for over 200 milI ion people. Cassava's central role in the African diet takes on special importance as Africa 18 tbe only region in the world where per cap1ta food production has been declinlng. At lasue in tbe short term ls the role of cassava in revers1ng that trend; and in the longer term, the contribution cassava can make to overall development of tbe agricultural sector in Africa. Yet, analysis snd data .to address these 1ssues are virtually nonexistent.Cassava's future in Afriea rests upon defining the incorne and employment generation potential oí tbe crop. Any role here in turn is l1nked to developing marketable surpluses, on the one hand, and identifying and developing markets, on the other hand. These issues in turn lead to questions about the type of product (there are a wide range of cassava food products in Africa), the demand parameters for the different products, the interventions needed in processing technology and marketing channeIa, and the effect of pricing policies on substitutes. Cassava has a potential role as a farm income aource in current production areas, if marketing channels to growing urban areas can be opened, and as a stabilizing component in farming systems in marginal, food-deficit areas. In order to develop strategies to foster these roles, it is necessary to answer the foregoing questions. To bagin to plan for development of cassava in Afriea, a joint IITA-CIAT study has been developed to characterize cassava  ","tokenCount":"3809"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5d55048868915b7ca560aa2ffb03ea0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/42c5c78e-cd08-45a5-aea6-26037b28392a/retrieve","id":"-789163186"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8192b33b-61dd-4778-b326-b08d2660d9c3","pagecount":"6","content":"The ACToday Columbia World Project adopted climate information tools and innovations in its efforts to help target countries advance SDG-2: ending hunger, through improved climate services and risk management. The online climate information \"Maproom\" tools, based on high-quality gridded meteorological data, were developed earlier by CCAFS and IRI to meet agricultural decision-making needs. As a result, localized climate information and analyses are now available to the 30 million agricultural work force of Bangladesh, Colombia and Guatemala.The five-year ACToday initiative, funded by Columbia University and led by IRI, develops climate service solutions to help Bangladesh, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Senegal and Vietnam meet SDG2 of ending hunger. ACToday's work with National Meteorological Services (NMS) adapted Agriculture and Food Security Maproom tools that CCAFS (through IRI) developed previously. As a result, localized climate analyses are now available to the 30M farmers and agricultural workers in Bangladesh, Colombia and Guatemala; Ethiopia's Agriculture and Food Security Maprooms, developed previously with CCAFS, were enhanced (35M agricultural work force; and the four NMS were equipped to improve their services for agriculture.In Colombia and Guatemala, ACToday worked to embed improved climate information into advisories that Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (LTACs) provide farmers, and expanded LTACs to new indigenous rural populations in Guatemala. Collaboration with ACToday led World Food Program to mobilize funds to train extension workers in Guatemala to use Maproom tools. In Ethiopia and Bangladesh, government and institutional decision-makers were trained to use the Maproom tools to manage agricultural and (in Bangladesh) aquaculture risks. IRI's ENACTS initiative supported African NMS to fill data gaps by merging quality-controlled, 10-daily station records with estimates from satellites and climate model reanalysis; and to make a basic suite of derived products available through online \"Maprooms.\" CCAFS engaged IRI to extend usefulness of the ENACTS Maprooms for local agricultural decision-makers by: extending Climate Data Tools (CDT) quality control and merging methods to work on a daily time step, adding a range of new analyses tailored to agricultural needs, and improving seasonal forecast presentation. The Agriculture and Food Security Maprooms added: rain day frequency, mean rainfall intensity, wet and dry spell frequency, growing season onset and cessation dates; and where daily temperature is prioritized, growing degree-days and chill units. CCAFS supported the design and implementation of IRI's Flexible Forecast Maproom, through ground-testing, training, and advocacy. CCAFS (through CIAT) pioneered the LTAC approach. Flagship 4 efforts to foster ACToday-CCAFS collaboration with Regional Programs and project leaders included a 2018 Portfolio Design Workshop that integrated joint activities across the 2019-2021 Flagship portfolio. ACToday draws upon the strong IRI collaboration with CCAFS since 2010.• https://tinyurl.com/uv6dpyk ","tokenCount":"429"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4ab88972013457db5c5ee99edae993a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/98cd04ba-74d3-4b1f-9da6-cdb8947e446d/retrieve","id":"455498807"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"71f8c35c-4970-4848-88dd-ed0e76a82cdb","pagecount":"44","content":"El presente documento recopila los Boletines Técnicos Agroclimáticos que fueron generados en ejercicios participativos en las reuniones de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA) de Honduras, llevadas a cabo en 2020. Las MTA son realizadas es realizada gracias al esfuerzo conjunto de un gran número de instituciones locales, nacionales e internacionales, enfocados en garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y la agricultura sostenible. Permiten generar espacios de discusión entre actores para la gestión de información agroclimática local, con el fin de identificar las mejores prácticas de adaptación a los fenómenos de variabilidad climática. Para más información consulte el manual de MTA disponible en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99717.• Realizar cero labranza, para evitar la erosión del suelo.• Realizar labores constantes en el cultivo, como el deshierbe.• Realizar la preparación del suelo e incorporar materia y abonos orgánicos.• Realizar control de maleza y limpieza artesanal.• Monitoreo preventivo y continuo de plagas y enfermedades, preferiblemente con productos naturales.• Para el control de plagas y enfermedades utilizar productos agroecológicos y bio fermentados.• Hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Preparar el suelo, incorporando materia orgánica y rastrojos limpios que servirán para retención de agua, para mantener humedad y evitar erosión. • Conservación de fuentes de agua a través de la reforestación de la zona de recarga hídrica.• Manejo post cosecha del grano, almacenamiento.En vista que nos encontramos en esta emergencia sanitaria y a la limitada movilidad en los diferentes municipios del país se recomiendan las siguientes practicas de prevención, manejo de plagas, enfermedades y fertilización de los diferentes cultivos:• Monitoreo constante para el control preventivo de plagas, enfermedades y malezas.• Aplicaciones de productos y abonos orgánicos como: Bocachy, humus, microorganismos de montaña y abonos verdes para fertilizar y mantener saludable el cultivo. • Aplicaciones de remedios elaborados en la finca como sulfocalcio y caldos minerales.• Utilizar productos agroecológicos para eliminar plagas que ataquen el cultivo.• Utilizar una apropiada densidad de siembra según la variedad para evitar competencia entre plantas.• Realizar control preventivo de Mancha de asfalto con productos a base de cobre o Benomilo.• Monitoreo y control de gusano cogollero y control oportuno de malezas.• Realizar la fertilización con productos orgánicos y de ser necesario el uso de productos químicos que sean de baja toxicidad.• La cosecha se debe realizar con la humedad adecuada del grano (14%), al almacenar en silos o trojas, es necesario curarlo y mantenerlo en un lugar libre de humedad.• Eliminar malezas de 15 a 20 días antes de la siembra para evitar hospederos de plagas.. • Realizar siembras cuando el suelo presente 20 cm de humedad.• Utilizar semillas criollas adaptadas al territorio, también variedades mejoradas como Dehoro y Amadeus 77 que se adaptan a zona baja y zona alta del departamento.• Monitoreo y control de plagas y enfermedades: Mancha angular, Mosaico dorado, Roya.• Realizar adecuado control de malezas antes y durante todo el ciclo del cultivo.• En Laderas hacer barreras vivas o barreras muertas y sembrar con curvas a nivel.• Realizar la siembra con un distanciamiento de 40 cm entre surco y depositando 8 semillas por metro lineal bajo labranza mínima.• Realizar su fertilización utilizando productos orgánicos como ser Bocachi, humus, entre otros.• Hacer un manejo adecuado Post cosecha del grano, Cosechar en canícula. No secar el grano en la parcela.• Al almacenar el grano cosechado se recomienda hacerlo en Graneros o silos limpios, libres de plagas.• Monitoreo y control de enfermedades fungosas: ojo de gallo, roya, mancha de hierro.• Monitoreo de la plaga grillo indiano.• Manejo preventive con fungicidas a base de cobre.• Manejo adecuado de sombra y ventilación del cultivo para evitar enfermedades.• Rotación de productos químicos y fertilización adecuada del cultivo. Hortalizas • Seleccionar las variedades según ventanas de mercado y que se adapten a las condiciones locales, ejemplo: Cebolla: Bella Dura (Buena aceptación mercado local), Sweet Caroline (Exportación) y las Cebollas Rojas (Matahari, Rasta, Red Pasion y X-P Red).• Al establecimiento del cultivo, hacer una buena preparación del terreno, haciendo subsolado para evitar el encharcamiento.• Emplear sistemas de agricultura protegidas como casa malla, macro-túnel, mega-túnel y estructuras temporales como casa china y micro-túnel (Agribon).• Evitar las quemas de rastrojos de los cultivos cosechados anteriormente, para evitar incendios forestales.• Preparación de suelo 15 días antes de la siembra.• Establecer la limpieza del entorno cultivo para evitar hospederos de plagas/enfermedades.• No sembrar en suelo seco, esperar que se establezca el invierno para una adecuada humedad del suelo.• Realizar buena preparación de suelos, según método de labranza: (Cero labranzas, labranza mínima o mecanizada).• Realizar labores constantes en el cultivo, como el deshierbe manual, control de maleza y limpieza artesanal.• Utilización de obras de conservación (Curvas a nivel, siembra al contorno, barreras muertas y vivas, etc.)• Realizar la preparación del suelo e incorporar materia, abonos orgánicos y/o verdes • Monitoreo preventivo y continuo de plagas y enfermedades, preferiblemente con productos naturales.• Para el control de plagas y enfermedades utilizar productos agroecológicos y bio fermentados.• Hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Manejo post cosecha del grano, almacenamiento.En vista que nos encontramos en esta emergencia sanitaria y a la limitada movilidad en los diferentes municipios del país se recomiendan las siguientes practicas de prevención, manejo de plagas, enfermedades y fertilización de los diferentes cultivos:• Monitoreo constante para el control preventivo de plagas, enfermedades y malezas.• Aplicaciones de productos y abonos orgánicos como: Bocachi, humus, microorganismos de montaña y abonos verdes para fertilizar y mantener saludable el cultivo. • Aplicaciones de remedios elaborados en la finca como sulfocalcio y caldos minerales.• Utilizar productos agroecológicos para eliminar plagas que ataquen el cultivo. Ganadería / Pastos Con su ganado se recomienda realizar las siguientes prácticas:• Sembrar pastos mejorados adaptados a la región, hacer bancos forrajeros, se puede utilizar el rastrojo de la caña, sales y suplementos alimenticos de alto valor nutricional. • Usar variedades de pasto como : Cuba 22, Brisantha, King Grass, pasto Camerún y Alicia.• Realizar Ensilaje, bloques nutricionales y heno, asegurar alimentación del Ganado.• Suministrar sales minerales, para asegurar salud del ganado.• Vacunación ,desparasitación y vitaminado del Ganado.• Establecer bancos forrajeros, mediante la siembra de árboles como leguminosas. • Sembrar cuando el suelo presente humedad en los primeros 20 cm de profundidad.• Realizar un adecuado manejo integrado del cultivo durante todo su ciclo de producción, controlando plagas como áfidos, babosas y enfermedades como la mancha angular y roya.• Preferiblemente sembrar en hilera a una distancia de 10 cm entre postura y 50 cm entre surco.• Realizar una buena fertilización ya sea con productos químicos u orgánicos, de ser posible puede hacer aplicación de rhizobium para la fijación de nitrógeno.• Cosechar cuando la parte inferior de la vaina este seca, No secar el grano en la parcela.• Utilizar variedades DICTA Ladera, DICTA Sequía, Capulín R13, QPM, variedades locales y maicito criollo, maíz amarillo (var. Victoria) de doble propósito para alimento y forraje.• Utilizar rastrojos para la cobertura del suelo • Distanciamiento entre plantas de 15-20 cm y de 80 a 90 cm entre surco.• Utilización del Madrifol multipropósito, que aporta nitrógeno y repele algunas plagas.• Realizar monitoreo continuo al cultivo, ya que las condiciones del clima favorecerán a enfermedades como la mancha de asfalto y plagas como el cogollero, por lo cual se puede utilizar trampas para su control.• El secado del grano para su cosecha y almacenamiento debe de ser a un 14 % de humedad.• Se recomienda siembra de pastos como Brizantha Decumbens y pasto guinea mejorado realizando buena fertilización, con abonos orgánicos, que sirva para asegurar la alimentación del ganado. • Establecer bancos forrajeros, mediante la siembra de árboles como Carreto, Guácimo, Guanacaste, Leucaena y Madreado. • Suministrar sales minerales, tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa, para obtener una buena producción de carne y leche. • Procesamiento de la leche: valor agregado para darle mayor durabilidad al producto y evitar perdidas.• Las condiciones climáticas pronosticadas para el trimestre son favorables para realizar algunas prácticas que benefician el desarrollo del cultivo, sin embargo, también se pueden desarrollar enfermedades como la Roya del café, y plagas como el grillo indiano, por lo que se recomienda el monitoreo constante de las fincas.• En este periodo de restricción de movilidad, se recomienda incrementar la diversificación en las fincas cafetaleras con huertos y siembra de granos básicos como maíz y frijol.• Realizar buenas prácticas de conservación de suelo, preparándolo 15 días antes de la siembra.• No deforestar ni realizar quemas.• Hacer buen manejo de rastrojos, ya sea como cobertura para retención de humedad o incorporado con abonos orgánicos.• Realizar control de maleza y limpieza artesanal.• Si usa semilla artesanal esta debe \"curarse\" antes de sembrar, para no tener pérdida por ataque de plagas o enfermedades.• Para el control de plagas y enfermedades utilizar productos agroecológicos y bio fermentados.• Debido a la condiciones de lluvia pronosticadas, hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos. • Conservar las fuentes de agua a través de la reforestación de la zona de recarga hídrica.• Hacer un buen manejo post cosecha del grano, almacenar en estructuras herméticas como silos o barriles y con un correcto porcentaje de humedad.En vista que nos encontramos en esta emergencia sanitaria y a la limitada movilidad en los diferentes municipios del país se recomiendan las siguientes prácticas de prevención, manejo de plagas, enfermedades y fertilización de los diferentes cultivos:• Aplicaciones de productos y abonos orgánicos como: Bocashi, humus, microorganismos de montaña y abonos verdes para fertilizar y mantener saludable el cultivo. • Aplicaciones de remedios elaborados en la finca como sulfocalcio y caldos minerales.• Utilizar productos agroecológicos para eliminar plagas que ataquen el cultivo. • No realizar Quemas, Utilizar sistema \"Quesungual\", en laderas hacer uso de barreras vivas o muertas y sembrar con curvas a nivel.• Control preventivo de Mancha de asfalto con productos a base de cobre o Benomilo.• Monitoreo y control de gusano cogollero. Control oportuno de malezas• Utilizar semillas criollas adaptadas al territorio, también variedades mejoradas como Dehoro y Amadeus 77 que se adaptan a zona baja y zona alta del departamento.• Monitoreo y control de plagas y enfermedades: Mancha angular, Mosaico dorado, Roya.• Tratar de cosechar durante la canícula, No secar el grano en la parcela. Manejo Post cosecha adecuado del grano.• Realizar siembras cuando el suelo presente 20 cm de humedad.• Realizar adecuado control de malezas antes y durante todo el ciclo del cultivo.• En Laderas hacer barreras vivas o barreras muertas y sembrar con curvas a nivel.• Utilizar variedades comunes como; Soprano, Bellini, Arnova, Caesar, Barcelona , Daifla , Puren , Jicaramany.• Control y manejo de hongos : tizones, temprano y tardio, uso de fungicidas preventivos y curativos.• Utilización de productos agroecológicos para el control de plagas y enfermedades.• Realizar surcos y canales de drenaje para evitar encharcamientos y pudrición en los cultivos.• Sembrar con curvas a nivel en ladera y uso de barreras.• En tiempo de canícula monitorear la incidencia de Paratrioza• Sembrar en el mes de junio, para evitar que la canícula afecte el crecimiento y la formación de grano en la planta.• Variedades Dicta Honduras y Dicta Comayagua, han mostrado los mejores rendimientos.• Control y manejo de plagas y enfermedades.• Realizar adecuadas fertilizaciones en el cultivo.• Monitoreo y control de enfermedades fungosas: ojo de gallo, roya, mancha de hierro. Monitoreo de la plaga grillo indiano. • Manejo preventivo de fungicidas a base de cobre.• Manejo adecuado de sombra y ventilación del cultivo para evitar enfermedades.• Rotación de productos químicos.• Fertilizacion adecuada del cultivo. Las condiciones del ENSO actualmente se presentan inactivas, se mantiene en condiciones neutrales con un 60% de probabilidad hasta mediados de año. La CANÍCULA será corta y moderada, comenzando a mediados del mes de julio y finalizando antes de la primera quincena de agosto, dejando algunos acumulados de lluvia para este periodo en la región.• No realizar quemas, para evitar incendios forestales, ni deforestar.• Labranza mínima, sobre todo en laderas, para evitar la erosión del suelo.• Realizar labores constantes en el cultivo, como el deshierbe manual, control de maleza y limpieza artesanal.• Realizar la preparación del suelo e incorporar materia y abonos orgánicos.• Monitoreo preventivo y continuo de plagas y enfermedades, preferiblemente con productos naturales.• Para el control de plagas y enfermedades utilizar productos agroecológicos y bio fermentados.• Hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Conservación de fuentes de agua a través de la reforestación de la zona de recarga hídrica.• Manejo post cosecha del grano, almacenamiento.• Preparación de suelo 15 días antes de la siembra.En vista que nos encontramos en esta emergencia sanitaria y a la limitada movilidad en los diferentes municipios del país se recomiendan las siguientes practicas de prevención, manejo de plagas, enfermedades y fertilización de los diferentes cultivos:• Monitoreo constante para el control preventivo de plagas, enfermedades y malezas.• Aplicaciones de productos y abonos orgánicos como: Bocachi, humus, microorganismos de montaña y abonos verdes para fertilizar y mantener saludable el cultivo. • Aplicaciones de remedios elaborados en la finca como sulfocalcio y caldos minerales.• Utilizar productos agroecológicos para eliminar plagas que ataquen el cultivo. Ganadería / Pastos Con su ganado se recomienda realizar las siguientes prácticas:• Siembra de pastos mejorados, realizando buena fertilización, con abonos orgánicos. Deben ser altos en proteínas para mejorar dieta y nutricion del Ganado. • Usar variedades como : Cuba 22, Brisantha, King Grass, pasto Camerun, pasto Alicia.• Realizar Ensilaje, bloques nutricionales y heno, asegurar alimentación del Ganado.• Suministrar sales minerales, para asegurar salud del ganado. • Utilizar variedades criollas adaptadas para la zona alta: maíz morado, maíz amarillo, maíz blanco y variedades mejoradas como: variedad Guayape.• Momento ideal de siembra: 22 mayo al 05 de junio 2020; y 21 al 28 de junio.• Monitoreo y control de gusano cogollero y de plagas presentadas: Langosta (falso medidor, cerdo de monte, mapache, lorito verde y mosca blanca• Hacer cebos con madreado (hoja tallo) para Raton.• Vigilar su cultivo por gusanos en cuarto menguante.• Debe cuidar su reservorio de semillas en casa, vigilando que no sea afectada por la humedad.• Es recomendable sembrar en los meses de diciembre y enero.• Se recomienda seguir usando variedades de ciclo corto como el frijol \"cuarenteño\", y que se han adaptado a las condiciones climáticas de la zona, también se pueden usar variedades mejoradas como el Amadeus 77.• Monitoreo y control constante de plagas y enfermedades: cuidarse de la Mancha angular, Mosaico dorado y la Roya del frijol, para mitigar el daño de las enfermedades se recomienda sembrar regado en noviembre y por posturas en el mes de enero.• Iniciar la siembra cuando el suelo tenga 20 cm de profundidad húmedo, realizar la prueba del machete.• Se recomienda uso de barreras vivas cuando siembre a la orilla del rio.• Para el control de ratón visitar su parcela acompañado de un gato; también puede utilizar repelente de madreado regando las ramas y hojas en el campo.• Se deben de realizar podas de formación y fitosanitarias a los árboles entre los segunda quincena de mayo y junio.• Picar y enterrar en lugares específicos los residuos de cosecha, para aprovechar la materia orgánica en el suelo de la finca.• Los viveros se deben de establecer época de verano, proporcionando una adecuada sombra, para evitar que las plantas se quemen.• Utilización de productos agroecológicos para el control de plagas y enfermedades.• Eliminar bellotas dañadas con monilia, para evitar proliferación de enfermedades.• Realizar control de sombra en las plantas.• Sembrar hasta mediados de junio.• Iniciar la siembra cuando el suelo tenga 20 cm de profundidad húmedo, realizar la prueba del machete.• Uso de variedades arroz de 3 meses \"Alto\" (Blue Bonnet), \"Enano\", \"Sica 8\", \"Sica 9\", Cielito lindo, \"Chino Rojo\" y \"Chino Blanco\". han mostrado los mejores rendimientos.• Control y manejo de plagas y enfermedades: uso de repelentes como la Flor de muerto, chile, detergente.Para las aves, espantarlas poneniendo macatraca y carpa, amarrar de manera que haga movimiento, construir espanta pajaros en forma humana, .• Observar el cielo: migración de las aves, repelente basado en wachaclicida: (chile y tabaco) • No realizar quemas, para evitar incendios forestales, ni deforestar.• En luna nueva, se recomienda podar arboles, controlar malezas como el camalote y otras malezas, no sembrar, trasplantar, aplicar cal a suelos de los llanos.• Luna creciente: sembrar plantas medicinales, injertar, excelente para cosechar plantas medicinales y hojas para elaborar productos orgánicos para control de plagas. No aplicar cal a suelos de los llanos, ni podar, las babosas y hormigas se esconden.• Luna llena: mejor luna para sembrar, aplicar foliares orgánicos; no se recomienda podar, las plantas están nerviosas y sus raíces delicadas.• Luna Menguante: la mejor luna para sus prácticas de manejo en sus cultivos, podas de formación, corte de madera, cosecha de yuca, camote; no se recomienda sembrar plantas que se cosecha fruto, pero si es buena luna para sembrar yuca, camote, malanga.• No utilizar agroquímicos en control de malezas ni en control de plagas.Documento elaborado por UACC&GR DE LA UPEG-SAG Gracias a Fondos del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos de América(USDA) www.upeg.sag.gob.hnCultivos Diversificados Recomendamos diversificar su parcela de acuerdo con las siguientes prácticas:• Siembra de Cucurbitaceas (ayotes, pepinos, zapallos).• Siembra de raíces, tuberculos como la yuca, camote, Malanga, Zupa.• Siembra de Musaceas plátano, filipitas, plantas medicinales.www.upeg.sag.gob.hn• Utilizar variedades criollas por la resistencia que presentan a plagas, enfermedades y su adaptación a la zona. También materiales mejorados como DICTA \"Guayape\", \"Sequia\", \"Laderas\" y \"Victoria\"• Hacer buen manejo del cultivo integrando prácticas agroecológicas.• Promover la diversificación de la finca, integrando hortalizas y cultivos de asocio.• Monitoreo y control de Mancha de asfalto, con fungicidas a base de Benomilo.• Monitoreo y control de gusano cogollero.• Distanciamiento entre plantas, reducir de numero de granos por postura en laderas para evitar proliferación de plagas, enfermedades y bajar densidad de siembra.• Adecuado manejo post cosecha del grano para poder conservar adecuadamente los alimentos.• Utilizar variedades criollas adaptadas al territorio, también variedades como \"Amadeus\" y \"Dehoro\" y materiales de coloración negra, para la zona de Copan.• Realizar siembras cuando el suelo presente 20 cm de humedad.• Realizar fertilización foliar.• Monitoreo y control de plagas y enfermedades como: mancha angular, mosaíco dorado y roya del frijol.• Manejo Post cosecha del grano, no secar el grano en la parcela y tratar de cosechar durante la canícula.• Realizar adecuado control de malezas antes y durante todo el ciclo del cultivo.• Aprovechar las lluvias para la siembra de pastos mejorados, altos en proteínas y de alta producción, para mejorar dieta y nutrición del Ganado. • Praparación oportuna de ensilajes, Silos, bloques nutricionales y heno para asegurar la alimentación del ganado. • Sistemas silvopastoriles, asociación con granos básicos y diversificación de la finca, incluyendo hortalizas.• Suministrar sales minerales, para asegurar nutrición del ganado. Vacunación y vitaminado del Ganado.• Monitoreo de enfermedades por exceso de humedad como pudrición de casco.• Emplear sistemas de agricultura protegidas como casa malla, macro-túnel, mega-túnel y estructuras temporales como casa china y micro-túnel (Agribon), para protección de posibles granizadas.• Al establecimiento del cultivo, una buena preparación del terreno, haciendo subsolado para evitar el encharcamiento. A diferencia de los últimos años se esperan condiciones de lluvia normales, suficiente para la producción agrícola, el establecimiento de las lluvias iniciaría a partir de la segunda semana de mayo. La CANÍCULA será corta y moderada, comenzando a mediados del mes de julio y finalizando antes de la primera quincena de agosto, dejando algunos acumulados de lluvia para este periodo en la región.• Hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Diversificación de la finca promoviendo la agricultura familiar y hortalizas.• No realizar quemas, para evitar incendios forestales, ni deforestar.• Realizar la preparación del suelo e incorporar de rastrojos, materia y abonos orgánicos• Evitar labranza, sobre todo en laderas, para evitar la erosión del suelo, y realizar curvas a nivel.• Realizar labores constantes en el cultivo, como el deshierbe manual, control de maleza y limpieza artesanal.• Conservación de fuentes de agua a través de la reforestación de la zona de recarga hídrica.• Manejo post cosecha del grano, almacenamiento.En vista que nos encontramos en esta emergencia sanitaria y a la limitada movilidad en los diferentes municipios del país, se recomiendan las siguientes practicas de prevención, manejo de plagas, enfermedades y fertilización de los diferentes cultivos:• Aplicaciones de productos y abonos orgánicos como: Bocashi, humus, microorganismos de montaña y abonos verdes para fertilizar y mantener saludable el cultivo.• Prácticas Agroecológicas: realización de bio fertilizantes, caldos minerales, caldos orgánicos con plantas y microbiológicos.• Para el control de plagas y enfermedades utilizar productos agroecológicos, y bio fermentados.Documento elaborado por UACC&GR DE LA UPEG-SAG Gracias a Fondos del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos de América(USDA) www.upeg.sag.gob.hn• Monitoreo y control de enfermedades fúngicas como la roya, mancha de hierro y ojo de gallo con productos a base de cobre; así también, el control de plagas como la broca y grillo indiano. • Control con trampas.• Manejo adecuado de sombra y ventilación del cultivo para evitar enfermedades.• Realizar \"pepeneo\" del fruto caído para control de la broca  • Realizar buena selección de semilla, puede utilizar su semilla criolla adaptada al territorio, también variedades mejoradas como Dehoro para la zona alta y Amadeus para la zona media y baja.• Sembrar cuando el suelo presente humedad en los primeros 20 cm de profundidad.• Realizar un adecuado manejo integrado del cultivo durante todo su ciclo de producción, controlando plagas como áfidos, babosas y enfermedades como la mancha angular y roya.• Realizar un adecuado distanciamiento de siembra recomendado para el cultivo.• Realizar una buena fertilización ya sea con productos químicos u orgánicos, de ser posible puede hacer aplicación de rhizobium para la fijación de nitrógeno.• Cosechar cuando la parte inferior de la vaina este seca, No secar el grano en la parcela.• Utilizar variedades de semillas mejoradas o variedades criollas que presenten buenos rendimientos en la zona. • Preparar el suelo, antes de la temporada de lluvia.• Realizar labranza mínima, para evitar la erosión del suelo.• Utilizar rastrojos para la cobertura del suelo • Distanciamiento entre plantas de 15-20 cm y de 80 a 90 cm entre surco.• Utilización del Madrifol multipropósito, que aporta nitrógeno y repele algunas plagas.• Realizar monitoreo continuo al cultivo, ya que las condiciones del clima favorecerán a enfermedades como la mancha de asfalto y plagas como el cogollero, por lo cual se puede utilizar trampas para su control.• El secado del grano para su cosecha y almacenamiento debe de ser a un 14 % de humedad.• Se recomienda siembra de pastos como Brizantha Decumbens y pasto guinea mejorado, realizando buena fertilización, con abonos orgánicos, que sirva para asegurar la alimentación del ganado. • Establecer bancos forrajeros, mediante la siembra de árboles como Carreto, Guácimo, Guanacaste, Leucaena y Madreado. • Suministrar sales minerales, tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa, para obtener una buena producción de carne y leche. • Procesamiento de la leche: valor agregado para darle mayor durabilidad al producto y evitar pérdidas.• Realizar el mantenimiento de fincas.• Vacunar, vitaminar y desparasitar los terneros (vía oral).• Establecer manejos de cultivo para biomasa de ensilaje y establecer un manejo integral de potreros. • Realizar buenas prácticas de conservación de suelo, preparándolo 15 días antes de la siembra.• No deforestar ni realizar quemas.• Hacer buen manejo de rastrojos, ya sea como cobertura para retención de humedad o incorporado con abonos orgánicos.• Realizar control de maleza y limpieza artesanal.• Si usa semilla artesanal esta debe \"curarse\" antes de sembrar, para no tener pérdida por ataque de plagas o enfermedades.• Para el control de plagas y enfermedades utilizar productos agroecológicos y bio fermentados.• Debido a la condiciones de lluvia pronosticadas, hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos. • Conservar las fuentes de agua a través de la reforestación de la zona de recarga hídrica.• Hacer un buen manejo post cosecha del grano, almacenar en estructuras herméticas como silos o barriles y con un correcto porcentaje de humedad.En vista que nos encontramos en esta emergencia sanitaria y a la limitada movilidad en los diferentes municipios del país se recomiendan las siguientes prácticas de prevención, manejo de plagas, enfermedades y fertilización de los diferentes cultivos:• Aplicaciones de productos y abonos orgánicos como: Bocashi, humus, microorganismos de montaña y abonos verdes para fertilizar y mantener saludable el cultivo. • Aplicaciones de remedios elaborados en la finca como sulfocalcio y caldos minerales.• Utilizar productos agroecológicos para eliminar plagas que ataquen el cultivo. • Utilizar semillas criollas adaptadas al territorio, también variedades mejoradas como Amadeus 77, Cardenal, Honduras nutritiva, que se adaptan a las zonas altas y bajas.• Fitomejoramiento participativo, producción de semilla, validación de variedades locales:\"Don Toño\", \"Tio Canela\", \"Paraísito 1 y 2 mejorado\", \"Carrizalito\"• En laderas, hacer barreras vivas o muertas y sembrar con curvas a nivel.• Realizar adecuado control de malezas antes y durante todo el ciclo del cultivo.• Monitoreo y control de plagas y enfermedades: Mustia hilachosa, Mosaíco, Mancha angular y Roya.• Tratar de cosechar durante la canícula, No secar el grano en la parcela.• Manejo Post cosecha adecuado del grano.Se recomienda realizar las siguientes prácticas agronómicas:• Utilizar variedades de semillas criollas: Capulín R-13 (arriba de 800 msnm), y variedades mejoradas como: DICTA Guayape, DICTA Sequía.• No realizar Quemas, en laderas hacer uso de barreras vivas o muertas y sembrar con curvas a nivel.• Control preventivo de Mancha de asfalto con productos a base de cobre o Benomilo.• Monitoreo y control de gusano cogollero.• Control oportuno de malezasSe recomienda realizar las siguientes prácticas agronómicas:• Monitoreo y control de enfermedades fungosas: Roya, ojo de gallo, mancha de hierro.• Monitoreo de plaga de grillo indiano.• Manejo preventivo de fungicidas a base sulfocalcio y cobre.• Regulación y manejo de sombra, ventilación del cultivo para evitar enfermedades.• Diversificación de la finca cafetalera, siembra de granos básicos y hortalizas.• Fertilización adecuada del cultivo.Con su ganado se recomienda realizar las siguientes prácticas:• Implementar la ganadería con enfoque sostenible y planificación de los hatos ganaderos.• Siembra de pasturas mejoradas, altos en proteínas para mejorar la dieta y nutrición del ganado, realizando una buena fertilización con abonos orgánicos. • Siembra de sorgo multi propósito como DICTA 29 y el BMR.• Manejo adecuado del ensilaje, bloques nutricionales y heno para asegurar la alimentación del Ganado. Establecimiento de bancos de proteínas con árboles como las leguminosas. • Manejo de Suministrar sales minerales, para asegurar salud del ganado.• Vacunación, desparasitación y vitaminado del Ganado. Las condiciones de \"El Niño\" se presentan inactivas, siendo neutrales con un 60% de probabilidad hasta mediados de año. La CANÍCULA será corta y moderada, con lluvias dispersas durante este periodo. Comenzando a mediados del mes de julio y finalizando antes de la primera quincena de agosto, dejando algunos acumulados de lluvia para este periodo.• Siembra entre la tercera y cuarta semana de mayo, según supervision de buena humedad en el suelo.• Tratamiento de semilla la tarde anterior del día de siembra.• Implementar sistemas agroforestales y diversificación de las fincas.• No realizar quemas, evitar incendios forestales, ni deforestar.• Hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Cuidar la densidad de cada uno de los cultivos, para evitar proliferación de plagas.• Labranza mínima, sobre todo en laderas, para evitar la erosión del suelo.• Realizar labores constantes en el cultivo, como el deshierbe manual, control de maleza y limpieza artesanal.• Realizar la preparación del suelo e incorporar materia y abonos orgánicos.• Monitoreo preventivo y continuo de plagas y enfermedades, preferiblemente con productos naturales.• Para el control de plagas y enfermedades utilizar productos agroecológicos y bio fermentados.• Conservación de fuentes de agua a través de la reforestación de la zona de recarga hídrica.• Manejo post cosecha del grano, almacenamiento.• Preparación de suelo 15 días antes de la siembra.En vista que nos encontramos en esta emergencia sanitaria y a la limitada movilidad en los diferentes municipios del país se recomiendan las siguientes practicas de prevención, manejo de plagas, enfermedades y fertilización de los diferentes cultivos:• Monitoreo constante para el control preventivo de plagas, enfermedades y malezas.• Aplicaciones de productos y abonos orgánicos como: Bocacho, humus, microorganismos de montaña y abonos verdes para fertilizar y mantener saludable el cultivo. • Aplicaciones de remedios elaborados en la finca como sulfocalcio y caldos minerales.• Utilizar productos agroecológicos para eliminar plagas que ataquen el cultivo. RECOMENDACIONES POSTRERA 2020 En vista que va haber mucha lluvia se sugiere hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Semilla/Variedades: se recomiendan variedades criollas adaptadas a la zona como frijol Alacín además de semillas mejoradas como: Carrizalito, Amadeus, Dehoro y Cuarenteño (precoz).• Manejo Agronómico: Realizar una buena selección de semilla, almacenándola adecuadamente y tratándola antes de sembrarla. Sembrar en camas altas, realizando zanjas dentro del cultivo con distanciamiento de 30 cm entre planta y 80cm entre surco. La fertilización realizarla con productos orgánicos elaborados en la finca al momento de la siembra y durante el desarrollo del cultivo o con formula 18-46-0, urea.• Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreo de plagas como la babosa que daña las raíces y los tallos de la planta, tratamiento preventivo con ceniza y cal que ayudan a controlarlo. El picudo de la vaina afectación en la vaina y el grano, en la etapa de floración y llenado de vaina. Prevención y monitoreo de enfermedades como \"El Hielo\" (mustia hilachosa), puede hacer aplicaciones preventivas con productos a bese de cobre.• Manejo Pos cosecha: cosechar al 14 % de humedad, almacenar en barriles o silos limpios y herméticos para preservar la calidad del grano. Realizar un curado al grano.• Semilla/Variedades: se recomiendan variedades que se adapten a su zona, que presenten buen rendimiento a la cosecha, puede usar semilla criollas o mejoradas con tolerancia a la humedad como DICTA Sequía. Realizar prueba de germinación, sembrar la que presente 95% de germinación. • Manejo Agronómico: se recomienda 1 o 2 semillas por postura, distanciamiento de 20 cm entre planta y entre surco 80 cm. Integrar cultivos de asocio como ayotes, ya que genera cobertura y protección al suelo para el golpe de las gotas de lluvia y el arrastre por escorrentía, además de ser complemento alimenticio y nutritivo para la familia. En lo municipios de zona baja como El Triunfo, Namasigüe, Yusguare realizar prácticas de prevencion por inundaciones, sembrar en camas altas y hacer drenajes. La fertilización de preferencia con productos orgánicos elaborados en la finca. Incorporación de rastrojos para mejorar estructura del suelo. • Plagas y Enfermedades: realizar un monitoreo continuos del cultivo y control enfermedades fungosas como mancha de asfalto. Hacer manejo integrado de plagas como el Gusano cogollero, falso medidor, gallina ciega. • Semilla/Variedades: Siembra de zacate estrella, Otoreño, variedades tradicionales para mejorar cobertura. • Manejo: Incorporación de pastos y arboles a la finca para la implementación de sistemas agrosilvopastoriles que ayuden a mejorar la estructura del suelo y evitar la erosión. Siembra de arboles frutales y forrajeros como la Leucaena y madreado que sirven de cercos vivos y ayudan a mejorar la cobertura, la fijación de nutrientes en el suelo y además proporcionan sombra y microclimas para el ganado. Realizar rondas de limpieza, para tener control de plagas como la langosta y enfermedades. Implementar un plan de vacunación y desparasitación del ganado. La sombra ayuda a mantener una temperatura corporal optima que necesitan los rumiantes para que tener una buena digestión, buena salud y mejor aprovechamiento de los nutrientes. • Manejo Cosecha/Pos cosecha: Realizar silos y pacas de heno para tener disponibilidad en época de escases de alimento para el ganado con sorgo, maíz, pastos de corte tusa.• Semilla/Variedades: Sembrar maicillo criollo, DICTA sureño, DICTA 10 y DICTA 29 que son las tolerantes a inundaciones y plagas. • Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreo del pulgón amarillo en el cultivo de Sorgo y áfidos, es importante detectar a tiempo las primeras poblaciones mediante trampas adhesivas color amarillo, esto asegurará un menor daño en etapas tempranas. Su tratamiento se puede realizar con productos químicos la desventaja es que esta plaga desarrolla con facilidad resistencia a los insecticidas. Es recomendable realizar muestreos semanales dentro y en la periferia de la parcela, deben revisarse haz, envés y base de las hojas. Es importante localizar a tiempo para establecer estrategias de control que eviten su diseminación.• No realizar quemas, para evitar incendios forestales, ni deforestar.• Labranza mínima, sobre todo en laderas, para evitar la erosión del suelo.• Si su terreno es en ladera deberá realizar obras de conservación de suelos como barreras vivas o muertas.• Realizar la incorporación de rastrojos al terreno.• Monitoreo preventivo y continuo de plagas y enfermedades, preferiblemente con productos naturales, agroecológicos y Bio fermentados. Preparación de suelo 15 días antes de la siembra.¿Cómo usar el agua eficientemente?. Se debe realizar una planificación del riego para evitar un exceso o una insuficiencia del agua en los cultivos, según fase fenológico de la planta.. Recuerde: Implementar en su fincas tecnologías de uso eficiente del agua para la adaptación al cambio climático y la seguridad alimentaria, tales como:• Prácticas de conservación de los suelos y manejo integrado de cultivos para riego y que sirvan para mantener la humedad en el suelo. • Protección de manantiales o fuentes de agua debe ser prioridad de todos sus habitantes.• Utilizar tecnologías para la captación y almacenamiento del agua, tanto de las que provienen de las precipitaciones o aguas lluvias, como las superficiales y aguas subterráneas. • Implementar tecnologías para el bombeo y la distribución de agua para fines agropecuarios, utilizando técnicas de riego que minimicen las pérdidas de agua y de erosión del suelo. • Reutilización del agua grises o servidas, a través de sistemas de dosificación y desinfección que permiten un uso eficiente del agua y de los nutrientes en los sistemas de riego, principalmente para huertos familiares • Utilizar las variedades de frijol: DEORHO, AMADEUS y Paraisito Mejorado. En el caso de variedades locales o criollas hacer una buena selección del grano, que presentan mejores rendimientos y menos ataques a plagas y enfermedades.• Las siembra en laderas hacerlas con curvas a nivel, e implementando barreras vivas o muertas que ayuden a la conservación del suelo.• Por las condiciones esperadas de lluvia, se deben hacer drenajes en los parcelas y sembrar a una densidad adecuada (15 -20 cms entre semillas).• Hacer aplicaciones preventivas de fungicidas a base de cobre para evitar enfermedades como roya del frijol, en el caso de mancha angular y virus del mosaico Dorado, usar variedades mejoradas y rotar cultivos.• Mantener una parcela limpia, libre de rastrojos y malezas para eliminar hospederos.• Realizar un manejo Post cosecha adecuado del grano. Por la lluvia, No secarlo en la parcela.• Usar semillas que se adapten a las condiciones climáticas que se van a presentar en la zona y que presenten los mejores rendimientos, puede usar DICTA Ladera y DICTA Sequía.• Realizar una prueba de germinación 15 días antes de la siembra.• Curar su semilla y sembrar de 6-7 semillas/mt y 30-40 cms entre surco. Realizar drenajes para evitar encharcamientos,.• Proveer al cultivo una buena fertilización 18-46-0 a la siembra, a los 20 días urea y a los 40 días la segunda • Para evitar enfermedades como pudrición de la mazorca se debe seleccionar variedades con buena cobertura de la mazorca, y para la mancha de asfalto mantener un cultivo limpio y aplicar productos a base de cobre.• Realizar constante monitoreo de plagas como gallina ciega y gusano cogollero.• Cosechar a 14% de humedad y almacenar en estructuras secas y herméticas, que ,mantengan el grano libre de plagas.• Siembra de pastos mejorados, realizando buena fertilización con abonos orgánicos.• Renovación de potreros utilizando variedades importadas como :Brizanthas, Brachiarias Decumbens, Mombasa y Pasto Mulato.• Establecer sistemas de ensilajes con siembra de maíz QPM, maicillo sureño y caña agregando sales y suplementos alimenticios de alto valor nutricional empleando dosificaciones adecuadas en la alimentación.• Establecimientos o mejoramiento de Sistemas Silvopastoriles o Agro silvopastoriles, con siembra de árboles como, Leucaena, Cratylia y Madreado para cerca vivas.• Vacunación, desparasitación para control de garrapata.• Vitaminado del Ganado.• Establecer bancos forrajeros, mediante la siembra de árboles como leguminosas.• Diseñar un plan sanitario de reproducción y engorde por finca con el acompañamiento de técnicos de SAG. INTRODUCCIÓN: La Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG) a través de La Unidad de Agroambiente, Cambio Climático y Gestión del Riesgo (UACC&GR-UPEG) en coordinación con El Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), entrega el Boletín Agroclimático Participativo a los miembros de la Mesa Agroclimática Participativa y a productores(as) de Ia Región-02 Comayagua, el cual contiene recomendaciones agroclimáticas para la temporada de postrera 2020.Se favorece que el ENSO-neutral continúe hasta el verano, con una probabilidad de 50-55% del desarrollo de La Niña durante el otoño 2020 del Hemisferio Norte y que continúe hasta el invierno 2020-21 (~50% de probabilidad)Estatus del sistema de alerta del ENSO: VIGILANCIA DE LA NIÑA• No realizar quemas, para evitar incendios forestales, ni deforestar.• Incorporación de arboles forrajeros y pastos mejorados dentro de las fincas para crear sistemas agroforestales y/o agrosilvopastoriles que ayuden a mejorar la estructura del suelo y la cobertura vegetal. • Realizar rondas de limpieza en los predios, e incorporar rastrojos que ayuden a mejorar la humedad del suelo.• Labranza mínima, sobre todo en laderas, para evitar la erosión del suelo.• Si su terreno es en ladera deberá realizar obras de conservación de suelos como barreras vivas o muertas.• Realizar obras de conservación de cuencas y zonas de recarga hídrica, construir reservorios de agua y aprovechar el agua lluvia para que sirva de riego complementario para las labores del manejo del cultivo en época seca.• Monitoreo preventivo y continuo de plagas y enfermedades, preferiblemente con productos naturales.• Para el control de plagas y enfermedades utilizar productos agroecológicos y bio fermentados.• Hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Conservación de fuentes de agua a través de la reforestación de la zona de recarga hídrica.• Manejo post cosecha del grano, almacenamiento.• Preparación de suelo 15 días antes de la siembra.• Para los cultivos de maíz y frijol, antes de la siembra tratar el grano utilizado para semilla con plaguicidas y así evitar pérdidas por insectos antes de la germinación, además de realizar un adecuado control de malezas utilizando herbicidas pre emergentes de acuerdo al tipo de malezas presentes en la zona, calibrando el equipo y utilizando las boquillas adecuadas. • Incorporar materia orgánica en las fincas.• Utilizar variedades que se adapten a la condiciones climáticas que se pronostican.• Sembrar de acuerdo a las ventanas de Mercado.• Implementar el fertirriego para aprovechar major los recursos.• Realizar podas sanitarias y aplicación de químicos de acuerdo a programas establecidos en manejo integrado de plagas. • Mantener un adecuado proceso de cosecha y pos cosecha que permita una mayor vida de anaquel.• Realizar las prácticas de manejo del cafetal, de forma más amigable con el ambiente, realizar control de limpias de manera cultural (chapias), y hacer análisis de suelo para una mejor nutrición del cafetal. • El control de malezas hacerlo de forma manual (chapias), realizar conservación de suelos con la construcción de barreras vivas, para los que van asombrar café hacer trazados en contorno o a curva a nivel, realizando terrazas individuales. • Poner en uso las lagunas de descarga de residuos del beneficiado del café, hacer acequias para control de aguas mieles del beneficiado. • Seguir con la campaña de concientización al productor de construir sus beneficios a más de 100 metros de las fuentes de agua para evitar su contaminación. • Monitoreos y control de enfermedades de mayor impacto como: ojo de gallo, roya, mancha de hierro aplicación de productos preventivos cuando la incidencia es menor al 5%, hacer la aplicación de preventivo cada 40 días, y regulación de sombra, manejo de tejido.• Monitoreo y control de la plaga grillo indiano, controlando malezas en áreas aledañas a la finca, control etológico y control químico si fuera necesario. En vista que va haber mucha lluvia se sugiere hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Semilla Variedades: Usar semillas que se adapten al clima de zona con los mejores rendimientos, puede usar DICTA Ladera y DICTA Sequía. Curar su semilla y sembrar de 6-7 semillas/mt y 30-40 cm entre surco.• Manejo Agronómico: Proveer al cultivo una buena fertilización 18-46-0 a la siembra, a los 20 días urea y a los 40 días la segunda.• Plagas y Enfermedades: Para evitar enfermedades como pudrición de la mazorca se debe seleccionar variedades con buena cobertura de la mazorca. Para la mancha de asfalto mantener un cultivo limpio y aplicar productos a base de cobre. Realizar constante monitoreo de plagas como gallina ciega y gusano cogollero.• Pos cosecha: Cosechar a 14% de humedad y almacenar en estructuras secas y herméticas, que mantengan el grano libre de plagas.• Semilla Variedades: Preferiblemente utilizar variedades criollas adaptadas a su región, también variedades de frijol: DEORHO, AMADEUS y Paraisito Mejorado.• Manejo Agronómico: Mantener una parcela limpia, libre de rastrojos y malezas para eliminar hospederos y En Laderas hacer barreras vivas muertas y con curvas a nivel• Plagas y Enfermedades: Para evitar enfermedades como la mustia hilachosa, se deben de hacer aplicaciones preventivas de fungicidas y en el caso de mancha angular y virus del Mosaico Dorado, usar variedades mejoradas y rotar cultivos.• Pos cosecha: Realizar un manejo Post cosecha adecuado del grano. Por la lluvia, No secar el grano en la parcelaPastos:• Siembra de pastos mejorados, realizando buena fertilización con abonos orgánicos.• Renovación de potreros utilizando variedades importadas como :Brizanthas, Brachiarias Decumbens, Mombasa y Pasto Mulato. • Establecer sistemas de ensilajes con siembra de maíz QPM, maicillo sureño y caña agregando sales y suplementos alimenticios de alto valor nutricional empleando dosificaciones adecuadas en la alimentación.• Vacunación, desparasitación para control de garrapata y vitaminado del Ganado.• Establecer bancos forrajeros, mediante la siembra de árboles como leguminosas. • Manejo Agronómico: Realizar las prácticas de manejo del cafetal, de forma más amigable con el ambiente, realizar control de limpias de manera cultural (chapias), para los que van asombrar café hacer trazados en contorno o a curva a nivel, realizando terrazas individuales.• Uso y control del Agua: Seguir con la campaña de concientización al productor de construir sus beneficios a más de 100 metros de las fuentes de agua para evitar su contaminación. Poner en uso las lagunas de descarga de residuos del beneficiado del café, hacer acequias para control de aguas mieles del beneficiado• Manejo del suelo: hacer análisis de suelo para una mejor nutrición del cafetal, realizar conservación de suelos con la construcción de barreras vivas • Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreos y control de enfermedades de mayor impacto como: ojo de gallo, roya, mancha de hierro aplicación de productos preventivos cuando la incidencia es menor al 5%, hacer la aplicación de preventivo cada 40 días y regulación de sombra, manejo de tejido. Monitoreo y control de la plaga grillo indiano, controlando malezas en áreas aledañas a la finca, control etológico y control químico si fuera necesario. • Cosecha y Pos cosecha: Evitar tener café lavado mojado más de 24 horas en sacos o almacenado, realizar secado del producto ya sea en zarandas, secadoras solar, o en tendales de plástico, y un buen almacenado, para mantener la calidad del café.• No realizar quemas, para evitar incendios forestales, ni deforestar.• Labranza mínima, sobre todo en laderas, para evitar la erosión del suelo.• Si su terreno es en ladera deberá realizar obras de conservación de suelos como barreras vivas o muertas.• Realizar la incorporación de rastrojos al terreno.• Monitoreo preventivo y continuo de plagas y enfermedades, preferiblemente con productos naturales, agroecológicos y Bio fermentados. Preparación de suelo 15 días antes de la siembra.¿Cómo usar el agua eficientemente?.Se debe realizar una planificación del riego para evitar un exceso o una insuficiencia del agua en los cultivos, según fase fenológico de la planta.. Recuerde: Implementar en su fincas tecnologías de uso eficiente del agua para la adaptación al cambio climático y la seguridad alimentaria, tales como:• Prácticas de conservación de los suelos y manejo integrado de cultivos para riego y que sirvan para mantener la humedad en el suelo. • Protección de manantiales o fuentes de agua debe ser prioridad de todos sus habitantes.• Utilizar tecnologías para la captación y almacenamiento del agua, tanto de las que provienen de las precipitaciones o aguas lluvias, como las superficiales y aguas subterráneas. • Implementar tecnologías para el bombeo y la distribución de agua para fines agropecuarios, utilizando técnicas de riego que minimicen las pérdidas de agua y de erosión del suelo. • Reutilización del agua grises o servidas, a través de sistemas de dosificación y desinfección que permiten un uso eficiente del agua y de los nutrientes en los sistemas de riego, principalmente para huertos familiares • Semilla Variedades: Usar semillas que se adapten al clima de zona con los mejores rendimientos, puede usar DICTA Ladera y DICTA Sequía. Curar su semilla y sembrar de 6-7 semillas/mt y 30-40 cm entre surco.• Manejo Agronómico: Proveer al cultivo una buena fertilización 18-46-0 a la siembra, a los 20 días urea y a los 40 días la segunda.• Plagas y Enfermedades: Para evitar enfermedades como pudrición de la mazorca se debe seleccionar variedades con buena cobertura de la mazorca. Para la mancha de asfalto mantener un cultivo limpio y aplicar productos a base de cobre. Realizar constante monitoreo de plagas como gallina ciega y gusano cogollero.• Pos cosecha: Cosechar a 14% de humedad y almacenar en estructuras secas y herméticas, que mantengan el grano libre de plagas.• Semilla Variedades: Preferiblemente utilizar variedades criollas adaptadas a su región, también variedades de frijol: DEORHO, AMADEUS y Paraisito Mejorado.• Manejo Agronómico: Mantener una parcela limpia, libre de rastrojos y malezas para eliminar hospederos y En Laderas hacer barreras vivas muertas y con curvas a nivel• Plagas y Enfermedades: Para evitar enfermedades como la mustia hilachosa, se deben de hacer aplicaciones preventivas de fungicidas y en el caso de mancha angular y virus del Mosaico Dorado, usar variedades mejoradas y rotar cultivos.• Pos cosecha: Realizar un manejo Post cosecha adecuado del grano. Por la lluvia, No secar el grano en la parcelaPastos:• Siembra de pastos mejorados, realizando buena fertilización con abonos orgánicos.• Renovación de potreros utilizando variedades importadas como :Brizanthas, Brachiarias Decumbens, Mombasa y Pasto Mulato. • Establecer sistemas de ensilajes con siembra de maíz QPM, maicillo sureño y caña agregando sales y suplementos alimenticios de alto valor nutricional empleando dosificaciones adecuadas en la alimentación.• Vacunación, desparasitación para control de garrapata y vitaminado del Ganado.• Establecer bancos forrajeros, mediante la siembra de árboles como leguminosas. • Manejo Agronómico: Realizar las prácticas de manejo del cafetal, de forma más amigable con el ambiente, realizar control de limpias de manera cultural (chapias), para los que van asombrar café hacer trazados en contorno o a curva a nivel, realizando terrazas individuales.• Uso y control del Agua: Seguir con la campaña de concientización al productor de construir sus beneficios a más de 100 metros de las fuentes de agua para evitar su contaminación. Poner en uso las lagunas de descarga de residuos del beneficiado del café, hacer acequias para control de aguas mieles del beneficiado• Manejo del suelo: hacer análisis de suelo para una mejor nutrición del cafetal, realizar conservación de suelos con la construcción de barreras vivas • Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreos y control de enfermedades de mayor impacto como: ojo de gallo, roya, mancha de hierro aplicación de productos preventivos cuando la incidencia es menor al 5%, hacer la aplicación de preventivo cada 40 días y regulación de sombra, manejo de tejido. Monitoreo y control de la plaga grillo indiano, controlando malezas en áreas aledañas a la finca, control etológico y control químico si fuera necesario. • Cosecha y Pos cosecha: Evitar tener café lavado mojado más de 24 horas en sacos o almacenado, realizar secado del producto ya sea en zarandas, secadoras solar, o en tendales de plástico, y un buen almacenado, para mantener la calidad del café. Se debe realizar una planificación del riego para evitar un exceso o una insuficiencia del agua en los cultivos, según fase fenológico de la planta.. Recuerde: Implementar en su fincas tecnologías de uso eficiente del agua para la adaptación al cambio climático y la seguridad alimentaria, tales como:• Prácticas de conservación de los suelos y manejo integrado de cultivos para riego y que sirvan para mantener la humedad en el suelo. • Protección de manantiales o fuentes de agua debe ser prioridad de todos sus habitantes.• Utilizar tecnologías para la captación y almacenamiento del agua, tanto de las que provienen de las precipitaciones o aguas lluvias, como las superficiales y aguas subterráneas. • Implementar tecnologías para el bombeo y la distribución de agua para fines agropecuarios, utilizando técnicas de riego que minimicen las pérdidas de agua y de erosión del suelo. • Reutilización del agua grises o servidas, a través de sistemas de dosificación y desinfección que permiten un uso eficiente del agua y de los nutrientes en los sistemas de riego, principalmente para huertos familiares.CULTIVO RECOMENDACIONES POSTRERA 2020 En vista que va haber mucha lluvia se sugiere hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Semilla Variedades: Sembrar variedades criollas adaptadas a la zona y variedades como \"Rojo Chortis\", Amadeus, Dehoro y Paraisito Mejorado.• Manejo Agronómico: En zona de ladera elaborar terrazas para evitar deslaves. Diversificación de la parcela, asocio de cultivos y huertos familiar. Utilizar un tratador de semillas \"CRUISER\" para germinación optima del cultivo y la parcela cultivada. Establecer un distanciamiento adecuado de 20 cm entre planta y de 80 a 100 cm entre surco. Se recomienda hacer rotación de cultivo y así mejorar las características y nutrición del suelo.• Plagas y Enfermedades: realizar monitoreo y control riguroso de hongos para prevenir enfermedades fungosas.Uso de fungicidas preventivos para lograr un cultivo saludable y obtener rendimientos deseados. Manejo y monitoreo preventivo de insectos.• Pos cosecha: Realizar un manejo Post cosecha adecuado del grano. Por la lluvia, No secar el grano en la parcela• Manejo Agronómico: Control de maleza y sombra en la finca para evitar proliferación de enfermedades y plagas. Implementación de secadora solar para mantener el grano libre de humedad y preservar la calidad y tener mayores utilidades . Establecer patios de secado en zonas alta, para evitar la humedad en el grano. Para pequeños productores establecer tratamiento de desparasitación, vitaminación y buen manejo para equinos \"bestias\" que trasladan su café. • Uso y control del Agua: Recolección de aguas lluvias para el tratamiento de lavado de café. Seguir con la campaña de concientización al productor de construir sus beneficios a más de 100 metros de las fuentes de agua para evitar su contaminación. Poner en uso las lagunas de descarga de residuos del beneficiado del café, hacer acequias para control de aguas mieles del beneficiado. • Plagas y Enfermedades: Manejo y control de la broca de café, para evitar grano hueco. Monitoreo preventivo de hongos como roya.• Semilla Variedades: Zonas altas sembrar aguacate Hass. Zonas bajas: Variedades de razas antillanas como:Simmonds, Choquette, Lula, Catalina, Belice (floración A) es necesario sembrar con var. Booth (floración B) para mejorar polinización.• Manejo Agronómico: Diseño: 2 o 3 surco de Simmonds, 1 surco de Booth 7, 3 surcos de Choquette, 1 surco de Booth 8, 3 surcos de Belice, 1 surco de Booth 7, para lograr buena productividad. Densidad según pendiente en zonas altas arriba de 1500 distanciamientos 8 m entre surcos y 6 m entre planta, pendiente media 7 m entre surco y 6 m entre planta y menor pendiente de 6 m entre surco y 6m entre planta. Preparación de suelos ahoyado, acequias de ladera cada 3 o 4 surcos, terrazas individuales. Plano: zanjas, camas continuas 50cm de altura y 2 m ancho, arar, rastrear. Aireación, buen drenaje y desarrollo radicular. Poda de los arboles• Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreo y control de Phytophthora. Monitoreo de Antracnosis, 25 días antes de la cosecha de variedades antillanas.• Semilla Variedades: Variedades DICTA Comayagua, DICTA Honduras, Anar 2012 FL, Anar 2018 FL.• Manejo Agronómico: Fertilización, en base a las necesidades especificas para cada tipo de suelos. Buen manejo de la inocuidad de la semilla con Trichoderma, para control de hogos y patógenos. • Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreo de plagas como la chinche de la panícula, insecto de hoja y enfermedades como: pericularia y podredumbre del tallo. • Incorporación de pasturas de corte, sorgo y maíz para forraje y silos. Ensilajes anaeróbicos, silos de bunker, silo de bolsa bien compactado para evitar exceso de humedad, silos leguminosas forrajeras, Cratylia. • Pastos recomendados: Brachiara brizanta, Toledo, MG5, Victoria, Cuba 22, Clon 51, Maralfalfa, Camerún, Napier, pasto Elefante enano, King grass, Texas 25, sorgo gigante y caña de azúcar.• Ganadería tradicional (menos intensiva) razas resistentes al calor y lluvias. Si se piensa incluir nuevo encaste Gyr lechero, Sardo negro lechero, Girolando, Sardolando, cruces con Holstein, para producción de leche. • Encaste para carne: Brahman, Gyr, Indubrasil, razas artificiales de zona baja \"Chumeca\" cruce Holstein + Jersey. • Monitoreo y prevención de enfermedades como la mastitis • Buena higiene y buenas practicas de ordeño, limpieza de la galera de ordeño para evitar enfermedades. • Botiquín de prevención que contenga: yodo, Dexamentasona, antibióticos, alternativas caseras para prevenciones de bacterias y hongos: Cloro, violeta, yodo para hacer curaciones. • Plan de desparasitación del hato ganadero, internos y externos.• Semilla Variedades: Variedades de papa resistentes a tizón, Daifla, DICTA Púren, DICTA Jicaramani, Soprano, Barcelona.• Manejo Agronómico: Tratamiento del suelo previo al cultivo, incorporación de organismos benéficos, encalamiento, aplicación de PUREX, para evitar marchitez. Aplicación de fungicidas para evitar pudrición en hortalizas. Limpieza manual de malezas, fertilización adecuada. Rotación de cultivos. Sembrar en camas, realizar surcos y canales de drenaje en el cultivo. Limpieza de herramientas de trabajo para evitar contaminaciones por hongos y otros patógenos. Hortalizas• Semilla Variedades: Variedades de hortalizas: brócoli: Avenger F1 y Mónaco, repollo \"Girion\", zanahoria Esperanza, lechuga Legacy y Alexa, remolacha Boro F1.• Manejo Agronómico: Realizar podas sanitarias y aplicación de químicos de acuerdo a programas establecidos en manejo integrado de plagas. Compost de gallinaza. Encalamiento. Mantener un adecuado proceso de cosecha y pos cosecha que permita una mayor vida de anaquel. Implementar el fertirriego para aprovechar mejor los recursos.• Semilla Variedades: Variedades maíz de porte bajo, zona media y baja Güayape, Tuxpeño, DICTA maya, DICTA sequia, maíz victoria y las variedades híbridas para evitar el acame. • Manejo Agronómico: Realizar un buen aporque, el distanciamiento de siembra en surco 80 a 100cm, 1 semilla por postura cada 20 a 25 cm arriba de 96% de germinación. Mas bajo del 94% 2 semillas por postura y hacer raleo. Fertilizar al momento de la siembra y al momento del aporque. Control de malezas manual 15 días antes de la siembra. Barreras vivas y muertas. Tratamiento de la semillas con Marshall para aumentar germinación uniforme en la parcela. • Plagas y Enfermedades: Control y monitoreo preventivo de plagas y enfermedades: Mancha de asfalto, con fungicidas a base de cobre. Monitoreo de la plaga de langosta, plaguicida cipermetrina con el debido protocolo de protección de manejo y uso seguro. Reportar cuando se identifiquen en etapa juvenil al SENASA. Sorgo • Semilla Variedades: Sorgo sureño mas resistentes a plagas como pulgón amarillo y sorgos criollos.• Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreo del pulgón amarillo en el cultivo de Sorgo.• No realizar quemas, para evitar incendios forestales, ni deforestar.• Labranza mínima, sobre todo en laderas, para evitar la erosión del suelo.• Si su terreno es en ladera deberá realizar obras de conservación de suelos como barreras vivas o muertas.• Realizar la incorporación de rastrojos al terreno.• Monitoreo preventivo y continuo de plagas y enfermedades, preferiblemente con productos naturales, agroecológicos y Bio fermentados. Preparación de suelo 15 días antes de la siembra.¿Cómo usar el agua eficientemente?. Se debe realizar una planificación del riego para evitar un exceso o una insuficiencia del agua en los cultivos, según fase fenológico de la planta.. Recuerde: Implementar en su fincas tecnologías de uso eficiente del agua para la adaptación al cambio climático y la seguridad alimentaria, tales como:• Prácticas de conservación de los suelos y manejo integrado de cultivos para riego y que sirvan para mantener la humedad en el suelo. • Protección de manantiales o fuentes de agua debe ser prioridad de todos sus habitantes.• Utilizar tecnologías para la captación y almacenamiento del agua, tanto de las que provienen de las precipitaciones o aguas lluvias, como las superficiales y aguas subterráneas. • Implementar tecnologías para el bombeo y la distribución de agua para fines agropecuarios, utilizando técnicas de riego que minimicen las pérdidas de agua y de erosión del suelo. • Reutilización del agua grises o servidas, a través de sistemas de dosificación y desinfección que permiten un uso eficiente del agua y de los nutrientes en los sistemas de riego, principalmente para huertos familiares INTRODUCCIÓN: La Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG) a través de La Unidad de Agroambiente, Cambio Climático y Gestión del Riesgo (UACC&GR-UPEG) en coordinación con El Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), entrega el Boletín Agroclimático Participativo a los miembros de la Mesa Agroclimática Participativa y a productores(as) del departamento de Gracias a Dios, el cual contiene recomendaciones agroclimáticas para la temporada de postrera 2020.Se favorece que el ENSO-neutral continúe hasta el verano, con una probabilidad de 50-55% del desarrollo de La Niña durante el otoño 2020 del Hemisferio Norte y que continúe hasta el invierno 2020-21 (~50% de probabilidad) Estatus del sistema de alerta del ENSO:VIGILANCIA DE LA NIÑA Cultivo RECOMENDACIONES POSTRERA 2020 En vista que va haber mucha lluvia se sugiere hacer sistemas de drenaje, zanjas y canales para evitar posibles inundaciones y encharcamientos dentro de los cultivos.• Semilla Variedades: Utilizar semillas criollas de ciclo corto adaptadas al territorio como ser: fifi, cielito lindo, el milagroso, frijol negro, frijolito blanco, frijol chile, cuarenteño, el chilito y variedades mejoradas como Paraisito 2, cuarenteño, Amadeus 77, utilizar variedades resistentes a la humedad que se adapten a las condiciones y distintas zonas del departamento.• Manejo Agronómico: Diversificación de la parcela, asocio de cultivos y huertos familiares. Establecer un distanciamiento adecuado de siembra. Remover el suelo para evitar la proliferación de plagas incorporando preparados con agua caliente. De ser posible realizar emplasticado del suelo. Realizar drenajes para evitar el encharcamiento en las parcelas. Realizar monitoreos y control de malezas.• Plagas y Enfermedades: realizar monitoreo y control riguroso de hongos para prevenir enfermedades fungosas como mancha angular y rolla, hacer aplicaciones preventivas con productos a base de cobre. Realizar monitoreo de plagas como ser: Gallina ciega y babosa.. Para control de babosa utilizar químicos como M5 que es de impacto, agua con sal, cal con ace, cenizas de fogón .Uso de fungicidas preventivos para lograr un cultivo saludable y obtener rendimientos deseados. Manejo y monitoreo preventivo de insectos. Colocar repelentes y hacer uso de controladores biológicos para organismos mas grandes como ser: venados colocar repelentes en las esquinas de la parcela como jabón de baño preferiblemente de olor y ratones aplicar ceniza de comején mezclado con cemento se aplica en los bordes o alrededor de la parcela.• Pos cosecha: Realizar un manejo Post cosecha adecuado del grano. Por la lluvia, No secar el grano en la parcela• Semilla Variedades: se recomienda realizar la siembra durante la segunda semana de Septiembre,haciendo uso de variedades criollas adaptadas para la zona alta: maíz morado, maíz amarillo, maíz blanco y variedades mejoradas como; \"Marshall\" y \"V301\", para la zona baja: Guayape, Tuxpeño, variedades criollas o híbridos de ciclo corto que ofrecen las agro-comerciales. • Agronómico: Implementar el uso se sistemas de drenaje. Utilizar sistema \"Quesungual\", en laderas hacer uso de barreras vivas o muertas y sembrar con curvas a nivel. Fertilizar al momento de la siembra y al momento del aporque. Control de malezas manual 15 días antes de la siembra, preparación de suelos con agroquímicos. • Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreo y control de gusano cogollero. Control preventivo de Mancha de asfalto con productos a base de cobre o Benomilo.• Semilla Variedades: Variedades mejoradas como: Dicta Comayagua, Dicta Fl Honduras, en zonas no tan cercanas al rio y variedades criollas como: Arroz negro, arroz chino los cuales han presentado buenos rendimientos. • Manejo Agronómico: Fertilización, en base a las necesidades especificas para cada tipo de suelos. Buen manejo de la inocuidad de la semilla con Trichodrema, para control de hogos y patogenos. Implementar sistemas de riego para época de verano • Plagas y Enfermedades: Monitoreo de plagas como: falso medidor del arroz, la chinche hedionda , insecto de hoja y enfermedades como: pericularia y podredumbre del tallo. • Semilla variedades: Sembrar variedades criollas adaptadas a la zona como frijol vaina morada, frijol arbolito de matocho, frijol vaina blanca (frijol negro) y variedades como \"Honduras Nutritiva\", Amadeus, Carrizalito, Dehoro, que sean precoces como el frijol Cuarenteño y resistentes a plagas. Distanciamiento de siembra entre postura, 8 semillas por metro lineal• Suelo: Preparación del suelo antes de la siembra y control de malezas cada 15 a 20 días para mantener limpia la parcela del cultivo y evitar plantas hospederas de plagas y enfermedades.• Manejo agronómico: Fertilización foliar con productos orgánicos como el madrifol, realizar un buen manejo integrado de enfermedades como mustia hilachosa (tela araña o hielo negro) y la antracnosis, con la eliminación de residuos anteriores y tener parcelas libres de maleza.• Plagas y enfermedades: Monitoreo y vigilancia de plagas como la gallina ciega, babosa y tizones tempranos y tardíos, realizando monitoreos constantes y con la aplicación de cal, ceniza y sulfocalcio para evitar utilizar productos químicos.• Post cosecha: es recomendable cosechar a un porcentaje de humedad optimo 13% y postcosecha, curando la semilla y almacenar en barriles o silos limpios bien sellados, en lugares libre de humedad y de plagas. Utilización de métodos tradicionales para guardar semilla para siembra se recomienda: mezclar la semilla (el frijol) con ceniza o Guardar la semilla con ajo y ocote. Otro método es guardar la semilla con \"la basura\" residuos de vaina.• Semilla variedades: Sembrar variedades criollas adaptadas a la zona y variedades como DICTA ladera, DICTA sequia, es necesario realizar una adecuada selección de semilla. • Manejo agronómico: Distanciamiento de siembra de 20 cm entre planta y 80 entre surco, para mantener control de patógenos. • Plagas y enfermedadesMonitoreo y control preventivo de enfermedades como la mancha de asfalto, realizar un manejo integrado de plagas como gusano cogollero y gallina ciega. • Post cosecha: El secado del grano para su cosecha y almacenamiento debe de ser a un 14 % de humedad.• Pastos recomendados: Maralfalfa, Napier morado, King grass y maíz para forraje.• Sistemas agroforestales y silvopastoriles, promover el cultivo de plantas permanentes y cercas vivas con arboles forrajeros y bancos de pastos. • Para alimentación y adecuada nutrición del ganado se recomienda incorporación de pasturas de corte y maíz para hacer ensilaje y henos.• Manejo integrados de parásitos internos y externos.• Monitoreo y vigilancia de enfermedades por hongos como problemas de pezuña, que provoca bajos rendimientos de leche y carne, se puede prevenir con aplicaciones de cal en establos, preferible que las áreas donde permanece el ganado estén secas.• Monitoreo preventivo de enfermedades producidas por hongos como roya.• Control de maleza y sombra en la finca para evitar proliferación de enfermedades y plagas.• Aplicación de biofermentos, para que las plantas de café sean mas resistentes a ataques de enfermedades.• Estableciendo de arboles maderables en sistemas agroforestales para sobra dentro del cultivo.• Semilla variedades: Sembrar variedades de semillas no hibridas para poder guardar semilla y seguirla sembrando. Preferiblemente sembrar hortalizas de ciclo corto como rábano, mostaza, remolacha, zanahoria, cilantro, cebolla, pepino, espinaca y loroco. Le recomendamos promover el intercambio de semillas para diversificación del huerto. • Suelo: Preparación del suelo con la incorporación de residuos orgánicos como pulpa de café, estiércol de ganado y abonos orgánicos como Bocashi. • Manejo Agronómico: tratar cultivos con productos orgánicos evitando utilizar agroquímicos, es necesario la colocación de barreras vivas de zacate de limón y valeriana. • Plagas y Enfermedades: Incorporación de plantas aromáticas y medicinales que repelen plagas, realizar un manejo preventivo de plagas y enfermedades con MM5, para enfermedades de tipo fungoso con Sulfocalcio y, realización de fertilización foliar con madrifol.¿Cómo usar el agua eficientemente?. Se debe realizar una planificación del riego para evitar un exceso o una insuficiencia del agua en los cultivos, según fase fenológico de la planta.. Recuerde: Implementar en su fincas tecnologías de uso eficiente del agua para la adaptación al cambio climático y la seguridad alimentaria, tales como:• Prácticas de conservación de los suelos y manejo integrado de cultivos para riego y que sirvan para mantener la humedad en el suelo. • Protección de manantiales o fuentes de agua debe ser prioridad de todos sus habitantes.• Utilizar tecnologías para la captación y almacenamiento del agua, tanto de las que provienen de las precipitaciones o aguas lluvias, como las superficiales y aguas subterráneas. • Implementar tecnologías para el bombeo y la distribución de agua para fines agropecuarios, utilizando técnicas de riego que minimicen las pérdidas de agua y de erosión del suelo. • Reutilización del agua grises o servidas, a través de sistemas de dosificación y desinfección que permiten un uso eficiente del agua y de los nutrientes en los sistemas de riego, principalmente para huertos familiares. ","tokenCount":"10862"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aecd7ea00091d2c86c98f7c7e856ccc6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/0f18e30e-9eb9-4292-8835-48336e3e5418/content","id":"-616786466"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c65dda2a-9bcf-4f9b-8406-5e5b99887243","pagecount":"32","content":"Le sort de Kwaku Yamoah-Boampong, comme d'ailleurs celui du Ghana, son pays natal, a ete quelque peu aleatoire -c'est le moins qu'on puisse dire. En fait, il semble bien que ces deux types de situations, individuelle et collective, soient lies, voire inseparables. A la fin des annees 70, Kwaku avait tente de suivre un destin different d~ celui des autres Ghaneens en emigrant au Nigeria. Mais la solution que lui et des milliers de compatriotes trouverent la-bas a leurs problemes economiques a tourne court et ils rentrerent en masse en 1983. L'economie avait beau annonce des temps meilleurs, il etait difficile d'etre prepare a l'afflux soudain de pres d'un million de Nationaux.Comme beaucoup de ces \"revenants\", Kwaku, professeur de formation, avait finalement decide de s'occuper d'agriculture sur une terre qui avait appartenue a ses parents dans le village de Atrunsu-Techiman situe dans la region de Brong-Ahafo. La premiere annee, 1984, fut si difficile qu'il passa tres pres de la catastrophe. Comme Kwaku n'avait pas l'argent qui lui eut permis de s'etablir et ne parvenait a obtenir aucune aide de la part des banques, il dut contracter un emprunt prive a un taux d'interet eleve. Cependant, deux bonnes recoltes, a la grande et a la petite Saison, lui permirent de rembourser ses prets et de mettre de cote de quoi couvrir les frais de production de la saison suivante. Plus ou moins en meme temps, l'economie personnelle de Kwaku commenGa a se developper, tout comme l'economie nationale recoltant les fruits d'un programme de redressement economique.L'inflation chuta de 122% en 1983 a 23% en 1986 et le taux de croissance du produit national brut atteignit 5,3% en 1985 et 5,6% en 1986.Certes, la prosperite de Kwaku etait en partie fortuite: il exploitait 10 acres de terre cultivable de bonne qualite et avait beneficie pendant cette premiere annee difficile de conditions climatiques propices. Neanmoins, meme avec les pluies appropriees, l'annee n'aurait probablement pas pu etre aussi reussie si trois conditions n'avaient ete reunies: 1) des varietes de ma!s et de niebe ameliorees fournies par l'Institut de recherches sur les cultures (CRI), 2) la culture en lignes et 3) \"deux sacs/deux sacs\" (le rapport en sacs par acre recommande par les services de vulgarisation agricole pour !'application d'engrais compose et de sulfate d'ammoniac sur les champs de mais tels que celui de Kwaku).S'il disposait de ces differentes possibilites, c'est pour une large part grace au travail effectue par le Projet de developpement des grains du Ghana (GGDP) mis en place en 1979 pour ameliorer la production de . mais, importante source de calories et la production de niebe, precieux reservoir de proteines. L'execution de ce Projet est a la charge du CRI et du Centre international d'amelioration du mais et du ble (CIMMYT); il est finance par le gouvernement du Ghana et par l' Agence canadienne de developpement international (CIDA). Les autres organismes qui participent a ce projet sont le Ministere de !'agriculture du Ghana (MOA) et le Bureau de developpement des grains et legumineuses (GLDB), dont le personnel de vulgarisation s'est fortement engage dans la partie du projet en milieu rural et l'Institut international d'agriculture tropicale (IIT A) qui dirige des recherches sur le niebe et travaillera prochainement sur le manioc au Ghana dans le cadre d'un projet separe.Un des enseignements les plus importants est la necessite de fonder la recherche, la vulgarisation et la politique agricoles sur les besoins et conditions des agriculteurs .La presente publication rend compte de la maniere dont ces organismes concertent leur action et contribuent a assurer que l'actuelle recuperation economique du pays est accompagnee de quelques mesures de developpement au profit de la population rurale dont la subsistance repose sur la culture vivriere. Ce faisant, elle fait ressortir de !'experience du GGDP, plusieurs idees en recherche et vulgarisation agricoles qui pourraient etre appliquees de fac;on plus large au Ghana et etre utiles au developpement en Afrique sudsaharienne.L'un des enseignements les plus importants, assurement, est que la recherche, les services de vulgarisation et la politique agricole doivent s'appuyer en derniere analyse sur les besoins et les conditions generales des agriculteurs. Le developpement n'obtient probablement pas de  veritables resultats si les scientifiques se limitent a traiter des questions etrangeres aux problemes que rencontrent les producteurs d'aliments de la nation, ou bien quand les agents de vulgarisation n'offrent rien de concret et de serieux (en ne disposant meme pas des moyens de parcourir la region) ou encore lorsque les responsables de la politique agricole agissent dans le vide, coupes des realites de la vie rurale. Par contre, il peut donner des resultats Si les chercheurs de plusieurs disciplines, les agents de vulgarisation et les agriculteurs font converger leurs efforts vers une plus grande efficacite de la production vivriere et quand la politique agricole du pays se degage des informations mises a jour par la reunion de ces differents secteurs.Cette maniere de faire entre peu a peu en pratique dans des regions selectionnees du Ghana et a, jusqu'a maintenant, tres bien reussi dans la zone de transition (entre la foret et la savane). la oil habite Kwaku Yamoah-Boampong. Pour expliquer ce qui a ete fait jusque la, nous commencerons par parler des agriculteurs et des relations qui existent entre eux, les services de vulgarisation et la recherche; nous traiterons ensuite du contenu des recherches en cours qui s'effectuent en exploitation et en station experimentale. Nous concluerons en discutant des problemes qui affectent la longevite et !'impact final du travail du GGDP.Le Ghana n 'est pas un pays tres etendu et sa population n'est pas tres nombreuse (voir tableau et carte) . On peut facilement embrasser d'un coup d'oeil ses regions agroclimatiques. ainsi que d'autres caracteristiques culturales. Pourtant un examen plus attentif revele la tres grande diversite des traditions agricoles, du milieu socioeconomique et geographique. De plus, ces traditions ne consistent pas en des corps figes de croyances agricoles, mais en des combinaisons en changement permanent de pratiques et strategies de   • moindre mesure dans le sud forestier que dans la zone de transition. Ceci s'explique par plusieurs raisons: jusqu'a un passe recent, le systeme mais/manioc, plus complexe que la monoculture du mai's, avait fait l'objet de moins de recherches que cette derniere. Aussi, il y a peu de temps que les chercheurs en agriculture ont ete en mesure de formuler et de verifier des recommandations a son egard. En etudiant ce systeme, ils ont decouvert un certain nombre de facteurs specifiques qui aident a expliquer les raisons pour lesquelles ceux qui le pratiquent pouvaient etre moins tentes d'adopter des technologies ameliorees. Par exemple, dans la zone fbrestiere , les chercheurs ont decouvert que les champs de culture associee etaient frequemment travailles sur des periodes plus courtes que les champs en monoculture et que, par consequent, les periodes de friches y etaient plus longues: ainsi, puisque le sol se regenere plus vite a l'etat de friche que sous culture, les (suite a la page 71 \"On ne mange pas seul\"Il existe au Ghana un objet particulierement courant et (au moins pour un etranger) attachant. propre a la vie rurale: le \"tro-tro\". C'est une espece de camion qui transporte les gens, leurs biens, leurs betes et qui vehicule par dessus le marche des miettes de sagesse traditionnelle peintes en grosses lettres. \"On ne mange pas seul\" en est un exemple. Cette phrase veut dire que la nourriture, parmi d'autres biens materiels tels que l'argent et les livres, ne devrait pas etre consommee par une seule personne mais, au contra.ire. etre partagee avec les amis (Gyinaye Kyei et Schreckenback 1975). La mise en pratique generalisee de ce sentiment genereux rencontre cependant des difficultes liees a des gouts alimentaires qui varient selon les regions du pays. Ces differences sont telles qu'un habitant de la region Brong-Ahafo dit a propos de la preparation habituelle du mais chez ses voisins du sud: \"Si vous voulez faire souffrir un homme Ashanti, faites-lui manger du kenkey\" .Afin de determiner les effets des preferences alimentaires sur la culture du mais, les membres du GGDP testent actuellement jusqu'a quel point des varietes ameliorees se pretent a la preparation de certains plats a base de mais. Jusqu'a present, les experiences n'ont pas abouti a des resultats concluants. Neanmoins, les chercheurs continuent de s'interesser de temps en temps au gout des consommateurs vis a vis des produits de germoplasme parce que, comme il en va des systemes culturaux dans lesquels le mais est produit, il en va des methodes selon lesquelles il est prepare: variations et changements sont la regle. Parmi les preparations a base de mais observables dans le pays. on La vie des femmes ghaneennes suit le rythme sans fin des tiiches qui consistent a preparer la nourriture: sechage au soleil du ma•is pile pour le tuo zafi dans le nord et petrissage de la pate pour le kenkey dans le sud.rencontre le kenkey (dont les deux varietes principales sont le Fanti et le Ga) et le tuo zafi. Pour preparer le kenkey, on fait tremper les grains de mais pendant trois jours, moulus ou piles fin et melanges a de l'eau pour obtenir une pate; le tout ou presque doit fermenter pendant trois jours et doit etre ensuite partiellement cuit et remue sans interruption. La pate ainsi cuite et fermentee est alors melangee a un peu de pate non fermentee et moulee en boule. Dans le cas du Fanti kenkey (l'espece preferee de la population de langue Fanti de la region centrale), les boules de pate sont enveloppees dans des feuilles de bananier et bouillies. Pour le Ga kenkey. les spathes de mais remplacent les feuilles de bananier. Un jour, un homme politique ghaneen nous a dit: la taille de la boule de Ga kenkey qui se vend au marche est un indicateur fiable de la sante de l'economie, meme si cela reflete plut6t actuellement le prix du mais. Le tuo zafi, le plat prefere dans le nord du Ghana se prepare en sechant le grain avant de le moudre ou de le piler; la poudre ainsi obtenue est versee dans de l'eau bouillante pour obtenir une sorte de bouillie epaisse. La tradition voulait que le tuo zafi soit prepare a base de sorgho ou de millet, mais depuis que la culture du mais s'est etendue sur la zone de savane, celui-ci est de plus en plus utilise dans la preparation du tuo zafi.  Mise a part !'existence, au Ghana, de traditions agricoles variees, les exemples qui precedent suggerent que le changement opere deliberement leur est inherent. Que ceci soit vrai bien avant que les chercheurs soient entres en scene, c'est evident en ce qui concerne certains des systemes de culture que nous avons examines et qui presentent de nombreuses especes de plantes pas meme originaires de l' Afrique sud-saharienne.   (suite a la page 11} agricole. En 1988, par exemple, les cours portant sur la production que le GGDP a offerts aux agents de vulgarisation ont ete bien suivis par les femmes. Selon le point de vue de Collins Osei-Kwabena, coordinateur des formations dans le cadre du Projet, l'elargissement du r6le des femmes dans la vulgarisation pourrait contribuer a accelerer le rythme de l'extension de la production de niebe dans le sud (une culture traditionnelle dans le nord); en effet, ces specialistes des• savoirs domestiques apporteront leur competence a la fois a la production et a l'utilisation de niebe. D'une maniere generale, plus les femmes seront engagees a part entiere dans la vulgarisation des pratiques de production, plus les agricultrices seront sures de recevoir les informations adequates sur l~s technologies ameliorees et plus elles auront l'occasion d'exprimer leur propre opinion.Presque depuis les debuts du GGDP, la plus grande partie de ses travaux ont consiste en recherches en milieu reel avec un calendrier et un type d'organisation modeles sur les conditions specifiques du Ghana. 11 importe de ne pas perdre de vue, par exemple, que le Projet est execute dans un environnement institutionnel complexe dans lequel les activites distinctes, mais dependantes entre elles, relevent d'organismes differents dont la situation et l'efficacite peuvent varier. Par consequent. l'equipe chargee du Projet a adopte une attitude souple dans !'organisation de la recherche en milieu reel. dans le travail de vulgarisation, la production de semences et dans d'autres activites-cle, en prenant en compte la capacite des organismes qui y participent a effectuer une tache determinee a un certain moment et dans un lieu donne.Ainsi, le personnel du Projet a mis tous ses efforts dans le renforcement des liens, au depart quelque peu fragiles, en particulier entre la recherche et la vulgarisation. Du point de vue administratif, les deux sont separes: la recherche releve du Ministere de l'industrie, de la science et de la technologie et la vulgarisation, du Ministere de !'agriculture. Une telle division n'est pas inhabituelle et presente dans la pratique certains avantages et peut fonctionner de maniere satisfaisante.Les agents de vulgarisation tel que Owusu Kwarteng, responsable des activites du Bureau de developpement des grains et legumineuses (GLOB) dans la region Ashanti du Ghana, comptent parmi ceux qui ont contribue a changer !'agriculture traditionnelle du pays. L • agricultrice avec laquelle ii s' entretient ici est deja passee des semailles a la volee a la culture en lignes. Et si !' explication d'Owusu est suffisamment convaincante, elle se mettra a utiliser son couteau pour mesurer l'espace recommande entre les rangs de plants de ma'is et aura recours a un baton plutot qu ' a une corde pour s'assurer qu'ils sont bien alignes.    Aucune des actions qui viennent d'etre decrites-evolution d 'un programme national de recherche en milieu rural et confiance croissante dans les chercheurs et les agents de vulgarisation-n'aurait ete accomplie si le GGDP n'avait pas etabli des le depart n'aurait un programme diversifie et systematique destine a former l'equipe ghaneenne a tousles niveaux. Le succes de ce programme, a son tour, etait tributaire de !'existence d'un ensemble appreciable de personnes capables dont beaucoup avaient deja suivi une formation dans les universites ghaneennes, au sein d'organismes gouvernementaux et dans le cadre de projets de developpement anterieurs et etaient desireux de devenir professionnels.Au commencement du Projet, trois types de formation du personnel ont ete engages et ont ete poursuivis jusqu'a present: 1) etudes de niveau licence, 2) cours avec participation active sur des zones ou des problemes specifiques de recherche et 3) formation sur place essentiellement adressee aux agents de vulgarisation.Le Projet a consacre un investissement important a l'accroissement de la capacite de recherche dans le pays en envoyant plusieurs groupes suivre des formations de premier cycle dans divers domaines comme l'amelioration genetique, l'agronomie, l'economie agricole, l'entomologie, les techniques de production de semences et la biometrie. Pendant la phase I. six personnes ont obtenu leur maitrise; cinq d 'entre elles ont poursuivi un doctorat en phase II. Huit personnes de plus ont obtenu leur maitrise en phase II. Bien que tous les candidats de premier cycle soient alles a l'etranger effectuer leurs etudes (au Canada, aux Etats-Unis et au Royaume-Uni), quelques-uns ont mene la recherche pour leur these de maitrise ou de doctorat au Ghana ou au siege de l'IIT A a Ibadan (Nigeria).Dans les annees soixante dix, sept Ghaneens ont pris part, au CIMMYT, a des cours d 'une duree de cinq mois sur l'amelioration du mais, la recherche sur !'amelioration des pratiques agronomiques ou la gestion d 'une station experimentale; d'autres ont participe, a l'IITA, a des cours de courte duree sur la production du mais et du niebe, parmi d 'autres sujets. Done, au moment ou le Projet grains commenc;a en 1979, le programme national possedait deja un noyau de techniciens pour aider au lancement du programme de recherche, en particulier sa partie sur exploitation. A mesure que le programme a pris de l'ampleur, on a intensifie la formation de ce type. Au terme de la phase I, 27 personnes avaient suivi des cours et on en comptait 38 dans la phase II, au CIMMYT, a l'IITA, a l'universite de Guelph au Canada, a l'universite de Reading au Royaume-Uni et a l'Institut international de recherche sur les cultures des zones tropicales semi-arides (ICRISAT) en In de.Les differents types de techniques acquis dans ces cours, ainsi qu'une grande quantite de connaissances, fruit des activites et de !'experience propres du GGDP, sont enseignes chaque annee a un nombre croissant d'agents de vulgarisation du GLDB et du MOA a !'occasion des formations sur place qui sont coordonnees par l'Unite de formation et de communication du Projet (voir page 18). Un des objectifs de ces cours est de maintenir le personnel de vulgarisation bien informe de toute modification intervenue dans les recommandations portant sur la production du mais et du niebe (elles sont publiees dans une brochure mise a jour chaque annee) et sur les resultats les plus recents des programmes de recherche ayant trait a ces cultures. Un autre but est de preparer les agents de vulgarisation a conduire les experiences ou les demonstrations en exploitation et a organiser des joumees de travail sur le terrain et d'autres activites visant a la fois a promouvoir !'adoption des technologies ameliorees par les agriculteurs et a obtenir leurs points de vue sur ces innovations. Ces cours ont non seulement represente un moyen efficace d'enseigner des techniques et de dispenser des connaissances a un grand nombre d'equipes, mais a permis aussi de fabriquer et de consolider continuellement et en profondeur des liens vitaux entre agriculteurs,agents de vulgarisation et chercheurs. Face a cette importante contribution, le GGDP a developpe et ameliore ses formations en participation active en les plac;ant sous la responsabilite de deux equipes a plein temps, en donnant une formation large a ces instructeurs et en s'appuyant sur l'aide de specialistes en formation et en vulgarisation a l'universite de Guelph.La formation sur place et les travaux de recherche qui la constituent s'articulent autour d'un petit livre vert qui, malgre une apparence sans pretention a laquelle il sera bient6t remedie, presente une qualite rare et tout a fait impressionnante. II s'agit du Guide de la production du mais et du niebe au Ghana etabli par le GGDP; ce livre est devenu l'autorite en matiere de sources d'information sur le sujet et ne se limite pas a un projet ou a une region en particulier, mais porte sur !'ensemble du pays. Si ce dont avait besoin le Ghana en 1979 consistait en une technologie agricole nouvelle pour la production de mais et de niebe, le GGDP aurait peut-etre pu la lui foumir en amenant une armee de scientifiques expatries. Le personnel du Projet a prefere decider d'entreprendre un programme de recherche aussi large que ce que pouvaient prendre en charge un scientifique du CIMMYT et le personnel ghaneen disponible au CRI a l'epoque et d'etablir des programmes de formation qui augmenteraient progressivement le volume et les competences de ces demiers, tout ceci accompagne d 'une croissance limitee du personnel expatrie. Ce que le Ghana a gagne au cout de pres de dix ans sont Jes elements qui etaient la condition necessaire au changement: un ensemble de techniques permettant de repondre aux besoins elementaires des agriculteurs et un potentiel autochtone en croissance rapide pour affronter les necessites et Jes circonstances futures .Le resultat le plus important qu'a atteint le programme d'amelioration du mais du Projet a consiste jusqu'a maintenant a creer et a commercialiser six varietes a pollinisation libre (materiel obtenu du CIMMYT et de l'IITA) qui satisfont a elles seules les besoins en germoplasme de !'ensemble du pays et qui presentent un rendement et d'autres caracteristiques nettement avantageux par rapport aux varietes locales qu'elles remplacent. Pourtant, il n'est pas rare qu'une variete amelioree reste sur le marche pendant dix ans ou plus. Les ameliorateurs du Projet n'ont pas !'intention de permettre un tel etat de choses et travaillent au remplacement de la generation actuelle de varietes par un materiel nouveau presentant des proprietes additionnelles dont les agriculteurs sont demandeurs.Une bonne couverture de l'epi est l'une des caracteristiques que les selectionneurs cherchent a developper dans !'ensemble de leur germoplasme. Ceci aide a eviter la pourriture de l'epi et !'infestation par les insectes ravageurs du grain en reserve pendant que le mais est encore sur le champ. Un autre probleme serieux apparu au Ghana en 1983 est le virus de la striure du mais, maladie endemique en Afrique. En utilisant un germoplasme resistant developpe au Nigeria par le CIMMYT et l'IIT A, les ameliorateurs de mais travaillent au remplacement des cinq varietes courantes par des versions resistantes a la striure virale qui ont aussi une couverture de l'epi amelioree. L'une d'elles, appelee Okomasa (qui signifie \"plus de faim\"). a fait son apparition en 1988 et sera a la disposition des agriculteurs aux alentours de la grande saison prochaine. Ces resultats refletent Jes nets progres qui menent a un but auquel les ameliorateurs du Projet travaillent en collaboration avec la plupart des programmes d'amelioration du mais des pays en developpement et qui deviennent de plus en plus efficaces dans !'utilisation des produits de germoplasme et des donnees fournis par les centres internationaux de recherche agricole, ainsi que d'autres sources, afin de developper une ligne complete de produits finaux destines aux agriculteurs.Avec la multiplication des expertises des activites d'amelioration, le programme s'est fixe de nouveaux objectifs parmi lesquels le developpement d'hybrides de mais. Une demande a l'egard de ces mais existe actuellement chez un nombre relativement limite d'agriculteurs ayant des activites commerciales a grande echelle et la Compagnie des semences du Ghana (principal fournisseur de semences, mais limite par des problemes financiers et autres) pretend qu'elle pourrait se convertir en une entreprise commercialement viable-comme ses homologues du Kenia et du Zimbabwe-si, comme eux, elle pouvait commercialiser des hybrides.Mais il s'agit d'un serieux \"si'' parce que les hybrides imposent de fortes exigences a la fois aux producteurs de semences et aux agrtculteurs. Bien que la production des semences de mais hybride implique pour une large part les memes operations que la production efficace de la semences de mais, elle exige cependant un certain nombre de procedes supplementaires dont !'execution demande le plus grand soin qui augmente le prix du produit final. De plus, les agriculteurs acheteurs des semences hybrides doivent etre disposes a payer ce prix chaque annee (et non pas tousles deux ou trois ans comme c' est le cas La mauvaise couverture de l'epi de ma•is favorise !'infestation de la cereale par les insectes ravageurs du grain stocke. Ceci en a fait la priorite des priorites pour les ameliorateurs de ma\"is du GGDP .pour les varietes a pollinisation libre). Et, a moins que le niveau des activites de culture soit tres eleve, il n'y aura pas de difference notable entre les resultats obtenus avec les hybrides et ceux deja atteints avec les varietes disponibles. Par consequent, les agriculteurs ne recevront pas le benefice plus important de la production qui devrait couvrir le c011t plus eleve des semences hybrides (CIMMYT 1987).Sans aucun doute, la capacite de production de semences du Ghana s'est accrue d'annee en annee et on est en droit d 'attendre encore une amelioration. Le CRI apporte actuellement sa contribution au developpement de la capacite productive de semences du pays en foumissant aux producteurs des semences de haute qualite pour la reproduction (a partir desquelles ils produisent en retour des semences de base et ensuite des semences certifiees pour les agrtculteurs) et en dirigeant des recherches sur l'agronomie de la production des semences. Le GGDP, de son cote, a recemment entrepris d'offrir une formation sur place sur la production des semences. Les pratiques agronomiques des cultivateurs ont ete aussi ameliorees grace aux efforts realises dans le Projet. en particulier dans la zone de transition ou la production commerciale du mais en monoculture est la regle. Neanmoins. Baffour Badu-Apraku, ameliorateur de mais dans le cadre du Projet, estime que le pays ne sera pas en mesure de produire des semences hybrides de haute qualite avant environ c~nq ans, et ne disposera pas d'un marche en expansion pour ce produit avant ce laps de temps. 11 a ainsi opte pour l'opinion optimiste, mais prudente, selon laquelle, alors que le pays se prepare progressiveJilent aux semences hybrides, le programme mais devrait demarrer par un effort modeste pour developper les hybrides, d'abord les types dits non conventionnels qui peuvent etre developpes plus rapidement {et dont la production des semences est plus simple a gerer) plut6t que les hybrides conventionnels cultives partout en Amerique du Nord et en Europe et tres repandus dans certains pays en developpement comme le Bresil et la Chine (CIMMYT 1987).A partir de 1985, alors que le complement en ameliorateurs de legumineuses a grains au sein du GGDP etait amene a trois (en comptant M.A. Hossain, scientifique de l'IITA), le programme de selection a pris un rapide essor. La plus grande partie de ses ressources a ete canalisee sur un programme de croisement du niebe, bien que par ailleurs les ameliorateurs soient en train d'evaluer certaines vartetes prometteuses d'arachide et de soja. L'objectif prioritaire du programme de croisement consiste a incorporer aux varietes locales selectionnees de niebe des genes de resistance a divers insectes et maladies. Le probleme le plus important que pose le niebe au Ghana et dans l'Ouest africain est en general le degat cause par differentes especes d'insectes et le defile plus difficile pour l'equipe du GGDP qui travaille sur le niebe est de developper des varietes ayant une resistance suffisante aux insectes; s'il ne s'agit pas d'eliminer la necessite de repandre des insecticides, il s'agit pour le mains de ramener le nombre de pulverisations de trois OU quatre a deux.Jusqu'a present, le programme d'amelioration de legumineuses a grains a commercialise quatre varietes de niebe destinees et a etre distribuees aux agriculteurs. Bien qu'il soit premature de mener une etude sur I' adoption des varietes de niebe et sur les pratiques de culture (comme cela s'est fait pour le mais dans la region de Brong-Ahafo), cependant quelqu'un semble eprouver un vif interet pour cette question et est en train de transmettre son enthousiasme a une population rurale assez large. Celui a qui nous pensons est un conducteur de \"tro-tro\" de la region Ashanti, dont le vehicule porte en grosses lettres de couleur, non pas le brin habituel de sagesse populaire, mais le nom d'une nouvelle variete de niebe. Asontem.Les agronomes du GGDP ant observe la regle consistant a n'entreprendre la moindre recherche que si elle est susceptible de produire des donnees utiles aux agriculteurs. C'est a cette directive tres pratique qu'on attribue en grande partie le fait qu'ils aient ete capables de developper une technologie (grace a la conjugaison judicieuse de recherches en stations experimentales et sur exploitation) aptes a accroitre sur les aires de recherche a l'essai les rendements de mais jusqu'a trois fois ceux obtenus au sud du Ghana par des pratiques non ameliorees et multiplier par cinq ceux de la savane du nord; des gains tout aussi impressionnants ant ete obtenus par l'adoption de pratiques ameliorees dans la production de niebe. II faut ajouter que les chercheurs du Projet ant montre que 50% de l'accroissement du rendement de mais est a attribuer aux engrais, 20% aux varietes ameliorees et les 30% restant a d'autres facteurs agronomiques. Les pratiques recommandees qui sont responsables de ces augmentations ant ete corn;ues dans des recherches portant sur des questions telles que le calendrier et !'emplacement des engrais et la disposition et densite des plantes, d'abord en rapport avec la monoculture, ensuite avec plusieurs systemes de culture associee, parmi lesquelles mais/niebe, mais/manioc et niebe/manioc. Les pratiques developpees aujourd'hui beneficient de l'abondance relative de la terre cultivable au Ghana (surtout au Nord), ce qui a evite dans une large mesure la pression des systemes de culture changeant, sauf autour de villes et de certaines regions du Sud. Les recommandations actuelles entretiennent aussi un degre relativement eleve de dependance a l'egard des engrais. II ne pouvait certainement pas en etre autrement depuis que, comme de nombreux agriculteurs ghaneens s'en apen;oivent. ils peuvent ameliorer l'efficacite de leur production par le seul fait d'y investir davantage et l'un des meilleurs investissements Ben Asato-Adjei, ameliorateur de legumineuses, examine le niebe pret a etre recolte dans une station experimentale du CRI. Lui et d'autres chercheurs tentent, avec le GGDP, de developper des varietes qui presentent une resistance suffisante aux insectes pour parvenir a reduire le nombre de pulverisations d'insecticide que les agriculteurs doivent effectuer pour obtenir de bons rendements de niebe.qu'ils ont trouve ace jour est l'engrais. Bien que les agrtculteurs continuent d'avoir des difficultes pour obtenir l'engrais a temps, ce probleme est a l'etude et se fera sans doute moins sentir dans les annees a venir. Ce qui, par contre, est plus inquietant est que l'abondance de terres est en train d'etre neutralisee par la croissance rapide de la population (voir tableau page 4) et on peut s'attendre a une augmentation de la pression qui s'exerce sur la terre cultivable. Les agrtculteurs ghaneens ont-ils les moyens d'utiliser encore plus extensivement les engrais qui seront necessaires au soutien de la production sur des cultures plus intensives et, si oui, quels cm1ts ecologiques payerait-on par une exploitation continue basee sur une forte utilisation de produits chimiques?Bien que n'ayant pas eu la pretention de poser d'emblee de telles questions au cours de ses premieres annees d'existence, le Projet suit actuellement plusieurs axes de recherches qui relevent du chapitre plus general portant sur l'etude des systemes de culture viables a long terme. Le but que poursuit ce travail n'est pas d. eliminer le besoin en facteurs chimiques de production sans exception, mais d'accroitre substantiellement l'efficacite de leur utilisation.Les agronomes du Projet se sont engages dans cette direction il y a quelques annees en developpant simplement des recommandations appropriees pour !'application d' engrais dans des circonstances diverses et dans differentes regions du pays. En diffusant efficacement cette information dans les services de vulgarisation, le Projet a contribue (aide par les prtx eleves des engrais) a reduire !'application indiscrtminee des engrais et a aide les agrtculteurs a faire un usage plus efficace de ce facteur de production. A present. les chercheurs explorent les possibilites de reduire !'application d'engrais au moyen des rotations mais/legumineuses et recherchent par d'autres experiences la maniere de mener une lutte plus efficace contre insectes et mauvaises herbes en reduisant au minimum le recours aux substances chimiques.Une approche qui semble prometteuse est celle qui consiste a traiter de fai;on integree les insectes ravageurs du niebe; moyen de reduire les degats dus aux insectes. une telle approche repose sur la combinaison d'un calendrier L'abondance relative de la terre au Ghana, surtout dans la region de savane au nord ou la densite de population est moindre, a evite dans une large mesure aux agriculteurs d'etre obliges de modifier leurs systemes de culture. La croissance demographique rapide et !'inquietude face a la degradation de l' environnement de toutes fai;:ons representent autant d'imperatifs pour que les chercheurs introduisent des systemes de culture alternatifs qui rendent possible le maintient de la production en recourrant a un minimum de substances agro -chimiques. Le rythme avec lequel les traditions agricoles du Ghana se dirigent vers un usage plus large et plus efficace des facteurs de production modernes et vers une meilleure productivite a long terme depend d'une espece de viabilite differente de celle discutee plus haut, compte tenu qu'il y a plus a faire du cote des institutions du pays que du cote des ressources naturelles. La question est de savoir si celles-la suffiront a soutenir et meme a developper les differents services agricoles qui commencent a etre disponibles et qui devraient aider les communautes rurales a elever leur capacite productive et leur pouvoir economique. Les commentaires qui precedent sur !'amelioration des services aux agriculteurs ne constituent qu'une approche superficielle de questions extremement complexes dont beaucoup restent sans reponse; elles sont pour le moins posees par divers groupes et selon des points de vue differents. Jusqu'a quel point ces problemes peuvent recevoir des solutions satisfaisantes? De cela dependra l'ampleur des effets tangibles que le programme de redressement economique du Ghana produira sur un plus large secteur social d 'un pays essentiellement rural. Reginald Green (1988) ","tokenCount":"5329"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0d223fcb5682351069d26fc2bf41f693","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8d5e39ea-a367-428d-bab2-1dc7ee5d5d90/retrieve","id":"1802542109"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1de3cf50-510a-4bf7-9762-49469f5d4360","pagecount":"3","content":"Step 1: Identify the right harvest time. Harvesting should be done when the crop is well mature, at complete death of the foliage, and when the tubers' skin is firm and cannot be removed by lightly rubbing the tubers with fingers. It is recommended you dehaulm plants when the foliage begins to turn yellow, and harvest 10-15 days later. Dehaulming is removing or destroying the shoots above the soil ahead of the complete maturity of the plant. It is recommended that you apply superficial irrigation 2 to 3 days before harvesting the tubers to facilitate digging them up.Step 2: Select the net harvest area (m 2 ) following SOP001 Determination of the minimum number of plants and the minimum area to be harvested for correct crop yield determinations.Step 3: Locate and mark the net harvest area by placing four pegs -one at each corner. Only tubers that are inside the delineated area should be harvested.Step 4: Count the number of plants within the net harvest area.Step 5: Dig up all tubers in the net harvest area and leave them on the ground to dry until the soil caked on the tubers dries and falls off (maximum 2 hours).Step 6: Count the number of tubers. Optionally disaggregate the tubers as (i) small tubers (diameter < 3 cm); (ii) large, diseased/damaged tubers (diameter ≥ 3 cm and severe to extremely severe symptoms of diseases/pests); and (iii) large, marketable tubers (diameter ≥ 3 cm and no to mild symptoms of diseases/pests).Step 7: Measure the fresh weight of the tubers. Optionally disaggregate the tubers as in Step 6.Step 8: Take one or more (sub-) samples of the tubers (all tubers or disaggregated by size and disease damage as in Step 6) of about 100-200 grams per (sub-) sample for dry matter assessment and record the fresh weight. Place them in bags or sacks with proper labels (barcode, or site, date, treatment, replication, plot number, etc.). We recommend you sample at least 1% of the total tuber weight harvested in the net plot to make sure the sample is representative. If 1% of the total harvested tuber weight is more than 200 g, divide the sample into several subsamples and place them in different bags for oven-drying.Step 9: Transport samples to a research station or any other place where samples can be properly processed, dried and stored.Step 10: Cut the tuber samples into small pieces and oven-dry (with forced air circulation) at 105 ͦ C for 72 hours or until constant weight. Keep some space between samples in the oven to allow a flow of air inside the oven and avoid fermentation of the samples. Measure the dry weight of the samples.Step 1: Calculate the fresh tuber yield (kg/ha) using formula (1).Fresh tuber yield (kg/ha) =Fresh tuber weight of the net harvest area (g) × 10,000(1) 1000Net harvest area (m 2 )Where the division by 1000 is the conversion of grams to kg; and the multiplication by 10,000 is the conversion from m 2 to ha.You may also calculate fresh marketable tuber yield (kg/ha) using the fresh weight of the marketable tubers (diameter > 3 cm and no to mild symptoms of diseases/pests) in the net harvest area.Step 2: Calculate the dry matter content of the fresh tubers (%) using formula (2).Dry matter content of the fresh tubers (%) = Dry weight of the sample (g) × 100(2) Fresh weight of the sample (g)Step 3: Calculate the dry tuber yield (kg/ha) using formula (3). ","tokenCount":"579"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9497c9e4846a1f16e8b9646042a8c94e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8eb268b2-6399-4006-9436-d71dc0ba05a7/retrieve","id":"-320229220"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"30f0dad6-6afa-4107-ba1b-b66bb671ff28","pagecount":"44","content":"Bangladesh is the seventh most vulnerable country to climatic risks due to its exposure to extreme weather events and climate hazards. The recurrent floods, rising sea levels, high temperatures, cyclones, and increased salinity threaten food production, livelihoods, and infrastructure in coastal communities. The coastal polder zones in Bangladesh are densely populated and are home to around eight million people. In the 1960s and 1970s, earthen embankments and associated water control structures were constructed around the low-lying tracts of land called \"polders\" to protect the land and people from saline water intrusion and high tides. The government has made several investments in constructing and maintaining polders to minimize the vulnerabilities faced by the coastal population. Despite these investments, the low agricultural productivity in these regions remains a concern, primarily due to water management challenges such as lack of maintenance of polder infrastructure, among others. Women comprise a significant proportion of the population in polders. Despite their critical roles in domestic and production spheres, water management remains a male domain because of limited access and control over resources and restrictive social norms.Women are a significant part of the population, and their ability to exercise their rights and make important decisions can have significant positive outcomes on the governance of natural resources, agricultural productivity, and livelihoods. The study examined gender and power relations and associated dynamics in water governance and how they contribute to gender equality and women's empowerment. It investigated the gender differences in participation and decision-making in the water governance process and analyzed the factors that facilitate or constrain women's participation in water governance. It studied gender equality and women's empowerment or disempowerment outcomes/tradeoffs of participating in water management governance.Within the 139 polders in coastal Bangladesh, this study randomly selected 56 water management groups (WMGs) from randomly eight polders in Khulna and Patuakhali, representing southwest and southcentral coastal polder zones. Using stratified random sampling, we interviewed 1360 households comprising 1020 males and 1020 females. We find that both men and women recognize the need for water management governance, and activities such as sluice gate maintenance, infrastructure development, and community service done by WMGs have proven effective in managing water resources. The study found gender differences in the type of engagement in activities, as women predominantly participated in training and vi community service activities, while men dealt with infrastructure development and productionrelated activities. Interestingly, women members reported active participation in WMG meetings and in decision-making about the operation of sluice gates for irrigation and drainage, and membership fees. Even though the 30% quota has always been met in the executive committee of WMGs, men dominate the leadership role. Women are not found in critical positions such as president, or vice-president.However, women's participation in polder water management increased agricultural production and household income. Also, being a member of WMG improved women's engagement in joint decision-making on various domains inside and outside the home.Women's participation in various activities and training outside the home increased their knowledge and abilities, as well as their encouragement to engage in productive activities.Membership in WMGs also improved social status and quality of life.Efficient management and governance of water resources become critical amidst the climate change concerns on natural resources and livelihoods dependent on these resources. Women play an integral role in managing water resources in production and domestic spheres. Thus, their participation and decision-making have implications for equitable and sustainable water resource management, agricultural productivity, and food security in polder zones. Our study shows that the existing policies of the government and efforts of non-governmental organizations have improved women's participation over time. However, that did not necessarily translate into active engagement in decision-making and leadership spheres. As expected, several structural and contextual factors influenced women's participation in water governance. While access to and control over resources and assets positively influenced women's participation in water governance, the restrictive cultural norms prevented women from participating in community activities as part of water management groups. This raises a critical concern about policies that aim for inclusion instead of envisaging an enabling space for transformation that consider the power relations and social norms responsible for gender differences in participation and decision-making. For example, we observed that unpaid domestic burden was a barrier for women members who could not participate in activities and meetings due to lack of time. Therefore, measures and interventions like, behavioral and social change communication can help redistribute the unpaid work burden and address mobility barriers. We also found that the lack of leadership skills and training prevented women members from actively engaging in discussions around water governance. Thus, investment in vii women's technical and leadership skills can build their confidence and empower them to participate and take decisions in community governance of resources. Our study notes that women participating in water management groups engaged in decision-making in the domestic and productive spheres. The exposure to information on water resources and production decisions made them feel empowered. However, we need more research to understand the changes in gender relations and power dynamics at the household and community level due to the improved participation of women in water management.Bangladesh, the largest river delta in the world, relies heavily on water resources for life and livelihood. The coastal region is exceptionally susceptible to climate stressors such as flooding, saline intrusion, and natural disasters (Neumann et al., 2015;Renaud et al., 2013). In the 1960s and 1970s, low-lying tracts of land in the southern coastal zone were enclosed by earthen embankments to construct polders that protect residents from seawater intrusion and tidal flooding (Quassem et al., 2006). There are a total of 139 polders in 14 coastal districts of Bangladesh (Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Jessore, Pirojpur, Barguna, Patuakhali, Barisal, Bhola, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Feni, Chittagong & Cox's Bazar). The polders cover about 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land and is home to around ten million people (Chandna et al., 2014). A significant part of the population is women, and their ability to exercise their rights and make important decisions can have significant positive outcomes on the governance of natural resources, agricultural productivity, and livelihoods (Clement et al., 2019).The hydrology of the coastal zone in Bangladesh is considerably distinct from that of other regions. It is the meeting point of fresh and saline water and water level is controlled by semidiurnal tides. Embankments were constructed around the available land sealed with sluice gates that allow the community to control the in and out of the water from the river. The abundant water and fertile land are both underutilized despite considerable opportunities to increase their contribution to food and nutritional security (Nath et al., 2019). This is primarily caused by poor water management across a vast area.The economy of polder regions is mainly focused on agriculture. Within the polders, agricultural potential is partly influenced by the nature of the rivers. Tidal rivers carry flood flows during the monsoon season but are saline during dry seasons when upstream flows are low. Polder farmers utilize non-saline river waters for farming. In order to maximize the use of freshwater, increase agricultural production, and serve as economic drivers in polders, \"Water Management Groups (WMGs)\" were formed at the community level for polder water management. WMGs work to make the best use of and decisions about water resources for agricultural production. For water-based governance to be successful, broader, and equitable participation is essential (Khandker et al., 2020;Ostrom, 1992). In theory, the formation of WMGs should help boost economic growth in the polder communities.However, for equitable and broader participation, the interests and needs of women should be taken into a particular account since they face more barriers. Firstly, although performing a considerable amount of agricultural work, women are rarely acknowledged as farmers. Due to sociocultural and gender norms, women have less access to information, expertise, and resources than males. Most decisions on agricultural and income expenditures, market access, and public speaking are made by men. Also, women confront structural barriers, such as wage gaps. Evidence suggests that increasing women's engagement in collective and communitymanaged governance, such as, water management increases social equity and empowers women (Agarwal, 1997).Therefore, this study focused on assessing the extent and level of women's and men's participation in WMGs. The study also examined gender differences in perceived benefits of participating in WMGs, challenges and constraints for participation in WMGs, and the impact of participation in WMGs on access to and control over resources, income, and livelihoods of women and men.The Khulna and Patuakhali polder zones are located in the southwest and southcentral regions of Bangladesh, respectively. Khulna and Patuakhali polder zones have 11 and 10 polders, respectively. All the polders were constructed by Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) between 1960and 1970(Blue Gold, 2015). The present study was conducted in eight polders: polders 22, 29, 30 and 34/2 Part located in the medium saline environment of Khulna polder zone and polders 43/1A, 43/2A, 43/2B and 43/2F in the low saline environment of Patuakhali region in Bangladesh (Figure 1). The eight polders are administered by 313 WMGs, and information was collected from 56 WMGs (Table 1). The selected WMGs in each polder are presented in Figures 2 and 3.   The study used purposive and stratified random survey techniques, as well as a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approach to focus group discussions. Data were collected from April-August 2022 in Khulna and September-November 2022 in Patuakhali regions using both quantitative and qualitative methods. We considered sampling 2% of the population (mainly due to logistic reasons). A total of 1260 families (720 in Khulna and 640 in Patuakhali) were interviewed, with 1020 males and 1020 females in each polder (Figure 4). The interviews sought various responses to gender and power dynamics analyses in water governance. The survey questions revolve around the following topics: basic household information, level, and extent of participation in WMGs, role in household decision-making and income generation, access to and control over resources, income and decision-making over household expenditures, leadership and influence in the community, time use pattern, and social norms. Sixteen focus group discussions with male and female WMG members were conducted, two in each polder (one with women and one with men at each site). Each focus group had 10-17 participants, including executive members. Focus groups were used to elicit information on WMG functioning, the role of men and women in WMG, role and responsibility of executive committee members of WMGs.Agriculture plays a major source of employment and livelihood for women in Bangladesh.Women make up almost 58% of the agricultural labor force in Bangladesh (ILOSTAT, 2021).Figure 5 indicates that female labor participation in agriculture has increased over time relative to male participation. In the non-agricultural sector, male participation has increased with lower fluctuation over the year, while female participation in this area fluctuates more, and the rate of increase is lower than males. Shifting of male participation from agriculture to non-farm activities might have created a shortage in the agricultural sector, which largely explains the gradual increase in female participation in agriculture (Jaim, 2011). Women's labor accounts for 28% of the total labor used in field crops (Rahman, 2010).However, as they are mainly unpaid family labor, their contributions have always been undervalued. As family laborers, women actively supply labor for various labor-intensive farm operations such as land preparation, fertilizer application, weeding, harvesting, post-harvest activities and marketing (Theis et al., 2019).In the polders of the coastal zone, women are involved in almost all agricultural activities (Figure 6), homestead production, and livestock and poultry raising (Polder Tidings, 2022).Due to migration, women's engagement in agricultural activities in polder regions is rising dramatically. Women have a larger role in water management since they have considerable involvement in home and agricultural water use (Khandker et al., 2019). However, water management has traditionally been considered a male domain in Bangladesh. Given women's significant role in agriculture, the government acknowledged that participatory water management is an important issue for both men and women; this is reflected in the 30% quota for women on the executive committee of Water Management Organizations according to the Participatory Water Management (PWM) rules 2014 (PWM, 2014).  2). The population varies significantly among the different upazilas. The population density is higher for Patuakhali than for Khulna region. The average household size in the studied regions is more than the national average of 4.06 members. The number of WMGs varies substantially according to the number of villages. The polder with the most WMGs is polder 29, followed by polder 30, third is polder 43/2B, and fourth, polder 43/2F. In Khulna, about 77% of households of polder 22, 63% of polder 34/2 part, and 61% of households of polder 29 and polder 30 are enrolled in WMGs. In Patuakhali, about 81% of households of polder 43/1A, 72% of polder 43/2B, 68% of polder 43/2F and 54% of polder 43/2A households are enrolled in WMG. WMGs are dominated by male members, except for polder 22. Polder 22 has the highest proportion of female members, approximately 53%, whereas Polder 34/2 has the lowest proportion, approximately 33%. In polder 30, around 43% of members are female, while in polder 29, around 42% are female. The proximity of polder inhabitants to the sea puts them at risk of flooding, saline intrusion, and other natural disasters. Often, the effects of these hazards are disastrous. For example, a tropical cyclone, \"Amphan\" that struck the coastal districts and their offshore islands and chars of Bangladesh in 2020 resulted in a massive storm surge and widespread flooding.Approximately   According to Empowered by the Bangladesh Water Development Act 2014, \"Farmers, fishermen, small traders, artisans of handicrafts, boatmen, aqua-culturists, the landless, the poor, and other families directly or indirectly affected, positively or adversely, or likely to be affected by water will be WMG members.\" The number of members in a WMG is dependent on the number of households in the village, but to form a registered and sustainable WMG, at least 55% of the families in the area must be represented. Also, according to water management guidelines, 30% of women members (of the total members) are required in water management organizations to promote women's economic viability and empowerment.Every WMG has two committees: general and executive (Figure 8). The general committee includes all members, including members of the executive committee. Twelve (12) members of the general committee form the executive committee. All administrative authority and management responsibilities of the WMG are assigned to the Executive Committee, which includes the General Meeting.Next, the General Committee of a Water Management Association (WMA) is formed taking representatives from each WMG nominated by the Executive Committee, with a limit of four representatives per WMG. It is required, however, that at least one of the four members be a woman. Moreover, two representatives from each WMG formed the sluice catchment operational and maintenance subcommittee, which was primarily responsible for the operation of sluice gates for irrigation and drainage. Women's engagement in water management is essential for the development of a more sustainable system for water management. Their participation will increase the number of WMG leaders, diversify leadership, better represent local communities, improve decisionmaking, and better manage conflicts. Enhancing women's engagement in water management through laws and reforms can improve the Water Users Association (WUA) compliance and maintenance, as well as increase their rights and negotiating leverage as water users (Khandker et al., 2020;Meinzen-Dick and Zwarteveen, 1998). In the same way, water management is also crucial for women. The increasingly active roles of women in agriculture necessitate more participation in water management. Their participation in water management benefits agricultural production and thus contributes to higher income and economic growth. The WMG's decision-making process and outcomes affect their needs and interests and strengthen their voice. Also, water management helps homesteads by lowering the risk of floods and increasing access to agricultural water. Thus, expanding women's participation in water management can result in improved natural resource management.The main activities conducted by the WMGs in this polder are water management through operation of the sluice gate, training arrangements for the members, and infrastructural development (Table 3). More than 50% of men and women emphasized irrigation and water management as the primary activity of their WMGs. The polder crops depend on rainfall because irrigation water is scarce in the dry season. River, and canal water were used for irrigation at that time. WMGs helped by constructing new canals and excavating old ones, connecting to nearby rivers, developing irrigation facilities by preserving surface water in the canals/khals, and assuring the availability of low-lift pumps to increase crop yields.\"The initiative of WMG is to store fresh water in canals in advance for easy availability of fresh water during the rabi season\" SM Monowarul, Birat WMG.In addition, WMG provided many types of training to its members, such as seed storage, fertilizer application, new technology, livestock and poultry, vegetable production, leadership development, etc. WMGs operate sluice gates to improve water management for crop production, built outlets to improve polder drainage, re-sectioned embankments improve stability and peripheral communication. Water management and irrigation have been considered as \"male domain\" due to prevailing social norms. Men have had sole access to the administration, distribution, and control of community water resources. The social and cultural norms often lead to underestimating women's roles in agriculture, irrigation, infrastructure development, information access, and other water governance activities. Increasing women's participation in water resources management is crucial for achieving equality, efficiency, social justice, and sustainability of communal resources (Agarwal, 2010;Imburgia et al., 2021). This study adopts Agarwal's (2010) typology of participation (Table 4) to analyze the level of participation according to the extent to which members express their voice and influence in decision making. We investigate gender differences in effective WMG participation based on meeting attendance, speaking up at the meetings, and leadership positions. We expect that an increase in attendance of women in WMGs will increase the scope of women's participation in WMG, though it does not necessarily inform us about the level of participation (Agarwal, 2010). During the survey, we found that there are typically two types of meetings held in a WMG: general meetings and executive committee (EC) meetings.General meeting is held once a month.One of the EC members said, \"There is a rule requiring at least nine women to be present at every general meeting, but meetings are also held if executive members are present.\" EC meetings are also usually held once a month. But in some WMGs, there is no set schedule for EC meetings. For instance, according to an EC chairperson, \"Sometimes we are too busy, EC meetings are only called in response to issues that arise in the WMG and depend on executive members' availability.\"Table 5 displays the percentage of male and female members who attended general monthly meetings in a year in Khulna and Patuakhali region. Overall share of meeting attendance in Patuakhali was higher than in Khulna area. As can be seen, only 0.6% of male members and 1.5% of female members of Patuakhali have never attended a meeting in the last 12 months compared to 1.11% of males and 2.50% of females in Khulna. Most male and female members attend four to eight meetings annually. Around 36% and 15% of members have reported attending 9-12 meetings in a year in Khulna and Patuakhali respectively.A clear gender gap can be noted in the attendance of men and women members, and it is more prominent as we move to higher numbers of meetings attended in a year. There are two points to note, firstly, polder women overcoming structural barriers are attending meetings in traditionally male spaces as the average number of meetings attended per year are similar for both men and women. Secondly, despite the improvement, one still can observe a gender gap in attendance. Quotes below from women members explain the motivation of women to attend these meetings.\"I try to complete my household chores sooner so that I can join the meetings\" Alifa Begum, Fulbari WMG.\"Because we work in the fields, we need to know about water, so we attend whenever they call a meeting\" Shuvongkari Bairagi, Kanchan Nagar WMG.  9). In Khulna, overall male members contributed more to decisions concerning the misuse of funds, investment in infrastructure, release of water, distribution of water, membership fee collection, maintenance, and selection of training participants, whereas women contributed more to decisions concerning the release and distribution of water. The male dominance of various activities restricted female farmers' capacity and willingness to participate. One woman stated:\"Sometimes they invite us to talk, sometimes not. I give my opinions, but they usually take final decisions by themselves, so I stopped talking with them (in meetings),\" Marjina Begum, Fulbari WMG.In Patuakhali, men and women contributed equally to all decisions, except for the monitoring of water usage and the imposition of rental following the use of farm machinery, both of which are dominated by men. Often, women's lack of self-awareness and low self-confidence affected their ability to communicate their opinion. This was reflected in the statement a woman who was unable to speak her thoughts openly during the meetings, \"I am not comfortable talking in front of men. Men are more knowledgeable about water issues, so they dominate the conversation. For example, for water transportation from the canal to our plots, my husband will speak with other farmers; it is pointless to inform me because I cannot assist him. Same in the meeting, men know more about water problems, thus they are the ones who typically talk during meetings,\" Mamata Bairagi, Kanchan Nagar WMG. However, in some areas, men were willing to accept more women in leadership role, as stated below:\"We want more women (in EC). Executive committee quotas for women are very difficult to fill. Women are reluctant to participate for a variety of reasons, including educational, familial, domestic work, and public speaking difficulties, as well as the belief that they do not know enough to contribute\" SM Monoarul Islam (Chairman), Birat WMG.The reason could be cultural norms that restrict women in leadership roles, and unpaid work discourages women from engaging in such roles. A family might allow women's participation to a certain degree in WMGs but taking up leadership roles or participating in the ECs were considered a harm to their social status, as referred by a woman WMG member below. Amena, a member of the polder 34/2 part, expressed her grief as:\"He (husband) allows me to join the group, which is more than enough for me; if I mention about participating in a committee, he will kill me\"The gender-sensitive policies of Bangladesh government and efforts of developmental organizations have resulted in improved participation in community-led activities and capacity building exercises (Islam, 2014). As can be seen from Figure 10, more women than men  The WMG members of Khulna polders zone had greater access to technology than Patuakhali polders zone. During FGD, a WMG member said, \"Our committee has two power tillers, two irrigation pumps, and one power thresher. We have benefited a lot from using them\". However, most of the members in Patuakhali mentioned that there is no availability of technology or farm machinery.One of the farmers in Patuakhali expressed his sentiment:\"Huh, once I heard that a power tiller has been provided to our WMG, I neither observed nor utilized it. Our executive committee knows the current situation.\" Rahim Mia, Dakshin Titkata WMG.Seed, power tiller, water pump, harvester, spray machine, and thresher are provided to the members as technology through WMGs. Though a greater number of women members reported receiving training, however, less women reported accessing and using the technology than men. Around 25% of women in Khulna reported accessing the technology compared to 29% of men, and only 6% of women in Patuakhali region compared to 15% of men using the technology.\"I got a sprayer from WMG and used it on our plot. He (Husband) also used a power tiller in the field, for which we only paid the diesel cost, saving our money.\" Rikta Mondal, Basurabad WMG.We had asked the WMG members regarding the perceived benefits of participating in WMGs.In both Khulna and Patuakhali polder zones, the production and income benefits are viewed as having the highest impact, followed by the environmental, financial, and equity benefits (Figure 11). Most male and female members believed that higher and timely water availability has the highest positive impact. On the financial benefit, they mostly favored an increased financial strength and prevention of fund misuse, but less favored social benefits (e.g., funeral donation, employment opportunities). Most male members agreed with improved water conservation, while many women favored biodiversity conservation. Despite wider membership and community involvement, male and female members did not see fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits. Nonetheless, female members in Khulna felt more a sense of ownership and empowerment than the women in Patuakhali polders.One of the predominant challenges that prevented women from joining WMG activities in Khulna was the uneven share of unpaid work burden at domestic sphere while in Patuakhali, along with unpaid work burden, the social practices also restricted women from participating in WMGs. The family tradition and cultural norms, women's inability to give time due to unpaid domestic work burden, requirement of spouse permission to attend meetings, and the lack of land ownership were barriers preventing women from participating in WMGs (Table 6).A woman member said:\"It becomes hard to join the meetings sometimes as who will take care of my children during that time. My husband cannot serve meals by himself, and if I get late, he becomes upset. My father-in-law thinks my participation in the committee does not suit our family tradition\" Decision making in agricultural production systems Table 7 depicts the gender disparity in farm decision-making in production activities. Women in polder areas had less inputs into farm work decisions, while their husbands or other male members of the households made more critical farm management decisions. In Khulna, female participation in the procurement of agricultural equipment, adoption of new crop technologies, and hiring of farm workers varied between 5-7%, whereas, in Patuakhali, female engagement varied between 2-11%. As previously indicated, if we compared WMG members and nonmembers, in all activities, women WMG members had a stronger impact on joint decisionmaking than those who are not. In joint decision making, women mostly took part in the selection of crop varieties to be grown in different seasons. Therefore, we found that in cases where women were part of WMGs, they participated more in decision-making and reported taking decisions jointly compared to the women who were not part of WMGs. Women were responsible for the care of poultry and livestock, particularly dairy cattle. Women involved in waste disposal, shelter cleaning, grazing, animal care, and feeding large livestock.Despite their significant role in livestock activities, men had a greater control over income from livestock in Patuakhali polders. It could be due to the lack of access to the market, as men were involved in selling the milk to the market. The reason could be appropriate, as women had a greater control over the income from poultry. Women sold eggs and poultry from their homes, hence, could control and decide how to spend the money from that.Compared to non-member groups, we found that a greater proportion of women in WMG member groups made income decisions with male household members (depicted as some decisions in the figure). In Khulna, for example, 21% of females from WMG member households had some control over decisions about income from food grain cultivation, compared to 11% of females from non-member households. Existing literature shows that women's participation in groups and collectives have a positive impact on women's self-esteem, and a sense of empowerment (Jetten et al., 2015). We found that participation of women in WMGs gave them a sense of identification and belonging, thus a better self-esteem.\"Now that we are a part of this group, men can't do anything they want; they need us to make decisions\" Shahida Begum, Purba Titakata WMG.In the study polders, women members claimed more mobility, financial independence, and better negotiation skills due to their participation in WMGs. Their confidence improved, either because of being treated as equals in training and workshops or because of the community's admiration to them for contributing to increased productivity and income. Many women also gained respect from their spouse, families, and community members.Participation in WMGs helped women access social and community networks. These networks provided agriculture and livelihood-related information and training. Access to information made the women confident of making informed decisions within their households. This study examined gender and power relations and associated dynamics in water governance and how they contributed to empowerment/disempowerment trade-offs for women. Using a mixed-methods approach, comprising structured questionnaire interviews, and focus group discussions in four polders each in Khulna and Patuakhali, we examined the extent and level of participation of women in water management governance. As mentioned earlier, women play a critical role in livelihoods associated with the agri-food systems. Particularly, they are responsible for managing water resources for domestic and production purposes, and thus, their participation in governance of water resources is pivotal in attaining sustainable and equitable management of resources. The sustainable management of water resources have positive implications on productivity, incomes, and livelihoods in polder zones of Bangladesh.Our study found that water management groups (WMGs) primarily dealt with irrigation, water management, training on crop and livestock management, sluice gate operation and maintenance, infrastructure development, and community services. We found that the 30% quota for women members in WMGs had a positive impact on women's participation in these groups. However, the participation of women was restricted to fewer activities around training and community services. We also observed that while participation in the form of attendance in meetings improved for women, their extent of participation in the form of leadership and taking decisions in the groups were still limited. The structural and social barriers that result in uneven domestic work burden, limited access to resources and information, and lack of mobility deter women from actively participating in these groups.In Khulna, women contributed more to decisions regarding operation of sluice gates for inpolder water management. In contrast in Patuakhali, men and women contribute equally to all decisions apart from the monitoring of water usage and membership fees collection. Although most of the executive committees had around four women members, none were in key leadership positions like chairperson or vice-chairperson of the group. The main reasons cited by the WMG members were restrictive social norms and time restrictions preventing women from taking leadership roles in the WMGs.In the study polders, members of the Khulna had more access to technology, albeit the proportion was less than 30%. We observed, gender gap in access to technology among members. However, due to efforts of the government and non-governmental organizations, we found that more women in the Khulna and Patuakhali polders received agricultural training than men. Both men and women in the study polders highlighted farm productivity and incomes as the most perceived benefits in joining WMGs. However, they reported fewer equity benefits despite wider membership and community involvement.We observed differences in decision-making and participation in community activities between women who were members of the groups and those who were not part of WMGs. Even though men dominated decisions related to agricultural production, women WMG members reported involvement in joint decisions unlike the non-members who reported limited space to participate in decision-making. For decisions related to household expenditures, men took decisions regarding food, clothing, travel, education, attending in any ceremony, medical, and other important household expenditures, while women took decisions regarding cooking fuel.In Khulna and Patuakhali regions, most decisions about the use of income from food grain and horticultural crops, aquaculture, non-farm work and salaried jobs were made by men, while women made decisions about the use of income from poultry. Compared to women in nonmember groups, a higher proportion of women in WMG member groups participated in income-related decisions alongside male members. Apart from improved participation in decision-making, many women in WMGs reported feeling a sense of self-esteem and confidence. WMG membership improved their mobility and access to social networks that increased their access to information.Therefore, to summarize, the efforts of involving women in community governance proved effective in terms of increasing women's participation in water governance. However, effective participation requires tackling restrictive gender norms and addressing the underlying structural barriers in the form of access to productive resources, information, and assets. The study observed differences between women who participated in WMGs vis-à-vis non-members and found that participation resulted in improving their access to networks, mobility, and information. Thus, they participated more in decision-making around production and household decisions. Membership also improved their social status and provided them a sense of empowerment and self-esteem.The existing government policies for community managed water governance in polder zones of coastal Bangladesh require inclusion of women, poor, and landless men and women in the water management groups. The inclusion quota does not necessarily translate into effective participation as often, the landowners, who are the powerful men play a vital role in decision making for polder water management. The voice of the poor and landless, either men or women, fishers or agricultural wage laborers are not generally valued in water governance; and their inclusion in WMGs are seen as a token to abide by the government policies. Consequently, these poor groups feel reluctant to participate in WMG activities, and if they do, their voices are often ignored and not valued by the influential members of the WMGs. Therefore, first and foremost, policies aiming at inclusion would only result in increased participation of women and marginalized, in terms of numbers and not prove effective unless the interventions consider the gender and social norms of the society and ensure that they reduce gender gaps and social inequalities rather than widening them.We suggest the following policy recommendations based on our study to advance gender and social equality in management of water resources, and we argue that it is critical for an equitable and sustainable water governance.Firstly, while members of WMGs have greater access to technology and resources, we observe a stark gap in the usage between men and women. The reasons were lack of capacity, social stereotypes in operating machines and technologies, lack of knowledge and information, and lack of access to financial resources. Thus, we argue that investment in capacity building and training that can enable women to access the new technologies is critical. This requires bundling of other support infrastructure, like, access to finance and credit, and information.Secondly, the most important barrier that deterred women from participating actively in WMGs was the uneven domestic work burden and time poverty. Therefore, interventions should consider the social roles women play and incorporate the challenges of time constraints faced by women while designing the training and capacity building programs, and WMG meetings.Social norms often play a detrimental role in promoting women to leadership roles, this requires a two-pronged strategy, one, investment in capacity building and leadership training, and two, tackling gender and social barriers. One way to do that can be designing social behavioral and communication training engaging men and women in discussions around breaking social norms.Since women constitute half of the society, their active (not token) involvement in overall development is of utmost importance. Women leadership in polder water governance might improve the water environment, and consequently enhance agricultural productivity and food security in the climate-vulnerable coastal zones of Bangladesh. There are many educated women in the polder zones, who generally are not much aware of agriculture, water governance and management issues. Empowerment and inclusion of these underemployed women communities in polder water governance might aid in changing the social norms (local leaders and farmers pay respect and listen to educated women). These empowered women leaders could raise voice for all sections of the society including the women irrespective of their affiliation in the society and could better contribute to sustaining water management organizations for the overall development of the coastal polder communities of Bangladesh.","tokenCount":"5972"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6e0500b612276a1027c2bf0087ba0f62","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0a46a310-abb5-463e-bf56-b72287f941e2/retrieve","id":"-488776273"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"001526a0-bc2e-4dfe-bf79-d2e95b9a324c","pagecount":"20","content":"Une nutrition appropriée pour la population peut être correctement perçue, comme une résultante d'interventions multidisciplinaires, plurisectorielles et intégrées. Chaque secteur identifié sur le schéma a en effet, sesspécificité pour apporter ses intrants contributions et indispensables.Il devient suffisamment clair qu'aucun secteur opérant seul ne peut à lui seul produire des améliorations durables de la nutrition et de la santé des populations. Des contributions de plusieurs secteurs, aussi bien du secteur publique, privé, comme de la société civiles, sont nécessaires pour atteindre le but visé à savoir la sécurité alimentaire, nutritionnelle et un meilleur etat de santé des populations. Le besoin d'un partenariat multiple, d'une collaboration et d'une bonne coordination est de plus en plus reconnue en Afrique de l'Ouest, où au cours des quatre dernières années, ce partenariat régional de collaboration, fort , pluridisciplinaire et intersectoriel s'est développé avec l'implication de l'Organisation Ouest Africaine pour la Santé (OOAS), la commission de la CEDEAO pour l'Agriculture, le Réseau Régional des Organisations Paysannes (ROPPA) en collaboration avec Bioversity International, et l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'  • Produire et diffuser un livre illustré sur les ressources alimentaires issus des systèmes alimentaires de la région avec des informations sur leurs valeurs nutritives Produire un manuel de recettes contenant au moins 20 recettes par pays de la sous region.• Utiliser des strategies de marketing social, pour promouvoir l'utilisation et la consommation d'aliments locaux au sein des menages, dans le secteur public, les évènement sociaux afin de relancer la fierté à maintenir les aliments traditionnels.• Organiser aux niveaux regional, national des ateliers d'échanges de bonne prtaiques pour diffuser, et rendre largement disponible l'information sur la valeur nutritive aliments locaux incluses dans les bases de données sur la composition des aliments • Intégrer l'utilisation de l'information sur les valeurs nutritionnelles des aliments locaux dans les programmes d'éducation nutritionnelle, de promotion de la santé et de programmes d'alimentation en milieu scolaire• Elaborer et mettre en oeuvre une stratégie de plaidoyer pour susciter une prise de conscience parmi les décideurs • Organiser trimestriellement des tables rondes aux niveaux national et régional sur l'importance de l'utilisation des aliments des filieres alimentaires traditionnels pour une nutrition et une meilleure santé, en collaboration avec les medias, le ecteur privé, les ONGs, et la société civile.• Organiser régulièrement au niveau national ou régional des foires, des expositions ciblant des aliments traditionnels et des concours ou démonstrations culinaires, alimentaires sous les auspices du Président Exécutif de la CEDEAO • Organiser des ateliers semestriels de plaidoyer aux niveau national et régional impliquant des Directeurs d'institutions appropriées du secteur publique avec pour objectif de donner à ceux qui élaborent les politiques l'opportunité de pouvoir intégrer la biodiversité agricole dans les plans et politiques nationaux de développement mais aussi dans les plans d'investissement agricole de la CEDEAO, pour une meilleure nutrition et santé.• Augmenter, par la formation continue, la masse critique des experts locaux formés pour générer, élaborer et diffuser des données sur la composition des aliments locaux ou traditionnels • Former des experts locaux le contrôle de la qualité des données générées • Former les membres du ROPPA (producteurs et transformateurs d'aliments), ainsi que d'autres groupes de transformateurs d'aliments sur l'importance de l'utilisation des données sur la valeur nutritive pour susciter la prise de conscience du public, faire l'étiquetage des produits locaux transformés, et la sensibilisation et l'education nutritionnelle, le plaidoyer et le marketing des produits locaux • Former les transformateurs des produits alimentaires sur la composition des aliments locaux, l'emballage et l'étiquetage de produits alimentaires conditionnés pour les marchés locaux et internationaux • Former les chercheurs juniors sur l'élaboration des bases de données sur la composition des aliments CONTEXTE La diversité alimentaire est vitale pour combattre les problèmes de la faim, de la malnutrition, la carence en micronutriments et des maladies chroniques liées à l'alimentation. Des études menées dans la sous-région ont révélé qu'il y a de fortes prévalences de ces problèmes dans la majorité des pays membres de la CEDEAO et que ces problèmes mettent une pression énorme sur les infrastructures des services de sante des gouvernements dans la sous région. La diversification alimentaire exige la diversité de la production agricole, donc la diversité des systèmes et des sources d'approvisionnement alimentaire de la population.Des rapports montrent aussi que les problèmes accrus de nutrition et de santé des groupes de population en Afrique de l'Ouest, se posent au même moment de la diminution de la consommation des aliments appartenant aux systèmes alimentaires traditionnels et de la perte des savoirs indigènes essentiels pour une exploitation complète et durable de ces ressources alimentaires généralement connues pour leurs contributions positives en matière de nutrition et de santé.petits transformateurs d'aliments, membres du ROPPA, qui travaillent dans les différents systèmes de production, contenant plusieurs variétés d'aliments de base, notamment des variétés de légumineuses, des variétés de légumes feuilles, de fruits, de condiments et d'épices, et des aliments d'origine animale. L'ensemble de ces aliments permettent de fournir, energie, proteines acides gras, vitamine s et mineraux, qui jouent un rôle capital dans l'a limentation et la nutrition mais aussi dans le maintien de la diversité des systèmes alimentaires nationaux. La production, la disponibilité facile, l'accessibilité et l'utilisation par les ménages de ces aliments traditionnels riches en nutriments sont par conséquent, une condition sine qua non, dans le combat régional en cours, contre l'insécurité alimentaire, la malnutrition due aux carences en micronutriments et aux maladies chroniques liées à l'alimentation.Cette initiative régionale de promotion des aliments locaux des systèmes alimentaires traditionnels a pour but de catalyser la mise en oeuvre de stratégies par les gouvernements les institutions de recherche, la société civile et les institutions régionales, lesquelles vont accroitre les connaissances et le niveau d'information des bénéfices des aliemnts traditionnels en matière de nutrition et de santé.Par ailleurs, ce partenariat de collaboration établi, fournira des plateformes qui réuniront les acteurs des disciplines concernées, leur permettant de coordonner leurs efforts et d'optimiser l'utilisation de ressources de plus en plus rares aussi bien pour l'élaboration des politiques que pour l'exécution des programmes.La sous région Ouest Africaine regorge d'une diversité alimentaire abondante -composée de mil, sorgho, fonio, riz local, mais, sésame, voandzou/haricot pistache, niébé, et de plus de 30 variétés de haricots, des racines et tubercules, plus de 200 légumes feuilles et légumes fruits indigènes, et de fruits. La géographie physique de la région détermine largement la distribution de ces produits alimentaires, créant ainsi une agriculture de subsistance basée sur les grains dans le nord de la sous région et un système basé sur les tubercules au sud.Le commerce intra régional de produits alimentaires a incité une diversité de l'approvisionnement alimentaire ainsi que des régimes et des choix alimentaires des ménages. Cependant cette diversité de régimes alimentaires des ménages est maintenant remplacée par des régimes ou prédominent le riz, le mais, le blé et leurs dérivés. Les régimes alimentaires des ménages dans la sous région sont maintenant caractérisés par un manque de diversité d'aliments assurant des apports journaliers optimum de micronutriments et de substances phytochimiques ayant des rôles de protection de la santé. Ce n'est donc pas surprenant que les données sur la nutrition et la santé dans cette sous région montrent des proportions élevées de mortalité et de morbidité chez les nourrissons et les jeunes enfants et aussi des prévalences élevées de retard de croissance chez les jeunes enfants. Chez les adultes, ces modifications d'habitudes alimentaires passant de régimes alimentaires traditionnels diversifiés aux régimes riches en glucides et en lipides ont conduit à des taux de plus en plus élevés de maladies chroniques liées à l'alimentation. Ce sont là des résultantes de changements fondamentaux dans les systèmes alimentaires de la région. Il est donc vital que des interventions d'avant-garde ayant pour but de corriger ces taux élevés de carence en micronutriments et de maladies chroniques liées à l'alimentation, soient mises en oeuvre afin d'attaquer les causes fondamentales de la situation, en l'occurrence le manque de diversité des approvisionnements alimentaires aux niveaux national et régional, mais aussi de la diversification alimentaire en termes de pratiques.La résistance et la durabilité des systèmes alimentaires traditionnels de l'Afrique de l'Ouest sont essentiels pour s'attaquer aux multiples problèmes de malnutrition due aux carences en micronutriments et de maladies chroniques liées à l'alimentation. L'agriculture de l'Afrique de l'Ouest est dominée par des petits paysans dont les systèmes de production ont la clé de la diversification de l'approvisionnement alimentaire de la région. Ainsi la participation active de petits producteurs à travers leur réseau et le ROPPA, à cette initiative arrive à un moment opportun et crucial dans la recherche de solutions durables, aux niveaux local global et régional, à l'insécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle ainsi qu'aux problèmes de santé qui en découlent (le double fardeau de la malnutrition) vues dans un contexte de globalisation et de crise alimentaire.Le problème à régler étant clairement défini, il y avait un besoin clair d'étendre le partenariat et de rassembler des partenaires nationaux, régionaux et internationaux ayant des compétences requises pour atteindre les objectifs fixés pour cette initiative. La réunion des acteurs a rassemblé un groupe pluridisciplinaire et plurisectoriel d'experts, pour élaborer des stratégies et des plans d'action en vue d'atteindre des objectifs spécifiques et assigner des responsabilités en vue d'atteindre des résultats spécifiques.Au cours de l'atelier, deux (02) groupes de travail ont été constitués pour, en premier lieu, discuter et avoir un consensus sur les axes stratégiques prioritaires préalablement définis lors des discussions entre les experts, et en deuxième lieu, développer un plan opérationnel quinquennal qui va constituer la feuille de route pour des activités visant à :-apporter le soutien nécessaire aux membres du ROPPA en vue de faciliter et de pouvoir contribuer a l'accroissement de la production et de la commercialisation d'aliments traditionnels des systèmes alimentaires locaux -accroitre l'utilisation des aliments traditionnels des systèmes alimentaires locaux dans les programmes d'intervention de securitre alimentaire et nutritionnelle aussi pour les ménages. Promouvoir la recherche, l'accroissement de la prise de conscience du public, le plaidoyer et le renforcement des capacités comme étant quatre domaines prioritaires, pour assurer un impact dans le cadre de la mise en oeuvre du plan opérationnel quinquennal (voir ci-joint le plan de travail proposé).Il y a une tendance habituelle à croire que les aliments des systèmes alimentaires traditionnels de la région seraient plus riches en micronutriments et en substances bioactives protectrices de l'organisme. Cependant, ces croyances sont plutôt basées sur des évidences anecdotiques.Les acteurs reconnaissent l'importance et le rôle vital des données empiriques sur les attributs nutritionnels et de protection de ces ressources alimentaires sur la santé a travers l'élaboration de politiques et la mise en oeuvre de programmes multisectoriels, impliquant l'agriculture, la santé, le commerce, le développement rural et l'environnement.Selon les participent que quoiqu'il existe encore des données manquantes sur la composition de ces ressources alimentaires, des recherches plus récentes ont produit des données confirmant la forte teneur en en micronutriments des variétés d'aliments sousutilisés ainsi que celle de certains cultivars sauvages qui font toujours partie des systèmes alimentaires traditionnels. Les groupes de travail ont par conséquent recommandé que les activités de recherche du plan opérationnel quinquennal soient concentrées sur le développement pour les utilisateurs d'une base complète de données sur la composition des ressources alimentaires des systèmes alimentaires de l'Afrique de l'Ouest.Les participants ont aussi recommandé qu'il y ait des liens plus étroits, entre les chercheurs et les membres des groupes de petits paysans en vue d'assurer que les activités de recherche agronomiques et de composition alimentaire, soient basées sur les besoins d'amélioration de la production de ces derniers. Par ailleurs, les participants ont reconnu que plusieurs recherches ont été conduites pour déterminer les meilleures pratiques agronomiques, pour la production alimentaire locale, mais ils ont noté que les résultats de ces recherches n'ont pas été communiqués aux producteurs et aux transformateurs des ressources alimentaires. Ils ont par conséquent recommandé que dans le la mise en oeuvre des politiques agricoles de la CEDEAO, à savoir la politique agricole régionale pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ECOWAP) que ces liens vitaux entre la recherche, la politique et les pratiques soient renforcés.Il a été reconnu que la commercialisation des aliments locaux est toujours un obstacle majeur pour la création de la demande. Cependant, les stratégies efficaces de marketing ne peuvent pas être développées sans données scientifiques sur la composition des aliments locaux. Les bénéficiaires finaux des programmes qui augmentent la biodisponibilité, l'accessibilité et l'utilisation de la diversité des ressources alimentaires des systèmes alimentaires sont les ménages à ressources limitées aussi bien en milieu rural qu'en milieu urbain. Ces ,menages dont les pratiques alimentaires ont changé de manière significative depuis des années et sont maintenant caractérisées par la consommation d'aliments de base riches en glucides, sucres et matières grasses. Les participants ont note par ailleurs, qu'il serait nécessaire que les gouvernements fassent des efforts énormes et concertés, travaillant aussi bien avec les organisations des secteurs publique et privé qu'avec les organisations de la société civile en vue de formuler des messages pour des campagnes de prise de conscience du public, se focalisant sur l'information et l'éducation nutritionnelles en vue de contrecarrer la forte compétition à laquelle les produits de base riches en glucides qui sont importés et subventionnés tels que le riz et le blé soumettent les ressources alimentaires locales. Les participants ont par conséquent recommandé qu'en plus des programmes et des activités planifiés sur la prise de conscience du public et comme étant une composante d'une campagne nationale et régionale, que l'utilisation des aliments et des produits locaux soit institutionnalisée dans tous les activités sociales et officielles du secteur publique et du gouvernement. Ils ont aussi recommandé que les techniques de marketing social visant la modification des habitudes alimentaires par l'usage des données montrant la haute qualité nutritionnelle des aliments traditionnels, soient utilisées pour promouvoir leur consommation accrue par la population. Les acteurs argumentèrent que de tels programmes de marketing social vont non seulement générer des changements positifs des habitudes alimentaires et l'augmentation de la consommation des ressources alimentaires locales, mais aussi stimuler la demande résultant ainsi en une augmentation de la production de ces aliments.Le plaidoyer est une activité continue pour les membres des Associations Régionales des Petites Unités de Production d'Aliment (ROPPA) ; des participants ont recommandé aux acteurs du ROPPA de maintenir une pression constante sur les gouvernements des différents pays en vue de s'assurer que l'accord de MAPUTO par les Chefs d'Etats d'allouer 10 % des budgets nationaux à l'agriculture soit réalisé. Les participants ont noté que le plaidoyer est un outil vital et efficace pour susciter la prise de conscience sur des aspects sociaux non seulement parmi toute la population, mais aussi au niveau des planificateurs de politiques et décideurs au sein des institutions des secteurs privés ou publiques. Ainsi, pendant que le plaidoyer est identifié comme l'un des domaines prioritaires d'action, les participants ont noté qu'un plaidoyer fort et continu est nécessaire de la part de tous les membres institutionnels de l'initiative impliquant la CEDEAO et les parlements nationaux, pour la promotion des ressources alimentaires locales appartenant aux systèmes alimentaires traditionnels de l'Afrique de l'Ouest en vue d'accélérer l'obtention des résultats attendus. Ils ont aussi recommandé que des \"champions\" de la cause parmi des leaders politiques et des membres influents de la société soient identifiés et impliqués dans les activités \"Phares\" de plaidoyer planifiées aux niveaux national et régional.Comme bien souligné par les acteurs participant à cette réunion, les premières victimes d'une crise alimentaire sont les enfants et les femmes des communautés rurales qui en sont particulièrement affectés. En Afrique de l'Ouest, les femmes dominent l'industrie de transformation des produits alimentaires. Elles sont impliquées dans la récolte et d'autres activités de post-récolte notamment la transformation, le stockage, la distribution et la commercialisation des aliments, issus des systèmes alimentaires locaux. Les participants à cette réunion ont alors recommandé qu'une attention particulière soit accordée au renforcement des capacités des femmes productrices d'aliments à apporter de la valeur ajoutée aux produits alimentaires, a travers la transformation, l'emballage, le stockage des aliments transformés et leur commercialisation en vue de permettre à ces femmes d'être à la hauteur des défis et de la compétition liés à l'ouverture du marché entretenue par les importations d'aliments et les grosses entreprises agro-alimentaires financées de l'extérieur.Les représentants du ROPPA présents à la réunion des acteurs, ont exprimé le besoin d'amélioration des techniques de production et de transformation, par le biais du transfert des nouvelles technologies, de l'informations et la communication en matière de production alimentaire, ce qui pourrait contribuer a une meilleure conservation et une utilisation durable des produits de l'agro-biodiversité par ses membres. Les participants ont aussi exprimé le besoin d'élaborer des programmes de formation de courte durée pour toutes les catégories de transformateurs d'aliments locaux sur l'emballage et l'étiquetage des aliments, en utilisant les données nutritionnelles de la table régionale de composition des aliments qui est en cours d'élaboration. Ils ont la certitude que cet étiquetage mentionnant la teneur en nutriments des aliments va fournir l'information nutritionnelle requise et accroitre la demande et la consommation par une population informée de ressources alimentaires locales transformées. Le besoin de renforcement continu des capacités de ceux qui fournissent l'information nutritionnelle vitale a été aussi discuté par les participants. Ayant à l'esprit le rôle clé que l'information sur les valeurs nutritives s et sanitaires des aliments des systèmes alimentaires locaux joue dans la promotion et le recentrage des ressources alimentaires locales dans les régimes alimentaires des ménages, les acteurs ont recommandé l'augmentation du nombre d'experts qui pourraient s'occuper de la production et de la diffusion de ces informations, par le biais de la formation continue.La suggestion d'établir une liste d'universités et d'institutions de recherche participant à l'initiative des bases de données de composition des aliments a été discutée en plénière et la décision prise était d'identifier les chercheurs et les institutions de recherche susceptibles de participer à l'initiative sur la base de compétences spécifiques requises et aussi en tenant compte des infrastructures de laboratoire et des facilités analytiques des institutions concernées.Mise en place d'un \"groupe restreint de travail\" pour diriger les activités de l'initiative de base de données sur la composition des aliments Certaines institutions régionales et instituts de recherche, participant à l'initiative (Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD) Université de Ghana, Legon Bioversity International, OOAS, CILSS et FAO) ont été proposées pour diriger le \"groupe restreint de travail\" pendant que les consultants impliqués au niveau des pays, pour faire la compilation initiale des données existantes, publiées ou non (M lle P. Addy, Mr Etel Fagbohoun, Dr Victor Enujiugha, Mr Romaric Bayili, Mr B. Samb) constitueraient les membres du groupe restreint de travail. La mission détaillée de ce groupe reste à définir.Le représentant de la commission de l'agriculture de la CEDEAO a suggéré que le partenariat de collaboration entre l'OOAS, le ","tokenCount":"3109"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c6e5d40813a1375792054626b40bb067","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c0d2a72e-4833-4138-aff0-190f75a08534/retrieve","id":"-855361533"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"18646b4e-a780-44f8-90b2-79f82897277a","pagecount":"1","content":"• Manure is a very important source of plant nutrients and helps to improve soil organic matter and fertility. • Nutrient losses during manure storage reduce its fertilizer quality (low nitrogen content) and lead to environmental pollution (nitrate leaching), bad odor (ammonia emissions), and climate change (methane and nitrous oxide emissions). • Climate-smart manure management practices are urgently needed for better nutrient circularity and crop-livestock integration.• Can charcoal and biochar reduce nutrient losses through ammonia (NH 3 ) volatilization and methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from cattle manure? • Given that biochar is produced at higher temperatures and has greater porosity and surface area than charcoal, is it more effective in reducing losses than regular charcoal? • Are higher levels (30%) versus lower levels (10%) of biochar/charcoal addition more effective in reducing nutrient losses from manure? • Addition of 30% biochar significantly reduced cumulative N 2 O emissions compared to the control without addition. • There was no effect of biochar activation on N 2 O emissions. • Both biochar and charcoal are promising manure amendments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from cattle manure. • Biochar can potentially help to decrease nitrate leaching risks from cattle manure storage.For biochar and/or charcoal production, waste materials such as rice husks, maize shanks, coconut shells, or biomass from invasive plants (such as Prosopis) should be used to ensure sustainability.• Both hold nutrients on their surface area, preventing losses. Biochar has a higher surface area and thus a higher nutrientholding potential. • They improve manure aeration, which reduces methane emissions. • They improve microbial activity and manure decomposition, resulting in better fertilizer quality. • They reduce ammonia volatilization and mitigate air pollution and nitrogen loss. • Biochar and charcoal addition strongly reduced manure NH 3 emissions. • Higher rates of biochar and charcoal addition (30%) were more effective in reducing NH 3 than lower (10%) rates. • There was no effect of biochar activation on NH 3 emissions. • Even though there was a slight trend of reduced CH 4 emissions in manure amended with low levels of non-activated biochar and charcoal or high levels of activated biochar, this effect was not significant.• Nitrate concentration increased after 28 days due to manure decomposition and nitrification. Nitrate was lower in manure with 30% biochar, indicating that biochar can reduce nitrate leaching from manure storage. • In contrast, regular charcoal and low levels of biochar did not reduce nitrate leaching risks.","tokenCount":"414"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"814270bb5d6ffa9bf78cf1cfad4dd2a3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/31fcdc54-293f-4c47-b28a-9a22b3dc35cc/retrieve","id":"1399628365"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"850aeb1d-065d-485d-bdfb-a6d300e5f532","pagecount":"4","content":"The efficient utilisation of Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) in developing countries is important for improving the livelihood of poor people. Presently 800 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition ; a livestock revolution has to take place to meet the demands for food of animal origin and other livestock outputs (Delgado et al., 1999 ;ILRI, 2000). The productivity, and not numbers, of farm animals must increase. Animals and production systems should be adapted to local environmental, socio-economic and cultural conditions, and we have to ensure enough genetic diversity for the unknown future. Livestock improvement programs in developing countries have often failed due to lack of infrastructure, technical and human resources, and by neglecting adaptive traits in breeding programs. Temperate breeds have been used in poorly conceptualized \"upgrading\", and the potentials of indigenous breeds have largely been neglected (Payne and Hodges, 1997 ;Rege, 1998). The sustainable use of AnGR in developing countries requires capacity building at all levels, which must be based on relevant research in tropical environments, utilizing modern science as well as \"indigenous\" knowledge. Despite the role of higher education in supporting development (World Bank 2000) surveys have shown that the number of trained scientists in developing countries with skills for animal genetics or breeding is seriously limited, and that few teaching resources are available (Malmfors et al. 1994 ;FAO, 1997).The engines for capacity building for sustainable food production in developing countries are the national universities and agricultural research institutes (National Agricultural Research Systems -NARS). NARS have collaborative capacity building programs with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) institutes, as well as with higher education institutions in developed countries. CGIAR works to reduce poverty, increase food security and sustain the world's natural resources through research on food crops, forestry, livestock, irrigation, aquatic resources and policy issues, and in its services to national agricultural research systems. These programs often focus on training MSc/PhD students. However, the impact would be greater if activities also targeted university faculty and trainers rather than students, e.g. by providing \"refresher training\", as well as exposure to new research and teaching methodologies. Therefore, to strengthen sustainable use of AnGR in developing countries, ILRI in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and supported by Sida (Sweden), adopted the approach of \"training the trainers\" in a project addressing NARS teachers/scientists teaching animal breeding and genetics at least up to MSc level. The specific objectives of the project are to :Strengthen knowledge and skills for AnGR of NARS staff teaching, researching and supervising animal breeding and genetics. Strengthen teaching and communication skills of these teachers/scientists. Catalyze curriculum development and use of new and expanded teaching methods. Develop electronic training resources for use by NARS teachers/scientists. Stimulate contacts and networking within and between countries, regions and continents.It is expected that this model for capacity building will substantially increase awareness and knowledge on AnGR in the future through the large number of students reached by the trained teachers/scientists. It will also increase the potential for relevant research by placing AnGR issues in local contexts and including modern technologies in teaching and research programs.The \"training the trainers\" project on AnGR includes a number of activities to be carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia, South Asia and Latin America. Collaboration. Need for collaboration between universities and research institutes recognized, but not always practised ; limited collaboration between universities, both within and between countries.To further discuss the project, a three-day planning workshop was conducted in January 2000 at ILRI-Addis, where leading NARS teachers/scientists in animal breeding and genetics from Sub-Saharan Africa joined the ILRI-SLU team. Design and content for training resources and training course for the region were developed. A similar planning procedure, i.e. questionnaire, visits and workshop is presently underway for South-East Asia.Regional courses. So far, a three-week course has been given twice for NARS teachers/researchers from Sub-Saharan Africa : in 2000 for 20 scientists from ten countries of Eastern and Southern Africa, and in 2001 for 18 scientists from 10 countries of Central and Western Africa. The course facilitators were mainly from the project team.In brief, the course covers : Importance and role of AnGR for sustainable agriculture in developing countries. What makes the course unique is the combination of animal breeding topics and how these can best be handled in university teaching. A number of teaching methods are practised during the course; the approach is interactive, leaving many opportunities for discussion and exchange of ideas and experiences. Computer labs and information searches play an important role, as well as project work on the sustainable use of indigenous animal genetic resources. Follow-up workshops. Two to three years after the training course all participants will be given the opportunity to attend a follow-up workshop, to exchange experiences and discuss further impacts of the project.The planning activities, i.e. questionnaire, visits and workshop, have been crucial for establishing needs and for designing the course and training resources. The activities have created contacts and captured local knowledge. Country representatives have ownership of the project and increased willingness to support changes for improvement back home.Main experiences and impacts from courses, training resources and networking (presently this includes only Sub-Saharan Africa) can be summarized as :The training course has so far been highly rated by participants; average scores for \"overall impression\" were 7.7 and 8.5 (scale 1-9) for the two African courses. Project work and presentations show that the participants' awareness of AnGR subject areas and methods in teaching, research and information search improved during the course.Course participants have confirmed the need for both the training course and computerized training resources.Course participants emphasized that the AnGR training project will have a large impact both on their teaching and research, as well as for future collaboration within and between countries. They have also established a viable electronic network for African animal breeders, \"Afrib\", open to all teachers/scientists interested in African AnGR.It can be concluded that \"training the trainers\" is an effective form of AnGR capacity building due to the large numbers of university students reached by the teachers/scientists trained. Furthermore, linking universities between north and south, with a CGIAR institute playing both a facilitating and catalytic role is beneficial. The capacity building training project focuses on the sustainable use of animal genetic resources, but can be seen as a model for capacity building in developing countries that could be applied also in other disciplines.","tokenCount":"1061"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6d16ad0d10d170b5a6969aeb748ee8a4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9c54b84c-64b8-476e-8a55-12d2e502973e/retrieve","id":"1731219243"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b6703754-86c5-4d51-a9ce-570d3b5c956b","pagecount":"4","content":"This research brief is based on a working paper titled 'Opportunities and Constraints Influencing the Adoption of Highdensity and Biodiverse Fruit tree Planting in Guinayangan, Quezon'.In rural areas where malnutrition is higher and households poorer, growing diverse fruit treesespecially indigenous fruits-can provide multiple benefits. These fruit trees can be a valuable source of secondary income in rural areas such as Guinayangan, where coconut cultivation is the primary source of income. They are also a viable strategy to promote climate-smart agriculture which can strengthen the resilience of farmers; and to diversify agricultural systems for better nutrition within the community.Producers are motivated to plant diverse fruit trees when these trees are effectively promoted and distributed amongst them; there is easy access to and availability of planting materials such as fertilizers; and complementary capacity-building activities are offered.Producers are deterred from planting diverse fruit trees when the size of their farms are small (less than half a hectare), road infrastructure is poor and transportation facilities between markets and farms are inadequate; and market prices are uncertain.Diverse fruit tree orchards can provide an additional source of income (especially for women) and a habitat for pollinators.While consumers are interested in buying local and indigenous fruits, factors such as children's preferences mean that they often buy imported fruits instead.Establish semi-commercial, local fruit nurseries. These can provide several benefits to the community including cost savings and the ability to customize seedlings to local conditions, as well as create jobs.Invest in field gene banks (where plant genetic resources are kept as live plants that undergo continuous growth and require maintenance) and road infrastructure (specifically farm-to-market and vice versa). Both are long-term solutions to enhance the availability and accessibility of fruit, as well as the dissemination of planting materials.Strengthen the capacity of farmers to optimize fruit tree productivity and improve propagation practices. This will ensure that the fruit trees are healthy and likely lead to increased yields and profitability.Implement effective nutrition education programmes that valorize local and indigenous fruits and emphasize the importance of eating them as part of a variety of fruits for a healthy diet.Research Brief #06National experts recommend that a healthy food plate for Filipino adults must include 17% of fruits, however the average Filipino consumes only 3% (DOST-FNRI, 2022). Expectedly, nutrition-related problems are a widespread challenge across age groups in the Philippines. In 2021, the rate of stunting among children under 5 years old reached 26.7%; and the overall prevalence of anemia was 10.4% (DOST-FNRI, 2022). Moreover, the highest rates of malnutrition are recorded in rural areas.Despite being one of the countries with the highest level of endemism and unique diversity of plant species covering 25 plant genera, the diversity of plant species cultivated in the Philippines has decreased through the years with 27-38% of food energy consumed being non-native to the region (www.croptrust.org).Many factors contribute to these alarming figures-accessibility, cost, availability, and desirability all pose major challenges to increasing consumers' fruit intake.While the complexity of food systems means there needs to be coordinated change in many food system components to improve diets, this also presents an opportunity to make changes that can result in multiple benefits for stakeholders throughout the food system.For example, incorporating fruit trees (particularly local and indigenous fruits' species) into farms can strengthen their climate resilience and improve rural livelihoods; but can also improve the dietary diversity of consumers and help safeguard their food culture and traditions.This research brief is based on a study that was conducted in urban and rural areas of the municipality of Guinayangan in the Quezon Province, Philippines. The municipality has a population of over 44,000. Its most popular agricultural products are coconut and its byproducts (79% of its agricultural land is dedicated to coconut farming!), although other fruit trees are a common secondary source of income.Promotion and distribution of fruit trees such as banana and guava, undertaken by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), in partnership with the Local Government Unit (LGU), is the main factor motivating the adoption of biodiverse fruit production in the municipality.Fruit trees are increasingly being intercropped with coconut trees, allowing farmers to increase their overall yield by intensifying land use. However, there is still room for growth in fruit tree planting initiatives in the country-its overall implementation and scale, as well as its effectiveness in improving the accessibility and availability of local and indigenous fruits in rural settings.Producers cite farm size as the main constraint to planting other fruit trees. Coconut, as the main cash crop, is given priority on any farm that is less than half an acre. However, even in farms of larger sizes, intercropping coconut trees with fruit trees is often considered a drawback as fruit trees are seen to deplete the soil of essential nutrients and their branches obstruct coconut harvesting.Deficient road infrastructure and inadequate transportation between farms and markets also makes it difficult for producers that grow other fruit to transport them to markets in a timely and cost-effective manner. Delays in the transport of goods increases the risk of damage to fruit which can negatively impact sales, especially since consumers report eating fruit immediately after purchase and prefer to consume them fresh rather than processed.Producers also worry about fruit prices being driven dangerously low during periods when they're abundant in supply.Preferred local fruits include banana, star apple, sapodilla, dragon fruit, soursop, jackfruit, langsat, water apple (macopa), mango, mangosteen, papaya, pineapple, pomelo, rambutan, Spanish plums (sineguelas); however, the top five fruits purchased in markets are apples, grapes, oranges, bananas, and mangoes.While consumers are very interested in buying local and indigenous fruits if available in the market (the main location for buying fruits), most prefer purchasing imported fruits over local ones. Reasons for this include: children prefer to eat these fruits over local ones, neighbors and relatives usually share local fruits from their home gardens so there is no need to purchase them at the market and many local fruits (e.g., custard apple, guava and tamarind) can be found in the wild.Price is also an important factor that influences the purchase decisions of consumers-88% of study respondents answered that they do not consume enough fruits as they do not have sufficient funds to purchase them.Farmers incorporate fruit trees into their farming or homestead systems in various ways: planting fruit trees in their backyard gardens, along upland and lowland field boundaries as windbreaks, and as an intercrop in coconut tree plantations. With 90% of the harvested fruit being used for home consumption, diversifying the fruit trees planted (especially using indigenous fruits), can help diversify diets of producers and their families.Surplus harvest is usually sold in markets, and the consumer preferences identified through this study can help determine which fruits are most suitable for the region and likely to be profitable, further improving supplementary incomes. In particular, women farmers can make extra income as they are the ones who usually sell the gathered fruit.When species are selected strategically and managed appropriately, fruit trees can allow for easy coconut harvesting. For example, low growing trees, such as mango and banana, can be planted.Finally, planting biodiverse fruit trees can also be better for the planet. They provide extra shade and help filter the air, creating a pleasant microclimate, as well as creating a habitat for bees, birds, and butterflies. ","tokenCount":"1208"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5015ac19c7418ddbde45a6b1b3d0a6d1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3d7f1209-bf0e-4df7-add5-31049c7f648b/retrieve","id":"-936332770"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"86f8cbae-9cbd-49c2-bf34-613c52daa9a8","pagecount":"18","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above.The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.African animal trypanosomiasis (AAT) occurs where the tsetse fly vector exists in sub-Saharan Africa, between the latitudes 15°N and 29°S (Randolph et al., 2003). It affects ruminants, camels, horses and pigs, and constrains cattle production over an area variously estimated to be between 8 and 10 million km 2 in Africa. Around 67 million cattle live in tsetse-infested areas out of a total of 253 million in Africa 1 . In some situations, around one in 20 of the cattle at risk die each year, and the productivity of the survivors in terms of draught power, milk production, growth and birth rate are lowered by 10-40% (Swallow, 2000). Estimated total losses due to trypanosomiasis range widely depending on the methods used, assumptions made and types of losses estimated (ILRAD, 1994;Budd, 1999;Kristjanson et al., 1999;Swallow, 2000). The upper range of published estimates would make annual losses from trypanosomiasis equal to one-third of the estimated livestock gross domestic product in sub-Saharan Africa.The disease is complex, involving three species of parasite, namely Trypanosoma congolense, T. vivax and T. brucei. T. vivax can also be transmitted mechanically by biting flies, and thus is also found in parts of Africa free or cleared of tsetse and in parts of Central and South America.Two related parasites, T. brucei subsp. gambiense and T. brucei rhodesiense, cause human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness. While HAT is generally considered a disease of people, livestock and wildlife act as reservoirs for T. b. rhodienense and possibly for T. b. gambiense, complicating the control of HAT. Knowledge of the biology of tsetse and trypanosomiasis was greatly advanced by Mulligan and Potts (1970) and by Maudlin et al. (2004).Trypanosomes have the ability to undergo antigenic variation (Cross, 1975), enabling host invasion and allowing them to establish persistent infections. In addition, each species comprises an unknown number of strains, all capable of elaborating a different repertoire of variable antigen types. Hence, no vaccine is currently available (the problem of antigenic variation and the history of vaccine development are discussed in Chapter 2,this volume).The initial mission of the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Disease (ILRAD) was to tackle AAT and East Coast fever, two of the most serious intractable African livestock diseases. As a result, a large body of research on AAT was conducted over 30 years: genetics, breeding and immunology research are discussed in Chapters 1, 2 and 4 of this volume, respectively. This chapter reviews the earlier field work of ILRAD followed by that of International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) after 1994 in East and West Africa, including the engagement of those institutions with regional and global initiatives.AAT has long been regarded as the single most important cattle disease in Africa, and between 1905 and 1960 it commanded the attention of five imperial powers, dedicated government services, and national, regional and international research institutions. It has been estimated that 25% of colonial research spending went to trypanosomiasis (Rogers and Randolph, 2002). However, the final decade of the last century saw practical control of trypanosomiasis. With the onset of the Great African Depression in the 1980s (Leonard and Straus, 2003), tsetse programmes, like other government services, became increasingly underfunded and dysfunctional, and donors were less willing to pay for large-scale, long-term control. Moreover, control efforts before the 1980s usually relied on ground and aerial spraying of insecticide, which was increasingly seen as expensive in economic and environmental terms.One study (Meyer et al., 2016) argues that tsetse control operations covered barely 1.3% of the estimated infested area in sub-Saharan Africa.As a result of this decline in the funding available for control, an upsurge of AAT cases occurred during the post-independence period. In some countries, this was exacerbated by the movement of people and livestock into formerly sparsely inhabited tsetse-infested areas. AAT incidence increased rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s, and cattle herds almost disappeared in some areas, such as the Ghibe Valley of Ethiopia and the Yale agropastoral zone of Burkina Faso. The 1980s also saw a major epidemic of HAT in Sudan and Uganda, which spread into Kenya. As a result of these upsurges in human and animal disease, there was renewed interest in the field control of AAT, several new initiatives were established involving ILRAD and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA).Apart from efforts to understand and manage AAT, ILRI focused on three major areas: (i) the promotion of trypanotolerant cattle; (ii) community-based control of tsetse in Ethiopia and later Burkina Faso; and (iii) managing resistance to trypanocides. ILRI did not engage with the attempt to eradicate tsetse from Africa, which scientists believed was infeasible. The areas of ILRI activity are first briefly outlined, and the rest of the chapter focuses on the work done and the impacts achieved in different countries. Table 3.1 summarizes ILCA/ILRI research since about 1990 on field aspects of trypanosomiasis control.The challenges of tsetse control and the ongoing cost of trypanosomiasis control by veterinary drugs were recognized early in the history of ILRI. One option that gained attention early on was to exploit the genetic tolerance to trypanosomiasis infection found in several African cattle breeds, such as the taurine N'Dama and West African Shorthorn breeds of West and Central Africa. These breeds had evolved over millennia to acquire a significant degree of innate resistance to trypanosomiasis. Trypanotolerant cattle were therefore identified as a promising approach to livestock keeping in tsetse-infested areas (Murray et al., 1982).There is evidence that cross-breeding occurs between bos indicus and bos taurus in West and Central Africa and that this may enhance resistance to trypanosomiasis (Traoré et al., 2017 for southern Mali). The African Trypanotolerant Livestock Network (ATLN) was established in 1977 as a joint venture between ILRAD and ILCA. ILRAD was to investigate animal health, infection status and vector behaviour, while ILCA was responsible for animal production, nutrition and data processing. This research fell into four areas: (i) the epidemiology of AAT; (ii) the criteria of trypanotolerance; (iii) the genetics of trypanotolerance; and (iv) the health and productivity benefits of interventions. Field sites were located in Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Zaire, The Gambia and Senegal. Along with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), ILCA surveyed the number and distribution of trypanotolerant cattle in 1977 and updated those figures in 1985.Two ILCA/ILRAD monographs established the state of scientific knowledge at the outset of the ATLN (Trail et al., 1979a,b). A long compendium (ILCA/ILRAD, 1988) summarized the work of the first decade of the ATLN, findings that were extended by Rowlands and Teale (1994) and Itty (1992). The work of the ATLN included the following:• Establishment of a research network to improve livestock production by ensuring optimal application of existing knowledge and recent research.• Understanding the vectorial potential of tsetse.• Supporting multiplication of herds of trypanotolerant animals.• Maintaining experimental cattle and small ruminant herds.• Evaluating the performance of livestock under AAT risk.Tsetse (Glossina spp.) are unusual flies. The females do not lay eggs but instead produce a single, large larva and have only up to 12 offspring in a typical lifetime. Their low reproductive rate makes them vulnerable to interventions that cause even small increases in mortality. Historically, areawide and aerial spraying was successfully used to control tsetse. However, the flies reinvaded after control, and repeated campaigns proved expensive and raised environmental concerns.A more targeted approach is the use of cloth traps or targets that are soaked with insecticide, with or without baits. In the early 1900s, sticky traps worn by plantation workers were successfully deployed on the Island of Principe to eradicate Glossina palpalis. In the mid-20th century, great advances were made in the design of traps and targets, making them highly effective at reducing tsetse. The live-bait technique involves treating cattle with appropriate insecticide formulations, usually by means of cattle dips, or as pour-on, spot-on or spray-on veterinary formulations. These are highly effective against tsetse and have the additional advantage of controlling other flies and cattle ticks. The availability of these simple, cheap and effective technologies led to interest in communitybased approaches to tsetse control.In the absence of a vaccine (Chapter 2, this volume), the principal control strategies are reducing or eliminating the tsetse vector, applying trypanocides and keeping trypanotolerant stock. Less than 1% of the infested area is under vector control and fewer than 20% of the cattle at risk are trypanotolerant, but around the majority of cattle at risk receive trypanocidal drugs making this the most popular control option and one that is both effective at scale and sustainable without continued external support. Current trypanocides have been in use for over 40 years and new drugs have not been developed because drug development is expensive. One older survey of drug research and development costs derived an estimate of 'nearly' US$900 million per new compound across a range of human drugs (DiMasi et al., 2003). The market for trypanocides in smaller African markets is estimated to be US$20 million per year (Sones, 2001). Hence, it will probably be unprofitable for private firms to develop new trypanocides for the African market. Given this context, threats to the efficacy of the older trypanocides undermine the most widely used strategy for control.Drug resistance is the heritable loss of sensitivity of a microorganism to an antimicrobial to which it had been sensitive. Modern cattle trypanocides were introduced in the 1950s, and the first cases of resistance were reported in the next decade. The emergence of resistance further complicated the breakdown in testse control that had led to reinvasions of tsetse.ILRAD scientists had a major role in this emerging research area. Much of this work was laboratory based, focused on understanding the mechanisms of resistance and developing tests and assays for resistance. In addition, drug-resistant strains isolated from the field were characterized at ILRAD. However, ILRAD and ILCA scientists were also involved in some of the early studies on field resistance and were among the first to assess resistance in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Guinea, Mali, Ghana and other countries.ILRI scientists were also instrumental in developing field tests for trypanocide resistance. These involved testing cattle for the presence of trypanosomes, treating them with trypanocides and then examining blood at intervals over 98 days to see if the trypanosomes were still present despite treatment (an indication of resistance). These methods were widely applied by other researchers and subsequently refined by shortening the follow-up period to 28 days. This abbreviated methodology for evaluating the presence of resistance lowers the cost significantly so that it can be used more readily by national agencies as an initial protocol for screening (Mungube et al., 2012). The abbreviated trypanocide resistance tool has subsequently been used by other researchers.Given that ILRAD's mandate focused on vaccine development, there was relatively little field epidemiology in Kenya. Moreover, East Coast fever was seen by most stakeholders as of higher priority in Kenya. Small studies addressed aspects of control resulting in useful recommendations, although it is not clear to what extent recommendations were taken up or what impact they had.An early study, conducted between 1982 and 1986 in coastal Kenya, evaluated the efficacy and subsequently cost-benefit of using prophylactic versus curative control. (Prophylactic drugs are given to prevent the animals from becoming sick; curative drugs are given to animals when they become sick.) Prophylactic treatment was more expensive but more profitable, mainly because lactation loss was avoided. When disease fell below a certain level, prophylaxis was less profitable (Itty et al., 1988).For example, ILRI research did contribute to the growing interest in using pour-ons for control of tsetse. A study in Kwale found incidence rates of trypanosomiasis in the biweeklytreated (28.2%) and monthly-treated (38.6%) animals were statistically lower than in the bimonthly (63.9%) and control (72.6%) groups (Muraguri et al., 2003). Similarly, a study in a trypanosomiasis endemic area in Teso District, western Kenya, found that when the tsetse density was very low, control of trypanosomiasis in the Orma-Teso Zebu offspring in western Kenya required targeting of individual affected animals in the dry seasons (Gachohi et al., 2009).One of the most important studies in Kenya was a combined epidemiological and economic investigation into a promising novel technology: a synthetic tsetse repellent (Bett et al., 2010). The evaluation involved 2000 cattle: 1000 head in a control group and another 1000 animals treated with tsetse-repellent dispensers suspended from neck collars. The effectiveness of the repellent was monitored for 16 months. The trial results showed that the treatment reduced trypanosomiasis infection rates by between 18% and 23% compared with the control levels, indicating that the repellent was not 'a viable alternative to existing control techniques' (Irungu et al., 2007).In the 1970s and 1980s in Ethiopia, there were substantial movements of people and their livestock from the densely populated northern highlands to the scarcely populated, tsetse-infested south-western region. These livestock were vulnerable to AAT, and losses were originally high. Concern over the situation in Ghibe Valley, south-west Ethiopia, prompted ILCA to select it as the Ethiopia study site for the ATLN. This network comprised a set of 11 research sites located in different trypanosomiasis-risk areas throughout tropical Africa in order to study the complex interactions that affect trypanotolerance, to provide baseline data for livestock development in tsetse-affected areas and to evaluate different methods for controlling trypanosomiasis (see Map 4, p. xx).Studies on the prevalence of trypanosome infections in East African Zebu cattle and the tsetse challenge that such animals are exposed to started in January 1986. An average of 840 East African Zebu cattle (non-trypanotolerant) from around ten herds in the Ghibe Valley were monitored from January 1986 to April 1990. The studies provided information on the epidemiology and transmission dynamics of AAT, which were subsequently used in disease models and in planning control. Moreover, they resulted in the detection of drug resistance for the first time in Ethiopia (Rowlands et al., 1993). Although sick animals were treated with trypanocides, the prevalence of AAT increased yearly, raising the suspicion of drug resistance, which was confirmed by laboratory analysis of trypanosome isolates collected in 1989.It was decided to test an intervention based on tsetse control using cloth screens impregnated with insecticides. This approach had been first used in 1914, when tsetse was eradicated from the Island of Principe, in the Gulf of Guinea, by killing the flies using 'sticky traps' -wooden boards coated with sticky material strapped to the backs of plantation workers. Serious interest in the use of vector capture was revived in the 1970s with the development of more effective cloth traps and screens and the discovery that particular colours and odours attract tsetse flies. Much of the foundational research was conducted in Zimbabwe, with another focus in West Africa.Both traps and targets (cloths or screens) were developed and successfully piloted in South, East and West Africa, but had not been used for the control of trypanosomiasis in cattle in situations where resistance to trypanocides occurs. The trial found that use of targets reduced vector populations and infections, even in the presence of drug resistance, but did not appear to be sustainable due to widespread thefts of targets (Leak et al., 1996).Another approach to tsetse control is to turn cattle into mobile targets. The animals are dipped or sprayed with insecticide or the compound is poured on them. This method was first tried with limited success in the 1940s using dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). However, development of pour-on formulations using pyrethroids, a safe and biodegradable insecticide, led to successful control of tsetse in trials in Zambia and elsewhere. In 1991, a control scheme was started in Ghibe Valley using insecticides poured directly on to cattle. This was considered to be more sustainable, as farmers directly benefited and the transaction costs in maintaining screens or traps were avoided. For the first 2 years, insecticides were given free of charge. The control was very effective and promoted widely by ILCA, and as a result, many families migrated into the area.An economic assessment quantified the benefits (Omamo et al., 2002). Following control, the apparent density of tsetse and biting flies in the region fell by 95%. This reduction in tsetse challenge led to a decrease in trypanosome prevalence in cattle of over 61%, despite a high level of resistance to trypanocides. The number of curative drug treatments per animal fell by 50%. Mean calf growth rate increased by 20%, while mean calf mortality and abortion decreased by 57%. Average cow body weight was boosted by 4%, the cow:calf ratio increased by 49% and adult male body weight increased by 8%. Between 1995 and 1997, expenditure on trypanocidal drugs fell by US$39,000, which more than offset the US$16,000 cost of the pour-on. The value of increased output of meat (40%) and milk (30%) implied a benefit:cost ratio of 11.6 over 2 years and of 9.3 over 10 years, with increases in annual household income between 10% and 34%.After 2 years of free treatments, a more sustainable model was investigated with the imposition of a charge of US$0.6 per treatment. An economic study found that, while many farmers continued to pay for treatments, there was a reduction in demand (from 97% of farmers to around 60%) and that poorer farmers dropped out disproportionately (Swallow and Woudyalew, 1994). There were also efforts to hand management of the scheme over to the community. By 2000, ILRI was no longer able to continue supporting the scheme; it appears that the treatments stopped and the tsetse increased (Wilson, 2003). In a subsequent project from 2008 to 2011, ILRI helped to establish 13 trypanosomiasis cooperatives to link private veterinary drug suppliers to the remote communities to ensure a supply of trypanocides to and to reduce dependence on the public supply system. This promising delivery approach has not been systematically evaluated.An analysis of land-use change by ILRI in 2003 revealed huge increases in human and animal populations, as well as land cultivated in the Ghibe Valley (Wilson, 2003). This analysis concluded that the control of tsetse had a role in attracting migrants, but this was difficult to quantify because other climatic and demographic factors influenced population movements.Trypanosomiasis has long been a concern in Uganda. Both the Gambian and Rhodesian forms of HAT are found in Uganda, and one of the largest recorded human epidemics occurred in the early 19th century, when over 500,000 people are estimated to have died. After the political unrest of the 1980s, tsetse invaded new areas of Uganda, and various control campaigns were implemented (Okello-Onen et al., 1994;Okoth, 1999).ILRI was a partner in one of the research projects, which aimed to better understand the infection dynamics and drug sensitivities of the trypanosome parasites prevalent in dairy systems in peri-urban Mukono District, Uganda, between 1995 and 1999. This demonstrated a low prevalence and a low pathogenicity of trypanosome infections in cattle. An economic study by ILRI found that, while trypanocides constituted up to 7.2% of health costs, they decreased profitability on farms only by 1%. The dairy farms were profitable, and the authors suggested trypanosomiasis was less important than previously thought, demonstrating the importance of economic analysis to justify interventions (Thornton and Odero, 1998).As a result, the research consortium decided that the methodologies developed in the project should be applied to other areas of Africa where the disease was thought to have a significant detrimental effect on livestock production, particularly in areas where drug resistance was suspected to occur, and Burkina Faso was selected for the next phase.ILRI contributed to research on the control of HAT in South-east Uganda from 2000 to 2003 (see Chapter 8, this volume). Surveys found that reporting was strongly biased to areas near health centres with good capacity, and models suggested that the major impact of sleeping sickness was deaths in people who were never treated or reported. A livestock survey helped identify hotspots. It linked cattle movement to the introduction of sleeping sickness to new areas and suggested that mass treatment of cattle might prevent the spread of sleeping sickness. The treatment of 30,000 cattle in Kamuli was highly effective at removing human-infective HAT parasites from the cattle reservoir and contributed to a significant decrease in human HAT cases (Fyfe et al., 2016). This work noted relatively little interest in trypanosomiasis as a stand-alone issue and concluded that community approaches would need external support.In 2002, ILRI undertook research in Uganda to develop decision-support tools for improving trypanosomiasis control. This objective was to enable technicians working with tsetse and sleeping sickness in Uganda to learn techniques for conducting geographical information system (GIS) analysis to provide decision makers with information to facilitate targeting for control of the disease. The project successfully established GIS capacity within Uganda.Field work in West Africa initially started under ATLN. These conducted ground-breaking research into understanding the presence, prevalence and impacts of tsetse and HAT. For example, herds were monitored monthly for several years to understand production economics under the risk of trypanosomiasis. The ATLN work concluded, in seven papers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Togo, Ethiopia and The Gambia (summarized by Thornton and Odero, 1998, pp. 8-11), that trypanotolerant cattle were 'economically justifiable' in a variety of situations with respect to tsetse challenge, control methods and experience with trypanotolerance.Following the Ugandan and ATLN work, ILRI collaborated and later led a research programme on trypanocide resistance in West Africa. The recommended control strategy was an integrated approach. This comprised vector suppression in epidemiological hot spots, disease management at the herd level and strategic use of trypanocides, combined with keeping local tolerant breeds. The first activity, from 1998 to 1999, was to assess AAT prevalence, tsetse challenge and drug use. Resistance of trypanosomes to isometamidium and diminazene was also demonstrated by both in vivo and in vitro methods (McDermott et al., 2003;Knoppe et al., 2006).This led to a more ambitious programme that sought to ensure the efficacy of trypanocides as a component of integrated control of trypanosomiasis in the cotton zone of West Africa. The first objective was to assess the presence and level of resistance across three countries (Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea) in the cotton zone of West Africa. This entailed an enormous survey, eventually covering more than 30,000 cattle. The results showed a marked gradient in land cover, tsetse species, cattle breed, resistance and productivity, from more extensive, low-input, low-output, lowdisease systems in east Guinea to more intensive, productive and high-disease systems in west Burkina Faso. The pattern of tsetse distribution, trypanosomiasis prevalence and trypanosomiasis risk varied predictably, with intensified agriculture apparently driving change from a situation of low disease and little resistance to one of high disease and high resistance. Tailored recommendations were made for optimal control across the region (Clausen et al., 2010).An epidemiological model describing the transmission dynamics of trypanosomiasis was developed and used to explain the trends identified in the spatial analysis for West Africa (Grace, 2006). The model suggested that a change in cattle breed is driving the emergence of resistance through the increase in drug use by farmers to maintain trypanosusceptible Zebu -the main driver is hence the change in preferred cattle breed rather than drug use. Moreover, the situation in West Africa appears to be on the accelerating portion of the sigmoidal resistance curve, implying that prevalence, morbidity and mortality, and resistance are likely to deteriorate considerably from the present levels (Grace, 2006). The optimistic conclusion from modelling is that vector control, even if only resulting in small increases in tsetse mortality, may rapidly reverse the trend of emerging resistance.In the next stage, four 'best-bet' strategies were evaluated: (i) trypanotolerant cattle; (ii) community-based trypanosomiasis control; (iii) training farmers and paravets in integrated AAT control; and (iv) rational drug use information for farmers and service providers. Community-based control using insecticide-treated targets and insecticidal spraying decreased cattle mortality (71%), decreased abortion (66%), increased traction (95%) and decreased farmer expenditures on drugs (50%), while milk production increased by 10%. The intervention was deployed in a highly participative way, testing the hypothesis that previous attempts at community-based control had failed because they were top down and insufficiently participatory (Meyer et al., 2016). (A review of previous vectorcontrol projects in Burkina Faso showed that community-based control was in all cases effective and in no case continued after the project withdrew; Grace, 2003). However, while efforts were more sustainable than attained previously, most of the activities were eventually abandoned. Researchers concluded that community tsetse control does work but does not continue without external support because of high transaction costs of setting up and maintaining the community-level institutional innovations needed to sustain control efforts (Box 3.1). This substantiated earlier theoretical work that also argued that community-based control was not sustainable because of its 'prisoners dilemma' nature (McCarthy et al., 2003).As part of the capacity building, several appropriate technologies were developed, adapted and tested. Anaemia is an important sign of trypanosomiasis and one that farmers were poor at detecting. Researchers tested two field devices: a colour chart developed for diagnosing anaemia in sheep and a blood prick test designed for diagnosing anaemia in pregnant women. Both were effective, but the colour chart system was simpler and cheaper (Grace et al., 2007). The project also calibrated a weight band for the cattle population in the cotton zone. This is a tape measure that converts girth into body weight and hence allows more appropriate dosing. Several decision-support tools to aid differential diagnosis were also tested with varying success.Trypanotolerant cattle keeping was evaluated and it was found that, while farmers regard the productivity (and disease resistance) of trypanotolerant cattle quite highly, they also cite their undesirable features: unpredictable temperament, low working speed, short legs rendering them liable to damage the crop while weeding, slow growth and slow weight gain, smaller overall size, and low sale price and slower sale. The project confirmed other findings that trypanotolerant cattle were gradually being replaced as farmers switched to more productive breeds, and concluded that encouraging trypanotolerant cattle was not a viable strategy, at least while development, wealth and market integration were on an upwards trend.The second intervention combined training on vector control, diagnosis and treatment of trypanosomiasis, and diagnosis and treatment of other common diseases, as well as use of traditional medicines and nutrition. Scientists found large and significant differences in knowledge and skill both in farmers (in Burkina Faso) and in paravets (in Guinea) before and after training, and between those trained and their peers who had not been trained (Grace et al., 2008). Ten months after training, there was no significant decrease in the level of knowledge and skill. Moreover, there was a clear synergistic effect between training and vector control. For example, in the villages with intervention, the annual expenditure on trypanocides per farm household was reduced substantially. In villages with paravets, the expenditure was reduced by 36%, while in villages with both vector control and paravets, expenditure was reduced by 58%. Integration of trypanosomiasis control strategies is often advised, both because each strategy has limitations and because perverse effects are possible (successful vector control in the absence of training and information on drug use, for example, has resulted in paradoxical increased use of trypanocides; Kamuanga, 2001a,b). Researchers concluded that the intervention was successful but the cost of training farmers and paravets was a barrier to widespread use. Moreover, in some situations, paravets are not allowed to operate.The project was the first to explore rational drug use in a context of 'harm reduction' as an option for trypanosomiasis control. This was a concept borrowed from human health work with prostitutes and drug users. It assumes that if people are highly motivated to do things that are not recommended by authorities, punishing them will lead to worse outcomes and they should instead be supported to undertake the activities as safety as possible. Although official policy is that veterinary treatments should only be given by veterinarians or paraprofessionals under their direct supervision, the project had shown that most veterinary treatments were given by farmers and that it was neither feasible An ILRI initiative to improve control of AAT in Burkina Faso started with an evaluation of previous projects (Grace, 2003). Research projects are rarely revisited after initial implementation, and this threw light on the 'life after project' scenario by looking at eight completed projects in Burkina Faso, six of which had a major participatory component. The projects took place over 25 years and encompassed a wide range of farming systems, institutions, partners and social conditions. They incorporated community participation and used low-cost and effective strategies that resulted in the rapid and total resolution of trypanosomiasis problems in all project areas. Participation and long-term viability issues (including cost recovery) were incorporated from the onset, and benefits to farmers were major, obvious and acknowledged. Yet, despite these substantial successes, none of the communities has continued with the strategies; tsetse reinvasion has occurred in all cases, and after years of investment in participative trypanosomiasis control, farmers are once more 'on their own' and experiencing substantial losses from trypanosomiasis. The review identified some factors that blocked sustainability. While farmers learned technical skills for tsetse control, they did not learn management or business skills in implementing these. Although control was relatively cheap, the small financial requirements were a barrier. Farmers showed much more hypothetical willingness to pay than actual. None of the projects used delivery systems that were capable of delivering control after the withdrawal of the project. The systems used were either of known low sustainability (e.g. government, project or existing village groups) or new institutions whose sustainability and appropriateness for village conditions was unproven (e.g. private vets). Communities encountered unexpectedly high transaction costs in avoiding free riders. nor economically viable for treatments to be given by veterinarians. In this context, the project set out to see whether farmers who were going to treat their animals anyway could be persuaded to treat them more rationally.Much effort was spent in developing messages that could be understood by illiterate farmers. These addressed the problems identified as being most likely to lead to treatment failure, specifically misdiagnosis, underdosage and poor injection technique. The intervention was evaluated through a large cluster-randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial, which at the time was one of the most rigorous evaluations conducted by ILRI. It found that rational drug information improves farmer practice and reduces drug underdosage: the improvement in dosage was particularly encouraging, given the highly significant relationship between underdosage and treatment failure. In the medium term, there was a 35% increase in farmers giving the correct dosage and an 8% increase in the appropriate use of isometamidium as a prophylaxis in the test group versus the control. In addition, there were better clinical outcomes and fewer treatment complications with rational drug use information: improvements in clinical parameters were significant only for a decrease in animal temperature (indicating less fever). The simple hygiene information that was provided resulted in an important decrease in side effects. High levels of complications are associated with unhygienic administration. The researchers conclude this was an effective, cheap, sustainable and scalable option. The main challenge was the reluctance of national authorities to countenance farmers giving treatments.The researchers saw the need for additional action to promote the uptake of successful strategies. Customized informational brochures and training materials were designed to support 'Rational drug use' (Fig. 3.1). Prototype materials, including a visually appealing, cartoon-style booklet with an engaging storyline were designed for targeting adult literacy programmes and primary-school children. A communication strategy for dissemination of rational drug use messages, including using radio messages, was also formulated. The project formulated recommendations for how drug companies could improve the quality of the information provided with their products that would promote 'Rational drug use'. While company representatives were in favour of the suggestions, they felt that the current low returns to investment in the trypanocide market did not merit the added cost of adopting the recommendations.A subsequent study assessed farmers' knowledge and management of trypanosomiasis. In the absence of a clear control group, propensity score matching was used (Liebenehm et al., 2009). Using three different matching algorithms, significant and robust differences between matched participants and non-participants regarding cattle farmers' knowledge were identified. Hence, it can be concluded that the gain in farmers' knowledge is attributable directly to participation in the research intervention. The strongest effect of the research intervention is on the curative knowledge of AAT and subsequent adequate control decisions. Moreover, significant advancements in preventative strategies were also observed. Overall, the research project was effective in increasing farmers' knowledge of good practices and contributed significantly to improved livestock and farm productivity (Affognon et al., 2009).ILRI found widespread concern among farmers and market agents about a proliferation of fake and substandard trypanocide drugs. However, market studies using 'dummy customer' or 'secret shopper' methods found no evidence of counterfeit drugs, and the results of drug quality tests conducted in 2005 on samples of drugs taken from both formal (veterinary pharmacies) and informal (black markets) sources revealed no major difference in quality of the products.Economic and policy analysis was undertaken in parallel with the epidemiological studies. Affognon (2007) investigated the short-term productivity effect of drugs in controlling AAT under increasing drug resistance. For the first time, a damage-control framework was applied to animal disease control in Africa. The results showed that the marginal value product (MVP) of isometamidium in all epidemiological conditions and the MVP of diminazene in conditions of high disease prevalence and high drug resistance revealed a suboptimal (underuse) of these two major trypanocide molecules, not taking into account the externality of resistance. This means that, even in the face of increasing drug resistance, trypanocidal drugs remain economically attractive. Moreover, at the current suboptimal level of isometamidium use for the epidemiological conditions, investing in more drug use would be more than compensated for by avoided production losses. For decades, the veterinary experts had promoted reduced use of trypanocides in response to resistance and these economic findings suggest why the messages might not have high uptake.A methodological innovation at ILRI was combining economic analysis with herd simulation models. Von Kaufmann et al. (1990) developed a bioeconomic herd model (called here the ATLN model) that was used to quantify the costs of AAT, to assess control strategies and to evaluate the benefits of trypanotolerant livestock (Itty, 1992;Itty and Swallow, 1994). Some estimates of these costs are as follows:• The Gambia: 37% of the national herd inThe Gambia were at risk annually from trypanosomiasis (ILRAD, 1993). The annual economic costs of trypanosomiasis were estimated to be less than 1 % of the annual value of the total cattle herd and nearly all of the costs of trypanosomiasis were attributed to production losses.• Zimbabwe: due to extensive tsetse control campaigns, only 4% of Zimbabwe's cattle population were at risk in the late 1980s and early 1990s (ILRAD, 1993). The annual cost of trypanosomiasis control in Zimbabwe was largely attributable to tsetse control by spraying, not to production losses, which were small as a percentage of the value of the national cattle herd.• Côte d'Ivoire: the annual cost of trypanosomiasis was estimated to be 90% from production losses and 10% from control costs.• Cameroon: in Adamawa Province, tsetse control led to substantial reductions in mortality rather than to significant increases in cattle numbers. Changes in land use involved a shift to mixed farming among previously pure pastoralists.Subsequent economic analyses estimated that AAT in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali and Ghana) was estimated to cause annual losses of US$450 million in the 1990s (Itty, 1992). The use of trypanocides in those three countries was thought to protect some 17 million head of cattle from the disease. However, the general use of trypanocides was inducing resistance to trypanocides and though the older studies mentioned the cost of resistance they did not quantify it.The economics of trypanosomiasis control using trypanotolerant cattle were investigated under the auspices of ATLN in Kenya, Ethiopia, The Gambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire (Itty, 1992). Itty and Swallow (1994) showed that tsetse control appeared appropriate in situations with higher disease risk and that imports of trypanotolerant stock (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Togo) were not necessarily profitable. Studies were undertaken to determine farmers' willingness to participate in vector-control programmes. These so-called 'contingent valuation surveys' have been conducted in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Kenya to assess willingness to contribute labour and money to vector control (Thornton and Odero, 1998, pp. 69-71, summarizing three studies). Contingent valuation methods suggested that farmers were willing to pay around US$0.5-1 per treatment. In several countries, this was compared with the revealed willingness to pay during campaigns: in general, the observed willingness to pay correlated with the estimates derived from contingent valuation studies but was less and, in at least one country, declined with time (Kamuanga et al., 2000(Kamuanga et al., , 2001b)).The most recent work on the economic benefits of intervening against AAT is a study of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. Using a map of cattle production systems, herd models for each system were developed for scenarios with or without AAT. The herd models were based on estimated parameters of cattle productivity (fertility, mortality, yields, sales) from which growth of cattle populations and income were estimated over a 20-year period. A spatial expansion model was adapted to estimate how cattle populations might migrate to new areas when maximum stocking rates are exceeded in older production areas. Last, differences in income between the with and without scenarios were mapped, giving a measure of the potential benefits that could be obtained from intervening against tsetse and trypanosomiasis (Shaw et al., 2014). The estimated net present value of benefits to livestock keepers for the entire study area is nearly US$2.5 billion, at a discount rate of 10% over 20 years -is approximately US$3300/km 2 of tsetse-infested area -varying from from less than US$500/km 2 to more than US$10,000/km 2 . The greatest potential benefits are to Ethiopia, because of its high livestock densities and the historical importance of animal traction, followed by regions of Kenya and Uganda (Shaw et al., 2014).A related study built on these findings to evaluate the cost:benefit ratios as profitability measures for various control methods (Shaw et al., 2015). Trypanocide prophylaxis is the only profitable approach at low cattle density. Where cattle densities are higher, the use of insecticide-treated cattle is the most consistently profitable method, with benefit:cost ratios greater than 5. In areas of high potential for mixed farming using oxen in Western Ethiopia, the fertile areas north of Lake Victoria and the dairying areas of western and central Kenya, all control methods achieve benefit:cost ratios from 2 to over 15, and for elimination strategies, ratios from 5 to over 20. The costs of interventions against tsetse exceed benefits where cattle densities are less than 20/km 2 .  McCarthy et al. (2003) developed a theoretical model to explain why farmers might use different methods of trypanosomiasis control. They argued that the public goods nature of traps and targets, combined with an underlying incentive structure that may resemble a prisoner's dilemma, explained the well-documented failure of community-based control with traps and targets, a failure that was most commonly attributed to a lack of community participation.ILRI also developed guidelines on methods and tools for conducting impact assessments of tsetse/trypanosomiasis interventions on the environmental, social and economic systems and on approaches for the integrated impact assessment of the interventions (Maitima et al., 2007)  2 .ILRI examined possible changes in distribution of the three groups of tsetse in relation to changing climate, human population density and expected disease control activities (Reid et al., 2000;Coleman et al., 2001;Grace, 2014). The key findings of these studies were that climate change is indeed likely to change the distributional potential of tsetse but that anthropogenic changes resulting directly from population expansion would be more important in determining actual changes in tsetse distributions. With respect to population density, it was estimated that human population growth after 2000 would reduce tsetse-infested areas from roughly 8 million km 2 to between 5 and 6.5 million km 2 in 2040 (Reid et al., 2000, p. 231).In the early 2000s ILRI developed a deterministic mathematical model for trypanosomiasis transmission. This was initially used to compare the effectiveness of different control strategies (McDermott and Coleman, 2001). The relative rankings of the effect of control strategies on reducing disease prevalence were vector control, vaccination and drug use, in that order. Epidemiological modelling was used in several other projects, mainly to inform design and research questions.AAT has long been regarded as the single most important disease of the single most important livestock species in Africa. Early research at ILRI focused on developing a vaccine. As it became clear that this was no easy endeavour, and as AAT worsened or became more obvious in many African countries, ILRI stepped up to address our understanding and control of AAT in advance of a vaccine.Work started in East Africa and then extended to West Africa. There was emphasis on understanding the disease and its impacts and on testing solutions. Over four decades of field research on AAT, an evolution is evident: researchers went from publishing in proceedings to publishing in high-impactfactor journals, from focusing on the efficacy of solutions to their uptake, and from forthright advocates of favoured strategies to more nuanced critiques of the challenges of AAT control.ILRI participated in important networks, most notably ATLN, and did not participate in important failed attempts to control AAT. It investigated all three of the major strategies for controlling AAT and found two of them wanting, at least without continued external support.Trypanotolerant cattle have many advantages in terms of disease resistance, but they are not preferred by farmers who are increasingly focused on productivity. However, trypanotolerant cattle populations have been declining for decades relative to Zebu crosses, which are preferred for their production characteristics. One study (Agyemang and Rege, 2004) found that the shares of trypanotolerant stock in all cattle in west and central Africa were falling in the late 1990s 2004).Trypanotolerant stock are likely to persist, without the need for much external support, in areas where, because of poor market access and other constraints, low-input, low-output systems remain attractive. In other areas, trypanotolerant cattle will probably continue to be replaced by higher value and more productive Zebu crosses. Control of tsetse flies by insecticides has been much promoted and has generated many scientific innovations and successful pilots. However, the high cost and high level of coordination and management needed means it has never proven sustainable outside ranches and externally supported projects. The use of trypanocidal drugs, in contrast, is both sustainable and scalable. Farmers are willing to buy and use curative and, although to a considerably less extent, preventative drugs. Drugs are on the whole wisely used, but the lack of information on correct treatment certainly leads to some irrational use and hastens the development of resistance. ILRI research showed how providing simple information to farmers can slow this.Looking to the future, AAT is likely to remain a priority constraint for African livestock. We now have approaches that are highly effective at reducing the impact of AAT, either singly or in combination. We also understand better the challenges of adoption of even economically attractive strategies and how the changing dynamics of AAT may lead to future opportunities for optimized control.","tokenCount":"7238"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5fcafe5ab6329263262eab8866e3da47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f52da28c-8913-43b8-98ec-085900f85199/retrieve","id":"2060240915"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cbebe384-bb20-4181-b6c3-45f074146c3a","pagecount":"2","content":"T he N2Africa Soil Improvement project by CIAT-TSBF, which works with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria to increase soybean productivity, provided several crop production materials to over 4000 farmers in Western Kenya between March and April 2011. The materials included 42 demonstration kits, 4084 packets of inoculant, 3875 kg of soybean and climbing bean seed, 8200 kg of fertilizer, and 2750 copies of extension materials.The work of the project is further supplemented with the participation of the private and the NGO sectors in Kenya including fertilizer blending companies, bio-fertilizer producers, manufacturing companies, and extension organizations. For example, MEA Fertilizer, one of the partner organizations, is providing nitrogen-fixing inoculants and fertilizers to the key implementing farmer groups, who will plant a total of 18,986 kg of seed resulting in an estimated harvest of 380 metric tons of soybean grain by August 2011.Since inception, the number of cooperating farmers has kept increasing, and their resources expanding, leading to better distribution of production materials amongst the haves and the have-nots. So far, 10 farmers were able to produce a total of 2000 kg of seed, with some selling back a total of 500 kg of seed to the project.During this event, SSP and SYMPAL PKS+ were the two fertilizers distributed, to allow farmers be actively involved in the search for the ultimate fertilizer they prefer, by comparing the two. However, formal comparison of the two formulations is being done in demonstrations on the farm. This demonstration is the first of several others scheduled to take place in the year. Already two training activities are planned for in the course of this year, touching on legume processing and master farmer training.The key constraint for the farmers' crop has been rust disease, which significantly reduces yields. During the demonstrations though, the fungicide and foliar enhancer called Amistar Xtra was supplied to farmers by Syngenta, who also provided spray guns and training to each farming group.Important to be noted on the project is that one of the manufacturers has announced a tender for 4000 tons of soybeans for delivery in February 2012, a part of which will be met by the participation of all the N2Africa outreach groups. The tender is a guaranteed market for the farmers' yields. The sale will realize the farmers an income of Kshs 20 million (US$750,000). To supplement this income, a private company, Smart Logistics, is offering KSh 1 per kg to the local Soybean Farmers in Kenya Poised to Make Millions organizations that arrange collection points of the produce, resulting to an extra KSh 2 million for use in expanding services to the farmers. This is a real challenge to the project but a worthwhile one, leading to economic growth of farmers as well as into the country's agricultural income. The challenge will stretch the projects available funds and logistic capacity, but if there is any real change CIAT Brief No. 25 April 2011to come through for the farmers then they must be connected to strong markets.","tokenCount":"495"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a8efd7d9f0b69683361fe1924990846","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a6f72b73-3f2c-4397-9ba1-67c93f70c016/retrieve","id":"-238312328"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba209356-dd77-4482-bcc1-d8150f2c8013","pagecount":"79","content":"The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) delivers researchbased solutions that address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.The Alliance focuses on the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and environment. We work with local, national and multinational partners across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and with the public and private sectors and civil society. With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity and nourish people in a climate crisis.The Alliance is part of CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural research and innovation partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.Jamaica will face future climate trends marked by increases in the intensity and frequency of climate extremes, escalating rainfall variability, and increased droughts and floods; combined with fragile ecosystems and sensitive coastal zones, the result is that Jamaica has a relatively high vulnerability to climate change. In particular, the Southern plains of Jamaica, particularly the parishes of St. Elizabeth, Clarendon, and St. Catherine, are essential for Jamaica's food security. St. Elizabeth is often referred to as the breadbasket parish. The average rainfall in the Southern plains is about 30% lower than the national average, making rainfed agriculture a risky business for farmers in the region. Irrigation projects and the smart design of efficient water management for the region are a high priority for the national agricultural sector.Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), which incorporates adaptation/resilience and mitigation measures while ensuring sustainable productivity, has the potential to build synergies and limit tradeoffs in agriculture under present climate uncertainties, and reduce existing knowledge gaps and facilitate alignment between sectors and policies. CSA has the potential to deliver \"triple wins\" by contributing to multiple objectives: (1) sustainably increasing productivity and food security, (2) enhancing farmers' resilience capacity (adaptation), and (3) reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation).The Evidence-Based, Gender-Equitable Framework for Prioritizing Climate-Smart Agriculture Interventions has been adapted from different tools and research methods to overcome the challenge of identifying context-specific technologies and understanding better the tradeoffs and co-benefits that different combinations of portfolios could deliver for different stakeholder. The framework integrates the Climate-Smart Agriculture Rapid Appraisal (CSA-RA) tool with the CSA Prioritization Framework (CSA-PF), and Modeled Crop Climate-Risk Assessment (CRA). In collaboration with the Department of Geography & Geology at the University of the West Indies, we have included a new component of Development of Training Programs (CSA-TP) for Jamaica.Findings include a spatial water-balance model that was applied to four parishes to simulate the principal hydrological cycle components including monthly runoff, effective precipitation, soil moisture, percolation, potential, and actual evapotranspiration. Simulations of future climate characteristics using the crop model AquaCrop show that some crops such as sweet potato and groundnut are more suitable for expected future climate conditions, while others such as onion will depend more on irrigation.Overall irrigated systems to balance the crops water demand are crucial to achieve higher yields.Through a multi-criteria analysis with stakeholders, priority CSA practices for each key value chain (crop) per site were identified, followed by a cost-benefit analysis that revealed the financial profitability of the practices for farmers by evaluating indicators such as net present value (NPV), payback period (PP), internal rate of return (IRR), cost-benefit ratio (C/B), among others. In a final workshop with stakeholders, CSA practices indicators (food and nutritional security, adaptation, and mitigation) along with identified economic benefits, and a multi-dimensional analysis of opportunities for and barriers to the adoption of CSA practices were used to rank CSA practices across the three sites.The final step of the Evidence-Based, Gender-Equitable Framework for Prioritizing Climate-Smart Agriculture Interventions was co-creating together with farmers the outlines for locally specific Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) training manuals and programs.In collaboration between the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, the Department of Geography and Geology at the University of West Indies (UWI), and relevant national stakeholders, i.e., MoAF, RADA and among others, the project was carried out to achieve the following objectives: Framework for climate-Smart Agriculture InterventionsClimate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), which incorporates adaptation/resilience and mitigation measures while ensuring sustainable productivity, has the potential to build synergies and limit tradeoffs in agriculture under present climate uncertainties, and reduce existing knowledge gaps and facilitate alignment between sectors and policies (Lipper et al. 2014), (Figure 1). Effective and long-lasting management and adoption of the different climate change adaptation strategies also remain highly complicated because of localized and context-specific responses, which vary from region to region. Prioritizing Climate-Smart options in a structured process is vital before developing farmers' capacities and knowledge to make climate-smart choices in their agricultural production crucial. However, it requires an in-depth understanding of the local socio-economic contexts' suitability of practices in different agro-ecologies (Mwongera et al. 2017).\"A dynamic transformation of the Jamaican agricultural sector through a sustained, researchoriented, technological, market-driven and private sector-led revolution, which revitalizes rural communities, create strong linkages with other sectors and emphatically repositions the sector in the national economy to focus on the production of high-value commodities and contribute to national food security\" (GOJ. 2010, p1).CSA has the potential to deliver \"triple wins\" by contributing to multiple objectives: (1) sustainably increasing productivity and food security, (2) enhancing farmers' resilience capacity (adaptation), and (3) reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation). The context-specific nature of CSA points to the need to ground efforts to promote CSA in holistic food system analysis, integrating landscape, ecosystem, and value chain approach. Incentives to adopt CSA practices usually are influenced by a combination of economic, sociocultural, environmental, and political considerations, meaning that governance arrangements, institutional structures, and financing mechanisms must be well aligned to ensure that desired outcomes can be achieved efficiently, taking into account the goals of multiple stakeholders.The Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Program (CCAFS) has designed a framework (Corner-Dolloff 2014), and process for prioritization of crops and CSA investments in sustainable agricultural interventions in different agro-ecological systems in the world, by:Co-implement a framework that provides a systematic process for targeting investment towards best-bet CSA options to boost the sustainability of the food system in the face of climate change.Identify existing and promising CSA practices and assess the tradeoffs and synergies between practices using CSA-related indicators, the costs and benefits of adopting the practices, and their possible opportunities and barriers to adoption.Contribute to optimized sub-national and national planning, promoting a participatory process for the development of potential CSA investment portfolios adapted to smallscale farmers' context. A further step of working towards the implementation of CSA in Jamaica was done through a collaborative effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), developing a manual for Jamaican extension officers (Bigi and Protz 2014). The Manual for Extension provides much specific information that can be used as fundamentals for developing CSA portfolios in Jamaica, like a detailed characterization of soil types per parish, key factors causing erosion, watershed diagnostics, and detailed descriptions of how to implement specific CSA practices.This section will provide a detailed climate risk assessment in the following three areas: Parnassus in Clarendon, Amity Hall in St Catherine, and Essex Valley in Manchester/St Elizabeth. These areas are important for food security in the country but face low water availability which places agricultural production at risk. The feasibility of irrigation projects largely depends on future water availability and the smart design of efficient water management for the region. Thus, the implementation of a water balance can provide helpful information and insights.Output from crop production is influenced by geographical and agro-ecological characteristics, such as climate, topography, soil type, and land cover. Crop modelling using a baseline climate and future projections is a crucial method for identifying the best use of available land resources and to achieve a sustainable production resilient to climate change and climate variability.A climate rationale provides the scientific underpinning for evidence-based climate decision making. The process of developing a climate rationale includes analyzing the overall climate risks, assessing climate vulnerabilities, reviewing adaptation needs, identify main barriers and non-climatic drivers of change, and evaluate mitigation needs and barriers for implementing mitigation activities.The Southern Plains are Jamaica's breadbasket, but they are highly exposed to drought and heat conditions, irregular rainfalls, and extreme events like hurricanes. Future scenarios from the regional synthesis of observed trends and projected changes in climatic impact show increase in temperature and relative evaporation, the projections show high confidence of decrease in mean precipitation, and medium confidence of increase in agricultural drought The lack of access to water for farming is one of the main constraints in the region, improved water management for irrigation could boost farm productivity significantly. Farmers in the region have adopted to the dry conditions in the past by implementing practices for more effective water use and soil moisture management. But these practices are labor intensive and not enough to balance crops water requirement. Climate-Smart agriculture would be a way forward to increase co-benefits for productivity, climate resilience through adaptation, and improve the footprint in water management for mitigation. But climate-smart agriculture is a relatively new concept for farmers and requires a policy framework for implementation and capacity building for farmers.Main Climate Risks for JamaicaMultiple studies show that climate change is likely to have adverse effects on Jamaica's agriculture sector (Selvaraju 2013;CIAT 2016). Jamaica will face future climate trends marked by increases in the intensity and frequency of climate extremes, escalating rainfall variability, and increased droughts and floods; combined with fragile ecosystems and sensitive coastal zones, the result is that Jamaica has a relatively high vulnerability to climate change. The projected climate impacts on island agroecosystem services could accentuate a myriad of social and ecological risks. For example, Arnold et al. (2018) studied the pollinator population on farms across three Caribbean countries. They found that without proactive farm management practices, the projected impacts of climate change on drought patterns constitute a significant threat to food production.Future climate models, selected for their strong performance in the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region, show that Jamaica's seasonal maximum temperature is predicted to increase by 2-4 °C, and minimum temperatures by 1-3 °C. In general, the Caribbean is projected to warm at higher rates than Central America's more temperate areas and the Southern Cone of South America. Temperature increases are likely to be accompanied by increased solar radiation in Jamaica, especially evident in the cooler 'winter' months from September to February. Changes in rainfall patterns will lead to drier seasonal conditions between March and August, but wetter conditions between September and December, with increased rainfall for the typically rainiest month of October. Overall long-term projections associated with the PRECIS regional climate model show that the Caribbean is expected to be significantly drier by the century's end, especially during its primary rainy season from May to November (Taylor et al. 2013). Under a two °C target, a further extension of warm spells can be expected by up to 70 days, leading to a shift to a pre-dominantly drier region (5%-15% less than present-day) and a more significant occurrence of droughts (Taylor et al. 2018). Combined increases in maximum temperatures, accompanied by decreases in precipitation, are likely to increase agricultural droughts, especially in rainfed dominated agricultural systems.Damage to the agricultural sector from climate extremes, for example, Hurricane Ivan that cost US$ 121.4 in 2004, and Hurricane Dean in 2007 that cost US$128.6 million (Campbell, Barker, and McGregor 2011), is among the main risks for Jamaican farmers. This is particularly so along the Southern coastline, where most hurricanes make landfall. In Table 1, entries from a global disaster database (EM-DAT 2020) show major historical natural hazard events for Jamaica, including three droughts (1981, 2000, and 2014), four flood events (1987, 1991, 2006, and 2020), and 19 Tropical cyclones since 1980. Reviewing historical climate records, Gamble et al. (2010) found a total of thirty-one drought events and thirteen drier than typical months during the period 1980 to 2007 in Jamaica. In Southwestern Jamaica, water is the crucial factor in creating and overcoming climate exposure.Farmers in this region have extensive experience dealing with drought and have developed a robust ethno-climatological tradition; people in the region know the local meteorological conditions and their relationship to drought (Gamble, Curtis, and Popke 2017;Campbell, Barker, and McGregor 2011). To optimize production and profit for farmers in southwestern Jamaica, the timing of droughts and cropping calendars are essential to farmers. Farmers have adapted their strategies due to the growing demand from the hotel industry for most vegetable crops grown in relatively short cycles of around eight weeks. Between December and March and in July, they typically grow these crops during the dry periods in relatively small areas. Receiving the quick cash, they use the generated income to plant the primary staple crops in the rainy season and larger areas.Nevertheless, suppose farmers experience drought during the short cycles. In that case, it affects the current cycle. It reduces cash available for the coming rainy season in October (Gamble et al. 2010). Drought during certain months of the year can thus impact multiple growing seasons. A midsummer dry spell in July -which usually has a low frequency of climatological drought -can have a considerable impact on agricultural production.Farmers have noticed changes in weather patterns in recent decades (Rhiney et al. 2017). Rhiney et al. (2017) highlight that 84.7% of farmers indicated experiencing changes in the traditional rainy season's timing and 78% of the study participants reported observing changes in rainfall patterns over the last 20 years. Despite these observations, the study results show a low adaptive capacity of cocoa farmers that, even though they perceived changes in rainfall patterns, rarely adjusted their farm management practices. In contrast, farmers in Southwestern Jamaica have demonstrated adaptive capacity, displaying good knowledge of seasonal drought and climate variability and awareness of and concern with the interaction of drought and their cropping schedules (Gamble et al. 2010). Farmers in St. Elizabeth often rely on local knowledge to monitor early warning signals for episodic environmental events, especially regarding temperature and rainfall changes.In many cases, local knowledge is the only tool farmers must negotiate multiple livelihood stressors.Case studies of agricultural transformation through innovation projects in Southwestern Jamaica show that not all farmers can uptake available innovations to cope with changes, as underlying social vulnerabilities often constrain uptake within the region (Popke, Curtis, and Gamble 2016). Current vulnerabilities are influenced by historical patterns of structural imbalances as well as novel economic and environmental challenges. The sector exhibits the historical dualistic structure in which large-scale commercial farms and small-scale production units co-exist side-by-side (Barker 1993). This pattern is also reflected in current domestic agricultural policies and strategies which seek to redress biases against the non-traditional sub-sector (Beckford 2002). Thus, greater attention to underlying social vulnerability within Caribbean climate policy is required to achieve a just transformation of agriculture towards greater resilience to climate change.The overall vulnerability of Jamaican farmers is like that of farmers around the region. Eitzinger et al. (2011) conducted a vulnerability assessment of farmers in Colombia, Guatemala, and Jamaica. The study generated vulnerability indices for the three case studies using a crop model to measure farmers' exposure to climate impacts and a sustainable livelihood assessment to determine farmers' sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and motivation to adapt across the three study areas. Compared to farmers from the other two countries, Jamaican farmers showed similar exposure and sensitivity but low adaptive capacity and the lowest motivation to adapt. The overall vulnerability index shows a similar result in Jamaica as in Colombia, with high variability among farmers.Studies that focused on modeling of crop-climate-suitability and the biophysical impact from climate change using climate indicators derived from rainfall and temperature predict a reduction of available areas for agriculture (Eitzinger et al. 2013) and show the difference of potential impacts from a + 1.5 °C and + 2 °C warming scenario (Rhiney et al. 2018).In Jamaica, agriculture contributes 19% to the country's total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, much lower than the global average of 30% Decoupling environmental impacts from economic growth and improved human well-being is one of the primary challenges brought to light by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Resource Panel (UNEP 2011). Implementing decoupling strategies in agriculture means decoupling environmental externalities (e.g., pollution of runoff, GHG emissions, etc.) from agricultural goods (i.e., the produce and jobs provided by the sector). This \"win-win\" outcome can be achieved through various approaches, such as transitioning to a low carbon, more resource-efficient set of agriculture practices.In order to understand ongoing decoupling processes in the LAC region, the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean introduced a performance ratio to explore the relationship between production and GHG emissions in the agricultural sector and compared countries in the LAC region (Saravia-Matus, AGUIRRE Hörmann, and Berdegué 2019). Countries with performance ratios in the top 25% and under the best-case elasticity scenario (of strong decoupling) are not necessarily the same as those usually identified when using factor productivity analyses. This finding suggests that environmentspecific policies and tools play a crucial role in enhancing sustainable agricultural production. Within the LAC region, only five countries achieved a state of \"strong-decoupling,\" namely Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Suriname, and Jamaica. Most other small island states in the Caribbean reported a healthy negative decoupling state wherein emissions grow faster than agricultural production.Systematic approaches for improving environmental outcomes with agriculture are often organized under climate-smart agriculture or CSA. Approaches such as CSA can transform and reorient agricultural systems to support food security in the face of climate change (Lipper et al. 2014). CSA aims to achieve three objectives or pillars: sustainable increases in agricultural productivity, enhanced resilience (adaptation), and reduction or elimination of greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation).Several studies have identified local adaptation needs and strategies for the Jamaican agriculture sector (Eitzinger et al. 2013;Selvaraju 2013;Tomlinson and Rhiney 2018;A. Moulton et al. 2015;Campbell, Barker, and McGregor 2011;Rhiney et al. 2017;A. A. Moulton and Popke 2017) Longstanding local stresses continue to alter the adaptive capacity of farmers. In St. Elizabeth, some of the stresses facing farmers include a lack of essential services, poverty, high fertilizer price, cheap food imports, insecure marketing arrangements, and droughts.Access to water is a crucial issue in the region and is inhibited by economic and bureaucratic constraints. Small farmers have low or no access to financial instruments like credit and insurance. Although the onset of a drought occasionally presents a unique opportunity for farmers to capitalize on the shortfall in supply and the resultant high prices on the market, only larger farmers can take advantage of this \"opportunity. \" Campbell, Barker, and McGregor (2011) found that more than 90% of the farmers in South St. Elizabeth indicated that they did not receive any government assistance following the 2008 drought. Coping strategies of farmers concerning drought are often in response to events' immediate negative impacts (Campbell, Barker, and McGregor 2011). They are not transformative towards more overall resilience. Reasons for not addressing the stressors through coping strategies are often related to more profound underlying vulnerabilities within the sector, maladaptation, or access to resources. These issues increase the overall cost of agricultural production, while other factors, like access to markets, financing, and information that affect innovation potential, are often constrained by issues preset in specific value chain networks.Canevari-Luzardo (2019) found that \"the capacity of actors to innovate and adapt is significantly enhanced when actors work collectively and collaboratively. The network strongly influences some of the factors constraining collaboration (such as information sharing). In contrast, others can be primarily driven by the level of embeddedness forged in business-to-business relationships, for example, trust\" (Canevari-Luzardo 2019, p 2,541). This observation points to the importance of farmer associations and strong local relationships. Though these networks do not automatically lead to adaptation, closing knowledge gaps, and improve information flows are essential to enable peer-to-peer learning (Tomlinson and Rhiney 2017) and more coordinated responses.The Jamaican agriculture sector is highly dynamic both in environmental and economic terms. Trade liberalization has shaped Jamaican agriculture since the 1980s (Weis 2005;Rhiney 2016). The agricultural sector, both commercial and small-scale agriculture, experienced a significant decline during trade liberalization (Kinlocke and Thomas-Hope 2019). Jamaica has since become one of the five largest food importers within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to the threat of food imports that can permanently displace domestic production. Although the transition happened gradually, domestic agriculture production struggled to compete with oftensubsidized imported produce. The hotel industry is particularly notable, driving demand for a stable quantity and quality of fresh vegetables like onions, tomato, carrot, and cabbage, which are often purchased and inexpensively imported from the United States and Europe (Selvaraju 2013). This has affected many farmers who were forced into unfavorable competitive situations, and many stopped farming (Dorodnykh 2017).Bolstering the resilience Jamaican agriculture sector can be a win-win for both the farmers and the environment alike. Long term resilience will support increased domestic production. It will help maintain the vital role of Jamaican farmers, both as a crucial part of the national economy and a cornerstone of the Jamaican contributions to climate change mitigation activities.Farmers' main problem in the Southern Agricultural Plains is lack of irrigation water from an insufficient water supply system and related elevated water cost for irrigation (Selvaraju 2013) The region for calculating the water balance model includes the parishes of Clarendon, St Catherine, Manchester, and St Elizabeth in Jamaica. This region (Figure 3) has a total area of 4,414 km 2 and it was used for the calculating a water balance. The main land use/land cover classes present in this region are evergreen broadleaved forest (29.8%), mixed forest (17.9%), grasslands (16.3%), and rainfed croplands (16.2%). In addition, the highest elevation point is located at 990 m.a.s.l. The most intense rains occur in May with maximum values that can be around 414 mm, while the months DJF represent the dry season. Knowing the water balance of a geographical area is essential to understand and anticipate the necessary actions that ensure the sustainability of any agricultural system. At the same time, it allows for the conservation and restoration of ecosystems, especially those related to water resources. In this study, one of the most known water balance schemes was used, as it is the Thornthwaite and Mather (1955) water balance model. This model involves the principal hydrological cycle components (runoff, effective precipitation, soil moisture, percolation, potential, and actual evapotranspiration) monthly. Figure 4 shows the scheme followed in this project, which is an adaptation of that used by Ulmen (2000a, b). In this scheme, effective precipitation is the difference between monthly precipitation and surface runoff. Thus, dry, or humid months are defined through the comparison with potential evapotranspiration, being the dry months when evapotranspiration exceeds effective precipitation. The study area presents limitations for available data sources. For this reason, it was decided to gather secondary information from global sources to implement the water balance and crop model at the parish level (Clarendon, St Catherine, Manchester, and St Elizabeth) for Jamaica (Table 2). This was calculated with a pressure of 2.5 (pF=2.5).≈ 250 m 1950 -2015 V% ISRICThe standardization of gathered datasets allowed for the homogenization of all layers for the study area.In this case, the gathered datasets represent each one of the variables required (i.e., DEM, rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, land use/land cover, soil texture classes, water holding capacity) to implement the water balance. Therefore, we proceeded to perform the corresponding adjustments to standardize these layers according to the parameters presented in Table 3. We used global data for each variable in the implementation of the water balance. For example, rainfall was obtained from CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data), temperature from CHIRTS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Temperature with Station data), and evapotranspiration was derived using both rainfall and temperature datasets Digital Elevation Model: The SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) DEM was downloaded from the Google Earth Engine platform (GEE) at 1 arcsecond of spatial resolution (approx. 30 meters) for the whole of Jamaica. Then, the first procedure to obtain a corrected DEM was to execute the algorithm Fill Sinks, which removes areas of undefined flow directions. Finally, the resulting raster was clipped for the study area, and it was projected to the coordinate system JAD 2001.Rainfall was represented by continued surfaces from CHIRPS, which are useful for areas with low station density and difficult/restricted access to weather data. Then, monthly and pentadaily (last five days of each month) global datasets were downloaded for the period 2000 -2016 and adjusted according to the parameters defined in Table 2. These surfaces were finally averaged on a multi-year monthly basis to analyze the rainfall spatial patterns in Jamaica. Therefore, this variable can be generated at a monthly level using the modified equation of Hargreaves (Droogers & Allen, 2002), which uses extraterrestrial radiation, average daily temperature, daily temperature range, and monthly precipitation. According to Droogers & Allen (2002), this modification of the standard equation of Hargreaves can better represent potential evapotranspiration in limited availability conditions of weather data than even the Penman-Monteith method. Monthly potential evapotranspiration for the study period is presented below.The study area presents 17 land use/land cover classes according to the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS). These classes were associated with relevant information (i.e., curve number according to each hydrological soil group and crop evapotranspiration coefficient) that is used principally in the water balance. In summary, the most significant land use/land cover classes are evergreen broadleaved forest, mixed forest, grasslands, and rainfed croplands (Table 4). The soil variables (Table 5) considered for the water balance are the soil texture classes and water holding capacity. These variables were obtained from global datasets that have been adjusted with the parameters. Soil texture classes: The layers downloaded from the source contain six global soil texture classes (USDA classification system) at six depths (0, 10, 30, 60, 100, and 200 cm) as continuous surfaces for the study area. In consequence, cell statistics (majority) were used to determine the soil texture class for each location of the study area (Figure 9). Then, the hydrological soil group (HSG) was derived from the resultant soil texture surfaceThis layer provides the soil water holding capacity in volumetric fraction (V%) at different depths (0, 5, 15, 30, 60,100, and 200 cm) and was downloaded as a raster stack. Therefore, a weighted average was calculated to determine the final WHC raster in mm for each location in the study area, considering all the different depths. Figure 10 shows the spatial distribution of the soil water holding capacity.A crop-water-productivity simulation model was parametrized for four crops. The model was implemented for the closest available weather station sites for the project intervention areas in Amity Hall Agro Park in St Catherine Parish, Parnassus Agro Park in Clarendon Parish, and several farming communities in the St. Elizabeth Parish, see Figure 5.   6) and two RCP scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) were selected.  AquaCrop crop-water-productivity model Similarly, to many other crop-growth models, AquaCrop further develops a structure (sub-model components) that includes: the soil, with its water balance; the crop, with its development, growth, and yield; the atmosphere, with its thermal regime, rainfall, evaporative demand, and carbon dioxide concentration (CO2); and the management, with its central agronomic practice such as irrigation and fertilization. Simulation runs of AquaCrop are executed with daily time steps, using either calendar days or growing-degree-days. Several features distinguish AquaCrop from other crop growth models achieving a new level of simplicity, robustness, and accuracy.Canopy development expressed as canopy cover Root development is expressed in terms of adequate rooting depth as a function of time (either calendar or thermal); Biomass is calculated using water productivity and crop transpiration.Yield is determined as a product of biomass and harvest index, and Water stress is expressed through stress coefficients.See the AquaCrop model flowchart in Figure 6. The statistical program R (R Core Team, 2021) and the AgroClimR package (https://github.com/jrodriguez88/agroclimR) were used for the processes of data download and management, import and format conversion, analysis, and visualization of results.Table 7 shows the data and information requirement for the AquaCrop model. The University of West Indies Climate Studies provided observed data from the Meteorological service of Jamaica (https://metservice.gov.jm/), including daily information on precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature in the period 2013 to 2020 for the selected weather stations. An exploratory analysis of the data was performed to identify anomalous and missing data. The series were subjected to quality control that includes error tests, internal consistency, temporal consistency, and climatological limits by variable. Following the recommendations of (Ruane, Goldberg, & Chryssanthacopoulos, 2015;Van Wart et al., 2015), it is suggested to use a baseline of at least 25 years of precipitation and temperature records for the analysis of climate change scenarios. Therefore, we complemented the observed data from UWI Climate Studies with open data from NASAPOWER and CHIRPS. We carried out a control and correction of bias in propagation of climatic series (Table 8).  The soil information was obtained from the SoilGrids database, from the International Center for Reference and Information on Soils (ISRIC) (https://soilgrids.org/). SoilGrids is an automated global soil mapping system based on public information and remote sensing (Hengl et al., 2017). It provides the variables of texture, organic carbon, and apparent density at different depths. Using the variables from SoilGrids, the other physical soil variables were calculated by using a pedotransfer function (PTF) (Wösten, Pachepsky, & Rawls, 2001). Using the location of the three weather stations, a buffer of 0.1 decimal degrees (approx 12km) was defined and ten soil data points were randomly chosen inside the buffer and extracted. For the data extraction of variables (Table 10) of six soil depth profiles (\" 0-5cm \",\" 5-15cm \",\" 15-30cm \",\" 30-60cm \",\" 60-100cm \",\" 100-200cm \"), an Application Protocol Interface (API) was used (https://rest.isric.org/soilgrids/v2.0/docs#/). Based on available data, four crops were selected and parametrized based on literature for AquaCrop model simulations, some parameters such as days of growth had to be estimated. The literature review included studies with use cases for selected crops and also reference manuals of AquaCrop (Raes, Steduto, Hsiao, & Fereres, 2012) and data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (http://www.fao.org/land-water/databases-and-software/crop-information) were used for parametrization.See parameters details in Table 11.Table 11. Crop model parameters and units used for the crop-water simulation model.Given the complexity of simulating the growth of roots and tubers, an initial parameterization of Sweet Potato was achieved by using multiple parameters were based on the study developed in two regions of Jamaica by (Rankine et al., 2015). Rankine concludes that the AquaCrop model provides a fairly accurate prediction of Sweet potato yield and biomass under both rainfed and irrigated conditions.The parameterization of Groundnut was supported by the study of (Chibarabada, Modi, & Mabhaudhi, 2020) and (Karunaratne, Azam-Ali, Izzi, & Steduto, 2011) which was developed in three regions of South Africa. The AquaCrop model was calibrated and evaluated for its ability to simulate canopy cover (CC), biomass, yield, and evapotranspiration of the groundnut crop under conditions of water deficit. In general, the model showed potential to simulate the yield and the evapotransfer of groundnuts under conditions of water deficit.Similarly, for the cultivation of Onion parameters obtained by (Ortola, 2013) were adapted. Ortola sought to evaluate the impacts of variability in soils and irrigation on the yield and quality of the onion crop. Field data and industrial sector surveys were used to calibrate and evaluate the Aquacrop model in multiple management conditions and production environments for brown onion. The performance of the model under ideal management conditions was within the ranges found in the literature, meanwhile the variation in non-optimal conditions was equal to that reported by the producers. For the fourth crop Tomato, the default values available in the AquaCrop were used from the file -TomatoGDD.CRO.A total of 21 climate scenarios were generated per location (1 baseline + (5 GCM * 2 RCP * 2 BiasCorr)).In each scenario, two seasons were evaluated as sowing windows (window A = Apr-May-Jun and window B = Aug-Sep-Oct), corresponding to the traditional times due to the onset of rains. During the period of the sowing window, simulations were carried out with a frequency of 5 days, resulting in between 18 and 19 sowing dates per season.The four crops were simulated with two water management scenarios:Rainfed, where the water inputs depend clearly on precipitation Automatic Supplementary Irrigation, where the model identifies a depletion level of 20% in the available water in the soil and automatically Irrigation is applied to bring the soil to field capacity.This methodology allows calculating the supplementary water demand of the crop to avoid water stresses and achieve a yield potential in addition to identifying the yield gap between management conditions. In total, we run 13,444,400 simulations.A comparison of the simulation results from the baseline simulation was carried out with historical performance statistics from FAOSTAT (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data).It was necessary to transform the simulated yield values (dry matter) and convert them to commercial fresh weight, referenced in FAOSTAT. We converted tomato yield to 90% humidity, Sweet Potato to 75%, Groundnut to 15% and Onion to 90%. The baseline and FAOSTAT simulations were grouped by channel periods for visual analysis. The simulated baseline data were grouped into different factors: locality, cropping system, planting season, and cultivar (id_name, crop_sys, sow_season, cultivar). The annual average was calculated and subjected to an observed (FAOSTAT) vs simulated (AquaCrop) evaluation.Water Balance for the parishes of Clarendon, St Catherine, Manchester, and St ElizabethThis water balance was calculated pixel by pixel from 2000 -2016 for the parishes of Clarendon, St Catherine, Manchester, and St Elizabeth in Jamaica monthly. This period was chosen according to the availability of the data collected. On the other hand, October was defined as the starting month, which follows the wettest month (September). In this sense, the first year (2000) was left as the warm-up year.Besides, the recession constant (k) was assumed as 0.5 and the initial base flow as 10 millimeters.Estimation of surface runoff is one of the most important components of the water balance since it summarizes many hydrological aspects. In this case, the surface runoff was estimated using the curve number (CN) approach, which relates the amount of precipitation generated in a storm with the runoff generated according to the type of soil, land cover, and the condition of the soil moisture (Ponce & Hawkins, 1996;Williams et al., 2012). The highest runoff occurs in October (158 mm/month) but being May and September months with significant values that reach 125 mm/month and 126 mm/month, respectively. These spatial estimations were used as inputs for the generation of the water balance.The conceptual model of Thornthwaite and Mather (1955) was used to determine the effective precipitation, water soil storage, and actual evapotranspiration. In addition, surface runoff, percolation, base flow (critical in the dry season), and water yield were derived (Table 12). The latter represents the water contribution of the landscape to the flow (mm) in the study area. Water yield shows this monthly contribution during the period 2000 -2016; areas with dark blue tones are those that most contribute to the flow. Unfortunately, we could not obtain streamflow series to calibrate this variable, however, the obtained results are still useful to determine those areas that need to be prioritized for conservation and implementation of agricultural practices and where the impact of climate change scenarios can be evaluated.Table 12. Monthly estimation of the water balance variables.As outlined in the above section, we used input data from three different resources to establish a climate baseline. We used data from the Meteorological service of Jamaica and complemented missing years with data from NASA POWER and the Climate Hazards group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) (Funk et al. 2015). The Nasa POWER data set was obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC) Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program.  All bias corrected values are mapped in Figure 8 and Table 13. Evaluations show that while the mean absolute error and mean bias error is higher for monthly rain data, the normalized root mean square error is higher for daily rain data. Also, correlations are lower for rain data than for temperature data. The Nash Sutcliffe model Efficiency coefficient also shows that minimum temperature data are less efficient in data evaluations. Overall, there is higher confidence in temperature data than in rainfall data.  Bias correction (BC) and quantile mapping (QM) applied to future scenarios show relative projected changes of temperature and rainfall for the near future of the century, mid and end (Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11). While increase of temperature is similar between BC and QM, rainfall trends show quite some differences in the signal of trend.   The Baseline simulation results of AquaCrop show the importance of using model parameters that are estimated for the study area. Despite the difficulty of modeling root and tuber crops in AquaCrop, the best statistical metrics were obtained from the comparison of model outputs with FAOSTAT data for Sweet Potato, using model parameters from a study carried out in Jamaica, followed by Tomato, using the standard parameter for tomato in AquaCrop, and with lower levels of statistical metrics for Onion and Groundnut, using parameters from other studies (not from Jamaica). For all modeled scenarios, two seasons were evaluated as sowing windows (window A = Apr-May-Jun and window B = Aug-Sep-Oct), corresponding to the traditional times due to the onset of rains. During the period of the sowing window, simulations were carried out with a frequency of 5 days, resulting in between 18 and 19 sowing dates per season. First, the model outputs were compared to reported data in FAOSTAT. Figure 12 and Figure 13 show outputs for rainfed and irrigated systems. Since in many cases farmers would not be able to apply water optimized irrigation scenario, for most farmers the rainfed scenario compares better with data reported in FAOSTAT. However, FAOSTAT data do not distinguish between season A and B, and the same values were used for comparison.Model outputs show that the model simulates groundnut for season A like yield outputs reported in FAOSTAT. However, season B achieves higher model outputs for groundnuts in rainfed systems. Onions were underestimated by the model compared to FAOSTAT data, with high variability in yield estimations. Outputs for Sweet Potato show also similar levels of yield compared to FAOSTAT data, and overall higher yield for Season B. The Tomato outputs adjust better to FAOSTAT data in the second season B. The site comparison shows that St. Elizabeth in the Essex Valley has higher yields simulated by the model and compared to reported yields to FAOSTAT. The AquaCrop model simulates higher yield levels for irrigated systems compared to FAOSTAT. Most likely, data reported in FAOSTAT reflect farmers reality of not having enough access to water supply for their crops. Irrigated systems, however, would increase yield levels for all four crops, and reduce variability (Figure 13).  After the comparison of simulated yield outputs of the AquaCrop model with reported data from FAOSTAT, we show averaged yield outputs by the model for the climate baseline, for two seasons (A and B), and two water management scenarios, rainfed and irrigated respectively. Figure 14 shows that most crops can achieve higher yields in season B, and when irrigated. For example, onions have very low levels of yield in both seasons when produced in rainfed systems, but also Sweet Potato and Tomato benefit from optimized water capacity in soils. Only groundnut does not show significant differences between rainfed and irrigated systems. The simulated crop cycle in days is higher in season B for all crops (Figure 15).  Figures 16, 17, 18, and 19 show future scenarios of simulated yield for each crop. We present results using the data from Bias Correction (results from Quantile Mapping were not included). Groundnut (Figure 16) can maintain current yield levels in the near future for all RCP Scenarios, Seasons and water management options. Yield levels start dropping in the Mid future. If ambitious global climate targets can be achieved, following the RCP 4.5 scenario, groundnut could maintain its levels in St. Catherine for both seasons, and in farmers in St. Elizabeth and Clarendon for Season B.The model simulated for onions (Figure 17) that only Season A is a valid option to achieve similar yield levels compared to current yields, predicting the best outputs for St. Catherine parish and St. Elizabeth for the RCP 4.5 scenario.Figure 18 shows that Sweet Potato is a good option for all three parishes under irrigated and most rainfed systems, some future climate model scenarios even show increasing yields, However, rainfed systems sow reduced yields for Season A compared to the reference system of current climate (Figure 18).Outputs for Tomato (Figure 19) show overall lower yield levels for rainfed systems and lower variability in Season A.   A multi-disciplinary team, which included team members from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in collaboration with the University of West Indies in Jamaica, conducted the CSA-RA between June and December 2021. Due to ongoing restrictions for field visit due to the global pandemic, the original methods of Mwongera et al. (2017) were adapted and phone surveys were used for collecting primary data. Focal workshops and guided discussions with farmers were used at the end of the project to complement the collected information. The following subsections include a short description of the tools employed in the CSA-RA. The CSA-RA tool is available for download and is freely available on the Harvard Dataverse web portal under the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) website.We used a value chain approach to identify the major agricultural activities along four stages: input supply; on-farm production; harvesting, storage, and processing; and product marketing. The methodology also identified the type and scale (small, medium, or large) of the actors involved in the activities and gendered division of labor. We identified gender dynamics, key risk, activities, and consequences for the value chain. Prior to data collection with farmers, the value chains were selected based on expert consultations.We carried out qualitative phone interviews with farmers in St. Elizabeth, Parnassus, and Amity Hall for primary data collection. During the interviews, we asked farmers open questions about the selected value chains. We identified the role of actors along the value chain, and which gender is predominant.We asked farmers about key risks for the value chains and what are the consequences for production. We also identified the underlying factors that affect some farmer worse than others. We prioritized CSA practices based on importance for farmers and identified the barriers to adaptation, but also what is the enabling environment to support adaptation.A workshop was held with 25 to 30 farmers and local stakeholders in each of the three study sites (Figure 20). These workshops were organized with the assistance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and aimed to have good representation of men and women. A guided discussion was used as an ice-breaking exercise and to explain to farmers the concept of climate change and climate smart agriculture. After the ice breaker, we introduced to the group the CSA investment portfolios that were prioritized by experts. We used the following guided questions for the discussions:How did the practice implementation change over time? During the initial phase (preparation) of the process, a virtual workshop with expert stakeholders of the different regional contexts, was held to refine the bio-geographical characteristics and farmers' predominant typology for each region, delimitating the study context. Additionally, a list of current and potential agricultural production systems (crops 1 ) was discussed identifying key crops based on socioeconomic, productive, and environmental criteria. In parallel, the two most challenging climate-related hazards and impacts were analyzed and identified for each region. During the same session, it was planned to address second phase (options evaluation), stakeholders brainstormed on multidimensional 2 guiding questions as a criterion for filtering a long list of CSA options compiled from national projects documentation and complemented with specialized literature in Latin America and the Caribbean context. CSA Practices in the list covered all value chain stages 3 and were ranked and prioritized by stakeholders through a qualitative assessment, based on the mentioned guiding questions as well as on a selection of 1 Agricultural production systems addressed fitted in five categories aiming to capture the variability of annual and perennial crops in each region: Vegetables, legumes, condiments, fruits, and tubers.2 Multidimensional analysis refers to filter questions covering socio-cultural, environmental, economic, policyinstitutional, and educational-information perspectives of the CSA practices. 3 Value chain stages included: Input supply; on-farm production; harvesting, storage and processing; and product marketing. Programmatic practices (off-farm) were also addressed.Food and Nutritional Security, Adaptation and Mitigation indicators. This facilitated the identification of individual or crosscutting CSA options for the top four production systems recognized for each region.In the third phase (economic analysis), an ex-ante cost-benefit analysis was carried out for the top two practices in each crop by region, using input data from three Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) held virtually with local experts. The profitability of farmers' adoption of CSA practices was calculated through several financial indicators (NPV, IRR, C/B ratio, and PP) 4 contrasting a baseline and the CSA scenarios for each CSA practice, including the quantification of positive externalities associated with individual production systems.Considering Covid-19 restrictions, the latest phase (Portfolio design and analysis), was adapted to a virtual session for stakeholders from the different regions go through the outputs from the previous phases, adding barriers of and opportunities to adoption of prioritized CSA practices combining once again a multidimensional perspective, and exploring aggregated characteristics of the investment portfolios by region.    In Parnassus, we characterized four value chains through interviews with farmers: pumpkin, sweet potato, Irish potato, and hot pepper (Figures 27,28,29,30). Most farmers grow on small scale pumpkin (65%) and less farmers grow sweet potato (less than 5%). The other two crops Irish potato and Hot pepper are not grown by farmers currently, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries wants to introduce them through new programs. Key activities along the pumpkin value chain are mostly done by men, both women and men are engaged in post-harvest activities, and like St. Elizabeth, market activities are predominated by women.Hazards affecting the value chains are characterized with pest & disease impacts, mainly from a fungus that affects pumpkin, and pests that affect sweet potato production. Floods can cause moderate to severe issues of root rotting, and cows can damage the harvest.Underlying factors that lead to barriers for adaptation are lack of financial resources to offset costs of input and labor, and overall lack of access to infrastructure, like for example tractors, processing facilities, and export markets.Farmers found shared post-harvest processing facilities (e.g., pack houses) and integrated pest & disease management as very important technologies that should be prioritized. But they also ranked high improved irrigation systems and use of organic inputs for some value chains. Rainwater harvesting and crop rotation was prioritized with medium importance.    For the Agro Park in Amity Hall, we characterized four value chains through interviews with farmers: pumpkin, sweet potato, hot pepper, and watermelon (Figures 31,32,33,34). Most farmers grow on small scale pumpkin (80%) and less farmers grow sweet potato (less than 5%). The other two crops watermelon and hot pepper are not grown by farmers currently, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries wants to introduce them through new programs. Key activities along the pumpkin value chain are mostly done by men, both women and men are engaged in post-harvest activities in the sweet potato value chain, and like St. Elizabeth and Parnassus, market activities are predominated by women.Flood hazards affecting the value chains are characterized as severe for pumpkin and moderate for sweet potato, pest & disease impacts, mainly from pests that affect sweet potato production. Droughts can cause moderate to severe issues for pumpkin.The underlying factors that hinder adaptation of new practices are access to funding or subsidies for tools and inputs, which farmers currently cannot access due to high costs. Further the lack of infrastructure and facilities is another challenge for farmers.  In Amity Hall, farmers prioritize climate information and extension services high, and also asked for water management like improved irrigation and drainage and flood control systems.  During the focal group sessions with farmers, we asked them how farming changed over time, what would be needed to maximize the adoption/implementation of the CSA practices, and how it can be ensured that both, women, and men benefit from CSA.Focal group sessions in the Essex valley (Sea Air, Comma Pen, Lititz)Farmers in Sea Air were talking about the challenges of accessing water for irrigation and the lack of access to enough land. In the women group discussion, farmers were talking about the challenge of changing weather patterns, like the shift of rain onset from the month of September to October. Farmers get water through government services, but if the drought is extended, some farmers would buy water or switch to alternatives, such as livestock rearing. The additional water come from private trucks and cost 50,000 Jamaican dollars per load. If there would be sufficient access to irrigation, farmers could extend production without causing a glut. The men group was talking about the benefits of mulching with guinea grass. They said it's key to keep the moisture in the soil, without mulching the crop dries out very fast. Farmers are not currently doing tillage or crop rotation. They said that there is no need for rotation since with the mulching they are incorporating enough nutrients into the soil. They decide which crop based on season and market demand. However, some of the farmers mentioned that they are doing crop rotation on sweet potato land, rotating the sweet potato with string beans and cauliform. As reason for rotating, they mentioned having crops planted in between seasons. Regarding what farmers would need to maximize production, they the following needs: Having enough land to produce their own guinea grass to be used as mulch, having access to other varieties for mulching or green cover, understanding the benefit of crop rotation. In case they would have better access to water, they would also need more land.Farmers in Parnassus are participating in a program initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to build capacity of farmers. Some farmers have started using drip irrigation, but most farmers still practice furrow irrigation, which requires more water when furrows are set closer. The material cost for drip irrigation is calculated to be about 100,000 Jamaican dollars for 1 acre. Farmers mentioned during the focal group session that funding is needed to set up the infrastructure, including training on how to install and operate the drip irrigation system. Regarding gender differences, the discussion highlighted that woman are more organized with their plans and ideas and would find hep easier by asking than men. Farmers are using tractors for land preparation (tilling), however, they mentioned that the soils remain productive when the seasonal rains are normal and when they use fertilize.The government owned land in this area has been used traditionally for sugarcane, but the new Agropark now helps farmers to expand into vegetables and fruits (papaya, hot pepper, tomato, kale, spinach, dasheen). Farmers are leasing the former sugarcane land, which is a problem for land tenure and investment in larger infrastructure (irrigation). The climate is hot and dry, rainfall patterns changed and are now more intensive, which causes flooding's sometimes. Due to the close distance to the sea, there is also a risk of saltwater intrusion. Farmers are using raised beds and drainage systems to control the flooding, but when farmers train out the water, they also wash out the topsoil. When it rains, there is a problem with water excess because the topography is flat and the soil structure consists of heavy clay in soil, which retains the water too long. While the Agro-park is expanding, they need to investigate market opportunities and value chain diversification. Mechanization is needed to compensate for the hard labor conditions, especially heat conditions. Some farmers have experimented with plastic mulch but recognize that the negative trades offs are higher than the positive ones. Advantages are conservation of moisture, contention of fertilizer nutrients, less compacted soil. Negatives effects of plastic mulch are the heat that reduces microbes and soil life. Farmers recognize that using plant residues for mulching would be more beneficial but is not available. Farmers also know of a degradable plastic that allows the soil to breath -but they are too expensive. Plastic mulch has a positive effect on watermelon production, but the plant distance and pest and disease management are very important for watermelon. On average, farmers grow crops on four to five acres. Growing weeds and related cost for chemicals and manual labor is a major problem for farmers. Manual weeding is two to three times more expensive that tillage using a tractor. One possibility would be shredding the weeds and keep it under a plastic to kill the seeds and then use it for mulch. Crop rotation is practiced on some crops, e.g., sorrel with sweet potato, peas and beans with pumpkin and corn, corn, or pumpkin after hot pepper. One way of lowering a pest infestation would be to agree among farmers to not grow a specific crop for one season.During the prioritization process, the use of an Excel tool was essential to configure CSA investment portfolios, capturing and weighting the multiple assessments on the prioritization criteria provided by the local stakeholders, which engaged across the different CSA-PF sessions around 59 participants (26 men) and (33 women). Therefore, the recognized CSA portfolios represent a context-specific selection of priority agricultural practices that address socio-environmental issues, seek to maximize farmer´s investment yield and minimize income risks, while seizing synergies and avoiding trade-offs that are particular to each region, value chain/crop and CSA practice. Small-and medium-scale farmers were at the center of the analysis, but the practices recognized can be adapted and extrapolated to large-scale farmers that are also present in the regions.This process allowed the creation of a dynamic ranking [1] by region of the top two CSA options for each value chain identified, as it is presented in the table below. This ranking serves as a guide for decisionmaking process presenting the overall performance of a given practice based on the combination of the qualitative and quantitative evaluations from stakeholders and experts on the above-mentioned prioritization criteria. The ranking summarizes and represent a straightforward manner to compare individual practices within a region that will be further analyzed as a whole group of practices in the CSA portfolios' dashboards. Dynamic ranking refers to the fact that there is no definitive or static ranking of CSA practices, because due to the complex nature of the prioritization process, participants can modify the different values, parameters, and weights at any time to suit their needs and to best adapt to the contextual reality of their territory.The following dash boards are a synthesis of the scores evaluated indicators on each prioritization criteria. Investment portfolio in Parnassus involved CSA options at the on-farm production and postharvest stages in the different value chains. Sustainable soil and water management strategies were prioritized in complement with Integrated Pest and Diseases management practices (IPM). Small-scale pack houses-shared facilities useful for multiple crops was also recognized as a relevant option to strengthen value addition in the region.Regarding the individual criteria addressed, the portfolio showed the following characteristics:Economic: Financial indicators such as NPV turn out to be positive (JMD 26,142,607/Acre) with an IRR of 77%, greater than the interest rate used in the analysis (9.46%) and a B/C ratio of 1.9 (>1) indicating that the group of practices in the portfolio are profitable options. The aggregated cost of the portfolio is JMD 1,512,750 /Acre, expecting an average Payback Period of the investment in 0.8 years.Climate smartness: Based on the CSA indicators evaluated, the portfolio benefits on the CSA pillars tend to contribute in greater proportion to Food and Nutritional Security (35.1%). Closely followed by Adaptation (34.7%) and Mitigation (30.2%). Indicating that most of the practices brings triple-win benefits to the farmers and the agroecosystems in the region.Barriers and Opportunities: The amount of identified Opportunities for the portfolio (33) was slightly higher than the Barriers (31), a similar pattern was found in the qualitative assessment of the feasibility to attain the Opportunities, showing an average value of 6.3/10 where 10 means that a given opportunity is very easy to overcome. In the case of the Barriers, the average result was 5.6/10 where 10 means that these are very difficult to overcome. This suggests that despite the fact that Barriers and Opportunities are similar in number, the Opportunities recognized by participants are relatively feasible to attain overcoming the difficultness of the barriers found. Regarding the individual criteria addressed, the portfolio showed the following characteristics:Economic: Financial indicators such as NPV turn out to be positive (JMD 45,871,903/Acre) with an IRR of 65%, greater than the interest rate used in the analysis (9.46%) and a B/C ratio of 1.6 (>1) indicating that the group of practices in the portfolio are profitable options. The aggregated cost of the portfolio is JMD 4,468,025 /Acre, expecting an average Payback Period of the investment in 0.7 years. CSA: Based on the CSA indicators evaluated, the portfolio benefits on the CSA pillars tend to contribute in greater proportion to Food and Nutritional Security (37.9%), followed by Mitigation (32.7%) and Adaptation (29.4%). Indicating that most of the practices brings triplewin benefits to the farmers and the agroecosystems in the region. Barriers and Opportunities: The amount of identified Opportunities for the portfolio (40) was higher than the Barriers (36), a similar pattern was found in the qualitative assessment of the feasibility to attain the Opportunities, showing an average value of 7.2/10, where 10 means that a given opportunity is very easy to overcome. In the case of the Barriers, the average result was 5.8/10, where 10 means that these are very difficult to overcome. This suggest an optimistic scenario considering that the Opportunities are relatively higher in number, and the assessment of the Opportunities recognized by participants indicate greater chances to attain them vs. the difficultness to overcome the barriers found. Regarding the individual criteria addressed, the portfolio showed the following characteristics:Economic: Financial indicators such as NPV turn out to be positive (JMD 25,638,949/Acre) with an IRR of 50%, greater than the interest rate used in the analysis (9.46%) and a B/C ratio of 1.6 (>1) indicating that the group of practices in the portfolio are profitable options. The aggregated cost of the portfolio is JMD 1,718,987 /Acre, expecting an average Payback Period of the investment in 1.9 years. CSA: Based on the CSA indicators evaluated, the portfolio benefits on the CSA pillars tend to contribute in greater proportion to Adaptation (36.8%). Closely followed by Mitigation (35.9%) and to a lesser extent to Food and Nutritional Security (27.3%). Indicating that most of the practices brings triple-win benefits to the farmers and the agroecosystems in the region. Barriers and Opportunities: The amount of identified Barriers for the portfolio (30) was slightly higher than the Opportunities (28). In contrast, the qualitative assessment of the feasibility to attain the Opportunities showed an average value of 6.5/10 where 10 means that a given opportunity is very easy to overcome, whereas in the case of the Barriers, the average result was 5.4/10 where 10 means that these are very difficult to overcome. This suggest that although the number of Barriers exceeds the number of Opportunities, the Opportunities recognized by participants are relatively feasible to attain compared to the level of difficultness of the barriers found. In perspective, from the different criteria evaluated, the CSA investment portfolio for Amity Hall (AH) demonstrated a better performance gathering 6 out of the 12 parameters evaluated. Followed by Essex Valley (EV) and Parnassus (P) with 4 and 3 respectively. From the economic point of view, AH showed higher total NPV, almost duplicating the expected net benefits compared to the other two regions, coupled with a lower projected average time to recover the investment (0.7 years). Nevertheless, the Parnassus´ portfolio, having a lower total cost in the implementation of the CSA practices and a relatively good financial performance (NPV), it showed the best benefit-cost ratio (B/C), not far from those found for the other two regions. Results that are aligned with the highest Internal Rate of Return of the three regions (77%). Under the assumptions of the analysis, the total aggregated* and average** values for each economic indicator considering all regions of the study, reveals that priority CSA portfolios and their practices are attractive alternatives in economic terms. Showing a total cost of JMD 7,699,762 /Acre, with and NPV of JMD 97,653,460 /Acre, an IRR of 64%, a B/C ratio of 1.8, and an IRR of 64% in an average period of 1.1 years.Greater climate-smart benefits on Food and Nutritional Security and Mitigation are projected to be perceived in the AH portfolio, while Adaptation benefits are expected to be higher in the EV portfolio. Qualitative assessment of CSA indicators was predominantly positive in all portfolios, indicating that there are several opportunities to increase resilience capacity not only in the household sphere but also at the ecosystem level, driven by an adequate and successful process of education and subsequent implementation and adoption of the priority CSA practices. Worth to mention that weighting assigned to the CSA criterion, remained similar to that used in the overall criteria of the analysis (33.3%).In terms of the aggregated analysis of Opportunities and Barriers to adoption of the CSA practices/portfolios, average scores indicate that EV has the least number and degree of difficulty in overcoming the barriers to implementation. For its part, AH is perceived as the region with the greatest number of opportunities and, in turn, the greatest possibility to attain them along with EV. It is important to mention that both the amount and difficulty/attainability assessment did not differ significantly between regions, covering a wide range of multidimensional aspects (social, economic, environmental etc.).Location specific weather/climate data is an area of interest that can assist in farm management and overall decision making. Such information has been considered important as weather is no longer predictable with cyclical changes being seen. Other needs expressed by the farmers include irrigation access; storage; better markets and higher prices for their produce; lower input costs; opportunities for value added agriculture and the strengthening of linkages with local producers. A farmers' group has been revived in the community and its value is well recognized especially in being able to attain some of these needs.The CSA Extension Services Manual aims to provide agricultural extension staff in the region with readyto-use guidelines for climate-smart practices. It incorporates the local experiences of farmers as well as the expertise of local and international adaptation researchers. A key feature of this manual is an assessment of the costs and benefits associated with implementing targeted CSA practices, with direct reference to local economic conditions. The manuals are:INTEGRATIVE: Provides both technical information and incorporates the voices of farmers in the community of interest for improved integrated crop management. CULTURALLY SENSITIVE: Gives special consideration of cultural and traditional practices in the area CROP-SPECIFIC: Focuses on major crops that are important to the economy and culture of communities, instead of presenting generic guidelines. ECONOMICALLY RELEVANT: Enables improved decision-making for the farmer and agricultural stakeholders who desires to understand the long-term benefits of their investment options, optimizing their farm practices by presenting cost-benefit analyses for each prioritized option. ACTION ORIENTED: Highlights farmers' own perspectives and recommendations to attain opportunities to overcome current and potential barriers to adoption of CSA practices in the regional context.Agricultural extension services aim to provide technical support to producers at the farm-and community levels. Extension services have been found to improve farmer accessibility and use of climate information services, including in the Jamaican context (Buckland and Campbell, 2021). A knowledgeable and strategic extension service at the local level has great potential to have significant national impact on increasing agricultural productivity sustainably, enhancing food and nutritional security, improving, and diversifying rural livelihoods, and promoting agriculture as an engine of socioeconomic growth.","tokenCount":"10687"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"75be03d7eb6ab784a7a775de28feba14","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b141d9a8-0178-4b52-a8ca-80e1c842c447/retrieve","id":"830194856"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"46393c87-fafd-457e-924f-5675b4463090","pagecount":"1","content":"A Healthy, Inclusive, and Sustainable Food Systems Approach for IndiaVartika Singh 1,2,3,4 , Prantika Das 1 , Chandan Jha 1 , Ranjan Kumar Ghosh 1 , Miodrag Stevanovic´4, Hermann Lotze-Campen 2,4 , Alexander Popp 4 Combining minimum wages and capital investments have a weakening effect on inclusion outcomes.Employment levels significantly decline, affecting 19 million people.This has higher negative effects on women whose agricultural employment has been found to be reduced disproportionately with increased capital investments.Liberal trade policies result in lower agricultural employment, but higher wages compared to 2020Combining all FSMs improves 12 out of 14 indicators.Transformative actions encouraging agricultural labor engagements can potentially increase the share of labor requirement to 73.5% by 2050, compared to 67% in the baseline, thereby enhancing employment opportunities for 9 million individuals.Issues like declining agriculture employment may need policy support from outside food system. India's agrifood system grapples with challenges such as persistent malnutrition, environmental degradation, resource strain, and social disparities.Transitioning to sustainable food systems necessitates cohesive bundling of sustainable food and land use management measures, inclusive changes and identifying strategic entry points for transformation.","tokenCount":"180"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5651619ae4c53c34740b3629e8dbb9fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ef1f2004-12d3-4dfa-8bea-61e0b49c1210/retrieve","id":"1833643600"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7629ff3a-5aaa-4fba-b30b-8648cda4050c","pagecount":"50","content":"SEARCA is mandated to strengthen institutional capacities in agricultural and rural development in Southeast Asia through graduate scholarship, research and development, and knowledge management. It serves the 11 SEAMEO member countries, namely,The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) is pleased to present this publication Strategic Policy Response to Climate Change in the Philippines Vol. 1: Portfolio of Climate Change Policies in Agriculture. This is the first of twin handbooks developed from the results of the research titled \"National Action Plans for Mitigation in Rice: Comparative Assessment of Institutional Setting and Possible Entry Points for Intervention in the Philippines and Vietnam\" implemented by SEARCA through the collaboration and funding support of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).This publication features relevant information on climate change mitigation policies, particularly those pertinent to the Philippine agriculture sector. This would also be an important entry point for further policy research or deeper investigation of the translation of national climate change policies into ordinances and enabling mechanisms at the local level.Our hope is for this publication to promote a wider appreciation of the elements and strategies in climate change policy process among researchers, policy analysts and policymakers, students and teachers, and other stakeholders in the agriculture, natural resources and environment, and other related sectors in the Philippines and other ASEAN countries.The Philippines is among the countries highly vulnerable to the vagaries and risk of climate change. As a logical action, the Philippine government has developed a comprehensive strategic response mechanism to climate change as early as 1991 (Figure 1). In recent years, climate change policies have gained considerable momentum in various manifestations in consonance with the Paris Agreement.In Figure 1, the core elements of the climate change strategy in the Philippines are the formulation of appropriate climate change policies, and then translating these policies into meaningful actions at the ground level to achieve the desired results and goals.Rice cultivation dominates agricultural production in the Philippines. Thus, adaptation of rice is the logical priority for sectoral climate change policies in terms of adaptation. However, rice production significantly contributes to the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the country. Thus, agriculture- Lucrecio L. Rebugio,Susan Sandra L. Ilao,Bessie M. Burgos,Carmen Nyhria G. Rogel,Bjoern Ole Sander,and Reiner Wassmann 2 particularly rice and water-should be an important component of the country's climate change mitigation response strategy.Although the Philippines has developed a relatively robust portfolio of climate change policies, including that in agriculture, translating these policies into meaningful actions on the ground has been wanting. This implementation deficit is not unique to climate change; it also affects other environmental policies in the Philippines. This situation may be due to the lack of communication to the concerned public and stakeholders, particularly at the ground level. Moreover, the dynamics by which these policies are implemented are not well articulated and understood by all concerned agencies and stakeholders. Therefore, there is a compelling need to publish an appropriate communication material that could create wider public and stakeholder awareness, as well as appreciation of the elements and dynamics of climate change policy process and strategy, particularly in agriculture.Toward this end, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) developed this review based on the results of their research on National Action Plans for Mitigation in Rice: Comparative Assessment of Institutional Setting and Possible Entry Points for Intervention in the Philippines and Vietnam, which was implemented from June 2016 to January 2017.Considering the importance of agriculture in the Philippine economy and its great potential in climate change mitigation, this portfolio features climate change mitigation policies in the Philippines that are relevant to the agriculture sector. This publication aims to give relevant information on the climate change policy process, particularly in the agriculture sector, that is more readily available or accessible to interested users and the general public.The target audience of this publication comprises professionals in agriculture, natural resource management and environment, and other related sectors in the Philippines and in other ASEAN countries, particularly those who are involved in climate change policy formulation and implementation. Researchers and policy analysts may also use this handbook as reference for further policy research or as an entry point for deeper investigation into the translation of national climate change policies into local ordinances and enabling mechanisms. Their output would, in turn, be beneficial to local government units (LGUs) and policymakers. Students and teachers in agriculture, forestry, and environmental sciences in ASEAN countries could adopt this review as a handy reference material to supplement their readings and enhance their understanding of climate change policies in the Philippines.Generally, policies are decisions on the courses of actions designed to achieve development goals. They include a set of principles and rules that govern policy implementation. Policies are expressed or articulated in various ways through varied policy instruments, such as international and regional agreements, conventions and treaties, constitutional provisions, legislative acts, and executive issuances.A portfolio of policies represents a systematically organized collectionor briefcase-of policy instruments, which is promulgated at various levels of governance. It is systematically structured in a hierarchy that cuts across several policy domains. Hierarchy of policy implies that policies are issued at various levels of governance; and correspondingly, have varying levels of spatial domains. Higher-level policies are setting the stage for lower-level ones. Thus, in formulation and in application, the lower-level policies must be consistent with, or be subordinated to, the higher-level policies (Figure 2). This presentation of climate change policy portfolio in the Philippines follows an inductive approach starting with the policy framework for climate change response in general, emphasizing on the agriculture sector, and finally zooming in on water and irrigation issues.    3).  At the second hierarchical level right under the Constitution are the laws. Laws are intended to implement the general principles, mandates, policies, or programs embodied in the Constitution. They enable the spirit of the Constitution to be translated into meaningful reality. These enabling laws include republic acts (RA) passed by the Congress of the Philippines. Executive orders (EO), by virtue of their legislative powers, also have the force and effect of the law unless amended by an RA, as provided for by the Constitution. Prior to the enactment of the 1987 Constitution, laws could also be issued in the form of a presidential decree (PD).The following laws are not climate change laws per se but, in one way or another, have direct or indirect implications for climate change actions, including adaptation and mitigation in general, and agriculture in particular. Section 17. The State shall give priority to education, science and technology, arts, culture, and sports to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social progress, and promote total human liberation and development.Section 1. …The State shall promote industrialization and full employment based on sound agricultural development and agrarian reform, through industries that make full and efficient use of human and natural resources… Section 2. All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated. The exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State… In cases of water rights for irrigation, water supply fisheries, or industrial uses other than the development of water power, beneficial use may be the measure and limit of the grant. The State shall protect the nation's marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea, and exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens. Section 3. Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural, forest or timber, mineral lands, and national parks. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be further classified by law according to the uses to which they may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public domain shall be limited to agricultural lands… Taking into account the requirements of conservation, ecology, and development, and subject to the requirements of agrarian reform, the Congress shall determine, by law, the size of lands of the public domain which may be acquired, developed, held, or leased and the conditions therefor.Section 5. The State shall recognize the right of farmers, farmworkers, and landowners, as well as cooperatives, and other independent farmers' organizations to participate in the planning, organization, and management of the program, and shall provide support to agriculture through appropriate technology and research, and adequate financial, production, marketing, and other support services.Philippine Environment Code of 1977(PD No. 1152). The Environment Code provides the guidelines on air quality management; protection and improvement of water quality; land use management; natural resources management and conservation (i.e., fisheries, wildlife, forests and soil conservation, flood control and natural calamities, energy development, surface and ground waters, mineral resources); and waste management.Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997 (RA No. 8371). This law aims to recognize, protect, and promote the rights of indigenous cultural communities/ indigenous peoples. It also created a National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and established the commission's implementing mechanisms. Several sections of the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act stipulate specific concerns for the agriculture sector. However, this RA has limited relevance to the lowland rice area of the Philippines, which is-in its vast majority-located outside the patrimonial land area of indigenous people. Although some watersheds and reservoirs may still be covered by this RA, there is no major implication for climate change issues in lowland rice stemming from RA 8371.Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 (RA No. 8749). The Clean Air Act provides for a comprehensive policy framework for the country's air quality management program. The law focuses on pollution prevention rather than control, and enforces a system of accountability for adverse environmental impacts. The Clean Air Act also provides for an institutional mechanism to implement and enforce this law, with the EMB as the line agency tasked with this primary responsibility. Likewise, the DENR shall link with other government agencies and LGUs or with affected NGOs or people's organizations or private enterprises in attaining the objectives of this law.The DENR, together with concerned agencies and LGUs, is mandated to prepare and fully implement a National Plan for Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions consistent with the UNFCCC and other international agreements, conventions, and protocols on the reduction of GHG emissions in the country. Under the law's Section 31, titled Greenhouse Gases, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration of the DOST (DOST-PAGASA)-in coordination with the DENR-is tasked to regularly monitor meteorological factors affecting environmental conditions, including ozone depletion and GHG. The DENR is also responsible for providingLGUs with technical assistance, training, and a continuing capability-building program to help them undertake full administration of the air quality management and regulations within their territorial jurisdiction. This law was formulated to strengthen the country's disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) system, provide for the National DRRM Framework (NDRRMF), and institutionalize the national DRRM plan. The NDRRMF serves as the principal guide toward comprehensive, all-hazards, multi-sectoral, interagency, and community-based approach to DRRM. Moreover, the DRRM Act mandates the establishment of a local DRRM office from regional, provincial, to municipal, as well as a DRRM committee at the barangay (district) level.The Strategic National Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction for 2009-2019 aims to enhance the capacities of local DRRM councils.The DRRM Act also provides for the calamity fund to be used in support of disaster risk reduction (DRR) or mitigation, prevention, and preparedness activities for the potential occurrence of disasters and for response, relief, and rehabilitation efforts.Lucrecio L. Rebugio, Susan Sandra L. Ilao, Bessie M. Burgos, Carmen Nyhria G. Rogel, Bjoern Ole Sander, and  Section 9 of this law states the powers and functions of the CCC. On the other hand, Section 14 recognizes the LGUs to be at the frontline of climate change action, requiring them to formulate and implement an LCCAP for their respective areas that is consistent with the national, regional, and provincial frameworks on climate change. • Poverty reduction potential,• Cost effectiveness and attainability of the proposal,• Identification of potential cobenefits extending beyond LGU territory,• Maximization of multi-sectoral or cross-sectoral benefits,• Responsiveness to gender-differentiated vulnerabilities, and  Section 19. Sources of the Fund. The amount of one billion pesos (PHP 1,000,000,000 shall be appropriated under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) as opening balance of the PSF. Thereafter, the balance of the PSF from all sources, including the amount appropriated in the GAA for the current year, shall not be less than one billion pesos (PHP 1,000,000,000): Provided, That the balance of the PSF may be increased as the need arises, subject to review and evaluation by the Office of the President and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) of the accomplishments of the Commission and other concerned LGUs: Provided, further, That the PSF shall not be used to fund personal services and other operational expenses of the Commission: Provided, furthermore, That the balance of the PSF including the amount appropriated in the GAA which shall form part of the fund shall not revert to the general fund: Provided, finally, That the Commission shall submit to Congress and the DBM a semi-annual physical/narrative and financial report on the utilization of the PSF.The PSF may be augmented by donations, endowments, grants and contributions, which shall be exempt from donor's tax and be considered as allowable deductions from the gross income of the donor, in accordance with the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended.Section 20. Uses of the Fund. The fund shall be used to support adaptation activities of local governments and communities such as, but not limited to, the following: (a) Adaptation activities, where sufficient information is available to warrant such activities, in the areas of water resources management, land management, agriculture and fisheries, health, infrastructure development, natural ecosystems including mountainous and coastal ecosystems; (b) Improvement of the monitoring of vector-borne diseases triggered by climate change, and in this context improving disease control and prevention; (c) Forecasting and early warning systems as part of preparedness for climate-related hazards; (d) Supporting institutional development, for local governments, in partnership with local communities and civil society groups, for preventive measures, planning, preparedness and management of impacts relating to climate change, including contingency planning, in particular, for droughts and floods in areas prone to extreme climate events; (e) Strengthening existing; and where needed, establish regional centers and information networks to support climate change adaptation initiatives and projects; (f) Serving as a guarantee for risk insurance needs for farmers, agricultural workers and other stakeholders; and (g) Community adaptation support programs by local organizations accredited by the Commission.Moreover, the law ensures the participation of community and NGO representatives in PSF-funded adaptation projects (Section 25). This law also sets the CCC's role in the utilization of the PSF. The Climate Change Office (CCO), meanwhile, is tasked to evaluate, review, and recommend approval of project proposals to the PSF Board based on agreed policies, guidelines, and safeguards (Section 23). Treaties entered into by the Philippines and ratified by Congress (e.g., UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement) also have the force and effect of a law. However, implementing a treaty may require that the State enacts relevant national laws, rules, or regulations, which can then be the basis for local citizens to exercise their legal rights, obligations, and duties. It is only through such issuances that treaties can be regarded as having the force and effect of a law (Cruz-Trinidad et al. 2002).The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the \"United Nations Conference on Environment and Development\" during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This treaty entered into force on 21 March 1994 and has 197 Parties to the Convention, the term referring to the countries that have ratified it.The Kyoto Protocol, also known as the Kyoto Accord, is an international treaty among industrialized nations that sets mandatory limits on GHG emissions, or \"internationally binding emission reduction targets\" (UNFCCC 2018a). This treaty extends the 1992 UNFCCC that commits State Parties to reduce GHG emissions based on the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring, and that it is extremely likely that human-made CO 2 emissions have predominantly caused it. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan on 11 December 1997, and was entered into force on 16 February 2005. The detailed rules for its implementationreferred to as the Marrakesh Accordswere adopted at the Seventh Session of the Conference of Parties in Marrakesh, Morocco in 2001. This protocol recognizes that \"developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity; and places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities\" (UNFCCC 2018a).Meanwhile, the Paris Agreement, also called the Paris Climate Agreement or Paris Lucrecio L. Rebugio,Susan Sandra L. Ilao,Bessie M. Burgos,Carmen Nyhria G. Rogel,Bjoern Ole Sander,and Reiner Wassmann 14 Climate Accord, is an agreement within the UNFCCC that deals with GHG emissions mitigation, adaptation, and financing starting 2020. It affirms the importance of ecosystems, biodiversity, and land in reducing GHG emissions and in helping communities and countries to reduce risks and to adapt to climate change impacts. The Paris Agreement aims to respond to the global climate change threat through keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2°C above preindustrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C.All parties to the Paris Agreement are required to put forward their best efforts through the Nationally Determined Contributions, and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all Parties report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation efforts (UNFCCC 2018b). The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016; 175 parties (174 countries and the European Union) signed the agreement, and 15 states deposited instruments of ratification.According to the intended nationally determined contributions 1 submitted by the Philippine government prior to the The pillars of the NSFCC are adaptation and mitigation, \"with emphasis on adaptation as the anchor strategy, and whenever applicable, mitigation actions shall also be pursued as a function of adaptation.\"The NFSCC 2010-2022 includes the following key result areas under adaptation: (1) integrated ecosystembased management, (2) climate-responsive agriculture, and (3) water governance and management.The National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) was subsequently adopted in 2011. The NCCAP outlines on-the-ground climate change adaptation and mitigation action agenda for 2011-2018. It includes water sufficiency, environmental and ecological stability, and climate-smart industries among its seven strategic priorities.This water adaptation strategy on climate change was developed to make the water sector less vulnerable and communities and ecosystems more resilient to climate change through using a broad-based participatory process of key stakeholders in the sector. Four strategic outcomes are set to be achieved by 2050, and these are supported by 12 strategic objectives and several key actions for 2010-2022. The strategic outcomes include the following: The guidelines embodied in this circular specify that \"all climate changerelated strategies and investments of the government shall be identified as adaptation and mitigation.\" This is based on the definition in the JMC, which states that CCA activities are those initiatives that intend to reduce the vulnerability of human or natural systems to climate change impacts and climate-related risks through maintaining or increasing communities' adaptive capacity and resilience. CCA responses are further defined as those measures that (1) address the drivers of vulnerability, (2) directly confront climate change impacts, and (3) build resilience to current and future climate risks.Climate change mitigation activities, on the other hand, are those initiatives that aim to reduce GHG emissions, directly or indirectly, by avoiding or capturing GHG before they are emitted to the atmosphere or by sequestering those already in the atmosphere through enhancing \"sinks\" such as forests. Climate change mitigation responses include measures to reduce GHG emissions such as, but not limited to, improved energy efficiency, renewable energy projects, reforestation/improved forest management, and improved transport systems.  LGUs, together with NGAs, in managing and maintaining ecological balance. In particular, the LGC devolves to the LGUs the management and maintenance of water and sanitation services for domestic water/irrigation. The law also empowersLGUs to perform watershed management functions, subject to the supervision and control of the DENR.The Magna Carta of Small Farmers has sections that are relevant to agriculture, water, and irrigation.Chapter I, Section 2 (Declaration of Policy) gives the highest priority to the development of agriculture, ensuring that ecological balance and environmental protection are maintained and observed.Legal instruments in the agriculture sector, particularly in the rice and water (i.e., altered irrigation) subsectors, were subsequently issued to initiate and operationalize the implementation of national laws and policies governing climate change in general.In and the DA and with the participation of farmers' organizations, to implement small water-impounding projects for supplemental irrigation. This section also prescribes farmer-beneficiaries to be organized into irrigators' associations to ensure that irrigation services are available in areas with production potential through irrigation pump distribution programs, particularly in areas predominantly populated by small farmers.Chapter VI, Section 20 (Access to Irrigation Services) provides for small farmers to join or form irrigators' associations and to spearhead the construction of irrigation systems. This section also promotes farmers' capacity development such that they could eventually assume the operation and maintenance of irrigation systems and the responsibility of collecting fees from individual members and remitting an amount to the NIA. Among the general provisions of the IRR, Section 111 includes the rules on the initial appropriation of amounts for agricultural and fisheries modernization. In particular, 30 percent of the initial allocation is for irrigation, which is allocated to the NIA, BSWM, Bureau of Agricultural Research, concerned state universities and colleges,LGUs, people's organizations, NGOs, and projects and programs authorized by the DA secretary. The budget allocation is geared toward implementing irrigation programs, including the following activities:• Rehabilitation of national and communal irrigation systems (N/CIS);• Subsidy for the operation and management of N/CIS;• New N/CIS generation;• Financing for the installation and rehabilitation of shallow tube wells and low-lift pumps, construction of small water-impounding projects and small farm reservoirs;• Construction of other irrigation systems;• Upstream services for irrigation: policy analysis, planning, and monitoring and evaluation;• R&D on irrigation, drainage, and water resources management;• Extension services and training for irrigation;• Irrigation project development and appraisal; and Through this special order, a technical working group was created to identify CCA technologies for promotion and financing and to recommend actions on policy issues and concerns raised by partner agencies. A regional-level climate change action team was created to coordinate various local program support components.Lucrecio L. Rebugio,Susan Sandra L. Ilao,Bessie M. Burgos,Carmen Nyhria G. Rogel,Bjoern Ole Sander,and Reiner Wassmann 26 The technical working group was also tasked to assist target beneficiaries in designing and packaging specific science-based technology packages suitable to specific farms covered by the loans and based on vulnerability assessment. Moreover, the group also has to coordinate with various regional program partners for CCAFP orientation seminars. The special order likewise identifies the institutional roles of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, DA regional field offices, Agricultural Training Institute, and the AMIA. The policies described in this portfolio imply that several determined actions have been undertaken to mainstream climate change into the country's policy and development framework, particularly in the agriculture-rice-irrigation sector/ subsectors. The policy issuances give impetus to the agriculture and irrigation sectors' GHG mitigation initiatives.The essence of policy lies in its successful execution or implementation. A policy, however excellently crafted, is useless unless appropriate measures are adopted to translate it into meaningful actions on the ground to achieve the desired goals and objectives. Although there have been determined efforts at the national level to mainstream climate change in the agriculture sector in terms of its policy framework, the challenge ahead is for more concerted effort to fully integrate these climate change policy issuances into the program development and organizational structure of all the relevant national and local agencies and bureaus in the sector.There is also need for in-depth content analysis of the laws and policy instruments, and deeper investigation on how these laws or national policies are translated from the national line agency into local enabling instruments. The results may provide basis for further policy research, especially in relation to the translation of national climate change policies into ordinances and enabling mechanisms at the local or grassroots level.","tokenCount":"4071"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"43a11598ac5bdd63181767614550fc28","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fb419252-83fd-4016-82ff-92b2bb2a181b/retrieve","id":"-572229902"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3d640200-faad-481f-8f1c-13b7e1a8bb1b","pagecount":"5","content":"Since 2012, national teams in eight countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have been identifying options for policy, legal and administrative mechanisms for the implementation of the multilateral system of access and benefit sharing (MLS) for plant genetic resources. This article summarises if and how access and benefit sharing has been strengthened in the eight countries, and to what extent this has benefited family farmers.Ronnie Vernooy, Michael Halewood, Isabel López-Noriega, Gloria Otieno, Isabel Lapeña, Raymond Vodouhe and Guy Bessette Photo: R. Vernooy/Bioversity International Implementing access and benefit sharing in eight countries process has followed a participatory, multi-stakeholder approach aimed at building a common understanding and support for implementation of the Treaty and the multilateral system. Farmer organisations participated in activities such as field research, training workshops, farmer to farmer exchanges, policy dialogues and conferences.Paving the way for access In order to prepare countries for regulatory frameworks that could help make access and benefit sharing work in practice, the teams analysed whether there was legal space for the implementation of the MLS and identified options for the revision of the relevant policies, laws, and/or other instruments when there was no legal space. They also developed draft amendments to these instruments that were subsequently introduced into the formal policy making processes of the relevant organisations and political bodies in each country.As part of this process, they clarified who in the country has authority to consider requests for access to plant genetic resources in the multilateral system (MLS) and what kind of procedures should be used. They identified the plant genetic resources in the country that are 'under the management and control of the contracting party and in the public domain' (as T his Bioversity International-led research effort aims to increase countries' overall participation in the multilateral system for access and benefit sharing, both as providers and recipients of plant genetic resources. Additionally, the research seeks to pursue options for the eight countries to benefit from other aspects of the Treaty, in particular technology transfers.National research teams in Bhutan, Nepal, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda, Costa Rica and Guatemala consist of the national Treaty focal point, national gene bank staff, and researchers from government and non-governmental organisations. Farmer organisations participated in some of the research activities.The teams have conducted research on a number of topics relevant to access and benefit sharing: policy actor networks related to the national implementation of the Treaty; germplasm flows and national dependence on 'foreign germplasm,' particularly for climate change adaptation; linkages between the Treaty and the multilateral system (see page 10) and farmers' management of plant genetic diversity through the lens of community seed banks, and technology transfer (as a non-monetary benefit under the Treaty). In the eight countries, the practical implementation Smallholder farm in the east of Nepal. Photo: R. Vernooy/Bioversity International stated in the Treaty), which is a requisite to inform potential users about the included in the MLS.This work led to concrete policy changes, such as a revision of the 2003 Biodiversity Act in Bhutan, new access and benefit sharing (draft) laws in Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Guatemala and Rwanda, a revised agrobiodiversity policy and act in Nepal, and new national environment (access to genetic resources and benefit sharing) regulations and a 'temporary procedure' for accessing plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Uganda. By December 2015, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nepal, Rwanda and Uganda had prepared lists of accessions to be included in the MLS and notifications sent or being prepared to be sent to the Treaty secretary. These achievements pave the way for breeders, farmers and other users to request and obtain germplasm from distant locations for the purposes defined by the Treaty.In the aforementioned countries we carried out additional studies about the introduction and domestication processes of key food security crops at national level -an often poorly recognised form of access and benefit sharing. This research contributed to an increased awareness of each country's dependency on international germplasm exchanges for their agricultural development and food security. Previously, this fact was perhaps known to a handful of people through advanced studies or work experience, in particular gene bank managers and breeders.The improved rice variety developed in Nepal, Khumal-4, is a telling example. If this variety had not been developed and promoted using foreign sourced germplasm (the variety IR-28), it may have been more prone to disease and pests, and have lower yields. Thus, family farmers benefit directly from having access to germplasm that has good adaptive capacity. An estimated 70% of rice varieties released in Nepal contain genes from foreign sources, which has been highly beneficial for rice production and food security in the country. Not having access to new germplasm could result in considerable monetary and non-monetary losses for the country. We had very similar findings concerning rice cultivation in Bhutan.The roles of community seed banks In order to identify ways to strengthen the utility of the Treaty for family farmers, in particular through providing access to better adapted seeds, we reviewed the functions of community seed banks. A community seed bank is a form of farmer organisation closely aligned with the objectives of the Treaty. They are mostly informal institutions that are locally governed and managed that have the core function of maintaining seeds for local use. We found that community seed banks perform a broad range of functions including awareness raising and education about the importance of conserving agricultural biodiversity, documentation of traditional knowledge and information, the collection, production, distribution and exchange of seeds, and sharing of knowledge and experience. However, to date community seed banks have not benefitted directly from the Treaty and the multilateral system. Our inventory found that community seed banks usually have a seed storage facility collectively managed by the farming community. This represents a community level ex situ facility, similar to that of a national or international gene bank. In practice, except for a few cases, community seed banks store seeds only for one season and regenerate seeds each year through various mechanisms. For example, the community seed bank in Bara, Nepal, establishes more than 80 local rice varieties in an appropriate area each year to characterise and multiply seeds for the next season. At the same time, they also distribute seeds of each local variety to one or more members on a loan basis, so that the bank has two sources of new seeds each year.Some community seed banks are continuously working on broader issues such as empowerment of farming communities, promotion of ecological agriculture, participatory plant breeding and grassroots breeding activities, establishing farmers' rights over seeds and development of fair community level benefit sharing mechanisms that may arise from the use of plant genetic resources, for example, through formal collaboration agreements with the national gene bank, such as the collaborations under development in Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Nepal, Rwanda and Uganda.In Uganda, the country team decided to explore using the multilateral system to provide new germplasm to one of the community seed banks. The team used climate change scenario analysis and crop suitability modelling applied to beans (a key crop for farmers' livelihoods) to identify bean accessions with good climate adaptation potential from three sources: (i) the national gene banks in Rwanda and Uganda, (ii) communities in both countries and (iii) international gene banks. In 2014, the first phase of participatory field trials with farmers using materials from the national gene banks and locally adapted material was realised. A total of 20 varieties were evaluated (and ranked) by farmers for climate resilience and other desirable traits. from international gene banks were obtained in 2015 through the MLS and are now being multiplied for future testing in farmers' fields.Technology transfer: nonmonetary benefit sharing Country teams conducted studies to analyse technology transfer practices and knowledge needs related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources. Technology transfer, as described in the Treaty, is considered to be a major non-monetary benefit to be realised through a variety of forms of international cooperation between and among actors with an interest in plant genetic resources. Experiences have been mixed, some giving satisfactory results, with some ending in failure.If we look at Guatemala, some of the operations of five technologies generated or transferred by the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (ICTA) were successful, others less so. For example, the development and use of the ICTA Ligero bean variety is considered a success due to the collaboration between CIAT, a regional breeding programme (PROFRIJOL), and ICTA. Farmers are using the new bean variety widely, a result achieved through a strong network of national partnerships in which farmer organisations were a key actor. However, the hybrid maize variety ICTA Maya QPM is hardly being used by farmers for a number of reasons, including the high cost of buying seeds year after year, the variety's susceptibility to pest and disease, and a lack of appeal to consumers.Similarly, in Burkina Faso we found that the key factors constraining technology transfers are lack of financial means, the high cost of technologies, and weak links between farmers' organisations and technology providers. We also found key elements for effective non-monetary benefit sharing of technologies: the capacity of farmers' organisations to reach out to many farmers at the same time, participatory technol-ogy needs assessments, development of local fora where stakeholders involved in the concerned technology can meet and discuss needs and interests, and appropriate training and the establishment of demonstration plots around the country.Prospects Although significant progress in the eight countries has been made, improving access in particular, national implementation of ABS under the Treaty is still quite weak. This suggests that more support for countries with lacking implementation capacities is necessary in the coming years. In many countries, national policy makers, farmers and other agricultural stakeholders face the challenge of enhancing access and benefit sharing to genetic resources, information and technologies. They must deal with these challenges urgently in the context of the need to adapt to climate changes. The central role of family farmers must remain key in this process.One of the emerging lessons is that research and capacity building for developing policies, laws and administrative guidelines and their effective implementation are essential for improving access and benefit sharing.Ronnie Vernooy (r.vernooy@cgiar.org) is genetic resources policy specialist, Bioversity International, Italy Michael Halewood (m.halewood@cgiar.org) is leader of the policies, institutions and monitoring component at Bioversity International, Italy Isabel López-Noriega (i.lopez@cgiar.org) is legal specialist at Bioversity International, Switzerland Gloria Otieno (g.otieno@cgiar.org) is associate expert genetic resources and food security policy, Bioversity International, Uganda Isabel Lapeña (isalapena@gmail.com) is an independent consultant based in Spain Raymond Vodouhe (r.vodohue@cgiar.org) is genetic diversity specialist at Bioversity International, Benin Guy Bessette (gbessette3@gmail.com) is an independent consultant based in Canada Farmer seed production is an effective form of technology transfer. Guatemala. Photo: Gea Galluzzi Sorghum varieties in the community seed bank of Tougouri, Burkina Faso. Photo: R. Vernooy/Bioversity International","tokenCount":"1814"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"61693a74ecfbcd9ca5fcda4fc42ca0c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f344fd64-6168-4e15-845d-40f5a27189f3/retrieve","id":"-659774171"},"keywords":["nomi st II-Gin Mok","PhD","Pl ant Breeder Christopher Oates","PhD","Visiting SCJienti st","Food Technology Dai Peters","PhD","Rural Developme t Spec ialist 3"],"sieverID":"e6cbb59f-3071-4da9-8e76-049f02ac8606","pagecount":"72","content":"Fo r th e resea rch ce nters of th e CGIAR system, th e 1998 Sys tem Rev iew prov ided a re soundin g co nfirm ation of a history of exce ll ence. Th e Rev iew Panel's Ch airperson , M auri ce Stron g, affirmed: \" In ves tm ent in th e CGIAR ha s been the single most effec ti ve use of offi c ial deve lopmenl ass istance (ODA), bar non e.\"Takin g th e pul se of current trend s and en visio nin g dem and s of th e future, th e Panel tac kl ed th e task of analyz in g ju st w hat is need ed to meet th e CG IAR 's preemin ent goal: puttin g an end to hun ge r and pove rt y w hile protecting the env ironment. \" Th ere can be no long-term age nd a for eradi atin g poverty and ensurin g su stain able food sec urity w ith out th e CGIAR,\" it stated.W hil e ac kn ow ledgi ng the Sys tem ' s past exce lle nce, th e Panel was emph atic abo ut futur direc tions . Th e Ce nters mu st build on th eir strength s and grappl e w ith past wea kn esses, h e i g htenin ~ emphasis on key areas to allow th em to mee t th e new c hall enges-and to m ake the most of emergin g opportuniti es.At CIP, we had ju st co mpl eted a yea r of ca reful sc rutin y and pri o riti zat ion of o ur re sear[ h program , from w hi c h emerged the new CIP project-based manage ment sys tem. Our new portfoli o of 1 7 rese arc h proj ec ts had bee n ca refull y scrutini zed and bal anced: seve n proj ec ts on potato, fi ve on sweetpotato , and fi ve on man age ment of natural resources.Th e new proj ect-based system was put to th e tes t in 1998. Our sc ientists rose to the add ed c hallen ge and responsibility of direct proj ect and subproj ec t man age ment. In parti cul ar, th e te am leaders-many of w ho m were new to man age ment task s-ca rri ed th eir resea rc h program s throu gh the ransition effec ti ve ly, and we co ngratul ate th em for do in g so. To help th em keep on trac k and to fin e-tun e th e sys tem as we go, in 1998 we also inaugurated th e new Proj ec t Eva lu ation , Mo nitorin g, ynd Assessment Framewo rk ba se d o n peer review and eva lu ati on by a tea m of CIP sc ienti sts, and head ed by the D epu ty Direc tor General for Resea rch.We we re pl eased to see th at th e priorities we had se t for ourse lves in thi s process w ere c lose ly in tun e w ith th e ca lls to action emergin g from th e Rev iew. Th e Rev iew Panel, for exa mple, call ed fo r a stron g shi ft towa rd natural resource manage ment (NRM). Sin ce 199 2, CIP has gradu all y increa ed th e attenti o n allotted to NRM w ithin its agend a, parti c ul arl y fo r th e hig h mountain area s o f he Andes . The sto ry Getting th e Picture tel Is mo re about th ese undertakin gs. Our initiatives in hi gh mountain areas are found ed on anoth er on e of th e prin c iples th a th e Re view fl agged as a key to the future succe ss of th e System: partner ship. CONDESA N , th e res e rch co nsortium spea rh eaded by CIP since 1992 , is a tru e model of coll abo rati ve researc h and development. In its six yea rs of ex istence, CONDESAN has recruited th e acti ve parti c ipati o n of mo re th an 50 i stitutional partn ers from th e public and pri va te sector in fi ve And ea n countri es. A t th e requ est of th e CGI A R, CIP has also taken th e lead in th e Sys tem-w id e Global M o untai n Program, based o n th e successfu I CON DESA N co llaborati ve mod el. Partn ers in thi s initia ti ve are th e Intern ati o nal Centre for Resea rc h in Agro fo res try (I CRAF ), for th e East Afri ca n hi ghland s th e Intern ation al Centre for Integ rated Mountain D eve lopm ent (ICIMOD), for th e Himalayas • and the Intern ation al Li vestoc k Res earc h In stitute (ILRI ), for ex perti se in li ve stoc k, an important ~omponent of mo untain sy stems. By w orkin g together, our sc ientists believe th at much of th e technol ogy res ulting fro m thi s global resea rch program ca n be appli ed across the three mountain ecologi es.In pursuit of th e heightened co ll abo ration stressed b y th e Rev iew, CIP continu es to buil its research base on stron g ti es w ith partn ers in the indu stri ali zed and deve lopin g countri es. In addi io n, w e are fortify in g ex istin g mec hanism s and explorin g new ave nu es fo r inter-center coll aboration in areas su ch as urban and peri -urban agri c ulture, and disaster relief and rehabilitation. Ove r th e past years, we have see n our ro le in these pr io ri ty areas eme rge and evo lve.CIP recogniz es the in c reas in g urge ncy of applyin g agricultura l so luti ons to all ev iate hun ge r and poverty within-and o n the frin ges of-o ur bu rgeo ning c iti es. Our work w ith vegetabl es as we ll as potato and sweetpotato-which ca n provide relative ly large amounts of food and v itami ns o n sma ll plots of land-m akes us parti c ul ar ly we ll p laced fo r act ivity in thi s area. Seve ral stories in this Annu al Report desc ri be how potato and sweetpotato-fresh o r processed-can help d ive rsify di ets, f ight hunge r, and wa rd off disea se in th e most populou s and needy areas of th e deve lopin g wo rld .W hen di sasters suc h as th ose desc ribed in our lead sto ry uproot agriculture and ove rturn li ves, the CG IAR Centers provide th e most co mpl ete respo nse mecha ni sms ava il able. In th e future, we hope to co ntribute even more effici ently by buildin g greater preparedn ess . Th e deve lop ment of a sta nding ca pac ity w ithin the CGIAR for rapid eme rgency reli ef wou ld speed up ag ri cultural rehab ilitation , cut losses to ga in s already mad e, and diminish disruption of th e Ce nters' researc h sc hedu les.It is imposs ibl e for us to speak of the future w ithout referring to th e im portant too ls of b iotec hnology, o ne of th e priority areas of emphas is of th e Rev iew Pane l. At CIP, we are proud to say th at we are among the Syste m-wide leaders in molecular tech niqu es, and we pl an to co ntinue to grow in that area . In 1998 we bega n co nstru ction of a new biodi ve rsity facil ity, funded by the Governm ent of Japan. Thi s fac ility w ill co mpri se an expa nded, state-of-the-art biosafety laboratory as we ll as a new home for our grow in g ge rmpl as m ba nks. Back to th e Molecular Future desc rib es som e of the many ways that bi otec hn o logy is bein g applied to fu lfill CIP's mission.O n the late bli ght front, 1998 has also been a year of adva nces. We now have over 60 cul t iva rs with diversified, \" ho ri zo nta l\" res ista nce to thi s disease, and are in the process of releas in g th em to our wor ldwide partners for eva lu ation . Th e Global Ini tiative on Late Blight (GILB) has taken ho ld as a valid and functionin g globa l mec han ism for exc hange and eva lu ation of resea rch resu lts. W e expect th at its ro le in sett in g the agend a for combating the world 's wo rst food crop disease w ill co ntinu e to grow.All of this has bee n accomp li shed w ithin a co ntext of di ffic ult financial c irc um stances. As in years past, CIP has stood its gro und in the face of fundin g dilemm as . From this process, we have emerged as a \" lea n but mea n\" Ce nter, ti ghtening o ur belt in the face of delayed di sbursements and intern ati o nal exc han ge rates th at are often un favo rab le. W e have ca refully exa min ed o ur resea rc h program to cut any slack, and we have refi ned our strategies for researc h manageme nt to ens ure th at we are makin g th e m ax imum of o ur research fundin g. Th e successes of 1998 have co nfirm ed that we are o n the ri ght track. Above al l, th ey have placed us in a position of co nfid ence in o ur readiness-a nd o ur co ll ective ca pabilities-to make a difference .In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, CIP answered calls for emergency assistance.• .I I tJ:.5 (S 1•@1•.:.>l.) •-> .\\ E Th e Internati onal Potato Center respo nded qu ickl y to food crop emergencies in H onduras and Ni ca ragua, ravaged by Hurri ca ne Mitch in O ctober, and in th e Democratic Peopl e's Republi c of Korea, to rebuild potato produ cti o n after a fo uryea r fa mine. CIP also helped Peru vian farm ers overcome th e effects of an especia ll y severe El Nin o phenomeno n. In East Afri ca, the substituti o n of sweetpotato fo r diseased cassava helped avert a food crisi s.Hurri cane Mitch was th e wo rst natural diseaster to hit Ce ntral Am eri ca in this ce ntury. The devastatin g hurri ca ne th at slammed th e region in O ctober kill ed more th an 10,000 peopl e and infli cted more th an $5 millio n in damage. The agri cultural sectors of Ho nduras and Ni ca ragua we re hard est hit by th e storm . Disaster offic ials estimate th at the hurrica ne destroyed up to 70 percent of th e two countries' bas ic food crops as we ll as th e seed needed to pl ant future harvests of stapl es suc h as beans, maize, and potatoes.As a result, CGIAR research ers, alo ng w ith sc ienti sts from nati o nal program s, launched an intern ati onal effort ca l led \" Seeds of Hope fo r Central Ameri ca,\" a two-yea r effort to rebuild agri culture in th e tw o countri es coordin ated by th e Intern atio nal Center for Trop ica l Agriculture (CI AT) in Co lombi a.In addition to CIP, other parti cipants include th e Intern ation al M aize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in M ex ico and th e Internati o nal Pl ant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI ) in Ro me.Seeds of Hope fo r Central Ameri ca is buildin g on lessons learned from the su ccessful Seeds of Hope operation condu cted in Rwa nda in 1995 follow in g th e c ivil wa r th at shattered th e country's food produ ction capabiliti es. \" W e lea rn ed from our Rwand a experi ence in 1995 of th e importance of be ing prepared fo r di sa sters before th ey occur,\" Director General Hubert Zandstra explain s. \"Th e Seeds of Hope initi ati ve th ere, fo r exa mpl e, was o nl y poss ibl e beca use several CG IA R cen ters, incl uding CIP, had w orked o n resea rch projects fo r several years. Th at kn ow ledge and experti se acquired on crop production and variety adapti on was crucial in re-establishing agri culture and, eventu all y, food sec urity. It also pre~e nted a compl ete loss of resea rch ga ins.\" R anda's Seeds of Hope program , whi ch invol ved IP and seven other CG IAR research ce nters , succ ssfull y deli vered modern seed technology o fa rm ers, helped to restore food security, and reintrodu ced crop di versity.Alth o ugh sweetpotato was a traditi onal crop in w hat is now N icaragua, it is no Io n er culti vated there. Since the hurri ca ne, th e rein odu cti on of sweetpotato has become a priority f th e Ni caragu an government. Long know n as a ca lamity crop, sweetpotato is espec iall y suited fo r emergency situ atio ns because it is a versa ti le a d hard y source of subs istence and th erefore a solid base fo r agri cultural recon stru cti on. It is als an excel lent source of vitamin A.Ni ca ru aguan M in ister of Agricultur and Forestry M ari o Arana expl ain s the Government aims to \"turn di saster into oppo rtunity.\" Keeping th e focus on small fa rmers, CIP and national sc ientists are rein trodu c ing sweetpotato into N icaragua and, in coll abo rati on w ith CIMMYT, are encourag in g and helpin g Ni ca raguan fa rm ers to pl an sweetpotatoes alongs ide corn , a practi ce that has ~e lpe d to redu ce so il erosion in Chin a. Swee/potatoes also require relati vel y littl e fe rtili zer but produ ce a hi gh volume of roots per hectare.After the civil war and assoc iated genocide in Rwand a in June and July, 1994, more th an one million refugees strea med over the border into neighborin g areas of Zaire (now the Democratic Republi c of Co ngo). Refugee camps were set up under the ausp ices of the United Nations and several NGOs. The di splaced population lived in th ese camps fo r a littl e over two years, until they were dispersed in October, 1996-some to their home country of Rwanda, and some to other parts of the DRC. A 1998 survey on the impact of thi s cr isis on local agri culture was carried out in South Kivu, DRC, by Motombo Tanga nik and Phemba Phezo of INERA, the national agri cultural resea rch in stitute.The national potato and sweetpotato programs of INERA are based at the Mulungu Research Station in Bukavu, DRC, near the erstwhile refugee camps. Th ese programs are par~ of the PRAPACE network, and they have received adva nced germplasm and training from CIP for th e past 20 years. Th e station became invo lved in multiplying planting material for loca l fa rmers, w ho sold th eir harvest directly to the refugees as well as to the relief agencies.The highlands of South Kivu are mountainous, and arab le land is located in mid-and hi gh elevation areas (1,400-2,500 meters above sea leve l). The predominant crop is bananas, consumed primaril y as loca l beer. The major stap les are sweetpotato, beans, maize, cassava, and potato. Sweetpotato, known as cilera abana, or \"protector of th e ch ildren,\" is uni versa ll y grown on a sma ll sca le for food secu ri ty. Along w ith other vegetab les, potatoes are w idely grown in drained swamps as a cas h crop-mostly by weal thier members of the community. During the crisis, farmers were able to rapidly intensify production of both of these crops in response to th e refugee market.Responding to increased market demand from the refugees, most potato farmers in creased their cropping intensity from one to two or even three crops a year. Over half the fa rm ers interviewed dec reased area planted to other crop s in order to increase potato production. Thi s occurred at the expense of bean, maize, cassava, and so rghum crops . Two-thirds of the farmers adopted new varieties, including Cruza 7 48 (720 118), introduced from Mexico in the late 1970s. Thi s variety is relative ly high yielding, resista nt to late blight, and tolerant to bacterial wi lt. Adoption has been limited by its relatively poor cu lin ary quality, which makes it difficult to market. But this was obv iou sly not a major issue for the refugee market, and it quickl y became the most w idely grown va ri ety. Other estab lished vari eties-Montsama (720049) and the Rwandan selection Mabondo--were also adopted. Seed was obtained from the Mulungu research station and from extension and NGOs. Some seed was brought by the refugees themselves.The ava il ability of refugees for labor encouraged local fa rmers to adopt relatively labor-intensive practices. These in cluded heavy mulching at planting, deep tillage, preparation and application of organic compost, draining swampy plots, and hi gher hilling. Over half the fa rmers increased their use of fungicides to control late blight, and 42 percent rogued out diseased or other suspic ious pl ants to improve seed quality.The presence of a ready market encouraged a signifi cant increase in sweetpotato production by all farmers interviewed. The vast majority of them began to culti vate sweetpotato twice a year, reduc ing area planted in mai ze, beans, pea nuts, and vegetab les. Over half the farmers planted new va ri eties, ava il ab le from th e Mu lun gu station.Th ese new va ri eties had been se lected primarily for earlin ess and hi gh yie ld: Karebe II and Mugande, reg ional farmers' varieties initi ally identifi ed as superior by the Rwandan research program; Yanshu 1, a hi gh-y ielding and early Chinese variety, norma lly sco red as marginal by taste panels in Africa; Mulungu I , a loca l Co ngo lese farmers' var iety recently identifi ed as superi or by researchers; and Benikomachi, a Japanese variety with relatively low yield but exce llent taste. Farmer preference for Yanshu 7 over the better-tasting Benikomachi indicated the refugee market's wi llingness to accept va ri eties w ith relatively low culin ary quality.This case stud y illu strates the positive effects of applying agri cu ltural technology in a rapid response program on disaster reli ef w hose cost is in creasi ng at an alarming rate in sub-Saha ran Afr ica. Both potato and sweetpotato w ill have im porta nt roles to play as short-season, nutritiou s, loca ll y ava il ab le foods. CIP and PRAPACE w ill co ntinu e to work w ith partners and donors to make them available as quickly and efficientl y as possible in emergency situations, while si multaneousl y pursuing a longer-term strategy to expa nd more permanent market opportunit ies.In Honduras, CIP is helping repl ace potato va ri eties lost in the hurri ca ne by using tru e potato seed (TPS). Directo r General Hubert Zandstra explains, \" CIP has built up a strateg ic reserve of TPS th at allows us to respond quickly to emergenci es such as th ese .\" To reduce th e cost of potato farming, fa rm ers in Honduras were being trained to cu ltivate TPS just before the storm stuck. Although th e storm destroyed th e first planting, CIP has expanded effo rts to distribute new seeds and trainin g materials throughout the country. \"The use of TPS sho uld produce large quantiti es of disease-free seed potatoes in a fraction of the time normally req uired using clonal seed potatoes,\" Zand stra said.In rece nt yea rs North Korea has suffered a fa mine th at, by some estimates, has led to the death s of more than 3 million people. Its potato crop has been meager (about 1 million ton s) since 1990. In the last four yea rs, two-thirds of th e potato crop has been lost to either drought from El Nino or severe floodin g.Potato, introduced from Russia 70 years ago, is No rth Korea's third leadin g food crop after ri ce and maize. North Korean farmers pl ant an annual average of 200,000 hecta res of four locall y improved va ri eties that (as of 1998) had not been ren ewed in more than 10 years. As a result, late bli ght and viruses cause more th an two-thirds of potato produ ction losses. Planted on poor, unfertilized so ils in variou s rotati ons with co rn , vegetables, and rice, potatoes yield an average of about 7 ton s per hectare.Extremely eager to become self-sufficient in potato production and overcome its lon g-standing food emergency, in 1998 North Korea asked CIP to help re-establish potato produ ction usi ng both TPS and tuber seed. The seed provided by CIP has been istributed to governm ent in stitutes in North Kore : 's three major potato-growing reg ions for planting by loca l cooperatives. The goa l of th e Acade~y of Agricultural Sciences in 1999 is to ~lant 200 hectares (1 percent of the total pota o seed I in gs) w ith tuber seed produced from TPS.1 Th e North Korean s are now prepa ring seedlings for th e 1999 plantin g seaso n.Zandstra says CIP ca n also make a ajor contribution to tuber seed-based potato pro uction becau se of its experience in neighb rin g co untri es w ith simil ar grow in g conditions. Fo ri exa mple, CIP and the Chinese Academy of Agric ~ltura l Sciences have developed a va riety, CIP-24, t at is currentl y being grown on million s of hecta res in China.The assistance from CIP and other , rgani zations is expected to pave th e way for expa ntled government ti es between North Korea and the United States, two countries that have been in a Cold War stalemate for nearl y half a century.In northeaste rn Uganda, a seriou s oL brea k of African Cassava Mosaic Viru s disear seve ral years ago devasta ted th e crop, leading to boom in sweetpotato produ ction for both hoi e use and for sale in Kamp ala, the capital. Th e qui ck co nve rsion to sweetpotato averted a potential food emergency in a reg ion that has bee! beset w ith chroni c malnutrition and starvation from civil strife since 1995.While cassava is making a comeba k, w ith the release and multipli ca tion of disea e-resistant varieties, Peter Ewe ll , CIP reg ion al representative for sub-Saharan Africa in Na irobi, says soc ial sc ienti sts are see kin g information on how sweetpotato production ca n be in creased to meet new needs and markets, and how thi s would affect fa rm ers. Sweetpotato is pl ay ing an in creas ing rol e in East Afri ca, and is expected to fol low th e pattern establi shed in As ia over th e past 30 yea rs w ith a transition toward th e use of sweetpotato for process ing and animal feed.Meanwhile, the cassava virus is rap idl y spreading into weste rn Kenya . Ewe ll sa id CIP is getting many requ ests from non-governm ent and co mmunity organ izations for help in settin g up programs for th e multipli cation and di stribution of superior CIPdeve loped sweetpotato va ri eti es.The parti cul arl y severe El Nino event of 1997-98 increased temperatures in Peru from 3 to 5 degrees and drenched reg ions th at had gone w ithout meas urabl e rainfall in more than a decade with torrenti al downpours. Th e result was potato yield s cut by half in many major produ ction reg ions, along w ith upsw ings in the numbers of pests and in di seases, espec ially late bli ght. Once the pit is cl ea ned out, farmers compact the wa l Is and cover the bottom and sides with dried grass. Roots are then packed into the pit, in a pattern that permits suffi c ient ai r circulation. A raw roof is set over the top, braced from be low by a bamboo frame. Thus protec ted, fresh roots c n be kept two to three month s.Drying is the trad itional way to pre erve sweetpotato. For a coarse ingin yo, women rus h and sun dry ch unks of fresh root. For amukeke chi ps, the men sli ce up the roots into ro un d, fat pi eces, w hi c h the women th en spread out t dry; both keep for between fo ur and five mo ths. D ri ed sweetpotato is bo il ed in sa uces alo g w ith beans and vegetabl es . For the sta rch y stap e, atapa, women grind up dri ed chunks or chips into a coa rse flour, w hi ch is reh ydrated in wa ter, bo iled , mashed , and th en ea ten directl y as thi ck porrid ge . M ill ed so rghum o r mill et ca n be mi xed in , along w ith tamarind fruit, lemo n, o~ ma ngo.\"Villagers prefer the sliced amu kek chi ps,\" says CIP food sc ienti st Vita l H age niman , \" beca use th e quality for process ing is hi gher and they storebetter; un fo rtun ately, process in g c hips is mu ch mo re tedi ous.\" To speed up c hip produ cti on, NARO has des igned a durable iron -s li cer w ith an adju stab le, hand-cra nked b lade. A small wo rk group can sli ce about 180 kil os of swee tpotato roots an hour, or about a metr ic ton a day. Three Soroti v il lages are ex perim entin g w ith thi s system.The commerc ial dema nd for a hi gh-qu ali ty amukeke chip is ex pand ing. M ill ers grind the chi ps into fl our, w hi ch is so ld in th e tow ns, mostly fo r making atapa. The flo ur ca n also be used in crisi s, Ndolo and his team wo rk w ith women's groups in 15 communities nea r Alupe, in Kisumu distri ct. This year, each member w ill plant hea lthy cuttings in a small 1.5 sq uare-m eter nursery bed prepared in advance. They wi 11 water the bed as needed throughout the dry season. Then , once th e rainy season starts, they can take cuttings from th e vin es immed iate ly, w ithout wa iting for the o ld roots to re-sprout.There is anoth er advantage. According to CIP entomo log ist Nicole Smit, weev il s prefer the woody vines left over from th e last harvest. Wh en fa rmers take cuttings from these old volunteer plants, th ey end up transferrin g weev ils to their new fie ld s. \" But,\" Smit exp lain s, \"with cuttin gs from a nursery, farmers begin the next season w ith fresh, cl ea n planting material less likely to be infested. \" Weevils cannot dig ve ry deeply into th e ground, so hillin g around plants and harvestin g large tubers first also helps minimize dam age. Special prob lems posed by each of the region 's two weevil spec ies (Cy/as brunneus and Cy/as puncticollis) make these defensi ve practices essential. So far, var ietal res istance has proved elusive, and biologi ca l co ntrol s such as pheromone traps have had sca nt impact on weev il popul at ions .\" Farmers se lected their va ri eties under heavy disease and pest pressure,\" notes CIP breeder Ted Carey. \" Under low-input co ndition s, their culti va rs do better than improved germp lasm from headquarters.\" Considering tropi ca l Africa' s large number of sweetpotato landraces, plus their hi gh dry matter content and th eir viru s resistance, th e reg ion is viewed as seco nd ary center of sweetpotato di versity. By cross in g Afr ica n types w ith elite va rieties from CIP, Ca rey and hi s national program partners expect to get ea rl y-maturing va ri eti es w ith hi gher yi eld s that store well . Th ey also expect a new selection such as SPK 004 to help combat vitamin A defi c iency, especiall y in children. Chronic throu ghout mu c h of tropical Afr ica, lac k of vitamin A ca n lead to perm anent blindness.In both Uganda and Kenya, w hite-fles hed va ri eti es w ith a high dry-matter content (30-38 percent) are preferred, both for fresh consumption and for process in g. In contrast, o range-fleshed va ri et ies, w hi ch are rich in beta-caroten e (v itamin A), tend to be mu shy, and th eir dry-matter content rarely surpasses 24 percent. Gi ven th e def c iency of vitamin A in th e loca l diet, findin g n o rangeflesh ed type sweetpotato that is ace ptable to farmers is a priority. Widespread di stribution of th e orangefles hed sweetpotato vines occurred as soo n as th e stud y project w as under wa y. G ive n thi s popu larity, th e use of orange sweetpotatoes should grow, as KARI offices pl an to continu e to make pl anting materi als ava il ab le to fa rm ers. W estern Kenyan farm ers' trad ition of passing vine cuttings to other fa rm ers free of charge sho uld al so help assure cont inu ed rapid diffusion. On-farm tr ial data showed th e new oran ge va ri eti es survived drou ght we ll and had higher yi elds th an th e tradition al w hite va ri eti es, both important fac tors for th eir sustained culti vation.Resea rchers noted th at simpl y di stributing betaca rotene-ri ch va ri eti es of sweetpotatoes and providing minimal support for th eir produ cti on did not autom ati call y enhance th e nutrition al statu s of young children. Promotiona l acti viti es edu ca tin g w omen in th e use and consumpti o n of orange sweetpotato were critical in increas in g the v itamin A intake of young children .Th e in terventi on strengthened women' s co ntro l ove r some of th e resources th ey need to feed th eir famili es and im prove th e nutriti o nal statu s of fam il y members, espec iall y youn g hildren. One of th e key lesson s lea rn ed was that or nge-fl eshed sweetp otato va ri eties are adopted 80.000 ---  feed, pa ti cul arl y for pi gs. As either starch o r feed, sweet otato substitutes fo r more expensive grain .Fo r th e past decade, CIP and th e Sicm uan Academy of Agri cu ltu ra l Sc iences ha.-e worked on improving sta rch quality. M anu al process ing has given way to small-sca le mechani ze ' equipm ent, such as root wa shers, grind ers, raspers, and drum separato rs. CIP an d its Sichu an co ll abo rato rs iden tifi ed th e vari abl es in extraction, such as th e mesh size used fo r separati on, th at had th e greatest impact o n qu ality. A w hite, jDUre starch fetches a hi gher pri ce and improves, in turn , th e quality of products down th e line. Transparent noodl es are a case in po int.With backin g from CIP, the Si chu an Academy deve loped a moto r-dri ven screw extruder into w hi ch th e hot sweetpotato dou gh is pres sed. Th e res ult is a uni fo rm, hi gh-qu ality product w ith better market appeal , a produ ct w ith ju st the ri ght viscos ity, opaqueness, and thi ckn ess. In Santai Coun ty, th e demand fo r sweetpotato processing equipment has mo re th an doubl ed . In 1996, fo r exa mpl e, sales of loca ll y made root-was hers, starch separators, and extruders totaled over $180,000. In th e mea ntime, of th e 9 ,000 to ns of sweetpotatoes that Santai County produ ced, the propo rtion processed increased from 36 percent to 76 percent, or to some 69 ,000 tons. The res idues were recyc led into animal feed . San i Co unty now raises 11 0,000 pigs, a 70 perce nt increase ove r 1989.In Shandong Province, Chinese sc ien tists use ti ssue cultu re propagati o n and ELISA tests to elim inate viruses from sweetpotato planting stock. Th e project dates bac k to 1987, w hen CIP condu cted a smal I course o n virus detecti on. A ti ss ue culture work sh op fo ll owed th e next yea r.China's produ ction of over 48 mi II ion tons of potato and over 11 7 mil lion ton s of sweetpotato make it the world's largest produ ce r of both these commodities. More remarkabl e still , China now accounts for 24 percent of global potato production and 85 percent of the wo rld 's sweetpotato output o n an annual average basis (FAOSTAT, June 1998). In China itse lf, sweetpotato and potato currentl y rank as th e seco nd and fifth most impo rtant food crops in terms of annual production.The average annual growth rate in potato production in China over the last decade has been hi gher than any of the other major food crops (F ig. 1 ). In fact, th e growth rate in potato production in China for the last 35 years has been an extraordin ary 3.9 percent. So mu ch so that the ga p betwee n FAO projections and actual output has become increasingly appa rent in the last decade (F ig. 2). Th e grow th rate in area planted has also exceeded that of the other principal co mmoditi es for the last 10 years, proving more important than yields in susta inin g the expansion in potato output. Ev idence from China and other parts of Asi a points to two critical rea so ns for this remarkable expansion in potato o utput.First, as incomes have improved and urbani zation has accelerated with economic growth in China, consumers have sought to diversify their food intake beyond a strictl y cereal-based diet. Chinese, as w ith co nsumers almost eve rywhere, like the taste of potatoes. Th ei r neutral fla vo r make s potatoes a facile and comp lementary ingredi ent in local dish es that rely o n traditional spi ces and other foods for a co lorful appea rance and taste. Moreover, th e fast-food restaurant boom that started in Ho ng Kong and Tai wa n now has spread throughout Chin a. Once considered a high -pri ced, luxury dish, french-fri es are fast becomin g a popular item not only in restaurants run by international chains, but also in Chinese-operated eating establishments and supermarkets.Second, potato is a profitable crop fo r small fa rm ers. Given the pl ant's versatility, potato ca n thrive in the temperate and mountain ous growing areas in the northern part of the country, as well as in th e drained paddy fields and hill y parts more characteristic of semi -tropical , southwestern China. Moreover, w ith the introduction of improved germplasm, th e grow th rate in yield s has actuall y accelerated as area planted has expa nded in recent years. This trend suggests that with better technology, in certain parts of th e country potato is being planted instead of c rops such as ri ce on the more favorable land, as farmers are switching to higher-value crops in an effort to ca pture greater in co mes .In come growth and urbani za tion have had perhaps an even more interestin g impact on sweetpota to-although thi s impact has been slowe r to affect growth rates in production and area planted. W ith economi c expa nsion, co nsumers in China have also increased their demand for mea t and processed products. In the case of sweetpotato, this shift in consumption mea ns that sweetpotato has been increasingly utili zed as a source of pigfeed-both roots and vines. During 199 5-97, some 30 to 50 million tons of sweetpotato roots alone served thi s purpose. So it is no mere coincidence th at:• China is now th e world's largest pi g producer; • over 80 perce nt of pig production takes pl ace at the household or vill age leve l;• the largest pi g-produ c ing province in China is Sichuan; • Sichuan is a maize-deficient provin ce; • Sicnuan Provin ce alone produces more sweetpotato than all other developing countri es combined; and • in recent years, a grow ing proportion of sweetpotato production in Sichuan has been used to feed pigs.In effect, small farmers in Sichuan, as in other parts of China, have respo nded to shifts in eatin g hab its by transforming sweetpotatoes into \"meat,\" capturing th e va lue-added at the household leve l. In doing so, they essen tia ll y use sweerpotato as one component in an overa ll strategy to sustain food security at the fa rm and nation al level.A parallel phenomenon has been the growth in sweetpotato processing for both food and no n-food products. Recent research in both Shandong and Sichuan Provinces points to a booming demand fo r sweetpotato sta rch in the form of noodles, both for domestic consumpti on and for export. Procedures for extracting s ~arc h from roo s at the vi ll age level include th e use of by-products in the form of starch-free sweetpotato mash for feed. Thi s practice suggests a symbiot ic rather than competitive relation between the new uses of sweetpotato.Given these emerging markets for sweetpotato in its processed form, recent estimates of growth rates in prod uct io n and area planted for this crop reflect a sharp reversal of ea rlier down w ard trends (Fig. 3). With furt her improveme nts in potato and sweetpotato productivity, and with processing on line for diffusion in th e yea rs ahead, China's agrarian transformation undergrou nd is wel l positioned for fu rther expans ion in the new mill en ium.C::J Over 5000 C::J 4000-5000 C::J Under 5000 Sci enti sts generate viru s-free plantlets from meri stem tip culture in ord er to obtain vine cuttings. Starting with ju st 500 pl antl ets th e first spring, the proj ect produ ced enou gh foundat ion seed to cover 6.7 hectares in vines by the second spring. In turn, cuttings from these vi nes generated 100 hectares of roots, or some 3000 tons of seed.By th e third sprin g, the project had enough stock to plant over 13,000 hectares. Thanks to thi s effort, the province's farmers began to pl ant virus-free sweetpotatoes in 1994. The impact on yie lds was dram atic; th e average produ cti vi ty advantage across nine sites and fi ve va ri eties was over 40 percent. The added output requires no additiona l ferti li zer, water, or change in fa rmin g methods.A lmost any fa rm er w ho uses viru s-free material gets hi gher yields. In 1998 , Sh and ong fa rm ers planted half a milli on hectares of viru s-free sweetpotatoes, or about 80 percent of the province's total. An estimated 3.1 milli on fa rm fami li es benefited from the added yields, va lued at $133 million a yea r. In Shandong, sweetpotato starch, espec ially for noodle-makin g, is a growth in dustry. Currently, half Shandong's output goes to th e loca l starch industry.As a stap le food, sweetpotato ca n be eaten fresh or dri ed in th e sun for su bseq uent use. Both roots and vines make an excell ent animal feed. In many parts of China, however, sweetpotato's future is linked to its multipl e starch transformations: noodl es, vermi ce lli, and sheet jell y; refin ed sta rch; starch derivatives (amylophosphate, amylum acetate, and so lubl e sta rch); and sta rch residu es (fodder, maltose and suga r res idues, brew ing products). Th at being the case, breed ing fo r hi gh dry-matter content, w hi ch directly adds to the amount of sta rch extracted, is a top priority for CIP and Chin ese breeders. According to Dapeng Zhang, CIP plant breeder and project leader, th e obj ecti ve is \"to produce more usabl e material in every sweetpotato. \" The recovery rate for starch averages about 1 5 percent (by we ight) of th e unpee led fresh roots. Sweetpotato varieties w ith enou gh dry matter to Chi na tod ay is th e largest global user of CIP germplasm. For th e potato, germpl asm exchange dates back to 1978, the year CIP-24 entered Chin a as an in-vitro plantlet. The Wumen g Agricultural Resea rch Institute in Inner Mon goli a did the propagation and fie ld trials. This hardy, drou ghtto leran t culti va r is currentl y produced on ove r 150,000 hectares. CIP germpl asm still contributes to va ri etal deve lopment in China. CIP entries are eva luated in multil ocational trials across north China at both Wumeng and Yanqin g sta tion s. Sel ection criteria inc lude resista nce to late bli ght and bacterial w i It, p lu s ea rl y maturity and drought \"toleran ce.Almost 40 percent of China' s potato crop is produced in the north in a one-crop-per-year system. In Chin a's southern provin ces, intero opping potatoes with other crops is commo pl ace . In Sichu an Province, th e country' s largest potato produ ce r, 80 percent of th e potato crop is intercropped w ith corn: th e potatoes in th e furrows, the corn on th e ridges. Wh e it comes to rotations and intercropp ing, Chin a{ s potato farmers are the experts.In 1978, w hen CIP and China bega n collaboration , the country's total potato harvest was estimated at 25 milli on tons. Two decades later, hin a's production has almost doubl ed. For sweetp tato, w hich was added to CIP's mand ate in 1985 total production first fe ll in the 1980s and has been steadil y risin g sin ce th e early 1990s. What changed the most was the sweetpotato' s utilizati on. On a freshweight bas is, sweetpotato is China's second most important crop after ri ce; th e potato 's ranked fifth. To bolster its food production , China needs its potato and sweetpotato crops. Working together, China and CIP have much to learn, and much to offer eac h other.. #!•\"A decade ago, maca was a li ttle-k nown root grown by some of Peru's poorest and most iso lated subsistence far mers . Today it is o ne of the country's most promising agr icultural expo rts .Until recentl y, ullu co was found o nl y in markets a few months each yea r. Now the co lorfu l tuber ca n be fo und virtuall y year-round in th e most fas hi onab le supermarkets in Lima.Crispy, fructa n-ri ch yac6n used to be a sweet sec ret among Andea n hi ghlanders. Today that secret is being shared with dieters and diabetics as fa r away as Braz il and Japa n.Th ese are just so me of the And ean root and tuber crops, stud ied and conserved by CIP and its partners, that have recentl y begun to find their way o ut of tiny backyard pl ots and into regional, nationa l, and international markets.Cultivated above 4,000 meters of elevation in a smal I area in central Peru , ma ca has been used for centu ri es to stimul ate human and animal fe rti lity, w hi ch is naturall y red uced by hi gh altitudes. Th e few scienti fic tests performed on maca before th e midl 990s seemed to bear out this traditional knowl edge-a point th at was not lost on th e market-w ise Peru vian pharmaceuti ca l co mpany Quimica Sui za.W o rkin g c lose ly with CIP, Quimica Sui za has invested more than $1 million in maca resea rch and product development since 1994. Compa ny officia ls say they have found that maca not onl y improves male and femal e fertility, but also increases energy and relieves stress. In 1998, on th e strength of these claim s, Q uimi ca Su iza exported about $80,000 wo rth of maca tabl ets to Japa n, Europe, and the United States . The company is hop in g to increase foreign sa les to $1 milli on in 1999.As interest in the root has grown, a num ber of other entrepreneu rs have jumped o n the bandwagon, quickly conce iving, man ufactu rin g, and marketi ng maca-based produ cts ranging from liquo rs and ca ndi es to flours and medicinal capsul es . Th e sudden rise in demand for the crop has tran sform ed th e economy around Peru's Lake Junin . Th e land area planted in maca grew from ju st 200 hecta res in 1995 to about 1,500 by th e end of 1998, and th e Ag ri culture M ini stry hopes to see that fi gure ri se to nearly 3,000 in 1999 .CIP ha s played an important ro le in th e growth in th e ulluco market in Peru, having he lped loca l produ cers build and operate a modern storage facility near Hu ancayo. Using technology first deve loped for potatoes, the facility all ows prod ucers to se ll their product in Lim a durin g the summer months, w hen suppli es are lower and pri ces are high.Off eventuall y be forced to stop grow ing them. Yet th e effects of com merci al ization on biodiversity are not always positive. This is most c lear ly seen in major commodities such as maize, w heat, and potatoes, in w hi ch market demands dictate that ju st a few se lect vari eties dominate.The same cou ld happen with the lesser-kn own roots and tubers. If industrial baby food processors require only one vari ety of oca, for instance, it is possible that market-oriented farme rs w ho have always grown oca w ill begin to plant only that com mercia ll y desirable variety. This is potentially true for most other traditional Andean crops, w hose different va ri eties often displ ay markedly different c haracteri st ics.So far, however, studi es condu cted by CIP and its partners indicate th at the loss of traditional Andean crop varieties has been minim al despite the trend toward in cre ased commercializ ation. Thi s is in part because non-commercial va ri eties are excha nged and tran spo rted outside of their \"micro-centers of origi n\" much more freque ntl y and universally th an researchers had previously thought. Thus the market-induced disappearance of a va ri ety from one farm or village generall y does not mean that the va riety is exti net. This is rein forced by the conservationist traditions of Andean farming. Economic studies show that few smal I-scale Andean farmers are strictly commercia l growers. Rather, most maintain a number of preferred traditional crops and varieties fo r family or ritual use, as we ll as for genetic in suran ce aga inst drought or other stresses. Yet this could change as market dem and s reac h more remote areas. So w hil e CIP' s Andean roots and tubers program promotes production and commercialization options that increase the incomes of small-scale growers, one of its ongoing responsibilities is to monitor the impact of com merc ial pressure on th ese fa rmers, and o n th e genetic wea lth they nurture and protect.Achira or Canna (Canna edulis).Andean va lleys as wel l as in Vietnam . CIP is doing its part. By one way of rec konin g, its maj or mand ate crop, potato, is already an efficient water user. W hen grown under coo l c limate co nditi o ns, potato produces mo re food per unit of water th an any of th e oth er bi g stapl e cropsw heat, ri ce, o r maize. But in another way, potato is a water hog. Modern culti va rs , bred o r max imum yield , tend to require frequ ent and shall ow irrigati o n. Thi s is espec iall y so durin g the periods of fast tuber deve lopment, after th e I af cove r is estab lished-that is, more th an 40 days afte r plantin g-a nd w hen the potatoes are grown in environ ments w here eva potransporati o n is hi gh.Th e answer to this di lemma, says CIR plant ph ys io log ist Noel Pall ais, may li e w ithin th e genes of some 3,500 native An dean potato access ions in CIP's genebank. Th ough they have been conservedfor more th an 30 yea rs, th e co ll ected~ plant matter has not bee n thoroughl y in vestigated ! Now, says Pall ais, mol ecular biology techniques have c hanged th e timeframe fo r breeders to transfer genes rapid ly and get resu Its much sooner. \"Thus, it is now high time to begin paying atten ti o n to th e unkn own va lue th at may lie w ith in our potato germpl as m,\" he says.CIP screened 134 nati ve A ndean lanolraces of eight potato spec ies that were culti vated before th e In cas. Th e ancient va ri eties were p lamted, alo ng w ith a control group of 78 modern, improved culti va rs, and al l water applications were w ithheld after the first 38 days. (There was no irrigatio n from rai n, sin ce th e experim ent was carried out at CIP Headq uarters o utside Lima, w here rai n is an unu sual phenomeno n.)Pal la is fo und th at several of the cl o nes had good yields under th e dry co nditions. This \"dro ughtadapti ve respon se,\" th e resea rcher said , \"was due to a combination of va lu ab le traits\" that in c luded hi gh total dry matter, ea rl y bu lki ng, low tuber number, and hi gh harvest index (th e rati o of ed ibl e matter to leaves and stems).A ll thi s points to th e usefu ln ess of furth er sc reenin g and research on potato va ri eties' ab il ity to extract, transport, and use th e wa ter that is a ail ab le in th e so il . Pall ais urges th at it would be w rth th e expenditure to screen all 3, 500 nati v And ean access ions. These sa mp les of plant materi al that have been resting in CIP' s genebank fo r decades may now play important roles in all ev iatin g the thirst of th e Ea rth in th e near future.After years of growth, CIP's natural resource management (NRM) research has entered a flowering phase.Using a variety of powerful data-gathering and analytical tools, CIP scientists and their collaborators have dramatically expanded their understanding of complex highland ecosystems. In many places, the thrust is now in translating that understanding into action.In Cajamarca, Peru, years of data collection have resulted in a comprehensive \"digital atlas\" of the area . This atlas, completed in 1998, combines agronomic information (cropping areas, soil types, water supply, slope, climate, etc.) with social and economic data. Government agencies and NGOs will use the digital maps to plan and implement development activities and infrastructure improvements to combat poverty and decrease land degradation. Similar atlases are now under construction for other key sites in the Andes.In Carchi, Ecuador, CIP scientists are linking models of soil processes, pasture quality, dairy productivity, and crop growth with an economic \"tradeoffs\" model quantifying the costs and benefits of different scenarios in terms of health, productivity, profitability, and environmental impact. This effort should result in specific recommendations for land use and management in an important agricultural production zone, as well as in methods that will help scientists and policy makers make sound decisions in other areas.On the altiplano of Bolivia and Peru, CIP scientists, in collaboration with researchers from a variety of national and international institutions, have used satellite images and data from ground surveys to create large-area maps for frost risk and biomass production. These maps will be indispensable in efforts to increase crop and dairy production in one of the western hemisphere's most depressed areas.In the mountains of central and eastern Africa, CIP researchers are working with other institutions as part of the African Highlands Initiative, which seeks to extend research findings and methods to poorly-studied areas, and to promote the idea of integrated rural development in complex mountain environments. CIP scientists are now linking integrated pest management techniques with efforts to improve soil fertility on small potato farms, with the goal of increasing productivity, reducing nutrient loss, and helping control the spread of crop diseases.A Six-Year PushSince its founding, CIP has been concerned with the interaction between agriculture and the environment. Center scientists have worked to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, promote the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity, and improve land-use practices associated with potato and sweetpotato production systems.However, CIP's commitment to NRM per se began in 1992, around the time that the Technical Advisory Committee of the CGIAR responded tothe Rio Declaration on Environment and Development with a set of guidelines to assist members in promoting sustainable agriculture.Environmental sustainability quickly became a cornerstone of the Center's research agenda, not because of its \"trendiness,\" but because of the very nature of root and tuber production in the developing world.Unlike most cereal-producing areas, the environments in which potatoes and sweetpotatoes are grown are generally characterized by geographical complexity. In the highlands of South America, Africa, and Asia, diversity is the single most notable feature of the landscape. Soils, slopes, water availability, and even climate can vary dramatically within a small area. In the complex mountain environment of the Andes, farming may be practiced on steep mountain slopes or interspersed with dairying on irrigated valley floors and in high mountain pastures.At th e same time, no acti vi ty in a hi ghl and environment occurs in a vacuum. Poor water management leads to soil erosion; so il erosion leads to poor soil fert ility; poor so il fertility leads to low prod uctivity; low productivity leads to low fam il y in comes; low fa mil y incomes lead to environmental ly in appropriate land-use decisions. In th e mo untains, eve rything is con nected .For both th ese reasons-comp lexity and interconnectedness-so lu tio ns to production and env ironmenta l chall enges mu st be based less on broad principles th an on deta il ed know ledge and a subtl e understanding of the man y forces at pl ay in any given place.Natural resource management is by nature a col laborati ve endeavor. No single in stitution can full y dec iph er th e comp lex human and phys ica l rea lity of a loca le or reg io n, presc ribe so lu tio ns to its prob lems, and fo l low th ro ugh with th e impl ementatio n of those sol uti o ns. Thu s, CIP has wo rked to create a number of strateg ic partnersh ips, not only w ith other researc h institutions, but also w ith policy makers and deve lopm ent organizations.A predict the outcome of any number of ph ys ica l, biological , eco nomi c, managerial , o climatic scenarios, whether at the farm leve l or over an entire region. Some of the models being used at CIP have been made availab le by other institutions, some have been adapted by CIP, and others have been built by Center scientists. For instance, researchers from CIP and ILRI have comb ined the resu lts of more than 100 experiments conducted in the Andean altiplano to create a mathematical model for pasture and li vestock interaction s, whi le researchers from CIP and the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) have been adapting U.S. potato production models to Andean cond iti ons. Both models allow researchers to test m anageme nt regimes under various cond itions while minimizing the need for expensive, difficult, or timeco nsumin g field trials.Geographic In formation Systems (CIS) synthes ize data from sate I I ite im ages, surveys, field experiments, c limate records, simul ation models, and many other sources to produce thematic maps and \"geo-refere nced\" databases. For example, using GIS a resea rcher ca n feed c limate data into a simulation model for crop growth and produce easy-to-use maps and tables show in g risk across time and space for frost or fl ood in g. These outputs can be further combined with data on poverty, land degradation, or other factors. GIS thus serves as a I ink between data and models, providing useful reference materia ls for researchers and pol icy make rs.The Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN) brings together Andean and internat iona l research in stitutions, uni vers iti es, governm ent agencies, NGOs, and other interested parties to seek scientifically sou nd so lution s to the complex problems of integrated rural development in the And es.In Colombia, researchers from CIP, Internation al Center for Tropi ca l Agriculture (CIAT), University of Caldas, the Eduquemos Foundation, University del Val le, and the NGO COLCIENCIAS have been work in g to adapt watershed management models to Andean co ndition s. One goa l is to develop methods to identify eros ion risks, then estim ate the impact of potential interventions on sedimentation and water flow. When linked to eco nomic mode ls, these new methods will allow researchers to eva luate and prioritize different land-use scenarios in both biophysical and economic terms.In Ecuador, a CONDESAN team led by Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) and the Q uito-based NGO FUNDAG ~ has been developing ways to involve the three muni c ipal govern ments in the Rio El Angel watershed (Ca rchi provin ce) in natural resource management. Based on this experience, the Assoc iation of Ecuadorean Municipalities (AME) moderated a CONDESAN electronic forum on the issu e w ith over 350 participants from tnroughout the Andes. W ith in creas ing decentralization in many countr ies, loca l governments are becoming key players in the development process.In Peru, sc ientists from the University of Cajamarca, the Cajamarca-based NGO ASPADERUC, and CIP have been work ing closely w ith the loca l branch of th e nati onal so i I and water conservation program to develop a methodology fo r usin g GIS-derived maps to ident ify eros ion hotspots and se lect appropriate co nservation interventions (e.g., reforestation , terracing, infiltration ditches, li ve fences, micro irri gation ). If the methodology is successfu l, the team wi ll be invited tb introduce it in Cusco and Tan11a.In Bolivia, a CONDESAN team headed by Intern ational Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and including CIP and the loca l dairy assoc iation ASPROLPA, is wo rkin g to develop improved land-use and dairy-production systems fo r sma llscale producers on the coo l, sem i-a rid altiplano southeast of La Paz. The challenge is to maintain production costs that are compet iti ve with those of inter-Andean va lley and internat io nal producers. Work is focusing on feed man agement, an imal genetics, and access to c red it.Many other Co nso rtium initi atives are cross-Andean in scope. These include stren gthen in g M.Sc. programs in natural resource management, promoting private investm ent in hi ghl and areas, conserving agrob iodi ve rsity through the marketing of Andea n produ cts, and connecting development workers and resea rchers through e-mai I and the Web.The Consortium also provid es a variety of information services, includin g regular news bulletins, an Intern et web page (www.condesa n.org) and a virtu al library and bookstore. CONDESAN's information arm, lnfoAndin a (lnfoandina@cgiar.org), maintain s an electro ni c network of 450 members. lnfoAndin a also serves as the Latin American node fo r the Mountain Forum a Swiss-funded initi ative designed to increase co mmuni cation between ' institutions involved in the susta in ab le development of highland areas. Recogni z in g the potent ial for in c reas in g food produ ction and improv in g food qua li ty, CIP has cont inu ed to in c rease its in vestm ent in biotechnologica l resea rch. Comb inin g th e most adva nce d biotechnolog ica l too ls w ith th e wea lth of CIP's ex tens ive potato and sweetpotato germpl asm co ll ect ion, ag ricultural researc hers are id enti fying specific sources of d isease and pest res istance, determin in g the ge nes assoc iated w ith these tra its, and in corpo ratin g them into new breeding lin es and var ieties. This, in turn, he lps protect th e env ironment by reduc in g the need for in sect ic ides and other agrochemica ls.Modern biotechno logy comp ri ses m o lecu lar and ce ll techniques for a range of sc ien ti fic act iv iti es, in cl udin g eval uatin g b iodive rsity, iso latin g and identify ing specific ge nes associated w ith plant cha racteri stics, and improving the effic iency of plant breedi ng. Th ese methods ca n be used to genetica ll y transfo rm a crop by introducing the genes direct ly into cul tiva rs. Th e cu lti vars retain th eir origina l des irab le c haracterist ics w hil e gai nin g new o nes through ge ne transfe r.Sin ce potato was the first food crop to be ge netical ly transformed, or \"engineered,\" CIP scientists had a head-start in th e app li cation of biotechnologica l method s. Genet ic engi neering was introduced t.o CIP in 1985. Soon after, CIP was among th e first to app ly these tec hniqu es to sweetpotato. Since then, CIP has sys temat ica ll y produ ced new potato and sweetpotato c lo nes by genetic engineerin g, and cont inu es to test them in va ri ous ways, inc lu ding in the f ie ld.Gen eti c maps for potato now ex ist fo r severa l spec ies, inc luding w il d potatoes, prim iti ve cu lti va ted potatoes from the Andes, and modern cu ltivated potatoes. CIP is also deve lop in g maps for sweetp otato, a c hall enging ta sk co nsidering the genetic complexity and paucity of ge net ic inform at ion ava il ab le fo r this crop.Once co mpil ed, the genetic kno w ledge is used to deve lop CIP's resea rch strateg ies. When the sou rce of a part ic ul ar desired trait has been identifi ed, th e ge ne o r ge nes ca n be c lo ned an d directl y transferred, o r in co rp orated in directly into susceptib le va ri et ies usin g asso iated mark ers. Biotechno logy is thus prov.d in g CIP w ith th e tools to p rod uce va ri eties ith hi gh levels of durable fie ld res istan ce to 1 nests and diseases, whic h mea ns a reduc ti on i the use of to x ic c hemi cals. The introduction of gen es through mol ec ul ar breedin g also benefits from the natural transfer of DNA throu gh a bacterium , Agrobacterium tume faciens. Thi s is a pl ant pathogen th at, in nature, transfers bacteri al DNA into plant ce lls to produce tumors. Gen eti c engineers have bee n able to modify the bacterium to eliminate the tumor-indu c ing process so th at only th e desired gene(s) are transferred into th e plant c hromosomes . Chromosome seg ments from appropri ate, large-insert-DNA librari es ca n also be used to modify th e genetic compos ition of potato and sweetpotato.O ne of the most pro mi sin g appli ca tion s of breedin g with gene tec hnology is th e Bt potato. A ge ne from Ba cillus thuringiensis (Bt) th at confers res istance to th e potato tuber moth (provid ed by Pl ant Gen eti c Systems, Gent, Belgium) w as successfull y transferred to potato . As a res ult of thi s ge neti c modi ficat io n, va ri eti es fro m deve lopin g countri es have bee n engin ee red for resistance to potato tuber mot h and are now bein g tested.Potato Much publi c concern has been ex pressed regard ing the b iosa fet y of ge netically modified organisms. CIP feels that, w ith proper care and dili ge nce, crop ge netic eng in ee rin g offers a viable means of feed in g a wor ld popul atio n predicted to doubl e ove r th e next half ce ntury.CIP is careful to ensure that its biotechnology research mee ts accepted intern ati ona l safety sta ndards. In addition , th e Center co mplies w ith all lega l req uirem ents in the co untries w here suc h wo rk is ca rri ed o ut. CIP has a Bi osafety Com m ittee that ri goro usly oversees all experimentation on ge neti ca lly modified plants according to es tabli shed Rul es of Co ndu ct. Th e Center is transparent in its work, suitabl y labe ls all mater ials, and w ill always err on th e sid e of caution in matters of biosafety.Concerns abo ut tran sge ni c cro p s are twofo ld: the y relate to potenti al risks to consu mers , as we ll as to the env ironm ent. CIP dili ge ntl y addresses these concerns in planning and implem entin g any work w ith ge neticall y modified materi al.When transgenic plants are bei ng develo ped , hyb ridiz atio n between them and related or ot her wild species is eliminated durin g field trial s by remov in g the flo we r buds daily from the plants, destroying all foliage at harves t, and monitorin g the env iro nment. One co ncern is that genetica ll y modi fied vari eti es could be deployed in proximity to ei th er th e potato or th e sweetpo tato ce nters of di ve rsity. Ma le sterile ge notypes ca n be used to minimi ze ri sks of genefl ow to nat ive ge nepool s, acco rdin g to guid elin es es tabli shed at an intern ational wor kshop in 1995.Other concerns vo iced wo rld w id e relate to intell ectua l property ri ghts (IPR) over ge netic reso urces, materials genetically improved through c la ssica l plant breedin g, materi als modified by ge netic engineering, and agricultural processes and te ch no logies. CIP, in common w ith the o ther internation al ce nters of the CGIAR , is adamant that its m aterials, products, inn ovat ions, and technologies be freel y avai labl e to beneficiari es in deve lopin g countries. The CGIAR ha s endorsed guidelines on use of pl ant ge netic re so urces and the related IPR s to pro mo te unres tri cted access to this material . On th e other hand, if IPR protect io n proves necessa ry to safeg uard the ava ilability of materi als or techniqu es to developi ng countries, CIP will pursu e th at option.In this spirit, CIP's poli c ies with respect to ge net ic re sou rces and IPR are consistent w ith the arti c les of th e Con ve nti o n on Biological Diversity. In add ition, throu gh an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO ), th e CGIAR Centers have ensure th at germplasm w ill be fre ely di str ibuted for resea rch purposes.CIP wi ll co ntinue to require that co mmerci al and other private entities see kin g IPR protect io n for va rieties with substantial CIP co ntributions obtain con se nt from th e Center. Thi s co nsent w ill onl y be give n if there is a ben efit for the original prov id ers of the ge net ic resou rces that co ntributed to th e va rietie s, o r if the va ri eti es w ill be made freel y ava ilabl e to th e develo pin g wo rld. At the sa me tim e, CIP rece ives and uses m ateri als under the IPR protect io n of others. It does so throu gh c lea r agreements that spell out the res tri ctions and constraints on the use of that material by th e Center and its p artners. CIP w ill only use such mate rials if there is a reaso nable expectation that th e resultin g products w ill be available for di st ribution , or if the re sea rch results fro m the use of th e materi als w ill benefit the develo ping world.In Java, an eight-member resea rch team is developing methods for integ rated management of sw eetpotato, a vitally important crop that has rece ived li tt le resea rch attenti o n in Indonesia. Th e tea m is also design ing curri cul a and educationa l mater ials for farmer field sc hoo ls (FFS), where the new method s are being taught, tes ted, and refined.In th e hill s of Nepal, root c rop experts are studyin g ways for co mmunities to unite to manage bacter ial wi lt of potato, a devastatin g di sease th at severely threa tens family food security. A major chall enge has been to get sma ll farmers to coordin ate crop rotation and qua rantine proced ures to contro l th e spread of the pathogen .In north ern Peru , w here late b light often w ipes out potato crops, dozens of inves ti gators are co ndu ctin g multi-season studi es of late b li ght res istance in promising potato va rieti es under a w ide range of c ultural, cl im ati c, and enviro nm ental conditio ns. Both th eir findin gs and th eir resea rch methods wi ll be inco rporated into pilot FFS in six co untri es beginnin g in 1999.In centra l and southern Peru, conserva tion spec iali sts are pl anting hundreds of traditional potato and other root and tuber crop varieties as part of an effort to maintain th e reg ion's agri cultural biodi versity. The initi ative seeks to comp lement ex situ (genebank) co nservation by subjectin g tradition al varieti es to norm al evol uti onary pressu res.In eac h case, the resea rchers are not sc ienti sts, but far mers, whose part ic ipation in th e resea rch process is not onl y hastening the adoption of new techno logies, but also helping ensure th at th ose technologies are approp ri ate to rea l-wor ld needs and co nd ition s.In CIP's Ind ones ia sweetpotato in tegrated crop It has also enh anced thei r probl em-so lving and decision-mak ing capac ity. Durin g the first season, th e experim en ts th ey ran were rel at ive ly simpl etesting sweetpotato breed ing lines fo r disease res istance, fo r in sta nce, and eva lu at in g yields based on different doses of urea . By th e seco nd season, however, th e fa rm ers were des igning and conduct ing sop histicated exper iments on such qu estion s as multi-fe rtilizer management and the relati ve effecti veness of a range of cultural practices.  In other cases, ca reful attention to the ea l needs of would-be benefic iari es ca n change us rs' understandin g of the ir own priorities. In Nepa l, for in stance, potato grow in g communities fac ing seri ous bacterial w i It in festat ion decided to set as id e immediate food production goals in favor of longe r-term ben efits thro ugh integrated di sea se managem ent.Participation was also fo und to be critica l in cases suc h as th e expa nsion of potato culti v tion in Zhejiang Prov in ce of eastern China, w here farmers are extreme ly parti cular about the agr nomic and table qualiti es of their culti va rs. There fa rm ers' in vol vement in th e eva lu ation of gene ica ll y improved potatoes has been a crucial fac tor in the adoption of new va ri et ies in one o th e poorest parts of the country (see Diversifying Diets in China, p. 15). The late b light field schoo ls serve a multipl e purpose: to edu cate fa rm ers about int grated disease management, to hasten th e eva lu ation and deploym ent of resistant potato va ri eties, to give farmers analytical tools with which to tac kl e future probl ems, and to generate data for sc ienti sts studying everythin g from the ge netics of res ista nce to late blight ep idemiology.This last benefit can be extremely important. Field experiments are costly and ofte n critically I imited by constraints of time and space. In co nvent io nal research, hypoth eses are frequentl y tested o n the basis of data co ll ected from two sites ove r two growing seaso ns. With fa rm ers conducting resea rch on th eir own fields, however, the volume of availabl e data rises enormously. In the case of late blight, thi s all ows sc ienti sts to assess w ith much more acc uracy th e stability of disease res ista nce and yields of promising breeding lin es and varieti es. Thi s improved understa nding is particul ar ly useful in mountain are as, where c limati c, cultural, and enviro nmental factors va ry signifi ca ntl y from pl ace to place.The qu a I ity of the data generated by farmers ca n be surprisingly hi gh. CIP's late blight team compared researc h resu Its from six fi eld experim ents conducted by Peru 's nat io nal agri cultural resea rch program w ith those from fo ur field experim ents conducted by far mers as part of their fi eld schoo l activities. The scientists found that the fa rm ergenerated data was equally good or better than that of th e resea rc h profess ionals.Farmer parti c ipation is necessa rily different fro m place to place and from objective to objective, and its success depends on a w ide range of factors. A stud y condu cted by PROINPA, the Boli v ian 0. O RTIZ natio nal potato program, described how social scientists employed a number of participatory methods to invo lve Bolivian farmers in the se lection of potato clones prov ided by CIP and th e Co lombi an national potato program. Largely because of a lac k of coord inati o n between the soc ial scientists and potato breeders, th e fa rm ers' contribution was found to be limited, although the breeders did become more aware of fa rm ers' prioriti es and op inions w hen se lecting va ri et ies for rel ease. Th e UPWARD study, while hi ghly positive about the benefits of participatory resea rch, noted several cha I lenges and potential trouble spots. Amon g th ose are difficult cho ices about w ho and how many people to in c lud e in a parti cul ar project, the need fo r participatory method s th at respect cultural and linguistic di versity, the importance of a shared understanding of project goa ls between sc ientists and non-sci enti sts, and th e need to assess th e impact of parti cipation in terms of the different interests of those invo lved. In so me cases, the study found, end-users are most effective as consultants, while in other cases they might be best employed as project des igners or research managers. Th ere is, in sho rt, no simple fo rmul a for parti c ipatory researc h and development.Given the complexity of highl and ecosystems, however, and th e in creas ing recogniti on of th e importance of tailoring technical so lutio ns to the spec ific environmental and economi c needs of small-scale growers, mo re CIP scientists are experim enting with participatory approaches. In th e process, they are lea rnin g th at fa rm ers are not just th e beneficiari es of resea rch, but ab le-a nd often indi spensibl e-pa rtn ers . . Th e trainin g set is ava il ab e in English , Chi nese, and Spani sh. Arm ed w ith ese new mate ri als, CIP scient ists have engag d i n a se r ies of trainin g ac ti viti es across Latin A er ica, East Afr ica, South -E ast Asia , and China. n 1998 the kits we re di stributed to 1 5 deve lop i g co untries. CIP's ELISA test is don e o n nitroce llul ose membranes rather than microt itre plates, w hi c h red uces cost. A nother advantage is hat th e memb ra nes ca n be sto red fo r seve r I weeks, so sa mpl es can be farmed out to labs o r tes ting. Th e kit ca n detec t all races, b iovars, an1 seroty pes of Rs, eve n in tubers o r stems w ith o ut sympto ms (i. e., latent infecti o ns) . Befo re tes ti g, tuber extracts mu st be enri c hed in a se m i-se lect ive brot h. Thi s in c rea ses se nsitiv ity by lmost 1 million , all owi ng fo r detec ti o n of as few as 10 bacteri a per mi I Ii I iter (rat her th an t e 1-1 O milli o n/ ml normall y required for d tection ). Th e imp rove d accu ra cy of th ese refin ed procedures makes it possi ble to ensure bacteri I w il t-free p lantin g m ateri als anyw here in th e wo rldqui ck ly, eas il y, reli abl y, and c heaply . Th e detection kit is also suitabl e for bacter ia w ilt ep id emio logy researc h and ge rmpl as m eva luation .A new tec hniqu e based on th e NAS H method helps detect a threa t th at is emergi ng in th e Andean reg io n: potato yell ow ve in virus. Evidence of th e viru s in Peru v ian cultivars fou nd in 1998 suggests th e v iru s entered Peru at leas t one seaso n ear li er, probably through import of fo reign cult iva rs. Stud y and co ntrol of th e v iru s is difficult, howeve r, du e to a lac k of reliabl e detecti on tec hnology. CIP v i ro log ists are now seek in g effic ient screen in g methods to preve nt th e disea se from spreadin g. Scree ning sa mpl es acco rdin g to v isibl e viru s sy mptoms is unreliabl e, since th e ca usa l age nt is latent in so me c ultivars, parti cul arly tubers grown in th e Andean hi ghl ands und er coo ler co nditi ons. U sin g dsRNA as a templ ate, CIP sc ienti sts have deve loped a method fo r detect in g th e v iru s. Thi s tec hniqu e w ill be used by qu arantine laboratori es and CIP to ensure th at th e materials distributed intern at io nall y are free of the virus.Th e potato tuber moth, Tecia so lanivora, is threa tening potato crops in th e Andean reg io n, after wreaking havoc in Ce ntra l America. Desp ite th e heavy use of in sect ic id e in that regionw here th e pes t is beli eved to have origin ated-T. solanivora has marc hed steadily sout hwa rd to Ve nezuela, Co lomb ia, and Ec uador. Bra c in g fo r th e ons laught, Peru has fo c use d its reso urces on preve ntion. It ha s add ed th e pest to its qu arantin e li st and laun c hed a large-sca le detection program. H elpi ng w ith th ese efforts, CIP has provided ph eromone ca psul es and techni ca l support to SENASA, th e nation al ag ri c ultural depa rtment th at is direc tin g th e operati o n. Together w ith its resea rc h partners, CIP is also working to deve lop an integ rated pest management strategy that wo uld g ive potato fa rm ers better access to th e too ls and kn ow ledge needed to fi ght thi s pes t. Ph ero mon e traps (in farm ers fi e ld s) and ba culoviru s (in tuber storage units) have bee n w idely use d . And tec hnologies used to co ntro l the co mm on tuber moth have been adapted for use aga in st Tecia. In th e co ming yea r, CIP w ill tes t its transge ni c potato va ri eti es (B t-transformed) to help man age this devastatin g pes t. The most popular var iety (Parda pastuza) has bee n tran sfo rm ed , and is bein g tested by CIP .A new disease has appea red in potato-growin g areas in South ern Peru , a reg io n w here mo re th an 50 percent o f th e co untry's total crop is grow n. Ca usin g sympto ms simi lar to tho se of th e pota to v iru s Y (severe ly c rinkl ed leaves and wea k, stunted pl ants) this di sease has cut yie ld s by more than 60 perce nt. Sci enti sts assoc iate its di sse mination w ith feeding pattern s of th e psyllid in sect Russelliana so /anicola, w hi ch has rece ntl y sprea d into th e reg ion. Whil e first attributed to a ph yto plasma, rece nt studi es suggest the organi sm is tr ansmitted by anot her in sec t from th e Cicade llid ae fami ly, Empoa sca sp. The fact that ph yto pl asma diseases occ ur o nl y in see d produ ction va lleys in th e hi ghland s further di stin guishes thi s new disease from the phyto pl as ma gro up . Thi s new, isom etri c v iru s is different (serologica ll y, and in its biochemic al properties) to any other potato viru s. U sin g infected sa mpl es CIP sc ienti sts have desc rib ed thi s new v iru s, SB-26, and have been ab le to iso late it co nsistentl y fro m symptomatic pl ants. Resea rc h is now focu sed o n identifyin g the v iru s and deve lopin g spec ific tec hn ology to detect it so th at seed produ ction and quarantin e program s ca n preve nt its spread . Farm ers' attempts to m anage th e in sec t vec tor with pes ticides have proven un succe ssful. In fa ct, the in sec t popul ation has in c reased. Because o f th e in sec t vector's hi gh mobility, thi s viru s also prese nts a great pote nti al threa t to oth er potatogrowi ng region s in So uth America.ow left to right: avid R. MacKenzie, Klaus Raven, Lieselotte Schilde, Theresa Sengooba, Alicia Barcena, ubert Zandstra. Second row: Vo-Tong Xuan, Chukichi Kaneda, M. Sujayet Ullah wdhury, Ren Wang, nraad Verhoeff.-I r'{J r:.11.PP r: CIP is grateful for the continued support of its donors. We are particularly thankful for those funds that are provided to us without restriction, allowing us to apply our recognized international expertise in commodities, to meet challenges as they evolve.We have, in 1998, put our new projectbased management system to the test.It has proven to be an effective and efficient means of helping us to keep our ear to the ground, both in assessing donor expectations and in addressing the needs of our clients.We are proud to say that CIP is a lean and financially healthy Center, maintaining a high level of scientific excellence and impact within the context of circumstances 38 that have often challenged our creativity.This was particulary true in 1998, when disbursement delays, extremely small operating reserves, and unfavorable local exchange rates made it difficult to keep our finances in balance. We have managed to do so, however, without compromising our research program.Our gratitude, once more, to those who have expressed their confidence in CIP by funding its activities.  The Center's total incom e dropped 5% durin g 1998 from $24 .7 million in 1997 to $2 3.4 million in 1998, with total revenu es comprisin g $22.0 million in co ntributions (unrestri cted , $1 3.0 million or 56%; restri cted, $9.0 million o r 38%) and $1.4 milli o n or 6% in oth er in come.CIP expenditures for th e yea r matc hed ini tial proj ecti o ns. Th e operatin g fund increase of $4 50,000 was 50% more than es timated at th e beg innin g of th e ye ar, in c reas ing th e total o peratin g fund to $1.5 milli o n, th e equi va lent of 23 days of th e Ce nter's cas h needs for its w o rldwid e operat ion . Th e latte r was poss ibl e due to sav in gs in th e o peration al b udget, a delay in f illin g two in te rn ational staff posi tions, and ad dition al co ntribution s pl edged from Japan and th e Europea n Union . A s c urrent reserve leve ls are in suffici ent, m anage ment will continue to set as id e $3 00,000 annuall y until the ye ar 2002 . At th at time, th e fund should total $2.7 milli o n. The Ce nter also in c reased its capital fund acco unt by $2 50,000 . Thi s amount refl ects a contributi o n of $200 ,000 rece ive d from Japan and $50,000 of CIP 's sav in gs all ocated for co nstru ction of th e Bi osa fety co mpl ex at CIP headqu arters in Lima. Co nstru cti o n, now in progress, is sc hedul ed fo r co mpl eti o n durin g the fourth qu arter of 1999.Cas h man agement continu es to be a ch all enge for CIP f in anc ial acti v iti es . By D ece mber 3 1, th e Ce nter had rece ived $19 .1 milli o n (7 9%) of total ex pec ted cas h infl ow for th e c urrent yea r. Rece ipt of $5.0 milli o n wa s still pendin g. Accounts rece ivabl e in c lu ded pl edged co ntribution s of $3 .6 milli o n in 1998 and $1.4 milli o n in 1997.CIP management pl ans to strength en its cash manage ment by coordinating with donors to redu ce the tim e it take s to re ce ive contribution s and to match cas h inflow with cash outflow, whil e continuing to take ad va ntage of its ability to bo rrow on sh o rt notice and on favorable term s w hen nece ss ary. CIP' s total income comprises U.S. dollars (44% ), Euro (22%), and other v ariou s c urrenci es (3 4%) . As a result, Center in come is hi ghl y influ enced by internati o nal fin anc ial m arkets . CIP ' s State ment of Fin anc ial Position as of December 31, 199 8, shows stron g current and total assets. Th e li ability sid e in c lud es short-term co mmitm ents and prov isions th at are well covered by Center assets.Durin g 1998, investment in potato w as 63 % of CIP 's to tal income. Thi s refl ects th e need to respond to th e continuing grow th in demand for th e co mmodity in deve lo pin g co untries and in th e potential imp act of CIP resea rc h. Sweetpotato w as 22% of Center in come. Investm ent in potato ve rsus sweetpotato remained at a ratio of 74 :26 fo r th e ye ar. In vestm ent in the lesse r-kno w n And ea n roots and tubers was 3% . Ass et all ocat io ns to natural resource management reac hed 7% of total Ce nter in com e, and total in vestment in th e G lobal Mountain Program was 4% . Center investm ent w as all ocated according to CG IA R catego ri es as follows: in c reasin g pro du ctivity, 4 3%; pro tectin g th e env ironment, 26 %; conservin g bi odiversity, 9%; improving po li c ies, 5%; and strengthenin g nat io nal programs, 1 7%. In 1998, CIP compl eted th e f irst year of project acti v iti es under its new proj ect-b ased management system . The 17 projects that encompass all of CI P's prog ram acti v iti es emerged from the results of an in tense and in -depth pri o rity setting exe rc ise to gui de the Ce nter's resea rch prog ram. Th ey address th e most press in g globa l constraints in improv ing sustainab le li ve lihoods th ro ugh potato and sweetpotato produ ction and utili zation, ma nag ing natural resources in moun ta in ecosystems, and prese rv in g and usin g underutili zed A ndean root and tuber cro ps. The projects fo rm the basis of CIP's CGIA R approved M edium-Term Plan fo r th e next three yea rs.This portfo lio of proj ects prov ides a constraints-driven resea rch agenda that is implemented through reg io nal strategies in all re levant prod ucti on areas of th e world . Regio nal implementati o n in vo lves c lose partn ershi p w ith nation al prog rams, uni vers iti es, N GOs (loca l, regional, and intern ati o nal), farmers and fa rm orga ni zati ons, and th e private sector. Close assoc iati on with adva nced resea rch in stitutions is also an im po rtant component, and a necess ity to brin g the most adva nced too ls to bea r on th e constra ints.N° PRO.  Bacteri al w ilt (BW) is th e second worst potato d isease in the world. As res ista nce is difficul t to develop and maintain, CIP 's program co ncentrate s on understanding and diagnosin g the presence of bacteria in so il and tubers . Th is is used to improve site management, seed syste ms, and uti I ization of ava i I able res istant material. Decreased transmi ss io n of the disease is a key target in control.Bacteri al w ilt, ca used by Pseudomonas solanacearum, is seco nd on ly to late blight as th e most limiting ph ytopatho logica l facto r to potato prod uction in th e deve lop ing wo rld . In recent yea rs, BW has also spread to temperate countries, suc h as th e Netherl and s and the Un ited Kin gdom, w here it may threaten potato prod uction. This project is aimed at documentin g know n integ rated co ntro l practices used by fa rm ers (rotation , sa nitatio n, seed se lection, etc.) in se lected potato-producing countri es where BW is a severe constraint, and subsequ entl y verifyin & them in yield trials. It also aims to co mplete he se lection of potato progeni es w ith tolerance of BW deve loped in past years, to promote ntegrated man agement of BW through a better understa ndin g of disease transmi ss ion and contro l irn different prod uction systems and the use of re istant potato va rietie s.Viru ses cause seri ous losses in pota to and impede movement of see d and genetic resou ces. The proj ect con ce ntrates on sens itive, lo -cost detection and epide mi ological factor affecting spread. Geneti c enginee rin g is used o iden ti fy, clone, and transfer genes of related s ec ies to potato for resi stance; thi s is combin e I with trad itional method s of breeding for 1 t aximum efficiency in incorporating resistance to a ra nge o f viru ses .Thi s project is workin g towa rd identi fy in g and characteri zin g th e most important vir ses and virus-like age nts th at affect potato, a essential step fo r deve lop in g di ag nostic tools. It ai I s to deve lop se nsiti ve, low -cost methods for larget-sca le detecti o n and to identi fy genes th at nfe r res istance to the main vi ruses , usin g hem to deve lop adapted res ista nt cu lt ivars. ~a nd ard breed in g tool s as we ll as the most adrvanced mol ecular techniqu es ava il ab le are bein g uti li zed . CIP resea rchers also study ep idemio l gica l factors that affect viru s spread, w ith parti cul r attentio n to interaction between vi ru ses and oth e pathogens that m ay affect pl ant res istance re spo se; and train natio nal scienti sts in viru s id entifi cat on, detection, and con tro l techn iqu es. Resea rch an trainin g ac ti vities foc us on th e most important potato viruses (PLRV, PVY, and PVX), and th e potato spindle tuber v iro id (PSTVd). Particul r attention is given to practi ca l uti lizatio n/ adoptio of viru sres istant mate ri als al ready produced t CIP (including genotypes already carry in ~ comb in ed resistance to more th an o ne viru s, prefe rab ly in multiplex condition).Key pests are potato tuber moth (a rap idl y growin g threat), Andean potato weev il , leaf-1 iner fli es, and w hitefli es . The project objective is to combine management pract ices into loca l ly ada pted packages to reduce chemi cal pesti c ide use and increase overall benefits for farm ers. Compo nents include bio log ical, cu ltural, and resistance aspec ts of co ntro l.The project seeks to develop prototypes of Integrated Pest Management programs fo r the management of the key potato insect pests, emph as izing susta inab le, eco logica ll y-based, and eco nomi ca ll y sou nd practices that w ill lead to the redu ced use of chemical pesti c id es. Th e key pests of globa l or reg io nal importan ce are three spec ies of potato tuber moths, several species of Andean potato weevil s, one spec ies of leaf-miner fl y, and several species of flea beetl es. Nematode spec ies th at red uce potato yie lds and favo r th e development of bacterial w i It pathogens are potato cyst, rosa ry, and root-knot nematodes.In creas ing effi c iency and effectiveness o f both inform al and formal seed systems is the target of this project. Varietal introduction and diffu sion is dependent o n the informal system, but it must be linked w ith th e formal system and it mu st emph as ize hi gh planting materi al. The project accomp lis hes thi s with fa rm er train ing and es tab li shment of pi lot seed systems.In many co untries, the lack of effic ient formal and inform al seed potato systems has limited the diffusion of new and improved varieties by provid ing only limi ted amounts of hea lthy clonal planting materi al. This project provides research and techni ca l ass istance to selected formal and informal seed systems in different countries to help improve th eir effic iency and effecti veness . Th e proj ec t also exp lo res innovations in linkages between formal and inform al seed systems, aiming to speed varietal introduction and diffu sion .Tru e Potato Seed (TPS) has grow ing potential in spec ific areas of the worl d w here th e more traditi ona l production systems fail. CIP concentrates on th e resea rchab le areas of improving parental performance in hybrids and in ce rtain constraints (late blight res istance, ear lin ess, seed set, etc.) . Backstopping is being do ne by loca l organizations (pri va te sec tor, NGOs, and NARs) in efforts to commerciali ze TPS systems and thus underpin th e deve lopin g sma ll indu stries. This project ai ms to in crease th e effic iency (lower th e cost of production and increase yields) of the potato crop and to expand potato cultivati on in no ntradi ti o nal areas throug h th e transfer of TPS techn o logy in trop ica l and subtropical areas, w here lack of seed tubers is the principal factor limiting produ ction . It seeks to deve lop TPS parents fo r high seed and tuber qua I ity, and reprodu ctive techniqu es for TPS production.The lack of co nsistent and reli ab le sta tistics cove ri ng the agro nomi c, eco nomi c, soc ial, and env ironmenta l aspects of new and improved tec hno logies in potato dec reases the ab il ity to document effect iveness and guide in ves tment. Thi s proj ec t is providing that inform ation and determ ining rates of return s on CIP research. Price and produ ct ion databases are esta blished for constant refe rence and priority settin g. Commod ity analysis is improv in g domestic potato marketi ng and inte rn at ional trade prospects for developing co untri es.Th e project ai ms to qu anti fy th e agronomi c, economic, soc ial, and environmental effects of improved potato technologies, and to document the rate of return and th e povertyeffectiveness of CIP's research. Thi s inc ludes assess in g the leve l and adequacy of investment in potato crop improvement in deve loping countries, and assembling and maintaining price and produ ctio n databases for priority settin g. Th e effects of potato pri ce in stability on diverse groups in society, as we ll as the scope for public-sector interve ntions and private-sector in centi ves, are being eva lu ated. The research seeks to improve domestic potato marketin g and intern ation al potato trad e involving developing countries, and to foment greater awareness amon g decision-makers in the public and private sector (nationall y and intern ationall y) about the potential for and benefits of increased utili zati on of potatoes.---A lth ough sweetpotato viruses cause sign ifi cant prod uction losses, espec ial ly in sub-Saharan Africa, there is stil l a lack of research in this area . Thi s project is deve lopi ng methods of detection and contro l ior the virus comp lex known as WBV. It also seeks res istance to this virus comp lex.In all reg ions, sweetpotato v iru s diseases grea tl y red uce yield s. Contro l ca n be achieved throu gh the production of hea lth y p lan ting materials and th e deve lopment of resistant culti va rs. Towa rd thi s encl , identifi ca tion of viruses and development of sensitive methods of detection are fundamental. Prev io us wo rk has shown a synergy betwee n sweetpotato feathery mottle v iru s (S PFMV) and a virus transmitted by w hitefli es (WBV) that ca n devastate crops (S P viru s disease complex, SPVD). Therefore, the use of virus-free pl antin g materi als alone ca n tripl e yields. Th e proj ect aims to better identify WBV, develop method s of detection, and apply methods of control. Researc hers seek to deve lop res istance to WBV using a range of breeding approaches, in c luding th e most adva nced mol ec ular method s ava il abl e.Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for sweetpotato depends on good knowledge of the biology and inc idence of the target pests. IPM components are then developed and evalua te against sitespec ifi c eco log ica l, economi ca l, and social factors. Pilot units and Farmer Field Schools <1re used as the 111ech<1nisms for testing and im p lementing IPM components.Th e overal l objective is to deve lop IPM for sweetpotato . Th ese programs strive fo r compatibility w ith oth er crop management prac ti ces as we ll as farmer's soc ioeconom ic conditions to assure effecti ve and economical so lutions that reduce pesticide use. Ach ieving this goa l requires a sound know ledge base deve loped through th e study of th e biology and seaso nal occurrence of key pests; th e establi shment of IPM components (co ntrol measures); th e eva luation of these meas ures' compatib ility w ith t e eco logical, economi c, and socia l factors preva ili g in represe ntati ve agroecosystems; th e i pl ementation of IPM (lead ing to integrated crop m nagement, ICM) in Pil ot Units in farmers fi elds, sing a participatory approach; and th e deve opment of strateg ies for diffusing IPM through o ll aborati ve work w ith gove rnm ental and non-go ernm ental organ izat io ns. Thi s in c lu des training cti viti es and the production of IPM d iffusion mate ials.Th e project stu dies a r<1 nge of techn ogies and tec hnology adoption to imp rove the ustain<1ble li ve lihoods of rural poor through div rsification <1nd expa nsion of sweetpotalo use. In the v<1rious cou ntries, the main beneficiaries are vomen and children and sma ll hou seho lds. Nu tri ion and in come are improved <1 nd poverty is ed uced .Ac hi evi ng proj ect goa ls includes elev lop in g smal lenterpri se based on added-va lu e from primary processing (e.g., starch and flour), an more efficient use of sweetpotato roots, v ines, and byproducts as animal feed. In Afr ica, th goa l is to enhan ce food security by taking advantage of sweetpotato's nutriti o nal qua li ties. T e project co ndu cts ca refu l eva lu atio n of oppor uniti es and co ll aborative resea rc h o n markets, ra -m ater ial quality, process deve lopment, proclu t quality, and the soc ial acceptab ility of innovation in pil ot enterpri ses. Toward thi s end, CIP tap resou rces such as th e NARS, NGOs, and users •n target co untri es, along w ith global centers f resea rch exce ll ence in disciplines not ava il able in -house, such as food sc ience/techno logy and anim al sc iences. Proj ec t act iviti es are c lose l integrated w ith th e CIP project on sweetpotato reeding for dry-matter yield and adaptation , and ith CIAT and llTA ro ot crop projects, w here releva r t.Th e project provides th e r•aw m<1teri <1 for increase in both fresh and processed use of s eetpotato. Dry matter, the essenti <1I component n both types of use, has been increased, and gene ic material made avai lab le. Th e new c lones are eing adapted lo low-input subsistence systems in t rgetecl enviro nments to feed into the develo ing markets.Thi s new project aims at improv ing sweetpotato produ ction and utili zation thro ugh the development and adoption of hi gh dry matter/ starch vari eti es w ith adaptability to low-input, subsisten ce farmin g system s. Th e di verse sweetpotato germpl asm at CIP is used to generate hi gh-dry matter parental c lo nes through popul ati on breeding. A w ell-established, dece ntralized breeding framew o rk uses th ese adva nced parental cl o nes to produ ce new va ri eti es w ith a broader geneti c bac kground and good adaptability to cope w ith abioti c and bioti c stresses in targeted env ironments. M o lecular approac hes are appli ed to develop, expand , and effi c iently use the geneti c va ri ations in ord er to meet breeding needs. Project acti vities are c lose ly linked w ith CIP proj ects on sweetpotato germpl asm management and postharve st uti I iza tion.Co mmodity analys is and impac t assessment data are di fficu lt to loca te, and to ge nerate. This project is prov iding mu ch needed information throu gh coun try case stud ies, loca l and reg ional literature, and data to develop the analyses necessa ry to stu dy con straints as we ll as th e potent ial fo r deve loping country produ ction and posth arvest sw eetp ol ato systems.Thi s project reviews second ary data and generates primary data to analyz e important sweetpotato production/ posth arvest systems. Toward this end, th e projec t documents the impact of spec ific produ ction and postharvest technologies, co ntinuing to assemble and maintain producti o n, price, and utili zation databases. Re searchers w ill eva lu ate future producti o n and utili zati o n trend projec ti ons and participate wi th FAO and IFPRI in their co ll aborative prepa ration.The assessment of opportu ni ty for potato to fit into th e coo l dry sea son cropp ing systems fo ll ow ing rice in the rain y season has been comp leted . Potenti al is good to increase th e effici ency of thi s croppi ng eco logy through th e addition of potato. Current work con centrates on d iagnosing the constraints to and increas ing th e productivity of th e full potato-ri ce-based system. Ecosys tem resource management is parti cul arly criti ca l, and the proj ec t is developing models lo provide natural resource management opti ons.Potato production has expanded rapidl y in subtropi ca l South and Southeast Asia. Typically, ri ce is pl anted at th e onset of th e rainy season, irri gated potato is sown in the coo ler dry season , and irri gated ri ce or anoth er crop is culti vated in th e hot summer season. In res po nse to in crea sing land sca rc ity, potatoes w ith a hi gh produ cti o n potenti al per unit tim e are in c reas in gly planted in intensive sequ enti al c roppin g sys tems, suc h as ri ce -potato-rice, and in more intensive intercrops, suc h as ri ce-potato/ maize. To reali ze th e potential of th e potato crop, fac to rs th at threa ten the sustain abi I ity of th ese inputres po nsive croppin g systems mu st be identifi ed and addressed. Th is proj ect as sesses oppo rtunities for expansion and sustain ability of potato in the coo l dry sea son , fo ll ow ing a rice crop in the rain y seaso n; diagnoses constraints to in c reas in g and m aintaining produ ctivity in se lec ted potato and ri ce-based c roppin g sys tem s; and ge nerates c rop and natural reso urce m anagement inform ati o n on how to all ev iate th e mos t important co nstr aints in th ese increasin gly popul ar c roppin g systems.Th e Andea n ecoreg ion is a parti cu larl y vuln erabl e ecosys tem for sustain ab le agri culture. Th e proj ect is prov idin g a sound sc ientific, tec hni ca l, and eco no mi c base for both po li cy and tec hno logy reco mm endatio ns. Innova ti ve to o ls fo r ecoreg iona l resea rc h are deve loped throu gh the integratio n of process-based crop growth mode ls, remo te se ns ing, econom ic dec isio n model s, and geog raphi c info rmation systems (GIS). Such integ rated too ls are also app lica b le to oth er global mountain ecosystems.Th e And es represe nt a se ries of uniqu e habitat areas ri ch in natural resources . Th e inh abitants of thi s eco region confro nt massi ve pove rty, in creas ing popul ation grow th , and rapid deg radation of th e natural resource base. Th ey fa ce th e difficult chall enge of in c reas ing agri c ultural produ cti v ity while simultaneously decrea sing stress on the environment. This project ai ms to c haracterize the Andean eco reg ion for its potentia l for sustainab le ag riculture and to provide a scie ntific, techni cal, and eco nomic base for poli cy and technology reco mm end atio ns to decision-m akers in the reg ion. It also seeks to deve lop inn ovati ve methodologies for eco reg io nal resea rch throu gh an effective integration of process-based crop gro w th models, remote se nsi ng, econo mi c dec ision models, and Geog raphic In formation Sys tems (G IS). Through short-term training and co ll aborati ve re sea rc h, the project aims to build an intern ational co mmunity of researc hers wo rkin g to wa rd th e sustain able deve lopment of ag ri cu ltu re in mountain areas.The proj ect conserves th e most co mprehensive collection of w i ld and cultivated potatoes in the world . Cha racterization (both mo lecu lar and morphological) is a key objective, along wi th database deve lopm en t and ava il ab ility. Sig niii cant activities focus on identifyi ng key des irab le traits and di stributin g healt hy material throughout the wor ld for uti l ization in potato improveme nt proj ects. Th e project provides a key in put into CIP's own breeding efforts.Objectives include co nse rv in g co mprehensi ve collections of w ild and cul ti va ted potatoes from th e di ve rsi ty ce nters, usi ng up-to-date techn o logy and characterizin g Lat in American cu lti vated potatoes to determine their ge netic diversity and se lect a co re collection . Resea rc h attempts to in c rease uti lization of th e potato ge netic di versity by identifying sources of des irable traits and distributin g hea lth y seed stocks and c lo nal materi als, and to deve lop and maintain a da tabase conta i nin g all avai lab le information on th e co ll ec tion .This project conserves the most comprehensive collection of wild and cultivated lpomoea spec ies (incl udin g cult ivated sweetpotato ). New and more effici ent methods oi conse rv ati o n are bei ng studied (e.g ., cryoprese rvatio n). Th e co ll ectio n is being characterized fa• a core co ll ectio n to make it more accessi le to breeders. Virus eradi ca tion is a key compon nt. Des irabl e traits are being identified for mme ffi c ient use o f the collection . Proj ect objecti ves include mainta1 111 g comprehensive w i Id and cult ivated sweetpotato co ll ect ions using mod ern conserva don methods. Researchers are assess ing new met ods for the co nservat ion of sweetpotato geneti ( reso urces; characte ri z in g the cu lti va ted colleo ion and se lect a core co ll ec tion ; and erad icatin g iruses from accessions in the core, eva luating em to identify sources of desirab le traits. he project aims to deve lop and maintain a da abase containing all avai lable data on th co ll ection.Th e act iv iti es oi this p roject assist ati ona l programs in the A nd es in ration al i ing st rategies in conservation oi Andean root an tuber crops (A RTC). Nine ge nera are included r co llect ion , study, and co nserva ti on of biodi ve ity. Th e potenti al for ARTC utili zat ion on a icier basis is also studied through m arket and co nsumption patterns , and identification of poor y doc umented demand. Health y plantin g material s produced for farmers . Thi s proj ect is perhaps the nl y one w ith a signi fica nt effort toward developing irus identification and eradi ca ti on proce ures fo r these important, underuti I ized crops.Ass isting national programs in ration li zing strateg ies fo r both ex situ and in situ co nservati n of ARTC involves the collection , stud , and preservation of biodiversity, w ith emphasis on our priority genera (Oxa/is, U llucus, Canna, and rracacia , including w ild species) and on them teria l of Mirabi/is expansa, Pachyrh izus ahipa Smallanthus sonchifolius, Tropaeolum tuberosum, nd Lepidium spp . (using gap-fil lin g strategies). It is systematically assessing the potential of ARTC to pro ote wider use in the subtropical and tropical hi ghla els, within and outs ide th e Andean region, through the study of current marketing and consumptio patterns. The project aims to identify latent derp ands these crops may satisfy in the future, as we ll as produce healthy p lanting materials for farmers  Agricultural growth has to be achie ed with methods that preserve the producti ity of natural resources, without further damage o the Earth's precious life support systems-land water, flora, and fauna-that are already under tress. Research is the means by which the world's nowledge of agriculture is increased and improved. Agricultural research, conducted to help the world's poorest people make lasting improvements in their lives, and in the lives of their children, is therefore, critical to human progress.CGIAR centers conduct research pr grams in collaboration with a full range of partners in an emerging global agricultural resear h system. Food productivity in developing countrie ~ has increased through theapplication of research-based technologies. Other results include reduced prices of food, better nutrition, more rational polices, and stronger institutions.\"Our hopes for the next century depend on a green and prosperous Earth that provides abundance, health, and peace to its people. This vision can only be realized if we devote attention and resources to scientifi<l research for food, the environment, and the world's poor.\" ","tokenCount":"20297"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5aa96d2a0896a4fb35edc7df786a615f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/64459906-0f11-459d-af5e-8b533ba1b122/retrieve","id":"-748788413"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a76496fa-588a-4377-b58e-2cf9d1f57a72","pagecount":"1","content":"§ High yielding green fodder increase dairy productivity § Green fodder enterprise development will generate employment to youth and women Multi-cut fodder sorghum as cash crop to transform the smallholder dairy production and generate employment to youth and women POVERTY REDUCTION, LIVELIHOODS & JOBS Partners Mulukanoor women Dairy Cooperative (MWDC), ICRISAT and CSIRO, Australia• Increased dairy productivity and increased herd size per household• Scaling of adoption of high yielding green fodder through farmer to farmer• Decreased labour burden for women by 2/3 and increased household income • The milk yield gap of bovines is 26 to 51%• Dairy genetics not the primary constraint• Lack of feed quantity and quality major factor for low productivity• Feed costs rising steeper than prices for produce• India needs about 40% more green fodder• Historical lack of adoption of high yielding green fodder varieties• Institutional innovation for scaling the fodder adoption• Introduced draught tolerant COFS 29 high yielding multi-cut fodder variety which is easy to harvest by women• Conservation of fodder and generation of business opportunities through silage enterprise development• Fodder seed enterprise development• Innovation for fodder conservation for dry period through small, medium and large-scale silage enterprise development• Impact assessment and scaling to other regions through advocacy with governmentThanammal Ravichandran ICRISAT thanamvet@gmail.com","tokenCount":"208"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6fa45dae1d03edbae9ac71db4bd5c550","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/75de0af4-9b10-4221-b992-a8bdb8b3b58e/retrieve","id":"-1462197732"},"keywords":["Kim","Maize Breeder","lITA. Dr. R. Lal","Soil Physicist","IITA. Dr. R. Uarkham","Storage Entomologist","Tropical Prooucts Institute S. Bjarnason","Maize Breeder","CI¥oMYT Liaison at IIT<~ Efron","Maize Breeder","IITA. Dr. F.N. Khadr","Maize Breeder","IITA/FEC",".... A\" ' ''T non'\\ \"' (\\ 1'\\ 'D __ ...:t ... ~ ...... t-\"':i\"\"\\\"\"'\" v~~"],"sieverID":"3bd06351-40cc-4153-a6ca-aaba3d3564ff","pagecount":"222","content":"TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreward Chapter 1. History and Origin of Maize Chapter 2. Importance of Maize in Africa, Chapter 3. Botany of Maize Chapter 4. Physiology of Maize Chapter 5 Maize Cudtivation Chapter Chapter Chapter (i) Climatic Requirements (11) Soils 6. Soil Preparation and Planting (i) Seed Preparation (ii) Planting and Population Density 7. Fertilizers and Manurafl 8. (i) Weed Biology 2nd Control in Maize (ii) Maize Mechanization for the Small Farmer i f 1 4 13 ?O 36 36 44 82 82 91 Chapter 9. Maize Breeding ~1ethods Chapter 10. Seed Production, T~9ting and Handling Chapter 11. Plant Diseases Chapter 12. Insect Pests Chapter 13. Nematodes as Pests of Economic Plants Chapter 14. Integrated Pest Management in Maize Production Chapter 15. Harvesting and Storage.-i i -Other hypotheses called \"minor\" in the sense that they have had little \" effect upon the thinking and experimentation concerned idth the origin of maize are: (1) that cultivated maize originated from papyrescent corn, a type superficially resembling a weak form of pod corn; (2) that maize is an allopolyp1oid hybrid originating in South-East Asia by the hybridization of two ten-chromosome species such as Coix and So~hum. Despite these theories the origin of maize remains speculative and controversial as none of the theories is entirely satisfactory.There is evidence that maize from Central and South P..merica is introduced to Europe in 1492 by Columbus~ and then spread to Africa (Van Later in the 15th Century, the Caribbean Flint became the most predominant type of maize in Africa. It was introduced into East Africa by explorers from Portugal and the Persian Gulf, (Obilana and Asnani).Maize became an important crop in Africa only after 1900 when different types 'l7ere introduced by the Dutch in South Africa (Saunders, 1930). The most successful types, which eventually moved into East Africa, were Hickory King, Hhite Horsetroth, Ladysmith White. Salisbury White, Champion \\-1hite, Pearl and Iowa Silver Mine (Harrison, 1976).Kenya Flat ~fuite was introduced by European settlers. Some admixture ~Yith the local Caribbean Flint must have taken place, which probably accounts for the proportion of yellow and purple kernels seen in small farmers~ fields.The local yellow maize in East Africa probably was derived from the early introductions of the Caribbean Flint and from later introductions of yellow dents from South Africa.The last distinct type of maize to arrive in East Africa was the high altitude race Cuzco from Peru (Grobman et al., 1961). It was brought by missionaries before the 1914-1918 war. Its soft flour kernel is the largest of any type of maize, and it is the only type of maize now grm-m at altitudes above 2500 metres.Since its introduction into Africa, maize has been cultivated extensively in East and West Africa, and has spread to Senegal, Upper Volta and Niger Republic. In Hest Africa, bvO main types of maize can be identified, the Northern Flints and Southern Flours or Coastal Flours. The Northern Flint probably is related to the Caribbean Flint \\vhile the floury types probably are related to those of central and south America.Because of its long-term cultivation in different parts of Africa, the crop has developed adaptations to many niches. Such diversity has formed land races called local varieties. For the total world production~ it is estimated that maize is grown on about 118 million hectares of which 19 million hectares are estimated to be cultivated in Africa. Exact figures on area cultivated for maize in Africa are not available because of lack of reliable statistical enumeration and also because maize is often cultivated in mixtures with other crops. A major part of the production is for own home consumption. The crop is often cultivated on small plots or even together with other backyard crops on the compound. On the other extreme there are some private and state owned farms of several hundred hectares where maize is grown as a single crop with highly mechanized technologies.Published statistics of the area cultivated and planted with maize mostly ignore for example that maize is also grown as fodder or silage crop especially in countries where dairy production is developed. It should also be noted that there are preferences for the type of grain to be produced. For feed mills specific maize varieties .are prefered which differ from varieties used for human consumption. In Nigeria~ even small farmers have-adopted yellow maize varieties which are grown as cash crop for animal feed market.The same farmer may grow his own local white varieties for home consumption or sale on the local market for human food. Even-though the statistical estimates do not give specific data on the different uses and are not reliable on area and quantities produced~ Table 2 Millions of individual and group maize producers exist in Africa with a wide range of different production and marketing systems. Therefore data on trade are hardly available and the few existing statistics have to be handled even with more care than the hectare estimates. From many small surveys it can however be said that a much larger part than generally assumed i s marketed.Several reasons can be given: the food prepared from maize grains needs skilled treatment and therefore a specialization has taken place where larger quantities of food are prepared for sale. In the rain forest storage problems caused by the humidity exist and lnth increasing road net't.;r orks maize from savanna areas is imported. This regional interchange allows room to overcome seasonal shortages as the time of maturity differs. Maize for feed mills is grown as cash crop and often sold in bulk directly to the feed producers.Of major importance are traders on village level. They buy small quantities, even in the range of fel'l kilogrammes until they have enough to seil (often together lvith their own smaller production) to a larger market.These larger markets often have a long tradition. The traders are part of a socio economic system which is highly efficient as several studies on 19cal and regional markets in Africa have shown. Traders and customers tend tc;> get into longer lasting relationship in 'Y7hich forms of credit usually are t h e link. In Western Nigeria for example, it: is colilP.lOn that food selling women pay the maize they get from their supplier after they have sold the food prepared from the maize.The price they have to pay for the maize may be higher than the actual market price but the supplier usually guarantees that: she can get another bag w'lhen she needs it. This means security for her own trade 'tnth food and also a~lows the supplier to calculate and arrange for long term deliveries.Especially in the rain forest areas where humidity limits storage, this system is well adapted to the complex demand and supply conditions.Besides maize buyers from their own villages, farmers sell also to traders from outside travelling during the harvest season through a potential supply ao:'£3. ::o find :[!:-ne::s wi:'li\"!1S =0 sell. Prices differ according to the specific conditions of the farmer. Needs for cash and lack of own transport possibilities ID3Y result in poor returns not reflected in statistical data.The need for cash by the farmers especially at peak periods when hired labour has to be employed has formed another system where the farmers sell their maize crop long before it is ripe. The harv~sting and transport~ sometimes even the w~edin~ is done by the buyer, usually by specialized women.Given this complex system -a large number of other ~~amples could be added -it can easily be understood that outside interventions often have not produced the e~;pe~ted reaults. be it the introduction of other varieties or the import of maize because of lack of local production (for example the draught pe-:iods in several African countries in the last decade). It should also be added that within aeighbouring countries there R7e often importexport trade taking place through black market channels and the quantities involved are noi.: counted in official statistics. Continent wide only SouthAfrica is a net exporter of maize to the neie;hbonring countries and there is great need for the countries neig~bouring Scuth Africa ~o increase their own production and become self sufficient.Maize is used for three main purposes:i) As a staple h~an food ii) As feed for livestock and iii) As raw material for aany industrial products.2.3.1. Food for man.Maize is widely used as food in the African countries ~l1here it is grown.The fresh grains are eaten roasted or boiled on the cob. The grains can be dried and cooked in combination with some edible leguminous crops like cowpeas or beans. The grains can also be milled and boiled as porridge wit~ or without fermentation. It can be baked into a form of bread (nthe famous unleavened bread\"). The dough itself can be cooked or fried in oil. Locally the dry grains can be popped. Each country has its special maize dish, ~Yhether it be~ as in Nigeria tlOgiUor \"Akamu, and Iltm;o\";in East Africa, ''Ugali'' and \"Chenga\"; in Zaire and Zambia, \"nshima and fufu\".There are various beverages and alcoholic drinks obtained from maize locally and industrially. Maize grains are steeped in water for 2-3 days and then left to germinate. On germination, the seeds are exposed to sunlight which '! stops the germination. The grains are then pounded. The mash is then cooked for some hours. The liquid portion is drained off and cooled rapidly. It:could be drank as a mild beverage at this stage.Furthermore it could be left to ferment naturally from moulds present in the air. After the surface has been covered by mould, the liquid is transfered to another pot and seated for some three days to obtain \"beertl. This \"beeI'll may be further distilled :in rudimentary s'tills to give alcohol. There are several modifications to this general method. Some add malt after the sprouting stage. Other flavourings may be added too according to the taste of the locality.Generally the bulk of the concentrates fed to farm animals consists of grains ~ ~nd maize is the most important one it, tae tropics. The dry grains are milled apd other ingredients added to make the-nash which vary in composition for the different classes of livestock. Maize forms 40-75 percent of the ration of these animals. Thus this forms a good channel of converting maize grain into meat, eggs and dairy products. Haize supplies mainly the carbohydrates used for the release of energy for the various essential activities of farm animals. It also supplies protein of some lower quality.2.3.4. Industrial Uses.The industrial uses of maize may be divided into: }>fixed feed manufacture , dry milling, ivet milling, distillation and fermentation. The principal food outlets of the dry milling industry are maize meal, maize flour, grits and breakfast cereals. Grits consist of the coarsely ground endosperm of the kernel from. which most of the bran and germ have been separated. Maize flakes are made by rolling grits after they have been flavoured.The wet millers manufacture starch, feed, syrup, sugar, oil and dextrines .The distillation and fermentation industries manufacture ethyl alcohol, butyl alcohol, propyl alcohol, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, acetone, lactic acid, citric acid, glycerol, whisky etc.2.4. The Nutritive value of Maize.The waterfree portion of the kernel contains about 77 percent starch, 2 percent sugar, 9 percent protein, 5 percent fat, 5 percent pentosan, and 2 percent ash. There is great variation among different strains of maize in the content of protein and fat. The proportion of protein may be as high as 15 percent and as low as 6 percent. In the maize kernel about 80 percent of the protein is in the endosperm. The germ, though constituting only about 10 percent of the grain? contains about 20 percent of the total protein. The most \" \" \"important distinguishing factor in protein is the amino-acid make-upwhich determines the quality of the protein. The range in normal maize is 8-12% .The qua i t y of protein however is poor due to low contents of 2 essential amino-acids needed for growth by young animals namely: lysine and tryptophan in normal maize. Unlike other vegetable seed proteins however~ it is fair in cystine and methionine -m 2 limiting s1.l1phur amino-acids. Recent works by maize breeders have however resulted in the production of the \"high-lysine\"-or lIopaque-2\" maize which has about twice the quantity of each of the 2 amino-acids in normal maize. Maize is among the richest in oil among cereals. It is only excelled by oats (7.4%) and millet (5%). The oil content range is 3-4% with 35% of this contained in the germ layer whilst the rest is in the endosperm. The oil is the semi-dry type and highly unsaturated -as the built is made up of linoleic and oleic acids as shown in Table 2.3.  More than 70 percent of the maize kernel is carbohydrates, which is present as starch, sugar and fibre (cellulose). The starch is mainly in the endosperm, the sugar in the germ, and the fibre in the bran. The fibrous framework of the kernel is composed of cellulose.The vitamins in maize are located chiefly in the germ and in the outexmost layer of the endosperm, which i....c1udes the aleurone layer situated iIlImediately beneath the pericarp (Table 2.4). The remainder of the endosperm is poorer in vitamins than other portions of the grain. One of the best known facts about vitamins in maize is that yellow maize shows vitamin A activity, whereas i.-1hite maize does not. This vitamin A potency of maize results primarily from the presence of one of the colouring substances, cryptoxanthin. ~1aize is fairly rich in thiamine, most of which is found in the germ. Sometvhat more riboflavin is present in maize than in wheat or rice. About 75 percent of the total minerals are found in the germ and the rest in the outer endosperm; the amount present in the inner endosperm is very small. Maize is very poor in calcium but, like other cereals, rich in phosphorus and potassium (Table 2.5). The quantities of magnessium, sodium and chlorine are very small. l1aize contains important quantities of iron in the ~Jhole grain • CHAPTER 3Maize is a grass and belongs to the large am.d :important family -' -GR111lineae.As 'to1ith all gramineae, the root system cnntains no tap-root , and its feathery strands spread out in all directions, mainly in the top soil. In most varieties the form of the root system is characteristic. The four seminal roots may perhaps persist throughout the life of the plant, but the main adventitious fibrous system, developed from the lower nodes of the stem below ground level, spreads out in a lateral direction in the upper layers of the soil, after which the roots turn vertically downwards and tap the lower levels of the soil.The extent to which the roots penetrate to the deeper layers depends largel y upon the supply of nutrients and on the drainage of the top soil and subsoil. In soil which is rich in nutrients, the roots are comparatively strong and branch out in all directions. In dry soil they grow longer and in damp soil v7eaker. Individual roots may penetrate to a depth of 2.5 metres.The stem is normally 2 to 3 metres high. Individual quick-ripening varieties mature at a heigh of only 90cm and certain varieties of popcorn (Zea mays eveI'ta) reach a height of only 30 to SOcm. In subtropical and tropical regions, on the other hand, plants can reach a height of 6 to 7 metres.As a rule, the stem grows to a thickness of 3 to 4cm and nonnally possess 14 (8 to 21) internodes. These stem internodes, 't-1hich are short and fairly thick at the base of the plant become longer and thicker higher up the stem and then taper again to the male inflorescence 'to1hich terminates the axis (Figure 1).The number of leaves varies between .8 and 48 ?nd averages 12 to 18.Quick ripening varieties have f~v leaves whereas late ripening varieties have many leaves. The leaf length varies between 30 and 150cm, and the leaf P5. width can be up to l5cm. Some varieties have a strong tendency to grow sideshoots. This tendency depends to a large extent on the variety, cl:1matic.conditions and soil type. Dent maize and small seeded flint maize are normally single stemmed, whilst in large seeded flint maize one finds all types from single stenmtedand single cobbed to bushy forms.Like all other cereals, the maize plant bears its flowers in !6pikeletsthe characteristic units of the inflorescences of all grasses. The spikelets are of two types, male and female, the male being collected into a male inflorescence or utassel\" which is carried terminally on the main axis (Figure 1).The male spikelets can most easily be recognized before flowering just as the tassel emerges from the leaves at the top of the plant. The female spike1ets are seldom seen as such because they are covered by the husks of the yOtmg ear.They can be located by the fact that each of them ordinarily produces one grain.The male inflorescence is a fairly compact, much-branched panicle varying in size 1i1ith variety; it may have stiff branches prodUCing an erect inflorescence or the axis and branches may be more flexuous, producing a drooping panicle.The female inflorescence is known as the \"cob n or \"ear\" (Figure 2). It consists of a modified lateral branch deriving from an axillary bud of the main stern. The internodes of this lateral branch have become so short that the overlapping sheaths of its leaves cover the terminal inflorescence, forming the well-lcnmVIl husk of the ear. These leaves show various degrees of modification  The ovary itself is surmounted by a long style~ the silk, which grows rapidly and emerges from the top of the husk. The silk is bifurcated at the tiP9 but is stigmatic and receptive along most of its length. Pollination is by means of wind and gravity. Any movement of the plant helps to shake out the pollen and it is usually all discharged within a few hours at most . Pollen is produced in prodigious quantities from the opening flowers of the tassel.Counts and computations made on a commercial dent maize indicate that an individual plant produces probably 50~OOO pollen grains for each one that becomes ~fective in producing a gTain on maize. In some tropical varieties the ratio is p'robably much higher. The silks are receptive as soon as theyenerge, and remain receptive for some time. \\fuen pollen grains fallon the moist surface of the style or the stigma hairs they aDhere there and the moisture promotes germination. The pollen tube may penetrate the body of the style directly, but it usually enters by way of one of the stigmatiC bairs. Once inside the tissues of the style it follows one of the strands of vascular tissue toward the ovary. After fertilization has been accomplished the styles wither away and the .grains develop as broad, obovate wedge-sheped caryopsides. The grains are born in an even rn.nn.ber of rows along the length of the cob, having been derived from the Single fertile flower of each of a pair of spikelets. Individual ears of maize may have from 4~ in even numbers, to 30 or more rows of grains. The number of rows on an ear is determined partly by heredity~ but, especially in varieties with high numbers, the number may be affected by environment.The seeds (grains) are surrounded on the cob by the chaffy remains of the glumes and the lemmas and paleas of the two flowers, and are supported on very short~ spongy pedicels. The length of the cob varies between 8 and 42 centimetres; in extreme cases between 2.5 and 50 centimetres. The diameter can be up to 7.5 centimetres in large cobs, but normally it lies between 3 and 5 centimetres .Usually a maize cob contains betlieen 300 and 1000 seeds. The seeds are rounded or dented , according to variety. The colour also varies greatly 'tvith variety » ranging from white through yello\"7, red and purple to almost black. Furthermore great fluctuations occur in the size of the seeds as well as in their chemical and physical properties, according to the variety.The anatomy of the maize seed is not particularly different from that of other cereal crops (Figure 3.3). The wall of the grain (caryppsis) is a thin covering of several layers of cells, enclosing the seed 'tvhich is firmly united with these layers. The nucellus consi~ts of a single layer of cells bounding the endosperm~ which makes up the main bulk of the seed. The outer layer of t he endosperm is the aleuron layer, a layer of cells in which most of the stored protein of the seed is laid down, but the bulk of the endosperm consists of large cells packed with starch grains. The endosperm of the maize seed is of two types, hard flinty endosperm, opalescent in appearance and containing a higher proportion of protein than the other starchy type which is more floury and white in appearance and of much softer texture. The proportion and dispositio of these two kinds of endosperm in the seed varies ,vith the variety.pQr.01. -end.tiH:cr--rad .  The timing given in this section pertains to a variety or hybrid maturing in about 115 days from planting.t~en the maize seed is planted, it usually is placed in soil moist and warm enough to allow germination to begin promptly. If the seed is in contact with moisture, water. is absorbed through the seed coat and the kernel begins to swell. Chemical changes activate grm07th in the embryo axis and if conditions continue to be favourable, the radicle elongates and emerges from the seed coat within 2 or 3 daYr (Figure 4.1). Shortly thereafter, the plumule a lso begins to elongate and additional leaves begin to form inside this part of the develop-~ seedling (called CoZeoptile after it breaks out of the seed).The first seedling root is soon followed by several other seminal or seed roots (Figure 4.2) which serve to anchor the developing seedling and playa role in water and nutrient uptake. Hm'1ever, these do not build a permanent root system -the main root system originates later from the crown of the developing plant above the first root system.Between the point of attachment to the seed and the crown is a tubular, white, stemlike part, the mesoaotyZ (first internode). Elongation of this structure is very important to the emergence of the seedling with the average planting depth of 5 to 8cm, the mesocotyl will ordinarily elongate about half the distance to the surface. Lengthening of the coleoptile brings the leafy parts the rest of the way above the ground. The time taken bettveen planting and emergence depends mainly on the temperature conditions and may vary from the normal four-five days to 15 days under cool conditions.  The coleoptile is quite stiff and ca~ push through normal soil but it may have difficulty if the surface is dry and has a hard crust, or if seed is sown too deep. As soon as the coleoptile reaches the light9 it splits at the tip and two true leaves unfold in rapid succession. The next f€!tv leaves come out of the whorl and unfold at the rate of about one leaf every 3 days under good growing conditions. Seven days after emergence 9 the new seedling should be well ~tablished, with two leaves fully expanded and with its primary root system developed to the extent that it no longer depends on the nearly exhausted food supply in the kernel. Once the seedcoat is broken, the food-rich tissues of the kernel are open to attack by disease organisms unless the seed has been protected by treatment. Fertilizers applied in a band five to six centimetres from the seed are effectively taken up at this stage.Once the seedling is established the maize plant begins to create the root system and leaf structure which will be used later to support ear and grain formation. Under normal conditions, all the leaves which a maize plant idll have are formed during the first 28 to 35 days of the plant 1 s development.The new leaves are produced by a single growing point, at the tip of the stem. This region actually is underground or near the ground level for much of the first 3 to 4 weeks after planting. Starting with about 5 embryonic leaves in the seed, a normal corn plant developes 20 to 23 foliage leaves.The first 5 to 7 leaves never get very large. They break off and are likely to be overlooked as the base of the maize stalk enlarges.The root system developes rapidly during this stage of growth . The sem\" inal roots quickly lose their importance and the young plant is supported and nur1shed by the permanent root system which begins to develop from the crown.Depth of planting has only a slight influence on the depth at v1hich the main root system originates. The main root system continues to grOy1 downward and to branch, and additional roots are produced in successive whorls from stem nodes above crown. By the time the maize pl ant has 8 leaves fully emerged or is about knee-high? the roots have reached the middle of the maize rows and penetrated to a depth of about 45cm. There are still few roots in the surface soil layer. But as the plants becomes larger, the entire plough layer becomes fUled with a mass of 'roots '1:vhich feed on the fertility that is concentrated there. To ~void root pruning? inter-row cultivation should have been completed before this occurs.Later g usually after tasselling, whorls of brace roots thrust out from the lower joints and enter the soil. These brace roots can effectively absorb phosphorus and perhaps other nutrients. -26be around l8 Canopy chara~teristicsare important in terms of achieving good penetration and distribution of light so that the efficient C photosynthetic path-way may operate. A plant type having an erect upper leaf canopy ~7ithaut excessivemutual shading and a lmver spreading canopy for maximum interception can be considered desirable, particularly in terms of agronomic plant spacing.Short plants lvith small tassels, are also advantageous for proper light interception. Other desirable agronomic features to be selected for are lodging resistance, ear placement, ability to respond to improved soil fertility and fertilizers, heat and dro~ght tolerance, and ability to produce an ear at high plant densities. All \"of these characters need to be linked to satisfactory yield and maturity suitable to the environment. Because much maize .in the Imvland tropics is grown in mixed stand with other species, suitability to such conditions is also required.The amount~ distribution and efficiency of rainfall are highly im~ortant factors in successful maize production. Pre-planting precipitation or initial soil moisture contributes a great deal towards meeting the crop requirements of several maize growing areas of tropical Africa. This is especially true in places , ... here the rainfall during the grov1ing season is less than the crop requirement and where the soil is capable of storing a large amount of rain water.The moisture Eequirement of the crop is small during the early stages of In drier regions increased intensity of radiation increases water losses and thus yields tend to be negatively correlated with radiation. However , in the regions of adequate soil moisture, decreased light intensity due to heavy cloud cover tends to limit the crop yield by reducing the rates of ~hotosynthesis .With adequate soil moisture, plant nutrients and proper management, the light intensity in the crop canopy seems to be the most important factor limiting plant populations and crop yields.4.4 Factors affecting growth and development of the Maize Plant:The factors limiting growth development of the maize plant are: temperature, rainfall~ daylight, solar radiation, humidity and soil fertility and these interact with each other to varying extents.(i) Temperature is of :importance. In the Irn071and tropics, high soil temperatures damage the crop or depress the yield~ especially when occuring during early growth. In the highlands, such as in Kenya low temperature though' rarely killing, tend to retard growth.Insu1ation~ which determines the amount of radiation, is more favourable in the dr1e.r zones and, if other factors are equal, yield • tends to be higher than in the more humid areas where cloud cover is usually heavy during the growing season.phosynthes~s which is a mainly light-controlled reaction and hence it should proceed at very similar rates at high and low elevations. On the other hand, maize does not have a photo-respiratory system, and the respiration rate is controlled by the temperature. Thus the amount of dry mat~er lost due to respiratio in 24 hours depends • largely on the mean daily temperature lvhich depends on latitude and altitude.(ii) Rainfall determines mostly the moisture conditions• in the soil, unless -water from an external source is available (e.g. irrigation) water requirements of maize are moderately high 400-60Omm during the growing season and this total amount is met within most maize growing areas. The distribution, hot-lever, is most important and crop failures occur in areas with frequent dry spells during the grOlving season (e.g. , Togo).Availability of water to the plant is mainly related to clfmate~ but also to water holding capacity of the soils.For example, the deep, clayey red soils derived from basalt as in the Camerouns have more water available than the more sandy 9 shallow .soils on basement complex as in Nigeria. Thus with the same rainfall, maize on the Cameroun soils suffer less from drought stress than maize in Nigeria. i,fuen too wet~ maize suffer strongly, especially if wet conditions occur in the early growing season. Non-draining hydromorphic soils are hence not suitable for maize, unless it is grmrn when grnundwater is still below about 50cm depth e.g . in the early part of the rainy season.(iii) Humidity and dew : Humidity is important in t:Y70 respects as far as maize growing is concerned. Firstly, the relative humidity determines to a certain extent the amount of water which is transpired by the leaves and therefore affects dry matter accumulation. Secondly, the \"dew point\" or temperature at v1hich dew forms if the air is cooled is ::iJnportant because the presence of dew facilitates the germination and establishment of fungal spores on t he leaves.(iv) Availability of nutrients: Where maize is grown without fertilizers, the nutrients status of the soil is of extreme importance. In soils poor in nutrient, plant growth is deficient and yields are 1m-To Continuous Cli' i vation is hardly possible, and fallo\\v is required to restore fertility. In the best soils , e.g. some soils in alluvial valleys and some soils on basic parent materials, more intensive maize cultivation can take place. Application of fertilizers can offset the low fertility, but even so it is usually found that the richer soils respond much better to fertilizers than the poorer ones.  , 1972;Lal, 1974 ;Lal et aZ 1975). Planting on the top of ridges or mounds increases soil temperature in the vicinity of the plants and can also cause reduction in yield of maize (Lal, 1973). l>iork at UTA showed that maize grm.  on the surface to act as mulch for the succeeding crop. This techniques is receiving much attention from those concerned ,<;dth the development of farming systems for sustained productivity fr~m tropical soils.Undoubtedly a soil under zero-tillage is in some ways less favourable for crop growth than a ploughed soil, and yet yields are often as great as from ploughed soil. It is possible that the benefits accruing from mulching may well be largely responsible for counteracting such adverse effects of zero tillage.In the tropical highlands maize may suffer from 1m-I soil temperature limitations particularly during wet periods. wnen maize is grown close to their minimum tempera tures ~ soil temperature becomes a limiting factor. The solution t o this problem. is early planting before it becomes too cold and breeding of varieties that are tolerant to cold conditions. The use of clear plastic mulch which act as a v~pour barrier that substantially increase soil temperatures through green house effect (Sanchez, 1976) has been suggested. Under African conditions this type of mulch is not economical. Low soU temperatures exert a negative influence on nutrient uptake and consequently result in ionger growth duration and lower yields.Maize is an efficient crop so far as use of water is concerned. In Africa, moisture is one of the most important factors limiting the yield of maize crop on non-in 18a ted farms.The moisture needs of the maize crop vary with the stages of crop growth, ~.eather and soil conditions. Adequate moisture is needed for germination, and after germination the total rate of water use increases as the number of leaves increases. On the average, the crop uses about 2.5mm of water per day until the plants are about 25-30cm tall. The daily rate of use then increases to six to eight millimeters during the active period of growth from silking to dough .stage of grain development. In the regions of high temperatures and low relative humidity, the rate may be considerably higher.Most of the maize produced in Africa is grown under rainfed conditions.Where the economics permit and irrigation is considered necessary, it should be given without delay. The ratio of evapotranspiration from the maize field to open pan evaporation is about: 0.35 in the seedling stage and increases up to 0.80 at the silking stage, before declining again. Evaporation accounts for the major part of evapotraspiration during early development. Later transpiration forms the major part of evapotranspiration.The period irom tasseling to dough stage of grain development is the most critical growth period so far as the availability of water to the maize crop is Methods of increasing water use efficiency under rainfed conditions have been determined. If soil fertility is limiting the yield, fertilizers should be used. The water use by high yielding crops is slightly more than that used by low yielding crops. Higher fertility will improve the efficiency of water applied. It is important to get the water into the soil and reduce run off.Plant population may be adjusted to available water supply. Plant in narrO¥rer rows to reduce the evaporation losses. The increase in water use is usually much less than the increase in plant population. Plant at the earliest opportunity to make use of available moisture supply. But adjust date of planting m such a way as to avoid moisture stress at the critical stage of flowering.Weed control is highly important to avoid the loss of water through ,veeds.Mulches; if they are economical, may be used to conserve moisture and reduce evaporation losses.The maize crop is highly sensitive to excess soil moisture conditions~ and hence it is important that fields ,-There maize is grown, are adequately drained. If the water table is higher, development of the maize crop is considerably hampered and the crop suffers due to inability of the root system to absorb adequate amount of moisture during the periods when moisture requirements are high and temperature is also high.Excess soil moisture conditions produce differential effects on the maize crop at: different stages of growth. Maize is highly sensitive to excess soil moisture conditions during the seedling stage. Plant stand is reduced considerably and the gr~vth is retarded to such an extent that the reduction in yield, with excess soil moisture condition for a period of three to six days can amount to about 30 to 50 percent. Huwever, \"1hen the plants are subjected to excess soil moisture conditions at flowering stage, the reduction in yield is very small. Thus the critical period for excess moisture is different from the critical period for moisture stress for the maize crop.The higher sensivity of the seedlings to excess moisture condition is partly explained by the fact that the growing point of the plant is below the surface of the soil up to a period of three to four y7eeks from planting.CHAPTER 5Climatic requirements:The study of climate deals ,dth the analysis of average meteorological conditions prevailing at a given place over a given period of time. The short-term. dev:iations from the expected cl:hnatic pattern are described as weather. In agriculture, a knowledge of both climate and 'tveather is an essent::ial basis for the adoption of any farming system and practical farmers allover t he world have discovered, by trial and error over long periods of time, patterns of farming suited to their climatic areas.To the physical geographer the \"tropics!l are those parts of the world l ying within the limits of the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn latitude o 23 1/2 N. and S. of the equator. The envirornnent for plant grO'tvth is determined mainly by the amount and distribution of annual rainfall, and of solar radiation. which in turn determine~ temperature. It is convenient to discuss the tropical environment in terms of the main features of its cl:fmate, and to discuss each of these separately though they interact in a complex vray to influence the gr~vth, development and distribution of crop plants.Of all environmental factors solar radiation is the second most: :important in maize production. It is the source of energy used by plants for photosynthesis.The amount of solar energy received at the earth's surface each day depends upon the intensity of the radiation, which varies with the sun~s evation and the amount of dust, water vapour and cloud cover, and upon the l ength of the day which varies ~.ri.th latitude and i.o7ith the seasons of the year.In Africa in the relatively long, cloud-free summer days of the subtropics (for example in the Mediterranean region) the amount of solar energy received aay 2 be as great as 750 cal/cm Iday. Within the tropics the amount received is gr~test in semi-arid regions during the dry season just prior to the 'start of the rain. During the sunnner the amount of rain received varies greatly.Insolation is least variable in the vIet, equatorial tropics where the amount received is 350-450 cal/crn 2 /day throughout the year.Although the amount of solar energy received by crops is beyond the control of farmers (except of course that they can 'provide shade) l> the efficiency with which crops utilize it to produce dry matteI' 9 and especially the proportion of this dry matter which goes into economic Yield, varies between the cultivars and between species, and may be influenced by aspects of crop husbandry such as SOlving date, plant density and level of fertility.The maize crop requires v7armth throughout its active life and is sensitive t o frost at all stages. Its response to temperature varies with the stage of the crop. Variation of temperature bettveen places, and seasonal variation at any place, tend to follow variation in isolat•ion. The tropical environment ~ hot throughout the year. Indeed~ a major distinction between the environment f or crop growth in high-latitude or temperate regions and the tropics is that the duration of the growing season is l:imited by winter cold in much of the temperate agriculture, but by winter drought (often accompanied by very hot days)in much of the tropics. In the 10lvland equatorial tropics there is little seasonal o or diurnal (day/night)variation from a mean temperature of around 24-27 C, but in the regions of summer rainfall to t . he north and sout:h of the equator both s easonal and diurnal variations of temperature are relatively large. In theseareas t e coo est temperature °or ess occurs at nig t 1n t e ear y to mid-dry season, and the hottest (40°C or hotter) occur soon after mid-day in the weeks before the rains begin ~ when the sun is high and there is little or no cloud cover. In these seasonally dry regions there is least diurnal variation in temperature during the growing season when the mean commonly varies aroundTemperatures become cooler everywhere with increasing a1titude, and so on high plateaux and mountains in the tropics, even near the equa tor as in EastAfrica, cool temperature are associated with tropical insolation regimes and day length.The length of day (roughly from sunrise to sunset) varies with the seasons and with latitude. Seasonal variation is greatest at high latitudes and least at the equator, where day-light is constant all year.Cultivars of photosensitive crops, whether they are temperate or tropica1 9 have day-length requirements for inflorescence initiation and flowering which tend to ensure that they flower and produce fruits close to the end of the growing season in the place where they evolved.Maize is a \"short dayu plant. Varieties from the tropics tend to mature l ater when grown in long~r days with comparable temperature.Tropical rainfall depends largely upon global pressure and wind systems.A distinct belt of low atmospheric pressure called the \"Doldrums\" occurs around or slightly to the north of the equator in the northern hemisphere.Though they are deflected by the' earth I s rotat ion, winds blow tmvards this zone from areas of semi parmanent high atmospheric pressure centred around l a titude 20 0 _ 30 0 N. and S. of the equator where the world's great deserts occur.-39 -In sections of the lmIT-pressure belt around the equator large amounts of rainfall (2,OOOmm or more annually) are more or less evenly distributed throughout the year~ and there is no time when plant growth is restricted by lack of water. These wet, lowland tropics, are hot and humid and may have little seasonal variation of rainfall~ insolation, temperature or day length. t10ving towards the poles from these hot, wet climates there is a general tendency f or the amount of annual rainfall to decrease, and for it to b e unevenly distributed with one or two distinct: periods each year with little or no rainfall. Correlated with this change there is a gradual transition fr om rain forest, through lvoodland and increasingly sparse savanna vegetation to the semi-arid and eventually desert regions. In the wetter climates rain falls throughout most of the year, but it is unevenly distributed in a bimodal pattern with two peaks of rainfall intensity each year, separated by intervals when there may be insufficient rain for crop growth, though perennial crops do survive without irrigation particularly on deep soils with adequate water holding capacity. On the other hand, in the most arid seasonally dry climates with 500mm or less of rain each year falling in a 2-3 month period during the summer, no crop growth can occur during the rest of the year lvithout irrigation.Maize~ because of its many divergent types~ is grown over a wide range of climatic conditions. Some cultivars gr()'[y very short, others••up to 6 metres in height; some require 60 to 70 days to mature the grain after emergence, others require up to 10 months.• 0 t-lorlchvide, the bulk of maize is produced between latitude 30 and 55 , o with relatively little grown at latitudes higher than 47 • -40 -Practically no maize is g rown v7here the mean Iilid-SUI:lIiler t€IIlperature is less than 19 0 C or where the average n ight temperature during the summer months o falls much below 13 C. The greatest production is v7here the warmest month 0 0 ' isotherms range between 21 C and 27 C and the freeze-free season is 120 to 180 days duration. There seems to be no upper temperature limit \"specific for maize production, but yields usually decrease with higher temperatures.Haize is grown in areas where annual precipitation ranges from 250 to over 500cm.As the temperate and subtropical climates give way into drier savanna climates in Africa, moisture demands of maize exce ed available moisture and sorghum and millet become the important crops. lofuere maize is grown in the savanna region, yields fluctuate1:ddely \"With the extreme variations in rainfall.A SUlllIil& rainfall of l5cm per month is about the lowest limit for maize production without irrigation, but yield responses to irrigation are obtained ~\\Tith much higher summer rainfal1 7 the response depending upon rainfall distribution and soil moisture reserves. There seems to be no upper limit of rainfall under which maize does not grmv 9 but excessive rainfall will decrease yields.5.1.6 Effect of Weather on certain periods of Maize plant grmvth :(i) Before Planting: The influence of weather on the maize plant starts even before planting. Conditions before planting are especially important in deteroining soil moisture reserves. The lower the soil-moisture reserve~ the greater is the crop-season rainfall requirement.(ii) Planting to emergence: The period from planting to emergence depends on soil temperature, soil moisture, soil aeration, and seed vigour. Before eemination, the seed absorbs water and swe11s. With 1:.mrmer temperatures less water has to be absorbed so that germination will start earlier and proceed faster at higher temperatures, assmning water is available. The t:ime from planting to emergence var ies w-idely \"lith environmenta 1 cond it ions and 9 to a lesser degree, with planting depth. During this stage, development is affected directly by soil temperature and indirectly by air temperatures.Weather is still a major factor in determining the time of planting.Relatively early planting in Africa generally shows higher yields than late planting. For example Dm7ker (Table 5.1) obtained yield decreases when planting lvas delayed a few days after the onset of the rains.Cold, wet weather follO'tdng planting favours the development of pathogens.Seed rots and seedling blights may become prevalent when corn is planted in a cold, wet soil. Germination of maize seedling is greatly retarded at 10°C or bel~v, but at this temperature certain spec ies of Py tmum are act ive . How~ver .seed rot and seedling blights occur relatively infrequently if good seed is planted and proper seed treatment is used.(iii) Early vegetative grrnvth-from emergence to flower differentiation~ During the early part of its life, the maize plant requires a limited amount of moisture for the small grmlth that takes place. Young maize plants are relatively resistant to cold weather, with an air temperature near 10C, generally killing exposed above ground parts. The initiation of crown roots is • 0 0 retarded progressively as root temperatures decrease from 20 C to 5 c.Maize growth during the vegetative stage has been found to be related to both air temperature and rainfall.(iv) Late Vegetative grOt-7th-from the beginning of rapid stem elongation to tasseling:In the late vegetative stage, the relationships bebqeen weather and yield have been more marked and significant. Maize plants grow very rapidly at this stage and moisture stress during this period w-ill cause yield reductions. . e s ° a or an ze ra. n \"rom eren es o' p an• nR a c a .os ., -.enya• .-  The number of ovules that will be fertilized is being determined. Both oisture and fertility stress that occur at this stage can have a serious effect on yield, with the exact stage at which it occurs also affecting the yield reduction.Temperatures above 32°C around tasseling and pollination have been foundto speed up the differentiation process of the reproductive parts and result in higher kernel abortion. If too many kernels are aborted ~ the total sink size may limit yield.The time at which tasseling and silking occur also are very weather (vi) Grain Production-from fertilization to Physiological Maturity of the Grain During the ear-filling stage , significant reduction in yield can occur from moisture stress. In a dry year, with low-soil moisture reserves, increased rainfall during the ear-filling stage will increase maize yields, but in a wet year, too much rain at this stage may create some problems for harvesting.This may be particularly important on the more poorly drained soils in the tV'etter areas.(,,;'i) Haturation or Drying of the Grain:After physiological maturity, the grain must dry dOloffi to a harvestable moistu level. The rate of drying is affected by the weather and cultivar characteristies.Rain is a major contributor to increases in moisture during the early part -44of the drying stage 9 and condensation during periods of high humidity is important during later stages of maturity.Maize is an exceilent example of crop adaptability to soil conditions.It is grown on a wide variety of soils and before looking at the specific soil.requirements for maize production it is essential to look at those physical, chemical and biological properties of soils that affect the fertility of the soil. In Africa ~ by good management many soils ranging in colour through greys ~ brow-ns\" reds\" and black, and ranging in texture from sandy to clay, can develop into maize soils that compete favourably with the best maize soils occuring anywhere in the world.  Although soil structure has been recognized for many years, it is a physical property of soil which is not well understood. To envision soil structure consider soil particles (sand 9 silt, and clay) being cemented into clumps. These clumps are known as aggregates or peds. The way these aggregates are arranged in the soil profile may form patterns. Thus ~07e say that soil structure is the arrangement of soil particles into aggregates and the subsequent arrangement of these aggregates in the soil profile. The shapes of the individual soil aggregates or peds are usually quite distinct and easy to recognize. Technically the shape of the aggregates is caXled structural type. There are basically four types of structural units i~e.Plate-like~ prism-like, block-like and sphere-like. Because of the complex nature of soil structure, it is not possible for man to build it directly. However, there are several things which can be done to enhance the development of soil structure naturally. 'The follotving list of dos and don'ts will tend to help the soil build better structure.(i) Till soils only at the proper moisture contents. Never till when the soil is too wet. This causes the soil to become quite cloddy.(ii) Add the proper amounts of lime. Without the proper amounts of lime present many benef icial soU organisms cannot grow and help to form soil structure.(iii) Graw grasses and legumes whose top gra&~h contributes organic matter and 1-lhose extensive root systems may form unstable aggregates.Grasses and legumes also furnish the organic matter to cement these unstable aggregates. {iv) Grow legumes which give the soil more microorganisms and possibly enhance certain beneficial fungi to grow.(v) Turn under crop residues. Crop residues are probably the cheapest source of organic matter and nutrients which the farmer has at his disposal.Soil consistence refers to the forces of cohesion and adhesion exhibited by the soi19 i.e. it is the degree of plasticity and stickiness of the soil.SoU consistence is determined by the type of clay in the soil. Do not confuse soil consistence with soil texture. Soil texture refers to the relative amounts of sand~ silt 9 and clay in the soil;whaeas:.eoil consistence refers to the type of clay in the soil.Usually, soil consistence is determined by observing soil feel Hhen it: is wet or moist. It can be determined in the laboratory by techniques called the Atterberg limits.Plasticity determination: Determinations of plasticity can be made by pressing the soil between the thumb and the forefinger. If the soil is plastic it will be possible to press it into ribbons or various shapes.Stickiness determination: Stickiness is usually determined by wetting the soil and seeing if it will stick to the finger. The degree of stickiness exhibited by a soil is related to the type of clay in the soil. Soils high in montmorillonite types of clay tYill be quite sticky, whereas soils high in kaolinite tYill not be nearly as sticky.Soil consistence coupled with soil texture tells us both the type and amount of clay present in a soil. If we know the properties exhibited by variou s types of clay and the amounts of these clays too t are present in the soil, we have a sound basis for making management decisions. The following are some of t he inferences that can be made about various soils:Plastic soils: These soils will hold ymter quite well, however, they may or may not hold excessive amounts of nutrients, depending on the amount of kaolinite types of clay present.Sticky ~oils: These soils are high in montmorillonite clay and will tend to have high water-holding capacities and high nutrient-holding capacities.Soil colour has little actual effect on the soil, however, there are many things lo1hicn we can tell about a soil by observing its colour:(1) Soil colour and organic matter: Soils high in organic matter are black or dark coloured.(ii) Soil colour as related to soil temperature: Dark-coloured soils absorb more heat, thus they warm up more quickly and tend to exhibit higher soil temperatures.(iii) Soil colour and parent materials: Soils formed from mafic rocks t.rill usually be darker in colour and higher in nutrients than soils formed from felsic parent materials. Be careful, how'ever, for this is not always true. There are cases t-There mafic rocks. ,viII develop into light-coloured soils. indicate that during some period of the year the soil is saturated with water for a prolonged period of ~fme. Table 5.3 summariZes the occurrence of grey colours and the four major drainage classes. Grey colours in the B3 horizon or at a depth of IOOcm.Grey colours in the upper B horizon starting at 50cm.Soil permeability refers to the movement of air and water through soils.This movement of air and water is dependent on the amount and type of pore space present. For a soil to be permeable, it must contain pores which are continuous and large enough for water and air to pass through them. Just because a soil contains a large amount of pore space, it doesn 1 t necessarily mean it is permeable. The pores could be discontinuous or very small.Unlike other physical properties, soil permeability is not a property which can be readily seen or felt. It is also a property that is rather hard to measure quantitatively. However? there are some measurements .,1hich can be used to infer permeability. Two common measurements of pore space are total soil porosity and bulk density.5.2.10 Soil porosity or Pore Space.The pore space in a soil represents that part of a soil volume which can be occupied by air and/or water. It can be measured by saturating a soil and measuring the volume of water held. Although this gives a measure of total pore space, it does not tell what type of pore is present9 i.e. large, small, continuous, discontinuous, etc.The soil bulk density refers to the density of the soil in its natural state. It is the't>1eight per unit volume of an undisturbed soU. Thus!> soils high in pore space Y10uld have a low weight per mlit volume (low bulk density).Likewise, soils low in pore space have high bulk densities.Although both soil porosity and bulk density give a measure of pore space, they do not tell how fast water will move through the soil. To predict soil permeability 1Y' e need to know the pore size and pore continuity.The sum total of non-capillary pores is termed macro-porosity and that of capillary pores micro-porosity; the two together represent the total porosity of the soil. When expressed as percentage of total soil volume, it is called percentage pore space or soil porosity which is related to particle and bulk densities by the following expression:Percentage Pore Space = 100 X (1 -Bulk density ) Particle density 5.2.12 Soil Permeability as it relates to Soil Texture and Structure:Sands usually have high bulk densities (1.8 grams/cubic centimeter), low pore space (around 30 percent) but are quite permeable because the pores that are present are large and continuous. Converse1Y9 clays have low bulk.densities (1.2 to 1.3 grams/cubic centimeter)9 high pore space (around 50 percent), but are slowly permeable because the pores are small and often discont muous.Well-structured soils are more permeable than other soils of the same ta~re but lacking structure. This is due to larger pores around the soil aggregates increasing permeability.Thus ~ye see that soil permeability is related to pore size and pore continuity which in turn is related to soil t exture and structure.5.2.13 Soil Permeability and Soil Drainage:Common points of confusion are the differences between the terms soil drainage and soil permeability. Technically soil drainage refers to the amount of oxidation ' which has taken place in the soil and permeability refers to 'tvater movement through soil. Thus, a sand could be very permeable but poorly drained if it is in a depression and a clay could be impermeable but well drained if on a ridge.(1) The management of soil physical propett ies in the tropics is very specific.( More specifically we will be concerned with particles known as soil colloids. A soil colloid is a soil particle which is small enough to stay _ 54suspended in water. This usually happens when the soil particle is less than O.OO2mm in diameter. For a particle to stay suspended it usually carries an electrical charge. On most soil colloids, this charge is negative.There are numerous types of soil colloids~ and only the most important agriculturally are discussed.Si11icate or soil clay colloids: In general, there are tyro dis tinc t. -types of soil clays with several subtypes within each type. These are the 1:1 clays (Kaolinite) and the 2:1 clays (Montmorillonite).Kaolinite or 1:1 Type Clay: Schematically 9 1:1 clays are depicted in There are two major 1: 1 clay minerals present in the soil. They are knOf,m as Kaolinite and Hal10ysite. For most practical purposes t.hey act quite similarly itl the soil. Often up to 20 percent iron and/or magnesium will substitute for aluminum in the al1.Cinium layer. This means an ion with a valence of plus 2 is substituting for nlw:1niuiilwith a plus 3 valence. The effect is a need for additional positive charges. Thus. the overall net effect is for the colloid to carry a negative charge.Negative charges on particle surfaces and broken edges.i Vermiculite: This clay mineral is similar to illite except magnesium is present in the mineral structure. The negative char~e is greater than in montmorillonite.Vermiculite-Chlorite Materials: These are materials that are sOM~~here be~~een vermiculite~ a 2 ~1 mineral, and chlorite. a 2 ~2 mineral. In these materials the interlayer space is being filled with aluminum to give two silica and two aluminium layers or a 2~2 mineral call ed chlorite. The properties of these materials are quite variable depend ing on the amount of aluminium in the interlayer space.HydrouS Oxides or Hydroxy Iron and Aluminium :These form a second general type of inorganic colloids. They are important because thi s type of colloidal matter is often dominant in the soils of the tropics and semi-tropics. These oxides of iron and aluminiun occur as coatings onsoil particies andlor discrete clumps in the soil. These small particles may carry negative charges and act as a point around which cations are atttactE'rl.The cation adsorption capacity is less than for kaolinite. Their charge is quite dependent on soil acidity levels. As the soil acidity increases, the charges on these colloids usually decrease in number.Most hydrous oxides are not as sticky. plastic 9 and cohesive as are the silicates. This helps to explain why soils dominated by these colloids posses s superior physical properties than those strongly influenced by the silicate clays previously descrihed. This type of reaction is a cot'lponent of \" phosphate fixation\" and accounts for the tie-up of a large part of fertilizer phosphorus when applied to highl y weathered solIs.Organic matter is of a colloidal nature when it decomposes. Unlike clay minerals, organic colloids seldom have a distinct structure. These colloids simply occur as coatings around soil particles in the Aphorizons of mineral soils or as the main colloid in organic soils .Because of the negative charge on soil colloids, they are able to attract positively charges cations. Schematically, this attraction of cations may be pictured as in Figure 5.3.Ca ~1 These cations are held very similar to the way a negative pole of a magnet holds the positive pole of another magnet. If we remember that in a soil system we also have water ffIns around the soil particles, we might enlarge the previous diagram to the system depicted in Figure 5.4.In Figure 5.4, we have four soil colloids with water films around them.There are cations attached to the soil colloids and other cations in the soil solution. These cations come from fertilizers and the breakdo,~ of soil minerals and organic matter. The aluminium has weathered from the clay and the hydrogen has come fro~ the water.Cation exchange takes place •when one of the soil solution cations replaces one of the cations on the soil colloids. This exchange only takes place when the soil solution is not in equilibrium with the soil colloids.However, the soil solution and the colloids are seldom in equilibrium because leaching and plant uptake of cations is a continual process.Pictorially, this exchange might be presented as in  Soil Texture:Soil texture is defined as the relative amounts of sand, silt, and clay in a soil. We now know that the amount of clay is really the inorganic colloidal fraction of the soil. Thus, we can see that by knowing the soil texture we can estimate cation-holding capacity.Type of Clay or Soil Consistence:From the soil texture we can determine the amount of inorganic colloidal material present in the soil. However, we cannot accurately estimate cation exchange capacity without knowing the types of colloids present, i.e. relative amounts of 1:1 and 2:1 colloids.For each percent humus in the soil the cation exchange capacity is 1ncrc..'1sed b -2 meq/lOOg. Thus, l-Te can see that in sandy soils l,1here the cation exchange capacity is only 4 meq/lOOg. 1 percent organic matter present would contributeone-half of the cation exchange capacity.In addition to regulating the chemical properties of a soil, the colloidal fraction also plays an important role in the physical properties of a soil. In table 5.4, the various physical and chemical properties of various soil colloids are summarized. (iv) On high cation exchange capacity soils, anhydrous ammonia is the cheapest form of fertilizer N, but on low CEC soils it may leach through the soil after heavy rains or escape to the atmosphere upon application.As clay colloids weather and break down, the aluminium in the aluminium layer is freed and either attached to the colloidal charges (cation exchange complex) by replaCing H+ or released into the soil solution. If it is attached to the cation exchange complex. it is able to undergo cation exchange and enter the soil solution any time. Once the aluminium enters the soil solution it reacts with water to form hydroxy aluminium compounds and free hydrogen ions.The exact aluminium compounds formed will depend on the soil acidity at the time the aluminium enters the soil solution. The reactions that aluminium can undergo are as follows:  To better understand the pr-actica l implications \".f s o il acidity, let us look a.t the h.umful effects of hi ~h soil acidity and then latC't\" look at how soil ae idit)' can be cant rollc-d .(1) Some plants simply do not ~ro\\J we]] a t 10\\.0,' pI! (ii) The activity of many of the' follO\\o1in r, organi\"''''Itb :-at\" redu('('d.(a) Nitrogen-fixing bacteria (b) Bacteria wich convert <.!nunonium to nitt\"at(~ (c) Organisms which break down organic matter.(iii) Elements such as aluminium and manganese become so soluble that they are toxic to plant growth.(iv) Phosphorus and molybdenum may become insoluble and unavailable.(v) A low pH may indicate low level~ of calcium and magnesium pre~~nt.   The neutralizing value of lime is the amount of soil acidity it will neutralize as compared to pure calcium carbonate. The neutralizing value is often refered to as the calcium carbonate equivalent. For ease of understanding, pure CaCo 3 is assigned a value of 100 and all other limestone are ranked accordingly. The neutralizing values of selected limestones are given in Table 5.5. Intensive agriculture in the humid tropics has been primarily conducted on soils with a high level of native soil fertility. These soils generally have a reserve of weatherable minerals that provide calcium ann magnesium and prevent formation of highly acid soils. On the other hand the soils that are not being used intensively often have a low soil pH and are very low in exchangeable bases, which limit crop productivity. Attempts to lime the soils in the humid tropics close to neutrality according to the procedures used for soils in the temperate regions have very often ended in failures.It is now widely accepted that the rate of liming should be based on the amount of lime required to neutralize the exchangeable aluminum. A question that will have to be answered is how frequently to apply lime to soils of the humid tropics. Rainfall, evapotranspiration, occurence and intensity of dry seasoo 9 cation exchange characteristics of the soil -all will influence how fast calcium and magnesium are depleted from the soil.When the subject of organic matter in tropical soils is mentioned , one commonly held view is that tropical soils have low organic matter contents because of the high temperatures and decomposition rates. Thus, every effort must be made to maintain what little organic matter exists, and therefore organic matter conservation is essential to the productivity of tropical soils.Organic carbon values of randomly chosen Oxisols, Ultisols , and Alfisols from Brazil and Zaire are co~ared with those of Mollisols, Ultisols and Alfisols from the lTnited States of Ai:!!.erica in Table 5.6. This Table indicates that the organic carbon content of the top metre of the Oxisols is not significantly different from that of the temperate re~ion }follisols and there is no difference in this respect between tropical and temperate Ultisols and Alfisols.There are several explanations as to why tropical soils are higher in organic matter than generally believed. The most o~vious one is the absence of a direct relation between colour and organic carbon content. matter to a rather stable group of decay products. Furnus is the colloidal remains of organic matter.Because organic matter consists of either living or dead plants and animals it must contain all the nutrients needed for the growth of these organisms.The amounts and types of these nutrients are directly dependent on the original source . .In raw (undecomposed) organic matter there are four maj~~ groups of organic compounds contributed to the soil. These are carbohydrates; 1igniQt proteins; and fats, waxes, and resins. Of these four compounds, the carbohydrates and proteins are probably the most important and the most readily decomposed. These two constituents are also the greatest contributors of soil nutrients, such as nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphrus. Lignin is a very resistant compound which persists in the soil as one of the main components of huous. Fats, waxes, and resins are resistant compounds which contribute sulfur and phosphorus to the soil. Along with these four major compounds are a host of minor compounds. As the four major compounds decompose, several nutrients are released into the soil. Some of these nutrients are :(i) Carbon and carbon compounds such as carbon dioxide <C0 2 ) and carbonates (C0 3 =).(ii) Nitrogen -many forms (iii) Sulfur -many forms (iv) Phosphorus Unless the organic matter is decomposed, these nutrients will remain in the soil but in unavailable forms. The decomposition of organic matter is carried out by soil organisms.Organisms in the soil can be divided into two major groups. These are the animal organisms and the plant organisms. In both groups we find many different organisms varying in size from rather large to microscopic. The contributions of these organisms to the soil vary from very renefica1 to very harmful. Earthworms move through the soil providing aeration and excellent soil physical characteristics. Mice and moles. however, can move through the o and A horizons and cause havoc. Likewise, several microscopic organisms contribute greatly to the soil while several other organisms cause diseases.poor plant rooting, etc. Depending on the soil conditions present, organisms can range in numbers from a fe,,,. to billions.For any type of organism to grow and multiply in the soil, the following environmental conditions must exist. If these conditions are not present, the numbers of organisms will decrease and many beneficial reactions will slow down or cease.(i) Adequate aeration -if soil aeration is not suffiCient, many organisms will die or become dormant.(ii) Sufficient moisture content -soil moisture must be adequate to meet the needs of the orgahism. If the soil is too dry, the organisms will fail to grow and reproduce. If the soil is too wet, aeration will be reduced. Of course, one of the prime functions of soil organisms is the decay or oxidation of organic matter by simply renoving it from the surface of the earth. If general organic matter decay didn't take place, we would have long ago been buriedl under tons of waste materials. However. during the decay p recess ~ there are several highly benef ic ial reactions taldng place.The following group of reactions are quite important in soils:(i) Non-symbiotic nitrogen fixation -Organisms living in the soil independent of other organisms -fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and contribute it to the soil.(ii) Symbiotic nitrogen fixation-Organisms living in thepodulee of legumes fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and contribute it to the soil when the plant dies.(iii) Ammonification -In the breakdown of organic matter, certain organisms free ammonium (NH!) to the soil. This is quite an important reaction since it is the mechanism whereby all organic nitrogen Is released to the soil.(iv) Nitrification -Organisms convert ammonium(NH!) to nitrate (NO;).  (vi) Sulfur conversions -N~st soil sulfur is held in complex organic forms. Organisms take this ~ulfur and convert it to sul~hate (80 4 -)9 which can be used by plants.(vii) Other reactions -During the decay processes, the organisms release many other elements to the soil ~--such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, and micronutrients.A point that is commonly overlooked when discussing organisms is their food source during organic matter decay. For organisms to live and decay organic ~~tter~ they must have a food source. If this food source is not• available in the product being decayed. these nutrients will be taken from the soil during the decay process. When this happeos 9 the organisms are competing with higher plants for nutri ents. This can caus e nutrient-deficiency to the soil. Because of this~ it is necessary to add extra fertilizer nutrients if one wished to decay organic matter during a cropping season. Another beneficial effect of soil organisms is their ability to promote soil aggregatton.5.5.7 The Carbon -Nitrogen Ratio:The carbon-nitrogen ratio simply refers to the ratio of carbon to nitrogen in soils and organic matter. For most stable soil systerns ~ this ratio is around 12 : 1 (twelve parts carbon to one part nitrogen). The importance of this ratio lies in the fact that it is a measure of the speed with which organic materials will decay. Many soil organisms need quite a lot of nitrogen to break down organic matter. If a wide ratio or~anic matter , say 90 : 1 (Sawdust, tree bark, etc.)t i s added to the soil ~ then the organisms must take much nitrogen from the soil to be able to bring this ratio down to 12 : 1. This means that unless additional nitrogen is added with wide C:N ratio organic materials, they either will not decay or will cause severe nitrogen deficiencies. This is why it is often wise to plough additional nitrogen down with a heavy crop of maize stalks.(1) Clearing and cultivation decrease the annual additions and at least double the decomposition rates of organic carbon. Organic matter depletion is quite rapid unless certain management practices are applied. In traditional shiftine cultivation systems ,. organic matter depletion is small. practices aimed at keeping the soil covered and sustained fertilization decrease the organic matter gepletion to a level that ceases to be of concern.(il) Application of animal manure can be effective. The choice between animal manures and organic fertilizers is a matter of nutrient content p economics, transportation, and accessibility. Long-term manure applications improve physical so11 pro~erties.(iii) Mulching conserVE organic matter by decreasing soil temperatures.The use of mulches may be applicable to a wider area than animal or green manures.(iv) Return all crop residues to the field (v) Cultivate no more than necessary as it will greatly increase organic matter destruction.(Vi) Control erosion to avoid Boil and organic colloids from washing or blowing away.(viii) Use cover crops whenever possible.Maize is the major cereal crop of the savanna. It is a demanding crop, yielding higher than any other cereals, (except rice) where cltmate and soil are favourable but suffering severe depression of yield on poor soils. For a good crop normal conditions for high soil fertility should exist. The various conditions contributing to high soil fertility are listed in Sandy and shallow soils depress yields both because of increased drought hazard and lower nutrient supplies. Maize is not drought-resistant, hence where rainfall is marginal (600 -800) a high available water capacity is particularly important. Sites with substantial drainage Impedence i.e. mottled above 100 em, should be avoided if possi~le. The preferred pB is 5.5-7.0, and strongly acid soil (pH < 5.0) are unsuitable. There is a high nutrient demand, particularly for nitrogen. a crop of 1000 kg removes about 30-50 kg nitrogen. Inherent soil supplies cannot meet nutrient demands for more than 1-2 years, therefore rotation and nitrogen fertilizer is necessary. The practice of maize monocu1ture 1 although widespread, is highly undesirable as it exhausts nitrogen and organic matter. Haintenance of organic matter status is particularly important in maize cultivation .both to augment the nitrogen supply and to improve the structure of the soil thereby conferring erosion resistance. It is therefore beneficial to combine winera1 fertilizers with organic manures. Provided that other management practices are good ? maize responds very well to nitro~en fertilizer on most soils and to phosphorus on some. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAD) Freedom from Hunger Campaign did some 65~OOO demonstrations and simple trials on farmers ' fields between 1961' fields between and 1966' fields between (FAO, 1968). In addition. many trials have been done by national organizations in most tropical countries.These experiments have generally confirmed the expectation that, where other conditions -weeds, pests, diseases, V2riety, and rainfall are not limiting, nitrogen and phosphorus increase yields of many crops on many soils. More than 90 percent of the Freedom from Hunger experit'tents have shown responses to nitrogen or phosphorus or both, and sometimes to potassium, although potassium has not always been included in the trials.Very broadly, maize production in Africa can be divided into a modern sector and a traditional sector. The modern sector produces maize on hoth small and large scale enterprises and useM improved tc~hnology and inputs.The traditional sector involves systems tdth traditional social structures that have not been g reatly influenced by scientific advances.It includes many types of farmers, from those in a society with virtually no cash income, to those with some innovation and cash cropping. ~bere the soils are very poor, nearly all the farmers efforts may go into providing the basic food requirements.Shifting cu1tlvation~ the system of farming on many of the soils in the humid tropics, relies on periodic reversion of the land to natural fallow for restoration of soil fertility. It supplies most of the food and many other necessities of life for ~uch of the population of Africa south of the Sahara.Although the term \"shifting cultivation'; is used to cover all the traditional forms of agriculture in which the land is not farmed continuously, intensities within the system vary greatly. In general, the cultivation period is shorter in forest areas than in savanna areas. t-1here villages do not shift. for example, there is an element of permanent cultivation in the form of compound or kitchen garden, which are fertilized by various forms of refuse.The fertility of these compounds is recognized by some farmers, who periodically shift their villages in order to make use of the residual fertility at the old village sites. Rapid urban growth has resulted in areas of permanent cultivation with very dense populations around the periphery of larger town. An often-quoted example is Kano, in Northern Nigeria, where the farming belt, extending for many miles around the town, has a population 2 density of over SOO/km • Because natural fallows are an extensive rather than an intensive way of exploiting soil resources, the syst~ depends on relatively low densities of population. Such a system has been adequate in the past, but there is no doubt that rapidly exp. ,nding populations are bringing it under increasing pressure.The principal objective of the Farming System Program at IITA is to improve traditional farming systems and enable the smll farmers to make the transition from mainly subsistence~ intermitt ent bush fallow systems to continuous, more productive systems with a minimum of purchased costly inputs.Research results show that with some inputs of fe~ilizer , suitable crop combinations and some irrigation to make year-round cropping possible~ 50 to 100 percent production increases can be obtained on a sustained basis.Further increases are possible as more adapted ~ high-yielding, disease and pest resistant varieties become available.A major achievement so far has been the convincing demonstration that minimum tillage techniques, with mulch es of plant residues and live legume cover crops can reduce erosion and high soil temperatures and substantially increase crop production. With mulches, maize yields on IITA plots were increased by 23 to 45 percent. Minimum tillage and mulches reduce beavy l.albOJJr.demands, especially for weeding which absorbs more hours of labour than any other farm operation.In the future, the use of high-yielding varieties -a pre-requisite before farmers will adopt other improved production techniques -will justify the costs of applying fertilizers and plant protection.Low input technology will be further developed, and research results will continue to be tested in actual farming situations under local conditions within the humid and sub-humid tropics of Africa, research will identify ecological zones in which specific techniques and plant materials may be used to best advantage. More farmers now practicing shifting cultivation and related bush fallow systems will ~ove towards settled , continuous systems of land use.Seed bed preparation or tillage is defined as physical. chemical or biological soil manipulation to optimize conditions for seed germination, emergence, and seedling establishment. The short~terrn objectives of seedbed preparation are: to optimize soil temperature and moisture conditions~ to minimize weed competition. to stimulate root system proliferation and development, and to decrease the energy input. The long-term objectives, however ~ must keep in view maintenance of soil productivity over long periods of time through adequate soil and water conservation, by maintaining soil organic matter content at a high level, and by preserving soil structure and pore stability (Lal,1979).In the traditional methods of farming. based on hush fallow and related systems of replenishing soil fertility, a wide range of land preparation systems are used in different agro-ecological regions of tropical Africa.After slashing the weeds and bush regrowths farmers commonly use fire to dispose of the excess vegetation and perhaps to supply some meager eleoents.In many regions of West Africa, particularly in the region of Alfisols with gravel_layers at shallow depth. farmers plant on small hillocks. These mounds are prepared by heaping the surface layer to increase the effective soil depth (Lal, 1979). In the semi-arid regions, bul1ock-driven implements are commo~y used for mechanical seedbed preparation. Large scale maize production projects, based on mechanized tillage systems are rapidly spreading in tropical Africa where planting is sometimes done on the flat or on ridges.In tropical Africa most of the seedbed preparation is done using conventional tillage using such equipment as a hand hoe, animal driven implements and tractor mounted tillage equipment.Variations to conventional tillage such as reduced tillage which refers to the methods of seedbed preparation whereby the frequency of the use of various conventional tillage equipment is minimized are on the increase. In some parts . of t~rica zero tillage is gaining ground.6.2 Zero Tillage :6.2.1 Definition: Zero tillage is a system of seedbed preparation without primary or secondary cultivation where mechanical soil disturbance and manipulation is limited to seedling and fertilizer placement. A continous cover of mulch with crop residue or dead weeds is an essential component of this concept.Shifting agriculture is a system of land management under which food is produced by reliance on nature rather than on the use of modern technology to restore soil productivity. According to this system, land is cultivated until the yield can no longer sustain the fare family. The area is abandoned, temporarily. and another piece of land is cleared for cultivation. Approximately 5 to 6 billion hectares of land in the tropics are cultivated with this system of subsistence farming.With the increasing pressure of population and awareness to improve the standard of living. this system has to be replaced by a viable and stabl€ system of land management. The essential components of soil management in the t~opics include (i) a minimum disturbance of the soil surface 9 (ii) continous ground cover of dead crop residue, (iii) a mechanism for replenishing nitrogen by leguminous cover crops, and (iv) maintenance of soil structure through natural agencies such as earthworms and termites. The zero tillage system of soil management appears to meet most of these requirements.Though the possibilities of zero tillage are promising, its adaptation to specific soil conditions depends on the soil types.nature of the crop to be grown and financial resources of the farmer. Under shifting cultivation, where farm sizes are l ess than ~o hectares, chemical or manual weed control and planting, directly through mulch, is all that is required. For commercial large scale farms , the zero tillage concept may be applied with . one of the following modifications:-(i) Zero till or no till -is a system whereby a crop is planted directly into a seedbed untilled since the harvest of a previous crop . This system Is also referred to as sod\" plant , slot plant or slit plant.(ii) Till planting -is a strip tillage system in which a small strip is cut through the stubble ahead of the surface planters in one operation.(iii) Minimum tillage -is the minimum soil manipulation necessary for crop production under given soil and climatic conditions.(iv) Stubble mulching or mulch tillage -involves soil preparation in such a way that plant residues and other materials are left to cover the soil surface before and after crop establishment.  filtration rate of zero tillage plots without mulch was 0.5 cm min as   respectively. under maize, soybeans and cowpeas. The maximum soil temperature under si~ilar conditions with zero till system was 34°C under all of the crops.The soil temperature difference even at 20cm depth can be as much as 4 to SoC between two tillage systems. In addition to the differences in the absolute maximum soil temperature, there are also phase differences in the propagation of temperature waves. The maxima in the surface layer of zero till plots can be two to three hours later than the conventionally tilled piece of land.(vi) Nutrient status and availability : The organic matter content of the surface soil is maintained at a higher level lITith zero t tllage techniques than with conventional ploughed. For the surface O-lOcm layer, the organic carbon content and total nitrogen in the zero tillage ~lots fiv~ years after forest clearing was 1.30 and 0.103 ~ercent, respectively. Th e organic car~on and total nitrogen in the ploughed plots was only 0.86 and 0.07 percent~ respectively.Because of the difference in organic matter content due to tillag~ systems, there can be significant differences in the cation exchange capacity of the surface soil and the nature of the cations on the exchange camnlex. There is strong evidence that phosphorus availability is enhanced in mulched layer of zero till soil. There may, however, be greater nitrogen requirements for zero till system, particularly in the first few seasons of crop growth. (i) Germination and seedling establishment: Under tropical conc.itions with well drained 80il . germination and seedling establishment with a zero tillage system may be better than conventional ploughing~ provided seeding is done with equipment capable of planting through crop residue or cover crop.Soybean emergence in zero till plots at I.I.T.A. was, for exarnpl e~ signif1.cantl better than with conventional ploughing , probably because of better soil moisture and temperature regime and lack of surface crust formation. The time required for soybean emergence in conventionally ploughed plots was longer.No difficulties have been experienced with seedling establishment of maize, soybean, cowpeas, pigeon-peas and cassava with zero till techniques.(ii) Root growth : Restricted root growth in zero till plots during the seedling stages could be related to the compacted surface layer, the inadequate amount of crop residue mulch, or to excessive wetness. EXT?eriments conducted on Alfisols in Nigeria indicated that although root growt~ and development is restricted in the seedling stage~ root proliferation in zero tillage plots is superior in terms of depth of penetration at later stages of growth. Thus, the superior yield potential of a zero till system during drought stre~s is attributed to a deeper root system.(iii) Plant growth and yield ; Crop response to tillage systems depends on various factors such as soil type and climatic conditions. If the initial soil conditions are favourable, zero tillage can provide a yield equal to that with conventional tillage. Under adverse conditions such as drought, zero tillage may actually out yield conventional ploughing.Even though the initial crop growth under zero tillage is sometimes suppressed, it usually improves during the later stages of porosi.ty. The annual grain yield obtained with zero tillage at I.I . T.A. in 1973 was, for example, 27% higher for maize-maize rotation ~ 50% for maize-cowpea, 3%higher for pigeon-peas-maize, 22% lower for soybean-soybean and 77% higher for cowl>ea-cowpea rotation than \"\"ith conventional 'Ploughing. The maize yield record with zero tillage has shown higher Yields in three out of four years.(iv) Weed cOmpetition: Weeds can be a serious problem with zero tillage, particularly for the first year or two. in maize, has been shown to be much higher with conventional ploughing. The parasitic insects and pests may be greater under mulch, but so will te the population of predators.If so11 and water conservation is the objective, as it should be foremos t for the tropics, zero tillage is one of the most desirable a~proaches.Under many circumstances, zero tillage is the only possible approach.Presently, however, the zero tillage technique is not perfectecl as it is still soil and crop specific. Its specificity calls for improvement towards versatility.Maize planting practices in tropical Africa have changed markedly in the last two decades because of the use of higher yielding synthetic or hybrid varieties, commercial fertilizers and, to some extent, the introduction of tractor drawn machinery into African agriculture. Nowadays planting rates are higher, row planting is fast replacing the stagger arrangement and in some of the. large plantations fertilizer placement and/or herricide application often accompany planting as is the corro.mon practice in the more tecr.nologically advanced countries. Reports from literature and our experience in Nigeria show that the yield performance of maize is strongly influenced by planting practices such as method, time, pattern, depth and rate of planting. where it brings certain advantages such as saving moisture, reduced erosion, seedbeds not overpacked and more effective weed control.The check-row maize planter is more widely used than either the drill or lister types. It is adopted for three distinct styles of planting -drilling, hilling and check-rowing. It is called a check-row planter when, by the use of a wire, the hills are planted at equal distances apart in each direction.Hill planting consists of putting several seeds of maize in a hill at regular intervals along the row.Regardless of the method of planting in the tropics, planting maize on the flat is ?referred to ridges. Ridg:f.ng for maize has been observed to remove the roots further from soil water table. Also, the soil tenperature in the root zone on ridges are r.tuch. higher than on the flat (Lal, 1974) particularly when the soil is sandy. ~o-till or zero-till planting is gaining acceptance rapidly. It consists of plantin~ with no tillage except a furrow opener for -94the seed. The goal is to thoroughly kill the grass sods so that it will not compete with the crop for moisture.Paraquat has been the basic herbicide but it is usually combined with one or mor e chemicals depending upon the kind of sod and expected ~Teed species .Planting 'ilTith the no-till systems on sod has advantages and disadvantages. It eliminates the risk of compaction and clods commonly experienced with ploughed ground. It allows the cultivation of maize on land that with conventional tillage would be too steep and thus cause an unacceptable amount of runoff and erosion. On the other hand, field mice are often a serious problem in sod planted fields. Also pesticide residues may be increased in the soil. For the purpose of information, it should be mentioned that farmers in the USA have been experimenting with aerial planting of maize since the late 1960's. If acceptable yields could be obtained, the advantages would be rapid planting and no need to own expensive equipment among others. However , several problems have turned up:(i) Uneven distribution of plants -too thick in some places, too thin in others (ii) Uneven plant size due to differences in time of germination likely due to variation in seed coverage (iii) The maize cannot be cultivated for weed control, thus the herbicide must work nearly perfectly.The pattern of planting has been observed to influence the performance of maize on the field. Kohnke and Moles (1951) observed that drilled maize gave about 8 bushels more yield per acre than hilled maize. Maize uniformly spaced (equidistant planting) gave about 6 bushels more yield than hilled maize. The same workers however, observed that hilled maize lodged considerably less than drilled or uniformly spaced maize. On the other hand, suckering (tillering) occurred most in uniformly s~aced maize, considerably less in drilled maize and least in hilled corn.Narrow rows make more efficient use of avai~able light and also shade the surface soil more completely thus preventing moisture evaporation and also effecting good weed control. Narrow rows have been found to be more efficient means of increasing plant population per hectare for higher yields than increasing the number of stands per hill.In the temperate region the most important factor determining time of sowing maize during the growing senson is the soil temperature. The day o time temperature of the so11 where the seed is to be placed should be 15 C o or higher. Kernels exposed to soil temperature of 8 -12 C in Wisconsin were susceptible to pythium attack. In the humid tropics the consistence of the rains determines when to plant. In both regions however, early planting 1n the season have been observed to be the best single opportunity to further increase yields. Lower yields and increasing injury by insects and diseases occur with delayed planting.In the forest zone of Western Nigeria for instance, the optimum time forplanting early season maize is between the middle of March and first wee~ in April. As planting is delayed beyond the firs t week in A\\,r:U, the severity of incidence of diseases like C. pallescens ~ P. polysora and H. maydis increases. The subsequent yield decreases may be un to 50% of the optimum. X Disease severity Index at 12 weeks after planting Y Means followed by th e same letter in any vertical column are not significantly differ ent from each other according to Duncan's multiple rang e test, P=O.OS.The depth of planting maize is properly regulated by the requirements for placing the seed in intimate contact with warm moist soil and protecting it against rodents, birds and drying. Usually. 2.5cm under settled soil is considered shallow planting and 8cm as deep. The depth of the er01lm is determined by the moisture and air conditions of the soil, not by the depth of nlantingthe seed. Also s the final depth of the root system is eontrolled by the heredity and the total environment, rather than by planting depth. The results of experiments performed by Dungen (1':\\';0) on the relationship between seedling emergence and depth of planting maize are presented in Table 6.5. Deep planting has a retarding effect on germination.  Most African farmers grow around 30,000 plants or less per hectare.If improved varieties are used a higher plant population can be achieved without the risk of lodging and having barren stalks. In general, hybrid maize shows better adaptability for high plant population than composites and local varieties.In a well managed maize field ? 35,000 plants/ha would be considered a very low plant population, whereas 45.000 to 50 9 000 plants/ha would be average. Optimum populations of well managed improved varieties vary from 40,000 to 100,000 plantslha. Early and short season varieties such as TZE4 can be planted in 20 to 30% higher populations than the medium and late maturing varieties such as TZPB and TZB.  factor affecting the optimum rate of planting for maximum yields. Most investigators agree that early-maturing varieties can be planted ,thicker than late-maturing varieties. Rossman (1955) found that there was a slight tendency for earlier hybrids to make a greater response than the later hybrids to rate of planting. Results from numerous exPeriments under varying conditions have demonstrated the inter dependence of population and soil fertilization, Tables 6.7 and 6.8 (Jordan et at.1946, andThomas 1956).The data presented by these workers emphasized t h e im~ortance of properly balancing nitrogen applications and stand rates. I t Is obvious also that t be effect of stand on grain yield is much greater at high than at 10,\"1 soil productivity levels. It is a generally accepted fact that yields of well fertilized maize do not falloff very sharply when plant population is above the optimum s even in dry years.  Largest increases in yield of maize are likely to be with high populations when you are fertilizing and managing for top yield in the presence of plenty of water. When high population is attained by the use of narrow rows high yields are possible for as long as moisture is adequate. v1hen the soil is dry at the surface more water is lost from narrow rows than from lvide rows because transpiration is the main pathway by which water is lost from the soil. Narrrnv rows expose greater leaf area to radiant energy from the sun. Hence the greater water loss.Intercropping in maize is as old as the known history of the crop itself.Crops like legumes, okra, melons and cassava are often intercropped with maize.This practice necessitates planting maize in widely spaced rows to give the intercropped plants a chance to compete for food , water and sunlight.The time of planting plays a minor role in determining the optimum planting rate. The suggestion has been made that maize planted on the early date for a locality may show a good response to higher population than that planted rather late in the sea son. Th is point should be carefully noted when conducting optimum plant population trials from year to year.The purpose for which the crop is grown has some bearing on optimt1~ rate of planting. The optimum planting rates for fodder or silage and grains differ 8om&What. The optimum plant population for silage is at least 10 percent more than for grain. 6.4.7: Changes in plant characters associated with higher population rates:Many adjustments are made by the maize plants to an increase in population.On highly productive soil the net result of moderately high population rates is an increase in grain yield per hectare, but some other changes occur s some of which are not beneficial.  per acre.(iii) Composition of grain: Studies on the influence of stand on the composition of the grain showed that both the percentage of protein and the oil content decreased with population increase (Lang, 1956 ;Prince, 1954). Tryptophan was observed to decrease with heavier stands while the total amount of isolencine as well as the percentage of crude protein tended to increase.(iv) Rate of development: Increasing the population density tends to delay plant development. It has been observed that very high population delays silking more than they do pollen shed especially when under moisture stress. This may lead to poorly pollinated ears.(v) Production of suckers (tillers) : Tillering is the response of the plant to environmental conditions which can support a larger population than is present. Tillers , therefore, are more numerous ,at low than higb population levels on highly productive soils.(vi) Ease of lodging ! Increasing plant population on soil of the same productivity decreases the strength of stalks and increases the likelihood of lodging. High incidence of lodging is, therefore.one of the hazards of increasing population to get maximum yields.The most serious effect of heavier stands is the higher incidence of stalk breakage.FERTILIZERS ~~ MANURES 7.1 Nutrition of the maize plant:The need for adequate and balanced nutrition of maize is important.Because of its fast growing nature, the maize plant has a relatively high demand for nutrients, particularly N, P and K for obtaining high yields. A maize crop producing 5 to 6 t/ha of grain will remove about lOO•l50kg N, 40-60kg P2 aS and 100-150 kg K 2 0 per hectare (Prasad , 1978). Most cultivated soils can not supply more than 20-25 percent of the NPK requirements, and thus adequate NPK is necessary if high yields are to be maintained.The nutrient composition of the maize plants at maturity varies considerably, and is influenced by the nutrient and moisture status of the so1:1, the genetic constituents of the plant and the actual yield achieved. Because of these fac tors published data on NPK rE!lloval by maize from a number ofcountries vary considerably as illustrated in Table 7.1. (Kang 1979). Besides the primary nutrients NPK, the maize plants also needS (Ca ~ Mg , S) and micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn, B, Cu, Mo and Cl). The ionic forms in \\ which the different nu~rients are taken up are given in Table 7.2. The nutrient accumulation at various stages of growth follow closely the accumulation of dry matter. Dry matter accumulation and thus nutrient accumulation is rather slow during the period i~mediately following sowing till about 3-4 weeks, then it increases rapidly up to flowering and then  When NH 4 -N is absorbed, the uptake of other cations such as Ca, Mg and K will decrease. On the contrary, the uptake of anions and in particular p . will be favour~. The opposite occurs with the N0 3 N uptake. The relative proportions of N taken up by the maize plants in the form of NH 4 -N and NO)-N, depend on the age of the plant. Young maize plants absorb NH4-N and N0 3 more rapidly than N0 3 -N, while older plants absorb for up to 90% of total N as NO) -N.Nitrogen stimulates the developments of the leaves and absorption of other nutrient substances. When plant requirement for nitrogen is not adequately met the lower leaves start turning yellow. The yellowing starts from the tip and moves along the mid-rib in an inverted V-shape.The lower leaves turn yellow first, because the nitrogen, being a mobile nutrient in plants, moves from older to younger leaves. If the deficiency of nitrogen persists the , ... hole plant turns pale yellotl.Most soils are deficient in nitrogen and hence an application of manures and fertilizers is nearly always necessary. In practice, the recommendation to the farmers should be based on the following:(1) Experimental results from the nearest experimental station In general, various sources of nitrogen are found to be nearly equally effective provided they are applied properly. However. some reports indicate that fertilizer containing ammonical nitrogen may be slightly ~etter than those containing nitrate forms under conditions of heavy rainfall, hy reducing leaching losses.Nitrogen applied to the soil is likely to be lost due to leaching 9 denitrification or volatilization. The crop requires a continuous supply of nitrogen throughout its life and hence it has been observed tha.t nitrogenous f er tilizers given in two or three doses can increase the grain yield considerably by linproving the efficiency of applied nitrogen. Experiments in Africa have indicated that nitrogen applied in three splits at planting, at knee-high stage , and at tasselling increased the grain yield as compared to the yield obtained when all the nitrogen was applied at planting. Phosphorus is taken up by maize continuously from the seedlings stage to maturity. The concentration in the plants should be much higher during the seedling stage but the capacity of the roots to obtain phos~horus is then low and any deficiency of phosphorus is usually seen before the crop is ~O-75cmtall. Phosphorus uptake is maximum during the third and sixth weeks of growth (Syre, 1955). It is slightly ahead of dry matter accumulation early in the seas and is then generally parallel to dry matter accumulation until the early dent stage after which P uptake practically ceases.of the total phosphorus is present in the grain.is reported to be between 35 to 90 kg P20S/ha.The total uptake by the crop Plants deficient in phosphorus have a purple colouration on the lower leaves. However, the pur~le colour is also observed when the temperature is low or when the soil is saline.The ability of the soil to meet the phosphorus requirements of the crop varies with the amount of phosphorus in the soil and the pH value of the soil.Soil tests can determine the amount of phosphorus availa~le to the crop, and these, together with field experiments for determining crop response to phosphorus provide a guide for recommending optimum rates of phosphorus appl1eation to the farmer.In soils .h:leh fix very large quantities of phosphorus, application of phosphorus in a band Scm to the side and Scm deeper than the seed level is reported to be the best method. However, in other soils including those which are highly deficient in phosphorus, broadcasting and discing phosphorus into the surface 90i1 is generally found satisfactory. In general, about 25 to 33 per cent phosphorus applied is recovered in the first crop.-112 -Potassium is geneta1iy i ndispensab1e for ail i:f.ving organisms, and its concentration in the plant tissue exceeds that of any other cation. Though K is not a constituent of tmportant plant components, it however plays an important role in physiological ptocesses of the piant. and thereby directly determines the rate of growth and yields. Photosynthesis may be decreased and respiration increased under conditions of K deffciertcy: Potassium is important for increasing photosynthesis under conditions of low light intensity and also to make efficient use of light at higher intensities, which is of great significance with high plant population densities so common for modern maize production.The rate of accumulation of potassium during the first 30 days of growth exceeds that of nitrogen and phosphorus (Arnon , 1975). During a period of 30 daysbeginhing about two weeks before tasselling, the daily rate of uptake has been calculated by Sayre (1955) to be 4kg K20/ha and according to Chandler (1960) may reach 7.3 kg/ha. K uptake 'follows a much different pattern from that of dry matter accumulation. Prior to silking, K uptake is faster than dry matter accumulation and by silking almost 90 percent of the K has accumulated. K uptake practically ceases 10-15 days after silking (Arnon, 1975). At maturity the total amount varies from 100 to 200kg K20/ha. Only 30-33 percent of the total amount of K is found in the grain. Potassium deficiency is marked by yellowing and drying of the margins of the lower leaves.The ability of the soil to supply potassium to the plants can be fairly accurately determined by soil tests. Only when the soil tests indicate low to medium levels of available potassium can a respons e to potass ium he expected.The amounts of secondary and micronutrients taken up by the maiz e crop are given in Table 7.  Maize grows best on well drained and slightly acid soils. On strongly acid soils, maize may suffer from aluminium and sometimes also from manganese toxicity. Although the effect of aluminium and manganese toxicity can be eli1!linated by application of lime, at present this practice i.e not yet recomMended because it is not economically viable. Thus for viable maize production, it is better to grow on the less acid upland soils. During the dry season the bottom land comprising the hydromorphic s01ls can also be used for maize production.Among the various nutrients required by the maize crop, nitrogen, phosphorus_ potassium, sulphur and zinc are often dificient for maize productionThe use of these fertilizers has a number of practical problems which one needr to be familiar with.Nitrogen is required for maize production i n the savannah and forest zone in West Africa. In the forest zone the need for nitrogen depends on several factors: (i) preclearing vegetation-whether the land was recently cleared from fallow or whether it was recently cropped with legumes. Land recently cleared from forest fallow may not respond to N addition for the first 1-2 years While land recently cleared from thicket vegetation or after grain legume may respond immediately after clearing to lower rates of 1'1, in the order of 60-90 kg/I With continuous cropping, the N requirement may increase from 90-150 kg NIbs depending on soil type, with sandy soils having a higher danand. (1i) Tillage method; with minimum tillage the N requirement generally tends to be higher:(i11) highlight intensity and (iv) variety of maize. To obtain high efficiency of applied N it is strongly recommended that the N fertilizer be applied in 2-3 instalments 9 the last N application heing before 6 weeks after field establi ment.Studies in East and Central Africa (Burkers~oda, 1964) recommended addition of the whole amount of nitrogen fertilizers to heavy soils in Zimbabwe before sawing because top dressing with nitrogen did not show better results.According to his recommendations, maize grown on light soils should receive halfof .the amount in the form of top dressing when the maize plants are kneehigh. In other areas in East and Central Africa, nitrogen utilization is meet efficient when applied in split doses.On land recently cleared from forest fallow vegetation where the fallow vegetation is burnt during land preparation, this type of land normally will not respond to P addition due to the large quantity of P made available in the plant ash and also from the organic P that is mineralized during cropping. On Continuously cropped land, in the savannah zone or on highly acid soils, phosphorus response for maize is very common. It is fortunate that most of the Alfisols and Entiso1s have relatively low P sorption capacity, so that the amount of P needed, to bring the soil to adequate P level is relat,ively low. The amount of P required for basal dressing amounts to between 20-40 kg P/ha and the amount needed for maintenance dressing about half of the basal dresSing rate. Because of the large P requirement of the maize plant, P should be applied before or during planting. Depending on the ~roduction systems , P can be banded or broadcasted.It is usually adequate in soils derived from basement complex rocks for 4-6 years of intensive cropping following clearing from forest vegetation.However, on soils derived from sedimentary rocks, deficiency symptous may appear after 2-3 years of intensive cropping. The K requirement for intensive maize cropping is estimated at 40-60 kg/ha/erop. As Leue (1963) and DrYsdale (1965) have shown, the potassium demand of a 6000kg maize crop is at least 90 kg/ha, though a considerable amount of this may be returned to the field in the stalks and leaves.This nutrient is usually deficient in Savannah soils. Maize may require addition of between 10-20 kg S/ha. This amount is usually already present if single superphosphate is used as source of phosphorus.7.2.5 Zinc:. This nutrient is usually deficient in sandy soils in the Savannah region .Application of high rateA of phosphate or liming in strongly acid soils may induce zinc deficiency due to nutrient ll~balance. In Cwo Ultisols from Southern Nigeria, considerable reduction in yield and manganese and zinc uptake by maize was observed when the soils were limed to pH above 6.2 and 5.6 respectively (Juo and Uzu p 1977). Over liming of highly weathered, low CEC soils seems to have more deleterious than beneficial effects. The zinc requirement is normally low between 1-2 kg Zn/ha. Because of its high residual effect, in areas of zinc deficiency,biannaal application of zinc is considered adequate. with maize in the green house, either treating the soil or spraying plants at a rate equivalent to 2.5 kg Fe/ha. They concluded that a spray was best for applying iron sulphate, and soil application was the best method for applying Fe-EDTA.The main purpose of organic manuring is the addition of soil organic matter, often loosely termed \"humus\" or of material capable of being transformed into \"humus\" with the obj ect of conserving and 1lnproving the biological and physio-chemical properties of the soil so as to obtain increased availability and utilization of plant nutrients, whether added or natural to the soil. Soil organic matter is a reservoir of chemical elements essential to the growth of plants. During the decay of organic matter in the soil, plant nutrients are gradually released and changed into forms available to the plant. This is especially true of carbon and nitrogen and to a lesser degree of phosphorus, iron. sulphur, and other elements. The availability of some of these elements held in the inorganic form is also influenced by humus through its interaction with the inorganic complexes. Apart from nutrient relationships, organic matter influences soil productivity indirectly. During its decomposition there is a profound influence on soil aggregation. Well decomposed organic matter increases the cohesion of sandy soils. and together with coarse raw organic matter, such as straw, decreases that of clay soils. Good soil structure and the organic matter itself, improve aeration, water holding capacity and permeability, as well as resistance to erosion. By organic manuring the quantf.ty and efficiency of biological Jctivitie8' 11re strongly promoted, thus increasing the production of organic ac\"J.ds and also the loosening. Both rates and methods of application of animal manure vary widely. In Africa, where large number of animals are kept maize,tProduction could be improved significantly by increasing the use of animal manure.Animal manure can be spread at anytime after the preceding crop has been harvested, but before ploughing. It is desirable to mix the manure with the soil. They should be ploughed in as speedily as possible to avoid nutrient losses. Numerous trials have shown that considerably greater increases in yield can be obtained by ploughing in immediately after spreading than after manure has lain for several weeks on the surface.In regions with little cattle farming, green manuring can provide a valuable organic supplement. A wide range of plants serve well as green manure crops. Legumes are to be preferred because they provide additional nitrogen for succeeding crops. The practice of green manuring in many maize growing areas in the tropics is governed almost entirely by the incidence of rainfall. lNhere there is rainfall in both winter and summer. green-manure plants can be grown in both seasons. In East Africa a green-manure crop is often sown in the lesser rainy season, followed by maize in the rainy season proper.Well-rotted compost with the addition of appropriate fertilizer elements~ particularly nitrogen, has a fertilizer value stmilar to that of animal manures.Compost can be prepared from a variety of refuse materials available on farms~ in village surroundings or in urban areas.Crop residuES are a major source of organic matter, exceeding animal manures and green manures in total additions to the soil. They include the stubble and roots of grains, cowpeas, soyabeans~ stalks of maize, cotton and remains from vegetable crops. All these residues can be ploughed back into the soil, or used as mulches, to save the plant nutrients which would otherwise be lost to succeeding crops. Crop residues serve as an adequate source of organic matter if properly returned to the soil and supplemented with fertilizer nitrogen. The plant may die if the damage is severe enough and if the weather remains dry. Death is due to a loss of cell water. There are several factors to consider when selecting broadcasting and/or banding fertilizer techniques.This term is used to describe a uniform application of any fertilizer or nutrient on the soil surface. The nutrient mayor may not be soil incorporated.Both dry and fluid fertilizer may be spread this way. There are some distinct advantages of this method namely that (a) large amounts of fertilizer can be applied without seedling injury, (b) labor and time are saved, (c) planting operations are speeded up because time spent in tending to band placement equipment at planting is eliminated.Broadcasting fertilizer is not without some shortcomings. Broadcast phosphorus, whether a component of mixed fertilizer or a single element material, may be fixed to a high degree by certain soils. This would be more likely to occur if the soil was low in phosphorus and relatively high in clay content. Also, early crop growth may be slower since there would ~ot be a concentration of phosphorus near the young roots. Broadcast fertilizer may also increase weeds in the middle of the rows.This method of fertilizer application is that of banding or concentrating fertilizer near the seed or small transplant. An advantage of this method is that it may encourage more vigorous, uniform, early grow-off of snaIl seedlings.This method may cut down on the possible fixation of the phosphorus. One must be aware that band placement may cause seedling injury if too much fertilizer is used, or it is placed too close to the plant. For most crops a band that is 5 to Bcm to the side and 5 to Bcm below the seed is quite safe. Panding of fertilizer at planting generally slows d~ the planting speed.A slight modification of banding is to place a small amount of mixed fertilizer right in the seed row to speed up emergence. This effect will seldom give greater yields but may stimulate early growth.To reduce the likelihood of fertilizer band injury, £.lways check the position of the band when planting is started. Also, the sum of nitrogen (N) and/or potash (K20) in the band should be noted. This is known as the amount of salt. This amount of salt should not exceed about 70-80kg!ha on sandy soils with not more than about 100-110 kg/ha on clayey soils. If the amount to be applied exceeds this_ some of the fertilizer should be broadcasted.-122 -Generally where soil phosphorus and potassium levels are medium to high there is no advantage of one method over another with respect to yield increases.Even on high-fertility soils one may still expect to see some early season advantage from a band. On low-fertility soils and on heavier. clay-type nails.it may be advisable to bank a portion of the fertilizer to assure an adequate supply for early growth. The chemical composition of some of the commonly used fertilizers in maize production is shown in Table 7.5.Table 7.5: Some common fertilizers used in Maize Production : Availab Ie (%) Atanic weight (Approx. ) Formula weight of Urea C = 12.00 C X 1 = 12.00 X 1 =12.00 0 = 16.00OXl= 16.00 X 1 =16.00N. = 14.00 N X 2 = 14.00 X 2 =28.00Since 60 parts urea contains 28 parts N, therefore 100 parts urea contains?Or 100 X 28 = 46.6 The bag of muriate of potash declares 60% K20. Our calculation shows a value for percent K. The fractional relationship between K 2 0 and K is simple.A point of interest is that the solubility of phosphates in water goes down as one progresses from monoca1cium phosphate to dicalcium phosphate (CaHP04) and tricalciun phosphate (Ca Another method of finding out % P in Equation 1:Equation 1 which gives the chemical reaction in the manufacture of single superphosphate, can be used to arriv at the value of % P in SSP:SSP contains 3 molecules of MCP and 7 molecules of calcium sulfate.Ca= 40.08Ca X 10 = 40.08 X 10 = 400.80 H = 1.00H X 12 = 1.00 X 12 = 12.00 p = .. 30.97 P X 6 = 30.97 X 6 = 185.82 0 = 16.00 0 X 52 = 16.00 X 52 = 832.00 S = 32.06 1655.04 and we know as shown earlier, 11.227 X 2.29 = 25.71% P 2 0 S This gives a slightly higher value of % P20S in the fertilizer. However, as mentioned earlier, we are not accounting for the impurities present and technical manufacturing efficiency of the factory in our calculations, hence, in practice single superphosphate may carry 16 -22% P20S de~ending upon several factors. Also you should IRlt-e that in this case we are calculating on the basis of 30% MCP in SSP and in t he previous case we had assumed 33% MCP in the SSP.Single superphosphate (SSP) is a BO a carrier of Ca and S and one or both are often needed in several of our soils in Africa for efficient crop production.In fact, the popularity of SSP with the groundnut farmers in the Savanna areas rests on its ability to supply both P and S to the groundnut crop and in addition, the Ca helps to reduce the soil acidifying effects of such N carriers as ammonium sulfate. In order to figure out the % Ca and % S content in SSP in addition to the % P205 content two methods can be used and the steps used are similar to that used to arrive at % P20S' Hence: and as we know, if the aahing is done painstakingly the resulting ash is completely white. In this state the P and K of the plant tissue are completely oxidised to PZOS and K 2 0 respectively. The early agricultural chemists in their efforts to discover the scientific basis of plant nutrition followed this path of ashing the plant tissue and reporting the results in oxide forms.The oxides of course, are unstable and change into H3P04 and KOH as soon as they come in contact with the moisture from the atmosphere. However, this practice continued for a long time and when the fertilizer industry developed , the industry taking a cue from the agricultural chemists adopted the practice of reporting their products on the basis of per cent oxides of P or K.Later, when other scientists demonstrated that plants absorb their P from •the soil eitheir as H Z PO-4 or HP0 2 -4 and K as K+ the idea of reporting these nutrients in fertilizer as P20S and K 2 0 became unnecessary. However, the practice has continued. In recent years, scientific societies and journals have adopted the practice of reporting their data on % P and % K basis. But the industry has not switched over to this practice. There are several reasons for this, among them the commercially profit oriented attractive ideas that if you sell your single superphosphate declaring that it has 18% P20S instead of mere 7.74% P you arc likely to sell more.A logical question is '~hy then N continues to be reported both by the scientists and fertilizer industry as N? The answer to this question is that N forms five oxides ; if you start from N2~ its oxidation state is zero. fu3 you proceed sequentially, you would obtain N l 2+00 at stage or since, 46kg N is available from lOOkg urea ; therefore, lkg N is available from? Therefore, 42kg N is available from?= 42 X 1 X 100 46 or 9l.30kg urea is required for 1 ha.Write down the Tequirements on per ha basis of fertilizers.Requirement for the plot:Plot size is 1 ha (or 0. Given the following fertilizer materials, urea, double superphosphate and muriate of potash. Calculate how much of the plant nutrient is required for making 2000kg of the fertilizer with a grade of 14-14-14, and how much of each of the fertilizing materials will be needed to make the mi~ure?One hectare furrow slice of normal agricultural 5011 weighs about 2, 240,000k of soil. So if one has soil weighing lOkg in a pot (the weight of the pot is excluded), it can be computed as follows on a per hectare basis : 10 = 0.OOO004464ha 2,240,000From here one can follow the same procedure as in example one bearing In mind that the final weight to be weighed will be in grams or miligrams so that one can have figures which are manageble.When a fertilizer treatment requires material containing more than one element , it is likely that an incomplete or a complete fertilizer will be used. These materials may be weighed and applied separately, or they may be blended and the mixture applied to the soil. The latter procedure is more convenient and facilitates field application, especially in large mechanized farms.However, not all fertilizer materials can be mixed. For example, strong basic materials, such as lime, should not be mixed with urea or the nitrogen may be lost as ammonia. It should also be understood that fertilizers of greatly different particle size should not be mixed as these tend to separate during handling.If mixture weighs more than 75kg, it should be prepared in ewo or more batches, as it is difficult to achieve uniform blending of large quantity.Spread out the materials in thin layers, one above the other, over a smooth, clean surface. Two men with shovels will take positions facing one another on either side of the fertilizer. Each simultaneously raises a shovel full of materials and pass the contents to meet the content of the shovel. This mixing action is continued, and the two men occasionally change their positions, until it is impossible to distinguish streak of individual materials in the mixture.For less than lOkg, one man can easily accomplish the above mixing procedure with his hands or by shaking the materials in a bag.Micronutrients which are required in very small amounts need special treatment to ensure uniform spread. In such circumstances they should be mixed with a major fertilizer. Where this is not possible, the small quantity of fertilizer should be mixed with sand so that enough volume is obtained which can then be spread in the field uniformly.With pot experiments in the green house 9 uniform spread of the fertilizer c be achieved by dissolving the fertilizer in water and then spray the dissolved fertilizer into a rotary mixer containing the soil or apply it through the irrigation water.  Micronutrients deficiencies should he correct~d as early as possible.even before symptoms of nutrient starvation are seen. For maximum 80il application response, early application of eeded micr nutrients in cornbination with nitrogen source give the best resul ti'i n.nite and Col] ins.1976).7.8.1 Boron: The first s;mptom:; of horon deficiency occur in the cells and can not be seen by the oar--ed eye. Tn maize, boron deficit'ncy caliSE'S disintegration of corn ear buds and affects pollen grains in the very early stages of grot-7th. The tassels are also affected when they are 1n the primary stage in the plant (30cm height) before they emerge.Low soil moisture levels reduce boron availability. For this reason.boron deficiency is most frequent under drought conditions and can be corrected by the application of a suitable quantity of sodium borate. Micronutrients deficiencies should be corrected as early as possible, even before symptoms of nutrient starvation are seen. For maximum soil application response, early application of needed micronutrients in combination with nitrogen source give the best results (White and Collins 197~).The first symptoms of boron deficiency occur in the ce11s and can not be seen by the naked eye. In maize, boron deficiency causes disintegration of corn ear buds and affects pollen grains in the very early stages of growth. The tassels are also affected \"Then they are in the primary stage in the plant (30cm heigth) before they emerge.Low soil moisture levels reduce boron availability. For this reason, boron deficiency is most frequent under drought conditions and can be corrected by the application of a suitable quantity of sodium borate. Application rat~s to correct copper deficiencies increase with decreasing solubility of the source and increasing soil organic matter. These applications cen be made to the foliage ot soil. Coppet reacts with orgartic matter farming compounds which may not he ~ediately available to plants. Fbr this reasbn annual applications are usually necessary on muck soils. On mineral 80ils, copper toxicity to plants can be a problem if applications in fertilizer or fungicide are excessive.Chelated copper sources may be about five t~es as effective as inorganic salts such as copper sulphate. Information on individual sources and local conditions is necessary to determine proper application rates.There are canplications in mixing. Copper mayor may not be improved when incorporated into granulated fertilizers; soluble copper sulphate reacts to form insoluble phosphates in ammonium phosphate fluids; and some organic sources form sludge -like precipitates in ammonium polyphosphate solutions.Instructions frem suppliers of the materials used should be followed carefully. Zinc deficiency shows up very clearly in maize and in fac t maize is used as an index plant for zinc deficiency. Under severe deficiency symptoms, ~he upper leaves turn white at the base of the leaf, and the ~1hite progresses upward. Later the whole uppler plant may turn white, leading to the name white bud. Under these conditions the stem is very short and the plant has a bushy app~~rance. When the deficiency is severe, many of the maize plants die on reaching a heigth of 30-40cm.In cases of milder deficiency the ba~e of ~he upper leaves becomes whitish green and there are white stripes between margins on the upper leaves.Frequently the lower leaves turn purple and die.Early 5011 and foliage applications of zinc can give large yield increases ~ere deficiencies occur. Pre-plant applications of zinc are effective for crops such as corn or beans where defic4~ exists. In severe deficiency cases, both soil and foliar applications may be needed. Weed control methods that are applicable to maize are :1. Land Preparation.There are two main objectives in land preparation. The first is to provide good physical conditions for the germination and subsequent establishment of the crop. The second is to provide weed-free conditions at the tllne of planting.An alternative to conventional land preparation tn maize is no-tillage.Effective no-tillage practice assumes that the farmer will use a non-selective, non-residual herbicide along with a residua l herbicide that is select ive for the maize crop.This method is a practical and efficient method of elimina ting weeds within the row and hills of crops in which weeds will be difficult to reach with the hoe or other cultivation implements. It is best for annual and simple perennials. This weed control method usually requires that the fa~er waits until the weeds are large enough so that they can be firmly held and pulled out.The disadvantage of this method is that the weeds may have caused damage to the crop through competition by the time they are old enough to be hand-pulled.Only limited areas can be weeded by this method.This is the most widely used method of weed control in the developing countries. It is a faster operation than hand weeding. Like hand weeding however, its use is moet economical in small hectarage only. The risk of mechanical damage to crop roots is high with hoeing. Hoe weeding ~ice, 14 and 28 days after planting will produce yields as high as those that can be obtained by weeding throughout the life cycle of the crop.This method of weed control comprises all measures taken to hinder the introduction and spread of weeds. It is often the most practical means of controlling weeds. Preventive weed control involves: (1) making sure that weeds are not carried into an area along with contaminated seed or machinery ~(2) preventing weeds in an area from going to seed, and (3) preventing the spread of perennial weeds which reproduce vegetatively.Each crop has its own characteristic weeds and by growing the same crop in the same piece of land every year, th~se weeds tend to increase in number.By rotating the crops, the possibility of a build up of a certain weed species is greatly reduced and the rotation should be planned eo that no group of weeds has a possibility of undisturbed development. In addition, the correct sequence of crops may result in an increased vigour of the different crops in the cycle.11aize should be planted at optimum inter-and '-ntrn--r(1w spacing in order to give maximum competition to weeds. The effect of plant density on weed growth will depend to a great extent on the crop variety and its growth habit.Herbicides are now used for weed control in some countries. Only a limited area is presently treated with herbicides in Nigeria. Chemical weed control offers the most practical, effective, and economic means of reducing crop losses and production costs.The trend in world consumption of herbicides is shown in Table B.l (ii) Non-selective herbicides: These herbicides will indiscriminately kill all vegetation to which they are applied. They are also known as total herbicides e.g. amitrol.8.1.4. Herbicide formulations:Herbicides are usually applied at such low dosages that they must be combined with a liquid or solid carrier in order to be evenly distributed during application. The common formulations are:1. Water soluble herbicides: These are inorganic herbicides and salts of some organic herbicides tr~t are soluble in water. They are sold as water soluble ~oncentrates e.g. amitro1 or as water soluble powder e.g. dalapon.Some herbicides which are insoluble in water may be dissolved in oil, or other organic solvent together with a suitable emulsifying agent to form an Emulsifiable concentrate. lfuen added to water they form emulsions commonly of the oil-in~ater type e.g. alachlor (Lasso), and metalachlor (Dual).These materials consist of a finely divided solid herbicide, an inert diluent such as clay, and dispersing agents. These form suspensions when mixed with water. For some wettable powders 9 constant agitation of the suspension is necessary to prevent the particles from settling out. This type of formulation is used. when the herbicide is almost insoluble in lV'ater, oil, or other organic solvents, e.g. atrazine (Gesaprim 80 WP).Granular formulations vary in shape and size and are usually prepared by spraying a solution of the herbicide onto a pre-formed granular carrier. They hllve the advantae e of not requirin~ water for application.They are however not adapted to foliage treatment and sOOle materials are easily moved by wind or water e.g. Atrazine/Lasso 4G.-154 -5. Fl~lab1e liquid: These consist of a finely divided powder suspended in au oil base. They have advantage over wettable 'Powder in that there is little or no risk of the solid herbicide particles settling out . e.g. Atrazine (Astrex 4L).8.1.5 : Herbicides used for weed control in maize :Several herbicides have over the years been identified for weed control in maize on a range of ecologies. Those that have consistently given good weed control under the humid and sub-humid tropical conditions are as follows :(1) Paraquat (Grammoxone) : This is a non-selective herbicide with fastacting action applied postmergence to weeds. It has no residual action. Applying the herbicide at sunset appears to improve its activity. It can be used with a shield as a directed spray for postemergence weed control in maize. Average to good weed control should be obtained with two applications during the first month of cro~ growth. Weeds within the row will have to be removed by hand or hoe.By far . its most important use in maize is for no-tillage weed control.However, perennials are not controlled.(2) G1yphosate (Roundup) ; I t is a translocated. non-selective herbicide with practically no residual problem . It is best used for no-tillage weed control especially for control of a wide range of perennial weeds. It is therefore important that label information on any herricide be strictly followed in order to ensure the safety of the crop and applicator.(v) The fa~er is accustomed to bending down and will continue to do so until a better method is presented to him (it must reouire less energy) .Simple hand tools such as the hoe are effective and cheap for the farmer and are easily integrated into his farming system. Other tools such as planters and mechanized tillers are usually very cos tly to the farmer. t<1ehave to look fora.iargeincrease in a man's production when using a new tool.(The higher investment cost requires a greater increase in production). This becomes very difficult as the selective herbicides are not available to allow him to continue his present intercropping system or to follow one crop with another, (b) it is economical, (c) varying rates of application are not going to adversely affect his production.(ii) The introduction of a mechanical hand pushed planter: This is not acceptable to the present system of farming as a mechanically pushed planter is going to plant crops more closely together in the row than is traditionally practiced. Developing the planter to have wide spacing will be more sostly.Hand planting at wide spacing may be as fast as the machine and use less human energy. A new planter should only be designed to fit into a new system which adapts itself to mechanical planting.The present system of no-tillage as practiced at IITA is a ne~l system for the small farmer. Farmers in the humid and sub-humid tropics have' practiced no-tillag e for many years. However, the methods of achieving no-tillage are very different because there is no weeding ; ,?lanting is done in r~1S with 25crn spacing ; herbicides are used to kill weeds and fertilizers are used.The advantages for no-tillage for the small farmer are :(i) Conservation of human energy (ii) Increase the hectares operated by the farmer (iii) Conservation of the soil What is No-tillage ;With the system of no-tillage, the soil is not disturbed at all. Weeds are controlled with herbicides ; seeds are planted in small holes in the ground.If weed growth is heavy before planting it may need to be cut down. Good maize germination can be achieved through 6 tons of dry mai.ze stovers per hectare. With good weed control no hand weeding is usually necessary except for occasional pulling of a few weeds which are not controlled by the herbicides.If the herbicide is the wrong one or applied at the wrong time or is applied at the wrong rate then a lot of hand weeding will have to be done and the system is partially defeated as to reduction of human energy and increased hectares operated.Tools for no-til1age~ All of these sprayers have one problem in common : the feet of the operator are constantly in the chemical. All but one of the sprayers spray in front of the operator and he immediately walks through the sprayed vegetation with his bare feet. One CDA sprayer is held behind the operator but if he has a r easonable walking stride the back of his foot will be sprayed.It is nec essary to develop a boom s prayer for the small scale farmer , as it increases his rate of work as well as reduces the number of his srray misses due to insufficient overlaping. This could be a 4 meter boom carried behind the operator attach ed to the sprayer eliminating walking through sprayed surface. A long boom carried by two men could also be used. This does not eliminate contamination of the feet. The advantage of this type of boom is that a more constant height above the surface being sprayed can be achieved whereas a boom sprayer at the back of the operator will vary in height depending on the position the operator takes. If he leans forward the boom b ecomes higher , if he leans backward it w11l become lower. The operator's position will vary with the fullness of the sprayer on his back. The purpose of spraying is to control pests and diseases. In order to control pests and siseases with a sprayer a certain amount of accuracy is necessary.(i) Correct rate : The correct rate of application is necessary. The correct rate will save money, save time , control pests. increase revenue from the crop and minimize pollution.(ii) Even application: The spray needs to be applied evenly to the target.For er.ample uneven applications of herbic ide will cause vTeeds to be controlled only where enough herbicide was applied. To do accurate work the spraying equipment nee~to be maintained in good condition in order that (a) the operator dosen ' t get contaminated (b) work gets done when it is needed (c) the life of equipment is increased.(iii) Factors responsible for incorrect rate and uneven application~ The major problem in the field is applying a chemical at a wrong rate.The reasons for this are: (f) Practical Calibration :-74 liters X 2.5 liters ha (i) Put a small amount of water into the spray tank and spray it out.There will be some water left in the bottom of most sprayers.(ii) Now add 5 liters of water to the tank (You may wis h to fill the tanks this is actually a better way).(iii) S tart spraying at a marked spot, t.1alk at the pace to be used when actually spraying, keep walking until the total 51iters or full tank is used up.(iv) Heasure distance walked (ster 3 and 4 can be done by placing 2 stakes sOm apart and walking back and forth until the water is all used up.The last distance can be estimated as to what part of sOm it is.(v) 1'1ultiply this distance by the effective spray width. This will give  The reason the CDA sprayer is important to the small farmer is that it is able to apply lower volumes of liquid and still get effective pest control. This is made possible by having the droplet size kept constant thus the chemical is distributed evenly over total surface. With a conventional high volume sprayer most of the volume of liquid is in droplets of around 500}.lm. 1:.fuen 40 litre per hectare is applied there will be one droplet for every two em 2 of the hectare while with a 20~m droplet with the same application rate there will be 9.S droplets per crn 2 of the hectare.Both will be applying the same amount of active ingredients but the 20~m droplet will have a better distribution of chemical over the surface.   (ii)-176 -When spray man reaches position P2 he moves stake C to position P6 leaving the string loose and at an angle across the field and returns to stake D at P3 to spray path P3 -P 4 •When spray man reaches position P4 he moves stake A to Ps and pulls the string straight so there is a straight line betweenPs and P6 then he moves stake ~ to Pa leaving the string loose then he returns to Ps and sprays Ps -P6'(iii) When spray man reache~ P 6 he moves stake D at position P3 to P7' pulls the string straight between P7 and P8 and then moves stake at P6 to PlO leaving it loose.After the sprayer has reached stake C there will always be one rope crossed over the other. When the ropes are lined up for spraying they must be pulled into a straight line between the two stakes. When the string is left at an angle across the field it aoes not matter whether it is straight or not.All stakes need to be pressed into the ground firmly enou~h so they won't be pulled out when moving the string and pulling it into 8. straight line from the opposite end of the field. This procedure is time consuming but is the most accurate procedure to follow.(b) The ranging rod method:This method allows longer fields to be done. Stakes should be placed down the field at regular intervals of approximately 30m or less (see It is best to make a habit of putting most of the required water i n the spray tank before adding the chemical and then finish filling the las t little bit with water. This avoids getting the concentrated chemical in the pump. If the first spray to come out of the nozzle after filling is highly concentrated chemical , the first area sprayed will be over dosed as well as leaving the rest of the tank with an improper amount of chemical in it. Any spilled chemical should be washed off hands outside of sprayer and outside of chemical bottle (do not wash up near a \"later supply).Granular applicators or spreaders are used for applying granular herbicide formulations. All granular applicators cDnsist essentially of a hopper (tank), a granular dispensing mechanism (distributor) , and a s~out (nozzle). In hand-operated models, the distributor is hand cranked while a set of gears operate the tractor mounted models. The hand operated applicators are generally light weight with a hand crank to activate the spreader.The hopper is made of corrosionoooproof materials. (v) Operate the pump to circulate the detergent solution through the sprayer ~ then flush it out through t he spray nozzle.When the season's operation is over, follow through with the cleaning operations listed above and finally rinse sprayer with a light oil to protect the metal parts from corrosion. Remove and store nozzle tips, strainers and screens in light oil. A sprayer will give many years of trouble-free service if properly handled and maintained.Phenoxy herbicides e.g. 2~ 4-0 are dlfficult to clean from sprayers.Ideally, use a separate. sprayer for spraying them but ~vhen this is not possible, rinse the sprayer thoroughly following the procedure outlined above.Fill-the sprayer with a mixture of water and a strong detergent (use household ammonia if available). Circulate this solution throughout the sprayer and let stand overnight. Then drain completely and rinse with water. To ensure that the pheno~ herbicide is completely removed from sprayer, fill the spray tank with water and spray a few seedlings of tomato or beans. If no injury (epinasty) develops within two days~ the equipment is safe for further use.Empty h erbicide containers should be saf e ly dispos ed of immediately in a way that will not pose any hazard to man, animals or valuable plants.Container disposal is accomplished by fire or burial.Do not leave empty paper containers lying about as they may be blown away and end up in the wrong locations. Burn empty paper packages and cartons unless an instruction not to do so is stated on the pacY~ge. Bury the ashes. Fumes from burning pesticides could be poisonous. Inhalation should therefore be avoided. Punch holes in other containers, f latten and then bury them deep in locations where the possibility of contaninating a water supply is minimal. Glass containers should be broken and then buried. (vi) After sprayin~ the operator's clothes should be taken off. They should not be worn again until th ey are washed ; be careful not to wash near a water supply.(vii) Always keep the sprayer clean.(viii) Always have clean water in the field when s?raying. This is to wash out the eyes if chemical gets splashed into theY!! by accident.(ix) Always store chemicals in clearly marked containers out of reach of children including while working in the field. (xi) Wash the sprayer with soap and water after use.(xii) Do not use pesticide containers to store any food or drink. Some pesticides are very difficult to clean out completely.It is not recommended to spray insecticides on crops with a sprayer which has been used for herbicides. Often the residual herbici~e in the tan¥. and pump will damage the crop.8.3 Planting:The objective of a planter is to plac e good seed in the ground, at 2 correct depth and spacing, with soil placed around the seed in such a fashion that the seeds will germinate. Planting for the small farmer has not generally been a nroblem. He has been able to get this joh done in a relatively short time in comparison to land preparation and weeding.To achieve successful planting, farmers have developed many simple methods which work under their conditions. The most cotrmlon are the stick and rnachette. The stick or machette are used to punch a hole in the ground, then the seeds are dropped into the hole and covered by pushing soil with the foot. When using these tools the farmers are planting at wide spacing, about O.75m, in the row and the planting operation moves along rapidly.Often this planting is done on ridges or heaps along with other crops.The No-tillage mono-cropping package for maize requires that maize be planted in rows more closely spaced -approxbnately 25cm in the row. This slows down the rate of planting when using the stick or machette. So a planter has been develop~ to plant maize and other crops such as rice and  The RIP is a simple machine but yet it may he a complicated machine for a small farmer. Figure 8.8 shows the IITA Rolling Injection Planter.(i) The main wheel which holds the 6 openers on its outside edg~ and has guides inside it to direct the seeds to the openers (~ctually the guides are extensions of the openers). It also has a bushing on it which drives the seed metering device.(ii) The openers 9 6 in number, consist of a stationary Jaw and a moving jaw. The moving jaw has an extension on it which hits the ground as the planter moves fonvard and forces the jaws to separate from the stationary jaws while it is on the ground. This movement makes a hole in which the seed is dropped.(iii) Hopper, this holds the seeds while planting.(iv) Metering devices. This is in the bottom of the booper and consist~ Operation:Place seed in the hopper and use either ranging rods or a string to make straight lines. Use the same procedure as for spraying. The planter should never be pulled backwards (not even 3cm) when it is on the ground.This causes the openers to plug. ~~ile operati~ the operator should watch for openers which are plugged with soil. It does happen and it is easy to clean. If one opener continues to plug all the time it probably is not moving freely due to small stones or soil up inside. Check that all openers are moving freely, if no~ clean them. If they still do not move freely then it is probably bent. Tap lightly with a hammer to straighten.Be sure the openers are penetrating the soil and the right number of seeds are being placed in the holes. The number of seeds ~oJill not be exact.With ungraded seeds i t is impossible to get good seed metering. It 'Jill be necessary to plant more than is needed with ungraded seeds. Check the cetering roll periodically to see if any hole has seeds stuck in it that won't drop out.To turn at the end of the row, put the planter in transport \"osition.The forward speed of overation should not exceed 3.5 kph (54m/min -0.9 m/sec.). If higher speeds are used the seeds will be left on the surface of the ground. shelling with low capital inVestment. The machines increase in cost if they are not utilized sufficiently. The amount of human energy to shell 200kg per hour with a hand cranked sheller is high, at least two men will be needed to operate the sheller at this rate. It has been found that with the bag and stick, shelling can be doubled 1f a sieve 1s added to separate the cobs from the maize after beati~ A small bench sheller has been developed at II~. which is simple to manufacture. This sheller can replace hand shelling when small quantities of maize are to he snelled.Reference: Ray Nijewardene(l981): Techniques and tools:Conservation Farming for small farmers 1n the humid tropics. A selection intensity of five to ten percent is usual. From the selected ears three sets of balanced composites are developed. one for planting the selection block for the next cycle of selection, the second for estimating the gains achieved, and one as a reserve. A balanced composite is built by bulking equal numbers (not weigh~) of seeds from each of the s elected ears. Table 9.1 records the gains reported in mass selection. Mass selection operates primarily on additive and additive X additive components of genetic vari~nce, with continued selection it is expected that -total variance, and in particular, the additive component, will be greatly (viii) Selection of one character at a time is likely to give better result s .A serious drawback in mass selection schemes is that the selected populations are invariably later in maturity; and at least part of the improvement reported is through later maturing genotypes. This can be avoided if late plants are rogued out at flowering. Lonnquist (1967) observed, however, that fiv cycles of selection for prolificacy had resulted in a much smaller shift in maturity than selection for ear .e~ht.The advantages of the mass selection approach depend somewhat upon the situation (genetically and objectively) in which the breeder finds himself.Lack of adequate genetic variability can be rather easily handled. From the breeding standpoint the system may not appeal to those fully occupied with standard methods of developing hybrids, but it would be of value under any program of long range planning. The more obvious advantages are as follows :(  treated as a major influence may also be considered to consist of a complex of submacroenvironmental effects at a given location. Some control over these latter variations can be realized by subdividing the area into a series of subblocks and practicing selection within each unit.As shown in the model. the phenotypic differences on which selections are made are likely to be the result of interaction effects of environment with particular genotypes selected as much as that due to genetic differences of the type and degree sought. In other words, phenotypic differences are no garantee of genotypic differences. This would be particularly true after a few generations of effective selection or in a population where additive genetic variance is somewhat limited. The problems associated with differentiation of genotype differences can be overcome in varying degrees de~ending partly on the breederis willingness to lengthen the generation interval through the use of progeny evaluation. So plant, it is suggested that four to six crosses,be produced within each pair of Sl progenies. This affords selection for yield within Sl progenies, some of which may be due to favourable epistatic combinations.A relatively low selection intensity (30 to 50i.) is recommended. Multiple convergence: Multiple convergence has been defined as the convergence of several small streams of germplasm as tributaries to one large stream for the improvement of inbred lines and their use in crosses. This method utilizes various divergent sources to improve the lines~ such as(C X A 5 ) X (D X A 5 ) etc.where C and D are new sources available to improve the inbred line A.Inbred lines in early generations still possess considerable variability. Careful selection in advanced generatio even though it would :improve uniformity may lead to loss of vigour. Maintenance of lines through sib-pollination would help to retain adequate vigour.Sister line crosses: In the production of single cross hybrids. each line (particularly the female parent) is mated with a closely related sister line to improve its vigour and productivity.Backcrossing breeding procedures:The general plan for a backcross breeding program can be outlined as Procedure (ii) is repeated.(iv) The fourth s fifth s and sixth backcrosses ar e made in succession s with an F2 and F3 being grrn~n after the sixth backcross and intensive selection being practiced for the character being transfered and for the plant type of the recurrent parent.(v) A number of lines, homozygous for the character from parent B and as similar as possible to the recurrent parent, are bulked, increased and released for commercial production.","tokenCount":"25221"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"33369509d4b9172ca33de3333a27656b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/82bb4871-5f20-4074-beef-7a72b54cab10/retrieve","id":"2094062970"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d0dbf2da-92d1-4046-91c2-ac778fdf6cd6","pagecount":"146","content":"Bioversity International is an independent international scientific organization that seeks to improve the wellbeing of present and future generations of people by enhancing conservation and the deployment of agricultural biodiversity on farms and in forests. It is one of 15 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of public and private members who support efforts to mobilize cutting-edge science to reduce hunger and poverty, improve human nutrition and health, and protect the environment. Bioversity has its headquarters in Maccarese, near Rome, Italy, with offices in more than 20 other countries worldwide. The Institute operates through four programmes: Diversity for Livelihoods, Understanding and Managing Biodiversity, Global Partnerships, and Commodities for Livelihoods.The international status of Bioversity is conferred under an Establishment Agreement which, by January 2006, had been signed by the Governments of Algeria,Elisabeth Kallay, Director of the Research Institute for Fruitgrowing and Ornamentals, Budapest, welcomed participants at the sixth meeting of the ECP/GR 1 Working Group on Prunus to the Institute. She explained that the Institute is 50 years old and has particular experience of fruit and tree breeding and genetic resources conservation, for example in sweet and sour cherries, and walnut. Other work on fruit includes the distribution of virusfree propagating material, advising growers on the choice of sites, and nutrition, storage and physiology. There are offices and a laboratory at Budapest and a research farm with 600 ha at Erd, 13 km away from the Institute, where the stone fruit collections are located. E. Kallay concluded by introducing several colleagues.Françoise Dosba, Chair of the Working Group, thanked E. Kallay and explained that on this occasion, Lorenzo Maggioni, ECP/GR Coordinator, was unable to attend. She asked the participants to introduce themselves. For the benefit of new members, F. Dosba then briefly introduced the recent activities of the Working Group by reporting on the extraordinary meeting of the ECP/GR Working Group on Prunus and the final coordination meeting of the EU project GEN RES 61 that was held in Gembloux in 2000, in conjunction with the Fruit Network Coordinating Group. An account had been presented of the successful GEN RES 61 project on Prunus genetic resources which had been funded by the EU and by ECP/GR for Community and non-Community countries respectively. It was the first example of such a jointly funded project. An update on Internet access to the European Prunus Database (EPDB) had been presented and opportunities for the integration of molecular markers had been discussed. The establishment of a Decentralized European Prunus Collection (DEPC) had been advocated, and the possibilities for amalgamating with the Malus/Pyrus Working Group and for more interactions with the Noble Hardwood Network of the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) had been raised. Information about the Working Group had been presented in posters and oral presentations at various meetings. The report of GEN RES 61 was submitted in 2000 and a paper has been published. 2  F. Dosba outlined the programme of the meeting. She explained that it would focus on updates of the status of national collections, improved accessibility to the EPDB, the constitution of the DEPC and the opportunities within the new EU programme on genetic resources.Zsuzsanna Békefi (Hungary), Edite Kaufmane (Latvia), Vladislav Ognjanov (Serbia and Montenegro) and Costas Gregoriou (Cyprus) gave informative reports on recent activities in their countries concerning conservation, collecting, evaluation or characterization of Prunus genetic resources (see Part III).Points arising from these presentations included the unreliable performance of some reference cultivars, for example with respect to flowering time, and the inadequate winter hardiness of some reference cultivars in Northern Europe.A list of queries to be developed for the database was proposed by A. Zanetto and circulated so that the participants could add more. The agreed revised list was as follows:• Accessions corresponding to any common descriptors A new structure for a common dynamic database for different genetic resources networks was currently under development in France. The advantage was that any new descriptors such as molecular markers could be incorporated immediately. Trials would be conducted soon on the French Prunus National Collection. If the ECP/GR Working Group on Prunus wishes, it can be used for the EPDB.The question of compatibility with EURISCO, the European Internet Search Catalogue, was raised by Fabrizio Grassi. Marc Lateur explained that EURISCO searches for passport data and the EPDB uses standard descriptors. A. Zanetto will investigate whether there may be a problem.There was discussion about the inclusion of provisional names for unidentified accessions, but it was not thought necessary to include a provisional name as a descriptor. It was noted that the existing crop-types do not explicitly deal with the Padus and Laurocerasus groups of species.A paper edition of the catalogue had been planned during the previous meeting. The catalogue would include accessions originating from Europe and belonging to the Decentralized European Prunus Collection. The accessions to be included should at least have passport data; so it is important that curators provide these. Funding would be needed to publish the catalogue. The response to the next call for proposals for the new EU Regulation for Genetic Resources should include the publication of the catalogue.Ken Tobutt gave a brief account of opportunities for using primers for microsatellites and for incompatibility (S) alleles for characterizing Prunus collections (see also p. 101). F. Dosba drew attention to work establishing syntony between the genomes of different Prunus species and possibilities of using sequence information from homologous sequences for exploiting Prunus genetic resources. In a brief discussion it was agreed that the incorporation of molecular data into the European Prunus Database would be an appropriate topic for the next meeting.F. Dosba made a presentation on the plans for establishing a DEPC, a subject that may find favour with the future European Union genetic resources call. The document \"Towards a definition and implementation of European Prunus Collection\" (revised October 2001), which had previously been endorsed by the Prunus Working Group, had been circulated in advance of the meeting. Suggestions for revisions were invited, especially from new members of the Working Group.It was agreed that the preamble should state that, in principle, each country is responsible for its own genetic resources. There was considerable discussion concerning the definition of material that would be eligible for the DEPC and several clarifications were agreed. A revision to the process by which the database manager analyzes the offers of material was agreed. A flexible expert group comprising the Chair, the Database Manager and approximately three other members will prepare lists of European accessions for decisions by the Working Group. A short section on the responsibilities of the ECP/GR Prunus Working Group was added (see Appendix I,p. 112).Rafael Socias i Company gave a short account of the use of the Spanish almond, peach and apricot collections in breeding programmes. Germplasm from overseas provide the sources of late blooming and self-compatibility in almond and Sharka resistance in apricot. However, local cultivars were important, e.g. in breeding for fruit quality in apricot. The Spanish genebank curators tended to be breeders as well, which facilitates the use of the genetic resources.F. Dosba stressed the importance of ensuring availability of genetic resources. R. Socias i Company explained that he provided more material to other researchers than to breeders. It was recognized that the benefits of genetic resources could not be measured just in terms of numbers of samples distributed. Markus Kellerhals commented that European stone-fruit breeding programmes are diminishing. F. Dosba pointed out that more private organizations are becoming involved in fruit breeding. M. Kellerhals thought that integrating with private breeders would be an important challenge for curators in future years.M. Kellerhals drew attention to the FAO/IPGRI guidelines on the transfer of stone-fruit material published in 1996 3 which detailed the various pests and diseases of phytosanitary concern. In general, material free of quarantine pests and diseases could be distributed within EU countries with a plant passport and between EU and non-EU European countries with a phytosanitary certificate. \"Problem materials\" might need quarantine. In discussion it was pointed out that some US collections were virus-free; however it was thought unrealistic to aim for complete freedom from pests and diseases in the European Prunus Collection.F. Grassi explained that the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognized the sovereign rights of states over their natural resources. One of the objectives of the Convention was \"the fair and equitable sharing of the benefit arising out of the utilization of genetic resources\". More recently the Bonn guidelines on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefit arising out of their use, voluntary in nature, had been developed and approved by the VI th Conference of the Parties to the CBD. These had been circulated by ECP/GR to members in advance of the meeting. The guidelines established various principles for prior informed consent, including legal certainty, transparency and minimal cost. Mutually agreed terms should cover monetary and non-monetary benefits, e.g. royalties and capacity building respectively.The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) was approved in November 2001 by the FAO Conference. The Treaty, once it enters into force, will establish a multilateral system of facilitated access and benefit-sharing limited to the listed material included in Annex I of the Treaty, which does not include Prunus. In addition, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) had established the intergovernmental committee on intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore. Regarding access and benefit-sharing, the committee would discuss the issues linked to the role of intellectual property, in particular contractual agreements for access to genetic resources.B. De Cuyper gave a comprehensive account of his work on the improvement of wild cherry in Flanders (see also pp. 105-106). In particular, he was concentrating on the need for new clonal seed orchards while paying attention to the need to maintain genetic diversity. The analysis of incompatibility alleles using PCR primers was proving very informative in the seed orchards.F. Dosba made a presentation concerning the European Union forthcoming calls for GEN RES-2 and circulated a recent draft. The draft directive indicated a budget of 7 to 10 million €, running from 2003 to 2006, of which 40% is intended for crops and 10% for forestry. Countries about to join the EU would be eligible from 2005. The draft directive specifically encouraged links with ECP/GR and EUFORGEN. Eligible actions were those on genetic resources taking place within Europe and related to crops of economic value; in situ as well ex situ activities are encouraged. No theoretical research can be undertaken. The EU would provide only 50% of the funds.F. Dosba drew attention to possible components of a proposal that could be submitted to develop the DEPC in collaboration with ECP/GR. These included characterization and evaluation of sanitary status, evaluation of descriptors including molecular markers, rationalization with a view to establishing a core collection, and the acquisition and collecting of additional genetic resources. She stressed that the proposal would need to specify its deliverables.In the discussion that followed F. Grassi said the objectives should differ from those of GEN RES 61, and should perhaps emphasize better care for the environment and added value. R. Socias i Company suggested that pest and disease resistance might be a good focus. It was agreed that a small task force comprising F. Grassi, R. Socias i Company, M. Lateur and perhaps another expert should look into the possibility of a proposal. They would seek ideas from members of the group by October 2003 and propose a brief paper for circulation to members of the Working Group by December 2003. Funds could be sought for the task force to meet in December 2003.Perspectives for the future of the Working Group on Prunus F. Grassi pointed out the desirability of preparing a workplan. It was agreed that K. Tobutt would circulate a draft action plan and an agenda for the next meeting, inviting suggestions and comments from members of the Prunus Working Group. Actions proposed for the next five years were the following:• To provide half-page updates on national collections for the meeting report;• To develop the European Prunus Database by checking and revising datasets and preparing lists of accessions to be considered for inclusion in the Decentralized European Prunus Collection; • To explore possibilities for funding from the next EC call on genetic resources, perhaps in collaboration with the Malus/Pyrus Working Group, to allow, e.g., development of database, further characterization, rationalization and publication of a catalogue; • To send contributions to the editor of the Prunus Genetic Resources Newsletter; • To meet again, in Cyprus, in order to endorse the workplan, review progress, share out responsibilities and discuss incorporation of molecular markers into the database.The Group would ask the ECP/GR Secretariat about the possibility of organizing an annual (or biennial) meeting in order to increase the efficiency of the Prunus Working Group. An interval of three years was thought too long for good progress and interaction between partners. C. Gregoriou offered to host the next meeting in Cyprus, subject to the agreement of the Cyprus government.Ken Tobutt was proposed by Françoise Dosba to be the new Chair and accepted by all the participants. Daniela Benediková was proposed as Vice-Chair and this was agreed. F. Dosba thanked the Research Institute for Fruitgrowing and Ornamentals for the good organization of the meeting and all the members for their efficient participation. K. Tobutt thanked F. Dosba on behalf of the Working Group for all her hard work over the past ten years.Costas Gregoriou (Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), Nicosia, Cyprus), opened the meeting by welcoming all the participants to Cyprus for the Seventh Meeting of the ECP/GR Working Group on Prunus, including the observer representing European non-governmental organizations (NGOs).Although Cyprus has been a member of ECP/GR since its foundation in 1980, this was the first time that a meeting of the Programme has been hosted in this country. The ARI participates in the ECP/GR Cereals Network (Barley and Wheat Working Groups) and in the Fruit Network (Prunus and Vitis WGs).C. Gregoriou explained that the importance of agriculture in Cyprus had gradually declined, due to reasons such as severe shortages of water, excessive land fragmentation and severe competition from tourism for scarce fertile land and labour. However, Cyprus continues to ascribe great importance to agriculture, not only for its contribution to the economy but for its major roles in social development, the preservation of cultural identity and the improvement of the natural environment.Thanks to the diversity of topography and climate, a wide range of microclimatic conditions exist which permit a diversified crop production. In the central plain the main crops are wheat and barley grown under winter rainfall. Potatoes, vegetables, legumes and fodder crops are widely distributed over the island, while citrus orchards are generally concentrated along the coasts. In narrow valleys at higher elevations in the Troodos mountains, deciduous fruits, nuts, vines and a wide range of vegetables are grown. In these areas Prunus crops are cultivated. Viticulture is very important in the hilly areas of Paphos and Limassol districts, where the grapes are mainly used for winemaking, while table grapes are grown in the south-west areas near the coast. Bananas are cultivated in the Paphos district.Before concluding, C. Gregoriou suggested that the Working Group should pay tribute to the memory of their former colleague Fabrizio Grassi, and the Group observed a minute's silence.In the hope that the Group's deliberations would be productive and the meeting successful, C. Gregoriou concluded by wishing everybody a pleasant stay in Cyprus.Ken Tobutt, Chair of the Prunus Working Group, thanked the host, C. Gregoriou, and his colleagues and also the ECP/GR Secretariat. As about half of the Working Group members were \"new\" he then outlined what the Group is, why it exists, and how it operates. He explained that he and Daniela Benediková would share the chairing and encouraged all present to take part in the discussions.After brief self-introductions by all the participants (see list in Appendix X, p. 133), the agenda was presented and adopted, with a few rearrangements (see Appendix IX,p. 131).Lorenzo Maggioni described briefly the current status of the ECP/GR Programme. He explained that the ECP/GR had entered its Phase VII (2004VII ( -2008) ) with some modifications made to its structure and mode of operation by the Steering Committee at its last meeting in Izmir, Turkey, in October 2003. 4 The Steering Committee had endorsed four priority areas for Phase VII: 1) Characterization and evaluation (including use of modern technologies); 2) Task sharing; 3) In situ and On-farm conservation; and 4) Documentation and Information. The Steering Committee also requested the Fruit Network Coordinating Group (NCG) to define two priority groups within the Network and to make proposals, in consultation with the Working Groups, for actions on the basis of a budget of about 83 000 euro allocated to the Fruit Network. As a result of this exercise, which was conducted during 2004, the Working Group on Prunus was included among the priority Working Groups for Phase VII. The following use of funds for Prunus activities had been approved:-Ad hoc meeting for EU proposal (Belgium, February 2005) (4200 euro) -Seventh meeting of the Prunus Working Group (Cyprus, December 2005) (18 000 euro) -Network Coordinating Group meeting, Bonn, Germany, March 2006 (different budget) -Fruit Network: ad hoc meeting on microsatellite markers and genotyping (East Malling, UK, December 2006) (9600 euro) -Laboratory production of microsatellite fingerprints of five cultivars from each of 25 countries (3000 euro) -Publication on the details of 10 microsatellites for Prunus (no budget) -Newsletter (2005 and 2007) (no budget) -Ad hoc meeting to resolve synonymy in Prunus cultivars (Brogdale, UK, 2006?) (3200 euro) -Fruit Network ad hoc meeting on in situ and on-farm conservation (2008) (10 400 euro) -Technical leaflets with protocols for in situ and on-farm conservation (2008) (2000 euro) -Printed catalogues of the various crops (2008) (4000 euro) For further information on ECP/GR, the ECP/GR Web site was recommended, where several reference documents are available, including the Network's budget and the Terms of Reference for the ECP/GR constituents. In addition, a specific Web page is dedicated to the Working Group on Prunus and this can be improved with the help of Group members and in line with the needs of the WG.The recent developments of the EURISCO catalogue (http://eurisco.ecpgr.org), including the incorporation of 930 000 accessions' passport data from 32 European countries, and the overall mechanism of data flow in Europe were described. This on-line catalogue of passport data on ex situ collections maintained in Europe meets the CBD obligations to facilitate the exchange of information relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. Moreover, this central catalogue, which is maintained by IPGRI 5 on behalf of ECP/GR, is increasingly offering the possibility to the managers of the Central Crop Databases (CCDBs) to directly download all the relevant crops' passport data in one single operation, rather than having to request data from several curators. To be able to benefit from this opportunity, it is essential that the CCDBs harmonize the codes and states of their passport descriptors with those used by EURISCO (which are largely based on the FAO/IPGRI Multi-crop Passport Descriptors). This does not mean that each CCDB cannot make the specific choice of adopting only some of the EURISCO descriptors and/or adding more descriptors of interest. Since EURISCO is made of data provided by the National Inventory Focal Points, the completeness of the data available from EURISCO depends on the efficiency of data collection within each individual country. A role for the Working Group members, in order to make sure that all Prunus national data be channeled to EURISCO, would be to contact their respective national Focal Points and collaborate on data gathering from all available collections within their country. The full list of National Inventory Focal Points is available from: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/networks/ecpgr/contacts/ecpgr_epgris_np.aspThe recommendation made by the Documentation and Information Network that the CCDBs should harmonize their structure with EURISCO was also reported. Although for the moment it is recommended that the specific CCDBS should continue to be developed in the traditional way (i.e. by gathering all the available data from any available sources), in the medium term it should become possible to download all the necessary passport data from EURISCO and to focus the attention of the CCDBs on characterization and evaluation data and on the analysis of the database in order to offer other services to the users of the specific crop genetic resources.Oral reports were given by representatives of seven countries (Anush Nersesyan, Armenia; Kalju Kask, Estonia; Lars Sekse, Norway; Margarida Oliveira, Portugal; Vladislav Ognjanov, Serbia and Montenegro; Rafael Socias i Company, Spain; and David Szalatnay, Switzerland). The full reports are included in Part III, which also includes all other country reports provided (pp. 27-109).The summary of the presentation on the South East European Development Network (SEEDNet) is given below.V. Ognjanov presented the recent development of SEEDNet, which was established in 2004 for a duration of 10 years and financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Partners in this network are Albania, Croatia, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia F.Y.R., Montenegro, Republika Srpska, Serbia and Slovenia.Activities to be carried out within SEEDNet are: the establishment and management of national plant genetic resources (PGR) programmes; PGR policy development; inventorying, collecting and exchange of PGR; characterization and evaluation of PGR; documentation of information on PGR and traditional knowledge related to plant use; development of infrastructure and the supply of equipment for PGR; conservation ex situ, in situ, in vitro, and on farm; and training, education and the raising of public awareness.The governing body of SEEDNet is the Regional Steering Committee (RSC), consisting of the national coordinators on PGR from each partner. The RSC has established the following working groups: Cereals and Maize, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Vegetables, Fruit Crops and Vitis, Fodder Crops and Industrial Crops.The SEEDNet Working Group for Fruit Crops and Vitis held its first meeting in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) on 8-9 September 2005, and established a strategy for Malus spp., Prunus domestica, Pyrus spp., Prunus persica and Vitis vinifera. The action plan includes an inventory of existing collections, education and training, collecting missions, and the establishment of regional databases.K. Tobutt reported on developments since the previous meeting, held in Hungary in 2003, under ten headings.There have been various changes in membership and 11 participants, including the ECP/GR staff members, had not previously attended meetings. The report of the Hungary meeting is available on-line and will be published, along with the report of the current meeting, in 2006. The workplan drafted at that meeting has been integrated into a document for the ECP/GR Steering Committee and will be discussed and revised later in the meeting. K. Tobutt and Marc Lateur, Chairman of the Malus/Pyrus Working Group, have drawn up a workplan for the three Working Groups on Prunus, Malus/Pyrus and Vitis in their role as members of the Fruit Network Coordinating Group and this too will be discussed. There has been a change of personnel at the European Prunus Database with Emilie Balsemin replacing Anne Zanetto; the database structure has been revised and the cherry accession files updated -and the EPDB went on-line in September 2005. Françoise Dosba and Anne Zanetto published a paper describing the activities of the Group. 6 The Prunus Genetic Resources Newsletter was compiled by Mihai Botu and distributed in September 2005; it includes reports on the workplan and the database and the paper by Dosba and Zanetto just mentioned, together with articles from nine countries. Lastly, Prunus was chosen as a model genus for the development of the concept of \"A European Genebank Integrated System\" (AEGIS), and a subgroup of the Working Group on Prunus attended briefing meetings in November 2004 and June 2005; their draft response to the AEGIS proposal was circulated to the WG members in the previous week and is an important item on the agenda.Emilie Balsemin, the new Prunus Database Manager, warmly thanked all the curators for their hard work in updating the cherry data. As agreed in June 2005, the Cherry Database was put on-line in September. It is accessible from http://www.bioversityinternational.org/ links/selectcrop.asp or from http://www.bordeaux.inra.fr/urefv/base/.The following freely available tools (non-Microsoft) were chosen for the development of the database: MySQL as the database management system, PHP as the application programming interface and Apache as the Web server program. The database is hosted by the INRA partner \"Centre de Bioinformatique de Bordeaux\" (Bioinformatics Platform of Bordeaux), France. Two permanent staff at the INRA institute worked part-time on the technical development of the EPDB. The Prunus Database Manager also imported data into the database.Regarding the Web interface, there are three levels of access: \"Public access\", \"Partner access\" reserved to the ECP/GR Prunus Working Group members and \"Private access\" restricted to the Prunus Database Manager. E. Balsemin added that it is possible to keep some accessions and some protected data in the \"Partner access\" section. She explained the different accession codes used in the database. The accession code given by the curator institute is called the \"Institute accession code\", which is visible only in the \"Partner access\" section, and the Database Manager also assigns an internal code to each accession. 6 Dosba, F. and A. Zanetto. 2004. The Prunus European Cooperative Programme for Genetic Resources: a networking activity for the European Prunus Database and the challenge for European collections. Journal of  During the year, E. Balsemin was commissioned to develop the Cherry Database. Preformatted Microsoft Excel® files were sent to all curators known to the EPDB manager for updating the cherry data and a first test version of the new database was put on-line in September 2005. Subsequently, new updated cherry data and comments on the Web interface were received by the database manager, who could therefore further improve the database. A new version has just been put on-line which includes more than 2700 accessions (70% Prunus avium, 27% P. cerasus, 2% cherry-related species and 1% hybrids) (Table 1). For the next two years, E. Balsemin suggested that she should work to improve the Cherry Database 7 . When it is ready, its structure will be copied and adapted to the databases for the other crops by changing the specific descriptors. As soon as possible she will send the preformatted files to the Prunus Working Group members and to curators for Prunus species, except for cherries and their related species. Then the updated data will be imported into each database.During the sixth meeting of the Prunus Working Group, all the participants had agreed a list of \"queries\". In the current Cherry Database it was not possible to provide a list of institutes, but it was agreed that a complete list of the curator institutes be made available using a hypertext link from the home page of the database.Regarding the compatibility with EURISCO passport descriptors, only 18 of them were in common with the EPDB descriptors. It was noted that the 2001 version of the FAO/IPGRI Multi-crop Passport Descriptors (MCPDs), which was subsequently used for EURISCO, had never been implemented in the EPDB. The question of harmonizing certain EPDB descriptors with EURISCO descriptors was addressed. L. Maggioni reiterated that EURISCO is a multicrop database of passport data compiled from national lists, which in due course may subsume the central crop databases at least for passport data. He explained that harmonization of the descriptors would aid transfer of data between databases. E. Balsemin circulated a list of the potential changes.K. Tobutt pointed out that most members of the Working Group knew very little of EURISCO. Many of the potential changes seemed straightforward, e.g. from \"1\" to \"100\" for \"Wild\", and from \"Primitive cultivars\" to \"Traditional cultivars\". However, some of the descriptor states such as \"Synthetic populations\" were not appropriate for Prunus and he thought their inclusion with the preformatted Excel files circulated for completion by 7 An improved version of the Cherry Database was already put on-line in February 2006, including new modifications that were suggested by the members of the ECP/GR Prunus Working Group during the Larnaca meeting. curators might cause confusion. After discussion it was agreed that for the descriptors relevant to Prunus the new descriptor states and codes should be incorporated in the EPDB. It was also agreed that certain other revisions would be made to maintain consistency with the 2001 update of the FAO/IPGRI Multi-crop Passport Descriptors. However, regarding \"Species authority\", \"Subtaxa authority\", and \"Common crop name\", it was suggested that it would generally be simpler for those details to be entered by the EPDB manager rather than by the individual curators.The style of the accession name should be standardized so that only the first letter of main words should be uppercase. A common \"European accession code\" was not considered necessary since the creation of an additional number attached to the accession would risk generating confusion.A proposal that diacritical marks should be omitted from names in the EPDB to aid searching was discussed and it was agreed that the Chair would consult with the Allium Working Group. K. Tobutt subsequently reported that this Group indeed requested anglicized spellings and the proposal to omit diacritical marks from the EPDB was agreed.To link better the synonyms and duplicates, the use of an additional descriptor called \"Corrected name\" had been proposed which would be a \"consensus\" name for a group of synonyms. M. Lateur reported that the Malus/Pyrus Working Group used the term \"Patronym\" for this. However a check in the dictionary after the meeting indicated this term was inappropriate and K. Tobutt suggested instead the term \"Euonym\" which was agreed.Another possible way to improve the identification of duplicates is the concept of the \"duplicate group\". E. Balsemin showed how the Cherry Database could group identical accessions, especially those distributed from the same institute. The Group agreed that identification of duplicate groups should be pursued further. The importance of providing information, when available, on the donor institute of each accession, was stressed.In a brief introduction, Birgitte Lund, AEGIS Coordinator, described the current situation of collection holdings and genebanks in Europe. It was noted that AEGIS concerns the region covering the geographically defined \"Europe\", including Russia and the Caucasus, with 44 potential member countries of which currently 38 contribute to the ECP/GR collaborative programme.A proposal for a project on how to share conservation responsibilities within Europe was submitted to the ECP/GR Steering Committee in 2003. As a result, the ECP/GR Steering Committee decided to initiate and fund a two-year feasibility study on creating \"A European Genebank Integrated System\" (AEGIS). The AEGIS Project started mid-August 2004 and will be finalized in mid-August 2006. Four model crops within the project have been selected, namely Prunus and Allium (both non-Annex I crops of the International Treaty), Avena and Brassica. An AEGIS Steering Committee was appointed. Partners invited to join the AEGIS project represent a total of 25 countries (11 individual countries, the Nordic Gene Bank (5 countries), and SEEDNet (9 countries)). The objective of the project is to come up with a set of recommendations on how to develop an integrated genebank system in Europe based on the analysis of organizational, structural, technical, legal and financial aspects. Special emphasis was given to the tasks of the project partners during the project. Project partners are expected to: assess alternative models; propose models and discuss pros and cons of the models for the system; propose an organizational structure; analyze the concept of Most Original Accession/Most Appropriate Accession; draft guidelines on quality standards for long-term conservation; and to consider application to other crops. These tasks will be addressed by the relevant crop subgroups and their reports will be compiled in a final report with recommendations for the attention of the ECP/GR Steering Committee. The recommendations are expected to be endorsed by the ECP/GR Steering Committee during its mid-term meeting in September 2006. Ideally, the implementation of an Integrated Genebank System could start in 2007, if the concept is endorsed by the ECP/GR Steering Committee.The project partners will have three meetings during the project. A start-up meeting was held in November 2004, the mid-term meeting took place at IPGRI in Rome, June 2005 and the final meeting is planned for summer 2006. From our experience so far, it is apparent that there is a gap between the technical and political levels, which is a challenge. It is important to raise awareness of the benefits which will be conferred by a rationalized system and to disseminate the vision widely, lobbying, and convincing stakeholders in Europe.A Local AEGIS Task Force has been set up at IPGRI and is developing a \"Strategic Framework\" paper on the opportunities for an integrated genebank system in Europe in collaboration with the AEGIS Steering Committee, the AEGIS Project Partners and several members of the ECP/GR Steering Committee. The Strategic Framework paper describes how existing genebanks in Europe can operate and collaborate more rationally by use of the best environmental and scientific conditions for conservation (e.g. regeneration and documentation), to define priorities and share resources to reduce gaps and duplication of efforts, and to improve quality of operations by applying agreed guidelines. The goal is to create a rational European plant genetic resources genebank system of genetically unique and important accessions (not restricted to the International Treaty Annex I crops), to ensure safe conservation in the long term, by maintaining genetic integrity and viability, to ensure continued use of the conserved germplasm and to facilitate easy access and standardized documentation via EURISCO and ECCDB.The respective ECP/GR Crop Working Groups will set up criteria for AEGIS accessions to be accepted and designated in the system. Membership in AEGIS will be open to all ECP/GR member countries.AEGIS member countries will sign a Collaboration Agreement and the countries will indicate genebanks/institutions voluntarily identifying and offering accessions to be part of AEGIS. It will then be the responsibility of the respective ECP/GR Crop Working Groups to identify AEGIS accessions, based on the \"Most Appropriate Accession\" (MAA) concept, to be accepted and designated to the system. ECP/GR National Coordinators will act as focal points within each country to facilitate the implementation of AEGIS. The ECP/GR Steering Committee will have overall responsibility for the system.The benefits of AEGIS are transparency of information, agreed quality standards of operation, joint planning for rational conservation, sharing of resources (facilities and expertise) and building on existing structures in a flexible system. The strategy is to have a virtual genebank with a centralized documentation system based on the respective ECCDB and EURISCO databases and with the participation of all members. The system is expected to evolve during the process of implementation.A project proposal was submitted to the European Commission by the ECP/GR Steering Committee in September 2005 for a \"concerted action\" to improve coordination during the process of endorsement of this initiative. The partners in this proposal include the ECCDB managers in the AEGIS project. For further information, see the AEGIS homepage (www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/AEGIS/AEGIS.htm).Daniela Giovannini (Italy), Vladislav Ognjanov (SEEDNet), Victor Ryabchoun (Ukraine) and Kenneth Tobutt (United Kingdom and Chair of the Prunus Working Group). They met in Alnarp, Sweden in November 2004 and formulated an initial response to the AEGIS proposals, which was reported to the Working Group in the Prunus Genetic Resources Newsletter No. 5. They met again in Rome in June 2005 and drafted a more detailed response which was circulated to the full Working Group (attending and corresponding members) in November 2005. The subgroup had chosen cherry as a model to investigate how AEGIS accessions could be identified from the European Prunus Database and E. Balsemin had started to update the cherry accession lists accordingly.E. Balsemin made a presentation of the use of the EPDB as a tool for identifying AEGIS accessions using cherry data as a model. She reminded participants that, during the second AEGIS meeting in June 2005, the representative members of the Prunus Working Group proposed that ideally the MAA should be true to name, held in the country of origin, virus-free, accompanied by passport data and characterized morphologically or with markers. If none of the accessions of a given identity meets all these criteria, then the order of the criteria should be taken as approximately reflecting their order of importance.Among the passport descriptors which are already in the EPDB, eight passport descriptors were identified as relevant for the designation of AEGIS accessions on the criteria just mentioned. Characterization and/or molecular marker descriptors will also be important.During the second AEGIS meeting, E. Balsemin had proposed to the Prunus representative members that the following new AEGIS-related descriptors be added to the EPDB:-Offered to AEGIS System? (Yes or No) -Date of inclusion in AEGIS System (Year) -Date of exclusion from AEGIS System (Year) -AEGIS status: primary status, reserve status or undetermined status -AEGIS reasons for accepting/rejecting the accession (Text)Regarding the procedure for designation of a given accession to the AEGIS system, the flow diagram that had previously been circulated to the Group was presented by E. Balsemin. A revised version is included as Appendix II (p. 114). It was agreed that the flow diagram needed to be tested and Prunus avium should be the model species for this task.Finally, E. Balsemin demonstrated how the EPDB could be used to designate AEGIS accessions. She also pointed out that this process is possible and effective only if the information provided for each accession includes sufficient passport data.The inclusion of the AEGIS descriptors in the Cherry Database as a test was approved by the Group. It was noted that the management of these descriptors will be a task for the database manager (or for a crop subgroup) to consider.It was noted that some of the criteria to be considered for the identification of MAA cannot be derived from the database (such as trueness to name).M. Lateur drew attention to the desirability of including evaluation data as well as passport data. However, the Group agreed it was not feasible to evaluate material before inclusion.It was pointed out that some countries might decide not to offer any accessions to the system, since they would not be able to accept long-term responsibility for conservation. B. Lund explained that offering accessions to AEGIS could be a way to highlight the importance of the material, even though the specific country could not guarantee the longterm conservation. She agreed to bring these concerns to the attention of the AEGIS Steering Committee.The Prunus Working Group approach to AEGIS. Discussion on the proposed steps for the implementation of the AEGIS concept for Prunus K. Tobutt presented the \"draft response\" document which had been prepared at the meeting of the Prunus subgroup in Rome for discussion and revision. Changes were suggested regarding the advantages of the decentralized system, the aims of the system, the nature of the accessions to be included, the numbers of trees to be maintained per identity and the possible role of cryopreservation. The text was modified and a few minor points were corrected or clarified. Comments from corresponding members received by mid-December will be dealt with likewise. The revised text is presented in Appendix III (p. 115).On the first day of the meeting the participants had been asked to complete a table indicating the degree of expertise they possessed in each of the following crop groups: cherries and allies; apricots; almonds; peaches; plums; inter-crop hybrids; other Prunus species. K. Tobutt explained that he had originally planned to identify which members of the WG had the strongest expertise in cherries, to form a cherry subgroup to collaborate with E. Balsemin for the identification in the EPDB of the cherry accessions to be selected for AEGIS and to advise on questions of naming. However it seemed useful to extend this exercise and record the expertise of the Group members in all crop groups, so that eventually several \"crop subgroups\" could be set up.The table containing the data gathered was distributed and discussed during this session. It was agreed that it could be useful to include additional expertise, e.g. of colleagues of Working Group members who were not expert in certain crops themselves. The table will be circulated for revision (see Appendix IV, p. 119).Regarding the cherry subgroup, K. Tobutt suggested that it should comprise those members of the Working Group who had indicated expertise in cherry and who had supplied data sets to the EPDB earlier in the year. Thus, initially, Jan Blažek, Emilie Balsemin, Monika Höfer, János Apostol, Zygmunt Grzyb and Ken Tobutt would be members. It was agreed that the recommendations of the subgroups should be circulated to all members of the Working Group for information.M. Lateur stressed the importance of meetings for Working Groups and suggested that the ECP/GR Steering Committee should provide for each ECP/GR Crop Working Group to meet every two years. K. Tobutt endorsed this recommendation, pointing out that it is the meetings that drive the progress of the Working Groups.V. Trajkovski supported the vision for an integrated genebank system in Europe. M. Lateur also stressed collaboration at the subregional level. V. Ognjanov recommended \"starting small and building up\".J. Blažek explained that the susceptibility of some Prunus crops to virus diseases could hinder the operation of AEGIS for Prunus. High health status material free from viruses was desirable. R. Socias i Company commented that to keep fruit trees free of viruses is utopian, but cryopreservation is not a solution at the moment for Prunus. V. Ognjanov thought Serbia might be able to make 50 cultivars virus-free and if other countries did likewise, a virus-free collection could be established. V. Trajkovski endorsed the possible role of cryopreservation for maintaining virus-free material and, indeed, as a backup. I. Hjalmarsson proposed that the Prunus subgroup report should mention the role of cryopreservation. She explained that techniques for certain Prunus were being developed in Finland.Regarding quality standards M. Lateur mentioned the development in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of quality standards for the management of plant genetic resources.L. Sekse commented that the AEGIS strategy offered great opportunities for conservation of genetic resources to become more efficient, especially with regard to Prunus. He pointed out that, although this point is not included in the Strategic Framework paper, AEGIS could be considered a tool for reducing the number of trees to be conserved in Europe. Following on from this, he suggested that opportunities for replacing duplicates with useful novel material, i.e. broadening the genetic basis, should be stressed. B. Lund answered that it is not the intention of AEGIS to advise countries on how to deal with non-AEGIS accessions.K. Tobutt commented that with a reduced number of accessions there could be an opportunity to spend more funding on characterization, though there was a risk that many governments would just reduce funding. M. Höfer commented that she saw AEGIS as a chance to increase the quality of the collections, e.g. by replacing newer varieties obtained from international collections with older varieties from the country of origin which would be more interesting to work with.I. Hjalmarsson explained that in the Swedish National Programme currently, 50 varieties of Prunus are identified as being important for Sweden and will be offered to AEGIS. Each accession will be maintained in a central collection and as reserve/backups in local clonal archives around the country. Contracts are made with the local clonal archives. The intention is to keep the accessions virus-free.M. Oliveira pointed out the benefits of cooperation with NGOs. This link with the public was supported by I. Hjalmarsson who explained that the local clonal archives in Sweden are maintained where the public can visit them. M. Lateur agreed about the importance of linking plants with people but stressed that good coordination is necessary. A. Braun-Lüllemann explained that people in some of the NGOs not only have knowledge on pomological subjects but also know the locations of old tree cultivars. D. Szalatnay explained that awareness among the public can be increased by having many collections spread around the country.Molecular markers for managing Prunus collections K. Tobutt introduced the subject of the opportunities offered by microsatellite markers for managing Prunus collections. He explained briefly how microsatellite primers could be used to produce convenient numerical allelic data; typically a genotype of a diploid would comprise one or two 3-digit numbers which could easily be entered in a database. Surveys of cherry accessions in the collection at Brogdale, UK with 8 microsatellites and of peach accessions in Sicily with 13 microsatellites had indicated a substantial number of duplicates which could be discarded. Although microsatellites promised to prove very useful tools to inform decisions, various problems could be encountered. Some 200 Prunus primer pairs were available but maybe only 10% would work successfully in a range of crops. Results could vary from laboratory to laboratory. Some primers gave erratic results and should be avoided. Minor variation might occur within a cultivar. And scoring of polyploids could be tricky. If microsatellite data were to be included in the EPDB, consideration should be given to the choice of primers, the harmonization of data sets, and the need for reference cultivars, as well as the consequences of intra-cultivar variation and the problems of polyploids.M. Oliveira said the presentation agreed with her own experience and stressed the need to use reference cultivars to harmonize data sets. She recommended that these reference genotypes should be provided conveniently in the database.E. Balsemin demonstrated how fingerprinting data from an agreed set of microsatellites should be entered in the EPDB with the following fields: type of marker, name of marker, allele number. L. Maggioni pointed out that the Vitis Working Group had already discussed the incorporation of SSR markers in their database, and E. Balsemin agreed to check with the European Vitis Database manager for advice. She will prepare a proposal for the inclusion of a limited set of SSR markers into the EPDB and will circulate it to all the Prunus WG members for comments.K. Tobutt explained that, as reported in the Prunus Genetic Resources Newsletter, the Fruit Network Coordinating Group had proposed that a workshop on microsatellites be held for some members of the Prunus, Malus/Pyrus and Vitis Working Groups. The intention was to hold this at East Malling Research, UK in the first week of April 2006 to discuss the issues raised in the presentation (above) and to identify a set of \"universal\" primers for Prunus (and for Malus/Pyrus). After the meeting, M. Lateur representing the Malus/Pyrus Working Group asked for the workshop to be postponed and it was rescheduled for December 2006.The suggestion of L. Sekse that a small group should meet after the afternoon session, to see if an outline proposal could be formulated, was agreed. This group, under the leadership of M. Lateur, later reported that they had drafted an outline proposal entitled \"Sustainable management of European Fruit Tree Biodiversity and Enhancement of its Utilization (BIODIFRUIT)\". This would cover Prunus, Malus and Pyrus. There would be seven workpackages, covering the harmonization of fruit tree central databases, provision of national fruit passport data to the EURISCO catalogue, establishment of a common methodology for the use of molecular markers, implementation of the European collection concept according to the AEGIS strategy, improvement of utilization of fruit tree genetic resources on the basis of case studies, the increasing of interaction between institutes and NGOs, and dissemination of results and the improvement of public awareness.The draft outline proposal will be circulated to the entire Prunus and Malus/Pyrus Working Groups for comments. M. Lateur and K. Tobutt will act as project coordinators. More information on the EC Regulation is available from: http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/envir/biodiv/genres/call_en.htmMihai Botu gave a short report on the production and distribution of issue 5 of the Newsletter. He reported that he had received articles from 11 countries and various other reports. He thanked K. Tobutt for revising the Newsletter and the ECP/GR Secretariat for ensuring its distribution. Some 300 copies were circulated in September 2005. The Group acknowledged the usefulness of the Newsletter and thanked M. Botu for his good work.After discussion it was agreed that M. Botu and E. The objectives of the Treaty are the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from their use, in harmony with the CBD, for sustainable agriculture and food security.The main achievement of the Treaty is the establishment of a Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-Sharing, which will ensure facilitated access to genetic resources related to a list of crops (Annex I of the Treaty). For these crops, genetic resources under management and control of Contracting Parties and in the public domain are pooled, in the sense that there is no individual owner with whom individual contracts for access and benefit-sharing must be negotiated. This means that there are very low transaction costs, to the benefit of farmers, plant breeders and researchers, and ultimately of consumers. It also means that benefits must be shared in a pooled, multilateral way. In this way, the Treaty overcomes the situation created by the CBD, whereby bilateral agreements needed to be established between the Parties involved in germplasm transactions.A Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) will be the unique document to use for germplasm exchange from the Multilateral System. This document will be finalized and approved by the Governing Body of the Treaty, possibly during its first meeting in June 2006. 8 The SMTA will permit the conditions of the Multilateral System to be brought into operation. This will include the provisions that the exchange of germplasm be made solely for purpose of utilization and conservation for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture, expeditiously with no need to track individual accessions, and that all available passport data and other non-confidential information should also be exchanged. It will not be possible to claim intellectual property or other rights that limit facilitated access to the plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, or their genetic parts and components, in the form received from the Multilateral System. Recipients shall continue to make the materials received available to other Contracting Parties.The first session of the Governing Body of the Treaty agreed on a text for the SMTA. This is available at http://www.fao.org/AG/cgrfa/gb1.htmThe Treaty includes ground-breaking, innovative provisions for monetary benefitsharing; thus if a product that incorporates material from the Multilateral System is commercialized in such a way that it is not \"available without restriction to others for further research and breeding\", a mandatory payment will be made. On the other hand, if the product remains available without restriction to others, payment is voluntary. These funds will be used in the context of the Treaty's Funding Strategy, to implement activities under this Treaty, such as those related to the conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA, following the Global Plan of Action.Unfortunately, Prunus is not listed among the Annex I crops and therefore germplasm exchange will continue to be subject to the provisions of the CBD. However, among the supporting components identified by the Treaty, an important role is assigned to international networks, such as ECP/GR, in order to achieve as complete a coverage as possible of plant genetic resources. This can be considered an opportunity offered to the Networks to extend the provisions of the Treaty to more crops than those listed in Annex I, on the basis of specific network agreements and on a regional basis.A revised version of a learning module related to Law and Policy of relevance to the management of PGR is available on CD-ROM. It was published by IPGRI in October 2005 and can be requested from bioversity-publications@cgiar.org.In discussion, L. Maggioni pointed out that many of the implications of the documents were still uncertain. It was not entirely clear whether entering a new cultivar for plant breeders' rights would initiate benefit-sharing. And it appeared that purchasing genetic resources commercially would avoid MTAs and the consequent obligations. L. Maggioni agreed to seek clarifications from legal advisers. This was done after the meeting, and the reply from IPGRI legal expert, G. Moore, is reported below:The Treaty provides for benefit-sharing only when there is commercialization of a product incorporating material obtained from the Multilateral System. The mere act of applying for Plant Breeders' Rights would therefore not be sufficient to spark off the benefitsharing provisions of Article 13.2(d)(ii). It is however correct to say that, if the product were commercialized under Plant Breeders' Rights only, and not patents or other form of restriction that would limit further availability for research, breeding or training, then the benefit-sharing under Article 13.2(d)(ii) would be voluntary and not mandatory.Regarding the MTA, two cases can be considered:-If the PGRFA is in the Multilateral System, i.e. it is under the management and control of a Contracting Party and in the public domain, or has been put voluntarily in the Multilateral System, then there is no question of purchasing it commercially, since the material must be provided free of charge. -If the material is not in the Multilateral System, then the provisions of Article 13.2(d)(ii) would not apply in any case. Normally, access to such germplasm would be subject to negotiation with the country holding such material, where it is the country of origin or where it has acquired the material in accordance with the CBD. This then would be under the CBD, even though the material is PGRFA of a crop listed in Annex I to the Treaty. For the most part landraces accessed from farmers' fields would not be in the Multilateral System, unless they were to be accessed via a Government genebank collection.M. Lateur described recent developments in Belgium on Prunus.The following changes have occurred. The Fruitteelt Centrum, Katoliek Universiteit Leuven (Rillaar) has stopped its trials on sweet and sour cherry (cultivars, rootstock and pruning) and plum. The Proef Centrum Fruit (PCF) at Velm (+ Centre Fruitier Wallon at Merdorp) has taken over these activities, as well as pome fruit variety trials.There is a significant decrease in plum growing, a small increase in sweet cherry ('Gisela 5'), and a small decrease in sour cherry.The Boomgaarden Stichting (NGO) is planting plum and cherry standard tree orchards for landscape purposes and collection. At the Fruitstreek Museum (Borgloon), a collection is grown of old cherry cultivars and public awareness events are also held there (\"Cherry Day\"). At the Centre de Recherches Agronomiques (Gembloux), the cherry repository orchards of the former Fruit Growing Research Station (Dept. of Biotechnology) were merged with the peach orchards of the Dept. of Biological Control and Plant Genetic Resources (PGR). When the cherry collection (80 accessions) was grafted on 'Inmil' and 'Damil' rootstocks many incompatibility problems were encountered due to virus; these were resolved after grafting on 'Gisela 5'.Activities of the Biotechnology Dept. (Magein, Druart) include: testing new commercial cherry cultivars (237 sweet cherry and 24 sour cherry); breeding dwarf cherry (hybrids of 'Damil') and plum rootstocks; and renewal of the 40-year old collection of botanical Prunus spp., with 120 accessions.At the Biological Control and PGR Dept., characterization and evaluation on 140 old plum accessions has stopped after 15 years. A new evaluation orchard was planted for 36 new plum accessions, to allow characterization for nine descriptors and the setting up of a plum stone collection. A new evaluation orchard has been planted for sweet (25 accessions) and sour cherry (5 accessions + 5 breeding selections) and peach (10 accessions). The search for novel local material (\"prospection\") continues as does identification of old cultivars for the public (600 to 1000 samples of fruits/year). Public awareness activities include organization of open-door days for the collections (1/year), organization of or participation in horticulture and pomology exhibitions (25/year) and presentation of lectures (5/year).• Project on safety-duplication of a well evaluated ex situ collection by developing \"on-farm\" orchard networks At the moment, there are 19 orchards (42 ha) of standard trees of pome fruit genetic resources, which combine safety-duplicated material and local accessions.This winter (2005)(2006), an orchard duplicating part of the cherry and plum collection will be established; the goal is to duplicate 190 plum and 50 old cherry cultivars.The aim is to involve local people in the management of their own local biodiversity, by lectures, by help in the organization of \"prospections\", by undertaking identification and selection work, by teaching people how to plant, how to graft and how to prune; and by collaborating with NGOs, environmental associations, farmers, schools, local administrations and the private sector.This project is based on the following principles: a dynamic approach involving local people; giving the possibility to re-introduce lost cultivars to the original location; helping the continuing dynamic genetic evolution of fruit tree genetic resources by interacting with the environment, animals and human activities; and developing environmental, pedagogic and economic approaches.A well coordinated Network is an absolute necessity and a database for traceability of material should be developed. Moreover there is a need to establish legal collaboration agreements between partners to ensure long-term duration of the commitment and continuing access to material.The workplan for the period 2006-2008 which had been developed from discussions during the meeting was summarized in the table attached as Appendix V (p. 120).The Group discussed the composition of the Fruit Network Coordinating Group (NCG), keeping in mind that this Group will meet in Bonn in March 2006 together with all the other NCGs, to discuss progress and future developments of the Fruit Network. Considering the importance of documentation issues for the Group and the need to share experiences across groups, it was suggested that the Fruit database managers be represented in the NCG. Consequently, the Group requested that the EPDB manager, E. Balsemin, be included as a member of the Fruit NCG.Following an enjoyable and interesting field excursion to the Experimental Station of ARI at Zyghi and to Lefkara, a typical Cypriot village, the draft report was circulated, discussed and adopted by the Working Group with minor modifications.The Working Group unanimously invited Ken Tobutt to continue in his role of Chair and he was pleased to accept this role until the end of the next Working Group meeting, together with Daniela Benediková, as Vice-Chair.It was noted that the next meeting of the Working Group could not take place before the next Phase (VIII) of ECP/GR, as this depended on the Steering Committee decisions on the continuation of the programme after 2008. An offer was made by E. Kaufmane to host the next Prunus Working Group meeting in Latvia and the Group gratefully welcomed this offer.K. Tobutt addressed the Group with a few final remarks, saying that he had enjoyed the meeting and found it extremely useful, due to the importance of direct contact with the Group members in facilitating progress and decision-making. He thanked the Vice-Chair, D. Benediková, for her collaboration in managing the Group and the local organizers, Costas Gregoriou and his technical assistant Costas Eracleous, for the excellent support throughout the meeting. He also thanked the ECP/GR Secretariat, including in particular Lidwina Koop and Aixa Del Greco, who were not present at the meeting, but who had provided excellent support from the office in Rome. Overall, K. Tobutt felt that this meeting had significantly advanced progress in the conservation of Prunus genetic resources in Europe and had opened promising opportunities for the near future.C. Gregoriou thanked all the participants and said that he enjoyed hosting this meeting and thought it had been very fruitful.Note: In most cases the information provided at the time of the Sixth Meeting in Budapest was updated for the Seventh Meeting in Larnaca and/or at time of publication. In other cases, a footnote indicates that the information published here reflects the situation as of June 2003.Adriatik Çakalli, Ilir Çiçi, Endrit Kullaj and Arben Myrta Wild plums in Armenia E.Tz. Gabrielian and A.A. Nersesian V. Dzhuvinov and V. BozhkovaJan BlažekEmilie BalseminZviad BobokashviliZsuzsanna Békefi and János Apostol Prunus genetic resources in Israel Doron Holland, Irit Bar-Yaakov and Kamel Hatib Mihai BotuVladislav OgnjanovAnnette Braun-LüllemannEmilie BalseminPlant genetic resources are one of Albania's greatest reserves of natural wealth. They are very important for the Albanian people, not only on the material level but also at the ethnocultural and spiritual levels.Climatic conditions here are very favourable for the cultivation of many plant species and horticulture represents one of the main sectors of the agricultural economy.Albania is the heartland of many cultivars belonging to Prunus in the South-East of the Balkans. These cultivars have been adapted to modern agroecosystems through continuous natural and human selection, and because of their productive and quality values they can compete with many introduced cultivars.There is evidence for the very old tradition of cultivation in the terms used to designate different varieties (e.g: dhamoshqime or vardare, pistilke or miraboliana for plums, ujse, krisje or belica for cherries, etc.). This rich diversity of cultivars and biotypes is spread out over the country and many of the cultivars are particularly well adapted to local soil and climate conditions (Fig. 1).From this large number of cultivars, those with inferior qualities have not resisted the test of time and have consequently disappeared (or are gradually disappearing) because of the extraordinary amount of genetic erosion which took place during the transition period (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) and also because of virus diseases such as sharka (Myrta et al. 1996;Çakalli 1999), while others, those with superior qualities, are still in demand on the local market.Horticulture in Albania is based on the cultivation of both native and foreign varieties (Osmani et al. 1996). The stone fruit industry is characterized by a considerable number of native varieties, mainly of plum (Prunus domestica) and cherry (P. avium) but also peach (P. persicae), apricot (P. armeniaca) and almond (P. dulcis). The cultivar 'Tropojane' alone represents more than 50% of plum trees and is cultivated both for fresh consumption and for dried prunes (Shqau et al. 1989). Other important native plum varieties are cvs. 'Kumbulla e Hasit', 'Shengjine', 'Çifte Elbasani', 'Kumbull Vlonjate', 'Vardare' (Dhamoshqine), 'Shqerake' (Miraboliana), 'Pistilka' and 'Gusie'. Some varieties' names refer to their particular fruit characteristics or to their geographical origin, e.g. cv. 'Tropojane' is named after the original area of cultivation.Cherry accessions are mostly represented by 'Zhitoma', Zeza e Luznisë', 'Dollmas', 'Petrela', 'Ndroq', etc.Among peaches, the most important local cultivars are 'Tapiza', 'Shklese Mishbardhë', 'Shklese Mishverdhë', 'Shatore', 'Sefa', 'Mishe', etc.; while for apricot, important accessions are 'Goxhasi', 'Ganiu', 'Fatmiri', etc. Important accessions are also found for almond like 'Gujadëholla e Frakullës', 'Gujadëkuqja', 'Melçani', 'Nr.17', 'Çesku', 'Stambollesha', Zhitoma', etc.Many of the native cultivars present in Albania (geographically distributed in all the Prunus areas of the country) call for attention because they constitute an essential genetic resource which is very precious for hybridization work and for stone fruit breeding.The following species are found in Albania: P. domestica, P. spinosa L., P. cerasifera Ehrh., P. cocomilia Ten., P. avium L., P. cerasus L., P. mahaleb L., P. persicae (L.) Batsch., P. armeniaca L. and P. dulcis.Because of the unjustifiable preference for foreign cultivars and the degraded sanitary status of Prunus at present, native cultivars are not currently very much appreciated and the percentage of native cultivars compared to the total number of varieties is decreasing. There is an immediate need for their preservation.Prunus collections in Albania can be found both at research institutes and on private farms. Efforts to explore the Prunus native germplasm in Albania from the Fruit Science Institute in Vlora, which is responsible for the collection and maintenance of fruit trees in Albania, has found so far many important accessions (Table 1). This collection is made up of foreign cultivars only, while the native plum varieties are so far found only in private farmers' orchards. As yet there is no national collection of native varieties.Despite the attempts of the Albanian genebank to collaborate with other research institutes to collect and maintain Prunus and other stone fruits in Albania, a great amount of work is still needed in this area. Attention should be given to the following problems:-Degraded sanitary status of trees due to the presence of various viruses, -Lack of adequate funds for the work of exploration, collecting and storage of native varieties, -Unfair competition with other uncertified fruit tree seedlings entering the country at lower prices, -Urban migration which decreases the care given on farms to the native cultivars, -Lack of awareness at the farmers' level regarding the benefits of cultivating native cultivars or establishing new collections, difficulties in finding incentives for the farmers to maintain the local material, etc. More attention should obviously be given to the Prunus crops in preservation and utilization programmes, especially for the exploration and conservation of native varieties which should be undertaken immediately and be followed and sustained by on-farm conservation.Major activities should include:-Maintenance of the existing collections, -Intensification of collecting missions for the best native varieties of plums, cherries and for other Prunus species (peaches, apricots and almonds), -Undertaking of joint regional studies for clonal and phytosanitary selection, -Breeding (sexual hybridization) especially with the Chinese-Japanese group and French Mirabelles in the case of plums, -Establishment of new collections in the appropriate areas of cultivation, and -Investment to solve the constraints due to the lack of funds.Armenia is a part of Transcaucasia (the Lesser Caucasus), which is well known as the site of active processes of plant speciation and has a long history of agriculture. Thus, Vavilov (1926) included Transcaucasia into the South-West Asian Centre of origin of cultivated plants. Armenia takes a special place among other countries of the Caucasian Region by the exceptional variability of its native plants. In spite of its small territory (about 30 000 km 2 ), this country possesses ca. 3500 plant species, more than half of all the species growing in the whole Caucasus. Almost all the main native crops of Southern Asia, the Mediterranean basin and the temperate regions of Europe grow in this country. This situation can be explained by a specific combination of geo-morphological features. Armenia is a mountainous country (average altitude is 1750 m above sea level) with extremely dissected relief, a high rate of seismicity, very steep slopes, and remoteness from oceans. This country lies on the junction of the mesophyllous Caucasian and the arid Armeno-Iranian floristic provinces, in the centre of the area (the Caucasus and Transcaucasus) that contributed significantly to the domestication of plants, particularly fruit crops, vegetables and spices (Gabrielian and Zohary 2004).Armenia has a rich experience of horticulture, and plum cultivars are among the most well-known and widely cultivated fruit crops.Garden plum (Prunus domestica L., 2n=6x=48), widely cultivated in Armenia, includes both the European plum cultivars (subsp. domestica), and the damsons, bullaces and greengages (subsp. insititia (L.) Schneid). Small-fruited wild-growing garden plum samples (spontaneous 6x domestica forms, fully inter-fertile with the crop) sporadically occur in this country. These are feral individuals which have escaped cultivation and grow mainly near human habitations. Garden plum has a hybrid origin. It is commonly accepted that garden plum is the result of complicated and repeated hybridization between cherry plum and sloe with further duplication of chromosome number, and that it never existed as wild forms (Kovalev 1955;Browicz 1969;and others). According to Zhukovsky (1971), the Caucasus is the centre of origin of garden plum, where wild cherry plum and sloe grow together and where wild hybrid individuals occur rather frequently. The areas of these two taxa often coincide even within the small territory of Armenia, although cherry plum has much broader distribution in this country (Figs. 1 and 2). Garden plum could not originate in Central Asia, because of the absence of wild sloe there (Zhukovsky 1971). If this theory is correct, then domesticated garden plum was probably introduced to the Mediterranean countries and Central Asia from the Caucasus. Farmers in the regions of introduction had very rich experience in cultivating figs, olives, etc., and managed to create many excellent cultivars of garden plum. According to recent data, sloe is not very close genetically to garden plum, although crosses are possible, producing mostly sterile F1 hybrids (Zohary 1992;Hanelt 1997;and others). Moreover, Zohary and Hopf (2000) recently suggested that sloe may contribute to the domestic genepool only through secondary hybridization.  Cherry plum [P. cerasifera Ehrh. (= P. divaricata Ledeb.), 2n=16, 32, 48] is a major fruit crop in the Caucasus. Hexaploid cherry plum cultivars cross easily with P. domestica (Beridze and Kvatchadze 1981). Wild forms of cherry plum are widespread in the South Balkan countries, the Caucasus, and South-Western and Central Asia (Browicz 1996). In Armenia, cherry plum is evidently native and is incredibly variable. It varies in the size of leaves (from 2 to 8-9 cm long), shape of leaves (ovate, obovate, elliptic, lanceolate, with obtuse, short-tapered, longtapered apex), margin of leaves (crenulate, bicrenulate, serrate), degree of leaf pubescence (glabrous from both sides, pubescent along veins, densely or sparsely pubescent all over the surface), flower size (from 20 to 30 mm in diameter), shape of fruits (from round to ovoidoblong), and fruit colour (yellow, red, pink, violet, black). These wild forms occur in almost all floristic regions of Armenia, on open rocky slopes, in broad-leaved oak, oak/hornbeam forests, bush thickets, in shibliak 9 formations and in oak and juniper open woodlands spreading from lower to upper mountain zones. Armenia, together with Iran and Azerbaijan, represents a primary centre of cherry plum breeding (Kovalev 1955) oriented mostly to sweet dessert cultivars. There is a series of very old Armenian cultivars of sweet cherry plum which can be consumed in the immature, green stage (for example, black alycha and geogja cultivars). According to data from chemical analysis (Demurian 1950) the highest content of sugars was found in black alycha (10.14%) and geogja (9.89%) cultivars. Green alycha cultivar showed the highest content of fructose (4.07%). The lowest acidity was established for green alycha and geogja. Such high contents of sugar and dry substance in Armenian cherry plum cultivars, as well as in other Armenian fruit cultivars, is explained by the climate conditions (very hot summer and an absence of precipitation during vegetative period across the greater part of the country).Sloe (P. spinosa L., 2n=4x=32) is distributed in temperate parts of Europe, the Mediterranean basin, Caucasus, and Siberia (Meusel et al. 1965;Browicz and Zieliński 1990). Sloe is sparsely cultivated in central Europe and the Caucasus. Selected sloe clones with large, sweet and non-astringent fruits are cultivated in Armenia as well. Wild sloe forms are quite widespread in Armenia (Fig. 2). For the wild forms of sloe in Armenia, we established great variability in leaf shapes (ovate, obovate, lanceolate), size of leaves (from 20 x 15 mm to 60 x 25 mm), leaf apex shape (acute, obtuse, tapered), length of petiole (5 mm, 12 mm, 18 mm) and fruit diameter (from 10 to 18 mm). They grow in bush thickets, at forest edges, and along rivers, and are found from low to high mountain zones.Plum cultivars, as well as apricot cultivars, occupy a significant place in the everyday life of Armenians. Special cultivars bred for many centuries are used in certain soups and other dishes as fresh or dry fruits. They are added to sauces, gravies, jams, marinades, stewed fruits, liqueurs, etc. Plum lavash is a very specific and popular dish in Armenia: it is prepared as thin layers of sour or sweet dried fruit jelly.Therefore, two native species of plum (P. cerasifera and P. spinosa) exist in Armenia which are widespread and extremely variable (particularly cherry plum). Obviously, these taxa contain a significant genepool which can be very valuable for the further breeding of plum cultivars.The first statistical data on fruit growing in Bulgaria showed that in 1897, plum orchards represented 70% of all orchards in the country. Plum was the major fruit crop until 1965 when it became relatively less important in terms of planted areas and fruit production.During the periods 1986-1995 and 1999-2000, Prunus species represented on average about 50% of the orchard areas and 40-50% of the fruit production in Bulgaria.The This brings the total number of Prunus accessions at national level to 1640. After political and economic changes in 1989 and owing to the subsequent economic crisis the maintenance of the collection has become very difficult. Dozens of samples die annually due to viral and bacterial diseases.For the last 20 years there have been no expeditions to collect local resources, which risk being lost through changes in land ownership. In spite of the difficulties, the Fruit Growing Institute in Plovdiv has started the transfer of the old collections with the aim of preserving the remaining Prunus germplasm.Prunus fruits are produced mainly for local consumption in Cyprus and only small quantities of cherries are exported. Since the liberalization of trade through the GATT Agreement, large quantities of Prunus fruits are imported from European countries. Imported products are sold at a lower price than those locally produced. This negatively affects the local market because the locally produced fruits, in many cases, have much higher production costs than the selling prices of similar imported commodities (Anonymous 2001).Almonds have been cultivated in Cyprus since ancient times and are the most important nut crop in the country. They are grown, mainly rainfed, on 84% of the nut tree area and are found in compact plantations or mixed with other crops in all regions. They are also found scattered on uncultivated land. In 2000, the area cultivated with almonds was 3260 ha, the mean yield per ha was 0.6 t and the total production of in-shell almonds was 1422 t. In the same year, 300.9 t of shelled almonds were also imported to meet local demand (Markou and Mavrogenis 2002).In 2000, the area cultivated with apricots was 220 ha, the mean yield per ha was 10 t and the total production was 2255 t. Cyprus is self-sufficient for fresh apricots and there are no imports of apricots or cherries from other countries. The consumption of fresh apricots in the country was 3.1 kg/head. The same year the area cultivated with peaches was 420 ha, the mean yield per ha was 8.3 t and the total production was 3485 t. In the same period 572 t of fresh peaches were also imported to meet local demand. The apparent consumption of fresh peaches in the island was 5.7 kg/head (Markou and Mavrogenis 2002).In 2000, the area cultivated with plums was 240 ha, the mean yield per ha was 5.1 t and the total production was 1230 t. During the same period 81 t of fresh plums were also imported to meet local demand and the apparent consumption was 1.8 kg/head. The area cultivated with cherries in Cyprus was 260 ha, the mean yield per ha was 4.1 t and the total production was 1025 t. During the same year the apparent consumption of fresh cherries was 1.5 kg/head (Markou and Mavrogenis 2002).Without exception, the Prunus germplasm collections in Cyprus are maintained as field collections in organized orchards or in screenhouses where they are grown in containers. These collections serve the multiple purposes of conservation and source of vegetative material for propagation. These genetic materials have been selected locally or imported from institutions of various countries. All the national Prunus germplasm collections belong to the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, and the Department of Agriculture has the responsibility for maintaining them in good and healthy condition by applying the proper cultural practices (Stavrides 1997).The almond tree has been well spread all over the country since very ancient times. Apart from the local almond biodiversity brought about by centuries of growers and nature interaction, many varieties have been introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture since 1930 (Argyrou 1998). In fact, the most two important fruit trees as far as biodiversity is concerned in Cyprus are almonds and olives. Although the variability of the olive genetic resources in the island has been identified, characterized, conserved, evaluated and utilized (Gregoriou 1996(Gregoriou , 1999a) ) unfortunately the same did not happen for almonds.Table 1 shows the almond germplasm collections and the number of plants for each variety. The plants of basic planting material (BPM) are grown in an insect-proof screen house in plastic containers of 70 litres capacity whereas the plants of mother tree orchard (MTO) are grown in the open field. The variety 'Spanish' originates from Spain and is used only as pollinator for the variety 'Marcona', and 'Retsou' is a Greek variety (Argyrou 1998). An exploration and collection mission conducted during July-September 1996 in a village of Paphos District in Cyprus resulted in finding a total of 55 accessions of the local germplasm of almonds. The collection was jointly sponsored by the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) and the Regional Office for the West Asia and North African Countries of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI/WANA) and was organized in the framework of the IPGRI/WANANET project to collect and conserve wild and domesticated almonds of the region. Germplasm is conserved at the CYPARI Genebank at 0°C to 4°C. Duplicates were sent to the Regional Officer of IPGRI/WANA for characterization and longterm conservation at the Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory Just, Irbid-Jordan (Della and Gregoriou 1997).The germplasm of peach is listed in Table 2. There are 15 varieties in the BPM collection located at Saittas Station of the Department of Agriculture. The plants of this collection are grown in plastic containers (70 litres) in an insect-proof screenhouse. The MTO collection is located at Orites Station of the Department of Agriculture. In this collection there are 17 varieties grown in the open field. In 1999, a variety trial was established at Saittas Experimental Station of ARI with the aim of evaluating and choosing new cherry varieties for commercial cultivation. The fruit characteristics of those varieties are shown in Table 5. The variety 'Utah Giant' was introduced from Washington State University, USA. The Bigarreau varieties 'Ferbolus', 'Fercer', 'Summit', 'Reverchon', 'Lapins' and 'Griotte du Nord' were introduced from the Centre technique interprofessionnel des fruits et légumes (Ctifl, France). The varieties 'Ferbolus' and 'Fercer' were introduced under a special agreement signed between Ctifl and ARI (Gregoriou 1999b). The plum germplasm in Cyprus is shown in Table 6. There are 7 varieties in the BPM collection located at Saittas Station. The plants of the collection are grown in plastic containers (70 litres) in an insect-proof screen house. In the MTO collection there are 11 varieties grown in the open field. This collection is located at Orites Station. It is widely recognized that the value of germplasm collection is greatly increased when this collection is fully characterized, evaluated and thoroughly documented. A wellcharacterized, evaluated and documented collection clearly shows its potential for research and breeding, thus fulfilling one of the most important objectives of genetic resources activities: its utilization should obviously be done in a sustainable manner.In Cyprus more work has to be done on these activities. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately state the current situation concerning the number of characters observed and the descriptor list used. Regarding documentation, although not much information is available especially on the origin of the cultivars and varieties, it can be said that much more attention has to be paid to the documentation of the Prunus collections and all the records must be computerized.The main rootstocks for cherries are seedlings of P. avium (mazzard), for apricots seedlings of the varieties 'Pempekou' and 'Galatas', for almonds seedlings of P. communis, for plums seedlings of P. cerasifera and for peaches seedlings of P. persica. After the stratification process the seedlings of the above species are raised in black plastic bags (35 cm x 20 cm) and are budded in June or July with mature buds of the new vegetative shoots (Kyriakou 1974;Stavrides 1982).Propagation is mainly done by private or government nurseries. In both cases the source of propagating scion wood is the MTOs which are under the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture. The Plant Protection Section of this Department has the responsibility for maintaining the BPM and MTO collections free of pests and diseases and therefore of providing the nurseries and the farmers with healthy high quality and true-totype propagating materials. There are also suitable institutional arrangements for the registration of nurseries and appropriate Legislation and Regulations on Plant Propagation Standards for assuring quality control and standards (truthful labelling).With the increase of plant genetic resources awareness and the development of new concepts concerning the conservation, management and utilization of germplasm, more attention has to be devoted to Prunus genetic resources, especially to characterization, evaluation, conservation and documentation of Prunus germplasm in Cyprus. Special emphasis should be given to the almond biodiversity in the island. The almond genetic variability not yet lost, which was developed by farmers selecting the more promising trees among those produced by nature (through sexual crossing) should be identified, characterized, evaluated and saved for future generations, thus stopping genetic erosion, which is a high risk everywhere.Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology, Holovousy, Horice, Czech RepublicIn the Czech Republic Prunus species collections are included in the national programme of plant germplasm conservation, coordinated by the Genetic and Plant Breeding Division (Director: Dr L. Dotlačil, Research Institute for Crop Production -RICP, Prague-Ruzyne) and are fully funded by the Ministry of Agriculture. These funds are at present sufficient for the preservation of all accessions and their evaluation. However, they do not cover enough special projects, especially in the area of application of molecular markers or to fund the cleaning accessions from viruses and phytoplasmas.As regards the particular collections of Prunus species, cherries and plums are kept at the Research and Breeding Institute at Holovousy (Curator: Dr F. Paprštein), while almonds, apricots and peaches are kept at the Mendel Agricultural and Forestry University, Brno, Faculty of Horticulture at Lednice na Moravě (Curators: Dr B. Krška for apricots and Eng. I. Ondrášek for almonds and peaches).The status of the collections is shown in Table 1. In recent years all the accessions preserved in Prunus field collections were evaluated using national descriptors. Passport data and plant or fruit characteristics gathered from these evaluations were made publicly available through a national system developed for all plant species (EVIGEZ, Plant Genetic Resources Documentation in the Czech Republic, available at http://genbank.vurv.cz/genetic/resources/). A range of collecting missions to different regions of the Czech Republic (mostly into the national parks and protected areas) was organized with the aim of collecting native varieties and landraces. Many unique tree specimens were described and located using GPS within this study. Subsequently, two on-farm orchards were established with the aim of preserving local varieties in specific areas. The first planting was established in the national park KRNAP Vrchlabí where 53 local varieties of fruit trees were planted, including 9 sweet cherries, 4 sour cherries and 3 plums. The second on-farm orchard was planted in Orlické hory mountains at Neratov and named the \"Orchard of Reconciliation\". There are 41 local varieties of fruit trees planted there, including 3 sweet cherries and 1 plum.With sweet cherries a study of genetic diversity of 49 selected cultivars was done based on AFLP markers and subsequent cluster analysis of the resulting values (Fig. 1). At Holovousy 6 sweet cherry rootstock and 12 sweet cherry cultivars from the Czech Republic were evaluated in term of their resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Some of them were found more winter hardy than standard cultivars or rootstocks.In the Mendel Agricultural and Forestry University, Brno, Faculty of Horticulture at Lednice na Moravě, activities were focussed on the search for the best donors of plum pox virus (PPV) resistance, frost resistance and self-fertility. Regarding apricots, local apricot types similar to the variety ´Velkopavlovická´ were collected in the region of South Moravia and carefully evaluated. Accessions that are preserved in the field collections are mostly infected by viruses or phytoplasmas. In some cases several different diseases are present in the same accessions. With plums and in some of the apricots and peaches the main problem is sharka (plum pox virus, PPV), while apricot accessions are frequently infected by European stone fruit yellow virus (ESFY), whereas Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) constitutes the greatest threat for cherries. For the time being only a small number of accessions have been tested for the presence of the diseases by ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) or PCR (polymerase chain reaction). Symptomless trees, apparently still healthy, are growing in the same orchards close to heavily infected ones. Therefore the proportion of infected trees in these collections increases every year.In the past several attempts were made at Holovousy to clean up some important cultivars using a combination of thermotherapy, chemotherapy and in vitro culture but hitherto the success of this approach has been rather limited. Only with plums, in a few cases, were healthy clones obtained. On the other hand with sweet cherries no positive results were recorded. It is obvious that cleaning of Prunus accessions will be a very expensive and time-consuming process. Unfortunately, no funding is available in the Czech Republic for this purpose at present.Activities planned for the near future -Supply new data to the European Prunus database (EPDB) for apricots, peaches, plums and prunes; -Renewal of virus testing in all field Prunus collections; -Addition of more data regarding further characteristics (esp. fruit cracking susceptibility, firmness of flesh, tree habit, susceptibility to diseases) of cherry accessions into the EPDB; -Development of more efficient techniques for the cleaning of Prunus accessions; -Selection of the most important accessions in which cleaning from viruses and phytoplasmas should be applied as a priority; -Selection of the accessions that will be proposed for AEGIS.The oldest archaeological findings of plum and bullace seeds in Tartu, South Estonia, date from the 13 th century (Tammet 1994). The first detailed records of plum growing on private estates date back to the 16 th century.The most severe winter in the last century occurred in 1939-1940 when the temperature dropped to -43.5°C in January, killing 86% of the 52 7400 plum trees. The following three winters of World War II were also very cold, and in 1945 only 7% of the plum trees remained from those present in 1939 (Anonymous 1970). After that, every new winter-hardy plum cultivar was eagerly awaited.The first information on plum cultivars of Estonian origin can be traced back to the 19 th century (Kask and Jänes 1998a). Detailed investigations of the three plum landraces 'Märjamaa', 'Noarootsi Punane', 'Pärnu Sinine' and two large-fruited bullace landraces 'Hiiu Sinine' and 'Tamme Sinine' were made in the 20 th century.Professional and amateur plum breeding flourished in Estonia in the second half of the 20 th century. However, among amateur breeders only two obtained breeders' certificates. Nineteen plum cultivars were bred at the Polli Horticultural Research Centre, using one of these approaches: hybridization of certain female and male parents with the best winter hardiness and good quality of fruits; growing seedlings from seeds from open-pollination; and treatment with radiation (γ rays). The last-named method resulted in the creation of a very large-fruited cultivar 'Radiolus'.The most winter hardy cultivars are 'Noarootsi Punane', 'Polli Munaploom' and 'Vilnor'.The earliest-ripening are 'Kressu', 'Liisu' and 'Polli Varane'.The cultivars with the biggest fruits are 'Ave', 'Liisu', 'Polli Munaploom', 'Radiolus' and 'Suur Tõll'.Since 2002, a government project has been responsible for financially supporting the conservation of fruit tree and small fruit genetic resources in a collection maintained at the Polli Horticultural Research Centre. The aim is to devise a system that encourages research, conservation and sustainable use of landraces and old cultivars. The project also deals with the search for adaptability to local soil and climate conditions.Table 1 lists all existing plum landraces and cultivars of Estonian origin.The following criteria were used to define a cultivar: the cultivar is (1) one which has the breeder's certificate, or (2) it is included in the \"List of fruit cultivars\" officially recommended for growing in Estonia or other countries, (3) it was officially taken for testing in cultivar-testing farms (in the Soviet Union years), or (4) it is protected or registered as a new cultivar by the state authorities. The last of these criteria has been in use only since the late 1990s.According to these criteria, there were 30 plum cultivars of Estonian origin in 2005 (Table 1). In addition, many original trees are certainly growing in home gardens, planted from a seed or grown from spontaneous seedlings. The owners never thought to register or protect them. However, some of these selections have been grafted or transferred to other gardens and repeatedly propagated. These are not recorded as cultivars. In the most severe winter 1939-1940 (minimum -43.5°C), 81% of the 522 000 cherry trees were killed. After the following three severe winters, less than 10% of the cherry trees remained from those present in 1939 (Anonymous 1970).The first information on cherry cultivars of Estonian origin dates back to the 20 th century. However, there are three sour cherry cultivars which are evidently landraces. Professional breeding activity at the Polli Horticultural Research Centre started after 1945, but had no success for the first two decades. A sweet cherry breeding programme initiated in 1955 at the Estonian Academy of Sciences resulted in the creation of three cultivars, the first sweet cherry cultivars of Estonian origin. The next breeding period at the Polli Horticultural Research Centre started in 1965 and, five years later, the sweet cherry breeding programme of the Estonian Academy of Sciences was also transferred to Polli.Only one sour cherry cultivar, 'Jagoli', was released by the Estonian breeding programme, but it is not planted in commercial orchards or in home gardens. Regarding sweet cherry, 16 cultivars have been registered by the state authorities so far (Table 2). Many of these are appreciated by growers and consumers in Estonia and Latvia. They are more winter-hardy than imported cultivars. However their fruits are soft and small: 3-4 g, sometimes 5-6 g. The colour is black or dark red, only very few are yellow. Their taste is good or very good (Kask and Jänes 1998b).The scientist responsible for the Prunus collections is the second author, Dr Heljo Jänes. The French National Prunus Genetic Resources Network The conservation of French Prunus genetic resources in France is included in a national network under the authority of the French National Board of Genetic Resources (Bureau des Ressources Génétiques, BRG). This network includes all the institutes involved in Prunus genetic resources conservation. The project described here is for Prunus genetic resources, but the same approach is applied to all plant, animal and microorganism genetic resource collections in France.The main objective of the network is the rationalization of genetic resources conservation. For this purpose, a charter was created in 1999 to define the partners and establish the national genebank. Collections are distributed at different locations in France. Finally, 12 French curators agreed to take part, taking into account certain conditions of perenniality and sanitary status.The operation of this network will include the management of the national collection, the setting-up of the national database, the coordination of the cooperative network, the definition of the core collection and coordination with international partnerships.The French National Prunus Collection is maintained as trees planted in orchards and managed by several curators belonging to the cooperative network. It is managed in two ways: a long-term bank, used as the active genebank for the distribution of material, and a safety bank holding the duplicates.Three research institutes are involved in the conservation of Prunus genetic resources: INRA-Bordeaux holds collections of cherries, plums, peaches and wild Prunus-related species; INRA-Avignon holds collections of apricots and almonds; and the Conservatoire Botanique National de Porquerolles mostly has collections of old French varieties of peaches and a few other Prunus species.Other collections of Prunus are held by non-governmental organizations which include many of the groups of people in France concerned with conservation of genetic resources in plants. The main objectives of these associations are:-the conservation of old and regional varieties, also considered as French cultural patrimony; -the possible use of these varieties for scientific purposes; -the promotion of local varieties at the local level for their economic value.The Prunus National Collection comprises all the genotypes that come under France's responsibility for their conservation, especially French cultivars struck off from the French official catalogue of varieties; populations and old cultivars of French origin; and original material obtained from collecting trips in French territories. Currently there are 578 original accessions. The number of accessions per species is presented in Table 1.The major French Prunus genetic resource collections are now located at the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) centres in Bordeaux and Avignon. These genetic resources comprise foreign standard accessions, Prunus-related species, interspecific hybrids and mapping populations (Table 1). • Recording of passport data, morphological and biological characters for Prunus accessions (starting with plums, cherries and their related species); • Analysis of the efficiency of the characterization descriptors;• Molecular characterization will be undertaken for Prunus accessions (starting with cherry species and Prunus-related species); and • Development of a Quality Management System.Georgian Research Institute of Horticulture, Viticulture and Oenology, Tbilisi, GeorgiaThe geographical location and environmental conditions of Georgia are favourable to the cultivation of Prunus species. Along with the other Caucasian countries Georgia can be considered as a primary centre of origin of plum, damson, sour and sweet cherry, and as a secondary centre of diversification for cultivated peaches (Khomizurashvili and Diasamidze 1978). Prunus genetic resources display a broad diversity. Both native and introduced varieties of Prunus are cultivated in Georgia.Collecting and describing fruit varieties started in Georgia at the end of the 19 th century. A large number of indigenous and introduced genotypes were investigated. Particular progress was made in the 1970s and 1980s, when a full pomological description of about 210 varieties of Prunus species was included in the monograph \"Horticulture of Georgia\" (op. cit.).Since the beginning of the 1990s the existing collections have not been financed by the government and they are not developing. The orchards are old, basically established 20-30 years ago.Field conservation of fruit crops was and still is carried out only by the Research Institute of Horticulture, Viticulture and Oenology in Tbilisi. The ex situ Prunus collections are located in Tbilisi, Galavani, Gori and Skra (East Georgia) and Sakara (West Georgia). The Department of Fruit Crops and Grapevine Germplasm Research, Genetics and Breeding manages the field collections.The inventory lists 394 accessions, including 130 \"original\", but the field collections contain only 130 accessions, including 25 \"original\" (Table 1). The material is not safety-duplicated or protected. The status of in situ collections is not known. Some material may have been lost.Genotypes in active collections are evaluated according to the most important phenotypic and pomological characteristics to determine their importance for fruit production and breeding. This research is also being carried out without any financial assistance from the State.Data about Georgian original fruit crop accessions are not included in the ECP/GR and GRIN databases, owing to the lack of computer facilities and technical support.In Germany the collection of plant genetic resources of fruit species is the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. In January 2003 the Fruit Genebank was integrated into the existing Federal Centre for Breeding Research on Cultivated Plants, Institute of Fruit Breeding. The new curator is Dr Monika Höfer.As a first step in the newly integrated genebank operation, a concept for future work was defined. Its aim is the preservation of fruit genetic resources at a high and effective level within the framework of the \"National Programme for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Genetic Resources of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops\" in Germany.The first step in achieving this concept includes the selection of the fruit species and cultivars of interest. The selection of the species gives priority to those native to Central Europe and those important for fruit production in Germany either in the past or for the present. Cultivar selection focuses on cultivars of German origin; these include new breeding lines and those which have a social, cultural, local or historical connection to Germany plus those characterized by valuable and/or important pomological parameters. The genebank will be gradually rearranged according to these criteria. The genebank's mandate is the collection, preservation and evaluation of fruit genetic resources of pome fruit, stone fruit and strawberries for breeding, fruit production, pomological, taxonomic and phytopathological purposes. The whole collection comprises 2480 accessions and covers 10 ha in the orchard. In addition to the cultivar collections of apple, pear, sweet and sour cherry, strawberry and plum germplasm including landraces, cultivars and advanced hybrids, there are collections of wild species accessions in Malus, Pyrus, Prunus and Fragaria.For Prunus, the genebank includes 191 sweet cherry cultivars, 92 sour cherry and 165 plums. The indigenous Prunus collection has 85 accessions including 25 different species. The characterization of pomological traits in sweet and sour cherry is of great importance. Therefore an evaluation project was started in cooperation with the cherry breeders at the Institute of Fruit Breeding. This project will focus on the evaluation of morphological parameters of the tree, the fruit and the flowers and will include traits such as yield, disease resistance, fertility and fruit quality. The ultimate aim is a comprehensive evaluation of the material and an enlargement of the existing database for cherry (www.genres.de/eva/). The investigations will result in improved characterization of the cultivars, measurable progress in fruit breeding and better utilization of genetic resources.Determination of the S-allele composition was done in cherry by using micro-satellites. Altogether 163 accessions were investigated and 29 different incompatibility groups were detected (Schuster, Flachowsky and Köhler, in preparation).The status of the Prunus National Collection has not changed since 2002. It includes wild species, traditional cultivars, breeder's lines, advanced cultivars, clonal selections and rootstocks of Prunus species (almond, apricot, cherry, peach and plum), which are kept in ex situ collections of the Pomology Institute of the National Agricultural Research Foundation (NAGREF) and used by the Greek Prunus Gene Bank.The status of the material in the collections is presented in Table 1. The Greek Gene Bank for Deciduous Fruit Trees did not carry out any other activities owing to lack of funding and staff.The Institute for Agrobotany in Tápiószele supervises and coordinates genetic resources activities in Hungary. It maintains a National Database of germplasm collections of field crops and fruit species. The \"Crop Gene Bank Council\" is the body in charge of determining the principles of the national genebank work and harmonizing it with international regulations.Genebank activities in Hungary are supported by the Ministry of Agriculture which has the overall task of supervision.The Hungarian Prunus living germplasm collection is located at the research station of the Research Institute for Fruitgrowing and Ornamentals in Érd and covers 16 ha. At present our collection holds 2068 accessions (Table 1). Our Prunus species are cultivated ones; the most valuable items are local varieties and Hungarian landraces from our plum and cherry collections, among which a great variability can be observed. Our fruit trees are maintained in two kinds of plantations. The so-called \"old genebank\" was established in 1986 and holds only one tree per accession. Ecological problems and virus infections brought the plantation to rather a poor condition. The material was threatened with extinction; therefore transplantation to a more suitable site began in 1996. The new plantation or \"new genebank\" holds two trees (side-by-side) per accession. The transplantation of peach, apricot, sweet cherry and almond collection is finished; that of sour cherry and plum is still in progress and will probably be finished in 2004. This work is supported by the Ministry of Agriculture.Unfortunately our accessions cannot be found at other growing sites, and safetyduplication is badly needed. Currently there is no cryopreservation of Prunus in Hungary.At present no virus-free material is available from our germplasm collection; exchanging accessions between collections is not yet straightforward.In the last few years, because of lack of manpower we were only able to enlarge our genebank with some 5-10 items yearly. With the financial support of the Ministry of Environment and Water we were able to collect Hungarian landraces from the protected areas of our National Parks.It is important to put greater efforts into collecting work in the future: there are still some unexplored areas in Hungary and in the whole Carpathian Basin where the optimal pedoclimatic conditions have resulted in a unique species diversity within the Prunus genus.Characterization started in 1996 and is being done according to IPGRI descriptors. The features described include phenological and morphological characters (mainly fruit characteristics) and resistance to pests and diseases (Table 2).Blooming and ripening times of most accessions have been observed. Some fruit characters of nearly all plum and almond accessions have been recorded; for the other stone fruit species it has just started. Generally, we aim at characterizing one species every year. For instance, this year characterization of sweet cherry, which started last year, is going on.In recent years we have focused on disease resistance: we have evaluated our sour cherry, apricot and almond accessions for tolerance to Monilinia laxa, and plum accessions for tolerance to plum pox virus. Tolerant accessions may serve as sources of resistance in breeding work. During our characterization work we find it quite difficult to compare our cultivars with worldwide known reference cultivars because in our conditions they can behave differently: fruit parameters such as size or ripening time can vary. Thus in some cases we are not able to use reference cultivars as indicated in Table 2 (characters marked with *). Additionally, there is a lack of reference cultivars in our collection.There has been no molecular characterization of our accessions, although an S-allele work project has been planned with our sweet cherry accessions.Recently we started introducing genebank activity to those interested in horticulture through booklets, with a short description of our most interesting items.• Additional genebank items will be characterized and data will be added to the European Prunus Database. • Some limited collection of new items is planned, which can be extended with support.• Although a cooperative programme has been terminated with IPGRI we would very much like to continue our cooperation in the future.Israel is not considered to be the area of origin of deciduous fruit species of the Prunus genus. However, local plums, apricots, peaches and almonds have been grown in Israel for centuries and are deeply embedded in the history and culture of the region. In addition, there are almond and plum species that grow wild in Israel.  (Assaf 1992;Zanetto et al. 2002;Holland et al. 2003). Since the establishment of the Prunus collection, new accessions have been introduced successively and today it contains 51 accessions. The criteria for including accessions into the collection are that they were grown in old traditional orchards or backyards for decades. In this update we report on the composition of the Prunus species present in the Israeli collection, some of their most interesting features and future plans for the collection.The  Fourteen accessions were added to the Prunus collection in the last five years. As far as we know, there are no records indicating that the accessions described above were introduced to Israel from abroad. We therefore assume that these Prunus accessions originate from Israel and its surroundings. Almonds are widely found growing in Israel as semi-wild seedlings under natural conditions. Thus, it appears that among the Prunus genus, almonds are the best adapted to the environmental conditions in Israel. This fact may also explain the larger number of almond species found in the collection. Some of the accessions found in the collection are still grown in commercial orchards. For example, the almond 'Um ElFahem' (accession P.Am.777-278) is the main commercial cultivar in Israel. Another example is the apricot 'Mustakawi' (accession P.A.706-207) which is still grown in small plots by traditional farmers. Despite its poor shelf-life and small fruit size, 'Mustakawi' is still cherished because of its appealing taste and aroma. The 'Sweet Kerasia' plum (accession P.657-158) is also grown in traditional plots and is sought as an aromatic and exotic fruit with an appearance resembling that of cherry. We found that several accessions initially collected under different names are similar in their phenotypes. For example the landrace 'Mustakawi' is also called 'Hamawi' or 'Baladi'. The genetic verification will require DNA fingerprinting techniques.The Israeli collection of deciduous fruit trees was initially reported to IPGRI in 1995 (Zanetto 2002). The collection was funded at first by the Israeli Ministry of Science and is currently under the responsibility of the Israel Gene Bank for Agricultural Crops in the Agricultural Research Organization in Bet Dagan. All the accessions present in the Newe Ya'ar collection are documented in the Israel Gene Bank (IGB) database (http://igb.agri.gov.il/). In future years more details, including photographs, will be introduced into the database.In addition to its importance for preserving local Israeli fruit trees, the Prunus collection in Israel is used for several other purposes. These include apricot and almond breeding, virus distribution and evolution studies of Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) (Spiegel et al. 2004), apricot as rootstocks, and education. In apricot, 'Mustakawi' (accession P.A.706-207) was crossed with European and American apricot cultivars. Some of the F1 progenies have already given fruit and backcrosses of the F1 are now planned. In almond, the cultivar 'Um ElFahem' (accession P.Am.777-278) which is notable for its large sweet kernel was crossed with self-compatible cultivars. Some promising F1 self-compatible progenies that retained the kernel size and taste characteristics from 'Um ElFahem' were identified. Seedlings of apricot accessions P.A.639-140 and P.A.640-141 ('Klabi' landrace) are used as rootstocks for early ripening apricot cultivars. The Prunus collection is also a major source of propagation material used for establishing educational plots to demonstrate agriculture in biblical times.Judging by the Hebrew literature from the mid-20 th century (Goor and Rapaport 1949;Goor et al. 1964Goor et al. , 1966) ) the collection in Newe Ya'ar does not yet completely represent all the Prunus varieties and landraces that were grown in Israel in the past. Some of these accessions have already been identified in deserted orchards or small plots of traditional farmers but are not yet grown in our orchards. Others should be searched out in the few remaining sites of traditional plots of deciduous fruit trees which are rapidly disappearing. In addition, it will be very important to determine the genetic similarity of the Prunus populations from Israel with those of other countries. Of particular importance are the relations with Prunus collections originating from the Middle East and among the individuals within the Newe Ya'ar collection. For this purpose, we will need to utilize AFLP or SSR markers which are already available for plum, apricot and almond but have not been applied to DNA fingerprinting in our collection yet. Development of international collaboration with other researchers in the world is of crucial importance for this purpose.The first organized initiative at national level to trace, collect, characterize and evaluate accessions of the major woody crops present in Italy dates back to 1981, when it was coordinated and funded by the National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR). Thanks to this activity, extended up to 1993, some 8692 citrus, apricot, cherry, almond, apple, olive, pear, peach, plum and vine exotic and native accessions were traced, described and catalogued (CNR 1988(CNR , 1994)). This work was extremely important, not only because of the impressive size and genetic richness of the material inventoried, but also because it highlighted the rapid process of genetic erosion threatening many old and indigenous varieties. The commercial use of these varieties has been or was about to be neglected in favour of modern cultivars (CNR 1994). Continuation and updating, at national level, of the inventory activities were afterwards funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Policies (Ministero per le Politiche Agricole e Forestali, MiPAF), which entrusted the coordination of fruit tree genetic resources initiatives to the Istituto Sperimentale per la Frutticoltura (ISF) (Fideghelli et al. 2004).In 1993 the ISF coordinated a new census of the accessions held in the several Italian field collections, in which 14 public Institutions collaborated. As far as Prunus is concerned, a total of 3952 accessions (6804 including duplicates) were listed and described, 45% of which originated in Italy (\"original\"). Results show that up to 70% of the \"original\" germplasm is safety-duplicated, i.e. collected in at least two sites (Grassi et al. 1996).The most recent census on fruit tree genetic resources dates back to 1999. The ISF extended the investigation to a larger number of institutes than in 1993, including, together with 17 national scientific institutions, eight regional/local institutes (Table 1).Curators of the field collections were asked to list and describe the accessions conserved according to a number of general and crop-specific descriptors of the FAO/IPGRI Multi-crop Passport Descriptors agreed by the ECP/GR Central Crop Databases Workshop and by the ECP/GR Prunus Working Group, respectively. Data on soil texture and climatic conditions of the field and standards of collection management were also requested.Excluding duplicates, 7276 accessions of the most important fruit crops were listed and described, 3398 of which belonging to the Prunus genus (mainly cultivars but also selections, rootstocks, interspecific hybrids). Data were assembled and organized by ISF in two databases consultable on CD. Descriptive lists of the native Italian accessions (42% of the total) were also published as paper catalogues (Vitellozzi et al. 2001;Sartori et al. 2003). Since June 2006, this National Inventory (NI) is also consultable on-line (http://www.rgvpoliticheagricole-cra.it), and, considerably updated and continuously enlarged, comprises at the moment more than 4000 Prunus accessions. The ISF, with its four Research Units (RU) located in Roma, Caserta (Lat. 41°N), Trento (Lat. 46°N) and Forlì (Lat. 44°N), is the institution contributing most to the ex situ conservation of the Italian fruit tree germplasm. Concerning Prunus, for instance, 73% of the total accessions catalogued in 1999 were conserved in the ISF field collections.Table 1. List of the national and regional/local institutes collaborating in the National Germplasm Inventory coordinated by the ISF in 1999 (in bold, those contributing for Prunus)As shown by the inventory, most of the \"original\" accessions (71.5%) were not safetyduplicated, in other words at risk of erosion (Table 2). By comparing the data of the most recent inventory with those of the previous one, the number of total and \"original\" accessions recorded in 1999 was, respectively, 16% and 19% less than six years before. Also, the genetic erosion risk was much lower in 1993, when about 70% of the original accessions were safety-duplicated. The recent loss of material is largely due to damage caused by sharka (plum pox virus) which is spreading in Italy, in spite of the survey, eradication and quarantine protocols adopted in the areas where PPV infections are detected. Between 1993 and 1999, more than 1000 accessions had to be removed from the conservation fields of a number of institutions. In part, the existing safety-duplications buffered these removals (reducing, however, the percentage of accessions still held at two sites). The lost material is gradually being reacquired from duplication sites, local farmers and/or certified garden centres.Another reason for the reported decrease of collected (and/or duplicated) material originates in the abandoning or restructuring of existing collections.In order to preserve and make use of the impressive patrimony of Italian fruit genetic diversity, in 2000, the Ministry of Agriculture funded the establishment of the National Centre of Fruit Germplasm at ISF Rome: about 30 ha located within the National Park of the Ancient Appia Way (southeast of Rome) were acquired to be devoted to a Fruit Germplasm Conservation Collection (CC). Through the CC, the ISF aims at prioritizing the preservation of indigenous Italian germplasm, including most of the cultivars (and very few selections) inventoried in the 1999 census, totalling some 8000 accessions of different fruit species.The first trees were planted in 2004. Table 3 reports the number of apricot, peach, plum and cherry cultivars planted or ready to be planted and the graftings planned for the near future, as well as the types of rootstock used and the planting spaces adopted for each crop. Each accession is represented by two contiguous trees.The CC will also include accessions of other woody crop species: olive, table grape, woody ornamentals, etc. Also, at a regional level, in the last 10-15 years, numerous initiatives have been registered, aimed at listing and preserving the local fruit germplasm in danger of erosion. As the local genetic patrimony is strictly tied to the traditions of a specific region, protecting it also means conserving the values inherent in the territory and the local culture including traditional knowledge and use of the existing species and varieties. As a consequence, many regions have established laws regarding the protection of local genetic material (plants as well as animals) of agricultural, scientific, or cultural interest. Specific projects, carried out by regional agencies in collaboration with experienced research institutions, are targeted at the identification, characterization and use of the local varieties which have been discovered and their inclusion in existing collections; results are disseminated in written and/or electronic formats.A recent initiative worth mentioning is that carried out in Sicily (southern Italy, 38.5° lat. N) on almond germplasm. Being propagated by seed for centuries, Sicilian indigenous almond germplasm is characterized by a wide biodiversity, although progressively marginalized due to the increased development and utilization of few commercial varieties (Barbera et al. 2005). In 1997, with the financial support of the Sicilian Region and the Province of Agrigento, cultivars/accessions recovered from most of the traditional almond growing sites of Sicily were gathered in a 5-ha field collection. This collection, called 'Museo Vivente del Mandorlo' (Living Almond Museum), is situated in Agrigento, in the heart of the Valley of the Temples. About 300 cultivars (ca. 80% Sicilian germplasm and 20% germplasm from other parts of Italy plus exotic germplasm) were grafted onto GF677 peach x almond rootstock (5 trees/cultivar) and planted 6 x 6 m apart. In order to characterize this germplasm and, where necessary, to solve problems of synonymies and homonymies among accessions, data on flowering and fruiting phenology and fruit traits have been collected since 2000 (Sottile et al. 2005). During the coming years, these data will be integrated with molecular characterization.• Enrichment of the conservation collection (re-acquisition of lost material, inclusion of new material); • Continuation of the characterization of the accessions using the agreed passport data;• Agronomic evaluation and evaluation for resistance/tolerance to different diseases in Prunus species (apricot, peach, cherry), followed by targeted breeding programmes;  (Ruisa 1998;Lacis and Ruisa 1999;Kaufmane et al. 2002). The widest distribution, variety diversity in small gardens and importance in commercial growing is for cherries (sour cherries, P. cerasus L. and sweet cherries, P. avium L.) and plums (P. domestica L. and other species).These crops therefore also have high significance for breeding programmes and plant genetic resources activities (Rashal and Lacis 1999). Apricots (P. armeniaca L.) and peaches (P. persica L.) were introduced as minor crops with the main breeding goal of developing hardy varieties adapted to the local climate (Skrivele et al. 1995;Kaufmane 1998;Strazinska 1999). The only native species growing in Latvia are P. spinosa L. which is very rare and P. padus, but wild-growing seedlings of these species are also quite common.The stone fruit (Prunus) landraces and varieties grown in Latvia represent an interesting result of the long-term introduction and hybridization of western European, Russian and lately also American varieties. The local climate demands a specific assortment of varieties, different from that of the southern and continental climate fruit growing areas. Such traits as winter hardiness, specific disease resistance and early maturing during cool summers are among the most important characteristics. The local genetic resources are a valuable source for the discovering and breeding of such varieties, as well as for the extension of the genetic basis of breeding work.The present state funding for fruit crop genetic resource maintenance in Latvia allows only for the maintaining and renewing of the collections. More profound research requires the involvement of more scientific staff and laboratory equipment, therefore separate funding is necessary. For this reason, the main results so far have been achieved in cooperation with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Balsgård, Department of Crop Science (SLU-Balsgård).The Latvia State Institute of Fruit-Growing (LIFG) and Pure Horticultural Research Station (HRS) hold extensive and valuable fruit crop genetic resources collections, including 399 accessions of stone fruits of different origin, which are used in research and breeding. Since the availability and informative value of germplasm are becoming more and more important for the future preservation and sustainable use of genetic resources, the constitution of the Prunus genetic resources core collections is very important for our country. When dealing with vegetatively propagated crops maintained in the field, it is not possible to duplicate whole collections due to the expense and time needed. Therefore conservation methods should be optimized and core collections are the most appropriate approach to ensure germplasm conservation without losing valuable breeding material and genetic diversity. This was one of the aims of the common Latvian-Swedish genetic resources evaluation programme.Core collections in general are aimed at improving the management and effective use of plant genetic resources. They consist of a subset of the entire germplasm collection, chosen so as to represent maximal genetic diversity, with a minimal redundancy of the crop and its related species (Brown 1989;Ortiz et al. 1998). The creation of core collections can be done in several ways (Brown 1989). The most effective is by the application of descriptor-based characterization followed by statistical analysis. One such type of analysis is principal component analysis (PCA), which enables researchers to perform simultaneous comparison of accessions for all traits, providing a general summary of variation and grouping of accessions according to characterization data (Broschat 1979;Iezzoni and Pritts 1991;van Hintum 1995;Noirot et al. 1996).The establishment of representative core collections is largely dependent on the germplasm characterization level. Therefore in 1997 the characterization and evaluation of Prunus was started at Dobele. The goal of this paper is to describe the current situation in Latvian Prunus genetic resources evaluation, characterization and maintenance.Prunus genetic resources in Latvia are stored at two major locations: the Latvia State Institute of Fruit-Growing (LIFG) and Pure Horticultural Research Station (Pure HRS) (Rashal and Lacis 1999). The collections there include the majority of the plum, cherry, apricot and peach varieties of Latvian origin, many breeding selections and foreign varieties. The priority accessions of Latvian origin at Pure and Dobele are duplicated according to the national genetic resources preservation programme (named cultivars and outstanding breeding hybrids). Smaller collections of Latvian apricot and peach varieties are kept at the Botanical Garden of the University of Latvia (LUBG), Riga (Table 1).The Prunus evaluation and characterization programme included plant material held at the LIFG, Pure HRS and the LUBG collections (Table 1). The data used for the survey refer to the 399 accessions in total (318, 187 and 13 at the LIFG, Pure HRS and LUBG, respectively), represented by sweet and sour cherries, plums, apricots and peaches; 118 of them are duplicated, and these form the first priority group of Latvian origin in Table 1. The cherry germplasm collection in Latvia includes accessions collected during expeditions within Latvia, foreign varieties (mainly from Estonia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine), advanced hybrids, and cultivars from other Latvian breeding programmes. It holds 80 accessions of sweet cherries and 45 of sour cherries.The local sweet cherry accessions obtained by the breeder P. Upitis form the largest part of the collection. This material includes both samples from expeditions (mostly wild-growing and landraces) and hybrids from his breeding programmes. Unfortunately the information about the exact breeding and collection sources is lost. It is known only that local plant material was generally used both for the selection of advanced varieties and hybridization in the 1950s-1960s (Blukmanis et al. 1997).Another group includes sweet cherry varieties and advanced hybrids which were created by other Latvian breeders using old traditional cultivars from Western Europe.An important part of the Latvian collection is represented by foreign sweet cherry varieties developed in the former USSR (Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine), and characterized by good winter hardiness, disease resistance, but quite low fruit quality. There are also some high fruit quality varieties from Western Europe and North America.The most widely represented and the most important sour cherry variety in Latvia is 'Latvijas Zemais', 18 different clones of which have been collected. The collection of sour cherries also includes some other local varieties and introduced cultivars.Plum collections in Latvia include varieties and superior selections derived from P. domestica, crosses between P. cerasifera, P. salicina (including subsp. ussuriensis), P. simonii and P. americana, samples of P. spinosa and P. brigantiaca. These constitute the plum genetic resources collections at the LIFG and Pure HRS. A particular group is Eurasian plums, which were developed in Russia by crossing diploid and hexaploid plums which were subsequently backcrossed to get hexaploid material. The total number of plum accessions is 223.The cultivars and superior selections in the collections are of many different origins (Latvia, Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Italy, Germany, France, USA, Canada, Norway, etc.). For description and analysis, wild specimens growing in Latvia were also used.Apricot and peach (P. armeniaca L. and P. persica L.) breeding was carried out in a breeding programme at the LIFG and the Botanical Garden of the University of Latvia in the 1950s-1960s. The genetic resources include collections of apricot and peach cultivars and hybrids in both places -LIFG hybrids were obtained by the breeder P. Upitis using mostly material from the Central Asian Mountains, but at the Botanical Garden the breeder V. Varna used European peach and apricot varieties. There are 43 accessions of apricot and 8 of peach in the collections.Data acquisition was started in 1997 at the sweet cherry germplasm collection at the LIFG. The following quantitative traits were recorded for sweet cherries: fruit breadth, length, width, weight, skin colour; pit breadth, length, width, weight; length of fruit stalk; soluble solids in fruits; leaf blade area, width, length; leaf vein angles (apex, middle, base); leaf serrations per cm; gland number on the basal leaf edge; petiole length, thickness; gland number on petiole. The sour cherry germplasm was described using the same characters and analyzed at the LIFG in 2000. Leaf and fruit characters were measured in July-August. For each accession 25 random samples were evaluated (5 trees per accession and 5 samples per tree).Afterwards during the data analyses these characters were converted to the IPGRI/UPOV descriptors and supplemented with additional ones.All other analyses of cherry (1999-2001), plum (1998-2000) and apricot (2000-2001) germplasm were done based on morphology and phenology, fruit quality, disease resistance and hardiness data. In total 19 characters were used for sweet cherries, 21 characters for sour cherries, 18 for plums and 20 for apricots (Table 2). The characterization was based on descriptor lists approved by UPOV and IBPGR:-IBPGR (Schmidt et al. 1985) and UPOV (TG/35/6, 1995) for cherries, -IBPGR (Guerriero and Watkins 1984) and UPOV (TG/41/4, 1977) for plums, and -IBPGR (Cobianchi and Watkins 1984) and UPOV (TG/70/3, 1979) for apricots, supplemented by local reference cultivars. ensure standardization of evaluation; (ii) specific cultivars and botanical varieties from each country, to preserve the local germplasm; and (iii) cultivars and genotypes with outstanding breeding value. In the first step of the constitution of core collections within the Latvian-Swedish programme the choice of actual accessions for inclusion in core collections was based on the representation of species and intraspecific taxonomic groups, geographic coverage and morphological characteristics. Accessions outside this mandatory group were chosen based on characterization data. The procedure was aimed at identifying the more genetically diverse material, which is important for future breeding.In the second phase of the constitution of core collections, PCA was used to study the correlation among varieties, species, inter-and intraspecific hybrids, which are necessary to establish the relationships between the different groups of accessions in the whole and core collections. It allowed checking the genetic diversity representativeness of a selected core collection compared to the whole collection.Characterization was started for Latvian cherry genetic resources. Since this evaluation was done over several years (1997)(1998)(1999), the detection of characters which are stable across the years (less variable environmentally) was possible. Very stable traits were found to be pit length, pit weight, fruit skin colour, leaf serration. Fruit characters such as width, breadth and weight were found to have low variability across years (Lacis and Rashal 2000). Therefore fruit characters were chosen as appropriate for germplasm characterization, a decision which agrees with the results of some other surveys (Vittrup-Christensen 1977, 1984). Results of sweet cherry data analysis from Sweden also came to similar conclusions, showing the high importance of fruit characters in accession grouping. Therefore the estimation of relatedness of sweet cherry accessions was based on the fruit characters.According to the results of cluster and principal component analyses the cherry germplasm collection at the LIFG did not show strictly distinct groups based on phenotypic variance (Lacis 2001;Lacis and Rashal 2001). Nevertheless the coverage of genetic diversity by the core collection accessions was adequate (Fig. 1).  The grouping of sour cherry accessions gave two main groups with several escapers. Most of those selected as being reference varieties and valuable accessions, were included in the preliminary core set. Additional sour cherry accessions were included according to the grouping results to improve representativeness of the core collection.Preliminary selection of Latvian sweet cherry accessions for a core collection gave 22 candidates. Latvian sour cherry germplasm is represented in the core collection by the two most common local varieties. Six sour cherry accessions and 16 sweet cherry accessions are assigned as reference varieties for further standardized evaluation (Table 3). The evaluation should be continued to ensure the correctness of these choices. The evaluation of cherry genetic diversity is being started using molecular marker (SSR) fingerprinting to verify the results of phenotypic analyses. The establishment of the plum core collection was performed in a similar way as for cherries, by choosing mandatory accessions and then following up with sample selection and reliability checking, using multivariate statistical approaches (Kaufmane et al. 2002). The results showed a clear separation of genotypes into two main groups: 1 = hexaploid; 2 = diploid plums and plums with other ploidy (3n, 4n, 5n, 7n) (Fig. 2). No such strict group formation was observed among P. domestica cultivar groups. Quite a good grouping was found in prunes, egg plums and the Eurasian group, but cultivars of gages were more diffuse between other P. domestica genotypes. A high degree of genetic variability together with intense recombination between genotypes and a broad genetic basis for breeding may be the reason for this finding (Ortiz et al. 1997). The preliminary list of core collection candidates includes 21 accessions. Additionally 35 accessions were marked out as reference cultivars for standardized evaluation (Table 3). The comparison of accessions from the whole and core collections was also done by ANOVA, and showed high reliability of choice, because average values of most of the traits for accessions of the core collection were located in the range of the whole collection values (95% confidence level). Statistically significant differences, which were found for some traits, can be explained by the choice of superior representatives of the groups (e.g. fruit size). It also can be a result of the high representation of local, country-specific varieties, which are distinct for their adaptive traits (season of flowering, harvest maturity).The main part of Latvian apricot collections used for the first round of description consists of accessions introduced to Latvia from the Caucasus Mountain area several decades ago and their seedlings.The use of listed descriptors (IPGRI/UPOV) prevented the tracing of different origins for these accessions. Descriptors which better reflect botanical distinctiveness should be included in the further characterization, to get more precise germplasm grouping. It is necessary to continue characterization and character assessment, to work out proper criteria for a representative apricot core collection establishment.A very important point is the choice of reference cultivars for standardized characterization. Since none of the proposed IPGRI/UPOV reference cultivars are available in our latitudes, 10 local apricot varieties were assigned as reference varieties for further characterization.This survey is the first attempt at establishing Prunus core collections from genetic resources collections maintained in Latvia. The use of characterization and evaluation data for this purpose was found to be appropriate. The multivariate statistical analyses based on characterization data can lead to a better understanding of the genetic structure of the stone fruit collections and facilitate a proper core collection establishment. Development of locally adapted descriptor lists was done by introducing local reference varieties that will promote future evaluation.The national plant genetic resources network in Lithuania is led by the Plant Gene Bank located at the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture in Akademija (near Dotnuva, Kedainiai district). This genebank is responsible for collections of all kinds of crops. Other participating centres in the network include:-the Lithuanian Institute of Horticulture (LIH) (all traditional horticultural crops); -the Botanical Garden of Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University and the Botanical Garden of Vilnius University (wild small fruit and non-traditional horticultural crops); -the Institute of Botany, the Botanical Garden of Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University and the Lithuanian Agricultural University (medicinal and aromatic plants); -Vilnius University, the Botanical Garden of Vilnius University, the Botanical Garden of Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University, the Institute of Botany, the Flower Research Station and the Society of Dendrologists (ornamental plants); and -the Lithuanian Forest Research Institute (forest genetic resources).The main Prunus collections are maintained in fields (in situ) and some are also conserved in vitro at LIH (Table 1). Since 1994 the Lithuanian government has financed the plant genetic resources programmes. The scientific investigations carried out on Prunus are as follows:-Plant variability and stability during micropropagation, production of virus-free material and long storage in vitro;-Evaluation of donor characteristics and their molecular markers. Investigation of S-allele distribution in local sweet cherry cultivars;-Evaluation of complex resistance to frost and fungal diseases.Prunus cultivars and lines which are the donors of desirable traits started to be introduced and used in the Prunus breeding programmes.At the international level, Lithuania collaborates with IPGRI and the Nordic Gene Bank. Swedish Biodiversity Centre, Alnarp, SwedenPlums and sour cherries are cultivated in all Nordic countries except Iceland. Additionally, sweet cherry is grown in Denmark, southern Sweden and along the Norwegian coast. Genetic resources of the above-mentioned Prunus species are preserved in national field genebanks. Maintaining the collections is a national responsibility, while the Nordic Gene Bank (NGB) is in charge of the documentation of the material. In this work NGB is assisted by a Nordic working group of national experts in pomology. In Denmark extensive variety collections of the three relevant species are held at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL), Copenhagen. Finland preserves some 150 local Finnish races of plums and sour cherry at Agrifood Research Finland (MTT), Pälkäne. In Norway minor variety collections of Prunus are found at four local Norwegian clonal archives. A more systematic inventory to complete the Norwegian collections is in progress. The situation in Sweden is similar to that in Norway. In addition each country is engaged in defining national lists of so-called \"mandate\" varieties of plums and cherries. According to the criteria used, a mandate variety should either originate in the actual country or be a foreign variety with a long growing tradition there. Both local varieties and varieties marketed from national breeding programmes belong to the former group.In Sweden some 40 mandate varieties of plums and 30 mandate cherry varieties have been identified. Among the plums 53% are national varieties. Of these, five were developed at Swedish breeding institutes before 1950, while the remaining nine are of more recent date. In addition 11 varieties are considered to be local selections within the country. Considering the imported plum material, five varieties have been cultivated in Sweden since the 18 th century, and 10 since the 19 th century. England and France are the most important countries from which foreign plum material was introduced. As for sweet cherry, 67% of the varieties originate within Sweden, of which four are from breeding and eight are local selections. The corresponding figures for sour cherry are 64% national varieties, of which three are bred cultivars and four are local selections. The majority of the imported cherry material comes from France and Germany.As of 1 January 2003, Sweden has for the first time allocated state funds to the establishment of a national genebank for fruits, berries and nuts. The measure is funded within the framework of the Swedish national programme for plant genetic resources, the Programme for Diversity of Cultivated Plants (POM = Programmet för Odlad Mångfald). When fully developed, the national genebank will consist of a national collection, in which all mandate varieties will be grown, along with a back-up system. In practical terms, this implies that each mandate variety of plum and cherry will be conserved as four trees -two in the national collection and two in a selected local clonal archive. An additional aim is to test and eliminate virus contamination in the Swedish mandate varieties. Similarly, national programmes are in the process of being developed in the other Scandinavian countries as well. Each country will choose its own relevant method for conservation. The Nordic countries will primarily offer their native mandate varieties to the European Prunus Collection.still found, outside the normal, present fruit-growing regions, have often faced unfavourable growing conditions, and have thus been naturally tested for different environmentally unfavourable conditions. This could add an extra value to such genetic resources. As an example, the northernmost forest population of P. avium is probably the one in Ørlandet, Trøndelag at approximately 64°N as reported by Schübler (1873Schübler ( -1875)). It is still present (Professor A. Skogen, pers. comm. 2003).1 Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, Lisboa, Portugal 2 Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica /Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (ITQB/IBET), Quinta do Marquês, Oeiras, Portugal 3 Direcção Regional de Agricultura de Trás-os-Montes (DRATM), Mirandela, PortugalBeing located in the most extreme western site in continental Europe, Portugal has strong Mediterranean and Atlantic influences. Portugal established several Prunus collections, mainly during the second part of the 20 th century. The most important collection was maintained by the National Fruit Station (Estação Nacional de Fruticultura Vieira de Natividade, ENFVN) in Alcobaça; however, during the 1980s, this station did not received much support from the government and the quality of the collection has markedly declined since then. The other existing collections belong to Regional Agricultural Services (Direcção Regional de Agricultura, DRA) of Algarve (DRAAlg), Alentejo (DRAA), Beira Litoral (DRABL), Beira Interior (DRABI), Entre Douro e Minho (DRAEM) and Trás-os-Montes (DRATM). Only one collection, however, is a national collection (of apricot, at DRAEM). The collections are often made up of foreign cultivars, but some cultivars may now be considered Portuguese because they were introduced long ago.Often the collections are not sufficiently characterized, although occasionally some phenotypic and molecular data have been recorded. Information on the number of duplicates at other sites available for each cultivar and on the presence of genetic variation among them is lacking. It is not known either whether the real genetic diversity existing in the country is represented in the collections. There may also be mislabelling problems.Portugal maintains collections of five different Prunus species (Table 1) in a total of 13 collections. The most represented species is almond, one of the older fruit species in Portugal. • Needs and future developmentThe present collections not only need support for maintenance, but also need to be characterized. Characterization is crucial so that decisions may be taken regarding increases or reductions of the number of trees/varieties to improve management. Recently the National Institute of Agronomic Research (Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Pescas, INIAP), obtained a project from the National Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT) to establish a database of national collections. Contacts and collaboration between INIAP services and Regional Agricultural Services are now vital for the success of the project.Almond accounts for 40% of all dry fruit production, covering an area of around 37 000 ha.The main production areas are in Trás-os-Montes, especially in the hot lands there, and in Algarve which is the traditional production area. In the past 15-20 years, Algarve has lost much almond area due to abandonment of cultivated land and to replacement by Citrus among other reasons.In Trás-os-Montes, the soil is often poor and dry, usually acid and poor in organic matter, and nitrogen is supplied once every one or two years (Cordeiro 2000). In Algarve, almond is mainly found in the barrocal (a hilly and fertile zone parallel to the coastline), where the soils are calcareous and stony.In Trás-os-Montes almond trees have an increasing importance for tourism, since they are already an attractive feature for visitors to the region during blooming time (Cordeiro and Monteiro 2002).Especially in the Upper Douro River valley, almond is a crop with a long tradition. However, because 50% of the orchards are older than 30 years, the productivity is quite low with only 100-120 kg/ha of kernels. However, in the hot lands of Trás-os-Montes recent introductions have been planted and the productivity is now much higher. About 50% of the orchards are younger than 10 years and production easily reaches 600-900 kg/ha of kernels.In most cases almond trees are grafted onto almond seedlings (77% of the growers) and in a few cases hybrid rootstocks are used (INRA GF677 and almond seedlings: 8%; GF677: <4%) or other rootstocks (11%) (Cordeiro and Monteiro 2002). There are three local almond varieties in Trás-os-Montes, accounting for 45% of the total yield of the region, as shown in Fig. 1, although 80 local varieties were already identified, of which only a small number are represented in the collection of DRATM. The main foreign cultivars introduced into Portugal are French, 'Ferragnès' and 'Ferraduel' being the most representative (7.3% and 5.5%, respectively). Some farmers are also planting the Spanish cultivars 'Marcona' and 'Guara' and recently 'Masbovera', 'Glorieta' and 'Francoli' were also introduced (Cordeiro et al. 2005).Considering the wide spread of 'Parada' in Trás-os-Montes, it might be interesting to determine if there is interesting variation to be exploited.For some almond varieties and collections, data are available for morphological characteristics of the seed (shell and nut) and flowering. Moreover data about physical, chemical and organoleptic characteristics of the kernels are also available at DRATM for most varieties in the collection (Cordeiro et al. 2001). Additionally, molecular data are available for the collection in Tavira-DRAAlg, as well as in DRATM, on fingerprinting using various methodologies (including isoenzymes, RAPD (randomly amplified polymorphic DNA), AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism), ISSR (inter-simple sequence repeats) and self-incompatibility/compatibility alleles) (Fernandes et al. 2000;Martins et al. 2001Martins et al. , 2003)).The integration of RAPD and ISSR data to analyze traditional varieties maintained in Algarve and Trás-os-Montes collections, together with foreign commercial varieties, Prunus webbii and putative wild almond individuals collected from wild areas (with P. persica as outgroup), has provided interesting data. For instance, Algarve and Trás-os-Montes accessions of 'Boa Casta' are 93% similar. 'Bonita de São Braz' obtained from the two regions, although grouping together, are only 81% identical. 'Duro de Estrada Grado' and 'Duro de Estrada' are 95% identical and appear to correspond to the same variety (Martins et al. 2003).Various samples collected from the wild (region of Foz Côa) appear to correspond to feral almond individuals, with only one eventually corresponding to a hybrid between almond and Prunus webbii (Martins et al. 2003). The different foreign commercial varieties analyzed were found interspersed among the Portuguese varieties.The study of S-phenotypes (S-RNase proteins produced in pistils collected prior to blooming) and S-genotypes (DNA extracted from young leaves to analyze S-RNase genes) allowed us to characterize S-alleles in various Portuguese varieties, as well as to identify a number of new alleles (Ma and Oliveira 2001;Certal et al. 2002;Ma and Oliveira 2001a, b). Labelling mistakes were also detected using this technique and a putative new selfcompatibility allele was found in the Portuguese variety 'Fura Saco'.Molecular markers are also being developed for the early identification of tolerance or susceptibility to Fusicoccum canker (also known as constriction canker), a disease caused by the fungus Phomopsis amygdali (Martins et al. 2001;Martins and Oliveira 2004).Almonds are commonly infected by viruses of the Ilar genus (Bromoviridae family), namely prune dwarf virus (PDV), Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV), and apple mosaic virus (ApMV). In previous studies PDV and PNRSV were found to be present in all trees tested, including in the whole Algarve region (Nolasco et al. 1991), and in the central and northern region of the country (Raquel 1998;Raquel et al. 2002).These viruses are known to spread through grafting and pollen. Virus dispersion through pollen was recently found to be intercellular and not due to virus location at the pollen surface. Viral particles accumulate around the nucleus of both the vegetative and the generative cells in pollen grains and are therefore easily preserved until they infect a new tree by honeybee-mediated cross-pollination (Silva et al. 2005). The plantation of new clean orchards is therefore not sufficient to ensure their good phytosanitary status and, naturally, cross-pollination cannot be prevented.The economic and social importance of almond in Trás-os-Montes and its long tradition in Portugal and especially in Algarve justify the investment in the establishment of good collections. For these collections it is imperative to characterize the available germplasm still being used by the farmers as a strategic resource for the future development of new and improved varieties. At present the main targets for breeding are late flowering (to reduce frost damage and to promote good bee activity) and self-fertility. Besides breeding, another way to obtain good varieties is to select among local genotypes, searching for phenotypic variation possibly correlated with genotypic variation. The search for self-fertility, monitored by simple selfing performed in the field is another goal achievable by work conducted in collections. The conservation of plant genetic resources in the framework of the National Plant Genetic Resources Programme is presently coordinated by the \"Gheorghe Ionescu-Sisesti\" Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (ASAS) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAAP). Each collection and also the Suceava Gene Bank keep data regarding the accessions.With the support of IPGRI, the Suceava Gene Bank published in 2003 a seven-volume Catalogue which includes the descriptions of Prunus genetic resources (Fascicle VI -Fruit Trees).The Prunus collections have great importance for Romania because they are the basis of the plant breeding programmes for the most important fruit crops (plum and prune, peach, apricot, sweet and sour cherry).During the last few years, Romania, which is in a transition period to the free market economy, has had to face numerous economic and research activity restructuring processes, which have greatly affected plant genetic resources conservation including of Prunus. Some of the Research and Development (R&D) Stations holding Prunus collections were restructured and, as a result, 703 accessions remained in those stations.Besides all the transformations which took place at the social and economic levels, the number of Prunus accessions increased from 3460 to 5700 (Table 1). This increase was due to the collecting of new accessions or the obtention of bred material (selections and hybrids). Comparatively with the number of \"original\" accessions included in the European Prunus Database (EPDB) which was 583 in 2000, at this moment there are 1683 accessions in the Prunus collections. The most important increases were recorded for plum and prune (328 accessions), peach (271), sweet cherry (175) and apricot (174).Concomitant with the increase in accession numbers due to the breeding programmes, introductions from abroad should also be mentioned. The Balkan Peninsula is considered a secondary centre of peach diversity thanks to a unique vineyard peach population. All the trees were grown from seed, so they provide a very rich source for selection studies. All the evaluations were carried out by teams of experts including agronomists, pathologists, botanists and technologists. A few large-fruited genotypes, highly tolerant to diseases and winter frost, with unique flavour, aroma and fragrance, have been submitted for registration as new cultivars. The existence of drought tolerance has been determined in genotype I 4/31 at the level of almond seedlings. Entire populations from the island of Pag, Croatia, and Riđica, northern part of Vojvodina, are immune to Taphrina deformans.In recent decades, many apricot trees were grown from seed, resulting in great polymorphism. The most important characteristics used for evaluation were season of flowering and maturing, cropping efficiency, fruit size and attractiveness. A few new varieties have been released out of that work, making them the leading varieties in our new plantations.From 1995 to 2000 research was carried out on the natural populations in the Upper Polimlje Region, Montenegro, and Fruška gora, Vojvodina. The selection process was done in three stages. The first stage consisted of the study of the morphological and physiological characteristics of selections. The second stage studied the usability of fresh fruit for human consumption as well as in industrial processing. The most important selections are those with non-browning flesh after being defrosted at room temperatures for 24 hours. In the third stage, generative rootstocks, uniform, of medium vigour and compatible with standard plum and apricot cultivars, were selected. Field evaluations are in progress.The main aim of the P. fruticosa evaluation programme is the selection of dwarfing rootstocks. Four distinctive genotypes have been collected ex situ. They respond well to micropropagation, grow well in the nursery and are compatible with the main cultivars of cherry.• Almond P. nana is a small shrub up to 1 m, very bushy and dense. The nut is small, flat and bitter. It is widespread in the southeastern part of Vojvodina, Deliblat desert, but is not very polymorphic. Four genotypes have been collected ex situ. All are not self-fertile but are highly compatible with peach.• Safety-duplication of vineyard peach collection, nearly 500 genotypes collected in all republics of former Yugoslavia. This is certainly a unique type of peach germplasm which it is not likely could be collected again. Trees are over 12 years old and poorly maintained. Financial help is needed. The Genebank was opened in November 1996. It is situated at RIPP Piešťany and has national responsibilities for plant genetic resources (PGR). It is a specific facility for the longterm conservation of genetic resources, especially seed. The capacity of the genebank is planned to be 50 000 accessions. The genebank has a basic seed collection for long-term conservation (-18°C) as well as an active collection serving for the distribution, regeneration and evaluation of plant characteristics. Each sample of the basic collection is safetyduplicated in the Research Institute for Crop Production (RICP) in Prague, Czech Republic.Vegetatively propagated species (fruit trees, flowers, medicinal plants) are maintained in orchards established in the region of origin or in the region with the optimal ecoclimatic conditions for the plants. Altogether there are 15 orchards covering 127 ha.The information system is oriented towards the creation or improvement of the structure of PGR databases both for passport data and general data (seed acquisition, storage management).The inventory database is maintained at RIPP Piešťany. The total number of records (approximately 26 000) includes the working collection, active collection and base collection. The number of ex situ accessions is estimated to be more than 17 000. These represent 190 plant species. The largest collections are of cereals (24.1%), followed by fruit trees (19.9%), legumes (18.6%) and grasses (6.9%). Other collections are represented by less than 6% of the total.All institutes cooperating within the National Programme use the National Information System on PGR (SISGEZ). It consists of three parts: passport, characterization/evaluation and storage data. Data are recorded using MSExcel or FoxPro; all data are computerized.Prunus collections are included in the Slovak National Programme on Plant Genetic Resources. They are held at different sites and under the authority of different organizations: private, state or NGOs. Funds for the maintenance and basic evaluation of vegetatively propagated species are inadequate at present. Financial resources cover only 60% of costs. There are no funds for special evaluation, documentation and regeneration of accessions.Fruit trees rank second of all collections with a total number of 5176 accessions including cultivars, hybrids, local varieties, wild, interspecific hybrids and rootstocks of apples, pears, sweet cherry, sour cherry, peach, plums, strawberry, Ribes, Sorbus and other species. All are kept as plants in the field. All collections are well organized, with computerized lists of accessions, passport data and some with descriptive data.The Prunus collections hold a total of 886 accessions including apricot (341), peach (237), almond (35), cherry (163) and plum (110) (Table 1). The European Prunus Database contains records of 222 accessions originating in the Slovak Republic. Dr S. Sojak): sweet and sour cherry, plum, inter-specific hybrids; -Herbaton Klcov (curator: Dr S. Jurcak): sweet and sour cherry, plum and prune; and -Slovak Agricultural University Nitra (curator: Dr J. Brindza): orchard for duplication of all species, education programmes, documentation systems.The number of accessions per crop and per holder is shown in Table 3.  1996). All these collections are still maintained at present, as well as the others mentioned in that report, although the curators of some have changed. Also, the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to a newly created Ministry of Science and Technology, offers research proposals every year for plant genetic resource exploration, maintenance and evaluation. Some of these projects include new species, such as P. spinosa, P. cerasus and P. salicina, not considered previously, and the exploration of new regions, such as western Spain for cherry.The ultimate objective of any germplasm collection is its utilization in breeding programmes. We shall review the minor changes in the previous collections, the developments in new activities and the Prunus breeding programmes related to the existing collections.All the collections considered at Izmir remain as stated (Socias i Company 1996). Most of them have some new accessions. Some have reduced the number of accessions, but this has not occurred in any of the basic collections of the network. Most of them are also the reference collections for the Spanish register of fruit cultivars, and some, such as the peach collection of Zaragoza, for the European register. The changes to be taken into account are minor, such as:-Almond: the only curator of the reference collection of Zaragoza is R. Socias i Company, due to the retirement of A.J. Felipe. The name of the institute has changed from SIA-DGA (Servicio de Investigación Agraria de la Diputación General de Aragón) to CITA (Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria) at the same address. -Cherry: the curator of the collection of Badajoz is now M. López Corrales instead of F. Toribio at the same address. -Peach: the present curator at Zaragoza is J.M. Alonso due to the death of M. Carrera at the same address although the name of the institution is now also CITA.Some new species, not considered previously in the Spanish Prunus Germplasm Network, have been included and receive support through research proposals from the INIA. The main activities carried out at present are:• Japanese plum (P. salicina Lindl. and other diploid cultivars of complex origin)This species was not considered for conservation previously because all the accessions in the Spanish collections were foreign. However, owing to the importance of this crop in some regions it was recommended to include it under the responsibility of Mª Luisa Badenes (Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias, IVIA), Apartado Oficial, 46113 Moncada, Valencia).• Sour cherry (P. cerasus L.)Sour cherry was not considered because the few accessions in the Spanish collections were all foreign. However, although this species has not so far been a commercial crop in Spain, scattered trees were found in some orchards and at the borders of agricultural plots and roads inland. There is now a project for the collection, identification and maintenance of the sour cherries of eastern Spain, which also includes the local populations of sweet cherry. The person in charge is Mª Remedios Morales (University of Salamanca, Filiberto Villalobos 119, 37007 Salamanca).• P. spinosa L.This is a wild species, the fruits of which were utilized initially at a local level and later by industry to produce a liqueur after maceration. Fruits were traditionally gathered from the wild, without paying any attention to their size, colour, quality, composition, etc. Now work is in progress to identify the best genotypes in their natural habitats in order to recover and maintain them in safe collections. This work is under the guidance of Alvaro Benito (Instituto Técnico y de Gestión Agrícola (ITGA), Tudela, Navarra) and Valero Urbina (University of Lleida, Alcalde Rovira Roure 177, 25198 Lleida). Some activities are directed towards prospecting for accessions of Prunus species in old orchards, aiming at their identification to ascertain whether or not they are present in the reference collections, and their ultimate incorporation into the Spanish Germplasm Network.Pilar Errea (CITA de Aragón, Apartado 727, 50080 Zaragoza) is conducting a survey of fruit cultivars from mountain zones, often in abandoned orchards (because of depopulation). Her focus is mainly on pome fruits, but some plums (P. domestica L.) have also been surveyed and are now being identified and recovered.Mª Angeles Moreno (EE Aula Dei, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Apartado 202, 50080 Zaragoza) jointly with J.M. Alonso (CITA de Aragón), curator of the northern peach collection, has undertaken another survey of peach types and rootstock hybrids of the Ebro Valley in areas which have not previously been surveyed.Local populations of cherry are being surveyed in Navarra by J.B. Royo (Universidad Pública de Navarra), in Aragón by M. Herrero (EE Aula Dei) and A. Wünsch (CITA de Aragón) and in Extremadura by M. López Corrales. European plum is also being surveyed by A. Arbeloa (EE Aula Dei) and J. Rodrigo (CITA de Aragón).Through the specific germplasm proposals and also, more often, through other general research proposals, important work on identification is being carried out by molecular markers in many Prunus species, both in the institutions where the collections are maintained and in other laboratories, mostly utilizing the accessions present in these collections.Recently there is growing interest in the sanitary status of some of the collections. As a consequence, the almond and peach collections of the CITA of Aragón and the apricot and peach collections of the Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario (IMIDA) of Murcia are being tested for the presence of viruses and other grafttransmissible diseases, in preparation for the eventual creation of new virus-controlled collections.Prunus breeding is carried out in Spain in breeders' collections which often coincide with germplasm collections. The utilization of local accessions, important from the germplasm point of view, is relevant for some specific objectives of these programmes.The two main objectives of the three breeding programmes were self-compatibility and late blooming, two traits not found in the Spanish almond diversity. As a consequence, foreign accessions were utilized as parents, although local cultivars were included seeking mainly adaptability to local conditions by the Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Reus and by Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura (CEBAS). The traditional cultivars 'Desmayo Largueta' and 'Marcona' were also included due to their kernel quality and market recognition. Later, 'Bertina', a local seedling, was identified due to its late blooming and included in the breeding programme of the CITA of Aragón, where 'Forastero' is also being considered because of its resistance to diseases.The main breeding objective is sharka resistance. The two coordinated programmes of IVIA and CEBAS have thus utilized foreign resistant parents together with local cultivars of high quality. Some new tolerant cultivars have already been released and others are under evaluation and close to being released.Both public and private breeding is carried out in peach. Practically all the private work and most of the public work is directed towards early ripening freestone peaches, types not really present in the traditional Spanish peach germplasm. The public programme of the late M. Carrera has been thorough, utilizing the local germplasm in order to obtain some specific peach types quite unusual for the world market, such as white clingstones and flat peaches for all seasons and yellow clingstones ripening in late August, all of them for table consumption.The other public breeding programmes with Prunus species are minor, not having resulted so far in any releases. The breeding work by private companies is not publicized, although in most cases only foreign germplasm is involved in their crosses. To our knowledge, some local peaches and cherries have been involved in crosses by private companies, but the results are not yet known.There has been considerable progress in Prunus genetic resources activities in Switzerland over the past few years. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) gave a good basis for this work. One of the key agreements adopted at Rio was the Convention on Biological Diversity. The convention has fostered international activities for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The convention establishes three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, its sustainable use, and the fair sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources. In Switzerland, based on the Global Plan of Action, a national plan of action for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture was adopted. It is implemented through the Federal Office of Agriculture by specific projects in collaboration with different organizations, mainly NGOs. In the first 4-year programme from 1999 to 2002 and during the current programme phase II (2003II ( -2006)), progress in the area of fruit genetic resources was considerable. The coordination of activities and projects in the plant genetic resources area is carried out through the Swiss Commission for the Conservation of Cultivated Plants (SKEK-CPC: www.cpc-skek.ch) with its headquarters at Changins-Nyon. There is a specific subgroup for fruit within this Commission and a coordinator. The fruit subgroup has established a concept and guidelines for the conservation of fruit genetic resources, a technical and a pomological working group.The national genetic resources database is actually being established at the office of SKEK-CPC in Changins-Nyon (www.bdn.ch). There is still delay in the incorporation of the Swiss Prunus data that have already been collected from the individual organizations into the database. However, we are optimistic that the data will be incorporated in the near future and that exchange with the European Prunus Database will be possible.The national fruit inventory on the genetic resources for all fruit and small fruit species was established by the NGO Fructus (www.fructus.ch) in collaboration with Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil (www.acw.admin.ch) and partner organizations (Table 1). The project started in 2000 and was completed in March 2005. Every year a specific area of Switzerland was inventoried. Questionnaires were sent to land owners who have fruit trees. About 12 000 land owners responded to the questionnaire and mentioned in total more than 195 000 trees (accessions) which were introduced into the project database. On average 17 trees or small fruit plants were listed per owner.More than 2000 endangered accessions spotted in the course of the inventory are being saved in collections in the meantime. The work for the conservation of Prunus genetic resources was less intensive compared to that on Malus and Pyrus. NGOs have traditionally focused more on Malus and Pyrus mainly because harvest is easier and pome fruit varieties are better known to the public. However, during the last four years two main stone fruit collections have been established on the grounds of Agroscope FAW Wädenswil, at the stone fruit centre Breitenhof near Basel for cherries and at Wädenswil for plums. These collections are planted at high density and will only be left for fruiting for specific years when descriptions will be made. However, duplication is being considered in other collections at normal planting distances.Since 2004 a National Action Plan (NAP) project has been dedicated to the agronomic and pomological description of the fruit genetic resources. A preliminary project to describe Prunus genetic resources for agronomic and pomological characters was carried out in 2002. The current project is establishing the descriptors in coordination with the ECP/GR rules. Manuals are being established for the coordinated agronomic evaluation and pomological description of the fruit genetic resources in the German and French languages. Descriptions, characterizations and identification of the accessions in the different collections have already started.There is scope for comprehensive conservation and evaluation of the Prunus genetic resources in Switzerland. Annette Braun-Lüllemann An der Kirche 5, 37318 Hohengandern, Germany Representative of Pomologen-Verein (Germany) and ProSpecieRara (Switzerland)NGOs (non-governmental organizations) concerned with conservation and protection of the genetic biodiversity of fruit trees in European countries are involved in many different activities. Using Pomologenverein (Germany) and ProSpecieRara (Switzerland) as examples, some of these activities are described below.One of the most important goals of both organizations is to locate rare or forgotten ancient fruit varieties, particularly regional and local ones. Therefore, the first step is identification, the techniques for which have gradually been lost over the past hundred years, so that for certain species (e.g. cherries and plums) new identification methods have had to be developed. At present, several specialists in these two NGOs have acquired the necessary knowledge and experience to determine varieties of the different species.The science of varietal features includes the description of not only morphological characteristics but also physiological ones, such as the variety's vitality, tree health and suitability for cultivation (usually under non-protected conditions). For an exact, traceable and reproducible determination of varieties, it is essential to set up reference collections of kernels and stones, against which accessions can be compared at any time.Besides identifying varieties, the documentation of their properties and potential uses, traditional recipes, etc., is another important interest of the NGOs. With the economic varieties especially, conservation will only be successful if information on how to make use of them is also preserved.Many NGO members take part in official and private orchard-mapping projects, identifying extant varieties. This has produced a comprehensive record of the tree locations of many old and rare varieties. These unusual and locally distributed varieties are thereafter maintained and safeguarded in decentralized private collections. Particular importance is attached to the old landraces and local varieties, many of which have never been described pomologically and are known only by their local names.Another important goal of both NGOs is to raise the interest of the general public in the older fruit varieties. One way they do this is by organizing \"Apple Days\", usually in cooperation with other regional organizations. The public are invited to bring along fruit samples from their own orchards, which gives the experts a general indication of the regional and supraregional distribution of varieties and the locations of old and rare varieties. Apple Days also feature many other aspects around the fruits: exhibitions of varieties, a wide selection of fruit products, including culinary specialities such as jams, juices, spirits -consisting of one pure variety, pastries, vinegar as well as perfume, literature, kitchen utensils, garden tools, and information e.g. on orchard care and pest control. Last but not least, there is an attractive children's programme with fairy tales, handicrafts, competitions and riddles -all about fruits.Important activities are also to disseminate information on the cultivation, care and pruning of fruit trees as well as knowledge on identification: the members conduct local seminars on these subjects in the various regions. Another main focus is making the rare old varieties better known and encouraging their reintroduction, especially the native and local types that are particularly well adapted to a given area. This is done by organizing scion exchanges and by cooperating with nurseries that cultivate and distribute the local varieties. Now the question must be raised, how can NGOs support the work of national institutes? Nowadays genebanks and public varietal collections are facing difficult times. With the lack of finance and shrinking staffs, critical verification of these accessions is often impossible because of the lack of qualified personnel to do the work. Even the usefulness of modern molecular methods (if at all fundable) is limited here, because in the case of rare and old varieties one first has to clarify which accession really represents the authentic variety described in the historical pomologies. Thus a reference accession has to be verified and established pomologically before others can be compared with it and duplicates can be identified.As history shows, this problem is not new but has preoccupied many earlier generations. Over the last two centuries many old varieties have been lost, and with them the knowledge of their characteristics and of confirmed tree locations.Nevertheless, the guaranteed authenticity of accessions, decentrally managed in the member countries, has to be the precondition for their integration in European genebank systems -e.g. in the Decentralized European Prunus Collection (DEPC), or in A European Genebank Integrated System (AEGIS) -because these systems are also used to distribute accessions. Therefore a cooperation of the national institutes with suitable specialists from the NGOs would be both appropriate and desirable. NGO members with specialized knowledge of variety determination could collaborate in the verification of accessions in genebanks and official collections. As they have a good knowledge of the distribution and historic origin of varieties, cooperation in selecting nationally significant varieties to serve as AEGIS accessions would be useful. They might also collaborate in revising the selection of specific descriptors (e.g. for cherries).Another possible focus for cooperation could be the integration of decentralized private collections into national genebanks, e.g. in the form of duplicate locations, to minimize the danger of loss by decentralization, for example in the event of disease. An expansion of the national collections by supplying scion material, and support in locating varieties presumed to be lost, would also make sense. NGOs could also provide the characterization data (passport data and specific descriptors) needed for the European databases. Finally, one could envisage the joint organization of public information events such as the Apple Days, in which the NGOs already have experience.To pool and make effective use of the knowledge and experience of the national institutes and the NGOs in this way would seem both feasible and desirable, and it would enable both parties to achieve their mutual goals.Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Geraardsbergen, BelgiumForest policy in Flanders strongly promotes the use of indigenous hardwoods for re-and afforestation and for stand conversion. For wild cherry, this option is even more motivated by the acknowledgement of its high silvicultural, ecological and economical importance. Furthermore, the species is often mentioned as a potential alternative for poplar in the afforestation of abandoned farmland. This line of policy generates a strong demand for highquality forest reproductive material, which cannot be met by the currently available basic material. As wild cherry generally occurs as individual trees or small clusters scattered throughout mixed forest stands, the potential for selecting seed stands is limited. Seed orchards have been created in the past, yet are marked by a largely insufficient productive capacity, mainly due to their small size.The current selection and breeding programme attempts to remedy the discrepancy between supply and demand by the creation of a new generation of clonal seed orchards, which are to be characterized by (i) a high yield and (ii) a high genetic quality and diversity of the offspring.The basis consists of a collection of 168 phenotypically superior \"plus trees\", distributed over 27 different populations throughout Belgium and resulting from a scouting campaign which has been going on since the early 1980s. Vegetative copies of these plus trees, obtained by grafting or budding, were planted in seven experimental plots. These multiclonal plantations not only allow for the evaluation of the genetic background of the superior traits observed on the original mother trees, but also serve as a genepool from which the constituents of the new seed orchards can be selected.The research strategy adopted pursues a threefold aim: i. Identification of the very best clones within the above-mentioned collection, based on their general combining ability for a number of adaptive traits such as vigour, morphology, phenology and disease resistance. The general combining ability (GCA) values are determined through observation of the half-sib progenies evolving from the multiclonal plantations. ii. Designing the layout of the seed orchard and establishment of the minimum isolation standards with regard to surrounding natural populations of wild cherry. Tracing the optimal spatial arrangement of the clones within the orchard will result from linking the understanding of the occurring mating patterns to the identification of the incompatibility alleles of the clones selected. iii. Assessment of the genetic diversity of the offspring of the seed orchards, compared to the diversity of the progeny of naturally regenerated forest stands of wild cherry.As the silvicultural use of wild cherry brings into focus its susceptibility to a number of pathogens, phytopathological research is an essential part of the selection and breeding programme and focuses on:-Anthrachnosis, a fungal leaf spot disease caused by Blumeriella jaapii. A scoring system for assessing the level of natural infection has been optimized and is fully operational. However, as natural infections are highly dependent on weather conditions in spring, the development of a technique for artificial infection is envisaged. -Bacterial canker, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae and P. syringae pv. morsprunorum. Molecular techniques (AFLP) are used for distinguishing between both pathovars, as well as for the assessment of the genetic diversity of the pathogen. In view of relating this diversity to differences in pathogenicity, a method for artificial infection will be developed.The European Prunus Database (EPDB) was created under the auspices of IPGRI 20 years ago and was first maintained in Sweden. In the 1990s, the EPDB was transferred to the INRA research centre of Bordeaux, France, but at the time it was not interactive. For this reason it was necessary to create a new database.The EPDB structure consisted of 32 passport descriptors, of which 19 were derived from the first version of the FAO/IPGRI Multi-crop Passport Descriptor list (Lipman et al. 1997); the others were 13 Prunus common descriptors defined by the Prunus Working Group in 1997 (Zanetto et al. 1997). Characterization descriptors were also included for each crop species (Zanetto et al. 1997).Most data were collected during the three years of the EU Project GEN RES 61 (1997-1999).Before 2005, all updated data were stored in Microsoft Excel® files. The estimated total is of 14 410 Prunus accessions held in European countries (Table 1).In 2005, the Prunus database manager was commissioned to develop the cherry component of the database which is currently available on-line.From January to September 2005, E. Balsemin, manager of the EPDB, assisted by Loïck Le Dantec, Bioinformatics specialist, proceeded to the adaptation of the French Cherry Database structure.At the same time, pre-formatted files on Microsoft Excel® were prepared and sent to the curators (May and August). Cherry data were then included into the database and a first version was put on-line in September (http://www.bordeaux.inra.fr/urefv/base/).Up to now, the Prunus curators have been able to test the Cherry Database and send in their comments in order to improve the database. Those who have not already provided cherry data to the database manager benefitted from an additional delay to send their updated data.At the end of November, a new version of the Cherry Database was put on-line in order to be presented during the Seventh meeting of the Prunus Working Group.Freely available tools were chosen for the development of the Cherry Database. The advantages of this new database are that it is easier to add new descriptors or delete some of them. In the current version, it is also possible to include a photograph for each accession. Moreover, it should be a useful tool for helping in the identification of duplicates and synonyms.The Cherry Database currently holds data from 24 contributing institutes from 11 countries, with a total of 2708 records representing 67% of the estimated total of 4037 cherry accessions (and cherry related species) held in European countries. It also represents 19% of the estimated total of 14 410 Prunus accessions (Table 1).• Regarding policy, this is perhaps best developed by the ECP/GR Prunus Working Group in collaboration with the AEGIS Secretariat and in consultation with the Collections.• In the diagram above are indicated collections that may have important holdings of Prunus that are unknown to, or not in contact with, the European Prunus Database.Encouraging involvement of these collections may be a job for members of the ECP/GR Prunus Working Group or perhaps of the national representatives on the ECP/GR Steering Committee.• Legal issues are rather matters for AEGIS to raise than for the Prunus group to concern itself with. However, clarification on several points would be useful.• Does the status of non-European material received after the Convention on Biodiversity in 1993 differ from that of non-European material received before 1993?• Will any of the agreements concerning AEGIS amount to contracts, with penalties for breach of contract?• Should Material Transfer Agreements apply only to non-commercialized genetic resources or to cultivars too?• In what sense can European countries \"take responsibility for\" genetic resources of non-European origin and genetic resources not known to be of European origin?4.4 -\"Most Appropriate Accession\" and identification of material for inclusion in AEGIS Prunus system/collection• The emphasis will be on accessions held in, or under the control of, European collections.• The range of non-European material to be included needs further consideration but might include, e.g., cultivars or wild species accessions important in European horticulture, breeding programmes or research.• Unnamed breeders' selections would generally be excluded unless they are particularly important in breeding or research and freely available.• Items to be considered for inclusion in AEGIS need to be in the European Prunus Database and to be offered for inclusion by the holding institute.• Items that meet the above criteria and appear to be unique can be accepted straightaway for inclusion in AEGIS.• For items held by several institutes the concept of \"Most Appropriate Accession\" comes into play.• The \"Most Appropriate Accession\" is a variation of the \"Most Original Sample\", which was developed for crops maintained as seed lots. Ideally the \"Most Appropriate Accession\" should be true to name, held in the country of origin, virusfree, accompanied by passport data, and characterized morphologically or with markers. If none of the accessions of a given identity meets all these criteria then the order of the criteria should be taken as approximately reflecting their order of importance in choosing the \"Most Appropriate Accession\" for AEGIS.• For AEGIS collections there should be one primary accession per identity and one reserve.• The extent to which the criteria are met should be apparent from the European Prunus Database.• In nominating the initial AEGIS accessions the first step would be for the European Prunus Database manager to update the current accession database, contacting current participants for revisions and seeking new contacts. The second step would be for the Database manager to collate the data relating to the accessions offered so that, for the different identities, it can be seen at which sites they are held and what data are available. The third step would be for the Database manager and the ECP/GR Prunus Working Group (or crop-specific sub-committees) to review the data with a view to nominating the primary and reserve AEGIS accessions and for the Database manager to register the AEGIS status of the chosen accessions and the reasons for choosing them. The fourth step would be for the Database manager to notify the collection holders and AEGIS Secretariat of the decisions.• There would need to be periodic updates.• As indicated above there may be important collections not in contact with the European Prunus Database. If these become involved at a later date there may be consequences regarding the re-nomination of AEGIS accessions.• For some crops and genebanks it may be appropriate to consider 'quality management systems' and 'accreditation'. For Prunus field collections, the emphasis should be on guidelines that are realistic, adequate and generally acceptable.• Receipt of material. New accessions should be received with passport data and with phytosanitary documents and Material Transfer Agreements where appropriate.During propagation care should be taken to ensure correct labelling and any characterization and to avoid virus-infected rootstocks.• Maintenance. The trees should be grown on an appropriate rootstock -e.g. to minimize problems of incompatibility. Ideally four trees of each accession should be maintained preferably two at the primary site and two at the reserve site. AEGIS accessions need not be kept apart from other accessions. The trees should be adequately labelled and/or a plot plan maintained. The trees should be managed well enough to provide scion wood for distribution and/or re-propagation and should be maintained free of quarantine pests and diseases. Ideally, characterization data sets should be completed and molecular fingerprints obtained.• Re-propagation. When trees are re-propagated care should be taken to ensure correct labelling and to avoid virus-infected rootstocks. It is highly desirable that the new plants should be authenticated by morphological inspection or by molecular fingerprinting.• Despatch and disposal. Efforts should be made to meet reasonable requests for small quantities of scion wood. Propagating material should be despatched with labels and passport data, together with appropriate phytosanitary paperwork and, if necessary, a Material Transfer Agreement. Before any AEGIS accessions are grubbed, two years' notice should be given to the European Prunus Database manager or the AEGIS Secretariat.• Other. Ideally accessions would be maintained as \"virus-free\" and cryopreservation could be useful in maintaining virus-freedom. Separate guidelines would need to be developed.• The general principles developed for Prunus should be relevant to the other ECP/GR fruit crops Malus, Pyrus and Vitis that are likewise temperate and clonally propagated on to rootstocks. A draft of this document was presented to the Chairs, Vice-Chairs and Database Managers of the Malus/Pyrus and Vitis Working Groups and some minor revisions made in response to their comments. Indeed, with minor adjustments, they could be applied to most other fruit crops and to vegetatively propagated timber trees.• Maybe formal agreements are not essential. If agreements are to be signed it is advisable to keep them short, e.g.:\"My institution is willing to participate in the AEGIS system for Prunus, offering accessions to be considered for inclusion, holding AEGIS accessions and providing scion wood in response to reasonable requests. I agree to give two years' advance notice to the European Prunus Database manager or the AEGIS Secretariat of grubbing of any AEGIS accessions or of withdrawing from AEGIS\".• The Group noted the desirability of members of the ECP/GR Steering Committee, who may have the necessary resources available, advertising AEGIS, and encouraging participation, at the national level.  ","tokenCount":"29625"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c58fefecff157b068825f696f404fb42","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H041955.pdf","id":"904750212"},"keywords":["groundwater use","aquifer","Amu Darya","Central Asia"],"sieverID":"11f46230-375d-48d0-babb-4af5ec91aa18","pagecount":"8","content":"The increased share of groundwater use for irrigation is observed in the Amu Darya River Basin due to deteriorated and worn-out surface irrigation systems, recent droughts and high mineralization levels of surface water. This paper discusses the extent of groundwater resources, use and management in Amu Darya River Basin. As a consequence of increased surface irrigation and leaching, groundwater level has increased over great areas in lower reaches of the Basin and second salinization has been documented. Agriculture sector is the dominant sector of economy in the basin countries currently employing up to 40-50% of the total population, contributing to 28-50% of countries GDP. Because of that major role in the economy of Central Asian countries, it is for sure that in the futur more groundwater will be pumped out to meet the increasing demand.The endoreic basin of Amu Darya River (ADRB) is located in the inner part of the Eurasian Continent (Fig. 1).The catchment area comprises 534,739 km 2 (Water Resources of USSR, 1971). 61% of the catchment area lies on the territory of the former Soviet Union and flows through the territories of new independent states of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan and 39% on the territory of Afghanistan (Water Resources of USSR 1971;Uhl 2003). Amu Darya River is formed by the confluence of Pyanj and Vash Rivers in the Pamir Mountains and discharges into the Aral Sea after a run of 2550km. Two Rivers, Zaravshan and Kashkadarya are related to Amu Darya in term of water catchment characteristics but do not discharge into Amu Darya River (Mirzaev 1996, Masood andMahwash 2004).The region is characterized by very complicated hydrogeological conditions. At first, the complex geological history of Pamir and Tian Shan Mountainous area is responsible for a huge diversity in term of aquifer and water bearing sediments. These regions are composed of Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic formations and significant shallow groundwater resource is located in valleys, where 10 to 100m thickness deposit of semi consolidated coarse to medium Quaternary sediments have accumulated. In the piedmont area fresh confined groundwater can be found in the peripheral parts of Quaternary debris cones. Deeper aquifers in calciferous deposits (depths from 700-800m up to 1,000-1,200m) contain thermal water, widely used in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for medicinal purposes and bottled as table mineral water (Shultz 1949). Plains region of the ADRB are covered by alluvial sand, loam and clay dating from the Quaternary and Pliocene and that can be interstratified, giving birth in some places to confined or semi-confined aquifers. Groundwater in these surface formations are strongly hydraulically connected to Amu Darya River and mainly recharged by losses of rivers (allochthonous river run-off), irrigation canals and irrigated fields. A lot of shallow aquifer are salinized (1-10 g/l) or engaged into salinization processes. Salinization results from agricultural practises but is also related to the sodic nature of soil like solonetz or solontchaks in the region. It must be noted that groundwater mineralization tends to decrease with the depth (Ostrovsky 2007) and that mineralization processes are strongly correlated to groundwater level rise caused by irrigation. Confined aquifers can be found in the deep Cretaceous sandstone formations of the Aral Sea area and provide artesian waters. In some parts these deep groundwater can show high mineralization which prevent them from any use. Mineralization can even reach values around 25-50 g/l at depth close to the Aral Sea region (Water Resources of USSR 1971).Groundwater resources can be classified according to their recharge processes, two main classes can be distinguished: i) groundwater formed under natural conditions in the mountain zone and catchment areas by infiltration of rainfall (autochthonous groundwater) ii) groundwater formed from the infiltration losses from irrigated areas in the rest of the ADRB (allochthonous groundwater). The total regional groundwater reserves are calculated to be about to 25km 3 /year (Mirzaev 1974) which represents about 58% of the Aral Sea Basin reserves (Table 1) Groundwater and surface water are strongly hydraulically connected one to another, and according to an established system in ADRB groundwater availability is characterized by the so called \"natural recharge capacity\" which can be considered as the regional operational reserve (Water resources of USSR 1971). This is a potential yield of each aquifer, which under pressure of anthropogenic factors can be reasonably tapped in order to satisfy the needs. This is based on both the existing installed pump capacity and the level of knowledge of the aquifer recharge characteristics. \"Approved capacities\" confer the right to design and construct new withdrawal points (Table 1).  1). This can be explained by both intensive groundwater abstraction infrastructure in Uzbekistan with funding from the central government in irrigated areas and by uncontrolled water extraction by local farmers and population in more isolated areas which tend to tap the aquifers to the maximum of their possibilities.In Turkmenistan, about 134 large groundwater bodies can been identified and used for various needs (Khatamov 2002;Orlovsky and Orlovsky 2002). The total intake of groundwater resources varies from 4.7-6.7km 3 /year out of which 45% is used for drinking supply, 30% for irrigation and rest for livestock ranching. Groundwater from the first water-bearing horizon serves as a major water source in the desert areas. In 1994, according to different sources there were from 5,695 to 6,138 water wells and up to 619 boreholes, which supplied water to about 68% of pastures (Babaev and Kolodin 1995;Babaev and Kolodin 1997). In the recent years a number of new water wells was built, but at the same time the old ones were destroyed. So the exact number of functioning wells and boreholes is now unknown.In Tajikistan, many groundwater bodies can be identified in the very complex structural framework of the country but all limited in term of extension. According to the National Hydrometeorological Agency the total amount withdrawn annually was about 2,372 km 3 in 2004 (Table 1) without negative impact since the approved reserved are about 6,972 km 3 (Salimov 2000). About 40% of groundwater is used for irrigation and about 49% for domestic drinking supply. In 1994, the total numbers of wells was 4795 and out of which 511 are wellspring and 4358 are operational wells (Orlovsky and Orlovsky 2002).In Uzbekistan, around 94 major aquifers can be identified with total groundwater volume of about 18.9 km 3 , this includes 7.6 km 3 with mineralization of up to 1 g/l and 7.9 km 3 with mineralization from 1 to 3 g/l. 85% of the groundwater resource is recharged from surface water and only 1/3 is formed on the territory of neighboring countries and which could be called \"transboundary\" groundwater resources (Mirzaev 1974;Borisov 1990). The percentage of groundwater used in irrigation amounted to 6.4% of the total irrigated land in Uzbekistan. Limits to groundwater abstraction for each aquifer in Uzbekistan have been established in order to avoid significant consequences to surface flow reduction. This quantity is estimated at 6.8 km 3 /year for Uzbekistan. However, the actual groundwater abstraction is slightly superior estimated at 7.5 km 3 /year and thus tends to lead to surface flow reduction (Kazbekov et al. 2007).Irrigation in Central Asia and particularly in Uzbekistan relies on a system of pumps and canals which is among the most complex in the world. Cotton and wheat are the major crops in ADRB followed by maize, vegetables and fruits. As previously said with annual rainfall of 100-300 mm, CAR's climate is that of the dry mid-latitude desert, with a continental climate that is characterized by hot summers and cold winters. Thus, agricultural production in Central Asia, is predominantly based on irrigation, which makes irrigation water supply and management the major factors limiting crop yields in the region (Ibragimov et al. 2007).Agriculture is the dominant sector of the economy in the ADRB countries, employing from 44 up to 80% of the workforce (Table 2). Table 2. Main characteristics of agricultural sector of the ADRB countries (FAO, 2007) This sector contributes to the basin countries Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 16 up to 36% with an average of 26% over the basin. All of the ADRB countries are landlocked with arid climatic conditions and agricultural lands are heavily dependent on irrigation to insure acceptable production. Almost all of the agricultural lands are irrigated in Turkmenistan, while the average is around 75% in the other basin counties. Climatic conditions and recent droughts coupled with increased deteriorating quality of surface water prone water users to use more groundwater resources.In Afghanistan, the estimated annual groundwater volume used for irrigation is minimal (1,0km 3 /year) in comparison with the groundwater recharge estimate (2,97km 3 /year) indicating a significant surplus of groundwater reserves in this part of the ADRB and the real potential for future development of groundwater resources for irrigation (Uhl 2003). The total withdrawal of groundwater in Uzbekistan for 2003 is about 2km 3 /year and it is used at 40 % for irrigation purposes (Kazbekov et al. 2007). In Turkmenistan, agriculture is almost impossible without irrigation as shown in Table 2 and as a consequence this country is one of the most impacted by pernicious effects of lift irrigation. From 1986 to 1998 strong rise in the water table was recorded with an increase from 7 to 41% in the surface of farming land with groundwater level less than 2m.In Tajikistan, the structure of agriculture is still heavily centralized and big collective farms are operating complex wells and irrigation systems. In 2000 there were roughly 1000 operational boreholes and numerous wells that totaled 4km 3 /sec discharge mainly used for irrigation purpose. According to Salimov (2001) about 30,000ha of lands were irrigated with groundwater resources.In Uzbek desert and mountain zones of ADRB numerous small settlements can be found. These territories are part of pasturelands. The mountain pasturelands have available groundwater resources but in most cases in poor conditions from pollution and contamination point of view. The livestock rearing under the desert conditions is off course limited by the water supply availability even if in general, water supply of pasturelands requires very little quantity of water (from 10 to 25 m 3 /day) for one cattle watering pond (Babu and Toshmatov 2000). In Tajikistan, water supply of pasturelands for livestock ranching is supplied by both surface and groundwater resources. The vast areas of the foothills of the Central Tajikistan, plains of Pamir, and South-Tajik depression are rich winter pasturelands, the groundwater reserves can here supply millions of animals (Babu and Toshmatov 2000). At present time, just a limited part of available pasturelands is used for ranching alongside of streams and large springs. In Turkmenistan about 5,200 wells, 50 boreholes, 330 springs are used to water the cattle. We must also point out the use in this country of more than 600 takyrs as collectors of atmospheric precipitation (Orlovsky and Orlovsky 2002).Groundwater regimes and quality are determined both by natural factors and by the level of abstraction, it doesn't depend on administrative boundaries (UNESCO 2001). As such, the management of internationally shared groundwater is of special importance in the ADRB (Struckmeier et al. 2006). Transboundary groundwater is assumed to include: groundwater aquifers which are located in two or more countries; and groundwater aquifers which are used in combination with surface water, and for which changes in extracted volumes may lead to changes in surface water quantity and use. The combine use of both groundwater and surface water can be beneficial where long term sustainable groundwater extractions (not exceeding the natural recharge) replace scarce surface water resources (Zaisheng et al. 2008). However, if groundwater aquifers are not properly managed the many negative effects may accrue: rise of groundwater levels and deterioration of soil conditions; local draw-down of groundwater levels around extraction points thus reducing surface water availability; pollution of aquifers because of human activities such as mining, treatment of industrial waste water, cattlebreeding; and overexploitation and long term damage to the groundwater potential. These effects have local impacts, which may extend to the territories of neighbouring states. Often, measures which provide positive effects on the territory of one country like irrigation of new areas, canal construction, and public water supply development, lead to negative effects in adjacent countries and preventive measures in the affected states may be expensive and may take several decades to become effective, essentially due to political reasons. About 30% of the 338 aquifers of the ADRB area are international, but they represent the majority of the extracted groundwater. The main international aquifers areas include the area around the Tuyamuyn reservoir and its supply canals between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; the piedmont zone in the Hungry Steppe with shared aquifers between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; and aquifers on the border between the Kashkadarya oblast of Uzbekistan and the Lebab velayat of Turkmenistan. Obviously, conflicts may arise for many reasons in these regions. The main ones are the lack of proper groundwater accounting and registration of installed pumps and the lack of proper groundwater assessments, both in the design studies and in practical operations. Groundwater response times generally include a delay of 1 to 2 years, and for some areas even of 3, 5, or 10 years or sometimes centuries or millennia for confined resources (Huneau et al. 2001;Kazbekov et al. 2007). It is then difficult to establish the direct influence of groundwater exploitation development projects without good quality pre-implementation observations. In absence of proper management measures, special research is then needed to evaluate the consequences; it is usually carried out by the damaged party when the negative effects are already clearly showing. In ADRB most of the problems are arising from the absence of proper regulations (limits) of groundwater withdrawal, in particular during dry years and in situations where over-extraction affects aquifers in neighbouring states or has an impact on transboundary rivers. A key problem is the lack of legal documents and international agreements to: i) determine responsibilities when problems arise; ii) establish the rights of reimbursement of the damaged party; iii) require negative effects to be reversed; iv) require inspection of pumping installations.It should be stressed that, withdrawal and discharge of international groundwater and drainage water, which are a main source of potential conflicts, require cooperative regulation and management within the whole Aral Sea basin. The development of a set of management measures should thus be considered, to reduce the negative influence of multiple uses of groundwater and drainage water, to be submitted to the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC) for analysis and further preparation for decision making on the evaluation of the areas and size of shared aquifers and drainage water catchments; specification of the transboundary problems and preparation of proposals to share the management of international groundwater.Apart from the ICWC whose role is to organise international water management within the watersheds of Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers, almost no structure is dedicated to groundwater. As previously said, the extreme fragmentation and dilution of responsibilities shown in Table 3 is in clear disfavour with a proper and concerted groundwater management. The situation in Afghanistan is particularly critical since there is no regulatory framework for controlling and managing groundwater resources. In literature, it is documented that Ministry of Mines and Industry is state responsible authority. But in practice, however, the ministries lack the resources and technical expertise to adequately manage the resources for which they have responsibility. There also appears to be no effective system of permits or licensing drilling or water abstraction in this country. In this regulatory vacuum, the United Nations and some nongovernmental organisations have accepted some responsibility for water resources.In Central Asian Republics, there are established frameworks for both surface and groundwater resources management. However, it must be pointed out that no special regulation on groundwater has been proposed. Another major problem is the overlapping of the responsibility between different state authorities within a same country (Table 3). Despite the various views and opinions of the parties involved, cooperation in transboundary water resource management in ADRB has made significant steps forward over the last ten years (UNDP 2007). A certain consensus on the principle of reasonable and equitable sharing of water in accordance with the adopted regional agreements has already been achieved. However, there is still a lack of coordination and inconsistency in water use priority that leads to losses of the limited water resource, aggravation of tension and threat of conflict (Wegerich 2007). In order to fully cooperate the countries involved must have confidence in each other and be prepared to compromise both in the area of their own interest and in the interest of the social and environmental needs of the region.Although water supply was formerly centrally arranged, since independence in 1991 Central Asian Republics and Afghanistan have continued their dispute on meeting their individual and increasing water demands. Since then, the lack of water has gradually devastated the irrigation-dependent cotton, winter wheat and other major crop production. In addition, the lack of water has engendered the ecological catastrophe of the Aral Sea Basin, at the tail end of both Amu Darya and Syr Darya.Groundwater can be a strategic resource for these landlocked countries not only for drinking but also for agricultural production. The lessons learned from the 1998-2001 droughts have proved the feasibility of groundwater developments in lower reaches of Amu Darya and elsewhere in the basin. And even if poor quality of the Amu Darya River has been observed both in quality and quantity in recent years, groundwater can still be reasonably exploited in many places were water salinity remains acceptable.There is tendency for substantial unregulated groundwater withdrawal in the basin by farmers and populations for various purposes as an alternative source of water for irrigation. Historically, the agriculture sector has a very heavy weight on the basin country economies in terms of employment, financial revenues and food security. Thus for many good reasons the development of groundwater use is inevitable. Better management strategies and cooperation between the different partners involved is necessary. Unfortunately the intricate management system of groundwater in the basin countries in terms of engineering infrastructure and institutional coordination is an obstacle and States are financially totally unable to come over and prevent the physical deterioration of hydraulic structures and to maintain efficient water supply on large scale. In addition, transboundary agreements on joint utilization of groundwater resources are weak and fragmented in terms of regulation and institution levels.","tokenCount":"3041"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e8933397540bb867c556b058a586d619","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f12ccb00-734f-42bf-8227-af1ce8db1116/content","id":"1099622494"},"keywords":["Wheats","Plant breeding","Plant production","Germplasm","Drought resistance","Yields","Research projects AGRIS category codes: F30 Plant Genetics and Breeding F01 Crop Husbandry Dewey decimal classifi cation: 633.11072"],"sieverID":"85795fff-0a38-44c1-ae5b-c1a8bb7b46a9","pagecount":"41","content":"The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT® (www.cimmyt.org), is an international, not-for-profi t research and training organization. With partners in over 100 countries, the center applies science to increase food security, improve the productivity and profi tability of maize and wheat farming systems, and sustain natural resources in the developing world. The center's outputs and services include improved maize and wheat varieties and cropping systems, the conservation of maize and wheat genetic resources, and capacity building. CIMMYT belongs to and is funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) and also receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies.Complementary strategies to raise wheat yield potential CIMMYT, El Batan, Mexico 10-13 November 2009 Tuesday 10 November• 8:30 Registration• 9:00 Opening Ceremony (led by Tom Lumpkin)Session 1: Imperatives for raising wheat yield potential (Chair: Sahara Moon Chapotin, USAID) While wheat constitutes a major component of the human diet worldwide, population growth, climate change and unsustainable cropping practices threaten global food security. This session addresses issues impacting on supply and demand for wheat with emphasis on resource poor farmers in the developing world. Basic research in photosynthesis has confi rmed that substantial improvements in radiation use effi ciency are theoretically possible. Ideas for how to achieve this in wheat (based partially on outcomes of a recent ANU-CIMMYT-ACIAR workshop in Canberra) will be presented:• 9:00 Systems modeling for identifi cation of new approaches to gain higher photosynthetic energy conversion effi ciency (Xinguang Zhu, Chinese Academy of Sciences)• 9:30 Improving photosynthesis at the canopy level (Erik Murchie, Nott ingham University)• 10:00 Improving photosynthetic effi ciency and capacity through CO 2 concentrating mechanisms (Bob Furbank, CSIRO)• 10:30 COFFEE To ensure that genetic gains in radiation use effi ciency show impact at the agronomic level, other physiological traits must be optimized simultaneously including partitioning of assimilates to grain growth, adaptation -especially of reproductive growth-to distinct agroecosystems, and stem and root characteristics that minimize risk of canopy structural failure:• 9:00 Optimizing developmental patt ern to maximize spike fertility (Gustavo Slafer, University of Llerida)• 9:30 Optimizing harvest index through increasing partitioning to spike growth `and maximizing grain number (John Foulkes, University of Nott ingham)• 10:00 Manipulating stress signaling to enhance grain production (Bill Davies, Lancaster University)• 10:30 COFFEE vi• 11:00 Identifying traits and developing genetic sources for lodging resistance (Pete Berry, ADAS, UK)• 11:30 Modelling tradeoff s and synergies between yield-determining traits of wheat (Roger Sylvester-Bradley, ADAS, UK)• 12:00 Discussion led by Tony Fischer Genetic solutions must be developed to incorporate novel yield potential traits into a new generation of breeding lines that also encompass stock-in-trade agronomic traits.• 9:00 Exploration of wheat genetic diversity (Tom Payne, Head of Gene Bank, CIMMYT)• 9:30 Broadening the genetic base of wheat to increase yield potential through wide crossing (Ian King, Aberystwyth University)• 10:00 Robust strategies for the identifi cation and targeted deployment of genes controlling wheat yield (Diane Mather and Simon Griffi ths, ACPFG, Australia & John Innes Centre, UK) For nearly half a century, the international wheat breeding system has delivered improved high yielding varieties of wheat that created (along with rice) the Green Revolution and underpinned strong growth in wheat productivity in irrigated and rainfed, developed and underdeveloped, regions. Future priorities for breeding and complementary sciences will still include yield but will also diversify in response to changing market demands and growing environments, particularly in developing countries. It is argued that in the coming decades research on wheat quality characteristics will become increasingly important to plant breeders, whose work will be supported by the development of markers and advanced tools from molecular biology. Breeders will have to contend with increased heat stress and variability stemming from climate change, which is expected to create regional winners, as the northern high latitudes grow warmer and moister, and losers, as the sub-tropics and tropics increasingly suff er from heat stress and drought. Yield response of improved varieties in farmers' fi elds depends to a very great degree on sustainable systems management, which also is essential to reverse the ongoing degradation of agricultural resources. Finally, the importance of expanding the systems lens from farmers to policy makers, and of linking farmers, commerce, science, and policy is illustrated for the rice-wheat farming systems of South Asia.Virtually all places on the planet have experienced a warming trend in the past 100 years that has been att ributed, in large part, to increasing greenhouse gases (GHG) due to human activity. The 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) concluded the foremost cause of the warming trend is the increase in atmospheric GHGs, primarily the increase in CO 2 due to burning of fossil fuels and to a lesser extent land use and cement production. Other important GHGs that have increased over the 20 th Century due to human activity include methane and nitrous oxide, mainly due to agriculture (rice production, changing wetlands and fertilizer use).Using middle-of-the-road (less than businessas-usual) scenarios for GHG emissions for the next 100 years, climate models project a warming of the planet over the next 100 years that will greatly exceed that of the 20 th Century. Some of the expected climate changes are both certain and large. These include less precipitation and reduced soil moisture throughout most of the subtropics and mid-latitudes, longer dry periods, and a reduction in the frequency of rainfall, but more intense rainfall when it happens. Seasonal average (growing season) temperatures throughout most of the tropics and mid-latitudes will be out-of-bounds compared to the historical record. The certain projected climate changes will greatly impact global food production through a myriad of eff ects that, without adaptation, will essentially erase the gains in yield made over the course of the Green Revolution.on the principles of conservation agriculture Potential yield, when crop yield is limited only by temperature and/or radiation, requires crop and soil management techniques that ensure nutrients, water, oxygen (in the soil), pests and diseases do not limit crop production, and that the soil supports the standing crop. However, while true yield potential is largely of academic interest, the \"economic potential yield\" is of far more general interest -how close can the farmer get to the potential yield while still making a profi t?The availability of nutrients and water in the root zone depends just as much on soil structure, and the factors that aff ect soil structure, as it does on the overall supply of nutrients. Soil conditions that restrict root exploration restrict the entry of water into the soil (or the drainage of excess water) and the diff usion of oxygen into the soil from the atmosphere can prejudice crop growth and yield and therefore the att ainment of optimum or potential yields. Soil organic matt er provides the cohesive material that enables the formation of the stable soil aggregates necessary for a well structured soil, as well as loosely binding nutrients in a form more available to the plant than inorganic salts. Poor soil structure, resulting from depleted soil organic matt er levels and intensive tillage, which breaks down soil aggregates mechanically, leads to many of the factors that limit crop yield: surface sealing and crusting (impede water infi ltration, gaseous diff usion and seedling emergence); low soil porosity and discontinuous pore spaces (impede water infi ltration and drainage, gaseous diff usion and root exploration); and compacted layers (limit root exploration and cause suspended water tables and soil saturation). Tillage also increases soil erosion losses and reduces biological activity (rapid decomposition of incorporated organic matt er leads to \"feast or famine\" for soil organisms).Conservation agriculture (CA) systems (based on the three principles of minimum soil disturbance, surface cover with crop residues and/or growing crops, and crop rotation) remove from productive conventional systems the factors that lead to soil degradation and yield decline. Not only do CA systems off er the possibility of sustainable production systems for fi eld crops, they also off er greater productivity (of land, labour and capital), reduced risk, and lower risk of crop losses when stresses threaten crop productivity. Of course, CA practices, as do conventional practices, need to be accompanied by sound crop management practices, including adequate control of weeds, pests and diseases, and the supply of suffi cient nutrients.The crop residue cover component of CA also has a major eff ect on the evaporation of water from the soil surface. Under dryland conditions, evaporation accounts for a large part of the total evapotranspiration, and so reducing the evaporation component can markedly increase the total rainfall use effi ciency under moisture limited conditions, helping the crop att ain closer to its potential yield.In summary, CA is important as it is the only system we have today for the extensive production of fi eld crops that conserves or improves soil structure and increases soil organic matt er content. These two factors are important indicators of biophysical sustainability. CA also reduces the levels of inputs required and increases the effi ciency of use of applied inputs, thus tending to at least improve economic sustainability.Historically, wheat improvement has been primarily a public sector activity, but to fi ght and win the war against hunger the private sector must become increasingly more involved. We see an opportunity to enhance the profi tability and sustainability of wheat production by helping farmers to protect their crops and improve their yields while reducing inputs. Our recent acquisition of WestBred provides a platform on which we can apply our breeding advances to United States wheat in the near-term and establish a commercial presence, while we develop biotechnology traits. We recognize the critical role that public sector R&D has played in the enhancement of wheat to date, so as we defi ne our direction and establish our presence, we are also seeking to develop collaborations with public sector breeding programs for mutual benefi t and the advancement of wheat growers.Natural selection selects for survival and fecundity and does not necessarily select for maximal photosynthetic productivity. As a result, the current photosynthetic apparatus might not have the optimal photosynthetic energy conversion effi ciency (Є c ). Though light energy is captured by photosynthesis; photosynthesis is infl uenced by a number of other regulatory, metabolic, and physiological processes, all these together control the actual Є c . Over the past few years, we have identifi ed a few approaches such that Є c can be substantially improved. In the presentation, I will summarize the current progress of identifying new approaches to engineer for higher Є c . To further facilitate systematic identifi cation of new approaches to engineer for higher Є c , an integrated model of plant primary metabolism, which describes photosynthesis, respiration, nitrogen assimilation and water uptake processes, is required. During the presentation, I will introduce a general procedure to combine an evolutionary algorithm with systems models to systematically identify new approaches to engineer for higher Є c .It is recognised that a rise in both leaf and canopy photosynthesis will be a prerequisite for future biomass increases in many crops, including wheat. Canopy photosynthesis may already have played an important role during crop evolution, increasing in parallel with features such as morphology, leaf area index and nitrogen application. The role of photosynthesis per unit leaf area (whether light-saturated or not) in the improvement of canopy photosynthesis has been more complex and the reasons are explored in detail in recent reviews (Long et al., 2006;Murchie et al., 2009). Until now breeding has been undertaken with the tacit assumption that canopy photosynthesis is optimised. However, a number of lines of study indicate that it is not and we cannot assume that improvements in other areas will 'release' any residual capacity for canopy photosynthesis.Obviously any gains from an increase in single-leaf photosynthesis must be integrated to give rise to enhanced canopy photosynthesis. However, it has also become clear that leaf photosynthetic responses and canopy structure are inter-dependent: as explained here, the dynamic responses of the primary processes of light collection, electron transport and carbon assimilation within the crop canopy depend on the behaviour of the canopy as a whole. Previous studies of rice canopies indicate that photosynthetic rates of individual leaves fall signifi cantly below capacity, almost certainly as a result of dynamic down regulation at various levels (Horton and Murchie, 2000). These represent a signifi cant and un-tapped source of extra photosynthate. Thus, our working hypothesis is that photosynthesis is not optimised for agriculture and maximum crop yield under all climatic and environmental conditions. Our increasing understanding of the mechanisms, both molecular and physiological, of integrated leaf and canopy photosynthesis can enable us to exploit areas of 'lost' photosynthesis.Final output at the canopy level requires the integration of an extremely large number of processes that balance oft en-confl icting constraints: for example transpiration and canopy temperature can be critical. Close att ention to process modelling is always required. Here we take a focussed approach and consider mechanisms for improving the rate of closed canopy photosynthesis at a given developmental state:Canopy-level photosynthesis results from the combined assimilation rates of leaves or leaf-parts operating at diff ering levels of irradiance (and oft en temperature, humidity and development/ acclimation state). As the top portion of the canopy is most likely to be light-saturated, many lower leaves are light-limited and these constitute a signifi cant proportion of canopy leaf area. This results in a more linear relationship between canopy photosynthesis and light level. It is critical that this linearity is maintained and thus canopy light saturation is minimised. This can be achieved by increasing leaf erectness to improve light penetration and increase photosynthetic rate in lower regions. Wheat canopies are oft en an erectophile type; however, modelling suggests there could be scope for further improvement (Long et al., 2006).There are a number of other aspects of photosynthetic physiology which need to be integrated with canopy architecture: for example leaves lower in the canopy should acclimate effi ciently such that they have low respiration rates and low light compensation points but equally possess a high enough A max and Rubisco content to exploit light transients. This is to be maintained in balance with the role of leaves as N stores, and the importance of re-allocation towards new growth and grain fi lling is a critical component of the canopy structure.Changes in solar elevation and leaf movement result in increasingly large short-term changes in irradiance within the canopy. It is imperative that photosynthesis exploits these as a resource in parts of the canopy that are usually not light-saturated. Increases in irradiance induce chloroplast photoprotective processes; here we will call it non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). These serve to regulate the redox state of the electron transport chain and to protect photosynthesis from damage, acting as a safety valve that gets rid of excess absorbed light energy. It also reduces quantum yield of CO 2 assimilation. Although fi eld studies are incomplete, as much as 80% of absorbed radiation may be wastefully dissipated through this channel. The question is whether regulatory processes such as NPQ are optimised in crop canopies: there is evidence that they may represent a conservative over-protection response in many plants. For example, theoretical work calculates that the 'lag' in recovering from NPQ results in a 6.5-17% reduction in daily canopy carbon uptake at 30 o C rising to maximum of 32% at 10 o C (Zhu et al., 2004). We have analysed a number of genes which alter the capacity and the kinetics for NPQ and have manipulated them in a suitable model species which is fast growing and forms a full three-dimensional canopy; rice. This is a sensible approach which allows the eff ect of these processes on canopy photosynthesis and growth to be isolated and quantifi ed and should be extended to other crop species such as wheat.Preliminary results show improved carbon assimilation during light transients at the leaf level, for example in rice in which the level of a critical molecular component of NPQ (the PsbS protein) has been reduced. These processes are found in all plant species and we fully expect this to be applicable to wheat. It is particularly relevant in that as canopy architecture improvements permit greater penetration of light, these short term responses will become more and more valuable.The strategy for improvement at the crop level is not straightforward because it is expected to require identifi cation and elimination of tradeoff processes. In particular, there is a greater requirement for photoprotection during periods of abiotic stress. However, the possible benefi ts are large and this principle also extends beyond NPQ to a number of cellular events including Calvin cycle activation and partitioning of other photochemical processes.Introducing these improvements to primary carbon assimilation in future wheat crops will require a combined eff ort in diff erent disciplines including transgenic technology, systems modelling, physiology and effi cient linkage with agronomists and breeders.Horton, P. and Murchie, EH. ( 2000 In this presentation we discuss recent advances in the molecular genetics of CCMs and C 4 photosynthesis, strategies for how such mechanisms might be used to increase yield potential in wheat and the likely benefi ts of such an approach. The catalytic properties of Rubisco are not optimal for current or projected environments. Rubisco is a slow catalyst and large amounts, up to 50% of soluble leaf protein, are needed to sustain high photosynthetic rates. Rubisco is also promiscuous and catalyses a competing and wasteful reaction between RuBP and oxygen which leads to the photorespiratory loss of fi xed CO 2 and to the diversion of RuBP and energy from assimilation.In C 3 plants such as wheat, this wasteful oxygenase activity is most signifi cant when photosynthetic rates are high, when prevailing temperatures are high, or both. Some of the limitations of Rubisco could be overcome if Rubisco had a higher carboxylase activity and/or had diff erent relative affi nities for its gaseous substrates. The widely reported inter-species variation in such catalytic properties of Rubisco could be applied to crop improvement. However, there are still major technological hurdles to overcome before foreign Rubisco genes can be expressed in wheat to form catalytically competent Rubisco.Rubisco activity is regulated in response to short term fl uctuations in the environment. Such regulation may not be optimally poised for crop productivity. Rubisco produces misfi re products that can act as tight binding inhibitors that decrease its activity. The removal of such inhibitors requires another protein, Rubisco activase. Despite being relatively heat stable, Rubisco activity declines at elevated temperatures because Rubisco activase is thermally labile and no longer able to remove inhibitors from Rubisco under such conditions. Thus, there is potential to protect photosynthetic activity by increasing the thermal tolerance of Rubisco activase. Alternatively, decreasing the affi nity of Rubisco for oxygen or altering the active-site chemistry to minimize side-reactions would also reduce the production of misfi re products, thereby improving photosynthetic performance at high temperature.Modelling studies suggest that over expression of some Calvin cycle enzymes can increase the regeneration of RuBP and photosynthetic carbon assimilation. There is also irrefutable experimental evidence that manipulation of one Calvin cycle enzyme, SBPase, can increase plant productivity in laboratory conditions and may also enhance stress tolerance. Here we describe our approaches to genetically modify Rubisco, Rubisco activase and RuBP regeneration in wheat.C 4 rice: Supercharging photosynthesis to double rice yields Improvements in crop performance will remain a major objective of agronomy and naturally, then, a focal aim of any breeding program. Since demand for wheat is predicted to increase at a faster rate than the annual genetic gains that are currently being realized, improvement in wheat productivity will need to be accelerated. In this context it is critical to understand bett er the physiological bases of wheat yield (i) to complement -increasing their effi ciencies-empirical approaches commonly used in breeding, and (ii) to facilitate the use of molecular biology to improve wheat yields, as it seems to be rather naive to expect genuine contributions to complex traits (such as yield) from genetics ignoring the physiological bases of those traits (Slafer, 2003;Reynolds and Tuberosa, 2008).Crop-physiological studies aimed at identifying the att ributes that were modifi ed when yield potential was raised, largely coincide in that increased partitioning of assimilates to reproductive organs has had the single greatest impact on improving yield potential in wheat (e.g. Calderini et al., 1999) not only under high-yielding conditions (e.g. Shearman et al., 2005) but also under stressful conditions such as those of Mediterranean regions (e.g. Acreche et al., 2008). This refl ects that ancestral wheats did conservatively use resources to produce off spring, determining that photosynthetic capacity during grain fi lling was clearly underutilised in terms of grain production. Even though breeding has increased yield potential almost only by increasing sink strength, there are clear indications that yield of modern wheats is still far more sinkthan source-limited during grain fi lling (e.g. Borras et al., 2004). A mirror image of this sink-limitation is that current photosynthetic capacity may not even be utilized effi ciently if not matched by adequate spike fertility (Reynolds et al., 2005), as photosynthesis (both at the leaf and canopy levels of organization) seems to be responsive to the strength of the sink, even in modern cultivars with high numbers of grains (e.g. Acreche and Slafer, 2009).It is critical in this context to fi nd out opportunities to further rise spike fertility. Although papers describing genotypic variation in the number of grains per m 2 are abundant in the literature, sources of evidence on whether the diff erences are associated to the processes of generation or degeneration of fl oret primordia are rather scarce. Diff erences in fl oret fertility have been found in comparisons between tall and semi-dwarf wheats (e.g. Miralles et al., 1998), but to identify useful traits for future gains we must identify further sources of partitioning (see John Foulkes contribution to this meeting) as well as other likely sources of genetic gains in spike fertility. One of those alternatives in which we have been working is the optimization of the partitioning of developmental time between phases occurring before and aft er the onset of stem elongation (SE).The SE phase has been identifi ed by many authors as the most important phase for grain number and yield determination (Slafer et al., 2009 and many references quoted therein). Since during SE, yield is strongly limited by source strength (Fischer, 1985; and many experiments conducted worldwide aft erwards have proven the universality of the fi nding), any trait allowing more assimilates to be allocated to the growing spikes during that period would result in increases in the number of fertile fl orets (at anthesis) and grains (at maturity) per m 2 . Lengthening the duration of the SE phase may be an alternative way to achieve this goal (Slafer, 2003;Miralles and Slafer, 2007). Manipulating the duration of SE in fi eld plots, we found repeatedly that the number of grains per m 2 increased with increasing duration of SE (e.g. González et al., 2005a), as under relatively short photoperiod the proportion of fl oret primordia that develops towards fertile fl orets is consistently increased (e.g. González et al., 2005b). The physiological basis of this overall response has only started to be studied and we defi nitely need more detailed studies to determine to what degree the fl oret developmental rates, in connection with the duration of SE, are the cause of the change in the number of fertile fl orets, if at all. Elucidating these sorts of physiological processes and determining the number of fertile fl orets and grains may also be instrumental in understanding the causes behind fl oret abortion in wheat (see Bill Davies contribution to this meeting).Determining a strong relationship between the duration of SE of a particular cultivar (through manipulating photoperiod during SE) and its number of fertile fl orets and grains has been consistent. Identifying genetic bases for this trait has been, unfortunately, more elusive (González et al., 2005c). More recently, there have been incipient approaches to att empt to detect genetic factors controlling the duration of SE both through detecting genes up-or down-regulating when SE duration is altered (Ghiglione et al., 2008) or through evaluating mapping populations in barley (Borràs et al., 2009). The knowledge we have on the genetic control of the SE phase is only in its infancy. In the near future, we expect to be able to further elucidate the physiological and genetic bases of spike fertility. Achieving such elucidation will permit the breeding of cultivars with bett er utilization of the canopy's photosynthetic capacity, and, therefore, increased biomass and yield potential.Optimizing harvest index through increasing partitioning to spike growth and maximizing grain number1 University of Nott ingham and 2 CIMMYT For improvements in photosynthesis to result in additional crop yield, extra photo-assimilates must be partitioned to developing spikes and grains.The degree of partitioning of assimilates to yield -i.e. harvest index (HI) -is genetically complex.Although the introduction of dwarfi ng genes had a major impact on HI, yield improvement in the post Green Revolution period was also att ributable to increased HI, the genetic basis of which is not established. To design a new generation of physiologically improved genotypes that are also maximised for HI, it will be necessary to determine its genetic and physiological components. Increased partitioning to grain yield could theoretically be increased by reducing competition from alternative sinks, especially during stem elongation when grain number is determined. These competing sinks include roots, leaves, stems and infertile shoots. The literature reports considerable genetic range for partitioning at anthesis, for spikes (0.12-0.27), leaf lamina (0.19-0.30), stems and leaf sheath (0.48-0.63) as a proportion of above-ground biomass; as well as for roots (0.10-0.15) as a proportion of total biomass (Reynolds et al., 2009).These data suggest the possibility for increasing partitioning to spikes at the expense of other plant organs. Although reducing partitioning to roots or leaves may result in suboptimal resource capture, reduced partitioning to the stem and infertile shoots, on the other hand, may not have negative eff ects. Fine-tuning stem partitioning by further optimizing plant height may be one strategy to increase spike growth, for example, by reducing peduncle length whilst maintaining the height of the leaf canopy. More recent work suggests that trade-off s between tiller number associated with the tin1A gene (Spielmeyer and Richards, 2004) and spike size and architecture may be important targets in designing new ideotypes with improved HI; signifi cant genetic variation has been established for the latt er (Gaju et al., 2009; Table 1) and molecular markers are in development (Ribas-Vargas et al., 2008).Optimizing the balance between structural and stem water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) will also need to be addressed in terms of maximizing grain number in general, without sacrifi cing grain size in specifi c contexts where assimilate availability during grain fi lling may be limited by high temperature or light (Beed et al., 2007). However, since spike growth occurs during the same developmental stage as root, leaf and stem growth, genetic solutions must be identifi ed which optimize trade-off s between competing processes.Diff erent models will have to be tested both theoretically and empirically so that improvement in one trait is not at the expense of the other. GN = grains m -2 ; SEP = duration of stem elongation phase (d); CGR = crop growth rate (g m-2 d -1 ); SI = DM partitioning to the spike; GSR = grains to spike DM (at anthesis) ratio (grains g -1 ).The genetic basis of these traits will need to be established for easier deployment in breeding and to bett er understand the degree to which apparent trade-off s are genetically independent.In this respect it will be important to assemble a population of diverse but agronomically acceptable materials for association mapping to gain a bett er understanding of the range of potential loci and alleles that infl uence these traits and as well as their interactions with environment and in terms of epistasis. Further understanding of these complex processes can be gained by studying the eff ects of major genes that have been already deployed in breeding (Rht, Ppd, Vrn) as well as alien introgressions (7Ag/7DL, 1B/1R etc) all of which have well documented eff ects on yield potential. For example, isoline pairs can be used to quantify some of the trade-off s, while their widespread occurrence in conventional gene pools -coupled with availability of perfect markerswill also permit their interactions to be quantifi ed experimentally.Seed number is a major yield component of grain yield, mainly determined at anthesis and slightly aft er it. In most species, the number of ovules largely exceeds the number of seeds. Water defi cit generally reduces still further the ratio seed/ovule via abortion. This is an adaptive mechanism which allows seeds to be appropriately fi lled in spite of reduced photosynthate supply. The eff ect of this on grain yield can be positive or negative, depending on circumstances. In maize, abortion is generally considered a negative trait and breeders att empt to reduce it. In wheat, however, abortion is considered a positive trait which improves seed quality in a severely stressful environment and breeders have att empted to increase it.Carbon availability and carbon transfer are essential for early seed growth and abortion. Boyer and co-workers have used sucrose feeding and simple metabolic experiments to demonstrate the importance of C supply (e.g. Zinselmeier et al., 1995;McLauglin and Boyer, 2007). Grain abortion is probably linked to a disruption of the distribution of sugars in the plant. Other processes, such as delayed silk growth (anthesissilking interval; ASI) in maize, can also greatly increase abortion and seed number, and have been improved genetically in recent years (Duvick, 2005).In maize, a body of evidence has mounted that accumulation of the plant hormone abiscisc acid (ABA) results in grain abortion (reviewed in Wang et al., 2002). The mechanism of this response has not been fully elucidated; it is uncertain whether ovary abortion is a direct hormonal response, or whether increased ABA concentrations throughout the plant inhibit photosynthesis (due to stomatal closure), and decreased photosynthate fl ux to the developing organs triggers ovary abortion.In rice, the situation is apparently diff erent. Spikelet sterility was signifi cantly reduced when exogenous ABA was applied to the panicles of water-stressed plants at the early meiosis stage (Yang et al., 2007). It was suggested that this additional ABA down-regulated production of the plant hormone ethylene (which is generally regarded as a growth inhibitor) and its precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), and that this hormonal interaction may mediate spikelet fertility under water stress. Consequently, a higher ratio of ABA to ethylene in developing grains may be a selectable trait of rice adaptation to water stress (Yang et al., 2007).There is litt le information on changes in hormone content of developing wheat grains in response to water stress, thus whether grain ABA accumulation in wheat is a desirable trait (as in rice) or undesirable trait (as in maize) requires further investigation. However, that excessive ethylene production results in wheat grain abortion under high temperature stress (Hays et al., 2007) suggests that wheat may belong in the former category.Ethylene accumulates in plants in response to a range of stresses and recent reports suggest deleterious eff ects on the plant's capacity to control water status via eff ects on roots and on stomatal behaviour and accelerated senescence (Wilkinson and Davies, 2009).As well as a focus on hormone balance as a trait in plant improvement programmes, there is scope to manipulate these variables with considerable success using management techniques based on novel understandings in plant science (Belimov et al., 2009;Zhang and Yang, 2004).Lodging is a persistent phenomenon in wheat which reduces yield by up to 80% as well as reducing grain quality. Therefore, any comprehensive strategy to improve wheat yield potential should include lodging resistance.A validated model of the lodging process has identifi ed the characters that determine the stem and root lodging risk of wheat (Berry et al., 2003a). The risk of stem and root lodging is calculated in terms of the wind speeds required to cause failure of the stem base and the anchorage system. Stem lodging is predicted when the wind-induced leverage of a single shoot exceeds the strength of the stem base. Root lodging is predicted when the wind-induced leverage of all shoots belonging to a single plant exceed the anchorage strength. The wind-induced leverage of a shoot is calculated from its height at centre of gravity, the rate at which the shoot sways (natural frequency), the area of the ear and the wind speed. In turn, these plant characters can be calculated from the height to the ear tip, grain yield per unit area and shoot number per unit area (Berry et al., 2004). The strength of the stem is calculated from the diameter, wall width and material strength of the stem wall. Root anchorage strength is calculated from the spread and depth of the root plate and the strength of the surrounding soil.The lodging model described above has been used with preliminary datasets describing the dry matt er costs of improving lodging traits to estimate the dimensions of a wheat plant to make it lodging-proof for the least investment of biomass in the supporting stem and root system (Berry et al., 2007). The characteristics required to give a 8 t ha -1 yielding crop, with 500 shoots m -2 and 200 plants m -2 , a lodging return period of 25 years in a UK environment, include a height of 0.7 m, a root plate spread of 57 mm and for the bott om internode, a wall width of 0.65 mm, a stem diameter of 4.94 mm and a material strength of 30 Mpa (Fig. 1). Observations of a wide range of varieties grown in the UK showed that the root plate of the best variety was 7 mm less than the ideotype target, the stem character targets were achieved but not all in one variety, and the height target was achievable with the use of plant growth regulators.It is estimated that this lodging-proof ideotype will require 7.9 t ha -1 of stem biomass and 1.0 t ha -1 of root biomass within the top 10 cm soil, which will give an above-ground harvest index of 0.42. The development of the root and stem characters associated with lodging continues until anthesis and may therefore compete for resources with the development of grain number and the production of soluble stem reserves. The extent to which structural requirements compete with grain yield must be investigated to quantify possible trade-off s, e.g. it may be necessary to accept a lodging return period more frequent than 1 year in 25 to maximize grain yield. One  Richards, 1992). Crop height has a major impact on the structural dry matt er requirements for lodging resistance with each additional centimetre in height increasing the stem dry matt er required by 0.23 t ha -1 (Berry et al., 2007). Further work must investigate why there appears to be a minimum height for high yield, whether this barrier can be overcome and whether the minimum height varies between environments. Preliminary work has indicated that dry matt er density is positively related to the material strength of the stem wall which means there is a signifi cant dry matt er cost associated with increasing this strength parameter.Investigations are required to verify the dry matt er cost of increasing material strength in a range of environments.To increase lodging resistance, plant breeders must increase the spread of the root plate, stem thickness and the material strength of the stem wall, whilst minimising the width of the stem wall. The exact values of the traits will depend on further investigations to assess and validate the minimum crop height, the dry matt er costs associated with the lodging traits and the possible trade-off s with yield formation. It is likely that some of the lodging traits, e.g. the spread of the root plate, will not be found within elite germplasm and wide crosses with novel germplasm will be required to achieve them. Broad sense heritabilities of the lodging traits have been estimated from Berry et al. (2003b) to range from 0.68 for the spread of the root plate to 0.90 for stem diameter. A recent analysis of bi-parental mapping populations has identifi ed more than one quantitative trait locus for each of the traits and indicated that they are controlled by several genes. Further work will be required to bett er understand the genetic control of the traits and to investigate whether reliable genetic markers can be identifi ed which work across a range of genotypes and environments. Phenotypic screens must also be investigated to assess whether they can off er an alternative method for selecting germplasm in case genetic markers with a large eff ect prove diffi cult to identify. R. Sylvester-Bradley 1 , P. Berry 1 , and P. Riffk in 2 1 ADAS and 2 Department of Primary Industries, Victoria This paper uses a modelling approach to identify for discussion feasible synergies and tradeoff s in yield determination, focussing particularly on wheat physiology pre-anthesis. Conventional wheat models seek to simulate development, growth and yield of a particular cultivar in a particular environment. A new prototype Crop Design Tool (CDT) inverts this approach (Sylvester-Bradley and Riffk in, 2008) so that an optimum phenotype, or ideotype, can be estimated for any particular environment, the initial case being the High Rainfall Zone (HRZ) of Southern Australia. Thus, heritable trait values are only constrained by observations across the species as a whole. The logic underlying the CDT is that (i) due to abiotic constraints, each environment dictates an optimum life-span for wheat, (ii) depending on inherent photosynthetic effi ciency, a maximum amount of DM can be formed in that life-span, (iii) a maximum of this DM should be partitioned to harvestable grain, but (iv) DM must be allocated for 'support' by roots (for anchorage, and capture of water and nutrients), leaves (for photosynthesis), chaff (to hold the grain), and stems (to maintain stature), and (v) for partitioning, the CDT assumes that, through future breeding, full inter-changeability will be achievable between DM allocated to root, leaf, stem and chaff during crop construction (between the start of stem extension and anthesis). From initial use of the CDT, indications of tradeoff s and synergies are as follows:Phenology: The crucial yield-determining role of the construction phase (Sylvester-Bradley et al., 2008) is evident and synergies are predicted from prolonging this phase at the expense of the foundation phase (Slafer et al., 2005). Longer construction should allow increased DM allocation to the ear to increase fl oret survival. Additionally, in some environments, surplus DM to that required for support (as discussed below) may be allocated (e.g. as fructan) for subsequent redistribution to grain (Beed et al., 2007).In addressing DM partitioning to roots, surface roots should be the initial focus because these determine plant anchorage and their DM requirements are likely to have synergies with phosphorus capture. Leaf: Leaf area is mainly governed by nitrogen supply (Lemaire, 2007), so the optimum leaf canopy (Sylvester-Bradley et al., 1997), hence leaf DM requirement, is an economic trait based on the N:grain price ratio, the marginal return in grain from increased canopy, and empirical data on specifi c leaf weight (g DM m -2 leaf) (Stapper and Fischer, 1990). Direct measures of optimum 'leaf' DM appear small (2-3 t ha -1 in the UK, Sylvester-Bradley and Riffk in, 2008) compared to 'stem' DM (6-7 t ha -1 ). However, leaves are usually measured as lamina only whilst leaf sheaths are included with stems. Recent data (Pask, 2009) show sheath biomass as similar to lamina biomass (Fig. 1), hence it will be important to determine the function of sheaths; if they have no clear structural or light intercepting role, it is possible that sheath DM could be reduced (perhaps by shortening), thus, increasing DM available for more vital organs.  (2003,2004). Height is crucial in sett ing stem DM requirements, so it will be important to examine what minimum height (700 mm) is needed to maximise grain yield (Richards, 1992;Flintham et al., 1997).Possibly stem length sets the capacity for storage of fructan which ultimately transfers to the grain (Beed et al., 2007). Ultimately stem DM costs must be balanced against grain DM costs of lodging itself (Stapper and Fischer, 1990); it is possible that high lodging resistance will not be worthwhile in some conditions (Fig. 2). Infl orescence: Empirical observations show (the reciprocal of) ear index for high yielding crops to vary from about 9 (Fischer, 1985) to 12 (Gaju et al., 2009) mg chaff grain -1 . Much of this variation remains unexplained but it clearly indicates signifi cant promise for improvement of ear fertility. In conclusion: Initial design work with wheat shows that, because support DM must fi rst support itself, optimum harvest indices increase with total DM, thus increased photosynthetic effi ciency could cause disproportionate increases in grain DM. But to achieve this, some key design questions must be addressed: By how much can crop construction be prolonged at the expense of the foundation phase? What are leaf sheaths for? How far can height be reduced compatible with high yields? What is the lower limit to chaff DM grain -1 ? Why do stem DM requirements appear large? Answers to some of these questions should help to identify and prioritise opportunities for synergies in wheat yield improvement.Tom Payne CIMMYT Due to the strategic importance of wheat in food security and trade in many countries, and the critical importance of breeding in ensuring national industries remain competitive, over 80 autonomous germplasm collections holding in excess of an estimated 800,000 accessions have been established globally. These collections vary in size; the largest have over 100,000 accessions and the smallest a few hundred. They also vary greatly in coverage. Most collections evolved from breeders' working collections and carry predominantly local or regional cultivarsadvanced, obsolete or landrace-as well as introduced cultivars of interest to national or regional breeders. Genetic resources suited for fi nding genes that will contribute to yield potential increases in wheat will fi rst focus on the primary pool that consists of the biological species (Triticum spp., × Triticosecale spp., Secale spp. etc.) including cultivated, wild and weedy forms of the crop. Gene transfer in this group is considered to be easy. In the secondary gene pool there are species from which gene transfer is possible but diffi cult, while the tertiary gene pool is composed of species from which gene transfer is possible only with great diffi culty. Selection within collections for appropriate germplasm sources is aided through approaches that use geo-referenced passport data (e.g. Focused Identifi cation of Germplasm Systems, FIGS), advanced stochastic local search algorithms (e.g. Core Hunter) and through serendipitous random selections.Broadening the genetic base of wheat to increase yield potential through wide crossing The most eff ective strategy by which world food security issues can be addressed at a time of climate change, coupled with the requirement for the development of environmentally friendly agricultural practises, is through the genetic improvement of crop species. This fi rstly involves the identifi cation of germplasm from primary, secondary and tertiary genepools carrying benefi cial phenotypic variation for target traits followed by the determination of the underlying genetic control of the trait, i.e. how many genes control the trait and their genomic location? Once the genes have been identifi ed they can then be transferred into elite lines of crops via normal sexual hybridisation, or other means. However, the transfer of genetic variation to crop species and the identifi cation and isolation of the genes responsible via forward genetic approaches, i.e. genetic mapping, chromosome landing, etc. requires the presence of suffi cient phenotypic variation for the trait in question, e.g. yield, disease resistance, drought tolerance. In inbreeding species such as wheat, very litt le genetic variation exists in cultivated genotypes.However, wild hexaploid wheat landraces and wild and distant relatives (alien species) (e.g. rye, Thinopyrum bessarabicum) provide a key source of variation for target traits. Wild and cultivated relatives of wheat, i.e. alien species, provide a vast and largely untapped reservoir of genetic variation for target traits. The process for the transfer of target genes from alien species into wheat requires 1) hybridisation of wheat with an alien species, 2) induction of recombination between the chromosomes of wheat and those of the alien species via suppression of the pairing control gene Ph1, and 3) production and identifi cation of wheat progeny, that contain a small alien chromosome segment carrying the target alien gene but lacking deleterious genes.In the past, there have been two major factors that have reduced the eff ectiveness of wheat/alien gene transfer. The fi rst is that insuffi cient markers have been available to screen large enough populations of wheat for the presence of alien chromosome segments. However, by combining comparative mapping with next generation sequencing technology it is now possible to develop an excess of markers for any part of the genome. These markers are now being used to screen large populations for specifi c introgressions in monocot species. The second factor is that once an alien segment has been introgressed into wheat, although it carries the target gene, it can also carry deleterious genes resulting in a reduction in yield and/or fi tness. Unfortunately, it is also very diffi cult to reduce the chromosome segment further, even by additional suppression of pairing control genes.An alternative approach to reduce the size of a chromosome segment involves the inter-crossing of two lines with diff erent but overlapping alien chromosome segments that carry the same target gene. As a result of recombination between the two overlapping alien segments, in the presence of pairing control genes, some of the progeny produced will carry a reduced alien chromosome segment; the target gene but lack the deleterious genes. However, this approach described by Sears for two Aegilops umbellulata chromosome segments carrying a gene for stem rust resistance requires the identifi cation of lines possessing overlapping alien chromosome segments in the fi rst place. Thus, this strategy has rarely been followed due to the lack of markers available to identify individuals carrying overlapping alien chromosome segments. However, the combination of comparative mapping, the sequencing of the model genomes and the development of next generation sequencing technology provides a means by which the whole genome of an alien species can be transferred to wheat in overlapping alien chromosome segments. Furthermore, through recombination, a genome wide series of small alien introgressions that carry target genes but lack deleterious genes will be generated, thus leading to a signifi cant increase in the gene pool available to breeders for selection and variety development.In fact, wide crossing has already been used to increase the yield potential of wheat through the introduction of whole or parts of alien genomes.Examples of the latt er include the widespread occurrence of the 1B/1R translocation from rye whose yield benefi ts are realized on around 40m ha of spring wheat in the developing world, or the 7Ag.7DL translocation from Lophopyrum elongatum which increases yield as well as biomass and radiation use effi ciency by 10% or more in optimal growing environments. Fusion of whole genomes within the Triticeae tribe to create synthetic polyploids is also a routine procedure in wheat breeding which results in improved yield and biomass in favourable as well as droughtstressed conditions. The procedure has even been used to create a totally new species, triticale, a wheat × rye hybrid, which is cultivated on 3.6m ha worldwide and has yields comparable with the best wheat cultivars, good yield stability, and oft en exceptional biomass. Traits that would be considered high priority for raising yield potential and which can be considered relatively easy targets -since genetic variation exists in the Triticeae-include spike fertility (L. elongatum ), improved root capacity (rye), stem strength (triticale), drought tolerance (rye) and heat tolerant metabolism (Triticum dicoccoides). While the introduction of genes from outside of the Triticeae tribe is not a routine procedure in wheat breeding, the feasibility of introducing traits from C 4 species is supported by the fact chromatin from several C 4 species -including maize, sorghum, millet and wild grasses-has been introduced into wheat, and other cereals, including the construction of complete set of maize addition lines in oat. These precedents suggest that with appropriate investment, wide crossing may even be used to introduce all of the chromatin required into wheat for full expression of C 4 photosynthesis.Robust strategies for the identifi cation and targeted deployment of genes controlling wheat yield D.E. Mather 1,2 , P.J. Langridge 2 , J.W. Snape 3 , and S. Griffi ths 3 1 University of Adelaide, 2 Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, 3 John Innes CentreIn any specifi c environment, the highest-yielding wheat varieties are those that are able to optimally exploit resources during vegetative development and grain fi lling, whilst avoiding stresses that limit grain production. Genetic advance for grain yield has been driven largely by crossing among high-yielding advanced lines that diff er in their genetic constitution, followed by phenotypic selection of plants and lines with superior new gene combinations. Specifi c allelic variation has been deployed only for disease resistance genes, for loci that determine grain quality, and for a handful of cloned genes that contribute to megaenvironmental adaptation through major eff ects on photoperiod response, vernalisation response and plant stature. 'Fine-tuning' of varieties for specifi c eco-geographic regions has relied more on phenotypic selection, to accumulate favourable alleles at quantitative trait loci (QTL) that infl uence micro-environmental adaptation. The production of near-isogenic lines (NILs) allows such QTL to be handled as discrete Mendelian loci, and leads to QTL cloning. Once the genes are cloned, functional analysis is possible, leading to knowledge of the mechanisms by which the genes act. Further, it becomes possible to analyse the sequence diversity of alleles, leading to the development of diagnostic ('perfect') markers.During the fi rst decade of the 21 st century, the availability of rice genome sequence led to an upsurge of positional cloning of wheat genes. In the coming decade, this will be accelerated by increases in the production of wheat sequence data, decreases in genotyping costs and increases in genotyping throughput. Through rapid dissection of germplasm collections, new and useful genetic variation will be discovered, feeding the wheat breeding pipeline with new alleles which in turn will be cloned and characterised for maximum exploitation.The technological advances that facilitate gene cloning also create new opportunities to apply molecular methods in wheat breeding; for individual genes, for gene combinations and networks, and for the entire genome. For individual genes, 'perfect' diagnostic markers improve the precision and predictability of plant breeding. For multiple genes, they make it possible to understand gene interactions and gene networks, to estimate the value of specifi c gene combinations and to design crosses and selection strategies to deliver the next 'step change' in yield potential. At the level of the entire genome, genomic selection may accelerate genetic gain through selection based on breeding values estimated from genomic profi les. Trait selection is the cornerstone of plant breeding and the process has become progressively more sophisticated with time. Plant breeding owes its success largely to deployment of simply inherited agronomic traits, disease screening, multi-location yield trials and testing for end use quality. However, the next generation of cultivars will be designed to encompass combinations of both complex and simply inherited traits based on understanding of adaptive processes and their genetic make-up. Just as agronomic traits have been selected to be complementary, such as combining yield potential with disease resistance, adaptive traits must be combined in a strategic fashion. For example, in the water-limited environments of Australia, lines have been developed that combine both early ground cover -to protect surface moisture from wasteful evaporation-with high transpiration effi ciency so that water harvest is maximized (Richards et al., 2002). Although the composition of traits involved in determining superior yield potential among cultivars is not well established, it has been shown that improvements in yield potential itself -yield expression in relatively optimal environments-is expressed across a wide range of environments including those aff ected by heat, drought, salinity and suboptimal levels of nitrogen (see Reynolds et al., 2009) Trait based breeding relies upon the ability to identify and measure traits of economic value and estimate their impact on yield across target regions. This is facilitated by development of conceptual models which are validated by hypothesis testing with diff erent trait combinations in fi xed lines, the quantifi cation of genetic gains associated with trait expression in populations of related progeny and inferences from simulation studies that extrapolate and interpolate empirical data. Precision phenotyping is fundamental to these approaches since complex traits show a high degree of plasticity in response to environment. Once suitable conceptual models have been established, they can be applied in the following crop improvement strategies: (i) trait-based crossing to combine complementary traits in progeny, (ii) high-throughput phenotyping to enrich for desirable alleles in segregating generations, (iii) exploration of genetic resources to broaden the genetic base for hybridization, and (iv) precision phenotyping of mapping populations to determine the genetic basis of complex traits. The last of these interventions can lead to the development of molecular markers that may either complement phenotypic selection traits, or replace them altogether with more effi cient marker assisted selection (MAS) approaches (especially for diffi cult-to-phenotype traits) or genome wide selection. Furthermore, information generated in the processes of measuring trait expression in multi-location trials and mapping populations helps to understand the complex interactions between genes, genetic background, and environment; leading to more sophisticated conceptual models of adaptation.Continual reselection within restricted gene pools is likely to lead to diminishing returns, so it is imperative to introduce new allelic diversity by exploiting non-conventional gene pools. For example, stress adapted landraces can be crossed freely with wheat, while closely related genomes are used in inter-specifi c hybridization. While it may be diffi cult to assess the value of a genetic resource based on the expression of agronomic traits, their physiological trait expression can be used as a basis for investing in wide crossing, assuming traits do not interact strongly with agronomic type. For example, deeper rooting under drought is a trait that has been incorporated into modern wheat from both landraces and wild relatives (Trethowan and Mujeeb-Kazi, 2008). As molecular markers for physiological traits are developed they will facilitate allele mining from genetic resource collections.PHOTOSYNTHETIC CAPACITY: It is expected that a similar approach can be used to raise the yield threshold of wheat (Fig. 1) using a conceptual model for yield potential traits that will be validated and refi ned by the Wheat Yield Consortium (WYC). Traits and molecular makers identifi ed by WYC members associated with improved yield potential will be introduced into elite backgrounds as needed, and combined through a series of hybridization steps that may include complex crosses and backcrossing.Crosses will include (i) generic crosses to bring together complementary traits with expected value across all environments, including superior photosynthetic potential, improved partitioning to yield and lodging resistance, and (ii) regionally targeted crosses, that will incorporate generic traits with alleles for adaptation to specifi c photoperiod regimes (including winter and spring wheat habitats), and adaptation to moderate levels of a range of abiotic stress factors including extremes of temperature and mild periodic water defi cit. Progeny in which the full array of yield potential traits combine to express superior yield potential will be tested in international yield trials to establish robustness of its expression. The best material will then be made available to extant breeding programs to incorporate resistance to a spectrum of diseases and end use quality characteristics. With the increased availability of molecular marker and gene sequence information, a major challenge for plant breeders is how to best utilise this information to increase genetic gain. For water-limited environments, breeding decisions based on phenotype and quantitative trait loci (QTL) detection, crossing and selection, are further complicated by how yield is realised as a consequence of short-term and long-term interactions of genes, traits and environments.As in many other industries, simulation allows the testing and trial of new methods, i.e. even before many breeding programs have the data or capability to apply such methods. To assist such decisions we utilise a platform where a genetic simulation model of gene eff ects and breeding schemes (Qu-Gene -www.uq.edu. au/lcafs/qugene/; Podlich and Cooper, 1998) interacts directly with a bio-physical simulation model (APSIM -www.apsim.info). This is the fi rst platform that accounts for the complex interplays of genetic controls, physiological traits and environmental conditions throughout the crop cycle and the consequences for crossing and selection (Hammer et al., 2006;Chenu et al., 2008). This platform enables the construction of thousands of 'desktop breeding programs', where diff erent parent lines, type of crosses, evaluation environments and selection criteria can be evaluated. The paper illustrates how this platform can be used to:• Evaluate the expected selection response of diff erent breeding strategies, e.g. in the design of the CIMMYT wheat program (Wang et al., 2003);• Create complex crosses among diverse parental lines while accounting for gene linkage and additive, epistatic, environmental and error eff ects, e.g. selection for diagnostic genes and QTL for recombination of traits among wheat lines (Wang et al., 2009);• Evaluate the interaction of environment and genotype eff ects to infl uence the estimation and utility of QTL detection experiments, e.g. comparison of outcomes of >500 QTL experiments in terms of realized yield response to selection for QTL (Hammer et al., 2005;Chapman, 2008);• Generate in silico datasets to test the impact in breeding programs of QTL for traits observed at diff erent times or organ scales (e.g. hourly leaf growth, maximum leaf area index or grain yield), e.g. examining how the genetic control of leaf and silk elongation rates in maize can aff ect selection response for yield (Chenu et al., 2009).These tools still require further refi nement in terms of the detail in which they capture the genetic information and the physiological relationships among traits. However, they have demonstrated how to improve the effi ciency of breeding strategies (in terms of time and resources), and in the optimization of real-world examples for the pyramiding and re-combination of diagnostic genes and QTL. Their development is continuing via direct collaborations with public and private breeding programs, and the tools are freely available for use in public research and breeding.breeders have concentrated large amounts of resource to empirical approaches, the last ten years have seen a 'silent revolution' in the take up of new technologies to increase selection effi ciency and it is this experience which needs to be brought to bear if rapid progress is to be made.Exploitation of the range of 'new traits' currently under discussion will depend on the strong relationships that currently exist between the public and private sectors. Public sector breeding is highly effi cient at developing germplasm for trait discovery but less effi cient in translating this into the market place. Future progress will depend on integrating the technologies available from these bodies effi ciently and with speed.Current selection effi ciencies are high -particularly in the developed world where new fi eld technologies such as high speed seeding, automatic computerised weighing of trial plots and more recently the introduction of GPS technology are now used routinely. Laboratory based techniques for rapid throughput markers have also been developed. The current relationship within the UK between the John Innes Centre and the private sector winter wheat breeding companies (represented by the consortium known as British Wheat Breeders*) is a valuable working model for the consortium.A key requirement for any breeder is the opportunity to assess the trait of value. Field based selection schemes have the benefi ts of low cost and high throughput. However for many physiological traits the characters and their inheritance will be complex demanding an understanding of how genes interact to produce the phenotype. To this end diagnostic markers associated with these traits will be essential. Breeders will be well placed to be able to discriminate between the effi ciencies of fi eld or marker based selection strategies. Private breeders have at their disposal high throughput marker technologies.A key part of the successful strategy of the Green Revolution centred upon the development of novel wheat germplasm which optimised selection of crop ideotypes to meet local environmental constraints. Alongside this germplasm development, agronomic support strategies were conceived which allowed the optimisation of yield potential for the new ideotype. Future strategies will need to retain much of this philosophy, but the speed of development and integration will need to be faster and more effi cient than previously -primarily because of the rapid rise in the world population, but also because global warming is leading to a more rapid change of the current environments in which wheat is grown.To maximise the impact of this consortium it is essential that expertise from both the public and private sectors are brought together to exploit the genetic material for the benefi t of mankind.The breeding objectives set by the Wheat Yield Consortium (WYC) demand improvements in key physiological and phenological traits of very high importance. Imperatives to increase biomass, enhance lodging resistance and broaden the genetic base as well as opportunities to develop genetically modifi ed wheat crops are well understood. Only some of the traits associated with high value physiological characters are understood and there is much to be done to identify those which impact upon the phenology of the crop -essential if varieties are to be sown in their correct environments. Whilst much of the phenotyping work will be handled by physiologists, the delivery mechanism to the 'market place' will be through the plant breeding community, both the private and public sectors, and most importantly the combination of both.The WYC provides an opportunity to initiate breeding strategies to encompass the various disciplines necessary to increase the effi ciency of this translation process. Whilst historically Integration into a practical breeding platform W.J. Angus Limagrain, UK Ltd Sophisticated and rapid systems to incorporate new characterized genetic variation into breeding streams will be essential. For spring wheats, shutt le breeding was a major part of the previous strategy, but unless phenological traits are fi xed, it is possible that the fi ne nuances of the diff erent environments used will distort the frequency of the desired trait. Single Seed Descent and Doubled Haploid production will be key requirements for winter wheat breeding. Both of these have been developed in the public and private sectors and can be made available to the consortium.Once genes of interest have been identifi ed these can be fi xed by 'genetic enrichment' -particularly valuable if bringing together multiple traits from a range of parental types or wide crossing. This form of marker assisted selection (MAS) is now used routinely to fi x genes associated with intransigent traits. The range of traits forthcoming from this consortium will be broad and must be incorporated into a strategy which will encompass the many characters already being selected for.Physiology/ phenology traits have the benefi t of being able to be fi xed in perpetuity in germplasm and a fi rst step will be to fi x these in adapted germplasm represented by the major wheat growing areas of the world. Once fi xed these traits will be transferred via the use of effi cient selection strategies, encompassing both fi eld and laboratory based MAS, will be transferred to commercially valuable advanced lines. In order to achieve these demanding targets there will be an imperative for the development of sophisticated bioinformatics programmes which are able to direct the selection process and optimise selection effi ciency. Resources will need to be put aside to meet this demand. * British Wheat Breeders (BWB) represents the major UK wheat breeding companies who currently occupy over 90% of the UK wheat acreage. This is a non exclusive arrangement with all breeders invited to join on the basis of equal access and investment.","tokenCount":"10667"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"415f87606480288628d41d4bbd550528","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bc2bc3b4-7705-4ff6-a3d6-e234ea625ecc/retrieve","id":"777774877"},"keywords":["Forest Management and Restoration","Bioversity International","Via dei Tre Denari 472/a","Maccarese (Roma)","Italy 00057"],"sieverID":"7e295487-5fa1-410c-9fd9-16eb2dcd95ed","pagecount":"56","content":"Since the 1970s, Community forestry (CF) initiatives have sought to combine sustainable forestry, community participation and poverty alleviation. Like other community-based forms of natural resource management (CBNRM), CF has been lauded for its potential to involve local people in conservation while opening new opportunities for economic development. However, CF programmes are not always successful, economically or ecologically, and, by devolving new powers and responsibilities to an abstractly defined \"community,\" they risk exacerbating existing patterns of social exclusion, and creating new conflicts. In this paper we mobilise a relational concept of negotiation within a political ecology framework to explore how the power relations of CF are addressed and transformed in a region where issues of conflict and tenure security have long shaped the social forest. Specifically, we focus on the emergence and consolidation of ACOFOP [Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén], a Forest Based Association in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén region of Guatemala, where CF has been practised for 25 years. Emphasising the importance of longer histories of social movements and organisations to local capacities for CF, we explore the conditions of possibility that enabled ACOFOP to emerge, as well as the strategies it has adopted to make national regulatory frameworks work for local communities. Through qualitative analysis derived from participatory research, interviews and ethnographic data, we trace four key areas of ACOFOP's model of accompaniment (participatory decision-making; conflict resolution; advocacy and capacity-building) that have been developed in response to the negotiation of political issues pertaining to, and stemming from, the practice of CF. Highlighting ongoing challenges, and key strategies for CBNRM in other contexts, we conclude by emphasising that systems of community management cannot be \"equitable,\" or indeed sustainable, if political issues of access and tenure are not kept central to questions of participation.Since the 1980s, community forestry (CF) initiatives have integrated forest conservation with international development goals by empowering and regulating communities to harvest timber sustainably (Porter-Bolland et al., 2012;Andersson, 2013;Charnley & Poe, 2007).International development actors support such processes by providing forestry training; helping implement mechanisms to distribute benefits fairly; and identifying markets for forest products (Alcorn, 2014;Gupta & Koontz, 2019). There is, however, some debate about how to configure this support without delegitimising local actors and practices (Leach et al., 1999), unwittingly inscribing state territorial power (Peluso & Vandergeest, 2011;Devine, 2018;Ribot et al., 2006), or reinforcing classed and gendered patterns of exclusion (Thoms, 2008;Nygren, 2005;Gupte, 2004;Garcia-López, 2018). After nearly fifty years of experimentation, important lessons about how to enable effective and equitable CF have been consolidated (eg. Arnold, 2001;Larson et al., 2008;Alcorn, 2014), with reliable outcomes linked to cases where communities are supported to develop internal governance structures, and to lead in decision-making (Torres-Rojo et al., 2019).Despite this institutional learning, however, collective action has often broken down in the long-term. Scholars link this failure with instances where there is: disjuncture between the local \"rules\" of forest management and national regulatory frameworks (Radachowsky et al., 2012); too much heterogeneity within the user group (Varughese & Ostrom, 2001); or high tenure insecurity (Barsimantov et al., 2011;Larson et al, 2008). Where collective action breaks down, concessions may be revoked, or the benefits derived may only apply to a small section of the eligible population (Agrawal et al., 2018). Meanwhile, even where forest conservation has been improved, the involvement of international actors has exacerbated social conflict (Kashwan et al., 2019), or eroded authentic community control (Sunderlin et al., 2008). It is therefore increasingly acknowledged that the \"success\" of CF schemes needs to be evaluated not only in terms of ecological and poverty indicators, but through an assessment of broader political conditions, including tenure security (Sikor & Lestrelin 2017); meaningful social processes (Cronkleton et al., 2008); and participation across axes of gender, class, and ethnicity (Nygren, 2005).Those working to develop a \"political ecology\" analysis of natural resource landscapes have developed this critique by highlighting the politics involved in the decentralisation of natural resource management. Now an established, interdisciplinary framework for studying humanenvironmental relations (eg. Robbins, 2000;Zimmerer & Bassett, 2003;Neumann, 2009), political ecology considers political, economic, and environmental transformations through the histories of their relations. Political ecologists highlight institutional conditions that allow fairer and more democratic control of resources, but they also emphasise the diverse geographical scales, interests, and social hierarchies that clash and mingle as models travel into contexts (Neumann, 2009;Nygren, 2005). Such scholarship reveals the longer histories of political struggle that shape environments: forests, for example, have been grounds for competing visions of nature and territorial control for centuries (Peluso and Vandergeest, 2011;Le Billon, 2001). The framing political-economic conditions through which decentralised management enters forests also becomes critical, with emphasis falling on the continuities (and discontinuities) between community management programmes and neoliberal forms of governance, and the associated recalibration of responsibilities and decision-making powers that may accompany them (McCarthy, 2005;Leach et al., 1999;Kashwan et al., 2019).By adopting a political ecology perspective and attending to the processes of negotiation entailed within CF across longer timescales, this paper will contribute to understandings of the politics of participation within contemporary decentralised resource management practices. Like Nygren (2005), we see negotiation as a power-laden process through which people (re)shape unequal relationshipsregulated in turn by wider socio-economic and political conditions that affect what can be negotiated and by whom (see also Edmunds & Wollenberg, 2001). Using this terminology, we explore the negotiation of the power relations of CF in a region where issues of conflict and tenure security have long shaped the social forest. Specifically, we focus on the emergence and consolidation of ACOFOP [Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén], a Forest-Based Association (FBA) in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala, where CF has been practised for 25 years. FBAs, otherwise known as second-tier, or meso-level forestry associations, mediate among social movements, local communities, national and international actors in the development of specific CF programmes. With histories rooted in social processes prior to community-based development initiatives, they, like agrarian organisations, offer insight into the (re)configuration of relationships among states, non-governmental actors and communities through decentralisation (Taylor, 2010;Edelman, 2008). In unpacking this case, our objective is to explore the relational processes of negotiation through which FBAs, as part of broader social and environmental contexts, adapt the regulatory frameworks of CF to address political issues of land tenure security, specific power-relations, and social conflict. Our methodology offers insight into a reflexive institutional process, developed through the negotiation of numerous challenges, and, as such, offers rich material to other contexts.1.2 The case study ACOFOP was established in 1995 by community members to support the concessionary process established in association with the creation of the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), a protected area of 2.1 million hectares in the Petén region of Guatemala (see figure 1). From its inception, ACOFOP sought to counter the exclusion of forest communities from decision-making in the MBR by engaging with the new process laid out for community-managed forest concessions (Gómez & Méndez, 2005;Cronkleton et al., 2008). The case consequently reveals an important narrative of how a \"disenabling\" regulatory framework was adapted to work for local communities. ACOFOP also offers insight into community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) more generally, as CF has been practised in the MBR for almost 25 years, despite significant challenges and high levels of conflict 1 . The population of the reserve is diverse; there is a long history of violence in relation to the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-95); and, before the introduction of CF, levels of poverty were high (Merlet, 2011;Carr, 2007). Despite the significant institutional learning in this context, the concessions, due to be renewed in 2021, are also under threat. Governmental will toward the concessions has fluctuated significantly over the past decade, not least because alliances between commercial and international actors have consistently cast doubt on the efficiency of community-managed arrangements, most recently linking the communities with the drug trade and other illicit activities. There is a current process under way to present evidence of the benefits of CF and negotiate longer tenure arrangements.To contextualise the negotiation of power relations undertaken through the constitution of ACOFOP as an FBA, we trace the adaptation of a model of \"accompaniment\" to meet new challenges arising from CF in practice. Accompaniment is an alternative model of development that has been co-created with and alongside forest communities (Cronkleton et al, 2008;Gómez & Méndez, 2005). Through a qualitative analysis of the perspectives of diverse actors in the MBR, we highlight four dimensions of accompaniment that have been consolidated through efforts to negotiate the boundaries and rules of participation to political ends: participatory decision-making; conflict resolution; advocacy; and capacity-building. Our discussion of the development of fresh strategies in these areas to overcome challenges emphasises that external support of such processes needs to be sensitive to the complexity of community and to the multiple interests invested in CBNRM. It also highlights the importance of negotiation and skills of facilitation for long-term viability of commons management.The paper is organised as follows: First, we conduct a literature review of existing CBNRM scholarship to update current understandings of the politics of participation within decentralised resource management, including an account of political ecological approaches to conflicted resource environments. The review section is followed by a contextualisation of our case study, and a presentation of the methodology through which we collected our data. This leads to our analysis of the politics of participation within the MBR in terms of emergent concepts and strategies for accompaniment. In our conclusions we offer suggestions of what this analysis means both for the political future of CF in the MBR, and for CBNRM in other contexts.The commitment to community-based programmes of natural resource management was articulated in sustainable development theories as early as the 1970s (Leach et al., 1999), following growing critiques of the paternalistic premise of development interventions, and fresh conservation commitments in the face of global biodiversity losses (Richards, 1997;Hobley, 1996). The participatory approaches embedded within CBNRM programmes aimed to correct democratic imbalances by involving lay actors and marginalised communities in decision-making and the elaboration of regional conservation plans (Cleaver, 1999;Roseland, 2000). The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Bank adopted forestry for community development in 1978 on this rationale (Hobley, 1996), while community-led approaches were scaled into international commitments at the Earth Summit of 1992 (Alcorn, 2014). Community forestry was developed from the 1980s to allow communities to extract timber from biodiverse forests, while also participating in their regeneration.Today, there is barely a country in the world without some form of regulated community management of natural resources, which consistently meets ecological and economic objectives more reliably than individual-focused or classical state-based approaches (Agrawal & Gibson, 1999;Ostrom 2009). However, the reconfiguration of responsibilities associated with the rise of participatory models also reflects a shift from global concerns with \"government\" to \"governance,\"where civil society assumes responsibility for achieving outcomes determined at state and transnational levels (Jessop, 2002;Swyngedouw, 2005). This is important, as participatory mechanisms can consolidate state power under the guise of devolution (ibid.), or, through the creation of new bureaucratic mechanisms, coerce local groups in covert ways (Hobley 1996:10).Such effects are particularly linked with the ideas of devolution, voluntary participation, and public-private partnerships, and models of efficiency that shaped the operational vocabulary of neoliberalism through the 1980s (McCarthy, 2005;Kashwan et al., 2019). Importantly, CF was also designed to offset the reduction in budget resources available to forest departments, and in many ways borrows from this vocabulary to achieve its promises (Arnold, 2001).Through attention to the political-economic context of decentralised governance, scholars in critical development studies, political ecology and human geography have consequently sought to question the politics of community-based approaches, highlighting tendencies to empower existing spokes-people, rather than new ones (Agrawal & Gibson, 1999); a failure to address structural patterns of exclusion (Gupte, 2004); and a tendency to support design formats that are short-termist and over-reliant on international expertise (Leach et al., 1999). That CF schemes may entrench existing forms of elitism has been a particularly persistent critique (McCarthy, 2005;Ribot et al. 2006, Sikor andNguyen, 2007;Blaikie, 2006;Gupte, 2004;García-López et al., 2018).For example, in a review of CF's history in Nepal, Thoms (2008) shows how elite actors obtained new leverage over resource-use under the guise of acting for their community. Such studies reveal how decentralisation may reconfigure power relations in new ways that are not necessarily empowering for local actors (McCarthy, 2005), and may instead contribute toward \"elite persistence\" (Wilshusen, 2009;Kashwan et al., 2019).This persistence may be associated with the \"flat imaginary\" CF imports from neoliberal economics into its ideas about communities and markets, which tend to obscure histories and geographies of unevenness (Peck, 2004) as well as the new \"distributive politics\" (Ferguson, 2015) established through decentralisation (Kashwan et al., 2019). Neoliberal invocations of civil society tend to obscureand yet reinforcethis unevenness, by 'gloss[ing] over enormous inequalities within and between groups, exaggerate[ing] the cohesiveness of voluntary associations, treat [ing] civil society as an actor rather than as a terrain of struggle, [and] treat[ing] very different groups as equivalent' (McCarthy, 2005(McCarthy, :1008)). Through such glossing, the abstract conception of \"the community\" comes to serve as a black box charged with resolving structural contradictions brought about by the withdrawal of state services (Joseph, 2002). Indeed, scholars highlight that the \"community\" can mean a locality; a group with common interests; and a scale of intervention, sometimes all at once (Arnold, 2001), whereas, even in \"traditional,\" rural contexts, users of common resources are rarely homogeneous, and are often rifted by complex social differences and ethnic and gender geometries (Agrawal & Gibson, 1999).Political ecologist Nygren (2005:640) argues from this basis that a 'consideration of the complexity and fragility of \"community\" is essential if it is to benefit more than a powerful minority.' Communities are increasingly understood to be socio-culturally and ecologically diverse, with varied approaches to resource management and decision-making (Torres-Rojo et al., 2019;Andersson, 2013). Ojha et al. (2016) proposes a \"delocalised\" approach to community to articulate this nuance, which emphasises relationships between actors, within, and between spatial scales, and the complex social relationships that constitute decisions within any \"local\" space. For local decision-making is, of course, not only influenced by dynamics among local people, but by regulatory norms derived from national and transnational institutions, and by cultural and emotional frames that travel between places (see also Schleicher, 2018). When we refer to \"community\" in this paper, we imply this delocalised conception.Within CBNRM studies, scholars have turned to \"institutional arrangements\" to complexify understandings of how coherent collective action is produced in relation to the governance of commons (Agrawal, 2001;García-López et al., 2018;Agrawal et al., 2018). Initially inspired by the work of Nobel-award winning commons scholar Elinor Ostrom, this scholarship models how CBNRM programmes, including CF, are established and maintained in relation to particular \"rules\" of use (Ostrom et al., 1999;Larson et al., 2008;Barsimantov et al., 2011;Sikor & Lestrelin, 2017). \"Institutions,\" within this scholarship, refer to the sets of social rules that influence decision-making about resource use, the resolution of conflicts, and the allocation of roles (Leach et al., 1999). A focus on institutional arrangements within the nexus of CF allows us to grasp that an activity like forestry brings diverse sets of rules into relation, including those derived from national and international regulations; global markets; regional politics; local assemblies; and context-specific norms relating to gender, behaviours, and the use of money (Richards, 1997;Cleaver, 2000;Dietz et al., 2002). For sustained collective action, there must be agreement on what the rules are, and how they will be enforced.Through institutional arrangements, formal and informal \"rules\" of action and different scales of action are also brought into play. This reframes participation as the making of \"the rules of the game,\" in the sense of defining norms, establishing fields of legitimacy, and clarifying who makes decisions and how (Larson et al., 2008). Thus, institutional analysis, modelled in figure 2, can also help explain why collective action breaks down. For example, in a comparative study of four community forestry enterprises in Guatemala and Mexico, Barsimantov et al. (2011) demonstrate that a lack of clarity in tenure arrangements significantly increase the likelihood that commons management will collapse at the local level, especially in areas where populations are diverse and collective action is already costly. Social conflict and the break-down of CBNRM arrangements are often linked with high levels of heterogeneity, because diverse interests can make consensus-building and norm-enforcement difficult (ibid.). The study concludes, however, that such challenges can be overcome by good designfor example, where meaningful authority is devolved to forest-users (see also Varughese & Ostrom, 2001). Longer timeframes that facilitate trust-building also improve the likelihood that user groups will organise effectively (Agrawal, 2001, Ostrom et al., 1999), while dialogue among practitioners and decision-makers allows for mutual understanding (Orozco Vílchez, 2004:31;Nygren et al., 2005).Nothing about long-term horizons guarantees success, however, and social rifts may deepen through time. This is particularly relevant in Central America, where internal wars have divided groups by political loyalties, and by conflict over who receives state benefits and protections. Meanwhile certain populationssuch as women, or ethnic minoritiesmay be excluded from purported or perceived benefits. The importance of differential access to benefits and of different codifications of access is a key focus within political ecological accounts of CBNRM, which highlight conflicts over access to environmental resources with the configuration of systems of political and economic control (Bryant, 1998;Blaikie, 2006;Neumann, 2009;Peluso & Vandergeest, 2011). Political ecologists and critical institutionalists have successively challenged the focus within CBNRM studies on local-level institutional design, seen to downplay power relations configured at other scales (Cleaver, 2012;García-López et al., 2018;Kashwan, 2017;Kashwan et al., 2019). CBNRM studies have also been critiqued for treating communities and their spaces in naive ways, and for failing to assess the impact of broader political-economic conditions in their analysis of \"success\" (Li, 2002;Nightingale, 2003). Political ecologistsFigure 2 The institutional analysis and development framework developed by Elinor Ostrom. Available under commons licence. See also Ostrom (2009) consequently seek to evidence the influence of powerful state and non-state actors over resources and decision-making within CBNRM (Blaikie, 2006;Li, 2002;Peluso, 1992;Ribot et al., 2006) as well as non-state, civil society, and market forces (Büscher & Dressler, 2012). Institutions, here, are inseparable from power relations.Unequal power relations, for political ecologists, need to be understood through the cultural articulations of resources and a broader \"knowledge politics,\" through which some forms of knowledge or expertise are designated authoritative, and others \"primitive\" or informal (Watts, 2000;Rocheleau & Edmunds, 1999). When analysing decentralised resource management, political ecologists therefore look beyond questions of 'what works?' to consider how, and 'for whom' does it work? (Fairhead & Leach, 2003;Escobar, 1996;Peet & Watts, 1996). This is central within feminist political ecology (FPE), which emphasises gendered social relations and embodied social practice in the making of histories of oppressionand of resistance (Rocheleau & Edmunds, 1992;Rocheleau, 2008;Elmhirst, 2011). FPE attends to specifically gendered power relations and scales of analysis including the home and household, whichalongside the \"community\"are infused with regulatory norms elaborated elsewhere (Li, 2002) 2 . When Whatmore posits relationally that territory and its governance are 'plastic achievements,' that hold multiple possibilities (2002:87), FPE scholarship invites us to remember that such possibilities are harboured in codified ways.\"Codification,\" here, refers to the process through which rules or norms are validated.\"Negotiation,\" on the other hand, denotes an engagement with the rules of participation in such a way as to change them. In both terms, the \"rules\" acquire legitimacy through the interlacing of tradition; local understandings; national law; international standards; and the work of institutions operating across sites (Nygren, 2005;Nightingale, 2003). This is why, in Rocheleau and Edmunds'(1997) gendered account of tree tenure, when attempts to \"bring women in\" to regulatory frameworks ignore rules of access already codified in in customary law, they may actually undermine women's existing resource-use and rights (see also Gupte, 2004). FPE scholars insist that pre-existing differences within communities, including patterns of influence, wealth, ethnicity, and caste, constantly regulate codes of access and forms of participation. Negotiation is a contextual, situational, relational labour on these codes, which is informed not only by elite power, but by all manner of informal relationships (Kashwan et al., 2019).Through this emphasis on negotiation and power, it becomes clear that collective action for forest management is informed by longer histories of social movements as much as by the interventions of international actors. The CBNRM literature has sometimes sidelined the role of mass politics and civil associations in its analysis of policy processes (Bebbington et al., 2008;Kashwan et al., 2019), which may unsettle dominant power relations and elite capture in important ways (García-López et al., 2018;Lund & Saito-Jensen, 2013). For example, the four case studies of CF reviewed by Cronkleton et al. (2008) in Central America and Brazil all emerged from strong community organisations that formed as initially weak government institutions imposed conservation and development initiatives to control chaotic frontier conditions. The state's own capacity to regulate may be less significant in predicting long-term collective actionif communities can engage state politics in negotiations to secure rights and support (García-López et al.; Kashwan, 2017;Kashwan et al., 2019).To better understand and support CF initiatives, we therefore argue, with Taylor ( 2010), that we need to see institutional arrangements in dynamic terms, in dialogue with longer social and environmental histories. FBAs offer a particularly helpful perspective on the negotiation of governance conditions by and through institutions, and the connections between localised action and larger political-economic structures (ibid., see also Gupta & Koontz, 2019). Indeed, the long history of strong peasant and labour movements that continue to develop in contemporary Latin American politics make the region an exception in relation to most countries in Asia and Africa in terms of the transformation of state-imposed schemes to more democratic ends (Kashwan et al, 2019;Borras et al., 2008;Edelman, 2008;Bebbington, 2007). Using negotiation as a relational concept, in the following sections we explore how problems of participation arising from CBNRM have been navigated through the \"lived embodiment of power\" (Harcourt et. al. 2015:296).Since the 1990s, more than 0.5 million hectares of broadleaved tropical forests in the MBR have been concessioned to twelve communities, four municipal cooperatives, and two forest industries (Milián, 2008;Stoian & Rodas, 2006;Monterroso & Barry, 2007) as part of large-scale transfer of tenure rights to local communities across Latin America (Monterroso & Barry, 2012).The tropical forestry practiced is considered a \"state-of-the-art\" example of achieving both forest conservation and social benefits (Grogan et al., 2014), especially in relation to mahogany, (Swietenia macrophylla), a CITES-protected species and the most valuable timber species of the neotropical forests since the arrival of the Europeans ([redacted],1998). In the MBR, forest management is based on a polycyclic system, where trees are selectively removed in 25 to 40-year cutting cycle with minimum diameter limits (Grogan et al., 2014). Non-timber products, including allspice fruit (Pimienta doica); xate leaves (Chamaedorea spp) for North American and European floral industries; and the ramón seed or Maya nut (Brosimum alicastrum), used in baking, are also extracted.Distinctively, the forest concessions of the MBR were not the result of land titling but of the introduction of a protected area, itself the product of extensive lobbying on the part of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and donor agencies (especially USAID) (Monterroso & Barry, 2012). Before this intervention, a 200km tourist road had been planned to open the extensive Mayan ruins to new tourist markets. However, international attention was arrested by visual media coverage of the forests and the impending threat to their future, most notably in a special edition of the National Geographic in 1989. President Cerezo (1986Cerezo ( -1990)), who architected the road plan, was eventually forced to concede it, although some suggest that, having failed to achieve peace during his tenure, he settled on the design of the new park as his geopolitical legacy (Ybarra, 2017).Both road and park plans reinforced the place of the rural Petén in national strategy in previous decades as a \"safety valve\" for people displaced by conflicts generated elsewhere (Schwartz, 1990). Beginning in 1959, state-sponsored colonisation policies had directed displaced migrants into the region while exploiting its timber resources through the creation of the Empresa de Fomento y Desarrollo del Petén (FYDEP), whose mandate was to \"colonise\" and develop the Petén (Cronkleton et al., 2008). Much land subsequently passed into the hands of national and multinational companies dedicated to extensive agriculture, especially African Palm Oil agrobusiness (Castillo Huertas, 2015;Grandia, 2013), although FYDEP was eventually dismantled in 1978. After a period of relative state abandonment, the National Protected Areas Council (CONAP) acquired responsibility for the newly created protected area in 1989, with the explicit role of defining new regulatory frameworks for the Petén's forests 3 . However, the rigorous demands for tree measurements and fire prevention laid out by CONAP were perceived to be unnecessarily complicated by communities, reflecting a bias toward commercial interests. At CONAP's inception, four members of the board represented conservation organisations; fourteen represented development-oriented government agencies and the private sector, primarily logging companies (Acopa & Boege, 1998); and none represented community interests.Through the shift from the \"jungle-clearing\" policies of the 1960s to the \"tropical forest conservation\" programme of the 1990s, the new MBR therefore consolidated a longer history of exclusion from decision-making (Gambetta et al., 2006). The proposed design was the increasingly popular Biosphere Reserve concept, including zoned and managed core and buffer areas (see figure 3), which embeds the participation of local populations in reserve management (Acopa & Boege, 1998). 4 However, the park's new boundaries and rules largely failed to account for preexisting patterns of natural resource use (Cronkleton et al., 2008;Sundberg, 1998), reflecting national and military zones of jurisdiction instead (Acopa & Boege, 1998). Meanwhile, despite the new conservation policies, by 1998 forest destruction in the Maya Forest still surpassed 80,000 hectares per year, alongside high levels of poverty (60%) and illiteracy (39%) (Merlet, 2011;Carr, 2006;Monterroso & Barry, 2007). New divisions were also provoked when the government's new  (Cronkleton et al, 2008). The new \"jigsaw\" of interventions introduced fresh competition for access to resources, but generally sidelined local people from decisionmaking, and rarely resulted in joined-up assistance (Hodgdon et al, 2015;Camino & Breitling, 2007).Tensions over access to incoming funds were exacerbated by the chaotic way that the state had encouraged the settlement of migrants and refugees in prior decades. Land rights for new refugees remained unclear throughout the 1990s, and conflicts had emerged over clashing land management cultures (Cronkleton et al., 2008). While incoming migrant groups favoured farming and cattle-ranching, several of the five major villages of MBR (including Carmelita and Uaxactún) had, since the 1920s, developed a traditional forest society based on the extraction of non-timber products (Schwartz, 1990). Such tensions were not alleviated by the framing of incoming migrant communities as \"land-grabbers\" in the narratives of the new INGOs, who represented the 'returned refugee and displaced peoples as criminals taking advantage (aprovecharse) of international aid' (Ybarra 2017:32). This framing legitimised the aggressive policing of rural communities, especially Maya groups who had been classed as \"insurgents\" in prior decades of conflict. In the neighbouring region of Alta Verapaz, for example, the Q'eqchi Maya were framed as nomadic squatters 5 and a threat to forest conservation (ibid:36,40). This led to a systematic destruction of their settlements in the name of recovering \"governability\".Against this backdrop of competing interests, Petén community leaders gathered in 1995 to establish the Committee of Forest Communities of Petén, registered two years later as ACOFOP.Early organisers were members of the cooperatives that sold chicle and other non-timber products, and several had visited the thriving Plan Piloto Forestal (PPF) CF project established in 1983 in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Due in large part to ACOFOP's advocacy, a series of concession contracts were agreed between 1998 and 2001, using PPF as a model, eventually extending to include holistic use of all renewable forest resources (Galletti, 1998;Monterrosso & Barry, 2007). Today ACOFOP represents 14,000 individuals from thirty different rural communities and is structured as a non-profit organisation with a General Assembly, led by an elected Board and president, who is the organisation's legal representative. Community Forest Enterprises (CFEs), at the heart of the organisation, are the individually-constituted cooperatives that create annual management plans in compliance with CONAP; coordinate timber-and non-timber harvesting strategies; and return benefits to their members (Stoian & Rodas, 2006:14). All nine of the community concessions that remain active 6 now run their own sawmills, while the processing infrastructuresuch as buildings, sheds, tools and vehiclesthey have collectively invested in has been estimated 5 The Q'eqchi have historically been considered \"less indigenous\" by the Guatemalan state than the highland K'iche and Kaqchikels, because they farmed lowland plantations owned by colonists, using techniques such as mixed swiddens, which involve long fallow periods. This contrasts with the highland agriculture other Maya groups are associated with, the relative distance of their communities from Ladino culture, and the distinctiveness of their dress and artistic culture. The practice of leaving land fallow for long periods is what allows other actors to consider this form of agriculture akin to squatting, in Ybarra's (2017) account.6 Two concessions had their contract terminated, while the management plan of a third was suspended in 2009 due to noncompliance with conditions of their contracts (see Stoian et al., 2019).at a value of 5.9 USD collectively (Stoian et al., 2019). ACOFOP still receives funding from international organisations including USAID, as well as contributions from its member communities, but retains the autonomy to decide how these funds are used.The data informing our analysis was collected as part of a three-year  interdisciplinary study of community forestry in Mesoamerica (Guatemala and Nicaragua)assessing the achievements and sustainability of CF after 25 years. The project, led by Bioversity International 7 , involved three components investigating different aspects of community forestry: a biophysical team explored the regeneration of CITES-protected mahogany trees through pollen counts and tree-ring studies; the socio-economic team explored the benefits obtained through CF in terms of human, social, economic, social, and physical capital; and the socio-cultural team explored the forms of social governance, and dynamics of inclusion/exclusion, that characterise CF in the MBR. This paper presents the findings of the socio-cultural team in the context of the investigation, with a focus on dimensions of equitable participation. The wider findings are important: we found that forestry practices in the MBR are enabling the effective conservation of CITES-protected mahogany trees ([Redacted], 2018), while enabling communities to derive income that raises them above the poverty-line (Stoian et al., 2016). The main impediment to ongoing effective management was shown to be the government's limited capacity, or will, to control the illegal occupation of land designated for CF, alongside persistent internal conflicts (Orjuela & de Camino Velozo, 2016). We co-authored eight policy briefings to communicate findings with community partners and governmental organisations and delivered these in a series of workshops in January 2017 8 .To produce the data that informs this paper, we carried out a qualitative analysis of data grounded in ethnographic fieldwork. This involved the systematic collection of fieldnotes and archival material, as well as interviews with actors including: CF legislators; members and nonmembers of CFEs; employees of international development and environmental organisations and local forestry organisations; early and active members of ACOFOP; local residents; and academics. These exercises took place throughout the MBR, but in specific CFEs we also conducted focus groups, informal interviews, oral histories with community \"elders\", and group interviews during transect walks. We selected these cases to include areas with long-standing and homogenous populations (Carmelita and Uaxactún); more recent and heterogeneous communities (Cruce a la Colorada (CC)); and a non-resident population (Laborantes del Bosque), as well as for their overlap with biophysical criteria required by the other disciplinary components. Resident concessions are those where members of the CFE live and work in the same area, whereas nonresident concessions draw members from a wider geographical area.Table 1 contains a summary of the settlement history and concession details of the four communities where we carried out focused interventions. It is important to the investigation that some concessions were established through cooperative structures established for non-timber product extractions as early as the 1920s, whereas other organisational structures were established specifically to meet the concessionary requirements (see 5.1).8 See for example: https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Beneficios_Stoian__2017.pdf The full set of Spanish language briefs can be obtained by emailing Bioversity International at bioversity@cgiar.orgTo explore the relational negotiations through which ACOFOP adapted its model of accompaniment to address a politics of participation, we analysed our data according to three dimensions derived from a political ecology framework: the negotiation of relationships of power, the (re)configuration of access to resources, and the address of social exclusion within the constitution of ACOFOP and through its elaboration over time. After coding to these themes, we organised the data inductively to highlight areas of negotiation rated of high importance byTable 1 Case study communities selected for in-depth social scientific investigation, as part of interdisciplinary research project on community forestry in Mesoamerica.multiple actors. This led to the identification of key areas of participatory practice within CF that have posed challenges to collective action, requiring internal, external and horizontal negotiation, and the creation of new practices. These areas are the qualitative \"results\" that present in this paper.By showing how problems encountered in the MBR were negotiated and transformed into new solutions, we contribute understanding of the politics of participation in play in CF, and demonstrate how existing rules and practices may be adapted to allow for fuller and wider community participation.In our fieldwork and analysis we adopt an ethos derived from recent work in feminist political ecology, which emphasises developing critical interventions from a \"situated\" position in a context, rather than at a scholarly distance (Nightingale, 2005;Rocheleau & Edmunds, 1997;Tsing, 2011). This has meant incorporating participatory, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approaches to knowledge creation, and highlighting existing management practices as loci for reworking colonial, ethnic, and power relations (Agrawal & Gibson, 1999). We worked with community organisations and other actors to diagnose issues faced in the MBR and led our analysis by concepts that emerged from, and return to, reflection and practice in context.In this section we present and explain the four areas of participation highlighted by participants as challenges in terms of inclusion, exclusion and voice in the practice of CF in the MBR. Through our focus on negotiation, we explore these areas not only through the challenges and tensions they involved, but through the strategies created to adapt CF and change the meaning of participation within it. As we trace the processes of negotiation that enabled these changes, we aim to build on existing scholarly understandings of the institutional interface of the MBR (eg. Cronkleton et al., 2008;Gómez & Méndez, 2005;Monterroso, 2007;Monterroso & Barry, 2007, 2009, 2012;Radachowsky et al., 2012;Taylor, 2010;Sundberg, 1998;Barsimantov et al., 2011;Nittler & Tschinkel, 2005). These studies emphasise the problems of representation and equity that have characterised the MBR since its inception and until 2012, as well as revealing the uniqueness of ACOFOP in its adaptation of strategies to address these problems. In recent years, new challenges have required new tactics: for example, the threat of the non-renewal of the concessions, alongside the challenges of diversifying economic strategies and adapting monitoring processes to incorporate payments for environmental services REDD+ (Sikor et al., 2017). As we update this literature, we add fresh emphasis to the relational practices through which these transformations became possible.In the remainder of this section, we unpack the four areas of participation that emerged as the most important challenges to CF in practiceand thus, the most important areas of negotiation in the history of ACOFOPthrough our qualitative research. Table 2 presents these four areas in terms of specific \"concepts\" of participation; the challenges entailed; strategies devised to overcome these challenges; and tensions that remain. The following four sub-sections treat and each area in turn, giving examples of the elaboration of new ideas, and making clear which challenges remain active in the MBR. As implied by our literature review, these strategies are necessarily interconnected, for CF works across multiple scales, and only functions when the \"rules\" are coherent among all actors. The founding members of ACOFOP were migrants and indigenous people, men and women, former military and former guerrillas, who collaborated from the outset to establish new bridges across differences. However, as new conflicts and disagreements arose, internally and externally, new mechanisms needed to be created. The discussion of participation in this section will confirm that accompaniment is above all a process, in which support institutions and communities journey to generate ideas and identify future challenges (Gómez & Méndez, 2005). For one interviewee who works for both CONAP and ACOFOP, this \"journeying\" is only possible because ACOFOP doesn't function like an NGO; it functions to mediate among multiple interests. One of ACOFOP's directors echoes this point when she explains that ACOFOP does not organise for any specific community but for \"community interests\", which she divides into areas of social representation (maintaining unity internally and through dialogue); political representation (mediation with state and external actors); and giving technical assistance. As these three commitments must be constantly held in tension, negotiation is necessarily at the heart of every aspect of participation that we turn to.ACOFOP's founding members saw opportunities for collective organising in the proposals for the new MBR, but to coordinate a response they needed internal structures to enable the flow of information, and to build external alliances (Monterroso & Barry, 2009). This became complicated when some concession residents chose not to take part, and later, when conflict between profit and not-for-profit associations emerged (Taylor, 2010). Further challenges arose in the onerous regulatory frameworks imposed by CONAP, characterised as \"chaotic\", \"officious\"and \"disconnected from community livelihoods.\" Baseline surveys conducted in 1990 and 1991 confirmed this disconnection, showing that most residents of the Petén did not know the MBR existed, although by then it encompassed half the department (USAID, 1995, in Ybarra, 2017:30).To reject the version of conservation proposed by the state, the ideas of participation mobilised by plans to introduce CF were quickly reinterpreted through notions of translation;specifically \"translating the ruleswith translation being always a two-way process\" (Carmelita interviews, 2016). Translation meant decoding the new regulations into practical opportunities, while reflecting community concerns back to CONAP. Given that it is extremely challenging to bring together communities who have not previously worked together around a 'complicated productive enterprise' (Nittler & Tschinkel, 2005:7), translation also involved a significant labour of \"brokering\" between groups. One founding member of the CFE Laborantes del Bosque, who grew up in a family of Belizean migrants and Petén chicle harvesters, found himself in this role.Having worked previously as a primary school teacher, a shoemaker, a chicle-harvester and local politician, R. had learned mediation skills in disputes between teachers and employers, and between chicle cooperatives and migrants in conflict (Oral history, 2016). This, he felt, equipped him in 1995 to facilitate the interpretation of CONAP's regulations in a series of schoolhouse meetings. Estimating that more than 40% of the population were harvesting timber illegally prior to 1995, while others smuggled vegetables and brought back rice, beans and cheese, R. notes that the change was not as significant as might be imaginedwhen 'smugglers became conservationists' they already knew about logging! The challenge was to make clear to different groups what was required of them to derive the promised benefits, and so avoid the perception that one group's success would come at the cost of another's.After forming as an FBA, ACOFOP also worked with CFE members to understand the processes for becoming certified 9 and how to develop Annual Plans in sanctioned forms. Where rules were perceived to be unfair or poorly matched with the specifics of doing CF in the Petén, ACOFOP also proposed alternatives, inviting CONAP members to visit and understand the practical problems.  2015).A CONAP extensionist based in CC, tasked with promoting cooperation between the two organisations, similarly recalls how CONAP's practices shifted as they reflected on 'the consequences of failing to listen,' (Interviews, 2015). Since 2010, CONAP extensionists also partner with CFEs and visit them regularly, ensuring that the reasons for regulations, as well as the consequences of non-compliance, are understood. This has led to a much higher rate of observance, as well as influencing CONAP's priorities, which now include collaborating to secure future tenure. After a series of general meetings on the topic in the mid-2000s, a greater balance of economic decision-making within ACOFOP was also shifted to the CFEs themselves. New strategies included directing funding to community institutions; encouraging the self-diagnosis of 9 CFEs were required to be certified within three years under the Forest Stewardship Council to retain concessionary rights (Gambetta et al., 2006).needs among CFEs; and the encouragement of horizontal networking between CFEs and partner organisations. More recently, training in governance and administration has been prioritised, to enable decision-making processes within CFEs to be visible and accountable.This learning experience was vital to overcome challenges presented by the new CF frameworks, because, given the backdrop of conflict among communities and the perceived absence of the state (Cronkleton et al., 2008), misunderstandings could escalate quickly into violence. In the late 1990s, aggression was directed toward CONAP technicians and facilities (Monterroso & Barry, 2007); two resident community concessions with high numbers of recent immigrants (La Colorada and San Miguel) were revoked by CONAP due to contractual incompliance; and the concessionary process looked set to fall apart. A relational perspective helps us to appreciate that this break-down of collective action was encouraged by perceptions of an \"basic abandon[ment]\" on the part of the state (Carmelita focus group, 2016) combined with social conflict between disenfranchised groups. All \"failing\" concessions have experienced a similar pattern of rapid population increase and turnover, coupled with rampant illegal land appropriations affecting between 30% and 50% of concessionary areas, and the establishment of large cattle ranches. The involvement of the military in one failed concession also suggests that the state's interest in breached rules reaches beyond conservation goals to concern conditions of \"governability\" within the region (Devine, 2018). In this sense it is important to recognise that geopolitical power relations can affect the management of CF 'all the way down.'In contrast with the \"top-down\", \"bureaucratic\" and \"disconnected\" projects interviewees associate with the early 1990s, ACOFOP is conceptualised by community members as a diffuse network constituted by links between forest communities and office-based \"hubs.\" ACOFOP is imagined as an \"umbrella,\" as \"roots,\" \"a tree\", \"a social movement\", \"an HQ\" (headquarters), \"a united front\" and \"a seedbed\" by interviewees. These metaphors articulate the ethos of being alongside communities rather than directing them, and the feeling of protection that derives from belonging to an organisational platform. In the Petén, other pre-existing institutions have also formed hubs for the exchange of relevant knowledge and experience, supporting the horizontal dimension of this process 10 . In Central America, legacies of earlier guerrilla movements, liberation theology practices and experimental agroecology networks add nuance to participation, highlighting the validation of campesino experiences and expertise ([Redacted] 2017). The \"participatory\" strategies of CF are not, thus, primarily the initiative or property of Global North organisations, as is sometimes assumed (Scoones & Thompson, 2009;Rosset et al., 2011). To keep this expanded, bottom-up sense of participation vibrant in the MBR, it has been vital to develop shared practices of accompaniment, direct funding, and training for governance, which allow diverse constituents to transform the mechanisms of CF in an ongoing way.With the CFEs becoming important institutions in the economic and social life of the Petén, conflict between members and non-members has grown. This has been an important cost of community-based management within the region. A decade ago, conflict centred within CFEs comprised of non-forest resident members from several communities (Monterroso & Barry, 2007).More recently, conflicts between members and non-members have escalated in the residential communities (Taylor, 2010), whereas one of ACOFOP's female managers emphasises -'it is extremely difficult to separate business interests from community interests':Because in the end, in a community everyone is family. If they are not related as children, cousins, parents, then they are family who are related by marriage with other families. Thus you have a social fabric [tejjido social] which isn't just related by activities but by family relations. (Interview, 2015) These conflicts are of course exacerbated by the economic and political pressures configured at other scales, especially as competing economic interests divide loyalties within the reserve (Monterroso & Barry, 2012). Carmelita offers a striking example of such divisions and their relational nature. Ten years ago, the shared history of Carmelita residents had fostered high levels of collaboration, leading to sustainable timber extraction and meaningful profits (Barsimantov et al., 2008;Stoian & Rodas, 2006:14). However, tensions between CFE members and non-members subsequently consolidated in relation to the community's developing eco-tourism enterprise. Like other CFEs, Carmelita has prioritised tourism as an economic diversification strategy 11 , investing in wooden huts, a small hotel and basic infrastructure for visitors who pay for three-day hikes to the nearby Mirador ruins.Each year, Carmelita hosts between 1000 and 1200 tourists, 60% of whom have bought a package tour through travel agencies based in Flores. However, several families now work for external operators through mechanisms that bypass the CFE, and do not contribute to infrastructural maintenance. Non-member families have opted to join the private enterprises as this provides them a reliable source of income and argue that they should not have to supplement the CFE's income by paying additional taxes. Meanwhile, members insist that these private arrangements undercut 11 Each CFE develops a number of routes to obtaining economic income as a cooperative, to include the sale of processed and unprocessed timber, but also the processing of non-timber products such as chicle, formerly extracted for organic chewing-gum; xate, an ornamental leaf; pimiento, or allspice berries; and ramón, a seed used in baking. Several CFEs have built the infrastructure to support tourism as a further source of income, especially those CFEs located close to uncovered Mayan ruins.the investments of the cooperative. This situation has led to considerable tension, since the eighty member and eight non-member families inhabit the same rural area.Critically, the relational understanding of community we mobilise in this paper unsettles any easy account of \"social exclusion\" to describe such tensions. Those who participate in private tourism are perceived to be 'working against the forest', because they avoid the \"tourism tax\" that the CFE imposes (Focus group, 2016). However, the attachment CFE members feel to this tax links directly to the broader tenure regime and the reliance of the CFEs on this income to underwrite costs. Meanwhile, divisions in decision-making form among family loyalties and interests, rather than individual differences. In Carmelita, for example, it is always some families who participate in tourism activities outside the cooperative's jurisdiction, and not some individuals. These divisions in turn are affected by patterns of internal migration and settlementif a son living in Flores acquires work through a tourist-operator, he may force his family to choose loyalty to him or the CFE. The social fabric is thus a key site of working out major tensions aggravated by broader political-economic transformations and a lack of governmental will to make clear the legal future of the concessions. As a result of such tensions, ACOFOP has invested in a clarification of the roles of CFEs within their communities as well as of rules of entry 12 .Strategies for enhancing and deepening conflict resolution have also been achieved by establishing common activities between members and non-members. Young CFE members in Carmelita, for example, have recently established an agroecological and medicinal garden, which they hope will be a common space for education and overcoming tensions. Meanwhile, CC, inhabited by ethnically diverse colonists from throughout Guatemala and Mexico, has overcome significant challenges to collective action, partly by broadening common activities 13 . In focus groups, both members and non-members highlighted activities of \"sharing\" in the improvement of relationships, including regular meetings but also common spaces for social activity. The schoolhouse has become an important site for activities such as film-screenings, and meetings for organising the duties of fire wardens and fire prevention (a task shared by members and nonmembers). ACOFOP technicians have also recently organised field visits to CFE sites for the teachers and their classes. These activities highlight the importance of investing in relationships outside the FBA for maintaining legitimacy and mitigating conflict. Other residential concessions have, since the mid-2000s, also adopted agroforestry and beekeeping as complementary activities to forestry -generally organised outside the CFE framework (Monterroso & Barry, 2009). Such examples of \"commoning\" activities have been an important part of expanding the meaning of conflict resolution from the averting of potential violent conflict, to a deeper sense of mediating misunderstanding via increased relational understanding.The rise of competing models of tourism in Carmelita also link to a reiterated threat to the future of the concessions that has required alliance-building and communication at other scales.ACOFOP's directors and CFE members use the terminology of \"incidencia política\" [political advocacy] to articulate this \"transversal\" concept of accompaniment that ties together the 13 When CC was authorised as a CE in 2001, the community was composed of farmers and cattle-ranchers not accustomed to forest management (Stoian & Rodas, 2006:14). This diversity initially led to a break-down in collective action (Barsimantov et al., 2008) and ten years ago, CC was one of four CFEs at risk of losing its concession (Taylor, 2010). However, by 2015 these tensions had diminished significantly. The community now has a sawmill; successfully runs a variety of apprenticeships for young people in added-value skills like carpentry; and is one of the first concessions to establish a bakery for ramón-based goods. Importantly, ramón bakeries create a new option for women to work -in other CFEs, women are otherwise mainly employed in xate processing, and artisan crafts.organisation's activities 14 . These activities initially revolved around procuring the concessions; Cuenca (Gómez & Méndez, 2005;Monterroso & Barry, 2007). The \"wilderness\" zone in the proposed park overlapped with several active concessions, to be revoked if the plans were implemented. FARES strengthened its case by arguing that these were inefficiently managed and were harbouring the activities of drug-traffickers. In response, ACOFOP invested considerable resources into presenting a case that could demonstrate the value of the concessions, economically, ecologically and culturally, and thus the detriment the plans would cause. Critically, they were able to demonstrate how the concessions were already sustaining the forests (Gómez & Méndez 2005:41) strategies were consolidated in the following years through the mitigation of threats presented by a planned hydroelectric plant (Usumacinta, a US-backed initiative) and African oil palm speculation.Undertaking this advocacy marked important new strategies for competing with the 'circles of power' being assembled to delegitimise the concessions (Interview with Propetén, 2016):participatory monitoring and communication. In practice this led to the planning for two experimental \"learning networks\" aiming to involve young people in the systematic production of evidence of the positive impact of CF on forest cover, local economies, and heritage sites within the Petén. The plans were widely supported, partly through concerns with succession planningthe leadership of the CFEs was ageing and static, and local NGOs released reports that found young people were not being equipped for more than a narrow range of careers (Nittler & Tschinkel, 2005:10). Initiated in 2016 16 , the two new networks involve at least one person from each concession, although around 75% of participants are menforestry still being considered a \"dangerous activity for women\" (Interviews, 2018). The communication network trains young people in a suite of skills to publicise the achievements of CF to a wider audience. Meanwhile, the monitoring network operationalises ideas of participatory monitoring from other settings, training members to collect forest data at regular intervals, reflect on areas where CF could be improved, and produce maps and graphics that communicate results. Practices include conducting pollen counts, creating experimental nurseries, and reviewing data obtained through satellite systems and dronesan important example of how local knowledge production is mediated by ideas 16 Financing for these schemes came directly through ACOFOP's existing funding streams, which today includes substantial investment from USAID and the Inter-American Foundation, as well as contributions from member CFEs (see 5.4) and return from ACOFOP's involvement in the REDD+ payments. REDD+ compliance and payments are managed through ACOFOP's sub-organisation Guatecarbon, also supported by CONAP. ACOFOP retains the right to determine how donations and funds are used, and determines its priorities through internal decision-making processes. Capacity-building involves a scaling up and diversification of economic activities within agiven institutional and relational context to ensure long-term economic viability, at the same time as building resources to address internal power relations (Beckley et al., 2008). The history of CBNRM has revealed important strategies for engaging the relational dimensions of capacitybuilding, such as the need to incorporate landscape-level linkages in institutional design, decentralise planning and budgeting, and establish equitable benefit-sharing (Hobley 1996:178).These principles emphasise institutional learning across scales, and everyday actors playing a leading role in defining the shape of regulation. Indeed, recently, it has been emphasised that capacity-building in effective governance is fundamental to all other areas of growth (Ojha et al., 2016;Torres-Rojo et al, 2019). For ACOFOP, developing independent organisations to support economic diversification and supporting training in governance to support the CFE's capacities for self-management have been crucial to establishing long-term economic viability. Viability in the future meanwhile crucially depends on building capacities to obtain future tenure security.Providing support to their members' activities in external markets comprises one of the most important activities for rural social movements (Bebbington et al., 2008), and must be balanced against the political roles discussed in the previous sections. The collectively-organised diversification of forest production and integration of commodity chains with diverse logics into global markets has posed considerable governance issues for ACOFOP, challenging it to find a new balance between its political and economic functions (Taylor, 2010). These tensions have been partially negotiated through the consolidation of an independent enterprise, FORESCOM, in 2003, with its own principles of governance and board of directors (Stoian & Rodas, 2006;Gómez & Méndez, 2005). FORESCOM provides quality control in relation to timber and non-timber products and allows the CFEs to process higher volumes; access new markets; and negotiate better prices and conditions. In recent years, this has included finding markets for rare varieties of mahogany destined for ukelele and guitar production; developing the viability of the ramón seed for national markets; upgrading timber-processing facilities; and reviving chicle harvesting for buyers of organic chewing-gum.In practice, building capacity for diversification also means working with diverse stakeholders to improve market information, better horizontal integration and participation platforms as well as the availability of technical and managerial resources (Torres-Rojo et al., 2019). Within CFEs consequently refers to training in \"soft skills\" such as administration, accounting, and governance. In a women's focus group with CFE members at CC, one group emphasised the importance of facilitation skills as a key capacity that would mean projects would or would not \"develop.\" This is because debates over how diversification should take place and who will benefit sometimes leads to problems of decision-making over how profits are usedissues that are at the heart of issues of participation, accountability and benefit-sharing (Stoian & Rodas, 2006). This involves what one of ACOFOP's senior female directors names \"managing power relations,\" which she sees as a fundamental task for both CFEs and the FBA (Interview, 2017). Capacity-building does not (only) mean getting larger or doing more, she emphasises: it is about negotiating relationships within and between communities, and shaping an ever-widening vision of management. The creation of FORESCOM has also helped create a buffer of independence between ACOFOP's economic and political activities, but the former is only possible to the degree that participation continues to broaden and strengthen. The involvement of young people and of women remains a constant challenge here: membership of the CFEs is made up of 68% men and 32% women, with only two CFEs reaching 50% membership of women (Stoian et al., 2019).Among young people, the new communications and monitoring network are seen to be a Capacity-building, for ACOFOP is thus not only about diversifying economic products, but diversifying forms of knowledge production and communication, in turn linked with its processes for distributing decision-making; mediating conflicts; and political advocacy. In the MBR these four activities now centre on securing the future of the concessions in 2021, without which even the most innovative CF practices cannot continue.In this paper we have mobilised negotiation as a relational concept to explore how the power relations of CF have been addressed in the MBR to engage political dimensions of participation, conflict, and tenure security. Drawing on a political ecology framework, we have emphasised that systems of CBNRM like CF cannot be \"equitable\" or indeed sustainable, if they cannot respond to the politics of participation in an ongoing way. With other authors, we agree that land tenure security, expressed through well-defined rights, is one of the most important elements for addressing forest degradation and local wellbeing, even if it does not, on its own, guarantee success (Larson et al., 2010;Monterroso et al., 2007;Torres-Rojo et al., 2019). In Guatemala, the recognition of these rights, as of collective organisational capacities, are essential to future collective action (Monterroso & Barry, 2012). However, a politics of participation extends to a negotiation of power relations at every scale, and the possibility of tenure is crucially tied to the adaptation of processes of decision-making, conflict resolution, advocacy, and capacitybuilding to mediate among multiple internal interests and to mitigate external threats.The consolidation of FBAs have, historically, central to the adaptation of regulatory frameworks into forms that fit with the norms and needs of those they are designed to support (Taylor, 2010;Cronkleton et al., 2008). Central to understanding ACOFOP, and to understanding its position today, is the longer history of social movements that coalesced around demands from socially and economically excluded actors, and led to the creation of this dynamic and distinctive platform. Successful CF in the MBR is tied to the development of institutions that learn through negotiation, and embed learning into their regulatory practices. Each area of negotiation we have outlined in this paper involves navigating specific tensions: between keeping rules and changing them; between establishing unity and linking diverse interests; between listening carefully and speaking persuasively; between defending territorial rights and addressing internal power dynamics. These constantly threaten to undo the possibility of collective action, but they also keep participation open, fostering inquiries that lead to enhanced participation. They are tensions that never should be finally resolved, if participation is remain a political concept and not a notional one.Strategies devised as part of the politics of participation practised by ACOFOP include:the provision of direct funding to community institutions; enabling CFEs to gather information, monitor progress and diagnose their own issues; and cultivating learning communities with cultures of questioning, especially where these centrally involve young people. Furthermore, the development of alliances at national and international levels has enabled effective campaigning, which is necessary to guaranteeing a renewal of the concessions in 2021. \"Accompaniment,\" which describes the principles through which these changing horizons are negotiated, is not about \"helping\" poor forest communities, but a collectivisation of claims to tenure; a collectivisation of capacities to meet the technical and legal demands of CF, and a shared basis from which to rework the meaning of participation in an ongoing way. An implicit principle of accompaniment defined thus is that it entails complex socio-cultural negotiation at every scale. For this institutional history to be useful in other settings it is essential to recognise this feature. On the other hand, the politics of participation requires that questions of \"who decides\" are never finally closed.","tokenCount":"9902"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c3358882ab2520ad3a4a39dc50c4c41f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9e48bf50-2500-449d-bf30-704a8b898cc1/retrieve","id":"297923007"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0bc181da-ccf9-44e6-9f24-ebd88e80d13f","pagecount":"46","content":"The Global Rice Array (GRA) is a functional rice network of field laboratories where technologies are translated to 22 countries. Partners from different disciplines collectively chose tools to accelerate breeding for changing climates: germplasm, genomics, microbiome studies, epidemiological surveillance tools, phenotyping, environment sensing tools, and crop models. Through partnership with the CG, local research organizations and the private sector, innovations were implemented in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Partners connected in this network adopted technologies and have access to a data hub to assess novel GxExM options for robustness and suitability in relation to climate variability. These results shape rice research on climate change adaptation and resilience.The pipeline provides novel lines targeted to three main challenges:• Heat tolerance to cope with a warmer, less predictable climate • Drought adaptation for semi-arid systems and to reduce demand on overstretched water resources. • Yield potential to take pressure off fragile land and to spare natural ecosystems.• Genetic resources more challenging to screen than elite lines requiring specific phenotyping innovations. • We are learning how to stack novel combinations of traits and alleles in good genetic backgrouds. • Discovery, development and deployment of high quality trait-linked genomic markers at scale.New challenges to crop productivity require new solutions. Our pre-breeding pipeline incorporates state of the art phenomics and genomics technologies to:• Screen the vast, relatively untapped collections of wheat genetic resources for novel sources of adaptive and productivity traits.• Combine traits and alleles strategically into already valuable genetic backgrounds so they can be readily used by public and private breeders globally.• Continually improve breeding and pre-breeding methods and technologies to deliver better germplasm, faster and more efficiently.Novel lines based on these approaches are in high demand from public and private breeders of the International Wheat Improvement Network, after pilot projects demonstrated significant genetic gains across a range of target environments.Matthew Reynolds m.reynolds@cgiar.org• Crowd-source new technologies from academia to improve pre-breeding strategies. • Expand our public-private partnerships to address key 'bottlenecks' to crop adaptation. • Promote this successful wheat pre-breeding approach as a viable model for other crops• Public & private breeders test the CGIAR nurseries at >200 international sites annually, selecting novel sources for breeding, and sharing trial data. • Diversity of the wheat genepool broadened while adaptation and productivity are boosted. • Optimised model translating research/advanced technology to breeding while leveraging public & private sector funding into tangible outputs.Outcomes to date Long-term investment in breeding continues to deliver multiple impacts:• Food and income security to smallholder farmers through improved varieties. • Targeting of over 75m ha sown by >50 million farmers. • 70% of wheat varieties released in target regions are CG-derived.• Established international partnerships for screening, breeding and testing in place. • The \"machine\" is highly effective and can't be simply switched off and on again. Sustained investment is required to achieve effectiveness. • No alternative at regional, global level available. Private sector won't do it.CGIAR WHEAT provides improved breeding germplasm and adds-value through partnerships with national and advanced research institutions worldwide. Our aim is to share breeding germplasm for utilization as parents or release as farmers preferred varieties. This requires sustained investment to:• Continuous delivery and dissemination of new farmer-and market-preferred varieties throughout target regions by the CGIAR's largest breeding network (the International Wheat Improvement Network; IWIN) • A clear value proposition with current return on investment of 73:1. To date, the partnership has contributed USD 2.3-3.1 billion annually through additional wheat grain produced. • Ensure a continued contribution to the annually increasing wheat demand of 1.5% by delivering higher rates of genetic gain through the implementation of breeding modernization.Contact: Ravi Singh r.singh@cgiar.org• Demonstrate continual improvement in program operations and adoption of accelerated breeding strategies as a model for effective CG breeding • Establish closer CG-NARs testing of earlier stage breeding material • Mainstream enhancement to co-deliver food and nutrition security.Outcomes:• >50 m ha globally sown to CG derived wheat varieties; sharing germplasm and data publically • CG derived varieties have minimal fungicide demand, contributing to resilience and mitigation of environmental damage. The AgMRV platform has been operational since 2018. It includes resources for assessing GHG emissions of activities on livestock, rice, soil, agroforestry, food loss and waste, and agriculture generally. In 2019 and 2020 usability surveys were conducted and the site was enhanced. Resources are regularly added to the site and tools updated.A transition to low-emissions agriculture requires robust information on GHG emissions and practical methods for monitoring. Insufficient data exist on emissions for heterogeneous smallholder systemsThe AgMRV Platform is a one-stop site for resources to quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture, especially for smallholder farms.The comprehensive, searchable site enables quick access to diverse tools, data, and other resources on the measurement, reporting and verification of agricultural emissions and their mitigation. National governments are a primary audience.Highlights include the Mitigation in Rice Kiosk, N 2 O global database, Agro-chain emissions (ACE) food loss and waste calculator, livestock Tier 2 methods, and the SAMPLES GHG data and estimation methods.Balance subsector representation (e.g. soils and nitrogen fertilizer). Add global data. Maintain updates.Initiatives link: Net carbon sources to sinks, livestock, Asian mega-deltas, Latin America and the Caribbean Without peace, there is no end to hunger. Without food security, peace cannot last. CGIAR has a key role to play for peace and security. • CCAFS-Climate is 7 TB, and its creation required substantial computing capability.• Continued user engagement through projects and individual requests is important to correct errors, expand, and improve.• Sustainability in information provision in a \"projectized\" world can be a challenge • Influencing funders investing in further research, NGOs and government agencies changing their programming.• 800 individual research documents cite use of CCAFS-ClimateExpected further outcomes Various tools are available and being applied in different contexts. New links with ERA, see era.ccafs.cgiar.org, and the Adaptation Atlas, for example, are broadening the scope of the analyses possible in exciting and innovative ways  • Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Tunisia• The innovations are between stage 2 and 3disseminated in four countries but limited evidence of scaling.• Evidence of success has attracted government support, donor support, and partnerships with GLF, IUCN and UNEP.• Initiatives require sustained effort not served well by short funding timelines -Approximately 60 business models are available for organic municipal waste, food waste, fecal sludge (see picture above), agro-industrial waste and wastewater.-The models are based on existing empirical cases, have been tested and verified, and are in the public domain (one 800-page catalog and a series of 20 reports).-Methodologies for multi-disciplinary feasibility studies have been developed and tested.-Several models have been translated into training materials and curricula.-Another (WHO and FAO approved) catalog of food safety measures 'from farm to fork' is available where untreated wastewater is used for vegetable irrigation.-Most partners have been outside the CGIAR which only slowly discovers the opportunities and challenges urbanization and business modeling offer.-The CGIAR needs to be more innovative (e.g. advisory services) to keep staff with private sector background who appear crucial for our scaling ambitions.Increasing urban food and water consumption turns (peri)urban areas into resource sinks and pollution hotspots. We offer technologies and business models to reduce landscape and wetland degradation by recovering resources from domestic and agro-industry waste for safe reuse in agriculture and aquaculture.These models support e.g. organic fertilizer production at scale, which allows cost recovery in the waste/sanitation sector to incentivize PPP and better service delivery. Through analysing and supporting the local [enabling] environment and methodologies developed for multi-disciplinary feasibility studies, we can test the application and viability of different models in (peri)urban project locations.Pay Drechsel; p.drechsel@cgiar.org• Increasing emphasis on the analysis of sustainable finance, monetizing positive externalities, and the regulatory and fiscal environment to support circular model start-ups and scaling. • Offering of advisory services and feasibility studies to national partners, projects and funding agencies. Quantify long-term effects of agronomic management on system's resilience, agronomic productivity, soil health, resource use efficiency and GHG emissions in a global long-term experiment (LTE) network, initiated in 1990s and 2000s across a diversity of farming systems and agro-ecologies, providing the backbone for modelling, impact assessment and scaling.• Reduced production risks under increasingly variable climates and socio-economic constraints,• Improved resource use efficiency and reduced soil-and land degradation, • GHG mitigation and reduced air pollution, • Long-term, reliable data that supports modelling, impact assessment and scaling.• Research partners: NARES (54 institutions have co-authored publications); • Scaling partners: local and regional NGOs and private sector partners.Our network of 17 LTEs on conservation agriculture across three continents (Latin America, Africa and Asia) in major cereal-based cropping systems was designed to address the grand production challenges in the global south. The LTEs generate hard evidence on sustainability and adaptability and additionally serve as a platform for capacity building with a new generation of researchers and for demonstration of agronomic effects to farmers, farm advisors and policy makers. Main users of outputs and outcomes are science and policy leaders, development practitioners and private sector agents to develop research priorities, investment decisions and business development around resource management and climate resilient production systems, contributing to key SDGs.The treasure of agronomic long-term trials: Capitalizing on past investments for science-based scaling ML Jat, Nele Verhulst, Christian Thierfelder M.Jat@cgiar.org; N.Verhulst@cgiar.org; C.Thierfelder@cgiarorg;• Continuity is key for LTEs;• Connection to a dozen Initiatives (RII and Global) • LTE-CoPs, data harmonization, modelling and field validation for future challenges• LT effect of agronomic practices documented in 118 international publications,• Capacity development (62 thesis students, 500+ researchers, 1000+ extension agents, 3500+ visitors/year),• Input for evidence-based policies,• Farmer-adoption of sustainable practices at scale (Mexico, India, Malawi)• Scenario-based targeting and guidance for climate financing, • Evidence for SDG tracking, • Data for global climate modelling, • KPI integration as base for policy making, • Capacity development hubs Inspired by the processes and functioning of nature, NBS are increasingly promoted as critical components in the management of land, water and food systems. However, there is an enormous disparity between scientific research and the policy discourse. The lack of an evidence-base is one reason why investments in NBS remain low.WLE has conducted research to understand the role that NBS can play in development. This has resulted in a number of tools that can be used to better understand how NBS can be integrated in landscape management and function in tandem with traditional engineered infrastructure; not simply mitigating damage but actively seeking synergies and enhancing a broad range of benefits for building resilience and sustainability. We develop and deliver solutions customized to specific contexts and systems through formal and informal channels, with special emphasis on smallholders.Miguel Sanchez Garcia M.Sanchez-Garcia@cgiar.org Michael Peters m.peters-ciat@cgiar.org BASKET: Livestock and FishImproving/expanding existing pipelines Bringing forages and food-feed crops to scale further (e.g., through development of seed systems, extension systems, credit systems)  Community-based approaches enable livestock keepers to manage better the overall health of their herd, including appropriate use of antimicrobials to reduce risk of antimicrobial resistance developing.Community conversation is inclusive, stimulates collaborative learning, engagement, partnering capacity and enhances uptake of integrated health interventions. It is found effective in less commercially oriented production systems.Digital platforms provide value by making information accessible (e.g., interactive veterinary care services) and increasing community conversations through the integration of appropriate ICT tools for two-way sharing critical herd health information. Integrate approach as inclusive, integrated implementation methodCommunity conversations informs to content development for digital farmer-support systems Mamusha Woldegiorgis m.woldegiorgis@cgiar.orgInnovations that integrate fish and aquatic foods into farms, landscapes and water system, currently at different levels of maturity:• Community fish refuges (CFRs) in multifunctional rice and wetland landscapes (Cambodia) at maturity level 3. • Water management approaches to better integrate fish and aquatic foods into irrigation planning, construction, operation and management (Mekong region) at maturity level 2. • Decision support tool for scaling integrated fish-rice production systems combining biophysical and socio-economic data including climate vulnerability and risk (Myanmar) at maturity level 1.Integrating fish within agroecological practices at farm and landscape levels builds resilience and improves availability of healthy and nutritious foods and livelihood outcomes.Successful integration of fisheries in irrigation and water management and governance secures nutrition and income, but dependent not only on technical solutions but also improved institutional and governance arrangements.Securing the benefits of fish and aquatic foods for poor and marginal households requires an integrated approach, beyond technical fixes, to include food, land and water system management and governance.Key Partners:FISH has focused on the Mekong region and South Asia to develop management and governance innovations that integrate fish within larger agro-ecosystems and land and waterscapes including water infrastructure.Research has shown that multiple benefits arise from integrating fish and aquatic foods into the planning, design, construction, operation and management of irrigation systems, large scale water infrastructure, and agricultural landscapes. Results indicate increased fisheries production, nutrition and resilience outcomes.Rice and fish production are often integrated within the same biophysical, temporal, and social spaces -social, technical and institutional innovations have been shown to increase productivity, biodiversity with flow on impacts to food and water security, and resilience to climate change.FISH has developed decision support tools (models, institutional mechanisms, maps and guidelines) to support management and governance of fish and aquatic foods within landscapes hand water systems, contributing to securing the substantial potential to support such \"nature-based\" innovations in agriculturally modified landscapes.Pip Cohen p.cohen@cgiar.orgA targeted awareness campaign to support uptake of the guidelines and investments for roll out in 2 countries in Asia.An investment plan for Rice-Fish Systems (RFS) based on forecasting and robust cost benefit analyses in Africa and Asia.In the adoption of rice-fish systems in Myanmar, early modeling suggests that if 10% of the potential area for rice-fish systems was used that an additional 100,000 mt of fish and $100 million USD could be generated for households and the rural economy.Well-managed CFRs can significantly improve fish productivity of the rice field environment within one year after the intervention (e.g., fish caught increased by 30 percent, and the proportion of young children under five eating small fish increased by 50%).With well over 300 million hectares of irrigation globally and huge investments, the \"fish friendly\" irrigation guidelines have the potential to be very influential. A two-tier approach for mainstreaming gender into climate change adaptation and mitigation:1. A gender, climate and agriculture hotspot mapping method -identifies \"hotspots\" where women experience high levels of climate risk including drought, excess rainfall and high temperatures.2. The Gender Empowerment Index for Climate Smart Villages (GEI-CSV) measures empowerment for women and men from CSA adoption in different contexts.Sophia Huyer s.huyer@cgiar.org Revision of tools to apply to different contexts.Current scope and maturity GENNOVATE methodology applied in over 26 countries and 137 communities.Extensively tested across regional contexts, the methodology is mature and ready to be scaled, readily adapted to serve multiple purposes.The need to engage with gender norms to unlock innovation •Fragmentation of gender research •The need to increase capacities in CGIAR/partners across regional contexts to work on gender norms and agencyFood system innovations that fail to account for gender differences and inequalities are more limited in their impact and may exacerbate gender inequalities.The global comparative research initiative GENNOVATE addressed this challenge by surfacing the gender-based barriers and underlying norms as well as the agency that influence the capacities of men, women, and youth to innovate in agriculture and environmental management.Marlene.elias@cgiar.orgThe GENNOVATE methodology is available online and gender researchers across CGIAR and partners across regions have capacities in using and adapting it.A suite of tools and resources can be used to inform the design of Initiatives. GENNOVATE data are accessible upon request, subject to use regulation A GENNOVATE 2.0 initiative is under development.• GENNOVATE put gender norms on the CGIAR and AR4D agenda, laying the ground for gender transformative programs. • Methodology taken up in studies and trainings across CGIAR and academia and used to inform programming by FAO, WFP, IFAD. • Referenced as good practice by international institutions (e.g. FAO, IFAD, the EC, ACIAR, USAID Feed the Future).Key pieces of GENNOVATE such as its methodology, conceptual framework, qualitative database, as well as tools (17), reports ( 16), theses (8), and peer-reviewed publications (>30) based on findings can inform the design of nearly all Initiatives and form a basis for gender transformative innovations.BASKET: Gender and Social InclusionStage 4; Uptake by next user, Scaling. Pro-WEAI was co-developed with 13 agricultural development projects in nine countries in Africa and South Asia, including adaptations for livestock, health and nutrition, and market inclusion projects. Such indicators are important to know whether projects Reach, Benefit, or Empower women.Agnes Quisumbing, a.quisumbing@cgiar .org• WEAI users trained using a distance learning platform Disciplinary Science Silos within the CGIAR Although a crosscutting issue, gender is considered the responsibility of specific groups of researchers, and is unevenly applied across emerging innovations.KIT, Netherlands (current) GenderatWork (planned) WLE presents a narrative enquiry framework designed to build gender capacity on the go. The objective is to enable disciplinary scientists and research project teams -reflect on the relevance, added value and ways to know and do gender, building on their individual, experiential knowledge. This methodological approach enables researchers with varying levels of gender knowledge reflect on \"what is gender; why and how to do it\", as a means to arrive at practical, actionable pathways to gender-responsive research. This is key to achieving the 1CGIAR's goal of sustainable and inclusive food system transformations.Deepa Joshi deepa.joshi@cgiar.orgFramework aligned to the CGIAR GENDER Platform Institutional Change Initiative A pan-CGIAR digital innovation grant process leveraging the global footprint and food security expertise of CGIAR, now in its fourth cycle.A growing, recognized brand for CGIAR-led digital innovation in agrifood.• Developing a unified, pan-CGIAR digital innovation function and practice linked to the portfolio• Building new digital partnerships in a systematic way to make the digital revolution central to our way of conducting and delivering research.The Inspire Challenge set out to be CGIAR's signature digital innovation process, leveraging the global footprint and deep food security subject matter expertise of CGIAR researchers with expert industry partners to build new digital impact pathways for our research.Now in its fourth cycle, the Challenge has 21 active projects, a recognized brand, and interest in new or continued funding from BMGF, USAID, ADB, IADB, World Bank and the impact investing fund IDH.The Challenge represents a mature process, ready brand, and growing networks of partners and interested funders that could add value to the new portfolio from day one-making the digital revolution central to our way of working.Promote Inspire Challenge learnings and process as a way to build a cross-cutting digital innovation practice supporting the new portfolio.Aligned with all initiatives that will be using, developing or leveraging digital tools and technologies.Teams comprised of CGIAR researchers and external partners submitted 546 applications over 4 years; 21 active projects with evolving impact stories, partnerships and new funder relationships.$1,000,000 in new bilateral funding, including from USAID and BMGF, sparking new co-design of challenge categories with funders.An external evaluation found that the Challenge was an effective intermediary for fostering new digital innovation linking public, private, and non-profit actors.Digital \"Innovation as a service\" offerings to our major funders and regional stakeholders.Building more scaling partnerships according to innovation type, e.g. impact investment funds.Brian King b.king@cgiar.org BASKET: Scaling, Partnerships and Trade-offsThis research partnership between IARC, NARS and private sector harnesses the power of crop improvement to generate 'bankable'' research products that catalyse private and public investments and generate multiple benefits along the value chains of two GLDC crops: Pearl millet and Beans.Pearl millet: Through Pearl Millet Hybrid Parents Research Consortium (PMHPRC) network, ICRISAT-bred materials find a fast delivery vehicle to reach farmers, which leads to rapid adoption of diverse range of hybrids on farm. Pearl millet: The public and private sector institutions involved in pearl millet improvement continuously require new diverse productive germplasm with biotic and abiotic stress tolerances to develop improved cultivars, and PMHPRC platform meet their requirements. Pearl Millet: ICRISAT recognized Private Sector (PS) seed companies as a valuable research partner for research on hybrid cultivar development and seed production. This led to the conceptualization and formation of Pearl Millet Hybrid Parents Research Consortia (PMHPRC) during 2000 with involvement of both public and private sector partners. The consortia funds augment ICRISAT's research on pearl millet though the products resulting from this partnership are still in the public domain as IPGs. The decision support tool is expected to be used widely by national, regional and international development agencies. To achieve this, it needs to be further tested and adapted across regions.User friendly tool and automated dashboard: • The need to mainstream biofortification in crop breeding programs to harness the potential of GLDC crops for food and nutrition security. To determine what the research priorities in equity should be in the context of ANH, we conducted a scoping review, commissioned a conceptual framework on youth and food systems, and conducted regional consultations with implementation and research partners. Through this process, we developed a Reach-Benefit-Empower framework with application to other equity dimensions beyond gender.Deanna Olney, d.olney@cgiar.org Hazel Malapit, h.malapit@cgiar.org• Tools, approaches and evidence made available to inform the Nutrition and Health Platform and relevant initiatives • Direct support to initiatives targeting vulnerable groups and aiming to improve equity and nutrition outcomesOutcomes to date • Major challenge in deciding how to define and measure food system and food system innovations and identifying appropriate metrics.• Diets are inherently individual while other factors (that can be affected) are often not  When used together, the models capture the full range of climate, environmental, and socioeconomic drivers of agri-food system transformation, and track outcomes in all five of the One CGIAR impact areas.• Developed new data and modeling capabilities, including linking RIAPA and IMPACT, to capture the expanding interests of decision makers, including more agri-food system drivers (e.g., climate change) and outcomes (e.g., jobs, women's inclusion, diets, resilience) • Tested new online tools (e.g., AIDA and Investment impacts) and modalities of engagement to promote decision-makers' use of models for understanding trends and identifying priorities in global and national food systems.CGIAR foresight team, AgMIP, BFAP, CSIRO, FAO, IIASA, JRC, Oxford, PIK, Wageningen, BMGF, IFAD, USAID, et al.IMPACT: Keith Wiebe (k.wiebe@cgiar.org) RIAPA: James Thurlow (j.thurlow@cgiar.org)Developing a Foresight Initiative that reflects One CGIAR's broader mandate/interests and responds to the needs of regional and other initiatives.• To date: RIAPA and IMPACT have directly informed policies and investment plans of national governments (e.g., Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda) and global and regional development partners (e.g., AfDB, ADB, BMGF, FAO, IADB, USAID, World Bank) • Expected: Linking RIAPA and IMPACT has expanded their usefulness for analyzing trends across spatial/temporal scales and identifying policy/investment priorities under climate uncertainty, leading to even greater demand from national government and development partners.The Rural Investment and Policy Analysis (RIAPA) model captures the entire agri-food system and supports governments in designing strategies and investment plans by measuring the economywide costs and impacts of different policies and investment options on a range of outcomes (from agri-food GDP and employment to poverty, diets, and women's inclusion).The IMPACT model and its linked crop, livestock, fish, and resource modules provide governments and development partners with foresight analysis of the effects of climate change, water and land constraints, and other drivers on agriculture and food systems at regional and global scales.RIAPA and IMPACT can be linked together to better capture land, water and food systems and report on both environmental and socioeconomic outcomes.Advanced modeling and data systems for prioritizing policies and investments across the agri-food system and assessing long-term agriculture and food system futures A multi-stakeholder alliance with over 100 institutional members from public, private, research, civil society and the financial sector.SRP promotes resource-efficient and sustainable production of rice, at farm to landscape levels.SRP aims to harness innovation to encourage farmers to adopt climate-smart, sustainable best practice, while enhancing smallholder livelihoods and protecting the environment.RICE CRP provides the scientific underpinning for the world's first rice sustainability standard and performance indicators, recognized across the stakeholder spectrum. SRP members support the SRP's vision, mission, goal, objectives and activities in various ways and mainstream sustainable rice throughout value chains and via government agencies.","tokenCount":"3970"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f3153dea595da8874f0000d8afb354ba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b54c0752-2e77-4401-a43b-ef6cca0765d5/retrieve","id":"-101221878"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31b1d5fa-fb6b-4467-a294-48f742fa8b15","pagecount":"21","content":"One He a lt h is a n integra ted, unifying a pproa ch tha t a ims to susta ina bly ba la nce a nd optimize the hea lth of people, a nima ls a nd ecosystems. It recognizes the hea lth of huma ns, domestic a nd wild a nima ls, pla nts, a nd the wider environment (including ecosystems) a re closely linked a nd inter-dependent.-OHHLEPOne Health allows for action for systems changeThe approach mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines and communities at varying levels of society to work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems, while addressing the collective need for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, taking action on climate change, and contributing to sustainable development.Why Health?• intuitive• generalises to people, animals and ecosystems• a necessary step on the road to well-beingThe Heaviness of Environmental Change It's about systems change Systems change involves action Unacknowledged trauma and grief makes action harder.","tokenCount":"162"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2c3d7f46467b4a1bf3a5e3dedd4514c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/301ca50c-6c28-4bef-a1b8-d3919e9d7c03/retrieve","id":"-1905777946"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"535d93ca-28b5-424f-997b-554d8669f7d1","pagecount":"92","content":"Sample size n = 24 for each column.              Table 2.16. Preliminary results of average dry soU loss (tlha). Root yield (tlha fresh cassava) and production of forages (tlha dry matter) in different production systems in Santander de Quílichao (1994-1995). Evaluation of residual effects of cassava crop rotation 1992-1994.Table 2.17. Total fresh root yield of cassava (tlha) when grown simultaneously with legumes in Santander de Quilichao in Ihe first and second cropping cycle,1 Soil eros ion is by far the most important factor of soH degradation in tropical hillsides where rainfall characteristics are fa'louring soil erosion (Hudson, 1971), and already have led to severe damage (El Swaify et al, 1991), Increasing cultivation of marginal, steep lands leads to accelerated levels of soH erosion with reductions of fertile topsoil where only crops with high levels of resistance to environmental stress can be grown successfully, One of the crops frequently found under these conditions is cassava but under marginal conditions it also shows slow initial development, soH cover and favours further degradation of the land (Howeler, 1985),CIAT Cassava Program scientists therefore have been actively engaged in applied soil conservation research on hillsides fur several years, These efforts have been strengthened in the past years through a collaborative research project with the University of Hohenheim, financed by BMZ, allowing CIAT to continue this research activity which otherwise could not have been continued because of the loss of a soíl scientist and an agronomist position in the Cassava Program, ~. C §arUer research concentrated on collecting basic information on erosion processes on two locations in the mid altitudes of the Southern Colombian Andes, on soil characteristics and first data on climate, based on the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) developed by Wischmeier and Smith (1978), Results showed high variability of erodibility and soil losses, values sometimes departing considerably from calculated figures, suggesting the collection of long term data to obtain conclusive, consisten! results on the applicability or adjustment needs of lhe USLE for this Andean environment.As a second major objective of the previous project, studies were conducted on the effect of managemen! systems and cultural practices on soil losses and cassava productivity, the work focussing on tillage practices (Reining, 1992) and forage legume intercropping (Ruppenthal, 1995),As a result promising options like Uve grass barriers, contour ridges and covers with 1ess competitive forage legumes eould be identified and characterized as regards to their erosion potential. More extensive and detallad research was suggested to judge innovative systems with respect to competition mechanisms and productivity, On farm activities to complement on station research on eonservation component development was initiated since 1992 to ¡nelude farmer's interest and point of view in the process of technology gene ratio n , Collaboration with non-governmental and semiofftcial organizations was sought to enhance teehnology adoption and development.A first three years project, succeeding two years of work of a Ph.D. student was finished in 1993. Main goals for the new project on \"SoU Degradation on Crop Produetivity Researeh in Andean HiIIside Farming\" were to: al betler eharacterize and uriderstand basie processes governing soil erosion and improve predictability of soil erosion; bl to investigate relationships between soil degradation and crop productivity to translate erosion into terms of productivity for eeonomists and policy makers and el enhance teehnotogy testing and development through on station researeh and intensified eollaboration with local institutions and farmer groups.Evaluations on runoff plots coneentrated on contrasting rotation elements and their immediate and residual effects on soU erosion and productivity.In eondueting researeh along these lines the project is contributing to CIAT's new initiative on resources management researeh and to the integration of commodity based research with the new resources management programs.1.3. Expected outputs and outputs met.Work on erosion plots in Santander de Quiliehao and Mondomo according to the USLE methodology was eontinued and data from previous measurements were analyzed throughout 1993 to 1995.Analysis of rainfall eharacteristics could show that erosivity of rainfall, acts as the main cause of soil erosion in the project area. In Quilichao and Mondomo more than 60% and 50% of rainfalls were classified as erosive and more than 20% of total rainfall exceeded intensity ranges of 50 mm• h sustained for 30 minutes. Not all \"erosive\" rains, however, did also cause erosion when soils were recently tilled or after prolonged dry periods. Average R-factors for erosivity of rains varied between 5000 and 11.000 Mg.ha•'.mm. h•'.yr' over the last,six years.Average erosion potential measured on bare fallow plots in Quilichao and Mondomo was about 150 t of dry soil per ha and year in Quilichao and about 100 tlha in Mondomo. Approximately 10-12% of rainfall was lost by runoff on bare plots and 4-6% on eultivated plots. Nevertheless in single events up to 60-70% of rainfall could be lost as overflow..c.~,,,,:f! Correlations be1ween rainfall indices fer describírig the aggressiveness of raintall and soil losses increased over time, probably as a result of progressive soil'degradation.The USLE R-factor, considering rainfall energy and intensity over 30.minutes (130) gave satísfactory carrelatíons with measured erosion (1-0,81-0,90)' but could be further improved by an index based on raintall amount and the square of 130 (r=0,86-0,90) which at the same time is very easy to calculate from basic climatic data.Work on the rainfall intensity-energy relationships has started in 1994 and needs further data collection.Based on data from 7 years, erodibility of Inceptisols in the northern Cauca can be classified as low to moderate in Quilichao and low in Mondomo. values comparing well with those of many tropical Oxisols and Ultisols. K-factors on thís highly aggregated soils al so turned out to be very dynamic with an increase over time and a strong tendency to underestimate the erosiono With low rainfall K-values were significantiy lower than with high rainfalls which means that in practice erodibility K was not índependent from raínfall. From the data collected so far it ís concluded that calculated USLE values fer K (contrary to R-factors) are not adequate to predict soil erosion in a reasonable manner on these well aggregated soils.An attempt was therefore made to find better ways to calculate erodibility K more accurately from a set of easy to determine, mainly soil physical parameters from ¡he topsoil layer.From a set of over 26 variables tested and analyzed. six parameters with high carrelations to son losses on both experimental sites were selected for multiple regression analysis. As a result of this exercise a model equation, mainly based on proportions of stable aggregate fractions and to a lesser extent on soil texture could be formulated, that explained 83 percent of the experimentaily determined soil losses. Furthermore, infiltration measurements with the double ring method could be replaced by measurements of hydraulic conductivity in the topsoil. improving the accurateness af prediction.Given the relative high importance of soil aggregates in the efosion dynamics of these Inceptisols it was also of much interest how soU aggregation is related to differences in soil management and cropping practices.If not disturbed by intensive tillage, reseeding operations and human traffic in cut and carry operations (Ruppenthal 1995), Intercropping of legumes favored the formatlon of water stable aggregates in cassava. Similar effects on aggregate stability could al so be obtained by growing cassava on ridges (probably due to frequent drying and wetting).Two year rotation efements with grassllegume mixtures had an even more pronounced effect on soil structure, the effects being more persistent than those of two year enriched weed fallow. This indicates, that intensification of land use, planting productive grass/legume mixtures inslead of economically unproductive fallow is possible at the same time reducing risk of soU erosiono Organic matter content, though generally related lo erodibifity was often a poor indicator of changes in soils erodibifity as a consequence of different land use. Therefore research was initiated lo look for other indicators to detect short term changes and to better interpret cropping systems with regard to their effects on soil erodibility. So far soils resislance to raindrop impact and certain fractions of carbohydrates coufd be identified as promising indicators.Soil chemicaf properties on bare fallow plots were altered dramatically over the years resulting in a fast decline of soil organic matter, base saturation, loss of soU nutrients and acidification as a result of soif exposure and losses in sediment and runoff.On cropped plots with fower levels of erosion soil chemical characteristics could be maintained or even improved over time when applying moderate levels of dolomitic lime and fertilizers. It was concluded that these soils with excellent physical characteristics can probably tolerate moderate levels of soil erosion over quite a long time period if nutrients are constantly replenished. On the other hand degradation might be acceferated if erosion is accompanied by nutrient depletion and acidification.This could also be shown very cleariy in experiments conducted at Quilichao to quantify the impact of efosion induced soU degradation on crop productivity.Results obtained from growing sorghum and peanut on soils with different levels of erosion or soil removal, showed very severe yield reductions on oxic Dystropepts . . Even large amounts of fertilizer could not compensate the loss of only 5 cm of top soil in the case of Sorghum. For peanut which reacted somewhat less sensitive, yield reductions were still very drastic, the impact of real erosion processes being stronger than those simulated through scalping. When erosion had removed the top soil layer to a depth greater than 13 cm or when soils were scalped to that same depth, this resulted in total yield losses when no fertilization was applied and in extremely poor yields with complete soil amendment.Soil organic matter, N, K, inorganic P and alumínum saturatíon were soil chemical characteristics with highest correlations to yield reduction.Once the complete data sets are available they will permit to relate erosion to economíc losses or additional input requirements and allow to counterbalance these figures with costs implied with adequate programs to promote soil conservation.Research on development of soU conservation effective cropping systems was guided by the dual goal of creating productive, income generating cropping technology, at the same time reversing the trend of son degradation in hillsides, Soil losses of cropping systems tested were consistently low in cassava grown on ridges, cassava with contour strips of grasses and in cassava/legume cropping systems, once the legumes had been well established (after 3-5 months or in the second growth cycle ot intercropped cassava with zone tillage), Cassava as asole crop with tillage, with downslope ridges and with recently established legumes normally led to high soil losses (10-50 tlha per year). Minimum tillage normally also gave reasonable levels of erosion control but typically led to high yield losses. This was also the case for cassava with forage legumes, once these were well established and productive.Nevertheless, recent results have shown, that less competitive legumes exist (e,g, Chamaecrista rotundifo/ia), which allow high productivity of cassava, at the same time controlling erosion, Reduction of yield losses with minimum tillage could also be reduced to low levels or yields even be improved, when minimum tillage (zone tillage) was done after a two year grassllegume rotatíon element, killing the grassland with a herbicide before cassava planting. Yield losses tor cowpea and cassava were also minimal or non existent when growing cassava or cowpea between Vetiver grass barriers, planted 8 m apart,Besides short growth and biomass production less competitive root systems seem to be of high importance to reduce competition between cassava and legumes or barrier grasses as this could be shown by relating root morphology to competition, With respect to grass barriers. several specíes with good adaptation to acíd low-P soíls could be identified. Besides Imperial grass (Axonopus scoparius) already used to sorne extent in the project region. these were Elefant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) , Citronella (Cymbopogon nardus). Vetiver (Vetíveria zizanioídes). Guatemala grass (Tripsacum andersonÍl). Partina grass (Andropogon leucostachyus) and on slightly better soils Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), Dwarf Eletant grass (P. purpureum cv. Mott) al so performed surprísingly well. Because of higher palatability. convenience of harvest and lower growth height compared to normal Elefant grass it ís now widely requested by farmers and local organizations as sole and barrier crop.Collaboration with farmers and local institutions active in the area of natural resources management was developed and maintaíned throughout the years to stimulate a two way information flow between research and practica in the field, at the same time enhancíng efficiency on both sites.At present three on farm experiments with runoff plots íncluding ditches for collection of eroded soil, three plots for multiplication of conservation germplasm and five plots for evaluating innovative or improved cropping practices are supervised and managed together with farmers and collaborating ínstitutions.Linkíng production of raw materíals from eonservation barriers to agroíndustrial activities is most advanced in the Citronella sub-project where a woman's group of farmers has already set up a plan! for essential oil extraction with !echnical support from FIDAR (NGO) and financial support from the project. CETEC ano!her NGO linked to the projeet is formulating a project for broom fabrication based on the use of Partiña grass, which at the same time Is promoted as a barrier option in the municipality of Buenos Aires/Cauca. Results from project research is documented in sixteen written documents comprising thesis work, monographs, proceeding articles and technical papers. The approach so far follow by the project to start from basic research at the same time developing components and testing them in systems was beneficiar to the strategy outlined aboye. A still more interactive and multidisciplinary approach is however required to allow for a better ex-ante analysis of components, once these are developed to the stage of technical feasibility.Further research needs in the area of more basic aspects for soil conservation technology development comprise: more work on the energy/rainfall intensity relationships and on soil water aspects. work on indicators of biologically induced changes of soil properties related with less erodibility and how these are be influenced by soillcrop management. identification of anatomical and physiological features of plants/components related with less competition and higher farmer acceptance. economic evaluation of conservation technology and testing of components in farm models, including market opportunities.In the area of applied research, on farm activities should be given priority to develop viable innovative system components. Technically feasible sowing equipment for small seeded legumes in hillsides should be developed.Generic characlerization of economic, social and institutional environments and constellations favouring conservation technology adoption should al so be given more attention in the future.As outlined in the Work Breakdown of the ongolng project. research and activities covered the whole range of technology development starting from the generation of basic knowledge to the execution of productivity tríals with farmers and NGO's and preparatory work for impact analysis based on diagnostic studies in two pilo! areas.Results of ongoing work are presented according to the envisaged outputs of the preject.2.1. Predictability of soil erosion on Andean Inceptisols.Work on erosion plots started in 1987 and was continued throughout 1993-1995. Data were collected and evaluated according to the procedures established for the application of the Universal SoU Loss Equation (USLE) developed in the USA by Wischmeier and Smith (1978).In this empirical model soillosses A are expressed as lhe product of a series of factors determining the magnitude of the process and which at the same time are closely related to agronomic practices.The USLE is: A :: R • K • C • L • S • P whereby A denotes soil loss (Mg/ha and year), R the rainfall factor, K the soil erodibility factor, C the cropping factor, LS the topographic factor and P the support practices factor.Major goals for the reporting period were to a) follow up on generating long term soil eros ion data related to soll properties, soU dynamics, climatic conditions and cropping practices and b) to examine the model as to its applicability to a tropical Andean environment where heavy rainfalls of high intensity are much more frequent and where soils differ considerably from lhose found in temperate climates.Two sites with uniform slopes between 7-13% in Santander and 13-20% in Mondcmo were chosen for the establishment of a total of 40 erosion plots. Whereas in temperate elimates only about 5% of the raintall exeeeds the intensíty of 25 mm.h•'. above whieh rainfall is considered to be erosive (Hudson, 1971), in Ouilichao and Mondomo about 40% of the events passad the value.Pereentage of erosive raintall according to USLE was even higher and reached levels between 44 to 80% (Table 2.2.)In the 1990-1992 period more than 20% of the total raintall fell at intensíty ranges of over 50 mm.fl sustained tor 30 minutes.Not all raintall considered as erosive (> 25 mm or exceeding intensities ot 30 mm• h over a 30 minute time Interval) caused erosion. About 25 pereent of these events. mainly after recently tilled son or dry conditions did not cause erosion on the bare fallow plots.Compared to mean soillosses with an annual average of about 150 t in Mondomo and about 110 t in Ouilichao over the last seven years. the proportions of rain lost by runoff were relatively low. Mínimum estímates (some overflow could be observed with some rainstorms) corresponded to about 12% In Ouilichao and about 11% in Mondomo and were equivalent to 217 mm and 234 mm ayear. However maximum runoff losses tor single events reaehed levels as high as 70% and 53% in Ouilichao and Mondomo respectively. In critical periods of crop development these losses easily can have an impact on yield fonmation and avoiding these losses can result in yield increase as it was shown tor Vetiver barriers (see section 24,2). Values are means of three replications in Cuiltchao and two in Mondomo and of two depths per plot (O~10 cm and 10-20cm).Only one replication was considered for bush faltow soils in Mondomo. The second one was used as a home garden before, which received chtcken manute. Its soil properties are \"ot representativa for the typical cassava soil5 in the region.Final rates in an.ha•' g.cm• 3Percenlage 01 particles > 0.5 mm, detelmined with a modified YOCER method (Franco and Gonzalez. 1967) With highly significant correlation coefficients of up to 0,88 and 0,89 for both study sites the USLE R-factor ean be considered as a satisfactory erosivíty index for this environment though A-1 30 is still more aceurate and also has the advantage of being easy to caleulate trom basie USLE data.In the USLE model kinetie energy of rain and hance the detarmination of erosivity R is derived from intensity-kinetie energy relations found for temperate raintal!. Application of this functional relationships basad on drop size data may however be of limited applicability in the tropies as this varies with loeation over the world (Hudson, 1971) Drop size measurements with standardized medium in splash caps have therefore been undertaken during one year in Santander de Ouilichao but the database still is not representative enough to allow general conelusions. Accurate clarification of the unit rainfall energy -intensity relationships on this site needs further measurements to be able to obtain conelusive results.2.1.2. SoU erodibility.Erodibility measured on permanen! clean tilled fallow plots under natural rainfall are classified as low to moderate in Ouilichao and low in Mondomo. K-factors compare well with those of many Oxisols and Ultisols in the humid tropics.No! untypical for the tropics. this means tha! erosion on these Ineeptisols is mainly governed by the erosivity of rainfall and to a lesser extent by soil erodibility.Testing the USLE allowed to detect changes over time in majar soU parameters influencing and modifying the erodibility K of the soils which in the USLE is assumed to be a constant value. A-',.A-I,.A-I ...Coefficíents of correlation (r) for the relatíonshíp between soíl IOS5 Irom permanent bare lallow píots and selected erosivity indices in Santander de Quilichao and MondomoSantander de Qullichao Mondomo 1987-1988 1988-1989 1990-1992 1987-1988 1988-1989 1990-1992  . ! Table 2,4. shows an increase in erodibility in the course of the years which means tha! erosion risk on these soils increased with prolonged tillage and exposure and the degradation of soil characteristics relevant to erodibility. Only in the last year with very few erosive events and probably also influenced by soil aggregation through bínding mineral agents (sesquioxides) soU erodibílíty descended again. Decrease of erodibility in the 1992/93 season is also pointing to a weakness of Ihe USLE methodology, where erodibility K is nol really an independent variable but influenced by raínfall erosivity R.This interdependency and dynamic nature of soil erodibi/ity could also be shown to be dividing the K factors of events from two years in those of the dry season, giving an average value of 0,012 against a K factor of 0,019 in the wet season. This finding was also confirmed by other researchers (cited by Ruppenthal, 1994).Also it is well known that erodibility values can vary a lot within the same soil order (Ruppenthal, 1994). On some tropical soils measured values compared reasonably well with values computed by the USLE nomograph (Roose, 1976) whereas serious discrepancies could be observed for soi/s with amorphous and oxidic constituents (El Swaify, 1977). On well aggregated soils the USLE nomograph predíctions often underestímated K values and this was also the case in Ouilichao and to a lesser degree in Mondomo, Where the USLE procedure failed to predict erosion in a reasonable manner.On aggregating sOils, as those found in Ouilichao and to a lesser extent also in Mondomo, the texture term M of the original USLE-nomograph seems of limited value. Therefore it was suggested to give more importance to soil structure (Rohmkens 1985), aggregate stability and the contribution of amorphous or oxidic constituents to structural stability in the K-prediction (El Swaify, 1977).As it is shown below, this could be confirmed in an attempt to simplify and improve the prediction of K-values fer these soils, based on a sel of easy to determine, mainly soil physical parameters.A main activity contributing to improve the predictability of erosion on Andean Inceptisols was lhe estimation of the erodibility factor K on the basis of a set of easy to determine, maínly physical soU parameters from lhe topsoi!.Based on project results (see aboye) that revealed a considerable discrepancy between predicted erosion, applying the USLE K-factor and measured erosion, an attempt was made to improve and at the same time simplífy the prediction of erodibility.This research was carried out in the framework of a masters lhesis of the project's assistant in collaboration with lhe National University of Colombia in Palmira.  2)3)Uncorrected values as regards to slope SI-uníts Value for Mondomo were best estimates in this year Ayear with very few raintall and few erosive events of low mean kinetic energy.Based on the hypothesis that the erosion process on these well drained hillsides is governed by the characteristics of the surface soil, sampling and soil characterization was done at the 0-10 cm surface in the 1992-1993 growing season. Reference data on soil characteristics of bare'fallow plots were taken 2 1/2 years after the sampling for the thesis 01 Mr. Martin Ruppenthal and as data in Table 2.5. show. soil characteristics at the surface 01 the bare fallow plots had suffered considerable changes over this time period,In Table 2.6. calculated and real (experimentally determined) factors of erodibility are shown. Because 01 the interrelationships between rainfall and soillosses in the USLE, also well documented in the thesis 01 Martin Ruppenthal (1995), low values of erosivity in this year led also to low experimental K values for erodibility.Table 2.7. shows coefficients 01 simple linear regressíon between some soil physical characteristics and the experimental K-factor for theses soils. Whereas on the Mondomo site soil organ~c matter content and other parameters ¡¡ke the percentage 01 stable aggregate fractions showed more or less the expected correlations wíth the experimentally determined K factors, this was not always the case in Santander de Ouilichao. On this site, complex interactions with or between other soíl physical and chemical characteristics like the content 01 sesquioxides, typícal 01 tropical soils, apparently had altered or masked the correlations.')2)Some physical properties 01 Ihe   A frequently applied and simple way of computing values of erodíbility (K) consísts in formulatíng equations, using easy to determine and índependent variables of basic soil properties which are highly correlated with measured \"K\" values.The method of deriving erodibility from a given set of soil properties is based on data from experimental plots which can be obtained by using rainfall simulators or still better, but more expensive and time consuming, by measuring soillosses from uniform runoff plots as they were used tor this study.As data on soil erodibility of tropical soils are not very abundan! il is not easy to identify the most important soil properties to determine K. Moreover variability of only a small number of soils sampled, makes it a difficult task to relate erodibility to a few soil characteristics. On the other hand, complex models considering a large number of soil variables are of limited practical applicability and have mainly been developed for temperate climates.Table 2.8. summarizes coefficients of stepwise multiple regression between values of erodibility and selected soil variables. In step nine, considering mainly different fractions of stable aggregates and soU texture, tive variables could explain 83 percent ofthe measured erodibility. Considering the coarse sand fraction in step 10 improves the model estimate by another 5%. As this variable is easy to determine il is suggested to in elude the coarse sand fraction in the model.As a result of this exercise the following two model equations are proposed to estimate the erodibility (K) of these soils:1. K = 0,037936 + 0,002974 X5 + 0,00115 X6 -0,003001 X2 -0,036569 X19 -0,005283 X4. 2. K = 0,047497 + 0,00287 X5 + 0,00114 X6 + 0,000341 X21 -0,003446 X2 -0,037605 X19 -0,006012 X4.Based on the experience from these trials it is suggested to revise and study in more detail the indirect determination of erodibility K of these soils as suggested by Wischmeier and Smith. Experimentally determined K valuas for the soils in Mondomo and Santander de Quilichao were obtained in a relative dry period and were quite low but highly correlated with soil physical properties explored.Using hydraulíc conductivity data instead of constant intiltration rates obtained with the double ring method also led to an improved estimate of erodibility with these soils. It is therefore recommended to further explore this possibility on other sites, because the process of data collection is much easier and does not require to transport hundreds of liters of water to remote hillsides. Whereas the alternative model for estimating K-values was developed on the basis of data from long term bare fallow plots parallel measurements were also executed on selected treatments. Main objective of this exercise was to explore the interactions between sojl physical parameters relevant to the process of soil erosion and plant cover or soU management.From research done on the rainfall factor R and the sojl erodibility K jt is already clear that the relative importance of individual factors involved in the erosion process differs from those found for situations in the temperate zone. A better understanding of the commonalities and differences compared to erosion processes in temperate regions is therefore needed and forms the basis for the formulation of more effective strategies to reduce or stop hillside erosion in the tropics.As search for altematives to estimate soil erodibility \"K\" on this inceptisols revealed, soíl aggregates and their distribution playa key role on this soUs. Formatjon and presence of aggregates > 2 mm was significantly improved through long term legume intercropping in cassava.Afler four years of legume intercropping highest Mean Weight Diameters of aggregates were always found in the cassava plus forage legume treatment, which suggests an aggregating effect of the legume intercrop and improvement of soil structure through better soil cover provided in this system (Fig. 2.1 and Fig. 2.2).Enrichment of larger particles and aggregates also occurred on the bare fallow plots in Ouilichao but in this treatment it was attributable to the selective process of intensive erosion and the surface accumulation of stable aggregates formed with iron and aluminum.Cover legumes favored water infiltration whereas in cassava alone water runoff and hence also soil erosion was promoted by a lower proportion of aggregates > 0,25 mm.Last results obtained from residual effects of contrasting two years rotation elements suggest that grass legume mixtures have an even more pronounced and longer lasting positive effect on soil aggregation (See paragraph 4) and can even outperform bush fallow, which means, that intensification of traditional land use is possible at the same time improving soils resistance against erosion-the key parameter of soil degradation in hillsides (see also Table 2.4 .... and section 2.4.1.).Aggregate analysis done in the years before could also show that contour ridging for cassava favoured the formation of stable big aggregates, probably because of the effects of frequent drying and wetting. Aggregate stability (MWD) was comparable to long years of grass fallow and superior to bush fallow.Correlation analysis executed for the relationships of organic matter with aggregate stability on two sites with 6 cropping treatments plus' bare fallow soils, gave only very poor correlations (r = 0.41, P = 0.01) which indicates that organic matter is a relatively poor indicator for the erodibility of these Inceptisols.Erosion is governed mainly by two processes: the detachment of soil particles from aggregates by raindrops and subsequent transport of detached sediment with surface runoff as laminar overflow or in rills.Disintegration of soil aggregates at the surface normally dominates the magnitude of erosion and therefore extensive measurements were also made on soils resistance to raindrop impact. The studies were undertaken in laboratory with a device producing raindrops of 4.5 mm diameter falling from a height of 2 m every 5 seconds. Aggregates exposed to raindrops were separated according to their size in four classes and placed on a 60 mesh sieve in rotating tubes.Soil detachment by raindrop impact was higher for the Mondomo site than for soils of Ouilichao (see figures 2.3 and 2.4). These values corresponded to experimental Kfactors measured on the plots in a season where dry weather conditions with few--....    Sample size n = 24 for each column.rainstorms prevailed.Aggregates fmm the soil surface of six-year old USLE bare fallow plots were more resistan! to raindrop impact than others, but were sensitive to soU los ses caused by runoff in the form of rill erosion caused by intensive rainstorms. In Santander aggregates from cassava plots intercropped with torage legumes were more stable than those from sole cropped cassava. In Mondomo the same tendency could be observed, but differences were statistically not significan!.Additional data from trials with this method on four sites were collected in collaboration with two Colombian graduate students and will help to further clarify the suitability of this method for characterizing soil erodibility in this environment (Suritica and Polanco, 1994).Preliminary evaluation shows consistency of results obtained from raindrop impact with data from measured erosion and once the device was installed, a lot of samples could be processed within a short time. Nevertheless, to reduce the high variability, a shift from \"single drop\" to micro rainfall simulators with bigger, more representative soíl samples on plates is suggested in order to be able to obtain consistent data with a reasonable number of samples.Identification and testing of other, practical indicators of improved aggregation of soils and less erodibility is also suggested for belter monitoring of interactions between soils, eros ion and plant cover or crop type.As outlined in more detail in the following paragraph on erosion impact on soil productivity, tropical soils in general are more sensitive to erosion than soils of temperate elimates. In the study region, as well as in large parts of South America topsoils with reasonable levels of nutrients and organic malter are overlying infertile acid subsoils. As a consequence tolerance limits for soil chemical degradation and nutrient losses are easily exceeded and make sustainable crop production a difficult task.Theoretieally, ehemieal soil fertility may be partly restored by mineral fertilizers, but in South Ameriea eassava is typically grown by poor farmers on marginal land and with marginal infrastructure. Thus this alternative is more of theoretieal character and rotations and sustainable management practices constitute the only means of improving sustainability .Eroded sediments typieaUy are higher in organie malter and soil nutrients as they are carried primarily by finer particles and collides, which are more readily transported by water runoff. This effect Is more pronounced on sandy soils and on purely structured soils and also with moderate levels of soíl erosion, In these cases finer partícles are selectívely removed, In well aggregated soils of high clay content and during heavy raínstorms causing ríll erosion, soíl fractions are removed more evenly, leadíng to lower enrichment rations, defined as the ratío of the concentratíon of an element in the sedíment to that in the source soíl.On the eros ion plots under observation sínce 1987 heavy erosion on bare fallow plots led to severe decreases in concentrations of arganie matter, total nitrogen, exchangeable Mg, Potassium and Bray 11 Phosphorus.Loss 01 soíl nutrients from cropped plots followed the same pattern as soH losses ín different cropping treatments with a relative selectivíty for impoverishment in Ca, Mg and Potassium.During the first years 01 the experiment enrichment ratios for sediments from erosion plots were 1,5 for Mg and 1.4 for K and' very low for organie malter and nitrogen (Reining, 1992). Three years later (Ruppenthal, 1994) enrichment ratios on this soils continued to be low on these Inceptisols (1,1-1,3).Highest enrichment in nutrients was observed for Ca 1,3 and Bray II-P on bare fallow plots (1,5) and for Mg (1,2), K (1,3) in cassava-Iegume cropping systems, These enrichment ratios are relatively low, when compared with results from other researchers in the tropies and can in part be explained by the high aggregation of the kaolinitic, amorphous soils, rích in elay and sequíoxides. This míght also be the reason for the relative enríehment of sand (1,3) in sediments from bare fallow plots.Not all nutríents are however bound to eroded sediment but are also dílute ín the runoff water, whích accounted for 25 to 30% 01 the nutríent losses on bare fallow plots and for 74, 90 and 85 percen! of P, K and Mg in the cassava forage legume treatments,The high proportion of nutrients losl by surface water, contrary to most of the results found in the literature stress the importance of runoff control and water conservation to diminish nutrient losses and water contamination.Very high nutrient eoncentrations in runoff water, subsequent to fertilizer applieation (Lal, 1976) could never be observed in the tríals. The local praetice of applying fertilizers in a ríll in the upper párt of cassava and eoveríng it with a thin soil layer seems to be an effective method to reduce these losses.Overall water losses on bare fallow plots were in Ihe order of 10-12% on 10-20% slopes, equivalent to over 200 m per year. On cropped plots 4-6% of precipitation was lost as runoff equivalent to 60-100 mm with lowest losses in cassava grown on contour ridges.Research on Inceptisols in southern Colombia once more demonstrated the overriding role of soil cover tor the maintenance of good physical soil structure and the maintenance of adequate nutrient levels ot hillside soils. The synergy between these leads again to an earlier more vigorous plant development, better soil cover, more biomass input, and less erosionoAs interactions between plant cover, soil and erosion are dealt with throughout the report only a few specific issues will be presented here and discussed.With respect to soil organic matter, aggregate stability and nutrient depletion of the soils it coutd be clearly demonstrated tha! the absence of soil cover, by plants, weeds, mulch and intensive rooting teads to fast soU deterioration. In Mondomo within only 6 years pH tell trom 4.7 to 4.4, organic matter from 7.7 yo 4.6%, total soil N (0-10 cm) from 2688 to 1624 mg.kg•' , exch. Ca (Cmol.kg•') trom 1,2 to 0,21 and exchangeable K trom 0,32 to 0,07.Accumulated soil tosses on these plots with 15-20% slope reached 953 t.ha•' of dry soil equivalent to about 10 cm of soil.Compared to this extreme trom tilled bare tallow plots, cropping of these soils with different cassava cropping systems, combined with moderate liming (400 kg CaC0 3 •ha\") and moderate fertilizer applications allowed to maintain or even improve (P) soil ehemieal characteristies compared to the inltial sltuation. This was, however, not the case for soU physical properties. Here all cropping practices led to clear loss of structural• stability but significant differences could be found between cropping treatments with respect to the magnitude of this phenomenon. Intercropping of forage cover legumes favoured soil aggregation, water infiltration and resistance of soils to raindrop impact but stabilizing effects from grassland or grass-Iegume erops on soil structure seem to be more pronounced. They have a longer lasting effect on reduction of soil erosion as could be shown recently byanalyzing the residual effects of two years of contrasting rotation elements on soil aggregate stability during the following year (Table 2.9). Removal of topsoil by erosion affects physical and chemical soil characteristics and typically leads to nutrient losses, reducad water infiltration and water storage capacity. As a consequence yields decline and farmer ¡ncomes are reducad.In spite of these relationships, levels of adoption of soil conservation technologies are low and polítical actions to implement programs for improved soil management often remain weak. In part this can be explained by the fact that the introduction of soil conservation technologies normally causes additional costs and the anticipated benefits of the investment only occur after years. On the other hand the impact of soil los ses on crop production is very frequently underestimated because productivity decline is not easily detectable from one year to another and might be masked by additional fertilizer input and/or the introduction of new crops or varieties. Once this information is available it is possible to calculate erosion induced costs due to yield reductions and/or the increase in fertilizer use and other input requirements.These figures can then be counterbalanced with the costs implied with the introduction of soil conservation and provide a very usefut tool to assist política 1 decísion making.In order to obtain these outputs, since 1993 Sorghum, Peanut and Cassava were grown on plots in Santander de Quilichao, employing 3 plots which had been used as standard plots to evaluate the USLE since from 1986 -1993. The plots suffered different and well documented degrees of erosion and soil degradation. Crop response on these plots is compared with crop performance on plots that had been under improved pasture for more than a decade and also with tour plots, where topsoil had been removed artificially by scalping to simulate erosiono Scalping was done to an extent comparable to the soil loss that had naturally occurred on standard plots (Le. 5, 10 and 13 cm of surface soil). On a fourth plot topsoíl was totally removed by scalping 30 cm. Comparison of productivity from naturally eroded plots and scalped plots was incorporated in the trials to examine the assumption made by several researchers, that soU removal is a reasonable simulation of soil loss by erosiono Moreover eros ion treatments were divided in two subtreatments consisting in: a) complete fertilizer supply and b) no fertilization.Measurements taken to establish the relationships between erosion, soil degradation and crop productivity comprised:Chemical soil analysis: organic matter, pH, total N, different fractions of P (organic P, inorganic P, Bray II-P) K, Ca, Mg, S, Al, Zn, Cu, Mn, B.Physical soil analysis: aggregate stability and size distribution, bulk density, pore vOlume, texture and volumetric moisture content in different soil depths.Plant measurements: phenological observations, yield and tissue analysis.Results from the first two crops have been analyzed and processed to a large extent and show clearly, that loss of topsoil leads to severe yield reductions on these soils.Sorghum and Peanut yield was strongly correlated to severa I chemical soil characteristics. Highest correlations were found tor organic matter, N, K, inorganic P and aluminum saturation. These parameters were at the same time strongly altered by topsoil loss (Table 2.10). Data on crop production presented in Table 2.11 also show, that results obtained on the scalping plots are different from those obtained on plots degraded over time where economic yields were consistently lower.At the current stage of the study the differences between the naturally eroded and the scalped plots are not yet fully understood, but data and soil analysis point to the fact, that this might be due to differences in soil texture caused by different processes of soil loss. As erosion is a selective process, small and light particles are preferentially removed, that is the fine earth fraction and organic matter (Lal, 1987). This could also be shown here, as iIIustrated by the following equations:where X is the amount of topsoillost (kg/ha)These equations were obtained on the naturally eroded plots. The increase of the sand content, a fraction with low cation exchange capacity, could partly explain the differences between the scalped and the eroded plots. In the scalping treatments only insignificant changes of sou texture with scalping depth could be observed according to the profiJe structure.  Rainfall characteristics (amount, erosivity distribution), soil cover and soil physical conditions are the most important factors in determining the magnitude of erosion bul they also interfere in the productivity of the cropping systems tested, Annual variations of climate and the position of a cropping system tested in the rotation influence the results, therefore only long term investigation and comparison of results with data from similar trials elsewhere give a reasonable picture ofthe sometimes complex interactíons between cropping systems, soil, climate and productivity of crops. This should be taken into consideration when reading through the following results presented here as year to year data.The common goal behind all this research is the development of productive, income generating cropping technology, at the same time conserving or even improving the soits as the principal resource base of crop production. Though site specific in nature, deduction of commonalities and principies, applicable to a wider range of situations is also sought for to make work of NGO's and NARS more efficient and to improve potentíal impact of project work.The functíons of the relatíons between soil removal and crop yield are shown in the following figures: Work in the first years preceding the project concentrated on the evaluation of tillage practices and its impact on productivity and erosiono Total annual soillosses as affected by crop management systems are summarized in Table 2.12.The overall average annual soU losses, soil at this time still showing relatively high stability due to the effects of preceding grassland, from bare fallow plots were > 100 t.ha\" and reached up to 300 t.ha•' in the second year after the start of Ihe experiment on the Mondomo site.Compared with the traditional cassava cultivation on flat lands growing cassava on contour ridges or with grass strips led to much lower soíl losses. On the other hand growing cassava on down slope ridges or in association with early maturing grain legumes resulted in much higher soillosses than the traditional practice (Cassava flat).Only Cassava/minimum tillage. Cassava on contour ridges and Cassava with grass strips led to soil 1055 values close to tolerable levels.Minimum tillage, though effective in controlling erosion led to severe yield reductions in Quilichao due to unfavourable growth conditions for cassava and relatively high weed infestation. From a productivity point ofview all other trealments gave also satistactory yields and therefore might be acceptable to tarmers though some of them expressed some concern as regards to potential weed infestation trom left grass strips.Between 1990 and 1992 emphasis was put. on the development of soU conserving cassava-forage legume jntercropping and its potentíal to reduce eros ion while . maintaining soil tertility and crop productivity. Based on earljer results from CIAT (CIAT. 1992) where some salid sown legumes showed good compatibility with cassava, some treatments with undersown legumes were included in the erosion experiments and evaluated over a two year periodo In order to reduce competition, legumes were not solid sown but undersown in double rows along the contour line. Grass barriers with Vetiver grass (Vetíveria zízanioídes) and Elefant grass were also tested.As shown in Table 2.13 erosion potential continued to be high in spite of less rainfall in this year and is mainly due to increased erodibility of the soils with prolonged exposure. Cassava as a sale crop again produced erosion aboye tolerable levels and undersown forage legumes only reducad erosion levels in the second season after its establishment. In the first growing period erosion was even enhancad by legume intercropping because of seedbed preparation, reseeding operations and the human 32 traffic related with these operations and the harvest of legumes. Overall soil cover with undersown legumes due to slow initial development of legumes was nol or only slighlly higher compared lo sole cassava in the firsl cropping season (data not shown) Compaction of surface soil (more in Quilichao) and less canopy development of intercropped cassava thus led to high erosion in the year of establishment.In Mondomo erosion levels were low for all cropping systems in the first year because erosive rainstorms were delayed until October. In Ihe second growing season erosion was controlled satisfactorily by undersown legumes, the legumes providing a dense and efficient soU cover from the very beginníng of the crop cycle.Grass barriers and contour ridges led to acceptable soil losses with no yield reductions or even improved yields in the case of cassava on ridges and only slight or moderate yield reductions with Vetiver grass and frequently cut elefant grass (every 2-3 months).Vetiver barriers occupied 12,5% of the area. They did not affect effective area yield at all and yield reductions by Elefant grass (12% and 5% in both years), occupying 25% of the area were offset by 5 to 8 t.ha\" of forage dry malter.Summarizing the effects of different cropping systems, it can be concluded that torage legume íntercropping was not efficient in controlli.ng soil erosion in the season of establishment. Later on, from the second year on it was effectíve in checking soil erosion, but cost in terms of yield losses were in the order of 10-20% in the first year and 30-40% in the second year are probably too high to be accepted by farmers, even if they are compensated by forage yields of about 2-4 t of dry malter per hectare.In this respect grass barriers with cut and carry grasses showed belter results and together with the contour ridge-treatment exhibited a good mixture of erosion control and productivity.Legume intercropping might be an interesting option only, if the cassava crop is used for relay establishment of legumes for subsequent jmproved pastures or enhanced fallows, thus takjng advantage of the often difficult legume establishment over a longer period and enhancing productivity of subsequent rotation elements.This in mind another two year cropping cycle with modified treatments was started in the 1992/1993 cropping season ..After flVe years of experiments with cassava cropping systems it was decided to interrupt continuous cassava with contrasting rotation elements. Most of them are commonly known for its potential to restore soil structure and productivity, at the same time bejng close to common practices in the Andean environment in the Cauca Department.A more realistic crop rotation (long term experiment) and the immediate and crop rotation effects on soil erosion, soí! characteristics and crop productivity were of specíal interest.In !he Cassava forage-Iegume treatment which had resulted in relatively hígh competítion and labour constraints when planted row by row, a new strip arrangement of components, maintaining overa\" plant density, but reducing the interface between legumes and cassava was selected. Performance of this system was compared against continuous traditional cassava, cowpealbeans with organic manure (very widely used by farmers for beans on degraded soUs) , a legume enhanced fallow after cassavallegume intercropping and newly or relay established grassland as a more intensive forrn of restoring soil physical properties and correet weed infestation.Results on soU losses caused by these two year rotation elemen!s and respective figures on productivity are shown in Table .2.14 and 2.15.Due to low raintall and relative drought at the beginning 01 the crop cycles soU losses and crop yields were relatively low.Compared to cassava, beans and/or cowpea caused only about 30% of soU erosion in this experiment with 4 crop cycles whereas other authors (Howeler, 1985) found higher levels of erosion in these treatments. Rather high weed incidence on these plots after applying chicken manure might have been responsible for this (data not shown).Erosion in fallow treatments was close to zero and grassland treatments caused erosion only in the tirst year. Expected differences in soU loss between relay established grass with zone tillage only and newly established grassland with complete tillage did no! show up because of lac!< of erosive rainfalls in the first rainy season.When comparing plots where grasses were planted into already established legumes against those with legumes sown simultaneously with grasses, the yield 01 legumes was higher in plots with pre-established legumes, but legume yields decreased in both treatments during subsequent cuttings. Especially in Mondomo, where the cooler climate delayed regrowth and establishment ofthe legumes. Brachíaria decumbens was too aggressive. less competitive grasses and/or more competitive legumes are needed in order to establish balanead grassllegume mixtures.Recent experiments with dwarf types of Guinea grass have shown that this might be an option for slightly more fertile soíls.Growing cowpea or beans with hedgerows of Vetiver grass (occupying 12,5% of the effective cropping area) reduead soil losses to tolerable levels. Yet, overall yield 01 graín legumes was not affected (see also paragraph 2.4.2) corroborating results from earller years and other experiments executed (see below). Mlnimum tillage, Brachiarls vegetalively interplsnted between preestablished legume strips trom preceding cassava intercrop; in newly eslablished grasstand soí! was tí!1ed and legume and gras5 planted simultaneously.Brachiarla decumbens and Centrasema macrocarpum.Prel/ious cassava crops were undersown with Zomia glabra which was left after harvesting cassava.Real soll 105S on Ihis 13-20% slopes was two lo three fold Ihe value 01 Ihe slandardized 9% slope figure.As already mentioned. rotation elements were also introduced to look at crop rotation effects. related with dífferent treatments. In arder to be able to evaluate residual effects. a single crap. cassava was selected for the sUbsequent season 1994/1995 on all plots.Nevertheless. some contínuous long term patterns of differential cropping practices were maintaíned:• Continuous cassava. tilled • Crops + Vetiver hedgerow. tilled • Crops + reduced tillageOn the basis of this continuous patterns of land management. comparisons of traditional land use versus íntensífied land use practíces could be made as regards to sustainabílity.Cassava after two years of short term grain legumes with chicken manure could be compared with the same treatment plus barríer or with continuous cassava.Performance of a cassava crop after 2 years 01 managed grassland could be compared against crop performance after two years of natural weed fallow -a practice of less utility but traditionally used by farmers.Finally cassava after grassland tilled agaínst cassava after grassland with herbicide and minimum tillage ar continuous cassava with tillage.Prelíminary results from the first harvest ín 1995 ín Ouilíchao are shown in Table 2.16.First of all it can be stated that with the exception of continuous cassava all treatments presented low to very low soíl losses, which means they were sustainable from a soil conservation point of view.Residual effects leading to less erosion were obtained by organic manures (Treatment 2), two year fallow, and even better by two years of grassland with legumes. Effects of the last two treatments were comparable to the effect of a dense Vetiver barrier.The sequence of reduction in soil losses measured on plots compared very well with results from analysis of aggregate stabílity on this plots in the course of this year (See  (2) 10,000 pI/ha. 0,87 tlha DM Chamaecrista r. 0.16 tlha DM New arrangement of forage legumes in strips with cassava (1,5 m legumes, 2,5 m cassava) led to a completely different response as it was intended. Competition effects on cassava increased dramatically. A reason for this might be, that the legume strip received full sunlight during the whole cropping period -even in the dry season, This led to a duplication of legume forage yields but reduced cassava yield to 25 to 30% of the control. Strips with legume mixtures thus are not applicable in this way but only as wider strips in a type of contour rotatíons. Farmers first were very exited from the new strip arrangement because of year round easy access to fodder plants, but changed their opinion when competition effects became evident Highest cassava yields were obtained after grain legumes with chicken manure, foUowed by the two year grassllegume rotation elements, enhanced natural fallow, Vetiver, and contínuous cassava.Both of the last two treatments suffered to some degree from root rots which might be attributable to the prolonged cassava cultivation.The results obtained with a grass legume rotalion aga!ns! bush/weed fallow to restore soU structure and fertility and with organic manuring against mineral fertilizers alone match the dual objective formulated for agricultural research: \"Increase toad production while conserving or enhancing the natural resource base\"'. Productivity of land could be increased, at the same time reducing soU erosion to tolerable levels. In 1995/96 the same treatments will be continued with maize as the principal crop and Chamaecrista rotundifolia as legume componen!.Permanent ground cover with forage leg,umes is one of many crop management systems favoured for soil conservation and for improving soU fertility in the humid tropies. As cassava farmers rarely apply chemical fertilizers, torage legumes in association with cassava might be viewed as an altemative \"biological source\" for soil improvement.Results from research on erosion measurement plots consistently demonstrated that undersowing of legumes can reduce erosion in cassava to acceptable levels once the legumes are well established.Nevertheless competition levels in tested cassava/legume systems were high and constitute a constraint for the adoption of intercropping systems. Therefore, parallel to the work on erosion plots, agronomic research on improving these systems was carried out throughout the last years with the overall goal of reducing soU erosion, al the same time minimizing yield losses of cassava. In order to obtain results satisfying this dual objective several strategies were under investigation:• identification of less competitive legume species and/or more tolerant cassava ecotypes. • changing the arrangement and compasition of the componen!s • identify morphological and physiological traits that influence the magnitude of competition and • feasibility of legume systems from a farmers point of view including improved management practices, .Based on the observations of high competitíon with solid sown or double row planted legumes in cassava and on the identification ot new promising species with good soil cover capacity and adaptation to infertile acid soils a large field experiment was initiated. In this trial single row intercropping without extraction of the legumes, after they were cut was tested. Also different plant densities and varieties were applied.From results shown in Table 2.17 and 2.18 it can be concluded that competition exercised by undersown legumes with these changes could not overcome the problems already identitied in previous tríals.No major differences due to cassava density could be observed but legume dry matter production was inversely correlated with cassava yield (r = 0,56; P = 0.05) and minor dífferences could also be observed with respect to varietal tolerance to intercropping, more leafy and low branching types suffering slightly less from competition.Legumes providing sufficient soil cover caused yield losses in the order of 20-25% in Ihe tirst year and 40-50% in the second growing season, About half of the yield losses in the second season could be atlributed lo the legumes itself and the other 25% to reduced zone tillage for cassava (data not shown).However, there were differences belween legumes, some of them being more competitive than others. From observations ofthe root system of Galactia striata (very extensive, grasslíke and profuse), which consistently exercised highest competition, it was concluded that roo! characteristics might play a major role for selecting low competitive cover legumes.Based on this observation and the hypothesis tha! aboye ground competition with low growing perennial forage legumes is of minor importance in these systems, a further attempt to explore the interactions below ground was undertaken.Two out of seven cassava/legume systems tested in the long term agronomic intercropping trial were selected for direct root observation on soi! profiles of 1 m width and 90 cm depth in the second year after establishment. Cassava was about 6 months old at this point in time.Counts of root tips per cm 2 were digítized and fed into a computer programo Compared cassava alone (Fig. 2.7) with highest root densities of about 0,5-0,6 roots per cm 2 (R cm 2 ) the introduction of Centrosema acutifolium (CIAT No. 5277) to the system led to higher roo! densities and deeper root extension (Fig. 2.8).Highest rool densíties however were obtained by combining cassava with Zomia glabra (CIAT No. 8283) as it is shown in Figure 2.9. Total number of roots in the profile (0,9 x 1 m) were 1696, 3060 and 6376 for cassava alone, CassavalCentrosema and Cassava/Zomia respectively wíth majar differences in the 20-40 cm horizon.Highest root densities were obtained by combining cassava with Zomia glabra (CIAT No. 8283). Most intensive root growth wíth root densities of 1,6-2,1 roots per cm 2 occurred between 10-15 cm of soil depth. Overall root densities with Zomia were three to tour fold of what could be found in the sole cassava system and nearly two times as much as with C. acutifolium. 74% of roots were concentrated in the 0-30 cm horizon and 96% of the roots in the 0-60 cm horizon. Nevertheless, because of higher absolute values there were still nearly as much roots in the lower profile as with Centrosema acutifolium (Fig. 2Corresponding yield data from cassava and the legumes showed a clear yield decrease of cassava in response lo Ihe legume intercrops. There were yet no significant differences between competilion from Centrosema and Zomia. Higher rool density and biomass production with the Zomia treatment in this case did not cause lesser cassava Root density Cassava I sole crop-5 0.26, \"' \" ' , IV ,' oc \"\",,  '\" = Centrosema.  \"2,7.3   • 2,4-2,7   .2,1-2,4 • 1,8-2, 1 From this trial it may not be concluded that higher root biomass and rool intermixing wilh legumes or legume types with higher rool density are always or necessarily leading to more competition because Centrosema acutifolíum with a less inlensive and more evenly distributed rool system was causing the same levels of competition as Zornia glabra.It can be concluded that other atlributes like response to waterstress, partial shading and other physiological traits also playa major role and need lo be looked at in more detail.Screening of low competing, fast covering forage legumes was continued throughout the last years, taking into account progress made in the area of agronomy and farmers reactions to new components under investígation. For thís purpose plants were sown símultaneously wíth cassava and performance of both components evaluated.Table 2.19. summarizes some of the mos! promising resutts of this activity including useful graminea with potential as temporary. sown barriers or for in situ mulch production.Though Ihe legumes could not compete with grass like species like Pennisetum g/aucum nine out of 22 tested legumes developed quite fast, Chamaecrista rotundifolia exhibiting outstanding soil cover capacity already two months after sowing. Biomass production was lower than that of grasses but C. rotundifolia, which provided a dense soil cover during the whole crop period, produced the highest bíomass (4,5 10M).Mos! surprisingly this did not lead to yield reductions when compared with legumes like Chamaecrista kunthiana. producing only 0,3 t DM-ha-1• So far líttle is known about the reasons for this outstanding performance. A deep but tiny rool system, low nutrient requirements. immediate physiological response to water stress and economic use of water are amongst some of the traits identified in preliminary studies.Based on the extraordinary good resUlts obtained wilh Chamaecrista rotundifolia (CIAT No. 8590) in the screening tríals. and the excellent characteristics of this planl (Iow growing. not winding. early vigor, abundant seed production, resistance to pests and diseases, forage value) a regular field trial was planted in 1994.Chamaecrista was sown every 25 cm at a row distance of one meter between cassava.It establíshed quickly (Table 2.20) and after four month abundant seed could be harvested (21,5 kg-ha-1 equivalen! to 800 seeds per linear meter).  to sunllgM and oompetitlon strongty mere.sed companad to norm.1 condiijQns .• ) Newman !<eula teaL \"\" 0.05Contrary to the screening trial, the trial at larger plots (25 m 2 plots with eight replications) was disturbed by Cassava Bacteríal Blight (CBB) at the end of the first rainy season. The variety grown (CM 523-7) tolerated the disease, but cassava was nearly completely defoliated and canopy recovered only two months later. Under this círcumstances growth and development of the undersown legume was very abundant. Thus. competition during the dry season was strongly íncreased and led to a yield reduction of about 20%, which was much less than could have been expected accordíng to experiences with other legumes in a similar situation.Ease of harvest, an important critería for farmers. was favoured by undersown Chamaecrista but incidence of the burrowing bug (Cyrlomenus bergl) was significantly higher with the soU cover, an issue tha! needs further monitoring in areas where this pest can cause economic yield losses .A wider set of adequate low competing legumes for different altitudes. an adequale and cheap sowing equipment for small seeded legumes with no or only rough soil preparation and further development of the technology with farmers need major attention to make these technologies work.Morphological and physiological characterization of Chamaecrista and similar legumes is needed lo support this process with efficiently selected, adequate germplasm .Research on erosion plots during the last years has consistently demonstrated tha! densely planted grass barriers at 8-10 m distance are highly recommendable to control erosion and achieve acceptable yields on slopes of 5-20% (Ruppentha!, 1994).Erosion research with shrubby components was not yet executed but Cratylia argentea and Flemingia macrophytla could be identified as highly promising species with good persistence and lolerance to frequent cutting. Erect, unbranched growth types of Flemingi8 showed the most promising features as single row shrub. Cratylia seems to be adequate for wider strips or strip rotation on altitudes below 1300 ma.s.1.With respect to grass barriers, several grasses with good adaptation to acid low-P soils could be identified. Besides Imperial grass (Axonopus scoparius) already used to some extent in the project region these were Elefant grass (Pannisetum purpureum).Citronella (Cymbopogon narclus), Vetiver (Vetiveria zízanioides) , Guatemala grass (Tripsacum andersonÍl), Partir'ia grass (Andropogon leucostachyus) and on slightly beller soils Lemon grass (Cymbopogon• citratus). Also Dwarf Elefant grass (P. purpureum cv. Mott) performed surprisingly well. Because of higher palatability, convenience of harvest at lower growth height compared to normal Elefant grass it is now widely requested by farmers and local organizations as sole and barrier crop.Transplanting Irials for evaluation of establishment percentage (data nol shown) gave best results for Cymbopogon species followed by Vetiver and Guatemala grass. Establishment of Imperial grass as a barrier requires double or triple rows lo oblain sufficiently productive and dense barriers.On farm Irials on seedling storage of vegetative planting material were executed together with CVC and FIDAR in the Mondomo area. It could be shown that proper storage of plantlets in small heaps under a trae tor three and ten days before plantíng the barriers díd not affect establishment aná early development of the grasses tested.In the rainy season mean percentage of establishment 30 days after planting was 93, 97 and 99% for Vetiver, Lemon grass and Citronella respectively. The data confirm earlier findings with somehow lower establishment rates and show that storage of plantlets did not affect the material, thus facilitating logístics of harves! transport and dislribution to farmers.Further agronomic lrials on effects of planting density and soil amendment are in the process of evaluation as well as data collection on barrier productívity on farmers fields in the northern Cauca Department.Development of recommendations for management and species selection for improving performance and farmer adoption ara the objectives behind these activities.Besides the fact that barriers occupy part of the field, they also need to be plantad, require maintenance and often cause competition lo eraps grown between Ihe barriers.In order to overcome these adoption constraints, they have to be minimized and/or the value of the barriers has lo be increased to beco me as attractive as !he crop itself.Besides growth, height and biomass produetion. competition of grass barriers is largely aetermined by interactions below ground. an area Ihat is poorly understood so far.In order to get a better understanding of the nature and importance of below ground interactions. a trial was se! up, growing cassava alone and along barriers of differenl grasses at a distance of only 0,55 m. Root observation pi!hs were established at the ends of cassavalgrass plots.As shown in Figures 2.10, 2.11 and 2.12 the three grasses tested. developed a quite distinct rooting pattern, Vetiver intermixing little with cassava roots and showing a vertical downward growth with li!tle branching. By contrasto the profuse vertical and horizontal spread of Guatemala grass and cassava roolS suggested a joint exploitation of soU volumes by the two species, Guatemala restricting cassava root growth in the upper horizon. Lemon grass showed an intermediate partern but allowed better root development of cassava in the upper, fertile soil horizon. Vetiver grass reaehed a total root length of 7 m within 0,4 -0,6 m width on each side of tlle grass barrier, allowing cassava roots to expand and reach 17 m total root length in the same 20 week periodo,. . . Rooting patterns of cassava with Vetiver grass grown as barrier in association with cassava (M Col 1505) on an Oxic Dystropept in Santander de Ouilichao.Guatemala grass and lemon grass reached rool lengths of 16 m, at the same time restricting cassava root lengths lo aboul 10m.Given this distincticn in rooting patterns and spatial root distribution and taking into account the marked differences between grasses in growth and biomass production, it can be assumed that cassava yields have to respond to these differences.There was little or no barrier effect on height• of cassava but cassava roo! yield was only 1240, 1210 and 513 9 per plant in the presence of barriers. compared to 2194, 1691 and 1350 9 per plant in the plots were Vetiver grass, Lemon grass and Guatemala grass had been removed. still exercising some residual effects.Grasses like Vetiver with moderate growth and Lemon grass which grew slowest and produced the least biomass. had less impact on root yield beca use of spatial differentiation in the main rooting zone and beeause of free intermix of roots. Guatemala on the other hand competed very strong beca use of intensive roo! competition and high biomass production and therefore should not be used as a barrier in cropped fields but tor productive stabilization of road ditches with poor soils.Weakly competing barrier plants with interaction mainly below ground e.g. with dense and so lid , but non competing root systems are recommended tor cassava in hillsides.Barriers differing from this plant type must have an attractive paying off lo farmers in the form of torage or other byproducts compensating tor potentially high yield losses and the labour involved in managing the barrier strips.Vetiver grass, though not producing torage, but highly valuable as a souree of slowly decomposing mulch material and low in maintenance requirements has very favourable characteristics in this respeet.The high efficiency in retaining sol! and water runoff sometimes can even enhanee crop production on hillsides. thus also creating some short term benefit to the farmers.Growing cowpea as asole crop and with Vetiver barriers. 8 m apart in Santander de Quiliehao led to a considerable yield reduction of the first row adjacent to live barriers (Fig. 2.13) in the barrier treatment.Yet. overall yield per plot was higher for cowpea. as rows downslope of the barrier yielded more than in the control without barrier. This confirms esrlier observations from Vetiver, grown with cassava in Ihe preceding cropping cycle and it may be speculated, that higher water infiltration al the barrier and subsequent improvement of water availability on the lower side of the barrier caused by interflow led to this overcompensation. .' 3,.•  Further research on the aspects of water use and hydrological aspects related to conservation components is suggested for improved water use and management in hillsides.A different approach, strategic in the sense of identifying local opportunities for aggregating value to a conservation component and quite site specific from a technical and socioeconomic poin! of view, was chosen in collaboration with a tarmer community in the remote area of Buenos Aires/Cauca.In this area, farmers use to browse bush fallow land and degraded pastures to collect Partiña grass (probably Andopogon leucostachyus) which then is dried, selected and sold to clients from broom factories as a raw materíal.By uprooling the grass and planting it in barríer rows, it could be shown that it is easy to transplant and has potential for use as a barrier for erosion control, al the same time producing some economic benefit. After one year of farm experimentation it was found, that it needs double row planting and denser spacing to fulfil the function of erosion control within a reasonable time. The functional properties can be further enhanced by combining the two rows wilh creeping. relatively shade tolerant forage peanut (Arachis pintoi), which at the same time fixes nitrogen and controls weed growth between the grass rows after they are cut.This system iIIustrated in Figure 2.14 is now under evaluation and a project for a small broom manufacturing unít is formulated together wíth CETEC, and NGO collaborating in this activity.The effectiveness of barríer components to control erosion is known -overcoming the technical and socioeconomic constraints is the task.2.4.4. Cooperation with farmers and institutions for technology validatlon and transfer.From its very beginning and in accordance with the structure of the project outline and the outputs defined. development of soil conservation technology covered nearly all aspects of lhe research and development cycle outlined in Figure 2.15.Besides basic research, mainly on soll erodibility. eroslvity and the interactions between soil erosion and productivity decline of soils, applied research, dealing with development of technical components and lhe testing of these within the overall farm situation, occupied most of the time of the project team.However. linkages to local NGO's and of institutions in lhe area of natural resources management and rural development in general were sought and developed to Improve the impact of the project, identify constralnts for technology adoption at institutional and farmer (user) level and to obtain the feed back needed to reorient work on technology development.Though not formally structured and to large degree based on opportunities for collaboration at different levels, working along these guidelines is considered as a valid and successful approach. It requires personnel commitment due to its informal character but gives high flexibility to all partners and was adequate to the size and structure of the existing research oriented project.Involvement of farmers and farmer's knowledge and concepts occurred at different levels. In the case of the development of Partiña grass as a conservation component (see paragraph 2.4.3.) farmers were involved in all steps of technology development.The need for collaboration from a development oriented NGO, however beca me evident, when it came to the point of dissemination, market and product development.In this area the two partners, farmers and researchers, could not provide the skills and capacity to overcome the constraints for adaption. Assistance from CETEC was sought for to help in creating a more favourable environment for the technology (small local processing unit for the grass) and for the dissemination of the technology amongst farmers -providing logistical support and credits for improved cassava production.In another case of collaboration with the National Coffee Federation (FEDECAFE), components (e.g. dwarf elefant grass barriers) were first discussed and evaluated with the technical staff from this institution. Then it was tested with the institution on some farms and afterwards offered to farmers as a technology option to improve productivity and sustainability on their farms. Project staff participated in field days and community workshops providing background information on the need and opportunities for soil conservation and small amounts of conservation germplasm for local multiplication if these were requested or available.Feedback from farmers came in the form of demand or disinterestedness, from field days, discussions during follow up visits to individual farmers and through extension personnel from the collaborating institution.Finally, collaboration for technology diffusion was organized in the form of a sub-project with financial collaboration only. An adoption constraint had to be solved through mechanisms and technologies, where the project could not provide the required knowledge and skills. In this specific case, Citronella grass had been identified as a most adequate barrier grass species for farmers without cattle or on fields too distant from the farm for cut and carry use.Ease oftransplanting, high multiplication factors, very good adaptation to a wide range of environments, to acid low fertility soils, resistance to pests and diseases, high biomass production and last not least high contents of an essential oil with acceptable market perspectives made this grass species an interesting option for a soil conservation initiative.However, there was no technology and institution available to produce and sen the essential oil and/or products derived from il. Under these conditions no farmer would plant the barriers, nor could they be recommended to farmers for large scale application on their fields.An NGO (FIDAR) with experience in development of small scale rural processing industries, training and organization offarmers groups and applied agronomic work with peasant farmers, was identified. A complementary project for the promotion of citronella and the construction of an oil extraction plant with a rural community was formulated and approved.By July 1995 the plan! is working after several adjustments to reduce energy cost. The rural community is organized, legally registered, trained in bookkeeping and strategies tor solving group conflicts and participated in agronomic trials on Citronella management. About 22 ha are planted with Citronella barriers and the pilot plant is producing 5 liter of essential oil a day, pays two laborers and pays for the work involved in the management of the barriers with a small margin of benefit (see below).In this case project staffwas only involved marginally, eg., helped in getting support for these activities from CVC', the official organization for soil and water management in the area and also collaborating with the project in demonstration trials and multiplication activities.The examples described give an overvíew on the range of collaborative activities and its character in the project area. By July 1995 the project is directly linked to tour tarmer communities, maintains collaborative activities with three NGO's, ONE GO and the Coffee Federation.Collaboration with (poor) farmer communities, NGO's and the govemmental institution benefited a lot from the small but very efficiently used collaborative tunds. Preliminary results of this work revealed that drier climatic conditions, fewer and less valuable trees, less crop species that can be grown, and the disappearance of fauna are the indicators most frequently mentioned to characterize this degradation.In the municipalities of Buenos Aires/Cauca and Caldono (the last site had later to be canceled because of intensive guerrilla activity) diagnostic interviews on the socioeconomic situation of farmers and on practices. knowledge, and attitudes related with soU conservation and fertUity management have been done in 1994.The information from over 120 cassava producing farm units was collected with support from the CIAT, Cassava Economy sectíon, to make sure, sampling and statistics were done according to present standards.CVC, FIDAR and a local NGO (Grupo de I nlegración Rural) participated with personnel, vehicles and basic information in the survey. Al present they are receiving Ihe results to orient their work with regard to assessing needs, opportunities and lo facililate planning, execution and monitoring of progress in their own work.The project is using the information in the same way and hopes to repeat the study by the end of the project to evaluate impact of activities induced in !he Buenos Aires pilot area.Partial results from the \"Cascajero\" hamlet are presented in Appendix 1 with a summary in English.With regard lo Ihe economic evaluation on characlerization of barrier components, intensive collection of biophysical data on productivity and labour requirements is presently undertaken. In teamwork with the HiIIsides Program these data will be evaluated according to economic and environmental criteria and objectives using a farm simulation computer model that has been designed especially for this region.Results from econol\"'1ic evaluation of the cultivabon and processing of Citronella grass used as hedgerow to prevent erosion are presented in the following table (2.21). Data, though still of preliminary nature show the feasibility of this approach but evaluation could also demonstrate that benefits are moderate considering present prízes and costs. • With a new (existing) equipment for generating steam cost of energy (29%) could easily be reducad to the half.• Besides a rentability of 24% the plant generates employment (40 mandays a month) -and on long term the beneftt derived from stopping soil degradation.Tralning and information dissemination 2.5.6. Soil conservation manual and regional workshop.Though these outputs were originally scheduled tor the regular, three years phase of the project it became more and more obvious that this would affect the quality of both activities and the quality and operations of ongoing research.As the research activities are still going on during the whole year of 1995, many results would not be available towards the end of the ongoing project, but could be obtained and incorporated during a possible 2 years extension, what would improve the quality and content ot the manual.Furthermore, contacts with NARS in Ecuador, Brazil and Venezuela are just in the process of getting established, so that a workshop at a later point in time seems to be more effective and also more useful in the sense of creating and implementing mechanisms or institutional arrangements that might make the impact of the project within CIAT and within Latin America more sustainable.Finatly, due to an unfavourable devetopment of exchange rates between the US-Dollar and the Colombian Peso the financial situation did not allow to realize the two activities tor which no specific budget titles had been assigned.As outlined in the workbreakdown struc!ure the overall goal of the project is \"to increase incomes and agricultural sustainability in less favoured rural areas by improving the level and stability of cassava production\".The underlying assumption. when formulating this objective, was that higher levels of production and sustainability automatically also lead to increased incomes.Looking at the long term trends of the impact of innovative management practices on soil efosion and on soil physical parameters, it is clear. that differences between treatments became more and more evident in the course of the years. Consequences for yietd, however.were not yet detectable or minimat.Under these circumstances it might be very difficult to convince farmers to adopt new technologies, because no immediate response in terms of yield increases will occur.On the other hand, from research done on the irnpact of erosion on soil productivity on these Inceptisols with a relatively shallow topsoil layer, il is clear, that on a mid to long term perspective yield decline without soil conservation will be dramatic and negatively affect farmer incomes, especially if they do not apply lime and fertilizers,No! considering the role of possible economic incentives, which nevertheless rnight be necessary and useful in some cases, an integrated approach is suggested to make integration of (urgently needed) soU conservation technology into development politics a reality, Points considered of importance are:concentrating on best bet options with proven efficiency and highest economic feasibility (e.g. ridges on fields of moderate slope length, low competitive and/or highly productive barrier elements and productive grass/legume rotation elements ¡nstead of weed tallow).provide the infrastructure to make its adoption convenient (e.g, supply of planting material, transport facilities, technical advise).Develop institutional and logistic infrastructure, including the farmers, for selecting, testlng and introduction of conservation elements Into specific farm environments and production systems. This process has to be combined with extension activities, aimed at an improvement of farm productivity in general (new varieties, better crop management, etc.).Enhancing economic attractiveness of conservation components through the creation of a favourable milieu for setting into value its (sub)-products (e,g. introduction of an animal component far better use of torages. rural processing units for raw material from conservation components such as \"Partiña\"-grass). These actívities have to be iinked to favourable market perspectives.Continue research to overcome constraints of promising technology components (eg. search for new species with higher economic value to replace unattractive plants • while maintaining the functional properties of the conservation components).Parallel research efforts are also needed to overcome some basic technical constraints related with potentially very attractive components like undersown legumes (see next paragraph), where mechanisms of competition, variabilíty of competition from different species and sowíng technology still need further attention.Development oriented initiatives on productive, suslainable land use al so have lo be designed from a farmers point of view and scientists should be given the guidelínes and resources to formulate researeh results in a way, that they tit the needs and opportunities from the demand side.Interinstitutional arrangements as outlined in Figure 2.4.9 would facilitate such an approach.Research on soil erodibility during the last years and observation of erosion dynamics on newly established erosion plots clearly showed. that erodibility K is highly variable on these soils. Changes in organic matter status partly explain these changes, but this indicator, considerad in the USLE procedures is not sensitive enough to detect short term changes in soils resistance to erosion as influenced by management and soil use (Oades. 1984).EspeciaUy for this type of soils it is not well understood how and how long management influences bio-physical processes such as soil aggregation through biological agents (Haynes and Swift. 1990). leading to less erodibility of soils. The identificatíon of such \"health :ndicators\" for soils susceptibility to erosion requires further research. Practical and low cost indícators have to be identified to guide and oríent land use practices and to monitor its impact on soil erosion hazard.Additional research is also needed on rainfall erosivity and the intensity -energy relationships of rainfall in a tropical Andean environment. Events, so far evaluated do not yet aUow general conclusions.A better understanding of interactions between the water factor and conservation technclogies is also necessary and of high practical relevance in subhumid hillsides.Additional investigation is also recommended on the economics and the social aspects of conservation technologies and on the role of income and market opportunities in the adoption process.Moreover. by the end of the present project phase. an enormous amount of data from individual thesis research, accumulated over the years will be available. In order to make this information accessible and to facilitate evaluation and use of research results (e.g. in GIS applications) tor analyzing long term trends or validating models, the information needs to be compiled in an uniform format.Alternative model options for calculating erodibility of Inceptísols need further testing on similar sites.Consolidation and deepening of the established relationshíps with NARS from Colombia, Brazíl and Ecuador should also be sought in a possible extension phase of the project to improve its long term impact on sustainable cassava production in Latín Ameríca.The soíl conservation manual and the envísaged regional workshop on so¡1 conservation fit within this strategy and are essential to finish the project.Networking the scattered actívíties in dífferent countries of Latín Ameríca could further speed up the process of technology development and disseminatíon.Integration of legumes into cassava farming systems in the form of an undersown crop, according to the results so far obtained seems impossible with some species or of limited application with more promising, less competitive species like Chamaecrista rotundifolia. In the last case this is nol primarily due lo competition, but beca use of the lack of adequale equipment for small scale tarmers, allowing them to sow small seeded legumes in non tilled or roughly tilled soils.Development of an adequate, practical low cost sowing implement is considered as an essential step to successful introduction of legumes into peasant farming in hillsides.Some further research is also recommended to berter characterize the principies behind low competition from legumes to wíden the germplasm base for different environments and altitudes.The potential benefits of cover and/or forage legume integration for soil conservation and fertility management in this sector of agriculture would more than justify such an effort.3.3. Contributions to core-objectives and input into the medium term plan of the centre.In doing basic and applied research on different aspects of soíl erosion, crop productivity, germplasm testing on acid soils and through the development of joint activities with NARS, NGOs and Universities, the project ís closely linked to CIATs new programs of Natural Resources Management -especially \"HiIIsides\"..It thus contributes to CIA Ts mission and the objectives formulated for the programs of natural resources management ín CIATs Strategic Plan (1991), and more specifically to the las! three goals mentioned below:1)2)3)Characterize farm types and their influence on land use.Development of strategic research on mechanístic models of nutrien! cycling. water use and vegetation dynamics, with a view to broad extrapolation of results through techniques such as systems modelling and GIS.Develop and test technology related to:• productíon and soil and water conservatíon components • sustainable land use systems • estímating externalities • resource management skills requirad Enhance national research systems through training, pilot projects. networks and documentatíon.Though not strictly commodity specific in ils structure the project has been housed ín CIAT's Cassava Program and put major emphasis on the problems related with peasanl cassava production in hillsides. In this sense il also assumed responsibilíties for CIAT core actívities in the area of soíllcrop management. where two senior staff posilions had been cut beca use of reductions in core budget.At this momen! the CIAT Cassava Program is organizad along five major project areas: The soU conservation project is an integral part of the Mega Project on \"Integrated Soil Crop Managemenf' (project CI02). contríbuting to obtain the following specífic outpu!s formulated in this project far the time between 1994 and 1998.• However this has so far not affeeted the basie strueture and the exeeution of the projeet but led to minor modifieations in the workplan and the los s of some investments in the applied on farm researeh aetivities.4.3. Relation of results and approach.The approach. chosen for the execution of the project to inelude and combine activities covering aspeets of basie researeh as well as very applied. adaptive researeh with groups of peasant farmers was quite successful. It stimulated aetivities in both areas.Members 01 the team normally got a gaod understanding of the needs and oppartunities al the farmers and at the institutianal level to orient more basic research.The work on farm and with local institutions. on the other hand, eould benefit from the research on the basic understanding of eros ion processes and potential means to come to practical solutions.Probability to meet poor farmers and NARs needs (the principie elients of the centers) was favoured by this structure 01 the project.The outputs provided consis! basically in the generation of viable teehnology eomponents for improved soll management, supplied with the corresponding background infarmation on the problems and mechanisms whieh have to be addressed. -reduces yields 96,5 % -don't know 3,5 % e) Percent of farmers burning the fallow residues before planting 79,6 %   d)   Practiees applied to avoid soil losses (\"evitar arrastre de tierra\"):- ","tokenCount":"14497"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2d741285235b278027100bc8963dd63f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a8240c0-2ce4-42ac-991c-9f649ed49ed9/retrieve","id":"1638630008"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f83976fd-c20c-4f66-b9ec-dea4187018d2","pagecount":"81","content":"Pagina ANEXO 1. Evaluaci6n del rendimienta de tuberculos en kilogramas par parcela del peso total en la epoca de lnvierno ................ 67 ANEXO 2. Evaluaci6n del rendimienta de tuberculos en kilogramas par parcela del peso comercial en la epoca de lnvierna ....... 68 ANEXO 3. Evaluaci6n de la precacidad en la epoca de lnvierna ............ 69 Sudamerica, y sirve coma producto principal en la dieta de los habitantes, y de la que se han seleccionado diversos tipos de papa. Asf mismo, es considerada generalmente coma un cultivo de clima frfo, pero se adapta a temperaturas de zonas altas en latitudes tropicales. Cuando se cultiva bajo condiciones templadas a calidas, se produce alteraciones en la fisiologf a de la planta, que influyen en su adaptaci6n y rendimiento potencial. Un conocimiento claro de la respuesta de la papa a condiciones calidas proporciona la base necesaria para la elecci6n del genotipo y las practicas agron6micas que puedan contribuir a obtener la maxima producci6n.De forma tradicional la papa se propaga usando el tuberculo-semilla (propagaci6n asexual), y actualmente tambien se usa la semilla sexual (botanica) coma alternativa de propagaci6n par la flexibilidad que ofrece, para adaptarse a diferentes condiciones agroecol6gicas. La semilla sexual proviene de los frutos de la papa (bayas).Evaluar las caracterfsticas agron6micas de las progenies .: provenientes de la India, Peru y Chile.• Evaluar la adaptabilidad de las progenies en estudio en condiciones de La Molina (Lima).• ldentificar progenies de mayor rendimiento y precocidad.--I REVISION BIBLIOGRAFICA 1. GENERALIDADES --Hooker (1980) reparta que, la planta de papa es una dicotiled6nea, importante en la alimentaci6n humana.La papa es un cultiva tfpicamente de regiones frfas a templadas y altitudes aproximadamente de 2 000 msnm o mas en las tr6picos. El cultivo requiere de naches frf as y sue las bi en drenados con humedad adecuada. A bajas altitudes en ambientes tropicales calidos, no produce bi en.Montaldo (1984) senala que, la papa (Salanum tuberosum) es uno de las -.,_ alimentos mas valiosas de la humanidad. Produce mayor cantidad de energfa y protefna, por unidad de area cultivada y de tiempo, que la mayorfa de los demas cultivos impartantes.2. TAXONOMIA DE LA PAPA Huaman (1986), basandose en las caracterfsticas florales reporta que la papa ha sido clasificada de acuerdo al siguiente sistema:Reino Veg eta IClase Magnoliopsida Familia Solanaceas Genera Solanum Serie Tuberosa Especie tuberosum 3. NUMERO CROMOSOMICO DE LA PAPA Huaman (1994) reporta que, el juego cromos6mico de la papa consta de 12 cromosomas, es decir X=12. En especies cultivadas las celulas somaticas varf an de nivel diploide a pentaploide. 2n es la expresi6n que simboliza el total del juego de cromosomas.La determinaci6n del nivel de ploidia se realiza contando el numero de cromosomas en celulas somaticas y/o sexuales. Compton (1965) seriala que, la diversidad de los medias ambientes para las cuales la selecci6n particular y la magnitud de la interacci6n genotipoambiente son factores que influyen en la ganancia de la selecci6n de los genotipos superiores, estos deben ser probados en varios ambientes si se considera que la interacci6n genotipo-ambiente es importante.Javier ( 1982) reporta que, las metodos usados en el mejoramiento genetico de las plantas, depende tanto del sistema de producci6n de la especie y de la forma de herencia de las caracteres por mejorar.El hecho de que las variedades de papa (genotipo) sean reproducidas vegetativamente (clones), tiene las siguientes consecuencias que son importantes en la aplicaci6n de las metodos de mejoramiento:• Cada plantula o seedling (genotipo), es una nueva variedad potencial, que llegara a ser tal mediante su descendencia de tuberculos, salvo que ocurran raras mutaciones somaticas.• Las variedades pueden ser muy heterocigotas y su progenie contendra un amplio rango de genotipos.• Puede ocurrir estabilidad tanto del polen coma del 6vulo.• Para prevenir la infecci6n par virus a las propagaciones clonales deben tomarse rigurosas precauciones.CIP (1991) reporta que, la evaluaci6n de la progenie de semi Ila sexual se ha concentrado en la implementaci6n de un procedimiento sistemico para el desarrollo de progenies avanzadas con caracterfsticas mejoradas.Ortiz (1989) menciona que, un fenotipo es cualquier caracterfstica mesurable posefda par las individuos de una poblacion. El objetivo en el mejoramiento utilizando progenies en semilla sexual de papa es: seleccionar progenies con alto rendimiento y con aceptable uniformidad de tuberculos.Moreno (1996) reporta que, en la agricultura el crecimiento y la productividad son el resultado de dos componentes mayores: el potencial genetico de las plantas cultivadas y el ambiente en el cual se desarrollan. Las bajas temperaturas pueden inducir la formaci6n de tuberculos, mientras que las altas temperaturas la retardan, existiendo interacciones entre el fotoperfodo y termoperfodo en un amplio rango de variaciones. Moreno (1985) sostiene que, en general la exposici6n del follaje a dfas cortos inducen la tuberizaci6n, mientras que la exposici6n a df as largos inducen floraci6n y formaci6n de ramas laterales, restringiendose la tuberizaci6n; sin embargo, en el vasto numero de clones de papa cultivados, existe un amplio rango de variaci6n en las respuestas fotoperi6dicas.Midmore (1988) reporta que, una vez que el cultivo esta establecido, con las tallos emergidos, tanto la temperatura del aire coma la del suelo afectan las tasas de crecimiento y la tasa de cobertura del follaje que cubre el suelo, la formaci6n de las hojas depende de la temperatura.Par eso, las plantas de papa que se cultivan a temperaturas altas un numero de df as despues de la emergencia tienen hojas mas pequerias y numerosas que plantas similares a temperaturas mas frf as, y aunque inicialmente tienen mayor area foliar par planta, pronto estas llegan a ser inferior a las plantas que crecen a temperaturas mas frf as.A temperaturas mas altas la longevidad de las hojas es tambien mucho mas corta y la producci6n de ramas es mas reducida, lo que conduce a la producci6n de poco follaje.El crecimiento de las rafces es tambien mucho menor a temperaturas altas, inhibiendo la absorci6n de agua e iones con las correspondientes desventajas para la planta de papa.Midmore (1988) seriala que, conjuntamente con la influencia de la temperatura alta en el crecimiento del follaje y desarrollo de la planta esta el efecto di recto de la fotosf ntesis. Numerosos dates experimental es indican que bajo condiciones no limitantes de irradiaci6n, la tasa de fotosf ntesis neta es 6ptimas en un intervalo de 16 a 25 C, mientras que para la fotosfntesis total se ha observado que la temperatura alta optima ha sido hasta de 32 C.Los deficits de humedad en el suelo pueden agudizarse con mayor rapidez bajo condiciones de temperatura alta, debido a una mayor capacidad de evaporaci6n.La sequf a o las condiciones de humedad del suelo inferiores a las 6ptimas tienen efectos similares a la temperatura alta sabre el conjunto del follaje, la fotosf ntesis y la tuberizaci6n, y actuan en la misma direcci6n aumentando las efectos negatives de las temperaturas altas.Las condiciones agron6micas para mejorar el comportamiento de la papa en climas calidos deben ser par ello desarrolladas, teniendo en consideraci6n la interrelaci6n entre las factores: temperatura, regimen de luz y regimen de humedad.Mid more ( 1988) reporta, que la temperatura no s61o influye en la tasa de crecimiento de la planta y en su metabolismo, sino que tambien juega un papel importante en el control de desarrollo de la planta de papa.La combinaci6n de df as cortos con al ta irradiaci6n hace posible la tuberizaci6n bajo condiciones de temperatura alta en Solanum tuberosum ssp tuberosum y clones neotuberosum particularmente en clones con exigencias de fotoperf odo crftico largo. Las temperaturas altas del suelo y del aire, tienen efectos diferentes en la tuberizaci6n, la temperatura alta del aire puede influir en el potencial de inducci6n para la tuberizaci6n, mientras que la expansion de sf ntomas de tuberizacion puede ser bloqueada par la temperatura alta del suelo, aun en casos que las condiciones del aire favorezcan la tuberizaci6n. Midmore (1988) reporta que, las tierras bajas de clima tropical estan notoriamente caracterizadas par temperaturas que se consideran supra-6ptimas para la papa, pero estan tambien caracterizadas par mayores val ores de energf a solar instantaneamente durante todo el ano, que las correspondientes a latitudes mayo res. Aunque las val ores de energf a solar alta favorecen el acortamiento de las tallos, el aumento de ramas y la tendencia a tuberizar bajo temperatura alta, estos factores son, durante una considerable parte del df a, excesivos para las necesidades de la planta de papa en cuanto a la fotosf ntesis.Fisiologia ambiental de la papa Moreno (1996) senala que, la fisiologfa ambiental de la papa se refiere simplemente a las procesos de crecimiento y desarrollo controlados par el genotipo de la planta ( especie, variedad o clan) y modulados par el ambiente dentro del cual se desarrolla.A pesar de que par ambientes se entiende un conjunto de factores ffsicos y bi6ticos que actuan sob re las organismos vivas, la fisiologf a ambiental vegetal se refiere a las respuestas de las plantas a las factores climaticos: radiaci6n, temperatura, humedad y aire; que operan en el ambiente atmosferico que las rodea. El clima en su concepto amplio puede definirse coma la combinaci6n e interacci6n de la luz solar, oscuridad, temperatura, aire, precipitaci6n, humedad relativa y presi6n atmosferica.En su sentido geografico el clima es el patron de cambio estacional de las factores climaticos, patron de cambio que se repite de manera relativa similar de aria a aria en un determinado lugar. Las plantas reciben directamente el impacto de los factores ambientales (intensidad y cantidad de luz solar, temperaturas diurnas y nocturnas, humedad, etc.).En el caso especifico de la papa, solanacea tuberffera de origen andino con diferente ploidia entre especies silvestres y cultivadas, las respuestas mas notorias a los factores ambientales se miden por su fuerza y grado o magnitud de tuberizar, par la calidad de sus tuberculos y par su floraci6n, entre otras expresiones visibles. Por lo tanto es factible que un mismo cultivar produzca naturalmente no solo distintos rendimientos sino tambien tuberculos de distinta calidad, que depende del lugar y del microambiente donde se desarrollan.Moreno (1985) indica que, las plantas de papa, responden de la misma manera que otras plantas mes6fitas, disminuyendo su crecimiento y rendimiento a medida que el estres hf drico se incrementaba. Los deficits hf dricos en el sue lo se traducen en deficits hfdricos en la planta. Debi do a la menor disponibilidad de agua en el suelo las plantas no pueden compensar el agua perdida por transpiraci6n. El deficit hf drico en la planta produce cierre de estomas, disminuci6n del potencial de agua de hojas y disminuci6n de la tasa fotosintetica debido a la mayor resistencia estomatica para el ingreso de C02.El deficit hf drico causa una mayor disminuci6n en la tasa fotosintetica en hojas j6venes que en hojas adultas. El adecuado suministro de agua en calidad y momenta oportuno es fundamental para alcanzar altos rendimientos en el cultivo de la papa.De polinizaci6n libre. Son las semillas producidas en forma natural en un campo de cultivo de papa. La mayor proporci6n de esta semilla es el resultado de la autopolinizaci6n y otra parte es el producto de la polinizaci6n cruzada par insectos. En este tipo de semilla solamente se conoce el progenitor femenino y su calidad no es buena.Hibrida. Es la semilla producida mediante una polinizaci6n controlada por el hombre. En este caso ambos progenitores son conocidos y la calidad de la semilla asf coma las caracterfsticas de las progenies son superiores comparada con la semilla y progenies de polinizaci6n libre.Pallais (1989) senala que, en la actualidad todas las progenies que han sido seleccionadas en el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) por su potencial superior para producir altos rendimientos de tuberculo con un alto nivel de uniformidad; son hfbridos. Es decir la semilla se produce par polinizaciones manuales y controladas entre dos clones diferentes.7.1 Preparaci6n del substrato Cabello (1996) menciona que, la semilla sexual por su tamano pequeno requiere un suelo suelto, mullido y fino, con un alto contenido de materia organica y buen drenaje. De esta forma se logra una emergencia uniforms y crecimiento vigoroso de las plantulas.Considerando que el estado inicial de las plantulas es delicado, debemos dar enfasis a las mejores condiciones ffsicas y de fertilidad de suelo o substrata y tambien cuidar el aspecto sanitario del suelo, proporcionando a las plantas un medio libre de pat6genos, insectos y malezas. Las plantulas deben tener de 5 a 6 hojas verdaderas y medir de 8 a 14 cm de altura para el trasplante, esto sucede a los 34 a 44 df as despues de la emergencia.• Las plantulas permanecen menos tiempo en el campo• La competencia con la maleza se reduce• Las la bores agrf colas se simplifican• Las practicas agrf colas se adoptan con facilidad• Se usa menos semilla: de 50 a 80 g. de semilla para una hectarea.• Se requiere terrenos especiales, pianos, nivelados, sueltos y bajo riego.• Se requiere mu cha ma no de obra con experiencia hortf cola• Algunas especies son poco tolerantes al estres del trasplante• Se requiere mayor cuidado. El crecimiento de las plantulas despues del trasplante es lento.Cabello (1996) dice que, la semilla sexual es pequefia, par lo que, en todo el proceso de la siembra debemos tener cuidado con la profundidad de la semilla y el primer riego para lograr una emergencia uniforme.La emergencia de las plantulas comienza a partir del cuarto dfa despues de la siembra y dura hasta las ocho df as. La temperatura optima para la emergencia esta entre las 15 C a 20 C. En lugares con temperaturas menores a 5 C y superiores a 20 C la emergencia es mas lenta.Cabello ( 1996) menciona que, el sue lo debe estar bi en preparado con una roturaci6n profunda hecha con arado de disco, paso de la grada o rastra, nivelaci6n y surcado. Tenga especial cuidado con el desterronado y la nivelaci6n para lagrar un riego unifarme. Al momenta de la siembra aplique el 100% de P y K, pero el N debe aplicarse en forma fraccionada en tres partes: 50% a la siembra, 25% en el semiaporque y 25% restante en el aporque final.El distanciamiento entre surcas varfa de 75 a 90 cm dependiendo de las caracterf sticas de la progenie. Entre plantulas el distanciamienta varf a de 20 a 30 cm.Para reducir el estres del trasplante se debe mantener al mfnimo la diferencia de humedad del suelo del almacigo y del campo, esto implica que la humedad del cam pa, durante las primeros df as despues del trasplante, debe ser suficiente para permitir un rapida establecimiento de las plantulas, por otro lada, el tiempo empleado para sacar las plantulas del almacigo para el trasplante en el campo debe ser minima..Golmirzaie (CIP 1990) menciana que, una progenie de semilla sexual es una colecci6n de individuos genatfpicamente diferentes, pera que pueden tener uniformidad fenotfpica en caracterfsticas del tuberculo, par propagaci6n sexual.El objetivo en el mejoramiento de la papa utilizando progenies de semilla es coleccionar progenies con alto rendimiento y aceptable uniformidad de tuberculos.En la actualidad han sido registrados muchos casos de agricultores andinos que utilizan semilla botanica con la finalidad de eliminar el riesgo de enfermedades vir6sicas mas comunes.Internacional de la Papa (CIP), ha investigado el uso de semilla hfbrida y de polinizaci6n libre coma metodo complementario o sustitutorio del tubeculo-semilla en la propagaci6n del cultivo de la papa.Como resultado de estas investigaciones, numerosos paf ses han demostrado su interes en realizar pruebas adaptativas, en sus estaciones experimentales o directamente con agricultores.Santos (1992) manifiesta que, debido al interes e importancia de utilizar semi Ila sexual de papa (SSP) en los paf ses del tercer mundo, se hizo necesario que el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP), dispusiera de suficiente cantidad de semilla de progenies seleccionadas a fin de facilitar la evaluaci6n y adaptaci6n de esta nueva tecnologfa. Por otra parte, tambien se hizo necesario que el CIP colaborara en el desarrollo de tecnicas de producci6n de semilla sexual de alta calidad en grandes cantidades con el objetivo de permitir la evaluaci6n y adopci6n de esta tecnologf a en campos de agricultores.Teniendo ambos prop6sitos, el GIP y el lnstituto Nacional de lnvestigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA) de Chile, han desarrollado un trabajo colaborativo de investigaci6n en la producci6n de SSP de alta calidad.PAPA vs. PROPAGACION CLONAL CONVENCIONAL Golmirzaie ( 1990) menciona que, la propagaci6n a escala comercial del cultivo de papa mediante semilla sexual, constituye una alternativa a la propagaci6n mediante tuberculo semilla, esto es, propagaci6n asexual.El objetivo es desarrollar un sistema de producci6n de papa de bajo costo para paf ses donde no se produce este cultivo o se importan tuberculossemilla a un precio muy elevado.Entre tanto, ambos sistemas poseen diferentes opciones o formas adaptables de acuerdo a necesidades impuestas ya sea por el ambiente o por otras caracterfsticas propias del lugar donde la semilla sexual ofrece un alto potencial de uso. Asf, en el primer caso, se incluyen aquellas bastas zonas productoras potenciales en la zona t6rrida (donde en la actualidad la papa no es normalmente cultivada) predominantemente de agricultura de subsistencia o donde la mayor parte de la producci6n es destinada al consume familiar en la propia finca.Pallais (1995) reporta que, cuando se usa semilla sexual, para producci6n comercial de papa se necesitan coma maxima 100 gr. de semilla para plantar una hectarea de cultivo, comparados con dos a tres toneladas de semilla de tuberculo que se utilizan en el sistema tradicional. Ademas el volumen de papa que se economiza coma semilla puede ser utilizada directamente coma alimento.Las enfermedades de la papa que son trasmitidas par los tuberculos semilla de una temporada a otra y de un lugar a otro, se reducen o eliminan, debido a que la semilla sexual no es portadora de los virus mas importantes tales coma: PLRV, PVX y PVY. Las enfermedades fungosas coma el tiz6n tardfo (Phythopthora infestans), bacterianas coma la marchitez bacteria (Pseudomona solanacearum) de gran importancia econ6mica, no se transmiten mediante semilla sexual. La semilla sexual actua coma filtro de estos microorganismos, lo cual constituye una ventaja fundamental sabre el sistema convencional de siembra con tuberculos.-i-.Se denomina adaptaci6n al conjunto de cambios heredables que se producen en una poblaci6n o muestra de una poblaci6n, en respuesta a modificaciones del ambiente donde se desarrolla y se produce.Vasquez (1990) define a la adaptaci6n como la facultad del individuo (o de la poblacion) a responder de la misma forma a las ambientes a que se somete a prueba, en tal sentido, tendra igual significado que estabilidad;es decir alga que no cambia a traves del tiempo.A la aclimataci6n se le denomina tambien adaptaci6n fenotf pica porque produce modificaciones no heredables causadas por la exposici6n de organismos a nuevas condiciones climatol6gicas.La estabilidad es una de las propiedades mas deseables de un genotipo, por estar relacionadas como una variedad de amplia capacidad de adaptaci6n.El presente trabajo de investigaci6n se realiz6 en los ambientes del Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) La Molina, Lima. La primera siembra se efectu6 en la epoca de \"lnvierno\" y la segunda siembra en epoca de \"Primavera\" durante la campana agrf cola de 1998.   El substrata que se uso para el almacigo fue arena y musgo a una proporci6n de 2: 1, donde la arena fue lavada por tres veces para eliminar las impurezas y sales, la arena debe ser de rf o .Y no muy fina. El musgo fue triturado y pasado por un tamiz de 5 mm de diametro. Se realiza la mezcla de forma uniforme hasta que quede homogenea, procediendo luego a la esterilizaci6n del substrata con bromuro de metilo.Para romper la latencia se sumergi6 la semilla sexual en una soluci6n de acido giberelico a 1,5 g/I durante 24 horas para uniformizar la germinaci6n.Previo a la siembra se humedeci6 ligeramente el substrata de las bandejas con el fin de lograr una buena marcaci6n y que las semillas queden sembradas a una profundidad uniforme.Para la marcaci6n se us6 reglas marcadoras hechas de madera para lograr determinar el punto y profundidad adecuada para colocar las semi II as.La distancia entre puntos de siembra fue de 2 cm donde se colocc5 una semilla a una profundidad de media centfmetro que luego se cubri6 ligeramente con el substrata. En cada punto de siembra debe quedar solo una plantula la cual debera ser vigorosa.El riego se realiz6 con una regadera de boquilla fina, para evitar que las semillas salgan a la superficie o se junten, especialmente las dias previos a la emergencia, en los cuales la humedad de la bandeja debe ser constante para evitar que se reseque la parte superior. Los riegos se realizaron durante el periodo de producci6n de las plantulas en forma interdiaria con mucho cuidado.Las plantulas comenzaron a emerger a los 8 dias despues de la siembra, durante las primeros 25 dias el crecimiento de las plantulas fue muy lento, pasado este periodo el crecimiento se aceler6 y a las 35 dias despues de la siembra las plantulas estaban listas para el trasplante a campo.El terreno debe estar bien preparado y previamente regado. Para esto se realiz6 una aradura del suelo con un arado de discos con el fin de mullir los terrones, para luego pasar la rastra. Se realiz6 el surcado del terreno a 0,90m de distanciamiento entre surcos.La dosis de fertilizaci6n que se utilizo fue: 180-200-180 kg/ha de N, P 2 0 5 y K20, aplicando al trasplante el 100% de P y K y el 50% de N, las fuentes empleadas fueron las siguientes:• Nitrato de amonio Las plantulas de almacigo fueron trasplantadas al terreno definitivo aproximadamente al mes de ser sombreadas en el invernadero cuando las plantulas tenian de 4 a 6 hojas, esto para proveerlas de mayor resistencia para tolerar el estres inicial (shock) del trasplante. Unos tres dias al trasplante se suspendi6 el riego y se saco las bandejas del invernadero para que las plantulas se adapten al media ambiente, se endurezcan y esten mejor preparadas para el trasplante. Antes del trasplante se realiz6 un riego para mantener humedo el substrata que protege las raicillas. Las plantulas se colocan en el campo con la mayor cantidad de substrata posible a sus rafces.Las plantulas fueron colocadas en los surcos a una distancia de 30 cm.entre ellas y se tapcS el tercio inferior con una lampa, una vez culminada la siembra en el campo se procedi6 a dar un riego ligero.Luego de establecidas las plantulas en el terreno, estas comenzaron a crecer por lo que es muy conveniente realizar el aporque. El primer aporque se realiz6 a los 15 dias despues de trasplante para proveerlas de mejores condiciones en la zona de enraizamiento y se aplica la segunda dosis de nitr6geno, aproximadamente a los 30 dias, se realiz6 el segundo aporque donde se aplica la ultima dosis de nitr6geno.La cosecha se realiz6 a mano, previo a esta labor se realiz6 el carte del follaje a los 75 dias despues del trasplante, para observar el grado de precocidad de las progenies. A los 12 dias de cortado el follaje se procedi6 a la cosecha del experimento, se cosecha planta por planta con ayuda de trinches tratando de no danar los tuberculos, luego se procedi6 a la selecci6n, tamizado y pesado del material en estudio.Se realiz6 una evaluaci6n al momenta de la emergencia para determinar el porcentaje de plantulas que emergieron en las bandejas dentro del invernadero.Esta evaluaci6n se realiz6 a los 15 y 30 dfas, para determinar el porcentaje de plantulas que lograron soportar el shock del trasplante en cada parcela.Se observo la exuberancia del follaje y consistencia del tallo, las evaluaciones se realizaron en invernadero y campo, tomando en cuenta el aspecto general de las plantas por cada unidad experimental. Se realiz6 esta evaluaci6n con la finalidad de determinar el porcentaje de plantas, del total, que llegan a producir tuberculos al final de su permanencia en el campo.Este data fue tornado previo a la cosecha, utilizando la escala siguiente:1 Muy tardia, planta totalmente tardia o con flares Planta muy precoz, muy maduras ( casi secos 100%)Primera se realiz6 la selecci6n de tuberculos con la ayuda de un tamiz, para separar las tuberculos comerciales y no comerciales (> 35 mm y < a 35 mm). El conteo se realiz6 por separado para observar que progenies tienen la capacidad de producir mayor cantidad de tuberculos mayores de 35 mm (tamano comercial) y cuales producen tuberculos menores de 35 mm (tamano no comercial).Los pesos se realizaron por separado para determinar que progenies producen tuberculos mayores de 35 mm (tamano comercial) y cuales producen tuberculos menores de 35 mm (tamano no comercial).El rendimiento de tuberculos fue determinado en cada parcela experimental, despues del pesado de cada una.Los datos evaluados fueron analizados mediante el diserio de Bloque Completo Randomizado. Se realizaron las analisis de variancia para las variables de:Precocidad, peso total, peso comercial.De igual manera se realizaron las _ analisis de significaci6n de las promedios de las tratamientos utilizando la Prueba de Significaci6n de Tu key.Cuadro 2. Analisis de variancia de la precocidad en ambas epocas de siembra.FdeV.s.c.Sign. En el cuadro 5 de la prueba de significaci6n para las niveles del factor progenie se observa que, el tratamiento 16 que actua coma testigo local ocupa el primer lugar segun el orden de merito pero que estadisticamente las cinco primeros tratamientos no difieren entre sf, mientras que el  En el cuadro 7 del analisis de variancia se observa que en la fuente de epoca existe una diferencia estadistica altamente significativa debido a las diferencias de temperatura y horas luz. En la fuente de repeticiones dentro de epoca no existe diferencia estadistica. En la fuente de tratamientos existe una diferencia estadistica altamente significativa debido al caracter genetico de cada una de las progenies y su capacidad de adaptaci6n.En la fuente epoca x tratamiento existe diferencia estadistica altamente significativa debido a la interacci6n del genotipo con el media ambiente.El coeficiente de variabilidad de 13,89% es considerado coma muy bueno, lo cual indica la homogeneidad en el rendimiento total.Cuadro 8: Analisis de variancia para el estudio de los efectos simples para la variable de peso total en kg/parcela. En el cuadro 8 del analisis de variancia de las efectos simples del peso total observamos que, el efecto de las epocas de siembra (A) tiene una alta significaci6n estadistica dentro de cada progenie (genotipo ). Es decir que la respuesta de cada progenies en cada epoca de siembra es muy variable.Del mismo modo en los efectos simples de cada progenie (8) dentro de cada epoca de siembra se observa que; en la epoca a1 (lnvierno) no hay significaci6n estadistica debido a que las genotipo no tienen influencia dentro de la epoca, mientras que en la epoca a2 (Primavera) existe alta~ignificaci6n estadistica par el efecto de las horas luz y la temperatura que influyen en la variaci6n del rendimiento de cada una de las progenies.Cuadro 9. Prueba de significaci6n de las epocas para la variable de peso total. En el cuadro 9 de la prueba de significaci6n para el factor epoca observamos que, en la epoca a2 (primavera) hay una producci6n de 54, 758 kg/parcela coma promedio y este supera estadisticamente a la epoca a 1 (lnvierno) que presenta un promedio de 21,534 kg/parcela. Esta diferencia se debe a que en la epoca de primavera hay mayor horas luz e incremento de temperatura, el cual, favorece a la planta en la fotosintesis y por ende en la producci6n.Cuadro 10 . Prueba de significaci6n de las progenies para la variable de peso total. En el cuadro 10 de la prueba de significaci6n para los niveles del factor progenie se observa que, el tratamiento 16 que pertenece a la variedad Deriree y que actua como testigo local ocupa el primer lugar segun el orden de merito con un promedio de 56, 154 kg/parcela, mostrando significaci6n estadistica con las demas progenies, asi mismo se observa que 1 O progenies a partir del segundo lugar no muestran significaci6n estadistica entre ellos.El peso promedio de los 16 genotipos en estudio oseilaron de 24 En el cuadro 13 del analisis de variancia de los efectos simples del peso comercial observamos que, el efecto de las epocas de siembra (A) tiene una alta significaci6n estadistica dentro de cada una de las progenies (genotipos ). Es decir que cada progenie responde de manera diferente a cada epoca de siembra.Asi mismo de los efectos simples de cada progenie (B) dentro de cada epoca de siembra observamos que, en la epoca a1 (invierno) no existe significaci6n estadfstica, debido a que los genotipos no tienen influencia dentro de la epoca, mientras que para la epoca a2 (primavera) existe alta significaci6n estadistica por el efecto de las horas luz y la temperatura que influyen en la variaci6n del rendimiento de cada una de las progenies.Cuadro 14 . Prueba de significaci6n de las epocas para la variable de peso comercial. En el cuadro 14 de la prueba de significaci6n para el factor epoca observamos que, en la epoca a 2 (primavera) hay una producci6n en promedio de 44,285 kg/parcela, superando estadisticamente a la epoca a 1 que presenta un promedio de 17 ,045 kg/parcela. Esta diferencia se debe al incremento de las horas luz y la temperatura en la epoca a2, lo cual favorece a la planta en la fotosintesis, por ende a una mayor producci6n.Cuadro 15 . Prueba de significaci6n de las progenies para la variable de peso comercial. 11. En las epocas de invierno y primavera la variedad clonal Desiree (testigo) logra un mayor rendimiento comercial que las progenies.1. Es recomendable seguir con las trabajos de investigaci6n usando las mismas progenies para ver su adaptaci6n a diversos climas y ambientes con la finalidad de encontrar una estabilidad productiva y seleccionar las que se adapten mejor.2. Se recomienda realizar trab'ajos similares en campos de agricultores con la finalidad de demostrar su adaptaci6n y rendimiento en campo para que en el futuro se logre propagar este cultivo con el uso de semilla sexual de papa.3. Tamar en consideraci6n a las progenies que mostraron buen potencial de rendimiento para incrementar el material de mejoramiento genetico.4. En la producci6n comercial de papa con semilla sexual se necesita coma maxima 100 g de semilla para una hectarea disminuyendo costos de almacenaje y transporte comparados con las dos o tres toneladas de tuberculo semilla que se usan en el sistema tradicional incrementando su costo de producci6n par el almacenaje y el transporte del tuberculo. Ademas la cantidad de papa que se utiliza coma semilla puede ser usada directamente coma alimento. Par lo que se recomienda el uso de semilla sexual (botanica). Los objetivos fueron: evaluar las caracterf sticas agron6micas de las progenies, la adaptabilidad en condiciones de La Molina -Lima y determinar las progenies de mayor rendimiento y precocidad.El diserio utilizado fue de Bloque Complete Randomizado con 16 tratamientos y 4 repeticiones. Posteriormente a las evaluaciones durante el periodo vegetative, se realizaron las analisis respectivos y se llego a la conclusion, de que las progenies incluido el testigo tienen una mejor adaptaci6n a la epoca de primavera, superando su rendimiento en promedio de 21,534 kg/parcela en la epoca de invierno a 54, 758 kg/parcela en la epoca de primavera par el incremento de horas luz y temperatura que ayudan en la fotosfntesis de las plantas y favorecen a la tuberizaci6n.Evaluaci6n del rendimiento de tuberculos en kilogramos por parcela del peso total en la epoca de lnvierno.Prog. ","tokenCount":"5196"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"02cbbeb8db1ee290eaaf9e0280d5d780","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/36e84817-b6eb-4257-8248-47fc26d5fa2e/retrieve","id":"-857314997"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c0b61142-690d-4568-949c-fc50c5b9795d","pagecount":"11","content":"The focus of agricultural intensification has historically been on increasing yields of major staple crops, which has resulted in numerous negative environmental, social and nutritional impacts. For example, agriculture has been accredited to over 62% of IUCN Red List Threatened and Near-Threatened species (Maxwell et al. 2016). There is also concern around a number of thresholds and planetary boundaries (e.g. climate change, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles and biodiversity loss) that are being transgressed (Rockström et al. 2009;Steffen et al. 2015), largely due to both agricultural intensification and expansion.Despite the increases in yield observed with intensification practices, food security and nutrition continue to be burden felt by rural small holder farmers across the world. Sustainable Intensification has been proposed as a means to simultaneously increase yields, reduce environmental impacts, and provide other benefits such as improved ecosystem resilience and nutrition. Using nutrition as an entry point allows for a unique opportunity to identify how to improve the quality of the diets of small holder farmers by identifying what the local dietary gaps, and which locally available (and hence acceptable) foods could be promoted for intensified production to first fill local dietary needs, followed by income generation activities sustainably. The Solomon Islands is a Melanesian archipelago country consisting of over 900 islands spread across the Pacific Ocean with have an increasing population, currently of over 600,000. The majority of the population reside in remote rural villages of varying size.Agricultural production makes up over 91% of the country's GDP (WTO, 2017), and with 85% of the population relying on subsistence farming to some degree, opportunities to intensify production systems for both income and food and nutrition security are needed (Jansen et al, 2006). With the increasing population and pressures of climate change, over time, more land is being cleared and allocated to agriculture (Figure 2). Despite the increasing productivity trend in the Solomon Islands, poor health and malnutrition continue to be serious issues. The Solomon Islands is rapidly experiencing the nutrition transition -the loss of traditional diets in favour for more modern western style diets -which is contributed as a major drivers for worsening health and nutrition (Parry, 2010). The triple burden of malnutritionthe concurrent existence of energy and protein deficiencies, micronutrient deficiencies and overnutrition (overweight and obesity) -is a reality for many Solomon Islanders and their communities, for which poor diet quality is a major driver. Increasingly, non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancers are also being attributed to insufficient and poor diets in the Solomon Islands (Figure 2) -a similar trend observed globally.The production of roots, tubers and bananas (RTB) over time has been increasing, however -yields of local species such as banana and taro seem to be stagnant or increasing very slowly (Figure 3). Traditional RTB have been the staple foods for the Solomon Islands, and despite increasing population, these foods have not seen a simultaneous or equal rate increase In fact, it appears that cassava is the dominant RTB being consumed, followed by sweet potatoes (Figure 3). Cassava for consumption appears to be largely imported considering the low production quantities compared to other RTB species. Agricultural practices in Baniata do not include the use of agrochemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or insecticides) as the community have made an agreement to practice organic farming. However, according to the villagers, crop yields have been declining over the past decade.Drivers towards an increasing need for more sustainably intensified production system in general include: Indigenous Baniata villagers were previously entirely self-reliant for centuries, surviving exclusively from home grown and wild collected foods. However dietary transitions began with the introduction to processed foods and exotic foods (such as white rice, sugar and cassava) via missionaries in the 1920's, soldiers from World War 2 in the 1940's, and loggers in the 1990's. The most dramatic changes in the diet occurred within the past 2-3 decades. These transitions are understood by the villagers to coincide with increased rates of noncommunicable diseases. However due to cost and convenience, most villagers agree that these foods will continue to become more prominent in their diets if no intervention is made.Homegrown foods currently make up around 60% of local diets, including multiple varieties of coconuts, nuts, RTBs (sweet potato, taro, cassava, and bananas), cabbage and other leafy vegetables, and fruits. Wild foods make up around 10% of local diets, and include fish, seafood, eels, shellfish, ferns, and wild taro. Regionally canned tuna is also increasingly prominent in local diets, often replacing freshly caught seafood. Due to outside influence and globalization, consumption of ultra-processed foods now make up around 30% of indigenous Baniata villager's diets. Ultra-processed foods include white rice, butter biscuits, packaged instant noodles, and sugarsweetened packaged drink mixes. Shifting towards ultra-processed foods and away from local and wild foods is increasing the intake of calories while decreasing intake of essential micronutrients. Without interventions, diets will likely continue the transition towards poorer quality and ultra -processed foods leading to higher rates of NCDs, as seen across the country.Contribution of Roots Tubers and Bananas to Today's Diet RTB crops have been the staple food of the traditional Solomon Islands diets. These crops provide essential macro nutrients such as fibre and energy as well an array of micronutrients. However, due to diet changes, the diversity and quantity of RTBs being consumed in the diet is declining. Many RTBs are being replaced by white rice, as villagers state rice is inexpensive and easy to cook, with the younger generation preferring the taste. Some women, however, shared that rice does not keep their hunger satiated as well asRTBs.The majority of households still consumed at least one type of RTB daily. Table 1 describes the most commonly consumed varieties of RTB. Only two households utilized the leaves of a RTB (taro) in their meal preparation. It is important to note that this is a snap shot of one period in time (July, 2018) and does not capture seasonal variations in diet related to the seasonal availability of RTB within the local food system.The average energy contribution of RTBs to the diets was 506 kcal, which constitutes 27% of their daily caloric energy intake. RTBs contributed 32% of the participant's estimated average requirement (EAR) of iron (2.57mg) and 9 grams of dietary fibre, making up 7% of their EAR. There has been a recent trend to peel the skins off from the roots and tubers prior to consumption, which reduces the fibre potential of RTBs. The women expressed that removing the skin is less healthy, but tend to prefer the taste when prepared this way. Most women were significantly below the recommended intakes of numerous essential nutrients, including vitamin A, calcium, protein, thiamine, and riboflavin.Over 68 varieties of RTBs were documented as being available for use either through production or collection from the wild (Table 2). Only 25% of respondents consumed orange and redfleshed fruits and vegetables -high in beta carotene a pre-cursor to vitamin A synthesis in the body -in the proceeding 24-hour period, despite them being available in the local food system. Quantitative household dietary intake data confirmed the low intake of orange and Women who were the primary household cooks who were sampled and completed dietary assessments had an average BMI of 26 and an average body fat percentage of 30%, both of which are evidence of the nutrition transition, with the population being overweight.Dietary Diversity & Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS)Dietary diversity of Baniata villagers is declining, as ultra-processed and imported foods replace traditional food varieties. Numerous species of RTB were found to be underutilized within the community (produced and consumed by a small part of the community -Table 2). As example, bright orange-fleshed bananas (Figure 6) are not widely consumed but are likely to contain high amounts of both vitamin A and riboflavin and are a traditional food of the community which is rarely consumed today. Table 2 describes the available varieties of RTB that were reported as being produced locally or collected from the wild within the local food system landscape of Baniata. Just over 10 species were identified as being dark yellow or orange fleshed, which are an indication of high beta-carotene content -.Consumption of foods high in betacarotenes can increase levels of Vitamin A in the blood, and hence, be a useful foodbased tool against vitamin A deficiency.Throughout the Pacific vitamin A continuous to be a problem nutrient, which is at least partially attributed to the shift away from traditional diets (Parry, 2010). In Baniata, Vitamin A in particular was found to be inadequate. Vitamin A deficiency is serious, and a leading cause of preventable disease such as blindness and reduction immune system function leading to increased risk of serious and sometimes fatal infection. The paradox is that there are multiple varieties of cassava, taro, sweet potato and banana that are dark yellow and orange fleshed that are available within the food system that if were more abundantly available, could be leveraged to help bridge this dietary gap.Two main pathways are recommended to guide sustainable intensification programs of dark yellow and orange fleshed RTB rich in vitamin A available in the system: 1.Increases in production for local consumption -more sustainable than current vitamin A supplementation programs.Create niche value chains and income generation opportunities, particularly for processing of Vitamin A rich RTB into food products such as complementary baby foods. These foods can be stored for consumption throughout there year, as well as marketed outside of the community.Climate change was reported as the most serious limiting factor, with increasing salinity and unpredictable weather patterns, yields are being negatively affected. Villagers also cited the rise of pests (red nose bird, wild pigs, and rats) and diseases on RTB crops that is negatively affecting yields and as a result, varieties susceptible to pests are planted less frequently. Market demand is an additional determinant of which RTB crops villagers choose to grow. When probed, there was also a lack of knowledge between different nutritional properties or benefits of different RTB species or varieties.  ","tokenCount":"1662"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7349478054.json b/data/part_6/7349478054.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"71dde199cca4b6817667819647522c4f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d82d3fc4-0cc4-4f25-a7af-eeacc15ef6f3/retrieve","id":"1917620802"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"17b10ffa-ad77-4ef3-8bf3-e242fca56e8c","pagecount":"14","content":"According to the data provided by Yen Bai Statistics Department (YSD), the total area of Yen Bai about 668,628 ha, of which 87.5% (585,089 ha) are agricultural land. Most of the province's agricultural lands are sloping. The province shares the common features of the North-western Vietnam: terrain is complicated and are strongly fragmented by mountain and stream systems; climate is tropical and with different climatic sub-regions. Over 70% of the population (over 70%) are agricultural.Yen Binh district locates in the south of Yen Bai province, with the total area of 77,262 ha, and is diverse and rich in natural resources.Having diverse agricultural production activities (including crop, livestock, aquaculture and forestry) and sharing the common features with the province, Ma village has been facing important challenges caused by natural resource degradation, environmental pollution and climate variability. On the other hand, there are also great potentials for this village to develop sustainable and climate smart livelihoods and agriculture. Ma village, Vinh Kien commune, Yen Binh district, Yen Bai province has therefore been selected to be a site for building Climate Smart Villages (CSV) under the CGIAR Program \"Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).An organization baseline survey, was therefore conducted as part of the baseline effort for this village, which consists of three componentshousehold survey, village study and organizational survey.The objectives of this organization baseline study (OBS) include:-Provide indicators to allow us to monitor changes in behaviours and practices of relevant local organizations over time;-Understand the current status of provision of information/services at the local level that informs farmers' decision making about their livelihood strategies in response to climate change. To gather necessary information, we conducted survey of organizations of which activities covered a wide range in all the aspects: natural resources management, environment and climate change, agricultural production, agricultural product processing and input supplying. The list of these organization is presented in Table 1.In total, 14 organizations having significant roles in the agricultural production, natural resource management (NRM), climate change (CC) and food security (FS) in Ma village was surveyed. These organizations were selected based on the results of focus group discussions organized previously under the framework of Ma village baseline study, and based on the importance of organizations to Ma village as evaluated by the NOMAFSI working team and in consultation with CIAT experts. The list of these organizations is presented in Table 1. As seen, this list includes organizations working at the provincial level (4 organizations), district level (3 organizations) and commune level (7 organizations). In term of working field, this list includes organisations working in all the aspects of CCAFS focus: NRM, CC, agricultural and forestry production, agricultural product processing and service/input supply.Information was collected through conducting interviews. The questionnaire developed and provided by CCAFS were used for interviewing. Interviewees were representatives of the 14 organizations. They were either leaders or staffs of these organizations and knew well about the activities, functions, roles and responsibilities of their organisations. The list of the interviewees is in the Annex.In addition in interviewing, secondary information was also collected from available sources (reports of the selected organizations, local authorities, relevant projects...) for cross-checking of the information.This OBS was conducted in late November, 2014 by the NOMAFSI working team with the technical advice from CIAT experts. On the behalf of Yen Bai Provincial People's Committee (PPC) realizing the government management over agriculture, forestry, irrigation, rural development, disaster risk management, foods safety and food security in the whole province;Planning long-and short-term plans for provincial agriculture and forestry production, including plans for CC adaptation and mitigation in agricultural sector;Deploying plans, programs, projects and activities in the area of agriculture and forestry in Yen Bai province;Building capacity in agricultural and forestry production, postharvest, and disaster risk management for farmers and related organisations in the province;Providing extension services and consultancy service to farmers and relevant organisations in the province;Implementing international cooperative activities for agriculture and rural development in the province.and Environment of Yen Bai (provincial DONRE)On the behalf of Yen Bai Provincial People's Committee (PPC) realizing the government management over the natural resources and environment in the province, including land, water, mineral, geology, environment, meteorology, geodesy and cartography resources;Providing services related to environmental and natural resource exploitation, use and management;Building capacity environmental and natural resource exploitation, use and management for farmers and related organizations;Planning long-and short-term plans for provincial natural resource use, exploitation and management and for environmental protection, pollution mitigation and CC change adaptation and mitigation;Deploying plans, programs, projects and activities in the area of natural resource management and environment in Yen Bai province;Implementing international cooperative activities in related areas;Yen Bai Crop Seed CentreConducting researches in the field of plant breeding and seed production (mainly for rice and maize only);Producing, trading and supplying seed of crops (mainly hybrid rice and hybrid maize);Transferring techniques, mainly for intensive cultivation of new varieties, to farmers in the province;Introducing, testing and releasing new crop varieties in the province;Realizing inspection of locally produced seeds.Department of Aquaculture of Yen Bai province (belonging to the provincial DARD)Practicing, on the behalf of the provincial DARD, the state management over the aquaculture and fishery resources in Yen Bai province;Producing, trading and supplying seed fishes (fingerlings) for farmers in Yen Bai province;Transferring aquaculture and fishery techniques to farmers;Implementing activities to support farmers in aquaculture and fishery. Playing the liaison role between the farming communities and organizations working in the district for supporting communities in agriculture and forestry production;Implementing activities supporting farmers in agriculture and forestry at the district level;Cooperating with organizations working in the district to implement researches and transfer technologies in agricultural and forestry production to local farmers.Yen Binh district Functioning, on the behalf of Yen Binh DPC to realise the government management over the natural resources and environment in the district;Playing a liaison role between the local communities and organisations working in the district to support communities in natural resource and environment use, exploitation and management;Implementing activities supporting farmers in natural resource and environment protection, use, exploitation and management;Cooperating with organizations working in the district to implement researches and transfer technologies in natural resource and environment protection and management to local farmers.Training farmers in agriculture and forestry production in Yen Binh district;Cooperating with other organisations to develop demonstration models on technical innovations in the field of agriculture and forestry;Cooperating with other organisations to implement researches for technical innovations development/validation in the field of agriculture and forestry;Providing technical support to local farmers in crop production, animal husbandry, pest control, fishery production and forestry;Supporting farmers to access to input sources, including information sources.Vinh Kien Commune's People's Committees (CPC)As the local government at the community level, CPC is responsible for the state management over all activities related to production, trading, natural resources exploitation and management, environmental protection, livelihood development and food security, food safety in the commune;Playing the most important liaison role between the community and other organisations in implementing all the plans, programs, projects and activities in all aspects (agriculture, forestry, natural resources management, disaster risk management..);Monitoring and supporting the implementation of activities related to food security, food safety, agriculture, forestry, natural resource management;Deploying the local plans for agriculture, forestry and natural resources management at the commune level.9 Vinh Kien commune's Farmers' AssociationPlaying a liaison role between farmers and input/service providers (input suppliers, extension service, microcredit, local traders) so that help farmers to negotiate for achieving better deals;In many cases playing the core role in awareness raising and capacity building for farmers through organizing meetings and discussions among household members;In many cases playing the leading role in adoption of advanced techniques transferred by the extension network or by some projects;Supporting household members in developing household agricultural production through providing micro-financial support and experience sharing.Playing a liaison role between women and women care/supporting sources in order to facilitate the implementation of supporting-towomen-activities;In many cases playing the core role in awareness raising and capacity building for women, or representing the women in raising the voice for their rights and to increase the gender equity at the community level;In many cases playing the leading role in adoption of advanced techniques transferred by the extension network or by some projects, especially those focused on women's benefits;Supporting women members in developing household nutrition and production through providing micro-financial support and experience sharing;Cooperating with other organizations to organize training sessions in production techniques, food safety and nutrition for their members and also for other people in the communeBuying cassava roots from farmers in Ma village and nearby villages to produce cassava wet starch;Selling wet starch to different markets;Selling by-products of cassava root processing to farmers for use to feed pigs;(Also, none of the 5 cassava procession facilities in Ma provided any inputs/support to farmers. The purchase of cassava roots was just realized at the harvest time, and without any contract.Wood processing facility of Hoa ǹg Đư ́c Lai in Ma village, Vinh Kien communeBuying timbers from farmers in Ma village and nearby villages to process into plywood;Trading plywood (selling to Chinese markets or domestic markets).In addition to selling plywood, the wood processing facilities in Ma village also sell waste wood for paper companies in Phu Tho province.Like with cassava procession facilities, the wood factories also did not provide farmers with any inputs/supports in advance. No contract for the buying-selling activities.Production inputs store of Trâǹ Thi ̣ Huyêǹ in Vinh Kien communeTrading production inputs, mainly fertilizers and small working tools, and thus having role in facilitating farmers' access to these inputs required for crop production and forestry;Often selling fertilizers to farmers but get payment latter (only after farmers have harvested their crops, with higher price), and thereby indirectly providing support to farmers in crop production.Sometimes, with the new fertilizers, this agency and others input stores in the region could coordinate with the input producers to provide farmers with leaflets or handbooks guiding the use of the fertilisers.Selling in debt was applied only for farmers, in whom store owner could trust. The interest rate was of 5% for livestock feed and 10% for fertilizers per year.Animal feed and crop seeds store of Pha ̣m Văn Qua ng in Vinh Kien communeTrading production inputs, mainly animal feeds, and thus having role in facilitating farmers' access to these inputs required for crop production and forestry.Sometimes selling feeds to farmers but get payment latter (only after farmers have sold their animal, with higher price), and thereby indirectly also providing support to farmers in crop and animal production.Similarly to the above input store, selling in debt was applied only for farmers in whom the store owner could trust. The interest rate was of 5% per year.Note: The functions and missions of provincial DARD/DONRE of Yen Bai province and district DARD/DONRE of Yen Binh district are almost similar, but their operation areas are different. The bound activity of DARD of Yen Bai is whole province, while the bound activity of DARD of Yen Binh district in Yen Binh district only.The following are main difficulties and challenges mentioned by the representatives of organizations during the interviews.-Complicated topographical features, high diversity of sub-climatic regions and ethnic groups with different traditions and costumes have prohibiting impacts on the adoption of technical innovations by farming households, and this causes difficulties for DARD to implement activities;-Poorly developed infrastructure causes difficulties in travel and transportation. This together with limited human power prohibits DARD to reach some remote and difficult communities;-` Poorly developed market linkage causes limited access of farming households to information and inputs sources, and thus prohibiting their adoption of technical innovations;-Poorly developed farmers organizations and poorly developed links between farmersscientistsdecision makersbusinessmen, as well as links between private and public sectors cause problems in implementing and/or sustaining activities;-Limited capacity of staff in CC adaptation and mitigation, lack of appropriate practices for CC adaptation and mitigations for local farmers to easily adopt.-Lack of well-educated man power, especially in the field of climate change; staff involved in climate change are mostly part time working and with limited knowledge and experience;-Lack of appropriate toolkits and equipment items for evaluation of environmental pollution as well as for monitoring the environment;-Limitation of inputs (financial and human resources);-Limited awareness of enterprises on the environmental protection; they often do not follow the laws, regulations and policies;-Limited consciousness of people on protecting environment and natural resources;-At the present, pollution of water and erosion/degradation of cultivated land are an alarming issue, but there are not enough inputs and activities to deal with the problems.-The weather variability is unpredictable, and this greatly affects the production of fingerlings in particular, as well as aquaculture and fishery in general;-Prices of production inputs have been continuously increased, and this affects negatively the production activities by local households;-Limited and unstable markets and volatile prices of aquaculture products badly impact the production;-Large area of operation (in the whole province) together with poorly developed infrastructure cause difficulties for the organization in monitoring, managing and protection of aquaculture resources and well as in providing support to farmers;-Lack of appropriate techniques for pest control in aquaculture.-Lack of parental varieties with desired traits;-Climate change, natural disasters and pests badly affect seed production, storage and supply;-The strong and sometime unfair competition between enterprises for the markets for seed supply;-Lack of appropriate facilities for quality seed production, processing and storage of crops other than rice.-More complicated and unpredictable changes of weather and occurrence of disasters;-Complicated occurrence and developments of diseases on crops and animals;-Volatile and unstable prices and limited markets of agricultural products;-Limited awareness and capacity of local people, both farmers and staff, especially in climate change and disaster management;-Lack of conditions and facilities for farmers to adopt technical innovations, such as poorly developed irrigation canal systems and lack of equipment items for applying direct seeding method;-Limited inputs (financial and human power) for conducting extension activities, including demonstration and validation of practices as well and trainings of farmers and providing advices to farmers.-Unfavourable weather conditions which change unpredictably, and thus cause problems and failure of demonstration and testing/extension of practices. This required practices with good adaptation value, but in reality these kind of practices are not available. Some practices are available but too complicated for farmers to adopt;-Complicated and unfavourable developments of pests and diseases in crop production, livestock and aquaculture;-Constant increase in prices of production inputs while the markets and prices of agricultural products are unstable;-Limited man power, in term of both capacity and number of staff, while the working area is large, with complicated topography and poorly developed roads;-Limited awareness and capacity of farmers and staff, especially in climate change and disaster management.-Weather conditions are complicated, the extreme conditions occurred more frequently and unpredictably; -Irrigation canal system is poorly developed and this causes great difficulties in agricultural production in the commune, especially for rice production;-The quality of seeds, seedlings, breeds is low, causing low production profits;-Limited awareness of farmers in sustainable development;-Limited knowledge of staff in climate change adaptation and mitigation;-Unstable markets and prices of products and inputs;-Lack of practices, technical innovations for farmers to adopt to increase crops and animal yields, especially techniques for controlling pests, for soil erosion control and for safe production of different products. Sometimes practices are introduced but are not easy enough for farmers to adopt;-There are great problems of pollution of water, but still not much inputs spent for solving the problem.-Limited and uneven capacity and awareness of farmers. This created a need for great patience and time inputs for communication and awareness raising while staff (people involved in the Association management) are mostly part-time working and without any allowance.-Very limited financial sources for the association operation;-Limited capacity and skills of staff involving in the association management.-Limited capacity and skills of staff involving in the association management;-The staffs are working without allowance, and thus are not always active;-Very limited financial sources for the union operation;-Limited awareness of women and men.-The facility can only process cassava in some months during the year, at the harvest time and shortly after the harvest time of cassava. In the rest time of the year, no raw cassava root materials for operation;-Highly volatile prices of cassava wet starch;-Unstable volume and price of cassava roots; at the pick time there is too much but in other time not enough;-High price of electric power;-Lack of water for processing activities;-High cost of waste management.-High cost of electric power;-Volatile prices of both inputs and outputs;-Low quality of raw materials resulting in high ratio of waste and low profit of the processing process.-Taking a long time to get back money from selling inputs to farmers (buy in debt by farmers); -Constantly increase in the prices of inputs;-Difficulties on the keeping material quality due to poor quality of warehouses.For natural resource management and agricultural production Except cassava and wood processing factories and inputs stores, the rest organizations under the survey play a significant role in the natural resource management, and agriculture and forestry production of Ma village.-The provincial DONRE and district DONRE cooperate with the provincial and district DARD to plan plans for exploitation and utilization of lands.-For land use and protection, the DARD of Yen Bai province and DARD of Yen Binh district, especially the Extension Station of Yen Binh district, have the role to support farmers to adopt practices which help protect lands, reduce soil erosion while increase the economic profits for households.-DARD also have the responsibility to monitor the use of land according to the land use purpose approved by the local authorities.Water resource management and use -Similarly with the land resources, DONRE of the district and DONRE of the province are responsible for planning and deploying plans for managing and use of water sources.-In cooperation with DARD, DONRE have to manage and protect water resources in the province.-The exploitation of water resources for aquaculture by households is supported by DARD of Yen Bai. Thus, DARD is in charge for supporting households in adoption of practices which help to protect water from being pollution while increase the yield and profits of aquaculture. To this end, DARD of Yen Bai assigned its Department of Aquaculture to play the prime role in developing aquaculture in the province.-The exploitation and use of irrigation water and irrigation canal system is also managed directly by DARD. DARD and its extension network are to support farmers to adopt appropriate irrigation techniques to save water and also to reduce the GHG emission and environmental pollution caused by the farming systems.-Previously, this responsibility was assigned to DONRE. However, at the present, it is assigned to the Forest Ranger Department of Yen Bai, which is under DARD of Yen Bai.-DARD and DONRE of Yen Bai have the responsibility in planning for allocation and reallocation of land areas for planting forests.-DONRE also acts as the monitor to ensure that forest lands are used for right purpose and following the regulations of the government.-For plating forests, DARD are in charge for transferring techniques (including also trees and seedlings) to farmers with the aim to increase the income for households but also to improve the natural resources and environmental protection.As seen above, the Commune's People's Committee (CPC) plays the main liaison role and is responsible for implementing all policies, programs, plans and projects in the commune. Normally, CPC cooperates with local mass organizations (women union and farmers association) for this purpose. In this regard, the commune's farmers' association and women's union and the district extension station play very important roles, especially in communication and information sharing.For example, according to the information that we obtained from the survey, Vinh Kien is one of the communes in Yen Binh district where many households apply animal waste treatment through using biogas system (about 300 households). This commune also has been implementing excellently the waste sorting program of the province. After the provincial program ended, now, approximately 200 household are still practicing waste sorting approach. All this was obtained with active involvement of the women union and farmers association and support from the CPP.Nevertheless, regarding the environmental protection in Ma village, there are 15 wood processing and 5 cassava processing facilities in the village. Although these facilities have tried to protect environment, their waste management is still very problematic and pollution of the environment, water in particular, has become an important issue.Regarding agricultural production, the district extension station plays a great role in transfer of technical innovations to farmers through organizing trainings and discussions, developing demonstration models, organizing field visits and providing technical advices to households.Yen Bai Crop Seed Centre also takes part in helping people to develop their agricultural production through supplying crops seeds. However, still, farmers often buy seeds from other sources, including those without clear origins. Fertilizers, feeds and other inputs are supplied by private sector through many stores in the commune and district. Normally, farmers can buy inputs in debt with interest rate of about 10% for fertilizers and 5% for livestock feed per year.Sharing the common problems of the Northern mountainous region, the districts and communes of Yen Bai province have been facing the following 3 main extremes of weather conditions: (i) concentrated heavy rains causing serious flash floods, soil erosion and landslides during the rainy season; (ii) long dry period without rains during the dry seasons causing problems to crops and animal production; and (iii) damaging cold spans in the winter.During some past years, DARD, in particular the district extension station, cooperated with research organizations such as NOMAFSI, HUA (now VNUA-Vietnam National University of Agriculture), CATDE (Centre for Technology Development and Agricultural Extension) have provided support to farmers to validate techniques and varieties appropriate for the local conditions and adaptable to bad conditions, such as drought and cold. In addition, forest planting and forest protection activities, and adoption of animal disease prevention practices have also been promoted with supports from some projects, and especially from the local extension programs. However, the adoption of sustainable farming practices remain limited, especially for crop cultivation in sloping lands and for aquaculture in the Thac Ba Lake. Due to the application of conventional practice (slash and burn), sloping lands in Yen Binh district in particular and Yen Bai province in general are becoming increasingly degraded and eroded.Regarding the natural disasters such as floods, landslides, the most effective measures taken in the whole province of Yen Bai, including Ma village, are prevention and avoidance. Communication activities are taken to persuade local people to properly carry out the prevention activities, meanwhile the responsible offices (PC, DARD, DONRE) are to provide information on warning and forecasting of natural hazards, so that people have enough time to take prevention and avoidance measures.Local authorities (PC at different levels) are to conduct different preparation measures, such as:-For floods: upgrading information systems to ensure the information flow in all situations; allocation of standing officers 24/24 h in rainy season; cleaning drainage canals; destruction of structures that prevent water flow for mitigating damages caused by floods... -For cold winters: supporting farmers to build/improve cages for animals; preparing spare seed amount for re-sowing of crops if needed; early warning on the conditions.... -For drought: not proper measures taken.Yen Binh district DARD, Yen Binh district extension station implemented some activities to support communities to reduce bad impacts caused by weather. Yen Binh DARD has been worked in partnership with Vinh Kien commune's people's committee to concrete some parts of the irrigation canal systems in the commune in general and in Ma village in particular. They also cooperate with the commune's farmers' association and women's union to organize trainings in System of Rice Intensification (SRI), cage fish production, cold prevention for livestock in the winter and etc.As mentioned above, the climate extremes and variability seem to occur, as observed by the local people and by the local authorities, at increasing frequencies and with increased severity. Also, data recorded by the meteorology stations in Yen Bai province show clear trends of increase in the average temperature and reduction in the rainfall of the dry season during the past 50 years, and the statistical data of the provincial DARD revealed serious damages caused to crops and animals by the extreme weather conditions (see the VBS report for more details). And, this is believed to be attributed to the global climate change (CC).To respond to the CC, Yen Bai province has established a steering committee (CCSC) of which the provincial DARD and DONRE are key members. The CCSC is responsible for planning programs and action plans for implementing the National Target Program to Respond to Climate Change in Yen Bai province. The establishment of this CCSC and other actions implemented by the province express the intention of the province to cope with climate change.In 2014, DARD of Yen Bai cooperated with NOMAFSI to organize a training course on climate smart agriculture (CSA) and food security for extension workers and for village, commune and district agricultural officers and decision makers. The training course was organized within the framework of a FAO CSA project (funded by EC) and aimed to provide participants with knowledge in climate change concept, its causes and adaptation/mitigation solutions, as well as in the farming practices with climate change adaptation and mitigation impacts.Except cassava and wood processing facilities and inputs stores, all the rest organizations have, either intentionally or unintentionally, spent some inputs for CC through implementing their activities as described above. For example, through building capacity for households and supporting them to apply technical innovations (using quality seeds, applying fertilizers properly, disease prevention for animals...), DARD, extension network support farmers cope with bad conditions caused by CC. Also, the preparation efforts by the PC, MONRE, DARD and other organization to support households to withstand the extreme events as mentioned above have value also in responding to CC.No specific activities however have been implemented in the region focusing on CC and CC adaptation and mitigation, except the above mentioned training course organized by NOMAFSI and DARD.The study finding show that the provincial DARD of Yen Bai, district DARD of Yen Binh, provincial DONRE of Yen Bai, district DONRE of Yen Binh, district extension station of Yen Binh, and the Commune People's Committee of Vinh Kien are playing very important roles in supporting Ma village to implement activities, projects, plans and programs for developing their production, managing their natural resources and environment and for responding to CC. Thus, these organizations should be of priority for CCAFS to work with to implement its CSV program in Ma village. From functions, missions, areas and spheres of activities of the above mentioned organizations, it is seen that these organizations are directly involved in CC and FS. Their activities to support farmers to manage and exploit natural resources, and develop aquaculture, crop production, animal husbandry and forest plantation so far are directly or indirectly related to CC response. These organisation also have close link with the farming communities and local households, and have experience in working together with research institutions and linking different partners.Private enterprises for wood and cassava root processing, and input stores have role in facilitating the farmers' access and linkage with markets. The processing enterprises are also important factors causing the environmental pollution. Thus, these organizations may also of consideration to cooperate for developing market linkage and for better environmental protection.For some concrete activities, such as capacity and awareness raising for the villagers, women union and/or farmers accusation can be selected to play the liaison role.","tokenCount":"4533"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2f577387fcb0060583794bafb4e94565","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/51ec7dc8-4719-4037-ae87-2f5937da7fc1/retrieve","id":"-1435518437"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"efd1230f-6289-489f-92af-b9522ebdc4e4","pagecount":"13","content":"For any reuse or distribution, the licence terms of this work must be made clear to others. Any of the above conditions can be waived if permission is obtained from the copyright holder. Nothing in this licence impairs or restricts the author's moral rights. Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used. Citation: Muhire, A., Manirakiza, D. and Nyabongo, L. 2021. Rapport de l'atelier de formation des formateurs sur l'organisation inclusive des éleveurs dans la zone d'intervention du PRDAIGL. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.• Au niveau de chacune des cinq provinces ci-hautes mentionnées, l'atelier a débuté avec l'enregistrement des participants suivi d'un mot d'accueil prononcé par le modérateur. La suite s'est déroulée conformément au programme sauf quelques réajustements. ","tokenCount":"150"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b0e0e5d3669e81ff3bae05f7a19547bb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cddaebb8-19b0-4f76-b3c9-4d55488da984/retrieve","id":"180717702"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4eec136e-0652-4fba-a6af-7400b9297175","pagecount":"4","content":"December 2023Women are vulnerable to adverse climate change impacts and their active involvement and decision-making in climate change and agrifood governance are limited, especially in the Global South. New research based on a strategic review of literature conducted as part of CGIAR research initiative HER+-Harnessing gender and social equality for resilience in agrifood systems-indicates that public policies are vital instruments toward improving women's participation in climate change governance and enhancing their resilience What's at stake? Given that women are both vulnerable to climate change in unique ways and should make important contributions to increase the climate resilience of the agrifood sector, it is imperative for governments to design and enact policies to alleviate gendered constraints and build women's resilience capacities in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. Public policies are crucial for both strengthening women's resilience to climate change and promoting their leadership in climate change governance. This is because public policies shape the socioeconomic and political environment for the distribution of productive resources and participation in decision-making. First, this policy brief highlights how public policies at different scales can improve women's resilience to climate change and environmental hazards. Second, it accentuates the means to enable women's full and effective participation in climate governance at different scales. This policy brief is based on a strategic review of literature conducted as part of the CGIAR research initiative HER+: Harnessing gender and social equality for resilience in agrifood systems. The key findings and policy insights are presented below.n Public policies utilize quotas, capacity building, and incentivization to promote women's participation in climate governance. n Facilitating women's access to productive agrifood resources is crucial in improving their climate resilience. n There is a lack of implementation and evaluation of public policies to understand their effectiveness in improving women's participation in climate governance or resilience.Despite increased policy commitments to promote gender equality, the percentage of women in national delegations at international treaties marginally increased from An analysis of gender strategic programs toward implementing Africa's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) showed that nearly 85 percent referenced gender with some provisions on improving women's climate change resilience and promoting their opportunities for leadership in climate change governance (Kovaleva et al. 2022;Remteng et al. 2021). Additionally, climate-specific policies that are targeted toward resilience and disaster risk management include the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (UN General Assembly, 2015).National programs and plans such as the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), National Adaptation Programs of Actions (NAPAs), National Development Plans (NDPs), and NDCs have become crucial policy instruments and contain policy outcomes that aim at promoting women's full and meaningful participation in decisions related to climate change and disaster risk governance in national and regional institutions. Some countries in the Global South with promising gender approaches in national plans and strategies include Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, India, Central African Republic, and Côte d'Ivoire.Through policy initiatives, women have demonstrated effective leadership in their communities to make decisions that help address and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, including helping to devise early warningsystems and reconstruction efforts in Mozambique, Bangladesh, Nepal, and India (Arnold et al. 2014;Dankelman 2008; Ministry of Environment, Republic of Mozambique 2014).Approaches such as quotas, capacity building, and incentives emerged as notable approaches that public policies primarily employ to promote women's participation and in climate change and disaster risk governance. More progressive gender quotas and incentives for quotas at the institutional and national levels can lead to increased women's participation and leadership in climate change and environmental sustainability policy initiatives and decisionmaking (Cook et al. 2019).One of the critical objectives of gender integration in climate change policies is to improve women's resilience capacities. At the macro level, this may include changes in gender norms and greater agency in designing and implementing public policies. This spectrum of policies includes increasing women's access to productive resources and services, women's human capital development and economic development, and addressing harmful gender norms.Improving women's access to and control over these household and communal resources through policy provisions goes a long way toward improving their resilience. Some national policies have policy provisions that specifically aim to improve women's access to and control of resources such as land, forest, information, extension services, and credit that can improve their resilience and adaptability to climate change and other related disasters (Ampaire et al. 2020;Kironde et al. 2021).Inherent in some public policies are capacity-building initiatives that seek to increase women's technical knowledge and human capital to engage in incomegenerating livelihoods. This training, coupled with women's economic empowerment, reduces the impoverishment of women and enhances their climate change and disaster resilience. Examples include the Swamajayanti Gram Swaroj gar Yojana initiative and the Kundumbashree (meaning 'prosperity of the family') initiative of India (Bonny et al. 2023;Kandathil et al. 2022).The values and behaviors deemed appropriate for women in rural areas inadvertently affect climate change policies and women's capacity to respond to adverse impacts of climate change (Acosta et al. 2019). Consequently, policy approaches such as the Kudumbashree, and the National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change of Nigeria, seek to eliminate gender stereotypes and sexism that hinder women's adaptive and resilient capacities.n Policies should strengthen local resource mobilization for more context-specific local implementation spearheaded by both men and women alike. The failure of women's empowerment in climate change policy in the Global South is partly due to overdependence on international funds and aid. n Coherence in all national, regional, and local policies is needed to improve women's resilience to climate change. For instance, NDCs must be anchored to NDPs, NAPs, NAPAs, and other gender policies. It is also essential to cooperate with other agencies in monitoring frameworks for each ministry and budget planning cycle, and for performance metrics to include policy harmonization and integration. n Successful and effective gender and climate change policy implementation also requires renewed political and institutional commitments and unified leadership from government. The mandate of agencies responsible for implementing such policies must be made clear with continual support, irrespective of government or institutional leadership changes. n Climate change policy and women's climate change resilience should be pursued alongside the promotion of women's full and effective participation and leadership in the design, implementation, and evaluation of policy actions. n Most policies and national plans use gender quotas for women's empowerment. Quotas are vital to increasing women's representation in climate change policy and programs. However, these should be used alongside more comprehensive approaches (for example, targeting gender norms and building women's leadership capacity) and not as a panacea for women's empowerment.n There is a lack of robust monitoring and evaluation of the extent to which implemented policies can improve women's participation in climate governance and enhance their resilience to climate change. Thus, a robust monitoring and evaluation system should be an integral part of policies to measure the intended impacts of policies.","tokenCount":"1135"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"70dabcbff95376ffe65a96a33c2ac3fc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a38b852b-40b7-42ba-949d-23ba650a442a/retrieve","id":"-1789038895"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"abfbf7ae-4327-4a0e-9b94-a2cdfb088f24","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: An Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) toolbox has been built consisting of spatial data, tools, guidelines, and templates to advance the work of monitoring, reporting, and verification of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) calculation along the rice value chain, that can be applied by both the public and the private sectors. New Innovation: No Innovation type: Research and Communication Methodologies and Tools Stage of innovation: Stage 2: successful piloting (PIL -end of piloting phase) Geographic Scope: Sub-national Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Country(ies): • The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam Description of Stage reached: The toolbox has been developed to provide Spatial Data, Tools, and Guidelines to support MRV in rice, made publicly accessible on the GHG Mitigation homepage. Name of lead organization/entity to take innovation to this stage: IRRI -International Rice Research Institute Names of top five contributing organizations/entities to this stage: <Not Defined> Milestones: • Methods for MRV of agricultural emission reductions developed with focal countries and donors Sub-IDOs: • 8 -More efficient use of inputs • 31 -Reduced net greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, forests and other forms of land-use (Mitigation and adaptation achieved) • 46 -Increased capacity for innovation in partner development organizations and in poor and vulnerable communities","tokenCount":"207"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5425908750d83fc44701245bf11b945f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fd98b944-ba8a-45f3-a771-5dafdb249a17/retrieve","id":"-916462669"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1a3874ee-5342-4e7e-8156-9a205727b829","pagecount":"4","content":"In sub-Saharan Africa, the extent of farm mechanization remains low, posing a significant obstacle to the intensification of rice production. Limited access to financial resources by smallholder farmers to acquire required machinery has been identified as one of the primary factors contributing to inadequate mechanization in rice farming. In fact, the formulation and implementation of appropriate mechanization policies and strategies including effectiveengagement of stakeholders are crucial for an enabling environment for modernizing agriculture. Currently, one of the innovative approaches being rigorously examined and validated by AfricaRice and its partners for rice production is the introduction of mechanized service provision business model. This concept draws inspiration from the success of the CEMA (Center for Mechanized Services) models developed by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) and its collaborators, which were first piloted in Senegal and Mali since 2014. The SFSA has been actively supporting farmers' organizations by establishing a guarantee fund to facilitate the acquisition of equipment and machinery. Subsequently, the CEMA was established to operate independently and manage the machines and equipment belonging to farmers' organizations or aggregators. It primarily involved young entrepreneurs delivering mechanization services in land preparation, harvesting, grain processing and storage for members and non-members of farmers' organization and using digital application to provide agricultural advice or to manage machines and equipment. The concept of CEMA aims to aggregate demand and supply to enable profitable service provision with larger machinery, thus considerable up-front investment. The initial pilot project delivered a significant positive outcome by enabling farmers to undertake agricultural activities at appropriate periods, resulting in the ability to grow two rice crops instead of just one in a year, and consequently boosting the yields. Furthermore, it generated employment opportunities for youth in the rural areas. These results have prompted the replication and scaling up of this approach in other sub-Saharan African countries.In Madagascar, farm power still relies to an overwhelming extent on human labor with most operations being done using hand tools or draught animal power. Engine-powered equipment, such as power tillers and tractors, are owned or used by less than 5% of farmers due mainly to lack of financial access to mechanization. The most used agricultural equipment in rice cultivation includes draught bovine powered plows and carts, single-row hand-push rotary weeder and manual grain threshers. Such tools, however, have implicit limitations regarding energy, time, and operational efficiency of essential agricultural operations. They don't enable farmers to intensify their production and improve their incomes and quality of life.Among the agricultural operations, effective land preparation is a crucial element in maximizing rice yields by not only promoting uniform crop establishment and growth but also reducing weed infestations while enhancing the utilization of nutrients and water. Invariably, Malagasy rice growers face significant obstacles in completing adequate field preparation in a timely manner with the current level of mechanization.Against this background, AfricaRice, through the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) Initiative, is working on the ground to develop approaches for sustainable access to mechanization for smallholder rice farmers. In this regard, AfricaRice has introduced mechanized land preparation service models in two major rice-growing areas of Madagascar: Lac Alaotra and Bas-Mangoky. Four farmers' groups involving a total of 20 male and 108 female farmers including seed producers and processors, were identified to establish the mechanized service provision pilot models. The initially piloted models are centered around the provision of mechanized land preparation services such as ploughing, harrowing and levelling, as well as transportation of products such as paddy, rice straw, etc. The service is available for the farmers' group members as well as independent farmers outside the group. Each group was first equipped with one power tiller with accessories to operate independently whilst keeping a clear business plan and service catalogue. The aim is for each model to achieve significant returns on investment and break even within three to four years so that the farmers can acquire new machines and be able to provide diverse machinery services.The first pilot testing conducted from April to June 2023 in Bas-Mangoky, has already proven successful in supporting 21 farmers belonging to the groups and their families, with field preparation spanning over 7 ha. Additionally, it has also benefited 13 non-members, covering an area of 6.6 ha. For lac Alaotra, the project has provided 6 services including 5 land preparation services covering 8 hectares and one transportation service for group members since its inception. These results are expected to increase in the coming months as we approach the next rice planting season in both locations. Further, we expect that the service provision models will empower the farmers group by creating opportunities for greater collaboration and higher financial benefits to the group members.In addition to assisting farmers' groups in establishing service provision models, we have recognized the importance of supporting local manufacturers to ensure the long-term sustainability of mechanization. In Lac Alaotra, we have successfully identified and established partnerships with local fabricators. Through this collaboration, we anticipate the development of innovative prototypes for motorized rice seeder and motorized transplanter by the end of 2023. This partnership with local fabricators strengthens our commitment to promoting mechanization and its benefits in the agricultural sector.","tokenCount":"855"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"955f41a928f88dc576bbbedc0e27bc7e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fa84a90a-34ce-4e4e-85f2-a448eedab761/retrieve","id":"-1575012411"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"50f53133-81a6-46d9-8aa9-d84aa912f7f1","pagecount":"36","content":"c prese nt nume ro est Ie h uirieml.' du bulletin d 'info rmatio n du Reseau su r les sem cnees en Afrique occiden lale (WASNET ), 'Semen ccs el ma leriel de plantation en Afriq ue occidentale'. WASNET se penche su r les beso ins er les p roble-mes renco ntres d an s Ie secreu r d es se me nces ct d u m are rie l d e pla nrati o n e n Afri q ue de I'ouest el il reu n il Ie perso nnel charge d es semences des pays ouesr-a fri cains cla ns un e stru cture, ce qui les dev rair les enco urage r a rravai ll er ense mble po ur ren fo rcer Ie developpeme nt nat io nal et regional de I'indu st rie se menciere. II cst [res enco uragea nr de voir que { OUS les represe nraIHs des pays mcmb res du WASNET 0 01 commence a mettre en ce uvre les acr ivit es qui o nt ere ide mi fiees par I'A sse m• bl ee Genera le du Resea u el appro uvees pa r Ie Comile D irec teuf. A Ia d eu xiem e page du prese m nume ro se tro uve un e li sre des ac ti vites de resea u en co urs er des pays ln1tl ateurs. D e plus, Ie Resea u fo ncti o nnera probablement so us I'egi de de la CO RAF (Conference de l'Afriqu e de l' o ues l po ur la recherche agricole er Ie develo ppement). Le Rc'sea u a ele prese nle a la reunio n du C omile Execulif de la C ORAF en jan vier 2001 et Ie C omite a acceptc qu' il fon ctionne so us Ie parapluie de la C ORAF. Une derniere chose egalement impo n ante po ur Ie fonctio nn emenr du reseau est Ie fa ir qu' une mi ssion d 'evalua• rio n a examine Ie proje t et reco mmande que Ie finan cement all emand reserve a WASNET soi t maintenu jusqu'en 2006 . No us es peron s tous q ue Ie Minisrere all emand de la coo pe ralio n eco no m iq ue el d u devel o ppement (BM Z) ap pro uve ra ce tte reco mmandar ion.Ie manioc en Afrigue occ identale er centrale. Les rende~ men rs sant en core relativement fa ibles en Afrique par rappo rt a l'Asie er l' Ameri'lue du Sud. Sur Ie continent africain , les re ndements de manioc vont de 18.5 ronnes au Cameroun a 5,3 rannes a I' hectare en Angola. Au nombre des contrainles figurent la faible fett ilire des terres, \"application limitee d'inrranrs er la l ente ~r relative de diffusion des varietes ameliorees adaptees aux conditions et aux gouts locaux .Le manioc sadapte a un large eventail d'ecologies. II produit d es rendements satisfaisancs meme da:ns les sols pauvres et acicies. II peut erre cultive dans les regions ~mi-arj des. II joue un role crucial dans 101. reduction de la fam ine car il offre des feculenrs bon marche aux consommateurs a fai• hies revenus. C'esr une culture de securite alimentaire dans les zones vu lnerables sujenes a I. secberesse, a la famine et a des crises. II produit plus de deux fois plus de calories par hectare que Ie miis, a un cout nettement plus faible .Les feuilles de manic:.c canciennent 60/0 de protcines et som riches en vitamines, notamrnent A et C.Ligname eS! une culture indigene de I'Afrique de l'oueS! ou )'on trouve 91 % de la production mondiale. Avant 2• Erudier les plans de certificarion de semences en vigueur dans la region (Bonin) • Preparer un catalogue regional des normes de semences et de champs (Burkina Faso) • Etudier les politi'lues semencieres appl i'luees dans la region (Gambie) • Pn~parer un repertoire des semences disponibles dans la rc'gion (Ghana) • Erudier les lois sur les semences en vigueur dans la region (Niger) • Preparer un catalogue des varietes de la region (Nigeria)• Etudier la reglementation relative a I'importation et l'exportation des semences dans la region (Mali) • S[3risciques sur les besoins reels er la production de semences dans la region (Senegal) • Preparer un annuaire regional des operateurs de l'induSfrie ,emenciere (Togo) Le present numero presentera ce 'lue font differen\", pays de la region (Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinee, T chad, et Togo) pour promouvoir ces cultures.LeHres a I' editeur fai parcouru vorre dernier bulletin. II eSf bon de voir tant d'articles sur les entreprises de production de scmences mises sur pied par des individus. Je pense que ceue approche peut valablement no us aider a [rouver les voies et mo),ens d'a1ler de I'avant.A propos de Ja H~glemen[;adon : 5i nous sommes verita• blement p,,!occupes par les operateurs de I'ombre qui apporrent des semences mal etiquet~es qu'its vendent a Ja volee, Jes questions d'enregistrement et de certification obligatoires n'ont pas leur place car ces gens agiront de tout\", manieres dans I'illegalite. Si nous nous preoccupons des petites enrreprises de semences qui se mectent en place-et ['article de Louwaar potte la-dessus-, nous devons alors faire attention aux listes des varietes approuvees et imposer la certification obligatoire des semences. Tout producteur l~gitime de semenccs -meme Ie plus petit qui produit• des semences non ensach~es dans une ville locale--doir trav.iIIer pendant des annees pour se faire une reputation. et it n'y a done pas de raison que des las d'inspecteurs et regulateurs du centre aillenc fureter pour les approuver ou non. Nous ne devrions pas trop louer ees regulateurs Pb~r Ie bien q u'ils font en intervenant. Si l'Etat eduque et forme, parfait. rnais s'il empeche des iniriatives de se devel opper en entreprises de .!ie menees, a lors il derruit Ie pa ys. Je crains que nous no us ega rio ns en 3ccorda nr no tre be nedi ct io n a. des regles compliquees visanc a pro((~ge r les paysa ns conr re d es operateurs de J'ombre. Si ('est cela qui nous inq uicrc.po urqu oi ne pas exiger tout simplement un etiq uerage digne de ce no m er dire clairemenr que les regles compliquees n'onr pas leur place iei ? Autre menr, no us risquons d ' encou rage r d es regulateurs d u centre a ecouffer les nouvelles initia tives er la concu rren ce, en les faisanr taus passe r po ur d es operatcurs dandestins et en prmegea nt les gros bonnets er ccux qui Ont des relar ions au minisrere de I'agri c ulwce.N ea nmo ins, je ne veux pas paraitre negatif.  SOliS form e de semences au Ghana.Verifier que les attribu(s genetiques et environnemcntaux decri\" par le(s) parrai n(s) de la variete sont conformes audit marcrid de plantation et que la variete cst distincrc de routes Its autres et apporte un plus a I'agricultute generale du G h.na.Prescrire ies conditions qui doivem chee rcunies par les varietes et Ie mat¢rid de plantatio n, de sarre que leur culture er leur consommation ne soiem pas prejudiciables a la same des agriculteurs et des consom mateurs et que leur propagation nesoi t pas nuisible ~ I'equilibre ecotogique de l'environnement.S'assurer que tout.l e materiel genetique des plantes aie des noms fourni, pat le (s) parrain(s) pour les va rietes/ c uhiv3rs diffuses au G hana, er conserver un registre de to ur ce maleriel d e plantarion d iffuse.Verifie r que toutes les semences entrant dans Ie pays pour y erre diffusees pour la culture sonr con fo rmes aux lois sur les semences et a Ia reglementation p hytosa niraire du Ghana.Conseiller Ie Mi nisr re de J'al imemation er de I'agriculru re su r Ie ma ter iel ge netique qui . en raison de caracteristiques inadmissibles, doi r etre proscrit ou retire de la culture au Ghana.• Fournir une lettre d 'approbario n de la variete proposee au(x) parrains(s) de lad ire variere en precisanr Ie moment et les conditions de sa diffusion .Le comire se rc un it au mi nimum deux fo is par an, er aurant de fois q ue necessaire, pour deliberer sur ses taches.Exigences pour la diffusion des varietes 11 est necessaire que le(s) parrain (s) des vari ctes destinees a la diffus ion ~u ne fo is que celles-ci sonr accepceesetablisse(nt) un champ de semences de pre-base 1 afin de produire suffisamment de mareriel de plantation po ur la generatio n su ivante. Ce champ est ins peete a deux reprises.ala floraiso n et a la recolte .Inspection des ehan:,ps: Au cours de la premiere inspection, le (5) parrain(s) est/sont ccnse(s) presenter la methodologie de ~Iection ainsi que les caracteres botaniques er agronomiques de I. variete. Lors de la seconde inspection, le(s) parrain(s)    Ie respect de ces nonnes comme suit:   Sur Ie plan production de manioc on distingue troi, grandes regions:Un. \"gIon .. produdlon marginal.E1le reprisente en moyenne pour la periode a1 lant de 1993-19942. 1998-1999, un  Les tableaux suivanrs (I er 2) presentent la siruation des superficies, et de, production, de chacune des huit zones agro-ecologiques que compte Ie pays .. rravers les =pagnes agricoles (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999). Le manioc est cui rive par les producteurs individuels er des groupements. La taille des exploitations vaeie suivant les conditions de vie des producccurs. On rencontre des exploitarions de petites superficies (moins de 0,5 ha aj ha ) et des exploitations de grandes tailles (5 2. 10 ha et plus). IC~ 1993-1994 \" 1998-19991   -1993-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1995-1997 1997-1996 1998-1999  Annee 1993-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1995-1997   La recherche sur Ie manioc au Benin Elles so nt coupees en boutures de 20 a 30 cm de long  • La non disponibi lite de materiel de plantatio n: avec les recentes introductions de varietes amelioft!es de WASNET News 8 manioc en provenance de ('UTA, de nombreux producteurs desirent se lancer dans la production du manioc, mal heureusement, ils SOnt confront~s au manque de materiel de plantation.Les probl e m~s de transformation: Ie manque de tech-niqu~s et de materiel de transformation est un handicap pour I~ dtvdoppement de cett~ culture qui est un produit perissable.    Les contraintes majeures lim itant la production des racines ct tubercules en zone so udanienne som nombreuses et variees. II sagit I .. noram ment des contrainte, lite, au sys<cme d'exploirat ion : les exploitations sone surtOUt familiales morceiees ( e dispersees en brousse loi n des villages et c)esr ce qui creenr de graves confli es entre eleveurs et agriculteurs.La culture: et en particuli er la transformation ctam presque en majoritc assurees par les femmes; Ie circuit d e commercialisatio n est so uvent mal organ ise.• Dans la zo ne soudanienne, densemenr peuplee, les sols presente nt des ca racteris tiques faibles dues a diverses raisons: forte augmentation de la population, absence d 'apporc d'engra is, no n restitution au sol des res idus de recolte, multiples acti ons des truct ives su r Ie mil ieu (feu de brousse, pietinemenc par Ie belail), ins uffisance d 'u ne re&eneration de la fenilire des sols q ui re~oivent raremenc des amen dements organiques.• Au n iveau c1imatique et pedologique. la repartition des preci pitations dans les provinces de production est irreguliere. Au cours de ces dernieres annees, Ie pay' a ete affec t. par une diminution considerable des precipitations.Les contraintes li ees aux systemes de culture :   Les producteurs de manioc rradirionnellemenr s'approvisionnenr en maH~riei de plan tation suivant 3 voies : a parti r de leur plantation de I'annee precedantc chez les voisins acha r sur Ie marche (no uvelle voie en developpemen ~)En dehors de as 3 voies, certains rares produaeurs plus averris s'approvisionnenr en materiel de plantarion de qualite aupres des serv ices de recherche ou de vulgarisation (nombre negligeable). Ces producteurs, une fois Ie materiel acquis se chargent de leur diffusion de F.uron informdle aux autres agriculteurs. II n'existe pas de structure qui se charge de la production et de la diffusio n de mare riel de planration.projer WASOU, constituent les premieres approches orga-nis<!es de production et de vente de materiel de plantation .uTogo.Approche pour la promotion de materiel de plantation du manioc au Togo l:augmentation de la production de manioc n<cessite rutilisation de materiel de plantation de qualire. Pour Ie developpcmem de la rultuce, la disponibi~te er la diffusion de vatietes performantes dans toutes les zones de producrion de manioc sont importances.   Semence authentique de pomme de terre (TPS)La TPS, un produit r~volurionnaire pour cultiver des pommes de terre a partir de graines. presente les avantages suivams par rapport a la methode class ique (plantation de tubercules) :  ","tokenCount":"2119"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"359c466130f3f5777effa453c13e5fe5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3fe5346f-293b-4077-8ea2-b46021713f46/retrieve","id":"-553811671"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"302c6e4f-92db-4a43-8aa9-1d8e3c6d5729","pagecount":"4","content":"Markets for agricultural products with special quality, environmental, and social attributes can provide a profitable outlet for poor farmers in developing countries. However, participation in high value markets requires that farmers commit to deliver pre-identified volumes on time and in the required form and quality -a tall order in many cases. Agricooperatives play an important role in linking farmers to these markets; they forge business relations with distant buyers, realise economies of scale in processing and marketing, and provide advisory and other services to help their members respond to buyer demands (see Box 1). Examples of these services include technical assistance, training, and input and credit provision. This note presents a practical approach by which cooperatives strengthen their ability to deliver impactful and financially sustainable services. In doing so, it recognises the challenges faced by cooperatives to design services that both meet the different needs of members and are financially sustainable. Too often cooperative services are supported by external actors with no clear vision of how to continue once project support terminates, leading to disrupted service offerings for members, and fragmented learning processes for cooperatives and their partners. Innovation is urgently needed in how services are designed, how they are implemented, and cost recovery mechanisms. At the heart of the approach lies a focus on joint learning among stakeholders -cooperatives, their business partners, government agencies, and non-government organisations (NGOs) -to better tackle the complexity inherent in the provision of effective services to poor farmers.The approach aims to deliver impactful and financially sustainable services and emphasises cooperative leadership, but recognises the role of partners for service delivery and financial support. Joint learning with partners and members is crucial, allowing for adjustment of service offerings in line with the members' needs and improved coordination among stakeholders (see Box 2).The first principle is specialisation. This means that cooperatives focus on the set of services they can effectively provide, leaving other services to those who can provide them more effectively. Specialisation implies that cooperatives understand members' needs and circumstances and how they can best intervene with the resources at hand, and where others can contribute to the process by providing complementary services to members or by helping to build the cooperative's service capacity. Cooperatives need to be aware of the dangers of trying to provide too many services at the same time and thus spreading scarce resources too thinly.Box 2. Philosophy for building service capacity of cooperatives • Cooperatives need durable partnerships for building their own service delivery capacity.• External support is critical in the initial stages, with progressive member contributions in later stages.• Membership-funded services correspond with the quality and impact of services.• Transparency and accountability are key, from technicians to managers to funders.• Joint learning through critical observation, analysis, and reflection improves services.The coffee cooperative Soppexcca in Nicaragua provides services to roughly 500 members. Data on livelihood strategies and assets were used to classify members into three groups. Group 1 depended heavily on off-farm income and had relatively small coffee plantations. Group 2 depended heavily on farm income, but also had relatively small coffee plantations. Group 3 stood out for its relatively large coffee plantations. On average, group 3 had roughly 5 times the coffee production compared to groups 1 and 2.While the other groups depended heavily on coffee for their income, group 1 earned most of its income off-farm -leaving little time for coffee production. By understanding the different needs and circumstances of their members, cooperatives are able to adjust their service offering to diverse clientele, differentiated by gender and age, and achieve increased impact and efficiency. Training sessions were organised in subjects ranging from fruit planting to building and using fuel-efficient stoves, showing a wider focus within the cooperative on improving the general well-being of its members, and not just to improving its own business performance.Source: Shaw and Alldred ( 2015 The second principle is progressive member contributions to cost recovery. During the early years of cooperative development -when most services are likely to be sourced externally -cooperatives focus on delivering a limited range of demand-oriented services and on expanding members' awareness of services and their related benefits and costs. Member contributions can come through direct payment for services, reductions in the price paid for deliveries to the cooperative, and proceeds from cooperative operations, such as processing. These may also offset the costs of service delivery.Cooperatives should be aware about costs and benefits of these services and engage with their members to promote awareness of the need to invest in services.The third principle is joint learning for improved services, involving cooperative leaders, member representatives, and external supporters. Learning requires experimenta tion in response to the changing business context and the livelihood context of members, as well as critical reflections on processes and outcomes. Different service delivery and cost recovery models should be tested, along with diverse mechanisms for strengthening the cooperatives' service delivery capacity (for example, vouchers, on-the-job learning, and cooperativecooperative business schools).Step around its purchases of cocoa using its own funds (held back from cocoa sales). Loans were delivered in the form of inputs, not cash. The cooperative also provided staff to assist with proper application of the inputs. This also helped to ensure that farmers did not resell the inputs. By 2013, 95 out of the 179 registered members had subscribed to the credit programme and 35 had actually asked and benefited from the arrangement for a total amount of around US$29,000.A similar programme was designed to promote maize production. In response to a members' needs assessment, the cocoa cooperative supported members to diversify into maize production.Source: CASAHS (2013) 3 quality, coverage, and costs; and a strategic view on capacitybuilding needs and long-term partnerships for meeting identified needs from Step 1.Step 3 -Develop strategy: The strategy identifies which provider provides what services to the different types of members. This requires alignment of strategies between the cooperative and various service providers -a challenging step for which external facilitation may be needed. This is a crucial element for achieving more impactful and selfsustained services in a given area. The strategy should also detail short-and long-term options for recovering the cost of cooperative-provided services, and sources of financial support at different stages of the process. Finally, the strategy should address major gaps in knowledge, include plans for monitoring the effectiveness of services, and present a learning agenda to guide future interactions among stakeholders. There is no blueprint to strategy design -creative thinking and a willingness to experiment are needed.Step 4 -Reflect, learn, and adapt: Cooperative leaders, members, and external supporters should review progress on implementation of the programme and identify options for improvement. Possible refinements cover services offered, to whom the services are offered, how the services are delivered, what their impact is, and the extent to which costs are recovered. Two aspects are fundamental for the group to advance the advisory programme: a willingness to be self-critical about service design and delivery, and sufficient and up-to-date information on the effects and associated perceptions of the programme on members. In addition to service design, stakeholder learning should encompass bottlenecks encountered along the path to achieving progressive cost recovery from members, and options for adjusting strategies to achieve greater sustainability in service provision.External co-funding will often be necessary for implementation of steps 1 and 2, with a clear phasing out strategy from the very beginning to allow cooperatives to graduate towards steps 3 and 4 based on business consolidation, improved services, and progressive impact and cost recovery.This approach strives to build cooperatives' capacity over time to deliver impactful services, but it assumes that cooperatives will need strong partners along the way. Partners may include buyers, NGOs, banks, government agencies, and other cooperatives. For new or struggling cooperatives, partnerships for the design, monitoring, and refinement of the service programme will be critical. For well-established cooperatives, partnerships may be less critical for providing core services, but still necessary to overcome gaps in service delivery. Where partners are needed to provide complementary services, it is important to choose these partners well -in addition to technical skills, they require good listening skills, critical observation and thinking, and sound understanding of cooperatives and rural livelihoods. Where skilled partners are unavailable, exchanges with like-minded and similarly structured cooperatives may help. This cooperation promotes new forms of collaboration, such as cooperative-cooperative business schools, which may also work for newly formed cooperatives if sister cooperatives are more advanced and willing to share experiences and skills.The approach addresses an important gap in discussions on cooperative development: the implementation of an impactful and sustainable advisory service programme. Its strength lies in providing practical guidance for addressing the complex issues around cooperative service provision and its call for learning and innovation on how cooperatives and their partners respond to members' needs. However, success in implementation may not come quickly or easily. The approach favours those cooperatives with assertive leaders able to inspire change, a minimum amount of resources, and access to capacity development partners committed to empowering cooperatives (and making themselves redundant over time).This approach rests on a diverse group of farmers with access to a package of services that responds to their needs at a given point, and evolves over time as their needs become more sophisticated. Cooperatives play a major role in providing these services, and the better cooperatives are at doing so, the more viable they will be. Table 1 discusses possible service and delivery arrangements for three generic types of members.","tokenCount":"1572"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bdab7ccdb833d56b97b43eee5e04cc64","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/877b5b88-70c8-4f94-8b04-92f008b0ccb4/retrieve","id":"-374264148"},"keywords":["Striga","maize breeding","genomic prediction","doubled haploid","sparse phenotyping"],"sieverID":"5926bd34-7f90-4b12-baa8-b0de03126810","pagecount":"35","content":"Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth., a parasitic weed, causes substantial yield losses in maize production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Breeding for Striga resistance in maize is constrained by limited genetic diversity for Striga resistance within the elite germplasm and phenotyping capacity under artificial Striga infestation. Genomics-enabled approaches have the potential to accelerate identification of Striga resistant lines for hybrid development. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the accuracy of genomic selection for traits associated with Striga resistance and grain yield (GY) and to predict genetic values of tested and untested doubled haploid (DH) maize lines.We genotyped 606 DH lines with 8,439 rAmpSeq markers. A training set of 116 DH lines crossed to two testers was phenotyped under artificial Striga infestation at three locations in Kenya.Heritability for Striga resistance parameters ranged from 0.38-0.65 while that for GY was 0.54.The prediction accuracies for Striga resistance-associated traits across locations, as determined by cross validation (CV) were 0.24 to 0.53 for CV0 and from 0.20 to 0.37 for CV2. For GY, the prediction accuracies were 0.59 and 0.56 for CV0 and CV2, respectively. The results revealed 300Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. is a parasitic weed that affects maize (Zea mays L.) production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Striga spp. has a wide geographical distribution and affects up to 60% of the arable land in SSA (Ejeta and Gressel, 2007;Mbuvi et al. 2017). Striga adversely affects maize production in SSA causing yield losses ranging from 20-100% (Ransom et al. 1990;Berner et al. 1996;Khan et al. 2006;Ejeta, 2007). Striga depends entirely on its host for growth and survival. Under favorable growing conditions, Striga seeds break dormancy in response to germination stimulants (Strigolactones) produced by the host. A germinated Striga plant then establishes vascular connections with the host's roots via the haustoria through which it draws nutrients and water resulting in stunted growth, chlorosis, impaired photosynthesis, reduced maize biomass, and yield loss (Gurney et al. 1995;Spallek et al. 2013).Several control strategies have been proposed to reduce the burden of Striga for farmers in SSA.These include crop rotation (Oswald and Ramson, 2001), intercropping (Khan et al. 2002), pushpull technology (Khan et al. 2008), host plant resistance (Menkir et al. 2007;Rich and Ejeta, 2008), herbicide resistant maize (Makumbi et al. 2015) and integrated pest management (Khan et al. 2016;Kanampiu et al. 2018). Host plant resistance is one of the most promising approaches for 3 Striga control in SSA as the technology is embedded in the seed. Host plant resistance, coupled with other control approaches, is considered an important Striga control strategy for smallholder farmers due to its ease of deployment and adoption (Mwangangi et al. 2021).Breeding for Striga resistance is hampered by the limited sources of resistance within elite maize germplasm, complex genetics of resistance, complicated host-parasite relationship (Amusan et al. 2008), and limited phenotyping capacity. Phenotyping for Striga resistance or tolerance requires uniform artificial Striga infestation that exposes maize seedlings to a large number of Striga seeds to prevent escape (Kim, 1996;Kling et al. 1999). Although the artificial Striga infestation technique has been successful, breeders are limited by lack of large experimental fields that can solely be dedicated for artificial screening. This can slow progress in identifying resistant inbred lines and hybrids as a limited number of genotypes can be screened at a time. Despite these challenges significant progress has been made in developing and deploying Striga resistant maize varieties in West Africa by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, https://www.iita.org) and its partners over the years (Kim et al. 1994;Badu-Apraku et al. 2007;Menkir and Kling, 2007;Menkir et al. 2012;Menkir and Meseka, 2019). A study by Menkir et al. (2007) showed that the key traits for Striga resistance breeding namely grain yield, Striga damage rating, and Striga counts are conditioned by many genes with small effects. Recurrent selection studies have shown improvements in Striga resistance related traits in maize in West Africa (Menkir and Kling, 2007;Badu-Apraku et al. 2009;Badu-Apraku., 2010). Recent studies reported genetic gains of 93.7 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Menkir and Meseka, 2019) and 101 kg ha -1 yr -1 (Badu-Apraku et al. 2020a) for grain yield under Striga infestation. These gains were attributed to significant gains in the reduced number of emerged Striga plants and less Striga damage. Menkir and Meseka (2019) reported gains of -6.7% and -5.5% year -1 for number of emerged Striga plants at 8 and 10 weeks after planting, respectively. The reported genetic gains are attributed to the use of effective screening protocols (Kim, 1994;Kim and Adetimirin, 2001), and better understanding of the genetics of Striga resistance (Kim, 1994;Yallou et al. 2009;Badu-Apraku et al. 2013).The genetic gains reported in breeding for Striga resistance at IITA have been achieved through development of inbred lines using conventional pedigree breeding method and backcrossing. In addition, recurrent selection has been used to accumulate desirable alleles for traits associated with resistance to Striga (Badu-Apraku et al. 2007;Menkir and Kling, 2007). Developing nearhomozygous inbred lines in 6-8 generations through the pedigree method could slow the rate of Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/g3journal/advance-article/doi/10.1093/g3journal/jkae186/7731522 by International Institue of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) user on 09 September 2024 genetic gain in breeding for resistance to Striga in maize. The use of the doubled haploid (DH) technology in maize through which completely homozygous lines can be developed within 13-14 months could significantly reduce the breeding cycle time, and accelerate population and variety development (Bernardo, 2009;Chaikam et al. 2019). Application of DH technology for line development for SSA has been implemented at a large scale at CIMMYT since 2012 (Prasanna et al. 2012;Chaikam et al. 2019).The application of marker assisted selection along with conventional breeding and DH technology can speed up the identification of Striga resistant germplasm. Several quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to Striga resistance have been reported (Badu-Apraku et al. 2020b, c;2023). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with number of emerged Striga plants and Striga damage rating in tropical maize (Adewale et al. 2020;Stanley et al. 2021;Gowda et al. 2021;Okunlola et al. 2023). Accelerated line and variety development can also be achieved through the incorporation of genomic selection (GS) in a breeding program. The use of DH lines in combination with genomic prediction/selection methods can accelerate genetic improvement in crop plants (Heffner et al. 2010;Song et al. 2017;Cerrudo et al. 2018).Genomic selection is an approach for improving complex quantitative traits. Genomic selection (Meuwissen et al. 2001) and genomic prediction of complex traits (de los Campos et al. 2009;Crossa et al. 2010;Pérez-Rodríguez et al. 2012) target breeding value estimates which include the parental average and a deviation resulting from Mendelian sampling (Heffner et al. 2009;Crossa et al. 2017). Genomic prediction has been used to estimate additive as well as non-additive effects of lines (Crossa et al. 2017;Bonnett et al. 2022). Estimation of additive gene effects allows for selection in early generations such as F2 (Crossa et al. (2017). Genomic prediction accounts for Mendelian segregation and considers the realized covariances based on dense molecular markers that span the genome (Pérez-Rodríguez et al. 2012). With both marker and phenotypic data, the genetic values of genotypes evaluated in single and across environments is estimated using genomic prediction through genotype by environment (G × E) interaction analyses. Research on crop and animal breeding has shown that prediction accuracy in selection for complex traits using pedigree information can significantly be improved through genomic selection with different models (Crossa et al. 2022). Multiple genomic prediction models including parametric and non-parametric statistical and computational models that account for both genetic and non-genetic effects have been developed to estimate genomic breeding values (GEBVs) (Crossa et al. 2017). Additionally, linear and nonlinear kernels that are based on genomic relationship matrices have been reported to be better than the conventional methods (Crossa et al. 2022). Non-linear genomic kernels such as the reaction norm model can account for epistatic effects between markers and incorporate large-scale environmental data (enviromics) and G × E analyses for improved prediction accuracy (Jarquín et al. 2014). The prediction accuracy of the model is assessed through cross validation after which an appropriate model is used to predict the performance of untested genotypes by estimating their genomic breeding values. The candidate lines are therefore selected based on GEBVs generated from the marker and phenotype information of the training population (Crossa et al. 2017). Only genotypes with the best GEBVs are selected and advanced depending on the trait. Genomic selection can thus accelerate breeding by reducing the duration of line and variety development, while also reducing phenotyping costs in crops like maize (Crossa et al. 2013;Edriss et al. 2017;Beyene et al. 2021;Butoto et al. 2022), and in other crops (Pérez-Rodríguez et al. 2012;Iwata et al. 2015;Velazco et al. 2019).The use of genomic selection in breeding programs focusing on improving Striga resistance for increased genetic gains in grain yield under artificial Striga infestation could provide an option to overcome the challenge of limited and costly phenotyping. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT, https://www.cimmyt.org) has developed several DH lines using Striga resistant maize germplasm from IITA. This germplasm could provide insights on the application of genomic selection for the incorporation of Striga resistance in mid-altitude maize germplasm in Eastern and Southern Africa where Striga hermonthica still presents a major challenge. The objectives of this study were to (i) assess the efficiency of genomic prediction for Striga resistance associated traits and grain yield using the reaction norm model, and (ii) predict the genetic values of field tested and untested DH lines.This study utilized 606 DH lines developed by CIMMYT at the Maize DH Facility in Kiboko, Kenya (Supplementary Table 1). The DH lines were developed from induction of F2 and BC1F2 populations formed by crossing Striga resistant donor lines from IITA with elite mid-altitude tropical maize lines developed by CIMMYT. The Striga resistance donor lines from IITA include TZSTR182, TZSTR184, TZISTR1156, TZISTR1158 and TZSTR167. Line TZSTR167 was derived from a yellow composite (TZLCOMP1.Y), whereas lines TZSTR182, TZSTR184, TZISTR1156 and TZSTR1158 were derived from bi-parental crosses of white inbred lines derived from a Striga resistant synthetic (ACRSYN-W) and a composite (TZLCOMPIC4). The elite CIMMYT lines (CML521, CML522, and CML543) used for crossing had varying levels of drought tolerance and/or herbicide (imazaypr) resistance. Some F1 crosses were advanced to F2 while others were planted alongside either the IITA donor lines or the adapted CIMMYT lines and crossed to form BC1F1. The BC1F1 were selfed to form BC1F2 populations which were then submitted for DH induction. There were 171 and 435 DH lines developed from F2 and BC1F2 populations, respectively. Of the 606 DH lines, 116 lines derived using CML522 (a drought tolerant and herbicide resistant line) as a parent were selected to serve as the training population (TRN) and crossed to two inbred line testers from IITA to form 232 testcross hybrids.The 232 testcross (TC) hybrids were part of 351 TC hybrids that were developed from new DH lines and were tested in two trials. Trial 1 had 180 entries while Trial 2 had 171 entries. Each trial included 116 TC hybrids from the TRN set. Only 232 TC hybrids were used for this study as only 116 lines had both genotypic and phenotypic data. Trial 1 included two internal genetic gain checks and six commercial checks while Trial 2 had two internal genetic gain checks and seven commercial checks. The experimental design was 4 × 47 and 4 × 45 alpha-lattice with two replications for Trials 1 and 2, respectively. Each experimental unit consisted of one 4 m row spaced 0.75 m apart and 0.20 m space between plants, giving a plant population density of approximately 66,666 plants ha -1 at all locations. The hybrids were evaluated in field trials under artificial Striga infestation at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) research stations at Kibos (0⁰2'S, 34⁰48E, 1193 masl) and Alupe (0⁰30'N, 34⁰7E, 1250 masl), and at Siaya ATC (03⁰10'N, 34⁰17E, 1288 masl) in 2020. The soil types are classified as Eutric Cambisol, Orthic Ferralsol, and Plinthic Ferralsol at Kibos, Alupe, and Siaya ATC, respectively. All locations have a bimodal rainfall distribution (March-July and September-November), with most of the rain falling between March-July. The fields used for artificial Striga infestation at the research stations had been previously used for imazapyr herbicide studies (Kanampiu et al. 2002(Kanampiu et al. , 2018;;Makumbi et al. 2015), whose residual toxicity (Alister and Kogan, 2005) kills Striga seed in the soil.To obtain uniform exposure to Striga for each genotype, artificial Striga infestation was used.Striga seed was collected from infested maize fields in the Striga infested belt of western Kenya (Gethi et al. 2005). Striga inoculum was prepared by thoroughly mixing 10g of Striga seeds, with 5 kg of sand. The Striga seed-sand inoculum (20 g) was applied to each planting hole at a depth of 7 to 10 cm using a calibrated spoon that delivered up to ~3,000 Striga seeds to ensure uniform Striga infestation in the trials (Makumbi et al. 2015). The Striga seed-sand inoculum was placed directly at the bottom of the planting hole for uniform exposure of the maize plants to Striga from the onset of germination. Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP, 18:46:0) fertilizer was applied at half the recommended rate (30 kg ha -1 ) at planting to enhance plant establishment but avoid suppressing Striga germination. Half dose (30 kg ha -1 ) of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN, 26%) fertilizer was used for topdressing at 4 weeks after planting. Standard agronomic and cultural practices were performed as recommended for each location. Hand weeding was carried out to eliminate all weeds except Striga plants.Data were recorded on the number of emerged Striga plants (STR), Striga damage rating (SDR) and ear weight. The number of emerged Striga plants per plot was recorded within 15 cm of either side of the row at 8, 10 and 12 weeks after planting (WAP). The SDR was recorded at 10 (SDR1) and 12WAP (SDR2) using a 1-9 rating scale where 1 refers to a healthy plant with no visible symptoms of Striga damage (resistant) and 9 is highly susceptible to Striga with totally scorched leaves, absent ears, and untimely death of the host plant (Kim, 1991;Kim et al. 2002). The area under Striga number progress curve (AUSNPC) was computed from the three STR plant counts (8, 10, and 10 WAP) following the formula for calculating the area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) (Shaner and Finney, 1977) as:, where \uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC56 is the number of Striga plants at the \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC61ℎ observation, \uD835\uDC61 \uD835\uDC56 is the time point in days after planting at the ith observation and \uD835\uDC5B is the total number of observations. Finally, grain yield expressed in tons per hectare (t ha -1 ) was computed based on ear weight per plot, assuming 80% shelling percentage and adjusted to 12.5% grain moisture content.Leaf samples of the 606 DH inbred lines were collected three weeks after planting and shipped to Intertek laboratories in Sweden for DNA extraction. The DNA samples were then forwarded to the Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, USA) for genotyping with repetitive amplicon sequences (rAmpSeq markers). A genome indexing approach was used for designing primers using the conserved regions of the genome. The repeat amplicons were then multiplexed for genotyping as described by Buckler et al. (2016). The rAmpSeq protocol is a simple cost-effective sequencing technology which uses targeted amplicon sequencing approach and gene specific primers to amplify targeted regions of interest. The DNA library was constructed, mapped to B73 maize reference genome (version 3) and each unique sequence tag was regarded as a dominant marker. The dominant markers were saved in present-absent variant (PAV) format where one (1) and zero (0) denoted present or absent, respectively. For the 606 DH lines, a total of 8,439 sequence tags were called. The marker quality control (QC) process which involved the exclusion of monomorphic and uninformative markers, markers with minor allele frequencies (MAF) <0.05 and those whose variances were equal to zero was carried out in R Software (R Core Team, 2022). After QC, 5,380 high quality rAmpSeq markers were selected for use in genomic prediction.Striga count data were tested for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk test before conducting analysis of variance. Analysis of individual trials was carried out using META-R (Alvarado et al. 2020).The best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) and the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) were computed by a linear mixed model in which genotype effect was considered as fixed and random, respectively. The BLUEs were used for the genomic prediction model as input data while the random models were used to evaluate quality of individual trials. All other effects in the model were considered random. The linear mixed model used for single site analysis is as follows:where \uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC58 is the response variable; µ is an intercept; \uD835\uDC3A \uD835\uDC56 is the effect of the ith genotype; \uD835\uDC45 \uD835\uDC57 is the effect of jth replicate; \uD835\uDC35 \uD835\uDC58 (\uD835\uDC45 \uD835\uDC57 ) is the effect of the kth block within the jth replicate; while ɛ \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC58 is the experimental error associated with the ith genotype, jth replicate and kth block. We assumed ɛ~\uD835\uDC41\uD835\uDC3C\uD835\uDC3C\uD835\uDC37(0, \uD835\uDF0E \uD835\uDF00 2), where NIID is normal independent and identically distributed random variables, \uD835\uDF0E \uD835\uDF00 2 is the associated variance parameter.After individual analysis, data was analyzed combined across locations with a linear mixed model using ASReml-R version 4.2 (Butler et al. 2009). From this point, moving forward, the environment is synonymous with location. The linear mixed model fitted for the combined analysis was:where \uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC58\uD835\uDC59 is the response variable; µ is an intercept; \uD835\uDC3A \uD835\uDC56 is the effect of the ith genotype; \uD835\uDC38 \uD835\uDC57 is the effect of the jth environment; \uD835\uDC45 \uD835\uDC58 (\uD835\uDC38 \uD835\uDC57 )is the effect of the kth replicate in the jth environment;\uD835\uDC35 \uD835\uDC59 (\uD835\uDC38\uD835\uDC45) \uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC58 is the effect of the lth block within the kth replicate at the jth environment; \uD835\uDC3A\uD835\uDC38 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 is the effect of the interaction between the ith genotype and the jth environment; while ɛ \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC58\uD835\uDC59 is the experimental error associated with the ith genotype, jth environment, kth replicate and lth block where the error term is assumed to be normally, identical, and independently distributed (NIID)with mean zero and homoscedastic variance \uD835\uDF0E \uD835\uDF00 2 . All effects except μ and Ej were considered random effects.Broad sense heritability was estimated for individual and combined environments according to Hallauer et al. (2010). At individual environments, heritability was computed as:where \uD835\uDC3B \uD835\uDC4E 2 is the broad sense heritability for individual environments, \uD835\uDF0E \uD835\uDC3A 2 is the genotypic variance, \uD835\uDF0E ɛ 2 is the variance associated to the error and R is the number of replications. The heritability across environments was computed as:, where \uD835\uDC3B \uD835\uDC4F 2 is the broad sense heritability for combined environments, \uD835\uDF0E \uD835\uDC3A 2 is the genotypic variance, \uD835\uDF0E \uD835\uDC3A\uD835\uDC38 2 is the variance of the interaction between the genotype and the environment, \uD835\uDC38 is the number of environments and \uD835\uDC45 is the number of replicates, and the \uD835\uDF0E ɛ 2 is the residual variance. BLUPs obtained from the combined phenotypic analysis were used to calculate Pearson's correlation coefficients among the different traits.We computed a genomic relationship matrix (GRM) Two cross validations schemes were used to determine the prediction accuracy of the reaction norm model. Using the reaction norm model (Jarquín et al. 2014), two main prediction scenarios were considered: cross validation 1 (CV1) and cross validation 2 (CV2) (Burgueño et al. 2012).The CV1 was used to predict the performance of new lines that have not been field screened under artificial Striga infestation while CV2 sought to predict the genetic value of the lines in locations in which they have not been tested but were tested in other environments. For the computation of both CV1 and CV2 correlation values, 20% of the lines were considered as the testing set while the remaining 80% were used to train the model in 50-fold cross validations. The training data set was used to train the model while testing set was used to estimate the model prediction accuracy measured by the Pearson's correlation coefficient between observed and predicted values. For each of the 50 random partitions, prediction accuracy was computed within and across environments (locations) for all traits. The reaction norm model was fitted using the BGLR package in R (Pérez-Rodríguez and de los Campos, 2014). Inferences were based on 30,000 iterations with a thin of 10, obtained after discarding the first 15,000 iterations that were taken as burn-in.To evaluate the prediction accuracy in each environment, a third form of cross validation (CV0) involving use of phenotypic data from two environments to estimate the prediction accuracy of the model in estimating the performance of lines in the third environment was carried out. The prediction accuracy for each environment was estimated when the phenotypic data in that specific environment was treated as missing values (the testing set) using BGLR (Pérez-Rodríguez and de los Campos, 2014).In this study, we used 606 new DH lines of which 116 were crossed to two testers to generate 232 testcross hybrids that were phenotyped under artificial Striga infested conditions at three locations in Kenya. Analysis of variance at individual locations showed significant variation among hybrids 10WAP and 12WAP (Fig. 1). The Striga damage rating (SDR), at 10WAP, 12WAP, and the average SDR were highest at Siaya and lowest at Alupe (Fig. 1). The AUSNPC was lowest at Kibos and Siaya (190 m 2 ). Mean grain yield was highest at Alupe (5.3 t ha -1 ) and lowest at Siaya (3.3 t ha -1 ).Combined analysis of variance under artificial Striga infestation revealed highly significant (P < 0.001) variation among hybrids for all traits (Table 2). The G × E interaction was significant for all traits. The \uD835\uDF0E ̂\uD835\uDC3A 2 was 3 and 5 times larger than \uD835\uDF0E ̂\uD835\uDC3A\uD835\uDC38 2 for STR10WAP and STR12WAP, respectively.Broad-sense heritability was moderate to high for all Striga resistance parameters (0.38-0.65) and grain yield (0.54). The number of emerged Striga plants ranged from 4 to 126 with a mean of 8, 27 and 39 at 8, 10 and 12 WAP, respectively. The AUSNPC ranged from 59.5 to 331 m 2 with a mean of 102.2 m 2 while grain yield across locations ranged from 3.1 to 6.1 t ha -1 with an average of 4.5 t ha -1 . Significant positive correlation between the three Striga resistance parameters were revealed (Fig. 2). The correlations between the number of emerged Striga plants at 8, 10 and 12WAP and AUSNPC were high (r = 0.73-0.98). Striga damage rating showed significant negative correlation with grain yield (r = -0.73 --0.79).The 606 DH lines were genotyped with 8,439 markers of which 5,380 high quality rAmpSeq markers were used for the analysis. Three cross validation (CV) schemes were used to assess the prediction accuracy of the reaction norm model. The CV0 and CV2 were used to determine the prediction accuracy of the model when estimating the performance of previously phenotyped lines in new environments while CV1 was applied when assessing the accuracy of the model when estimating the performance of newly developed lines that have not been tested before. The results indicate moderate prediction accuracies for most traits at Kibos and Alupe (Table 3). For individual locations, Alupe showed better prediction accuracies for most traits across the three CV schemes while Siaya had the lowest prediction accuracies for the Striga resistance parameters but the highest for grain yield with CV0 (0.59) and CV2 (0.52). The prediction accuracies for grain yield were similar for CV0 and CV2 at individual locations. For across location analysis, the predictive accuracy of the model was better for CV0 compared to both CV2 and CV1 for most traits except number of emerged Striga plants at 10 and 12WAP (Table 3). Overall, the prediction accuracy of CV0 (0.24-0.59) and CV2 (0.20-0.56) was higher than that of CV1 (0.05-0.29). Grain yield generally showed better prediction accuracies (CV0 and CV2) across the trial locations compared to the Striga resistance parameters.The genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) of the lines in the testing set (TST) were computed from both marker and phenotypic data (BLUEs) of the training set (TRN) using the reaction norm model. The mean GEBVs of Striga resistance parameters and grain yield for both the TRN and TST sets across the three trial locations are presented in Fig. 3, and their distribution in Supplemental Fig. 1. The results indicated that there was a close relationship between the GEBVs in TRN and TST sets (Fig. 4). The mean GEBVs were either equal in the TRN and the TST sets for STR8WAP and STR10WAP or slightly higher in the TST compared to the TRN for the other traits except grain yield for which the mean of the TST (4.0 t ha -1 ) was lower than that of the TRN (4.26 t ha -1 ). The mean GEBV of emerged Striga plants ranged from 7.5 for STR8WAP to 35.6 for STR12WAP in the TRN and 7.5 for STR8WAP to 36.4 for STR12WAP in the TST sets (Fig. 3). Results showed that 45, 61 and 63 lines in the TRN had lower GEBVs for STR8WAP, STR10WAP and STR12WAP, respectively. On the other hand, about 50% of the lines in the TST set had lower emerged Striga plants in comparison with the mean at STR8WAP, STR10WAP and STR12WAP. The mean GEBV for Striga damage was 2.1 and 2.6 for SDR1 and SDR2, respectively in the TRN, while that of the TST was 2.2 (SDR1) and 2.7 (SDR2) (Fig. 3). The predicted GEBV of SDR ranged from 1.7 (SDR1) to -3.1 (SDR2) for the TRN and 1.8 (SDR1)to-3.1(SDR2) in the TST. A total of 27 and 144 DH lines showed lower GEBVs for SDR than the mean for the TRN and TST, respectively. In total, 56% (TRN) and 48.4% (TST) of the lines showed smaller AUSNPC than the mean GEBV. Additionally, 50 and 239 lines had higher predicted GY than the mean in the TRN and TST sets, respectively. Of the 606 DH lines, 282, 307 The testcrosses in this study were developed from a diverse set of DH lines whose pedigree included Striga-susceptible but elite mid-altitude tropical maize lines from CIMMYT and Striga resistant donor lines from IITA. The results indicated significant genotype and G × E interaction for all traits possibly due to differential responses to Striga infestation among testcrosses arising from the diverse genetic backgrounds of the lines and differences among the locations used. The differences at the locations could be attributed to climatic and edaphic factors (Menkir et al. 2012;Makumbi et al. 2015). The genetic variance was 9 and 20 times larger at 10WAP and 12WAP, respectively, than at 8WAP which corroborates with results from an earlier study (Gowda et al. 2021). This suggests that there is sufficient variability among these hybrids for Striga emergence that can be uncovered at 10 and 12 WAP and to reduce phenotyping costs at 8WAP. The genetic variance recorded in this study was larger than G × E variance, similar to the result reported by Menkir and Kling (2007) and Gowda et al. (2021). The observed large genetic variance could arise from the use of lines containing Striga resistant alleles of diverse origins (Menkir, 2011;Menkir et al. 2012) and diverse elite mid-altitude lines from CIMMYT. Furthermore, use of DH populations could have contributed to the observed larger genetic variance (Gallais, 1990).The variability observed between the number of emerged The correlation between the number of emerged Striga plants at 10 and 12 WAP and grain yield was low and non-significant. This corroborates the findings by Adewale et al. (2020), Stanley et al. (2021) and Okunlola et al. (2023) but is contrary to results by Menkir and Kling (2007) and Gowda et al. (2021). On the other hand, SDR showed significant negative correlations with grain yield, suggesting that SDR is a useful parameter for measuring Striga resistance under artificially infested conditions and could be used to select inbred lines combining lower Striga damage and higher grain yield. Correlations between two traits may be due to pleiotropy, linkage, or both, amount of linkage disequilibrium, and the effect of the environment. The low correlation between grain yield and number of emerged Striga plants at 10 and 12 WAP suggests a lack of linkage between genes controlling these traits. Parents of the inbred lines used in the present study show significant negative correlation between SDR and STR, and between grain yield and SDR, and STR under Striga infestation. It is possible that the lines derived from crosses between IITA and CIMMYT lines may not carry all the favorable alleles derived from the parental lines leading to weak correlation among these traits. Selection-induced changes can modify the genetic correlation between traits either by altering the pattern of polymorphism at loci with pleiotropic effects or by changing the linkage disequilibrium among closely linked loci (Lande, 1984). While these correlations are useful, more detailed investigations should focus on genetic correlations between various Striga resistance parameters and grain yield based on a larger data set (multiple environments and seasons), as these provide the breeder with a better understanding of the relationship among traits (pleiotropy or linkage) and could have implications for application of indirect selection in a breeding program. Genotype × environment interactions significantly influence phenotypic performance and ultimate selection potential in crops (Des et al. 2013). We used the reaction norm model which considers the epistatic effects resulting from various interactions among genotypes, markers, and the environment to estimate an individual's phenotype or its performance in new environments (Jarquín et al. 2014). Prediction of genetic values of lines in environments in which they were not tested (CV0 and CV2) resulted in low to moderate prediction accuracy. This suggests that estimation of the GEBVs of lines in new environments is possible for Striga resistance parameters and grain yield. This kind of genetic value prediction is akin to sparse testing due to the use of information on the performance of lines in correlated environments (Burgueño et al. 2012;Mageto et al. 2020). This is attributed to the ability of the reaction norm model to leverage information from relatives resulting from the interaction of genotypes within and across environments and correlated environments (Burgueño et al. 2012). The prediction accuracy for CV0, CV1 and CV2for Striga resistance parameters obtained in this study was lower than that reported by Gowda et al. (2021). However, our results indicate 14-19% better prediction accuracy for grain yield compared to Gowda et al. (2021) for the three CV schemes. These differences in results may be due to the complexity of Striga resistance, besides the differences in germplasm and prediction models used. The prediction accuracy was relatively low with the application of GS to newly developed lines (CV1). A similar finding was reported by Gowda et al. (2021) for Striga resistance in maize and by Semagn et al. (2022) for multiple disease resistance in wheat. The low prediction accuracy with CV1 is attributed to its reliance on the phenotypic values and genetic relationships of other lines (Burgueño et al. 2012;Mageto et al. 2020).The predictive power of genetic models is significantly affected by low trait heritability (Liu et al. 2018). The relatively low to moderate prediction accuracy observed for Striga resistance parameters in this study was possibly due to the low trait heritability and relatively small training population size (Heffner et al. 2011;Ornella et al. 2012). The moderate heritability for most traits may partly explain the low to moderate prediction accuracies recorded for Striga resistance parameters in this study. A positive correlation between high trait heritability and high prediction accuracy was reported for kernel zinc concentration in maize (Mageto et al. 2020). The limited TRN size was due to the limited area available for artificial Striga screening, which in turn limited the number of testcrosses that could be evaluated in the field. A large TRN set is important for increased prediction accuracy (Lorenz et al. 2012;Gowda et al. 2015;Beyene et al. 2019).However, the level of prediction accuracy achieved in this study should still allow for application of GS by removing lines with the least favorable GEBVs for key Striga resistance traits before testcrossing (Edriss et al. 2017). The moderate prediction accuracies for some traits could be attributed to the close relationship between the TRN and TST sets as well as the model used (Jarquín et al. 2017;Brandariz and Bernardo, 2019). In this study, we identified 300 lines with Breeding for Striga resistance is one of the strategies that can be used to increase maize grain yield while also contributing to reduced Striga seed bank in the soil in Striga affected regions in SSA.Maize breeding programs targeting Striga resistance are faced with a multitude of challenges which could be overcome by a combination of conventional and molecular technologies. With advances in genomic approaches and lower genotyping costs, the integration of classical and genomic-assisted breeding strategies has the potential to address some of the limitations of breeding for Striga resistance to enhance genetic gains. The application of genomic selection for the improvement of complex traits in tropical maize has been documented (Crossa et al. 2010;Vivek et al. 2017;Beyene et al. 2019Beyene et al. , 2021)). The application of DH technology for efficient inbred line development (Prasanna et al. 2012;Chaikam et al. 2019)  Our results show that there is potential to implement GS in breeding for Striga resistance in maize.The application of GS in breeding for Striga resistance should be integrated with the use of DH lines, and application of sparse phenotyping. Sparse testing has been reported to improve the efficiency of GS through optimal resource utilization and enhancement of prediction accuracy (Jarquín et al. 2020;Montesinos-López et al. 2023b). The use of sparse testing and GS in selection for target traits has been reported in wheat and maize (Jarquín et al. 2020;Atanda et al. 2022)    ","tokenCount":"5616"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7458313419.json b/data/part_6/7458313419.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"31892e105b39c5dd538d5e2adbd7396b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ec6f76ce-8690-4d49-ae50-d6ec963336c8/retrieve","id":"-622667446"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e3b11039-8ef7-46e8-b611-8b6975cb696c","pagecount":"54","content":"he vision of the World Agroforestty Centre is to achieve an agroforestty transfonnation throughout the developing world by deploying science-based tree enterprises on smallholder farms. This vision continues T to resonate well in our operating environment. The products and services of trees provide an important approach to income generation and environmental recovery in agricultural settings across the developing world.Our refreshed mission is To use science to generate knowledge on the complex role of trees in livelihoods and to foster use of this knowledge to influence decisions and practices that impact the poor. We are increasingly confident of the value of this mission in contributing to the eventual elimination of desperate poverty in the tropics.During 2006, ICRAF along with the other CGlAR Centres experienced a financial shock due to the late notification of the non-delivery of the EU funds allocated for 2006. Despite the shortfall of US Dollars 1.47million in income from the EU, the Centre's financial position as of the end of 2006 was strong. We registered an operating deficit of $0.853 million in 2006. If not for the non-delivery of the EU funds the Centre would have registered an operating surplus of USD 0.298 million. As of the end of the year, the total unrestricted net assets of the Centre were $13.0 million. This translates to 82 days of cash expenditure. Further, ICRAF's working capital at year-end was equivalent to 140 days of cash expenditure. These figures measure the long-term solvency and short-term solvency of the Centre, respectively. These indicators are above the lower thresholds recommended by the CGlAR secretariat.The 3d External Programme and Management Review of the Centre was completed in March, 2006. The review provided the Board of Trustees, management and staff of Centre, and its CGlAR stakeholders and partners, with an in-depth assessment of progress towards achieving the strategic goals of the centre. The review provided a set of constructive recommendations and suggestions for thoughtful changes in the Centre's strategy, science, management and governance. A comprehensive action plan to address the recommendations was immediately developed and has been implemented vigorously.The action plan included a process to finalize a new Strategic Plan for the Centre to 2015, and a plan to improve the performance of the Centre's senior leadership team in guiding the Centre's science and operations. Internal reviews were conducted on the processes of Centre management's support to the Board, on resource mobilization strategy and processes, and on our information and telecommunications systems. These reviews provided several recommendations that are being acted upon to further enhance our effectiveness in these areas. In addition, our risk-management framework took large strides forward during the year in helping to guide the internal direction of the Centre. The Centre's work on assessing the impact of agroforestty science advanced further during the year. These studies are helping us to measure the Centre's impact on poverty and the environment. I am very confident that our organization is headed in the right direction in addressing the new CGlAR priorities and in achieving its ultimate mission. And I am encouraged by the intellectual depth and pro-active approaches of the Centre in tackling its challenges in a rapidly evolving global environment.The Board of Trustees and Management of the World Agroforestry Centre have reviewed the implementation of the risk management framework during 2006 and the Board is satisfied with the progress made.The Board of Trustees has responsibility for ensuring that an appropriate risk management process is in place to identify and manage current and emerging significant risks to the achievement of the Centre's business objectives, and to ensure alignment with CGlAR principles and guidelines as adopted by all CGIAR Centres. These risks include operational, financial and reputation risks that are inherent in the nature, modus operandi and locations of the Centre's activities. They are dynamic owing to the environment in which the Centre operates. There is potential for loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes or systems, human factors or external events. Risks include; 0 0 0 0 low impact science (and therefore irrelevance); misallocation of scientific efforts away from agreed priorities; loss of reputation for scientific excellence and integrity; business disruption and information system failure; loss of assets, including information assets; failures to recruit, retain and effectively utilize qualified and experienced staff; failures in staff health and safety systems; failures in the execution of legal, fiduciary and Centre responsibilities and; subsidisation of the cost of projects funded from restricted grants and/or partial non-delivery The Board has adopted a risk management policycommunicated to all staff -that includes a framework by which the Centre's management identifies, evaluates and prioritises risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies which balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and periodically reports to the Board on results. This process draws upon risk assessments and analysis prepared by staff of the Centre's business unit, internal auditors, Centre-commissioned external reviewers and the external auditors. The risk assessments also incorporate the results of collaborative risk assessments with other CGlAR Centres, System Office components, and other entities in relation to shared risks arising from jointly managed activities. The risk management framework seeks to draw upon best practices, as promoted in codes and standards promulgated in a number of CGlAR member countries. It is subject to ongoing review as part of the Centre's continuous improvement efforts.Risk mitigation strategies include the implementation of systems of internal controls, which, by their nature, are designed to manage rather than eliminate risk. The Centre endeavours to manage risk by ensuring that the appropriate infrastructure, controls, systems and people are in place throughout the organization. Key practices employed in managing risks and opportunities include business environmental scans, clear policies and accountabilities, transaction approval frameworks, financial and management reporting, and the monitoring of metrics designed to highlight positive or negative performance of individuals and business processes across a broad range of key performance areas. The design and effectiveness of the risk management system and internal controls is subject to ongoing review by the Centre's internal audit service, which is independent of the business units, and which reports on the results of its audits directly to the Director General and to the Board through its Audit Committee.The Board also remains very alive to the impact of external events over which the Centre has no control nd, as the occasion arises, to provide mitigation.Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with the CGIAR's financial guidelines contained in the Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices Manual (Revised February 2006). This responsibility includes: designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies; and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. Those standards require that we comply with relevant ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement.An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on our judgement, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, we consider internal control relevant to the entity's preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity's internal control. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements.We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.Management's policy is to prepare the financial statements on the basis of the CGIAR's financial guidelines contained in the Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices Manual (Revised February 2006).In our opinion, proper books of accounts have been kept and the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the Centre's financial affairs at 3 1 December 2006 and of the results of its activities, the changes in net assets and cash flows for the year then ended and have been prepared in accordance with the CGIAR's financial guidelines contained in the Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices Manual (Revised February 2006).   The accounts are prepared under the historical cost convention.Revenue consists of Grants and other revenue:Grants are recognized as revenues only upon or until the conditions have been substantially met or the donor has explicitly waived the conditions.Grants are supports with donor-imposed conditions and are either restricted or unrestricted.Unrestricted grants are grants received which the Center may freely use for whatever purpose it may deem fit.Restricted grants are received in support of specified projects or activities mutually agreed upon by the Centre and the donors.Grants with donor-imposed restrictions only limit the use of such grants but they do not change the transaction's fundamental nature of being a conditional support.In cases where grants are received yearly in advance in accordance with the approved annual work program and budget, and where a condition to submit a statement of expenditure is imposed prior to the withdrawal from the grant account for subsequent years, grant revenue is recognized to the extent of funds actually spent.In cases wherein the Centre would deem that the donor receivable is doubtful as to its collection, then an appropriate allowance for doubtful account is provided. This is regardless of the time the Centre would decide to write-off the donor receivable. In 2006 the allowance for doubtful accounts was US 200K.Other revenue is recognized as earned.Property, plant and equipment are stated at their net book value which is acquisition cost less accumulated depreciation. Acquisition cost includes the purchase price plus cost of freight, insurance, handling charges and installation costs. Items of lasting value, which cost less than US$800, are treated as operating expenses. Subsequent expenditure, which extends the lives or enhances the operating efficiency of the assets is capitalised, if material.The cost of normal repairs and maintenance of existing fixed assets are treated as current operating expenses. Depreciation ICRAF adopts the straight-line method of depreciation over the estimated useful lives of fixed assets.Full depreciation is provided in the year of acquisition and no depreciation is provided in the year of disposal. In addition to charging annual depreciation expense, it is ICRAF's policy to provide for the future renewal of fixed assets by way of an appropriation from unrestricted net assets.Property, plant and equipment acquired from restricted funds Property, plant and equipment acquired from restricted funds are recorded as assets. Such assets are depreciated at a rate of 100% and the depreciation expense charged directly to the appropriate restricted project.Property, plant and equipment previously owned by a project is recognized in ICRAF books, at fair or appraised value, upon termination of the projectif it is expressly provided in the grant agreement that the ownership of item will be transferred to ICRAF.ICRAF's accounts are presented in United States Dollars (US$).Transactions involving currencies other than the U.S. Dollar are recorded in the books in U.S. dollars at the exchange rate prevailing on the date of transaction. Monetary assets and liabilities in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar are restated to the prevailing exchange rate at year-end. Any resulting exchange differences are included in Other Revenues in the statement of activities.Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and net replacement value. In general, cost is determined on a weighted average basis. Net replacement value is the price at which the stock can be bought at the balance sheet date. Goods in transit are stated at cost. Provision is made for obsolete, slow moving and defective stock.Full provision is made for gratuity payable to employees at the end of their contracts. Provisions are also made in respect of outstanding leave days accruing to all staff and all staff repatriation costs. (See note 70 Page 72)The government of Kenya has undertaken to exempt the Centre from all local taxes including customs duty on goods and services received by the Centre. Consequently, the Centre does not account for tax in its financial statements.Surplus funds are invested in fixed deposits and in US dollar short-term money market instruments, which are carried at market value.Account receivables are carried at the original amount less an estimate made for doubtful receivables based on a review of all outstanding amounts at year-end.Bad debts are written off in the year in which they are identified.Overhead costs recovery represents the overhead costs recovered from restricted projects based on the rates agreed and as stated in each project document with donors. The cost ratios presented in Exhibit 3 have been computed on the provisions of CGlAR financial Guidelines 5. ICRAF operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all its regular nationally recruited employees. The scheme is administered by an insurance company, and is funded by contributions from ICRAF and its employees. ICRAF's contributions to the pension scheme are charged to operating expenses in the year to which they relate.There are no contingent liabilities at the year end.               ","tokenCount":"2225"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7474480404.json b/data/part_6/7474480404.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..60790d58afc0488bfa3097b2a56a80ecd27ebc61
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"82b068a6066697afa9c039069a2a14b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b274ab22-c6fe-45f2-a130-aed061306a2e/retrieve","id":"763605117"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1304e944-733a-429f-9c51-c2312675b06f","pagecount":"1","content":"Food safety research for development in sub-Saharan Africa: Tapping the expertise of German partners Background • Global burden of foodborne diseases is equivalent to that of HIV/Aids or tuberculosis or malaria;• Up to 90% due to microbes in perishable foods;• More than 80% perishables are sold in informal markets where actors are not trained, not licensed, not paying taxes;• Lack of data on hazards, burden and exposure;• Policies are currently hazard-based.• Informal markets are integral to food, nutrition and job security in sub-Saharan Africa;• Although hazards are often common in informal markets risk to human health is not necessarily high;• Risks in the informal food chains have been under-researched and need attention;• Risks vary and may not be as serious as perceived: food safety policy should be based on evidence not perceptions;• Participatory methods are useful in studying food safety risks in informal food chains;• Simple interventions could lead to substantial improvements: potable water, electricity, training, standards, appropriate hygienic supervision etc.;• Food safety needs a multi-disciplinary (OneHealth) and multi-sectoral approach;• Comprehensive, jointly developed and implemented policies are prerequisites for food safety assurance.• >200 key stakeholders from >35 institutions in 12 countries trained on the concepts of risk-based approaches and (participatory) risk assessment;• >30 food safety practitioners, students and scientists were trained in specific laboratory methods for hazard identification, at German partner institutes or in their home countries;• Best bet interventions tested;• Field isolates archived in German partner institutes;• >15 joint peer-reviewed journal publications and >200 other joint outputs.Kristina Roesel • k.roesel@cgiar.org November 2017ILRI thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR systemThe Safe Food, Fair Food project aims to improve the livelihoods of poor producers and consumers by reducing the health risks and increasing the livelihood benefits associated with meat, milk and fish value chains in sub-Saharan Africa.The project was implemented from 2008-2015 and funded by BMZ/GIZ.Please visit us at safefoodfairfood.ilri.org Kristina Roesel, Kohei Makita and Delia Grace","tokenCount":"326"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7484011163.json b/data/part_6/7484011163.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c9dc1478e2adb29ae2614a425652a285e8a8c269
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aec80383fd65a21272c5d0655def8bec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8a487eda-d274-4105-a8f6-6c478391a535/retrieve","id":"341830046"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31ee65ff-1a33-431d-80be-69391a21fcf0","pagecount":"1","content":"instituciones MTA (Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas) son espacios de diálogo entre una diversidad de actores locales incluyendo científicos, técnicos, representantes del sector público, privado y agricultores que busca comprender el posible comportamiento del clima en una localidad y generar recomendaciones para disminuir los riesgos asociados a la variabilidad climática esperada.\"Ahora en diciembre los agricultores siembran papa, maíz y arveja, se comenzó a identificar granos que requieren menos agua, nos toca mirar en qué época llueve y para eso utilizamos el reporte de la MTA.\" Promotor PICSA y agricultor, Boyacá -ColombiaEquipo técnico de campo, Federación de cooperativas para el Desarrollo (Fecodesa), Somotillo -NicaraguaSe ha establecido un espacio de alfabetización científica (homologación de conocimientos y proceso de aprendizaje) que democratiza el conocimiento agroclimático.Se ha construido una alianza interinstitucional en los territorios que favorecen la adaptación del riesgo de las familias productoras debido a la variabilidad climática, con la creación y el fortalecimiento de programas, proyectos y acciones a nivel nacional y local.Las familias productoras adaptan sus prácticas tomando decisiones basadas en la información que reciben sobre la variabilidad climática en su territorio, reduciendo pérdidas y aumentando en algunos casos la rentabilidad por hectárea. Como resultado de dicho diálogo, se genera un boletín agroclimático que contiene la predicción climática, su posible impacto en los cultivos para condiciones específicas en tiempo y espacio, asociado a recomendaciones como toma de decisión para cada rubro productivo.Las predicciones climáticas, son generadas en consenso con el servicio meteorológico de cada país y los grupos de agro meteorología existentes de las instituciones, con el fin de identificar las mejores prácticas de adaptación a los fenómenos climáticos, en un trabajo conjunto con técnicos y productores locales por medio del Boletín Agroclimático Local. ","tokenCount":"281"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7529107693.json b/data/part_6/7529107693.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5fc524f8636617502aaf569f037f343e5ac64765
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b04b7833b85edea5d3f12656a5872d13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ba2e7aaf-2eec-47dc-85be-797449a3cdfa/retrieve","id":"1892335707"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e16d8b8a-f72c-4d1a-b348-920f728f48c5","pagecount":"1","content":"El Programa de Recursos Genéticos (PRG) del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) conserva la mayor y más diversa colección de yuca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) del mundo (Fig. 1). Esta colección conservada en forma in vitro actualmente está conformada por 6,643 materiales: 5,352 materiales de yuca cultivada procedentes de 28 países, 883 materiales de especies silvestres del género Manihot (33 especies) y 408 materiales mejorados por el CIAT. Estos materiales han sido registrados en el Sistema Multilateral de Acceso y Distribución de Beneficios del Tratado Internacional sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura y deben estar disponibles para su distribución a usuarios de todo el mundo, por esto es muy importante asegurar la calidad De acuerdo a la cantidad y calidad del ADN y ARN obtenido, se estableció que la metodología de extracción más adecuada para el diagnóstico de patógenos es la metodología de CTAB. Además se determinó que la cantidad óptima de ARN, para la síntesis de ADNc y lograr una buena detección del virus, fue dentro del rango de 1.8 -4 µg. Por otro lado el uso de controles internos permitió confirmar en cada una de las muestras la existencia de ADNc (Figura 2).El diagnóstico de Fitoplasma 16SrIII-L, mediante las técnicas de qPCR y LAMP usando el equipo rotor gen Q, permitió realizar una evaluación más rápida y sensible (Figura 4). Sin embargo al comparar estas dos metodologías se confirmó que la técnica LAMP es una herramienta más sensible que la qPCR (Tabla 3). Con la implementación de estas metodologías se ha evaluado gran parte de la colección de yuca, siendo el 88 % para los virus descritos y el 40 % para Fitoplasma 16SrIII-L, con un porcentaje de accesiones negativas del 80 y 30 % respectivamente (Tabla 4). sanitaria en el movimiento de este germoplasma, el cual, debe estar libre de enfermedades de tipo cuarentenario. Esta certificación sanitaria se hace en el Laboratorio de Sanidad de Germoplasma (LSG) en donde se realiza la detección serológica del Virus Común de la Yuca (CsCMV), Virus X de la Yuca (CsXV) y la detección por técnicas moleculares de los virus: Cassava frogskin associated virus (CsFSaV), Cassava new alphaflexivirus (CsNAV), Cassava polero-like virus (CsPLV), Cassava Torrado-like virus (CsTLV) (Cuervo et. al., 2006;Calvert et al., 2008;Carvajal et al., 2014) y el Fitoplasma 16srIII-L (Álvarez et al., 2009) patógenos asociados a la enfermedad de cuero de sapo. Este estudio presenta la implementación y estandarización de técnicas moleculares como la PCR convencional, qPCR (PCR en tiempo real), y la técnica de amplificación isotérmica LAMP. El objetivo es cada día usar metodologías más sensibles, confiables y eficientes que nos permitan realizar un intercambio de germoplasma de yuca con mayor seguridad.La estandarización e implementación de la metodología de RT-PCR para la detección de los virus CsFSaV, CsNAV, CsPLV, y CsTLV, permitió realizar un diagnóstico más rápido, sensible y confiable en comparación con otras utilizadas anteriormente (Figura 3).• Extracción de ARN de doble cadena (dsRNA) (Cuervo, 1989) • Juego de cebadores específicos para cada virus (Tabla 2).• Evaluación de un gen endógeno como control interno.• Fitoplasma 16SrIII-L -qPCR y LAMP Para ambas técnicas se utilizaron diferentes juegos de cebadores específicos en distintas regiones: Para qPCR la región rpIII y una sonda TaqMan, y para LAMP la región 16SrIII (Tabla 1).Las accesiones con resultados positivos, fueron secuenciadas y analizadas por medio de la herramienta bioinformática BLAST, con el fin de determinar el porcentaje de identidad con las secuencias del genebank. b.CsNAV 1600bpCsTLV RNA1 850BP RNA2 720BPPoster presentado en el XXV Congreso de la Sociedad Chilena de Fitopatología, XIX Congreso Latinoamericano de Fitopatología, LVII Meeting of APS Caribbean Division, Termas de Chillán, Chillán, Chile, 2-5 de octubre de 2017.","tokenCount":"612"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7581364105.json b/data/part_6/7581364105.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cf0e9016ba2d140eedd91d3714730a81e3a3ff17
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fab6d99f38d11da491d67dd3600e7556","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3eb73a26-4760-496c-aca9-366aedfff4c3/retrieve","id":"286798688"},"keywords":["Climate services","Capacity building","Regional organizations","Africa","Smallholder farmers"],"sieverID":"ee78f102-5919-4b4d-b2fa-eaf1ef8f4ea6","pagecount":"23","content":"www.ccafs.cgiar.org. CCAFS Workshop Reports aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community. Published by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).CCAFS is a strategic partnership of the CGIAR and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future.of good practice in farmer-focused climate information and advisory services, and to share elements of good practice in food security contingency planning.Discussions highlighted two key constraints to achieving the potential benefits of climate services for smallholder farming and pastoralist communities across Africa. The first is limited capacity to produce relevant climate information that is tailored to the needs of farmers, at a scale that is relevant to farm decision-making. The second is limited capacity to communicate climate-related information effectively, in a manner that farmers can incorporate into their decision-making. Organizations present at the workshop offer several promising innovations that have potential to overcome some of the critical gaps in the production and communication of climate-related information for farmers. Gaps in capacity to produce farmer-relevant climate information are closely linked to gaps in capacity to work with farming communities to communicate the information effectively and support its use.Financial investments and capacity-development efforts should address these gaps in parallel.National meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) have the mandate to produce weather and climate information; but institutions in the agriculture sector are generally better positioned to translate raw climate information into decision-relevant information and advisories, and to communicate that information with farmers. If climate services are to work for farmers, they must therefore be developed and implemented jointly by NMHS and agricultural technical institutions. This may require new institutional arrangements at the national level. Regional institutions, such as African Climate Policy Center (ACPC), IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC) and AGRHYMET Regional Center, are  (d) initiate a collective process toward regional roadmaps for strengthening and scaling-up climate information and advisory services for agriculture and food security in sub-Saharan Africa.The first thematic presentation was given by Tufa Dinku from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). The presentation highlighted how the Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative is working on delivering climate information to farmers. In his presentation, Tufa emphasized that the main focus of ENACTS is to create reliable climate information products for local decision-making. The initiative strives to simultaneously improve availability, access and use of climate information and works with NMHS by combining station data with satellite in order to develop improved and targeted products.Currently, phase one of ENACTS has been implemented in eight countries: Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia. Moving forward the project will extend to Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Mozambique. The next phase of the project will be more sector specific focusing on areas such as agriculture, water, disaster, and health among others. Tufa's presentation is available on SlideShare: ENACTS: A new technical innovation to meet climate information needs Questions and comments:• How do you select the countries to work in? Some of the requests are from the countries and some are selected by the project. Selection is mainly informed by interest from stakeholders and availability of funding.• Is the monitoring bit of ENACTS using satellite or ground station data? It uses both combined forms of data.The second presentation, given by John Gathenya from the University of Reading, focused mainly on the Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) project being undertaken by CCAFS and University of Reading. The project was piloted successfully in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and also in West Africa. John emphasized that the success of the project depends on the capacity of the national meteorological services to produce and share relevant climate information products. The project works with farmers by enabling their capacity to collect weather data that can be used for planning and making farm level decisions. The private sector is also critical for up scaling and out scaling successful practices.A training manual for intermediaries that documents how to communicate climate information with smallholder farmers has been developed and is available for download and use (PDF).View John's presentation on SlideShare: Emerging opportunities to deliver relevant climate information and services to small holder farmers at scale.• Farmers are not experts in climate science, how can we communicate climate information in a user-friendly manner? What should constitute the components of climate information packages using languages that smallholder farmers can understand? A long time ago, the agro-meteorological divisions were very strong but these seem to have disappeared.However, we now need to create other entities to develop information products. Another challenge is that the agrometeorology units are usually very small and under staffed. At the same time, the capacity of meteorological experts with knowledge on agriculture needs to be strengthened. There is also need to build the capacity of the extension services to enable them to scale out climate information.• Is PICSA also engaging with universities and training centers? There is need to explore how training in climate services and information can be mainstreamed into the curriculum of institutions of higher learning. Clearly, researchers need to engage more education institutions.• There is need to build the capacity of the meteorological institutions so that they can have more confidence in the information they are sharing. For example even though ICPAC has been working with meteorological services in Kenya to develop information products, they have observed elements of lack of confidence in the data and information being generated by the stations. Forecasts have certain levels of uncertainty and this is what makes the meteorological colleagues lack confidence. The PICSA project tries to address this by using historical data to build a case for decision-making.• How reliable is the data being produced at the local level? There is need to undertake processes to validate this data. The more the data is used in the new and emerging approaches, the more quality will be enhanced.• How will all these new approaches and products being developed by different partners be integrated and how will the products be operationalized for example the map rooms? The meteorological services have the capacity to roll out climate products and information.However, they may not have the capacity to integrate this in the agriculture sector.The third presentation was given by Jim Hansen, who leads CCAFS Flagship 2: Climate Information Services and Climate-Informed Safety Nets. Jim pointed out that historical data is a key component in developing climate services and information products given the challenge with access to current data. The ENACTS project therefore opens up new possibilities for meteorological services to provide information for different sectors. As a way forward, CCAFS and partners seek to develop participatory approaches for sharing information with millions of farmers. Notably, scaling up requires the participation of different partners.CCAFS also seeks to develop training manuals on participatory approaches that can mainstream climate information at institutions of higher learning such as universities. He also pointed out that new information and communication technologies (ICTs), like mobile phones, can be used to extend and support human interactions in sharing information. The full presentation is available on SlideShare: CCAFS Strategy for Climate Services.Questions and comments:• How are the meteorological centers working together to share learning experiences?There are some interactions with the different regional climate centers. These regional centers such as ICPAC, AGRHYMET etc. also provide opportunities for training national climate centers. For instance the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also provides opportunities for capacity building.• How are the players in the climate information systems working together for instance PICSA, ENACTS and others to ensure that the objectives are achieved? It was observed that ACPC provides an ideal platform to coordinate these initiatives. CCAFS seeks to be a broker that brings these initiatives together however this is challenging when climate institutions and meteorological institutions decline to share information to ensure they get funding. So donors also need to communicate to identify areas of synergy and to avoid overlapping of efforts.• • Through ICPAC and Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF) meteorologists and climate forecasters are brought together to develop forecasts for the region. There are also capacity building initiatives at national levels through training of trainers programs. Therefore, as a way forward, capacity-building resources can be channeled through regional centers, which have the capacity to share information to national scales.• Does the information generated by GHACOF consider the historical perspective? This can be an entry point for initiatives such as ENACTS to refine the routine products.• How are the outlooks monitored and evaluated? ICPAC is working to improve information sharing by including different users/ stakeholders in sectors such as agriculture, health, transport etc. They develop information for early warning, for example, El Niño; and they ensure that they share information with the Ministers of finance and disaster who prepare response strategies. The first presentation under this session, by Jasper Mwesigwa from ICPAC, focused on how regional institutions such as ICPAC develop tailor made forecasts for different sectors including agriculture. He also explained how farmers use GHACOF products such as through land preparation, selection of seeds etc. He also mentioned some of the tools which are being customized at ICPAC. The full presentation is available on SlideShare: Challenges and opportunities in sharing early warning information and supporting specific sector applications to enable Africa cope with risks associated with extreme climate variability and change.Questions and comments:• Is the institution undertaking data rescue for ICPAC or for member states? Data rescue is being done for member states and they use this information to update what they have at ICPAC.• Do you have thresholds for disease outbreaks? They have not yet developed thresholds for disease outbreak. There are decision support tools that can advise on this but it is a difficult exercise.• What are the challenges that the institution is facing that hamper the delivery of climate services? ICPAC is supposed to build the capacity of member states; however the institution lacks the capacity to undertake this efficiently. ICPAC relies on colleagues from the universities to undertake the climate modeling activities. In terms of agriculture, the unit is also understaffed so there is need to enhance the capacity in this unit. In terms of dissemination they rely only on the Internet.• What determines the selection of the tools and methods applied by ICPAC? ICPAC works with researchers from all over the world such as IRI, Universities, etc.; it is through these engagements that the institution identifies the tools to apply.• How do you harmonize the data collected from different countries? There are two data managers; one requests for the data while the other ones reviews the data. The reviewer then goes through the data to identify any gaps. However, they receive little data compared to the number of meteorological stations in the member states.• What is the current agreement in place with the national meteorological service? There is an MOU and also the protocol signed under the IGAD framework. The MOU harnesses the capacity building initiatives with the different member states. In his presentation, Didace Musoni from the Rwanda Meteorological Agency pointed out key challenges faced by national meteorological institutions. There is the issue of uncontrolled business using climate information. Another challenge is the financial and logistical challenges for gathering climate information. As a way forward he emphasized the need for experts to build the capacity of national institutions.Session 3: Regional roadmaps for strengthening agricultural climate servicesTo initiate discussion on developing regional roadmaps for scaling-up climate information, Justus Kabyemera from the ClimDev-Special Funds/AfDB highlighted some of the key In order to identify entry points and areas of collaboration for the different institutions, the meeting first identified the key gaps in the design, delivery, and effective use of climate services for smallholder farmers -at scale:• Data, if available, is not of good quality. In some cases it is not available, and in some cases it's insufficient. For the agricultural sector specifically, there is need for data on parameters such as: potential evapotranspiration, soil moisture, solar radiation and relative humidity.• Regarding tools and methods, it was pointed out that there are quite a number of different tools available, but there is lack of capacity to use the tools.• There is need for advanced technologies for the collection and dissemination of data.• Human observation is significantly different from the automated data.• Need for capacity to translate or use climate information to develop practical solutions or recommendations -merging theory and practice.• Need for a protocol or manual that explains how to apply different climate information products in a language that can be understood by the farmers.• Need to undertake statistical analysis of the risks of the effects of different climate forecasts -PICSA has been addressing this challenge.• While existing databases can be used to address the gaps in data, there is need to make use of these databases to see how useful they are.• Need for documentation on how to analyze, package and share information with smallholder farmers for instance training materials and manuals -these should target extension workers who work with farmers.• Coordinating resources being invested in climate services -there is need to understand what other institutions are doing in order to share learning. There was a suggestion that the meteorological institutions should take leadership in the coordination efforts.• Need to use channels that users trust for example in some countries like northern Zambia farmers trust input providers to provide reliable climate information.• Need to link climate information with market information including post-harvest losses in order to allow governments to make decisions on stocks and food reserves.• Develop near-term or real time weather forecast products that can enable farmers predict the occurrence of pests and diseases in crops and livestock.• Address the capacity of users to make use of the information itself -for example smallholder farmers may not have the capacity to use the information appropriately. Also it is critical to find out whether farmers have the capacity to apply the recommendations given in the advisories for example can they afford drought resistant seeds. It was emphasized that farmers have the capacity to understand or implement options that are of value for them and in some cases farmers also opt not to take up recommendations as provided.• Farmers need information that has been added value -need for an interphase between providing information as a warning or alert and developing actionable information.Participants generally agreed on several key issues:• Gaps in capacity to produce farmer-relevant information are closely linked to gaps in capacity to communicate the information effectively and support its use with farmers.They must be developed in parallel.• The climate information that NMHS provide must be translated into more relevant information, e.g., management options, predictions of pest and disease risk, market impacts, post-harvest management. The relevant expertise resides in National Agricultural Research and Extension System (NARES) but not NMHS.• Agrometeorology, and particularly the capacity to analyze raw data to translate it into decision-relevant \"indexes\" and analyze in terms of risk, is under-developed in most African NMHS.• Likewise, agrometeorology needs to be strengthened within agricultural extension staff.• To the degree that they are functional, translation and communication is best done through agricultural extension services.• In general, farmers are most able to use climate-related information and advisories when it comes through the sources of information that they already know and trust.• If climate services are to work for farmers, the must be developed and implemented jointly by NHMS and agricultural technical institutions. This may require creating new institutional arrangements at the national level.• The majority of effort is likely to be from NARES rather than NMHS.• However, funding for climate services often targets NMHS but overlooks the capacity gaps outside of NMHS.• Capacity to deliver useful climate services to farmers can be facilitated by short training for agricultural extension and other intermediaries.• To sustain this, it should be formalized both at the university level, and in agricultural extension professional development programs.• Investment in capacity to communicate climate information effectively should combine efforts to build capacity of extension/intermediaries, with ICT communication platforms.• Good tools and methods are available to strengthen both the supply of farmer-relevant climate information products, and the capacity to communicate climate services effectively with farmers. Presentations addressed some. They would benefit from further development, but could be quickly applied at scale.• Different business models are needed for NMHS. This needs good evidence on the returns on investing in NMHS.• The discussion also included the adverse impact of requiring NMHS to sell observation data to raise revenue, and economic evidence that could challenge this. Meteo-Rwanda, which was represented in the meeting, is unique among African NHMS in that it has an open data policy.• Participants discussed the kinds of information that might improve the targeting and coordination of investments in climate services. This would include a typology of the different components of climate services that may cause bottlenecks and be targets for investment, inventories of capacity and gaps in each of those components, and costbenefit analysis of investment to overcome the gaps in the different components.ACPC (not present) does analytical and economic work to guide investment in climate services across sectors. ACPC is also positioned to advocate for the role of climate services in national development policy, and to convene different donors and foster coordination.(Apparently WB has already convened a process for coordinating across donors.)CCAFS is working on understanding the gaps that need to be addressed for climate services to work for farmers, and is partnering with others to develop methods and tools to address capacity gaps in both the supply of farmer-relevant climate information (e.g., through ENACTS) and communication with farmers (e.g., through PICSA+). CCAFS is working with partners (including GFCS) in several African countries to develop climate services for farmers, at national and pilot scales. CCAFS plans to partner with ACPC on economic evidence and guidance for investment in climate services.AfDB, through the ClimDev-Africa special fund, invests primarily in capacity of climate science, meteorological institutions, but about 20% of its funds target local-scale adaptation.Some of this could be used to build capacity to deliver climate services to smallholder farmers.ICPAC is partnering with several existing initiatives to strengthen its regional support for climate services for farmers, though improving data, tools, interpretation and dissemination.Its work on developing more farmer-relevant climate information includes work with gridded historic meteorological records, and testing statistical downscaling options. ICPAC would like to develop regional on-line information \"maprooms\" targeting the agriculture sector.ICPAC suggested developing additional climate outlook forums to communicate information more effectively for the agriculture sector, and plans to support farmer climate field schools with Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO).Discussions highlighted two key constraints to achieving the potential benefits of climate services for smallholder farming and pastoralist communities across Africa. The first is limited capacity to produce relevant climate information that is tailored to the needs of farmers, at a scale that is relevant to farm decision-making. The second is limited capacity to communicate climate-related information effectively, in a manner that farmers can incorporate into their decision-making.Organizations present at the workshop offer several promising innovations that have potential to overcome some of the critical gaps in the production and communication of climate-related information for farmers.Gaps in capacity to produce farmer-relevant climate information are closely linked to gaps in capacity to work with farmers to communicate the information effectively and support its use.Financial investments and capacity-development efforts should address these gaps in parallel.NMHSs have the mandate to produce weather and climate information; but institutions in the agriculture sector are generally better positioned to translate raw climate information into decision-relevant information and advisories, and to communicate that information to farmers.If climate services are to work for farmers, they must therefore be developed and implemented jointly by NMHSs and agricultural technical institutions. This may require new institutional arrangements at the national level.Regional institutions, such as ACPC, ICPAC and AGRHYMET, are well positioned to assist national governments to strengthen climate services that can benefit smallholder farmers -at scale. The workshop provided an opportunity to advance discussions about collaboration toward strengthening climate services for agriculture in Africa, through regional organizations and processes.Additional reading: coordinating climate services with key institutions in Africa","tokenCount":"3354"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"57de77a03cced0db050f0108407dade0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e6bc81a5-efe3-4379-aa0d-9585287085c2/retrieve","id":"-875263074"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3dd33150-fe17-41fe-bf14-313e5d574278","pagecount":"12","content":"The creation of new cattle breeds to increase milk production was started in India as early as 1856 when the Taylor breed was formed by crossing zebu with the Jersey breed (Sinha, 1951). The advantages and disadvantages of cross-breeding cattle were the subject of interesting debates in the past. The debates covered such subjects as which breeds were to be employed, the level of exotic inheritance to which the local nondescript zebu animals were to be upgraded and the selection policies to be adopted. By the late 1970s, the National Commission for Agriculture had issued general guidelines to maintain the level of exotic inheritance at approximately 50 percent in cross-breeding programmes, The F1 progeny in these programmes were found to perform better than subsequent generations and, furthermore, it was easier to work with the exotic inheritance level of 50 percent for practical reasons.The state of Kerala is located in southwestern India. Traditionally, Keralites kept cattle for their agricultural operations and for the production of manure. This resulted in the formation of a small, nondescript type of cattle that is hardy, resistant to disease and adapted to the hot and humid environment. Unfortunately, their milk yield is only around 400 kg (Patel, 1976). Even under well-managed conditions a superior strain of local cows yields only 793 kg per lactation (Nair, 1973). Adult body weight of this nondescript cattle is estimated to be about 250 kg.In 1963, the bilateral project Indo-Swiss Project Kerala (ISPK) -now named Kerala Livestock Development Board (KLDB) -was started to develop a new breed of cattle through cross-breeding as well as to establish a dairy-based agriculture in the high ranges of Kerala, with approximately 2 000 farmers participating. For the first time in the country, the deep-frozen semen technique for preserving cattle semen was introduced. ISPK introduced the right technology at the appropriate time and adapted it to suit the needs of the area at that time.The Key Village Scheme, which started in Kerala with a small proportion of the breedable female cattle population, was the beginning of the breeding programme. By 1980, this programme had expanded very quickly, covering the entire breedable cattle population of 1.8 million through various other projects. The positive response of the farmers, coupled with intensive extension work and supported by a smooth-running technical programme, made it possible to achieve fruitful results from artificial insemination (AI). This intensive cattle-breeding programme resulted in a substantial change in the structure of the cattle population. A review of various livestock census figures indicates that the population is being transformed into one with a higher number of cross-bred cattle.The shift to cross-bred cattle has increased in the last few years. In 1992, the estimated proportion of cross-bred cattle among breedable females was 56 percent. The ratio of adult males to adult females had shifted from 30:70 in 1966 to 8:92 in 1987, indicating the reduced use of working males and the increased use of milking cows.The origins of the Sunandini in India can be traced to the importation of 22 Brown Swiss bulls and 45 cows during the period from 1964to 1967(Crettenand and Chacko, 1976, personal communication). The bulls were mated to a nucleus stock of 140 nondescript cows. Subsequently, semen from 11 more bulls was imported.Information collected from various sources indicates that about 40 Jersey bulls were used in the cross-breeding programme. Most of these bulls were of Australian or New Zealand origin. Table I gives an account of the exotic bulls involved in the breeding programme. The KLDB imported two consignments of exotic bull semen for the production of F1 bulls. These included Jersey, American Brown Swiss and Holstein. The major component of zebu in the Sunandini breed is the local nondescript cattle of Kerala, even though one or two attempts have been made to introduce Sahiwal, Gir and Kankrej into the population. Cows of these breeds were employed for the production of F. bulls. Their impact on the Sunandini population was not significant. It can be seen later on in the article that the Sunandini breed is currently undergoing changes with respect to its objective, genetic content and characteristics. Originally conceived as a multipurpose breed for milk, draught and meat, it is now becoming solely a milk breed.While drawing up the characteristics of the breed, importance was given mainly to its economic, rather than phenotypic, characteristics. This was all that was possible because of the mixture of different exotic breeds in this synthetic breed. Before the original Brown Swiss cross -type of animal was mixed with Jersey and later Holstein blood, it had a uniform phenotypic appearance with a short flat head, small ears, short thick horns projecting outwards and curving inwards and a body colour ranging from light grey to black. With the introduction of the Jersey and Holstein inheritance, however, the phenotypic appearance of the Sunandini has become heterogeneous. The only phenotypic characteristic that can now be considered typical to the Sunandini is the straight back and comparatively short flat head. The colour varies from different shades of grey to brown (see Photograph below).The breed characteristics that have been fixed for the cows are (Chacko and Jose, 1988):• mature body weight of 350 to 400 kg;• age at first calving from 28 to 32 months;• first lactation milk yield of 2 300 to 2 700 kg;• overall lactation yield of 3 200 kg;• milk fat percentage of 4.In order to register the animals of the Sunandini breed in a herd book, attempts are being made to form a Sunandini Breeders' Association.In line with the recommendations of the Committee to Evaluate and Formulate Livestock Breeding Programmes and Policies in the State of Kerala, the breeding policy for the Sunandini has been redefined. The present policy is aimed at creating a new synthetic breed out of a cross-bred population with exotic inheritance of around 50 percent from Jersey, Brown Swiss and or Holstein.Young bulls are produced by mating superior Sunandini cows maintained in the nucleus farms with proven bulls; mating superior Sunandini cows maintained by farmers in the milk-recorded area with proven Sunandini bulls; and mating local nondescript zebu cows with superior Jersey/Holstein or American Brown Swiss bulls.All of the young bulls are progeny tested in the milk-recorded area and only the top ones are employed for production of the next generation of bulls. Chacko (1980) has shown that such a programme brings about a genetic progress equal to that of a sire-selection programme, where 50 percent of the bulls tested are employed for AI. However, if the selection intensity is increased to 25 percent, there can be a substantial increase in genetic gains (Chacko, Angehrn and Gopakumar, 1992).With regard to the local cows, Jersey and Holstein bulls are used to produce a half-bred population. The breeding plan for the development of the Sunandini cattle is summarized in Table 2. This table is based on the population growth expected in Sunandini and local cattle, employing the average figures for annual coverage, calving interval and number of doses of semen required to produce a calf The breeding plan of Sunandini cattle also envisages producing Sunandini bull semen for sale to the neighbouring states of India. Breeding operations in the Sunandini breed-improvement programmes comprise bull selection, frozen semen production and AI.Bull selection programmes. The ISPK and later the KLDB attached great importance to the genetic selection and methodical use of Sunandini bulls. Up until 1976, bulls were selected based on their pedigree. Superior dams were mated with nominated selected Sunandini bulls to produce the young bulls.A selection index (Most Probable Production Ability) for bull mothers was developed based on the standard lactation milk yield, age at calving and calving interval corrected for the herd, year and seasonal effects (Kunzi, 1984).The KLDB started a progeny testing programme in 1977 to estimate the breeding value of cross-bred bulls based on the milk recordings of farmers' cows. All the young crossbred bulls were progeny tested before their large-scale introduction into the AI programme. The programme is -one where the genetic superiority of the proven bulls reaches the population through their sons. This means that the bulls used for AI are young bulls, whereas their sires are proven bulls. On average, 40 bulls are tested annually. The comparative merits of the young bull programme and the progeny testing programme, where 40 and 80 bulls are tested, respectively, are given in Table 3. Some of the specific problems facing the progeny testing programme of cross-bred bulls under tropical conditions are:• the long generation interval;• the substandard reproductive performance of the crossbred bulls;• difficulties in establishing and running a field milk-recording system because the herds are small and scattered;• difficulties in assessing the management offered to the daughters;• difficulties in tracing the parentage of the bulls and daughters.Only 10 percent of the tested bulls are selected as bull fathers. These are employed for nominated mating of the elite cows. The expected genetic gain of such a programme is approximately 19 kg per year. The milk yield data from the field over the years have indicated a realized gain greater than this. The results of the milk recording in the field are dealt with later under \"Milk production in the recorded herd\". Conducting a field milkrecording programme in a developing country has many special features as does a progeny testing programme in a tropical situation with zebu x taurus cross-bred bulls. These special issues are discussed in detail by Chacko et al. (1985) and Chacko and Jose (1988).Unlike with Bos taurus breeds in European situations, the results of the progeny tests are only available when the bulls are more than ten years old because of the delayed maturity of the Sunandini breed. Table 4 gives details of the average age of bulls at different stages of the progeny testing programme.  Frozen semen production. It has been found that the reproductive performance of cross-bred bulls is inferior to that of pure breeds. The fates of 1 283 Sunandini male calves born to elite cows either on the nucleus farm or on private farms for elite cows are consolidated in Table 6. It can be seen that 30.5 percent of the animals were culled before training for semen production and 42.5 percent were culled during the training period. This means that only 27 percent of the bull calves born reach the semen production age. The average age of Sunandini bulls at training and semen production is 20.8 and 24.5 months, respectively. Their average annual semen production, according to year of production, is shown in Table 7. As shown, the maximum number of semen doses is obtained in the third year of production, with a minimum coefficient of variation between bulls. Semen production decreases after the third year of production.Growth performance Growth of females. The live body weights and body measurements of the females in the nucleus stock are listed in Table 8. The average birth weight of female calves in the nucleus herd is 28.3 kg. They grow at a rate of 378 g per day up to 12 months and at 333 g per day from 12 to 24 months. The coefficient of variation for live body weight remains at around 16 percent throughout their lives, indicating a uniform growth rate among the stock. It can be seen that an adult Sunandini cow weighs 375 kg, with a heart girth of 163 cm and a withers height of 120 cm. Their body weight is generally higher than that reported earlier for different grades of Brown Swiss cross-breeds kept in the same herd (Nair, 1973).The live body weights and body measurements of the male stock on the nucleus farm are shown in Table 9. The males are 2 kg heavier at birth than the females and they are 53 percent heavier than the females at four years of age. A study conducted by KLDB (1989) revealed that the animals that started semen production at the age of 700 days or less grew faster than those starting semen production at ages above 701 days. The difference in average body weight of the two groups et the age of 24 months was found to be 38 kg, even though their birth weights did not differ significantly.The parameters of the reproductive performance of the Sunandini females studied in the nucleus stock are presented in Table 10. Although the reproductive performance of the Sunandini females is higher than that of the dairy breeds of temperate regions, it is in agreement with figures reported for other zebu x taurus cross-breeds of tropical regions (Acharya, 1970;Bhat, Taneja and Garg, 1978). It can also be seen that the age at first calving and the calving interval of the Sunandini are significantly shorter than their zebu parental stock (Nair, 1973;Menzi, Kropf and Von Siebenthal, 1982).The average first calving age of 21 305 privately owned cows, controlled from 1983 to 1991, was 42.17 months (standard error 0.07).The milk production performance of Sunandini cows has been studied in the nucleus herd and under field conditions (milk-recording area).Milk production in the nucleus herd. The production particulars of the Sunandini cows maintained at the nucleus farm at Mattupatty according to lactation number are given in Table 11. Increases are observed in milk yield and days milked as the lactation number increases up to the fourth lactation. The second lactation is 26.6 percent higher than the first, the third 14.2 percent superior to the second and the fourth 9.3 percent higher than the third. The results of the fat analysis indicate a gradual decrease in fat percentage as the lactation number increases. Both the average days milked and milk yield are higher in the case of total lactation yield and throughout all lactations. The overall average number of days milked was 279.8 and the overall lactation milk yield was 2 435 kg.Milk production in the recorded herd. Selected areas in the field are controlled under a milk-recording programme. Every year approximately 2 000 cows in their first lactation are milk recorded. The overall average first standard lactation milk yield of these cows according to year of calving is presented in Figure 4.The milk yield has increased steadily over the years. The average annual increase of 2.9 percent over the base year of 1983 is the result of both genetic and management improvement.The Sunandini cattle of India, which have evolved from a group of cross-bred animals through selection, have greatly influenced the dairy economy of the state of Kerala. The annual milk production of the state has increased from 0.164 million tonnes in 1966 to 19.3 million tonnes in 1993. This quantum leap in milk production was achieved through both the increased number of good-quality animals and the increase in the production potential. These changes were brought about by the systematic implementation of a breeding programme with the active involvement of farmersThe very low yield of the nondescript cows of Kerala, the growing awareness of the need for increased milk consumption and the higher level of literacy were the major motivating factors behind the farmers taking up dairying as a part of their mixed-farming operations.The well-planned long-term breeding programme organized and implemented by ISPK greatly influenced the development of the Sunandini breed. Unlike in many other parts of the country where AI is offered as a free service, in Kerala, AI has been offered at subsidized rates for the past two decades. The involvement of a cost element for the service might have positively persuaded the farmers to use AI. A well-established bull selection programme from the very start of the formation of the Sunandini breed, adoption of frozen semen technology, the implementation of the support programmes such as fodder development, the establishment of a regular liquid nitrogen replenishment system and, above all, a well-organized milk marketing network are all factors that contributed to the success of the programme.The Sunandini breeding programme at present has the infrastructure to be able to breed around 2 million cows annually with frozen semen from sons of highly selected bulls. For this purpose KLDB is producing and supplying frozen semen under a defined breeding policy together with the other government departments that conduct the Al service. The annual genetic progress apparent in the population is now 20 kg. The conversion of local cattle to Sunandini takes place at the rate of 1 percent per annum. There is tremendous scope for increasing the reproductive performance of the animals in the field, and this alone can increase the annual milk production in the state without adding to the number of animals or increasing production per animal. In order to consolidate the Sunandini breed and register animals true to breed, the establishment of a herd book organization with the involvement of farmers may be appropriate at this stage. The efforts made by KLDB in this connection may have to be strengthened.","tokenCount":"2795"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"474905df6e3c580a10e5800d0c10ca2c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/e534b2cb-bbf0-4bdb-84b8-9f4aa70082a7/content","id":"1242405873"},"keywords":["Zea mays L.","suelo ácido","poblaciones F2","gen opaco 2","rendimiento de grano","suelo ácido","Llanos Orientales de Colombia Zea mays L","acid soils","F2 populations","gene opaque 2","grain yield","Eastern plain Colombia"],"sieverID":"1b70bdf1-56e6-4e9d-b182-fed1ac401d22","pagecount":"8","content":"Doscientas cincuenta y tres familias F2 de alta calidad de proteína (ACP) provenientes del CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo) fueron evaluadas en dos ensayos diferentes en Menegua, una localidad ubicada en el departamento del Meta de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. El diseño experimental utilizado fue de alpha lattice con 2 repeticiones y en cada ensayo se incluyó testigos ACP y normales. Los datos fueron analizados siguiendo el método REML (Restricted máximum Likelihood Method) del procedimiento GLM de SAS 9.1.3. Los criterios principales de selección fueron rendimiento de grano y textura de grano. Se seleccionaron 44 F2s con rendimiento superior al del testigo ACP y comparable al rendimiento de los testigos normales. La textura de grano de las familias seleccionadas fue semi-cristalino con buena dosis de genes modificadores lo que indica que el gen o 2 está presente. El paso siguiente será seguir el proceso de autofecundación de las familias F2 hasta llegar a F5 en que se hará los cruzamientos con probadores a fin de identificar líneas deseables para la formación de híbridos y sintéticos.Los suelos ácidos (Oxisoles y Ultisoles) en el mundo comprenden 3.950 millones de hectáreas y constituyen una de las pocas áreas de expansión de la frontera agrícola. La toxicidad por aluminio, el bajo pH del suelo y la baja disponibilidad de fósforo son los principales limitantes de la producción en estos suelos. A nivel mundial se siembra 157 millones de hectáreas de maíz (Crop Life, 2009) de las cuales 26 millones están en suelos ácidos (Von Uexküll y Mutert, 1995). En Suramérica se dispone de 808 millones de hectáreas con suelos ácidos, de las cuales el 71% se encuentra en Brasil, 8.3% en Colombia, 6.9% en Perú, 6.4% en Venezuela, 4.9% en Bolivia. El maíz es parte de los sistemas de producción con potencial para desarrollo en estos ecosistemas.Las variedades de maíz (Zea mays) de alta calidad de proteína (ACP) se vienen investigando desde la década de 1960. Actualmente se dispone de materiales de maíz ACP con rendimientos y características agronómicas similares a los de maíces comerciales normales. Las variedades ACP se caracterizan por la presencia de un gen recesivo opaco 2 (o2) en el cromosoma 7 que determina que el contenido de lisina y triptófano sea el doble en los maíces ACP comparado con los maíces normales. Adicionalmente, existen otros genes involucrados en la calidad de la proteína y la textura del grano. Algunos de estos genes determinan un endospermo suave que es un carácter agronómicamente desfavorable, asociado con menor potencial de rendimiento y mayor predisposición a daños de insectos en almacenamiento. Por tanto, es necesario seleccionar por textura vítrea (cristalina) del grano, carácter que está asociado con genes modificadores de ésta. Los trabajos de investigación en este sentido fueron realizados durante veinte años en el CIMMYT obteniendo líneas, híbridos y variedades (sintéticos) de maíz ACP con textura de grano similar a los maíces normales, así como potencial de rendimiento y otras características agronómicas similares o superiores a los maíces comerciales disponibles en el mercado (CIMMYT, 2000).En estudios hechos en Colombia, Guatemala, Perú, y más recientemente en Ghana, niños mal nutridos recuperaron la salud gracias a que se incluyó ACP en sus dietas. Los estudios de nutrición con cerdos, aves de corral y otros animales domésticos mostraron una ventaja considerable como resultado del empleo del ACP en su alimentación. (CIMMYT, 2000).La actual calidad agronómica y nutritiva de los maíces ACP se debe en gran parte al trabajo realizado por Surinder K. Vasal, genetista del CIMMYT, y Evangelina Villegas, bioquímica ex investigadora del CIMMYT (Mendoza et al., 2008). Al comparar el maíz de ACP con el normal no se observan diferencias en palatabilidad, rendimiento/ha, resistencia a plagas y enfermedades.En la década de 1970 y anterior, el rendimiento de maíz grano en los suelos ácidos era menor que 0.4 t/ha. Luego de un trabajo de selección para la generación de variedades mejoradas realizado por el CIMMYT, en colaboración con entidades nacionales de varios países, en la década de 1990 fue liberada la variedad ICA-Sikuani V-110, siendo la primera tolerante a suelos ácidos con un potencial de rendimiento de 3 t/ha (Narro et al., 2001). A comienzos de la década de 2000 se dispuso de los primeros híbridos Corpoica H-108 y Corpoica H-111 (Bernal et al., 2007) con un potencial de rendimiento de 4.5 t/ha. Actualmente, se dispone de híbridos con un potencial de 10 t/ha. (Pandey et al., 2007). Esta información es para maíces normales (no-ACP) y la meta inmediata es generar materiales de ACP con altos rendimientos, buenas características agronómicas y tolerantes a suelos ácidos (Narro et al., 2001).Es importante destacar, que los suelos ácidos ofrecen un gran potencial para la seguridad alimentaria de Colombia y de América Latina. Uno de los retos de Colombia ha sido volver más productivos y sostenibles los 17 millones de hectáreas que conforman los Llanos Orientales (CIAT, 2008).El objetivo del presente trabajo fue identificar las mejores familias F2 de maíz con ACP con base en rendimiento y otras características agronómicas de la planta, así como el grado de modificación del endospermo medido en mesa de luz (Vivek et al., 2008) con el fin de utilizarlas en el programa de generación de líneas y desarrollo de cultivares mejorados en los programas del CIMMYT.En condiciones de suelos ácidos en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia se evaluaron 153 familias F2 de maíz segregantes para el gen o2 que confiere alta calidad de proteína al maíz, provenientes del CIMMYT. Para tal fin, estas familias fueron divididas en dos ensayos. En el Ensayo 1, se incluyeron 86 familias y 4 testigos, mientras que en el Ensayo 2 se tuvieron 67 familias y 3 testigos. Entre los testigos se incluye a un híbrido ACP (H112) y los híbridos normales (H108, H111 y HEZC 318). Cada uno de estos ensayos se evaluó utilizando el diseño experimental Alpha Lattice con dos repeticiones. La unidad experimental fue de 1 surco de 5 m de largo y 0.80 m de ancho. En cada surco se sembraron 33 semillas, con raleo a 22 plantas distanciadas 25 cm entre ellas. El área útil fue de 4 m 2 .Los ensayos fueron sembrados en el sitio Menegua (departamento del Meta, Colombia), ubicada a 182 m.s.n.m. con una temperatura promedio 25 °C, precipitaciones de 2100 y 2800 mm/año. Los suelos en el sitio experimental son ácidos con pH de 4.59, 85% de saturación de aluminio, 1.5 mg/kg de fósforo y 3.37% de materia orgánica (Arcos et al., 2007).A la siembra se aplicaron 1.6 t de cal dolomítica para disminuir la saturación de Al de 85% a 60%; para incrementar el contenido de P en el suelo de 11 a 15 mg/kg se aplicaron 155 kg/ha de superfosfato triple. El nitrógeno, el potasio y los microelementos fueron aplicados de acuerdo con los requerimientos del cultivo. Las labores agronómicas de siembra a cosecha fueron las normales para el cultivo en la zona (Manrique, 2008).Las características evaluadas fueron: rendimiento de grano (RG), tomando en cuenta el peso de campo, la humedad de cosecha, el porcentaje de desgrane y el área de parcela cosechada. Se utilizó la fórmula siguiente: donde: RG = rendimiento de grano en t/ha al 14% de humedad, HC =porcentaje de humedad del grano a la cosecha, A = área neta de parcela cosechada; 86 = valor que se utiliza cuando se calcula el rendimiento de grano al 14%, 0.8 = porcentaje de desgrane, se utiliza una cantidad constante cuando no se dispone de la información para cada parcela.Además se evaluaron: días a floración (DF) desde la siembra hasta el inicio de la emisión de polen, altura de planta (AP) medida desde el cuello de la planta hasta la base de la hoja bandera, altura de mazorca (AM) medida desde el cuello de la planta hasta el punto de inserción de la mazorca superior en el tallo, acame de tallo (AT) como porcentaje de plantas quebradas debajo del nudo donde se inserta la mazorca superior, pudrición de mazorca (PM) referido al porcentaje de mazorcas con pudrición, cobertura de mazorca (CM) o porcentaje de plantas con cobertura de mazorca deficiente y textura de grano (TG) utilizando una escala propuesta por el CI-MMYT (Cuadra, 2009), de la forma siguiente:(1) cristalino = 1 -1.5; (2) semicristalino 2 -2.5; (3) semidentado = 3 -3.5; y (4) dentado = 4 -5.Para el análisis estadístico se utilizó un esquema de modelo mixto en el cual los bloques y las repeticiones fueron considerados efectos aleatorios y los genotipos efectos fijos. El método empleado fue el REML (máxima verosimilitud restringida) del SAS 9. 1.3 (SAS, 2003) y las medias se ajustaron por los efectos del modelo antes de ser comparadas.La comparación entre promedios de las familias F2 se hizo tomando en cuenta el valor de la DMS (0.05) para identificar el 50% de familias con mayor rendimiento. Dentro de estas familias se escogieron aquellas que mostraron la mejor modificación de grano (granos más cristalinos); es decir, aquellas que mostraron granos tipo 3 en la prueba de mesa de luz (Vivek et al., 2008) de acuerdo con la escala propuesta por el CIMMYT: 1 = no es opaco, 2 = 25% de opacidad, 3 = 50% de opacidad, 4 = 75% de opacidad, 5 = 100% de opacidad. RG = PC * 100-HC 86 *0.8 * 10 AEnsayo 1 En este ensayo se incluyeron 90 familias F2 clasificadas como ACP. Se observaron diferencias significativas (P < 0.05) entre familias para la mayoría de las características evaluadas (Cuadro 1). Los testigos H108, H111 y HEZC318 produjeron rendimientos de maíz (RG) que variaron entre 5.89 y 7.57 t/ha, aunque sin diferencias significativas con las mejores F2s que produjeron alrededor de 6.5 t/ha (Cuadro 2). Es interesante observar el alto rendimiento del híbrido triple HEZC318 (7.57 t/ha) seleccionado para condiciones de suelos sin problemas de acidez. La buena producción de los testigos H108 (5.89 t/ha) y H111 (6.24 t/ha) se debió a su tolerancia a suelos ácidos. El testigo H112 es un híbrido de alta calidad de proteína, pero no adaptado a suelos ácidos y por tanto, su rendimiento (3.92 t/ha) fue bajo en comparación con los híbridos anteriores. Las F2s 33 y 77 de maíz ACP con más alto rendimiento produjeron 6.50 y 6.25 t/ha, respectivamente. En consecuencia, en el proceso de autofecundación de los individuos F2 es posible identificar algunas líneas que en cruzamiento con otras líneas pueda dar origen a híbridos y sintéticos adaptados a los suelos ácidos de Colombia.Al comparar el rendimiento del mejor testigo (7.57 t/ha) con el de las familias F2 y teniendo en cuenta el valor de DMS (P < 0.05) equivalente a 1.92 t/ha (Cuadro 1), se observa que las familias (F2) 33, 51, 73 y 77 tuvieron un rendimiento similar a HEZC318 y 57 familias F2 mostraron igualmente rendimientos similares al de los híbridos testigo tolerantes a suelos ácidos (Cuadro 2). De acuerdo con estos resultados, estas familias deben ser seleccionadas para evaluar las modificaciones del endospermo y otras características agronómicas, con el fin de identificar aquellas que continuarán en el proceso de autofecundación.La pudrición de mazorca (PM) es una característica importante no sólo por las pérdidas del valor comercial que representa sino también por los efectos dañinos en la salud humana. El promedio de PM fue de 13.8% (Cuadro 2); aunque el error experimental fue alto, lo que se refleja en el gran coeficiente de variación (39.38%) (Cuadro 1). No obstante, se puede observar que la PM en los testigos normales (no ACP) fue < 10%, mientras que en el testigo de ACP fue de 23.1% (Cuadro 2). Dieciséis familias F2 presentaron una PM < 10% y en las familias 22, 37 y 81 fue < 5%. Entre genotipos no hubo diferencias significativas (P > 0.05).La arquitectura de planta, medida por la relación entre altura de mazorca y altura de planta (AM/AP), es una característica importante desde el punto de vista agronómico y es deseable que la inserción de la mazorca esté en el tercio medio de la planta que coincide con un valor AM/AP de 0.5. Tanto los testigos como las familias F2 de mayor rendimiento presentaron AM/AP próximo a 0.5 con deferencias (P < 0.05) entre familias y una tendencia a que las familias F2 de menor rendimiento tengan también menor relación AM/AP. .5 0.8 a: RG = rendimiento de grano, DF = días a floración, AP = altura de planta, AM = altura de mazorca, PM = pudrición de mazorca, CM = cobertura de mazorca, AT = acame de tallo. b. El promedio del ensayo 1 corresponde a los 86 genotipos evaluados.El promedio de días a la floración (DF) fue de 59 (Cuadro 2), siendo esta característica diferente (P < 0.05) entre familias. Es importante destacar que el testigo H108 fue el más precoz (52 días) y uno de los que presentó alto rendimiento. Esto significa que la planta es eficiente en el uso y traslocación de nutrientes y posee buenas características de adaptación a las condiciones de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Tanto los testigos como las familias (F2) 73 y 77 de mayor rendimiento mostraron una DF aproximada de 59 días.Cuando se presenta acame de tallo (AT) en un campo de maíz, no sólo hay pérdidas de la cosecha sino también que ésta se dificulta e incrementa los costos de producción. En los Llanos Orientales de Colombia, donde se dispone de grandes áreas de cultivo, la mecanización es una necesidad, por tanto, los genotipos que se vayan a desarrollar para este ambiente deben ser tolerantes al AT. En el ensayo se presentaron diferencias (P < 0.05) entre familias para esta variable, siendo el promedio de 3.1% (Cuadro 2), lo que indica que la mayoría de materiales fueron tolerantes al acame. Solo ocho familias F2 mostraron un AT superior a 10%, lo cual debe ser tenido en cuenta en la selección final de familias F2 que se autofecundarán. Las familias 77, 73 y 51 de alto rendimiento, mostraron un AT inferior al promedio (3.17%).La cobertura de mazorca (CM) es importante en zonas tropicales donde se presentan precipitaciones en época de cosecha, ya que una mala cobertura de mazorca predispone un mayor daño por pudrición de mazorca; en esta característica se observaron diferencias (P < 0.05) entre familias. Los testigos y familias F2 de mayor rendimiento se hallaron entre las entradas que presentaron igualmente mejor cobertura de mazorca. Sólo las familias 9, 58, 50, 26, 11 y 61 revelaron una escasa CM.La textura del grano (TG) es importante en maíces de ACP porque está relacionada con el grado de modificación del endospermo. Se prefieren los granos cristalinos como un indicador de la presencia de genes modificadores del endospermo. Aunque este carácter fue evaluado utilizando la mesa de luz, la evaluación de mazorcas en campo ayudó en el proceso de selección. El híbrido H108 mostró una excelente TG = 1.7 (Cuadro 2), por tanto más de 26 familias F2 presentaron textura comparable al testigo H108.Ensayo 2 (67 familias F2 de ACP) En este ensayo se incluyeron 67 familias F2 y 3 testigos (H112, H108 y H111). El análisis de varianza (Andeva) mostró diferencia (P < 0.05) entre familias para RG, DF, AP, AM, AM/AP y AT (Cuadro 3).El RG de los híbridos testigo osciló entre 4 y 4.86 t/ha. El RG de 28 F2s no fue diferente al rendimiento del mejor testigo (H108) (4.86 t/ ha). El rendimiento de la mejor F2 fue de 4.80 t/ha (DMS 0.05 = 1.50 t/ha) (Cuadro 4).El promedio de PM fue 16.6% (Cuadro 4). Los testigos mostraron una PM < 14%. No obstante, 55 familias F2 mostraron una PM menor a la de los testigos tolerantes a suelos ácidos. Los testigos se ubicaron por debajo del promedio general, las mejores familias (38 y 54) tuvieron una PM de 16%. Hay una tendencia que muestra que las familias con menores rendimientos poseen mayor PM.La relación AM/AP, tanto en los testigos como en las familias F2, tuvo una tendencia Cuadro 3. Cuadrados medios del Anova para características morfológicas de setenta familias F2 de maíz con alto contenido de proteína. Ensayo 2. 8.9 a: RG = rendimiento de grano, DF = días a floración, AP = altura de planta, AM = altura de mazorca, PM = pudrición de mazorca, CM = cobertura de mazorca, AT = acame de tallo. H0: No hay diferencia entre familias. H1: hay diferencia entre familias. *= Se rechaza la hipótesis nula con confiabilidad del 95%. ns = Se acepta la H0. similar a la encontrada en el ensayo 1 con diferencias (P < 0.05) entre familias. Igualmente, para la característica AT los valores fueron bajos, con diferencias entre las familias F2 (Cuadro 3).Para DF se hallaron diferencias entre familias. El promedio fue de 59 días (Cuadro 4). El testigo H108, además de presentar el más alto rendimiento, fue el más precoz (52 DF), confirmando el buen comportamiento en suelos ácidos. Aunque, la mayoría de las familias F2 evaluadas en este ensayo presentaron floraciones alrededor de sesenta días, también hubo algunas precoces con buen potencial de rendimiento.La CM no presentó diferencias (P > 0.05) (Cuadros 2, 3). El promedio de CM en el ensayo fue de 3.7% (Cuadro 4). Sólo siete familias F2 mostraron un porcentaje de CM > 10%. El testigo H111 presentó una CM de 5.3% y los testigos H108, H112 y la mayoría de familias no mostraron mala cobertura de mazorca.El híbrido H108 presentó una textura de 1.5 (cristalina) (Cuadro 4) y 35 familias F2 revelaron una textura similar a este híbrido.Una vez identificadas las familias F2 con mayor rendimiento, correspondientes a 57 del primer ensayo y 28 en el segundo (Cuadro 4), se procedió a la selección de granos con mejor efecto de los genes modificadores de la textura de grano. Se seleccionaron granos grado 3 tal como lo sugiere el CIMMYT para generaciones tempranas, ya que esto asegura la presencia del gen o 2 o 2 (Vivek et al., 2008). En la mesa de luz fueron identificadas 44 familias F2 que mostraron mayor rendimiento y buena modificación del endospermo. Se escogieron 50 granos de cada una de las familias seleccionadas para continuar el proceso de autofecundación. 1.09 a: RG = rendimiento de grano, DF = días a floración, AP = altura de planta, AM = altura de mazorca, PM = pudrición de mazorca, CM = cobertura de mazorca, AT = acame de tallo. b. El promedio del ensayo 2 corresponde a los 67 genotipos evaluados.• Considerando rendimiento de grano (RG) y la textura del endosperma, se seleccionaron 44 familias F2 con potencial similar al de los híbridos H108 y H111 tolerantes a suelos ácidos. • Treinta familias F2 ACP mostraron buenas características agronómicas relacionadas con tolerancia a pudrición de mazorca, arquitectura de planta, resistencia a acame de grano, comparables con los maíces tolerantes a suelos ácidos utilizados como testigos. • Es posible identificar familias F2 con alta calidad de proteína y tolerantes a suelos ácidos. Se infiere que las líneas que se vayan a desarrollar en el proceso de autofecundación serán útiles para generar híbridos ACP y sintéticos tolerantes a suelos ácidos.","tokenCount":"3174"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cae83703c8a91c9f74441563ce8ed382","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1e99431f-379a-4e5e-a1a7-d3b9ee1135fd/retrieve","id":"904351362"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"113f1464-669f-4c6c-90ad-aa7f229030f6","pagecount":"1","content":"• Also called 'Orphan Crops', species and varieties of importance for the rural communities but to which little or no attention is paid by agricultural researchers, plant breeders and policymakers. • NUS are not traded as commodities.• Wild or semi-domesticated varieties and non-timber forest species adapted to particular, often quite local, environments. • The lack of a consensual definition of NUS has been a major curb to their international recognition as a valuable component of agrobiodiversityIdentification of geographical areas of special interest, called 'NUS hotspots', in the inter-tropical zone, at the intersection between SEP and Bioversity priority research areas to identify possible synergies or complementarities in data collect and analysis, avoiding duplication of research efforts. A GIS-based approach that uses available georeferenced data from genebanks, herbarium and collectors to identify species-rich areas. Specific aims of this work are to draw a provisional list of priority NUS species for the inter-tropical zone where SEP partners are located; identify the essential criteria for the identification of hotspots of NUS-diversity and compile baseline maps of priority areas and observation sites; draft methodological guidelines for fine-tuning Bioversity's agrobiodiversity strategy and research activities within the framework of SEPDD. There is an urgent need for assessing world patterns of distribution of NUS and identifying 'hotspots', areas where NUS experience exceptional loss of habitat or are at higher risk of losing habitat as a result of global change.  This preliminary work permits to build upon the dataset produced and identify gaps in genebank and herbaria collections with regard to NUS in order to propose adapted research actions and conservation plans.  Collecting more georeferenced data, mapping the occurrences of NUS to refine the Atlas is a key activity for the development of a Global monitoring system on in situ conservation and on farm management of Plant Genetic Resources.Hannes Gaisberger 1 , Marc Delêtre 2 , Samy Gaiji 4, Paul Bordoni 1 , Stefano Padulosi 1 , Michael Hermann 3 , , Elizabeth Arnaud 1 1 Bioversity International (Italy), 2 Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (France), 3 Crops of the Future (Malaysia), 4 GBIF (Danmark). Contact: h.gaisberger@cgiar.orgThe Andes NUS diversity is concentrated at mid-elevations (above 1500m), on the fringes of the Amazonian forest in Ecuador (sierra), in Peru (highlands), and in Bolivia (yungas and puna).In Colombia and Ecuador, the potentially richest areas for NUS overlapped with the most densely populated areas.NUS diversity appears to be concentrated mostly in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin. Much diversity seems also to be concentrated in Cameroon and the Republic of Central Africa.West Africa had been defined a 'non-center' of crop diversity and the cradle of domestication of several African crops, e.g. Pennisetum glaucum, Digitaria exilis.NUS appear to be mostly concentrated in Madagascar, on the coast of South Africa, and on the border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe. East African coastal systems, where diversity of NUS and CWR seems particularly high, are listed as potential \"hotspots of vulnerability\" to climate change.Why are Plant NUS important?• NUS appear to be concentrated in highly localized areas, i.e., the west part of Manipur (India), the southern tip of Vietnam, the eastern part of Borneo (eastern Kalimantan in Indonesia and Sabah in Malaysia), and the northern and southern coastal regions of New Guinea (Irian Jaya in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea). ","tokenCount":"544"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ad9bc260ae5e633262f9b58e5950bee8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b190afea-6413-4fa9-9a0c-5ec257fbf5c2/retrieve","id":"-383464370"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"03f7d642-35b9-446f-81ce-912c68294fc5","pagecount":"3","content":"set to improve M-3 using mutation breedíng. Similarly, consultative participation involving mili owners as the users (reaffirmed by fanners in Chitwan) led to breeding work to improve Pusa basmati ricé for awn reduction, and other varietíes for rnarket purposes (e.g., taste and price).The breeding ofhigh-altitude rice in Chhornrong demonstrated that women farmers were the maln goal setters for the development of white-colored rice from the red peri-carped Chhornrong dhan (Sthapit, Joshi, and Witcombe 1996). Fanners of in sítu sites at Kaski and Bara actively collaborated in setting breedíng objectives and identifying landrace parents (table 3). Women and men fanners were instrumental in redefining the breeding objectives for maize in Gulmi (table 3), while in certain other cases, however, breeders had more say in setting breeding objectives, which were ¡aler verified with the farming cornmunities (e,g\" chaite and main-season rice in HPPS),These examples indicate that the participation offanners and researchers in different circumstances and stages is important ifthe right opportunity to influence breeding is to be captured. This requires continuous collaboration and commitment from those ¡nvolved.LI-BIRD's experience shows that diverse, niche environments and different user choices do exist in the HPPS, For example, the Chitwan valley (150--250 m) ofNepal is considered a high-potential production system. However, through a series of PVS and IRD 5 activities in a participatory crop-improvement project in Chítwan valley, il was found that Chitwan has different production environments for rice: low-Iying swampy, rain-fed, partially irrigated, and well-irrigated areas.Variations in soil fertility and farmers' preferences also exist in these areas. Different technologies are needed for these conditions. In such circumstances, participatory crop improvement approaches have also been effective (DTZ Peida 1999), justifying the bebef that PPB should not be limited to marginal production systems only (Witcombe 1999).As formal breeding systems aim for wider adaptability and uníform varieties, the promotion of uniform varietal technologies may reduce diversity. In HPPS, where a modem variety is widely grown (e,g\" CH-45, a variety of Chaite rice grownin 98% oflhe project area), PPB has the potential to increase biodiversity (Joshí et al. 1998;Witcombe et aL 2000), Hence, PPB creates diversity, and thís would help create sustainable production systems.The breeding process involves the participation offarmers (women and men) and researchers at different stages ofPPB for differentpurposes. Depending on the objective and nature ofthe work, the mode of participation may vary from one stage to another in the same PPB project (table 3), For quality particípation, it is also important to establish and agree upon the roles and responsibilities of dífferent actors/partners, LI-BIRD has experienced that having such an arrangement, even with grassroots organízations, actually enhances the participation of all those involved. Annex 'A' shows an agreement on various tasks between LI-BIRD and two community-based organízations, while annex 'B' shows those agreements between fanners and researchers (the Nepal Agricultura! Research Council and LI-BIRD). An analysis ofthe strengths and weaknesses ofthe participating institutions also helps identif'y areas for capacity or skill building for the respective institutions, researchers, and farmers, Such kinds of partnershíp are increasingly becorníng important in the context of developing a critical mass of researchers and sharing resources for PPB,  . 1998).Concerns about the institutionalization 01 PPB Participatory plant breeding í8 considered to be parallel to the formal breedíng system and i8 al80 viewed as competing for the same resources. Most formal-sector researcherslbreeders have yet to realize PPB 's importance and its potential for addressing food security. These may be sorne ofthe concems limitíng the ínstítutionalization of the approach. F or the institutionalízation ofPPB and ils wider use as a complementary approach, it ls necessary for PPB practitioners and advocates to make greater efforts to infIuence policymakers in the national research system and funding agencies. This may also Tequire more collaborative PPB projects for different environments and CTOpS.Exposing researchers to participatory approaches to crop improvement will also be necessary.It is not likely that all the PPB materials will satisfy the distinct (D), uníformity (U), and stabilíty (S) requirements, wruch is essential for formal release. 6 There are concems tbat the seed regulatory sys!em must be flexible to allow PPB products, such as farmers' varíetíes or landraces, to be recognized for furtherdisseminatíon. However, in the context of a poor seed-supply system in the formal sector (Iess !han 10% ofthe national seed demand ls met by the formal system) and with farmers depending mainly on their own seed systems (Le., informal seed-supply systems), the question may be asked whether it ls necessary for PPB products to go through the seed regulatory ftamework, and also whether it would be commercial1y feasible to deal with a large number of varietal requirements for location-specific PPB products.A general criticism ofPPB materials is tbat they are prone to pests and diseases beca use they are no! put through a disease-screening process as materials in conventional breeding programs are. It is, of course, important that care should be taken for any new material to be tested under any breeding programo But it may not hold true that only PPB products are subject to such problems. Experience has shown that even formalIy released varieties that have passed through a rigorous screening process may also succumb to pests and diseases within a short period mer release. Instead, it can be argued that as PPB creates diversity and the products are locally adapted, the problem of pests and diseases in PPB products may be less serious than in a pure-line variety developed by conventional breeding. In modem farming, a single-crop variety is usually grown alone. In contrast, the genetic heterogeneity created by PPB may provide greater disease suppression when used over large areas. Participatory Plant Breeding is stiU an evolving approach. Since different PPB cases indicate substantial variatlons (Sperling 2000), it is not surprising to find dífferences among PPB practitioners 6. For a variety to be elígible for formal release. it has to be di'tinct (D), uniforro (Ul, and ,tabIe (S), criteri.!ha< a PPB product may not be able to meet.","tokenCount":"986"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7632084630.json b/data/part_6/7632084630.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"41fad796639058173b267aa702ef4db0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f824f387-5645-4461-9c62-bc7770ca56f3/retrieve","id":"1220897222"},"keywords":["dt,,::'l CC.'-\\UC¿I, nec¡","?~:¡l.clades d~:","l m,::d:e¡\"•l,i\"l <~n.t.","_9f~J",".J\"rl!","~.!::.l.f¿~, 1~.d","tQly.ªL>J","L1.h(?I e.d~.q.[.P:n\\-~,U~c","..€tD,2 ~S t-(,","cic~nt[?!n(~~I¡t{2 abier•t¿~~:.",",::","-PE:QUE'i1() ( /:::","' D :?/2. dr.•l 1,,~(r-9D dE~J Ci,¡liz) \\{","\\9J\"Yj","tll.tt~J::.L2) :::. -tl~r~mi nal 4 -ter,nin¿tl'-extror\"so ~) -~ E'}","t ¡'-DI'-~","u (~21:¿bJ~.t.l!.~~_LL~.) 9 ~:::1 :","¡f.:~qr\"et","'.I¿:)C: 1 ón 20. COLOr, DE SEj'IILL(\\ r: _ _ d",".r:':.E:EA.!.L~:.',:,:l.~, v f' .... b1S.)J._Y_f~r¡.th~~:t' §, Esr:!n pI é'lntüs ¿d ó~)i:'¡nla~","}\" r~!3C :.:: fH¿:\"tnci\"lil por A~scClchyta (BE..<",".º~JJ.y.t_0.. pt~_~l~_~.!ik.~tJ .. _º.f.~.~Hl~ Sf.ICC, t1 §~.Q.bhY':_•Ls~ sp\",) {\\L~","-~ (Il 1:\\ í1 c:1-1 ~\\ ¿1nqu], t:\\r' (.L~~.ªx:._.tQ.r","?J §,L~} ___ qr~t~~9..1.~\") r)","•lf ._, {•)ntr\"acnCJEi 5 (~\"~!.L~, .. ~j","\"p.:~_r~l_rJ!J::.tm Lt.m!.!t!!l!.A.ttL!.i:l!l.Y.m (Sacc. g, t'la~,m.) fk i . 8, Cavo ) R5T ~, Fwv¿, (llr:.Qf!LY.E §:.~tlii3?g.Lt (Pars.) ¡'Ji nter) i='~¡N -l1idium ¡¡","L'L~Li .. HÜ §:' .. Q91.L'lºr.Ü .. De \"',., li~)t 'í:ol\"\" E:..~.!~~9\"EGj.\"D~~\"IA,~.~, pt.\\bli~~ht•.:d by IE{F'Gn L\\S, Hybrid l'Ji 1 d t~.~,.~,?J","~jJ::~,.f:?.!:\"'\\ § E'..!l.Q!","l.l-\"'. §lJJj","J:U'!.~ ~\"trQ1!Lª §?~~n.2, 1cct-:?ssi on .. 2.ESF'ECIE -species The cate:t1oq i ncludE's thr\"t~e Eipeci E!~¡: E'ltª?, §.:~,r","~J.._~:t~ ~Qf=.J:","\"","jl!?J•","U?! 1~ COCC ~ f.:tu~,\" §g~ql,b.I\"t.? .. \"R_t~~ly.~!D.tJ:}.q.~..",". =: PLAN:o r:~b.~i.~~.º.L~~\\J §. !':J.trp...!,l.l'\"q §i:.,en §. ~, F'UPP, iiínd some hibrid: CDCH ~ tlyb, id e,it.h E.,_!",",Q\"C::\"!",",Ül.~l.l §. ~\",¡•lnt.Js~ :::. -\" ~.-t:¿ind2tr•d + NJ fi~.p~:i t~~~ t t-Uf\" s: G? ( E~LC","l.~tl:l~b~_~?) 9 -Sf2i","P'\"' r•::~_!C\\t. i on , 635:-","89 [","3:::","390 G3~',j440 G'.::'~::t4('\")3 G~~:","5¿",")5j ~~.~~_~~_r","\"tn!~M~.'t?_ RºJ_y.~?I}!Jl~t~~ ~,!:1~.~!","J_n!~_1.7.l.2. S\"Q .. ¡",".:,J",")n, §u,\".~~? r:",",QJ","_~","j,.ILt~~:.~ §\" No.ml ESPECIE lDEN1IFICAC1GN COLECTOR y NO. RE515TRD UiCAL 01RO REGIS1RO LOCAL PROCEDE. ES1.BIOl. FECHA R NO.CIAT FI325597 US. e ,o.m! ESPECIE IDENTIPICACIDN COLECTOR y NO. RESlSTRO LOCAL OiRO .E8ISTRO LOCAL PROCEDE. ESl.SIOl. FECHA R NO.CIAT rece HA~KO","¡D'5 DliA\" 5,¡'.'-ET un: C 635155 S\"~\"\":\",\", j .. ¡¡",".>'1 1'-,U2 IR 35424 CHIA?,,5 REGISTRO LOCAL D1RD RESISIP.D LOCAL P' OCEDE. ES1.SIGL. FECHA R NO.CIAl B3S622 FLAN 5\"\"\"OTI\\ D.H. mOTHl Nil.255 C'! nEna S3~b36 s\"e¡,\"''' 4 ..... ::.:"],"sieverID":"183e9815-d4d4-47f1-9986-93f088cdf57d","pagecount":"209","content":"1700rfJ:< lati l.ud 2 .. 15N~ lCJnt]itLtd \"1¿:J~~!.6ltJ) y mn pI C¿MlijJD CClf'} ri.l{:iml:J5 pr(JLe::-Jido~;.¡ por bol S,-:t$ de p¿:,pGd í:?n FH O-iH!'-I)j'~O (D€?p2trtcwlento d€':.' (:lnt i clqL\\} a\", 2'200/n~ latitud 1::.) .. 1~5N .. lunl;)ituLl 75. 21l•J )~ La pc1 :~\\:::. 1 :-j~.') Primer color: es el color més pálido de la 5emilla~ corlsiderado 1:0\"10 color de base~ SegLlndo u tercer, cuar\"to color: son los colores adicionalQs que aparecerl en la 5enlil1a~ ordenados del m~5 pálido hasta el más OscLtro~ _.Rep\"'-\".C2-C1, C3-Cl, C4'-Cl: cantidad y dietribLlción de los pLllltos y las manchas de 105 colc)res adj cioni.\\1€~!3 sobr'[? 1 a bas;e ft::w'mada por\" el primer colo~ (el = primer color; C2,C3~C4 == 5egundo~ter\"cer, cuarto color).Significado de los códigos de colores:3~ amar-i.ll el 4café 4b-café escuro 5~ rosado 6= rojo 7= nmn.do 8~' negro r::;'::.:l gr\"Ís 6b= I\"'oj o OSCUf-C¡ 7.:\\~:::: mOI'\"é;1dD t:l i:-'\\l'~D Significado de los c6digos de repartición de colores:Arepartición homogénea B = repartición heterogénea B. AGf-WNOMU ..Evaluada con una escdla de severidad e intensicjad de 1 a 9,  !:: . . . d;'QS;.f.;JJJ.!!U5,ª,: l'1e}!ic:o and Guatamala in C&ntral Amar-ica, Colombia, Ecuador and Nor-thern P,,:ru in SOLtth Amer'ica.. ¡:~.[J.!2JX.!u.)\"~\"bt\"t~ \",Iso has \", plt.trianl1ual ~lrcH•Jth and i5 an i::dlDi';:¡2HlIous;. SP(,,:~CiE~~~¡'!, but the natural rate (Jf sel f ing i~5 higher than ft1F' f:~,~.J_;r¿~: ..  This 10c;,11 n~9iste,' c~,n be eii:her nume,\"ieal ()F' al pha-numer i ciEll.Corr~f,:spClnds to t.h(~ J~'egi slet-r.J'f tht:? act: (;,?SO:3 1 eH) used by other insti tutiOfl tJJhf.~re thE:-' matericü L-<Jas stored .. 7.0RIGEN -Drigin le ttle co\"ntry wtlere the Inaterial was llred cr col1ected. The •Foll¡Jwillº sodes are used for countroies. AFG _. ¡.'..\\•f ghélni st¿¡f\"l BLG = Belgium BLV :::~ BCJlivia 8TH ~ EloLIl':hran eLE :1..':: ColcHnbi a eLE -Chile eRA ~;:¡ Costa F:i ca ETF' = Eth i up i '\" 81''11'1 --Ger'fn¿tny InA --Guatemal ú7t HDR ;;;; Hunduras [ND !;:; India 1 RI\\I :::;: 1 r iE\\n ITL '\" aaIv JP~l --J¿lpan f<Y~, -t<enya t'IEX --~1\",,., i c. u NLD ~ HQIland PER :::~ Peru FRI :r.:: F'uE.•r-\"to r\":_i_ c:o P-IC '\" Portug¿tl RNN = F~oumani a m•JO nt:: F: .. ,anda n<y ;::\":; TL!I' ktl'Y IISP, ::: lInited St¿it.E'S~ uno:: ::n: Un i -ted !<\"í ngdcHn VI\\IZ :~~ Vf:?nezut*l el YUG :.:: Yugc)sl t':\\vl~'   Observatlons related to tha collectad sampla, like flower-and seed coat colour, growth habit atc., ¡na(je by the eDIl ector ¿It the moment ( ) f the cDl1 pct i on ..1.TG = Type of germination 3 = Hypogw\"¡ (cotyledons remain below ground) 5 ~ Intermó1diate 7 --Epi geal (cot yl edclns are ri!ti sed above groLlnd) 9 ~ Segregation 2.F'E '\" Hypocotyl or Epieotyl colour (seedling)-' :.\":: pw\"pl e 4 '\" mi }!ed 9 '\" !i:,egragatiofl 3.D18T C-Hl = Distanee from cotyledon sear to primary leaves (epigeal germinatíon) or from ground to primary leavEs (hypogeal germination) :;; -sli~lhtry PUb(';?SCE:\"nt 5 '\" mod.?ratl y pubescent ,., .:. '\" i ndetermi. nate 5(.;1111 -c: 1 :i mber 3 \"\" i. ndetenni nate \\= 1 i mber• 4 \"\" determi n¿rte semi-climber 9 ,. segno>gation ll.TB = Size of bracteoleFreshly opened -flowers. '\" = '\"'\"small (1/2 to 2/3 1 emgth of cal y:') intarmediate (equal or slightly longar)long (1/2 te once longer) sE?í;)regation 12.FB \"\" Shape of bracteole See fi9ure 1.1 -1 i 9u1 ate 2 ,. Dvatf?\"'-acumi na ta\"\" nearl y r l,)U!1d 20.SEED COAT COLOUR E:.. C.fL<;;J;.~.rJ@1~g;. 8nd t::.,,-f!,91_y'cmthl,!á are a11 C>9amous speciss. Every accession is considerad as a population that Can present v.ri.bility for se.d cast calour and m.y be ns>pr-esented by one 01\"\" more colour-patterns.Pr'im\"r color\"\" Main colour rt ia the pal.st colour of the sead, considered as the base colour.,.SegLmdll, ter•cer, t:~lar•to color '\" Second. third, fourth colour. They arE? the addítíon~,l colours of the seed, froOl the pal!?st to th!? d¿,rkest. _Rep., .C2-Cl, C3-Cl, C4-CI Qu¿\".\"Uly \"nel distribution of the points ¿,nd spota of the additional colours on the base formed by tha main (:olour (el = nlain colour\";C2,C3~C4 = second~ third and fOLtrttl colour). -----t -• ----• • --! ------i --------¡ \".',.-..Ttle results presenled in t~}e catalogLl8 ller\"e obtained from evalu¿tlions lflade al two statiorl of alLitude: Popayán ( Cauca, 1750m.nm, latitud 2.15N, longitud 76.36WI \",nd Hionegro { Antioquia, 2200msnm, latitud 6.151\\1, longitud 7~1.21liJ}, dur'inq l:l1f? fQllowi'ig semEt~;;tE'I\"'S! l C yEi4B, 19B5 '~!, 19858, 1986B, 1987A. (,,)81: .~\" iAscDc~lyta 1 é~i~+ SpDt ( ...... Bg~f;gS;..tI.yj;:.,,~.t 12J!,r.:\\'?t~,p~.L~.tr.~1:HTI. Sa t: e ~ (:t~!; .. ~l!;JlJ:C~_~,\\ sp .. ) ,,':':LS --r~rlt;lu 1 ar' 1 e?'~: spo'l ( l~.ªrj~;.S:.~P\" §l,\"É.      TOtfl1 obs ..:225•,:'0 21    Total obs.Cfltegor i a  R\",lb::-ª!!J:J:!J\"-?ººJ.YÉH1t.t1,b~.g::.  o.    ,.      .,.      Se,nilla grande~ redonda, Y\"oJo oscuro, tipo voluble.Ei:5509E:¡ 835099 G35100 G35101.G3~jl (>/J.  Semilla grande~ colorada.Sen,illa lnordda. Flor\" roja, se come.Semilla grande, negra. Tipo voluble.Sernilla grande~ moteada~ color rojizo-ar)aranjado.Semilla grande, blanca. Ti po vt11 ub 1 e.Cul ti vado, sE,mi 11 a amar-i 11a.Gr{:tflf,) uniformc~~ beit:Jr?!I mediano!, cc)n nervc\\ci on n¡,t i cl_,l ar.Semilla jaspeada gFis y negrD. Varios €:olor-es: rojo, atnaril10, 31narillo jaspeado, no produce raíz tuU/i,,.'osa, + 1 o,.... bl anC::i:\\, cCHnesti tll e.Semi 11 a mt\".lrada .. 'T\"ipD vDlut)le. Semílli:'I HtOf\"¿tda y )c:.spe¿ld.¿t .. SE:mi 11;:;:1 mDradc~ .. S€?\"mi 11 d mOl'\" ¿::tda\" f 1 (JI'\"\" roj t3, se come .. Sell,illa \"torada, fl~r r'oJa, comestible. 8DRlilla mor'add, flor rc)ja, comestible.Semilla bayo o negro. Flor blanca~ Se¡nilla Qr\"ande~ varios colores.SefJlilla chica, gri'fj jas~peadD, cafª~ ..  Semi l1a pequeNa, color ci'áe o gris.Vairla pubescents!I bracteola gra\"de~ rojiza ..Enrededor\" vaina pubRscents.Enrededor'.835494 Asociado con maiz.835495 SLlslo,; arenosos con pozos de agLla. Asociado con malz y frijol Grano mor-ado y pinto.Grano morado.Grano morado, pinto y negro.Grano caf. claro, violeta, nagro.Grano grande, amarillo. Grano violeta.Grana violeta.Gr¿lno violeta.Grana r~oj o ~ amarillo.Grano violeta, negro!! pinto y blanco~ Grano y\"ojo y amari 11 o.Grano rojo, ama ... i 11 o y negrc,.G,\"'-anD violeta, n eql''' o y pi nto.Grano violeta .. Gr-.1\\flO vicJleta, negr-o ' \" pinto., Grane) ¿Hnari llo~ roja y neg\"'C'I.Grano amari 110, rojo y negro.Grano amarilla, rojo y negro.Grana rojo!! amarillo.Grano mor-ado y negr\"a ..Gr cUlO r O) o y amar-i 11 o ..Ibes amarillo, colorado y blanca.G .... no ama ... illo y colorado.Grano amarilla y rojo.Grano amarilla, rojo V blanco.Grano anlarillo~ r\"oJo, blanco y negro.Grano amarillo y rejo.Grano aUlarillo, r•ojo~ negro. Grano amarillo y rojo.Grano .,mari 110.Grano afll¿u\"•i 11 o y rojo.Tipo volLlble, varios colores.Semi ll,ct 9r¡::tnde.Semilla grande, rojo y blanco.Semilla grande, blanco v mot •• do cafe.Semilla grande, caf~-rojo.Tip'J voluble, semi lla neqra.Tipo voluble, semilla grande, brillante, negrEJ y moré.\"da.Gral10 ºr~andH:!, mezcl a de colores ..Grano grande, amarillo mezclado con nagrOM 8rano grar'de, amarillo. Semilla negra y pinta.Gr'ano pinl:o, negr-o y bl anco.Gr,¡-•,no pird:o~ negro y blanco ..Gl\"ano ne~:;;¡r~o, blanco y pinto.Grano net;:¡l\"•o~ blanco v pi nto. Grano violeta, blanco y pinto.Grano negro, pinto y blanco.Grano pinto y negro.Grano morado y pinto.Grano violeta.Grano violeta, blanco. T 83 3\"' \" ., ::::         \".'\".,  ::; O O 1 0 0 1 9 0  .,.-'  4.1 7 6.6 7 6.9 7 o o .,:. O O        1 1 . .., ,_o1.       2.9 4 3.7 4 4.9 5            7 1 1 (1 o :2 1 1   0.0  835781 7 9   3.5 6 1 o o 5 9 3 7 1 1 o (l 2 1 1   0             .,.-'G35589 \"\" -' G3::i589  ","tokenCount":"1192"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7646052759.json b/data/part_6/7646052759.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..984d1e523aa52af2a4c6ac991a80f3e3489f31be
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3d69a4cf0b3a3ee6add2579ddbac1151","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a3cdab7c-9308-4532-a56f-3495ac25eecc/retrieve","id":"-1343093405"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f162477f-faae-4604-9a17-68db7ecb989a","pagecount":"146","content":"por su gran apoyo y comprensión.Al Ingeniero Valerio Hoyos por su gran ayuda en análisis y sistematización de la información.A José Polanía, Joisse Rincón, Jaumer Ricaurte y Ramiro García por su apoyo y compañerismo.A Jarden Molina, Martín Otero y Alberto López por su apoyo y compañerismo.A Edgar Cuarán y Marta Nupan por su apoyo y compañerismo.A todos los compañeros del laboratorio de sequía y fitonutrición por su apoyo y compañerismo.Tabla 1. Principales limitaciones edáficas de América Tropical (23 º N a 23 º S de latitud).Tabla 2. Concentración de los nutrientes en la solución hidropónica nutritiva, utilizada en la fase de enraizamiento (9 días). Tabla 3. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre longitud de raíz, diámetro de raíz y otras variables de Bd y Br evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 3 semanas. Tabla 4. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre longitud de raíz, diámetro de raíz y otras variables de Bd y Br evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 3 semanas. Tabla 5. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre longitud de raíz, diámetro de raíz y volumen de raíz de Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con y sin Al durante 3 semanas. Tabla 6. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre biomasa aérea y otras variables de Bd y Br evaluados en suelo de Matazul con diferentes niveles de P durante 80 días.Tabla 7. Análisis de suelo de Matazul, Meta a la siembra y cosecha. CIAT, Palmira, 2006. Tabla 8. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre biomasa aérea y otras variables de Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo P durante 6 semanas. Tabla 9. Análisis de suelo de Matazul, Meta después de aplicados los nutrientes al momento de la siembra y cosecha. Tabla 10. Coeficientes de determinación (R 2 ) y correlación simples (r) entre biomasa aérea y otras variables de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Figura 1. Evaluación de Bd y Br en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 3 semanas.Figura 2. Plantas de Bd y Br evaluadas en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 3 semanas. Figura 3. Evaluación de Bd y Br en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 4 semanas.Figura 4. Evaluación de Bd y Br en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 4 semanas.Figura 5. Raíces de plantas de Bd y Br evaluadas en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P en presencia de Al durante 4 semanas. Figura 6. Longitud de raíz y diámetro de raíz en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con y sin presencia de Al durante 3 semanas.Figura 7. Longitud de raíz y volumen de raíz en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con y sin presencia de Al durante 3 semanas. Figura 8. Desarrollo radicular de Bd, Br y 2 progenies en soluciones nutritivas con y sin presencia de Al durante 3 semanas. Figura 9. Longitud de raíz con y sin presencia de Al en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en soluciones nutritivas durante 3 semanas. Figura 10. Plantas de Br y Bd evaluadas en suelo de Matazul con diferentes niveles de P durante 80 días. Figura 11. Evaluación de Bd y Br en suelo de Matazul con diferentes niveles de P durante 80 días. Figura 12. Evaluación de Bd y Br en suelo de Matazul con diferentes niveles de P durante 80 días.Figura 13. Evaluación de Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P. Figura 14. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y peso seco de raíz en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P durante 6 semanas.Figura 15. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y absorción total de P en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P durante 6 semanas. Figura 16. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y eficiencia en el uso P de Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P durante 6 semanas.Figura 17. Peso seco de biomasa total y absorción total de P en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P durante 6 semanas. Figura 18. Evaluación de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas. Figura 19. Efecto de bajo P en Bd, Br y 8 progenies F1 en suelo de Matazúl, Meta a la semana 6 después de siembra. Figura 20. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y longitud de raíz de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas. Figura 21. Peso seco de biomasa aérea en bajo y alto P de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul durante 6 semanas. Figura 22. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y eficiencia en el uso de P en Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Figura 23. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y eficiencia en la absorción de P en Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Figura 24. Longitud de raíz en bajo y alto P de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul durante 6 semanas.Figura 25. Longitud de raíz y absorción total de P de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas. Figura 26. Evaluación de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Figura 27. Efecto de bajo y alto P en 2 genotipos contrastantes por su adaptación a bajo P a la semana 6 después de siembra. Figura 28. Evaluación de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas. Figura 29. Eficiencia en el uso de P y eficiencia en la absorción de P de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.To reduce P fertilization, more efficient genotypes in the uptake and use of P must be developed, and their morphological and physiological plant attributes that confer better adaptation to low P in the presence of Al must be determined. In the present work 2 Brachiaria species and their genetic recombinants were evaluated under nutritive solutions and soil from Matazul, Meta. The results indicated that the parents and progenies presented positive responses when P supply was increased. Variability and transgresive segregation were found in the population, what supposes that neither of the parents have all the favorable or disfavorable genes accumulated for adaptation to low P in the presence of Al, that could be acting as genes with additive and multiplicative effects in nutritive solutions, root traits such as, greater root length, greater specific root length, lesser diameter, greater volume and greater number of tips are those that have the greatest importance in low-P adaptation, the shoot attributes present little relevance. In soil both attributes influence low-P adaptation in presence of Al, the more adapted genotypes present greater shoot biomass, explained by greater leaf area, greater P uptake in the stem and greater root volume. The morphological root traits, mainly length, dry weight and P content, allow the plant better adaptation to low P. the P use efficiency seem to be the mechanism that some of the evaluated genotypes use to adapt to low P condition in the presence of Al.Para reducir la fertilización con P se deben desarrollar genotipos más eficientes en adquirir y utilizar el P, y determinar los atributos morfológicos y fisiológicos de la planta que le confieren mejor adaptación a bajo P en presencia de Al. En el presente trabajo se evaluaron en invernadero con soluciones nutritivas y suelo de Matazul, Meta, 2 especies de Brachiaria y sus recombinantes genéticos. Los resultados indicaron que los parentales y progenies presentaron respuestas positivas al incrementarse el suministro de P. Se presentó variabilidad y segregación transgresiva en la población, lo que supone que ninguno de los padres tienen acumulados todos los genes favorables ni desfavorables para adaptación a bajo P en presencia de Al, que pueden estar actuando genes con efectos aditivos y multiplicativos. En soluciones nutritivas atributos radicales como, mayor longitud de raíz, mayor longitud específica de raíz, menor diámetro, mayor volumen y mayor número de puntas de raíz son los que tienen mayor importancia en la adaptación a bajo P, los atributos aéreos presentan poca relevancia. En suelo ambos atributos influyen en la adaptación a bajo P en presencia de Al, los genotipos mejor adaptados presentan mayor biomasa aérea, explicada por mayor área foliar, mayor absorción de P en el tallo y mayor volumen de raíz. Las características morfológicas de las raíces, principalmente longitud, peso seco y contenido de P, le permiten a la planta mejor adaptación a bajo P. La eficiencia en el uso del P parece ser el mecanismo que utilizan algunos de los genotipos evaluados para adaptarse a condiciones de bajo P en presencia de Al. 1La importancia económica de los pastos del género Brachiaria es bien conocida.El potencial forrajero de estas gramíneas fue reconocido por primera vez hace cerca de 40 años, sobre todo en algunos nichos muy específicos de Australia tropical. No obstante, solo en los últimos 20 a 25 años se percibió el gran impacto que puede tener este género, cuando se sembró en América tropical, una gran extensión de tierra con un puñado de cultivares Brachiaria derivados directamente de germoplasma natural (Miles et al., 1998;2004).De los pastos tropicales, las especies de Brachiaria son las más expandidas en todo el mundo. Por ejemplo en Brasil se calcula que hay alrededor de 70 millones de hectáreas plantadas, estas han incrementado la productividad en un factor de 5-10 con respecto a la vegetación de sabana nativa, esto representa una significativa contribución a los ingresos de los ganaderos, sin embargo, en pocos años de establecidas estas pasturas pueden presentar degradación debido a problemas de acidez y deficiencias de N y P (Rao et al., 1998a,b;1999).Las principales limitaciones de los suelos ácidos son la toxicidad causada por el Al o el Mn (o ambos) y las deficiencias de nutrimentos esenciales como, N, P, Ca y Mg; aunque se han identificado ecotipos de Brachiaria que se adaptan bien a estos suelos, poco se sabe acerca de sus mecanismos de adaptación (Rao et al., 1993;1998). Estudios sobre mecanismos de la resistencia al Al en Brachiaria indican que B. decumbens es altamente resistente al Al (Wenzl et al., 2001). El alto nivel de resistencia al Al en B. decumbens no está asociada con mecanismos conocidos de detoxificación del Al en puntas de raíces. Por lo tanto, mecanismos de resistencia altamente efectivos basados en diferentes estrategias fisiológicas parecen operar en B. decumbens (Miles et al., 2004).El fósforo es el nutrimento que mas limita el crecimiento y la productividad de las pasturas de Brachiaria en los suelos ácidos (Sánchez y Salinas, 1981). Hasta los suelos que tienen un alto contenido total de P pueden tener una capacidad de suministro de P baja, puesto que hay reacciones químicas que fijan el P-fosfato en formas que no están fácilmente disponibles para las plantas. La cantidad de P que debe aplicarse para corregir una deficiencia varía según la capacidad de absorción del P que tiene el suelo y la habilidad de la planta para absorber y utilizar el P eficientemente para su desarrollo (Rao et al., 1998a).El fósforo como fosfato es un componente integral de un número bastante importante de compuestos presentes en las células, como son los azucares fosfatados usados en la respiración y en la fotosíntesis y fosfolípidos que hacen parte de la membrana celular (Rao, 1996;Jain et al., 2007). También es un componente de los nucleótidos usados en el metabolismo energético de la planta y en las moléculas de ADN y ARN. Los requerimientos de P para un crecimiento óptimo en las plantas están en el rango de 3 a 5 mg por gramo de materia seca durante la etapa vegetativa de crecimiento. La deficiencia de P resulta en la reducción del crecimiento de la planta, en un retardo de la madurez y por consecuente en una reducción en el rendimiento (A. Low-Gaume, 2001), por esta razón, es necesario aplicar fertilizantes inorgánicos de P a las cosechas. Sin embargo, la naturaleza no renovable de estos fertilizantes significa que las fuentes baratas de P, tales como rocas fosfóricas serán agotadas en los próximos 60 -90 años (Runge-Metzger, 1995), además, el exceso de P agregado a las cosechas puede contaminar los arroyos locales. Por lo tanto, la fertilización con P debe ser reducida, esto se puede lograr desarrollando genotipos que puedan adquirir y utilizar mas eficientemente el P, o desarrollando métodos mas exactos para supervisar el estado nutricional de las cosechas (Hammond et al., 2004).La eficiencia en la absorción de P, se refiere a la habilidad que tienen las plantas en tomar gran cantidad de P por unidad de longitud de raíz (Rao, 2001), o la habilidad que tienen los genotipos tolerantes de tomar P cuando se han sembrado en condiciones de bajo P (Schaffert et al., 2001;Alves et al., 2002).La eficiencia en la absorción se atribuye a adaptaciones morfológicas, fisiológicas y bioquímica de las raíces (Rao et al., 1999;Lynch y Brown, 2001;Abel et al, 2002). Morfológicamente van desde cambios en la estructura de la raíz, hasta modificaciones en la cantidad, densidad y longitud de las raíces laterales, raíces adventicias y pelos radicales (Bates y Lynch, 2000). Además las raíces responden bioquímicamente con la expresión y secreción de enzimas como fosfatasas ácidas y ARNsas (Trull y Deikman, 1998), con la síntesis y exudación de ácidos orgánicos (Jones, 1998); y con un aumento en la síntesis de transportadores de Pi (Raghothama, 2000;Jain et al., 2007).Se puede mejorar la absorción de P en las especies de Brachiaria mediante alguno de los siguientes atributos: Sistema radical que proporcione mayor contacto con el P del suelo, mayor absorción por unidad de longitud radical gracias a mecanismos de absorción mejorados, capacidad de usar formas orgánicas o inorgánicas insolubles de P, las cuales generalmente no están disponibles para las plantas o lo están en poca cantidad y la asociación de micorrizas vesículoarbasculares (MVA) puede afectar a cada uno de estos atributos en forma significativa (Rao et al., 1998).El objetivo de este estudio fue identificar las características morfológicas y fisiológicas de la planta, que pueden estar involucradas en la adaptación a bajo fósforo disponible en el suelo en presencia de aluminio, en 2 genotipos de Brachiaria (Brachiaria decumbens, considerado mejor adaptado y Brachiaria ruziziensis, menos adaptado) y una población conformada por recombinantes genéticos del cruzamiento entre estas 2 especies.Brachiaria es un género amplio que contiene cerca de 100 especies, a pesar de estar distribuidos en todo el trópico, se encuentran principalmente en África. Los hábitats en que crecen estas especies son muy variados, se les encuentra en pantanos, bosques de sombra ligera y en áreas semidesérticas, aunque el ambiente típico de la mayoría de ellas son las sabanas tropicales. Muchas especies se encuentran también como malezas en los cultivos, a lo largo de los caminos y en sitios intervenidos. El interés agronómico despertado por este género se centra en varias especies que se emplean para desarrollar pasturas tropicales; entre ellas sobresale B. decumbens, cuyo desempeño ha superado el de otras gramíneas en las pasturas tropicales (Renvoize, Clayton y Kabuye, 1998).Brachiaria es una gramínea de macollas, caracterizada por sus espigas oblongas o elípticas gruesas, de 4 a 6 cm de largo, alineadas según la especie en filas sencillas o dobles. Las hojas miden de 20 -40 cm de largo por 1 a 2 cm de ancho, y presenta bordes duros y ásperos (Miles et al., 1998).Los cultivares de Brachiaria son gramíneas forrajeras ampliamente utilizadas para la producción ganadera en regiones de suelos ácidos con deficiencia de fósforo en América Latina, particularmente en los ecosistemas de sabanas. Las especies que se usaron para dar inicio al fitomejoramiento en este género, fueron B. decumbens y B. ruziziensis (Miles, Maass y do Valle, 1998).El cultivar de B. decumbens de uso más conocido y amplio es el Basilisk, fue derivado de semilla (CPI 1694) introducida en Australia proveniente del Departamento de Agricultura de Uganda, en 1930. En Australia, en 1966 se aprobó la liberación comercial de este cultivar, el cual fue registrado en 1973 (Stur et al., 1998); la amplia adopción de esta especie se atribuye a su alta productividad bajo uso intensivo y su excelente adaptación a suelos ácidos áridos (pH<5,5), además responde muy bien a la fertilización, es persistente y se mantiene verde en condiciones de sequía, y proviene de una accesión de germoplasma resistente a la toxicidad por Al. Es una gramínea palatable de buena calidad nutricional y los animales que la consumen presentan buen desempeño.Su reproducción apomíctica ofrece diversas ventajas debido a la fijación del vigor híbrido en sus semillas, asegurando la preservación de su constitución genética original (Keller et al.,1998;Rao et al., 1996).  (Keller et al.,1998).Se estima que el 40% de los suelos arables del mundo son acídicos y por lo tanto presentan riesgos por toxicidad con Al. Aun mas revelador es el hecho de que muchas de estas áreas están ubicadas en países en desarrollo en Suramérica, África central y el sureste de Asia, donde la producción de alimentos puede ser crítica (Vitorello et al., 2005).El trópico americano presenta 2 ecosistemas predominantes: el de sabanas, que cubre alrededor de 360 millones de hectáreas, y el de bosques, con una extensión aproximada de 620 millones de hectáreas. En ambos ecosistemas predominan suelos, que en su mayoría (800 millones de ha). Son clasificados como oxisoles y ultisoles, de acuerdo con el sistema americano de taxonomía de suelos (Salinas y Castilla, 1990). En Brasil solamente las sabanas ácidas con baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico y alta saturación de aluminio tóxico cubren cerca de de 205 millones de hectáreas (Marschner, 1991).Las principales limitantes relacionadas con los suelos de América tropical se presentan en la tabla 1. Las limitaciones mas ampliamente difundidas en las regiones de oxisoles y ultisoles son mas de naturaleza química que física; las mas importantes son las deficiencias de fósforo y nitrógeno; además, las de potasio, azufre, calcio, magnesio y zinc. Existen adicionalmente toxicidades por aluminio o manganeso (o ambos) y una alta fijación de fósforo. Las limitaciones físicas del suelo mas importantes son la baja capacidad de retención de agua disponible de muchos oxisoles, y la susceptibilidad a la erosión y compactación (en la capa superficial del suelo) de muchos ultisoles de textura arenosa (Salinas y Castilla, 1990). Región de suelos ácidos infertiles a Limitación edáfica a. El área de esta región de suelos ácidos es aproximadamente 1043 x 10 6 ha.Fuente: Sánchez y Salinas, 1983. La acidificación del suelo es un proceso natural el cual empieza cuando las superficies de las rocas son primero colonizadas por algas y líquenes. Los ácidos, ampliamente derivados de los ciclos de carbono y nitrógeno, están involucrados en la disolución del suelo y los minerales rocosos durante el proceso del desarrollo del suelo. En ecosistemas naturales los suelos usualmente llegan a ser gradualmente más ácidos con el tiempo. Los suelos más viejos y climatizados son generalmente más ácidos que los suelos jóvenes. En general, la sobreposición de la producción agrícola resulta en tasas más rápidas de acidificación del suelo (Helyar et al., 1989).La toxicidad por aluminio es la forma mas distribuida de toxicidad por metales a plantas y su ocurrencia esta comparada solo por la salinidad. A causa de su solubilidad dependiente del pH, la toxicidad por aluminio ocurre solo a valores de pH menores a 5.5 y es más severa en suelos con baja saturación de bases, pobres en Ca y Mg (Vitorello et al., 2005).El alto contenido de aluminio en las plantas produce síntomas complejos (reducción en la adquisición de nutrientes e incremento a la susceptibilidad a sequía); en el subsuelo puede reducir el desarrollo de las raíces y disminuir el uso de nutrientes. Cuando es absorbido por las raíces, penetra entre el ápice de la raíz y la capa de raíces, por ser un catión polivalente se une fuertemente a las cargas negativas de la pared celular de las raíces transportándose lentamente a través de la membrana plasmática (Delhaize et al., 1993), la mayor porción de Al absorbido se localiza en el apoplasto en un rango de 30-90% del total, acumulándose en el núcleo por diferencial de cargas (negativa en el núcleo por los grupos fosfato), moviéndose entre y a través del núcleo, en condiciones de pH ácido, y el citoplasma de las células adyacentes a esta zona; una parte pasa a través de la epidermis y el córtex y cantidades considerables se retienen en las células corticales (Rout et al., 2001).El síntoma mas prominente de la toxicidad por aluminio es la inhibición del crecimiento radicular, el cual puede ser detectado usualmente en 30 minutos a 2 horas, inclusive a concentraciones micromolares de Al. Las raíces afectadas por aluminio se vuelven gruesas y frecuentemente adquieren una coloración oscura, la ramificación y los pelos radicales son reducidos. En el ápice radicular, quiebres son fácilmente observados en la epidermis, expansión radial desigual del cortex causa engrosamiento de las raíces y estrés mecánico en la epidermis. Las células que han sido reportadas de ser afectadas por el Al son el ápice, meristema, células elongantes, los pelos radicales y los inicios de la ramificación. Las puntas de las raíces son la región más sensible. En un examen mas detallado, la región distal de la zona de transición (ZTD) ha mostrado ser la región apical radicular mas sensible al Al. La inhibición del crecimiento radicular es el principal resultado de elongación celular inhibida, mientras que una división celular reducida puede obviamente afectar el crecimiento en etapas posteriores (Vitorello et al., 2005).Aunque los síntomas de la toxicidad por Al son también manifestados en la parte aérea, estos son una consecuencia de lesiones al sistema radicular. Las respuestas mas comunes en la parte aérea son modificaciones celulares y ultraestructurales en las hojas, reducción en la apertura estomática, actividad fotosintética reducida, clorosis y necrosis foliar. Exposición al Al a largo plazo y la inhibición del crecimiento radicular generalmente llevan a deficiencias nutricionales, principalmente de P, K, Ca y Mg. La consecuencia final es biomasa reducida. Con la excepción de las plantas acumuladoras de Al (ej, plantas de Té o Hidrángeas), poco aluminio es transportado hacia la parte aérea (Vitorello et al., 2005).Para algunas plantas los efectos de la toxicidad por aluminio se asemejan aquellos por deficiencia de fósforo. Los síntomas son depresión, hojas pequeñas verde oscuro, y madurez tardía con un color violeta de las hojas y tallos. Comúnmente hay amarillamiento y muerte de las puntas de las hojas. En otras plantas hay una deficiencia inducida de calcio que resulta en enrollamiento de hojas jóvenes, y un colapso de puntos de crecimiento o pecíolos. Las raíces son lesionadas y son frágiles y deprimidas con una forma espatulaza. Las puntas de las raíces se engrosan y se tornan de color café y hay muchas raíces laterales deprimidas sin ramificación fina. Tales raíces son predispuestas a infección fungosa y los procesos de absorción son ineficientes (Hale, 1987).Los mecanismos de respuesta a estrés por Al difieren dependiendo del tipo de suelo y horizonte, material parental, estructura del suelo, pH, genotipo y especie de planta; estos factores influyen en las plantas a nivel celular y estructural (Marschner, 1991;Matsumoto, 2000).Algunas estrategias por el cual las plantas pueden tolerar el Al son: a. habilidad para excluir la entrada del Al en el ápice de la raíz y los pelos radicales (mecanismos del apoplasto), b. desarrollo de mecanismos que dirige la planta para tolerar concentraciones tóxicas de Al entre la célula (mecanismos del simplasto) y c. acumulación de Al en el tallo. Los mecanismos de resistencia por exclusión de la entrada del Al en el ápice de la raíz resultan de la liberación de ligandos (Ej. citrato y oxalato), que son liberados en la rizósfera, quelatando el Al y previniendo su entrada a la raíz (De la Fuente y Herrera, 1999;Matsumoto, 2000).La tolerancia al aluminio puede operar por la prevención o reducción de la extracción de aluminio por las plantas o por la detoxificación de Al una vez entra en el tejido vegetal. La exclusión del Al de la planta puede operar en varias formas. Primero, el pH en la zona radicular se puede incrementar y esto disminuye la solubilidad y toxicidad de Al. Este proceso involucra que la planta acumule mas aniones que cationes y excrete iones hidroxilo o bases Bronsted-Lowry. Segundo, se sugiere que la baja capacidad de intercambio catiónico en las raíces esta asociada con la tolerancia al Al. Por consiguiente se espera una disminución en la tasa de difusión del Al trivalente y una reducción en la severidad de los efectos del Al en la expansión de las paredes celulares, ya que habrían menores radicales carboxilo libres en las paredes celulares con los cuales el Al podría unirse.Tercero, se sugiere alguna resistencia por el plasmalema al daño por aluminio.Esto entonces restringiría la difusión de Al hacia el citoplasma. Cuarto, el cambio morfológico bajo estrés de aluminio ha sido sugerido como un mecanismo para tolerancia. Estos autores sugieren la producción de un mucílago para proteger la raíz del daño por Al (Scott et al., 1989), la formación del complejo fosfato inorgánico-Al en la rizósfera (Taylor, 1991;Basu et al., 2001) y existencia de exudados orgánicos (Ej.: citrato, malato, oxalato) que pueden quelatar el Al (Marschner, 1991;De la Fuente y Herrera, 1999;Ma, 2000); Estas características de secreción de exudados son consistentes con los patrones observados en otros genotipos resistentes a Al, por ejemplo, en trigo (malato), maíz y soya (citrato), y avena (citrato y malato) (Pellet et al., 1996;Yang et al., 2001, Gaume et al., 2001); sin embargo, los estudios realizados en B. decumbens sugieren que los mecanismos de detoxificación de Al por ácidos orgánicos juegan un papel secundario (Wenzl et al., 2001;2002).El fósforo fue descubierto en 1669 por el alquimista Hennig Brand de Hamburgo.Buscando la piedra filosofal, Brand destiló una mezcla de arena y orina evaporada, y obtuvo un cuerpo que tenía la propiedad de fosforecer en la oscuridad. Se le llamó fósforo de Brand, para distinguirlo de otros materiales luminosos denominados también fósforo. Durante un siglo se obtuvo esta sustancia exclusivamente de la orina, hasta que en 177I Scheele la produjo de huesos calcinados. Más tarde, la palabra fósforo se reservó para designar esta substancia, cuando Lavoisier demostró que era un elemento e investigó algunos de los productos formados al quemarlo en el aire. Boyle, por su parte parece que también descubrió el fósforo y comunicó el hallazgo a un industrial alemán ,G.Hatkwits, el cual industrializó su obtención en Londres (http://apuntes.com/elfosforo.html).El fósforo es un componente esencial de los vegetales, se encuentra, en parte, en estado mineral, pero principalmente formando complejos orgánicos fosforados con lípidos, prótidos y glúcidos, como la lecitina, las nucleoproteínas (componentes del núcleo celular) y la fitina (órganos de reproducción). El P es requerido principalmente por tejidos jóvenes que presentan una alta velocidad de división, en donde participa en una gran cantidad de reacciones relacionadas con el crecimiento celular, desarrollo, fotosíntesis y en la utilización de los carbohidratos. (Clarkson y Hanson, 1980;Rao, 1996). El P es un constituyente del Adenosin-Difosfato (ADP) y del Adenosin-Trifosfato (ATP), que son dos de las más importantes moléculas que intervienen en los procesos energéticos de las células.El fósforo es considerado uno de los elementos mayores para el óptimo desarrollo y producción de las plantas, debe ser suministrado en forma de fertilizantes fosforados en suelos que presentan deficiencias de este elemento. Los suelos que presentan deficiencias de P, limitan la producción de los cultivos, ya que el P es un nutriente esencial para la planta, el cual esta involucrado en un amplio rango de procesos que van desde permitir la división celular hasta el desarrollo de un buen sistema de raíces. La deficiencia de P tiene un efecto directo en la expresión de algunos genes involucrados con la tolerancia a bajo P, entre estos están los genes que codifican para enzimas como las fosfatasas y RNAsas, (Schaffert et al., 1999).En los cultivos en general, los requerimientos de P para un óptimo desarrollo de la planta están en el rango de 0.3 -0.5% de materia seca durante el estado de crecimiento vegetativo. Los contenidos en exceso, por encima de 1% en la materia seca pueden ser tóxicos para la mayoría de los cultivos, sin embargo muchos cultivos de tipo hortalizas son tolerantes a excesos de P. La eficiencia productiva parcial de P para grano o semillas es más alta en estados tempranos de crecimiento que en estados tardíos, porque el P es necesario para el llenado. Si la planta absorbe suficiente P en estados tempranos de crecimiento, este puede ser distribuido a otros órganos de crecimiento. (Bell et al., 1990).El mayor efecto causado por la deficiencia de P es la reducción en la expansión de la hoja y el área de la superficie foliar, así como el número total de hojas. La reducción en la expansión de la hoja con bajo P esta fuertemente relacionado con la extensión de las células epidermales de la hoja, y a un decrecimiento de la conductividad hidráulica en la raíz. El bajo P, también afecta el crecimiento y por lo tanto, reduce el área fotosintética y la utilización de los carbohidratos. También se retarda la formación de cloroplastos y clorofila. A bajas cantidades de P se incrementa la solubilidad de las proteínas y el contenido de clorofila por unidad de área, dando como resultado hojas pequeñas y de un color verde oscuro. Por lo tanto el no suministro de cantidades adecuadas de fósforo inorgánico (P i ) resulta en una disminución de la velocidad de la fotosíntesis y finalmente influye en el desarrollo de la maquinaria fotosintética y del metabolismo (Rao, 1996;Marschner, 1995).A corto plazo, la deficiencia de P afecta la fotofosforilación lo que ocasiona un desbalance y un incremento en la energía a nivel de la membrana del tilacoide, disminuyendo el flujo de electrones afectando la fotosíntesis. En contraste, una deficiencia de P a largo plazo, disminuye la velocidad de la fotosíntesis debido a una limitación de la capacidad de regeneración de la ribulosa 1.5 bifosfato afectando la fase oscura de la fotosíntesis. A este nivel los daños causados por la deficiencia de P son irreversibles (Rao y Terry, 1995).Generalmente los síntomas ocasionados por las deficiencias de P no son fácilmente reconocibles, debido a que en muchos casos las plantas no muestran síntomas visibles y en otros casos los síntomas tienden a ser confundidos con los síntomas causados por la deficiencia de otros elementos. Entre lo efectos mas comunes por la deficiencia a P en las plantas están el achaparramiento de la planta, la disminución de la división o bifurcación de las ramas, la presencia de hojas mas cortas y erectas y floraciones tardías, las hojas viejas pueden tornarse de un color verde oscuro o tonalidad púrpura rojizo en el caso de deficiencias extremas (Barry y Miller, 1989). Además de los efectos mencionados por el bajo contenido de P en el suelo, muchas especies vegetales forman proteoides (raíces en racimo, que les permite captar mas eficiente el poco fósforo disponible en el suelo) de raíz que son importantes en la formación de las raíces laterales, también puede limitar la formación de estructuras reproductivas, senescencia prematura de las hojas, un retraso bien marcado de la floración, y una disminución en el número de flores y una restricción bien marcada en la formación de la semilla, lo cual es una de las causas de la disminución del rendimiento en muchas de las especies vegetales. (Rossiter, 1978;Barry y Miller, 1989;Rao, 2001).Los suelos pobres están localizados en latitudes tropicales, el 43% de los suelos tropicales, 2050 millones de ha presentan suelos ácidos bajos en P, mientras que las zonas más productivas se encuentran en ciertas áreas de la zona templada. La infertilidad de muchos de los suelos tropicales es una consecuencia de su formación geológica, ya que provienen de materiales parentales con bajos elementos minerales, acompañados por lo general de procesos muy activos de interperización bajo condiciones húmedas de las regiones tropicales. Bajo estas condiciones se aceleran los procesos químicos y biológicos, que acompañados de altas precipitaciones dan como resultado una perdida de los nutrientes por un lavado continuo, ocasionando en la mayoría de los casos la formación de suelos de tipo ácido en donde predominan minerales de tipo caolonítico, óxidos e hidruros ácidos de hierro y aluminio. (Rao et al., 1999) Las principales causas de la pérdida de rendimiento son atribuidas, directa o indirectamente a factores bióticos y abióticos. Entre los factores bióticos se incluyen insectos, enfermedades y malezas, los cuales son directamente responsables de la pérdida del rendimiento, estimado en un 20% bajo condiciones de controles a nivel de productor. Entre los factores abióticos, se tienen limitantes de tipo climático y edáfico, los cuales son causantes de una gran parte de las perdidas del rendimiento. Entre los factores edáficos se tiene la baja disponibilidad del fósforo el cual es el mayor limitante de la producción en los trópicos. (Rao et al., 1999).Los suelos de los ordenes Oxisoles y Ultisoles, están caracterizados por su bajo contenido de minerales intercambiables y un alto contenido de arcillas de baja actividad y óxidos de hierro (Fe) y aluminio (Al), con estos minerales empiezan a aparecer los productos que se intercambian con el P, como el fosfato de calcio, el cual al ser hidrolizado tiene la capacidad de moverse a través de la solución del suelo, donde es absorbido, precipitado y orgánicamente inmovilizado. Los resultados de los procesos de interperización también ocasionan la pérdida de bases catiónicas, en la desilización de las arcillas y en la generación de hidruros ácidos de Fe y Al los cuales son los causantes que el P en forma de fosfato sea inmovilizado o precipitado. Estos suelos también presentan una alta capacidad de fijación de P, en donde se considera que para la obtención de 0.1 mg P/L de la solución del suelo en equilibrio se necesitan entre 110 a 450 mg P/Kg de suelo. (Rao et al., 1999;Le Mare, 1982). En condiciones de sabana nativa en Latinoamérica, la concentración de P es menor a 7 ppm (Bray II), lo cual hace necesario la aplicación de P en forma de fertilizante (Rao, 2001).La eficiencia en la absorción de P, se refiere a la habilidad que tienen las plantas en tomar gran cantidad de P por unidad de longitud de raíz (Rao, 2001), o la habilidad que tienen los genotipos tolerantes de tomar P cuando se han sembrado en condiciones de bajo P. (Schaffert et al., 2001;Alves et al., 2002).Las plantas toman el P por mecanismos que dependen de características tanto morfológicas como fisiológicas de la raíz. La relativa inmovilidad del fósforo en la solución del suelo, hace que la toma dependa directamente de la exploración que hace la raíz en el suelo en el tiempo y en el espacio (Marschner, 1991). Los cultivos que genéticamente están adaptados a suelos tropicales con bajo P se caracterizan por tener un bajo requerimiento de P y ser eficientes en la absorción y uso del elemento para ser usado en su crecimiento y actividades vitales, aun cuando los suelos presenten deficiencias de P (Randall, 1995).La absorción del P presenta un problema para las plantas, ya que la concentración de este mineral en la solución del suelo es baja, pero los requisitos de la planta son altos. La forma de P más fácilmente tomada por las plantas es el Pi, pero su concentración en la solución del suelo raramente excede los 10 µM (Bieleski, 1973). Por lo tanto, las plantas han especializado transportadores en la interface raíz/suelo para la extracción del Pi de las soluciones de concentraciones micromolares, así como otros mecanismos para transportar el Pi a través de las membranas entre los compartimientos intracelulares, donde las concentraciones del Pi pueden ser 1000 veces mayores que en la solución externa. Debe también tener los sistemas de flujo que desempeñan un papel en la redistribución de este recurso precioso en el suelo, cuando el P no está disponible o no es adecuado (Schachtman et al., 1998).La cuestión de si hay varios transportadores del Pi con diversas características funcionales en membranas de la célula de la planta, o solamente un transportador con esa característica, puede variar con el estado interno del Pi o la concentración externa, esto se ha estudiado usando el análisis cinético de la absorción. En este tipo de análisis la afinidad de un transportador para un mineral particular, es estimado midiendo el índice de la absorción en diversas concentraciones externas de un ión. Resultados de varios estudios cinéticos se han interpretado para apoyar la existencia de solamente un sistema de absorción en raíces de la cebada (Drew y Saker, 1984) o hasta siete en raíces de maíz (Nandi et al., 1987). La interpretación más común de estos estudios cinéticos son que existen dos sistemas de absorción del Pi, uno con una alta afinidad y actividad que se aumenta o reprime por deficiencia de Pi, y uno con más baja afinidad y actividad, que es constitutivo. Avances recientes en biología molecular sobre los transportadores del Pi de la membrana plasmática y del tonoplasto confirman que la planta tiene transportadores múltiples para el Pi. (Schachtman et al., 1998).La regulación de los transportadores del Pi en la planta, en respuesta a deficiencia de P se piensa que puede ocurrir a nivel de la trascripción (Smith et al., 2003). Sin embargo, la sobre-expresión de los transportadores del Pi no aumenta siempre la absorción de P (Rae et al., 2004). Los transportadores de alta afinidad de Pi se expresan sobre todo en los pelos de la raíz, que favorecen la adquisición de P (Mudge et al., 2002;Schünmann et al., 2004).El mantenimiento de las concentraciones citoplásmicas estables del Pi es esencial para muchas reacciones enzimáticas. Esta homeostasis es alcanzada por una combinación del transporte de la membrana y el intercambio entre los varios grupos intracelulares del P. Estos grupos se pueden clasificar de diversas maneras. Primero, según su localización en compartimientos físicos tales como el citoplasma, la vacuola, el apoplasto, y el núcleo. El pH de estos compartimientos determinará la forma del Pi. En segundo lugar, por la forma química del P, tal como Pi, P-esteres, P-lípidos, y ácidos nucleicos. La proporción del P total en cada forma química (excepto P en la DNA) cambia con el tipo y la edad del tejido y en respuesta a la nutrición con P. Tercero, según la función fisiológica, como metabólica, almacenada y formas que completan un ciclo (Schachman et al., 1998).El Pi citoplásmico se mantiene en concentraciones constantes (5-10 µM), más o menos independientemente de concentraciones externas del Pi, excepto bajo deficiencia severa de P (Lee et al., 1990;Lee y Ratcliffe, 1993;Mimura, 1995). En cambio, las concentraciones vacuolares del Pi varían extensamente; bajo condiciones de bajo P, el Pi vacuolar puede ser casi imperceptible. Cuando la fuente de Pi es limitada, en general las plantas producen más raíces, aumentan el índice de absorción en las raíces del suelo, retranslocan Pi de hojas más viejas, y agotan los almacenes vacuolares de Pi. Además, las micorrizas pueden colonizar mas las raíces. Inversamente, cuando las plantas tienen una fuente adecuada de Pi y la están absorbiendo en tasas superiores a las adecuadas, un número de procesos actúan para prevenir la acumulación de las concentraciones tóxicas del Pi. Estos procesos incluyen conversión de Pi en compuestos orgánicos de almacenaje, reducción en la tasa de absorción del Pi del exterior (Lee et al., 1990), y pérdida del Pi por flujo, que puede estar entre 8 y el 70% de la afluencia (Bieleski y Ferguson, 1983). Estos procesos pueden ser las estrategias para el mantenimiento de la homeostasis intracelular del Pi.Diferentes estudios proporcionan un cuadro de patrones del movimiento del Pi en las plantas (Mimura et al., 1996;Jeschke et al., 1997). En plantas con suficiente P la mayor parte del Pi absorbido por las raíces se transporta por el xilema a las hojas más jóvenes. Las concentraciones del Pi en el xilema de plantas con deficiencia de P varían de 1 µM a 7 µM, pero en plantas que han crecido en soluciones nutritivas, el xilema puede contener hasta 125 µM de Pi (Mimura et al., 1996). Hay también retranslocación significativa del Pi en el floema de hojas más viejas a los tejidos nuevos de la parte aérea y desde estos tejidos nuevos hasta las raíces. En plantas con deficiencia de Pi el suministro restringido de Pi a los tejidos aéreos desde las raíces vía xilema, se suple por movilización creciente de P almacenado en las hojas más viejas y retranslocado a las hojas más jóvenes y a las raíces en crecimiento. Este proceso implica el agotamiento de los almacenes del Pi y la interrupción de P orgánico en las hojas más viejas. Una característica curiosa de plantas con deficiencia de P, es que aproximadamente una mitad del Pi desplazado desde la parte aérea hacia las raíces por el floema, es después transferido al xilema y reciclado de nuevo a los tejidos aéreos (Jeschke et al., 1997). En el xilema el P se transporta solamente como Pi, mientras en el floema es significativo el transporte de P orgánico.En más del 90% de las plantas, sus raíces forman asociaciones simbióticas con micorrizas, desempeñando un papel importante en la adquisición de P para la planta (Bolan, 1991;Smith y Read, 1997). Las micorrizas se puede dividir en dos categorías: ectomicorrizas y endomicorrizas, Las endomicorrizas vesiculares son las más extensas del reino vegetal (Smith y Read, 1997). La simbiosis micorrizal se fundamenta en el intercambio mutualístico del C de la planta a cambio de P y otros alimentos minerales del hongo. El flujo de P en raíces colonizadas por micorrizas puede ser 3 a 5 veces mayor que en las raíces no micorrizadas.Los pocos estudios publicados de la cinética de la absorción del Pi indican que las raíces micorrizadas y sus hifas aisladas tienen sistemas de absorción de P con características similares a aquellas encontradas en las raíces no micorrizadas y otros hongos (Thomson et al., 1990;Smith y Read, 1997).Una red extensa de hifas se extiende desde la raíz, permitiendo a la planta explorar un mayor volumen de suelo, superando limitaciones impuestas por la lenta o casi nula difusión del Pi en el suelo. Las micorrizas pueden también ser capaces de buscar Pi de la solución del suelo con más eficacia que otros hongos del suelo, porque el C (que puede limitarse en el suelo) se proporciona al hongo por medio de la planta. La asociación planta/micorriza puede por lo tanto, permitir a la planta competir con más eficacia con los microorganismos del suelo por la cantidad limitada del Pi disponible en el suelo. Las micorrizas pueden también adquirir P orgánico de fuentes que no están disponibles directamente para la planta. Poco se sabe sobre el transporte de los compuestos del P dentro de la micorriza o del mecanismo de flujo del P en el hongo. El Pi y P orgánico pueden ser llevado dentro del hongo por el flujo citoplásmico o por el flujo en masa, a la raíz de la planta desde hifas externas ubicadas en el suelo. La visión actual es que el Pi es la forma principal con mayor flujo usada por el hongo a través de las membranas interfaciales (Jayachandran et al., 1992).Los cultivos anuales generalmente tienen una raíz cuyo volumen es menor al 1% del volumen del suelo que ella ocupa, por lo tanto el contacto de las raíces con el P disponible en la solución del suelo es menor al 1%, que por lo general es una cantidad muy pequeña comparada con la cantidad de P que el cultivo necesita.Por este motivo, características asociadas con la raíz, como lo son la longitud, diámetro, número, longitud y duración de los pelos radicales, son importantes para determinar la capacidad de absorción de P en suelos que son deficientes en este elemento (Rao et al., 1999;Alves et al., 2002) La densidad de la raíz y la distribución de esta en el perfil del suelo, juega un papel importante en la eficiencia de absorción de P. Esta eficiencia está influenciada por parámetros, como el genotipo de la especie, propiedades químicas y físicas del suelo y los sistemas de labranza. Por lo general las diferencias entre cultivares tolerantes y susceptibles a bajo contenido de P están siendo explicadas por el crecimiento y distribución de las raíces en el suelo (Alves et al., 2002).Las plantas responden a la deficiencia de P aumentando la formación y alargamiento de raíces laterales, y disminuyendo el alargamiento primario de la raíz. Los cambios en la morfología y crecimiento de la raíz son proporcionales a las concentraciones de reguladores de crecimiento, particularmente auxina, etileno y citokininas. La producción de etileno es estimulada en raíces de plantas con deficiencias de P, puede ser responsable de la formación de los pelos de la raíz.Los niveles de citokininas disminuyen en plantas con deficiencias de P. Se han identificado genes que influyen en la expresión de auxinas, AIR1,3,9,12, HRGP y LRP1 que controlan el desarrollo lateral de la raíz (Hammond et al., 2004).El diámetro de las raíces, es uno de los atributos que juega un papel importante en la absorción de P en suelos con deficiencias en este elemento. El diámetro de la raíz define el volumen máximo de suelo que puede ser explotado para la producción de fotosintatos. El diámetro de la raíz puede variar entre especies y con la edad de la planta (Alves et al., 2002). Normalmente las plantas que presentan tolerancia a bajo P, tienen diámetros de raíces menores que las susceptibles.La formación de pelos radicales es otra estrategia de las plantas para incrementar la eficiencia en la toma de P, debido a que la conformación que estos tienen en el suelo ayudan a incrementar el área de absorción de la planta en volúmenes relativamente pequeños de suelo. Esta característica ayuda a incrementar de manera eficiente la absorción de P en suelos que presentan un déficit de P, y puede ser un parámetro para ser usado en los procesos de selección por parte de los mejoradores (Alves et al., 2002).En general, las gramíneas presentan un buen desarrollo y comportamiento del sistema radicular, con raíces finas y pelos radiculares largos. Una menor eficiencia en la captura de P del suelo por parte de las gramíneas puede ser explicada por diferencias en la morfología del sistema radicular, por la absorción de P por unidad de raíz y por la concentración de P en la interfase raíz/suelo (Alves et al., 2002).Entre las estrategias de mayor importancia para reducir el uso de fertilizantes con fuentes de P, se tiene el desarrollo de genotipos mas eficientes en la absorción y utilización del P (Hammond et al., 2004). Para hacer la manipulación genética de genotipos que presenten diferencias en el comportamiento a bajo P, es necesario conocer la genética para esta característica. Se puede hacer uso de técnicas clásicas de mejoramiento o recurrir a técnicas de biología celular o molecular para lograr transferir los genes que le permitan a la planta adaptarse a ambientes con bajo P (Clark y Duncan, 1991; Sussman y Gabelman, 1989).Las plantas han desarrollado muchas estrategias fisiológicas para enfrentar las deficiencias de P. La manipulación de la expresión de los genes que permiten el crecimiento en ambientes con bajo P, puede mejorar la utilización y eficiencia de las plantas y reducir los requerimientos de P en los cultivos (Hammond et al., 2004). Esto ha estimulado la investigación para identificar genes y cascadas de señales implicadas en la respuesta de las plantas a la deficiencia de P. Varios estudios han identificado genes que responden a la deficiencia de P y mas recientemente se ha utilizado la técnica molecular de microarreglos para determinar la expresión de muchos genes en forma simultánea. Los genes identificados que responden a las deficiencias de P se pueden agrupar en: genes que se expresan temprano, a menudo no son específicos a la deficiencia de P; y genes que se expresan tarde, los cuales afectan la morfología, fisiología y metabolismo en deficiencia prolongada, son los que promueven el uso eficiente del P dentro de la planta (Vance et al., 2003).Aunque varios genes o grupos de genes se han identificado que responden constantemente a la deficiencia de P en varias especies de plantas, el tiempo exacto en el cambio de expresión de estos genes durante la deficiencia de P sigue siendo confuso. Por lo tanto construir un camino exacto de la respuesta de los genes implicados en las plantas a la deficiencia de P es especulativo (Hammond et al., 2004).El análisis de los promotores de los genes del regulón Pho (grupo de operones controlados por la misma proteína reguladora, represora o activadora) en levadura reveló dos elementos cis-reguladores, GCACGTGGG y GCACGTTTT, para el control de la expresión del gene en respuesta a la deficiencia de P (Oshima et al, 1996). Un elemento cis-regulador, similar al sitio de unión de la levadura Pho4(CACGT (G/T)), fue identificado posteriormente en dos genes que responden a la deficiencia de P en la planta, TPSI1 del tomate y Mt4 de Medicago truncatula.Estos genes representan un tipo novedoso de genes implicados en la respuestas de regulación de la planta a la deficiencia de P (Liu et al., 1997;Burleigh y Harrison, 1999), además, se han identificado genes ortólogos en arabidopsis (At4 y AtIPS1) y en arroz (OsPI1). Estos genes codifican brevemente los marcos abiertos de lectura no-conservados, que responden rápidamente y específicamente a la deficiencia de P, y es probable que funcionen como riboreguladores que controlan la función de otras moléculas tales como RNA, DNA o proteínas (Martín et al., 2000;Wasaki et al., 2003).Evaluaciones en soluciones nutritivas.Todos los ensayos para la investigación se realizaron en invernaderos de las Se utilizaron dos gramíneas forrajeras tropicales del género Brachiaria, contrastantes por su adaptación a suelos con bajo fósforo disponible Brachiaria decumbens (Bd), considerada mejor adaptada y Brachiaria ruziziensis (Br) considerada menos adaptada y sus recombinantes genéticos.ruziziensis en solución nutritiva con alto y bajo P sin presencia de Al.Se evaluaron en invernadero en soluciones nutritivas 2 especies de Brachiaria, Bd y Br con bajo y alto P (0 μM y 5 μM) sin presencia de Al, durante 3 semanas. La siembra se realizó con estolones, estos se enraizaron por 9 días con todos los nutrientes. El objeto fue determinar las características morfológicas que permiten a los genotipos mejor adaptación en condiciones de bajo P. Se utilizó un diseño de bloques completos al azar con 10 repeticiones. Los resultados indicaron que hay respuesta en la biomasa total de las 2 especies al aumentar el suministro de P en la solución nutritiva. No se presentaron diferencias significativas entre genotipos en la mayoría de las variables evaluadas, sin embargo, Bd presentó un sistema radicular mas fino que Br, manifestado en mayor longitud específica de raíz y menor diámetro, característica que le permite explorar mayor volumen de suelo y tener mejor adaptación a bajo P a través del tiempo.Se sembraron estolones de Bd y Br en potes con capacidad de 3.5 kg de suelo procedente de Santander de Quilichao, Cauca (Anexo 7) en una relación de 3 partes de suelo por una de arena, esto con el fin de permitir un mejor desarrollo de raíces, lo cual se traduce en mayor producción de estolones por planta. Al momento de sembrar los ensayos se escogieron estolones jóvenes con uno o dos nudos, a los cuales se les cortaron las raíces y se podó la parte aérea para llevarlos a invernadero y mantenerlos durante 9 días en una solución nutritiva completa en elementos (Wenzl et al., 2006) para la fase de enraizamiento (Tabla 2). Se seleccionaron parejas de estolones (similares en tamaño, número y longitud de raíces) para ser sometidos a los tratamientos de 0μM y 5μM de fósforo, los demás nutrientes se adicionaron en las concentraciones utilizadas en la fase de enraizamiento. Se utilizó un diseño de bloques completamente al azar con 4 -10 repeticiones.Tabla 2. Concentración de los nutrientes en la solución hidropónica nutritiva, utilizada en la fase de enraizamiento (9 días).1N *Concentración de HCl requerida para ajustar el pH a 4.2 La solución con nutrientes se cambió con intervalos de un día, ajustando diariamente el pH a 4,2 con HCl 1 N. El pH de 4.2, utilizado en la solución nutritiva y en los tratamientos es bajo, para utilizar un valor de pH ácido que se presenta en condiciones de campo.La cosecha de las plantas se realizó a las 3 semanas después de someter las plántulas a los tratamientos, separando hojas, tallos y raíces, estas últimas se cortaron, lavaron y refrigeraron para luego ser escaneadas y analizadas con el programa WinRhizo v. 3.1 (\"Root-image-analysis software\") para Windows, el cual permite calcular la longitud total de la raíz (sumatoria de la raíz principal y laterales), el diámetro y volumen de raíz. A las hojas se les midió el área foliar, utilizando el equipo LI-3100, LI-COR, Inc., Lincoln, NE y junto con las raíces y tallos se secaron durante 48 horas a 60 grados centígrados para determinar el peso seco de cada parte de la planta.Se realizó análisis de varianza, DMS (diferencia mínima significativa) para cada variable, correlaciones simples de Pearson entre longitud de raíz y diámetro de raíz con las variables, área foliar, peso seco de hojas, peso seco de tallo, peso seco de biomasa aérea, peso seco de raíz, peso seco total y longitud específica de raíz. Los análisis se realizaron utilizando el paquete SAS (Sistema de Análisis estadístico, SAS/ STAT, 2002STAT, -2003)).Se realizaron 3 ciclos de evaluación, cada ciclo corresponde desde la siembra de estolones en suelo, enraizamiento de estolones seleccionados, montaje de plántulas en tratamientos y cosecha.No hubo diferencias significativas entre las dos especies de Brahiaria en los 2 niveles de P (Figura 1b; Anexo 1) Br, a pesar de tener menos adaptación a bajo P que Bd, presentó un crecimiento inicial muy vigoroso que le permitió tener buen desarrollo durante periodos cortos de evaluación, esto influenciado por el adecuado suministro de los otros elementos en la solución nutritiva y por mayor acumulación de P en el estolón de siembra. Las 2 especies respondieron a la aplicación de fósforo en adecuado suministro aumentando su biomasa aérea (Figura 1b), A. Low-Gaume (datos sin publicar) y Lasso, (1998) trabajando con plántulas procedentes de semillas sexuales en soluciones nutritivas con bajo P, encontraron mayor producción de biomasa total en Br con respecto a Bd.Se han identificado genes que responden a la deficiencia de P, y recientemente con el uso de la técnica de microarreglos se ha determinado la expresión de muchos genes en forma simultánea. Los genes identificados se pueden agrupar en: genes que se expresan temprano, a menudo no son específicos a la deficiencia de P, y genes que se expresan tarde los cuales afectan la morfología, Figura 1. Evaluación de Bd y Br en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 3 semanas a)área foliar, b)peso seco de biomasa aérea, c)longitud de raíz, d)diámetro de raíz y e)longitud específica de raíz.A niveles subóptimos de N y P se asigna relativamente más materia seca a las raíces que a la parte aérea. Estos cambios en los patrones de crecimiento son una consecuencia de traslocación y particionamiento entre rutas y órganos de la planta, en el caso de restricción en N y P, el crecimiento foliar es limitado lo cual lleva a una disponibilidad aumentada de fotoasimilados para crecimiento de raíces (Rao y Terry, 2000).No hubo diferencias significativas entre las 2 especies en los 2 niveles de P (Anexo 1), sin embargo, en 0 μM de P Br tiende a presentar mayor peso seco de raíz que Bd, coincidiendo con lo encontrado por A. Low-Gaume (datos sin publicar) en soluciones nutritivas con bajo P, lo anterior sugiere que Br presenta mecanismos que le permiten un buen desarrollo radicular en periodos cortos de evaluación, como se ha venido indicando en las anteriores variables. Ambas especies responden aumentando el peso seco de raíz cuando se incrementa el suministro de P.Se ha demostrado convincentemente la importancia del tamaño del sistema radicular en la adquisición de P cuando se han evaluado isolíneas de maíz diferentes en un gen \"sin raíces\", el cual es una mutación monofactorial heredada que causa reducciones drásticas en el crecimiento de las raíces de la corona. Bajo condiciones limitadas de P, la producción de materia seca radicular total de la línea \"normal\" excedió significativamente a la línea \"sin raíces\", y la adquisición de P estuvo fuertemente correlacionada con el peso seco de raíces para ambas isolíneas. Sin embargo, la ventaja de la línea \"normal\" desapareció con el incremento del suministro de P (Rao et al., 1999).No se presentaron diferencias significativas entre las dos especies de Brachiaria en los 2 niveles de fósforo (Figura 1c; Anexo 1) en los 2 niveles de P (0 y 5 μM) Bd tubo la tendencia a presentar mayor longitud de raíz que Br, coincidiendo con lo reportado por Lasso, (1998) donde Bd presentó mayor longitud de raíz que Br en 5 niveles de P (0, 2, 4, 6 y 25 μM). La longitud de raíz es de los parámetros de mayor importancia en la adaptación a bajo P, ya que le permite a la planta explorar mayor volumen de suelo y tener mas posibilidades de encontrar P. En ambas especies se presentó mayor longitud de raíz cuando se suministró adecuado contenido de P en la solución, verificándose la repuesta de este género a la fertilización con P (Figura 2).La longitud de raíz tuvo correlaciones significativas con peso seco de raíz, peso seco total, peso seco de biomasa aérea, peso seco de tallo y relación biomasa aérea/raíz en los 2 niveles de P (Tabla 3), indicando que tanto la parte aérea como la radical tienen influencia en el desarrollo de la raíz.En comparación con los cultivos anuales, las especies forrajeras perennes, particularmente las pasturas, desarrollan sistemas radiculares más vigorosos como una característica adaptativa a la baja disponibilidad de P en suelos tropicales. Las diferencias en el crecimiento y distribución de raíces explican la variabilidad entre cultivares en la adquisición de P, o las ventajas competitivas de las pasturas sobre los demás cultivos en baja disponibilidad de P (Rao et al., 1999). Tabla 3. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre longitud de raíz, diámetro de raíz y otras variables de Bd y Br evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 3 semanas. *, ** significativo al nivel de probabilidad 0.05 y 0.01, respectivamenteSe presentaron diferencias significativas en los 2 niveles de P entre las dos especies, Bd presentó mayor longitud específica de raíz en los 2 tratamientos de P (Figura 1e; Anexo 1). Lasso, (1998) también encontró mayor longitud específica de raíz en Bd con respecto a Br en diferentes niveles de P. La longitud específica de raíz indica la finura que presenta el sistema radicular, atributo de suma importancia en la adaptación abajo P, en general los genotipos mejor adaptados a bajo P presentan un sistema radicular bastante fino con respecto a los menos adaptados (Figura 2).La finura del sistema radicular es un importante atributo que determina la adquisición de P en suelos bajos en P. Esto es a causa de que el diámetro radicular define el volumen máximo de suelo el cual puede ser explotado con una cantidad determinada de fotosintato. Si una proporción fija de fotoasimilados es usada para el crecimiento radicular, una mayor cantidad de longitud radicular puede ser lograda por la reducción del diámetro radicular, esto es, cuando la longitud especifica de raíz aumenta (Rao et al., 1999).Figura 2. Plantas de Bd y Br evaluadas en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 3 semanas.Entre los caracteres morfológicos que son atribuibles en la elucidación de los eventos moleculares asociados con los mecanismos de respuesta a la deficiencia de P, la arquitectura del sistema radicular (ASR) ha cobrado importancia a causa de su potencial para incrementar la exploración espacial de el suelo superficial donde el fósforo relativamente inmóvil se hace mas disponible. Investigaciones detalladas en la modulación de la ASR mediada por la deficiencia de P en Arabidopsis ha estado principalmente enfocada a tres caracteres radiculares principales, longitud radicular primaria, formación de pelos radiculares y la inducción de raíces laterales (Jain et al., 2007).Br presentó mayor diámetro de raíz que Bd en los 2 niveles de P, siendo altamente significativas las diferencias (Figura 1d), lo anterior concuerda con lo obtenido por A. Louw-Gaume (datos sin publicar) y Lasso, (1998) donde en soluciones nutritivas sin Al, Br presentó mayor diámetro que Bd. El diámetro de la raíz es otro de los atributos de mayor importancia en la adaptación a bajo P, los genotipos con menor diámetro presentan mejor adaptación (Figura 2). Los 2 genotipos incrementaron el diámetro al aumentar el nivel de P (Anexo 1).El diámetro de raíz en bajo P presentó alta correlación negativa significativa con longitud específica de raíz, lo que indica que el genotipo con mayor diámetro presenta raíces menos finas, resultados similares fueron obtenidos por Hill, (2006).La formación de pelos radiculares es uno de los métodos más eficientes para incrementar la adquisición de P. Se ha encontrado que el flujo de P por unidad de longitud radicular mejora ampliamente con la presencia de pelos radiculares. Esto puede estar explicado por el aumento del área radicular superficial y porque los pelos radiculares penetran el suelo perpendicularmente al eje radicular, dando acceso a un mayor volumen de suelo por unidad de longitud radicular.Consecuentemente, los perfiles de agotamiento de P difieren en su extensión radial dependiendo de la longitud de los pelos radiculares (Rao et al., 1999).• Las 2 especies de Brachiaria respondieron adecuadamente al aumentar el suministro de P en la solución, presentando mayor biomasa al aumentar P.• No se presentaron diferencias en la mayoría de la variables evaluadas en las 2 especies de Brachiaria. Br tuvo desarrollo similar al de Bd en todos los niveles de P, indicando que en el periodo de evaluación Br es poco afectada por el bajo suministro de P, a pesar de ser considerada menos adaptada que Bd.• Bd presentó un sistema radicular mas fino que Br, manifestado en mayor longitud específica de raíz y menor diámetro, característica que le permite explorar mayor volumen de suelo y tener mejor adaptación a bajo P a través del tiempo.• Los parámetros evaluados no permitieron clasificar las 2 especies de Brachiaria como menor y mejor adaptadas a bajo P, ya que el comportamiento de ambas fue similar.ruziziensis en solución nutritiva con alto y bajo P en presencia de Al.Se evaluaron dos especies de Brachiaria, Bd y Br en invernadero utilizando soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P (0 μM y 5 μM) en presencia de Al (200 μM de AlCl 3 ) + 200 μM de CaCl 2 sin aplicación de los demás nutrientes, durante 4 semanas. Se utilizó un diseño de bloques completos al azar con 3-6 repeticiones.El objetivo de este ensayo fue determinar las características morfológicas que confieren adaptación a las plantas en condiciones de bajo P en presencia de Al.Los resultados mostraron respuesta de las 2 especies al incrementar el suministro de P en la solución. Atributos radicales como mayor longitud de raíz, mayor longitud específica de raíz (raíces mas finas), menor diámetro y mayor número de puntas de raíz permitieron que Bd tenga mejor adaptación a bajo P en presencia de Al. La parte aérea de la planta no es un buen indicador para seleccionar genotipos mejor adaptados a bajo P con alta saturación de Al.La metodología de producción de estolones, escogencia, enraizamiento y selección de parejas de los mismos, fue similar a la de los ensayos anteriores, con la diferencia que en la etapa de enraizamiento la solución nutritiva no contenía fósforo. Los tratamientos utilizados siempre llevaron un nivel bajo y alto de P (0 μM y 5μM) + 200 μM de aluminio (AlCl 3 ) + 200 μM de CaCl 2 , no se hizo aplicación de los demás nutrientes, la solución con nutrientes se cambió día de por medio, ajustando diariamente el pH a 4,2 con HCl 1 N. Se utilizó un diseño de bloques completos al azar con 3-6 repeticiones.La cosecha de las plantas se realizó durante 4 semanas, las variables valuadas y el análisis de datos se hicieron igual a lo indicado para los ensayos anteriores. Se realizaron 3 ciclos de selección.En las 2 variables, con bajo y alto P no se presentaron diferencias significativas entre las dos especies en ninguna de las 4 semanas de evaluación. Ambas especies presentaron incrementos al aumentar el nivel de fósforo (Figura 3a,b y Anexo 2). Aunque los síntomas de la toxicidad por Al son también manifestados en la parte aérea, estos son usualmente conocidos como una consecuencia de lesiones al sistema radicular. Las respuestas más comunes en la parte aérea son modificaciones celulares y ultraestructurales en las hojas, reducción en la apertura estomática, actividad fotosintética reducida, clorosis y necrosis foliar. La consecuencia final es biomasa reducida (Vitorello et al., 2005). Figura 3. Evaluación de Bd y Br en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 4 semanas a)área foliar, b)peso seco de biomasa aérea, c)peso seco de raíz, y d)diámetro de raíz.La habilidad de los cultivos de removilizar el P de órganos vegetativos a reproductivos, y las plantas forrajeras de puntos senescentes a puntos de crecimiento puede formar un importante mecanismo que permite a las plantas mejorar el uso del P adquirido. Cualquier factor que afecte el crecimiento vegetal (y por lo tanto la demanda de P) alterará la eficiencia en el uso de fósforo. Por ejemplo, el grado de removilización del P de las hojas aumenta cuando hay receptáculos de P tales como órganos reproductivos presentes; esto resulta en concentración de P foliar reducida (mayor eficiencia en el uso de P) (Rao et al., 1999).El peso seco de raíz se incrementó a medida que transcurrieron las semanas de evaluación y el nivel de P en la solución (Figura 3c; Anexo 2). No se presentaron diferencias significativas en ninguna de las semanas de evaluación entre las dos especies de Brachiaria en bajo P, pero se observó la tendencia de Bd a presentar mayor peso seco de raíz que Br. Buitrago, (2003) encontró que Bd tuvo mayor peso seco de raíz que Br en soluciones nutritivas sin P con presencia de Al, durante 3 semanas de evaluación. El peso seco de la raíz está relacionado con longitud y volumen de raíz, lo cual determina en gran medida el grado de adaptación de un genotipo a condiciones de bajo P. Es de esperar que genotipos con mayor peso seco de raíz (determinado por mayor longitud de raíz) presenten mejor adaptación.En estudios donde se evaluó la adaptación de la soya en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P en presencia y ausencia de Al, se observó que la adición de fósforo al medio hidropónico aumentó significativamente la tolerancia al Al de cuatro genotipos como lo indicó el crecimiento de raíz; y la inhibición por Al fue significativamente disipada en el mayor nivel de P (320 µM P), demostrando por lo tanto una interacción significativa entre Al y P (Hong et al., 2006).Entre especies se presentaron diferencias altamente significativas en los 2 niveles de P, estas diferencias se hacen evidentes a partir de la segunda semana de evaluación. Br presenta mayor diámetro que Bd en los dos tratamientos (Figura 3d; 5a,b,c), coincidiendo con lo reportado por Buitrago, (2003).En bajo P, el diámetro de raíz presentó altas correlaciones negativas significativas con longitud de raíz y longitud específica de raíz, indicando que los genotipos con mayor diámetro presentan menor longitud de raíz y menos finura de raíz, lo que hace que presenten menor adaptación a bajo P. Con el volumen de raíz se presentaron correlaciones positivas y significativas (Tabla 3).El mayor diámetro presentado en Br, a pesar de ser una característica intrínseca de la especie, puede ser explicado porque el Al se ha unido a residuos de pectinas o proteínas de la pared celular disminuyendo la extensibilidad o conductividad hidráulica, que se refleja en síntomas fisiológicos y morfológicos como engrosamiento de raíces (principalmente puntas) y disminución de la elongación, característico en materiales susceptibles (Bennet y Breen, 1991).Bd presentó mayor longitud en los 2 tratamientos de P, presentando valores altamente significativos (Figura 4a; 5a,b,c). Cuando se aumentó el nivel de P en la solución Bd respondió aumentando de 0.67 a 1.17m la longitud de raíz, en el caso de Br no se presentó casi respuesta al pasar de 0.41 a 0.47m de longitud (Figura 4a; Anexo 2). Lasso, (1998) encontró mayor longitud de raíz en Bd con respecto a Br en soluciones nutritivas con presencia de Al. Lo anterior pudo estar influenciado por la poca y buena adaptación que presenta Br y Bd, respectivamente, a toxicidad por Al (Wenzl, 2000). Los cambios morfológicos observados en la especie susceptible fueron causados posiblemente por modificaciones estructurales de la pared celular, ya que el Al puede causar depolimerización de los microtúbulos y microfilamentos, además de la capacidad de acumularse en la endodermis de genotipos susceptibles (Blancaflor et al., 1998).La longitud de raíz en bajo P presentó altas correlaciones positivas significativas con peso seco de raíz y puntas de raíz, indicando que estas variables influyen para que se presente mayor longitud, con el diámetro de raíz se presentaron correlaciones negativas, o sea, que a mayor diámetro menor longitud (Tabla 4). Tabla 4. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre longitud de raíz, diámetro de raíz y otras variables de Bd y Br evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con bajo y alto P durante 3 semanas. Las raíces finas y largas no solo permiten explorar mayor volumen de suelo, sino que también son más eficientes en la toma de nutrientes, porque tienen mayor superficie radical por unidad de peso, comparado con raíces gruesas.El diámetro radicular varía entre especies y cultivares y cambia con la edad de las plantas. Existen grandes variaciones entre especies monocotiledóneas y dicotiledóneas. El mayor diámetro radicular de las dicotiledóneas en comparación con las monocotiledóneas puede ser a causa de una necesidad por una mayor superficie para la carga simplástica y una mayor necesidad por cationes básicos.La variación en el diámetro radicular entre especies cercanamente relacionadas ha sido mayor cuando el crecimiento está limitado por el suministro de P (Rao et al., 1999). En deficiencia inducida de P hay reducción en el crecimiento radicular primario que ocasiona un cambio irreversible, de un crecimiento radicular indeterminado a uno determinado. La identificación del LPR1, un QTL presente en el cromosoma 1 de Arabidopsis sustenta la base genética de la modificación del crecimiento radicular inducido por bajo P. LPR1 no influencia las respuestas a la deficiencia de P, como incrementos en longitud de pelos radiculares, secreción de fosfatasas ácidas y acumulación de antocianinas, tampoco está involucrado en respuestas de crecimiento a deficiencias de otros nutrientes. Esto sugiere el papel específico del LPR1 en respuesta a bajo P que resulta en crecimiento radicular primario reducido. La elongación de la longitud radicular primaria, la formación de pelos radiculares y la elongación de raíces laterales están afectados por el estado local de P más que por el estado general de P de las plantas (Jain, 2007).Se presentaron diferencias significativas y altamente significativas entre las dos especies de Brachiaria en bajo y alto nivel de P (Figura 4d; Anexo 2), respectivamente. Bd presentó mayor contenido de puntas de raíz en los 2 niveles de P que respecto a Br (Figura 5a,b,c) coincidiendo con lo reportado por Buitrago, (2003). Las puntas de raíces representa la cantidad de puntos de absorción de nutrientes en la planta, por lo que genotipos con mayor cantidad de puntas radicales pueden presentar mejor adaptación en condiciones de bajo P.La poca producción de raíces laterales, que influye directamente en el número de puntas en Br , es posible que sea debido al Al que atraviesa la pared celular y puede acumularse en el protoplasma y el tonoplasto de la vacuola, ocasionando una disminución en la presión osmótica responsable de la presión de turgencia, esencial para el crecimiento y elongación celular (Taylor et al., 2000). También se interrumpe la reserva de componentes orgánicos y solutos inorgánicos en la vacuola que disminuyen la formación de raíces laterales. La mayor concentración de Al en la endodermis de plantas susceptibles, interfiere en el desarrollo de las células del periciclo responsables del crecimiento de raíces laterales (Osawa y Matsumoto, 2001). • Hubo respuesta positiva en el desarrollo y crecimiento de las 2 especies de Brachiaria al aumentar el suministro de P en la solución en presencia de Al.• Bd presentó mayor longitud de raíz, mayor longitud específica (raíces mas finas), menor diámetro de raíz y mayor cantidad de puntas, atributos que le confieren mejor adaptación en condiciones de bajo P con alta concentración de Al.• Los atributos radicales son mucho mas afectados en Br cuando en la solución se encuentra alta concentración de Al, indicando la mayor susceptibilidad de esta especie comparada con Bd.• Los atributos radicales son buenos parámetros para identificar adaptación en genotipos a bajo P en presencia de Al. La parte aérea no es un buen indicador de selección.ruziziensis y sus recombinantes genéticos en solución nutritiva con y sin presencia de Al.Se evaluaron durante 3 semanas Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos en invernadero en soluciones nutritivas con presencia de Al (200 μM de AlCl 3 ) y sin Al + 200 μM de CaCl 2 , no se hizo aplicación de los demás nutrientes. Se utilizó un diseño completamente al azar con 2-6 repeticiones con 6 ciclos de evaluación. El objeto fue determinar características morfológicas radicales que confieren mejor adaptación a las plantas en presencia de alta saturación de Al. Los resultados indicaron que los genotipos mejor adaptados presentaron mayor longitud de raíz, mayor volumen de raíz y menor diámetro de raíz. Se presentó alta variabilidad y segregación transgresiva en la población que es de gran ayuda en programas de mejoramiento para adaptación de cultivares a alta saturación de Al. Se corroboró la buena adaptación de Bd en condiciones de altas concentraciones de Al y el pobre comportamiento de Br. Se encontraron progenies con buena estabilidad agronómica, al presentar buen comportamiento con y sin presencia de Al que se perfilan a ser utilizadas en programas de mejoramiento.La metodología de producción de estolones, escogencia, enraizamiento y selección de parejas de los mismos, fue similar a la de los ensayos anteriores, en la etapa de enraizamiento la solución nutritiva llevaba todos los nutrientes (Tabla 2), los 2 tratamientos utilizados fueron 200 μM de aluminio (AlCl 3 ) + 200 μM de CaCl 2 y el otro sin presencia de Al, la solución con nutrientes se cambió día de por medio, ajustando diariamente el pH a 4,2 con HCl 1 N. Se utilizó un diseño completamente al azar con 2-6 repeticiones.La cosecha de las plantas se realizó a las 3 semanas después de someterse los genotipos a los tratamientos, las medidas y análisis se hicieron igual a lo indicado para los ensayos anteriores. Se realizaron 6 ciclos de evaluación.Se presentaron diferencias altamente significativas entre genotipos (Figura 6 yAnexo 3) en las 3 variables, hubo progenies con longitud, diámetro y volumen de raíz superior e inferior a los padres mejor y menor adaptados (Figura 8a,b,c,d y anexo 3)), indicando alta variabilidad y presencia de segregación transgresiva en la población, coincidiendo con lo encontrado por Buitrago, 2003y Arango, 2004 evaluando una población derivada del mismo cruzamiento en soluciones nutritivas.La longitud de raíz es altamente afectada por la alta concentración de Al en la solución, obteniéndose un promedio de 5.7m planta -1 sin Al y de 2.7m planta -1 en presencia de Al (Figuras 8, 9 y anexo 3), o sea, una reducción del 54.3%. El diámetro se incrementó al pasar de 0.30 sin Al a 0.39 mm planta -1 con Al (Figura 6, 8 y anexo 3). La inhibición del crecimiento radicular es el síntoma más prominente de la toxicidad por aluminio, puede ser detectado usualmente de 30 minutos a 2 horas, inclusive en concentraciones micromolares de Al. Las raíces afectadas por aluminio se vuelven gruesas y frecuentemente adquieren una coloración oscura, la ramificación y los pelos radicales son reducidos (Vitorello et al., 2005). ) Figura 6. Longitud de raíz y diámetro de raíz en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con y sin presencia de Al durante 3 semanas.Combinando la longitud de raíz y el diámetro con y sin presencia de Al, observamos (Figura 6) que los genotipos H-103, H-180, H-3 y H-163 que presentaron mayor longitud de raíz tienden a presentar menores diámetros, esto se corrobora en la correlación negativa que presentan estas dos variables con y sin Al (Tabla 5) resultados similares fueron reportados por Buitrago, 2003;Arango, 2004y Wenzl, 2006 en progenies del mismo cruzamiento. Lo anterior nos indica que los genotipos con mejor adaptación presentan un mayor sistema radicular y raíces más finas que le permiten explorar mayor volumen de suelo. Progenies como el H-6 tienen comportamiento sobresaliente en condiciones de estrés por Al, pero no responden bien, comparado con los otros genotipos al mejorar las condiciones, en el caso del H-2 y H-65 ocurre lo contrario, tienen buen desempeño sin estrés por Al y no responden bien en condiciones de estrés. Este tipo de cultivares a pesar que presentan poca homeostasis pueden ser utilizados en condiciones agroecológicas o nichos muy específicos.Tabla 5. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre longitud de raíz, diámetro de raíz y volumen de raíz de Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en soluciones nutritivas con y sin Al durante 3 semanas.  En programas de mejoramiento para adaptación de genotipos a alta saturación de Al, interesan cultivares que tengan comportamiento económicamente viable en presencia de Al, pero al disminuir la saturación de Al sean capaces de incrementar su producción, o sea, que tengan buena estabilidad agronómica. En este caso podemos observar en la figura 9 genotipos como H-2, H-103, H-163, H-65, H-180,H-3 y H-86 con mayor longitud de raíz en presencia de Al y mucho mejor sin Al. En el caso de los parentales en presencia de Al se observó un desarrollo radicular intermedio en el caso de Bd y pobre en Br comparados con sus progenies, corroborándose la mejor y menor adaptación de los 2 respectivamente, coincidiendo con lo encontrado por Buitrago, 2003;Arango, 2004y Wenzl, 2006. ) Figura 9. Longitud de raíz con y sin presencia de Al en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en soluciones nutritivas durante 3 semanas.• Existe suficiente variabilidad en la población que puede ser utilizada en programas de mejoramiento para adaptación a alta saturación de Al.• Se presentaron progenies con mayor y menor longitud de raíz que los parentales, indicando la existencia de segregación transgresiva en la población, que permite encontrar genotipos mejor adaptados a condiciones de alta saturación de Al.• Se pudo corroborar la buena adaptación que presenta Bd a alta saturación de Al, y la poca adaptación de Br.• Características radicales como mayor longitud, menor diámetro y mayor volumen, le confieren a las plantas mejor adaptación en condiciones de alta saturación de Al.• Se presentaron genotipos con buen comportamiento con y sin presencia de Al que se perfilan a ser utilizados en programas de mejoramiento por su buena estabilidad agronómica.• Se presentaron genotipos con excelente desempeño en condiciones de estrés o sin estrés por Al, que pueden ser utilizados para zonas agroecológicas o nichos muy específicos.• La metodología de evaluación en soluciones hidropónicas para determinar adaptación en condiciones de alta saturación de Al, funciona al permitir identificar genotipos mejor y menos adaptados.PARTE II. Evaluaciones en suelo ácido (Matazul, Meta).Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) ubicado en Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia en latitud 3º 30' N, longitud 76º 21' O y 965 m de elevación. La temperatura en el invernadero fluctuó entre 20º a 42ºC en sincronía con el fotoperíodo, y humedad relativa con un rango entre 30 y 90%. La máxima densidad de flujo de fotones fotosinteticamente activos durante el día fue de 1000 µmol m 2 s -1 .Se utilizaron dos gramíneas forrajeras tropicales del género Brachiaria, contrastantes por su adaptación a suelos con bajo fósforo disponible, Brachiaria decumbens (Bd), considerada mejor adaptada y Brachiaria ruziziensis (Br) considerada menos adaptada, y una población conformada por los recombinantes genéticos producto del cruce de estas dos especies.Las siembras se realizaron en suelo Oxisol de sabana nativa procedente de Matazul, Meta, Colombia (latitud 4° 9' N, longitud 72° 38' O, 160 m de elevación y 2649 mm anuales de precipitación), colectado de 0-20cm de profundidad.ruziziensis en suelo ácido (Matazul, Meta) con diferentes niveles de P.Se evaluaron durante 80 días en invernadero las especies Bd y Br, utilizando potes plásticos con suelo ácido procedente de Matazul, Meta con 5 niveles de P (0, 10, 15, 20 y 50 kg ha -1 ) los demás nutrientes se aplicaron en niveles óptimos (Anexo 9). Se utilizó un diseño de bloques completos al azar con 3 repeticiones. El objetivo de este ensayo fue determinar los niveles de P que permitieran encontrar diferencias entre ambos parentales. Los resultados presentaron incrementos en la producción de biomasa aérea en las 2 especies en la medida que se aumentó la disponibilidad de P. Bd tuvo mejor desempeño que Br en todos los niveles de P.La mayor absorción de P en raíces y mejor eficiencia en el uso del P, parecen ser mecanismos de adaptación que operan en Bd en condiciones de bajo P.Se utilizaron 5 niveles de fósforo 0(OP), 10(1OP), 15(15P), 20(2OP) y 50(50P) kg ha -1 ; los demás nutrientes se aplicaron en niveles altos (80N, 100K, 66Ca, 29Mg, 20S y micronutrientes). El suelo fue mezclado homogéneamente con los fertilizantes, luego transferido a potes plásticos con capacidad de 3.0 kg de suelo en los cuales se sembró un estolón por genotipo, se utilizó un diseño de bloques completamente al azar con 3 repeticiones. Los potes fueron regados regularmente con agua deionizada para mantenerlos cerca del 100% de capacidad de campo (Anexo 7) determinado de forma gravimétrica.La cosecha de las plantas se realizó a los 80 días, las variables evaluadas y el análisis de los datos se realizaron de la misma forma como se hizo en los ensayos con soluciones nutritivas; en las raíces solo se determinó el peso seco.El porcentaje de concentración de P en cada parte de la planta fue determinado por el método descrito por Salinas y García, (1985). La absorción de fósforo fue calculada mediante el producto de la producción de materia seca por el porcentaje de concentración de P en cada parte de la planta. La eficiencia de uso de P fue estimada como gramos de biomasa aérea producida por gramo total de P absorbido por la planta; y la eficiencia en la absorción de P fue estimada como gr de P totales absorbidos por la planta por longitud de raíz..Se realizó análisis de varianza, DMS (diferencia mínima significativa) para cada variable. Se establecieron correlaciones simples de Pearson entre la biomasa aérea, con las variables independientes, área foliar, área foliar específica, peso seco de hojas, peso seco de tallo, peso seco de raíz, absorción de fósforo en hojas, tallos, raíces, biomasa aérea, biomasa total, eficiencia de uso de P y eficiencia de absorción de P. Los análisis se realizaron utilizando el paquete SAS (Sistema de Análisis estadístico, SAS/ STAT, 2002STAT, -2003)).Entre genotipos y entre tratamientos se presentaron diferencias altamente significativas, Bd presentó mayores valores que Br en todos los niveles de P (Anexo 4) lo que indica que Bd presenta una mejor adaptación. Las 2 especies incrementaron la producción de biomasa seca aérea en la medida que aumentaba el nivel de P, presentándose una estabilización en Br a partir del nivel 15P (Figuras 10 y 11b). Esta respuesta al P en estas especies ha sido corroborada por varios autores (Rao et al., 2001;Lasso, 1998) y otros ensayos presentados en este documento.Figura 10. Plantas de Br y Bd evaluadas en suelo de Matazul con diferentes niveles de P durante 80 días.En todos los niveles de P se presentaron correlaciones significativas positivas con área foliar, y negativas con concentración de P en el tallo en niveles bajos (0P y 10P) y altos (50P) de P. Es importante anotar que hubo correlación negativa en 10P con peso seco de biomasa muerta (Tabla 6), esto indica que los genotipos que retienen mayor número de hojas verdes en condiciones de bajo P presentan mejor adaptación, ya que uno de los síntomas en bajo contenido de P es la senescencia prematura de las hojas.Tabla 6. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre biomasa aérea y otras variables de Bd y Br evaluados en suelo de Matazul con diferentes niveles de P durante 80 días. protoplastos de la hoja como un complejo 1:3 Al:oxalato, y que la mayoría de este complejo estaba secuestrado en la vacuola (Kochian et al., 2004).La figura 11a muestra el incremento del área foliar en la medida que incrementa el nivel de P, pero ambas especies tienden a estabilizar el área foliar a partir de 15P.Es claro el efecto causado por los bajos niveles de P, la planta reduce la expansión de la hoja y el área de la superficie foliar (Rao, 1996;Marschner, 1995).Bd presentó mayores valores de área foliar que Br en todos los niveles de P, indicando una mejor adaptación. Lasso, (1998); y algunos ensayos mostrados en este documento se encontró mayor área foliar en Bd que en respecto a Br, lo anterior, muestra una mejor tolerancia de Bd a altas concentraciones de Al y una mayor susceptibilidad de Br.Cuando el suministro de P limita el crecimiento vegetal, las plantas superiores producen cambios en un número de atributos aéreos y radiculares como: una marcada reducción en la producción de área foliar, un incremento en la relación raíz parte aérea, cambios en la morfología del sistema radicular, y un incremento en la proporción del P total particionado a las raíces. Muchos estudios indican que la especies eficientes en el uso de P tienen alta habilidad para restraslocar el P de tejidos inactivos a activos (Rao et al., 1999). ) Figura 11. Evaluación de Bd y Br en suelo de Matazul con diferentes niveles de P durante 80 días a)área foliar, b)peso seco de biomasa aérea, c)peso seco de biomasa muerta y d) peso seco de raíces.Br presentó los mayores valores de peso de biomasa muerta en todos los niveles de P (Figura 11c; Anexo 4), La producción de biomasa muerta es una característica que se incrementa cuando hay deficiencia de P; el hecho de presentarse también en niveles altos de P, puede ser debido a la maduración y envejecimiento normal de la planta y a la presencia de altas concentraciones de Al en el suelo.Las partes senescentes de las plantas juegan un papel importante para suplir las deficiencias de P, las plantas realizan una eficiente traslocación del P desde esas estructuras hasta las nuevas, por lo que los síntomas de deficiencia se manifiestan principalmente en la partes mas maduras de las plantas (Azcon-Bieto y Talón, 2000).En general, las dos especies de Brachiaria evaluadas con diferentes niveles de P presentaron diferencias altamente significativas. Entre genotipos solo se presentaron diferencias en el nivel de 50P, donde Bd presentó el mayor valor de peso seco de raíces (Figura 11d; Anexo 4). A pesar de que varios reportes muestran diferencias y una mayor producción de biomasa de raíz en Bd que en Br en ensayos con soluciones nutritivas en presencia de Al (Lasso, 1998;Buitrago, 2003), en los ensayos realizados con suelo ácido de Matazul presentados en este documento no se encontró diferencias. Lo anterior puede ser explicado por el hecho que en los ensayos con soluciones nutritivas solo se utilizan concentraciones de AlCl 3, CaCl 2 y P sin los demás nutrientes, mientras en los ensayos con suelo si se aplican en niveles altos.A bajos niveles de P disponible, la longitud radicular total, peso radicular y extensividad (masa y área superficial) de todas las raíces y pelos radiculares son características importantes en la adaptación genética de las plantas a bajo suministro de P, sin embargo, estas características no son importantes cuando las plantas son cultivadas con niveles adecuados de P o con asociación con micorrizas a bajo P (Rao et al., 1999).Los valores de absorción de P en la parte aérea, radical y biomasa muerta presentaron diferencias significativas entre las dos especies de Brachiaria y entre niveles de P (Figuras 12a,b,c; Anexo 4). Cuando se comparan las dos especies en cada nivel de P casi no se presentaron diferencias; esto pudo ser debido al hecho que Br presenta mayor concentración de P en los tejidos y Bd mayor producción de biomasa total (Anexo 4).Hay una tendencia en ambas especies de absorber cantidades similares de P en la biomasa aérea. En raíces, Bd tiende a presentar mayores valores, propiedad que le confiere mejor adaptación a bajo P a través del tiempo. En biomasa muerta Br, tiende a presentar mayores valores, indicando mayor senescencia y por lo tanto menor adaptación a bajo suministro de P.Utilizando fósforo marcado ( P 32 ) con un sistema de medición autoradiográfico altamente sensible a la radiación beta se ha visualizado y medido la retraslocación del P en la planta. Cuando hay deficiencia de P, la concentración citoplasmática de la primera hoja permanece constante hasta 16 días después de siembra, mientras que el P vacuolar ya ha sido completamente agotado después de 8 a 10 días. El agotamiento del P vacuolar en la primera hoja coincide con la aparición de la segunda hoja. Se sugiere que varios sistemas de transporte de la membrana plasmática y el tonoplasto juegan importantes papeles en la homeóstasis y traslocación del P (Rao. et al, 1999) .Bd presentó mayor eficiencia en el uso de P que Br en todos los niveles de P (Figura 12d; Anexo 4), coincidiendo con lo reportado por otros autores (Rao et al., 1995;Correa, 1993) donde Bd presentó mayores valores de eficiencia en el uso de P que otras especies de Brachiaria. La eficiencia en el uso del P parece ser uno de los mecanismos de adaptación que utiliza Bd en bajo P. Lynch et al., (1995) trabajando con genotipos de fríjol (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) encontraron que la eficiencia en la absorción de P tenía mayor importancia que la eficiencia en la utilización en el proceso de adaptación a bajo P, aunque estos 2 mecanismos pueden trabajar asociados.Un número de especies de forrajes y cultivos tropicales pueden crecer normalmente con bajas concentraciones de P, debido a un uso eficiente del P dentro de las fracciones bioquímicas principales. Muchos estudios han indicado que las diferencias en el uso de las fracciones del P (P soluble, P lípido y P residual) puede ser la base para la identificación de plantas tolerantes a ambientes bajos en P. Es posible que especies que tienen un contenido de P relativamente pequeño tienen la capacidad de mantener altas actividades metabólicas con bajo suministro externo de P, y por lo tanto son adaptables a suelos bajos en P (Rao. et al, 1999). Relación biomasa aérea/raíz (g g -1)Figura 12. Evaluación de Bd y Br en suelo de Matazul con diferentes niveles de P durante 80 días a)absorción de P en biomasa aérea, b)absorción de P en raíces, c)absorción de P en biomasa muerta, d)eficiencia en el uso de P y e)eficiencia en la absorción de P.Solo en el nivel de 0P se presentaron diferencias significativas entre las 2 especies de Brachiaria, presentando Bd mayor valor que Br. La relación biomasa aérea/raíz es mayor en los niveles bajos de P. En condiciones de bajo P el desarrollo radicular es menos afectado que el crecimiento del follaje, la energía asimilada es utilizada en mayor proporción en el crecimiento de las raíces (Rao, 1996;Rao et al., 1998;Yun y Keappler, 2001).• Las 2 especies de Brachiaria incrementaron la producción de biomasa aérea en la medida que aumentó el nivel de P.• Bd presentó mejor respuesta en las variables evaluadas que Br en todos los niveles de P, indicando una mejor adaptación de Bd a bajos niveles de P en suelos ácidos.• Las 2 especies presentaron diferencias en la biomasa aérea y no en la biomasa de raíz.• La mayor absorción de P en raíces y mejor eficiencia en el uso del P, parecen ser mecanismos de adaptación que operan en Bd en condiciones de bajo P en suelos ácidos.ácido (Matazul, Meta) con bajo P.Brachiaria decumbens (mejor adaptado), Brachiaria ruziziensis (menos adaptado) y una progenie de 193 individuos del cruzamiento entre ellos fueron evaluados en suelo ácido con bajo P (10 kg ha -1 ) procedente de Matazul, Meta, con el objetivo de evaluar la variabilidad existente en la población por adaptación a bajo P. Los materiales se sembraron en invernadero con potes plásticos con capacidad de 3 kg de suelo. Los resultados mostraron que existe suficiente variabilidad en la población que puede ser explotada en programas de mejoramiento para adaptación a bajo fósforo disponible en el suelo. Existe segregación transgresiva, se encontraron individuos con mayor y menor biomasa aérea que el parental mejor y menor adaptado, respectivamente. Lo que supone que ninguno de los padres tiene acumulados todos los genes favorables ni todos los desfavorables para adaptación a bajo P. La eficiencia en el uso del P parece ser el mecanismo que utilizan algunas progenies para adaptarse a condiciones de bajo P.Se utilizó un nivel de fósforo, 10 kg ha -1 (10P) considerado bajo pero no severo (Tabla 7), los demás nutrientes en niveles altos (Anexo 9). El suelo procedente de Matazul, Meta fue mezclado homogéneamente con los fertilizantes, luego transferido a potes plásticos con capacidad de 3.0 kg de suelo en los cuales se sembró un estolón por cada genotipo (Figura 13a), se utilizó un diseño de bloques completamente al azar con 3 repeticiones. Los potes fueron regados regularmente con agua deionizada para mantenerlos cerca del 100% de capacidad de campo (Anexo 7) determinado de forma gravimétrica. La cosecha de las plantas se realizó a la semana 6 después de la siembra (Figura 13b). Las variables evaluadas y el análisis de los datos se hicieron igual que los ensayos anteriores, en raíces solo se midió peso seco; para determinar el grado de adaptación de los genotipos a bajo P, se hizo con base en la producción de biomasa seca aérea. Se uso un diseño de bloques completos al azar con 3 repeticiones.Figura 13. Evaluación de Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P a) establecimiento del ensayo y b) cosecha a las 6 semanas.En todas las variables evaluadas se encontraron diferencias altamente significativas entre los genotipos (Figuras 14, 15, 16 y 17; Anexo 5), indicando la existencia de suficiente variabilidad en esta población que puede ser explotada en programas de mejoramiento genético de Brachiaria para adaptación a suelos ácidos con bajo P disponible.Se presentaron individuos con producciones superiores e inferiores a los 2 parentales (Anexo 5), indicando la existencia de segregación transgresiva en la población. Se asume que ninguno de los padres tienen acumulados todos los genes favorables ni todos los desfavorables para adaptación a bajo P, el fenómeno puede ser debido a complementariedad de genes.La tabla 8 presenta las correlaciones positivas y significativas de biomasa aérea con área foliar, peso seco de raíz y concentración de P en hojas, tallos y raíces, indicando que tanto la parte aérea como la radicular influyen en la producción de biomasa aérea.Tabla 8. Coeficientes de correlación simples entre biomasa aérea y otras variables de Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo P durante 6 semanas. Biomasa aérea *, ** significativo al nivel de probabilidad 0.05 y 0.01, respectivamente Graficando las variables peso seco de biomasa aérea y peso seco de raíz (Figura 14) se observa que los genotipos mas destacados son H-90, H-100, H-95, H-33 y H-50, ya que se encuentran ubicados en el cuadrante superior derecho. La tabla 7 indica que existe correlación positiva y significativa entre estas 2 variables, sin embargo, algunos genotipos como el H-7, H-40, H-46 y H-54 con altas producción de biomasa aérea y bajo peso seco de raíz; esto puede ser debido a las diferencias entre genotipos en los mecanismos de adaptación, en este caso la eficiencia en el uso del P. Los parentales presentaron bajos valores en estas 2 variables, por esta razón; se ubican en el cuadrante inferior izquierdo. Buitrago, (2003), evaluando una población de Bd por Br en soluciones nutritivas con presencia de Al encontró progenies con mayor peso seco de raíz que los parentales, corroborando la alta variabilidad existente en este cruzamiento. Peso seco de biomasa aérea (g planta -1 ) Peso seco de raíz (g planta -1 ) Figura 14. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y peso seco de raíz en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P durante 6 semanas.En la figura 15 se observa la regresión entre peso seco de biomasa aérea y absorción total de P, es claro que los genotipos con mayor absorción de P presentan mayor peso seco de biomasa aérea, las diferencias entre ellos van a estar determinadas por la eficiencia en el uso que le den al P una vez entra en la planta. Las progenies H-7, H-40 y H-90 presentaron altos valores en las 2 variables, perfilándose como genotipos con buena adaptación en bajo P. Los parentales presentaron bajos valores en las 2 variables, pero superando a algunas progenies, indicando la presencia de segregación transgresiva en la población. Peso seco de biomasa aérea (g planta -1 ) Absorción total de P (mg planta -1 ) Figura 15. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y absorción total de P en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P durante 6 semanas.Relacionando la absorción de P y el peso seco de la raíz, este último por si solo no es un buen indicador de la capacidad de absorción de P de una especie; este atributo está probablemente determinado por la interacción de factores como longitud y diámetro de raíces, volumen de suelo explorado y proliferación de pelos absorbentes (Muñoz y Beck, 1995).Las progenies H-7, H-40, H54, H-58 y H-16 presentaron alto valores de peso seco de biomasa aérea y alta eficiencia en el uso de P (Figura 16), este último parece ser el mecanismo que utilizan algunas progenies de esta población para tener mejor adaptación a bajo P. Bd y Br presentaron baja eficiencia en el uso de P y baja biomasa aérea, aunque superiores a algunas progenies coincidiendo con lo encontrado por Buitrago, (2003) que reportó progenies con mayor y menor peso seco de biomasa aérea que los parentales evaluando una población de Br por Bd. Figura 16. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y eficiencia en el uso P de Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P durante 6 semanas.La relación entre absorción total de P y producción de biomasa seca total se observa en la correlación presentada en la figura 17, donde se muestra el comportamiento de las progenies y parentales creciendo en bajo P. La línea de regresión nos indica el efecto sobre la producción de biomasa total al aumentar la capacidad de los genotipos de absorber P del suelo. Muñoz y Beck, (1995) encontraron genotipos de fríjol mejor adaptados a bajo P, al aumentar la capacidad de absorción de P en bajo suministro. Peso seco de biomasa total (g planta -1 ) Absorción total de P (mg planta -1 ) Figura 17. Peso seco de biomasa total y absorción total de P en Bd, Br y sus recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con 10 kg ha -1 de P durante 6 semanas.• Existe suficiente variabilidad en la población que puede ser utilizada en programas de mejoramiento para adaptación a bajo P.• Se presentaron progenies con mayor y menor producción de biomasa seca total que los parentales, indicando la existencia de segregación transgresiva en la población, que permite encontrar genotipos mejor adaptados a condiciones de bajo P.• Hay progenies que utilizan la eficiencia en el uso de P como mecanismo de adaptación a bajo P.• Ninguno de los 2 parentales presentó valores de producción de biomasa seca aérea, que le permita ser considerado como bien adaptado a bajo P.• No siempre genotipos con altos valores de biomasa seca aérea presentan alto peso seco de raíz, y los que lo presentan no siempre tienen la capacidad de absorber mayor cantidad de P. 6.5. ENSAYO 3. Evaluación de Brachiaria decumbens, Brachiaria ruziziensis y 8 recombinantes genéticos contrastantes por su adaptación a bajo P disponible en el suelo.Se evaluaron en invernadero con suelo de Matazul, Meta en 2 niveles de fósforo (0 y 50 kg ha -1 ) durante 6 semanas, 2 genotipos de Brachiaria (Brachiaria decumbens, considerado mejor adaptado y Brachiaria ruziziensis, menos adaptado) y 8 progenies del cruzamiento entre ellos, (H-7, H-40, H-28 y H-58 mejor adaptados, H-190, H-94, H-82 y H-179 menos adaptados). Los resultados indicaron que los genotipos mejor adaptados a bajo P presentan mayor biomasa aérea, explicada por mayor área foliar, mayor concentración de P en el tallo y mayor volumen de raíz. Las características morfológicas de las raíces, principalmente longitud, peso seco y contenido de P, le permite a la planta mejor adaptación a bajo P disponible en el suelo. 6 semanas de evaluación es un tiempo corto, para que se presenten diferencias entre parentales, entre progenies es suficiente.Se utilizaron 2 niveles de fósforo, bajo 0(0P) y alto 50(50P) kg ha -1 (Tabla 9), los demás nutrientes en dosis altas (Anexo 9), la cantidad y forma de aplicación de los fertilizantes y el riego se hizo igual a los ensayos anteriores. Para la siembra se utilizaron potes plásticos con capacidad de 2.6 kg de suelo en los cuales se sembró un estolón por genotipo, se utilizó un diseño de bloques completamente al azar con 3 repeticiones. Tabla 9. Análisis de suelo de Matazul, Meta después de aplicados los nutrientes al momento de la siembra y cosecha. La cosecha de las plantas se realizó a la semana 6 después de la siembra, las variables evaluadas y análisis de los datos se realizaron igual que a los ensayos anteriores. La eficiencia en la absorción de P fue estimada como gramos total de P absorbido por la planta por longitud de raíz.Se realizó análisis de varianza, DMS (diferencia mínima significativa) para cada variable, análisis de regresión múltiple utilizando como variable dependiente la biomasa aérea de la planta y correlaciones simples de Pearson entre la biomasa aérea con las variables, área foliar, peso seco de hojas, peso seco de tallo, peso seco de raíz, longitud de raíz, diámetro de raíz, volumen de raíz, concentración de fósforo en hojas, tallos y raíces, eficiencia en el uso de P y eficiencia en la absorción de P. Los análisis se realizaron utilizando el paquete estadístico SAS (Sistema de Análisis Estadístico, SAS/ STAT, 2002STAT, -2003)).Se presentaron diferencias significativas en la mayoría de las variables evaluadas tanto en 0P como en 50P (Figuras 14, 16 y 18), sin embargo, entre los parentales se presentaron pocas diferencias, considerándose que 6 semanas es un tiempo demasiado corto para que Bd presente características morfológicas y fisiológicas que le confieren mejor adaptación que Br en 0P, esto se corrobora en el ensayo con varios niveles de P donde a los 82 días de evaluación en invernadero Bd presenta mayor biomasa total que Br. Comparando las progenies en 0P, la mayoría de las variables presentaron diferencias significativas entre ellos, con 50P se presentaron pocas diferencias (Anexo 6), lo anterior sugiere que con adecuado suministro de P hay incremento de la producción de biomasa total de todos los genotipos evaluados, coincidiendo con lo reportado por Rao et al., (1998) y Correa, (1993) donde indican que las especies de Brachiaria responden a un suministro alto de P, respuesta que se expresa en un mayor crecimiento tanto del follaje como de las raíces. El genotipo H-94 que había sido clasificado entre los menos adaptados en evaluaciones anteriores, presentó altos valores en la mayoría de las variables evaluadas, similares a la de los genotipos mejor adaptados.El análisis de regresión múltiple indica que el comportamiento biológico de la producción de biomasa aérea (variable dependiente) se ajusta a un modelo lineal, donde la variable que mas explica la variabilidad presentada en la producción de biomasa aérea en 0P es el área foliar, con un coeficiente de determinación de 0.82, contribuyen en menor proporción el volumen de raíz y la concentración de fósforo en el tallo, para un total del 89% de la variabilidad explicada por el modelo.Este comportamiento es esperado, ya que en condiciones de bajo P la planta cambia el fraccionamiento del carbono, la energía asimilada se utiliza para el crecimiento de la raíz y existe una disminución selectiva del crecimiento del follaje (Rao, 1996;Rao et al., 1998;Yun y Keappler, 2001). Como el crecimiento de las raíces es menos afectado que el follaje, las variaciones que se presenten en las raíces inducen variabilidad en la biomasa aérea. En 50P el peso seco de raíz es la que mas explica la variabilidad, con un coeficiente de determinación de 0.7, le siguen las variables concentración de P en tallo, diámetro de raíz y área foliar, explicando el modelo 91% de la variabilidad presentada (Tabla 10).Tabla 10. Coeficientes de determinación (R 2 ) y correlación simples (r) entre biomasa aérea y otras variables de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Biomasa aérea g planta -1Tratamientos (kg ha Se presentaron altas correlaciones positivas de biomasa aérea con área foliar, peso seco de raíz y longitud de raíz en 0P. En 50P hubo correlación positiva con área foliar, peso seco de raíz, longitud de raíz, volumen de raíz y concentración de fósforo en hojas; y hubo correlación negativa con concentración de fósforo en tallos y raíces. Rao et al., (1997), encontraron correlaciones similares entre biomasa aérea con absorción de P de la parte aérea, área foliar y biomasa radicular. El diámetro de raíz no presentó correlaciones significativas en ambos niveles de P (Tabla 10).   )Figura 18. Evaluación de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas a)área foliar, b)peso seco de biomasa aérea, c)peso seco de raíz y d)relación biomasa aérea/raíz.La producción de biomasa aérea es altamente afectada por el nivel de fertilización con P, siendo mucho mayor con aplicaciones de 50P (Figura 18b, Anexo 6), coincidiendo con lo reportado por Rao et al., (2001) quienes indican que las especies de Brachiaria responden significativamente a la fertilización con P. En 0P las progenies mejor adaptadas presentaron mayores valores que las menos adaptadas (Figura 19a,b). El genotipo H-7 (mejor adaptado) presentó valores de 1.35 g planta -1 mientras que el H-82 menos adaptado tuvo 0.5 g planta -1 (Anexo 6).Las marcadas diferencias en los valores de biomasa aérea pueden ser explicadas por la morfología del sistema radicular (Figura 19c,d), adquisición de P por unidad de raíz, actividad de la enzima fosfatasa ácida en hojas y raíces y concentración de Pi en hojas y raíces (Rao et al., 1997).Figura 19. Efecto de bajo P en Bd, Br y 8 progenies F1 en suelo de Matazúl, Meta a la semana 6 después de siembra. a) parte aérea de las plantas de los genotipos mejor adaptados y los 2 parentales. b) parte aérea de las plantas de los genotipos menos adaptados y los 2 parentales c) raíces de las plantas de los genotipos mejor adaptados y los 2 parentales d) raíces de las plantas de los genotipos menos adaptados y los 2 parentales.La relación entre peso seco de biomasa aérea y longitud de raíz en los 2 niveles de P se puede apreciar en la figura 20, hay respuesta positiva de los genotipos al aumentar los niveles de P. El análisis de regresión indica que el comportamiento se ajusta a un modelo lineal, donde los genotipos que presentaron mayor longitud de raíz tuvieron mayor peso seco de biomasa aérea en los 2 niveles de P, como se corrobora en las altas correlaciones significativas presentadas en la Tabla 10. Figura 20. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y longitud de raíz de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Genotipos como el H-7, H-40, H-94 y H-58 ubicados en el cuadrante superior derecho presentan buena estabilidad agronómica, ya que se comportan relativamente bien en condiciones de estrés y responden positivamente al mejorar las condiciones ambientales, en este caso hubo aumento en la producción de biomasa aérea en mayor suministro de P. El genotipo H-28 a pesar de que presenta buen comportamiento en bajo P, al aumentar este no incrementa en forma considerable la biomasa aérea, es un material con poca homeostasis y muy limitado a condiciones agroecológicas específicas (Figura 21). Media: 9.36 ** Peso seco de biomasa aérea en 0 kg ha -1 P(g planta -1 ) Peso seco de biomasa aérea en 50 kg ha -1 P (g planta -1 ) Figura 21. Peso seco de biomasa aérea en bajo y alto P de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul durante 6 semanas.En bajo P, los genotipos H-7 y H-40 presentaron alto peso seco de biomasa aérea y alta eficiencia en el uso de P, considerándose que utilizan esta como un mecanismo de adaptación. Los 2 parentales presentaron baja eficiencia y baja biomasa aérea. Los genotipos H-179, H-82 y H-190 a pesar de presentar alta eficiencia en el uso de P presentan intermedia a baja producción de biomasa aérea. Cuando se suministra alto P, casi todas las progenies aumentan su biomasa aérea y disminuyen la eficiencia en el uso con respecto a bajo P (Figura 22). Eficiencia en el uso de P (g g -1)Figura 22. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y eficiencia en el uso de P en Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Los parentales presentan altas eficiencias de absorción pero baja biomasa aérea en los 2 niveles de fósforo (Figura 23; Anexo 6). Las progenies presentan baja eficiencia en la absorción de P y alta producción de biomasa aérea, por lo tanto, la eficiencia en la absorción no se considera en este caso un mecanismo de adaptación a condiciones de bajo P en presencia de Al. Peso seco de biomasa aérea (g planta -1 ) Eficiencia en la absorción de P (mg m -1 ) Figura 23. Peso seco de biomasa aérea y eficiencia en la absorción de P en Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Hubo diferencias significativas entre los genotipos en los 2 niveles de fósforo, entre parentales no se presentaron diferencias. En 0P las progenies mejor adaptadas presentaron mayor área foliar que las menos adaptadas, en 50P no se presentan diferencias. Lo anterior concuerda con lo reportado por Rao et al., (1996), quienes afirman que los efectos del bajo suministro de P en crecimiento y desarrollo de la parte aérea son una expansión reducida de la hoja y del área foliar. En 0P la progenies mejor adaptadas presentaron 87.2 cm 2 planta -1 mientras que las menos adaptadas presentaron 46.9 cm 2 planta -1 . El genotipo H-40 uno de los mejores adaptados presentó un área foliar de 100cm 2 planta -1 superando mas de 6 veces al genotipo H-82 (menos adaptado) el cual presentó un área foliar de 15.9cm 2 planta -1 . En 50P no se presentaron diferencias significativas entre las progenies mejor adaptadas y menos adaptadas, presentando un promedio de 562.4 y 437.7cm 2 planta -1 , respectivamente (Figuras 18a y 19a,b; Anexo 6). La expansión foliar está muy relacionada con la extensión de las células epidermales, y este proceso puede estar limitado en las plantas con bajo contenido de P (Rao et al., 2001).Con 0P las progenies mejor adaptadas presentaron el doble de peso seco de raíz que las menos adaptadas con valores de 0.36 y 0.18 g planta -1 , respectivamente (Anexo 6). Watanabe et al., (2006), usando soluciones nutritivas, evaluaron 2 gramíneas forrajeras entre ellas un híbrido de Brachiaria, y encontraron que la ausencia de fósforo en presencia de aluminio redujo en menor proporción el peso de raíces de este último comparado con el de Andropogon gayanus. Con 50P no se presentaron diferencias entre las progenies. Entre los parentales no se presentaron diferencias en los 2 niveles de P (Figura 14c).Se ha observado que las plantas responden a la deficiencia de P aumentando la formación y alargamiento de raíces laterales, y disminuyendo el alargamiento primario de la raíz. Los cambios en la morfología y crecimiento de la raíz son proporcionales a las concentraciones de reguladores de crecimiento, particularmente auxina, etileno y citokininas. La producción de etileno es estimulada en raíces de plantas con deficiencias de P, puede ser el responsable de la formación de los pelos de la raíz. Los niveles de citokininas disminuyen en plantas con deficiencias de P. Se han identificado genes que afectan la expresión de las auxinas, AIR1,3,9,12, HRGP y LRP1 que controlan el desarrollo lateral de la raíz (Hammond et al., 2004).Con OP, la relación entre producción de biomasa seca aérea y peso seco de la raíz es mayor que con 50P, con valores de 3.8 y 3.3 g g -1 , respectivamente (Figura 18d y Anexo 6). Este comportamiento es característico cuando hay deficiencia de Pi, donde se supone que la mayor parte de de la energía asimilada se utiliza para el crecimiento de la raíz y se presenta una disminución selectiva del crecimiento del follaje (Rao, 1996;Yun y Keappler, 2001). Al evaluar varios genotipos de Brachiaria se encontró que el crecimiento de las raíces estuvo menos afectado que el crecimiento del follaje cuando hubo baja fertilidad, lo cual indica un cambio en el fraccionamiento del carbono como atributo de adaptación (Rao et al., 1998).Los parentales no presentaron diferencias significativas en los 2 niveles de fósforo.Con 0P las progenies mejor adaptadas presentaron casi el doble de longitud de raíz que las menos adaptadas, presentandose valores de 51.9 y 27.1 m planta -1 , respectivamente. Con 50P no se presentaron diferencias entre progenies (Figura 18a y Anexo 6). Rao et al., (1996), encontraron longitudes de raíz en B. dictyoneura con valores de 2.52 y 17.21 km m 2 con 0 y 50P, respectivamente, indicando buen desempeño en bajo P y buena respuesta a la aplicación de P. La característica radicular mas prominente en gramíneas forrajeras es la alta longitud radicular que resulta de una gran área superficial radicular y una alta relación de superficie radicular con peso seco aéreo. Estos 2 parámetros mejoran ampliamente la adquisición de P por parte de las raíces y el suministro a la parte aérea, esto es debido a un sistema radicular finamente dividido y rapidamente desarrollado que provee mejor acceso a nutrientes menos móviles en el suelo como el P (Rao, 2001a,b).Con alto P hay mayor longitud de raíz que con bajo P, en general hay respuesta de los genotipos a mejor disponibilidad de P. los genotipos H-7, H-40, H-94 y H-58 presentan buen desarrollo radicular tanto en alto como en bajo P (cuadrante superior derecho, Figura 24). Los genotipos que presentaron mayor longitud de raíz tuvieron mayor absorción total de P (Figura 25; Anexo 6), presentándose correlaciones significativas (0.53**) entre las 2 variables (Tabla 10). H-7, H-58 y H-94 presentaron altos valores en los 2 niveles de P. En bajo P los genotipos de mayor producción de biomasa aérea presentaron altos valores de absorción total de P y longitud de raíz, corroborando la importancia de estas dos variables en la adaptación a bajo P. Con bajo P, Br tuvo el mayor valor de absorción total de P a pesar de presentar baja longitud de raíz, corroborando la importancia de la acumulación de P en el estolón de siembra en este material. Longitud de raíz (m planta -1 ) Absorción total de P (mg planta -1 ) Figura 25. Longitud de raíz y absorción total de P de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.Con 0P se presentaron diferencias altamente significativas entre los genotipos, Bd presentó mayor valor que Br, debido a que Bd presenta un sistema radicular mas fino; entre progenies no hay una clara tendencia, ya que tanto los menos como los mejor adaptados presentaron sistemas radiculares finos. En condiciones de bajo suministro de P los genotipos en general aumentan la finura de sus raíces, presentando mayor longitud específica al comparase con alto suministro de P (Figura 26b y Anexo 6), siendo este un mecanismo que se activa en la planta para explorar un mayor volumen de suelo. Con 50P no se presentaron diferencias significativas entre genotipos, corroborando la activación de este mecanismo solo en condiciones de bajo suministro de P.Br presentó el mayor diámetro de raíz en los 2 niveles de fósforo, Bd presentó un diámetro similar a las progenies en los 2 niveles de fósforo (Anexo 6). Lo anterior concuerda con lo obtenido por Lasso, (1998) en soluciones nutritivas, donde Br presentó mayor diámetro que Bd. No se presentaron diferencias entre progenies mejor y menor adaptadas con 0 y 50P (Figura 26c). El diámetro de las raíces, es uno de los atributos que juega un papel importante en la absorción de P en suelos con deficiencias. El diámetro de la raíz define el volumen máximo de suelo que puede ser explotado para la producción de fotosintatos. El diámetro de la raíz puede variar entre especies y con la edad de la planta (Alves et al., 2002).Normalmente las plantas que presentan tolerancia a bajo P, tienen diámetros de raíces menores que las susceptibles (Rao et al., 1999).  La principal estrategia de las especies de Brachiaria para tomar P del fertilizante aplicado es emitir un sistema radical extenso, estableciendo al mismo tiempo una asociación con hongos de MVA, para explorar un mayor volumen de suelo (Rao et al., 1998). Características asociadas con la raíz que determinan su volumen, como la longitud, diámetro, número, longitud y duración de los pelos radicales, son importantes para determinar la capacidad de absorción de P en suelos que son deficientes. (Rao et al., 1999;Alves et al., 2002) b c a 6.5.3.9. Absorción de fósforo en las partes de la plantaNo se presentaron diferencias significativas en la absorción de P en hojas y tallos en los 2 niveles de P. La absorción de P en raíz presentó diferencias significativas con OP, las progenies mejor adaptadas presentaron mas del doble que las menos adaptadas con valores de 0.14 y 0.06 mg planta -1 , respectivamente. Entre parentales se presentaron diferencias en absorción de P en hojas y raíces con 0P, Br presentó los niveles más altos de absorción (Figura 18a,b). Lo anterior coincide con lo reportado por A. Louw-Gaume (datos sin publicar) que utilizando soluciones nutritivas encontró que Br presenta mayor absorción de P que Bd debido a una mayor tasa de crecimiento en periodos cortos de evaluación.Cuando la fuente de Pi es limitada, por lo general las plantas producen más raíces, aumentan el índice de absorción en las raíces del suelo, retranslocan Pi de hojas más viejas, y agotan los almacenes vacuolares de Pi. Además, las micorrizas pueden colonizar mas las raíces. Por el contrario, cuando las plantas tienen una fuente adecuada de Pi y lo están absorbiendo en tasas superiores a las adecuadas, un número de procesos actúan para prevenir la acumulación de las concentraciones tóxicas del Pi. Estos procesos incluyen conversión de Pi en compuestos orgánicos de almacenaje, reducción en la tasa de absorción del Pi del exterior (Lee et al., 1990). Figura 28. Evaluación de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas a)absorción de P en biomasa aérea, b) absorción de P en raíz, c)eficiencia en el uso de P y d)eficiencia en la absorción de P.Hubo diferencias significativas entre los genotipos en los 2 niveles de P, con 0P se presentó una mayor eficiencia de uso que con 50P. Entre los parentales no se presentaron diferencias, sin embargo, Bd tiende a presentar una mayor eficiencia de uso de P que Br (Figura 28c y Anexo 6), Rao et al., (1995), reportaron mayor eficiencia de uso de P en Bd comparado con otros cultivares de Brachiaria, Correa, (1993), encontró mayor eficiencia de uso de P en Bd que en B. brizantha y P.maximun. La mayor eficiencia de uso de P le permite a Bd ser más persistente a través del tiempo en suelos con bajo fósforo comparada con otras gramíneas forrajeras, caso contrario ocurre con Br que tuvo la menor eficiencia de uso con bajo P, lo cual hace que sea poco persistente a través del tiempo en estas condiciones del suelo.En los 2 niveles de P, los genotipos presentaron diferencias altamente significativas, los dos parentales presentaron mayores valores que las progenies (Figura 28d y Anexo 6), posiblemente debido a que presentaron las menores longitudes de raíces.La eficiencia en la absorción de P se atribuye a adaptaciones morfológicas, fisiológicas y bioquímica de las raíces (Rao et al., 1999;Lynch y Brown, 2001;Abel et al., 2002). Morfológicamente cambia la estructura de la raíz, o se modifica la cantidad, densidad y longitud de las raíces laterales, raíces adventicias y pelos radicales (Bates y Lynch, 2000). Además las raíces responden bioquímicamente con la expresión y secreción de enzimas como fosfatasas ácidas y ARNsas (Trull y Deikman, 1998), con la síntesis y exudación de ácidos orgánicos (Jones, 1998); y con un aumento en la síntesis de transportadores de Pi (Raghothama, 2000;Jain et al., 2007).La combinación de eficiencia en el uso de P y eficiencia en la absorción de P en condiciones de bajo P (Figura 25) determina la adaptación del genotipo, expresada en este caso, como producción de peso seco de biomasa aérea. Los genotipos que presentaron mayor eficiencia en la absorción de P tuvieron menor eficiencia de uso de P, ajustándose a un modelo lineal en los 2 niveles de P. Los parentales presentan mayor eficiencia en la absorción de P que las progenies y estos mayor eficiencia en el uso de P. A pesar que hay cultivares que aparentemente combinan los 2 mecanismos para tener mejor adaptación en bajo P (Muñoz y Beck, 1995), en este caso la adaptación la presentan algunas progenies por medio de mejor eficiencia en el uso de P. Eficiencia en el uso de P (g g -1 ) Eficiencia en la absorción de P (mg m -1 ) Figura 29. Eficiencia en el uso de P y eficiencia en la absorción de P de Bd, Br y 8 recombinantes genéticos evaluados en suelo de Matazul con bajo y alto P durante 6 semanas.• Los genotipos de Brachiaria mejor adaptados a bajo P presentan mayor biomasa aérea, explicada por mayor área foliar, mayor concentración de P en el tallo y mayor volumen de raíz.• Las características morfológicas de las raíces, principalmente longitud, peso seco y contenido de P, le permite a la planta mejor adaptación en condiciones de bajo P disponible en el suelo.• Las progenies utilizan la eficiencia en el uso de P como mecanismo de adaptación a bajo P.• Las progenies presentan poca diferencia en diámetro de raíz, con tendencia todas hacia el padre mejor adaptado (Bd) a baja disponibilidad de P, o sea, todas presentan raíces finas, pero los menos adaptados en menor proporción que los mejor adaptados a bajo P.• 6 semanas de evaluación es un tiempo corto, para que se presenten diferencias entre los parentales, pero entre progenies es suficiente. área foliar, mayor absorción de P en el tallo y mayor volumen de raíz. Las características morfológicas de las raíces, principalmente longitud, peso seco y contenido de P, le permiten a la planta mejor adaptación a bajo P. La eficiencia en el uso del P parece ser el mecanismo que utilizan algunos de los genotipos evaluados para adaptarse a condiciones de bajo P en presencia de Al.La eficiencia en la absorción de P parece no operar como mecanismo de adaptación a bajo P en presencia de Al, ya que los genotipos con mayores valores presentaron pobre comportamiento en condiciones de estrés.La metodología de evaluación en suelo ácido, como la de soluciones nutritivas permiten identificar cultivares con adaptación a bajo P en presencia de Al, y más que ser excluyentes una de la otra, se deben trabajar en forma complementaria ya que nos permiten incluir atributos aéreos y radicales en el proceso de selección.Se identificaron progenies con buen comportamiento en bajo y alto P con y sin presencia de Al, indicando buena homeostasis y estabilidad agronómica que puede ser utilizada en programas de mejoramiento para adaptación a bajo P en presencia de Al.Las técnicas de evaluación en invernadero con potes y soluciones nutritivas permiten identificar genotipos con adaptación a bajo P y/o alta saturación de Al, sería interesante que coincidieran en algunos o muchos de los genotipos seleccionados por cada técnica, para esto se debe implementar una metodología que permita una correlación entre las dos.La metodología de evaluación en soluciones nutritivas para adaptación a alta saturación de Al, reportada por Wenzl, 2006 y utilizada en algunos de los ensayos, puede presentar algunos inconvenientes, ya que cuando se someten los genotipos a los tratamientos durante 3 semanas, no se incluyen los demás nutrientes (aunque se incluyen en la fase de erraizamiento), por lo tanto, la adaptación no es solo a alta saturación de Al, sino también a deficiencia de todos los nutrientes, excepto al Ca. Si en la evaluación se incluyen los demás nutrientes, la selección sería muy específica a alta saturación de Al que es lo que se busca.A pesar que los ensayos a nivel de invernadero permiten identificar los mecanismos que operan en adaptación a algún tipo de estrés, se debe correlacionar este tipo de ensayos (hidropónico y potes con suelo) con ensayos en campo, que son las condiciones reales a las que estarán sometidos los cultivares en la eventualidad de ser liberados comercialmente. Reciente literatura reporta la poca correlación existente en este tipo de ensayos con los de campo en otras especies.Las evaluaciones utilizando estolones para las siembras de los ensayos, puede presentar algunos inconvenientes por la variabilidad que estos presentan, desde el punto de vista de contenido de nutrientes y peso seco. Se debería implementar una técnica que permita la escogencia de estolones lo más uniforme posible.Anexo 1. Evaluación de Bd y Br en soluciones nutritivas durante 3 semanas con bajo y alto P sin presencia de Al. ) (g planta -1) (g planta -1) (g g -1 ) (mg planta -1 ) (mg planta -1 ) (g g -1 )Continuación Anexo 5. ) (g planta -1) (g planta -1) (g g -1 ) (mg planta -1 ) (mg planta -1 ) (g g -1 )Continuación Anexo 5. ) (g planta -1) (g planta -1) (g g -1 ) (mg planta -1 ) (mg planta -1 ) (g g -1 )Continuación Anexo 5. ) (g planta -1) (g planta -1) (g g -1 ) (mg planta -1 ) (mg planta -1 ) (g g ","tokenCount":"21289"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a41fde235759d2c83d2f476e7c3a9bbc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3209f37d-974f-472f-8ada-11c6dab1362a/retrieve","id":"1483256171"},"keywords":["Cowpea","Cercospora leaf spot disease","Resistant","Susceptible","SSR marker"],"sieverID":"dd021c61-852d-4ffa-82eb-2a6a323ecc8d","pagecount":"12","content":"Cercospora leaf spot (CLS) caused by Pseudocercospora cruenta (Sacc.) is an important disease affecting cowpea production in Nigeria. Understanding the genetic nature of CLS is an important step in developing an effective breeding strategy. This study investigated the inheritance of CLS disease in cowpea under natural epiphytotic field condition involving two CLS resistant parents (IT99K-573-1-1, IT99K216-24) and a CLS susceptible parent (UAM09-1055-6). The parental lines, F 1 , BC 1 P 1 , BC 1 P 2 , F 2 and F 3 generations were used to study the genetic nature and to detect SSR markers closely linked with the CLS resistance gene(s) using bulked segregant analysis (BSA). The result showed that F 1 populations involving UAM09-1055-6 9 IT99K-573-1-1 and UAM09-1055-6 9 IT99K-216-24 were resistant to CLS in the 2 crosses suggesting the presence of gene dominance in the control of the disease. The observed segregating ratio of F 2 populations fits the Mendalian ratio 3:1. The plants reaction to the disease in the backcross progeny test involving the resistant parent were all uniformly resistant, whereas those involving the susceptible parent segregated into ratio 1:1. The F 3 generations, which segregated into ratio 1:2:1 further confirmed that resistance was controlled by a single dominant gene in the crosses studied. Heritability estimates varied from 81 to 97%. BSA showed that SSR marker code named RB24 of lima bean and validated on F 2 population discriminated between resistance and susceptibility to CLS. Hence RB24 could be a useful marker for marker-assisted selection in CLS resistance breeding in cowpea.Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is one of the most important food legumes of vital importance to the livelihoods of millions of people in West and Central Africa (WCA). Cowpea seeds and young leaves have high protein contents (over 25% on dry weight basis), therefore, cowpea is a major source of protein, minerals and vitamins for human and livestock nutrition (Singh et al. 2003) in WCA. Cowpea hay is also valued as a balanced nutrition fodder and it is sold in local markets for animal feed especially during the dry season in WCA (Tarawali et al. 2002).Approximately 90% of world's cowpea is grown in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Niger. According to FAOSTAT (2017), cowpea was grown on about 12.3 million ha of land globally and 6.9 million tons of grain was produced. Nigeria, the largest cowpea producer in the world accounts for about 3 million tons of the world production from a cultivated land area of 3.5 million ha. Cowpea is mainly cultivated under traditional farming systems and grain yields in farmers' fields are low due to numerous problems including insect pests and diseases, parasitic weeds and environmental stresses, which are major production constraints.Cowpea diseases are induced by several pathogenic organisms including viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and worms. One of such fungal foliar diseases that has been reported to cause severe yield loss in cowpea is the Cercospora leaf spot disease caused by two fungi namely; Cercospora canescens Ellis and Martin, and Pseudocercospora cruenta (Sacc.) Deighton (formerly Cercospora cruenta) (Allen and Lenne 1998). Both pathogens survive the no-crop period on infected crop residue and in infected seed (Schneider et al. 1976). Cercospora leaf spot (CLS), incited by the fungus Pseudocercospora cruenta (Sacc.), is the most widespread and most destructive disease of cowpea in the Northern and Guinea savanna zones of Nigeria (Allen 1983). Most of the CLS damage occurs late in the growing season when the crop's vegetative and reproductive parts are fully developed. The disease attacks the leaves causing a serious yield loss because of severe defoliation. Yield loss up to 40% due to infection has been reported (Schneider et al. 1976). Crop diseases do not only reduce grain yield but can impair the fodder quality, and consequently undermine efforts to promote crop-livestock integration. Emphasis on cowpea improvement has centred on grain yield with little attention on the fodder quality. The major constraint to livestock production in Nigeria today is fodder deficiency especially during dry season when pasture vegetation is dry. Availability of quality cowpea hay/fodder is important to sustain livestock production through the year, so breeding for cowpea varieties that produces high-quality (diseasefree) and improved fodder yield is important to meet the demand for livestock feed.CLS is encountered during the rainy season of relatively hot and high humid conditions (Poehlman 1991). The fungus has a wide host range, attacking other legumes such as common beans (Phaseolus), soybean and bambara groundnut. These alternative hosts extend the reservoir of plants which can carry over infections to the next growing season. The disease symptom on infected plants presents necrotic spots on the upper leaf surface and profuse masses of conidiophores and conidia, appearing as downy grey to black mats, on the lower leaf surface. The symptom of the disease is not apparent until the time of flowering but can rapidly progress acropetally leading to premature defoliation. Severe infections have also been reported to result in lesions developing on pods and stems (Mulder and Holliday 1975a;Hart 1977). The outward symptoms typically become evident during flowering and early pod development, resulting in significant yield loss. CLS disease is seed borne and seed transmitted (Schneider et al. 1976).Because the CLS has a wide host range, it is difficult to manage through fungicide applications alone. Continuous use of fun-gicides results in detrimental effects on the environment and development of resistant strains of the pathogen. Also, the Chlamydospore that form thick walled asexual spores can survive in infected debris on a wide range of alternate host. These factors make crop rotation an incomplete control measure. The use of fungicide on the other hand, not only increases cost of production but are hazardous to man and are beyond the reach of smallholder farmers, who are the major producers of this crop. Therefore, the most effective means to control economic losses from CLS is breeding of cowpea varieties with genetic resistance to the disease. Thus, the development and deployment of cowpea varieties with resistance to CLS is the most cost effective and economically friendly approach to combat the disease. Despite the devastating effects of the pathogen, breeding program towards the development of CLS resistant cowpea cultivars has been minimal in Nigeria.To develop an effective breeding strategy for the introgression of CLS resistance genes in cowpea, a detailed knowledge of the nature of inheritance pattern of disease in the host will be useful. Although, numerous sources of resistance to CLS have been identified in other crops (Mukesh et al. 2017;Duangsong et al. 2018), limited information is available on the genetic basis of inheritance of this disease in cowpea. From available literature, genetic basis of CLS resistance has been characterized as qualitative, determined by either dominant, co-dominant or recessive genes, depending on the cross (Castro et al. 2003). Kimber and Paull (2011) studied the genetics of resistance to Cercospora leaf spot in Feba bean and reported a monogenic dominant gene control leaf spot resistance with resistance dominant over susceptibility. Pasupuleti et al. (2013) reported that late leaf spot in groundnut was governed by a combination of both, nuclear and maternal gene effects. Little or no information is available on the genetics of CLS resistance in Nigerian cowpea varieties. There is a clear need for such knowledge on genetics of resistance to CLS that will enable breeders to design an efficient breeding strategy to improve the local germplasm.Conventional breeding often requires a decade or more to develop and release a new cowpea cultivar because it involves screening and identifying appropriate resistant germplasm sources and then introgressing the resistance trait. Molecular tools, including marker-assisted selection, have the potential to accelerate and improve the effectiveness of breeding for disease resistance in many crops. For this reason, during the last decade, substantial efforts have been made on screening and identification of linked markers for important diseases of cowpea. Identification and use of linked markers could reduce the length of breeding time by less than half the conventional breeding time. Molecular genetic tools and genomic resources have been developed for cowpea with an objective of expediting breeding programs for the improvement of cowpea varieties in Nigeria and numerous countries in Africa. DNA molecular markers are becoming a research hotspot: Various markers like RFLP, RAPD, AFLP, SSR and SNP have been employed in several studies. Microsatellite (SSR) markers have been successfully used for markerassisted selection in many crops including cowpea breeding for different constraints. For example, Molecular markers linked to S. gesnerioides racespecific resistance genes in cowpea have been reported in different studies. Ouedraogo et al. (2001Ouedraogo et al. ( , 2002)); identified three AFLP markers that are tightly linked to the gene designated Rsg2-1 which confers resistance to Race 1 of S. gesnerioides in Burkina Faso. Similarly, Diouf andHilu (2005), Ogunkanmi et al. (2008) reported SSR markers for genetic diversity in wild relatives of cowpea. Several other SSR markers have been reported to be linked to other biotic stresses. For example, Fusarium resistance (Pottorff et al. 2012;Omoigui et al. 2018), early and late leaf spot in groundnut (Shoba et al. 2012;Zongo et al. 2017) and Striga resistance in cowpea (Boukar et al. 2004).Some promising markers have been identified and tested in this study (UVA cowpea group, unpublished data). A set of cowpea SSR primer combinations based on cowpea gene space read (GSR) sequences annotated for disease and pest resistance genes (Timko et al. 2008) were downloaded from the Cowpea Genomics Knowledge Base (CGKB) (http:// cowpeagenomics.med.virginia.edu/CGKB) website. Over 2000 SSR markers were initially screened for amplification and polymorphism using susceptible and resistant parental lines to identify closely linked markers for CLS disease of cowpea. Based on the screening, we identified RB24 primer that showed polymorphism with the disease. The marker was further validated using bulk segregant analysis (BSA) and genotyping F 2 population for its efficacy. This prompted us to characterize the parental materials for resistance to CLS using this marker with a goal of establishing a marker-assisted selection (MAS) system for resistance to this disease.The objective of the present study was to (1) determine the mode of inheritance of CLS resistance in cowpea and (2) test the applicability of previously identified molecular marker in genotyping segregating population to distinguish the resistant and susceptible individuals for CLS.Two CLS resistant cowpea cultivars namely, IT99K-573-1-1 and IT99K-216-44 were selected from our previous studies (not published) based on their reaction to CLS and one susceptible cultivar, UAM-09-1055-6, were used as parents in this study (Table 1). The three parental cultivars were further phenotyped in the screenhouse at the University of Agriculture Makurdi in 2017 and the results validated using previously identified associated SSR marker.The two best resistant cultivars (IT99K-573-1-1, IT99K-216-44) were crossed with the susceptible parent (UAM09-1055-6). Emasculation and pollination were done either in the morning or in the evening when the temperature is low, and humidity is high to obtain maximum success. Matured pods resulting from successful crossing were harvested at maturity for F 1 seeds generation and resulting F 1 plants were grown in the screenhouse and selfed to produce the F 2 generations. Then F 2 plants were self-pollinated to produce F 3 progenies. The F 1 's were backcrossed to each parent to produce BC 1 P 1 and BC 1 P 2 generations, respectively.The test materials (F1/F2/F3, BC 1 P 1 and BC 1 P 2 ) were evaluated for their reaction to CLS disease in an artificially induced epiphytotic field condition attained using spreader row-method as described by Booker and Umaharan (2007). The experimental materials were established on row plot measuring 4 m long, with an inter-row spacing of 0.75 m and intra-row spacing of 0.2 m. The parents and progenies were assigned to each plot consisting of a single test row, 4-m long for each of the parent, two rows for F 1 hybrids and backcross populations, and eight rows for F 2 populations arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The F 3 families consisted of two row plot each. Each plot as well as the block were surrounded by a susceptible spreader row (UAM09-1055-6), planted two weeks in advance of the test varieties to serve as checks and to assist in ensuring adequate inoculum development. The spreader rows were inoculated at the flower initiation stage of the crop with a diseased leaf wash (10 g leaf: 1 g H 2 0; 4.8 9 10 5 conidia ml; 14 mls plant -l ). The inoculum was applied to the plants with a knapsack sprayer until runoff. In addition, diseased leaf debris was placed at the base of spreader plants. After inoculation, water spray was applied to spreader row plants in the evening to maintain high humidity for disease development. Two seeds of the test materials (F 1 , F 2 , F 3 , BC 1 P 1 and BC 1 P 2 ) were sown per hole. Pre-emergence herbicide application of Pendimethalin at 1 kg active ingredient per ha was applied immediately after planting. All recommended package of practices was adopted to raise a healthy crop that included, 30 kg/ha P 2 O 5 and 10 kg/ha NPK granular fertilizer applied at two weeks after planting. Protection against insect pests was controlled by spraying Cypermethrine ? Dimethoate at the rate of 50 g a.i/ ha. Weeds were controlled manually using hoe, first at 3 weeks after planting, second at 6-7 weeks after planting. The different generation of progenies (F 1 , BC 1 P 1, BC 1 P 2 , F 2 and F 3) from the two populations along with their two parents were phenotyped in a replicated trial for resistance to CLS. Following field phenotyping of the parental materials, DNA analysis was carried out to validate phenotypic data using bulked segregant analysis. Bulked segragants analysis were done to identify the markers' linked to CLS. Ten randomly selected plants from the homozygous resistant and homozygous susceptible F 2 plants were used to prepare separate bulk. Young leaves of 14-day old plantlets were collected from parents and individuals of the segregating population. DNA extraction was performed using the FTA Ò PlantSaver cards as described by Omoigui et al. (2012). The extracted DNA of the 10 most resistant and 10 most susceptible materials were bulked separately by pooling aliquots containing 50 ng/ll from each susceptible and resistant F 2 -selected plants. PCR was carried out on the bulks and parental DNA samples using SSR primers. PCR reaction mixture was performed in a total volume of 20 ll for PCR reaction using customized Accupower PCR premix tube (BIONEER) to which a purified FTA disc containing the DNA sample and 16 (ll) of water-Molecular Biology Grade (Lonza) were added. The PCR profile of SSR followed was used: one cycle of 95 °C for 4 min; followed by 44 cycles of 95 °C for 1 min; 55 °C for 30 s; 72 °C for 30 s of 35 cycles with a final extension at 72 °C for 2 min and held for 4 °C for infinity.PCR amplification was performed with the BIO-RAD MyCycler TM thermal cycler. Amplified products from SSR markers were separated on 2% agarose gels stained with ethidium bromide (10 ng/100 ml solution in Tris-EDTA buffer).Data was collected on the following: ''Reaction of individual plants to CLS (Present or Absent), Days to disease incidence: this was done on daily basis, Number of infected leaves/nodes (average lesion count on five disease leaves per plant), Disease severity (taken at 7, 8 and 9 weeks after planting'' Square root transformation was applied of values that include 0 for statistical analyses.The analysis of phenotypic data (disease severity scores) was performed in SAS system for Window (SAS Institute 2014). Means were separated using least significant difference (LSD) at 5% probability level.Segregation ratios were analysed using a Chi square test. The individuals from the crosses that were scored as resistant and susceptible in the progeny populations were subjected to Chi square test for goodness of fit to test deviation from the theoretical expected Mendalian segregation ratios for F 1 , BC 1 P 1 F 1 , BC 1 P 2 F 1 , F 2 and F 3 from populations (UAM-09-1055-6 9 IT99K-573-1-1) and (UAM-09-1055-6 9 IT99K-216-44). The genetic distance between SSR markers and the CLS resistance gene was determined in QTL IciMapping ver. 4.1 (http://www.isbreeding.net) using the Kosambi mapping function. Mapping parameters consisted of LOD 3.0 and Two Opt algorithm.Heritability, in its broad-sense, was estimated, according to Warner (1952), as follows:where h 2 = broad-sense heritability; V p = phenotypic variance of F 2 individuals (V F2 ) andThe two parents showed contrasting reaction to the disease when inoculated with the pathogen isolate.The incidence of CLS disease on the leaves of the susceptible parents UAM 09-1055-6 was 100% of the leaf area being covered by lesions in the experiments.In contrast, in IT99K-573-1-1 and IT99K-216-44, nodes and leaf area were completely free of CLS lesions. Analysis of variance (Tables 2, 3) showed significant divergences between the generations in all the CLS disease measures. There were significant (P B 0.001) differences among the cowpea populations for individual plant reaction to CLS, days to disease incidence, number of infected leaves, and disease severity index (DSI) based on the screening against CLS disease under field condition (Tables 2,  3). The susceptible parent, UAM09-1055-6, consistently showed susceptibility to CLS. Differential resistance to the P. cruenta had also been reportedamong cowpea varieties screened for CLS (Booker and Umaharan 2007). Susceptible parent had an average disease score of 5 at 56 days, while the two resistant parents had a disease score of 0 (Fig. 1a, b). The susceptible and resistant parents also differed for disease score at 63 days, respectively. Within 7 days, the disease score of UAM09 1055-6 increased from 2.8 to 4.5 (Fig. 1c,  d) indicating a quick progression of the disease in the susceptible parent, but no change was observed in the resistant parent. This suggests that the resistant parents activated antimicrobial defence compared to the susceptible parent. The resistant parents, IT99K-573-1-1 and IT99K-216-44 differed significantly from the susceptible parent, UAM09 1055-6, for all the traits studied for resistance. The results also indicated that the resistance level was higher in the cross UAM09 1055-6 9 IT99K-573-1-1 than in the cross UAM09 1055-6 9 IT99K-216-44. The Disease Severity Index (DSI) ratings showed that IT99K-573-1-1 and IT99K-216-44 were resistant whereas UAM09 1055-6 was susceptible to CLS (Fig. 1e, f). All susceptible/resistant crosses involving either UAM09-1055-6 9 IT99K573-1-1, or UAM09 1055-6 9 IT99K-216-44, produced F 1 progeny that were resistant to CLS (Table 4). The expression of resistance reaction in F 1 generation is an indication of the role of dominant gene in controlling CLS in cowpea. 77 plants of the F 2 population showed susceptibility to CLS infection while the remaining 222 plants remained resistant by expressing the seedling resistance conferred by the dominant resistance gene and the population followed a monogenic segregation ratio (P = 0.76). Similarly, all F 2 populations from these crosses segregated in a 3 resistant (insensitive):1 susceptible (sensitive) ratio. Chi square tests of goodness of fit to genetic ratio showed that the F 2 population fit a segregation pattern of 3 resistant:1 susceptible genetic ratio. This segregation ratio further confirmed that a single dominant gene conferred resistance to CLS in these crosses. Segregation within 25 BC 1 P 1 families derived from resistant F 1 and susceptible parents fit a 1:1 (segregating) progeny ratio (Table 4). This segregation pattern further confirmed that resistance to CLS in the genotypes used is conferred by the action of a single dominant resistance gene. The F 1 data was consistent with this hypothesis as all the F 1 progenies were completely resistant. This result agrees with the study of Castro et al. (2003), who also reported that resistance to CLS was governed by a single dominant gene in cowpea.All the susceptible F 2 derived F 3 families remained susceptible whereas only 115 out of the 210 resistant F 2 derived F 3 families were homozygous for resistance. The remaining 47 families were heterozygous (Table 5) thus distributing the F 2 genotypes into 1R:2R:1S monogenic segregation ratio (P = 0.371). Similarly, in the second population, all the susceptible F 2 derived F 3 families remained susceptible whereas only 57 out of the 220 resistant F 2 derived F 3 families were homozygous for resistance. The remaining 118 families were heterozygous thus distributing the F 2 genotypes into 1R:2R:1S monogenic segregation ratio (P = 0.290). Therefore, resistance to CLS is controlled by a single dominant nuclear gene. These results are consistent with a single dominant gene model where the homozygous dominant condition at either of the two loci will confer resistance. This result agrees with the findings of other researchers (Fery et al. 1976;Thakur et al. 2002;Castro et al. 2003;Booker andUmaharan 2007, 2008;Duangsong et al. 2018) who reported a single major dominant gene was responsible for CLS resistance in cowpea and Yardlong bean. Effective selection in early generations of segregating population can be achieved only when additive genetic effects are substantial and heritability is high (Anderson et al. 1991). In the present study, the heritability value for the tested crosses were 97% for the cross involving UAM09-1055-6 9 IT99K-573-1-1 and 81% for the cross involving UAM09-1055-6 9 IT99K-216-44 indicating that the CLS resistance is a heritable character and the effect of environment on the expression of this trait was small in respect of genetic effect. According to Brule-Babel and Fowler Based on our screening of cowpea SSRs which are available on the CGKB database, we identified a set of promising cowpea SSR primer pairs and tested them for their co-segregation with CLS (Fig. 2). Microsatelites have been identified in Vigna species based on database searches (Yu et al. 1999) and microsatellites libraries have been specifically developed from cowpea (Li and Nelson 2001). Thirty-five SSR markers were screened with the contrasting bulks that were made from individuals of a susceptible and resistant plants Out of which nine primer pairs RB20, RB26, RB24, RB37, RB40, RB12, RB45, RB14, RB7 (25.71%) showed polymorphisms between parents and the bulks (Fig. 2). Among the nine promising primer pairs, one marker, RB24 (Forward; 5 0 -GTC AAAGCAATGGACTAA-3 0 , Reverse; 5 0 TGAATTT GATACACACACTACT-3 0 ) with annealing temperature of 60 °C was found to be useful. The marker consistently showed polymorphic band between the two parents. Ten randomly selected samples were taken from the resistant and susceptible plants to prepare bulks for bulk segregant analysis (Fig. 2). The marker was found to distinguish between resistant and susceptible CLS locus. This polymorphic SSR marker was further analysed on the 299 F 2 plants for linkage analysis with the CLS locus. The marker RB24 was associated with the CLS locus and was located at a genetic distance of 5.2 cM from phenotypic variation. The RB24 resistance allele amplified a 291 bp   , 4). The marker results further support the phenotypic screening to identify the difference between the cultivars, relative to resistance and susceptibility to CLS. Validation of this SSR linked marker in this study is an advancement in breeding efforts to develop and deploy molecular marker for future use in marker-assisted selection (MAS), which can shorten the breeding cycle for CLS resistance in cowpea cultivars. This marker will also help to improve precision in discrimination of resistant and susceptible cultivars when screening large parental genotypes for CLS in cowpea breeding programme. The use of marker assisted breeding methods will improve the efficiency of screening for resistant traits and effectiveness of incorporating the major resistance genes or pyramiding resistant genes.This study provides the basis for exploitation of markers for CLS in cowpea breeding program.The SSR marker reported in this study will be useful for breeding purpose since it differentiates the presence of the gene in homozygous and heterozygous It has been suggested that the marker should be within 10 cM of the gene of interest for effective marker-assisted selection breeding (Cheng et al. 1998). The marker, RB24 mapped a distance of 5.2 cM, will therefore be especially useful for those breeding programmes in cowpea where pyramiding is performed to stack more than one resistant gene into a single background. In agreement with other studies, the findings from our research confirms that a single dominant gene confers resistance to CLS in cowpea. The breeding implication is that breeding programs can easily incorporate resistant gene(s) to CLS susceptible cultivars with any selection method to address CLS problem. The single dominant gene possessed by IT99K-573-1-1 and IT99K-216-6 indicates that these cultivars are promising parental donors to improve CLS resistance in cowpea cultivars due to easy of introgression of major genes. Also, the RB24 primer validated in the F 2 population in this study may be valuable in marker-assisted selection (MAS) for CLS resistance breeding. Our research provides the first evidence of inheritance of CLS resistance among Nigeria cowpea germplasm.","tokenCount":"4135"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"131dff44d2912943c77f9e12ef662c58","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a2dc0421-5e69-4f49-97e0-5162d5552a7c/retrieve","id":"-1598799731"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba26ecd8-ce3f-46d7-9bd5-e787c4338a4e","pagecount":"8","content":"The prices of staple grains began rising in mid-2020, reflecting higher fertilizer prices and the supply chain bottlenecks caused by the outbreak of Covid-19, and increased sharply following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. How have these dramatic increases in world prices of cereals affected poverty in low-income countries? This brief estimates the impact of higher world grain prices on poverty in Niger. Other briefs in this series examine the impact of higher food prices on poverty inFollowing several years of relative stability, commodity prices began to rise in the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic, although the pattern and timing differed across commodities. As shown in Figure 1, the price of US soft red winter wheat fell somewhat in the first half of 2020, but then rose fairly steadily over the next 18 months. By February 2022, it was 36 percent above the pre-pandemic level (January 2020). In March, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the wheat price spiked to 79 percent above the pre-pandemic level based on the fear that the war would impede exports from both countries, which together account for 25 percent of world wheat exports. Prices remained high for several months but began to decline in June 2022, as it became apparent that war-related restrictions on grain exports would be less than feared. By April 2023, the international price of wheat was just 11 percent above the pre-pandemic level.The price of US No 2 yellow maize followed a similar pattern, though the increase was greater, as shown in Figure 1. It spiked once in May 2021 at 77 percent above the pre-pandemic level, and again after the invasion of Ukraine, when it reached double the pre-pandemic price. Unlike the wheat price, the maize price has remained high. As of April 2023, the maize price was still 70 percent above the pre-pandemic level.The world price of sorghum rose even more dramatically than wheat or maize, reaching 116 percent above the pre-pandemic price in May 2021 and again in March 2022 following the invasion. Although the price has declined somewhat since then, in April 2023 it was still 86 percent above the pre-pandemic price. Russia and Ukraine are not important exporters of sorghum, but sorghum prices typically follow maize prices because they are close substitutes.Finally, Figure 1 shows that the price of Thai 5% broken rice has remained surprisingly stable throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and during the war in Ukraine. The war had little effect on the production or transport of rice in world markets. Rice prices began to creep up in early 2023 but were just 11 percent above the pre-pandemic level in April 2023.Source: FAO Global Information and Early Warning System. FAO (2023). Note: Wheat prices are for US soft red winter wheat. Maize prices are for US No. 2 yellow maize. Sorghum is represented by US sorghum prices at Gulf Ports. Rice prices are for Thai 5% broken rice.The impact of the increase in world grain prices on poverty in low-income countries depends on how much of the shock is transmitted to domestic grain markets in those countries. In the absence of an international price shock, we expect domestic prices to rise at the rate of inflation in the country. However, an increase in international prices should cause domestic prices to rise faster than inflation; in other words, it causes the real (inflation-adjusted) domestic price to rise. Frequently, the real price of grain in domestic markets does not rise by the full extent of the international price shock (Minot, 2011;Ceballos et al., 2017). There are several reasons for this. First, if the marketing margin between international and domestic prices is fixed in monetary terms, the (higher) domestic prices in an importing country will rise by a smaller percentage than the (lower) international price. Second, local and imported grains may be somewhat different to consumers, making them imperfect substitutes for each other. Third, the government may reduce protection when world prices increase, thus insulating domestic consumers from the full shock (Martin and Minot, 2022). If a country has little or no trade in a commodity, domestic markets may be isolated from world markets, so that local prices respond mostly to domestic factors, such as weather-related shocks to yields.Table 1 shows the changes in the world price (expressed in US$), local nominal prices, and local real prices (adjusted for domestic inflation) for three commodities: wheat, maize, and sorghum. Rice is not included in the analysis because international prices have been relatively stable. Our analysis covers four time periods: February 2020 (pre-pandemic), January 2022 (pre-invasion), May 2022 (peak international prices), and July 2022 (post-peak). We do not analysis price changes since July 2022 because, as shown in Figure 1, the world prices of wheat, maize, and sorghum in the second quarter of 2023 have remained in the same broad range as they were in July 2022.Because wheat prices are not available for Niger 1 , we use wheat flour prices in neighboring Cameroon, which uses essentially the same currency 2 . Between February 2020 and May 2022, when international prices peaked, the world price of wheat rose 76 percent, while the prices of maize and sorghum more than doubled. Over this period, the domestic nominal price of the three commodities increased between 40 and 63 percent, although these figures include increases due to general inflation. The domestic real (inflation-adjusted) prices of these commodities increased between 28 and 49 percent, reflecting the incomplete transmission of price shocks from international to domestic markets. Between May and July 2022, however, the world price of all three commodities dropped somewhat. The real domestic price of maize fell, while those of wheat and sorghum remained at their May levels. The last column shows the price transmission ratio, that is the increase in the real domestic price as a percentage of the increase in the world price between February 2020 and July 2022. In the case of wheat, the real price of wheat rose 45 percent while the world price increased 25 percent, so the price transmission ratio was 183 percent. It is unusual for the ratio to be greater than 100 percent, but this may be because domestic prices had not yet fallen in response to the lower world prices. The other price transmission ratios are in the normal range: 51 percent in the case of maize and 31 percent for sorghum.The difference between the nominal and real prices of these commodities is modest because the inflation rate for Niger has been low: 3.8 percent in 2021 and 4.2 percent in 2022. Source: IMF (2022) for international sorghum prices. FAO (2022) for others. The international prices are the US soft red winter wheat price, the US No 2 yellow maize price, and the US Gulf price for yellow sorghum. The local prices are the retail price of bread in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the retail price of maize in Niamey, and the retail price of sorghum in Niamey.The impact of domestic price changes on household income depends on the importance of the commodity as a source of income and its importance in household spending. Households that produce and sell the commodity gain from higher prices, while those that are net buyers of the grain lose. The percentage change in income will be proportional to the size of the price change and the net sales of the commodity (positive or negative) as a share of income (Deaton, 1989).As shown in the first column of Table 2, sorghum is by far the most important commodity in the diet of households in Niger, contributing almost 18 percent of caloric intake. In comparison, wheat and maize represent just 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively, of the caloric intake. It should be noted that sorghum is second to millet, which accounts for 28 percent of the caloric intake. We do not consider millet in our analysis because there is little international trade in millet and no international reference price. Similarly, rice contributes 8 percent of caloric intake and is imported, but, as shown in Figure 1, rice prices have been stable over the period under consideration.The second and third columns show the importance of each commodity as a source of household income and as a component in household budgets. The fourth column gives the net benefit ratio, defined as the net purchases as a proportion of household income (the income share minus the expenditure share). Maize and wheat show large net purchases among households, reflecting the fact that almost all wheat and most maize is imported. Net purchases are smaller in the case of sorghum, for which international trade is negligible, although there may be unrecorded cross-border trade. The impact of price changes on the incidence of poverty is particularly sensitive to the net sales position of households near the poverty line, for whom a price change may affect income enough to push them above or below the poverty line. The income and expenditure shares for household near the poverty line in Niger are similar to the shares in Table 2. The main difference is that maize represents a larger share of expenditure, resulting in a larger negative net benefit ratio. This implies that households near the poverty line are more adversely affected by increases in maize prices than other households.We simulate the impact of increases in the domestic real prices of maize, wheat, and sorghum on headcount poverty in Niger, making use of data on the composition of expenditure and sources of income for each household in a nationally-representative survey. Real (inflation-adjusted) price changes are used to capture the impact of the rise in grain prices relative to the prices of other goods. The analysis does not include the welfare impact of general inflation, which is beyond the scope of this study. Such an analysis would be complicated, requiring information on which incomes and prices rise with inflation (such as agricultural prices) and which ones tend to lag behind inflation (such as formal-sector wages).In general, the simulations indicate that higher prices for maize, wheat, and sorghum will increase the incidence of poverty. As shown in Figure 1, the national poverty rate rises from 39.3 percent in the pre-Covid period to 41.2 percent in July 2022. Although this increase may seem modest, it should be kept in mind that it represents about half a million people.The urban-rural breakdown shows that the incidence of poverty is four times greater in rural areas (44.8 percent) than in urban areas (10.9 percent). In rural areas, the analysis suggests that poverty rises from 44.8 percent to 47.0 percent, more than 2 percentage points. In urban areas, it increases from 10.9 percent to 11.1 percent. The increase in poverty is greater in rural areas for two reasons. First, many rural households are net buyers of staple grains, which tend to be a large share of their expenditure. In addition, rural households are poorer, so a larger share of them are close to the poverty line and more vulnerable to falling below it due to food price changes.Source: Authors' calculations based on changes in real prices of maize, wheat, and sorghum and household income and expenditure patterns.This section compares the main results from Figure 2 with the poverty impact under two alternative sets of assumptions. Specifically, we estimate the poverty impact 1) if the world price shocks for the three commodities were fully transmitted to domestic markets and 2) if we included both the domestic real price increase of the three commodities and the price increase due to general inflation, while assuming all other prices and incomes were constant over the period being considered. As noted above, changes in international prices are usually not fully transmitted to domestic markets due to fixed marketing margins, imperfect substitutability, and policies designed to insulate domestic markets from international price volatility. In Niger, the rise in domestic real price of wheat products was actually greater than that of world wheat prices, but for maize and sorghum half or less of the international shock was transmitted to domestic markets. Here we simulate the poverty impact if international shocks had been fully transmitted, that is, if the domestic real prices had increased in the same proportions as the world prices of the three commodities.Figure 3 compares the estimated actual change in poverty (in green) with a hypothetical change in poverty assuming full transmission of shocks (in blue). The short answer is that full transmission of the price shock from international markets to domestic markets would have resulted in larger increases in poverty. For example, if domestic prices in Niger had increased as much as world grain prices did, the poverty rate would have increased 5.1 percentage points in May 2022, compared to the estimated increase of 2.2 percentage points. This relatively large poverty impact is probably due to the fact that full price transmission would mean that the real price increase of sorghum would have been three times greater than it actually was.The simple interpretation is to say that incomplete transmission of international price shocks to domestic markets had a positive effect because it reduced the resulting increase in poverty in Niger. However, at the global level, insulation of domestic markets from international shocks (whether due to policy or market friction) probably increases the volatility of international prices. Martin and Minot (2023) found that insulation of domestic markets following the invasion of Ukraine likely doubled the spike in international wheat prices. A few large countries (notably India and China) were responsible for much of this magnification. Thus, insulation is a double-edged sword: it protects domestic market from international shocks, while simultaneously exacerbating the size of those shocks.Source: Authors calculations based on changes in real prices of maize, wheat, and sorghum and household income and expenditure patterns. Note: Our best estimate of the poverty impact of international shocks uses domestic real price changes (in green). Full transmission of international shocks is represented by the world price changes (in blue). And the domestic nominal price increase (in red) describes the impact of both international shocks and inflation on the three commodities, while assuming other prices and income are fixed in nominal terms. The second alternative assumption is to estimate the poverty impact using the increase in the domestic nominal price of the three commodities, which combines the increase in the real prices and the increase associated with domestic inflation, assuming that all other prices and income are constant in nominal terms. The results are shown in red in Figure 3. In this scenario, poverty increases more than in the main simulation (in green) but less than with full price transmission. This likely overstates the impact of the world grain price rise since it includes the effect of inflation on the three commodities and excludes the effect of inflation on incomes. The small difference from the main simulation (in green) is probably because inflation is relatively low in Niger (3.8 percent in 2021 and 4.2 percent in 2022) so the difference between nominal and real price increases was modest.The Covid-19 epidemic and the war in Ukraine resulted in higher commodity prices, particularly for wheat and maize. These trends raise concerns that the higher prices, particularly for staple food grains, will have adverse effects on poverty and food insecurity in low-income countries. This analysis focuses on the case of Niger. We find that the real price of wheat, maize, and sorghum increased significantly during the epidemic and particularly after the invasion. When combined with information about the spending patterns and composition of income, we estimate that these price increase raised the prevalence of poverty in Niger about 2 percentage points. The proportional increase in poverty was greater in urban areas because urban households are almost always net buyers of staple food grains, thus they lose from higher prices. In rural areas, the effect is somewhat muted because some households sell grain and others are insulated because they neither purchase nor sell. In addition, the analysis finds that if world price shocks were fully transmitted to domestic markets in Niger, the increase in poverty would have been significantly larger.This study is part of a series of case studies that IFPRI is undertaking to assess the impact of higher commodity prices on income and poverty in developing countries. The analysis presented is an initial impact assessment designed to estimate the impact of higher food prices on poverty in selected countries. The initial set of case studies covers Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. The analysis may be extended to cover other countries in the future.","tokenCount":"2752"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"47255fc0ada35bc42315d134866fd9a3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/db2e3953-5460-44b8-af73-7f34471f2e59/retrieve","id":"-1526566961"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba507bf8-345d-41a5-95ae-8c3e4533f4d6","pagecount":"15","content":"evaluated dunng J!S th1rd year under rotat1onal graz1ng Th1s area started w11h an exlremely h1gh proport1on of legume m the m1xture the botamcal compos•t•on however changed rap1dly and stab1hzed alter the second year al a grass/legume raiJO of 85 15 (Figure 10)Desplte the decreasmg propor11on of the legume 11 •s •mportant to stress the fact lhat lhe producuv•IY of lhe sward mcreased The slockmg rate was mcreased !ro m 2 3 head/ha dunng the !Jrsl grazmg penod to 2 7 head/ha dunng the second year and fmally lo 4 6 head/ha m the lhJrd year These stockmg rates were rolaiJonally apphed wllh a grazmg penod of 15 days at In thos way the forst restong perood whoch cooncodes woth a raony perood after a buold upof Non thesool bythe legume strongly favored the growth of A gayanus The second grazmg perood woth a dry perood helped the e pubescens spp to recover Woth the oncreased precopotatoon A gayanus fonally covered 85 90% of the populatoon on the sward Thos proportoon has been held more or less stable throughout the past year woth no large effects from grazong treatment nor clomatoc condotoons Thos apparent staboloty on the moxture and the greater productovoty of the sward at thos equolobroum state on an onterestmg fondong whoch woll be followed at least for one more year The forage potentoal of A gayanus CIAT 621 was further assessed on grass/legume assocoatoons under cunong and on grazed swards on comparo son woth other vogorous grasses Of eoght grass specoes grown 1n moxed swards woth Desmod1um ovallfo/¡umthe hoghest yoelders (m declonong order) were A gayanus CIA T 621 two ontermedoate growth forms of Pamcum max1mum cultovar Makueno and CIA T 673 and Brach1ar¡a decumL.ens cultovar Basolosk Echmochloa polystachya was the least productove specoes In thos experoment a hoghly desorable 60 40 percent grass legume balance was maontaoned woth the three most productove tufted specoes under cunong every sox weeks A sognofocantly lower legume content 30 percent on the dry weoght basos was recordad on the 8 decumbens/D ovallfollum assocoatoon (Table 13)As ondocated on CIAT Annual Report 1978 an apparently hogher proteon content of A gayanus was observad when assocoated woth e pubescens spp than woth S gwanens1s (Fogure 11 ) However woth data made avaolable durong thos year ot was found that the hogher proteon content on the samples on offer of A gayanus os due maonly to a confound effect of the amount of dry matter oncluded o e samples of A gayanus on most of the cases were smaller when assocoated woth eentrosema spp than woth S gwanens1s Thos dofference whoch os especoally clear durong the forst year os possobly the effect of dofferences on maturoty status whoch on the case of A gayanus may be a result of preferentoal grazong Fogure 12 shows the relatoonshop between the soze of the samples on offer of A gayanus and ots proteon content Thos relatoonshop os expressed by the equatoon? = 69 8 X o 32 basad on averages of the samples on offer of the grass assocoated woth all the legumes consodered on the troal These results seem to conform the explanatoon-  Weeds can become a problem durong pasture establishment on acod onfertole sools when the natural fertollty os hogher on new sools or alter P fertollzatoon To study the selectovoty of chemocals on the establishment of promosong pastura legumes 11 pre emergence and 4 post emergence herbocodes were testad Table 14 shows the results of the best chemocal treatments When consoderong the possobollty that A gayanus could become a weed for other crops seven post emergence herbocode treatments were applled The Methodologocal studres were onotoated by usong germplasm materoal estabhshed on a former grass agronomy experoment (40 grass ecotypes on assocoa uon woth Stylosanrhes cepttata CIAT 1405) The ob¡ectove of these studoes os to establtsh growth curves durong the perood of monomum and maxomum precopota toon for grass and legume germplasm that os beong dostrobuted for testong tn the Regtonal Tnals Network Fogure 13 shows the growth curves for 5 of the 40 grasses evaluated durong a dry perood These studoes woll be complementad woth leaf stem rato os and tossue analyses So far tt os possoble to observe even under a mostly negatove water balance a faster regrowth of Brachtarta spp Another onteresttng observatoon os the somtlartty of the regrowth retes of A gayanus 621 and S capttata 1405For each ecosystem germplasm under evaluatoon os classofoed onto prevoously estabhshed categoroes of promose (CIAT Annual Report 1977 pageA 16)on the basos of results of germplasm evaluatton conducted by the Program s agronomosts tn the ma1or research sotes and by collaborators on regoonal troals In the past years germplasm evaluatoon was concentrated on Caromagua on the Colomboan Uanos Oroentales as a ma1or research sote representatove for the ecosystem hyperthermoc well draoned tropocal savanna By late 1978 germplasm evaluatoon was extended to the thermoc well draoned tropocal savan nas where experoments are conducted on collaboratoon Wllh EMBRAPA at the Cerrado Center (CPAC) Planaltona Dostroto Federal Brazol Consequently to date !he classoftcatoon of germplasm onto categoroes of promose os maonly restrocted to the ecosystem representad by Can magua and only tentatovely feasoble for the ecosystem representad by the CPAC For both ecosystems sorne prehmonary results from the ftrst regoonal troals can be added A comparatove classoftcatoon of germplasm onto the three hoghest categoroes of promose for the two well draoned savanna ecosystems (Table 16) ondocates that ( 1 ) the grasses Andropogon gayanus and Brachtarta decumbens and the legumes Stylosanthes capttaca S gwanenstS tardoo and Desmodtum (syn Codartocalyx) gyrotdes show the broadest ranga of   2) Zorma spp Desmod1um ovallfollum and Puerar~a phaseol01des seem to be bettar adaptad to tha hypertherm1c Llanos ecosystem (longar grow10g season than 10 the therm1c Cerrado acosystam) wh1le Ga/actla str1ata Colopogomum mucuno1des and S scabra seam to perform bettar undar the therm1c Cerrado env~ronment where 10sect pests and d1sease stresses are apparently lowerIn add1t1on to th1s prehm10ary 10format1on from tha f1rst reg1onal tnal conducted at a senes of s1tes m hum1d ecosystems 10 BoliVIa Braz1l Colomb1a Peru and Venezuela 1nd1cates that 8 decumbens D ovallfo/1um and P phaseolo1des are well adaptad to trop1cal forest ecosystems Also the performance of A gayanus under hum1d cond1t1ons seems to be con s1derably lower than under savanna condltlonsThe ob¡ect1ve 1s to develop screenmg methods evaluate germplasm access1ons create new and des1rable genet1c recombmat1ons and stab1hze these des1rable charactenst1cs m supenor plants swtable for grazed pasturas WlthiO the target area Research 1s centered ma10ly on spec1es of Stylosanthes Cen trosema and Leucaena A greenhouse screenmg of S cap1tata collectoon for seedhng re~ostanc& to fove osoiP'es of anthracnose has been started by the Plant Pathology Sectoon These results woll be used m con¡unctoon woth foeld obser vatoons of the anthracnose reactoons of the S caprtata collectoon at Caro magua Brasoha and elsewhere to plan future breedong for resostance In mod 1979 a space plan ed nursery was estabhshed m Caromagua contaonong 9000 F2 progeny of the crosses S capl!ata 1078 x 1019 (latexearly) 1097x 1078(1atexlate) and 1019 x 1097 (early x late) subsequently ot was oversown woth Andropogon gayanus Thos nursery os beong used to select superoor F 2 plants combonong hogh dry matter yoeld and prohfoc seed productoon woth drought resostance lt woll also provode an mdocatoon of the range of vanatoon whoch can be expected from crosses be ween dostmct S cap1tata typesWhole common S gwanens1s typofoed by CIAT 136 and 184 os hoghly susceptoble to both anthracnose and stemborer the tardoo types collected m Venezuela and Brazol have appeared resostant to both constramts at several locatoons A greenhouse screenmg of these tardoo accessoons for reactoon to anthracnose os bemg planned Results obtamed from these experoments m con¡unctoon woth foeld screenmgs should provode valuable onformatoon for future breedong work A gayanus has consoderable potentoal as a pooneer grass for the acod sools of the tropocs Whole present expenence os almost exclusovely confmed to accessoon CIAT 621 the specoes shows a hogh adaptatoon capacoty as ot os able to grow m sools woth a low fertohty status but responds sognofocantly to apphed phosphorus and other mmerals A range of accessoons has been assembled from dolferent sources so that desorable charactenstocs on these can be sought and compared toA gayanus CIAT 621 Ob¡ectoves for the omprovement of thos cross polhnatong specoes are beong formulated In addotoon to the evaluatoon of new accessoons quantofocatoon of genetoc vanabohty and selectoon wothm CIAT 621 os planned CIAT 621 os very vanable for plant type leafoness tome of flowenng and other charactenstocs A recurren! selectoon program os beong developed woth motoal selectoon for later leafoertypes whoch can flower and ser seed dunng a more restncted penod Th1s should 1mprove both seed product10n as welf as forage quant1ty and quahtySevera! cult1vars of P max¡mumarewldefygrown m South Amenca and have proved to g1ve better ammal product10n than most other tropical grasses However commonlv grown cult1vars are generalfy observad to have h1gher nutnent reqUirements and lower drought tolerance than other forage grass spec1es The a1m of 1mprovement work Wllh th1s spec1es 1s to 1dent1fy or develop hnes w1th lower nutnent reqUirements and bener dry season product1on than those commonly grown A colfectlon of some 90 P max1mum access1ons IS ava1fable Fourteen of these have already been observad at Canmagua and prehmmary data on two cuts m the ra1ny season show Slgmf1cant d1fferences among the access1ons for dry matter product1on Add1t1onal access1ons w11f be evaluated under Canmagua cond1t1ons to 1dent1fy genotypes wh1ch show prom1se under nutnent and drought stress cond1t1ons on ac1d s01fsMost P max1mum clones are h1ghly apom1Ct1c A crossmg techmque has been des1gned usmg an apom1ct1c clone as the male parent anda sexual clone (obtamed from the Coastal Plan Research Stat10n T1fton Georg1a USA) as the female parent Prehmmary observat1ons of hybnd progen1es at CIAT Palm~ra show a considerable range of vanab1hty for grass plant morphology both between and w1th1n progemes As observauons on the access10ns under Canmagua cond1t1ons accumulate a breedmg program mav be develop ut1hzmg the better adapted apom1ct•c clones as parental matenal8 decumbens and 8 humidicola are prom•s1ng forage grass spec1es m the target area Both spec1es are tetrapfo1d apomiCtlcs so that a breedmg program IS 1mposs1bfe unless sexual types can be found or produced An atteMpt 1S bemg made to produce tetraplo•d matenal by colch1cme treatment of 8 ruz1Z1ens1s a sexual d1pfold spec1es The goal IS to produce a ~exual tetrapfold wh1ch m1ght be crossed w1th the tetrapfo1d BrachiBTIB spp to overcome the barner 1mposed by thelf obhgate apomiXIS In the meant1me efforts wlfl be made to expand the germplasm colfect10n of s;>ec•es and ecotypes of th1s genusIn 1979 the Plant Pathology sect1on contmued to detect 1dent1fy and assess d1seases of trop1cal forages w•thm the target area Stud1es were m1t1ated on the most 1mportant d1seases mcludmg anthracnose bhght root knot nematode Camptomens leaf spot and Cercospora leaf spot Falsa rust Rhynchosponum leaf spot and Sphaceloma scab were detectad as new d1seases reqUinng further studyForage d1seases were evaluated at the 20 d1fferent s1tes of the Reg1onal Tnals Network Twenty two pathogens affectmg grasses and legumes were 1dent1fled (Tabla 17) The most 1mportant fmdmg 1s the ex1stence of d1fferent pathogens at d1fferent s1tes Surveys w11f contmue at these s1tes and at new ones w1thm the target area The accumulatmg results however strongly suggest further decentrahzat1on of screenmg for d1sease res•stance to expose forage toas many potent1al pathogens as poss1bleSurveys on the occurrence of anthracnose con tmued lo show the w1de spread d1stnbut1on and extens1ve host ranga of Oue to the extensove ondogenous populatoon ol anthracnose fungo glasshouse screenong os not leasoble except lor specofoc studoes Foeld screenongs at varoous sotes contonued to odentofy accessoons woth resostance to local Co/letotflchum spp races At Canmagua large plantmgs of 75 access1ons of S capnata and 1 30 access1ons of S gwanensts were estabhshed for screenmg purposes to mon1tor the expected anthracnose ep1dem1c and to 1solate pathogemc races to these spec1es m the Canmagua env~ronment for further stud1esAlthough the use of res1stant vaneii!!S IS the most des~rable method to control anthracnose of trop1cal forage legumes burmng IS provmg a potentlally successful temporary control measure Ten months alter burnmg affected plotsof S cap1tataat El L1monar near CIAT OU1I1chao susceptible access1ons CIAT 1078 and 1097 had only 29% as much anthracnose as unburnt (Table 18) In Canmagua three months after burnmg plots of CIAT 1078 these only showed 50% as much anthracnose as unburnt plots (Table 19)Stud1es are underway to compare anatom1cal chem1cal and developmental charactenst1cs of suscep t1ble 136 type S gwanensts and res1stant fme stemmed S gwanensts tardio as well as those of susceptible late flowenng S capttata CIAT 1078 and 1097 and the res1stant access1ons CIAT 1019 and 1315Screenmg of new germplasm of S cap1tata and S gwanens1s for res1stance to anthracnose was 1n1t1ated m the glasshouse and 1n the Canmagua env~ronment m collaborat1on w1th the Legume Breedmg sect1on of the ProgramIn Canmagua SclerotJUm roffsu agam affected Stylosanthes spp from July to November of th1s year Counts of dead plants were made at vanous s1tes for S cap1tata CIAT 1019 (5%) 1097 (7o/) 1315 (9%) 1318 (11 %) 1325 (7%) 1338 (6o/) 1339 (7%) 1342 (11 %) 1405 (6%) and S bracteata CIA T 1281 ( 14%) CIAT 1019 was severely affected (75%) at San Jose del Nus   In the target area Cercospora leaf spot affectong Pamcum max1mum os a wodespread dosease Damage to thos specoes os moderate to severe P max1mum cultovars Green Panoc Makueno and Guomensos are Soxty eoght percent of onflorescences of P max1mum common on San lgnacoo BoliVIa and P max1mum colonoal on Gooanoa Brazol were smutted In a troal establoshed on Canmagua to evaluate Cercospora leal spot on P max1mum smut destroyed most on florescences of CIAT 604 whole Makueno was com pletely resostant lt os recommendad that seed from onfected stands be treated befare sowongAlthough Uromyces append1culatus os wodespread on Macropt!lwm Phaseolus and V1gna spp throughout almost the total target area ot affects mature leaves onlyGenerally R solam causad sloght to moderate damage to P phaseolo1des and Macropt!llum spp throughout the target area Plots of P phaseolo1des at CIAT Quolochao (Colombos) and Santa Cruz (Bolovoa) were moderately to severely affectedIn 1979 black mold was severe on Zorma spp from Brazol and moderate on Zorma spp from Colomboa at CPAC Brasoloa The dosease os apparently assocoated woth o nsect attacksPowdery moldew Drechslera leal spot lottle leal vorus Botrytos onflorescence bloght slome mold and snow mold were doseases of monor omportance detectad on legumes at vanous locatoons wothon the target area Ergot Goberella onflorescence bloght Urocystos smut and rusts were detectad on grassesSurveys on the mocroflora of forage seed and the effect of seed treatments on pathogens showed that the best and most practocal method for reducong levels of storage fungo assocoated woth grass sead os ots treatment woth captafol Studoes ar.e contonuong on omprovong the applocatoon method and on reducong the bacteroal populatoon Somolarly captafol was the best for reducong levels of storad seed fungo and elomonatong pathogenoc Colletotnchum spp assocoated woth legume seed Studoes are on progress on the effect of captafol on Rh1zob1Um spp Surveys have commenced on changes occurrong on the mocroflora of green and dry seed of S cap1tata at CIAT Quolochao and Caromagua durong the year The effect of onoculatong seed of Stylosanthes spp wl!h Colletotnchum spp on germonatoon and seedlong survoval os also beong studoedOurong 1979 the Entomology Sectoon contonued basoc studoes on the taxonomy and boology of the stemborer Caloptllla sp the most lomotong onsect pest of the genus Stylosanthes Work was also ontensofoad to understand the resostance and/or tolerance of several S cap1tata accessoons to the stemborer Alter two years of monthly foeld observatoons at CIAT Quolochao and Canmagua a consostent resostance and/or tolerance reactoon to the stemborer damage was observad for several S csp1tata and S gu1anens1s accesstons Populatoon dynamocs studoes were contonued provodong possoble explanatoons of the observad populatoon fluctuatoons of onsects on legumes and grasses Also studoes were onotoated to evaluate damage causad by splttlebugs (genera Aeneo/am1a Zulla Deo1s etc) and aphods to Andropogon gayanus accessoonsOunng 1979 studoes were conducted on the boology of the stemborer conformong last year s results (CIAT Annual Report 1978) and ots taxonomoc ldentofocatoon as of the genus CaloptoloaThe wasp Bracon sp (Hymenoptera Braconodae) was agaon the most frequent parasote of the stemborer larvae found on CIAT QuohchaoScreenong for resostance to stemborer was con tonued at CIA  ","tokenCount":"2741"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"01128e4829b6dee23b8a266ee5a4b69f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/abe1137d-dc88-420f-8828-86828994964e/retrieve","id":"-1285269678"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1c261218-adb8-4b81-ad36-4b3b20c83b06","pagecount":"45","content":"The authors thank GIZ and universities for providing essential resources for the training, including per diem, logistical support, participant accommodations, transportation, well-equipped training rooms, and field visit preparations. Their support was crucial to the training's success and enriching experience.Agriculture remains central to the livelihoods of millions of Ethiopians and is vital for food and nutrition security, natural resource management, and economic development. Economic hardships and supply chain disruptions resulting from climate change, COVID-19, and conflicts are expected to impact food security negatively, making innovative resilience-building an urgent task. Climate variability and change are likely to contribute significantly to the food security challenges of millions of Ethiopians (Hassen et al., 2019). The impact is expected to grow due to recurrent extreme events, including water shortages, heat stresses, drought, flash floods, and pest and disease outbreaks, causing significant disruptions in the countries' agricultural production and food systems, disproportionately affecting most smallholder farmers and marginalized agropastoralists and pastoralists. With over 80% of Ethiopians relying on agriculture for their livelihoods (World Bank, 2020), the implications of climate risk are profound, affecting millions of smallholder farmers and their families. Addressing these challenges requires integrated and adaptive strategies that promote sustainable agricultural practices, climate-resilient technologies, and communitybased adaptation initiatives to enhance the adaptive capacity and resilience of Ethiopia's agricultural systems and rural communities. By incorporating climate risk assessments, promoting climate-smart practices, mainstreaming adaptation priorities into policies and programs, empowering farmers with knowledge and skills, strengthening value chains and market linkages, and fostering inclusivity and gender equality, extension services can play a pivotal role in facilitating transformative change towards climate-resilient agriculture and food systems. The anticipated interventions in sustainable land management require scientific evidence and skilled human resources. However, the staff at public institutions are not yet sufficiently familiar with applying the various instruments for community-based land use planning or with establishing watershed user associations (GIZ, 2023).To address the knowledge gap and in accordance with the signed MoU, AICCRA, in collaboration with IRI, launched a series of ToTs for university teaching staff, ATVET teaching staff, and development agents. These ToTs involve an 11-day training for university staff, who then train postgraduate students and junior academic staff at their respective universities. Through this initiative, over 36 staff members from 12 universities were trained, and subsequently, more than 257 PG students and junior academic staff received training in CRMA (Grossi et al, 2022 andBelay et al, 2023).AICCRA's longstanding partnership with Ethiopian public universities has attracted GIZ-Ethiopia to train various stakeholders through its Climate Sensitive Innovations for Land Management (CLM) Project. This collaboration stemmed from the strong alignment between CLM-GIZ and AICCRA activities in climate change adaptation and mitigation. GIZ-Ethiopia engaged in activities such as policy interventions for sustainable land management, climate-sensitive innovation, and empowering community-based institutions. Consequently, AICCRA and GIZ-CLM agreed to offer CRMAE short courses using the ToT approach, where university staff train subject matter specialists, community leaders, development agents, and community facilitators. The customized hands-on CRMAE training was conducted over five days in GIZ watershed project areas across eight regions (Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Sidama, Gambella, Benishangul, South Ethiopia, and Central Ethiopia) to ensure the uptake of CSA, CIS, and CRM.The training process involved several steps: establishing a common understanding among partners, role distribution and co-financing, deciding on the training modality and venues, conducting the training, and integrating the knowledge into district and Kebele plans to transition from access to the use of climate knowledge products. The implementation of the acquired knowledge did not strictly follow the annual plan but was a continuous process carried out in 2023 and 2024. The impact assessment of the implementation will extend into 2025 and 2026.Therefore, this report outlines the processes, best practices, and lessons learned from the AICCRA-GIZ ToT initiative on CRMAE for SMSs, community leaders, DAs, and community facilitators.The impacts of climate change on Ethiopian agriculture are multifaceted and farreaching, posing complex challenges to the country's food security, livelihoods, and rural development efforts. Rising temperatures could adversely affect crop growth, development, and productivity by accelerating evapotranspiration rates, exacerbating soil moisture deficits, and heightening heat stress on crops (FAO, 2020). Shifts in rainfall distribution and intensity, on the other hand, disrupt traditional farming practices, exacerbating water scarcity, soil erosion, and crop failures (Mulugeta et al., 2019). Another primary climate risk confronting Ethiopian agriculture is drought. Ethiopia experiences recurrent droughts (Viste et al., 2013), exacerbated by climate change and variability, leading to significant agricultural production and food security disruptions. Prolonged dry spells result in water scarcity, reduced soil moisture levels, and crop failures, particularly in the nation's predominantly rain-fed agricultural systems. Heat stress reduces crop yields, affects crop quality, and alters planting calendars, challenging farmers' ability to adapt to changing climatic conditions and maintain agricultural productivity (FAO, 2020).Erratic rainfall patterns and precipitation variability also pose another significant climate risk to Ethiopian agriculture. The country's agriculture relies heavily on seasonal rains for crop production, and any deviations from standard rainfall patterns can harm agricultural productivity and livelihoods (Hagos et al., 2019). Unpredictable rainfall distribution, including late-onset, early cessation, or uneven distribution of rains, affects planting and harvesting schedules, soil moisture retention, and crop growth, leading to yield losses and reduced food availability. In addition to high temperature, drought, and erratic rainfall, Ethiopian agriculture is vulnerable to floods and flash floods, particularly in low-lying and flood-prone areas (Seid et al., 2017), where intense rainfall events trigger flash floods, river inundation, and soil erosion, causing extensive damage to crops, infrastructure, and agricultural lands. Particularly, floods disrupt agricultural activities, destroy crops, and contaminate water sources, leading to crop losses, displacement of communities, and increased risks of waterborne diseases among rural populations.Climate change could indirectly exacerbate pest and disease outbreaks, compromising Ethiopia's agricultural productivity and food security. Warmer temperatures and altered precipitation patterns create favorable conditions for the proliferation of pests and pathogens, increasing the incidence and severity of crop diseases and infestations (Tesfaye et al., 2020). Invasive species, such as the fall armyworm, pose significant threats to maize and other cereal crops, causing extensive damage and yield losses, exacerbating farmers' challenges. Furthermore, extreme weather events intensify soil erosion and soil fertility loss, often undermining the long-term viability of agricultural systems and rural livelihoods (Kassie et al., 2018). Addressing these challenges requires integrated and adaptive strategies that promote sustainable agricultural practices, climateresilient technologies, and community-based adaptation initiatives to enhance the adaptive capacity and resilience of Ethiopia's agricultural systems and rural communities.Climate risk management plays a pivotal role in ensuring the sustainability, resilience, and productivity of Ethiopia's agriculture. One of the critical reasons for prioritizing climate risk management in Ethiopian agriculture is its crucial role in safeguarding food security and nutrition for millions of people, especially in rural areas where agriculture is the primary source of livelihood (FAO, 2017). Ethiopia's agricultural sector supports the livelihoods of most of the population, contributing significantly to household incomes, employment generation, and poverty reduction. By managing climate risks effectively, farmers can minimize crop losses, ensure stable food production, and enhance access to nutritious food, improving food security and nutrition outcomes for vulnerable communities. Furthermore, climate risk management in Ethiopian agriculture is essential for promoting sustainable natural resource management practices and safeguarding ecosystem services vital for agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability (Kassie et al., 2018). For instance, sustainable land and water management interventions such as soil conservation, watershed management, and agroforestry can help mitigate soil erosion, conserve water resources, and enhance soil fertility, which could increase agricultural productivity.Effective CRM in Ethiopian agriculture is critical for enhancing smallholder farmers' and rural communities' resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change impacts (Seid et al., 2017). In this regard, strengthening the extension services and community-based adaptation programs and providing customized capacity-building training are vital in building farmers' resilience and promoting innovation. Enhanced access to weather information and early warning systems can help farmers make informed decisions and adapt to changing climatic conditions. Overall, identifying, assessing, and addressing climate risks can better help farmers, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing climatic conditions, reducing vulnerabilities, and enhancing the sector's adaptive capacity. Therefore, prioritizing effective climate-smart technologies, practices, and information is essential for mitigating the adverse effects of climate variability and extreme weather events on agricultural production, food security, and rural livelihoods (Tadesse et al., 2020).Adaptation strategies are imperative for managing climate risks in Ethiopian agriculture, given the sector's vulnerability to climate change impacts. With agriculture serving as the backbone of Ethiopia's economy and livelihoods for most of its population (FAO, 2020), the nation faces increasing challenges from erratic rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and recurring droughts. Effective adaptation strategies, including adopting drought-resistant crop varieties, improved irrigation techniques, and agroforestry practices, can help mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on Ethiopian agriculture (Alemayehu et al., 2020). Integrating CIS into agricultural practices also enables farmers to anticipate and respond to climate-related challenges, optimizing resource use and enhancing productivity (Belayneh et al., 2020). By leveraging climate data and forecasts, stakeholders can develop tailored adaptation strategies, such as adjusting planting schedules, implementing water-saving technologies, and diversifying crops to mitigate risks and sustain livelihoods in the face of climate uncertainty (Hassen et al., 2021).Therefore, teaching adaptation strategies on CIS and CSA to agricultural extension experts is essential for addressing climate risks in farming communities. By equipping extension experts with knowledge of CIS, they can effectively interpret and disseminate weather forecasts, early warnings, and longterm climate projections to farmers, enabling proactive decision-making. Moreover, training in CSA equips experts with innovative techniques to optimize resource use, enhance crop resilience, and mitigate climate-induced challenges like droughts, floods, and heat stress. This holistic approach empowers extension workers to guide farmers in implementing adaptive practices, fostering agricultural sustainability, and bolstering resilience against climate variability and change.Enhanced uptake and use of CIS play a crucial role in managing climate risks in Ethiopian agriculture by providing farmers with timely and accurate weather forecasts, seasonal climate predictions, and agronomic advice (Mudhara et al., 2018) that enable them to make informed decisions and adopt climate-smart agricultural practices. By incorporating CIS into their decision-making processes, farmers can better anticipate weather-related challenges and adjust their crop choices, planting schedules, and irrigation practices accordingly. Moreover, the effective dissemination and utilization of CIS contribute to building the resilience of Ethiopian smallholder farmers by implementing adaptive measures and technologies (Shiferaw et al., 2019). Through integrating CIS into agricultural extension services and community-based networks, stakeholders across the agricultural value chain can collaborate to develop context-specific adaptation strategies and enhance the overall resilience of the agricultural sector to climate risks.Climate education and awareness creation efforts that equip the next generation workforce with climate knowledge and skills are critical to building resilience and enhancing adaptive capacity. Furthermore, training of extension workers in CIS is imperative to improve the dissemination and utilization of climate-smart practices among farmers as extension workers serve as intermediaries between research institutions, government agencies, and farmers, facilitating the translation of climate information into actionable strategies at the local level (Mekonnen et al., 2019). Equipping extension workers with the knowledge and skills to interpret and communicate CIS effectively enabled them to provide targeted guidance to farmers on adaptive measures, crop selection, and risk management strategies in response to changing climatic conditions. Additionally, training programs for extension workers should emphasize integrating indigenous knowledge and traditional coping mechanisms with modern CIS to develop context-specific solutions that align with Ethiopian farming communities' socio-economic and environmental realities. Farmers on the ground also need appropriate climate information services that are palatable to their situation and understanding to make informed farm decisions and ensure resilience and food security under climate change and variability situations. Hence, any CIS initiative should engage farmers and other relevant stakeholders in all CIS value chains that encompass the generation of climate data, translation of these data into information, and transfer of the information and use for decision-making (Fig 1). It is, therefore, imperative to forge a concerted effort and multi-faceted approach, including institutional arrangements, resilience-building, enabling policies, investments in climate services, and early warning systems to enhance preparedness and early action against climate risk. In this regard, the AICCRA -Ethiopia is aiming at the generation of CSA and CIS science, knowledge, and innovations, strengthening capacity and partnerships for delivery, and improving stakeholder/end-users access to bundled technology packages for scaling.Adaptation strategies for climate resilience in agriculture encompass a range of practices, technologies, and policies aimed at minimizing vulnerability, maximizing productivity, and promoting sustainable resource management. One key adaptation strategy is crop diversification, which involves cultivating various crops with different growth requirements, tolerances, and harvest times to spread risks and buffer against climate variability (FAO, 2018). Diversified cropping systems enhance resilience to climate-related hazards such as drought, pests, and diseases while improving soil fertility, biodiversity, and income stability for farmers. In addition to crop diversification, improving water management and irrigation practices is essential for climate resilience in agriculture, particularly in regions prone to water scarcity and drought (Tilahun et al., 2018). Sustainable water harvesting, storage, and distribution systems enable farmers to capture and utilize rainwater efficiently, supplementing irrigation needs during dry periods and reducing dependency on erratic rainfall patterns. Moreover, adopting watersaving technologies, such as drip irrigation, micro-sprinklers, and rainwater harvesting ponds, helps optimize water use efficiency, conserve precious resources, and mitigate the impacts of water stress on crop yields and livelihoods.Soil conservation and land management practices are critical in enhancing climate resilience and mitigating soil erosion, degradation, and loss of fertility (FAO, 2017). Conservation agriculture techniques, including minimum tillage, cover cropping, and mulching, promote soil health, moisture retention, and carbon sequestration, improving soil structure, fertility, and resilience to climate extremes. Agroforestry systems integrating trees, shrubs, and crops in the same landscape could provide multiple benefits, such as shade, windbreaks, nutrient cycling, and enhanced biodiversity, contributing to climate resilience and ecosystem sustainability. Innovative technologies, including weather forecasting, mobile applications, and remote sensing, provide farmers with real-time information, decision support tools, and early warning systems to effectively anticipate and respond to climate risks.Additionally, enhancing the adaptive capacity of farming communities through capacity-building, knowledge transfer, and institutional support is essential for promoting climate resilience and sustainable development in agriculture (FAO, 2019). Training programs, extension services, and farmer field schools empower farmers with the skills, information, and resources to adopt climate-resilient practices, diversify livelihood options, and effectively manage risks. Strengthening local institutions, networks, and partnerships facilitates collaboration, coordination, and collective action for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction at the community level.Climate risk assessment involves systematically evaluating potential climaterelated hazards, vulnerabilities, and impacts on various sectors, including agriculture, to inform decision-making and adaptation planning. Several tools and methods are available for conducting climate risk assessments, each tailored to specific contexts and objectives. One commonly used approach is climate models and downscaling techniques to project future climate scenarios and assess their potential impacts on agricultural systems (Gebrechorkos et al., 2019). Climate models simulate atmospheric and oceanic processes to predict changes in temperature, precipitation, and other climatic variables at regional and local scales, providing valuable insights into future climate trends and variability. Remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are powerful tools for spatial mapping and analyzing climate-related risks and vulnerabilities in agricultural landscapes (Tesfaye et al., 2020). Remote sensing data, including satellite imagery and aerial photographs, enable the monitoring and assessment of land cover changes, vegetation dynamics, and environmental indicators, facilitating the identification of areas prone to climate risks such as drought, flooding, and soil degradation. GIS platforms integrate spatial data with analytical tools to visualize, analyze, and model climate-related phenomena, supporting informed decision-making and resource allocation for climate adaptation and risk reduction efforts.Another essential tool for climate risk assessment in agriculture is vulnerability assessment, which evaluates the susceptibility of agricultural systems and communities to climate-related hazards and stresses (Tesfaye et al., 2020). Vulnerability assessments consider various factors, including exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and socio-economic dynamics, to identify high-risk areas and populations and prioritize adaptation interventions. Participatory methods, such as community-based vulnerability assessments and stakeholder consultations, engage local knowledge, perceptions, and experiences to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning processes. Furthermore, risk mapping techniques, such as hazard mapping, vulnerability mapping, and risk zoning, provide spatially explicit information on climate risks and their potential impacts on agricultural production and livelihoods (FAO, 2017). Based on historical data, climate projections, and spatial analysis techniques, hazard mapping identifies areas susceptible to specific climate-related hazards, such as floods, droughts, and landslides. Vulnerability mapping assesses the socio-economic, environmental, and institutional factors contributing to vulnerability, while risk zoning delineates areas with varying levels of risk severity and priority for intervention.In addition to quantitative methods, qualitative approaches, such as scenario planning and participatory risk assessment, enhance stakeholders' understanding of climate risks and inform adaptive decision-making processes (Hagos et al., 2019). Scenario planning involves the development of plausible future scenarios based on different climate and socio-economic trajectories, allowing stakeholders to explore potential impacts, uncertainties, and adaptation options. Participatory risk assessment engages diverse stakeholders, including farmers, local authorities, researchers, and civil society organizations, in collaborative processes to identify, prioritize, and address climate risks and adaptation needs at the community level. Integrated assessment models (IAMs) also offer holistic frameworks for analyzing the interactions between climate, agriculture, and socio-economic systems and evaluating the effectiveness of adaptation strategies and policy interventions (Gebrechorkos et al., 2019). IAMs integrate biophysical, economic, and social data to simulate the impacts of climate change on agricultural production, food security, and rural livelihoods, providing decisionmakers with valuable insights into the trade-offs and synergies between different adaptation options and development objectives.Therefore, teaching climate risk assessment tools and methods to agricultural extension experts is crucial for enhancing resilience in farming communities. As climate change increasingly impacts agricultural systems, extension experts equipped with these skills can effectively assess risks related to changing weather patterns, extreme events, and shifting growing seasons. By understanding and applying appropriate assessment tools, such as predictive models and vulnerability indices, extension experts can help farmers make informed decisions, adopt adaptive strategies, and mitigate potential losses. This knowledge empowers agricultural communities to better cope with the uncertainties posed by climate change and build sustainable practices for the future.Integrating CRM into agriculture extension services is essential for enhancing the resilience, adaptive capacity, and sustainability of farming systems and rural communities in the face of climate change impacts. Agriculture extension services are crucial in disseminating knowledge, technologies, and best practices to farmers, enabling them to make informed decisions, adopt climate-resilient strategies, and mitigate risks associated with changing climatic conditions (Nkonya et al., 2016). By integrating climate risk management into extension services, agricultural stakeholders can effectively address the emerging challenges and opportunities posed by climate variability and extreme weather events. Hence, one of the primary reasons for integrating climate risk management into agriculture extension services is the increasing vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate-related hazards such as droughts, floods, pests, and diseases (FAO, 2017). Smallholder farmers, a significant proportion of the agricultural workforce in many developing countries, are particularly susceptible to climate risks due to their limited resources, adaptive capacity, and access to information and support services. By incorporating climate risk assessments, early warning systems, and adaptation options into extension programs, agricultural advisors can help farmers identify, prioritize, and address climaterelated challenges effectively.Integrating climate risk management into agriculture extension services is essential for promoting sustainable agricultural practices, resource conservation, and ecosystem resilience (Baldwin et al., 2019). Furthermore, such integration will facilitate mainstreaming climate change adaptation and mitigation priorities into national agricultural policies, programs, and investment plans (FAO, 2018). By aligning extension activities with broader climate change strategies and development agendas, policymakers can leverage extension networks and infrastructure to deliver targeted interventions, build institutional capacities, and mobilize resources for climate-resilient agriculture. Collaboration between extension agents, researchers, policymakers, and farmers' organizations fosters synergies, innovation, and knowledge sharing to address complex climate challenges effectively. It further enhances farmers' adaptive capacity and decision-making abilities, enabling them to respond proactively to climate variability and uncertainty (Niles et al., 2018). This is because extension agents provide farmers with climate information, weather forecasts, and early warning alerts, empowering them to anticipate risks, adjust cropping calendars, and implement adaptive measures promptly. Farmer field schools, participatory demonstrations, and peer-to-peer learning platforms facilitate knowledge exchange, skill building, and innovation diffusion within farming communities.Integrating climate risk management into agriculture extension services strengthens the resilience of agricultural value chains and food systems to climate shocks and market disruptions (Nkonya et al., 2016). Extension programs that promote diversification, value addition, and market linkages enable farmers to mitigate risks associated with climate variability, price fluctuations, and supply chain disruptions. Capacity-building initiatives targeting agribusinesses, cooperatives, and market actors enhance their ability to adapt to changing market dynamics, consumer preferences, and regulatory requirements in the context of climate change. Integrating climate risk management into agriculture extension services will foster inclusivity, equity, and gender-responsive approaches to climate adaptation and mitigation (FAO, 2019). Gender-sensitive extension programs empower women farmers with access to resources, information, and decision-making opportunities, reducing gender disparities in agricultural productivity and resilience. By mainstreaming gender considerations into extension services, policymakers can enhance the effectiveness, relevance, and sustainability of climate adaptation interventions, ensuring the participation and well-being of all stakeholders in agricultural development. The following sections will elaborate on the approaches AICCRA, and its partners employed to achieve these objectives.AICCRA and Ethiopian public universities had a series of meetings to solicit collaborations on climate education and build their capacity through short climate courses and curriculum development. These engagements yielded significant recommendations and were reported by Belay et al. (2022). One of the recommendations was to have a formal MoU between AICCRA and universities to pursue short and long-term activities. Subsequently, AICCRA signed a MoU with 31 public universities. Once the MoU was signed, AICCRA, in collaboration with universities and other partners, organized various workshops with distinct objectives. The workshops benefited the participating universities, especially regarding capacity building. These, among others, include a consultative and demand creation workshop (Belay et al., 2023)    Running the ToT in CRMAE required extensive multi-stakeholder engagement. AICCRA, 11 public universities, GIZ-CLM, and regional agriculture offices at the project site played vital roles in executing the training. AICCRA supported the training of 38 trainers from 12 universities over 11 days, covering accommodation, transport costs, and per diems for university staff. Trainers from IRI, supported by the AICCRA project, also participated. GIZ-CLM-MoA staff near the universities were trained by university staff and certified under the ToT program conducted by AICCRA and IRI of Columbia University (Belay et al., 2023). Trainees were recruited through GIZ-CLM regional offices, which collaborated with universities to facilitate the training.The training was funded through a co-financing approach. AICCRA covered the expenses for university staff and ToT trainers, while GIZ-CLM covered the per diems and logistics for trainees, as well as refreshments, stationery, and other expenses. Universities contributed in-kind support, including staff time, dormitory accommodation for trainees, training rooms, and transportation for field visits, showcasing exemplary collaboration for co-investment.As a result of this approach, approximately 814 MoA-GIZ staff were trained. The lessons from this initiative will pave the way for similar training programs with shared responsibilities, reaching more beneficiaries and ensuring greater impact.The Ministry of Agriculture and other partners can leverage this experience to scale up efforts and connect with more farmers and development agents.The training was conducted using a ToT approach, where trainees are prepared to become trainers themselves. This approach helps extend the reach of the training to more beneficiaries by leveraging shared responsibilities and resources. The training modules on CRMAE covered climate sciences, agriculture, and climate risk management disciplines. To deliver this multidisciplinary content, a team of three professionals from each university-specializing in agriculture, climate science, and agricultural economics-were recruited and trained to offer the short course in CRMAE.These trainees then trained their respective university staff to accelerate the teaching and learning process. Additionally, GIZ requested training for their staff involved in watershed projects. The university-trained staff were tasked with training GIZ-MoA development agents, facilitators, subject matter specialists, and community leaders. These trainers, in turn, trained development agents and farmers to bridge the knowledge gap in CRMAE and integrate this knowledge into Woreda and Kebele plans for action.The training began with setting the scene and assessing the trainees' knowledge on climate basics, CIS, and CSA through exams/tests. The preferred mode of delivery was face-to-face lectures for each chapter and sub-chapter, followed by group work on lecture topics to capture case studies and other content. Group discussions enhanced peer-to-peer learning and experience sharing. Each group's feedback further facilitated cross-fertilization of ideas. The training concluded with an evaluation and an action plan to apply the acquired knowledge. The trainers were encouraged to integrate this knowledge into their work plans to ensure both access and practical use, thereby maximizing the impact.The GIZ project \"Climate-Sensitive Innovations for Land Management (CLM)\" is active in eight regions of Ethiopia, including Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Sidama, Gambella, Benishangul, Southern Ethiopia, and Central Ethiopia. It encompasses 68 model learning sites and focuses on restoring Lake Chamo catchment while expanding innovative practices to other lake ecosystems across 69 selected woredas. This initiative operates as a technical cooperation (TC) module under the program \"Sustainable Land Management and Food Security in Ethiopia,\" within the sectorial focal area of \"Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Food Security\" in the German-Ethiopian Development Cooperation.The project aims to enhance the efficacy of agricultural extension services in planning and implementing sustainable land management practices across federal, regional, state, and local institutions. Spanning various agro-ecologies, CLM holds potential for broader application of climate knowledge to enhance resilience. Project intervention sites are depicted in Figure 4, alongside public universities providing capacity-building training to subject-matter specialists, development agents, and facilitators, facilitated through the collaboration of AICCRA, GIZ, and public universities.Strategic alignment and geographic proximity between CLM project sites and universities enable cost-effective collaboration, leveraging available resources to bolster resilience against climate change through enhanced capacity and knowledge. These training initiatives focus on integrating CRMAE into Kebele and district plans, contributing to the objectives of the \"Climate-Sensitive Innovations for Land Management\" (CLM) project. Participants from Eastern and Western Hararghe zones attended the training. In Eastern Hararghe, the mean annual precipitation is recorded at 790 mm/year, with maximum and minimum temperatures of 24.7 °C and 11.5 °C, respectively, spanning an altitude range of 1200-2460 meters above sea level (Nigussie et al., 2018). The region experiences bimodal rainfall, including the 'Belg' rainy season from February to May and the 'Kiremt' rainy season from June to September. Similarly, in the western Hararghe zone, the mean annual temperature and precipitation variability is 21 °C and 945 mm, respectively, at elevations ranging from 1107 to 3106 meters above sea level.Following consultations between AICCRA, GIZ, and universities, Haramaya University hosted a training session from October 23 to 27, 2023. GIZ-MoA experts from East and West Hararghe Zones participated in this training. The session utilized various methodologies, including lectures, group discussions, and field trips focused on CIS, integrated farming, and CSA (Figure 5). The field trip involved practical exercises such as measuring and collecting climate data from the meteorology station, enhancing participants' interactive and comprehensive learning experiences. Addressing these challenges requires interdisciplinary collaboration among scientists, policymakers, extension agents, and farmers to craft context-specific solutions. Such collaboration aims to foster resilient agricultural systems capable of both mitigating climate risks and ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods.Following consultations between AICCRA, GIZ, and public universities, Ambo University collaborated with AICCRA and GIZ to deliver a short course training on CRMAE. This training targeted development agents and subject matter specialists selected by GIZ and agriculture offices from East Wollega (Gudeya Bila district), Horo-Guduru Wollega (Horo district), West Shewa (Ambo and Walmara districts), and North Shewa (Kuyu district) zones of the Oromia region. The climate in these zones is classified into highland (20.50%), midland (50.90%), and lowland (28.60%) categories, with daily temperatures ranging from 15 to 27°C. The region experiences long summer rainy seasons (June to September), brief rainy seasons (March to April), and winter dry seasons (December to February).The CRMAE training was conducted from November 25 to 29, 2023, at the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, Guder campus of Ambo University. The opening of the training was led by Dr. Mulunesh Medekissa, the Vice-President for Research and Community Services at Ambo University, while the closing remarks were delivered by the Oromia regional state GIZ coordinator.The training utilized a blended approach, focusing on group work, presentations, and homework exercises covering topics such as MAPROOM (daily precipitation, temperature, seasonal rainfall analysis, probability of exceeding interpretation, and three-day weather forecasting). Trainees also engaged in enterprise budget analysis using SIMAGRI and presented their findings to the group. Additionally, participants visited meteorological stations at the Ambo Plant Protection Research Center to observe weather information firsthand.Suggestions for improvement include: Recognizing the existing gaps and the immense potential to strengthen the agricultural extension system with expertise and capabilities to enhance climate resilience, Jimma University hosted a five-day training workshop titled \"Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Extension (CRMAE)\" from November 6-10, 2023, at the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Hall. This workshop aimed to empower agricultural extension actors from four Woredas (Alle, Gechi, Gumay, Wonchi) operating in Western Oromia under the CLM-GIZ supported project.Western Oromia experiences annual precipitation ranging from 1000 mm to 2100 mm, with yearly temperatures spanning from 10°C to 30°C and a mean annual temperature of 19°C. The highlands and mountainous areas in the region record the lowest mean annual temperatures, while lowlands and valley bottoms exhibit the highest mean annual temperatures. The wet season in Western Oromia typically occurs from May/June to August/September, coinciding with the main agricultural summer growing season. Peak rainfall is observed in June, July, and August, with September witnessing the least rainfall as summer agricultural crops mature.The primary objective of the training was to impart foundational knowledge and practical skills crucial for supporting the planning and implementation of climate resilience, adaptation, and informed decision-making in agricultural practices within smallholder farming contexts. The training was supplemented by posttraining feedback and gap analysis to inform future improvements and follow-up actions. Suggestions for improvement include: The participants recommended improving time allocation to practical sessions to ensure better understanding and skill acquisition.  Participants suggested incorporating more opportunities for sharing and learning from these indigenous practices to enrich the training's content and applicability. From November 13-17, 2023, Jimma University's College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Hall hosted a five-day training workshop titled \"Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Extension (CRMAE).\" The workshop aimed to empower agricultural extension actors, including SMSs, DAs, and field facilitators, from the Regional Bureau of Agriculture and six Woredas (Abobo, Gambella Zuria, Godere, Itang, Makuey, Mengeshi) operating under the Gambella GIZ-Cluster.Gambella's climate is characterized as hot and humid, with maximum temperatures reaching around 35°C just before the rainy season in May. The annual mean temperature is approximately 20°C, with an annual rainfall of about 1400 mm. The wet season spans from May to October, rendering large parts of the park inaccessible during this time. The primary objective of the training was to impart foundational knowledge and practical skills essential for supporting climate adaptation and informed decision-making in agriculture. Recognizing the existing gap and the significant potential to enhance the knowledge and skills of agricultural agents to support resilience, a five-day training program on \"Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Extension\" was conducted. The training targeted twenty-four subject specialists, mid-level experts, and agricultural extension workers from various Woredas of the Sidama region.The Sidama region exhibits a diverse climate, ranging from dry and hot lowlands to wet and cold highlands. The region's area-averaged annual maximum temperature is approximately 24.5°C, varying from 13 to 34°C. Additionally, the average annual precipitation in the region amounts to about 1243 mm. Considering the current gaps and limitations among agricultural agents and the significant potential to equip them with knowledge and skills to enhance resilience, a five-day training program on \"Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Extension\" was organized. In this training subject matter specialists, mid-level experts, and agricultural extension workers from various Woredas of the Oromia Region participated in the training. The program comprised a combination of brief lectures on each topic, followed by group discussions and assignments. After the group discussions, trainees were given the opportunity to present their experiences and discuss the outcomes of their group assignments, fostering a collaborative learning environment.  The advancements in weather and climate information in Ethiopia present new opportunities for agricultural professionals to mitigate risks associated with climate variability and change. However, the integration of content aimed at raising awareness, understanding, and utilization of climate information for managing climate risks is lacking in extension services. To address this gap, a five-day training program on CRMAE was held at Wachemo University from October 23 rd to 27 th , 2023, targeting five GIZ-CLM intervention districts: Soro, Gibe, Endegagn, Enemor, and Yem.The training approach encompassed lectures, group discussions, presentations, and field visits. Field visits to Semen Bellesa, Fonko, and Homagara were arranged to observe Biogas, solar, and Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) structures. Group discussions were conducted to establish links between the training content and the practical interventions observed during the field visits.         GIZ/MoA operates in 69 watersheds, with the Lake Chamo Restoration Project uniquely positioned to address the challenge of siltation that disrupts the water ecosystem. This project integrates land and water management to tackle these challenges, with innovations from the Lake Chamo project anticipated to scale up to manage other Ethiopian water bodies, including Lake Tana.The training in Arba Minch was attended by experts and development agents from various woredas in the South Ethiopia regional state.  The training concluded with the development of action plans by each trainee. These plans detailed the main activities to be undertaken, identified responsible persons, set timelines, outlined required resources, and established procedures for approving the integration of CRM into watershed plans. Utilizing existing watershed community-based organizations and management units, this integration aims to ensure access to and application of climate knowledge, thereby enhancing sustainable land management (Fig. 22). The university staff trained on Climate Risk Management in Agriculture (CRMA) in 2022 were tasked with training 257 postgraduate and junior staff (Belay et al, 2023). A collaboration between AICCRA, the universities, and GIZ-CLM facilitated the training of 814 SMSs, DAs, and facilitators near the universities. These SMSs, DAs, and facilitators are now positioned to train smallholder farmers working on the GIZ-CLM project sites, as well as neighboring farming communities. The CRMA Extension initiatives have yielded several valuable lessons and recommendations for future improvements.  The training is implemented through participatory planning and action, which will be a lesson to conduct capacity building through partnership and collaboration.","tokenCount":"5746"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e42a99763f30c46ab23f2626fc3d828f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cd794dc7-000f-4511-b318-1ba65beb5cf0/retrieve","id":"-1284362947"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b98025c2-7fb8-4c4a-a1e5-258499c8c9c7","pagecount":"11","content":"Livestock production supports economic growth, jobs and nutrition, but contributes to and is vulnerable to climate change. A transition is thus needed for livestock systems to become more sustainable and climate resilient, with clear positive effects on the Sustainable Development Goals. It is unclear, however, where the global community should invest to support this change. We identified priority geographies for livestock system investments in 132 low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), at mid-and low latitudes. Our results show that adaptation and mitigation goals are inextricably linked for the vast majority of these countries. An equal weighting of adaptation and mitigation indicators suggests that the top five investment priorities are India, Brazil, China, Pakistan and Sudan. Across LMICs, these act as critical control points for the livestock sector's interactions with the climate system, land and livelihoods.Livestock production supports society and generates nearly 40% of global agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). About 1.3 billion people 1 , including almost 930 million poor Africans and South Asians 2 , depend on it for their livelihoods. Many rely on livestock as the primary source of revenue, and keeping livestock can also act as insurance, offering some protection when other income streams fail 1 . An important economic asset, livestock symbolize wealth and status across the Global South 3 . Through the provision of draught power and manure and the recycling of agricultural byproducts, livestock underpin crop production and the food system 3-5 . Animal-sourced food also provides nutrient-dense diets that contribute to cognitive development, growth and well-being 6 . Thus, livestock positively affect economics, health and cultural development, all of which are pillars of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among others, the livestock sector has substantial potential to contribute to SDG 8.4 (on decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation), SDG 12.1 (on sustainable consumption and production patterns), SDG 13.1 (on strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity), SDG 13.2 (on the integration of climate change measures in national policies) and SDG 13.b (on promoting mechanisms for raising the capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management).Climate change seriously threatens livestock productivity and those who depend on it. More frequent extreme weather events, irregular precipitation and rising temperatures decrease yields and product quality, increase pest and disease outbreaks, increase mortality, cause price shocks and disrupt supply, with cascading effects on producers and consumers 7,8 . For example, without adaptation, by 2100, the impact of heat stress on cattle alone will probably reach 4-10% of the 2005 production value 9 . Global estimates can, however, mask large regional differences. Reduction in milk and meat production in African and Asian countries may exceed 50 or even 70% under high-emission scenarios (Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 585) by 2100 9 . Despite uncertainties in the impact projections 9 , the risk is substantial 10,11 . An analysis of 113 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America suggestedhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01161-1 livestock production systems that leverage the livestock agri-food systems in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) to guide future adaptation and mitigation investments (Box 1). We detail proven actions for accelerating the transition to low-emission, climate-resilient systems. We discuss their scalability, enabling factors and constraints.We found that substantial livestock production value and rural population are exposed to climate hazards (Table 1 and Fig. 1). Across the 132 countries in this analysis, US$660 billion in VOP, 1.04 billion people, 470 million tropical livestock units (TLUs) and 671 million hectares of pasture are exposed to climate hazards (Table 1 and Supplementary Table 1). The most prevalent hazard combinations by percentage of total area were rainfall variability plus heat stress plus drought (33%), heat stress (28%) and rainfall variability plus heat stress (12%) (Fig. 1 and Supplementary Fig. 1). The levels of importance of the various climate hazards differ among countries and livestock production systems (Fig. 1 and Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2). Livestock systems in India, Nigeria and Sudan are the most exposed, with India's exposure exceeding that of other countries at least fivefold (Fig. 1). Within the study area, rainfed arid and humid regions where mixed farming (crops and livestock) systems are prevalent had the highest VOPs (US$405 billion), rural populations (661 million) and TLUs (295 million) exposed to climate hazards (Table 1 and Supplementary Fig. 2). Regions such as the Horn of Africa, which predominantly includes rainfed arid rangelands, and West Africa (with both humid and arid conditions) have 14% of their VOP, 28% of their rural population, 39% of their pasture area and 32% of their TLUs exposed to climate hazards.GHG emissions from livestock are substantial across the study region. Across the 132 countries included in this analysis, emissions were estimated to be 2,995 megatons (CO 2 e) (Table 1, Fig. 1 and Supplementary Table 2). Seventy-one percent (2,132 megatons CO 2 e) were directly from livestock production, including enteric emissions, manure and feeds, while 29% (863 megatons CO 2 e) related to deforestation for pastures and soy production (Table 1 and Supplementary Table 2). Mixed rainfed systems in humid and arid lands produce the most carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 e) by far, with ruminants representing 66 and 94% of their total emissions (Supplementary Fig. 3). Emissions from Brazil and India far exceed those of the other countries studied, but these emissions result from vastly different dynamics. In Brazil, 64% of total emissions are due to soybean and pasture-driven forest loss. In India, 99% of the emissions are from ruminants, predominantly from bovine milk production associated with mixed systems (Supplementary Fig. 4).Our analysis shows that no country or system with appreciable livestock production value and population has zero exposure to climate hazards or zero emissions (Fig. 1). Therefore, using this analysis to obtain a set of geographic priorities requires the identification of target outcomes, their relative importance and the implied trade-offs across scales. An equal weighting of adaptation and mitigation indicators (see Methods) suggests that the top five investment priorities are India, Brazil, China, Pakistan and Sudan (Figs. 1 and 2 and Supplementary Fig. 5). Across LMICs, these act as critical control points for the livestock sector's interactions with the climate system, land and livelihoods. These five countries combined account for 46% of the total VOP, 35% of the total rural population exposed to climate hazards and 51% of emissions. However, differential weighting indicators change the outcomes of investment prioritization. For example, a sole focus on mitigation prioritizes investments in Brazil, China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Fig. 2 and Supplementary Fig. 7). In contrast, focusing only on adaptation prioritizes India, Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria and Chad (Fig. 2 and Supplementary Fig. 8).that US$994 billion per year in livestock value-around 55% of the total value of production (VOP) for five commodities-is exposed to various climate hazards, especially rainfall variability (US$198 billion) and heat stress (US$130 billion) 12 . Adaptation of livestock production systems is imperative to maintain and enhance the benefits they provide.These benefits, however, must be considered alongside the negative impacts of livestock on the climate system. Feed production, enteric emissions, manure management, grazing and land-use change release methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Livestock production accounts for about 5.8% of global annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and about 31.5% of the food systems' contribution 1,13,14 . The dominant livestock emission source varies by region. Herd size and enteric emissions drive climate impacts, for example, in rangeland systems 15 , while land-use change has an influence in mixed grazing systems. The expansion of livestock production systems also threatens tropical forests 16 . Given the impacts, actions to decrease agricultural emissions need to target livestock production systems.The livestock sector affects 10 of 17 SDGs, but not all in positive ways 17 , meaning that the meeting of global goals will require transitioning to climate-resilient and low-emissions livestock production systems 18 . Yet, while nearly 100 countries prioritize livestock in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), public and private investors hesitate to target the livestock sector due to perceived risks and environmental concerns. Critical questions remain largely unanswered on where and in what to invest. In this study, we quantify countries and Box 1Adaptation: Actions that decrease the vulnerability of farming systems to climate change (for example, farmers implementing water management systems to adapt to short-and long-term rainfall variations).Adaptive capacity: Skills and capacity, such as knowledge, finance and technical capacity, that permit farmers or institutions to adjust their behaviour to mitigate the impact of climate hazards or capture opportunities.The degree to which a system is subject to a climate hazard.Hazard: A climate event or process that can harm farmers, such as loss in productivity-a function of exposure and sensitivity.Impact: Hazards' effect on farming systems and farmers, such as loss in productivity-a function of exposure and sensitivity.Mitigation: Actions that decrease the rate of climate change by limiting or preventing GHG emissions and by enhancing activities that remove them from the atmosphere (for example, decreasing herd size to decrease their proportion of national and global GHG emissions).The combination of exposure and vulnerability to hazards (the potential for adverse consequences).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01161-1     For most geographies, it is virtually impossible to disentangle the importance and relationship between adaptation and mitigation. More specifically, adaptation and mitigation emerge as joint priorities most clearly in India, in which 32% of the rural population and 41% of the VOP in the study area are exposed to climate hazards, and which produces 13% of the emissions (Fig. 1). Across most of Sub-Saharan Africa, adaptation measures tend to greatly outweigh those of mitigation options (Fig. 1). The converse is true for countries in Latin America, where mitigation concerns are generally greater than adaptation concerns.Adaptation and mitigation options already exist that would allow the livestock sector to meet its economic, environmental and climate mitigation and resilience goals (Fig. 3). Among other factors, low investment, lack of education and cultural, institutional and political barriers have led to generally low adoption rates for these actions.Constraints to the adoption vary by region, country and options (Fig. 3). For instance, for the selected countries, cost is a barrier to adopting most options, and the relative importance of cost varies between 20 and 50%. In countries such as Argentina, Brazil and China, the main barrier to adopting a technology is the limited labour force due to the lower rural population and fewer people employed in agriculture. This barrier differs in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Sudan, where accessibility and knowledge are the main adoption constraints.From a global perspective, the weighting of adaptation and mitigation indicators highlights the geographies with the greatest problems, providing a regional focus. At local scales, however, these indicators emerge from farmers' decisions on system management and, as such, are interconnected; any choice of adaptive or mitigating priorities needs understanding of the trade-offs that impact other goals.  Adopting a livestock practice or technology nearly always involves trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation outcomes 19 . Thus, to avoid unintended consequences, actions need to be aligned with local demands and goals. The consideration that adaptation and mitigation need to be addressed jointly is especially important in areas where population growth and/or dietary change are most prominent 20 . Yet, a lack of alignment at the policy level potentially hinders this objective. Roughly 50% of the NDCs that mention livestock note just one of the priorities 21 , and only 28 out of 184 countries' NDCs include soil-related targets 22 . This omittance suggests that, as a global community, we are creating institutions and narratives that disincentivize or preclude action on adaptation, mitigation or both. Our assessment of adaptation and mitigation options suggests that careful consideration of context specificities is needed for the scaling of options due to regional systems dynamics and adoption constraints (Fig. 3). In livestock systems in general, to maximize the benefits of improving and intensifying diets, reductions in herd size are necessary [15][16][17] . However, reductions in animal numbers may be limited to: (1) humid and temperate mixed systems where feeding grain concentrates are a plausible option 23 ; (2) places where an alternative source of both feed and food protein are available 15,23,24 ; and (3) where livestock are not enmeshed in cultural identity 25,26 . Manure management is another viable strategy for decreasing emissions, but its applicability is limited for open grazing systems. In the study region, 18% of cattle, 27% of sheep and 43% of goats roam in extensive grazing systems, where most excretion happens in the field; collection occurs after the manure is dry, if at all 15,27 . In East Asian systems with a high concentration of animals, emissions are associated with unregulated manure disposal, and animals produce more manure than can be recycled in the agricultural area 28 . In grasslands and agricultural land, 47% of the total potential mitigation arises from soil organic carbon protection and sequestration 29 , as well as the restoration of degraded rangelands 23 . The potential of restoration and improved land management actions to increase carbon storage and/or avoid emissions across global forests, wetlands, grasslands and agricultural lands is 23.8 GtCO 2 e yr −1 (ref. 30). Silvopastoral systems are a viable land management strategy for adaptation and mitigation in Latin America, where livestock is a major driver of deforestation and 11% of people are exposed to heat stress. Silvopastoral systems could increase productivity 31,32 , decrease GHG emissions 33 , improve carbon storage potential 32 and aid adaptation to heat stress 34 . However, the scalability of silvopastoral systems has been limited by several factors: lack of knowledge, high initial investment requirements and the extended periods before returns on investments are seen.Climate risk reduction should be essential in transforming livestock systems; according to our analysis, 69% of the VOP is exposed to high levels of climate variability. Climate services and access to credit and insurance are proven climate risk management actions that have demonstrated potential and scalability for crop-based systems 35,36 . In Senegal, where virtually all livestock systems are exposed to high or extreme climate variability, climate services increase farmer income by 10-25% 37 . In the Horn of Africa, where pastoral drylands are regularly affected by drought and its interannual variability (Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2), the Predictive Livestock Early Warning System 38 seeks to improve livestock herd management, migration patterns and livestock health through providing forecasts on water and pasture availability. Likewise, the index-based livestock insurance approach has sold around 90,000 insurance policies in Kenya and Ethiopia, positively impacting policyholders' sales, income and well-being 39,40 .Low levels of investment in the sector and a lack of effective policies, combined with high resource demand and limited information to implement solutions (Fig. 3), reinforce the gap between current livestock systems and future potential. There is limited evidence regarding the scalability of the actions outlined here. As such, the set of interventions and practices that best protect against the combined hazards and can reliably measure their effectiveness warrants further investigation. The gathering of such evidence must be combined with building the capacities of local and regional organizations, the public sector and producers, to promote and implement adaptation options. Governments need technical support to access finance, implement programmes and report adaptation and mitigation achievements. These challenges apply equally to the private sector and small-scale systems. Large-scale production changes landscapes, and supply and demand shifts can provide major benefits and influence consumer behaviour. In small-scale systems, the value of livestock to livelihoods goes far beyond their productive capacity, and building local knowledge and capacity is vital to achieving transformation.We used multiple spatial datasets (Supplementary Tables 3 and 4) to implement a prioritization approach to identify priority geographies (that is, countries and production systems) for livestock system investments and to identify adoption constraints to adaptation and mitigation options. We selected two main challenges related to climate adaptation and mitigation strategies: (1) livestock production and producer livelihoods are threatened by short-and long-term rainfall and temperature variations and their changing predictability; and (2) livestock are responsible for a substantial proportion of national and global GHG emissions. A fully detailed description of the methods is provided in the Supplementary Information.We used the livestock production system classification of Robinson et al. 41 . This classification divides livestock production systems into landless, rangeland and mixed systems. Mixed systems are divided into rainfed and irrigated, giving rise to four broad system categories (that is, landless, rangelands, mixed rainfed and mixed irrigated). Each category was then divided into agroecologies according to temperature and whether they were humid, arid or hyperarid 41 . The study area included livestock production systems in all LMICs in mid-and low latitudes identified by The World Bank (n = 132 countries).We performed a geospatial data analysis to characterize livestock production systems and producer livelihoods and to identify threats related to short-and long-term variations in rainfall and temperature. First, we mapped regions projected to experience climatic hazards and masked them by their adaptive capacity within the livestock systems (Supplementary Fig. 8). Second, we assessed the exposure per hazard within each country and livestock system (Supplementary Fig. 9). Exposure was represented by the total VOP 42 , total rural population 43 , pasture area 44 and TLUs. TLU values were computed following Rothman-Ostrow et al. 45 using data from the Gridded Livestock of the World database (version 3) 46 . VOP data were derived from ref. 42, which used a combination of modelling and FAOSTAT data 13 to produce geospatial datasets of the value of livestock production.Sixteen climatic hazard classes were identified from the intersection of rainfall variability, heat stress, drought and flood risk. To characterize rainfall variability, we used the coefficient of variation in annual mean rainfall (15-30% = highly variable; >30% = extremely variable) derived from the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations dataset 47 . Areas of heat stress were defined as having thermal stress (projected for 2030 under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 scenario) with a of ≥79 (ref. 48). To define areas at risk of flooding, we used the UN Environment Programme-Division of Early Warning and Assessment-GRID-Europe dataset 49 , in which flooding risk is ranked from 0 (no risk) to 5 (extreme). Areas at risk of drought were defined as having more than 25 d without rain per month on average.We defined three categories of livestock system adaptive capacity to these climate hazards (low ≥ 25%; medium = 10-25%; high ≤ 10%) using the national-level poverty headcount ratio of US$1.90 d −1 (ref. 50) as a proxy. For the exposure analysis, we considered areas with poverty Analysis https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01161-1 rates above 10% and their climate dimensions (that is, the rainfall coefficient of variation, heat stress, flood hazard risk and drought).We calculated total livestock emissions by geography by summing direct and estimated emissions from deforestation (Supplementary Figs. 10 and 11). We did not include changes in soil carbon stocks due to the difficulty in estimating these reliably at the scale of our study. Across the 132 countries included in this analysis, emissions were estimated to be 2,995 megatons (CO 2 e), which is lower than other recently published estimates 51 . This difference arises primarily due to the exclusion of direct CO 2 emissions from cropland used for feed (see Supplementary Information) and the focus on LMICs only (compared with global estimates). Despite inherent limitations and uncertainties in the input datasets (see the corresponding references), our sources of emissions data are derived well-established sources (refs. 13,42,52,53)  and robust for the purposes of our prioritization analysis. Furthermore, because our analysis does not introduce specific equations or parameters, it is unlikely that it introduces new uncertainties or propagates any original uncertainties present in the input datasets, beyond what would be a simple addition of these original uncertainties.Direct emissions data come from ref. 42 and are for the year 2010. To update these data to 2019, we multiplied 2010 values by the proportional increase in national livestock emissions between 2000 and 2019, as reported by FAOSTAT 13,54 . To estimate livestock emissions linked to deforestation, we first combined above-and below-ground carbon biomass data from 2010 55 and masked these values by areas with tree cover values ≥30% 56 , giving a layer of carbon biomass per hectare of forest. Commodity-linked deforestation data are available for subnational administrative areas 52 . For each area, we calculated the average amount of carbon biomass (using the data from ref. 55) and multiplied this by the mean annual rate of commodity-linked (soy and pasture) forest loss for the period 2010-2015 (data from ref. 52) giving the average rate of carbon loss per area per year. Data from ref. 52 are available only at the subnational administration level; thus, our analysis of indirect emissions was conducted at that spatial scale. Carbon was converted to CO 2 using a factor of 3.67 to account for its atomic weight. We assume that carbon in below-ground biomass is lost on conversion to pastureland or soybeans. We included deforestation due to soybeans as the majority of soybean production is used for livestock feed, but note that a proportion of this production has other fates.All indicators were normalized by dividing the value of each indicator per country by the maximum value across geographies to rank countries and visualize adaptation and mitigation indicators (Fig. 1). For example, TLUs for each country were normalized using India's TLUs, since it has the highest value worldwide. Each normalized exposure indicator was then weighted and summed, creating a unique adaptation index. For the case of mitigation, each indicator corresponding to emissions was normalized by dividing by the maximum value across geographies.Based on a literature review 57 and expert opinion, we identified adaptation and mitigation options available for livestock systems (Fig. 3). To represent the constraints for the adoption of these options, we identified key global indicators reported by The World Bank to quantify the relevance of each constraint for each adaptation and mitigation option per country (that is, accessibility, cost, knowledge, labour and land tenure). We represented the constraints as follows: (1) accessibility was measured using research and development expenditure (percentage of GDP); (2) cost was measured by GDP per capita; (3) knowledge was measured by the total adult literature rate; (4) labour was measured by employment in agriculture; and (5) land tenure was measured by the Rule of Law (see Supplementary Table 4). The relative importance of each constraint for each option-not for a specific country but generally-was quantified based on expert opinion. We represent these constraints for the top three countries, by continent, that were identified in the prioritization analysis.This research was conducted as part of a global research programme on livestock and climate (see https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/ 34-livestock-climate-and-system-resilience/), which is part of the CGIAR consortium of research centres. No involvement of human participants or animal subjects took place as part of this work. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the findings reported herein do not carry any racial, cultural or gender bias.","tokenCount":"3783"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cd2b42769c9ea090eaa6a76817c1cc8c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.worldagroforestry.org/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.34725/DVN/FZG7JA/JF12TX","id":"-964048560"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"275c31e9-bd69-4144-ac02-bebcd793adf0","pagecount":"1","content":"Whilst utmost care has been taken by the World Agroforestry Centre and data authors while collecting and compiling the data, the data is however offered \"as is\" with no express or implied warranty. In no event shall the data authors, the World Agroforestry Centre, or relevant funding agencies be liable for any actual, incidental or consequential damages arising from use of the data.By using the World Agroforestry Centre Dataverse, the user expressly acknowledges that the Data may contain some nonconformities, defects, or errors. No warranty is given that the data will meet the user's needs or expectations or that all nonconformities, defects, or errors can or will be corrected. The user should always verify actual data; therefore the user bears all responsibility in determining whether the data is fit for the user's intended use.","tokenCount":"134"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b5de17db2ed9a36ab8cb6f55f12f947c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/61ce4a6d-7c7c-4bdb-81de-b7b3cb0bb6f5/retrieve","id":"-1834715405"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b7e7a0fa-3f1b-4edc-ae7f-6adf1120d220","pagecount":"14","content":"Examining impacts: Which sectors and households are affected directly and indirectly? Any impacts on food security?Analyzing the subsidy: Desk review on the subsidy What were the costs? What factors led to the reforms?Communicating findings Through consultations with other analysts and policymakers, share findings and contribute to dialogue on role of agriculture in mitigating impacts Why is this an important issue for Nigeria?2. Unlike other reform efforts in the past, no immediate reversal of the policy (though some indications of a gradual reintroduction)1. Subsidy reform was a major reform after more than 40 years of fuel subsidies 3. Linked to the other major reforms -exchange rate harmonization and setting agriculture and export diversification as a priority -in aiming for a shift from oil-dependent economy  Demands for use of saved revenues for pro-poor public spending (but questions remain whether there are any savings)  Fuel is consumed directly by households and many sectors of the economy. The fuel subsidy reform impacts are both direct and indirectFuel direct consumption is higher for higher income quintile groups; and similar for rural and urban; higher per capita in urban ","tokenCount":"185"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b0469271553bff9c2efdf0235d989fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bcc1aeb7-8606-45a8-9501-e87f9894d831/retrieve","id":"-137993294"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"042f5c78-0f19-4754-831c-ebf6fc7fa727","pagecount":"2","content":"From capacity building to implementation: Risk-based approaches to improving food safety and market access in smallholder meat, milk and fish value chains in four African countries.In sub-Saharan Africa, millions of small-scale farmers efficiently supply the great majority of the meat, milk and fish markets. Animal-source food products have a high nutritional value which enhances public health, while the production, transportation, processing and retailing of these products provide income and employment to millions.On the other hand, animal-source foods are the single most important source of food-borne disease. About 80% of the animal-source foods are distributed through informal markets without adequate safety inspection. As a result, most of the people living in the region are exposed to a variety of foodborne agents which can cause diarrhoea, fever, chronic wasting, abortions or even epilepsy and cancer. These infections can have severely negative impacts on the population, including a high infant mortality, and may contribute significantly to the region's poverty. Every year, about 1.5 million children under five years of age die from diarrhoeal diseases worldwide, with 80% of these child deaths occurring in South Asia and Africa.These statistics show that current food safety management seems to be neither effective nor efficient. Moreover, there is a tendency to adopt international food quality standards without considering local contexts. As a result, conventional food safety policies often ban any product with germs (hazards) in it. Small-scale farmers often find it difficult to comply with these standards and could therefore be prevented from marketing their products. The Safe Food, Fair Food project adapts risk-based methods for food safety in informal markets. Risk analysis, or risk-based decision-making, is the gold standard for food safety management in developed countries and it is based on evidence Email: ILRI-Ethiopia@cgiar.org not perceptions. Structured analysis often shows that the risks of informally marketed food are not as high as they are perceived to be. For example, in urban East Africa where almost all consumers boil their milk before drinking it, the presence of germs in raw milk presents little risk. Moreover, when a sector gives a large amount of benefit to livelihoods and nutrition a small amount of risk may be tolerable. The other advantage of risk-based approaches is they allow us to identify the points on the 'farm-to-fork' pathway where control would be most useful. This often allows cheap and highly effective ways of making the food bought and sold by the poor safer.Safe Food, Fair Food 2 (2012-2015) builds directly on the work of the first phase of the project (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011), which was supported by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and the German Agency for International Cooperation (BMZ/GIZ), where we used a combination of approaches:• Food safety risk assessment • Participatory methods to collect data in a rapid and cheap way which is very appropriate for developing countries • Capacity building in food safety risk assessment The achievements of Safe Food, Fair Food will be consolidated and expanded through addressing selected high-potential value chains and regional policy and education. Together, improved policy and practice will lead to tangible benefits for smallholders and other small-scale value chain actors including poor consumers.• Linked food safety and economic assessment in five value chains in four countries: dairy in Tanzania; pigs in Uganda; and small ruminants in Senegal and Ethiopia. • Action research on priority food safety issues in these chains to pilot and test best-bet interventions. • Findings, recommendations, methods and tools disseminated to national and regional stakeholders. • Engagement with regional economic communities, the private sector, and research and training institutions for a more enabling environment.The goal of the project: Improved livelihoods for poor producers and consumers of livestock products in sub-Saharan Africa.Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania and UgandaMarch 2012 to February 2015Collaborating institutions ","tokenCount":"620"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"601338b6c7961e84533112a17830e0c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1f2d0c9-7853-40d1-91a0-acca6876075c/retrieve","id":"-1049953779"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7fdb8f56-491e-4ff5-a3dc-aa102e98e630","pagecount":"1","content":"Dairy systems emit around 20% of total livestock sector GHGE, which represents between 3 to 4% of emissions worldwide.A large share of the milk produced in the Colombian high tropics comes from smallholder production, with very little or no level of technological specialization, and low milk production figures.Cattle farming is practiced in all of Cauca' s municipalities (southwestern Colombia), is focused on dairy production, and is mainly developed by small producers that depend on family labor.It has been reported that the adoption of silvopastoral systems (SPS) and improved pastures (IP) are not only strategies to enhance cattle productivity but also have a great potential to reduce GHGE.Identifying sustainable strategies to mitigate GHGE in the cattle sector will help the government meet its goal of a 51% reduction by 2030.In Colombia, the productive and environmental behavior of GHG mitigation practices, using primary data gathered on-farm after their implementation, has not been assessed yet. 1. To calculate the climate change impact, measured as the CF, of four dairy cattle farms located in the Cauca department, using a farm gate LCA approach with primary data gathered from producers.2. To identify the main on-farm and off-farm sources of total GHGE.3. To identify improvements in milk yields and GHGE intensities reductions after the implementation of SPS and IP as intervention scenarios, using primary data from the farms.4.To estimate the economic feasibility and benefits of the intervention scenarios, considering also the monetary values of GHGE reductions.The milk CF of 4 farms was evaluated by using the attributional LCA methodology, in a \"cradle to farm-gate\" perspective.Baseline scenario: main productive, reproductive, and cattle management characteristics of the farms prior to the implementation of IP and SPS as intervention practices. Improvement scenario: current state of the farms, where IP and SPS were already implemented.An economic assessment that juxtaposes the financial and ecological advantages of implementing IP and SPS against the associated implementation expenses within farm settings. In both scenarios, the GHGE sources that contributed the most to the CFs arose from the herd and corresponded to methane from enteric fermentation and nitrous oxide from excretions left on pastures.Milk and meat CFs are highly sensitive to changes in the total enteric CH 4 and N 2 O emissions, as well as the total amount of milk and LWG.The inclusion of IP and SPS positively influenced the milk yields of the cows in all the farms and the milk and meat CFs.The economic performance of the farms significantly improves with increasing levels of inclusion of IP and SPS.Increases in milk and meat yields after the adoption of improved pastures and silvopastoral systems lead to lowering the GHGE intensities from the farms.  ","tokenCount":"440"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7793725573.json b/data/part_6/7793725573.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0bdc7f9244b61c75f92b1cc82f3d1b0fa534a7fd
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9a0d1e021e385a22284aa3823d092f33","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/460d75c1-f30f-4044-845b-d5bcf47baa65/retrieve","id":"-1399453405"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"94840a2a-1c38-4238-bfe4-335e91a362ab","pagecount":"18","content":"The Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems Initiative aims to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agroecologies and socio-economic settings.Through action research and development partnerships, the Initiative will improve smallholder farmers' resilience to weather-induced shocks, provide a more stable income and significant benefits in welfare, and enhance social justice and inclusion for 13 million people by 2030.Activities will be implemented in six focus countries globally representing diverse mixed farming systems as follows: Ghana (cereal-root crop mixed), Ethiopia (highland mixed), Malawi: (maize mixed), Bangladesh (rice mixed), Nepal (highland mixed), and Lao People's Democratic Republic (upland intensive mixed/ highland extensive mixed).Timely and accurate land use information is essential for the advancement of agricultural modernization, serving as a cornerstone for both strategic planning and operational activities. However, the availability of accurate and up-to-date land use information is limited due to the high cost and time-consuming nature of traditional land surveying methods remains a challenge in Ghana. Furthermore, the prevalence of inaccurate land parcel and field information exists due to fragmentation and diminishing of land per person, which is exacerbated by increasing population size.In addition to delineating field and parcel boundaries, comprehensive information about the field, spanning activities from land preparation to crop harvesting-such as land preparation, planting, crop type details, soil fertility management applications, weed management activities, and harvesting-is vital for in-season monitoring of the plots. This in-season monitoring proves invaluable for assessing whether farmers are implementing appropriate management practices as advised by the extension system. Additionally, it facilitates connections with agribusiness and financial mechanisms to mitigate climate risks, such as credit and insurance. The inherent limitations of imprecise data pose a significant challenge, as policies formulated based on such information may lead to the mis-adaptation of technologies or result in inappropriate extension advisories. Addressing this issue requires accurate methods to measure and characterize the structure and content of fragmented land parcels and their operations.Remote sensing, with its capability to scan remote areas and provide repetitive monitoring across large areas, emerges as a promising mechanism to overcome these challenges. Within the SIMFS initiative, specifically under WP1, with a special interest in leveraging highresolution remote sensing data to extract field boundaries and assess their status, and conducting in-season monitoring to collect agricultural information that will guide investments by the government and smallholder farmers.Effective implementation of remote sensing requires ground truthing activities to identify specific crops and management practices on the ground. The field boundary extraction using high-resolution hand GPS was initiated in 2023 to serve as training data for remote sensing and automations. This report outlines the dataset collected for field boundaries, which will be employed to train remote sensing-based field extraction and in-season monitoring for Northern Ghana. The actual results, including the field boundary extraction method and tool, as well as in-season monitoring of crop land information, will be presented in the upcoming year (2024).Here it says the report is for NR of Ghana, and the figure below also shows the parcels for NR but the other sections below include the different regions of Ghana, should we delete this sentence or should we limit the other sections to talk about NR only?A total of 395 observations were recorded from seventeen districts encompassing the four regions in Ghana of namely the Northern Region (NR), Southern Region (SR), Upper West Region (UWR) and Upper East Region (UER). A total of 127 farming households were selected from the NR of Ghana from five districts (Figure 1). The data presented in Table 1 illustrates the distribution of sample households, parcels, and plots across various regions and districts within the surveyed areas. A total of 395 observations were recorded, encompassing diverse districts in the Northern Region (NR), Southern Region (SR), Upper West Region (UWR), and Upper East Region (UER) of Ghana. Analysing the mean parcel size and plot size per household across districts provides valuable insights. For instance, in the Northern Region, Karaga district exhibited the largest mean parcel size at 4.0 acres, with an average of 1.4 plots per household based on 10 observations. Meanwhile, Kunbungu and Tolon districts recorded mean parcel sizes of 1.9 acres and 2.2 acres, respectively. Moving to the Southern Region, Bole district demonstrated a mean parcel size of 4.2 acres, with households having an average of 2.7 plots each based on 12 observations. In the Upper East Region, Bolga East and Bongo districts stood out with mean parcel sizes of 2.1 acres and 2.2 acres, respectively. Bolga East households had an average of 2.8 plots each, while Bongo households had 1.3 plots on average. The overall summary indicates an average mean parcel size of 2.9 acres and an average of 1.6 plots per household across the 395 observations. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the land distribution and utilization patterns in the surveyed regions and districts. The characteristics of sampled households include, out of the total 395 respondent's femaleheaded households are 12.7% out of which only 2.3% of the female headed households and 8.7% of male headed households host MFS trials.Table 2 provides the spatial dynamics between farmers' residences and their parcels across various regions and districts in the surveyed areas. The table highlights the average distances observed, indicating the varying proximity of homes to agricultural plots. In the Northern Region (NR), there is a distinct observed average distance difference that varies from district to district. . For instance, Karaga district records an average distance of 6.6 km, indicating a notable spatial separation between homes and parcels. In contrast, Kunbungu and Nanton districts have shorter average distances at 1.6 km and 2.3 km, respectively. Savulegu district stands out with the smallest average distance of 1.3 km, suggesting closer proximity between homes and parcels. Moving to the Southern Region (SR), Bole district records an average distance of 2.0 km, reflecting a moderate spatial relationship between farmers' homes and their agricultural plots.In the Upper East Region (UER), Bolga East and Bongo districts shows minimal average distances of 0.1 km and 0.2 km, respectively, indicating a close spatial association between homes and parcels. On the other hand, Nadowli district in the Upper West Region (UWR) has the longest average distance at 14.4 km, suggesting significant spatial separation between homes and agricultural plots. The overall average distance between the parcels and farmers home is 3.5 km across the 395 observations. This information provides insights into the spatial dynamics influencing resource allocation, transportation logistics, and agricultural management practices in the surveyed regions and districts. Cropping pattern among the households Most farmers in the seventeen districts surveyed exhibit a diverse cultivation pattern, engaging in the growth of various annual crops such as maize, rice, sorghum, and soybeans, as depicted in Figure 2. The figure provides a breakdown of the main crops grown in each district, illustrating the frequency and proportion of the frequency. In the NR, maize emerges as the predominant crop, representing 55.91% of the total crops grown. Soybeans also hold a substantial share at 13.39%, followed by groundnuts with 10.24%. Other crops include beans, cassava, and rice, each contributing to the agricultural diversity in the region. In SR, most of the surveyed plots are covered by finger millet, constituting 41.67% of the main crops grown from the sample surveyed. Maize and beans also feature prominently, with respective shares of 25% and 8.33%. In the UER, maize takes the lead with a substantial 27.64% frequency, followed by finger millet and sorghum. The UWR exhibits a diverse crop mix, with maize commanding a considerable share of 40.60%. Soybeans, groundnuts, and cowpeas also contribute substantially to the agricultural landscape in the region. Overall, the largest occurring crop in the surveyed sample is maize (41%), followed by ground (15%) and ground millet (13%).Figure 2. Distribution of main crops grown on plot across the districts Furthermore, the cropping system practiced by household in the sampled area is mainly monocropping. The survey results show that for UER and SR, monocropping and intercropping are the major cropping systems. In contrast, for NR and UWR, households conduct rotation cropping systems in addition to intercropping and monocropping (Figure 3). Figure 4 presents the adoption of soil conservation practices across the surveyed districts, emphasizing the major techniques employed by farmers. The data reveals distinctive preferences for soil conservation practices, reflecting tailored approaches to combat soil erosion and preserve soil fertility. In the NR region, Karaga predominantly employs mulching and trenching as soil conservation practices. In Kunbungu district, mulching, no soil conservation practices, and trenching are employed, reflecting a varied approach to soil conservation. In Bole, in the SR, minimum tillage showcases a significant adoption of this soil conservation method. Contour ploughing is also notable in Bolga East, UER, with a frequency of 40.91%.Figure 4 illustrates the overall variation in the use of various soil conservation practices across the districts. In general, minimum tillage emerges as the primary technology adopted by surveyed households, constituting 36% of the overall practices, followed by mulching, accounting for 13% of the adoption. Additionally, a noteworthy proportion, comprising 30%, indicates the absence of specific soil conservation measures among the surveyed households. Figure 5 provides an overview of fertilizer usage of the household of the surveyed farmers, highlighting the types of fertilizers employed and their proportions among surveyed households. The data underscores the importance of fertilizer application in enhancing agricultural productivity and addressing nutrient deficiencies in Ghanaian soils. As shown in figure 5 below, the majority of surveyed householdsdo not use any form of fertilizer in both first and second fertilizer application, revealing a substantial gap in fertilizer adoption. This could be attributed to challenges such as financial constraints or lack of knowledge. NPK fertilizers, containing a balanced ratio of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), constitute a significant portion of fertilizer usage (37.97%). In addition to the NPK, Ammonium-based fertilizers are utilized by a limited number of households (2.8%).Figure 5. Percentage of households applying (type of) fertilizer in the 4 regions during the first fertilizer application (above) and second fertilizer application (below)The results of the survey showed that the majority of households did not use organic fertilizer in their plots (Figure 6). Of those who did use organic fertilizer, the most common type was animal dung, followed by crop residue. Compost was the least common type of organic fertilizer used by households. There were significant differences in the use of organic fertilizer between regions. In the NR, 90.0% of households did not use organic fertilizer, while in the UER, only 34.0% of households did not use organic fertilizer. The use of animal dung was also more common in the UER where 59% of the households apply in their plot than in the NR (8%) and UWR (8%). The results of this survey suggest that there is a need to increase the use of organic fertilizer in Ghana. This could be done by providing farmers with information about the benefits of organic fertilizer, and by making organic fertilizer more affordable.Figure 6. Proportion of organic fertilizer application by the surveyed householdTable 3 provides a comprehensive overview of land degradation types and their specific manifestations in the surveyed sites. The predominant form of land degradation observed was soil erosion by water, accounting for 58.3% of all degradation instances. This was primarily propagated through sheet erosion, affecting 40.5% of the surveyed sites, followed by rill erosion at 17.9% and gully erosion at 7.3%. The second most prevalent category of land degradation was physical soil deterioration, constituting 23.6% of the observed instances. This type was predominantly characterized by the loss of bio-productive functions of the soil due to various human activities, such as compaction (0.75% of sites) and waterlogging (7.3% of sites). Biological degradation and soil erosion by wind collectively contributed to less than 19% of all land degradation issues. Biological degradation, accounting for 13% of instances, was mainly driven by the reduction of vegetation cover (3.5% of sites), loss of habitat (1.3% of sites), decline in vegetative biomass (0.75% of sites), and invasive encroachment (13.0% of sites). This detailed breakdown underscores the prevalence of soil erosion by water as the primary form of land degradation, with specific insights into the various manifestations of this degradation type and its impact on the surveyed sites. We have collected 395 plot sample in Ghana with the objective of leveraging remote sensing-based data for the extraction of field parcel boundaries and real-time, in-season monitoring of agricultural fields. The dataset, now available for reference [LINK], serves as a valuable resource and testament to the strides made in enhancing precision and efficiency in agricultural practices.Looking ahead to 2024, our next pivotal step involves utilizing this dataset to train advanced models. The objective is to explore the potential of remote sensing not only in accurately extracting lot boundaries but also in monitoring in-season field status. Additionally, we aim to delve into broader applications of agro-economic practices, seeking innovative ways to integrate remote sensing technologies for comprehensive agricultural management.cgiar.org/initiative/mixed-farming-systems","tokenCount":"2149"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac2c0c93c9eb44a77df1620bc39e93d4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/127cd246-3863-4be5-89d2-419a511a4b1c/content","id":"-1918014404"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4129d1c4-b488-468f-9b21-8c5257e7109a","pagecount":"15","content":"The supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak have led to changes in food prices globally. The impact of COVID-19 on the price of essential and perishable food items in developing and emerging economies has been lacking. Using a recent phone survey by the World Bank, this study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prices of the three essential food items in India. The results indicate that price of basic food items such as atta (wheat flour) and rice increased significantly during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. In contrast, during the same period, the price of onions declined significantly. The findings may suggest panic-buying, hoarding, and storability of food items. The results further reveal that remittance income and cash transfers from the government negatively affected commodity prices. Thus, this study's findings suggest that families may have shifted the demand away from essential foods during the pandemic.The deep and prolonged shocks of COVID-19 that we are experiencing have not been seen since the Great Depression. This time is different in terms of global effects (such as disruptions to the food supply chain and economic recession), historically low oil prices, and high commodity stocks [1,2]. More importantly, producer and consumer prices have been moving in opposite directions [3], leading to a higher price spread than a normal economic condition [4], which is contrary to the findings of the vast literature on commodity price transmission [5]. While the price transmission literature suggests varying speed of price adjustment in the vertical supply chain, agricultural prices co-exist (producer and consumer prices move together) with a higher price at the retail level [5]. We argue that producer prices in many developing countries like India are likely to decline due to supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of storable infrastructure for perishable commodities. On the other hand, consumer prices are likely to increase due to hoarding of storable commodities influenced by consumers' psychological factors of panic buying [6][7][8][9] and the rent-seeking behavior of processors or wholesalers [10]. Since addressing all of these above questions is challenging, the present study investigates only the impact of COVID-19 induced lockdown on the prices of three essential food items (wheat flour, rice, and onions) of Indian households.Economic theory suggests that the equilibrium price of a commodity changes due to changes in demand and supply. The COVID-19 induced movement restrictions and lockdowns have battered both supply and demand sides of food markets. However, the degree of perturbation of the equilibrium price depends on a country's macroeconomic conditions, economic structure, and culture. More importantly, price changes may depend on whether a food is an essential or luxury item, an imported or locally produced, and a perishable or storable commodity. For instance, Torero [11] noted a differential effect of the COVID-19 induced turmoil on prices of storable and perishable items, such as wheat and rice. The author noted that the wheat and rice prices jumped by 8% and 25%, respectively, because of the world's stockpiles. In Myanmar, rice export prices increased significantly due to COVID-19 than domestically produced rice prices [12]. In India, Narayanan and Saha [13] observed that during the COVID-19 lockdown, the prices of pulses, edible oils, and perishable commodities like potatoes and tomatoes increased significantly compared to the pre-lockdown period.Similarly, Imai, Kaicker, and Gaiha [9] found that rice, onion, potato, and tomato prices in three states of India (Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Meghalaya) increased during the lockdown period. On the contrary, Ceballos, Kannan, Kramer [14] noted the price of tomatoes decreased significantly after the lockdown policy in Haryana. Prices of fruits and vegetables were also falling during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period in various states of India (Jharkhand, Assam, Andra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu, and Kashmir, [15,16]). In the case of wheat producer price in Haryana, the effects of COVID-19 was negligible [14]. In response to the resurgence of COVID-19, no significant changes in the wholesale prices of storable staple foods (rice and wheat flour) [17] were found in China. However, prices of Chinese cabbage and fresh fruits and vegetables increased significantly in China [17][18][19]. A summary of the effects of COVID-19 on food prices in Asia is presented in S1 The above studies shed some light on the impact of COVID-19 on food commodities (fresh, perishable, and storable) in large economies like India and China at the farm gate or wholesale level or at the aggregate level (district, state, or country level). However, most of the above studies fail to address the impact of COVID-19 on retail prices of essential food items such as wheat flour (atta), rice, and onions at the consumer or household level. Note that Indian households consume daily food items like wheat flour (atta), rice, and onions in some form or another. Importantly, India is the second-largest rice, wheat, and onion producer globally [20]. To put this into perspective, in 2019, India produced nearly 178 million tons (Mt) of paddy (rough rice), about 134 Mt of wheat, and about 23 Mt of onions (FAOSTAT, 2021). In terms of international trade, India is a net exporter of wheat, rice, and onion. However, food prices in India during COVID-19 increased significantly, even higher than observed in the global markets (Fig 1). Finally, these essential commodities are used as strategic plans by political parties in their mandates. It is evident that commodity prices in India have significantly influenced the win and loss of political parties in an election in India. Therefore, it is puzzling why food prices were increasing, even with an ample supply of essential commodities from local sources and politically strategic commodities in a largely populated country.This study investigates the impact of COVID-19 induced lockdown on the prices of three essential food items of Indian households: wheat flour (atta), rice, and onions. Our study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, the study uses the World Bank's unique and recent household-level data with high-frequency phone surveys [21]. Second, the study assesses the impact of COVID-19 on retail prices of one perishable and two storable commodities for consumers in a large population. We find that during the COVID-19 induced lockdown in India, prices of rice and wheat increased significantly, but onion prices decreased instead. The nature of these commodities being storable and perishable could be one of the main reasons for such price behavior. We also argue that an increase in prices of essential food items could be due to the structure and institutions of the Indian economy that are different from developed economies, such as weak market infrastructure and ineffective antitrust laws. These findings will alert policymakers and donor agencies that a COVID-19 like disruption to the economy may alter self-sufficiency programs, and domestic surplus of essential commodities might not be enough to stabilize domestic prices. Therefore, it is imperative to focus on strengthening the distribution and supply chain management systems of essential commodities in India to ensure food security in situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.The acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19 has affected nearly every country, sickened more than 182 million, and killed more than 4 million people by this disease [22]. However, the impacts of COVID-19 cannot be judged only by the number of affected countries and people affected by this disease. Indeed, researchers still need to investigate the indirect effects such as the income and price effects of the pandemic. For instance, to control the spread of COVID19, countries across Asia, Europe, and the Americas imposed varying levels of restrictions on the movement, instituting several lockdowns, international travel bans, and social distancing measures [23,24]. The movement restrictions and lockdowns disrupted the food supply chain, reduced production and trade, and thus significant impact on income and food security around the globe [7,23,25,26].According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the world gross domestic product plummeted by 4.4% in 2020 due to the COVID lockdowns and turmoil compared to the previous year [27]. As a result, around 88-115 million additional people were pushed into extreme poverty [28]. The number of food-insecure people increased as high as 211 million (a 27.8% increase) due to the pandemic-induced food price hikes (9% increase in grain prices) [29]. Furthermore, the global maritime trade reduced approximately 7-10% during the first eight months of 2020, equivalent to US$ 225-412 billion in trade value losses [30]. Moreover, globally, the labor market participation rate in the first quarter of 2020 declined by 4.5%, equivalent to a loss of 130 million full-time jobs [31].The adverse income effects of COVID-19 translated into food markets. For example, Nordhagen et al. [32] found that more than 94% of small food supply chains from sixteen developing countries experienced a reduction in access to inputs and financial services and decreased sales due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Nearly 45% of Chinese workers lost half of their income [33], and two in three Indian workers became unemployed during the lockdown compared to the pre-lockdown period [34]. Food prices are likely to decrease because of a negative income shock on food demand. However, food prices in many countries increased significantly, particularly at the wholesale and retail levels (see S1 Table ), which may be attributable to panic buying and hoarding for staple foods [7,35]. Either a rise in food price decreases household disposable income. As a result, their purchasing power decreases, and poor and marginalized families are likely to be affected the most. For example, in Nepal, Singh et al. [36] found that the COVID-19 pandemic caused severe food insecurity among the disadvantaged communities and low-income families that relied on daily wages and remittance income.On the supply side factors, the disruptions in transportation sectors due to the COVID-19 lockdowns and movement restrictions severely affected food markets, creating supply shortages and increasing transaction costs [37]. For example, Ceballos, Kannan, and Kramer [14] observed that although production, harvest, and transportation costs increased for tomato farmers in the Haryana state of India, they received significantly lower prices than a typical year. Similarly, Bangladeshi vegetable farmers received less than 50% of the price compared to a typical year. The reasons could be the absence of storage facilities [38] and middlemen that link the forward supply chain (market access) [39]. The labor shortage was one of the main factors of India's production cost during the pandemic [13,38]. On the retailer side, during the COVID 19 lockdown, large e-retailers like Flipkart and Amazon faced significant challenges in maintaining profitability. Indeed, Sangvikar et al. [40] recently documented various issues related to e-retail supply chains faced by Flipkart and Amazon in India and concluded that operation enhancement and delivery performance improvement are keys to cost optimization. Thus, taking the above actions could lead to firm profitability.Various food trade and fiscal policies imposed to reduce the impact of COVID-19 could have also affected food markets in several ways. For instance, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 20 countries around the globe have imposed export bans on several essential agri-food products [41]. This trade policy restriction may have increased food prices in the world market [42], increased the risk of food insecurity in many low-and middleincome countries [43]. Finally, the government's COVID-19 stimulus programs and interventions may have led to inflationary pressures, thus, reducing investment in a productive sector. Khan et al. [44] noted that healthcare budgets had increased significantly to fight against COVID-19 with various stringency measures in many developing and emerging economies. As a result, public spending in other sectors and food supply was disrupted, which directly and indirectly increased undernourishment.In sum, COVID-19 affected both supply and demand of food markets, resulting in higher food prices, leading to food insecurity and poverty in many developing and emerging countries. As mentioned above, various studies have investigated economy-wide impacts of COVID-19 induced turmoil [45,46], effects on labor markets [23,33,47,48], household income and food security [14,26,28,36,38,[49][50][51][52], and trade flows [41,53]. However, the literature on price effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is minimal. The present study addressed the impact of COVID-19 on retail prices of three essential food items (wheat flour, rice, and onions) at the consumer or household level in India.On January 30, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in India was reported. On March 24, 2020, a country-wide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The lockdown restrictions to the movement of people and goods were announced when farmers in several states started to harvest their crops [38]. On April 20, 2020, the lockdown policy was subsequently relaxed, beginning in an area designated as a non-hotspot. Since then, the central government has been issuing a series of guidelines paving the way for a phased re-opening of activities and gradual relaxation and removal of restrictions across the country. To lessen the effects of the lockdown policy, on May 12, the Prime Minister announced an economic relief package of around 10% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), including previously announced monetary and fiscal policies.The impact of COVID-19 on the Indian economy has been significant and widely felt. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated the country's GDP growth rate was the lowest (1.9%) for 2020 since the 1991 balance-of-payments crisis [48]. To safeguard its economy from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government has coordinated various fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policy measures. The direct-spending fiscal measures include inkind (e.g., food and cooking gas) and cash transfers to lower-income households, insurance coverage for healthcare workers, and wage support and employment provision for low-wage workers. Other measures include providing credit support to businesses (approximately 1.9% of GDP), poor households, primarily migrants and farmers (1.6% of GDP), distressed electricity distribution companies (0.4% of GDP), and targeted support for the agricultural sector (0.7% of GDP). Approximately 0.3% of GDP was also allocated for some other various support measures. Among the business-support package, key elements are various financial sector measures for micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises, and non-bank financial companies. Finally, an additional relief package was aimed to provide concessional credit to farmers and a credit facility for street vendors.One can expect that without the government relief package, the gravity of the pandemic effects would have been more aggravated. Therefore, the impact of the policy measures mentioned earlier and the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in India is worth noting. For example, in a recent study, Laborde et al. [28] found real consumption decreased by about 3.9% in India, and agricultural-food exports declined by about 31%. Studies by Harris et al. [16] reported a supply shortage of various food items such as meats, fish, dairy, and vegetables immediately after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. To cope with the loss in consumer income and decreased food consumption, the Indian government enacted social safety programs. Several existing government procurement policies were also enacted to prevent a decline in wheat prices during the pandemic, ensuring stable income for wheat farmers. Additionally, Ceballos et al. [14] report that government procurement policies (such as minimum support price [MSP]) to secure more food for Indians resulted in less wheat export. In other words, the negative spillover effect of government policies in the international market. The authors also note that the price of tomatoes, a commodity not covered by MSP, initially increased, encompassed a higher degree of volatility, and then decreased as the lockdown continued into the summer months. Farmers flooded tomatoes in the local retail markets resulting in a downward shift in prices since it is a perishable commodity and there is a lack of farmers' cold storage facilities [54].On the other hand, Narayanan and Saha [13] found that India's food prices in several urban areas increased significantly due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The authors compared prices between four weeks before and four weeks after lockdown and found that prices increased 3.5%, 15%, and 28% for edible oils, potatoes, and tomatoes, respectively. Indeed, the above studies provide some evidence of price increases in key food categories. However, ambiguity may persist in the results of a study when it comes to whether a storable or perishable food item (wheat vs. tomato) was analyzed, the surveys were conducted (immediately before or after lockdown vs. four weeks before and after lockdown), and what duration of the lockdown was considered (21 days, two, or three months). We contribute to the Indian COVID-19 literature by investigating the effect of COVID-19 induced lockdown on the prices of three essential food items (atta, rice, and onions) of Indian households from the six biggest states covering over 4,000 samples surveyed by the World Bank.The study uses two rounds of high-frequency phone surveys by the World Bank. The survey was designed to seek and collect information to understand COVID-19 related shocks in rural India. Since market prices of food items were not collected in round 3, we did not include it in this study. Round 1 and round 2 were administered during May 5-10, 2020, and July 19-23, 2020, covering six of India's major states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh). The surveys were implemented with Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) software (The surveys are produced by the Data Production and Methods Unit of the Development Data Group, World Bank [21]), deploying it through surveyors' smartphones. Then surveyors called the selected respondents via mobile phones and recorded their responses. The survey used the samples and phone numbers from three prior IDinsight projects and the National Rural Livelihoods project conducted by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, to choose a respondent. The surveys attempted to reach 11,738 households, but the response rates were approximately 55% and 46% for rounds 1 and 2, respectively. However, in this study, we used a sample of 4,297 families, making a panel dataset to track the same respondents in both rounds (Table 1). The details of data, sampling method, and data collection techniques can be obtained from the World Bank [21].The survey added several modules to the questionnaire, including indicators related to agriculture, income and consumption, migration, access to financial relief, and health conditions. To examine the central objective of the present study, we used several indicators, mainly from agriculture and income and consumption modules. For instance, the main variables are food prices of essential commodities and time-variant variables such as government transfers and migration (Table 2). The rationale of using these two time-variant variables is that government transfers and migration can directly affect household income and consumption expenditure.Although the data include characteristics of household heads such as age, education, and ethnicity, we did not include them in the regression because of the time-invariability nature of these variables.   compared with the pre-lockdown period. Since atta and rice are storable commodities and onions are perishable, we hypothesize that in(de)creased prices might be attributable to products' cyclical, storable, and perishable nature. Table 2 presents two time-variant sociodemographic profiles of the sampled household heads and location variables. We find that nearly one-half of the sampled households received different forms of direct government transfers to encounter COVID-19 related shocks. Approximately 15% of the sampled households had at least a family member that is a migrant worker abroad. Finally, Table 2 reveals that samples are disproportionality collected from six states in India. Using states dummy variables will control for state heterogeneities.Theoretically, the equilibrium market price of a commodity is determined by its supply and demand in the market. Therefore, any factors that could affect either the supply and demand for that commodity would affect the commodity price. Previous studies suggest that the COVID-19 policy restrictions affected both the supply and demand sides of food markets worldwide [7,17,18,37,55]. Besides the lockdown, a commodity's supply and demand can be impacted by various factors, depending on a country's weather variability, cyclical nature of the product, macroeconomic conditions, economic structure, and culture. For example, Ruan et al. [17] argued that the lockdowns in China might cause the reduction of vegetable production due to reduced labor activities. However, in India, since farmers that mainly produce staple foods (rice and wheat) reside primarily in villages (houses are usually isolated from each other), crop production is unlikely to be affected due to the lockdown-induced reduced labor activities. Instead, farmers could be affected by an increase in transaction cost, mainly due to transportation costs, access to inputs, and less demand from mid-stream suppliers, such as millers and wholesalers. More importantly, market prices can be affected by food supply shortage due to the seasonality nature of a crop, such as rice is needed to grow for three to four months. However, during the pandemic, it is likely that product availability could be attributable to disruptions to the food supply chain rather than decreased production [7]. This argument can be validated by looking at India's rice and wheat production data during the pandemic year 2020-rice and wheat production increased by 2.6% and 4.1%, respectively, compared to the previous year [56]. On the demand side, as mentioned before, the COVID-19 crisis could create social panic, and consumers may hoard food in some cases. Therefore, it may lead to a vicious cycle of increasing food prices (such as Vercammen [57] and Yu et al. [18]). However, in the Indian case, since most consumers are poor, panic-buying is less likely. But food hoarding may be witnessed at the sellers' level due to the rent-seeking behavior of processors or wholesalers [7]. Finally, a product's nature being storable (e.g., rice and wheat) and perishable (e.g., onions and tomatoes) could be one of the main reasons for unexpected price behaviors of essential commodities in India.To this end, we estimate the following reduced-form of inverse demand function [58], similar to what Ruan et al. [17] used, to estimate the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on prices of essential food items.where p it is the price of a food item such as rice paid by i th household at period t; T is an indicator variable indicating pandemic time equals one and zero pre-pandemic time; X is a vector of time-variant household characteristics such as receiving government transfers and remittance income; Z is a vector of location dummy variables. α, β, δ, γ, and θ are the parameters to be estimated; u it captures random errors assumed to be independent and identically distributed. We estimate Eqs 1 and 2 with STATA 15.Table 3 presents the parameter estimates of the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the prices of two storable commodities (wheat flour and rice) and one perishable item (onion) in India.The results show that the COVID lockdown policy had a significant effect on the prices of all three commodities. In the case of atta (wheat flour) and rice, storable items, the lockdown significantly impacted prices. Specifically, the lockdown period increased wheat flour prices by 3% and rice prices by 16%. Perhaps this increase in price for wheat flour could be attributed to increased demand or supply shortage. An increase in demand for atta and rice could be for several reasons. First, atta and rice are essential commodities by Indian consumers. Also, depending on the consumer's location, most Indians eat either chapatis (made of atta) or rice in conjunction with proteins (pulses or meats) and a side of the vegetable serving. Thus, the demand for these items is unlikely to decline much due to a price change. Secondly, atta and rice are storable and easily transportable commodities. Therefore, prices of these foods could be increased due to supply shortage because of the rent-seeking behavior of intermediaries (hoarding) in the supply chain and disruptions to transportation sectors. Our finding is consistent with Imai, Kaicker, and Gaiha [9], who found that the COVID pandemic increased retail rice prices in Maharashtra. However, the authors found an insignificant effect of the COVID pandemic on the retail rice prices in India as a whole. Indians prefer to purchase groceries and fresh and in-season vegetables and fruits by visiting local sellers (wet markets and farmers markets) once or twice a week. However, during the COVID lockdown, consumers could use online sellers (such as Walmart-Flipkart acquired part of Ninjacart, ShopKirana, and Jumbotail) to buy storable commodities such as atta and rice. Our estimated prices changes for rice and atta at the household level are greater than those obtained by Narayanan and Saha [13] (the average changes in atta and rice prices were about 0.54 and 0.98 percent, respectively). 114 Centers where the data is collected by State Civil Supplies Departments and published by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India. The reader should note that Narayanan and Saha [13] did not utilize any regression model to predict the prices and did not control for regional locations of the centers when calculating price changes between pre-and post-lockdown for atta and rice.Table 3 further reveals that the lockdown period had a negative and significant effect (at the 1% level of significance) on the price of onions. The lockdown period decreased onion prices by about 61%. An explanation for this result is related to the production and semi-perishable nature of onions in India. The onion is a semi-perishable crop, and around 30-40% of the harvested crop is lost during storage. The losses go beyond 40% during natural calamities, leading to heavy stress both on demand and supply. The bulbs harvested from the Rabi season have better storage life than Kharif and late Kharif onion. The crop harvested during the Rabi season accounts for 60% of onion production and hits the markets from March to June. The same crop meets consumer demand until October-November before the Kharif crop is harvested and brought to the market. Our finding is consistent with Ali and Khan [15], who compared wholesale prices of vegetables, including onions) across 12 mandis in Jammu and Kashmir, before and during the lockdown, and found a decrease in the wholesale price of onion. Similarly, Ceballos, Kannan, Kramer [14] found that CVOID-19 lockdown resulted in a sharp decline in farm gate prices of tomatoes in Haryana. Our finding contrasts with Imai, Kaicker and Gaiha [9] that found a positive and significant effect of the COVID pandemic on the retail price of onions and tomatoes. Similar results were reported by C ¸akır, Li, and Yang [19], Ruan, Cai and Jin [17], and Yu et al. [18] in China-mostly reporting higher prices of cabbage and other vegetables due to COVID-19.Labor shortage and limited capacity of cold storage could affect a perishable product's price. The COVID lockdown presented a unique situation where warehouse owners faced labor shortages. In India, warehouses use labor to load and unload trucks, sorting and cleaning loose dry skins of the stored onions. As a result, warehouse owners may have resorted to getting the onions to the retailers-i.e., over-supply and thus lower retail prices. In addition, consumers in India prefer to purchase onions and vegetables, and fruits by visiting local sellers and farmers' markets once or twice a week. Under the COVID lockdown, consumers could not leave their homes for weekly or bi-weekly shopping resulting in an over-supply of onion in the market. Onion demand fell by 30-40 percent due to decreased demand from hotels, restaurants, and roadside eateries-closed due to the COVID lockdown. Finally, Varshney et al. [54] noted that the COVID lockdown reduced the number of intermediaries between farmgate and regional markets. Therefore, smallholders opted for local retail markets, increasing local supply and lowering market prices of perishable commodities [38].In the econometric analysis, we also included information on government cash transfer and remittance in the family to capture the effect of additional income on atta, onion, and rice prices. Unfortunately, the data did not include information of the amount of government transfers or remittance income to the family. Thus, only dummy variable was included in the regression. One can consider these variables as temporary and permanent income sources. Table 3 reveals that direct government transfers to consumers (cash transfers) and remittance income have differential effects on commodity prices during the COVID lockdown. The results indicate that families receiving government transfers are substituting away from atta and rice. In contrast, families receiving remittance income are buying more atta and onion. The above findings indicate that timely government intervention in cereals (wheat and rice), where the Indian government is a major buyer, has played a crucial role in keeping the supply chain intact and perhaps had a dampening effect on wheat flour prices and rice. Our finding is consistent with Varshney et al. [54].Finally, the state dummy variable in Table 3 shows heterogeneity in atta, onion, and rice prices. Perhaps the state location dummy variables capture local market conditions, income levels, lockdown conditions, and the effectiveness of the COVID lockdown. For example, even though the Indian Prime Minister declared the COVID lockdown, states were instructed to implement lockdown at their pace and information they received on the ground. Some states like Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh imposed a lockdown on weekends or a night curfew.The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak continues to create economic disruptions worldwide [59]. The economic downturn resulted from the COVID-19 outbreak, and the subsequent lockdowns significantly affected labor markets and reduced trade. Millions of people worldwide lost their jobs, and incomes have dropped. For instance, nearly 45% of Chinese workers lost half of their income due to the COVID-19 crisis [33]. Two in three Indian workers became unemployed during the lockdown compared to the pre-lockdown period [34].More importantly, the COVID-19 pandemic created a price spike in primary staple food markets [60]. For instance, the price of rice, a staple food for the globe and India, increased by 25-30% between March and May 2020 relative to the same period in 2019. Despite a good production year in 2020 and high commodity stocks, product availability in the market fell, which could be due to increased demand from panic-buying [7,59,61]. Surprisingly, food prices in India increased at a higher rate than what was observed in the world. A recent global study noted that COVID-19-induced changes in income and food prices could alter global food security [29]. The authors estimated that approximately between 136 and 271 million people in 72 low and middle-income countries could be food insecure due to the income effects of the outbreak. However, the price effects of the outbreak at a country-level are limited. The present study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prices of the three essential food items (rice, atta, and onions) in India.The results revealed a differential impact of an unexpected disaster in the price of essential food commodities in a developing country such as India. For instance, the price of essential food items like atta (wheat flour) and rice increased significantly (3% and 16%, respectively) during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. In contrast, during the same period, the price of onions declined significantly (-61%). The result of the unforeseen disaster on prices could depend on the availability, storability, and crop cycle. We also suspect that hoarding and panic-buying could be other reasons for a price spike, which are very common in many developing countries like India (such as Dawe [62], Mahajan and Tomar [7], Pandey et al. [63]). Therefore, the government of India should take necessary policy actions to stabilize food prices, such as supplying more staple foods from the public food distribution system into the market during a crisis. Indeed, as Khan et al. (2021) argued, governments in developing and emerging economies can formulate policies that strengthen collaborations among entities in the food supply chain. Importantly, a strong and effective policy frame is needed to prevent sellers from increasing food prices during any pandemic. Finally, the results also show that remittance income and cash transfers from the government negatively affected prices. Thus, this study's findings suggest that families may have shifted the demand away from essential foods during the pandemic. Perhaps, this finding can be related to various economic relief packages that the government offered for needy families. However, extending and strengthening distribution programs are likely to be needed to avoid leakage in the system. We argue that our findings will alert policymakers and donor agencies that a domestic surplus of essential commodities might not be enough to stabilize prices during an economic shock such as COVID-19. Therefore, to ensure food security in situations like the COVID-19 crisis, particularly in developing countries, it is imperative to focus on the essential commodities' distribution and supply chain management system.Despite insightful and thought-provoking results, this research is not without limitations. Two limitations are worth noting: we considered a few essential commodities (three) and a smaller sample, particularly for estimating rice price. Future studies could use more recent data with various food items and newer estimation techniques. Also, considering the entire supply chain, identifying the factors of erratic price behavior during a crisis would provide more insights to policymakers to design an effective price stabilization policy. Finally, since India is heterogeneous in different tastes and preferences, future studies could examine consumption data (price and quantities) of more durable and non-durable food items.","tokenCount":"5471"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2d71b5865faf3c04124a64dbe6b44ae0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a6d1d459-cab0-4637-a0a1-c8435e7129ab/retrieve","id":"421597320"},"keywords":["Gender and Climate Change Workshop","…","…………………………………………","15"],"sieverID":"096eddbf-8ed7-4af6-b7b3-3473009ac37e","pagecount":"21","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim research on the scaling of climate services and climatesmart agriculture in Africa, in order to stimulate feedback from the scientific community.The workshop was held from 28-30 August, 2023 at the Southern Sun Garden Court hotel Johannesburg in South Africa. It was convened under the auspices of CCARDESA that directly support the commitment of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It recognized the importance of gender responsive and inclusive participation and interventions as a way to inspire effective development, implementation of an inclusive climate change response. Amongst the most vulnerable groups, women have continued to bear significant burden of impacts of climate due to feminization of vulnerability, poverty and gendered segregation across the SADC region and Africa wide. Regrettably, limited knowledge has directly compounded levels of poverty, social-economic and environmental vulnerability with consequential erosion of capacities to cope with impacts of climate variability and change. Without addressing the knowledge gap among gender responsive institutions, vulnerability of women will continue to increase and reverse the gains made and overall green growth ambition.In recognizing this reality there is need to ameliorate this challenge, CARDESA has prioritized gender, youth and climate change as important and urgent cross-cutting issue that bear on agricultural productivity, farmer organizational capacities to inspire local level resilience. Achieving gender responsiveness requires that deliberate capacity interventions that targets women who disproportionately carry the most burden of climate change impacts. Prevailing unequal circumstances make women assume both high levels of vulnerability and exposure to impacts of climate change.In order to facilitate intentional response measures, respective countries in the SADC region have developed gender responsive climate change Policies, strategies and action plans. It is without doubt that enhancing capacities of institutions and people present a strategic enabler in addressing challenges while harnessing opportunities associated with climate change. Building knowledge and shared experiences present an opportunity to unlock strategic investment required to inspire proactive gender climate change adaptation and mitigation actions.In this regard, CCARDESA convened a climate and gender workshop training for decision makers with the desire to facilitate technical and experiential learning through knowledge building and shared best practices. Strengthened knowledge and capacities will directly support achievements of national and regional climate change response ambition. The thrust of the training workshop was to provide technical knowledge, experiential learning and shared best practices that unlocks effective implementation of gender climate change interventions. Importantly, it addressed systemic national and regional wide climate change gender constraints by translating climate change policies, strategies and action plans into impacting climate solutions.The workshop was convened as a key activity under the 'Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa' (AICCRA) project funded by the World Bank and whose development objective is to increase access for agriculture research and extension service providers in Africa to knowledge, technologies and decisionmaking tools relevant to enhancing the resilience of agriculture and food systems in the face of climate change. The AICCRA project provides for opportunities to upscale gains of the science and expertise of the CGIAR and partners to catalyze positive change towards climate-smart agriculture (CSA). CCARDESA is one of the SROs that are implementing partners for the AICCRA project with the role of facilitating the scaling up of CSA/CIS in Southern Africa. The project is one of the initiatives that meets CCARDESA's priority thematic area of the Strategic Plan and the Operational plan for addressing the impacts of Climate Change.The workshop was designed to provide gender responsive organizations and leaders with understanding of context, impacts, opportunities and best practices of gender led climate actions in the SADC regions. As a knowledge sharing platform to the knowledge building intervention increased technical understanding and experiential learning that inspired gender affirmative climate resilient actions. Gender organizations within the SADC region gained functional understanding and appreciation of context of climate change, its threats, opportunities and roles of gender organizations leadership in achieving transformational outcomes.Enhanced knowledge and understanding of nexus of gender and climate change provided knowledge base for supporting national and regional climate change agenda that intentionally foster gender inclusion. Additionally, the experiential knowledge building provided a strategic intervention in strengthening coordination, broad participation and mainstreaming of climate change actions in the respective countries and regional development framework. Investing in women organizations is envisaged to stimulate gender responsive response to threats, impacts of climate change while harnessing its opportunities. It was an activity that was conceived and delivered as capacity intervention necessary to accelerate an inclusive green and resilient SADC regional economy. The goal of the Gender and climate change and gender workshop training for decision makers was to empower a coalition of gender organizations and it's to uptake climate actions through knowledge building and experiential learning for local level resilience.The training workshop was designed to inspire practical knowledge, and processes for undertaking assessments, analysis, and planning for focused gender inclusive climate change response initiatives that foster local resilience. Specifically, the workshop objectives included to; During the introductions, it was evident that the participants were highly expectant of gaining gender and climate change knowledge, learning new ideas as well as sharing best practices with each other. The workshop was considered as being very useful and the expectation was to acquire understanding and array of take-home lessons from the interactions in the workshop.Countries have several well-defined policies in place for both gender and climate change. In many cases the climate change policies recognize the importance of gender issues and clearly outline the intentions to have gender addressed under the CC policies. Participants however, that although countries had existing policies, there were policy and capacity gaps that constrained effective response to both gender and climate change aspects simultaneously.The workshop further observed that where gender policies have only been recently developed, issues of Climate Change and environment have been well articulated as the case for Eswatini where the national Gender Policy has just been recently developed.In addition to this gap, actual implementation of the policies was constrained by inadequate resources to support required actions that have been articulated in the policies, plans and programs. It was further observed that while good plans existed in most countries. the source of funding largely depended on external sources that were project based without sustainability considerations beyond external catalytic support. While the funding by international resource partners provided appreciable this catalytic support, there are instances where this influenced the way programs are implemented and tended to undermine the extent to which priority needs of the beneficiaries are addressed.From the discussions that followed country presentations, issues of access to resources by women and the marginalized particularly the access to land was highlighted as being a challenge. The relatively low participation of women and girls in development programs was also observed as a key challenge that needs to be address in order to achieve equitable achievement of CC related interventions to be a reality.Among the key lessons learnt regarding issues requiring urgent attention to improve the policy environment and the implementation of actions on the ground included the following: • Climate Change impacts: people, communities, organizations, development ambition, livelihoods and well-being.• Climate Change provides security challenge of extreme magnitude of the 21st Century.• Climate Change has increased vulnerability and poverty.• Climate Change has reversed development.• Climate Change is the biggest challenge that African societies are facing.• African communities are vulnerable due to limited ability to cope and adapt.• Adequate response to the impacts of CC is a question of survival rather than debate and without action, the future is bleak.The theory of action requires increased capacity, technology and finance as impacts are spreading widely, intensely and rapidly. Action requires inclusive and proactive involvement of all stakeholders, as well as practical investment in knowledge building and practical resilient action. There are four major categories of CC hazards; i.e., tornadoes, drought, tropical storms and flooding that all result in negative impacts with a myriad of implications on livelihoods.Other negative implications include land degradation, spread of invasive species and pests, loss of biodiversity, reduction in agricultural productivity and deterioration of food nutrition quality, food insecurity, poverty and displacement of populations already bearing on the region. Regional realities of CC hazards:• Climate variability is already imposing livelihood challenges of SADC undermining development efforts.• Trends and effects are highly heterogeneous and do not affect every country or community in the same way.• Pinpointing the areas for greater risk is essential to effectively deploy targeted action.• Urgency for rapid, deep and sustained action• Need for climate adaptation to ensure the poorest countries are not caught off guard by worsening climate impacts.• Improved knowledge and strengthened networks have laid the foundation for future work that further enhance resilience within the continent.• Understanding and prediction of regional climate to feed into the decision-making space to inform adaptation and climate resilience on the groundUnderstanding the context, as well as the motivations of decision makers and stakeholders,• Applying a climate change lens to the context allowed projects to shape interventions to be locally relevant• Interdisciplinarity as an innovation for design partnership that apply a climate change lens Consequences of the Climate Change Hazards on the region and its development were discussed. The following realities of climate change were highlighted as important realities;• global phenomenon that affects all countries and peoples across borders.• social and cultural systems influence both how environmental pressures affect societal groups that affects response• roles and responsibilities ascribed to women and men in a society impact their respective dependence on their natural environment, shape their capacity to adapt• lead to requirements for specific knowledge on how to influence their environment• removal of inequalities between men and women while fostering respective specific abilities and knowledge to unlocks full potential to contribute to fighting climate change.It is important to understand implication of CC vulnerability on people, business and environment in order to address resource allocation, for policy development, project prioritization, siting and design as well as help to make decisions.• Vulnerable aspects of CC are food insecurity, water scarcity, delicate ecosystem, natural resources depletion and ecological sensitivity.• Impact people within communities differently (people living in poverty, increases gender inequality, children are worst affected, the elderly, religious minority and refugees are more impacted, local communities who rely on the environment for food and other necessities)• The brunt of CC is faced mostly by people living in poverty, women, children, local communities and the elderly.• Vulnerability of CC is a critical issue because of the impacts on infrastructure, human health, food and water security and ecosystem.The presentations made reference and role of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices in addressing the negative impacts of Climate Change. This was consistent with the three pillars of CSA (productivity, adaptation and mitigation), particularly the priority practices that improve adaptation to CC impacts. The opportunities for transformation agriculture outcome in Africa can be achieved mostly by implementing adaptation practices that includes CSA. Adaptations provides for immediate actions to decrease pressure on the natural resources, increase environmental risk management and enhance the social well-being of the vulnerable. Africa's immediate adaptation requirements stem from the continent's primary sensitivity and vulnerability to climate change, along with its minimal levels of adaptive capacity.In respect of Gender and Climate Change; the call is for 'gender smartness' when implementing CSA and CIS practices. This is important to be considered in all interventions meant to upscale adoption of CSA practices.• Empowering women to actively participate in reducing emissions and strengthening community resilience, climate change projects influence;▪ success ▪ more sustainable, ▪ more equitable• Women participation shape communities and families adapt to environmental changes every day• Contribute to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions• Women popularize climate actions Discussions on the presentations that were carried out on the second day were very engaging. There was substantial discussion on the relevance of CSA technologies and the extent to which they met local community needs. Additionally, debate on the role of inorganic fertilizer and whether or not recommendations to reduce the use would not undermine productivity consisted important reflections. In response, it was explained submitted that as much as possible alternative sources of soil nutrients such as those promoted under Conservation Agriculture (intercropping under legume-based systems, agroforestry systems and other interventions that improve soil fertility without use of inorganic fertilizer) should be promoted. It was also mentioned that in some cases use of inorganic fertilizer reduces the nutrient quality of some crops.The delegates were encouraged to make reference to the CSA handbook for guidance on the various CSA practices and how they contribute to improved and sustainable productivity in the face of CC.From the discussions regarding suitability of technologies that meet farmer needs as well as farmer participatory approaches to inspire gender and Climate change inclusion as well as general agricultural development work. It was obvious that there are huge knowledge gaps and limited sharing of research and development findings. The workshop provided a useful forum that shared required knowledge on CC and the importance of gender and inclusive programming for addressing the effects of CC in the region.On the third which served as last day of the workshop, it focused on generating clear actions for the way forward for the delegates to commit to contributing to changing the status quo regarding CC and gender mainstreaming for improved results. The presentation titled 'CC Winners and Losers was present by Dr.Rose Karimi, who facilitated the sessions of the day. In her presented, she started by stating the fact that there is an intricate interplay between Climate Change and the organizational landscape within its distinct geographical context.• Organizations that effectively navigate the complexities of CC, position themselves for sustained success and resilience;• Such organizations proactively anticipate the impacts of CC on their operations, products and services;• By embracing innovation and adopting sustainable practices, they not only mitigate risks but also capitalize on emerging opportunities;• CC winners exhibit a holistic commitment to environmental responsibilities, surpassing regulatory requirements and setting industrial benchmarks;These factors that characterize the CC Winners indicate the fact that such organizations were characterised by proactive and innovative approach that enabled them to adapt which consequently enables them to thrive in a changing environment.Organizations that struggle to cope with the challenges imposed by CC were categorized as losers. Such organizations are characterised often by resistance to change and reluctance to embrace sustainable practices. They are driven by short-term focus on profitability, which hampers their ability to anticipate and respond to the long-term implications of climate-related interruptions;CC Losers may experience disruptions in supply chains, increased operational costs and reputational damage due to their inability to address the changing climate landscape effectively. The highlights provided lesson on the following;• Youth Co-operative Entrepreneurship• Oromia Coffee Co-operativeTwo group work given to the delegates in the course of the workshop provided an interactive and peer learning. To promote effective team engagement participants were divided in three groups for the purpose of the exercises. The first group provided an analysis of the status of gender and CC inclusion in the various institutions and countries represented by the delegates. The four areas of integration for analysis were as follows:• The governments adoption of the gender and climate change policy in all countries.• CSO, NGO's and private sector to develop gender and climate change policies within their institutions• M&E Frameworks incorporated in Gender and climate change projects• Local Women and youth in climate action networksThe groups rated the status of integration whether or not such was on track, identify the challenges and required actions and also the responsible institution to address the actions. The responses suggested that generally adoption of gender and climate change policy and the establishment of local women and youth in climate action network were on track in most of the countries, while for CSO, NGOs and private sector to develop Gender and CC policies within their institutions and the incorporation of Gender and CC projects M&E framework were reported as being in progress.The key challenges needing attention were highlighted as: capacity development needs for implementation, financial limitation as well as issues dealing with resistance to change. With regards to finances, it was observed that in most cases, there was inadequate domestic funding of Gender and CC programs/projects. The groups identified actions required to address the observed challenges and ensure alignment to the outcomes of respective countries. For the purpose of this report, discussions that followed the presentations are further summarized in the six points for consideration in Section 2.1 of this report.The second task involved an assessment of six thematic areas of priority actions based on the workshop deliberations to come up with an action plan for addressing the challenges; identifying priority actions under each one of them giving the timeframe, resources required and responsible entity. The six themes were (i) technology burden (ii) capacity (iii) finance (iv) policy environment (v) community participation and (vi) networking and knowledge sharing. First group only analyzed one theme (community participation), second group analyzed three (technology burden, finance and networking and knowledge sharing) and the third group analyzed three as well (capacity, community participation and networking and knowledge sharing).None of the groups analyzed policy environment. It can be assumed that generally the policy environment is quite favorable and just requires the key enablers for the actors (technology, finance and capacity) that are manifested in the actions proposed by the groups. Key to all these actions is transformational changes of the mindset and daring to act differently as described in the presentations by Dr. Karimi on CC Winners. The presentations of the three groups are given in Annex 3 of the report.Gender and climate change will continue to assume a position of urgency to both institutions and people in the SADC region as underpinned by views and evidence observed by the training workshop. The platform will serve as stakeholders and partners convergences that support a more strategic approach in making gender and climate as an issue of urgency the following recommendations are proposed.That CCARDESA supports the regional networking and knowledge sharing platform on gender and climate change initiated as consensus of participant. The platform will support sharing of best practices/lessons learnt from AICCRA and other CC projects.2) That CCARDESA takes steps to share with SADC stakeholder its knowledge products including CSA handbook to instigate use and local level resilience.3) That CCARDESA working with partners takes measures to make capacity development in gender and climate change an ongoing activity.That proactive efforts are undertaken to strengthen collaboration and inspiration for a more focus on gender and climate change integration in programs, plans, projects and practice.That CCARDESA identifies policy influencers in the SADC region such as FARNAP that will enable regular policy consultation and input making directly enhancing value of CCADESA knowledge products in policy influence.Based on the deliberations of the three days, the action plans developed by the groups, the following were the recommendations of expected actions from CCARDESA to support the attainment of the second objective of the workshop that was to empower gender and Climate Change Champions. Other general observations and key messages are captured in Annex 4.Empowering gender and climate change champions 1.Networking and Knowledge sharing• Sharing best practices/lessons learnt from AICCRA and other CC projects with special focus on gender smartness• Sharing experiences on new ways of delivering CSA/CIS related interventions e.g., results of the bundles programs from AICCRA-Zambia cluster• Broadening access to CCARDESA website (CSA Handbook)• Training (ToT), field visits (exchange visits)• Facilitate resource mobilization 3.Strengthen collaboration and coordination (as well strategic partnerships)• Broaden participation at CARWG with more focus on gender dimensions• Support the strengthening of coordination of the National CA Task Forces• More pro-active engagement with the relevant SADC Technical Committees of the FANR Department• Regular special consultation with FANRPAN and AGNES for input in the process of policy issues.In addition to these points, it was decided that a WhatsApp group of the delegates be created for continued networking. To officially make follow up on the action planning, Botswana and Eswatini were nominated as lead, co-lead in representing the delegates in the various gender and climate change related platforms. ","tokenCount":"3324"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e94ebe71f41e587abae53ec35a4e8118","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1fa7ba44-2b40-4b88-a31c-0326e8d70f5d/retrieve","id":"-2054223931"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5e1f8c41-149f-4cf4-9182-6a017d77313f","pagecount":"57","content":"El CIAT pone a disposición el material descrito en la lista adjunta como parte de su política de aprovechamiento máximo del material genético con fines de investigación. El material se obtuvo en el CIAT; o se adquirió antes de la entrada en vigor del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica; o bien, si se adquirió después de la entrada en vigor del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, se obtuvo quedando entendido que podría ponerse libremente a disposición con fines de investigación agrícola, mejoramiento y capacitación; en las condiciones establecidas en el acuerdo entre el CIAT y la FAO de fecha 26 Octubre de 1994. El material se mantiene en depósito con arreglo a las condiciones del presente acuerdoy el Receptor no tiene derecho a obtener derechos de propiedad intelectual (DPI) sobre el germoplasma o la información conexa.El Receptor puede utilizar y conservar el material con fines de investigación, mejoramiento y capacitación y lo puede distribuir a otras partes, siempre que el receptor esté también dispuesto a aceptar las condiciones del presente acuerdo. • Mejoramiento• Agronomía• Investigación básica• Investigación aplicada• Otros• Solicitud de Germoplasma• Acuerdo de Transferencia de Material (ATM)• Certificado Fitosanitario ","tokenCount":"190"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"24764204b01b52bdcb11f7f678641bf4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f3609ac7-9d0c-447e-96fb-a7ef9e06c14e/retrieve","id":"-1671759747"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3aa2cb79-f813-406b-85e5-4077d8e5cd4e","pagecount":"7","content":"Dioscorea rotundata is an economically important food crop in many tropical countries as many people in this region depend on it for food and livelihood. Viral diseases, especially Yam mosaic virus (YMV), constitute a major constraint in the cultivation of this crop as they perpetuate through generations in the vegetatively propagated planting materials. Getting resistant or at least virus-free planting materials for farmers thus becomes crucial. This study was aimed at eliminating YMV in Dioscorea rotundata by cryotherapy of axillary buds. Enlarged axillary buds of YMV-infected TDr 2269 were frozen in liquid nitrogen for 1 h, re-warmed at 40 °C and cultured to regenerate plantlets. Approximately 76.33% plantlet regeneration and 100% YMV eradication were obtained for cryo-treated buds, against 95% and 0% obtained respectively for non-treated buds. RT-PCR and RT-qPCR analyses did not reveal detectable quantity of YMV in treated plants but did in control plants. Plants from cryo-treated buds showed no mosaic symptoms and produced slightly more tubers, and heavier mini-tubers (20.48 §3.11 g) under greenhouse conditions contrary to non-treated plants that showed severe mosaic symptoms with significantly smaller tubers (1.91 §0.39 g) (P < 0.05). This is the first report showing the elimination of YMV from infected white yam stock plant by cryotherapy and would be useful for producing clean planting materials.The world's human population currently estimated at 7.7 billion is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050 (Braun, 2010;UN, 2017). This will be driven by India and African countries, and Nigeria is expected to be the third largest with 411 million human population after China (1.3 billion) and India (1.6 billion) according to forecast by the 2017 revision of world population reports (UN, 2017). Such a rapidly increasing population will pose a great challenge for global food security. A drastic increase, not less than 70%, in food production and supply will be required to meet the future demand (Braun, 2010). Sustainable development of agricultural production by breeding more productive cultivars using both traditional breeding (Yuan, 2001) and genetic engineering (Qaim, 2010), and by increasing productive potential of existing cultivars through the use of pathogenfree plants (Wintermantel et al., 1997), will hopefully meet this demand.Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a monocotyledonous climbing crop species that produces edible underground tubers and is propagated vegetatively through the use of tuber setts. It is an economically important food crop in many tropical countries with annual global production put at 73.01 million tones. Nigeria is currently the largest producer with annual production of 47.9 million tones accounting for 67% of global production (FAO, 2017). In some communities in Nigeria, yam is perceived as a religious, social, and cultural crop and is the most favorite food in social functions such as marriage, burials and other traditional ceremonies and rituals. This perception largely explains why 'New Yam Festivals' are held annually in these communities (Obidiegwu and Akpabio, 2017). Despite these social and economic importance of yam, its production is severely constrained by the cost and availability of planting material, diseases and pests. Pests and diseases caused by insects, nematodes, fungi, bacteria and viruses, singly or in combination have direct adverse effect on the yield of the crop (Degras, 1993;Hughes et al., 1997;Kenyon et al., 2001). Of these, viruses constitute a major pathological problem in yam production in all growing regions of the world, and are of substantive economic importance not only because of yield losses they cause, but also due to the high cost of preventive measures (Degras, 1993) and restriction of international exchange of germplasms (Hughes et al., 1997). The different groups of viruses infecting yam include Potyvirus (Yam mosaic virus (YMV), Dioscorea alata virus (DAV), and Dioscorea dumetorum virus (DdV)); Badnavirus (Dioscorea alata bacilliform virus (DaBV)), Cucumovirus (Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV)) and Comovirus (Dioscorea mottle virus (DMoV)). Apart from DaBV, which is transmitted by mealybugs (Planococcus citri), all the other viruses are transmitted by aphids. Studies have shown that YMV, DAV, DaBV, and CMV are mechanically transmissible between yam plants (Kenyon et al., 2001).Of these viruses, Yam mosaic virus (YMV) is the most important virus infecting both cultivated and wild yam species worldwide. The virus is transmitted by aphids in a non-persistent manner, as well as through infected plant material from generation to generation. In nature, YMV has been found in several species of Dioscoreaceae and can be mechanically transmitted to Nicotiana benthamiana, N. megalosiphon and Chenopodium amanticolor (Odu et al., 2004). Infected plants usually show inter-veinal mosaic, curling, molting and stunted growth, and the disease can result in significant yield losses in yam (Thouvenel and Dumont, 1990;Adeniji et al., 2012). It thus becomes crucial to get resistant or at least virus-free planting materials for farmers. Regrettably, efforts to develop yam seedlings free of yam mosaic virus by conventional breeding methods have been deterred by a number of factors such as long growth cycle, dioecy, poor to noflowering nature of the plant, polyploidy, vegetative propagation, heterozygous genetic background and poor knowledge of the organization of crop diversity (Mignouna et al., 2008), which prevent the transfer of desirable agronomic traits into the crop. Thus, the use of cryogenic techniques has become a valuable alternative.Cryotherapy is the treatment of infected plant materials for a short time in liquid nitrogen to rid the plant of the infection based on cryopreservation techniques (Wang and Valkonen, 2009;Wang et al., 2009;Feng et al., 2012). Several plant pathogens including Cucumber mosaic virus and Banana streak virus (Heliot et al., 2002), Grape virus A of grapevine (Wang et al., 2003), Plum pox potyvirus in Prunus spp. (Brison et al., 1997), Potato leaf roll virus in potato (Wang et al., 2006), Sweet potato feathery mottle virus and Sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (Wang and Valkonen, 2008), Sweet Potato Little Leaf Phytoplasma in sweet potato (Wang et al., 2008) and Huanglongbing Bacterium in citrus (Ding et al., 2008), have been eradicated using cryotherapy. In yams, cryotherapy of shoot apices and axillary bud, for the purpose of viral eradication, has received wide attention in recent years (Hong et al., 2009;Mandal and Ahuja-Ghosh, 2007;Mandal et al., 2008;Mandal and Dixit-Sharma, 2007;Shin et al., 2013). However, there is no report showing the use of cryotherapy to eradicate YMV in D. rotundata. Here, we report for first time the production of YMV-free Dioscorea rotundata plants by Cryo-treatment of Axillary buds.Plantlets of Dioscorea rotundata accession TDr 2269 containing YMV were multiplied and maintained in vitro as shoot cultures by cultivating nodal segments on yam basic medium (YBM), which is MS basal salts and vitamins (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) containing 0.05 mg/L 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP), 0.02 mg/L Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 25 mg/L Ascorbic acid, 30 g/L sucrose and solidified with 3 g/L gelrite.Total RNA was extracted from 100 mg leaves of the in vitro cultures using RNeasy Ò Plant Mini Kit by QIAGEN GmbH, Germany. cDNA was synthesized from 1 mg of total RNA using iScript cDNA Synthesis Kit (BIO-RAD Laboratories, Inc.) according to the manufacturer's instructions. One micro liters of the cDNA was then used for PCR to detect 161 bp of YMV-CP gene using the primers: YMV-CP5P: GTGGACAATGATGGACGGTG and YMV-CP3P: CGTATCGGGGCATA-TACGGT. PCR was performed in a 20 ml reaction volume containing 1 ml genomic DNA (100 ng/ml), 0.1 ml of Ex Taq DNA polymerase, 2 ml of Ex Taq buffer, 1.5 ml of dNTP mix, 1 ml of 10 mM of each primer, and 13.4 mL nuclease-free water. PCR amplification conditions were performed as follows: initial denaturation step at 94 °C for 3 min, followed by 34 cycles of denaturation at 94 °C for 30 s, annealing at 62 °C for 30 s, extension at 72 °C for 1 min, and final extension at 72 °C for 5 min. After amplification, 10 ml of PCR product was resolved on 1% agarose gel stained with gel red.Nodal explants containing axillary buds were excised from in vitro cultures of YMV-infected TDr 2269 confirmed by RT-PCR, and cultivated for 6 days on shoot bud induction medium (SBM) consisting of MS salts and vitamins supplemented with 20 g/L sucrose, 10 mg/L BAP, 0.318 mg/L copper sulfate and solidified with 3 g/L gelrite. The pH of the medium was adjusted to 5.8 prior to autoclaving. The enlarged axillary buds were excised and pre-cultured in 10% sucrose of MS liquid medium for 16 h. The buds were then encapsulated in sodium alginate (3% w/v) and hardened in 0.1 M calcium chloride solution to form beads. The beads containing the buds were then washed 3 times in sterile distilled water and placed in liquid MS medium containing 17% sucrose and 2 M glycerol for 1 h. The beads were dried in sterile laminar flow bench for 5 h (dessication). Next, the beads were placed in 2 ml sterile polypropylene cryotubes and incubated in liquid nitrogen for 1 h. The control group was plated directly in recovery medium. Thereafter, the cryotubes were retrieved from liquid nitrogen and immersed in a water-bath at 40 °C for 5 min. The beads were then transferred to a regeneration medium (MS salts and vitamins supplemented with 20 g/L sucrose, 1 mg/L BAP, 0.318 mg/L copper sulfate, 3 g/L gelrite, pH 5.8) and sub-cultured every 2 weeks until shoots developed (Manoharan et al. 2016). Regenerated shoots were excised and transferred to MS medium (salt and vitamins) supplemented with 30 g/ L sucrose, 0.02 mg/L NAA, 0.05 mg/L BAP, 25 mg/L Ascorbic acid, pH5.8 and 3 g/L gelrite as gelling agent.RNA was extracted from 100 mg leaves of regenerated shoots using RNeasy Ò Plant Mini Kit and cDNA synthesized using PrimScript TM RT reagent Kit with gDNA Eraser (Perfect Real Time). Two micro liters of the cDNA synthesized was used for PCR to detect 161 bp of YMV-CP gene using the primers: YMV-CP5P and YMV-CP3P. Yam ubiquitin gene was used as internal control to check the quality of the cDNA using the following primers, Yam_Ubq: ATGAGGAACCAATGGCTGAG (forward) and TTGCCAGCATGTCTATCTGC (reverse). The reaction was constituted in a total of 50 mL volume containing 5 mL of 10X Ex Taq buffer (1X), 5 mL dNTPs (200 mM), 1 mL of 10 mM YMV-CP-5P (0.2 mM), 1 mL of 10 mM YMV-CP-3P (0.2 mM), 0.40 mL of Ex Taq polymerase (1.25 units), 2 mL of cDNA and 35.60 mL of nuclease-free water. PCR reaction and condition were same as described earlier in Section 2.1. After amplification, 10 mL of PCR product was resolved on 1% agarose gel stained with gel red.Ten lines of YMV-free plants confirmed by RT-PCR and YMVinfected control plants were multiplied and six plants per line were subsequently transferred to the greenhouse for testing. For shoot induction, nodal explants containing axillary buds were excised and cultured on yam basic medium (YBM). The pH of the medium was adjusted to 5.8 before autoclaving. Rooted plantlets were transferred to the greenhouse in pots containing garden soil and covered with transparent polybags for 14 days for acclimatization. The temperature was maintained at 25 °C § 2 °C, the relative humidity was 70%.The established YMV-free plants (10 lines, 6 plants per line) and the control (6 plants) in the greenhouse were assessed every day for mosaic symptoms development but the final classification was recorded 17 weeks after transfer to the soil. The number of plants and number of leaves per plant showing mosaic symptoms were recorded. Also, plant height, number of leaves, number of mini tubers, and weight of mini tubers were recorded 17 weeks after transfer to the soil. Data were collected from all six plants per line and subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Means were separated using Least Significant Difference (LSD) test.RNA was extracted from leaves of twelve weeks old plants and cDNA synthesized as described in Section 2.3. The cDNA synthesized were subjected to Real Time RT-PCR using the primers: YMV-CP_qPCR: CAGA-TATGCGTTCGACTTCTTA (forward) and AGGCTGTGCATGTCTTTC (reverse); Ubq_qPCR: CAGTCATGGTGCGATGTT (forward) and CCTCA-CAACTTCCAAGAGTTC (reverse) as internal control. Real Time PCR was performed in Applied Biosystems StepOne TM and StepOnePlus TM Real Time PCR system (Applied Biosystems, Japan Ltd.) using KOD SYBR Ò qPCR Mix (TOYOBO Company Limited, Japan). The Real Time PCR reaction was constituted in a total of 20 mL: 7.52 mL distilled water, 10 mL KOD SYBR qPCR mix (1 X), 0.04 mL forward primer (0.2 mM), 0.04 mL reverse primer(0.2 mM), 0.4 mL 50X ROX reference dye (0.1 X). The PCR cycling conditions were as follows: pre-heating at 98 °C (2 min), followed by 40 cycles of 98 °C (10 s .), 55 °C (10 s .), 68 °C (30 s .), with melting curve analysis (60À99 °C), for both YMV-CP and Ubq. Ct values of the standard were used to generate calibration curves for both YMV-CP and Ubq. Sample Ct values were then interpolated in the calibration curve to determine the expression level of both YMV-CP and Ubq. The relative expression of YMV-CP was calculated after normalization of YMV-CP expression using ubiquitin as reference gene (Livak and Schmittgen, 2001).RT-PCR analysis using Yam mosaic virus coat protein (YMV-CP) gene was carried out to confirm the presence of the virus in the parent plant before cryo-treatment. The result is presented in Fig. 1. From the analysis, 161 bp of YMV-CP was amplified in all the samples tested, indicting the presence of YMV in the parent plant.Axillary buds excised from YMV-infected plants confirmed by RT-PCR were cryo-treated and plantlets were regenerated accordingly (Fig. 2). A regeneration frequency of 76.33% was obtained from cryotreated buds as against 95% recorded from the untreated buds (Table 1).To determine whether cryo-treated regenerated plants were YMV-free, RT-PCR was carried out. The result showed no amplification of the 161 bp fragment of YMV-CP in all the 20 plants sampled from plants regenerated from cryo-treated buds (Fig. 3, Table 1). This indicates that they were YMV-free. In contrast, YMV-CP gene was amplified in all the ten sampled plants regenerated from the nontreated buds, indicating that none was free of YMV (Fig. 3, Table 1).To further screen cryo-treated plants, YMV-free yam plantlets confirmed by RT-PCR were propagated in the greenhouse until minitubers were produced. None of the plants regenerated from cryotreated buds showed mosaic symptom (Fig. 4(A)) 17 weeks after culture. In contrast, control plants started developing mosaic symptoms from the 8th day after transfer to the greenhouse. At the end of the evaluation period (17 weeks), all the control plants (100%) had developed mosaic symptoms (Fig. 4(B)). Vine length was significantly reduced (p < 0.05) in non-treated control plants (8.95 §0.46 cm), whereas plants in line C20 (cryo-treated) had the longest vine length (26.56 §7.04 cm) Table 2). Plants in line C5 (cryo-treated) produced more mini-tubers (1.50 §0.23) as against 1.00 §0.00 recorded for the control, C1, C2, C8, C10, C13 and C20 (Table 2). The weight of minitubers in the cryo-treated plants were significantly (p < 0.05) higher, ranging from 6.31 §1.33 g in C1 to 20.48 §3.11 g in C20 (Fig. 4(C), Table 2), compared to those in the control which were only 1.91 § 0.39 g (Fig. 4(D), Table 2). Altogether, Cryo-treated plants produced more and larger tubers (Fig. 4(C)) than the control plants (Fig. 4(D)).Cryo-treated and non-treated yam plants established in the greenhouse were evaluated for virus accumulation in the leaves by real time RT-PCR. The result indicated significantly higher accumulation of YMV which is correlated with high relative expression of YMV-CP in the leaves of non-treated yam plants compared to cryotreated plants (Fig. 5). There was no expression in lines C1ÀC13 which had expression levels ranging from 0.0031 in C1 to 0.05 in C13. Lines C18 and C20 had very little expression (Fig. 5), indicating the effectiveness of the cryo-technique used in this study.Pathogen-induced diseases have for a long time threatened the sustainable production of agricultural and horticultural crops (Wintermantel et al., 1997;Wang et al., 2011). Several crop species that ensure food security in many different parts of the world are vegetatively propagated and therefore particularly prone to losses caused by viruses that are transmitted from generation to generation in the planting materials (Hadidi et al., 1998;Loebenstein et al., 2001;Loebenstein and Thottapilly, 2003). The availability of pathogen-free planting materials is crucial for high yields and quality of these crops. Virus eradication methods such as meristemming, viral drug therapy, thermotherapy, electrotherapy, and cryotherapy, singly or in combination have been employed over the years with varying levels of success. In cryotherapy, virus-infected cells are eliminated by the lethal effects of ultra-low temperature; no mechanical removal of tissues is necessary. Cryotherapy takes advantage of physio-anatomical differences between meristematic and other tissues, and is carried out to destroy the differentiated, infected cells by a brief cryo-treatment in liquid nitrogen (Wang and Valkonen, 2009).It has been shown by light-microscopy observation that freezing in liquid nitrogen kills the cells with large vacuoles in the lower layers of the meristem, while leaving a few top layers of dense cells alive (Brison et al., 1997;Wang et al., 2008;Wang and Valkonen, 2008;Wang et al., 2009;Wang and Valkonen, 2009). When shoot tips are subjected to freezing in liquid nitrogen, large cells with bigger vacuoles which contain more water and are more likely to be infected by the virus, are killed. Only small cells with dense cytoplasm, which are located in the top layers of the meristem and are likely to be virus-free, survive freezing in liquid nitrogen (Helliot et al., 2002;Wang et al., 2003;Wang and Valkonen, 2008). This is thought to provide an explanation for why plants regenerated from cryotherapy can be freed from virus.In this study, eradication of YMV from Tropical Dioscorea rotundata by cryotherapy was effective. It was however observed that the regeneration level after cryotherapy was slightly lower compared to the non-cryotreated plants. This difference was compensated by the higher proportion of virus-free regenerants obtained following cryotherapy, this is similar to reports by Helliot et al. (2002), Wang et al. (2003Wang et al. ( , 2006) ) and Ding et al. (2008). In contrast, Shin et al. (2013) reported different regeneration percentage and YMV eradication percentage in D. opposite following cryo-treatment of the shoot apices. The reasons for this difference in virus elimination efficiency are not known, although factors such as difference in cryo-treated plant parts as well as the different dehydration protocol, plant cultivar, and, perhaps, virus strain may have had a bearing in determining it.The cryo-treated buds produced healthy plantlets following in vitro propagation and showed high level of acclimatization on transfer to the greenhouse. This indicates that the cryo-treatment did not interfere with the growth and general performance of the plants in vitro and under greenhouse conditions. Although, evaluation of regenerated plantlets with RT-PCR revealed complete elimination of YMV from yam plantlets from cryo-treated buds, re-evaluation of the yam plants after greenhouse acclimatization with qPCR showed the accumulation of YMV in lines C18 and C20 at a reduced concentration. This indicates that YMV was not completely eliminated in these lines although leaf mosaic symptoms were not present, probably due to the fact that the viral titer was greatly reduced to a negligible concentration.    Furthermore, qPCR is a more sensitive technique than RT-PCR and so it was able to detect very little accumulation of the virus. This is similar to reports by Ding et al. (2008). The implication of the result obtained in this study is that the limitations faced with international germplasm exchange of Dioscorea spp. due to viral contamination will be eliminated as virus-free germplasms can be produced.Several viruses have been reported to infect yams including members of the family Potexviridae; Potyviridae; Bromoviridae; Caulimoviridae (Hughes et al., 1997;Odu et al., 1999). The effectiveness in the elimination of YMV by cryo-treatment of the buds can be adopted for other yam viruses. This may be achievable due to the fact that most viruses exhibit similar mechanism of infestation and replication in host tissues; and the fact that crytotherapy has been reported to be effective in eliminating most viruses, except for a group of viruses that can infect meristematic cells which can be eliminated using combined thermotherapy and cryotherapy (Gallard et al., 2011).It has been reported that yam tuber yield depends on the ability of healthy yam leaves to efficiently trap, convert and sink the sun's light energy into chemical energy in tubers during photosynthesis (Nweke et al., 1991). In the present study, reduction in tuber size and quality in YMV-infected control plants could be said to be due to the varying shades of mosaic and chlorotic leaf discoloration and malformation symptoms. This invariably resulted in the reduction of photosynthetic efficiency of the infected plants and consequently the reduction in tuber yield and quality (Amusa et al., 2003;Eni et al., 2013).Our results demonstrate that YMV can be effectively eliminated from Tropical Dioscorea rotundata by cryotherapy of the axillary buds of infected stock plants. The cryo-treatment did not interfere with regeneration, growth and general performance of the plants in vitro and under greenhouse conditions. To establish the economic viability of this approach, extensive study of field performance of the regenerated plants will be necessary. Lower case letters denote differences among the means on the basis of LSD test. NS indicates means with no significant differences (p > 0.05). ","tokenCount":"3496"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"160762ce9d55f64dbed68cbd487d3796","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/GLADS_Review-and-concept.pdf","id":"-598089653"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9a6a518b-567b-4ad3-8b3f-e7f807293f12","pagecount":"20","content":"1. Literature review on application of landscape approach to date and applicability to displacement settings. This review targeted historical and current accounts on how the biophysical, socioeconomic and governance contexts have been considered in landscape-level management and displacement settings. We collected relevant literature from 2000 onwards (and even further back when deemed relevant) via scientific databases of ISI Web of Sciences (papers), Google Scholar (books, reports) and unpublished reports.Refugee influxes and their dependence on natural resources for construction materials, fuelwood and livelihood activities frequently exceed the carrying capacity of the natural ecosystem. This can lead to forest, land and soil degradation, and biodiversity losses, which can cause tensions with host communities. With refugees often staying for long periods, long-term support to livelihoods for both refugees and host communities has increasingly been considered critical during humanitarian interventions.GLADS is a European Union-funded initiative, led by CIFOR-ICRAF in partnership with key stakeholders, to develop guidelines on implementing an integrated landscape approach in displacement settings. These guidelines will assist humanitarian actors and local stakeholders in targeting landscape-level planning, implementation and rehabilitation that contribute to livelihood resilience of refugees and host communities. These guidelines will be based on the review of available tools, case studies of three selected refugee-hosting landscapes and co-design with key stakeholders at global, national and landscape levels.The review by the GLADS team between September 2021 and January 2022 covered general literature on the topic, both globally and in sub-Saharan African countries, as well as tools published in the past two decades . We applied a structured search approach to the review work with clearly predetermined search strings (see Table 1.1), including the following:Targeting sustainable development and resilience at the landscape level is increasingly recognized as a viable way to overcome sectoral gaps and find solutions through dialogue with actors at multiple levels. The potential of landscape approaches to address competing claims from a myriad of actors, seems particularly relevant in refugee-hosting landscapes. This working document presents results of a review of landscape approaches in displacement settings. A concept framework will guide subsequent steps of developing Guidelines for a Landscape Approach in Displacement Settings (GLADS) through field work and consultation.3. Review of documentation on the selected refugee hosting areas in Cameroon (East region near Garoua Boulaï), Kenya (Kakuma camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement in Turkana County) and Uganda (Rhino Refugee Camp Settlement in Madi-Okollo district, formerly part of Arua district). This review identified available information on consideration of landscapes in these displacement settings (as well as what was lacking). Using online searches and local partners, we collected as much relevant material available as possible on potentially affected landscapes.Team members stored 195 references (135 English and 60 French) after a quick scan on relevance to the research topic. Both references and files were stored in Mendeley for content analysis following the research themes.The review focused on sub-Saharan Africa because of the exponential increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the continent over the past few decades. A few other case study countries were included when they offered relevant experiences. We gave special attention to the selected case study countries: Cameroon, Kenya and Uganda, which explains the relatively high number of publications related to these countries. Other African countries that appeared more frequently in review because of their experiences with hosting refugees are Rwanda, Tanzania, South-Sudan and Ethiopia. The division of literature reviewed per country is depicted in Figure 1.1.  Landscapes are spatial human-ecological systems that deliver a wide range of functions valued by humans for economic, sociocultural and environmental reasons. The landscape approach engages multiple stakeholders to reconcile societal and environmental objectives, and to identify and manage trade-offs and potential synergies for more sustainable and equitable land and natural resources management at a landscape scale (Ros-Tonen et al. 2018). Sayer and colleagues (2013) state that \"Landscape approaches seek to provide tools and concepts for allocating and managing land to achieve social, economic and environmental objectives in areas where agriculture, mining and other productive uses compete with environmental and biodiversity goals\". Their 'ten principles' to support implementation emphasize inclusion of adaptive management, stakeholder involvement and multiple objectives.Institutional and governance concerns are the major constraints identified in dealing with complex nature of landscape processes (Sayer et al. 2013). Freeman and colleagues (2015) distinguish three different landscape approaches: 1) landscape scale, 2) sectoral landscape and 3) integrated landscape. Whereas the first takes the landscape as the lens of operation, the second focuses on one (or a few) primary goals. The third -the integrated landscape approach -focuses on five main concepts:• multifunctionality and recognizing and addressing both synergies and trade-offs• interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinary approaches in research of planning/ management, involving engagement with stakeholders inside and outside the landscape• participation, including consultation and engagement at various stages in planning and management• complexity of the social-ecological systems and range of different processes at various scales that landscapes entail• sustainability, including social, environmental and economic dimensions, to be agreed upon in the specific context.The three types of landscape approaches and five main aspects of the integrated landscape approach guided our assessment of application of landscape approaches in displacement settings.Our review showed that documents do not refer explicitly to the integrated landscape approach in displacement settings: the other two approacheslandscape scale and sectoral landscape -were the main ones used. Some studies focus on refugees or specific issues, or on national policy. Others focus on a landscape scale that includes refugee settlements and hosting communities, refugee settlements and affected areas, or regions of displacement. Although we did not find applications of the integrated landscape approach in the review, numerous studies confirmed and illustrated the relevance of its five pillars in displacement settings. Below, we describe how these pillars have been reported on in displacement settings.The complexity of social-ecological systems gets amplified in displacement settings. Challenges, such as lack of resources and conflicts with host communities, are made more complex in the face of local realities, such as poverty, lack of land and natural resources degradation (Gumisiriza 2018). Often, both refugees and host communities face economic, social and political conflicts, such as the case of Somalia refugees and host communities in North East Kenya (Kumssa and Jones 2014.) Displacement puts additional pressure on natural resources, leading to clusters of deforestation, as observed for several regions in East Africa (Tafere 2018). Humanitarian agendas in supplying essential needs to camps, such as water, shelter and fuelwood, soon become part of wider socio-spatial relations. For example, in the already vulnerable dry environment near Kakuma refugee camp, the collection of fuelwood and water by refugees competed with the needs of the local population. This led to conflicts and violent situations for women and children collecting the firewood. This illustrates the early need for 'hybrid humanitarian governance' to co-govern spaces beyond the borders of the camp (Jansen and De Bruijne 2020).The often long-term nature of displacement eventually creates new social patterns and relations within the camp (Jansen 2011). At the same time, it leads to new power relations between the main actors, including humanitarian aid organizations, state government, local government and local populations (Napier Moore 2005). New social networks and connections between refugees and host communities form systems for transactions between individuals and groups (Omata and Kaplan 2013). An assessment of social impact in refugee-host communities in Turkana County in Kenya shows the complexity of interactions. These include economic participation among host and refugee community households, organizations and institutions; conflicts and violence; and development activities, including the major actors in the host and refugee communities (Vemuru et al. 2016). At the same time, these new systems can offer opportunities to the parties involved. Economic interactions between host communities and refugees, for example, contribute to local economies, which depend on economic capacities, access to markets and opportunities to construct livelihoods (Omata and Kaplan 2013;Verwimp and Maystadt 2015;World Bank 2016).Landscapes offer a multitude of ecological, social and economic functions. Trade-offs between the different functions and actors in a landscape add to the social-ecological complexities described earlier.In Uganda, around Rhino camp and Imvepi refugee settlements, collection of water and fuelwood soon led to resource depletion and lack of these much-needed resources (Duguma et al. 2019). Stress on biomass resources around camps, and increasing distances for firewood collection, exposes women and children to insecurity and violence. In so doing, it affects their opportunities to take part in livelihood or educational activities, such as reported for Kyangwali Refugee Settlement (Jickling 2018).Pressures can induce conflicts between host communities and refugees, further impacting livelihood opportunities. Land conflicts may arise from limited communication between refugees and host communities, a sense of unfair treatment, insecurity, unclear boundaries, and land ownership and conflicting activities on the same land, such as by pastoralists and farmers (Ahimbisibwe and Frank 2013). National policies determine the extent of trade-offs by regulations on mobility and freedom of movement, access to markets, land and education (Betts et al. 2019). Multifunctionality and trade-offs in interactions between refugees and host communities should be addressed in the planning and design of refugee camps (Jahre et al. 2017). Mitigation measures include natural resources planning and targeted solutions, such as agroforestry, which considers needs of livestock, agriculture and tree resources (Grosrenaud et al. 2021).Literature on displacement studies can be broadly divided into two categories. Targeted studies offer in-depth insights from one discipline, such as remote sensing, ethnographic research, psychosocial analysis or policy analysis. Conversely, cross-disciplinary studies combine more than one discipline. Remote sensing, for example, is often combined with ground truthing to understand vegetation changes (Bernard et al. 2019).An integrated landscape approach generally calls for approaches that transcend disciplines. It looks at multiple relevant sectors simultaneously, considering the complexities and multifunctionality of socialecological systems in displacement settings. A multisectoral approach, for example, could provide an enabling environment for economic self-reliance (Jahanzeb 2021). As another example, the systems approach to environment considers the environmental impact of aid in displacement settings as an integral part of humanitarian response, disaster-risk reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals and climate nexus (Tafere 2018).The complex and multifaceted nature of displacement settings underscores the importance of participation, including consultation and engagement by various actors at various stages in planning and management. The hybrid and sometimes hidden nature of humanitarian governance also co-shapes opportunities for meaningful participation. Key players include humanitarian organizations, government and local stakeholders, and power structures within camps (Jansen and De Bruijne 2020).A  (Grosrenaud et al. 2021).The literature has also noted that integrating refugees with host communities has enhanced economic and livelihood opportunities. For instance, such integration has created jobs and increased demand and supply of goods (Idris 2020), reduced reliance on aid (Grosrenaud 2021), and enhanced access to telecommunication services (World Bank 2016) and to land for commercial agriculture. In so doing, it has promoted self-reliance (REACH 2019) and equitable access to urban markets (Monteith and Lwasa 2017). Verwimp and Maystadt (2015) reported that host communities generated about $3 million in annual income from livestock and milk sales to the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya.Promoting self-reliance or self-sufficiency is often considered a long-term solution to livelihood improvements (Jacobsen and Fratzke 2016;Schön et al. 2021).Economic sustainability within refugee-hosting landscapes requires a holistic view on refugee and hosting communities and their long-term access to economic activities.  (Jaafar et al. 2020).Despite positive outcomes and the availability of a wide range of guidelines for sustainable site selection and camp management, the effectiveness of these environmental measures is undermined by land conflicts; limited access to land; and environmental degradation (Ahimbisibwe and Frank 2013). Unsustainable use of resources continues to create conflict between refugees and host communities, adding to the complex political ecological landscapes (Martin 2005; Kumisa and Jones 2014).Various tools and guidelines have been developed to assist in planning, implementation and monitoring of impacts resulting from an influx of refugees in displacement landscapes. The review identified relevant tools and guidelines (Table 3.1). Most target environmental planning or specific aspects, including forestry and household energy. Two frameworks target coordination and governance: the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework and the Refugee and Host Population Empowerment (Re-HoPE) Strategic Framework. (3) lack of long-term environmental strategies from the organizations using the toolkit for their activities; (4) reduced donor support for environmental management; and (5) disagreements on who is responsible for environmental matters (Martin 2005).This was developed jointly by FAO and ICRAF in 2020 for displacement settings in five East African countries, including Kenya and Uganda. It was aimed at helping stakeholders develop forest and tree options for environmental conservation, restoration of ecosystems and livelihood improvement (FAO and ICRAF, unpublished). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) developed the SAFE framework to support field-based actors directly involved in the management of natural resources and protection of crisis-affected populations (FAO 2016). The framework helps in understanding how woodfuel is sourced, used and monitored in displaced settings. For instance, in 2020, FAO in partnership with Practical Action used the SAFE framework in evaluating energy access, challenges and recommendations and innovative SAFE programming in humanitarian settings in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan. One key finding showed high demand by both displaced and host communities for firewood as fuel and to make charcoal (FAO and Practical Action 2020). The evaluation recommended curbing firewood demand and adopting clean cooking technologies to reduce environmental degradation and related resource tension and conflicts with local communities (FAO and Practical Action 2020). The SAFE framework also seeks to solve multisectoral challenges associated with energy access in displacement settings. The desired outcome and processes include food security; sustainably managed natural resources; livelihoods diversification, improved health; enhanced nutrition; climate mitigation; empowerment of youth; peace building; and social cohesion (FAO 2016).Guideline on the management of natural and planted forest and woodlands in displacement settings (FAO and UNHCR 2020)The guideline is a training tool applicable to practitioners and refugees and host communities. It is used to assign planning, implementation and monitoring of appropriate management of forests and woodlands in displacement settings. It offers guidance on the management of natural resources and planted forests and woodlands in displacement settings. To that end, it considers woodfuel demand and supply, land suitability, land tenure, livelihoods opportunities, the prerequisite for suitable nursery and plantation sites, tree species selection, nursery establishment and management, and plantation establishment and management, as well as monitoring, evaluation and reporting. The guideline aims to provide management interventions in four critical areas: (1) the rehabilitation, protection and use of degraded forest land; (2) plantations for energy; (3) plantations for timber production; and (4) plantations for food and fodder production.This near real-time, satellite image-based settlement monitoring framework is an automated disturbance detection that captures rapid refugee settlement establishment, growth and changes in land use cover (Friedrich and Van Den Hoek 2020;World-Bank and FAO 2020). The framework can also be applied to assess wood fuel supply and demand in displacement settings, including above ground biomass stocks and land cover classification and timber management (Jickling 2018;World-Bank and FAO 2020). This monitoring framework can enable understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of refugee settlement landscape dynamics and aid refugee response and evaluation efforts that are central to Uganda's refugee hosting and settlement plans. Other reviewed publications, especially scientific articles, expounded on the significance of remote sensing and GIS tools in assessment and monitoring of environmental/vegetation changes due to the influx of refugees (Hagenlocher 2011;Hassan et al. 2018;Leiterer et al. 2018;Rossi et al. 2018;Ahmed et al. 2019;Braun et al. 2019).Handbook on safe access to firewood and alternative energy by World Food Programme (WFP)The handbook is a capacity building/training guide/tool for WFP staff and humanitarian practitioners concerned with safe access to firewood and alternative energy in displacement settings. The handbook provides guidance on fuel-efficient programming in displacement settings. The implementation of the Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy in Humanitarian Settings (SAFE) programme in Uganda in 2009, for example, led to the formation of an Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force on SAFE under WFP leadership. The task force launched SAFE guidance materials that promoted a comprehensive approach to address human and environmental protection, livelihoods, food and nutrition. The adoption of the comprehensive approach reduced the vulnerability of women to protection risks through dissemination of fuel-efficient stoves, and sensitization on food preparation and energy-saving cooking practices, through the creation of woodlots and tree planting (Bizzarri et al. 2009; Masete 2020).This framework was developed by the UNHCR following the United Nations General Assembly's New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. It re-affirms the importance of international refugee rights and protection (UNGA 2016). The CRRF aims at easing pressure on host countries, enhancing refugee self-reliance, expanding access to third-country solutions and supporting conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity (UNHCR 2018). Crawford et al. (2019) assessed the progress of the CRRF in Uganda, highlighting three key factors influencing Uganda's delicate progressive approach to refugees. These comprise: (1) receptiveness is underpinned by shared ethnicities and identities among the refugees and hosts; (2) land grants are offered to refugees; and (3) refugees are usually seen as a lever for economic development by their chronically poor hosts who hope to benefit from improved access to services, infrastructure and economic opportunities (although reality often falls short of expectations).Uganda is viewed as a forerunner and early adopter of the CRRF and hailed for having some of the most progressive refugee policies in the world (Hargrave et al. 2020). However, there has been little progress on responsibility-sharing (Crawford et al. 2019). Humanitarian expenditures for refugee programmes in Uganda are severely strained. There is little systematic tracking of actual donor and government financial support to the CRRF. Finally, there is increasing fear that rhetoric around the CRRF is encouraging closer alignment between humanitarian and development approaches, which donors may use as an excuse to cut humanitarian aid (Crawford et al. 2019).Toolkit for cooking systems in humanitarian settings (Vianello 2016)The toolkit is developed by Moving Energy Initiative (MEI), a collaboration between GVEP International, Chatham House, Practical Action Consulting, The Norwegian Refugee Council and UNHCR. It offers guidance on the design and implementation of improved cooking systems in displacement settings.The toolkit classifies different categories of cookstoves, reviews available cooking systems and provides guidance on clean cooking systems in humanitarian settings. It also proposes a market systems model that offers framework for analyzing how energy services are provided within the larger market systems and how cooking solutions for the displaced populations can be productively integrated within the wider economy of the hosting country. The toolkit calls for an integrated and multistakeholder approach to solving unsustainable energy supply in humanitarian setting. It also proposes that energy provision in humanitarian settings should be mainstreamed into the host country's energy policy. This can be achieved through collaboration between private and public sector actors from manufacture to consumption of energy solutions.ReHoPE is a transformative strategy and approach to bring together a wide range of stakeholders in a harmonized and cohesive manner to ensure more effective programming (GoU et al. 2017 Our literature review on displacement settings found that assessment of environmental impacts and options for environmental and land management often addresses landscape scale. This has included, for example, planning of sites and settlements and certain services like water supply. However, most of the literature illustrates sectoral approaches that only reflect a landscape approach when looking at the wider social-ecological context and engagement with stakeholders. The targeted interventions aim to improve living conditions of refugees in the short term but also help address longer-term sustainability of livelihood options of both refugees and host communities, and the resilience of natural ecosystems.We found no examples of an integrated landscape approach systematically applied or adapted to a refugee hosting or displacement setting. However, the five principles of the landscape approach appear as relevant in displacement settings:• \"Complexity of social-ecological systems\" is coming to the fore in many studies. The influx of people in a certain area puts pressures on ecological services and creates new social relations and renegotiation of claims with host communities and other stakeholders.• The need for \"interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinary\" approaches in planning and management across various sectors is acknowledged for addressing longer-term needs and sustainability in displacement settings.• The \"multiple functions and trade-offs\" principle is illustrated through the reported multiple livelihood activities, and socioeconomic dynamics between refugees and host communities.• \"Participation and stakeholder engagement\" appear relevant in most studies. They identify many different stakeholders: refugees; local population; local, subnational and national governments; humanitarian, international, donor and research organizations; NGOs, universities; and the private sector. Effectiveness of this participation and engagement contributes to management and monitoring and requires capacity enhancement and understanding of stakeholder perceptions.• The literature provides guidance on key economic, social and environmental \"sustainability\" outcomes targeted or obtained through integrated interventions in refugeehosting landscapes. A review of tools and guidelines shows relevant instruments, most of which are targeted to environmental planning and management. Two separate frameworks focus on overall governance and coordination for multisectoral planning and stakeholder engagement. The depicted graph on an \"integrated landscape approach in displacement settings\" summarizes core elements from the review that guidelines should reflect. This framework offers guidance to elements to be further conceptualized when co-developing guidelines with key stakeholders on how to apply the approach for sustainable development and resilience at landscape level. Access to income generating activities from diversified livelihood activities or employment markets.Equitable access to markets and capital.Engaging stakeholders within and outside landscapeApproaches that transcend disciplines (e.g. multisector approach, mixed methodology, system approach).Equitable access for refugees and hosting communities  The main sectors and interlinkages between these sectors within displacement setting are known.3. Complexity of social-ecological systems, including the range of different processes and different scales and hybrid governance structures, are acknowledged by different stakeholders.4. Multifunctionality and trade-offs within displacement setting have been identified.Approaches transcend traditional sectoral or disciplinary boundaries.Meaningful participation and engagement by within displacement settings (involving capacity enhancement, considering perceptions and access to participate).Sustainable social, environmental and economic outcomes in displacement settings.Questions to pose regarding our landscape approaches and our case study sites:1. What landscape scale(s) has/have been already considered?2. What sectoral approaches have been applied?From integrated landscape approach 3. What do we know about social-ecological systems and their complexity and the range of different processes within the refugee hosting landscape?4. What do we know about multifunctionality and recognition of synergies and trade-offs in the refugee hosting landscape?To what extent and how has there been interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinary approaches in planning and management, involving engagement with stakeholders inside and outside the landscape?6. What do we know about participation, including consultation, engagement and capacity building (for meaningful participation) at various stages in planning and management?7. What do we know about sustainability, including social, environmental and economic dimensions, to be agreed upon in the specific context of this refugee hosting landscape?This initiative is part of the project Governing multifunctional landscapes in Sub-Saharan Africa: Managing trade-offs between social and ecological impacts (GML), which is financed by the European Union. ","tokenCount":"3799"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"015af4981075abc4dd458d5e234e5d4d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7d00fc90-8d7e-4d34-8961-ea8bac92ab3c/retrieve","id":"700615345"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2a306757-168c-4ecb-8dd7-ef8285da30a9","pagecount":"13","content":"Members of ILRI's senior management team, Carles Soriano (CGIAR internal audit) joined the audit and risk committee meeting. 1 Official full minutes are those retained by the ILRI Board Secretary on behalf of the BoardThe chair welcomed members, observers and management, noting appreciation to everyone as well as IFPRI for facilitating the move of location to Washington DC to enable participation of the DG and chair designate in crucial CGIAR meetings. Apologies to the ILRI staff in Addis for not holding the meeting there were registered.The chair noted appreciation to HE Dr Wondirad Mandefro who had left the board and welcomed HE Dr Gebregziabher Gebreyohannes, Ethiopian state minister for livestock, who had been nominated by the Ethiopian government as the new host country representative following the establishment of a new ministry for livestock and fisheries. Two observers, Dr Judith Lungu and Dr Chanda Nimbkar were also welcomed and it was noted that Carles Soriano from CGIAR IAU would be joining audit and risk committee. HE Dr Gebregziabher, Drs Lungu and Nimbkar gave brief introductions and expressed their appreciation to be welcomed to the meeting.The chair invited members to share highlights since the last board meeting, and a range of issues were mentioned including:-Opportunity for nominations for the World Prize in International Integrated Development -In Kenya the ministry of agriculture, and beyond are pleased with ILRI's work on livestock insurance with the government rolling out the product effective from 1 Oct for one year to mitigate the risks arising from drought. It was noted that the DG and principal secretary for livestock (Fred Segor) had the privilege of meeting the deputy president with the ILRI team as part of setting this up. A visit form the deputy president was welcomed and will be organised.The chair expressed ILRI's appreciation for the range of support provided by Prof Segor as the Kenya representative on the board. -A new opportunity for Canadian funding for vaccine work that may arise in the near future.-Opportunities for ILRI to become a partner in the STAR IDAZ alliance which should open up new research opportunities.Given this was her last meeting, the board chair shared a number of reflections of her time on the board and opportunities for ILRI going forward.The agenda had been circulated to members in advance of the meeting. The board secretary reviewed the agenda and asked for comments or modifications.The agenda was approved by the board.The minutes of the 43 rd meeting of the ILRI Board of Trustees had been circulated and approved electronically.The minutes of the 43 rd meeting of the ILRI Board of Trustees were approved.The board secretary reviewed actions from the 43 rd meeting, the need for conclusion on the science strategy was highlighted, noting that most issues would be dealt with in the committee agendas.Action: Management to provide board members with final version of the science strategy by mid January 2016.The DG welcomed members to Washington and thanked everyone for making adjustments to their schedules. Special words of welcome were extended to HE Dr Gebregziabher Gebreyohannes, Drs Lungu and Nimbkar.The DG gave a comprehensive presentation, spanning developments in the CGIAR and ILRI internal.The former covered important CGIAR developments since the last Board meeting in April, 2015. The latter included some programme highlights, an over view of budget performance in 2015 and proposals for 2016, resource mobilization, a brief on developments in the People and Organizational Development Directorate, ILRI and the on-going CGIAR reform process and legal issues the institute is dealing with. Members thanked the DG for the excellent report and a number of issues were discussed.The current uncertainty regarding the CGIAR, its financing and the next phase of CRPs was highlighted, recognising that efforts are underway both across the CGIAR and within ILRI to ensure any risks are mitigated. A key strategy for ILRI is resource mobilization for which the roles of both scientists and the to-be-recruited head of business development were clarified in terms of ensuring the institute has strong mechanism to turn science ideas into bankable proposals.Regarding legal issues, members agreed that ILRI's approach was appropriate and encouraged management to learn lessons especially with regard to engagement with partners.Members considered research an animal health and zoonoses, noting the opportunities in these areas.IT was noted also that a new strategy for animal health research will soon be available which will have a strong emphasis on vaccines, diagnostics (including penside) etc.ILRI's modus operandi with national institutes was considered, noting that this may look very different for example in India with ICAR compared to instances such as the recent engagement with the government of Ethiopia on the livestock master plan. The importance in all cases of ILRI being proactive and identifying its appropriate comparative advantage, where it can add value, was stressed.In reviewing ILRI's communication and knowledge management outputs it was noted that there seemed to be a drop in 2014, and that training resources seemed generally very low. The cyclical nature of research and products was noted in relation to the former, stressing that there does need to be awareness to ensure scientists do publish and retain a balance, including with CRP preparations. It was agreed that many training resources are probably not captured in the metrics at present.Present: Lorne Babiuk (Chair), Khatijah Yusoff (Vice Chair), all board members and observers. Others: Iain Wright (Secretary), members of ILRI management.1. Update on the CG Research Programme on Livestock and Fish Tom Randolph, Director of the CGIAR Research Programme (CRP) on Livestock and Fish, presented a short update on the CRP. He informed the Committee that the 2106 budget is likely to be in line with expectations. The new modus operandi of the Scientific and Partnership Advisory Committee (SPAC) with direct interaction between members and flagship leaders appeared to be working well. There was no written report from the SPAC as they had not met since the previous board meeting. He informed the Committee that the report from the Independent External Evaluation should be received in November and this will be available to the Board so that their comments can be incorporated in the response. The Committee reminded management of the need to demonstrate transparency and robustness in the process in identifying partners and that Board members can help in building partnerships.Action: Management will ensure that the Board receives the report of the Independent External Evaluation panel on the Livestock and Fish CRP.The Director of the BecA-ILRI Hub presented a short report to the Committee on capacity building, research, facilities and management, partnerships and resource mobilization. The report and recommendations from the second meeting of the Advisory Panel was tabled.Recommendation: The Committee noted that significant progress that has been made in the BecA-ILRI Hub, including the increase in livestock related projects and an expansion of partners. The committee recommended that Management continue to implement the recommendations of the second meeting of the BecA-ILRI Hub Advisory Panel.Iain Wright, DDG-Integrated Sciences, gave an update on the process and progress towards developing the second phase portfolio of CRPs and ILRI's engagement. There was still considerable uncertainty as to the content of the portfolio with the Consortium Board having suggested a different configuration. The expectation at the time of the meeting was that this would be resolved at the Fund Council meeting on 3-5 November. The response from the ISPC, based on the written response and a subsequent meeting with the Chair of the ISPC, was summarized and the plans to respond to their comments outlined. However until the Fund Council meets, the exact process will not be finalized. Action: Management will have regional strategies in place before the next board meeting.The Committee received a presentation on the Animal Science for Sustainable Productivity Programme from Siboniso Moyo, the Programme Leader. She explained the structure of the programme, with three complementary themes, Feeds, Heath and Sustainable Intensification, and the objectives of each, highlighting some recent achievements.Recommendation: The committee noted and appreciated the complexity of the Animal Science for Sustainable Productivity Program and reminded management to continue to be clear about the need to focus and the value proposition of the programme. It recommended that the links to other CRPs be optimized especially within the context of the site integration initiatives.Steve Kemp, Programme Leader of the Animal Biosciences Programme provided an overview of the programme with its emphasis on up steam research on genomics and health. He highlighted the challenge of dependence on a small number of donors and the lack of full cost recovery, especially from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants. Shirley Tarawali provided an update on the progress towards developing a series of nested dashboard indicators that can be used by the Board and Management to monitor progress in implementing the five critical success factors underpinning the ILRI strategy. The plan is that for each critical success factor a small number of aggregate indicators can be used by the Board while under these there are a series of increasingly dis-aggregated indicators that can be used by the Institute Management Committee and Programme Leaders/Unit Managers. An initial set of indicators will be presented to the Board in April 2016. It was recognized that not all indicators need to be developed at the same time.Recommendation: The Committee appreciated the work done on the progress towards developing a set of nested indicators for Board oversight and management purposes and recommended that management continue to refine the indicators.Present: Lindsay Falvey (Chair), Cheikh Ly (Vice Chair), all other board members and observers Others: Misja Brandenburg (Secretary), members of ILRI management.A simplified 'stress test' of the adequacy of the reserves, as requested by the Board, will be presented as part of agenda item 3. For a more comprehensive 'stress test' ILRI management will await the outcome of consultancy assignments on this matter from other centres (CIMMYT) and will align itself accordingly (second half of 2016). Management has made a multi annual rolling capital investment plan, but due to staffing issues, it has not been finalized and will now be presented during the next Board meeting in April 2016.The Board reviewed the comparative data presented and noted the following:-The institute's indirect cost rates are just within CGIAR targets, but still on the high side compared to other (non CGIAR) organisations in the market. This has partly to do with the 'research' characteristics of ILRI, but is a point of attention to avoid falling outside of donor acceptable limits. -The Board appreciated the simplified stress test presentation, but would still be interested in a more comprehensive and sophisticated reserve analysis exercise. -The Board valued the data presented which enabled benchmarking for ILRI and a better understanding of the position of the centre.Action: Management to ensure the use of consistent terminology in future reports and presentations Action: Management to present the results of a comprehensive and sophisticated reserve analysis exercise in 2016 3. Update on financial position September 2015 Management presented the 2015 burn rates up to September and a forecast for December 2015 to reach a $1.9M deficit and an increase of reserves of $2.5M. The full set of ILRI's internal KFI's will be presented during April meetings when the financial year has been closed and audited.The Board expressed satisfaction with the progress and results of the 2015 budget implementation.Management presented an investment report that detailed the state of ILRI's investments for the year 2015 (up till September).The Board indicated its comfort with the current investment portfolio as presentedThe Board received a draft 2016 budget proposal wherein it was noted that income was projected to amount to $74.2M with expenditure of $77.5M, leading to a projected deficit of $3.3M for 2016. Management's advised that its aim is to reduce the deficit for 2017 to under $1M. Management also presented a proposal for an initial $1M CAPEX budget for essential equipment and will come up with an additional CAPEX request by the April 2016 board meeting for other investment categories, based on multi annual plans.Management will continue to address the deficit through a combination of resource mobilization and cost containment/reduction and provide an update and final 2016 budget proposal at the April Board meeting. The Board emphasised that there is a need to have Regional strategy papers in place, describing targets and timelines. The Board noted that Kapiti farm is a wholly owned asset of ILRI through a different legal entity and consequently requested a regular, short report on the progress, risks, proposals, and options available, possibly in the form of minutes and financial statements of this subsidiary.The Board approved the draft 2016 budget and its $3.3M deficit as presented, to be taken from the undesignated reserves of the institute on the understanding that the deficit in 2017 would not exceed $1M based on current projections.The Board approved the initial $1M CAPEX request, the specified $2.6M carry forward of 2015 CAPEX and $250K investment in the Kapiti farm (house).Action: Management will provide more information on Kapiti budgets, results and risks in future Board meetings. Management will ensure this becomes a recurrent agenda issue.Action: Management will present an additional 2016 CAPEX proposal at April Board meeting, based upon multi annual plans.Management presented an update of the rollout of OCS, describing the recent 'go live', current challenges and planned action for phase 2 in 2016.The Board noted with satisfaction that the system is in operation and congratulated management on the progress made. The board is comfortable with the planned way forward.Management presented the vision for the corporate services directorate, with the related recent and future planned activities. This included the reorganisation of the finance department and other future efficiency gains.Present: Suzanne Petersen (Chair), Rodney Cooke, (Vice Chair), all other board members and observers. Others: Stella Kiwango (secretary), members of ILRI management.The Human Resources Committee was informed that the new online performance management system was introduced in 2015 after it became clear that the previous system did not meet the expectations of management and staff.Management emphasized that the performance management process is being implemented in stages and will eventually be linked to reward. However, it was clarified that this is a gradual process and is being introduced in stages.Recommendation: Management follow up with all staff members to ensure 100% completion rate for 2016 individual performance plans.Recommendation: Management provide the outputs of the project in monitoring performance and outcomes at institute level at the next meeting.The Hay Group will undertake the Compensation and Benefits (C&B) project commencing in June, 2016.Management emphasized the importance of the project to ensure that the institute remains competitive in the labour market by defining its Employee Value Proposition and addressing issues regarding the remuneration of staff in locations with different costs of living.Recommendation: Management to provide an update at the next meeting in April, 2016, with a clear set of progress indicators.Management informed the Committee of the commencement of the Program Management Framework being facilitated by the Accenture group and that the project was introduced to address a number of challenges in the execution of projects. Whereas in the past, ILRI managed many small projects, the institution is moving towards the management of much bigger and complex projects that needed more effective management to ensure delivery.The Committee was further informed that the first six months of the project is the design phase that is being spent in developing the new program management framework and related processes through the engagement of the relevant staff. The next six months commencing January 2016 is the implementation phase.April, 2016 on the project with a clear set of progress indicators.Management presented an action plan on the results of the staff climate survey undertaken in 2014 taking into account a report on underlying issues in the institution related to openness and trust. The action plan and report had been requested by the Committee in its previous meeting of April, 2015.In discussion regarding the proposed action plan on the staff survey, management was cautioned to be careful on its communication to staff to ensure appropriate messaging.Management confirmed that another climate survey shall be held in 2016 and that this survey will include perceptions and feedback on OCS.Recommendation: Management is requested to provide an update on the action plan at the April 2016 meeting.The Committee noted the comparative workforce data for the period September 2014 and September 2015. Management informed the Committee that it is still working on the aspect of the ILRI retirement age, as requested by the Committee in its previous meeting and that a proposal on the retirement age will be provided to the Board at the April 2016 Board meeting. In this respect, the Committee was also informed that the Director General has discretion for appointment of candidates over the age of 60, so that the institute can remain flexible where it needs particular expertise.The Committee noted that the number of consultants has now been reduced and that the data that has started being collected that will provide a 3 year period for comparison in 2016.Recommendation: The terms 'developed' and 'developing' instead of \"northern hemisphere\" and \"southern hemisphere\" should be used in presenting the workforce data.Recommendation: Management to present a proposal on the ILRI retirement age at the April 2016 meeting.Management presented seven guidelines for information purposes only and one policy change for approval: Overtime work, Overtime payments and Compensatory leave.The revised policy includes clarification regarding eligibility for overtime and carry over days of compensatory leave days.Recommendation: The Human Resources Committee recommends that the appropriate changes be made to this policy and circulated by email for approval.Management presented a proposal for board interaction with the staff councils for the future. The Human Resources Committee recognized that the two staff councils have the option of requesting to meet with the Board as provided for by the councils' charters 9. Audit and Risk Committee (Carles Soriano from CGIAR IAU joined the meeting) Present: Siew Fing Wong (Chair), Dieter Schillinger (Vice Chair), all board members and observers. Others: Peter Getugi (Head Internal Audit Unit -HIAU, Secretary), members of ILRI management, Carles Soriano (CGIAR Internal audit unit).Follow up actions of the 14th meeting of the audit & risk committee A list of the follow up actions was presented to the committee.Guidelines developed on the management of ICT assets to safeguard ICT assets, following the increase of ILRI asset capitalization threshold from $1000 to $3000 was tabled by the Corporate Services Director (CSD) and endorsed by A&RC, and it was agreed that these guidelines will form part of the updated policy on the Asset Management.It was noted the due diligence guidelines and procedures for assessing partner capabilities presented by the CSD concentrate more on financial capability than technical capability. CSD explained that, however, that the partnership recruitment process also includes technical evaluation by the project team. These form the basis of the Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) which the DDG approves after the Principal Investigator (PI) has signed off.The CSD confirmed that the levels of approval are included in the OCS work flow, so that procedural approvals cannot be circumvented.Internal Audit activities reports -Summary and Status of 2015 audit plan (April 2015 to Oct.The HIAU presented a summary of 8 audit assignments conducted between April 2015 and October 2015. Some key findings were highlightedThe committee received a report on institutional risks by the HIAU. The 12 key risks presented in the report were last reviewed by Risk Owners and Risk Action Managers in October 2015.Recommendation: To improve on the presentation of risks, ILRI should consider quantifying the risks impact and likelihood and also consider incorporating other good practices on presentation of risks from other CGIAR centres.Recommendation: ICT management to identify risks associated with data management to ensure risks related to emerging data security and management, are adequately mitigated.Recommendation: Follow up with risk owners and risk action managers to ensure that the action plans to address various risks are up to date. Highest risks should be articulated to the board, with its reactions noted.Carles Soriano of the CGIAR IAU briefed the Committee on two audits which it conducted in 2014/15.IT controls audit and CRP Livestock and Fish.The committee held a closed door session with the HIAU 6. AOB Ernst and Young (EY) have been hired as ILRI external auditors commencing financial year 2015 after the expiry of the KPMG term. The board approved the appointment of EY as the external auditors electronically in July 2015 and the approval is formally noted here.Committee recommendations from the program, finance, HR and audit and risk committees were presented and approved as above.It was noted that the audit and risk committee should include presentation of audit findings along with management responses.Chanda Nimbkar and Judith Lungu had been interviewed by members of the nominations committee, Lindsay Falvey and Khatijah Yusoff earlier in the year, and their recommendations had been presented to the full board who agreed to invite both candidates as observers to the present meeting.The board considered the candidature of Chanda Nimbkar, who presented a summary of her credentials. Chanda indicated her willingness to become a member of the board.The board considered the candidature of Judith Lungu, who presented an overview of her credentials to the board and indicated she would be willing to join.The board met in closed session to consider the candidature of the two observers.The board considered Chanda Nimbkar and Judith Lungu would be suitable candidates for the board and thus both were invited and accepted to join.The committee undertakes a regular review and, where appropriate, refresh of chairs and vice chairs to ensure appropriate succession planning is in place as members complete their board terms. In this regard, the committee reviewed the current composition and based recommends the following to begin from the end of the current board meeting.Board chair: Lindsay Falvey Vice chair: Lorne BabiukThe board noted that given the likely occurrence of CGIAR meetings at this time, members should be prepared for the meeting to move one week earlier or later, once the CGIAR meeting dates are known. Action: board secretary to confirm CGIAR meetings and advise on board meeting dates accordingly 47th ILRI Board meeting 14-17 April 2017 -TBC 48th ILRI Board meeting 4 -8 November 2017 -TBC","tokenCount":"3668"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7949547157.json b/data/part_6/7949547157.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1ce3ff437275af142c4716cfcd3d18a999c2db9d
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3aee0e8737c120cf1b7748205bf94de9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/04068d32-8b0a-473f-b5db-ebffc72de1e8/retrieve","id":"-1592810722"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af0574a0-9bd1-4443-8d81-01177a88e1d8","pagecount":"11","content":"The authors would like to thank the National Agency of Civil Aviation and Meteorology of Senegal (ANACIM -Agence Nationale de l'Aviation Civile et de la Météorologie) for their generous offer to allow the use of their facilities to conduct the training. We are grateful for the entire team of supporting staff affiliated with ANACIM facilities who provided coordination and catering. The authors also thank Africa Rice for their leadership of the AICCRA-Mali cluster and support for this training as well as MALI-METEO for dedicating time and resources to travel to Senegal to partake in the training.The recent expansion of weather observation networks has focused on the use of automatic weather stations (AWS). AWS offer a number of advantages, including automated reporting at very fine temporal resolution. The challenge that many national meteorological services have faced with the exploitation of AWS data is that initiatives and donors have provided different types of AWS from different suppliers, leading to a variety of systems and networks in multiple formats. Although applications are provided with each AWS network to access and visualize the data, data access is still done manually and station by station. ADT training facilitator and participants in Dakar, Senegal.A workshop was held in Dakar, Senegal from February 27 to March 10, 2023 with the objective of installing ADT and training MALI-METEO staff on its maintenance and use. Three MALI-METEO staff attended the workshop. The list of participants and the agenda of the workshop are located in the Appendix.ADT was successfully installed and is operationally running at MALI-METEO. TMALI-METEO has five networks of AWS: TAHMO, PULSONIC, CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC, VAISALA and WASCAL. A summary of the AWS networks at MALI-METEO is presented in Table 1. The main climate variables measured by the AWS are precipitation, air temperature, wind, humidity, air pressure, and solar radiation. VAISALA and WASCAL were not accessible during the period of installation. According to MALI-METEO staff, VAISALA network has a data transmission issue from the AWS sites to the central database, and the WASCAL network data portal were down for maintenance. Moreover, MALI-METEO provided a list of AWS to be installed but some of those AWS were no longer working or not sending data to the centralized database. During the installation, when the data was fetched from the server hosted at the providers of the AWS networks, some AWS from the list provided by MALI-METEO no longer had available data. Those AWS had been working for a period of time in the past, and some data are available at MALI-METEO in different formats and are already processed and aggregated; however, due to timing constraints those data were not entered into the ADT database. In addition, the older data from some AWS networks were no longer available from the webservice or platform. This is the case for PULSONIC: only the last two years of data are stored in the cloud and accessible through the webservice pusloWeb, while the older data are archived in a different place and a special request is needed to retrieve this data. Therefore, the temporal coverage of the data available on ADT varies from one network to another, even if some AWS were installed around the same time.MALI-METEO does not host a centralized database at its head office to store and process the data from the AWS. The data is sent to a centralized database, usually hosted at the headquarters of the provider of the AWS or in the cloud. The data are accessible through a web portal, this creates a great challenge for the staff when gathering the data from all AWS for processing and analysis. MALI-METEO staff have to download the data from different web portals, which is highly dependent on internet connection, then organize the data into a format easy to analyse, which is time consuming. ADT offers an easy and effective solution, with a unified database, to overcome the burden of retrieving and processing the AWS data. It enables an integrated data archive with functionalities to easily access, process, perform quality control, and visualize data from different AWS networks. In addition to the ADT standardized and unified database, we also created a replication of TAHMO and PULSONIC databases in a server hosted at MALI-METEO, the databases preserve the original format of data from these two AWS networks. These databases will be useful if there is the need to check the original data or retrieve parameters which are not integrated in the ADT database. In addition, no internet connection is needed to access the data which avoids the massive downloads from the data portal.The screenshots below illustrate ADT web application installed at MALI-METEO.        ADT is web-based application with an easy-to-use graphical user interface allowing the user to:• visualize any data (times series and maps) from different AWS networks without going through the hassle of retrieving and formatting the data for each AWS and for each AWS network; • download standardized and quality-controlled data from one or all AWS from the different AWS networks; and • check which AWS is reporting data and whether each sensor is working.ADT is fully operational at MALI-METEO, and accessible via the MALI-METEO local network. The internet URL is http://197.155.140.164:8585/ . The installed ADT at MALI-METEO allows the staff to easily visualize and access all AWS data at once from their three different AWS networks. A user account is needed to access the data.Older data from some AWS stored in spreadsheets are available at MALI-METEO but not yet integrated into ADT because they were not readily accessible at the time of installation and due to time constrains. It is therefore recommended to gather and process all of those AWS data and store them in the ADT database.Archives data from PULSONIC network are not yet available in the ADT database. The data from this network available in ADT go back to March 2021. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that MALI-METEO contact PULSONIC and request the access to those archives data so that we can add them to the ADT database.When the AWS data from VAISALA and WASCAL networks will be accessible, the integration of these networks into ADT is recommended, with the aim of standardizing the data used at MALI-METEO and facilitating their access.Although MALI-METEO IT staff is trained to maintain the system and make ADT fully operational, further in-depth training is needed for the IT staff to add a climate variable to a station or add a new station to a network, and to tweak ADT settings over time, both back-end data processing and front-end web visualization, for a specific need of MALI-METEO.","tokenCount":"1093"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7952347895.json b/data/part_6/7952347895.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5f8fc6c0c7cc50b22ee0a68374d41bd60f2b8e7c
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b4486ac17b6124b139d160a22d8ff253","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2b86ebac-da4b-4fdd-a22d-ec39ebf16a90/retrieve","id":"1594570560"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"34819740-c876-4c6d-8a5e-65ed9c9c94cd","pagecount":"2","content":" Irish potato is an important income and food security crop in many sub-Sahara Africa countries (SSA).  However, the neglect of the potato Irish potato industry and failure of privatization to spur investment in seed potato production stifled the industry. Hence farmers have been forced to recycle seed, resulting in quality degradation and, in some cases resulting in up to 66-75% yield, and hence income, declines.  The recent global food price swings has led to renewed interest in developing potato subsector in most producing SSA countries.  One intervention by SSA governments has been in trying break the quality seed bottleneck by investing in generation of quality seed. Such investment involve construction of state of the art seed production labs to clean degraded seed and evaluate imported seed, on-station and on-farm testing, and promotion smallholder seed production. This study uses data collected from Tanzania to examine farmers willingness to pay such seed. Since 2009, Tanzania government has heavily invested in developing seed potato industry jointly with international and national research organization through donor support. Overall, the average WTP for virus-free seed in each period of the auction was higher than market price of Kikondo, the local variety.  Results of SURE model indicates that WTP for clean seed is affected by farmer's level of education, experience in growing potato, asset endowment, risk perception, and access to information (proxied by radio ownership).  This study concludes that that there is reasonably high demand for quality seed by smallholder farmers and that farmers would pay higher price for quality seed than what they currently pay for the degraded local seed.  They study further concludes that farmers demand for seed is affected by a number of farmer specific factors, capital endowment and risk perception.  The study recommends that:  Farmer education should focus on providing relevant potato agronomic and pest management information to farmers.  Such information can be channeled through popular local FM radio broadcasts given the significance of radio ownership  Efforts to produce virus-free seed should be accompanied by commensurate effort to reduce the risk of adopting quality seed. This can include ensuring that the seed is tolerant to drought and has good market.  The lower WTP than private sector seed price (and cost in early auction seasons) indicate farmers' sensitivity to price, hence the need to keep price of quality seed down through reduction of transaction and transportation costs. Training local small and medium scale farmer seed producers can achieve this.Seed auction in progress The study applied the Lancasterian demand theory that posits that demand for a good is based on demand for its attributes, such as quality.  Demand for quality seed was measured as willingness to pay (WTP) for virus-disease free seed.  Two quality seed potato varieties (Meru and Tengeru) and one local degraded (i.e., virus-infected) variety (Kikondo) were used during the auction. In each auction, one quality seed was randomly selected and presented against the local variety.  WTP bids were collected via a dynamic auction that involved 5 rounds, equivalent to 5 Irish potato planting seasons.  Each auction session had 10 farmers randomly selected from a list of smallholder potato growers in a village. The auction was conducted in 24 randomly selected potato producing villages, hence a total of 240 farmers.  Due to correlation in WTP bids among seasons, seemingly unrelated regression (SURE) model was fitted to assess the drivers of WTP. ","tokenCount":"575"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7954413532.json b/data/part_6/7954413532.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..490f0b9494d5a1acbdfb74386aeca8417abe98c5
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1970cfcb24a726070b792c8702f4d93e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b2d426fc-e3c4-46ca-b154-30933896613a/retrieve","id":"1684242121"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9d735dc1-aa4a-46e8-9e65-5769819d1651","pagecount":"22","content":"These participatory events produced volumes of useful information that serves as the foundation, focus, and rationale for the proposed SIIL. As indicated in the proposal, the selection of the of the geographical focus, countries, partners, and areas of inquiries were based on the country-defined priorities and with active engagement of the various stakeholders, value chain partners, government organizations, national agricultural research systems (NARS), international centers including Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers, nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) and private industry.This report provides an overview of the facilitated sessions, the methodology, the SWOT analyses from each event, as well as participant documentation from the sessions. The report is organized by providing a summary table of the results from the combined SWOT analyses sessions that provide the evidence for the areas of inquiry that SIIL will concentrate, along with the individual results from each country. The results sections include the agenda from each event, the participant list, and the results from the meetings. Interestingly, despite the geographic difference of the regions the SI needs were very similar.As the name implies, a SWOT analysis consists of four categories: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These categories can further be defined as either internal or external factors. Strengths and weaknesses are often internal to an entity. Opportunities and threats tend to be external factors, often beyond the control of the entity/organization, but that impact and/or influence operations. The following matrix presents the components of the SWOT analysis.Competitive Advantages Institutional ChallengesStrengths WeaknessesOpportunities ThreatsA number of questions guide the SWOT analysis. Participants were asked to consider the following questions as they worked through the exercise:Strengths:  In regard to SI, what do we do well?  What areas are vibrant and healthy, or distinctively positive?Weaknesses: What do we do less well?  What areas of \"weakness\" do we encounter?Opportunities:  What are the needs of the stakeholders, and what trends can we take advantage of?  What is changing in the community or in society?Threats:  Are there new rules and regulations that place demands and limits on the stakeholders?  What is changing in the community or country that will impact us?During the SWOT exercise, each participant received sticky notes, three for each SWOT category. The participants were instructed to work individually and write down three strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on the sticky notes, representing each of the four SWOT quadrants. Once all the quadrants were complete, participants were asked to group like ideas and then label the \"cluster.\"The participants reflected on the outcomes from their activities and agreed that the clusters were representative of the assets, opportunities, and challenges as it relates to sustainable intensification.The facilitators at all three sessions reminded the participants that the purpose of the exercise was to generate ideas and feedback, not come to consensus on any particular item or issue. Rather, it was entirely conceivable that an issue could be identified in multiple categories (i.e., be both a strength and a weakness). As such, all ideas posted on the walls were documented and are included in the results section.FtF Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) -2 -SWOT Analysis Report -BangladeshFeed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab Jointly Organized by Kansas State University (KSU) & CIMMYT Bangladesh Venue: CIMMYT Dhaka Office Conference Room, Date: April 01, 2014Program Outline Objectives:• Understand strength, weaknesses, and opportunities of sustainable intensification in Bangladesh. • To me it means devising a technology or a system that will ensure that natural resources are respected, maximized for production with less disturbance on natural processes in soil, water and other natural endowments. / There is a great need to achieve food security amongst the population and therefore this is about making use of the natural resources that we have, to satisfy this need; greater diversity of food production is necessary. • Sustainable refers to continuation increasingly; Intensification refers to expanding strong in all directions.• Sustainable intensification meaning to me is that if it is related to a technology then the way it should be intensified should sustain among the stakeholders as for the objective of the technology intensification for their benefits by the technology. • Additional income from one more high value added crop: direct impact on the likelihood of the farm holds. This will encourage people to adopt this technology. RAPID ADOPTION.• Available information knowledge• BD has long years of farming system research• Cheap labor, women labor • Year-round crop production and intervention of nutritional crop; sp. veg.• Adverse government involvement in ag sector (e.g., BADC); lack of policy reform• Biotic and abiotic stresses• Considerable climate uncertainty• Cultural and religious bindings limiting women participation• Depleting natural resources base-like ground water• Donors accepting their purposeexpectations• Environment stress like-saline, drought and sometimes water log • Social innovation: key strength is the social innovation potential and initiative of most farmers. Adoption is usually rather quick where the advantages of an intervention can be shown. This makes much of Bangladesh \"ripe\" for creative durable change in crops and crop management, though it is made complex and difficult at a farming systems level (S) • Women involvement in FSR is limited (W) 1. Continuous use of a suitable technology to get maximum benefit without disturbing the environment for the improvement of livelihood of end users. 2. Stabilizing the output of a developed technology ensuring the friendly use of environment for the betterment of human kinds.FtF Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (SIIL) -13 -SWOT Analysis Report -Bangladesh• Sustainable intensification means to increase production, nutrition, women participation leading to income generation using modern technologies and natural resources.d) Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for impact across the field, farm, household, community, landscape, and/or regional scales.• Adapted technology • Agriculture/research organization (S)• Cheap labor and adaptable farmers (O)• Expertise of BARI with diversified discipline (S)","tokenCount":"958"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7959177803.json b/data/part_6/7959177803.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..616afe30b48ad0e1149f5d7ea37d806e1c6a99ba
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+++ b/data/part_6/7959177803.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a37e756e09af9d73d0c92b77eaa5a918","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/568635c6-2eaf-410e-84c2-7d433ff2f7f6/retrieve","id":"-1225451728"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7677d68e-6995-45d8-8940-4b873bc0e7ce","pagecount":"2","content":"mixed crop-livestock systems projected to remain the main providers of food (animal and plant) in the coming decades, opportunities exist for smallholders to participate and benefit from emerging crop and livestock markets in the Volta Basin. Given the economic, social and environmental vulnerability due to high water scarcity and variability in the basin, improvements in rainwater management are needed for ensuring sustainable and equitable benefits.The project will identify, evaluate, adapt, and disseminate best-fit integrated rainwater management strategies (RMS), targeted to different bio-physical and socio-economic domains. The integrated RMS are comprised of technological solutions, directed at different components of the agro-ecosystems, underpinned by enabling institutional and policy environments and linked to market incentives that can drive adoption.The aim is to increase crop and livestock productivity to result in enhanced livelihoods and positive environmental impacts, through strengthened institutional capacity and improved equitable and gender-sensitive performance of crop and livestock value chains.  Through inter-disciplinary action research, the effects of selected promising RMS and the enabling environments for them to succeed will be assessed. Innovation platforms, built around key crop-livestock value chains and at various, but connected hierarchic levels, will be the major mechanism to facilitate the action research; participatory monitoring and learning and; scaling up and out. Tools and frameworks for integrated analysis of RMS, farming systems, gendered livelihoods and value chains will be developed, tested and adapted. Synthesis of the findings will inform the development of guidelines for integrated and targeted RMS options in specific recommendation domains. A wide range of information and communication tools will be used to disseminate the project findings to different stake-holders and to obtain their feedback. ","tokenCount":"269"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/7982036606.json b/data/part_6/7982036606.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..17e4e426ceafba3ffd43ebd61f170a9f7e86e59a
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"129ce4768424eadddec59571a7554ae0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f7630c6b-52dc-4328-817c-20c18231f6be/retrieve","id":"1885550807"},"keywords":["Coffea canephora","metabolomics","genomics","cup quality","health benefits"],"sieverID":"9026039a-b4e2-49e2-9cb2-e552c83b1c36","pagecount":"17","content":"The flavor and health benefits of coffee (Coffea spp.) are derived from the metabolites that accumulate in the mature bean. However, the chemical profiles of many C. canephora genotypes remain unknown, even as the production of these coffee types increases globally. Therefore, we used Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrophotometry to determine the chemical composition of C. canephora genotypes in Nigeria-those conserved in germplasm repositories and those cultivated by farmers. GC-MS revealed 340 metabolites in the ripe beans, with 66 metabolites differing (p-value < 0.05) across the represented group. Univariate and multivariate approaches showed that the 'Niaouli' genotypes could be clearly distinguished from 'Kouillou' and 'Java' genotypes, while there was almost no distinction between 'Kouillou' and 'Java,'. Varietal genotyping based on bean metabolite profiling was synchronous with that based on genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphism analysis. Across genotypes, the sucrose-to-caffeine ratio was low, a characteristic indicative of low cup quality. The sucrose-to-caffeine ratio was also highly correlated, indicative of common mechanisms regulating the accumulation of these compounds. Nevertheless, this strong correlative link was broken within the 'Niaouli' group, as caffeine and sucrose content were highly variable among these genotypes. These 'Niaouli' genotypes could therefore serve as useful germplasm for starting a Nigerian C. canephora quality improvement breeding program.Coffee (Coffea spp.) is one of the most consumed beverages globally, and there is a clear correlation between the sensory quality of a coffee variety and its market value [1]. Although Coffea canephora does not have the cup quality of the more popular Coffea arabica, it continues to be widely grown, especially in regions where farming is low intensive because of its relative tolerance to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses [2]. As a result of this, and its competitive pricing, the C. canephora market share has increased in recent years, totaling 40% of the coffee traded globally [3]. Importantly, C. canephora forms a critical source of income for millions of smallholder coffee farmers in developing countries [3]. In Nigeria, it accounts for 90% of coffee production [4]. Since quality is a major selection criterion for coffee improvement [5], it is important to determine the chemical profiles of C. canephora varieties which are important to many resource-poor farmers.Little is known about the genetic background and the quality profile of the genotypes used for coffee cultivation in Nigeria. The early establishment of a C. canephora polyclonal seed garden in Nigeria was based on five sexually compatible genotypes of 'Java Robusta', 'Kouillou' and 'Niaouli' varieties at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), for replication and distribution to farmers [6]. The use of these varieties led to an increase in coffee yields from 800 kg to 1.4 ton per hectare [6]. We recently used Single Nucleotide Polymorphism-Genotype-By-Sequencing analyses to determine the relatedness of some of the conserved and cultivated C. canephora genotypes in Nigeria [7]. The data showed that the genetic diversity of the conserved CRIN germplasm was narrow and comprised of three genetic groups ('Niaouli', 'Kouillou' and 'Java Robusta')-of which, one of the groups ('Niaouli') dominated the cultivated accessions [7]. The chemical composition of the beans from these genotypes has yet to be investigated. Therefore, their sensory profiles are unknown.Understanding the metabolomics profile of coffee is essential for coffee cup quality improvement. Metabolite profiling has been used to discern coffees of different origins, e.g., Asia, Africa, and South America [8], and in linking high grade Colombian C. arabica beans to its higher sucrose content [9]. Metabolite profiling is also the most efficient way to determine the relative level of key chemicals in coffee that affect quality [10]. Several compounds with important contributions to the complex chemistry of coffee roasting have already been identified [11,12]. For example, two abundant metabolites, caffeine and chlorogenic acid at high amounts, contribute to bitterness and lead to low cup quality [13,14]. Among the fatty acids, linoleic and palmitic acids correlate with high-quality coffee, while oleic and stearic acids are associated with inferior flavors [15]. In C. arabica, many of the alcohols, aldehydes, hydrocarbons, and ketones present in the beans are associated with poor aroma, volatility and acidic profile, causing an earthy flavor [16].While the metabolite profiles of coffee beans from various regions are well represented in literature [8], the chemical composition of the beans of C. canephora genotypes in Nigeria is unknown, and their quality from a chemical perspective is lacking. A combination of genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and metabolomic analyses could help to link variation in genotype to variation in phenotype (mainly quality parameters). Some Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) may even cause significant changes in the accumulation of some metabolites, which may be manifested at the phenotypic level as alterations in disease resistance and cup quality [5,17]. Different analytical techniques such as High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) [18,19], Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (H 1 -NMR) [20] have been successfully used for the classification of coffee genotypes. Metabolomics of coffee beans will help to decipher the features contributing to good quality and their profiles, while the genomics study will help in linking good quality metabolomic profiles to DNA polymorphisms.The aim of this study is to determine the chemical fingerprint of the coffee germplasm maintained at CRIN and those grown by Nigerian farmers, and to relate this to their SNP-variation. Specifically, we aim to: (a) assess the metabolomic profiles of C. canephora genotypes cultivated in Nigeria, (b) determine the chemical diversity of the genotypes in relation to SNP diversity and (c) identify genotypes with potential good cup quality to be incorporated in the breeding program for cup quality improvement.2.1. Metabolite Profiles of the Three C. canephora Genotypes: \"Niaouli', 'Kouilou' and 'Java Robusta' A total of 340 untargeted metabolites were detected-of which, 163 (Table S1) were identified across all three varieties of C. canephora, 'Niaouli', 'Kouilou' and 'Java Robusta', used in the study. A similar number of metabolites (182) was detected in Asian palm civet coffee using GC-MS [21]. The metabolites identified in our study were grouped into eight biochemical classes: amines, amino acids, sugars, sugar derivatives, organic acids, fatty acids, phenolic acids/alkaloids and inorganic compound (Table S1).The major compounds identified in the Nigerian varieties were compared to those in other studies. Caffeine, chlorogenic acids, quinic acid, citric acid and sucrose were the most abundant metabolites identified in these varieties (Figure 1), which is similar to the predominant compounds identified in C. arabica derived from Asian palm civet [21]. Stearic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid and pelargonic acid were the major fatty acids in the three Nigerian genotypes (Table S1). This fatty acid profile was similar to that described by Dong et al., who studied the green coffee beans of seven cultivars of C. canephora grown in Hainan Province, China [22]. In their study, and similar to ours, linoleic acid and palmitic acid were among the most abundant fatty acids, but oleic acid, and arachidic acid were also high in content [22]. The most abundant amino acids in our study did not overlap with those identified by Dong et al. [22]. In this study, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, proline, and tryptophan were highest in abundance (Table S1), while Dong et al. identified leucine, lysine and arginine to be the most dominant amino acids in their study [22]. metabolites identified in our study were grouped into eight biochemical classes: amines, amino acids, sugars, sugar derivatives, organic acids, fatty acids, phenolic acids/alkaloids and inorganic compound (Table S1).The major compounds identified in the Nigerian varieties were compared to those in other studies. Caffeine, chlorogenic acids, quinic acid, citric acid and sucrose were the most abundant metabolites identified in these varieties (Figure 1), which is similar to the predominant compounds identified in C. arabica derived from Asian palm civet [21]. Stearic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid and pelargonic acid were the major fatty acids in the three Nigerian genotypes (Table S1). This fatty acid profile was similar to that described by Dong et al., who studied the green coffee beans of seven cultivars of C. canephora grown in Hainan Province, China [22]. In their study, and similar to ours, linoleic acid and palmitic acid were among the most abundant fatty acids, but oleic acid, and arachidic acid were also high in content [22]. The most abundant amino acids in our study did not overlap with those identified by Dong et al. [22]. In this study, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, proline, and tryptophan were highest in abundance (Table S1), while Dong et al. identified leucine, lysine and arginine to be the most dominant amino acids in their study [22]. Next, we looked at the compounds known to influence coffee quality. The relative abundance of important cup quality precursors, including amino acids, fatty acids, and sugars was low, while the compounds associated with poor hedonistic value, such as caffeine, organic acids, and polyphenols were relatively high (Figure 1). This suggested that the sensory attributes of these Nigerian varieties may not match that of high-quality coffees [14,19,23,24] and that there is a need 0 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000  Next, we looked at the compounds known to influence coffee quality. The relative abundance of important cup quality precursors, including amino acids, fatty acids, and sugars was low, while the compounds associated with poor hedonistic value, such as caffeine, organic acids, and polyphenols were relatively high (Figure 1). This suggested that the sensory attributes of these Nigerian varieties may not match that of high-quality coffees [14,19,23,24] and that there is a need for a concerted coffee breeding program in Nigeria focusing on the improvement of sensory attributes. Another important aim was to look for variability in metabolites among the Nigerian genotypes. One-way ANOVA identified 66 (~20%) metabolites that differed among the coffee varieties within the 'Niaouli' group (Nia_1, Nia_2 and Nia_3), the 'Kouillou' group (C111 and C36) and the 'Java Robusta' (T1049) group (p < 0.01 and FDR < 0.05; Table 1 and Figure S1). Many metabolites could be differentiated between the 'Niaouli,' and, the 'Kouillou' genotypes, and between the 'Niaouli,' and 'Java Robusta' (herein called 'Java') genotypes. However, in contrast, there were few differences in metabolite abundance between 'Kouillou' and 'Java'. As a result, the latter two genotypes were grouped together and described as 'Kouillou/Java.' Table 1. Metabolomic markers that could be used to differentiate 'Java/Kouilou' from 'Niaouli' genotypes as detected by one-way ANOVA and post-hoc analyses (f > 4.0; p < 0.01; −Log 10 (p) > 2.0; FDR < 0.05). Fisher's LSD identified 'Java/Kouilou' to be higher in content in the metabolites listed here compared to 'Niaouli.' The f -value is derived from the F-statistic test for significance, the p-value is used to test variability between two groups, −LOG 10 (p) determines the significant levels, such as *, **. and ***. The False discovery rate (FDR) assists in testing significant result from p-value. Metabolomic markers can be useful in differentiating genotypes grown in different regions and in selecting genotypes with metabolite profiles for use in breeding programs [10,25]. Such metabolites were identified in this study by using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), and more potential markers were uncovered using variable importance in projection (VIP) at a Partial Least Square (PLS) regression value above 2 (Figure 2). Most of the discriminatory metabolomic markers were in abundance in 'Kouillou/Java' compared to 'Niaouli' (Table 1; Figure 2). These distinct metabolites were mainly sugar derivatives, while the others were organic acids, amino acids and amines. The most distinctive metabolomic marker differentiating 'Niaouli' from \"Kouillou/Java' was an unknown compound '6404,' identified using both the Significant Analysis of Microarrays (SAM) and one-way ANOVA analyses. It was higher in 'Kouilou/Java' than 'Niaouli'. However, its role in flavor characteristics is unknown and needs to be further studied.Sugar derivatives. These are compounds that are usually derived from monosaccharides, but which have undergone further chemical modification. They include sugar alcohols, sugar acids, amino sugars and deoxy sugars. Of these, the sugar alcohol palatinitol was higher in 'Kouillou/Java' compared to 'Niaouli' (Table 1; Figure 2) and could therefore serve as a potential biomarker to differentiate between these genotypes. The farmers' cultivated accessions, which were all of the 'Niaouli' group, had low palatinitol content, and this metabolite can be used to distinguish among C. canephora varieties in Nigeria (p = 1.30 × 10 −6 ). Amino acids. Generally, amino acids make positive contributions to coffee hedonistic value. They react favorably with sugars during the Maillard reaction, producing pleasant aroma precursors [26]. Tryptophan, proline, and threonine were the amino acids also identified as potential biomarkers. Threonine and proline have high-quality attributes [27], while tryptophan is linked to low bean quality; it is a specific marker linked with bean immaturity, and the presence of high levels negatively impact the flavor of roasted coffee [28] Tryptophan levels were higher, while proline and threonine were lower (p = 3.88 × 10 −8 ), in 'Kouillou/Java' compared to 'Niaouli'. This amino acid profile suggested that 'Kouillou/Java' has an inferior amino acid profile compared to 'Niaouli' (Table 1). Notably, the farmers' accessions, which were all of the 'Niaouli' genotypes, were characterized by high threonine and proline with p-values of 1.68 × 10 −5 and 5.27 × 10 −7 , respectively. Sugar derivatives. These are compounds that are usually derived from monosaccharides, but which have undergone further chemical modification. They include sugar alcohols, sugar acids, amino sugars and deoxy sugars. Of these, the sugar alcohol palatinitol was higher in 'Kouillou/Java' compared to 'Niaouli' (Table 1; Figure 2) and could therefore serve as a potential biomarker to differentiate between these genotypes. The farmers' cultivated accessions, which were all of the 'Niaouli' group, had low palatinitol content, and this metabolite can be used to distinguish among C. canephora varieties in Nigeria (p = 1.30 × 10 −6 ). Amino acids. Generally, amino acids make positive contributions to coffee hedonistic value. They react favorably with sugars during the Maillard reaction, producing pleasant aroma precursors [26]. Tryptophan, proline, and threonine were the amino acids also identified as potential biomarkers. Threonine and proline have high-quality attributes [27], while tryptophan is linked to low bean quality; it is a specific marker linked with bean immaturity, and the presence of high levels negatively impact the flavor of roasted coffee [28] Tryptophan levels were higher, while proline and threonine were lower (p = 3.88 × 10 −8 ), in 'Kouillou/Java' compared to 'Niaouli'. This amino acid profile suggested that 'Kouillou/Java' has an inferior amino acid profile compared to 'Niaouli' (Table 1). Notably, the farmers' accessions, which were all of the 'Niaouli' genotypes, were characterized by high threonine and proline with p-values of 1.68 × 10 −5 and 5.27 × 10 −7 , respectively.Polyphenols. Coffee is one of the most important sources of polyphenols. The polyphenols with the potential to act as biomarkers of Nigerian C. canephora coffee beans were tyrosol, gluconic acid and nornicotine. Tyrosol and nornicotine were high in 'Niaouli' compared to 'Kouillou/Java' (Table 1). Tyrosol is an essential polyphenol in olive oil which protects the actin filament network from oxidized Low-Density Lipoproteins. The tyrosol derived from coffee could also serve a protective function [29].Fatty acids. In coffee beans, fatty acids contribute to the desirable aroma precursors of roasted coffee beans [30] but high fatty acids metabolites are linked to low grade (quality) coffee [29]. We Polyphenols. Coffee is one of the most important sources of polyphenols. The polyphenols with the potential to act as biomarkers of Nigerian C. canephora coffee beans were tyrosol, gluconic acid and nornicotine. Tyrosol and nornicotine were high in 'Niaouli' compared to 'Kouillou/Java' (Table 1). Tyrosol is an essential polyphenol in olive oil which protects the actin filament network from oxidized Low-Density Lipoproteins. The tyrosol derived from coffee could also serve a protective function [29].Fatty acids. In coffee beans, fatty acids contribute to the desirable aroma precursors of roasted coffee beans [30] but high fatty acids metabolites are linked to low grade (quality) coffee [29]. We found that hexadecyl glycerol and arachidic acid were statistically higher in \"Kouillou/Java' compared to 'Niaouli'. Interestingly, glycerol was one of the few metabolites that could differentiate between 'Java' and 'Kouillou' and it was higher in the latter, compared to the former (Table 1).The relative abundance of multiple metabolites and their interaction greatly affects cup quality and other beneficial properties of coffee [31]. To study these interactions, heatmap analyses of metabolite-to-metabolite correlations were drawn, identifying metabolites that are positively and negatively correlated in abundance across genotypes (Figure 3a,b).Caffeine. This metabolite correlated moderately with sucrose (r 2 = 0.42; Table 2). This moderate association of sucrose with caffeine should have the effect of reducing the bitterness caused by the high caffeine content of many C. canephora types [31]. Although caffeine contributes to bitterness in coffee, it has long been valued for its beneficial cognitive and other health effects [32], even whether there are negative consequences for overconsumption [33].  found that hexadecyl glycerol and arachidic acid were statistically higher in ''Kouillou/Java' compared to 'Niaouli'. Interestingly, glycerol was one of the few metabolites that could differentiate between 'Java' and 'Kouillou' and it was higher in the latter, compared to the former (Table 1).The relative abundance of multiple metabolites and their interaction greatly affects cup quality and other beneficial properties of coffee [31]. To study these interactions, heatmap analyses of metabolite-to-metabolite correlations were drawn, identifying metabolites that are positively and negatively correlated in abundance across genotypes (Figure 3a and 3b).Caffeine. This metabolite correlated moderately with sucrose (r 2 = 0.42; Table 2). This moderate association of sucrose with caffeine should have the effect of reducing the bitterness caused by the high caffeine content of many C. canephora types [31]. Although caffeine contributes to bitterness in coffee, it has long been valued for its beneficial cognitive and other health effects [32], even whether there are negative consequences for overconsumption [33].(A)   1). High-quality coffee usually accumulates high levels of sucrose [9]. The positive Pearson's correlation coefficient for sucrose and caffeine observed in this study was in contradiction to the negative correlation found by Caporaso et al. [34]. In our work, sucrose and caffeine were found to be positively correlated with two unknown compounds '16548' and '68' (Table 2). Interestingly, a negative correlation was found between sucrose and palatinitol (Table 2); this could be explained by the fact that sucrose is a precursor of palatinitol biosynthesis [35]. Metabolite '6404' is potentially a metabolomic marker, differentiating cultivated accession 'Niaouli' from 'Java/Kouillou' (Table 1). This metabolite could contribute to low cup quality as it was negatively correlated with sucrose (r = −0.37). Sugars. Sucrose and fructose were the two major sugars found in the coffee beans of C. canephora cultivated in Nigeria (Supplementary Table S1). High-quality coffee usually accumulates high levels of sucrose [9]. The positive Pearson's correlation coefficient for sucrose and caffeine observed in this study was in contradiction to the negative correlation found by Caporaso et al. [34]. In our work, sucrose and caffeine were found to be positively correlated with two unknown compounds '16548' and '68' (Table 2). Interestingly, a negative correlation was found between sucrose and palatinitol (Table 2); this could be explained by the fact that sucrose is a precursor of palatinitol biosynthesis [35]. Metabolite '6404' is potentially a metabolomic marker, differentiating cultivated accession 'Niaouli' from 'Java/Kouillou' (Table 1). This metabolite could contribute to low cup quality as it was negatively correlated with sucrose (r = −0.37).Phenolic acids. Chlorogenic acid and quinic acid were the most abundant polyphenols (Supplementary Table S1). These compounds cause a high degree of bitterness and could contribute to the low cup quality [36] of Nigerian C. canephora, since they are higher in abundance relative to sucrose, amino acids and the fatty acids, compounds that are associated with high cup quality [27,37,38]. However, while chlorogenic acids negatively affect taste, they do have beneficial health properties as antioxidants.Amino acids. Several amino acids identified as good cup quality precursors were found to be positively associated in coffee genotypes used in the study. These included aspartic acid, glutamine, Plants 2019, 8, 425 9 of 17 oxoproline, serine, N-acetyl-D-galactosamine, beta-glutamic acid, proline and threonine (Figure 3a). Of these, it is known that proline produces pleasant, flowery and fragrant aromas; aspartic acid and serine generates pleasant and fruity aromas; and threonine produces a pleasant caramel-like odor [27]. Aspartic acid and glutamic acid could be explored as potential markers differentiating Nigerian C. canephora genotypes. These amino acids accumulated to relatively high levels (Supplementary Table S1) compared to that reported by Arnold et al., [39], where asparagine and glutamic acid were the two major amino acids found in the coffee beans in their study.Fatty Acids. Arachidic acid, stearic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid and glycerol are fatty acids to coffee with better sensory qualities [30] and, in this study, we found these metabolites to be positively correlated with each other (Supplementary Table S2).Sugar alcohols. Apart from cup quality improvement, the identification of genotypes with high drought tolerance traits is of great importance in the face of climate change. Here, galactinol and beta-gentiobiose were positively and highly correlated, (r 2 = 0.98) (Figure 3b). Galactinol, together with raffinose, are essential in protecting plant cells from the oxidative damage caused by various types of stress conditions [40]. Galactinol and beta-gentiobiose had the highest positive correlation coefficient (r 2 = 0.97), followed by lactobionic acid and beta-gentiobiose (r 2 = 0.96). Galactinol synthase is a key enzyme in the synthesis of the raffinose family of oligosaccharides, which function as osmoprotectants in plant cells [40]. The Pearson correlation was statistically significant (p < 0.05) among different chemicals.Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) both detected group differences. PCA is an unsupervised approach. PLS, in contrast, is a supervised approach that seeks to maximize separation between groups by reducing within group variation [41,42]. This explains why clear separation between 'Java' and 'Kouillou' was possible with Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), but not with PCA (Figure 4). Both PCA and PLS detected 32.2% and 28.7% variations, respectively (Figure 4a,b). They also indicated that there are two metabolomic diverse groups, which we designated as clusters I and II. Cluster I comprised of all the 'Niaouli' genotypes, while cluster II was made up of the 'Java' and 'Kouillou' genotypes (Figure 4a,b).  Because of post-transcriptional modification, a change in metabolite level may result in phenotypic changes more than alterations in DNA sequence [10,43]. Still, it was of interest to compare how the genotypes would be classified based on SNPs vs. based on their metabolite profiles. Genomic analysis through the characterization of 433,048 SNPs grouped the genotypes into three genetic units (clusters III, IV and VI) (Figure 5a). Hierarchical analysis of the GC-MS data also led to a similar clustering of the genotypes i.e. (I, II and III) (Figure 5a). Among the coffee genotypes Because of post-transcriptional modification, a change in metabolite level may result in phenotypic changes more than alterations in DNA sequence [10,43]. Still, it was of interest to compare how the genotypes would be classified based on SNPs vs. based on their metabolite profiles. Genomic analysis through the characterization of 433,048 SNPs grouped the genotypes into three genetic units (clusters III, IV and VI) (Figure 5a). Hierarchical analysis of the GC-MS data also led to a similar clustering of the genotypes i.e., (I, II and III) (Figure 5a). Among the coffee genotypes studied, genetic diversity based on SNPs can be linked to chemical or metabolomics diversity, as the data proved to be complementary. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism analysis of both the phenolic and vitamin E pathways revealed metabolite-specific genetic diversity among the rice varieties examined [44]. Our analysis showed that some genotypes contained high and low levels of some important chemicals linked to coffee quality and health benefits (Table 3). High levels of sucrose and low levels of aminobutyric acid (GABA), quinic acid, choline, acetic acid and fatty acids were reported to be the metabolomic markers of high-grade green coffee [9]. The Nia_14 and Nia_15 genotypes of 'Niaouli' have a low caffeine content and relatively higher sucrose content (Table 3). Thus, bitterness may be reduced within these genotypes, and the caffeine level may make it suitable to some consumers who have health concerns. Determining whether there are SNP differences in the gene coding for these \"favorable\" metabolites may point to a genomic cause for differences in metabolite levels among these genotypes (Table 3) that might be exploited in coffee breeding and coffee functional genomic analysis. Sucrose and caffeine showed a broad range of concentrations (Table 3 and Figure 6). The variability of sucrose was 39-fold, while caffeine was 5-fold, offering targets for breeding programs. A high level of natural variability for caffeine and sucrose in green (C) This table matches the 'Niaouli' genotypes in (A) to those in (B), where Nia_11 is the same as Can_24.Our analysis showed that some genotypes contained high and low levels of some important chemicals linked to coffee quality and health benefits (Table 3). High levels of sucrose and low levels of aminobutyric acid (GABA), quinic acid, choline, acetic acid and fatty acids were reported to be the metabolomic markers of high-grade green coffee [9]. The Nia_14 and Nia_15 genotypes of 'Niaouli' have a low caffeine content and relatively higher sucrose content (Table 3). Thus, bitterness may be reduced within these genotypes, and the caffeine level may make it suitable to some consumers who have health concerns. Determining whether there are SNP differences in the gene coding for these \"favorable\" metabolites may point to a genomic cause for differences in metabolite levels among these Plants 2019, 8, 425 genotypes (Table 3) that might be exploited in coffee breeding and coffee functional genomic analysis. Sucrose and caffeine showed a broad range of concentrations (Table 3 and Figure 6). The variability of sucrose was 39-fold, while caffeine was 5-fold, offering targets for breeding programs. A high level of natural variability for caffeine and sucrose in green coffee beans was also observed in other studies [24,33]. Metabolites differentiating high-(C. arabica) and low-quality coffee (C. canephora) are summarized in Table 4.Plants 2019, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEW 12 of 18 final stage of coffee grain development [45][46][47]. It will be interesting to further evaluate the sucrose synthase sequence of these genotypes having high and low sucrose content to determine whether there is a SNP change at this locus. Table 3. Genotypes grouped based on the relative levels of the key metabolites identified from hierarchical analysis (Figure 6). The C. canephora varieties used were 'Kouillou', 'Gold Coast', 'Java Robusta', 'Niaouli', 'Uganda' and 'Java Robusta Ex Gamba'. More information about the methods used for this analysis is available [7].The farmers' accessions known to be the 'Niaouli' variety were grouped into 3 genotypes (Nia_1, Nia_2 and Nia_3) based on the hierarchical clustering of 433,650 SNPs using SNPRelate software (http://www.Rproject.org) [48]. These genotypes and those within the 'Kouillou' and 'Java Robusta' groups were used for metabolomics analysis. These varieties ('Niaouli', 'Kouillou' and 'Java Robusta') represented three genetic structures detected by GBS-SNP analysis on C. canephora repository in Nigeria [7]. These genotypes were selected because they were used to establish the pioneer model polyclonal seed garden plot, which will be replicated in farmers' fields.The genotypes used for metabolomics were cultivated C. canephora accessions in Nigeria [7], consisting of 'Niaouli', 'Kouillou' and 'Java Robusta' varieties. They were further classified into one of six groups based on the result from SNP-GBS analysis [7]. 'Niaouli' is comprised of three genotypes: Nia_1, Nia_2 and Nia_3, (classified as Groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively), 'Kouillou' is comprised of two genotypes: C111 and C36, (classified as Groups 4, and 5, respectively) and, 'Java Robusta' is comprised of one genotype: T1049, and was classified as Group 6. There were five replicates for each group (genotypes), giving a total of 30 samples (Table 5). Reddish matured (ripened), coffee bean (Figure 7b) of these genotypes were collected in ice bags and immediately transferred to −80 • C. The endosperms of the coffee bean (Figure 7c) were excised using a sterile blade and re-transferred to −80 • C. These endosperms were lyophilized, ground into powder with Udy mill (Udy Corporation) and sealed prior to metabolomics analysis. Reddish matured (ripened), coffee bean (Figure 7b) of these genotypes were collected in ice bags and immediately transferred to −80 °C. The endosperms of the coffee bean (Figure 7c) were excised using a sterile blade and re-transferred to −80 °C. These endosperms were lyophilized, ground into powder with Udy mill (Udy Corporation) and sealed prior to metabolomics analysis. The metabolomics analysis was performed according to Fiehn et al. [49]. The analyte was extracted from the sample using a solvent containing isopropanol/acetonitrile/water at the volume ratio of 3:3:2. The supernatant was concentrated in a Centrivap cold trap vacuum concentrator (http://www.labconco.com) at room temperature for 4 h. The extracts were immediately derivatized for GC-Time-of-Flight (TOF) mass spectrometry analysis by adding 90 µL of N-methyl-Ntrimethylsilyltrifluoroacetamide and 1% (v/v) trimethylchlorosilane (1 mL bottles; Pierce) to the extract and shaken at 37 °C for 30 min. The reaction mixture was transferred to a 2 mL clear glass auto-sampler vial with micro-insert (Agilent; http://www.agilent.com) and closed using an 11 mm T/S/T crimp cap. The metabolomics analysis was performed according to Fiehn et al. [49]. The analyte was extracted from the sample using a solvent containing isopropanol/acetonitrile/water at the volume ratio of 3:3:2. The supernatant was concentrated in a Centrivap cold trap vacuum concentrator (http://www.labconco. com) at room temperature for 4 h. The extracts were immediately derivatized for GC-Time-of-Flight (TOF) mass spectrometry analysis by adding 90 µL of N-methyl-N-trimethylsilyltrifluoroacetamide and 1% (v/v) trimethylchlorosilane (1 mL bottles; Pierce) to the extract and shaken at 37 • C for 30 min. The reaction mixture was transferred to a 2 mL clear glass auto-sampler vial with micro-insert (Agilent; http://www.agilent.com) and closed using an 11 mm T/S/T crimp cap. Samples (0.5 µL) were injected between 2 and 24 h after derivatization in an Agilent 6890 gas chromatograph controlled by using LecoChromaTOF software version 2.32 (http://www.leco.com). The analytical GC column was Restek corporation Rtx-5Sil MS (30 m length × 0.25 mm internal diameter with 0.25 µm film made of dimethyl/diphenylpolysiloxane at the volume ratio 95:5) and the mobile phase used was Helium.The data was acquired on a Mass spectrometry Instrument, a Leco Pegasus IV time-of-flight mass spectrometer controlled using LecoChromaTOF software version 2.32, at a mass resolving power R = 600 from m/z 85-500 at 20 spectra per second, and 1550 V detector voltage, without turning on the mass defect option. Recording ended after 1200 s.All metabolites, including those identified and those not identified using the National Institute of Standards and Technology mass spectral library, were used for data analysis. Both univariate and multivariate statistical approaches were performed with metaboAnalystR [50]. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was performed to ascertain the significant variables, and they were expressed as f -and p-values. The level of statistical significance (−Log10(p)) was determined, followed by post-hoc analyses to correct the p-value and thus generate the False Discovery Rate (FDR). Fisher's least significant difference method (LSD) was used to identify groups that differ in their metabolite profile. Pearson's correlation coefficient between the metabolites was calculated using metaboAnalystR [50]. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) were performed using the prcomp package within the R statistical package [51]. Prominent potential discriminatory metabolites were identified with variable importance in projection (VIP) scores at a PLS regression value above 2. Calculations for these analyses were based on singular value decomposition [50]. Hierarchical Clustering Analysis was used to classify genotypes by employing Pearson's correlation as a similarity measure. The clustering algorithm used was Ward's linkage, which minimizes the sum of squares of any two clusters [50]. The metabolomic analyses results were compared to hierarchical clustering of SNP data obtained by SNP relate [50].For the first time, metabolites in the beans of Nigerian C. canephora were evaluated. The farmers' cultivated accessions have unique metabolite profiles and genomic structures compared to the conserved accessions. There was high variability within the varieties for caffeine and sucrose-the two key compounds in coffee. However, the high caffeine, quinic acid and chlorogenic acid may contribute to low quality and bitterness. Genomic technologies such as transgenesis, molecular marker-assisted breeding, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics should complement traditional breeding efforts for hastening the genetic improvement of coffee. The alteration of major metabolites that contribute to coffee taste, such as caffeine and sucrose, has been one of the strategies used in developing high cup quality coffee. Based on the flavor profile we have assayed, it was found that the ratio of caffeine to sucrose is higher than desirable for good cup quality. It remains to be seen whether there are polymorphisms for known enzymes and proteins that regulate the levels of these compounds among our genotypes. Such data can be obtained by careful examination of our GBS-SNP data, and the utility of this information will be further extended by using them as genetic markers for breeding. By altering this design, the desirable flavor profile will be achieved. It will be of great interest to characterize those genotypes conferring relatively low caffeine, and high sucrose, together with other important quality precursors to determine the cause of such variation and identify some important quality trait markers.","tokenCount":"5503"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"22cc334bbee2d51020a0f18de6222ebf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/beedc50d-34c7-4f92-ab95-9ec6f4dd92fb/retrieve","id":"-620587492"},"keywords":["Shopping practices","food perceptions","and aspirations"],"sieverID":"01d59322-b36b-41e4-a2e8-0af1e3a8162f","pagecount":"12","content":"Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) district agrifood systems assessment aims to provide a reliable, accessible, and integrated evidence base that links farm production, market access, dietary patterns, climate risk responses, and natural resource management with gender as a cross-cutting issue in rural areas of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. It is designed to be a district-level multiyear assessment. Using data collected in March-April 2023, this data note describes who is shopping for food in households, frequency, place of purchase, reasons for preferences for places of purchase, and perceptions about food. This is one of a set of data notes that together provide a holistic picture of the agrifood system on the themes of climate, gender, production, markets, and diets in the district.TAFSSA's district agrifood systems assessment aimed to interview three members from each household: an adult female (aged 20+ years), an adult male (aged 20+ years), and an adolescent (aged 10-19 years). Details on the household and respondent sampling strategy are provided at the end of this data note.This data note begins by presenting background characteristics of households, focusing on the female and male adults responsible for purchasing food for their households. It then examines the frequency of food purchases of seven common food items (dal, eggs, green leafy vegetables, bananas, biscuits, deep fried foods, and instant noodles) in the past 12 months and the cost of the most recent purchase. Furthermore, the data note provides insights into the top three sources of food acquisition, the distance to these sources, and the reasons for preferring them.Finally, this data note delves into what drives respondents' purchasing decisions and their aspirations regarding food purchases. Definitions of different market types discussed in the data note and a list of the figures and tables, are provided below.City market: A multi-vendor urban food market held daily in a fixed location where traders and farmers set up shops during the day.A group of at least 5 vendors in close proximity selling food products along the street, without any formal organizational setup.Any type of single vendor shops at a fixed location selling groceries, vegetables, fruits, or any animal-source foods such as meat, fish, and dairy.A market where food products are sold in bulk directly by manufacturers, farmers, or artisans at a fair price, usually in a permanent or semi-permanent structure.    • More money was spent on purchasing dal, eggs, and bananas more than any other food item at any time during the most recent purchase.✓ Unhealthy foods: More than two-thirds of the shoppers purchased biscuits and more than threequarters purchased instant noodles within the past 7 days.  ✓ Female and male shoppers primarily purchased both healthy and unhealthy foods from retail outlets. ✓ More male shoppers accessed wholesale markets to purchase green leafy vegetables and bananas. ✓ City, wholesale, and roadside markets were the preferred source of purchase because of the price. ✓ Time and distance to the outlet influenced choosing of retail outlets by all shoppers. ✓ For some female shoppers, availability of credit facility at retail outlets was yet another reason. ✓ Fewer shoppers perceived healthy foods to be affordable. ✓ Families enjoyed healthy foods slightly more than unhealthy foods. ✓ Both female and male shoppers agreed that unhealthy foods were unsafe to eat. ✓ Both female and male shoppers agreed that biscuits and instant noodles were easy to acquire, but more male compared to female shoppers perceived them to be affordable. ✓ Female and male shoppers aspired to buy more meat and fruits and less fish, biscuits, and noodles. ✓ Only male shoppers aspired to buy more milk.✓ Only female shoppers aspired to buy more dal. ✓ 45% female shoppers and 63% male shoppers did not intend to reduce their purchase of any food.  We selected 25 wards in the district with a probability proportional to the number of households that reside in each village. Within each village, we conducted a household listing to identify eligible households, that is those with adolescents (10-19 years old). From the households with adolescents, we randomly invited 20 households to participate in the survey. If a household refused, we replaced that household with another randomly selected eligible household, to retain a total of 1,000 households in the district. Thus, the findings reported in this data note are representative of rural households from this district that include an adolescent.Within households, one adult female aged 20+ years, one adult male aged 20+ years, and one adolescent aged 10-19 years were selected as the respondents for the survey. When multiple adolescents were living in a household, the oldest adolescent was selected. In some households, an adult male was not available (often due to migration for work). In such households, the female was the only adult respondent (See Table 1 for respondent sample sizes). At the beginning of the interview, the adult in the household primarily involved in agriculture (either male or female) and the adult primarily responsible for food purchasing (either male or female) were identified as the primary respondents. ","tokenCount":"830"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c6481a9199c74aa33cb99195e5b6016e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.cimmyt.org/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=hdl:11529/10548014/1","id":"293156541"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2e774cb0-b05b-4adc-a3b9-7c1a48064ae1","pagecount":"114","content":"This literature review aims to contribute towards understanding the incentives, constraints and innovation pathways that have and could increase food security in the alluvial East Gangetic Plains (EGP). The EGP is in hydrological terms part of the Ganges River basin and in geological terms it comprises the eastern section of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. In terms of jurisdictions, it is comprised of: the contiguous Indian States of Bihar and northern West Bengal; the northwest of Bangladesh; and the Terai region within Nepal. In socioeconomic terms, the region's jurisdictions are in varying degrees of agrarian transition and terms of integration into the global economy. There is little doubt as to the persistence of food insecurity in the 'poverty square' of South Asia or the fact that it cannot be explained in purely biophysical terms. All of these hydrological, geological, jurisdictional and socio-economic aspects of the EGP are integral to the problem of achieving food security. Thus a systems perspective is necessary to pinpoint consequential interdependencies for increasing food security in the EGP, such as those between energy markets and irrigation development, land redistribution reform and the fragmentation of agricultural holdings, rural livelihood diversification through migration and the availability of agricultural labour.The persistence of food insecurity within the EGP has clear historical and political origins (Figure 1). Under the British Raj during World War II, the inflammatory war economy and threat of Japanese invasion led to the Great Bengal Famine of 1942. The Bengal Famine was a failure of entitlement; food was available but unaffordable. Peasant rioting ensued from 1945 to 1946 over the exploitative terms of sharecropping which entitled landlords to 50% or more of crops. The fight for food security polarised the Hindu Congress and Muslim League Parties. The British 'resolved' this agrarian conflict by partitioning the Muslim east (Bangladesh) and west (Pakistan) from Hindu India in 1947, and granted India independence in 1951. Subsequent short wars between India and Pakistan (1965) and East and West Pakistan (1971) repartitioned the subcontinent into three nations. Newly independent but war ravaged Bangladesh was famine ridden by 1974. Ironically, being the recipient of world's second largest flow of food aid by 1975 enabled Bangladesh to harness the structural adjustment pressures that ensued in the 1990s to kick-start a Green Revolution that has achieved national foodgrain self-sufficiency.India, in its sheer economic and demographic enormity, has evolved from British Raj into a consequential multi-ethnic democracy, as evidenced by the retention, indeed attraction, of Muslim Bengalis. Able to launch a Green Revolution with American expertise and aid on the Western Gangetic Plains in the 1960s, India reached foodgrain self-sufficiency much earlier than Bangladesh. India has since confronted the persistence of its poverty traps under the glare of official designation of the poor as belonging to backward castes and tribes. A distinctly Indian welfare net providing subsidised employment and foodgrain to these groups has evolved through the federally fractured power struggles between elite and marginalised socioeconomic groups. Both criminal and reformist state governments in India's north-eastern states of West Bengal and Bihar arose from this agrarian dynamic with profound effects upon levels of agricultural production and food security. In comparison to Bangladesh, structural adjustment pressures have essentially been shrugged off by India.Nepal (Figure 2) only emerged from centuries of political isolation as a national enti distinction to the British Raj. Over the past 60 years, Nepal has transitioned from a tributary state dominated by an upper caste Kathmandu elite. The most dramatic facet of Nepal's transition is the unplanned colonisation and deforest seeking food security. A highly factional politics has prevailed in Nepal under both authoritarian and democratic forms of governance that has fragmented aid efforts and confounded the harness structural adjustment pressure to increase food security evident in Bangladesh. Nepal's deeply entrenched poverty was instead challenged through a Maoist inspired peasant rebellion now mostly contained in parliament. However the elite view of Nepal tribes is yet to be constitutionally resolved. Although the lowland convergence concentrated agricultural production on the Terai over the past 50 years, production remains at subsistence levelsThe famines and chronic food insecurity that have shaped the political contours of contemporary EGP are deeply engrained on the psyche of farmers and policy makers alike. Decisions entailing strong path dependencies were made at the moment of the nation foodgrain self-sufficiency and avoiding food imports became entrenched. A legacy of the EGP's political history is the tendency to conflate household food security with achieving national food self focusing upon raising agricultural production. However, the Green Revolution that famously unfolded in India's western states in the 1960s enabled large landholding elites to monopolise benefits which had the effect of increasing the food insecur established during the 1950s to distribute subsidised foodgrain to the food insecure have proved prone to elite capture which has resulted in high leakage rates from these safety nets, Review of social and economic issues for food security studies in the Eastern Gangetic Plains2) only emerged from centuries of political isolation as a national entity in 1950 in contra distinction to the British Raj. Over the past 60 years, Nepal has transitioned from a tributary state dominated by an upper caste Kathmandu elite. The most dramatic facet of Nepal's transition is the unplanned colonisation and deforestation of the Terai Plains by marginalised socio-economic groups seeking food security. A highly factional politics has prevailed in Nepal under both authoritarian and democratic forms of governance that has fragmented aid efforts and confounded the harness structural adjustment pressure to increase food security evident in Bangladesh. Nepal's deeply entrenched poverty was instead challenged through a Maoist inspired peasant rebellion now mostly contained in parliament. However the elite view of Nepal as a pure Hindu state and poverty of multiple ethnicities and tribes is yet to be constitutionally resolved. Although the lowland convergence concentrated agricultural production on the Terai over the past 50 years, production remains at subsistence levels The famines and chronic food insecurity that have shaped the political contours of contemporary EGP are deeply engrained on the psyche of farmers and policy makers alike. Decisions entailing strong path dependencies were made at the moment of the nations' emergence. A preference for prioritising national sufficiency and avoiding food imports became entrenched. A legacy of the EGP's political history is the tendency to conflate household food security with achieving national food self focusing upon raising agricultural production. However, the Green Revolution that famously unfolded in India's western states in the 1960s enabled large landholding elites to monopolise benefits which had the effect of increasing the food insecurity of the asset-poor landless and sharecroppers. Further, the systems established during the 1950s to distribute subsidised foodgrain to the food insecure have proved prone to elite capture which has resulted in high leakage rates from these safety nets, most particularly in Bihar.Review of social and economic issues for food security studies in the Eastern Gangetic Plains | 9 ty in 1950 in contradistinction to the British Raj. Over the past 60 years, Nepal has transitioned from a tributary state dominated by an upper caste Kathmandu elite. The most dramatic facet of Nepal's transition is the economic groups seeking food security. A highly factional politics has prevailed in Nepal under both authoritarian and democratic forms of governance that has fragmented aid efforts and confounded the harnessing of structural adjustment pressure to increase food security evident in Bangladesh. Nepal's deeply entrenched poverty was instead challenged through a Maoist inspired peasant rebellion now mostly contained in as a pure Hindu state and poverty of multiple ethnicities and tribes is yet to be constitutionally resolved. Although the lowland convergence concentrated agricultural production on the Terai over the past 50 years, production remains at subsistence levels.The famines and chronic food insecurity that have shaped the political contours of contemporary EGP are deeply engrained on the psyche of farmers and policy makers alike. Decisions entailing strong path s' emergence. A preference for prioritising national sufficiency and avoiding food imports became entrenched. A legacy of the EGP's political history is the tendency to conflate household food security with achieving national food self-sufficiency by focusing upon raising agricultural production. However, the Green Revolution that famously unfolded in India's western states in the 1960s enabled large landholding elites to monopolise benefits which had the poor landless and sharecroppers. Further, the systems established during the 1950s to distribute subsidised foodgrain to the food insecure have proved prone to most particularly in Bihar.Reforms to redistribute land confiscated from holdings above a 'ceiling' and tenant registration programs such as Operation Barga were successful in West Bengal under a Left Front Government, but received largely rhetorical support elsewhere in the EGP jur populist electoral politics has politically mediated caste identities in Bihar and West Bengal. New caste alliances, more secular behaviour and increasing social mobility across caste barriers form s The politics of caste tend to worsen economies of scale fragmentation and infertility in West Bengal.Trying to address the varied political solutions of the Green Revolution will not necessarily encourage links to be made between the socio political and technical domains in manner helpful to the food insecure. How to encourage such links in the varied contexts of the EGP forms a pivotal overarching research need.Trends in agricultural production within the EGP appear to follow jurisdictional contours. Production of rice is high for West Bengal and Northwest Bangladesh, but remains low for Bihar and the Terai of because of their small areas of dry season rice and minimal use of groundwater irrigation. Rice yields for the summer/boro rice crops (~3-3.5 tonnes/ha) are higher than the kharif rice crops (~2 Rice yields have been steadily increasing across the region, but it is summer/boro rice crops that have provided the greatest gain in production due to the use of supplementary irrigation. Bangladesh's significant increase in rice production over the last 20 years demonstrates the feas self-sufficiency within all of the EGP jurisdictions.The key physical and technical issues preventing increased rice production in Bihar and Terai include the inadequacy of irrigation and transport infrastructure, poor availabil tillers, tractors and high yielding varieties, under Obtaining inputs is particularly difficult for the majority of farmers who are landless or lack adequate holdings. The prevalence of exploitative sharecropping arrangements and insecure tenure disallow of social and economic issues for food security studies in the Eastern Gangetic PlainsReforms to redistribute land confiscated from holdings above a 'ceiling' and tenant registration programs such as Operation Barga were successful in West Bengal under a Left Front Government, but received largely rhetorical support elsewhere in the EGP jurisdictions. The intersection of India's caste system and populist electoral politics has politically mediated caste identities in Bihar and West Bengal. New caste alliances, more secular behaviour and increasing social mobility across caste barriers form s The politics of caste tend to worsen economies of scale -partially successful land reform increased land fragmentation and infertility in West Bengal.Trying to address the varied political-institutional contexts within the EGP solely with solutions of the Green Revolution will not necessarily encourage links to be made between the socio political and technical domains in manner helpful to the food insecure. How to encourage such links in the pivotal overarching research need.Trends in agricultural production within the EGP appear to follow jurisdictional contours. Production of rice is high for West Bengal and Northwest Bangladesh, but remains low for Bihar and the Terai of because of their small areas of dry season rice and minimal use of groundwater irrigation. Rice yields for 3.5 tonnes/ha) are higher than the kharif rice crops (~2 increasing across the region, but it is summer/boro rice crops that have provided the greatest gain in production due to the use of supplementary irrigation. Bangladesh's significant increase in rice production over the last 20 years demonstrates the feasibility of achieving food sufficiency within all of the EGP jurisdictions.The key physical and technical issues preventing increased rice production in Bihar and Terai include the inadequacy of irrigation and transport infrastructure, poor availability of pumps (diesel or electric), power tillers, tractors and high yielding varieties, under-utilisation of fertiliser and lack of access to markets.Obtaining inputs is particularly difficult for the majority of farmers who are landless or lack adequate holdings. The prevalence of exploitative sharecropping arrangements and insecure tenure disallow Reforms to redistribute land confiscated from holdings above a 'ceiling' and tenant registration programs such as Operation Barga were successful in West Bengal under a Left Front Government, but received isdictions. The intersection of India's caste system and populist electoral politics has politically mediated caste identities in Bihar and West Bengal. New caste alliances, more secular behaviour and increasing social mobility across caste barriers form strong trends.partially successful land reform increased land institutional contexts within the EGP solely with the technical solutions of the Green Revolution will not necessarily encourage links to be made between the sociopolitical and technical domains in manner helpful to the food insecure. How to encourage such links in the Trends in agricultural production within the EGP appear to follow jurisdictional contours. Production of rice is high for West Bengal and Northwest Bangladesh, but remains low for Bihar and the Terai of Nepal, largely because of their small areas of dry season rice and minimal use of groundwater irrigation. Rice yields for 3.5 tonnes/ha) are higher than the kharif rice crops (~2-2.5 tonnes/ha). increasing across the region, but it is summer/boro rice crops that have provided the greatest gain in production due to the use of supplementary irrigation. Bangladesh's ibility of achieving foodThe key physical and technical issues preventing increased rice production in Bihar and Terai include the ity of pumps (diesel or electric), power utilisation of fertiliser and lack of access to markets. Obtaining inputs is particularly difficult for the majority of farmers who are landless or lack adequate holdings. The prevalence of exploitative sharecropping arrangements and insecure tenure disallow investment in irrigation infrastructure as land is required as equity to obtain institutional credit. Tenants and sharecroppers may well require short turn around and high return crops to justify investment in inputs.Unlike the now functional rice market of Bangladesh, Bihar's farmers are not obtaining India's minimum procurement prices for rice, so lack an incentive to grow rice beyond subsistence levels. Bihar has been considered India's most backward and politically regressive state. While the governance of Bihar has much improved since 2005, increasing production will still take considerable time and effort. Such barriers raise the question as to whether using irrigation to increase the cropping intensity of summer (dry) season rice production in Bihar and Terai constitutes the best approach to increasing food security. An alternative approach to would be to increase the diversity of higher-value crops and utilise potential irrigation water in the dry season to improve livelihoods. Both strategies require groundwater utilisation and improved infrastructure to link products to markets and, potentially, longer value chains. Diversification into cash crops or horticulture in the dry season using groundwater is a proven strategy in West Bengal.It is uncontroversial to recommend improving the physical and technical aspects of production such as irrigation, road infrastructure, varieties and rice crop management (e.g. fertilisers and other chemical inputs). However, improving household food security in the more challenging jurisdictions of Nepal's Terai and Bihar may also benefit from policy and institutional measures such as:• Improved implementation of minimum procurement prices for rice;• Encourage state government extension services to utilise NGOs expertise in upliftment and empowerment to develop the capacity of marginalised farmers to negotiate contracts, land access and niche markets; and • Explore whether land tenure and sharecropping arrangements could be made more equitable and profitable.Increasing agricultural production in the EGP is reliant upon dry season irrigation. There is currently insufficient irrigation, particularly in the Terai and Bihar. Climate change is expected to lower dry season flows while increasing catastrophic flooding events making a more regional style of cooperation and coordination between the EGP jurisdictions pressing. Cross-border cooperation is currently restricted to bilateral treaties between the economically dominant India with Nepal and Bangladesh respectively. Equitable sharing of water flows during the dry season has remained a contentious issue since the three nations emerged.Engineered structures such as India's Kosi Barrage, located on Nepal's Terai, and the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal that 'divides' water between India and Bangladesh have controversial downstream impacts. Improved operation and management of the Farakka and Kosi barrages to reduce water logging and flooding would assist food production and security at the household level, particularly in flood prone Bihar.Researchers also recommend moving from an engineered approach to flood control to flood management by using softer systems such as community based upstream-downstream flood forecasting to move information rapidly across borders.As the modern engineered surface water schemes have proved to yield disappointing command areas, rehabilitation of traditional surface water Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems to achieve dry season irrigation has become popular with researchers and donors. However attempts to revive the tradition of self-governance so as to transfer operation and maintenance costs for deep tube wells and tertiary canals to farmer groups in the Terai and West Bengal have proved patchy. One reason for farmer resistance to these attempts at 'participatory irrigation management' is the relative advantage of investing in shallow tube well bores and pumps to tap groundwater on an individual basis.Shallow tube well (STW) irrigation makes water available on demand at the point of use and encourages complementary investments in agricultural inputs. Local water markets have developed as owners seek to recover their costs, a development which has made groundwater more accessible to small and marginal farmers than land. The STW economy has grown rapidly across South Asia over the past thirty years. Within the EGP, growth has been strongest in Northwest Bangladesh, significantly slower in West Bengal, and surprisingly poor in groundwater rich Bihar and Terai.Electricity is a cheaper pump fuel than diesel and rural electricity provision in Bihar and Terai is poor. Reliance on diesel in Nepal and Bihar explains their less intensive use of groundwater. There is a: '...clear but paradoxical east-west energy-divide in India, with the water abundant Eastern states saddled with diesel pumps, while water-scarce western and southern India are well endowed with electric pumps ...' (Mukherji, 2008(Mukherji, :1084)).The sheer number of individual investments facilitated by the STW economy has led to troubling cascade effects in north-western Indian states. Rural vote banks, protective of subsidised electricity supply, have developed in India's western and southern states. West Bengal, in contrast, has metered all STWs and charges farmers at near commercial rates, which has stimulated high levels of innovation (economising). 1.4 General socio-economic setting -who and where are the food insecure?Population pressure in the face of limited land resources is the main driver of household food insecurity in the EGP. Landless households suffer the worst food insecurity and landlessness typically correlates with the Indian Scheduled Caste, Backward Caste and Other Backward Caste designations, which have constitutional status. The Scheduled Caste of Dalits (untouchables), for example, are predictably landless, disempowered and impoverished. Thus, food insecurity is entangled with caste and tribal identities and their relative socioeconomic status within Hindu caste hierarchy. To the extent that low status, identity-based groups cluster in particular districts and villages, the spatial arrangement of food insecurity will be predictable.The West Bengal experience indicates that land redistribution is an incomplete solution to this problem. Land is tightly held, and highly fragmented, across the EGP, having deep cultural resonance further to its economic utility. It is possible that the political limits to such reform have already been reached. Improving the security of tenants through registration and improving the terms of sharecropping seem more promising avenues for households with no land or insufficient land to meet their subsistence needs.The agrarian transition, that is, reduced importance of agricultural sector relative to industrial and service sectors, is least advanced in the Terai followed by Bihar. Apart from the high number of food insecure households on the Terai, there is also more fragmentation among households along ethnic-caste lines. However, there is also more social capital within these traditional affinity groupings that is used to ease food insecurity within groups. The agrarian transition is most advanced in Bangladesh followed by West Bengal; as indicated by their higher access to alternative and urban or overseas employment. The dynamics of transitioning turn on how feudal rural power relationships are. Specifically, the more landless households there are, the more landlords can extract from agricultural labourers, sharecroppers and tenants. Downward pressure on agricultural wages will then prevail. Where households with insufficient land to subsist can access alternative (urban or overseas) employment, upward pressure is placed on agricultural wages. Access to non-agricultural income, however, is spatially variable which is why West Bengal's poverty decreases towards Kolkata -a major unskilled labour market.Access to credit is another key variable and this has suffered across the EGP under economic liberalisation since the 1990s. However, West Bengal has demonstrated the self-help groups (SHGs) can be an effective way to increase institutional credit provision to the impoverished.Food insecurity is culturally and socio-economically stratified within and between the EGP jurisdictions. The intensification of foodgrain production through purely technical interventions has historically been prone to elite capture and is unlikely to assist food insecure households and groups. Households reliant on agricultural labour for income lack the ready means to participate in and benefit from such intensification. Either an exit from rural labour markets altogether or opportunities to participate in a stronger and more inclusive rural economy without needing substantial land-ownership will be necessary. Whether more inclusive rural economies could be encouraged with innovation platforms around improved marketing, input provision, value-adding and small scale mechanisation and its servicing arising from dry season irrigated crops is highly researchable.India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and, throughout the EGP, migration are important livelihood strategies for the rural poor. NREGA and migration provide a source of cash income that can supplement other forms on-farm and off-farm income as well as subsistence agriculture. In the case of India's NREGA, there is considerable opportunity to target NREGA's earth works for the creation of productive irrigation assets. Scope exists also for fostering partnerships between the state departments managing NREGA and NGOs who often have closer ties with rural communities and understand their challenges and priorities more intimately. Access to NREGA is also an issue for the rural poor, with the opportunity to secure the 100 days of paid unskilled labour entitlement proving to be highly variable in Bihar and West Bengal. Once again, fostering partnerships between NGOs and underserviced communities to facilitate access to such entitlements can enhance purchasing power and consequently, food security and access to education and health services. Researchable areas include investigating where NREGA is ineffective and why. Greater understanding of the key issues and developing partnerships and linkages in the field can foster the creation of innovation platforms where NREGA representatives, NGOs and underserviced communities work together to improve service delivery and create productive assets.Both NREGA in India and migration in the EGP, while providing important supplemental income to rural households, have created the paradoxical 'labour shortage' in one of the most populated regions on earth. These institutions have increased the opportunity cost of agricultural labour. The low returns to labour provided by paddy cultivation also favour these alternative livelihood strategies. To keep farmers farming, it would be necessary to increase the returns to agricultural labour which could be achieved through reducing costs (e.g. economies of scale, consolidation of farming blocks), increasing productivity of staple crops, or through the cultivation of higher value agricultural commodities. Improving the efficiency of agricultural value chains can also increase farm gate prices, and therefore, the returns to their labour. Particularly in India, the predominance of the Public Food Distribution System, high leakage rates in Bihar and West Bengal, and how this relates to farm gate prices are important researchable issues. Research around value chains and how to enhance value at the producer level is also a theme not well addressed in the literature.With male migration, women are increasingly becoming involved providing agricultural labour -the socalled feminization of agriculture. Women's involvement in agriculture has important implications for rural extension and NGO engagement where traditionally, these services were targeted toward the male headed rather than female headed household. In Bangladesh's experience, migration has had an important impact in increasing women's household decision-making authority though this seems to be less true in the case of India. How are NGOs responding to this changing dynamic? Are their models of service delivery evolving as a response? Answers to these questions can help design service delivery strategies that are responsive to this dynamic and better targeted to diverse household priorities.Male migration and rising labour costs have also increased the demand for labour-saving technologies on farm. Mechanization has occurred at a rapid pace, particularly in Bangladesh. Significant adaption of the mechanisation strategy is required to cope with plot size and fragmentation and to target appropriate technologies specific household types. Consideration should also be given to how mechanisation affects female-headed households and female casual agricultural labour.In India, migration has reduced the relevance of caste. Furthermore, those that migrate and later return to the country-side often return with new ideas which can enhance innovations in agriculture as well as in non-farming activities such as in the development of rural industries. Exploration of the role of out migration in contributing to social equity and rural development are researchable topics of importance.While maintaining agricultural production may have important consequences for household food selfsufficiency, households also require disposable income for consumption of food not produced on farm, and to purchase services such as education, health and other basic necessities. In many cases, the potential for staple crop cultivation in delivering disposable income is very limited. Off-farm developments and sources of income are important. Greater access to education could for example deliver the greatest gains in achieving food security and an improved standard of living in the long run. Exploring the returns to develop assistance can provide insights that can help target aid.Both Bangladesh and Nepal began liberalizing their markets and reducing domestic support for agriculture in the 1990s, though Nepal has been less successful. Bangladesh offers a low level of domestic support to agriculture while in India, large subsidies are offered, particularly for fertilizer. The penetration of subsidies in Bihar and West Bengal is less than in other regions of India while the dysfunctional public food distribution systems (PFDS) in Bihar and West Bengal offer further disincentive for producing foodgrains.Bangladesh is ahead with regards to high yielding varieties (HYV) seed, but could still achieve productivity improvements with greater supply. In West Bengal and Bihar, limited improvements in yields, grain quality and taste, the price of seed, farm gate price of HYV paddy and farmer awareness all partially explain a lack of uptake. Legislation in favour of the patenting of seed has been shown to be effective in increasing private sector investment in the case of maize in Bangladesh. Research into the development of HYV and in innovative ways of getting seed to farmers when demand is greatest is important in all of the EGP subregions.Investigating the potential for farmers to add value to their product can enhance food security. Bangladesh's experience in this regards is interesting, where lower quality rice is being processed by mills and transformed to higher quality fine rice. However, since the value added is created by the processors, farmers do not capture these margins. The Bangladesh experience indicates that labour and input outlays are similar for the production of different qualities of rice. Increasing production of higher yielding varieties of fine rice seed could increase both producer and consumer surplus.A low ratio of the number of extension agents to farmers is symptomatic across the EGP. Fostering linkages between research universities and institutes and NGOs can be a viable model to developing appropriate technologies and getting them to farmers as well as generating awareness with regards to their entitlements. In the case of Nepal, farming is a relatively recent activity. Knowing what basic capabilities are required and developing delivery options could generate significant gains at low cost.Low levels of irrigation in West Bengal, Bihar and Nepal partially explain their poor agricultural performance. Access to electrification is a significant barrier to increasing irrigation and as a result, ground water pumps are largely diesel-operated in the EGP, exposing farmers to international price fluctuations which have a significant impact on agricultural profitability. In North West Bangladesh and in West Bengal in particular, there is concern around groundwater depletion. Benchmarking and monitoring groundwater supply in the EGP and research designed to inform ground water extraction policy would be useful research goals.Overall, it is important to understand the constellation of factors governing the incentive structure that makes rice production an economically viable proposition in the North West of Bangladesh, but much less so, and often only a subsistence activity, in West Bengal, Bihar and the Nepalese Terai. Relative inputoutput prices, variable yields, cropping strategies and intensity, differing availability of infrastructure and transport margins are all important variables. A systematic comparative cost benefit and value chain analysis of key agricultural commodities conducted in each country of the EGP region would shed light on potential intervention points to enhance food security. Comparative studies of this nature do not exist in the literature. Cost benefit and value chain analyses that do exist are for a single country or region, are often out-dated, and employ methods that render the results incomparable.The variable impact of market liberalization on agricultural development in the EGP is an important puzzle. Both Bangladesh and Nepal liberalized significantly in the 1990s, though Nepal is lagging behind in terms of productivity. India on the other hand has maintained tight controls on trade and provides substantial support to its agricultural sector in the form of subsidies. The PFDS, while relatively small in Bangladesh and Nepal, is a behemoth in India and results in significant distortions. In contrast, market liberalization resulted in the downsizing of the PFDS in Bangladesh and Nepal. What sorts of trading arrangements could leverage comparative advantages between while enhancing food security across the EGP jurisdictions?1.7 Public food distribution systems India has the largest PFDS in the world. Bangladesh's PFDS manages a small share of total grain production and is targeted through the use of (less desirable) wheat and in-kind programs such as food for work. Nepal's system is also small, less targeted and suffers from logistical challenges arising from Nepal's extreme geography. All systems are plagued with problems of leakages. Given the importance of the PFDS in influencing foodgrain supply in India, understanding how it works and why it doesn't is imperative for enhancing food security. In Bangladesh, reducing leakage through better governance, accountability and awareness is important while in Nepal, overcoming logistical challenges in getting food to the most marginalized is the key obstacle.In India generally, the effectiveness of the PFDS in acquiring and distributing food differs regionally. In some states such as the Punjab and Haryana, farmers are able to access the procurement price. In Bihar and West Bengal, the system does not function as designed and in many cases, farmers are not paid the procurement price and often are forced to 'distress sell' their harvest to partially recover costs of production. As a result, the appropriate market signals which trigger farmers to produce are distorted in Bihar and West Bengal and farmers lack incentive to produce a surplus. It may be argued that agricultural research for development which may serve to increase productivity by 10-20% will be insufficient to stimulate significant increases in output until the PFDS is corrected. Greater output will go to waste in the absence of procurement. Policy research aimed at understanding the PFDS in Bihar and West Bengal can help identify bottlenecks and potential intervention points.The potential gains from improving the PFDS in Bihar and West Bengal may be significant. With the introduction of computerized public distribution or ePDS, citizens are advised of the availability of grains and the Panchayat are informed of the supply of grains to local dealers. Individuals are empowered with knowledge of their entitlements, while the Panchayat may provide a degree of oversight. While this mechanism will see to those that are entitled will have access to grains, government procurement will also have to keep pace in meeting demand. This literature review aims to contribute towards understanding the incentives, constraints and innovation pathways that have and could increase food security in the alluvial East Gangetic Plains (EGP). The EGP is in hydrological terms part of the Ganges River basin and in geological terms it comprises the eastern section of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. In terms of jurisdictions, it is comprised of: the Indian States of Bihar and northern West Bengal; the northwest (NW) of Bangladesh; and the Terai region within Nepal. In socioeconomic terms, the region's jurisdictions are in varying degrees of agrarian transition and integration into the global economy. There is little doubt as to the persistence of food insecurity in the 'poverty square' of South Asia or the fact that it cannot be explained in purely biophysical terms. All of these hydrological, geological, jurisdictional and socio-economic aspects of the EGP are integral to the problem of achieving food security. Thus a systems perspective is necessary to pinpoint consequential interdependencies, such as those between energy markets and irrigation development, land redistribution reform and the fragmentation of agricultural holdings, rural livelihood diversification through migration and the availability of agricultural labour. We take the idea of an interlinked and interdependent social-ecological system as a suitable systems framework for understanding the EGP.Recent thinking on food security has also shifted to a system perspective in order to highlight the relationship between food availability, access and the actual absorption of nutrients. Sen (1981) first pointed out that even if food is available, people may not be able to afford it. Furthermore, even if food can be purchased, it is of little use while diseases are spread through poor hygiene and lack of clean water. At the 1996 World Food Summit, food security was defined as a situation when '…all people at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life' (FAO, 1996). The 1999 World Summit of Food Security established the four pillars of food security as availability, access, utilization and stability, with nutrition an integral dimension of the system (Ecker and Breisinger, 2012).The EGP, particularly the Indian states of Bihar and northern West Bengal, have high potential for increasing agricultural productivity and improving livelihood outcomes that have been sub-optimally and inconsistently realised. This shortfall was pointed to over 30 years ago in the case of Bihar compared to the positive contribution the Green Revolution made in the western Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab to national food security. Institutional arrangements have been identified as confounding factors responsible for poor growth in agricultural production (Ladejinski, 1969). More recently, Erenstein and Thorpe (2011) have delineated an agro-ecological and livelihoods gradient that runs from the relatively wealthy west to the poverty stricken east of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, despite the fact that rainfall increases from west (600 mm/annum) to east (2,000 mm/annum).Erenstein and Thorpe (2011) provide an overview and comparison of livelihoods between the northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains (area around Punjab) and the EGP. In the EGP, farm size is smaller, herd size is lower, rainfall is higher, irrigation is less, mechanisation is less, population density is higher, aggregate asset base is less and poverty is greater. Furthermore, in the EGP, labour wages are lower, land price and interest rates are higher, institutions are less developed and women's role in agriculture is greater. Women-headed households grow rice for their own consumption, and sometimes a second rice crop for cash (Lahiri-Dutt 2012). The major cash crops are wheat, maize and lentils. The marked decline in livelihood assets from west to east was particularly pronounced for natural and financial assets. The Western Gangetic Plains was the Green Revolution heartland and benefitted from favourable policy support and investments.The literature reviewed in this study is predominantly peer reviewed and published over the past 44 years (1969 to 2013) Institutions embody the deeper norms, rules, and regularized patterns underpinning societies. In that way, they are distinct from organizations, which manifest these structural settings, and from variable policy processes and governance regimens through which specific concerns are defined and addressed (Dube et al 2012: 3).Social institutions, such as caste and sharecropping, operate to differentiate farmers into small to large landholders, sharecroppers and landless labourers with different and conflicting livelihood interests.Institutions are important because they form the context that structures, without predetermining the outcomes of, action. As conceptualised by the International Fund for Agricultural Development:... the factors that determine the roles and responsibilities of different actors may not come from 'inside' the action arena itself, but be generated by the overall institutional context that surrounds it ... many of the factors that influence poverty most strongly are likely to be found in this institutional context -what is known as 'structural' poverty ' (IFAD, 2012:1).The multiple jurisdictions of the EGP offer rich material for a comparative institutional analysis to untangle the reasons for the persistence of food insecurity in the EGP despite its agro-ecological wealth.Just as a systems approach is suited to understanding the EGP as a social-ecological entity, we take a systems rather than sectoral approach to understanding how food security innovations have been and can be further facilitated in the EGP. For example, the development of an affordable bamboo shallow tubewell technology involved a range of organisations, enterprises and individuals and is a pivotal technology for the intensification of cropping as it makes groundwater available for dry season irrigation. The World Bank's conceptualisation of an innovation system is taken as authorative:...a network of organizations, enterprises, and individuals focused on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into economic use, together with the institutions and policies (i.e. institutional environment) that affect their behaviour and performance (World Bank, 2007).Food value chains are embedded in an innovation system. A value chain comprises a set of actors, activities and organizations, where interactions are rule-based (Anandajayasekeram & Gebremedhin, 2009). Value is added at each stage in a value chain, which includes input supply, production, post-harvest, storage, processing, marketing, distribution and retail food services. A value chain may cross other supply changes, span political boundaries and include public and private sector institutions (Jaffee et al, 2008). Integrated value chains represent forward (marketing) and backward (input supply) linkages (World Bank, 2007a).The terms under which rural households are involved in the value chains, whether involved in food production, distribution and consumption, matter a great deal to poverty and food security outcomes. Innovations that drive equitable outcomes are likely to have negotiated these institutional issues effectively. Successful food security innovations, such as poverty responsive value chains, have been able to harness the enabling (and cope with disabling) features of their institutional environments. An efficient value chain may be defined as collaborative and information sharing arrangements between organizations working together towards technological, managerial, organizational and institutional change in agriculture (Anandajayasekeram & Gebremedhin, 2009).The innovation systems environment contributes to the efficiency of a value chain and may be defined as collaborative and information sharing arrangements between organizations working together towards technological, managerial, organizational and institutional change in agriculture (Anandajayasekeram & Gebremedhin, 2009). Innovation may be in the form of new technologies, management approaches, institutions, coordination and service delivery (Anandajayasekeram & Gebremedhin, 2009). Innovation can enhance a value chain's ability to adapt to changing contexts and ensure ongoing profitability (World Bank, 2007a).Value chain analysis can focus on a specific product or a meaningful group of commodities with market relations with the aim of providing insight into appropriate interventions to improve system performance (Anandajayasekeram, 2011). A value chain study emphasizes the critical vertical dimension which describes how effective input supply, production, processing and marketing are coordinated (Anandajayasekeram & Gebremedhin, 2009). Analysis of value chain vertical integration brings to bear concepts from New Institutional Economics where theories of transaction costs, information asymmetry and imperfect markets aid in understanding system performance. In the analytical process, participants and their functions in the chain are mapped, and profit and cost structures, product flows and entry and exit conditions are evaluated (Kaplinsky & Morris, 2000).In short, our goal is to delineate how food security innovations can negotiate potentially disabling features of institutional contexts to tap their enabling features. We ask: The systems framework used to guide this research pivots on understanding the EGP as an interlinked and interdependent social-ecological system. It has involved comparative analysis of the EGP jurisdictions that crosscut the Eastern Gangetic basin and alluvial plains. The Government of India and State Governments of Bihar and West Bengal all affect agricultural production and food security in the EGP. The Government of India's social welfare net, infrastructure investment and treaty making with Nepal and Bangladesh impact foodgrain and labour markets as well as irrigation water availability and quality in both countries.The Bangladesh and Nepal national subregions within the EGP are not as clearly jurisdictionally and politically demarcated as West Bengal and Bihar are. This ambition of finding regionally specific literature has not always been met. We try to make clear where we have made national level statements and where we have found material to differentiate Bihar, West Bengal, Northwest Bangladesh and the Terai.Other that a review of grey and peer reviewed literature reporting on the EGP, several field visits were undertaken in the EGP to conduct key informant interviews. A Rapid Rural Appraisal in West Bengal and Bihar was also undertaken in conjunction with Indian NGO PRADAN and the States' Agricultural Universities. A shortcoming of any literature review is a time lag regarding recent developments of around five years. For this reason we refer the reader to the trip reports.This report is structured with thematic sections under which information on the EGP subregions is organised. Chapter 3 deals with the political and historical differentiation of the EGP into the three nations and how it relates the acute (famine) and chronic food security. The commonality of the institutional arrangements concerning foodgrain production and distribution the nations began with and how they have diverged since1950 are summarised.Chapter 4 untangles food production trends across the EGP and identifies the barriers that have held Bihar and Terai back. Chapter 5 reviews the role of water in these production variations within the EGP, both the level of national cooperation over irrigation and flood management and the rates of growth in the shallow tubewell groundwater economy sub-regionally.Chapter 6 examines the distribution of food insecure households in each sub-region and how this relates to their asset base and caste/ethnic identities. Chapter 7 reviews the non-farming livelihood responses by those households (migration and state guaranteed employment) and its affect upon agricultural labour markets within the EGP.Chapters 8 and 9 deal with input and output markets involved in rice dominated value chains as well current operation of the nations' public food distribution systems. This lays out the structure of incentives governing rice production (prices), specifically the thresholds at which producers would invest in inputs to go beyond a subsistence level of production.At independence, all countries in the Indian subcontinent inherited a set of laws, institutions, and practices that provided tight government control of foodgrain production, supply, and distribution. These controls originally emerged in response to the severe supply dislocations that arose during the convergence of a catastrophic famine and World War II ... the Governments of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh inherited at independence a common legislative framework for controlling the supply and distribution of foodgrains (Ahmed et al, 2000:13).Prior to the British colonisation of the Indian subcontinent, the delta communities of Bengal (Figure 3) were self-subsisting and self-perpetuating. Peasant cultivation was the norm, cultivation was oriented to consumption and the question of formal property rights did not arise. References to the self-governing nature of village communities go back as far 1200 BC. Panchayat assemblies of five respected elders with both policing and judicial powers formed the point of contact with higher authorities (Mathew, 1996:200).Under the Persian influenced Muslim Moghal emperors who dominated Bengal from 1526 to 1757, the Panchayat judicial powers were curtailed but local affairs were left unregulated (Mathew, 1996:201).Hence, dominant castes (e.g. twice born castes such as the priestly Brahmin) continued to inspire respect, consultation, deference and settle disputes (Sahay, 2009:420). However, a land revenue system was established that distinguished between residential and non-residential cultivators. As only the former were granted land rights contingent on the payment of dues and the latter enjoyed no security of tenure, landownership became more concentrated and caste hierarchies were reinforced.Source: Chattopadhyay and Spitz (1987:6) The East India Company purchased these revenue collection rights in a series of contracts between 1698 and 1765 (Bhaumik, 1993:24) having made their Bengal headquarters in Calcutta in 1700 (Dutt, 1902:3).Chattopadhyay and Spitz argue that from this point famine became inevitable:Within five years following the institution of what was to be described by nineteenth century Indian economic historians as the process of 'economic drain', the famine of 1770-1771 had devastated contemporary Bengal, taking a toll of nearly one third of the population (1987:2).Despite this catastrophic famine, land revenue obligations to the British Empire were fixed in cash in perpetuity via the Permanent Settlement in 1793 (Dutt, 1902:13). Extraction of revenue was achieved through district revenue collectors called zamindars, who had originally served the Moslem rulers but had not been granted ownership over land. By granting the zamindars private title to land the British encouraged their evolution into absentee landlords. Zamindars met their tax obligations by leasing land to tenants (Chattopadhyay and Spitz, 1987:1) and the essentially feudal system of sharecropping or Barga cultivation became deeply institutionalised. Subsequently trader and wealthy farmer jotedars and upper caste 'bhadralok jotedars' purchased these land rights entrenching a trajectory of privately controlled foodgrain speculation that further entrenched rural poverty (Bhaumik, 1993:30-31).During this mid Eighteenth Century period, the British treated Nepal as a neighbouring territory called Gorkha; the name of King Prithvi Narayan Shah's ancestral home (Figure 4). King Shah acceded in 1742 and by 1769 had united the member states of The League of 24 Kingdoms. By 1814, King Shah had annexed the kingdoms and tribal people located in what is today the north eastern Indian State of Bihar. The Shah dynasty traced its royal descent from the Rajputs of western India and was committed to Hinduism despite ruling the numerous indigenous peoples of Nepal (Burghart, 1984:101-107). Nepal's population is still comprised of both elite Indo-Aryan caste Hindus and Tibeto-Burman Buddhists of Mongoloid origin (Yadav, 1992). Thus, Nepal can be seen as the interface between Tibetan Buddism and Indian Hinduism and in fact the historical Buddha was born in Nepal and reached enlightenment in Bihar. For over a century Nepal limited political and commercial contacts with the Company on the basis that it was the only 'pure' Hindu kingdom remaining on a subcontinent ruled first by Moslems and then Europeans, thus remaining in relative isolation until 1950s.Figure 4 The Anglo-Gorkha Frontier, 1814 CE Source: Michael (2009:8) Public and common resources have long been used in Nepal to strengthen private networks that are typically personality based within geographically oriented coalitions. The ruling elites used Raikar (state owned land) tenure to progressively privatise Kipat (tribal or communal land) common land under several tenurial arrangements. Birta tenure granted land to nobility, priests and military officers while Jagir tenure involved short term land grants to government bureaucrats in lieu of salary. Guthi granted land used and managed for charitable or religious purposes. Jimidari land grants were instituted in 1861 on the Terai plains when the revenue system was extended to the village level. The village functionaries appointed were called Jimidars. They were 'allowed to use their entrepreneurial ability to re-claim virgin, waste and forest lands'. Birta and Jagir lands were traditionally worked under Rakam tenure where labour was unpaid and compulsory. As stated by Riedinger: 'Traditionally, Nepali rulers used Raikar lands as a means of consolidating their patrimonial rule ... State policies thus facilitated the concentration of landholdings in families of high caste status ' (1993:23-24).Like the Indian zamindar system, these tenurial arrangements created landlessness during the 19th Century. Tenants could not accumulate sufficient income to purchase land and independent peasants were marginalised into landlessness. Economic marginalisation occurred via exploitative taxation and unpaid labour obligations. Peasants were obliged to pay tax despite poor harvests and competition for productive land inflated rents, conditions that resulted in constant indebtedness to local money lenders. Functionaries possessed uncontrolled power to raise taxes and tributes to supply the royal palace and meet the needs of functionaries (Pandey, T., 1986:41-44).Continuing a tradition initiated in 1559, King Shah established alternating summer (Kathmandu) and winter court (in the valley floor on the India/Tibet trade route). The winter court was abandoned in 1815 (Burghart, 1984:110-112) and concentrated Nepal's elite classes in Kathmandu Valley. Relations between Gorkha and British India were determined by the difficulty the Gorkha King had in collecting tributes from Terai 'big men' (revenue collectors), revenue that defined the King's possessions (land). This tax collection arrangement meant that the frontier between the East India Company and King's territories constantly shifted as collectors sought to increase their revenue by attracting tenants or claiming revenue from tenants on other collectors' lands. Collectors encroached on East India Company territory, fights occurred between rival collector gangs and farmers regularly fled. Finding this disruptive, the Company sought an exclusive definition of territories.Following the 1814-1816 Anglo-Gorkha war, the Company was in a strong enough position to demand the border be fixed with stone pillars: 'It was decided that the new boundary would be drawn 2 cos (about 4 miles) from the southernmost point of the old frontier. The line was to be a straight one ... where indentation occurred exchanges of territory were to be made to keep the line direct' (Michael, 2009:14). This process dragged on until 1821 reflecting the degree of mutual distrust between the parties (Figure 4). Similarly, Nepal's northern boundary with Tibet was not understood as a mutually exclusive definition of territory until the Twentieth Century. It took 100 years, from 1760 to 1860 for the Terai to crystallise in its present form (Burghart, 1984:113-114;Michael, 2009:14).Although the East India Company was abolished in 1858, the Bengal land revenues were transferred to the Crown (Dutt, 1902:xv) and the expropriation of peasant holdings that ensured a constant threat of famine continued. The colonial famine codes assumed periodic famines were natural and inevitable events (Chattopadhyay and Spitz, 1987:19). The Famine Commission held in 1880 viewed the problem as one of getting relief supplies to the hungry rather than increasing agricultural production (Mathew, 1996:202). British administrator turned economic historian Dutt pointed out a century ago that: 'By a moderate calculation, the famines of 1877 and 1878, of 1889 and 1892, of 1897 and 1900 have carried of fifteen millions of people ' (1902:viii).Famines were not politicised nor their driving forces re-conceptualised until the Bengal Famine of 1943 in which between 1.5 and 3 million died. This decisive famine occurred as Bengal's integration into the British Empire ultimately turned the region into a theatre of the Second World II. The deflationary depression beginning in 1928 swung the terms of trade away from agriculture resulting in peasant disinvestment of assets (distress selling). Small land owners were forced to join the sharecropping bargadars and labour under a 50:50 division of produce with the landowner under crippling levels of rural debt (Chattopadhyay and Spitz, 1987:32). The subsequent war economy was highly inflationary which pushed up the price of foodgrains. The British decision to embargo rice diverted food from civil to military uses and removed grain stocks from districts in order to deny food to the encroaching Japanese army. Rural foodgrain prices doubled in late 1943 and quadrupled by mid-1943 (Ahmed et al, 2000:121). The deaths of those unable to afford food began in Calcutta in 1942 (Chattopadhyay and Spitz, 1987:46-56).The Great Bengal Famine proved a turning point for the delta region. The legitimacy of colonialism ended in peasant rioting. The 'most extensive peasant revolt in Bengal' took place in 1945-1946 during which sharecroppers demanded the Zamindars' crop share be reduced from half to one-third (Chattopadhyay and Spitz, 1987:34). Conflict between the Hindu Congress Party and Muslim League Party led the British to partition the subcontinent along Hindu and Muslim lines, creating East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and West Pakistan in 1947 (Chattopadhyay and Spitz, 1987:57) (Figure 5). During Bangladesh's period as East Pakistan, fear of smuggling to India replaced fear of the Japanese and bordering regions were cordoning to staunch what was a traditional export flow. A high proportion of foodgrain procured for public distribution in East Pakistan was from these border areas, especially Rajshahi, in the northwest (Khan and Jamal, 1997:477-47. Amayarta Sen used the Great Bengal Famine to mount a highly influential argument (disputed by Bowbrick, 1986) that famines had little to do with food availability but rather the poor's legal entitlement to food:'The law stands between food availability and food entitlement, and famine deaths can reflect legality with a vengeance' (Sen, 1981:462).These historical processes resulted in a distinctive institutional legacy. Firstly, the entrenchment of land ownership and revenue raising rights through the Zamindar system in India and Bangladesh and Raikar system in Nepal systematically generated households that were either landless or reliant on suboptimal holdings and thus chronically food insecure. These poverty traps held substantial proportions of the EGP population.Secondly and consequently, caste and ethnic identities have become more polarised making such large poverty traps more visible and difficult to politically ignore. Caste remains the primary socio-economic institution in the EGP. India's numerical and historical dominance shows in the continued tendency to translate tribal and Muslim identities into hierarchical caste terms. Caste categories define groups of people by occupation and social role. These categories were administratively underlined by the British through the Government of India Act in 1935 which 'scheduled' (legally defined) castes.Traditionally, caste alliances were predicated on the maintenance of a harmonious relationship between social elite and poor communities -the poor seek out and forge networks with upper castes on the terms of the latter (Roy, 2008: 698). While caste barriers are currently breaking down, particularly in urban settings: 'In Indian villages, caste is still the principal institution structuring allegiances and relationships ...' (Sahay, 2009:411). In practice, caste based power struggles results in hostile village situations that can develop into violent conflict -over issues such as fishing in public pond, appropriating public land for farming, cross-caste elopement and straying cattle (Sahay, 2009:422-423).Both India and East Pakistan (Bangladesh) abolished the zamindari system, and Nepal made Raikar forms of tenure illegal, in the Twentieth Century. However, domination of their agricultural economies by large, powerful, absentee landlords was deeply institutionalised making land reforms very difficult to actually implement, despite new laws towards that end. Where reforms were successfully undertaken, as in West Bengal, the resulting fragmentation of holdings confounded the goal of increasing foodgrain production due to poor economies of scale.Thirdly, because: 'Bengal emerged from its wartime experience badly scarred, with a visceral fear of private speculators', state control of foodgrain production, distribution and marketing retained strong emphasis (Ahmed et al, 2000:122). The new nations of India and Bangladesh to this day utilise a planned economy approach to nation building using five year planning cycles, as did Nepal when it emerged as a nation in the 1950s. However, tight government over foodgrain value chains have persisted longer in India than Bangladesh or Nepal.The Indian, Nepal and Bangladesh experiences of Public Food Distribution Systems (PFDS) typify the policy differentiation concerning food security that has occurred in South Asia:The major countries of South Asia -Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka ... Beginning in the 1960s with a nearly uniform policy stance -protectionist at the border and interventionist at home ... have diverged over time ... These included both external policies, such as trade barriers, and within-border policies, such as support prices and input subsidies, with a corollary emphasis on agricultural infrastructure and research expenditures to promote productivity ... understandably, given a widely shared colonial heritage as well as the commonality of the problem ... (Ganesh-Kumar et al, 2010:2-3) A policy shift towards better targeting PFDS to the food insecure occurred across the EGP nations under structural adjustment pressure during the 1990s. In India, this has been controversial, as it: '... enables politicians not to make unpopular statements about a reduction of government support for the agricultural sector' (Mooj, 1999:119). However, unlike Bangladesh, India retains a highly protectionist economic policy stance and is attributed with what is probably the largest PFDS in the world. Ironically, if India chose to liberalise rice exports it could well lower the global price of rice (Jha et al, 2010).The political economy of food insecurity within Bangladesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Nepal is brought into the modern era in the Independence and Democracy country sections below. These accounts are followed by an account of how the equally pivotal relationship between water and food security has unfolded in the EGP.Indian development thinking has traditionally been suspicious of markets; it has painted the private trader as the villain of the society. Usury practised by money-lenders and the role of grain traders in accentuating famines in the pre-Independence era contributed to this attitude (Shah, 1996:108).Raj, one of the authors of India's first Five Year (1951Year ( -1956) ) Plan has commented that India's political independence and consolidation was a top-down process favouring a command economy pathway. The Second Five Year Plan (1956)(1957)(1958)(1959)(1960)(1961) pursued a socialist pattern of society, defined as:The attainment of positive goals, the raising of living standards, the enlargement of opportunities for all, the promotion of enterprise among the disadvantaged classes and the creation of a sense of partnership among all sections of the community (Mathur, 1996:27).Up until 1965, this blend of Gandhian and Marxist visions of a modern, progressive and egalitarian rural society meant that agrarian policy focused on land reform, community development programs and cooperative farming (Shah, 1996:86). In practice however, national policy tended to favour the interests of 'dominant castes' such as the Brahmin as represented by the Congress Party. Under the Congress Party dominated national parliament, the post-independence class compromise, including limited and skewed land reforms, left large landowners untouched.Lack of village authorities were recognised as a barrier to rural policy ambition during the 1950s. By 1959 all States had passed Panchayat acts and by the mid-1960s all parts of India were covered by three tier Panchayat assemblies (a system called Panchayat Raj) at the block (Panchayat Samiti), district (Zila Parishad), and village (Panchayat Gram) levels. However, Panchayat institutions were easily dominated by privileged groups where State Governments did not insistent on holding regular elections. Under these circumstances, legal efforts to ensure the implementation of land ownership ceiling laws of the 1960s failed dismally due to the self-serving behaviour of administrative and political elites at the state and village levels (Shah, 1996:88-89). India's rural work for food programs formed a counterpoint to some extent. India switched to a technocratic investment approach to rural policy and planning after 1965 following a severe food crisis in 1959-1960. The Green Revolution was pursued through the fourth Five Year (1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974) Plan via an Intensive Agricultural District Programme with strong support from the Ford Foundation (Mathur, 1996:180;Shah, 1996:86). Within a decade, the modernisation of Indian agriculture was described by American agronomist Ladejinsky as 'virtually an accomplished fact in at least two states', i.e. the Northwest Indian States of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. However, the benefits of the sharp growth in agricultural productivity in North West India were not widely shared as growth was not accompanied by distributive justice measures (Mathur, 1996:182). The Green Revolution package was designed to resolve physical rather than institutional impediments. Development was spatially uneven as the strategy concentrated on areas offering the greatest return (Ladejinsky, 1973:A143). In Punjab, for example, more powerful landowners monopolised the benefits by raising rents (Ladejinski, 1976:8).Consequently, the 1970s saw a sharper focus on rural poverty using a policy of decentralisation to tackle persistent rural poverty (Raj, 1988:173). This shift took place during the difficult agricultural year of 1972-73 when food price spikes had crippling economic impacts (Ladejinsky, 1973:A133). An era of special schemes to alleviate poverty without directly challenging elites began with the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979). The flagship Integrated Rural Development Program targeted small famers in the attempt to make them economically viable. This effort generally failed in 'the absence of serious and imaginative local level planning' (Mathur, 1996:186-189), but was successful in West Bengal due to a supportive Left Front state government. The influential Asoka Mehta Committee recommendations of 1977 inspired the West Bengal government to institute a 'second generation' of genuinely political Panchayat Raj Institutions. Panchayat elections were held, underprivileged candidates fielded, and Operation Barga -a program to register sharecroppers to strengthen their tenurial rights -was implemented (Mathur, 1996: 193).Such experiences led to recognition that constitutional support of the Panchayat Raj system of government was necessary for the rural poor to be able to participate effectively in development efforts. The 73 rd constitutional amendment act of 1992 realised this ambition, an evolution of the institutions of selfgovernment that took place over 100 years (Mathew, 1996:207-220). India progressively revised the British Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950 to more comprehensively capture those who engaged in impure work (untouchables), menial labour, lacked upward mobility and suffered severe social exclusion.The category Other Backward Castes (OBC) was added to capture those who were socially excluded despite a higher position in local hierarchies. The category OBCs includes Muslims and has been operational from 1990. The term 'forward castes' is a derivative and colloquial counterpart (Sahay, 2009, ftns 1-5).Taking force in 1993, the Panchayat Raj amendment ensures development plans are prepared and seats reserved for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and women.By the eighth Five Year Plan (1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997) the role of government and planning in development is reconsidered in favour of privatisation and liberalisation policies, a development evident across the EGP. It was noted that the post-independence regulatory regime that licensed production and imports, controlled distribution and administered prices and subsidies had protected the economy from debt traps and social unrest. However, the problem with this approach, as expressed by Shah is that:Each new subsidy springs to action a new class of 'rent-seekers' -the 'per cent-wallahs' -who earn their living not by productive activity but as specialists in mastering the procedures and cultivating the 'contracts' needed to secure their 'cut' in subsidies (1996:94).However limited and skewed the land reform effort in India might have been, an agrarian transition is well underway as evidenced by a new social category of medium owner cultivators comprised of diverse backward castes. Successful political representation by State Governments has intersected the caste system with electoral politics to erode the power of dominant castes and diversified caste alliances:Numerical as well as economic and political strength is shared between several castes. Not only do the major castes compete and manoeuvre for power, even the minor castes challenge the major castes' attempts at establishing dominance, by approaching the courts and, in the case of disputes, making strategic alliances with one major caste in order to oppose another (Sahay, 2009:411).We focus below on the modern political economic experiences in the north-eastern Indian States of West Bengal and Bihar where a host of state government entitlements and subsidies for backward caste blocs have emerged (Roy, 2008: 680). The West Bengal and Bihar cases demonstrate the process by which caste identities are now politically mediated (Witsoe, 2012a(Witsoe, , 2012b) ) and rural Indians more prone to secular behaviour, including livelihood diversification in pursuit of upward social mobility (Sahay, 2009).West Bengal is a middle ranking Indian state that has successfully implemented land reform and poverty targeting programs. As a result of such successful agrarian reform, rural poverty in West Bengal significantly declined during the 1980s. This (brief) success in increasing agricultural production is attributed to the Left Front party's domination of the state assembly and Gram Panchayats from 1977 to 2006. Mallick points out that the Left parties capitalised on tribal discontent in the 1960s and 1970s and made it their support base, adding that: 'The proletarianisation of the tribal peasants is not different from the proletarianisation of the non-tribal peasants ' (2010:13). A study by Bardhan et al (2009) found that half of the total state population, namely scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and the landless formed a secure vote bank for the left, and further that:... receipt of recurring benefits like Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), credit, minikits, employment and relief programmes had a positive correlation with voting for the Left (Bardhan et al, 2009:49).The Left Front Government's reforms included Operation Barga's land redistribution and tenant registration, provision of institutional credit, titling of homestead plots, and food for work programs. Operation Barga was particularly impressive in West Bengal. The Left Front government amended the 1971 Land Reform Act to make land hereditary, eviction punishable and shift the onus of proof regarding the identity of sharecroppers to landlords. A mass mobilisation drive was then undertaken with farmer unions and Gram Panchayats to identify the sharecropper tenants and increase their crop share from 25% to 50%. One million tenants were registered by 1981 and 1.5 million by 1990. Estimates of the total number of sharecroppers registered ranged from 48-80% (Bardhan and Mookherjee, 2011:192). A decade of sustained agricultural growth ensued from 1985 via more intensive cultivation, higher wages, wide distribution of HYVs through mini-kits, small scale irrigation and local market deregulation. Prices were supported by the State Department of Agriculture by using cultivation surveys to set procurement prices for agricultural commodities on a cost plus basis.This Left Front's voting bloc crumbled during the 2008 Panchayat elections due to the left parties' commitment to diversifying West Bengal's economy through industrialisation, including establishing free economic zones. Khatun and Roy (2012) point out that the West Bengal economy is indeed diversifying at faster rate than the all-India level and only 41% of the West Bengal workforce is economically dependent upon agriculture. However, they also conclude that diversification of agricultural livelihoods is much more difficult for the poor given their lack of assets and thus favours the better educated and resourced. The reaction of the agriculturally dependent to attempts to convert farming land to establish industries was negative, as:... the high-handed and violent ways of meeting any resistance on the ground have galvanised the opposition in the whole state, apart from causing disunity within the Left coalition and eroding its general credibility as a defender of the interests of vulnerable sections of the rural population (Bardhan et al, 2009:58).An analysis of a land dispute by Nielsen (2010) where farmers refused to hand over land for a car manufacturing plant found that rural voters were unwilling to sacrifice the certainties of agriculture for the sake of unattainable skilled manufacturing jobs. Chakrabarti et al (2011) concur with such concerns: 'Landconversion may seriously affect micro food security shaking the very foundation of non-farm growth. ' (2011:184).The fragility of the Left Front Government's Green Revolution became evident during the mid-1990s when the state relapsed into agricultural stagnation due to land fragmentation, exhaustion of the HYVs' potential and reduced land fertility (Bardhan and Mookherjee, 2011;Ghosh, 2009;Nielsen, 2010). Reformist achievements unravelled also with a dramatic reduction in the supply of institutional credit in rural West Bengal followed the financial sector reforms of the 1990s. Bank operations were scaled down and branches closed (Chatterjee, 2008-9, Nigam andSau, 2010). The withdrawal of diesel subsidies in the late 1990s and poor rural electrification has also meant that West Bengal farmers are coping with increased diesel costs for pumping groundwater by switching out of boro to less water intensive crops (Mukherji, 2007).Unlike West Bengal, Bihar's backwardness compared to other Indian states has been both notorious and persistent. Within Bihar, the Kosi region comprises an area of 17,000 square miles bounded by the Kosi and Ganges Rivers and bordering both Nepal and West Bengal (Clay 1982:190). The region was targeted for agricultural intensification in 1966 by the Intensive Agricultural Areas Program (IAAP) and High Yielding Varieties Program (HYVP) following the completion of the Kosi project in the late 1950s. The two programs constituted: 'the institutional forms of the first phase of the green revolution' and replicated the Ford Foundation package program that stimulated the Green Revolution of north western India in the early 1960s (Clay, 1982:192). As in the Western Gangetic Plains programs, the highest potential areas were identified (21 of 59 blocks), extension staff doubled, and credit for lift irrigation, machinery and land levelling extended through a Small Farmers Development Agency. IAAP was extended to all 59 blocks in 1970-1971 (Clay 1982:192).However, as far back as 1969, Ladejinsky reported that the Green Revolution was faltering in the Kosi region of Bihar, not because of the inadequacy of the technological package, but because poor institutional conditions restricted access to the package:The existing institutional credit arrangements with their well known bias in favour of the big owners, the generally poor state of the cooperative credit societies, the prominent role of the moneylenders providing loans at usurious interest rates and the lowly and insecure position of the tenantry -all these preclude the participation of the vast majority of the cultivators in the new package of practices (Ladejinsky,1969:A147).The Kosi project encouraged the development of a frontier melting pot. Large Zamindar owned estates exceeding 1,000 ha were traditionally sharecropped by tenants. However, threats of land redistribution and the advent of the tractor led Zamindars to shun sharecroppers in favour of hired labour. A Muslim minority persisted despite the exodus that followed the partitioning of the subcontinent and: 'Immigration continues of backward and scheduled caste people who have been attracted by employment and tenancy opportunities' (Clay, 1982:191 -192).Governance of Bihar was dramatically altered by a transfer of power from upper caste dominated Congress party to political coalitions dominated by backward castes. Between 1985 and 1995 Other Backward Caste (OBC) Members of Parliament doubled in numbers to take 50% of state assembly seats while upper caste members of parliament halved in number to occupy 27% of seats (Witsoe, 2012a:318). Political representation of the backward castes assisted the Musahar (rat eaters), one of the lowest divisions of Dalits (untouchables), that attracted NGO attention following Bihar's severe drought of 1966-1967. The Musahar are dispersed across five districts, comprising 4% of Bihar's total population and form one quarter of the scheduled caste population overall. Described as unaware of their rights let alone prepared to assert them, they are mostly landless, illiterate agricultural labourers. Traditionally the Musahar worked Zamindar properties without asking for payment, received starvation wages in-kind and were vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Under the new political environment, in 1987 the Musahar achieved the redistribution of 35,000 acres of state and ceiling land following refusal to work the land of the landowner of 10,000 acres (Prasad, 2007:157-158;162).In power from 1990 to 2005, Laly Prasad Yadav, charismatic leader of the Dalit party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), put issues of power and voice above rural development. Yadav weakened the upper caste dominated state institutions without attempting pro-poor measures. Policing, public education and health services nearly collapsed. Yadav did, however personally ensure the protection of Bihar's Muslim community from pogroms as Muslims formed a crucial part of RJD support base. A democratisation of corruption occurred under this government. The resulting surge of criminality included a kidnapping industry and sand mining mafia. Zamindars lost access to credit from cooperative banks (which became insolvent), were cut off from patronage and commissions, deprived of the political and policy connections that had ensured the protection of standing crops and enforcement exploitative sharecropping arrangements. Smaller Yadav, Kurmi and Koeri caste family farms took over most cultivation relying upon family labour (Witsoe, 2012b:51-52). Although Yadav was imprisoned on corruption charges in 1997, his wife won the next three consecutive elections (Witsoe, 2012a:318-326).This dramatic era ended in 2005 when the Bihar State Assembly elections were won by the National Democratic Alliance Party (NDA) on a pro-development platform, followed by a bigger win in 2010. The support base of NDA is comprised of more diverse and numerically weaker backward castes and low caste Muslims, compared to the more numerous Yadav, Kurmi and Koeri backward castes that had formed the RJD support base (Witsoe, 2012b). Most supporters of the new government demanded an end to political mediation via brokers altogether, which resulted in:... a state government that quickly weakened the political class and strengthened the bureaucracy, issuing circulars for bureaucrats and police to ignore requests by politicians, even from the ruling party (Witsoe, 2012b:53).Prospects for rural development in Bihar have dramatically improved following the reinstatement of law and order.It would be an understatement to say that the partitioning Muslim East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan from Hindu India in 1947 did not resolve regional tension. The two Muslim territories were separated by 1,000 km of Indian territory as well as significant cultural, socio-economic and linguistic differences. The India-Pakistan War in 1965 which lasted for 17 days was designed to evict Bengali speaking Hindus from West Pakistan -one third of the then population.The subsequent war between East and West Pakistan in 1971 was driven by West Pakistan's economic dominance but triggered by West Pakistan's insistence on the privileging of Urdu over Bengali as the national language. A Bengali language movement preceded a brutal 11 day war of independence of East from West Pakistan. The decisive result issued from India's decision to fight with Bangladeshis, facilitated by its accommodation of a government in exile and the Awami League's good relations with India's Congress Party.Bangladesh emerged as a tattered nation having suffered massive destruction of infrastructure, the abandonment of most industrial enterprises by fleeing Pakistanis and the loss of the one third of its external trade that had been oriented to West Pakistan:... Pakistanis had dominated banking, insurance, foreign and domestic trade, transport and shipping. Their departure created a vacuum that lasted nearly five years (Ahmed et al, 2000:5).The Awami League succeeded the Independence movement and freedom fighters. Bangladesh's first Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was the leader of the Independence movement.  (Ahmed et al, 2000:2).The post World War II partitioning marked the beginning of constant cross-border migration by both Hindus and Muslims in search of stable livelihoods. The Nehru-Liaquat Pact signed in 1950 between India and Pakistan to ensure the safety and security of their respective minorities, saw 32,000 Muslims elect to return from East Pakistan (Bangladesh) to West Bengal by 1954 (Das, 2011:46). The 2001 census held in West Bengal found that Muslims still form 25% of the state's total population and are largely located in districts along the border (Dasgupta, 2011:18 -19). This location: '... has fuelled the belief that 'infiltration' is the chief cause of population growth among the Muslims in West Bengal despite the fact that all these districts have had high Muslim population from the early part of the 20th Century' (Dasgupta, 2011:35).The 1971 war triggered larger scale communal violence that displaced nearly 10 million Muslim and Hindu Bengalis (Dasgupta, 2011:18). The Indira-Mujib Accord of 1974 saw the India-Bangladesh border fenced with barbed wire. The border zone consumed 450 feet of arable land, impoverishing villages on both sides of the border and fuelling continuing skirmishes and displacement (Das, 2011:52-53). Similarly, Hindu refugees from Bangladesh have settled along the border, often taking the houses of fleeing Muslims (Nakatarni, 2011). Hindus continue to be displaced from Bangladesh:During the last 40 years since 1961, the relative share of the Hindu population has declined from 18.4% of the total population in 1961 to 12.1% in 198112.1% in , to 10.5% in 199112.1% in , and further down to 9.2% in 200112.1% in (Barkat, 2011: 96): 96).A major reason for Hindus to abandon Bangladesh is the loss of land under the Enemy Property Act. The total area of land lost by Hindu households is estimated at 2.01 million acres, which amounts to 45% of the total land owned by Bangaldesh's Hindu community (Barkat, 2011: 91-106). The Act accompanied a declaration of a state of emergency by the Pakistani regime during the 1965 India-Pakistan War. Although the state of emergency was lifted in 1969, the enemy property law continued by an ordinance and was granted continuance in 1974 following the War of Independence. The Awami League repealed the Act in 2001. However the deadline of 180 days to prove reparation cases, and unlimited time for the government to publish a list of returnable properties means that effectively the Act is still in force (Barkat, 2011:91-94).As Barkat points out:The operation of the Vested Property Act (VPA) as a continuation of the Enemy Property Act (EPA) has its root in distinct historical doctrine in the religion-based statecraft of Pakistan. Depriving Hindu minority through EPA and VPA is not an historical accident per se. It is rather an outcome of conscious decision by the Pakistani rulers to Pakistanise East Bengal ... (Barkat, 2011:114).Harassment of Hindus continues with Barkat (2011) reporting that the first decade of this Century has seen 50% of Hindu households report verbal abuse, one third report theft, and 25% report obstruction of harvesting. This amounts to a Hindu specific deprivation trap within Bangladesh (Barkat, 2011: 91-106).Land redistribution in Bangladesh is thus redistribution to Muslims. Reform hinges on khas -unoccupied or government owned managed by the Ministry of Land. Khas land is possessed, reclaimed from the sea or rivers, vested in the government as surplus to the allowable ceiling, purchased by the government, or otherwise surrendered, abandoned or confiscated (Hindu) land. Three major pieces of legislation define the agrarian reform effort: the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950; Collection of Presidential Orders (1972); and the Bangladesh Land Reforms Ordinance of 1984. The first two pieces of legislation achieved very little, khas lands ended in the hands of powerful elites and inter-elite competition for the land was intense. A whole new entrepreneurial group was engendered to collect information on khas land. Collusion between local and national elites was probably inevitable given that politicians and bureaucrats are often large land owners themselves, if not depend on rich peasants for support. Consequently, attacking the interests of large landholders constitutes political suicide (Devine, 2002:404-405).Erhsad's military regime assumed power in 1981 seeking credibility at home and abroad. Erhsad made the Land Reforms Action Program (LRAP) to distribute khas land the centrepiece of his 1984 land reform package. The program focused on transfer of assets to the landless, defined as owning less than 0.5 acres (Devine, 2002:404-405). Devine attributes this policy move to a longstanding friendship between the Land secretary of the time and a senior staffer of Oxfam and points out that:The most unusual feature of the LRAP was the establishment of a Land Reform Cell staffed by members of the NGO Coordination Council for Land Reform Programme (NCCLRP) set up in 1987 to manage cooperation between the Land Ministry and the NGO community. The NCCLRP represents one of the earliest attempts in Bangladesh at establishing a network or umbrella of like-minded NGOs (2002: 405).Those excluded from this arrangement, the opposition party and other political groups, accused the participating NGOs of conspiring with the military regime and initiated a mass movement that toppled Ershad three years later.Zia, leading the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, won the 1991 elections and terminated the program. It was replaced with Operation Thikana, a competing khas land allocation and agricultural inputs program. Fiftyfive alternative NGOs were selected to implement the program; however subsequent evaluation has showed that unutilised public land is still grabbed by influential people. Devine concludes that without political support, smaller NGOs are defenceless against local elites, even households who received land found it difficult to retain possession (Devine, 2002:406-408).Although the intense aid flows to Bangladesh since 1975 could be said to have aggravated corruption, considerable corruption existed before then for which General Ershad was scapegoated in the national press. But according to Lewis (1996) much of the nation's administration remains similar in performance since democracy. He observes that loyalty to a recently formed and/or still contested state competes with primordial loyalties to family and kin (Lewis, 1996:21-24). Furthermore, as elsewhere in the EGP, the dominance of patron-client relations ensures that:Corruption often involves the incorporation of low level officials into systemic corruption by those higher up, and the former may end up taking the bulk of the blame if discovered (Lewis, 1996:25).Bangladeshi dependence on donors exposed it more starkly to structural adjustment pressures during the 1990s than India. Acceptance of economic liberal policy philosophy led to a third Five Year Plan that aimed to privatise public sector enterprises, operations and institutions:The step-by-step liberalisation of markets for modern inputs in agriculture was carried out under pressure from foreign donors and with the realisation that various direct interventions were fiscally unsustainable and unproductive in the long run (Ahmed, 2000:49).The liberalisation of agricultural inputs has driven an unanticipated green revolution Bangladesh. Subsequent uptake of HYV, irrigation and multiple cropping has seen foodgrain yields double over the yields achieved in the 1960s. A large proportion of even marginal farmers (up to 0.2 ha) have become net sellers of paddy in good seasons. Aid flows enabled heavy public investment in rural infrastructure (roads, electrification, phone lines, water transport etc) which have reduced foodgrain processing and transport costs and times (Chowdhury and Haggblade, 2000:73-75). These technological improvements encouraged an increase in cropping intensity which has had the effect of smoothing price fluctuations (Goletti, 1994:3).Bangladesh's growth of rice marketing is even more dramatic than that of rice production with farmers' marketed share jumping from 10-14% to 50% by the 1990s. This has led to a remarkable consensus regarding the ability of liberalisation to improve food security, at least in Bangladesh. According to Golotti (1994), foodgrain markets have proved to be efficient transmitters of regional price shocks and scarcity signals. The dynamic private foodgrain marketing sector facilitated by liberalisation has been effective in moving commodities both over time and over space with relatively stable prices. Fear of trader hoarding behaviour proved to be unfounded. In fact, increased private storage, both on farm and as trading stock, have contributed to temporal smoothing of foodgrain prices (Goletti, 1994:3). This emergence of a national rice market is viewed as a major achievement:Overall, a picture of robust growth emerges, with increasingly competitive rice and paddy markets. This conclusion does not argue for complacency, of course, but for the aggressive continuation of the policies that have led to these favourable trends: access to HYVs, modern inputs, alternative credit, rural roads, telephones, and other rural infrastructure (Chowdhury and Haggblade, 2000:88).The Ghorka Regime (led by King Shah of the Rana dynasty with whom the British India Company fought and negotiated) fell after 104 years in 1950 when an alienated faction of the Rana family combined forces with King Tribhuvan to overthrow it. From 1951 to 1959, an experiment in parliamentary democracy took place (Burghart, 1984:119), supported by King Tribhuvan, who offered rhetorical commitment to agrarian reform (Joshi and Mason, 2011:151). The Shah regime was just as feudal, anachronistic and chaotic as its predecessor. Foreign aid was spent on extending their power structure while the land reform and resettlement programs formulated in the 1950s languished for lack of effective administrative machinery (Pandey, 1986: 43-44). For example: The 1951 tenure security act in Kathmandu valley failed due to the lack of reliable tenancy records and poor enforcement. The Royal Land Reform Commission of 1952 recommended fixed tenure and a rent ceiling fixed at 25% (of annual yield). While the subsequent Lands Act of 1957 did afford tenancy rights and capped rents, poor enforcement meant many landlords evicted tenants and raised rent to 50% of annual yield.Traditionally, Nepalese regimes had granted Birta land tenure to nobility, priests and military officers and short term Jagir land grants to government bureaucrats in lieu of salary. The Shh Regime's abolition of Birta and Jagir lands without compensation:... suddenly made the then-current holders of Birta and Jagir land permanent owners of that land ... (Joshi and Mason, 2011:156).Very few of those cultivating Birta lands for landlords received land. In any case, Birta and Jagir land owners retained the legal right to evict tenants if they chose to self-cultivate and tenants paid an annual fee to renew their lease (Pandey, 1986:41-42;Riedinger, 1993:26). Guthri lands, devoted to religious purposes and comprised 3% of state lands, degenerated into hiding Birta lands likely to be confiscated. Indigenous communal Kipat lands located in both the east and west hill region, by then reduced to 4% of state land, were eliminated between 1961 and 1968.Legislative initiatives failed as committed land reform candidates were not elected. The mainstream Nepali Congress and Nepal Communist political parties lacked identities based on policy positions. Their frequent factional splits shifts (lubricated by side payments) resulted in weak and volatile governing coalitions (Joshi and Mason, 2011:156). Party system fluidity meant that the mobilisation of patrons was the most efficient political strategy. Landed elites controlled 90% of the seats in the first (1950)(1951) parliament with second and third generation elites owning an average of 16.8 ha in the prestigious hills and 10 ha on the productive Terai. In practise, the Rana Government diverted resources to urban electorates, providing public goods to avoid urban unrest rather than investing in agrarian reform (Joshi and Mason, 2011:157-158).A royal coup unfolded by 1960. King Mahendra dismissed the government, outlawed all political parties and trade unions and imposed an authoritarian Party-less Panchayat System (PPS) (Riedinger, 1993:24). This state retained dominance by high caste Brahmin, Chhetri and Newar castes such that 22% of the population held 90% of the country's top civil service posts. PPS involved a series of assemblies from the village to national level along with the Panchayat Development and Land Tax, continuing the institutional pattern of a tributary state oriented to the support of a Kathmandu Valley aristocracy. Nepal's border with India had opened and remained unregulated since 1950. However, no effort was made to generate employment outside agriculture in the face of a massive inflow of Indian manufactured goods that undermined traditional occupations and industries (Pandey, 1986: 43-44). Traditional elites continued the highly factional style of politics. As the King hand-selected cabinet members, cabinet could not command the bureaucracy and inter-ministerial cooperation failed to develop, a problem replicated at the district level (Joshi and Mason, 2011:151;Riedinger, 1993:24).Under King Mahendra, the Lands Act 1964 placed regionally variable ceilings upon landholdings which saw some tenants registered and thus made more secure. More frequently, the ceilings were evaded by evicting tenants and transferring land to relatives and straw men. While 34,705 ha of land were acquired by the state, only 32,640 ha had been redistributed by 1988 and this land was of poor agricultural quality. Only 300,000 tenants were granted formal certificates of tenancy (Riedinger, 1993:26). Nepal's 1988 White Paper on land reform was received with considerable scepticism as it: 'all but invites landlords to coerce tenants to relinquish their rights to land transfer' (Riedinger, 1993:27-29). Food insecurity and population growth place severe pressure upon natural resources making disputes and controversies are common (Adhikari et al, 2009:523). Nepal's Private Forest Nationalisation Act ( 1956) eroded traditional forest management regimes while demand for wood increased nationwide. The consequent deforestation of Nepal's uplands coincided with heavy rainfall, landslides and flooding in the EGP including flooding in Bangladesh in the 1970s and 1980s.An economic crisis in the early 1980s culminated in conditional IMF loans and structural adjustment implementation ensued in 1985 and 1988. Quantitative restrictions were dismantled, industrial licensing simplified, tariffs reduced and disparities in tariff rates reduced gradually (Pyakuryal et al, 2010:95-97). Far from resolving Nepal's difficulties, ten weeks of violent protest unfolded in early 1990. The PPS was abolished by April, multi-party elections held (Riedinger, 1993:24) and democracy reinstated in 1991. Three subsequent parliamentary elections and two local elections with 60% participation did not improve economic conditions. Nepal's Human Development Index (HDI) score rose initially after the reinstatement of democracy but showed significant district wide variations (Joshi and Mason, 2011:152). Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF calculated an increase in poverty from 33% in 1977 to 42% in 1995-1996, amounting to nine million or 40% of the population living below the US$77 national poverty line. Nepal's HDI was 143 out of 175 countries. Most of the poor (85%) were rural and poverty increased in the remote mid-and far-western hill and mountain districts (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004:8). Reforestation with livestock reduction and control was viewed as the solution. 'Community forestry' transferred management to local communities; however, a Forest Amendment Act (1998) imposed mandatory forest inventories to limit harvesting. Re-forestation also occurred in community pasturelands which restricted grazing and collection of forest products (Dhakal et al, 2011:88-89). Over 60% of farming households in Nepal's hill region suffer a food deficit and starvation is more common in remote districts where the livestock economy is most affected by conservation policies.An armed Maoist insurgency began in 1996 and intensified in 2001 and emergency rule was announced in November. Tiwary (2005) commented that the poorer sections of community were forced to play host to rebels and even women recruited to fight leaving several areas without farming activities. Many forests that served for food and fuel were made off-limits by the government on the basis they harboured insurgents (Tiwary, 2005:142). Those most dependent on landed patrons joined the insurgency in greater numbers as land was redistributed and peasant debts cancelled in Maoist controlled villages. The insurgents recruited most successfully from the most food insecure districts in the mid-and far-west. Since the peace agreement of late 2006, Maoists have transformed into the Communist Party and gained more seats than mainstream party rivals by successfully mobilising marginalised and neglected groups, raising the issue of land reform and fielding candidates from marginalised groups (Joshi and Mason, 2011:170-172).The global slowdown added to this political and fiscal instability. Restructuring of the Nepal Food Corporation, the main element of domestic market reforms, started in 2000 and was the last major change made before Nepal joined the World Trade Organisation in 2004. Nepal now has the lowest tariffs in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for most products although it sets an export tax of 5% where most South Asian countries offer incentives and diminishing exports have kept Nepal in national economic decline since 2000 (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004:10;Pyakuryal et al, 2010:95-97).During the preparation of the tenth National Plan, hill farmers demanded improved access to forest resources but the government delivered even more stringent environmental policies and Nepal has since been selected for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program funding. Nepal's protected areas increased from 7% in 1988 to 20% in 2008 (Dhakal et al, 2011:88-89) while forest cover decreased from 32.7% in 1990 to 27.3% in 2000. The decline in agricultural production is particularly stark in the remote mountainous region where deforestation results in floods, erosion and loss of arable land (Bhandari and Grant, 2007:17).Traditionally, according to Shrestha et al (1990), where the hill region (Pahar) is a socio-ecological mosaic, a complex of terraces and the cultural hearth of Nepal that concentrates decision making in Kathmandu, the Terai is derived from Persian word for damp. The Terai is fed by Nepal's three main rivers, the Kosi, Gandaki and Karnali, all of which feed into the Ganges (Shrestha et al, 1990:7). Although the Terai is around 100 m asl, the northern Terai swells up to meet the hill zone so is actually comprised of northern uplands, with the north western valleys in rain shadow and the flat southern plains benefiting from monsoonal rains (Tiwary, 2005: 124-125). Yadav (1992) maintains that the Terai is culturally and geographically indistinguishable from northern India. North Bihar shares the same flood and drought problems as the Terai and Uttar Pradesh and Bihari border towns retain a Nepali character.It took 50 years to shift Nepal's population centre from the hills to the Terai such that the population is now distributed among the mountains 7%, hills 43%, with the Terai holding 50% with 23% of Nepal's land area, (Poertner et al, 2011:24). The lowland convergence ensued from the early 1960s (Tiwary, 2005:126-127).Most migrants to the Terai are highland Nepalese, attracted by the prospect of practising settled agriculture under more favourable conditions. By 1981 the Terai had gained 700,000 migrants via northsouth regional flows in a corridor like movement reflecting the importance of proximity and the hill-Terai foot trails in channelling migration (Shrestha et al, 1990:26-28). The Terai now enjoys better infrastructure and service provision than the hill and mountain regions. For example, in the Kali-khola watershed, Bhandari and Grant (2007:24) found that 92% lowlanders had piped water within a 15 minute walk compared to 39% highlanders. Despite this comparatively good infrastructure and the Terai's mere 50 years of cultivation, a Green Revolution has yet to occur (Tiwary, 2005:128).Poor institutional conditions for agricultural intensification in the Terai can be attributed to the highly contentious manner in which the Terai was 'opened'. Widespread spontaneous settlement began in the 1950s in Chitwan, proximate to Kathmandu Valley in the southern Terai and intensified in the 1960s when the Rapti Valley Development Project ended. The Chitwan Valley's population of 42,000 in 1951 increased to 355,000 in 1991; an annual growth rate of 3.19% (Bhandari, 2004). King Mahendra legalised squatter holdings in 1961, a political move intended to undermine building support for the Nepali Congress party.Marginal and landless rural households migrated from the hills to find formal re-settlement processes unavailable and squatting their only livelihood avenue. In 1977 only 7,691 families were officially settled on the Terai (Pandey, 1986:45). As the physical hardship and risks of the earlier phase reduced, migration expanded rapidly. Land was sold without title on the basis that it was relinquished willingly and a type of land speculation -'professional landlessness' -developed. Migrants fanned out from the forest fringe and squatted on communal pasture land (in groups as local villagers were enraged). When the Land Reform Act was enacted in 1964, large landowners evicted their tenants further fuelling squatting as did highway construction.The government tried settling ex-military servicemen in the Terai to institute law and order but servicemen were inclined to follow the hill migrants' example. Panchayat leaders actively promoted encroachment and forestry officials helped squatters for money. Sporadic attempts from the early 1970s to evict farmers led to civil-government conflict as no economic alternative was available to settlers. During the 1979 Panchayat elections, peasants were both encouraged to settle in forest-lands in exchange for votes and later reevicted, the same year the Sukumbasi landless (public land encroachment) movement developed (Pandey, 1986:44-46;Shrestha et al, 1990:227-244).The spontaneous settlement of the Terai consumed 56,000 ha of forests between 1964 and 1972 (Pandey, 1986:45) resulting in access disputes between smallholders and officials charged with protecting forests. The Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) is a prime example as the first national park to be gazetted in 1973. Comprising 93,200 ha and a buffer zone of 76,750 ha, the park was originally used as a tiger and rhino hunting reserve for the Rana family and their English and Indian guests. Gazetting was met by smallholder protest as decades of local resource extraction were curtailed. The State's response was both to deputise the Nepalese Army to enforce park regulations and establish a legal system for co-existence and development through the Buffer Zone Management Act 1996 (Adhikari et al, 2009:524). Economic opportunities were provided to smallholders under a Park and People Program initiated in 1994. However, only higher caste groups derived benefits (increased agricultural income) from this program due to their superior bargaining power. As most of the settlements in the park's buffer zone are poor, the Park and People Program failed to prioritise support to the section of the community most in need (Adhikari et al, 2009: 535). A similar situation has unfolded within the Koshi Tappu Wetlands created after the construction of the Koshi Barrage in 1962 (Dulal, et al, 2010:628).Nepal's announcement of an interim constitution in 2007 that made no reference to ethnic autonomy or federalism (only committing to the end of a unitary State) was followed by the intensification of the insurgency on the Terai. During a three week mass uprising 40 people were killed and 11 civilians abducted.A hills/plains division was evident in the conflict. Activists wanted the Terai to be an independent state with radical ethnic insurgent groups claiming that: 'people that have migrated from hills to be colonisers and [we] want their complete eviction from the Terai region ' Dulal et al (2010:629).The historical and political origins of food insecurity on the EGP discussed above are schematised in Figure 6 and Figure 7 below. Bangladesh differentiated out of the Indian sub-continent as a distinct nation through a series of shocks and political reactions to those shocks that originated in the upheavals of World War II (Figure 6). The Great Bengal Famine of 1942 was predictably followed by peasant rioting in [1945][1946]  Bangladesh to harness the tural adjustment pressures that ensued in the 1990s to kick-start a Green Revolution that has dramatically improved food security at both the micro and macro levels. However, both formally and informally, Bangladesh jettisoned its Hindu population while appropriating Hindu assets.Review of social and economic issues for food security studies in the Eastern Gangetic Plains | 35 'resolved' by the British by partitioning the subcontinent in 1947 and leaving the field entirely in 1951.an and in 1971 between East and West Pakistan partitioned the subcontinent. War ravaged Bangladesh was famine ridden by 1974. Ironically, being largest flow of food aid by 1975 enabled Bangladesh to harness the start a Green Revolution that has dramatically improved food security at both the micro and macro levels. However, both formally and propriating Hindu assets.Nepal (Figure 7) only emerged out of its political isolation in opposition to the presence British outsiders as a national entity in 1950. Over the past 60 years, Nepal has transitioned from a tributary state dominated by a Kathmandu elite through the massive convergence of marginalised socio-economic groups on the Terai Plains seeking food security. Geographically based elite personalities played a highly factional politics regardless of whether authoritarian or democratic forms of governance prevailed until very recently. Disrupted by Maoist inspired peasant rebellion, the stand-off between poor and elite is now contained in parliament but without constitutional resolution of the tension between the elite view of Nepal as a pure Hindu state and Nepal's staggering array of ethnicities and tribes. Although agricultural production is concentrated on the Terai, this land use is only 50 years old and no Green Revolution has yet occurred despite Nepal suffering the worst food insecurity in the EGP. Nepalese factionalism has fragmented aid efforts and the potentially constructive force of structural adjustment pressure to fracture Nepal's huge poverty traps.India, in its sheer economic and demographic enormity, has evolved from British Raj into a consequential multi-ethnic democracy, as evidenced by the retention, indeed attraction, of Muslim Bengalis. Able to launch a Green Revolution with American expertise and aid on the Western Gangetic Plains in the 1960s, India reached foodgrain self-sufficiency much earlier than Bangladesh. India then faced its persistent poverty traps under the glare afforded by official designation of backward caste and tribal poor. A distinctly Indian welfare net (NREGA and PFDS) developed out of the federally fractured power struggles between elite and marginalised socio-economic groups. Both criminal and reformist state governments in India's north-eastern states arose from this agrarian transition. Structural adjustment pressures have essentially been shrugged off by India.History matters because famines, whether recent or those remembered on an intergenerational basis, are deeply engrained on psyche of farmers and policy makers alike, encouraging decisions to be made that entail strong path dependencies. Policy aversion to food imports characterises the EGP jurisdictions because famines left a strong preference for national foodgrain self-sufficiency. Authors agree that public Food Distribution Systems are difficult to reform despite high leakage rates rendering them ineffective in targeting the food insecure. Poorly targeted PFDS contribute to standing deficits capable of bankrupting states.This legacy also means that food security and food national food self-sufficiency tend to be conflated and require careful disentanglement. The Bangladesh experience offers important clues as to how carefully sequenced economic reforms need to be in order that macro-economic alterations dovetail with helpful micro-economic motives and opportunities at the household level.All policies that necessarily ensue from the overall intent to address food insecurity by intensifying agricultural production need to be seen in that light. How irrigation waters are made available in the dry season, whether the PFDS tempts farmers out of subsistence production by procuring foodgrain via an attractive minimum support price, the availability of institutional micro-credit, energy and fertiliser subsidies etc are all necessary conditions to trigger (and sustain) a Green RevolutionBy implication, farm level research that is purely technically focused will fall short as it did on India's Western Gangetic Plains where benefits were captured by elites while sharecroppers were converted to agricultural labourers without the assets to improve their situation. Trying to solve political-institutional problems with technical solutions will not link the socio-political and technical domains in manner helpful to the food insecure.In general, rice production is increasing in India 2 . West Bengal's rice production is one of the highest for India (14,853,000 tonnes in 2011/12), similar to Uttar Pradesh (14,025,000 tonnes) (Figure 8). In 2008/09, West Bengal contributed over 15% of domestic rice production but less than 5% to procurement (Figure 8).Other key rice producing states are Andhra Pradesh (12,888,000 tonnes) and Punjab (10,542,000 tonnes). At a national level, in 2008/09, rice accounted for 40% of the production and 36% of the area under cereal crops, respectively. Wheat was second to rice, constituting 34% of production and 22% of the area, respectively (Figure 9).   1. Irrigation is used primarily used during the dry season crops in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, from November to May (see Kirby et al. 2013 for details 3 ). Across all of India, yields have significantly increased for rice (now average of ~2.4 tonnes/ha), wheat (3 tonnes/ha) and coarse cereals (1.5 tonnes/ha) (Figure 10). The area under cultivation is increasing for rice (45 million ha) and wheat (30 million ha), but is declining for coarse cereals (26 Million ha) and pulses remain steady (~25 million ha) (Figure 9). Productivity of Bihari rice was low at 1,090 kg/ha in 2011 which was less than half of the national average of 2,608 kg/ha. Rice productivity in West Bengal was significantly  Bihar forms part of the Northwestern and Northeastern subtropical zones (Das 2006). Rice production is important for Bihar. In 2008-09 Bihar contributed over 5% of the national share of rice production and a negligible amount to procurement. This in part reflected the fact that rice in Bihar has been primarily a subsistence crop (World Bank, 2007b). By 2000 Bihar produced 11.4% of India's rice crop (5.08 million ha). Other significant crops are wheat (7.7% of India's crop; 2.1 million ha), maize (11.3%), other coarse cereals (2.9%), and a range of others (gram, tur, other pulses, rape seed & mustard, other oilseeds, and sugarcane). The main cropping system is rice-wheat, but other cropping systems are important: rice-pulse, maizewheat, sugarcane-ratoon-wheat (sugarcane is cut once, then regrown before preparing for the wheat crop). Most farming households cultivate cereals followed by pulses, oilseeds, vegetables and jute. In the selected districts of Bihar (according to Das 2006), paddy (36.84%) followed by wheat (19.88%) and khesari (grass pea) (12.44%) occupied the largest proportion of area.Clay reported in 1982 that the Kosi region was primarily experiencing a wheat revolution that roughly quadrupled the wheat cropping area from 100,000 acres in 1965-1966 to 400,000 acres in 1977-1978. However, at least half the wheat crop was entirely rain-fed and exploited residual soil moisture, an unanticipated development similar to the expansion of the wheat crop in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Despite the construction of the Kosi surface irrigation scheme in the late 1950s, Kharif canal irrigation was only providing supplementary water to existing rice land and continuous water logging of lower lying paddy land was evident (Clay, 1982:194-196).Production has increased weakly in Bihar, compared to Punjab and NW Bangladesh. Bihar's production is much lower than these other major rice producing states (7,201,000 tonnes), but also is not increasing (Figure 11). Rice production in Bihar is highly variable year-to-year, without any discernible increase or decrease over a 30-year period. The share of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) from agriculture in Bihar is 25.34% and from non-agriculture was 74.66% (Haque et al. 2010). The cropping intensity is moderate in Bihar (160.80%). The relative importance of agriculture is declining (in terms of share of GDP) and was 25% in 2007/08. Forestry and fishing increasing share of GDP. In 2007/08, agriculture including livestock was 88.8%, with forestry and logging at 6.1% and fishing at 5.1%. Two centuries ago, the economy and culture of Bihar was relatively rich, but is now generally regarded as among India's poorest state (De Haan, 2002). There are high levels of illiteracy and poor health system as a result of past corrupt political administrations. There have been declines in cash crops, weaving, cloth, opium, indigo and sugar (De Haan, 2002).The area of rice production (kharif) has decreased in Bihar from 5 million ha in 1996/97 to 2.7 million ha in 2010/11 (Figure 12) (although data for the State of Jharkhand are included up until the year 2000) (The Directorate of Economics and Statistics and The Reserve Bank of India). The area of summer rice remains small (~100,000 ha). Total rice production (kharif) declined from 7 million tonnes in 1996/97 to 3 million tonnes in 2010/11 (Figure 11). The production for summer rice remains at around 185,000 tonnes. Average yields remain at about 1.5 tonnes/ha for the kharif crop and about 2 tonnes/ha for the summer rice crop (Figure 13). Underutilisation of groundwater is strongly related to Bihar's sizeable yield gap (room for improvement for rice).  West Bengal forms part of the Northeastern and Central tropical zones, Temperate Zone (Darjeeling hills area), and Coastal humid tropical zone (Das 2006). In 2000, West Bengal produced 13.2% of India's rice crop (5.88 million ha). Other crops grown are of small production: wheat (1.4%, 0.4 million ha), maize (0.7%), pulses (0.8%), other oilseeds (1.8%) and sugarcane (0.7%). The main cropping system is rice-wheat. Potatoes are also grown (second or third largest producer in India).In selected districts of West Bengal (according to Das 2006), paddy occupied the largest proportion of gross cropped area (83.42%) followed by mustard (8.60%), jute (2.65%) and vegetables (2.31%). Simpson's Index of Diversification was 0.16. There were a relatively high proportion of horticulture crops. There was a large increase in crop diversification from 1999/2000 to 2006/07. This was away from food grains and towards oilseeds. The share of livestock was 36.1%. The proportion of cattle was 70%. The relative importance of agriculture is declining (in terms of share of GDP) and was 21% in 2007/08. In 2007/08, agriculture including livestock was 86.4%, with forestry and logging at 3.2% and fishing at 10.4%.Production remained static in West Bengal, compared to Punjab and NW Bangladesh. The area of rice production (kharif) has decreased slightly in West Bengal from 4.8 million ha in 1996/97 to ~4 million ha in 2010/11 (Figure 14). The area of summer rice remains at a moderate size of 1.5 million ha. Total rice production (kharif) remains steady at around 10 million tonnes (Figure 15). The production for summer rice remains at around 4 million tonnes. Average yields have increased from 2 tonnes/ha to 2.5 tonnes/ha for the kharif crop and are 3-3.3 tonnes/ha for the summer rice crop (Figure 16).   There are three main rice crops grown each year in Bangladesh (Aman, Aus and Boro, see Table 2). Irrigation in the wet season (monsoon Aman crop) enables increased reliability and irrigation in the dry season (Aus and Boro) allows increased cropping intensity. In Bangladesh, 25 million tonnes of rice are produced each year and production has been steadily increasing (Figure 17). Wheat and maize are also important, but production levels are not high. In Bangladesh from 1971 to 2005/06, the area of aman rice grown has remained at 5-6 million ha, boro has increased from 1 to 4 million ha, and aus has decreased from 3 to 1 million ha (Figure 18). The amount of rice produced from 1971 to 2005/06 has increased for aman from 6 to >10 million tonnes, for boro from 2 to 14 million tonnes and decreased slightly for aus from 3 to <2 million tonnes (Figure 19). Average yields in 2005/06 for aman are 2 tonnes/ha, for boro are 3.5 tonnes/ha and for aus are 1.7 tonnes/ha (Figure 20).     In Rajshahi District (Northwest Bangladesh), the majority of farmers (75%) are small farmers (0.05-2.49 acre), 21% are medium (2.5-7.5 acre) and 3% are large (>7.5 acre) (Figure 21). Most farmers practice double cropping (Figure 22). Most irrigation is through shallow tube wells.  The cropping intensity for all of Bangladesh is 177%, but is greater for districts within Rajshahi division, Bogra at 210-217%, Dinajpur at 187%, Pabna at 194-199%, Rajshahi is ~155% and Rangpur at 194-200%. The lower value for Rajshahi reflects the influence of the drier High Barind Tract, where there is not as much irrigation access.There are limited data for agricultural production for the Terai in Nepal. Data comes from the National Sample Census of Agriculture 2001/02 (http://cbs.gov.np/) and IRRI rice statistics as well as from community studies. There are 20 Districts that lie on the Terai of Nepal. In the Terai, rice accounts for 75% of the area and wheat accounts for 34% of the area (Figure 23). Maize accounts for ~12% (spring/summer and summer combined). The average land holding in the Terai is 1.2 ha, however very small holdings of 0.2 ha occupy 7% of total Terai lands. Thus: 'Although the Terai is relatively fertile with good ground water reserves, farming is subsistence oriented, little use is made of fertilizer, irrigation or high-yielding seeds, and agricultural productivity is low.' The Terai enjoys better infrastructure and services than the hill and mountain regions (excluding Kathmandu Valley) but inequality remains between the eastern and more remote western Terai (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004: 22-23). For Nepal as a whole, average rice yields are steadily increasing from 2 tonnes/ha in 1961 to 2.5-3 tonnes/ha in 2009 (Figure 24). The area of harvested rice increased from 3 million ha to 4-4.5 million ha (Figure 24). The total production has increased from 800 thousand tonnes in 1961 to ~1500 thousand tonnes in 2009 (Figure 25). However, this is attributed to the expansion of the cropping area rather than an intensification of cropping itself as Figure 25 shows. There is agreement among researchers that Nepal's slow growth in agricultural productivity is due to dominance of rain-fed agriculture, deeply ironic in such a water rich country. Bhandari (2001) reported that although Nepal's agriculture comprises 42% of GDP, employs over 80% of the population, feeds agro-based industries, export products, and is the top priority in every five year plan, no productivity growth has occurred for 20 years:Traditional technologies, low use of modern inputs and services, and heavy reliance on monsoon rains have been considered as the important reasons for the low rate of agricultural growth in Nepal (Bhandari, 2001:102).There are a range of infrastructure for irrigation in the Terai, the main ones being seasonal irrigation, perennial irrigation and tube well irrigation (Figure 26). There are few ponds and others. According to the National Sample Census of Agriculture 2001/02, the percentage of rice that is irrigated is ~60% up to ~160% (Figure 27). Kansakar et al, (2009) in contrast, reported in 2001 that irrigation was available in 33% total cultivated land and accounted for less than half of total cereal production. Similarly, Upadhyay claimed in 2006 that despite its possession of abundant surface and groundwater resources, only 40% of agricultural lands are irrigated, which represents < 1% of Nepal's water resource potential. Recently, the Nepalese government has given priority to small scale irrigation projects, namely STW development. Policymakers have been attracted to small initial investment, low recurring costs to government, short gestation periods, freedom from organisational and management problems, year round operation and high return on public and private investment. In short, STW irrigation is more flexible, entails less loss in use, and yields higher productivity for the water used. Through credit and subsidy programs, the Nepal Government has facilitated the installation of 3,000 STW units per year between 1980 and 1996 (Bhandari, 2001:103). Bhandari (2001) explored whether STW was suitable for small and fragmented holdings in Sarlahi District in eastern and Banke District in western Terai, chosen for their contrasting agro-ecological and socioeconomic settings. For the crop year of 1987-1998, 324 STW/pump owners and 162 non-owners were randomly selected to be surveyed, with the non-owners further sub-classified into 129 water purchasers and 33 rainfed operations (Bhandari, 2001:103-104). Electricity being unavailable, 8 HP pump and diesel engines were found to be the most popular choice. As in the other EGP jurisdictions, informal water markets had developed in these districts that catered to non-STW owners. Water sales were not found to be purely commercial; rather, pump owners sold only excess water. Fragmentation of holdings, topography and conveyance loss meant that 45% of the owners surveyed installed more than one well (from two to five) and cut long canals to transport it. The fragmented holdings meant that sellers in one location become buyers in another; thus, 80% of non-STW/pump owners were water buyers. It was noticed that as the water market developed, in-kind payment (labour, crop sharing, water) became unpopular and cash payment became normalised (Bhandari, 2001: 107-108).Most with access to STW water followed cash crop (vegetables, winter maize and spring rice) dominated cropping patterns whereas the rainfed farmers used cereal crop dominated cropping patterns. Furthermore, adoption of HYVs was higher among STW owners at 87%, compared to 59% of water purchasers and 31% of rainfed operators. STW ownership was highly distorted by the size of landholdings due to high capital outlay and O&M costs. Despite a staggered subsidy of 30% for individually owned STW and 60% for group owned STW, marginal smallholders owned none, small farmers owned 39%, medium owned 86% and 98% of large landholders owned STWs. Access to credit and subsidies rested on minimum landownership, lengthy procedures and unfriendly bank staff, all of which formed disincentives, especially for the poor. In short, STW development was functioning to widen income disparities (Bhandari, 2001:107-108).Rice yield was 26% higher for STW/pump owners and their use of labour, fertiliser, pesticides, power and HYVs was significantly higher than rainfed operators such that net returns per ha for owners was four times higher than rainfed operators (Bhandari, 2001:109-110). Joshi's survey of 222 households in Nawalparasi and Banke Districts of the Terai, and subsequent modelling, showed that farm size and area under irrigation had a positive effect on fertiliser use, and owner operators use more fertiliser than tenants, as do farms closer to road heads and those which utilise markets more (Joshi, 2010: 23 & 28-29). Joshi found that the area of land planted to modern varieties (MV) increased from 40% in 1993-1994 to 85% in 2006-2007, and was highest in the Terai where irrigation, roads and market infrastructures are well developed (Joshi, 2010: 23 & 28-29).Nationally, 66% of farm households fertilise rice, although the proportion is higher (77%) in the Terai.Fertiliser use in Nepal declined 0.7% per annum between 1990-1991 and 1996-1997   (Joshi, 2010:22-23). Most lowland and one third of highland smallholders (who rely largely on manure) used low quality chemical fertiliser illegally imported from India.The fertiliser was reported to be used at a rate of 20 kg/ha, in contrast to the recommended dose of 83 kg/ha) and was not being used in a balanced way. However, only 2% of highlanders used insecticide, relying instead on ashes, tobacco leaves and forest tree bark, whereas the lowland smallholders were completely dependent on chemical insecticides which they sourced from cooperatives of local markets (Bhandari and Grant, 2007:20-22).Many households have iron ploughs but there are very few power tillers. As Nepal was physically isolated until 1950, it was not until the mid-1960s that 64 tractors and 30 pump sets were introduced to the country (Biggs et al, 2002:6). During the 1970s, Nepal's five year plans promoted four wheel tractors, tubewells and pump-sets. Concerned about the labour displacement effects of mechanisation during the 1980s, Nepal's five year plans promoted labour-intensive machinery and tools. However, during the 1990s the de facto laissez-faire policy that followed structural adjustment encouraged the private sector to import tractors and pump-sets as subsidies and regulations were reduced. Consequently, considerable maintenance and repair capacity has built up in major towns, although Nepal itself only produces wheat threshers and other simple machinery. The long Indian border facilitates the spread of machinery both due to harvesters being rented across the border and the regular migration of Bihari labourers to the Terai. Power units rapidly spread between 1980 and 1999. Four wheel tractors increased from 2,500 to 17,000; two wheel tractors from 400 to 1,400, and pump-sets from 10,000 to 50,000. Stationary Indian diesel powered pump-sets became widely available and are used to power most wheat threshers (Biggs et al, 2002:7-8). Biggs et al (2002) point to the little known but 'strong power tiller innovation system' that has developed since 1999 on the Terai due to the NARC CIMMYT project that now has five importers trading in eight of the Terai's large cities. Although 500 tillers are in use, only minimum spare parts and after sales services are available and the innovations system project has started training mechanics to extend from pump-sets to power tiller repair, has translated manuals into Nepali and supported an NGO to become spare parts dealer (Biggs et al, 2002:15-17). These authors argue that: 'Government policy has on the whole been one of nonengagement with non-irrigation types of mechanisation' (Biggs et al, 2002:33).The production of rice is high for West Bengal and Northwest Bangladesh, but remains low for Bihar and the Terai of Nepal, largely because of small areas of dry season rice and the minimal use of groundwater irrigation. Rice yields for the boro rice crops (~3-3.5 tonnes/ha) are higher than the kharif rice crops (~2-2.5 tonnes/ha). Rice yields have been steadily increasing in these areas, but the greatest increases in production have occurred in the boro rice crops, provided that adequate irrigation water and pumps are available for supplementary irrigation. Bangladesh achieved significant increases in rice production over the last 20 years demonstrating it is possible to increase production in the EGP and achieve food selfsufficiency.The key physical and technical issues preventing increases in rice production in Bihar and Terai include Nepal's inadequate irrigation infrastructure, poor availability of pumps (diesel or electric), poor access to roads to access markets, and poor availability of high yielding varieties, particularly for small land holders. Access to these is better for large land owners, but they form a minority of landholders. The availability of power tillers, tractors and use of fertilisers is also low.There are additional social and institutional constraints which are holding back agricultural production in Bihar, West Bengal and the Terai. Technical driven solutions, by themselves, will not be sufficient. The social and institutional constraints include:• Poor land tenure arrangements and insecurity of land tenure mean that it is not possible to invest in irrigation infrastructure (particularly water pumps or tubewells) (see Chapter 3.2 about land tenure arrangements). These farmers need to have a short turn around and high profit returns because of the uncertainty of land tenure arrangements. • In Bihar, farmers are not obtaining minimum procurement prices for rice, so there is no incentive to grow rice (see Chapter 9.2 for procurement prices). The markets are more functional in Bangladesh.• Bihar is considered as India's poorest state meaning that changes to improve production will take time and considerable effort. The question remains as to whether increasing the area for dry season rice production in Bihar and Terai through irrigation is the best approach to increasing food security (increasing intensity of rice cropping). An alternative approach would be to increase diversity of other higher-value crops and utilise potential irrigation water in the dry season to improve livelihoods. This would require improvements in the technology available for pumping water from groundwater resources and improving infrastructure so that product can get to market or into the value chain. The social and institutional constraints also need to be alleviated.Options for improving productivity include:• Improving physical and technical aspects of irrigation, road infrastructure, varieties and rice crop management (eg fertilisers and other chemical inputs);• Diversify into cash crops or horticulture in the dry season if groundwater can be made available;• Examine land tenure arrangements and look for alternative approaches for sharecropping;• Utilise NGOs in cooperation with state government extension services to uplift and develop the capacity of farming communities to negotiate contracts, land access and develop sharecropping and niche markets; and • Improve minimum procurement prices for rice.The EGP sits within the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin, the second largest hydrologic region in world. The basin covers 1.75 million km 2 and houses a population of 600 million people of Hindi, Buddhist and Islamic persuasions. The basin involves the five co-riparian countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. Bangladesh and India share all three rivers and Nepal hosts the headwaters of the Ganges (Ahmed, 2003:181). Regional arrangements for the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin have yet to coalesce, as they have with United Nations guidance in the neighbouring Mekong Basin. However, the Abu Dhabi dialogue has sought to build regional cooperation through annually convened discussion between the seven co-riparian nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal Afghanistan and Pakistan) that span both the western (Indus) and eastern (Ganges) Himalayan rivers. To date, the waters of the EGP are managed through bilateral agreements between India, the most populous and economically dominant of the EGP nations, and both Nepal and Bangladesh.The headwaters of the EGP's region's major rivers lie in Nepal, but flow through north-eastern India and Bangladesh to discharge into the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, significant for containing the world's largest mangrove forest. The mid reaches of the Ganges fall under India's jurisdiction. The extreme relief of the Himalayas which rise 6,000 m within a distance of only tens of kilometres affords enormous energy potential and numerous storage sites in Nepal -an attractive prospect for India. Bilateral arrangements are thus dominated by irrigation and energy hungry India and the water and potentially hydro-electric power rich (but politically disorganised) Nepal.India's treaties with Nepal date back to 1920 when the Mahakali treaty between British India and Nepal was signed. The Gandak treaty of 1959 deprived Nepal of the prospect of irrigating the Gandak basin within the Terai plains, and was consequently revised in 1964 (Bandyopadhyay and Gyawali, 1994). From an upstream perspective, nine Nepali tributaries contribute 47% of the Ganges' average flow, as measured at Farakka barrage where Indian and Bangladeshi waters are 'divided'. Because 80% of annual rainfall is restricted to the 4-5 months during the monsoon, Nepal's contribution to the Ganges' flow during the dry season increases to 75% (Adhikari, et al, 2009:648).The inability to raise agricultural production (by increasing cropping intensity) without reliable dry-season irrigation arguably makes inequality of water distribution within and between the five EGP jurisdictions a larger problem than land distribution -inequalities that Raj argues have widened with the availability of groundwater irrigation technology (1988:184). Five governments are involved in this problem: the Governments of India (GOI), Bihar, West Bengal, Nepal and Bangladesh. Only Bihar and West Bengal are completely geographically contained in the EGP. However, the food bowls of Nepal (the Terai) and Bangladesh (the north-west region) are geographically contained in the EGP.India and Bangladesh have been in conflict regarding dry season flows (from 1 st January to 31 st May) since 1951 when India decided to build the Farakka barrage, unilaterally constructing it in West Bengal 18 km from the Bangladesh border by 1977. The barrage is viewed by India as needed to divert water into the Bhagirathi River to flush Calcutta's port. It is viewed by Bangladesh reducing average Ganges discharge by 60%.India and Bangladesh signed a treaty in 1977, extended by Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) in 1983 and 1985. The Ganges Water Sharing Treaty was signed in 1996 for 30 years duration. This difficult deal was struck when the Indian Congress Party and Bangladeshi Awami League were in power and able to cooperate (Ahmed, 2003;Adhikari, et al, 2009:648;Khan: 2012). It was signed without the involvement requested by the Bihar State Government which is a loser of what constitutes a 'Dhaka -New Delhi agreement' (Gyawali, 1999). The Treaty provides a formula for calculating the sharing of the water. Critiques of the treaty point out that the formula defines how the flow should be divided without making provision for what the flow should be, and thus does not even guarantee a minimum flow (Nishat and Pasha, 2001;Rahaman, 2006). There appear to be few reviews of its operation in practice. The best known of is in a blog by Khalequzzaman and Islam (2012), which analyses four years of recent flow data to show that, while Bangladesh has received what it should under the treaty 80% of the time, it is receiving a (mostly fair) share of a flow that is about half what would have been expected from the period of 1949-1988, which is the reference period for assessing the flow. A water management problem shared by West Bengal and Bangladesh is the mobilisation of arsenic in groundwater. Contamination was discovered in the 1980s in West Bengal and confirmed in Bangladesh in 1998 when a national survey was conducted. Ironically, 90% of Bangladeshis have been utilising groundwater for drinking supplies since most surface water was found to be microbiologically unsafe to use in the 1960s. The survey found that the majority of wells in 60 out of 64 districts (80% of the country) exceed the World Health Organisation limit of 10µg/L and only 30% of wells were below Bangladesh's standard of 50 µg/L. Wells with arsenic contamination exceeding 1,000 µg/L were found in 17 districts (Ahsan and Del Vallis, 2011). Arsenic is also accumulating in soils, rice (depending on the variety), and quite possibly livestock (Rahman and Hasegawa, 2011). The arsenic issue adds weight to Bangladesh's concern regarding reduced Ganges flow.Floods and water logging affect food security in the EGP as profoundly as the need for dry season irrigation. During the wet season, snowmelt, landslides, alpine cloudbursts and glacier-lake outbursts in Nepal can be aggravated by days of highly concentrated rainfall that end in the synchronisation of river peaks. Subsequent flooding is concentrated on the Terai, West Bengal and Bihar. However, it is Bangladesh that receives the brunt of floodwaters. Bangladesh's flatlands drain almost 75% of total Himalayan run-off within a three month period. Even in normal years, 30% of the country can flood and in a more extreme scenario, 80% of land is flood prone (Ahmed, 2003;Bandyopadhyay and Gyawali, 1994). Debate between British India and Nepal from the 1930s ended in the 1953 decision to construct the Kosi Barrage project in Nepal in the effort to control flooding in India. This decision developed further impetus due to severe flooding in 1954, the year India and Nepal signed the Kosi Treaty (Clay 1982:190-191).The attempt to provide hydro-electricity, dry season surface water irrigation and flood control with the use of dams and barrages began in Bengal (India and Bangladesh) under British administration. The performance of this modern engineered infrastructure has been disappointing on all of these fronts and irrigation technologies have rapidly evolved since the 1950s in the EGP. Not part of British India, Nepal's modern irrigation history is more compressed than India's and Bangladesh's and its irrigation phases give some idea of this in the EGP:1. Up until the mid-1950s, Nepal's hill and Terai communities developed their own irrigation facilities to provide supplementary irrigation to the main crop. These Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems (FMIS) were managed by the users themselves with traditional norms and rules and are still in existence in remote hill areas;2. From 1956 to the 1970s, the government funded medium and large surface irrigation schemes projects, diversion weirs and main canal distribution systems;3. From the early 1970s to 1980s, there was extensive development of command areas, expansion of irrigation infrastructure and FMIS rehabilitation;4. The mid 1980s to the present saw more integrated development of land and water resources, further renovation and expansion of FMIS; groundwater (shallow tubewell) development where surface supplies are seasonal and the involvement of NGOs as implementing agencies (Upadhyay, 2006:69).This evolution of irrigation technology is unpacked below.The Kosi Barrage, built in Nepal but intended to benefit the three north-eastern districts of Bihar, illustrates the difficulties experienced with modern engineering approaches to flood mitigation and dry season irrigation in the EGP. The fact that groundwater is rarely more than three metres deep in north Bihar was not considered. The fact that the Kosi River carries the highest flow and silt load of the Ganges tributaries and has shifted course 100 km westward due to a series of floods over the last 200 years was not considered. Being comprised mostly of meandering floodplains of ridges, basins and old channels interspersed with extensive higher tracts of sandy-silt soils, the Terai and northern Bihar is difficult terrain for the design and management of gravity flow irrigation (Clay 1982:190-191).Completed in 1964, the project entailed the construction of a barrage and embankments to control floodwaters, a small hydroelectric station and provision of canal irrigation for 1.4 million ha. At the time of Clay's analysis in 1982, the Kosi canal system had not reached 20% of the (now abandoned) original target of 1.5 million acres for annual irrigation. Cost recovery languished as less than 30% of of water fees was being collected from irrigators. A symposium on the Kosi project was held in Bihar's capital Patna in 1979. The planning, management and organisational deficiencies common to all large irrigation projects were discussed. That is, there were no detailed field investigations, high land was not excluded from command estimates, the restriction of summer irrigation by heavy silt deposits was not anticipated, and the scheme lacked a drainage component to prevent increased water logging of land. There was no discussion of groundwater development and irrigation engineers employed the time honoured strategy of blaming farmers for the scheme's poor performance (Clay, 1982: 197-202).The operation of the Kosi Barrage has suffered due to characteristically poor Indian maintenance regimes aggravated by fact the facility is on Nepal's Terai. Consequently, siltation has raised river beds above the height of adjoining land and clogged irrigation canals, while overtopping and breaching of embankments have posed entirely new flood risks (Bandyopadhyay and Gyawali, 1994). A breach of embankments on the Kosi River in 2008 shifted the course of the river over 100 km and displaced 60,000 Terai residents and three and a half million Biharis (Moench, 2010;Shrestha et al, 2010). According to Gyawali (1999), the Kosi Barrage, meant to protect 214,000 ha, has degraded 292,000 ha of fertile land and left 800,000 people in 338 villages living in abject poverty between embankments (see also Singh et al, 2009).Moench, discussing the Ganga basin as a whole, argues that barrages have undermined the adaptive capacity of both farmer and bureaucratic communities:In protected areas, populations invest and build lives without considering flood risks. They have little incentive to diversify or invest in raising houses or other activities that would reduce their losses. On the other side of the embankments, those suffering from recurrent flooding have been trapped in a cycle of losses and battles over compensation that has probably contributed to endemic poverty in the area. Embankment technologies have, in essence, inherent path dependencies -they create divisions within society and encourage the growth of bureaucracies and sets of interests that are deeply embedded and difficult to change (Moench, 2010:982).Nonetheless, the engineering solution to water management in the EGP has inherent path dependency. By 1996, Bihar had 3,421 km of embankments. Water drainage was further compounded by road and rail expansion that also failed to account for water drainage. Effectively the EGP hydrological regime has been permanently altered. These experiences lend weight to a longstanding debate as to whether the Bengal Basin's silt deposits have been irrevocably disturbed by the installation of agency managed irrigation schemes (AMIS), and whether the paradigm of flood control should return to the pre-British era of less intensive but agriculturally attuned flood management (Biswas, 1987;Gyawali, 1999).For the dam and barrage engineering strategy to further assist food security within the EGP, several biophysical issues need to be resolved. Physically, the seismic activity of the Himalayan region and high sediment loads of the rivers pose risks to dam safety and endurance. Modern surface water schemes persistently underperform in terms of: oversupply of the head and undersupply of tail farmers, command areas proving smaller than anticipated and low accountability to farmer clients (Mukerji et al, 2012:431). Persistently negative socio-economic impacts such as displacement also form strong concerns (Ahmed, 2003;Adhikari, et al, 2009:648). Gender analysts point to the differential impacts of large dam projects upon women who bear many responsibilities for water provisioning without enjoying corresponding rights of access (Lahiri-Dutt, 2012).Civil protest against dam proposals has become predictable. The Pancheshwor Treaty of 1996 between Nepal and India proposing the construction of a high dam on the Mahakali River failed to proceed beyond the scoping stage due to the opposition of Nepali civil society: 'Embankments and large dams have become focal points for conflict between developers and environmentalists in many of the foothill areas' (Bandyopadhyay and Gyawali, 1994:16). As Moench points out:... water resources and their management are heavily affected by asymmetrical relations between India and Nepal and by the engineering dominated paradigm for hydropower and other water resource development that characterizes South Asian hydropolitics (Moench, 2010:981).Regional debate is currently polarised over whether high dams in Nepal could contribute to dry season irrigation, hydro-electric power generation and flood 'cushioning' in both North East India and North West Bangladesh.Traditional micro water harvesting techniques (ponds, tanks, pynes etc), referred to as Farmer Managed Irrigation Schemes (FMIS), have been put forward as a neglected alternative to the macro high dam focus (Koul et al, 2012). FMIS was once substantial in the EGP and Nepal's FMIS heritage is still evident: 'Presently, about 620,000 ha area in the country is served by the FMIS, which is 55% of the total irrigated lands contributing to 40% of the country's total food production ...' (Adhikari et al, 2009(Adhikari et al, :2819)).Part of the attraction FMIS hold for researchers is their flexible technical qualities. Adhikari et al (2009) study of three FMIS in the Terai found that the schemes followed natural depressions in the command area that were linked to the source river with excavated channels. Unlike conventional gravity irrigation systems where canals are aligned along high lands which disallow return flows, the FMIS carried both surface water runoff and return flows from upstream fields. This diverts as much discharge as possible to field channels while reducing discharge to primary channel. Such a technique has the advantage of preventing bed erosion, enhancing soil fertility and groundwater recharge by spreading the floodwater over rice fields. In terms of flood management, the strict FMIS rule on the Terai was to keep field channels fully open in rainy season and undertake prompt repair of division structures. It was noted that: 'The most striking aspect common to all systems is the consistent reduction in size from upstream to downstream of the natural drainage being used as a primary canal of the FMIS.' The authors urge recognition that local drainages have been captured, controlled and converted into canals in the Terai FMISs (Adhikari et al, 2009(Adhikari et al, : 2822(Adhikari et al, -2823)).Traditional surface irrigation schemes in the Terai are reported by Singh (2010)  The mode of assistance was debated; either support the bare minimum to relieve essential needs only and minimise sustainability and maintenance problems; or provide extensive engineering structures. A middle path was pursued between these two schools of thought as farmers demanded concrete canal linings.Because traditionally downstream users tap leakage from upstream diversion bunds, permanent diversion structures were avoided so as not to disturb the equilibrium of water usage and create water right conflicts among FMIS users. It was found that demand: '... in the Terai, it is mainly for diversion head works, cross drainage and other conveyance structures' (Singh, 2010:56-57).FMIS in Bihar, more common on the South Bihar plains, are called ahar-pynes, a traditional surface water irrigation system that is river fed via diversion works and artificial channels. The Bihari FMIS date back 3,000 years to the Iron Age. According to Koul et al (2012) there are century old pynes and pynes over a kilometre long may command 400 ha area, although they are typically smaller. This type of FMIS was used to irrigate 35% of the cropped area of south Bihar in the 1900-1920 period, but by 1997 this proportion had fallen to 12%. The authors attribute the past success of the ahar-pyne system to: its ability to achieve equitable water distribution despite fragmentation of holdings as farmers held head, middle and tail plots; it was cheap, requiring only collective effort to maintain; cropping was synchronised; and well organised intercaste water groups observed clear access rules.Ironically, the ahar-pyne system waned with the abolition of the Zamindar system which centralised authority in the landlord. This is because Zamindars had a vested interest in maintenance and development of irrigation sources. During India's first and second five year plans of the 1950s, South Bihar diversion schemes took advantage of the existing elaborate indigenous irrigation network for subsidiary storage and water distribution but this policy has since languished (Koul et al, 2012:270). Koul et al recommend the integration and conjunctive use of FMIS and AMIS: '... if these indigenous systems are properly integrated with the recent canal irrigation schemes, the sustainability of both types of irrigations systems will enhance manifold' (Koul et al, 2012:270).The revival of farmer self-governance traditions that FMIS represents is advocated by Maharjan et al (2011) in the context of climate change. Nepal signed the United Nations Framework on Climate Change in 1994 out of concern that temperature increases are occurring at a higher rate in Nepal than in the world. The authors argue that prevailing traditional knowledge, skills and experiences regarding climate variability and change produce indigenous innovations that should be documented and disseminated. To this end they document the adaptations made to increased drought and flooding by the subsistence oriented Tharu, well known as survivors of the Malaria outbreak on the Terai in the 1950s (Maharjan et al 2011: 35-36) and expert in traditional Terai FMIS (Singh, 2010).At the time of India's independence in 1947, tubewell (TW) irrigation was limited to large scale farmers able to afford the high capital investment. To make TW more affordable and accessible, Indian States, including West Bengal, invested in public Deep Tubewell (DTW) during the 1960s and 1970s. Buried pipe distribution networks were provided and water supply heavily subsidised (Shah et al, 2012:996). Fujita et al (2003) report on a village case study in Nadia District of West Bengal where two DTWs were completed in1964.The DTWs were operated directly by the State Government with three staff per DTW, while farmers paid a fixed highly subsidised charge on per acre basis. Following 35 years of this subsidy, the facility was approaching the end of its technical life at a time were budgetary pressures were beginning to bite. Consequently, the West Bengal government planned to charge farmers for overhauling the DTW at 16% interest as well as transfer operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. This policy is undermined by the fact it would cost the farmers the same as installing Shallow Tube Wells (STW) as individuals.Clay commented in his account of the Kosi region that it became indefensible to continue sinking large diameter public deep tube-wells since 1971 as there is no technical rationale where groundwater tables are high; as they are in the EGP. Like the engineered surface water schemes, command areas had disappointed.Deep tubewells had only attained a mean irrigated area of 23 acres against a technical capacity to command 75 acres. Siting of DTW had also proven open to political patronage and private gain. DTW development was de-emphasised in India's fourth and fifth year plans because the rapidly developing STW technology looked likely to be both more efficient and egalitarian (Clay, 1982:202-203).Deep tubewell development in the Terai was undertaken in the 1970s. Agency owned and operated DTW, built either by Nepal's Department of Irrigation (DOI) or external development agencies are scattered throughout the Terai. Water rates have not included O&M costs. However, the adoption of a policy of transferring O&M responsibility to Water User Groups (WUG) has met with as much reluctance on the part of farmers as it has in West Bengal. WUGs prefer electricity to diesel driven and battery operated engines provided by DOI as it is cheaper. Farmers restrict irrigation due to the cost of diesel (Ansari, 1994). Kansakar et al (2009:177) report from the Terai that electric pumps are five to six times cheaper to run than diesel.Ansari concludes in the Nepalese context that: 'The performance of agency-managed DTWs based on large projects is better than DTWs of small projects ... however; their recurrent cost recovery is so meagre that their sustainability is endangered ' (1994:170).The budgetary imposts placed on the EGP jurisdictions by both the upfront infrastructure investment and ongoing O&M costs of surface water and DTW schemes led to a policy emphasis on participatory irrigation management (PIM) as a corrective to the sharing of costs between the State and farmers. Participatory irrigation management (PIM), like FMIS, seeks to revive and harness farmer self-governance traditions but is oriented to cost-recovery.Ostrom and her colleagues note that the last 20 years of irrigation policy in South Asia has focused upon building self-governing capacities of farmers by setting up a Water Users Association (WUA) in order to transfer irrigation management to farmers. Participatory irrigation management (PIM), or irrigation management transfer (IMT) initiatives have become a component of many national and international projects. Being able to organise a WUA became a condition of international donors for farmers to receive resources (Ostrom, et al, 2011:13-14).India's commitment to PIM is promulgated through the National Water Policy. PIM involves WUAs taking over management, including O&M of minor canals and DTWs under the State Irrigation and Command Area Development Programs (Mazumdar, 2007:64). Essentially, whether it concerns a WUA in India or WUG in Nepal, joint management and cost sharing of state owned irrigation infrastructure is a strong water management policy trend in the EGP. How PIM is approached, however, varies widely, especially within the federated India:Various State governments in India have gone in either for a 'big bang' approach of uniform and simultaneous introduction of PIM throughout the State based upon and preceded by legislation (the leading example being Andhra Pradesh), or have gone in for some sort of a 'bottom-up' slow and steady approach (starting with pilot projects) for motivating and facilitating the creation of WUAs wherever the farmers agree to voluntarily come together and form a WUA to gradually take over some functions of their local irrigation systems (Mazumdar, 2007:65).Such variability in how PIM is implemented makes it difficult to unpick the elements contributing to success or failure. However, much of the literature views PIM as unsuccessful (see for e.g. Mukherji, 2007:6414). Rigid insistence on WUA encouraged facades of rules-in-form that farmers were often unaware of in Nepal (Ostrom, et al, 2011:13-14). Mukherji and her co-authors discuss an IWMI review of 108 cases of PIM in South Asia that found a 40% success rate, indicating that the context-specific and process intensive conditions involved in PIM are difficult and costly to replicate. The authors argue that such mixed results relate to conceptual weakness of PIM model itself, namely:1. The assumption that community managed irrigation systems are analogous to public irrigation systems such that farmers could manage them as well as they have managed community irrigations systems for centuries;2. The assumption that irrigators within a command area are homogenous group, even head and tail farmers face different incentives;3. There is no incentive on the part of irrigation bureaucracies because the same officials that lacked accountability towards farmers were entrusted with managing PIM (Mukherji et al, 2012:437-438).Ultimately, as Ostrom and her colleagues note, mixed PIM results are due to the guessing game nature of designing new divisions of power and responsibility. The authors conclude that: 'If there was one lesson that decades of efforts to 'develop' local institutions had to offer, it would be that institutions cannot be imposed or transplanted easily as if they are physical capital.' (Ostrom, et al, 2011:13).Up until the 1970s TW irrigation was regarded as complementary to surface irrigation. By the 1990s, individually owned STWs were substituting for surface irrigation. This trend has further weakened the performance pressure on canal system managers and slowed the progress of PIM (Shah et al, 2012:998).The area irrigated by groundwater wells now is far in excess of the area served by public canal systems and the small-scale community tanks that dominated irrigation for millennia (Shah et al, 2012:995).The disappointing performance of AMIS and DTW schemes was followed by 30 years of rapid growth of a 'booming but anarchic economy' of STW development. Development has been strongest in India's northwestern Green Revolution states (e.g. Punjab) and north-west Bangladesh (Mukherji, et al, 2005:53). STW development has been significantly slower in West Bengal compared to the western Green Revolution states of India. Uptake of STW in groundwater rich Bihar and the Terai is surprisingly poor. These variations form a major puzzle facing the project of increasing the intensity of foodgrain production in the EGP beyond north-western Bangladesh.The success of STW can safely be attributed to their inherent relative advantages. STW irrigation makes water available on demand at the point of use, encourages economic use and complementary investment in agricultural inputs. For these reasons: '... of the agricultural productivity of a representative hectare, the portion contributed by groundwater irrigation is almost 35% more than that contributed by surface water irrigation ...' (Mukherji and Shah, 2005:55). There has been much research attention focused on the development of local water markets as a consequence of STW adoption. The equity effects of these water markets have generated researcher interest: '... access to GW irrigation is less skewed against the small and marginal farmers when compared to access to land' (Mukherji and Shah, 2005:63). In contrast, there is no evidence presented in the literature reviewed of surface water trading (Mukherji, 2008).Ironically, STWs were originally developed in Bihar in response to fear of ceilings on land holdings being implemented and the disappointing performance of the Kosi scheme. Widespread experimentation by Bihari zamindars aiming to reduce the cost of their irrigation investment on fragmented holdings cut the cost of tubewells from Indian Rupees 4-6000 to less than Indian Rupees 200 for a 4 inch bore. Many zamindars possessed large consolidated upland plots out of canal command but suited for irrigated winter vegetables crops which provided high returns. However, the relatively equitable distribution of STWs in the 1980s indicated that large-scale farmers failed to completely monopolise their benefits (Clay, 1982:200-202).Such equity can be attributed to the Special Deputy Director of Agriculture in Bihar's Saharsa District who used the resources yielded by the Intensive Agricultural Areas (IAAP) and High Yielding Varieties (HYVP) Programs to promote STW in face of initial opposition from engineers and credit agencies. The Deputy Director adjusted centrally funded credit programs to permit STW owners to purchase pump-sets on credit.In the drought year of 1972-1973 credit was extended to small farmers on a large scale. Clay argues that a regionally minded professional cadre and administrative structure ceding the authority to administrators to modify programs in the light of local experience were crucial factors in this innovation platform (Clay, 1982:200-204). North eastern Bihar went from having no STWs to boasting 1,500 STW by mid-1971, and to 19,000 STW 18 months later. The purchase of indivisible equipment was associated with the establishment of markets in pump-set services to those unable to afford STW ownership. The scale of water markets was indicated by the tubewell to pump-set ratio and the number of wells sunk on comparatively smaller plots (Clay, 1982:200-202).Unfortunately, such progress in Bihar flowing from investments associated with the Kosi scheme reversed under the corrupt 1990-2005 Yadav administration (see Chapter 3.2.2).In Nepal, the Royal Government assigned the Asian Development Bank of Nepal (ADBN) the job of promoting STW irrigation, which tasked International Development Enterprises (IDE) in the early 1990s. IDE had been running cheap drip irrigation programs for smallholders in collaboration with community based organisations and had begun promoting manual treadle pumps since 1992 (Upadhyay, 2006:69). Despite a 30-85%, subsidy of STW installation by the ADBN, STW installation in the Terai has been the slowest in the EGP. Subsidies failed to benefit the numerically dominant operators owning less than the 0.68 ha of land required for collateral for an individually owned STW. A new rule was attempted that a group with a contiguous area of 4 ha could qualify for a group owned STW. This criterion was reduced to 3.5 and then 2.5 ha and these agency organised groups reportedly collapsed within a few years of project completion (Kansakar et al, 2009). Experience on the Terai suggests that minimum levels of land ownership and access to institutional credit are necessary for individual farmer investment in STW to be viable. Group investment suffers from the same problems as FMIS revival and PIM.The most dramatic driver of STW growth rates across both the western and eastern Gangetic Plains is the political economic nexus between groundwater irrigation and energy markets (Mukherji, 2007). Uptake of STW did not accelerate in India until the mid-1960s. Following three years of successive droughts from 1964 to 1966 and Indian dependence on US food aid, food security became paramount. State investment to kick-start the Green Revolution in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh entailed provision of a subsidised electricity network that reduced tariffs after a specified minimum use (Shah et al, 2012(Shah et al, : 1997)). Electric pumps are significantly cheaper to run than diesel pumps so electricity subsidisation opened smallholder access to irrigation waters.Diesel remained heavily subsidised until the late 1990s when structural adjustment placed downward pressure on subsidies. The subsequent increase in the price of diesel in the EGP jurisdictions encouraged some farmers to shift to high value crops but many more to give up irrigated agriculture altogether according to Shah et al (2012Shah et al ( :1000)). Mukherji (2007) argues that under flat rate electricity pricing the marginal cost of water extraction is effectively zero which motivates water selling (the development of local water markets) due to the fact that self-use of water is not the optimum justification for the electricity bill. In her earlier papers Mukherji concludes that electric pumps support more highly developed groundwater markets (breadth as irrigation/ha and depth as household income from transactions) than diesel pumps and that metering electricity may hinder water sales (Mukherji, 2007).However, lack of electricity metering in the India's western and southern states rapidly escalated costs for State Electricity Boards (SEBs) which held a monopoly over generation, transmission, and distribution. Their transaction costs (installing and reading meters, billing farmers and collecting charges) expanded. Moral hazards also grew and the cost of controlling meter tampering, under-reporting and under-billing escalated as rural connections were widely dispersed. SEB ground staff were also inclined to collude with farmers. The financial viability of SEBs was destroyed as consistent annual losses limited the ability to invest in and maintain the network. Increasingly frequent power shortages began to affect industrial and service sectors and power tariffs to non-farm consumers were increased to compensate. As the quality of supply degraded, pump repair and maintenance costs increased for farmers. Although SEBs tried dropping to one and two phase supply, farmers responded by using phase converters or difficult to inspect submerged pumps. An expert committee appointed by Reserve Bank of India found transaction costs constituted a third of total SEB costs (Shah et al, 2012: 997-999).Intertwined budgetary pressure and moral hazards have meant that rural electrification has been an extremely volatile process in India. Rural vote banks protective of subsidised electricity supply developed in India's western and southern states making it politically difficult to implement more realistic pricing policies. Bihar abandoned the project of rural electrification altogether:First, electric and diesel pumps have been more or less equally distributed with the exception of 1991-1992 when electric pumps outnumbered diesel pumps by a million and more. Indeed, this reflects the impact of various state governments' concerted efforts for rural electrification in the 1980s, which later lost steam in the 1990s after economic liberalisation and increasing pressure on state exchequers. As a result, in many parts of India, especially eastern India, a progressive rural 'de-electrification' has taken place. This means that due to lack of repair and maintenance, those villages (and pumps) that were electrified in the 1970s and 1980s, became de-electrified by the 1990s ... Second, eastern Indian states of West Bengal and Bihar have witnessed the largest percentage increase in number of pumps, with West Bengal recording over 1,100% increase in electric pumps and Bihar an increase of 625% in diesel pumps. In Bihar, however the number of electric pumps declined between 1976-1977 and 1991-1992 supporting the argument that there has been 'rural de-electrification' in Bihar (Mukherji, 2008(Mukherji, : 1803(Mukherji, -1804)).West Bengal metered all STWs and charges farmers at near commercial rates, but provide good quality power supply around the clock. No subsidy is used and a consumer surplus is generated. This is the textbook economic solution advocated by power industry professionals and international funders. However, the political economy of the energy-irrigation nexus means such a solution is unlikely to be accepted in most of India due to the development of powerful vote banks based on access to cheap electricity. West Bengal could implement this solution as: it confronted a small number of electric pumps; already had an unusually high flat tariff; farmers liked the way metering eased cost recovery from water buyers; groundwater levels remain high enough for shallow tapping; and diesel pumps remain a viable alternative in any case (Shah et al, 2012(Shah et al, :1002)). Mukherji notes high levels of innovation (economising) in response to West Bengal's energy pricing policies:In response to escalation in diesel prices, farmers have been resorting to various innovations for cutting their total irrigation costs. For instance, traditional large 5-horsepower diesel pumps are now seldom used. Instead, farmers use lightweight pumps (that go by the generic name of Honda pumps) or Chinese pumps smuggled from across the Bangladeshi border. Both these types of pumps consume only 0.3-0.5 l of diesel per hour and, alternatively, may be operated with kerosene. Traditional diesel pumps consume 0.8-1 l diesel in an hour (Mukherji, 2007:6426).Reliance on diesel in Nepal and Bihar explains their less intensive use of groundwater. As Mukherji states, there is a: '...clear but paradoxical east-west energy-divide in India, with the water abundant Eastern states saddled with diesel pumps, while water-scarce western and southern India are well endowed with electric pumps ... ' (2008:1084).The environmental costs of excessive pumping in India's WGP states became clear in early 1990s. Farmers have responded with competitive well deepening, a vicious cycle aggravated by changed farmer attitudes to surface water management (Shah et al, 2012:998). Although the West Bengal policy of metering electricity is motivated by the fear of replicating this problem of groundwater depletion, Mukherji argues this fear is unfounded. She reasoned that there had been continuous extraction for over 30 years in West Bengal and groundwater remained within 6 m of the surface with a 9 cm decline in pre-monsoon season which would afford another 32 years of extraction at current rates. She did note, however, that 12 out of 38 villages involved in her field research showed a falling groundwater trend (2007:6423).As Mukherji points out, the use of groundwater for irrigation has the positive externality of lowering the groundwater table and can reduce water logging and flooding (2007:6421). However, there are no reports in the literature of groundwater harvesting development being designed to maximise this advantage in EGP. Mukerjhi and Shah do mention that Pakistan's Deep Tube Well (DTW) scheme, embarked upon in the early 1960s, was primarily designed to combat water logging (2005:62), so this strategy has been tried in the WGP.Increasing agricultural production in the EGP is reliant upon dry season irrigation. There is currently insufficient irrigation, particularly in the Terai and Bihar. Climate change is expected to lower dry season flows while increasing catastrophic flooding events making a more regional style of cooperation and coordination between the EGP jurisdictions pressing. Cross-border cooperation is currently restricted to bilateral treaties between the economically dominant India with Nepal and Bangladesh respectively. Equitable sharing of water flows during the dry season has remained a contentious issue since the three nations emerged.Engineered structures such as India's Kosi Barrage, located on Nepal's Terai, and the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal that 'divides' water between India and Bangladesh have controversial downstream impacts. Improved operation and management of the Farakka and Kosi barrages to reduce water logging and flooding would assist food production and security at the household level, particularly in flood prone Bihar.Researchers also recommend moving from an engineered approach to flood control to flood management by using softer systems such as community based upstream-downstream flood forecasting to move information rapidly across borders.As the modern engineered surface water schemes have proved to yield disappointing command areas, rehabilitation of traditional surface water Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems to achieve dry season irrigation has become popular with researchers and donors. However attempts to revive the tradition of self-governance so as to transfer operation and maintenance costs for deep tube wells and tertiary canals to farmer groups in the Terai and West Bengal have proved patchy. One reason for farmer resistance to these attempts at 'participatory irrigation management' is the relative advantage of investing in shallow tube well bores and pumps to tap groundwater on an individual basis.STW irrigation makes water available on demand at the point of use and encourages complementary investments in agricultural inputs. Local water markets have developed as owners seek to recover their costs, a development which has made groundwater more accessible to small and marginal farmers than land. The shallow tubewell (STW) economy has grown rapidly across South Asia over the past thirty years. Within the EGP, growth has been strongest in Northwest Bangladesh, significantly slower in West Bengal, and surprisingly poor in groundwater rich Bihar and Terai.Electricity is a cheaper pump fuel than diesel and rural electricity provision in Bihar and Terai is poor. Reliance on diesel in Nepal and Bihar explains their less intensive use of groundwater. There is a: '...clear but paradoxical east-west energy-divide in India, with the water abundant Eastern states saddled with diesel pumps, while water-scarce western and southern India are well endowed with electric pumps ...' (Mukherji, 2008(Mukherji, :1084)). 6 General Socio-economic setting: who and where are the food insecureThe material reviewed so far in this document indicates that technical solutions, while necessary, are insufficient to increase food security at the household level. They may well be adequate to meet national food sufficiency, but this in itself does not guarantee that the situation of the food insecure will improve. It is important to consider who and where the food insecure are in directly or indirectly benefit from intensification of foodgrain production.6.1 India The material reviewed so far in this document indicates that technical solutions, while necessary, are ood security at the household level. They may well be adequate to meet national food sufficiency, but this in itself does not guarantee that the situation of the food insecure will improve. It is important to consider who and where the food insecure are in the EGP so as to assess their capacity to directly or indirectly benefit from intensification of foodgrain production. (Erenstein and Thorpe, 2011;Erenstein et al., 2010) have conducted a west Gangetic Plains, sampling a grid of 72 villages to ascertain the region's agro ecological gradient (2010 and 2011). Their examination of the livelihood assets for the states of Bihar and found that compared to the WGP, they had the highest population density (795 people/km highest ratio of people below the poverty line (39.3%), lowest female literacy rate (31%), lowest immunization rate (29%), lowest percentage of villages with cooperative societies (30%), lowest percentage help groups (15%) and lowest percentage of scheduled castes/tribes (17%). Farm mechanisation is very low (2 tractors/cultivators per 100 households), the average distance to the nearest town is high (16 km) and the percentage of villages with paved road access is low (46%). Furthermore, the percentage of electricity supply is very low at 23% (Erenstein and Thorpe, 2011;Erenstein et al., 2010).a relatively high share of indebted households (5.4% and 8.0%, respectively) with over 23 thousand in Bihar and 34 thousand in West Bengal (Figure 29).Mid Gangetic Plains' (MGP), stating that the MGP is largely composed of the state of Bihar. their term 'Lower Gangetic Plains' refers to West Bengal. 150,000 300,000 450,000The material reviewed so far in this document indicates that technical solutions, while necessary, are ood security at the household level. They may well be adequate to meet national food sufficiency, but this in itself does not guarantee that the situation of the food insecure will improve. It the EGP so as to assess their capacity to have conducted a west-Gangetic Plains, sampling a grid of 72 villages to ascertain the region's agroecological gradient (2010 and 2011). Their examination of the livelihood assets for the states of Bihar and t population density (795 people/km 2 ), highest ratio of people below the poverty line (39.3%), lowest female literacy rate (31%), lowest immunization rate (29%), lowest percentage of villages with cooperative societies (30%), lowest percentage help groups (15%) and lowest percentage of scheduled castes/tribes (17%). Farm mechanisation is very low (2 tractors/cultivators per 100 households), the average distance to the nearest ed road access is low (46%). Furthermore, the percentage of electricity supply is very low at 23% (Erenstein and Thorpe, 2011;Erenstein et al., 2010).a relatively high share of indebted households (5.4% and 8.0%, respectively) in MGP is largely composed of the state of Bihar. SimilarlyBihar's population is around 100 million following its bifurcation into the states of Bihar and Jarkhand in 2000. Population density is 880 people per km 2 against the all-India average of 324 people per km 2 (UNWFP, 2009:10). Most industrial and urban centres, forest areas and mining resources (and their taxes, revenue, royalties and excise duties) went to Jharkhand. Bihar retained 54% of the land area and 75% of the population. The tribal population, characteristic of the upland forested regions, is now in Jharkhand rather than Bihar. Rural poverty in Bihar is highest for Scheduled Castes (64.2%) and for Other Backward Castes (38.5%) making poverty disproportionately distributed among OBCS and SCs (UNWFP, 2009:14). A large proportion of these are likely to be Dalits (untouchables) (UNWFP, 2009:115).Nearly half (42%) of the population of Bihar live below the poverty line. About 90% of the total population is rural and 77% of total labour force is engaged in agriculture for livelihoods (Kumar et al. 2012)  International 2007). Furthermore, farmers are unable to achieve the minimum support price and lack onfarm storage so are unable to achieve better prices. Consequently, cropping intensity is 135-176%, on average (160.8%), or using Simpson's Index of Diversification was 0.18. There is a relatively high proportion of horticulture crops. Unsurprisingly, given the poor administration under the Yadav governments, there was a reduction in crop diversification from 1999/2000 to 2006/07. Livestock ownership levels are quite high with the share households owning livestock 31.3%, mostly cattle (52%).The average monthly income for households was highest for crop cultivation (836 Rs/month), compared to dairy farming (122 Rs/month), casual wage labourers (212 Rs/month), wage earners (347 Rs/month), and non-farm business (185 Rs/month) (Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy). The overall average household income of 1810 Rs/month is less than the average for the rest of India (2115 Rs/month).There is a long history (> 100 years) of out-migration in Bihar (De Haan 2002) which is usually undertaken by single men. Migration is of a circular nature; close links are maintained with the areas of origin and invest their savings in the village rather than the town. The high population density in Bihar is considered one of the key factors. Although the poor have a higher propensity to migrate, they are less able to afford to migrate. They lack the necessary material means to invest in leaving. Personal contacts are essential for successful migration. Migration and remittances have contributed to the socio-economic structure of the area (De Haan 2002). There is a relatively slow growing economy, a large number of small landholdings, which are viable because of income from other activities and a large proletariat which find work locally or elsewhere. However, merely having a migrant in the family does not guarantee improvements in agriculture (Deshingkar 2012).The United Nations World Food Program ( 2009) have mapped Bihar's food security on a district basis (Figure 30) which indicates a concentration of poverty in the the north-western districts. This research team comment on the continued relevance of agrarian reform in Bihar, suggesting it is crucial to improve food security for the landless -often Dalits:The objective of distributing land to the landless is not one of creating 'viable' farms, but of enabling a reduction of food insecurity among the currently landless. In the current scenario where there is a lot of migration from the countryside, there could be scope for a market-mediated land reform programme ... The abolition of intermediary tenures is not any more an issue. What is important is: a) security of tenancy; b) redistribution of ceiling surplus land to the landless; and c) land rights of women. The last two are directly important for food security. One can also include the reduction of land ceilings in order to restrict ownership to the size of a family farm (United Nations World Food Program 2009:115).Source: United Nations World Food Program (2009)West Bengal has a population of 80 million, two thirds of whom live in rural areas, one half of these own and farm arable land while the other half are employed in agricultural and non-agricultural labour markets (Bardhan and Mookherjee, 2011:189). West Bengal houses Kolkata, one of the largest metropolitan regions of the world, while the Ganga River has contributed to some of the most fertile regions in the world. Land redistribution and reforms to land tenancy arrangements, the latter protecting sharecroppers from eviction, have had positive impacts on agricultural productivity in West Bengal (Bardhan & Mookherjee, 2011). Operation Barga in West Bengal provided tenure security to sharecroppers which promoted investment and facilitated access to credit. West Bengal, with only 2.4% of India's land mass produces 9%of total foodgrains making it India's third largest foodgrain producer after Uttar Pradesh and Punjab (Ghosh, 2009: 665-666).Despite the high land fertility and successful reforms, there are serious food production issues. Currently stagnant yield levels are of concern as there is no scope for extensification due to the density of the population. Pure tenant cultivators remain disadvantaged in that only 6.4% farmers own 34% of arable land (Laha and Kuri, 2010: 438). Poverty is unevenly distributed spatially: 'Districts like Mushidabad, Maldah, Bankura, Purulia, Cooch Behar and Dinajpur are the least developed'. This pattern that reflects the concentration of poverty in northern and western districts (bordering Bihar and Bangladesh) and concentration of wealth in the southern districts closer to Kolkata (Ghosh, 2009: 665-666).West Bengal's development contracted in the 1990s under economic liberalist policy settings. West Bengal's institutional credit increased from 1980-1981 to 1989-1990. Following structural adjustment pressure causing a dramatic reduction in the number of rural bank branches, there was a decrease in the annual growth rate of both agricultural credit and agricultural production from 1990-1991 to 1999-2000 (Chatterjee, 2008-09: 303). Since then, evidence indicates that that rural micro-financing is mainly provided through self-organised self help groups (SHG). A SHG is an economically homogenous affinity group that collectively saves and accesses credit as per group members' decisions. SHGs have proliferated in recent years. The West Bengal Government is relying on this system as an inexpensive poverty alleviation and health promotion strategy (Das, 2010:180-181) In West Bengal, 70% of the population is involved in agriculture, with 63% of the area of the state as arable land for agriculture. As in Bihar, the majority of farmers are marginal (40% hold ~0.4 ha of land) or small (30% farm 1.2-1.3 ha). The remainder of farmers are medium (25-30% farm 2.4 ha) and are large (0-5% farm 5.6 ha As for Bihar, women headed households in West Bengal grow rice for their own consumption, and sometimes a second rice crop for cash (Lahiri-Dutt 2012). The major cash crops are jute, lentils and tobacco.Bangladesh's rapid population growth has meant that one-quarter of the Bangladeshi population remains chronically underfed because they are largely without assets other than labour. Official estimates of 1988-1989 indicated that about 30 million people lived in extreme poverty (Goletti, 1994:2). Two-thirds of deaths among children younger than five years are malnutrition related. The most vulnerable households, headed by women, day-labourers, fishermen and boat pullers, are 87% rural; and concentrated in flood prone areas such as river banks and urban slums. On an intra-household basis, pregnant women and preschool children are worse off (Ahmed, 2000:213-215).Food security remains a challenge with the share of non-producers who are net foodgrain purchasers growing due to twin phenomena of non-farm incomes and urbanisation (Chowdhury and Haggblade, 2000:73-7. Religious fundamentalism prevents effective family planning programs while the current 1.26% population growth means Bangladesh is growing at the rate of two million per year. A population of 233 million is expected to be reached by 2050 (Mondal, 2010:236-237).By 2000, Bangladesh had eliminated the food gap of 454 grams/person/day of net production of domestic rice and wheat and reduced its dependence on food aid imports (largely wheat) (Dorosh and Rashid, 2012).Bangladesh is now the sixth largest rice producer in the world. Despite food production meeting national food requirements, approximately 40% of Bangladesh's population lacks resources to enable a diet of 2,122 kilocalories per day plus basic necessities which the government considers the food poverty line. Rice dominates the Bangladesh food basket which has nutritive implications. Government promotion of diversification towards other crops as well as livestock, milk and fish has not been satisfactory in meeting demand (Huq and Arshad, 2010).According to Mondal (2010), agricultural productivity suffers due to the loss of arable land. Between 1983 and 1986 one million hectares was lost to river erosion as well as land conversion for urbanisation, settlement and infrastructure provision. Statistically speaking, however, the one million hectares of char (coastal) and khas lands owned by influentials in political parties and administration is available and could be released for agricultural uses.Another barrier to increased agricultural production is access to suitable credit. Although the landless receive NGO micro-credit, the terms of institutional credit neglect the 90% of landholders owning less than 2.5 acres. Only 27% of farmers receive (inadequate and late) institutional credit. Mondal also points out that farmer associations or cooperatives would assist price bargaining so that individuals are not forced to sell to intermediaries and such a measure could increase smallholders' ability to meet procurement requirements (e.g. 14% moisture content, absence of foreign materials) in order to benefit from the government's fixed price. Finally, Mondal claims the National Agricultural Research system under-functions. Only 2% of GDP is devoted to agricultural research and development. This level of investment is inadequate given that agriculture contributes 19.1% to GDP and employs 50% of the Bangladeshi labour force (Mondal, 2010:236 -239).Nepal was food secure until the early 1970s, when it produced a surplus sufficient to export Terai produce, however, by 1980 under conditions of drought Nepal began receiving food aid and spending on food imports increased sharply between 1993 and 1999 (Pyakuryal et al, 2010:93-94). A food security gradient is evident with labourers, sharecroppers and marginal landholders in the Terai's more arid west worse off: 'To cope with drier and less productive land, the farmers in the western districts have built up large livestock bases'. However, the lack of infrastructure makes it difficult to market livestock, landholdings are more fragmented, the climate is drier with winter dominant rainfall and the productivity of land is lower (Tiwary, 2005:133-134).Irrigation plays an important role particularly in the dry season, or boro, crops in the Terai of Nepal. The Terai of Nepal are characterised by abundant groundwater with an alluvial aquifer, and is also considered as being under-utilised (< 10% of irrigated area) (Shah et al. 2006). STW had a positive effect on the effect of cropping intensity, rice productivity, farm income and employment (Bhandari 2001), however, this is skewed towards larger farmers.Up to 60% of households in the Terai have insufficient food to feed the household (Figure 31). In order to cope with the insufficiency, the majority of households seek additional income within the District (68%), followed by income from outside Nepal (13%), borrowing (11%), income within Nepal but outside the district (9%) and others (8%) (Figure 32). Rural Nepalese continue to labour under various degrees of peasant subordination. Apart from smallholders and sharecroppers, peasants also pay fixed cash rent, fixed product rent, rent in the form of a mortgage, or rent in the form of service. Smallholders are the least dependent on patrons but can be compelled to turn to landlords for production credit and emergency loans. Fixed rent in cash or product means the farming household can choose which crops to plant but take full responsibility for production. This form of tenure does provide incentive to maximise output but the farmer assumes all production risks without insurance. Tenancy agreements are verbal; the farmer can be evicted. Rent for service refers to bonded labour, the now ex-Kamayia who have historically been the most subordinate social group.The more landless households there are, the more landlords can extract from sharecroppers and tenants (Joshi and Mason, 2011: 159-161). Sharecroppers give up 50% of their produce and are not free to vote sincerely. According to Joshi and Mason, landlords often organise feasts the day before an election, offering alcohol and a day off. Thus, landlords both deliver voter blocs and contest seats (Joshi and Mason, 2011: 160-161). Tiwary (2005) defines marginal farmer households as owning less than 0.5 ha; however, a typical marginal farmer is described as only owning 0.21 ha. Those without land: 'The sharecroppers and agricultural labourers are concentrated on the Terai, and fare worst in terms of food security status'. Nationally: the mountain region contains 45% marginal, labourer and sharecropper households; the hills hold 35% marginal farming households; and the Terai houses 48% of Nepal's marginal and labourer households even though the average size of Terai landholdings is 1.23 ha (Tiwary, 2005:131-132).Lack of food cannot be directly attributed to malnourishment however, as Osei et al (2010) 2009 study in the far-western Terai Kailali District demonstrates:Food insecurity was common in households with children 6 to 23 months of age in Kailali District of Nepal. The rates of stunting, underweight, wasting, and anaemia were also high. However, there was no significant association between household food insecurity and malnutrition among children. Therefore, not just access to food, but an integrated approach that improves the overall socioeconomic well-being of families, maternal education, and knowledge of optimal nutrition practices, together with adequate maternal nutrition, is needed to address malnutrition among young children (Osei et al, 2010:483).The Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service (ESAF) undertook vulnerable group profiling work in Nepal in 2004 and found that marginal farm households in Nepal's hills and the Terai, followed by the rural service castes and agricultural labourer households in the Terai formed the largest vulnerable groups in terms of food insecurity (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004: 11-12) Nearly half (48%) of the Terai's population is viewed as vulnerable -include the tribal Chepang, hill and mountain migrants, and farm households (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004:22). Within these socio-economic groupings, women, children but especially girls, and the lower caste groups suffered the worst food insecurity. For women and girls, this reflects rigid socio-cultural norms and practices such as being the last to eat and receiving leftovers. Where caste practises are more apparent on the Terai with gender inequity higher in the west, gender equity in Tibetan communities is higher as lower castes and ethnic groups are less conservative towards women. Nationally, child malnutrition rates have remained the same for 20 years with 50% of children under the age of five stunted and 10% wasted (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004: 11-12;Tiwary, 2005:138-139).The tribal Chepang originate from the isolated regions and migrated from hill and mountain districts adjacent to the Terai, such as Chitawan Hill District. They traditionally practised shifting cultivation under a common property system. They have recently moved (illegally) to settled agriculture in the Terai and live without legal title on marginal lands at the edge of recently cleared forests. They produce enough food for five months and cover the balance with hunting and gathering, selling goats, baskets and non-timber products, and by seasonal migration to India (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004: 23-25). Tiwary puts their numbers at 15,000 households (2005:135).Agricultural labourer households form 18.5% of the Terai population and work on short-term contracts for larger landowners. Most labourers are of low caste and possess little or no land holdings. (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004: 25-26). This category includes the formerly bonded labourers the ex-Kamaiya -originally of the indigenous Tharu community. The Kamaiya were concentrated in the far western districts and to a lesser extent in adjacent districts. Bondage was a function of owing money to landlords when unable to leave until the debt was repaid. Thus the Kamaiya were kept in debt for years if not life and could be sold as excess to other employers. The entire household lived on a property leased from a landlord and all worked; the children as herders and women as maids. They were freed by the government in mid-2000 which enhanced the Kamaiya's social status while their economic wellbeing deteriorated (Tiwary, 2005:135-137). The ex-Kamaiya are among the poorest of labourer households and are extremely food insecure. Some have been able to access food-for-work programs, others work on a daily rate as bricklayers or rickshaw pullers, and growing numbers are electing to migrate. They are either landless or possess small plots and few own animals being more likely to share-raise livestock with a landlord (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004: 25-26).Specialised labourers are from all castes and ethnic backgrounds but the majority are low caste and prejudices persist. Specialised labourers engaged in activities such as ploughing and care of cattle receive better wages and working conditions as they are able to change employer at the end of their contract (if not indebted). However they have difficulty covering their food needs in the non-agricultural period and often resort to borrowing grain from their landlords.Rural service caste based occupations (singers and entertainers, shoemakers, leather workers, metal workers and tailors) have unregistered tiny plots of poor quality uplands capable of producing food for one to two months. Those remaining within caste-defined occupations suffer discrimination as they sit at the bottom of caste hierarchy. Consequently, only 6% have remained within their tradition with most now working as agricultural and non-farm labourers, for e.g. as porters and non-farm labouring. Entertainers are the most insecure as demand for their services have been undermined by the globalisation of communication. Leather workers, traditionally responsible for disposal of animal carcasses, face competition from factory produced goods and have been reduced to the less profitable repair of existing products. Of the metalworkers, goldsmiths do better. Tailors, although lowest in the Dalit hierarchy, earn higher incomes and around 45% remain within their traditional occupation (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004: 2-29). Tiwary has commented that the undermining of Nepal's traditional occupations by cheaper Indian goods means a more equitable economic relationship with India is urgently needed than is provided for by the 1950 treaty which opened Nepal to Indian goods but: 'provides no formal platform to articulate Nepal's needs' (Tiwary, 2005:145).Social capital is stronger among the poorest groups. The Kamaiyas, for example, elect a leader and hold public assemblies (khel) to mobilise labour for employment, community work, religious activities, and to resolve conflicts. As noted by Tiwary:... intra-and intercommunity relationships are put to important use by poor farmers to secure livelihoods and ease food stress periods. The household members take turns looking after community livestock ... help finding jobs in informal economy sectors (portering, petty trading, etc.). Landless sharecroppers and agricultural labourers help each other with labour loans called, 'aichopaicho', and during stress periods, the households exchange credits, in cash or kind. Exchange of gifts between households during times of food scarcity is also common (2005:138).Population pressure in the face of limited land resources is the main driver of household food insecurity in the EGP. Landless households suffer the worst food insecurity and landlessness typically correlates with the Indian Scheduled Caste, Backward Caste and Other Backward Caste designations, which have constitutional status. The Scheduled Caste of Dalits (untouchables), for example, are predictably landless, disempowered and impoverished. Thus, food insecurity is entangled with caste and tribal identities and their relative socioeconomic status within Hindu caste hierarchy. To the extent that low status, identity-based groups cluster in particular districts and villages, the spatial arrangement of food insecurity will be predictable.The West Bengal experience indicates that land redistribution is an incomplete solution to this problem. Land is tightly held, and highly fragmented, across the EGP, having deep cultural resonance further to its economic utility. It is possible that the political limits to such reform have already been reached. Improving the security of tenants through registration and improving the terms of sharecropping seem more promising avenues for households with no land or insufficient land to meet their subsistence needs.The agrarian transition, that is, reduced importance of agricultural sector relative to industrial and service sectors, is least advanced in the Terai followed by Bihar. Apart from the high number of food insecure households on the Terai, there is also more fragmentation among households along ethnic-caste lines. However, there is also more social capital within these traditional affinity groupings that is used to ease food insecurity within groups. The agrarian transition is most advanced in Bangladesh followed by West Bengal; as indicated by their higher access to alternative and urban or overseas employment. The dynamics of transitioning turn on how feudal rural power relationships are. Specifically, the more landless households there are, the more landlords can extract from agricultural labourers, sharecroppers and tenants. Downward pressure on agricultural wages will then prevail. Where households with insufficient land to subsist can access alternative (urban or overseas) employment, upward pressure is placed on agricultural wages. Access to non-agricultural income, however, is spatially variable which is why West Bengal's poverty decreases towards Kolkata -a major unskilled labour market.Access to credit is another key variable and this has suffered across the EGP under economic liberalisation since the 1990s. However, West Bengal has demonstrated the SHGs can be an effective way to increase institutional credit provision to the impoverished.Food insecurity is culturally and socio-economically stratified within and between the EGP jurisdictions. The intensification of foodgrain production through purely technical interventions has historically been prone to elite capture and is unlikely to assist food insecure households and groups. Households reliant on agricultural labour for income lack the ready means to participate in and benefit from such intensification.Either an exit from rural labour markets altogether or opportunities to participate in a more inclusive rural economy without needing substantial land-ownership will be necessary. Whether more inclusive rural economies could be encouraged with innovation platforms around improved marketing, input provision, value-adding and small scale mechanisation and its servicing arising from dry season irrigated crops is highly researchable.7 Key drivers of labour availability -migration, remittances and NREGA 7.1 NREGA India's rural work for food programs culminated in the 2005 National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) which targets below poverty line households, especially those categories constitutionally defined as underprivileged, namely, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. NREGA is demand driven, treating employment as a right (Sarkar et al, 2011:438), and has covered all of rural India since 2008. It is '[u]ndoubtedly ... the largest ever public employment programme visualised in human history' (Bauri, 2010:169). Successful implementation of NREGA in all states is an important plank of India's eleventh (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) Plan which emphasises faster, more inclusive economic growth (Sarkar et al, 2011:438).Evaluations of NREGA's implementation to date reveal mixed results. For example, a common finding is that works built in the dry season do not endure past the following monsoon (Bauri, 2010).Biswas' ( 2012) study of NREGA's operation in Jalpaiguri District of West Bengal found that NREGA had increased the participation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. However, women's participation was highest at 40-47%, while the percentage of Scheduled Tribe employment was the lowest. NREGA fund utilisation ranged from 64% to 85%. Biswas noted a dramatic increase in the number of households receiving the full entitlement of 100 days employment from a mere 123 households in the 2006-2007 financial year, to 8,528 households in 2009-2010. However the average number of days of NREGA employment was only 26 days (Biswas, 2012:97-99). Sarkar et al (2011:438) concur that the rapid increase in the number of households participating indicates that substantial income is being provided. These authors found that: 'Education of children was given prime importance by the beneficiaries'. NREGA wages were devoted to consumption (food, child education, house reconstruction, health and sanitation, debt repayment and saving for times of need) rather than productive assets (2011:446). Of their survey of 102 respondents in the best performing district of West Bengal, 63% reported wage payment delay as their prime concern; followed by the non-availability of regular work by 34%, political disturbances associated with NREGA works by 26% and lack of provision for the aged by 21% (2011:447).Singh's study of the NREP poverty alleviation program (a NREGA forerunner) launched in 1980 found that whereas decentralised planning processes were used to implement NREP in West Bengal, political corruption of NREP implementation dominated in Bihar (Singh, 1992) as a result of the Yadav political period. Witsoe comments that the largely negative view of the Yadav regime as undemocratic constitutes a: '... failure to understand social movements that seek to challenge the status quo using methods that deviate from liberal norms' (Witsoe, 2012a:328). This ethnographic research focused on the politically connected brokers who mediated access to the bureaucracy and state resources during Yadav's regime. Interestingly, this work revealed that brokers (politically aligned intermediaries) were essentially running the NREGA scheme by recruiting and managing labourers, dealing with engineers and other block staff, and appeasing potentially troublesome landowners who saw NREGA as threat to their agricultural operations (Witsoe, 2012b).As Shrestha et al (1990) put it: a general feature of agrarian societies is that the social distribution of resources is rigidly institutionalised, practically preordained inter-generationally, and the institutional arrangements of resource distribution are difficult to rearrange. Possible responses include revolt, passive adaptation to the existing order, intensification or migration: 'Migration is probably the most practical and flexible one in that it can be practiced on a temporary (circular), long-term, or permanent basis and by certain family members or the whole household' (Shrestha et al, 1990:3-4).The Indian Reserve Bank calculated that $43.5 billion in international remittances were received nationally in the 2007-2008 financial year. While the contribution of international remittances to Indian GDP is only 4.1%, compared to the GDP contribution of international remittances of nearly 11% in Bangladesh and the Philippines, this figure masks the concentration of international remittances in certain states. For example, Kerala's migration stream to Middle East countries accounts for 40% and Punjab's migration stream to Canada, USA and the UK accounts for 13%. Domestic remittances were worth around $10 billion in the 2007-2008 year, the second largest domestic remittance market in the world. Of this amount, nearly 80% was remitted to households in rural areas (Tumbe, 2011), and 'Most of the North-Eastern States showed high usage of remittances towards education ...' (Tumbe, 2011:21). Badiana and Safira's (2009) longitudinal study of circular (domestic) migration in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra reveals that between 1979 and 2002 labour market participation nearly doubled, and that:Part of this increase is attributable to agricultural wage work, which has more than doubled over the period from 49 days to 88. Non-agricultural work has also expanded substantially from 44 days per adult to 121. In addition, households have seen a large decrease in the percentage of income emanating from farming (2009:45). Massey's (2009) survey of migration patterns in the West Bengali village of Jalpara in Bagri District conducted in 2005 found that circular migration forms a crucial livelihood strategy for 67% of the village's households. Migration was undertaken for both seasonal agricultural (such as paddy for four weeks) and non-agricultural work (brick kilns, road building, construction and cable laying in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai for up to six months). The average length of migration trips ranged from one to twelve weeks with villagers often using multiple trips or various combinations of labour within one trip.As in the case of populist politics, economic needs tend to trump traditional practises, such that migration has become a source of social mobility in India:When migrants were recruited by employers visiting the villages of origin, caste and class barriers, which were maintained between employers and labourers within villages, diminished ... the production requirements of employers override caste considerations, and both employers and labourers fail to act as classes-in-themselves (de Haan and Rogaly, 1994:55) Deshingkar et al (2009:143) in their study of Bihari migration point out that younger people consciously opt to migrate, with lower castes increasingly motivated to break away from village based caste oppression. Over a period of 17 years, migration from North Bihar has increased from 28% to 49% with remittances accounting for around one third of average annual income in surveyed villages. Whereas, migration used to be for agricultural labour in the Green Revolution state of Punjab, migration is now oriented to towns and cities across India: '... interstate migration to cities for factory work has become a kind of occupational mobility that has not been seen before and this is especially marked in the case of the Other Backward Castes' (Deshingkar et al, 2009:154).This experience of migration has been found by Massey et al (2010) to be true of ultra poor landless and flood displaced men and women from both West Bengal and North Bangladesh who had taken to migration for begging as a livelihood due to inability to undertake hard physical work. The authors found that women considered begging tough, laborious and distress driven but nonetheless found the remittances better than earnings from agricultural labour.Migrant remittances have been identified as one of the factors enabling agriculture intensification (Deshingkar, 2012). Agricultural intensification may improve the resilience of poor households to economic and environmental shocks but this does not necessarily mean an improvement in ecological resilience of the system. Initial negative effects of migration can be caused by the loss of labour but may be offset over time as the inflow of remittances allows households to purchase agricultural inputs. The loss of labour, however, can deprive households of access to critical labour, resulting in falls in productivity, which leads to dis-intensification (Deshingkar 2012). This may lead to the adoption of labour-saving technologies or abandonment of labour intensive crops, or a decrease in labour inputs and fall in productivity. The effects of migration and remittances for males and females affect agricultural activities differently. The departure of men has been blamed for the feminisation of agriculture (Deshingkar, 2012).Earnings from migration are being invested in agriculture to reduce the need to migrate, but mostly spent on consumption (Deshingkar, 2012). In the future, migration could provide an important source of capital for subsistence farmers struggling to manage unpredictable environmental conditions. Soil and water conservation appear to have been negatively impacted by migration.The pattern of migration and remittances differs in Bangladesh compared to India as migration is international in nature. Migration is a historically anchored phenomenon in the region. According to Joarder and Hasanuzzaman (2008), Bengali migration dates from the eighteenth Century when sailors worked for the British merchant navy that operated out of Calcutta (now Kolkata) port. These migrants, including stowaways, travelled mostly to the UK and USA. Migration livelihoods are spatially patterned by this history. More than 50% of total migration from Bangladesh continues to be concentrated in source districts such as Sylhet and Chittagong where landlessness is common (Hadi, 2000). Remittances account for 70% of household income on average in Sylhet, making the district more economically stable and wealthier than any other part of Bangladesh. Callon (2007) shows that migration today is woven into Bangladeshi culture while Hadi (2001) points out that the remaining women have been beneficiaries of migration in terms of increased household decision-making power, increased consumption and better access to education.As a modern Islamic nation Bangladesh has also been able to intensify a longstanding tradition of labour market relations with the Middle East to take advantage of the oil wealth expenditure of Gulf States on ambitious infrastructural and construction programs from the 1970s (Joarder and Hasanuzzaman, 2008). Raihan et al (2009) differentiate between three phases of modern Bangladeshi migration:• Phase One ran from 1978 to 1989, was dominated by migration to the Middle East, and attracted a total of 724,000 migrants (or 52,000 migrants per year); • Phase Two ran from 1990 to 2000, was based on the opening of the Malaysia and Singapore labour markets, and attracted 2.3 million migrants (or 205,000 migrants per year). This flow slowed due to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997; • Phase Three ran from 2001 to 2008 and has witnessed a diversification of destinations including East Europe, Italy, Korea and Malaysia following a three year Malaysian embargo on labour immigration. This flow of migrants constitutes 3.28 million (Raihan et al, 2009:4). Joarder and Hasanuzzaman (2008) further distinguish between permanent migration which began in the early 1930s and temporary migration to the Middle East, followed by South East Asia on formal but shortterm labour contracts that began in the 1970s.Migration remittances form a highly significant component of Bangladesh's national economy; remittances from 2.8 million migrant workers formed 10% of national GDP in 2008 (Raihan et al 2009:1). Remittances are viewed as a 'safety valve' for a populous, flood-prone and very young nation that is comparable to flows of direct foreign investment and official development assistance. Remittances are calculated to have reduced headcounts of poverty by 6% (Raihan et al 2009:18), helping Bangladesh to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, this income flow is dependent on the ebbs and flows of the global economy as the bulk (around 70%) of Bangladeshi migrants are: young; male; un-skilled or semi-skilled; and working on temporary contracts in the Middle East and South Asia. Consequently, a current focus in migration and remittances literature is the potential impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the Bangladeshi economy, with modelling of this potential shock undertaken by Raihan et al (2009) and Raihan (2010).Nepalis are synonymous with 'coolies' and have traditionally migrated (Bruslé, 2008:241) over a 200 year history that encompasses the movement of pilgrims, devotees, political refugees, and soldiers; the Nepalese fought in both World Wars (Gartaula et al, 2012b:401;Wagle, 2012:186).The Anglo Nepalese Peace Treaty of 1816 empowered the British to raise three regiments in the Northern Indian hills. At the same time, Darjeeling's tea industry grew rapidly between the 1850s and 1900s with English tea planters preferring Nepalese workers. British policy fostered Nepali migration by recruiting the Nepalese into military service through centres established at Darjeeling. The treaty of 1950 between Nepal and India opened their shared border completely, reputedly a lawless zone prone to corruption. The construction of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways in the 1970s strengthened this Nepal-India migration route (Datta, 2004:88 & 94).Increased Nepalese migration in recent decades is unprecedented; from 88,000 in 1942 to over four million in 2008 (Gartaula et al, 2012a:181). Nepalese agriculture has been in relative decline since the 1980s, and accelerated decline since 2000. Consequently, remittances from urban Nepal and abroad constitute an important form of support for poor rural households (Food Security and Agricultural Projects Analysis Service ESAF, 2004:9).The 1981 population census indicates that 8.6% of the Nepali population are native born internal migrants.Bhandari reported in 2004 that of the 2.7% of Nepalese who migrate internationally, 93% travel to India. Migration to East Asia and Arab countries is a recent but strengthening trend (Bhandari, 2004: 476-477). In 2012, Gartaula et al reported 3% living abroad: 77% in India and 15% in the Gulf countries (Gartaula et al, 2012b: 402). International migrants are almost entirely male and flows are dominated by migrants from the mid-and far-western regions (Bruslé, 2008:240). Bruslé comments that since international migration increased during the 1990s, officially captured remittances increased to 16.8% of GDP in the 2005-2006 year, but if unofficial remittances are included the proportion of GDP, might be up to 25%. According to Gartaula et al, (2012) remittances formed 30% of GDP in the year 2008-2009. One fifth of poverty reduction between 1995 and 2004 can be attributed to remittances (Gartaula et al, 2012b: 402).According to Bruslé's field work, the status of a temporary migrant worker is passed down from father to son and is viewed as a rite of passage to adulthood. In economic terms migration is a coping strategy, mostly to pay back costly loans. Migrants are typically excess to on-farm labour requirements, often belonging to larger households who fit in short stints of paid labour that complement the agricultural calendar. If this involves a simple move from border districts, little money is needed. Although the young explore more distant opportunities, the tendency is after 10 to 15 years to marry and seek stability (Bruslé, 2008: 241-243).According to Datta (2004) contemporary Nepali migrants to West Bengal tend to cluster in Jalpaiguiri and Darjeeling Districts, Kolkata, and the urban parts of 24 Parganas District. Information is readily available from relatives and friends living in Darjeeling regarding the district's large tea gardens. Short migrations are preferred as most economical; especially by poorer and less educated migrants. Kolkata is the nerve centre of East India and its large informal sector absorbed 25% of international migrants from Nepal in 1981 and 26% in 1982 (Datta, 2004:90-91). Datta reported that 100,000 to 200,000 Nepali women are believed to be working in the Indian sex industry, and vulnerable women are recruited through social networks (2004:99).An alternate upland reaction to the economic lure of migrating to the Terai or India is indicated by Malville (2005). In 1997, Malville undertook a survey of the subsistence base of 50 porter households in Kenja (1,664 m asl) by opportunistically recruiting 50 adult males between 20 to 38 years of age. Most of the porters were married Tamang or Rai subsistence farmers. Their households had significantly more adult workers than non-porter households and owned on average 0.8 to 1.1 ha of land, although 28% could be classified as landless or nearly landless. Around 20% of land was irrigated, all porter households owned livestock and grew enough food for 9.8 months on average. Porterage was reported to be a longstanding tradition and porter families may be as prosperous as the average hill family. The availability of portage labour meant they could avoid long term migration to Kathmandu, the Terai or India. The authors conclude that portering is an adaptive response to inadequate farmland and predictable seasonal food shortages (Malville, 2005:425-435).Evidence is mixed on the impact of remittances on agricultural development. Remittances are spent on basic needs, education and consumption as well as overcoming agricultural labour shortfalls and investing in capital inputs (Gartaula et al, 2012a:181). Competing policies in Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP) of 1995 and Foreign Employment Act (FEA) of 2007 demonstrate that Nepal's conventional development discourse is shifting towards acknowledgement of the significance of mobility (Gartaula et al, 2012a:182).The APP and FEA are somewhat contradictory policies, with APP paralysed by the decade long Maoist insurgency during which many youths were forced out of villages; an incentive to migrate (Gartaula et al, 2012a: 192). Regmi and Tisdell (2002) tested the relationship between remittances and rural development by using the National Migration Survey data of 1996. They found that overwhelmingly remittances were used to support household expenditure: 'Hence, the contribution of remittances to improving agriculture and increasing investment in rural areas seems to be very low in Nepal.' (Regmi and Tisdell, 2002: 85). The level of remittances was also low; 4% of the migrant's income reflecting low incomes rather than low propensity to remit. Migrants were more likely to remit if they possessed higher levels of education, visited frequently, had close relatives in their place of origin, and their parents owned land -suggesting migration was guided by implicit social exchanges. Little evidence was found that remittances significantly contributed to rural development; rather remittances were used for consumption (Regmi and Tisdell, 2002: 92). Wagle (2012), analysed the National LSS data in terms of remittance winners and losers and found consistent evidence that assets were the most consistent predictor of remittances, no doubt due to the necessity of collateral in order to invest in migration. Households holding greater assets maximised foreign remittances and this relationship strengthened over time. While this finding is consistent with the Sustainable Livelihoods Analysis interpretation of migration (livelihood diversification), it does not imply any reduction in inequality as remittances increasingly went to families already enjoying higher nonremittance income. Secondly, Wagle found that remittances from migrants working in India were lower while no significant difference was found between remittances from East Asia and Middle East. Spatially, Kathmandu was a remittance winner, followed by other urban areas, then rural areas (Wagle, 2012:199-201). Caste status was a good predictor of the level of remittances: '... low caste households, Newars, and Muslims likely to receive lower amounts of foreign remittance compared to the HCH's including Brahmins and Chettris' areas' (Wagle, 2012:202). However, the mountain and Terai regions were faring significantly better than the hills belt: '...the Terai and especially Mountains reduced their reliance on India, massively increasing their migration to other regions and countries' (Wagle, 2012:202).Focusing on inter-generational differences between Nepalese migrants, Gartaula et al (2012a) note a change from regarding land as a productive asset to a status symbol. The Gartaula et al study took place in Jhapa District of the Terai due to its high rates of out-migration. The settlement dates from 1912-1913, with increased permanent in-migration by entire households characteristic of the late 1950s, and circular outmigration by individuals beginning in the mid-1970s and increasing ever since (Gartaula et al, 2012a:183). Over 75% of the households surveyed produced 12 months of food, with 57% of the 67 remaining households compensating with remittances, and 24% from wage labour. The study found that the greater the landholding, the higher both the food supply and tendency to out-migrate. Secondly, younger households with smaller landholdings were less interested in agriculture (Gartaula et al, 2012a:187) although their preference was to buy agricultural before residential land (Gartaula et al, 2012a:190).Overall, the authors note that:Interestingly, migrant households spent more on agricultural inputs and technology than nonmigrant households. At the same time, more migrant households than non-migrant households invested in residential land. So, the survey data present a mixed picture, showing that migrant households invest both in agriculture and in residential land (Gartaula et al, 2012a:189) Land speculation could reduce Terai's total acreage of land for agricultural production, placing Nepal's food security at risk (Gartaula et al, 2012a: 192). Bhandari and Grant (2007) compared the agricultural livelihoods of highland (>1,000 m asl) and lowland (<1,000 m asl) communities within the 49 km 2 Kali-khola watershed using surveys, interviews and PAR between April and August in 2004. The authors found that 50% of lowlanders compared to 25% of highlanders maintained their livelihoods on the basis of agriculture alone. Highland farmers are also pastoralists and rely upon forests for firewood, fodder, timber and grazing. Lowland communities owned significantly more land but were disadvantaged by a shortage of labour. Lowland farmers relied on nonfarm incomes such as employment in services and other small businesses. Over two thirds of the Terai smallholders had more than one internal or international migrant worker. Their highland neighbours, without English schooling, found it difficult to compete in migrant labour markets (Bhandari and Grant, 2007: 23). Bhandari studied migration patterns in 12 VDCs in the Western Chitwan Valley where 80% of the population depends upon agriculture for their livelihood, but 23.9% of households sent individuals away to work. With a district market and east/west highway link to the cities of Kathmandu and Polhara, services, business and wage jobs were relatively accessible. Bhandari found that the region was rapidly urbanising, both drawing migrants from its rural agricultural hinterland and facilitating increasing international outmigration (Bhandari, 2004:477-481).A study focused on the neglected issue of linkages between internal and international migration was conducted in Kaili District; a popular Terai destination for adjacent hill district migrants. The district has had a high population growth rate since the 1980s including the study site -a homogenous community of high caste (Bahun, Thakur and Chhetri) hill migrants. Settlement had begun 18 years ago and intensified in response to the Maoist conflict in the hills (where child abduction was a problem) and the opportunity to improve economic livelihoods (Poertner et al, 2011). Apart from their (nucleated) Terai housing, these households held agricultural land in rural Terai that was cultivated by sharecropper tenants both for social status and to reduce food bills.Over 80% still owned land in their hill village of origin and was usually cultivated by relatives. With 25% of the men holding a Bachelors or Masters degree, most households boasted a salaried husband (teacher or government official) and many still work in the hills (Poertner et al, 2011:31-33). This was due to a large incentive; a rural allowance:In addition to a basic salary, government teachers (and other employees) receive allowances according to how remote their workplace is from where they live; the more remote the district, the higher the rural allowances. The rural allowances for working in Bajhang while living in urban Terai amounted to 75 percent of the basic salary (Poertner et al, 2011:35).Most households in the source hill district were also involved in migration to India with a few cases of successful Indian migrants effectively relocating their households to the Terai. Because fathers and grandfathers had sent remittances from India to purchase land and educate sons, they enabled their sons to obtain government jobs which led to the discontinuation of migration to India. This multi-local pattern of spatial household linkages was institutionalised in a local organisation that produces a telephone directory providing household numbers in both the in Terai and the original hill village of Bajhang (Poertner et al, 2011: 38-40).Half of the women in this community were illiterate and all were housewives. While they had control over everyday decision-making, men made consequential decision-making, by father, then husband, and by the son on her husband's death. No fundamental renegotiation of gender relations was evident other than a decrease in the number of arranged marriages. Rather, the higher the caste the more restricted women's lives. Education was considered a pathway to upward social mobility with girls sent to local schools and boys sent to Kathmandu private schools. (Poertner et al, 2011:33-34). Gartaula et al (2012b) argue that the socio-cultural dimensions of those left behind by migrants need to be integrated into migration studies, especially since social transactions over distances are now facilitated by ICT. A survey of 277 households in Terai's Jhapa District indicated that the majority of migrant households were high caste, originally migrated from the north-eastern hills, and that remittances formed 30% total household income. Most (72%) owned both agricultural and residential land while 23% owned just residential land and 5.4% were landless. Monogamy and virilocal residency dominate in Nepal; marriages are traditionally arranged and women move to their in-laws to form a co-residential household. The life narratives of four women are reported on (Gartaula et al, 2012b: 402-406). Marked differences were found between women living with their in-laws and women who were de facto household heads (Gartaula et al, 2012b: 402-404). Remittances were found to enhance objective wellbeing by providing food security, a safety net and of benefit to the receiving society generally (Gartaula et al, 2012b:407). The labour participation of women in agriculture had increased and women living with in-laws benefited from task sharing.Subjectively, the women were lonely. Although contact with their husbands had increased since using mobile phones, their relationship to in-laws ranged from very cold to harmonious. Patriarchal control over household resources was unequivocal, either by the husband or father-in-law, however, the women de facto household heads enjoyed more autonomy regarding resources (Gartaula et al, 2012b:415-416).Women's autonomy and self esteem generally increased age and childbearing and were enhanced by involvement in groups and cooperatives. The authors conclude that while objective wellbeing was improved by migration for left behind women, the cognitive and emotional dimensions were more context specific and often have not improved (Gartaula et al, 2012b:417).These rich studies suggest that rural systems in Nepal could best be described as 'agri-migratory' (Bruslé, 2008:241):For households in far-western districts, agriculture in Nepal and wage employment in India are complementary activities. Livelihood strategies definitely comprise diversification of income sources and mobility patterns (Bruslé, 2008:245).India's NREGA and throughout the EGP, migration is an important livelihood strategy for the rural poor.NREGA and migration provide a source of cash income that can supplement other forms of farm and offfarm income as well as subsistence agriculture. In the case of NREGA, there is considerable opportunity to target NREGA works for the creation of productive assets as well as fostering partnerships between state bodies managing NREGA and NGOs who often have closer ties with rural communities and understand their challenges and priorities more intimately. Access to NREGA is also an issue with the opportunity to secure the 100 days entitlement proving to be highly variable in Bihar and West Bengal. Once again, fostering partnerships between NGOs and underserviced communities to facilitate access can enhance purchasing power and consequently, food security and access to education and health services. Researchable areas include investigating where NREGA is ineffective and why. Greater understanding of the key issues and developing partnerships and linkages in the field can foster the creation of innovation platforms where NREGA representatives, NGOs and underserviced communities work together to improve service delivery and create productive assets would have welfare enhancing effects.Both NREGA in India and migration in the EGP, while providing important supplemental income to rural households, have created the paradoxical 'labour shortage' in one of the most populated regions on earth. These institutions have increased the opportunity cost of agricultural labour. The low returns to labour provided by paddy cultivation also favour these alternative livelihood strategies. To keep farmers farming, it would be necessary to increase the returns to agricultural labour. Increasing the returns to labour could be achieved through reducing costs (e.g. economies of scale, consolidation of farming blocks), increasing productivity of staple crops, or through the cultivation of higher value agricultural commodities. Improving the efficiency of agricultural value chains can also increase farm gate prices, and therefore, the returns to their labour. Particularly in India, the predominance of the Public Food Distribution System, issues surrounding its implementation in Bihar and West Bengal, and how this relates to farmgate prices are important researchable issues. Research around value chains and how to enhance value at the producer level is also a theme not well addressed in the literature.With male migration, women are increasingly becoming involved providing agricultural labour -the socalled feminization of agriculture. Women's involvement in agriculture has important implications for rural extension and NGO engagement where traditionally, these services were targeted toward the male head of the household. In Bangladesh's experience, migration has had an important impact in increasing women's household decision-making authority though this seems to be less true in the case of India. How are NGOs responding to this changing dynamic? Are their models of service delivery evolving as a response? Answers to these questions can help design service delivery strategies that are responsive to this dynamic and better targeted to diverse household priorities.Male migration has also increased the demand for labour-saving technologies. Mechanization has occurred at a rapid pace, particularly in Bangladesh. Appropriate technologies targeted to specific household types need to be designed. Consideration should also be given to the specific circumstances of female-headed households and where women supply a significant portion of agricultural labour. Research can serve to develop household typologies to match appropriate technologies to household characteristics.In India, migration has reduced the relevance of caste. Furthermore, those that migrate and later return to the country-side often return with new ideas which can enhance innovations in agriculture as well as in non-farming activities such as in the development of rural industries. Exploration of the role of out migration in contributing to social equity and rural development are researchable topics of importance.While maintaining agricultural production may have important consequences for household food selfsufficiency, households also require disposable income for consumption of food not produced on farm, and to purchase services such as education, health and other basic necessities. In many cases, the potential for staple crop cultivation in delivering disposable income is very limited. Off-farm developments and sources of income are important. Greater access to education could for example deliver the greatest gains in achieving food security and an improved standard of living in the long run. Exploring the returns to develop assistance can provide insights that can help target aid.8 Input and output markets in rice-dominated value chainsThe marketing chain for grains consists of procurement, storage, transport and distribution. This marketing chain is dominated by the government's Food Corporation of India. To balance the interest of farmers and consumers, the government manages a procurement price for paddy and wheat and a levy price for milled rice. The Minimum Support Price (MSP) was established to provide incentive for the production of rice and wheat, to encourage the adoption of new technologies, and to insulate farmers from risk, assure consumers of affordable grains, and minimize destabilizing speculation. The government also intervenes in the grains market, purchasing rice at a procurement price. Since the 1970s, the procurement price and MSP have been close to equal, though their initial intentions differed (Ganesh- Kumar et al, 2007).The difference between levy rates and processing margins differs between states (Ganesh- Kumar et al, 2007). For example, regional variations in input prices and the presence and quality of infrastructure provide certain regions with a competitive advantage and are thus more attractive for the procurement of grains. In the western states, for example, heavily subsidized electricity in well electrified rural areas enables low cost irrigation, while relatively good transportation networks facilitate the acquisition of inputs and the transport of goods to market. In the case of Bihar, rural areas have very limited electrification and inadequate transportation networks. Given regional disparities, farmers in some states like Bihar are often pressed to sell grains at below the MSP due to distress (Chand, 2003;World Bank, 2007b). When surplus production does occur, inadequate storage systems often result in significant losses. As procurement has tended to focus on the Green Revolution states, the De-Centralized Procurement Scheme was developed to enable state agencies to procure from farmers directly at the MSP and from millers at the levy prices (Shreedhar et al, 2012).Under the Rice Milling Industry Act (1958), processors are required to sell a fraction of total output to the government at a levy price. The Public Distribution System (PDS) delivers grains to state operated shops (so-called Fair Price Shops) where entitled households can purchase rice at prices below regular retail. The Food Corporation also maintains stocks to buffer against shocks such as world price and climate shocks.Wastage of foodstuffs is chronic. India-wide, the Food Corporation has regularized losses of up to 1%, 1.5% and 2.5% for wheat, rice and paddy, respectively, though this is likely an understiamte with new stocks added continually (Shreedhar et al., 2012). Much of this loss may be attributed to open and inadequate storage facilities. It is likely that for states with less-developed infrastructure and storage facilities such as Bihar and West Bengal, these estimates would be higher. India-wide, considering both perishable and nonperishable agricultural goods, the lack of post-harvest storage results in losses of up to 30% (Nabard Consultancy Services PVT LTD, 2012). Bihar's wholesale agricultural prices are higher than most other regions because of wastage and high transport costs. In the case of some agricultural commodities, these costs can account for 40% of total margins along the value chain (World Bank, 2007b).The Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act (APMC; 1960) was established to provide a fair and transparent platform for the sale of agricultural commodities. In India, there are around 2,170 APMCs that control 7,500 markets which operate as monopolies in agricultural commodities. As transparency of the system and remuneration declined over time, the system became more of a liability (World Bank, 2007b).In some states, the APMC has since been amended enabling the private sector to purchase from small farmers directly, to facilitate farm to firm linkages and to promote contract farming. Market infrastructure development was also opened to private sector investment (Ganesh- Kumar et al, 2007;Gulati, 2009;Gulati & Ganguly, 2010;Minten et al, 2009).Bihar's own APMC was modelled along the lines of the Government of India issued APMC (1972). As such, wholesale trade of commodities is restricted to government-run markets, reducing the potential for creating backward linkages between processors, exporters and farmers.  Bank, 2007b). Bihar ranked third from the bottom in quantity and quality of market infrastructure, also faring very poorly with regards to the number of markets per capita. West Bengal scored even more poorly on both counts (World Bank, 2007b).8.2 Input output markets and the rice value chain in IndiaInput subsidies for fertilizer, pump sets and electricity were introduced during the second phase of India's Green Revolution (1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980). Policies and infrastructure development to promote agriculture were targeted towards those areas where marginal investment returns were highest, primarily in the states of the Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh. West Bengal and Bihar were largely neglected though they possess significant agricultural potential. India-wide, by the end of the 1990s, input subsidies accounted for 8.7% of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP; Shreedhar et al., 2012). Almost 75% of public spending in agriculture is allocated to subsidies (Gulati & Ganguly, 2010).The public sector produces the majority of rice and wheat seed. Seed replacement in West Bengal is low. Some key issues identified were the unavailability of quality seed from reliable sources at the right time, the high cost of seed and limited farmer awareness of the productivity potential of quality seed (Nabard Consultancy Services PVT LTD, 2012). Shreedhar et al. (2012) report that the sowing of hybrid seed is concentrated in the northern states as well as some eastern states including Bihar and account for over 80% of the area sown with hybrid rice. In India, overall the area of hybrid rice remains low and may be partially explained by relatively low yield gains, poorer grain quality, taste, and market price of hybrid rice (Shreedhar et al., 2012).Nationally, the Fertilizer Control Order (1957) regulates the price and distribution of fertilizer. The Order fixes farm gate prices and subsidizes producers. With fluctuating oil prices and the price shock created by the 1973 Oil Crisis, the fertilizer subsidy bill increased dramatically requiring a change in policy. The 1977 Retention Price Scheme was instituted setting fertilizer prices according to production costs and included a 12% post-tax subsidy. This scheme had unintended consequences for the efficient production of fertilizer and its application, while the fertilizer subsidy bill continued to rise. Between 1976 and 1998, fertilizer subsidies increased by 30 times in real terms with paddy and wheat farmers being the majority beneficiaries. Fertilizer subsidies accounted for a 2.7% share of agricultural GDP in 2000, which was 5 times the government's expenditure on agricultural research and development (Fan et al, 2008).  2012).In 2002, the New Pricing Policy Scheme replaced the Retention Price Scheme in attempts to improve program efficiency however it had distortionary effects on N-P-K application ratios. Low nitrogen prices and price spikes in phosphorus and potassium due to market deregulation resulted in detrimental soil nutrient imbalances (Sharma & Jain, 2011). The Nutrient-Based Subsidy Scheme was introduced in 2010 which applies to phosphatic, potassic and complex fertilizers, and aims to reduce the subsidy bill and improve soil nutrition (Shreedhar et al., 2012). The New Pricing Scheme was introduced for urea which accounts for 78% of total nitrogen use (Sharma, 2012).Originally, fertilizer subsidies were paid to fertilizer manufacturers and importers. Recent advice from the Unique Identification Authority of India recommends subsidies are paid directly to farmers as cash transfers. A subsidy targeting approach is recommended considering criteria such as the size of land holding and subsistence versus commercial cropping. A cap on the amount of subsidy a single beneficiary may access was also established. There were early implementation challenges to this new approach. Small farmers often lack disposable income to purchase inputs up-front, while payment of the cash transfers is often delayed. Informal land tenancy and leasing arrangements inhibit access to subsidies as well as formal credit. There are real concerns that removal of the fertilizer subsidy will render farming uneconomic.Estimates by Sharma (2012) show that a wheat farmer's net income in Bihar could fall by 47.2%, and rice farmers in West Bengal could face a net loss of Rs. 3964 /ha (Sharma, 2012).Electricity subsidies for agriculture are high, though they differ state by state. State Electricity Boards collect revenue from the sale of electricity and charge very low rates to farmers. In 1999, the agricultural sector used 29% of the electricity produced although the sector contributed only 3.4% to electricity sales revenue. In 2001, farmers were charged Rs. 0.284 per kilowatt-hour compared with an average supply cost of Rs. 3.04 per kilowatt-hour. Electricity subsidies have grown at an average annual rate of over 19% between 1966 and 1999, falling to 11.9% in the 1990s (Fan et al., 2008).Access to electricity also differs significantly by state. In Bihar, on farms where irrigation does occur, it is dominated by tubewells followed by canal irrigation. Shallow tubewells are also the most prominent form of irrigation in West Bengal. In Bihar, only 5% of rural households have access to electricity (World Bank, 2007b). In Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Assam, 92% of groundwater pumps operate on diesel fuel compared to 41% in the northern states (Shreedhar et al., 2012). Consequently the cost of energy inputs to agriculture differs greatly by state (Jha & Viswanathan, 1999).In West Bengal, policy restrictions and a perception of groundwater scarcity are major obstacles to increasing groundwater use with an estimated 42% of the groundwater potential in use. The 2005 Groundwater Act poses restrictions on the development of new wells and applications for new wells are often rejected. Permit requirements for electrical connections and high diesel costs also inhibit groundwater development. By a recent Government order, the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company will provide new electricity connections to farmers for a fixed connection fee. Previously, farmers were required to cover all costs related to electrical infrastructure. Furthermore, a November 2011 amendment to the Groundwater Act has reduced restrictions on 5 horsepower pumps in areas where groundwater is abundant. The amendment means that farmers are no longer required to seek permission for an electricity connection to power these smaller pumps. As some farmers cannot afford to purchase pumps, a pump rental market has emerged to meet increased demand. Increased rainwater harvesting also has good potential for increasing irrigation in the state (Evans et al, 2012).Farm mechanization in India has a long history, increasing rapidly during the Green Revolution in the northern region to improve the timeliness of operations, increase input application efficiency, and substitute for increasingly scarce and costly farm labour (Singh, 2005). India is the second largest tractor manufacturer in the world (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, 2008). Tractor intensity in West Bengal and Bihar in 2003/04 was 4.6 and 16.2 tractors per 1000 ha of farmland, compared with 61 and 71 tractors per 1000 ha in Haryana and the Punjab, respectively (Singh, 2006). A number of Central Government managed subsidy programs exist, some of which are crop specific. One program subsidizes the purchase of tractors under 18 horsepower. At the state-level, subsidies are available for custom hiring of machinery, particularly for small farms (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, 2008). Constraints to further mechanization include small farm size and farm fragmentation, the need for research and development for appropriate technologies for smaller farms, the high cost of diesel, a lack of investment capital, and the opportunity cost of idle machinery (Singh, 2005).Agricultural  (Das, 2010;Shreedhar et al., 2012). The financing of self-help groups (SHGs) has increased markedly in West Bengal, while at a slower rate in Bihar (Das, 2010). By 2005 in Bihar, over 17,000 SHGs were financed by banks and this number continues to increase. Over 201,000 Kisan credit cards, card instruments designed to provide farmers with affordable and timely access to credit, were issued through banks (World Bank, 2007b). Credit subsidies in the form of below market interest rates for farmers also exist. This form of subsidy grew fastest during the 1970s at 22% per year, falling to less than 5% in the 1990s (Fan et al., 2008).In the case of West Bengal, agricultural credit has improved over the past 6 years. In 2009, credit provision to the overall agricultural sector reached 93% of the Banks' targeted level. Small farmers tend to access short-term credit to maintain operations rather than invest in longer-term capital formation. This is in part a supply-side problem where financial institutions prefer less risky loans to large farmers who hold more collateral. It is estimated that 73% of rural farming households in West Bengal are excluded from both informal and formal credit markets (Nabard Consultancy Services PVT LTD, 2012). In Bihar, farmers were able to access only a 2% share of total agricultural lending by State Cooperative Banks in 2004 (World Bank, 2007b).In the case of informal credit markets through private moneylenders, farmers can pay up to 48% interest per year (Haque, 2001). Village surveys by Erenstein and Thorpe (2011) indicate interest rates as high as 58% in Bihar and 98% in West Bengal (Erenstein & Thorpe, 2011). In Bihar, 44% of farmer-led households contracted their debt from money lenders, the second highest proportion in the country, though they maintained the lowest value of outstanding loan per farm household in India (World Bank, 2007b).A key issue in value chain integration relates to farm size. At a national level, 88% of land holdings in India were < 2 ha and accounted for 44% of the total cropped area (Gulati, 2009). Land holdings in West Bengal are highly fragmented with 88% of holdings cultivated by small farmers with an average farm size of 0.82 ha. Land is dominated by large absentee land holders (ex-zamindars). This situation is similar in Bihar where the average farm size was 0.75 ha. Small farm size and fragmentation constrains the types of technological innovations possible.In Bihar in 2000, 58% of cultivated plots less than 1 acre in size (0.4 ha) were leased; and 27.6% of cultivated plots between 1 and 2.5 acres (0.4-1 ha) were leased (World Bank, 2007b). Leasing land is illegal in most Indian states except under special provisions, though leasing does occur through various loopholes or in a concealed manner (Haque, 2001). Consolidating the holdings of small farmers through the organisation of farmer groups or cooperatives is a key challenge necessary to reach economies of scale. India's dairy industry provides a good example of successful producer consolidation (Gulati, 2009).A major centralized support system to agriculture is the Government's National Food Security Mission which aims to increase the output of rice, wheat and pulses through demonstration of best practices and the provision of subsides and other incentives. Bihar has the largest number of districts targeted for rice and the second largest number of districts targeted for wheat under the Mission. A second centralized agricultural support program is the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) program. Launched in 2007, RKVY is designed to leverage state agricultural growth and investment plans, focusing on integrated agricultural development considering both the productivity and marketing food subsystems. East India is a focal region for RKVY (Shreedhar et al., 2012). RKVY aims to contribute to the achievement of 4% agricultural growth over the Governments 11 th five year planning period (Nabard Consultancy Services PVT LTD, 2012).Initiated in 1998 and extended to the entire country in 2007, India's public sector district-level Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) provides market-driven extension services to farmers in a decentralized, participatory and bottom-up approach (World Bank, 2007b). ATMA was established to integrate extension programs across states, linking research and extension within districts and to decentralize decision making (Glendenning & Babu, 2011;Singh & Swanson, 2006;Swanson & Rajalahti, 2010). Farm Information and Advisory Centres located at the block level are the interface or innovation platform for farmers, the private sector and extension staff, where programs are designed and implemented (Shreedhar et al., 2012). The design of strategies for targeting extension activities is governed by four axioms: (i) only promote crops for which markets exist; (ii) if the good cannot be transported to market, do not produce the good; (iii) only plant crops that are suited to the agro-ecological conditions of the region, and; (iv) diversify production to mitigate risk (Singh & Swanson, 2006).In Bihar's Patna district, the ATMA model was implemented in 2002. Within two years, 750 farmer self-help groups were organized, many of them by non-government organizations under contract, to explore high value crops and other agricultural industries. Although not all projects were successful, Swanson and Rajalahti (2010) report the program is having a significant impact on household income and livelihoods. Nonetheless, in 2003 only 10% of Bihari farmer's accessed information from extension workers, which is the lowest in the country. Farmers were more reliant on input dealers and other progressive farmers for their information. In the case of West Bengal, 52% of farmers accessed information from extension officers, 26% from input dealers and 24% from other progressive farmers (World Bank, 2007b).In A key challenge for India's extension system is budgetary. Extension services are funded at the state level, though much of this funding is used to pay for salaries and employment benefits. With growing budgetary constraints and retiring workers, the ratio of extension workers to farmers has been deteriorating, down to 1:4,600 overall (Swanson & Rajalahti, 2010).Farmers receive a relatively low share of the final price of their agricultural output. In the case of West Bengal, farmers receive between 15% and 20% of the retail price, with the remainder captured by intermediaries. Table 3 provides an overview of paddy and wheat cultivation cost shares in Bihar. Fixed costs account for 34% of cultivation costs while operational costs account for the remaining 66%. Irrigation charges are higher for wheat cropping (9% of cultivation cost compared with 1% for rice). Rice cropping uses a larger share of human and animal labour (45% compared with 23% for wheat). An important stage in the rice value chain is the processing or milling of paddy into rice. It is often the case that farmers sell paddy to rice millers who are also wholesalers in the value chain. In the case of both rice and wheat, wholesalers pay approximately 11.5% of the paddy purchase price in the form of a statutory charge which consists of a purchase tax, surcharge, market fees, a contribution to the rural development fund (RDF), and commission. The remaining costs incurred by rice wholesalers and millers are charged on a per bag basis (60 kg of paddy). Costs include bag filling and stitching, weighing, loading and transport to the rice mill, a gunny bag and processing costs. Wholesalers receive intermediate income from selling the rice bran and husk that is a by-product of milling. Processors have milling arrangements with the Food Corporation of India which affects their profit margins. Table 4 describes these costs, excluding transport fees for surplus states. These costs were based on data for 1996-97 to 1998-99 with West Bengal considered a surplus state in rice, though deficit for wheat. Bihar was a deficit state in both rice and wheat.The Punjab was taken to represent surplus regions with farm harvest and wholesale prices obtained from the Punjab's Khanna market.Table 4 shows that purchase taxes, market fees, wholesale margins and interest charges are the greatest cost components. Once processed and transported, milled rice is then sold to consumers at the retail price.Wheat is typically traded in the form of grain and purchased directly from the farmer. Marketing margins between harvest and wholesale wheat price, excluding transport fees, for surplus states is shown in Table 5.Again in the case of wheat, purchase tax, market fees, commission, interest and traders margins are the greatest cost components. Information dealing specifically with the North West Bangladesh is often patchy. Consequently, this section provides an overview of input output markets and the rice value chain in the country as a whole.Bangladesh had a similar food policy to India due to the nations' common origins in colonial India, but liberalization in the 1990s opened up trade, including that of food imports, and greatly down-scaled the operations of the PFDS. Domestic procurement of grains in Bangladesh has been voluntary since the 1980s. While India has maintained a large procurement and distribution system and has been much slower to liberalize it, Bangladesh's greater down-sizing was reportedly due to greater fiscal constraints which demanded more effective targeting of distribution (Dorosh, 2008).The significance of the Great Bengal Famine in 1943 cannot be overlooked in explaining the strong, forward thinking policy response to the agricultural sector with heavy investment in agricultural research, irrigation and infrastructure such as roads. Latest data show that rice yields grew at 2.7% on average between 1980-1981 and 2010-2011 and production increased from 13.9 million tons to 34.5 million tons over the same period. This was achieved with relatively small increases in the cropped area (Dorosh and Rashid, 2012). Overall, gains in output are largely attributed to a greater share of area planted to HYVs and investment in boro rice that is more easily insulated from climatic variability.Driven by market liberalization, Bangladesh achieved food self-sufficiency in cereal production around the second half of the 1990s, with rapid expansion of both ground and surface water which enabled adoption of HYVs, modern inputs and improved crop management (Jaim and Akter, 2012). Indicative of this growth, in the 1980s, just 8% of the total area suitable for irrigation was irrigated compared with 53% in 1999-2000.A key driver of this growth in irrigation was the liberalization and privatization policy for irrigation equipment including pumps which saw the use of STWs grow at 14% per annum from the beginning of 2000.Overall, 95% of the food grain market is dominated by private agents. Although generally food selfsufficient, supply shortfalls do occur, for example following the 1998 flood and the 2007-08 world food crisis. In these instances, private sector imports are an important component of Bangladesh's food security. Imports also serve the function of stabilizing prices, though there is contentious debate as to the extent that Bangaldesh should rely on imports for this stability (Dorosh and Rashid, 2012). India has been the main source of rice imports for Bangladesh mostly in the first half of 2000, India exported rice at the Below Poverty Line (BPL) price of rice which was less than the regular wholesale price. With the 2007-08 global food crisis, India ceased exports to Bangladesh raising questions to the reliability of imports (Dorosh and Rashid, 2012). Following a domestic rice real price spike of 45% compared with the previous year and temporary disruption to imports, India and Bangladesh came to an agreement on a fixed quantity of rice imports to Bangladesh, though at a price higher than the original BPL price.As a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Bangladesh is committed to the trade rules which pertain to agriculture. It is argued that Bangladesh is one of the South Asian nations that provide the lowest domestic support to agriculture, far below what WTO rules allow it to. Furthermore, the privatization of input markets has reportedly had a positive economic and equity impact (Centre for Policy Dialogue, 2000).Demand for rice and wheat are driven primarily by population growth and growth in incomes. The demand for rice has a much lower elasticity of demand and therefore a 10% increase in income for example may see only a 2% increase for cereals and a 15% increase in demand for meat and milk. The low price of cereal grains in part is explained by these factors. Faster growth in production compared with demand growth therefore serves to push cereal prices downwards. While rice, potatoes and vegetables have grown in production, the output of all other crops has declined in absolute terms. Therefore, instead of diversification away from rice and wheat to the production of other crops, Bangladesh's agricultural sector has concentrated more on the production of rice and wheat (Centre for Policy Dialogue, 2000). This trend contradicts the logic of the higher income elasticity of demand for other crops and other agricultural products such as meat and milk.Prior to liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s, the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) was responsible for agricultural inputs including seed, fertilizer and irrigation equipment. Subsidy-based policies were not favoured due to the structural adjustment measures imposed by the International Financial Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as the World Bank. There has been an historical tightening and loosening of control on input markets in Bangladesh. Issues have arisen with regards to price spikes in fertilizers, quality and their timeliness, as well as a lack of quality seed. Minten et al (2011) find that chemical fertilizers, followed by pesticides and the cost of irrigation are the greatest contributors to input costs.The availability of quality seed is a serious issue in Bangladesh. Through the Seeds Act ( 2005), the National Seed Policy (1993) and the Seed Rules of 1998, the government regulates public and private produced seed sold in markets. The National Seed Policy (1993) enabled the private sector to produce seed which has resulted in a steady increase in the supply of quality, though still insufficient to meet current demand (Jaim and Akter, 2012). Bangladesh's Seed Certification Agency was instituted to implement the Act responsible for seed quality control, produced by both the private and public sector.Demand outstrips demand for quality rice seed of which only 40% is met. BADC and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) supply approximately 84% of quality seed. In the case of wheat, supply meets approximately 55% of total demand with the BADC and DAE supplying almost all of this seed. While the BADC is subsidized and is able to produce seed at a lower cost, it is the marginal farmers that lack access to this seed. Consequently, marginal farmers often have to rely on seed from the private sector at higher cost and of uncertain quality. Public private partnerships are lacking in the production and sale of seed, and the basic capacity required to produce seed.With regards, to irrigation, in some regions of Bangladesh, small farmers have organized themselves into user groups where they pay a fee or payment in kind for access to STW or DTW irrigation water. These groups also have formed around surface water schemes in Khal (a body of water moving to a lower level) excavation or by building across bunds (Hussain, 2004).Between 1983-84 and 1995-96, the number of farm holdings has grown at 1.3%. Cultivable land, however, has declined over the same period indicating that the average size of land holdings has fallen from 1.7 ha in 1960 to around 0.68 ha in 2000. This suggests a contraction of agricultural land on the order of 82,000 ha per year. Rapid urbanization is the leading cause of this decline (Centre for Policy Dialogue, 2000). Nonetheless, there remains significant opportunity to expand irrigated areas as 84% of cultivable land is suitable for irrigation, though groundwater availability for dry season irrigation may be limiting (Hussain, 2004). Minten et al (2011) analyse data on surveys of the rice value chain including producers at the village level, midstream wholesalers who purchase rice from households, urban wholesale traders, millers and retailers.A number of findings are of particular interest. First, the share of small mills in farmer and wholesaler trade has declined significantly between 1999 and 2009. Second, the authors find that there is a decline in consumption of less expensive lower quality rice in favour of finer grained rice. This change in quality appears to be associated with an increase in the share of automatic and semiautomatic mills which have higher quality standards and more reliable weighing and bagging (Minten et al., 2011).Modern retail, although in its infancy in Bangladesh, is growing rapidly, having tripled between 2006 and 2009. Survey results show that 98% of the rice sold by modern retailers is of the fine variety compared with 50% sold by traditional retailers. It appears, however, that farmers are not benefitting from the price premiums associated with higher quality rice. Since higher-yielding varieties of fine rice are in limited supply, lower quality rice is converted to higher qualities higher up in the value chain. Farmers may be able to capture more of this price premium as higher-yielding varieties of better quality rice become available (Minten et al., 2011). Minten et al. (2011) examined retail prices for rice in 2009; coarse rice was sold at BDT26/kg, BDT30/kg for medium rice and BDT44/kg for fine rice. As for rural paddy traders, they received BDT19.1/kg, BDT19.7/kg and BDT22.8/kg for coarse, medium and fine rice, respectively (in rice equivalent price units). It is the postpaddy production stages of the processing and marketing chain that capture the greatest share of this price premium. The share of the rural paddy traders price in final retail was 73% for coarse rice, 65% for medium rice and only 52% for fine rice. Mills and retailers were found to benefit the most in the price premium for finer rice. Furthermore, Minten et al. (2011) found that the quality premium for medium and fine rice, over that of coarse rise was BDT4.2/kg and BDT17.7/kg, respectively.Increased producer prices accounted for a relatively small proportion of this increase or 14% and 20% for medium and fine rice, respectively. It was the urban retail margin (49% and 30% for medium and fine rice, respectively) and the rural trader and miller margins (44% and 18% for medium and fine, respectively) that captured the greatest share of the premium. In summary, returns to labour for producing a lower value versus higher value product are similar. In the case of Bangladesh it appears that labour and input outlays are similar for the production of different qualities of rice. Increasing production of higher yielding varieties of fine rice seed could increase both producer and consumer surplus. Furthermore, increasing attention on mid and downstream processors is warranted given their role in affecting price (Minten et al., 2011).A number of studies on the Bangladesh rice value chain have been undertaken including Haq et al. (2010), Rahman (1998) and Murshid et al. (2009). Haq et al. (2010) for example describes the rice value chain as perfectly competitive and a relatively deep market. Other authors have questioned the efficiency of the market with syndicates at the mid level of the value chain exerting market control by creating scarcity to affect prices (Rahman et al., 1998). Tasnoova and Iwamoto (2005)  Approximately 16% of Nepal is under agricultural production (including grasslands), 50% of which is located in the Terai. Landholdings are small with 75% of farms < 1 ha in size and 47% of farms are < 0.5 ha. In the Terai, it is estimated that a typical farming family of six would require about 0.42 ha in order to be food secure. With high population pressure, there is little scope to bring new areas into cultivation (Joshi et al., 2012).Land reform has been a contentious issue on the government agenda with a High Level Scientific Land Reform Commission established to abolish feudal land ownership regimes and production relations.Moving from feudal land relations and modern property rights has been slow, however due to various reasons including lack of participation and unclear land ownership.Little investment in research and production of improved seed has occurred in Nepal. Breeder and foundation seed in 2009/2010 was estimated at 31.7 tons and 429 tons, respectively, which falls short of the demand for breeder seed of 340 tons and demand for 3,300 tons for foundation seed. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives reports only 5.4% of paddy seed and 5.6% of wheat seed are improved varieties. The government does not report the use of hybrid maize seed, however, hybrid maize is being used by farmers, likely sourced through unofficial means in India. There is significant scope to increase yields through improved seed; where improved paddy seed has been used and irrigated, yields have been shown to be up to 41% higher (Pullabhotla et al., 2011).  (Pullabhotla et al., 2011). It is reported that 90% of the seed used by farmers is supplied through informal channels (Joshi et al., 2012).Prior to input market deregulation in the 1990s, both seed and fertilizer were produced and distributed at subsidized prices by the state monopoly, Agricultural Inputs Company. Since then, the seed supply section was re-established as the National Seed Company (NSC) in 2002. Some seed is also supplied by the private sector, though many of these are seed dealers trading primarily vegetable and flower seeds with the cereal seed market dominated by the NSC. Scaling up public research and production facilities, increasing imports, increasing cooperation with other research agencies and encouraging private sector involvement are suggested paths to increasing the supply of improved seed (Pullabhotla et al., 2011).Nepal does not produce chemical fertilizer and is therefore wholly dependent on fertilizer imports and subject to world prices. As with seed, unofficial cross-border supply from India is an important source of fertilizer. Official estimates of fertilizer use do not report unofficial supply and therefore actual use is likely underestimated by official information sources (Pullabhotla et al., 2011)  (Joshi et al., 2012).Unofficial trade in fertilizer with India, small trade volumes resulting in high transaction costs, lack of transport infrastructure and disincentives related to high costs of maintaining a distribution network were identified as key constraints to improved fertilizer supply (Pullabhotla et al., 2011). While connectivity has been improving, some areas remain isolated with 9 districts and 11 district headquarters not accessible by road (IFPRI, 2010).Nepal has a high potential for both ground and surface water irrigation. The total cultivated irrigated area in 2008-09 was 32%. The area irrigated has been increasing at a rate of 1.9% between 2000-01 and 2008-09. The Terai has low levels of utilization with only 58.5% of the irrigable area irrigated according to statistics from the Department of Irrigation. Groundwater development is particularly promising given the high initial costs of infrastructure required for surface water use, issues related to sedimentation, as well as issues around regional cooperation and water sharing. Rural access to electrification is poor with only 50% of rural households reporting they used electricity for lighting in 2008. Access to electricity is important for groundwater irrigation, enabling cold storage, as well as value-added agricultural activities including food processing. There is immense opportunity for hydropower development and the potential to supply both domestic and regional electricity markets (IFPRI, 2010).Both shallow and deep tube wells were subsidized in Nepal by between 30% and 60% for shallow tube wells and up to 84% in the case of deep tube wells. These subsidies were terminated, however under conditions associated with an Asian Development Bank Agricultural Program Loan (Pullabhotla et al., 2011).Legislature related to water in Nepal includes the Water Resource Act (1992), the Water Resources Strategy (2002), the Irrigation Policy ( 2003) and the National Water Plan (2005). The Ministry of Irrigation is the main agency governing water resources and irrigation which has two main departments, the Department of Irrigation and the Department of Water Induced Disaster Management. It is the Department of Irrigation that is responsible for irrigation-sector development (Pullabhotla et al., 2011).The use of machinery in Nepal is very limited with 8.2% of farm operations using a tractor in 2001-02. The use of machinery is reportedly on the rise, particularly in the Terai with custom hiring arrangements becoming more common. Outmigration resulting in labour shortages is one of the drivers of increased uptake (Joshi et al., 2012, Pullabhotla et al., 2011). The small size of landholdings is one factor influencing farm mechanization as is a lack of investment constrained by ability to secure affordable credit. Domestic manufacturing of farm machinery is also very limited (Pullabhotla et al., 2011).The largest source of institutional credit is the Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL), though savings and credit cooperatives are also important. The ADBL is increasingly financing off-farm activities for agricultural value-addition. The informal credit sector remains important with 38% of Nepalese holding a loan from the informal sector in 2006 (Pullabhotla et al., 2011). Informal moneylenders can charge from 35-60% per annum in interest (Tiwary, 2005:142).Nepalese agriculture is dominated by smallholders, which coupled with low yields limits the marketable surplus of most farms, amounting to survey estimates of 21% and 26% for paddy and wheat, respectively. Marketing of output is further complicated by physical accessibility and transport infrastructure, and trade with India where minimum support prices and subsidies are in effect. Nepal's food trade deficit in 2007 was 31% in 2007 and was 3.5% in the case of cereals (Pullabhotla et al., 2011).The Agriculture Marketing Corporation (AMC) was established in 1971-72 to manage the public food distribution system to ensure food and input supply. With liberalization in the 1990s, its role has been very much reduced and since the country's Tenth Plan, it procures cereals from the open market at prevailing prices. Cereals procured in addition to food aid are destined to 30 districts in the country that lack road access. Overall, its activities are limited, now accounting for less than 1% of the total production of key crops (Pullabhotla et al., 2011, IFPRI, 2010).The cereals market is dominated by private traders and millers with 70% of rice purchased by wholesalers directly from millers. Local traders in the villages connect farmers with millers. To increase private sector involvement in agriculture, the Agro Enterprise Centre was established to strengthen agro enterprises and increase the output of high valued agricultural output. Cooperatives have also been growing in Nepal, particularly for higher value agricultural output. The number of cooperatives grew from 830 in 1990 to 9,362 in 2007. The National Cooperative Federation (NCF) is the representative organization at the national level, composed of over 1.2 million members (Pullabhotla et al., 2011).The Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) is the country's main agricultural research institute. NARC collaborates closely with CGIAR Centres for plant breeding (Joshi et al., 2012). Agricultural extension is undertaken through the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Livestock Services, offering extension support through service centres (District Agriculture Development Offices) covering between two and four village development committees. Extension services are, however, strained with one extension worker per 2,606 ha of cropped area or one extension worker per 3,204 households in 2007 (Pullabhotla et al., 2011). Once a 'training and visit' system, due to capacity constraints, the extension model has developed into one of 'service on demand'. Farmers are able to access extension services, but are required to visit their local service centre which may be hours away from their homes (Joshi et al., 2012). Shrestha (2012) studied the farm-retail rice price spread in Nepal to assess the potential existence of unfair pricing, and to understand the factors influencing marketing margins and profits at different stages of the value chain. A cross section of 4 districts, 100 farmers, 100 wholesalers and 100 retailers were surveyed for market price information in 2008. In analysis of the movement of rice from farm to wholesale markets, Shrestha found three explanatory variables to have a significant impact on farm wholesale marketing margins: wholesale price, marketing cost and market information. A 1 rupee/kg increase in marketing cost increased marketing margins by 0.616; a wholesale price increase of 1 rupee/kg increased marketing margins by 0.455, and; market-related information tended to reduce marketing margins and enhance efficiency. In addition, the quantity of rice traded in the wholesale market and the wholesalers' share of the market did not have a significant influence on marketing margins (Shrestha, 2012).From wholesale to retail markets, retail price and wholesale to retail marketing cost had a significant and positive effect on wholesale to retail marketing margins. A 1 rupee/kg increase in marketing cost increased marketing margins by 1.09 rupees and a 1 rupee/kg increase in retail price increase marketing margins by 0.20. The quantity of rice and the retailer share of the market had an insignificant effect on marketing margins (Shrestha, 2012).Finally, in evaluating movement of rice from the farm to retail markets, retail price and marketing cost were shown to have a significant impact on marketing margins. The retail price of rice increasing by 1 rupee/kg, increased marketing margins by 0.47 rupees/kg while a 1 rupee/kg increase in marketing cost increased marketing margins by 0.84 rupees/kg. Again, the market share of the retailer did not have a significant impact on marketing margins (Shrestha, 2012).8.6 Key differences and implications for food security interventionsBoth Bangladesh and Nepal began liberalizing their markets and reducing domestic support for agriculture in the 1990s, though Nepal has been less successful. Bangladesh offers a low level of domestic support to agriculture while in India, large subsidies are offered, particularly for fertilizer. The penetration of subsidies in Bihar and West Bengal is less than in other regions of India while the dysfunctional PFDS in Bihar and West Bengal offer further disincentive for producing foodgrains.Bangladesh is ahead of the curve with regards to HYV seed, but could still achieve productivity improvements with greater supply. In West Bengal and Bihar, limited improvements in yields, grain quality and taste, the price of seed, farmgate price of HYV paddy and farmer awareness all partially explain a lack of uptake. Legislation in favour of the patenting of seed has been shown to be effective in increasing private sector investment in the case of maize in Bangladesh. Research into the development of HYV and in innovative ways of getting seed to farmers when demand is greatest is important in all regions.Investigating the potential for farmers to add value to their product can enhance food security. Bangladesh's experience in this regards is interesting, where lower quality rice is being processed by mills and transformed to higher quality fine rice. Since the value added is created by the processors, farmers do not capture these margins. The Bangladesh experience indicates that it appears that labour and input outlays are similar for the production of different qualities of rice, increasing production of higher yielding varieties of fine rice seed could increase both producer and consumer surplus.A low ratio of the number of extension agents to farmers is symptomatic of the EGP. Fostering linkages between research universities and institutes and NGOs can be a viable model to getting appropriate technologies to farmers as well as generating awareness with regards to their entitlements. In the case of Nepal, farming is a relatively recent activity. Knowing what basic capabilities are required and developing delivery options could generate significant gains at low cost.Low levels of irrigation in West Bengal, Bihar and Nepal partially explain their poor agricultural performance. Access to electrification is a significant barrier to increasing irrigation and as a result, ground water pumps are largely diesel-operated in the EGP, exposing farmers to international price fluctuations which would have a significant impact on agricultural profitability. In North West Bangladesh and in West Bengal in particular, there is concern around groundwater depletion. What is the reality of groundwater supply in the EGP? How can research be designed to inform ground water extraction policy?Overall, why is rice production an economically viable proposition in the North West of Bangladesh, but much less so, and often only a subsistence activity, in West Bengal, Bihar and the Nepalese Terai? Does the answer lie in relative input-output prices? Variable yields, cropping strategies, number of crops per year? Differing availability of infrastructure and transport margins? A systematic comparative cost benefit and value chain analysis of key agricultural commodities conducted in each country of the EGP region would shed light on potential intervention points to enhance food security. Comparative studies of this nature do not exist in the literature. Cost benefit and value chain analyses that do exist are for a single country or region, are often out-dated, and employ methods that render the results incomparable.What has been the impact of market liberalization on agricultural development in the EGP? Both Bangladesh and Nepal liberalized significantly in the 1990s, though Nepal is lagging behind in terms of productivity. India on the other hand has maintained tight controls on trade and provides substantial support to its agricultural sector in the form of subsidies (the PFDS, while relatively small in Bangladesh and Nepal, is a behemoth in India and results in significant distortions; market liberalization resulted in the downsizing of the PFDS in Bangladesh and Nepal). What sorts of trading arrangements could leverage comparative advantages and enhance food security in the EGP?In Bihar and West Bengal's regime of agricultural market distortions, what role can conservation agriculture play? What are the relative gains between research that serves to correct market failure and that which aims to deliver productivity increases?9 Nature and role of Public Food Distribution SystemsThe GOI established the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Agricultural Prices Commission (APC) in the 1964 to 1965 financial year. The FCI is a large parastatal trading corporation responsible for procurement, storage, transportation and distribution of foodgrains, while the APC provides advice on agricultural commodity pricing. Since the mid-1960s, India's PFDS pursues three policy goals: cope with emergencies e.g. drought; distribute fairly priced food to the poor; and guarantee remunerative prices to farmers. The FCI dealt with 10-15% of total Indian foodgrain production in the 1980s by procuring in surplus production areas. However, foodgrain distribution is very uneven with the all India average during the 1990s being only 14 kg per household per year (Mooj, 1999:115).There is agreement among authors that the PFDS in Bihar has been particularly dysfunctional -corrupted and politicised by the appointment of local level politicians. Reporting during the Yadav reign in Bihar, Mooj compares the all-India average diversion of PFDS foodgrain of 31% of rice and 26% of wheat with Bihar's loss of 64% of rice and 44% of wheat. Less than 25% of foodgrain was procured from Bihar in 1995 to 1996, but since foodgrains have become cheaper, Bihar's off-take increased to 75% in 1998 (Mooj, 1999:115). The reasons for this poor performance were attributed to the fact that the sole PFDS wholesale agent in the state, the Bihar State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation (BSFCSC), lacked adequate infrastructure (e.g. godowns, trucks, fuel, drivers etc). Mooj found that the corporation was in such poor financial shape, dealers were relying upon informal moneylenders to advance money every month to purchase foodgrain, and some BSFCSC staff had not received a wage for 18 months (Mooj, 1999:117;2003:4).Through structural adjustment programs in the 1990s, international agencies induced the idea of targeting public food distribution towards the most food insecure so as to reduce PFDS expenditure.The broad policy approach of market liberalisation has been to enhance the role of the markets while deploying supplementary safety nets to ensure food security (Ganesh- Kumar et al, 2010:3).In this policy climate, the PFDS came under increasing critique as too costly, leaky and insufficient to ensure food security. However, the critique is framed in terms of fiscal performance rather than the food security of the poor, and considerable popular opposition to targeting occurred on the latter basis. Nonetheless, targeting was introduced in 1997 by distinguishing between Above Poverty Line Households (APL) and Below Poverty Line Households (BPL). Below Poverty Line censuses were conducted by India's state governments in 1997 and repeated in 2002 (Khera, 2011:39). Antyodaya cards were introduced in 2001 to provide a larger foodgrain subsidy to the poorest of the poor. The proportion of BPL households the GOI is willing to subsidise in each state is fixed with the National Planning Commission's poverty estimates.Targeting has had some serious perverse effects in the Indian context:... the number of ration cards handled by each fair price shop dealer shrank with the introduction of the targeted PDS. Low commissions combined with fewer cards made most Fair price Shops financially unviable, a strong incentive (if not compulsion) to cheat (Khera, 2011:46).The combination of rice volatility and state government policies has made targeting variable throughout India. APL households lost their subsidised foodgrain entitlements in 2001 when the GOI raised the foodgrain price above the market price, but re-entered system when market prices rose against the Government Issue price. The GOI raised foodgrain retail prices several times between 1990 and 1995 without lowering foodgrain procurement prices which not only lowered sales but added to a huge public foodgrain stockpile (Mooj, 1999:114-115). In 2010, the Supreme Court ordered that these stocks by reduced by increasing PFDS entitlements (Khera, 2011:38).Bihar is described by Khera as a 'languishing state' along with Jharkhand and Rajasthan in terms of implementing targeting (Khera, 2011:36). Below poverty line household lists in these states were found to be very patchy, with enormous 'exclusion errors', including entire hamlets and younger households. No arrangements to update the lists existed to compensate for the inflexibility of centrally imposed caps (state governments cannot alter these caps; they can only issue additional cards). Despite a Supreme Court interim order directing vulnerable subgroups to be included compulsorily on the Antyodaya list, landless widows and tribal groups were found to be excluded. The proportion of full entitlement purchased by households remained low in Bihar. Only 18% of below poverty line households reported obtaining their full foodgrain quota, corruption in kerosene and sugar distribution was reported, and 33% reported getting poor quality grain at last purchase (Khera, 2011:40-42).Targeting meant that the Bihari fair price shop traders' foodgrain allotment fell by 50%, while leaving their commission, comparable to landless labourer wages, unchanged (Mooj, 1999:117;2003:4). Private transport contractors benefited hugely: 'For a long time, transportation of PDS commodities was not a lucrative job. But since the introduction of targeting, the price difference between PDS foodgrains and open market foodgrains is huge' (Mooj, 2003:10). Whereas the PFDS Guidelines state that Gram Panchayets and Sabhas are responsible for identifying eligible families, no elections have been held since 1978 (Mooj, 2003:8). In order for dealers to pay for a PFDS fair price shop license and monthly bribes to the BSFCSC, they retain ration cards and divert part of the commodities for sale on the open market (Mooj, 2003:4). He concludes:In short, many of the intended effects did not materialise. The Public Distribution System did not become less costly; in several states, the governments did not even seriously begin identifying the real beneficiaries; and many of the poor in a poor state like Bihar did not benefit (Mooj, 1999: 116).However, enforcement of the PFDS is still poor in the state of Bihar where Khera's respondents complained that the Fair Price Shop was only open two to three days a month. All fair price shops are run by private dealers In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. However, Andhra Pradesh is the only state where the PFDS is working well in spite of large scale involvement of private dealers in its implementation (Khera, 2011:42-45).However, the PFDS was perceived by Khera's Bihari research respondents as having improved: 'The increase in implicit subsidy has had the effect of enhancing voice, and no one seems willing to forego their ration anymore'. Households generally knew what they were entitled to and price reductions and use of round figures made it easier for people to calculate and prevent overcharging (Khera, 2011:41). The Bihari respondents were more interested in cash transfers than respondents from the other five states studied, a reflection of their relatively high rates of financial inclusion, with 46% of households possessing bank or Post Office accounts.However, food security was a palpable concern for single (often widowed) women, the elderly and very poor who were apprehensive about financial institutions, scarred by bitter experience with NREGA payments delayed by up to a year. For these households, the PFDS is more flexible as any member of the household can undertake this task (Khera, 2011:44-45). Also worth noting is the interest by Khera's respondents in public foodgrains other than rice: '... a majority of respondents (79%) said that they would buy millets or maize should they be provided at subsidised prices under the PDS'. As such grains are more nutritious than the fine grains of wheat and rice, are more popular among the poor, and are suited to dryland farming, their procurement could be cheaper (Khera, 2011:43).Since 2003 many Indian states felt that the caps on who could receive subsidised foodgrains was too stringent and have initiated state schemes to issue more BPL cards and reduce PFDS prices further than the central government. Most notably, Tamil Nadu has offered free grain and distributes pulses and edible oils at subsidised prices since 2011. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh does not employ the BPL category at all such that close to 80% of its population is entitled to PFDS commodities. Himachal Pradesh has a universal scheme but offers a less generous subsidy to households above the poverty line (Khera, 2011:36-38). Simple and effective reform measures have also been employed by state governments to reduce program leakage:Most state governments have now instituted a system of pre-announced and fixed dates for distribution of Public Distribution System rations ...Regularity and predictability in opening days and hours is a major convenience for rural households, and also important to prevent diversion of Public Distribution System quotas (Khera, 2011:42).Bihar's recent experience with the PFDS may provide insight into the potential gains from improving the PFDS. A bench of justices in 2011 was appointed to develop a plan for the computerisation of India PFDS to enable tracking subsidized food grains from storage facilities to ration card holders, whose cards would be replaced with smart cards. This system had already been implemented successfully in Chhattisgarh. The impetus for the development of such a scheme was to curb leakage along the supply chain to the poor (Mahapatra, 2011).In October of 2012, the Supreme Court Order to implement computerization had Bihar fast catching up with the rest of India in implementation (Chaudhary, 2012). The system, or ePDS, is composed of an integrated weight management system, a Management Information System, inventory management, GPStracked fleet for foodgrain transportation, and mobile SMS-based information and grievance system. Through the SMS system, citizens are advised of the availability of grains and Panchayat vigilance committee are informed of the distribution of grains to dealers. While these changes are targeted at the distribution of grains to beneficiaries, government procurement of grains should also have to adjust to meet this demand. While correlation is not causation, rice production in the state of Bihar nearly doubled between 2010-11 and 2011-2012. Furthermore, the USDA (2013) reports that government procurement of rice between 2010-11 and 2011-2012 in Bihar increased from 0.88 million tons to 1.53 million tons; in West Bengal, the increase over the same period was from 1.31 million tons to 2.04 million tons (USDA, 2013).Figure 33 shows the share of rice from West Bengal and wheat from Bihar compared to the Punjab which accounts for the greatest share of procured rice and wheat. In 2012, Bihar contributed 1% of Indian procured wheat compared with 39% in the Punjab while West Bengal in 2011 contributed 3% of procured rice compared with 27% in the Punjab. In 2008/09, 48.4% of cultivated rice in West Bengal was irrigated while 57.2% of the rice paddy in Bihar was irrigated. The national average of irrigated to cultivated rice was 58.7%. As for wheat for the same year, 91.7% was irrigated in Bihar and 74% in West Bengal, compared with the national average of 91.3%. Agriculture's share of total electricity consumption in 2008/09 was 16.0% in Bihar, 3.0% in West Bengal, 31.9% in the Punjab and 38.2% in Haryana, compared with the national average of 20.4% (Ministry of Agriculture, 2012).Bangladesh's Civil Supplies Department (CSD) was maintained virtually intact during Bangladesh's period as East Pakistan in order to guarantee urban rice and wheat supplies, but forced sales at low prices made procurement ineffective (Khan and Jamal, 1997:477-478). Modified rationing was introduced for the rural poor in 1949 with partial and variable coverage continuing throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Volatility in the Public Food Distribution System was due to the Bengali language movement of 1952 and opposition party win in the provinces in 1954. In 1955, West Pakistan dismantled the PFDS only to reverse that decision in early 1956 due to the rise in rice prices (Ahmed et al, 2000:215-8). Early PFDS programs employed minimal to no targeting of the food insecure. The 'grandfather program' of statutory rationing (1956) encompassed all residents of urban East Bengal by issuing ration cards to purchase a steeply subsidised weekly allotment of grain. The program was skewed towards the middle to upper income groups while dealers sold 95% of the grain on the open market. This subsidy was decreased through 1980s and the scheme discontinued altogether in 1994. The rural counterpart of statutory rationing, Pally (Rural) Rationing sold rice subsidised by 25% to administratively selected poor, and again had a high leakage rate of 70% (Ahmed, 2000:218).Twenty years of steady expansion of the PFDS was mostly fuelled by imported food aid in the form of wheat. By the early 1970s, food aid shipments comprised 75% of total public foodgrain supplies, and formed a source of revenue for both the East Pakistan and West Pakistan Governments. The new government of Bangladesh continued expansion. By the mid-1970s, the Bangladeshi PFDS was at its zenith with domestic rice procurement accounting for over a third of public food resources expenditure. Donors pushed for a re-orientation of policy and a new generation of poverty oriented, in-kind distribution programs were introduced (Ahmed et al, 2000:215-131). This shift has changed the 'rules of the game' in terms of public foodgrain procurement and distribution in Bangladesh:Because most resources in the form of food aid come from outside the country, external views have shaped the structure and focus of the PFDS ... [consequently] Recent large reductions in resource flows through the PFDS have greatly reduced the size and influence of key interest groups, particularly the ration recipients and the millers. Consequently, their interest and impact has waned markedly (Ahmed et al., 2000:135).The government share of foodgrain stocks ranged from 30% in the mid-1960s to 5% in 1998. Government foodgrain stocks dwindled to 400,000 tons in 1998 and private stocks now exceed government stocks by a factor of four. The government continues to be viewed as an unpredictable player and is closely observed despite the relaxing of anti-hoarding laws in the 1990s:... production and trader confidence in non-confiscation have grown, so have private foodgrain stocks. Private rice and paddy stocks per capita have roughly doubled since the late 1960s... Perhaps most striking is the dominance of on-farm stocks, which throughout the year systematically account for more than three-fourths of all private stocks (Chowdhury and Haggblade, 2000:82).Furthermore:Recent econometric estimates quantify what traders suggest -that public rice stocks crowd out private trader stocks, although they do not affect on-farm holdings (Chowdhury and Haggblade, 2000: 83).Crow, however, questions this widespread assumption that low margins and competitive efficiency now prevail in the private foodgrain trading system of Bangladesh. He provides examples of how vertical rice market integration provides opportunities for large margins and market segmentation to persist (Crow, 1990:16). He argues:If ... urban and rural markets are not always competitive and integrated, but may instead be segmented, then the new policies may not achieve a greater degree of food security (Crow, 1990:41).Support for procurement at least is put forward by Khan and Jamal (1997) who point out that: '... the policy of keeping the procurement price below the wholesale price is fully consistent with the idea that food grains should be procured from small traders and actual growers.' These authors calculate that Bangladeshi smallholders would have received 10% less income without a support price. They state that because the rice sector constitutes 30% of the rural economy, the rural population's income should increase by 4% due to the procurement program alone (Khan and Jamal, 1997: 480-481).While the 1960s saw a single deep rice price trough following the principal aman harvest, the emergence of dry season boro in the 1990s introduced a second price peak, which shortened the trough to four months (Chowdhury and Haggblade, 2000. 73-75). Seasonal price volatility correlates to the acuteness of hunger during the September to October lean season (monga) when food prices peak without programs available to target this gap (Ahmed, 2000:229). Noting that the need overwhelms available national resources (Ahmed, 2000:216), Ahmed summarises the relative efficiencies of the now targeted intervention programs as follows:• Food for work (FFW) program was implemented after the 1975 famine and has a dual role of providing wage employment and developing rural infrastructure. Wages are in-kind (usually wheat) and the program leaks at the rate of 30-35%. Most expenditure (85%) occurs during the January to May dry season which competes with farm labour demand in irrigated areas. This program cannot address lean season needs as earthworks need to be conducted after the monsoon season; • Vulnerable group development (VGD) was also initiated in 1975 and provides in-kind wages (wheat) to administratively selected poor women. A free monthly ration of wheat has been provided for two years since 1988 along with a package of development services (literacy, market skills, legal awareness, credit).Program leakage is estimated at 14%;• Rural Maintenance Program (RMP) began in 1983 and employs poor women to maintain roads. Wages are paid in cash paid to a group account. This program suffers minimal leakage; and • Food for Education (FFE) program has been in existence since 1993. Wheat is provided in exchange for school attendance. The program has been criticised for missing the ultra-poor and there are quality issues with the grain used for payment (Ahmed, 2000:218-221).Because food transfers involve such bulky commodities, they immediately raise program costs by 25% due to handling and transporting. As pointed out by Chowdhury and Haggblade:In Bangladesh monetization involves the sale of imported foodgrain at port followed by cash distribution to beneficiaries. Given pervasive evidence of large-scale de facto monetization by foodaid scheme managers and recipients, public monetization at port could reduce the double transport costs ... (2000:97).On the other hand, wheat is a less desirable grain than rice which has the advantage of a self-targeting characteristic: '... making it a preferred commodity for targeted food interventions in rural areas, where it has the potential to increase the cost-effectiveness of such programs.' (Ahmed, 2000:229). Ahmed argues that leakage can be reduced by strengthening the participation of local bodies, along with measures, to ensure entitlements are received:FFE and VGD operate with low leakages by offering recipients standard, well-publicized entitlements; establishing group solidarity through regular monthly meetings; and physically gathering beneficiaries during distribution, which enables them to take collective action if necessary to ensure delivery of rations (Ahmed, 2000: 221).Khan and Jama's economic modelling suggests that an: '... effective price support program can be devised by reducing the governmental procurement by 50% and providing credit to farmers directly after the harvest in proportion to the marketable surplus of the farmers'. These authors calculate that this policy could reduce government spending by US$100,000,000/year (1997:485). However:Episodes of production volatility have left many observers cautious about further reducing public involvement in foodgrain markets. As both government and private traders continue to digest the major downsizing in direct public foodgrain marketing initiated during the early 1990s, recent events suggest that future change in public involvement may be evolutionary rather than revolutionary (Chowdhury and Haggblade, 2000:97).Nepal traditionally exported rice to India, especially to neighbouring towns from the rice surplus areas of the Terai while food deficits in the hills and mountains are longstanding (Rawal, 1984:46). Although there was public sector involvement as early as 1934 under the Rana regime it was not until 1965 that the Rana regime created the Food Management Corporation (FMC) in the famine year of 1965 (Rawal, 1986:3) to distribute subsidised rice to Kathmandu valley consumers, the police and army. Interest free loans were provided six months in advance to millers and traders to procure rice at 6% below the prevailing market price.A food crisis in 1971 resulted in an Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) being created by amalgamating the FMC with the Agricultural Supply Corporation (ASC). The AMC concentrated on supplying the Kathmandu valley and operating for two years, it couldn't do justice to both functions and in 1974 the Royal Government separated NFC and AIC and defined the NFC's mandate as to undertake procurement and distribution on the basis of a region's degree of food security. The Royal Government also established seven Rice Export Companies (RECs). Initially the RECs supplied NFC with 20-39% of their exports at 42% less than the export price. As exports declined so did levy based procurements and, lacking the financial resources to procure grain directly from farmers the RECs first resorted to the open market in 1977. The RECS were dissolved in 1980 (Rawal, 1984:44-51).Using porters, aircraft, and pack animals to transport grain costs 2.6 times the open market procurement price and: 'Transportation costs often determine the level of support given to various deficit areas ...' (Rawal, 1984:50). The PFDS subsidy cost the Royal Government Rs 40 million annually making it increasingly difficult to fund and the subsidy was cut from R80 million to Rs 32 million in 1983-1984 (Rawal, 1986:15). The situation has not improved since democracy has been restored. Nepal's food aid programs have become ineffective due to the decrease in foodgrain production and corresponding increase in demand (Bhandari and Grant, 2007:18).The uniquely wide disparity between Nepal's three regions means that amenability to markets and access to food are regionally differentiated. Liberalisation appears to have reinforced the hierarchical ranking of regions and reflects the country's lack of spatial integration and lack of government investment in the infrastructure needed to achieve it.Modelling undertaken by Pyakuryal et al (2010) using seven household categories and 16 commodity producing sectors disaggregated by location, suggests there is a strong rationale for managing food flows between food surplus and deficit regions and, further, that: 'Given these effects of liberalisation, with winners and losers, there is a clear basis for public safety nets' (Pyakuryal et al 2010:103). While: 'The incidence of poverty does not vary significantly between the hills and the Terai, but it is extremely high in the mountains', with the most food insecure residing in the far western mountains (Pyakuryal et al, 2010:93).However, the NFC that is meant to be the conduit between surplus and deficit regions and despite having undergone several reforms since 2000, still mis-targets, is inefficient with marketing and transportation costs resulting in substantial accumulated losses (Pyakuryal et al, 2010:92-96). NFC's accumulated losses until 1990 = NR 884 million rising to 905 million by 1996 (Pyakuryal et al, 2010:106). Restructure of the NFC resulted in a reduction of depots from 135 to 67 (including two in Maoist affected areas) and of branch offices from 26 to 19. The open market was used for procurement and procurement declined as the still small, Nepali private sector offers a higher price than the NFC. The need to provide godowns in deficit areas, adhere to minimum quality standards as per the Food Grain Quality Act 1966, and the lack of increase in the transport subsidy since 2001 means the public sector has higher costs. The minimum support price (MSP) was discontinued. Sackings and redundancies reduced the NFC workforce by 430 before union pushback ended the policy (Pyakuryal et al, 2010:106-110).Although the share of foodgrain to remote areas has increased, it is not targeted at needy households and leakages and inefficiencies occur. For example, foodgrain goes first to government employees and teachers.A large proportion of the subsidy is spent on the use of air transport whereas road transport via Tibet would be cheaper and also would provide employment. The World Food Program (WFP) runs a food-forportering program, using the poor and landless as porters; an innovation that is yet to be replicated by the government (Pyakuryal et al, 2010:104).Rawal recommends the use of proximity criteria to link procurement from surplus regions with distribution to adjoining deficit regions to save money and achieve a balance between procurement and distribution in each region by stopping cross-transportation of grain. He also suggests initiating procurement in hill areas where agricultural development projects are being implemented and an increase in yield are expected. A differential pricing policy could also be used to reflect the cost of transport and strengthen local production efforts. Greater reliance could be placed on transport using animals and porters (porters can carry 50 kg; sheep 15 kg and mules 80 kg) (Rawal, 1986:15-19). Finally, Rawal comments that: '... more important than the structure and type of organisation involved are the drive and energy with which such policies are executed' (Rawal, 1986: 19). Pyakuryal et al, (2010) conclude that there is a strong basis for exploring public-private partnership to improve Nepal's PFDS. In the short to medium run, more involvement of the private sector could be encouraged with the use of incentives to share transportation costs and storage facilities and shift to ground transport to reduce costs and create employment, following the WFP example. In the long run, spatial integration of markets is needed using physical and marketing infrastructure to link remote regions to surplus regions and to provide entry points for international trade (Pyakuryal et al, 2010:110).9.4 Key differences and implications for food security interventionsIndia has the largest PFDS in the world. Bangladesh's PFDS manages a small share of total grain production and is targeted through in-kind programs such as food for work. Nepal's system is also small, less targeted and suffers from logistical challenges. All systems are plagued with problems of leakages. Given the importance of the PFDS in influencing foodgrain supply in India, understanding how it works and why it doesn't is imperative for enhancing food security. In Bangladesh, reducing leakage through better governance, accountability and awareness is important while in Nepal, overcoming logistical challenges in getting food to the most marginalized is the key obstacle.In India, the effectiveness of the PFDS in acquiring and distributing food differs regionally. In some states such as the Punjab and Haryana, farmers are able to access the procurement price. In Bihar and West Bengal, the system does not function as designed and in many cases, farmers are not paid the procurement price and often are forced to 'distress sell' their harvest to partially recover costs of production. As a result, the appropriate market signals which trigger farmers to produce are distorted in Bihar and West Bengal and farmers lack incentive to produce surplus. It may be argued that agricultural research for development which may serve to increase productivity by 10-20% will be insufficient to stimulate significant increases in output until the PFDS is corrected. Greater output will go to waste in the absence of procurement. Policy research aimed at understanding the PFDS in Bihar and West Bengal can help identify bottlenecks and potential intervention points.The potential gains from improving the PFDS in Bihar and West Bengal may be significant. With the introduction of computerized public distribution or ePDS, citizens are advised of the availability of grains and the Panchayat are informed of the supply of grains to local dealers. Individuals are empowered with knowledge of their entitlements, while the Panchayat may provide a degree of oversight. While this mechanism will see to those that are entitled will have access to grains, government procurement will also have to keep pace in meeting demand. ","tokenCount":"47470"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1765dd2013000de830da04f3d4d36e7a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4e1745ca-a151-4b47-b60b-3dfb7260644f/retrieve","id":"-883587816"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0188408d-bbeb-407f-a2db-6901d7106971","pagecount":"79","content":"The Innovation Workshop produced several important outputs, described in some detail throughout this report.Design principles -Central among the outputs from the meeting was the clarification and refinement of a set of essential design principles that, if used in designing a breeding program, will ensure the integration of critically important gender considerations in decision-making. The participants did more than create a better list of must-haves, however; they identified where in the breeding cycle that gender-related questions must be asked and answered, as well as the kind of information needed to adequately do so. It is clear that gender-relevant decision criteria must be applied early in the breeding cycle, when making decisions about targeting, sampling and breeding objectives, as well as throughout the rest of the steps in the product development cycle.A three-day Innovation in Gender-Responsive Breeding workshop was held in Nairobi, Kenya, as a follow-on to an initial gender in breeding workshop held in October 2016, and organized by the CGIAR Gender and Agricultural Research Network. That workshop sought to stimulate active cross-fertilization of ideas from different breeding, genomics and social science perspectives and experiences and to produce some clearly expressed \"must-have\" features of gender-responsive plant or animal breeding program.The 2017 Innovation Workshop reported here was organized by the CGIAR Gender in Breeding Initiative (GBI) and used the 2016 \"must-haves\" as a starting point for developing more refined \"design principles\" that can be used to integrate the explicit consideration of gender issues into breeding program decision-making. The goal: to help catalyze a deliberate shift towards gender-responsive breeding in the CGIAR.In addition to producing more refined design principles for integrating gender into decision-making about breeding, the workshop captured the views of its participants regarding the basis for those principles, as well as their thoughts about three important \"input papers\" that were presented in draft form during the meeting -Gender and Social Targeting in Plant Breeding; Setting Breeding Objectives and Priorities; and Case Studies of Gender-Responsive Breeding Programs. They also made significant contributions to the development of potential \"uptake pathways\" for expediting a shift in the CGIAR towards mainstreaming gender considerations in breeding programs, as well as to the development of a fundraising strategy aimed at sustaining the momentum of gender in breeding efforts across the CG System.Participants also learned about the important progress being made by the Gender and Breeding Post-Doctoral Fellow Initiative that was launched in 2016. The seven PDFs currently working in the Initiative (five in Africa and two in Southeast Asia) are jointly exploring common and unique aspects of breeding research in the CGIAR, and developing innovative methods and tools for integrating gender into decision-making. The idea behind the PDF Initiative is to strengthen current and future interdisciplinary work and influence the emerging conceptual framework for enhancing gender and social targeting in breeding research.A brief is being prepared describing the key gender-responsive decision points or stagegates around the breeding cycle, which will link with the more detailed explanations of social targeting, market segments, customer profiles and product profiles described in the input papers. This brief will provide a foundation for setting breeding objectives and for implementing the successive stages of the breeding cycle in a gender-responsive manner.Uptake pathway for promoting gender-responsive breeding -One of the workshop's small groups focused on developing an uptake pathway aimed at facilitating the adoption of gender-responsive breeding approaches. It started by delineating the theory of change, and then identified the essential and secondary outputs that should be produced by GBI to catalyze uptake. Essential outputs include a compelling evidence base in support of gender-responsive breeding, the design principles, and an effective advocacy strategy. Secondary outputs include a roadmap for collaborating with other platforms in the System, establishing and curating a vibrant community of practice engaged in advocacy and supporting gender in breeding, a library of case studies, and producing a genderresponsive breeding toolkit. The group went on to define the expected outcomes of the Initiative's efforts, both at the \"next user\" and \"end user\" levels.Fundraising strategy -Another small group focused on developing a fundraising strategy that is closely linked to the uptake pathway work. The strategy identifies a set of project \"work packages\" or activities, which align closely with activities described in the uptake pathway. Two options for designing the fundraising effort were developed, as was a possible funding envelop (target) and a list of potential donors, many with a history of interest in gender issues.3Recommendations for institutional change -A fourth small group gave their attention to identifying the institutional changes that are needed to embed the design principles into gender-responsive breeding programs. In particular, the group noted that social scientists must be enabled to access and process relevant data, and that management needs to facilitate joint programming and decision-making by breeders, social scientists, economists and others at key points of the breeding cycle.The group asked: What needs to change in institutions to create an enabling environment for gender-responsive breeding? They defined \"Institutional change\" to mean change in the formal and informal rules that guide activities at four levels: breeding programs; institutes; the CG System; and the informal attitudes of all involved. In outlining the recommended changes, the group identified those that should be considered \"must haves\" at each of the four levels, and in some instances, they suggested how to go about achieving the needed changes.The World Café -On Day 2 of the workshop, participants engaged in an interactive sharing and discussion of approaches and tools relevant to gender-responsive breeding. This was called \"The World Café\", and essentially involved poster presentations to small groups which rotated, coupled with intensive Q&A with participants. The World Café provided an opportunity for refining the tool or approach presented and for critical thinking around how it can be applied by breeding programs and at what stage in the cycle. Ten presentations were made in two rounds, one before the lunch break and one after. The posters are included in Appendix 4, along with short summaries of comments about them from workshop participants.For summaries of all the small group discussions, see Appendix 1. The workshop agenda is presented in Appendix 2, and the list of participants can be found in Appendix 3.Widespread adoption and impact of new crop varieties and animal breeds on resourcepoor farms depends on the tangible benefits these research products provide for women and men farmers. For breeders to meet the needs of these users, they must understand the priorities that women and men assign to genetically determined traits. Many CGIAR breeding programs realize that if they overlook traits important to women users, this can exacerbate household food insecurity and poverty. But breeding programs still lack adequate practical methods and tools to help them be more gender responsive in their breeding efforts.A workshop on Gender, Breeding and Genomics was held in October 2016 (in Nairobi, Kenya) with support from the CGIAR Gender Network. 1 The workshop participants concluded that the knowledge and experience exist to construct, in a short time, a clear strategy for gender-responsive breeding, along with supporting methods, tools and practices. However, this knowledge is scattered in different sectors and disciplines and needs to be brought together through a multidisciplinary team effort. This realization led to establishing a CGIAR Gender and Breeding Initiative (GBI), which is working to:• Increase the development impact of breeding by recommending practical ways to improve gender responsiveness with key stakeholders, including investors, research managers, breeders, social scientists, farmers and other user groups;• Develop evidence-based methods and tools for gender-responsive targeting, implementation of breeding programs, and linkages with variety dissemination; and• Support a Community of Practice (CoP) for gender-responsive breeding to encourage active sharing and development of methods and tools.The GBI includes experts from across CGIAR Research Centers and Research Programs, is coordinated by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas and the International Potato Center, and is supported by CGIAR Funders.5As a follow-on to the 2016 meeting, the GBI held an \"Innovation Workshop\" in October 2017 (also in Nairobi) that involved many of the participants from the first consultation, augmented by a broader group of CGIAR scientists (there were a total of 41 participants in this second workshop).The primary goal of the 2017 Innovation Workshop was to help catalyze a shift towards gender-responsive breeding in the CGIAR, a change driven by the multidisciplinary team of scientists that participated in the 2016 workshop, as well as the energy and fresh perspectives of workshop participants new to the effort.GBI commissioned a set of three papers as key inputs to the workshop: 1) Gender and Social Targeting in Plant Breeding; 2) Setting Breeding Objectives and Priorities; and 3) Case Studies of Gender-Responsive Breeding Programs. Working drafts of the first two, and progress achieved on the third, were presented to participants on Day 1 and in the morning of Day 2 of the meeting. Abstracts of the input papers, which are now being refined, can be found in the next section of this report. The GBI and its activities are coordinated by a committee of plant and animal breeders, as well as social scientists from across CGIAR Research Programs, centers, and partner organizations. This committee is a multidisciplinary group committed to mainstreaming the explicit consideration of gender-related information when making decisions about plant and livestock breeding aimed at producing research products to be used by resource-poor smallholder farmers. There are 10 committee members: 7 These accomplished professionals bring a wide range of experience and expertise to bear on addressing gender and breeding issues. Profiles on each member can be found at: http://www.rtb.cgiar.org/gender-breeding-initiative/committee-members/. The Committee worked closely with an experienced workshop facilitator, Sue Canney-Davison of Pipal Ltd. (Nairobi), to design the processes used to generate the envisioned deliverables of the Innovation Workshop and Tiff Harris, a skilled communicator who was charged to write this report.The aim of the innovation workshop was to catalyze a shift to gender responsive breeding. It built on the outcomes of the 2016 workshop and benefited from the three main input papers. This set the scene for collectively drafting design principles for gender responsive breeding, laying out an uptake pathway and a linked funding strategy for the Gender and Breeding Initiative. About 50% of the participants also attended the 2016 workshop, which brought continuity to the discussions, which were seasoned with fresh perspectives and questions from those participants who had not.Day 1 started by sharing the key points and feedback from the 2016 workshop, and set the stage for the workshop by answering the questions: What did we learn from the 2016 meeting on \"Gender, Breeding and Genomics\", and what are the missing design elements for gender-responsive breeding that were identified in that workshop? The presentation began by highlighting the four principles of gender-responsive breeding (see glossary, poster 2.2, Appendix 4), and went on to describe what was needed to design and implement an effective gender-responsive breeding program:1) Evidence of gender-differentiated preferences that are economically significant for a large number of people; 2) \"Social Targeting and DemandAnalysis\" data and conclusions; 3) Identification of measurable trait values; 4) Understanding by breeders of how to achieve speedy selection for multiple target groups and their preferred traits; 5) Practical ways for breeders to set priorities among heritable traits for inclusion in breeding; and 8 6) Support from management in deploying multidisciplinary teams, including gender researchers and other social scientists, to make product advancement decisions in the context of the breeding cycle.This presentation (given by Jacqueline Ashby) provided context for the overall body of work, highlighted the emergence of a more inclusive breeding cycle model (see Figure 2), and shared the seven \"must haves\" for gender-responsive breeding that came from the 2016 meeting and form the foundation for the design principles.This was followed by presentations on and discussions of the three input papers that cover critical topics conceived at the 2016 workshop and delivered at this one. A presentation on Gender and Social Targeting in Breeding raised issues about the primary centrality of gender equity in a gender-responsive breeding cycle, as well as how to meaningfully layer gender disaggregated data, usually found in household surveys, onto currently available \"big datasets\". Another on Setting Breeding Objectives and Priorities highlighted some practical tools that can be used and re-emphasized the need to design research that amplifies understanding about why men and women may have different trait preferences, not just that they do. And a third presentation about Case Studies of Gender-Responsive Breeding Programs highlighted the complexity of identifying and adequately defining the deeply embedded cultural, social, and economic gender differences that occur across all parts of a breeding and trait selection study.Small group and plenary discussions following these presentations on Day 1 and Day 2 helped participants to internalize and make sense of how to be gender responsive, and made clear the multifaceted and complex aspects of the challenge. These discussions reinforced the decision to maintain the workshop's focus on first contextualizing, and then jointly creating practical and actionable design principles.In the afternoon of Day 2, useful tools and approaches were shared through a \"World Café\" approach (see Appendix 4) to maximize participants' exposure to one another's practical tools and findings before working in smaller groups for the remainder of the 9 meeting to develop the key design principles, ensure they are adequately comprehensive, and then synthesize and map them onto the breeding cycle. These efforts provided the basis for refining the collective group work into a 2-3-page brief, work that is moving forward now under the leadership of Jacqueline Ashby, supported by a smaller working group.Other groups of participants delineated an uptake pathway for GBI outputs, a fundraising strategy framework, and outlined the institutional changes that are needed to effectively implement a gender-responsive breeding program. A key group of participants was the gender and breeding post-doctoral fellows, whose work was presented on Day 1 and who actively contributed throughout the workshop. 10Authors: Alastair Orr, Cindy Cox and Jacqueline Ashby Gender and social targeting can improve the relevance and effectiveness of plant breeding programs intended to benefit resource-poor farmers. Currently, information about these farmers and their trait preferences is based on small-scale studies, which makes it difficult to set breeding priorities at the national or regional level. In consequence, their products may not meet the needs of resource-poor farmers, resulting in low adoption. We argue that plant breeding for resource-poor farmers requires a marketing approach. We show how the Segmenting-Targeting-Positioning (STP) framework from consumer marketing can be adapted to plant breeding programs for resource-poor farmers. We inventory large datasets, identify a minimum dataset of biophysical and socio-economic variables, and show how these variables can be layered for gender and social targeting at the national level. Finally, we suggest ways to improve the design of gender and social targeting studies in order to enhance their relevance for plant breeding programs.Author: Michel Ragot This presentation explained the need for setting breeding objectives in order for breeding to deliver varieties/breeds that create value for their stakeholders. It was noted that breeding had begun a long time before modern breeders and the separation of breeding as an activity from farming itself by farmers was what had created the need to set objectives. The presentation drew on a Survey Monkey of public and private breeding programs with 110 respondents, some initial more in-depth case studies of some selected breeding programs, and the author's personal insights into setting breeding objectives.From the survey, over 50% of private sector respondents strongly agreed that their organization used a formal process for setting breeding objectives; this compares to just over 30% of public sector respondents. Less than 10% disagreed that they used a formal process. The survey further showed large variation in terms of sources of information used and the stakeholders involved in setting breeding objectives. In particular, significant public/private and regional differences were found for socio-economic and/or genderdisaggregated data used in setting objectives.Information about markets and demand is a key element in setting breeding objectives. This information was often \"collected\" directly by breeders through interactions with 11 market actors (growers, value chain entities, and end-users), especially in smaller organizations, but by marketing groups in larger organizations.In terms of the numbers of traits used in product profiles, about 40% used from 6-10 traits, 30% less than 5, and 20% more than 10. Almost all those using more than 10 traits were in the private sector. A useful template for developing product profiles was presented, which includes key traits, their reference levels, and the priorities given to each.The presentation concluded that using a formal and documented process to set breeding objectives and priorities was almost unanimously recognized as a desirable/good practice. However, reality often lags intentions. Several inhibiting elements were identified.Including the need to enhance market \"pull\" on breeding objectives, and the operational constraints in formally setting breeding objectives. It was noted that most successful breeding programs generally had or have clear and persistent objectives and priorities.Presenters: Stefania Grando, Hale Ann Tufan, and Catherine Meola During the \"Gender, Breeding and Genomics\" workshop held in October 2016, strong interest was expressed in developing a book or collection of case studies about genderresponsive breeding programs. Thirteen potential studies were presented at the 2016 workshop, and the initial discussion of these focused on determining the extent to which each study answered five guiding questions: 1) At what stage of the breeding cycle did you identify gender-differentiated preferences for one or more traits and what were these preferences? 2) How were these preferences identified? 3) Which changes in the structure of the breeding program did you make to address differences in preferences identified? 4) Which specific tool(s) was (were) used to address gender-differentiated preferences? and 5) What were the final products and their uptake by men and/or women users, and what benefits (e.g., improved food security, income) did different user groups obtain as a result?As a next step, a broad set of criteria was developed to further refine the selection process. These criteria range from the study being clearly mapped to a step in the breeding cycle, to the collection and use of sex-disaggregated data, to the utility of the findings, conclusions, and discussion in developing design principles for genderresponsive breeding programs. Considerable selection emphasis is also given to assessing the synthesis of the tools used in each case study, and the lessons learned from the work.12 A total of 7 case studies from the original 13 were submitted and were sufficiently well developed by the time of the workshop; these were briefly summarized during the Innovation Workshop. The presenters emphasized, however, that there is scope for additional case studies to be included in the collection. Three steps in the breeding cycle are especially weak or underrepresented: 1) The identification of new variation; 2) the release of new varieties; and 3) the production and distribution of improved seed. Moreover, livestock-and fish-related case studies are missing entirely from the current collection. The presenters made a plea to the workshop participants for additional case studies to fill these gaps.What did we do?The innovation workshop was intended to help catalyze a shift to gender responsive breeding. The workshop involved the multidisciplinary team from the first workshop and a broader group of participants. In the first part of the workshop they discussed commissioned papers on social targeting, public and private sector approaches to setting breeding objectives and case studies.Woven through this first part was guidance on evidence based design principles for gender responsive breeding. These design principles built on the \"must-haves\" for gender responsive breeding from the first workshop (Figure 1).During Day 2 of the workshop, small groups were assigned different \"must-haves\" shown in Figure 1, along with a set of guiding questions they were to answer: 1) How is the \"must have\" expressed as or incorporated into a design principle?2) Key actions to be taken?3) Gap in breeding program to which the design principle responds? 4) Outcome(s) anticipated from action? 5) Stage of breeding cycle to which the design principle relates? 6) Evidence of efficacy? One small group worked on a product development process that could be used to guide the breeding cycle (Figure 2) under the overall management of an interdisciplinary team, one that includes gender researchers and other social scientists to provide a demand perspective for the breeders on the team.Different breeding programs use a range of product development processes, including the proprietary \"Stage-Gate\" model (REF: www.stage-gate.com). During feedback, it was decided that product development could provide an overall organizing framework for incorporating other \"must haves\" formulated as key decision points, or gates, for advancing from one breeding stage to the next.The overall sequence of key decision points recommended for implementing genderresponsive breeding is shown in Figure 3 on page 19. This sequence follows the process of product development that, in a breeding program, is commonly referred to as the breeding cycle, as explained below. For each stage in the breeding program (the blue diamonds in Figure 3), there are one or more critical gender-responsive decisions defined (the green boxes in Figure 3) and a result (the gold circles in Figure 3). The information required to inform each of these decision is explained in the following section.If followed, the critical decision points in the breeding cycle can ensure that breeding is gender responsive by making use of the gender-relevant decision criteria. These criteria must be informed by representative gender differences, generalizable to a target population of intended users.The decisions shown in Figure 3 follow the usual process of product development in the breeding cycle. Note the importance of applying gender-relevant criteria early in the cycle, 16when making decisions about targeting, sampling and breeding objectives, as well as throughout the rest of the steps in the cycle. The starting point is social targeting and demand analysis. In Figure 3, targeting and demand analysis are broken into three critical decision points. The next step in the breeding cycle involves setting breeding objectives, and it is in this stage where the product profile is fully developed (Figure 3), and the use of gender-responsive criteria for valuing different traits is essential. The next major step in the breeding cycle involves creating genetic variation, a process that involves decisions about which materials to use, and these decisions must also reflect consideration of gender-relevant criteria. In the final stage of the breeding cycle, key decisions are made about variety release and seed production, and these too require using gender-responsive decision criteria.The product development sequence in breeding illustrated in Figure 3 starts with SOCIAL TARGETING and SAMPLING. It is in these initial stages of the cycle that understanding of how gender inequality influences demand for actual or future breeding products, in particular for specific traits, must be improved. The development of customer profiles as indicated in the green box results from characterizing and prioritizing representative sexdisaggregated social groups, based on understanding how gender relations affect their access to resources and technology choices.Critical to completing these stages are decisions about:• What criteria will be used to identify different groups of users with common constraints, opportunities and needs?• How to ensure that the results of gender analysis are representative of a given target group of users?• Who is demanding which traits and why?• What socioeconomic criteria will be used to prioritize one group and the traits they demand in preference to another group?This requires information about:• Sex-disaggregated data relevant to demand for breeding products, such as access to and ownership of land, livestock, labor, capital, income, agricultural inputs, markets, and development services.• Gender differences in demographic characteristics, such as age, ethnicity, religion, race, education level, and literacy.• Gender norms, roles and responsibilities that affect technology choices and how crops and animals are used in rural organizations, such as the family, the farm, the community, cooperatives, self-help groups, water associations, and agribusinesses.SOCIAL TARGETING: Uses the information described above to identify and then prioritize social groups with common characteristics as users of actual or future breeding products. First, a population of interest is segmented into groups with common needs, opportunities and constraints. Then, targeting involves further analysis to set priorities among groups from equity and other development policy perspectives, taking gender into account. This analysis narrows the number of potential groups deserving attention.Makes sure the data used for targeting, and for the resultant customer profiles, are representative of the sex-disaggregated population(s) that the breeding program expects will adopt its actual or future breeding products. This requires design of a sampling frame that will permit inferences to be drawn about a population of users from samples used for studies of demand conducted at different scales and with different methods. Once target groups have been characterized, gauging the demand for different traits and breeding products from each group follows. Gender differences will not always be important for preferences in all groups, because in some circumstances men and women producers have a similar demand for traits.Considers the overall outcomes that breeding is intended to achieve. Use of the suggested gender-responsive decision-making criteria will help programs to better understand the gender equity outcomes of varietal uptake, and the specific gender-related opportunities and limitations which might influence that uptake.Involves use of representative information to define and explain the trait preferences and priorities of sex-differentiated groups identified during targeting. It is essential to understand why gender differences prevail in preferences and how reasons for different preferences are related to adoption, including the way dissemination and uptake are affected by gender. This information is needed for defining decision criteria that can be used to set priorities among traits, once these are valued in the next stage. Descriptions and explanations of gender-differentiated trait preferences must be generalizable to a population defined as a target group, and can be generated using many different methods, including surveys, participatory varietal selection, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews.18 VALUE TRAITS: Involves development of a PRODUCT PROFILE that considers relevant gender-responsive socioeconomic and biological criteria together (see Figure 3) to decide which traits hold the greatest promise for breeding.• Gender-responsive priority setting combines insights about users' most important preferred traits with scientific information about those traits -for example, their heritability, pathology and physiology -as well as information about how products (such as seeds) will be delivered to male and female users. A well-developed product profile comprises a tool that can be used to decide which products should be given priority.• Assessment of feasibility involves determining which gender-responsive traits are technically feasible for inclusion in breeding-related decision-making, as well as the cost of including them and their effect on the breeding timeline. Cost-benefit analyses, as well as assessments of expected impact, are needed to inform decisions by a breeding program about adding gender-responsive traits to its breeding objectives.Consists of obtaining genetic resources and making crosses to generate the variation that may be required to produce varieties or breeds that satisfy demand for the priority gender-responsive traits. Use of gender-responsive decision criteria and related information included in the Product Profile in the choice of genetic resources to make crosses (e.g., choices among local germplasm or elite material) will help make sure critical decisions about parent material includes consideration of gender. The Product Profile defined previously, when traits were valued, may be adjusted based on the results of this stage.The iterative process of identifying superior genotypes to achieve the objectives set out in the Product Profile. Advancement decisions include gender-relevant criteria, derived from the Product Profile. Gender-responsive tools can be used for selection of genotypes. For certain traits and phases of selection, participatory methods should be considered to ensure male and female user perspectives that represent the target groups defined earlier in order to influence selection.Requires purposively managing the product launch and promoting varietal uptake so that gender equity is promoted. Careful consideration of key gender constraints and opportunities in delivery -for example, the availability of credit for purchasing seed or the need for refrigeration of a vaccine -will have been considered when Product Profiles are developed.19Drawing on the design principles summarized here and the outputs of the small groups, a brief is being prepared describing the key gender-responsive decision points or gates around the breeding cycle. This will link with the more detailed explanations of social targeting, market segments, customer profiles and product profiles described in the input papers to provide a gender-responsive overlay. This will provide the foundation for setting breeding objectives and for implementing the successive stages of the breeding cycle in a gender-responsive manner.  Group members: Thokozile Ndhlela, Bela Teeken, Vivian Polar, Cu Thi Le Thuy, Chiedozie Egesi, Rhiannon PyburnIn order to achieve the development of varieties, strains and breeds that respond to the different needs and challenges of resource poor men and women farmers AND increase the adoption of varieties that contribute to poverty reduction and equity, we need to develop an advocacy strategy and generate evidence to influence civil society, CGIAR centers, NARIs, decision-makers and the donor community, as well as agricultural universities. This should recognise the value of gender-responsive breeding AND develop design principles to contribute to product profiles for gender-responsive breeding.Must have outputs  Group members: Graham Thiele, Hugo Campos, Seamus Murphy, Hale Ann Tufan, Juliet Kariuki; with input from the Uptake Pathways group (Thokozile Ndhlela, Bela Teeken, Vivian Polar, Cu Thi Le Thuy, Chiedozie Egesi, and Rhiannon Pyburn)A text that builds a case around the importance of addressing gender in breeding needs to be written. It should focus on the \"pain points\" with key stakeholders and donors to leverage interest. One pain point is limited adoption of improved varieties in many African food systems with some evidence that this reflects a failure to consider user perspectives. And hence the entry point to resource mobilization around the potential benefits of gender responsive breeding for scaling and adoption.1) WP 1: Evidence -Evidence base: statistical framework; low hanging fruits; post-mortem analysis of failure/poor adoption. Evidence that gender-responsive breeding matters, in terms of productivity, adoption, and equity impact studies, with and without gender integration.242) WP 2: Advocacy -Advocacy strategy and champion around 'pain' of non-adoption and gender inequity.• Piloting with ongoing or planned breeding program;• Design Principles for Gender-Responsive Breeding;• Assess institutional, team and individual needs to implement a gender-responsive breeding program;• Big Data approaches.• Library of well-designed case studies of gender-responsive breeding and failure to do so (quality control).• Gender responsive breeding toolkit• Helpdesk and discussion forum sharing ideas• \"Roadmap\" for infiltration strategies into other platforms, i.e., the CGIAR Gender Platform, excellence in breeding, Big Data, gateway function 5) WP 5: Capacity building -Continue current PDFs and further students/PDFs. Consider paired scientists (gender and breeders), embedded in breeding programs, but associated through GBI to integrate and link work.• Baseline of decision making processes mapped in setting breeding priorities.• M&E for GBI. Institutional scorecard o Gender responsive breeding toolkit; o 6-8 dynamic young professionals with strong gender-responsive breeding competencies.Option 1: Full package around the breeding cycle provided to each targeted program: needs assessment, baseline, pilot, PDFs Capacity Development, M&E.Option 2: Use a piecemeal approach to picking different stages for gender-responsive breeding based on selective bids. Period of support could be for 3 years. For example, one piece could be work aimed at targeting with STP methods; a second activity could focus on 25 setting breeding objectives and valuing traits economically to establish breeding priorities; a third could focus on PVS; and a fourth on product delivery and feedback.Proposed Funding Envelope $5-8 Million Potential Donors:Group members: Lora Forsythe, Stefania Grando, Birhanu Lenjisu, Yoseph Beyene, and Alessandra GalieDuring the workshop, it became clear that institutional support is needed to embed the design principles into gender-responsive breeding programs. In particular, there is a need to support social scientists having access to and processing the relevant data and facilitating the joint programming and decision making with breeders, social scientists, economists and others at key points of the breeding cycle design. It was agreed that this higher level of institutional activity is not a design principle as such, but a key factor to enabling their use. A working group was set up on Day 3 to outline what institutions need to do.The main question is: What needs to change in institutions to create an enabling environment for gender-responsive breeding?\"Institutional change\" means change in formal and informal rules at the following four levels: breeding programs; institutes; the CG System; and the informal attitudes of all involved.The Group assessed the key steps for gender-responsive breeding and how institutions need to recognize its importance and act on it.Recommended changes (\"must haves\" are underlined) include the following.1) System level representatives should work with donors to ensure that funds support gender-responsive breeding (for example, help to modify the BMGF breeding program assessment tool so that it has explicit modules on gender-responsiveness);2) Ensure that evaluation of breeding programs includes gender-responsive criteria;3) Establish a monitoring system for issues relating to gender in the workplace; 4) Establish a monitoring system for gender research, including gender-responsive breeding, budgets, and resource allocations; 5) Bring the CG Gender Platform back to the System level.Overall:1) Include a gender focal point (team leader, scientist etc.) in the institute's management committee Evaluation and reward system:2) Reward multi-disciplinary outputs -including publications (e.g., in staff evaluation)3) Multi-disciplinary resource mobilization teams 4) Assess impact on overall goals, not just adoption 5) Assess teams -not just individuals -to incentivize teamwork 6) Include \"gender sensitiveness\" among the evaluation criteria of staffStaffing and staff capacity:7) Assess the completeness/balance of teams and identify capacity gaps at the institute and program level, and take corrective actions (including build capacity of teams) -e.g., annually during review and planning meetings 8) Ensure that job competencies include experience in multi-disciplinary work (with a focus on gender) 9) Address gender in the workplace issues to increase coherence (e.g., policies and approaches to retain female staff), but do not assume that female staff or gender scientists are the ones to address gender in the workplace issues Budgeting: 10) Allocate budgets to each key discipline to enable them to address gender issues, both at the program and institute level 11) Support strategic gender work to gauge the potential impact of gender-responsive breeding 12) Recognize and budget each discipline with equal weights to ensure that gender scientists are considered part of the \"core team\" -as much as breeders and other scientists/specialists Communication:13) Promote communication that shares outputs/achievements from all disciplines, and genderr (e.g., seminars, blogs, internal communication channels) to add to existing data that supports the rationale for gender researchThe core of the breeding cycle is standardized. The group discussed what needs to be included within the steps of the cycle to enhance gender-responsiveness. It is the \"how\" that makes a program gender-responsive. The group listed the key points in a gender-responsive breeding program and then focused on the how.1) Include gender considerations in the goal 2) Gender-sensitive target grouping3) Customer profile is also gender-responsive 4) Trait preferences are gender-sensitive 5) Product profile is also gender-responsive 6) Decisions about advancing selections (moving from stage 1, to stage 2, to stage n, to release) is also gender-responsive 7) Include women and men in participatory varietal selection and possibly trials grown on farms of women and men 8) Include various tests to check responsiveness of trials (e.g., cooking, etc.)10) Need to include a multi-disciplinary team in all these stages (gender scientist, breeder, system specialist, any other relevant scientist, e.g., food scientist) 11) Review and planning meetings include the multi-disciplinary team 12) Assign budgets also to all components, including the gender component 3. Big data steps looking at regional scale variables focusing on high-poverty households, geographic 10x10 poor rainfall data cells, agronomic mapping, all around crop x West Nigeria etc.4. Key Informant Interviews with communities, extension workers, breeders for crop x in that region. This is to inform experimental design before going into region with full genetic package -i.e., who to talk, where and who within those communities that relevant to crop x? 5. Gender responsive methods for sampling of following two steps:a. FGDs to capture information about production systems, trait preferences, problems around that crop, gender roles and responsibilities, 'what are your experiences, challenges, uses?' (saturation protocol). Potentially important to include foresight analysis in FGDs.b. Participatory evaluation of breeding material and land races of crop x -to be decided.c. Gender-responsive interviewing techniques for sex-disaggregated data collection focusing on nutrition, anthropometric scoring of mother-child pairings, intra household decision making, bargaining power.Example of using sampling to ensure that gender differences addressed by breeding are representative of social target groups at national and regional scales 1) For a well-defined region (or country), create a set of breeding materials -varieties and landraces -that display traits a) of known importance to breeders, b) of known importance to farmers, and c) deemed to be of potential future importance by breeders, industry or farmers.2) Use large-scale data sets at a regional scale to segment the region's population into homogeneous groups, using socio-economic and agro-ecological variables. For example, the rigor of sampling could be improved by using pixelated data sets focused on combinations of biophysical variables that are known to determine traits, and social variables that are known to determine choices among traits or technologies.3) Sample within population segments to select sex-disaggregated respondents as key informants and/or focus groups for rapid appraisal interviews. The purpose of the interviews is to obtain qualitative data about production systems, gauge current and future demand, identify problems related to the crop of interest, gain clarity on gender roles and responsibilities, and identify what factors determine choices among technologies. Use of multi-stage cluster sampling may be appropriate.4) Use the combined regional-level and qualitative information to a) test the validity of previously defined population segments, and b) refine the definition and characterization of population segments.5) Sample within refined population segments to select representative male and female users with whom to conduct participatory evaluation of the set of varieties defined in step 1. This is a diagnostic exercise to establish the relative importance of different traits to different kinds of users. Collect sexdisaggregated socio-economic data to characterize each respondent in the participatory evaluations.6) Analyze this information to delineate distinct, homogeneous sets of ranked trait preferences and the socio-economic characteristics of the users who express a given set of preferences.7) Map sets of users and their preferences onto the sampled population segments defined previously at a regional scale.8) Use this information to a) assess the importance of population segments and prioritize those that the program will target, and b) generate customer profiles for the selected target segments. 9) Ground truth the customer profiles.10) Incorporate information about sets of trait preferences and associated customer profiles into product profiling.• Two scales: national and regional scales require different sampling. Is this possible, desirable, necessary for given study of breeding programs? Is it just about social target group period.! Target groups are defined by ecology, market, socio-economic, cultural, geographic contexts, rather than national.o If we want to represent impact assessment of breeding interventions at national scale then we need to consider skewed national statistics in post-project stage of specific outcome. Consider also spill-over effect in these ex-post analyses.• rigor in addressing gender differences. FGDs can/cannot be representative of geographic areas or larger social target group? Question is then -how many FGDs do we need to conduct? Saturation is the key sampling protocol for this -i.e. we've reached saturation when no new information is popping up.• Key summary points for this design principle in sampling: Mixed methods needed that ensure sampling of gender differences that are representative:1. Key informant interviews used to identify major research questions relevant to those areas, along with panel discussion with experts and public officials. 2. FGDs and saturation protocols. Qualitative FGDs used more as pilot studies to identify further key questions for next stage and to identify different stakeholder groups in that regional context. 3. Household quantitative questionnaire that addresses gender differences • Design principle critical to probing stage is understanding the significance of certain social differences or specific variables of/between social groupings and beneficiaries.This requires flexibility, feedback, iterative learning in the development of our data collection ('adaptive learning' -Google it!)o Next stage: Household surveys using quantitative methods provide the representative sample.• Bottom line to these suggestion is budget constraints for social research needed.• Evidence of relevance of design principle -citation: • Identify preferences of different target groups using the tools identified on design principle 2.o Use participatory methods to identify the preferences and investigating why these preferences are important for men and women users o Use participatory community ranking methods with target groups of men and women (separate groups) to rank and prioritize the traits preferences. o Collect trait preferences from other stakeholders• Translate these into breed-able traits (genetic/measurable traits) o May need to consult other disciplines/experts (e.g. food technologists etc.) may need a trait dissection (dissection of a trait into simple components) Decide whether the trait need to be maintained (keep threshold) / improved.o If not genetic traits we may pass this information on to other actors in the value chain…it could be processing technologies that need to be addressed.• Add breeder traits that may not have come out of farmer listed traits but that are still important for a breeding program.• Product profiles (list of traits, benchmarking, flag any gender specific issues about the product, and also rank the different traits in terms of importance)o Consult and clarify with farmers and breeders (through a validation process) on traits and their importance once traits have been prioritized (consult with different target groups including men and women) Gap in breeding program which design principle responds to• Will impact setting breeding priorities?• Also, the release of cultivars to make sure that the varieties meet the needs of the different target groups• Data was not being collected from an intersectional approach but this principle solves this buy emphasizing on the different target groups.• Multidisciplinary approach where different disciplines can contribute to the validation of priorities (e.g. food scientists) (Multi-disciplinary panel and users and other stakeholders)• Product profiles (list of traits, reference for performance)From social target groups (including gender and socio-economic groups)Trait 1Trait 2Trait 3Other things important to make the product from other sources such as breeders or other value chain actors Traits 4Trait 5Trait 6• Setting breeding prioritiesGroup 4: Target crosses based on well-defined products for well-specified genderdisaggregated target groups in the associated breeding environments Participants: Thokozile Ndhlela, Prakash Gangashetty, Rhiannon Pyburn, Birhanu Lenjiso, Ranjitha PuskurA definition of breeding environments and appropriate disaggregation of target groups based on relevant criteria should be followed by identification of specific products demanded by the different groups. This will set in motion identification of traits that are needed to develop the products and hence, definition of the product profiles targeted to different socio-economic groups. This will involve exploration of tradeoffs and ex-ante analysis of benefits and costs to determine priority gender-responsive traits.• Once the product profiles are developed a decision needs to be made whether the breeding program will pursue development of the products identified. • If the program decides to go ahead with it, source germplasm needs to be checked to explore whether the traits are available in the breeding materials. • The program needs to characterize available 'untapped' germplasm.• If not, new germplasm needs to be sourced. This is another decisionpoint requiring commitment of funds/resources. • This would require an ex-ante analysis of costs of inclusion of new traits and anticipated impacts to establish the economic justification. It should also include an assessment of costs of not being gendersensitive. • If justified, crossing can begin and the rest of the breeding cycle follows. • To enable the above actions, it is necessary to set up an institutional mechanism/process defining these and accountability mechanisms set up to ensure adherence. • This also needs setting up multi-disciplinary teams to be involved in key decision-making processes/moments.Making breeding decisions based on social and demand analysisMore equitable and impactful products The difference between \"breeding as usual\" and \"gender-responsive breeding\":1. An interdisciplinary team that includes a gender specialist who brings to the table the definition, the reasons, and the (economic) importance of different traits.2. Processes of validation, participatory through the value chain, that ensures that change in the breeding population and released varieties are consistent with the desire of the target segment.0. Establish an interdisciplinary team that contains at least a social scientist and a breeder, perhaps also an agronomist and pathologist (other specialists…). Dialogue within that team. Understand the trait and why it is important. Ensure the team understands the current selection goals: it may be that the new trait is already being bred for under a different guise. It may be possible to achieve through management rather than breeding. Determine that the new trait is minimally tractable: there is a way to measure it within budget constraints. If the trait can be incorporated into varieties, what is its economic value per unit of improvement? Validation within the value chain: the trait that we will measure, does it respond correctly to the target group demand? Are there traits the breeders select for which there is no obvious reason from the point of view of the target group, but the breeder has a reason? Explain that and share the breeder rationale. The team needs an overall framework to jointly understand traits.1. Perform an initial genetic study. What is the current mean value of the trait in the breeding population and in varieties available to growers, relative to the required value for it to make an impact? What variation is there in the trait? What is its heritability? What correlations does it have with traits currently under selection? Bring results to a discussion with the team in terms that all can understand: What is the probability of success of reaching useful trait values? What trade-offs are likely relative to current selection goals? Components of the dialogue under 0 may need to be revisited.Are there less expensive but highly correlated proxies? Can new measurement technologies be developed to reduce costs and increase throughput?39Bring results to a discussion with the team. Success in improving trait measurement may increase trait weighting in the selection index. Would that success / failure have consequences for the product profile? Validation within the value chain: the proxy trait that we will measure, does it respond correctly to the target group demand?Output: Revised, tractable product profile.Outcome: Significant adoption by target groups.Impact: Equitable benefits of breeding efforts.Key Actions:1. Cost Study. Are there alternative screening methods? What are their costs? Do they require new environments?2. Validate in the full breeding program results of the initial heritability / genetic correlation study.3. Interdisciplinary validation study with actors of the value chain. Does the trait measured on station correlate with the trait measured on farms? A gender-responsive approach would involve participatory evaluation with both genders and validation of the resulting variety candidates in terms of how they incorporate the gender trait. The metric of improvement may be different as translated by the social scientist than breeders are accustomed to. For example, improvement might be couched in terms of labor savings rather than in terms of ease of peeling score.4. Develop a breeding strategy. The product profile is not synonymous with a breeding strategy. When in the pipeline will the new trait be selected for? Is early selection using prediction (i.e., genomic selection) or minimal phenotyping feasible? Does the cost of evaluation require late stage phenotyping when fewer selection candidates are still in the pipeline? Does new variation need to be brought in from outside the current breeding population? Do we put \"breeder traits\" (yield, disease resistance) into genotypes that have the gender traits, or do we try to bring gender traits into \"elite\" genotypes?A breeding strategy includes decisions about the means of creating or sourcing variability and how many different genotypes will be used.Output: a new breeding strategy and a plan for ongoing validation of that strategy.Outcome: varieties with the new gender trait or a mechanism to get that trait through management.Group 7: Integrate gender responsive elements across the entire product management process as relevant Participants: Bela Teeken, Jacob van Etten, Graham Thiele, Chiedozie Egesi, Peter Kulakow 1. The gender-responsive elements should be overlaid onto a best-practice product management process. The Stage-Gate process lacks the dissemination phase, so it needs to be combined with other existing product management processes. Also, the first decision about target environment and customer segments is lacking. a. Using current varieties as a control. This will give early evidence if progress is being made. The control variety for gender-responsive breeding does not need to be high-yielding one, but one that has broad adoption or is acceptable to certain groups. b. Targeting more different target environments can be analyzed economically (Anicchiario).The same thing could be done for customer segments for the consumption dimensions. c. Failing early and cheaper, crisp decisions based on data. Formal way to use the socioeconomic data to make these decisions. The World Café is an interactive space for workshop participants to share and discuss approaches and tools relevant to gender responsive breeding. These may be under development or already in use, but must be of relevance to other practitioners. The World Café will take place on October 6th as an integral part of the workshop. It provides an opportunity for the refinement of the tool or approach presented and for critical thinking around how this can be applied by breeding programs and at what stage in the program -mapped against the diagram below.An inventory of the presented approaches and tools will be made available as a resource on the Initiative website, and will contribute to the guidelines for gender responsive breeding.50Poster presenters will be required to bring:1) A poster for discussing the tool or approach 2) One PowerPoint slide as the basis for a one-minute speed pitch.Presenters are responsible for developing and printing their materials.The recommended poster size is A0 (33.1 in x 46.8 in) and can be designed using a template that will be provided on September 12 th to authors of accepted submissions.The posters that were presented during the World Café are included in the following pages, each one followed by a summary of feedback from workshop participants. • Consider using ratings instead of rankings• Ask why farmers select clones when they still have the answers in their heads on the day of evaluation. This was done in the Ethiopia example but not integrated in the tool• What is the cost of sensory evaluations? It can be expensive if you have a lot of material and need to do several selection rounds• There is need for other support tools such as surveys to validate some of the findings• Need to clarify some of the preferred traits when farmers are free listing to ensure that they are properly captured (e.g. what does good cooking quality?)• A good thing is that objective data on yield, disease etc was collected so can compare if farmer listed traits are matching with what they selected. Generally, the tool was well-received. Many appreciated the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches included in the tool. Some questions on larger implications of findings could not be answered because the tool was only piloted up until now and not used extensively yet.One comment received related to the fact that the index does not capture collaboration between household members and shared ambitions. Such an issue is addressed through qualitative research that the tool's authors recommend being done to complement the index.A number of questions related to how the WELI relates to the WEAI tool (which was the basis for the WELI creation). The differences were clarified together with the circumstances when using the WELI is most appropriate:• The tool is best used to conduct a baseline assessment of gender issues in livestock breeding or development -given the level of detail in labor sharing and decision-making it provides for specific livestock activities.• The WELI is also best used to assess the impact of a program on women's empowerment through livestock.57Poster 1.4: \"Food Yield\": Identifying essential issues for breeding 59 breeders now invite some women to the research station to evaluate grain samples of lines in the early stages of a selection program visually for the acceptability of the grain quality.A major consequence for the selection strategy for the West-Africa sorghum breeding program was to change the basic germplasm from using the sorghum races that are used for genetic improvement in the US, Australia and India, to the sorghum race most widely cultivated n West-Africa, the Guinea race. With this step, the breeders can be sure that most of the traits required for grain quality ad food yield in general are already 'reached' and genetic improvement can focus on productivity, which had never been targeted in this race by any breeding program before.The scale of the relevance of these issues around food yield, as well as the specific traits identified for sorghum in West Africa, is actually showing to be widely applicable to areas, where the stiff porridge called 'to' in Mali is consumed. Many of the traits are also being mentioned in studies on adoption, or trying to understand non-adoption of other crops in other regions, i.e. an indication that issues of 'food yield' are critical for farmers, and others concerned with food security of their families. The responses from the group confirmed that the concept can be applied also beyond cereal grain crops.There was some discussion of the methods the sorghum breeding program has used and is using to identify the varieties that are evaluated for their processing and culinary traits, and the gender responsiveness of these tools. They are described in the case study book chapter.The details of the culinary test methodology and the underlying concept of food yield are being published, with some details also in the case study book.60Poster 1.5: Social and Gender targeting (there was no actual poster prepared as this discussion was a last-minute request)• LSMS-ISA surveys -while only available for 8 countries (not enough!) -are data-rich in terms of crop and plot-specific data, as well as capturing individual information in terms of cropping activities (and livestock, fish) at farm level (gender!). Great for targeting farmers.• DHS survey data are large and comprehensive, covering dozens of countries and are an excellent resource for health and nutrition data on women and children. Great for targeting consumers.• There are always missing variables of interest with every dataset (e.g., country, crop, etc.)• Always be skeptical -gauge the sampling framework, methodology, sample size, geographical extent, and data quality, as well as realizing the limitations of the dataset.• Data are not an end-all -does not take the place of local knowledge and expert validation. Beware of 'data dredging' (look it up on Wikipedia). Must realize the objectives in data collecting (e.g., policy framework, etc.).• Data often beget other data -linking between datasets is important! Plugging data together requires open datasets. Set your data free so other users can take it places you might not imagine (e.g., Dataverse is an excellent data sharing platform and never dies like with an expired URL. It's like a data library and you are more likely to get your work cited if open -other data are available from platforms like World Bank, Data.gov, etc.).• Applying a prioritization or targeting framework is very difficult without subnational, mappable datasets to capture the enormous heterogeneity across landscapes.• What about Asia? Totally underrepresented in many of these large datasets.• Can these data be used to identify the scale of a locally identified preference?• What kind of big data are available to capture gender dynamics along value chains? • The task groups as mentioned in the tool would better be called \"task categories\" as the people who perform a similar task are not necessarily a social group that interacts and operates together.• Because of the explicit recommendation to not do an up-front sex disaggregation gave some people the impression that no sex disaggregation took place. This is however a misunderstanding. This sex-aggregation, however, is not the initial way to group. It is important to first define who does what within each local social category and then study gender relations within these task categories (groups). This is important to keep the link between variety preferences and the people with actual work experience on crop related tasks.• Some people did not see how the complexity of intersecting categories related to variety preferences. However, others complimented the tool because it clearly focuses on this relation between variety preferences and social groups. The tool assures that the working conditions of those that directly work on production, processing or selling is addressed. These groups are directly affected by any change in variety traits.63 \"Poster\" 2.2: GBI Workshop Glossary -a work in progress 5th October 2017An agro-ecological Zone is a land resource mapping unit, defined in terms of climate, landform and soils, and/or land cover, and having a specific range of potentials and constraints for land use. (FAO definition)The combination of traits and trait values sought for desired performance in different target market segments of a breeding program.A stylized description of the main stages in breeding leading to the development and delivery of a breeding productPlant varieties or animal breeds resulting from the combination and selection of genetic resources, genes and traits of interest and made available as hybrids, lines, clones or populations with characteristic levels of diversity.The planned breeding of a group of animals or plants, usually involving at least several individuals and extending over several generations.Individuals or organizations who use breeding products for food, feed, or energy. In some cases, growers can also be considered as users. A user (sometimes referred to as \"end user\") may make use of a given breeding product through both market and non-market social relations. A population of users is the aggregate of people with common objective(s) for use of the product. For our purposes, this aggregate population is referred to as a market segment, even though not all users express their demand through formal markets and may be defined by the failure of formal markets to deliver the breeding products they need and want.A set of evidence-based principles which can be applied in the design and implementation of breeding programs to ensure they are gender-responsiveGender-responsive breeding should:• Know when, where and why women and/or men are important and distinct groups of participants or beneficiaries. Take into account important differences in opportunities and constraints faced by women and men 64 Term Explanation that breeding can influence. Understand how gender dynamics and norms may affect preferences for breeding products and uptake. • Anticipate how design decisions (e.g. plant ideotype and trait prioritization, targeting and testing varieties with users) may impact and be influenced by gender differences in availability of resources including labor and of future options • Design breeding objectives specifically to address gender dynamics, to benefit women users when they are an important distinct beneficiary group and consider their needs, constraints and knowledge more generally in the breeding program to support technology uptake while also enhancing gender equitable outcomes of interventions.• Be accountable, making sure success of the breeding program is measured in ways that include success for women as well as for households or users in general.Individuals or organizations who grow plants or raise animals with the aim of harvesting or collecting one or more specific products (grain, whole plant, tubers, milk, meat, wool, etc.)A geographic area or a group of people having a relatively homogeneous demand for a commodity (here crop varieties or animal breeds). For instance, a market segment may be corn growers planting very early maturing corn for ethanol in the US Midwest. Another segment may be corn growers planting late maturing corn for ethanol in the southern US. Yet another market segment may be farmers growing rice for self-consumption along the Senegal river. The population of users who make up a market segment may all be in a single agro-ecology or this population may be distributed across several different agro-ecologies. The extent to which an agro-ecology and a market segment coincide will depend on the extent to which user demand (preferences) for a breeding product are determined by climate, soils and land use constraints as distinct from other considerations, such as suitability for a certain type of processing, price, color, appearance, storability, etc.65A set of standardized and precise descriptors related to an aspect of breeding which facilitates data exchange and compilation of data into larger databases.The process be it formal or informal through which breeding programs determine their selection and weighting of traits in setting breeding objectivesA set of targeted attributes which a new plant variety or animal breed is expected to meet to be released onto a market. Attributes must be understood as traits with a specific value, this value being defined either in absolute or relative terms. For instance, a product profile may list grain yield (11 tons/hectare or more), or tolerance to Downey mildew (same as or better than variety X), total oil content (no less than variety Y).The individuals or organizations who take products harvested or collected by growers, possibly transform them (although not necessarily), and provide them to other users.In some cases, growers may also assume functions in the supply chain. Product value chain actors in some circumstances can be considered \"users\" and may also have preferences for traitsA group of people in a community who carry out similar tasks related to the work of production, processing, transportation and marketing (selling) of varieties or products made from varietiesA distinct variant of a phenotypic characteristic of an organism; it may be either inherited or determined environmentally, but typically occurs as a combination of the two. For example, eye color is a character of an organism, while blue, brown and hazel are traits. • A breeding objective defines the 'ideal' animal a producer aims to breed and selection is the method by which the producer identifies that animal. objectives (taken from the Australia Meat and Livestock Associated industry website)• The selection criteria are the traits that you measure to provide data for animal selection (for improving the breeding objective): a selection index is how you combine information on these traits (you can weight one trait more heavily because it is, for example, more economically important, or easier to make genetic gains with due to higher heritabilityThe CGIAR Gender and Breeding Initiative brings together plant and animal breeders and social scientists to develop a strategy for gender-responsive breeding with supporting methods, tools and practices. The Initiative includes experts from across CGIAR centers and Research Programs, is coordinated by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas and the International Potato Center, and is supported by CGIAR Funders.","tokenCount":"10389"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0a8cd734a0c44dfea058c6d830586476","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/23549ebe-a052-4484-ae2d-61c057c6b9a8/retrieve","id":"-364047541"},"keywords":["climate change","conflict","inequality","equity","insecurity","pathways","knowledge mapping","CGIAR","bibliometric analysis"],"sieverID":"2dee2075-2482-4f4c-b1cf-d7e0cb24ebc1","pagecount":"25","content":"Whether it is climate, conflict, or COVID-19, inequality is a key component of any crisis as it can reveal why some people and regions are disproportionately impacted over others. While climate impacts interacting with inequalities can exacerbate existing drivers of insecurity, it can also leave room for institutions and interventions to foster cooperation and build resilience and peace. Focusing on insights from literature on the climate-security-inequality nexus and using CGIAR as a case study on how research for development work has engaged with the nexus, the article conducts a knowledge mapping exercise to highlight gaps and scope in mapping inequality in relation to CGIAR's work on climate, resilience, insecurity and conflict. Key findings emerging from the analysis support that while inequality has typically been studied in relation to either climate or conflict, there is greater scope for focusing on contextspecific mechanisms and pathways. The article concludes with recommendations for a growing climatesecurity community of practice to see and act through the lens of inequality.Inequality is a key component of any crisis, whether it is related to climate, conflict or the COVID-19 pandemic, as it can reveal why some people and regions are disproportionately impacted over others. While the interaction of climate impacts with social inequalities can exacerbate existing drivers of insecurity, it can also leave room for institutions and interventions to address root causes of vulnerability, build social cohesion and foster peace. The idea of climate as 'threat multiplier' has been critiqued for oversimplified assumptions around how it can heighten insecurities to increase the likelihood of violent conflict (Daoudy, 2021). In response to the debate sparked by the climate-induced conflict hypothesis around the 2011 uprising in Syria (Kelley et al., 2015), key roles played by political economy and institutions have been recognised (Selby, 2019). While climate in and of itself may not lead to violence, climate impacts may interact with a range of factors to aggravate existing stresses, pressures and insecurities (Marc, Verjee and Mogaka, 2015).The factors that make a society vulnerable to conflict are the same factors that make a society vulnerable to climate impacts, namely inequality and instability (Vivekananda et al., 2014). Therefore, understanding the role of inequality is fundamental to unpacking the indirect and complex relationships and pathways through which climate variability and extremes can exacerbate risks of conflict, insecurity and violence.Despite growing understanding around the need to focus on the entire climatesecurity-inequality nexus, existing literature have so far been tipping towards either unpacking inequality and conflict or inequality and climate linkages. Moreover, when the role of inequality has been examined as part of this nexus, it has more usually been seen as an outcome or an implication. Despite the recent emergence of a growing body of literature on climate-conflict nexus, there exists a clear gap in understanding the role played by inequality as intervening mechanism (van Weezel, 2020). This further calls for understanding multi-directional linkages between climate and conflict, including examining climate's potential for peacebuilding, role of conflict in influencing climate vulnerability, and adaptation-related conflict risks (Abrahams and Carr, 2017).Furthermore, while research for development work recognises the need to gather localised evidence on climate-conflict linkages, it is yet to unpack in detail contextspecific nuances of this nexus, moving beyond the 'streetlight effect' from overstudied contexts and selective production of knowledge in climate-conflict research (Adams et al., 2018). Building on this understanding, the paper aims to study how research for development work has engaged with the climate-security-inequality nexus. One of the largest consortiums of international publicly funded agricultural research for development, the CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) is globally known for its work on risk and resilience around land, water and food systems. Using CGIAR as case study, the article conducts a knowledge mapping exercise to highlight gaps and scope for guiding future research on this nexus.The complex association between inequality and conflict has been a matter of debate in literature. While a previous body of work claimed they are unrelated (Collier and Hoeffler, 2004;Fearon and Laitin, 2003), recent scholarship challenges this rejection and highlights their connection (Østby, 2008). This body of scholarship extends beyond the notion of class struggle based on discontent arising from economic exploitation and Gurr's (1970) relative deprivation theory that attributes perceived differences between a person's actual and desired situation as preconditions for grievances and conflict. Both relative deprivation and class conflict approaches speak of one kind of inequality − a 'vertical inequality' between individuals mainly characterised by their class positions in a stratified society.Clearer, however, is the relationship between 'horizontal inequality' and a higher risk of conflict. The concept of horizontal inequalities shares similarities with other concepts like Horowitz's (1985) 'ranked ethnic groups' or Tilly's (1999) 'categorical inequalities' that highlight inequalities between groups rather than individuals. The notion of horizontal inequality emerged to improve explanations and predictions for how organised political violence may be related to group-based inequalities beyond simple income or wealth indicators of vertical inequality (Buhaug et al., Gleditsch, 2014;Chiba and Gleditsch, 2017).Any collective response then requires objective inequality to be translated into an inter-subjectively perceived grievance, with discontent arising from the comparison between the situation of an underprivileged group and a privileged group. Even with identity markers like gender, language, religion, migrant status and ethnicity varying widely across context, the role of group leaders in framing reality in response to internal and external opportunities (Gurr, 1993;Cederman et al., 2013;Cederman et al., 2010;Østby, 2013) and facilitating mobilisation cannot be ignored (Kalyvas, 2006).Those who are the most disadvantaged are also more vulnerable to climate variability not just because they live in marginal areas identified as climate hotspots, but also because they may lack capital, power and influence (World Bank, 2016). However, as much as existing inequalities can increase climate vulnerability and decrease coping capacity, climate impacts themselves can also contribute to increased inequality.Diffenbaugh and Burke (2019) demonstrate, for example, how global warming has increased economic inequality between countries in the global South and those in the global North as increasing temperatures disproportionately affect production systems in countries more susceptible to climate impacts. From a climate justice perspective, regions with the least carbon footprints and relatively less influence in shaping international policy are also often those bearing the brunt of climate impacts (Harlan et al., 2015).However, climate-related inequalities are not exclusively felt between but also within countries (Islam and Winkel, 2017). For example, Pacillo et al. (2020)  the effect of climate variability is regressive, with its disproportionate burden borne by the 'last mile' groups including poor, agricultural, rural households and minorities in Vietnam and Indonesia, who thereby become trapped in a downward spiral of poverty and exclusion.Another within-country dynamic pertains to internal population movements in response to environmental shocks and stresses (Hunter et al., 2015). This may begin as a temp0orary movement, but then becomes more permanent as inequalities get magnified by climate impacts (Black et al., 2011;Van Praag and Timmerman, 2019). Such dynamics can also be visible within broader regions. For example, the Sahel region of Africa has been recognised as one of the worst affected by climate change, with almost 7 million people facing food insecurity and more than 2.5 million displaced from their homes (Adepoju, 2019). To better understand pathways and inform policy on multiple linkages between climate change, food insecurity and conflict, it is therefore imperative to focus on 'climate inequalities' (Dietz et al., 2020).Unintended consequences of response to climate risks through policy and adaptation efforts can serve to reproduce existing inequalities (Faist, 2018). Higher levels of inequality between and within countries can be linked with poorer environmental outcomes as adaptation becomes maladaptation, perpetuating a 'vicious circle of maladaptive growth' (Antoci et al., 2020, 10). Environmental degradation, identified as a multiplier of inequality, can contribute to increasing welfare inequality, reflecting people's agency in making decisions around income and time allocation (Antoci et al., 2020). Vulnerability to the effects of climate variability and extremes, refracted through 'structural inequalities' (Dani and de Haan, 2008) can reduce opportunities to escape poverty and generate a self-reinforcing cycle of unequal roles, rights and opportunities (Andrews and Leigh 2009;Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009;Dang et al., 2020). Moreover, inequality in ability to adapt as well as unequal distribution of benefits and burdens from climate adaptation practices can further trigger risks of insecurity and conflict (Abrahams and Carr, 2017).An emerging body of literature has been focusing on the complex linkages between climate and conflict. Empirical studies on the African continent have found that effects of temperature extremes and changes in precipitation levels can influence the incidence of conflicts (Breckner and Sunde, 2019;Cappelli et al., 2020). Acknowledging the importance of considering local context-specific dimensions, literature has further examined shorter and longer-term indirect effects of climate on conflict through agricultural vulnerability (Harari and La Ferrara, 2018;Cappelli et al., 2022).With prominent focus on wider geographical scales, studies have further highlighted the need to understand spatial concentration as well as spillover effects for unpacking the complex nexus (Vesco et al, 2021;Cappelli et al., 2022). Mainly combining methods like statistical inference of large-N datasets with qualitative comparative analysis and case studies (Ide et al., 2020), this body of literature has visibly engaged with inequality either as an outcome to be considered for policy implications or as one of the intermediary factors in the climate-conflict nexus.Even when not directly referring to inequality, a part of this literature has focused on the role played by socioeconomic factors, agriculture, as well as the question of resource scarcity, especially in climate-vulnerable and conflict-affected settings, sensitive to agro-economic shocks, and inhabited by multiple ethnic groups (e.g. Cappelli et al., 2022;Von Uexküll et al., 2016). However, despite exploring the climate-conflict nexus, primarily through quantitative analysis of large datasets, there remains the scope for generating more granular evidence for unpacking the multifaceted role of inequality in revealing and explaining complex non-linear linkages between climate and conflict.A holistic understanding of the key role of inequality within the climate-security nexus may emerge from combining the following:• Inequality as driver of violence: This approach focuses on the role of inequality in creating a situation where the impact of events like drought can act as catalyst for risks of insecurity and conflict. It asks how inequality-related grievances and cleavages can act as drivers of conflict in a region also affected by climatic stressors. For instance, in the absence of effective institutions to address pre-existing grievances, water-related conflicts could be facilitated by triggers like drought or water cuts (Ide et al., 2021). • Inequality as intermediary between climate and violence: This approach seeks to understand how climatic factors may interact with or be conditioned by existing inequalities and socio-political factors to exacerbate risks of conflict, insecurity and violence (Koubi, 2019). However, inequality as part of this approach might tend to get treated as more of a contextual factor, thereby missing nuances of its key role in the nexus. • Inequality as outcome of violence: In fragile settings with existing conflict dynamics, inequality can be reproduced and further worsened by climate impacts, increasing exposure and susceptibility and decreasing ability of disadvantaged groups to cope, thereby perpetuating a vicious cycle of violence, often fuelled by presence of armed groups offering alternative modes of survival (Islam and Winkel, 2017;Buhaug and von Uexkull, 2021). • Inequality as violence: This approach can also be thought of as an overarching perspective relevant for all the previous three approaches, where inequality itself is considered a form of violence. Although the literature on inequality and structural violence is yet to substantially focus on the climate-security nexus, there is scope to unpack how structural violence (Galtung, 1969)  inequality could be experienced by climate-vulnerable people at the intersection of gender, age, class, ethnicity and more. The concept of 'slow violence' related to climate can be useful here, 'an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all' (Nixon, 2011, 2). Inequality is foundational for understanding such invisible forms of violence (Davies, 2019) at the heart of the nexus, which further opens the door for adopting an intersectional lens.There is no single deterministic pathway linking climate variability and inequality with fragility and conflict risks. These pathways are neither unidirectional nor predictive of a certain outcome. Rather they represent potential emergent scenarios based on interactions between key contextual factors. The report 'A New Climate for Peace' (Rüttinger et al., 2015) identifies seven compound climate-fragility risks, including local resource competition, livelihood insecurity and migration, and volatile food prices and provision.These climate-fragility risks are interconnected and can be conceived as channels informing pathway dynamics for the climate-security-inequality nexus. To focus more on within-country nuances, pathways for this nexus can be visualised to operate through multiple channels at regional, communal and household levels. The logic of framing the potential pathways relies on an integrative framework combining a negative cycle between fragility, vulnerability, insecurity and conflict risks, and a positive cycle capturing how, in a relatively stable context, the presence of inclusive institutions can sustain peace by enhancing resilience and strengthening human security (Vivekananda et al., 2014). Figure 1 builds on the negative and positive cycles to represent key channels through which multidimensional structural inequalities may interact with land, water and food systems to translate impacts of climate into potential risks of insecurity under conditions of relative fragility and stability. These interactions are complex and non-linear, informing risks of conflict as well as possibilities of cooperation (Mach et al., 2019).Based on the above discussion and insights from literature, the following key pathways could be identified:There exist debates around how scarcity of resources such as land, water and food can potentially inform risks of conflict (Evans, 2011). Homer-Dixon (1994) identifies environmental change, population growth and unequal resource distributions (where resources tend to concentrate in the hands of a few) as likely drivers, conceptualising the following two kinds of interactions between these drivers: resource capture and ecological marginalisation. In resource capture, population growth, when combined with resource depletion and degradation can result in unequal access to resources, and thereby scarcity. For ecological marginalisation, it is unequal resource access that together with population growth can affect the availability of resources, contributing to scarcity. Together they form a vicious cycle whereby ensuing competition over scarce resources and associated grievances can translate into risks of violent conflict. Today, with climate as part of this nexus, there is continued albeit partial relevance of this understanding.However, the idea of scarcity driving conflict has been critiqued as ignoring larger political and economic factors. This is because an overemphasis on scarcity as a standalone driver can disproportionately keep the spotlight on certain kinds of actors (individuals, households, communities) while overlooking the critical role played by structures and institutions in shaping the 'politics of inequality and allocation', and informing water and food insecurity risks (Allouche, 2011, S7).While actual or perceived scarcity of resources could be driven by climatic shocks and stresses, existing inequalities may also lead to environmental consequences by contributing to environmental degradation. This can then affect rural communities dependent on land and water resources for their food and survival, in turn promoting unsustainable resource use and competition, fuelled by asymmetric power relations. The poor and vulnerable have less political power and therefore less influence over policy decisions around environment (Boyce, 2018). Inequality may further shape incentives and abilities for people to engage in collective action around conservation and management of critical shared resources (Baland and Platteau, 2018).For agriculture-dependent economies, climate impacts on agricultural production could adversely affect incomes and livelihoods (Gawande et al., 2017, Blakeslee andFishman, 2018). Yet, income-related inequality is not the only driver for climate-related insecurity. Interactions between social inequalities, political marginalisation, and human security challenges such as food insecurity can accelerate a downward spiral of 'climate-conflict trap', especially for fragile contexts with histories of armed violence. With livelihoods being eroded in such situations, people may migrate to other places. Migration may further result in increased resource competition, dependence on humanitarian aid and related discontent in relatively peaceful areas (adelphi, 2020).This lends support to the argument that rather than focusing on predicting risks of future conflicts, understanding ongoing conflict dynamics and risks of violence (Buhaug et al., 2008) in fragile settings could be vital, as climate-related events may amplify these risks in ethnically polarised contexts (Schleussner et al., 2016). This can help generate a more nuanced understanding of historical factors and power structures shaping existing inequalities that may then interact with effects of climate variability to shape risks of instability.Similar linkages could be examined in relatively stable contexts, where inequalities in access to peace-time employment may inform the ability of certain populations to cope and recover from climate-related livelihood erosion. Inequalities and differential vulnerabilities to climate impacts may further incentivise those left with few options but to turn to illicit activities as alternative survival strategy or liquidate their limited assets in times of crisis, with the effect of asset erosion, including diminished capacity for labour, keeping them in poverty traps with dire consequences for food security (Olsson et al., 2014).Adverse climatic conditions can lead to higher food prices by reducing crop yields and subsequent crop supply (Gitz et al., 2016). This can then reduce the purchasing capacity of socio-economically disadvantaged groups, shaping grievances and therefore the likelihood of conflict. Climate-related income shocks from agriculture and livestock production can lead to higher food prices in the market and create food insecure conditions through unequal access to food. Climate-induced economic downturns may also result in worsening of actual or perceived inequality in a region. In the absence of strong governance structures, this can then fuel discontent and grievances, contributing to the likelihood of social unrest such as riots and demonstrations, mainly in urban areas (Cederman et al., 2013;Smith, 2014;Raleigh et al., 2015;Koubi, 2019).Climate-induced food price rises can explain shifts from transient to chronic poverty, especially for net buyers spending a major share of earnings on food (Olsson et al., 2014). For example, the 2010-2011 food price shocks in Egypt, coupled with its dependence on food imports, affected both food supply and demand through limited purchasing power of households. Lack of effective governance, provision of subsidies, as well as prevalence of corruption and black markets in relation to the food scarcity ignited deep-seated grievances against the government, as the world witnessed millions of Egyptians protesting on streets during the Arab Spring of 2011 (adelphi, 2020).According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), high income inequality undercuts the benefits of economic growth in reducing food insecurity (Holleman and Conti, 2020). Women face greater negative repercussions than men due to food price spikes. They suffer labour market discrimination, which confines them to informal and casual employment, as well as pay inequity (Botreau and Cohen, 2019). Climate-related food insecurity can further vary with the type of livelihood. For instance, drought-related food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa is found to be more severe and long-lasting for pastoral groups than agricultural areas, with different recovery times of regions from the effects of drought in terms of food insecurity (Anderson et al., 2021).Thus, not only are these pathways interrelated, but questions like where groups are located, what type of livelihood they practice, how long it takes them to recover from climate-related food insecurity, their ability to access and use scarce resources, and more, can be critical for advancing a holistic understanding of the risk/resilience framework of climate security in fragile as well as stable contexts. Inequality is at the core of this framework, with disadvantaged groups facing unequal risks along multiple axes of stratification.Using an intersectional lens can be particularly relevant here to grasp how climaterelated risks for water, land and food systems can have gendered impacts (adelphi, 2020). On the one hand, with increasing 'feminisation of agriculture' and male out-migration driven by livelihood insecurity, women bear a dual burden of agricultural and household work, including being responsible for food and resources like fuelwood and water. On the other hand, women often do not have the right to own property and land (e.g. Etale and Simatele, 2021).Confronted by added responsibilities, yet constrained by a lack of rights, women (who are often part of trapped populations in rural areas) may be disproportionately impacted by risks of insecurity and violence within and outside their households. These risks involve but may not be limited to disease, malnutrition, food insecurity (access and utilisation) and gender-based violence including domestic violence. However, despite unequal power relations, women play a central role in adaptation (Van Aelst and Holvoet, 2016;Etale and Simatele, 2021). Moreover, an intersectional lens that not only considers inequalities based on gender, but also other axes like race, class, ability, age, ethnicity, legal status and more, can become useful for understanding how these inequalities might be related to structural violence, especially in relatively stable contexts characterised by an absence of physical violence (Nicoson, 2021).Informed by insights and approaches from existing literature, the following section of this article focuses on CGIAR as a case study on how research for development work on land, water and food systems has engaged with the climate-securityinequality nexus, thereby identifying gaps and avenues for future research0. Building on a systematised search strategy and a descriptive overview of what the search results yield, key findings of this article draw on a co-occurrence analysis of keywords from a corpus of CGIAR contributions.Why CGIAR as a case study? Founded in 1971 in response to concerns around famine, hunger and food insecurity, the CGIAR system operates through multiple research centres, mostly located in the global South. It is thus not surprising that along with reducing rural poverty and improving food security, nutrition and health as some of its system-level goals and outcomes, the geographical focus of CGIAR contributions have been in countries with a higher proportion of rural poverty (Thornton et al., 2022). However, issues of inequality and inequity in relation to both climate and conflict have remained underexamined in CGIAR research.Today, after fifty years of playing a key role in generating public goods and building capacities for delivering impacts at scale (Thornton et al., 2022), the ongoing systemwide transition and integration towards One CGIAR calls for a knowledge mapping of how issues of inequality and equity have been approached by CGIAR outputs, particularly with respect to the climate-security nexus. The knowledge mapping framework proposed to examine CGIAR research as a case study can potentially be useful for a wide range of users, not only internal researchers and external partners, but also academics, practitioners, policymakers and a wider community of practice.As bibliometric research has evolved beyond the traditional metrics that measure the impact of academic outputs to leverage on text from abstracts, subject areas and keywords to uncover thematic trends (Aristovnik et al., 2020) novel approaches to map CGIAR's scientific production in relation to the climatesecurity-inequality nexus for land, water and food systems. Data was collected from CGIAR's Global Agricultural Research Data Innovation and Acceleration Network (GARDIAN). 1 The platform integrates agri-food datasets, documents and digital assets from CGIAR research centres and partners, enabling search and collection of publications and data from over thirty repositories.A set of queries was developed using keywords identified through the literature review. A total of sixty-one keyword combinations were queried, including but not limited to core terms like 'inequality', 'climate', 'conflict', 'food security', 'livelihood', 'equity', 'risk', 'resilience', 'fragility' and 'stability'. The search strategy not only yielded results that were used for the analysis, but it also helped define and bind the climate-security-inequality nexus. After multiple search rounds, a saturation was reached when search results started yielding mostly overlapping publications.For each of the keyword combination search results, metadata files were downloaded in JSON format and converted to CSV format. The CSV files were then merged, and duplicates removed, to create a unique list of CGIAR contributions relevant to the climate-security-inequality nexus. Full citation data and metadata were exported, including institutional affiliations, publication URL, citation records (authors, title, source, publication date, abstract), author keywords, AGROVOC keywords and countries in focus. The final dataset consists of 14,675 unique publications.The GARDIAN dataset was adjusted for input into the open-source, bibliometric network analysis software VOSviewer 1.6.16. This software applies the VOS (Visualisation of Similarities) technique (van Eck and Waltman, 2014) to construct network graphs based on co-occurrence matrices drawn from bibliometric indicators. The built-in algorithms optimise clustering and spatialisation to visually present the relational structure of frequencies and associations.The dataset was imported into the software to generate two main visualisations. First, to understand the dynamics of collaboration among CGIAR-affiliated research centres and programmes, a network of institutional co-authorship was created, based on the institutions and research programmes identified in the metadata. A total of thirty entities were identified.Secondly, a thematic analysis leverages the metadata available from the standardised keywords field that classifies publication topics according to terminology from AGROVOC, the FAO's open-source thesaurus. 2 AGROVOC is a controlled multilingual vocabulary comprising a structured collection of more than 40,000 agricultural concepts and 930,000 terms. To map the thematic representations of the nexus, an AGROVOC keyword co-occurrence graph was produced in which the relatedness of keyword terms is based on the number of records in which they occur together (i.e. keyword frequency by publication record). In this case, keywords comprise the nodes in the network, with edges linking keywords when they are identified in the same publication metadata. This enables mapping not only the co-occurrence of terms, but the strength of these associations as represented by the edge weights.The initial analysis did not determine a minimum frequency threshold, for a total of 2,286 keywords detected, with 308,813 connections among them. To uncover insights on the most significant relationships, the keywords were filtered to consider only those occurring above the median frequency of 190 publications. This criterion reduced the keywords to 252, which were further cleaned by excluding non-thematic terms such as 'research', 'paper', 'analysis', 'data', among others.To further unpack key thematic associations, specific concepts of interest to the nexus were identified as source terms. Using insights from the pathways identified through literature review, and considering the minimum frequency threshold, the following words were selected (in alphabetical order): allocation, climate, conflicts, cooperation, equality, equity, farming, fisheries, livelihoods, livestock, markets, poverty, resilience, tenure. These words, along with the keywords they strongly co-occur with serve as proxies indicating major topics of interest and prevalence around the nexus within CGIAR research. While some of these words, like climate, conflicts, equality and equity represent how the overall nexus has been studied, others like tenure, farming or markets are used as proxies for understanding how nexus-specific pathways around resources, livelihoods and food insecurity might have been framed in CGIAR research outputs.Ego networks (Arnaboldi et al., 2016) were created for each of these terms to determine the direct relationship between them and other keywords in the dataset. The resulting edges table containing 185 unique terms and 2,454 connections among them was exported as a CSV. Given the high degree of interlinkages among keywords, the top 10 per cent associations were filtered for each source term and the resulting subset was imported into open-source data visualisation tool RawGraphs (Mauri et al., 2017) for the creation of a Sankey diagram depicting the associations between the source terms and keywords.The search exercise for data collection reveals a higher number of search results for only 'inequality' (1,731 records) but when used in combination with words like 'climate' or 'conflict', the number decreases considerably (141 and 219 records, respectively), indicating a gap in how frequently CGIAR outputs have considered these linkages. This also reveals a scope for using the climate-security lens in programming and policy where mitigating inequality may be a central concern in areas vulnerable to climate or conflict-related risks, but its relationship with both climate and conflict have not been fully explored.The search strategy yields a greater number of results when the word 'poverty' is used instead of 'inequality' and in combination with 'climate' and/or 'conflict'. While inequality, in combination with 'climate' and 'conflict' yields only fourteen results, 'poverty' in combination with 'climate' and 'conflict' yields seventy-two results. Similarly, the word 'poverty' when combined with 'food' yields a greater number of results than 'inequality' and 'food'. Moreover, where only 'conflict' is included as part of the keyword combinations, the year with the most frequent publications in relevance with those keywords tends to be older compared to where 'climate' is used as part of the keyword combination.Considering the consolidated dataset with 14,675 unique publications, Figure 2 presents the network of institutional collaboration, where nodes present institutions or programmes identified in metadata from GARDIAN records, sized according to number of publications. When institutions or programmes are mentioned together in the record metadata, an edge is generated between them, with the weight representing the frequency of co-occurrences. The graph places the CGIAR Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) as the central entity in the network with 5,171 publications. This is not surprising, given that the programme aggregated and bridged most climate-focused initiatives by CGIAR research centres over the course of its existence between 2012 and 2021. The International Food Policy Research Institute is the second most frequent institutional affiliation, with 3,184 documents.The regions most frequently identified in the dataset are South Asia and South America. There is scope for more dedicated focus on Africa, especially going beyond more frequently studied countries like Kenya. This comparatively lesser focus on Africa deviates from the trend in literature on climate, food security and conflict, which tends to heavily zoom in on sub-Saharan and Sahelian regions (Martin-Shields and Stojetz, 2019). It might also be interesting to note that when the word 'equity' is used instead of inequality, in combination with 'conflict' or 'adaptation', the regional focus shifts to Southeast Asia.Figure 3 represents a word cloud visualisation for the 500 most frequent terms pulled from the AGROVOC keyword metadata field for all 14,675 publications. Word clouds visually represent the occurrence of words in a corpus, by sizing the terms according to their frequency, and are an effective way to draw attention to frequently occurring terms as a first approximation of topic prevalence. This prevalence is quantified in Figure 4, which displays the occurrence of the twenty most frequent keywords. It is not surprising that the most frequently detected terms in the keyword corpus are 'climate', 'agriculture', 'development', 'poverty', amongst others, such as 'production', 'farmers', 'systems', 'water' and 'land', marking common CGIAR concerns. Circled in Figure 4 are the less frequently occurring words relevant to the nexus: 'conflicts', 'violence', 'equality' and 'equity', which do not appear among the top twenty keywords.While the word cloud and frequency table are helpful for developing an overall understanding of which themes are most represented in the dataset, further analysis can be useful to find the associations among terms and how strongly they co-occur. In Figure 5, the keyword co-occurrence network graph provides an overview of the dynamics of CGIAR science in relation to the climate-security-inequality nexus. Three clusters of related keywords are identified in the graph, representing groups of nodes that are more densely connected together than to the rest of the network. While these can be linked to distinct overarching research fields, such as agricultural development (light grey), climate adaptation (medium grey) and social development (dark grey), the close proximity of the groups and the cross-cluster edges mean that while certain groups tend to interact more with each other, nodes still connect with other nodes beyond their clusters. It is worth noting that equality, equity, conflicts and violence are not in the same cluster as climate, agriculture, systems and resilience.Focusing further on the strongest associations for key source terms related to the climate-security-inequality nexus, Figure 6   relationships between words. Similar to a network graph, the figure contains keywords as nodes and lines connecting them when they appear in the same record, with the thickness of the lines representing the frequency (or weight) of the associations. While the keywords 'equality', 'tenure', 'markets', 'conflicts', 'cooperation' and 'allocation' are only source terms, 'climate', 'poverty', 'livelihoods', 'resilience', 'farming', 'livestock' are both source and target terms. This means they also connect to and can act as bridges with other nexus-specific terms. The strongest associations are between climate and agriculture, climate and development, and poverty and development.The prominence of poverty and development along with climate and agriculture for words that co-occur strongly within the corpus of CGIAR contributions can be further to the overarching recognition that poverty and social development indicators are vital to a holistic understanding of risk and resilience for land, water and food systems (LWFS). Inequality cannot be disconnected from this understanding, especially for questions like how LWFS that are also usually racialised, gendered and classed systems in former colonial contexts are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate and other crises, and what can be done in the form of interventions.The analysis demonstrates that the keyword 'tenure' strongly co-occurs with 'land', 'management', 'climate', 'resources', and 'gender', and not as strongly with words like 'equity', 'conflicts' and 'distribution'. Further the keyword 'tenure' can be used as a proxy to represent the pathway on resource inequality as it can be argued that it is not enough to focus on resource availability through framings on scarcity and abundance. There is need also to consider issues of resource access, use and rights. This is particularly the case for marginalised groups in climate-vulnerable regions with unequal access to resources like land and water, instrumental for their capacity to cope and survive harsh climate impacts and related peace and security risks. The weaker yet direct co-occurrence with 'equity' and 'conflicts' can be further suggestive of how the pathway may operate. For communities disproportionately impacted by climate and conflicts, questions of ownership, use and access to resources are critical as inequality in these dimensions can then push them towards unsustainable livelihood strategies, like deforestation, leading to environmental degradation and reduction of vital carbon sinks, thereby feeding a vicious loop of struggle over access to common pool resources, worsening environmental conditions and risks of insecurity and violence.The keyword 'livelihoods' serving as proxy for the livelihood insecurity pathway strongly co-occurs with 'climate', 'poverty', 'resources', 'resilience', and not as strongly with 'equity', 'equality', and 'conflicts'. When disaggregated by types of livelihoods, 'farming' is found to strongly co-occur with 'climate', 'income', 'resources', and weakly co-occur with 'inclusion', 'cooperation', 'conflicts' and 'equality'. The keyword 'livestock' is similarly found to co-occur strongly with words like 'climate', 'development', 'poverty', 'land', 'income', 'health', 'nutrition' and 'drought' while it co-occurs weakly with 'conflicts', 'inclusion', 'cooperation' and 'equality'.Similarly, serving as proxy for the food insecurity pathway, the keyword 'markets' strongly co-occurs with 'policies', 'institutions', 'agriculture', 'development', 'climate', 'prices' and 'malnutrition', while it co-occurs only weakly with 'cooperation', 'conflicts', 'equality', 'inclusion' and 'violence'. Instead of a sole focus on food production, considering aspects like food supply and prices, along with relevant policies and institutions can be critical for tracing channels through which disruptions in local food markets can lead to adverse nutrition and health outcomes, especially for those already susceptible to experiencing hunger and food insecurity. Further, directly co-occurring with keywords 'climate', 'conflicts', 'equity' and 'resources', the keyword 'allocation' can be posited to be a key aspect of the climate-security-inequality nexus, as captured from the keyword corpus of CGIAR contributions focusing on the nexus.While evidence of direct co-occurrence in the visualisation gives an indication that climate-conflict linkages have been examined by CGIAR, it is also clear from the thinness of edges that the association is not strong. Further, even where keywords co-occur strongly, they may not clearly illuminate the mechanisms or channels through which this nexus might operate, along with the key role played by inequality in these channels.Still focusing on the nexus-specific terms, Figure 7 presents a scatterplot with the average date of publication for each of the terms, a metric determined by VOSviewer based on the publication year. This visualisation helps understand temporal trends in the research by placing the terms on a timescale. The size of each data point is in relation to its overall frequency. It is interesting to note here that 'poverty' achieved its average frequency before 'climate' as a keyword attained its average frequency, in 2011 and 2016, respectively. 'Conflicts' and 'equality', although with a lower frequency, have also mostly occurred before 'climate' reaches its peak. Furthermore, 'equity' has higher average frequency of occurrence before 'equality' in the timeline.It can also be seen here that there appears to be a considerable increase in the volume of publications from 2010 onwards, corroborating a general trend of growing scientific focus on climate change as a topic of research (Nalau and Verrall, 2021). This can be partly attributed to the burgeoning dialogues around climate action in the international policy arena along with a fast-growing community of practice focusing on the impact of climate and other crises on society.Overall, the analysis indicates that while inequality has been a component of CGIAR research focus, the keyword 'equality' does not tend to strongly co-occur with climate and conflict-related terms within the same publications. Both 'equality' and 'equity', albeit with a lower frequency, occur in the social development cluster indicated by dark grey nodes in Figure 5. While there are cross-linkages between the three clusters identified in the figure these linkages are mainly bridged through terms like 'climate', 'poverty', 'livelihoods' or 'resilience', as seen from Figure 6. As demonstrated by the left-hand side of Figure 6, 'equality' mainly acts as a source term, along with 'markets', 'tenure', 'allocation', 'conflicts' and 'cooperation'. In other words, this latter group of keywords do not act as bridges linking words that do not directly co-occur with each other. This illuminates both a gap and a scope for CGIAR research to not only focus on these keywords and by extension the topics they represent, but rather focus on them in combination with other emergent nexus-specific topics in a way that enables examination of pathways through which the climate-security-inequality nexus may operate across specific contexts and scales. As hinted from the search query yielding more results when 'poverty' was used instead of 'inequality' in the keyword combinations, this points towards the prevalence of a largely economic understanding of inequality, connected with income and ownership of assets by individuals (vertical inequality) rather than manifesting from unequal power relations between groups (horizontal inequality) or between members of the same household (gender inequality).Further, the search strategy also used words like 'equity' to find nexus-specific studies on equity in relation to climate, food security, adaptation and resilience. While on the one hand, words like 'violence' and 'fragile/fragility', 'insecurity' and 'risk' were used in tandem to draw out contributions that might be focusing on climateinequality-conflict linkages, on the other, words like 'transformation', 'resilience', 'peace' and 'stability' were used in the search in combination with the nexus-specific core terms to understand if any synergistic understanding has been developed and the potential to do so.Moreover, the analysis itself can be treated as an examination of a bigger picture rather than a deep dive into specific processes and pathways studied by CGIAR research. This can be mainly connected to the following methodological limitations and associated clarifications.The methodological framework used in this article can be used as a scoping review for broader knowledge mapping exercises focusing on multi-disciplinary research organisations like the CGIAR system. Further in-depth review of select publications would be needed for a more detailed analysis of mechanisms through which inequalities may contribute to vicious cycles of vulnerabilities for populations affected by climate and insecurity risks. Mixed-method and multi-method approaches can become useful here. Thus, instead of viewing this analysis as a standalone method, it can be used to support, complement and compare with insights emerging from literature and other methods.Further, some information could be lost by not using author-assigned keywords and only using keywords matched with AGROVOC. Nevertheless, this method serves as a sensitising exercise based on which research gaps and needs can be identified. By identifying the nature and strength of co-occurrence between keywords related to the climate-security-inequality nexus, the analysis can be used to go beyond highlighting the scenario at present to recommend potential future avenues for research, with implications for programming and policy.Key messages emerging from the analysis highlight that research on the climatesecurity-inequality nexus must not only consider inequality as driver but also as outcome of nexus-specific pathways, including adaptation and development efforts. Along with inequality, research on the nexus must also consider inequity and injustice reproduced by socio-ecological and political economic systems. There is a need to move beyond overwhelming attention on certain regions and sub-regions as typical examples of climate-conflict nexus, to broaden the geographical scope of analysis beyond a 'streetlight effect' (Adams et al., 2018). Seeing and acting through a lens of inequality can be critical to advancing understanding of the climate security nexus as intersectional. And finally, rather than shifting the entire spotlight, its radius can be expanded to further explore synergies between climate security risks, resilience and peace, using the lens of inequality.","tokenCount":"6770"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fe1e0178edf5cf6a4144fc5a87931d97","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7d524e13-a9bb-418a-8883-3701a44ec2f7/retrieve","id":"1517614822"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"538443fd-a8ba-4fba-8127-701f75ce89ce","pagecount":"47","content":"While prioritizing intensive production of cheap and plentiful food, industrial agriculture caused high costs on both the environment and humans, resulting in unsustainable food production.These costs are further exacerbated by misaligned public policies and economic incentives supporting the production of cheap food.The One CGIAR initiative Nature-positive solutions for shifting agrifood systems to more resilient and sustainable pathways (NATURE+) seeks to enhance the uptake of nature-positive solutions toward the realization of sustainable agricultural productivity by addressing challenges in three areas.Land degradation: In the attempt to mass-scale production of cheap and plentiful food, industrial agriculture has had disastrous costs on both the environment and humans. On the one hand, industrial agriculture drives 80 percent of deforestation, threatens 86 percent of the 28,000 species currently at risk of extinction (through habitat conversion and pollution), is responsible for significant loss of crop and genetic diversity and up to 37 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), accelerates land degradation and land-use change, and uses 70 percent of global water resources withdrawn. On the other hand, had reduced nutrition outcomes for families and farming incomes due to improvised soil and water health, reduced crop resistance to pests and diseases, and poor waste management. This creates the need to shift to a more resilient farming system capable of supporting smallholder farmers and ensuring agriculture is a net positive contributor to nature.Limited evidence and knowledge to support nature-positive solutions: The realization of the detrimental effects associated with industrial agriculture coupled with a shift in thinking on the need to (re)organize the agricultural production system has increased the emphasis on the need to protect nature, pursue -positive pathways and shift to more sustainable ways of farming. This shift is partly influenced by formal recognition by the 2021 United Nations Food System Summit (UNFSS) and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential within Nature+ is estimated to create 395 million jobs by 2030 by the 2020 World Economic Forum's \"The future of Nature and Business Report.\" However, the necessary evidence and tools required to support nature-positive planning by the agricultural research for development (AR4D) community lags behind. Evidence-based results on key innovation areas (a) biodiversity for food and agriculture, (b) soil management and improvement, (c) waste management, and (d) water management will provide the necessary decision support toolkit required to support the AR4D partners in last mile adoption of nature-positive practices. Knowledge gained will be instrumental in providing evidence of innovation that can be delivered at scale.Lack of business models for enhanced public-private partnership: The private sector is a key player in the successful implementation of any impact-oriented intervention.Additionally, policies and economic incentives must be aligned to motivate investment in sustainable nature-positive pathways. Therefore, to motivate public-private partnerships to scale the impact of nature-positive solutions, business models need to be developed that offer scientifically researched solutions and deliver a range of livelihood, social equity, and ecological co-benefits. This will provide an opportunity to collaborate with AR4D partners in shifting smallholder farmers toward producing food in a nature-positive way.Although much of the business case for nature-positive solutions is in place, evidence indicates that the actionable science (evidence and tools) required to support nature-positive planning by the national AR4D still lags. Failure to account for the true cost of food in agrifood systems in particular, makes it challenging for public and private sector actors to design incentives and investments that encourage smallholder farmers to shift to nature-positive pathways. As a result, smallholders continue to be pushed toward adoption of agricultural practices more suited to industrial systems. Based on a set of criteria and discussions with stakeholders, as well as budget considerations, five countries were selected for Nature+: Burkina Faso, Colombia, India, Kenya, and Vietnam. The report's main objective is to describe socio-economic conditions and agricultural systems in the survey areas. It provides a baseline assessment characterizing the main agricultural and socio-economic challenges within the surveyed localities, and to inform the array of research interventions currently underway. Furthermore, the study will provide a baseline for estimating the impacts of NATURE+ (including waste management, water management, development or a resilient seed system, development of value chains for neglected and underutilized species, participatory varietal selection, encouragement of designs for increasing agrobiodiversity, etc.) on inclusion, poverty reduction, as well as on food security, livelihoods, and jobs. The report is structured as follows: Section 2 presents detailed information on the survey design, its coverage and implementation. Sections 3 and 4 discuss the main analytical results of the report, separately for the household and the workers survey, respectively. Finally, section 5 concludes.Vietnam comprises 63 provinces and cities. Each province is divided into districts and provincial cities which are themselves further sub-divided into communes and villages. The survey was designed to cover the areas concerned with Nature+ initiatives in two districts: Sa Pa in the North (in the Lào Cai province) and Mai Son in the South (in the Sơn La province) (Figure 1, 2, and 3).The survey was conducted in 23 villages across the two districts.  The total number of households to be surveyed was determined through power calculation to be approximately 1,200 and the sampling strategy ensured that sampled households were distributed across the two districts of interest. The selection of specific survey sites within the two districts was guided by NATURE+ implementation partners.Initially, while the villages of NATURE+ intervention had been defined, no beneficiaries had already been selected. Shortly prior to the beginning of data collection, the team selected a pre-identified list of approximately 200 beneficiaries in the same districts given they were expected to be treated by NATURE+. To avoid the costs and disruptions resulting from two consecutive surveys, it was decided to include this list of beneficiaries to the upcoming survey (Table 1, Panel B).In Mai Son, villages in Hat Lot commune south of the built-up areas and the main road and reasonably far away from both Chieng Luong and Co Noi (Figure 3) were chosen as control area based on similar characteristics with the treatment communes, including agroecological zones and farm typologies highlighted in a project report (Hammond et al. 2021). In Sa Pa, the control commune of Liên Minh (Nam Sai) was also chosen based on similar agroecological zone (Figure 2). Control households were randomly drawn in the villages of Tiền Phong, Nậm Ban, and NàCang in Hat Lot and Nậm Than and Ban Sái in Liên Minh based on prior household listing (Table 1, Panel C). Survey data were collected between May and July 2023 among 1,153 households (858 treated and 295 control) in 23 villages (18 treated villages and 5 control villages) spread across eight communes in the two districts. An additional data collection aiming at gathering missing information on the farming activities of children from 12 to 18 years old among the previously surveyed households was also conducted between November and December 2023. Table 2 shows the distribution of households across districts by treatment status. In addition to the household survey, a linked survey was anticipated to collect data among 1,000 workers using a quantitative worker-level questionnaire. The sample was expected to be drawn through a non-probabilistic procedure using snowball sampling where workers were recruited by exploiting the data collected in the household survey. Specifically, the household survey generated a list of workers who had provided labor to each household over the last year, including their name, location, and phone number. Originally, the plan was to list up to six workers per household and interview two selected randomly. However, with a very low number of successful interviews in the first days of fieldwork, workers' interview criteria were relaxed to allow reaching the desired number of interviewed workers. Ultimately, the workers consist of four main groups:1. Workers hired by the surveyed households 2. Workers who are the respondents of surveyed households 3. Workers who are family members of surveyed households 4. Workers living in the sampled village.Especially in Sa Pa, since the incidence of households hiring workers from the same village is quite low and most households exchange labor to conduct agricultural activities, it was then decided to include both group 1 and group 2 in the survey. However, the number of workers identified remained much lower than expected. On the last two days of Mai Son field trip, group 4 was added to the targeted group. As the number of surveyed workers did not meet the expected quantity, after the field trip a phone survey was conducted to identify more workers to be selected. Only 334 workers (49 in Sa Pa and 285 in Mai Son) ended up being successfully interviewed for the worker survey.As part of the quantitative data collection, community-level data were also collected. The interviews were carried out by the teams' supervisors in all the 23 villages surveyed. Each discussion involved at least three community leaders as key informants.The household survey collected information on multiple topic such as socio-economic The community questionnaire, administered to key community informants, aimed at collecting information on access to infrastructure and basic services, economic activities, and social capital 1 .1 Descriptive statistics related to the community survey are displayed in Appendix Table A1.This section presents descriptive statistics of the sampled households on a variety of topics.Table 3 to Table 16 provide averages for the whole sample (column 1), the treated/to be treated Nature+ households (column 2) and the control group (column 3). Column 4 informs about the difference between the two treatment arms including the level of statistical significance of the ttest of difference in means. Finally, columns 5 and 6 provide averages for the two surveyed districts. Since respondents were randomly sampled, descriptive statistics presented in this section are representative of the universe of treated households. However, despite the attention taken to sample control households in areas similar to treated areas, given some levels of systematic selection, it will be necessary to control for any statistically significant differences observed between the two groups using non-experimental matching techniques at the analytical stage. Therefore, summary statistics by treatment arms need to be taken with caution.Table 3 offers socio-demographic and economic summary statistics of the sample. Overall, data collected underscore the socio-economic differences of Sa Pa and Mai Son in family structures, educational access, living standards, and economic conditions. The average household size across the sample is five members, but this number slightly varies between the two districts.Female-headed households, while a minority overall (9 percent), are much more prevalent in Mai Son (15 percent versus 4 percent in Sa Pa), possibly indicating regional disparities in family dynamics and the role of women in households. The average age of household heads stands at around 46 years, with younger heads in Sa Pa (44 years old) compared to Mai Son (48 years old).Education levels among household heads reveal interesting regional contrasts. A significant percentage has never attended school (41 percent), especially in Sa Pa (50 percent as opposed to 30 percent in Mai Son), suggesting disparities in educational access or varying behaviors toward formal education. Indeed, we observe a higher rate of secondary education in Mai Son (40 percent versus only 28 percent in Sa Pa). However, tertiary education remains relatively low in both districts, pointing to a broader challenge in higher education access.Living standards, as measured by durable asset ownership like smartphones, cars, and TVs, vary between the districts. While smartphone ownership is universally high, hinting at widespread connectivity, the ownership of vehicles and TV sets is higher in Mai Son, perhaps reflecting higher living standards. Income characteristics further confirm those regional differences. MaiSon generally shows higher expenditure and income levels (although both districts have comparable levels of net household income), which indicates improved economic environment.This difference goes beyond averages, with these disparities in living standards becoming even more apparent along income distributions.   However, the lower income diversification index in Mai Son suggests that households rely on a more limited range of income sources, indicative of a less varied economic environment (Table 3). Overall, sampled households show relatively low livelihood diversification as they draw their subsistence from slightly less than three (2.7) different income sources only on average and exhibit a 0.34 Gini Simpson income diversification index computed using gross income shares (Table 3). Figure 5 provides the breakdown of household gross income shares by income sources for each treatment status (Panel A) and by district (Panel B).The income composition between treated and control groups reveals distinct household economic strategies. Treated households rely more heavily on crop production while the control group's higher reliance on livestock and non-agricultural wage employment indicates a more diversified livelihood. Although the composition of agricultural systems differs significantly between the two groups, when considering agricultural activities collectively-including crop production, livestock activities, and agricultural wage employment-they contribute to a comparable proportion in both groups, accounting for 76 percent in the treated group and 71 percent in the control group.Data also suggests significant regional differences. Mai Son relies heavily on crop activities, contributing to over 64 percent of household income, significantly more than Sa Pa's 49 percent.Conversely, Sa Pa shows a higher percentage of income from self-employment and nonagricultural wage employment, indicating a more diverse economic activity base outside traditional agriculture. This higher contribution of non-agricultural activities in Sa Pa does not come as a surprise since Sa Pa's unique geographical location and cultural heritage have turned it into a hotspot for tourism, driving economic growth through the expansion of hospitality services and attracting international investment. The sector's significant growth has reshaped the local economy, emphasizing tourism as a key driver of socio-economic progress. As an example, the Assessment to inform selection of communes and villages for implementing the NATURE+ Initiative (Nguyen 2022), hereafter called the NATURE+ Vietnam assessment report)indicates that the Muong Hoa commune targeted by the NATURE+ initiative in the region stands out with its specific emphasis on eco-tourism activities and can boast an operational tourism cooperative. Livestock activities contribute similarly to income in both districts, hinting at a consistent role in the rural economies. Table 4 offers insights into household nutrition and dietary patterns. The mean daily per capita calorie intake reveals a notable disparity between the two districts, with Mai Son exhibiting a higher mean calorie intake (2,477 Kcal/pc/day) than Sa Pa (2,176 Kcal/pc/day). In fact, upon delving into the prevalence of consumption of specific food groups, distinct consumption patterns emerge between the two districts. Mai Son demonstrates higher consumption across most categories such as fruits, meat, eggs, fish, milk and other dairy, and oil, indicative of a more diverse diet rich in protein and essential fats. Conversely, Sa Pa appears to rely more heavily on staple foods like cereals and legumes. The disparity in dietary diversity is further underscored by the higher Household Dietary Diversity Score in Mai Son, suggesting a broader range of food items consumed in households within this district, potentially due to their higher economic status highlighted in section 3.1. These variations may also reflect cultural preferences and dietary habits. Table 5 provides an overview of sample's natural capital and crop activities. Overall, data indicate that households typically manage small lands around 0.7 hectares (HA) in size, with an average of 3.1 parcels each, which could explain the small percentage of households (10 percent) leaving land fallow. We observe a notable occurrence of soil erosion affecting over half of the sample, but only a third of those experiencing it take measures to control it. Tree cultivation is common, with a preference for native species.The regional comparison reveals distinct agricultural profiles for Sa Pa and Mai Son. Sa Pa's landholdings are much smaller (0.4 HA vs 1.1 HA in Mai Son), but land ownership is more common. Soil erosion is less reported (43 percent vs 67 percent in Mai Son), yet households are more proactive in implementing erosion control measures as 64 percent of farmers experiencing erosion reported taking actions against it in Sa Pa vs only 45 percent in Mai Son.Sa Pa is predominantly rice and maize (also for livestock feeding) growing in contrast with Mai Son's diverse agricultural practices. The 2022 Nature+ Vietnam assessment report highlighted that the local population in Sa Pa holds the conviction that self-cultivating rice is essential for food security. The report also indicates that in several communes, there is a long-standing tradition of cultivating rice primarily, without shifting to alternate crops, a practice that has been preserved over many years. Conversely, Mai Son displays a greater emphasis on diverse crops and agroforestry, as indicated by the higher crop diversification index and the extensive cultivation of longan, sugarcane, mango and strawberries, alongside rice and maize.Additionally, Mai Son has a notably higher engagement with farmers' cooperatives, which could correlate with the region's broader agricultural diversification and community support mechanisms.In terms of the treatment group comparison, the treated households have marginally smaller land and a higher number of parcels. They also show a higher incidence of soil erosion. The substantial variation in the prevalence of agroforestry and the types of crops cultivated between the two groups underscores the need to apply matching procedures at the impact assessment phase.  across the surveyed population. The data also reveals a widespread engagement in poultry and pig raising, with a significant portion of households also involved in producing meat, manure, and eggs, indicating the crucial role of livestock in their livelihoods and agricultural practices already mentioned in Figure 5.Regionally, Sa Pa and Mai Son present contrasting pictures of livestock management. Mai Son households own more TLUs on average and have a significantly higher prevalence of cows and goats, also reflected in the higher prevalence of milk production among Mai Son households.Sa Pa, however, shows a higher engagement in raising pigs and producing manure. The livestock asset and diversification indexes indicate that Mai Son has a slightly higher level of livestock diversification than Sa Pa, which could be due to the broader range of suitable livestock types or more varied agricultural practices in Mai Son.Focusing on treatment status, we observe notable differences in livestock raising and production. The treated households show significantly higher percentages in raising poultry, pigs, and draught cattle compared to the control group with also a higher engagement in meat, egg, and wool/skin production. Conversely, the control group has a higher percentage of households with fishponds, suggesting a divergence in livestock and aquaculture practices between the groups. However, overall, the livestock asset index and livestock diversity index are not statistically different between the two groups. Table 7 focuses on the use of agricultural inputs among sampled households. Overall, a significant 72 percent of households have adopted improved seeds. The reasons for seed choice vary, with a preference for improved seeds being the most common, followed by traditional seeds and advice from fellow farmers or extension agents. The use of both organic and inorganic fertilizers is prevalent, with a marked preference for inorganic fertilizers, underscoring their importance in farming operations.Sa Pa and Mai Son show once again distinct agricultural practices. Sa Pa reports a much higher rate of households using improved seeds (81 percent vs 61 percent in Mai Son) and relying on advice from fellow farmers, which may reflect a stronger community network or better access to agricultural inputs. Sa Pa also shows a substantially lower use of organic fertilizers (36 percent vs 76 percent in Mai Son). In both Sa Pa and Mai Son, the use of inorganic fertilizers is remarkably high, with nearly universal adoption among households. This widespread use of inorganic fertilizers, alongside significant percentages of households using pesticides (90 percent in Sa Regarding treatment status comparison, we found a stark statistically significant difference in the adoption of improved seeds, with treated households reporting a 24 percent higher usage than the control group. The treated group also exhibits higher usage of herbicides, possibly pointing to a more input-intensive agriculture. (2) For households using labor on-farmFigure 6 depicts the self-reported adoption rates of the top 20 nature-positive (N+) practices in the sample by district (the same figure is also provided by treatment status in appendix Figure A1) while Table 8 provides further insights into households' familiarity with N+ practices. Firstly, we observe that 80 percent of the sample declared practicing at least one nature-positive solution (Table 8). Among those, it is immediately noticeable that the practice of using manure fertilizer is the most widely adopted in both districts (Figure 6), with a particularly high adoption rate in Mai Son (78 percent vs 47 percent in Sa Pa). The construction of bunds, terraces, and other structural soil conservation methods are unsurprisingly significantly more prevalent in in the mountainous and terraced areas of Sa Pa which may require more intensive soil conservation efforts (21 percent in Mai Son vs 72 percent in Sa Pa).Moreover, the high rates of pesticide, herbicide, and inorganic fertilizer usage in Sa Pa and Mai Son, as previously noted, (possibly driven by the imperative to maintain high crop yields and protect against pest and disease pressures) helps explain why the use of selective pesticides and the reduction of prophylactic spraying and the reduction of chemical pesticides use are among the top nature-positive practices adopted by farmers in both districts. Selective pesticides are those that are designed to target specific pests, minimizing harm to other insects, including pollinators, and reducing the overall environmental impact. Their increased use can be a response to the growing awareness of the negative effects of broad-spectrum pesticides, which can lead to a decline in biodiversity and disrupt ecosystems. By adopting selective pesticides, farmers in Sa Pa and Mai Son can continue to protect their crops from pests while potentially mitigating some of the negative environmental impacts associated with pesticide use. The reduction of prophylactic spraying reflects a shift toward more integrated pest management practices. The high ranking of those practices suggests an increased adoption of more sustainable farming methods. This shift could be influenced by several factors, including the recognition of the long-term soil and water degradation that can result from heavy chemical use. By incorporating these nature-positive practices, farmers in both districts are likely aiming to balance their productivity imperatives with the need to preserve the environmental health of their farmlands.In contrast, several practices are markedly less adopted in both districts, such as the preservation of indigenous livestock. It's also interesting to note that intercropping and crop rotation are at the bottom of the top 20 list, and especially low in Sa Pa where we already mentioned relatively lower crop diversification that with a predominance of rice and maize cultivation (section 3.3.1).Beyond the top 20, data suggest that \"easily implementable\" practices such as community seed banks and the use of buffer strips around rivers and streams have very low adoption rates, which could point to potential areas for development in agricultural support programs. Households reporting practicing nature positive solutions practice on average 6.1 solutions (Table 8). The depth of experience with N+ varies; a vast majority of households have been implementing at least one N+ for over five years, indicating a long-standing commitment to these practices. Regionally, Sa Pa and Mai Son show similar levels of engagement with N+ practices. However, Sa Pa relies more on information from relatives, friends, and neighbors, while Mai Son uses public extension agents more frequently. This could indicate cultural or infrastructural differences in how agricultural knowledge is disseminated and adopted in the districts. Overall, the findings reflect a landscape where N+ practices are reasonably well-known, with significant scope for expanding their adoption through targeted interventions and information dissemination strategies. Table 9 provides descriptive statistics on a series of indicators of agricultural productivity, highlighting the yields of various crops. The variances in productivity between the two districts reflect the influence of local environmental factors, crop choices, and agricultural strategies, with Sa Pa focusing on staple grains and Mai Son expanding its agricultural portfolio. In Sa Pa, the higher yields of rice (11 Ton/HA vs 9 Ton/HA in Mai Son) and maize (16 Ton/HA vs 7 Ton/HA in Mai Son), main crops cultivated in the area (see Table 5) suggest that the agricultural practices and inputs in this region are well-suited to these crops, which might benefit from the terraced landscapes and the heavy reliance on surface water. Conversely, Mai Son, which showcases a more diverse crop production (see Table 5), displays higher yields in crops like cassava ( 18Ton/HA vs 12 Ton/Ha in Sa Pa) and mustard greens (17 Ton/HA vs 10 Ton/HA in Sa Pa). The differences in sugarcane yield, with Mai Son's yield being several times that of Sa Pa derives from the almost negligible sugarcane production in the latter. Table 10 presents insights into indicators of income, market access for crop activities. Delving into the regional comparison, Mai Son stands out with a total value of crop income and sales substantially exceeding Sa Pa's figures. This difference is particularly pronounced in the market participation rates, where nearly all households in Mai Son produce and sell their products (95 percent), as opposed to Sa Pa, where only about a quarter of households engage in the market (25 percent). This high level of market engagement in Mai Son is reflected across all crops where almost all production is sold, with the unsurprising exception of rice, suggesting a heavily commercial agriculture, robust market integration and better access to markets or more effective marketing strategies. In Sa Pa, that specializes in rice and maize, only 5 percent of crops harvested in quantity (vs 84 percent in Mai Son) is ultimately sold, and 8 percent in value (vs 68 percent in Mai Son). The superior market access performance of Mai Son, characterized by its robust sales figures and high rates of market participation across all crops, likely contributes to the higher living standards in the district already documented in Table 3 and Figure  From a treatment status perspective, while there's a clear and large difference between the treated and control groups regarding income and total value of crop sales, with the treated households displaying crops sales 1.7 times as much (54,734 thousand VNM) as the control group (31,839 thousand VNM), the levels of market participation (56 percent for the treated vs 62 percent for the control) and the proportion of crops sold versus harvested particularly in terms of their quantity (40 percent for the treated vs 47 percent for the control) and value (35 percent for the treated vs 37 percent for the control) do not show substantial variation. This implies that, although the treated group may be selling more in terms of overall value, the percentage of their harvest that reaches the market, and the extent to which they engage in selling their produce (the propensity to sell) is relatively similar to the control group.    Data at the household level for households with only male managed assets, households with only female managed assets and households with assets managed jointly or with a mix of assets managed by males and females.Table 13 shows gender disparities in crop activities, focusing on indicators such as parcel management decision-making, number of fields managed on average, average areas of parcels managed, and earnings from crops. Focusing on the sample overall mean values, significant gender disparities are evident across multiple indicators. For instance, in terms of parcel management decision-making, a much higher proportion of decisions are made solely by males (59 percent) compared to females (7 percent), with joint management accounting for the remaining 34 percent. This indicates a substantial gender gap in decision-making regarding crop activities. Those decisions encompass a wide range of aspects, including selecting crops, seeds, and inputs, determining planting schedules, managing post-harvest activities, and facilitating market access. Additionally, examining the average number of fields and the average areas of parcels under different decision-making arrangements, we find that households with female-only decision making tend manage a lower number of fields/parcels (2.3 parcels on average) compared to households with male-only decision making (3 parcels on average).Furthermore, male only managed parcels are much larger on average compared to female-only managed parcels which only results in a slight disparity in crop income. The regional comparison reinforces the gender disparities, revealing a predominant trend of male management and higher earnings across both districts.Overall, with a higher proportion of parcels controlled by males, indicating greater autonomy in crop production and marketing decisions, men tend to manage larger parcels, leading to higher crop yields, production volumes and crop sales. Furthermore, barriers such as limited market access, discriminatory pricing practices, and cultural norms could further restrict women's participation in market activities. Note: Asterisks represent level of statistical significance of t-test of difference in means .01 -***; .05 -**; .1 -*; Data on at the household level for households with only male managed parcels, households with only female managed parcels and households with parcels managed jointly or with a mix of parcels managed by males and females. HH: Household; HA: Hectares; VNM: Vietnamese Dong Concentrating on the overall mean values, we observe that a higher proportion male participation (48 percent) compared to female (18 percent) in decision making around livestock, with joint decision-making accounting for the remaining 34 percent. Furthermore, we observe that men tend to have control over a higher average number of TLU (2.24) compared to female (1.16). This suggests that men may decide for larger or more diversified livestock holdings compared to women. Finally, and once again, the economic outcomes starkly favor male decision-makers, with male-only decision-making leading to the highest per capita gross livestock income, a trend also observed in both Sa Pa and Mai Son. Finally, Table 15 provides evidence of gender disparities in non-agricultural activities. Significant gender disparities are once again evident across multiple indicators for the whole sample. For instance, in the management of self-employment activities, data point to a higher proportion of businesses solely managed by males (47 percent) compared to females (30 percent) However, the gender distribution in the management of non-agricultural small enterprises appears to be more balanced in Sa Pa compared to Mai Son. Furthermore, we observe that, on average, male household members earn significantly higher wages (43,652 thousand VNM) compared to female household members (30,401 thousand VNM), indicating a substantial income gap.Likewise, control over earnings from transfers and other income sources is predominantly vested in men. Finally, the distribution of information on N+ practices leans heavily toward males, indicating a gender gap in access to agricultural knowledge. These patterns underscore the necessity for targeted interventions aimed at empowering women in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, enhancing their access to information, and promoting genderequitable decision-making practices to bridge these disparities. Table 16 provides statistics related to climate and non-climate related shocks experienced by households since 2020 and in the past 12 months. The overall mean values paint a picture of consistent vulnerability among households, with 63 percent of households reporting experiencing shocks since 2020 and 51 percent during the past 12 months.Examining regional variations, it's apparent that shock incidence in Sa Pa is notably lower than in Mai Son. Specifically, 59 percent of households in Sa Pa reported experiencing shocks since 2020, contrasting with 67 percent in Mai Son. Moreover, both climate-related and non-climaterelated shocks seem to present less of a challenge in Sa Pa. This observation suggests a potentially higher resilience among households in Sa Pa, enabling them to more effectively mitigate the impact of various shocks and resulting in overall lower levels of vulnerability. The disparity in climate-related shocks could potentially be attributed to inherent characteristics and geographical differences between the two districts. Notably, droughts appear to disproportionately affect households in Mai Son, with 44 percent of families reporting experiencing drought since 2020 (and 38 percent in the past 12 months). Conversely, nonclimate-related shocks such as low prices or demand for agricultural output and high crop pests and diseases are notable challenges in Mai Son. On the other hand, households in Sa Pa appear to be more affected by high livestock diseases as highlighted by the 2022 Nature+ Vietnam assessment report. This suggests that regional disparities in shock incidence may stem from a combination of environmental factors, economic conditions, and agricultural practices specific to each district. Results from the worker survey and child labor are described and analyzed in the true cost accounting report (Benfica et al., forthcoming). Hence, only a summary of descriptive statistics is presented in Table 17.Statistics indicate a similar prevalence of children engagement in farming activities and child labor in both districts. However, children seem to be exposed to higher risk in Mai Son as 15 percent of them are involved in hazardous activities compared to 9 percent in Sa Pa.The descriptive statistics from the worker survey, as presented in In terms of socio-demographic indicators, there is a notable contrast in the proportion of female workers between Sa Pa and Mai Son, with Sa Pa showing a significantly higher share of female workers at 69 percent compared to Mai Son's 58 percent. Education-related metrics also highlight distinct differences between the two districts. While the average number of years of education for workers overall stands at 7.8 years, Mai Son workers exhibit a considerably higher average of 8.2 years, contrasting with Sa Pa's lower average of 5.7 years. Additionally, Sa Pa presents a higher percentage of workers with zero or less than primary education (47 percent), a contrast to Mai Son's lower figure of 28 percent, signaling potential educational disparities and challenges within Sa Pa already highlighted in the household survey.When it comes to health and safety, Sa Pa again exhibits higher percentages in certain aspects, such as working in non-standard conditions, which may indicate greater occupational hazards or challenges faced by agricultural workers in Sa Pa. Note: * Data include households with at least one child.Agriculture serves as a vital pillar of Vietnam's economy, providing livelihoods for millions as rural population still represents 61 percent of the overall population in the country (2024a) and contributing significantly to 12 percent of the GDP (2024b) in 2022. In fact, the agricultural sector, known for its exports in rice, coffee, and pepper, emerges as a leading exporter of agri- Additionally, a community survey and a survey of 334 workers was conducted, primarily to inform research on True Cost Accounting.Our analysis of the living standards and economic conditions of the households sampled in the NATURE+ baseline survey highlights significant differences between the two targeted areas of Sa Pa and Mai Son in socio-demographic profiles, educational access, asset ownership, income characteristics, and economic conditions, painting a distinct picture of living standards in the two districts. Mai Son exhibits higher living standards compared to Sa Pa, as evidenced by greater income levels and expenditure and ownership of durable assets such as vehicles and TVs, indicating higher living standards and a stronger economic environment. The educational disparity is notable, with a larger portion of Sa Pa's population never having attended school, contrasting with Mai Son's higher rates of secondary education. Moreover, in terms of nutrition and dietary patterns, Mai Son residents also benefit from a higher mean daily per capita calorie intake and a more varied diet, including higher consumption of proteins and essential fats, while Sa Pa's diet is more reliant on staple foods.While we find that treated and control groups do not show large differences in living standards, the analysis reveals that treated households tend to focus more heavily on crop production, whereas the control group shows a preference for a more diversified economic approach, including a higher reliance on livestock and non-agricultural wage employment.The overview of agricultural activities and practices in the sampled districts reveals a nuanced picture of farming operations, with distinct differences between Sa Pa and Mai Son as well as between treated and control groups. Overall, households manage small land parcels, on average 0.7 hectares, distributed across 3.1 parcels, indicating small-scale farming predominance. Soil erosion affects over half of the sample, yet only a fourth of affected households undertake erosion control, highlighting environmental challenges. The two districts also exhibit divergent agricultural profiles; Sa Pa's smaller landholdings (0.4 ha) and higher propensity for erosion control measures contrast with Mai Son's larger landholdings (1.1 ha) and diverse crop cultivation, including agroforestry practices and engagement with farmers' cooperatives, suggesting different agricultural strategies and environmental management approaches. Livestock management further differentiates the districts, with Mai Son showing a broader range of livestock activities, including higher milk production, whereas Sa Pa focuses more on poultry and pig raising, reflecting more varied livelihood strategies.Agricultural inputs and outputs analysis reveal a significant adoption of improved seeds on average (72 percent) and a preference for inorganic fertilizer, used by 98 percent of households sampled, over organic fertilizers, used by 55 percent of the sampled households, underlining a strategy to maximize crop yields despite potential environmental concerns. Regional practices vary, with Sa Pa's higher use of improved seeds and much lower organic fertilizer use compared to Mai Son. The adoption of nature-positive practices, such as the use of manure and soil conservation methods, witnesses an awareness of sustainable farming techniques, although the prevalence of chemical input use raises environmental sustainability concerns.We observe that Sa Pa's agriculture is characterized by higher yields of staple grains such as rice and maize, attributed to its terraced landscapes and water use, which contrasts with Mai Son's more diversified agricultural portfolio. This diversification in Mai Son is linked to better market access and commercial agriculture practices, as evidenced by the great household participation in the market and achievement of substantial crop sales. Conversely, Sa Pa's agricultural model appears to be more subsistence-oriented with limited commercial exchange, perhaps due to challenges in market connectivity exacerbated by the district's topography. This difference in market engagement suggests that Mai Son benefits from robust market integration and effective marketing strategies, contributing to the higher living standards observed in the district. While treated households report higher per capita crop income and total value of crop sales compared to the control group, the proportion of crops sold and the levels of market participation do not differ significantly between the two, pointing to similar selling behaviors despite differences in sales volume.Finally, data emphasize the significant gap in ownership, decision-making, and income between males and females. Land and productive assets are predominantly male owned, with a substantial disparity in land ownership (83 percent male vs. 8 percent female) and productive assets (42 percent male versus 5 percent female). This gap extends to decision-making in crop activities, where males predominantly take decisions and manage larger parcels, leading to significantly higher revenue generation compared to female-managed parcels. A comparison by district suggests slight variations, yet the overarching trend underscores male dominance in agricultural decision-making and derived benefits. Similarly, gender disparities are evident in livestock and non-agricultural activities, where male household members overwhelmingly lead in decision-making and control over income and assets, including a higher average number of male-managed livestock. This finding is consistent with the management of non-agricultural ","tokenCount":"6442"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"acff660bd389ed4bc73b3ac52b63b6dc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ec34bf2f-4c79-4c81-8506-9cc47b8cf9b3/retrieve","id":"216088191"},"keywords":["β-carotene","genotype","retentions","yellow-fleshed","micronutrients","processing","fufu"],"sieverID":"14984ae2-799a-491f-b61f-def4d26948c8","pagecount":"12","content":"The biofortification of staple foods such as cassava is one of the technological breakthroughs in the nutritional improvement of foods. Fufu is one of the fermented cassava products produced and consumed in major West African countries, including Sierra Leone, and the majority of the processes involved in its production have direct and indirect effects on its properties. This study looked at how the concentration and retention of micronutrients in yellow-fleshed cassava fufu varied depending on genotype and processing method.Methods: Six yellow-fleshed cassava root genotypes (TMS-070557, TMS-011371, TMS-011412, TMS-011663, TMS-083724, TMS-083774) and one white (TME 419 as a control) were processed into fufu using both conventional (oven and sun-dried) and traditional (bowl and river) methods. The Statistical Analysis System (SAS) version 9.4 was used to analyze data using means, percentages, analysis of variance and means separated by least significant differences (LSD).Results and Discussion: In the modified traditional river method, raw and cooked fufu samples had significantly higher β-carotene concentrations and true retention (TR) percentages (11.06 g/g (46.77%) and 4.54 g/g (16.94%), respectively) than other genotypes (p < 0.0001). Modified traditional fufu processing methods increased total β-carotene concentrations, while raw roots showed a significant decrease in total carotenoid and β-carotene concentrations, regardless of genotype or processing method. Sun-drying was the most effective method, with significantly higher concentrations and TR percentages of iron (10.01 mg/kg, 18.02%) and zinc (11.49 mg/kg, 40.64%) in raw and cooked fufu samples. Genotype TMS-083724 outperformed both conventional fufu processing methods, displaying a significant total carotenoid concentration and true retention percentage. Finally, this study found that the concentrations and percentages of TR of micronutrients varied depending on the processing method and genotype. It is recommended that a modified traditional river fufu processing method be further developed and improved in order to maximize provitamin A carotenoids, concentrations, and percentage TR.Hidden hunger, also known as micronutrient deficiency, is a public health issue globally, especially among populations that rely on staple foods that are deficient in micronutrients, such as roots and tuber crops (1,2). The geographical regions most affected by micronutrient deficiency are believed to be in the order of: South Asia (in particular, Bangladesh and India), Africa, and the Western Pacific in terms of severity. In Sierra Leone, 83% of preschool children and 60% of women of childbearing age are iron deficient (3), 17.2% of children 6-59 months suffer from Vitamin A deficiency, and anemia has been associated with Vitamin A in young children in the country (4). Deficiencies in the major micronutrients, vitamin A, iron, iodine, and zinc, are common among populations that consume plant-based diets (5). One of the technological breakthroughs in global nutritional improvement projects is the biofortification of staple foods such as cassava with micronutrients such as carotenoids, iron, and zinc (6,7). Cassava is rich in carbohydrates but grossly deficient in other nutrients. It is majorly consumed in most African countries, including Sierra Leone, as a staple food. Fufu is one of the fermented cassava products that is produced and consumed in some West African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone (8)(9)(10).In recent years, HarvestPlus has introduced some biofortified cassava genotypes into Sierra Leone through the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). However, the concentrations and percentage of true retentions of micronutrients when these genotypes are subjected to different product processing methods are yet to be investigated. Reduction in the carotenoid contents during the processing of yellow-fleshed cassava root into some food forms has been reported (10)(11)(12). Most of the processes leading to the production of this food sometimes have direct and indirect influences on its properties. Fufu is traditionally produced into a wet paste or conventionally to obtain flour. Fufu may lose carotenoid, iron, zinc, and other micronutrients through leaching during processing, which could explain the differences in nutrient retention. Individuals processing cassava into fufu traditionally ferment roots in different handling materials such as bowls, plastic drums, and basins and use other natural resources like stagnant water or a flowing river. These have been noted to have implications on the nutrients and total quality of the products. Conventional fufu processing methods involve peeling, washing, size reduction, fermenting, decanting, pressing, drying, and milling the resulting fufu into flour. De Moura et al. (13) revealed that among several methods of processing, sun drying was more detrimental to the provitamin A levels (27-56% retention) in cassava than shade (59%) or oven drying (55-91%). Resource-poor producers mostly produce fufu and rely mainly on using low technologies to prepare fufu. It is, therefore, pertinent to determine the effects of some of these traditional methods on the availability of micronutrients in biofortified root samples and their percentage of true retention. Further, the complexity of modern cassava processing equipment and its high cost limits the local fufu producers to readily available domestic tools, some of which have been considered suitable to be used when processing yellow cassava owing to their ability to mitigate nutrient loss (10).There is a dearth of information on the impact of traditional and conventional processing methods on nutrient concentrations and percentage true retentions of yellow-fleshed cassava genotypes grown in Sierra Leone. Hence, this study evaluated the variations of total carotenoids, β-carotene, iron, and zinc concentrations and percentage true retentions in yellow-fleshed cassava fufu as a function of processing methods and genotypes.Six yellow-fleshed cassava (Manihot esculenta) improved genotypes and one white variety that were grown under rain-fed conditions in a randomized complete block design with two replications at the Njala Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Experimental site in Kori Chiefdom, Moyamba District, Southern Region of Sierra Leone, West Africa were harvested at 14 months after planting. The genotypes were supplied by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria, to the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute for adaptation study in Sierra Leone. Harvesting was done manually (early in the morning) by experienced personnel, and the storage roots were transported to the Dunsan Spencer processing unit at NARC.Processing of the harvested cassava roots commenced within 60 min after harvesting. All sampling following harvesting was conducted in a dimly lit room to prevent oxidation in the shortest possible time. Three roots from each harvested genotypes were selected and washed thoroughly to remove dirt and other adhering particles. After which, stainless steel knives were used to cut the selected roots into four parts through longitudinal cuts from one extremity to its opposite, and four sections were obtained. Two opposite sections were discarded, and the remaining were peeled and washed in deionized water to prevent mineral contamination. The roots were then cut into tiny cubes and shared into two halves. The first half was wrapped in aluminium foil before being placed in sterilized Nasco whirl-pak bags for carotenoid and β-carotene analyses, while the remaining half was packed in the Sterilized whirlpaks for mineral analyses. All samples were kept in a −80 o C freezer and were shipped to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan, Nigeria, for carotenoids and mineral analyses of the raw cassava roots. The remaining roots were washed, peeled and processed into fufu using the traditional and conventional processing methods.Traditional Bowl method: this is an improved method for fufu production in African as described by Maziya-Dixon et al. (14).Modified traditional river method: this was done with slight modifications of the typical traditional fufu production methods by rural families in Sierra Leone. The term modified traditional river method belongs to a long-standing traditional fufu production in Sierra Leone, where, the cassava roots are peeled, washed, placed in sacks and left in a flowing river to ferment for days or weeks.A quantity of 10 kg of freshly harvested cassava roots of each of the genotypes, were manually peeled using stainless steel knives. The peeled roots were then subjected to a rigorous washing process with deionized water in order to eliminate dirt and sand particles. After washing the roots were divided into two halves. One half was used for traditional bowl method whilst the other half was subjected to modified traditional river method.For the traditional bowl method, 15-20 cm length pieces of the peeled and washed roots were steeped in water a plastic bowl for 5 days at ambient temperature with limited light. After 5 days, the fermented roots were passed through a plastic sieve to obtain a fine mash. The mash was then placed in a large plastic bowl and left to sediment for 24 h. The sediment (fufu) was then dehydrated with a muslin cloth and a IITA-manufactured hydraulic presser.As for the modified traditional river, the roots were vertically cut opened, placed in hessian sacks, and steeped into large bowls of water for 5 days. After five days, the fermented roots were extracted, pulverized with a wooden mortar and pestle, and dehydrated using an IITA-manufactured hydraulic presser. The fibres in the resulting cake were handpicked and further passed through a plastic sieve to break up the cake.The wet fufu from both methods were divided into two equal portions. A portion of the raw fufu was reserved for laboratory analysis and the remaining portion was cooked (see Figure 1).The process by which the odorless fufu was produced has been detailed by Omodamiro et al. (10).A total of 10 kg of the harvested cassava roots of each genotype were manually peeled and washed using stainless steel knives. The peeled and washed roots were cut into 15-20 cm length pieces and steeped in water in a plastic bowl under dim light for 48 h at room temperature. The fermented roots were extracted from the plastic bowls after 24 h. The fibers were extracted by manually breaking the roots and passing them through a plastic sieve. Following 24 h of sedimentation, the water underwent additional decantation via a muslin cloth, hessian sack, and hydraulic presser (manufactured by IITA). Hand-masticating, weighing, and dividing the pressed cake in half for drying in the sun and the oven followed. One portion was dried for 48 h in plastic trays exposed to direct sunlight, while the other was dried for 72 h at 50°C in an oven. Using a 200 μm sieve and a stainless-steel grinder, the samples underwent an additional milling and sieving process to become fine flour. Samples were collected for laboratory analysis, and the remainder was utilized for cooking. 300 g sample of the wet fermented cassava paste and dried fufu flour were mixed with 300 mL and 400 mL of water, respectively, and cooked in a stainless-steel pot with continuous stirring with a wooden rod (15) for 20-25 min to obtain a sample of fermented cooked cassava dough (cooked fufu). The samples were divided into two, one was wrapped with aluminum foil and packaged into Nasco whirl pak (for total carotenoids and β-carotene analysis), whilst the other half was packaged into Nasco whirl pak only (for iron and zinc analysis) and stored at −80°C for further laboratory analyses.Carotenoid was extracted with petroleum ether and quantified using the spectrophotometric method described in the HarvestPlus Handbook for Carotenoid analysis (16). The method involves weighing 10 g of the homogeneous, representative of root and fufu samples, transferring them each into a mortar, adding 3 g of hyflosupercel (celite), and ground with 50 mL of cold acetone. The mortar, pestle, funnel, and residue were washed with small amounts of cold acetone, receiving the washings in the suction flask through the Buchner funnel using Whatman No 40-filter paper, and the extraction procedure repeated (until the residue was un-coloured), pooling all fractions together. 20 mL of Petroleum Ether (PE) was put into a 500 mL separatory funnel with a Teflon stop-cock. The samples were poured into a funnel and slowly washed with distilled water, allowing the water to flow along the funnel walls. The two phases were left to separate, and the lower aqueous phase was discarded. In order to remove all the acetone, washing was done thrice with distilled water (200 mL each time). The upper PE phase was collected in a 25 mL volumetric flask. The solution was passed through a small funnel containing 15 g of anhydrous sodium sulphate to remove residual water. The separation funnel was washed with PE, collecting the washings in the volumetric flask by passing through the funnel with sodium sulphate.Samples were made up to volume with PE, and the absorbance was taken at 450 nm. The formula below was used to calculate the total carotenoids content (see Eq. 1).A cm sample weigWhere: A = Absorbance; volume = total volume of extract (25 mL); A 1% 1 cm = Absorption coefficient of β-carotene in PE (2592) multiplied by 100 to give the carotenoid content in μg/100 g.The organic phase used for spectrophotometric quantification of total carotenoid aliquots (15 mL) was transferred to a glass tube and dried by nitrogen evaporation (N-Evap 112, Organomation Associates, Berlin, MA, United States). The dry extract was dissolved in 2.0 mL of (1:1) methanol and methyl tert-butyl ether (MeOH): MTBE High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)-grade after sonication (10 s) and agitation in a VWR multi-tube vortexer (2,400 rpm; 60 s) and filtered through a 0.22 μm poly-tetra-fluoro-ethylene (PTFE) filter immediately before injecting it into the same tube. Separation and quantification of carotenoids were achieved using a YMC Carotenoid S-5 C30 reversedphase column (4.6 mm × 150 mm: particle size, 5 μm), with a YMC Carotenoid S-5 guard column (4.0 × 23 mm) in a HPLC system. Peaks were identified by comparing retention time and spectral characteristics against a pure standard from Carotene Nature GmbH, Lupsingen, Switzerland: β-carotene-N°0003 HPLC 96%. Duplicated injections of carotenoid standards at different concentrations through a linear regression using at least five-point (16 μg/mL, 32 μg/mL, 80 μg/mL, 160 μg/mL, and 240 μg/mL) analytical curves of (all-E)-lutein, α-carotene and (all-trans)-β-carotene-the relative response of the standards measured as mean peak areas were plotted against concentrations. The calibration curve was constructed using the least-squares linear regression methods. For the analytical curve, the linear regression was significant (p < 0.05) in the evaluated concentration ranges, which is also corroborated by the high values of the determination coefficient (r 2 ≥ 0.9994) (16-18).Iron and zinc contents were determined using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometer (ICP-AES) using methods described by Horwitz (19), Maziya-Dixon et al. (20), and Zarcinas et al. (21) for mineral profile analysis. Model Questron Technologies Corp. TL 6000. 0.5 g of sample was weighed into a 50 mL digestion tube, 2 mL of concentrated redistilled Nitric acid (HNO 3 ), was added to each of the samples, left overnight for cold digestion, and placed on a digestion block starting with a temperature of 120°C. As the liquid dried off, 2 mL of concentrated HNO 3 was further added. This step was repeated until the sample no longer gave off reddish-brown fumes or until the solution was clear. A solution of 50/50 (v/v) nitric acid and perchloric acid was then added, and the temperature was increased to 180°C-220°C, with the tap to wash the exhaust running. The samples were heated to dryness (leaving a white ash-like residue), removed from the digestion block, and allowed to cool to room temperature. The sample ash solutions were injected into the ICP-AES to determine the mineral content. All analyses were done in triplicate. The iron and zinc contents were calculated using the formula below (see Eq. 2). ( )The percentage true retentions of the micronutrients were calculated using the formula below (see Eq.  Data analytical values are expressed in means. Two-way ANOVA was adopted for statistical analysis, followed by mean differences between treatment groups determined using LSD at a significance p <0.05. Data were analyzed using Generalized Linear Model (GLM) of Statistical Analysis System software (SAS, version 9.4). All total carotenoids and β-carotene were evaluated in replicates and iron and zinc were done in triplicate in the laboratory. All the reagents and chemicals used were laboratory grade.3.1 Mean squares from analysis of variance for total carotenoids, β-carotene, iron and zinc concentrations, and retentions in fufu as a function of genotype and processing methods Table 1 presents the mean squares from the analysis of variance for the concentrations and the percentage true retentions of total carotenoids, β-carotene, iron and zinc in fufu produced from yellow-fleshed cassava genotypes using different processing methods. Significant variations (p < 0.001) were observed in the genotype, processing method and the interaction of processing method by genotype for all the micronutrients except for iron concentration in the raw and cooked fufu samples as well as the percentage true retention of the cooked samples that had no significant (p < 0.5) differences in the genotype and genotype by processing method interaction.3.2 Effect of processing methods and genotypes on micronutrient concentrations and percentage true retentionsTable 2 shows that the total carotenoid concentration and percentage true retention of fufu samples varied significantly (p < 0.0001) across processing methods and genotypes. TMS 083724 and 083774 had significantly different total carotenoid concentrations (17.95 μg/g and 13.11 μg/g, respectively) in the traditional bowl method (p < 0.0001). The percentage of true retention varied from 34.63% (TMS 011663) to 68.02% (TMS-083724). Furthermore, cooking the raw fufu samples reduced total carotenoid concentrations and the percentage of true retentions across genotypes. TMS-083724 had the highest total carotenoid concentration and percentage true retention (8.20 μg/g and 22.58%) compared to other genotypes. Similarly, the modified traditional river method revealed the sequence of total carotenoid concentration and the corresponding percentage true retention in traditional bowl samples. TMS-083724 had the highest total carotenoid concentration (18.86 μg/g), followed by TMS-011371, which had significantly higher total carotenoid concentrations TMS-083724 and TMS-011371 had the highest total carotenoid concentrations (8.99 μg/g and 7.95 μg/g, respectively), with true retention rates of 24.76 and 25.55%. TMS-083724 and TMS-011371 had significantly higher total carotenoids concentrations (14.08 μg/g and 13.37 μg/g, respectively) in the oven-dried fufu samples. However, when the raw fufu was cooked into a thick dough, there was a significant reduction in total carotenoid concentrations and corresponding percentage true retention. In sun-dried samples, TMS-083724 had a total carotenoid concentration of 8.67 μg/g and a true retention percentage of 17.19%. TMS-011371 had a total carotenoid concentration of 5.00 μg/g and a retention percentage of 10.63% compared to the other genotypes. The total carotenoid and true retention percentages were low across all genotypes in the cooked sun-dried fufu samples.Table 3 presents the concentrations (μg/g) and percentage true retention of β-carotene in fufu processed from seven genotypes and four processing methods. The total β-carotene concentrations increased in the processed raw fufu compared to the corresponding raw cassava roots across all the genotypes. For the traditional bowl method, TMS-083724 and TMS-083774 had significantly (p < 0.0001) higher total β-carotene concentrations (8.49 μg/g) compared to the other genotypes. A similar trend was observed in the percentage true retention, as TMS 083724 had the highest retention of 68.94%, followed by TMS 011371 with a 55% retention rate. Interestingly, this was not the case for TMS-083774, which had the lowest percentage true retention of 43.47%, suggesting that both genotype and processing method affect percentage true retention. When the raw fufu samples were cooked, reductions in total β-carotene concentration and corresponding true retention percentage across all the genotypes were observed. TMS-083724 had a higher total β-carotene concentration (5.99 μg/g) and true retention percentage (18.21%) than the other genotypes. However, in the modified traditional river method, TMS-011371 had the highest total β-carotene concentration of 18.56 μg/g compared to TMS-011663 (5.18 μg/g) with the lowest concentration. There was a significant difference (p < 0.0001) in the corresponding true retention percentage with TMS-083724 (77.80%) compared to the other genotypes. Significant differences (p < 0.0001) in the total β-carotene concentration and true retention percentage in the oven-dried fufu samples were observed. TMS-083724 and TMS-011371 had significantly (p < 0.0001) higher total β-carotene concentration and true retention percentages of (12.94 μg/g and 11.65 μg/g) and (28.34 and 26.53%) compared to other genotypes. A positive relationship was apparent between total β-carotene concentration and true retention in the samples regardless of the genotype, except for TMS-011663, which had a higher retention value of 8.21% and a mean concentration of 2.07 μg/g. A considerable downward trend was observed in total β-carotene concentration and corresponding percentage true retention when the raw fufu samples were further cooked. There was a substantial decrease in the mean total β-carotene concentration for the sun-dried samples, from 6.03 μg/g in the raw roots to 2.61 μg/g in the processed raw fufu samples. Cooking of the fufu samples drastically reduced the concentrations and true retention of β-carotene in all the genotypes.  The retention of iron in oven-dried fufu samples varied from 11.75 to 18.74% (6.05-7.87 mg/kg). TMS-011412 and TMS-083724 retained sizeable iron compared to TMS-083774, with this method's lowest iron in the raw fufu. An increased iron concentration and retention were observed, ranging from 21.76 to 46.02% (6.18-19.84 mg/kg) in the cooked fufu. For sun-dried samples, the true retention percentage of the raw fufu ranged from 11.09% (9.84 mg/kg) in TMS-083724 to 22.06% (9.83 mg/kg) in TMS-011412. Cooking the raw fufu into thick dough also increased the concentration and retention of iron. The retention varied from 28.82 to 51.19% (12.42-12.76%). Again, TMS-0113717 had the highest concentration and retention values, while TMS-083724 had the lowest.In Table 5, the traditional processing methods displayed considerable variations in zinc concentration and percentage true retention in the raw and cooked fufu samples across all the genotypes. For the traditional bowl method, TMS-070557 had a significantly (p < 0.0001) higher zinc concentration of 9.50 mg/kg, while TMS-011663 registered the lowest (5.03 mg/kg). The true retention percentage ranged from 12.14% in the control sample to 36.96% in TMS-070557. When the raw fufu samples were cooked, there was a decrease in zinc concentration and percentage true retention compared to the raw fufu. TMS-011371 had a higher zinc percentage true retention (23.11%), and TMS-011663 retained the least amount of zinc. The sequence of zinc concentration and the corresponding percentage true retention in traditional bowl samples were also observed in the modified traditional river method. TMS-083724 recorded the highest concentration and percentage true retention of 18.86 mg/kg (40.04%) compared to TMS-011412, with the least concentration and true retention percentage of 5.03 mg/kg (17.08%) in the raw fufu samples. The mean zinc true retention percentage was low across genotypes and processing methods in the cooked samples. TMS-011371 and TMS-01142 had the highest (33.11%) and least (14.79%) retained amounts of Zinc. It was evident that the zinc concentration in raw and cooked fufu dried in the oven significantly (p < 0.0001) varied across the genotypes.Further, the zinc concentration in the sun-dried samples varied from 4.03-6.30 mg/kg in the raw fufu, while the percentage of true retention of zinc in fufu samples also varied across the genotypes. For the cooked samples, the true retention percentage ranged from 20.90 to 32.35% (4.71-6.15 mg/kg). The least retention was observed in TMS-011412, while the highest was in the control sample. In the case of the sun-dried method, a variation in the concentration and true retention percentage were also observed. Zinc concentration decreased in the raw fufu compared to the roots for both methods. However, after cooking the raw roots, an increase in the zinc concentration and percentage true retention were also observed.Cassava roots are prone to physiological deterioration within 24 h after roots have been harvested and, therefore, need to be processed into different products shortly after harvesting. Consumption of cassava after the traditional preparation of dishes that require peeling, chopping, boiling, roasting, grating, and fermentation forms the dietary pattern of the Sierra Leonean population. Previous studies explored conventional (odorless) processing methods to produce fufu flour, most notably for convenience and storage stability (10,22). Fufu is prepared by fermentation of cassava roots in water followed by sieving, dewatering, pressing, and cooking of the fermented paste or flour (10,23). This study ascertained the retention of these nutrients during fufu processing using traditional and conventional processing methods. From the result, the significant variations observed in the genotype could be attributed to their genetic characterizations and/or corresponding processing methods. This finding is corroborated with previous studies by Maziya-Dixon et al. (20), Alamu et al. (24), and Eyinla et al. (25). Processing can potentially decrease the contents of carotenoids, iron, and zinc. Carotenoids are denatured by heat, light, oxygen, or a combination of all three (13, 26, 27). Increasing the surface area of cassava roots by fermentation, mashing, and oven/sun drying exposes carotenoids in the food matrix to increased light and oxygen, and cooking exposes the carotenoids to elevated temperatures (13,26).Processing often affects the amount of carotenoids in the consumed product. This study discovered increased β-carotene concentrations when traditional methods processed the raw storage roots into fufu. This increase in concentration might result from moisture and soluble solid losses, which were not accounted for, thereby increasing the concentrate and the total carotenoid and β-carotene levels per unit of fufu. Conversely, when the raw fufu was further cooked, a decrease was also observed in the concentrations that might have resulted from heat application during cooking. These findings agree with studies by Maziya-Dixon et al. ( 14), Maziya-Dixon et al. (15), Carvalho et al. (18), and Taleon et al. (28).The food preparation process reduces the amount of nutrients in food, as such processes that expose foods to high levels of heat, light, and/or oxygen cause the most significant nutrient loss (29). However, nutrients can also be washed out of foods by fluids introduced during cooking. Different factors affect nutrient retention, including the type of food, cooking temperature, and time. The level of nutrients that can be retained and not lost by leaching with water is referred to as nutrient retention (30). In this study, it was noticed that the true retention percentage of total carotenoids and total β-carotene varied significantly among the different genotypes in fufu samples. It was viewed that an apparent relationship between total carotenoid and total β-carotene concentrations and their true retention percentage existed. These findings aligned with previous studies (12,26). Furthermore, using the oven resulted in a higher true retention percentage of total carotenoid and β-carotene. Sun drying is the most accessible and cheapest means of food preservation in Sierra Leone and other developing countries, but considerable losses of provitamin A occurred (21). Sun drying resulted in the highest reductions in total carotenoid and total β-carotene retentions compared to oven drying, which presumably might be due to continued enzymatic activity and exposure to air due to direct sunlight. The results are consistent with several prior studies (10,18,26,31). Also, Fagbemi and Ijah (32) reported lower concentrations in sun-dried samples, which could be attributed to extended activities of bacteria due to delay in drying or the presence of some thermophilic microorganisms such as bacteria in the latter. The traditional river processing and fermentation method, which is the typical method used by rural Sierra Leoneans for fufu production, was modified during this study. The method was aptly mimicked, though the samples were fermented in bowls instead of placing them in hessian sacks inside the river or stream.Interestingly, fufu obtained from this method had higher retention values compared to the traditional bowl and conventional fufu processing methods, which could be attributed to the large surface area of the roots and sacking of the chopped cassava chunk before fermentation thereby limiting oxidation, moisture loss, and weight changes. Iron and zinc retentions were comparably higher in fufu samples processed from conventional methods than in traditional processing methods with the mashing of fermented cassava chunks, sieving, sedimentation, and dewatering by decanting the cassava juice, thereby leaching mineral compounds into the decanted water. A similar observation was made by Maziya-Dixon et al. (15). Furthermore, a different scenario was observed for the conventional fufu processing method, where there was a substantial decrease in total carotenoid and β-carotene concentrations in the raw fufu compared to fresh raw roots irrespective of genotype and drying method. However, in the oven-dried method, TMS-011371 and TMS-083724 (Table 3) recorded increased total carotenoid and β-carotene concentrations. Again, our results disclosed that the iron and zinc concentrations in the cooked fufu, regardless of genotype and processing methods, were significantly higher than those in the fresh roots and raw fufu, respectively. The mechanism for this increase is not fully understood as deionized water, a stainless still pot, and a wooden spoon were used to cook fufu. Our results corroborated with Maziya-Dixon et al. (15), who made a similar observation but attributed it to the water used to cook the fufu. A reverse observation was made when the fresh roots were processed into raw fufu among all the genotypes and processing methods; a reduction in iron and zinc concentrations was observed, possibly due to leaching out of the nutrients during the different processing stages to obtain the solid paste. Variations in the concentrations and percentage true retentions of the genotypes were observed, suggesting them as promising vehicles for micronutrient biofortification.This study established that micronutrient concentrations and percentage true retention varied based on processing methods and genotypes. The total carotenoid and β-carotene concentrations increased when raw storage roots were processed into fufu using traditional methods, as opposed to the conventional fufu processing method, which showed a decrease in total carotenoid and β-carotene concentrations in raw fufu compared to fresh raw roots regardless of genotype or drying method. Again, our findings revealed that the iron and zinc concentrations in cooked fufu, regardless of genotype or processing method, were significantly higher than those in the raw roots and raw fufu. The modified traditional river method observed the highest true retention percentage of total β-carotene, while sun-drying was the best method for iron and zinc true retention percentages. Genotype TMS-083724 was superior by exhibiting This study evaluated the concentration and percentage true retention of micronutrients in biofortified genotypes introduced into Sierra Leone by IITA using different processing methods and at different stages. However, only six genotypes and four processing methods were evaluated due to time and budget constraints. Further studies should explore the concentrations and retentions at different processing stages to ascertain the critical concentration and percentage of true retention of these micronutrients. Hence, elucidation and improvement of the modified traditional river fufu processing method is recommended to maximize micronutrient concentrations and retentions.","tokenCount":"4995"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f9e491fca28f5d1a7dcb7ff573ac2f5c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cf4069ed-d015-4b74-b786-205f20afb75b/retrieve","id":"-1171733374"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"baf1b960-68a4-4ed5-929a-44e945414f7f","pagecount":"1","content":"• We set up a field study in the Andean community of Quilcas (Junín region, Peru), from September 2021 to June 2022, to capitalize on an elevational gradient that reflects potential shifts in future climate warming (Fig. 1);• We established two side-by-side experiments with traditional Andean crops Oxalis tuberosa (Oca) and Lupinus mutabilis (Tarwi) at three elevations, each with two nutrient input treatments (organic or synthetic), replicated three times at each elevation, for a total of 18 plots per crop (Fig. 2 & 3). • Soils were transferred from the highest elevation to lower elevation sites to simulate warming condition at the highest site. • Crop performance was measured via yield and other growth metrics (e.g., biomass, pest incidence, maturation time)In light of the complex challenges posed by climate warming and other global drivers, this study aims to examine the effect of increasing temperatures on two understudied, locally important crops in the Andes, Oxalis tuberosa (oca) and Lupinus mutabilis (tarwi).Additionally, we sought to understand how changes in climate interact with altered soil fertility management (synthetic fertilizer vs. traditional manure inputs). We hypothesized that:i    ","tokenCount":"183"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"23ab7a3ee4ff4e5ceee0ce1718b752f5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4c4b7656-7cc7-4307-951c-c1d75fa0226c/retrieve","id":"-1066508004"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"41a45810-a166-4c7c-bb91-f15a781a57fe","pagecount":"62","content":"This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit services without special permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. The United Nations Environment Programme would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source.No use of this publication may be made for resale or any other commercial purpose whatsoever without prior permission in writing from the United Nations Environment Programme. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Communication Division, United Nations Environment Programme, P. O. Box 30552, Nairobi 00100, Kenya.The world demands and produces more and more plastic every year. In 2018 global production of plastics reached 360 million metric tons (MT) (PlasticsEurope 2019). This figure is even higher if we include plastics used to produce in manufacturing synthetic textiles, synthetic rubber and plastic additives. It has been estimated that as of 2015, 60 per cent of the 8,300 metric tonnes of plastic ever produced had been discarded and was accumulating in landfills, open dumps and the environment (Geyer, Jambeck and Law 2017). Part of this plastic finds its way to rivers, lakes and the oceans. If current consumption patterns and waste management practices do not change, it has been estimated that by 2050 there will be approximately 12 billion metric tons of plastic litter in landfills and the natural environment (Geyer, Jambeck and Law 2017).Waste management in most cities of developing countries is an expensive, labour intensive and low-margin business, which explains why a large share of the solid waste generated is inadequately managed. For example, up to 50 per cent of the waste (including plastics) generated in urban areas may not be collected because of various factors including poor collection systems and road networks; equipment failure; or inadequate waste management budgets, often due to citizens' unwillingness to pay waste management charges. Uncollected waste is either burned, recycled informally or illegally dumped, to end up on land or in run-off drainage channels connecting to rivers and wetlands, thus becoming a source of water contamination. This has serious environmental, health and economic impacts, including but not limited to blocking of canals and sewers, the creation of breeding habitats for mosquitoes, loss of the recreational and touristic value of landscapes, and obstruction of the airways and stomachs of animals.Once they are in the environment, and with time, plastic items tend to degrade to smaller particles through natural weathering processes and can become microplastics (commonly defined as less than 5 mm in diameter). Other microplastics are directly released into the environment. They may have been intentionally added to consumer products, such as personal care and cosmetic products (PCCPs), or they can result from the abrasion of objects containing plastic (e.g. tyres and synthetic textiles).Municipal wastewater comes from residential, domestic, industrial, commercial and run-off sources. It may be collected through a single pipe and channelled to a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and/or discharged directly into water bodies. In other cases separate sewers may exist, especially to carry away run-off. The contaminants, including those in municipal wastewater, include plastics, microplastics and other debris. It is very important to reduce and remove plastic waste before it enters the WWTP system or freshwater bodies, as it is a major source of environmental contamination.Analysis of water and sediment worldwide indicates that plastics and microplastics are ubiquitous in aquatic environments, including marine and freshwater ecosystems. The main sources of macroplastics (that is, plastic particles larger in size than microplastics) and microplastics, and their pathways to water, are shown in Figure 1. In this publication macroplastics are frequently referred to as plastics.Risks associated due to exposure To reduce environmental contamination by plastics and microplastics, as well as human exposure to the potentially dangerous pollutants they may contain, several technical solutions can be explored (Figure 2). Some are needed to address the design, production, consumption, recycling and disposal of plastics that are likely to continue to be used in decades to come. Others are needed to limit the export of pollutants from cities and elsewhere through the treatment of wastewater and run-off, and to safely manage sewage sludge. These technical solutions must be supported by legislation, economic instruments, education and awareness if real change is ultimately to take place.When planning the mitigation of water pollution by plastics and microplastics, decision-makers and experts need to agree on desired water quality in the local context and plan accordingly. Once water quality objectives for plastics and microplastics are set, the most relevant pollutant sources and pathways to water need to be identified. For example, in one watershed plastics could be the most critical source of contamination, while in another microfibres from synthetic textiles or microplastics from tyre abrasion, with road run-off, could be the most relevant sources and pathways. Based on this understanding, decision-makers, in consultation with local stakeholders, can select the most cost-effective and sustainable combination of solutions. For example, to achieve a desired maximum number of microplastics in drinking water, a recycling solution for plastic waste (upstream) could be combined with secondary wastewater treatment and conventional drinking water treatment (downstream). The final selection will mainly depend on the combination of solutions that is feasible in the local context and that can be achieved at acceptable costs. However, costs and effectiveness will not be the only guiding criteria. The capacities and perceptions of local stakeholders, together with other practical challenges with regard to the adoption of certain solutions in a local context, will all influence the final selection and need to be considered.Section ATo treat wastewater and run-off before the treatment plantWastewater, sewage sludge, and landfill leachate treatment technologiesTo treat receiving waters downstream of discharging points In this catalogue there are brief descriptions of technologies that can be implemented to address the contamination of water bodies by plastics and microplastics. 1 For each technology the information provided includes a description and examples of applications, opportunities, barriers and typical costs of implementation.There is also a qualitative assessment of each solution in terms of investment cost, operational cost, the solution's maturity, and the level of extra policy support needed for successful implementation. The classifications adopted for the qualitative assessment of each solution are shown in Table 1.Table 1. Classifications adopted for the qualitative assessment of each solution Scale Solution maturity Impact of supporting policiesTested and validated at laboratory or pilot scale Basic (e.g. establishing a favourable legal framework plus basic monitoring) 2Tested and validated at industrial or pilot scale 3 Demonstrated in some cases, but global adoption is pendingModerate (e.g. setting a favourable legal framework plus extended efforts towards enforcement and monitoring) 4 Adopted to some extent, but there are some critical unknowns 5 Widely adopted and mostly understood Critical (strong supportive policies are essential)The solutions explored in this catalogue to address the risks of contamination of water bodies with plastics and microplastics are not always gender-neutral. There are important aspects that have to be considered, not only in terms of gender equality and women's economic empowerment opportunities with respect to waste management, but also in terms of differentiated human health impacts.\"Gender analysis reveals that while systemic environmental problems typically manifest in physical landscapes and ecosystems, the state of the environment can only be explained by examining social, cultural and economic systems and arrangements. Those structures are 'gendered': they are shaped by socially constructed roles and relationships between women and men.\" (United Nations Environment Programme 2019b)Hence, inclusive stakeholder engagement is key in all sustainable consumption and production practices and in value chain assessments in waste management. This is also essential to guide the selection and implementation pathway of the technologies described in this report.   Investment Variable, depending on adopted solutionCurrent investment for O&M in developing countries is insufficient and should be increased considerably (e.g. a several times increase is required in some Asian countries).Enhancing plastic waste management is a necessary condition for recycling to occur. Profitability is usually not expected to be achieved. The target is cost recovery.Policy support need 5Adequate leakage management is the first step towards controlling plastic pollution. It requires an increasing percentage of waste recycling and ensuring the availability of suitable waste handling facilities. Overall, collection, storage, transport and final disposal must be financially sustainable, technically feasible, socially and legally acceptable, and environmentally friendly.In many developing countries the collection and transport of municipal solid waste is usually contracted to private companies which operate, in principle, under the supervision of local authorities and technical line agencies. However, monitoring is often poor, leading to these companies focusing more on profits than effective performance. Most collected waste is sent to open dumps. Even when engineered landfills exist, their maintenance could remain poor, leading to waste (including plastic waste) leakage. Leakage management can include upstream recycling using mechanical, chemical, incineration and/or other innovative technologies (e.g. irradiation technologies), utilization in tertiary products such as construction materials, and co-processing using existing high-temperature processes (e.g. cement kilns).Example: the cost of selected solutionsMcKinsey and Company and the Ocean Conservancy (2015) modelled 21 solutions for mitigating the leakage of plastics in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. It was concluded that the best solutions for plastic waste management would involve gasification, incineration, setting up materials recycling facilities and improving haulier systems, although the last two might not be financially profitable.Based on that study, plastic waste management systems can be improved by:• Source segregation of waste and improved transportation to promote waste recycling;• Effective legislation for plastic and microplastic waste management (e.g. guidelines for plastic litter management, while control of production and transport related spills could be upgraded to integrate safe microplastics management); • Enforcement of policies to reduce illegal dumping;• Supportive policies to reduce landfilling and promote recycling.To achieve this sustainably, it is important to highlight opportunities for waste management efforts, beginning at the households/communities level. Hence, their needs and structures must be included in all waste management plans. The alienation of men and boys from domestic and community waste management activities has significant social and economic costs, which will undermine any waste sector reforms if left unaddressed. There is a need to assess the value of contributions to the protection of ecosystem services by women who manage waste in households and communities on an unpaid basis. Households may be the pivotal site for reform, given also that in many cases they currently have the least formal engagement with the waste sector's power and policy structures. Women have tremendous collective capacity to optimize the flow of waste into the system, both through consumption practices and waste management and recycling strategies. Engaging households would make it possible for policies to be based on a more accurate view of the waste value chain.Often waste management is viewed as an essential utility service governed by the public sector. However, it is frequently implemented in partnership with the private sector. In both the public and private sectors men hold most upper-level administration roles, from city managers and planners to landfill operators and managers of waste collection companies. Women are more engaged in informal, household and neighbourhood activities related to waste, which are typically voluntary, unpaid or minimally compensated. To improve plastic waste management:Government should Citizens should • Governments/the private sector should be encouraged to include households/ communities and specifically take affirmative action to ensure that women are invited to take part in discussions as key stakeholders. It is crucial that governments and the private sector promote gender equal employment in the waste sector more actively.Objective: Recycle sorted and clean plastics• United States dollars (USD) 7,000-10,000 for the facility • USD 15,000-50,000 for equipment (capacity 100-1,000 kg per hour)• Land requirement: >45 square metres• USD 13,000-35,000 for the facility USD 2,000-10,000 to process 1 ton/day capacity USD 500-1,500 to process 1 metric ton/day capacity in India, including cost to acquire raw plasticsA plant can become profitable in less than a year if value chains for quality plastic collection and diversification of products and revenues are established.Policy support need 1 The business can be profitable and it may require less policy support.This technology processes sorted and cleaned single-type plastic waste into a raw material or product without significantly changing the plastic's chemical structure. It works well for thermoplastics that are:• semi-crystalline, e.g. polypropylene (PP), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET); • amorphous, e.g. polyvinyl chloride (PVC).The technology is also suitable for other semi-crystalline polymers, which combine properties of the first two types and include polyester polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and polyamide Imide (PAI).Mechanical recycling is the main type of recycling worldwide. In Europe, 99 per cent of recycled plastics undergo such a process. It is particularly suited for recycling clean plastic waste with a single composition. This recycling process includes the following steps: collection and sorting, washing, grinding, and drying. Granulating and compounding may eventually follow. It is mostly used in recycling PP, polyethylene (PE) and PET.It is important that implementation of these processes also considers gender equality. Currently, in many developing countries, gender inequalities are embedded in almost all aspects of waste management including the distribution of responsibilities and roles which shape the position of waste in social and economic systems. Within the informal waste economy studies show that women are often limited to lower-income tasks, such as waste picking, sweeping and waste separation, and could even be displaced by men when informal or voluntary waste-related activities become formalized with pay.South Africa: when industry forefronts plastic recycling PETCO is the trade name of the not-for-profit PET Recycling Company NPC South Africa, incorporated in 2004. It is an industry driven and financed environmental solution for post-consumer PET recycling. This initiative is funded through a voluntary fee paid by bottle manufacturers which purchase PET resin. New PET packaging can be made from up to 100 per cent recycled PET.The cost of PET recycling in South Africa was USD 76.5 per metric ton in 2018, with cost distribution as shown:Source: PETCO (2018)• Replacing new virgin polymer with recycled plastic polymer can directly reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling a single metric ton of plastic bottles avoids emissions of 1.5-2.3 metric tons of carbon and reduces natural resource consumption. • In the PETCO example, about 2.7 million m 3 of landfill space is saved.• Recycling needs a clear financing stream to enable equipment support and sponsorship for waste collectors. Feedstock (or chemical) recycling is a tertiary recycling method. It uses processes such as gasification and pyrolysis, through which plastic waste breaks down to produce synthesis gas (syngas) and oil (fuel), among others. Depolymerisation is a variant of catalytic pyrolysis that converts selectively a plastic polymer into its monomer(s) (e.g. polystyrene will yield styrene).The chemical structure of plastic waste is transformed through thermo-induced chemical or biochemical reactions into shorter molecules which are readily usable to manufacture new products such as fuels, chemicals or virgin plastics. The key operating parameters include the process temperature (or energy consumption), the type of plastic feedstock and its level of contamination (in particular how it affects the proposed technical process), and the level of polymer breakdown desired. The CARBIOS technology targets polyesters such as PET. Sorted and cleaned plastics are mixed with water and enzymes, heated and churned. The enzymes decompose the plastic into molecules that serve as basic building blocks, which can then be separated, purified, and used to make virgin plastic. With this process there is no loss in quality for the recycled product.Source: CARBIOS (2020)This technology recovers more waste types than mechanical recycling because it recycles the plastic waste usually sent to landfill or incinerated, such as grocery and trash bags, bubble wrap, other retail packaging, food wraps and carpet fibres. Mixtures of plastic materials can also be processed for some technologies.The process saves typically 1.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) per metric ton of plastic (compared with 2.3 metric tons in the case of mechanical recycling).In Europe gasification demands high investment costs, high energy consumption and high input levels, so that only very large plants (i.e. those able to process over 60,000 metric tons of waste per year) are economically viable. However, pyrolysis could be implemented to process lower waste volumes, as shown above.There are important gendered impacts on human health during chemical recycling process, arising from gases and other by-products. Noxious gases and particulate matter generated have gendered impacts on workers, communities and the environment in general. Biological gender differences such as body size, amount of adipose tissue, reproductive organs, hormones, and other biological and physiological differences impact the effects and elimination of toxic chemicals and substances. Hence, women and men are exposed differently to hazards in the workplace. As an illustration, a Canadian study found that women working in the plastics industry had a five-fold elevated risk of breast cancer and reproductive disorders (Brophy et al. 2012). Gender-disaggregated health effects during specific processes of plastic waste management (i.e. recycling, incineration) are currently unavailable.Objective: Burn unsorted solid waste, including plastics for energy productionInvestment Typically: USD 741 per metric ton of municipal solid waste input. Typical electricity generation: 0.40-0.77 megawatt hour (MWh) per metric ton of input.Typically: USD 31 per ton processed, including 56 per cent for maintenance and management, 11 per cent for personnel and 25 per cent for utilities.USD 260,000-550,000 to process 1 ton/day capacity USD 10,800-40,000 to process 1 ton/day capacityAn incineration plant in a developing country, in particular, might not be profitable (e.g. in Myanmar it would require five to nine times higher tipping fees, which cannot be implemented in the local context). However, profitable plants are operated in Europe, especially in France, which has over 100 incinerators.A minimum capacity of 60,000 MT per year is usually necessary for profitability to be achieved.Policy support need 1-2 • Policy support is essential to ensure that large volumes are collected. • High landfill tipping fees are also an incentive. Similarly, high rates for electricity and hot water help the financial model to be sustainable.Plastics and other municipal solid waste are incinerated together. Energy is released from plastics following incineration.The presence of plastic usually increases the calorific value of the waste mixture being incinerated.Plastic has a notable potential for energy generation, as its calorific value is similar to that of hydrocarbon-based fuel.Nevertheless, the risks of air contamination following combustion of plastic waste remain critically important.Benefits, limits and drivers towards recycling and incineration in the NetherlandsMechanical recycling of plastics to produce new plastics for high quality industrial purposes• Avoidance of CO 2 that would otherwise be emitted during incineration • Production of (new) materialHigh collection and recycling costsIncineration of plastics for energy recovery• Heat and electricity production leading to fewer emissions in the regular energy production sector • No sorting required Requires a waste-toenergy plant with the associated capital investmentsIn the Netherlands the cost difference is EUR 199 per metric ton of plastic in favour of incineration, while the difference in CO 2 emissions is 1.16 ton per ton of plastic in favour of recycling.Net costs of recycling and incineration in euros/metric ton of plastic and CO 2 emissions from recycling and incineration in metric tons of CO 2 per metric ton of plastic Opportunities Barriers• Incineration can be applied to a waste mixture that cannot be recycled mechanically or chemically. • Does not require selective collection for waste (compared to recycling), which reduces costs. • Typically, 70-80% of the energy from waste incineration can be recovered to produce hot water. If there is interest in electricity only, energy recovery is 20-25%. In the case of co-generation, energy recovery totals 50-60% of the original energy released by waste combustion.• Incineration is often viewed as an unsustainable solution which is not fully aligned with the transformation principles of the circular economy. • Some microplastics (typically 1.9-565 particles per kg of ash formed) are found in the ashes resulting from the process. These ashes represent 10-25% of the input mass. • Noxious gases may be released during incineration.In addition, there is a financial trade-off between incineration and recycling. In the Netherlands incineration is preferable to recycling when the market value of CO 2 is below EUR 68-172 per metric ton, which is the case at the moment.Objective: Reduce microfibres and microbeads in washing machine wastewater effluentsInvestment NoneAnnual operation and maintenance USD 131 per year and per householdMaturity 1Policy support need 3-4Over 840 million domestic washing machines are operated worldwide, using 55 million m 3 per day of water. With the projected number of washing machines continuously rising, it is essential to explore solutions to treat contaminated wastewater effluents from these units. For example, washing a single garment can release up to 1,900-1 million fibres, with typical average dimensions of 5.0-7.8 mm (11.9-17.7 µm in diameter). The extent of releases is related to the type of fabric (e.g. polyethylene fabrics release 8.6 times more microplastics than acrylic fibres) and its weathering, but also to washing conditions (temperature, friction, velocity, washing time, detergent used, presence or not of softener).One interesting way forward would be to develop household-based systems to treat wastewater and retain microplastics. Adoption of adequate treatment technologies for grey wastewater 4 at the household level, or for washing machine effluents, would help prevent microplastics reaching wastewater treatment plants and, in countries where WWTPs do not exist, the environment.The use of filters to retain fibres in domestic wastewater effluents could become a solution to prevent releases of plastic fibres and microfibres provided they are used extensively. Approaches such as providing filters when washing machines are purchased could support wide adoption.Currently household-based treatment systems are struggling to be adopted at scale for various reasons, including the immaturity of existing technologies. In addition, it is not clear how to manage filter waste residue.A European private company markets filters for household washing machines. Typically, access to service costs EUR 9.95 per month and per household. Each filter retains 90 per cent of the microfibres generated during washing, according to the manufacturers. Filters must be replaced monthly.Among additional measures that could be explored for households are:• Better control of household washing equipment to encourage design which would reduce releases of microfibres or be effective in microplastics pollution control; • Better control of cleaning and washing products (e.g. detergents and softeners) to define acceptable ranges of microbead concentrations or microfibres release; • Improved control of fabric quality, to exclude certain types of products which are prone to release microfibres during washing.The use of levies on fabrics and products that result in high microfibres release, in order to help finance higher treatment costs, could be explored.• There is a need for effective consumer education and legislation to guide and ensure adequate management of contaminated domestic waste(water). This would involve creating gender-sensitive knowledge products highlighting linkages between waste management and household involvement/consumer choices. Involving both consumers and the private sector is crucial, bearing in mind gendered roles. • The focus of most governments with respect to microplastics management has been limited to microbeads control, and then only in the case of selected personal care and cosmetic products (i.e. rinse-off types). This means microfibres, which appear to be of greater concern than microbeads, are so far completely neglected by regulatory actions.• Enforcing treatment solutions for microplastics at household level is viewed as expensive when end-of-pipe wastewater treatment systems can be envisaged. • This solution could help prevent environmental contamination in developing countries, which often lack sewer systems or effective wastewater treatment plants for collected sewage. However, enforcing these measures requires strong policies and monitoring capacity, which are often lacking. In addition, there is no use for the retained filter waste, whose mismanagement will lead to recontamination of the environment.Objective: Reduce microfibres generation during textile washing and useAnnual operation and maintenance Not availableMaturity 1Policy support need 2-3The cost of enforcing measures and practices to reduce the generation of microfibres during textile washing and use is ultimately borne mainly by consumers. There is a need to accompany implementation of these technologically advanced solutions with supporting policies and awareness-raising campaigns which do not promote the status quo.Around 35 per cent of microplastics in the oceans are believed to originate from washing of synthetic textiles which release fibres to the water. The extent of microfibre releases into the aquatic environment is related to the type of textile. For example, thicker fabrics tend to shed more than nylon, filamentous yarns and woven textiles. Similarly, polyethylene fabrics release 8.6 times more microfibres than acrylic fibres. Microfibre releases are also determined by washing conditions (e.g. temperature, friction, velocity, washing time, detergent used, presence or not of softener).Some manufacturing processes are known to affect releases of microfibres during textile washing. Increased control of production techniques and of fabric quality could help in this regard. Safeguarding heath in the process is rather important, as studies have reported that women who work in textile factories and are exposed to synthetic fibres and petroleum products at work before their mid-thirties appear to be most at risk of developing breast cancer later in life. Many modern synthetic fibres are basically plastic resin treated with additives such as plasticizers, many of which are recognized mammary gland carcinogens and endocrine disrupting chemicals.Textile manufacturing processes that affect release of microfibres during textile washing are:• Improved knitting techniques Tight knitting increases the concentration of fibres per area and the amounts of microfibres released during fabric washing.• Ultrasonic welding of fabrics This technique is better than conventional cutting techniques: reduction of fibre loss is 70 per cent for particles larger than 5 µm in diameter.• Innovative and quality formulations of textiles Techniques such as effectively combining synthetic and natural textiles and eliminating loose (poor quality) fibres could help reduce fibre loss during washing by up to 80 per cent.• Textile coating Use of silicon emulsion to coat textile fibres reduces fibre loss during washing. However, this could have important health impacts, especially on women who could become more vulnerable to breast cancers.• By optimizing textile design the generation of microfibres can be addressed at source in a costeffective way.• The solutions in this section have mostly been explored at a laboratory or pilot scale. This means actual marketing of newly designed products with the clear aim of reducing releases of microfibres is not yet happening.There is no information about the impact of manual washing, which is common in developing countries, on releases of microfibres compared to use of conventional washing machines. In addition, research in this field should consider human (gender-disaggregated) health impacts.Objective: Reduce microfibres in wastewater effluentsInvestment Low-cost units made in India exist at a cost of USD 5,000 or more for a plant treating 1-1,000 m 3 per day. The cost could be USD 40,000 and more in Europe.Can be high due to energy demand and use of chemicals in the process.Typically, USD 706 per m 3 of wastewater treated, for both capital cost and one-year operation and maintenance cost.The process is a simple sedimentation and filtration combination. The cost should be higher for conventional treatment based on physical-chemical processes.Water can be recycled, leading to some cost savings.Maturity 4Policy support need 3The costs of these treatment systems are not available in the literature. However, they are borne by the private sector and implemented when required by policies.During cleaning of laundry, water becomes polluted to the point that it may not be suitable for discharge into municipal sewers. The composition of wastewater effluents depends mostly on the washing machine and its use.Water Commercial laundries often work in self-service mode, while industrial laundries usually specialize in providing services to users such as hotels, restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes.Some technologies exist for treating industrial laundries' effluents. In the past the focus of treatment was not the removal of microplastics, but rather the removal of, for example, oils and suspended solids. Typical technologies for treating the wastewater mostly use physical-chemical processes such as precipitation/coagulation and flocculation, adsorption on granular-activated carbon (GAC), and possibly also membrane filtration (e.g. ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis). These systems have been proven to achieve microfibre removal of 65-97 per cent, typically.Concentrations and releases of microplastics and microfibres 100-1,000 µm in size in effluents from laundries in Sweden With enhanced awareness of the possible impacts of microplastics, technologies for the treatment of laundromat effluents need to be optimized for microplastics removal.Research in this area is still in its early stages.There is no information on the impact of manual washing, which is common in developing countries, on releases of microfibres compared to use of washing machines.Wastewater and Run-off Before the Treatment PlantObjective: Remove floating waste particles (including plastics) from run-off in canals/creeks/drainsThe costs of booms depend mostly on type of material used and size. Items manufactured in the United States may cost USD 1,214 for a 2.5 metre boom and USD 725 for one that is 1.3 metres.Annual maintenance fees for a boom in the United States are USD 533 per metre of boom. To reduce O&M costs, a boom can be strategically placed only during wet seasons, and downstream to avoid capturing the bulk of surface vegetation.Large booms (typically 30 metres) can cost up to USD 36,000.Overall cost is USD 485-1,200 per metre for a long boom.Booms can last three to five years in turbulent water, or 10 years and more in calmer locations such as urban drains and creeks.Policy support need 3Booms do not require installation of permanent structures in the run-off water bed.Booms are logs or timbers that float on the surface of the run-off water to collect floating debris, including plastic waste. They are anchored close to drainage banks (left or right) to allow traffic on the water to pass and are cleared using clean-up boats equipped with a conveyor belt, a coarse shredder and several garbage dumpsters.Booms generally consist of a floating construction designed to direct surface plastic. Booms and collection devices can be designed to account for drainage size and to be climate-specific, e.g. to take into account extreme weather conditions such as storms which result in large fluxes of water and hence plastic pollution.A boom system captures floating trash as it travels.In this example the bin attached to the boom system captures floating trash.Source: Elastec (2020)Opportunities Barriers• Booms are designed to be climate-specific, e.g. to take account of extreme weather conditions such as storms that result in large fluxes of water and therefore plastic pollution. • Booms do not require the installation of permanent structures in the run-off water bed (aside from possibly the anchoring system).• Booms are unable to remove waste travelling subsurface. • They require operating a separate system to collect the trapped waste (e.g. a clean-up boat).Objective: Redirect, remove and reduce waste particles (including plastics) in run-off waterInvestment Construction costs for these structures are part of the bridge construction budget.Installed debris fin and deflector structures do not require much maintenance.Structures have comparatively low environmental impact when properly designed and installed. They last as long as bridges, depending on material use. Concrete can last a lifetime.Maturity 5Policy support need 2-3Debris fins (also commonly referred to as pier nose extensions) are barriers built in the stream or drainage channel immediately upstream of a bridge. They allow debris (including plastics) to continue travelling in the flow in a directed manner. The fin walls are intended to position large plastics in run-off water to pass through the culvert 5 entrance of a bridge without accumulating at the inlet.The vertical walls must spread from the internal culvert/ bridge walls. The length of the fins is recommended to be 1.5 to two times the height of the culvert and the culvert must have an opening of four feet or wider.Source: Tyler (2011) Debris deflectors are triangular-shaped frames placed upstream of the bridge piers to deflect and guide plastics (and debris in general) through the bridge opening and away from the culvert entrance. Deflectors are placed immediately upstream of drainage structures in order to direct plastics from run-off water.For a debris deflector the apex angle should be between 15° and 25°, while the combined area of the two sides should be at least 10 times the area of the culvert opening. Storage capacity above the waste rack or the size of the accumulation area must be considered.Source: Tyler (2011)The debris fin is designed to align debris to pass unimpeded through a bridge opening. The deflector is designed to guide plastics away from and through the bridge entrance/culvert, based on the plastic size and how it compares to the deflector's openings. It should be carefully aligned with the upstream flow and constructed with a downward sloping upstream face, to limit impact force and the probability of debris accumulation. Cylindrical pile debris deflectors have been widely used throughout the United States.Opportunities Barriers• The installed debris fin structure requires little maintenance and its environmental impact is comparatively low when properly designed and installed.• Most plastics are deflected by the debris deflecetor. The subsequent accumulation of plastics can be a problem. • The design of this type of device is complicated.Physical model tests may be necessary.Objective: Remove and reduce waste particles (including plastics) upstream of run-off waterInvestment Rack structures made of heavyweight rail or steel cost USD 3,000-30,000 or more, depending on the size and materials required. A heavy rail or steel structure may be worth the investment, depending on e.g. the values at risk.For systems with manual clean-up, O&M costs are USD 1,800-9,000 (1,460-7,000 pounds sterling [£]).For systems with mechanical clean-up, O&M costs are USD 2,100-9,700 (£1,700-7,600).Racks will last 10+ years when proper maintenance is adopted by cleaning clog debris off the rack when required.Maturity 5Policy support need 1The most common technique for dealing with plastic waste in traditional facilities is to use a trash rack to keep plastics from entering the wastewater drainages. Debris racks are similar to debris deflectors in that they trap the plastics but do not necessarily redirect them. They can be placed at the culvert entrance (as seen on the right).Racks consist of slightly inclined vertical bars that stretch nearly the entire height of the culvert, typically from the bottom of the intake to above the water surface. They are generally made of mild carbon steel, but wrought iron, alloy steel and stainless steel are also used in certain parts of the device structure. At the top of the rack the bars are often attached to the culvert by horizontal supports which can be designed so that removal for maintenance is possible. Accumulated plastics are usually removed from a rack by raking, which can be done by hand or with mechanized rakes. Mechanical rakes are preferable for large facilities; the rake sinks into the water and is pulled up along the rack face.Source: Bradley, Richards and Bahner (2005) Design spacing should allow smaller plastics to pass through, but catch larger plastics that might plug the culvert. However, in urban areas the maximum spacing is about six inches to prevent children entering the culvert.• Plastics accumulation is initially addressed by the slope of the rack's incline (15° to 45°).• Severe accumulation of plastics can cause head loss as well as structural fatigue, which is a severe design concern. Proper maintenance is essential.Reference:  In urban areas run-off is sent via drains or sewers to water bodies or it may arrive at a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), increasing microplastic loading rates.Stormwater in treatment ponds in Denmark contained 0.5-22.9 items/litre (about 0.085-1.143 μg/litre; particle size 10-2,000 μm). The lowest microplastics concentrations were measured in ponds collecting stormwater from highways and residential areas. The highest concentrations were associated with industrial and commercial areas. Key plastic polymers included polyvinyl chloride (larger microplastics), polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate and polystyrene.The infiltration basin is another commonly used sedimentation technique which receives stormwater runoff and contains it until the water infiltrates the soils. Accumulated sediments (containing microplastics) must be removed frequently from the basin bottom to avoid clogging of the surface soils, which will make basin cease to operate as designed.These sustainable urban drainage systems are used extensively to remove from road run-off water microdebris, i.e. sediments such as microplastics that would otherwise enter drains and sewer systems. In the city of Oslo, Norway, there are about 30,000 gully pots.Additional measures to reduce contamination of run-off with microplastics include:• Improving urban cleaning services to avoid accumulation of plastic waste in drains; • Installing meshes, booms or separators on drains to retain and remove microplastics and plastic waste separately.• It is not clear how effective currently employed runoff treatment technologies are in retaining/removing microplastics. • A gully pot is a quick, easy to install and reusable structure used to reduce or remove microplastics from road run-off.• There is a need to define relevant standards for tyre quality, as well as guidelines to evaluate and approve tyre design and products before marketing. 1. Preliminary treatment for plastics removalObjective: Reduce waste particles (including plastics) in incoming wastewater before further treatmentInvestment Acquisition costs per m 2 for total screen area are typically between USD 1,500 (£1,200) for the larger screen and USD 1,980-2,240 (£1,550-£1,750) for the smaller one. Full construction costs (design, fabrication and installation) are USD 44,000-190,000 (£35,000-150,000) in the United Kingdom.For manual clean-up, annual O&M costs are USD 1,860-8,930 (£1,460-£7,000). For mechanical cleaning, annual O&M costs are USD 2,170-9,700 (£1,700-£7,600).Screens will last 10+ years when proper maintenance is adopted by cleaning clog debris off the screen regularly.Maturity 5Policy support need 3The costs of screen units used for plastics removal in the WWTP vary depending on the type of technology used and its applicability in diverse situations.Before wastewater enters any plant for treatment, it must flow through a debris removal structure which removes large floating debris, sticks or rags in order to protect the WWTP (including mechanical equipment and piping) from blockage and/or damage. Screens are a structural unit made of parallel bars or rods that can have a circular or rectangular opening.The screening process separates debris in and/or on water, which may include plastics, from entering the WWTP. Screens are generally placed so they incline towards the flow of the wastewater in inflow channels. Screening units are categorized, based on the opening size, as coarse screens (bar screens) or fine screens.The size of a screening unit refers to the size range of the particles it removes. Coarse screens remove large plastics from wastewater and are typically made of woven wire cloth with openings of 6-20 mm or larger. Bar racks (or bar screens) and coarse woven-wire screens are common types of coarse screens. Some modern wastewater treatment plants use both coarse screens and fine screens. Fine screens with as low as 0.2-1.5 mm openings are placed after coarse screens to remove smaller particles. Design considerations for screens include the depth and width of the channel; the approach velocity of the wastewater; the discharge height and screen angle; wind; aesthetic considerations; redundancy; and head loss.Source: Bradley, Richards and Bahner (2005) Opportunities and barriers• Preliminary treatment is very well known and well mastered in many countries. • Cleaning of accumulated waste on screens can be carried out both manually and mechanically. • Mechanically cleaned screens tend to have lower labour costs than manually cleaned ones. A major advantage of using manually cleaned screens is that they require little or no equipment maintenance, although they do require frequent raking to avoid clogging and high backwater levels in order to avoid build-up of waste. The greater raking frequency increases labour costs.• Removal of the screen mat during manual cleaning may cause flow surges. This can reduce the solids capture efficiency of downstream units, whereas mechanically cleaned screens are not subject to these problems but have high equipment maintenance costs. • WWTPs that utilize mechanically cleaned screens should have a standby screen to put in operation when the primary screening device is out of service. This is standard design practice for most newly designed plants. • Note that plastic waste is not totally removed during preliminary treatment, leaving materials such as cotton swabs in the wastewater treated subsequently.Objective: Remove grit (sand, silt and other heavy particles), suspended solids (including microplastics), oils, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), heavy metals and phosphorus in wastewaterInvestment USD 3-40 per capita in developing countries. Investment costs include engineering (10-15 per cent of the total). They are also determined by the level of automation needed for the treating system.Annual operation and maintenance USD 0.1-2 per capita in developing countries. Note: Primary treatment alone is not sufficient to meet quality standards for treated wastewater effluents.-42 to -82 per cent in general. It may be higher in northern plants.For example, in plants in the United States it reaches -78 to -95 per cent. This higher treatment performance is due to the advanced and effective treatment units implemented in these countries.Maturity 5Policy support need 1 Wastewater treatment standards have been defined globally, and conventional systems are able to remove a large percentage of microplastics.Influent wastewater concentration: 1 to 18,285 particles per litre Sequence of processes and objectives (relevance)1. Fine screening with metal grids to remove fine debris, i.e. less than 6-10 mm in size  Opportunities Barriers• This process stage removes the largest amounts of microplastics from wastewater. Overall removal of microplastics during treatment is mainly determined by the performance achieved during this stage. • It is easier to maximize microplastics removal during this stage than during subsequent ones (i.e. secondary or tertiary treatments).• Advanced primary treatment which removes more microplastics is adopted in developed countries. It involves use of chemicals for coagulation and flocculation, making it expensive to adopt by developing countries.Objective: Remove biologically and physically suspended particles, dissolved nutrients (mainly nitrogen, possibly phosphorous), and suspended, colloidal and dissolved organic material as well as microplastics in wastewater • Another source reports costs between USD 880-2,650 per m 3 /day treated (or USD 352-1,060 per capita) for the United States. • Investment in the United States: USD 4,400 per m 3 /day treated for an aerobic fixed-bed bioreactor wastewater treatment system; similar for membrane bioreactors; -20 per cent in the case of a moving bed bioreactor.Respectively, annual O&M costs per m 3 /day treated are: USD 485, +25 per cent, +100 per cent. • Investment in the United States: USD 5,300-7,100 per m 3 /day treated for an anaerobic wastewater treatment system; annual O&M per m 3 /day treated: USD 288-387 per m 3 . • In Iran, investment is USD 2,600-3,000 (or USD 484-550 per capita) for a wastewater treatment system using either activated sludge, extended aeration activated sludge, or sequencing batch reactor. Annual O&M costs are USD 111-147 per m 3 /day capacity.Note: The costs include those of sludge management.Land requirement 0.2 m 2 per m 3 for conventional activated sludgeMaturity 5Policy support need 2-3 Wastewater treatment standards have been defined globally, and conventional systems must treat at least up to secondary level. However, enforcement of policies remains weak in many countries.Secondary treatment is preceded by primary treatment. Its main objective is to achieve biological and physical treatment by removing, in aerobic, anoxic or anaerobic bioreactors, dissolved nutrients (mainly nitrogen [N], possibly phosphorous [P]), suspended and dissolved organic material and colloidal material. Processes involved at this stage are:• Suspended growth biological treatment (including activated sludge and its variants such as oxidation ditch or A2O) • Attached growth biological treatment (including, for example, trickling filters, rotating biological contactors) • Combined growth biological treatment • Membrane bioreactors Secondary treatment is followed by secondary sedimentation (except in the case of membrane bioreactors).• Typically, 85-95 per cent removal for BOD and total suspended solids (TSS)• Removal efficiencies for microplastics in WWTPs:-in Europe and North America: 86 per cent and 99.8 per cent n -in other countries such as China: typically 64 per centExact removal mechanisms are mostly unknown. Sludge flocs and microbial secretions could help with the accumulation and removal of microplastics in sludge, especially when contact time is high. Microplastics may also be ingested by protozoans and metazoans. Remark: In this case, the aerated grit chamber is the primary treatment; the oxidation ditch and secondary settling tank constitute the secondary treatment; and finally disinfection is achieved using ultraviolet (UV) radiation.Microplastics removal within a wastewater treatment plant is a complex process which is not determined by one single process step. Each stage of the wastewater treatment process targets different contaminants, and therefore interactions could be noted. Opportunities and barriers• All secondary wastewater treatment plants are able to achieve notable removal of microplastics. Among those currently studied in North America and Europe, estimated daily discharges through treated wastewater for a conventional WWTP remain about 10-60 grams of microplastics per day, depending mostly on the total volume of treated wastewater. • During the treatment process microfibres are removed well from the wastewater. However, microbeads and small microfibres could still be released in the treated effluent.• In many countries sewers may not exist or may provide limited coverage. • Current wastewater treatment plants are not designed with optimization of microplastics removal during the process in mind.• Microplastics removal performance remains uncertain for several wastewater treatment processes, such as waste stabilization ponds and up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB). • It is unclear which secondary processes are most effective.• Possible effects of microplastics on human health and possible gender dimensions remain to be investigated. This will be essential to define the optimal treatment targets.Objective: Ensure final effluent meets the required quality standard, and potentially remove microplastics in wastewater.Annual operation and maintenance: 1-33 per cent of investment costs (10 per cent on average) In the United States, O&M costs per m 3 /day are USD 76-21,804 with an average of USD 6,168 (2017) (or USD 2,768 per capita).Complete chain (sewer + primary + secondary + tertiary).Costs per m 3 /d in the United States:• USD 984-144,224 with an average of USD 57,534 (2017) in the case of conventional tertiary treatment processes • USD 379-11,016 with an average of USD 3,441 (2017) in the case of wetlands Single tertiary treatment process:• Average total costs (capital + O&M): USD 1,717 per m 3 /day treated, or USD 687 per capita.• In the case of wetlands as tertiary treatment, capital + O&M costs average USD 159 per m 3 /day, or USD 64 per capita.Usually, -1 to -5 per cent The incremental benefit achieved with tertiary treatment is not financially justified when considering microplastics only. However, tertiary treatment aids in removing other pollutants and therefore may still be essential for adequate treatment of some wastewaters.Policy support need 4Sequence of processes and objectivesTertiary treatment processes are selected to ensure the final effluent meats the required quality standards. It is not always absolutely essential. However, tertiary treatment is used to ensure adequate nutrient removal as well as removal of heavy metals (if not removed earlier).• Wetland (low-cost)• Membrane bioreactor (carries out secondary and tertiary treatment simultaneously) a Assuming that up to 85 per cent of the inflow goes out after the primary treatment.• Wastewater treatment plants which provide tertiary treatment are able to remove 95-99.9 per cent of the microplastics in raw wastewater. However, this does not indicate that the tertiary treatment stage itself is beneficial with respect to the removal of microplastics in wastewater. In fact, the impact of tertiary treatment seems to be inconsistent from one study to another. • Tertiary treatment my contribute to better quality of treated water and enable water reuse.• While in some cases WWTPs with tertiary treatment performed better than those ending after secondary treatment, it was noted in other cases that tertiary treatment led to an increase in the concentration of microplastics, expressed as number per litre. As many authors do not report the concentration of microplastics in mass, it is difficult to confirm whether the same trend will be maintained on a mass basis. • Tertiary treatment is usually expensive to implement.Possible effects of microplastics on human health and possible gender dimensions remain to be investigated. This will be essential to define the optimal treatment targets and to define when implementing tertiary treatment might or not be essential to treat microplastics. In Europe and North America, 110,000-730,000 metric tons of microplastics are added on an annual basis to agricultural soils via land application. This means the current burden of microplastics in soils is greater than the current burden of microplastics in oceans.Land application is the main post-treatment process applied to stabilized sludge. However, it increases the microplastics content of soils. Microplastics can be found in soils even five to 15 years after the last land application of sludge. Incineration of sludge totally removes the microplastics. However, the process is often not cost-effective, especially when volumes generated are \"low\". Whenever applicable, co-incineration with other wastes or within cement kilns can be a cost-effective way to manage sewage sludge. Microplastics may still be found in the ash of incinerators.Sludge volume and content in microplastics vary widely with the biological wastewater treatment processes used. For example, anaerobic/aerobic (A/O) processes and their variants yield higher microplastic concentrations in sludge than oxidation ditch and sequencing batch reactor (due to retention time or settling efficiencies). The average size of microplastics in sludge is larger than in the initial wastewater, showing that the sludge mainly concentrates large microplastics.Primary sludge (from primary clarifier) Traditionally, the main aim of sludge treatment is to stabilize the sludge to enable its disposal.A key step in sludge treatment is dewatering to reduce the water level in the sludge. The dewatering method selected affects the concentration of microplastics found in the final sludge. During centrifugation part of the low-density microplastics remains in the liquid, leading to moderate concentrations of microplastics in dewatered sludge. However, filter pressure and belt-type dewatering produce dewatered sludge with a high concentration of microplastics (energy consumption: 10-60 kWh per metric ton of total solids).Mechanical erosion and sedimentation contribute to lowering the average particle size of microplastics in sludge. Typically, following sludge treatment, 95 per cent of microplastics in raw sludge are retained in the final sludge. The impact of drying beds, which are common in hot countries, is uncertain. How drying beds affect content of microplastics in dewatered sludge is still unknown. • Overall, removal of microplastics from wastewater can attain 99 per cent within a wastewater treatment plant. Typically, microfibres typically represent 63-80 per cent of microplastics in sludge.• The removal of microplastics in wastewater is simply a phase transfer of the microplastics from the liquid to the sludge. Inadequate management of the sludge could therefore lead to recontamination of soils and water.Incineration plants result in health and environmental impacts, which can be serious especially to communities surrounding them. Therefore, wider gendered societal impacts should be considered in the decision of implementing this process. Key questions to be addressed include:• How far should the incineration plant be built from communities?• What are the gendered impacts on the populace and what safeguards might be put in place so as to \"do no harm\"?• How much air pollution arises from these plants affecting workers, and what are the differentiated impacts on women, men, girls and boys in communities in the area?Objective: Remove microplastics and other contaminants from industrial wastewater effluentAnnual operation and maintenance Variable. Depending on how their treated wastewater is disposed of, the required treatment level required may vary.Maturity 4Policy support need 3-4The water requirement for textile manufacturing is 0.1-0.2 m 3 of water per kg of textile product. Most of the water will become contaminated by microfibres as a result of the processes involved in textile manufacturing.To date, the treatment objective for this type of industrial wastewater effluent remains to remove organic pollution and chromaticity, in order to meet quality standards for release into the environment or municipal sewers. Nevertheless, the efficiency of microfibre removal could exceed 95 per cent The treatment is affected by the type of filaments present in the wastewater being treated.Example: Details of a typical treatment process in ChinaInfluent concentration: 300 particles per litre This wastewater treatment plant treats 30,000 metric tons/day of wastewater, with 95 per cent in volume coming from 33 printing and dyeing enterprises while the remaining 5 per cent is domestic wastewater from residential areas.Source: Xu et al. (2018) Poly-aluminium chloride (PAC) and Polyacrylamide (PAM)Note: investment, operation and maintenance costs are borne by the private industry operating the plant and are not publicly available. a More than 80 per cent of microfibres were larger than 0.03 mm in diameter, with the majority between 0.1 and 1 mm; 60 per cent of the microfibres were microplastics while the remainder were composed of natural fibres.Note: in this particular case sludge quality was not analysed.• Industrial wastewater treatment is usually considered a must. However, contaminants targeted for removal during the treatment do not yet include microplastics, which are treated and removed as suspended solids. • Removal of microfibres is mostly achieved in membrane-based processes such as membrane bioreactors or reverse osmosis technologies. Air flotation appears to be suitable for removal of lowdensity microfibres.• There is some uncertainty about how the plant's treatment performance is affected by the various pigmented microfibres. • The human dimension comes in because of the differentiated health impacts arising for women and men, thus calling for the introduction of safeguards which so far remain inexistent. It has been estimated that 79 per cent of the plastic waste ever produced has been stored in landfills. The decomposition rates of various plastics in landfills are not fully known. However, it is understood that plastics in landfills are exposed to severe environmental conditions (e.g. in terms of temperature and pressure), which are likely to influence their behaviour and fragmentation rates. Some authors state that most microplastics will remain trapped in the landfill under normal conditions. However, practices such as landfill mining would enable the microplastics to be reintroduced to the environment. In addition, microplastics (fragmented plastics) could contaminate the landfill leachate.Influent concentration: 0.42-24.58 particles per litre.Landfill leachate generation in China is estimated at 1.3-3.2 m 3 per metric ton of waste, occurring over a 100-year period. In Finland, by comparison, landfill leachate generation is 1.4 m 3 per metric ton of waste. Leachate volume generation depends on various factors, such as the design of the landfill and the climate. The typical composition of landfill leachate is presented in the following In the leachate, 17 different types of plastic materials were identified. Polyethylene and polypropylene represented 99 per cent of the plastics. In terms of their shapes, the authors identified pellets (59 per cent), fragments (23 per cent) and fibres (15 per cent); in terms of size, 77.5 per cent of microplastics were 0.1 to 1 mm of size.In some countries poor communities' livelihoods depend upon landfills, where gender differentiated roles are found among landfill pickers. There is also a certain level of discontent between landfill operators (largely men) and informal pickers, for example, over illegal fires the pickers start on landfills to keep warm, which pose safety hazards. On the other hand, with respect to microplastics capture during the treatment process, the performance of currently used treatment systems for landfill leachate is not yet available. However, it is likely that they are able to remove microplastics given the types of processes typically involved. Costs can vary greatly, depending upon initial site conditions. Earthworks costs are USD 2.5-15 per m 2 (the higher the wetland surface, the lower the rate) while planting costs USD 3.00-5.00 per transplant. These parameters typically represent 35-50 per cent and 11-17 per cent of total construction costs, respectively.Annual operation and maintenance Typically, USD 0.35-0.99 per m 2 each year. This is equivalent to up to USD 40-400 per m 3 /day treated for the entire system.Capital + O&M costs average USD 159 per m 3 /day of treatment capacity in the United States. Normally, wetlands have indefinite lifespans and are expected to be permanent landscape. Wetlands are generally classified as low-cost technologies, which could satisfy constraints in developing countries. However, as in the case of all extensive processes, the land requirement is high.Wetlands are widely used around the world as treatment systems for bioremediation to capture and remove a wide range of pollutants and nutrients. However, their capacity to reduce microplastics has not been much studied.Wetlands are known for their ability to improve water quality through natural processes involving wetland vegetation, soils, and their associated microbial assemblages to filter water as it passes through the system. For conventional contaminants, the removal mechanism is primarily through transformation and uptake by microbes and plants, as well as assimilation and absorption into organic and inorganic sediments. The plants and microbes absorb nutrients and break down contaminants through biological processes (biodegradation).Treatment wetlands (both natural and constructed wetlands) can be considered an end-of-pipe solution to reduce the volume of microplastics entering streams, rivers and oceans, while floating wetlands provide an ongoing treatment process for freshwater systems.There are different types of wetlands.Floating treatment wetlands (FWs) are small, artificial platforms that allow plants to grow on floating mats in open waters where their roots spread through the mats and down into the water, creating dense columns of roots with lots of surface area. By reducing turbulence and mixing by wind and waves, the mats also allow sediment to settle.Similarly to a constructed wetland, nutrients and other pollutants are gradually incorporated into the biomass and thus withdrawn from the aquatic ecosystem. While the plants take up nutrients and contaminants, the plant roots and the FW's materials provide extensive surface area for microbes to grow, forming a slimy layer of biofilm. The biofilm is where the majority of nutrient uptake and contaminants degradation occurs in a FW system. The shelter provided by the floating mat also allows sediment and elements to settle by reducing turbulence and mixing by wind and waves.Constructed wetlands (CWs) are engineered and managed wetland systems designed to mimic natural wetlands. A constructed wetland is scaled according to its treatment drainage area. The wetland/watershed area ratio typically ranges between 0.5 and 2 per cent. In addition, maximum wetland depth is typically less than 3 metres while depth at the edge will vary throughout the year with water level. To treat stormwater, 90 th percentile stormwater must be allowed at least two days' residence time. A sediment removal structure may be implemented before the wetland to better control sediment and prevent excessive accumulation.• Current findings highlight that CWs can remove small and rather large microplastics. • The long-term effectiveness of CWs is not well known.Effects of wetland aging may jeopardize treatment performance. • Temperature and flow fluctuations can cause a wetland to display inconsistent contaminant removal rates.• Only a few studies attempted to assess the performance of wetlands regarding microplastics removal. • Sediment in wetlands may have higher microplastics concentrations than water being treated. Occasionally, water may be enriched in microplastics as it passes through the wetland.Objective: Remove pollutants, including microplastics, to reduce human exposureInvestment Variable, depending on source of water usedIn the United States, USD 548 per m 3 /d (or 1.5 per m 3 of water treated)Usually operated on a cost-recovery basis.Maturity 5Policy support need 1-2To mitigate health risks associated with human consumption of water contaminated with high levels of microplastics, it is essential to ensure that currently adopted treatment plants are able to remove the microplastics in freshwater to a satisfactory level before it is consumed.Microplastics have been detected in bottled water in several countries. It should be noted that packaging materials are often plastic and are thus a possible origin of microplastics other than the water itself. However, significant amounts of microplastics have been reported in samples from glass bottles or beverage cartons.Drinking water treatment appears to be able to remove smaller particles better than larger ones. Therefore, when this treatment is combined with wastewater treatment plant, it is possible to prevent humans being exposed to contamination. However, the rest of the environment remains exposed to this contamination. In developing countries drinking water treatment is carried out using simple processes such as, for example, slow sand filtration. Performance with respect to microplastics removal when such treatment systems are used has not yet been investigated. They could also be able to achieve some removal of microplastics.During drinking water treatment there could be a risk of interaction with other pollutants or with the chemicals used for treatment.There are a number of gendered health concerns that must be tackled to ensure safe water access to women, youth and children, who are at a higher risk. Beyond microplastics, other plastic-based chemicals such as bisphenol A, potentially found in drinking water, require attention and monitoring.Objective: Remove waste particles, including plastics, from freshwater (rivers) and downstreamInvestment A typical clean-up boat could have a trash collection capacity between 1.6 and 2.8 m 3 . Investment cost not available. Costs of sweepers are variable, depending on structure material. Where applicable, their costs could part of bridge construction costs.Operational costs of the debris-collector boat could be high due to fuel consumption, while O&M costs of a sweeper are less. Exact figures could not be obtained.Boats: 4 Sweepers: 2Policy support need Boats: 3 Sweepers: 4Freshwater systems are a common pathway by which land-based plastic waste reaches the marine environment, as they connect coastal and inland urban communities to the oceans. Plastics from freshwater compartments all originate from land-based sources, which contribute approximately 80 per cent of plastics in marine environments.Removal of plastics with a clean-up boat is a technology which is simple and flexible to operate and maintain. Several types of boat are designed to collect plastic pollution from river surfaces. They are positioned in locations ranging from nuclear waste facilities to major municipalities. Clean-up boats function with skimmers or conveyor belts that skim plastics as they move along the water surface.A sweeper is a cylinder located in front of a pier that rotates with the flow and \"sweeps\" the plastics away from the pier and into the flow between piers (figure, left). Sweepers are usually polyethylene and float up and down so they can move with the water surface. They are intended to buffer structures from impact and to steer plastics around downstream structures. Sweepers shed plastics, greatly reducing the likelihood of accumulation.Clean-up boats have been successfully deployed in several rivers in the United States. An example is the skimmer baskets boat that cruises the Chicago River collecting plastics from the municipal sewer system. The Interceptor is The Ocean Clean-up's answer to the problem of plastic waste in rivers.The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has expressed disparate opinions on the merits of sweepers.Garbage collection boat on the Pearl River in Guangzhou, China Sweepers attached to a river bridge Sources: Tyler (2011); Elastec (2020) Opportunities and barriersA clean-up boat for removal of plastics is a simple, flexible technology to operate and maintain.Sweepers may be subject to failures due to clogging. They could be crushed by large plastic objects or dislodged from their mounts. A factor that may contribute to clogging failure is water flow speed; it has been observed that sweepers are not generally effective when flow speeds are low.• A typical Seabin is estimated to collect up to 1.4 tons per year of floating plastics, from large to small plastic particles.• It is important to acknowledge the significant cost barrier for this technology. A successful strategic solution will eventually combine methods and tools that are logistically and financially feasible in a given location.Table 2 provides a preliminary prioritization of technical solutions proposed in this study. Some solutions are mature (i.e. they have been tested and utilized repeatedly with some success to mitigate negative impacts associated with plastics and microplastics). They could represent good starting point solutions to address the issue of environmental contamination by microplastics from primary and secondary sources. High maturity solutions have proven effective and knowledge with respect to their operation and maintenance is easily available.There could be some gaps concerning the effectiveness of these solutions in particular cases. On the other hand, developing countries often struggle to enforce effective and sound policies. Some solutions have failed in the past due to lack of strong policy support to back an initiative. It is therefore essential to consider the ability and need to enforce policies in selecting the appropriate solution for a given context or country. Some solutions with higher potential for success, even in countries traditionally struggling with policy enforcement, are presented in Table 2.Implementation of solutions to mitigate impacts of microplastics will demand financial contributions from various stakeholders. Indeed, while some initiatives place the financial burden on the municipality, others require retailers, consumers or manufacturers to bear the financial costs. In the table solutions are shown that require minimal funds for operation or as investments from the public sector. In addition, inclusive stakeholder engagement is necessary to ensure that gender, diversity and inclusion are given the prominent importance they deserve. To that effect, it appears essential to acquire more insight into the gendered impacts of waste management and the associated impacts, as articulated in comments in this study. It is crucial to encourage collection of sex-disaggregated data and analysis of these data to support policy formulation. Disaggregated data reveal important gender dynamics and are crucial for gender-sensitive policy formulation. Data enhance understanding of life cycle and intergenerational links in regard to deprivations and support the alignment of actions with needs, leading to better designed policies according to specific regional and national contexts. ","tokenCount":"10827"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"91bba7995aa3e4947538579dba2ede67","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/083260a2-df23-4564-a2ed-0a0d1443f43a/retrieve","id":"770780222"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"41e843c2-3056-4cf6-948e-6fd82f400f62","pagecount":"98","content":"The European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR) is a collaborative programme among most European countries aimed at facilitating the long-term conservation and the increased utilization of plant genetic resources in Europe. The Programme, which is entirely financed by the member countries and is coordinated by IPGRI, is overseen by a Steering Committee composed of National Coordinators nominated by the participating countries and a number of relevant international bodies. The Programme operates through ten networks in which activities are carried out through a number of permanent working groups or through ad hoc actions. The ECP/GR networks deal with either groups of crops (cereals, forages, vegetables, grain legumes, fruit, minor crops, industrial crops and potato) or general themes related to plant genetic resources (documentation and information, in situ and onfarm conservation, inter-regional cooperation). Members of the working groups and other scientists from participating countries carry out an agreed workplan with their own resources as inputs in kind to the Programme.The geographical designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IPGRI or the CGIAR concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Similarly, the texts and taxonomic definitions in these proceedings reflect the views of the respective authors and not necessarily those of the compilers or their institutions.Mention of a proprietary name does not constitute endorsement of the product and is given only for information.In May 2000, the ad hoc meeting of the Network Coordinating Group on Vegetables of ECP/GR held in Vila Real (Portugal) decided to promote new activities by creating informal groups on Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae and Leafy Vegetables. 1 The first meeting of the informal group on Solanaceae was held on 21 September 2001 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, back-to-back with the second annual meeting of the EU-funded EGGNET project.The participation of five partners supported by ECP/GR in the 2-day EGGNET meeting allowed the latter to meet EGGNET partners and to observe their working methods for eggplant genetic resources. Members invited by ECP/GR were the following: Lilia Krasteva (Institute for Plant Genetic Resources (IPGR), Sadovo, Bulgaria); Árpád Kiss (Institute for Agrobotany (ABI), Tápiószele, Hungary); Olga Dmitrieva (N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR), St. Petersburg, Russian Federation); Ali Küçuk (Aegeaen Agricultural Research Institute (AARI), Izmir, Turkey); and Bogoljub Ze evi (Center for Vegetable Crops, Smederevska Palanka, Yugoslavia).Four other experts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel and Poland were invited to attend at their own expense. Only H. Stav likova, from the RICP Vegetable Gene Bank in Olomouc, was able to attend. M.J. Díez (Center for the Conservation and Breeding of the Agricultural Biodiversity (COMAV), Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain), focal person of the informal working group on Cucurbits, also attended the meeting.T. van Hintum (Plant Research International (PRI), Wageningen, the Netherlands) was invited as a consultant in international database management but was unable to attend.The objective of this first meeting of the informal group on Solanaceae was to start collaboration on Solanaceae genetic resources between EGGNET partners involved in eggplant genetic resources and other partners from Eastern Europe. Many are also working with tomato and pepper.The survey of Solanaceae genetic resources held in Europe (Appendix I), when compared with the list of participants (Appendix X), shows that this first meeting of the informal group on Solanaceae brought together most of the institutions holding the largest European collections of eggplant and/or tomato and/or pepper.Each ECP/GR partner provided a report on the Solanaceae collections held by their respective institute (content and structure of the collection, storage type(s), regeneration, evaluation, databases, safety-duplication status, collecting missions). Full reports are given in Part II of this report (Status of national collections). The curators of the respective crops are listed in Table 1 below. 1 Maggioni, L. and O. Spellman, compilers. 2001 The ECP/GR working groups operate on a voluntary basis, involving self-funding and participation \"in kind\". However, since the activities carried out by these working groups are considered to be of outstanding interest to breeders, the possibility of obtaining financial support from the private sector should be investigated.A preliminary discussion with the representatives of two private breeding companies (EGGNET sub-contractors) showed that direct financial support from the private sector was very unlikely. However, private eggplant, pepper and tomato breeders could be very interested in participating in the regeneration and characterization of Solanaceae genetic resources, since this activity could offer an outstanding opportunity for them to handle new genetic variability with potential use for breeding. In France as well as in the Netherlands, several private companies already participate in national plant genetic resources networks, together with national public institutions. The informal group on Solanaceae could benefit from this help from the private sector, and it was decided to further explore a possible mechanism to establish this type of collaboration.The achievements of the ECP/GR working groups vary from one group to the other. The workplan of each group is agreed jointly and carried out by the group members with their own resources. Achievements usually include the creation and management of central databases, development of core collections, organization of safety-duplicates of all partners' collections, development of joint project proposals (e.g. responding to EU calls for proposals in the field of plant genetic resources), etc.It was agreed that eggplant, pepper and tomato are the key species which almost all partners are interested in (Table 2). However, other species of interest to several partners should also be considered, in particular Physalis sp. and Cyphomandra sp. The group agreed on the following priority objectives:Presently, the status of the group is an \"informal working group on Solanaceae\". All members wish that this informal group becomes official 2 . An application letter should be submitted to the ECP/GR Steering Committee before mid-October 2001. 3The question of whether there should be a single database for eggplant, pepper and tomato or several crop-specific databases was discussed at length. The group discussed whether it should concentrate on creating central databases for eggplant, pepper, tomato and \"other Solanaceae\" (this solution requires a database manager) or rather incorporate the cropspecific information and make it accessible via existing databases (e.g. EGGNET) or Web sites under development (e.g. EURISCO, see below).The compilation of all basic passport data from the databases of each partner is the first step to identify \"who holds what\" and to estimate the degree of duplication amongst collections. A first list of passport data fields was proposed for the Solanaceae inventory (Appendix II). This list is based on the EGGNET database fields, which were defined on the basis of the Standard Passport Descriptor list (IPGRI/FAO 1996), the first version of the Multi-Crop Passport Descriptors (MCPD) (IPGRI/FAO 1997) 4 , the IBPGR Descriptors for Eggplant, and the ITF (International Transfer Format) database for Solanaceae at the Botanical Garden of the University of Nijmegen.It was agreed that the partners in charge of the compilation would be EGGNET Coordination Board for eggplant, A. Küçük for pepper, O. Dmitrieva for tomato and J. Pohens for Physalis sp., Cyphomandra sp. and possibly other genera. The deadline for producing the compiled list from all partners' data is March 2002.The EU-funded EPGRIS project (European Plant Genetic Resources Information Infra-Structure 5 ) is establishing a European Internet Search Catalogue (EURISCO) with passport information of PGR collections maintained ex situ in Europe, in order to facilitate the dissemination of information on these collections. This project is in the process of finalizing a standard list of passport data. These data will be based on the revised version of the FAO/IPGRI Multicrop Passport Descriptor List (MCPDv2, see footnote 4 below). Before the end of 2003, the first version of EURISCO is expected to be launched on-line and to contain a combination of data available from the existing national inventories and from the existing CCDBs. EURISCO is expected to gradually develop and become the most complete and reliable source of passport data in Europe. The catalogue will carry an important minimum set of passport data, frequently and automatically updated from the national inventories. Each partner country in the EPGRIS project has nominated a focal person for EPGRIS, in charge of the national inventory. The ECP/GR formal Working Groups share a budget set aside for more regular meetings and publications than those of informal groups. Each Working Group is made of country representatives nominated by the respective national coordinators 3 See Report of the Skierniewice meeting, page 7.At the time of the meeting, the MCPD list was under revision. The new version (MCPDv2) was released in December 2001 (http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/pubfile.asp?ID_PUB=124). Therefore the Solanaceae passport data fields will have to be updated and the Group agreed to adopt this passport list for the Solanaceae databasesd (see Appendix III). The MCPDv2 list is published here for the first time in a printed report.Once the compiled lists have been produced for eggplant, pepper, tomato and the other species, the detection of the degree of duplication among collections will be possible, based in particular on the analysis of the passport fields \"collector's name\", \"collecting date\", \"collecting number\", \"donor name\", \"donor number\" and \"other numbers associated with the accession\".Presently, the different partners use different protocols. Some basic information on these is already available (see Appendix IV), but should be completed with more details. For eggplant, these protocols have already been harmonized amongst EGGNET partners (Appendix V). The partners of the informal group on Solanaceae are encouraged to use EGGNET protocols as far as eggplant is concerned, and should agree jointly on common protocols for pepper, tomato, Physalis sp. and Cyphomandra sp.At present the different partners use different descriptors and protocols, the details of which are not yet compiled. For eggplant, a set of descriptors has been defined in common by EGGNET partners, but is not fully finalized yet. The members of the informal group on Solanaceae should agree jointly on common descriptors and protocols for pepper and for tomato. Furthermore, when descriptors and the relevant protocols are lacking (e.g. primary characterization of Physalis sp. and Cyphomandra sp.), the group should define them.The situation is similar to that described for primary characterization.International legislation and agreements have been evolving for many years, and many partners have difficulties in understanding their rights and duties regarding the possibility of accessing the genetic resources. Partners are invited to formulate any questions they may have on this topic and address them to G. van der Weerden (Botanical Garden, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) who will centralize those questions, reformulate them, and forward them to the ECP/GR Secretariat, which will provide answers and advice, in consultation with lawyers working at IPGRI.According to the survey carried out in spring 2001 for Solanaceae genetic resources in Europe 6 , the identification of the Solanaceae species (especially wild) by each partner often does not follow the currently prevailing taxonomy. This results in some confusion regarding the taxonomic classification of accessions. In order to solve this issue, partners are invited to send photocopies of plant organs (shoots, leaves, flowers, fruits), photographs, or even seeds in the case of growing plants, to G. van der Weerden (Botanical Garden, Nijmegen) who will, together with G. Barendse and R.N. Lester, identify those accessions and assign their appropriate scientific name.The activity of the partners is based on voluntary involvement and self-funding, but the interest of private breeders in being involved in the technical activities of the group (regeneration, characterization) will be investigated.The group elected M.C. Daunay as Chairperson.A majority of participants were not in favour of creating crop-specific subgroups (eggplant, pepper, tomato, etc.). Therefore the management of the group will remain centralized.Partners were requested to propose a logo for the informal group on Solanaceae.These aspects were discussed round the table: safety-duplication is satisfactory for most partners, and there are no critical problems as far as pepper and tomato are concerned.The first meeting of the informal group on Solanaceae was fruitful, in particular owing to its combination with the EGGNET second annual meeting. All ECP/GR partners benefited from the experience of EGGNET partners. Based on the information provided by all participants on the status of European Solanaceae collections, a first set of priorities for actions was defined. Many partners (ECP/GR as well as EGGNET) are curators of only one or two of the crops discussed. Therefore, before going ahead with the objectives of the group, they need to obtain authorization from their higher management. Furthermore, the group will go ahead with its objectives only if it is recognized in the near future as an official Working Group on Solanaceae by the ECP/GR Steering Committee. The table summarizing the status of European Solanaceae collections as reported by partners at the Nijmegen meeting in 2001 was updated with new information, including data provided by R. Geydarova (Azerbaijan) and T. Kotli ska (Poland) after the meeting (Appendix I).All attending participants presented the status of their national Solanaceae collections and ongoing activities. These presentations are included in the present report (Part II, National collections).The workplan agreed upon in Nijmegen (objectives 1 to 8 above, pages 4-5) was distributed. The progress made was discussed and further actions to be taken identified (see Appendix VIII). Activities were assigned priorities referring to those identified in the draft recommendations of the Task Force to the ECP/GR Steering Committee for the preparation of Phase VII.The eggplant database, though still incomplete, is already searchable on the ECP/GR Web site (http://www-bgard.sci.kun.nl/WWW-IPGRI/eggplant.htm).These databases are under construction. Entry pages are already available from the ECP/GR Web site (http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/links/selectcrop.asp) under Crop type = Vegetables).The data presented in Table 3 were provided in May 2003 by J. Prohens (UPV, Spain), manager of the Physalis and Cyphomandra database.The Solanaceae family holds an important place in vegetable cultivation in Armenia. Cultivated species of this family in Armenia are Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., Solanum melongena L., Capsicum annuum grossum and C. annuum var. longum. These Solanaceous crops are mostly cultivated in the Ararat valley, where intensive agriculture is practised for national markets and export in greenhouses. Solanaceous vegetable crops are among the most economically important vegetables cultivated in Armenia (Table 1). Solanaceae collections are located in the Scientific Centre of Vegetable and Industrial crops. Breeding and cultivation of Solanaceous crops also have a long tradition in Armenia.The Scientific Centre of Vegetable and Industrial crops has made important progress in the development of new varieties and hybrid Solanaceous field-and greenhouse-grown vegetables for 50 years.The varieties and hybrids created by the breeders of the Scientific Centre of Vegetable and Industrial crops (such as eggplant, pepper and tomato hybrids) were distributed throughout the districts of the country containing 80% of the area occupied by these crops. Eggplant is a very old vegetable crop in Armenia, grown for many centuries according to official statistics.Most of the Solanaceae accessions are kept in the Scientific Centre of Vegetable and Industrial crops (Table 2). The material includes five groups of accessions: landraces (21 accessions), cultivars (29), hybrids (180) (breeding lines, donors), wild (7) and others (94) (Table 3).  The Solanaceae collection is evaluated for morphological, economic and agronomic characters (Table 4).Our accessions are used for secondary characterization (resistance to specific disease and pests, good fruit set at low temperature, reduced growth under winter cultivation, nutritional value, etc.). Seeds are kept at room temperature. There is no cold chamber or deep-freezers owing to lack of financial resources.The local landraces still face genetic erosion. We are eager to be active in the seed regeneration programme and wish to collaborate with EGGNET. Some of the accessions are regenerated every year and the other within 3-5-7 years based on the age and amount of seeds. We lack techniques for pollination control but we work on the regeneration of open-pollinated vegetable species.The collection contains endangered accessions which need urgent regeneration and we wish to rescue our collection and create a safety-duplication system.The collection data are computerized and the documentation should be developed to participate in EGGNET and European databases.Our accessions are available on request. We do not have access to Internet.Breeding programmes on eggplants, peppers and tomatoes are carried out in the Department of Solanaceae (open field and greenhouses) and in the biotechnology laboratory. They include breeding for disease resistance, earliness, flavour, resistance to transport damage and productivity.Armenia is very happy to become an active member of the ECP/GR Solanaceae WG and to participate in its activities:-Exchange of germplasm and sharing of information and technologies -Collaboration in joint research priorities and training courses -Collaborative activities for the collecting, evaluation and characterization of eggplant, pepper, tomato and other Solanaceae germplasm of the Armenian flora.In The governmental collection of Solanaceae is very small. It includes only varieties that were important for professional horticultural production in Austria in the past. Arche Noah tries to hold a wide collection of varieties that offer multiple possibilities for utilization. Every year a seed handbook is published by Arche Noah where access to material is offered to the public (http://www.arche-noah.at) but also for research and regeneration purposes.In the long-term collection the accessions are stored at -20°C in glass flasks. The germination is tested regularly. When the rate falls below 60% the material is regenerated in the field. Drying is carried out using silica gel.In the working collection the material is stored in air-tight glass flasks. Small samples of the accessions are also stored in a long-term collection in sealed, laminated bags at -15°C. Regeneration is carried out in small plots. The seeds are cleaned manually and dried with silica gel. Some of the accessions are also maintained by members of the organization in a decentralized system of conservation and regeneration.In governmental genebanks characterization and evaluation of Solanaceae genetic resources has not yet been done. Basic characterization is being implemented. Arche Noah has carried out basic characterization of 60% of their Solanaceae accessions. Basically IPGRI descriptors were used. Text information and photo-documentation are also available.There are no safety-duplications of Austrian Solanaceae accessions yet. The material from Arche Noah was partly provided by IPK Gatersleben (Germany). The collection comprises accessions from 15 countries. Most accessions originate from Europe and Asia (Fig. 1). Part of the material was collected during expeditions in various regions of Bulgaria, resulting in the collecting of 45 local accessions. This was the first step in the introduction process. Efficient planning and organization of these expeditions was essential. The IBPGR methodology for collecting local genetic resources was adapted for Bulgarian conditions (Krasteva 1989).The national eggplant collection is maintained at the IPGR in Sadovo. There is also a small collection for training purposes at the Agricultural University in Plovdiv.The national collection consists of foreign and local cultivars and populations with a predominance of foreign cultivars (73.42%) over local cultivars (26.5%) (Fig. 1). This task involved additions to and adaptation of the standard East European eggplant descriptors (Dikij et al. 1979). Accessions were tested in a quarantine field and afterwards included in a collection nursery. The study lasted 3 years. Evaluation was conducted for 32 characters according to VIR descriptors (Dikij et al. 1979), listed below. The accessions in the working collection listed in Table 1 above are at different stages of evaluation (first, second or third year).High yield and good quality are much affected by some economically important diseases. The most severe of these diseases are Verticillium dahliae and Phytophthora capsici (Georgieva et al. 1995). In a number of countries, this problem has been solved for the local ecological conditions through breeding of resistant cultivars (Neshev et al. 1999). According to Merezhko (1984), the first step in research for breeding purposes is the constitution of working collections for each valuable breeding trait. These collections can be classified by trait or by source. A \"source\" is a valuable genotype possessing a definite level of a given useful trait that has not been investigated by genetic methods. Further to the thorough evaluation of the collection and according to breeding needs, the accessions were grouped according to the degree of manifestation of each trait and a trait collection was created (Table 2). Active cooperation between IPGR-Sadovo and other breeding institutes regarding germplasm collections and their evaluation resulted in the creation of the new eggplant cultivars 'Luch' and 'Antim' which were registered by the State Varietal Commission (Petrov et al. 1978;Krasteva 1997).The eggplant collection is evaluated for the 32 descriptors listed above (passport data -4; morphological -22; biological -2; productivity -3; biochemical -3; and disease resistance -2). The passport information is the minimum for documentation. The value of the germplasm increases with the level of coverage of its description (Vavilov 1962).Accessions are stored in three types of collections: a base collection for long-term conservation, maintained at a temperature of -18°C. Part of it is duplicated in the working collection, which is maintained at +6°C and used for all germplasm testing. The exchange collection includes only accessions and cultivars used for exchange with related institutes and companies.1. An eggplant collection comprising a total of 174 accessions, including 127 foreign and 46 local cultivars and 1 wild species was constituted and improved. 2. A trait collection was created for earliness, productivity, fruit shape, high sugar and dry matter contents, and disease resistance. 3. A database recording 32 quantitative and qualitative traits was created; it will contribute to more effective utilization of the germplasm for breeding. 4. The new eggplant cultivars 'Luch' and 'Antim' were added to the Bulgarian cultivar list.  7. 1978-2000 Enrichment and evaluation of the collection; creation of a database.Tomato genetic resources include six categories: introduced, currently used cultivars; new Bulgarian cultivars; old primitive cultivars, removed from the national cultivar list; local populations; wild relatives; and breeding lines (Table 3).  The modern introduced cultivars are the most important resources in terms of quality and represent the major part of the collection (846 accessions = 14%). Foreign introduced cultivars originated mostly from European countries: the Netherlands (15.5%), Germany (11.2%), Hungary (4.2%), Italy (3.5%), France (2.5%) and Israel (4%). The percentage of accessions from USA and Canada is also significant (17.3% and 6.9% respectively) (Fig. 2).The new Bulgarian cultivars included in the national cultivar list represent only a small part of the collection (18 accessions).The old primitive varieties (9) were grown in the past, but they are not used any more and are included in the collection. The 111 local populations listed in Table 4 below result from natural evolution and human interference through directed selection. The influence of the environment should not be neglected. Their great adaptability is due to their high genetic diversity and makes them particularly valuable genetic resources. Wild relatives (25) are potential breeding sources for improvement of resistance to stress factors (diseases, pests and soil salinity).The breeding lines are a special genetic stock used in the current breeding programmes. They include accessions and lines of no economic value but possessing genes or combinations of genes with a definite breeding value. The Institute of Genetics in Sofia and the Institute of Horticulture and Canning Industry in Plovdiv use 400 and 250 tomato breeding lines in their programmes respectively, and the Vegetable Experiment Station in Gorna Orjahovitsa maintains a collection of 90 accessions for breeding purposes.In IPGR-Sadovo, 573 accessions were placed in long-term storage (478 cultivars and 95 local populations). Another 1134 accessions are kept in short-term conservation and replicated in a working collection (Table 5).In recent years, the curator's efforts at the IPGR have been directed towards the creation of a network of partners involved in the study and conservation of old local populations and forms. The scheme involves different structures (research institutes, schools and farmers), allowing maximum use of all opportunities for conservation of these resources. Joint programmes have been developed with students from secondary schools for collecting and conservation of their local germplasm.  This includes three main stages: preliminary evaluation, \"complex\" (main) evaluation, and \"special\" evaluation.Preliminary evaluation is obligatory and is conducted in a quarantine field, where accessions are checked for freedom from diseases and pests.\"Complex\" evaluation is the main source of information for documentation of the databases and is the requisite for placement for long-term conservation in the national genebank. It is based on the comparison of accessions with the national tomato standards. There are three tomato standards (early, medium-early and late). Evaluation was conducted according to the COMECON descriptor list (Glushchenko et al. 1986) and IPGRI Descriptors for tomato (IPGRI 1996) for 45 traits listed below. All accessions have been characterized thoroughly.Phenological characters 1.Number of days from emergence to flowering 2.Number of days from emergence to first fruit formation 3.Number of days from flowering to first fruit formation 4.Number of days from emergence to technological ripenessMorphological characters 5.Plant -habit 6.Stem -height of main stem (cm) 7.Stem -foliage 8.Stem -pubescence 9.Leaf -size (cm) 10. Leaf  Complex evaluation took place in the experimental field of IPGR-Sadovo over a 3-year period, for a number of traits related to plant phenology, morphology, biology and biochemistry. Trait collections were created according to tomato breeding requirements (Sotirova et al. 1989;Dobrev and Krasteva 1989;Krasteva et al. 1990;Georgiev et al. 1993;Stancheva and Krasteva 1993;Krasteva et al. 1993). Accessions were grouped as shown in Table 6. Special evaluation is conducted only for accessions that have undergone complex evaluation. Taking into consideration breeding objectives, some additional trait evaluations such as resistance to low and high temperatures should be carried out.The main cooperative relationships maintained by IPGR-Sadovo are with plant breeders from the Institute of Genetics in Sofia, the Institute of Horticulture and Canning Industry in Plovdiv, the Agricultural University in Plovdiv and the Vegetable Experiment Station in Gorna Orjahovitsa. These research centres maintain breeding material collections. Joint breeding research and studies are carried out. The tomato cultivars 'Lira', 'Vihren', 'Trapezitza' and 'Bononia' were developed jointly with the Institute of Genetics in Sofia, and the cultivar 'Elitza' with the Institute of Horticulture and Canning Industry in Plovdiv.Using previously developed computer programs, 518 tomato accessions, divided into two groups (indeterminate and determinate), were statistically processed at IPGR. Max and min values and their differences were determined for 18 main traits. Trait variation was expressed by the coefficient of variation (CV, %) and the mean square deviation. A correlation analysis was conducted for the same traits. The relationship between the analyzed traits and their interactions was studied on the basis of the calculated correlation coefficients. Multiple correlation and regression analyses were made to assess the collective effect of the aforementioned traits, important for tomato breeding. Multiple correlation coefficients and regression equations were calculated for 12 main traits. The calculation was made in two steps, using 13 traits for the first step and 18 for the second step. Two regression equations and multiple correlation coefficients were obtained, providing a statistical picture of multiple correlations between dependent and independent variables.Based on complex evaluation and continuous improvement of the trait collections, five new tomato cultivars were developed and registered by the State Varietal Commission.Based on the experience gained during long-term work with tomato germplasm, all aspects of germplasm management and conservation have been organized: introduction of foreign accessions, collecting of local forms, documentation of primary information, reproduction and analysis of seed material collected, completion of the database with information about each newly acquired accession, statistical analysis of this new information, evaluation of the genetic properties of new accessions, classification of selected sources, updating of trait collections, and determination of the source conservation method.The tomato collection is stored in the genebank of IPGR-Sadovo. Long-term conservation technology follows FAO/IPGRI standards. There are three types of collection, as for eggplant: a base collection, a working collection and an exchange collection (see above). Summary 1. A national tomato collection, consisting of 1134 accessions (846 introduced from 29 countries, 111 local forms collected from different regions in Bulgaria, 125 breeding lines and 25 wild species) was created. 2. The information collected on the geographic origin and characteristics of local accessions provides the basis for prioritizing on-farm conservation. 3. A complete system was developed for the management of the L. esculentum L. collection, involving resource planning, collecting, introduction, reproduction, documentation, analysis, classification and conservation. 4. The international classifiers (COMECON descriptors) of L. esculentum L. were adapted to Bulgarian conditions for the description, evaluation and analysis of the genetic material during reproduction over the period 1977-2000. 5. A scientific approach was developed for the management, study and utilization of specific plant genetic resources within the national germplasm. 6. For the first time in our country, the collection was classified according to two systemsthe first one based on the national standards for L. esculentum L. and the second based on the unified international classifiers (descriptors). 7. A computerized database, recording 45 traits in addition to passport information for 518 accessions, was created.Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the major vegetable crops in Bulgaria. It was introduced into the country in two ways: from Istanbul by the Turkish troops, and from Central and Western Europe by gardeners (Austro-Hungary).In Bulgaria pepper finds good conditions for its development, so that Bulgaria has become a secondary centre of origin.The first local forms were named either after the gardener who maintained them (Marinovski and Otche Matei) or the settlement where the cultivar was stabilized (Kurtovska kapia, Sofiiska kapia, Dzuljonska chipka). Some of these forms are still main cultivars in Bulgaria.The pepper collection consists of 643 accessions, including 363 of foreign origin and 280 collected during expeditions conducted in Bulgaria (Table 7). Most foreign accessions originate from Spain, Italy, France and the Netherlands. Few countries have at their disposal such a rich diversity of local forms. All varieties are presented together here, but the major part of the collection is represented by accessions from varieties 'Kapia' and 'Chipka' (Todorova 1999). IPGR has established cooperative relations with the Institute for Horticulture and Canning Industry in Plovdiv. The latter maintains a pepper collection of 437 accessions and lines for breeding purposes. Good contacts are also maintained with the Institute of Genetics in Sofia where a pepper collection of 210 accessions is available. The Vegetable Experiment Station in Gorna Orjahovitsa holds a collection of 56 pepper accessions for breeding purposes.All accessions of the national collection at the IPGR are evaluated according to the International COMECON List of Descriptors for the species Capsicum annuum L. (Dikij et al. 1979). The main characters are listed below. Around 70% of the collection at the IPGR Sadovo has been evaluated according to this COMECON list. The collections used by the breeders of the Institute for Horticulture and Canning Industry in Plovdiv, Institute of Genetics in Sofia, and Vegetable Experiment Station in Gorna Orjahovitsa are evaluated according to characters of importance for breeding.Many of the accessions which exceed the standards for certain characters are given to the Institute for Horticulture and Canning Industry in Plovdiv for inclusion in breeding programmes.Pepper accessions are distributed in the same three types of collections as for eggplant and tomato: base collection, working collection and exchange collection (see above).• A national collection of 643 pepper accessions of foreign and local material was created.• A computerized database recording all local forms was developed.• The development of databases for the rest of accessions is ongoing; this will make the collection available for use. The tomato collection consists of 1604 accessions. Its structure is presented in The tomato accessions are grown in the field in Holice, Gene Bank Olomouc. Every year 150 accessions are regenerated on average. The regeneration of the tomato collection was started 6 years ago, in 1995. The whole collection will be regenerated during the next 5 years. The harvested seeds are stored in boxes at a temperature of -20 o C. Activities on genetic resources follow the rules of the National programme for plant genetic resources conservation and utilization in the Czech Republic. Regarding distribution, 50% of accessions are available without restrictions and 40% of accessions are available depending on their seed germination rate.Tomato is evaluated for 45 characters according to the descriptor list for genus Lycopersicon Mill. (Pekárková-Troní ková et al. 1988). These descriptors, listed below, are identical to those of the Descriptors for tomato (IPGRI 1996).Passport data are fully recorded and computerized, and evaluation data are being entered in a database. The pepper collection consists of 514 accessions. The distribution of accessions according to their country of origin is shown in Table 2. Most of this collection is represented by old open-pollinated varieties from Hungary, Former Soviet Union, Former Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. New accessions are obtained from seed companies. Two systems are used for pepper growing. From 1995 to 1999 it was grown in polythene tunnels. The plants were isolated using special bags to avoid cross-pollination. After removal of the bags the fruits were tagged by a cotton thread. Since 2000 individual pepper accessions are grown in individual isolation cages. Seeds were harvested only from tagged fruits. The harvested seeds are stored at -20°C. At present 95% of the collection is regenerated and 90% of accessions are available for distribution (depending on their multiplication status).Pepper is evaluated for 31 characters, according to the Descriptors for Capsicum (Capsicum spp.) (IPGRI 1995) (listed below).Passport data are fully processed and computerized. Evaluation data are gradually being recorded and computerized. The eggplant collection is small, consisting of only 25 accessions. Eggplants are grown in isolation cages. The characters used for evaluation of eggplant are listed below. Passport data are fully recorded and computerized.habit maturity fruit length fruit width fruit shape fruit colourThe Institute for Agrobotany in Tápiószele maintains genetic resource collections of the three cultivated Solanaceae crops: tomato, pepper and eggplant. The Vegetable Research Institute Ltd. in Budapest maintains an additional pepper collection (1400 accessions).The composition of the collections of the Institute for Agrobotany is given in Table 1, and the composition of both collections according to status of sample is given in Table 2.All accessions maintained at Tápiószele and Budapest are available upon request according to the prescriptions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Storage conditions are satisfactory. In the Institute for Agrobotany the seeds are stored in chambers in active and base collections (Table 3).After harvest the seeds are cleaned and dried to 5-7% moisture content. The drying process starts in special rooms where relative air humidity is reduced to 15-20%, controlled by automatic sensors. The moisture content and viability of seeds are regularly checked. After the samples have been weighed, checked and the information recorded, they are placed in air-tight glass jars which are then placed in pre-storage chambers for temporary storage and subsequently moved to the active and base collections chambers, at a temperature of 0°C and -20°C respectively. Regeneration of samples depends on the viability and amount of seeds and on the level of characterization and evaluation. Changes in seed viability are monitored by germination tests every 10 years. When viability declines to 80% of its original value, the sample is regenerated. Whenever the amount of seed in storage reaches a minimum level (200 seeds/sample) as a result of utilization and/or distribution, the accession should also be planted for regeneration. Characterization and evaluation are conducted continuously and data are available for approximately one-third to one-half of the accessions. Each year, 50-150 samples of tomato and pepper collections are planted. The minimum number of plants for regeneration is 5 plants per accession (generally 12 plants for tomato and 24 for pepper and eggplant). Because of cross-pollination, the hybrids and off-types must be eliminated in the pepper and eggplant collection, but genetic variation should be recorded.The newly acquired accessions are propagated in isolation tunnels. This means that fertilization is shifted towards autogamy which is a compromise and may alter the genetic composition of accessions. Therefore another technique for the multiplication of most valuable landraces and old cultivars is used under isoclimatic conditions, i.e. accessions are multiplied in selected districts where the climatic conditions are similar to those of their places of origin. In these districts farmers grow about 10-40 accessions per year. The advantage of this method is to keep the original genetic composition of landraces and old cultivars.The unique samples of tomato, pepper and eggplant in the Institute for Agrobotany and other Hungarian institutions are safety-duplicated in the National PGR Base Collection at Tápiószele which currently contains 109 accessions of tomato and 974 of pepper.For effective utilization of germplasm it is essential that the collections be adequately evaluated and characterized. In the beginning most methods were adapted from breeders' practices. Then we used the COMECON descriptors and our own lists, and later on the IPGRI descriptor lists. These descriptor lists provide clear descriptor definitions and coding of the descriptor states. Our characterization and evaluation work is based on these descriptor lists. To provide additional information on quantitative characters, statistical information (mean, range of variation, variance) is also made available. These data are very useful in the case of variable populations. When the descriptors are discontinuous, several descriptor states are recorded, according to their frequencies within each accession.The Institute has organized several short collecting missions in Hungary with special emphasis on local forms and ecotypes. Usually one collecting mission is organized per year to collect landrace accessions of Solanaceous vegetable crops. Since the establishment of the Institute in 1958, 508 samples of locally adapted varieties and ecotypes of the three Solanaceous crops have been collected.Extensive basic and applied research is conducted in Israel with Solanaceous crops, in particular pepper and tomato. A collection of tomato, pepper and eggplant accessions is deposited in the national genebank located in The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan (Table 1) and is stored in a deep freeze (-10°C). Regeneration protocols are not available for these accessions which have not been characterized or evaluated. The Israeli genebank contains about 20 000 accessions of various crops. However, since the Solanaceae species are not endemic to Israel, these crops are of low priority in the overall activity of the genebank. The Solanaceae collection is composed mostly of introductions obtained from other genebanks. Unique Solanaceae collections that were developed through breeding are currently stored in the individual research laboratories. An effort should be made to deposit these collections in the national genebank for proper long-term storage and regeneration. The genebank database was upgraded recently and a searchable Web site is under final construction.A unique tomato germplasm collection was generated in the laboratory of Prof. Dani Zamir at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that includes two genetic resources:• The first is a population of Lycopersicon pennellii introgression lines (IL). These congenic lines differ in a single defined chromosome segment and are useful as a permanent mapping population and for the study of complex phenotypes. The IL population is composed of 76 ILs, each containing a single introgression from L. pennellii (LA 716) in the genetic background of the processing tomato variety M82. Seeds of the IL population can be requested from the tomato genetic resource centre in the University of California, Davis, USA (www.tgrc.ucdavis.edu). The tomato genetic map of the IL population as well as quantitative trait data measured for the population is presented on the Web site of the Solanaceae genomics networks (www.sgn.cornell.edu).• The second tomato resource that was generated in the Hebrew University is a collection of monogenic mutants, mostly created by chemical mutagenesis (EMS). Currently, the collection contains 3000 mutants that originated from M2 seeds of M82. A database \"The Genes That Make Tomatoes\" contains the description of the mutants and can be searched using a detailed phenotypic catalogue and combinations of traits on the Web site of the Solanaceae genomics networks (www.sgn.cornell.edu). Seeds of the mutants can be requested from the tomato genetics resource centre in the University of California, Davis, USA (www.tgrc.ucdavis.edu). The Solanaceae germplasm collection includes 1122 accessions of cultivated and wild species belonging to 4 genera. This collection is maintained by the Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory of the Research Institute of Vegetable Crops (RIVC) in Skierniewice, which is responsible for the national vegetable genetic resources conservation programme (including Solanaceae) and is part of the national genebank. The current status of the Solanaceae collection is presented in Table 1. The collection covers different types of accessions, from which the most valuable are the old national cultivars and landraces of tomato and pepper collected in Poland and other countries such as Albania, China, Moldova and Ukraine. The type of accessions is presented in Table 2. Seeds are stored in controlled conditions in the national genebank located at the National Centre for Plant Genetic Resources (PBAI) in Radzików. The temperature in chambers is 0°C/-18°C and humidity of seeds 5-7% depending on the species. Seeds are kept in vacuum glass jars and an \"iron reserve\" is kept in small hermetically closed metal boxes. The size of stored samples depends on the accession and ranges from 0.5 g to 400 g. The oldest seeds have been stored for 20 years. For some accessions there is a very small amount of seeds and these samples are successively regenerated. Regeneration of tomato accessions is performed every year and covers 50-100 accessions. Regeneration of other species such as pepper can be done every year but depends on the financial position.There are no duplicates of Solanaceae accessions so far.A total of 824 accessions have been characterized and evaluated, including 756 of tomato, 65 of pepper and 3 of husk tomato (Table 1). These activities are carried out on the working collections. The working collection of field tomato is maintained every year -multiplication and evaluation of the accessions collected during collecting missions or of those accessions stored in the genebank which require regeneration. Evaluation is made according to descriptor lists of IPGRI, UPOV and those developed by RIVC and includes characterization of morphological characters, evaluation of agronomic traits, disease resistance, reaction to stress conditions, etc. For tomato, 42 traits (10 plant traits and 32 fruit traits) are evaluated each year for 55-120 accessions in field trials using 2 or 3 replications. In each replication 20-25 plants are characterized. Data for the characterization and evaluation status are included in Table 1. Most accessions are freely available upon request if sufficient seed is available. For exdirectory breeding material, written permission from the donor breeder is required.Information is available upon request and can be provided by email or on CD-ROM and floppy discs.Collecting expeditions are organized each year in different regions of Poland and neighbouring countries to collect local forms and wild relatives. When possible we participate in joint expeditions together with other organizations such as VIR, USDA, IPGRI, etc.During the period 2000-2002 seven missions were organized in Poland. A total of 671 accessions were collected, including 41 Solanaceae (29 landraces of tomato and 12 of pepper). The main sources of new germplasm are home gardens and traditional small farms, in which farmers grow different forms of vegetables for domestic use, and have often done so for a long time. The areas covered by collecting missions and numbers of collected accessions are given in Table 3. Each collected seed sample is split into two parts: one part is added to the base collection, the other is used for regeneration and preliminary evaluation. Accessions kept in the genebank are used in different research programmes carried out at the universities, institutes and breeding companies (in resistance breeding to Phytophtora infestans, bacterial spot, cytological studies concerned with resistance to Oidium licopersici).The results of these studies are provided to the genebank and entered into the database. The Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory cooperates with breeding companies and agricultural universities which have research or breeding programmes and experts in species of interest to the Laboratory. The cooperation covers regeneration of seeds, maintenance of field collection, evaluation of morphological and marketable characters, resistance to pathogens, etc. The materials from the genebank are used in creative breeding programmes. This kind of cooperation is supported by genebank funds provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the basis of special agreements.Financial support received from the Ministry of Agriculture for genetic resources preservation is decreasing, which limits collecting activities, regeneration, characterization, evaluation, etc. The major problem is the lack of funds for expeditions on Polish territory where valuable local forms, highly threatened, are still present.The status of the Portuguese Solanaceae collections is shown in Table 1. The Banco Português de Germoplasma Vegetal (BPGV) is the National Portuguese Vegetable Gene Bank located at Braga. The 108 pepper accessions and the 79 tomato accessions existing in this genebank were collected in Portugal and they are documented for passport data. The seeds are stored in good conditions: medium-term: 0 to 5ºC, 40-50% RH; long-term: -20ºC, no humidity control. The seeds are not in danger and the last regeneration occurred 3 years ago. Some of the accessions are being characterized.Another pepper collection is located at the National Agrarian Research Institute (Estação Agronómica Nacional, EAN) at Oeiras with 51 accessions. These accessions have several origins: some were collected in Portugal and others come from foreign genebanks (Spain, Italy, USA and France). For 48 accessions, seeds are kept in medium-term conditions at 4°C in aluminium foil packets, under vacuum. The last regeneration occurred in 1990 and there are approximately 500 seeds/accession. For the other 3 accessions seeds are stored in longterm conditions (-16ºC, no humidity control); there are very few seeds, the seeds were collected in 1982 and were never regenerated. The possibility to carry out germination tests for all accessions and store all accessions in long-term conditions (-16ºC) in the future is being discussed at EAN. The Vavilov Institute (VIR) currently holds 7250 tomato accessions, 681 eggplant accessions and 2313 pepper accessions, distributed between a permanent (main) catalogue and a temporary catalogue, as shown in Table 1. These collections contain samples of various origin and types: local varieties, cultivars and hybrids from domestic and foreign breeding, wild species, and a number of mutant lines. The collections are increased by collecting missions, germplasm exchange between genebanks, or acquisition of new initial breeding material.Table 2 presents the taxonomic composition of the collections. The genus Lycopersicon is represented by 12 species, mostly of L. esculentum ( 7078  All crops are stored in working collections, which are continuously used by researchers. Storage temperature is maintained between +10 and +15ºC. Accessions are stored in tin boxes on shelves. Under these conditions, seed germination is maintained for 8-10 years for tomato and 4-5 years for eggplant and pepper. The weight of the preserved seed sample for each accession ranges from 0.1 g to 15-20 g. Base collections are maintained in the National Seed Store in Kuban, Krasnodar Region, at a storage temperature of +4ºC. Table 3 presents the number of accessions of the three crops placed for short-term and long-term storage. Seed samples with low germination rate (<85%) or low seed weight (<10 g) are selected for short-term storage. Accessions with seed germination above 85% and seed weight over 10 g are placed in long-term storage. Most of the tomato, eggplant and pepper base collections has been placed in long-term storage. Seed weight of the samples under these storage conditions is 10-15 g, depending on the species (10 g-samples for wild species, 15 g for all others). The Institute is currently building a long-term storage facility where all accessions in collections will be kept at +4ºC and -10ºC. Some accessions of different crops have already been placed in this new facility. Table 4 presents the number of tomato, eggplant and pepper accessions in long-term storage at VIR. Efforts to restore seed germination ability in the working collections are made on a regular basis at the Experiment Stations of VIR. To maintain the prescribed germination level, each accession of the collection is regenerated after a certain number of years. Regeneration intervals for restoration of germination are determined by the sowing fitness of the seed. For tomato this interval is 8-10 years, for eggplant and pepper 3-4 years. The seeds are multiplied to give the amount needed for their conservation in the working collections, for seed exchange with breeding centres and for placement in long-term storage if they are not already in store.The passport data for all tomato, eggplant and pepper accessions in the base collections are computerized. Characterization data of the accessions are recorded in catalogues and card files.Every year new accessions are studied at the Experiment Stations of VIR. Phenological and morphological data collected over three years of study form the basis of the characterization of each accession for maturity, yield parameters, resistance to diseases, pests and unfavourable environmental factors, etc. Sources and donors of economically valuable traits are selected and distributed to plant breeders for inclusion in their breeding programmes.Plant genetic resources activities in Turkey started in 1964. Because of the importance of the country for plant genetic resources, these studies were implemented within the framework of the National Plant Genetic Resources/Diversity Research Programme (NPGRRP) in 1976. The Aegean Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) has taken over all responsibility as project centre. Cooperation with various institutes is organized according to the principles of the National Code of Conduct on Collection, Conservation and Utilization in 1992. All joint programmes are conducted on a project basis within agreements (Tan 1998).Turkey is also a member of several international programmes working on plant genetic resources such as the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Turkey adhered to the International Undertaking on plant genetic resources and is a member of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR), the West Asia and North Africa Network on plant genetic resources (WANANET), the World Wheat Genetic Resources Networks and the World Beta Network (WBN).The objectives of the NPGRRP are the survey, collecting, conservation (both ex situ and in situ), documentation and evaluation of existing plant genetic resources and plant diversity in Turkey.Survey/collecting, multiplication/regeneration and utilization activities are organized by crop groups, including cereals, food legumes, forages, industrial crops, vegetables, fruit trees, ornamental plants, medicinal and aromatic plants and endemic plants.Turkey is one of the world's important centres for plant genetic resources and its flora displays a remarkable diversity. This is due to the following features of the country:• It overlaps the Near Eastern and Mediterranean Vavilovian centres of plant diversity;• It is a meeting place of three phytogeographical regions, namely the Euro-Siberian, the Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian regions; • It is a bridge between southern Europe and southwest Asia, and has apparently served as a migration route; • It is a centre of diversity for many genera and sections; • It is a centre of origin for many cultivated plants and weeds in Europe;• And finally, it has a high level of species endemism (Tan 1998).Seed material is preserved in the cold store of the genebank at AARI where the needs of long-and medium-term storage for base and active collections as well as short-term storage for working samples have been thoroughly met (Table 1). Additionally, in Ankara, there are also storage facilities of base collections at the Field Crop Improvement Centre for safety-duplicates.Turkey is a micro-gene centre for many landraces including Solanaceae. Therefore these landraces are still grown by farmers in almost all regions. Over 1500 accessions of Solanaceae have been collected since 1964 (Table 2). Systematic collecting and surveys are carried out, taking into account various priorities such as erosion factors, construction of dams and irrigation canals, land opening to industry and settlements; tourism also affects farming land and therefore landrace cultivation. Collecting is still a priority in order to fill gaps in Turkish landraces, especially in the regions of the country which have never been explored. The \"In situ Conservation of Plant Genetic Diversity Project\" is an important part of the National Plant Genetic Resources Research Project, and was started in 1993 with wild relatives of crop species. In 1999, in situ (on-farm) conservation studies started in a selected pilot area in the northwestern transitional zone. The objective of the project is to identify the possibilities of in situ/on-farm conservation of landraces. Although cereals (hulled wheat) and legumes (chickpea, lentil, bean) have been selected as target species, the inventory of all landraces (including Solanaceae landraces) in the selected area is under study. Solanaceae landraces in this part of the transitional zone are mainly grown as home-garden crops. The Sakarya valley of this region is a vegetable-growing area. In recent years, landraces were replaced with improved varieties, but some of the farmers still prefer to grow their landraces for their own consumption and for the local market, together with commercial varieties. Within the framework of the project, socioeconomic surveys are also conducted to explain the preference of farmers for growing the landraces.The NPGRRP activity data are maintained in the databases created and managed under dBase 4, visual dBase and Excel. Passport/collecting and storage data have already been documented and computerized. Evaluation data are analyzed by multivariate analysis and a statistical program. The standard formats for each activity are used for easy recording and computerization. The Mapmaker package is also used for map production if the location of collection sites is recorded with a Global Positioning System (GPS). The recent application of Geographical Information System (GIS) technology has allowed geographic analysis of the data to begin (Tan and Tan 1998). The documentation unit is responsible for the centralized database of NPGRRP.The National Programme \"Plant Genetic Resources\" of the Ukraine deals with the enrichment, utilization, conservation and investigation of plant genetic resources for agricultural, breeding, scientific and educational purposes. The National Plant Genebank (NPG) was established to implement these tasks. Maintenance and management of the NPG are implemented by the PGR System which includes 34 institutions specialized in the breeding of specific crops. The coordinating centre, the National Centre for PGR of the Ukraine (NCPGRU) is based at the Yurjev Institute of Plant Production in Kharkiv.The Ukrainian collection currently contains 3357 accessions of Solanaceae (Table 2). A comprehensive study of the tomato collection accounting for over 1000 accessions allowed special collections to be formed for early ripening (about 40 accessions), productivity, good fruit marketability and Phytophtora resistance.The laboratory screening revealed sources of cold resistance and salt tolerance; the latter is of interest for southern regions of the Ukraine.From the eggplant collection (270 accessions), sources of various economically valuable traits were chosen, from which parental lines having high general and specific combining ability for early ripening and productivity were obtained. They were used to create new eggplant hybrids, two of which were included in the Ukrainian Official List of Cultivars in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Eggplant trait collections are established for early ripening, productivity and fruit quality.The pepper collection accounts for over 500 accessions. Over 400 of them have already been studied for 3 years. A special collection was formed for early ripening. It includes 20 accessions, mostly with a short germination-to-flowering period, stable in various ecological conditions and cold tolerant.At present, we use mostly \"passive screening\", i.e. agrobiological studies using conventional methods. In the future, we plan to carry out \"active screening\" using provocative backgrounds, i.e. artificial conditions increasing the influence of environmental factors such as disease, pests, soil salinity, etc. Crosses will be analyzed and genes identified, etc., which will allow genetic collections of vegetable crops to be formed. It will then be possible to provide breeding programmes not only with sources but also donors of valuable traits.Long-term seed storage is currently carried out at -18 o C. Cryoconservation of vegetative parts of plants is under study.Solanaceous species rank among the first vegetable crops in terms of production area in Yugoslavia. Tomato and pepper are particularly significant for the Yugoslav market, while eggplant is less important. A long tradition of tomato and pepper growing has generated a wide natural diversity for these species.Collecting of pepper, eggplant and tomato genetic resources started in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when fundamental breeding activities were undertaken. This work was carried out by the Centre for Vegetable Crops in Smederevska Palanka and the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad. Until the end of the 1980s the collections were not systematically organized and could be used only by the breeders who had established these collections. The National Gene Bank decided that part of the pepper and tomato collections of the Centre for Vegetable Crops would become national collections. During the 1990s the project of the National Gene Bank was not fully implemented due to the situation in the country. The national collections were not enlarged and the number of accessions has remained constant since the establishment of the collections. On the other hand, the pepper, tomato and eggplant collections of the Centre for Vegetable Crops were improved as regards the number of accessions their classification, storage conditions, etc. The collections of the Centre for Vegetable Crops currently represent the most important holdings of Solanaceous genetic resources in Yugoslavia.The pepper collection in the Centre for Vegetable Crops currently contains 352 accessions. Table 1 provides an overview of the status of the pepper, tomato and eggplant collections. Technical characteristics of the storage chambers can be considered as satisfactory. However, there is a problem with the cooling system and the temperature sometimes exceeds the expected value. Storage temperature is generally high and it is planned to improve storage conditions in order to ensure a lower temperature. High temperature leads to a quick decrease in germination ability. The level of germination ability of accessions is frequently checked, and regeneration is carried out afterwards. Parts of the pepper and tomato collections are placed in the Gene Bank of the Maize Research Institute in Zemun Polje (National Gene Bank project).Only 40 pepper accessions are described according to IPGRI descriptors. Other accessions of pepper, tomato and eggplant have passport data. In the last 10 years only a few collecting missions have been organized. Solanaceae genetic resources are well represented in Yugoslavia by many genotypes of pepper, tomato and eggplant. In the last 10 years, the political and economic situation in Serbia prevented the collecting of pepper genotypes and their inclusion in the collection.Cooperation with EU projects in the field of plant genetic resources and with international programmes such as ECP/GR could result in substantial improvement of the collecting and conservation of Solanaceae genetic resources.  Regeneration frequency is as low as possible (10-15 years), but if less than 500 seeds are available for a given accession, regeneration must be carried out again. Cultivated species are sown in the greenhouse, checked for homogeneity among plantlets and transplanted in pots; young plants are grown either in the greenhouse or in plastic tunnels. For pepper, 3 plants per accession are transplanted in the greenhouse or open field and for tomato 10 plants per accession. The homogeneity of each accession is checked during growth. Since pepper has a strong tendency to allogamy, although it is an autogamous species, pollen pollution must be avoided either by hand selfing or by using insect-proof conditions. For tomato, there is less risk of pollen pollution, but truss bagging or insect-proof conditions are better than open-pollination in the open. For species related to pepper, 15 plants are planted in isolation fields; all plants are harvested mixed. For wild tomato species, plants of a given accession are cross-pollinated, which is necessary for some self-incompatible species.A mixture of fruits from the different homogeneous plants grown is harvested. The germination quality of the harvested seeds is assessed on the basis of optimal fruit harvest and seed extraction process. The theoretical threshold is a minimum of 10-15 grams of seeds harvested, for pepper as well as for tomato, but currently this minimum seed amount may be less (INRA is a research institute and not a genebank, therefore it has different aims). The sanitary quality of tomato seeds is guaranteed by the extraction process, in acid conditions; but a further treatment (30 minutes in a solution of sodium hypochlorite) is advised in case the plants harvested are not healthy. Pepper seeds must be treated for 15 minutes with 10% trisodic phosphate (Na 3 PO 4 ), then rinsed to eliminate possible TMV (tobacco mosaic virus).Seed dehydration is currently ensured by 48-hour drying in laboratory conditions, but in future the use of silica gel is intended. If necessary, germination tests are carried out. Seeds are stored in a cold chamber at 3-5°C, 40% max RH in sealed bags. There are no safetyduplicates.The eggplant database (passport, primary descriptors, disease resistance data) is managed under DBaseIII.The pepper electronic database is incomplete for passport data, and is managed under Excel.The tomato database (passport and primary descriptors) was managed under DBaseIII and was recently transferred to Microsoft Access.No collecting missions are organized by INRA.   Medium-term (5-20 years).Regeneration every 5-10 years.No evaluation data available.SAS database / ITF (International Transfer Format) used.No safety-duplicates.The CGN has focused on a limited number of collections for which it attempts to maintain high quality seed, which is readily available to bona fide users. CGN strives to increase knowledge about its germplasm relevant to its users. All parties that use its germplasm for breeding, research or cultivation and have access to facilities needed to attain these objectives qualify as bona fide users.The complete CGN collection holds about 22 000 accessions, distributed over 23 crops.The Solanaceae collection can be divided in three groups: tomato, pepper and eggplant. They originate from the former Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding (IVT). These collections can be considered as working collections for applied breeding research. The material has been characterized and partially screened for different properties such as pest and disease resistance. The collections include a large number of old cultivars received from Dutch and foreign seed firms and genebanks, but also wild species mainly received from the USDA Plant Introduction Stations and the University of Davis, USA and the University of Reading, UK (de Groot and Boukema 1997). CGN adopted the collections in 1992. The quality and quantity of seeds of these collections have been assessed and accessions meeting our standards have been given a CGN accession number. The collections were rationalized by rejecting duplicates and hybrids. The taxonomic nomenclature needs to be further checked and revised. Most accessions still retain the name they had when they were received. Missing passport data such as population type and origin need to be added.The status of the tomato and pepper collections is detailed below.The tomato collection contains 1125 accessions, including 1034 cultivated L. esculentum accessions (Table 1).The pepper collection includes 602 accessions mainly of C. annuum (488), but also other species (Table 2). The species C. galapagoense and C. tovari will be added to the collection as soon as enough seed has been obtained. About 300 accessions of tomato and 400 of pepper will be added to the collection after they have been regenerated. Regeneration takes place in insect-free glasshouses on rockwool. For tomato, one stem per plant and for pepper, two stems per plant are grown along wires. Seven to ten plants per accession are regenerated. Exceptions are the outcrossing species such as L. peruvianum and C. cardenasii of which at least 10 plants per accession are handpollinated with a mixture of pollen collected from each of the 10 plants.The Dutch breeding companies assist in the regeneration of tomato and pepper. Seven breeding firms have regenerated approximately 120 accessions each year.The seeds are dried until their moisture content is about 5%. Sample viability is determined in germination tests conducted by NAK-AGRO, the official seed testing station of the Netherlands. In general the germination percentage should be at least 80% if samples are to be included in the collection. For wild species the germination percentage should be at least 60%. Five different types of samples for storage are distinguished: user sample (25 seeds), germination sample (200), regeneration sample (100), duplication sample (100 seeds) and a residual sample.The seeds are packed in laminated aluminium foil bags and stored at -20°C. CGN has both long-and medium-term storage facilities. The seed storage facilities of the CGN consist of the following compartments:deep-freezer compartments each of 30 m The numbered boxes are grouped by crop and placed on numbered shelves in the storage rooms. The location of storage (box and shelf) is recorded in the CGN information system.About 90% of the collection is duplicated at the Genetic Resources Unit of Horticulture Research International (HRI), Wellesbourne, UK. Every year the regenerated accessions are sent to HRI. After the seeds have been extracted from the ripe fruits they are dried over filter paper in the laboratory. After 10-15 days seeds are placed with silica gel in hermetically sealed glass jars. They are kept with the silica gel 1 month or so (or more if the silica gel changes colour) and are then stored in a chamber at 3ºC.Regeneration is performed when the quantity of seeds is small (<50) or when the accession is characterized. For each accession 5 to 10 plants are grown and left under open pollination if grown in an insect-free greenhouse. If plants are grown in the open, artificial self-pollination is performed for pepper but not for tomato. In the case of incompatible wild accessions of tomato, artificial pollination is carried out to secure seeds.In Italy, plant genetic resources are managed in various places-research institutes, universities, regional genebanks, etc. The Bari Germplasm Institute is the only research institution that is fully involved in plant genetic resources activities with special reference to the germplasm of the most agriculturally relevant plants in the Mediterranean region: cereals, grain legumes, forage legumes and different vegetables.As regards vegetable collections, the number of accessions is very variable from one collection to another. In particular, pepper and tomato collections comprise 167 and 561 accessions respectively. Most of the pepper accessions belong to Capsicum annum (116) while Lycopersicon esculentum (145) is the most represented species in the tomato collection.Table 1 lists the number of accessions per genus/species for both collections. Wild species constitute only a very small proportion, especially for the pepper collection. Most of the accessions were collected in Italy and are represented by landraces. Both collections are stored in aluminium cans at -20°C for long-term storage; short-and medium-term storage is in aluminium foil bags under vacuum at 0°C and 30% air humidity.Our long-term collection is not at risk, but we suggest considering the possibility of having at least one duplicate somewhere.Conditions of regeneration are similar for both species. Stored accessions with a low germination rate or a small amount of seeds are subject to a regeneration programme: plants grown in greenhouses after being sown in paper pots are transplanted into the open field and seeds are extracted from fruits collected in the centre of each plot.Characterization and evaluation are carried out when the collections are multiplied. For the moment no characterization and evaluation data are available for the tomato collection while an evaluation programme is in progress. Twenty quantitative and qualitative descriptors from the IPGRI Capsicum descriptor list are used for the characterization programme including capsaicin content, fruit colour and vitamin C content. At present characterization and evaluation data are not computerized.All accessions of the different vegetable species are documented for minimum passport data in the information system for data management, PHP3. Access to the tomato and pepper passport data is now available through the Internet on IDG's Web site (www.ig.ba.cnr.it). A minimum of 10 descriptors is included with incomplete data for some accessions.The small number of wild species and the absence of material from large geographical areas all around the world in both collections suggests the need to organize collecting expeditions not only in the centres of origin, but also in other underexploited regions. Each year the Bari Institute organizes at least one expedition to collect several vegetables in different Italian regions. Location information below the country level that describes where the accession was collected. This might include the distance in kilometres and direction from the nearest town, village or map grid reference point, (e.g. 7 km south of Curitiba in the state of Parana).Degree (2 digits) minutes (2 digits), and seconds (2 digits) followed by N (North) or S (South) (e.g. 103020S). Every missing digit (minutes or seconds) should be indicated with a hyphen. Leading zeros are required (e.g. 10----S; 011530N; 4531--S).16. Longitude of collecting site 1 (LONGITUDE)Degree (3 digits), minutes (2 digits), and seconds (2 digits) followed by E (East) or W (West) (e.g. 0762510W). Every missing digit (minutes or seconds) should be indicated with a hyphen. Leading zeros are required (e.g. 076----W).(ELEVATION) Elevation of collecting site expressed in metres above sea level. Negative values are allowed.(COLLDATE) Collecting date of the sample where YYYY is the year, MM is the month and DD is the day. Missing data (MM or DD) should be indicated with hyphens. Leading zeros are required.(BREDCODE) Institute code of the institute that has bred the material. If the holding institute has bred the material, the breeding institute code (BREDCODE) should be the same as the holding institute code (INSTCODE). Follows INSTCODE standard.The coding scheme proposed can be used at 3 different levels of detail: either by using the general codes (in boldface) such as 100, 200, 300, 400 or by using the more specific codes such as 110, 120 etc.  To convert from longitude and latitude in degrees (º), minutes ('), seconds (''), and a hemisphere (North or South and East or West) to decimal degrees, the following formula should be used: dº m' s''=h *(d+m/ 60+s/3600) where h=1 for the Northern and Eastern hemispheres and -1 for the Southern and Western hemispheres i.e. 30º30'0'' S= -30.5 and 30º15'55'' N=30.265.The coding scheme proposed can be used at 2 different levels of detail: either by using the general codes (in boldface) such as 10, 20, 30, 40 or by using the more specific codes such as 11, 12 etc. The remarks field is used to add notes or to elaborate on descriptors with value 99 or 999 (=Other). Prefix remarks with the field name they refer to and a colon (e.g. COLLSRC:roadside). Separate remarks referring to different fields are separated by semicolons without space.-Cleaning the seed samples (if not done before).-Samples taken out of the boxes in the cold chamber must acclimatize for at least several hours. -For every accession we take another pot. The advantage is that possible infections can be eliminated easily. It decreases the risk of mixing up accessions and the risk of mislabelling. Not all accessions germinate at the same time. Using pots makes it possible to treat each accession individually. -Using black pots has a positive effect on the soil temperature.-Pots are placed underground (isolated from one another): never directly on concrete benches, etc. Bench heating is recommended under cold conditions. -The soil mixture must have an open texture.-A few days before sowing we fill the pots with the soil mixture to improve soil temperature, soil humidity and soil texture, etc. -Labels are written or sorted beforehand.-No seed treatment is given before sowing.-After sowing, seeds are pressed down to assure contact with the soil mixture.-The soil should be watered before sowing.-The next step is to spray the seeds with gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) 10 -4 M. When the seeds become moist that will be sufficient.-Northern climatic conditions: in every pot, one half of the seeds is covered with river sand or a similar mixture. Our experience is that under optimal conditions most of the Solanum sp. accessions prefer to germinate under light conditions, but unfortunately not always. In particular, for wild Solanum species no risk is taken and both of the options are kept open. The pots are placed in \"mini propagation houses\". Day/night rhythm = 18/6 hrs. Above the pots, heating elements have been installed. The minimum temperature is 18 °C at night. In the morning the heating elements automatically switch on. For a couple of hours the upper surface of the pots is warmed to above 30°C. At daytime the average temperature is 25°C. Artificial lighting (high-pressure mercury lamps) is used in the greenhouse department where the \"mini propagation houses\" are situated.-Southern climatic conditions: cover the seeds with 1-cm soil mixture, water the pots and place them in the greenhouse. -To keep sciara flies under control, yellow sticky traps are used and therefore placed between the pots. -When the seedlings have at least two well-developed cotyledons, they normally no longer need to be kept in the \"mini propagation houses\".Germination is a very complicated process, influenced by many factors. In some cases experience is only acquired by trial and error. Otherwise some guidelines may be helpful to get the best possible results. ","tokenCount":"12000"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5bd87ee0526fa894fdaeadcbba9d60d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8a62256b-d88b-4199-88bc-2d0cfe1de039/content","id":"178183963"},"keywords":["rice","Zn deficiency","agronomic biofortification","crop management","grain zinc","Zn sulfate","Zn-coated urea","Zn application","data-driven recommendations","digital soil mapping","policy options"],"sieverID":"adb284ec-d738-4c6b-82f4-8ffc2a3c678d","pagecount":"20","content":"is increasingly recognized as an essential trace element in the human diet that mediates a plethora of health conditions, including immune responses to infectious diseases. Interestingly, the geographical distribution of human dietary Zn deficiency overlaps with soil Zn deficiency. In South Asia, Zn malnutrition is high due to excessive consumption of rice with low Zn content. Interventions such as dietary diversification, food fortification, supplementation, and biofortification are followed to address Zn malnutrition. Among these, Zn biofortification of rice is the most encouraging, cost-effective, and sustainable for South Asia. Biofortification through conventional breeding and transgenic approaches has been achieved in cereals; however, if the soil is deficient in Zn, then these approaches are not advantageous. Therefore, in this article, we review strategies for enhancing the Zn concentration of rice through agronomic biofortification such as timing, dose, and method of Zn fertilizer application, and how nitrogen and phosphorus application as well as crop establishment methods influence Zn concentration in rice. We also propose datadriven Zn recommendations to anticipate crop responses to Zn fertilization and targeted policies that support agronomic biofortification in regions where crop responses to Zn fertilizer are high.Zinc (Zn) deficiency in humans has emerged as a pressing global concern and requires immediate attention [1,2]. Zn plays a crucial role in the maintenance of immune health, bone mineralization, the growth of body tissues, sperm production and fertility, cell division, and protein and DNA synthesis [3][4][5][6]. In addition, Zn has strong antiviral and antibacterial effects on the human body, and it is involved in improving immune function against various viruses, including coronavirus [6]. Hence, adequate Zn intake is imperative for maintaining good health in humans. In general, micronutrient deficiencies in humans are not always acutely visible (hidden hunger), but they affect physical and mental development, the immune system, and human potential to a great extent [7]. Approximately 17.3% of the global population and 30% of South Asians suffer from inadequate Zn intake [2]. An additional 175 million people globally, including 63 million in South Asia, are expected to become Zn deficient by 2050 [8]. Moreover, about 16 million of the global disabilityadjusted life years are caused by Zn deficiency [9,10]. Climate change is also expected to further worsen the situation by increasing the number of Zn-deficient people. Studies have shown that carbon dioxide emissions resulted in poor uptake of Zn from the soil by plants [11] and decreased the Zn concentration in cereal grains [12].The rate of Zn deficiency remained the same over the years between 1995-2005 in South Asia (Figure 1) [2]. Hence, it is essential to address the Zn deficiency problem to alleviate malnutrition in South Asia. The fundamental cause of Zn malnutrition in South Asia is the consumption of rice and wheat, which are low in Zn content, especially when grown in Zn-deficient soils. The rice-wheat system covers about 24 million hectares in India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, and Zn deficiency is widespread in the rice-wheat areas of all these countries [13]. Additionally, in South Asia, rice provides more than 55% of the daily calorie intake in rural areas, where Zn deficiency is high [14,15]. For instance, most people in rural areas of India rely on rice as their major source of energy because of widespread poverty, high food prices, and cultural preferences [16,17]. The EAT-Lancet Commission recommended that about 33% of the total daily calorie intake should come from cereals. However, the average Indian household obtains almost half (47%) of its total calories from cereals and 70% in the case of Indian rural households [18]. Similarly, in Bangladesh, rice alone provides 49-69% of the dietary Zn to children and women [19]. Moreover, the Zn content in white or polished rice should be 28-30 mg kg −1 to meet the Zn requirement, but it is lower (13-18 mg Zn kg −1 ) because of many factors, including genetics, low uptake of Zn from the soil, and paddy grain processing [20][21][22]. As a result, the consumption of excess polished rice coupled with a low concentration of Zn has led to malnutrition in rice-eating communities in South Asia [20,22,23]. Interestingly, there is a strong relationship between the health of the soil, plants, and humans [20,22]. The geographical distribution of Zn deficiency in the human population overlaps with the distribution of Zn-deficient soil and the low socioeconomic status of the population [24]. For example, the link between Zn-deficient soil and Zn-deficient humans is especially prevalent in India, which relies on rice as the main source of calorie intake [25,26]. Forty-eight million soil samples collected and analyzed under the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme in India revealed that 37% of the soils are Zn deficient (Figure 2). Similarly, 34%, 32%, 29%, 16%, and 5% of Indian soils are deficient in iron, boron, sulfur, manganese, and copper, respectively (Figure 2). Furthermore, soil Zn deficiency varies across states, with 66% deficiency in Bihar, 58% in Karnataka, 51% in Maharashtra, 32% in Andhra Pradesh, 30% in Uttar Pradesh, and 25% in Haryana (SHC scheme). The main reason for soil Zn deficiency is the intensification of cropping systems by rice-rice or rice-wheat and the lack of application of organic inputs over the past four decades. Overall these practices have resulted in soil Zn deficiency across India [27].  This figure shows the percentage of soils deficient in micronutrients such as boron (B), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), sulfur (S), and zinc (Zn) in India based on 48 million soil samples. Of the samples analyzed, Zn deficiency is predominant in Indian soils. Source: https://www.soilhealth.dac.gov.in/, accessed on 22 April 2022 [28].Zn deficiency in humans is being addressed by food fortification by adding Zn to foods such as milk, bread, flour, and salt; supplementation such as oral use of Zn tablets, capsules, etc.; and dietary diversification by consuming foods with the highest concentration of Zn such as animal meat, fish, eggs, pulses, and nuts. Nonetheless, these interventions require infrastructure, purchasing power, access to markets, and health care centers, and have been more successful among urban populations than among the rural poor [29]. Therefore, biofortification of rice with Zn is an alternative strategy for alleviating Zn malnutrition in rural South Asia [12,30]. Zn biofortification is the process of increasing the Zn    Zn deficiency in humans is being addressed by food fortification by adding Zn to foods such as milk, bread, flour, and salt; supplementation such as oral use of Zn tablets, capsules, etc.; and dietary diversification by consuming foods with the highest concentration of Zn such as animal meat, fish, eggs, pulses, and nuts. Nonetheless, these interventions require infrastructure, purchasing power, access to markets, and health care centers, and have been more successful among urban populations than among the rural poor [29]. Therefore, biofortification of rice with Zn is an alternative strategy for alleviating Zn malnutrition in rural South Asia [12,30]. Zn biofortification is the process of increasing the Zn   Zn deficiency in humans is being addressed by food fortification by adding Zn to foods such as milk, bread, flour, and salt; supplementation such as oral use of Zn tablets, capsules, etc.; and dietary diversification by consuming foods with the highest concentration of Zn such as animal meat, fish, eggs, pulses, and nuts. Nonetheless, these interventions require infrastructure, purchasing power, access to markets, and health care centers, and have been more successful among urban populations than among the rural poor [29].Therefore, biofortification of rice with Zn is an alternative strategy for alleviating Zn malnutrition in rural South Asia [12,30]. Zn biofortification is the process of increasing the Zn concentration during plant growth in a staple food [31]. This can be achieved by two main approaches: (1) conventional breeding [32,33] or genetic biofortification/transgenic lines [34] and (2) agronomic biofortification [35]. Many articles have highlighted the importance of biofortification in cereals to alleviate malnutrition [12,30]. However, in this review, first, we focused on Zn biofortification through genetic and agronomic strategies and the limitations associated with these strategies (Section 2). Next, we proposed the way forward with data-driven Zn recommendations using machine learning techniques to address soil and crop management variability at scale based on our ongoing project through Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA, Section 3), and finally, the last part discusses the policy options for Zn biofortification in India (Section 4).Zn concentrations in rice can be substantially increased by two approaches: (1) conventional breeding and genetic/transgenic methods and (2) agronomic biofortification [36]. Ultimately, both approaches complement each other in increasing Zn concentration in any staple crop for alleviating malnutrition in humans.Zn biofortification in rice can be done by conventional breeding, marker-driven molecular breeding, or genetic engineering [37]. Conventional breeding is a seed-based approach in which the germplasm is enriched with specific nutrients, micronutrients, proteins, and amino acids [38], whereas, in the transgenic-based approach, the gene involved in a particular trait is identified and used to enhance nutrient and micronutrient concentrations [39]. Biofortification through conventional breeding is accomplished by using the genetic variations that are present in the gene pool in staple crops and their wild relatives [38]. In this method, desirable traits such as high yield and nutritional value are obtained by crossing parental lines over generations [40]. However, modern improved varieties and hybrids that are bred for higher grain yield have less Zn concentration (13 to 18 mg kg −1 ) because of dilution or the genetic effect [41][42][43]. This Zn content is comparatively less than the targeted concentration of 28 to 30 mg kg −1 in polished rice grains, which is essential to reach 30% of the human estimated average requirement [31].Owing to their eco-friendly and sustainable nature, various international and national organizations have established several breeding programs to increase the nutritional value of rice to alleviate malnutrition in developing countries (www.harvestplus.org, accessed on 22 April 2022 ). For instance, the HarvestPlus program has defined a target Zn concentration for brown and polished rice as 30 mg kg −1 and 28 mg kg −1 , respectively [12]. To achieve the desired concentration of Zn in the edible portion of rice, various old varieties were screened for increased Zn concentration in rice grain through conventional plant breeding techniques [44]. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, Philippines) carried out germplasm screening in rice varieties and observed large variations in Zn concentration among these varieties. Of the 1138 brown rice samples screened, Zn concentration varied from 13.5 to 58.4 mg kg −1 [45]. HarvestPlus developed the world's first Zn-enriched rice varieties such as BRRI dhan62, BRRI dhan72, and BRRI dhan64 (25 mg Zn kg −1 ) in 2013, and these were released by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) [40]. Recently, BRRI 84, Zn-fortified rice (27.6 mg Zn kg −1 ) suitable for the dry season, was also released for cultivation in Bangladesh, and it took 13 years to develop this variety [46]. In addition, under conventional breeding, Zn-enriched rice varieties such as DRR 45, CGZR-1, Zn-Rice, and Swarna Shakti Dhan containing 23 to 27 mg Zn kg −1 were released from India [40].Although conventional breeding has proven to be successful, cost-effective, and sustainable in the long run, the major drawback of using this method is that it depends on alleles available in the gene pool. If genetic variability is limited, then this method is not advantageous. Similarly, scaling of these biofortified varieties becomes a problem because of the lack of access, the trade-off between yield and micronutrient concentration in grain, and low acceptance among farmers [42,43]. For instance, the adoption rate (1.96%) for biofortified Zn rice varieties was very low in Bangladesh in 2018 [47,48]. Moreover, conventional breeding is time-consuming [46], requires ample resources, and depends on environmental factors such as soil type, pH, and temperature. To overcome the limitations of this approach, several transgenic lines have been established [49,50].If genetic diversity is unavailable or limited in crops, then the plant breeding approach is not achievable. Alternatively, biofortification by genetic transformation can be followed to enhance the nutritional value of staple crops [39]. In this transgenic-based approach, the gene responsible for a particular trait is identified, engineered, and then used for targeting crops [51]. Unlike conventional breeding methods, transgenic lines are not dependent on gene pools. In addition, these are sustainable and cost-effective in the long run. Golden Rice rich in beta-carotene [49,50] and high iron rice [52,53] are examples of biofortified rice using genetic engineering. Studies have shown that Zn concentration in rice grains can be increased by 6-8 mg kg −1 by conventional breeding [40], whereas it can be increased by 15-30 mg kg −1 by transgenic rice lines [54]. Similarly, it was shown that, under iron and Zn deficiencies, both iron and Zn content were increased in transgenic rice by overexpressing OslRT1 [34]. Researchers also developed transgenic rice lines containing an enhanced expression of the barley IDS3 gene that produced polished rice with high iron (1.4-fold) and Zn (1.35-fold) concentrations [55]. Despite the advantages, deregulation of transgenic crops for cultivation is still a major challenge [56]. In addition, under a poor supply of soil zinc, both the transgenic lines and the improved cultivars obtained from conventional breeding cannot produce the desired results [57]. Hence, agronomic approaches could be a potential option, cost-effective, and readily accessible for farmers to adopt with their preferred varieties.Agronomic biofortification is necessary not only for genetically inefficient cultivars but also for biofortified cultivars obtained by conventional and genetic methods. Although improved cultivars are available, grain Zn concentration depends on environmental factors such as temperature, soil type, soil pH, and availability of micronutrients in the soil [57,58]. Hence, agronomic biofortification is necessary to attain the desired results, and it is the cheapest method to reduce Zn deficiency in humans [59]. Agronomic biofortification is the process of enriching micronutrients in edible portions of the crops through fertilizer application and crop management practices. This method is potentially inexpensive and extremely effective for helping populations with widespread micronutrient deficiency [60]. The following section discusses the agronomic options to enhance grain Zn concentration.In South Asia, Zn deficiency is the second most yield-limiting nutrient deficiency after nitrogen in lowland rice [61]. Zn deficiency has intensified because of the greater mining of Zn from the soil, and therefore, crop response to Zn application increased over the years from 63% of rice fields in 1985-2000 to 80% of rice fields across India in 2011-2016 [62]. Most importantly, the initial soil Zn content and its availability influence the Zn concentration of rice grains. The low soil Zn availability may be one piece of the \"South Asian puzzle\" of persistently low Zn nutrition despite growing income levels [63]. For instance, studies were conducted showing that rice grain Zn content ranged from 19.7 to 26.9 mg kg −1 under different soil Zn status [64]. Hence, Zn application is more critical in low-Zn soil than in high-Zn soil, and the response of grain Zn concentration to Zn application is higher in low-Zn soil than in high-Zn soil [65,66]. The following subsections discuss the method, form/dose, and timing of Zn fertilizer applications that influence rice yield and grain Zn concentration.Basal application of 5-25 kg Zn ha −1 as Zn sulfate incorporated in the soil before the last puddling or after transplanting is the most common practice in rice cultivation [67]. Rice yield gain increased with soil application, whereas elevated Zn concentration was seen with foliar application [21,68,69] (Table 1). In addition to this, the foliar application can avoid the problem of Zn fixation and the antagonistic effect of other nutrients in the soil. For instance, the presence of phytic acid in rice grain inhibits Zn bioavailability for human consumption [12]. However, the foliar Zn application has the benefit of reducing the phytic acid content of the grain by inhibiting the conversion of inorganic phosphorus to phytic acid [32,70] and, therefore, increases Zn bioavailability up to 65% in polished rice [71,72]. Furthermore, it was shown previously that the combined application of iron and Zn through foliar application enhanced wheat productivity along with quality grains [73]. Additionally, various studies have shown that a combination of soil and foliar application has resulted in both high yield and high grain Zn concentrations compared to soil or foliar application alone (Table 1). The extra labor and application costs involved in the foliar spray of Zn fertilizer can be avoided by spraying Zn sulfate along with pesticide solution, which is a common practice in rice fields. Ram et al. [74] evaluated the foliar application of Zn sulfate in combination with commonly used fungicides and insecticides to rice at 31 site-years in seven countries (India, China, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Brazil, and Zambia) and showed that the grain Zn concentration in brown rice can be increased by 5 mg kg −1 with foliar Zn application alone or by 4.5 mg kg −1 with the combined application of Zn and pesticides. This indicates that Zn sulfate is compatible with commonly used pesticides, thereby diminishing labor and application costs. Recently, Prom-u-thai et al. [82] evaluated the effect of Zn and other micronutrients (iron, iodine, selenium) in Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, and Thailand in high-Zn soils and observed increased grain Zn content but no yield gains. The average increase in Zn concentration was 1.4 and 5.7 mg kg −1 under foliar application of Zn alone and 0.4 and 6.1 mg kg −1 under the cocktail spray of micronutrients in India and Pakistan, respectively (Figure 3). In summary, the results indicate that, when applied together with three other micronutrients, leaf absorption and transportation of Zn in the grain were not seriously affected by the other micronutrients present in the same spray solution [82]. The Zn application method depends on the type of fertilizer used. Zn sulfate is the most common source of Zn for rice among many different types of Zn fertilizer [35], and it performed better by improving yield and enhancing Zn content in rice than Zn oxide (Table 1) [81]. The various forms and doses of Zn fertilizer required for high grain yield and high Zn content from several studies are summarized in Table 1 The Zn application method depends on the type of fertilizer used. Zn sulfate is the most common source of Zn for rice among many different types of Zn fertilizer [35], and it performed better by improving yield and enhancing Zn content in rice than Zn oxide (Table 1) [81]. The various forms and doses of Zn fertilizer required for high grain yield and high Zn content from several studies are summarized in Table 1. The table clearly shows that the form and the dose of the Zn fertilizer influence grain yield and Zn content. Despite the increasing grain yield and Zn content, the lack of awareness, lack of Zn fertilizer availability, and high cost of these various forms/sources remain major constraints to Zn application. For example, the recommended rate of Zn sulfate is 25 kg ha −1 and it costs about USD 25, whereas farmers can purchase 290 kg of urea, the most widely used fertilizer in India [65], for the same price. As a result, farmers often fail to apply Zn fertilizer in rice cultivation. Zn application (1.3-9.1 kg Zn ha −1 ) along with urea as Zn-coated urea/Znenriched urea (ZEU) at active tillering and panicle initiation stages increased grain yield by 0.36-0.91 t ha −1 and grain Zn concentration by 1.3-16.4 mg kg −1 in rice compared to the control (Table 1) [65]. Therefore, enriching urea with Zn during the manufacturing process could increase its availability and thus result in wider Zn application. Additionally, ZEU is relatively cheaper and easier to scale up without any additional labor for application, and it is easy to incentivize the product by supporting manufacturers for coating urea with Zn. Nevertheless, availability and access to ZEU are a concern that needs to be addressed. Hence, the government should encourage the production of ZEU and distribute it to regions deficient in soil Zn.Along with the method of application and type of fertilizer used, the timing of application is also crucial in rice cultivation. Primarily, Zn fertilizer can be applied as a basal dose at the time of last puddling or planting and as a foliar spray during the vegetative, flowering, and grain-filling stages. However, the timing (crop stage) of application and the number of times applied are imperative for loading Zn into the grain [21,83,84]. For instance, two applications, the first as a basal dose by soil application followed by a second as a foliar spray at the grain-filling stage, resulted in higher grain yield and Zn loading into the grain than a single application (soil or foliar only) (Table 1). Furthermore, a foliar spray of 0.3% Zn sulfate at the dough stage significantly increased grain Zn content, whereas a foliar spray of 0.3% Zn sulfate at anthesis significantly increased grain yield (Table 1) [80]. Other studies have also shown that the foliar application of Zn at the flowering and grain-filling stages is more effective for increasing grain Zn concentration in conventional puddled rice systems under deficient soil Zn [21,66]. In brief, Zn fertilizer application through ZEU at active tillering and panicle initiation or Zn sulfate foliar spray at flowering and grain-filling stages led to higher loading of Zn into the grain and has the potential to reach the targeted concentration of 28 mg Zn kg −1 .Nitrogen plays a vital role in root Zn uptake, distribution, and accumulation in edible parts. Therefore, nitrogen management is essential for Zn biofortification [85,86]. Nitrogen and Zn applications have a positive relationship in increasing grain yield, grain Zn concentration, and uptake and translocation of nitrogen in rice plants [64]. Moreover, better management of nitrogen enhances grain Zn concentration under sufficient soil Zn, while it decreases grain Zn concentration under low-Zn soil because of the dilution effect [54,87]. In contrast to nitrogen, the application of phosphorus decreases the availability of Zn in soil solution and increases Zn fixation in the soil [88]. These effects were more pronounced in flooded regions than in non-flooded regions. Phosphorus interacts with Zn in soil and decreases Zn translocation from roots to shoots [89,90], and this interaction leads to imbalanced phosphorus: Zn ratio which has a negative effect on yield and Zn biofortification. As a result, foliar application of Zn is one of the best strategies for overcoming the antagonistic effect of phosphorus in the soil [91,92].Direct-seeded rice (DSR) has emerged as a resource-and energy-efficient, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable alternative to puddled transplanted rice (PTR) [93,94]. DSR saves labor (40%), costs (30%), irrigation water (20-50%), and energy (1500 MJ/ha/season), and it diminishes methane emissions by 30-98% and overall global warming potential by 20-44%, despite increasing nitrous oxide emissions by 17%. In addition, DSR increases net income by USD 100-120 ha −1 vis-à-vis PTR [93,95]. Because of its benefits, currently, about 30% of global rice cultivation is under DSR or aerobic rice. However, soil Zn availability and Zn loading into the grain under aerobic conditions are major concerns and are often lower than in PTR because of reduced soil moisture conditions, low rates of dissolution and diffusion of Zn, the low mass flow of Zn from soil to plants, and lower transpiration rate [96][97][98][99]. Therefore, the use of 4R principles for Zn fertilizer (right method, right form, right dose, and right time) for Zn biofortification under DSR systems is important to avoid further harm to Zn nutrition. On the other hand, Zn availability under DSR could be increased if the soil were wet throughout the season [77,100]. Future research should focus on Zn availability and dynamics under aerobic DSR in the view of Zn biofortification considering the increasing area under DSR in South Asia.Despite the introduction of new cultivars and transgenic lines, soil Zn availability is crucial for increasing rice grain-Zn content. Hence, the effect of moving from low-Zn to high-Zn soils through Zn fertilization is substantial in connecting the health of the soil, plants, and humans. Widespread Zn fertilization could therefore increase Zn concentrations in cereals, thereby ultimately increasing the Zn status of humans consuming those fortified crops. For example, the effect of fertilizer interventions in improving child health was equivalent to Zn supplementation for 6 months in children in Thailand [101]. Zn availability in paddy soils depends on many factors, such as the pH of the soil, type of soil, and application of phosphorus fertilizer in high-Zn soils. Of these factors, the most important one affecting Zn availability is soil pH. Zn availability decreases in soil solution with increasing soil pH or alkalinity [102]. The low availability of Zn at high pH is due to Zn adsorption onto clay minerals and metal oxides [103]. Similarly, Zn deficiency has been frequently noticed in rice grown under calcareous soils of the Indo-Gangetic plains mainly due to high pH and bicarbonate content [104,105]. Also, phosphorus application at planting is a common practice in rice cultivation, and it affects Zn uptake by increasing its binding in the root cells [106,107]. Other factors that affect soil Zn availability are low soil organic matter, eroded soil, soil temperature, soil Zn content, and antagonistic effects of other nutrients such as calcium, iron, sodium, magnesium, and copper [86,102,108,109]. Thus, soil properties have an important effect on rice production and agronomic approaches play a pivotal role in addressing soil nutrient availability. For this reason, soil maps were generated by conventional methods to provide valuable information for fertilizer recommendations. However, the data provided are limited in these soil maps. Below, we discuss the limitations of conventional soil maps and the emergence of digital soil mapping (DSM), and how this can be used for targeted fertilizer application in rice production in South Asia.Conventional soil maps were prepared by soil surveyors using soil survey methods, so this survey relies solely on expert judgments, landscape features, and aerial photographs [110]. Most importantly, soil maps developed by this method lack spatial distribution of soil and accuracy in soil attributes, making it difficult to optimize crop inputs [111]. In addition, data collection is quite expensive and laborious since new samples must be collected from new surveys to get a soil map of a particular region [112]. Although these soil maps are devoid of high-resolution data, they have been used for decades in decision-making for sustainable crop management by maintaining soil health and minimizing fertilizer wastage [113]. In conventional methods, generalized soil information at the district scale is often used to guide extension [111]. However, the information obtained is not quantitative, and using these maps might result in the over-or under-application of nutrients, thus resulting in low yield and quality. Studies have shown that nitrogen fertilization in rice cultivation has increased dramatically in China [114,115]. Nevertheless, this increase did not correlate with an increase in rice grain yield, thus showing a decline in fertilizer use efficiency [114,115].A comprehensive district-level map for 19 different states released by the Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, in 2014 showed that the soil is deficient in three important macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium [116]. As a result, the external application of these fertilizers is imperative in rice production in India. However, studies have shown that imbalances in fertilizer usage occur in rice cultivation in India [117]. Similarly, using conventional soil maps for agronomic practices can lead to low Zn use efficiency, resulting in no gain in yield and grain Zn content [118,119]. Moreover, blanket Zn application in high-Zn soils has sometimes led to a decrease in yield and grain Zn because of the antagonistic effects with phosphorus and other nutrients [88,90]. Furthermore, soil information derived from conventional methods is fragmented, not easily shareable, and hence not accessible for decision-making [120]. Therefore, we propose steps to address soil Zn variability through machine learning methods to improve grain yield and grain Zn concentration at scale (Figure 4).Computational and information technology have opened ways to improve soil maps obtained by conventional methods [121]. In this approach, soil data can be collected and shared, and this is essential for guiding data-driven nutrient management practices for sustainable crop production [122]. DSM is the computer-assisted prediction and production of digital maps of soil types and soil properties [123]. In DSM, soil properties are predicted over the entire area at fine resolution (from 1 km to 30 m) with machine learning and geostatistics with soil data collected at sampling points coupled with environmental covariates such as satellite imagery and digital elevation models [124,125]. Previous studies have shown that average rice yields were significantly higher when geographic information system-based soil maps were used for nutrient management over conventional practices in India [122]. Additionally, a digital soil map of Nepal was recently developed and released by the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, and it provides fruitful site-specific nutrient recommendations for agricultural crops in Nepal [126,127]. Likewise, studies are being conducted to generate digital soil maps in Bangladesh [128] and Sri Lanka [129].Based on the importance of DSM as a decision-making tool in crop production, a first-generation digital soil map for Zn for Andhra Pradesh state in India from ~2.9 million soil data points (obtained from the Indian SHC scheme) combined with 300+ covariates was developed as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4A shows the conventional soil map for Zn in the Andhra Pradesh region, and Figure 4B shows the digital soil map of Zn predicted, using machine learning methods. The information generated by DSM is quantitative and is extremely resourceful compared to the conventional soil maps used in fertilizer decision-making in India. The prevailing recommendation logic in India suggests that the soil is Zn deficient if it has less than 0.6 parts per million of extractable Zn. However, DSM alone is not enough for fertilizer recommendations because the crop response to Zn fertilizer application is affected by several soil and crop management factors [130]. Hence, all the parameters should be taken into consideration for Zn management in sustainable rice production.   Generating digital soil maps alone will not be sufficient in decision-making in agriculture. Zn nutrient response trials based on the digital soil map and storing the results digitally are equally important for precision rice farming. Studies have shown that variations exist in crop responses to specific nutrients in cereal-growing areas in sub-Saharan Africa [131]. Additionally, on the same farm in Western Kenya, soil fertility gradients influenced the response of a maize crop to fertilizer [132]. Hence, Zn response trials based on different soil Zn concentrations are important for farmers and policymakers. The crop response to fertilizer application across the different soil Zn concentrations is required for yield and nutritional profiling of rice at scale. The data on crop response to Zn fertilizer application across soil gradients (low-, medium-, and high-Zn soils) based on DSM provide the \"gold standard\" for guiding site-specific crop management. Consequently, to provide new insights into the association between soil variability and crop response to Zn fertilizer in Andhra Pradesh, the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (farm science center) worked across nine districts to pair on-farm trials (+/− Zn) in low-, medium-, and high-Zn soil based on first-generation digital soil maps [133] (Figure 4C The digital data collection on the crop, soil, and management practices from the crop response trials conducted will help farmers to better understand the intersection of site factors, crop management, nutrient use efficiency, yield, and grain Zn concentration outcomes (Figure 4D, Step 3, Panneerselvam et al., Manuscript in preparation). Data obtained from these trials have been recorded and incorporated into the already generated digital soil maps. Consequently, these data will help in refining site-specific Zn recommendations based not only on initial soil Zn and crop response trials but also on other factors, such as crop management, soil properties, climate, and socioeconomic conditions.Deriving soil management zones is crucial for fertilizer use efficiency and diminishing the environmental burden caused by over-fertilization. Landscape information plays a pivotal role in fertilizer responses in crops [117,134]. Thus, soil Zn management zones (Figure 4E) were derived based on DSM (step 1) and the crop response to Zn fertilizer application across the different gradients of soil Zn concentration (step 2). As a result, soil Zn management zones will provide important information to farmers on whether to apply Zn fertilizer or not at site-specific levels. Finally, spatially referenced information on soil and crop management recommendations based on machine learning with geospatial crop response assessment and characterization of production practices was developed (Figure 4F) (Panneerselvam et al., Manuscript in preparation). Consequently, this information will be readily available to farmers and can be used to improve fertilizer use efficiency at the farm level, decrease the subsidy burden, and, most importantly, diminish environmental pollution.This spatial intelligence will help both farmers and policymakers to prioritize micronutrient subsidies for high-response zones and the fertilizer industry or input dealers to target fertilizer in high-response zones. Spatial intelligence will also help fertilizer manufacturers produce custom-blended fertilizer or ZEU and position fertilizer for which a high response is expected. Moreover, spatial intelligence will provide useful information for the state extension system to send location-specific agro-advisories related to fertilizer management to farmers. Dashboards linking spatial intelligence with the government portal will serve as soil/crop monitoring, management, and education tools for policymakers for better decision-making in rice production in India.At present, governments in some states of India (such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana) are trying to promote the use of Zn and other micronutrients such as boron by selling them directly to farmers at highly subsidized prices or even free of cost at government outlets. However, the current subsidy on micronutrients has three major problems. First, the distribution of highly subsidized Zn is fiscally unsustainable for cash-strapped state governments. Thus, it forces strict rationing that often leads to its suboptimal allocation. For example, a recent study in Andhra Pradesh showed that an adequate amount of the free Zn is distributed to traditionally prosperous irrigated districts in contrast to regions where Zn deficiency is high [135]. Second, distributing subsidized or free Zn by the government crowds out commercial demand. The subsidy lowers farmers' willingness to pay for Zn through reference dependence or anchoring to a level that is not viable for private firms. This crowding-out effect may have a huge impact on decreasing the overall use of Zn. Finally, the direct distribution of Zn by government agencies imposes a significant administrative burden on them, tying up human resources that would be much better used to spread awareness among farmers about the need to apply micronutrients in areas where their deficiency is high.Given these limitations of the current subsidy system, it should be redesigned to promote a vibrant commercial sector for Zn by providing subsidies in the form of cash transfers to farmers in regions with soil deficiency based on the data generated by DSM and soil Zn management zones (Figure 4F). Direct cash transfers might ensure more effective targeting of subsidized Zn at a lower cost to the state and incentivize fertilizer companies to expand the market for micronutrients by spreading awareness among farmers and competing among themselves to decrease costs and improve quality. We propose that encouraging fertilizer companies to sell ZEU in areas with high levels of Zn deficiency in the soil based on digital soil maps may be the most cost-effective and scalable strategy to promote Zn application. However, strict control on retail prices of urea discourages the production and sale of ZEU in India. Fertilizer companies sell urea at the price set by the Government of India and collect the difference between the price and the cost as a subsidy from the government. Hence, they cannot collect additional subsidies earmarked for Zn for ZEU because only designated Zn fertilizers qualify for micronutrient subsidies. To address this concern, state and central governments should change the subsidy system to add ZEU to the list of fertilizers eligible for Zn subsidies when this fertilizer is sold in areas identified to be deficient by digital soil maps. Currently, such area-specific targeting of subsidies is logistically possible because of the existence of a system in which retail sales of fertilizer are electronically recorded and verified using Aadhar-linked biometric verification. The system that was created to implement the direct benefit transfer of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers can also be used to create a market for ZEU. In addition, low awareness of the benefits of the application of micronutrients is a major reason for their reduced usage by farmers in India [136]. Raising awareness among farmers about soil micronutrients can change their price elasticity of demand and make price subsidies more effective [137]. There may be a significant complementarity between subsidies and information. State and central governments should therefore complement micronutrient subsidies with an awareness campaign on the benefits of Zn application to increase grain Zn content in alleviating Zn malnutrition in India.Zn-enriched varieties with 28 mg kg −1 Zn content have been bred through conventional breeding and genetic approaches. However, this had only a little impact on malnutrition due to the non-availability of Zn-enriched varieties for wider cultivation and failure to perform in low-Zn soils. Hence, agronomic strategies such as Zn fertilizer application play a pivotal role in obtaining high grain-Zn content in rice, complementing the genetic approaches. For that reason, we have proposed data-driven Zn recommendations for rice based on digital soil maps, crop management practices, and geospatial crop response with the use of machine learning data-mining techniques in the Andhra Pradesh region. This method will help in generating site-specific Zn nutrient recommendations and enables the government for targeted policies by implementing effective subsidy programs in regions with soil deficiency based on DSM and soil Zn management zones. Several studies are underway to generate data on DSM and crop and management practices in various regions in India (SHC scheme, India) and Nepal. As a result, these data can be used for decision-making in Zn fertilizer application for rice cultivation in these regions, thereby increasing grain Zn content to alleviate Zn malnutrition. Future research should investigate the effect of the combination of genetic and agronomic approaches using DSM on grain yield and Zn content in rice and the residual effect on succeeding crops such as wheat.","tokenCount":"6310"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7921d86e8993d192c7057b529bcc2d2c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dbdb85e5-886d-410a-98bf-637584d8569e/retrieve","id":"-1397378335"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"db1c5373-f36a-47e4-a2c0-928cc2a55b94","pagecount":"22","content":"Research and development (R&D) organizations in Kenya and East Africa have been vocal in the need to address the quality seed bottleneck as a crucial element in improving the livelihoods of potato farmers. Given its importance, tackling deteriorated seed quality is a key objective of the International Potato Center (CIP) in its new Strategy and Corporate Plan (SCP) and a flagship of the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB). In order to scale up the promising work achieved so far, CIP/RTB invited partners to jointly prepare a business plan for going to scale and putting in place a shared framework for Results Based Management (RBM) to maximize the value of investment in potato research. To do this, national partners from the public and private sectors in Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia and the CGIAR were brought together in a planning workshop in Nairobi, Kenya on 12 th and 13 th of June 2014. Share ideas and current status for scaling up work on quality seed systems in potato.  Review and refine the impact pathway, strategy, partnership strategies and collaboration plans towards achieving expected outcomes for quality seed potato.  Improve understanding of the system for Monitoring and Evaluation and how it can be used to manage for results of the quality seed potato.  Identify additional partners who can contribute to scaling up. Long term strategy (business plans) of quality seed potato updated and enhanced  Quality seed potato impact pathways enriched  Partner, next and end user contributions and needs better defined  Inputs to improve M&E plan for working with quality seed potatoThe workshop was structured as a mixture of:Presentations on key aspects, as eg. the \"Strategy for scaling out quality seed potato: Collaboration for going to scale with quality seed potato\" by Monica Parker (CIP), or key concept for Results Based Management and Impact Pathways by Sophie Alvarez (facilitator CIP/RTB).Practical exercises, which comprised most of the workshop time, for the analysis and improvement of the impact pathway for quality seed potato.Group work discussion sessions for the exchange of experiences and feedback from group work.Plenary session with the participants of the parallel workshop group on \"Developing an M&E plan for quality seed potato\" (see report and presentations: http://bit.ly/1rUPqqL) to bring results of each workshop together: the improved Impact Pathway from the stakeholder meeting and the suggestions for indicators from the M&E group. In this session, joint next steps were also discussed to wrap up the two workshop days. An interactive session in the evening of June 12th gave the opportunity to each participant to present activities and products related to seed potato.The first workshop day started with a warm welcome from Elmar Schulte-Gelderman, the CIP-Sub-Saharan Africa Potato Science Leader, explaining the broad scope of the two parallel workshop sessions on (1) Business plan for going to scale with quality seed potato, and (2) Development of an M&E plan.He explained the background and objectives of both workshops and that session participants would mainly work separately to come together again for an exchange of progress results and joint wrapping up and planning of next steps on the second day.A total of 18 participants, representing 8 organization in different East African countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia), as well as representatives from CIP, RTB and Humidtropics presented themselves and expressed their interest and commitment to the workshop objectives.To build a solid basis for joint work, the first action point of the workshop agenda was a presentation on the \"Strategy for scaling out quality seed potato: Collaboration for going to scale with quality seed potato\" by Monica Parker (CIP).The full presentation given by Monica can be found here: http://bit.ly/1o75dljMonica started by showing, why a strategy for quality seed potato is required, and on which development challenges the strategy is to be based.In a next step Monica explained how the piloting of a so called 3-Generation Project to support seed potato systems in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda was followed by several stakeholder meetings to develop a roadmap. National programs, private sector, NGOs, farmer federation, sub-regional organizations from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda were involved.This consultative process resulted in a roadmap to guide investment in potato value chains and the joint agreement that quality seed is the key entry point for vibrant potato value chains. To be able to improve livelihoods of potato farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, an integrated approach in joint partnership with all stakeholders is required to tackle deteriorated potato seed quality.The strategy developed for seed potato -on the basis of the roadmap -contains 7 main key elements/products: Monica presented each of the products in more detail, showing its main characteristics and how it contributes via the impact pathway to reaching the impact of improving livelihoods. She also strongly highlighted the importance of partnerships for successfully reaching the goals and gave an example of the newly created \"(Irish) Potato Coalition\" as a unique opportunity for all stakeholders along the value chain to work together toward a shared goal.Discussions around topics of the presentation can be summarized as follows: Variety selection is an important aspect. Processing varieties should be given more attention. They are vegetative correlated with disease and can be expensive and special market driven. CIP currently has a highland focus -which should be broadened to warmer temperatures and the preliminary stage and tests running intensified. There is a conflict of policy: need formal standards accepted for quality declared planting materials -> however cannot be moved easily around the country. Movement to broader regions needs formal inspections. More and affordable quick diagnostic tools are required as need exists to test on-farm, such as a lateral flow device which shows immediate results but is costly).A strong interest was expressed to learn more about the \"Potato Coalition\" and how to partner. Further information was given by members of the coalition: The coalition started as an informal idea/concept, as a regional platform for discussion. The coalition is in process of being established with the pronounced interest of many stakeholders. The development of a common strategy is under way -. There is no funding available or assured yet, and fundraising is one of the tasks.  There is a good chance to find funding support, as many international donors look for coalitions that can cover broad aspects of value chains -support country based efforts and bring actors together.Workshop participants recommended: The Coalition should be able to treat sensitive aspects, as eg. Risks (eg. Seeds from Netherlands) and have a strong mandate. Do not wait for funding! Establish partnership and start working; to be able to jointly find resources.Participants also highlighted two important points that easily led to next workshop agenda points and key tasks of the workshop: \"We had -here in same place -a meeting to define and develop a vision on where to be in 10 years\". Even numbers were defined in this Roadmap for the seed potato sector (see Roadmap: http://bit.ly/TMU3Yb). Based on these common goals we should keep on developing our ideas and the business plan. In the moment looks like a good sector strategy. But how to go into a concrete strategy for going to scale? How and in which regions? How can we transfer capacity to farmers via business plans?The full presentation given by Sophie can be found under the link: http://bit.ly/TMQMIf Sophie Alvarez (facilitator for CIP/RTB) introduced participants to key concepts of the management strategy -Results based management (RBM) -by which CIP and RTB plan to ensure that its processes, products and services contribute to the achievement of desired results (products, outcomes and impacts). RBM rests on clearly defined accountability for results, and requires monitoring and self-assessment of progress towards results, and reporting on performance.  Systematically provide information for learning, decision making and communicating (with donors, partners, general audiences) during the projects' implementation An impact pathway is build-up of different elements (activities, products, outcomes, impact) that follow a timeline. HOWEVER, Impact Pathways are NEVER as linear as shown in the image below. This is a simplified presentation -a reduction of complexity for visualization and to facilitate discussion around key issues.Actors (implementers, next users, beneficiaries) play different roles along the impact pathway.Next user groups are actors who \"use\" what we produce (using the products) and contribute to achievement of outcomes. Next users can be national partners or international research or development organizations, etc.Comments from participants stressed aspects such as: Be careful not to focus too much on the research/ researchers' perspective of impact pathwaysthese can look different from the next users or beneficiaries point of view.  The aspect of business partnerships and a stronger focus on the importance and relevance of business is missing.  Policy aspects are relevant at many levels in the Impact Pathways.The input presentation led over to this first exercise. Participants split into 3 working groups, built on the basis of regional availability of participants: Ethiopia -team that was working with pink cards  Kenya -team that was working with green cards  Eastern Africa/Rwanda -team that was working with yellow cardsTo begin, Sophie gave some more information on how to have a look on the track between products, its use by next users and the outcomes. Outcomes were defined as:Changes in practice or behavior: A change in practice or behavior is a change in the way people (in this case, each of the 'next user groups') DO things. So when thinking about next user practice changes, try to use action words-such as 'coordinate', 'plant', 'participate in', 'integrate', 'release', etc.To be able to 'use' something, people usually need to first believe or trust the benefits of using it, know/ understand it, and its advantages, and have developed the skills to use it. Looking at each practice change for each actor group, reflect: what knowledge, attitudes and/or skills are key to having this actor group change their practice?Each team received 2 products and their impact pathways (as presented in the seed potato strategy by Monica,) printed on white colored paper and were asked to revise and improve the first elements of the impact pathway: products to outcomes. Participants were encouraged to use colored cards to add new ideas, or reformulate existing propositions (white paper).Each working group was made up of participants that came from different organizations, different background and working experience -which led to fruitful and insightful discussions for all participants. Discussions and comments arose around topics such as: Some products and outcomes are not clearly worded and not self-explanatory enough. Changes are proposed.The exercise is very helpful to consequently think through how products lead to outcomes and impacts.How inclusive can the impact pathway be? Can the Impact pathway cover all investors and all actors? Input from business sector should be here to enrich. No stakeholders from private sector were invited to this workshop. The impact pathway contains strong research focus and not a lot on business aspects. However it will be difficult to reach outcomes and impacts if we do not take business aspects into consideration. We also should take into consideration different agendas between the business sector and usimplementers -we want to improve livelihoods and the private sector rather than increase profits solely for the sake of business sector actors. Challenge and task will be to find the incentives business sector actors need to contribute also to the improvement of livelihoods. There are different missions amongst participants in the working group that are to be integrated in the impact pathway, for example, potato board is responsible for all. Not always new seeds/varieties follow impact pathway steps. For example, the case of the \"Shangi\" variety which was an escape from breeding programs shows that variety adoption has its own dynamics and can lead to impacts through informal sector. This case should be further investigated for lessons learnt.The day closed with an interactive session with posters and materials from participants. A \"market place\" was installed where each partner had a spot to talk about his/her work, using posters, handouts, products, or just explaining in 5 minutes the work his/her organization is doing. The workshop participants went from one spot to another and interacted with the different partners.3. Joint improvement of the Impact Pathway for seed potato: June 13thThe second day started with a short presentation of work done so far the day before. No in-depth discussion took place and participants with comments or suggestions were invited to join the respective group to bring in new ideas. This lead to rotation in the working groups which led to enriching input.Before the groups split up again to keep on working on the improvement of the impact pathway in terms of strategies, Sophie gave an input presentation on \"strategies\":When analyzing and developing strategies it is important to include:To visualize partners, groups were asked to stick \"post-its\" on the respective cards of strategies, products and outcomes to represent his/her organization.Gender does not necessarily have to be made visible in each and every card -only where we directly can take responsibility for any changes. Important is to analyze the \"how\" in the strategies: how to work, how to achieve?After the exercise teams were asked to have a final look on the complete Impact Pathways before presenting it to the other participants.Presentation and sharing of experiences in the revision of the impact pathway: developing strategies and identifying partners. For detailed impact pathways developed by each of the 3 groups, see ANNEX 4.Team \"Pink\" The exchange of experiences, comments and discussions had mainly 3 interlinked topics, which resulted in concrete steps for joint immediate action:Partnering -create and use synergies: Partner with ASARECA as they currently are using value chain approach  We're often doing the same thing, so we should be doing things together, as eg Irish potato coalition: let's make it work. We need to come together and need to find ways to work together, we have synergies.For the same crop in the same country we have to come up with a way to collaborate. In the moment, there is no formal way of sharing. Everybody is on their own. There is no way of knowing how others are doing. Even in case of calls for proposals (eg ASARECA) we do not know what others do or how to join forces. What do we want to achieve by building /keep a partnership alive? We should come up with common strategy and should find ways to integrate in country's national strategy. We tend to leave policy people out, but we should include them. National organizations, like KENAFF, working also with CIP. Manuals published with these partners, but we need to do this in each country to harness synergies. To start building stronger partnership, it is important to know each other better, to know who is who and who does what. We should do a stakeholder mapping activity by using a matrix structure to capture information and create awareness of links between actors on e.g: Matrix by Themes and countries -Detail competency: Research/production for each actor  Projects mapped per actor -possibly with objectives  One sheet per country? Contact per country in each sheet. Information flowing -as content for homepage. Could also visualize in an image. Could come as basis into next meetings on country level.A first draft matrix was designed as presented in ANNEX 5. The complete Impact pathway as shown in the photo can be found under the link: http://bit.ly/1qLaz8WThe group working on \"quality seed potato\" presented the complete improved impact pathway. The working group results were joined on one big \"wallpaper\" to give a complete overview -as shown in the photo above. One representative of each team presented the respective team results. The M&E team presented as example of their work on operationalizing indicators, a proposed detailed description of an indicator. Participants of both workshop sessions jointly wrapped up the two days of work and envisaged next steps:Partnership/stakeholder mapping  Implement the planning foreseen for the development of the matrix structure  Look exclusively on potato when doing the stakeholder mapping as we are specifically/functional group on potato. We will tend to dilute when integrating other crops and stakeholder groups. We should not overload the exercise at the moment. End of year, realize a follow up meeting with additional partners to retake and go in detail. Bring in ASARECA-project SPIRIT. Bring in a business angle -enriched with short meetings with business people -so they can come and contribute  Define how to best bring in policy makers in process. To be able to influence enabling environment; influence in change / advocacy. ","tokenCount":"2745"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"644977e18e0f11ed39a1b981e1d7bf83","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8f8bd033-5313-4ebc-9cc7-76f934a0900d/retrieve","id":"1960660282"},"keywords":["Modelling","calibration","and validation -Akinseye Folorunso"],"sieverID":"f80bd9e4-0ba4-4ea8-b551-cadc5db92480","pagecount":"24","content":"The EiA Initiative aims to deliver agronomic gain for millions of smallholder farming households across 21 countries, with a particular emphasis on women and young farmers. It forms part of CGIAR's new research portfolio, delivering science and innovation to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.Moving beyond conventional supply-driven scaling strategies, Excellence in Agronomy offers a new model for research and development (R&D) that sets out to leverage advances in diagnostics, data science, geospatial analysis, remote sensing, and behavioural sciences to develop widely applicable and locally relevant gender-and youth-responsive solutions at scale. It also assesses the effectiveness of the use case model, where research priorities are aligned with actual demand for agronomic solutions, and implemented through a co-creation process with demand partners, the science community, and other service providers.EiA uses big data and advanced analytics to study the climate impacts, inclusivity, and sustainability of agronomic solutions. Demand partners are central to the model, connecting farmers and researchers, and increasing innovation, scalability, and return on investment in R&D, while better serving women and youth.The One of the major challenges to crop simulation modeling in Africa, especially for future crop performance projections and impact studies under varied conditions, is the unavailability of reliable experimental data for crop modeling studies. Several training programs have been done to introduce the Crop Simulation Model (CSM) in Africa, but only a few organizers have followed these up to see whether the models are being applied. We are in a situation where many have trained, but only a few apply the models.From the participants' 'point of view, the low uptake and use could be due to the limited availability of data, inappropriate experimental designs for crop modeling, and inadequate knowledge about the capabilities of the different models and their suitability for field requirements. Lack of capacity among people trained in model development and application is the main gap in the uptake and adoption of crop modeling in research. In addition, there is a limited understanding of crop model inputs, requirements, lack of data for model calibration and validation, and a mismatch between the capabilities of crop models and expectations of what the models can do.In this training workshop, we provided hands-on practical exercises on the use and application of crop models for decision support.The workshop aimed to provide practical exercises on the use and application of crop models for decision support.The training workshop was held at the Bronte Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 19 -13 January 2023. It used an interactive format which allowed discussions and hands-on sessions with experts on crop modeling. English was the language of instruction and participants attended physically.The training was supervised by a panel of experts in various aspects of crop simulation modelling including:1. Day 1: Opening sessionTafadzwa Mabhaudhi welcomed all participants to the workshop and urged everyone to participate throughout the training. He also called on participants to interact, share ideas, and engage throughout the workshop. Participants then introduced themselves and some gave their reasons for attending the training workshop. During this session, it was noted that some participants had taught themselves CSM and needed to interact with the experts to understand aspects of it better. Some participants indicated that they had joined online training sessions on CSM application, which was not effective, so they required face-to-face interactions. Several participants claimed to know about the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). The attendees came from different backgrounds, including crop science, soil science, agro-meteorology, hydrology, climatology, and data science.The host, Vimbayi Chimonyo, gave an overview of the training workshop. She highlighted that from the first survey sent out, it was noted that junior scientists, national staff, and various institutes in Africa needed to know the steps involved in CSM calibration and validation, and how to apply modeling to complex systems and scenarios. She explained the philosophy of CSM noting that it gives predictions of certain outcomes and not recommendations, which the expert in the field should provide. In addition, Chimonyo stated that expert trainers had been invited from across the world to help build capacity of the trainees so that they can train the next generation. She advised the trainees to interact with their trainers and said that Africa needs the capacity to create a knowledge base for crop modeling. She then described the structure and set-up of the training workshop and thanked everyone for participating.The following topics were discussed on the first day. Vimbayi Chimonyo presented the minimum data requirements for crop modeling. She highlighted that crop models help predict and depict farming systems' complexity. Crop models can be used for policymaking and to reduce risks and uncertainties. Furthermore, she mentioned that a minimum data set is relatively easy to collect under field conditions or in controlled environments. It provides reasonable answers and is also transferable across platforms. Since getting full data is difficult, taxing, time-consuming and costly, minimum data sets are used on parameters that can contribute to the important data sets. She mentioned that data could be classified into the following three levels:• Level 1 data, which is used to adjust the model. Such data includes temperature, rainfall, and soil characteristics. • Level 2 data, which is used to test or evaluate the model and requires data such as yield.Components/ phenology and growth process depending on research questions. • Level 3 data, which is used for model development and requires parameters such as CO2 enhancement, temperature responses, and changing coefficients. She also indicated a need to bridge the gap between crop modellers and field scientists to allow the collection of standardized data and its free flow.Akinseye Folorunso presented on modeling, validation, and calibration. He said that calibration is important to obtain or determine genetic coefficients for news crop cultivar, evaluate the model for a new region and evaluate hypothetical model improvements. He noted that calibration follows these steps.• Step 1: Calibrate crop development using actual weather data, date, maturity date, leaf number per plant etc. • Step 2: Calibrate dry matter accumulation by comparing observed and simulated data. Crop biomass and components, leaf area index (LAI), etc. • Step 3: Calibrate yield and yield components. Grain yield and components He went on to explain that model validation refers to the process of confirming that the model achieves its intended purpose and is carried out after model calibration. Model validation is important as it allows scalability and flexibility, enhances model accuracy, prevents the model from over-and under-predicting and helps expose more errors. Model Statistical Criteria frequently used include the Mean Bias Error, and the Normalized Root Mean Square Error.Dirk Raes gave a presentation on simulating the basic growth process. He lectured on growth engines and mentioned that the types of growth engines include:• Water-driven growth engines which use AQUACROP • Solar-driven growth engines which use DSSAT and Agricultural Production System Simulator (APSIM) • Carbon-driven growth engines which are the Mechanistic and Explanatory Model He went on to explain the Wageningen crop models and highlighted the importance of the ASTRO module. Regarding thermal time, he talked about the need to adjust the length/duration of development stages to the temperature regimes of the distinctive years. In addition, he talked about canopy development expressed as the LAI and green canopy cover (CC). Lastly, he talked about crop transpiration. He stated that the reference evapotranspiration was computed using the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Penman-Monteith equation from meteorological data.In a brief presentation, Karuturi Rao differentiated between empirical/statistical models and dynamic/process-based models. He mentioned that the multi-modeling approach involves running the same system with several models, which brings a better understanding of the uncertainty, or involves integrating models simulating different systems or components of the system, which brings a better understanding of the dynamics of the whole system. He noted that multi-modeling approaches are commonly used in climate and industry simulations but not in simulating agricultural systems.Moreover, he mentioned that the Integration of models coupled/linked with other tools like remote sensing should be considered more than the comparison of models in the future. He also highlighted the importance of understanding model limitations and questioned the necessity of having an ensemble of models versus improving existing ones.Nirman Shrestha gave a brief presentation on simulating phenological development. His presentation focused on how AquaCrop simulates phenological development. He explained that GCC is used to determine canopy cover instead of LAI because it is easy to use and observe. He also stated the importance of collecting canopy cover data at the same time every day to obtain uniform results. He also discussed how AquaCrop simulates GCC for non-limiting and water stress conditions. In addition, he lectured on how AquaCrop simulates the expansion of root zone for non-limiting and restrictive conditions. During the ensuing question and answer session, it was emphasized that canopy cover relates more to DSSAT and APSIM through biomass. The same session highlighted that readily available open-source software, such as Sigma Scan Software, can be used to determine canopy cover from pictures.The participants were put into three groups for various practical exercises as follows:The Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) is a crop simulation platform that homogenizes inputs and outputs to run several process-based models that share common modules. The DSSAT research tool for crop production analysis incorporates crop-soil-weather models and analysis tools, such as uncertainty and economic models. The DSSAT-CERES-Maize model is widely applicable to assess the effects of climate change on crop production, and it can also evaluate the best management options under changed climate scenarios. The group used DSAAT for various exercises throughout the workshop training.AquaCrop is a FAO crop model that simulates crop and soil response to water stress under various climatic, soil, crop and management conditions. It is a water-driven growth model with a simple structure that requires limited inputs. The model has different modules: the soil module contains the water balance, which makes the AquaCrop model different from other models; it separates the soil evaporation from crop transpiration-based Ritchie's' water balance approach. The plant module encompasses crop growth, development, and yield processes. The atmosphere module addresses thermal regime, rainfall, evaporative demand, and CO2 concentration.The Agricultural Production System Simulator (APSIM) is a farming system model developed by the Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit (APSRU) to assess risk management in agricultural production. Within APSIM, a series of modules are grouped and categorized as crop, management, soil, and the environment.Day 2: Data, databases, and climate modeling Mabhaudhi led the day 1 recap focusing on 10 recap points, food for thought questions and participants giving feedback on activities from their respective groups on activities related to the different models. All groups had made little progress due to among other reasons had not downloaded the appropriate models.Siyabusa Mkuhlani presented the data and databases available for use publicly. He talked about the rationale referring to Chimonyo's presentation on minimum data requirements. He also spoke about how data quality and quantity become a limitation in the data sets. A concern regarding the lack of sufficient data was raised, and it was agreed that organizations need to share data with their partners. Some sources of free external public or generic data sets were shared. However, it was noted that different data set sources have different precision and accuracy for different parameters. Therefore, it was considered better to compare sourced data from different sources for improved accuracy. It was also noted that there that in needs to advocate for more open-source data by involving more individuals, institutions and organizations.After the presentation, participants were divided into groups to list additional data sets not included in the presentation, provide the URL of the sources, and describe how to access the data.Participants were asked to make PowerPoint presentations of their results and share them with Mkuhlani and Chimonyo.Anthony Whitbread, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), stated that crop models could be better, but they work. He presented on translating the model output into useful information. In response, it was agreed that there is need for expert interpretation and repackaging of information: whether crop modelers want farmers to understand and trust crop models and their output, whether crop modelers want farmers to understand and trust crop models and their output, or just want them to use the information provided and interpreted by experts.Whitbread went on to state the limitations of crop modeling. It was highlighted that coupling inseason weather forecasts and seasonal and long-term climate forecasts can provide farmers with valuable information that, when interpreted by experts, can help them make informed decisions and reduce risk. One major limitation of modeling was identified as its inability to make recommendations. Therefor there is a need to have experts from different domains who can interpret model outputs to translate them into usable information. Participants were given an exercise to carry out in their model groups.Mabhaudhi led the recap session using the 10 points from Day 2 and the food for thought questions. Participants were then asked to give feedback and present the results of their exercises from Day 2. All groups made presentations based on their simulation outcomes from the exercises. However, they cited the need for more required data noting that they had spent much time searching for missing data and correcting the existing data.Nirman Shrestha and Vimbayi Chimonyo lead the section of sensitivity analysis. The main objectives were to:• Understand what sensitivity analysis.• Understand why it is carried out.• Understand how sensitivity analysis is done Sensitivity analysis was defined as the study of how the variation in the output of a model can be apportioned. It is carried out so that modellers determine how sensitive the model output is to changes in model inputs, and it shows the factors that interact mutually. They described the types of sensitivity analyses and how to use them. The participants were given the assignment to carry out sensitivity analysis on millet yield in their model groups.João Vasco Silva began his presentation by talking about grand challenges for crop production, including diverging agricultural production methods paradigms. He went on to talk about yield gap analysis and stated that crop models are the backbone of yield gap analysis. He stated that one can now estimate the maximum yield of a given place and compare it to what is given on the farm, but noted that limiting factors are often beyond the field level. He elaborated on the crop models for yield gap decomposition giving examples of wheat in Northeast Europe and sowing date and variety for rice in South East Asia. Silva also explained that crop models simplify reality and he encouraged participants to know models, their limitations and to challenge the models with empirical data.Lastly, he encouraged participants to be creative and use models to generate and test hypotheses as part of simulation and experimentation cycles, as all models are prone to error, but some are useful. The participants were given practical exercises to carry out. They are using the experimental data from African Africa pearl millet crops.Day 4: Soil, nitrogen, and water dynamicsThe day started with a recap of Day 3 lectures using the 10 summary points of the day. All groups complained regarding the quality and quantity of data shared. Walker apologized for the inconvenience and explained that she was trying to get the accurate data sent in. However, Mabhaudhi stated that this was the real-life situation crop modellers were facing because of data shortage, so, it was a learning curve for the participants. AquaCrop and DSSAT presented their results, while APSIM could not as they had not finished their exercise due to poor quality and quantity data. They eventually downloaded additional data from public sources to make corrections to the existing files.In a brief presentation, Dirk Raes lectured on the root zone as a reservoir. Regarding this, he mentioned that the rooting zone acts as a water reservoir. An increase in the rooting depth increases the reservoir size. He went on to talk about the time-depth grid and how water movement in a model considers a time-and-depth grid. Modelling soil water dynamics can be applied to irrigation scheduling. He then illustrated the required soil profile characteristics and how initial soil water should be described in each compartment. He also talked about how water movement is simulated using one-dimensional flow when modeling soil water dynamics and how the tipping bucket is the most common method used to depict water movement in soils. During the subsequent question and answer session, it was indicated that Aqua Crop has variables for saltwater dynamics. The participants were then given an exercise on modeling soil water dynamics to perform in their different groups.Diego Pequeno gave a presentation on modeling soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics. He highlighted that soil organic carbon could affect response to nitrogen and lectured on the DSSAT crop modeling ecosystem, explaining how the applications and support software are linked with databases. He emphasized the importance of considering the different attributes in the soil layers when modeling carbon and nitrogen dynamics. He said that initial soil conditions are important in understanding water and nutrient dynamics and described the processes simulated in the nitrogen module and nitrogen balance. In addition, Pequeno talked about CERES and CENTURY as DSSAT modules for soil organic matter highlighting their differences.Lastly, he talked about the applications of the model, which include being applied to determine the optimum rate and timing for nitrogen application and to determine greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration. The participants were then given a group work exercise on modeling soil carbon and nitrogen.Day 5: Crop simulation models as decision support tools for climate impact and changeThe wrap-up session was a combination of a question-and-answer session and a conversation on climate change impact assessment. Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi led the discussion during which climate change's impact on crops and humans was emphasized as a key variable. Modelling using Aqua Crop can help predict the effects of how various climate change parameters increase or decrease. It was also mentioned that modeling results could be used to carry out economic assessments of multiple projects to guide the choice of the most viable one. Trainees were encouraged to get more familiar with the models and carry out the climate change assessment using a combination of models, as this increases the accuracy of output.The APSIM group managed to give a presentation of all their exercises as they had completed them, while DSSAT and AquaCrop groups gave feedback from Day 4.All the trainers started by thanking the host for the well-organized and impactful workshop training.Rao told the participants that learning and applying crop models could be achieved through five steps:1. Understanding the software 2. Understanding the science behind the processes 3. Preparing to run models using own data 4. Calibration and validation to ensure the model represents the system better 5. Application to real situations and problems you want to solve He went on to say that nothing is directly transferable. To learn more, one has to practice more. He also highlighted that there is a need to follow up with the participants after the training.Walker encouraged the participants to always to ask the right questions to get the right answers and that there is a need to understand the models. She also said modellers always need to remember whom they serve. Walker highlighted that participants should keep trying to address \"models\" errors and consult the after-training platforms to be created for assistance. Lastly, she shared an inspiring quote, \"Failure is often the backdoor to success, keep pushing and working hard\".Mkuhlani mentioned that much investment had been done across the continent for crop modeling and there is a need to improve the capacity of people in modeling. He also encouraged the participants to go and practice modeling using their data, to know the strengths and weaknesses of the models and to add value to crop modeling. Siyabusa also highlighted a need to increase capacity development in crop modeling, including using R and Python software. Complementary training in these areas and paper writing training should also be part of capacity development.Raes mentioned that most of the focus during the training exercises was on yield but water use efficiency should have also been addressed. He noted that in one of the examples, yield did not increase much in millet, but a lot of water was used, which might have been used better for another crop.Pequeno advised the team always to work hard when using crop models because their use requires learning through solving problems. He also encouraged them to keep asking questions and work together to solve problems and give feedback which will inform the organizers of their expectations for the next training session.Chimonyo thanked the trainers and participants. She also thanked EiA and SI-MFS for making the workshop possible and CIMMYT Zimbabwe for organizing it.  Several participants (63%) were familiar with APSIM and DSSAT, whilst 12 (40%) participants were familiar with AquaCrop. There were some participants who were familiar STICS, EPIC, SUCROS COCOA, RETC and Hydrological models as shown in Figure 2. Participants were asked which exercise they were most interested in and the answers are shown in Figure 3. About 80% of participants were interested in sensitivity analysis.  The evaluation form was used to summarize the key findings, suggestions, and future areas of research by crop modellers (Table 1).Table 1 : Open-ended questions from evaluation forms Questions Responses RecommendationsWhy did you find the exercises chosen in the earlier question difficult?• Modelling soil nitrogen dynamics was not available in AquaCrop, and since I was interested in this, I had to join the DSSAT group for the exercise • Because it takes time to evaluate the contributions of the genetic parameters to the variance of model predictions • We do not get enough time to run the model using the data provided.• The data was not enough for the exercise and had not yet been arranged (it takes time to solve issues • As an AquaCrop user, I felt the exercises were more tailored for programmers and other models (APSIM + DSSAT) • Too many parameters to adjust and simulations to run • Preparing the T file where the data is overlaid on the location and multiple yearsThe data is in-depth, multi-location and multi-year, and we couldn't fully assess it due to limited time  ","tokenCount":"3702"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"89c8093a48dcdd0ec58dcb9feeb814fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/083f2791-eea6-4efb-8e69-6802f6ccb445/retrieve","id":"1137320568"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1a87aa0c-7a1a-4f20-aa59-64c3f94614cc","pagecount":"1","content":"• Constructed a SD model of the pig VC that combines a detailed model of herd production and marketing with modules on shortand long-term investment in pig capacity, and decisions by VC actors to adopt different innovations • Model results highlight the feedbacks between different actors in the chain to identify both the potential entry points for upgrading food safety and animal health as well as potential areas of tension within the chain that may undermine uptake • Interventions at nodal levels (e.g. only at farm or slaughterhouse level) are less cost-effective and sustainable than those that jointly enhance incentives for control across the value chain, as weak links downstream undermine the ability of producers to sustain good health practices.Background  Food safety and animal health issues: Increasingly important constraints to smallholder pig production in Viet Nam  Recent studies: the significant prevalence of animal disease and food-borne pathogens inherent within the Vietnamese pig sector  Important negative livelihoods effects on smallholder pig producers and other value chain actors, as well as important public health impacts• Data collected in 2014 from a sample of 1000 farmers and other value chain (VC) actors in the pig value chains of two provinces in Vietnam (Hung Yen and Nghe An) • Employed a system dynamics (SD) analysis framework (using iThink®) to explore ex-ante disease risks, impacts, and policy options To identify appropriate ex-ante market-based policy responses that take into account the tradeoffs between improved animal health and food safety outcomes and their associated costs for different value chain actors as a means of developing chain-level solutions for their control","tokenCount":"266"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"18a6e1ccd0feeb9c8a42784ac418c2f3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/04757ff2-83d6-40d0-aae1-8bac2796b1fa/retrieve","id":"-705474341"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"63d1efdc-0850-415a-987b-b0c2df53083d","pagecount":"4","content":"As part of the U.S. government's Feed the Future (FtF) initiative to address global hunger and food security issues in sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting multi-stakeholder agricultural research projects to sustainably intensify key African farming systems and as a way of bringing a regional focus to the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) on Integrated Systems, especially CRPs 1.1 and 1.2. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is the lead institute for developing and implementing the Eastern and Southern Africa project. This research project focuses primarily on maize-and rice-based production systems in Tanzania but is intended to result in spill-over effects to other similar agro-ecological zones in Eastern and Southern Africa. . Feed the Future Tanzania is focusing on reducing poverty and enhancing nutrition through key investments to improve availability and access to staple foods by enhancing the competitiveness of smallholders in rice, maize and horticulture value chains; raising productivity through irrigation and rural roads; improving household nutrition; policy reforms; and developing national capacity for policy, planning and coordination, research and development and monitoring and evaluation (U.S. Government, 2010). These investments are being geographically focused in areas with high agricultural potential bordering chronically food insecure districts: Morogoro (rice); Manyara and Dodoma (maize); and Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Iringa and Mbeya (horticulture). Nutrition interventions are being focused in areas with high chronic malnutrition such as Dodoma region. The FtF target areas are characterized by moderate to high levels of food insecurity and poverty, but with high potential for growth due to proximity to transport corridors for market access and impact on nearby food insecure areas, lack of investment by other donors, good water resources and climatic conditions, opportunity for high impact on \"productive\" poor, prioritized by Government of Tanzania and private investors, and ability to achieve scalable high growth impact. This project is expected to complement FtF investments in Tanzania with research on bestbet management practices for sustainable intensification and diversification of maize-and rice based farming systems. It should also expand existing activities such as the project on Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA), initiatives in maize and legume systems in Eastern Zambia (SIMLEZA) supported by USAID-Zambia, and others.The Project started in October 2011 when funds were transferred to IITA.A project planning meeting was held from 16 to 17 October 2011 at the ILRI office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. in preparation for a project inception workshop in February 2012 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Twenty participants attended (including via Skype) from USAID/BFS/ARP and the CGIAR Centers ILRI, ICRISAT, CIMMYT, IFPRI, CIAT, and IITA.The meeting was called by USAID to bring together Centers and scientists conducting critical agricultural research in the region. The discussions of the meeting were expected to provide the basis for the development of concept notes in which regional research and development project plans and objectives would be more fully described.The Centers present gave an overview on their current work in Tanzania and neighboring countries and the partners they are collaborating with. Relevant researchable issues and constraints were discussed and it was recommended to address them in the Concept Note. With Manyara and Dodoma Regions, the tentative geographic focus of the project for work on maize-legume-livestock integrated farming systems was identified. It was decided that the specific locations would be determined later during the forthcoming project design/inception workshop with the support of IFPRI and when more biophysical and socio-economic data would be available.During the workshop it was not fully clear whether research on rice-based farming systems should be part of the scope of the project.Next steps in terms of developing the concept note and preparation of the project inception meeting were decided. The date for the inception workshop was fixed for 6-9 February 2012 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and IITA was charged with the organization in close collaboration with USAID/BFS/ARP.Following the planning workshop in Addis Ababa, a core team under the leadership of the Project Coordinator prepared the concept note on Sustainable intensification of maizelegume-livestock integrated farming systems in Eastern and Southern Africa in a collaborative effort. It shared with USAID in December for feedback. Members of the writing team were from ICRISAT, CIMMYT, CIAT, ILRI, IFPRI, AVRDC, and IITA.While writing the concept note, the team followed the outline that had been prepared by the project coordinator and USAID. The exact action sites for the research were not specified as it was planned that these would be identified in a special exercise with the support of scientists from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) during the forthcoming workshop. A detailed project budget and annual workplan were also not prepared at this stage because this needed consultation with other non-CGIAR partners who would be part of the project implementation team and identified during the design workshop.Upon the request of USAID, a separate concept note under the leadership of AfricaRice and in collaboration with AVRDC and others was prepared for research on Sustainable intensification and diversification of rice-based inland valley systems in the national rice basket of Tanzania. It was also shared with USAID end of December and feedback was requested.Parallel to the development of the concept notes, the Project Coordinator collaborated closely with USAID to identify key participants for the project design workshop.The venue has been fixed and a block reservation for participants made. Invitations were sent out last week of December to all participants identified by that time.The Head of ILRI's Communication Unit in Addis Ababa and a colleague agreed to facilitate the meeting.","tokenCount":"924"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0055e563145a335fd62da1f42d21788d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ea0511d3-4ff0-4a35-848f-3d40c4b4a815/retrieve","id":"505635195"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"22ccd662-8059-49dd-b53f-c4deec0953e2","pagecount":"17","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above.The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-1 The SAPLING InitiativeThe CGIAR Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender Inclusion (SAPLING) is an initiative that focuses on sustainable animal productivity. This initiative aims to contribute to transforming livestock sectors in target countries to make them more productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable (see Box 1 on how this objective will be achieved).The initiative is working in seven countries located in East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), West Africa (Mali), Southeast Asia (Vietnam) and South Asia (Nepal) on a total of 15 livestock value chains (Figure 1). Within the One CGIAR, SAPLING is mapped to the action area Resilient Agrifood Systems.Figure 1: SAPLING focal livestock value-chains, which number 15 in total, across seven countries (Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mali, Nepal and Vietnam) and six livestock types (beef cattle, chicken, dairy buffalo, dairy cattle, pigs and small ruminants).Box 1 SAPLING's objective will be achieved through five work packages:Technologies and practices for sustainable livestock productivity: developing, adapting and testing new and existing productivity-and resilience-enhancing, low-emission, scalable technologies and practices across the three main pillars of livestock productivity: improved feeds, animal health products and genetics (Work package 1).Innovations and practices for safe consumption of livestock-derived foods as part of diverse diets: co-creating innovative models and approaches for social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) and testing, and evaluating approaches for incentivizing market actors to enhance the supply of safe, nutritious and affordable livestock-derived foods (Work package 2).Sustainable livestock productivity for gender equity and social inclusion: understanding constraints and opportunities, identifying best-bet entry points, addressing constraints, and developing tools to measure progress (Work package 3).Competitive and inclusive livestock value chains: generating evidence on institutional arrangements and technical interventions to transition towards more profitable, inclusive and sustainable livestock value chains (Work package 4).Evidence, decisions and scaling: generating and consolidating evidence, models and tools to support public and private decision-making for a sustainable and inclusive livestock sector (Work package 5). The cattle farming systems are broadly classified into two categories: the traditional system and the commercial system (FAO and New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, 2019). The traditional system is a subsistence-oriented system characterized by small herds of cattle that are primarily managed through family labour, with limited use of purchased inputs. The system comprises smallholder extensive (1-3 cows/household), mediumholder extensive (4-13 cows), agro-pastoral (30-40 cows) and pastoral systems (40-60 cows) (Lukuyu et al., 2023). The commercial system is characterized by use of purchased inputs and services. It is market-oriented and aims for increased productivity and profitability. It is further subdivided into smallholder intensive, mediumholder intensive, and large-scale producers (FAO and New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, 2019). The Western region produced the highest volume of milk constituting 44% of the total milk produced in 2021, followed by the Central region with 34% and the least was the Northern region at 4% (UBS, 2024). The bulk of milk production was from the agro-pastoral systems.Improving dairy production and productivity is one of the government priorities under the Agroindustrialization Program of the National Development Plan III for 2020/21 to 2024/25 through value addition and processing, access to improved technologies such as breeds through artificial insemination, regulations to monitor milk quality, consumer safety, favourable taxation, targeting export markets, and strengthening producer cooperatives (National Planning Authority, 2020). Dairy industry development partners such as, aBi Development Ltd and Heifer International are supporting adoption of technology by funding and donating technologies such as sealers, freezers, fodder processing machines, cutting-edge coolers, and artificial insemination kits (Lukuyu et al, 2023).The dairy sector still faces challenges that limit its growth opportunities. These include inadequate quantity and quality feeds coupled with extreme seasonal effects, high burden of disease such as foot and mouth disease (FMD) and tick-borne diseases, low yielding breeds, and poor quality/access to inputs and services, which lead to low milk production and productivity, high animal mortalities, and reduced income at the household level. The informal market plays a dominant role in the milk trade in Uganda, often operating without adhering to the regulatory obligations imposed on formal processors. This situation presents a challenge, as processors are pressured to offer their products at prices that frequently fall below the reference price, mainly to prevent customer attrition and maintain their market share (Dairy Development Authority, 2023).Efforts by the African Asian Dairy Genetics Gains (AADGG) program have shown that crossbreeds of indigenous and exotic dairy breeds are what smallholder dairy farmers need. Yet, current systems are unable to fully support within-country genetic evaluation, selection of adaptable high yielding dairy genetics, certification of crossbred and/ or tropically adapted and productive exotic dairy genetics, and their multiplication and commercial delivery. In addition, farmers still lack tailored information, education and extension systems that can give them timely feedback and information to improve productivity and profitability of their dairy farming. The SAPLING AADGG project has started to develop a breeding program for systematic and sustainable genetic improvement to improve the availability of improved genetics to the smallholder dairy farmers. This is supported with animal identification and registration, field data capture, and genomic evaluation and selection of top ranked bulls to be used for artificial insemination and natural mating.The sites for the dairy value chains are the district local governments of Kiruhura, Wakiso, Masaka, Luweero, Buikwe, Kabarole, Mbarara, Mukono, Mityana, Kamuli, Mpigi, Apac, Bugiri, Bukomansimbi, Bulambuli, Bushenyi, Butambala, Buyende, Gomba, Ibanda, Iganda, Isingiro, Mpigi, Nakasongola, Kabarole and Pallisa. The sites represent different milk sheds and dairy production systems in Uganda including smallholder and mediumholder extensive, agro-pastoral, smallholder and mediumholder intensive, and large-scale commercial systems.• Do digital tools and genomic technologies improve smallholder dairy farmers access to adaptable high yielding dairy animals?• How does the digital extension and feedback system improve skill and knowledge of smallholder farmers and extension agents? Since past research has shown that successful livestock development requires integrated packages of productivity enhancing technologies and innovations along the value chain and in the enabling environment, SAPLING organizes its outputs not as individual \"silver bullets\" but rather in innovation packages-combinations of interrelated innovations and enabling conditions that, together, can lead to transformation and impact at scale in a specific context 1 -that target specific sets of inter-  Figure 2 presents the ToC of the dairy value chain in Uganda with target values determined as given here. It contains three sub-pathways, targeting policymakers/public and private sector (1); input and service providers, men and women dairy producers and other VC actors (2); and dairy cooperatives (3).While the three pathways are mutually reinforcing, especially in the longer run, it is useful to describe them separately to make it clear how SAPLING expects early interactions and outcomes to occur. Further details about innovations and enabling elements within each innovation package are given in the boxed text.The first sub-pathway focuses on the productivity enhancing innovations and their delivery to improve dairy cattle productivity. The productivity enhancing innovations focus on improving farmers' access to, and uptake of, high-quality feeds and forages (IP1); improved farmer access to, and uptake of, herd health products and practices (IP2), and improved digital systems for delivery of innovations including farmer education and advisory services (IP3). As can be seen in Boxes 2-4, these IPs includes technological and institutional innovations delivered through digital solutions, as well as capacity development activities targeted at different value chain actors. Gender is integrated into all of them. IPs 1-3 together will contribute to the first three immediate outcomes (IOs) in this sub-pathway, namely that input and service providers such as animal health service suppliers, feeds and forage seed producers, and artificial inseminators (IO1), men and women dairy cattle farmers (IO3), have increased capacities in the integrated technology and best practices package, and the value chain actor linkages are strengthened through digital platforms that are effective for equitable delivery of inputs and services and that allow interactions and exchanges (IO2). Taken together, these digital platforms are expected to provide service providers with the capacity and the economic incentives to deliver the innovation packages to women and men farmers (IO8).EOI2 is achieved as service providers invest their own resources, a total of at least USD 10,000, in actively using the digital solutions to deliver and promote the productivity enhancing packages to dairy farmers. EOI1 is achieved when dairy farmers adopt technology packages and institutional innovations delivered through the digital solutions that also enable access to technologies, inputs and markets, resulting in improvements in productivity. IP1 is also expecting to increase the awareness of regulatory authorities, mainly in the crop sector, about certification and enforcement of regulations to improve forage seeds quality. Ultimately this will contribute to changes in regulation (EOI4) that improve the enabling environment for forage production and utilization, further contributing EOIs 1 and 2.Several assumptions underlie the logic of the first sub-pathway. The first is that women and men dairy producers and value chain actors see the need for the digital innovations and business models given their situation and market conditions. This will be assessed as part of the AADGG activities, focusing on the number of value chain actors that will be registered onto the digital platforms and utilize it. Another key assumption is that the integrated packages contribute to increased productivity and income. This will be tracked through the AADGG data collection platform that covers both farm-and animal-level data including productivity and income indicators. Finally, the assumption that public and private sector players see value and opportunities in investing in digital tools to deliver innovations is being tracked through SAPLING monitoring, evaluation and learning activities.The second sub-pathway rests on the recognition that sustainable improvements in dairy productivity will come through a national digital system for animal and farm data capture that enables identification of appropriate dairy genetics coupled with certification of bulls and bull dams based on genomic estimated breeding value and breed composition to support dairy cattle breeding, management and transaction. This is in parallel with delivery of bundled input and support services to dairy farmers by capacitated input and service providers through digital platforms that strengthen value chain linkages and allows interactions and exchanges. Innovation package 3 (IP3) focuses on an integrated set of digital solutions for enhanced dairy farming. As presented in Box 4, this includes digital performance and pedigree recording, and phone-based farmer education delivery systems based on animal performance and cow calendar-based feedback. It also includes establishment of pipelines to ensure that the data generated can further define robust breeding objectives and the development of more comprehensive genomic evaluation pipelines. The IP3 will be delivered through the AADGG program activities, mapped to SAPLING dairy value chain in Uganda.IP3 will contribute to one immediate outcome (IO) in this sub-pathway, namely that public partners have increased capacities in the national digital system for data capture and its utilization for improving the dairy sector (IO5). This digital system is expected to support the public sector in the design of a sustainable dairy cattle breeding program (IO9) and further utilization of the data to inform decisions, policies, regulations and investments in the sector (EOI4) and sustainably select breeding dairy seed stock.The third sub-pathway recognizes the important role of dairy cooperatives as a business model that can enhance member farmers access to inputs and services including capacity development due to the advantages of economies of scale. IP4 consists of enhanced dairy farmer linkages to inputs and services and other business development services through dairy cooperatives business model (Box 5). IP4 is expected to strengthen the linkages between dairy cooperatives and networks with business development services (IO7) and to increase the capacities of dairy cooperatives in governance and involvement in business models for enhancing access to inputs, services, and markets for members through utilization of the digital solutions (IO6). This will ultimately lead to dairy farmers' use of the technological and institutional innovations resulting in improved productivity (EOI1).A key assumption underlying this sub-pathway is that improved governance of the dairy cooperatives and business models will improve market access and income for members. The activities under IP4 are led by the Dairy Development Authority one of the key partners in the dairy value chains. SAPLING will utilize this partnership to report on the outcomes associated with the third sub-pathway.Box 2 IP1: Improving farmer access to, and uptake of, high-quality feeds and forages.Components of the package comprise:• Training and certification program for small-scale feed producers.• Technical capacity building for forage seed producers specifically in best practices for forage seed production.• New drought-tolerant and adapted forage varieties through multilocational trials.• Model farms to demonstrate the benefits of the drought-tolerant and adapted forage varieties.• Forage seed promotions through exhibitions with the National Agricultural Research Organization.• Guidelines for strengthened regulations and enforcement to ensure high quality of forage seeds.• Training of the forage seed regulators on the guidelines for high-quality forage seeds• Gendered feed assessments (G-FEAST) to identify locally available feed resources and feed interventions that take into consideration gendered constraints and opportunities.IP1 draws on work from Work Packages 1, 3, and 4.Box 3 IP2: Improving farmer access to, and uptake of, herd health products and practices delivered through Livestock ChampionsComponents of the package comprise:• Context-specific gender-sensitive behaviour change communications (BCC) package on best bet practices on herd health management including welfare.• Gender-sensitive Herd Health Champions (HHCs) model to increase farmer-level capacities on best practices in herd health management.• Capacity building of HHCs in herd health management and animal welfare.• Capacity building of HHCs on BCC package using digital platforms to improve their knowledge on best practices on herd health management.• Guidelines for rational use on pharmaceuticals including acaricides.• Capacity building of value chain actors on rational use of veterinary products including vaccines.• Improved business models for delivery of East Coast fever (ECF) and foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccines.IP2 draws on work from WPs 1, 3 and 4.Box 4 IP3: Improved national digital system for animal and farm data capture and storage for enhanced dairy farmingComponents of the package comprise:• Setting up a national digital system for data capture and storage, provision of digital support for informed decision.• Establishing sustainable breeding program that employs ICT and genomic technologies to select adaptable bulls, and bull dams, that could be used through artificial insemination.• Certification of bulls and bull dams based on genomic breed composition and breeding values to support farmer's breeding.• Processing and delivery of semen from top ranked bulls selected using the genomic breeding values.• Digital data capture and farmer education tools.• Contextualized capacity building of farmers on the tools based on animal performance and husbandry practices.• Enhance capacity of national partners on new tools and technologies to ensure sustainability.• Develop different applications for on farm data collection and dairy profitability assessment.• Capacity building of farmers on the dairy profitability app.• Capacity building of national partners on genomic evaluation.• SMS extension and feedback messaging to registered farmers.IP1 draws on work from WPs 1 and 4.Components of the package comprise:• Capacity building of dairy cooperatives in governance.• Linkage of dairy farmers to input and service providers and milk markets.• Marketing -collection, quality control, chilling, and transportation of milk.• Capacity development of farmer cooperative members in farm management practices through the digital platform in Innovation Package 1.IP4 draws on WPs 1 and 4.ToCs are living documents that should be developed and updated in response to concrete programmatic needs. This theory of change will be reviewed in collaboration with stakeholders on an annual basis, with changes made as necessary. The reflection process, changes to the ToC and reasoning behind these changes will be documented as annexes to this report.Annex 1: Elements included in the ToCThe ToC includes three standard elements: outputs (Innovation packages), outcomes and assumptions. CGIAR defines an outcome as 'a change in knowledge, skills, attitudes and/or relationships, which manifests as a change in behaviour in particular actors, to which research outputs and related activities have contributed.' In these ToCs, immediate outcomes (IOs) are initial changes in things like awareness and capacity that occur among next-users of the innovation packages. End-of Initiative outcomes (EOIs) are outcomes that occur further along the pathway and reflect changes in behaviour among target actors and, in some cases, the consequences of that behaviour such as increases in productivity or the value of investments. EOIs are the same across all ToCs while the immediate outcomes that lead to them are context specific. In order to see the whole VC ToC in a single diagram, multiple similar outcomes are grouped together in a single IO or EOIs. These could be unpacked in a series of nested ToCs if further detail on sub-pathways is needed. Assumptions are 'hypotheses about factors or risks which could affect the progress or success of a development intervention… It is useful to distinguish between: (i) theoretical assumptions, about how the intervention is expected to contribute to a process of change based on facts, and; (ii) contextual assumptions, about current conditions and the trajectory and risks that could affect the progress or success of a development intervention.' While both types of assumptions are important, these ToCs focus on key theoretical assumptions since these are the ones that programs address as part of their research programs, investing resources to understand and test them.","tokenCount":"2882"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3318034380c82f277c828404182b1a41","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/46491617-260a-4e94-9c02-78554efd141b/retrieve","id":"1176964190"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f6627a8a-a552-41a5-bdd7-3b2c1febb223","pagecount":"6","content":"This Scaling Brief was developed by CGIAR Science Leaders and scaling specialists to provide guidance in the design and implementation of scaling within the CGIAR initiatives (see Brief #1 for more background information). Its purpose is to support scientists and research managers in operationalising scaling interventions that adequately address the scaling principles introduced in Brief #2. These principles align well with the scaling needs commonly identified by scaling practitioners in the context of the CGIAR (Table 1). This calls for scaling tools and holistic scaling approaches (meaning integrated sets of tools and procedures for scaling activities in different contexts). These tools and approaches help to address the multi-dimensional factors that must be considered if scaling is to produce a useful and responsible impact. They also help to manage scaling related interventions. Professionalising the manner in which technical, social, governance innovations are scaled up is essential if the ambitious goals of the One CGIAR are to be achieved 1 . Available scaling approaches and tools do offer solutions for various needs (Table 1), but they differ in their scope, depth and intensity of use. Key features -and differences -of a selection of approaches and tools that are (or potentially could be) used widely in and beyond One CGIAR are listed below. Additional options and information about the practical and scientific aspects of scaling are referred to in the Annex. Purpose: Stage-gating is a performance management approach used to manage the process of design, testing, validation and scaling of both technological and non-technological innovations in One CGIAR, while acknowledging that such processes are characterised by limited predictability and controllability, and that not all innovations will lead to positive outcomes at scale.In One CGIAR, stage-gating will be designed to:• inform resource allocation to all initiatives and components, and to assess initiative design and implementation at different stages (including, e.g., design stage or implementation stage), featuring Proceed, Adapt/Modify, and Cancel decisions, • create space for discovery, failure and learning, while also nurturing and scaling innovations that have a high impact potential, • ensure a steady flow of continuous innovation, as well as continuous investment in the different stages of innovation design, testing, validation and scaling.Description: Stage-gating supports critical reflection and decision-making on which innovations or combinations of innovations (i.e. innovation package) and investments have the highest likelihood of resulting in positive societal outcomes and impacts at scale. Its design will be tested during 2021 and the mechanism will be validated by 2024. (see here for further information). Stage-gating will be based on four principles: 1) Enabling transparent, evidence-based resource allocation; 2) Supporting reflection, learning and adaptive management; 3) Facilitating performance management using specific indicators and metrics; and 4) Encouraging innovation, creativity and action.Purpose: Scaling Readiness is a scientific approach which supports organisations, projects and programmes in achieving their ambitions to scale innovations.Scaling Readiness is mostly useful in order to:• systematically improve the scaling performance of scaling activities by using scientific methods to assess the scaling readiness of innovation, • manage a portfolio of interventions aimed at scaling using standardised approaches, • support development, implementation and the evaluation of scaling strategies, • develop a shared understanding among various stakeholders regarding the details of the intervention and the innovations that the interventions aim to scale.Description: Scaling Readiness helps to understand innovations in a comprehensive manner. This includes quantitative analyses of their innovation readiness (development stage of an innovation) and innovation use (the extent to which an innovation is already being used in society).It also helps to identify the actions that could accelerate or enhance scaling. To achieve this, Scaling Readiness provides a 5-step approach (1. Characterise, 2. Diagnose, 3. Strategise, 4. Agree, 5. Navigate) that iteratively supports the design, adaptive implementation and monitoring of scaling strategies. It does not focus on single innovations, but uses innovation packages as the unit of analysis.Instead of perceptions, it uses documented evidence, and it can help to develop scaling capacity and select effective and capable partners and partnership models.Scaling Readiness was not designed to • yield quick outputs; a certain degree of data input is needed for evidence-based results, • achieve system transformation, as it aims to scale a selected package of innovations for a given objective in a specific context, • capture detailed impacts achieved by the intervention.The Scaling Scan is a user-friendly approach that helps scaling practitioners to formulate a realistic, context-specific and responsible scaling ambition for a selected innovation.The Scaling Scan is mostly useful in order to:• rapidly scan the strengths and weaknesses of a scaling strategy and generate immediate information for scaling practitioners, enabling them to adjust scaling strategies or identify a need for new collaborations, for instance, • facilitate and support discussions on systematic scaling strategies with a range of scientific and non-scientific stakeholders,• understand what scaling a selected innovation would require in order to generate sustained impacts, • be applied in different formats ranging from faceto-face workshops of two hours to two full days or through virtual sessions.Description: It guides its users through several tactical questions and a scoring of ten key scaling ingredients (e.g., finance, demand, value chains). This allows them to recognise multi-disciplinary bottlenecks and opportunities that should be addressed to achieve scale. Much of the data input for the Scaling Scan is generated in stakeholder workshops, and the tool helps to rapidly prepare and structure scaling discussions with key partners. The tool is divided into 3 major steps: 1) Building a realistic scaling ambition, 2) Assessing the scaling ambition and 3) Assessing bottlenecks and opportunities.The Scaling Scan was not designed to • deliver a scaling strategy -instead, it clearly shows the points that should be addressed for successful scaling and not how to do it, • give exact answers, as it is based on experiences rather than on evidence.Purpose: The Projected Benefits Analysis Tool is aimed at designing frameworks for the initial screening of projects/investments. These frameworks help to guide investment designs and decisions. It is an analytical tool for assessing the impact and/or the value for money of project proposals.The Projected Benefits Analysis Tool is mostly useful in order to:• make an initial screening of projects/investments to justify a funding decision • estimate the expected impact of projects/investments/ research portfolios • check plausibility/effectiveness of the theory of change Description: The assessment is based on the potential contribution of an investment to defined impact targets and its contribution to SDGs and the likelihood of impact, but aspects such as the adequate consideration of gender/youth can also play a role. The methodology is currently being refined and will soon be tested on practical cases (completion is planned for early 2021).The Projected Benefits Analysis Tool was not designed for • designing or managing scaling activities, • identifying strategic partnerships.Various actors in One CGIAR have diverse scaling needs depending on their directorate, science group and region. Scaling approaches like Scaling Scan or Scaling Readiness can support them in, e.g., managing innovations, interventions, stakeholder engagement and monitoring. Specific needs can be addressed by using tools, such as the Projected Benefits Analysis Tool, or by blending and customising existing approaches and tools (see, e.g. the ILRI Impact at Scale framework). However, the degree of understanding regarding the diversity of approaches/tools and their main feature areas still varies among CGIAR actors. There are also some needs such as the management of time, knowledge and costs, that cannot currently be sufficiently addressed by the available tools.Complementary to approaches and tools that focus on bottom-up scaling activities aimed at selected innovations and innovation packages, guidance is required for designing top-down activities that target transformative changes in whole food systems by improving policies, partnerships and research designs (see, e.g, the Food System Transformation Framework in the Annex). In addition, the proposed One CGIAR Operational Structure distinguishes between scaling and system transformation. Differentiating scaling up and system transformation in tool classification can therefore increase the fitness of the tools for different One CGIAR purposes.Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbHFriedrich-Ebert-Allee 32 + 36 53113 Bonn, Germany E beaf@giz.de I www.giz.deThe diversity of needs and actors requires a transparent, comprehensive and integrated tactic for tool utilisation. Approaches for investment decisions could benefit from the consideration that innovation development and scaling processes are often non-linear and may require iterations. Depending on their aims, contexts and beneficiaries, target and support needs differ between innovations and scaling strategies. For example, stagegating design can respond to this by featuring stages with flexible durations and context-sensitive assessment criteria provisions for learning.The CGIAR Performance and Results Management Framework 2022-2030 provides a space for relevant scaling approaches and tools that can be applied to support the introduction and implementation of the 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy. We recommend that One CGIAR documents the capabilities of different scaling and system transformation approaches/tools to address diverse One CGIAR needs -and that it establishes mechanisms that will not only consolidate and rationalise the tools, but also develop the capacity of key One CGIAR staff and partners to learn, use and adapt these tools. The documentation and the mechanisms can complement the early testing and further development efforts of CGIAR stage-gating in 2021, and introduce a collaborative design dimension to the testing and further development processes.Outcome Mapping is an approach for planning and assessing development programming that is oriented towards change and social transformation. It provides a set of tools to design and gather information on the outcomes, defined as behavioral changes, of the change process. It supports learning in projects or programs about its influence on the progression of change and helps those in the assessment process think more systematically and pragmatically about what they are doing and to adaptively manage variations in strategies to bring about desired outcomes. Outcome Mapping puts people and learning at the center of development and accepts unanticipated changes as potential for innovation.Other impact/outcome assessment approaches Based on a review of scaling up literature and practice, the report provides a framework for the key dynamics that allow scaling processes to happen. The authors explore the possible approaches and paths to scaling up, the drivers of expansion and of replication, the space that has to be created for interventions to grow, and the role of evaluation and of careful planning and implementation.The book is informed and inspired the Conference \"Innovations in Agriculture: Scaling Up to Reach Millions\", organized by Purdue University. It is an easy-to-use guidebook targeted to a broad and diverse audience of stakeholders associated with scaling agricultural technologies and innovations.The book has nine chapters: designing with scale in mind; assessing scalability; using commercial markets to drive scaling; financing the transition to scale; creating an enabling environment for scale; tailoring metrics, monitoring, and evaluation to support sustainable outcomes at scale; and the critical role of intermediary and donor organizations.The book Scaling Impact introduces a new and practical approach to scaling the positive impacts of research and innovation. It is inspired by leading scientific and entrepreneurial innovators from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East. The result is a different perspective on how to achieve impact that matters, which also challenges the more-is-better paradigm of scaling. To encourage uptake and co-development, the authors present actionable principles that can help organizations and innovators design, manage, and evaluate scaling strategies.The Special Issue \"Science of Scaling: Connecting the pathways of agricultural research and development for improved food, income and nutrition security\" includes recent relevant contributions about the scaling principles outlined in Brief #1 and learning from scaling activities.","tokenCount":"1901"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bece15d0452ba74cfe026a3db5b22179","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2031a202-97bd-4993-a66a-215e1691e7e8/retrieve","id":"164824416"},"keywords":["Global Diversity Practice","Fiona Bourdin-Farrell","CGIAR System Senior Advisor","Gender","Diversity and Inclusion Meera Shah","Global Diversity Practice","Raluca Ciuperca","Global Diversity Practice","Edward Harris","Eyetalk Communications"],"sieverID":"4f8da5ec-19c7-45f5-bd3f-6952d46a4133","pagecount":"20","content":"GOAL 1 To establish the CGIAR GDI Network GOAL 2 To reach agreement on foundation key milestones that will enable the delivery of the Action Plan GOAL 3 To initiate implementation of best practice approaches to supporting inclusive environments GOAL 4 To build technical capacity on key GDI topicsFollowing many months of co-creation by members of the CGIAR HR Community of Practice (HR COP), and a robust cross-system consultation process, a Framework for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) in CGIAR's Workplaces and its accompanying Action Plan (2020-2021) received the support of the System Council in November 2019 and the approval of the System Management Board in February 2020.The GDI Framework and Action Plan were recognized as being ambitious and substantial, and there was a need to rapidly establish shared foundations on key deliverables and begin immediate implementation.A kick-off workshop was planned for 16-19 March 2020, to be held in Cali, Colombia and hosted by the Bioversity-CIAT Alliance. This workshop aimed to establish a CGIAR GDI Network, as an efficient and effective coordination mechanism for the shared delivery of the GDI Action Plan. It sought to help participants familiarize themselves with the detailed GDI Action Plan and to initiate implementation. It also planned to facilitate focused, meaningful dialogue, support knowledge sharing and build shared capacity on key GDI topics 1 .Linked to the COVID-19 outbreak, however, the decision was taken on March 5, to modify the workshop delivery. The agenda and content were swiftly adapted for online delivery 2 , with key topics being prioritized. The workshop sessions were compressed to four hours each day for five days. The innovative virtual delivery approach included pre-recorded, preparatory work for participants, online polling, virtual breakout rooms, and virtual chats, as well as briefing guides and support for individuals who were unfamiliar with the online technical platform. All techniques aimed to maximize participant engagement.The duration, complexity, and virtual nature of this modified workshop made it the first of a kind for CGIAR, with a number of insights and valuable lessons learned for future events 3 . Participants connected from across CGIAR 4 in multiple countries and time zones.Through feedback collected daily over the course of the workshop, participants either agreed or strongly agreed that the workshop met expectations, achieved the communicated objectives, and kept participants engaged (See the word cloud overleaf and participant feedback at Annex E).As seen in the summary on the next page, despite the online nature of the workshop, all original goals were achieved or nearly achieved. Agreements have been reached on critical issues. Draft products have been created and others further refined. Follow up webinars are being scheduled and plans are in place to accommodate those Centers/Alliances who were unable to participate. It is anticipated that all follow-up actions will be completed by the end of April. (i) To establish the CGIAR GDI Network• Agree on the TOR and the operating architecture for the new CGIAR GDI Network through which the implementation of the GDI Action Plan will be supported  The workshop achieved -or nearly achieved -all expected outcomes for Goal 1. Most importantly, the draft TOR incorporates feedback from workshop participants and is pending feedback from those few Centers/Alliances unable to attend the workshop.1.1 GDI Network -A draft terms of reference and operating architecture for the new CGIAR GDI Network was created and refined. This network of individuals across CGIAR will play a key role in implementing CGIAR's Action Plan for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion. It was agreed that the GDI Network will be an inclusive, cross-system body for the purposes of sharing good practice and lessons learned, as well as being a coordinating body for decision-making on shared GDI approaches, in consultation with Center/ Alliance leadership, in order to advance the implementation of the approved CGIAR GDI Action Plan. The GDI Network will be co-chaired by the CGIAR Senior Advisor for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion, along with a Center/Alliance representative. The GDI Network membership will be comprised of CGIAR HR Practitioners and Gender Research Platform colleagues, as nominated by their Center/Alliance, as well as other relevant stakeholders to broaden participation and foster a system-wide Community of Practice around GDI. GDI Network meetings will be quarterly.The next steps are for the final draft of the GDI Network terms of reference and operating architecture to be shared with Centers/Alliances not present at the workshop for their input, following which the GDI Network will be formally launched.The next steps involve actions to finalize the draft GDI Action Plan risk register, mitigate the identified risks and cascade this overarching risk register into the Center/Alliance GDI Action Plans currently in development.Platform were identified. Participants agreed that both groups, the GDI Network and the Gender Research Platform, share the goal of advancing gender equality, diversity and inclusion at CGIAR, although their work focus may differ. Agreement was made to cooperate on topics of common interest, and wherever possible and practical, including on outreach and engagement with external partners and vendors where it is of clear mutual benefit for CGIAR. The opportunity to combine talents was identified, for example to generate the research needed to inform CGIAR policies.The workshop achieved -or nearly achieved -all expected outcomes for Goal 2.2.1 Cross-system job categories for use in cross-system GDI data reporting -A draft shared index of job categories for use in cross-system GDI data reporting was created and valuable input received. This draft index of job categories has been developed in recognition that CGIAR does not share a standard job evaluation approach and that this presents a challenge for system-wide workforce data comparison. The production of this draft index will enable the critical establishment of the production of accurate systemwide GDI workforce data, increasing accuracy, transparency and providing for the consistent cross-system categorization of job roles.The next steps for the shared index of job categories are to incorporate all feedback received and conduct a final round of consultation for finalization before the end of March 2020. Agreement was reached to establish a small sub-working group to review the early draft guidance note, that will include high level profile descriptions for each category and consideration of occupational categories.2.2 Agree on diversity dimensions to be used in 2020-2021 -Participants agreed on the key diversity dimensions that will be used in workforce data for 2020-2021 (beyond women and men). In addition, valuable input was received on expectations for the proposed data gathering mechanism. The agreed diversity dimensions for 2020-2021 will be non-binary gender, disability, and LGBTQIA+. Data gathering on these new diversity dimensions will be on a voluntary-basis and individuals will have the opt-out option \"prefer not to say\" in recognition of the sensitivity involved. The inclusion of data on ethnicity (not race) was agreed, but requires further discussion in a follow up webinar. It was agreed any gathering of data on ethnicity must be done in a way that furthers the goal of inclusivity, while avoiding the risk of perceived discrimination. It was agreed that religion will not be a diversity dimension in 2020-2021.More systematically collected diversity dimensions on workforce data, such as nationality, education, dependents, etc. were raised at various points during the workshop. Guidance on these will be integrated with that on the above staff collection.Participants recognized the shared need to create and sustain talent pipelines through scholarship programs that targeted underrepresented groups.The next steps are for Centers/Alliances to incorporate these new diversity dimensions in demographic tracking, including in GDI pulse surveys, as part of their Center/Alliance GDI Action Plan. Centers/Alliances will also collaborate to establish in 2020 system-wide ERGs on \"Women in Research & Science\" and \"Wellbeing\" to complement these new diversity dimensions. (See 2.4 below). Some participants volunteered to work with the Senior Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Inclusion to develop a cross-system scholarship program.Matrix was developed, enabling baseline setting, progress tracking, and success sharing against the GDI Action Plan. It was agreed that the GDI Matrix -formerly known as the GDI Scorecard -will show progress against 15 performance indicators, all measured on a four-point rating scale. These indicators are both activity-based and impact-based. The GDI matrix will focus on celebrating progress in all its forms. Many participants expressed a desire to find a balance between numerical targets and a qualitative shift in the CGIAR GDI mindset / culture. Positively, most participants believe their Center/ Alliance to be either \"approaching requirements\" or \"meeting requirements\" in many indicators. Some Centers/Alliances offered to pilot the GDI matrix.Participants agreed that a supportive rewards and recognition program will incentivize success and provided a range of suggestions that will form the basis for the work underway in this area.The next steps will see a revised GDI Matrix being shared with the GDI Network for consultation and finalization before the end of March 2020. The GDI Matrix will be piloted in April 2020. The development of a user-friendly data collection mechanism is also underway and will benefit from the inputs of a small sub-working group.Resource Groups (ERGs) -Participants agreed that two cross-system ERGs will be launched in 2020-2021. Participants agreed that where ERGs currently exist, they are localized and tend to focus on gender issues, rather than the promotion of broader diversity and inclusion. Based on online polling, participants selected the areas of \"Women in Research & Science\" and \"Wellbeing\" to be the first two crosssystem ERGs. The GDI Network will collaborate on establishing these two ERGs in 2020.The workshop achieved -or nearly achieved -all expected outcomes for Goal 3.Center/Alliance staff engagement and GDI pulse surveys. Through an online poll, 100 percent of participants agreed that staff engagement surveys should be updated to include a shared set of updated GDI questions. It was agreed that the changes should involve keeping the number of mandatory questions stable, to avoid the risk of survey fatigue. Some 79 percent of participants supported the concept of a shorter, more regular GDI pulse survey, as part of wider GDI change strategies and action plans.There was support for a broadening of such surveys to take a workforce approach, rather than limiting to personnel on staff contracts. In a poll, 77 percent of participants preferred the delivery of a pulse survey in June over May, but some participants subsequently said they preferred a later date.The next steps will see the refinement of GDI questions for staff engagement surveys and the development of the shorter GDI pulse survey. The shorter GDI pulse survey will be finalized with the assistance of a subworking group and recirculated in early April for final GDI Network approval. The refinement of the GDI questions for the staff engagement survey will take place after the GDI pulse survey has been finalized.practice guidance and toolkits. The design principles established during the workshop will guide the forthcoming development of the 12 different guidance notes outlined in the GDI Action Plan. Toolkits and guidance will be guided by the following principles and be: easy, attractive, diverse, practical, evidencebased, social, timely. A strong interest in having GDI materials in a range of languages was expressed by participants during the workshop. While the group's indicated preferences was for English, Spanish, and French, each Center/Alliance will have to assess which are most relevant for their contexts, eg Hindi and Telugu for ICRISAT.Based on participant feedback, the Knowledge Hub will be a one-stop shop to meet the Network's diverse GDI needs for information, communication and coordination. It will be available on a single IT platform that can interface with existing platforms.It was agreed that the Knowledge Hub will include: GDI guidance documents, examples of what other Centers/Alliances are doing (policies, trainings, etc.), good practice (internal and external), case studies and testimonies, key messages for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion. The Knowledge Hub must also have the ability to exchange and access ideas, webinars, contact information, and details of consultants.Participants agreed that there was a shared need for materials that would support them in gaining local buyin for GDI. This included ways to encourage leadership visibility and active comment on the issue; simplicity of materials and messages; tested ways to encourage behavioral change and accountability; suggested GDI communications strategy and products; available and visible GDI champions; practical guidance for working groups, stakeholder consultations and engagement; and support to share information in staff / town hall meetings.The next steps will see the development of the GDI Knowledge Hub and the piloting of select toolkits.Participants discussed the linkages between the GDI Framework and the Ethics Framework, appreciating the work in this area to date and highlighting the need for further clarity on implementation mechanisms for Centers/Alliances.The next steps will see members of the GDI Network support the current Ethics Working Group of the HR Community of Practice (HR COP) to further develop the terms of reference for the Ethics Function and to steward the process through to completion. This will include further consultation with a wide range of stakeholders beyond HR (eg those involved in ethics in research science, risk register, and governance) and the eventual recruitment of a CGIAR Ethics Officer.The workshop achieved -or nearly achieved -all expected outcomes for Goal 4.4.1 Building a Center/Alliance GDI Plan aligned with the GDI Action Plan -All participating Centers/ Alliances now have an early draft Center/Alliance GDI Plan that is aligned with the system-wide GDI Action Plan. During the workshop, participants shared and worked on draft plans for their Centers/ Alliances. In developing their Center/Alliance GDI Plan, participants identified a number of key strengths that can be capitalized upon in support of Action Plan implementation. These included the support of senior management and leadership, current diversity levels within CGIAR, and the existence of GDI-sensitive benefits. Participants also noted a perceived lack of GDI awareness and highlighted the need for capacity building. Participants highlighted the number of competing priorities faced by Centers/Alliances, including most recently, the COVID-19 response.The next steps will see participants continue the process of translating the CGIAR GDI Action Plan into a Center/Alliance GDI Action Plan. One-on-one support meetings will be held in the coming weeks between each HR Head/Director, the CGIAR Senior Advisor Gender, Diversity and Inclusion and expert consultants, to assist Centers/Alliances in GDI Action Plan finalization.4.2 Share lessons learned from comparator organizations on GDI topics that require contextual sensitivity -Throughout the workshop, lessons learned from comparator organizations were incorporated into discussions. A number of short capacity building webinars will also be scheduled for GDI Network members in the coming weeks to further build capacity in key areas.\"Day 4 made the workshop get better and better, bringing out the meaningfulness in what we are doing\"\"Workforce data -we collect this every quarter already. Accuracy depends on us all having a shared understanding of workforce.\"\"Thank you to Fiona, Farah and the consultants who pulled this off fantastically.The consultants despite only coming on board mere weeks ago.\"The workshop target group is the HR COP and/or those individuals who will be the GDI focal points/implementing partners in Centers/Alliances and the System Organization. Additional technical experts from across CGIAR may also receive direct invitations through the CGIAR System Senior Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Inclusion.Should HR COP members wish to bring an additional colleague from their Center/Alliance to the workshop (such as a Center/Alliance Gender expert or a team member who will be their Center/Alliance's focal point for the GDI work), this can be discussed in advance with the CGIAR System Senior Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Inclusion.It is recommended that all HR COP members engage in the necessary dialogue within their Centers/Alliances before arrival, using the pre-reading materials that will be circulated in advance of the workshop. It is expected that all participants will be sufficiently empowered to confidently contribute to discussions and engage in decision-making during the workshop.The workshop will be co-facilitated by the CGIAR System Senior Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Inclusion, in partnership with external facilitators and subject matter experts. The workshop will be highly interactive, encouraging discussions and opportunities for meaningful dialogue between participants, to enable experience sharing and consensus building, as well as the co-creation of GDI framework products to support the implementation of the GDI Action Plan.The four-day workshop will be broken down into 8 half-day segments. It is anticipated that there will be focused segments on Staffing Categories; diversity dimensions; ERGs; GDI Scorecard; Inclusive Environments, including Flexible Working Arrangements; and Supporting Diversity in Sensitive local Contexts. There will be an opening segment to establish the CGIAR GDI Network and a closing segment to consolidate agreements reached and chart the way forward.Workshop participation will require pre-reading and the advance submission of a limited amount of workplace data to enable a situational analysis and maximize the use of participants time for output development.The CGIAR System Organization will support the workshop and will sponsor the costs as follows for one participant per Center/Alliance:Air Travel -reimburse the cost of flights (direct route, economy class) to a maximum of $1,500Accommodation and meals -full costs covered, subject to agreed Daily Subsistence Rates (DSA) of the CGIAR System OrganizationA logistics note will follow to facilitate participant planning.For further information on this workshop, please contact Fiona Bourdin-Farrell, CGIAR System Senior Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Inclusion, on f.farrell@cgiar.orgAnnex C -Lessons learned from the Workshop's Virtual DeliveryAs far as we are aware, the GDI Workshop held from 16-20 March 2020 was the first of its kind for CGIAR in terms of its week-long duration, complexity and virtual nature, with participants connected from across CGIAR in multiple countries and time zones. A number of insights and valuable lessons were learned in its delivery.1. When required, and content is carefully adjusted, online platforms are a strong substitute for faceto-face meetings. When conditions require it, online platforms offer a credible alternative for globally dispersed professionals to achieve workshop goals. Zoom, the online platform used, was carefully chosen for functionality that enabled interactive and engaging participation, group chat, breakout rooms, and instant polling. Participants overwhelmingly agreed that the GDI workshop had met their expectations, achieved the communicated objectives, and kept participants engaged.2. Consider daily structure carefully. The original in-person workshop content was refined and condensed to five daily sessions of four hours each. These daily sessions were further broken down into modules that were interspersed with short breaks. Recap sessions at the start and end of each day focused participants on the workshop goals and achievements. In addition, daily sessions were recorded and made available on a shared site to ensure that participants who missed one day could catch up before the second.3. Preparation, including pre-work and assessment, has impact. A range of Workshop Pre-work, available in advance on a shared site, helped participants to prepare for, and engage with, each individual session at a time that was convenient for them. In addition to pre-conference online assessments, pre-work included readings, PowerPoints, videos and proposed draft GDI products. As a result, participants joined the virtual sessions already informed on key issues, able to contribute to meaningful dialogue and make swift group decisions. Other useful preparations included the development of participant workshop briefs, a guide on the use of the online platform and testing the technology with users ahead of time.4. Plan to maximize participant engagement and interaction. Interaction must be planned for and strategically built in. The GDI workshop used polls, structured online chats, moderated breakout sessions, on-screen slides, and the involvement of participants in co-presenting and providing feedback. Participants were strongly encouraged to maintain video usage where connections permitted. Private chats with facilitators ensured awareness of who needed to step out of sessions for short periods, and meant that they could be supported in quick, private catchup sessions when they returned.5. Discipline on timings helps to build trust and engagement. The GDI Workshop saw individuals connect for five days across multiple time zones. It became clear that when participants knew that sessions would start and finish on time, this would allow them to plan their daily tasks around the workshop sessions and helped to build engagement.6. Facilitator pre-briefs and debriefs are essential to run virtual conference smoothly. The Senior Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Inclusion held daily meetings with presenters to brief and debrief, which enabled quick adjustments as necessary and contributed to smooth delivery. Last minute session changes were more easily managed and lessons learned from each day were incorporated. This was reinforced by using a WhatsApp presenter group as a back channel to communicate with consultants.7. Manage documents. All workshop files were maintained in the same online location, with individual channels for facilitators and participants, keeping them easy to access and use.8. Invest in facilitation. The deliberate design of the GDI workshop was one where participants engaged with multiple people on a daily basis, filling several invaluable functions. In a typical session, one individual was presenting, others were supporting as breakout room moderators, one was monitoring the chatbox for key questions and comments and lining up the next session, and one was managing technology. This contributed to a dynamic delivery.Our Shared Vision is that: \"CGIAR's workplaces are enabling and inclusive. Diversity in all its dimensions is embraced and every person is supported to reach their full potential, so as to drive the engagement and innovation needed for a world free of poverty, hunger and environmenta l degradation.\"","tokenCount":"3509"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a8dd779c1cceba2a464905357ff239ee","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/44043d7d-5ba5-481a-93c0-972c536869bd/retrieve","id":"1615792509"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"17aad864-9930-4481-a0b8-79197b5a33f1","pagecount":"9","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.In poor countries, diseases associated with agriculture have important human health impacts. Food that nourishes can also sicken and kill. The Food Safety and Zoonoses program of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) focuses on assessing and managing the health risks associated with food safety, zoonotic diseases (transmissible between people and animals) emerging diseases and diseases associated with agricultural intensification.A major focus of our research is approaches to food safety and disease control that can work in informal markets and marginal areas. The program combines risk analysis, epidemiology, socio-economics and gender analysis to identify, test and adapt appropriate options for food safety assurance and control of zoonotic diseases within the context of developing countries. Organizer/co-organizers: Bernard Bett, Gladys Mosomtai and Rosekellen Njiru Lecturers/facilitators: Gladys Mosomtai, Thomas Gachie, A. Townsend Peterson, Chris Yesson and Dave Redding Ecological niche modelling has fast become an extremely popular tool in the use, exploration and analysis of biodiversity data. It offers the possibility of understanding species' geographic distributions (actual and potential) in detail, as well as species' environmental requirements (i.e. the ecological niche).Although tools for niche modelling are now widely and freely available, a clear and appropriate thinking framework for the use of the tool is often not at hand, leading to many partial or inappropriate implementations. This course is designed to provide in-depth training in the use of niche modelling as an approach to biodiversity data.The participants targeted are post doc fellows, PhD students and members of ILRI and government institutions who work in the areas of natural resource management, biodiversity, disease control and spatial mapping. The course was conducted at ILRI's Nairobi campus on 15-19 September 2014.Participants were introduced to the basic concepts of ecological niche modelling. The underpinning theories of realized niche verse occupied niche, fundamental niche as defined by environmental space and how it is projected to geographic space. Emphasis was made on how to collect species occurrence data which is one of the inputs, especially presence only data, since the results will depend wholly on the occurrence data. If the sampled occurrence data is not representative of all the possible niches the species occupies, then the model results might not be accurate. Possible errors that might occur during data collection were also discussed, for example, GPS errors, conversion errors from degree-minutes-seconds to decimal degree, taxonomic errors from misidentifying the species of interest and errors from labelling in cases like museum collections where no GPS co-ordinates were taken. Participants were shown methods in which they can correct this errors before running their models.Environmental variables that define the niche of the species was expounded. Sources of this data was explained such as remotely sensed data, interpolated data, already available data that can be downloaded such as WorldClim data and the format that they should be when used in modelling. Participants raised issues regarding spatial resolution in which environmental variables should have and there was no thumb rule for this question, it wholly depends on the researcher and at what scale is he/she looking at the species of interest, at a local scale, it is advisable to use data with higher resolution compared to looking at a species at a regional scale. Emphasis on the concepts and data input for ecological niche modelling was later done by one of the guest speaker Prof. Townsend Peterson via google hangouts and due to time limit participants requested that he may give his lecture another day again.Model algorithms were explained in detailed and the assumptions made in various algorithms and how this assumptions relate to the occurrence data collected in the field. Participants were made to understand why different algorithms were preferred over others especially when dealing with data like species occurrence which is binary and how the various algorithms deals with environmental variables for instance when there is high correlation or when number of environmental variables is small, also when sample size is small. The following algorithms were expounded: regression methods such as generalized linear models, generalized additive models, multivariate adaptive regression splines  machine learning methods such as classification and regression trees, boosted regression trees random forest and Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) profile methods such as Bioclim, Domain, Mahalanobis Dr Chris Yesson, who was a guest speaker, also gave a lecture that expounded on the various algorithms and gave examples of work done using the different algorithms.Participants had an opportunity to do a hands-on practical exercise using MaxEnt and OpenModeller software. MaxEnt has a very friendly and easy-to-use interface compared to GARP which is one of the many algorithms assembled in OpenModeller. Participants preferred to use MaxEnt. Outputs were discussed by all the participants and how to interpret them. MaxEnt results that come in form of an HTML file were found to be really informative. Participants were also introduced to the basics of geographic information systems and a practical exercise was done using QGIS which is an open-source software. Participants were able to view their results in QGIS and visualize the niche of Rift Valley fever outbreaks based on centroids occurrence data. Furthermore, participants were introduced to the basics of R software and ran the DISMO package that is used to do species distribution in R.Participants learned how to do model evaluation and a detailed explanation on the confusion matrix was given, based on the possible outcomes that may result from the model prediction, namely, true presence, true absence, false presence and false absence. A good model is one that is able to distinguish absence and presence correctly. Area under the curve (AUC) is mostly used in ecological niche modelling as the measure of accuracy. A detailed explanation was made on how AUC is generated which is a threshold independent measure of accuracy. Threshold independent accuracy was also explained such as Kappa statistics, correct classification rate and true skills statistics. Other model evaluation methods were also incorporated by the participants such as AIC and BIC and the guest speakers emphasized that AUC of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve should not be the only measure of accuracy.We introduced participants to another method of evaluating their models. This was after scientists found that AUC had weaknesses when it comes to ecological niche modelling. For instance, various algorithms generate the AUC curve differently. For instance, MaxEnt algorithm generates the curve from the origin while an algorithm like GARP generates the curve from 60% of the x-axis, hence AUC of MaxEnt will always be higher than that of GARP despite the fact that they will predict the same area. To solve this problem, Prof. Townsend (who was one of the guest speakers) and his team developed partial ROC which evaluates a part of the curve where all the algorithms measure and then generated a software known as Partial ROC (pROC). The participants were trained on how to use pROC so that they can make informed decisions based on their model outputs.After the workshop, participants formed working groups to model Rift Valley fever, leptospirosis and anthrax across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Three task groups were formed to steer the working groups and tentative deadlines were made, with Rift Valley fever modelling being the earliest due to the availability of data.Leptospirosis and anthrax would take a while due to unavailability of data. The groups agreed to meet again at another workshop in February (tentatively) to present their progress and invite other stakeholders like Kenya Wildlife Service who were not present at the workshop.Photo 1: A PowerPoint presentation was used to train the participants. The presentation was shared with all the participants.Photo 2: Practical exercise that involved the participants using the software.Photo 3: Skype presentations.","tokenCount":"1305"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"31dd1498bcbcf5ac7bf9d279310c94cb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/711cf9b1-296c-440c-888c-97ba3d5845ef/retrieve","id":"220633034"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"97aa24c8-eb84-495a-bcec-4992f2f9b024","pagecount":"80","content":"Sibanda has a wealth of experience in research, partnerships and management. Born in Zimbabwe, she received her agricultural training in Egypt, the UK and Zimbabwe, where her doctoral studies focused on the nutritional requirements of lactating goats. Sibanda is CEO of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) where she coordinates high-level policy research and advocacy programs aimed at making Africa a foodsecure continent. She joined the Board of Trustees in November 2009.Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Chair (until Dec. 2015) Lindsay Falvey, Chair Falvey's experience includes corporate governance, academic leadership and international research. He is fascinated by interactions between the social and technological sciences in livestock and animal welfare. Previously chair of the external review of ILRI in 2006-7, his career has also included: CEO of Coffey-MPW; Dean of Land and Environment at the University of Melbourne; and director of Hassad Australia. A Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences, and of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge, Falvey holds three doctorates; a PhD from the University of Queensland, a higher doctorate from the University of Melbourne and an honorary doctorate from Thaksin University. Lindsay's 15 books and more than 150 papers deal with livestock and socio-cultural subjects.Schillinger has been working as an independent animal health consultant based in Munich, Germany, since early 2012. Before that, he worked for more than 25 years in the animal health industry. His last position in the industry was with Merial, where he was head of public affairs for Europe, Middle East and Africa from 2006 to 2011. Schillinger has a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Munich. He has managerial and leadership experience, particularly in business management and policy setting for veterinary public health. He joined the Board of Trustees in November 2009.Khatijah is a professor at Universiti Putra Malaysia. She was formerly the Deputy Secretary General at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia. Her major research interest is in the molecular biology of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and other paramyxoviruses. Her research has further expanded into the understanding of virus-cancer cell interactions. She is a fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, the Islamic World Academy of Sciences and TWAS. She has received several honours including the 2005 Carlos Finlay Prize for meritorious work in microbiology by UNESCO. She joined the Board of Trustees in April 2010.Babiuk is vice-president for research at the University of Alberta, Canada. As vice-president, he has consistently fostered research that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries by, for example, supporting collaborations between social scientists and medical, agricultural and engineering researchers. Before joining the University of Alberta, he built up a research institute-the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), at the University of Saskatchewan-which became internationally recognized as a leader in new vaccine development. He holds a master's degree in soil microbiology and a PhD in virology from the University of British Columbia and a DSc from the University of Saskatchewan's Department of Veterinary Microbiology. He joined the Board of Trustees in November 2010.Ly is animal production and health officer at the FAO Regional Office for Africa, in Accra. He holds a veterinary doctorate from the Inter-States School of Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, in Dakar and a master's degree in agricultural economics from Michigan State University, USA. He first worked with the Senegalese Agricultural Research Institute and from 1988 as lecturer-researcher at the Rural Economics and Management Unit of EISMV. Earlier, he was chief of the Biological Sciences and Animal Productions Department of EISMV and director general of the International Trypanotolerance Centre in the Gambia. He joined the Board of Trustees in November 2011.Board of Trustees (continued) Cooke is former director of the Policy andTechnical Advisory Division (2000-2012) at the International Fund for Agricultural Research (IFAD). Before this, he was director of the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA). He brings a wealth of experience in agriculture and rural development, including aspects such as institutional appraisal, corporate planning and management of change; project identification, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; R&D management and technology transfer. He has worked in Latin America, Africa, India and Southeast Asia. He holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Bristol, UK. He joined the Board of Trustees in November 2012.Petersen is a marketing, brand, business and product manager for Land O'Lakes Purina Feed, leading the company's marketing of feed for cattle, dairy cows and swine. Trained in physiology and poultry feed research in the UK and Australia, she has considerable experience in the feed sector, including market analysis and strategy development in a private sector context in Switzerland and the United States. She brings a unique blend of private sector, feeds research, business development and marketing skills to ILRI's Board. She joined the Board of Trustees in November 2012.Suzanne Petersen, Trustee Board of Trustees (continued) Richard Golding, Trustee Golding is an independent management consultant specializing in providing governance and risk management advisory and facilitation services to multilateral and other international organizations. Until 2012, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Consulting for 25 years as a risk management consultant being admitted as a partner in 1994. From 2005-2012, he was the lead global partner for PwC's relationships and work for the UN System and The Global Fund to Fight HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He has lived in Geneva, Switzerland for 20 years. He is a chartered accountant, originally from the UK.Wong is a director of two Singapore companies-Asia Venture Biotechnology Private Limited and Delafin Private Limited. She previously worked as senior financial analysis specialist at the Asian Development Bank where she led investments to improve energy efficiency in China and Mongolia. She brings expertise to the Board in the development and management of multilateral development projects, financial analysis of the viability of business models and information system conversion. She has an MBA from the University of Western Australia and is an associate chartered accountant. She joined the Board of Trustees in November 2013.The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) envisions a world where all people have access to enough food and livelihood options to fulfil their potential.ILRI's mission is to improve food and nutritional security and to reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock-ensuring better lives through livestock. ILRI's three strategic objectives are:1 With partners, to develop, test, adapt and promote sciencebased practices that-being sustainable and scalable-achieve better lives through livestock.2 With partners, to provide compelling scientific evidence in ways that persuade decision makers-from farms to boardrooms and parliaments-that smarter policies and bigger livestock investments can deliver significant socio-economic, health and environmental dividends to both poor nations and households.3 With partners, to increase capacity among ILRI's key stakeholders to make better use of livestock science and investments for better lives through livestock.ILRI is the co-founder, with the African Union New Partnership for Africa's Development (AU-NEPAD), of the Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa (BecA-ILRI) Hub on its Nairobi campus where world-class facilities for biotechnology research are in use by ILRI, other international centres and many national partners.CGIAR ILRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, a global research partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future. CGIAR research is dedicated to reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources. The CGIAR Consortium is comprised of the Consortium Board, the Consortium Office, and 15 research centres which are members of the CGIAR Consortium. Research is carried out by 15 centres that are members of the CGIAR Consortium in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations, including national and regional research Institutes, civil society organizations, academia and the private sector.  Partnership research ILRI works with partners worldwide to enhance the roles that livestock play in food security and poverty alleviation, principally in Africa and Asia. The outcomes of these research partnerships help people in developing countries keep their farm animals alive, increase and sustain their livestock and farm productivity, find profitable markets for their animal products, and reduce the risk of livestock-related diseases.As a relatively small Institute with a large global mandate, partnership remains the institute's fundamental modus operandi. The institute's current strategy requires that ILRI increase the range as well as the number of its partners.Locations and staff ILRI is an international research institute with its headquarters in Kenya and co-hosted by the government of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. It works through a network of regional and country offices and projects in East and Southeast Asia, South Asia, East, Central, Southern and West Africa and in Central America. In 2015, ILRI had 761 permanent staff. Most of the staff members (81%) are nationally recruited largely from Kenya and Ethiopia. Out of the total number of permanent staff, 146 were internationally recruited staff of whom 34% were female. An increasing number of scientists at ILRI hold joint appointments with other partner institutions.Statement of Purpose (continued)The Board of Trustees (the Board) comprises 12 1 outstanding professionals with particular expertise in the fields of livestock science, agricultural research, development, and corporate management. The Board primarily serves the institute through its governance and oversight roles of ensuring that ILRI functions to the highest standard to execute its mission and deliver on its strategy. The Board ensures that plans and programs are appropriate for carrying out ILRI's mandate, that they are in line with CGIAR priorities, and that they are aligned with the institute's mission. The Board has fiduciary responsibility for ILRI's financial resources.Funding ILRI is financed by contracts from CGIAR, major multilateral and bilateral donors, foundations, and governments. Funding of the CRPs is from the CGIAR Consortium Office through a three-window modality. For Window 1 funds, the Fund Council sets the overall priorities and makes specific decisions about the use of the funds, such as allocation to CRPs, payment of system costs and any other use required to achieve the CGIAR mission.Window 2 funds are contributions designated by fund donors to one or more specific CRPs.Window 3 funds are contributions designated by the fund donors to individual CGIAR centres. Bilateral funds come from a large group of public, governmental, foundations and private organizations worldwide. Some donors support ILRI with core and program funds, whereas others finance individual research projects. In-kind support from national partners, particularly Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as that from international collaborators, is substantial and vital. This mix of generic, specific and in-kind resources is essential to the partnership research ILRI conducts.ILRI acknowledges the countries and organizations that supported ILRI research in 2015, which are listed in Exhibits I through II. The institute could not have advanced its mission without their intellectual as well as financial support. The basic principles and rules concerning the organization and operation of the ILRI Board of Trustees are laid down in the institute's Constitution and in the Board's rules of governance.The Board comprises six committees: (a) program committee, (b) finance committee, (c) audit and risk committee, (d) human resource committee, (e) nominations committee, and (f) executive committee.The Program Committee is responsible for advising the Board on all matters regarding the conception, elaboration, implementation and evaluation of the institute's programs of research, training and information.The Finance Committee is responsible for advising the Board of Trustees on all matters relating to the institute's financial status and outlook. These matters include: the development and approval of budgets for upcoming periods; the monitoring of income and expenditure as per approved budgets; oversight of the institute's financial reporting process; and the identification of potential opportunities, issues and risks associated with the institute's finances. The committee carries out its work against the backdrop of the institute's research strategies, operating procedures and policies as approved by the Board of Trustees.The Audit and Risk Committee is responsible for advising the Board on all matters relating to ILRI's accounting and financial management practices, risk assessment and management, internal controls and external and internal audit results. The committee determines whether the internal control and audit systems established are adequate and whether the internal audit function is efficient and effective; the committee recommends to the Board whether it should accept the external audit reports and suggests courses of remedial action, if any, to be implemented to follow up on audit findings.The Human Resource Committee is responsible for advising the Board on all matters relating to the institute's human resources strategy and policies. These matters include: the development and approval of strategies and policies; oversight of the institute's human resource processes; and the identification of potential opportunities, issues, and risks associated with the institute's human resources; and monitoring of human resourcerelated expenditure as per approved budgets. The committee carries out its work against the backdrop of the institute's research strategies, financial strategies and its operating procedures and policies as approved by the Board.The Nominations Committee is responsible for advising the Board on its composition, succession planning, assessment and development activities.The Executive Committee acts for the full Board in between Board meetings and on matters which the Board delegates to it. It comprises the Board chair, the committee chairs, and the director general.  High on the agenda of the Board was the variable funding scenarios that emerged during the course of the year, in particular the CGIAR resources in windows 1 and 2, the reduction of which, early in 2015, impacted on ILRI's staff complement. Despite this uncertainty, the Board retained a high level of confidence in management and its approach to engaging in the development of pre-proposals for the CPRs that will begin in 2017, and to raising new bilateral resources to ensure the institute continues to deliver on its mandate and mission. At its April 2015 meeting, the Board also took the opportunity to provide comments on the governance options paper, which was under review by CGIAR at the time.A highlight of ILRI's year was the decision to go live with the enterprise resource planning Agresso business software, One Corporate System, which was launched in October 2015.Beginning with the key finance modules, the system is working well.In 2015, two Board meetings were held: the first, in April, in Nairobi, Kenya; the second, in November, Washington DC, USA. The latter was relocated in order to facilitate participation of the director general and Board chair in a number of CGIAR meetings in Washington DC, which were considered crucial for ILRI and its position in the CRPs. The Board and management also took advantage of the meeting location to participate in discussions with the World Bank that focused on emerging partnership opportunities for the livestock sector. As mentioned at the beginning of this overview, 2015 was a year with some uncertainty for ILRI with regard to funding. The Board appreciates the responsiveness and careful planning put in place by management to ensure that the institute is in a robust position to continue to deliver on its mission, despite this uncertainty. It is also noted that the role of livestock in relation to global development issues is becoming more prominent, and thus the Board is confident that resources to support the institute's agenda will be forthcoming. The Board would like to thank all ILRI staff for their continued commitment and hard work.On behalf of the members of the Board, I thank our investors and partners for their confidence and continued support that is allowing the institute to fulfill its mission.The ILRI Board has overall responsibility for overseeing the institute's internal control and risk management systems and for reviewing their adequacy and effectiveness in line with the principles and guidelines adopted by all CGIAR centres. This process lends support to the role of management in implementing the various policies on risk and control, which have been approved by the Board. Due to limitations inherent in any system of internal controls, these systems are designed to manage and mitigate, rather than eliminate, the respective risks that exist in achieving the institute's objectives. Therefore, such systems of internal controls and risk management can only provide reasonable, and not absolute, assurance against material misstatement or loss.The Board has delegated its authority to the Audit and Risk Committee (ARC) to review and determine the levels of different categories of risk, whilst management and unit/program heads are delegated the responsibility to manage risks related to their respective units/ programs. The process requires the unit/program heads to comprehensively identify and assess the relevant types of risks in terms of likelihood and magnitude of impact, as well as to identify and evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of applying the mechanisms in place to manage and mitigate these risks. Key risks relating to the institute programs and operations are deliberated at the Institute management Committee and significant risks are communicated to the Board at their scheduled meetings.Management is responsible for creating an awareness culture to ensure greater understanding of the importance of effective internal control and risk management systems and that its principles are embedded in key operational processes. This is undertaken through the institute's procedures and policies manuals, staff briefings, leadership by example and the institute code of conduct. To further enhance greater understanding of the importance of effective internal control and risk management systems, the ARC reviewed and adopted the Integrated Risk Framework and Control Statement in April 2014. This along with other risk management policies and systems are reviewed regularly to reflect changes in donor conditions, products and research undertaken.The effectiveness of ILRI's risk management strategy and its implementation has been assessed by the Internal Audit Unit, which is independent of ILRI's research and business units. Further, the ARC routinely receives an update on risk management and progress against agreed targets that will improve its efforts overall. Taken together, the Board is satisfied with the attention paid by management to risk. With regard to ILRI's 2015 annual financial statements and the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting, the ARC reviewed management's assertions in its 2015 letter (provided to the external auditors) and its statement of responsibility for financial reporting (included as part of the annual financial statement) and its assertion that internal controls are adequate. Management is required to prepare consolidated financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the institute and its subsidiary as at the end of the financial year and of the consolidated results of activities and cash flows of the institute and its subsidiary for that year. Management is also required to ensure that the institute keeps proper accounting records, which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the institute and its subsidiary. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the institute and its subsidiary.Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with the CGIAR Financial Guideline Series No. 2-Accounting Policies & Reporting Practices Manual (February 2006 and supplemented by the 2015 Advisory Note) and for such internal controls as trustees determine are necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.Management accepts responsibility for the annual financial statements, which have been prepared using appropriate accounting policies supported by reasonable and prudent judgements and estimates, in conformity with CGIAR Financial Guideline Series No. 2-Accounting Policies & Reporting Practices Manual. Management is of the opinion that the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the financial affairs of the institute and its subsidiary and of its consolidated results of activities and cash flows. Management further accepts responsibility for the maintenance of accounting records, which may be relied upon in the preparation of financial statements, as well as adequate systems of internal financial control.The Board of Trustees exercises its responsibility for these financial statements through its Finance, and Audit and Risk committees. The committees interact regularly with management, internal auditors and external auditors to review matters relating to financial planning, financial reporting, risk management, internal control, and auditing.Nothing has come to the attention of management to indicate that the institute and its subsidiary will not remain going concerns for at least the next twelve months from the date of this statement. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with international standards on auditing. Those standards require that we comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement.An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor's judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant to the entity's preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity's internal control. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by the directors, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements.We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinion.In our opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view, in all material respects, of the consolidated financial position of International Livestock Research Institute at 31 December 2015, and its consolidated financial performance and consolidated cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with the CGIAR Financial Guideline Series No. The notes set out on pages 27-70 form an integral part of these consolidated financial statements. The notes and exhibits set out on pages 27-70 form an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.  The notes and exhibits set out on pages 27-70 form an integral part of these consolidated financial statements. The significant accounting policies are summarized below.(a) Basis of preparationThe consolidated financial statements are prepared under the historical cost basis of accounting and on an accruals basis, except for the revaluation of certain assets belonging to the subsidiary modified to include the carrying of at fair value.The consolidated financial statements comprise the financial statements of the institute and its subsidiary, Kapiti Plains Estate Limited, in which the institute holds 100% of the voting rights. Subsidiaries are entities controlled by the group. The group controls an entity when it is exposed to, or has rights to variable returns from its involvement with an entity and has the ability to affect those returns through its power over the entity.The financial statements of the subsidiary are included from the date on which control commences until the date on which control ceases.Intra-group balances and any unrealized income and expenses arising from intra-group transactions are eliminated on preparing consolidated financial statements.The financial statements are presented in United States dollars to the nearest thousand (USD '000), which is the institute's functional currency.The preparation of financial statements involves the use of estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reported period. Although these estimates are based on the management's best knowledge of current events and actions, actual results ultimately may differ from the estimates.The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an on-going basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognized in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods.In particular, information about significant areas of estimation and critical judgement in applying accounting policies that have the most significant effect on the amounts recognized in the financial statements are described in Note 4.Revenue is the gross inflow of economic benefits during the period arising in the course of the ordinary activities of a CGIAR centre, where those inflows result in increases in net assets. The major portion of a centre's revenue is derived through the receipts of donor grants-either 'unrestricted' or 'restricted'.Unrestricted grant revenue arises from the unconditional transfer of cash or other assets to ILRI. Restricted grant revenue arises from a transfer of resources to ILRI in return for past or future compliance related to the operating activities of the institute. Unrestricted grants are recognized upon receipt of confirmed commitmentRestricted grants are recognized as revenue upon the fulfilment of donor-imposed conditions. Revenue associated with the transaction is recognized by making reference to Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)the stage of completion of the transaction at the reporting date. When the outcome of the transaction cannot be estimated reliably, revenue is recognized only to the extent of the expenses that are recoverable.Other revenues and gains are recognized as they are earned.(f) Currency translationThe institute's financial statements are presented in United States dollars (USD).Transactions and balances expressed in currencies other than the US dollar are treated as follows:i) Non-US dollar grants and donations received in the year are converted to US dollars at the exchange rates prevailing on the dates of receipt. Non-US dollar grants and donations pledged for the year but not received by the year-end are recognized in the financial statements at the exchange rates prevailing at the year-end.ii) Non-US dollar denominated expenditures are recorded at the exchange rates prevailing for the month in which they are incurred and are accumulated in US dollars.iii) Assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the US dollar are translated into US dollars at the exchange rates prevailing at the year end.iv) Gains and losses arising from changes in exchange rates are charged or credited to the statement of activities in the year in which they arise.v) On consolidation, exchange translation on opening reserves in the subsidiary is recognized in other comprehensive income and in the translation reserves in the net assets.(g) Cash and cash equivalents Cash equivalents are short-term, highly liquid investments that are both readily convertible to known amounts of cash and so near maturity date that they present insignificant risk of changes in value.Accounts receivable from donors, partners, other CG centres, employees and other entities are carried at anticipated realizable value. An allowance is made for doubtful receivables based on a review of all outstanding amounts at the year-end. Bad debts are written off during the year in which they are identified as irrecoverable. The write-off of receivables is carried out after all efforts to collect have been exhausted.Accounts receivable from donors consist of amounts due from restricted grants that have been negotiated between the donor and the CGIAR centre. It also pertains to claims from donors for expenses paid on behalf of projects in excess of cash received.ii services or for administrative services for more than one year are capitalized and stated at acquisition cost less accumulated depreciation and accumulated impairment losses. Acquisition cost includes the direct purchase price and incidental costs such as freight, insurance, installation and handling charges. Subsequent material expenditure that extends the useful life or enhances the operating efficiency of an item of property and equipment is capitalized. The cost of normal repairs and maintenance of existing property and equipment is recognized as an operating expense in the statement of activities.Any property and equipment acquired using restricted funds are expensed upon purchase.Construction work in progress is capitalized as work-in-progress but depreciation starts only when the work is complete and the facility is put into use.All immovable assets constructed or carried on leasehold land donated by host countries have been capitalized as assets of the institute. ILRI has the right to negotiate for extension of leases under the host country agreements upon expiry of the current leases. In accordance with the host country agreements, in the event that the host country agreement is terminated or the host country does not renew a lease upon expiry, all immovable assets will be disposed off by CGIAR (in consultation with the governments of Ethiopia and Kenya).Gains and losses on disposal of property and equipment are determined by reference to their carrying amount and are accounted for in the statement of activities.Depreciation is calculated on a straight-line basis at annual rates estimated to write-off the cost of each item of property and equipment over the estimated term of its useful life.The annual rates used are as follows: Depreciation of acquired assets starts in the month that the assets are placed in operation and continues until the assets are fully depreciated or their use discontinued.Depreciation charge is time-apportioned in the year of disposal of items of property and equipment.Property and equipment acquired using project-restricted funds are fully depreciated when they are placed in operation under the specific benefiting projects.For the subsidiary company, excess depreciation on the revaluation surplus is transferred from the capital reserve to revenue reserve.Operating lease rentals relating to lease land are amortized over the term of lease.(k) Intangible assets Intangible assets of the institute comprise acquired computer software. The cost of acquisition and installation of computer software is capitalized and amortized over the estimated useful life of the software, usually three years.Amortization method, useful lives and residual values are reviewed at each reporting date and adjusted if appropriate.(l) Asset impairment losses An impairment loss is recognized if the carrying amount of an asset or its cash-generating Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)unit exceeds its recoverable amount. A cash-generating unit is the smallest identifiable asset group that generates cash flows that largely are independent from other assets and groups. Impairment losses are recognized in profit or loss. Impairment losses recognized in respect of cash-generating units are allocated first to reduce the carrying amount of any goodwill allocated to the units and then to reduce the carrying amount of the other assets in the unit (group of units) on a pro rata basis.The recoverable amount of an asset or cash-generating unit is the greater of its value in use and its fair value less costs to sell. In assessing value in use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset.(m) InventoriesInventory is carried at the lower of cost and net realizable value. Cost is calculated on a weighted average basis and includes purchase price, freight and other incidental costs.The determination of obsolescence or expiration is based on the lower of the manufacturer's recommendations and documented experience and knowledge of management. The amount of write-down of inventories to net realizable value and all losses of inventories are recognized as an expense in the period the write-down or loss occurs.(n) LivestockLivestock is stated at fair value less point of sale costs. The fair value of livestock is determined based on market prices for livestock of similar age, breed, and genetic merit.Changes in fair value are recognized in the statement of activities.(o) Employee benefits i) Defined contribution planThe institute's contributions are maintained as a defined contribution plan for all categories of staff. Contributions to the defined contribution plan are charged to the statement of activities as incurred.ii) Short-term employee benefits Short-term employee benefits are expensed as the related service is provided. A liability is recognized for amounts expected to be paid if the group has present legal or constructive obligation to pay this amount as a result of past service provided by employees and obligation can be estimated reliably.iii) Termination benefits Termination benefits are expensed at the end of the employee contracts when the Group can no longer withdraw the offer of those benefits.Full provision is made for severance benefits payable to employees at the end of their contracts. Provisions are also made in respect of repatriation costs and outstanding leave days accruing to all staff.(p) Net assets Net assets represent the residual interest in the institute's assets remaining after liabilities have been deducted.(q) Accruals Accruals represent liabilities to pay for goods or services that have been received or supplied but not yet invoiced or formally agreed with suppliers.(r) Accounts payableThese represent amounts due to donors, employees and others for support services and/or materials received prior to year-end but not paid for at the balance sheet date.These include amounts payable to donors in respect of any unexpended funds received in advance for restricted grants.ii) Accounts payable-partnersThese include amounts partners have accounted but whose payments or reimbursements have not been made by Statement of Financial Position date.iii) Accounts payable-employees These include unpaid salaries and bonuses, leave credits and pension entitlements.These include all other liabilities ILRI has incurred and has been billed for, which remain unpaid as at the statement of financial position date.(s) ProvisionsProvisions are recognized when the institute has (a) a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of past events, (b) it is more likely than not that an outflow of resources will be required to settle the obligation and (c) a reliable estimate of the amount can be made. Provisions are measured at the present value of management's best estimate of the expenditure required to settle the present obligation at the Statement of Financial Position date.(t) Tax ILRI: The governments of Kenya and Ethiopia have undertaken to exempt ILRI from all local taxes, including customs duty on goods and services received by the institute. Consequently, the institute does not account for tax in its financial statements.Kapiti Plains Estate Limited: Current taxation is provided for on the basis of the results for the year as shown in the financial statements, adjusted in accordance with tax legislation. Deferred taxation is provided using the liability method for all temporary differences arising between the tax bases of assets and liabilities and their carrying values for financial reporting purposes. Deferred tax assets are recognized for all deductible temporary differences, carry forward of unused tax losses, and unused tax credits to the extent that it is probable that future taxable profits will be available against which the deductible temporary differences, unused tax losses and the unused tax credits can be utilized.Fair value is the amount for which an asset could be exchanged, or a liability settled, between knowledgeable, willing parties in an arm's length transaction on the measurement date.When available, the group measures the fair value of an instrument using quoted prices in an active market for that instrument. A market is regarded as active if quoted prices are readily and regularly available and represent actual and regularly occurring market transactions on an arm's length basis.If a market for a financial instrument is not active, then the group establishes fair value using a valuation technique. The chosen valuation technique makes maximum use of market inputs, relies as little as possible on estimates specific to the group, incorporates all factors that market participants would consider in setting a price and is consistent with accepted economic methodologies for pricing financial instruments.Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)Managing financial risk is one aspect of the risk management practice of ILRI, which considers all its operations. The institute's activities expose it to a variety of financial risks, including funding risks, variation of foreign exchange risk, interest risk, credit risk, banking risk and inflation.Risk management is carried out by the management of the institute supported by the Internal Audit Unit under policies approved by the Board of Trustees. A key element of the institute's risk management program is minimizing potential adverse effects on its financial performance. The finance function identifies, evaluates and hedges financial risks. The various categories of risks are described below:(a) Foreign exchange risk and interest rate variations riskThe organization is exposed to foreign exchange risk arising from various currency exposures, primarily with respect to the Kenya Shilling, Ethiopian Birr, Uganda Shilling, British Pound and the Euro. Foreign exchange risk arises from future transactions and recognized assets and liabilities.Investment decisions are also guided by the foreseeable conditions of foreign exchange markets and a conservative investment policy.(b) Funding risk ILRI manages funding risk through financial planning systems, a conservative investment policy and its resource mobilization strategy.Inflation risk is managed through conservative budgeting and a conservative investment policy.Credit risk is the risk that a counterparty will cause a financial loss to the institute by failing to discharge a contractual obligation. This risk is managed in the following four ways:(i) Avoiding contracts with donors on a reimbursable basis;(ii) Minimizing advances to suppliers;(iii) Strict management of employee advances; and(iv) Stringent due diligence processes for bank selection and regular tenders for local banks and other suppliers.(e) Liquidity riskEffective cash flow and working capital management is carried out to ensure that there is a balance between operational and investment requirements.Eighty per cent (80%) of cash in bank is invested in short-term deposits and 20% is kept on call deposits for funding day-to-day cash requirements. ILRI maintains a conservative investment strategy with investments limited to fixed-term deposits and short-term call deposits with a limited number of quality banks. To mitigate against political risk, our deposits are spread across several banks and in different locations mainly in the United States of America, Europe, Kenya and Ethiopia.The table below analyses the institute's financial liabilities that will be settled on a net basis into relevant maturity groupings based on the remaining period at the statement of financial position date to the contractual maturity date. The amounts disclosed in the table below are the contractual undiscounted cash flows. Balances due within 12 months equal their carrying amounts as the impact of discounting is not significant.The bulk of the donor payables amounting to USD 40.336 million represent funds received in advance to be spent within the next year. (f) Fair values The fair value of the financial assets and liabilities approximate the carrying amounts shown in the statement of financial position.In the process of applying the institute's and its subsidiary's accounting policies, management has made estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities within current and future financial years. Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The critical areas of accounting estimates and judgements in relation to the preparation of these financial statements are as set out below:Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)(a) Critical judgements in applying accounting policiesThere are no critical judgments, apart from those involving estimations (see below) that management has made in the process of applying the institute's accounting policies and that have significant effect on the amounts recognized in the financial statements.(b) Key sources of estimation uncertaintyAt each reporting date, the institute reviews the carrying amount of its assets to determine whether there is any indication that these assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of impairment.Critical estimates are made in determining the useful lives and residual values to property and equipment based on the intended use of the assets and the economic lives of those assets. Subsequent changes in circumstances or prospective utilization of the assets concerned could result in the actual useful lives or residual values differing from initial estimates.Although management believes the estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of these consolidated financial statements were appropriate in the circumstances, actual results could differ from those estimates and assumptions.This represents the cost of investment in Kapiti Plains Estate Limited (Kapiti), a ranch that was acquired for purposes of securing adequate supplies of disease-free livestock to the institute for research. Kapiti is a wholly owned subsidiary of ILRI and operates as an experimental farm. Partnerships are a growing part of CGIAR business, but do not incur the same level of overhead as in-house research. Some centres use the more complex multi-tier overhead system that results in a higher overall centre indirect cost rate. Other centres use a single tier overhead system applying the same rate if fiduciary responsibility is assumed. Single tier overhead system is a simpler method and results in a lower overall centre indirect cost rate.Where necessary, the comparative figures have been adjusted to conform with changes in presentation in the current year.Management is not aware of events after the reporting date that require disclosure in or adjustments to the financial statements as at the date of this report. ","tokenCount":"6720"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"23e27ef15b243c7246aa67546b034db5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8226ced-c0e0-4629-84ff-3f5c8a102b62/retrieve","id":"85422901"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7d219e2d-28b7-4970-8c50-862558efe59c","pagecount":"45","content":"1-Empower smallholder ware yam producers with the seed of improved varieties for increased productivity resulting in increased income, 2-Develop a functional, and sustainable seed system that delivers sufficient quantities of high quality seed of improved varieties to farmers at the right time and at prices that encourage adoption, 3-Raise the awareness of the economic impact of the yam sector for increased investment and prioritization from national, regional and international programs as well as private sector; and 4-Empower women to profitably participate in the commercial yam seed value chain within the context of the appropriate socio-cultural system.In we visited the following partners:  • YIIFSWA-II project received financial auditors from BMGF in 2019. A team of four auditors spent two weeks in hotels at Ibadan to scrutinize our financial documentations and some of the technical reports.• • Delay in finalizing the annual agreement and work plan (advance some amount to start some activities early)•We are yet to receive some technical and financial reports from partners.• Poor performance of the Go-No Go milestone in 2019 because the AS is not fully running (IITA will give a second chance to each partner to achieve the Go No Go Milestone in 2020 by backstop the day to day management of the AS, retraining of the AS technical staff)• Heat inside the existing screenhouse (industrial fans with extractors experimentation is ongoing at IITA-Ibadan Here is a video broadcasted on a Ghana television informing the world that the Aeroponics system is developed by Crops Research Institute.There was no word on YIIFSWA or YIIFSWA-II project and nothing on IITA the grantee.1 2/20/20201. YIIFSWA-II has strengthening the technical capacity of the public and private partners in Nigeria and Ghana to produce Early Generation Seeds (EGS) of high quality and to assure effective control of Quality.2. We have now demonstrated that you don't need absolutely an irrigation system to use vine seedlings for seed yam production in rainfall condition.Seed yam of high quality can be produced on rainfed conditions. One needs to plan seriously knowing the followings: 1. The period of full establishment of rainfall (May-June) 2. The single note vines are cut around 4 months after planting in AS; 3. The single node vine will spend 6 weeks in the nursery for good rooting before transplanting in the field for tuber production.","tokenCount":"383"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3161319742ab66e5d1cd1e2498c45160","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/060c2e4e-ecea-42b1-863a-73c7f7a57892/retrieve","id":"1224467596"},"keywords":["Jim Dempsey / Correction : Tim Woods (anglais)","Jacques Bodichon (français) / Réalisation graphique : Anita Toebosch / Traduction : Patrice Deladrier / Photo de couverture : Xinhua / Das Fotoarchiv. / Lineair / Conseillers scientifiques : Peter Ballantyne","Oumy Ndiaye","Dorothy Okello","Kevin Painting"],"sieverID":"eaace35e-453e-4847-9ce3-9b4817c198c1","pagecount":"12","content":"La stratégie TIC à long terme du ministère de l'irrigation tanzanien Au Swaziland, un SIG permet de cerner les zones propices à l'irrigation Télédétection et outils web 2.0 pour une gestion plus efficace de l'eau au Mali Irrigation Numéro 56 Août 2010 Un bulletin d'alerte pour l'agriculture ACP ICT 2 Éditorial Les TIC percolent tout le système 3 PerspectivesLes ingénieurs en irrigation se servent de ces données pour déterminer quel système fonctionnera le mieux vu les conditions locales. Des agents de terrain vont ensuite voir les paysans pour leur exposer les nouveaux projets d'irrigation. Plusieurs grands programmes d'irrigation publient des informations sur le web et informent la population locale via des émissions de radio.Les TIC servent aussi à promouvoir de plus petits programmes, via des émissions de radio ou des sites web qui expliquent les avantages de l'irrigation ou comment construire son propre système goutte-à-goutte ou par aspersion. Certains paysans reçoivent les prévisions météo par SMS afin de choisir les heures d'irrigation pour d'économiser l'eau quand des pluies sont annoncées.Dans les anciens comme dans les nouveaux systèmes d'irrigation, un SIG peut contribuer à contrôler le bon usage de l'eau. Des chercheurs l'ont utilisé dans le cadre de l'Office du Niger au Mali. Ils ont analysé des données satellite afin de déterminer si la couverture en eau était uniforme dans l'ensemble du périmètre irrigué, si le niveau de consommation était le même en amont et en aval du périmètre et ils ont même mesuré les rendements escomptés. Cette information aide les gestionnaires à détecter les carences et les zones à problèmes sans devoir se rendre sur place.Tout paysan peut également recevoir une aide pour gérer son propre système. Des chercheurs australiens ont mis au point une méthode qui chaque jour indique au fermier la durée exacte d'arrosage. Le projet IrriSat recueille des données de télédétection pour analyser les besoins en eau des cultures dans les exploitations abonnées. Il se sert aussi des données fournies par les stations météo locales.Les fermiers peuvent envoyer un SMS pour indiquer au système le prélèvement exact de la veille. Ils reçoivent ensuite un SMS qui leur dit combien de temps laisser le robinet ouvert pour alimenter leur système La plupart des petits paysans d'Afrique subsaharienne n'ont besoin que d'un simple système d'irrigation goutte-àgoutte. Il suffit de collecter l'eau de pluie de la parcelle ou d'une source voisine, de la stocker dans des bassins ou des citernes, et d'utiliser soit une pompe à pédales soit un système de siphon pour acheminer l'eau vers les cultures. Ces systèmes conviennent parfaitement à des exploitations d'un demi-hectare.L'irrigation permet aussi de se lancer dans l'agriculture commerciale puisqu'on peut récolter toute l'année, y compris en saison sèche, des produits aussi rentables que la tomate, la carotte et le poivron et ainsi récupérer rapidement sa mise de fonds. Un petit système d'irrigation goutte-à-goutte (un bassin de 120 mètres cubes à revêtement en plastique, une pompe et du grillage) revient à 800-1 000 dollars, une somme amortie en 2 ou 3 ans. Sur la base de ces données, l'équipe de WaterWatch a évalué l'Office du Niger à l'aune de quatre facteurs : 1) l'intensité des cultures -qui mesure le « caractère vert » d'une zone ; 2) la productivité de l'eau -le volume de riz récolté au regard du volume d'eau nécessaire ; 3) l'uniformité -l'eau est-elle également répartie sur l'ensemble du périmètre ; 4) la performance amont-aval -qui compare le volume d'eau consommé au début et à la fin du périmètre irrigué.L'analyse des images satellite a révélé la présence de végétation dans l'ensemble du périmètre de l'Office du Niger lors de la principale saison de culture, mais aussi durant la saison secondaire, alors que la pluviosité est faible : les exploitants ont donc dû recourir au système d'irrigation, ce qui laisse à penser que la politique d'abaissement de la redevance a porté ses fruits.L'étude a montré des variations dans les rendements rizicoles d'une zone administrative à l'autre. Une distribution inégale de l'eau sur l'ensemble du périmètre pourrait expliquer ce phénomène. Idéalement, un système d'irrigation doit répartir l'eau de manière égale entre tous les utilisateurs, mais sur le terrain divers facteurs affectent la consommation selon les parcelles et les zones. Le type de sol, la qualité de l'eau et l'amendement peuvent influencer la consommation d'eau, mais un faible rendement peut aussi être révélateur de problèmes dans le système d'irrigation.Un mauvais entretien des canaux et des structures, une gestion inadéquate et une utilisation illégale de l'eau peuvent induire des rendements plus faibles chez les producteurs en fin de parcours. L'étude a révélé que les rendements estimés en aval de l'Office du Niger étaient de 18 % inférieurs à ceux en amont.Dans un casier, l'étude a révélé de hauts rendements en début et en fin de parcours, mais de faibles rendements au milieu. D'après le gestionnaire du casier, celui-ci serait suffisamment approvisionné en eau, mais un barrage mal conçu à mi-parcours ferait que les champs sont moins irrigués à partir de ce point. La consommation d'eau augmenterait en fin de casier grâce à l'eau de drainage excédentaire qui s'accumule en aval du système. D'après la recherche, la faiblesse des rendements est en partie imputable à la gestion de l'eau d'irrigation, bien que d'autres facteurs entrent en ligne de compte, comme la détérioration de la qualité de l'eau. L'analyse montre que la productivité des ressources hydriques de l'Office du Niger pourrait être nettement améliorée. La construction d'un réseau de drainage correct, par exemple, abaisserait les niveaux de salinité, réduirait les inondations et améliorerait les rendements.L'équipe de WaterWatch a collaboré étroitement avec la direction de l'Office afin de discuter des avantages et des limites de la méthode et des ajustements à y apporter. S'agissant par exemple du casier équipé d'un barrage mal conçu, la direction était conscientePour répondre aux impératifs modernes et préparer l'expansion, l'office du Niger dote son réseau d'irrigation de moyens de télédétection pour analyser son efficacité sans avoir à se rendre sur place pour vérifier l'état des infrastructures.Sander J. Zwart (s.zwart@cgiar.org) est spécialiste en SIG et en télédétection à l'Africa Rice Centre (www.warda.org), Lucie M. C. Leclert (l.leclert@gmail.com) est spécialiste en irrigation / sciences sociales chez Euroconsult-MottMcDonald, et Wim Bastiaanssen (w.bastiaanssen@waterwatch.nl) est le directeur de WaterWatch (www.waterwatch.nl) du problème, mais a pu mieux en mesurer les conséquences grâce à l'analyse par télédétection.L'étude a confirmé nombre de problèmes de performance déjà perçus par la direction.  Irrisat-SMS conjugue les données satellite, les informations fournies par les stations météo locales et les paysans pour prodiguer chaque jour des conseils précis d'irrigation via SMS. Irrisat-SMS prodigue déjà des conseils d'irrigation pour diverses cultures dans divers environnements. Certaines cultures ou situations requièrent un effort supplémentaire pour trouver les informations nécessaires aux fermiers. La base de données a donc été conçue de manière à s'adapter à des demandes particulières.En Nouvelle-Galles du Sud, dans la région de Griffith, par exemple, les producteurs de raisin blanc ont d'autres impératifs d'irrigation que les producteurs de raisin rouge. Les premiers cherchent à maximiser la production, tandis que les seconds s'efforcent aussi d'optimiser la qualité par la gestion de l'eau.La Les informations fournies par les satellites et les stations météo permettent au service Irrisat d'assurer un suivi régulier et à distance des zones rurales. Les contacts et feed-back des utilisateurs renforcent cet outil souple et adapté aux impératifs de gestion de l'eau des fermiers. Plusieurs années de test ont montré que de simples SMS, acheminant les informations de sources high-tech, peuvent être un outil de vulgarisation formidable pour la gestion agricole et de l'eau sur l'ensemble du globe. ■ Joash Nyitambe (jnyitambe@MEI.go.tz) est chef de l'unité TIC au ministère tanzanien de l'eau et de l'irrigation (www.mowi.go.tz) Q uand on vit dans une zone reculée de Tanzanie et qu'on veut savoir ce que fait le gouvernement pour favoriser l'irrigation dans sa région, on doit faire le périple jusqu'au ministère de l'eau et de l'irrigation (MEI) et interroger un fonctionnaire. Conscient de cette difficulté pour les administrés, le ministère recourt de plus en plus aux TIC pour faire connaître son action.Dans le cadre de la politique nationale de cybergouvernance, le MEI a élaboré une stratégie TIC détaillée pour l'ensemble de ses bureaux et départements. Ce nouveau « plan » vise non seulement à mieux informer le public, mais aussi à définir les politiques de recours aux TIC pour rationaliser le travail quotidien et améliorer l'efficacité du service.« Auparavant, chaque département était responsable de   Dans un premier temps, ce projet permettra à 2 600 ménages d'irriguer 6 500 hectares de terres. Pour la première fois, les paysans du crû vont pouvoir passer de l'agriculture de subsistance à la culture de rente et augmenter leurs revenus. 800 hectares sont déjà irrigués, des travaux sont en cours pour en irriguer 5 000 de plus.La télédétection et les systèmes d'information géographique (SIG) sont au coeur de la planification et de la gestion du projet. Leurs données aident les paysans à tirer le meilleur parti des nouvelles terres irriguées. Les données SIG, par exemple, sont analysées pour définir les zones irrigables, montrer les types de sol et recenser les sources d'eau existantes. L'équipe a rendu visite aux paysans pour les conseiller dans le choix des variétés à cultiver, en fonction des conditions locales.SWADE se sert aussi de données géoréférencées pour établir la carte des ménages nécessitant un accompagnement : ceux dont les revenus ou le rendement des terres sont particulièrement faibles. Ces cartes servent aussi à établir un cadastre et à délimiter des équipements collectifs comme des écoles et des cliniques.Tout au long du projet, l'équipe a actualisé les cartes et les données SIG pour garder une trace de ses activités. Elle consigne actuellement la localisation exacte des ménages qui bénéficient de l'irrigation ou de services du projet (formation et conseils agricoles). Le fait de savoir exactement quels paysans participent au projet et quels sont ceux qui ont déjà été contactés permet aux gestionnaires de suivre les progrès, de planifier les activités et d'éviter les redondances ou le gaspillage des ressources en se rendant dans des foyers qui ne sont pas directement concernés par le projet.Au Swaziland, un projet détermine les zones irrigables au moyen d'un SIG et de la télédétection. Les données sont analysées pour rendre la gestion du projet plus efficace.L es sécheresses sont fréquentes dans la région du Lower Usuthu au Swaziland. Avec son climat semi-aride, les paysans locaux parviennent à peine à se nourrir. Le revenu annuel moyen est de cent dollars par habitant, et le restera sans doute si les paysans ne peuvent compter que sur la pluie pour arroser leurs récoltes.Des recherches menées dans cette région laissent toutefois à penser que l'irrigation des terres permettrait d'arriver à des rendements analogues à ceux des exploitations commerciales avoisinantes. Plusieurs paysans de la région se sont récemment lancés dans de petits programmes d'irrigation pour cultiver la canne à sucre, avec de bons résultats (105 tonnes par hectare).C    Prenez le cas de la Jamaïque : sur un total de 2,7 millions d'acres de terre, moins de 500 000 sont irrigables. Le reste est sujet à l'érosion, ne se prête pas à la mécanisation ou présente d'autres problèmes de gestion.Les paysans qui n'ont pas de point d'eau à proximité pourraient se tourner vers la collecte d'eau de pluie, mais il y a trop de contraintes. À commencer par la pluviosité : il faut au moins 1 000 mm de précipitations par an pour que cela en vaille la peine.➜ Une nette amélioration des rendements et la certitude de récolter. Le paysan n'est d'irrigation, à trouver des terres irrigables et à repérer les ressources hydriques disponibles. Ils requièrent toutefois un haut niveau d'expertise et ne font pas partie du quotidien des petits paysans.Ce qui fait en revanche de plus en plus partie de leur quotidien, ce sont les capteurs d'humidité électroniques placés directement dans le sol et raccordés à un contrôleur de vanne électromagnétique. Le capteur mesure l'humidité du sol. Lorsque celle-ci baisse -quand le sol devient trop sec -il envoie un signal au contrôleur, qui ouvre la vanne d'arrosage. Quand l'humidité remonte -quand le sol a été suffisamment irrigué -le capteur renvoie un signal au contrôleur pour fermer la vanne.Le prix de ces humidimètres a tellement baissé qu'il est à la portée des petits paysans. Un contrôleur revient à 100, une vanne à 30 et un humidimètre classique à environ 120 dollars. Le paysan amortit rapidement son investissement grâce aux économies d'eau réalisées. Toutes ces technologies ont déjà permis d'améliorer sensiblement la production agricole au cours des dernières années et je suis certain que l'agriculture fera de plus en plus appel à elles pour recueillir des données, contrôler les intrants et évaluer la production de manière à utiliser plus efficacement les ressources et améliorer les rendements. ■ plus tributaire de la pluie, il sait que ses champs seront suffisamment arrosés. C'est comme une assurance.L'irrigation permet aussi de muer des terres improductives en terres arables et rentables. C'est particulièrement important pour la Jamaïque qui, comme la plupart des pays tropicaux, connaît deux saisons des pluies, mais relativement distantes, entrecoupées de saisons de sécheresse (parfois sévère). Il pleut surtout en mai et en octobre, moments que choisissent les paysans pour arroser leurs cultures, mais ","tokenCount":"2190"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3239ad43975f9311213978c62d4fcd6a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6e204c46-0f36-4021-9282-a1dc104ae2c0/retrieve","id":"1364760669"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5379e48e-5f40-460a-871d-af3d3993a034","pagecount":"16","content":"Harvesting, root selection & storage of Triple S roots Dry-season period [months], monitoring De-sprout roots Planting out in root bed & water every 3-4 days Start of rains.Remember Triple S timing is driven by the rains, not by calendar dates. Two weeks later, re-check the pegged plants to make sure they are still healthy.Only use roots from healthy plants for Triple S. This helps avoid weevil, virus and hairiness problems which reduce sprout vigour and vine yield.De-haulming: At 3 -5 days before harvest, cut the foliage off your pegged plants leaving 10 cm of stem. This dehaulming causes changes in the root which will protect it during storage, and will also enable you to check if any stems have weevil tunnels in them.Careful harvesting Damaged roots will rot during storage. Harvest roots for Triple S carefully, use a fork hoe and work slowly. Place roots in shade, do not wash them. Transport the roots home carefully, do not overload, drop or sit on the sack.Triple S training chart -6What size roots to store?Small sweetpotato roots will dry out and shrivel during storage, while only a few large roots will fit in the basin.Choose small to medium sized undamaged roots, that are about as thick/ wide as the handle of your hoe (~2-5 cm diameter) for use in Triple S. Note: in areas where the dry season is > 7 months, medium to large roots are preferred.Your Triple S roots will be stored for several months, so only store undamaged roots.Discard weevil damaged roots. Check very carefully, as weevils lay eggs in tiny holes on the root, the eggs then hatch into larvae which feed and form tunnels in the roots. Plan where you will store your Triple S during the dry season, so that it can remain dry, and cool.Next add a layer of roots, make sure the roots do NOT touch each other.1Line the container with newspaper to absorb any moisture.  Add another layer of roots, making sure they do not touch each other or the edge of the basin. Cover them with a layer of cool, dry, coarse sand.If there is space, add a third layer of roots.Always finish with a deep layer of sand (~10 cm thick). This will help prevent the roots from drying out during storage, and stop weevils or rats from finding and damaging them. ","tokenCount":"391"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e7510444433ad8982d416865db0542dc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/057b9528-972d-465d-b853-ea3d49566019/retrieve","id":"476079915"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4ab6b006-2af9-4455-9955-679d9d23bd1b","pagecount":"34","content":"➢ Replacement of stocks (damaged, unprod., less milk yield) ➢ Planning of feeding (feed seasonality, type…)Recording is hardly practiced in Ethiopia and is limited to research centers and higher learning institutions.Accurate recording /record keeping  Provide better information for decision, formulation of policy for a given area/country, etc., • Weaning age differs across the production system• Some take weaning weight on 90 th day / 3 months/ or above depending on the environment.• Separating the young from their dams (when?)• Smearing the teat with dung (when?)• A rope was inserted between the two mandibles tied to the horn• Weights can be taken every 15 days throughout the year to identify seasonal fluctuations in weight gain and loss.Material:• Spring balance scale (50 kg capacity with 100g precision).➢At on-farm farmers usually carryout fattening which lasts a three times in a year.➢The implications is competition for space, labour, feed and other resources. Fertility Could be affected:• Male : female ratio • Feed availability and other factors","tokenCount":"163"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"131271d042983409b87e79425f3dfcc4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/24030fe8-5026-4cb9-be19-723f7b1a7dc7/retrieve","id":"1940714155"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0c359991-e0f4-4c42-b305-0701aab320ae","pagecount":"21","content":"Ml Slncero agradeclmlento al Dr LUIS E TERSAS, por la oportunldad que me ha brlndado para partlclpar en este curso de Pastos y ForraJes, llevado a cabo en el CIAT A los profesores tOGOS del CIAT Al Or Oswaldo Paladlnes por su orlentaclón el la reall ~ zaclón de este trabaJo A mlS compañeros del curso CIAT, Nov 27 de 1 978 INTROOUCCION La producclón Pecuarla tlene como obJetlvo principal que los animales reciban durante su vida productlva, alimentos de calidad y cantldad adecuada, para que la funclón productlva que reallzan no se vea afectada por una deflciente alimentación ASi tenemos que la dlgestlbllldad de los pastos ofreCldos, blen podrfa medirse por el metodo • ln Vltro• slmplemente,pero se verla afectado por muchos factores de parte del anlmal Para obtener resultados slgnlflcatlvos en la medlclón deconsumo y dlgestlbilldad de los forraJes ofrecldos a los anlmales en pastoreo, es necesarlO correlaclonar estos resultados con el analls1s botánico de lo consumldo por el animal OBJET IVOS 1 Determlnar la composlclón Botánica de lo consumldo 2Determinar la digestlbllidad 3Medir consumo baJO pastoreo en aSOCiaCión de gramíneas y leguminosasREVISION DE LA LITERATURA.El valor nutrltlVo tlene como obJetlvo prlnclpal propor -Clonar elementos de JU1C10 para rea1lzar la e1ecclón del allmento o comblnaclón de al1mentos, que meJor se adapte en su me-dl0 amblente a la funclón productlva de cada anlmal Una de las prlnclpales formas de expresar el valor nutrltlvo fue el anallsls Quimlco Pero su uso esta llmltado porque, los nutrlentes encontrados en el anallsls no son completamente aprovechados por el anlmal (2) Cuando se valoran forraJes, los lndlces mas adecuados son el consumo maXlmo y la dlgestlbllldad o sea los prlnclpales factores que condlclonan la respuesta anlmal (4)El estado de madurez en que se encuentra el forraJe es uno de los prlnclpales factores. que determlnan la dlgestlbllldad de la M S del forraJe por los rumlantes La varlaclón lndlvldual entre anlmal es llgeramente mayor en los OVlnOS que, en los bOVlnos (1) Al comparar los coeflcle~ tes de dlgestlbl11dad entre OVlnos y bovlnos, Alexander et al (1) encontraron que con vacunos se obtlene coeflclentes de dlgestlbllldad superlor en 1% a los obtenldos con OVlnosDe la revlslón Llterarla expresada por Wlttke se desprende que un probable mecanlsmo que regula el consumo de al1mentos, es la relaclón posltlva entre gasto y consumo de energía y que las vacas t1enen un consumo de forraJe superl0r al de los novtllos, y que estos no dlfleren en su consumo al de los capones Cuando es expresado por unldad de tamaño metabollco MEDICION DE DIGESTIBILIDAD Metodo 1ndlreCtO, las técnlcas de muestreo basados en eluso de anlmales flstulados, permlten obtener muestras represent~ tlvas del forraJe consumldo por los anlmales (5)Al utlllzar el metodo comblnado de N con oXldo Cromlco, el numero de anlmales necesarlos, para reallzal la predlcclon conun determlnado error y a un porcentaJe de probabllldad deseado, esta en funclón del error de estlmaclón de la producclón de heces fecales la cual tlene un rango mayor que las estlmaClones de dlgestlbllldad reallzadas utlllzando las curvas propuestas C8} Dentro de las sustanclas propuestas como 1ndlcadores para medlr la producclón de heces fecales, el oXldo de cromo (Cr 2 0 3 ) es el mas usado y el que muestra mas potenclalldad de uso, por su baJO costo, 5ubstancla lnerte, no tóxlca y efectlvamente no dlgerlble MATERIALES Y METO DOS El presente trabaJO fue rellzado del mes de Septlembre a -Novlembre de 1 978, en la estaclón Experlmental del CIAT-Qulllchao, la parte de campo, locallzada a 3 D 06\" N V 76 0 31 O. a 8 Km aproxlmadamente al norte de Santander de QUlllchao Departamento del Cauca, lo referente a anal1s1s de M S Y dlgestlb111dad \" 1n Vltro\" en los LaboratorlOS del CIAT-PALMIRA-COLOMBIAPara llevar a cabo el ensayo se contó con un total de 10 -novll1os flstulados esofaglcamente y 2 novlllos en llbre pastoreo, con una edad promedIa de 18 meses en ambos casos Tanto al comenzar con la'experlenclas como el flnallzarse peso y baño los anlmales de pastoreo El perlado prellmlnar fue de 12 días. de los cuales 5 fueron ~ de acostumbramlento al maneJo contlnuo, y a los anImales en lIbre pastoreo eran sumlnlstrados los 7 días slgulentes bolos con oXldo de cromoSe empleo papel flltro No 40, con una dlmenslón de 10 x 14 cm, en peso aproxlmado de 1 5 gr El papel de oXldo crómlco tlene en contenldo aproxlmado de 30 % de cromo Se pesó 10 gr de papel crómlco en b~lanzas de precls1ón y se-» confecclono\" los bolos de un tamano adecuado que pueda ser In-trodUCIdo en el \" lanza bolos» La coleCCIón de los consumIdo por los anlmales fIstulados se hIZO en bolsas segun descrlto por Arnold La pradera o potrero empleado para el experlmento tenla una area de 1 Ha, con una capaCIdad de carga de 2 anlmales/Ha, la -ml~ma que contenla 3 gramlneas y 2 legumlnosas, todas ellas asocladas entre ~l aSl en gramlneas tenlamos -Andropogon gayanus -Brachlarla decumbens -Panlcum maXlmum El 18 de Septiembre despue! de bañarse y reallzado el pe -saJe, se comenzó con el sum1nlstro de los bolos con OXido crómlco, por 2 veces al día, haCiendo un total de 40 grs de papel cro-miCO que teorlcamente deben haber 1nger1do 12 ars aprOXImadamente de cromo ( cr 2 0 3 ), todo esto durante 12 dlas ( hasta el 29 de Septiembre) Desde el 25 al 29 de SeptIembre, recoleCCIón de los hecesfecales, por 2 veces al día ( con un 1ntervalo de 8 horas), 400 grs por la mañana y 400 grs por la tarde, esto en an1males de pastoreo Paralelo al peso anterlor, se hIzo muestreo de 10 consumldo con 2 anlmales flstulados esofaglcamente, al~dia 2 vecesse colocaba las bolsas de recolecclón a estos novl1los y eran envlados al potrero o la pradera en estudlo De la muestra colectada se separaban 2 sub-muestras, slendo la prlmera para el analls1s botánlco y la segunda para la determlnaclón de M,S y dlgestlbll1dad \" ln Vltro\", lueqo tenlamos 800 qrs/dfa/anlmal. para analls1s de LaboratorIo ( dlQestlbl11dad y M S ) y 200 Qrs Dara el anallS1s botanlco La producClón dlarla de heces y muestras eSOfaQ1CaS se ho-meQenlzaba cada uno de ellos v se quardaba en un conqelador a -20°C hasta el día de su respectlvo anallslsEl anallsls botanlco o determlaClón de las especles COnsumldas se hlZO con la ayuda\"de un mlcroscopl0 blnocular, slgulendo los pasoS slgulentes -Lavar'un porclón de muestra debldamente homogenlzado con--áCldo acetlco al 2% -Pesar 5 grs de esta muestra lavada, en una placa petry -ldentlflcar las especles al mlcroscoplO con la ayuda de la tab1111a graduada, especlalmente confecclonada para el ca-SO. donde se lela 5 puntos en líneas, haClendo un total de 25 puntos, luego se glra la placa en un angula de 180 0 y se vuelve a hacer la lectura de los 5 puntos en los 5 llnpas que suman nuevamente 25 puntos, haclendo un total dp 50observaclones en la prlmera placa Pesar nuevame~te 5 gramos de la mlsma muestra y repetlr la opelaclór anterlor, donde se tendrá nuevamente 50 puntos observados e ldentlflcados.que sumando la placa 1 y 2 tendremos 100 observaclones, de donde se saca un porcentaJe de las especles consumldas por cada anlma1 dlarlamente    Se puede observar la relaclón 1 1 que eXlste entre los promedlos totales de grarnlneas y legumlnosas, de donde se puede deduclr que tanto gramlneas como legurnlnosas eran consumldas en 19ual lntensldad en un pastoreo contlnuo En cuanto a la relaclón de dlgestlbl11dad y porcentaJe de 10 IngerIdo, en la gráfIca No 1 se nota una lIgera pendIente nega-t1va entre la relaCIón dlgestlbllldad y % de 10 lngerldo en el caso de Andropogon, no sucedlendo lo mlsmo con la ~rachlarla decumbens y Panlcum maXlmum _( graflca 1 y 2}, donde se observa una lInea ascenaentp en ambos casos dedUCIendo en un prlnclplo que eXIste una relaclón dlrectamente proporclonal en estas espe-CleS, a mayor consumo mayor dlgestlbllldad, sucedIendo lo contra-rlO con el Centrosema y Stylosanthes, donde la relaclón es Inversamente proporclonal ya que en las gráflcas 4 y 5 se puede obser-> var un pendlente llgeramente negatlva Todo esto presumlendo puede deberse a que el Andropogon Se encontraba en un proceso de recuperaclón, motlvo por el que estaba cercado este pasto y su consumo fue mlnlmo por los nOVlllos en estudlo, con respecto a Stylosanthes, se puede declr que esta legumInosa se ha notado bastante cublerta por las gramlneas, haclendo dlflCll su consumo por los anlmales El resultado de -Centrosomas poslblemente se debe a la edad avanzada de las plantas Se hace notar que estas dlferenclas no se han demostrado aun estadlstlcamente RECOMENDACIONES -Reallzar el analls1s qu;mlco de las muestras esofóglcas.-Determlnac16n Botánlca de la pradera en estudlo -Termlnar el anallsls de oXldo cromlCO -Sacar las dlferenclas estadlstlcas de las relaclones, ","tokenCount":"1463"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/8245416888.json b/data/part_6/8245416888.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ba6c4c0ef53cd15424deaacc33576d65","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8c828a62-6b95-49cf-b31b-6762b45a21ec/content","id":"-1978384959"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"27432909-fada-4ac3-8270-f6cfc5beaca0","pagecount":"30","content":"The purpose of this report is to document and track progress on the implementation of recommendations from EGS studies that were carried out on selected countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and West and Central Africa (WCA). The recommendations were designed to ensure a sustainable supply of EGS based on market-specific archetypes involving private, public and public-private partnerships. For the subsequent years following the conclusion and adoption of the study reports, there have been some significant achievements registered based on the country-specific recommendations from the studies. This report provides a review of the extent of implementation of the recommendations in each of the mentioned countries.The study involved a review of literature which included the country-specific EGS studies and the available literature that comprised of projects reports, recent policy documents and any other relevant available literature. Despite the list of countries in which the studies were conducted, this study only focused on the implementation of recommendations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria.Most countries have to a large extent implemented most of the recommendations from the EGS studies. A lot of emphasis was placed on addressing the creation of enabling environment aspects such as the enactment of seed acts, the plant variety protection bill and policies in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana as well as harmonization between the national and regional seed laws. There was also emphasis towards capacity building for seed regulation and certification services through training of human resources and enabling private sector participation in seed inspection in addition to accreditation by the international bodies ISTA and OECD. PPPs were established for the root and tuber crops cassava and potatoes; and mainly hybrid and OPV maize for the cereal crops.Fingerprinting of parental lines is the most notably unimplemented for all the countries that it was recommended, but also the national establishements such as Variety Testing Center, demand forecasting frameworks and National Seed Steering committee for the case of Malawi and Tanzania respectively. It is therefore recommended that further investigation of gaps in implementation be carried to understand reasons for non-implementation.The purpose of this report is to document and track progress on the implementation of recommendations from EGS studies that were carried out on selected countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and West and Central Africa (WCA). The EGS delivery systems of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Ghana and Nigeria resulted in a recommendation of interventions for improvement of EGS delivery systems given their status and the factors affecting its performance in the respective countries. The recommendations were designed to ensure a sustainable supply of EGS based on market-specific archetypes involving, private, public and public-private partnerships. For the subsequent years following the conclusion and adoption of the study reports, there have been some significant achievements registered based on the country-specific recommendations from the studies. This report, therefore, provides a review of the extent of implementation of the recommendations in each of the mentioned countries.The study involved a desk review of literatures from country-specific EGS studies and other literature that comprised of projects' reports, recent policy documents and any available relevant literature. Despite the list of countries in which the studies were conducted, this study only focuses on the implementation of recommendations in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and NigeriaThe Uganda EGS study analyzed mechanisms to promote the commercial and self-sustaining production and supply of breeder and foundation seeds of selected food crops in Uganda. It focused on five crops selected based on strategic reasons, they include hybrid maize, rice, finger millet, common beans, and sesame. They identified some institutional bottlenecks affecting the seed value chains of the selected crops. The significant challenges identified during the study included: lack of a coordinated EGS production programme at NARS institutes but only focus on only a few crops with external funding; Seed companies have limited capacity, human and financial resources to generate own varieties and to produce EGS; the nationally based seed companies have limited access to affordable credit services for their operations and investment in infrastructure for seed processing and generate sufficient cash flow for contracts with outgrowers; low adoption and use of improved varieties by farmers and the farmers are also not in the habit of buying certified seed; unpredictable and inconsistent demand for seed due to lack of forward and transparent planning and fragmented markets; limited capacity of the quality control agency , i.e., National Seed Certification Services (NSCS) in terms of personnel and logistics for inspection and monitoring of seed produced by many scattered out-growers and seed dealers; a weak enabling environment that is challenged by inadequacies in the implementation of the seed policy, and strategy and enforcement of available regulations that are essential to provide guidance and playing ground for seed sector stakeholders; and the high prevalence of counterfeit seed on the market.The following crop and system wide recommendations were proposed for Uganda;-Increase the price of EGS to represent the real cost of production and remove hidden subsidies.-Train research scientists and seed companies on intellectual property rights systems to ensure equitable use of publicly developed varieties.-Strengthen seed certification with the private sector to ensure seed quality -Strengthen the technical and managerial capacities of seed companies to manage EGS and internal quality control.-Fingerprint all maize parental lines.-Develop a searchable database to share information on varieties, seed availability and levels of commercialization.-Strengthen the linkages and complementarity between research with farmers through a well-coordinated extension and advisory service programme to enhance the adoption of quality seed by all farmers.-Establish a foundation seed enterprise at NARO to secure and avail good quality foundation seed of crops that seed companies are not keen on producing due to low on no profit margins.-Ensure an effective policy and regulatory environment that is critical to enhance the delivery of the seed sector.The proposed actions for the government of Uganda were:-Review Non Tax revenue policy Uganda has made tremendous progress in implementing the recommendations from the EGS study that was conducted in 2016. Table 1 provides a summary of status of achievements made.A lot has been done to create an enabling environment for seed systems development with emphasis on EGS delivery.-There have been four seed sector policy and regulatory frameworks put in place thanks to the concerted efforts between government agencies MAAIF, NARO, with financial and technical support from USAID Feed the Future \"Uganda Enabling Environment for Agricultural development Activity\" (EEA) Program, and the development partner ISSD Uganda -The policy and regulatory frameworks put in place include; -The National Seed Policy and strategy (Figure 1). This was enacted and approved in October 2018. An abridged version of the policy was further developed to enable and broaden stakeholder understanding of the policy -Draft of Plant Variety Protection Regulation in place -NARO has streamlined the EGS institutional framework to enhance quality seed production and marketing (Figure 2).  -In line with the other recommendations, NARO and its partners (mainly ISSD Uganda) have made effort to install the required infrastructure such as; 200 acres of land provided by NARO, NHL with co-funding from ISSD Uganda installed the irrigation system on 30 acres land, established 60MT cold storage facility as well as seed processing and conditioning equipment (Figure 3). -NARO also entered a PPP arrangement with the processor Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL), a partnership that seeks to commercialize agricultural technologies as a means foster development of value chains for industrial growth (NARO, 2021). The partnership involves promotion and dissemination of information and research technologies that increase agricultural production and productivity. This is to be attained through joint development of effective sorghum, barley, and cassava seed production and distribution systems to enhance sustainable access to quality planting materials of the target commodities by of smallholder farmers (https://observer.ug). This arrangement is an example of the Niche Market archetype pathway for the supply of EGS in which seed production is organized around a processor that assures grain off-take at downstream of the crop value chain. This partnership was attained with the support through the USAID Feed the Future Agricultural Research Activity.-Establishment of a digitalized seed quality assurance system by putting in place a Seed Tracker Tracing System (STTS) to support coordination along the seed value chains (figure 4). The system enables digital coordination of EGS pre-ordering (pre-booking), registration of seed growers, field inspection services, tracking and tracing seed batches (ISSD Uganda, 2021). This system also supports seed demand planning. Not done -Develop a searchable database to share information on varieties, seed availability and levels of commercialization Done, but yet to be operationalized -Strengthen linkages between research with farmers through a well-coordinated extension and advisory service programme to enhance the adoption of quality seed by all farmers. Done -Establish a foundation seed enterprise at NARO to ensure the availability of good quality foundation seed of crops that seed companies are not keen on producing Done -Ensure an effective policy and regulatory environment Done -Explore licensing options for commercial varieties and publicize arrangements Done -Fingerprinting of parental materials Note done -Attaching an agribusiness staff at ZARDI's that produce EGS Partly done -Develop an efficient methodology to determine annual seed requirements Done -Support establishment of a national seed forum Not done -Strengthen extension and advisory services at the sub-county level to educate farmers in the use of agricultural inputs to increase crop yields Done -Support quality assurance mechanisms, including accreditation of private inspectors and delegated authority towards local government Done -Support development of a strong supportive environments such as quality physical infrastructure like roads, irrigation and markets; access to capital and financing; build capacity and legal framework for participation of farmers' organizations in seed systems.The study identified crop-specific constraints affecting EGS delivery in the country. It came up with constraints affecting the delivery of maize, potatoes and common bean. In general, EGS supply bottlenecks for all the three crop commodities are mainly attributed to the certification system, production-related issues as well as seed demand-related constraints. An overall recommendation for the establishment of public-private partnerships (PPP) for each of the crops studied was made. There were also crop-specific recommendations for the success of these PPPs.For hybrid maize, the priority objectives include increasing private sector access to public sector varieties and supporting the development of a sustainable supply of high quality EGS to support demand for hybrid seed. Achieving these objectives would result in the creation of more choices for farmers and a broadening of the potential royalty base for the public sector. The study, therefore, recommended Public-private collaboration for basic seed across KALRO, private seed companies and public universities was for the achievement of these objectives. It also recommended the improvement of inspection and certification services and overall reduction of the cost of producing basic seed. This was to be achieved by ensuring broad private-sector representation within the PPP, revision of inspection and certification system and allocating required resources to the national extension service.The overarching recommendation of expanding and enhancing potato EGS production was a PPP that is anchored at the breeder seed production level between KALRO and private seed companies. The specific recommendations were to involve international companies in the creation and operations of the PPP, allign EGS production locations with demand centers and realize the potential marginal economic value of potato.The establishment of an EGS system for common beans that is built around a PPP to increase the supply of improved seed in order to meet the current market demand was recommended. Additionally, the study recommended the need to build on-farm demand for improved varieties and quality seed as well as create sustainable demand by increasing the marginal economic value of common bean for farmers.Kenya has been able to implement most of the recommendations made through a number projects embedded in partnerships ( -Ensuring broad private-sector representation within the PPPs. As discussed in the section above, a number of private sector actors are involved in the various partnerships with clearly defined roles in the production of maize, potato and common bean EGS.-Revise the seed inspection and certification system. The seed inspection and regulatory services in Kenya were revised during the year 2017. The revised regulations allows the private sector to actively support and participate in seed inspection services in the country (AgriExperience, 2017).-Reduction of the overall cost of hybrid maize seed production. This was achieved through the SPTA project. The project promoted the \"Ms44\" technology to improve yields and reduce the cost of producing hybrid maize seed. The \"Ms44\" technology specifically eliminates the manual labour-intensive de-tasselling of maize using a naturally occurring genetic mutation (Ms44) in maize; a gene aborts the development of microspores into pollen to create female parent plants which become male-sterile. The initial phase of this initiative was from 2016-2020 with the second phase underway from the start of 2021. The Malawi study identified some supply and demand-related constraints. The constraints included a weak capacity forf breeder seed production, inadequate private sector involvement in basic and commercial seed production, absence of an EGS market information system, limited capacity of the Seed Services Unit to enforce seed certification services, lack of smallholders' awareness of benefits of improved varieties, limited awareness of the business case to invest in improved varieties of the non-traditional seed business crops, inadequate financing services for seed production and access, and inadequate capacity to identify counterfeit seed by farmers.The following recommendations were made to address these constraints; -Establish a public-private collaboration at the basic seed stage across the major players in the maize seed system; -Encourage more private sector participation in the production of basic seed; -Revitalize and improve the SSU human resource and infrastructure capacity; -Enact the new Seed Act to enable the implementation of the breeder's rights and farmers rights; -Build the capacity of seed producers and all relevant stakeholders; -Careful domestication of the SADC Seed Harmonization Programme; -Establish a national Variety Testing Centre; -Enhance the capacity of the national extension system, and -Put in place a national framework to project the potential demand for seed for each year.The extent of implementation of recommendation in Malawi is more or less that 40% with just a few (Table 3) of the recommendations fully implemented. The following actions were undertaken  The Rwanda study came up with key recommendations that mainly targeted the maize, potato, common bean, soybean and wheat EGS systems.The following recommendations were made.-Establish a PPP for potato and common bean with the specifications related to partners and position within the seed system developed according to the needs of the given crop. -Increase the availability of new improved potato varieties -Enhance the economic value of potato -Include soybean and wheat in the common bean PPP model to make it attractive to the private sector -Develop and communicate a strategy to eliminate maize subsidies -Allow private maize seed companies to make seed production decisions, including what to produce and where to produce it, without government approval -Develop purpose-built agricultural lending products tailored for smallholder farmers -Harmonize Rwanda's registration and seed import process with EAC and COMESA procedures -Operationalize plant variety protection policies that have been embodied in the recently passed seed law -Focus RAB's hybrid maize program on conducting trials to provide farmers with unbiased data.Rwanda registered enormous progress in attaining most of the above recommendations (Table4). Most of the achievements are attributed to AGRA interventions in seed systems development in the country. The following has been implemented to date.-Harmonization of Rwanda's registration and seed import process with EAC and COMESA procedures. The national seed laws were aligned with the COMESA and EAC procedures (COMESA, 2018). -Develop and communicate a strategy to eliminate maize subsidies. The Rwandan government partly removed subsidies on imported seeds which includes maize seed as a strategy to reduce seed imports and promote uptake and use of locally produced improved seeds. The locally-produced seeds are currently subsidized by 79% while the imported seeds are subsidized by 40% (Nkurunzinza, 2021). -Increase the availability of new improved potato varieties. New potato varieties (eleven) have been released by RAB during the years 2020 and 2021 under AGRA -PIATA grants (MINAGRI, 2019; RAB, 2020 ) -Allow private maize seed companies to make seed production decisions, including what to produce and where to produce it, without government approval.AGRA also works with partners and the Government of Rwanda to increase incentives for private sector participation and investment into the seed sector and at the same time working to enhance access to finance and markets, the adoption of climate-smart technologies and the use of agro-inputs. For instance, the organization has supported the Bank of Kigali to develop an online application system tailored to increase access to improved seeds by smallholder farmers through MOPA and IKOFI (E-wallet) platforms. The MOPA platform facilitates the purchase of seeds from accredited suppliers by agro-dealers while IKOFI (E-wallet) permits the smallholder farmers to purchase seeds with fertilizers from agro-dealers (AGRA, 2021).AGRA supported 15 seed companies by providing grants to RAB who capacitated weak start-up seed enterprises with seed production technologies through on-site practical skills transfer and in-class training as a means for boosting seed business capacities by the private sector (AGRA, 2021).AGRA, by supporting the implementation of the country's Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA 4, 2018(PSTA 4, -2024) ) gave grant to MINAGRI for reforming and operationalizing policies and regulations related to agricultural inputs and markets for conducive business environments of agriculture (MINAGRI,2020). A summary of the implemented actions is presented in Table 4. -Establish a PPP for potato and common bean with the specifications related to partners and position within the seed system developed according to the needs of the given crop.not fully attained -Increase the availability of new improved potato varieties Done -Enhance the economic value of potato Done -Include soybean and wheat in the common bean PPP model to make it attractive to the private sector -Develop and communicate a strategy to eliminate maize subsidies Done -Allow private maize seed companies to make seed production decisions, including what to produce and where to produce it, without government approval Done -Develop purpose-built agricultural lending products tailored for smallholder farmers Done -Harmonize Rwanda's registration and seed import process with EAC and COMESA procedures Done -Operationalize plant variety protection policies that have been embodied in the recently passed seed law On going -Focus RAB's hybrid maize program on conducting trials to provide farmers with unbiased data. DoneFor Ghana, nearly all of the seven crops EGS systems that were evaluated were classified under PPP market archetype with the exception of imported maize hybrids and sorghum which fall under the private sector and public sector dominant archetypes respectively (AGRA-SSTP, 2016). The OPV maize, local hybrid maize, rice, cowpea, soybean and groundnut were recommended for development through PPP arrangement. Unlike other country cases, PPP arrangements already exist in the Ghana seed sector which is attributed to the positive changes in the industry that has had increased private sector participation in the seed system. The existing arrangements are however weak, unbalanced and fragmented. Therefore unlike other studies where the establishment of new PPPs' was recommended, modifications to strengthen and formalize the existing PPP frameworks were recommended for improvement of EGS delivery in Ghana.Overall, several recommendations were made and included the following; -Creating an enabling environment by completing the guidelines allowing the private sector to legitimately undertake foundation seeds production and marketing; the guidelines for liberalization of varietal release process to make it independent, transparent and fair; ratification of the ECOWAS seed regulation to allow free movement of varieties and seeds within the region to create markets of sufficient size; the passage of the Plant Breeders' Bill into law to reward and incentivize breeders towards developing reliable and high quality breeder seeds; liberalization of seed imports and import licensing procedures to make them transparent, independent and open for competition.-Promote information flow for awareness creation through digitization and electronic sharing of a database of released varieties, along with descriptors and pictorial representations will greatly promote awareness. -Formulate and operationalize sound and legally binding PPP frameworks that fairly represent the interests of key stakeholders through broad consultations processes. -Liberalizing seed importation and strengthening the public regulatory agencies to effectively monitor imports and manage risks. -Institutional Transformation by ensuring seed regulatory and supervisory agencies are resourced and empowered to adequately supervise the operations of actors and provide the needed technical guidance and oversight for instance; PPRSD be given autonomy to effectively supervise actors; The GSID should be resourced to provide needed technical support services; GLDB should morph into a competency training and technical service provider on a demand-driven and fee-based basis and its assets divested under a PPP arrangement. -NARIs to play a central role within the enhanced PPP through breeding and facilitating access to high quality breeder seeds by building their technical and operational competencies.-The enhanced PPP model should resolve the severe constraints experienced in accessing good quality foundation seed for all locally produced EGS. -Institute a competency-based training and mentorship programme to help the private sector upgrade its technical and business management capacities in the production, quality control and assurance and Business Development Skills. -Design a suitable funding mechanism to enable the private sector make the requisite investment in infrastructure, equipment, production and processing to achieve large economies of scale. -Strengthen NASTAG, to become the lead advocate and to position itself to effectively link into and benefit from regional platforms like ASIWA to advance the cause of the private sector. -Nurturing and strengthening linkages with output markets -NASTAG to spearhead development and promotion of market information systems -Develop effective promotion and awareness creation strategies with seed companies -Co-funding awareness creation programs that include field demonstrations, radio educational campaigns and the use of ICT such as those piloted by ATTP. -GSID should fully allow individual branding and packaging by seed companies to promote brand recognition, greater accountability and quality assurance and also facilitate premium pricing.-Seed companies must develop and be guided by effective marketing plans that will set goals and strategies to realize these outcomes including investment in personnel and marketing systems. -NASTAG to adopt and spearhead stakeholder platforms like those facilitated by ATT in Northern Ghana to serve as a starting point for establishing a credible demand forecasting system to support proper production planning and seed marketing.With support from development actors as well as the private sector, Ghana has been able to implement moooost of the recommended points of action (Table 5). ✓ Completing the guidelines allowing the private sector to legitimately undertake foundation seeds production and marketing; ✓ Completing the guidelines for liberalization of varietal release process to make it independent, transparent and fair; ✓ Completing ratification of the ECOWAS seed regulation to allow free movement of varieties and seeds within the region to create markets of sufficient size; ✓ Completing the passage of the Plant Breeders' Bill into law to reward and incentivize breeders towards developing reliable and high quality breeder seeds; ✓ Complete liberalization of seed imports and import licensing procedures to make them transparent, independent and open for competition. -GSID should fully allow individual branding and packaging by seed companies to promote brand recognition, greater accountability, and quality assurance and also facilitate premium pricing Partly done -Seed companies must develop and be guided by effective marketing plans that will set goals and strategies to realize these outcomes including investment in personnel and marketing systems Done -NASTAG to adopt and spearhead stakeholder platforms like those facilitated by ATT in Northern Ghana to serve as a starting point for establishing a credible demand forecasting system to support proper production planning and seed marketingAccording to Mabaya et al., 2020, the following achievements have been recorded towards the creation of an enabling environment as alo; -The variety catalogue was updated as of 2019 with the variety release procedures harmonized with ECOWAS requirements. -Seeds Regulations Certification and Standards was harmonized with the ECOWAS regulations, gazetted in November 2018 and came into force in December 2018. -The Plant Breeders Bill, Plant Variety Protection Act, 2020 was passed into law in November 2020 but is not yet operational. The law provides a legal framework to protect plant breeders' rights. -Seed imports and import licensing procedures have been liberalized. Ghana today has the lowest requirements in ECOWAS because the documentation process for importing seed was simplified. -The GISD received technical support services in form of seed inspectors whose number rose from 32 extension workers to 45 workers. These extension staffs are however hindered by a lack of adequate resources to perform their role.Through the USAID Feed the Future project, Agriculture Policy Support Project (November 2016-May 2018), NASTAG made the following achievements; -Recognition of the role of the private sector in seed systems -Multinational private companies like Dupont Pioneer and Seedco have received approval to release high yielding varieties of maize in Ghana. -The private sector companies have obtained the approval to produce foundation seeds once they meet the specified requirements -Organized the National Seed Value Chain Business Networking Forum comprising an estimated 200 seed value chain actors and stakeholders. -Spearheaded the Northern Ghana Seed Platform The EGS consortium for Sustainable Production of Quality Seeds was launched in 2020 under the leadership of the WACCI in partnership with CSIR-Crop Research Institute, CSIR-Savannah Agricultural Research Institute LCIC, and the Integrated Water Management and Agricultural Development Ghana Limited and working closely with NASTAG, and supported by AGRA and USAID (NASTAG, 2021). The consortium aims to produce both breeder and foundation seeds for major crop value chains including maize, groundnut, soybean, and cowpea; undertake promotion activities for improved crop varieties, and build capacity of the seed producers.Capacity building and Mentorship of NASTAG through the USAID-GIAT project. This involved building capacity to establish monitoring and evaluation systems with an emphasis on data collection and management. The purpose was to enable and support efficient and accurate analysis of data received from seed producers but also provide detailed information for informed decision-making (NASTAG, 2021). the electronic seed demand forecasting tool was launched in the year 2020 to facilitate seed demand planning and production. This initiative was led by CORAF through the USAID-PAIRED project (USAID, 2021). The project also undertook the development of up-to-date regional catalogues of plant species along with released crop varieties.The Nigeria EGS study came up with ta number of recommendations some of which were cross cutting. They included;-Establishement of maize-soybean EGS public-private partnership (PPP) for both maize and soybean -Establishing a National Seed Fund -Implementing and enforcing clear Intellectual Property (IP) policies -Improving the quality assurance system -The FMARD pushing for the early enactment of the New Seed Law to suppress the counterfeit seed trade.The crop-specific recommendations from the EGS study included; -Establish a private processor oriented rice seed system and promoting policies to increase local paddy production through support integrated rice processors that process locally produced paddy at a competitive quality and price -Establishing a strong National Yam Value Chain Association -Demonstrating the benefits of adopting improved yam varieties at farm level -Supporting the distribution of improved seed yam -Establishing an EGS PPP for both maize and soybean -Accelerating the production and distribution of maize hybrids in the Humid Rain Forest agro-ecological zone -Increasing the capacity of the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) substations to increase soybean breeder seed production and improving the knowledge of the benefits of improved soybean varieties among agro-dealers.Nigeria has made good strides to improve the performance of its seed sector based on the recommendations from the EGS study (Table 6). -AGRA through two large consortia supported two seed companies in Kaduna State to increase production and commercialization of maize, rice and soybean breeder seed (KIT, 2020).-Improving Quality Assurance System.The states were also supported to increase certified seed production. There is increased seed quality control and seed sector governance today in Nigeria through the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) and regulatory progress through legislative advocacy. AGRA in collaboration with the NASC facilitated seed quality control through a turnkey electronic seed certification system with scratch card authentication (KIT, 2020).The recommended actions and their respective level of implementationsare summarized in Table 7. -Increase the price of EGS to represent the real cost of production and remove hidden subsidies. √-Train research scientists and seed companies on intellectual property rights systems to ensure equitable use of publicly developed varieties.-Strengthen seed certification with the private sector to ensure seed quality √ -Strengthen capacity of seed companies to manage EGS and internal quality control X -Develop a searchable database to share information on varieties, seed availability and levels of commercialization √/X -Strengthen linkages between research with farmers through a well-coordinated extension and advisory service programme to enhance the adoption of quality seed by all farmers.-Establish a foundation seed enterprise at NARO to ensure the availability of good quality foundation seed of crops that seed companies are not keen on producing √ -Ensure an effective policy and regulatory environment √ -Explore licensing options for commercial varieties and publicize arrangements √ -Fingerprinting of parental materials X -Attaching an agribusiness staff at ZARDI's that produce EGS √/X -Develop an efficient methodology to determine annual seed requirements √ -Support establishment of a national seed forum X -Strengthen extension and advisory services at the sub-county level to educate farmers in the use of agricultural inputs to increase crop yields From a general perspective, most countries endeavored to address the recommendations given during the EGS studies. The achievements registered demonstrate that most countries have to a large extent (more than 75%) implemented most of the recommendations from the studies (Table 7) .A lot has been achieved in the creation of the enabling environment for all the countries with most countries enacting the respective seed acts and signing them into law as well as the aspects of the plant breeders bills or the plant variety protection bill and policies in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana. Most of the studied countries made effort to harmonize and domesticate the national seed laws with regional markets laws and requirements A few countries for which accreditation by international seed bodies ISTA and OECD was recommended also made effort to implement.The need to build capacity in seed quality and regulatory services was also seriously considered in most countries where it was recommended. Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, and Ghana had their human resources trained in order to build efficiency in seed inspection and regulation. This is strengthened further with the building of capacities of seed companies to participate in seed inspection and regulatory service provision.The establishment of PPPs as a means to address the EGS needs was successfully implemented in most countries courtesy of specific ongoing project initiatives. PPPs for delivery of EGS for cereal crops such as hybrid maize, sorghum, common beans, soybeans, and the root and tuber crops cassava and potatoes were established especially in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana.Despite the efforts to implement most of the recommendations a few cases exist where some have not been done yet (Table 8). The recommendations that have notably not been implemented are mainly those that were directed to respective governements such as the establishment of National Variety Testing Center, putting in place a national framework for future demand forecasting as well as fingerprinting of breeding products. It is therefore, recommended that respective governments and lead development agencies followup on areas that have not been implemented so as to ensure efficiently functional seed sectors. Uganda -Strengthen capacity of seed companies to manage EGS and internal quality control X -Fingerprinting of parental materials X -Support establishment of a national seed forum X Malawi -Establish public-private collaboration at the basic seed stage across the major players in the maize seed system X -Enact the new Seed Act to enable the implementation of the breeder's rights and farmers' rights X -Establish a national Variety Testing Centre X -Put in place a national framework to project annual potential demand for seed X Rwanda -Establish a PPP for potato and common bean with the specifications related to partners and position within the seed system developed according to the needs of the given crop.-Include soybean and wheat in the common bean PPP model to make it attractive to the private sector X -Operationalize plant variety protection policies that have been embodied in the recently passed seed law √/X Ghana -Institute a competency-based training and mentorship programme to help the private sector upgrade its technical and business management capacities in the production, quality control and assurance, and Business Development Skills-GSID should fully allow individual branding and packaging by seed companies to promote brand recognition, greater accountability, and quality assurance and also facilitate premium pricingNigeria -Establishing a National Seed Fund XGenerally, most implementation of the recommendations has been attained where there are specifically funded programmes or projects that focused on seed system development by addressing some specific challenges in a given country. This is for instance the case in Kenya where more PPPs were realized as a result of programmes such as SPTA, One Acre Fund Initiative, PABRA among others. It is also the case for the big achievements observed in Uganda as a result of the presence of the ISSD programme with deliberate core interests in addressing EGS challenges. The same applies in RWANDA with the AGRA Rwanda programme facilitating the attainment of most recommendations especially with creating the enabling environment. To understand the reasons behind the non-implementation of some of the recommendations, we recommend further investigation to unravel the underlining causes.","tokenCount":"5517"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"34b2c805e159b554f526eadb3f123700","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7ea18225-98cd-4ac3-a549-6a6dd99464e0/retrieve","id":"-1062933298"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a442159e-2d0a-4528-b9e9-20c89b838e04","pagecount":"11","content":"year-on-year price changes for essential nutrient sources like fruits, milk, and meat saw significant increases in Nepal, reaching up to 14.0 percent. Milk prices in the Western provinces surged by 44.1 percent over the past year, potentially affected in part by lumpy skin disease affecting livestock. Poorer households are likely to have experienced increased challenges purchasing these goods as a result. At the same time, the prevalence of food insecurity measured in rural Nepal was lower in agricultural households compared to non-agricultural households, indicative of the formers' ability to manage food commodity increases through production of foods on farm and/or through better farmgate profits. During the last month, Nepal also had a higher Food Import Vulnerability Index compared to neighboring countries, particularly for essential consumption commodities like rice, vegetable oils, maize, and wheat. This indicates a greater susceptibility to increased world food prices and the importance of policy makers and development practitioners to consider options to address price vulnerability, particularly for the poor. Lastly, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in West Nepal on November 3, resulting in 154 reported deaths, 366 injuries, and extensive damage to houses and structures, with relief efforts ongoing. 1 A rapid survey in Jajarkot and Rukum West districts reveals that agricultural households have reported loss of livestock, damage to seed stores affecting winter planting, and increased market access challenges post-earthquake.8.4 percent in the hills and 6.3 percent in the terai. Notably, the highest inflation rate within this category was observed in the Kathmandu valley, standing at 11.6 percent.For farmers in Nepal, the high inflation in cereal grains and related products, along with milk products and eggs, could potentially be a benefit they may receive better prices for agricultural produce. However, the urban and rural poor consumers in Nepal, especially those in mid-Hills of Kathmandu valley, might face increased financial pressure due to the elevated prices, particularly cereals and their products. The decrease in vegetable prices compared to the previous month offered some relief to consumers, but overall, the 7.5 percent year-on-year Consumer Price Inflation suggests ongoing challenges in maintaining affordability and access to essential food items for vulnerable populations. Source: Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation (Based on Three months Data Ending Mid-October 2023/24), Nepal Rastra Bank Inflation vis-à-vis India: Nepal's inflation rate has consistently remained higher with a difference of up to 3.0 percent when compared with India's year-on-year consumer price inflation The measures implemented by India to curb escalating inflation, such as imposing restrictions and quotas on the export of essential commodities like rice and wheat, appear to have had a negative impact on the prices of importing countries, including Nepal. The higher inflation rate in Nepal, compounded by India's measures to control inflation, can strain the finances of poor consumers, making essential goods more expensive and potentially reducing their standard of living.Vulnerability to import price shocks: Food Import Vulnerability Index (FIVI) 2 for Nepal at the country level was reported as 29. FIVI considers the proportion of commodity imports, the share of caloric food intake for each commodity, and the prevalence of food insecurity, offers both country and commodity-level indices. This index gauges a country's susceptibility to increased world food 2 The FIVI considers which considers the proportion of commodity imports, the share of caloric food intake for each commodity, and the prevalence of food insecurity, offers both country and commodity-level indices. This index gauges a country's susceptibility to increased world food prices (see https://www.foodsecurityportal.org/). prices. By commodities, the FIVI index stood at 29 for rice, 27 for vegetable oils, and 20 each for maize and wheat. Comparatively, the FIVI index for other South Asian countries was as follows: India (20); Bangladesh (20); Bhutan (49); Sri Lanka (15); Pakistan (24); Maldives (36); and Afghanistan (55). This suggests that Nepal's vulnerability is higher for essential consumption commodities when compared to other neighboring countries, highlighting the need of programs to minimize such vulnerability.The year-on-year overall growth in the National Salary and Wage Rate Index was 5.6 percent in September-October. During this period, the salary index experienced a growth of 1.0 percent, whereas the wage rate index saw a growth of 7.0 percent. Within the wages category, industrial labor reported the highest wage growth at 11.7 percent, while agricultural labor wages grew by 5.2 percent. The comparatively slower growth in agricultural wages is expected to have a positive impact on farmers who need to hire labor for their farm activities, while it might conversely compromise the ability of laborers who cannot find non-agricultural employment to afford food and other needs.Comprehensive data from the USAID Feed the Future (FTF) Zone of Influence Primary data were collected from a sample of 812 households in August across four provinces in the USAID Feed the Future (FtF) Zone of Influence (ZoI), namely Sudurpaschim, Karnali, Lumbini, Bagmati, and the proposed expanded ZoI, Madesh Province in Nepal. Preliminary results indicate that approximately 6.0 percent of the sample households experienced either moderate or severe level of food insecurity, while only 0.18 percent of households experienced severe food insecurity (Annex 4). These findings are encouraging when compared to national-level results from the World Bank (2021) 3 , which reported 37.4 percent of the population experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity and 13.2 percent experiencing severe food insecurity.Eighty percent of the sampled households in the primary survey were agricultural households. While 4.1 percent of the agricultural households in the survey experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, 12.9 percent of the non-agricultural households faced moderate or severe food insecurity. Furthermore, agricultural households with migrant family members had an even lower prevalence rate of moderate to severe food insecurity, standing at 3.54 percent. Improved agricultural practices and remittance inflows therefore appear to have some measurable effect on reduced hunger in these parts of Nepal.According to the National Sample Census of Agriculture 2021/22, 55.0 percent of all households reported not having sufficient food from their own production. Among these, 30 percent experienced food insufficiency for over six months of the year. Among food-insufficient households, approximately 18.0 percent reported wages earned from outside the country/remittances as an essential income source to meet their food necessities, while about 62.0 percent relied on wage earnings from within the country.Migration and remittances: Migration and remittances play a crucial role in supporting Nepali households' livelihoods. In the first quarter (mid-July to mid-October) of this fiscal year 2023/24 (Nepali FY 2080/81), there was a 23 percent year-on-year decline in the issuance of new labor permits and a 15 percent decrease in the renewal of labor permits for foreign employment. In FY 2022/23, a total of 774,976 labor permits were issued, with 35.7 percent representing renewed entry permits. In the months of September and October, a total of NPR 365.5 billion (USD 2.75 billion) was recorded as remittance, which was 30.0 percent increase compared to the same period in the previous year. The increase in remittance is likely to have some negative influence on national interest rates, and thus could benefit both farmers and poor consumers to some extent.On November 3rd, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Western Nepal, centered at Ramidanda in the Barekot rural municipality within the Jajarkot district of the Karnali province. Subsequent aftershocks have been recorded in the region. According to the Government of Nepal's Disaster Risk Reduction Portal as of November 18th, there have been 154 confirmed fatalities and 366 reported injuries, primarily concentrated in the Jajarkot and Rukum West districts. Additional affected areas encompass Rukum East, Salyan, Rolpa, Nawalparasi East, Dailekh, Dang, Baitadi, Jumla, Kalikot, Pyuthan, and Achham. The earthquake resulted in the complete destruction of approximately 26,557 residences, with an additional 35,455 structures experiencing partial damage, including 14 government buildings.CSISA just completed a rapid agricultural household survey in Jajarkot and Rukum West districts. Preliminary results highlight the ways in which agricultural households have reported the loss of essential assets, particularly livestock, and structural damage to seed stores that has resulted in loss of seed supplies for planting in the upcoming winter season. Households have also reported increased challenges in accessing markets and selling agricultural goods post-earthquake. A more detailed account will be provided in the next Agrifood Systems Report.At the federal level, the government authorized NPR 100 million (USD 750,581) 4 for immediate relief and announced NPR 200,000 (USD 1,501) per deceased person for affected families. 5 Sudurpashchim and Koshi provinces have each allocated NPR 15 million (USD 112,587) 6 , while Bagmati and Lumbini provinces have contributed NPR 10 million (USD 75,058) at the provincial level for earthquake relief efforts. 7 Additionally, local governments are fundraising to support relief efforts. In addition to financial support, earthquake-affected areas are receiving non-food items like tarpaulins, mattresses, jackets, blankets, as well as essential food staples such as rice, pulses, cooking oil, beaten rice, biscuits, and salt. Ensuring that affected families have access to a nutritious diet to prevent malnutrition is among the many priorities of relief agencies, and nutrition specialists have expressed concerns regarding the distribution of ready-to-eat items like biscuits and noodles, advocating for the provision of nutrient-rich alternatives to less healthy foods.Social safety net coverage: Analyses of primary data revealed that 31.8 percent of individuals received at least one social security benefit in the past 12 months. Data also show that only 18.4 percent received subsidies for seeds and fertilizers. These findings suggest limited coverage of social safety net programs in the FtF ZoI when compared to the national target of achieving a 60 percent social protection coverage outlined in the 15th plan of Nepal 8 . A concurrent study conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2023 9 aligns with these findings, suggesting that approximately 32.9 percent of the population in Nepal is covered by at least one social security benefit.Key messages: Commodity prices show an upward deviation from the national average price in the Western provinces, mostly in meat and fish. Fruit prices varied significantly in the last month, with apples becoming more expensive nationally but cheaper in the Western provinces, a sharp increase in orange prices, especially in the Western provinces compared to last year, and a national increase in banana prices. Milk prices in the Western provinces surged by 44.1 compared to last year, potentially influenced by an outbreak of lumpy skin disease.In September, there was a substantial year-on-year price increase in coarse rice, with a surge of 23.4 percent, and medium grain rice, which saw a rise of 13.4 percent, at the national level. Similarly, the national prices for wheat also experienced an increase of 21.6 percent. While the prices for these cereals in the western provinces generally mirrored the national trends for coarse rice and wheat flour, there was a noteworthy deviation of NPR 10.7 (USD 0.08) for medium grain rice, representing an 11.9 percent increase compared to the national price of NPR 90.3 (USD 0.68). These price increases in staple cereals can potentially boost income for farmers but strain the budgets of consumers, particularly the poor.Fruits: The year-on-year growth in the prices of apples in September was 24.6 percent at the national level (NPR 268, USD 2.02) and 34 percent in the Western provinces (NPR 227.8, USD 1.72). In Western provinces, the price of apples was 15.0 percent lower than at the national level. Western provinces saw a marked increase of 48.6 percent in the price of oranges year-on-year at NPR 265 per kg; however, the deviation in price from the national level is only NPR 13 (5.2 percent higher). In the previous year, however, the price of oranges in Western provinces was NPR 83.5 (32.0 percent) lower than the price at national level. The price of bananas has declined by 3.8 percent from the previous month, but data nonetheless suggest an increase of 10.7 percent year-on-year at the national level. Banana prices in the Western provinces were11.8 percent higher than the national average. For poor urban and rural consumers, price fluctuations can strain already limited budgets.Vegetables: In Nepal's western provinces, the year-on-year price decrease of essential vegetables like tomatoes, red potatoes, pumpkins, and carrots, with pumpkins experiencing a significant 20.5 percent reduction, is a positive development for the nutrition of rural households. Nationally, tomato prices have also seen a substantial decline of 22.5 percent compared to the previous month. These vegetables are crucial in the diets of rural communities due to their high content of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients essential for health. Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, red potatoes provide a valuable source of carbohydrates and potassium, pumpkins are high in vitamins A and E, and carrots are known for their beta-carotene content.In the Western provinces of Nepal, milk prices have risen sharply by 44.1 percent over the past year, reaching NPR 130.4 (USD 0.98) per liter. This price is notably higher than the national average, which stands at NPR 118.0 (USD 0.89) per liter -10.5 percent less than in the Western provinces. A significant factor behind this steep increase in milk prices is likely the outbreak of lumpy skin disease in cattle. This disease has severely affected livestock, particularly cows and buffaloes, leading to a decrease in milk production. On the other hand, the price of eggs has remained stable, costing NPR 19.8 each. For dairy farmers, the outbreak of lumpy skin disease poses a major challenge, potentially reducing their cattle's productivity and increasing costs for veterinary care and preventive measures if these services are available. Conversely, the higher milk prices could mean increased revenue for those able to maintain healthy livestock. However, for consumers, especially in rural and urban low-income areas, this sharp rise in milk prices could limit access to these products which are an important component in human nutrition, affecting dietary quality. The stability in egg prices conversely offers some relief, providing an alternative source of animal protein.Meat and fish constitute critical sources of protein in the diets of Nepalese households, important health. In the Western provinces, the cost of fish was 25.2 percent above the national average, and the price of chicken meat rose by 10.7 percent in the last month. Nationally, prices for both fish and meat have seen a year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively, in November of 2023. These rises outpace the inflation rate, which was 7.5 percent. For human health, and especially for women (and pregnant and lactating mothers), these protein sources can be key. The higher prices could if sustained, therefore, have adverse implications, potentially leading to proteinenergy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies for households unable to produce or afford these foods.The prices of edible oils are on a decline in Nepal. Nationally, mustard oil prices have fallen by 5.3 percent from October to November, and soybean oil prices have dropped by 1.3 percent over the same timeframe. Despite this trend, the cost of mustard oil in the Western provinces remains 7.5 percent higher than the national average. These oils are a source of vitamins that are important for the immune system and aid the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K. The decrease in edible oil prices could ease financial burdens and improve nutritional intake for poor households in Nepal, but the persistently higher costs in the Western provinces may continue to challenge their access to these essential dietary components.Fertilizers: According to field data from USAID Feed the Future implementing partners, in November, the price of urea fertilizer in Nepal ranged from NPR 20 to NPR 24 (approximately USD 0.15 to USD 0.18) per kilogram, DAP fertilizer from NPR 50 to NPR 54 (approximately USD 0.38 to USD 0.41) per kilogram, and potash from NPR 38 to NPR 40 (approximately USD 0.29 to USD 0.30) per kilogram. Fertilizer prices have remained stable since last month. However, partners in the Dang, Kapilvastu, and Banke districts have reported a partial unavailability of these fertilizers. The stability in fertilizer prices offers some predictability for poor farmers in Nepal, but localized shortages in districts like Dang, Kapilvastu, and Banke could hinder their agricultural productivity and economic stability.Energy: In November, the prices of petrol and LPG in Nepal stayed constant from the previous month, at NPR 172 (USD 1.3) per liter for petrol and NPR 1895 (USD 14.2) per cylinder for LPG, while diesel saw a modest decrease of NPR 4, costing NPR 164 (USD 1.2) per liter. Stable energy prices provide a degree of financial predictability for farmers, food transporters, and farm input dealers in Nepal. The slight decrease in diesel prices in Nepal could reduce operating costs for agricultural producers and distributors, but these savings may not be passed on to consumers due to the influence of market actors' bargaining power, intermediary absorption of cost savings, and other operational expenses.  ","tokenCount":"2764"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b8d88d9645b3fd64e661361d2b53fb60","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8202fb3b-1ca9-409d-8dcb-b779073a46d2/retrieve","id":"1832063690"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9291ee91-4921-4e7c-84f6-334266c423d9","pagecount":"23","content":"I have to begin by first thanking the World Food Prize Foundation along with Lisa Fleming. I cannot thank the WFP enough for allowing me to have this amazing and 'world-class' opportunity. This program ignited my passions even more and proved to me that anything is possible. To travel the world is one thing, but to travel and make a difference is astounding and that is possible through the World Food Prize Foundation. As for Lisa, the amount of work it takes to manage several interns across the world is plenty, but I always knew that I could reach out to her in times of need. She offered support the whole way through and especially in the first weeks. This program could not be done without Lisa doing everything she can for the interns.Nardos Wogayehu and Tigist Endashaw are others I want to thank. Nardos, always greeted me warmly and we always talked about how the day was and any comments, questions, or concerns. We would chat over coffee and tea and she really made sure my stay was to the highest satisfaction. My Ethiopian mother, Tigist, made everything special. The first day we met she brought flowers and gave the biggest hug. Though she no longer works at ILRI she still went out of her way to meet me and take me to church almost every Sunday. Both Nardos and Tigist allowed my transition to Ethiopia smooth and as comfortable as possible.My travel mate, Hannah Heit, cannot go without being thanked. For two months she put up with me. She was so very positive through the whole trip and that really made me think positively too. I enjoyed helping her with her project, watching movies together, and just having someone to talk to and visit various places with. I admire her drive and passion which really shows through her personality. I am grateful that I had someone to going on this journey with.To my project supervisors, I want to thank Dr. Olivier Hanotte, Dr. Tadelle Dessie, and Dr. Jean Hanson. All three are so incredibly intelligent in their respective areas. They opened up my eyes to Ethiopia and the livestock production taking place there. I appreciated their willingness to help and guide me as well as teach me as much as they can. Even when they were very busy, they made time to offer their support. To Dr. Jean Hanson, I want to thank her for her support and guidance when Dr. Olivier and Dr. Tadelle were gone. She made me think outside of just livestock and allowed me to find a new passion for nutrition.For Dr. Kefena Effa, I am so glad I was able to have someone like him to look up to as well as connect me with the correct people to all the data for my project. To the Bishoftu area enumerator, Mohammed Admas, I am extremely thankful. It was awesome to have a guide for all the farms as well as a translator to really connect with the farmers.Lastly, I want to thank my family for always pushing me to the best I could be. I loved our daily WhatsApp/Skype calls and getting passed around to talk to all my friends and family. I could not have done this internship without them. They saw my potential and encouraged me to reach for the stars. Knowing that I had such a strong support system back home allowed me to fully immerse myself while in Ethiopia.Growing up, almost my entire life has been spent in rural small towns and agriculture. As a youth and still today my life has revolved around a show ring. I showed pigs, horses, and of course my favorite; cattle. My summers were spent traveling around the state of Iowa and showing cattle. We spent the non-summer months preparing for even more shows. A few years ago, my family and I began to show nationally at various shows such as the American Royal in Kansas City, MO and the National Western Stock Show in Denver, CO. My passion truly lies within cattle and I am so thankful to have been given a life with an abundance of calves.Throughout high school, I was rigorously involved in several activities. FFA and basketball turned into my main extracurricular activities. But, after two serious knee injuries in basketball, I turned to the National FFA Organization. It is in this organization where my love for agriculture fully blossomed. In the Spring of 2016, my FFA advisor presented me with a new opportunity, the Iowa Youth Institute. He told me to write a paper on world hunger, go to this institute, and receive a scholarship sponsored by Iowa State University. So, I did and I absolutely loved it. Everyone was so intelligent and working diligently towards the end of hunger. It was like a new path, that God wanted me to go on. One thing that really stuck out to me was the opportunity to be a Borlaug-Ruan International Intern. That became my new goal.In the Fall of 2016, I was selected to attend the Global Youth Institute. There my understanding of the world and my deepest want to make a difference was sparked. Listening to scientists, World Food Prize Laureates, and my own peers really showed me that we can all make a difference. As the time drew near to apply for the Borlaug-Ruan Internship, I knew that I had to take that leap of faith. Though I was not fully sure what I would be getting myself into, I just had to trust in God that this was what was right for me. When I found out that I was selected to be a 2017 intern at the International Livestock Research Institute in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I knew that God was planning something great.With my background in cattle and utter love for the species, I was so blessed to be given a project on African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG). I worked with Dr. Olivier Hanotte on the variations of cattle milk production in the Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) area. My focus was on the environmental factors that are key effects on milk production for the farmers and their families in this area. I also worked with Dr. Jean Hanson focusing on the economic profitability and nutrition of these same dairy farms. I am so glad that I took that leap of faith to become a Borlaug-Ruan Intern. I was very intent on going to Iowa State University into the fall to major in animal science and focus on livestock reproduction. But, because of my time spent at ILRI and in Ethiopia, my eyes were opened to so many more opportunities that I did not know were possible. I have a new found passion for genetics and nutrition in livestock. I do not know what my future holds, but I know that all I have to do is take that leap of faith.The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is a CGIAR research center headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya and co-hosted by the Government of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. ILRI offices stretch from East, South, and Southeast Asia, All parts of Africa, and Central America. ILRI works with programs from all over the world to increase food security and alleviate poverty, mainly in Africa and Asia. ILRI's mission is to improve food and nutritional security and to reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe, and sustainable use of livestock -ensuring better lives through livestock. [Vision] ILRI envisions a world where all people have access to enough food and livelihood options to fulfill their potential. [Vision]African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG) is a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation initiated in 2015 by the International Livestock Research Institute. The main goal of the project is to bring more milk productivity to dairy cattle in Africa. The importance of milk as a commodity throughout Africa along with the population increase supports the need for more productive dairy cattle. The economic standpoint of dairy production holds that a large majority of the cost comes from feed and forage. A questionnaire was created to survey Bishoftu area farmers on their management practices as well as their inputs and outputs. By looking at the management practices in place and the individual costs, key factors affecting dairy milk production as well as the profitability associated with the dairy production has been identified. Data was collected on genetics, environment, management practices, and economic inputs and outputs. The collected data were analyzed to compare the differences between the cattle, management practices and the individual profitability of the dairy production. The results from the questionnaire have helped support the hypothesis that better management practices will lead to better milk yield. As a follow-up, blood samples will be taken to assess the genome of the various cattle throughout the ADGG project areas. Combining genetic and environmental data, ILRI scientists should be able to identify the genotype for the best local dairy production.Cattle are the main source of milk production in Ethiopia. In areas around the country, camels and goats also add to milk production. However, cattle are the main source of milk production for the country. Milk yields have gone up substantially, tripling, within the last fifteen years. Even the government is playing a role and planning to double milk yields by the year 2020 for domestic export. [Opportunities]. Ethiopia is increasing yields yet the country still needs more education and knowledge to be able to attain the highest yields possible.There are several factors that affect milk yields. Some of the biggest effects being daily management, feed and genetics. Some farmers have been able to receive guidance and follow models on how to create the best system for their cattle and themselves whereas the majority has lacked in that assistance. The main reason behind these factors that affect the milk production is due to the lack of knowledge.Feed contributes for 70% of a farms inputs [Hanson, Jean]. Since the inputs of feed is relatively high, it is important for farmers to make appropriate choices for their cattle. In Ethiopia, there are many agro-industrial byproducts available thus making them popular choices for feed. Noug cake is a popular choice for feeding dairy cattle due to the high protein that is left over after the extraction of the oil from the Guizotia abyssinica seed [Little, 1987]. Wheat bran is another protein-rich feed ingredient. Because of the lower cost of the bran, there has been slightly increased net returns compared to other ingredients in place of it. Corn silage is another wellliked feed ingredient for dairy cattle. For the cows, it offers a high starch content and a large amount digestible energy although it lacks in protein. Bone meal is also an added feed ingredient because of the calcium and phosphorus it offers especially for dairy cattle [V. , Heuzé]. It is very important for the correct amount and type of feed to be given to the cattle for the best possible yields.Roughages are necessary for all ruminant animal diets, including dairy cattle. The rumen within the stomach of the cows needs a coarse fiber, e.g. roughage, to rub the walls of this stomach compartment. This action encourages the microorganisms in the rumen to full break down the feed consumed [Roughages]. It can be concluded from the questionnaire that elephant grass, varieties of straw, and grass hay are all widely used for roughage in cattle diets within the Bishoftu area.In dairy operations, good management is imperative and it is a term that encompasses several aspects. A major factor that requires substantial management is feed. Dairy cows need feed for maintenance and/or growth as well as production [Irshad, 2015]. It is also very important to know the signs and indications of when female cattle are in heat, particularly when artificial insemination is being used. The sooner the cow's heat cycle is noticed, the earlier that cow can be bred, thus a sooner calf and lactation period [Signs]. There must also be consistency with the timing of feed. Especially with the timing of calving, cattle respond depending on they are fed [Selk, 2011]. A cow milked at equal intervals, will yield more milk compared to those not milking at equal intervals [Irshad, 2015]. A common disease that disrupts milk production is mastitis. This disease spreads by bacteria through the teats of the cow's udders [Mastitis]. Proper prevention in the cows is obligatory to defend against such diseases.In Europe and the United States, the Holstein breed has become well known as one of the highest milk producing dairy cattle breeds. In Europe, prior to the Holstein breed, the breeds of cattle were predominantly a Friesian type [Oltenacu, 2010]. Through cross-breeding over the years, the Holstein Friesian is one of the most popular breeds that has spread throughout Europe and other developing countries, including Ethiopia. The local Ethiopian indigenous breed, e.g. Boran breed, are known for disease resistance and are better adapted to Ethiopia's climate. The one major issue with the local breeds is the very low milk production, averaging 1.69 liters of milk each day [Gates, 2017]. With the Holstein Friesian crossbred breed that was brought to this country, milk production yields have boosted. There has been a genetic improvement with the crossbreed between the Holstein Friesian and indigenous breeds. This has allowed farmers to reach higher milk yields. However, these exotic breeds require more management and feed in order to keep them high-producing [Chebo, 2012]. The exotic breeds have allowed Ethiopia to begin increasing their milk yields yet, there is still a need for increased knowledge on how to properly manage these crossbreds.The following farms were categorized into different size levels. Small farms owning 1-5 head of cattle, medium farms owning 6-19 head of cattle, and large farms owning more than 20 head of cattle. One quintal of feed is equivalent to 100 kg and 23 birr is equal to 1 USD. The data responses were collected from a questionnaire to be analyzed on profitability and the factors that affect the milk yields. The profitability aspect is estimated using daily milk yield averages and other dairy operation related costs.A small dairy herd with only three head of cattle, Almaz dairy farm is averaging 20 liters of milk a day from only one Holstein Friesian crossbred milking cow. Almaz, the owner, owes her feed ingredients to the high production. Four kilograms of wheat short, wheat bran, noug cake, and a mixed roughage of elephant grass and cabbage residue are being fed every day to the milking cow. Along with selling the milk, she also sells eggs, and cabbage at the market. From the cattle, she has been able to use the manure as fertilizer for her vegetable crop. She would like to expand her dairy herd with the two heifer calves she currently owns and start a vaccination program to combat sickness.For a small dairy farm, an average of 20 liters a day is exceptional. Though dairy is not Almaz's main source of income, it is definitely a good start for a secondary source. From selling the milk at 14 birr per liter she would make around 280 birr a day, given an everyday average of 20 liters. For feed, she spends an average of 794 birr per quintal. From one quintal, she is able to feed the cattle for 20 days. This would result in purchasing feed every 3.5 weeks. The cost of veterinary services and any medication average 250 birr per month. With the cost of veterinary service and feed, the expenses for the cattle per month equal out to be 1, 838 birr. With average sales of 8,400 birr per month from milk sales, the profit is 6,562 birr. In the future, Almaz will end up purchasing more feed to support the growth of the calves as well as increasing the use of veterinary services for a vaccination program. As the calves begin to start milking, the profit will heighten for Almaz and her dairy production.Alfa Fodder Dairy Farm is one of the largest in all of Ethiopia. The 433 head of cattle are of purebred Holstein Friesian bloodlines that were imported from Holland. With a large amount of livestock there comes a need for higher technology and efficiency. Currently, the cows are being milked three times daily, essentially every eight hours, by a machine operated system. The average milk yield is 24 liters from each cow, each day. The milk is sold privately as well as to a milk processor, Holland Dairy. Manure from the cattle is used for fertilizing the corn fields which are used to make corn silage as feed for the cows. The total mixture of feed is made of brewery by-product, corn silage, minerals imported from Holland, and salt. A roughage of straw and hay is also fed. The ingredients were chosen because it is natural as well creates a high-Almaz's high yielding cow.quality milk. The farm primarily uses sexed heifer semen to continue growing the progeny of high milk producers, however, when bulls are born on the farm, the best bulls are sold to the National Artificial Insemination Center (NAIC) to have semen collected and distributed throughout the country. The rest of the bulls are sold for meat purposes. In 2015, Alfa Fodder actually lost almost half the herd of cattle to foot and mouth disease. After the loss of so many cows, the biosecurity on the farm tightened and more precise safe keeping was placed on the dairy farm. Since the outbreak, no cattle have died from a disease.The profitability of the farm is very high due to some of the best milk producing genetics as well as an updated precise farm management. There is also extra income from selling manure for fuel and the bulls for semen collection as well as for market. Per week, the farm is spending 200,000 birr on feed. That's about 462 birr for each cow for the week. The veterinarian costs were worked out in Holland before coming to Ethiopia and the labor costs vary per job. Currently, they are selling the milk produced for 14 birr per liter to Holland Dairy and 19 birr per liter privately. The money made from milk sales cover the cost of machine upkeep, labor, veterinary services, feed, and shelter costs. Any profit goes into expendable income to improve the farm either with new technology or adding to the herd.The second largest dairy farm is Aster Worku with 93 head of dairy cattle. All of the cattle are of the Holstein Friesian cross bloodlines. Every day, two times a day, the 32 milking cows are milked by hand. The average amount of milk produced daily per cow is about 16 liters. The head manager at Aster Worku has chosen to use feed ingredients of wheat bran, wheat short, brewery by-product, noug cake, bone meal, and vitamins for high milk production. The feed mixture is also very available all year long. The farm also grows alfalfa and elephant grass as roughage for the cattle. As a disease preventative, a vaccination program is in place and there have been few problems with sickness. The manure is also being utilized as fertilizer for the forages grown.Profitability of the farm can be inspected from various points. The milking cows are receiving 10 kg of the mixed concentrate which costs 581 birr per quintal. The farm roughly feeds about 5 quintals of feed per day, for the cows and calves, and feeds 150 quintals of feed per month. The cost of feed per week is 87,150 birr. Veterinary services are also administered by the supervisor. The only veterinary costs that occur are the vaccinations at 1,300 birr for all the cattle. The cost per month for the cattle is 88,450 birr. There are also added costs for labor and shelter costs. Nonetheless, with selling the milk at 13 birr per liter, the farm can expect to earn around 199,680 birr per month and making a profit of around 111,230 birr which covers labor and other possible costs. The farm is currently performing quite well and is actually increasing the average of milk yield throughout time.Azu Dairy is another large farm with 22 head of Holstein Friesian cross cattle. The 17 milking cows are milked all by hand, two times a day. All of the milk collected is sold for 13 birr per liter. The cattle are receiving a pre-mixed feed of soybean, corn, wheat short, wheat bran, and vitamins. This feed mix is only seasonally available so it is bought in mass amounts when available. The cattle also receive a roughage mixture of straw and hay grown on the farm. The amount of feed given is based on the production, approximately a half kg for every liter. The feed was chosen due to the high quality of the feed and the boost in milk production. Azu Dairy wishes to grow their own ingredients but with a lack of land and equipment, buying is next best option for the farm. Any bulls born on the farm are used for bull replacement or mainly for the market. Veterinary services are also permanent to administer vaccines regularly and maintain health.Per month, the cost of a veterinary visit is 3,000 birr and the vaccines costing 500 birr. The cost of feed is 650 birr per purchase. Being that the feeding amount is based on the production, it can be assumed that 9 kg of concentrate is fed for the average milk yield of 18 liters a day. The farm would need 4,590 kg a month based on the average milk yield and feeding amount. The milk is currently being sold for 13 birr per liter. Based off of the average milk yield, the average money earned per month is about 119,340 birr. After the costs of veterinary services, feed, and labor the profit is used for the benefit of improving the farm.Birahun, a medium sized farm with seven total head of cattle, is comprised of five Holstein Friesian and two Jersey/Boran crosses. The owner of the farm lives in the United States and has entrusted his main farmhand to run the operation. Currently, the cows are being milked two times a day by hand. The 7 cows are only averaging 10 liters of milk a day. The feed is made up of wheat short, wheat bran and noug cake as well as a roughage of grass hay and wheat straw. The cattle are being fed based off of their production. If the cow averages 10 liters, they also receive 10 kg of feed during the day. The farm is starting to face several problems. There has been sickness, such as mastitis, spread through the cattle. The veterinarian when needed does not always show up and any medicine administered is not of a high-quality import. The cattle are staying sick rather than getting better. Another way the sickness has spread is through poor biosecurity. There is no disinfectant for shoes as well as a lack of regular cleanliness in the cattle stalls. There is also a loss of a valuable source of the manure. The farmhand is choosing to simply throw it out rather than you using it for fuel or fertilizer. The farmhand admitted to his lack of knowledge in the dairy field.It was suggested to acquire a new, consistent veterinarian with trusted medication as well as initiating proper biosecurity practices to maintain the cow's health. As for the feed, the farmhand is currently spending 275 birr per quintal of feed. If each of the seven cows is regularly producing 10 liters a day, that's 70 kg of feed per day. That's around 2,100 kg of feed per month with a bill of 5,775 birr. Another recommendation for the farm would be to give the cattle half the amount of what they are producing. If they produce ten liters of milk, they will receive 5 kg of feed concentrate. For current profitability, the cost of the veterinarian services and medication is 650 birr per month and with the added cost of feed, the farm is spending around 6,425 birr. The milk is sold at 12 birr per liter and if only five cows are currently producing 10 liters daily, the money earned is 18,000 birr. The profit for the farm is 11,575 birr. If the recommendations were put in the place, there would be an increase in milk productivity, healthier cattle, and a more steady flow of income.One of the 50% Jersey/50% Boran cross cows at Birahun.With fifteen head of Holstein Friesian crossbred cows, this medium sized farm is averaging 7 liters of milk per cow, per day. Currently, there are 9 cows and 6 heifers with any bull calves being sold at market. Currently, the milk is being sold to be processed for sale. With the money earned from selling the bull calves and selling the milk, a feed mixture is bought made of wheat short, wheat bran, and noug cake. The cattle are also receiving a roughage made up of teff straw. With a shortage of land, the farmer is faced with having to buy the feed ingredients rather than growing their own. The ingredients were chosen based on the availability of the markets all yearround. The farmhand was unsure of the prices for each ingredient but the cows are being fed the concentrate two times a day and the roughage four times a day with the amount based on the first weight of when the calf was born.From the feeding and management practices, it is presumed that the concentrate for the cows is not enough nutrients for the cows to maintain a high milk yield. From a profitability standpoint, the average price the farm sells the milk for is 13 birr per liter. That would be 819 birr for one day worth of milk. But, with the cost of feed based on the prices from various markets around the area, the average price for the feed is around 900 birr per quintal. It can be concluded that a higher nutritional value of feed mix will lead to higher milk yields. With more productive yields, the owner can see more return on the cattle and thus a better ability to purchase high-quality feed and even expand the herd size for even more profit.This medium sized farm consists of 19 Holstein Friesian cattle with 9 milking cows that average 13 liters of milk each day. The feed was chosen because of its availability as the only option. The mix consists of wheat bran, wheat short, noug cake, bone meal, and vitamins. The owner wishes to grow all their own feed ingredients but because of a shortage of land and lack of processing facilities, the ingredients must be bought. The cattle are receiving 5 kg of the mix each day. The manure from the cattle is used as a fertilizer for the cattle's straw roughage and also as fuel for the home. Any bulls born on the farm go directly to the market after 7 days. During the rainy season, the cattle face sickness but a reliable veterinarian is accessible for treatment.From the profitability aspect, the feed is costing around 25,080 birr each month at 880 birr per quintal. With the monthly cost of feed and veterinary service at 400 birr per cow, the monthly cost is 32,680 birr. The farm is currently selling their milk at 14 birr per liter. With 9 milking cows producing around 13 liters a day would equal out to an income of 45,630 birr. The total profit after expenses is 12,950 birr. In the future, it would be recommended to look at other available feed ingredients or mixtures that could boost the milk productivity for an increase in overall profitability.Surveying the owner of Charnet on his management practices and inputs/outputs. Debra Zeit Swine farm focuses primarily on the market of swine but also owns 44 head of Holstein Friesian dairy cattle as well as a large number of broiler chickens. The current set of 36 milking cows is milked three times a day, either by hand or machine, and average 14 liters of milk. The feed ingredients are bought at the market and mixed on the farm. The concentrate is made up of wheat bran, wheat short, molasses, salt, yeast as well as the byproduct of barely. The cows receive 8 kg of the concentrate and 10 kg of barley byproduct each day. On farm there is corn being grown for silage in addition to elephant grass and alfalfa. The farm also utilizes natural breeding and artificial insemination (AI). If the cow does not conceive through AI, a clean-up bull is used impregnate the cow thus leading to higher conception rates.With a large, diverse farm there are several different sectors that lead to high profitability. The dairy operation is currently spending 6,000 birr a month on a veterinarian for all three animal species. That can estimat to 2,000 birr being spent on the dairy cattle. The feed ingredients vary in price but average 450 birr per quintal. With 18 kg of feed being fed each day, the monthly cost is 106,920 birr. From selling the milk at 14 birr per liter, if each cow were to produce 14 liters daily, the money earned would be 258,720 birr. The overall profit equals out to be 149,800 birr. There is also the cost of labor, electricity, and machine upkeep which is compensated through the profit from veterinary and feed costs.Elvera Farm, a large scale dairy producer, owns 68 head of cattle of the Holstein Friesan breed and 4 head of cattle of a Jersey and Boran cross. Currently, this farm is completing their own experiment of cattle management with four milking cows. The cows have a special area that is half cement and half stalling with bedding. These cows are free to walk around the pen and have access to ttherough for feeding. The owner wants to compare the milk yields of these penned cows to the milk production of his cows currently on cement throughout the day and released into a pen at night. If the cattle involved in this experiment increase their milk yields, the farm will completely switch to the half stall and half cement pen. Currently, the 34 milking cows average 11.5 liters of milk a day. The present yields are what elicited the on-farm experiment. The owner also explained that he chose the feed mix of wheat short, wheat bran, noun cake, brewery byproduct, corn, and salt for better milk production. The cattle are fed up to 10 kg of feed depending on their yields and as low as 4 kg for the lowest producing cows. There is also alfalfa and elephant grass being fed as roughage to cattle that are grown on the farm along with corn. The manure from the cattle is used as fertilizer for the crops. The farm also has a permanent veterinarian that visits at least once a day every week to ensure herd health.The costs of the farm vary but the average feed costs were unknown. As for the veterinary costs, every month is 2,000 birr for the service and 80 birr per vaccination shot. The farm has been ableThe highest milk producing cow at D/Zeit Swine.How the workers at Elvera Farm milk, two times a day.to be highly profitable with proper management and establishing good cattle health. After the onfarm experiment, the farm will be able to be even more profitable with higher milk yields and the best conditions for the cattle.At the Engida Ashenafi farm, there is 29 head of Holstein Friesian cattle. Twenty of those are milking cows that are milked by hand, two times daily producing an average of 8.5 liters of milk.The cattle are being fed 16 kg of concentrate made up of brewery byproduct and a roughage mixture of teff, barley, and wheat straws. The farmer chose the ingredients because it had claimed to boost the milk production. But, he was disappointed with the results. There is also a precise vaccination program in place that keep the cattle healthy. The manure produced from the cattle is also sold as a fuel source. A recommendation for the farm is to find a higher quality of feed that will actually boost the milk production. For example, noug cake, wheat bran, and wheat short along with vitamins and minerals is quality feed mix that aid in the boosting of milk production.The farm is performing well in terms of herd health nevertheless, the farm would like to have higher milk yields that provide more profit. The milk is sold at 13 birr per liter and with the cattle producing an average of 8.5 liters a day, the monthly income from the milk is 66,300 birr. The cost of veterinary services and vaccinations is 2,600 birr for two rounds or 217 birr monthly. The cost of feed is 500 birr per quintal and with 16 kg fed to the cows daily, it is 63,750 birr for feed a month. The farm is barely above breaking even in terms of cost. If a higher quality feed was taken advantage of, the milk yields would increase allowing the farm to see a larger profit.Another high producing farm with 66 head of cattle is Genesis Farm. Sixty-four of the cattle are Holstein Friesian and two are 50% Holstein Friesian and 50% Boran. The Boran breed is an indigenous breed known for the dual purpose of meat and milk production. The feed mixture being fed is made up of corn, wheat bran, wheat short, noug cake, brewery byproduct, salt, limestone, and molasses. The roughage diets include alfalfa, elephant grass, hay, straw, and vegetable residues. The farm is able to grow almost all of the roughage with alfalfa, elephant grass, and the vegetable residues. The cattle manure is also used as fertilizer for these forages. Currently, the milking cows are being fed 1 kg of feed for every 3 liters of milk they produce.With the half Holstein Friesian, half Boran the cattle are receiving 1 kg of feed for every 5 liters of milk produced. The higher percentage of Boran cattle means less feed and less management is needed because of their climate adaptability and disease resistance.Genesis farms focus on laying hens, vegetables, and plants as well as dairy cattle. The profitability of the dairy cattle can be analyzed from the milk sales at 15 birr per liter. If the 43 milking cows produce an average of 17 liters a day, the income from the milk is 328,950 birr a month. The price of the feed was unknown but the price of the veterinarian each month was 2,000 birr. Without the complete data on the costs at Genesis Farms, it can still be noted that this farm is largely profitable. The cattle are kept healthy to the best of their ability, producing high amounts of milk on average, and the milk is sold quickly and locally.GGK Farm, run solely by a woman, owns 75 of Holstein Friesian head of cattle. Thirty-three of the cattle is milking cows that average 8.5 liters of milk a day. These cows are being fed according to their production. The amount of feed they receive is half of however many liters of milk they produce. The feed mixture is made up of soybean, wheat bran, corn, noug cake, salt, and limestone. The cattle also receive elephant grass grown on the farm as a roughage which also utilizes the manure as fertilizer. The ingredients are bought in the market and mixed on the farm. This concentrate was chosen because of the boost in milk production. GGK also uses a veterinarian monthly to ensure proper herd health. In the past, the farm faced problems with poor quality vaccines and medications. Now, the farm has chosen to use vaccines from America and Europe as well as vaccines from the National Veterinary Institute in Bishoftu. The farm would like to see more milk production within the cattle but because of the lack of knowledge, there is an uncertainty of how to boost the production.Between the individual price of ingredients, veterinary costs, and labor, GGK is dependent on the profit made from the dairy cows as well as the chickens she owns. If the thirty-three dairy cows were producing 8.5 liters every day and the milk is being sold for 14 birr per liter, the monthly income would be 117,810 birr. Costs of veterinary services are 3,500 birr a month and the cost of feed at an average of 644 birr per quintal. The cattle would eat 58 quintals of feed each month, at an average cost of 36,756 birr. The monthly profit excluding labor costs is 77,554 birr. When the cost of labor is accounted for, the profit just above breaking even for the dairy operation. Thus, the need for overall, higher milk yields.A medium sized farm with nineteen head of Holstein Friesian cattle averages 15.5 liters of milk every day from the five milking cows. The cattle receive 9 kg of concentrate made up of wheat bran, wheat short, noug cake, bone meal, and vitamins. The cattle also receive a straw and grass hay mixture for roughage. The owner wishes to grow alfalfa for the cattle but because there is a lack of excess water, none is able to be grown. The manure currently is serving no purpose for the farm whereas there is the possibility for profit if sold as fuel in the markets. In the past, there were problems with foot and mouth disease but now there is a vaccination program in place with a reliable veterinarian.Hana Dairy Farm is currently the selling the milk produced at 13 birr per liter. With five cows averaging 15.5 liters of a milk each day, the monthly earnings are 30,225 birr. However, the cost of veterinary services are 1,400 birr each month and the cost of feed is 750 birr per quintal. The farm would use 33 quintals of feed each month at a monthly cost of 24,750 birr. The profit for a month would be 4,075 birr. This profit will increase in the future as the six heifers currently owned, reach their first lactation.Visiting GGK Farm and the herd of cattle.Twenty-eight of Holstein Friesian cattle is currently owned at Tilahun Kopessa. Ten of those are milking cows that average 13.5 liters every day. The cattle are fed a mixture of wheat bran, wheat short, noug cake, brewery byproduct, and roughage. The higher producing cattle receive up to 50 kg of the mix whereas the lower producing cattle receive 20 kg. The farm is able to use the manure as fuel for the home and fertilizer for the hay fields. There is currently expansion taking place, soon the farm will add their own milk processing equipment. They hope to be able to sell the products to the public directly.The prices of the feed and veterinary services were unknown to the head farmer. Yet, it can be estimated that there is enough expendable income from the dairy cattle due to the adding of the farm's own processing equipment. There is a plan to sell milk, butter, yogurt and cheese in shops as well as directly to the consumer.Just above the small dairy size level, Emany has six total head of Holstein Friesian cattle. The two milking cows average 8.5 liters per day. The concentrate that cows are fed was chosen due to its availability in the market. It is made up of wheat short, wheat bran, noug cake, and salt. A roughage of teff and wheat straw is also fed. The cows are eating 5 kg of this concentrate each day. The cattle receive treatment only when there is a sickness. Currently, there is no vaccination program in place. As for the manure, it is used as fertilizer and fuel for the home. The farm also has a more successful conception rate of the cows when the heat detection is caught right away. This was based on the length of time to the cow's first lactation. The average for the farm is about 25 months but with a timely heat detection, the length of time decreases.On average, the farm goes through nine quintals of feed every month. The rounded cost for the feed each month is 4,700 birr. Veterinary services cost 1,200 birr each visit or roughly once a month. If both of the milking cows produce 8.5 liters each day and the milk is sold for 14 birr per liter, the revenue would be 7,140 birr. Profit after the stated expenses would be 1,240 birr. It is recommended to have the farm initiate a vaccination program. With a vaccination program, there is a probability of not needing the veterinarian as often. Also, with the cattle being prevented of disease, there is the chance for higher milk production overall.This small dairy farm of just three Holstein Friesian cattle sells the milk as well as consumes a small portion. The two milking cows average 12 liters a day. The concentrate the cattle eat was chosen because of the boost in milk yields. Wheat short, wheat bran, and oats are fed to the cattle based on production. Essentially the cattle receive half of how much milk they produce. If one cow produces 12 liters a day, they are fed 6 kg of concentrate. The cattle also receive a mixed roughage of teff, barley, and wheat straw. A lack of capital has disabled Etenash from growing their own feed and forage.The family keeps 1 liter of milk to drink every other day. Fifteen liters of milk each month is kept for home consumption while 705 liters are sold each month. The milk is sold for 13 birr per liter and the earnings are 9,165 birr each month. With feed costing 260 birr per quintal, 1,404The feed mixture that the cows at Tilahun Kopessa receive.birr is spent on feed each month. For vaccinations and any medication for sickness, it is 10 birr for each shot. Roughly, 30 birr is spent on the veterinary services and medications each month.The monthly profit can be expected to be 7,731 birr. Etenash plans to expand the cattle herd to gain even more profit for an expendable income.This successful medium sized farm owns twelve Holstein Friesian cattle with five milking cows that average 18 liters a day. A high quality is feed from local feed processing plant is fed to the cows. The milking cows are fed 8 kg of concentrate and the calves are fed 4 kg. A roughage is also fed made of teff and barley straw. This farm also is currently processing and selling different products directly through their two owned shops in Bishoftu. The milk is sold for 28 birr per liter as well as 14 birr for 1/2 kg of cheese and 1/2 kg of butter.For this farm, there are added costs for electricity for the processing equipment and storage. The cost of feed is 800 birr per quintal. The owner specifically chose the feed due to the high-quality factor. This has allowed the cows to boost their yields. The farm also utilizes a vaccination program for the herd that works to avert sickness. This farm's profitability cannot be estimated due to the lack of information on the total sales for the products processed on the farm.Mestwat Farm, a small level farm, owns five Holstein Friesian cattle with two milking cows that average 10 liters of milk a day. According to the owner, the ingredients of noug cake, wheat short, and wheat bran boost milk production. All the ingredients are mixed on the farm. The cattle are receiving 6 kg of feed every day plus a roughage mix of teff, wheat, and barley straw.The cattle are currently on a vaccination program to keep healthy. The milk is sold for 14 birr per liter. Besides selling the milk, the farm also earns money from selling the cattle manure as fuel.With a small amount of land, 400 square meters, the farm relies on the income from the dairy cattle to support the farm.Currently, the price of the individual ingredients is 260 birr for wheat short and wheat bran per quintal and 1,400 birr per quintal. With all five head of cattle receiving 6 kg of feed each day, the farm would go through 9 quintals of feed each month. The current monthly cost of feed is 5,760 birr. The cost of the vaccinations is 50 birr for each cow, costing 250 birr each month. It can be estimated that the cattle produce around 600 liters of milk a month generating a monthly revenue of 8,400 birr. With the stated costs of feed and veterinary service, the total profit for the farm is 2,390 birr a month. With three heifers soon to be milking age, the income will increase slightly but the main focus of the farm is to increase the milk yields of the cattle.A medium-sized farm owned by a father and his four sons own this micro-enterprise of nine Holstein Friesian cattle. Seven milking cows average 15.5 liters every day. The farm is able to use the cattle manure for fuel in the home as well as marketing the product. Every day, the cows are receiving 14 kg of a mixture of concentrate and roughage. The concentrate includes what bran, wheat short, noug cake, corn, and brewery byproduct. The roughage is a teff and wheat straw mix. The ingredients for the feed was chosen based on how accessible it is. The farm is selling the milk as well as consuming about 5% of it.The farm is going through roughly thirty quintals of feed that cost 485 birr each. The monthly cost of the feed is 14,550 birr. The veterinary costs were unknown by the head farmer. Although, the milk is sold for 15 birr per liter. With the seven cows averaging 15.5 liters a day, around 3,255 liters are collected monthly. The family consumes 163 liters a year or 13.5 liters a month. The monthly income from milk sales is 48,623 birr. It can be estimated that the farm is relatively profitable overall given the revenue of the milk sales. Through artificial insemination, the cattle herd is growing steadily as will the profit and the milk yields through high-quality bull semen.W/ro Zelalem is a small dairy farm with four head of cattle and only one milking cow that averages 4.5 liters of milk a day. Any bulls born on the farm are kept for meat purposes. The manure from the cattle is sold as fuel in the market. The cattle are currently receiving a mixture of wheat bran and wheat short and a roughage of wheat straw. The ingredients were chosen simply because it is cheap. The milking cow is being fed 3 kg of feed each day and the three heifers receive 1 kg of feed each day. There is also no disease prevention within the cattle through vaccinations. The owner claims the veterinarian is very inconsistent and is the reason she chooses to not enact a vaccination program.From the given responses to the questionnaire, it is estimated that the cattle are not receiving enough, nutritious feed. In order to boost milk production, the cattle need to be fed a higher nutritive feed. For example, added ingredients of noug cake and corn will allow the cattle to keep a proper body condition and even boost milk yields. If a vaccination program were also put in place, the cattle would also stay healthier meaning more reliable milk collected and more. In terms of profitability, the feed is costing 560 birr per quintal and 896 birr each month. With the milking cow producing around 135 liters a month and selling the milk for 13 birr per liter, the monthly earnings are 1,755 birr. For the farm with the cost of feed and the revenue from the milk, the profit is 859 birr. If milk production was increased through more nutritive feed as well as a larger amount of feed the farm could see a larger profit especially with three heifers soon to be milking age. In Bishoftu, the first ever private dairy cooperative in Ethiopia, Ada'a Dairy Cooperative, was created to aid smallholder dairy farmers. Currently, there are 400 members with sixty-five percent being female smallholder dairy operation owners. Almost all of the members are in the Bishoftu area but anyone can be a member.Two times a day at fifteen different collection sites, milk is brought to be tested for milk acidity and milk fat content, using a lactometer. Once the milk cleared, it is then brought to the main processing plant in the city of Bishoftu. Once the milk arrives on site at the plant, it is tested once again for milk acidity and milk fat content. There is a possibility of milk being rejected through these tests. If the milk does not hold up to the standards it cannot be accepted. For example, if there is more than 10% of water in the milk, the milk can be traced back to the collection site and then back to the farmer.After the milk is cleared for the second time, it is filtered and moved to a chiller. The milk is kept cold to deter bacteria from growing. After about a day in the chiller, the milk is moved to another container to be boiled, pasteurized, and separate the fat. In another container, the milk is homogenized and either sent straight to be packaged or to be churned into butter. Yogurt is another product made at the cooperative. The milk is packaged in a container and then set in a special temperature where the cultures can create the yogurt. Cheese is another popular product for the cooperative, the milk is 'dehydrated' to create the cheese.The prices for the products reduce during the fasting season. In the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar, there are 232 days of fasting. Because of this, it has a big effect on the livestock producers throughout the country because no animal products are to be eaten during this time. Despite this, the cooperative is processing milk every day according to the order. The products are distributed to markets, shops, and government organizations. The cooperative also offers feed services for its members but, during the rainy season, the feed processing production is frozen.When it is not during fasting season, milk is sold for 18 birr per liter, yogurt for 8 birr for 250 mL, butter for 190 birr per kg, and cheese for 50 birr per kg. The main idea of the dairy cooperative is to support the farms, especially the smallholder farmers in any way they can. Now, there are several other dairy cooperatives around Ethiopia, modeled after Ada'a Dairy. It is a very successful cooperative meant to support farmers as well as providing a quality product to consumers.From the collected responses of the twenty Bishoftu area farmers, the hypothesis that 'Better Management will lead to higher milk yields', was supported. The farms that were implementing accurate feed amounts compared the cow's milk yields, maintained keen herd health and were utilizing the best herd genetics through either artificial insemination or natural breeding had the highest milk yields. Several hours of work, as well as money, is placed into dairy operations and when those resources are properly used, a farm should be able to acquire the best milk yields for themselves.Through this research of various farmers in the Bishoftu area, there is a better understanding of what really affects a cow's individual milk production. There is also a better understanding about the profitability factors in milk production. Feed is one of the largest inputs that goes into production costs, making it another reason why it is very important for farmers to be attentive to feed ingredients. For almost all of the Bishoftu area farmers, profit was a conscience idea on their minds for their dairy operations.In conclusion, small and few medium-sized farms lack the knowledge of proper management and feeding whereas large farms had a better grasp on how to maintain cattle well. In order for the small and medium farms to better their production systems, there must be knowledge provided and learned by the farmers to increase the milk yields thus increasing the profit. Programs like the NAIC and projects like ADGG have been able to assist farmers in the improvement of the cattle and milk production.","tokenCount":"8736"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8418b136d3c1566c312aef4d678c9145","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/809e4f83-1e48-4f20-be4e-cc952731a295/retrieve","id":"-806208194"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"75b2081b-9312-4795-aba8-82140cc0c39b","pagecount":"26","content":"This guide is developed by synthesizing successful field experiences within a project known as Improving Productivity & Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers Project or IPMS Project. The IPMS project was implemented from June 2005 to March 2011 in four of the larger regional states of Ethiopia -namely Amhara, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray. The main purpose of the IPMS project was to test methods, approaches, and processes that can help transform Ethiopian smallholder agriculture from subsistence to a market-oriented agriculture.The project had four major project implementation pillars. These were:1. Knowledge management 2. Capacity building 3. Commodity development, and 4. Research & promotion As part of the knowledge management pillar, IPMS tested several interventions hoped to bring about a functional knowledge management system at various levels of the Ethiopian agriculture sector. At Woreda level, the project targeted the farmers in the Woredas where the project has been active as well the extension system within each Woreda. At Federal level, the project focused on the Ethiopian Agriculture Portal as an organizing platform and repository for information relevant to Ethiopian agriculture. The project also made limited interventions at Regional and Zonal levels.In the following sections selected examples of these interventions are briefly described so that others trying to carryout similar intervention can benefit from the experiences of the IPMS project. Specifically, the following interventions are discussed. The five interventions specifically target extension service providers while the last three include farmers and pastoralists to the mix. The descriptions that follow are not meant to be exhaustive or to be the only way to do the respective interventions. On the contrary, they are meant to assist those who are planning to do such interventions by sharing the experiences of a project that has done similar interventions before them.A Woreda Knowledge Center (WKC) is an information resource center or venue that facilitates access to knowledge by providing the following functions:• Traditional library In each of the above functions, a WKC provides only the basic necessities and should not be seen or expected to provide what a full service traditional or digital library normally provides. The intent is to establish a venue that brings tools, approaches, and processes that can help improve agricultural extension service delivery.The IPMS project established 28 knowledge centers in its operational sites. Ten of these knowledge centers were Woreda (district) based and 18 were established at Zonal and Regional levels. This good practice guide focuses on lessons and experiences gained while establishing and operating Woreda Knowledge Centers. The pictures below show examples of a typical Woreda Knowledge Center.In order to provide the right perspective to readers that may not be familiar to the project, the intervention context in which these knowledge centers were setup is described below so that anyone consulting this guide will have a better feel for the rationale behind the good practice recommendations.There are over 600 districts (Woredas) in Ethiopia. In most districts, there are no public libraries and the use of high school and college libraries is restricted for use by registered students. Tele-centers are rarely available in rural districts. Often, the only way an extension worker can expect to get access to online information is if there are Internet connections in the Woreda Office of Agriculture or when he/she goes to larger towns where there are tele-centers. Another potential ICT resource, known as WoredaNet (established by the Ethiopian Government), has interconnected most Woreda Administration Offices in a nationwide data, voice, and video internetwork -including access to the Internet. However, the services of the WoredaNet are typically limited to the staff of the Woreda Administration and are not easily accessible by the staff of the Office of Agriculture.Woreda Knowledge Centers were therefore established to fill this gap in opportunities for access to information sources. It was also the project's objective to establish a favorable environment for knowledge sharing among staff.Finally, it is worth noting that the elements of good practices documented in this guide were evident to varying degrees in the various knowledge centers. Some centers managed to implement almost all these practices in a sustained manner. Others did some of them well and a couple of our centers were not able to implement most of these practices for various reasons. The diverse experiences encountered while implementing these centers has enabled the project to distill lessons that will be important when scaling up such efforts. The lessons from multiple locations have been synthesized to bring out a composite picture of the elements of a well run knowledge center.Successful realization of a sustainable knowledge or information resource center requires all potential stakeholders (those who fund it, use it, and operate it) understand and accept what it takes to establish and operate such a center. The idea of a Woreda Knowledge Center; with computers, a TV set, and a DVD player, and Internet access is usually an exciting idea because, in the current reality of a typical Woreda Office of Agriculture, such facilities are often rare and welcomed treats. However, sustainably operating such a center requires financial, human resource, and organizational commitment with the associated investment that entails. A firm belief in the added value such a center is the first step in this direction. One method the project used to bring about such awareness and eventual commitment is to use a participatory planning process that involves all key stakeholders.Another good approach to establishing such centers is to follow the dictum \"plan, implement, learn, modify\". Following are some key points that need to be considered when planning to establish a knowledge center.• The current national push and desire to make agriculture market-oriented requires an extension system that can assist farmers to be agile in responding to market signals. For the extension system to adequately provide such a service, it needs to be continually aware of what happens near and far in all areas that are relevant to farmers. Easier access to the Internet provides the extension system access to diverse sources of information resources that enables it to better respond to farmers' information needs. • Digital content (on CDs, DVDs, and hard disk drives) can be used for continual capacity building training of both the extension staff (and indirectly for training farmers).• Woreda knowledge centers can be used as tools for building a culture of informal knowledge sharing among extension staff by hosting seminars and other informal knowledge sharing events in such venues.• Inviting experts from Regional research and extension units will enable the Woreda extension to acquire new knowledge. WKC facilities can be used to regularly host such events and recorded sessions can be made available in the WKCs for later viewing.The financial resources needed to establish a Woreda Knowledge Center include both direct upfront costs for setting up the center and ongoing operational costs needed to maintain the center. Realistic assessments of such costs and how they will be obtained need to be carried out in advance. A budget may be allocated by the Woreda Office of Agriculture or the Woreda Administration if funds are available and the business case is made sufficiently clear where the potential return on the investment is convincing enough to make the initial investment. Alternatively, other sources of funding may be considered. Examples of such sources include projects operating in the Woreda with mandates to cover such expenses, foundations, and/or private sector stakeholders. Another potential source of funds (although not tested in any of the IPMS supported knowledge centers) is devising a means for the center to \"earn\" some part of the funds needed for operation, by setting up a \"fee for service\" model of operation for some types of services. (e.g. charging a small fee for screening sporting events). When preparing the budget needed to setup a knowledge center, consider the following:• Building construction (if a large enough room is not readily available)• Tables, chairs, and shelves • ICT Equipment & accessories (computers, printers, TV, DVD Player, Internet access devices, generator, UPS, etc) • Initial stock of books, CDs, DVDs, posters, etc.• Salary for WKC coordinators • Salary/fees for routine technical support (hardware and software) personnel.• Utilities (electricity, telephone, and Internet usage fees)• Occasional fuel for generators used during power outagesA Woreda Knowledge Center should be a well lighted, clean, and inviting space that encourages patrons to frequent it. As such, it is important to select a location that will be appropriate to provide a librarytype service. That means quiet, large enough to host the anticipated number of concurrent visitors, with plenty of natural light. One of the early Knowledge Centers in the IPMS project was in a room that was also used to store farm chemicals. On top of that, it was a very small room not far from a toilet facility. These are hardly ingredients for a successful center. The particular Woreda later moved the center to a much larger room that was visible from all corners of the Office of Agriculture and with plenty of natural lighting that is inviting for anyone hoping to take a few minutes to keep up with the latest news or information on his/her field of work.• Like any good library, the available collection of books, manuals, CDs, DVDs, etc should be robust and diverse enough to warrant frequent visits by potential patrons.• Linkage with information sources should be established. These can be RARIs, BoARD, international sources such as AGORA, etc. Many such information sources provide content for \"free\". Other may have some nominal fees. A good example of such a resource (which was developed by the IPMS Project is the Ethiopian Agriculture Portal www.eap.gov.et (EAP). There is also an offline copy of the EAP which contains most of the resources is also available from the Ministry of Agriculture. As the name implies, the offline version of EAP can be used without an Internet connection.• Infrastructure such as adequate supply of power, Internet connectivity, backup generators, and ICT tools such as PCs, TV, CD/DVD players are important differentiators of a good knowledge center.• Access to ICT technical support (both hardware and software support) ensures that investments in such tools don't get wasted (or sit idle) after a few months of use with problems that are easy to solve when basic technical support is available.• The staff (potential patrons) should be empowered and encouraged to use the centers by allowing them to spend time both during regular office hours and as well as evenings and weekends.• The capacity of staff to do Internet-based research should be strengthened. This includes first creating awareness about the vast amount of resources available on the Internet that can help them do their jobs better as well as the skills on how to efficiently access such resources.• The overall understanding of knowledge as a critical \"input\" to agricultural development should be internalized. Instilling this shift in mindset requires sustained efforts• It takes sustained and disciplined effort to realize significant results from an investment in a knowledge center.• A knowledge center needs a dedicated staff to coordinate activities of the center. A part-time staff may be able to do such coordination but it is often not as good as someone dedicated to the center.• It takes money to run these centers and a clear financial commitment is needed by the Woreda, Zone, or Region intending to maintain such centers. But the investment will be worth it.• Like every other intervention attempted by the project, committed leadership that has the vision to withstand inertia and mobilize and inspire broad support is a critical success factor.• The computer skills of staff seem to have increased significantly as a direct result of frequent access to ICT tools and such skills are directly applicable in discharging better their jobs in general.IPMS helped to develop the Ethiopian Agriculture Portal (EAP), www.eap.gov.et -a web-based gateway to agricultural information resources relevant to Ethiopian agriculture. EAP is hosted on a server located at the IT department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. This good practice guide focuses on lessons and experiences gained while establishing and operating the EAP.The Ethiopian Agriculture Portal (EAP) uses a simple, logically laid-out web interface from which users can access all areas of the system. The design parameters consider in the development process of the portal include; ease of use, ease of maintenance, ability to scale-up, and sustainability. The portal uses a relatively easy-to-use content management system that does not require extensive web technology skills. Although easy to use, the portal is driven by a powerful, flexible, open source database engine that can easily accommodate a large number of documents and formats.An offline version of the portal that is distributable on DVDs, external (portable) hard disks, and flash memory disks has been developed to alleviate the difficulties of Internet access in many parts of Ethiopia. This option increases the potential audience of the portal to those with limited or no Internet connectivity. The offline copy of the EAP is available from the Ministry of Agriculture. Copies of the EAP-Offline are also available in many of the Regional Bureaus of Agriculture and Regional Agricultural Research Institutes.The portal contains documents on agricultural commodities important to Ethiopia. Other useful online resources, capacity building materials, good practices repository, and useful links on the Internet are also accessible from the portal. Many documents currently available on the portal were heretofore only available in hard copies and even then in very limited distributions. Links to websites of stakeholders in Ethiopian agriculture, including national & international agricultural research centers, national agricultural universities, agriculture sector projects currently being implemented in the country and other Ministry of Agriculture affiliated web sites. Many other features can be added or removed as needed. Such additions or deletion are normally done by mutual agreement among the Ministry of Agriculture and other the stakeholders in Ethiopian agriculture who are closely working with the ministry.Clear strategic vision is the first requirements for developing a portal that is useful and sustainable. This strategic vision should be shared among all stakeholders -including those who develop the portal, who fund the development of such a portal, and those who maintain and operate the portal. Confusion or misunderstanding among any of these important actors results in decision whose ultimate impact may surface long after the portal is developed and deployed. In the case of the development of the portal, many of the key stakeholders (but not all) were consulted and attempts were made to craft a shared vision. However, because some key potential stakeholders were not in the initial planning process, there were challenges that surfaced later on which can be traced to such omission on the front end.Following are some key points that need to be considered when planning to setup an information portal to ensure smooth and sustainable development.The IPMS Project and the Ministry of Agriculture collaborated in developing the Ethiopian Agriculture Portal. If a new portal (for non-agriculture or other specific need) is desired, the first thing one should consider is to determine why such a portal is needed. Making the business case (a reasoned explanation that shows the added value such an information resource portal may bring) is an important step to craft a clear strategic vision. The business case should show some of the following• Why such a portal is needed (issues & opportunities)?• How a portal can solve the issues or opportunities facing the organization?• What is the recommended solution(s)?• How does the solution address the issues or opportunities (benefits)?• What will happen if the portal is not developed (the do nothing scenario)?• How much money, people, and time will be needed to deliver the solution and realize the benefits?A participatory planning process that involves key potential stakeholders can help bring out all issues (opportunities and challenges)The IPMS project has followed an approach of \"plan, implement, learn, modify\" in doing many of its interventions, including the portal. This approach has been beneficial to get things moving quickly. However, one needs to keep in mind that good and through planning is still needed -especially when deploying big systems.In the case of the EAP, the following can be seen as the rational (or the business case) for developing it.• The government's focus to make agriculture market-oriented requires an extension system that can assist farmers to be agile in responding to market signals. For the extension system to adequately provide such a service, it needs to be continually aware of what happens near and far in all areas that are relevant to farmers. Access to diverse sources of information resources and documents through the Internet and offline copies enables the extension system to better respond to farmers' information needs. • An agriculture portal increases the ease of access to up-to-date documents on good practices, research outputs, capacity building manuals, information on the status of ongoing projects and related activities • An agriculture portal can be used to support the provision of timely information to policy makers, development partners, investors, extension service providers, and others who need to make informed decisions pertaining to Ethiopian agriculture • An agriculture portal increase interactions among the various stakeholders in Ethiopian agriculture since it creates a platform for sharing knowledge on topics relevant to their mandates.The financial resources needed to establish an agriculture portal include both direct upfront costs for setting up the system and ongoing operational costs needed to maintain and update it. Realistic assessments of such costs and how they will be obtained need to be carried out in advance. A budget may be allocated by the implementing agency, by projects with mandates to cover such expenses, or government/non-government programs that engage in broad capacity building activities. Typical cost elements include:• Building construction (a server room if there isn't any)• ICT software, hardware, and accessories (Servers, some desktop computers, server operating system, firewall software and/or hardware, Internet access devices, generator, UPS, scanners, etc) • Tables, shelves and chairs • Costs associated with Internet presence setup • Initial stock of digitalized documents (if possible) or hard copies for scanning• Staff cost (both for technical support staff and for staff dealing with content)• Technical maintenance cost (hardware and software)• Utilities (electricity, telephone, and Internet usage fees)• Fuel for generators used during power outagesGood infrastructure is critical to a successful implementation of a portal. The site where the servers are hosted needs to be clean, dry and well ventilated. Adequate and consistently available electric power is critical. Fast Internet connection ensures efficient upload and download of large files. Frequent power outages and poor Internet connection that interrupt the availability of the portal deter acceptance of the portal or discourages visitors from returning back to the portal.• The main reason visitors access a given site is seeking information. Therefore, ensuring there is adequate, relevant, and timely content should be the most important consideration in the development of a portal in order to warrant frequent visits by potential customers.• Linkage with information sources should be established. These will depend on the purpose of the portal. In the case of an agriculture portal; research centers, ministry of agriculture, regional bureaus of agriculture, international sources such as AGORA, were some of the information sources pursued as potential sources of content.• File size of contents needs to be small for quick download time. This is especially true in places where Internet connectivity is slow• The portal content should be aligned with the target audience.• An agriculture portal needs a full time content coordinator who is responsible for the overall content management; one who liaises with various content providers, check relevancy of documents, upload documents and make sure the portal is running up to date.• Access to ICT technical support (both hardware and software support) ensures that investments in such tools don't get wasted (or sit idle) after a few months of use with problems that are easy to solve when basic technical support is available.• The staff (potential patrons) should be empowered and encouraged to use the agriculture portal by availing relevant and up to date information that increases their work efficiency• The capacity of staff to do Internet-based research should be strengthened. This includes first creating awareness about the vast amount of resources available on the portal that can help them do their jobs better as well as the skills on how to efficiently access such resources.• The overall understanding of knowledge as a critical 'input' to agricultural development should be internalized. Instilling this shift in mindset requires sustained efforts• It takes sustained and disciplined effort to realize significant results from an investment in an information portal• A dedicated full time coordinator for document inflow and content management is necessary. A part-time staff may do such a job, however there is a risk of not allocating enough time and space for the information portal.• Constant promotion is important until a certain level of traction is achieved among potential users• Clear financial commitment is needed by the organization willing to establish such a portal• Like every other interventions, committed leadership that has the vision to withstand inertia and mobilize and inspire broad support is a critical success factor.• Linkages with content providers help in maintaining a fresh supply of content to keep the portal interesting and up to date.• Although uploading content to a portal does not need high-level IT skills, maintaining the backend infrastructure needs such a skilled resource. Like any such systems, sustainability will depend on having the IT department of an organization with such resources.IPMS supported over a 100 individuals who were mainly doing their MSc thesis research. This support was aimed at influencing the effectiveness of research in terms of its applicability to development and the research orientation of universities and students. Such influence was accomplished by guiding the way research is conducted, influencing the research topics, and supporting the utilization of research findings by making sure research results and findings are broadly disseminated in the districts about which the research was done. • Prior interaction of the students with development practitioners and/or project staff. Graduate fellows who identify researchable problems that also align with their interest develop concept papers in consultation with partners in the district where they want to do the study. These partners can be projects in the area of the district office of agriculture. The full proposal development by the graduate fellows then commences with university supervisors involved to the extent possible. This helps to steer research by the students to priority researchable problems that had been identified during the diagnostic survey and work plan development as well as to studies which would be conducted with the view of developing specific intervention options or solving emerging problems along specific commodity value chains.• Graduate students can present their research proposals to various bodies in the district and get feedback before the actual implementation commences to ensure relevance and a focus on problem-solving research. This is not a common undertaking but is worth trying to further strengthen the link between academic research and practical problem solving in districts.• Mentoring of students. Technical assistance can be provided to graduate students by senior staff members of projects in the concerned area as co-supervisors, to promote good quality and practical theses development. Consultations with concerned parties on the general theme of how to steer agricultural research in universities towards contributing to development goals is always good.• Specialized training on topics such as research methodology, proposal writing, statistical analysis, and scientific presentation techniques are always helpful to enhance the quality and reach of research outputs.• Encouraging graduate fellows to participate at relevant national forums such as conferences, workshops and seminars while implementing their thesis research helps to broaden students perspectives • Enhancing students' learning experience by engaging them in development activities while they are doing their research (e.g. by providing technical assistance to extension units, training, experience sharing).• Graduate fellows with some prior practical experience in the agriculture sector are believed to have better theoretical and possibly practical background than most DAs. To take advantage of this skill differential, graduate fellows should be encouraged to get involved in capacity development activities and to advise DAs and Farmers as well as provide technical assistance in their domain of expertise to others in the Office of Agriculture. One immediate area where such transferable skill may be apparent is in computer applications usage, where the very nature of graduate work may necessitate graduate fellow to acquire such skill and then in turn teach DAs and other experts in such skills.• On the other hand, graduate fellows can get plenty of opportunities for interaction and experiential learning during their fieldwork and their stay in local settings. Such experience can help graduates fellow to have a better understanding of and an appreciation for indigenous knowledge. Exposure to such real life situations helps the fellows to better understand the complexity and diversity of the production and marketing systems, farmers' decision making logic and criteria such as in improved variety selection, participation in marketable commodity production, etc.• Presentation/discussion of research findings with research clients (farmers and extension) servers as an important platform for graduate students to get additional forums for verification and/or validation of their findings and for sharing knowledge generated through their research. Therefore, graduate students should conduct seminars and share their research findings with experts, DAs, and in some cases, communities with whom they worked with during their research.• Student alumni forum can serve as platforms to share findings amongst peers. Projects can facilitate such forums as another means to broadly share knowledge as a teaching as well as learning mechanism.• Promotion and utilization of outstanding research outputs through various means is also another method to increase the impact of graduate research. Working papers, discussion papers, and at times publications in journals are some examples of such promotion and utilization of research outputs.• When graduate studies are sponsored by projects or public institutions it is possible and advisable to target for increased participation of women since this is likely to eventually increase the number of role of women in decision and policy making platforms.• Projects sponsoring graduate studies should also strive to establish formal interactions with university staff and advocate on focusing research thesis agenda and objectives to align with regional and national research priorities. This is particularly important considering the transitory nature of projects relative to national development timeframes. Frequent interactions can help in identifying opportunities to improve research as well as to pick out findings that qualify as public goods. A formal regional or national coordination mechanism and a platform should be considered to regularly translate recommendations and finding into concrete actions. A case in point is the recommendation of one national workshop facilitated by the IPMS project where the formation of a national \"Forum for Graduate Research in Agriculture\" was highlighted as one of the final recommendations of workshop participants. The forum was will have deans of schools of graduate studies of relevant higher institutes as well as representatives from the MoA and EIAR.This good practice guide in project sponsored MSc and BSc training is prepared by the IPMS project, it will help to briefly state some of the lessons learned during the projects execution of this intervention.• Supervision of students is a time-consuming activity that needs to be carefully planned and resourced.• A \"mindset\" change at universities regarding \"development and action-oriented student research\" is important for such research to positively contribute to the overall national agricultural research output. This change has started but needs further follow-up and attention.• Greater flexibility in timing to accommodate married women's other duties should be considered, without compromising overall academic standards.• The experience offers an approach and modus operandi important to involve students in demanddriven research, knowledge sharing, development/capacity development activities and practical learning in real-life settings.• The experience demonstrated that research by graduate students can be more relevant and practical solutions-oriented by involving employers and/or intended research output users, and by putting in place mechanisms and processes for facilitating research priority setting, implementation, knowledge sharing and quality supervision.The lessons imply, on one hand, that graduate programs should be pro-active in creating partnership with regional and federal government actors and with projects engaged in development interventions. On the other hand, public and non-public development actors who are truly committed to sustainability should be more willing to partner with and strengthen the capacity of key capacity building national institutions -especially those engaged in graduate programs of agriculture and related disciplines.The project introduced a gender-balanced, participatory market-oriented development approach which required enhancement of the skills set of the program delivery providers (such as the extension service) and the skills of producers and processors of agricultural inputs, output, and services.Two types of skills are distinguished i.e. skills in program delivery skills and skills in technical areas such as production, processing and/or agri-business.IPMS facilitated program delivery skills development for extension and specialized staff. These included:• Use of participatory and market oriented extension methods/approaches• Marketing assessment, gender ,HIV/AIDS, and environmental assessment and planning concepts, and • Integration of \"IPMS\" training in government programs/projects avoids duplication and confusion• There was limited use of self-teaching software for developing computer skills. The preference was for instructor-led training.• Involvement of staff from HAPCO and women's affair facilitated awareness Project manuals can contribute to the development of the subject matter; it needs not to be the \"final\" manual.• Scarcity of well trained specialists in some program delivery skills needs to be addressed by the country's educational institutionsIPMS used seminars to develop a culture of knowledge sharing and to broadly disseminate \"new\" knowledge acquired/developed through formal or informal training. Seminars were mostly given by project staff, invited guests, as well as BSc or MSc students sponsored by IPMS either for their entire degree program or theses research.• Seminar can be used as a forum for broadening networking (connections/interactions) among practitioners. These seminars can help develop for good knowledge sharing culture. • Interactions during seminars expose students to local issues important to practitioners and how their research finding can be used to find practical solutions to local problems • Students' technical skills in doing presentation (the use of PowerPoint, LCD projectors, communications) were adopted by extension staff and used on subsequent presentations.• To accommodate schedule constraints, innovative scheduling should be considered. For example, \"brown-bag\" sessions are seminars given during lunch hours, where participants interested in attending the seminar bring \"packed lunches\" and attend the session while eating their lunch.• Students need to be aware of the need to do seminars.• It is possible to build a useful database of research on locally significant issues by compiling seminar presentations on a consistent basis• Educational institutions should consider presentation and communications skills as important areas of learning -in addition to the core topics in one's program.As part of the capacity building and knowledge management component, the IPMS project felt that producing working papers and other publications as a vehicle for dissemination of knowledge outputs from the project would support market-led and knowledge-based development of smallholder agriculture. Therefore, the project published various resources in the domains of the academia, research and development to increase the uptake of the project output.Working Papers, Toolkits, and Practitioners' Guides are used by the project to formally document the experiences of the project, provide ready-to-use approaches for conducting certain interventions, and as a means for capacity building. The basis of the working papers are various types of research conducted by project scientists, theses research conducted by IPMS-sponsored students, or collaboration between IPMS scientist and scientists from other national or international organizations and/or students. Toolkits and Practitioners' Guides are authored by ILRI scientists based on prior professional experience, project findings, and research.Relevant guides and resources are prepared in local languages (Amharic, Tigrigna and Oromiffa) for a wider distribution and easy uptake. Those documentations that proved very relevant are further documented on DVD as training videos and documentary video by professionals in English and local language.Elements of good practices in researching and writing working papers• Topics selected for working papers are based on actual/practical issues that need to be addressed to solve specific agricultural development challenges or to promote good practices observed in project implementation • The primary focus of working papers, toolkits and guides should be on addressing local needs not on being \"peer-reviewed\" international publication standard outputs. Therefore, they should be prepared in a language that average practitioners can understand • Posters, brochures and fliers are efficient means for knowledge sharing and transfer as they are coupled with visual appeal and simple languages.• Producing working papers and other publications can be expensive. Therefore, careful planning need to be done on what needs to be put out as a working paper or similar publications to ensure the return on investment considering the potential readership.• Digital versions of working papers (web, CD/DVD) can reduce the cost of production and broaden the reach of the published output (some IPMS practitioners' guides have found audiences outside Ethiopia).• Synthesized working papers can be useful to students, ATVETs, and universities. They can also be inputs for preparing textbooks.• Encouraging and supporting the participation of graduate students in the preparation of working papers increases their skills and confident in writing for preparing professional publications.• Working with the national research system and universities to prepare publications creates opportunities for further collaboration and knowledge sharing • Working papers and other publications can be used to disseminate findings of work in progress, experiences and lessons to encourage the exchange of ideas and innovative thinking among researchers, development practitioners, policy makers and donors. • Enhancing the role of FTCs as agricultural knowledge centers by increasing access to knowledge for DAs through telephone, internet, off line copies of EAP, supply of materials, market information and by using FTCs for knowledge sharing activities such as commodity group meetings, field days etc.• Enhancing the role of FTCs as sources of input supply such as seeds/planting materials for forage production, and fruit seedling production by providing material support and technical advice• Enhancing the operation and management of FTCs through income generation activities and financial management• Encouraging the use of FTCs as general multi-purpose community centers serving the community in various capacities• Leadership at Woreda, Zonal, and Regional levels that believes in the relevance of FTCs and committed to support them is essential to the success of FTCs.• Willingness and readiness of the extension system to respond to evolving needs of farmers stimulates interest of farmers in FTCs. (e.g. Access to knowledge to resolve unexpected challenges, demonstrations of \"new\" findings that are relevant to local farmers, etc)• Income generating activities such as multiplication of forage seed/planting materials or seedling production can greatly assist the viability and sustainability of FTCs.• FTCs with access to basic infrastructure (electricity, telephone, Internet) are much more likely to register good results in attracting and assisting farmers than those with no or very limited access to such facilities. Maintaining live animal demonstrations on FTCs requires careful consideration, since animals, unlike crops, require 24 hours /7 days attention • Clear implementation plan, capacity strengthening and systematic monitoring mechanisms are important to introduce ICTs and ensure responsive, effective and sustainable use of the tools in the delivery of agricultural extension servicesStudy tours are organized and targeted visits where a group of farmers, extension specialists, and/or administrative or policy making personnel are taken to locations where there will be opportunities to see \"new\" ways of doing things and for sharing knowledge and experiences. This creates an opportunity to physically witness practical examples of what visitors may have heard or read about. At times, such visits may expose the visitors to completely new experiences.The motivation or purpose of study tours is knowledge \"capturing\" and exposure to facilitate technology and/or process adoption. It enables participants to learn about new technologies, practices, and get inspiration from others experiences. The project also strived to help develop a culture of knowledge sharing.On balance, study tours have been effective in deliver on the promise of developing a culture of knowledge sharing and creating opportunities for learning and adopting new technologies and/or agricultural practices. However, the following good practice guides are recommended to increase the value of Study Tours. Some of the benefits of study tours include:• Study tours provide a reality based intensive learning experience that is interactive where farmers and staff from extension service providers see innovative practices that have been successfully implemented by their peers or \"models\".• They provide opportunities to gain strategic or operational knowledge that is practiced by those who are actually profiting from such endeavors. In other words they see in action those practices they may have only known as theories.• It gives them opportunities to evaluate their own experience journey, challenge their thinking, create new ideas, and benefit from such reflections.• Provide opportunities to network with like-minded individuals who are also engaged in endeavors they are trying to adapt. However, to realize the full potential of study tours, careful planning, execution, and learning is needed. Some of the good practices observed from the five years of experience in the IPMS Project include:• Study tours need to be carefully targeted in terms of what to see, who should participate, when the best time is to conduct such tours, and the most cost-effective venues to get the desired outcome.• Obviously, study tours are most cost efficient when target sites are nearby. However, there may be times when going further may be worth it if that means there is a significantly better return from the increased distance in terms of what to see, the inspiration or healthy competition this creates • The private sector may participate in cost sharing for a mutually beneficial (with the tour participants) arrangement.• Study tours are important to bring in new ideas and develop a vision of what is possible • If used effectively, travel time when going to and coming back from the study tour, can essentially make into travelling workshops.• Linking visiting farmers with \"host farmers\" or other \"host families\" for overnight stays result in more interaction and establish trust regarding what farmers see during the tour and creates opportunities for more practical demonstrations • The cost of study tours prohibits frequent use of such interventions, even when done periodically.Therefore, composition of study tour participants should be carefully planned to include those individuals with reflective personalities, who can stimulate interactions and report back what they have witnessed to folks back home.• Cost effectiveness should be viewed in terms of longer term return on investment.• It is important that participants report back their experiences to the broader community that stayed back -supported with pictures, stories, and any other appropriate and effective tools and methods.• Follow up support is important for adoption of experiences brought from study tours and documentation for further utilization.","tokenCount":"6423"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7ffaf102b0cafee15be8eb6fd7ce688f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2f8daf4f-4251-44cd-85da-881583a4968b/retrieve","id":"-1569395230"},"keywords":["End-user","gender","highland bananas","Matooke","quality characteristics","Uganda","variety development"],"sieverID":"d1130997-67f3-40da-8cdc-b8fbe7b58a00","pagecount":"11","content":"Matooke' is a staple food made from Highland cooking bananas in the Great Lakes region of East Africa. Genetic improvement of these bananas for resistance to pests and diseases has been a priority breeding objective. However, there is insufficient information on fruit quality characteristics that different users prefer, resulting in sub-optimal adoption of new varieties. This study identified matooke characteristics preferred by farmers and traders, using survey data from 123 farmers, 14 focus group discussions and 40 traders. Gender differences were considered. The main characteristics that were found to drive variety preferences were agronomic (big bunch, big fruits) and quality (soft texture, good taste, good aroma, yellow food). There were minimal geographical and gender differences for trait preferences. Quality characteristics need to be defined in terms of physical-chemical underpinnings so that breeding programmes can apply accurate high-throughput systems, thereby improving adoption and impact of new banana varieties.The East African Highland Cooking Bananas (EAHCBs), also known as'Matooke 1 ' bananas, support livelihoods of close to 30 million people, mainly smallholder rural farmers in the Great Lakes region of East Africa (Nyombi, 2013;NBRP, 2018). With production estimated at 10 metric tonnes (MT) per year (FAO, 2001;Lusty and Smale, 2002), the crop is mainly grown by smallholder producers on an average of 0.3 hectares (Bagamba, 2007). About 70% of matooke production is consumed at household level while 30% is sold through agents/brokers, wholesalers and retailers to the urban consumers as bunches, clusters or fingers (Akankwasa et al., 2013).Banana production and consumption are deeply embedded in the Ugandan culture, where some varieties have cultural roles among the farming communities (Karamura, 1998;NBRP, 2016). In most cases, men manage the banana plantations for cash while women manage those used directly for household food. However, even in the same plantation, individual bunches may be claimed by men for sale or by women for direct food use (NBRP, 2016;Nalunga et al., 2015).Matooke bunches are harvested at fruit mature green stage, peeled, wrapped in banana leaves, steamed or boiled, mashed, then typically eaten with or without a sauce. The fruits may also be eaten directly after boiling or steaming (FAO, 2018;Marimo et al., 2019;Nowakunda et al., 2019). This is the most common food in Uganda and other areas in the Great Lakes region. When cooked, Matooke is characterised by a unique flat taste and aroma, golden yellow colour and a soft texture. These characteristics constitute the unique quality described as 'tookeness' (NBRP, 2016), originating from the term 'Matooke'. Consumers desire these attributes in new varieties (Akankwasa et al., 2013).Cultivation of the EAHCBs is increasingly becoming challenging due to a host of pests and diseases that reduce yield and quality (Kalyebara et al., 2007;Tushemereirwe et al., 2003;Gold et al., 1999) and other environmental factors. This has necessitated investments into breeding programmes. Currently, matooke breeding is done through conventional means by crossing fertile female landraces with wild male parents (Nyine et al., 2017;Tumuhimbise et al., 2018). This process often introduces undesirable characteristics into hybrids (Khan et al., 2009). Without multiple generations of crossing and selection, breeders rarely generate hybrids with good user acceptance. Even then, over 90% of generated hybrids are often rejected by users (Morris & Bellon, 2004;Tumuhimbise et al., 2016).To raise the chances of obtaining a hybrid with acceptable qualities, breeders typically generate thousands of clones and evaluate them with farmers (Tumuhimbise et al., 2016). The process of selection and getting feedback from users is lengthy and costly, lasting over 10 years. Most of the hybrids generated are often rejected mainly because they do not meet end-users needs (Bechoff et al., 2018;Tumuhimbise et al., 2019). Breeders focus on generating hybrids that have improved resistance and agronomic characteristics, with less consideration the user's preferences (Bechoff et al., 2018) earlier on in the breeding cycle. End-user preferences are often captured at the end of the breeding cycle when varieties have already been developed and feedback might be too late. Evaluation at this stage involves on-farm trials and the use of sensory methods to determine the acceptance (Ssemwanga, 1996;Nowakunda et al., 2000;Nowakunda & Tushemereirwe, 2004;Akankwasa et al., 2013;Tumuhimbise et al., 2018).Studies on hybrid evaluation and adoption in cassava, banana and rice hybrids show that despite the huge investments, adoption rates for hybrids are low as often they do not meet market needs that are driven by end-user preference (Sebasigari, 1996;Bechoff et al., 2018;Joshi & Bauer, 2006;Smale, & Tushemereirwe, 2007;Asante, 2013;Thiele et al., 2021). Farmers' perceptions and experiences about the attributes of varieties are important factors that influence their variety use decisions (Wale, 2012). Edmeades (2003); Hintze et al. (2003); and Wale (2012), reported that varieties that lack farmer demanded characteristics were not retained on farmers' fields. Marimo et al., 2020 provide a comprehensive review of studies that document banana trait preferences of various value chain actors in Sub Saharan Africa. Documentation on specific preferred quality characteristics of matooke is lacking thus making it difficult for breeders to have appropriate guidance during hybrid development and selection. Breeding programmes should engage end-users to learn about the traits they prefer for incorporation into the breeding process.The aim of this study is to identify preferred and less preferred characteristics of Matooke by farmers and traders to guide breeders towards appropriate selection criteria for varieties that would have high adoption rates.The study was conducted in two districts of Uganda (Nakaseke and Mbarara) where matooke bananas are a staple crop (NBRP, 2016). Nakaseke district which is in the central region is traditionally described as a coffee-banana farming system. It falls within the Central Wooded Savannah agro-ecological zone with an altitudinal range of 1086-1280 masl, mean annual rainfall of up to 1100 mm and temperatures ranging from 16 • C to 30 • C (Mulumba et al., 2012). It is also described as a low production area (<7.0 metric tonnes per hectare per year) with high intensity of defoliating diseases such as black Sigatoka and pests like weevils and nematodes (Tushemereirwe et al., 2003). However, this area is closer to large end markets for cooking bananas in Uganda. Nakaseke is in a region which is a primary target for promotion of newly bred resistant hybrids. Mbarara district in western region on the other hand, is described as a predominantly banana-cattle farming system (Mulumba et al., 2012). It is a high banana production area (>18 metric tonnes per hectare per year) and consumption district. Mbarara falls within the western medium-high farmlands agro-ecological zone at an altitude ranging between 1400-1500 masl, with mean annual rainfall of up to 1223 mm and temperatures ranging from 12.5 • C to 30 • C.The study used a mixed method approach that included individual interviews,sex disaggregated focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews based on an adapted methodology in Forsythe et al, 2018 (step 2 manual). Mbarara district in western Uganda was selected as a representation of high banana production areas while Nakaseke District which is in central Uganda was selected as a representation of low production areas. In addition, these districts serve as site locations where the National Banana Research Program conducts evaluation of hybrid banana varieties. In each district, two subcounties were purposively selected, representing high (Ndeija and Kasangombe in Mbarara and Nakaseke respectively) and low banana production levels (Bubaare and Kito respectively). For each sub-county, two parishes (four in total), and two villages within those parishes (8 in total), were randomly selected.In each village; one key informant 2 interview and two FGDs (one with men only and another with women only) were conducted. In addition, at least 10 individuals from each village were randomly selected for the individual interviews. In total, eight key informant interviews (two women, six men); 3 14 focus group discussions comprising 164 participants (Eightfive women and Seventy nine men) and 123 individual interviews (Sixty-four women and Fifty nine men) were conducted. All the participants produced, processed and/or consumed matooke.For traders, lists of major banana urban markets were obtained from the district commercial officers, from which two markets per district were randomly selected. In each of the markets, a list of traders was obtained from market chairperson out of which a total of 40 traders (Fifteen women, Twenty-five men) were sampled and interviewed.Data collected included socioeconomic characteristics, matooke varieties grown and preferred by farmers and traders; and the varietal characteristics that drive preferences in the raw and steamed matooke product. The FGDs provided detailed information on norms and gender relations related to banana production, processing, consumption and preferences related to varietal characteristics at the different stages. An overview of the topics, tools and sampling is provided in Forsythe et al., 2018. order of importance (simple ranking). The rankings of varieties and characteristics were aggregated and weighted based on their rank to determine the overall ranks. To apply weights, the frequency (count) for the most important characteristic (1 st priority) was multiplied by n (rank), 2 nd priority by n-1 and the nth priority by 1. The weighted scores were then added to get summary scores for each characteristic which were used to rank the characteristicsthe higher the score, the higher the rank (Forsythe et al., 2018). Chi-square   International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2020 (X 2 ) tests were performed to test gender-specific and regional differences. Excel and Stata v14 software were used for analyses.Most of the farmers were married (71%) and around 30.5% of women were widowed (Table 1). Almost all men (96%) were household heads. Men had slightly more average years of education compared to women (6.5 versus 5.6 years, respectively). The sample represented diverse ethnicities, which might influence values, customs and food preferences (Bechoff et al., 2020). Over 50% of farmers were from Baganda and Banyankole ethnic groups who are experts in matooke and often able to detect any quality deviations in introduced varieties. The term matooke is often used interchangeably with food (Hamilton et al., 2016), suggesting its importance in Ugandan diets.Most of the traders were married (82%) and had completed primary education (65%). Women traders had been in the trade for under half the average years that men had been (4.1 vs 9.5 years, respectively). All men traders used bicycles and motorcycles to trade (Table 1). As expected, the majority of interviewed women traders were retailers with stationery stalls that did not involve moving from point A to B. The wholesale node seems to be dominated by men (28 out of 40 wholesale traders were men. Nalunga et al. (2015) report similar results on traders for the above-mentioned parameters.Farmers were asked to rank the preferred banana varieties for making matooke. In Nakaseke, both landraces and hybrids were mentioned whereas in Mbarara, only landraces were reported. In both districts, the most preferred top five varieties are landraces (Table 2). Farmers prefer local varieties due to the superior quality characteristics (Nowakunda & Tushemereirwe, 2004;Akankwasa et al., 2016). Within the districts, there are gender differences in preferred varieties. More men (33%) in Mbarara mentioned Mbwazirume compared to only 4% of women (P = 0.007). Traders were each asked to rank the three main varieties that were demanded by their customers. Their answers correspond to the top varieties preferred by farmers for making steamed matooke (Fig. 1). The top six varieties ranked in order of frequency of mention by traders were: Nakitembe, Mbwazirume, Kibuzi, Musakala, Mpologoma and Musakala.The main characteristics that drive preferences by farmers are quality (soft, taste, yellow food) and agronomic such as big bunch, big fingers (Table 3). Quality characteristics are rated higher than agronomic characteristics by both men and women across districts. Other important characteristics considered mainly by women farmers include ease of peeling. Traders mention characteristics related to convenience during handling, transport and what customers demand.For traders, the top five characteristics they perceive to be important for their customers are big fingers, big bunches, maturity, shiny light green peel colour, good appearance (fresh, appealing, good finger formation) and compact bunches/fingers (Fig. 2). Other mentioned characteristics which cater for the diverse customers served include long fingers, medium bunches, medium sized fingers, straight fingers and varieties that are soft when cooked. In addition, traders also mentioned variety type (local is preferred), price (buying vs selling margin), quality of bunch and fingers (good quality are big and attractive), size of bunch/fingers, maturity level (not very mature preferred to avoid over-ripening), appearance (fresh, smooth, no bruises, disease free), finger shape, bunch shape (cylindrical), transaction costs (e.g. fuel costs) and location. Preferred and not-preferred characteristics of the raw material (bunch and fingers)Both women and men agree on the importance of most of the characteristics and therefore rank them the same way (Tables 4 and 5). Big bunches, big fingers with a light green colour and a yellowish pulp colour are preferred by both men and women farmers (Table 4). At the sites, both men and women ranked small finger size as their number one attribute that is not desired in matooke. This could be because finger size is a key market requirement and men are the ones involved in selling; but also, small fingers are difficult to peel, an activity mainly done by women. Women ranked pulp colour higher compared to men. This could be attributed to the fact that women are the ones involved in preparation of food for the   households and take keener interest in the quality of food compared to men. However, women and men agree on the importance of most of the characteristics and therefore rank them in the same way (Table 5).The top five undesired attributes are small and short fingers, immature fruits, spotted/diseased fruits, hard/ brittle fingers, white/creamish pulp colour and hard to peel fruit (Table 5). Similar findings are reported in Akankwasa et al. (2016) and Nalunga et al. (2015). Small and short fingers were mentioned by all the respondents at all the sites as undesired characteristics. Finger size is a key market requirement and small fingers are reported to be difficult to peel. More men (80%) in Mbarara compared to Nakaseke (71%) mentioned big finger size as an important characteristic. This could be because in Mbarara, banana production is more commercialised than Nakaseke and men are more involved in selling.Women ranked pulp colour higher compared to men. A yellowish pulp colour is associated with good food colour. Food preparation is mostly women's (Rietveld & Farnworth, 2018;Marimo et al., 2019;Weltzien et al., 2020), hence the need to ensure that new varieties are easy to peel, as well as  Steps in matooke preparation Key characteristics 1. Harvesting, cut a fully-grown banana bunch(es) Mature big bunch, compact bunch/fingers 2. De-hand -remove hands from bunch and remove fingers from clusters Well filled big fingers, yellowish/creamish pulp colour, shiny light green peel colour, disease free/spotless, long fingers 3. Peeling Easy to peel, yellowish pulp 4. Washing Sap content (can be high or low) depending on consumer perceptions 5. Prepare saucepanput strips of banana fibres and stalks as a foundation at the bottom of a cooking pan to avoid the boiling water touching the bundle of matooke being steamed. None 6. Prepare leavescarefully slice off the midribs None. Characteristics at this stage are related to the leaves and not the raw material. Leaves that can fold easily e.g. from Sukali Ndizi and those from Kayinja which is perceived to influence aroma are preferred 7. Tying up the peeled and washed banana fingers in a bundle of banana leaves None required 8. Place tied bundle into a cooking pot on top of the fibres and/or stalks with enough water to steam the leaves.None required 9. Steaming for about 1hr?depends on the type of firewood None required 10. After steaming, smash cooked bananas by pressing with the palms of one's hands to make matooke. Women particularly pay more attention to postharvest processing and food quality characteristics in a range of crops hence the need to consider gender-specific characteristics to improve varietal acceptance and enduser benefits (Weltzien et al., 2020). Farmers in western Uganda are more sensitive to pulp colour compared to those in central. This could be because there is less production in central Uganda and consumers tend to have fewer options and therefore are less selective.Results of the focus group discussions (Table 6) in both districts ranked maturity of the cooking bananas as the most important characteristic. Women groups ranked big fingers and creamy pulp colour as the second most important characteristics, as was observed with individual interviews. Similarly, men groups ranked big bunch and disease free as their preferred characteristics. Generally, results of focus group discussions are in agreement with the individual interviews.Characteristics that are important at the different stages of cooking matooke Table 7 summarises characteristics mentioned by farmers from harvest of bunches up to the preparation of steamed mashed matooke. At the peeling stage, important characteristics include easy to peel, straight fruits, soft peel, soft pulp, yellowish/creamish pulp colour and low sap content. During washing, matooke processors prefer varieties with a low amount of sap. However, for steaming and simmering, no specific characteristics are important.Preferred and not-preferred characteristics of matookethe final cooked product Soft texture, good aroma, yellow colour and good taste are the four top preferred characteristics of steamed matooke (Table 8a). Similar results were obtained from focus group discussions (Table 9). Ssemwanga (1996); Nowakunda et al. (2000); Nowakunda & Tushemereirwe (2004); Akankwasa et al. (2013) reported that hard texture, astringent taste, poor aroma and lack of golden yellow colour often led to rejection of matooke hybrids by end-users. Women seem to be more sensitive to appearance than men while the men are more sensitive to taste than women. This could be explained by the fact that women are the ones who are more responsible for household food and are therefore more sensitive to quality whereas the men are more interested in market preferred characteristics. These results also show that there are gender differences in the preference for banana characteristics. According to Weltzien et al. (2020), trait preferences differ because women and men have contrasting roles and responsibilities for various crop production or postharvest activities. Bellon and Reeves (2002) suggests that there are gender differences in the demand for particular characteristics and failure to recognise these differences would lead to biased interventions. The less preferred characteristics include hard texture, too soft or watery matooke, pale yellow colour and flat taste (Table 8b). Consumers in Nakaseke ranked watery/too soft texture as number 4 while it was undesired attribute number 2 in Mbarara. Similar to the explanation for preferences for the raw product, this regional difference could be explained by limited access to different product options for Nakaseke consumers.This study showed that famers and traders in the western Uganda food chain for matooke give priority to characteristics that influence market acceptance. In the central region, consumers attach less importance to food colour compared to the western region. Generally, traders look for characteristics that buyers ask for when purchasing the banana bunches.Women and men mention the same characteristics with minimal differences in the proportions reporting certain characteristics and in the assigned rankings. More women mention characteristics related to the preparation process for example ease of peeling, thin peel and soft peel as they are mostly responsible for food preparation. Colour of the peel-shiny light green fruits, and sap content are also important attributes for women.Farmers and traders of matooke prefer local landraces because of their superior quality attributes compared with hybrids. However, these landraces are susceptible to pests and diseases and their productivity is low.Soft texture, good aroma, yellow colour, good matooke taste and matooke that holds together when mashed are generally important characteristics for matooke end-users. Indeed, varieties that lack these characteristics are often rejected. Characteristics that are not liked include; hard texture, too soft or watery matooke, pale yellow colour and flat taste. Varieties with such characteristics are often rejected.Multidisciplinary efforts are encouraged in development of product profiles that include key user preferences, and their use during selection of hybrids. This will ensure user-responsive breeding that holistically caters to all target food chain actors and segments.It is imperative that the identified characteristics be associated with physical-chemical characteristics and translated into high-throughput phenotyping tools such as NIRS 4 , for efficient and effective selection of user-acceptable hybrids.Methodology (equal). Genevieve Fliedel: Data curation (equal); Methodology (equal); Writing-original draft (equal). Dominique Dufour: Conceptualization (equal); Methodology (equal); Writing-review & editing (equal).","tokenCount":"3365"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5c57f4456ed124b1b93ec3521fd889cc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/05d433c3-8f82-4847-9498-57b7aaab9e3a/retrieve","id":"-1080071485"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"382c6c1f-cf77-488e-a7f3-faa4c8f43698","pagecount":"5","content":"North America harbors a rich flora of wild relatives of significant agricultural and horticultural crops, including wild apples (Malus), beans (Phaseolus), blueberries and cranberries (Vaccinium), chile peppers (Capsicum), corn (Zea and Tripsacum), cotton (Gossypium), grapes (Vitis), hops (Humulus), onions (Allium), pumpkins (Cucurbita), sunflowers (Helianthus), and many more. The region is also home to a diversity of wild utilized plants still harvested and used by people, such as sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and wild rice (Zizania palustris).Alongside direct uses for human nutrition and their cultural importance, these plants offer valuable traits for plant breeding, including pest and disease resistance, and tolerance to climatic stresses. For these reasons, it's worrisome that the natural habitats of many North American crop wild relative and wild utilized plant populations are degraded or disappearing, and most species lack sufficient representation in botanical gardens, public genebanks, and other ex situ repositories.A shared road map for conservation, use, and public engagement around North America's crop wild relatives and wild utilized plants was developed as part of Celebrating Crop Diversity: Connecting Agriculture, Public Gardens and Science, a USDA -NIFA, US Botanic Garden, Leichtag Foundation, and World Food Prize Foundationsponsored project run jointly by the Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies (ACSESS) and the American Public Gardens Association. The road map was refined and improved with input from a wide range of botanical and agricultural researchers, land managers, and educators, both through online surveys and during in-person stakeholder consultations at the World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa, April 2-4, 2019. We discuss the key points from the road map below.Species inventories and conservation assessments have been generated for various taxa and for some geographic regions in North America, but many land management areas have no comprehensive species lists. For many species, assessments are either out of date or have not yet been performed. Assessments are needed to further document and define the highest priority species across North America, understand spatial patterns with regard to their genetic diversity, analyze threats to populations, and identify the most important gaps in conservation. Results should be integrated into relevant information platforms used by the conservation, land management, genetic resource, and agricultural research communities, and these platforms should more easily align.The information and priorities must be shared widely with professionals in the conservation, land management, agricultural science, and outreach communities, as well as with the public.North America's open spaces, whether public, private, military, or Indigenous and First People's conserve numerous crop wild relative and wild utilized plant populations collaterally, because of overall land protection practices. These plants are not explicitly prioritized except in a few exceptional cases, e.g., for some chile pepper, cranberry, and maize wild relative populations. Most species are not currently sufficiently conserved in their natural habitats. Conservation sites covering populations of the highest priority and/or most threatened crop wild relatives and wild utilized plants need to be designated in existing protected areas, and additional protected areas might need to be considered, to adequately protect the genetic diversity of these plants in their natural habitats so they can continue to evolve. To do so, priorities for species conservation will need to be expanded beyond those few currently officially listed as threatened and endangered. North America's botanical gardens, public genebanks, and open spaces provide the foundation for making crop wild relatives and wild utilized plants accessible for research and education. These plants need to be carefully managed to ensure adequate, high quality, true-to-type propagules are available for distribution, and they need to be easily accessible via online databases. Indigenous, traditional, and local knowledge about these plants must be valued and protected through access provided by agreements based on mutually agreed terms. These plants should also be accessible to the public through botanic garden displays and through information initiatives on public lands. Creating coordinated educational and communications programs to help raise awareness and provide a backdrop for support of crop wild relative and wild utilized plant conservation is necessary to the long-term viability of conservation and plant breeding efforts. Skilled education and outreach professionals should lead collaborative efforts to raise awareness about the importance of, and threats to, North American crop wild relatives and wild utilized plants.These five priorities are interdependent and require collaborative, coordinated efforts. Current initiatives that combine the efforts of land managers, researchers, and other organizations for the conservation and use of wild cranberries, chile peppers, and other crop wild relatives are demonstrating the value of collaborative approaches. Through partnerships, significant further progress can be made in conserving, using, and engaging the public with North American crop wild relatives and wild utilized plants.","tokenCount":"765"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"add8bfafd00b636af9fae2019de8de6d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7f92afa8-dbbe-46e4-aee8-545316cdb978/retrieve","id":"-1179371449"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d78e0421-7072-4a17-abf1-df45eb581520","pagecount":"1","content":"In 2005, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) launched the Improving the Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopia Farmers (IPMS) project in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to promote market-oriented agricultural development for smallholder farmers and pastoralists. Funded by CIDA, the project aimed to enhance agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods across four regional states in Ethiopia by involving the private sector and fostering e cient systems. It ran until 2010, with support from various research and development partners.The lowland districts of northwestern Ethiopia, including Metema, hold great potential for market-oriented beef production due to favourable conditions and access to both local and export markets. To fully realize this, the project focused on introducing cattle breeds better suited to the environment. A campaign-style approach using hormonal oestrous synchronization enabled the introduction of desirable germplasm in a short time, while matching calving periods with feed availability improved productivity. Training for farmers and development agents (DAs) and improved artificial insemination (AI) delivery services resulted in the synchronization of 318 cows. The success hinged on effective community mobilization, strategic genetic improvements, and long-term studies on cattle performance.Matching genotype with the environment using indigenous cattle breed: Introduction of Borana cattle from southern Ethiopia into the lowlands of northwestern Ethiopia Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture and ILRIThe Canadian International Development Agency","tokenCount":"219"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/8391964470.json b/data/part_6/8391964470.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2cc6760cb41b3a8b6230bbb848633edf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_1900.pdf","id":"1063323991"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4c23c5eb-c34c-4dbe-bae4-d9c66fdb5b1a","pagecount":"72","content":"The WHO/FAO/UNEP Panel of experts on Environmental Management for Vector Control (PEEM) was established in 1981 according to the Arrangements agreed upon by the three participating organizations.The objective of PEEM is to create an institutional framework for effective interagency and intersectoral collaboration by bringing together various organizations and institutions involved in health, water and land development and tbe protection of the environment with a view to promoting the extended use of environmental management measures for vector control in tiealth programmes and in development projects as health and environmental safeguards.Throughout the long history of Sri Lanka irrigation has b t m of vital importance. In ancient days, it formed the basis on which the Sinhalese culture flourished. The e:xtensive network of canals and reservoirs, constructed by the kings of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa brought prosperity to their people. Yet the irrigation works were also a vulnerable target in time of war, and thl:ir destruction led more than once to acute crisis with famine and disease, and finally to a general decline.The role of malaria epidemics in this decline is disputable. It is not clear at which moment in time malaria reached the island. Nor is it known to what extent the engineers who served the ancient rulers were aware of the relation between certain environmental conditions and ,:he prevalence of the disease. It would seem that their engineering practices were \"environmentally sound,\" a!; it would be called nowadays, and did not create major adverse health effects.In modern times, the people of Sri Lanka face the challenge of bringing the areas of the dry zone, so notoriously malarions, under cultivation again. The counti y needs to feed a growing population. Lacking fossil fuels, it has to resort to hydropower to generate sufficient energy. And its economy has to expand to create better employment conditions.Efforts over the past decade include the reservoir and resettlement projects of Inginimitiya, Kirindi Oya, Muthukandiya, and Mahadivulwewa. They also include flood protection schemes and village irrigation rebabilitation projects. But the national and international focus is of course on the Accelerated Mahaweli Project.Vector-borne diseases continue to be one of the predom nant public health problems in Sri Lanka. Measured by morbity and mortality, malaria certainly is the most important. Others, including filariasis and Japanese encephalitis, contribute their share to ill health. V:ctor-borne diseases pose an undeniable threat to the success of water resource development, and the considtxation of possible preventive or mitigating measures remains a priority item in the planning and implementz.tion of irrigation and other water projects.Since 1981 the WHO/FAO/UNEP Panel of Experts on Environmental Management for Vector Control (PEEM) has been promoting the use of environmental management measures as a contribution to sustainable economic development. Improved water management is a key component of such an approach. Research in the field of water management is also a priority issue in the mandate of the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI), with the objective to obtain methodohgies to secure a maximum agricultural yield with a given amount of water.The ultimate objectives may differ, but the concrete research questions to be solved show great overlap. If improvement of water management techniques, from an a1:ricultural point of view, leads to adverse health implications, it will in the end fail to contribute to the intended improvement of the quality of life. Considering the above, it was decided to organize a workshop on irigation and vector-borne disease transmission, to stimulate a dialogue between the irrigation, health and environment sectors in Sri Lanka and to explore whether a basis could be found for further collaboration between PEEM and IIMI. The organizers believe the workshop reached both goals. They hope that these proceedings will contribute to a continued dialogue in Sri Lanka, and they envisage promising opportunities for the fut Ire PEEMAIM1 collaboration.These proceedings of the workshop on irrigation and veci or-borne disease transmission, which was held at the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) in October 1985, were prepared by IIMI and are a joint publication of IIMI and PEEM. The workshop stimuhted a dialogue between the various sectors in Sri Lanka involved in irrigation development, health and the environment, and this publication aims at further promoting intersectoral collaboration in this field.Robert BOS' Like so many other Third World countries where transmission of vector-borne diseases occurs, Sri Lanka is presently facing a crisis in its vector control programme which may have severe consequences if it is not properly dealt with. The nature of the problem is four-fold. The discovery of malathion resistance in the principal vector of malaria, Anopheles culicifncies, marks the beginning of a decreasing effectiveness of rtsidual spraying with this insecticide. Simultaneously, chloroq line resistant Plamodium falciparum strains will undermine drug treatment strategies and gradually diminish their impact. A third phenomenon jeopardizing the current vector control programmes is the rapid decline in public acceptance of malathion spraying. The negative effsct this has on the control programme's perfornance is further enhanced by public action after spraying, such as white washing of recently sprayed walls. And finally, the economic rrality of the current decade affects both the possibility to purchase insecticide> as well as the operational potential of national vector control programmes.In Sri Lanka, the above problems should be considered against the background of a highly varied ecology with a diversified mosquito fauna, which includes many potential and confirmed disease vectors. The effect of man-made environmental changes on the ecology of vector species has always been important, reliant as the country is on irrigated rice cultivation. HoweverJhe extensive environmental changes occurring under the Accelerated Mahaweli Project, with major water resource development going on in what is traditionally the most important malarious area of the country, are unprecedented. They are the result of a necessary development to ensure food production, power generation and employment for future generations. But, if no adequate precautions are taken, they also carry the risk of increased ill-health and its negative impact on overall human development.Under these circumstances, the development of sound strategies for disease control must be based on, amongst other things, research concerning the possible effects of irrigation development on the ecology and behaviour of disease vectors. Generally three categories of vector-borne diseases may he distinguished in this context: 1) those directly connected to irrigation development, for instance, malaria and Japanese encephalitis; 2) those resulting from resettlement and urbanization accompany-Studies on vector population dynamics in parts of Mahaweli System C where irrigation development has not yet taken place, indicate a high level of mosquito species diversity. Many species with the potential to become important vectors once a human disease reservoir has been established have hten identified. These include Anuphela culic(faci,?s, A. vurunu, Munsonio annulifera, Aedes ulbopiztus, Culex tritaeniurhynchus and C. quinqutfasciatux. A simple forecast, considering the er vironmental changes and comparing with other locations where water resource development has taken place under similar conditions, suggests that A topheles culicifacies will become the predominant species after development, with all the implications this may have for health.Epidemiological studies in the part of Mahaweli systc,n C alrcady under development show that among resident and resettled populations both vivax and fakiparum malaria are prevalent and that activc transmission takes place. There is also eiidence of active Japanese encephalitis virus, and a dcfinite risk of spreading filariasis to this area exists. Additional entomological studics show the presence of vector species of the three categories of diseases mcntioned above. Kesults of studies in other pa~ts of Sri Lanka indicate that paddy fields are a majsr brecding place for anopheline mosquitoes: while irrigation and drainage canals contribute relatively little in this respect.Under conditions in which the lack of hum;Ln resources and equipment form major constrainis, and all professional groups have to deal with heavy workloads, the merits of a better distribution of the research tasks over the scveral groups needs to tic considered. Further studies on the effectiveness ,of environmental management for vector contrd, including studies on the role of proper watcr matiagement, should be of pilot nature, aimed at promoting an integrated vector control approach with environmental management as its basic componeni.For future research, a fair balance must be found between obtaining detailed knowledge and what can be practically done in a fairly large-sized tour'. try with many different local conditions. It is clear that an impressive amount of data has been c olected on vector bionomics, ecology, and the role d several specics in diseasc transmission. There is I nced to properly analyse these data, prepare a1 inventory of the present knowledge, and make th: information available to planners and decisioii makers in the health and water resource development sector. This action will help ensure adequat: mitigation of vector-borne disease hazards.At present several intersectoral linkages regulatc health care in the areas where water rcsources arc under development. Although preventive and cura. tive services are both part of the health programme, preventive services tend to be restricted to immuni.. ration and prophylactic drug treatment, and insuffi. cient attention is given to the incorporation a' health safeguards, such as environmental management measures, into irrigation projects. Kecommenda. tions to improve the situation include upgrading the technical subcommittee of the Mahaweli Economic Agency (MEA), giving the present ad-hoc coordination between the Mahaweli Economic Project and the national vector control organizations a formal basis, and earlier involvement (from the planning stage onwards) of the Ministry of Health in new developments.Five criteria for the application of environmental management for vector control are reiterated: 1) the measures must be known to be effective against the target vector; 2) they must be socially acceptable; 3) they must bc cost-effective compared to other feasible methods; 4) they must be economically sustainablc by the local community, and 5) they must be compatible with local agricultural practiccs.In relation to environmental management some new elements are introduccd, and relevant research needs are emphasized. The socio-economic aspects of irrigation-associated health problems are raised, with considerations on the loss of labour due to the prevalence of vector-borne diseases. Adequate indicators must be developed to cope with. this. Also educational approaches need to be developed which fit into the training programmes on strictly agricultural issues as they already exist for farmers, Ideally, there should be a two-way information flow so that valuable traditional knowledge of the farmers can be collected and recorded.The results of a recent field survey on the engineering aspects of irrigation dcvelopment in relation to vector breeding, carried out under the auspices of the International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement in Mahaweli System C, bring to light some salient issues. In this survey a matrix approach has been applied, linking potential breeding places with specific disease vectors, the location of these breeding places with the phase in the irrigation cycle, and the occurrence of thesc breeding places with water management practices. A number of characteristics of the schemes in System C have heen pinpointed as being of direct relevance to vector production. First and foremost is the discrepancy between the calculated need of water and the actual intake. Clearly, the level of excess water in the system gives rise to collection of water in depressions, thus creating suitable breeding places.O f the other factors considered important in vector propagation, the layout of tertiary canals, improper land levelling, and disruption of the natural drainage system all relate to the subject of water management. More than anything else, this survey demonstrates the need for furlher in-depth studies to better define the links between proper water management and vector breeding.As for the dcvelopments in irrigated agriculture itself, a shift in approach can be observed from expansion of the cultivated area to methods of increasing thc intensity with which the existing agricultural potential is u%d. Irrigation is considered a key link in the chain of technical developments leading to increased production. The International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) has been created as an iiiternational research organization with the objective to enhance national capacities to improve the management and performance of irrigation systems. For IIMl's research programme, three general areas of investigation have been recognized: systems management, rehabilitation and design for management, and small-scale irrigation. In cdch area institutional/ social, physical, biological, information and financial issues will be considered. From the point of view of IIMI, the prevention and control of irrigation-associated vector-borne diseases comes under the biological issues. Critical questions which IIMI should address in this context concern the cost-effxtiveness of environmental management, the nature of the cause-and-effect relationship between irrigation dcvelopment and vector-borne disease prevalence, and the research needs for the development of alternative management techniques.From the point of view of the WHO/FAO/U-NEP Panel of Experts on Environmental Management for Vector Control (PEEM): a broad focus on the relation between irrigation and health is iequired, not limited to disease vector ecology but also including matters of epidemiology. In the past, Iiumerous studies have been married out on the health impacts of large dams, but far fewer on those of small dams, and even less on irrigation systems.Studies on the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases in irrigation schemes in a steady state will had to more specific studies on entomological and rialacological parameters and on the effectiveness cf alternative irrigation management strategies. Eiwironmental management for vwtor control aiid ii,rigation management for increased agricultural production have common denominators Their csordinated implementation is likely to lead to niutual reinforcement of the effectiveness in at.tainiiig their goals.The facts and arguments presented at the workshop indicate that there is a considerable and sound basis for collaboration between PEEM and IIMI, in tke promotion and execution of research which will contrihutc to the improvement of health of those who inhabit irrigation schemes, and who make them function. Three approaches should be considcred: 1) studies on possible improvements in the design and construction of irrigation schemes, 2) stiidies on improved operation of irrigatioo schemes, and 3) studies on suitable uiethsds for the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes. In each of these three approaches improvement of health and agricultural production should go hand in hand in order to coordinate the goals of PEEM and IIMI ini.0 an effective policy.away and the commonly encountered species have been P. vivax and P. fulcipurum with P. vivax in the ascendant. Only with the cessation of spray operations in 1964, did P. maluriue temporarily reappear as the predominant species from 1964 to 1966.Since the 1967-69 epidemic, P. vivax has been the predominant species in over 95% of infections. After 1975. there have been occasional peaks in the relative number of P. fulcipurum cases of over 5%. P malariae has virtually disappeared.Twcnty-two Anopheline species have been recorded in Sri Lanka, but only A. culicifacies has been incriminated a the vector of malaria. It was the only proven vector in the country until recently, when P. R. J. Herath and co-workers demonstrated the developmcnt of a sporogonic cycle of P. vivm in scveral other Anophelines, many of which are malaria vectors in other countries. However, A. culiclfacies remains the major vector. This species i : essentially a dry zone mosquito found in junglecovered plains and villages. Its incidence diminishe with altitude, becoming smrcc above 609 meters. and rare above 762 meters. The nature of the aquatic environment it breeds in may vary, but it prefer! clear, sunlit, fresh watcrs. Intense breeding of A. culicifacir!.~ occurs in sand and rock pools of drying, rivers, and in the margins of slow moving water-, ways such as streams and irrigation channels. Although its vectorial capacity is generally considered weak, resulting in unstable malaria transmission, in Sri Lanka this species has a greater longevity and a higher human blood index than elsewhere. Malaria transmission in the wet zone is of a more stable type. Thc annual incidence of malaria for Sri Lanka during the past 10 years is shown in Table I.The epidemiology of malaria is not only intluenced by natural factors, but also by human activities such as irrigation. In Sri Lanka, large water resource development projects such as Minneriya, Gal Oya, and, more recently, the Mahaweli Project. have increased the malariogenic potential of areas through increased vector propagation, aggregation of labor, and resettlement of people from nonmalarious arcas who may have little or no immunity. The resulting outbreaks of malaria have been a setback to project implementation (Table 2).Water resource development projects and the expansion of irrigation systems create favorable conditions for malaria transmission. Wild animals disappear as vast tracts of forest are cleared. A. culicifacies, which is usually a zoophilic species having a preference for cattle blood, is forced to turn to man for its blood meals, leading to an increased man-vector wntact. The vast network of irrigation channels, if not properly maintained, will is non-malarious or hypoendemic.Epidemic outbreaks in the wet and intermediate zones arc favored by deficient rainfall which leads to the drying up of rivers and streams and the formation in the riverbeds of numerous pools suitable for breeding Anopheles culic&zcies, the vector of malaria in Sri Lanka. On the other hand, excessive rainfall in the dry zone results in the formation of large numbers of surface pool7 which also foster an increased incidence of malaria.  and the resumption of antimalaria measures, there has been a significant reduction of malaria cases in the first half of 1985 compared to the corresponding period for 1984.Though there has been an overall reduction of cases, a danger signal is the relative increase of P. jalciparum infections, especially among the population in the Mahaweli Project, Systems B and C (Table 2). The malaria problem in Sri Lanka today is a matter of grave concern with water resource development activities underway in the dry zone, disturbed conditions in the North and East, emerging technical problems of incipient vector resistance to malathion in some areas, detection of a focus of resistant P. jalciparum, a gradual decline in spray coverage and increasing non-acceptance of radical treatment, increasing costs of malaria control, and shrinking foreign aid.A change is required from the present strategy of malathion spraying and case detection and treatment, to one of integrated control. It will be necessary to supplement malathion spraying with 1 ) water management practices, 2) biological control and larviciding in suitable situations, 3) intensified case detection activities with medical institutions playing a more active role, 4) a well-planned operational research program, 5) mobilization of community support for acceptance of anti-malaria activities, and 6) collaboration of health related sectors.CD & MH 'rambuttegama further increase the breeding potential of this species. The widespread destruction of irrigation works in the 10th century by South Indian invaders coincided with a simultaneous decline in rainfall. These factors produced conditions suitable for breeding A.culicifacies and marked the start of a series of malaria epidemics.Agricultural practiccs have been changing during the past 20 years. The tractor is replacing the buffalo, particularly in the newly-opened lands under the Mahaweli Development Project. As the buffalo population rapidly decreases, the vector mosquito is diverted from animal to man, increasing the manvector contact and the potential for malaria transmission. Recent cytogenetic studies revealed that A . culicifucies is a species complex comprising sibling species. The environmental changes associated with major irrigation projects may affect the existing balance between these sibling species and this may result in changes in the vectorial capacity of the specics as a whole. Anophelines which are not playing a prominent role in malaria transmission at present, may become more important, as well. The activities carried out for the control of malaria in Sri Lanka can be divided into two distinct periods: I ) prior to November 1945, during which indoor application of residual insecticides was not used, and 2) after November I945 when a malaria control program started systematically applying residual insecticides. Ideally, a preliminary study to obtain baselins: data should have been done before the irrigation works commenced and new settlers moved in.Unfortunately, in the main study area -Mahaweli Project, System C, Zone 2 (Mahaweli C2)most areas were already irrigated and new settlers estahlished by the time the study began. The original area selected outside the Mahaweli Project was ill the Muthuhndiya Reservoir Project. However, this had to be changed because of unrest in the area. The Lunugamvehera Project was substituted. Her,: the irrigation works were still underway and, although new settlers had moved in, no water had been supplied for agriculture. Some data on malaria were available for both areas. No data on tilariasis are available for thc Mahaweli area but there are figures for Tissamaha. rama, which is a part of the Lunugamvehera studlr area. In 1984, 10,616 blood films were examined of which four were positive. This gave a microfila. ria (MF) rate of 0.03. In previous years the MI' rates were 0.14 (1978)(1979) Seleciion of Villages and Hamlets. The objective was to obtain a sample that would represent the area geographically and also include a suitable mix of resettlers (those who moved within the same area) and new settlers (those who migrated from other parts of Sri Lanka). In Mahaweli C2, Kotalawela had all new settlers, Divulapelessa and Belaganwewa had a mostly new settlers, Alntharama had only resettlers, and Galporuyaya had a majority of resettlers. A new township was included in each area: Girandurukotte in Mahaweli and Lunugamvehera in Kirindi Oya. Because many resettlers had been in the area for 5-15 years, the virological age-stratified study included a traditional village in each area: Hembarawa in Mahaweli and Gemunupura in Kirindi Oya.Malaria and Filariusiv Studies. As far as possible the entire population in the selected areas was blood filmed at night (after 20:30), once during the rainy season (February and March) and again during the dry season (Acgust and September). The films were stained and examined microscopically for malarial parasites and micro-filaria.1. A fever cepe siudy. Blood samples from possible acute and convalescent viral fever cases attending the two hospitals (Girandurukotte and Lunugamvehera) were tested serologically for known arboviruses. Virus isolation was attempted from acute samples stored at -7OOC using baby mice, mosquitoes, and a variety of cell cultures. The objective was to isolate known or hitherto unknown viruses present in the study areas.An age-stratified study of a sample of traditionat settlers was done on the first visit to obtain the antibody profile and determine the past occurrence of known arbovirus infections (dengue, JE, chikungunya, and sindhis). The second part was a study of children under five years old of new settlers. These children were bled on both visitsAlthough the Anti-Malaria Campaign has carried out data collection on mosquito-borne diseases in Sri Lanka's new irrigation areas, little or no information has been obtained concerning the transmission of filariasis and arboviral diseases. A World Health Organization/Panel of Experts for Environmental Management (WHO/PEEM) study was designed to provide some of the missing information. This paper is an interim report.Past experience in Sri Lanka indicates that the vector-borne diseases needing investigation fall into three categories: 1) those arising as a direct consequence of new irrigation works (malaria and Japanese encephalitis); 2) those due to associated population movement, concentration, and urbanization (filariasis and dengue): and 3) those due to the opening of new jungle land when man may become involved in an existing sylvatic cycle of infection. Examples of the latter would be tick typhus and Kyasanur Forest disease (KFD) which is found in Mysore, India. Both of these arc tick-borne diseases, yet the possibility of similar mosquito-borne diseases also exists.. This is a major health problem in many parts of Asia with an increasing n,imber of cases reported in India, China, and Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand. It is a severe illness with a high fatality rate (20.65%) and a high degree of residual disability (paralysis, tits, etc.) in survivors.In Sri Lanka, encephalitides form an important health problem, accounting for an annual average of 1,030'hospital admissions and an average case fatality of 38% (range of 25.45%). Studies' suggest thr.t J E accounts for 43% of the diagnosed cases.The disease appears to be endemic in Sri Lanka wi :h imported cases occurring sporadically. Al.hough major epidemics have not occurred, a few ou:breaks have been reported in Kurunegala, Jaffna, and Vavuniya. Serological surveys indicate that J E occnn in certain parts of the country such as the western coastal areas, Kurunegala, Anuradapura, and Batticaloa districts, and around Tissamahararna. Although there is no specific treatment for J E , the prevalence is not considered high enough to justify an immunization program. However, there is no doubt that it is presently a more important problem in Sri Lanka than poliomyelitis.The main vector of J E in Sri Lanka, Culex rrifaerliurhynlus, breeds in rice fields, and its distribution pattern is therefore closely associated with ancient and newly developed irrigation schemes.Lkngue. Endemic in Asia for decades, Dengue has become a major disease and cause of death in children in Southeast Asia since the appearance of the Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) in 1954. h t year in Thailand alone there were 60,000 cases of DHF.Studies' indicate that dengue is endemic in Sri Larika, occurring in most areas below an elevation of 914 meters with maximum incidence in Colombo. A few cases of DHF occur each year, with a slight upward trend of 7 cases (one death) in 19E,3 to 8 cases (one death) in 1984.  Fi/a&k Table 3 shows that the microfilaria positive rates are low in both Kirindi Oya (0.1416) and Mahaweli C2 (0.09%). The three positives are among people who have come recently from OL tside the area. In view of the vector presence the possibility of spread to others in the area exists. The concentration technique was not used in testing.  '/ a female new settler from Matara.Virdogv. Past virus activity is assessed on the basis of age stratified studies (Table 4). The interpretation of the results has been difficult due lo the detection by the HI test of three types of response: a) true positives where antibodies to both JE and dengue occurred, b) questionable positives where only JE antibodies occurred, and c) nonspecific inhibitor type responses (NSI) where both JE and sindbis \"antibodies\" were present. More investigation, including the Neutralization Test on freshly collected venous blood will be needed in order to interpret results more clearly. The preliminary indications are that JE virus has caused sporadic infections in both Mahaweli C2 and Kirindi Oya, and that a few people have had dengue and chikungunya infections but these may have occurred outside the study areas.Two hundred of the 389 Mahaweli C2 specimen pairs were tested to determine the extent of new virus infections. Only five showed sero-conversions to both JE and dengue but at low levels. These results need to be confirmed by NT, before it can be concluded that JE transmission is occurring. The Kirindi Oya specimens have not yet been tested. The blood samples from convalescent fever cases have yet to be collected and tested.Of nine pigs bled from Tissamah,arama, eight showed evidence of a flavivirus infection, and two tested by NT were confirmed positive for JE. This includes young pigs, and confirms that JE transmission occu~s in this area.to detect new virus infections occurring during the study period (i.e., the infection rate). In hamlets where the sample of new-settler children was inadequate, re-settler children under 10 years old were included. For the serological study two filter paper discs were soaked with blood on each m asion and, after drying, the serum was extracted and tested for antibodies by Clarke and Casals' modified Haemagglutination Inhi-bition (HI) test. From some of the HI positives which showed antibodies against dengue and JE, venous blood was collected and tested by a Neutralization Test (NT) using mice to establish the type of infecting virus. In view of the positive human JE, blood was collected from pigs on a farm in Tissamaharama and tested by HI and NT.undx 5 years old (who were negative at the first bleed), 11 new positives appeared, including an infant. A disturbing feature is the increase of Plusm d u m fakiparum cases (from 1 to 6) and of P. vivax cases.It is noteworthy that in the township of Girandu. rukotte, where residual insecticide spraying is probablj most effective, there were no positives on the seccnd occasion. Two of the three hamlets (Rotalawi:la and Belaganwewa) with the most new settlers (who are likely to be non-immune), showed new positives at all ages, whereas both had no cases on the first occasion. Although Divulapelessa remiined static at six positives, the appearance in thre: children under five years of age indicates continuing activity.In Kirindi Oya the situation has remained more static with practically no positives in Lunugamvehera (Table 2). But there is continuing activity in Hamlets 5 and 6 with more being affected under five years of age in the latter. The increase of P. fakiparum cases to five in Hamlet 6 is noteworthy.Malaria An overall increase in malaria positives from 0.49% to 1.23% occurred in Mahaweli C2 during the study period (Table 1). The increase seems to occur in all age groups but in children  How long malaria has existed in Sri Lanka is a mr.tter of conjecture. However, there is ample evidence that the disease has been prevalent in the island for centiiries. Plancius' map of 1592 stated that Lhe Kingdom of Yala in the southeastern part of the island was deserled and depopulated by fever sickness for over 300 years. Knox, in a 1681 account of his captivity, refers to incidence of high fever in areas north of Kandy. Father Queroz, in 1687, alludes to the ancient court of Anuradhapura as being abandoned on account of protracted pestilence. Frequent references are made of fever sickness during the Dutch and British pcriods.Sri Lanka has suffered from several epidemics of malaria of varying degrccs of severity and distribution. These have occurred regularly every four to six years. Epidemics havc occurred in 1906, 1914, 1919, 1923, 1928-29, 1934-35, 1939-40, 1945-46, and 1967-69. The most devastating epidemic occurred when 1.5 million people contracted the disease between October 1934 and April 1935, and about 80,000 died. The entire Western and Saharagamuwa Provinces, lower parts of the North Western, and the greater portion of Kandy and Matale Districts were affected.Sri Lanka is an kland in the Indian Ocean close to the southern extremity of India. Measuring 435 kilometers from north to south, and 225 kilometers across at the widest part, it has a total surface area of 65,863 square kilometers. The south-central portion is mountainous; above an altitude of 914 m c t m malaria transmission does not occur. The island is has many rivers which radiate from the central hills. Malaria outbreaks are mostly associated with rivers flowing through the western and southwestern areas.The climate is tropical with little seasonal variation in tcmperature and humidity. In the flat coastal plains the temperature ranges between 26-29°C. However, there is considerahlc temperature difference between the lowlands and the hill country. The relative humidity is high: an avcragc day-lime humidity in the coastal plains of 70%, and of 60% or more in the interior, while night-time humidity is over 80%. The temperature and humidity conditions which prevail in the flat, coastal plains and foothills favor perennial transmission of malaria.Rainfall is the most important climatic factor influencing the transmission and distribution of malaria in Sri Lanka. The rainfall is associated with the two monsoons, the southwcst monsoon which prevails from May to September, and the northeast monsoon from November to March.Therefore, the division of Sri Lanka into three climatic zones based on rainfall patterns is very relevant to the epidemiology of malaria (Figure 1). A distinction is made between the dry zone (less than 51 centimeters), the intermediate zone (51-102 centimeters), and the wet zone (more than I02 centimeters). The endemicity of malaria in the dry zone varies from high mesa to hyperendemic with of ,my new agents, particularly viruses, requires further study of fever and other clinical cases.This preliminary study permits some general observations. There is no doubt that both vivar and fakiparum malaria are active in the study areas. There is some evidence of JE, but more work is needed to confirm this. There is a definite risk of spreading filariasis in both a r w but further studies are required. Dengue and chikungunya are not Yet problems, but follow-up is indicated. The detection Ac:knowledgements \\Ve acknowledge the dedicated work of the field stat[ from the Malaria and Filariasis Departments and the MRI, and the intense effort of all the laboratory staff who cooperated so readily.The research project on mosquito-vector biology in Mahaweli System C described in this paper has two major objectives. The first is to make a three-to four-year study on the effects of ecologid changes assaciated with forest clearing, human settlement, and development of irrigated agriculture on mosquito ecology, especially in relation to vectors or potential vectors of human arboviral nematode, and protozoan diseases. The second objective is to determine natural vector incrimination and competence by investigating the local mosquito fauna for evidence of parasite carriage in the field as well as in the laboratory, particularly in relation to arboviruses and nematodes.The arbovirus study is based on: 1) attempts to isolate viruses from field-caught mosquitoes; 2) sero-epidemiological surveys of human and animal blood, including a longitudinal follow-up started in August 1985 of cohorts of human settlers newly translocated to System C; and, 3) laboratory virusvector competence studies on selected mosquito species based on the evidence gathered from field isolation and sero-epidemiological surveys.The study of parasitic nematodes, which has just begun in System C , involves nematode isolation in field-caught mosquitoes, blood surveys, and transmission experiments in the laboratory. This study also involves a parallel project on mosquito ecology and vector incrimination in the hill-country habitat of urban Kandy where both virological and nematological studies are underway. This paper will present some of the results of the first phase of the study which is the baseline survey of the mosquito fauna in the dry zone secondary forest habitat prior to clearing and development.Mahaweli System C, Zone 4, Block 6 was selected as the study area because it included the three necessary phases to the study: forested, clearing and human settlement, and irrigated agriculture. Oya area (DKDIHUN); and in the central Bakmeedeniya area (BAK). A fourth site, in Zone 5 (approximately 0.5 km north of Block 6), was selected as a control because the development of this area is expected to take place at a later datc.The research project began in early 1984 when Block 6 was uninhabited except for the Dehiattakandiya township, then under construction. The riverine forest was largely intact, although somcwhat degraded by the cutting of commercially valuable timber over the previous three to four years. There has been a progressive degradation of the forest environment over the past 16 months as the infrastructure of Block 6 was constructcd and large numbers of people moved into the area, extracting timber and firewood or destroying the forest for \"chena\" (slash-and-burn) cultivation. At present, only isolated patches of the riverine forest remain. The study sites, which were virtually intact until August 1985, are now under pressure. The forest at BAK site is almost totally cleared, while the areas around MRS, HUN, and DOL have been degraded. The influx of the first settlers into the Block 6 Nagaswewa area in August 1985 moved the survey into its second phase.The &re field team of six made monthly field visits. As the emphasis of the project is on manbiting mosquito&; the human-bait catch was the principle method used for adult mosquito collection. Cattlehait catches, which usually yield larger numbers of species (including those which attack man), were not a realistic option under the working conditions in the forest. Diurnal human-bait catches were made by two 2-person teams collecting for 20 minutes at each of 3-5 catch stations along a forest transect at each study site. The collections were always done at the time of maximum activity of diurnal mosquitoes, 14:OO-17:OO hours. This was followed by a stationary nocturnal catch at each site lasting for six hours. The catch began at sunset (half-night catch) and employed two-person teams working in rotation. CDC-light traps (two traps per site) were used as an additional survey method, especially for non-man-biting species. Night collections of resting mosquitoes were taken from the small thatched huts (waadiym) used by wood cutters in the vicinity of the sites, with one man using a battery-powered aspirator to collect for IS minutes fron each hut. These were opportunistic collections. Larval collections from container and groundwater habitats were made by a two-or three-member team covering approximately 0.25 square kilometer at each site and beginning around 1300 hours. The entire contenb of tree holes and othu container habitats were sampled, while groundwater habitats were sampled by dipping acuirding to effective breeding water surface area at the rate of six dips per square meter. Taxonomic identification of all material was made by the author.Eighty species of mosquitoes were identified  1. T.ie CDC-light trap w a the most successful method in terms of species diversity, while human bait was more efficient in terms of numbers of specimeris. The overall diversity index indicates a heterogenous habitat supporting a diverse mosquito fauna. transmission of dengue virus in Southeast Asia. It was prevalent in the forest sites at a fairly high landinghiting rate, being especially abundant during the monsoonal (October-January) and postmonsoonal (February-May) periods (Table 2). Thus, there is an established sylvan population of a highly anthropophilic peridomestic species.Significantly, not a single adult or immature of another diurnal anthropophilic mosquito, Aedes aegvpti, the principal vector of dengue in our region, Thirty species were encountered in diurnal bait catches but only one, Aedes albopictus, is a known vector of human disease and is implicated in tie was collected. This reconfirms the very close association between this vcctor and humans, its principal host. True sylvan populations of A. aegypti are Table 2. Potential vector species cf mosquitos collected using human bait. The nocturnal human-bait collections yielded several species which could be regarded as potential vectors of human disease. All three species of Mansonia that occur in Sri Lanka were present, with M. annulifera the most prevalent biter during all seasons. However, its distribution was highly localized, occurring in overwhelming numbers at the MRS (18.7 females/man-hour), to a much lesser extent at the BAK site (2.7 femaledman-hour), and scarce at the other two sites. The distribution pattern of these three species was determined by the location of their main breeding site, a large Pistia-covered marsh (villu) in the jungle approximately 0.75 kilometer north of the MRS and 3.5 kilometer west of the AK site. Quantitative estimates taken in late September and early October 985 showed the density of M. annulifera to be 90-94 immatureshquare meter of Pistia cover. At this density, the approximately 4,000 square meters under Pistia cover after the monsoonal rains would generate around 360,000 to 376,000 immatures of this species at any given time.Three Culex species (C. tritaeniorhynchus, C. gelidus, and C. fuscocephala) implicated in the transmission of Japanese encephalitis (JE) were collected by human bait mainly during the rainy and post-rainy seasons, and at low overall biting rates. C. pseudovishnui, another species that may be involved in JE transmission, was also collected3 Most of these species are primarily zoophilic in their feeding but will attack man in the absence of other large (usually bovid) mammals. C. quinquefasciatus, the vector of bancroftian filariasis in Sri Lanka, occurred almost exclusively in the developing township of Dehiatta-kandiya (DKD), a site with an increasing numher of residents, permanent housing, and septic tank drain-age systems. Only one biting female was collected outside this area, at BAK, during a period when 15-20 woodcutters wefe temporarily resident at the site. It seems reasonable to postulate that this species is a new invader of this habitat, moving in rapidly with the human population.There is evidence to suggest that Armigeres subal-batus (a vector of setarial and dirofilarial nematode infections, chiefly in bovids), may have spread into the forest with human migration or, if previously present at low abundance, is now increasing rapidly in developing townships. It has ba:n encountered frequently in the townships of Dehiattakandiya, Sandunpura, Lihiniyagama, and Sir ipura. In crepuscular-nocturnal catches this species was collected only from the DKD site and not from the forested sites. However, diurnal catches yielded a few biting females from forested areas, inii.ially at HUN and BAK, the two sites closest to Dehiattakandiya, and later at the other two sites. Its main breeding locations in the forest were in habitat!: associated with human activity, such as the stump holes of newly-felled trees and artificial containers. It is quite possible that this large and powerfil flier may have spread from DKD township int,, the sarrounding forest, rather than the other way around. ljmall numbers of A. vagus, A. varuna, and A. cukifhcies were collected regularly from all sites. Allhqugh too low for detailed analysis, the numbers indicate that A. culic$hcies was most prevalent during the late post-monsoonal and dry season. It is evident that the sylvan population of this species will feed on humans in the forest and the many instances of malaria among woodcutters and constriiction workers in the area could have been due to local transmission by this species, by far the most i m p t a n t natural vector of malaria in Sri Lanka. The chances of transmission would also have been increased by the endophagic habits of this population. The. hut collec-tions show that A. culicifacies females were collected at night inside occupied wccdcutters huts and the majority were freshly fed, almost certaidy upon human hosts (Table 3). Thus, hu: collections also provide further evidence of the lin < hetweeu the DKD township and A. subalbatus and C. quihquefa-sciatus, with all specimens of the former and 91% of the latter being collected from this site.'The CDC-light traps were not efficient in attracting large numbers of any one species but regularly caiight the five species listed in Table 4. About 30-40% of females of the 3 Culex species were either half or fully gravid a component of the population that is not generally sampled in bait catches. The trap could be a useful method of surveying this  In Kandy, where it is abundant, this species is c dlected regularly in the CDC-light traps at a rate of 2.2 adults per traplnight. The Kandy project has also shown that this trap is very useful for monitcmring populations of Anopheles aconitw, a species which seems to be extremely rare in Sri Lankits dry-zone forest habitat.Data relating to the main container-breeding species are presented in Table 5. Aedes ulbopictus was the most prevalent species and occurred in all the habitat types, including artificial containers such as coconut shells, tins, and a tyre. The sylvan population of this vector species may adapt successfully to a peridomestic existence in a post humansettlement. As mentioned previously, A. subalbatus Survey of immaiures. So far immatures of ti3 species were collected during this study, with :!9 being recorded from container habitats and 49 from ground water habitats. seems to prefer habitats associated with recent human activity, particularly holes in newly-cnt tree stumps that contain foul water. Table 6 presents data on some of the important groundwater breeding species. The classifications of groundwater habitats used in this study reflect the main types of ecological habitat suitable for breeding in the forest, as well as their seasonal availahility. Forest-floor pools, animal footprints, and flowing water were available chiefly during the monsoon and post-monsoonal periods, while stream-and river-bed pools were essentially a dryseason habitat. The availability of the marsh habitat varied with the size. Two of the smaller marshes sampled dried ouf during the peak of the dry season but two large ones retained water throughout the year.bilaeniorhynchus, C. ficocephala, and C. pseudowiyhnui, that have been implicated in the carriage of viral or nematode infections occurred at much lower relative abundance levels. This shows some correlation with the low biting rates at bait catches atid is indicative of low overall abundance in the habitat. Aedes viffufus was the only important ground-breeding species, breeding exclusively in rwk pools on the forest floor and stream/river bi:ds. This species is recognized as a vector of yellow fever in Africa but has not been implicated in disease transmission in the Orient. The most abundant ground-breeding mosquito was Culex mimulus (a non-vector species) that occurred regularly in all standing-water breeding sites and at highest densities in forest floor and waterway pools. By comparison, other Culex species, such as C. Irilaeniorhynchus, C. gelidus, C. species recorded in this survey, A. culic@cies and A . barbimstries, present an interesting comparison of breeding strategy. The sylvan A. culicifacies occurred at a high frequency and abundance level ill stream-and river-bed pools, which are clearly identified as its major breeding habitat. Surpris-singly, there were very few immatures from raiii water pols on the forest floor (even fully exposed pools) or stream margins. two habitats in which thi3 species is reported to occur frequently 4 . Its virtual restriction to natural waterway pools implies that it is primarily a dry season species in this particular forest habitat. Occupation of animal footprints, chiefly elephant, by this species occurred towardi the end of the post-monsoonal period, invariably OII the banks or drying beds of streams. Analysis of thi: data gathered during the first 12 months of the sur. vey supported previous observations (ibid.) that thi:; species exhibits a distinct preference for clear wate~' pools (versus turbid, foul water pools) and pol:: exposed to sunlight (versus shaded and semi-shadecl pools). A. hurbirostries occurred frequently in all habitat types but at low abundance levels.Malaria is the primary vector-borne healtk hazard in this area, with A. culicifacies the chiel' natural vector. The first year of the study providec evidence of frequent breeding Occurrences of thi:, species in stream-and river-bed pools. Hence a sur. vey was carried out during the 1985 dry season tc identify the main breeding locations of this specie in Block 6. Block 6 is bounded by three natural waterways, the Hungamal Oya on the east and north, Ellekotaliya Ela on the south, and Mahaweli River on the west (see Figure I). To the best of OUI knowledge, the only other natural bodies of water existing during the dry season in this area were twu large marshes occupying approximately 13,000 square meters. The Hungamala Oya is a 14-20 meter wide stream with an even sandy bed. In contrast to this, Ellekotaliya Ela is narrow (7-13 meter) with an uneven rocky bottom. Both streams were surveyed by 1-2 kilometer transects. The Mahaweli River bed in this stretch of System C has many rocky outcrops where pools are formed as the water level recedes during the dry season. Transect sampling along the river was not a feasible option so a large rock outcrop in the river bed was selected just below the southwestern tip of Block 6. The two marshes were sampled at the same time but as they did not yield any A. culicifucies. These data are not included in the results (Table 7). The data shows that the topography of the Hungamala Oya did not favor water retention or natural pool formation; by July only human-dug pools remained along the eastern transect, while one natural pool and a few human-dug pools remained along the northern transect. This stream yielded only one positive sample of A. culicifacies. By contrast, the rocky uneven terrain of the Ellekotaliya Ela resulted in pool formation and water retention, which also occurred on the rock outcrop in the Mahaweli River. Both these sites were regularly utilized by A. culicifacies, as indicated by the overall number of positive samples (89), total number of immatures (1,030), and the density values in terms of immatures per diplpositive pool (geometric mean of 0.56-0.59).The study also provided some interesting insights into the influence of river water level on the dynamics of breeding. For example, in midJuly heavy ups-tream monsoonal activity resulted in a massive water release from the Victoria Dam that completely submerged both the river rock pools and the Ellekota-liya Ela for over a week, flushing out the mosquito immatures. By August, the flood waters had receded and the pools reformed, providing suitable breeding sites for A. culicifacies. In mid-September, a two-foot rise in the river level (probably caused by water release from Victoria Dam) was successful in flushing out all but the highest pools on the rock outcrop, again adversely affecting the breeding of this Ano-pheline. Conditions in 1985 caused much more disruption of A. culicifacies breeding at this focus than in 1984 the monsoon was not as heavy, Victoria Dam was not operational, and the river water level did not fluctuate so widely.The implications for water management are obvious. Despite an occasional flushing out, there is no doubt that this species bred successfully at the Ellekotaliya-Mahaweli focus in 1985. It is perhaps significant that nearby areas in Block 5 were the focus of an outbreak of cerebral malaria that peaked during the 1985 dry season. There is no doubt that malaria will be the most immediate vector-borne disease problem tu be faced by new settlers in this area.  Diseases in Some Irrigation :Schemes in Sri Lanlca P. R. J. Herath', N. Jayasekera, K. Kalpage, M. B. Wickremasinghe, V. Gunatilake. W. M. NanayakkaraWater resource development in Sri Lanka dates back several centuries. In reccnt times the Government of.Sri Lanka has undertaken a number of multipurpose water development projects primarily to increase agricultural production and hydroelectric power generation, and to generate additional employment. Environmental changes associated with development of irrigated agriculture and human settlements are known to have a great impact on vector-borne diseases. This paper prcsents preliminary findings from two projccts investigating the relationship between water development systems and mosquito vectors.The primary objective of Project 1 was to determine the prevalence and abundance of the mosquito vectors and malaria, filariasis, and arboviral diseases in some water resources development project, in Sri Lanka Experimc\"n/ul procedure. Adult and larval mosquitoes were collected outdoors and inside \"cadjan\" (palm leaf) huts using human bait at night, hand collecting techniques, pyrethrum spray, cattle-hailed net traps, bird/pig baited-traps, exit window traps, and larval sampling in both natural and mq-made potential breeding habitats.After species identification of all samplcs, the potential vectors of filariasis were dissected for microfilarial infections. Mosquitoes collected from pig-baited traps were used to isolate Japanese encephalitis UE) virus.Kesuh and observations. This paper summarizes mainly the entomological findings in phase 1. (wet period). Laboratory processing of the material collected in phase 2 (dry period) is ongoing.  Among these are a number of species known to be vectors or potential vectors of malaria, filariasis, and arboviral diseases. Figure 1 compares the relative proportions of the different vectors and potential vectors from these areas.Most of the anopheline species recorded are those which are commonly encountered in malarious areas of Sri Lauka. A. culicifhcies, known to be the most important vector of human malaria in the country, was present in very small numbers in both areas. In addition, 10 species of anophelinewhich are considered potential vectors of human malaria in Sri Lanka occurred in both regions4 A. nigerrimus was the predominant anopheline species. Malaria is known to be endemic in both areas.  The major breeding habitats of thc nonanopheline species are shown in Tables 2a and 2h.Cukx quinquefaciahrs, the established vector of bancroftian filariasis (due to Wuchereria buncroftQ in Sri Lanka, was the predominant mosquito species in the Mahaweli area and was also present in high numbers at Kirindi Oya. They were found to breed in a variety of man-made habitats which seem to be closely associated with rapid urbanzation. Although this type of filariasis is believed to he confined to a southwestern coastal endemic belt, it has been shown that the natural populations of C. quinquefasciatus in different parts of Sri Lanka are homogenous and are equally susceptible to W. banc@i infection^.^ In Mahaweli C2, two microfilaria positive cases were found among the human population screened for W. buncrufti infections and an infection rate of 1.72% was detected in C. quinquefmciatus (Table 3).in the area, the spread and stabilization of hancroftian filariasis in these situations can he expected. Mansonia annuliferu, M. uniformis, and M. indianu, whith have been incriminztted previously as vectors of Brugia malayi, causing brugiun filuriask in Sri Lanka, were also found in both areas.  Three out of the 850 premises where waterholding containers were surveyed for Aedes hret:ding were positive for A. aegvpfr larvae in Mahaaeli C2. Many of these containers were rubber tyres which had, collected rain water. A. albopictus showed a Breteau index of 18.8% and 21.8% For Mahaweli and Kirindi Oya areas, respectively. These observations, which show a relatively h gh level of species diversity, including many confirnled and potential vectors of several diseases of putilic health importance, could predict health hazards to settlers in these areas. Study Areas This report includes findings from three different environments within the northcentral malaria endemic dry zone of Sri Lanka (Map 2). In all these areas tanks from the ancient irrigation system are still in use. These areas include:1. Mahaweli System H, the Madatugama section of the Kekirawa Health Area, where major environmental changes have occurred followiug more than 10 years of settlements/resetflements, &fore.tation, and irrigation activities.Wewala in the Dambulla Health Area with old settled villages and some environmental changes hut not influenccd by the recent irrigation activity of the Mahaweli Development Scheme.Area, also with settled villages hut not affected by the Mahaweli irrigation network.Experimental procedure. The anopheline species were studied and monitored for prevalencdabundance, indoor/outdoor human biting, resting behavior, animal (cattle) biting densities, longevity (parous rates), determination of human blood index (HBI). and exodus from houses. Standard collecting techniques were used, including the use of indoor/outdoor human-bait at night, outdoor hand techniques, pyrethrum spraying, window traps, cattlebaited \"cadjan\"/net traps, and blood meal for precipition testing, etc. The laboratory processing involved species identification, classification into blood digestion stages, dissection for parons rates, 24-hour mortality/ survival observations in window traps and insecticide susceptibility testing. A though all the anopheline species are known Lo he highly zoophilic, a degree of human biting was recoi.ded similar to that in the rest of the country. There was no general increase in man-vector contact ,:human bait densities) following jungle clearing in dwelopment areas. It is possible that any imbalance in the man-animal ratio created in Mahaweli arm: by deforestation and human settlements is counteracted by the high cattle population introduced to the areas, and to which mosquitoes are highly attracted.Indoor resting sampling noted a somewhat greater population increase in the Madatugama area of the usually exophilic A. vagus. This could be expected to favor man-mosquito contact and needs to he: monitored further. A. culicifacies and A. subpictus continued to he highly endophilic, as they are throiighout Sri Lanka. Species longevity (expressed I'reliminary data on larval breeding in Madatugarna (Tables 5a and b) show the paddy fields to be a najor breeding place for anopheline mosquitoes, and responsible for 67.8% of the total larvae sanpled. By comparison, the irrigation canals recorded only 13.7%. This seems to suggest that the inttxmittent flushing resulting from the 7-day rotatioi for water releases in the area may to some extent control larval breeding in the irrigation carials. Damhulu Oya, the naturally occurring river in the area studied, recorded only 2.3% of the larval:, with no A. culicjfacies recorded during the sarnpling period despite the fact that the river-and strmm-beds are known to be highly preferred brt:eding habitats for this species. It appeared that the excess water channeled periodically through this river to a reservoir limited the pool formation and A. culicijiucies breeding in the river b'eds, which is an advantage for malaria control efforts.These observations suggest the need to investigate further the interaction of irrigation/agricultursl practices, agricultural pesticide applications, an 1 rainfall on mosquito reproduction in irrigation sy:terns in order to identify environmental managcment approaches for vector control. Such studics Seem most appropriate in irrigation systems where the environmental changes, settlements, irrigation water management, and agricultural practices are stabilized. This is now under consideration.  Water resources development in Sri Lanka dates to about 3OG BC when an extensive network of irrigation tanks (reservoirs) was built in the northern and northeastern parts of the country. Many of these facilities, which had fallen into disuse and ruin, have been reconditioncd and incorporated into new irrigation systems over the last century. Currently, these tanks irrigate around 360,000 hectares of land and efforts are continuing to expand this area.The reservoir projects have been classified according to command area as major, medium, and minor-scale schemes. Generally, major irrigation schemes are defined as reservoirs having a command area of over 400 hectares.In addition to reconditioning the ancient tank network, in recent times a number of multi-purpose water development projects have been undertaken. Among these are the Uda Walawe, Gal Oya, Inginimitiya, Kirindi Oya, Muthukandiya, and Mahaweli Ganga Development Projects. The principle objectives of these projects are to generate additional employment and increase agricultural and hydro-electric power production to meet the growing needs of the population.There are a number of agencies under different ministries, directly or indirectly concerned with the development of irrigation in the country.The Department presently functions under the Ministry of Lands and Land Development. It is responsible (with some exceptions) for irrigation and drainage development antl for the operation and management of schemes ovw 80 hectares in extent. Department activities include identifying and formulating projects; investigrting and preparing plans for developing river basins, feasibility studies, and designs for major irrigation schemes, lift irrigation works, and flood proteci.ion and drainage schemes; constructing major antl minor irrigation works; maintaining existing irri,:ation works; and controling and issuing water.' . Mahaweli Development Project, The Mahaweli Ganga is the longest river in Sri Lanka and flows for its major part through the dry zone which has extmsive land resources, and soils and climate sui1:ed to cultivation. Therefore, the developmenl. of this: river is important for the future development. of agriculture in Sri Lanka.In 1968 a FAO/UNDP Master Plan for the de!,elopment of the irrigation and hydro-power polential of the Mahaweli and its tributaries envisaged the development of 360,000 hectares of land in the Mahaweli and adjacent basins and the ger.eration of 508 megawatts of hydro-electricity, wilh the potential for an additional 460 megawatts. Work on the Mahaweli Development Programme, which was originally scheduled for completion in 30 years, began in 1972.In 1977, IheGovernment decided to implement a major portion of this program within a 6-year period, in order to derive the benefits of increased employment, power, and food production. The accelerated program involves the construction of five major multi-purpose reservoir i to providc 470 megawatts of power and irrigatioii to around 144,000 hectares of land in the irrigation systems designated \"A -D,\" \"G,\" and \"H.\" Nearl!! one million people were to he settled under the project. A map of thc Accelerated Maha. weli Development Project is provided i r i Figure 1. The MASL has two subsidiary bodies: the Mahaweli Engineering Consulmncy Agency (MECA), which is responsible for constructing irrigation and social infrastructure in the downstream settlement areas, and the Mahaweli Economic Agency (MEA). The MEA is responsible for settlement of new families and for the agricultural, social, and economic development in the downstream areas. This includes arrangements for delivering health care, as well as matters concerning the protection and management of the environment. The organizational structure of MEA at headquarters level is shown in Figure 2.At project level (Figure 3). each project is headed by a Resident Project Manager (RPM) respmsible for implementing and monitoring the scttlment program. The RPM has the following specialists attached to his office: Land Officer, Waler Management Engineer, Marketing Officer, Agr cultural Officer, Community Development Offixr, Accountant and Administrative Officer.Each project area is further divided into blocks con.aining about 2,500 families and administered by ,I Block Manager representing the same Tunctional areas as the RPMs staff. Finally, each block Besides MECA and MEA, the MASL also funds the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB), which is closely associated with the project. The CECB is the agency responsible for constructing the headworks at the Kotmale, Victoria, Maduru Oya, and Randenigala reservoir projects, and collaborates with the expatriate consultants at each of these projects. Non-governmental and donor agencies provide additional institutional and financial support for the development of water resources in Sri Lanka.The health services provided throughout Sri Lanka are administered primarily by the Ministry of Health (MOH) through Regional Directors of Health Services. This Ministry provides both curative and preventive health services through a hierarchy of institutions which are organized regionally. Each region consists of a central provincial hospital surrounded by a network of dktrict hospitals, each of which services a number of peripheral units.The MOH consists of three fairly independent components: the medical or curative care services, public health services, and laboratory services. The vector control services of the MOH are offered through the Anti-Malaria Campaign (AMC) and Anti-Filariasis Campaign (AFC).To conform with the objectives set by the \"Health for All by the Year 2000\" program designed in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), the MOH is restructuring the health care delivery system. The objective of this program is to provide health care at the lowest possible management level. To accomplish this the Ministry recruits from the population onc Volunteer Health Worker (VHW) per 50 families. The VHW will provide simple medical treatment, preventive treatment of malaria, and health education.Institutionally, the restructured health care system consists of three tiers. The most peripheral unit of the system is the Gramodaya Health Center, where health care for a population of 3,000 will be provided by a Family Health Worker (FHW). First and second referral units will be at sub-divisional (for a population of 20,000) and divisional (for a population of 60,000) health centers, respectively. The existing district and provincial hospitals will provide higher-level referral services. The health care delivery system will also promote community participation for health and sanitation, as well as the gradual functional integration of curative and preventive care. However, insufficient numbers of trained health personnel and limited financial resources are constraints on the provision of adequate health services.This paper focuses on the institutional arrangements between the health and irrigation sectors within the Mahaweli settlement areas.Health care services in the Mahaweli area, as elsewhere in Sri Lanka, are administered by the MOH. However, the MEA provides additional resources with assistance offered by donor agencies.The intention is to strengthen the health services beirg provided through the national program. The conxibution made by MEA to the health program is ll.rgely through infrastructure. Additional health perronnel, drugs and programs for community devN:lopment, and provision of some public health care services also form part of the MEA con Lribution.T'he MOH appoints a Senior Medical Offcer to be ihe liaison between the MEA and MECA, but collaboration is primarily on matters pertaining to hea.th infrastructure and assignment of health person ?el. In planning the health infrastructure, the MEA consdlts the MOH so that plans conform to the national health system. The MOH is also consult:d on selection of the sites for hospitals and health centers, as well as on the type and number of buildings to be constructed. A technical subcommittee of MASL, chaired by its Executive Director, reviews and monitors policy issues. A technical.subcommittee exists also at the project level.There is a time lag between the arrival of settlers in the new settlement areas and the full operation of the health institutions. This applies to both infrastructure and the necessary medical staff. Until the health institutions are fully operational, the MEA has appointed Project Medical Officers (PMO) to ma:t the urgent health needs of the new settlers. Thcse officers provide preventive and curative health care services through a number of mobile clir ics. Polyclinics are also conducted in a similar wa:i by the MOH.The Anti-Malaria Campaign moves into the de\\ elopment area at the commencement of settlement. It undertakes the prevention and treatment of malaria including spraying, blood-filming, surveillance, and providing prophylactics for non-immune new settlers. However, anti-malaria drugs are issued sinultaneously and independently by the Mahaweli PMOS, Health Department officers, and AMC pel sonnel. Therefore, in the Mahaweli areas, health services to ;he settlers are being provided by the MOH, with on'y supportive assistance from the MEA. Howevix, the MEA has a commitment to provide the following primary care services: 1) health education, 2) adequate nutrition and, 3) the supply of safc water and proper sanitation. Most of these pr3grams are supported by donor institutions.The MEA promotes health education through the training and support of Volunteer Health Workers (VHW). The Health Education Bureau and local health personnel of the MOH is responsible for training the VHWs. The Health Education Burem also provides training to MEA staff. The educatim program is tailored primarily to familiarize settkr families with the basic sanitary and hygienic requirements, and the pradices necessary to me:t such requirements.The MEA is also responsible, through its Conimunity Development Officers, for the nutrition edw cation program in the Mahaweli areas. The Department of Community Medicine, University of Peradeniya, provides the tchnical training to ME 4 officers. The MEA also runs Home Development Centers at project levels where, in addition to speci.il courses given to young women, information cn health and sanitation is available.The program to provide safe drinking water lo settlers is carried out by MEA with donor assistanc:. In the newer settlement are% MEA provides subsidies for constructing one well per household. Undu the sanitation program, households are provided with floor-plates and subsidies for digging latrine pits and erecting superstructures. Through the education prtigram, MEA encourages settlers to use these facilities TheWMASL has established a Technical Sutc committee on Environment, chaired.by its Directclr General and made up of representatives of the following governmental and non-governmental agerlcies and organizations: the Agencies of Forest Corlservation, Wildlife, Agricultue, Fisheries, Health, Irrigation, Natural Resources, Energy and Science Authority, Central Environmental Authority, and the universities. This sub-committee, which meeu monthly, is responsible for advising the MASL on environmental proble%ns and assisting in the implementation of efiironmental programs in the Mahaweli areas.for improvement 1. Present arrangements between the health sector and the irrigation sector (MASL) are primarily geared to provide curative and preventive health services. The preventive health services which are available in the downstream areas are inadequate in that they are mainly concerned with immunization and prophylactic treatment, with insufficient attention given to incorporating environmental and health safeguards for disease control, particularly for vector-borne diseases. It is essential that safeguards be incorporated at all stages of the project (planning, implementation, and operation), especially for vector control. Some of the environmental safeguards which need to be addressed are: designing irrigation3ystems to high Row velocities, lining canals to prevent pooling, locating settlements away from waterways to limit the contact of mosquitoes with humans, and managing .irrigation systems for proper operation and water use. In this respect, the MOH should be involved from the design stage onwards. In 1984, the government made environmental impact assesments (EIA) a mandatory requirement for development projects. However, technical expertise must be strengthened in the project-approving ministries to guarantee that adequate environmental safeguards related to health are included in the EIA. Legislation is also being drafted by the Central Environmental Authority under the National Environment Act of 1980 to ensure that development agencies incorporate environmental safeguards at all stages of project implementation and operation in accordance with the EIA ;ecommendation. In the future, Mahaweli systems such as A and D and the right bank of Maduru Oya could benefit from incorporating environmental safeguards for vector-disease control through better interaction between the sectors concerned.Better coordination is necessary for effeotive delivery of health services to areas that are already operational. The present technical sub-committee of the MEA should meet regularly to review policy, monitor its implementation and operation, and evaluate the effectiveness of inputs. Constraints and problems could be identified so that early corrective mea-sures could be implemented. The coordinating committee should be multi-disciplinary in nature consisting of health and community development personnel, water management engineers, agronomists, sociologists, economists, managers of MEA, design and construction engineers of MECA, health officers (including the vertical vectordisease control programs such as AMC and AFC of the MOH), and donor groups supporting the health programs.3. At present, the direct coordination of vectordisease control programs is ad hoc in the Mahaweli program. In view of the importance of environmental management for vector control, it is critical that a functional committee be established at project level to coordinate the implementation of control measures. This committee should include regional members from the vector control programs (AMS and AFC), as well as from MEA, MOH, and MECA.4. Increased efforts should be directed to acquiring more knowledge about the vector control effect if environmental management is to become effective in vector control. It is suggested that the vector control campaigns, along with the MEA and MECA, identify immediate study or research needs for the area. These studies should be carried out jointly by the irrigation and health sector. This will result in a much better understanding between the different sectors and make implementation of management measures more effective. 5. Because the irrigation sector lacks knowledge and expertise in the health disciplines and trained manpower is a constraint, it is important that the irrigation sector personnel receive training on aspects of health and environmental management measures. The need for education.and training on health and environmental issues at all staff levels must be recognized. The MOH should consider developing a suitable training package for irrigation personnel, including guidelines for vector control by environmental management. Similarly, health personnel should understand the water management programs being operated by the irrigation sector so that the development of effective control measures become possible. Environmental management at field level is of vital importance, and the present VHW system should be strengthened to provide a system for transfer of vector control information to the farmer.The powers and functions of the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka as designated by Mahaweli Ac: 23 (1979) in, or in relation to, any Special Aria are: a) to plan and implement the Mahaweli Ganga Development Scheme including the construction and operation of reservoirs, irrigation distribution system and installations for the gencration and sug~ply of clectrical energy; b) to foster and secure the full and integrated development of any Special Area; c) to optimize agricultural productivity and employment potential and to generate and sec:ure economic and agricultural development within any Sp:cial Area; d) to conserve and maintain the physical environmmt within any Special Area; e) to further the general welfare and cultural 1irog r m of the community within any Special Area a n l to administer the affairs of such area; f) :o promote and secure the participation of private caiital, both internal and external, iri the economic and agricultural development of any Special Area: g) to promote and secure the cooperation of government departments, state institutions, local authorities, public corporations and other persons, whether private or public, in the planning and in plementation of the Mahaweli Ganga Developm,:nt Scheme and in the development of any Special Area.The Act provides that the Minister in charge of the Mahaweli Development Programme could declare, with Presidential approval, ar.y area which could be developed with the water resources of the Mahaweli Ganga, or any tither major river, as a \"Special Area,\" after which the Authority could exercise all, or any, of its powers, diities and functions in this area.The increased concern about vector population: and disease associated with the development 01' water management projects, coupled with vectoi resistance to pesticides and failure to eradicate disease, has revived interest in environmental management methods for the control of vector populations. Environmental management for vector control has been defined as the planning, organizing, carrying out, and monitoring of activities for modifying and/or manipulating environmental factors or their interaction with man, with a view to preventing or minimizing vector propagation and reducing man-vector-pathogen ~o n t a c t . ~ Historically, environmental management methods were a major component of vector control, hut were replaced by the use of pesticides in the 1940's.Today, many of these methods are lost, along with their documented impact upon vector populations and disease.An integrated vector control program is defined as the utilization of all appropriate technological and management techniques to bring about an effective degree of vector suppression in a cost-effective manner4 Such a program should involve a continuous process of education, re-education, training, and re-training of program directors because of the increased diversity of methods and equipment. Environmental techniques and methods, accompanied by effective educational and training programs, must be bmed on data from currently successful programs. Organizations and agencies should critically review these techniques and methods before they are accepted and implemented.A knowledge of the epidemiology of the disease and the ecology and biology of its vector is essential for the implementation of effective environmental management techniques. Today, as we discuss malaria in Sri Lankaand especially how malaria is related to irrigation and the Mahaweli Projecta major consideration must be the implementation of vector control activities and education and training programs for personnel involved in water management. The development of education and training programs is complex because it must take into account the differences in personnel backgrounds, applicable data, and availability of educational and training materials.For the past four years I have been a member of a team teaching a course on stormwater management facilities for engineers. This is part of my responsibility in managing the section on environmental and mosquito problems associated with stormwater facility development. Stormwater management became an issue when mosquito control personnel in New Jersey observed an increase in the number of mosquito problems associated with stormwater facilities. Research showed that problems were created by the design, construction, and maintenance of these facilities. The data generated by this research arc the basis for my contribution to the course. The course by objective is to instruct engineers about the potential mosquito problems and their prevention through proper design and construction. The attending engineers have dcveloped, through several years of experience, their own methods of handling problems associated with stormwater management. They are usually involved only in the design phase of projects, while other engineers, perhaps from another firm, oversee the construction, hut none of these would he involved in maintaining the project.A parallel can he drawn with water development projects worldwide, where changes occur in per-sonnel and firms as the project moves from conception to operation. Training of all personnel involved in a project must be a major component in the implementation of integrated vector control programs. A major constraint on the development of edicdtion and training programs is the lack of avn ilahle data, particularly in environmental management. These programs must he based on case stuiies and \" hard data to support the selection of environmental management techniques. The educational and training materials should he grdupspecific, including publication in the appropriate language. 4n examination of Figure 1 reveals that education is not included. Note should be taken of the  Since research on environmcntal managemeni methods cannot be carried out over the short term it is difficult to obtain information appropriate fot publication. A year's research on a pesticide can generate a number of publications; in environmental managemcnt one year of research will produce only a preliminary study which must be followed by the application of the environmental management method. Several additional years will be required to determine the effects of the application. This lengthy process creates problems of funding and professional advancement for researchers in this discipline.Evidence of increasing interest in environmental management and vector control is the formation of the WHO/FAO/UNEP Panel of Experts on Environmental Management for Vector Control (PEEM).The 1984 paper on vector control in rice fields by Mather and That (see footnote 4) proposed five criteria for environmental management methods which should be applicable to any type of water management project. Methods must be:1. known to be effective against the identified problem vector(s);3. cost effective when compared with other feasible methods; 4. economically sustainable by the community at some agreed level of responsibility; and, 5. compatible with local crop production techniques.In using these criteria, it is important that databases be developed, through literature review and research, to implement effective integrated vector control programs in water development projects.IIMI's objectives offer ideal opportunities to implement irrigation schemes which could serve as models, and to develop the database and educational strategies so urgently needed. LIMI has three research programs:Rehabilitation of irrigation prajects. A major objective in future irrigation development will be the rehabilitation of older irrigation systems. The opportunity to study the disease and its vectors in a functioning system make these old systems ideal research environments. Their rehabilitation will provide the opportunity to implement vector control methods. This kind of work has been done at various locations around the world but it appears that a collaborative study by vector control specialists and engineers has occurred only once, at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).Vector habitats do not occur throughout the entire irrigation system nor are vectors found during all {easons. Therefore, detailed studies on where and when the vectors appear, and why they are not present in some areas of the system, will develop a database that will allow the rehabilitation engineers to eliminate vector habitats. Thus, a close working relationship between vector control specialists and engineers shoulu be teqnired on all projects. Main system management. Main system management usually deals with water control throughout the system. Here, the application of environmental management methods for vector control becomes more of an administrative duty. The most common of these administrative duties would be selecting fields for intermittent irrigation, selecting crops and determining rotations, and assigning committees and personnel duties. An awareness by the administration personnel of the impact of certain management programs upon vector populations and disease transmission could eliminate future problems. Again, the need is for a working relationship between vector control specialists and administration personnel to determine the selection and timing of environmental management programs which can be implemented without changing the objectives or the general management of the irrigation scheme.The small-scale or community-run irrigation system offers an excellent'opprtunity to implement certain environmental management programs in conjunction with education and training. Because of the diversity of systems, locations, and crops, it will be difficult to develop comprehensive techniques, but certain generalizations can be applied and details concerning the vector biology of individual species or selected areas can be obtained from a database.The education of farmers concerning integrating environmental management techniques into their work scheme must be related to the objectives of their irrigation system. If significant changes in these objectives are required in order to implement environmental management methods, the control program will fail. The major challenge is to incor-porate integrated vector control strategies into farmer education programs worldwide.The importance of an integrated approach was demonstrated recently in an anti-malaria program in Zaire. Field inspections showed that fish ponds plaled a predominant role in the propagation of veclor species7 These have been constructed thrcughout the area by various organizations for devi:loping protein resources. Apparently it was assumed that the fish would eat the mosquito larvae. However, not all species of fish eat mosquitoes, nor do all fish species penetrate the surface vegetation to feed upon mosquito larvae. A simple component of vector control in the education system for devi:loping aquaculture could have prevented this prohlem.Important initial steps are being taken by PEEM to develop collaborative centers in the fields of irrigatimm and rice culture research. This should be follow:d by establishing a working relationship between the vector control and irrigation specialists to cevelop both the databases and the educational and training materials needed in developing and opei.ating future irrigation schemes.Research should address the major problems associated with the design, construction, managemert, and maintenance of irrigation systems. The data and results, translated into the appropriate langual:e, must be made available to the various organizations and personnel involved with irrigation systems. During eight months of field wurk in the Mahaweli Program, System C', Zone 2 during Maha season 1984185, technical irrigation features associated with vector habitat creation were studied. These include: I ) Irrigation water supply design criteria for rice cultivation; 2) problems of excess water when constructing, operating, and maintaining the irrigatioddrainagc canal network;3) methods of identifying potential vector breeding habitats in the project area; and 4) cnvironmental management measures.Systcm C is located on the right bank of the Mahaweli River. It comprises 63,000 hectares (Fig.The area's topography is sloping and irregular, which, combined with soils and other factors, limits the area of land that is suitable for irrigation.Suitable areas for irrigation are the valley hottoms or small catchments, whose soils are Low Humic Gleys (LHG). These gradually change uphill, at slopes up to 3%, to imperfectly drained Red Brown Earth fRBE) soils, which are also suitable for irrigation? The ridges and steepest slopes (4-6%) consist of well-drained RBE soils or granite rock knobs, which are not suitable for irrigation. This means that only about 26,000 hectares (42%) of System C is suitable for irrigation. Table 1 shows the land use. For administrative purposes, System C has been divided into zones, of which Zone 2 was the first to be developed. During the wet season of 1984/85, the full extent of Zone 2's irrigable land (4,000 hectares) was under irrigation for the first time. The crop was rice.Zone 2 is situated in the intermediate climatic zone, which forms the transition between the Wet and Dry Zones. The mean yearly rainfall is 21 centimeters, most of which falls in the wet season (or Maha) during the Northeast Monsoon from October t6 April. The dry season (or Yala) coincides with the Southeast Monsoon from May to September.The headworks in the Mahaweli River provide the necessary water storage and flow regulation to safeguard the water supply to System C's main reservoir, the Ulhitya, throughout the year. System C's irrigation system consists of a main canal taking off from Ulhitya, branch canals discharging into various buffer reservoirs, and distribu- utary channels taking off from these rcscrvoirs and conveying water to the minor irrigation units, or turnouts. Every Lurnout has one field channel running downslope and serving between 5 and 20 farmers, each owning onc hcctarc allotmcnh of paddy lowland. In addition, each settler family gets a 0.5 hectare homestead on which to cultivate other food crops.The major public health prohlcms being combatted by the Sri Lankan authorities are malaria, gastro-enteritis, accidents, dysentery, and anemia.:' In System C, the most prevalent ailments are thos': related to poor hygiene and sub-standard livin: conditions: malnutrition, water-washed disease!, respiratory diseases, and vector-borne diseases (Table 2). The most serious vector-borne diseases are malaria, filariasis, dengue, and Japanese &encephalitis.Mulariu. Countrywide figures show an average of 7% of the examined blood films ti1 cimtaiti malaria parasites, with incidences of 12' 2 i n 198.1 a n d 17% in 1984. In Sri Lanka. the sole proven vcctor of malaria is Anophda culcifaci<a Mosquitoes of this species prefer a breeding place in full sunlight. clear water, and on a sandy or rocky bed. Six other Anophe1e.s species present in Sri I.ank;i are coilfirmed malaria vectors in ncighboring countries. Research data point to potential danger from these -and five other anopheline s p ~c i c s . ~ Filuriusis. Rancroftian filariasis is endemic in the denselv populated southwcstcrn coastal strip. Recent independent research 5 revealed incidences of 5%) transmission of this disease in the endemic belt, as well as recorded incidences outside the belt. The vector is Culex quinquefasciatus, which prefers a shady and organically polluted hreeding placc. Brugian filariasis is thought to have been eradicated from the island during the first intensive Anti-Filariasis Campaigns, when the removal of water plants associated with the breeding place of its vectors, Munsoniu spp., proved to be a successfiil measure.Records of the prevalence of these diseases are not available, but serological evidencc suggests that dengue fever is associated with densely populated human habitation. Its main vector, Aedes aegvpri, prefers a breeding habitat in man-made containers: old tires, tin cans, etc.The main vector for JE is Culex tritueniorhyncus, which breeds in r i a fields. Pigs apparently play a role in the epidemiology of the disease!Three independently operating organizations provide health care in System C: the Mahaweli Authority, the Ministry of Health, and the Anti-Malaria Campaign. Each contributes to community health services, hygiene education, and sanitary provisions around settler's homes. Measures included in the present program of controlling vcctor-borne diseases are: indoor insecticide spraying and medical treatment of rccognized cases, particularly of malaria. In the endemic belt, the Anti-Filariasis Campaign regularly sprays larvicides on the potential breeding places of the filariasis vector. For the following reasons, however, there is an urgent need for a more diversified, and therefore less vulnerable, long-term control of vectorborne diseases: The present vector control by spraying is not entirely effective because: a) An estimated 40%'' of the System C population are displaying an increasing unwillingness to have their houses sprayed because of the unpleasant smell and the fear that it has an adverse effect on health; and b) pools used by humans and animals must be excluded from sprxying because of the risk of the pools becoming poi:;oued.4.. The heavy reliance on chemicals to control vector-borne diseases makes the Campaigns vulnerablt: because of the pace at which vector mosquitoe!; develop resistance to the chemicals.\"Figure 2 shows the concept on an integrated control that has been developed to meet the need for more diversified approaches to vector control. This concept combines chemical. biological, and environmental management methods that suit the local requirements and possibilities. In Zone 2, where the irrigation systems determines the environment in a large part of the area, the analysis and possible improvement of present water-management practicies form an essential element in environmental management for vector control.Whether water forms a suitable breeding place for vectors depends on a variety of factors. In irri-gated agriculture, a relationship has to be established between observed water bodies, the practices that led to their creation, and whether they will cause the proliferation of specific vectors. To establish this relationship in Zone 2, three matrices werc developed Matrix I. Potential mosquito breeding places were classified by adapting the system described in the WHO Manual on Environmental Management for Vector Control to the local situation. The stagnant bodies of water cncountercd in Zone 2 were placed in one of seven categories (Table 3). according to criteria such as organic pollution, exposure to sunlight, vegetation, freshness of the water, and the size of the pool. C. Marshy patches, often polluted with organic matter; aliundant vcgetation (oily mono-layen, ironsolured water, smell of decomposition):Matrix I1 From direct observation of the irriga. tion system and of agricultural practices, and from other information, we identified (Fig. 4) the point in the irrigation system (eg., reservoir, main canal, etc.) and in the irrigation cycle (e.g., pre-irrigation, land-preparation, etc.) where the various breeding: places become an important hazard to health.Matrix 111 thus completes the stepwise causeand-effect analysis, which starts with identifying the vector and ends with identifying the irrigation feature that influences vector habitat. Although the matrices still need more data from both irrigation and entomology, they provide a framework for further study of the linkage between irrigation and  Matrix I1 thus indicates the relative importance of the irrigation system as a whole for potential vec. tor breeding in the area, and singles out those ele.vector ecology under the specific environmental conditions of Zone 2. ments of the irrigation system that contribute mos: to the breeding risk.Matrix III. Matrir 111 establishes the relationshill between the location of the breeding places ant1 those features of water management and irrigatiorl engineering that cause their existence: hydrology, design, construction, etc. (Fig. 5).Matrix I11 directs attention to that feature of the irrigation system, which, by an analysis of its details, will prove to be the cause of a particular type of breeding place. Even so, a general rule  seems to apply: the more carefully and minutely irrigation development is planned and executed, the less likely it is to encourage mosquito propagation. Some examples of the principles under-lying this rule were observed in Zone 2 . l ' Hydrology. The sloping and irregular topography of System C has imposed two major constraints on the drainage of the area. First, drainage of the large area of land excluded from the irrigation scheme would have required a large number of culverts and other devices because, in many cases, the newly constructed roads and canal bunds have cut off stretches of this land from the natural drains.Second, numerous small unirrigable patches are scattered within the irrigation system's boundaries. These contain natural and man-made surface depressions that do not drain to the drainage network laid out as part of the irrigation system. These depressions collect water from blocked natural drainage, rainfall, surface runoff, and seepage, to create large and small, often brightly sunlit, bodies of stagnant water that retain an overall breeding potential for the area throughout all phases of the irrigation cycle.A complex network of reservoirs and major and minor canals resulted from the policy of creating the largest possible command area in the undulating topography and varying soil conditions of System C . The control of water flows in all parts of this network is, in itself, a complex matter, which places heavy demands on the staff operating the system. The situation is further complicated by the decision to leave canals unlined, with all the attendant problems of erosion and seepage.The design of separate parts of the system may create public health hazards. Figure 6 gives an example of how the canal layout has been adapted to the topography. Distributary canals are aligned along the lateral spurs of the main ridges, which means that a major part of every distributary runs through the imperfectly to well-drained RBE soils. Where these canals have been excavated in erodible RBE soils, serious bund erosion has been observed. One effect of tiis erosion is the deposition of silt, which, in the pre. and post-irrigation periods, leads to uneven can11 beds with many shallow sunlit pools of stagnant water. In consequence, conditions in the distributaries and branches are particularly conducive to )he development of mosquito larvae until Ibe firs1 issue of water, after which a constant flow is maintained in the canals. Potential breeding areas remain, however, where erosion gullies in bunds form pockets of standing water.Ekpecially in the minor canals, there are two oth8:r effects of bund erosion: First, over the full lenl:th of the field channels and at the tail end of distributaries, the deposition of silt c a w s capacity problems. The subsequent overtopping of canal embankments leads to pool formation in adjoining suriace depressions. Second, accelerated water flow and whirlpool action occurring downs-tream of cul./erts, bridges, drop and check structures, and bends, cause bank erosion. This widens the canal crowsection, retards water flow, and creates breeding places in the side pockets along the embankmeit. In contrast, the large Ulhitya Reservoir cannot be reckoned as a dangerous breeding place. The rescwoir bund closest to the nearest settler hamlet exceeds the average flight range of most mosquito vectors: 1-3 kilometers.Ilulike Ulhitya, the score of smaller irrigation rewvoirs incorporated in the system (and in proximity to human habitation) may contribute considerably to vector breeding. Often the embankments of small irrigation reservoirs (or tanks) are infestcid with emergent or floating vegetation, of which Sclvinia natans is a suspected breeding requisite for Mansonia spp.., thevector of Brugian filariasis. These small reservoirs serve the purpose of buffering the effects of disproportion between fr,:quency of adjustments in major and minor canals. Water levels, therefore, are subject to irregular flu,;tuations throughout the year, causing an exposfd drawback zone suitable for mosquito breeding each time the water recedes. If the drawback zone dois not consist of isolated small depressions, however, the shallows will empty when the water recedes, leaving the eggs, larvae, and pupae stranded.Conslruction. Since 1977, the Mahaweli Development Programme has been \"accelerated,\" which means that the tempo was increased in constructirg headworks and opening .new lands to irrigation. This increased tempo also meant that shortagm were encountered, including: 1) Accurate topogr;iphical maps of the new lands to be developed, z!) expertise and management for planning and monitoring construction, 3) well-equipped and expcrienced local contractors for executing the work, and 4) supplies of high-quality construction materials.The effects of these shortages are now appearing in the irrigation infrastructure. Examples include the following:1. Not all the canal beds and structures hale been constructed at the proper elevations. The result is incorrect water flows, stagnation of water in canal sections, and overtopping of bunds, with the consequent formation of poo s in adjoining depressions.2. Some canal sections have been constructed t~ fill, without being compacted, which is necessary to avoid seepage and leakage. This has led to the continuous presence of adjacent waterlogged SUI'face depressions.Complicated construction works such as large culverts, water-level regulating structures, aquc:ducts, and inverted syphons have not all been made with the highquality materials they require, nor have they all been accurately installed. This is necessary not only to prevent the creation of breeding places, but also to safeguard the delivery of design water flows throughout the system.Operation. The quality of the design and construction determines the boundary conditions within which operational procedures are laid down that supposedly guarantee a uniform and reliable supply of sufficient irrigation water. In System C, the accelerated implementation of a complex design under difficult topographical conditions has resulted in complicated operational procedures that have not been able to prevent shortages or excesses of water.According to Moore,14 the cause of many of the problems in large-scale irrigation schemes in Sri Lanka lies in the operational procedures applied, which rank low in formality, information, and control. His contention also holds for Zone 2.Formality. The formality of operation in Zone 2 is characterized by: a) An almost total lack of written technical procedures for the adjustment of control gates downstream of the main canal; b) the absence of explicit job descriptions for water management staff; and c) poor coordination of policies and activities, leading to haphazard implementation of rainfall corrections, rotation schedules, cropping calendars, etc.In circumstances like this, an alert and effective water management for the equitable distribution of irrigation water is impossible. The result is that farmers and water management staff are becoming alienated. Poaching water and damaging irrigation structures are common actions when farmers feel that their complaints about water shortages are not heard.Information Flow measurements are imperative if one is to verify channel flow and locate faulty design or construction in the canal system. Flows in the main and branch canals or Zone 2 are measured with Parshall flumes, and in the distributaries with short-crested (hump) weirs. Only a minimum number of measurement devices, however, have been incorporated in the canal network, and many of them cannot he used for accurate readings because of improper elevation or the absence of a reading gauge. At present, the only records that are kept are those of the main sluice. Further down the system, unrecorded \"guesstimates\" from improvised methods are used for adjusting minor irrigation structures.Control. Discrcpancics between water requirements and actual amounts issued are inherent in irrigation. Some soils are more porous than othcrs, while differences in canal topography. length, and maintenance may mean that two adjacent canals require very differentbut hard to assessamounts of water at their head ends to ensure supplies to their tail ends.Another factor is the degree of control it is possible to exercise over the water flows. In Zone 2, from distributary level down to the fields, the vertical sluice-gate inlet structures are adjustable, but they cannot he sufficiently fine-tuned to guarantee the required flow (see footnote 2). During rainfall of more than 8 centimeters, for example, the main flow can he accurately cut hack for one week to 50%. From the distributaries downward, however, the adjustments can only he approximated, which is likely to starve tail-end distributaries of water. Furthermore, rain-fall is unevenly distributed over Zone 2. Because data from only one rain gauge are used, canals at the tail ends of the system sometimes dry up. At turnout level, farmers have difficulty controlling the water issues. During land preparation, the system operates at full capacity, delivering a continuous flow of roughly 30 liters per second to every turnout gate. But the number of farmers under one turnout varies widely, leading to overirrigation at the smaller turnouts. This, in combination with local drainage problems, causes land to he inundated for several weeks at a time.Along the field channels, three farmers must share the design flow by using two-outlet boxes, one of which remains half-closed. Such a discrepancy between design and rotational procedure cripples any endeavor to achieve an equitable distribution of water within the turn-out.Too much water was issued as a palliative for thelie shortcomings during thc wet scason 19x4-85. anc this disguised the need for urgently required construction, reorgani7.ation, and maintenance within thc system. Other risks attendant on an overgenerous supply of water arc that farmers become wedded to lavish waler use and lose their abi ity to handle water as a scarce commodity or to manage rotational water deliveries. both undoubt-ed1.i leading to the creation of vector breeding pla1;cs.Once a vector habitat has been identified somewh:re in the system, it is difticult to determine wh:ther ,its occurrence is related to one specific opmitional feature. Operational short-comings tend to have a cumulative effect. This, however, does not derogate from the general rule that the morc cuefully the minutely irrigation development is planned and executed, the less likely it is to cause mosquito prcpagation.Muintenunce. Wherever maintenancc of an irrigation system is neglected, water flows will he retarded, areas will he inundated, and other processes favorable to the formation of pools of standing water are likely to take place. Maintenancc work in Zone 2 is not well-organized, mainly hec:ause of the lack of consensus on responsibilities at Ihc institutional and turnout levels.At the institutional level, the construction of the system by one agency and the subsequent transfer of project management to another has not resulted in effective maintenance. For the first two years after construction, maintenance is the responsibility of the construction agency, hut with construction still in progress in other parts of the System C . and in System B as well, this agency is having difficulty in releasing the manpower and machinery needed for maintenance in Zone 2. 4t turnout level, the operation, and maintenaice of the infrastructure is left to the farmers. They elect a farmer-leader to represent them and to see that works are executed according to agi.eed-upon procedures. The farmer-leader, howewr, lacks the authority to enforce the rule Ithat ewry farmer must clean the canal section adjoinin): his or her paddy plot, so not all farmers do thcir share of the work. The result is excessive plant growth in the canals, damaged canal bonds, and silted canal beds.Anothcr factor conipliczzting cooperation at t!ie turnout is hiddcn tenancy, which makes the ownership of some plots ~n c l c a r . ~ On-jarm Warer Munugemmt and Crop Hurhiindry. Two methods of rice cultivation are pra,:. ticed in Zone 2. One is the \"transplanting\" metho<i, which uses plant material from a nursery; the oth(:r is \"direct seeding,\" by which seeds is broadcast directly on the fields and no transplanting is done.Farmer's aclivities in irrigated rice cultivaticn and the implication of these activities on vector breeding have been extensively studied by the Focd and Agriculture Organization (FA0).16 Orle important feature appears to be underestimated, howcvcr, namely that a farmer's decisions on tte sequence of his activities and the techniques he a p p lies to his cultivation and irrigation practices are not takcn autonomously. To a large extent, these decisions are constrained by the timely and adequaie availability of the necessary inputs: water, labor, traction power, seed, and fertilizer. Thus, bas c input provisions must be safeguarded before tte farmers can employ cultivation techniques that will minimize the creation of vector breeding places.Broadcasted paddy fields appear to provide more breeding grounds than transplanted fields beeau:e of the absence of a uniform water layer in the fic;t two weeks after seeding and a relatively slow cl0:;ing of the crop canopy. Nevertheless, a potentially dangerous situation occurs with a transplanted rite crop when a second nursery proves necessary because the first did not provide enough plant material for the full one hectare plot. This leads to an extra three weeks of fallow for the still unplanted but tilled fields.During our field observations, we found that each cultivation stage maintained its typical breetling habitats. In the pre-cultivation period, often waterlogged, poorly drained, lowland fallow fiekls arc favorable for mosquito breeding. In the land preparation period, the recently plowed fields form a vast inundated area in iYhich the chances fcr breeding depend (among other things) on the intel.Val between successive activities. A rule of thumb is that a plowed basin left untouched for ten days or longer (in the climatic circumstances of Zone 2) allows a high percentage of the larvae enough time to develop into adult mosquitoes.During crop and canopy establishment, the breeding danger is thought to lessen because the vegetative cover hinders the oviposition of female anopheline mosquitoes (see footnote 16). But other water bodies remain: borrow pits, undrained depressions along irrigation canals, seepage ponds, blocked drains. In the wet season of 1984/85, this situation was aggravated by the continuous oversupplies of irrigation water.After the harvest, when the sluice gates have been closed, the enormous lengths of drying-up canals are particularly attractive for the proliferation of mosquitoes, and the marshy fallow fields constitute a favorable breeding habitat for Culex tritueniorhynchus, especially after the first rains have fallen on the decomposing stubble (see footnote 13).Despite the complexity of relationships between irrigation engineering and the creation of vector breeding places, efficient water management can impede the creation of the latter. It remains to be seen, however, whether a reduction in the breeding potential in Zone 2 will find expression in an actual reduced density of the vector populations. The large area that could not be incorporated into the irrigation system offers alternative breeding grounds that will certainly diminish the effectiveness of any environmental management measures incorporated into the engineering works.Still, an overall improvement in water management should be an important component in any irrigation projectserving, as'it does, the dual purpose of better control over vector breeding and an increased agricultural productivity. Once water management has been improved, thought can be The enthusiasm for irrigation as a key to increased food production has frequently not been matched by results. Numerous problems have lowered returns considerably below original expectations. It is now widely recognized that constructing dams and canals will not automatically lead to substantial increases in production. Attention has shifted toward an examination of problems in the operation and management of irrigation systems, and the types of investments needed to improve the management of these systems4Within this context the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) was created. IIMI began 0peratior.s in mid-I984 as an international organization whose primary purpose is to undertake research, professional development, and information exchange activities to enhance national capacities to imirove the management and performance of irrigation systems. IIMI, as a small, decentralized institute, must develop a research program that is clearly focused on broad problems of practical importance, both to those who manage irrigation projects and to those who make policies ailecting the conditions in which the irrigation systems are planned, financed and operated. The research should not he limited to investigations of specific problems faced by a national irrigation agency but focus on problems with international application. The former problems are better addressed by national research programs. During IIMI's first year, considerable effort was devoted to the delineation of an appropriate research program. These efforts included two international workshops held during 1985. From these deliberations came a framework which incorporates three general areas of investigation: main system management, rehabilitation and design for management, and small-scale irrigation. R.esearch on system management will includc stucies on the opcration of irrigation systems from the main head gates and canals to the individual farn fields. Thc program on rehabilitation and design for management looks at ways Lo more effe:tively upgrade both the physical and organizational components of deteriorated irrigation systems. Emphasis is placed on incorporating the kncwledgc and experience gained from past opcratior of the system. Research on small-scale irrigatior systems will invcstigate the performance of systems operated in the absence of significant governmental involvement. A major objective is to unc erstand factors critical to the successful operdtior, of such autonomous systems, and to study Ihe imlilications of proposed government interventions to upgrade them.There are several dimensions to irrigation management, all of which need to he considered in undertaking research. As indicated in Figure I, the!ie dimensions apply to each of the three research program areas. In each, IIMI will he concerned with understanding the institutional and social dimension (the behavior of people, including go7'ernment agency personnel, water users, and extxnal consultants): the physical dimension (the movement, storage, upkeep, and utilization of materials and structures); the biological dimension (the manipulation of the biological environment); the information dimension (the acquisition, processing, and dissemination of information): and the financial dimension (the acquisition, control, and utilization of .inancia1 resources).The relationships between irrigation and human disease vector populations fall under the biological dimension of irrigation management, an area of interest to IIMI. The objective of this workshop is to determine how the problcms of vector contrcl can be addressed through changes in irrigation management.At least five approaches to dealing with vectorborne disease problems can he identified. On,: approach is that of environmental managemenl, which has been discussed in a recent F A 0 publica-tion5 and by Dr. Shisler's workshop paper (in this volume). A second approach is to attack the prob. lems through irrigation design. Canal lining, desigii of canals for relatively high velocities of water flow, and provision of deep drains with steep slopes ar,: among the possibilities that have been suggested.\" A third approach is the use of chemicals to reduo: vector populations. Fourth, vector populations ma:/ he reduced through biological control methods, such as the introduction of competitors, predator; and infectious agents. Finally, a medical approach focuses on methods of immunizing or otherwisi: reducing the susceptibility of the human populatioti to the diseases transmitted by the vectors.Although the above five approaches to control of vector-borne diseases are frequently complemen. tary, the critical questions which IIMI must con. sider with respect to any particular disease probleni are: 1) to what extent is the environmental man. agement approach likely to he a cost-effectin: method of control; 2) assuming a positive conclu. sion to the first question, to what extent can thi: changes in environmental conditions induced by irrigation management techniques he expected to have a significant effect on the disease problem; and, 3) assuming a positive conclusion to the second question, are there significant research questions regarding alternative management techniques which need to he considered, or is the problem simply one of implementing techniques which have already been proven?In considering the second question, a distinction should he made between irrigation in semi-humid areas where the predominant crop is rice and irrigation in more arid areas where crops other than rice predominate. In the former case, which is typical of Sri Lanka, parts of India, and most of Southeast and East Asia, the nature of agricultural production dictates high groundwater tables and widespread areas of standing water. Under these conditions one needs to question the feasibility and/or the effectiveness of some of the management techniques suggested to control vector populations. Among these are changes in the water level of reservoirs, rotational irrigation, and alternate wetting and drying of irrigation channels. It has been noted in the Mahaweli Project that even when irrigation channels are closed between the two cropping seasons, erosion in the channel beds results in stagnant pools of water in the canals. Perhaps in such a waterdominated environment, effective control of vector populations can be achieved only as a result of a broad-bascd ctivironniental management progum, of which irrigation management is ii minor componciit. The situation may be quite different in arcas where watei is less ahundant and crops are grown under non-flooded conditions.As IlMl defines its research program and prioritics, answers ti1 thc thrcc q u c d n n s posed above will he w r y important. A workshop to identify IlMl research prioritics concluded that a number of important areas of investipation significantly related to irrigation performance, such as watershed mdnagement. should not he part of IIMI's research pro-g r , m g To he effective, IIMl needs to have a rc!;earch program which focuses clearly on irrigat i m management.The fundamental question is whether the prospect for improvement in human health resulting from research on vector control through irrigation m magement justifies a major research effort by II'MI. If the conclusion is \"yes,\" lhcn we seek guidance on the types of research activities that would se:m most promising; if the consensus is \"no,\" the w,xkshop will have been valuable in helping to chrify IIMI's research priorities.David J. Bradlev' It would hc an unfortunate perpetuation of a long-standing pattern if the relationship bctween irrigation and health continues to he ignored. Figure I shows the stated involvement of IIMI in the most important aspects of irrigation. Its emphasis is on the human, institutional, operational, and maintenancc phases of irrigation. It is concerned also with performance, cvaluation, and rehabilitation of irrigation schemes, and with the physical and biological components of irrigation methodology at the farm level. These activities must be analyzed in relation L o the epidemiological issues which arise in heallh matters, and a coordinated approach which is appropriate for IIMI'r situation and resources must be formulated.What aspects of health are relevant? There is a temptation to suggest that the concern should be limited to the control of vcctors because this is the immediate point at which irrigation water is of particular importance to infectious disease. However, Figure 1 illustrates that such a narrow focus is not sound. It shows the incidence of malaria in relation to the basic case reproduction rate, with emphasis on thc situation in the African savannah and in Sri Lanka. A proportionate reduction in the same level of vector breeding in each country will have a totally different effect on malaria incidence. A twenty-fold reduction in the vector density might greatly reduce or even eradicate malaria in parts ol Sri Lanka, wherets a corresponding reduction 01 mosquitoes in the African savannah would have a negligible effect on the occurrence of human malaria. Since our wnccrn is prinrarily with the diseases mosquitoes carry, it is clear that aa epidemiological component. in addition ti1 a vcclor coniponent, is necessary for a rational policy at IIMI. IIMl's selectioii of priorities will fill some of the large gaps in our understanding ol irrigalion. Numerous studies of large dams have contributcd to our understanding of what needs to bc donc, rclative to health, when such dams are built in tropical countries. However. there have heen vcry few stitdies of small dams. Problems ol small dams are often more Severe because small works are not financed by external borrowing and, therefore. control over what happcns is limited and funds for the correction of mistakes are scarce. Small dams are being constructed at a great talc in many parts of the world, such as in Nigeria which has some 300 small dams completed or undcr construction. Yet studies of small dams can be of great value. For example, if the correct way to minimize discasc can be detcrmined from a study of 10 small dams in Nigeria, there are 30 times more dams where this information can be applied.Irrigation schemcs have been studied less than dams, although there have been rather comprchcnsive studies of a number of large irrigation schemes, most notably that in the Gezira area of the Sudan, Entomological and malacological studies of dams and irrigation schemes arc numerous relative to epidemiological studies. Interventions to improve health have been focused on one or, at the most, two specific diseases rather than on the overall health needs of the populations involved. There is clearly a great need for better advice at the planning and construction stage. There are a limited number of longitudinal observations made between the preconstruction stage and the time when the irrigation sc'ieme becomes operational, and it has become cli:ar that conclusions based on short term observaticas can be quite misleading because it takes a long t h e for a large dam to settle down after its constiuction. The overall conclusion is that there is a spxial need for epidemiologically-based health studb:s of irrigation schemes, particularly small irrigatim schemes, and that these will more likely effect ilrprovement if they are done prior to rehabilitaticn. This is summarized in Figure 3. Irrigation -Far less Small dams -Few (A-C see Table 1)Small irrigation syitems -Very h:wWe conclude, therefore, that irrigation schemes in a steady state should he studied from an epidemiological point of view in order to determine the major health hazards. This should lead to specific entomological and malacological studies which will he the basis for the modification of operation and maintenance procedures which will contribute to improved health. Such sludies can be utilized even more effectively when irrigation schemes are to be rehabilitated.The recommended sequence of research activities to achieve improvement in vector-caused health prohlems skould 5. Estimate feasibility and cost effectiveness (aim tc achieve transition from welfare to investment). 6. Conduct pilot scale trial (include assessment, an6 repcat early surveys).IIMI should he concerned with stages 2 and 4-7 with an emphasis on conducting certain studies ir selected irrigation schemes with a view to develop' ing a methodology, while PEEM should focus or, stage I (epidemiology) and stage 3 (vectors).Stage 1 is an epidemiological assessment to determine the changes which are most needed. Thi:; can be derived from available data and conductinj: specific surveys. These surveys will involve thc study of a defined population over a one-yea.period and also provide baseline data for a pilot or larger scale trial. It will be essential also to design simple, low-cost health surveillance systems which will provide on-going information about health issues. These epidemiological assessments will assist in the establishment of priorities (stage 2). Where the diseases concerned are relevant to PEEM, an analysis should be made of the ecological processes affecting the vectors and how they may be modified (stage 3). This will require biological and engineering field studies and will lead to proposals for interventions (stage 4) in which environmental management (of particular concern to PEEM) will link closely with irrigation management (of particular concern to IIMI). Once limited types of intervention are selected, it will be necessary to determine feasibility and to estimate the cost effectiveness of such interventions (stage 5). It will be particularly important to introduce interventions which will not be viewed merely as welfare, but which will actually result in investment leading to greater productivity. This involves not only an assessment of the effect of the health of the inhabitants upon the operation of the irrigation scheme, hut also the selection of interventions which will reduce vector populations and increase agricultural productivity. It has been shown that combining these two goals is highly satisfactory. The interventions selected should be tested by a small pilot-scale trial and assessed against the earlier baseline observations (stage 6). If the intervention is successful, the inputs needed to achieve general introduction of these measures must be determined (stage 7).This summarizes what needs to be done. It is clear that IIMI will want to be closely involved, but may -and indeed usually willfind that collaboration with other institutions will he the most enicient and effective way to achieve the necessary changes. IIMI's specific involvement in relation to particular irrigation programs can include:1. Obtaining health assessment when closely involved with an irrigation system. ","tokenCount":"19285"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"09ffc6dfbcf0fffb6ac027bbdeb61bb8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4308b28c-156c-4538-be33-418f42da8040/retrieve","id":"-1466317167"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"155b3aca-2c92-4284-a5c2-4f164bb10ec2","pagecount":"61","content":"Tables Table 1: Acreage by type of land use in Nandi County    Figure 4: Historical 30-year (1985Historical 30-year ( -2015) ) monthly mean temperature and precipitation for the first (S:1) and second (S:2) rainy seasons in Nandi County.  1.0. Executive summary Nandi County's food system is characterized by multiple dynamic production systems, underdeveloped distribution channels, low-cost food processing, changing consumption patterns and diverse food system actors. The food system has significant socio-economic, nutritional, and environmental outcomes, and sustains the livelihoods of a majority of the population. The system is under pressure to meet the growing demand for food and nutritional requirements of vulnerable populations. This has been exacerbated by the impact of climate change which poses production challenges, and affects crop yield and livestock productivity, thereby affecting food security and income for farming households. Similarly, food system activities have had notable effects on the environment. These impacts necessitate interventions to promote and transform the local agrifood system to withstand challenges arising from climate change. However, food system sustainability requires innovative approaches, tools and technologies that can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and at the same time increase productivity, incomes and protect the environment.This report profiles Nandi's food system to understand its main components, drivers, innovations, and policy framework that promotes emission reduction. Nandi's major food system value chains are cereals, horticulture, legumes, and livestock. Production is characterized by small land holdings, limited input use, inadequate production technologies and low production volumes that cannot meet local food demand.Climate, water scarcity and soil and land degradation are the major biophysical drivers in Nandi's food system, while urbanization, culture and norms, infrastructure and demographics are the main socio-economic drivers. Governance and leadership, land rights and policies like input subsidies form the basis of political and institutional drivers. From a socio-economic perspective, Nandi's food system has some benefits. In contrast, from an environmental viewpoint, it has negative impacts. The emission profile shows that livestock production is the greatest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agricultural sector due to high enteric methane emissions and large numbers of cattle. County-wide agricultural GHG emission data are not available because the county personnel lack the technical capacity to compute them.This report describes innovative technologies and approaches implemented in Nandi County -intentionally or unintentionally -that have the potential to lead to a low-emission food system. These innovative technologies/ approaches have been supported by various stakeholders including government ministries and parastatals, private sector companies, research organizations and farmer groups/cooperatives. Some of the innovative technologies/ approaches are for specific stages of the agrifood value chains while others form a broad umbrella spanning the entire food system. For example, innovative technologies/approaches at the production stage focus on genetic improvement, modern inputs, and climate-smart production technologies. Innovative technologies/approaches that target the development of the entire food system involve the dissemination of information, access to credit facilities, and training and capacity building. Their implementation is supported by policy frameworks and regulations drawn from the national-level targets to reduce emissions. Nonetheless, there are policy gaps that need to be addressed, for example, on feed quality regulation and marketing, livestock management, input subsidy for tree seedlings, solid waste disposal from industries and promoting alternative energy sources.This report was limited by the scarcity of documentation on the county's food crop value chains. Some of the information was also outdated. The report would have benefited from content verification through key informant interviews and observational visits, but this was not possible due to time constraints. The lack of current food system actor profiles could have resulted in some of them being unintentionally left out in the analysis.Section 1 of the report identifies and briefly describes the food system components in Nandi County, including drivers and outcomes. Section 2 highlights the GHG emission profile and emission drivers. Section 3 examines programs, policies, and strategies for mitigation, while Section 4 highlights existing innovations towards lowemission food systems in Nandi County. The final section makes recommendations and outlines research gaps.A food system is broadly defined as a complex web of activities involving a wide range of actors along a value chain, starting from food production until the point where the food is consumed (production, transporting, processing, aggregation, distribution, and consumption) (UoO 2022). It involves the disposal of waste generated from agricultural-related activities and the broader environment. The interactions between actors and activities are influenced by policy and governance systems, institutions, and cultural norms, which determine the extent to which affordable, accessible, nutritious, and safe food is delivered (Schipanski et al. 2016;FAO 2018;IFPRI 20211). This broad definition of is supported by the High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE 2017), a World Food Council, which describes it as the elements (involving the environment, inputs, institutions, etc.) and activities that are associated with the production, distribution, processing, preparation and consumption of food, and their socio-economic and environmental outcomes. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO 2018), the sustainability of a food system lies in its ability to deliver social benefits, reduce negative environmental impacts, and maximize profitability.A food system is complex due to the sub-systems embedded in it, as well as the interactions within each subsystem. A transformation or change in one sub-system is likely to have a significant impact on another sub-system or on the entire food system. This necessitates analytical approaches or a framework for analysis to assess the links, connections and interdependence amongst the actors and activities, and with the broader environment (Alarcon et al. 2021). Although various analytical frameworks have been developed, similar drivers of change, components, and outcomes of the system (Figure 1) have been used to assess the food system (FSNet 2021). External and internal drivers are responsible for a food system change and include feedback mechanisms between the drivers. External drivers are from outside the food system and may include the biophysical, climate and political factors. Internal drivers are those from within, for example, innovations (UN 2021). Alternatively, food system components can also be organized as a value chain encompassing the financial, human, and social assets that aid in food production, the values and norms that underpin food preferences and choices and the food environment (FSNet 2021). Food and nutrition security have emerged as significant food system outcomes considering supply (trade and production), demand (markets and prices), utilization (preferences and quality) and stability. Other outcomes that are frequently mapped include environmental and economic outcomes (OECD 2021).The food systems approach has gained prominence in analysing different actors, the impact of activities within the systems, outcomes and the identification of gaps and intervention points. It is favoured over traditional approaches because it provides a holistic approach to identifying synergies and takes into consideration all variables that can help achieve the system's transformation (FAO 2018). Food systems are diverse, and location-specific, existing in different spatial scales (global, regional, national, and local).Africa's food system has undergone a dynamic transformation in marketing and distribution of fresh produce due to rapid urbanization and expansion of high-value markets (Tschirley et al. 2015). Therefore, conceptualising local food systems is critical to understand its key features, assess interactions and mechanisms, and inform decision-making and policy interventions to ensure that the system minimizes negative impacts and maximizes positive contributions (UN 2021). This report conceptualizes the local food system for Nandi County in Kenya's North Rift region. The goal is to support the development of a resilient food system by identifying innovations that can lead to the development of a low-carbon emission system. Source: authors' conceptualization 3.0. Food system components in Nandi CountyNandi County covers 288,440 hectares (ha), of which 211,761 ha is considered arable land. And although specific percentages of land use have not been accurately documented, available data (Table 1) show that crop production, particularly food crops, occupy the largest proportion of land. Land is considered a significant productive resource. It comprises forests, woodlots, rivers, wetlands, grasslands, plateaus, valleys and hills, the Nandi escarpment and tea plantations. An analysis of satellite images of land-use and land-cover changes over time shows that cropland and wooded and open grasslands occupy more than 60% of the total land area. Between 1990 and 2019, there was a consistent conversion of grasslands into cropland, while other land uses remained relatively stable (Figure 2). Nandi has a cool and wet climate and rich volcanic soils, making it a high-potential area for diverse agricultural activities. Crops and livestock production are influenced by rainfall distribution and temperature. Tea is common at 1,500 millimetres (mm) of annual rainfall. Sugarcane, maize, and coffee are grown in relatively drier areas with mean annual rainfall of 1,200 mm. Nandi is yet to exploit its irrigation potential: the 2,500 ha of land used for agricultural production are almost exclusively rainfed (County Government of Nandi [CGN], 2017).In rural Nandi, crop production is practised by all rural households in one form or another for subsistence or cash.Common crop clusters include cereals, legumes, cash, and horticultural crops. These clusters are discussed briefly below.Nandi's major cereals include maize, finger millet and sorghum, with maize in the lead. This report considered maize in more detail since it is the primary cereal crop grown by most of the farmers and has the highest market share. Figure 3 below shows a five-year production trend (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017). Yield was relatively stable except for 2013 and 2014 where there was a drop in production. Maize is primarily produced by smallholder and medium-scale farmers, who comprise most landowners. More men (46.3%) are responsible for the tilling of land compared to youth and women at 28.4% and 13.7%, respectively (Kemmey 2016). Men are responsible for the costs incurred for the technologies used in maize production at 67.4% (ibid). This suggests that men are more involved in technology acquisition in maize production than women (23.2%) (ibid). Since most farmers intercrop maize and beans, weeding is manual, mainly by women on small land parcels, and sometimes as hired labour for large pieces of land. In one acre, eight -labour days are required for land preparation at KES 400 (USD 3.2) per labour day, four labour days for sowing, and 12 labour days for first and second Maize yield (metric tonnes/ha) Year weeding at KES 300/day (USD 2.4). Harvesting requires four labour days at KES 300/day, shelling five labour days at KES 200/90-kg bag (USD 1.6) and five labour days for drying at KES 500 (USD 4) per person-day (Almekinders et al. 2021). Generally, farmers in Kenya prefer harvesting maize manually (using hands) compared to mechanical harvesting (using machines) as mechanical harvesting has a high chance of damaging maize grains (through breakage) which exposes them to fungal infections (Birgen et al. 2020).Women play a significant role in the maize value chain, particularly in production where they mainly provide labour for land preparation, planting, weeding, and harvesting (Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives [MoALFC] 2021). And because there are more women maize farmers in Nandi County than men farmers, this provides an opportunity for women empowerment through maize production (Marete et al. 2019).Land preparation, including clearing of bushes, is done manually or with tractors. Similarly, weeding is done manually or with herbicides. There is therefore need for innovations to alleviate labour for women. Men (70.5%) are the major decision-makers on implementing maize production technologies, with women constituting 12.6%. Men are the major decision-makers in acquiring farm inputs and soil management practices on maize production (Marete et al. 2019).The lagging behind of women and youth in major decision-making in maize production is attributed to their vulnerability, and to lack of finances to access required inputs and soil fertility management technologies (Kemmey 2016).An estimated 90% and 84% of farmers in the county respectively use certified maize seeds and inorganic basal fertilizers (MoALFC 2021), even as most of the farmers must travel long distances to access these farm inputs. The most common fertilizer for planting is diammonium phosphate (DAP), while urea and calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) fertilizers are used for top dressing.Fertilizer use has a positive correlation with access to extension training and education level. For instance, farmers who were not trained had a mean fertilizer-use rate of 87.9 kg/ha with a standard deviation of 28.438 and a yield of 26.83 bags/ha. In contrast, those farmers who accessed training had a mean use rate of 149.87 kg/ha with a standard deviation of 31.477 and an output of 32.75 bags/ha. Farmers with extension training and a primary level of education recorded a mean fertilizer-use rate of 137.5 kg/ha while those with secondary education had a mean fertilizer-use rate of 162.5 kg/ha (Cheruiyot 2022).Input delivery is mainly through agro dealers who operate on a small or medium scale. The seed rate per acre varies depending on the seed size (20-25 kg/ha) (Almekinders et al. 2021). Prices at these agro-dealers are between KES 500 (USD 4) and KES 550 (USD 4.5) for a 2 kg packet. These seeds are produced by local and international companies such as Western Seed, Monsanto, Syngenta Kenya, Pannar Seed Company, Kenya Seed Company and Premier Seed Limited, and distributed through local outlets. Most farmers access fertilizer from local stores, while others get subsidized fertilizers from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) (Cheruiyot and Sitienei 2021).Beans are the dominant leguminous crop in Nandi County, mostly because it is intercropped with maize. According to the CIDP, beans cover 41,250 ha of land with an average yield of five 90-kg/ha per season. Most of the beans are grown on less than an acre. Bean production per acre requires an average labour cost of KES 11,927 (96 USD), fertilizer at KES 2,524 (USD 20), seeds at KES 2,575 (USD 20.6) and pesticides at KES 713 (USD 5.7) to control for pests such as aphids (Onyango et al. 2016). Most smallholder farmers in bean-producing areas use oxen for ploughing and weeding. Cultivation and weeding labour are met by family members or occasional hired labour. Hired labour is significant, indicating that bean production is labour-intensive. Beans are delicate and need care, particularly during weeding. Legume production requires more than 24 days of labour/ha. Weeding of beans is usually by women for income (Wambua et al. 2018). There is, however, a negative correlation between the gender of the household head and the quantity of beans harvested: male-headed households tend to harvest more quantities than female-headed ones. This could be attributed to the fact that most men farmers use farm inputs which increases yield and productivity. Although bean production is managed by both men and women, their activities differ.Women are more involved in fertilizer application, bush clearing, ploughing, planting, site selection and weeding (Ugen et al. 2017).Both inorganic fertilizers and green manure are used in bean production. For example, farmers in Koibem applied green manure from different sources, and only 61% of the farmers in Kapkerer adopted the technology of green manuring. The average fertilizer application rate was 30 kg/ha against the manufacturer-recommendation of 120 kg/ha. Farmers who applied green manure indicated that it improved soil fertility (72%) and enhanced germination (61%). Other benefits of incorporating green manure included high yields, reduced disease incidence, and weed suppression. In other areas of Nandi such as Kapkerer, most farmers did not recognize the benefits of green manure. Only 22% of the farmers indicated that green manure improved crop germination (Okumu et al. 2017).Farmers obtained seed from various sources such as their own farmer-saved seeds, neighbours, markets, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and agro-dealers (Kadaari 2015). Common varieties grown include improved varieties (KK8, KK15) and local varieties (Nyayo, Rosecoco, Alulu and Punda). Nonetheless, most farmers (86%) grew local compared to the improved bean varieties because of high yields, palatability and tolerance to diseases compared to local cultivars (Okumu et al. 2017).Ward-level extension services are provided by 224 in-post extension staff. There are approximately 143,000 farming households. The resultant ratio of 1:638 is grossly inadequate compared to the FAO-recommended extension staff to farmer ratio of 1:4003. This needs to be improved by hiring more extension staff to attain the FAO recommendation.Nandi's major cash crops are tea, coffee, and sugarcane. According to the Nandi County Integrated Development Plan 2018-2023, tea is the most extensive cash crop. Tea covers 19,920 ha with a production average of 9 t per hectare. Production for 2017 was estimated at 181,000 t valued at KES 4.3 billion (USD 34 million). Sugarcane is second, planted on 7,754 ha, with an average production of 64 t/ha. In 2017, total production was an estimated 498,080 t valued at KES 1.3 billion (USD 1 million). Coffee is the third-largest cash crop covering 620 ha with an average of 0.4 t/ha per season. Total 2017 production was estimated at 242 t, valued at KES 80 million (USD 642,000). This report emphasizes tea production because it is the most predominant cash crop in Nandi County (CGN 2017).Most of Nandi's tea is produced in large-scale farms owned by multinationals as well as by smallholder farmers whose tea land size averages between 0.4 and 2 ha. Tea covers 3,620 ha, representing 5.2% of the total potential area for tea (Tuitoek et al. 2020). Tea farmers grow recommended clonal tea or vegetatively propagated varieties as opposed to seedling types. The most adopted tea clone is TN14/3, followed by C12 (Tanui et al. 2012). Most tea farmers are men (85%), dictated by the culture of land ownership in the region that favours men over women (Tanui et al. 2012). Smallholders account for two million bushes with an average yield of 0.55 kg of green leaf/ha as opposed to a national average of one kg. This significant differential is due to managerial gaps and production inefficiencies include inadequate pest control, insufficient inputs such as fertilizer and climate change.The application rate for inorganic fertilizer is 140 kg/ha per year. NPK (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) is the most commonly used fertilizer (Sharon et al. 2018). Input producers and suppliers in the tea sector include fertilizer companies such as Baraka Fertilizer and Yara Millers who sell through agro dealers. Most of the farmers obtain their fertilizer from the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), paying for it by check-off from their proceeds from tea sales (Richard 2016). Other inputs such as farm machinery and equipment are bought from local markets, particularly farm implements like hoes for weeding and pruning tools.Tea production is labour-intensive hence family labour is inadequate for large tea farms. This means most smallholder farmers who can afford to do so hire supplementary labour. Inadequate family labour, accompanied by the inability to hire labour, constrain the adoption of recommended tea farming practices. An estimated 80% of adopters hire labour for tea production, particularly for weeding and plucking during peak harvesting periods However, since 2013, mechanization in tea production has become increasingly common, with several multinational companies resorting to tea plucking machines to save on high manual labour cost. This has led to many job losses for tea pickers (Tanui et al. 2012).Nandi County has distinct gender-differentiated roles in tea farming. Men are mainly involved in planting, pruning, and weeding. Women mostly participate in weeding, plucking and delivering green leaves to collection centres (Tanui et al. 2012). Women's time is mostly spent on plucking. This is attributed to women having low literacy rates and mostly being found in positions requiring fewer skills and qualifications (Sun and Summer 2014). Although many studies indicate that tea production overburdens women more than men, Wafula (2014) perceives it as gender empowerment since 50% of the workforce in the enterprise are women. During extended periods of drought when there is limited work for tea harvesting, women go to the tea estates to provide casual labour as a source of livelihood (Cheruiyot 2020). Nonetheless, tea-plucking technologies have been adopted by many companies, rendering casual labourers redundant.Several horticultural crops are produced in Nandi County including cabbages, kales, tomatoes, passion fruits, traditional vegetables and pineapples. Based on land use, horticultural production is ranked fourth (Edwin et al. 2017). Generally, horticultural production is dominated by men. This is attributed to culture, which accords men the primary control of the means of family income. In addition, socio-cultural factors such as land inheritance discriminate against women. When horticulture is for subsistence, it is usually the women's domain. But it is dominated by men when for a cash crop. The low participation of women in horticulture is also attributed to limited access to critical farm resources (such as land, labour and cash) (Edwin et al. 2017).Although kale is the leading horticultural crop grown in the county (in terms of quantity and land use), information on its production dynamics is limited. Cabbage is the second-largest horticulture commodity. In 2017, an estimated 190 ha of land was under cabbage production, with an average productivity of 19 t/ha and production of 3,510 t valued at KES 70 million (USD 562,000). Cabbage production is generally small-scale on average land sizes of 0.4-1.2 ha. Most of the inputs (seeds, fertilizers, chemicals and farm equipment) for cabbage farming are accessed locally from input dealers (Ongeri 2014). DAP fertilizer is used during transplanting at a rate of 50 kg/ha. CAN fertilizer is used for top dressing at a similar application rate (Gitange et al. 2018).Land preparation for cabbage production is done by tractors or manually. The KALRO rates for 2017-2018 provide for an estimated KES 600 (USD 4.8) per labourer per day, with 20 labourers/ha in land preparation and weeding, and another 37 labourers/ha for planting. The land is tilled twice before planting and weeded thrice without mulching before harvesting. Leasing land costs KES 15,000/ha (USD 119) per year. Mulch is locally available at KES 100 (USD 0.8) per bag, including transportation costs. A hectare requires 250 bags (Gitange et al. 2018). Seedlings are first sown on a seedbed before transplanting.Livestock keeping is a major economic activity in Nandi, practised by more than 80% of the households (Table 2). It provides household revenue from the sale of milk, eggs, or live animals, is a source of nutritious food (milk, meat and eggs), provides manure for crop production and biogas generation, draft power and plays a cultural role as bride wealth payment, amongst other uses. Ruminants (cattle, sheep, and goats) are the most dominant livestock activity. Small-scale indigenous poultry rearing is common, with poultry mainly kept by women. Dairy and beef cattle are by far the most common animals kept (Table 3). Dairy cows consist mainly of exotic breeds (Friesians and Ayrshire) and their crosses with the local breeds, while beef animals consist mainly of indigenous cattle i.e., the small East African Zebu. Other livestock types reared are pigs, fish (aquaculture) and bees (apiculture).   , 2017 -2023). Where supplementary feed is provided, the additional feed provided includes dry and green maize stover, Napier grass, bean stover and Boma Rhodes grasses (Table 4). About 10% of the households also graze their animals along road reserves. Although farmers highly depend on grazing, naturally occurring weeds are also collected alongside cultivated fodder. Postharvest crop residues such as beans and dry maize stover serve as animal feed. Naturally occurring pasture contributes to the highest percentage of dry matter (49%) of the total diet, while naturally occurring and collected fodder contribute about 27% to the total diet. Purchased concentrates contribute less than 4% of the feed. Farmers mostly use purchased concentrates when there is a feed shortage, particularly from October to March. In addition to the purchased concentrates such as dairy meal, farmers also purchase salt licks from agro dealers for their animals. These mineral licks provide essential minerals such as phosphorus, sodium, calcium, iron, zinc and trace elements (EADD 2013, Wafula et al. 2015).Less than 20% of the households use mechanization in animal production. Most of the on-farm activities are done manually. Where mechanization is used, this includes forage choppers and pulverizers for feed processing, milking machine and brush cutter for cutting grass. The county government owns machinery for harvesting and bailing hay that farmers can lease. Usage is low because of low acreage of cultivated grasses (Ndung'u et al. 2018).Veterinary and artificial insemination (AI) services are commonly used in Nandi County. To access these services, farmers are mainly required to be members of a cooperative society and to pay in cash or by check-off. AI services cost between KES 1,500 (USD 12) and KES 6,000 (USD 48) depending on the breed, the service provider (company distributing the semen) and whether it is sexed. Other farmers use their bulls for insemination, while those who do not own any access bulls from their neighbours. Additional inputs for livestock production include acaricides for tick prevention, available from local agro-dealers, and other drugs and vaccines to prevent diseases such as foot-andmouth disease and East Coast fever (ECF) (Peters et al. 2020).Gender is a significant factor. Men farmers were more likely to adopt vaccination regimes and milk equipment technologies for their animals than women, associated with a lack of access to finance. Gender heavily influences the adoption of dairy cattle technologies (Kosgei et al. 2019). Forage seeds/splits are commonly accessed through women groups (Njuguna-Mungai et al. 2022). And although women indicated that the challenge for fodder production is due to limited land access for forage production and expansion, they also identified opportunities for growing Brachiaria grass not only to feed their livestock but also to sell for profit (Njuguna-Mungai et al. 2022).The county has a poultry population of 87,642 birds (Table 3), of which more than 90% are indigenous chicken and about 5% commercial layers, with the rest being geese and turkeys. It is estimated that the enterprise generates about KES 37.8 million (USD 303,534) and KES 202.9 million (USD 1.6 million) annually from the sale of birds and eggs, respectively. Indigenous poultry production is small scale, with most households having an average of 10 chickens. Chicks can be acquired from poultry farmers who own hatcheries within and outside the county and largescale hatcheries like Kukuchic, Kenchic and KALRO. Improved breeds of indigenous poultry like kenbro, kuroiler, kari and rainbow roosters have also been promoted in the county since they have a higher hatching rate than local breeds (MoALFC 2021).Feed quality is a vital component of poultry production. On average, chickens consume 100 grams of feed per day in their productive stage. Agro dealers are the main supplier of inputs (feeds, vaccines, antibiotics etc.). The involvement of women and men in poultry production is moderate with men being active in input acquisition and women actively engaged in production (MoALFC 2021). Despite the relevance of indigenous poultry production in income and nutrition, the sector is faced with major challenges including poor husbandry, high disease burden and poor market infrastructure for birds and eggs (Cheruiyot and Adhiaya 2021).There are approximately 38, 086 shoats in the county with about 75% of these being goats reared mainly for meat.The indigenous Small East Africa Goat is the main breed kept. Dairy breeds (German Alpine and Toggenburgs) are less than 5% of the population. The sheep population consists mainly of crossbreeds of exotic and indigenous types (typically the red Maasai sheep) and they are reared mainly for mutton (CGN 2017;KNBS 2019).It is estimated that there are about 23,740 beehives in Nandi County, of which 56% are log hives, while the rest are improved hives (Langstroth and Kenya Top Bar Hive [KTBH]). Productivity is about 8 kg/hive per year for log hives and 15 kg/hive per year for Langstroth and KTBH. This is just about half of the potential output for the two types of hives -log and the improved types. Total annual honey production is estimated at 296,564 kg worth KES 35.6 million (USD 285,868). The main challenges facing the enterprise include poor management of hives, lack of access to improved hives and lack of markets for honey and its products (CGN, 2017).Aquaculture in Nandi County is not a major economic activity, practised by less than 1% of the households (about 1,000). Main fish types are the African catfish and tilapia. In 2017, fish production was 220 t, valued at KES 77 million (USD 618,310). The potential from all the ponds is 465 t, with a possible value of KES 163 million (USD 1.3 million). Fish productivity averages 3.2 kg of fish/square metre per year. The main challenges include a lack of fingerlings, poor-quality feed, low adoption of the enterprise and low utilization and marketing of fish. With eight dams and 12 major rivers, Nandi County has high potential for fish farming and fishing activities. This potential is however currently not utilized because it requires heavy investment and considerable capital outlay for boats, harvesting gear and skilled personnel (CGN 2017). Initiate farmer groups for seed multiplication and bulking of vegetative materials.3 High cost of commercial feeds Facilitate the producer organization to establish links with reputable commercial concentrate manufacturers to enable bulk sourcing for economies of scale and to ensure farmers access good-quality concentrates.Capacity building for on-farm feed concentrate (dairy meal) formulations.4 Unavailability of pasture harvesting equipment (balers etc.)Facilitate linkages with equipment suppliers.Facilitate links with service providers for baling.Explore farmer-to-farmer extension by facilitating the recruitment and capacity building of volunteer farmer trainers to complement extension service providers.Adapted from EADD (2013).According to CGN (2017), about 12% of the County's total land area is forest. Forested areas include Tinderet, Serengonik, Nandi South and Nandi North (which is an extension of the tropical Kakamega Forest). These forests consist of both indigenous hardwoods and exotic plantations, particularly at Kimondi and Serengonik forests. The County has a total boundary length of about 363.8 km (CGN 2017).Agroforestry systems in the county have been adapted in various farms depending on slope, soil characteristics and crops grown. Many tree species are grown in farmland/croplands. Grevillea robusta is common in farmlands.The trees are a major source of firewood and timber and can be used as an alternative source of energy. Farm forestry for commercial purposes helps to increase forest cover. Popular trees planted include eucalyptus, Grevillea, Spathodea campanulata (Nandi flame), Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Mexican green ash), Hakea saligna, Acrocarpus fraxinifolius, Cupressus lusitanica (cypress) and Pinus patula. Eucalyptus trees are an energy source for tea factories and a source of electricity poles, while cypress is used for construction and furniture making. There are also indigenous species, such as Dombeya torrida, Olea africana, Syzygium spp, Croton spp, Markhamia lutea and Prunus africana that are used for medicinal purposes, handicrafts, construction of traditional homes and furniture (CGN 2017).Bulking of harvested maize is mainly at farm level and through farmer organizations and cooperatives (MoALFC 2021). There are warehouses and storage facilities across the county where maize is stored awaiting processing and sale. For instance, NCPB has four depots in Mosop, Chemusai, Nandi Hills and Tinderet (CGN 2017). About half of the maize produced in the county is sold at farm level to intermediaries or delivered to NCPB and maize millers (CGN 2017).The maize market is dominated by intermediaries. Marketing of maize products is through local posho mills, wholesalers, and retail stores. The wholesalers also double as distributors of maize products which are mainly maize meal and animal feeds. Conventionally, maize is sold as dried grains. But the trend has changed over the years with more farmers shifting to selling green maize due to failures of the marketing structure (NCPB failed to purchase dry maize from farmers). This is in addition to the already competing demand for maize for livestock feed (silage production) (Cheruiyot and Sitienei 2021). Farmers have realized that selling green maize is more profitable since it reduces the costs of labour, storage and harvesting. 4 For effective commercialization, maize stakeholders use a cooperative structure to aggregate maize self-help groups and individual maize farmers. 5 Lorries are the most common means of transporting maize for sale to urban centres like Nairobi, Eldoret and Kisumu (Cheruiyot and Sitienei 2021).There are various tea marketing channels in Nandi County, including farm gate and buying centres managed by KTDA and large tea estates 6 . Smallholder farmers with less than 2 ha of land under tea deliver their green leaves to these buying centres. The leaves are then transported to factories for processing. Large-scale farmers and firms have processing factories on their farms. Processed tea is traded through three marketing channels: direct sales, factory gate sales and tea auctions in Mombasa. Approximately 5% of the tea produced in Kenya is consumed locally (Wanjiru et al. 2018), while the rest is exported to countries such as Egypt, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Sudan and Afghanistan (Maina et al. 2018). KTDA assists in marketing the tea, meaning that farmers have good bargaining power through the agency, thus ensuring better prices for farmers. KTDA smallholder farmers also sell their greenleaf tea to other buyers and marketing channels, such as private processors or intermediaries (farmers selling tea to middlemen who sell to tea factories) (Richard 2016).Marketing for common beans can be classified into primary and secondary channels. In the primary channel, beans are purchased at the farm gate while the secondary channel involves large-scale traders/intermediaries, retailers, wholesalers, and exporters. Transactions between farmers and collectors/aggregators are mostly at open-air markets. Bean markets operate extensively and intensively after harvest when most farmers sell their produce. Due to limited value addition activities, the markets become inactive thereafter. Intermediaries provide few market services, and the market structure is unsophisticated. There is a critical need to improve market infrastructure for common beans (Onyango et al. 2016).Various actors are involved in the marketing horticultural crops such as cabbages. These actors include importers, brokers/aggregators, primary producers, final consumers, distributors/transporters, retailers, and traders. Cabbages are sold in various markets such as hotels and schools, groceries, supermarkets, and open-air markets (Edwin et al. 2017).Farmers market milk through formal and informal markets. In the informal market, milk is sold to intermediaries/ brokers, milk hawkers, urban centre milk consumers and to other farmers or hotels. In the formal market, milk is marketed through farmer organizations. It is sold mainly to Kabiyet, Tany Kina and Lelchego Dairies and other established firms such as the New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (NKCC) and Brookside, among others (CGN 2017).Poultry and its by-products are mainly sold to shops, homes, restaurants, and institutions like hospitals. An estimated KES 37.8 million (USD 303,534) and KES 202.9 million (USD 1.6 million) are accrued annually from the sale of birds and eggs respectively (CGN 2017). It is important to note that marketing channels for other livestock categories are not well documented (MoALFC, 2021).Maize processing in Nandi is still small-scale: posho mills are the major processors of maize into meal, mainly for home consumption. A maize milling plant is planned for the county. Besides maize being a staple in most of Kenya's households, its value addition includes its use in the manufacture of livestock feeds, industrial baking, and brewing. After threshing, farmers sort rotten maize from the good before shelling. This is essential for preventing and reducing aflatoxin contamination (Marete et al. 2019). Storage options for most maize-producing regions in Kenya include maize bags, cribs and raised granaries (Sirma et al. 2015).Smallholder tea is transported to factories for processing, unlike estate farmers and firms who have processing factories on their farms (Tanui et al. 2012).Legumes: Due to the high production volumes of legumes in Nandi County, various farmer groups have begun processing at a small scale. This has resulted in the production of flour with different mixes to diversify legume use and to maximize nutritional value. Nonetheless, the value addition of legumes is yet to be optimized due to consumer acceptability, hygiene, and safety and a low level of awareness of their nutritional value (Gitau 2018).Milk: Despite Nandi County being a high milk-producing area, there is limited literature on milk processing/value addition: many farmers sell raw milk depending on prevailing prices 7 . There are however several milk cooling plants in the county. The main cooling plant belongs to NKCC and is in Emgwen Sub County. The County Government of Nandi in conjunction with local dairy cooperatives is constructing a milk processing plant that will be able to add value to the milk produced within the County by producing pasteurized packaged milk and yoghurt, amongst other products 8 .Maize is consumed in many ways -as green maize roasted or boiled or cooked with beans ('githeri'), or as dry maize also used for githeri, or milled into maize meal for cooking porridge and ugali (a sugarless type of stiff porridge made by cooking maize meal with boiling water, eaten with savoury stews). On average, maize meal consumption is 1.64 kg/household per day, which translates to approximately 300 grams (g) of ugali/person per day, considering an average household size of six (Sirma 2013). Maize is also consumed in institutions (schools, hospitals) as githeri and used directly as animal feed or milled to make mash for livestock.Maize is a staple food crop in many Nandi households. Conventionally, maize cereals are harvested and put to different uses, such as posho meal for preparing ugali. But, with the increasing urbanization, green maize is becoming popular as it is also preferred to dry maize for githeri (Cheruiyot and Sitienei 2021). About 10% of maize produced in the county is harvested early as green maize for home consumption (CGN 2013). Green maize is also consumed in urban centres, roasted, or boiled, popular in homes, open-air markets and along highways 9 . Commercialization of green maize has recently spiked. Farmers are increasingly selling their green maize to traders who transport it to urban centres 10 . In addition, many dairy farmers are harvesting maize crops to make silage to feed their animals to meet the significant demand increase for milk (Cheruiyot and Sitienei 2021). All these factors affect food systems because there is a direct impact on the availability of dry maize for ugali, a national staple food.Tea is one of the most common beverages in Kenya. According to Nyakundi (2021), Kenya's tea consumption for the first eight months of 2018 was 24.02 million kg. The Kenya government data indicate that per capita tea consumption is 0.5 kg (the global average is one kg/person per year). Kenya's consumption can rise to 0.75 kg per capita through intensive brand promotion by local tea packers and intense factory sales (Lars 2022). Tea consumption is high among pregnant women and relatively low among the youth.National bean consumption is estimated at 755,000 t annually against production of about 600,000 t per year. Per capita consumption is approximately 14 kg per year but can be as high as 66 kg per year (Duku et al. 2020). Beans are consumed in various forms -as mashed beans with soup for young children, boiled dry beans, boiled green beans, in composite flour, and together with maize as githeri (Nabie et al. 2015). Beans are the most consumed legume by children to overcome the challenge of undernutrition. Beans are also combined with other ingredients such as millet, pumpkin seed, arrowroots and wheat for composite flour used to make porridge for school-going children in Nandi County (Gitau 2018).Cabbages are commonly consumed in many households in Kenya. They are eaten as a vegetable together with ugali, rice, chapati and meat. They can also be fried, boiled, or served as a salad. Since they are readily available, cabbages are widely consumed in institutions, such as hospitals and schools 11 .Milk production in Nandi County is valued at KES 7.44 billion (USD 6 million) per year (CGN 2017). Calves consume approximately 5% of the milk produced, 10% remains on-farm, 5% is lost (spoiled/spillage) and 80% is marketed: 38.7% in formal and 41.3% in informal markets. In Nandi County, there are 33 milk chilling/cooling plants variously owned and managed by NKCC, farmer groups, cooperatives and farmer companies (Kosgei et al. 2019).8 https://farmbizafrica.com/market/2625-nandi-county-launches-construction-of-milk-processing-plant-to-help-farmers-with-ready-market. 9 https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/farmkenya/article/2001374519/farmers-now-selling-green-maize.10 https://abacus.co.ke/newsfeed/farmers-reap-big-from-sale-of-green-maize-as-prices-of-flour-skyrocket/.11 https://value.co.ke/cabbage-farming-kenya/.  of drought. This would have a negative impact on agricultural activities in the county. These changes are likely to have the greatest impact on soil fertility and consequently agricultural output (crop yields and animal productivity). For example, drought has been associated with declining milk productivity. Precipitation has a significant contribution to dairy productivity since it determines water and fodder availability (Kirui et al. 2021). Drought has also been associated with reduced crop productivity for major crops such as maize, rice and wheat (Kogo et al. 2021a).Soil degradation has a negative impact on agricultural production. Soil fertility varies across zones in Nandi County.Erosion is the leading contributor to soil infertility. Fluctuating soil temperatures affect microorganisms that maintain soil health (CGN 2013). This has resulted in reductions in soil productivity (in part, owing to volatile soil nutrients), water retention potential and carbon sequestration. Soil protection and rehabilitation technologies that improve soil health, such as using organic fertility improvement techniques (e.g. compost manure) have the potential to protect and enrich the ecosystem that is fundamental for healthy food systems (Mogaka et al. 2021).Deforestation is among the major contributors to land and environmental degradation in Nandi County (Orina 2014).The demand for agricultural land and wood products to meet the demand of the rapidly increasing urban and rural populations has significantly contributed to deforestation (Okumu et al. 2022). Wood fuel is the main energy source for cooking. More than three-quarters (about 85%) of the households rely on firewood for cooking, with only about 0.5% using electricity, 5.8% using liquefied petroleum gas and 7.6% using charcoal (KNBS 2019). Also, tea factories primarily use wood fuel for drying tea leaves because it is relatively cheaper than electricity 12 . This has resulted in the cutting down of trees to meet the growing demand for wood as a fuel source for this purpose. According to Global Forest Watch (2021), between 2001 to 2021, Nandi County lost 13.9 kilohectares (kha) of tree cover: a 13% decrease, with Nandi Hills and Tinderet suffering the highest tree cover loss (Figure 5). Unsustainable agricultural practices such as overgrazing and continuous planting cycles have exacerbated land degradation (Onyango 2014). Despite there being community and large-scale water supply schemes, water -a mandatory resource for production -is scarce in Nandi County 13 . Wetlands are an estimated 1% of the total county area, contributing to the recharge of underground water and the hydrological cycle. In addition, there are numerous water sources like rivers, dams, water pans, boreholes, and springs. Nonetheless, water resources are not only facing a threat from the impacts of climate change but also from intensive human activities. Access to water is still a challenge due to poor connectivity, with the county working towards modernising the water supply systems (CGN 2013). Currently, 33,000 households (about 17%) have access to piped water, with the average distance to the nearest potable water point at 0.5 km. This calls for expansion of existing water infrastructure (CGN 2017).Population growth is a significant food system driver. Nandi County has an increasing population which has led to increasing development and opportunities for growth. According to national census reports for 2009 and 2019, the population rose from 752,965 to 885,711. The annual population growth rate is 1.6% 14 (KNBS 2019). This rapid population growth has resulted in the emergence of urban centres and settlements in Maraba (Tinderet Sub-County), Kaptumo, Kobujoi and Serem (Aldai Sub-County) and Mosoriot and Kabiyet (Mosop Sub-County). Urbanization has contributed to food system development in two ways: it has resulted in an increased demand for food crops such as green maize that is preferred by the urban population due to ease of preparation (Cheruiyot and Sitienei 2021).A study by FAO (2021) showed that the demand for maize in Nandi County was 86, 800 t while production was 19,727 t, showing that rising demand outstrips supply. Secondly, urbanization has opened new markets for food commodities, e.g., the emergence of formal markets such as supermarkets and schools (Tschirley et al. 2015).Increased urbanization has seen a shift in consumption patterns, with more people consuming ready-made food in food outlets. Also, shifting from low to middle income results in food system change due to increased expenditure on food. In addition, food processing outlets are emerging and increasing for products such as locally made fruit juices and smoothies. There is a rise in food selling points, consumption of processed foods, people selling readymade food by the roadside, and large retailers such as supermarkets opening eating and processing facilities in their shops. Urban consumers are more likely to prefer convenience foods that require less time to prepare and cook, such as Sossi and Indomie, and to increase their consumption of caloric sweeteners, especially aerated beverages. Rising consumer preference for exotic foods and convenient alternatives such as ready takeaway (fast) foods and other highly processed foods have become common (Tschirley et al. 2015).The Human Development Index (HDI) is an indicator of a long and healthy life, acquisition of knowledge and a reasonable standard of living, measured by life expectancy at birth; adult literacy rate and the combined enrolment ratio at primary, secondary and tertiary levels; and GDP per capita measured in purchasing power parity (PPP) in USD. Nandi County's HDI (0.52) falls lower than the national HDI (0.56), suggesting that its residents are not doing well economically. This implies that most people have a low life expectancy. Poor adult literacy rates combined with poor enrolment ratios at primary, secondary and tertiary levels all translate to poor access to -and utilization of -food. In terms of the Human Poverty Index (HPI), the county is lagging at 0.25 compared to a national level of 0.23.The 2015 poverty metrics estimated food poverty as follows: distribution of the poor, 2.1%; poverty gap, 31.5%; and severity of poverty, 3.1% (CGN 2022).Good infrastructure is vital in food systems. The county is striving to establish a good road network in the absence of a railway network and ports, important in food distribution. Classified roads total 1,704 km. Bitumen surface roads cover more than 155 km and gravel surface 766 km. According to CGN (2017), the poor state of the road network and infrastructural facilities are major contributors to poverty. Road infrastructure among other factors has been cited as a key constraint by dairy farmers, resulting in high transportation costs (Ajwang and Munyao 2015). Lack of storage facilities, AI services/bull schemes, organized market as well as transportation problems were also cited as major infrastructural challenges in the dairy sector in Nandi County. Aflatoxin-contaminated maize is a major public health concern in Kenya, especially in Nandi (Marete et al. 2019). Lack of proper practice in grain handling and storage has exacerbated aflatoxin contamination of maize in Nandi (Sirma et al. 2015).Gender and youth inclusion is essential for a balanced and developed food system (Tanumihardjo et al. 2020).Despite the low participation in the various food system components, women and youth still play a vital role in food production for both food and cash crop value chains (Gallina 2016;Tavenner and Crane 2018). Nonetheless, there is limited documentation of the exact percentage of women or youth that participate food system domains.Understanding the gender and youth dynamics would be crucial in helping to formulate and/or mainstream facilitative policies, and in identifying interventions that could promote their inclusion in various agrifood systems. The County Government of Nandi is however committed to supporting youth, women, and other vulnerable groups 14 https://www.citypopulation.de/en/kenya/admin/rift_valley/29__nandi/ through agricultural initiatives like Boresha Jamii na Kuku -an initiative which recognizes the role played by women and youth in the economy and empowers them financially to improve their nutritional needs and those of their families (CGN 2022).Political leadership and inclusive governance mechanisms at national and local levels are essential. Many studies have highlighted the significance of national and county leadership in placing food systems on the national agenda and ensuring that it receives adequate investment (Baker et al. 2020;Gashu et al. 2019). Good leadership and governance result in investment in sustainable food systems; the design and implementation of guidelines, policies and programs that strengthen food systems, improve diets and enhance FSN; and help to overcome power imbalance in current food systems (De Schutter et al. 2020). Accountability and sustained commitment require significant political goodwill. Political and institutional drivers of food systems include specific food policies such as food-based dietary guidelines and subsidies, food prices and volatility control, policies on land tenure and land use, water and fisheries policies, and food supply amidst geopolitical interests, conflicts and humanitarian crises (Lentz 2021). Sound political leadership and governance instruments at different levels are essential for designing, enforcing and implementing food system laws, regulations, policies and programs (Swinburn et al. 2015). Poor governance compromises strengthening food systems and subverts efforts to improve nutrition.Many factors are considered in food systems decisions, and not all are observable to policymakers. Beyond short-term responses to food prices, food imports and trade may have longer-term consequences for nutrition. Government decisions on how to structure their food systems are swayed by more prominent institutions and powerful voices such as international development policymakers, funders and agribusiness (Ebata et al. 2021). Consumers, particularly the poor, are often excluded from decision-making. Striking a balance between power struggles in food systems and consumer health remains controversial. New decision-making and accountability mechanisms are required to address these unequal political power dynamics. Moreover, while evidence shows that subsidies can increase land productivity, they often fail to reach the targeted poor farmers since input subsidies are highly political.Institutions have an important role in aligning economic incentives with sustainability requirements by imposing Pigouvian taxes, forcing the internalization of negative externalities. These taxes support good practices and reward ecosystem services provided by sustainable agricultural production. Institutions should manage imbalances of power in food chains. Competition laws should be established to address the question of concentration parties and curb abuse of buyer power. Institutions are very effective in reshaping consumer behaviour by encouraging healthy and more sustainable diets, reducing the ecological footprint and guaranteeing food producers and value chain actors in the food systems are rewarded for effort and sound practice (Ebata et al. 2021).Kenya usually has a maize deficit, resorting to imports 15 mainly from Uganda and Tanzania. Although regional organizations such as the South African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) promote free trade within the region, national policies and interests restrict the free trade of food commodities. For instance, in a bid to ensure domestic availability and stable consumer prices, export restrictions prohibit the formal trade of maize between countries. In Kenya, through subsidies, the national government regulates production, trade, and consumption. Input subsidy programs by governments and funders stimulate food production by increasing food productivity and by lowering the cost of inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers (Santpoort 2020). In Kenya, another example of an instrument to protect public food reserves for maize is NCPB's role in safeguarding the strategic grain reserve and stabilizing prices.Land rights and fragmentation hinder food production not only at national level but also in Nandi County. The current land tenure regimes are to blame for food insecurity as there is no legislation on minimum land holding size. As a result, land has been fragmented into uneconomical units that cannot sustain production. The county is however in the process of developing a land database system that will help conduct a proper land demarcation and issuance of land title deeds, thereby managing land subdivision. The demarcation will include zoning high-potential areas (FAO, 2021).Food system outcomes are distinct and vary from one system to another. They can however, be classified into three broad outcomes: food and nutrition security (health pillar), environmental outcomes and socio-economic outcomes (Niles et al. 2017).Food security is defined as a situation 'when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary and food preferences for an active daily life' (Godfray et al. 2010).The definition of food security highlights four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability (FAO 2008). But their validity is debatable for some researchers (Guiné et al. 2021).Maize is highly nutritious, containing carbohydrates -a key energy source. Maize meal cooked into fermented porridge or ugali is important for child nutrition as a source of energy and micronutrients such as zinc and iron (Macharia-Mutie et al. 2011). Value addition (e.g., fortification and fermentation) and dietary diversification have been embraced to enhance nutrients in maize meals. For instance, a maize meal and amaranth flour mix is rich in dietary iron, important for young children (Macharia-Mutie et al. 2011). Food safety is just as important as food security. Aflatoxin-contamination in maize has adverse health effects on humans and animals, with animal products from animals consuming aflatoxin-contaminated grain also contaminated (Sirma 2013). The sale of green maize in Nandi has implications on the availability of dry maize, thus posing a major threat to food security (Cheruiyot and Sitienei, 2021).Cabbages are recommended for ulcer patients and are a health food: high water content but low in acidic content, calories, protein, and fat; contain minerals such as calcium and iron; and are rich in dietary fibre and antioxidants. The purple/red variety has more nutritional value since high in Vitamins A, B, C and K. It also has manganese and potassium and is high in dietary fibre. Red cabbage is ideal for weight reduction and is cooked or eaten raw 16 .Beans contain significant levels of proteins, carbohydrates, fibre, minerals and zinc (Celmeli et al. 2018). Nutrientenriched bean varieties (KK15) containing significantly higher amounts of iron than other common beans were introduced to help address iron deficiency among school children and (pregnant) women. Consuming beans once per week increased by fourfold the likelihood of women having normal iron status (AOR=4.173, P=0.007). The likelihood increased to nearly six times for those who consumed beans 2-4 times/week (AOR=6.053, P<0.001), and by 13 times if the women consumed beans more than five times/week (Nyakundi et al. 2022).According to the County Nutrition Action Plan (CNAP) report, despite the availability of a wide variety of nutritious foods in the county, malnutrition remains a great challenge, and has caused an estimated 14,247 cases of low birth weight and underweight children annually. Approximately 30%, 11%, 3.9% and 3.7% of children are respectively stunted, underweight, wasted, and obese (Figure 6). The high malnutrition rates are a result of food insecurity (27.4% of households are food-insecure), culture and norms, and inadequate access to nutrition and health education. Overall, undernutrition in Nandi costs the health system approximately KES 228 million (USD 1.8 million) per year (CNAP 2020). Source: County Nutrition Action Plan (2020)Agriculture is a major contributor to GHG emissions due to livestock production, increased farm input use and encroaching on natural resources to open up more land for farming (Bortoletti and Lomax 2019). Though supporting livelihood and food and nutrient security in many developing nations, livestock products have been associated with higher emission intensities compared to their counterparts in crop production (MoALFC 2021). In addition, unsustainable agricultural production practices such as overgrazing have led to biodiversity loss and land degradation (Onyango 2014).Deforestation, overgrazing and charcoal burning have resulted in soil erosion, landslides, mudslides, and rock falls. Wood fuel is the main energy source especially in tea factories. More than 90 % of the population depends on firewood. Demand for agricultural land and wood products is high due to the rise in urban and rural populations. This has led to the exposure of land to agents of soil erosion, and to pollution of water bodies (CGN 2013). In most tea factories, the wood is burnt in boilers to produce steam for unit operations in tea processing. The wood is usually from estate plantation forests or outsourced from privately owned forests. For instance, the DL Koisagat tea factory uses about 12 tonnes of wood daily, contributing to deforestation (Kipkemei et al. 2019;Owuor et al. 2018). Deforestation leads to landslides along the escarpment during the rainy season, causing property damage and loss of life. Areas most affected include Cherondo and Uson in Tinderet Sub-County (CGN 2013).Food loss, wastage and waste disposal also contribute to GHG emissions during the decaying process. Major food groups where losses matter particularly for GHG emissions and environmental impacts include cereals, vegetables and meat (Chen et al. 2020). In Kenya, major food losses are incurred during production and postharvest losses during storage and processing due to lack of robust infrastructure like a cold chain, processing facilities and appropriate and reliable transportation. Expansion of road infrastructure, processing and storage facilities, and drying technologies are required to minimize food loss and wastage, which can reduce GHG emissions (Niles et al. 2017). Tea processing factories also face major challenges in wastewater management: these factories discard a significant amount of untreated tea processing wastewater into the aquatic system, with hazardous effects on the environment and human health (Makau 2019). Most of the waste green leaves from these factories are used as compost manure while the rest are discarded, polluting the environment. The decomposition of this waste produces methane -a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and affects groundwater quality. These waste tea leaves can be digested anaerobically to produce and safely package methane as a clean energy source, thus reducing environmental degradation and deforestation (Kipkemei et al. 2019). Minimizing food wastage therefore has potential to reduce methane emissions.The high use of fertilizers and chemicals for tea growing in Nandi County also results in water pollution. Nitrates and phosphates are among the major inorganic pollutants, primarily from nitrogenous and phosphate fertilizers. Fertilizer application in Nandi County is at a rate of 140 kg/ha per year, with NPK the most used. Through surface runoff and leaching, inorganic ions can be discharged to water bodies. In stream water, nitrate and phosphate concentrations of 2.91 ± 0.74 and 0.30 ± 0.08 milligrams (mg)/litre respectively have been recorded In borehole water, nitrate and phosphate levels were 1.69 ± 0.79 and 0.29 ± 0.07 mg/litre respectively (Sharon et al. 2018).The socio-economic outcomes of food systems can be classified into three broad categories: (1) levels of income, wealth and distributional equity;(2) improved quality of life, such as working conditions and job satisfaction; and(3) associated impacts on people's health and well-being (Drewnowski et al. 2020). The affected individuals fall into three groups: (1) people who are directly involved in agricultural production, such as farmers;(2) processors, manufacturers, food service and retailers, and (3) consumers. Food systems contribute to socio-economic inequalities, with negative implications for small-scale producers and vulnerable groups (Niles et al. 2017;Stefanovic et al. 2020).The bean value chain contributes to the inclusive growth of two groups of beneficiaries. First, small-scale farmers who produce small quantities on small plots of land provide a waged workforce supporting the labour-intensive production and processing system in large farms thereby enhancing their income. Secondly, women are the main beneficiaries through employment opportunities since they do most activities associated with production and processing. These financial gains benefit the local economy and are invested in children's education, health care, housing, small-scale enterprise and in the farm (Duku et al. 2020;Gitau, 2018).Agroforestry systems have several direct socio-economic benefits. For instance, direct benefits from tree-sugarcane agroforestry in Soin Ward, Kericho County, include income (67.6%) and employment (24.1%). Farmers also benefit from biofuel extraction (21.9%), soil fertility enhancement (21.1%), bio-drainage (20.4%), biodiversity conservation (19.4%) and carbon sequestration (17.2%) (Korir et al. 2022).Nandi County has benefited from tea production as its major cash crop due to the economic gains from export. For example, the Choimim tea factory has been designated as an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) 17 firm: a new tea factory is to be constructed to produce an export brand (Black CTC Tea), thus creating employment locally.However, tea farmers have suffered huge economic losses 18 in the recent past, especially during the rainy season when most farmers have a bumper harvest. The losses have been attributed to surplus crop production which has exceeded processing capacity 19 . Major tea producers in Nandi County are multinationals such as Eastern Produce Kenya Limited (EPK), James Finlay and Unilever. They play a major role in community development through corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Cheror 2018). They undertake infrastructural developments such as the provision of water, maintaining roads and playgrounds of various schools, social amenities, health care and education (ibid). Some of the educational initiatives include student bursaries and sponsorships and building schools. Social welfare initiatives include the construction of markets, social halls, hospitals and churches; multinationals such as EPK have also created employment opportunities for residents (Cheror 2018).Aggregating individual farmers into farmer groups and farmer cooperatives has facilitated the profitable commercialization of a variety of commodities (Kimutai and Chepchumba 2016). For example, the County Government of Nandi through the Department of Agriculture and Co-operatives Development is building on structures to upscale the maize value chain. The maize value chain not only employs the actors (farmers, traders and millers) but also contributes significant revenue through the levy tax charged to lorries that ferry maize to markets. Tea and dairy cooperatives are also dominant in the county. The key strategy is to use the economic power cooperative framework in securing investments and legislative advantages. Through cooperative structures, the actors in the maize value chain can aggregate themselves into self-help groups dealing in maize. This can include individual maize farmers, who can form cooperatives for economic organization and effective commercialization. Small-scale farmers in Nandi have limited access to factors of production, credit and information. Their markets are often constrained by inadequate property rights and high transaction costs. Cooperatives help to overcome these inadequacies and enable famers to adapt to the changing environment. Cooperatives put farmers in the best position to work with the government, have easier access to various capital sources and are better in monitoring top-quality management. Cooperatives have been observed as quite effective: farmers who are members of cooperatives get higher and stable prices for their milk, have access to farm inputs on a check-off system and can get loans with milk supply as their collateral (EADD 2013).The National Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Kenya estimates that agriculture is the main source of GHG emissions, accounting for about 60-70% of emissions. Within the agricultural sector, emissions from livestock production including manure management systems account for more than 80% of the total emissions, with less than 20% attributed to crop production (Mbae et al. 2020). County-level GHG emissions are however not available, including for Nandi. This is due to a lack of capacity to compute them. Necessary empirical data for computing GHG emissions especially for crops, e.g., soil carbon stocks, are not available. Therefore, it was not possible to compute these figures in the present study. For this reason, trends in GHG emissions are not discussed further at this point. This section only focuses on the drivers of GHG emissions in livestock production as well as in crop production systems.Nandi County is dominated by semi-intensive dairy production systems. Hence, enteric methane emissions and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from manure deposited in pastures dominate the GHG emission profile from the livestock sector (Ndung'u et al. 2022).A recent study in the county on GHG emissions from the livestock sector attributed about 94% to enteric methane production and 4% to manure emissions (Ndung'u et al. 2022;Weiler et al. 2014). Feed production emissions, energy use on-farm and farm inputs accounted for about 1% of the total emissions (Ndung'u et al. 2022). Drivers influencing GHG emissions from livestock production activities are discussed briefly below.GHG emissions from ruminant production are directly proportional to animal numbers and the size of the animal (Knapp et al. 2014). Nandi County is home to less than 0.6% of the national cattle herd (KNBS 2019) (about 102,000 out of 21 million). Thus, in Nandi County, the emissions from cattle are lower than in other counties that have more animals. An increase in animal numbers is therefore likely to increase emissions. Animal size influences emissions because this determines how much feed an animal eats: the more the feed consumed, the more the substrate that is available for conversion to methane. This means that the adoption of exotic animals that are generally larger compared to native breeds is likely to lead to an increase in absolute GHG emissions. Emission intensities however are likely to be reduced because large-framed animals are generally more productive (Arndt et al. 2022).There is a trend towards an increase in the proportion of exotic animals kept in Nandi County (CGN 2017) suggesting a likelihood towards an increase in total GHG emissions from cattle production. On the other hand, this could also lead to a possible reduction of emission intensities because of increased animal productivity.Fodder production in Nandi County relies almost exclusively on rain (EADD 2013). Rain availability determines agricultural product quality and quantity. For example, during the dry season (June-September and December-February) fodder decreases in quantity and quality. This influences GHG emissions in two ways: (1) The reduced availability of feed restricts intake by the animals. This consequently reduces absolute enteric methane emissions from the animals because of the lower feed intake (Goopy et al. 2020). The low feed intake is also likely to have a negative impact on animal production and this will increase milk emission intensity (Gerber et al. 2013), especially during the dry season when there is inadequate feed for the animals. The opposite is true during the rainy season.(2) During the dry season, when fodder plants are not actively growing, this likely results in fodder with higher fibre content and low crude protein . This type of fodder slows down feed digestion and reduces animal production. These two changes in animal nutrition increase the emission intensities of animal products (Ndung'u et al. 2022).Some of the more promising dietary interventions and/or technologies that have the potential to mitigate increased emission intensities during the dry season include:1 Increased adoption of leguminous shrubs that are known to continue producing nutritious fodder during the dry seasons when grasses are not actively growing. This could help to maintain optimal animal nutrition during these seasons, thereby sustaining higher animal production and lowering emission intensities.2 Fodder preservation technologies such as hay or silage making could help mitigate feed shortages during the dry season.3 Feeding of home-made concentrates to cattle especially during periods of feed scarcity (Odhong et al. 2019).A recent study (Ndung'u et al. 2018) in the county indicated a low fertility rate of about 52% (optimal should be > 90%). This implies farmers keep animals for long periods when they are not producing milk. The unproductive animals continue to produce GHGs without any output. This lowers the average herd productivity and therefore increases product emission intensities. The low fertility is mainly due to suboptimal nutrition, especially during early lactation. This could be mitigated by strategic supplementation of animals and general improvement of animal nutrition at farm level (Ndung'u et al. 2022).Growing animals are also generally not adequately fed which results in delayed maturity for slaughter or first calving. This too has a negative effect on product emission intensities. From farm survey data, age at first calving for Nandi cattle is estimated at 44 months (Ndungu et al unpublished data) which is much longer than the optimal 24-26 months for beef animals.Disease burden and internal and external parasite infestation in livestock are still high in Nandi County. This compromises animal production. Major animal diseases include ECF, mastitis, foot and mouth disease and lumpy skin disease (CGN 2017). Even though there is no quantitative data on animal production losses in the county due to disease, such losses are projected to increase emission intensities. Mortality rates of 7% have been reported for cattle in the county (Ndung'u et al. 2018).Improved general farm management practices to reduce animal diseases and parasite burden such as regular vaccination and deworming, maintaining farm hygiene especially in the animal housing or milking shades, amongst other practices, could significantly reduce production losses and mortalities. This would in turn reduce product emission intensity (Odhong et al. 2019).Animal breeds, especially for cattle kept in Nandi County are quite heterogeneous. In the high-potential areas (Mosop, Emgwen and Chesumei) where dairy farming is common, high-yielding exotic breeds consisting of mainly Friesians and Ayrshire and their crosses are common and account for more than 90% of the animals in these Sub-Counties. In the lowlands (Tinderet), indigenous breeds with low production potential are dominant (Ndung'u unpublished data). Because of the higher milk production per animal in the highlands compared to the lowlands, milk and other animal products produced in the highlands are likely to have lower emission intensities (Gerber et al. 2011).To date, Nandi County has no specific structure in place for measuring, reporting and verification of emissions from the agricultural sector and its change (personal communication from County Director of Livestock). This makes it impossible to monitor county-level emissions. Agricultural staff should be trained on sectoral GHG emission calculations and reporting. This will allow for tracking of mitigation and adaptation and inform the selection of more locally suitable mitigation strategies in crop and livestock production within the county.Currently, the county reporting on emissions to the national government is based on production indices that are collated from periodic livestock and crop production reports from the field extension officers.The main greenhouse gas emissions emitted from soil during crop production include carbon dioxide from microbial respiration in the soils and nitrous oxide from nitrogen metabolites in the soil. Under anaerobic conditions, e.g., in water-logged soils or flooded rice paddies, methane is also produced by methane-producing archaea living in the soil (Oertel et al. 2016).As earlier indicated, GHG emissions from crop production systems in Nandi County are missing.The following are some of the drivers for GHG emissions from crop production in Nandi County.Soil moisture levels are the single most important element driving GHG emissions. Moisture enables the mobilization of nutrients for microbial respiration and hence GHG emissions (Oertel et al. 2016). Nandi County is wet for most of the year receiving rainfall of at least 1200 mm per year (CGN 2017). This creates conducive conditions to produce GHGs from the soil. Other soil factors such as low nitrogen levels that have been observed in most East African soils could slow down this process (Zhu et al. 2020). This means that Sub-Counties receiving higher amounts of rainfall such as Emgwen could be producing more emissions per unit area compared to low-lying areas like Tinderet that receive lower amounts of rainfall. Because of the water-logged conditions, Nandi County does not have rice paddies. Rice paddies are associated with high methane emissions.Enzymatic activities in the microbes producing GHGs in the soils are temperature-dependent: of 15-24°C is optimal for microbial activity (Oertel et al. 2016). Due to its proximity to equator, Nandi County does not experience temperatures extremes, meaning that temperatures in the county are always favourable for soil microbial activity and hence GHG emissions.Plants and microbes need nutrients, especially nitrogen and carbon for respiration. Soil amendments that increase available nutrients such as fertilizer application also increase GHG emissions (Thangarajan et al. 2013). In Nandi County, fertilizer application in most cases is below the recommended application rates and therefore, emissions associated with this intervention are likely to be low except in commercial tea plantations where inorganic fertilizer use is relatively high (Sharon et al. 2018; see also section 3.1.1.Most soils in Nandi County, especially in the tea growing zones, are acidic and this has been shown to be aggravated by the reliance of inorganic fertilizers 20 . Soil acidic conditions are known to minimize GHG emissions by suppressing microbial activity and by creating a high cation tension in the soils that inhibits methane formation. Soil liming increases soil pH and is therefore likely to also increase soil GHG emissions (Abalos et al. 2020) but this practice is not common in the county (Sharon et al. 2018).Young, actively growing crops or trees have higher respiration activities in the soil compared to dormant plants, thereby increasing soil GHG emissions. Vegetation cover also influences soil temperatures, with dense vegetation or cover crops associated with lower soil temperatures and hence lower GHG emissions (Oertel et al. 2016). The high rainfall in the county that encourages plant growth for most of the year is therefore likely to increase GHG emissions.Likewise, the high crop cover on the soils as a result of the reliable rainfall is likely to also increase emissions.Conversion of forest or grassland into cropland -which has been practised extensively in Nandi County over the years -is associated with the mobilization of carbon stored in the soils and is known to increase GHG emissions (Houghton et al 2012). On the other hand, there is small-scale conversion of arable land to grasslands in the county (CGN 2017) and this practice is associated with carbon sinks hence reduced GHG emissions (Houghton et al 2012). Conversion from arable land to grasslands in Nandi County is common when land has been cultivated for a long time -often more than 10-15 years and its productivity has declined (CGN 2017).Mitigation and adaptation are both essential components in addressing climate change challenges in the agricultural sector in the developing world while also achieving resilient and low-emission food systems (Rosenzweig and Tubiello 2007). In Kenya, including Nandi County, food systems output does not match food demand. With the negative effects of climate change and the rapidly growing population, there is need not only to adapt to the changing environment but also to increase production (Kogo et al. 2021b). GHG emissions from food production systems should be reduced to address the climate change challenge (Herrero and Thornton 2013). Achieving a reduction in total (absolute) GHG emissions while increasing systems product output may however not be achievable in the short run. This is because in most cases the strategies that improve crop or livestock production also increase GHG emissions (Arndt et al. 2022). However, the increased production per unit size of land or per animal could reduce the amount of GHG emitted per unit product (emission intensity). From this point of view, and rather than total (absolute) reduction in emissions given the County's plan to increase agricultural productivity (CGN 2017), Nandi County should explore technologies that would increase agricultural output while reducing product emission intensity.Table 6 highlights some of the livestock and crop production interventions with adaptation-mitigation co-benefits that can be adapted in Nandi County.  UN Food and Agriculture Organization and New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (2017). ** Adopted from Phiri et al (2022).This chapter has been informed by a synthesis of policy documents both at the national and County level to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Nandi County has made remarkable progress in formulating policies for climate change mitigation. Several policies have been domesticated to implement national-level policies. The Nandi CIDP (CGN 2013;CGN 2017) is the main guideline for policy and for development programs (Table 7). The CIDP is informed by national, regional, and international policy frameworks including the Kenya Vision 2030 (GoK 2007), Kenya climate change policies, the Agriculture Sector Development Support Programme (ASDSP II), the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Sendai Framework of Action, and Agenda 2063 of the African Union. The CIDP contributes to a transformative agenda touching on sanitation and health, improved access to county services, trade, and marketing, enhanced agricultural production and economic empowerment of the population. Its goal is to mainstream climate change mitigation in county development plans and policies. In its stipulated activities, the county has directly or indirectly contributed to the reduction of GHGs by advocating for environmental protection.Other county-specific policy documents include the Nandi County Nutrition Action Plan 2019-2023 which envisions preventing malnutrition by investing in the scale-up of nutrition interventions. There is however a gap regarding gender mainstreaming in the existing policies because of resource scarcity and retrogressive culture. This can be mitigated by affirmative action that provides opportunities, and through political goodwill to promote equity and empower women as articulated in the SDGs and in the Constitution of Kenya. Currently, the county is on course to ensure equitable representation of both genders at all levels of decision-making, and to enforce the 1/3 gender rule in the Constitution.The County Government of Nandi is committed to building a sustainable low-carbon food system through the implementation of both national and county policies that support the development of the food system components -production, marketing and distribution, processing, and consumption. Given the emission profile from the production activities in different production systems, the policies aim at curbing GHGs from the use of inputs and in the management of outputs after production. Some policies are specific to a given value chain while some cut across various value chains. Nonetheless, mitigation targets revolve around production and processing technologies that reduce GHG emissions, while improving nutrition for livestock and people, and promoting better waste management by households and firms to minimize emissions (Table 7).With the high contribution of livestock production to the county's GHG emissions, Nandi County requires a robust livestock policy framework to guide livestock management programs. Currently, the livestock policy covers key issues on farm animal genetic resources, livestock feeds and nutrition, inputs, animal health, livestock marketing, research and extension, and food security, but without specific reference to GHG emission reduction. And while the county has made notable efforts through partnerships with livestock production and research organizations, much more focus is required to incorporate livestock and manure management which are significant contributors to GHGs.Subsidy programs on farm inputs by governments including Kenya focus on stimulating food production through increasing land productivity and lowering input costs (Santpoort 2020). These programs target inputs more but pay less attention to the environmental consequences such as the resulting GHG emissions. Policymakers need to collaborate with researchers to chart strategies for win-win outcomes, i.e., encourage increased crop productivity and at the same time suppress GHG emissions. The optimal use of inorganic fertilizers and biofertilizers should also be instituted and promoted in input subsidy programs. The increasing rate of deforestation calls for reinforcement of forestry policies in Nandi County to include those that regulate harvesting, cutting or sale of tree products and certain tree species. For example, between 2001 and 2021, an average of 415 kilotons (kt) of carbon dioxide was released annually into the atmosphere because of tree cover loss in Nandi (Global Forest Watch 2021). And yet agroforestry is not included in subsidies for specific inputs and favourable credit terms that other agricultural activities benefit from. Such policies and practices are a disincentive for more sustainable practices such as agroforestry. This has limited the broad adoption of agroforestry systems in agricultural landscapes, discouraging farmers from planting and protecting new tree seedlings that emerge. Policy instruments which include exemption of part, or all, land rate charges and payments and other tax deductions to landowners practising forest conservation activities provide incentives for agroforestry.Value addition and processing initiatives are gaining momentum in the county as a means of reducing postharvest losses, creating more employment opportunities, and maximizing marketing opportunities. The dairy, poultry, tea, maize, and horticultural value chains will benefit from the proposed construction of processing and valueaddition plants/centres that the county plans to construct in the next few years. Mechanization in tea production is increasingly common, with multinationals embracing tea plucking machines to mitigate the high manual labour costs. This has policy implications, particularly in the energy sector: it is essential to promote renewable sources of energy as an alternative to electricity to curb industrial emissions. Policy interventions should ensure that alternative renewable energy sources are accessible and affordable to avoid bottlenecks for users. The goal is to reduce malnutrition rates. Interventions on nutrition-specific and sensitive populations e.g. lactating mothers and children under the age of 5, could help curb emissions associated with consumption.Nandi's food system plays a vital role in the livelihoods of both the rural and urban populations. Nonetheless, the food system is under pressure to meet the growing food demand, safeguard the environment, socially contribute to nutritional gaps and income generation, and at the same, time contribute to mitigation efforts to lower carbon emissions. To achieve this, several innovative tools and approaches have been developed and promoted, particularly at the production and postproduction stages of the agrifood value chain. The innovations are supported and promoted by a broad spectrum of stakeholders who have been vital in the development of Nandi's food system (see Annex 2). The information included in this chapter is mainly drawn from websites and blogs by government agencies and NGOs that have contributed to the innovations.Innovations at the production stage for both crops and livestock are primarily on inputs. Farmers in Nandi can now easily access quality farm inputs through an input support program between DigiFarm and input suppliers in Nandi 32 . The initiative is a continuous engagement between the County Government of Nandi through the Department of Agriculture and Co-operative Development and DigiFarm who are mandated to deliver improved services. DigiFarm supports input suppliers in reviewing the demand need in its mapped areas, facilitating effective working arrangements between them and manufacturers in response to customized demand, increase capital through innovative finance mechanism that will support both the supplier and the farmer, provide technology and marketing support to link farmers to suppliers and provide support in areas of delivery to farmer clients. In the major value chains, e.g., maize and tea, improved varieties that are drought-tolerant and early maturing are being used extensively in Nandi County.Hello Tractor 33 has hardware and software for tractor owners to better manage their equipment, fuel and operations, while providing mechanization service for smallholder farmers. Kuza Biashara will provide a smallholder farmer ecosystem management platform that will leverage last-mile entrepreneurial agents to increase the income of smallholder farmers.Crop diversification can address food and nutritional security. Farmers in Nandi County are encouraged to transition from subsistence farming to income-generating agriculture (Sigei, 2014). They are encouraged to join cooperative societies to access financial credit, improve their products and reduce input cost more easily. Nandi County farming has diversified to crops such as avocados 34 , macadamia 35 and coffee in addition to popular maize production.  DigiCow provides a digital platform -DigiCow App. For AI service providers there is Ndume App which assists farmers to access AI services by allowing them to get gestational short message service (SMS) alerts and advisory services, as well as digital training.Dairy cooperative societies in Nandi will benefit from innovative practices from joint efforts between the County government, the Department of Agriculture and Co-operatives and DigiFarm (Safaricom). The partnership aims to strengthen the institutional capacity of cooperatives to maximize profits for farmers. The partnership will address challenges such as feed access, production cost, access to financial resources, access to quality and affordable inputs and broker inefficiencies. DigiFarm supports dairy cooperatives in Nandi to access efficient service delivery mechanisms by member farmers dialling a toll-free *944# number to access information and extension support on 36 https://smartfarmerkenya.com/why-farmers-in-nandi-are-wooed-to-grow-bamboo 37 https://farmbizafrica.com/profit-boosters/1749-rift-farmer-creates-empire-with-low-cost-cattle-feed 38 https://nandicounty.go.ke/news/farmer-exchange-visit-between-nandi-trans-nzoia-maize-value-chain-actors/ 39 https://digicow.co.ke/digital-intervention-for-dairying-crucial-function/ best practice for dairy, input access on cash or credit basis, record of milk sent to the cooperative and to withdraw money from their account.The Disruptive Agricultural Technologies (DAT) program aims to extend agricultural output capacities using technology in resource mobilization as an effective response for agricultural extension services. Through partners such as Amtech Solutions, Apollo Agriculture, DigiCow, Hello Tractor, Kuza Biashara and the county government (NARIGP project), DAT intends to improve extension services as a necessary determinant baseline for maximization of profit and profitability. Amtech will offer credit to small-scale farmers who are registered in groups through credit scoring enabling them to access other services. Apollo Agriculture will enable small-scale farmers to maximize profits by bundling services such as financing, farm inputs, insurance, and market access. For example, maize farmers have benefitted from a crop insurance 41 program by the County government. During the 2021 maize season, about 5,647 farmers received KES 12.2 million (USD 979,660) through the County Government of Nandi in partnership with Apollo Agriculture, APA Insurance and Pula.Innovations at postproduction focus on managing postharvest losses and increasing the shelf-life of produce. Some of the innovations in maize production include hermetic storage bags: the bags have a second lining impermeable to oxygen and thus create an anaerobic environment that inhibits weevils that attack maize. The hermetic bag offers safe and cost-effective protection against insect infestation and stems aflatoxin contamination in stored grain (Channa et al. 2019). Promoting adoption of the hermetic bags by smallholder farmers aims at improving food safety and security, as well as increasing income, thereby alleviating poverty among small-scale farmers. The Kenya Agricultural Value Chain Enterprise (KAVES) project and other industry players, such as KALRO have supported promoting and commercialising hermetic storage bags for home storage. The bags are promoted through training and demonstration to show farmers how to use them to maintain the quality of stored cereals after harvest. High-quality brands include Agro-Z, Elite bags, Grain Pro-Super Grain, Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) and Zero Fly.In livestock production, particularly the milk value chain, the adoption of milk cooling plants has been promoted. Heifer International and its partners have supported farmers in Nandi to increase their income through multiple interventions including farmer-owned innovative approaches -a cooperative-like business model centred on milk chilling plants (Dairy Hubs). These business hubs provide other related services beyond milk bulking and chilling including agrovet services, microfinance, AI and animal health services, and transport and extension services.The County Government of Nandi through its Department of Trade, Investment and Industrialization in partnership with Meru Greens and SNV have acquired a cold-storage facility for horticultural farmers. The cold-storage facility will help curb postharvest losses and protect farmers from unstable markets which result in income losses. Due to a lack of appropriate storage technologies for perishable produce, most farmers are forced to sell their produce at a low price for fear of spoilage.Biogas provides an alternative energy source and is increasingly recommended as a renewable energy source (Kipkemei et al. 2019). Biogas production through anaerobic digestion also produces bio-waste called anaerobic digestate (also known as biosolid): it contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) and can be used as a biofertilizer. Tea leaf waste can be used to generate biogas (Kipkemei et al. 2019;Manyuchi et al. 2018). From harvesting to processing, huge amounts of agro waste are generated that threaten the environment if not managed properly. Using the waste leaves to produce biogas energy not only protects the environment through reduced methane emissions but also protects forests and trees used to produce firewood. Biogas is becoming more common 40 https://nandicounty.go.ke/news/nandi-takes-lead-to-leverage-on-disruptive-digital-agricultural-technologies/ 41 https://kilimonews.co.ke/counties/nandi-grain-farmers-receive-kshs-12-2m-compensation/ in Kenya since the launch of the Kenya National Domestic Biogas Programme (KENDBIP). In Nandi County, even partial substitution to biogas and bio-slurry appears to contribute to strengthening local agroforestry practices through more zero-grazing and retention of wood/tree lots. Biogas from agricultural waste is easily combustible and smoke-free. It saves on firewood purchase and improves indoor air quality. Manure and methane loads are reduced: less methane is released into the atmosphere as the digestate by-product can be used as a natural fertilizer.Nandi County will adopt a digital livestock identification and traceability system. In this, the county Department of Agriculture and Cooperative Development will work in liaison with Caisley International, African Dairy Genetic Gain program (ADGG), ILRI and KALRO. Globally, animal identification and traceability are recognized as important components for animal health and food safety. Digital animal identification reads/scans information from an ear tag with unique numbers and barcodes. It collects and records information regarding mandatorily identifiable animals, their keepers and keeping locations. The data are crucial for food quality, disease control, environmental management and adoption to climate change, genetic resource management, stock theft mitigation, effective governance, market access, herd management and genetic improvement. Farmers are encouraged to adopt the modern animal identification and traceability system which has the potential to help farmers in registration, getting more benefits from county programs and selling more products. It also aids and eases the development of new farming standards and enhances the credibility and status of Nandi's livestock products in current and future markets, including export.42 https://nandicounty.go.ke/news/nandi-county-enters-its-phase-ii-of-disruptive-agricultural-technologies-dat-development-programThere is limited documentation on value addition of farm produce in Nandi County. The literature does not indicate any local processor brands or product packaging to add value. Other than tea, crop produce including beans, cabbages and Irish potatoes are mainly marketed in their raw form with a short shelf-life leading to high food wastage. Milk is only chilled by the cooperative then sold to big processors who add value. The county government in partnership with local cooperatives is constructing a milk processing plant for products such as pasteurized milk, yoghurt and other value-added products. These efforts should be replicated for other farm product value chains.There are high postharvest losses due to poor drying and/or preservation technologies. Farmers spread their grains in direct sunlight to dry. Losses occur during drying, especially when the weather is unfavourable. When markets are inaccessible, more perishable fresh produce such as vegetables rot on the farm. There is no documentation on farmer adoption of modern drying technologies (e.g. solar dryers) that maintain the quality of grain produce (e.g. maize and beans), or on cold storage facilities for horticultural produce (e.g. cabbages and Irish potatoes). There is need to investigate solutions to reduce on-farm postharvest losses and to extend product shelf-life.Despite agriculture being the major contributor to GHG emissions, literature on the value chains has not clearly indicated how these value chains have been reformed to mitigate climate change. Most technologies that minimize the emission of GHGs such as composting, soil testing and agroforestry have not been widely adopted. There is need to build local capacity to quantify emissions from local food production systems. This will not only improve emission reporting to the national government but also help in identifying appropriate mitigations.The county should build capacity on a circular economy to optimize resource use and re-use at farm and landscape levels, capitalising on Nandi's dominant mixed crop-livestock systems.Gender in the county's food production systems is not explicit in current literature. More gender research is needed to inform decision-making that harnesses the strengths of each social cluster thereby enhancing productivity and promoting social equity which all serve to build and bolster food system resilience.There is very limited documentation on agricultural product consumption patterns in the county. There is no clear description of the production flow for products other than tea, that is mainly targeted for the export market after processing, and the milk collected that is chilled by cooperatives and then sold to external processors.There is also no literature on a policy framework to address food production, safety and barriers that inhibit access to agricultural produce for the export market, especially for horticultural produce.Despite its significance and dominance, livestock production in the county is still performing well below its potential. This is mainly explained by underfeeding of animals, especially during the dry season. There is an opportunity to mitigate this challenge by exploring the wider feed resource base and encouraging feed preservation by farmers.The interventions below have the potential to mitigate feed challenges and can be explored at farm level.1 Increase the acreage under cultivated fodder by training on forage establishment. This will increase acreage biomass productivity and improve feed quality. Improve the existing grazing lands through better pasture management, harvesting it during the rainy season and conserving as hay.Introduce and promote alternative feed resources such as improved grass varieties, forage sorghum and fodder crops and trees.Training farmers on feed ration formulation, crop residue handling and processing.At institutional level, the following interventions should be explored.Creating links between input suppliers and local agrovets to enable them stock improved pasture and fodder seeds, good quality commercial concentrates and simple feed processing equipment (chaff cutters), thereby enabling access by the farmers. Identify volunteer farmer trainers -particularly pioneer farmers -to complement extension. Supporting peer-to-peer farmer learning platforms to encourage spread and uptake of production technologies.Annex 1: Map of Nandi CountyThe map shows Nandi County's geographical location, administrative boundaries, agroecological zones and neighbouring counties.Source: Owino (2020).","tokenCount":"15202"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"42d2b842d3950bda9e51bba30745ec40","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc84ab02-b586-4d38-8f12-2416e70f63ae/retrieve","id":"-328591684"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bb7d85b6-81bd-4867-8c18-78b1ddf3f3ef","pagecount":"16","content":"Information pour le développement agricole des pays ACP N°119 OCTOBRE 2005 Recherche agricole Cherche partenaires privés 1 Floriculture Un marché florissant pour les producteurs ACP 3 Pêche en mer À surveiller de près 4a recherche agronomique du Sud n'échappe pas à l'érosion générale des dépenses publiques de recherche qui frappe la plupart des États y compris au Nord. Selon l'Institut international de recherche sur les politiques alimentaires (IFPRI), les dépenses moyennes par chercheur ont diminué de moitié entre 1971 et 2000 dans la recherche publique agricole en Afrique. Les contributions des donateurs sont également nettement en baisse. En 2000, elles ne constituaient plus que 35 % des budgets contre la moitié cinq ans plus tôt.Pour augmenter leurs ressources, les centres nationaux de recherche sont à la recherche d'alliances avec le secteur privé pour des recherches communes. C'est l'objectif des Partenariats public-privé (PPP) : mettre en commun le savoir-faire des uns et des autres, les fonds et les environnements (laboratoires, champs d'expérimentation, etc.) pour obtenir des résultats profitables aux deux parties. L'une doit être publique (laboratoire de recherche, université, centre régional ou international de recherche, ONG) et l'autre privée (entreprise, centre de recherche privé, groupement de producteurs).L'enjeu est d'importance aussi bien pour les États ACP, soucieux d'augmenter leur production agricole et d'améliorer les conditions de vie des agriculteurs, que pour les firmes privées qui visent avant tout la rentabilité financière. Les grandes entreprises agro-industrielles mondiales sont actives depuis longtemps au sein du Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricoleLes pays ACP ne manquent pas de ressources mais de moyens : tel est le constat en demiteinte des articles de ce numéro. Commençons par le secteur de la recherche : les compétences et les idées sont là mais comment les développer sans argent et garder ses propres objectifs en dépendant de financements extérieurs privés ? Notre dossier sur la surveillance des pêches insiste, lui, sur les difficultés pour les pays du Sud à protéger efficacement leurs ressources halieutiques sans bateaux de surveillance équipés ni personnel bien formé. Quant à la culture des fleurs qui poussent si bien en climat tropical et font le bonheur des clients du Nord, elle ne demande qu'à s'épanouir pour peu que des entreprises investissent sur place. Mais l'argent n'est pas tout comme le montre notre Point de vue qui précise les qualités d'un bon leader paysan capable de faire bouger les choses à force de ténacité. Une leçon de courage et d'espoir !Nécessité fait loi : les instituts de recherche agricole du Sud collaborent de plus en plus avec le secteur privé, source de financements. Mais ces partenariats axés sur des produits rentables ne s'intéressent guère aux besoins des agriculteurs locaux.internationale (GCRAI), mais elles ont encore peu investi dans les institutions publiques de recherche des pays du Sud. En 2000, elles n'ont contribué qu'à environ 2 % des budgets de la recherche agronomique en Afrique.Cependant, les PPP se développent ces dernières années essentiellement sous la pression des firmes internationales désireuses de tester leurs semences et leurs plantes génétiquement modifiées. Ainsi, pour promouvoir son coton transgénique -coton Bt -la firme Monsanto a fortement investi dans la recherche agricole du Burkina Faso et du Mali.L'Institut de recherche agricole du Kenya (KARI) conduit, avec le Centre international pour l'amélioration du maïs et du blé (CIMMYT), un programme pour mettre au point un maïs génétiquement modifié résistant aux attaques des insectes foreurs de tiges, financé par la société Syngenta, un des leaders mondiaux de la protection des cultures.La recherche de nouveaux produits pousse aussi les firmes à investir dans la recherche au Sud. Au Ghana, le partenariat Novella implique la firme Unilever, un des géants de l'agroalimentaire, le Centre international pour la recherche en agroforesterie (ICRAF), l'Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature (UICN), le Secrétariat d'État suisse aux affaires économiques (SECO) ainsi que l'Institut ghanéen de recherches forestières (FORIG) et des ONG. Il vise à mettre sur pied une chaîne de production d'huile en développant la culture et l'exploitation durable d'Allanbackia, un arbre des forêts tropicales d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre dont les amandes fournissent une huile aux propriétés intéressantes et à haut potentiel commercial. D'autres types de partenariat sont soutenus par des fondations qui souhaitent avant tout avoir une action sur le développement local. C'est le cas du projet africain de sorgho bio-fortifié soutenu par la Fondation Bill et Melinda Gates. Il a pour objectif la mise au point d'un sorgho riche en éléments nutritifs destiné aux pays africains. Le consortium qui comporte des centres de recherche africains, des universités et une entreprise privée a déjà mis au point une première variété.Dans tous les cas, il est nécessaire de définir clairement la collaboration entre les participants qui contribuent tous à la planification, aux ressources et aux activités requises pour atteindre l'objectif choisi. En général, le PPP est formalisé dans un contrat qui stipule l'objet de la recherche, les méthodes, la durée, les coûts, les intervenants, le matériel et le partage des retombées financières.Dans les îles Fidji, un projet combine conservation de l'environnement, recherche sur les drogues et développement économiqu. Les villageois immergent en mer des coraux artificiels, rapidement colonisés par des plantes et autres organismes vivants, qui sont vendus à des spécialistes des aquariums. Les villageois ont ainsi un revenu tout en conservant leurs coraux naturels et leurs touristes, tandis que les scientifiques de l'Institut américain de technologie de Georgie peuvent continuer à rechercher de nouveaux médicaments dans les espèces colonisant les récifs coralliens. S'ils en trouvent, les villageois toucheront une part des profits des ventes.L'accès aux ressources génétiques et le partage des avantages (APA) qui découlent de leur utilisation sont le plus souvent régis par des textes internationaux tels que les Lignes directrices de Bonn. En cas de litiges, les instances juridiques sont parfois amenées à trancher. Un jugement a reconnu les droits de la communauté San d'Afrique australe pour le hoodia, un cactus coupe-faim (voir Spore 99). La firme qui commercialise le produit devra verser aux San 6 % des profits des ventes estimées de 3 à 40 milliards de dollars.Pour éviter ces procédures, la signature d'ententes contractuelles préalables est préférable même si leur élaboration peut prendre de plusieurs mois à deux ans. L'Afrique du Sud, le Guyana, le Malawi et le Vanuatu sont les pays qui ont réglementé le plus précisément l'APA. Quant aux communautés détentrices de savoirs ancestraux et ouvertes à d'éventuels PPP rémunérateurs de leurs savoirs, elles se dotent de plus en plus souvent de conseils de surveillance, habilités à les représenter dans l'examen des propositions de partenariats pour veiller à ce qu'elles soient équitables.Lorsque les initiatives de partenariat viennent des firmes privées, les instituts nationaux de recherche agronomique du Sud doivent veiller à préserver leur indépendance. Mais, de fait, les recherches et les moyens financiers ont tendance à se focaliser sur les cultures d'exportation ou les plus intéressantes pour le Nord. Les cultures peu rentables mais souvent vitales pour les populations locales risquent alors d'être laissées pour compte.Tenir compte des attentes locales D'autres types de partenariat impliquant des entreprises locales ou des groupements de producteurs permettent des recherches mieux adaptées aux nécessités du pays. Par exemple, les recherches liées à une filière spécifique, généralement de produits de rentecoton, palmier à huile -, sont en grande partie financées par les acteurs de ces filières économiquement rentables.En Côte d'Ivoire, le Fonds interprofessionnel pour la recherche et le conseil agricole (FIRCA), qui représente les fédérations de producteurs, est représenté au conseil d'administration du Centre national de recherche agronomique (CNRA) et de l'Agence nationale d'appui au développement rural (ANADER). Il peut ainsi cibler les activités de recherche sur les besoins spécifiques des agriculteurs et en assure la vulgarisation. Le lien entre la recherche et la production agricole nationale est ici très fort et permanent.C'est aussi le cas à Madagascar où le FOFIFA, l'institut national de recherche agricole, travaille, par exemple, avec les exportateurs de vanille biologique. En République dominicaine, un PPP lie l'Institut dominicain de recherche agricole et forestière (IDIAF) à la coopérative de services multiples Francisco del Rosario (CFRS) pour la mise au point d'un mode de transformation des bananes produites par la coopérative en conformité avec son label \"bio\".Dans ce contexte où la recherche des pays ACP, particulièrement africains, manque de moyens et dépend de plus en plus des financements privés, les attentes des petits agriculteurs qui cultivent pour leur consommation et le marché local ont bien du mal à être prises en compte. Impliquer les entreprises dans des programmes préalablement définis comme utiles au développement agricole des pays concernés est l'objectif du Forum pour la recherche agricole en Afrique (FARA). Ce forum, de même que le réseau de renforcement de la recherche agricole en Afrique de l'Est (ASARECA), plaide pour une cohérence globale des recherches dans les différentes filières. Il veille à assurer la participation des acteurs locaux (producteurs, distributeurs, vulgarisateurs, etc.) dans le choix des axes de recherche.Voir Repères page 10 Née seulement en 1972, l'industrie horticole kenyane, par ses revenus, se classe déjà au quatrième rang des secteurs d'exportation du pays -derrière le thé, le café et le tourisme. Mais une croissance aussi rapide a ses revers. Le Kenya se voit reprocher les mauvaises conditions de travail et un usage excessif de produits chimiques. Face à la pression croissante des consommateurs de pays gros importateurs comme l'Allemagne, le conseil kenyan de la floriculture a adopté un code de bonnes pratiques. La FAO a délégué des experts en lutte intégrée contre les ravageurs à Nyeri, au centre du pays, pour former les 5 500 groupes de femmes productrices de fleurs.Les horticulteurs du Sud doivent affronter de nombreux obstacles. La floriculture demande de gros investissements et les réglementations strictes du marché international, comme les Limites maximales de résidus (LMR) et autres normes sanitaires et phytosanitaires (SPS), sont peu négociables. Pour un produit aussi périssable, l'emballage, le stockage au froid et de bons réseaux de transport sont cruciaux mais coûteux : les producteurs du Sud partent donc avec un handicap lié à la distance. Des firmes néerlandaises et allemandes se sont implantées dans plusieurs pays ACP afin de contrôler sur place la qualité, la distribution et la commercialisation (voir Spore 85). La plupart des producteurs de fleurs coupées du Sud dépendent de sélectionneurs du Nord auxquels ils doivent verser des royalties sur le matériel végétal.Compte tenu de ces contraintes, il n'est pas surprenant que le secteur soit dominé par de grandes entreprises européennes. Selon l'agence kenyane de développement des cultures horticoles, la production des petits horticulteurs a diminué au cours des cinq dernières années. Malgré ces obstacles, des producteurs ACP vont de l'avant, confiants dans l'avenir de la floriculture. L'Ouganda recourt à la culture hydroponique qui limite maladies et parasites. En Zambie, Peter Mtumbe, un petit exploitant, est passé du maïs à la rose, et envisage de doubler la taille de son entreprise. En Éthiopie, une entreprise familiale est devenue un gros exportateur ; aux Fidji, les femmes ont été formées pour exporter des fleurs vers Hawaii et la Nouvelle-Zélande (voir Spore 117). L'Afrique du Sud a trouvé un créneau rentable dans la culture de chrysanthèmes.Un guide d'exportation publié par le Centre pour la promotion des importations en provenance des pays en développement (CBI) a identifié les fleurs estivales -floraison pendant l'hiver en Europe -comme un secteur prometteur. Les ventes aux supermarchés augmentent également, une tendance qui ouvre des perspectives aux producteurs ACP, mais qui comporte aussi ses défis. L'exploitation d'un marché que la plupart s'accordent à décrire florissant suppose une recherche agricole active sur les espèces locales et la lutte contre les maladies et parasites. Le Secrétariat général de la Communauté Pacifique (CPS) appuie les horticulteurs des Fidji dans le traitement d'un champignon qui s'attaque au gingembre rouge (Alpinia purpurata).Une étude récente, appuyée par le CTA, montre que les producteurs ont besoin d'assistance pour satisfaire aux exigences de l'importation, de la distribution et de la commercialisation. Une réponse ingénieuse : le parc commercial des fleurs, créé par un cultivateur de roses à Naivasha, au Kenya, auquel les horticulteurs paient pour des services qui vont de la mise à disposition de terre et d'eau à l'assistance sur place pour les permis d'exportation. La nécessité de progresser vers une gestion durable des pêcheries, qui combine viabilité dans le temps, satisfaction des besoins des pêcheurs et valorisation économique des ressources, est heureusement de mieux en mieux perçue. Elle se traduit par une prise de conscience croissante de tous les intéressés et par des mesures, contraignantes ou non, réglementant la pêche. Mais on est loin d'une gestion volontairement raisonnée des ressources de la mer par tous les acteurs de la pêche : \"Lorsque les stocks sont surexploités et que le profit diminue, des pêcheurs ont tendance à transgresser la législation\", constataient plusieurs participants à un débat sur Internet organisé par le CTA en 2004.La problématique de la surveillance des pêches est donc peu à peu perçue comme un enjeu majeur. Les spécialistes commencent à jongler avec des sigles comme INN (ou INDNR, pour pêche illicite, non déclarée et non réglementée), SCS (pour suivi, contrôle et surveillance) ou encore SSN (pour système de surveillance des navires par satellite). En juin 2005, une conférence sur les effets de la pêche illicite, non déclarée et non réglementée sur les pays en développement a eu lieu à Londres. Ces pays sont en effet particulièrement touchés, principalement, selon les conclusions des débats, en raison \"d'un manque de fonds, de compétences techniques, de main-d'oeuvre et parfois de volonté politique\" et de \"l'absence de coopération entre États\".Les pays du Sud ne sont pas les seuls concernés. Publié en mai dernier, le Rapport annuel de la Commission européenne sur les infractions graves aux règles de la politique commune de la pêche montre que le nombre de cas constatés est passé de 6 756 en 2002 à 9 502 en 2003. Cinq États membres de l'UE ont détecté près de 90 % des infractions. La pêche illégale représente 22 % des cas et la pêche sans licence 17 %. Une amende a été infligée dans 84 % des cas. Dans 4 720 cas, la confiscation de l'engin de pêche a été ordonnée. Les Actualités Pêche d'Agritrade, site du CTA, de juin 2005 concluent que \"ce rapport fournit des leçons intéressantes pour les pays ACP\", et notamment \"l'idée qu'une plus grande transparence sur les infractions et les sanctions renforce la confiance dans l'application juste et égale des normes\".Les violations prennent diverses formes : pêche par des bateaux sans licence, nondébarquement des prises dans les ports locaux, en dépit des obligations stipulées dans les accords de pêche, données fausses sur le tonnage réellement capturé...Quelles que soient les mesures prises, qu'il s'agisse de faire respecter les zones de pêche ou la réglementation sur les engins de pêche, de limiter les prises, de garantir un repos biologique ou encore de promouvoir l'activité économique des ports en obligeant à débarquer localement tout ou partie des captures, l'autorégulation apparaît comme un leurre et des mesures de contrôle sont nécessaires. Certaines d'entre elles sont déjà en oeuvre, que l'on peut regrouper en deux catégories : les mesures appelées hardware et celles dites software.Les  Photo : © SADC-EU MCS programme matériel nécessaire comprend des bateaux rapides d'interception, des bateaux de surveillance et des stations de radar, voire des avions. Et, bien sûr, un système informatique capable de recouper des données, d'accéder en permanence à l'Internet, etc. Difficile, pour un pays ACP, de concilier ces exigences avec les contraintes budgétaires. Ces systèmes sont nécessaires, mais insuffisants s'ils ne sont pas accompagnés de compétences humaines.Les méthodes dites software font appel à des observateurs embarqués ou à la participation des communautés de pêcheurs. Leur rôle officiel consiste à observer à des fins scientifiques. C'est \"par défaut\", parce qu'ils disposent d'outils de communication, que leurs informations sont utilisées pour la surveillance. Le risque est grand, si cette dernière mission était connue, qu'on ne les laisse plus embarquer.La présence d'observateurs à bord est cruciale \"pour fournir de l'information indépendante sur les activités de pêche des bateaux, quotidiennement et individuellement\", selon les conclusions du débat en ligne déjà cité. Ces méthodes supposent, pour être efficaces, que les contrôleurs reçoivent une formation adéquate et une rémunération correcte pour mener à bien leur mission car, comme le constate Mme Uronu, directrice adjointe à la Pêche au ministère des Ressources naturelles et du Tourisme en Tanzanie, \"les hauts niveaux technologiques que l'on peut trouver sur les navires modernes dépassent largement la compréhension de ces fonctionnaires de la pêche envoyés pour inspecter les navires\". Et leur métier comporte des risques : éventuelle corruption, surtout s'ils sont mal payés, prise en otage et violence, pour les empêcher de communiquer des informations sur ce qu'ils constatent.Plusieurs expériences qui associent étroitement les communautés de pêcheurs à la surveillance ont aussi été menées en Afrique de l'Ouest. Après tout, les pêcheurs connaissent parfaitement les lieux. Cependant, tout en donnant des résultats positifs, ces expériences posent la question de la motivation : les pêcheurs sont à la fois contrôleurs et partie prenante. Il est en effet établi que les pêcheurs artisans sont coresponsables de la surexploitation des ressources.Voilà pour les méthodes. Mais rien de tout cela ne saurait fonctionner sans que deux conditions au moins soient remplies. D'abord, l'existence de règles claires sur ce qui est permis et interdit, assorties de sanctions et de leur application. Ensuite, une coopération régionale entre pays concernés par le même problème. C'est vrai au Nord : le 14 mars dernier, le Conseil européen de la pêche s'est enfin mis d'accord sur l'établissement d'une Agence communautaire de contrôle de la pêche, qui s'installera à Vigo, en Espagne, et qui devra coordonner les contrôles de pêche dans les eaux communautaires, mais aussi -information utile pour les pays ACP -dans le cadre des accords bilatéraux de pêche.C'est aussi vrai au Sud, où l'une des plus grandes réussites dans ce domaine est le programme SCS des pays côtiers de la Communauté de développement de l'Afrique australe (SADC). Financé par l'UE, il a permis de mener, depuis 2003, des opérations conjointes bi-ou trilatérales de surveillance entre les pays concernés et de renforcer l'équipement, l'échange d'informations et les ressources humaines de ceux d'entre eux qui en étaient le moins pourvus. La Tanzanie, par exemple, a maintenant plus de 30 observateurs formés. Toujours selon Mme Uronu, le premier changement nécessaire pour atteindre ces résultats consiste à vaincre l'inertie et la bureaucratie. Une culture du changement s'impose.La Commission \"thon\" pour l'océan Indien, qui compte sept pays continentaux ou insulaires de la partie est de l'Afrique, est un autre exemple de coopération régionale. \"L'amarante est une vraie bombe nutritionnelle\", affirme Linus Ndonga de la SPAS. Il est convaincu que l'amarante pourrait améliorer la nutrition dans les zones sèches \"efficacement et de manière durable\". La SPAS a fourni des semences certifiées à des groupes de femmes formées à la production d'amarante. À Maragwa, zone frappée par la sécheresse et où la culture de céréales a échoué, l'amarante a obtenu des rendements de 800 à 1 000 kg par demi hectare. Selon Lynus Ndonga, elle pourrait nourrir deux fois plus de personnes par unité de surface. \"L'amarante constitue une percée dans la lutte contre l'insécurité alimentaire. Reste le défi qui consiste à lui faire intégrer le panier des aliments de base des Kenyans.\" L'un des projets récompensés, piloté à Ibadan au Nigeria, convertit les effluents et déchets des abattoirs en énergie, générant des revenus pour les communautés urbaines démunies tout en réduisant la production de gaz à effet de serre. Le projet traite les déchets des abattoirs et les recycle en biogaz utilisé notamment pour la cuisine. On en tire aussi un autre sous-produit, un fertilisant agricole. Le biogaz est bien moins onéreux que le gaz liquide disponible dans le commerce.Ont aussi été récompensés les efforts conjoints de l'Université Cornell aux USA et de plusieurs ONG et communautés locales du Cambodge, de Madagascar et du Sri Lanka, partenaires d'une initiative de soutien aux revenus ruraux par la commercialisation de variétés locales de riz cultivées dans des conditions favorables à l'environnement. Le projet utilise une méthode de production appelée Système de riziculture intensive (SRI), qui fonctionne sans submersion des rizières et produit des plants plus robustes, avec moins de fertilisants chimiques et de pesticides. Les petits producteurs ruraux qui le pratiquent réalisent jusqu'à 50 % d'économies en eau et peuvent jusqu'à doubler leurs rendements.Toujours à Madagascar, un projet communautaire expérimental -création de la première Zone maritime protégéemontre comment des partenariats entre populations locales, instituts de recherche et ONG peuvent préserver l'environnement marin et favoriser des modes de subsistance durables. Le projet, qui implique les 1 200 communautés d'Andavadoaka, assure un équilibre entre les besoins des pêcheurs locaux et la protection des nombreux récifs coralliens de la région. L'éco-tourisme est encouragé en tant que soutien financier de ce travail de conservation, facteur de diversification de l'économie locale et de réduction de la pression sur les stocks halieutiques. Pho to : © Me ant ime Bre we ry ■ Des chercheurs du Centre wallon de recherches agronomiques de Gembloux testent au Sénégal un nouveau combustible, dénommé Bioterre, à partir de résidus agricoles (café, balle de riz…). Il se présente sous forme de boulets obtenus par le broyage de ces déchets mélangés à de l'eau et de l'argile. Après une phase de granulation, les boulets sont séchés au soleil puis conditionnés. Ce procédé permet d'adapter le combustible à l'usage tant domestique qu'artisanal, en modifiant la composition ou la taille des boulets.D'après les responsables du projet, 1 000 tonnes de balle de riz peuvent préserver jusqu'à 400 ha de forêt. En outre, au Sénégal, où une unité de production a été implantée, le combustible est vendu 60 FCFA/kg (0,10 €), tandis que le charbon de bois l'est à 212 FCFA/kg (0,32 €).Une enquête effectuée auprès d'une trentaine de ménagères sénégalaises révèle que 90 % d'entre elles acceptent d'utiliser Bioterre à la place du charbon de bois. Toutefois, les ménages doivent d'abord acquérir des fourneaux adaptés au prix actuel de 7 000 FCFA (11 €). Une réduction des coûts de production, tant des combustibles que du fourneau, s'avère donc encore nécessaire pour une large diffusion.■ Faire connaître l'intérêt agronomique et économique des plantes capables de fixer l'azote de l'air reste un objectif à atteindre dans la plupart des pays du Sud.En novembre 2004, lors du 11 e congrès de l'Association africaine pour la fixation biologique de l'azote (AABNF), une troupe de danse a présenté un spectacle pour montrer comment une plante qui capte l'azote de l'air peut en faire bénéficier ses voisines qui ne savent profiter que de l'azote du sol.Les haricots, le niébé, le soja ou les acacias font partie de ces légumineuses qui grâce aux bactéries qui vivent dans des nodules sur leurs racines peuvent utiliser l'azote de l'air. Le développement de leur culture contribuerait à l'accroissement de la production végétale sur des sols pauvres et à la régénération des milieux dégradés.Par ailleurs, sur le plan nutritionnel, les plantes capables de fixer l'azote de l'air sont également très riches en protéines.   Phillip Mutuma Munyua examine deux exemples concrets d'augmentation des revenus des agriculteurs grâce à de nouvelles cultures -fruit de la passion et graine d'amarante en l'occurrence -qui devraient convaincre les jeunes des campagnes que l'agriculture est une activité doublement valorisante, socialement et économiquement. ■ L'élevage de grenouilles peut constituer une source supplémentaire de revenus et de protéines alimentaires. Au Kivu (République démocratique du Congo), où il est expérimenté dans des étangs aménagés sur d'anciennes cavités de fabrication de briques, une trentaine de grenouilles peuvent donner en un an environ un millier de grenouilles commercialisables. Elles doivent être alimentées en proies vivantes (insectes) et leurs prédateurs naturels (serpents, oiseaux, etc.) doivent être tenus à distance par des enclos. Les cuisses de grenouille sont consommées localement dans de nombreux restaurants et un important marché existe en Europe qui en importe annuellement pour une valeur de 29 millions d'euros.  Du côté non gouvernemental, la Coalition pour des accords de pêche équitable (CFFA-CAPE) informe les communautés côtières notamment sur les relations Pêche entre l'UE et les pays ACP. À la même adresse, le Collectif international d'appui à la pêche artisanale (ICSF) publie la revue Samudra, consacrée aux pêcheurs artisans de tous les continents.a multiplication des partenariats public-privé (PPP) dans la recherche agricole des pays du Sud s'inscrit dans l'idée que le monde de l'entreprise peut et doit participer à la croissance au Sud. Un document du Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, intitulé Libérer l'entreprenariat, mettre le monde des affaires au service des pauvres, constitue une des pierres angulaires de cette dynamique. Les PPP en sont un des aspects clairement présentés dans le cadre du développement rural par Inforessources.Pour bien comprendre l'intérêt de la démarche, n'hésitez pas à vous plonger dans deux documents de référence, l'un de la Banque mondiale sur l'historique de La recherche agricole en Afrique, l'autre de l'Institut international de recherche sur les politiques alimentaires (IFPRI) sur les investissements dans la recherche agricole en Afrique subsaharienne. Dès lors, vous serez mieux à même d'apprécier les avantages des PPP présentés en anglais dans deux longs documents de l'IFPRI et du Service international pour la recherche agricole nationale (ISNAR). Toutefois, pour être informé des difficultés qui pourraient se dresser sur votre route, n'hésitez pas à lire le dossier de Grain de sel sur la recherche agricole.Pour finir, consultez le site du CTA, Connaissances pour le développement, qui aborde la question du partage des bénéfices de cette recherche commune au public et au privé. D'amples exemples de répartitions possibles sont accessibles grâce aux actes de l'Atelier international d'experts sur l'accès aux ressources génétiques et le partage des avantages résultant de leur utilisation. Créé en 1983, il va durant dix ans fédérer une quarantaine de groupements villageois ou de quartier. À son crédit, des rendements en riz (2,5 tonnes) doublés et une surface rizicole agrandie de 800 hectares.À la base de cette réussite, la collaboration du CADEF avec une ONG internationale, le Centre international pour l'éducation permanente et l'aménagement concerté (CIEPAC, France). Ensemble, ils ont développé une approche globale de développement local et d'amélioration des systèmes de production, avec une préoccupation encore rare chez les organisations paysannes (OP) : la gestion des ressources naturelles. Sortant des rôles classiques des OP (commercialisation des produits, approvisionnement en intrants ou accès au crédit), le CADEF s'est attaché en priorité à la gestion des ressources renouvelables comme solution à la grave crise écologique et de subsistance qui minait les systèmes de production.Le CADEF a joué avec succès le rôle exemplaire d'interface entre les structures coutumières et l'environnement institutionnel.En quatre chapitres, le déroulement logique de cette expérience est décrypté depuis l'historique des dynamiques sociales en Basse Casamance jusqu'aux conditions, portée et limites de l'action collective. Un livre utile pour alimenter la réflexion sur les innovations techniques et institutionnelles permettant de gérer durablement les ressources naturelles.   Une année de lutte intégréeLa production légumière est un composant majeur des stratégies de subsistance des agriculteurs pauvres puisqu'elle fournit travail, revenus et aliments. Toutefois, parasites, maladies, faibles rendements et risques liés à un usage excessif ou impropre de pesticides, menacent souvent les producteurs. Des stratégies alternatives de lutte intégrée efficace et durable, ainsi que des outils de vulgarisation appropriés s'avèrent nécessaires.  Entre nous • À première vue, l'agriculture n'occupe encore qu'une petite place dans le paysage audiovisuel ACP. Les chaînes publiques ou privées n'offrent guère de programmes touchant au développement rural. La télévision reste d'abord destinée aux villes ; les zones rurales ont peu de récepteurs et ne sont pas toujours couvertes par le réseau de diffusion.Pourtant, la télévision peut jouer un rôle déterminant pour sensibiliser les populations ACP à l'importance du développement agricole. D'autant que le public est là : beaucoup de citadins ont un pied fermement ancré dans le monde rural, parce qu'ils sont maraîchers ou commerçants ou tout simplement parce qu'une partie de leur famille est restée au village. Et un poste TV suffit souvent pour que tout un village suive une émission. Alors, pourquoi pas un peu plus d'agriculture à la télé ?Pour mieux faire connaître les enjeux agricoles actuels et montrer comment l'information peut aider à transformer et à améliorer l'économie rurale ACP, le CTA vient de lancer une série de produits TV.Une rubrique consacrée à l'agriculture en Afrique a été créée en partenariat avec la maison de production People TV, basée à Paris. Baptisée Agriflash, elle est diffusée en anglais, en français et en portugais la dernière semaine de chaque mois dans le magazine Business Africa sur 35 chaînes de télévision, principalement en Afrique (voir en fin d'article). Enfin, les deux derniers reportages s'intéressent à la commercialisation des produits. L'un décrit l'émergence des marchés régionaux et les systèmes d'information de marché (SIM) qui informent sur les prix et les volumes de transaction. L'autre porte sur l'accès aux marchés internationaux et les négociations en cours entre l'UE et les pays ACP.Vous signalez régulièrement votre intérêt pour les plus longs reportages. Produire un documentaire qui puisse servir de base pour un débat dans votre communauté ou pour un service de vulgarisation est une tâche de grande envergure que le CTA ne peut En allant sur http: //tv.cta.int et en cliquant sur Votre avis, vous obtenez un questionnaire qui vous permettra de nous faire part de votre opinion sur Agriflash et de vos attentes quant aux programmes TV sur l'agriculture (mot de passe : Agriflash).Votre contribution est la clé de notre réussite.  \"L'apiculture est une source de revenus même pour les plus démunis, nous écrit M. Malichi. Les ressources étant limitées, nous sommes dans certains cas contraints de renvoyer des personnes souhaitant se former en apiculture. Les enfants apprennent l'art de l'apiculture dès leur plus jeune âge.\"À la suite de la publication dans Spore 114 d'une brève sur le \"biogaz à domicile\", M. Tamba a reçu plus de 60 messages de lecteurs intéressés par ce procédé ! \"La majorité veut recevoir une formation sur les techniques de construction du méthaniseur et d'obtention du biogaz\", précise M. Tamba qui est prêt à faire tout son possible pour que \"cette technologie alternative puisse être un véritable cheval de bataille pour la lutte contre la pauvreté dans les pays en développement\".  -Je crois que l'un des problèmes des leaders des pays du Sud, c'est qu'ils sont trop bureaucratiques. Un leader proche de sa base doit savoir tomber la cravate, retrousser ses manches de chemise et n'aller en ville que quand c'est vraiment nécessaire. Sinon comment peut-il prétendre présenter des problèmes dont il n'est pas imprégné ? Certains me reprochent parfois d'être introuvable en ville. Effectivement, ma place c'est ici à Timbi Madina. Ce sont les paysans qui m'ont élu à la tête de leur fédération et non des citadins. Je ne vais à Conakry ou en Europe que lorsque je dois prendre part à des négociations. Sinon, ma place est ici ! Il ne faut jamais perdre de vue que la finalité de nos organisations est d'aider à améliorer la production et la commercialisation. Ce n'est donc pas utile d'être de toutes les conférences et réunions pour donner des points de vue théoriques. Un bon responsable doit être un praticien plutôt que de rester retranché dans des bureaux climatisés, bien loin des réalités des paysans.-C'est vrai qu'un leader rencontre sur son chemin de nombreux écueils... Le tout premier, celui qui devrait constamment le préoccuper, c'est où et comment trouver des fonds et obtenir des prêts pour que les gens puissent se mettre au travail. Il doit être un bon négociateur parce qu'il lui faut trouver des fonds auprès des banques. J'avoue que ce n'est pas facile. D'autant plus que les taux d'intérêt doivent rester acceptables. Un autre gros problème : trouver sans cesse de nouvelles voies qui permettent aux agriculteurs disposant de petites surfaces de produire encore plus.Aujourd'hui, en Europe, il n'y a plus pratiquement que 3 ou 4 % de la population qui pratiquent l'agriculture. Mais malgré ce petit nombre, ils réussissent à nourrir toute l'Europe et à exporter dans le monde entier. En Afrique, 80 % de la population pratiquent l'agriculture. Et c'est à peine si les agriculteurs parviennent à subvenir à leurs besoins. La grande difficulté pour les leaders paysans, surtout africains, c'est d'inverser cette tendance.Pour pouvoir mener à bien toutes les tâches que je viens d'énumérer, le leader doit être outillé sur trois plans : intellectuel d'abord, pratique ensuite et matériel sur sa propre exploitation. Il doit aussi apprendre à se défendre contre l'injustice de certaines attaques. Parce que chez nous, quand on est leader, les gens pensent qu'on est nanti. Il faut donc vous battre pour vous faire connaître et faire connaître votre organisation. Il arrive parfois que certains créent des organisations parallèles, uniquement pour saboter votre action.-Le développement est un processus qui se construit à long terme. Il faut donc persévérer, ne pas lâcher prise si on veut réussir. Si vous vous attachez à cette tâche de longue haleine, vos efforts seront récompensés, parce que les populations reconnaîtront votre mérite. Elles vous accorderont leur respect et vous suivront dans ce que vous leur proposez. Et cela, c'est le meilleur salaire que l'on puisse vous donner. C'est pourquoi la bagarre doit être rude et menée sur tous les fronts. Les opinions exprimées dans ce Point de vue sont celles de l'auteur, et ne reflètent pas nécessairement les idées du CTA.","tokenCount":"5535"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"71300e93c9e3b987240cac64b42d1fa6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cccccff3-6481-4ac1-b485-aeedbbd8e2ec/retrieve","id":"-2076479144"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2408c53c-9a5d-4a89-b52b-5db829bfc38b","pagecount":"20","content":"of impacted households adopt response strategies to climate shocksof households access weather forecast informationof households do not own any landof farming households have access to some form of irrigationThis brief captures the experience and impact of climate shocks on households, along with the responses that households adopt to these shocks. It then provides a picture of access to different types of capitals that constitute the basis of households' adaptive capacity. In this brief we present 'generic' adaptive capacity (Mortreux and Barnett 2017) as an outcome of a households' access to five types of capital:Natural capital -natural resources required to sustain a livelihood to enable adaptationHuman capital -the physical and mental resources to adapt - Mortreux and Barnett (2017) This conceptual framework of five capitals (Figure) emerges from the sustainable livelihoods framework, which is discussed in the Annex section to this brief along with the indicator selection.Given the climate change focus of the brief, an added emphasis on 'access to climate information' has been included.  Climate adaptation is defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as \"the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects\". Here adaptation assessment is approached through three levels of related questions-whether respondents experienced any climate shocks in last 2 years, how were they impacted by these shocks, and how they responded to these shocks (immediate coping strategies and longer-term changes in farming practices). Perception or experience of shocks, and their impacts are a function of not only the biophysical incidence of climate shocks but also households' preparedness and capacity to cope and adapt.         To explore the impacts of climate shocks, households were asked about (1) the perceived severity level of the impact on the household's economic condition, and (2) the type of impact(s). Response strategies included both immediate coping as well as changes in farming practices. A range of categories of response options were offered to survey participants based on literature and validated surveys.Impacts and responses are presented at two levelsdisaggregated by different climate shocks (Fig. 6 and Fig. 8), and cumulative across different climate shocks (Fig 5 and Fig. 7). The 'cumulative' assessments provide the overview picture for different impact and response categories across all shocks affecting the household i.e. at least one valid response for a particular impact or response strategy across all of the shocks experienced by that household.✓ The most prevalent impacts of climate shocks reported by households were partial crop loss and reduced crop yields. Additionally, these shocks had significant repercussions on access to markets, infrastructure, and livelihoods, as reported by a substantial portion of the surveyed households. ✓ In the past two years, the most commonly experienced shocks were related precipitation uncertainty.✓ Droughts caused the highest impact in terms of crop sowing and yields, infrastructure, livelihood and consumption impacts ✓ Untimely rainfall caused highest impact in terms of crop loss and limiting physical access to market and spoiling of harvests.  o On farm/ plot water management -increase irrigation, decrease irrigation, drip/ sprinkler etc o Those not reporting any response strategies either depend more on personal savings, increase dependence on production from their own farm for self-consumption, or they did not report severe impacts✓ The predominant coping response among households was relying on financial credit acquired from either formal or informal sources. ✓ Households reported short-term farm-level responses, including crop choice adjustments and modifications to the crop calendar. Additionally, longer-term responses such as diversification of agricultural activities and increased investment in irrigation were also reported. Note: The X-axis represents grouping of detailed response strategies under five broad categories as presented in Figure 5 Please refer to Figure 5. for the different types of responses under these broad categories presented. Cyclone/storms, forest fires, cold wave, heat wave, flood/inundation have not been included in this list since percentage of households reporting experience of these shocks are below 30% of households reporting any experience of a shock.✓ Agronomic responses were primarily implemented in reaction to delayed monsoons and untimely rainfall. ✓ Livelihood-related responses, such as shifting to off-farm livelihoods and seeking employment through migration, were predominantly adopted in response to the impacts of untimely rainfall. ✓ A significant proportion of households in the region experience landlessness, with 43.9% facing this situation. This condition restricts their opportunities for income generation and their access to rural loans. 15% of households in Rajshahi depend entirely on tenant farming for their livelihoods. ✓ Nearly all households use irrigation, though to varying degrees, with groundwater being the primary source for irrigation. ✓ Water-related constraints are limited, both in terms of irrigation for agricultural purposes and household water availability.ADAPTIVE CAPACITY -NATURAL CAPITAL ✓ Ownership of agricultural and irrigation assets/water pumps is moderately high. ✓ There is also significant dependence on rental and service provision markets for irrigation. ✓ The majority of households own livestock. Livestock production and related products serve as an alternative source of livelihood and income, particularly during climate shocks. ✓ Road connectivity in the region is subpar, with a significant percentage of villages and the households residing in them having access only to poorly maintained roads.  ✓ Approximately 50% of households are led by individuals with very low levels of education, either having no formal schooling or completing only primary education. ✓ More than 60% of households have high dependency ratios, indicating a significant reliance on working members within the households to support the needs of dependents. ✓ 46% of households do not have any family members engaged in agriculture as their primary occupation.  ✓ Household membership in community groups in the Rajshahi region is notably low. ✓ Religion serves as the primary axis of social group identification in the region, with a very low percentage of minority religious groups. ✓ Access to government support is limited, with over 70% of households reporting having no access to or knowledge of any social safety net programs.  ✓ Access to weather forecast information is extensive, though only 20% of households receive technical advisories of some kind based on forecasts. ✓ Despite limited access to technical advisory services, the adoption of advisory recommendations by these households is notably high. ✓ The majority of weather forecast information is obtained from media outlets and informal sources. ✓ Technical advisory primarily focuses on providing information related to fertilizer and irrigation use. The sustainable livelihoods framework, building on the work of Chambers and Conway (1992), provides a structure of 'five capitals' pentagon, access to which are linked to sustainability of livelihood outcomes in a vulnerability context. Mortreux and Barnett (2017) summarize their role in adaptation as:\" Natural capital -to provide the natural resources necessary to sustain a livelihood to adapt (such as land, water, and vegetation for farming practices) Based on reviewed literature (Datta & Behera, 2022;Sardar et.al.2019;Brown et.al 2019;Maharjan et.al 2021;Khanal & Wilson 2019;Sam et.al 2019;Venus et.al 2022;Aryal et.al 2021;Devkota et.al 2021) we identified numerous household level variables that are used to represent the access to different capitals for the assessment of adaptive capacity in South Asia. These may be grouped under the following common and recurring indicator categories: ","tokenCount":"1171"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"30aa5d46abf8bba8b7cfb3d3bf7580a1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d5f31bdb-a42e-4778-a762-ad4e7149863f/retrieve","id":"1637289794"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f129face-21d3-471e-939c-83142d32eeb6","pagecount":"46","content":"The Arid and Semi-arid areas of the Greater Horn of Africa are among the areas in Eastern Africa frequently affected by natural and man-made disasters. These areas are therefore vulnerable to recurrent drought and other emergencies such as outbreaks of infectious diseases. They are characterized by inadequate access to basic services, inadequate infrastructure, and increased competition for resources. The HEAL project is based on the assertion that, despite the huge challenges that have hit the Horn of Africa in recent years, its people, livestock, and natural resource base provide a firm foundation upon which to improve livelihoods and increase resilience. Pastoralist communities depend on the close interlinkages between rangeland, livestock, and human health. This insight and understanding provide an ideal basis to apply a One Health approach to tackle one of the key bottlenecks for pastoralists which is access to necessary services and inputs.The HEAL project is building on this foundation by supporting a bottom-up approach that is participatory, context-specific, coordinated and integrated to reshape service delivery in the form of One Health Units (OHUs). These units will facilitate a combination of services from different disciplines in a meaningful way and will thus facilitate interactions and coordination between governmental departments, private service providers and communities. Their aim is to sustainably strengthen human, livestock and rangeland health services and support communities to develop sustainable strategies to cope with changing environments and threats related to climate change.The HEAL project focuses on selected pastoralist areas of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, which share some common characteristics in terms of climate, culture, population dynamics and challenges related to these. These countries have strong cross-border dynamics and are also linked in their historical context.This community conversation facilitator guide is part of the Human, Environment, Animal and Livelihood (HEAL) project training series on operationalizing One Health in pastoralist settings. The guide is intended to help facilitators to convene, run and document community conversation processes on health hazards arising through interaction with animals and the environment in which they share (\"One Health hazards\"). The conversations focus on collaborative and experiential learning and action among community members (e.g. multistakeholder innovation platform [MSIP] members) and local service providers. The process intends to help community members gain relevant knowledge and attitudes that may help them make positive behavior changes to protect themselves, their families, and their communities against One Health hazards.Community conversations are inclusive community engagement processes where community members work with trained facilitators to collectively identify health issues, analyze constraints, and explore actions for addressing the issues. In the framework of HEAL, they are used as a participatory community training method to raise awareness and knowledge of community members about One Health hazards and to encourage them to take actions to protect their health, the health of their animals and the environment. In contrast to a conventional training approach, community conversations create a social and inclusive learning environment that centres around community members' own experiences and generate deeper understanding through experiential learning, feedback, and knowledge supplementation, leading to changes in perspectives and practices.These discussion sessions are interrelated, building on and reinforcing each other, enabling community learning to progress incrementally. Topics are explored holistically, emphasizing their interconnectedness, with discussions reinforcing messages about safe handling, hygiene, and disease prevention. Each session builds on the previous ones to deepen understanding, reinforce messages, and encourage safe practices. This iterative approach ensures key messages are reinforced and integrated into daily routines.Participants will be asked to attend all the four sessions to promote lasting changes in perspective and practices and encourage the implementation of community action plans at wider scale. Each session takes around 2-3 hours. It is important to schedule sessions 2-4 weeks apart to allow time for participants to process the learning from each conversation and incorporate their new knowledge and attitudes into positive behavior change.Run sheets for each session are provided in Annex 1, offering facilitators an overview of the conversation process for each topic. These sheets can be printed to serve as a memory aid, helping facilitators effectively manage discussions during each session. However, they are not intended to replace this manual, which should be read in full.A small group discussion is a moderated discussion that offers opportunities for women and men to explore, analyze and understand specific issues in question. This group learning technique requires intensive, open but structured discussion in which every group member is encouraged to think aloud and share different perspectives based on what is known or experienced. Ideally, a small group discussion constitutes a maximum of eight members who share a common profile (e.g., men and women) to ease the conversation process and participation.Illustrations can be used as a discussion tool on a wide range of topics. Besides stimulating exploratory discussion, they can be used to structure the discussion. Facilitators should use illustrations that reflect the reality in connection to the theme of the discussion. The illustration must be contextually valid and initiate discussion among participants. Pictures help people speak, interact actively, and think and talk about their experiences and stories. It is recommended that facilitators use pictures mainly to stimulate conversations and guide the structure and flow of the conversations. Once participants start actively talking, they should deep dive into exploring the discussion points encouraging participants to share their experiences and stories around the issues at hand. Illustrations used in this manual are available in Supplementary File 1. The are numbered in the top left-hand corner for easy identification. Written explanations and intended meaning of each illustration is available in Annex 2, along with a summary of where they are intended to be used.A role-play is a method to act out a problem situation for subsequent discussion, reflections and problem solving. Charades are role plays where only acting is used; no words are spoken during the role-play. Individuals who may act will be identified and oriented on the scenario that reflects the realities and what and how to act before the session starts. Subsequent discussion and reflections after the role play help participants gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the dynamics of the issue. Facilitators must use realistic and context-specific role-play scenarios (scripts) and reflection questions to engage participants in meaningful experiential and reflective learning experiences.A problem scenario is a problem-based learning method where the goal is to encourage participants to think about and understand the realities related to the issues in discussion. Problem scenarios are real-life problem situations or case descriptions to engage participants in a meaningful critical thinking and reflective learning experience. It is important to consider relevancy, appropriate level of challenge, details, and realistic and context-specificity in developing problem-based learning scenarios. Additionally, facilitators should take a storytelling approach to using problem scenarios to actively engage community members in active learning processes.Probing questions are open-ended inquiries that facilitate a deeper exploration of specific discussion topics. They begin with general questions and gradually delve into more detailed aspects. By asking thought-provoking follow-up questions, facilitators can encourage the exchange of experiences among participants, engage them in in-depth discussions, and elaborate on potential solutions. These questions also serve as a valuable tool for community groups, allowing them to reflect on their experiences and envision possibilities for positive change.Storytelling is a useful method in conversation process with an objective to provide useful knowledge, help with desired attitude or skills on any one of the themes. The stories could be told by participants during exploratory discussions. People like to share their stories and to listen to others' stories. Storytelling motivates people to share and engage in discussions, deepens understanding of the themes under discussion, and increases attention span or helps to share experiences.Since learning progresses from simple to complex, the conversation process in each session is organized into four interrelated learning activities: 1) exploratory learning and analysis; 2) introduction of new knowledge; 3) learning reinforcement and integration; and 4) community action and support strategies. This sequence is summarized in Figure 1 below with more details. As a community training method, community conversations are implemented in such a way that the learning starts with eliciting what participants already know, their attitudes and practices in connection to the theme in discussion. This exploratory learning and analysis step is the most important component of the conversation process. It aims to raise awareness and sensitize community members about the issues at hand and the locally viable solutions, as well as create a need and motivation to learn and act. It also aims to identify key Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice (KAP) gaps of participants to direct the focus and depth of the second learning step (i.e., new knowledge introduction to address the gaps).Once community members recognize the problem and are motivated to seek solutions, new knowledge is introduced to address the KAP gaps or supplement existing knowledge and practices. The introduction of new knowledge is crucial for developing the knowledge and skills of community members and address misperceptions. The expected outcome is that community members are motivated to prevent and control One Health hazards.Learning integration and reinforcement is the third learning step. During this activity, facilitators summarize the main learning points, check for understanding, and reinforce learning by communicating key action messages. These key messages have been carefully designed so that community members hear, understand, remember, and act upon the information. The expected outcome is that community members feel motivated, confident, and prepared to take small actions to prevent potential One Health hazards.The final learning activity is community action and follow-up strategies. In this activity, facilitators encourage community members to identify and commit to practical actions based on the key action messages to prevent and control health hazards discussed in each session. They do this by explaining the benefits of these actions and sharing motivational stories. Additionally, local partners identify follow-up strategies and express their commitment to supporting and monitoring the implementation of community actions. The expected outcome is the creation of community action plans, as well as the motivation and commitment of community members to apply their learning and responsible follow-up strategies with the support of local service providers.To achieve the desired outcomes from the conversations process, the facilitator should follow these general facilitation tips:• Set a positive tone for the conversation/discussion • Respect every participant's ideas and opinions • Treat participants equally and respectfully • Encourage participants to share their experiences and stories • Use simple language that participants can understand • Ensure the conversation venue is comfortable for the purposeCommunication of key action messages is an important component of the community conversation process. Key messages are carefully crafted main points of information that community members should receive, understand, and act on to demonstrate desired behaviors (Figure 2). Remember that community members are adult learners who need to be convinced about the relevance and benefits of messages. In each conversation session, key action messages provided are followed by a brief explanation of why they are important to motivate participants to consider and act on the messages. Additionally, examples are provided for how to act on the messages. However, these are examples only and communities should discuss if/how they can implement them within their local context. Use appropriate illustrations to support communication and aid reception and understanding of the messages. The use of illustrations during the communication of messages can also help increase the attention of community members. If possible, you can also use simple demonstrations to increase the understanding and confidence of community members to act on the messages (e.g. how to put on and take off gloves safely).The key messages in this guide have been adapted from the message guide developed for and endorsed by the National One Health Steering Committee of Ethiopia. The wording has been carefully chosen to promote specific behavior change. Facilitators should deliver the main messages provided in each session as stated in the bold text -without deviating from the wording -to ensure consistency and reinforcement in messaging. The facilitator can be more selective when presenting examples of how to act on the message. For instance, they can omit an example that is not relevant to the local context.Community conversations are action-oriented and drive behavior change within communities, thereby reducing health risks associated with human-animal-environment interactions. These conversations are not standalone interventions; rather, they form an integral part of the HEAL intervention. In addition to fostering awareness and promoting behavior change, community conversations facilitate engagement and meaningful interaction among community members, MSIP participants, and frontline service providers. By doing so, they play a crucial role in informing MSIP engagements and local health planning and implementation processes. To ensure lasting impact of community conversations, HEAL partners should integrate community actions into their regular interventions. They should also provide monitoring and problem-solving support to community members. Behavioral changes within communities should be well-documented and shared within the MSIP networks.Guiding questions for after-event reflection are included in Annex 3 while a template for documenting the outcomes of each community conversation session is provided in Annex 4.Human beings interact with animals in a variety of ways and for different reasons. These interactions range from direct physical contact such as slaughter and milking, to more indirect forms like sharing living spaces and water resources. These varied interactions entail distinct health hazards. Moreover, both humans and animals are subject to hazards posed by biting insects present within the environment.In this session, facilitated conversation will be conducted to explore local shared knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to daily interaction with animals and insects. The session will begin to explore perceptions about the risks of interacting with animals and actions to prevent or contain the spread of the diseases.By the end of the session, participants will be able to:• Define who (men, women, children) interacts with which animals and how • Identify some gendered-health hazards related to daily interaction with animals and insects • Identify actions to reduce transmission of diseases from animals to people during day-to-day interactions • Share knowledge and information with their household members and other community members about Rift Valley fever and safe practices during day-to-day interaction with animals Learning content Introduce the facilitation team, set the tone for interactive discussion, and manage expectations from the outset. Mention that you are there to facilitate a community conversation that allows community members to learn and act together to prevent and control health hazards arising through daily interaction with animals and the shared environment. Remember that community members may have been sensitized to listening to outsiders and they may initially find it difficult to engage in active dialogues and collaborative learning processes among themselves. In the beginning, they may expect facilitators to \"teach\" them. As a facilitator, you should explain this expectation is unwarranted and set the tone for interactive and collaborative discussions.Activity 2. Explore community perceptions and practices regarding daily interactions with animalsExplain that the purpose of the session is to engage participants in an exploratory discussion about their daily interactions with animals and associated health risks. Note that participants may describe many ways of interacting with animals and insects in their daily lives. As a first round of planned conversations, this helps set the background and introduce different issues that will be discussed in subsequent conversation sessions. Start from a broader discussion of human interactions with animals and insects and the associated health risks of these interactions, then narrow the discussion to focus on Rift Valley fever. Mention that other issues that participants have identified will be discussed in subsequent conversation sessions.Show some photos depicting day-to-day (typical) interactions between humans and animals (domestic and wild). You can use the photos in Supplementary File 2 if you do not have any photos available. For example, photos could depict:• Children playing with dogs • Men slaughtering animals • Women milking animals • Domestic animals and wild animals grazing in the same area • Humans and animals using the same water source • Humans and animals in the same living space Ask participants to consider the photos and discuss the following questions:• What do you see in the photos?• Do the photos reflect the local situation/context in this area? How?• What other ways do people in this community interact with animals? Probe as necessary if participants do not mention many ways of interacting with animals daily (e.g., feeding and watering animals, cleaning barns, caring for small and sick animals, assisting births, slaughtering animals, sharing shelters with animals, playing with animals, hitting animals, milking animals, biting insects, etc.). • Has there been any experience of health problems in humans in connection to such interactions?Extend the discussion to explore the knowledge and perceptions of community members regarding zoonotic disease risks.Find out if community members think animals can or cannot transmit diseases to humans. Encourage women and men to share their experiences or stories using the following probing questions:• Do you think that animals can transmit diseases to humans? -If no, why not? -If yes, what diseases do you know that can be spread from animals to people? How are they spread? • Who is affected by the different diseases -women, men, children? Why?Summarize the discussion and mention that the different zoonotic diseases participants have identified will be addressed in the subsequent sessions, and you will now focus on Rift Valley fever as an example.Distribute the Illustrations 1 and 2 on Rift Valley fever transmission and symptoms.Explain that Rift Valley fever is an example of a disease that can be spread from animals to people. Ask participants to discuss the illustration in small groups (5-7 participants).Request each group present the summary of their respective discussion.After the presentation by each group, reinforce the key points.The below points are included for your own use only. Avoid simply giving the information to the participants. Rather, allow them to discuss the illustrations and draw their own conclusions. As they give their presentations, use the checklist to ensure the key points are covered. Correct any misinterpretations/misunderstandings about the illustration. You may also call on human and animal health providers to clarify any points.Rift Valley fever is a viral disease which is spread to humans:-Through the bite of an infected mosquito -When people touch infected blood and abortive material of infected animals without wearing protection -When people consume milk from infected animals Outbreaks often occur following significant rainfall and flooding which causes an increase in mosquitoes. The disease primarily affects cattle, sheep, goats, and camels. Disease in adult animals is often not apparent (no clinical signs). When clinical signs occur, these typically include abortion (i.e., delivery of live or dead fetus) in pregnant animals and death of young animals (\"abortion storms\"). Humans can experience no symptoms, temporary but generalized symptoms (e.g., fever, headache, sore joints) or more serious illness symptoms (e.g., bleeding, brain inflammation) including death. Humans can protect themselves from infection by:-Using mosquito nets -Avoiding direct contact with body fluids and abortive material from animals -Boiling milk before consumption Activity 4. Learning integration and reinforcementCommunicate key learning points and action messages to reinforce the learning process. You may like to use Illustrations 3, 4 and 5 to reinforce some of the key messages from this session.Why? Close contact between humans and animals in the home environment can increase the risk of exposure to germs present in animal urine and manure that can make people sick. Animals may not show any symptoms even though they are carrying these germs.How? These are some examples of actions people and communities can take:• Keep animals out of your house.• If you must bring animals indoors, keep them away from where humans sleep and eat.• Regularly clean and sweep areas where animals have been living.• Cover your nose and mouth with a mask or cloth when cleaning or sweeping these areas.• Always wash your hands and arms with soap and water immediately after cleaning or sweeping an area where birds have been.• Keep food and water in covered containers so that they cannot be contaminated by animals or attract vermin such as rodents and cockroaches which spread disease.Why? Blood and bodily fluids from animals contain germs that can make people sick. By taking precautions during slaughter and when assisting birth, you can protect yourselves and your community from spreading diseases. How? These are some examples of actions people and communities can take:• Cover your hands using gloves or plastic bags.• Cover your eyes with glasses.• Cover your nose and mouth with a mask or cloth.• Wash any tools used to kill or butcher an animal with soap and water or disinfectant.• Always wash your hands and arms with soap and water before and immediately after slaughtering an animal or assisting animals to give birth. If soap is not available, you can use ash or hand sanitizer.Why? Some people can experience more serious illness when they are infected with diseases spread from animals to people. This includes pregnant women, children under 5, adults older than 65, and people with weakened immune systems (e.g., those living with HIV, tuberculosis, or cancer).How? These are some examples of actions people and communities can take:• Re-assign duties so that vulnerable people do not have as much close contact with sick animals. • During shortages of soap and water, prioritize vulnerable community members.Key message 4: Protect yourselves and your animals from insect bites. Why? Biting insects such as mosquitoes, fleas and ticks can transmit germs -like malaria and Rift Valley fever. By protecting yourselves and your animals from insect bites, you can prevent the spread of diseases in the community. How? These are some examples of actions people and communities can take:• Use mosquito nets while sleeping.• Wear protective clothing such as long-sleeves during peak mosquito biting times (dusk and dawn) and when in areas with ticks. • Regularly empty containers holding standing water to remove mosquito breeding sites around the home and communal areas. • Apply acaricides to animals to prevent bites from ticks.• Avoid grazing your animals in areas known to be infested with ticks and flies.• Tell an animal health worker if you think your cat or dog has fleas.Based on the above messages, ask participants to identify actions they will take individually as well as collectively. Use probing questions where needed:• What are they not doing now, that they can do from now on?• Is a particular action feasible in this community?• If not feasible, what are some other ways the community can [achieve the same goal]? Ask how they will share the information from the conversations with their household members and other people using informal social networks.Ask for a few women and men volunteers (3-5 people) to champion implementation of the action points, provide peer support to community members, and influence other people through the demonstration effect of their actions. These people serve as exemplary action-learning-sharing groups that will provide a model for the community to implement the community actions. They canAnimal bites can cause minor irritation and discomfort or result in serious health consequences including death. The extent to which individuals and communities are aware of such problems determines the extent of the problem as well as timely action taken to prevent associated health hazards.In this session, facilitated conversations will be conducted to explore local shared knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to the health risks arising from animal bites.By the end of this session, participants will be able to:• Define local beliefs and practices related to animal bite occurrence and management • Identify some health hazards arising from animal bites • Identify actions to prevent animal bites and the spread of rabies • Share knowledge and information with their household members and other community members about animal bite prevention, rabies and appropriate care following animal bites• Community perceptions and behaviors related to interaction with dogs • Health hazards associated with animal bites [rabies]• Key messages on dog bites, rabies prevention and management of bitesLearning methodsActivity 1. Recap the previous sessionWelcome participants to the second session.Ask participants to recall and share the lessons learnt (key action messages) from the previous session.Ask participants if they have shared the lessons from the session with family members and/or other members of the community. Ask them to share how other people reacted to the information shared.Ask if any of the lessons were considered to improve usual practices. Make sure participants share what each have done and benefited from their actions.Invite an expert if there are technical questions from the previous session to explain.Document change stories and implementation challenges of community members. Identify potential stories for further documentation of early signs of changes.Activity 2. Explore community perceptions and behaviors related to interaction with dogsExplain that the purpose of this session is to engage participants in a discussion to explore what is known, believed, and done about the health hazards related to dog bites, who are most affected in the community and actions to prevent and control the risks.Storytelling Read the story below out loud and facilitate a discussion based on the story using the below question guide.In [Village X] people are aware that dog bites can cause health issues, but it has never caused a major problem in this village. However, two months ago a child was bitten by a dog that was wandering in the streets. A girl (aged 7) had run up to the dog and tried to pat it on the head when the dog bit her lightly on the hand. Thinking nothing of it, she did not tell her parents about the incident. However, twenty days later the child became sick with symptoms of fever, headache, and muscle aches. She did not eat anything her parents fed her and felt like she needed to vomit. Her parents took her to a traditional healer which was two hours walk from their village. Since the child did not get better, on day 30 they took the child to a health center. The health worker examined the child and referred her to a rural hospital in another city. They needed to find money to go there. By that time the child was very unwell; she seemed confused and agitated. The parents tried to give her water, but she refused. A few more days passed and by the time they went to the hospital it was too late: the child died.Facilitate a reflective discussion using the below questions:• What is the problem in this story?• Why does the problem occur?• What could be done to prevent the situation?Explore beliefs and practices about dogs and rabies in this community. Encourage women and men to share their experiences or stories using the following probing questions:• Does the scenario reflect the situation in this community? If yes, how?• Do people keep dogs in this area? Why? -Are they allowed to wander in the streets? -Are they vaccinated against any diseases? If yes, which ones? How often? • Has the disease in the story been seen in this area before? Does it have a local name?• What happens when someone in this community is bitten by a dog?-Do they go to a traditional healer or health centre? -Did they receive any medicine or other treatments? • What happened to the dog that inflicted the bite?-Did the community kill/bury it?Explain that you will encourage more dialogue to deepen understanding on these points.Divide participants into two, gender-mixed groups and distribute Illustrations 6 and 7 on rabies transmission and dog behavior, respectively. Be sure to read the description and intended meaning of Illustration 7 (dog behavior) in Annex 2 to ensure you understand the context.Ask participants to discuss the illustrations in their groups. Request each group present the summary of their respective discussion.After the presentation by each group, reinforce the key points.The below points are included for your own use only. Avoid simply giving the information to the participants. Rather, allow them to discuss the illustrations and draw their own conclusions. As they give their presentations, use the checklist to ensure the key points are covered. Correct any misinterpretations/misunderstandings about the illustration. You may also call on the human and animal health providers to clarify any points.Rabies is a virus which is spread through the bite or scratch of an infected animal. Domestic dogs are the main source of infection in humans; wild animals (e.g. mongoose, foxes, honey-badger, jackal) and livestock can also spread the infection to humans but it is less common.Main symptoms in dogs include: behavioral changes (e.g. biting, chewing), excessive salivation (drooling), unusual movement (e.g. stumbling, walking in circles), paralysis, unusual vocalization (e.g. whimpering, growling), inability to swallow. Main symptoms in humans include: headache, fever and pain at the site of the bite; increasing agitation and confusion; sensitivity to light and sound, inability to swallow, fear of water.Children are especially vulnerable to rabies because of how they interact with dogs.People exposed to rabies will die unless they receive treatment at a health center before symptoms develop. Dogs can be vaccinated to prevent rabies spreading to humans and other animals.Communicate key learning points and action messages to reinforce the learning. You may like to use Illustration 8 to reinforce one of the key messages from this session.Key message 1: Avoid animal bites and alert animal health workers of strange behaviour. Why? Animal bites can cause serious injuries to humans -especially children -and are often provoked by human behaviour. Animals can transmit the disease called rabies when they bite people and other animals. Telling an animal health worker when an animal is behaving strangely can help prevent bites from occurring.How? These are some examples of actions people and communities can take:• Act calm around dogs, especially if they are unfamiliar to you. Dogs can bite if they feel afraid or are trying to protect something that is theirs (e.g. their food, their owner, their young). • Teach children to stay away from dogs especially when they are sleeping, eating, or feeding their young.• If an unfamiliar dog runs towards you, stand still and remain quiet \"like a tree\" with your hands at your sides and do not make eye contact. • Do not let your dog lick your face or any breaks in the skins such as cuts, scratches, or sores. • Avoid dogs and other animals that are acting strangely.• If you see a dog that is suspected to have rabies or is showing symptoms of the disease, immediately tell an animal health worker before it infects other dogs or people. • Let your family and neighbors know if you see any unusual behavior in dogs, so that they can take care. • If you find any bites on your animals or they are exhibiting strange behaviour, separate them from other animals and people and call an animal health worker. • Do not kick, throw stones or punish a dog if a bite happens, as the dog can become fearful and it can make matters worse. • If a dog or other animal dies after showing signs and symptoms of rabies, avoid the dead body and tell an animal health worker. They can submit it for testing and help to safely dispose of the body.Key message 2: Protect dogs from rabies. Why? Dogs are the main sources of rabies and spread the virus in their saliva. When dogs are protected from rabies, they cannot spread the disease to humans or other animals. How? These are some examples of actions people and communities can take:• Vaccinate your dog against rabies every year. This protects your dog from getting rabies and is the best way to protect you, your family and your community from rabies. • Keep your dog in your yard or a closed area so they do not roam freely in public areas.• Spay or neuter your dog. This reduces unwanted breeding of dogs and stops them from roaming.Key message 3: Care for any animal bites immediately and seek urgent medical attention. Why? Rabies is a deadly disease that requires urgent medical attention. A person showing signs and symptoms of rabies will not survive. People who receive treatment before symptoms appear can survive. How? These are examples of actions people and communities can take:• Teach children to tell an adult if they are bitten or scratched by a dog.• If a bite or scratch happens, immediately wash the wound with soap and water for at least 15 minutes. This reduces the amount of virus in the bite wound and increases chances of survival.• Go straight to a health centre or animal bite treatment centre. Do not wait to see if you get sick. Early treatment saves lives. • Tell the health worker about the animal that bit or scratched you and how you were bitten or scratched. This information can help health workers learn more about the animal and help them protect other people.The subject of local unavailability of dog vaccines and human treatments may come up in this conversation. In this case, it is important to convey the importance of avoiding dog bites as a primary preventive measure. The tendency to seek care by a traditional healer may also arise. Communities must understand this is not an effective way to care for animal bites. Only treatments given by a medical provider before the start of symptoms will prevent death. This message needs to be conveyed with a sense of urgency, whilst being respectful of local customs.Based on the above messages, ask participants to identify actions they will take individually and collectively. Use probing questions where needed:• What are they not doing now, that they can do from now on?• Is a particular action feasible in this community?• If not feasible, what are some other ways the community can [achieve the same goal]?Ask how they will share the information from the conversations with their household members and other people.Ask for a few women and men volunteers (3-5 people) to champion implementation of the action points, provide peer support to community members, and influence other people through the demonstration effect of their actions.Ask a few participants (women and men) to share their reflections and feedback on the conversation process. This will give participants a sense of achievement at the end of the session.Finally, ask frontline service providers (human and animal health) to provide their reflections and feedback on the conversation process and how they will continue providing follow-up support for the community in implementing their action points.Document reflections and feedback from community members and frontline service providers.Next meeting. Introduce the topic for the next meeting and agree on the date and time. Remind that the same group of participants should attend the next meeting.Food and water are essential for human life. Nonetheless, food and water can also disseminate pathogens. This includes human pathogens (spread between humans), animal pathogens (spread between animals) as well as zoonotic pathogens (spread from animals to people). Therefore, the way we handle food and water is important for preventing illness. Due to limited local understanding and the way people manage food and water, many people get sick, and some people die due to food-and water-borne illness. Despite this potential threat to health, the consequences of food-and water-borne illnesses are often not given as much attention as other diseases.The purpose of this session is to draw on local shared knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to food and water. During the session, participants will share their own understandings, beliefs, and practices on the theme. They will gain insights into health risks of foods from animal sources and how handling food, water and animal manure can affect human health.By the end of the session, participants will be able to:• Define local beliefs and practices related to the management of food and water • Identify some gendered-health hazards arising from food and water • Identify actions to prevent food-and waterborne illness and to reduce environmental contamination with human and animal feces • Share knowledge and information with their household members and other community members about brucellosis and the safe management of food and water to prevent diarrheal illness• Community perceptions and behaviors related to harvesting and consumption of milk and water • Health hazards associated with food and water [brucellosis and diarrheal diseases]• Key messages on cooking foods of animal origin, hand washing and preventing environmental contamination with human feces and animal manureLearning methodsActivity 1. Recap the previous sessionWelcomes participants to the third session.Ask participants what they remember from the previous session.Ask participants if they have shared the lessons with family members and/or other members of the community and how. Ask them to share how other people reacted to the information shared.Ask if any of the lessons were applied and how and if any implementation challenges were faced. Document stories of changes participants made and the challenges they faced in making changes.Invite an expert if there are technical questions from the previous session to explain.Charades Ask for two volunteers and request each person to act out one of the following scenes without using any words. It is important to not be too prescriptive about how the volunteer interprets the scenario. They should act out the scenario according to how the process occurs in their local context.• Process of milking an animal through to the time that the milk is consumed • Process of collecting water through to the time that the water is consumedAfter each charade has been acted out, invite the other participants to guess what was happening in the scene.Observe each charade and facilitate discussion using the below questions:• What was the gender of the person milking the animal and collecting the water?• What animals were being milked?• Did they do anything to the milk after collection -why/why not?• Where was the water collected from?• Did they do anything to the water after collection -why/why not?Then, ask what animal-source foods are consumed in this area. Explain that animal-source foods are foods that come from animals. Write these down on a flipchart.Ask if they know any diseases that can be transmitted from animal-source foods and water. Write these down on a flipchart. Ask how they will share the information from the conversations with their household members and other people.Ask for a few women and men volunteers (3-5 people) to champion implementation of the action points, provide peer support to community members, and influence other people through the demonstration effect of their actions.Ask a few participants (women and men) to share their reflections and feedback on the conversation process. This will give participants a sense of achievement at the end of the session.Finally, ask frontline service providers (human and animal health) to provide their reflections and feedback on the conversation process and how they will continue providing follow-up support for the community in implementing their action points. Document reflections and feedback from community members and frontline service providers.Next meeting. Introduce the topic for the next meeting and agree on the date and time.Managing sick or dead animals can have consequences not only for the person or people directly involved, but also the whole community and the wider environment. Community members often engage in risky practices when handling sick and dead animals which increase the risk of disease transmission. Moreover, many communities give antibiotics to sick animals without knowing what is causing the disease. This misuse of antibiotics contributes to the development of antibiotic resistance.This session aims to engage participants to share their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to the management of sick and dead animals, on the one hand, and associated health risks on the other hand. During the session, participants will share their own understandings, beliefs, and practices on the theme. They will gain insights into health risks associated with managing sick and dead animals and develop an awareness of the proper management of sick and dead animals.By the end of the session, participants will be able to:• Define local beliefs and practices related to the management of sick and dead animals • Identify some gendered-health hazards arising from the management of sick and dead animals • Identify actions to reduce the transmission of diseases from sick and dead animals and to prevent the emergence of antimicrobial resistance • Share knowledge and information with their household members and other community members about anthrax, the safe handling of sick and dead animals, and the responsible use of antimicrobials• Community perceptions and behaviors related to the management of sick and dead animals • Health hazards associated with managing sick and dead animals [anthrax, antimicrobial resistance] • Key messages on avoiding contact with sick or dead animals, disposing of dead animals safely and reducing use of antibiotics• Role playActivity 1. Recap the previous sessionWelcomes participants to the last session.Ask participants what they recall from the previous session.Ask participants if they have shared the lessons with family members and/or other members of the community and how. Ask them to share how other people reacted to the information shared.Ask if any of the lessons were considered for application and how. Encourage them to share the changes they have made due to the previous session.Invite an expert if there are technical questions from the previous session to explain.Activity 2. Explore community perceptions and practices regarding management of sick and dead animasRole play Ask for 6-8 volunteers to act out a role play. Assign roles based on the following:• 1 person who slaughters and skins an ox • 3 neighbors who share the meat • 2-4 other community members who do not have contact with the oxAn ox gets sick. The animal is slaughtered and skinned, and the remainder of the carcass is disposed in the field. That night the meat is shared with the neighbors. Within days the person who slaughtered the ox develops sores on his hands and people who ate the meat develop severe stomach pains. Dogs and cats which scavenged on the carcass died, while another ox which grazed near the carcass also died. Tarry blood exuded from all openings of the dead ox. The community is very worried that an epidemic might be happening.Then, facilitate reflective discussion using the discussion questions below.• What is the problem?• Why does the problem arise?• Who is affected by the problem and how are they affected?• What could have been done to prevent the problem?Explore beliefs and practices about management of sick and dead animals in this community.Encourage women and men participants to share their experiences and stories using the following probing questions:• Does this scenario reflect the situation in this community? If yes, how?• Has this disease been seen in this area before? Does it have a local name?• Who usually takes care of sick animals in this community?• What happens when animals get sick or die? What actions are taken by the community? -Do they eat meat from the animal? -How do they dispose of the carcass? -Do they tell an animal health worker? • Do people give medicines to their animals when they are sick?-Which medicines? Modern or traditional? -For which species of animals? • Do people give antibiotics?-Which antibiotics? -From where do they acquire them? -Do people seek input from an animal health worker before giving antibiotics? -After giving an antibiotic, do people wait before selling the animal, eating its meat or drinking its milk? If yes, how long do they wait?Explain that you will encourage more dialogue to deepen understanding on these points.Divide participants into two, gender-mixed groups and distribute illustrations 14 and 15 on anthrax transmission and clinical signs and illustration 16 on antimicrobial resistance.Ask participants to discuss the illustrations in their groups. Request each group present the summary of their respective discussion.After the presentation by each group, highlight the key points.The below points are included for your own use only. Avoid simply giving the information to the participants. Rather, allow them to discuss the illustrations and draw their own conclusions. As they give their presentations, use the checklist to ensure the key points are covered. Correct any misinterpretations/misunderstandings about the illustration. You may also call on the human and animal health providers to clarify any points.Anthrax is a bacterial disease that is spread to humans when people:-Have contact with meat, hide, skin or bones from infected animals.-Ingest meat or blood from infected animals or contaminated water.-Inhale infectious particles in the air (uncommon in this setting). The disease mainly affects domestic and wild herbivores (animals that eat grass, such as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, antelope).Animals get infected when they ingest contaminated soil, plants, and water. Carnivores (such as lions) can also get infected when they feed on infected carcasses. The main symptom in animals is sudden death without prior signs. Dead animals may show blood oozing from nose, mouth, and anus, and the carcass may lack the typical stiffness after death. Some animals may show high fever, excitation, and breathing problems before death. Anthrax can cause serious illness and death in humans. People experience different symptoms depending on how they are exposed:-People who have skin contact with infected animals experience blisters or sores with a black center ('black eschar') on their hands, arms, neck, or face (most common). -People who ingest infected meat can develop fever and chills, as well as nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, and diarrhea (less common). -People who inhale the bacteria can develop fever and chills, as well as difficult breathing (rare in this setting). Humans can protect themselves by:-Never eating, selling or giving away meat of animals that look sick.-Avoiding direct contact with skin or hides from animals that die suddenly.-Vaccinating animals against anthrax every year.Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change and adapt to antibiotics, making the drugs less effective in killing them. When people take antibiotics, bacteria in that person can develop resistance. These resistant bacteria can be excreted in human waste (e.g. urine, feces) and spread to other people in hospital and community settings. When livestock are given antibiotics, bacteria in that animal can also develop resistance.Resistant bacteria can be excreted in animal waste (e.g. urine, manure). When manure is spread on crops, these resistant germs can be transferred to the plants and spread to other animals and people that eat the crops. In addition, resistant bacteria can remain on meat when the animal is slaughtered. They can also be excreted in milk. People who consume contaminated meat or milk can be infected with these resistant germs. When people or animals are infected with resistant bacteria, there are fewer options for treatment, and they might get really sick and potentially die.Communicate key learning points and action messages to reinforce the learning. Use Illustrations 5, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 to reinforce the key messages from this session.Key message 1: Protect yourselves and your animals from other sick and dead animals. Why? Sick animals can carry germs that can spread to other animals and people. Taking actions to protect yourself and your animals can prevent diseases from spreading. How? These are some examples of actions people and communities can take:• Never sell or give away an animal that looks sick or recently aborted.• Avoid eating the meat and blood from a sick animal or animal that you find dead (including domestic animals and wildlife).• If you must handle a sick animal:-Wear rubber gloves or plastic bags to protect your hands.-Cover your eyes with glasses.-Cover your nose and mouth with a mask or cloth.-Wash your hands and arms with soap and water. • Keep any sick or aborting animals away from other animals and people until an animal health worker can inspect them. • Close off the area surrounding a dead animal to prevent other animals from coming into contact. -Wash or disinfect any equipment (gloves, plastic bags, mask, shovel, wheelbarrow) -Dispose of gloves, plastic bags and mask in burial pit or burn them with the body -Wash your hands and arms thoroughly with soap and water.Key message 3: Reduce the use of antibiotics. Why? Exposure to antibiotics is the main reason why germs become resistant. When germs develop resistance, antibiotics used in humans and animals become ineffective at treating diseases. This contributes to poor health in humans and impacts on profitability and welfare of livestock. How? These are some examples of actions people and communities can take:• Prevent animals from getting sick by: -Ensuring they have adequate access to shelter, feed, and water.-Asking an animal health worker to vaccinate your animals against diseases such as PPR. This is cheaper than treating animals when they get sick. -Letting young animals feed from their mothers if possible before weaning -Practicing good udder hygiene in milking animals -Separating sick animals from healthy animals -Separating new animals from the rest of the herd for 21-30 days and observing them for signs of illness every day • Do not give antibiotics to healthy animals.• Only use antibiotics in sick animals under the supervision of an animal health worker or veterinarian. Buying and using the wrong drug, or the right drug in the wrong way, is a waste of time and money and puts the health of you and your animals at risk. • Strictly follow the instructions on dosage and length of treatment. Giving too little or too much antibiotic or stopping treatment before the full course of antibiotics is given puts the health of you and your animals at risk. • After antibiotics are given, wait the required time (\"withholding period\") before selling, eating the meat or drinking the milk from that animal.Based on the above messages, ask participants to identify actions they will take individually and collectively. Use probing questions where needed:• What are they not doing now, that they can do from now on?• Is a particular action feasible in this community?• If not feasible, what are some other ways they can [achieve the same goal]?Ask how they will share the information from the conversations with their household members and other people.Ask for a few women and men volunteers (3-5 people) to champion the implementation of the action points, provide peer support to community members, and influence other people through the demonstration effect of their actions.Ask a few participants (women and men) to share their reflections and feedback on the conversation process. This will give participants a sense of achievement at the end of the session.Finally, ask frontline service providers (human and animal health) to provide their reflections and feedback on the conversation process and how they will continue providing follow-up support for the community in implementing their action points.Document reflections and feedback from community members and frontline service providers.As this is the last session of this community conversation process, engage participants in a discussion on how to sustain the learning and the changes due to the conversations. Focus on the following during the discussion about follow-up and sustainability strategies:• How the community could organize itself to prevent health risks related to:day-to-day interaction with animals and insectsSession 1: Hazards arising from day-to-day interaction with animals and insects   • Communicate key learning points and action messages to reinforce the learning process. Illustrations 12 and 13 can be used to reinforce some of the key messages.Key message 1: Cook food well to help stop the spread of any sickness. Food should be hot to the touch all the way through. Key message 2: Wash your hands regularly with soap and water, or ash when these are not available. Key message 3: Reduce environmental contamination with human faeces and animal manure.• Identify actions communities will take individually as well as collectively.• Identify champions.• Invite reflections and feedback from participants and frontline service providers.• Conduct after-event reflection and document the outcomes.   ","tokenCount":"8533"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fe7448680b9fe375f260f9ff2102bd01","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/792128dd-0438-4289-be72-8c7c8b742876/retrieve","id":"1784498237"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0285a9d2-32ef-47cc-9f7c-3db2687804d4","pagecount":"58","content":"The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experience with water user associations-and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide-ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI staff, and by external reviewers. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment.as the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI), published its first Research Report entitled The new era of water resources management: From \"dry\" to \"wet\" water savings. The report stressed the increasingly difficult problems facing water management, including growing demands for, and competition over, scarce water resources, and the physical, economic and environmental constraints to developing additional supplies. While a large body of research already existed on opportunities to improve irrigation efficiency and water-use efficiency, David Seckler, the newly appointed Director General of IIMI at that time and author of the research report, argued that the classical notions of 'efficiency' may be inappropriate for water management and planning at the basin level, as they do not take into account the potential reuse of water within larger hydrologic systems. To incorporate these reuse effects, Seckler proposed the concept of agricultural water productivity as an alternative metric to guide future basin management strategies aimed at achieving real efficiency gains and real water savings.Since the publication of that first Research Report, improving agricultural water productivity has been a core component of IWMI's research agenda and a number of initiatives led by the Institute. This Research Report chronicles the evolution of thinking on water productivity in the research agenda of IWMI and in the broader irrigation literature over the past 20 years. It describes the origins of the concept and the methodological developments, its operationalization through applied research, and some lessons learned over the two decades of research. This report further highlights how a focus on agricultural water productivity has brought greater attention to critical water scarcity issues, and the role of agricultural water management in supporting broader development objectives such as increasing agricultural production, reducing agricultural water use, raising farm-level incomes, and alleviating poverty and inequity. Yet, reliance on a single-factor productivity metric, such as agricultural water productivity defined as \"crop per drop,\" in multi-factor and multi-output production processes can mask the complexity of agricultural systems as well as the tradeoffs required to achieve desired outcomes. The findings from this retrospective underscore the limitations of single-factor productivity metrics while also highlighting opportunities to support more comprehensive approaches to address water scarcity concerns and, ultimately, achieve the broader development objectives.A reflection on the lessons learned is especially relevant given the adoption of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 and their supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, Goal 6.4 aims to \"by 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity, and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.\" This is the first time that the efficiency with which water is used has a place on the mainstream development agenda. The insights and opportunities presented in this report are intended to inform the development and application of appropriate indicators and measures to meaningfully track progress towards this stated goal, and support the UN's broader objective of achieving sustainable development for people, planet and prosperity.Improving agricultural water productivity has been a core component of the International Water Management Institute's (IWMI's) research agenda since the mid-1990s. 1 In 1996, David Seckler, the newly appointed Director General of IIMI at that time, published the first IWMI Research Report, The new era of water resources management: From \"dry\" to \"wet\" water savings (Seckler 1996). The report outlined several key ideas that fundamentally changed IWMI's research paradigm from one that focused on 'irrigation efficiency' and 'performance of irrigation systems' to one centered on 'water productivity' and 'river basin management' (Rijsberman 2006). Since that time, IWMI has contributed significantly to developing the concept of water productivity, particularly as it relates to surface water and groundwater, 2 and supporting its application across a range of geographic and agroecological settings.Water productivity has been central to many IWMI research projects and to a number of major programs led by the Institute, including the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) System-Wide Initiative on Water Management (SWIM); Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (CA); CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF); and the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). While IWMI's view and approach to the concept of water productivity has evolved through the research and experiences of these programs, the concept has remained a core component in each of them (Box 1).These four programs have contributed a significant body of work on water productivityconceptually and operationally-addressing different geographies, scales and contexts. Snapshots of this large body of work have been provided by a number of earlier reviews. A book related to the CA program on the limits and opportunities for improving water productivity in agriculture was an effort to collate the latest knowledge on concepts, methodologies, and case studies globally (Kijne et al. 2003b). This was followed by a book reviewing IWMI's research from 1996 to 2006 with a focus on the 'more crop per drop' paradigm (Giordano et al. 2006). A synthesis of the CPWF described how the program's research prompted a fundamental shift in thinking from water productivity as a \"principle objective\" to water productivity as an \"entry point\" to understand limitations to water access and availability (Vidal et al. 2014). Furthermore, Clement (2013) and Lautze et al. (2014) offered important insights on the concept of water productivity and the extent to which the concept is a true paradigm or, rather, an element of (or indicator within) the larger food-waterecosystem discourse.Building on the earlier reviews, this report synthesizes 20 years of research on water productivity and lessons learned across the four major IWMI-led programs. It expands on a background paper (IWMI 2015a) commissioned by The World Bank as part of a study carried out by the Water and Agriculture Global Practices on Improving agricultural water productivity and beyond: what are the options? (Scheierling et al. 2014). This report aims to provide key highlights from two decades of IWMI research and the broader irrigation literature on agricultural water productivity, with an emphasis on the evolution and application of the concept, highlighting its contributions and limitations while identifying opportunities for further refinements in the way it is understood and applied. Chapter 2 describes the origins of the concept of agricultural water productivity and its methodological developments. Chapter 3 illustrates the different ways the concept has been operationalized in applied research, offers a description of the pathways-with their associated interventions-for improving water productivity, and discusses the contributions to broader development objectives. Based on these, and considering the broader literature, Chapter 4 presents a set of key lessons and insights from two decades of research on water productivity. Chapter 5 concludes by highlighting how a focus on agricultural water productivity has brought greater attention to critical water scarcity and management issues. Important strategic opportunities remain, however, for continued improvements in technologies and management practices, data sources, and Box 1. Major IWMI-led programs focused on water productivity.CGIAR System-Wide Initiative on Water Management (SWIM) (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999): SWIM supported much of the early work on water productivity. Launched in 1995 by the Technical Advisory Committee of the CGIAR, SWIM was a collaborative research program focusing on broad issues of water management and agricultural production within a basin context. Key research themes included water accounting, salinity management, water-land relations, water productivity, multiple uses, water harvesting and basin-scale modeling. Many of the fundamental water productivity concepts, tools and indicators emerged from this body of work. Visit: http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/publications/other-publication-types/swim-papers Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (CA) (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006): Commencement of the CA program in 2001 fostered a broader, multi-disciplinary body of conceptual and applied research on water-globally, regionally and in selected river basins in Asia and Africa. The program, involving hundreds of CGIAR researchers and partners, aimed to improve water investment and management decisions to meet poverty, hunger, and environmental sustainability objectives by understanding the (i) options to enhance agricultural water productivity; (ii) benefits, costs and impacts from past developments in irrigated agriculture; and (iii) water requirements to meet future food security and environmental sustainability goals. Visit: http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/assessment/Publications/books.htm CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013): Informed by SWIM and early CA research, IWMI called for a major new research-for-development program to catalyze water productivity improvements that are effective and efficient as well as pro-poor, gender-equitable, and environmentally sustainable. This call led to the launch of the CPWF. The program was a major multi-partner program with the aim of raising water productivity and improving food security while helping to alleviate poverty, improve health, and attain environmental security. Over the course of a decade, the program funded over a hundred projects, concentrated primarily in 10 major river basins in Asia, Africa and South America. Through collaboration with research, policy and implementing organizations in Asia, Africa and South America, WLE aims to increase water and land productivity in a sustainable manner in order to secure the provision of ecosystem services, improve food security, reduce poverty, and promote gender and social equity. Visit: https://wle.cgiar.org interdisciplinary research to develop and apply more comprehensive approaches to address water scarcity concerns and, ultimately, make progress towards broader development objectives.This reflection on past research, lessons learned, and future opportunities to improve the understanding of the role of water in agricultural production and productivity is timely given the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. Specifically, Goal 6.4 aims to, \"by 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity, and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity\" (United Nations 2015, 21). This is the first time the efficiency with which water is used has a place on the mainstream development agenda. We hope that some of the insights and opportunities presented in this report will also inform the development and application of appropriate indicators and measures to meaningfully track progress towards the achievement of this goal.methodological developments that supported its operationalization.By the early 1990s, a wide body of research from different disciplines-including agronomy, plant physiology, and irrigation engineeringalready existed on opportunities to increase irrigation efficiency and water-use efficiency. Box 2 presents some of the key terms and definitions. As a background to the definitions, it is useful to keep in mind the different measures of water quantity (Young 2005):• Water withdrawal. This measure refers to the amount of water removed (or diverted) from a surface water or groundwater source.• Water application. Water applied (or delivered) differs from water withdrawn by the amount of water lost in transit from IWMI's focus on water productivity originated in large part from a concern over increasing water scarcity and longer-term trends in water supply and demand. Cautioning that the problems with water management may be much more severe than commonly acknowledged, Seckler (1996, 5) pointed out the \"increasingly difficult problems facing water management,\" including growing demands for, and competition over, scarce water resources, as well as the physical, economic and environmental constraints to developing additional supplies. With agriculture being the largest user of water resources worldwide, there was a need to identify ways to achieve real efficiency gains and real water savings, and, thus, \"opportunities for increasing the productivity of water\" (Seckler 1996, 10). This idea was later formulated as growing more food with the same or less amount of water, a concept that became popularly known as 'more crop per drop'.This chapter presents in more detail the evolution of the concept of agricultural water productivity, its influence on a \"new era\" of water research at IWMI and elsewhere, and related the point of withdrawal to the point of use. This delivery (or conveyance) loss usually stems from leakages (for example, from unlined earthen canals).• Water consumption. This measure (also called consumptive use, crop evapotranspiration, or depletion) refers to the amount of water that is actually depleted by the crops, i.e., transferred to the atmosphere through evaporation from plant and soil surfaces and through transpiration by plants, incorporated into plant products, or otherwise removed from the immediate water environment.Box 2. Terms and definitions.The term refers to the ratio of water consumed by crops relative to water applied or, in some instances, relative to water withdrawn from a source. The numerator sometimes takes into account effective precipitation, by deducting it from the water consumed. To assess losses in the conveyance and application of irrigation water, the terms conveyance efficiency (ratio of water received at the farm gate relative to the water withdrawn from the water source) and application efficiency (ratio of water stored in the root zone and ultimately consumed by crops relative to the water delivered to the farm gate), respectively, are used.Sources: Israelsen 1932Israelsen , 1950;;Keller and Keller 1995;Burt et al. 1997;Cai et al. 2006;Jensen 2007.The term refers to the ratio of plant biomass (or yield) relative to the water consumed (or, in some instances, transpired). In the field of agronomy and plant physiology, it is typically expressed in kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3 ).Sources : Viets 1962;Molden 1997;Renault and Wallender 2000;Howell 2001;Hsiao et al. 2007;Perry et al. 2009.The term is defined as the ratio of water consumed, minus effective precipitation, relative to the effective use of water. Effective use of water is the difference between water inflow to an irrigation system and water outflow (with both flows discounted for the leaching requirements to hold soil salinity at an acceptable level). The term was developed to address some of the limitations of classical irrigation efficiency by taking into account the quantity of water delivered from, and returned to, a water supply system (as well as the leaching requirements).Sources: Keller and Keller 1995;Keller et al. 1996;Cai et al. 2006;Jensen 2007.The term refers to the ratio of physical production (in terms of biomass or crop yield) or, in some instances, 'economic value' of production (in terms of gross or net value of product) relative to water use (in terms of water withdrawn, applied or consumed). It is, therefore, expressed in kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m 3 ) or US dollars per cubic meter (USD/m 3 ). The selection of the numerator and denominator depends on the scale and focus of the analysis.Sources: Molden 1997;Molden et al. 1998b;Molden and Sakthivadivel 1999;Jensen 2007.The different disciplines often understand the terms 'efficiency' and 'productivity' in different ways, and also tend to focus on different measures of water. For example, the classical notion of irrigation efficiency was developed in irrigation engineering, and commonly measures the ratio of water consumed to water applied or withdrawn from a source. Plant physiologists and agronomists often use the term 'water-use efficiency' and apply different definitions, such as the ratio of plant biomass or yield to transpiration, or the ratio of yield to water consumed.A further confounding factor is the range of scales (both spatial and temporal) at which the terms can be defined and applied, e.g., from field-scale, seasonal measures of grain biomass per unit of water transpired to basin-scale, annual estimates of the economic value obtained per unit of water applied in the agriculture or other sectors (Kijne et al. 2003a;Bouman 2007;Molden et al. 2007b).Starting in the mid-1990s, Seckler (1996) and others (e.g., Keller and Keller 1995;Keller et al. 1996) argued that \"efficiency\" was a tricky concept in the context of a mobile resource such as water, and highlighted a need for metrics that account for the capture and reuse of water within broader hydrologic systems, such as river basins. As stated by Keller and Keller (1995, 7), \"The classical concepts of irrigation efficiency have been appropriate for farmers making irrigation management decisions and for planners designing irrigation conveyance and application systems. But applying classical efficiency concepts to water basins as a whole leads to incorrect decisions and, therefore, to faulty public policy.\"To demonstrate this point, Keller and Keller (1995) and Keller et al. (1996) used the case of the Nile Valley, where deep percolation either returns to the river or recharges groundwater supplies. Classical efficiency concepts do not account for such return flows and their subsequent reuse. Thus, in this case, applying irrigation efficiency concepts alone could lead to the conclusion that significant opportunities existed for efficiency gains. In reality, however, despite local irrigation inefficiencies, the scope for improved efficiency at the sub-basin or basin scale (and thus for real water savings) is limited due to the reuse of the return flows elsewhere in the Nile Valley. Moreover, because of the opportunity to recharge groundwater aquifers through return flows, a strategy involving overwatering on the fields and allowing seepage losses from conveyance canals may be preferable to promoting local (application or conveyance) efficiency gains in this situation.Several modifications were proposed to address the limitations to classical efficiency concepts. This includes the term 'effective irrigation efficiency' to account for leaching requirements and return flows (Keller and Keller 1995), and the concept of 'fractions of water use' to break down consumptive a n d n o n -c o n s u m p t i v e u s e s a n d a n a l y z e the purposes for which water is consumed (Willardson et al. 1994;Frederiksen and Perry 1995;Molden 1997). These refinements to the irrigation efficiency terminology, and the underlying principles, contributed to the conceptual development of water productivity.Productivity is conventionally understood as a ratio that refers to output per unit of input. Water productivity, like land and labor productivity, is a single-factor productivity metric applied in a multi-factor production process. In its basic form, water productivity measures production per unit of water use. The denominator, water use, may be measured in terms of water withdrawn, applied, or consumed. The numerator can also be expressed in different forms. In the case of physical water productivity, expressed in kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3 ), the numerator is defined as the physical mass of production (such as biomass or crop yield). In the case of economic water productivity, expressed in US dollars per cubic meter (USD/m 3 ), the numerator is usually expressed as gross value of output (yield multiplied by price). Other formulations for the numerator have also been used in the literature; an example is water productivity in nutritional terms, expressed in protein grams or kilocalories (kcal/m 3 ) (Molden 1997;Molden and Sakthivadivel 1999;Renault and Wallender 2000). The water productivity concept is thus applied for different purposes and at a range of scales (field, farm, irrigation system, and basin).The next section describes how the evolution and development of the water productivity concept inspired a \"new era\" of water research at IWMI. This included a shift from an earlier focus on farm-and irrigation system-level irrigation efficiency to one focused on ways to grow more food with the same or less amount of water-with the aim of alleviating water scarcity, achieving food security and placing less strain on the environment (Rijsberman and Molden 2001).IWMI Research Report 1 (Seckler 1996) introduced the concept of water productivity and related strategies for its improvement to promote \"real solutions\" to complex water management problems. The report aimed to inspire new and creative concepts that could address key food security and environmental challenges-and thus initiated a \"new era of water management\" (Seckler 1996, 3). The focus was on three fundamental points:• C l a s s i c a l n o t i o n s o f i r r i g a t i o n efficiency overlook the fact that socalled \"losses\" in water conveyance and application may be reused, or \"recycled\", elsewhere in a river basin.6 Thus, measures of irrigation efficiency do not take into account the recycling opportunities for irrigation water.• Because of these recycling opportunities, there is the need to distinguish between real water savings (e.g., due to a reduction in consumptive water use) and reallocation of water (e.g., where water is redistributed from one user to another). Because of the extent of water recycling at the basin scale, the actual scope for real water savings is often less than imagined. For example, a water conservation strategy that simply reduces the amount of drainage water that would otherwise be reused downstream does not result in real water savings. By contrast, if the excess drainage water would have otherwise flowed into saline shallow groundwater, real water savings are possible. Taking the above points into consideration, Seckler (1996) highlighted four basic basinscale water management strategies to promote improved water productivity and achieve real efficiency gains in both open and closed basins:(i) Increase the output per unit of evaporated water.(ii) Reduce losses of water to sinks and evaporation.(iii) Reduce the deterioration of water quality.(iv) Switch from lower-value to higher-value uses of water.Seckler described the potential for increasing water productivity and efficiency from water use as enormous, but also highlighted the equally enormous conceptual and practical challenges in doing so, a challenge which he encouraged IWMI and others to overcome.In the years following the publication of IWMI Research Report 1 (Seckler 1996), the Institute's research concentrated on developing a common framework and set of indicators to assess and measure water productivity across a range of uses and scales. The SWIM and CA programs were a fundamental part of this effort, laying the foundation for the concept's operationalization. Below is a summary of some of the key developments in this regard.To place water productivity in context, the first SWIM Paper focused on the development of a water accounting framework to identify possible strategies to achieve real water savings and improve water productivity (Molden 1997). The framework, illustrated in Figure 1, is based on a water balance approach and a categorization of water based on how it is (re)used (Molden 1997;Molden et al. 1998a;Molden and Sakthivadivel 1999;Jensen 2007;Perry 2007):• Inflow into the domain of interest is classified as gross inflow (i.e., the amount of water flowing into a sub-basin from precipitation and surface and subsurface sources) and net inflow (i.e., gross inflow plus any changes in storage).• Available water is the net inflow less the amount of water set aside for committed outflows (such as for downstream water rights and non-utilizable outflows), and includes depleted water (i.e., water withdrawn that is unavailable for further use) and uncommitted utilizable outflows.• Depleted water includes:○ Beneficial depletion, such as (i) process depletion (i.e., for an intended process; for example, in agriculture, the water transpired by crops plus the amount incorporated into plant tissues); and (ii) non-process depletion (i.e., for a process other than the one for which the diversion was intended; for example, the water transpired by trees along an irrigation canal); and ○ Non-beneficial depletion (such as water flows to sinks).• Outflow from the domain comprises: Source: Adapted from Molden et al. 2003. means to generalize about water productivity and use across scales-such as the crop, field, farm, irrigation system or the basin leveldepending on the purpose and users of the analysis (Table 1). Sources: Adapted from Molden 1997; Molden et al. 2003Molden et al. , 2007b;;Cook et al. 2006.The aim of the water accounting framework was to provide first-order estimates of water use within and across crops (or sectors), as well as insights into opportunities for real water savings and improvements in water productivity. Some of the advantages of the framework include its ability to:• identify total water depletions (beneficial and non-beneficial), • distinguish between process (e.g., agriculture, cities, and industry) and non-process (e.g., forests, grassland and water bodies) beneficial depletions, • estimate the components of beneficial and non-beneficial depletions, and • account for downstream commitments.To complement the framework, IWMI introduced a set of performance indicators to characterize the various uses of water in a given domain (Molden 1997;Molden et al. 1998a). These indicators built on the notions of effective irrigation efficiency and fractions of water use (Willardson et al. 1994;Frederiksen and Perry 1995), described earlier, and were organized into three main groups as follows: For more complex comparisons across multiple crops and multiple countries, an approach to standardize water productivity measures was proposed. This involved the conversion of physical output to value of output through the use of a standardized gross value of production indicator (Molden et al. 1998b;Sakthivadivel et al. 1999). Where data were available, the indicator could also be used for other agricultural products besides crops, such as fish and livestock (Cook et al. 2006).I W M I a p p l i e d t h e w a t e r a c c o u n t i n g framework and the related indicators in a variety of locations at different scales to understand current conditions and opportunities to achieve water savings and increase water productivity in irrigated agriculture. An example of the water accounting framework applied to the Nile River below the High Aswan Dam, drawing from water balance studies carried out between 1993 and 1994, is provided below (Figure 2 and Table 2).This example illustrates a case where a l a r g e p r o p o r t i o n o f d e p l e t e d w a t e r ( 8 4 % ) i s u s e d f o r i n t e n d e d ( \" p r o c e s s \" ) purposes, including crop production, and municipal, industrial and navigational uses.  1 Assumes no change in storage, therefore gross inflow equals net inflow.2 Water available for irrigation equals total water available less committed water (for the environment, and municipal, industrial, and navigational uses). 3 Assumes gross value of production (in 1993 USD) equals USD 7.5 billion. In this case, converting the non-beneficial portion of the remaining non-process depletion (e.g., nonbeneficial drainage that is in excess of environmental requirements) could allow for improvements in the productivity of water (Molden et al. 1998a).Similar studies were carried out at irrigation system and basin scales in Sri Lanka (Molden et al. 1998b;Molden and Sakthivadivel 1999), India (Elkaduwa and Sakthivadivel 1999;Bastiaanssen et al. 1999aBastiaanssen et al. , 1999b;;Hussain et al. 2000Hussain et al. , 2003)), Pakistan (Hussain et al. 2000;Tahir and Habib 2000), China (IWMI 2003;Roost 2003), Turkey (Kite and Droogers 2000a;IWMI and GDRS 2000), Iran (Murray-Rust and Droogers 2004), and Central Asia (Murray-Rust et al. 2003).Early reflections on water productivity and the related indicators highlighted several limitations to a restrictive \"crop per drop\" interpretation and the need for methodological advances to assess the broader implications from, including the costs and benefits of, improved water productivity. Restricting the interpretation and application of water productivity to crop outputs, for example, ignored important non-crop outputs such as fisheries, livestock, environmental services and other benefits (and costs) from the use and reuse of water (Rijsberman 2006). In some circumstances, non-process uses (such as environmental services) may provide as much value or more than the process uses (Renault and Wallender 2000;Murray-Rust and Turral 2006).Several studies conducted by the SWIM and CA programs further aimed to identify and, as far as possible, quantify the range of benefits (both process and non-process) from the use (and non-use) of water (e.g., Bakker et al. 1999;Bakker and Matsuno 2001;Meinzen-Dick andBakker 1999, 2001;Renwick 2001;Meinzen-Dick and van der Hoek 2001;Hussain et al. 2007;Molden et al. 2007b). These studies highlighted that conventional \"crop per drop\" indicators of water productivity may not provide reasonable estimates of the overall benefits or value of water as they do not account for the broader uses as well as the direct and indirect costs and benefits of water at various levels, and how these values may vary significantly across time, space and user (Hussain et al. 2007). As described by Bakker et al. (1999, vii), \"to ensure efficient, equitable, and sustainable water use, to reduce poverty and improve the well-being of the community, irrigation and water resources policies need to take into account all uses and users of water within the irrigation system.\"Moreover, even while many argued that improving water productivity was an inherently good idea, IWMI researchers cautioned early on that a focus on a single-factor productivity metric in agricultural production processes with multiple factors (or inputs) may provide misleading results from the perspective of the farmer, as well as from the economy as a whole (Barker et al. 2003). An example would be researchers and extension agents who focus on potential water productivity gains (either in physical or \"economic\" terms) without considering the often significant, additional costs involved. Yet, improvements in agricultural water productivity may require more labor, better management, or other additional inputs, and the changes in these inputs and the related costs and benefits (economic, financial, social and environmental) tend not to be incorporated into single-factor productivity metrics. A greater understanding of these broader costs and benefits would be needed to inform policy and investment advice for enhancing water productivity to address food security, environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation objectives (Barker et al. 2003;Kijne 2003).Since the early 2000s, these reflections prompted IWMI and others to broaden the definition of agricultural water productivity and related metrics to include a wider perspective on water use-such as crop and non-crop and other livelihood and ecological benefits and costs from improving water productivity. IWMI argued that water productivity must be understood in the \"widest possible sense\" with the ultimate objective of increasing yields, fisheries, ecosystem services and direct social benefits at less cost (social, ecological) per unit of water consumed (Rijsberman 2006;Molden et al. 2010). A review of some of the applied research on agricultural water productivity further demonstrates this evolving thinking by IWMI and its partners.Since the launch of the SWIM program in 1995, IWMI and its partners have carried out numerous case studies applying the concept of water productivity and the related tools described above. These case studies differed in scale and context (such as agroecosystem, and socioeconomic and institutional setting), and applied different approaches, including advanced modeling and remote sensing methods, to address data constraints. Many of the case studies were initiated by the four IWMI-led programs (SWIM, CA, CPWF and WLE), and included global analyses as well as regional (basin-and irrigation system-level) assessments in South and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Central Asia, and Central and South America. Over the last 20 years, this body of research has generated over 300 reports and publications. In this chapter, some of the research studies and findings are highlighted under three thematic areas: water productivity analysis and mapping; pathways to increase water productivity; and water productivity and broader development objectives.The water accounting methodology and related performance indicators described in section 2.3.1 provided an overarching framework to assess water inflows, uses and outflows across different spatial scales, and helped to overcome some of the limitations of the classical irrigation efficiency concepts by incorporating other uses besides crop water uses and making more explicit the interactions between different uses, including agricultural and non-agricultural uses. The methodology allowed for an analysis of total water depletion-for beneficial and non-beneficial purposes-to assess strategies to improve water productivity, identify opportunities for real water savings, and assess the net benefits (in terms of changes in the water productivity indicators) from water reallocation (Murray-Rust and Turral 2006).Although the performance indicators had intentionally been kept simple, the availability of primary data and the related cost and time challenges as well as methodological constraints often hampered their application in field-based studies (Sakthivadivel et al. 1999;Murray-Rust and Turral 2006). Even more problems were encountered at the scale of the irrigation system or the basin. To ease these constraints, IWMI tested the use of integrated crop and hydrologic modeling-later in combination with remote sensing tools-to simulate the process of water flows and measure water productivity in its various forms and at various scales (e.g., Kite and Droogers 2000b;Droogers andKite 2001a, 2001b;Ines et al. 2002;Aerts and Droogers 2004). Modeling allowed researchers to extrapolate and generate scenarios to complement data derived from field studies.An example is the study in the Gediz Basin, Turkey, where researchers applied the Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant (SWAP) model for the analysis at the field and irrigation system scale, combined with the Semi-Distributed Land Use-Based Runoff Processes (SLURP) model for the analysis at basin scale, to estimate the water balance and calculate different water productivity indicators in physical terms (Droogers and Kite 2001a). Table 3 illustrates yields and the resultant water productivity indicators at mid-basin and tail-end fields, and at the irrigation system and basin scales. The fields located further upstream performed better in terms of yield and water productivity indicators than those at the tail endin part due to its location but also due to different climate conditions. Yield and water productivity indicators at the basin scale were considerably lower than at the field and irrigation system scales because of large areas in the basin with other 'less-productive' land cover.In other studies, models were developed, calibrated, and then applied to assess the effect of various inputs on yield, productivity a n d t h e w a t e r b a l a n c e , w i t h t h e a i m o f supporting resource allocation and policy  (Cai and Rosegrant 2003). Figure 3 presents water productivity estimates for irrigated rice (as ratios of yield relative to water consumed) for developing and developed countries, and for the world, based on the IMPACT-WATER model. Estimates indicate that developed countries have higher water productivity values than developing countries and the world. However, the values converge over time due to a projected higher rate of increase in irrigated yield and increase in water-use efficiency for irrigated crops in developing countries during the period under analysis. * Yield is the simulated yield for cotton at field scale, for irrigated crops at the irrigation system scale, and for agricultural and nonagricultural production at the basin scale.PW inflow = yield/net inflow, PW depleted = yield/depletion, and PW process = yield/process depletion, all expressed in kg (yield) per m 3 (water). In many cases, the availability of data for modeling purposes, particularly at different spatial and temporal scales, continued to be an issue (Droogers and Kite 2001a). The coupling of remote sensing with integrated (crop-hydrologic) modeling helped to overcome some of these challenges. Remote sensing provided important additional data inputs, such as estimates on land use and water consumption, and supported model calibration (Karimi 2014). From the early 2000s, IWMI placed significant emphasis on the development and application of remote sensing technologies combined with crop and hydrologic modeling tools to map and assess water productivity and simulate scenarios at multiple scales.In the Rechna Doab Basin in Pakistan, for example, the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) model (Bastiaanssen et al. 1998a(Bastiaanssen et al. , 1998b) ) was combined with secondary agricultural production data to estimate water productivity, assess irrigation performance variability and, based on that, identify opportunities to improve overall performance (Ahmad et al. 2009). The values for land productivity were calculated as the gross value of production per hectare, and water productivity values were calculated as the gross value of production per unit of consumptive use (actual evapotranspiration)-for summer and winter cropping seasons as well as annually. Figure 4 shows the spatial variation in annual values for actual evapotranspiration, gross value of production, and land and water productivity in the basin. Among the reasons for the differences across the basin are the quality and reliability of surface water and groundwater supplies, and farmers' crop choices. The study demonstrated how remote sensing-based estimates of water consumption combined with secondary agricultural production data can provide estimates of land and water productivity, and indicate opportunities for improving water productivity at different spatial and temporal scales.Not only did remote sensing techniques help to fill data gaps, but they also contributed to further developments in the water accounting framework. The recently developed Water Accounting Plus (WA+) framework uses remote sensing to incorporate more details in the processes of water use and the mechanisms to achieve water productivity improvements (Karimi et al. 2012(Karimi et al. , 2013a)). WA+ uses satellite-derived estimates of land use, rainfall, evaporation, transpiration, interception, water levels of open water bodies, biomass production, crop yield and measured basin outflow to produce a water account. These data are supplemented with the outputs of global hydrological models on surface water networks and aquifers. The use of the WA+ framework allows the following:• Link land use and evapotranspiration to assess the impact of land-use change on exploitable water resources.• Distinguish between managed and manageable depletions in a basin (i.e., depletions defined as evapotranspiration p r o c e s s e s t h a t a r e o r c o u l d b e manipulated by land use, cultivation practices and water use) and nonmanageable depletions.• Differentiate between surface water and groundwater systems to consider different management options and legal regulations.• Estimate changes in evapotranspiration (difference between withdrawals and return flows) for different land-use categories and water user groups to assign benefits and costs from changes in managed water depletion.Over the past 20 years, advances in mapping, modeling and remote sensing techniques have eased some of the challenges in assessing water productivity and its variation in different contexts, and have also contributed to a better framework for water accounting. Technical and methodological challenges remain, however, in the accuracy and interpretation of water productivity and accounting measures (Molden et al. 2010;Cai et al. 2011;Karimi and Bastiaanssen 2015;Karimi et al. 2015). For example, a recent study on the combination of remote sensing and water accounting found that, while the majority of estimates of WA+ parameters and indicators have a coefficient of variation of less than 20% (an accuracy that is on par with field measures), some uncertainty remains with regard to the estimates of overall basin depletion and groundwater flows (Karimi and Bastiaanssen 2015;Karimi et al. 2015).Even with these technological advances, IWMI researchers have emphasized that water productivity measures on their own do not necessarily provide sufficient information to determine whether improving water productivity is desirable and if so, what specific actions need to be taken (Lautze et al. 2014;Wichelns 2014aWichelns , 2014b)). This requires an understanding of different intervention pathways, the context in which the pathways are introduced, and their related production, livelihood and ecological benefits and costs-as further elaborated in the next section.Building on the four basic, basin-scale water management strategies (Seckler 1996) discussed in section 2.2 and the water accounting framework presented in section 2.3.1, four main pathways with different interventions for increasing water productivity at the irrigation system or basin level were identified by the 2000s (Molden et al. 2001a(Molden et al. , 2003(Molden et al. , 2007b):(i) Increase yield per unit of water consumed by, for example:• improving water management by providing better timing of water supplies to reduce stress at critical crop growth stages or by increasing the reliability of supplies to enable farmers to invest more in other agricultural inputs;• improving non-water inputs that increase production per unit of water consumed and agronomic practices, such as laser land leveling and fertilization; and• changing to new or different crop varieties with higher yield per unit of water consumed.(ii) Reduce non-beneficial depletion by, for example:• increasing the proportion of water applied that is used beneficially by crops, by (a) reducing evaporation from water applied to irrigated fields through more capitalintensive technologies (such as drip irrigation) or better agronomic practices (such as mulching or changing crop planting dates to match periods of less evaporative demand); and (b) restricting evaporation from bare soil through conservation agriculture (such as land leveling or zero tillage);• lessening evapotranspiration from fallow land by reducing the area of free water surfaces, decreasing non-beneficial or lessbeneficial vegetation, and controlling weeds;• r e d u c i n g w a t e r f l o w s t o s i n k s b y decreasing irrecoverable deep percolation and surface runoff, by such measures as canal lining and precision irrigation;• minimizing salinization (or pollution) of recoverable return flows, by minimizing flows through saline (or polluted) soils and groundwater; and• shunting polluted water to sinks to avoid the need for dilution with water of usable quality.(iii) Tap uncommitted flows by, for example:• adding water storage facilities, including reservoirs, groundwater aquifers, tanks and ponds, on farmers' fields;• improving management of existing facilities to obtain more beneficial use of existing water supplies; and• reusing uncommitted return flows through gravity or pump diversions to increase irrigated area.(iv) Reallocate water among uses by, for example:• reallocating water from lower-to highervalue uses within or between sectors, while addressing possible effects on downstream uses.While not emphasized in the earlier literature, it should be noted that the different pathways implicitly target different formulations of water productivity: the first pathway focuses on achieving more yield per unit of water consumed, and the fourth pathway is about improving water productivity expressed in \"economic\" terms (US dollars per cubic meter [USD/m 3 ]). The second and third pathways aim to increase the amount of water available for beneficial use.The sections below present key research highlights addressing each of the four pathways, and the related interventions and water productivity indicators. As will be seen, however, many studies incorporated elements from more than one pathway to increase water productivity.IWMI and its partners have assessed a number of water-related interventions to increase crop yield per unit of water consumed. A frequent focus was on improving the timing of water supplies using supplemental irrigation or deficit irrigation. In dry regions, moisture availability, especially during critical periods, is frequently the most significant factor limiting agricultural production. Research carried out through the SWIM, CA and subsequent programs explored the extent to which supplemental irrigation, often coupled with rainwater harvesting, can enhance yields as well as water productivity in arid and semi-arid regions (e.g., Oweis et al. 1999;Wani et al. 2009;Hessari et al. 2012).Several longer-term studies, conducted at experimental sites of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in northern Syria, found that rainfall supplemented by irrigation increases water productivity in wheat systems. Supplemental irrigation contributed to the alleviation of moisture stress during the most sensitive stages of crop growth and thus to an increase in yield per unit of water consumed (or evapotranspiration) (Oweis et al. 1999;Zhang and Oweis 1999;Oweis and Hachum 2003). Table 4 shows the results of a study where mean water productivity of bread-wheat grains, measured over 5 years (1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996), increased from 0.96 to 1.11 kg/m 3 as a result of supplemental irrigation. Supplemental irrigation on its own would have been insufficient to support crop production. However, when combined with rainfall, it led to an increase in water productivity in most years, particularly in the drier years. The study also shows that when rainfall is ignored and only irrigation water is considered, water productivity estimates are significantly higher. Similar increases in water productivity for the combination of rainfall and irrigation water were documented in Burkina Faso and Kenya, where supplemental irrigation was applied to rainfed crops (Rockström et al. 2003;Rockström and Barron 2007).Deficit irrigation is another practice that can increase yield per unit of water consumed. Using this technique, crops are deliberately exposed to water stress (mostly through reduced irrigation water applications in non-critical periods) resulting in some yield reductions. With welltimed applications, consumptive water use can be reduced more than yield, resulting in water productivity increases. In field trials with wheat carried out by ICARDA in semi-arid northern Syria from 1994 to 2000, supplemental irrigation combined with deficit irrigation improved yields (compared to rainfed conditions) and also led to an increase in water productivity from 0.53 to 1.85 kg/m 3 ET. With full irrigation, water productivity was 0.70 kg/m 3 ET (Oweis and Hachum 2003;Zhang and Oweis 1999).While these cases illustrate the potential for water productivity improvements, it is not clear if productivity gains in the form of increased yield per ET at the field or irrigation system level translate to improved productivity at sub-basin or basin scale. Cost and risk considerations would also need to be taken into account. Deficit irrigation, for example, requires precise management in terms of scheduling water and other inputs, information on rainfall amounts and distribution, and specialized agronomic knowledge on crop water use and crop response to factors such as water deficits, planting dates and nitrogen application (Oweis and Hachum 2003). The costs, risks, and overall net benefits would need to be assessed before recommending the adoption of such practices to farmers for the purpose of improving water productivity (Kijne 2003).Reducing non-beneficial depletion involves reducing \"waste\" and generating real water savings (Molden et al. 2003). Two key areas of research have focused on the introduction of: TABLE 4. Rainwater productivity (WP R ), combined rainfall and irrigation water productivity (WP R+I ), and irrigation water productivity (WP I ) for bread-wheat grains in northern Syria (1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996). Notes: WP = Water productivity; ET = evapotranspiration.• capital-intensive technologies, such as sprinkler, drip and other micro-irrigation technologies (e.g., Sally et al. 2000;Rockström et al. 2003;Indu et al. 2008;Kumar et al. 2009;Namara et al. 2005Namara et al. , 2007)); and• agronomic practices, including land leveling and zero tillage (e.g., Ahmad et al. 2006Ahmad et al. , 2007aAhmad et al. , 2007bAhmad et al. , 2014)), and alternate wet and dry irrigation of rice (Dong et al. 2004;Loeve et al. 2002Loeve et al. , 2004aLoeve et al. , 2004b)).While many studies identified a potential to reduce non-beneficial depletion, a recurrent recommendation has also been the need to consider context, scale and hydrology in the interpretation and potential application of the results. It is often assumed, for example, that micro-irrigation technologies will result in less evapotranspiration (or consumptive water use) than surface irrigation. This is not necessarily the case. Rather, the outcome depends on the context (both biophysical and institutional), as well as the specific technologies or agronomic practices applied and how they are managed (Seckler 1999;Molden et al. 2001bMolden et al. , 2007b;;Kendy et al. 2003;Kijne 2003).Research conducted by the CA program in the rice-wheat zone of Pakistan's Indus Basin illustrates this point. Ahmad et al. (2006Ahmad et al. ( , 2007aAhmad et al. ( , 2007bAhmad et al. ( , 2014) ) examined the impact of two \"resource conservation\" technologies (laser leveling of fields and zero tillage) on water application, water productivity, and real water savings. The study, carried out in the Rechna Doab Basin in the semi-arid Punjab Province, involved a survey of 223 small-, medium-and large-scale farmers, field measurements, and remote sensing to assess the factors influencing the adoption of the technologies in rice-wheat cropping systems, and the impacts on water use and \"savings\" at field, farm and irrigation system level.According to the study, the main factors influencing farmers' adoption of each of the technologies were increased yields and reduced input costs. Figure 5 shows the changes in the use of key inputs at the field scale as a result of the introduction of laser leveling and zero tillage technologies. The reductions in water application amounted to approximately 24% and 32% for laser leveling and zero tillage, respectively.As Ahmad et al. (2014) pointed out, whether the reduced water applications translate into reduced water consumption and real water savings at the larger scales depends on the water balance in a given setting and the broader hydrologic system, and the adjustments farmers make in response to the \"saved\" water. In the case of the Rechna Doab Basin, the increased profitability following the adoption of the technologies allowed many farmers-in particular, medium-and large-scale farmers with better access to land and the necessary machinery-to expand the cultivated area or increase cropping intensity. Table 5 shows the estimated increase in annual crop evapotranspiration (consumptive water use) at each of the different farm sizes, with a more significant change in the winter dry (Rabi) season than in the summer monsoon (Kharif) season based on the monsoon.I n f r e s h g r o u n d w a t e r a r e a s , f a r m e r s improved application efficiency of (regulated) canal water and, at the same time, increased (unregulated) groundwater abstraction from the region's permeable aquifer. The study estimated that overall water consumption at the system scale increased by 59 million cubic meters (Mm 3 )/year following the adoption of \"resource conservation\" technologies. Thus, improvements in field-scale water productivity (in terms of water application) did not result in reduced water use (in terms of consumptive use) at the farm or larger scales. Ahmad et al. (2014) stressed that, in different contexts (e.g., where additional land cannot be brought under irrigation, highly saline groundwater conditions limit groundwater recycling, or institutional arrangements restrict additional water applications), the outcome could be different, further highlighting the range of factors that can influence the outcomes from water productivity interventions.In this case, the introduction of \"resource c o n s e r v a t i o n \" t e c h n o l o g i e s r e d u c e d w a t e r a p p l i c a t i o n s a t t h e f a r m s c a l e .  However, improved water productivity (in terms of yield and income per unit of water applied) encouraged farmers, who had access to fallow land (generally medium-and largescale farmers), to expand their irrigated area. Conversely, smallholder farmers, in general, had little additional land for expansion. While all farmers benefitted from the intervention in terms of increased cropping intensity, the medium-and large-scale farmers received a disproportionate share of the benefits by being able to expand their irrigated area. This is not to say that improving productivity necessarily further increases inequity, but it is important to consider the potential for differential outcomes across different socioeconomic groupings.In many locations, additional storage of water above or below ground is key to accessing uncommitted flows. Section 3.2.1 discussed water productivity gains that may result from access to additional surface storage (such as rainwater harvesting) for supplemental irrigation. Access to groundwater in aquifers is another pathway to tapping uncommitted flows or reusing return flows.Since the 1950s, with the advent of the modern pump and tube wells, groundwater irrigation has increased dramatically (Shah 2014).Research suggests that-at least in terms of water applied-irrigation with groundwater may be more productive than irrigation with surface water, both in terms of physical and \"economic\" water productivity. In Spain, for example, groundwater irrigators apply less water than surface water irrigators and achieve higher returns for their output per unit of water applied, resulting in an economic water productivity, on average, of over USD 3/m 3 , compared with less than USD 1/m 3 for surface water irrigators (Shah 2014). In India, physical crop water productivity (in terms of yield -kilograms per cubic meter [kg/m 3 ] of water applied]) on groundwater-irrigated farms can be between one and three times greater than on farms irrigated with surface water. Similar findings have been documented in other studies in South Asia (DebRoy and Shah 2003). Overall, the higher water productivity achieved with groundwater irrigation may be the result of several factors, including lower water applications, production of higher-value crops, increased capacity to control timing of irrigation applications, and a tendency for groundwater farmers to invest more in complementary inputs (such as fertilizers and high-yielding seed varieties) given the greater reliability of groundwater (DebRoy and Shah 2003). However, increases in water productivity resulting from tapping uncommitted flows may be associated with significant costs. Depending on the hydrologic context, and the underlying definition for water productivity, costs may occur in various forms, including in terms of groundwater depletion, reduced water quality, and greater carbon emissions. An example of this draws from IWMI's research on groundwater use and management in China, conducted in Luancheng County of Hebei Province (Kendy et al. 2003). The North China Plain has traditionally been a key agricultural production center and a critical region to help achieve the country's food security goals. To support the increase in agricultural production, groundwater has been used as the primary source of irrigation water since the 1960s-mainly to supplement the region's unpredictable rainfall patterns. In Luancheng County, a growing industrial sector coupled with the local government's focus on expanding wheat production led to increasing competition for groundwater supplies. In response, the agriculture sector moved toward improving irrigation efficiency (more specifically, application efficiency) through the adoption of \"water-saving\" technologies in order to reduce groundwater use. Subsequently, groundwater pumping rates declined by more than 50% between the 1970s and 2000. However, despite these gains in irrigation efficiency, groundwater levels continued to decline over that same time period. Kendy et al. (2003) discussed this outcome in the context of the local hydrology. The local shallow aquifers in Luancheng County are replenished by rainfall and runoff, and depleted by water consumption (evapotranspiration). As illustrated in Figure 6, if precipitation is higher than evapotranspiration in a given year, runoff and groundwater recharge occurs. If, however, evapotranspiration starts to continually exceed annual rainfall, groundwater is mined. The focus on food self-sufficiency led to a significant increase in the region's irrigated area, and thus crop evapotranspiration. Since about 1960, the levels of evapotranspiration were higher than precipitation and continued to increase until the mid-1970s. Since then up to the conclusion of the study in 2000, annual evapotranspiration remained constant. With a progressive decline in precipitation from the 1960s, groundwater mining increased to 200 mm per year in the 1990s. Overall, while groundwater pumping declined and irrigation efficiency improved, the proportion of groundwater pumped that was consumed by crops increased significantly and return flows to the aquifers declined (Kendy et al. 2003;Frederiksen et al. 2012).Frederiksen et al. (2012) used the example of Luancheng County as part of a larger discussion on the need for precision in water use definitions and terminology (e.g., water application versus water consumption), and how imprecision can lead to faulty decision making and unintended consequences. According to the authors, the lessons from this case prompted the Chinese authorities to shift their focus from reducing water applications to reducing water consumption.Reallocating water from lower-to higher-value uses is one of the means to increase \"economic\" water productivity (Molden et al. 2003;Molle 2003b). Reallocations can occur within the agriculture sector (e.g., from staple grains to horticulture crops) or across sectors (e.g., from agriculture to the municipal or industrial sector). Within the agriculture sector, values of \"economic\" water productivity (especially in the conventional definition of gross value of product relative to water applied) for most major grains are much lower than for vegetables and fruits. Thus, farmers who reallocate water and shift part or all of their land to higher-value crops tend to improve their agricultural returns and \"economic\" water productivity, with the extent dependent on market and other conditions (Molden et al. 2003(Molden et al. , 2007a)).Reallocating water from agriculture to other sectors with higher-value water uses is often emphasized as a way of reducing problems of water stress and contributing to broader societal goals. It is seen as a pillar of water demand management, making better use of available resources as opposed to augmenting supplies. In many instances, \"irrigation efficiency\" tends to be low with a large share of agricultural water withdrawals and irrigation applications not consumed by crops. Thus, it is commonly believed that a focus on improving \"irrigation efficiency\" could free up substantial quantities of water for reallocation to other sectors that often have much higher water values than agriculture. The CA program provided a better understanding of the potential for shifting water out of agriculture and why this type of transfer may often be problematic (Scott et al. 2001;Molle 2003b;Molle et al. 2007;Molle and Berkoff 2006;Wester et al. 2008).In a review of the literature and country experiences with intersectoral water reallocations, Molle and Berkoff (2009) pointed out that the FIGURE 6. Annual evapotranspiration, precipitation and groundwater recharge/mining in Luancheng County, China (1947-2000). conventional view, based on the classical notion of \"irrigation efficiency\", considers farmers' water use as inefficient and wasteful. However, this ignores the fact that much of the wasted water flows back to the river or an aquifer and-subject to water quality-can be recycled downstream.The economic gains from intersectoral water reallocations may also not be as high as expected. For example, if measured in terms of \"economic\" water productivity, a comparison of the respective values between the agriculture and industrial sectors can be misleading, since water is only a tiny portion of the overall costs in many industries. Furthermore, in the context of assessing intersectoral water allocations, other social and environmental, but also political, costs associated with transfers are not easily estimated and thus often not included in the calculations.In an analysis of the economics of water productivity in agriculture, Barker et al. (2003) emphasized that an increase in water productivity as a result of a reallocation of water among users may, or may not, result in higher economic or social benefits. In discussing the complexities in economic analysis in relation to efforts for increasing water productivity, they state, \"As the competition for water increases, decisions on basin-level allocations among sectors must involve value judgments as to how best to benefit society as a whole. This will include setting priorities in the management of water resources to meet objectives such as ensuring sustainability, meeting food security needs, and providing the poorer segments of society with access to water\" (Barker et al. 2003, 30-31).Together, the research across the four pathways to increase water productivity has highlighted the importance of grounding water management decisions in the hydrological, social, economic and environmental context, and the need to understand the trade-offs at different scales. Risks and cost considerations (economic, social and environmental) for farmers and for society as a whole may go unnoticed in the promotion of water productivity-enhancing practices. Yet, these costs need to be considered (even if it is only qualitatively) to determine whether improvements in water productivity are desirable or not to achieve broader policy or development objectives (Bakker et al. 1999;Barker et al. 2003;Kijne 2003).Fundamental to IWMI's overarching mission, and many of the programs led by the Institute, is an effort to understand the extent to which improving agricultural water productivity can help in achieving food security, responding to pressures to reallocate water to cities and for the environment, contributing to economic growth, and alleviating poverty (Molden 2007). Starting in 2000, when David Seckler as Director General led the transition from the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Institute's mandate was to \"contribute to food security and poverty eradication by fostering the sustainable increases in the productivity of water through the management of irrigation and other water uses in the river basin\" (IWMI 2015b). In the same year, IWMI launched the CA program with an overarching research question of \"how can water in agriculture be developed and managed to help end poverty and hunger, ensure environmentally sustainable practices, and find the right balance between food and environmental security\" (Molden 2007). The CPWF continued this journey with an explicit focus on the linkages between water productivity and water poverty (Fisher et al. 2014), while WLE has extended these earlier objectives with an additional effort to explore gender and social equity dimensions of water productivity in the context of sustainable intensification and ecosystem values (IWMI 2014).This section presents in more detail how IWMI's research has contributed to understanding the relationship between interventions to improve water productivity and their contribution to different development objectives. Two key objectives are increasing agricultural production to meet rising food demands and reducing agricultural water use to facilitate reallocations to other sectors. Two additional objectives that may be linked to the others are raising farm-level income, and alleviating poverty and inequity in the agriculture sector. In many instances, water productivity interventions have embraced more than one development objective.Concerns over food security and growing water scarcity were at the heart of the call for improved agricultural water productivity in the mid-1990s. Seckler and his colleagues at IIMI (Seckler 1996;Seckler et al. 1998Seckler et al. , 1999) ) stated that, for many countries, particularly in arid regions, water had become \"the single greatest threat to food security, human health and natural ecosystems\" (Seckler et al. 1999, 29). World food reserves were at an all-time low. Unstable water regimes (and consequently unstable food supplies and rural livelihoods) fueled social and political instability in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In India, food security was \"crucially\" dependent on the development of additional irrigated lands (Seckler 1996). These impressions were given in the context of declining irrigation development investments, and growing competition for water from other sectors (mainly urban and industry) and to meet environmental needs (Seckler et al. 1998). These factors placed a stronger urgency on improving the productivity of existing agricultural water supplies to meet future food demands.Consequently, a large part of the early IIMI/ IWMI research on water productivity was focused on measures and pathways to increase yield (particularly of staple crops) per unit of water consumed to contribute to rising food demands. Research indicated considerable scope for raising yield relative to water consumption, and promising field results were documented (see section 3.2.1). An illustration is Figure 7, which shows significant variations in the water productivity of wheat measured in terms of water consumed in different regions of the world, suggesting considerable scope for raising the amount of yield relative to ET in different wheat-producing areas. In this regard, research conducted by IWMI and partners also explored the linkages between water productivity and agricultural productivity, and showed that they are not straightforward. Studies carried out by IWMI and the CA (e.g., Hussain et al. 2000Hussain et al. , 2003Hussain et al. , 2004Hussain et al. , 2007;;Kumar et al. 2009) made some progress in identifying and quantifying the contribution of the different factors affecting crop yields, but the importance and magnitude of each factor's contribution was found to vary significantly by physical location, and the related hydrologic and climatic setting. More fundamentally, the research findings impressed the point that farm-level decisions regarding cropping pattern and water use are influenced by a range of context-specific (water-and nonwater-related) factors. Thus, reliance on water productivity values in isolation can mask important variables affecting agricultural production (Lautze et al. 2014). Consequently, policy actions aimed at improving water management for food security need to consider the range of factors and resource constraints that influence farm-level production and marketing decisions, many of which have no relation to water (Wichelns 2003(Wichelns , 2014b;;Lautze et al. 2014).Improving water productivity in agriculture has also been seen as a means to reallocate water to meet the growing demands from other sectors, such as cities, industry and the environment (Molle and Berkoff 2006). Seckler (1996) highlighted the growing number of water-scarce countries turning to water reallocation as a solution. The SWIM and CA programs explored the extent to which improvements in agricultural water productivity can free up water for nonagricultural uses (e.g., Hong et al. 2000;Scott et al. 2001;Molle 2003b;Molle and Berkoff 2006;Molle et al. 2007;Wester et al. 2008). Molle and Berkoff (2006) carried out a review of intersectoral water transfers based on 19 case studies from North America, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, the Middle East and Latin America. The study found an overall mixed picture in terms of the success of water reallocations, and apropos to this paper, the extent to which gains in water productivity played a role in this process. Two contrasting cases from IWMI's research carried out in the Yangzte and Yellow river basins illustrate this point (Hong et al. 2000;Loeve et al. 2004aLoeve et al. , 2004bLoeve et al. , 2007;;Molden et al. 2006Molden et al. , 2007a)).In the Yangtze River Basin, the research focused on the Zhanghe Irrigation District in Hubei Province. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the proportion of water received for irrigation (rice production) from the main reservoir declined significantly as the water was reallocated to other sectors, including hydropower, industry and domestic use (Molle and Berkoff 2006). The longterm trends in water releases for irrigation and other uses are provided in Table 6. To facilitate reallocations, a suite of complementary technical, managerial and policy interventions was introduced over time. Farmers were charged a volumetric fee for water supplies, on-farm water conservation practices (such as the use of alternate wetting and drying, and recycling of drainage water) were introduced, and ponds were constructed or rehabilitated to capture rainfall and reduce farmers' reliance on the reservoir water. In addition, the irrigation operators responsible for allocating water across sectors received higher water fees from cities and industries. This pricing system incentivized a reduction in allocations for irrigation. At the same time, provincial authorities formally negotiated the water allocations across sectors to ensure sufficient releases for irrigation to meet food production goals.As shown in Table 7, despite significant reductions in water releases for the Zhanghe Irrigation District and associated declines in planted area, rice production did not similarly decline and yields doubled. As a result, water productivity in terms of yield per unit of water supplied (in this case, water withdrawn) increased significantly. However, the fact that farmers reused drainage water and had access to alternative sources of water (e.g., farm ponds) suggests that water productivity gains may not have been achieved in terms of production per unit of water consumed (Roost et al. 2008). Also unclear are the impacts of the changes in return flows on downstream users. Furthermore, while the reallocation of water across sectors may have been successful and supported by an alignment of various interventions, the extent to which water productivity gains played a role in this process is not clear.R e s e a r c h o n t h e e x p e r i e n c e o f t h e Liuyuankou Irrigation District, located in the chronically water-stressed Yellow River Basin, provides a contrasting case. To meet demands from other sectors, surface water allocations for agriculture in the district were reduced from 87% to 63% between 1968 and 2000 (Molle and Berkoff 2006). While the objective of reallocation was the same as in the Zhanghe Irrigation District, the necessary interventions to support it were not in place at the different scales. Farmers paid only a flat fee for surface water supplies, water conservation practices were not promoted, and groundwater as a supplementary source of irrigation water was not included in the official water allocation plans. System managers were accountable only for delivering less surface water to farmers. The fees collected by the managers were based on the amount of the area irrigated, and no fees were received from the other sectors. The outcome was that, while surface water withdrawals for agriculture were reduced, farmers adjusted by pumping additional groundwater. No technical, financial or institutional incentives or other mechanisms were put in place to restrict groundwater use for agriculture, with the result that overall annual groundwater withdrawals for agriculture remained largely unchanged (Molden  Loeve et al. 2004b). Figure 8 shows the trends in water diversions from the Yellow River and groundwater withdrawals for the period 1968 to 2000.Several key points emerge from the research related to the two irrigation systems. First, it is important to be clear how water productivity and associated gains are defined and measured, and how they relate to the pursued objectives.Second, potential trade-offs, such as those resulting from farmers' shift to other water sources and other adjustments, need to be taken into account when assessing outcomes. Third, unless the suite of interventions is complementary, moving water supplies from agriculture to other uses may prove to be difficult and trigger unintended consequences (Molle et al. 2007;Molden et al. 2007a).  . A third development objective for improving water productivity is to raise farm-level income. This can be done, for example, by increasing production in a given cropping pattern or by changing the cropping pattern with a move to higher-value crops (Molden et al. 2003). For IWMI, a key focus of research was on farm-level economic impacts of technologies that reduce the amount of water withdrawn, applied or consumed. For example, one objective of IWMI's research on \"resource conservation\" technologies was to explore the impacts of \"water-saving\" technologies on farm income (Ahmad et al. 2006(Ahmad et al. , 2007a(Ahmad et al. , 2007b(Ahmad et al. , 2014)). As noted in section 3.2.2, the main factors contributing to farmers' adoption of the technologies were increased yields and reduced input costs. In a 2004 survey of 168 farmers in the Punjab Province of Pakistan who had adopted zero tillage or laser leveling technologies, the majority (87% for zero tillage and 88% for laser leveling) reported a decrease in production costs (Ahmad et al. 2007b(Ahmad et al. , 2014)). With yields also increasing or remaining the same for most of the farmers surveyed, net farm incomes likewise rose.Table 8 shows the percentage of farmers reporting an increase, decrease or no change in yield, cost of production, and net farm income following the adoption of zero tillage and laser leveling technologies. Similar research was carried out on microirrigation technologies to assess their impacts on, among other things, farmers' incomes. A study in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat found that investments in micro-irrigation technologies (including drip and sprinkler systems) are generally profitable with farmers able to recoup their initial investment within 1 to 3 years, with available subsidies further improving the returns. Farmers reported that the technologies enhanced water productivity (in terms of water applied) as well as the productivity of other agricultural inputs, thereby reducing the cost of production (Namara et al. 2005).However, while adopters of micro-irrigation technologies usually reported gains in both yield and profitability, the majority of adopters were wealthier farmers, suggesting that the poverty impact was not substantial. Moreover, in both Maharashtra and Gujarat, micro-irrigation adopters produced more water-intensive crops than nonadopters and also increased cropping intensity. Consequently, Namara et al. (2005) cautioned that improved productivity and profitability following the adoption of micro-irrigation technologies could have important sustainability implications by increasing (rather than decreasing) the demand for irrigation water, particularly when coupled with financial subsidies. Specifically, the authors noted a trend towards year-round cropping, which could result in greater water use in terms of water withdrawals, application and consumption. These findings further highlight the need to consider the range of possible impacts on multiple development objectives when designing or promoting (including with subsidies) interventions to increase water productivity.A fourth key development objective for IWMI and its hosted programs has been to examine opportunities for alleviating poverty and inequities in the agriculture sector through irrigation-related interventions, including gains in water productivity. Early research conducted by the CPWF explored the link between water productivity gains and the alleviation of poverty and inequity. The research built on an implicit assumption that the \"poor were also 'water poor'\" (CPWF 2015). Conceptual aspects of this work began in the early 2000s (e.g., Prasad and Watson 2003;Hussain and Giordano 2004;Prasad et al. 2006) and continued in a more applied set of studies in 10 basins located in Asia, Africa and South America (Kemp-Benedict et al. 2011, 2012;Cook et al. 2012). Over time, researchers identified a set of five interlinked aspects that define the relationship between water and poverty (Kemp-Benedict et al. 2011):• Scarcity (when people are challenged to meet their livelihood goals due to water scarcity).• Access (when people lack equitable access to water).• Low water productivity (when people acquire insufficient benefits from water use).• Chronic vulnerability (when people are vulnerable to relatively predictable and repeated water-related hazards, such as seasonal floods and droughts, or endemic disease).• Acute vulnerability (when people suffer an impaired ability to achieve livelihood goals as a consequence of large, irregular and episodic water-related hazards).The research also demonstrated that the nature of these linkages and the role of improved water productivity in addressing them is complex. Kemp-Benedict et al. (2011) argued that the five aspects of water-related poverty must be considered within a broader context of institutions, variability (natural, social and economic), and household and community assets. Specifically, the authors state: \"Deprivation as a result of water scarcity reflects a lack of natural assets; equitable access is determined largely by institutions; vulnerability to water-related hazards is largely (although not entirely) due to variability in the natural environment; low water productivity is affected by household and community assets, such as access to markets or knowledge; and loss of livelihood due to change is a consequence of variability in the external natural, economic, and social environment\" (Kemp-Benedict et al. 2011, 135). This, in turn, suggests the need for multiple criteria to understand the linkages between water and poverty as well as inequity.Complementary research conducted by the CPWF suggested that water productivity and poverty are only weakly related, and there is no clear relationship between poverty and water scarcity within a basin (Fisher et al. 2014). Researchers found that the severity of poverty is more dependent on the level of control than the physical endowment of water (Namara et al. 2010); and stronger linkages exist between poverty and other factors, such as access to basic services-ranging from safe drinking water and sanitation to healthcare, education, finance, markets and farm inputs (Fisher et al. 2014;Vidal et al. 2014). Moreover, where relationships were found between the provision of natural resources (such as irrigation water) and livelihood outcomes, these were more closely associated with the level of economic development and institutional factors (Molle 2003a;Cook et al. 2009;Kemp-Benedict et al. 2011;Fisher et al. 2014). In other words, poverty is more dependent on the stage of a basin's economic and institutional development than the availability of water resources (Cook et al. 2012;Vidal et al. 2014). Irrigation may play a role in improving livelihood outcomes, but only alongside improvements in other contributing factors, including access to markets and credit, as well as a supportive institutional environment (Kemp-Benedict et al. 2011).Complex linkages were also found in relation to water productivity and equity, in that water interventions could either reinforce or reduce inequities (e.g., Clement et al. 2011aClement et al. , 2011b;;Mapedza et al. 2008). Within a community, the benefits derived following the introduction of technologies or practices aimed at improving water productivity could benefit some farmers more than others (Ahmad et al. 2007a(Ahmad et al. , 2007b(Ahmad et al. , 2014)). For example, as illustrated in section 3.2.2, the adoption of technologies aimed at improving water productivity can disproportionately benefit some categories of farmers. This is not to say that improvements in water productivity necessarily further increase inequity. However, it is important to identify preexisting inequities in access to water and other resources among farmers and communities in order to better target poor communities, and/or avoid exacerbating inequity in the agriculture sector (Clement et al. 2011b).Overall, this large body of applied research on water productivity and the broader development objectives has contributed a greater understanding of the role of context and when, how, and for what purpose improvements in water productivity can be desirable. Improving water productivity is not the ultimate goal, but rather can serve as a pathway to achieving broader development aims. The research reinforces the need to be clear about the definition of water productivity to understand the possible trade-offs, and cautions against relying solely on water productivity indicators for decision making. The selected pathway(s) to promote water productivity improvements must consider scale; the hydrologic, socioeconomic, policy and institutional context; and the differing perspectives across actors, the factors influencing them, and related adaptation strategies. Without due consideration of these context-specific elements, well-intended interventions may result in unintended social or environmental consequences.Since the 1990s, significant conceptual and methodological advancements and insights have emerged from applied research on agricultural water productivity. Through that research, a more nuanced understanding of the concept has also emerged, highlighting its usefulness and limitations, as well as its operationalization and contribution to broader development objectives. Some of the main lessons learned from the research on water productivity in the literature published by IWMI and others are highlighted below.Agricultural water productivity, introduced in IWMI Research Report 1 (Seckler 1996) in an effort to better address growing water scarcity, stimulated important conceptual developments in the field of water resources management. It challenged researchers and practitioners to think beyond the traditional notions of \"irrigation efficiency\" in the use of irrigation water, and consider more broadly the net benefits received in agriculture and other sectors from the use of water. The concept and related terms helped to highlight the importance of scale and the notion of recycling water within a river basin, allowing for a better understanding of whether a \"piecemeal change\" (i.e., increasing irrigation efficiency on a farm) represents a \"real\" improvement in terms of water saving at the basin scale or not (Seckler 1999).As alluded to in previous sections, a strong debate and some disagreement continues in the literature on how water productivity and efficiency terms are to be defined and used (e.g., Jensen 2007;Perry et al. 2009;Frederiksen et al. 2012;van Halsema and Vincent 2012;Pereira et al. 2012;Kambou et al. 2014;Heydari 2014;Wichelns 2014a). Some aspects of the debate are new, but to a large extent it comes back to the fundamental conceptual and practical challenges Seckler outlined in his early writings on the topic (e.g., Seckler 1996Seckler , 1999)). Already in the late 1990s, he characterized the circular debate using a quote from André Gide's Le traite du Narcisse of 1891: \"Everything has been said before, but since no one listens, one must always start again\" (Seckler 1999).Many reports and much of the public debate continue to be vague on the meaning of \"water productivity\" and the different notions of efficiency, often using the terms interchangeably-with little discussion on how to define and measure them, what to do for improving them and, importantly, how to monitor and assess changes (Scheierling et al. 2014(Scheierling et al. , 2016)). The terms then become generic to label an array of performance indicators and even development objectives. In part, this is due to the multi-disciplinary nature of the topic, with different disciplines using different definitions (and promoting different interventions), and with relatively limited exchange between the disciplines. The CA and its successor programs made progress in bridging disciplinary boundaries. Further discussion would clearly benefit from more intensive interdisciplinary collaboration and outreach to the general public and decision makers.The concept of agricultural water productivity initially evolved as a means of producing more agricultural output with the same amount or less water. A wide range of interventions has been proposed to promote improved water productivity. To understand where and how productivity gains can be made-and possibly also \"real\" water savings achieved-requires consideration of the specific hydrological setting, and the appropriate spatial and temporal scale of analysis. There is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach (Seckler et al. 1999). Achieving a desired improvement in water productivity requires an understanding of the water balance in a given domain and a clear definition of \"water productivity.\" With growing water scarcity, the interdependencies among water users increases and gains from the use of water in one location may result in losses in another; for example, the opportunity to beneficially recycle water returning from an irrigated field to a surface water or groundwater source may be reduced, if its quantity or quality is diminished by an intervention on the irrigated field (Seckler 1999). An understanding of the hydrologic setting is also required to ensure that a proposed intervention fits the local context and achieves the desired effects (Molden et al. 2001b;Kendy et al. 2003).To illustrate, interventions such as the p r o m o t i o n o f d r i p o r s p r i n k l e r i r r i g a t i o n technologies have gained considerable attention as a means to save water in agriculture-based on the assumption that, by increasing the proportion of water applied that is beneficially used by crops, less irrigation water would be needed (and water can be freed up for other purposes). This may be the case with regard to the amount of water applied at the field level-if farmers do not have incentives to apply the same amount of water as before in order to expand the irrigated area or intensify production. Even if the amount of water applied is reduced, the consumptive water use of the crop may stay the same and no \"real\" water savings would be achieved at the basin scale. In fact, research has shown that such interventions may even increase consumptive water use, and thus overall depletion at the basin scale, unless accompanying measures are undertaken (Ahmad et al. 2007a(Ahmad et al. , 2007b;;Ward and Pulido-Velazquez 2008;Dagnino and Ward 2012;Pfeiffer and Lin 2014;Fishman et al. 2015). An example to at least partially address this problem is a measure that was introduced in the Arkansas River Basin, United States, where surface water users were required to return the reductions in water applications (and withdrawals), which were made possible due to the adoption of improved irrigation technologies, to the river (Harvey 2014). Thus, the promotion of such interventions for achieving real water savings should target locations where return flows would otherwise be lost in a sink, or be accompanied by mechanisms that limit the potential increase in consumptive use. Proper water accounting at local and basin scales, coupled with an understanding of the institutions that govern water allocation and application, and consumptive use, are necessary prerequisites for effective water productivity interventions.At the policy level, improvements in agricultural water productivity are usually called for in connection with the need to meet rising food demand or to reallocate water to other uses. Farmers, though, may be interested in these objectives only insofar as they contribute to maintaining or increasing farm-level income-with water being only one of many often dynamic and context-specific factors affecting crop production and decision making. If, for example, water productivity-enhancing technologies or management practices generate more onfarm costs (including uncertainty or risks) than additional benefits, their adoption may not be a priority for some or all farmers (as the farming community itself is not homogenous). These often conflicting objectives across water users and decision makers at different scales, as well as the different incentives they face, need to be taken into account when designing policies or promoting interventions to enhance water productivity. Otherwise, \"farm-level responses to policy parameters may be different than expected, and the goals of water management policies may not be achieved\" (Wichelns 2003, 100).Tools are needed to place these different perspectives in context, so that the various factors influencing different users and decision makers at various levels can be identified, and the costs and benefits generated from improvements in water productivity can be estimated. This should include assessments of how the costs and benefits are likely to be distributed (Barker et al. 2003;Barker and Levine 2012). Studies in water accounting, as well as hydro-economic simulation and optimization models, are increasingly part of the tool kit. Research conducted by IWMI and others is helping to better understand and quantify some of the complex interactions. Recent updates to the Water Accounting Plus (WA+) framework, for example, allow users to assess not only water flows, fluxes, stocks and consumption in large, complex river basins, but also the potential impacts of different water management strategies on the agricultural and environmental services these systems provide (Rebelo 2016). The water balance quadrant framework is another recent development aimed at identifying hydrologic contexts in which \"water-saving\" technologies may be promoted without risking reduced return flows for downstream users (Batchelor et al. 2014). The challenge is to bring these more advanced approaches into the broader policy discussions to improve the design and outcomes of interventions related to water productivity.Without due consideration of context-specific elements, well-intended interventions may result in unintended (and often undesirable) consequences, ranging from hydrological to environmental, social and financial/economic changes. An illustration is provided in section 3.2.2 involving the adoption of \"resource conservation\" technologies in Pakistan, which led to increases in yields, water productivity (in terms of yield per unit of water applied), and farm profits. Among the unintended consequences were higher water consumption as well as an increase in groundwater use at the cost of downstream users and uses, including the environment. Preexisting inequities among farmers with different farm sizes were also exacerbated.T h e r e m a y b e o t h e r u n i n t e n d e d consequences and trade-offs (Guerra et al. 1998;Barker et al. 2003;Kijne 2003;Hsiao et al. 2007;Sadras et al. 2011). Water productivity improvements involving higher yields may come in the form of more polluted drainage flows due to farmers' more intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides. Furthermore, water productivity improvements associated with investments in better technologies or practices may affect farm-level incomes due to high investments and operational costs, and possibly additional labor or management requirements. This is often used as a rationale for providing public subsidies to facilitate investment decisions. Moreover, yields (and farm-level incomes) may decrease with interventions that aim at reducing the consumptive water use of crops for achieving real water savings, such as deficit (or partial) irrigation. Higher risk is another potential tradeoff from adopting \"water-efficient\" technologies and practices as is increased exposure to market fluctuations through the production of marketable crops. Poor farmers who often have less ability or resources to cope with or manage risk may then be disproportionally affected (van Ittersum et al. 2013). As mentioned in section 3.3.4, depending on the context and preexisting inequities, water productivity interventions can either reduce or reinforce inter-household inequities (Barker and Levine 2012;Clement et al. 2011b). Consequently, estimates of changes in water productivity may not be useful to assess policy interventions unless the possible trade-offssuch as effects on downstream users, increased risk and uncertainty, and rising inequities-are properly incorporated (even if only qualitatively) into the assessments, and efforts are made to minimize them (Bakker et al. 1999;Barker et al. 2003;Kijne 2003;Wichelns 2014aWichelns , 2014b)).Improving agricultural water productivity must not be seen and pursued in isolation. IWMI's research has shown that it is not a \"principle objective\" or an end in and of itself (Rijsberman 2006;Vidal et al. 2014). Rather, it needs to be integrated with, and contribute to, broader development objectives. As discussed in section 3.3, the four main objectives are: (i) increasing agricultural production, (ii) reducing agricultural water use, (iii) raising farm-level income, and (iv) alleviating poverty and inequity in the agriculture sector.Research conducted by IWMI and partners has also suggested that the relationship between water productivity and these broader objectives is not straightforward. For example, with regard to the first development objective of increasing agricultural production, it is not clear if a contribution has been made when a water productivity measure increases and more output per input of water is produced. The ratio may have increased due to a reduction in water use (however defined) while output remained constant or even decreased. Furthermore, as Wichelns (2014a) illustrates with typical crop-water production functions, the point of maximum water productivity may be very different from the point of maximum crop yield-even in the simplest case of one output and one input (water). It may also be quite different from the point of maximum net revenue (which has implications regarding the contribution to the third development objective of raising farm-level income). More complications in determining whether a contribution to the first objective has been made arise when water productivity estimates are compared over different crop types and over time. Without further information and analysis, it is not obvious which situation should be preferred over the other and whether the change helped to increase agricultural production or not.Similarly, when assessing the contribution of improved water productivity to the second development objective of reducing agricultural water use, a number of issues need to be kept in mind. Besides noting whether the change occurred in the numerator or denominator of the ratio, it is important to pay attention to which water measure is used and which scale incorporated. In addition, the context needs to be considered-in particular, whether return flows matter for downstream uses-to determine whether real water savings were achieved. Broadly speaking, when return flows do not matter (for example, if they flow to a salt sink that prevents reuse), a focus on optimizing the share of water applied for crops' transpiration needs may be justified (for example, with the adoption of \"resource conservation\" technologies, coupled with a limit on the expansion of the irrigated area). If return flows do matter, the focus may need to be on reducing water consumption, because only this reduction could be considered as \"saved\" water that is available for reallocation without affecting downstream uses.On the fourth development objective, IWMI's research has shown that there is no simple link between water productivity improvements and poverty or equity. Technology-oriented interventions may even be associated with tradeoffs between poverty reduction and equity (section 3.3.4). It is, therefore, important to assess the constraints faced by poor irrigators (not only with regard to access to water, but also to other resources), and properly design and target interventions.Similar to land productivity or labor productivity, agricultural water productivity focuses on one factor in a multi-factor, and usually also multioutput, production process. In general, singlefactor productivity metrics do not give a full picture of the natural, market or policy context in which agricultural production takes place. For example, water productivity ratios expressed in kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3 ) or US dollars per cubic meter (USD/m 3 ) are often used for making comparisons across users, sectors and over time. It is then important to keep in mind that different water productivity values do not necessarily reflect water-related issues, but may be the result of many other factors and their respective intensity of use, and, depending on the formulation of the ratio, also the result of different outputs and their related prices. Such data can, therefore, provide only an incomplete, and potentially misleading, picture of the underlying drivers of water productivity, especially when used in isolation (Barker et al. 2003, Lautze et al. 2014;Scheierling et al. 2014).It is these conceptual challenges that Seckler encouraged IWMI and the broader research community to address, so that water management projects are designed and implemented \"in a much better way-from all the important technical, economic, social, and environmental perspectives\" (Seckler 1996, 3). Early on, IWMI researchers cautioned that a focus on a single-factor productivity metric in agricultural production processes with multiple factors may provide misleading results from the perspectives of the farmer and the economy as a whole. Consequently, IWMI argued for a broadened definition of agricultural water productivity-one that includes a wider perspective on water use and the related benefits, costs and risks that may accompany its improvements (Bakker et al. 1999;Barker et al. 2003;Molden et al. 2007b).As illustrated in section 3, this broadened definition has likewise faced conceptual challenges, but the related research has also provided greater clarity on both the contributions and limitations of agricultural water productivity metrics. On its own, agricultural water productivity may be considered as a weak proxy variable for the objectives that are indeed of interest (section 3.3). However, when considered in context and as part of a larger suite of indicators, measures of water productivity can give a first approximation of the situation and help to identify outliers. They can also provide a basis to generate and test hypotheses on the underlying causes for the differences and, with further analysis, suggest possible interventions (Fuglie 2014).The creation of water accounting frameworks h a s b e e n f u n d a m e n t a l t o t h e i m p r o v e d application of the water productivity concept. Water accounting has provided a framework to understand how water is used and reused within and across sectors at various spatial scales. Tools such as hydrologic models coupled with crop models, and data generated with remote sensing technologies, have allowed researchers to estimate average current and potential water productivity; identify locations with high and low water productivity; explore possible entry points (technical, managerial or policy) to improve water productivity; and understand the potential consequences within and outside of the agriculture sector, including the effects on ecosystems (Karimi et al. 2012(Karimi et al. , 2013a(Karimi et al. , 2013b;;Rebelo et al. 2014).However, data constraints continue to limit the application of even single-factor water productivity metrics-even in developed countries. For instance, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) discontinued calculations to estimate return flows and consumptive water use due to resource and data constraints in 1995; since then, USGS has relied on estimates of water withdrawals rather than water depletions as the basis for its semi-decadal report on water use (Maupin et al. 2014). Continued development of water accounting and remote sensing tools (e.g., United Nations 2012; Karimi et al. 2013a;Tilmant et al. 2015) is needed to lessen the constraints of data limitations, and enhance the ease and precision with which water productivity estimates can be made at multiple scales.The development and application of other approaches from related disciplines could also provide new insights and opportunities for improving the definition, assessment and analysis of agricultural water productivity and efficiency. In economics, especially in the field of agricultural production economics, aspects related to productivity and efficiency have been defined and analyzed using more comprehensive approaches, taking into account a range of production factors. A recent survey of the literature on agricultural productivity and efficiency, which explicitly includes water aspects in the measurement of productivity and efficiency, showed that the field offers a number of useful approaches to assess multifactor production processes, including total factor productivity indices and frontier models (Scheierling et al. 2014). Deductive methods, such as hydro-economic models, which are often applied in irrigation water economics could also be used more specifically to assess agricultural water productivity in a multi-input and multi-output framework (Scheierling and Tréguer 2016). These findings suggest an opportunity to advance economic assessments of agricultural water productivity, and to provide insights, in combination with other disciplinary approaches, on how water could be used better in different contexts and in support of different development objectives.In the preceding sections, we discussed the concept of agricultural water productivity and its evolution from different efficiency concepts; the development of further indicators to assess and measure change across a range of uses and scales, and their applications; the scope for water productivity gains in different contexts and scales, and the related pathways; as well as the rationale and thinking behind the importance of improving water productivity, and the contribution to broader development objectives. The report highlighted the need for precision in defining water productivity terms, and discussed their limitations. The importance of water accounting as an adaptable framework for estimating water uses and identifying opportunities for improvements has been stressed. Progress in the use of remote sensing to generate additional data for use in water accounting, and in integrated crop and hydrologic modeling, at a range of scales has also been discussed.In the rich body of literature on agricultural water productivity that has evolved over the past 20 years through research conducted by IWMI and partners, a shift becomes apparent from more theoretical deliberations (the need to produce more crops with the same or less amount of water) to a more practical discussion (where, why, and how to achieve this). Based on the methodological developments and applied research, a number of key lessons emerge: scale and context matter, and so do objectives and incentives as well as data and approaches. This body of research suggests that the inherent value of single-factor water productivity metrics may not be as variables to be maximized but rather as initial, albeit imperfect, indicators for regions with increasing water scarcity of the potential for improvements; and as a basis for further analysis of the underlying causes for the differences, the possible interventions (that may or may not be related to water) and their likely impact.Reflecting on these lessons is particularly relevant given the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, and the fact that Goal 6.4 emphasizes the importance of increasing water-use efficiency across all sectors, including agriculture. With growing water scarcity in many parts of the world, improvements in agricultural water productivity seem to be desirable as a means to reduce overall water use in the agriculture sector. However, whether gains in water efficiency or productivity measured as single-factor productivity metrics are a relevant indicator at different scales of analysis and in different settings, or whether they contribute to broader development objectives, depends on a number of complex and interrelated factors, and requires more detailed analysis in those specific settings.The launch of the SDGs provides an important moment to revisit the concepts of water efficiency and productivity-their use and limitations, particularly in relation to water savings-and to consider agricultural water productivity as part of a larger suite of metrics and approaches to help address water scarcity concerns and achieve broader development objectives. More intensive interdisciplinary collaboration would help arrive at more comprehensive approaches. Research presented here offers possible entry points with remote sensing, agronomy, hydrology and economic approaches, in particular from agricultural production economics and irrigation water economics. To conclude, a focus on agricultural water productivity has brought greater attention to water scarcity and management issues and their complexity. There exists now a strategic opportunity to combine the lessons from this large body of research to tackle challenges, improve methods and application, and thus contribute to food and water security, economic growth and poverty alleviation goals.","tokenCount":"16329"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b24d1d6eb55b2f9651734505dc6f647d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/72ef0b9b-bc71-4d81-b577-ea0f59aea395/retrieve","id":"712057637"},"keywords":["holistic","value chain approach","neglected and underutilized species (NUS)","Andean grains","quinoa","cañahua","amaranth","Bolivia","Peru"],"sieverID":"89f254d1-2a7a-444f-a68b-2f892616c7bc","pagecount":"30","content":"The IFAD-NUS project, implemented over the course of a decade in two phases, represents the first UN-supported global effort on neglected and underutilized species (NUS). This initiative, deployed and tested a holistic and innovative value chain framework using multi-stakeholder, participatory, inter-disciplinary, pro-poor gender-and nutrition-sensitive approaches. The project has been linking aspects often dealt with separately by R&D, such as genetic diversity, selection, cultivation, harvest, value addition, marketing, and final use, with the goal to contribute to conservation, better incomes, and improved nutrition and strengthened livelihood resilience. The project contributed to the greater conservation of Andean grains and their associated indigenous knowledge, through promoting wider use of their diversity by value chain actors, adoption of best cultivation practices, development of improved varieties, dissemination of high quality seed, and capacity development. Reduced drudgery in harvest and postharvest operations, and increased food safety were achieved through technological innovations. Development of innovative food products and inclusion of Andean grains in school meal programs is projected to have had a positive nutritionThe Andean region is one of the richest areas in the world in terms of biological diversity. Some 45,000 species of vascular plants are estimated to grow there [1], equivalent to roughly one sixth of the world's floristic diversity. The region is also one of the main Vavilovian centers of origin of cultivated plants [2], with high genetic diversity of globally important crops and their wild relatives [3].Paradoxically, this highly biodiverse area is also one of the poorest in Latin America (15.2% extreme poverty rate) [4], with highest levels in the Bolivian-Peruvian plateau [5]. Of even greater concern is the high incidence of malnutrition in children under five years of age, ranging from 10% to 50% [6].Agriculture in the Andes is characterized by a high degree of risks associated with a range of climatic stresses such as frost, hail, wind, drought, high radiation, and poor and saline soils [7]. Compared with introduced crops, native species have a comparative advantage as they are able to grow in these difficult conditions with minimum inputs as a result of selection that has been implemented by local growers over generations [8]. Their contribution to keeping agro-ecosystems more stable and healthier is recognized [8,9].Andean rural communities have based their diet mostly on plants, using tubers, grains, cereals, legumes and fruits, and, if available, also animals (especially camelids). Agrobiodiversity is thus of high importance in their diets. Most important sources of food include Andean grains (AG), such as quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), cañahua (Bolivian name -known as cañihua in Peru) (Chenopodium pallidicaule), amaranth or kiwicha (Amaranthus caudatus), and tarwi (Lupinus mutabilis); tubers, such as ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus), oca (Oxalis tuberosa), mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), and potato (Solanum tuberosum); roots, such as arracacha (Arracacia xanthorrhiza), yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius), maca (Lepidium meyenii), camote (Ipomoea batatas); and many fruits, such as cherimoya (Annona cherimola), tree tomato (Solanum betaceum), and uvilla (Physalis peruviana) [10].These crops are often cultivated in marginal areas. Most of their produce is kept by the growers for household self-consumption and is only occasionally sold, as in the case of quinoa, currently an important cash crop for both Bolivia and Peru. Local populations consider these crops of enormous importance for their own food and nutrition security and to meet multiple livelihood needs. Growing these native species and perpetuating their traditional cultivation and consumption practices is also particularly relevant to maintaining the bond between people and their land, culture, and traditions [11]. The wealth of indigenous knowledge (IK) on the cultivation and use of these crops represents an intangible livelihood asset, whose strategic role in reinforcing self esteem and self-reliance needs no explanation [12]. These tangible (genetic diversity) and intangible assets (IK) to Andean communities are at risk.Globalization trends, the growth of standardized modern agriculture, which is poor in biodiversity, changes in lifestyle, such as standardization of diets, are all causing severe erosion of traditional food cultures. Political and social conflicts, as well as increasing pressure caused by climate change, are factors hindering the development of rural areas and favoring the abandonment of agriculture by younger generations [13,14], which also contribute to the loss of local crops and traditions. All of these factors are having a negative impact on the breadth of agrobiodiversity used by rural populations, which in turn is limiting livelihood options, particularly of the poor. Noteworthy is also the dramatic shrinking of the food basket many of the world populations rely upon for their food security: out of more than 7000 species used for food, only four crops, viz. maize, wheat, rice, and potato provide over 60% of the global requirement for calories of plant origin [14,15]. This situation is having a strong impact on the world's overall nutrition security and dietary diversity, and was recognized in 1991 by several UN Agencies [16] as a major limitation to human development. It was again reiterated by the Millennium Development Goals Report 14 years later [17] that micronutrient deficiencies or \"hidden hunger\" is caused mainly by simplified diets, particularly among the poor. According to Biesalski, [18], hidden hunger is the underlying cause of numerous developmental disorders which negatively affect people's lives and their future, and ultimately aggravate their state of poverty.There is a need to broaden the focus of agricultural R&D to include a much wider range of crop species in order to increase livelihood options of the rural poor, including income generation, food security, and diet diversity [12]. To date, most of the plant resources with great potential to meet these goals, especially in difficult environments, have received little attention by R&D in modern agriculture and policies. The fact that the cultivation of improved high-yielding varieties of commodity crops is also performing very poorly in marginal areas is yet another justification to broaden the portfolio of crop genetic resources in R&D [3].The key milestone in the recognition of the importance of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) by the international community is represented by the first Global Plan of Action (GPA) for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) that was launched by FAO in 1996 [19] in which the promotion of these species represented one of its 12 Activities. The importance of this work was further reiterated in the second GPA [20]. The International Treaty for PGRFA has also called on countries to support the enhanced use of NUS in Art. 6 [21]. With increased awareness of the important role that NUS play in better nutrition and poverty reduction, the \"Cordoba Declaration\" [22] is just one of several calls most recently endorsed by scientists and policymakers advocating greater investment in these species [23].Due to the complexity of issues involved in enhancing the use of NUS crops, it was widely felt the need for a different approach to Green revolution methods that focused mainly on staple crops and their breeding for higher yield. This was the justification behind the conception of the IFAD-NUS project: to develop and test an innovative approach for non-commodity crops, using a holistic, inter-disciplinary, inter-sector, highly participatory, pro-poor nutrition, and gender-sensitive framework. Thanks to the financial support received by IFAD, this research was made possible and successfully implemented through two distinct phases over a period of ten years.The IFAD-NUS project is the first UN-supported global effort on neglected and underutilized species. Its goal was to demonstrate that marginalized crop genetic resources can become valid instruments of development, especially in marginal areas [24].Between the first (2001-2005) and the second phase (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009), partners included countries in Latin America (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador), South Asia (India, Nepal), West Asia, and North Africa (Egypt, Yemen). This article focuses on the Latin American component and on Bolivia and Peru in particular. Bioversity International has been leading the project as global coordinator, whereas the national level coordination was carried out by Fundación para la Promoción e Investigación de Productos Andinos (PROINPA) in Bolivia, and by the Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente (CIRNMA) in Peru. In this paper we will present the framework of the IFAD-NUS project, and provide insight on its results, outputs and impact, while also offering some reflections on the way forward.The holistic framework, which was followed in this work, aimed at developing new methods, approaches and tools to address issues across the inter-related segments of the value chain of target crops and to bridge the gap between conservation and use. Activities spanned from surveying, collecting and conserving genetic diversity, to the selection, cultivation, harvest, value addition, marketing, and final use of processed products (see Figure 1). By pursuing all of these activities together, the project was expected to improve income generation, leverage the nutritional benefits of target crops, and contribute to the sustainable conservation of their genetic resources.The project design process included several meetings involving stakeholders engaged at various levels in the conservation and use of target crops. The choice of quinoa, amaranth, and cañihua as target crops for the project took place during a workshop organized in January 2001 in Bolivia that was attended by farmer associations, NGOs, research organizations and private sector representatives from Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador (see Figures 2-4). These crops were recommended in recognition of their established use by Andean populations over      As a whole, in both Bolivia and Peru, 34 project sites were selected based on representativeness of beneficiary groups and diversity of relevance of target crops in socio-economic, cultural and geographic contexts. In total, more than 1170 families (20 to 120 families per site) participated directly in the implementation of the project. Special attention was given to the participation of women due to their strategic role as nutrition caretakers in the family [25].Each year, national and regional meetings as well as frequent community-based events were organized in project sites to appraise progress, share lessons, and create necessary linkages and synergies among all stakeholders across the value chains [12]. A project steering committee also met regularly to monitor implementation. An impact assessment study was commissioned by IFAD at the end of the first phase [25,26].The domains of actions and results per value chain segment and per crop are presented in Table 1.In each of the phases, intensive capacity building efforts were deployed targeting all categories of stakeholders. Compared with the first phase, the second phase of the project dedicated greater attention on consolidating evidence regarding the contribution of target crops in food security, income generation and other livelihood benefits.      Launching of innovative agritourism approach in Santiago de Okola (Bolivia); training for men and women and provision of simple infrastructure for hosting tourists, museum on agrobiodiversity, web site; all activities now self-sustainable and contributing to raise incomes of community members and safeguard NUS diversity and IK.As stressed by several workers [3,23,27,28], NUS are poorly represented in ex situ genebank collections, such that use-enhancement interventions usually require a special effort to collect genetic diversity. The project documented both cultivated and wild genetic resources of the target crops by carrying out surveys and collecting missions in the five agrobiodiversity microcenters located around Lake Titicaca. During these surveys IK associated with the crops were also documented. These activities improved the understanding of the crops' current ecogeographic distribution and threats to both their genetic and cultural diversity [29,30].The first descriptors list for cañahua was developed to help characterize collections and promote use enhancement of this crop by breeders and farmers [31]. A revision of the descriptors list for quinoa was also carried out [32]. Upgrading of national seed collections of AG in both countries was supported to improve the ex situ conservation capacities for these crops. Long-term storage protocols for seeds, better documentation systems, regeneration of collections, implementation of core collections, and better taxonomic identification of wild relatives of target species were also carried out. The collections made through the project contributed to a sizeable increase of genetic material of target crops, including samples from areas that were previously unexplored. For instance, in Bolivia, 220 accessions of quinoa and 83 of cañahua were collected. In Peru, 250 germplasm accessions of amaranth were collected from Cusco, Ayacucho and Apurimac regions. At the INIA station, the project contributed to assembling the largest amaranth collection in the Andean region (249 accessions conserved from nearly 40 locations from across Peru) [33][34][35], as well as rejuvenation and characterization of 210 accessions of this crop. Infrastructure improvement of the INIA genebank during the project has also benefited approximately 7,000 accessions of AG conserved in the facility (Figure 5). The eco-geographic surveys detected high degree of genetic erosion in farmers' fields for quinoa, cañahua and amaranth in both countries. For instance, the survey carried out in 2003 in the Department of La Paz, Bolivia, involving 467 families across five provinces revealed that out of 200 cultivars of AG previously recorded from this region, only 40 cultivars of quinoa and 20 cultivars of cañahua were remaining. Moreover, 85% of the farmers cultivated only one landrace of cañahua. Thanks to previous collections made on cañahua, the project was able to successfully re-introduce in Bolivia more than 40 accessions of this crop, which is now in greater demand by farmers because of its cold resistance [12].At least five diversity fairs were carried out in each country to promote the exchange of genetic material among farmers together with associated IK. During these events the project gathered information on traditional food preparations, in particular through documentation of women's traditional recipes [36], which were then disseminated through training courses and workshops to communities. An indication of the up-taking of food recipes promoted by the project is represented by the noticeable increase in the number of food preparations displayed at the Biodiversity Fairs held in Tiwanaku (Bolivia) from 2002 to 2004 (Table 2). The documentation of women's traditional recipes helped raise greater awareness and appreciation for their role in maintaining local bio-cultural heritage [36]. Non-food uses associated with Andean grains were also documented during the Fairs. Interesting uses included the medical applications: farmers mentioned that \"pito de cañahua\" is an effective means to control altitude sickness or diarrhoea, and quinoa cataplasm is a valid cure for dislocations and bone fissures. Furthermore, religious offerings made with quinoa and cañahua to Pachamama (Mother Earth in Andean beliefs) were also believed to purify the environment [36,37].These agrobiodiversity Fairs, carried out in the five microcenters included contests and prizes that were given to farmers, which served as motivation for their continued conservation of local varieties [38] (see Figure 6). Due to the success of these events in promoting both local agrobiodiversity and cultural identity, a number of local Municipalities appreciated their importance and agreed to institutionalize them as annual events [29,30,37,39].In situ conservation was also promoted during the project through social recognition of custodian farmers who made exceptional contribution to the conservation of local diversity [40]. The public recognition was expected to encourage their continued contribution by raising their self-esteem. One of the largest bottlenecks in the use of AG is the lack of genetic material with commercially valuable market traits [8,41,42]. Therefore, numerous workshops and more than 40 participatory selection trials for cultivars of quinoa, cañahua, and amaranth were carried out in both countries in which diversity was assessed according to farmers' preferences, considering market and other livelihood needs. Accessions showing greatest potential in the different areas were selected [29,37]. At least eight Local Research Committees (CIAL) were established to work on these activities. Demonstration plots were created to which farmers carried out field visits and exchange experiences. This work spread over a 10-year period, led to the successful release of six improved cultivars of quinoa. Of these, an interesting saponin-free cultivar, the \"INIA-415 Pasankalla\", was released in Peru [43]. Moreover, two improved cañahua cultivars, the \"Illimani\" [44] and \"Kullaca\" [45] (see Figure 7a,b), were the first improved varieties of this crop that have ever been released. They showed characteristics, such as precocity and uniformity in color and size of the grain, important traits not usually found in local varieties.At the start of the project, formal seed production, especially for amaranth, was non-existent in target countries, and therefore initiative was taken to build and strengthen the seed supply system in several locations. To assure self-sustainable production of good quality seed of target crops, farmers were trained in high quality seed production, which is being implemented now, independently and sustainably, by several farmer associations [12].During the second phase, special attention was given to assess pests and diseases affecting amaranth production in the main producing areas. Using a combination of traditional and modern approaches, best practices to control and reduce crop damage were determined that reduced the use of pesticide in the range of 50% to 90%. Two manuals regarding these methods were published and disseminated to farmers [46,47]. Interestingly, these were the first manuals ever to have been developed for this crop in Bolivia or Peru in spite of the centuries-old cultivation of this crop in these countries. With regard to harvest, participatory surveys showed that major bottlenecks for target crops were related to harvest/post harvest operations [8,41,42]. In amaranth, initial surveys revealed that grain loss during harvest and postharvest was up to 15%. Therefore, special attention was given by the project to develop enhanced technology to improve these operations.In Bolivia, two prototype post harvest machines to thresh Andean grains, especially quinoa were designed, constructed, and validated, and another was validated in Peru (Figure 8). One of the threshing prototypes provided great improvement in performance with considerable time-savings: in the case of quinoa, threshing time was reduced from 100 kg/day using the traditional technique to 95 kg/h. With regard to the de-saponification machine (Figure 9), time-saving was also conspicuous as it was reduced from 6 h per arroba (local volume unit equivalent to 30.46 liters in Bolivia) to just 15 min [37]. These innovations have also addressed other problems, such as contamination by stones and sand, loss of grain, difficult transportation to the field, and the high price of machines. The new technology has allowed farmers to process small and medium operations, where previously machines were only available for large-scale operations and were thus out of reach to these users. Thanks to new methods and tools introduced by the project, in the Curawasi area (the largest amaranth producing area in the Apurimac region of Peru), the area planted to amaranth has expanded nearly five times (cultivation area rising from 8 ha recorded in 2005 to 50 ha in 2009) [25].Equipment for the de-saponification of quinoa seeds in Bolivia was also validated in close participation with community members. The de-saponification prototype has had a strong benefit for women in particular, as they are the ones in charge of this operation within their communities. The machines reduced drudgery associated with processing quinoa and thereby contributed to empowering women and elevating their social status and self esteem, as they are now able to dedicate less time on this work and earn extra income from value addition [29,37].  Participatory surveys indicated that value addition for quinoa, cañahua, and amaranth was another major bottleneck in their respective value chains [29,37].In appraising these limitations during the project, an important finding was made regarding hazardous processing in popped grains, which are commercialized throughout Bolivia and Peru. The study found large quantities of lead in popped AG, in amounts that ranged from 1.5 to even 50 times the total lead content considered safe for human food consumption by FAO's Codex Alimentarius. A large portion of the urban population consumes these products, especially children, so the project realized the need for an urgent solution. With the help of engineers a new popping machine similar to the ones found locally was developed [48]. However, this equipment was more expensive than those produced locally. A more adequate and accessible technological innovation for the farmers was therefore conceived in the form of a Teflon lid to replace the one made of lead (see Figure 10). This innovation reduced the amount of lead found in popped products to a safe level as per the Codex indications. However, this innovation was only introduced to a small number of processing companies, so more work is needed to encourage wider adoption. In Bolivia, strategic alliances with private companies were established to promote the development of new products made of AG. Particularly noteworthy was the collaboration on amaranth, whose accessions proved to be suitable for the development of specific food applications, including energy bars, produced as a novel and attractive food product for children. Such a product is now included in the school feeding programs of cities, such as Sucre and Serrano in the department of Chuquisaca. This new snack contributed to increase the popularity of amaranth among children over more attractive but less nutritious cereal-based items. This activity also generated additional income for the actors involved in the value chain of amaranth. According to project data, such use enhancement of amaranth generated an increase in yield from 800 to 1300 kg/ha with an enhancement in economic benefits in the order of at least 3 mil Bolivianos/year (app. 400,000 USD) for the whole amaranth value chain sector operating in the area of Chuquisaca.Another activity to promote the use of AG and contribute to strengthen the nutrition security in Bolivia using target species was the development of new products based on quinoa, cañahua, and amaranth. Thanks to this product diversification strategy there has been an increased number of AG products available in supermarkets such as meatballs, cakes, juices, pancakes, among many others (see Figure 11). In total, around 18 items using quinoa, 15 using cañahua, and 10 using amaranth have been developed. As traditional recipes were documented and promoted, new alternative food recipes were also explored such as pre-cooked quinoa soup, quinoa beer, cañahua protein isolate, cañahua flan, amaranth ice-cream, and quinoa nectar, which recorded a very good acceptance by final consumers [49,50]. Fortified cookies and dairy substitutes, based on AG, are now being provided to breastfeeding women in governmental programs [12].Nutritional analysis and tests for assessing germplasm accessions were made to ascertain the nutritional values in raw and processed products.Surveys were developed to document IK regarding traditional uses. Traditional recipes were collected, consolidated and published as traditional recipes books for cooking quinoa, cañahua, and amaranth [36,[51][52][53]. It was interesting to find in the Bolivian high plateau alone, at least 37 different recipes prepared with quinoa, out of 100 food uses reported in the literature as a whole for this crop [54]. Twenty different types of recipes using cañahua were also compiled. Recipes compiled were used to support promotional campaigns of these crops in which the high nutritional value of these crops was emphasized. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the 18 surveys carried out by the project in urban and rural areas of Bolivia showed that at least 70% of people interviewed were completely unaware of the nutritional benefits of AG, which have been replaced by more-easy-to-prepare, less nutritious and easy to acquire products made of cereals. As compared to cereals, AG shows very high levels of some essential amino acids (Table 3).With regard to the nutritional contribution of amaranth, a study carried out by the project in 2009 in Bolivia in cooperation with SEDEGES (Departmental Service for Social Management) and targeting 44 school children, showed improved health status of participating children [55][56][57]. The lack of quality standards in the value chains of AG that was demonstrated in the case of popped AG is a factor that hinders the marketing of quinoa, cañahua, and amaranth. Workshops were held during the project with representatives of the Bolivian and Peruvian Ministries of Agriculture and Commerce and private sector actors to discuss ways to fill this normative gap. The project worked in close collaboration with the Bolivian Institute of Quality and Standardization (IBNORCA) [64], the Peruvian National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property-INDECOPI [65], and other actors in AG value chains to develop the first technical regulations that define, classify and establish requirements regarding the commercialization of these crops in each country, while promoting diversity of target crops in production systems [57,66]. This norm is now facilitating access of AG products to international markets. These norms were subsequently used as a basis for the development of technical regulations for the Andean region through the support of the Interamerican Development Bank.Market, commercialization, and demand limitations are key aspects in the promotion of any NUS, including AG. Very often these limitations are due to the stigma of food-of-the-poor that so often accompany these traditional crops in any country. Consistent efforts by the IFAD-NUS project were therefore invested to popularize the consumption of AG in ways that would cast on them a more positive image. The most successful intervention of this nature was the strategic partnership developed with the Bolivian private coffee-shop chain \"Alexander Coffee\". This joint venture was the result of a collaboration between PROINPA, the Bolivian-based ecotourism NGO \"La Paz on foot\", the Italian NGO UCODEP (today Oxfam-Italy), and Bioversity International. This alliance launched pro-NUS campaigns where customers in Alexander Coffee shops across Bolivia were informed about the nutritional benefits of AG through attractive leaflets, table-tents, posters, and, of course, through the tasting of attractive and innovative modern food recipes [67] (see Figure 12). The snacks, biscuits, and other food items using AG developed with the support of Alexander Coffee's chefs were a great success and are now very popular items in the circuit of this catering chain with spill-over effects in other shops. At the same time, this initiative promoted the establishment of direct linkages between Alexander Coffee and poor farming communities from Lake Titicaca for the supply of raw material [68].Surveys on consumer preferences of AG in Bolivia and Peru were carried out to gain better insights on their potential in different market segments. At the same time, other efforts were spent to establish sustainable linkages and strategic partnerships between farmers and the private sector (such as Naturalcos, Bolivia Natural companies). In these collaborative works, the relevance of emerging market options for AG through gluten-free, organic agriculture, diabetic/low glycemic index, and nutraceutical products were explored for development of more attractive and high-value food items.Due to a poor or complete lack of linkages across actors of AG value chains, multi-stakeholder cooperation platforms for quinoa, cañahua, and amaranth were created in 2009, in both Bolivia and Peru (see Figure 13). Objectives of these platforms included [8,41,42]:   As a concrete outcome from this activity, the case of the Amaranth Platform in Chuquisaca, Bolivia can be highlighted. Here farmers and processors are now effectively interacting in the production and commercialization of amaranth with substantial economic gains compared with previous years. This platform has contributed to important policy changes in their sector such as the successful lobbying for the approval of the National Bolivian Amaranth Development Plan, leveraging its strategic nutritional value and focus on organic production.During the second phase, nutritional analyses, as well as biochemical characterization of germplasm for polyphenols, antioxidants and other nutraceutical traits were carried out for quinoa, cañahua and amaranth in each country [69][70][71][72]. Results of these studies were used to better understand the intra-specific variation of these traits in target crops and support promotional campaigns launched jointly with the private sector.Capacity building has been a key element throughout the implementation of the project both in Bolivia as well as in Peru through meetings, participatory workshops and field days. Farmers and farmerś associations have been receiving not only training on the nutritional benefits of Andean grains and best cultivation practices (incl. production of quality seeds, pest and disease management and improved harvest and post-harvest methods), but also enhancing their capacities in novel food preparations, transformation processes, nutrition, food safety and marketing [29,37] (see Figure 14). Extension workers and technicians from public and private agencies were also benefiting from these courses. Training courses were providing a special attention to target women, particularly when dealing with nutrition and food preparations. The project gave also support to more than 30 students from local universities in Bolivia and Peru, training them while they were carrying out their research thesis assignments on different topics linked to the IFAD-NUS project [73]. A number of fact sheets, manuals, guidelines, and scientific papers were published for disseminating methods, approaches and tools to practitioners and the scientific community as a whole. In order to make these products easily accessible and at the same time foster knowledge sharing, a web site for the project has been also created [74]. In Bolivia, workshops to sensitize and train at least 15 companies on nutrition, processing practices, marketing, novel product generation and commercialization, and food safety for AG were also carried out.In order to strengthen further the income generation opportunities from AG for poor rural community members, an innovative \"agritourism\" approach was successfully introduced in the village of Santiago de Okola in Bolivia. Capacity building of men and women was carried out on agritourism practices and simple infrastructure improvement was made for hosting tourists. Thanks to this initial investment, the community was able to gain attention from a number of funding agencies and to establish its own company called \"Luisani\", build a community museum on agrobiodiversity maintained by the community and organize yearly events to celebrate indigenous crops and food culture [75]. A short article on this work was also prepared by the project for inclusion in the Lonely Planet Guidebook of Bolivia, which proved a very effective way to attract tourists to the village, which has been able to develop and manage its own web site [76].In this section we evaluate the impact of the IFAD NUS project in Bolivia and in Peru in terms of consumption, production and marketing of AG and livelihood indicators using a quasi-experimental design. Data were collected in 2007 and 2010 through a randomized framework of eight communities across Bolivia and Peru that were involved in the project. The analysis assessed the impact of phase I and phase II of the project and their joint effect by comparing livelihood and farming indicators of participating and non-participating households. Figure 15 shows the percentage of households consuming, producing and marketing Andean grains in targeted communities in 2007 and 2010. There are differences among communities but there was a clear increase in these indicators in several communities, in particular in term of production of AG. To understand the role played by the program in these changes a further analysis was performed. Table 4 reports the estimates in livelihood and farming indicators for households that participated in the project (phase 1, phase 2, or both phases) obtained with propensity scores and Difference in differences method. Only results that were statistically representative with at least a 90% confidence level are reported.Participation in the project positively influenced the area planted to Andean grains by households in Peru and Bolivia. In Bolivia, this effect was strongly apparent for households that participated in both phases of the project, whereas in Peru, this effect was most apparent for households who participated in Phase 1 alone. Project interventions positively influenced the richness of AG varieties planted and the number of new varieties introduced by households in Bolivia and, to a lesser extent, in Peru.In both countries, farmers involved in both phases of the project showed an increase in engagement in the marketing of AG (rated on a 5-item ordinal scale) and a significant increase in perceived income. Peruvian households who only participated in the first phase of the project also showed significantly increased marketability of AG and perceived income. As a great surge in demand for quinoa internationally has taken place over the course of the project, it should be emphasized that the perceived increase in marketability of AG by farmers engaged in the project was significantly above that perceived by farmers who were not involved in the project. In Bolivia, significant livelihood benefits of engagement in both phases of the project were apparent through an increased appliance index (an asset-based indicator of wealth built on the availability of eight household appliances that are likely related to the well-being status of the household, inc., refrigerator, mobile phone, and TV). Consumption of Andean grains was already highly prevalent in most communities at the beginning of the project but it was significantly enhanced in both countries through project activities, especially through the second phase, which focused on nutrition and culinary use-enhancement. One community in particular, Cuevas in Bolivia, showed a remarkable increase in Andean grain consumption between 2007 and 2010 (Figure 15). In Peru, the perceived level of nutrition (measured through a 3-items scale self-assessment) was strongly enhanced through project activities in the second phase. There was no significant effect of project activities on perceived nutrition of households in Bolivia.Overall, a positive impact of the project in terms of AG production, conservation, and income benefits was strongly significant and highly robust in Bolivia. These effects were also noted in Peru but were less clear, with more impact on nutrition in this country. The project had a stronger benefit for households that participated in both phases of the project.Additional indication of project impact on the conservation of diversity of AG is evident through records of the diversity fairs organized in 2008 and 2010 in Santiago de Okola and Coromata Media in Bolivia, which show an increase in the number of native varieties grown by the communities: from 102 to 161 in Coromata Media and from 89 to 131 in Santiago de Okola [77,78].Over 10 years the IFAD-NUS project has carried out interventions across the value chains of AG (quinoa, cañahua, and amaranth) to enhance their conservation and leverage their livelihood and nutritional values through greater use. Project activities contributed to strengthen the conservation of their genetic diversity both ex situ and in situ, selected improved varieties, enhanced cultivation practices, developed better harvest and post harvest operations, produced new methods and tools in value addition, enhanced marketing, built capacities and raised public awareness. The innovative and holistic conservation-production-to-consumption approach adopted by the project has demonstrated to be a viable approach to promote the conservation of neglected and underutilized crops, generating at the same time livelihood benefits for poor communities where these resources are intimately connected with local food systems and culture.This work required the deployment of a methodological framework sensitive to cultural, gender and nutrition aspects and focusing not solely on economic benefits [12]. The establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms at the beginning of project interventions represented a key aspect, which encouraged participation and increased the effectiveness and greater impact [8]. Such holistic farm-to fork value chain approach is both dynamic and fragile, as it is formed by multiple inter-dependent stakeholders, many of which have limited time for building consortia in addition to their farming and domestic activities [26]. A call to policy makers to promote these platforms and lend support to secure their sustainability is thus needed to strengthen horizontal and vertical links of these value chains in the future.With regard to technological innovations introduced by the project, the popping machine with a Teflon lid could not be adopted extensively by processing companies in Bolivia and Peru. Further efforts are therefore needed to encourage governments to promote this type of technology and implement existing norms regarding safety measures for avoiding led contamination in AG products.This holistic approach included the conservation of genetic diversity of target crops and their wild relatives as diversity is fundamental to the option value and sustainability of their value chains. To that regard, out of the three AG targeted by the project, quinoa deserves greater attention. The \"quinoa boom\" is pushing farmers to implement intense cultivations of this crop for meeting the high demands and this is threatening the fragile agro-ecosystems of the Andean Altiplano. Furthermore, the focus of the market almost exclusively on the \"Quinoa Real\" is determining also the marginalization of hundreds of landraces, whose resilience and nutritional benefits are also being lost [79]. Looking at the future prospects of AG, further research on how intrinsic nutritional value of these species can be best managed to meet the increasing demand in functional foods and alternative non-food products (such as the industrial use of saponin for natural cosmetics in the case of quinoa) is also another area where further research is recommended.","tokenCount":"6001"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b873cb270187450fcdc258cd728a283","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a0901272-3126-42c6-aa35-d5814bc4e512/retrieve","id":"1752500854"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9278fdf4-623a-41f0-80c1-14d5c72da874","pagecount":"2","content":"More than 20 viruses have been reported that can pose a major constraint to sweetpotato production. Current diagnostic tests available for sweetpotato viruses are either not sensitive enough to reliably detect viruses directly from sweetpotato or require expensive laboratory equipment to perform and a high level of experience. We demonstrate that LAMP can be deployed in a non-laboratory situation, such as in a field setting for use during inspections for seed certification or incidence surveys. Crop loss due to sweetpotato viruses can be managed by accurate diagnosis. Several methods have been used for the detection of sweetpotato viruses. Use of indicator plants like Ipomoea setosa has been the gold standard for detecting sweetpotato viruses; coupled with nitrocellulose membrane enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (NCM-ELISA). However, using I. setosa takes many months and NCM-ELISA has some limitations in detecting sweetpotato viruses, namely availability of antibody for target virus, limited sensitivity, cost to produce an antibody, requirement of relatively large sample volumes, strain variation and time to complete ELISA to name a few. Currently, many advanced molecular techniques have advantages over NCM-ELISA. However, most of these techniques require an expensive laboratory set up, high technical expertise and expensive reagents (Table 1).The aim is to develop a thermostabilized field-based LAMP test for Sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV), Sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV) and begomoviruses. The test should be user friendly for field diagnosticians. To achieve this, we are currently using room temperature stable lyophilized master mix provided from a commercial company and a simple one step extraction method.  How are we going to make it happen?Currently we are validating the tool in the field.We have successfully detected SPFMV, SPCSV, and Begomoviruses at two sites in Kenya. We are optimizing performance of lyophilized thermostable isothermal master mix with enhanced reverse transcription activity. We propose to target three more regions with different environmental conditions to assess its performance.A simple extraction method for sweetpotato leaves was adopted and involves macerating leaves in a plastic bag with alkaline buffer. Clearly, this approach doesn't require sophisticated and expensive laboratory equipment. The crude extract remains stable relatively long at room temperature (>1 hour) and this is convenient for testing LAMP in the field. We are extensively field testing a thermostabilized LAMP assay for SPFMV, SPCSV and begomoviruses which is in a ready-to-use form and requires no cold chain (Fig. 2).Once validated, the cost of utilizing the LAMP per sample needs to be determined. Ideally, the LAMP would evolve into a commercial kit. The major clientele would be for agents and farmers inspecting \"seed\" multipliers to determine the quality of the material being produced and/or sold. Over time, more viruses could be detecting using LAMP type systems. ","tokenCount":"447"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/8510803426.json b/data/part_6/8510803426.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"066e5e0d98e1111bc7f6303098ca4654","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c735ae8-5899-4031-8194-a1d2d6161bd3/retrieve","id":"620780960"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6d6502ac-fdd9-47c9-9056-61a699a268b1","pagecount":"2","content":"What is a story?Historically, stories were told round campfires, to pass on lessons about life. They were a way of passing on knowledge at a time when many people could not read or write. They were dramatic to engage people, and memorable stories plunged in immediately to engage the listener/reader. They were often repetitive.A story has 3 main elements:What makes a story engaging? Somewhere in between she finds time to help her family cultivate 13 hectares of land which includes one hectare of potatoes. \"I've been farming potatoes since I was a child,\" said Nestan. \"I love working the land and I want to learn about the new varieties and new technologies for growing potatoes.\"27-year-old Lò Thị Khuyên lives with her parents, husband and daughter in Oi village. The family has ten pigs; two cows; and two hectares of mango, plum and longan trees. During the pandemic, the fruit rotted on the ground because the family could not find a buyer. Buying feed for the pigs became more expensive, and the price of fattened animals at markets dropped by a third. The family had to sell some of their livestock to meet their household expenses.(can use tension, triumph, transition and/or tragedy)Example of anecdote \"I see the animals when I walk through the villages, and they now look shiny and in good condition. If the farmers take those animals to market, everybody wants to buy them; they look different even at the market. This is a result of programs to improve the general health of the animals, genetics and feed interventions. When a farmer is happy, I am satisfied.\"Mulatu Handore, an animal health assistant from the Areka Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia","tokenCount":"280"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/8533196379.json b/data/part_6/8533196379.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..79a1ab6d440249705f78d4f63f09beba62e13993
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9256be59de4e04b8845bfca7ada14e6f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2e0ed859-a574-4199-a8e8-80dee441b28f/retrieve","id":"-782791366"},"keywords":["Alternative host","Disease","Maize","Weeds","Inoculum"],"sieverID":"aa4f6cdb-21f5-438c-b0af-a7d0f576fb4b","pagecount":"14","content":"Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease is caused when maize plants become coinfected with Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and potyviruses notably Sugarcane Mosaic Virus (SCMV). Apart from maize, little is known about susceptibility of weed species and cultivated crop species usually growing in proximity with maize to MLN viruses in Uganda. The common weeds and crop plants were mechanically inoculated with combined sap from MCMV and SCMV infected maize plants. Samples were tested for MLN causing viruses by Double Antibody Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (DAS-ELISA) and Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). The weeds that were susceptibility to MCMV were Digitaria abyssinica, Eleusine africana and Roetboellia cochinchinensis; while those susceptible to SCMV were Pennisetum purpureum, Panicum maximum and Roetboellia cochinchinensis. The cultivated crops were susceptible only to MCMV and included cassava (Manihot esculenta), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) and bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). Common weeds and cultivated crops growing close to maize in Uganda have differential susceptibility to MLN causing viruses and can act as reservoirs of MLN causing viruses. It is critical to identify non MLN hosts in cultivated crops for crop rotation and early weeding to reduce on MLN virus inoculum in cropping systems.Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease of maize (Zea mays) caused by co-infection of maize plants with Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and any cereal potyviruses notably Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) has affected maize production of maize in different countries in East and Central African severely (Kitenge, 2012;Wangai et al., 2012;Asea, 2013;IPPC, 2014;Lukanda et al., 2014;and Adams et al., 2014). The sources of inoculum of MLN causing viruses have been documented to include; infected maize seed, insect vectors, infected maize plant residues, alternative host plants and more recently contaminated soils (Nault, 1978;Bockelman et al., 1982;Jensen et al., 1991;Scheets, 2004;and Mahuku et al., 2015). Strategies to control MLN in East and Central Africa have mainly concentrated management efforts on the maize crop (Mahuku et al., 2015), yet the occurrence of crops and weeds grown in association with maize is the main characteristic of farming systems in the region. Indeed according to Uyemoto (1983) when faced with a severe MLN epidemic, the rotation of the maize crop with soybean or sorghum reduces the incidence of MLN in the next season. However, several cultivated crops and weeds that grow within the vicinity of the maize crop could affect the dynamics of MLN through encouraging the survival of MLN causing viruses and perpetuation of the MLN disease. A clear determination of the mode of interaction of associated plants in the cropping system on pathogen survival and dynamics of disease are critical.Alternative hosts have been documented to have a critical role they play in the propagation of various diseases in a variety of crop species (Tugume et al., 2008;González-Segnana et al., 2013;and Macharia et al., 2016). Indeed this is the basis of various studies established to determine how other species of plants (weeds and cultivated crops) in the ecosystem of maize interact with viruses. For instance studies on the host range of Maize streak virus (MSV) revealed over 45 new species in the Gramineae family that were capable of being hosts of MSV (Damsteegt, 1983). Earlier studies conducted elsewhere revealed that MCMV has a wide experimental host range of up to 19 grass species (Bockelman et al., 1982). Other studies have revealed that the host range for both SCMV and MCMV is restricted to members of the Gramineae family with maize and sugarcane being the natural hosts of MCMV and SCMV respectively (Scheets, 2004). A more recent study conducted in the East African region reported typical disease symptoms of MCMV in finger millet (Eleusine indica), foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) after inoculation with MCMV (Mahuku et al., 2015). Indeed some species of plants do not show any symptoms of pathogens and may be considered not to be pathogen hosts (Schaad and Dianese, 1981;Gitaitis et al., 1998;and Fassihiani, 2000). For instance, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) was reported to have high tolerance for MCMV infection due to the fact that the virus was detected in the plants after inoculation but the plants remained asymptomatic (Mahuku et al., 2015). Although there is information on the susceptibility of weed species to MLN causing viruses elsewhere, there is need to conduct studies in Uganda because of genetic differences in the weeds, cultivated crop varieties and probable variation in virus strains of MLN causing viruses. The current study hence set out to determine the relative susceptibility of prevalent weeds and common maize intercrops such as banana, cassava, groundnut, common bean, soya bean and sweet potato to host MCMV/SCMV and/or succumb to MLN in screen house conditions. These findings will be helpful in informing the management of MLN in Uganda and the East and Central African region.Screen house studies and virus serological tests were conducted at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL) at Kawanda, 13 km Bombo road, Wakiso district in central Uganda. NARL is located 32°31'E, 0°252 N with an altitude of 1190 masl. The experimental site at NARL receives annual rainfall total of 1,250 mm with a daily average minimum temperature of 15 °C and maximum temperature of 29 °C, a mean relative humidity of 76% and is characterized by a bimodal rainfall pattern (Mukankusi et al., 2018). The screen house studies were repeated during three rainy seasons namely; 2014A, 2014B and 2015A, where \"A\" is the first rainy season (March-July) and \"B\" is the second rainy season (September-December).Symptomatic maize samples were collected from MLN hotspot areas of Tororo, Mbale, Bulambuli and Sironko districts of Eastern Uganda based on earlier surveys (Mudde et al., 2018). The procedure for collection and maintenance of virus isolates was based on a protocol by Gowda et al. (2015) with slight modifications. Double Antibody Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (DAS-ELISA) according to the general protocol by Clark and Adams (1977) was used to test for the presence of SCMV and MCMV in collected symptomatic maize leaf samples. Once confirmed for the presence of SCMV or MCMV by DAS-ELISA, both viruses were propagated on a popular susceptible variety Longe 5 in separate greenhouses. Two sealed separate screen houses were used for production of MCMV and SCMV inoculum. One gram of infected maize leaf samples collected from Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374 the field in MLN hotspot areas was cut into small pieces using a sterile scalpel blade and placed in a mortar containing 5 ml of ELISA extraction buffer. Inoculum was then made by grinding the infected maize leaf in cold 0.1M Phosphate buffer at pH 7 following methods by Noordam (1973). The resultant extract of sap was centrifuged for two minutes at 12,000 rpm. The sap was decanted and carborundum added at the rate of 0.02 g/ml. The susceptible maize variety Longe 5 at the V2 stage (10 days after emergence) with two leaves was infected with MLN causing virus by rubbing extract of sap onto the maize leaves. Prior to inoculation, DAS-ELISA was done on the maize leaves from each separate MCMV and SCMV screen house to ascertain the purity of the inoculums at three weeks before inoculation.The weed samples were obtained from five neighboring maize fields at NARL, Kawanda, Wakiso district, Uganda. Weed species similar to predominant weed species earlier identified from the surveys were included and grown in the disease indexing screen house. The assembled plants were identified to species level according to the taxonomic keys using reference herbarium collections available at the Department of Botany Herbarium, Makerere University and reference identification keys from Phillips et al. (2003). The 21 weed species tested were; Imperata cylindrica Echinochloa pyramidalis, Sorghum aethiopicum, Eleusine indica, Panicum maximum, Brachiaria decumbens, Chloris gayana, Digitaria abyssinica, Cyperus rotundus, Paspalum notatum, Amaranthus dubious, Amaranthus spinosus, Axonopus flexousus, Bracharia brizantha, Cynodon dactylon, Eleusine africana, Paspalam sceobiculatum, Pennisetum purpureum, Rottboellia cochinchinensis, Sorghum aethiopicum and Sorghum arundinacium (Table 1). A similar experiment was also established for the following crops commonly associated with maize stands from all agroecological zones in Uganda based on previous surveys in Uganda. The six most common cultivated crops used to represent cultivated crops based on data from previous surveys conducted in five major maize growing agroecological zones (Mudde et al., 2018) and included common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), cassava (Manihot esculenta), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), banana (Musa sp), soybean (Glycine max) and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) (Table 2). Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374  Black top soil from the forest, sand from the shores of Lake Victoria and fully decomposed cow manure from a nearby animal farm/kraal were transported to the Banana Resource Center at the NARL for reconstitution in a potted plant growth medium. They were mixed in the ratio of 3:1:1 and then steam sterilized in a metallic cylindrical drum for eight hours. To sterilize the soil, the bottom of the drum was fitted with a rack up to a height of 15 cm. The bottom was filled with water up to a height of 5 cm from the base. The top of the rack was lined with heat resistant micro-pore polyethylene mesh on which the mixed soil was rested. The soil was topped up to 1.2 m high and covered with same heat resistant micro-pore polyethylene mesh. Fire was set up below the bottom of the drum and boiled for eight hours after which it was deemed sterile. After five days, when the soil was cool, 0.25 kg was transferred into disposable plastic cups.Five pots of plants were used from each of the 21 weed species studied and replicated three times. A Ugandan maize susceptible cultivar, Longe five was included as a positive control. The weeds were transplanted from the field into two liter plastic bucket and allowed to establish for two weeks in the screen house. The cultivated crops were propagated from certified seed obtained from NASECO seed company and were planted as seed while the cassava and bananas were raised from cuttings and suckers respectively obtained from tissue culture generated disease free planting material at NARL. Pots were labeled according to weed species and randomly placed on a table in a screen house, one meter above the floor. They were watered once after every three days throughout the experimental period.After establishment, the weed and crop plants were mechanically inoculated with combined sap obtained from MCMV and SCMV infected plants raised separately and in different screen houses.Prior to inoculation, one gram of infected maize leaf samples collected from the screen house with MCMV infected maize plants at V2 stage was cut into small pieces using a sterile scalpel blade and placed in a mortar containing 5 ml of ELISA extraction buffer. Inoculum was then made by grinding the infected maize leaf in cold 0.1 M Phosphate buffer at pH 7 following methods by Noordam (1973). The resultant extract of sap was Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374 centrifuged for two minutes at 12,000 rpm. The same procedure was followed for the SCMV infected maize plants that were raised in a separate green house. One gram of SCMV infected maize leaf samples collected from the screen house with SCMV infected maize plants at V2 stage was cut into small pieces using a sterile scalpel blade and placed in a mortar containing 5 ml of ELISA extraction buffer. Inoculum was then made by grinding the infected maize leaf in cold 0.1 M Phosphate buffer at pH 7 following methods by Noordam (1973). The resultant extract of sap was centrifuged for two minutes at 12,000 rpm. The two separate viral solutions in separate motors were poured into a Phillips® blender and mixed at 35,000 RPM for 10 minutes in a ratio of four parts of SCMV to one part MCMV. The sap was then decanted and carborundum added at the rate of 0.02 g/ml. Prior to inoculation, the leaves of the maize plant at the V2 stage were dusted with carborundum which facilitated creating of wounds on the leaves for entry of the viruses. The centrifuged supernatant mixture of SCMV and MCMV was rubbed onto leaves of three different pots with five plants of each selected weed species. The pots were replicated three times for each plant species and each experiment giving a total of 15 plants tested per species for each experiment. The screen house studies were repeated during three rainy seasons namely; 2015B, 2016A and 2016B, where \"A\" is the first rainy season (March-June) and \"B\" is the second rainy season (September-December). The experimental design was a randomized complete block (RCBD) with three replicates. The plants were inoculated three times and ELISA tests for MLN causing viruses (MCMV and SCMV) done 10 days after each inoculation. The plants were observed for any symptoms of these viruses. A virus free maize plant was included as a control check for both the viruses.The presence of the presence of SCMV and MCMV in mechanically inoculated weed and crop leaf samples was determined using serological techniques. The procedure based on protocols by Clark and Adams (1977) was DAS-ELISA. The antisera used were procured from Agdia Inc. Elkhart, Indiana USA. The polyclonal antibodies utilized were anti-SCMV and anti-MCMV. In the test all the buffers were prepared according to the manufacturers specifications from Agdia Inc. Elkhart, Indiana USA. Plant leaf samples were crashed in a mortar at a ratio of 1:20 (w/v) in extraction buffer using pestle. In order to prepare the DAS-ELISA plates, 200 µl coating antibody for each specific MLN causing virus (MCMV and SCMV) was added into each well of microtitre pate (dilution 1:200 v/v of antibody: buffer) followed by two hours of incubation at 37 o C. The coated plates were then rinsed thrice in PBS-T (Phosphate Buffered Saline-Tween 20 pH 7.4). A total of 200 µl of the prepared plant test samples were added into each well in pairs followed by overnight incubation at 4 o C. Following incubation, the plates were rinsed thrice and 200 µl enzyme conjugate diluted in ECL buffer 1:200 (v/v) added to each well. Plates were incubated at 37 o C for three hours and rinsed thrice. A 200 µl freshly prepared substrate (1 mg/ml para-nitrophenyl-phosphate in substrate buffer) was added to each well and incubated at 37 o C for 60 minutes. Positive and negative control samples procured from Agdia Inc. Elkhart, Indiana USA, were included in the microtitre plates. Plates were then assessed through observation for a yellow color change and absorbance measured at 405 nm wavelength using a BIO-RAD® microtitre plate reader Model 680 (BIO-RAD Laboratories, Hercules, California, USA). All samples were assayed in pairs and the results confirmed to be positive if the there was a yellow color change and the absorbance was greater than or equal to twice the average reading of the negative (healthy) controls.Total RNA was extracted from leaves of weeds and cultivated crops with Trizol Reagent (Bioneer, South Korea) and used for cDNA synthesis using the AccuPower reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) PreMix kit (Bioneer Corporation, South Korea) following manufacturer's instructions. MCMV and SCMV primers which flank the coat protein gene of each virus and amplify a fragment of approximately 550 bp for MCMV and 900 bp for SCMV were used for RT-PCR (Wangai et al., 2012). Amplicons were resolved on 1.5% agarose gels in 1X TAE (45 mM Tris-acetate, 1 mm EDTA) for 45 minutes at 120 V. The gel was then stained in 0.5 µg/ml ethidium bromide for 25 min and the image captured using the Syngene G: BOX gel documentation system (Fredrick, MD, USA). A 100 bp DNA Ladder (Bioneer Corporation, South Korea) was used as the standard.Data was collected on incidence which was calculated as a percentage of the number of plants ELISA positive for MCMV/SCMV per total number of plants inoculated. Data was also recorded on ELISA (A 405nm ) absorbance readings recorded as Optical Density (OD) values and measured at 405 nm for virus tested plants after 60Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374 minutes. The above data were then entered into Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet for cleaning and exported to GENSTAT 15 statistical software (Buysse et al., 2004) for further analysis. Data on MCMV/SCMV disease incidence and relative absorbance for ELISA were subjected to analysis of variance in a two-way (randomized blocks) with plant species and seasons as the factors and replicates as blocks. The means of the parameters including disease incidence and relative absorbance for ELISA were separated using Fishers' Protected Least Significant Difference (LSD) at 5% probability level (Gomez and Gomez, 1984).Seven out of the 21 species of weeds that were screened became infected with MCMV after being mechanically inoculated (Table 2). Some infected weeds notably Imperata cylindrica produced characteristic MCMV symptoms with a chlorotic mosaic being the most common symptom (Figure 1). Some of the weeds that tested positive for MCMV using ELISA did not produce any symptoms.  3). Overall, perennial weeds such as Imperata cylindrica, Axonopus flexuous, Pennisetum purpureum, Digitaria abyssinica, Rottboellia cochinchinensis, Eleusine africana and Panicum maximum were more susceptible to MCMV compared to other weeds evaluated as measured by the incidence of infection.Digitaria abyssinica had the highest incidence (93.3%) among the species tested, followed by Eleusine africana (86.7%) and Rottboellia cochinchinensis (73.3%). Weeds with moderately high (40 to 70%) incidence of MCMV following mechanical inoculation included; Pennisetum purpureum, Imperata cylindrica, Panicum maximum and Axonopus flexousus. Amaranthus dubius, Bracharia brizantha, Brachiaria decumbens, Chloris gayana, Commelina benghalensis, Cynodon dactylon, Cyperus rotundus, Echinochloa pyramidalis, Eleusine indica, Paspalum notatum, Paspalum scrobiculatum, Sorghum aethiopicum, Sorghum arundinaceum and Sorghum purpureosericeum were not susceptible to MCMV following mechanical inoculation.Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374 Incidence significantly (p < 0.05) varied among the weed species with the highest incidence of MCMV disease being recorded on Digitaria abyssinica, Eleusine africana and Rottboellia cochinchinensis. Rottboellia cochinchinensis, Eleusine africana and Axonopus flexousus had the highest virus titer recorded. The concentration of MCMV virus titer based on ELISA OD readings captured at A 405nm was significantly different (p < 0.05) in the different weed species following mechanical inoculation (Table 3). Rottboellia cochinchinensis, Axonopus flexousus, Eleusine africana that tested positive for MCMV, were from the Poaceae family and had high virus titer ranging Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374 from OD readings of 2.180 to 2.333 which was comparable with the concentration of virus titer OD readings of 2.443 of susceptible Longe 5 maize variety used as control (Table 3).Six out of the 21 species of weeds screened became infected with SCMV after being mechanically inoculated with MLN (Table 4). Some infected weeds notably Chloris gayana produced characteristic SCMV symptoms with a chlorotic mosaic being the most common symptom (Figure 2). Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374Some of the weeds that were positive in the ELISA test did not produce any symptoms. Susceptibility to SCMV infection via mechanical inoculation significantly (p < 0.05) varied among the weed species (Table 4). Overall, weed species such as Imperata cylindrica, Bracharia brizantha, Panicum maximum, Cynodon dactylon, Rottboellia cochinchinensis and Pennisetum purpureum were more susceptible to SCMV compared to other weeds evaluated as measured by the incidence of infection. Pennisetum purpureum had the highest incidence (93.3%) among the weed species tested, followed by Panicum maximum (86.7%). Weeds with moderately high (40 to 70%) incidence of SCMV following mechanical inoculation included; Rottboellia cochinchinensis (66.7%), Bracharia brizantha (53.3%), Cynodon dactylon (53.3%) and Imperata cylindrica (53.3%). The concentration of SCMV virus titer based on OD readings was significantly different (p < 0.05) in the different weed species following mechanical inoculation (Table 4). The virus titer concentration based on OD readings was highest in Pennisetum purpureum (2.882) followed by Panicum maximum (2.866) and Roetboellia cochinchinensi (2.146). These concentrations were comparable with the concentration of virus titre OD readings of 2.647 of susceptible Longe 5 maize variety which was used as a positive control (Table 4). No SCMV infections were observed on Amaranthus dubius, Bracharia brizantha, Brachiaria decumbens, Chloris gayana, Commelina benghalensis, Cynodon dactylon, Cyperus rotundus, Echinochloa pyramidalis, Eleusine indica, Paspalum notatum, Paspalum scrobiculatum, Sorghum aethiopicum, Sorghum arundinaceum and Sorghum purpureo-sericeum after mechanical inoculation.The concentration of MCMV virus titer based on OD readings was significantly different (p < 0.05) in the different cultivated crop species following mechanical inoculation (Table 5). There was successful mechanical transmission of MCMV in the cassava (Manihot esculenta) (0.8813) followed by groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) (0.7557) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) (0.6953) based on the virus tire concentrations. The MCMV virus titer concentration based on OD readings was highest in cassava (Manihot esculenta) (0.8813) followed by groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) (0.7557) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) (0.6953). These concentrations were comparable with the concentration of virus titer OD readings of 1.3983 of susceptible Longe 5 maize variety used as positive control. However, subsequent PCR tests did not detect the MCMV in these cultivated crops and hence did not corroborate the ELISA findings. On the other had for SCMV, although the concentration of SCMV virus titer based on OD readings was significantly different (p < 0.05) in the different cultivated crop species following mechanical inoculation, there was no successful mechanical transmission of SCMV to the evaluated cultivated crops based on the titer concentrations. The SCMV titer concentration based on OD readings were all low and comparable to the negative control Longe 5 maize variety with an OD reading of 0.297. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374 Note: a -ELISA average is based on the mean absorbance for all three experiments conducted. Readings taken after 60 minutes. Means followed by the same letter in a column do not differ significantly to Fisher's protected least significant difference test at p < 0.05.Most of the experimentally infected weed grass and few cultivated crop species showed very strong distinct bands as shown in representative gels for MCMV (Figure 3). The positively tested plants yielded RT-PCR Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374products of the expected size (550 bp), whereas no RT-PCR product was amplified from healthy maize plant as a negative control. SCMV was not detected using RT-PCR in both weeds and cultivated crops hence results are not presented.This study investigated whether commonly occurring weed species and cultivated crops in maize agro ecosystems would vary in their susceptibility to MLN causing viruses and therefore participate in the disease dynamics. The screening process revealed variation in susceptibility of weed and crop species to MLN causing viruses. Findings in this study revealed that most of the tested weeds species which were also from the Poaceae family were susceptible to MCMV. This study established Panicum maximum, Axonopus flexuous, Digitaria abyssinica, Imperata cylindrica, Eleusine africana, Rottboellia cochinchinensis and Pennisetum purpureum all from the Poacea family are susceptible to MCMV. This was in support of earlier work which indicated most of the weed hosts of MCMV in the Poaceae family are susceptible to MCMV (Uyemoto, 1980;Bockelman et al., 1982;Scheets, 2004;and Brunt et al., 2010). Susceptibility among wide variety of weed species was possibly attributed to the fact that the MCMV particle is very stable and can retain infectivity (Scheets, 2016). MCMV is readily mechanically transmissible to maize and other experimental hosts in laboratory settings. The MCMV genome also has the ability to encode for proteins that increase the accumulation of the virus in the plant (Scheets, 2016) and hence has higher chances of being detected during virus testing. As evident from studies conducted since 1984 (Uyemoto, 1980;Bockelman et al., 1982;Scheets, 2004;and Brunt et al., 2010) Furthermore, this study revealed that the following perennial weeds Panicum maximum, Bracharia brizantha, Imperata cylindrica, Cynodon dactylon, Rottboellia cochinchinensis and Pennisetum purpureum are susceptible to SCMV and could potentially serve as reservoirs of the SCMV virus. The findings of this study are in agreement with earlier findings of Bhargava (1975) who reported Pennisetum purpureum as susceptible to SCMV; Kusia (2014) and Kusia (2015) who recorded Cynodon dactylon and Bracharia brizantha as susceptible hosts of SCMV and Louie (1980) who confirmed Cynodon dactylon as susceptible to SCMV. While it has been reported before that SCMV has at least 22 different alternative hosts mainly restricted to the Poaceae family (Teakle and Grylls, 1973;Tosic and Ford, 1972;Louie, 1980;Brunt et al. 1990;Bhargava, 1975;Louie, 1980;Kusia, 2014;and Kusia, 2015). This study also confirms Pennisetum purpureum, Bracharia brizantha, Cynodon dactylon and Panicum maximum as hosts of SCMV. Of all these species, only Cynodon dactylon exhibited characteristic systemic mosaic, yellow striping as described by Mahuku et al. (2015) while other SCMV infected weeds remained asymptomatic. This suggests that most of the common weeds growing in association with maize have the potential of surviving with the SCMV virus without any damage to the plant. This study has also established for the first time that Imperata cylindrica and Rottboellia cochinchinensis as experimental hosts of SCMV. Overall host range responses to MCMV and SCMV inoculations were similar in Panicum maximum, Pennisetum purpureum, Imperata cylindrica and Rottboellia cochinchinensis, all from Poaceae family and thus they could be candidates as over-seasoning hosts of both MCMV and SCMV and should be the target for MLN management. These ELISA based results were not confirmed in most of the weed species using PCR for SCMV but only for MCMV. These findings are in conformity to reports by Adams et al. (2014) and Mahuku et al. (2015) who reported low detection of SCMV using PCR despite positive results using ELISA. The probable reason for the low detection of SCMV could be due to the emergence of new strains with sequences in capsid protein that are different from the sequences used to design the primers. Indeed studies conducted by Adams et al. (2013) have confirmed that SCMV strains in the East African region are highly divergent.As regards screening cultivated crops for susceptibility to MLN causing viruses, mechanical inoculation test results showed that common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), cassava (Manihot esculenta) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) can habor MCMV despite the fact that they did not show symptoms. This contrasts the findings of Niblett and Claflin (1978) who reported that dicotyledonous species were not mechanically infected with MCMV. This result was thus unique and not expected for these dicotyledonous crops notably cassava, common Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467374 bean and groundnut apart from Banana monocot (Pursglove, 1972;and Pursglove, 1969). Prior to this, MCMV was only known to be found in Poaceae family (Scheets, 2004). However these results are in conformity with studies by Jiang et al. (1992) who showed that some dicotyledonous plants can be natural and artificial hosts of MCMV. Nonetheless the findings in this study suggest that these cultivated crops may carry the virus based on the virus titers that were comparable to the positive maize control. Hence this study could provide the first evidence of the potential role of cultivated dicot crops as hosts of MLN causing viruses. No information is available concerning the reaction of cultivated crops including common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), cassava (Manihot esculenta), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), banana (Musa sp), soybean (Glycine max) and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) to inoculation with MLN causing viruses and hence these findings provide the first report of the potential role these cultivated crops could play as reservoirs of MCMV potentially increasing the amount of virus inoculum within the field. The implications of these findings is crops like cassava (Manihot esculenta), commonly grown in these areas have some varieties that are late maturing and can hence provide a source of inoculum to the next season crop of maize. Furthermore, common bean and groundnut are usually grown as intercrops with maize and hence could also potentially provide a source of inoculum of MLN causing virus when grown with maize. However, the importance of the cultivated crops as alternate hosts needs further studies to determine if vectors that can survive on maize can also survive on these alternative hosts.Potential alternative hosts of maize lethal necrosis causing viruses present in major maize growing agro ecological zones of Uganda differ in their susceptibility to MLN causing viruses. Most of the commonly occurring weeds and cultivated found in maize growing agro ecologies in Uganda are susceptible to MCMV. Continuous occurrence of MLN in the MLN hotspots of Uganda is linked to the continuous presence of these perennial weeds and cultivated crops grown in association with maize each season which can act as sources of inoculum for the main virus driving the MLN epidemic in Uganda. The prevalence of these perennial weeds in major maize growing agro ecological zones is likely to indicate a major source of the MLN viruses carried through the dry season when the maize crop has been harvested. In addition, the presence of cultivated crops and weeds plants as alternate hosts, presents the need to identify MLN non hosts in cultivated crops for crop rotation and early weeding to reduce on MLN virus inoculum in the agro ecosystem. Failure of farmers to adopt these management strategies may result in a constant increase in MLN disease inoculum in the MLN hotspot areas and contribute to early infection of most maize plants with resultant losses in yields that are severe.","tokenCount":"4780"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0cc9d820f7f074049e827136871b12b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/19ac65a9-7449-48e1-9009-404a6a1adcc4/retrieve","id":"1254024060"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5fbff9e4-b0b9-401a-8db1-d2f7362cf865","pagecount":"1","content":"The Safe Food, Fair Food (SFFF) for Cambodia is a 3.5 year sub-award under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project proposes two major research areas to tackle the abovementioned issues: i) to generate evidence on the health and economic burden of foodborne diseases (FBD) in animal-source food value chains important to the poor and women, and ii) to pilot a market-based approach to improving food safety that builds on successfully implemented projects in Africa and India. Our central idea is market-based, light-touch interventions that are sustainable and scalable, changing practice through capacity building and incentives, and provision of an enabling policy environment.1. Actionable evidence on FBD burden associated with animal source foods 2. Pilot incentive-based approach to improving food safety among ASF traders 3. Cambodian-led Theory of Change for improving food safety 4. Gender and equity research 5. Building capacity in food safety risk assessment, management, communicationThe overall research method is 'participatory risk analysis' to working in informal markets that combines risk analysis and participatory learning and analysis.A unique aspect of this project is to develop a systematic and structured approach, starting with risk profiling and moving to risk assessment and risk management, while investing in risk communication and capacity building.The project will adopt a gender-sensitive approach in the design and implementation of planned activities to ensure that project outcomes and impacts will be gender inclusive.   ILRI thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.","tokenCount":"261"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"adaaafbcc8224665a314bf3d35881ba7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/79276cd7-92f4-4c3b-98b5-0ea1c8f96145/retrieve","id":"1696694954"},"keywords":["Private sector","World Business Council on Sustainable Development","climate-smart agriculture","food systems","metrics","indicators"],"sieverID":"45b168fa-6e20-4830-adab-920e14a88f31","pagecount":"38","content":"At the Paris climate summit in 2015, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) announced a set of 2030 ambitions under the three pillars of climatesmart agriculture (CSA), namely productivity, resilience and mitigation. Based on work under WBCSD's workstream to improve businesses' ability to trace, measure and monitor CSA, this working paper provides (a) a simple framework, (b) sets of recommended indicators, and(c) a stock-take of the current status of CSA progress under each of the three pillars, both globally and among WBCSD member companies. The purpose is to inform future monitoring and reporting on CSA among member companies, both individually and collectively. For pillar 1, productivity, we are exceeding targets for global food production. However, we have less information on whether this food is nutritious, available and affordable, or whether we are achieving higher productivity per unit of input, and sustainable use of resources, not just higher production. For pillar 2, resilience, there is insufficient company or global data to monitor the resilience and welfare of agricultural communities and landscapes under climate change. A high priority is collection of activity data on provision and adoption of positive environmental (e.g. agroecological) and social (e.g. climate information and financial) approaches among farmers. For pillar 3, mitigation, we are falling behind targets for agricultural and food system emissions. While there have been some impressive improvements in emissions intensity for some foods and beverages, increasing levels of production mean that absolute emissions are rising. This early snapshot of progress can hopefully stimulate shared learning and renewed investment, ahead of future collective reporting by WBCSD.Monitoring, evaluating and learning from CSA progress will motivate and empower companies and their partners to meet the WBCSD 2030 Statement of Ambition on climatesmart agriculture, thereby enhancing food security, building resilience to climate change in their value chains, improving natural resource use efficiency, and reducing environmental impacts.This working paper informally presents progress under Action Area 3 of the WBCSD Action Plan on climate-smart agriculture. Action Area 3 works to improve businesses' ability to trace, measure and monitor CSA progress. As agreed in early 2016, the aim is not to provide a comprehensive new protocol for CSA measurement, but rather to support monitoring and evaluation of progress by building on metrics that businesses and other entities collect already.Therefore this working paper provides (a) a simple framework, (b) sets of recommended indicators, and (c) a stock-take of the current status of CSA progress under each of the three pillars of productivity, resilience and mitigation, globally and among WBCSD member companies. The purpose is to inform future monitoring and reporting on CSA among member companies, both individually and collectively. This working paper is organized as follows:WBCSD statement of ambition on climate-smart agriculture is simply reproduced from the WBCSD CSA Action Plan launched in Paris at COP21 in December 2015. It is an important part of this working paper as it provides the exact definition and detailed parameters of the WBCSD 2030 ambitions for CSA. The WBCSD CSA definition and parameters differ in small but important ways from other definitions of CSA (e.g. FAO).Framework for tracking progress towards the global CSA ambition provides a very simple framework for structuring measurement of the three CSA pillars by combining activity and outcome data, and company and global data.Stock-taking method provides the rationale and methods used in this stock-take of progress under each of the three CSA pillars (productivity, resilience and mitigation) against the agreed 2010 baseline, combining global and WBCSD member company data. The WBCSD's Low Carbon Technology Partnership initiative (LCTPi) is a joint public and private initiative to accelerate low-carbon technology development. Climate-smart agriculture is one of the solutions that the WBCSD and its member companies have identified as critical to reach the 2C target. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA), as presented by FAO at the Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010, integrates the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) by jointly addressing food security and climate challenges. It has three main pillars:1. Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; 2. Adapting and building resilience to climate change; 3. Reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases emissions, where possible.WBCSD members have built on this three pillar concept to prepare a Statement of Ambition taking into account the views shared by WBCSD and the CSA Working Group members to date, objectives set out for the Global CSA Alliance (of which WBCSD is a member), WBCSD's Action 2020 'Must-Haves' and Vision 2050, the current version of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and extensive engagement and collaboration with farmers, the private sector, government, civil society organizations, NGOs and research institutes through multiple regional meetings during 2015. The Statement of Ambition for WBCSD CSA working group member companies is as follows:Increase global food security by making 50% more nutritional food available 2 through increased production on existing land, protecting ecosystem services 3 and biodiversity, bringing degraded land back into productive use 4 and reducing food loss from field to shelf 5 . 1 Taken from the WBCSD CSA Action Plan launched in Paris at COP21 in December 2015 2 Includes milk & dairy, meat & fish, vegetable oils, fruit & vegetables, oilseeds and products, pulses, sugar, roots and tubers and food cereals available for consumption by the global population after food waste is taken into account. All food will be produced in accordance with rigorous safety standards. Nutritional food, in accordance with the WHO Guidelines on Nutrition,Strengthen the climate resilience of agricultural landscapes and farming communities to successfully adapt to climate change through agroecological approaches appropriate for all scales of farming. Invest in rural communities to deliver improved and sustainable livelihoods necessary for the future of farmers, bringing prosperity through long-term relationships based on fairness, trust, women's empowerment and the transfer of skills and knowledge.Reduce GHG emissions by at least 30% 6 of annual agricultural CO2e emissions against 2010 levels (aligned with a global 1.6 GtCO2e yr reduction by 2030). 7 This recognizes the strong positive role played by farming communities to date in reducing GHG emissions and the potential carbon sequestration role of farmland as described in the supply side mitigation options and potential for the agricultural sector in the IPCC's AR5 report. It is also important to stress that not all these reductions will be at the farm level -a substantial portion of these reductions will also be achieved through reducing food waste up to the point of sale to the end consumer, in line with WBCSD's Action 2020 to halve food waste.We will also play a role to eliminate GHG emissions from land-use change to commercial agriculture 8 through working to halt conversion of HCV 9 or HCF 10 forest and all grasslands, wetlands and peatlands by the sector (equivalent of a 2.1 GtCO2e reduction per year 11 ).    In some cases, there will be important scale effects or trade-offs that can only be accounted for meaningfully at a higher scale. For example, while emissions intensities in smallholder livestock systems tend to be very high (per kilogram of meat or per litre of milk), they do not add up to a major contribution to global agricultural emissions (scale effect), plus they make critical contributions to human nutrition, especially for vulnerable children (trade-off effect).Many of the most valuable advances in CSA are likely to come from collaboration across value chains and among partners from different sectorsfor example in the WBCSD CSA road-test countries. Therefore we need to track progress using multiple data sources to give a global picture (Figure 2). This section outlines the approach used to take stock of WBCSD companies' progress on CSA targets from 2010-2015. We combine the bottom-up reporting available from companies with a top-down perspective using available global data sets to estimate progress towards 2030 targets and ambitions. By projecting global trends from 2010 to 2015, we can generate a simplified comparison between the current trajectory under business-as-usual and the WBCSD members' target performance.  To measure company CSA progress, we compared the percentage change from 2010 to 2015, for each indicator where sufficient quantitative data were available. There are major gaps in data availability, both across companies and for individual companies over time. Thus, company progress tracing is limited to the following indicators, where at least 5 companies (~40%) provide data for both 2010 and 2015: total waste to landfill (pillar 1), total water use (pillar 2); absolute Scope 1 & 2 emissions, and emissions intensity (pillar 3). We used simple linear regression to create business-as-usual projections up to 2030, based on the available global data from 2010-2014 on food availability (pillar 1) and greenhouse gas emissions (pillar 3). Business-as-usual projections were held up against target scenarios for 50% more food (pillar 1), and 30% fewer direct agricultural emissions (pillar 3). It was not possible to gauge progress relating to pillar 2, since the pillar has no quantifiable CSA target and lacks global data to support a projection for 2030.To bridge the gap between company and global data, we made some rough assumptions on the companies' share of global progress towards the WBCSD CSA Statement of Ambition.We estimated each company's share of their respective sub-sectors, based on 2016 sales revenue. First, we divided WBCSD members by sub-sector (value chain segment):agricultural inputs, food processing, and retail. Table 1 provides a list of companies that were included. The companies' estimated revenue share within their respective sub-sector (a proxy we used to be able to estimate global progress) is shown in Figure 3.Since shares of global production are not readily available, we used revenue figures (from the 2016 Forbes Global 2000 13 ) as a simple proxy for volume. A caveat of this approach is that it does not consider the different values of food items. For example, while global pork sales brought in twice the revenue of wheat in 2012, six times as much wheat was produced in the same period 14 . Thus, calculating companies' shares of global food production in this manner may distort their role in contributing to food security, as sales do not directly translate to quantities of food produced nor number of people fed. Nevertheless, revenue provides some indication of volume, assuming that price reaches equilibrium across competing companies in a given year. For the agricultural input companies, the total sub-sector revenue consists of all top companies within the diversified chemicals sub-sector. While this overlooks smaller input suppliers, top 10 companies within seeds, fertilizers and pesticides make up 75%, 55% and 95% of their respective markets 15 . Within food processing, top companies make up a smaller portion of total sales (~25%). In the restaurant industry, top companies make up approximately 10% of global sales. This makes the previously employed method for estimating WBCSD share of production less accurate. Instead, total scales estimates for food processing are taken from an analysis by ETC Group Issues with data exist across all three WBCSD pillars, both across companies and within companies over time. Data gaps greatly limit our ability to make generalisations about company progress from 2010 to 2015. While the WBCSD set 2010 as a starting year for establishing a baseline, from what we have been able to gather, there are considerable gaps in the publicly available data. In many cases, companies report progress on the same indicator but using dissimilar metrics. For example, companies report yield gains variously as a percentage of progress towards an unquantified goal, or comparison to national averages, or tonnes per hectare, and so forth. The lack of like terms makes it difficult for us to draw generalised conclusions on progress across companies. Pillar one: productivityThe target for productivity in the WBCSD Statement of Ambition is to \"Increase global food security by making 50% more nutritional food available through increased production on existing land, protecting ecosystem services and biodiversity, bringing degraded land back into productive use and reducing food loss from field to shelf\". To identify indicators, we separate out the components as shown in Table 2. The footnotes to the WBCSD Statement of Ambition for pillar 1 note that nutritious food means a range of macro-and micro-nutrients, that ecosystem services follow the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment definition and thus include cultural as well as ecological services, and that food loss is up to the point of the consumer.Table 3 summarizes the main findings. Between 2010-2014 19 , global average production quantity and yield of important food groups (cereals, vegetables, roots and tubers, fruit, meat, and milk) increased 10.8% and 2.7% respectively. To reach the 2030 food production target, food production must increase approximately 1.9% per year. Table 4 provides a summary of the state of company data for pillar 1. We established three common indicators based on company reporting: farm yield and agricultural input efficiency(1.2); sustainable sourcing/certification of raw materials (1.2); reduction of waste (1.3).Although several companies report on yield, there was a high level of variation in the transparency, scale, and units of the data. CP Foods highlights a 10-15% increase in corn yields among suppliers compared to the national average in their 2015 annual report.Monsanto reports progress towards doubling food availability in select crops against a 2000 baseline. Olam reports on yield gains for select crops, but the timescale and units vary.Syngenta is the only company to report yield gains and agricultural input efficiency at the aggregate level, recording a 2% increase in yields in 2015 compared to 2014. Syngenta provides open data access via their website, though data for 2010 are not available. Due to the lack of cohesive reporting on yields, it is not possible to measure progress across companies.  Trends in global yield and production quantities from 2010-2014 indicate that we are on track to produce enough food to meet the demand for 50% more food by 2030. Though we do not have direct evidence that this food will be equally or more nutritious, all major food groups are included in this rate of growth.The four WBCSD agricultural input companies (Monsanto, Syngenta, Yara, DuPont) make up an estimated 31% of total sales in the specialised chemicals sub-sector, giving an indication of their contribution to yield gains. However, this estimate does not consider potential yield gains in farming due to innovations and efficiency improvements other than specialised chemical inputs.The food processing companies (PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Tyson Foods, Diageo, CP Foods, Olam, Unilever and Kellogg) make up 16.5% of sales in their sector, but this estimate does not consider the total amount of nutritious food produced by these companies.Although some companies report improvements in yields, more efficient farming, more sustainably sourced their raw materials, and reductions their total waste to landfill, we need more holistic data on the inputs, throughputs and outputs of the food supply chain to properly assess the companies' CSA progress and the sustainability of the increased food production evidenced from 2010 to 2014. Pillar two: resilienceThe aim for resilience in the WBCSD Statement of Ambition is to \"strengthen the climate resilience of agricultural landscapes and farming communities to successfully adapt to climate change through agroecological approaches appropriate for all scales of farming. Invest in rural communities to deliver improved and sustainable livelihoods necessary for the future of farmers, bringing prosperity through long-term relationships based on fairness, trust, women's empowerment and the transfer of skills and knowledge.\" There are no quantitative targets. To identify indicators, we separate the components as shown in Table 5. The simplest approach to measure progress on pillar 2 would be to collect some simple activity data on both social and environmental aspects. On the social side, this might be the number of farmers adopting improved practices or provided with climate-smart services such as user-friendly weather forecasts or weather-index insurance products. On the environmental side, it might be number of hectares covered by agroecological approaches. The term \"agroecological approaches\" (like \"climate-smart approaches\") is open to multiple interpretations. Agroecology can be understood as a scientific discipline, a movement or a set of practices. 21 WBCSD has adopted IIED's description of agroecology 22 , which includes the key functions of increasing functional biodiversity and reinforcing biological regulation.Agroecological approaches are holistic and multi-scale and often rely on highly cooperative institutional arrangements to achieve outcomes across landscapes. The forward linkages from these activities to ultimate outcomes for livelihoods (the theory of change) would need to be tested through research, but not at every site and for every company.Global data sets on rural poverty can provide a metric towards the overall intended outcome of pillar 2, but are not especially useful for the WBCSD CSA initiative because they do not link to climate change or to private sector activities. On the other hand, the actual WBCSD pillar 2 sub-components are difficult to aggregate and align with global data, as they apply to individual communities (e.g. livelihoods) and companies (e.g. farmer training). FAOSTAT does not have relevant data for that match the WBCSD sub-components of pillar 2. CSA, this indicator is perhaps a better fit for productivity; more efficient water use could fit well under the pillar 1 goal of producing more food with less inputs. However, on average, total water use rose 13% across the reporting companies (see Figure 7).Reporting on rural incomes and farmer livelihoods is seldom quantitative. Monsanto reports a \"measurable improvement\" in the incomes of resource-poor farmers but no actual numbers.Kellogg tracks and conducts impact assessments on smallholder farmers 24 , and farmer livelihoods in general, but there is little information showing progress compared to 2010.DuPont quantifies the number of farmers, more than doubling the number of households with improved livelihoods between 2012 and 2015, but the extent of these livelihood gains is not  There are no quantitative CSA targets for pillar 2, nor relevant global data that match the indicators that companies use for resilience. In addition, few companies report on resilience indicators, let alone in both 2010 and 2015. Thus, it is impossible to make a general statement on progress from 2010 to 2015, or make projections towards 2030. Total water use, the most widely reported pillar 2 indicator, grew on average from 2010-2015. However, this indicator does not sufficiently operationalize agroecological practices, limiting our ability to link it to the overarching pillar 2 statement. For WBCSD members to demonstrate their collective progress towards the CSA pillar on resilience globally, more companies will need to provide quantitative information on indicators that cover both activities (e.g. training, on-farm agroecological practices) and outcomes (e.g. incomes, women's share of assets and decisions). Pillar three: mitigationThe target for mitigation in the WBCSD Statement of Ambition is to \"reduce GHG emissions by at least 30% of annual agricultural CO2e emissions against 2010 levels (aligned with a global 1.6 Gt CO2e/yr reduction by 2030).\" This target includes both agricultural emissions (and carbon sequestration on agricultural land) and emissions in the non-agricultural segments of food supply chains, including input manufacture, transport, processing and retailbut not emissions past the point of the consumer's purchase of the food. A substantial portion of these reductions may be achieved through reducing food waste. To identify indicators, we separate out the components of this target as shown in Table 7. Table 8 summarizes FAOSTAT data on global direct agricultural emissions, highlighting a 3.3% increase in emissions from 2010-2014. If total agricultural emissions are to be reduced 30% compared to 2010 levels by 2030, emissions will need to decrease at a rate of approximately 2.4%, year on year, from 2015. Figure 8 demonstrates projected BAU agricultural emissions based on the past five years, versus a trajectory where total agricultural emissions are reduced the necessary 2.4% per year, to reach a 30% reduction of emissions compared to 2010 levels. This constitutes a total difference of over 2 gigatonnes, between BAU and best case (target) scenarios. While the companies with baseline data have a 1.6% share of the 2015 emissions burden, even if companies reduce their emissions footprint in line with the 2030 target this will only provide a reduction equivalent to only .7% of total global direct agricultural emissions.   While nearly half of the companies reported their Scope 3 emissions in 2015, only three companies reported in 2010. Only one of these companies reported Scope 3 emissions in both periods, limiting our ability to trace progress over time. A further complication is that some companies were not able to holistically report their Scope 3 emissions. For example, DuPont's 2015 CDP report states that the uncertainty regarding emissions from use of sold products, expected to be the most important Scope 3 category, is too significant to report 25 .Except for Tyson Foods, all companies reported Scope 1 & 2 emissions in 2015. Monsanto, Tyson Foods and Unilever did not report this indicator in 2010. While some companies directly reported emissions intensity, there were discrepancies. For example, some companies calculated intensity based on emission per kilo product, while others calculated it based on revenue. To harmonize intensity, we calculated emissions intensity for all companies that provided Scope 1 & 2 emissions, based on emissions divided by total revenue (from Forbes).Few companies reported on improved packaging efficiency. The companies that reported on this indicator used varying metrics: percentage of total packing reduced, reduction in packaging weight, and reduction in fibre usage. Sustainable sourcing of wood-based materials faced similar problems, with companies reporting measures such as net deforestation link to products, percentages of key crops sourced in areas where deforestation is not a risk, and percent of cardboard materials derived under certification. Due to the lack of similar measures and data from 2010, we could not assess progress for either of these indicators.To measure progress within Pillar 3, we calculated the percentage change in Scope 1 & 2 emissions across companies, comparing the latest data against available baseline data.  However, solely examining absolute CO2e emissions provides a limited perspective on company progress. For example, as the global economy recovers from recent financial crisis, overall sales and production are likely to be greater in 2015 compared to 2010, bringing larger absolute emissions. Alternatively, companies may have increased their market share or carried out mergers within the period, which can be assumed to be associated with a heavier total emissions output due to increased production capacity. Even if companies improve their carbon efficiency, a larger production may obfuscate potential efficiency gains when looking at absolute emissions. Instead, evaluating relative emissions intensity (i.e. tonnes CO2e per USD in revenue) provides a more nuanced picture. emissions increased, 3.3% and 9% respectively. If direct agricultural emissions continue along the same trend they exhibited from 2010-2014, the 2030 goal of 30% emissions reductions compared to 2010 will not be met. Nevertheless, companies generally reduced the intensity of their own operations, showing that some progress is being made to reach the target. However, reporting on Scope 3 emissions is not currently pervasive enough to report on company progress tied specifically to agricultural emissions. In addition, harmonized indicators and further reporting would be necessary to track company progress on emissions linked to post-production activities such as packaging, transport and refrigeration.Deforestation, a major source of global emissions associated with agriculture, will also contribute to Scope 3 emissions for some companies. The WBCSD CSA road-test countries and regions provide an innovative opportunity to implement CSA across whole value chains and landscapesand to test and measure how scale effects and trade-offs can be managed in the real world. If relevant companies are ready, willing and able to invest in shared monitoring and evaluation, this is also an innovative opportunity to improve businesses' ability to trace, measure, monitor and communicate progress on CSA.The WBCSD CSA working group plans to report in 2018 on progress towards the global Statement of Ambition. The snapshot of progress we have for each pillar between 2010 and 2015 is that:For pillar 1, productivity, we are exceeding targets for global food production. However we have less information on whether this food is nutritious, available and affordable. We also need to know more about whether we are achieving higher productivity per unit of input, and sustainable use of resources, not just higher production.For pillar 2, resilience, we know very little indeed. Neither companies nor global datasets are keeping track of the resilience and welfare of agricultural communities and landscapes under climate change.For pillar 3, mitigation, we are falling behind targets for agricultural and food system emissions. While there have been some impressive improvements in emissions intensity for some foods and beverages, increasing levels of production mean that absolute emissions are rising.In short, a lot of work needs to be doneon measurement of course, but more importantly on action. WBCSD member companies have rightly set out an ambitious statement of intent to address the massive climate challenges that global society faces together. This early snapshot of progress can hopefully stimulate shared learning and renewed investment. Research supported by: CCAFS is led by: Strategic partner:","tokenCount":"4115"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"79a6e87a292b952fcf78787588f5cfbb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cd884631-13f7-4613-94e1-4417e8c58515/retrieve","id":"1972920936"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9cd10a77-bab0-4f51-b911-e64adac840ad","pagecount":"29","content":"aize is the major food crop in eastern and southern Africa, including Kenya. Maize-based farming systems make up the largest proportion of agricultural land, and maize is central to the food system, in both rural and urban areas. Because of its importance, maize has received wide attention from the government, including in policy and research. As a result, Kenya has been at the forefront of the \"maize green revolution\" in Africa (Hassan and Karanja 1997;Hassan, Njoroge et al. 1998c). It was one of the first countries in Africa (with South Africa and Zimbabwe) to develop its own maize hybrids and combine them with fertilizer in demonstration trials, demonstrations, and dissemination (Hassan and Karanja 1997). In both South Africa and Zimbabwe, the settler communities continued to dominate commercial maize production (Eicher 1995), but in Kenya, indigenous African farmers took over most of the maize production right after independence.The new government supported research and dissemination of improved maize varieties, initially focusing on large-scale farmers in the highlands but quickly expanding to small-scale farmers and to other maize areas (Harrison 1970;Gerhart 1975). The government also continued the colonial policies of controlled input and output markets, with pan-territorial prices (Wangia, Wangia, and De Groote 2004). These efforts were successful and resulted in high adoption rates for the new improved maize varieties and increased yields and production, especially in the highlands (Lynam and Hassan 1998b).Unfortunately, since the 1980s, maize yields have stagnated (De Groote et al. 2005). A range of policies, projects, and other measures have been put in place to boost yields and production, to keep up with population growth, but with little success. The government, facing inefficient markets and high intervention costs, and under pressure from the donor community, liberalized agricultural inputand output markets in the 1990s (Wangia, Wangia, and De Groote 2004). The resulting privatization of the maize sector brought new actors from the private sector, including maize seed companies, which increased the number of maize varieties and agrodealers to distribute them, with accompanying fertilizers and pesticides (Ariga and Jayne 2009). However, privatization had limited impact on maize yields (De Groote and Omondi 2023).Other efforts were undertaken, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Maize Development Program (Smale et al. 2012), a second-generation input subsidy program (Jayne et al. 2018), and continuing control of maize prices by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) in combination with import and export control by the government. At the same time, maize research continued at high levels with, among other initiatives, the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa, the Improved Maize for African Soils, and the Accelerated Genetic Gains projects, mostly focusing on the breeding of improved maize varieties.Despite all these different efforts, statistics show an increase in maize production but not in yields, as the next section describes in detail. As production cannot keep up with population growth, substantial maize imports are required most years. This chapter first provides some historical background, needed to understand the Kenyan maize sector and the food system it dominates. Next, we study the trends in the adoption of improved maize technologies, in particular improved maize varieties and fertilizer. Finally, we analyze the effect of research, policies, and other factors on maize yields and production, identify weaknesses in current approaches, and try to formulate alternatives.A good understanding of historic trends in the intensification of maize production systems is essential to understanding the food system in Kenya. Maize is grown by almost all rural households, which constitute two-thirds of the population. Moreover, maize constitutes the major food staple of the rural as well as the urban population, especially the poor. Therefore, it plays a central role in the food system in Kenya, as in the rest of eastern and southern Africa.Geography, climate, and demography Maize production in Kenya is closely linked to geography and climate. Kenya's climate is largely a result of its position on the equator and its geography, dominated by the Great Rift Valley (GRV), which was shaped by tectonic drift and related volcanic activity (see map in Figure 7.1, panel A). The rims on the sides of the GRV were pushed up to form the highlands, with a valley in Source: https://datasets.wri.org/dataset/kenya-digital-elevation-model-dem-250m-resolution; www.worldclim.org/; www.worldpop.org/ A) Geography B) Climate and population between. The center of the valley has a relatively high elevation and is therefore also classified as highlands. On the eastern side of the GRV, the highlands range from the Ngong Hills to the Aberdares, and are extended by Mount Kenya, after which the elevation descends into the lower plains all the way to the coast. The western rim forms the Mau Mau escarpment, and the highlands extend to Mount Elgon in the north; westward, the altitude gradually descends into the Lake Victoria basin.Rains originate from the Indian Ocean in the east and are transported by the trade winds, and orographic rain falls where moist air is lifted by the geography, in particular on the eastern side of Mount Kenya and on both rims of the GRV. The lee sides, however, form rain shadows, in particular after the coastal hills, in the lower parts of the GRV and on the shores of Lake Victoria (Figure 7.1, panel B). Most of the country does not have enough rainfall for agriculture, so most of the population is concentrated in areas with high rainfall, suited to agriculture. Most of the population is still rural-69 percent as per the 2019 Census (KNBS 2019), and their livelihood largely depends on rainfed agriculture.Because of its location on the equator, Kenya has two rainy seasons as a result of the trade winds, which shift from northeast to southeast following a seasonal pattern. Most agricultural areas are in the northern hemisphere, to which the southeast trade winds bring the major rains between March and June. The second rainy season, from October to January, is driven by the northeast trade winds; it is usually called the minor season, although it is more important in the southeast, except for at the coast. The seasonality of rainfall can easily be seen in the patterns of average monthly rainfall in the different regions (Figure 7.2). Central Kenya, close to the equator and located on the windward side of Mount Kenya, receives ample rains, in two distinct but roughly equal seasons, and almost no rain in between. Eastern Kenya, on the other hand, is located in the low and mid-altitudes, far from the mountains, and receives little rainfall; most of what falls is in the second season (October to December). Most of western Kenya, located between Lake Victoria and the western ridges of the GRV, also receives ample rain, concentrated in the main season but without much seasonality: there is hardly a dry period and the months from June to November all receive similar amounts of rain. In the North Rift Valley, often called \"the breadbasket of Kenya,\" there is hardly any seasonality: apart from a small dip in June, the region basically has one long rainy season, from March until September.Maize is a relatively recent introduction in Africa. The first maize varieties that came to East Africa were Caribbean flints, most likely introduced by Portuguese traders at the end of the 15th century (Miracle 1965;McCann 2001). These varieties were mostly used as a garden crop, and spread only slowly. Maize became the major food staple relatively recently, with the establishment of European settlers, who imported white dent varieties from South Africa that had originated in North America (Smale and Jayne 2003). Maize gradually replaced local cereals such as millet and sorghum because of its wide adaptability, better yields, and good resistance to birds and other pests (McCann 2005). At the beginning of the 20th century, maize covered only an estimated 20 percent of Kenya's crop area; by 1960, this area had risen to 44 percent (Hassan and Karanja 1997), boosted by the interest of the European settlers in the crop, which was grown on large-scale settler farms. The colonial government strongly supported these farmers, and a successful maize breeding program was started in 1955.After independence in 1963, land ownership was transferred to African farmers (often members of the new political elite), under the \"willing buyer,  willing seller\" principle, with programs providing credit to the buyers (Jones 1965;Boone, Lukalo, and Joireman 2021). At the same time, the breeding program was continued, and the original program in Kitale, for the highlands, was expanded to four other regions. Many popular hybrid varieties and open pollinated varieties (OPVs) were released in the 1960s and 1970s (Hassan and Karanja 1997). The hybrid varieties for the highlands took off very fast (Gerhart 1975), and they still form the base of the most popular varieties decades later.The improved OPVs were also popular, especially those for the dry areas, such as the Katumani variety, and to a lesser degree those for the coast (Hassan, Njoroge et al. 1998c).The colonial government controlled the maize sector tightly, mainly to protect the settler farmers in the highlands (Wangia, Wangia, and De Groote 2004).After independence in 1963, this control was maintained for another three decades, to (1) enable efficient marketing with a reasonable balancing and stabilizing of producer and consumer prices, (2) provide food security through strategic reserves, and (3) ensure regulated domestic movement of maize with strict management of imports and exports (DAI 1989). Implicitly, the state had a \"social contract\" with the majority of citizens to ensure the supply of maize, which had now become the basic food staple, at low and stable prices (Jayne et al. 1999).State control of the maize sector (and the wider agricultural economy) included research, seed production, extension and dissemination of seed and fertilizer, and marketing of the grain, all through different specialized parastatals. New maize varieties were developed by public research institutes, initially within the East African Community and from 1977 incorporated in the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI), with different programs for the different agroecological zones (AEZs) (Karanja 1996). The Kenya Seed Company (KSC), initially a private seed company founded by European settler farmers, was asked to produce the seed of the first improved maize varieties (IMVs), and over time parastatals acquired a majority of shares in the company. A seed unit within KARI managed quality control, and the Ministry of Agriculture was charged with the extension of new technologies. Distribution of seed, and the accompanying fertilizers and other inputs, was carried out through the retail network of the Kenyan Farmers Association (Hassan, Karanja, and Mulamula 1998a).From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, this system was remarkably effective at producing and disseminating many popular varieties, which, in combination with improved agricultural practices such as use of chemical fertilizers, led to rapidly increasing maize yield and production (Gerhart 1975;Karanja 1996). While government intervention is essential in areas without established markets, such as hybrid seed in the 1960s, in the long run it tends to be costly and inefficient, as it does not take advantage of the flexibility and efficiency of private sector initiatives (Gisselquist and Grether 2000). Liberalization of input and output markets in developing countries has therefore been advocated since the 1980s as part of structural adjustment programs (Gisselquist, Nash, and Pray 2002), including in Kenya. The liberalization has aimed at three major changes:(1) lifting of the controls in the maize market, (2) restructuring the NCPB, and (3) market development (Lewa and Hubbard 1995). The European Community sponsored the Cereal Sector Reform Programme (CSRP) from 1988, with the main goals of decontrolling the maize grain market and restructuring the NCPB (Jayne, Robert, and James 2008). The private sector was supported through the USAID-sponsored Kenya Market Development Project, specifically targeting maize and beans (DAI 1989).The evolution of the parastatal-based system to an open input and output market system with increased private sector participation has been a long and hard process because of the existence of many entrenched interests (Lewa and Hubbard 1995). The reforms were only firmly established in 1995, after an extended period of uncertainty. The seed sector was opened up to include the private sector, with national, regional, and multinational companies competing. New national and regional companies benefited from publicly owned varieties, while multinationals could tap into new markets with their own germplasm (Tripp and Rohrbach 2001). The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service was established as a regulatory agency in 2012. However, efforts to privatize KSC, as with national seed companies in other African countries, failed and its parastatal status was re-established.In the fertilizer market, the monopoly of distribution of the Kenyan Farmers Association was cancelled in 1985, fertilizer prices were decontrolled in 1990, and foreign exchange and import licensing controls were removed in 1993, leading to a fully liberalized fertilizer market (Mwangi, Lynam, and Hassan 1998). Fertilizer subsidies were reintroduced in 2007-2009, albeit with limited results (Mather and Jayne 2018). Deregulation in the seed and fertilizer market led to a proliferation of small agrodealers throughout the country. In the grain markets, finally, control of prices and movement was removed, and NCPB was established as a buyer of last resort, to buy maize at floor prices (Jayne, Robert, and James 2008).The December 2002 election created a window of opportunity for issue-and performance-based politics in Kenya (Poulton and Kanyinga 2014).In March 2004, the new government set out its Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (SRA). However, the government coalition began to unravel soon after attaining power, and the return to ethnically based patronage politics undermined the SRA's chances of success. After the 2008 elections, the new government launched the 2010 Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (Kenya, Government of Kenya 2010), with clearly assigned roles for the private and public sectors-divesting from all state corporations production, processing, and marketing that could be better done by the private sector while reforming and streamlining agricultural services such as in research, extension, training, and regulatory institutions, to make them more effective and efficient. Nevertheless, the KSC's status as parastatal was confirmed.Maize production trends are shown in Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) statistics of the past 60 years, which illustrate the importance of maize in the farming system and the initial success and later stagnation of the sector (Figure 7.3). Currently, it covers 37 percent of crop area. The success of the maize sector is shown in the substantial yield increase, from 1.2 metric tons/ha1 to 1.5 tons/ha in the 1990s. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was also a substantial increase in maize production per person, from 110 kg/ person to 180 kg/person (FAOSTAT 2022). However, since the 1990s, yields have stagnated at around 1.5 tons/ha. Maize production continues to increase but this can be attributed largely to an increase in area, which has doubled from about 1 million ha in the 1960s to about 2 million ha now. Further, the increase in production has not kept up with population growth: per capita production decreased to 90 kg/person in the 1990s and further to 70 kg/person in the 2000, where it has remained.The 2019 Census counted a population of 45.6 million, still growing at a rate of 2.2 percent (down from 2.9 percent since the prior census) (KNBS 2019). The rural population remains very large, at 69 percent of the total, and most rural people live in maize production areas. Agriculture remains the mainstay of the economy and an important source of employment and income for Kenyans (see Chapter 2).Currently, of a 5.7 million ha cropping area, more than half is covered by two crops: maize (37 percent) and beans (21 percent) (FAOSTAT 2022). Other cereals are much less important, including sorghum (3 percent) and millet and wheat (2 percent each). Similarly, area shares of tuber crops are particularly small, with the most popular tubers being potatoes (3 percent), cassava (2 percent), and sweet potatoes (1 percent). Maize to date retains its prime role in the economy, not only as food but also as a source of cash. Maize is not a major cash crop, except for a decreasing number of large-scale farmers, but many smallholder farmers do sell maize when there is a surplus or when there are immediate cash needs in the household (Jena et al. 2020). The Kenyan government estimates that 12.5 percent of maize production is used for animal feed, especially for poultry and dairy cattle.Several cash crops are grown in the various AEZs: tea is most common in the upper highlands (at 1,500-2,700 meters) whereas coffee is grown in the lower highlands (at 1,400-2,000 meters) and sugarcane in the low and mid-altitudes. Several other cash crops have been introduced in the past, including cotton, sisal, pyrethrum, and others, but all have largely been abandoned because of marketing difficulties after the collapse of the specific marketing parastatals. The remaining cash crops still have marketing issues, and interested farmers typically need a certain minimum size to make their work worthwhile. Smallholder farmers therefore tend to sell vegetables and fruits, products that enjoy a steady market and entail no minimum size requirement. Finally, in many maize areas, dairy cattle have become an important source of cash. In the midand high altitudes, even small farms can maintain a dairy cow, with zero grazing, based on Napier grass (Odero-Waitituh 2017).   1 9 6 1 1 9 6 6 1 9 7 1 1 9 7 6 1 9 8 1 1 9 8 6 1 9 9 1 1 9 9 6 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 6 2 0 1 1 2 0 1  Food consumption patterns in Kenya closely follow agricultural production patterns, as most of the population still live in rural areas and consume local produce. Maize is by far the most important food source, with an annual consumption of 62 kg per person, followed by wheat products (including bread, chapatis, and mandazis) (34 kg), roots and tuber crops (21 kg), and rice (13 kg) (FAOSTAT 2020). Consumption of other cereals is very limited, and includes pulses (4.5 kg), sorghum (3 kg), and millet (1 kg). The other main sources of plant foods are tubers (22 kg) and pulses (4.5 kg).Substantial changes have occurred in the consumption of plant-sourced food over the past 60 years (Figure 7.4). Overall, annual consumption of plantsourced food has declined from more than 180 kg in the 1960s to about 140 kg now, although this reduction took place mostly in the late 1970s and 1980s, with the situation remaining stable since then. Another major change over time has been the reduction of maize consumption, from more than 100 kg per   1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 kg/person/yearWheat and products Roots and tubers (dry equivalent) Rice (milled equivalent) Pulses Millet and products Sorghum and products person per year from the 1960s through the mid-1980s, but down to less than 70 kg now. In addition, consumption of coarse grains has fallen dramatically to the point of becoming negligible: sorghum has decreased from 10 kg to 3 kg/person/ year, and millet from 9 kg to 1 kg/person/year. Similarly, consumption of pulses has decreased by three-quarters, from 21 kg per person to 4.5 kg. Finally, the decrease in the consumption of locally produced maize and coarse grains has been compensated by an uptake in the consumption of the new cereals: wheat (from 8 kg to 34 kg) and rice (from 1 to 13 kg), most of which is imported.Farm household surveys, the Kenya Maize Data Base, and the establishment of maize production zones Farm household surveys are important to gauge farmers' appreciation and adoption of new technologies, and the suitability of technologies in the pipeline. Over the years, many such surveys have been conducted in Kenya, including four nationally representative surveys by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and KARI, now the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), as well as four panel surveys by the Tegemeo Institute. This chapter uses the data from the former and compares the results to the latter in the discussion.The first national household survey in Kenya was conducted in 1992, by CIMMYT and KARI, and resulted in the Kenya Maize Data Base (KMDB) (Hassan, Lynam, and Okoth 1998b). This survey covered the adoption of maize technologies such as improved varieties and fertilizer. The households were georeferenced, and the data were used to adapt the standard agroecological classification into six major AEZs for maize production in Kenya, important to guide the maize breeding programs (Corbett 1998) (Figure 7.5). The major adjustment was the creation of a transitional zone between the mid-altitude AEZ and the highlands. When moving from east to west, the first zone is the lowland tropics at the coast; this is followed by the dry mid-altitude and the dry transitional zones around Machakos. These three zones are characterized by low yields (less than 1.5 tons/ha); although they cover 29 percent of maize area in Kenya, they produce 11 percent of the country's maize (Table 7.1). In Central and Western Kenya, we find the highland tropics, bordered to the west and east by the moist transitional zone (transitional between the mid-altitude AEZ and the highlands). These zones have high yields (more than 2.5 tons/ha) and produce 80 percent of the maize in Kenya on 30 percent of the area. Finally, around Lake Victoria is the moist mid-altitude zone, which has moderate yields (1.44 tons/ha): it covers 22 percent of the area and produces 9 percent of maize in the country.While Kenya in general has two maize-growing seasons, these differ in importance between zones (Figure 7.2). In the highlands, for example, almost all of maize production takes place in the main season (March-July) (Figure 7.2, panel D). In the moist transitional zone, on the other hand, more than half of the maize is produced in the minor season (October-February) (Figure 7.2, panel B).Apart from the KMDB, CIMMYT, in collaboration with ARI, has conducted three nationally representative household surveys in the major maize growing areas over the past 30 years. We will use the data from these four surveys to analyze and synthesize trends in the adoption of new technologies. The data and the surveys have been described in more detail elsewhere, as the same data were used to analyze the trends in mechanization (De Groote, Marangu, and Gitonga 2018), fertilizer use (Jena et al. 2021), and varieties (De Groote and Omondi 2023).All surveys used the same two-stage stratified design, with maize AEZs as strata, census clusters or sublocations as primary sampling units, and maize-growing households as secondary sampling units (see map in Figure 7.5, panel B). The first survey, for the KMDB, was conducted in 1992 by CIMMYT and KARI and covered 79 clusters totalling 1,397 farmers (Hassan, Lynam, and Okoth 1998). This survey also defined the six AEZs as described above, and these were subsequently used to stratify the next three surveys. The second survey was conducted in 2002 as a baseline for the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa project, and covered 185 sublocations based on the 1999 Census, with 1,652 households (De Groote et al. 2005). The third survey was conducted in 2010 as a baseline for the AflaControl project, and covered 120 sublocations with 1,341 households (De Groote et al. 2016). The fourth and last survey, in 2012, interviewed the same farmers with a replacement of 20 percent of randomly sampled households (Wainaina, Tongruksawattana, and Qaim 2016).CIMMYT also helped build capacity for social science research in East Africa by supporting a series of small local adoption surveys (Doss et al. 2003). Four of these studies took place in Kenya, covering two districts in Western Kenya (Salasya et al. 2007), one district in Central Kenya (Makokha et al. 2001), one district in Eastern Kenya (Ouma et al. 2002), and two districts at the coast (Wekesa et al. 2003).The Tegemeo Institute, in collaboration with Michigan State University, has conducted panel household surveys in 5 rounds over 13 years (Mathenge, Smale, and Olwande 2014;Smale and Olwande 2014). These households represent the major maize AEZs of Kenya, although they do not fully overlap with Hassan's zones and also do not cover all maize production areas (Hassan, Lynam, and Okoth 1998). Further issues with these panel data are that no partial replacement over time was used, causing the whole panel to age over time, and that the sampling strategy of the first round (including the sampling stages and the sampling frames) is not clearly defined and the proceedings were not well recorded. We will compare our results to those of the Tegemeo surveys in the discussion.Combining household surveys with SPAM data Kenya does not, unfortunately, produce regional maize statistics. To estimate maize production by AEZ, we therefore used the map of the zones as developed by Hassan et al. (1998) and overlayed this with the 2017 SPAM (IFPRI 2020) and calculated the maize area and production for 2017 for the different AEZs (Table 7.1). To estimate the population in each AEZ, we used the 2015 population density dataset from WorldPop (www.worldpop.org) (Stevens et al. 2015). Finally, we allocated the annual production data for each zone to the two seasons, proportionate to the distribution found in the 2013 household survey (Wainaina, Tongruksawattana, and Qaim 2016).Results on the adoption of improved maize varieties and fertilizer, by agroecological zoneOver time, as pictured by the four consecutive national surveys, the average adoption rate of IMVs (weighted by AEZ) did increase, but only slightly, from 72 to 79 percent (Figure 7.6). However, adoption rates over the first three surveys were nearly the same: the small increase was realized only between the last two surveys, between 2010 and 2013. Adoption rates also differed substantially between AEZs, and the graph shows a clear increase in adoption rates from low-to high-potential zones. The highest adoption rates are found in the high-potential areas (moist transitional and high tropics), where almost all farmers (89 percent) had adopted IMVs by 2013. In the medium-potential areas, the results vary between the moist mid-altitude (64 percent) and the dry transitional (73 percent) zones. In the low-potential areas, finally, adoption rates were the lowest, but IMVs had still been adopted by more than half the farmers in both the coast (61 percent) and the dry mid-altitude (56 percent) zones.Using regression analysis (with a random effects probit model), the factors affecting the adoption of IMVs can be analyzed over the four surveys (De Groote and Omondi 2023). The household characteristics that significantly and positively affected adoption of IMVs were education of household head, household size, if the household sold maize, and access to extension services. Gender and age of household head, on the other hand, did not have a significant effect on adoption rates. A major factor was market participation: households selling maize were much more likely to grow IMVs. Market participation increased from 20 to 49 percent over the study period, although that latter level remains low, reflecting the importance of production for home consumption. Among institutional factors, access to extension services increased the adoption rate but access to credit or distance to market did not have significant effects. There were also substantial differences between AEZs, as seen in the graph, with farmers in the high-potential zones more likely to adopt IMVs than their colleagues in low-potential areas.Liberalization of the seed sector aimed to increase the participation of the private sector. We therefore analyze how the private seed sector's market share evolved over time, based on farmers' adoption trends (Figure 7.7). In 1992, before privatization, the old public KARI/KSC varieties covered half of the maize area, while the new (parastatal) KSC varieties covered 22 percent. This left 28 percent of maize area under local varieties, while the private sector had not yet come in. Because of the liberalization in the late 1990s, KARI started developing varieties independently of KSC, and the private sector entered the market. KSC, on the other hand, obtained the legal property rights to the varieties it had been producing, while also continuing to develop more varieties on its own. Despite the liberalization, but perhaps negatively affected by the disturbances in the market, the proportion of area under IMVs dropped to 66 percent in 2002 and 62 percent in 2010, and increased only later (in 2013) to 77 percent. Even after the liberalization, KSC remained the dominant seed company in Kenya, retaining more than half of the market. Private sector participation evolved slowly: varieties owned by the private sector (mostly multinationals and companies from southern Africa) made up only 2 percent in 2002 and increased their share to 15 percent by 2013. Varieties owned by the public sector (KARI, its successor KALRO, and CIMMYT), with seed mostly produced and disseminated by local seed companies, had a share of 6 percent in 2002 but increased it to only 9 percent in 2013.We did not include OPVs as a separate class in the analysis as they were important only in the lowlands (going from 18 percent in 1992 to 14 percent in 2013) and the dry midlands (from 49 to 8 percent); in the other regions they never covered more than 2 percent. Moreover, as KSC is phasing out its OPVs and replacing them with popular hybrids, they are also decreasing rapidly in those two areas (for details on OPVs, see Supplementary Material 3 in De Groote and Omondi 2023).The data from the four household surveys allow us to map the trends in the adoption of fertilizer over time (Figure 7.8). In 1992, the first year, 62 percent of farmers used fertilizer, but with a strong variation between the different maize production zones. By 2002, the average proportion of fertilizer users had increased only slightly, to 65 percent. The next survey, in 2010, showed a substantial reduction of fertilizer adoption rates, to 58 percent. Finally, the 2013 survey, which was a follow-up to the 2010 survey, showed average fertilizer adoption of 65 percent, a significant increase over 2010 yet not significantly higher than the 1992 and 2002 levels. So, overall, there is no significant increase in adoption of fertilizer over time.Fertilizer adoption rates differ highly between the different maize AEZs. In the high-potential areas, most farmers-generally 80 percent or more-have adopted fertilizer, with little or no change over time (except for the jump from 57 to 89 percent in the highlands between the first two surveys). About half of farmers in the medium-potential zones have adopted fertilizer, but with a clear increase in the dry transitional zone (from 40 to 64 percent) but not in the moist mid-altitude zone (where it remained around 50 percent), which is also the zone furthest away from the main fertilizer markets. The low-potential areas, finally, also saw a modest increase-in the low tropics from no adoption to about a quarter of farmers (24 percent) and in the dry mid-altitude zone  from 12 to 21 percent of farmers. However, the three zones with an increase in adoption are rather small maize producers compared with the high-potential areas, so their increase in adoption did not affect the overall trend of stagnation in fertilizer adoption. Next, we calculate the average dose of fertilizer used per hectare; again, we calculate weighted average using the maize areas in the different AEZs as weights to ensure representativeness at a national level. The seasonally weighted averages for the four years indicate a modest increase over the study period, from 82 kg/ha in 1992 to 100 kg/ha in 2002 but with a dip in 2010 (to 68 kg/ha). These doses are still substantially below the recommended dose for fertilizer application. Again, application rates vary among AEZs: the high-potential zones have high rates (between 140 and 160 kg/ha in the last year) while the low-potential zones have particularly low rates (between 8 and 30 kg/ha). The high standard deviations for the average figures also indicate a high variability in fertilizer application rates between farmers, with a standard deviation higher than the mean in all years.Analyzing the change in rates by zone, however, shows that the overall increase stems mostly from the increase in the high-potential areas (again  with the dip in 2010). In the low-and medium-potential zones, no increase in application rates was observed, except for in the dry transitional zone.Effect of improved maize varieties and fertilizer on yieldsAnalyzing maize yield trends in Kenya over the same four surveys shows no increase, rather a slight decrease from 1,360 to 1,116 kg/ha (Figure 7.10). The yield estimates from our surveys follow the trend of the FAO statistics but are actually systematically lower (see Jena et al. 2020 for details of the comparison).Yields differ strongly between AEZs, and these differences remained high over the 30 years of the study period. Yields are understandably higher in the high-potential zones, at around 1,500 kg/ha in the moist transitional zone and 2,000 kg/ha in the high tropics. In the low-potential areas, however, they barely reach 500 kg/ha (500-1,000 kg/ha in the mid-potential zones). Trends also differ by zone but without a clear overall trend: while the high tropics and the moist mid-altitude zone show an increase, in the moist transitional zone yields decreased, and in the other zones they just stayed stagnant. The question remains: What are the major drivers of maize yields? A previous analysis, using endogenous switching regression coefficients, showed  Maize yield (kg/ha) the factors that affect maize yields for fertilizer adopters and non-adopters (Jena et al. 2020). The use of hybrid maize also positively affects the yield for both groups, with an increase of 291 kg/ha for adopters and 174 kg/ha for non-adopters, indicating the synergistic effect of combining both technologies. Maize area per household, in contrast, has a negative and significant coefficient for non-adopters, indicating that a larger maize area leads to a yield reduction for this group. Among institutional variables, access to extension service has a positive and significant impact, increasing maize yield by 240 kg/ha for fertilizer adopters and 184 kg/ha for non-adopters, indicating a synergy between extension and fertilizer use. Household size has a positive impact on yield for both adopters and non-adopters. Among weather variables, an increase in minimum temperature has a positive effect on yield, while an increase in annual rainfall has a positive effect on yields for adopters. Finally, the AEZ are a major driver of yields, with the high-potential areas easily reaching 2.5 tons/ha and the low-potential areas having difficulties reaching 1.5 tons/ha. Another analysis shows yields to increase for younger varieties, with about 4 kg/ha for each reduction of a year (De Groote and Omondi 2023). Fertilizer also increased yields, by 5 kg/ha for each 1 kg, with a significant, negative cross-effect, indicating that younger varieties are more responsive to fertilizer. At the average fertilizer rate by fertilizer users of 132 kg, the effect of a year is an additional 2.5 kg/ha.This analysis, based on data from four household surveys conducted over 30 years, shows a very slow process of intensification in the maize production sector. Adoption rates for IMVs show a slight increase (from 72 to 79 percent), and poor progress in varietal turnover, with a continuous domination of the parastatal KSC in the seed market. Similarly, adoption rates of fertilizer increased slightly (from 62 to 65 percent), with a modest increase in application rates (from 82 to 100 kg/ha). However, maize yields did not increase during the study period. This is confirmed by the FAO data (FAOSTAT 2022), which show a stagnation in yields since 1990, in contrast with a steady increase from the 1960s till then. Stagnating yields for a major food crop are particularly problematic given the rapidly increasing population. This was partly upset by an increase in maize area, but maize production per person has been reducing steadily over time. This shortage is being countered with increasing imports of maize, but also wheat and rice, reflecting a change in consumer preferences. However, continually increasing imports of the major food staple is likely to create political problems in the long run, especially in times of increasing food prices.The adoption rates of IMVs in the CIMMYT surveys are similar to those in the Tegemeo panel survey: between 38 to 82 percent of hybrid adopters, depending on AEZ (Mathenge, Smale, and Olwande 2014), with an overall level of hybrid adoption by more than 80 percent of farmers (Smale and Olwande 2014). Our results on fertilizer, however, stand in contrast with those from the Tegemeo panel data, which show an increase of fertilizer use and maize yields from 1997 to 2007 (Olwande, Sikei, and Mathenge 2009;Ariga and Jayne 2011). The FAO yield data for this period also show an increase in maize yields. However, our analysis, both based on our survey and the FAOSTAT data, indicate that this short-period increase is not part of a larger trend (Jena et al. 2020). Further, our results indicated yields reduce with maize area, while other studies find a U-shaped relationship, including an older study (Carter and Wiebe 1990) and one based on the Tegemeo data (Muyanga and Jayne 2019). However, the yield increase of the latter study was only found in the 5-70 ha farm size range. Our data, based on representative household surveys, do not include enough households in that range to test that relationship. Other factors not included in our analysis were climate and economic data. Important climate variables are volatility and timing of rainfall, which would be good to include when better data become available. Also, output and output prices, in particular grain, seed, and fertilizer prices, would be good to include in future surveys; the Tegemeo data showed a strong positive effect of the grain/price ratio on adoption of hybrids (Smale and Olwande 2014).Our results do confirm that intensification of maize production, in particular the use of fertilizers and improved varieties, has a positive effect on yield, income, and food security. This has, of course, been reported before (Mathenge, Smale, and Olwande 2014). What remains puzzling, though, is the low rate of intensification. The slow rate of intensification and the stagnation of maize yields are major concerns for a country that relies heavily on maize for its food security. Some of the factors that affect the adoption of improved maize technologies can be influenced by policy, in particular availability of affordable inputs, education, and extension. Others, in particular the commercialization of maize production, are more difficult.On the provision of inputs, the liberalization of the maize seed sector was not particularly effective. While many private seed companies have entered the market and many varieties are now available, farmers seem to prefer their old varieties, and are risk-averse in trying new ones. This has led to a low varietal turnover and a continued domination by the parastatal KSC. The combination of public research and local seed companies does not, however, seem very successful as compared with international private seed companies and, especially, KSC.In the fertilizer market, liberalization was initially successful, leading to the entry of the private sector and the development of an efficient distribution system. However, the liberalization was later countered by new subsidy programs, which did increase input use for some time, with, for example, a 34 percent increase in smallholder fertilizer use over 1997-2007(Ariga and Jayne 2011). Unfortunately, government subsidies and intervention in distribution do crowd out private investment in the sector (Makau et al. 2016), and do not necessarily reach targeted households. Moreover, distribution of subsidized fertilizer by NCPB is contrary to the earlier liberalization policy and expands its role from buyer of last resort. What is particularly lacking in Kenya is systematic research on soil fertility management to counter the continuous cultivation without nutrient replenishment.Agricultural extension was also found to affect adoption of technologies, but the interaction of the public and private sectors remains problematic. New apps hold some promise but, while our surveys confirm that most farmers now have access to phones, these are not usually smartphones, hindering access to the new developments in apps for pest management, variety selection, and soil fertility management.Finally, the major factor not yet included in the analysis is the low level of urbanization in the country, linked to relatively low population density, low prices for agricultural land, and high levels of home consumption of maize. Less than 30 percent of the Kenyan population lives in urban areas (KNBS 2019), and more than half of the farmers produce maize only for home consumption. Kenya may therefore not have reached the conditions that will lead to the intensification of the major food crop, in particular population density (Boserup 1965), especially as related to arable land (De Groote 1999). In this case, the stagnation of the intensification may be worrisome but not much can be done to speed it up. What would be very useful, however, is a regular farm household survey, like the living standard measurement surveys (LSMS) or the household survey in Ethiopia (CSA 2014), to follow and understand the trend. It is therefore unfortunate that no new rounds for either the CIMMYT or the Tegemeo surveys have been conducted in the past 10 years.Based on the results of our review, several policy recommendations can made. First, it is important to create an enabling environment for the private sector to compete on a level playing field with the parastatal KSC. Second, at this stage in agricultural intensification, soil fertility is the major factor in maize yields, so it should receive the appropriate level of attention from research, extension, and policy.Finally, to improve the adoption of IMVs, our results indicate several recommendations. More participatory variety evaluation would ensure varieties fit farmers' needs and reduce the number of varieties released that do not get adopted. Access to extension also needs to be promoted, both through the public extension service and the private sector, which now dominates seed dissemination, to ensure farmers choose the right varieties for their situation. Policies should also promote universal education, especially in rural areas. And, given its important effect on the adoption of IMVs, market participation of farmers needs to be encouraged and supported, by promoting good drying and storage practices and increasing access to markets, in particular through the provision of market information and infrastructure and a reduction in transaction costs.","tokenCount":"6980"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"74174ceb42839f1eb37b5237cd75c862","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cc4be741-db60-4262-b509-e567e098bf4a/retrieve","id":"-655741072"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e1c6c6a7-21b0-42ad-af26-9f16998c9154","pagecount":"19","content":"Although natlanal bean research pragrams In Eastern 8nd Southern Afnca are follow¡ng a strategy of Increaslng baan praductJVlty through the misase of hlgh Yleldlng stress reslstant cultlvars studles shaw that farmers rely predommantly on thelr own bean seed whether kept fram a prevlOus seasan or acqUlred from other farmers and have I.mlted access to bean seed of Improved vanetles produced by the formal seed II1dustry (Schonherr and Mbugua 1976 Gnsley 1991   Cromwell and Zambezl 1993 Sperlll1g 19941 In most countnes In the reglon the formal seed ¡ndustry glves low pnonty to sel! pollll1atlng crops such as common bean (Phaseolus vu/gans L ) beca use of thelr unprofltabllity due to competlllon Irom farm saved seed Demand for clean bean seed by resource poor larmers IS aIso depressed by the Ilmlted numbers 01 wldely adaptad Improved vanatles promoted by the form¡¡1 seed II1dustry the hlgh pnce ol certlfled seed and farmers Ilmlted aeeeSs to that seed due to untlmely and lI1effeetlve dehvery systems A majar bottleneck In bean researeh Ifl sub Saharan Afnca therejore IS the lack af appropnate channels for d.ssemlnatlng new beao cultlvars Although local bean seed systems In Afnca have proved dynamlc and resllient they often cannot adequately meet the needs of farmers under present precanous productlon and SOCIO economlc eondltlOns Increased land pressure changes m agrlcultural woduetlon condltlOns erop fallure duo to drought alld other natural calamltles and c.vil dlsruptlon \") the wake 01 war weaken the ablhty 01 local seed systems to provlde the quantltles quallty a, ,d types of bean vanetles needed by resource poor farmers (Almekll1ders et al forthcomlng Louv.aars 1994) The genetlc and physlcal quallty of bean seed IS Important In the complex and dlverse productlon envlfonments of Eastern and Southern Afflca where typ.cally smaJl seale farmers use few techmques and tecllflolog\\es to Increase agncultural productlvltY The use of good Quahty ,eed affeets bean productlVlty In sub Saharan Afnca pnmanly through h.gher germlnatlon rates decreased seed transmlSSlon of certam dlseases/pathogens (1 e bean common mosalC VlfuS common bactenal bhght halo bhght ashy stem bhght fusanum spp l and Improved plant health The malntenance of genetlc dlverslty In beans 15 another Issue related to seed qua lit y and supply slnce vanetal loss may be Imked to seed vlabllity and seed avallabillty An Integrated approach to the productlon and dlsselnlnatlon of bean seed that draws on the comparatlve advantage of local seed systems and the formal seed mdustry could ofler a solutlon to the problem 01 how to supply resource poor Afncan farmers wlth good quahlY bean seed of Improved and local vanetles The flfSl step In the process of developll1g an mtegrated seed system IS an assessment 01 the strengths and weakness of each eXlsnng system In a country speclflc context In the flfst sectron 01 thls paper the results of a study of local bean seed systems 111 tWQ reglons 01 Uganda are presentad wlth the obJectlve of pravldll1g quantltatlve data on secd saurees seed management and Quallty A descnptlon of bean seed productlon by the formal secd mdustry !11 Uganda IS also presentad Sectlon two outllnes a CIA T proJect for developmg smal! scale enterpnses for the productlon of bean seed by fafmers whlch II\\volves an mtegranon of formal and local ,eed systems THE SETTING Uganda IS a land locked country 01 236000 square kllometers located In Eastero Afnca surrounded by Kenya Tanzanla Sudan Zalfe and Rwanda Nearly se\\Jen years of politlcal unrest between 1979 and 1986 whlch resulted 11\\ economlC collapse a more recent AIDS epldemlc and contlnued guenlJa warfare In the North have stralned the tradltlonal agncultural sector wh.ch supports the malonty 01 the country s 17 mlllion people Common bean 1$ the most wldely grown and consumed.mportant 9ram legume m Uganda and .s produced m all areas of the country Beans are usually mtercropped wrth bananas cassava marze or sweet potatoes and are eaten together w.th these and other staples Bean yrelds are relatrvely low at 741 kglhectara The majar constramts to productron mclude poor sOlls, drseases Icommon bactenal birght bean common masare VlfUS anthracnose and angular leal spot) and freid and stmaga pests It appears that the predomman! eonsumptron of dned beans las opposad to consumpnon m the Iresh sta te) m many areas only dates back to the 1960s when the crop was promoted by development agencres aS a pro te\", source Women provrde mast of the labor In Ireld and post harvest tasks although therr control 01 the Ineome Irom crop sale appears to dlller by reglan In most parts 01 Uganda beans are grown rn both seasons IMarch June July Deeember) Bush beans predomrnate eirmbrng varretres are only found at h.gh altitudes In Klsoro Kabale Mbale and Kabarole Drstrrcts METHODOLOGY Oue to irmrted systematJe and quantrtatrve data on larmers seed systems a dlagnostre study was cerned out between March and June 1994 rn two dlstrlets Mubende In the central part 01 the country and Mbale In the East 1 Plans to carry out the survey In Northern Uganda were abandoned due to secunty problems rn that area The two Orstrrcts were selected to represent speclllc bean productron eovrronrnents d,'d to rr'leet drtferences rn the market orrentatron 01 th€ crop '1ubendeDrstnct represems an area In the tall grass agro-ecologreal zone' where beaos are an rmportant food crop grown pnrnanly for subsrstence Mbale Olstnet falls wrthrn both the tall grass and hrghland zonas and reoresenrs a hrgh potentral agrrcultural area where baans are an ,')portant eash erop Table 1 descrrbf', the agro eeologlcal and sacro economrc eondrtrons 01 the dr ,tncts covered by the study A two stagad approaeh to freldwork was adopted whereby key Informan! rntervrews were condueted ftrst followed by a formal survey In Mubende the samplrng umt lar the survey was sub zone, .dentrlred by ap NGO wh.le In Mbale sampllng was carned out at Ihe pansh level In three targeted altrtude zones 1200 1300 masl 1400 1700 masl and 1800 + masl A non random systemalrc sampling procedure was used to seleet the 235 respondents rntervrewed (115 cases Irom Mubende and 120 cases trom Mbale) The vast maJonty 01 respondents 174 pereent) were women irvrng rn male headed households 177 pereent) bu! 17 pereent 01 respondents were de Jure temele heads 01 household About 15 percent of hOllseholds were of below average wealth 1 Tila foLl..-owJ.ng :par lshps Wf\"re surve-yed ln M1 tyana County of Mubende DLSt1:1ct BusublZl Butega Ngandwe Nak?l.Zlba Mawanda, Nonvf\"-In MbalE' the parlsh¿:.s were Buwag1.yn Mahdba Buglmanyl Bugltlmwd Rlld Bunasufwa    , SEED SOURCES Inlormatlol1 about seed scurce was obtalned by asklng farmers where they gOl bean seed In mast years and spee,flcally dunng the flrst season 01 1993 3 Farmers Indleated the praportlon 01 sead acqUlred from eaeh source uSlng a counter method whereby they were asked to allocate a sel number 01 pebbles to plles represel1tlng dlfferent secd sources Over half 01 all respondents (64 percent) usually rely on only one souree to obtaln bean seed In 87 pereen! of cases the mos! Important souree was the\" own seed As Table 4 shows In 1993a most farmers (69 pereent) relled IOtally on the\" own secd stocks while 30 pereent obtall1ed a portian or all of the seed they planted fram ather sources mamly fram markets shops or as glft5 from other farmers Farmers pomt out the followmg advantages of farm saved seed no cast not havlng to depend on others for seed avaliablhty at the reqUlrcd tIme control over the quantlty desrred knawledge about quahty and chOIce over vanetles The majar dlsadvantage of depandrng on one s Own stock IS berng restncted to known and avallable vanatles and the poor quahty of seed as a result of Improper storage     6) It 15 notable that tour of lhese entena «hnveled rottmg/mouldlng underslzed and dlscoloratlon) rnay be assoclaled wlth dlseases or physlologlcal problems whlch suggests a slgnrflcant degree 01 success by farrners 10 ellmlnatrng dI sea sed seed through seleetlon However smce non e of these charactenstlcs were mentlOned by tre vas! majonty af farmers slgnrflcant dlfferences probably eXIst between farmers lf1 the ca re taken 111 seed selecllon and posslbly In knowledge about seed quahty Although farmers clearly are aware of the relatronshlp between the physlcal propertles of seed and gerrnlnatlon they generally appear les s clear about lhe relatlonshlp between seed and plant haalth and for the most part are not aware of dlseasa transmlsslon through seed Farmers attrrbute plant health and rnost bean dlseases to the so11 Inseets and the weather (1 e exceSSlve raIn drought) The absence of na mes for most baan dlseases among most Ugandan ethnlcltles also suggests Ilmlted rndlgenous (, Depend1.ng on the sever1.ty of pod .1nfectlon syrnptoms of somf' bacterIal and fungal pathogens wlll be V1S1blf> on seed Vlral lufect1-ons are asymptomatlc -:1A su:r:vey of Rak . .tl revealed that few farroer,,;(GrlsJey 1991)t-iplgl Mukono and HOHoa Dlstrlcts of Uganda also (7 percent) regularly roguo? dlS?ased bean plants s When farmerq roentlon varletal charac:ter].stlcs ln response to ), questlon about 'leed quallty lt 1.S unclear: whE>ther thlS IF\"<!:lect\"l cormect.l0n\"'l they rcake betw?en Vdrlety dnd dl,Sease Jnclden0e and consequently seed quaLlty or has more to do wlth a tranC'latJ.o.:1/t8rmlnology prohlt\"'m knowledge about plant health 9  (1993) suggests that seed plant tranSIDlsslon Di dTse];se ID beans vaI~es accordlng to varlety Seed quallty sludles ha ve come under recent scrutlny aod questlons (alsed about the methodologles used (Suruchara 19941 The choice of study sltes mlghl affect the results For example the maJor seed transrnltted bean dlsease cornmoo bacte\"al blrght IS ooly 01 moderate Importance In Rwanda aod Kenya Stud/es 10 Rwanda (CIAT 1992) compare Yleld over a single season whereas companson over time may glve IndlcatlooS 01 changes In dlsease le veis (due to bUlld up effectl seed selected out and Yleld (Suruchara 1994) Moreover Another grey area In most studles 15 fanner selectloo Mast sludles glve 00 lodlcatlon 01 how larmers who provlded seed for the expenments were selected (e 9 were they farmers who had been worklOg closely wllh researchers 7 ) oor do they provlde a hlstory of farmers seed used 10 the expenrnents (e 9 was It receotlyacqulred 7 1 Fmally In vlew 01 eVldence that the Incldence 01 dlsease transmlsslon through seed vanes by vanety (OPIO 1993) sludles on seed quallty provlde Insufflclent IOlarmallon on the vanetlBs usad A study on the qualrty of tarmers seed 10 Uganda that burlds on these methodologlcal IImltatlons IS bemg planned by CIAT and natlonal SClentlstsIn Uganda as 10 most countnes 10 the reglan Ihe formal seed system has had httle sustalned Impact 00 bean produc!lon among small scale larmers Although the formal system had a majar regional success story wlth the release of K20\" only two Improved bean vanetles have beeo released slllce 1968 and as results reported In thlS paper Indlcate few farmers buy certlflsd bean seed In Uganda the pauclty 01 Improved beao vanetles dnd farmers IImlted access to certlfled seed can be attrlbuted la several tactors tire Virtual collapse of commodlty research programs belween 1979 and 1986 due to polltlcal unrBst slowness In the release of new vanetl€S the hlgh pnce of certllled seed and untlmely and rnelt~ctlve dehvery systems Seed productlOn by the formal seed rndustry IS a vertical demand dnven system conslstrng of breedlng productlon and marketrng stages fhe system 1$ only sustamable If there IS sufflclent demand for seed or If subsidies are mamtalned to enable farmers to buy seed and breaks down If ooe part IS mlS$lng In Uganda the system begrns wlth breeder s seed of a newly released vanety berng glven to the Uganda Seed Project (USP¡ for multlpllcatlon and commerclal d,stnbutlon Glven Insuff,Clent demand by farmers tor certltled bean seed the declslon taken by the USP to glve low prronty to beans lor small scale productlon 1$ hardly sUlpnslng At present the Project only supplres commerclal seed of K20 most 01 wh,ch IS obtamed trom small scale larmers {personal communreatlon from W Manghenrl It IS notable that most of thls seed 1$ purchased by rehef agencies rather than by small seale tarmers To 1111 the vOld ereated by the fallure of the formal seed Industry to multlply Improved bean seed the Uganda Natlonal Bean Program (UNBP) produces limitad quantltles 01 Improved bean vanetles marnly tor research purposes and to 8nSur8 dlssemlnatlOn 01 new vanetles At present the UN8P provldes seed of Improved bean varretles to the exteoslon system for d,stnbut,on to farmers through demonstratlons However glven farmers need for constant seed restockrng seed multlpllcatlon and dlstnbutlon by the natlonal program IS expenslve unsustarnable and probably nOI hlghly elfectlve m reachlng the maJorrty of farmers In a reasonably short penod of time Moreover the researeh system s foeus on broadly adapted Improved vanetles wllI not necessarrly meet larmers demand for vanetles wllh speclflc adaptatlonThe results of thls study ralses Important questlons about farmers access to beao seed the\" pereepllon 01 the qualrty of avadable seed the relatlonshlp betweeo access to seed and genetlc 11 It 18 estl.mated that K20 18 the most wldely sown bt?an V3..Ilety In Eastern Afrlca wlth 40 and S6 pe:rC'ent resp@ctlvely of the total hectl-ragE> plante:d tú beans In K!?nya. -.1nd Uganda sown • .... lth thlS vaxlety (Grlsley 1994) dlverslty at the farm level and the eff,clency 01 farmer sesd networks as a mechan,sm for the dlstnbutron 01 ,m pro ved vanetles Several Imdlngs suggest that access 10 bean seed ,s problematlc for smal1 scale farmers In the two study locaht,es (and perhaps elsewhere In Uganda) and that the qualrty 01 available seed ,s of sorne concern to farmers 1 the majonty 01 larmers w'th varymg degrees 01 frequency depend on off larm seed sources 2 although farmers prefer the qualrty 01 farm saved seed íboth own seed and trom other larmers) and appear sat,sl,ed wlth the quallty of theor own seed saed exchange 's In rea(¡ty the thlfd most ,mportant source 01 saed and prov,des only asma\" proportlon 01 the seed ¡ha! tarmers plan! 3 market oUllets are the second mos! ornportant sauree although farmers cons,der seed purchased from shops and markets to be of mferror quahty These concluslons suggest Ihat there 's room for Improvrng local bean seed supply systems and that demand eXlsts lor gooó quallty low cast bean seed 01 ,mproved and local varletles It can be postulated that an approprrate sesd supply system for small scale bean growers In sub Saharan Afrrca must meet the followlog requlfements 1 OuailtY the system shouló supply reasonably good qualrty bean saed II e quahty declared rather ¡han cert,lwd) 01 both Improved and local vanetres 2 Cost seed must be produced at a low cost anó sold at a pnce that competes favorably w'th graln 3 Sustamable ¡he system should be horrzontal and fleXible m nature to ensure that ,t contrnues to ¡unetlon even ,f one component 's Inlssrng or breaks down 4 Eeonom,es 01 scale the system should produce small quant,tles 01 seed In accordance w'th locailzed demandIn essence the proposed system reqUlres an Integra!lon 01 local and formal seed systems whereby sma\" farmers undertake speclalrzcd productlon of bean seed wlth mput 01 ,mproved vanct'es Irom the formal syslem Wh\"e artlSlnal product,on 01 cert,fled bean seed by farmers In vano os La!rn Arnencan countnes has proven h'ghly suecessful IGaray 1993 Lep'z 19941 th,s approach has no! been tfled ,n Alrlea I! IS notable that wnh the except,on of Rwanda and perhaps elsewhere In the Great Lakes ReglOn speclalrzcd bean scad productron by sma\" scale farmers In Eastern and Southern Afnca 15 rare 1Z Farmer mvolvement In the multlplicatlon and dlstnbutlon of new vanetles as a bUSiness venture IS likely lO have several advantages over formal sector productlon lower productlon cost and hence lower seed pnce the likehhood of tlmely seed dellvery and vanetal selectlOo by farmers themselves In accordance wlth local prefereoces Tlle less structured nature 01 farmer seed enterpnses may also mean that alternatlve means of s81110g seed le 9 In kmd exchange labor exchangel could be explored wlth the result that the poores! farmers may adopt Improved vanenes Small seale farmer seed enterpnses are also Ilkely to have a SPIn off eflect on Income generatlon and smal! enterpnse bUilding capaclty To aS58SS the feaslbillty of artlsmal bean seed producllon CIA T s Regional Bean     ","tokenCount":"2707"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"955eba33afc2529c59b40a3902464d2d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2c4f6917-8e60-4ae2-ae71-5a941760da92/retrieve","id":"1881805601"},"keywords":["BW","potato","resistance","wild","latent infection"],"sieverID":"87852b6b-38c6-4ff0-b2af-1ad64ec69874","pagecount":"144","content":"The Bacterial Wilt of the Potato(BW) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (Smith, 1896)  (Yabuuchi et al., 1995), is one of the most devastating illnesses that affect the potato's cultivation in the developing countries. At the present time an effective chemical control does not exist. Of all the control measures of BW, the use of genetically resistant varieties is the best handling strategy of the illness and the one that offer better perspectives. The main objective of this study was to identify genotypes of wild potato species that show high levels of resistance to bacterial wilt with emphasis in the resistance to the latent infection in tubers. For that reason, 4461 different genotypes from the Germoplasm Bank at the International Potato Center (CIP) Lima-Perú,were evaluated. Ten plants per genotype were inoculated with a suspension of the strain CIP204 of R. solanacearum to a concentration of 10 8 ufc/g soil. To ensure the durability of resistance, resistant genotypes were tested against seven strains of R. solanacearum with various levels of aggressiveness. The genotypes resistant to at least 5 strains of R. solanacearum were re-exposed to the pathogen in less severe conditions to assess the presence of latent infection in tubers. 178 genotypes (4%) of all screened were found to be resistant to CIP204 strain. From162 resistant genotypes analyzed, resistance could be confirmed in only 52 in subsequent screenings with several strains of the pathogen. From these, 9 genotypes are also resistant lo Late Blight. From 28 genotypes tested for tuber infection, seven (6 of S. acaule and 1 of S. chacoense) were found resistant to plant wilt and did not harbour any stem or tuber latent infection. S. acaule and S. chacoense are the most promising species for future breeding programs.This is the first evidence that high resistance levels of resistance to Bacterial Wilt exist in the nature.A mis padres, por su apoyo, confianza y amor. A mi madre por hacer de mi una mejor persona a traves de sus consejos, enseñanzas y aliento, por ser mi ejemplo de vida.Yo se que ambos desde arriba, siempre me acompañaran en cada paso de mi vida.A mi esposo Carlos, por ser mi compañero y amigo, por su paciencia, por su comprensión, por su empeño, por su fuerza, por su amor, por ser tal y como es.A mis hijos Fabrizio y María Jose, los regalos más maravillosos que la vida me dio; ustedes llegaron a completar mi vida; sin duda son mi referencia para el presente y para el futuro.A mi hermanos, Carmen, Jorge, Lucho, Carlos y Doris, quienes con su ayuda, apoyo y compresión me alentaron a concluir con este proyecto. A mi sobrino Luis, por hacerme reir con sus ocurrencias. A mis tíos Julian y Elena, por el apoyo brindado en los momentos buenos y malos de mi vida. A mi familia política, Don Paulo, Doña Carmen, por la ayuda incondicional, por siempre estar dispuestos a colaborar conmigo, pero por sobre todo, por haberme ayudado con mis pequeños.Al Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP), por brindarme todas las facilidades en sus instalaciones para realizar el presente trabajo.A la Dra Sylvie Priou y al Ingeniero Alberto Salas, por darme esta gran oportunidad profesional y por la confianza que depositaron en mí; por su excelente supervisión, apoyo y sugerencias oportunas que me permitieron iniciarme como investigadora, a ustedes el más profundo de mis agradecimientos.Al Ing. Liliam Gutarra por la paciencia y orientación que me brindo para terminar satisfactoriamente este proyecto de tesis y por las correcciones hechas a este trabajo.Al equipo de trabajo del Laboratorio de Semillas, Wilder Rodríguez y Carlos García, por su orientación, colaboración y por compartir sus experiencias conmigo. Del mismo modo, quiero agradecer a los técnicos del Laboratorio de Bacteriología Alex Sierralta, Eva Huamán y Fernando de la Calle, por los consejos, materiales y ayuda brindada durante el trabajo práctico de la tesis, gracias por su amistad y por los momentos compartidos. y por las correcciones hechas a esta tesis que me permitieron culminarla satisfactoriamente.A los miembros del jurado Dr. Pablo Ramírez, Mg. Susana Gutiérrez, y al Blgo. Héctor Sánchez, por las sugerencias y correcciones hechas a este trabajo.A las secretarias de la Division de Manejo Integrado de cultivos y la División de Conservación y Caracterización de Recursos Genéticos del CIP, Julita Zamudio y Mariana Martin, por la ayuda eficiente, oportuna y con la siempre amigable sonrisa.A los mis amigos Biólogos, Carmen Maza, María Rivera, Percy Rojas y Benny Ordoñez, por su invalorable ayuda y apoyo.Finalmente, de manera muy especial , a la Ing. Fanny Vargas, mi gran amiga, gracias por tu afecto sincero, por esas muestras de cariño e invalorable apoyo, y por estar conmigo en las buenas y en las malas.La marchitez bacteriana de la papa (MB) causada por Ralstonia solanacearum (Smith, 1896)  (Yabuuchi et al., 1995), es una de las más devastadoras enfermedades que afectan el cultivo de la papa en los países en desarrollo. En la actualidad, no existe un control químico efectivo. De todas las medidas de control, la utilización de variedades genéticamente resistentes es la mejor estrategia de manejo de la enfermedad y la que ofrece mejores perspectivas. El objetivo principal de este estudio fue identificar genotipos de especies silvestres de papa que presenten altos niveles de resistencia a la MB con énfasis en la resistencia a la infección latente en tubérculos.Para ello, se evaluaron 4461 genotipos diferentes de papa silvestre del Banco de Germoplasma del Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP). 10 plantas por genotipo fueron inoculadas con una suspensión de la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a una concentración de 1 x 10 8 ufc/g de suelo. Para asegurar la durabilidad de la resistencia, los genotipos resistentes fueron evaluados nuevamente contra 7 cepas de R. solanacearum con alta agresividad. Los genotipos resistentes a por lo menos 5 cepas fueron sometidos a una tercera prueba donde se evaluó además la resistencia a la infección en tubérculos en condiciones menos severas. Se encontraron 178 genotipos resistentes a la cepa CIP204 (4% de los tamizados). De 162 genotipos resistentes analizados, la resistencia pudo ser confirmada en sólo 52 genotipos en tamizados consecutivos con varias cepas del patógeno, de los cuales 9 genotipos también son resistentes al tizón tardío de la papa. De 26 genotipos analizados para la infección en tubérculos, 7 genotipos (6 de Solanum acaule y 1 de Solanum chacoense) fueron resistentes a la marchitez en planta y no mostraron infección latente ni en tallos ni en tubérculos. S. acaule y S. chacoense son las especies más promisorias para los futuros programas de mejoramiento. Esta es la primera evidencia de que altos niveles de resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana existe en la naturaleza.Palabras clave: MB, papa, resistencia, silvestres, infección latente.Tabla 1. Clasificación de Ralstonia solanacearum en Biovares de acuerdo a la utilización de disacáridos y a la oxidación de alcohol-hexosas según Hayward (1964) y He et al. (1983).Tabla 2.Equivalencias entre los Sistemas de Razas y Biovares en la clasificación tradicional de Ralstonia solanacearum según Hayward (1991) y He et al. (1983).Tabla 3.Equivalencias entre los sistemas de Razas, Biovares y Filotipos en el Complejo de Especies de Ralstonia solanacearum según Prior & Fegan (2005).Lista de Entradas evaluadas para su resistencia a la Marchitez Bacteriana de la Papa bajo condiciones de invernadero (28-32°C).Tabla 5. Lista de Entradas con resistencia al \"Tizon Tardio\" evaluadas para su resistencia a la Marchitez Bacteriana de la Papa bajo condiciones de invernadero (28-32°C).Tabla 6. Cepas de R. solanacearum utilizadas en el Segundo Tamizado.Tabla 7. Lista de entradas evaluadas que presentaron al menos un genotipo resistente a la cepa CIP204 (Biovar 2A). El suelo fue inoculado con R. solanacearum a 108 ufc/g suelo y el experimento fue mantenido bajo condiciones de invernadero a temperatura controlada (28-30˚C).Tabla 8. Lista general del material resistente al \"tizón tardío\" analizado para su resistencia a la Marchitez Bacteriana usando la cepa CIP204-Bv 2A de Ralstonia solanacearum a 1 x 108 ufc/g de suelo bajo condiciones de invernadero (20-32°C).Tabla 9. Resumen de especies resistentes al \"tizón tardío\" analizadas para su resistencia a la Marchitez Bacteriana usando la cepa CIP204-Bv 2A de Ralstonia solanacearum a 1 x 10 8 ufc/g de suelo bajo condiciones de invernadero (20-32°C).Tabla 10. Lista de genotipos analizados con 7 cepas procedentes de diferentes países de América Latina (Biovar 2A/Filotipo II) a dos concentraciones: 1 x 10 8 y 5 x 10 7 ufc/g de suelo. Las inoculaciones fueron realizadas en invernadero bajo condiciones controladas (28-30º): Segundo Tamizado I.Tabla 11. Lista de genotipos analizados dos veces con 7 cepas procedentes de diferentes paises de America Latina (Biovar 2A/Filotipo II) a dos concentraciones: 1 x 108 y 5 x 107 ufc/g de suelo. Las inoculaciones fueron relizadas en invernadero bajo condiciones controladas (28-30ºC): Segundo Tamizado II.Tabla 12. Lista de genotipos por especie seleccionadas por su resistencia a al menos 4 cepas de R. solanacearum en ambas dosis bajo condiciones de invernadero (20-32°C).Tabla 13. Cuadro resumen de los genotipos analizados con 7 cepas procedentes de diferentes países de América Latina (Biovar 2A/Filotipo II) a dos concentraciones: 1 x 10 8 y 5 x 10 7 ufc/g suelo. Las inoculaciones fueron realizadas en invernadero bajo condiciones controladas (28-30ºC).Tabla 14. Número de entradas por especie seleccionadas por su resistencia a al menos 4 cepas de R. solanacearum en ambas dosis bajo condiciones de invernadero (20-32°C).Tabla 15. Genotipos de especies silvestres analizados para su resistencia a la infección latente en tubérculos después de la inoculación con la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a 5 x 10 7 ufc/g suelo bajo condiciones ambientales durante los meses de Mayo a Agosto en Lima (14-17°C).Figura 1. Cultivo de R. solanacearum en medio Kelman con TZC (48 horas de incubación a 30˚C). 9Figura 2. Síntomas aéreos de la \"Marchitez Bacteriana\" causada por R.solanacearum.    Figura 11. Porcentaje de Plantas Infectadas en la Prueba de Infección de Tubérculos evaluados después de la inoculación con la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a 5 x 107 ufc/g suelo bajo condiciones ambientales durante los meses de Mayo a Agosto en Lima (14-17°C).Figura 12. Porcentaje de Tubérculos Infectados en la Prueba de Infección de Tubérculos evaluados después de la inoculación con la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a 5 x 107 ufc/g suelo bajo condiciones ambientales durante los meses de Mayo a Agosto en Lima (14-17°C).Figura 13. Porcentaje Acumulado de Infección en la Prueba de Infección de Tubérculos evaluados después de la inoculación con la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a 5 x 107 ufc/g suelo bajo condiciones ambientales durante los meses de Mayo a Agosto en Lima (14-17°C). Los recursos fitogenéticos constituyen la base biológica para la agricultura y la alimentación, contribuyendo así a la seguridad alimentaria. Estos recursos son la materia prima para los programas de mejoramiento genético y el aporte más importante para una producción agrícola sostenible y amigable con el ambiente.La papa (Solanum tuberosum L. Hawkes), es un cultivo de mucha importancia en el ámbito mundial como alimento básico, ya que se encuentra como el cuarto cultivo de mayor producción en el mundo, siendo superado solamente por cereales como el trigo, maíz y arroz (Estrada, 1999;Hawkes, 1994). Este tubérculo forma parte de la dieta de más de 500 millones de consumidores en países desarrollados y sobretodo en América Latina (CIP, La papa en cifras, 1995).El cultivo de la papa es susceptible a más de 300 enfermedades, pudiendo estas diseminarse por medio de semillas infectadas, agua, implementos agrícolas, insectos, vectores, etc. La presencia de estas enfermedades puede disminuir en gran medida la producción, tal es el caso de la enfermedad conocida como la \"rancha\" o \"tizón tardío\" (causada por el oomiceto Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary), que puede llegar a causar pérdidas mayores al 15% de la producción mundial (Smith and Barker, 1999).La Marchiez Bacteriana de la papa (MB) o Podredumbre Parda causada por la bacteria Ralstonia solanacearum (Smith 1896) (Yabuuchi et al., 1995), es considerada como la segunda enfermedad más importante después del \"tizón tardío\", ya que limita la producción de papa en la mayoría de las regiones tropicales y subtropicales del mundo (French, 1993a;French, 1993b).Esta enfermedad es severa en condiciones de alta temperatura y humedad siendo favorecida por otros patógenos del suelo (hongos y nemátodos principalmente) e insectos que afectan los órganos subterráneos de la papa. Dependiendo del grado de infestación y distribución de la bacteria en el suelo, la \"marchitez bacteriana\" puede ocasionar la pérdida total del cultivo o un bajo rendimiento del tubérculo (Anguiz, 1993). La diseminación de la enfermedad es variada; sin embargo, la habilidad de R. solanacearum de infectar y colonizar tejidos vasculares de la papa (como de otros cultivos y malezas) sin causar síntomas de la enfermedad es la principal forma de diseminación, introducción y establecimiento en muchas eco regiones del mundo (Hayward, 1991;French, 1994: French et al., 1996b).La MB de la papa es causada en más del 90% de los casos por una variante de la bacteria R. solanacearum (raza 3/Biovar 2A/Filotipo II) adaptado al clima frío gracias a una larga asociación con las variedades de papa que crecen en este tipo de climas, aunque sigue siendo una bacteria de alta temperatura óptima (27-28°C), crece en climas fríos y convive con los cultivos de papa en forma de infección latente (French, 1993a;French 1993b;French et al.,1996b). Este patógeno infecta a más de 200 especies de plantas representadas dentro de 40 familias (Seal, 1995), siendo los cultivos mas susceptibles la papa, el plátano, así como el tomate, la berenjena, el ají, el pimiento, el tabaco y el maní (Martín y French, 1985).Dentro de este contexto se hace difícil el control de la MB debido a la alta variabilidad del patógeno, la amplia gama de hospedantes, su supervivencia en el suelo, su diseminación vía tubérculos semilla con infección latente y por no existir un método de control químico efectivo ni niveles altos de resistencia en ninguno de sus hospedantes.Una combinación integrada de las medidas de control es lo más apropiado para reducir la incidencia de MB o incluso erradicarla; esto incluye principalmente la utilización de variedades tolerantes y tubérculos semilla libres de la enfermedad, rotación de cultivos con plantas no hospedantes, practicas de saneamiento, adecuado manejo agronómico durante la labranza para evitar lesiones en raíces y estolones, control de nemátodos para evitar la interacción de los mismos con la enfermedad entre otros (Priou et al., 1999a).De todas las medidas de control de la MB a integrar para contrarrestar la acción patógena de R. solanacearum, la utilización de variedades genéticamente resistentes es la mejor estrategia de manejo de la enfermedad y la que ofrece mejores perspectivas (Torres, 1984). Sin embargo hasta la fecha no se cuenta con material con resistencia estable, y las variedades mejoradas por la resistencia a la MB, si bien muestran niveles de resistencia a la marchitez de la planta, transmiten la infección a sus tubérculos.No se ha logrado obtener material con resistencia estable a la enfermedad debido a: 1) la enorme variabilidad fenotípica y genética del patógeno y 2) la reacción de la planta altamente dependiente de los factores ambientales (sobre todo la temperatura) (Anguiz, 1993).De esta manera se planteó realizar estudios orientados a seleccionar genotipos altamente resistentes a la \"marchitez bacteriana\", enfocándonos en la resistencia a la infección en tubérculos causada por R.solanacearum.La papa (Solanum tuberosum L.) es el cuarto cultivo más importante en el ámbito mundial, con una producción anual que se encuentra en los 328, 865,936 TM (http://faostat.fao.org/). Originaria de los andes centrales de Perú y Bolivia posee dos centros de diversificación: el primero en México Central y el segundo abarca desde los andes de Perú y Bolivia hasta el Nor-oeste de Argentina (Ochoa, 1980;Horton, 1992).Uno de los más importantes métodos para incrementar la producción de papa es el uso de las variedades mejoradas y las especies silvestres que son una fuente incalculable de genes para obtener resistencia (Tarr, 1972;Khurana et al., 2003;Spooner et al., 2004).La papa es la planta que posee la mayor cantidad de parientes no solo cultivadas sino también silvestres. Las especies silvestres de la papa agrupan al género Solanum L. (Linneo, 1753), el cual es altamente polimorfo y se considera el más importante de la familia Solanaceae. Las papas tuberíferas Solanum Sección Petota contienen cerca de 196 especies, incluyendo la papa cultivada (Salas, comunicación personal).Actualmente se considera la existencia de alrededor de 187 especies silvestres, de todas estas es posible encontrar por lo menos 92 en el Perú (A. Salas, comunicación personal).Los ancestros de la papa cultivada actual se encuentran en las especies silvestres que tienen un valor singular por tres razones principales:• El número de especies silvestres y cultivadas es de aproximadamente 200; y si se cuentan las diversas variedades de cada una, pasan de 2500 con características variables. Lo cual aumenta la probabilidad de encontrar características deseables en este cultivo (Estrada, 1999).• La mayoría de las especies silvestres se pueden cruzar con las especies cultivadas debido a que no tienen diferencias básicas estructurales en sus cromosomas. No es difícil lograr el apareamiento cromosómico entre diferentes especies. Esta característica es definitiva para obtener fertilidad y facilitar la transferencia de genes de los híbridos a las generaciones siguientes (Estrada, 1999).• Las especies silvestres, durante miles de años, se han encontrado sometidas constantemente a selección natural en un gran rango de hábitats que llegaban a ser muy desfavorables. Debido a esto muchas especies silvestres han desarrollado características hereditarias valiosas para su supervivencia, volviéndose tolerantes a diferentes presiones ambientales, así como desarrollando fuerte resistencia a un gran rango de plagas y enfermedades (Hawkes, 1994). Entre las propiedades hereditarias de las especies silvestres también se encuentran atributos provechosos para su calidad culinaria o industrial, como un alto contenido de materia seca, proteínas y vitaminas Por esta razón constituyen un reservorio de genes de valor incalculable para características de resistencia, así como adaptación a factores físicos y climáticos como heladas, sequía, granizo, suelos salinos, suelos ácidos, etc (Estrada, 1999).  (Correl, 1962;Hawkes & Hjerting, 1989;Hawkes, 1990;Bamberg et al., 1994;Estrada, 1999).  (Thung, 1947;Correl, 1962;Hawkes & Hjerting, 1969;Hawkes, 1990;Bamberg et al., 1994;Estrada, 1999).La marchitez bacteriana de la papa (MB) es considerada como una de las enfermedades más importantes de origen bacteriano que afecta el cultivo de papa. El agene causal es la bacteria R. solanacearum, y se encuentra distribuida en las regiones de climas tropicales, subtropicales y templados del mundo (Martin & French, 1996). La enfermedad ha sido reportada en todos los países productores de papa de latinoamérica, se encuentra presente en Estados Unidos y Australia. En África, es un problema muy serio para países como Uganda, Etiopia, Kenia, Madagascar, Ruanda, Burundi, Nigeria y Camerún. En el sur de Asia se presenta en India, Pakistán, Nepal y Bután. En el este y sudeste de Asia, la MB constituye una enfermedad muy severa en Indonesia, Filipinas, sur de Vietnam, Laos, Japón y sur de China. A comienzo de los noventa, la MB se convirtió en una seria amenaza para países europeos productores de papa tales como Bélgica, Inglaterra, Francia, Holanda, España, Italia y Portugal. La enfermedad se ha reportado en Rusia y Suecia, logrando erradicarla en este último país (Priou et al., 1999a).Esta enfermedad afecta alrededor de 5 millones de familias de agricultores (2,0 millones de hectáreas infestadas que representan un 2% de las áreas cultivadas con papa). En el mundo, aproximadamente 45 países del hemisferio sur están afectados y las pérdidas totales están en 950 millones de dólares por año (Priou et al., 1999a).En el Perú, el cultivo de papa es el más importante en la zona andina. La superficie cultivada en el país es de 249,000 ha, la mayoría de los productores son de escasos recursos y cultivan en promedio, media hectárea de papa. A pesar de que existe un sistema formal de producción de semilla de papa, el informal predomina, la mayoría de esta semilla es de baja calidad, siendo éste uno de los factores que contribuye a mantener los rendimientos a un nivel muy bajo (9,6 t/ha), (Priou et al., 2001a).La mayoría de géneros pertenecientes a la familia Solanaceae pueden ser infectados y también más de 200 especies de otras familias de plantas superiores (Kelman et al., 1994). La MB es una enfermedad cuarentenaria de origen de suelo causada en más del 90 % de los casos, por una variante de la bacteria Ralstonia solanacearum raza 3/Biovar 2A adaptada al clima frió (French, 1993a;French 1993b).En el Perú, la enfermedad es conocida con los nombre de \"bacteriosis\", \"podredumbre parda\", \"seca seca\", \"borrachera\", \"mata todo\" y \"pisca\"; en otros países se le conoce como \"brown rot\" (en idioma ingles), \"bacteriose vasculaire\" (en idioma francés), \"murcha bacteriana\" (en idioma portugués) y q' awi\" (en quechua boliviano).El patógeno causante de la marchitez bacteriana es la bacteria R.solanacearum (Smith, 1896) (Yabuuchi et al., 1995). Anteriormente fue llamado con sinónimos tales como: Burkholderia solanacearum, Pseudomonas solanacearum, Xanthomonas solanacearum, Phytomonas solanacearum, Bacterium solanacearum y Bacillus solanacearum (Kucharek, 1998) Según el Manual de Bergey de Bacteriología Sistemática (Krieg & Hold, 1984), R. solanacearum es una bacteria ubicada en la sección \"bastones y cocos aeróbicos Gram negativos\". Las células bacterianas tienen forma de bastón, con un diámetro de 0,5-0,7 μm y una longitud de 1,5-2,5 μm, con 2 a 3 flagelos polares que le dan movilidad dentro del agua (Martin & French, 1996). R. solanacearum es una bacteria aerobia que no forma espora ni cápsula, reduce nitratos y forma amoniaco (Hooker, 1980).Debido a la variación entre sus numerosas cepas, la temperatura óptima de crecimiento varía entre 27-37˚C. La máxima temperatura de crecimiento varía entre 35-41˚C y la mínima entre 8-18˚C. Su aislamiento en medio TZC (cloruro trifenil tetrazolio) de Kelman, permite diferenciar sus colonias por la apariencia típicamente cremosa, liosa y de coloración blanca con ligero espiralado interno (Kelman, 1953) (Figura 1).Figura 1. Cultivo de R. solanacearum en medio Kelman con TZC (48 horas de incubación a 30˚C) (Priou et al., 1999a) R. solanacearum es capaz de producir enzimas: pectinmetilesterasa, poligalacturonasa y altos niveles de celulasa; los cuales, si bien no son los determinantes primarios de la patogenicidad, son responsables de la destrucción de los tejidos parenquimáticos y del floema. La celulasa está relacionada estrechamente con la patogénesis al producir la degradación de la celulosa en la planta enferma (Kelman ,1954).La clasificación taxonómica actual de Ralstonia solanacearum es la siguiente: El sistema de razas esta basado en la gama de hospedantes en condiciones de campo, distribución geográfica, patogenicidad, relaciones epidemiológicas y propiedades fisiológicas (Hayward, 1991), existiendo actualmente 5 razas: raza 1, raza 2, raza 3, raza 4 y raza 5.Las variantes de la raza 1 es común encontrarlas en las regiones bajas, en los trópicos y subtrópicos de climas cálidos, afectando una amplia gama de Solanáceas y otras familias que incluyen la papa y varias malezas. La raza 2 esta limitada a las plantas de la familia Musaceae incluyendo el plátano triploide, platanillo y Heliconia spp. en los trópicos de las Américas y Asia. La raza 3 afecta principalmente la papa, ocasionalmente a tomate y otros cultivos y malezas solanáceas, es común encontrarlas en altitudes y latitudes mayores (climas fríos). La raza 4 fue propuesta adicionalmente para variantes cuyos hospedantes se limitan a la mora en China (He et al., 1983), y en numerosos hospedantes se presenta una raza desconocida, y la raza 5 también ataca la mora (Hayward, 1991).Hayward (1964), separó las variantes de R. solanacearum en cuatro biotipos ahora denominados Biovares (Bv). Este sistema se basa en la capacidad de la bacteria para utilizar tres disacáridos (lactosa, maltosa y celobiosa), y la oxidación de tres alcoholes (manitol, sorbitol y dulcitol). He et al. (1983) sugirieron el Biovar 5, el cual oxida lactosa, maltosa celobiosa y manitol (Tabla 1).Tabla 1. Clasificación de Ralstonia solanacearum en Biovares de acuerdo a la utilización de disacáridos y a la oxidación de alcohol-hexosas según Hayward (1964) y He et al. (1983). Existe una equivalencia entre raza y biovar: la Raza 3 coincide con el biovar 2A (Hayward, 1991). La Raza 1 coincide con todas las variantes del Biovar 4 y algunas variantes de los Biovares 1 y 3; mientras que la Raza 2 incluye las variantes restantes del Biovar 1 y 3. Todas las variantes del Biovar 5 corresponden a la Raza 4. (He et al., 1983). No se ha establecido ninguna raza para el biovar 2T, el cual se encuentra principalmente en las tierras bajas de la cuenca amazónica. Tiene numerosas variantes con una amplia gama de hospedantes al igual que la Raza 1; sin embargo, las variantes del Biovar 2T son menos agresivas (Hayward, 1991)  La MB se encuentra presente en zonas altas y frías tropicales (hasta 3400 m.) (Priou et al., 2001a) donde se desarrolla principalmente la Raza 3 (Biovar 2A), siendo la más común en papa y generalmente asociada con infección latente, con la tendencia a desaparecer en pocos años.En cambio, la Raza 1, por sus numerosos hospedantes, persiste normalmente durante muchos años y sobrevive mejor en el suelo y malezas, se encuentra con mayor frecuencia en climas cálidos (tropicales y sub-tropicales bajos) (French, 1996a). Se sabe que la Raza 3 de R. solanacearum está adaptada a bajas temperaturas, las cuales se presentan principalmente en las altitudes y latitudes extremas en la distribución del patógeno (Robinson-Smith et al;1995).La distribución de la Raza 3 en áreas templadas frías es debida a su asociación con papa y a su habilidad para sobrevivir bajo temperaturas frías en las áreas más adecuadas para este cultivo. De este modo, R. solanacearum Raza 3 puede tener una limitada distribución en regiones tropicales o de temperatura caliente debido a su restringido rango de hospedantes, a su cercana afinidad con papa y la probable rápida declinación del patógeno en condiciones de climas cálidos y suelos húmedos donde los rastrojos del hospedante son rápidamente degradados. Por consiguiente, la raza 3 se encuentra en regiones tropicales y pudo haber sido introducida con papa antes de ser un habitante natural de ese medio ambiente. En condiciones de clima frío propias de las zonas de producción de semilla, la bacteria se encuentra en bajas poblaciones presentándose como infecciones latentes (Ciampi et al., 1980). Por lo tanto, el conocimiento de la estructura de raza y biovar es fundamental para la implementación de una estrategia de control.Recientemente se ha establecido un nuevo sistema de clasificación para el complejo de especies de Ralstonia solanacearum (Tabla 3), el cual está basado en el análisis filogenético de los datos de secuencia generados a partir de la región interna En las partes aéreas de la planta, la enfermedad se caracteriza por la marchitez de uno de sus lados, afectando los foliolos de un lado de la hoja, las hojas de un lado del tallo, o sólo algunos tallos de la planta produciendo marchitamiento, epinastía, acaparamiento o enanismo y amarillamiento de follaje (marchitez unilateral) (French, 1993a, French, 1993b) (Figura 2). Estos síntomas pueden confundirse con los síntomas inducidos por otros agentes patógenos como Fusarium eumartii, Verticillium sp., Erwinia chrysanthemi, daños mecánicos o por la presencia de insectos en la base del tallo. Posteriormente toda la planta se marchita (debido a la infección temprana y la temperatura relativamente alta) y muere, o el tallo enfermo puede marchitarse completamente y secarse, mientras que el resto de la planta permanece aparentemente sano (French, 1996a).Figura 2. Síntomas aéreos de la \"Marchitez Bacteriana\" causada por R. solanacearum Acompañando al avance de la marchitez foliar, el sistema vascular va a adquiriendo un color marrón pardo y en tallos jóvenes se pueden observar estrías necróticas debajo de la epidermis. También el exudado puede ser observado a manera de gotas mucosas en el tejido vascular de los tallos. Si se corta un pedazo de 2-3 cm. de largo desde la base del tallo infectado y colocándolo en un recipiente con agua limpia, en pocos minutos se observarán filamentos finos que salen de uno o ambos extremos del tallo cortado que corresponden al flujo bacteriano, esto refleja la presencia y actividad de R. solanacearum en el sistema vascular. Esta prueba de diagnóstico rápido en campo se denomina Prueba de Flujo Vascular (Martin & French, 1996).El incremento en la viscosidad del agua dificulta el paso del liquido por el xilema hacia la parte aérea debido a la formación del mucílago alrededor de las masas de bacterias en los vasos del xilema del tallo y a una alta afinidad de los exopolisacáridos (EPS) de R. solanacearum por el agua, constituyendo el determinante primario de la patogenicidad (Martin & French, 1996). En una sección longitudinal de los tallos afectados es fácil observar rayas estrechas oscuras bajo la epidermis que corresponden a la actividad enzimática de la bacteria en los conductos xilemáticos (Priou et al., 1999c).Los síntomas en los tubérculos de papa son más notorios debido a que en infecciones severas, después de la cosecha, los ojos del tubérculo o los extremos del estolón exudan gotas de aspecto lechoso que contienen a la bacteria patógena aglutinada, pudiendo llegar a producir la pudrición de los tubérculos (pudrición parda) (Figura 3). Los tubérculos afectados retienen inicialmente su consistencia y adquieren un leve olor característico, luego se van descomponiendo hasta desintegrarse completamente debido a ataques secundarios de saprofitos (Martin & French, 1996).En los tubérculos afectados, al hacer un corte transversal cerca de la inserción del estolón, se puede observar la colaboración parduzca del anillo vascular y ejerciendo una ligera presión externa se aprecia el típico exudado bacteriano (perlas bacterianas), saliendo de los haces vasculares.A B Figura 3. A: Exudado bacteriano saliendo del haz vascular; B: Pudrición parda del anillo vascular (Priou et al., 1999a) La pudrición parda puede confundirse con los de la pudrición anular causada por Clavibacter michiganensis sp. sepedonicus (Gram +). Sin embargo una prueba diferencial y rápida consiste en colocar 2 gotas de hidróxido de potasio (KOH) al 3% directamente sobre el exudado bacteriano del tubérculo (Suslow et al., 1982) y luego mezclar con un mondadientes de madera por 10 segundos, la formación de un hilo lechoso al levantarlo indicará la presencia de R. solanacearum (Gram -), mientras que las bacterias Gram + son solubles en esta solución (Prueba de KOH) (Martin & French, 1996).Puede darse el caso en que no todos los tubérculos infectados muestren síntomas evidentes, siendo este el caso de infección latente. En años anteriores, la infección latente sólo podía ser detectada manteniendo los tubérculos a una temperatura de 30˚C, con alta humedad relativa, y al cabo de 2 ó 3 semanas se podía observar la exudación de masas bacterianas a través de los ojos (Martin & French, 1985); sin embargo, en estas condiciones muy a menudo otros patógenos o saprofitos pueden causar pudriciones que impiden diagnosticar a la MB, por lo que en el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) se ha desarrollado una técnica serológica rápida, altamente sensible y especifica: Enzime Linked Inmunosorbent Assay (Ensayo inmunoabsorvente ligado a enzima) (ELISA-NCM) post-enriquecimiento para la detección de R. solanacearum en tubérculos con infección latente (Priou et al., 1999b) (Figura 4). Figura 4. Esquema de la Prueba de Elisa-NCM (Priou et al., 1999b) La marchitez bacteriana de la papa presenta las siguientes fases (Figura 5):Las principales fuentes de infección de cultivos de papa con R. solanacearum son: papas infectadas (tubérculo-semilla infectados con infección latente), restos de cosecha o plantas infectadas con MB y/o suelos infestados (Martin & French, 1985).También se puede diseminar la bacteria a través de la irrigación de campos con agua de riego contaminada y del suelo contaminado que se adhiere a los implementos agrícolas (Martin & French, 1985), generando nuevos focos de infección.El nivel de infestación de los suelos estáen función del carácter supresivo del suelo, de las variantes del patógeno, de la sobrevivencia en los residuos de plantas cosechadas, así como de las raíces de cultivos y malezas asintomáticas, los cuales en muchos casos se comportan como los lugares de refugio del patógeno (Priou et al., 1999c).Esta bacteria puede sobrevivir en el suelo debido a siembras sucesivas de un cultivo susceptible, en rastrojos o en tubérculos de papa con infección latente, en el sistema radicular y en la rizósfera de muchos hospedantes (malezas hospederas o cultivos hospedantes, papas voluntarias, etc) (Granada y Sequeira, 1983).Del mismo modo se sabe que la supervivencia de la bacteria está sujeta afactores ambientales tales como la temperatura, humedad y otros factores fisicoquímicos del suelo, por lo que esta bacteria puede sobrevivir durante muchos años en ciertos suelos o desaparecer de una temporada de cultivo a otra (Martin y French, 1996).R. solanacearum se disemina principalmente a través de tubérculo-semilla latentemente infectado (Cook y Sequeira, 1994) producidos en climas fríos (sobre los 2500 de altitud) que no presentan síntomas visibles de la enfermedad, pero que al sembrarse en lugares cálidos, desarrollan síntomas severos de MB. Esta bacteria también puede diseminarse a través de suelo infestado adherido a los zapatos, herramientas de agricultores, cascos y patas de animales y agua de riego contaminada (Priou et al., 1999a).R. solanacearum puede penetrar por raíces sanas (Kelman & Sequeira, 1965), raíces que han sufrido daño mecánico durante la siembra y cosecha o daños ocasionados por nematodos (Napiere & Quimi, 1980), así como por las heridas causadas por hongos e insectos después de la emergencia de la planta (Priou et al., 1999a).Figura 5. Ciclo de la Marchitez Bacteriana de la Papa (Priou et al., 1999a) Esta enfermedad está ampliamente distribuida (en más de 65 países sólo en el hemisferio sur) y es común en las regiones de climas tropicales, subtropicales y templados del mundo, limitando la producción de papa en Asia, África, América Central y del Sur. También puede ocurrir en climas más fríos como en altitudes relativamente grandes (www.senasa.gob.pe).La MB es una enfermedad que está ocasionando grandes pérdidas a nivel mundial. En Latinoamérica, la enfermedad ha sido reportada en todos los países productores de papa excepto Ecuador. En Norte América la raza 1 se encuentra presente en Estados Unidos y se presenta sólo en plantas de geranio. En Australia es una enfermedad de gran importancia y en África es un serio problema para países como Uganda, Etiopia, Kenia, Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria y Camerún. En algunos países asiáticos ha llegado incluso a causar hasta el 75% de pérdidas de la cosecha del cultivo de papa (Cook & Sequeira, 1994). A comienzos de los noventas se convirtió en una grave amenaza para los países europeos productores de papa incluyendo Bélgica, Inglaterra, Países Bajos, España, Italia y Portugal.Desde 1965 en que fue reportada por primera vez en el Perú, ésta se encuentra atacando cultivos de papa en los departamentos de Amazonas, Ancash, Cajamarca, Huánuco, La Libertad y Piura (Priou et al., 2001a.) (Figura 6).Figura 6. Distribución de R. solanacearum de papa en el Perú (Priou et al., 1999a) Biovar El control de la MB se hace difícil debido a la alta variabilidad del patógeno, a la amplia gama de hospedantes, su supervivencia en el suelo, su diseminación vía tubérculo-semilla con infección latente y por no existir un método de control químico efectivo ni niveles altos de resistencia en ninguno de sus hospedantes.Una combinación integrada de medidas de control es lo más apropiado para reducir la incidencia de MB o incluso erradicarla, esto incluye principalmente (French, 1996a;Priou et al., 1999a):La siembra de tubérculo-semilla libre de la enfermedad La utilización de variedades tolerantes que debe asociarse al uso de semilla sana y a otras formas de control ya que no existen hasta el momento altos niveles de resistencia o inmunidad. No obstante nuevos clones de papa están mostrando niveles de resistencia a la MB, pero no han desarrollado resistencia a la infección (latente y visible) en tubérculos (Priou et al., 1999a).Rotación de cultivos con plantas no hospedantes por lo menos dos años, duración que depende de la incidencia inicial y de las condiciones agroecológicas, pudiendo realizarse una rotación con cereales, liliáceas, brasicáceas, leguminosas y cucurbitáceas para así disminuir el potencial de inoculo en el suelo.Practicas de saneamiento tales como la eliminación de rastrojos de papa, remoción de tubérculos infestados y/o podridos, eliminación de malezas, plantas voluntarias de papa, plantas marchitas, desinfección de herramientas de trabajo y maquinaria, zanjas de desviación de agua de riego o de escorrentía.Adecuado manejo agronómico durante la labranza, siembra y aporque para evitar lesiones en raíces, tallos y estolones (Martin & French, 1985) Control de nemátodos e insectos para evitar la interacción de los mismos con la enfermedad (Priou et al., 1999a).Medidas cuarentenarias, las cuales deben ser tomadas cuando se haya detectado la enfermedad en un área para evitar que la MB se disemine hacia zonas libres de la bacteria. Si bien dichas medidas merman la economía de una determinada región, su menosprecio favorece la diseminación de la enfermedad (Martin & French, 1985).Existe poca información sobre el número y la acción de los genes que controlan la resistencia a la MB en papa. Los reportes disponibles se refieren básicamente a los estudios realizados con clones de Solanum phureja y la Raza 3 de R. solanacearum (Anguiz, 1993).Investigaciones sobre la resistencia en S. phureja indicaron que los clones difieren en su reacción a las diferentes cepas de la bacteria (Sequeira & Rowe, 1969).Se encontraron clones con resistencia a 10 aislamientos, pero muchos de ellos fueron susceptibles a uno o más de los aislamientos siendo evidente la necesidad de muchos genes para conferir un amplio espectro de resistencia. El análisis de segregación en progenies de intercruzas de clones de S. phureja, determinó que la resistencia a dos aislamientos (K-60 y S-123) sea controlada cada uno por tres genes dominantes e independientes, pero solamente un gen parecía ser común (Rowe y Sequeira, 1970;Rowe et al., 1972). En un estudio similar con el aislamiento S-206 de la raza 3, se confirmó la hipótesis de que la resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana es controlada por cuatro genes mayores (Zalewsky & Sequeira, 1975).Se han realizado numerosos intentos para determinar si estos tres sistemas de genes están interrelacionados. Se realizaron 4 experimentos en los cuales se estudiaron más de 100 clones de familias híbridas 1386.12 x 13339.28 (R X S). Se inoculó una planta por cada clon con S-206, K-60 o S-123. Se encontraron clones resistentes o susceptibles a uno dos o tres de las cepas. Asimismo se obtuvieron ocho patrones posibles de segregación. Se analizó el buen ajuste de estos resultados a los valores esperados de las combinaciones de genes. Este análisis no diferenció claramente un sistema en el que solamente un gen es común con un sistema en el que todos los genes son independientes. Desafortunadamente sin la explicación clara, ninguno de los cuatro experimentos separados coincidieron en resultados. Debido al alto costo y laboriosidad de estos experimentos, los trabajos genéticos de resistencia fueron descontinuados (Sequeira, 1979).La resistencia a R. solanacearum disponible en la actualidad, principalmente fue originado a partir de S. phureja y es controlado por pocos genes. A menudo se expresa como inmunidad ya que es superada cuando se incrementa el nivel de los factores favorables para esta enfermedad: temperatura, composición del suelo, daños en las raíces, etc. De esta manera, resistencia puede significar que pocas plantas sean infectadas. La resistencia no es general, sino especifica de la cepa y del medioambiente, un paso esencial en el desarrollo de variedades resistentes es el tamizado local (Martin & French, 1996) Un nivel aceptable de resistencia depende del uso de las papas producidas.Cuando se usa para consumo, un cierto porcentaje de infección puede ser tolerado.En producción de semilla, es preferible no tolerar nada de infección, debido a que pocas semillas infectadas pueden diseminar la enfermedad a grandes áreas (Martin & French, 1996) Diferentes tipos de germoplasma han sido producidos por el CIP (Martin & French, 1996):Familias de tubérculos: Aunque una familia de tubérculos se origina del mismo cruce, cada tubérculo resultante es un clon genéticamente diferente. Los clones individuales pueden primero ser multiplicados y luego evaluados en el campo mediante siembra combinada con un cultivo susceptible en un campo infestado.Clones Selecto: Los clones selectos se originan de familias de tubérculos que ya han sido sometidos a una prueba de resistencia. Pueden estar disponibles en sets de 5 tubérculos por clon. Estos pueden ser luego evaluados en un diseño experimental al azar o de un solo punto.Clones avanzados: Los clones avanzados han sido producidos mediante varios ciclos de inoculación y sus característicasa gronómicas han sido evaluadas.Estos pueden ser avaluados en un diseño de bloques al azar.Thung en 1947, fue uno de los primeros investigadores que buscó posibles fuentes de resistencia a la MB. Él estudió la resistencia de Solanum andigenum, S.caldasii, S. antipoviezii, S. chacoense y S. demissum, y de híbridos derivados de los cruces con S. tuberosum.  Smith, 1985). Cuando estos materiales se probaron bajo condiciones de estrés y altas temperaturas (22-24º C) como las que se presentan en Brasil, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Argentina y Uruguay, no mostraron una buena resistencia estable (French et al., 1998).El CIP en 1977 evaluó 11 entradas pertenecientes a 9 especies silvestres: S.  , 1995;Delgado, 1995;French et al., 1998). Este cultivar, al igual que la variedad Molinera, no desarrolla marchitez en condiciones frías, pero pueden diseminar el patógeno a través de sus tubérculos con alta tasa de infección latente (French et al., 1998).En 1986, en Wisconsin y el CIP se llevaron a cabo nuevos intentos para encontrar resistencia a R. solanacearum, para esto se evaluaron 1573 entradas pertenecientes a 102 especies de la colección de Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Cada entrada fue probada como lotes de aproximadamente 50 semillas en bandejas con sustrato para \"jiffy\". Se obtuvieron tasas de sobrevivencia que variaban entre 0-100%.  (Martin Wisconsin, 1986).En EMBRAPA (Brasil) desde 1987 se evaluaron 1500 clones para resistencia a la MB. Este material que fue recibido del CIP, consistía de poblaciones que combinaban resistencia de entradas de S. chacoense, S. microdontum, S. phureja y S.sparsipilum (Schmiediche, 1988). Además, en ese mismo año se buscó una variedad que reemplazara a la variedad Achat (variedad con resistencia deseable a la MB, pero estéril y con pobres cualidades culinarias), por lo que se inició una selección de genotipos resistentes a la MB generados a partir de TPS, seleccionándose los mejores genotipos, y llegándose a desarrollar nuevos clones con alto nivel de resistencia a la MB. Entre ellos, MB-03 mostró resistencia a la raza 1 y 3. Sin embargo estos clones continúan trasmitiendo la enfermedad a sus tubérculos (Lopes et al., 1998).En 1989, con la finalidad de identificar nuevas fuentes de resistencia, mas de 60 entradas, previamente evaluadas, fueron analizadas en la Universidad de Wisconsin, mediante la inoculación del tallo con 3 cepas de R. solanacearum. goniocalix Juz. Et Buk (Wilkinson et al., 1994).Tradicionalmente, cuando se evaluaba la resistencia a la MB en varios cultivos hospederos de R. solanacearum, se tomaba como criterio de selección la proporción de plantas marchitas sobre la proporción de plantas sanas (Prior et al., 1994). Enchina, cuando el porcentaje de supervivencia estaba por encima de 80 ó 90%, el genotipo era considerado como resistente o altamente resistente (Li & Tan, 1984;Mehan & Liao, 1994). Esta definición pareció ser simple y práctica en el mejoramiento convencional. Los cultivares resistentes eran considerados libres del patógeno basados en el análisis visual de los síntomas de marchitez (Liao et al., 1998). Por esta razón, la mayoría de los genotipos resistentes a la MB han sido seleccionados teniendo en cuenta sólo la ausencia de síntomas de marchitez, y muy pocos investigadores han evaluado la infección latente tanto en tallos como en tubérculos.Debido a esto, la resistencia a la infección latente ha sido recomendada como un nuevo criterio importante para los mejoradores de papa (Priou et al., 2002).El rendimiento de la resistencia a la MB parece ser inestable bajo diferentes condiciones ambientales. Varios estudios han mostrado que la temperatura alta es el factor más importante que causa la ruptura de la resistencia en papa (French & De lindo, 1982). Además, la resistencia se expresa mejor con altas intensidades de luz a 24°C y 28°C, mientras que la disminución de la intensidad de luz y el foto período, reducen la resistencia en algunos clones (Sequeira & Rowe, 1969). Otro hecho importante es que se sospecha que la resistencia que se encuentra en las especies silvestres no sería de la misma naturaleza que la resistencia que se encontró anteriormente en S. phureja. Si se logra combinar la resistencia de varias fuentes, se van a obtener poblaciones, y al final variedades comerciales que tienen una resistencia amplia que permite combatir la bacteria en toda su variabilidad inclusive en las zonas cálidas (Schmiediche, 1984).Las Se han hecho grandes esfuerzos para transferir la resistencia genética a la MB procedentes de varios parientes silvestres. Desgraciadamente, híbridos de papa con los genotipos resistentes de S. chacoense, S. multidissectum y S. sparsipilum, mostraron una moderada resistencia y características de las especies silvestres (Boshou, 2004).La especie Solanum phureja ha sido una fuente valiosa de resistencia a la MB, pero desafortunamente se ha encontrado que esta resistencia es cepa-especifica y sensible a la temperatura, ya que tiende a declinar bajo condiciones de altas temperaturas, y es más adecuada para grandes altitudes y climas fríos (Ciampi & Sequeira, 1980;French & De Lindo, 1982). Además, investigaciones sobre la resistencia en S. phureja indicaron que los clones difieren en su reacción a las diferentes cepas de la bacteria (Sequeira y Rowe, 1969). Se encontraron clones con resistencia a 10 aislamientos, pero muchos de ellos fueron susceptibles a uno o más de los aislamientos siendo evidente la necesidad de muchos genes para conferir un amplio espectro de resistencia. El Programa de Mejoramiento del CIP mediante el uso de gametos no reducidos (2n), que ocurren con diferente frecuencia en todas las papas diploides cultivadas y silvestres, ha transferido los dos genomios de los clones resistentes de S. phureja a material tetraploide con buenas características agronómicas y alto rendimiento. Se ha logrado mantener la resistencia de los clones originales de S. phureja en el material tetraploide. Al mismo tiempo se ha incorporado la resistencia vertical y horizontal a Phytophthora infestans.El material tetrapliode de papa con resistencia a la MB y adaptado a temperaturas altas no tiene la estabilidad de resistencia deseada. Esto es debido probablemente, a que se dio mayor énfasis en la selección por adaptación al calor y atributos agronómicos deseables dejando de lado el entrecruzamiento con progenitores resistentes a MB. Esto habría ocasionado la pérdida gradual de la resistencia proveniente de los progenitores originales diploides. Asimismo, está perdida es agravada por la gran variabilidad de la bacteria y a su interacción con los otros patógenos.Es conocido además que para obtener una resistencia estable a la MB es necesaria una base genética amplia de resistencia y adaptación al ambiente en particular donde se presenta las razas del patógeno (Thung et al., 1990). Por otro lado, se ha demostrado exitosamente que las especies silvestres pueden ser usadas eficientemente y efectivamente en un tiempo relativamente corto si el grueso del trabajo de mejoramiento es llevado a un nivel diploide (Schmiediche, 1988) Hasta ahora, el mejoramiento para resistencia a la MB ha dado como resultado niveles moderados de resistencia, que son muy útiles en programas de Manejo Integrado de Plagas. Sin embargo, aún es posible hacer mejoramiento con mayores niveles de resistencia, ya que existe complementariedad entre las diferentes fuentes de resistencia.Nielsen y Haynes (1960) evaluaron el cultivar Solanum tuberosum spp.tuberosum para resistencia a R. solanacearum mediante la infestación del suelo con una suspensión bacteriana estandarizada a 97-98% de tramitancia de luz. Después de cortar las raíces de la periferie de cada maceta, se adicionó con una jeringa 10 ml de la suspensión bacteriana a cada corte (Nielsen & Haynes, 1960).Thurston y Lozano (1968) utilizaron el método de perforación del tallo en el proceso de inoculación de plantas de S. phureja. Una inoculación similar fue realizada por Valdez (1986) en plantas de tomate, cortando las hojas con el escalpelo previamente humedecido en el inóculo.El método de perforación del tallo fue utilizado por Rowe y Sequeira (1970) enWisconsin en los trabajos de mejoramiento y selección para resistencia a marchitez bacteriana, pero este método no es práctico para evaluar gran cantidad de material. El método de la selección masal más eficiente fue desarrollado por Gonzalez et al. (1973) que consiste en la siembra de semillas de papa, separadas 3.2 cm, en bandejas de 50x 35 cm conteniendo una mezcla de substrato y regadas con agua desmineralizada.Las plantas crecieron por 20 días a 22ºC y 14 horas de fotoperíodo. El riego fue suspendido por 2 días. Se cortaron las raíces de plantas de 3-5 cm de altura y fueron inoculadas con 51/ bandeja de una mezcla de dos cepas de R. solanacearum a una semilla verdadera de papa (TPS). Para esto cada entrada fue evaluada como lotes de aproximadamente 50 semillas en bandejas con sustrato para \"jiffy\". Las plantas crecieron en un invernadero a 22°C. El suelo fue empapado con dm 3 de suspensión de las cepas CIP08 (raza 1) y CIP81 (raza 3) de R. solanacearum en concentraciones de Actualmente el CIP utiliza este método con pequeñas adaptaciones que consisten en usar solo 10 plantas por genotipo, no utilizar macetas sino Jiffys strips y registrar la incidencia de la enfermedad mediante una escala de dos grados.• Identificar genotipos de especies silvestres de papa que presenten altos niveles de resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana con énfasis a la resistencia a la infección en tubérculos causada por la bacteria Ralstonia solanacearum.• Seleccionar diferentes accesiones del germoplasma de especies silvestres de papa por su resistencia con la cepa CIP 204 (Filotipo II / Biovar 2A) de Ralstonia solanacearum.• Evaluar la estabilidad de la resistencia de los genotipos seleccionados inoculándolos con 7 cepas del Biovar 2A procedentes de diferentes países de Latinoamérica.• Determinar la resistencia a la infección visible y latente en tallos y tubérculos de los clones seleccionados usando las pruebas de ELISA-DAS y ELISA-NCM post-enriquecimiento para tallos y tubérculos respectivamente.• Reproducir los genotipos resistentes y facilitar su conservación.  Acrónimo: Ver lista de acrónimos (Anexo 10.1).Se tomaron diferentes entradas de especies silvestres del Banco de Germoplasma del CIP y se seleccionaron las entradas que tenían más de 10 tubérculos por planta, para generar los genotipos los cuales fueron codificados en orden ascendente.Una vez codificados, todos los genotipos fueron sembrados en macetas de 8'' conteniendo aproximadamente 300 gramos de sustrato PROMIX Bx, (Premiers Brands, INC, Stanford, Canadá), un sustrato con el que se obtienen los mejores resultados. Cuando las plantas alcanzaron 5 cm de altura, 10 plantas por cada genotipo fueron transplantadas a Jiffys strips conteniendo 25 g de sustrato PROMIX Bx.Después de 15 días del transplante, cuando las plantas habían alcanzado entre 15-20 cm de altura y un adecuado desarrollo de la raíz, fueron colocadas en el invernadero a una temperatura promedio de 27-30º C y una humedad relativa de 85-90%, con la finalidad de favorecer el desarrollo de los síntomas de la MB (Figura 7).Figura 7. Siembra y transplante de genotipos de especies silvestre para evaluar la resistencia a la Marchitez Bacteriana de la Papa bajo condiciones de invernadero (20-30°C).Primer Tamizado: Evaluación de la resistencia a la cepa CIP204 Filotipo II/ Biovar 2A/Raza 3 de R. solanacearum.Para el Primer tamizado se utilizó la cepa CIP204 Raza 3/Biovar 2A, procedente del Departamento de Cajamarca (Perú), a una concentración de 1 x 10 8 ufc/g de suelo.Para confirmar la patogenicidad de las cepas utilizadas, éstas previamente fueron inoculadas en plantas de papa de 15 cm de altura, inyectando 20 μl (o sea una gota) de una suspensión bacteriana purificada de R. solanacearum procedente de un cultivo en medio Kelman sin tetrazolium (TZC) (Anexo 10.2), a una concentración aproximada de 10 8 ufc/ml. Se utilizó una jeringa de propileno de un milímetro y con una aguja hipodérmica. Las plántulas fueron colocadas en un invernadero con condiciones medioambientales que favorecen el desarrollo de la enfermedad: 28 ± 4ºC, humedad relativa de 80-90%, y luz natural. La marchitez de las plántulas se inició en menos de una semana (entre 4 -5 días después de la inoculación). Una vez que aparecieron los síntomas, se procedió a realizar la prueba del flujo vascular y aislar nuevamente el agente patógeno.Para el aislamiento, se sembró 20 μl de la suspensión bacteriana obtenida en la prueba del flujo vascular, en medio Kelman modificado (TZC con solo 2,5 g de dextrosa). Después de 48 horas de incubación a 30°C, las colonias fluidas y ligeramente rojizas de R. solanacearum se distinguieron fácilmente de otras bacterias saprofíticas (colonias redondeadas y de color rojo oscuro). Las colonias de R.solanacearum fueron nuevamente sembradas en medio Kelman sin TZC y llevadas a incubación a 30°C por 48 horas para la multiplicación de la bacteria.Después de las 48 horas de incubación, se agregó de 10 a 15 ml de agua destilada y se procedió al lavado con hisopos estériles para obtener la suspensión bacteriana, la cual fue colocada en beakers de 1000 ml y luego se procedió a la estandarización del inóculo.La suspensión bacteriana fue estandarizada en el espectrofotómetro (Bausch & Lomb) a una longitud de onda de 600 nm. Una densidad óptica (DO) de 0,1 de absorbancia, fue equivalente a una concentración aproximada de 2 x 10 8 ufc/ml.Todas las plantas fueron inoculadas vertiendo sobre el sustrato 25 ml de la suspensión bacteriana de Ralstonia solanacearum CIP204, para obtener una concentración final de 10 8 ufc/g de suelo (Figura 8).Las evaluaciones de los síntomas de la marchitez en el follaje se realizaron a intervalos de 7 días, durante un mes, registrándose adecuadamente los datos en hojas de evaluación preparadas para ello. Los tallos de los genotipos que no mostraron síntomas, fueron analizados mediante ELISA-DAS Post-enriquecimiento (Priou, 2004b) para detectar la infección latente en tallos.La multiplicación de los tubérculos de los genotipos resistentes se realizó en la estación CIP-La Molina, durante los meses julio a diciembre y en la estación CIP-Huancayo, durante los meses de enero a junio en los años 2004-2005.La confirmación de los síntomas de la enfermedad se realizó mediante la prueba de flujo vascular, para lo cual se tomó un pedazo (de 2 a 3 cm de largo) de la base del tallo de la planta con síntomas, luego se le colocó en forma vertical (sosteniéndolo con ayuda de un clip abierto) en un tubo de ensayo con agua destilada y se espero unos minutos hasta observar los filamentos finos y lechosos que salen del extremo inferior del tallo cuando la planta se encuentra infectada por la bacteria R.solanacearum. La presencia de la bacteria en la prueba de flujo fue corroborada a través del aislamiento en medio Kelman modificado con TZC.Las plantas asintomáticas fueron sometidas a la prueba de inmunodiagnóstico ELISA-DAS desarrollado en el CIP (Priou et al., 1999d) para detectar de esta manera la infección latente en las plantas de papa.Los tallos a evaluar fueron cortados (3 cm) con una tijera (flameada con alcohol). Posteriormente las muestras fueron colocadas en una bolsa de plástico de primer uso, se pesó el material y se maceró con la ayuda de un mazo de madera luego se añadió 3 ml de una solución tampón citrato estéril (3 ml por g de material vegetal) (Figura 8).Para el proceso de enriquecimiento se colocó 500μl del extracto de la muestra en 500μl de SMSA 1X (Anexo 10.3) colocados en tubos Eppendorf estériles de 1,5 ml y se incubaron durante 48 horas a 30° C en agitación constante (170 rpm).Para esta prueba serológica se utilizaron placas de microtitulación de poliestireno como soporte para las muestras y los reactivos empleados, las cuales fueron sensibilizadas añadiendo 125μl de la solución de cobertura a cada hoyo de las placas de microtitulación. Luego se selló la placa con un parafilm para evitar la evaporación y se incubó a 37°C durante 4 horas para permitir que las moléculas de IgG se adhirieran a la superficie de los hoyos en la placa.Se descartó la solución de cobertura de las placas de microtitulación y se procedió al lavado de la placa con tampón de lavado (Anexo 10.4) de la siguiente manera: Primero se lleno los hoyos con el tampón luego se esperó de 3 a 4 minutos, posteriormente se vació la placa y se repitió el mismo procedimiento 3 veces. Después del último lavado se puso la placa invertida sobre un papel toalla y se golpeó varias veces para retirar el tampón.Luego, según un plan, se dispuso las muestras de tallos en la placa previamente sensibilizada para que las muestras de tallos y los controles puedan ser identificados fácilmente. Con una micropipeta, se transfirió 125μl de las muestras de tallos enriquecidos a cada uno de los hoyos de la placa de microtitulación.Posteriormente, se adicionaron los controles positivos: suspensiones hervidas de R.solanacearum en tampón citrato a las concentraciones de 10 8 , 10 7 , 10 6 y 10 5 ; y los controles negativos: extracto enriquecido de suelo libre de Ralstonia solanacearum, para cada placa. Se selló la placa con un parafilm y se incubó a 4°C en una refrigeradora doméstica durante 18 horas (de preferencia se dejó incubar durante toda la noche).Luego de la incubación, se procedió a hacer los lavados siguiendo el mismo procedimento que se utilizó para lavar la solución de cobertura. Después de descartar el último tampón de lavado, se añadió 125μl de la solución de conjugado (Anexo 10.4) a cada hoyo de la placa. Se selló la placa con parafilm y se incubó a 37°C durante 4 horas.Para el desarrollo de la coloración se mezcló 2.5ml del tampón sustrato (Anexo 10.4) con 10 ml de agua destilada. Se mezcló bien y se ajustó el pH a 9.8 cuando fue necesario. Luego se descartó la solución del conjugado de las placas y se lavó la placa con tampón de lavado 3 veces como se describió anteriormente. Durante el último lavado se disolvió una tableta de 5 mg del sustrato p-nitrofenil fosfato en 12.5 ml del tampón sustrato. Luego de descartar el último tampón de lavado, se añadió 125μl de la solución de revelado de color (ver anexo) a cada hoyo de la placa.Posteriormente se dejó la placa a temperatura ambiente durante 60 minutos (20-25°C) para el desarrollo de la coloración.En las muestras positivas, la reacción enzimática produce una coloración amarilla que varía en intensidad de claro a oscuro, dependiendo de la concentración de R. solanacearum en las muestras. El color fue medido mediante un espectrofotómetro a una longitud de onda de 405 nm. Las muestras fueron consideradas positivas si la absorbancia era tres veces superior al promedio de la solución de suelo enriquecida libre de R. solanacearum usada como control negativo.Para este tamizado se consideró como resistentes a aquellos genotipos que presentaron 0% de síntomas de marchitez bacteriana. Estos genotipos resistentes fueron multiplicados para el evaluar la estabilidad de la resistencia con 7 cepas de R.solanacearum.  Las evaluaciones de la presencia de síntomas de marchitez se realizaron a intervalos de 7 días, durante un mes. Los tallos de los genotipos sin síntomas al final del mes, fueron analizados mediante ELISA-DAS Post-enriquecimiento para detectar la infección latente en tallos (Priou, 2004a). Los genotipos resistentes a por lo menos 5 de las 7 cepas en ambas dosis, fueron multiplicados para la prueba de Infección Latente en Tubérculos.Tercer tamizado: Prueba de Infección Latente en Tubérculos con la cepa CIP204 Filotipo II / Biovar 2A / Raza 3 de R. solanacearum.Las plantas fueron transplantadas a macetas de 8'' conteniendo 400 gramos de sustrato PROMIX Bx. Después de 15 días del transplante, fueron llevadas a un tinglado a condiciones ambientales y se inocularon con 100 ml de una suspensión bacteriana de R. solanacearum CIP204. El inóculo poseía una concentración tal que al final se obtenía una concentración final de 5 x 10 7 ufc/g de suelo.Las evaluaciones se realizaron a partir de la aparición de los primeros síntomas en los controles y luego a intervalos de 7 días, hasta la tuberización de las plantas que duró entre 3-4 meses.En el muestreo se tomaron dos tipos de muestra:Tallos: Se hizo un muestreo de los tallos de las plantas que no mostraron síntomas de marchitez bacteriana, empezando por las plantas más viejas. Si la planta tenía más de un tallo, se tomaron muestras de todos los tallos de la maceta y se procesaron juntas como una sola muestra.Tubérculos: Se cosecharon los tubérculos producidos por todas las plantas, incluyendo aquellas que habían presentado síntomas de \"Marchitez Bacteriana\", y se colocaron en bolsas de papel a temperatura ambiente, para su posterior procesamiento. En los tubérculos cosechados se evaluó los síntomas visibles causados por R. solanacearum así como la presencia de infección latente mediante la prueba ELISA-NCM Post-enriquecimiento (Priou, 2004a). Se evaluaron todos los tubérculos generados en cada maceta, los cuales fueron analizados en muestras compuestas de 5. El muestreo del haz vascular se hizo en lo posible sin cáscara y, cuando los tubérculos fueron demasiado pequeños se trituraron enteros.Las tubérculos asintomáticos fueron sometidas a la prueba de inmunodiagnóstico ELISA-NCM desarrollado en el CIP (Priou et al., 1999b) para detectar de esta manera la infección latente los tubérculos de papa.Los tubérculos de cada maceta fueron contados y colocados en vasos de precipitación de 250 ml, luego fueron lavados con agua corriente para desechar los restos del sustrato Promix. Posteriormente fueron remojados en lejía al 0,05% durante 5 minutos, luego de lo cual se descartó la lejía y se procedió a enjuagarlos con agua corriente, después se les desinfectó con alcohol al 70% durante 30 segundos y finalmente se enjuagó los tuberculos con agua destilada esteril. Después del proceso de desinfección los tubérculos fueron colocados en papel toalla y dejados secar por espacio de media hora.Dependiendo del tamaño del tubérculo, se cortó con un bisturí (flameado con alcohol) una rodaja del tubérculo de 0,5 a 1cm aproximadamente por el lado del estolón. Posteriormente se tomó una muestra del anillo vascular y se colocó en una bolsa de plástico de primer uso, se pesó y se maceró con la ayuda de un mazo de madera, luego se adicionó una solución tampón citrato estéril (Anexo 10.5) (3 ml por g de material vegetal).Para el proceso de enriquecimiento se colocó 500μl del extracto de la muestra en 500μl de SMSA 1X (Anexo 10.3) colocados en tubos Eppendorf estériles de 1,5 ml y se incubó durante 48 horas a 30° C con agitación constante (170 rpm).Para realizar la prueba de inmunoabsorción con conjunto enzimático se utilizó membranas de nitrocelulosa (NCM) de tamaño de poro de 0.45μm (Biorad) de 8 x 12 cm, las cuales fueron sumergidas en 30 ml del tampón TBS (Anexo 10.5) durante 5 minutos. Luego, una hoja de papel filtro (Whatman 3 MM) previamente humedecida con buffer TBS fue colocada sobre la superficie del aplicador de muestras conectado a una bomba de vacío. Posteriormente, se colocó la membrana de nitrocelulosa sobre la hoja de papel filtro y sometido al sistema de vacío (125 mm de mercurio) para eliminar las burbujas de aire. Finalmente, se colocó 20μl del extracto enriquecido del tubérculo sobre la membrana y una vez colocadas todas las muestras, la membrana fue trasferida a un papel filtro seco y se dejó secar por 1 hora. La membrana fue identificada con un número en la esquina inferior izquierda con un lápiz.Las membranas de nitrocelulosa con las muestras se incubaron durante 1 hora en agitación constante de 50 rpm en 30 ml de la solución de bloqueo (Anexo 10.5) dispensada en una placa de Petri de 15 cm de diámetro.Se descartó la solución de bloqueo y la membrana se incubó durante 2 horas en agitación de 50 rpm en 30 ml de la solución de anticuerpos 1:1000 (30μl de antisuero especifico de R. solanacearum diluidos en otros 30 ml de la misma solución de bloqueo). Posteriormente se descartó la solución de anticuerpos y se lavó la membrana con 30 ml de T-TBS en agitación de 100 rpm durante 3 minutos tres veces, ésto con el fin de remover el excedente de anticuerpos de R. solanacearum. Después se colocó la membrana en 30 ml de la solución del conjugado, el cual contiene anticuerpos cabra-anticonejo conjugado con fosfatasa alcalina (Biorad) a una concentración final de 1:4000, y se incubó durante 1 hora en agitación constante de 50 rpm.Cuando finalizó la incubación se lavó la membrana 3 veces nuevamente con 30 ml de T-TBS, con agitación a 100 rpm durante 3 minutos cada una, para remover el excedente del conjugado. Durante el último paso de lavado, se preparo la solución sustrato NBT/BCIP (ver anexo) añadiendo primero 100μl de la solución NBT por cada 25 ml de la solución tampón sustrato y luego gota a gota 100μl de la solución BCIP (por cada 25 ml de la solución tampón sustrato). Esta solución NBT/BCIP al ser muy sensible a la luz, debe prepararse en un Erlenmeyer cubierto con papel aluminio, así como también se debe tener en cuenta que esta solución contiene componentes altamente tóxicos capaces de ser absorbidos por la piel, por lo que se recomienda el uso de guantes en el momento de la preparación.Finalmente la membrana se incubó en 25 ml de la solución sustrato NBT/BCIP en agitación constante de 50 rpm durante 10 minutos, tiempo en el cual se dejó que se produzca la reacción verificando el desarrollo de la coloración púrpura en los controles positivos. La reacción fue detenida por el descarte de la solución sustrato y por el lavado de la membrana con agua corriente. Luego la membrana fue colocada sobre hojas de papel filtro para su secado. Las muestra positivas aparecen de color púrpura y la variación del color entre púrpura claro y púrpura oscuro depende de la concentración de R. solanacearum en las muestras.Luego de las inoculaciones se evaluó semanalmente la presencia o ausencia de síntomas de MB, los cuales fueron reportados en términos de frecuencia de aparición de los síntomas de la MB. A estos datos se adicionaron los datos de la presencia o ausencia de infección latente en los tallos de dichos clones, los cuales también fueron reportados en términos de frecuencia de plantas con infección latente.Para el tercer tamizado, los resultados fueron reportados en términos de frecuencia de la aparición de los síntomas de la MB y de infección latente tanto en tallos, tubérculos como estolones y de porcentaje de plantas infectadas sumando el número de plantas con síntomas visibles y las plantas con infección latente en tallos y tubérculos.Primer tamizado: Evaluación de la resistencia a la cepa CIP204 Filotipo II/ Biovar 2A/ Raza 3 de R. solanacearum.De un total de 4472 genotipos analizados, pertenecientes a 113 especies, sub especies y variedades diferentes de papa silvestre, se seleccionaron 178 genotipos (3.98 %) resistentes a la cepa CIP204 (Filotipo II/Raza 3/Biovar 2A) de Ralstonia solanacearum bajo condiciones de invernadero (28-32°C). El resto de genotipos fueron suceptibles a la cepa CIP204 (96.02 %). Los genotipos seleccionados por su resistencia a la cepa CIP204, pertenecen a 83 entradas y 30 especies diferentes. De los 178 genotipos seleccionados, 68 genotipos (38.2 %) pertenecen a la especie Solanum acaule Bitter (Tabla 7 y Figura 9).Por otro lado, de un total de 177 genotipos resistentes al \"Tizon Tardio\" evaluados por su resistencia a la cepa CIP204 (Filotipo II/Raza 3/Biovar 2A/) de R.solanacearum bajo condiciones de invernadero (28-32°C), se seleccionaron 33 genotipos resistentes a Ralstonia solanacarum pertenecientes a 9 especies diferentes, de los cuales 24 genotipos no presentaron infección latente en tallos. Además, 7 de los genotipos seleccionados (21.2 %) pertenecen a la especie S. demissum y otros 7 genotipos (21.2 %) , pertenecen a la especie S. megistacrolobum. Lamentablemente uno de los genotipos seleccionados se perdió durante la multiplicación por problemas con hongos.Tabla 7. Lista de entradas evaluadas que presentaron al menos un genotipo resistente a la cepa CIP204 (Biovar 2A). El suelo fue inoculado con R. solanacearum a 10 8 ufc/g suelo y el experimento fue mantenido bajo condiciones de invernadero a temperatura controlada (28-32°C). Especie: Ver lista de acrónimos de las especies (Anexo 10.1).Tabla 9. Resumen de especies resistentes al \"tizón tardío\" analizadas para su resistencia a la Marchitez Bacteriana usando la cepa CIP204-Bv 2A de Ralstonia solanacearum a 1 x 10 8 ufc/g de suelo bajo condiciones de invernadero (20-32°C).Nro  Segundo tamizado: Evaluación de la estabilidad de la resistencia con 7 cepas de R. solanacearumFilotipo II / Biovar 2A / Raza 3.Para asegurar la estabilidad de la resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana de la papa, los genotipos seleccionados con la cepa CIP204 fueron re-evaluados con 7 cepas de R. solanacearum que representan la diversidad genética que existe dentro de la Raza 3/ Biovar 2A en América Latina. Algunos genotipos fueron evaluados 2 veces para confirmar la estabilidad de la resistencia. De 162 genotipos resistentes a la cepa CIP204 analizados, se seleccionaron 52 genotipos (32,1%) por su resistencia a por lo menos 4 cepas, en ambas dosis en el tamizado con las siete cepas del patógeno (Tabla 10 y 11).Los genotipos seleccionados pertenecen a 10 especies diferentes y se distribuyen de la siguiente manera: 27 de los genotipos seleccionados (52%) pertenecen a la especie S. acaule, 6 genotipos pertenecen a la especie S. commersonii (11%), 5 genotipos pertenecen a la especie S. demissum (9%), 4 genotipos pertenecen a la especie S. albicans (8%) y los 10 genotipos restantes pertenecen a las especies S. acaule subsp. acaule f. incuyo, S. chacoense, S.huarochiriense, S. megistacrolobum, S. raphanifolium y S. sogarandinum (20%) (Figura 10).89 genotipos (54,9%) se eliminaron debido a su susceptibilidad frente a las 7 cepas de R. solanacearum. No se pudo presisar la estabilidad de la resistencia en 21 genotipos (13%), por lo que estos genotipos necesitan re-evaluación para determinar su reacción frente a las 7 cepas de R. solanacearum (Tabla 13).Por otro lado, de los 52 genotipos seleccionados, 7 genotipos también son resistentes al tizón tardío de la papa: 4 genotipos pertenecientes a la especie S.      El genotipo bw039004, no presentó síntomas visibles de marchitez bacteriana en planta, pero si presentó infección latente en tallos y síntomas visibles de infección en tubérculos, por lo que también fue eliminado (Figura 12, Figura 13, Tabla 15).Los 9 genotipos restantes, presentaron diversos niveles de suceptibilidad a las 7 cepas de R. solanacearum, tanto visible como latente, por lo que también fueron eliminados (Tabla 15). Se desarrolló un nuevo procedimiento para determinar la presencia de infección en tubérculos en especies de papa silvestre.Tabla 15. Genotipos de papas silvestres analizados para su resistencia a la infección latente en tubérculos después de la inoculación con la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a 5 x 10 7 ufc/g suelo bajo condiciones ambientales durante los meses de Mayo a Agosto en Lima (14-17°C). Las filas sombreadas de color lila indican los genotipos seleccionados Figura 11. Porcentaje de Plantas Infectadas en la prueba de Infección de Tubérculos evaluados después de la inoculación con la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a 5 x 10 7 ufc/g suelo bajo condiciones ambientales durante los meses de mayo a agosto del 2006 en Lima (14-17°C).Figura 12. Porcentaje de tubérculos infectados en la prueba de Infección de Tubérculos evaluados después de la inoculación con la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a 5 x 10 7 ufc/g suelo bajo condiciones ambientales durante los meses de mayo a agosto del 2006 en Lima (14-17°C).Figura 13. Porcentaje acumulado de infección en la prueba de Infección de Tubérculos evaluados después de la inoculación con la cepa CIP204 de R. solanacearum a 5 x 10 7 ufc/g suelo bajo condiciones ambientales durante los meses de mayo a agosto del 2006 en Lima (14-17°C). De un total de 4472 genotipos analizados en el primer tamizado, se seleccionaron 178 genotipos por su resistencia a la cepa CIP204, pertenecientes a 83 entradas y 30 especies diferentes. Esta cantidad representa el 4% de los genotipos analizados. Del total de seleccionados, 68 genotipos (38.2%), pertenecen a la especie Solanum acaule Bitter, lo cual confirma estudios anteriores donde se reporta su resistencia no solo a R. solanacearum sino también a otros factores tanto bióticos como abióticos, entre los que resalta su resistencia a las heladas (Correl, 1962;Hawkes & Hjerting, 1989;Hawkes, 1990;Bamberg et al., 1994;Estrada, 1999). Por otro lado, de acuerdo a Mastenbroek (1956), la resistencia a heladas se hereda en muchos casos, como un factor dominante, especialmente cuando se utiliza la especie silvestre S.acaule.Dentro del pool genético analizado en el primer tamizado se evaluaron 30 especies recientemente colectadas que nunca habían sido evaluadas. Las demás especies habían sido evaluadas en los 70's y 80's usando técnicas de evaluación menos sensibles y sin evaluar adecuadamente la reaccion a la infección latente (Boshou, 2004). 10 de las 30 especies reportadas como resistentes a la cepa CIP204 (Filotipo 3/Bv 2A) no habían sido evaluadas anteriormente y por lo tanto nunca habían sido reportadas como resistentes: S. acaule forma incuyo, S. albicans, S.cajamarquense, S. cantense, S. chiquidenum, S. huarochiriense, S. piure, S. sawyeri, S. sogarandinum y S. tuberosum subsp. andigena (maleza primitiva). Si se confirman estas posibles nuevas fuentes de resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana de la papa, sería importante para los futuros programas de mejoramiento ya que como reportó Estrada (1999), la mayoría de las especies silvestres se pueden cruzar con las especies cultivadas debido a que no tienen diferencias básicas estructurales en sus cromosomas.No es difícil lograr el apareamiento cromosómico entre diferentes especies. Esta característica es definitiva para obtener fertilidad y facilitar la transferencia de genes de los híbridos a las generaciones siguientes.Por otro lado, dentro de los 33 genotipos resistentes al tizón tardío seleccionados, las especies con mayor número de genotipos son S. demissum y S.megistacrolobum. Plucknett et al (1992) reportaron a S. megistacrolobum como resistente a heladas, sin embargo no hay reportes anteriores de esta especie como resistente a R. solanacearum. Con respecto a S. demissun, esta especie ha sido ampliamente estudiada y reportada como resistente no sólo a R. solanacerum sino también al Tizón tardío de la papa, lo que confirma los resultados encontrados en nuestros experimentos (Agricultural Experiment Station, 1965;Martin, 1979;French, 1985;CIP Annual Report, 1987;Bamberg et al., 1994;Hartman & Elphistone, 1994;Wilkinson et al., 1994).Segundo tamizado: Evaluación de la estabilidad de la resistencia con 7 cepas de R. solanacearumFilotipo II / Biovar 2A / Raza 3 Para asegurar la estabilidad de la resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana de la papa, los genotipos seleccionados en el tamizado 1 fueron re-evaluados con las cepas más virulentas de R. solanacearum y que representan la diversidad genética que existe dentro de la Raza 3/ Biovar 2A en América Latina. Debido a que estas cepas son cepas especializadas en papa y se encuentran presentes tanto en las zonas tropicales como en las zonas templadas, nos permiten tener un panorama amplio con respecto a la estabilidad de resistencia de estos genotipos.cepas, demostrando ser un buen testigo suceptible (Martin 1979, Schmiediche, 1985;Aley et al. en 1994;Anguiz & Mendoza, 1997).Tercer tamizado: Prueba de Infección Latente en Tubérculos con la cepa CIP204 Filotipo II / Biovar 2A / Raza 3 de R. solanacearumAlgunos autores (Ciampi et al., 1980;Granada, 1982) señalan que cuando se cultiva material resistente en suelos naturalmente infestados, pueden producirse tubérculos con infección latente.Se evaluó la infección en tubérculos bajo condiciones menos severas (5 × 10 ufc/g suelo) durante el invierno en Lima (14-21°C) que permite la tuberización de las plantas silvestres. Bajo estas condiciones, es muy probable que se presente la infección latente, ya que son condiciones menos conductivas para la enfermedad. Granada (1982) reporta que no siempre hay correlación entre el desarrollo de síntomas aéreos con la inducción de la infección en los tubérculos; y Torres (1984) menciona que en plantas que mostraban tubérculos con exudación vascular, no se determinó infección latente en aquellos tubérculos aparentemente sanos.Probablemente el desarrollo escalonado de los tubérculos en la misma planta determina que haya escape de infección en algunos tubérculos. Por esta razón, se procesaron todos los tubérculos producidos por planta en sub-muestras dependiendo el número y tamaño de los tubérculos producidos, de esta manera de evitó el escape de infección en tubérculos.La selección de 6 genotipos resistentes de S. acaule, con 0% de infección en planta y tubérculo, tanto visible como latente, nos indica que esta especie es la que ofrece mejores pespectivas para futuros programas de mejoramiento a la MB. Esto confirma estudios anteriores donde se reporta su resistencia no solo a R. solanacearum sino también a otros factores tanto bióticos como abióticos (Correl, 1962;Hawkes & Hjerting, 1989;Hawkes, 1990;Bamberg et al., 1994;Estrada, 1999). Schmiediche en 1992 reporta que Solanum acaule es altamente resistente al frio y posee otras características que pueden ser útiles para mejoramiento. Esto incluye su resistencia al virus X y su habilidad de cruzarse con algunas especies mexicanas (las cuales son genéticamente diferentes del pool genetico sudamericano) sirviendo como un puente para el uso de las especies mexicanas.Por otro lado, el genotipo seleccionado de Solanum chacoense, nos sugiere que esta especie también posee un alto valor para los programas de mejoramiento ya que en estudios anteriores ha sido reportada con ciertos niveles de resistencia a una variedad de patógenos, entre los que destaca Phytophthora infestans y Ralstonia solanacearum (Thung, 1947;Correl, 1962;Hawkes & Hjerting, 1969;Hawkes, 1990;Bamberg et al., 1994;Estrada, 1999).Los resultados obtenidos a partir de los genotipos silvestres usados como testigos suceptibles en este ensayo (bw020039, bw02040 y bw020135), reprodujeron la respuesta esperada, siendo el genotipo bw020039 el que mostró una alta suceptibilidad bajo estas condiciones, demostrando ser un buen testigo suceptible. El cultivar Cruza 148, utilizado como testigo moderadamente resistente, mostró el mismo nivel de suceptibilidad que los testigos suceptibles Yungay y Revolución, demostrando no tener mayor resistencia a la marchitez bacteriana, bajo las condiciones del experimento.Se desarrolló un nuevo procedimiento para determinar la presencia de infección en tubérculos en especies de papa silvestre.• Se desarrolló una nueva metodología para determinar la resistencia de especies silvestres a la infección en tubérculos causada por Ralstonia solanacearum.• Es la primera evidencia de que altos niveles de resistencia estable, tanto a la marchitez como a la infección en tubérculos, existe en el germoplasma de papa. La ausencia del patógeno en el tallo y los tubérculos es extremadamente importante. Si la bacteria invade el sistema vascular de la planta, formas latentes de la enfermedad pueden ser transferidas a los tubérculos-semilla y de esta manera mantener el ciclo recurrente de infección en los campos de los agricultores.• Se identificaron dos fuentes independientes de resistencia a la marchitez y a la infección latente: Solanum acaule y Solanum chacoense, las cuales son las especies silvestres más promisorias para futuros programas de mejoramiento. Las posibilidades de desarrollar una resistencia estable por largo tiempo son grandes.Además el uso de 7 cepas de R. solanacearum puede incrementar la probabilidad de que las variedades de papa desarrolladas partir de estas fuentes tengan una resistencia más amplia al patógeno a nivel mundial.• Asegurarse de que las plantas posean un adecuado desarrollo radicular antes de la inoculación.• Utilizar un agitador para mantener la concentración del inoculo uniforme y evitar una variación de la concentración a la hora de inocular las plantas.• Tratar de uniformizar el tiempo de brotado de los tubérculos para evitar variaciones en el tamaño de las plantas.• Siempre reactivar la cepa inyectándola primero en un control, antes de preparar el inoculo para el experimento.• Sembrar los controles una semana después de sembrar los genotipos silvestres, ya que crecen más rápido.• Rotular adecuadamente los genotipos y las cepas a inocular para evitar cualquier confusión.• Pesar el sustrato para la prueba de Infección en tubérculos antes del trasplante.• Colocar las estacas de bamboo a la hora del transplante para evitar dañar la planta posteriormente, lo cual podría afectar los resultados.escapes del patógeno por un inadecuado desarrollo de las raíces o por una variación en la susceptibilidad de la planta debido a características fisiológicas.• Los mecanismos y la base de la resistencia genética debe ser estudiados para identificar los genes de resistencia con la meta final de transferir la resistencia a la Marchitez Bacteriana de la Papa a variedades comerciales cultivadas por los agricultores en los países en desarrollo.• ","tokenCount":"13221"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5002da87ba953913b85211dc2df18f71","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3c822866-9e0a-4b3d-a26b-39bd1d33711c/retrieve","id":"-1823894557"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3fd47f0e-1ee6-43c0-87a2-f7ecddcc7a21","pagecount":"1","content":"Breeding programs involve large investments of time and money, but can pay very large returns on investment in the form of improved varieties which benefit farmers, societies and the environment. International breeding efforts involving multiple partners and targeting regionally important constraints have great potential for efficiently and rapidly achieving impact.CloneSelector Data Portability: CloneSelector has a functionality to import data from an external application for analysis. This includes quality data on traits collected using near infrared spectrometry (NIRS), such as beta-carotene and protein contents. Data created using CloneSelector can easily be analyzed using an external statistical analysis software since it's a typical MS Excel workbook.CloneSelector is a license free software. Its available for download together with the source code on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal http://www.sweetpotatoknowledge.org.CloneSelector is based on the open source R statistical software. You do not need to know how to use R to use CloneSelector, enabling users to take advantage of the statistical capabilities of R.Sweetpotato scientists and researchers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin and Sierra Leone have received intensive training and are using the tool to manage their breeding trials. There are also a few breeders from India and China who have received training on how to use the software.Poster presented at the 9 th Triennial African Potato Association Conference Naivasha, Kenya July 2013","tokenCount":"224"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"df90bae9b6b65495645d31fc73828e86","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a89107b-9275-4cd4-af85-1886251cd633/retrieve","id":"-2137172780"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"35d2f9a4-dc99-4c79-8a87-a979ce6e4ce6","pagecount":"6","content":"Esta larva ataca la semilla del fri jol en germinación ; se han presentado ataques severos en México, Chile y ocasionalmente en países en l os que las estdciones ej ercen cierta influencia. Ot ros nombres comunes usados son : mosca de la semilla y mosca de la raíz; en inglés corresponde a \"seed corn maggot\" . El adulto es muy parecido a la mosca casera (Fig. 1) ; vuelan en masas y permanecen suspendidos en el aire s in de splazarse. Los suelos recién labrados y con alto co ntenido de materia orgá nica atraen a 1a s hembras que ovipos itan en el suelo, ce rca de las sem illas, o en l a ¡:.olántula. Las larvas son de color blanco o crema, ápodas y de integumento bastante resistente (Fig . 2); al eclosionar se alimentan de la semilla o de las plántulas . La semilla atacada por la larva genera lmente no emerge, y si le hace la plántula que resulta es muy débil. En ocas iones las larvas barrenan el tallo de la plántula.El daño es más severo durar.te los períodos húmedos y frfos, ya que estas condiciones no sólo facilitan el desarrollo de las larvas sino que favorecen una germinación muy lenta. En regiones con influencia de las estaciones, las siembrdS tempranas traen como consecuencia una mayor duración del ataque . Dado que l a semilla de frijol está sujeta al daño por Delia durante pocos días, desde la imbibición ha sta la emergencia, se puede reducir el r iesgo del ataque disminuyendo el tiempo que la semilla permane cerá como tal en el suelo. Ruppel (16) recomienda uti lizar semilla limp i a y buena de und variedad vigorosa, sembrar en suelo húmedo y cal iente y hacerlo en fo rma cuidadosa para asegurar una germinación ccmpleta y rápi da. Es importante cubrir bien la sem il l a sembrada. Dond(:: hay historia del problema se recomiendd tratar l a semilla con 15 g lA de Aldr,n, Dieldr,n o Carbofurán por lOO kg de semilla. De/14 p14twv.spp (Orthoptera: Grillydae) Gn 11 o Varios insectos y otros artrOpodos pueden atacar en fonna esporadica el cultivo del frijol durante la germinación de las plantas o inmediatamenteDentro de este grupo la principal especie es G. as simil is . conocida con el nombre de grillo y en inglés como cricket. Son plagas de aparición err&tica y por lo general imprevisibles que sólo en ocasiones especiales pueden causar dai'los serios. El daflo se caracteriza por el corte de la plántula a nivel de las hojas cotiledonares (Fig. 3). El enmalezalniento previo de los lotes y la alta humedad son factores que favorecen su presencia.Su apariciOn como plaga puede prevenirse con una buena ;>reparación del suel o. Si aparece después de l a siemb ra. se recomienda usar el siguiente cebo: 30 gr lA de Carbaryl mezclado con 1 kg de salvado m&s 0.4 lt de agua con melaza. Se aplica en los sectores afectados .Esta especie ca usa problemas al frijol cultivado, principalmente en suelos sembrados anteriormente en pastos. Se les denomina Chiza, mojojoy, mayate o galli na ciega. Ataca en su fase larval; tiene h&bitos subterráneos ocasionando dai'los a la ra1z de la pl &n tula y causando su muerte (Fig. 4).Como control cu l t ural se recomienda la buena preparación del terreno an tes de l a siembra. Un buen control qu1mico preventivo es el tratami ento de la semilla con 15 gr. de lA de Aldrín, Dieldr1n o Carbofurán para 100 kg de semilla. Donde hay histori a del problema se recomienda incorporar al suelo antes de la siembra 2 kg de lA/ha de dichos productos.  Elasmopalpus lignosellus (Zeller) (Lepidóptera: Pyralidae) Barrenado r del tallo El barrenador de l tallo ataca la raíz y el tallo de la plántula de frijol y se ha constituido en una plaga grave en ciertas áreas del Perú y Brasil.ｔ ｡ ｭ ｢ ｩ ｾ ｮ ＠ ataca otro s cultivos como el maíz, el algodón, la caña de azúcar y el tabaco. Otros nombres que recibe este insecto son elasmo, lagarta elasmo y coralillo; y en inglés \"lesser corn stalk borer\". El adulto es una polilla y oviposita individualmente sobre las hoj as, tallo o en el suelo. La larva es de color café o gris, penetra en el tallo justo debajo de la supe rficie del suelo, barrena hacia arriba dentro de la planta y causa su muerte (Fig. 5). Es característica la cámara pupal que forma el barrenador de consistencia pegajosa y recubierta por partículas de tierra, la cual se encuentra adherida a l a parte exterior del tallo y está conectada directamente a la perforación ocasionada por la sal ida de la larva del mismo. Elasmopa/pus lignosellus.El control de esta plaga es di f ícil. Se recomienda una buena preparación del suelo, especialmente si el cultivo exterior ha sido una gramínea . Donde hay hi storia del problema se recomienda incorporar 2 kg lA/ ha de Aldrín, Dieldrín o Ca rbaryl al suelo antes de la siembra. Un buen control se logra con riegos abundantes o manteniendo los campos libres de cultivos por períodos prolongados. Leuck y Dupree (12) observaron parasitismo en huevo s y larvas de E. lignosellus por especies de las familias Tachinidae, 9raconidae e Ichneumonidae en fríjol caupí.Va6inulus plebejus; ｾ ﾷ ＠ occidentalis Ba osasLas babosas vienen aumentando en importancia como plaga de la plántula y del follaje del frijol en América Central; Honduras ha reportado severos ataques e igualmente El Sa l vador. Reciben ｴ ｡ ｭ ｢ ｩ ｾ ｮ ＠ el nombre de lesmas, ligosas y en ｩ ｮ ｧ ｬ ｾ ｳ ＠ \"slugs\" . Las babosas no son insectos, son moluscos de cuerpo suave y húmedo que pueden medir hasta 10 cm . Son hermafroditas y depositan sus huevos en masas, debajo de los residuos vegetales o en las cuarteaduras del suelo. Alcanzan la madurez aproximadamente en trestienen hábitos nocturnos, pero pueden ser activas en días húmedos y nublados (19). Las babosas jóvenes consumen las hojas, a excepción de las nervaduras; las babosas mas viejas consumen totalmente las hojas, y pueden consumir plántulas completas y daftar l as va i nas. Aunque la mayor parte del dai'\\o causado por las babosas se encuentra en los bordes del cultivo, éstas pueden penetrar cuando la vegetación y los residuos les proporciona protección a sus movimientos durante el ､ ｾ ｡ Ｎ ＠Las prácticas de control incluyen la remoción de malezas en el campo y a su alrededor y la destrucción de los residuos de la cosecha. Roddguez (14} recomienda, como método económico, encerrar la plantación con bandas de cal viva o sal durante la época seca. Los cebos tóxicos a base deo Metalkamate y , también la aplicación del insecticida granulado Mefosfo l án, al vóleo, proporciona un buen control .Agrotis sp. Spodoptera sp Acro l ophus sp.Un grupo de insectos que atacan la plántula del frijol es el de los denomina dos tí erre ros. Cortvenci o na lmente se denominan -así 1 as 1 a rvas de lepidópteros que trozan la planta al nivel del suelo o por debajo del mi SI!Kl ( F i g. 6) • Figura 6.Larvas de Atrotis spp. y Spodoptera spp.Otros nombres de uso frecuente son cortadores, trazadores, nocheros, rosquillas, lagarta militar y lagarta rosca. Son larvas de color ｣ ｡ ｦ ｾ ＠ o gris; se pueden encontrar dentro del suelo escarbando al lado de la base de las pl&ntulas, a pocos cent1metros de profundidad. Son insectos nocturnos que realizan sus ataques en forma subterr&nea. Al contacto con la mano o algún elemento extraño se enroscan, derivando de este comportamiento su nombre.Las larvas se alimentan del hipocótilo de la pl&ntula (Fig. 7) ; puede dañar ｴ ｡ ｭ ｢ ｩ ｾ ｮ ＠ los cotiledones y consumir las hojas cotiledonares en su estado embrionario. En plantas m&s desarrolladas la larva roe el tallo apareciendo estrangulamientos caracter1sticos que llevan la planta a la marchitez; este daño se puede confundir con una infección de la ra1z .Figura 7.Larva y daño de un tierrero.Los ataques ocurren con frecuencia en focos bien definidos y las plantas aparecen trozadas una después de otra; en tales casos se puede limitar el uso del cebo tóxico a las !reas afectadas, aplicandolo al atardecer. Por ser plagas de aparición errática es dif1cil recomendar un control preventivo además de la buena preaparación del terreno; donde hay historia del problema se recomienda incorporar 2 kg IA/ha de Alddn, Dieldr1n o Carbaryl al suelo antes de la siembra.","tokenCount":"1427"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9f547feb9c20cf4072719ef3fbc92670","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d512342e-0d0a-49c9-ae78-0aa7ccb75a0d/retrieve","id":"771006476"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e382b060-a413-4df7-8908-a327fb8e01f4","pagecount":"107","content":"ILRI works with partners worldwide to help poor people keep their farm animals alive and productive, increase and sustain their livestock and farm productivity, and find profitable markets for their animal products. ILRI's headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya; we have a second principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and 14 offices in other regions of Africa and Asia. ILRI is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (www.cgiar.org), which works to reduce hunger, poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries by generating and sharing relevant agricultural knowledge, technologies and policies.In this evaluation, multiple data sources and analytical methods were used to assess impacts on the project's five key performance indicators (KPIs). The evaluation focused on 10 randomly selected districts. Data sources included a household panel data set (505 households), anthropometric measurements (>600,000 observations), 21 focus group discussions in project intervention communities, a survey of 95 response agencies, and key informant interviews. Though the project was not implemented according to an experimental framework, where appropriate difference-in-difference analysis was used to assess impact on indicators.Some of the major results by KPI are:The analysis of the proportion of people in each ASAL district assessed as needing free food aid, normalised by severity of drought (KPI1) found a small but negative and statistically significant correlation between cumulative ALRMPII expenditure and the percent of people needing food aid in the arid districts, controlling for other factors such as drought. Qualitative analysis also found evidence of reduced vulnerability to drought in arid districts, though food aid needs continued to grow. In semi-arid districts, there was no significant relationship between percentage of people needing food aid and ALRMPII expenditure, and qualitative analysis found a positive relationship between vulnerability to drought and need for food aid.According to their own estimates, the time that agencies took between becoming aware of an emergency and responding (KPI2) dropped by 1.5 weeks (16%) during the time that ALRMPII was operational. A variety of factors influence agency response time. Regression analysis revealed a negative and significant relationship between change in response time and use of ALRMPII Bulletin to design and implement interventions.Child malnutrition remains pervasive in the ten districts, however the results of this analysis comparing intervention and control sublocations over time provide some mild evidence that ALRMP II has been positively associated with improvements in child nutrition, as measured by mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) (KPI3).Access to social services (defined as water, human and animal health, education, security and agriculture (KPI4) generally improved in both intervention and control communities, according to household survey data. Qualitative analysis also found that service quality and availability had, on average, increased in the intervention sites, as had the number of service providers active in the communities.According to the perceptions of communities, response agencies, and individuals involved in policy processes at national level, ALRMPII has contributed to strengthening the voice of people from project districts in local and national development (KPI5) by building capacity in communities, by facilitating participation of key stakeholders from the ASALs in policy processes, and by contributing evidence and experience to several policies of relevance to ASAL regions.Some more general recommendations based on the findings of this evaluation and on the lessons learned in undertaking it are:ALRMPII appears to have played an important coordination role in the districts. The project may want to consider making this an explicit objective in the future, and include a KPI to measure the impact. Similarly, the main indicator of community-level impact was service provision, however if the objective of participation in community-level projects-whether for infrastructure, service provision, natural resource management, or income-generationalso includes building capacity and demonstrating alternative models of working with communities, then an alternative specification of the indicator that captures changes in community capacity and empowerment would be appropriate.There were no KPIs around environmental impacts in ALRMPII, however there are several reasons why it might be useful to put more effort into documenting these in the future.First, changes in the quality and availability of natural resources could be important causal mechanisms through which project interventions impact on poverty and vulnerability.Second, environmental indicators would also be a necessary part of understanding the impacts of climate change and the potential impacts of interventions around adaptation or mitigation, issues which are likely to be important in the ASAL regions in the future.In terms of evaluation methodology, the project had substantial baseline data available which facilitated the evaluation, however there are several ways in which the evaluation framework could be strengthened. More attention to specifying impact pathways would improve understanding of the causal mechanisms by which project interventions may have influenced 1 Introduction 1In many parts of the developing world, arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) are regarded as marginal due to their harsh environments and small populations. As a result, they receive little attention from national governments whose investment strategies tend to favour high potential and high population areas. In the past, some of the efforts that were made to develop ASAL regions had the opposite effect, undermining traditional ways of life and increasing poverty and environmental degradation. Currently, significant resources are being spent by governments and the international community in response to droughts and other emergencies in ASALs. While effective in saving lives and averting humanitarian crises, such efforts can foster dependency and further erode traditional livelihoods and coping strategies.There is an urgent need for new approaches and for effective models for managing risk and The report is organized as follows: Section 1 describes the challenges of the Kenyan ASALS and discusses the history and structure of the ALRMPII and explains the evaluation objectives, approach, and data sources. Sections 2-6 present the results of the analysis of each of the project's five key performance indicators. Section 7 concludes with a summary of findings and their implications for the ALRMP and for future development policy and practice in the ASALs.1.1 Development challenges in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands 2Arid and semi-arid lands cover about 467,200 km 2 or 88 per cent of the Kenya's total landmass. Annual rainfall ranges between 125 and 500 mm in the arid districts, and between 400 and 1250 mm in the semi-arid project districts. and build resilience to shocks. The second lesson was that projects need to have a long implementation period in order to have a meaningful impact on the lives of the population in these areas.These lessons informed the design of the Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP), a community-based drought management initiative of the GoK, jointly financed by GoK and the World Bank. In the first phase (1996-2003), ALRMPI was implemented in ten arid districts. 3 The total budget for Phase I was USD 25.1m and the major activities included drought management (USD 10.9m), marketing and infrastructure (USD 3.4m), community development (USD 5.9m), and project implementation support (USD 4.9m).Though never the subject of a rigorous impact assessment, the ALRMP I was widely regarded as successful (World Bank 2005; ALRMP 2008; Mude et al. 2009). Some of the major achievements include: (1) publication of 822 district and national EWS bulletins with reported reduced response times and increased response capacity during the 1999/2001 droughts, (2) implementation of more than 1200 micro-projects benefiting an estimated 180,000 people, (3) enabling grazing reserves for pastoralists in 24 areas and supporting initiatives to reduce land degradation around boreholes, and 4) implementation of 53 livestock infrastructure projects.In the second phase (2003-2010), the geographical area was expanded to include semi-arid districts (Table 1 and Figure 1). ALRMP II was designed to build upon successes of ALRMP I and to foster economic growth and reduce poverty within the framework of Kenya's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). Its development objective was to enhance food security, increase access to basic services, and reduce livelihood vulnerability in 28 drought-prone arid and semi-arid land districts of Kenya.  maintain sufficient levels of key assets, they can cope with shocks and continually improve their welfare over time. In the absence of credit markets, households that fall below critical asset levels, either due to low initial levels or to shock-induced asset loss, will not be able to generate sufficient returns to accumulate or replace assets. Without assistance, these households are likely to remain in chronic poverty.By improving the timeliness and effectiveness of emergency responses to drought, ALRMPII activities can save lives and reduce the incidence of destructive coping strategies such as reduction of food consumption or distress sale of livestock and other assets. At the same time, better access to services, more diversified livelihoods, and more sustainable management of natural resources can reduce vulnerability to drought when it strikes. Empowering communities and ensuring that ASAL concerns are reflected in policy will help to institutionalize project advances and create a more favourable context for ASAL development beyond the project sites and project implementation period.With the exception of some aspects of KPI 5, all KPIs are assessed based on a sample of 10 districts, randomly selected from among the 21 districts in which baseline data were collected in 2004/5. 4 The selected districts include six semi-arids (Nyeri, Tharaka, Narok, Kajiado, Mwingi, Laikipia) and four arids (Marsabit, Turkana, Mandera and Garissa) (Figure 1).Because of the diversity of indicators, multiple methods and data sources were used in the evaluation. Detailed descriptions of the metrics and methods used to assess each indicator are described in the following sections. The main data sources used in the evaluation are discussed below.Household and community surveys-A baseline survey was conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics on behalf of ALRMPII in 21 of the 28 ASAL districts in 2004/5, covering over 4000 randomly-selected households. In pastoral areas, there is often a concern that mobile households will not be captured in surveys. In the baseline survey, households were selected from locally maintained population rosters, which should serve to minimize this risk. Further, in these areas mobility generally takes the form of some households members migrating seasonally with parts of the herd while other household members remain at a permanent location, where they can be more easily located. Between June and August 2009, a subset of these households was re-surveyed using a similar questionnaire to gather data on income, assets, access to services, and other variables.4. Transmara, West Pokot, Narok, Nyeri, Kajiado, Tharaka, Makueni, Kitui, Mwingi, Mbeere, Laikipia, Mandera, Baringo, Tana River, Marsabit, Isiolo, Samburu, Garissa, Turkana, Wajir, and Moyale. ALRMPII interventions were not implemented according to an experimental design; however the project did not work in all sites in the baseline. This permitted the construction of sample containing 'intervention' and 'control' communities. For the household survey, intervention communities were identified as those that had activities from at least two of the four ALRMPII components. Initial categorization was done using ALRMPII investment data, and was subsequently confirmed with district staff. Econometric techniques are used in the analysis to control for any underlying differences between the treatment and control samples.After categorization by treatment category, sites (sublocations) were categorized by livelihood zone, 5 and comparable intervention and control sites were identified. The baseline survey included 15 households per site, so in order to obtain the targeted 500 households for the 2009 survey, two intervention and two control sites per district were selected to allow for the possibility of attrition, i.e. that some households from the 2004 survey would not be available in 2009. Where possible, the selection of sites was random; however in most cases there were few choices to be made given the limited number of appropriate sites in the baseline data set. The final data set includes 505 households, 56% in treatment communities.Qualitative information was gathered through focus group discussions in 21 of the 24 treatment communities in which the household survey was conducted. In each community, a one-day focus group discussion was held in which community perceptions of changes in their vulnerability to drought, the impacts of ALRMPII interventions, and the role and impact of ALRMPII and other organizations in their communities were analysed using a variety of participatory tools.Anthropometric data-Child nutritional status is measured by mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), an indicator for which data were collected as part of the ALRMPII monitoring system since the project began. According to the protocol, these data, which form part of the early warning system (EWS), were to be collected monthly from a sample of 30 households per sublocation, or 10 households per sentinel 6 site. Each year the households participating in the data collection are changed. In reality, the number of households per sublocation and the number of sublocations per district varied dramatically 7 (Table 8). The data set used in this evaluation includes over 600,000 observations from 128 sublocations in the 10 districts from 2005-2009. 8 5. Livelihood zones are based on FEWSNET and include pastoral, agro-pastoral, marginal mixed farming, mixed farming, and irrigated farming.6. Unlike project intervention sites, sentinel sites were selected based on specific guidelines.7. In some districts sites were added when they were deemed to be undergoing unforeseen stress that might not be captured using data from the existing sites only. The requests are made by the district staff to the national headquarters. The monitors on the ground might have added new households as they are required to report many children at the sentinel site for the purposes of quick assessments of imminent stresses.8. Of the 128 sublocations, only 9 overlap with the household data.As was done for the household data, the 128 sublocations were classified as either intervention or control. Intervention and control locations were identified using two separate methods. First, district program managers were asked to use their personal judgment as to whether a sublocation received sufficient ALRMPII investment to achieve an impact. There is overlap between the two different methods of identifying treatment locations, however, the correlation is far from perfect. Only in 68% of cases do the two methods of categorization agree. Given these discrepancies between the two methods of categorizing intervention and control sublocations, as a robustness check we use both types of categorization in our analysis as well as run the analysis on the subset of observations for which the district staff and the investment categorization match.Other sources of data   Since 2004, Kenya has experienced ten phases of Emergency Operation/Protracted Relief and Recovery Operations (EMOP/PRRO) focusing on food aid distribution targeted to ASALs. 9Arid districts have received more food aid that the semi-arid districts. For example, while Mandera, Turkana and Marsabit were considered in almost all ten phases of the EMOP/ PRRO, Narok, Tharaka and Nyeri participated in only half of the phases, and only specific divisions per district were targeted. The 2009 drought has seen almost all districts considered for food aid.Through its work to empower communities, increase access to basic services, diversify livelihoods, and sustain the resource base, the ALRMP II sought to improve the resilience of households and communities and reduce their vulnerability to drought and other risks.Resilient households and communities are better able to cope with drought shocks and less likely to require emergency aid when a drought-related crisis occurs.The effectiveness of ALRMP II in achieving its objectives of increasing resilience is assessed using the key performance indicator decreased proportion of people in each ASAL district assessed as needing free food aid, 10 normalized by severity of drought (KPI1). This indicator was assessed quantitatively by looking at the relationship between the percentage of people assessed as needing food aid and ALRMP II program expenditure at the district 9. In May 2009 EMOP was phased out, and PRRO was initiated in June. PRRO runs in phases of 3 years, compared to 6 months for EMOP. 10. Free food aid' is the relief food provided freely to the needy members of communities particularly during emergencies. It doesn't include cash aid or food for work. level. We normalized for drought using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).The quantitative results are complemented by community-level perceptions of changes in household vulnerability in areas where ALRMP II worked.Both quantitative and qualitative data and methods are used to assess this indicator. Three types of quantitative data are used; needs assessments, ALRMP II program expenditure, and environmental conditions. The period covered in the analysis is July 2004 to June 2009. Since food aid needs are assessed at district level and since ALRMP II worked in all ASAL districts, we can only look at relationships among these variables over time, not between ALRMP II districts and similar 'control' locations.Needs assessments. The data on percentage of households needing food aid was obtained from the needs assessments conducted semi-annually by the Kenya Food Security Steering Group (KFSSG). 11 The KFSSG's needs assessment tool was preferred because it is based on a standard, agreed-upon, process and uses a common methodological framework across the districts of interest. It employs a multi-sectoral livelihood based approach for food security analysis (KFSSG 2006).The assessments correspond to the two rainy seasons: short rains (October-December), and long rains (March-June). The needs assessments reports are released in January and July of each year based on the outcome of the previous rainy season and assessment of the drought related needs for the ensuing dry season. Figure 3 shows trends in food aid requirements for the study districts. In general, the arid districts had a higher percent of people needing food aid, particularly Mandera, Turkana and Marsabit.ALRMP II program expenditure. To measure the contribution of the ALRMP II, we used district-level program expenditure data. ALRMP has two types of funding, program and contingency. We chose to focus on program expenditure since this includes the development-oriented activities that are designed to reduce vulnerability. Contingency funds are for emergency responses to droughts that are already occurring, and while these undoubtedly save lives in the short run they are not generally considered to be a tool for building resilience. This has important implications for the empirical analysis because we would expect to see an inverse relationship between ALRMPII program spending and percent needing food aid, while contingency spending and percent needing food aid move in the same direction.11. http://www.kenyafoodsecurity.org/.In order to make the expenditure data comparable to the needs assessment data, we divided annual expenditure into two periods: July-December (1 st and 2 nd quarters of the GoK fiscal year) and January-June (3rd and 4 th quarters of the GoK fiscal year). Expenditure was then divided by population to give per capita expenditure per district (Table 2). Arid district have higher project expenditure per capita compared to semi-arid districts, reflecting the fact that only two of the four components were implemented in semi-arids and all four in arids. Drought severity. NDVI is used to control for the severity of drought. We use a district average NDVI measured as deviation from the long-term mean for each month to obtain a semiannual estimator.13 Generally an NDVI measure of 0.5 and above indicates high greenness or vegetation cover. The mean NDVI experienced across the study districts was 0.32 while the lowest and highest observations were 0.12 (Marsabit) and 0.6 (Nyeri)14 (Figure 4). To test for the impact on the percent of people needing food aid, we estimated the following model:Y is the percentage of people needing food aid in district i at time t , ProjExp is ALRMPII project expenditure in district i and time t, and NDVI is the mean deviation from long term trend in district i and time t, d are district dummy variables which control for unmeasureable spatial variation, and y is a vector of yearly dummies to capture economic or policy related effects that change annually. Table 3 provides descriptive statistics of the data used in the regression analysis. * 10 districts x 5 years x 2 periods per year (Jan-Jun; Jul-Dec) =100 observations. SLD and CDD have 40 observations as they were only operational in arid districts.For the full sample, ALRMPII cumulative expenditure 16 is negatively associated with the percent of people needing food aid, however the relationship isn't statistically significant (Table 4). As expected, NDVI is negatively and significantly associated with the percent of people needing food aid, meaning that food aid needs increase as NDVI decreases.Compared with the reference district of Turkana, nearly all districts had relatively fewer people needing food aid. Food aid needs were relatively higher in 2009 as compared to the two previous years.When we look just at the arid districts, ALRMPII expenditure is negatively and significantly associated with the percent of people needing food aid. NDVI is still negative but is no longer significant in this model. Food aid needs in Garissa were relatively lower than in the other arid districts, while food aid needs in Marsabit were relatively higher. 2007 and 2008 had relatively lower food aid needs as compared to 2009.ALRMPII expenditure is not significant when only the semi-arid districts are included. NDVI is highly negatively correlated with food aid needs in semi-arid districts. Food aid needs in the semi-arid districts were relatively higher in 2009 than in the previous three years.To understand better how ALRMPII may have contributed to reduced vulnerability to drought in communities, we conducted qualitative research in 21 communities in which ALRMPII implemented interventions. Using different participatory methodologies, communities reconstructed a timeline of droughts over the past 20 years and assessed trends in drought severity using community-identified indicators. Participants in the focus group discussions were also asked how they perceived trends in food aid requirements.16. ALRMPII current expenditure may be endogenous in the sense that the ability of the program to implement activities, and therefore to spend money, is reduced during severe droughts. Attempts to model current expenditure as a function of NDVI gave poor results, however, and are not presented here. Communities used a combination of environmental, socio-economic, and market-based indicators to identify droughts and assess their severity. In terms of drought severity, the most common indicators were related to impact on agricultural production: 'loss of harvests' and 'loss of livestock'. In each community, participants scored the severity of crop or livestock loss on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high). It is important to note that these indicators do not reflect the actual severity of the drought, as measured, for example, by NDVI or rainfall, but rather how communities perceive the severity. As such, they can be considered as indicators of vulnerability to drought rather than drought severity per se.Since the late 1990s, community perceptions of the trends in the two drought vulnerability indicators mirror each other closely (Figure 5). Both are increasing over time, though at a slower rate than the trend in food aid.  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007  This divergence in drought indicators and food aid needs is even more apparent when we divide the sample into arid and semi-arid districts. In the arid zones visited, most communities were livestock-dependant. Usually, women and young children would remain at the homestead with weak animals, while men would mainly be responsible for mobility with the remaining livestock. FGD participants in the high aridity sites identified that it would be difficult to abandon pastoralism because no other livelihood would be suitable given the terrain. In the semi-arid districts visited, communities were mostly settled, with many households owning livestock herds consisting of either small or large stock or both.Mixed crop livestock production systems characterized most of the semi-arid sites, and the agro pastoralists here were more likely to have a diversified livelihood portfolio than the pastoralists in the arid districts. The increasing use of the kitchen garden approach (irrigated gardens) gives an indication of the communities' reliance on agriculture in these areas, while the growing cash economy can afford some agro pastoralists the opportunity to hire labour to herd their livestock.Using livestock losses as a measure of vulnerability to drought in arid districts and crop losses in semi-arid districts, we see that communities in arid districts (Figure 6) perceive little correlation between trends in livestock losses and food aid needs in recent years. Trends in livestock losses have generally declined over time in these communities, while food aid needs have increased. In the semi-arid districts, communities perceive the relationship between food aid and crop loss to be very close, with both growing over time (Figure 7).In semi-arid districts, the community perception that droughts were more severe in recent years was often attributed to the increased intensity and duration of droughts. In some sites, the loss of important water sources-vital in crop agriculture after a failed rainy seasonincreased the perceived severity of droughts. Prolonged dry seasons, poor access to water and failed crop harvests were therefore among the reasons for increased demand in food aid.Other factors mentioned which contributed to the perception of increased need for food aid today was an increase in resource-based conflict.  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008  The analysis of KPI 1 (Decreased proportion of people in each ASAL district assessed as needing free food aid, normalised by severity of drought) found a small but negative and statistically significant correlation between cumulative ALRMPII expenditure and the percent of people needing food aid in the arid districts. As ALRMPII expenditure increased, percent of people needing food aid declined. The correlation between ALRMPII expenditure and percent of people needing food aid was not significant in semi-arid districts, a result which is not surprising given the relatively lower levels of expenditure by ALRMPII in these districts, especially in activities oriented towards reducing vulnerability.According to community perceptions, both food aid needs and drought vulnerability have grown over time, but food aid needs have grown faster. Analysis by agro-ecological zone showed that according to community indicators, drought vulnerability has actually declined in arid districts, though food aid needs have continued to rise, perhaps as a result of conflict or of people having lost their animals and left pastoralism without finding alternative livelihoods. In semi-arid districts, drought vulnerability and the need for food aid are closely related, especially in recent years.Zahra Sharif (ILRI), Nancy Johnson (ILRI), Juliet Kariuki (ILRI), and Jemimah Njuki (ILRI)The Government of Kenya (GoK) is increasingly focusing resources on drought management in order to reduce the negative impacts of droughts. The objective is to create a more effective drought cycle management system that can minimize the need for emergency intervention and enhance response mechanisms for better action in acute drought emergencies. The drought management system includes a drought early warning system, and drought preparedness, mitigation, relief and recovery, together with coordination structures. 17The drought management structure at the national level includes the Kenya Food Security Meeting (KFSM) which is an advisory group on all issues pertaining drought and food security, and the Kenya Food Security Steering Group (KFSSG) which is a subcommittee of the KFSM and acts as a technical advisory body. District Steering Groups (DSGs) are key components of coordination of drought and early warning information, as well as other development initiatives, at the district level. 18 The main stakeholders involved in drought management in Kenya include GoK line ministries, the UN, various development partners, and relevant NGOs. In addition to the KFSSG and KFSM, there are several other complementary activities funded by European Community Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), international NGOs, the UN and other donors. Some of the major constraints to a timely and appropriate response to drought are lack of information about the emergency and ready funds to implement interventions. The drought management component of ALRMPII addressed these constraints simultaneously through the establishment of an early warning system based on monthly data gathered from communities, and a series of structures at district and national level to better coordinate the flow of information and funds once they are triggered.The effectiveness of the drought management system is measured in the key performance indicator reduced time lapse between reported stress and response (KPI2). While the ALRMPII drought management system works at the national, district, and community level, 17. In the pipeline is the establishment of the Drought Management Authority (DMA) and the Drought Contingency Trust Fund (DCTF) that is expected to enhance the effectiveness of emergency drought response.18. Most of the drought management structures at the district and national level are facilitated by ALRMP and the Drought Management Initiative (DMI) an EU funded project implemented through the ALRMP that focuses in drought management and response in districts where ALRMP II is operational.to assess this indicator we focused on the district and community levels-the drought early warning systems, the ALRMPII monthly bulletin, and the district steering group (DSG). The reason is that aid agencies implement emergency response interventions at the district and community levels, which means that changes in their response times can most effectively be measured at this level. Issues related to ALRMPII's influence at national level are covered in KPI 5.An early warning system (EWS) is a system of data collection to monitor people's access to food in order to provide timely notice when a food crisis threatens and thus to elicit an appropriate response (Davies et al. 1991). Whether it succeeds in its goal depends on how key decision-makers use the EWS information (Buchanan-Smith 1999). This indicator focuses on identifying key users, understanding their needs for and use of EWS information, and assessing the impact of information use on their response activities, including but not limited to changes in response time.The data for analysis of this KPI come from a survey of District Steering Group (DSG) members in the 10 study districts. The DSG is made up of all the relevant actors that influence or are directly involved with emergencies within the District. They include line ministries, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, and donors. The district commissioner is the chairman, and ALRMPII acts as the secretariat. The meetings are held monthly and are coordinated and minuted by the Drought Management Officer (DMO) at ALRMPII. The technical committees of DSG responsible for different sectors, e.g. health or livestock, may meet more frequently, especially in times of crisis.Both hard and soft copies of the survey were sent to ALRMPII Office in each of the ten districts. The DMO disseminated them to members of the DSG and any other actors within the district who could provide feedback on the early warning information produced by the project. Respondents were offered the option to return the surveys directly to evaluation team in hard or soft copy, but nearly all elected to send them via the DMO. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that results were anonymous.In total, 95 responses were received from eight districts (Figure 8). Just over half the responses (55%) were from semi-arid districts. The majority of respondents (63.2%) were from government departments and ministries (Figure 9).  The majority (72%) of the respondents operate at the district level (Figure 10). International organizations (those working regionally or globally) are more common in arid districts. Respondents report that their organizations deal with a wide range of drought-related stresses (Figure 11). Food shortages are the most common, however they account for only 18% of total responses and are more common in semi-arid than arid districts. In arid districts, human health emergencies are the most common type of emergency to which organizations respond.  3.4 Sources of information that organizations use in their response decisions ALRMPII Bulletin was by far the most commonly mentioned source of information for planning and implementing response activities in both arid and semi-arid zones (Figure 12).Over half of all respondents mentioned using it. Other common sources were Famine EarlyWarning System (FEWS) (13%) and Livestock Information Network and Knowledge System (LINKS) (13%). The DSG is mentioned as an information source separate from the ALRMPII Bulletin, especially in semi-arid districts, though this is in fact a instrument that was largely created by the project for service delivery and coordination.  Respondents were asked what type of information they obtained from the sources they used.Information was divided into five categories of indicators: environmental, food security, livestock disease, human health, and other. The results show that the ALRMPII Bulletin was the most common source for all types of information (Figure 13). The type of information respondents sought in the ALRMPII bulletin differed slightly by agro-ecological zone (Figure 14). In Arid districts, environmental indicators were most common while in semi-arid districts users sought food security information more frequently.Respondents were asked to assess the usefulness 19 of the different sources of information for planning response. Consistent with its high levels of use, ALRMPII information was perceived by respondents to be more useful than the information from other sources (Figure 15). Only for the ALRMPII bulletin did the majority of users find the information 'very useful'.19. Usefulness was defined by the respondents but is expected to cover aspects such as accuracy, relevance and timeliness. To assess the impacts of the ALRMP's drought early warning system on agency response time, survey respondents were asked about their responses to the last 3 major droughts (2000, 2005 and 2009). A range of types of responses were implemented, and the composition changed over time (Table 5). As might be expected 'emergency' (e.g. food aid) was among the most common response types in each of the droughts, though its importance declined over time as livestock, water, and health responses became more common.   To get a sense of the broader impacts of the ALRMPII's drought management activities on emergency response in the districts, respondents were asked to assess qualitatively the extent to which the ALRMP drought management systems contributed to four possible impacts:Reduced lag time between stress and response, • Increased appropriateness of the response, • Improved coordination between organisations, • Reduced impact of drought on households. • Three options were given for each type of impact: 'contributed greatly', 'contributed slightly', or 'did not contribute'. The majority of respondents felt that the drought management work contributed greatly to all four impacts (Figure 16). Improved coordination was the most mentioned impact while reduced impact of drought on households was the least mentioned. The dataset for this analysis contains over 602,000 individual child MUAC measurements, from 128 sublocations in 10 arid and semi-arid ALRMP II districts taken between June 2005 and August 2009 (Table 8). While the protocol for data collection is the same, there is significant variation in coverage across districts. Turkana accounts for around a quarter of all observations, while there are only 27,000 observations for Mandera, including none for fiscal year 2007/08. 22 Tables 9, 10 and 11 provide the median MUAC Z-score 23 by district for the whole sample, the intervention sites, and the control sites, 24 respectively. The arid districts tend to have a lower median MUAC Z-scores, indicating higher malnutrition. There is no clear pattern between intervention and control sites. For some districts the median MUAC is higher in control sites while for others it is higher in intervention sites. Tables 12 and 13 show the 10 th and 25 th percentile MUAC Z-scores for each district and year. Overall, these tables show a high degree of childhood malnutrition that does not change perceptibly over time. Table 12 shows that in almost all districts (with the exception of Nyeri and possibly Laikipia), 10 percent of children have a MUAC of less than -2 standard deviations indicating severe malnutrition. Even the 25 th percentile figures from Table 13 are closer to the -2 cut-off point than the -1 standard deviation level that indicates mild malnutrition.To evaluate the impact of ALRMP II activities on child nutrition outcomes in the form of MUAC Z-scores we use two complementary approaches. First, we use differences-indifferences regressions to compare changes in MUAC summary statistics between the treatment and the control sublocations. Then, we use stochastic dominance analysis to look at changes in the entre distribution of MUAC statistics, over time and between treatment and control locations.22. Data are organized by Government of Kenya fiscal year which runs from July to June.23. For our evaluation of the ALRMP II program we use MUAC Z-scores rather than MUAC measures. Z-scores are superior to MUAC measures in centimetres as they allow a direct comparison across age and gender of children. Z-scores, such as weight-for-age or height-for-age, are typically used in to measure child nutrition status.For some reason, perhaps inertia from when MUAC Z-scores were difficult to calculate, many recent studies still use raw MUAC measures in centimetre, despite clear evidence that Z-scores are the preferable measure. In order to use all children from 0-59 months old in the same analysis we will convert the raw MUAC data into z-scores Z(MUAC ijt )where MUACit is child i's MUAC at time t in location j from which we subtract the MUAC of the reference population, which is then divided by the standard deviation of the MUAC in the reference population. Individual child Z-scores were created using the WHO/NCHS normalized reference values for MUAC-for-age (6-59 months) given in Appendix A. These child-level z-scores are used in the analysis below.24. The categorization of project (i.e. control and Intervention) was based on project activities and expenditures. See appendix X for a list of sublocations by control category.   To measure changes over time and compare them between intervention and control sublocations, we need to construct a panel data set. The child-level data are unsuitable for this for three reasons.  ( )Because interest is focused primarily on malnourished children, our analysis relies on statistics that focus on that subpopulation, for example the mean Z-score for children with nutrition levels below the international reference population (Z(MUACijt)<0), or the cumulative frequency of children with Z(MUACijt)<-1 or <-2, focusing on standard cut-off levels to capture the prevalence of mild or severe malnutrition.The panel consists of 118 sublocations with MUAC summary statistics for each financial year between 2005/06 and 2008/09. 25 The data set contains annual means of 14 monthly sublocation-specific MUAC Z-score summary statistics (Table 14).25. Note: There are a few MUAC observations for June 2004 which come from the financial year 2004/05. As this is the only month with MUAC data of this financial year, these observations are not used in the subsequent analysis.  The results for this type of DD regression are summarized in Tables 15 and 16. Table 15 presents results using the three different categorization variables for control and intervention sites. 28 The coefficients on the treatment category variable are positive in all equations, and in equation 2 (subjective categorization by district personnel) the coefficient is positive and significant, indicating a positive impact of ALRMPII on MUAC z-scores.  Different types of ALRMP expenditures can take different amounts of time to result in improved child nutrition. We, therefore, also explore the impact of ALRMPII over varying time periods from the shortest 1-year intervals to the longest 3-year intervals (from 2005/06 to 2008/09). Investments made two and three years ago are positively but not significantly associated with increases in MUAC z-scores, (Table 16). 29 The control-intervention dummy is negative in all regressions regardless of time lag or whether we categorize investment and control locations by investment data or district staff assessment. The negative coefficient on the control-intervention dummy indicates that MUAC Z-scores in intervention locations are lower than in the control locations, which is consistent with targeting of ALRMPII investments to worse-off locations.29. We only present the results using the district staff categorization. As expected based on the results presented in Table 15, no significant relationships between investment and MUAC are found when using the expenditure categorization.Across all regressions, NDVI has a positive impact on MUAC Z-scores. Better agro-climatic conditions result in less malnutrition. The small R-squared in these regression is not a concern as our objective is not to explain what drives the level and changes in MUAC Z-score statistics, but only to ascertain whether ALRMP II activities have had an impact on child nutrition levels.The second type of DD regression compares changes in outcome variables rather than the level of the variables, between intervention and control sublocations. The difference-in-difference regressions examined differences in the changes in mean child nutrition between treatment and control locations. The stochastic dominance analysis expands this analysis from changes in the mean of child nutrition to the changes in the whole distribution. Using stochastic dominance, we can assess not only whether there have been changes, but also see how these changes differ across percentiles of the z-score distribution.For example, we can determine to what extent ALRMP project activities are likely to have 30. Results of these regressions are available upon request. contributed to improvements in child nutrition for malnourished versus adequately fed children.The stochastic dominance analysis proceeds in three steps. First, we test for SD for control and intervention sites separately over time. Second, we compare intervention and control sublocations before and after ALRMP II. Third, we test for stochastic dominance between changes in intervention and changes in control sublocations, representing a difference-indifference method. The complete list of stochastic dominance tests is given in Box 1.Box 1 Complete list of stochastic dominance (SD) tests Tests for each MUAC Z-score summary statistic: FOSD and SOSD. TOSD tests are not meaningful here since the lower end of this distribution, that is, the most negative changes in nutritional status, do not (necessarily) represent the most malnourished sublocations.The analysis was conducted for 14 different MUAC Z-score summary statistics (Box 2).Because the results did not vary much across these indicators and to keep the presentation in this report tractable, the discussion below will focus on two out of those 14 indicators:the median MUAC Z-score of all individuals whose MUAC Z-score was below zero and the proportion of children with MUAC Z-score below -1 standard deviation. Both of these summary statistics are sensible truncations of the MUAC Z-scores distribution if we want to focus on undernourished children. We can ignore level and changes at higher levels of MUAC since we want to focus on malnourished children and high MUAC observations and large positive changes at the upper tail of the distribution are not necessarily desirable or positive. 31 Unlike income or consumption, in the context of child nutrition more is not always better.Box 2. The 14 MUAC Z-score summary statistics used for stochastic dominance testing: These simple comparisons don't provide evidence for an effect of ALRMP's location-level investments on child nutrition. This is true both for the panel data and the individual dataset.The results for the two statistics from the panel data set, the median MUAC of all observations below 0 and the proportion of observations below minus 1 standard deviation, tend not to be statistically significant due to sample size of just over 100. The results for the individual MUAC Z-scores dominance tests are all significant due to a sample size of several hundred thousand.II. MUAC differences between intervention and control in at one point in time (Rows II.1 and II.2)  Methodologically, changes in these MUAC Z-score summary statistics are analogous to changes in incomes. Hence, we can draw on the literature on economic mobility. However, in this literature the term 'economic mobility' is implicitly or explicitly defined in at least six different ways (Fields 2001; Fields 2007). The mobility definition that is most appropriate for analysing MUAC changes is that of directional (income/MUAC) movement, 33 as we want to capture both the magnitude and the direction of MUAC changes over time, and capture them in absolute, not relative terms, that is, irrespective of what happened to other changes in MUAC of other locations.There is no meaningful range of 'poverty lines' expressed in terms of changes in MUAC Z-scores that make sense. Therefore, we test for stochastic dominance over the entire domain rather than the typical right-truncated domain used in consumption or income poverty analysis. The stochastic dominance analysis in the previous two subsections was based on levels. We could, therefore, test up to third stochastic dominance. In this subsection we test for stochastic dominance between differences. This only allows meaningful stochastic dominance analysis up to second order. This limitation is rooted in moving from differences in MUAC Z-score summary statistics to the distribution of these differences in the panel of location specific MUAC Z-score statistics.Stochastic dominance compares the cumulative distributions of a particular variable. That is, the variable of interest is ordered along the horizontal axis. If this variable is the difference in, rather than the level of, sublocation-specific MUAC values then the smallest changes in MUAC will appear at the lower end of the domain regardless of the level of malnutrition in the sublocation. As a result, running stochastic dominance tests no longer focuses on the 33. Other economic mobility concepts relate to movements in ranks, in shares, and in symmetric income. For our MUAC analysis we are not concerned with these.higher malnutrition locations 34 and the reasoning and definitions of equality preference and transfer sensitivity no longer apply in the same way as for the stochastic analysis of MUAC level.Results. For the median MUAC of all MUAC observations below zero there is no full first order dominance between changes in intervention and changes in control locations.However, as shown in Figure 17  Again, these results are based on the smaller panel dataset and are thus not statistically significant. However, for all of the other stochastic dominance tests above where we could use the individual data as well as the panel data, the results of the two data sets always matched with the latter always statistically significant. Intuitively, this lets one put a bit more confidence in the current result.Figures 18 and 19 show the difference-in-difference stochastic dominance results for the changes in MUAC Z-scores for the 25 th and 10 th percentile, respectively. They complement the findings of the median (or 50 th percentile) in Figure 17. As we move to smaller and smaller percentiles (from the median to the 25 th to the 10 th percentile), the analysis concentrates increasingly on the worst-off kids. And the more we concentrate on these kids, the more the intervention sites seem to have succeeded in preventing negative changes in MUAC Z-scores relative to the control sites. For the 25 th percentile there were fewer negative changes for the intervention sites than for the control sites. For example, for the 10 th percentile in Figure 19 around 15% of intervention sublocations had a negative change in MUAC Z-scores of -0.1, whereas around 25% of control sublocations had the same negative change. In addition, at the 10 th percentile there were also fewer smaller positive changes.Again, though, these results are not statistically significant, likely a result of the small sample size of the sublocation panel dataset.  19 as -1 SD is above the median, and even -2SD is above the 10 th percentile (see Table 12) and close to the 25 th percentile (see Table 13). Moreover, the result of control locations faring better in terms of the malnutrition index is stronger in Figure 20 for -1SD than in Figure 21 for -2 SD. Child malnutrition remains pervasive in the ten districts; however the results of this analysis provide some mild evidence that ALRMP II has had a positive impact on child nutrition. The difference-in-difference regressions using panel data did not show a statistically significant ALRMP program impact, though do suggest that ALRMPII interventions were targeted at the worst-off sublocations.The stochastic dominance analysis revealed that nutritional status had improved over time in the districts. It also found fewer negative changes in the median MUAC of those sublocations that had a median MUAC Z-score lower than 0 as well as in the MUAC of the 25 th and 10 th percentile. This suggests that ALRMP prevented nutritional status from worsening for the worst-off children. ALRMP, thus, may have functioned as a nutritional safety net.There are two potential ways in which the results in this evaluation may be an understatement of the actual ALRMP program effect on child nutrition. First, control sublocations also benefited from ALRMPII activity at the district and national levels. Second, the above results may be influenced by the extent to which ALRMP has displaced other agencies that focus on child well-being and nutrition. If, say, an NGO had moved out of an ALRMP intervention sublocation and into a control sublocation due to the presence of ALRMP itself then the program impact of ALRMP would not be fully captured by this evaluation. A similar effect would be achieved through attempts at the district level to coordinate where projects work in order to maximize the number of communities that receive interventions.Finally, there may have been likely some spill-over effects of certain ALRMP investments. For instance, people in neighbouring control sublocations may also benefit from investments in infrastructure, services or trainings in intervention sublocations, though the same might be true of interventions from other agencies in non-ALRMP sublocations.Ayago Wambile (ILRI), Juliet Kariuki (ILRI), Nancy Johnson (ILRI), Kristian Jakobsen (UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development), and Jemimah Njuki (ILRI)Decades of economic and political marginalization have resulted in the ASALs being the most underdeveloped areas of Kenya. Basic services like health and education are underprovided and in most cases, are not adapted to the mobile nature of the pastoral population.Persistent insecurity in some ASAL areas continues to limit access to services and hinder development efforts. As a result, these populations have poorer health and lower levels of education than people in the rest of the country.Better and more appropriate service provisions is expected to have a significant impact on poverty reduction in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas (Oxfam 2006; GoK 2007). Efforts to improve service provisions in ASALs are undermined by a variety of factors including frequent droughts and floods, low population density, low primary productivity, degradation of natural resources, conflict in managing common resources such water points and rangelands, and weak links to national economy (ILRI 2008).ALRMP II sought to increase the availability and quality of social services in ASAL communities in four ways. First, the project implemented interventions that directly expanded the availability of services such as water, sanitation, adult education, human health, and animal health. Second, through its role in the DSG, the project helped coordinate interventions by other actors, including service providers. Third, the project worked to empower communities to articulate their needs to service providers and to influence allocation of local resources such as constituency development funds (CDFs). Finally, ALRMP sought to influence national policy in ways that recognize the importance of and expand the funding allocations to agencies that provide services in ASAL communities, for example the National Policy for the Sustainable Development of Arid and Semi-arid Lands of Kenya or the Policy Framework for Nomadic Education in Kenya.The key performance indicator 'Increased number of people with access to social services (defined as water, human and animal health, education, security and agriculture)' captures the combined impacts of all four pathways. To assess the ALRMPII impact on this KPI, we first looked at quantitative measures of service access using household survey data. We then use qualitative methods to further explore changes in service availability and quality in ALRMP intervention communities, and the contribution of the project to changes observed.The impact of ALRMP II on the availability and quality of basic services is analysed quantitatively using the household panel data set. 35 Selected characteristics of the sample households are presented in Table 18. sites, with the decline especially high for intervention communities in arid districts. The share of non-agricultural income fell over the period. TLU per capita fell slightly in control communities and increased slightly in intervention communities.Changes from 2004 to 2009 were significant within intervention sites for most services, however when changes are compared between intervention and control locations, none is statistically significant. 36 Our selection of variables to measure availability of services was limited to those that were available in the baseline data set (Tables 19-23). For each variable, we calculated the mean values in 2004 and 2009, and the difference between them, for each treatment category. Because the original assignment of treatment and control sites was not done randomly, we had to control for underlying differences between the two types of sites that could influence how they responded to ALRMP program interventions. Therefore, we estimated the OLS regression:36. Results of the difference in difference regressions available upon request.  The results regarding access to services are presented by type of service. 37Access to water. The quality of water sources that households used increased significantly in both the wet and dry seasons between 2004 and 2009 in ALRMP intervention sites (Table 19). Spending on domestic water declined by half in the dry season and by over 70% in the wet season. Time to the water source increased slightly in both treatment and control sites.When changes in treatment communities are compared with changes in these same indicators for control communities, however, the differences are not statistically significant, 37. Because of concerns about categorization of intervention and control sites, we did the analysis using the expenditure categorization and a \"self-categorization\" based on whether survey respondents considered that their community had benefits from ALRMPII. We also did the analysis by arid and semi-arid districts. The results did not differ substantially so only the results from the pooled sample and expenditure categorization are presented.except in the case of 'quality of water' in the dry season, where improvements in control communities were greater.Access to human health services. In terms of health service-related indicators, there were significant increases in ALRMP intervention communities in the percent of households consulting health professions and in the use of bed nets, and a significant reduction in child diarrhoea (Table 20). Participation of children in nutrition and growth monitoring programs declined. There were not enough responses in the baseline survey to assess changes in distance to health care facility. Only in the case of bed net use was the improvement in intervention communities significantly better than what was achieved in control communities.Access to animal health services. Animal health related outcomes improved significantly in the intervention communities, with animal deaths declining by a quarter and deaths from diseases by nearly half (Table 21). Availability of veterinary drugs increased by about 15%, while spending on veterinary medicines more than doubled. 38 In general the results with regard to the animal health indicators are better in treatment communities than in control communities; however the differences are not statistically significant according to the regression analysis.Access to education and security services. Access to education-and security-related services generally improved significantly in the ALRMPII intervention communities between 2004 and 2009 (Table 22). The average distance to the nearest primary school decreased slightly, while the distance to the nearest secondary school decreased by about a quarter. The percentage of households with access to adult education increased by more than 70%. Average distance to a police station increased slightly, though it is not clear whether this represents a decline or an improvement in security levels. There were no significant differences between treatment and control communities in terms of changes in these indicators over the period.Access to agricultural and veterinary extension. The percent of households seeking agricultural or veterinary extension services increased in treatment communities; however the difference was only significant for veterinary services (Table 23). Treatment communities seemed to perform better in terms of these indicators, but the differences between interventions and controls were not statistically significant.38. To better understand the relationship between expenditure on veterinary drugs and livestock mortality we would need to control for disease outbreaks. The simple correlation between spending and mortality is positive, which likely indicates that both spending and mortality increase when a disease outbreak occurs.No gender disaggregated data were collected in the baseline so we cannot look at differences in differences. In 2009, women were less likely to seek agricultural extension and about equally likely to seek veterinary extension in intervention communities compared to control communities.Service availability and quality are related but slightly different. For example, distance to a school or water source might decline, indicating greater availability, but if a household is not allowed or cannot afford to use the service then it cannot benefit from the reduced distance.Similarly, the number of schools or water sources might remain the same, however if the quality of teachers or the number of days during which water is available increases, then users can benefit even though there was no change in indicators of availability.In the focus group discussions, ALRMPII interventions communities identified their own indicators of service quality (Table 24), and shared their perceptions of how quality has changed over time for each type of service. On a scale of 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest), each type of service was given an overall quality score in two time periods, 2004 (pre-ALRMPII) and at the time of the discussion (2009).The average quality score for all types of services was 4.07 before ALRMPII and 5.24 in 2009, a statistically significant difference (Table 25). Average quality scores improved slightly more in arid districts than semi-arids (31% vs. 25% increase), however the distribution of improvements was more equitable in the semi-arids, meaning that a higher proportion of communities experienced improvements (Figure 22). In arid districts, nearly half the communities reported that, on average, the quality of services worsened over the period, which is consistent with a situation of declining resources in some of the ministries responsible for service provision in these areas.Table 25. Average quality of services on a scale of 0 to 10, before and after ALRMP In terms of specific services, health and education experienced the greatest increases in quality while animal health and agriculture improved the least (Figure 23).  Social network analysis (SNA) was used to analyse the relationships between communities and service providers in order to analyse how observed changes in service provision occurred. SNA seeks to understand the nature of systems as a function of the relationships between different actors (Scott 1988; Carrington, Scott and Wasserman 2005). For this study, we look at the relationships between communities and the organizations that provide services. 39 In over 90% of communities visited, there was an increase in the number of organizations providing services. The number of community-based organizations (CBOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and Government institutions (GoK) increased in 70% of the communities visited. Increases in the presence of faith-based organizations (FBOs), parastatals, and private institutions were less pronounced, increasing in fewer than a third of 39. Service provider and organization are used synonymously since all organizations identified in SNA aside from the community itself were providers of social services.We use several measures to look at changes in relationships between communities and service providers. The first, in degree, describes the role of an actor/node as a sink or receiver of information or other services. It is expressed as the sum of the connections to each node-that is, how many other actors send information or provide services to a specific actor of interest. In our case, the actor of interest is the community, and the in-degree measure looks at changes in the number of organizations that provide services to the community.The second measure we use is closeness of service providers to the community. Closeness, which relates to the proximity of each organization to the community in the Venn diagram, measures frequency of interaction.Overall there was a positive change in the community in degree, with a mean in degree of nearly eight before ALRMP II compared to an average in degree of twelve after the project (Table 26). The districts with the largest mean increases were Narok with eleven and Marsabit with ten. There was a positive change in the in degree for 18 of the 21 communities. When constructing social networks, communities were asked to illustrate the closeness of a relationship with service providers by positioning the cards which represent different actors closer to or further from the community. In 90% (18 of the 20) of communities, the average closeness of the actors to the community increased (i.e. the distance decreased) with communities placing actors much closer currently than they did before. Improvements were more common in semi-arid districts (83%) compared to arid districts (44%) In 17% of the semi-arid districts people felt that relations with service providers had deteriorated compared to only 11% of communities from arid districts.To assess the contribution of ALRMP to the changes in service provision using SNA, we look at two measures: out degree and node betweenness centrality. The opposite of in degree discussed above, out degree measures the number of links from an actor to other actors. Out degree is usually a measure of how influential an actor is in a network.Node betweenness centrality indicates the extent to which an actor is an intermediary between other pairs of actors in the network who are not directly linked. Betweenness centrality views an actor as wielding power over interactions between other nodes, to the extent that other actors depend on it to make connections with other people. For each actor, the betweenness centrality routine calculates the proportion of times that they are 'between' other actors (e.g. for sending of information) to arrive at a raw score for actor betweenness centrality. This measure can be normalized by expressing it as a percentage of the maximum possible betweenness that an actor could have had.ALRMP's out degree increased in all but one site, however the increases were modest (Table 27). When compared to other organizations identified by communities, the out degree of ALRMP II in 2009 is lower. This means that from the perspective of the community, ALRMP is not seen to be directly connected to many organizations. ALRMPII's betweenness centrality also increased between 2004 and 2009 (Table 28). On average, the increase was from 14.11 to 38.18, however there was significant variability across sites. For many of the semi-arid sites, ALRMPII is still not recognized by communities as playing a key linking function. Only in Mwingi and Tharaka was this role of ALRMPII recognized by community members (see for example Figure 25). Even in Garissa andMarsabit where ALRMPII has a longer history, communities perceived that other actors in the network work independently of ALRMP II. In Turkana and Mandera, the role of ALRMPII in linking other actors increased substantially over the period. ALRMPII plays an important linking function in these districts (see for example Figure 26).   In order to explore the impacts of ALRMP interventions in communities, focus group discussion participants were asked to identify the ALRMP interventions that they were aware of in their communities and to select one for analysis using participatory impact mapping (Table 29). Participatory impact mapping is an approach that can be used for communitybased rapid assessment (David 2004). The much greater diversity of interventions in arid districts reflects the fact that these districts had CDD and SLD components while the semiarid districts did not. Water was by far the most common type of service-related intervention.    Of all the water projects evaluated through impact maps, the most common unintended negative consequence that communities mentioned was increased conflict (domestic, social, and resource-based). Other common negative impacts included high unintended maintenance costs, environmental degradation, and water-related health problems.Perceptions of increased alcoholism and other related impacts were also mentioned. Poor water infrastructure and a lack of technical expertise required to manage water sources reduced benefits in a few communities. In some instances, community members had to wait in long queues to access water and/or walk longer distances to fetch water due to faulty water service provision. Although matters of contaminated water due to unprotected interventions were less frequently mentioned, communities believed more effort from ALRMPII and other service providers could enhance the quality of water services.Access to services, as defined by the indicators available in the 2004 baseline survey, generally improved in the communities in which ALRMP undertook interventions. In 2009, intervention communities had better access to quality water sources, to primary, secondary and adult education, and to veterinary medicines than they did in 2004. The percent of households consulting medical professionals, using bed nets, and seeking veterinary extension services also increased significantly over the period. Health related outcomes such as prevalence of child diarrhoea and livestock mortality declined significantly.When compared to control communities, however, there were almost no significant differences in how these indicators changed over time, which means that in most cases access to services increased in non-ALRMP communities as well. As was the case with in the previous section (KPI 3-child nutrition as measured by MUAC) it is likely that other organizations are working in ALRMPII control sites. Also, ALRMPII district and national level activities in support of improved service provision in ASALS would benefit both intervention and controls communities.Qualitative analysis confirmed that on average, quality and availability of services increased in ALRMPII intervention communities. Social network analysis revealed that there are many more actors providing services in 2009 than there were in 2004. In addition, ALRMPII communities feel that their relationships to these organizations are closer and stronger now than they were in 2004. While there were improvements over the period in both indicators, with few exceptions, communities do not perceive ALRMPII as an important direct provider of information or services, nor as a 'connector' or facilitator of relationships. It is important to keep in mind that the social networks represent the communities' perceptions, and communities may not be aware of relationships between other actors. The actors themselves may have different perceptions of their links with ALRMP (see Sections 5 and 8). Wealth and Employment Creation (IP-ERS) (Swallow 2004; Nyong'o 2005).The change in government and the trend towards decentralization offered opportunities for ASAL to have more say in local development and to influence policy at the national level.At the community level, ALRMPII sought to empower communities to identify and articulate their development priorities, and to increase the capacity of local government to respond to local needs. At higher levels, ALRMP II worked to strengthen civil society groups and facilitate effective participation of stakeholders from ASALs in national processes.The impact of this work is measured by the key performance indicator strengthening the voice of people from project districts in local and national development as shown through 41. http://www.cdf.go.ke/. using out-degree, which is a measure of the role of an actor/node as a source of information or influence. This is expressed as the sum of the connections from the actor to others (e.g. actor 1 sends information to four others). Out-degree is considered to be a measure of how influential the actor may be. An increase in out degree alone cannot unambiguously be considered an improvement if there need to influence more agents does not lead to more and better services. The results of the analysis of service provision do suggest that the increase in number of actors in communities has resulted in an improvement in service provision.Another measure of empowerment is Node Betweenness Centrality. Betweenness centrality views an actor as wielding power over interactions between other nodes, to the extent that other actors depend on it to make connections with other people. For each actor, the betweenness centrality routine calculates the proportion of times that they are 'between' other actors (e.g. for sending of information) to arrive at a raw score for actor betweenness centrality. This measure can be normalized by expressing it as a percentage of the maximum possible betweenness that an actor could have had. Across all sites, there was a 54.2% increase in the community out degree between 2004 and 2009 from a mean out degree of 5.9 before ALRMP II to a mean out degree of 9.6 currently.The change was greater in the arid districts as compared to the semi-arids. Overall, the average community betweeness centrality value increased from 50 before the project to slightly more than 160 after the project, suggesting that the community has become a more central actor in the network over time. Results vary across sites (Figure 33), though in general increases were greater in arid compared to semi-arid communities. Information obtained from communities on the number and effectiveness of local committees also suggested that communities are well organized. However, only seven self-organized projects were identified by communities, suggesting that they are still dependent on other external actors for resources and other forms of support for project development and implementation.The most common change observed by DSG members due to ALRMPII's policy advocacy efforts relate to increased knowledge, followed by increased empowerment, and better access to/use of technology (Figure 35). Some comments made by respondents about impacts of policy advocacy on community knowledge include:Increased demand for policy information and participation in public information Food Security and Nutrition. For each policy, we describe the current status, analyse the contribution of ALRMPII to both the process and content using the policy influence matrix, and identify the factors (context, evidence, links and external influences) that contributed to the successful and positive influence on these policies by the project.6.4.1 The National Policy on Peace Building and Conflict ManagementThe National Policy on Peace building and Conflict Management aims to establish an institutional framework for peace building and conflict management that fosters strong partnerships between the government, the private sector, the civil society, donors, grass roots communities and regional organizations for sustainable national development. The Peace Building and Conflict Management process followed a very bottom-up approach starting in early 1990s when communities in northeast Kenya started having meetings to promote dialogue amongst the different groups. It was, however, recognized that there needed to be a structure to co-ordinate these processes. The National Peace and Conflict ManagementSteering Committee (NSE) together with the ALRMPII started having informal interactions with civil society groups in order to kick start the process of coordination. The policy process started in 2004 with national and regional consultations between stakeholders including government and the civil society. In 2005, the first draft of the policy was finished. In 2008, the first draft was refined to include other dimensions of conflict especially after the post election violence. The policy is now awaiting cabinet approval ALRMPII Contribution to the policy This is one of the policies to which the project has made major contributions in terms of both participating in the policy processes and influencing the content of the policy (Table 30). The NSC recognized important influences from ALRMPII to both process and content that went beyond what the project itself felt it had contributed.The role of the project has evolved at different phases of the policy process. The project has played an advisory role by using evidence and experience from the ground especially on the role of community structures and community processes for conflict management and how these can be integrated into a multi-layer framework (community, district and national).This was mainly done in the period between 1996 to 2008 when both the project and the National Steering Committee were housed at the Office of the President. When ALRMPII moved from the Ministry for the Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands in    The role of the ALRMPII on the livestock policy has mainly been lobbying for the inclusion of pastoralists issues into the policy as well as supporting other groups with an interest on the policy, including KLMC, to participate in the policy discussions. The project also played an advocacy role with respect to the Surgeons Act by funding some consultancies on animal movements and their impacts on diseases and the role of Community Animal Health Workers (CAHW) on disease management and control especially in the ASAL areas.In terms of policy context, the recent creation of a Ministry of Livestock Development that was separate from Agriculture led to an increased focus on livestock issues. Ability to provide evidence based on experience with livestock interventions in the ASALs and the results of its studies on CAHW enabled it to influence policy content. ALRMPII's links with KLMC and the pastoral groups were also important.Social network analysis suggests that ALRMPII communities are exerting more influences on the individual organizations that work in their communities, as well as playing a more influential role in terms of how these organizations relate to each other. DSG members surveyed also claim that ALRMPII activities have contributed to communities being better informed and more empowered.According to key informants associated with policy processes, ALRMPII has also played an important role in the formulation of several major policies of importance to ASAL regions.Several policies have directly incorporated ALRMPII structures and activities, which provides evidence of the broader institutionalization of project activities.Both general trends and specific incidents in the Kenyan political context over the lifetime of the project have created opportunities for both community empowerment and for policy influence. Because of its experience and its relationships, the ALRMPII project was able to seize the opportunities to advance its policy agenda.Conclusions and RecommendationsIn this evaluation, multiple data sources and analytical methods were used to assess changes in the ALRMPII's five KPIs and explore the contributions of the project to any changes observed. One of the indicators, KPI5, by its very nature could only be evaluated qualitatively. For another (KPI1), qualitative and quantitative methods were appropriate, however the lack of appropriate 'control' or 'without ALRMPII' scenarios limited the analysis to looking for statistical correlation between outcomes and project-related variables over time, without being able to attribute changes to ALRMPII. Only for KPIs 2, 3 and 4 were the available data appropriate for conducting the difference-in-difference analysis that supports claims of attribution of observed impacts to an intervention, although even in these analyses there exist alternative interpretations consistent with data.The findings for each of the KPIs are summarized below, together with some possible implications for policy or programming. The final part of this section makes some general recommendations based on both the findings of this evaluation and on the challenges encountered in undertaking it.The analysis of KPI 1 (Decreased proportion of people in each ASAL district assessed as needing free food aid, normalised by severity of drought) found a small but negative and statistically significant correlation between cumulative ALRMPII expenditure and the percent of people needing food aid in the arid districts, controlling for other factors such as drought.The correlation between ALRMPII expenditure and percent of people needing food aid was not significant in semi-arid districts, a result which is not surprising given the relatively lower levels of expenditure by ALRMPII in these districts, especially in activities oriented towards reducing vulnerability.According to community perceptions, both food aid needs and vulnerability to drought have grown over time, but food aid needs have grown faster. Analysis by agro-ecological zone showed that according to community indicators, drought vulnerability has actually declined in arid districts, though food aid needs have continued to rise. In semi-arid districts, drought vulnerability and the need for food aid are closely related, especially in recent years.Implications: Though it is impossible to attribute observed changes to ALRMPII, the results in the arid districts are consistent with a positive impact of ALRMPII on household vulnerability as defined by '% of households needing food aid'. Unfortunately, given the level of aggregation, it is difficult to say anything about the causal mechanisms through which such effects might have arisen. Further complicating inference, household survey data showed that incomes were lower and less diversified in 2009 compared to 2004/05, however asset levels have increased slightly. It would be useful to know whether this was the result of, for example, better emergency interventions that prevented loss of assets in low income years, more diversified livelihoods that allowed for accumulation in better years (e.g. 2007 and   2008), or some other mechanisms.The complexity of the relationship between drought and food aid in the arid areas suggests that an increased focus on interventions that go beyond current drought to address issues such as conflict or dependency that may be functions of the cumulative impacts of repeated shocks on households and communities may be warranted.According to their own estimates, the time that agencies took between becoming aware of an emergency and responding (KPI2) dropped by 1.5 weeks (16%) during the time that ALRMPII was operational. A variety of factors contributed to the reductions, among them the use by the agency of the ALRMPII Bulletin.Significant other changes took place over the period that facilitated both ALRMPII activity and more rapid response, including expanded mobile telephone coverage of Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands, increased agency attention to rapid response, and more flexible international funding of emergency response. But when asked about their perceptions of ALRMPII's impacts, survey respondents said that their emergency response activities were not only faster but also better coordinated and more appropriate due in part to the activities of ALRMPII.Implications: The ALRMPII Bulletin has become the most useful and most used source of early warning information for response agencies. Users appreciate that the information is reliable, community-based, multi-sectoral, and intervention oriented. Users suggest that the bulletin could be improved by ensuring timeliness, broadening the scope of livelihood activities covered, being more participatory in data collection, and including more market-related and environmental variables, and more gender disaggregated information.A more systematic, consistent approach to defining stages in the drought cycle was also recommended.Currently most users access it through hard copies. Barriers to electronic access should be investigated since this limits distribution. Dissemination via other media (e.g. radio, barazas) was also recommended, as was translation into Kiswahili for greater dissemination within communities.Some users also raised issues of data quality. While agency users generally consider the data reliable, there is room for improvement. Investment in recruiting, training, and monitoring staff in the districts, and in developing partnerships with other organizations who have expertise in certain types of data collection (e.g. nutrition) are possible options which, given the importance of the EWS to users, would appear to be justified.Child malnutrition remains pervasive in the ten districts; however the results of this analysis of changes in MUAC over time in intervention and control sublocations provide some mild evidence that ALRMP II has been associated with improvements in child nutrition, as measured by mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) (KPI3).Difference-in-difference regressions using panel data did not find a statistically significant ALRMPII program impact, though the results suggested that ALRMPII interventions were targeted to the worst-off areas. Stochastic dominance analysis revealed that nutritional status has improved over time in the districts, on average, and found fewer negative changes among the most malnourished children in the ALRMPII intervention locations as compared to the control locations, although these differences in distributions are not statistically significant. This is consistent with the claim that ALRMPII prevented nutritional status from worsening for the worst-off children, functioning as a nutritional safety net, although the differences among intervention and quasi-control locations and the inability to control for many exogenous factors makes it unclear whether this is in fact the mechanism behind apparent reduction in worst case outcomes.It is possible that the empirical results underestimate the true impact of ALRMPII on child nutrition in either or both of two ways. Empirical results are based on comparisons between intervention and control sublocations, however, ALRMPII activities related to EWS and policy would benefit all communities whether they had ALRMPII project interventions or not. In addition, the coordination role played by the DSG could also lead to a downward bias in measured impact if it reduced concentration of intervention in certain sites and led to a larger number of communities (including ALRMPII 'control' communities) receiving interventions.Conversely, our results could overstate the effects of ALRMPII on child nutrition if the apparent targeting of worst-off areas naturally led to greater 'catch up' due to regression-tomean effects. Problems in ALRMPII's collection and management of the child-specific MUAC data limit our ability to make stronger inferences about the causal effects of ALRMPII on child nutrition.Implications: The fact that the child nutritional situation did not get worse in the worst off locations in which ALRMPII intervened is important and encouraging. However, given the severity of the malnutrition problem it would be highly desirable to examine how the program could achieve or increase impact on nutrition levels for all children. More such projects, however, with similar (generally positive) results. Therefore, we cannot say that, in the absence of ALRMPII, these community-level, project-related impacts would not have happened anyway.Community-level projects accounted for a significant part of the ALRMPII's expenditure, however they constituted only a part of the total investment in infrastructure and service provision made by government, NGOs, and other actors in ASALs. This raises the question of whether ALRMPII has a comparative advantage in implementing such projects. If the only objective is to expand service coverage, these results suggest that it does not. If, however, the objective of participation in community-level projects -whether for infrastructure, serviceprovision, natural resource management, or income-generation-also includes building capacity and demonstrating alternative models of working with communities, then such activities may be justified.If this is the case, then the strategic objectives need to be clearly articulated and reflected in the implementation strategy and evaluation criteria. This evaluation did not look at these aspects of ALRMPII interventions, though anecdotal evidence from other KPIs is consistent with community empowerment impacts. The question then becomes whether it would also be possible to achieve these objectives by partnering with other organizations working in communities. Anecdotal evidence from the field suggests that this is already happening in the sense that ALRMPII often builds on investments made by others.According to the results of the perceptions of communities, response agencies, and individuals involved in policy processes at national level, ALRMPII has contributed to strengthening the voice of people from project districts in local and national development by building capacity in communities, by facilitating participation of key stakeholders from the ASALs in policy processes, and by contributing evidence and experience to several policies of relevance to ASAL regions.At the national level, ALRMPII mobilized and facilitated the participation of key ASAL stakeholders such as community committees and pastoral organizations in policy processes.Several policies and draft policies (sessional papers) incorporate objectives, lessons, and in some cases, structures and mechanisms directly from ALRMPII. To date the Disaster Even if a purposive approach is taken, the important thing is to be clear about the process and criteria by which sites are selected and to keep careful records about which sites are 'interventions' and which are 'controls'.","tokenCount":"13592"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4c602266fc9490b621afe476259bf75d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a529d089-b49a-46bf-8bf7-736ef225bb3f/content","id":"-160411385"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c3a8d6ec-bd4b-4bc9-9d61-8f9e7af4ec97","pagecount":"24","content":"Resource shortages, driven by climatic, institutional and social changes in many regions of Asia, combined with growing imperatives to increase food production whilst ensuring environmental sustainability, are driving research into modified agricultural practices. Well-tested cropping systems models that capture interactions between soil water and nutrient dynamics, crop growth, climate and farmer management can assist in the evaluation of such new agricultural practices. One such cropping systems model is the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM). We evaluated APSIM's ability to simulate the performance of cropping systems in Asia from several perspectives: crop phenology, production, water use, soil dynamics (water and organic carbon) and crop CO 2 response, as well as its ability to simulate cropping sequences without reset of soil variables. The evaluation was conducted over a diverse range of environments (12 countries, numerous soils), crops and management practices throughout the region. APSIM's performance was statisticallyThe world will need 70-100% more food by 2050 (World Bank 2008;Royal Society of London, 2009), and current trends in population and consumption growth will mean the global demand for food will increase for at least another 35-40 years (Godfray et al., 2010). Projections indicate that the production of cereals must increase by roughly 2% per annum over the next four decades to ensure food security in South Asia (Ray et al., 2013). From a sectoral perspective, the production of rice, wheat, and maize must increase by about 1.1%, 1.7%, and 2.9% per annum, respectively (Gathala et al., 2014). To meet this demand sustainably, crop intensification while increasing resource-use efficiency and reducing the environmental footprint, or 'ecological intensification' (Cassman, 1999;Cassman et al., 2003;Ladha et al., 2009;Hochman et al., 2013) or 'sustainable intensification' (Royal Society of London, 2009) will be obligatory. For example, the Indian Punjab has been heralded for its technical achievements in past decades but increasingly criticized for leveraging its success on the environment (Jalota et al., 2007). More recently, the debate about sustainable intensification is being extended to include aspects of resilience to climate change through the Climate Smart Agriculture framework (Campbell et al., 2014). Achieving such gains in productivity whilst reducing degradation of environmental resources will require a holistic systems approach, potentially incorporating the principles of conservation agriculture (CA), and judicious crop rotations (Hobbs 2007;Balasubramanian et al., 2012), amongst other potential adaptations. To complicate matters, any system advancements must be achieved under the overbearing shadow and uncertainty of a changing climate (Godfray et al., 2010). Cropping systems models have previously been used to explore the extent to which practices to manage climate risk can be judged to be climate smart (Hochman et al., 2017b).There is a desire to investigate new practices in Asia with the aim of enhancing water productivity (WP) (Bouman, 2007), and cropping intensity (Dobermann and Witt, 2000) whilst maintaining environmental sustainability (Humphreys et al., 2010). Suggested pathways include the incorporation of non-flooded crops and pastures into traditional rice rotations (Cho et al., 2003;Singh et al., 2005;Zeng et al., 2007), changed agronomic and/or irrigation practices (Bouman and Tuong, 2001;Belder et al., 2007;Sudhir-Yadav et al., 2011a;Gathala et al., 2014), reduction of non-productive water losses (Humphreys et al., 2010), and genetic improvement (Peng et al., 1999;Sheehy et al., 2000;Bennett, 2003). Well-tested and locally-calibrated and validated simulation models are useful tools to explore opportunities within the context of a holistic systems approach − for increasing system productivity, assessing environmental trade-offs, and evaluating the effects of a changing climate.Models such as DSSAT (Jones et al., 2003), ORYZA2000 (Bouman and van Laar, 2006) and Infocrop (Aggarwal et al., 2006a,b) have been widely used and tested in Asia, performing valuable studies on topics such as yield gaps and yield trends, evaluation of sowing dates and crop varieties, nitrogen and water management, environmental outcomes, and assessment of climate change impacts (Timsina and Humphreys, 2006a;Krishnan et al., 2007;Devkota et al., 2013). However for more in-depth evaluation of future farmer management strategies, there is also the need for a model which can more effectively simulate the performance of real farmers' decision-trees and management which changes from year-to-year in response to unfolding climate and environmental conditions. None of the aforementioned models is able to do this.The APSIM cropping systems framework (Keating et al., 2003;Holzworth et al., 2014) is such a model, with a proven track record in modelling the performance of diverse cropping systems, rotations, fallowing, crop and environmental dynamics (Turpin et al., 1998;Carberry et al., 2002;Robertson et al., 2001;Verburg and Bond, 2003;Whitbread et al., 2010;Hochman et al., 2014). A distinctive innovation and philosophical departure from most other 'crop models' is APSIM's primary focus on simulating crop resource supply (rather than a primary focus on resource demand), with the soil forming the central simulation component. Crops, with their own resource demands impacted by weather and management, find the soil in one condition, and leave it in another condition for the next crop (McCown et al., 1996). This emphasis on simulation of soil resource dynamics positions APSIM strongly in comparison with other models for investigations into long-term changes to soil conditions and sustainability associated with different cropping strategies and practices. With particular focus on research into adaptation strategies, another notable strength of the APSIM model is it's unique capacity to capture intricate detail and subtleties of dynamic farmer management practices through a highly flexible 'Manager' Module allowing the user to specify detailed farmer decision-trees in simple 'if-then-else' logic (Holzworth et al., 2014). APSIM has recently been enhanced to simulate rice-based cropping systems and environmental dynamics of ponded systems (Gaydon et al., 2012a,b). Evaluation of APSIM is well-established and well-documented in Australia and Africa, however limited in Asia as the model's capability to simulate rice-based systems in this region is relatively recent. Also, rice is grown in more diverse cropping situations than most other crops (lowland (ponded), upland (un-ponded), puddled, un-puddled), necessitating more faceted evaluation. The first step in evaluating a model's credentials is to define model capacities required for addressing research questions around some of the aforementioned issues. We suggest that a model for simulation of cropping system performance in Asia should be capable of several key functions: (i) robust crop development and yield simulation for a wide variety of crops; (ii) the ability to simulate cropping sequences and the effect of different fallow management, tillage and residue management strategies on system performance; (iii) robust simulation of soil water and nutrient dynamics in conjunction with crop performance; (iv) flexibility to capture detailed farmer-imposed management practices, including subtle changes to farmer decisions and strategies, and evaluate their impact on system performance; and (v) robust simulation of crop response to CO 2 and temperature variation (Rötter et al., 2011). Before a researcher can be confident in employing such a model, it should be rigorously tested in a wide variety of environments and management practices.Several large agricultural research initiatives in the Asian region of recent years have facilitated a broad assessment of the APSIM model, its strengths, weaknesses and priorities for future development. These include the 'Adaptation to Climate Change in Asia' project (ACCA; Roth and Grünbühel, 2012;Van Wensveen et al., 2016) and a project with the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation to train south Asian scientist in the use of APSIM (SAARC-Australia Project; Gaydon et al., 2014b), the National Science and Technology Support Program of China, the National Basic Research Program of China, and the CSIRO-Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) PhD Research Fellowship Program (Chen et al., 2010a,b;Liu et al., 2013;Wang et al., 2014). Data collected as part of these as well as other associated projects formed the basis of the evaluation presented here.In this paper, we present details of APSIM evaluation across diverse cropping systems in Asia and critically evaluate its performance, identifying strengths and weaknesses using 43 experimental datasets from 12 countries, covering a broad spectrum of management practices, crop species/varieties, and environments, evaluating the hypothesis that APSIM is a robust model for use in Asian cropping systems research. As part of this process, we document input parameter estimation challenges and indicated needs for further improvement of the model.We followed a robust three step process for each experimental dataset to ensure best possible model configuration, before compiling and conducting the final evaluation statistics on model performance. These three steps were:• Parameterisation: This refers to the process of supplying the model with local input parameters which were directly measured or recorded (climate variables, soil physical and chemical characteristics, management impositions and inputs, etc.) • Calibration: Other system parameters, unable to be directly measured or whose values possess greater uncertainty (such as crop varietal coefficients, some difficult-to-measure soil parameters etc.) required iterative adjustment, or calibration. In this process, the parameterised model was run for a chosen single year and treatment of the experiment using the best initial estimates for those input parameters to be calibrated. Simulated outputs (for crop development, production, soil water dynamics, or other variables of interest) were then compared with observed values from the experiment. If discrepancies were noted, parameters were re-adjusted within reasonable bounds, and the process repeated until acceptable model performance was achieved. • Validation: The true test of the calibration was in testing the model against independent years and/or treatments of the experiment using the derived model calibration from step 2. This step is referred to as validation − essentially, a process to check the veracity of the model after the calibration and parameterisation of the previous steps. In complex models there is always the risk that an un-validated calibration can result in a model which is getting the right answers for the wrong reasons (Gaydon et al., 2012a), thereby leading to misleading model predictions during subsequent model usage. We performed validation simulations for all experiments. Once again this process became iterative − poor initial validation performance sometimes required revisita-tion of parameterisation and calibration steps, until acceptable model performance was achieved. Our definition of 'acceptable' is described in detail below (Section 2.3).Evaluation statistics were performed on the compiled validation results to provide an insight into model performance and limitations across the breadth of our experimental datasets and their treatments. The following sections describe the process by which this model evaluation has been undertaken in detail.Detailed descriptions of APSIM are provided by Holzworth et al. (2014) and Keating et al. (2003). Here we merely provide a brief outline. APSIM is a dynamic daily time-step model that combines biophysical and management modules within a central engine to simulate cropping systems. The model is capable of simulating soil water, C, N and P dynamics and their interactions within crop/management systems, driven by daily climate data (solar radiation, maximum and minimum temperatures, rainfall). Daily potential production for a range of crop species is calculated using stage-related radiation-use efficiency (RUE) constrained by climate and available leaf area. The potential production is then limited to actual above-ground biomass production on a daily basis by soil water, nitrogen and (for some crop modules) phosphorus availability (Keating et al., 2003). The soil water balance (SOILWAT) module uses a multi-layer, cascading approach for the soil water balance following CERES (Jones and Kiniry, 1986), however a more process-based soil water-balance module is also available (SWIM3; Huth et al., 2012). The SURFACEOM module simulates the fate of the above-ground crop residues that can be removed from the system, incorporated into the soil or left to decompose on the soil surface. The SOILN module simulates the transformations of C and N in the soil. These include organic matter decomposition, N immobilization, urea hydrolysis, ammonification, nitrification and denitrification. The soil fresh organic matter (FOM) pool constitutes crop residues tilled into the soil together with roots from the previous crop. This pool can decompose to form the BIOM (microbial biomass), HUM (humus), and mineral N (NO 3 and NH 4 ) pools. The BIOM pool notionally represents the more labile soil microbial biomass and microbial products, whilst the more stable HUM pool represents the rest of the soil organic matter (SOM) (Probert et al., 1998). APSIM crop modules seek information regarding water and N availability directly from SOILWAT and SOILN modules, for limitation of crop growth on a daily basis. Biological and chemical processes occurring in ponded rice fields are simulated using the POND module within APSIM (APSIM-Pond, Gaydon et al., 2012b). Crop modules specifically relevant to the evaluation presented in this paper are APSIM-Oryza (Gaydon et al., 2012a), APSIM-Wheat (Wang et al., 2003), APSIM-Maize (Carberry and Abrecht, 1991), APSIM-Ozcot (Hearn, 1994); APSIM-Soybean (Robertson et al., 2001;Robertson and Carberry, 1998) and APSIM-Canola (used also for mustard; Robertson et al., 1999;Robertson and Lilley, 2016). APSIM-Oryza was recently improved to simulate rice crop response to soil salinity (Radanielson et al., 2016). APSIM-Wheat simulates salinity effect in a more simplistic way (focussing on water-availability effects only; Hochman et al., 2007) however none of the other APSIM crop modules attempt to simulate crop response to saline soil conditions.Datasets were assembled from across twelve countries in Asia; Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, Philippines, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Essential criteria included the availability of detailed information on experimental  1). The experiments encapsulated a diverse range of imposed treatments capturing a wide breadth of management practices in Asian agriculture. Several of these were multi-year, multi-crop sequences which included rice in rotations with other non-flooded crops, as well as wheatmaize rotations. Table 1 gives a description of each dataset used − geographical location, timeframe, treatments imposed and links to published references for further details.APSIM requires daily values of rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature and solar radiation. Measurable soil physical parameters for different soil layers including bulk density, saturated water content, field capacity and wilting point are also required. Two parameters, U and CONA, which determine first and second stage soil evaporation (Ritchie, 1972) are also required. They were initially set at 6 mm and 3.5 mm day −1 , respectively, for the majority of datasets − values accepted for tropical conditions such as most of those described here (Probert et al., 1998;Keating et al., 2003). The proportion of water in excess of field capacity that drains to the next layer within a day was specified via a coefficient, SWCON, which varies depending on soil texture. Poorly drained clay soils will characteristically have values <0.5 whilst sandy soils that have high water conductivity can have values >0.8 (Probert et al., 1998). The values for saturated percolation rate (K s in APSIM, mm day −1 ) were extracted from published research papers add observation. Soil chemical parameters required by APSIM included soil pH, organic C and initial mineral N. The maximum daily algal growth rate for ponded conditions was estimated and assumed to be constant between sites (Gaydon et al., 2012b). Other parameters, not directly measured, required iterative calibration and are described in the following sections.2.2.1.1. Soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization. Because SOM mineralization capacity varies between locations as a function of soil biota ecology and the proportion of SOM in the resistant pool (inert fraction), the values of the APSIM parameters Fbiom and Finert (Probert et al., 1998) were calibrated for each experiment using data from zero-N treatments, when available. In these treatments, a certain amount of plant-available mineral N was assumed to come from rainfall and/or irrigation water, and the remainder from mineralization of organic matter. In the absence of zero-N treatments, estimations were made using values from similar sites. The values of Fbiom and Finert were incrementally varied within physically plausible bounds (Probert et al., 1998) until the simulated indigenous N supply in the zero-N treatments allowed close simulation of the observed crop yields.2.2.1.2. Soil carbon cycling. While in most cases only total soil organic carbon in the surface soil layer is available from measured data, APSIM requires initialisation of its SOM pools, i.e., fresh organic matter (FOM) pool, a more active carbon (BIOM) pool, and a humic (HUM) pool. The FOM pool contains all the fresh organic matter, such as dead crop roots and incorporated residues. The assumptions used to fractionate the total soil C in different soil layers and each soil C pool were similar to those of Luo et al. (2011): 1) total SOC, mostly concentrated in the top 20-30 cm, decreases exponentially with soil depth; 2) in deeper soil layers, the proportion of total soil C that is resistant to decomposition is higher, and the absolute amount of inert C is constant across the soil layers; and 3) the FOM pool is mainly distributed in upper soil layers and represents a small proportion of total SOC in the cropland soil with a long history of cultivation.In simulation of each experiment, crop varieties were calibrated by varying the APSIM crop phenology parameters until the modelled phenology dates matched the observed dates. Usually, the first crop in each dataset was used for this calibration procedure, and subsequent crops were used for model validation. The primary dates of focus were those associated with sowing, transplanting, maximum tillering, panicle initiation, flowering, and physiological maturity.2.2.1.3. Crop biomass partitioning. Observed ratios between grain, straw, and straw components (stems, leaves etc.) were used to calibrate parameters governing allocation of assimilated biomass amongst plant components.2.2.1.4. Soil water dynamics, ET and crop water uptake. Observed soil water dynamics and crop water uptake were used to calibrate crop rooting parameters (kl and xf in APSIM) and crop lower limits (cll) as a function of soil layer.The parameterised and calibrated model was then used to simulate independent years/seasons/crops in each experimental dataset, as a means of checking the veracity of the calibrations. These validation data-pairs (simulated vs observed) were used to evaluate the model's performance from a range of perspectives discussed in the following section.The model's capacity to simulate crop production (grain yields and above-ground biomass) for different crops (rice, wheat, maize, others), in different environments and under different management practices was the primary aspect evaluated. The combined dataset for rice crops was broken into subsets of rice establishment method (PTR-puddled transplanted rice; or DSR − direct-seeded rice (including both dry-and wet-seeded). This was overlayed with water management treatments comprising (i) irrigated with continuous flooding (CF); (ii) irrigated according to alternate wetting and drying (AWD); or rainfed (RF) lowland). The large size of the dataset allowed this (361 paired data points), and provided an opportunity for model evaluation for these key rice management options. At this stage in APSIM's application history in Asia, this breakdown process has not been possible for other crops due to restricted dataset size.Other aspects of model performance evaluated were:• The ability to robustly simulate crop phenology for sowing date trials. • Simulation of crop sequences − by examining residual error as a function of crop progression (continuous simulation of multiple crops and fallows without resetting soil water and nitrogen variables between crops). • Soil water and soil carbon dynamics − in conjunction with crop production (related to a model's ability to simulate cropping system 'carry-over' effects) • System water balance components (crop transpiration, soil and pond evaporation, runoff, drainage etc.) and irrigation water use. • CO 2 response − using free-atmosphere carbon enrichment (FACE) experimentsLinear regression was used to compare paired data-points for observed and simulated grain yield, for both rice and other crops. We determined the slope (␣), intercept (␤), and coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of the linear regression between simulated and observed values. We also evaluated model performance using the Student's t-test of means assuming unequal variance P(t), and the absolute square root of the mean squared error, RMSE (Eq. ( 1)).Where S i and O i are simulated and observed values, respectively, and n is the number of data pairs. A model reproduces experimental data best when ␣ is 1, ␤ is 0, R 2 is 1, P(t) is larger than 0.05 (indicating observed and simulated data are the same at the 95% confidence level), and the absolute RMSE between simulated and observed values is similar to (and ideally less than) the standard deviation of experimental measurements (representing the error between treatment replicates, or the 'uncertainty' of the observed data). Statistical comparisons were conducted for subsets of the overall rice dataset, to explore the performance of the model in simulating different establishment practices (PTR and DSR) as well as different water management practices (irrigated, both fully ponded and AWD) and rainfed).We also calculated the modelling efficiency, EF (Willmott, 1981;Krause et al., 2005) as another recognized measure of fit. The modelling efficiency is defined as:Where Ō is the mean of the observed values. A value of EF = 1 indicates a perfect model (Mean squared error, MSE = 0) and a value of 0 indicates a model for which MSE is equal to the original variability in the observed data. Negative values suggest that the average of the observed values is a better predictor than the model in all cases.A large proportion of our simulated datasets (23 out of 43) were simulated as cropping sequences of rice and non-rice crops over at least 2 seasons, with a further 10 representing sequences of riceon-rice cropping, including fallows. Hence in the following section, even though the results are distilled and presented on the basis of individual crops, it should be noted that they implicitly represent the performance of the APSIM model in simulating crop sequences and system processes in which these crops were grown.The major crop represented in our assembled datasets was rice, due to its dominance in Asian cropping systems. A large number of paired data-points (361 crops) allowed segregation into a range of managements, and subsequent evaluation of APSIM model performance in simulating each of those across a range of geographical locations and environments. Considering the combined rice dataset as a whole, the model performed well in simulating above-ground biomass and grain yield (Fig. 1 and Table 2).The RMSE of 1084 kg ha −1 for the combined rice grain yield dataset compares favourably with the standard deviation amongst the observed data and replicates (2038 kg ha −1 ). This is supported by a strong correlation between simulated and observed data (r 2 = 0.83) with low bias (␣ = 1.1, ␤ = −246 kg ha −1 ). The Student's paired t-test (assuming non-equal variances) gave a significance of P(t) = 0.09, indicating that there is no statistical difference between observed and simulated data at the 95% confidence level, while the high overall modelling efficiency, EF, of 0.72 indicates the model is performing acceptably. Hence there is convincing evidence here that APSIM is simulating rice yields well within the bounds of experimental error across a range of varieties, environments and imposed management practices, and its performance must be considered adequate over the range of this diverse Asian dataset.  The analysis of the rice management subsets (Table 2) reveals no particular aspect in which APSIM has performed inadequately (all low RMSE with high modelling efficiencies), however the performance of the model in simulation of puddled transplanted rice (PTR) is better than direct-seeded rice (DSR) (P(t) of 0.69 cf 0.38, combined with EF of 0.85 cf 0.76. Across the water treatments, the simulation of continuously-ponded irrigation performs the best − not surprisingly due to APSIM-Oryza's derivation from ORYZA2000 and CERES-Rice (ponded bio-chemistry and saturated soil environment algorithms) both of which were originally derived for PTR lowland irrigated rice production. This analysis indicates future model improvement efforts are best targeted at improved processbased simulation of PTR, alternate wet-and-dry (AWD) and DSR rain-fed (RF) (and probably DSR AWD, insufficient data available) systemsIn simulating regional experimental wheat yields, APSIM achieved a RMSE of 845 kg ha −1 in a dataset with experimental standard deviation of 1794 kg ha −1 (n = 326; Table 3, Fig. 2), once again comparable with CERES-Wheat which reported an RMSE of 480 kg ha −1 for a dataset (n = 137) with SD of 1400 kg ha −1 (for South Asia only). In conclusion, it appears the models are remarkably similar in their ability to provide acceptable simulation of individual rice and wheat crop performance in the region.    Maize, cotton and canola production were similarly simulated well, with RMSE values well within the range of observed experimental variability, P(t) indicating no significant difference between observed and simulated yields at the 95% level, and high modelling efficiencies (EF > 0.7 in all cases) (Figs. 2-4 ; Table 3).Mustard and soybean performance was less robust (Fig. 4; Table 3) with lower confidence levels (P(t) and RMSE figures very close to, or greater than, the observed experimental standard deviations. EF values were also negative, suggesting that the average of the observed values is a better predictor than the model in all cases. Given the strong validation of APSIM in simulating these crop species in more data-rich environments outside Asia (Robertson and Carberry, 1998;Robertson et al., 1999) these low figures are almost certainly due to the limited amount of validation data available (number of paired data points for Mustard (10) and Soybean ( 6)) combined with uncertainties on data quality). More validation work is indicated for these crops in Asia.Simulation of rice crop phenology for the two sowing date trials (datasets #13 and #41, Bangladesh and India respectively) indi-cated strong performance of APSIM in simulation of phenology (and associated yield responses) for both photoperiod-sensitive (Fig. 5) and non-photoperiod sensitive (Fig. 8) rice varieties. However the importance of good calibration for photoperiod sensitivity parameters (Nissanka et al., 2015) was clearly indicated (Figs. 6 and 7).It is important to note that crops in these sowing date trials were fully irrigated, and neither water or nutrient-stressed. Waterstressed conditions (AWD and RF) are handled acceptably (high R 2 , low RMSE; data not shown), however, deficiencies were noted in the simulation of N-stressed crops with significant bias indicating poor simulation of rice crop phenological responses to N stress (Table 4a and Table 4b).Simulation of wheat and maize phenology for validation datasets indicated good correlation (r 2 > 0.99) and low error (Fig. 9), as did simulated results for other crops (data not shown).The APSIM model was originally conceptualised and developed to simulate cropping sequences and allow research into the impacts on crop production of different fallow management practices and climate variability (Keating et al., 2003;Holzworth et al., 2014). To   Comparing simulated vs observed grain yield and phenology data for APSIM-Oryza using a single rice variety vs a phenology-matched variety for each N-fertiliser treatment, for dataset # 1 (Buresh et al., 1988). Indices comparing simulated vs observed data for APSIM-Oryza using a non-changing rice variety vs a phenology-matched variety for each N-fertiliser treatment, dataset #1 (Buresh et al., 1988). The observed standard deviations were 1998 kg ha −1 for biomass, and 1129 kg ha −1 for yield. the best of our knowledge, however, there has been no specific metric used in the scientific literature (relating to crop systems modelling) which allows evaluation of a model's ability to simulate system processes leading to successful modelling of cropping sequences. For example, Carberry et al. (1996) successfully simulated a multi-species, conservation agriculture farming system in Northern Australia, including impacts of mulch and legume-cereal sequences, but did not seek to evaluate model bias with time. We have chosen to evaluate the variation in residual error between simulated and observed grain yields as a function of progressive crop number in the sequence, to serve this purpose. In other words, the assumption is that residual error will not increase with successive crops if system processes are being correctly or adequately simulated. As cropping sequence datasets with appropriate data and the required degree of experimental rigour for all relevant variables are rare in Asia, we focussed on evaluation of three (3) most complete modelled datasets from our assembled selection (datasets # 2 (Suriadi), #4 (Boucher), and #7 (Gazipur)). Fig. 10 gives a graphical example of simulated vs observed crop production from one treatment in each of these experiments. All the simulated versus observed grain yield measurements for treatments across each of these three experiments were combined in an analysis of residual absolute error and the results illustrated in Fig. 11 as a function of advancing crop number in the sequence.The data were used to estimate a linear regression of absolute error by the number of successive crops for each site. No coefficient estimates were both positive and significant indicating there is no evidence APSIM error increased with the number of successive crops modelled. By contrast, at sites 'Suriadi' and 'Gazipur' there is some evidence that the simulation error reduced (Fig. 11b; P(t) = 0.096 and P(t) = 0.054 respectively). This reduction in error may be due to the relative inadequacy of initial parameter estimates, which become less and less significant with each passing crop as system equilibrium is established and initial model conditions become less significant on crop performance. According to our assumption, this indicates robust simulation of system processes leading to confidence in APSIM performance in these rice-based systems.Experimental datasets in Asia with observed soil water dynamics and measurements of system water balance components (evaporation, runoff, drainage) in conjunction with crop performance are also rare, however growing in frequency with increasing accessibility and affordability of instruments and data-logging equipment. We used the two most complete datasets from the Indian Punjab to evaluate APSIM performance in simulating soil water dynamics under CF and AWD irrigated rice (dataset #5, Sudhir-Yadav, 2008-09) and under irrigated and rainfed wheat (dataset #38;Balwinder-Singh, 2006-08), as well as two datasets from China (dataset #28; Chen et al. (2010a), and dataset#31; Chen et al. ( 2010b)) under irrigated and rainfed wheat and maize.The dynamics of soil water (Fig. 12a-c), water-balance components (Fig. 13a.) and associated crop production (grain yields, Figs. 14 and 15) were all simulated well, across a range of cropping systems and environments featuring rice, wheat and maize, and with contrasting stubble treatments (with and without). Accu-   (Gaydon et al., 2013 (dataset # 7)). The data points above were generated using average error across all treatments and replications in each dataset. racy of simulated biomass production generally decreased with increasing water stress level (Fig. 14), with over-prediction of crop performance indicating under-estimation of crop stress associated with AWD rice by the model.Confidence in APSIM's ability to represent the sustainability of the diverse cropping practices encountered in Asia is indicated by simulation of sensible soil carbon dynamics in several exper-iments of more than 20 years duration, in diverse environments and cropping practices (dataset #27, Fig. 16, wheat-maize in China with a range of fertiliser and stubble treatments; and continuous flooded rice in the IRRI long-term cropping experiment, Gaydon et al., 2012b). There are several additional published studies from Asia demonstrating robust APSIM simulation of soil water, soil organic carbon dynamics and N mineralisation in association with crop yields for wheat and soybean cropping systems under different fertiliser and manuring practices (Bhopal, India; Mohanty et al., 2011Mohanty et al., , 2012)).Simulated crop response to increased CO 2 levels is clearly an important criterion in model evaluation for future research needs in Asia relating to climate change. Only a small number of FACE experiments have been conducted with datasets amenable to our analysis. These were rice FACE datasets from Japan and China (datasets #24 and 25). Both rice biomass and grain yield predictions under ambient and increased atmospheric CO 2 concentrations compared well with the experimental data (Fig. 17), and although no replicate variability data were available, we expect (based on standard error reported in similar trials from the research organisations concerned) that the model has simulated the observed crop responses within the bounds of experimental error.There is no published validation of APSIM's performance to simulate non-rice crop CO 2 response in the Asian context, however there is evidence of adequate performance in simulating wheat  The reporting of APSIM performance in this study is incomplete without noting a range of model parameter estimation challenges which were encountered and overcome − in many cases indicating model deficiencies and suggesting improvements required in model science. The issues and 'work-arounds' used are noted below:In dataset # 1, there was an 11 day (6.4%) error in \"time to maturity\" under extreme N-stress conditions, a 4-day error under mid-range N-stress conditions, compared with simulation of an unstressed crop. This translated to a 12% error in total biomass production (extreme to no-stress). We worked around this problem by calibrating a new simulated 'variety' for each N-stress treat-ment with modified phenology parameters − calibrating, rather than modelling, the crop response to N-stress.The default APSIM-wheat thermal time units increase linearly with increasing daily average temperature between 0 and 26 • C, reaching a maximum value at 26 • C which then decreases linearly to 0 again at 34 • C. We found this approach inadequate to adequately simulate the phenology of late-planted wheat crops in north-west India whose growth period experiences temperatures above the daily average temperature optimum of 26 • C. Using default parameters, APSIM overestimated the length of the crop growth period for such crops. After reviewing the literature and discussions with wheat physiologists, we modified this approach by plateauing the thermal time accumulation at a maximum for temperatures between 26 and 34 • C, declining thereafter to zero at 40 • C, similar to the approach now used in DSSAT (Jones et al., 2003, Ken Boote, personal communication). We tested the approach against available data and the modified model performed sensibly in simu-  2007-08 (c. and d.) for irrigated wheat crops, Punjab, India (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2011;dataset # 38). lating wheat crop duration under such high temperature conditions (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2015a, 2016).Chen et al. ( 2010b) also modified the temperature function for both thermal time and radiation-use efficiency (RUE). In their case, it was found that the original APSIM-Wheat overestimated the early growth after winter. So they modified the temperature response functions into curvilinear forms with reduced thermal time below 15 • C and reduced RUE below 22 • C based on Wang and Engel (1998).The APSIM-Oryza model (as per ORYZA2000 model) uses ambient temperature to calculate the fraction of infertile spikelets caused by high temperature. The average daily maximum temperature over the flowering period (0.96 ≤ crop stage variable (DVS) ≤ 1.22) is calculated. Average maximum temperatures above 36.6 • C cause proportional floret sterility (Bouman and van Laar, 2006). The threshold temperature (httmax = 36.6) is a default APSIM-Oryza input parameter. In reality though the developing floret experiences the canopy temperature of the crop (not the ambient temperature), which has been demonstrated in dry environments to be as much as 6-7 • C below ambient (fully-irrigated Australian rice at 20% relative humidity; Matsui et al., 2007). We used the relationship between ambient temperature and rice canopy temperature developed by Van Oort et al. ( 2014) (equation 10b in that paper) to modify the input value of httmax. This relationship is a function of ambient relative humidity (RH), so we estimated average RH values at each experimental location during the rice flowering phase, calculated the degree of canopy cooling from Van Oort et al. (2014) and increased the value of httmax accordingly. For example, for RH's around or above 80%, the canopy cooling is zero hence httmax remained at the default value of 36.6 • C. This covered most tropical datasets. An RH of 50% however results in a canopy cooling of around 3 • C, hence in this situation we used httmax = 39.6 • C (in other words, a higher threshold) to correctly simulate high-temperature floret sterility effects. Not employing this work-around resulted in overestimation of rice crop sterility in drier regions.The effect of low temperatures on rice spikelet sterility (important for later sowing of longer duration varieties), is calculated according to Horie et al. (1992) based on the 'cooling degree days' concept, using a threshold temperature 22 • C. For north Indian simulations in this model evaluation, the default average daily temperature threshold in the model was changed from 22 • C to 28 • C based on the results of the field study of Nagarajan et al. (2010) conducted in a similar environment with similar rice varieties.Balwinder- Singh et al. (2011) and Sidhu et al. (2007) demonstrated that wheat crops under mulched crop residues exhibit delayed anthesis by 6-8 days, but that APSIM crops do not simulate this phenomenon. The phenological parameters for wheat were therefore set independently for non-mulched and mulched treatments in our simulated datasets, so that anthesis was delayed by about 6 days in the mulched treatments, compared with the non-mulched crops.APSIM-Oryza demonstrated reliable simulation of rice crop phenology provided care was taken in parameterising and calibrating photoperiod sensitivity. Data from sowing date trials made this a relatively straightforward task, however the biggest issue for APSIM users in the region is adequately parameterising photoperiod-sensitive varieties when such data were not available (see Figs. 6 and 7, and Nissanka et al., 2015). In our experience from the ACCA and SAARC-Australia projects, the optimum photoperiod parameter (MOPP, hrs) is readily known and available for different rice crop varieties − the greater challenge is in selecting a sensible value for photoperiod sensitivity (PSSE). Our response was to use PSSE = 0.1-0.2 for a mildly photoperiod sensitive variety, 0.3 for a medium, and 0.4-0.5 for what is locally described as a strongly photoperiod-sensitive rice variety. If the rice crops were non-photoperiod-sensitive, the matter was simple (PSSE = 0, and MOPP was unused).When excess rainfall occurs during the early stages of a rice crop, resulting submergence can damage crops and delay phenology (Jackson and Ram, 2003). Currently neither APSIM-Oryza (nor its parent model ORYZA2000) simulates this phenomenon − crops can become submerged, yet happily continue to grow. Only one dataset exhibited submergence (#8), and we were able to adequately simulate the crop behaviour by creating a bootleg version of APSIM-Oryza in which the variables for crop height and pond depth were compared daily. When pond depth ≥ (crop height*0.9), all simulated phenological development and biomass accumulation was put on hold. The applied empirical factor (0.9) was determined iteratively using comparisons between simulations and the observed data for both crop duration and biomass production. When the condition ceased to apply, crop growth was again continued with no damage component simulated.Soil cracks can extend below the plow-pan during drying phases in AWD rice irrigation or rainfed lowland rice, particularly when puddling has been performed and the drying period between flooding is long (ie the more extreme AWD applications, or long dry spells in rainfed cropping). When this occurs it may result in temporarily amplified saturated percolation rates on re-application of water, compared to continuously flooded treatments, before such time that the cracks re-seal (Bouman and Tuong, 2001;Tan et al., 2013). The result is temporarily increased water usage. Differences occur between soils of different clay content. APSIM currently does not simulate these dynamics in the saturated percolation rate (K s ). We ignored this in simulation of both AWD irrigation and rainfed lowland cropping datasets in this study, retaining the same K s for continuously flooded and AWD treatments.When soils are puddled prior to the rice phase, then later tilled prior to the wheat phase in conventional rice-wheat, rice-maize and similar systems, significant inter-seasonal changes occur in soil properties (Gathala et al., 2011). Puddling reduces the effective K s and bulk density (BD) of affected layers, whereas tillage after the rice phase increases effective K s by breaking the plowpan. BD of surface soil layers is decreased. These are significant input parameters in sensibly simulating rice-wheat system performance (Gaydon et al., 2012a), however APSIM does not currently simulate these parameter changes in response to specified tillage events. For the relevant simulated datasets in this study, we found it was necessary to employ APSIM-Manager to specify an increase in K s of the plow-pan layer by 100% (a doubling), and a decrease in BD by 5% following post-rice tillage, and apply the reverse change to these parameters upon puddling at the start of the subsequent rice phase (following findings of Gathala et al., 2011). Bund height (APSIM resettable parameter max pond) was also reset to zero via APSIM-Manager on the date of rice field drainage (representing opening of the bunds), and then again set to the actual experimental bund-height on the occasion of bund establishment pre-crop. Once again, these are not simulated in APSIM, they are specified by the user. APSIM does however simulate the effect of tillage on soil roughness and therefore runoff and water retained on the soil surface and available for infiltration − by automatically reducing the USDA curve number, as per specified parameters. As an example in our Punjab rice-wheat simulations, we found it necessary to reduce curve number by 10 in the case of each discing, and by 5 for harrowing. The curve number was reset to the default curve number when at least 40 mm of water was added to soil (by rain or irrigation) to simulate the collapse/smoothing of a freshly cultivated soil surface as a result of saturation and rainfall impact (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2015a).The APSIM-Oryza model currently simulates emergence of direct-seeded rice crops on the same day they are sown. There is no attempt to simulate the processes of germination/emergence and associated drivers (time, soil temperature and moisture, depth of sowing etc.). In reality there can be significant variability in these factors, and hence time between sowing and crop emergence, across different seasons. We avoided this problem by programming APSIM to sow direct-seeded rice on the day of observed emergence, rather than the day of actual sowing, in simulating our experimental direct seeded rice datasets. This is not an issue for other APSIM crops, in which the processes of germination and emergence are simulated.In APSIM, radiation use efficiency (RUE) is defined as a speciesspecific parameter, and by default does not change with radiation environments. In reality, RUE increases with the fraction of diffuse radiation (FDR). The decline in total radiation in most part of China, particularly in the North China Plain (NCP), may have led to reduction in crop potential yield, the increasing trend in FDR could have compensated the reduction to some extent. To account for the RUE change affected by the changing FDR, we developed a simple approach to modify RUE in APSIM-Wheat and APSIM-Maize modules for simulation of the wheat-maize double cropping rotation in the NCP. RUE was linearly linked to average seasonal FDR (Chen et al., 2010c; RUE wheat = 0.78FDR + 0.78; RUE maize = 0.93FDR + 1.03), which doubled the RUE for wheat and increased RUE for maize by 90% when FDR increased from 0 to 1.0 based on Rodriguez and Sadras (2007) and Roechette et al. (1996).Initial simulations of winter wheat growth in North China Plain revealed that APSIM severely under-predicted LAI, biomass, and yield of wheat. Detailed process-level analysis indicated that the underestimation was mainly due to the incorrect temperature response of physiological processes implemented in the model for wheat. In the original model, it assumed that all the green leaves and the wheat plants are killed when daily minimum temperature drops to below −15 • C. In the NCP, the winter wheat can survive at Comparison between observed and simulated soil organic carbon (t ha −1 ) for the experiments of Wang et al., 2014. (dataset # 27). A mixture of wheat and wheat-maize cropping systems were examined over four (4) Chinese locations, over a period of 20 + years with a range of fertiliser and stubble treatments. NPK = application of compound inorganic fertilizers; NPKSt = application of inorganic fertilizers and stubble retention; CK = control. Symbols show the observed values and lines show the simulated values. Fig. 17. APSIM-Oryza simulated versus observed rice production (Mg ha −1 ) for both FACE and ambient CO2 treatments: (a.) Yang et al., 2006Yang et al., , 2008 (dataset # 25) (dataset # 25); (b.) Kim et al., 2003 (dataset # 24). Comparison for medium N treatments shown. No replicate variability information (error bars) available. a temperature as low as −20 • C (Jin et al., 1994) therefore as −20 • C was used instead of −15 • C as the threshold value in the model (x temp senescence). This change avoided the total winter killing of the wheat plant, but overestimation of early LAI and growth and underestimation of later LAI and biomass became apparent. Additional modifications were made to the temperature response of thermal time calculation and the temperature response of RUE for wheat based on Wang and Engel (1998) and Porter and Gawith (1999), which led to further improvement of LAI, biomass, and grain yield simulations for wheat (Chen et al., 2010b).Several categories of experiments were excluded from our assembled datasets on the basis of known APSIM model limitations.APSIM assumes that all crop nutrients apart from N and P are non-limiting. This assumption stems from its Australian heritage, where farmers routinely fertilize adequately to avoid micronutrient constraints. However in low-input cropping systems of Asia the limitations placed by shortages (or excesses) in micro-nutrients (and consequently how to manage them within local resource constraints) is sometimes a relevant research issue. The current inability of APSIM to quantify crop responses to micronutrientstress, precluded the use of experimental datasets exploring these issues.APSIM has been successfully used in studies of GHG emissions in non-flooded cropping systems (wheat-sorghum, Huth et al., 2010;sugarcane, Thorburn et al., 2010), however the model currently cannot simulate GHG emissions in flooded systems under anaerobic conditions. Such datasets were excluded.Datasets involving non-rice crops and salinity response were excluded from consideration as the majority of APSIM crops do not yet have the capacity to simulate crop salinity stress.When evaluating model performance and determining whether 'acceptable' performance has been achieved, a powerful technique is to demonstrate that the RMSE between simulated and observed values is around the same quantum (and ideally smaller) than the standard deviation within the observed values (for example, across experimental replicates). When this is true, it essentially demonstrates that the model can simulate the observed behaviour within the bounds of experimental uncertainty. In reality, this is all you can ever expect a model to do. It is unrealistic to expect modelled results to be perfectly the same as the average of the observed values, because as we know (via experimental replicates) there is uncertainty in the observed data. Being exactly the same as the average provides no additional meaning above 'being within the range of experimental uncertainty', in this context. It is also arguable whether it is valid to state that one model is performing better than another model on the basis of a lower RMSE, when both model RMSE's are within the range of the experimental uncertainty.Model evaluation has taken place over a broad spectrum of Asian locations, environments, and crop management practices, with a focus on APSIM's ability to simulate individual crops as well as wider cropping system performance. The model performed well in simulating above-ground biomass and grain yield across the diversity of our assembled datasets.Good quality datasets for soil water dynamics and waterbalance components are relatively rare in Asia. For ponded rice (dataset #5, CS and AWD, Sudhir-Yadav et al., 2011a,b), non-flooded maize and wheat crops (dataset #38, rainfed and irrigated wheat, Balwinder-Singh et al., 2011;dataset #28, rainfed and irrigated wheat and maize, Chen et al., 2010a) acceptable performance was demonstrated by APSIM in simulating soil water balance in individual soil layers and system water-balance components (input requirement (irrigation), transpiration, evaporation, runoff and drainage). These were achieved in conjunction with sensible simulation of crop production , often considered to be a key criterion of \"getting the right results for the right reasons\" (Gaydon et al., 2012a; both above and below-ground processes correct). Simulation of soil moisture and system water balance using APSIM has been more thoroughly evaluated outside of Southern Asia (for example, in Australia; Verburg and Bond, 2003), where greater rigour is possible due to the availability of quality datasets. Given the added confidence from studies such as these, and the lack of any major differences between soils of Asia and the diversity of soils in Australia, we propose confidence in APSIM's capacity to simulate the system water balance components and soil moisture dynamics.Confidence in a model's capacity to respond sensibly in simulating crop response to changes in CO 2 is a pre-requisite to its successful employment in climate change studies, either on impacts or adaptations. We used FACE datasets for rice from Japan and China for this evaluation. On the basis of this limited available data, we conclude that APSIM is capable of sensibly simulating CO 2 response of rice crops in the region under non-stressed water conditions (Fig. 17) and across a range of N-stress conditions imposed in these FACE experiments. Further data evaluating potential interaction between water stress, nitrogen, and CO 2 would provide enhanced confidence in model performance, particularly for simulation of rainfed rice systems in future climates. We have reflected on the use of APSIM with FACE experiments in other parts of the world to give confidence in CO 2 response of wheat, maize and other crops (Asseng et al., 2004;O'Leary et al., 2015). APSIM has been successfully used in a number of published climate change studies in Asia (Bhopal, India (Mohanty et al., 2015); Upper Gangetic Plains, India (Subash et al., 2014a); and the North China Plain (Zhang et al., 2013)).Although this evaluation illustrated good model performance, in some situations that was achieved by overcoming significant input parameter estimation challenges. Even though these were surmounted via 'work-arounds' described earlier, they may in reality indicate model deficiencies and the need for future model improvement to make this process less challenging to inexperienced model users. These are discussed below. Some relate to improvements required in external models which plug-in to the framework (rice, for example; APSIM-Oryza/ORYZA2000) rather than deficiencies within APSIM itself.When a model gives an erroneous estimation for crop yield (for example), it is naive to immediately assume that the problem lies with the crop component of the model. Model performance is equally dependant on accurately representing the resource supply terms, such as soil nutrients, water and climate (Carberry et al., 2009). In presenting the following suggestions that relate to crop model improvement, we have implicitly assumed accurate specification and simulation of supply terms (soil, climate) in the relevant simulations.Simulation of crop phenological development is closely tied to success in simulating grain yields. The work-arounds detailed in the previous section facilitated this performance in certain situations, and we refer to these in recommending the following areas for model improvement.• Rice N-stress response: In the datasets (n = 5) in which crop N-stress was extreme there was clear indication that further improvement of the APSIM-Oryza phenological model is required. This situation arises from the original phenological model within APSIM-Oryza and ORYZA2000 (Bouman and van Laar, 2006) developed using data from non-N-stressed crops, not capturing the effects of N-stress on phenology. Improvement in simulation of this aspect is indicated, however relevantly for this analysis the subsequent simulation errors for both rice grain yield and biomass were within the bounds of experimental uncertainty (standard deviation of observed data) indicating model performance is still acceptable. Incorporation of an N-stress factor (0-1) applied to phenological development could represent one potential avenue (as used in other APSIM crops), and we suspect this factor may have different effects at different crop stages (for example, abiotic stresses may speed up crop development between certain stages while slowing it down between others (Angus and Moncur, 1977)). There may also be interactions with other crop stresses (temperature, water etc.) • Response to submergence: The ability simulate rice crop responses to occasional submergence is of growing relevance to modellers of rice-cropping in the major rice-growing deltas of South and Southeast Asia (Ganges-Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Chao Prahya, Mekong) threatened by rising seas levels and a changing climate. We realise the work-around described in Section 3.7.5, whilst conceptually meaningful and adequate for the single submergence dataset we simulated, may be too simplistic to apply to wider situations. Deeper investigation of this issue is warranted using a broader range of experimental submergence datasets. We recommend the development of generic algorithms describing submergence damage to rice crops as a function of time, crop stage, submergence depth and possibly other variables, and subsequent incorporation into APSIM-Oryza and similar rice models.• Response to mulching: Mulched wheat crops in north-west India exhibited delayed phenology in comparison with nonmulched crops (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2011;Sidhu et al., 2007). Currently there is little published research to indicate whether the primary driver for this phenomenon is canopy or soil temperature differences resulting from the presence of the mulch. Both canopy temperature and soil temperature may require simulation − at early crop stages, soil temperature may be more appropriate because the growing point is close to the soil, while at later stages canopy temperature will dominate, particularly under dry and irrigated conditions. While soil temperature is currently simulated in APSIM, there is no canopy temperature module at the moment. We suggest that the current APSIM phenology routines for all crops may require modification to employ some combination of canopy and soil temperature, rather than ambient temperature (as per current approach). Of course, this implicitly also requires sensible simulation of the mulch effects on canopy temperature and soil temperature. • Response to high temperatures: Our simulation exercise demonstrated that high temperature crop development responses can effectively be simulated in APSIM using a modified thermal time accumulation function (Section 3.7.2). The veracity of this approach has been alluded to by other authors for high temperature cropping environments (Lobell et al., 2012). We suggest that this modified relationship should be considered for incorporation into the APSIM standard release, with all crops being addressed. It should also be a varietal input characteristic, as different varieties exhibit different heat tolerances and development responses to both high and low temperatures. In general, the temperature response simulations of key physiological processes need to be revisited. This includes temperature response of not only phenology, but leaf growth, RUE and other processes for different crops, and whether soil/canopy temperatures should be used. In addition, the impact of extreme temperatures has been poorly defined and rarely tested, including both low and high temperature impacts. For example, high temperature can impact sterility and grain abortion, in addition to adversely impacting other processes. The conceptual model of Barlow et al. (2015) may be helpful. • Simulation of emergence in direct-seeded rice: The APSIM-Oryza model currently simulates emergence of the rice crop on the same day it is sown. We suggest incorporation of algorithms to simulate the process of germination and emergence as a function of a thermal time target, depth of sowing, and soil moisture content (like already used in the other APSIM crop modules − Wang et al., 2002). This aspect is particularly relevant in Asia for simulation of tight cropping sequences which include directseeded rice in intensive cropping patterns with other crops, and timeliness is important.• RUE: While RUE is currently treated as a species-specific constant, it does change due to variation in canopy nitrogen profiles in new cultivars (Sadras et al., 2012;Sadras and Lawson, 2013). RUE also increases with the fraction of diffuse radiation as discussed previously. In addition, the extinction coefficient for light may change with leaf angle, leading to different radiation interception, and thus growth rates. In the new development of APSIM-X (Holzworth et al., 2014), a canopy photosynthesis model will be implemented, which aims to capture the impacts of the abovementioned species, cultivar and environmental impacts. It will consists of a two-leaf (sun vs shaded) model with species and cultivar parameters, thus enabling simulation of impact of changes in both genotypes and radiation environments.• Leaf Growth: Leaf growth and canopy development are simulated differently in various APSIM crop models. Model evaluation using our Chinese datasets revealed that APSIM underestimates the impact of crop density on crop growth for both wheat and canola (Zhang et al., 2012). A leaf cohort approach has been developed for APSIM-Sorghum (Van Oosterom et al., 2001) and is currently being developed for APSIM-wheat and other crops. This approach aims to capture the impact of plant density and environmental conditions on tiller and leaf dynamics, thus to enable better simulation of leaf area growth and the impact of plant density. • Salinity response in non-rice crops: Radanielson et al. (2016) report successful modifications to the APSIM-Oryza model, allowing simulation of rice crop response to changing levels of soil salinity. The model now characterises rice response in terms of varietal tolerance and resilience, with osmotic stress and sodium ion-toxicity stress both affecting simulated processes including photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and transpiration. APSIM-Wheat has the capacity to respond to saline conditions via simulated reduction in soil PAWC (plant available water content) (Hochman et al., 2007), however this simplified approach is untested in Asian conditions to the best of our knowledge. Managing salinity in Asian cropping systems is likely to be of growing relevance to the major rice-growing deltas of South and Southeast Asia (Ganges-Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Chao Prahya, Mekong) threatened by rising sea levels and a changing climate. We suggest evaluation of the APSIM-Wheat approach using available salinity datasets in these regions, and a subsequent enhancement of all relevant APSIM crops − either using this approach or the more physiologically-detailed approach of Radanielson et al. (2016). • Floret sterility in rice due to high temperatures: APSIM-Oryza currently calculates rice floret sterility based on average ambient maximum temperatures during the floral development and flowering period. We suggest modifying the model to simulate crop canopy temperature directly, and subsequently calculate sterility on that basis (to automatically simulate the process which we performed manually, as described in 3.7.3). This same requirement applies to all APSIM crops.• Tillage impacts: APSIM currently simulates tillage effect on USDA curve number (runoff-infiltration ratio) and soil evaporation (as well as other parameters; Connolly et al., 2002), but requires manual resetting of some parameters describing other affected soil properties in rice-wheat and similar cropping systems with transitional puddled and tilled phases (soil bulk density and saturated percolation rate; Section 3.7.7). We judge there are now sufficient data available from published experiments investigating CA effects on soil properties to improve the APSIM-Soilwat model in automatically modifying such parameters when tillages are specified. • GHG emissions: There is a clear development need for sensible APSIM GHG simulation capacity in rice-based systems with seasonal flooding, building on the successful capacity already added for non-flooded cropping phases (CO 2 and N 2 O; Thorburn et al., 2010;Huth et al., 2010)  Phattarakul et al., 2012;Rose et al., 2013). Toxicity of some micronutrients also represent researchable management issues (Suriyagoda et al., 2016) which simulation models currently cannot serve. We suggest that consideration is given to establishing micronutrient stress factors in APSIM crop modules, similar to the way N and P-stresses are simulated. This would require simultaneous development of APSIM soil modules to simulate the dynamics of micronutrients over depth and time, as a function of imposed farmer management.Many of the looming research questions for the south Asian region relate to development of best management practices for cropping systems within their local environmental and socioeconomic constraints − aiming to maximise land and/or water productivity whilst minimising negative environmental outcomes (Godfray et al., 2010;Gathala et al., 2014). In this regard we have demonstrated APSIM's capacity to reliably simulate sequences of crops and system dynamics over a broad expanse of Asian agriculture, in addition to gaining some confidence in the model's response to increasing CO 2 , the effect of stubble, deficit irrigation, increased cropping intensity, and fertiliser practices. Elsewhere, the APSIM model has been demonstrated as particularly strong in its capacity to simulate detailed farmer management practices and decision-trees (Holzworth et al., 2014;Amarasingha et al., 2015;Balwinder-Singh et al., 2015a,b;Hochman et al., 2017a,b), allowing simulations to reflect how farmers will actually respond in different seasons and conditions. This makes APSIM a robust choice for a cropping systems model when the research questions centre on development of detailed farmer adaptation strategies to external forces of change. To the best of our knowledge, no model apart from APSIM currently has the ability to simulate detailed farmer management strategies in cropping systems, which reflect yearto-year changes in actual on-ground farmer actions in response to prevailing environmental conditions. Our analysis which encompassed 12 countries, 43 datasets, 7 crop types and numerous crop rotations, adds to previously more disparate crop model evaluation exercises performed for other models in the region (for example, DSSAT − Timsina and Humphreys 2006a,b: 11 datasets, primarily rice and wheat only as individual crops rather than systems (only 1 sequence dataset which performed poorly), crop components only, 7 countries; INFOCROP − Aggarwal et al., 2006b: 11 datasets, rice-wheat systems only, all experiments at New Delhi, India). The demonstrated performance of APSIM in simulating cropping performance (crop and soil dynamics) with and without mulch position it strongly to contribute to future research in Conservation Agriculture in Asia, as does its demonstrated ability to robustly simulate cropping sequences and the impacts of associated cropping systems intensification. Simulations of diverse cropping sequences up to seven consecutive crops showed no trend of increasing residual error between simulated and observed yields, despite no re-setting of soil parameters (water, nutrients) between crops, suggesting robust simulation of long-term system processes. As far as we are aware, our method of analysing residual error with advancing crop number to evaluate the performance of a cropping sequence model, is novel.Having a model which is 'capable' is clearly essential, however correct parameterisation, calibration and validation procedures will always be important for APSIM users in obtaining robust model performance at a local scale. This analysis has highlighted numerous strengths, however has also identified some aspects which make APSIM parameter estimation challenging or else limit APSIM's applicability. Relevant model improvements have been suggested.This research shows that APSIM performed in a statistically robust manner in simulating cropping system performance over a wide range of crops, varieties, environments and management practices in Asia. Aspects evaluated include production and phenology of individual crops (rice, wheat, maize, others); the ability to robustly simulate soil water and nutrient dynamics under cropping sequences without soil variable resets, and crop response to CO 2 . For rice, the major crop of the study region, our analysis indicates that APSIM performs better in simulating PTR than DSR, and better in simulating rice production under continuouslyflooded water management than either AWD irrigation or rainfed (no irrigation) systems. However simulation of each of these important systems indicated no significant difference between simulated and observed rice grain yields at 95% confidence level, hence APSIM's performance across the systems can still be categorized as acceptable, and within the range of experimental data uncertainty. Similarly, performance in simulating the other major crops of the region (notably maize, wheat and cotton) were shown to be within the bounds of experimental error. Input parameter estimation challenges were encountered, and although 'work-arounds' were developed and described, in some cases these actually illustrate model deficiencies which need to be addressed. Desirable future improvements have been identified to better position APSIM as a useful tool for Asian cropping systems research into the future. These include aspects related to harsh environments (high temperatures, salinity, rice crop submergence), conservation agriculture, greenhouse gas emissions in rice systems, as well as aspects more specific to Southern Asia and low input systems (such as deficiencies in soil micro-nutrients).","tokenCount":"10490"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0db74f5d679bfce5637df422d02cb8c0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H042038.pdf","id":"-1099493025"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8b9f2035-88a8-4906-9fef-50bb20414e92","pagecount":"12","content":"India ranks first among the rain-fed agriculture practicing countries of the world both in terms of extent (86 M ha) and value of the produce. Due to low opportunities and higher population of landless households and agricultural laborers as well as low land and labor productivity, poverty is concentrated in rain-fed regions (Singh 2001). Yield gap analyses, undertaken by Comprehensive Assessment of Water in Agriculture (CA 2007) for major rain-fed crops found farmer's yield being a factor 2-4 times lower than achievable yields for major rain-fed crops. Grain yield oscillates around 1-2 t/ha compared with attainable yields of over 4-5 t/ha (Falkenmark and Rockstrom1993). The large yield gap between attainable yields and farmers' practice as well as between attainable and potential yields shows that a large potential of rainfed agriculture remains to be tapped.Rainfall is a truly random factor in the rain-fed production system and its variation and intensity is high in areas of low rainfall. Semi-arid regions, however, may receive enough annual rainfall to support crops but it is distributed so unevenly in time or space that rainfed agriculture becomes unviable (Reij et al. 1988). Rockstrom and Falkenmark 2000 note that due to the high rainfall variation, a decrease of one standard deviation from the mean annual rainfall often leads to the complete loss of crop. Agricultural droughts, where primarily a skewed distribution of rainfall causes drought in the root zone, are more frequent than the real meteorological droughts. Dry spells (or monsoon breaks), which generally are 2-4 weeks of no rainfall during critical stages of plant growth causing partial or complete crop failures, often occur every cropping season. Therefore, besides several other factors related to agriculture sector as a whole, adverse meteorological conditions resulting in long dry spells and droughts, unseasonal rains and extended moisture stress periods with no mechanisms for storing and conserving the surplus rain to tide over the scarcity/ deficit periods were identified as the major cause for non-remunerative yields and heightened distress in rainfed regions (Kanwar 1999).Supplemental (or deficit) irrigation is a key strategy, so far underutilized on a regional basis, to unlock rain-fed yield potentials. Supplemental irrigation to bridge dry spells in rain-fed agriculture has the potential of increasing yields and minimizing risks for rain induced yield loss.The existing evidence indicates that supplemental irrigation ranging from 50-200 mm/ season (500-2,000 m3/ha) is sufficient to mediate yield reducing dry spells in most years and rainfed systems, and thereby stabilize and optimize yield levels (Wani and Ramakishna 2005). Since irrigation water productivity is much higher when used conjunctively with rainwater (supplemental), it is logical that under limited water resources priority in water allocation may be given to supplementary irrigation (Agarwal 2000;Joshi et al. 2005). Collecting small amounts using limited macro-catchments, water harvesting during rainy season in the potential regions/ districts can achieve this. Under the 'Strategic Analyses of India's National River Linking Project', a study was, therefore, made to estimate the available runoff in the potential regions to mitigate the terminal drought in the dominant rain-fed districts of India. The study developed a criterion and identified the dominant rain-fed districts for major rainfed crops in India, made an assessment of the surplus runoff available for water harvesting and supplemental irrigation in these districts, estimated the regional water use efficiency and increase in production due to supplemental irrigation for different crops across the dominant districts and made a preliminary estimate of the economics of the proposed intervention. The next sections of the paper describe in brief the methodology and assumptions; and results and conclusions of the study.A district (with an average size of ~ 0.5 M ha) is identified as the administrative and planning unit in India and all data sets pertaining to agriculture, water resources, climate, human development and related parameters are available for the district; so, 'district' was considered as unit of analysis for this research. Rain-fed crops in varying proportions are cultivated throughout the rural landscape of the country. The earlier classifications of rainfed areas were based on fixed or variable percentages of irrigated area (Kerr et al. 1996) in the district irrespective of the area under major rain-fed crops. An improved criterion for the identification of rain-fed districts for a given crop was based on the total rain-fed area under the crop in the district (CRIDA 1998). For the present analysis, districts in the descending order of area coverage limiting to cumulative 85 % of total rain-fed area for each crop were identified and termed as 'dominant rain-fed districts' for a given crop. Crops covered were sunflower, soybean, rapeseed mustard, groundnut, castor, cotton, sorghum, pearl millet, maize and pigeon peas in kharif (rainy season) and linseed and chickpeas in rabi (winter season). The 5-year averages (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) of the irrigated area, production and the total cropped area were prepared on district basis. Crop-specific dominant rainfed districts helped to delineate the major region for the given crop. Details on total districts in rain-fed states and 'dominant districts' covering 85 % of the rain-fed crop area are given in Table 1.Such identification shows that each of the rain-fed crops has a particular agro-climatic niche and its cultivation is concentrated in certain selected districts. Productivity and other development activities related to a specific crop should be taken up first in these identified districts to ensure a major impact on productivity. The total rainfall in India is spread over few rainy days and fewer rain events (about 100 hours in the season) with high intensity resulting in large surface runoff and erosion and temporary stagnation. In either of the cases this 'green water' is not available for plant growth and has very low productivity. Local harvesting of a small part of this water and utilizing the same for supplementary/ protective irrigation to mitigate the impacts of devastating dry spells offers a good opportunity in the fragile rain-fed systems (Rockstrom 2001;Sharma et al. 2005;Wani et al. 2003). For national/ regional level planning on supplementary irrigation, one needs to make an assessment of the total and available surplus runoff and potential for its gainful utilization. In the present study, both crop season-wise and annual water balance analyses were done for each of the selected crops cultivated in the identified districts. Whereas, annual water balance analysis assessed the surplus and/or deficit during the year to estimate the water availability and losses through evaporation, the seasonal crop water balance analysis assessed changes in the temporal availability of rainfall and plant water requirements. Water requirement satisfaction index was used for assessing the sufficiency of rainfall vis-à-vis the crop water requirements. The total surplus from a district is obtained by the multiplication of seasonal surplus with the rain-fed area under the given crop .The total surplus available from a cropped region is obtained by adding the surplus from individual dominant districts identified for each crop. An estimated amount of 11.5 M ha-m runoff is generated through 39 M ha of the prioritized rain-fed area. Out of the surplus of 11.5 M ha-m, 4.1 M ha-m is generated by about 6.5 M ha of rain-fed rice alone. Another 1.32 and 1.30 M ha-m of runoff is generated from soybeans (2.8 M ha) and chickpea (3.35 M ha), respectively. Total rain-fed coarse cereals (10.7 M ha) generate about 2.1M ha-m of runoff. Spatial distribution of runoff on agro-ecological sub-region river basin wise is shown in Figure 1. However, based on experiences from watershed management research and large-scale development efforts, practical harvesting of runoff is possible only when the harvestable amount is greater than 50 mm or greater than 10 % of the seasonal rainfall (minimum utilizable runoff, CRIDA 2001). This constitutes about 10.5 M ha of rain-fed area which generates a seasonal runoff of less than 50 mm (10.25 M ha) or less than 10 % of the seasonal rainfall (0.25 M ha). Thus, the total estimated runoff surplus for various rain-fed crops is about 11.4 million ha-m (114.02 billion cubic meters, BCM) from about 28.5 million ha which could be considered for water harvesting (Table 2). Among individual crops, rain-fed rice contributes a higher surplus (4.12 M ha-m from an area of 6.33 M ha) followed by soybeans (1.30 M ha-m from 2.8 M ha). The deficit of rainfall for meeting crop water requirement is also visible for crops like groundnut, cotton, chickpea and pigeon pea.Long-and short-term agricultural droughts and more pronounced meteorological droughts are a common and recurrent phenomenon in the rain-fed areas served by monsoons. Though there is a good amount of surplus available as runoff in a season, all the runoff is not available at one time during the season. For the southwest Indian monsoon, usually there are two peaks of rainfall, the first occurring immediately after the onset of monsoon and the second during its withdrawal phase. During these two periods, there is a likely certainty of overflows (Ramakrishna et al. 1998) which can be harvested in suitable structures to mediate the randomness and enhance the structured supply of rainwater. Normally, farmers (depending on the method of irrigation) apply an irrigation to a depth of 30 to 50 mm as supplemental/ deficit irrigation in rain-fed areas. Actually the objective of supplemental irrigation is to adequately recharge the upper dry soil profile and connect it with the moist profile prevailing in the deeper soil layers so as to provide continuity to the flow process. In the present study, an amount of 100 mm was considered per irrigation including the conveyance and other losses. This quantity of irrigation may appear to be high but was forced due to a vast number of untrained water managers, uneven farm lands and the lack of suitable irrigation infrastructure available with rain-fed farmers.Based on this available surplus, the irrigable area was estimated for a single supplemental irrigation of 100 mm at the reproductive stage of the crop. This was estimated for both normal rainfall and drought years. Runoff during a drought year is assumed to be 50 % of the runoff/ surplus during a normal rainfall year (based on authors' estimates for selected districts and rain-fed crops in Andhra Pradesh). The potential irrigable area (through supplementary irrigation) for both scenarios is given below (Table 3). Out of 114 billion cubic meters available as surplus, about 28 billion cubic meters (19.4 %) is needed for supplemental irrigation to irrigate an area of 25 million ha during a normal monsoon year thus leaving about 86 M ha-m (80.6 %) to meet river/environmental flow and other requirements. During drought years also about 31 billion cubic meters is still available even after making provision for irrigating 20.6 million ha. Thus it can be seen that water harvesting and supplemental irrigation may not seriously jeopardize the available flows in rivers even during drought years or cause significant downstream effects in the normal years.Water use efficiency (WUE), is normally defined as grain yield (or value of the produce) per unit of water used/ transpired, measured in kilograms (or monetary units) per hectare per millimeter of water (kg/ha/mm, $/ha/mm) applied/ used (Molden 2001). At a regional scale, the estimation of rainwater use efficiency (RWUE) could be obtained by aggregating the rainwater use efficiency available at field scale. However, it is not a viable practical solution as the data requirement is quite large (in terms of productivity values from each parcel of land, inflow/outflow as surface/ sub-surface flow from cultivated fields etc.). Thus, a simple method to estimate RWUE at regional scale is to utilize the existing database of productivity statistics (available at district level) and to derive the estimate of rainfall utilized for production purposes (i.e., rain water use efficiency as a ratio of productivity at district level to the effective rainfall).Water use efficiency under rainfed agriculture is not a consistent value as evidenced in irrigated agriculture. In rain-fed areas, the WUE varies from district to district and from year to year based on the pattern of rainfall occurrence with drought years giving a higher value of water use efficiency. The present study aggregates water use efficiency at district level for major rain-fed crops. At the field level, the effective rainfall was estimated by the procedure developed under CROPWAT and water productivity was estimated as the ratio of crop productivity at district level (5-year average) to the effective rainfall received at the district. This analysis was carried out for various rain-fed crops in respective dominant rain-fed districts. Achievable yields from on-farm trials and longterm average rainfall for each dominant rain-fed district and for different rain-fed crops were used for estimating the 'achievable' water use efficiency (Table 4). Production projections were made for different crops in the respective rain-fed districts using the information on regional rainwater use efficiency from both scenarios, namely; district averages and on farm trials hereafter referred to as 'traditional practices' and 'improved technologies', respectively and supplemental irrigation of 100 mm at reproductive stage. Secured crop water supply (though of a limited amount) during critical drought spells reduces the risks for crop failure, thereby increasing farmers' incentives to invest in farm inputs, such as fertilizers, improved seeds, crop protection and diversification (Falkenmark et al. 2001). Trials of water harvesting and its strategic application (supplementary irrigation) in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Niger, Sudan and Tanzania have also shown increased yields of 2-3 times of those achieved in dryland farming (FAO 2002). The improved technologies involve the adoption of improved varieties, application of recommended doses of fertilizers, better management and follow-up on recommended package of practices etc. The estimated production projections for each crop and district and aggregates based on individual crop with improved practices and over two types of seasons (normal and drought) summarized for crops and groups of crops are given in Table 5. Additional production was a product of irrigable area, water use efficiency and the amount of irrigation. The irrigable area through supplemental irrigation (at 100 mm) for different crops during drought season varies between 50-98 % (98 % for rice crop to 50 % for sunflower districts) of the irrigable area during normal season.Improved technologies, along with water, play an important part to harness the potential benefits. Under improved management practices an average of 50 % increase in total production cutting across drought and normal seasons is realizable with supplemental irrigation from rainfed area of 27.5 M ha (Table 5). Production enhancement in drought season in case of rice crop is high due to higher water application efficiency and due to the sufficient surplus to bring almost the entire rice cultivated area under supplemental irrigation. This would also indicate that large tracts of rain-fed rice cultivated area are covered under high rainfall zones with sufficient surplus for rainwater harvesting. Similar situation could be observed for soybean, which also reflects the concentration of crop growing area in high rainfall zones. In case of other crops, though water application efficiency is higher during the drought scenario, lack of surplus to cover entire area reduces the total production. Significant production improvements can be realized in rice, sorghum, maize, cotton, sesame, soybeans and chickpea.The success of Green Revolution in irrigated areas is one solid example built upon irrigation and improved technologies. Everyone of the stakeholders from supplier to farmer to market responded with equal enthusiasm. A second Green Revolution is not in the offing for a long time for the reason that this needs to be staged in water scarcity/insufficiency zone. In the absence of stabilized yields, a production system of marketable value could not be put in place unlike in irrigated rice-wheat and other intensive production systems. The various stakeholders from start to end could not be enthused. However, the improved watersheds did to a little extent what irrigation could do to large assured areas. The mechanisms and processes for both scaling-out and scaling-up the impacts generated at the 'bright spots' have still eluded the development planners and implementing agencies in India (Sharma et al. 2005). Still, it has been observed that the input use like hybrid seed, fertilizers, and plant protection are on the increase with watershed activities especially associated with increase in supplemental irrigation and cropping intensity (Joy and Paranjape 2004). Concerted efforts are required through development of the local water resources to stretch the boundaries of these oases to cover the vast drylands.While it appears that supplemental irrigation offers scope for enhancing production from rainfed crops across different agro-ecologies/districts, it is also essential that the same need to be economically viable. Numerous such structures have been constructed under varying agroclimatic conditions under state sponsored programs, by nongovernmental organizations and even with individual initiatives. The available literature also has good evidence on the technical and financial viability of the construction of such water harvesting structures for the improvement of productivity and diversification of agriculture in the rain-fed areas (Oweis 1997;Kurien 2005). The cost of provision of supplemental irrigation through construction water harvesting structures varies a great deal between states/ regions and locations between the same state (Sharda 2003;Samra 2007, personal communication;Table 6). Hence a simple analysis based on the national average cost for rainwater harvesting structures (INR 18,500 per hectare) was carried out for the provision of supplemental irrigation to rain-fed crops. The crop-wise annualized cost, considering the useful life of lined structures as 20 years, is given in Table 7. It suggests that an estimated INR 50 billion is annually required to provide supplemental irrigation to around 28 million hectares of rain-fed-cultivated land and about half of that amount is required for rice and coarse cereal production only. The benefit is evaluated based on the price of the crop and the yield difference from supplemental irrigation. With the adoption of improved practices in conjunction with supplemental irrigation, net benefits become positive for all crops except pearl millet indicating the need for development/ general adoption of high yielding varieties of pearl millet, which are responsive to irrigation and improved practices (Table 7). Pearl millet, sorghum and maize continue to be the crops with a very low harvest index. However, the data indicate that the net benefits improve by about, three-times for rice, four-times for pulses and six-times for oilseeds. Droughts appear to have very mild impact when farmers are equipped with supplemental irrigation and the net benefits remain stable even when runoff during a drought period gets reduced by 50 %.Rain-fed agriculture is mainly and negatively influenced by the random behavior of rainfall, causing intermittent dry spells during the cropping season and especially, at critical growth stages coinciding with the terminal growth stage. District level analysis for different rain-fed crops in India showed that the difference in the district average yields for rain-fed crops among different rainfall zones was not very high, indicating that the total water availability may not be the major problem in different rainfall zones. Further, for each crop, there were few dominant districts which contributed most to the total rain-fed crop production. The most effective potential strategy to realize the potential of rain-fed agriculture in India (and elsewhere) appears to be harvesting a small part of available surplus runoff and reutilizing it for supplemental irrigation at different critical crop growth stages. The study identified about 27.5 M ha of potential rain-fed area, which accounted for most of the rain-fed production and generated sufficient runoff (114 BCM) for harvesting and reutilization. It was possible to raise the rainfed production by 50 % over this entire area through application of one supplementary irrigation (28 BCM) and some follow up on the improved practices. Extensive area coverage rather than intensive irrigation needs to be done in regions with higher than 750 mm/ annum rainfall, since there is a larger possibility of alleviating the in-season drought spells and ensuring the second crop with limited water application. This component may be made an integral part of the ongoing and new development schemes in the identified rural districts. The proposed strategy is environmentally benign, equitable, poverty-targeted and financially attractive to realize the untapped potential of rain-fed agriculture in India.","tokenCount":"3307"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"94f80d7eecb4601e1f6c03e300503042","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/26291564-3bd5-485d-9902-cae17822540c/retrieve","id":"514079940"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"859a8274-1214-4533-bc2d-96adc70fa83f","pagecount":"298","content":"Tie NCRE Ill contract was signed and put into action. A contract was signed with Winrock International For Long Tlen Training and purchasing. The activities of NCRE' Project Administration centered around the arrival and installation ol eight new staff. All completed project housing was occupied by staft and the Nkolbisson olfice/laboratory building was occupied. Six national counterparts left fOr degree training and six others returned from successful degree training in the USA to resume duties. Peace Corps Volunteers started doing Agroforestry work in collaboration with the NCRE staff in Northwest Province.The multilocation variety yield trials tested approximately 30 to 40 lines over six locations in the sorghum grown region of the North Cameroon. Some lines were identified in each zone as being very proliising in respect to yield potential, and yield stability. Early maturing varieties did yield better across locations, but some were attacked by grain mold and birds. Most of\" the late maturing varieties could not complete their cycle.Pcarl millet trials testeci about 40 exotic lines and 10 local entries. Most introductions )erformed significantly better than the local varieties. The results suggested -wat further screening should be made within pearl millet local germplasm to identify agronomically elite lines. The seed of' IKMV-201 an ICRISAT introduction was multiplied for further testing.A survey of farmers maize stores, initiated in 1990, was completed in 1991. Potential quantitative losses in the mid-altitude zone (Ndop: 1200 in) were assessed at between 0.1 and 35% (mnean=7%). Assessed qualitative losses ranged from 2% to 64% (mean=23%) damaged grains (by weight) in the last storage period (August). The average value of storage losses to the Ndop Plain farmer storing 2.5 tons of maize (shelled equivalent) was estimated at 15% (23,000 CFA).New varieties tested included ATP, S'' I'I-IE''ICT-3, IARLY WlII.l' and MSR (2nd season trial). Fcrtilizer was applied at a low level k100 kg 20-10-I.) and most management decisions left to the farmer. The maize was intercroppcd with soybeans. In the Ist season, the new varieties outyieklcd the farmers' local varieties by : mean 0.5 t/ha (24%), but did not outyield the relcased varieties. With the exceltion of Early White, lariners assessed the new varicties as being superior to their local varicties. Specifc characteristics of' the new varieties (e.g., yellow color and flinty grainsi for the ATP variety) were of special interest to stbscts of farmers, demonstrating the di fTereinces in prclerred maize characteristics aniong farmers in the area. In the 2nd season trial, no new varieties yielded more than the local variety.New high altitude maize varieties were tested on-l'arni for the third year in Ohe Eastern Highlands of the NWP. After 2 years of promising results fOr the -lAP variety; results that gave the .1\"U reason to hope that the 1st improved high altitude maize variety would be released in 1993; HAP performcd poorly in 1991, yielding no better than the local variety. Most farmers ranked their local variety first in overall l)crformance. A new maize disease in the area, Phaeasophora leaf spot, widely attacked all varieties in the trial, including the local.The new iiiid-altitude maize varieties (ATP, SYNTHETIC POOL 3 and EARLY WHITE) perlormed well under bean and soybean intercrop, but were not significantly better than the LOCAL variety.\"Anhara\" land preparation system (i.e., burying crop and weed residues and burning them under the soil) effctively neutralized up to 1.28 meq/100 g of exchangeable Al in the soil.A rapid assessment of soil ferlility status ol the Western Highlands showed that exchangeable K was the strongest single factor influencing maize yields in the mid-altitude zone. In the high-altitude zone a complex intcraction of Ca with other nutrients including Mg and P is a major fatctor influencing maize yield. The frequency of very strongly acid soils (p-I < 5.0) is low in both zones.Ekona TLU Two major contrasts in 1991 provided a glimpse into the future of T'LU, Ekona. The contrasts were (a) an absence of any Technical Assistant during th2 first half of 1991 folloving the departure of two long-term TLU' Technical Assistant and (b) the near collapse of our wotking, relationship with MINAGRI's village site extension staff following a withdrawal of*cash incentives.The National counterparts cffcctively managed the program as attested by the 1991 Midterm Report of activities, the current one being simply updated to include the second half of 1991. In response to the problems of' village extension staff, Ekona TLU has not only received a commitment Irom Southwest delegation of agriculture to work with '[LU, Ekona, but it has also been given direct access to village stalf with whom it will mutually execute fIarm level projects in an institutionalized manner.The effective use of Marshall ST 25 For egusi melon control and low dosage of Furadan for second season maize stemn borer control have been convincingly demonstrated to farmers in South West Province but these products remain unavailable to them. Contrary to some breeders' and extensionists' asscrtions that 8017 and 8034 cassava can be eaten boiled, our findings show that they are unacceptable in that form to all the communities studied in 1991. Nitrogen derived from coppiced one year old fallows of leucacna and gliricidia were estimated at 105 and 75 kg/ha, respectivelyenough to satisfy maize N requirements of 300 to 400 kg of 20-10-10.In socioeconomic research, achievements in 1991 include the holding of focus village meetings with farmers in February and the convening of an annual workshop with over 80 participants from IRA, MINAGRI, Development projects staff and farmers in March. Farmers' mixcd cropping system was found to have low individual plant populations and crop yields iii the farmers' system but higher land and income equivalent ratios. A retention study The NCRE Administration is responsible for all administrative coordination of the project. 1'riI ry activities are cen. red at Nkolbisson. Administrative staff at each NCRE location are supervised by the NCRE coordinator at that location.Operation 1: Planning and supervision of project perforuance. During 1991 a total of 45 official visitors were received at the Nkolbisson offices. These included the Director General of ITA, Dr. L. Brader. Various representatives of national research organizations also visited during this period.The Highland Maize Breeding Unit is responsible for the development of varieties adapted to improved and current farming systems between 1000 and 2500 meters altitude. The target zones are found in the Northwest, West and Adamaoua Provinces and include a large range of soil types and farm sizes. The Western Highland, comprising the North West and West Provinces, cover less than 10% of the land area in Cameroon, but contains 25% of the population, and produces over 60% of the national maize crop.The goal of the unit is to further develop a comprehensive breeding program which will continuously provide seed of new varieties to the ,eed multiplication and distribution organizations, well past 1994. Past v'ork by this unit h;s emphasized the development of a germplasni base, which has beeni improved to the point of producing open-pollinated, hybrid and synthetic varieties. After confirmation by TLU, the best of these vai ieties will be available for foundation seed production.While the unit has, in recent years, put an emphasis on selecting inbred lines for hybrids, we will gradually return the emphasis to population improvement. The proposed installation of a maize sueak virus screening facility means an emphasis will be placed on developing virus resistant germplasm.The rapid spread of varieties in farmer fields depends,in large part, on the ability of the seed productioni system to provide sufficient quantities of good quality seed, and of the C.<tcnsioii system to disseminate the seed and the approprite information on it' tse. The s,:ccess ( hybrids in Caneroon is likely, in the next four y.',rs, to depend on the siIccess of tl. pi sC iln th cout TI c sccc. of' the strea , sci tni Scry will depend oi the ability of national scicntists to learn the necessary techniques mid to manage the facilities. Guidance for this will be provided by the TA with technical backstopping provided by IITA.,. mn .Substantial advances were made in each of the three major components of the breeding program in 1991. Synthetic-4 which was in its first year in the variety testing program had a four location mean yield of 117% of the widely grown control variety Coca. From our hybrid program 11 inbred lines were sent to the recently established Pioneer Agropenetique Caimeroon S.A for tirther testing and potential use in commercial hybrids. Trhirdly, our germplasm improvement program took an important step toward the screening of breeding lines for maize streak virus resistance with the construction of two screenhouses and the initiation of artificial rearing of Cicadilina, the insect vector of the virus.Due to the arrival of the new TA breeder in the unit in late February, and the departure of the senior counterpart for Ph.D. studies in September, no major changes in the direction of the program were attempted this year. However, a reduction in the number of locations and plot sizes used for trials was necessitated by budget cuts and difficulties in obtaining sufficient labor.Population improvement continued in three introduced source populations which serve as sources of inbred lines for hybrids and synthetic varieties. Two released varieties were converted to streak virus resistance by recombination of resistant lines that had been sent to IITA for screening. Promising new inbred lines for hybrid and synthetic formation were identified from multilocational test cross trials and others were under development through selfing and selection in the nurseries. Small programs to obtain locally adapted sweet corn and popcorn were continued.Seven varieties were grown in isolated plots, breeder seed was selected, and selected bulks were obtained for foundation seed production and use by other researchers. We also collaborated with the seed multiplication program at Bambui station in the production of hundreds of kilograms of each of four released varieties.Other activities included the sowing of trials for collaborators, the results of which will be obtained from the collaborators after their analyses. These include [ITA international hybrid, inbred, and progeny testing trials; Pioneer International hybrid trials; and a joint study with IITA of the cyclic improvement of the Cameroonian open-pollinated populations. In addition to carnying out the latter study, the former NCRE TA breeder sowed most of our hybrid and variety trials in the mid-altitudes of Nigeria. Finally, although it was unsuccessful due to a severe disease infection, we provided an irrigated field and technical assistance to the Pioneer company to pilot test hybrid production of two of its highland inbreds.Operation 1: Develop Gerplasm testing by TLU.2.1.4. , p J _ eQpmn~! Population 32, Population 43 SR and EMSR were grown in 1991 to be improved as sourccs of [Wv., ilnbred lflCos for varietal and hybrid formation. 515 S,lines, 392 S2 lines and 254 S, liles wcrc selected from Population 32, Population '13 SR aud! EMSR, respectively. While these source populations possess importnt characteristics (e.g. good plant type and flinty white grain for Population 32, and earliness for EMSR) on which future progress can be based, budgetary constraints will limit the effort that can be made in their improvement.Progress was made toward the testing of Maize Streak Virus resistant versions of the varieties Coca and Kasai with a first recombination of streak resistant lines made at Nfonta. Sixty-one and 186 streak resistant lines of Coca and Kasai, respectively, were obtained after screening at lbadan and were intermated during the 1991 main season. A second recombination is being carried out in the off-season nursery at Foumbot. New inbreds for synthetic and hybrid formation were identified in test cross trials and new and advanced inbreds were advanced and selected in the Foumbot and Nfonta nurseries. Twenty seven inbreds were selected from two test cross trials, sown in single row plots at Foumbot and Nfonta. From these and older inbreds, 298 preliminary hybrids are being produced in the off-season nursery for testing in 1992. Selfing was done in crosses involving the reciprocal source synthetics and East African introductions with segregating lines from S, to S, being advanced in the nurseries at Foumbot and Nfonta. At Foumbot, 549 S2 lines were advanced to S3, 12 S 3 lines were advanced to S, and 98 lines at S., or greater were advanced one generation. At Nfonta single crosses from Synthetic A 4 and Synthetic B,were selfed and 174 S, lines were selected. A small program in sweet corn conversion to mid altitude adaptation continued. MSR-sh, a very sweet type with poor germination, is undergoing a germination test o'\"selected lines in the 1991 dry season. The MSR-su type has good germination but is less sweet. 200 lines of MSR-su were selfed and selected for minimum grain starch content, and subsequent selfing and recombination should improve the grain quality.A small program of conversion of U.S. popcorn to mid altitude adaptation was advanced, with 10 lines and sister lines selected. A full diallel trial was carried out at Foumbot in 1991 to evaluate specific combining ability, and a second evaluation will be made in 1992.National Variety Trials (NVT) for 1991 included the Mid Altitude Early and Late, each sown at Foumbot (1000m), Nfonta (1300m), Babungo (1100m), Tibati (1000m) and Mbang Mbirni (11 00m), and the High Altitude trial sown at Mbiyeh (2000m) and Upper farm (2000m). Plots for all trials consisted of 4, 5m rows with 80 cm between rows and 25 cm between plants. The central rows were harvested for yield samples. Two seed were sown per hill with thinning to 1plant per hill.The NVT Early was initiated in 1990 to test the earliness, yield and adaptation of Early White and Early MSR in comparison with the released varieties Bacoa and Kasai. In 1991, five sites were sown, but the location of the trial on poor soils at Tibati and Mbang Mbirni permitted analysis of data from only Foumbot, Nfonta and Babungo (Tables I and 2). Early White gave the best results ranking 1', 2' and 2 ' for yield at Foumbot, Nfonta and Babungo, respectively. Its yields were significantly (P< 0.05) higher than those of Bacoa at Foumbot and Babungo. In addition, the mean days to silk indicate that Early White is six days earlier to flower than Bacoa and Kasai. Plant and grain characteristics of Early White are also good, especially a mean plant height of 221 cms, making it good for intercropping. The variety is presently in on-farm testing by ,!ie TLU and is being converted to a yellow grain type using Bacao as the source of yellow grain color.Reliable data for the NV '-Late came fromn all of the five stations where it was sown, except Tibati (Tables 3 and 4). Entries in the trial for the iirst time in 1991 include the following: a new mixed grain color variety, Synthetic 4; the latest cycle of the Acid Tolerant Population, ATP--90; and the most, recent cycle of the IITA population which is bascd on selections made in Cameroon, Babungo MSR 89. With the exception of the hybrid control ZS 206, Synthetic 4 ranked V for yield over the four locations, was significantly (P < 0.05) higher yielding than Coca at Foumbot and significantly (P < 0.05) higher yielding than Kasai in the combined Nfonta-Mbang Mbirni analysis. ATP-90 ranked highest for yield of all of the versions of ATP tested, and, ranking 2', was significantly higher yielding than Kasai at Nfonta. For the 2\"1 consecutive year Synthetic-3 was the highest yielding entry at Foumbot significantly (P <0.05) higher than ZS 206 and Coca. It is also worth noting that the yield of Shaba was 3' over the four locations and that this yield was stable over location never ranking below 5' .These yield results and the good agronomic and ear characteristics of the above mentioned varieties lead to the following conclusions:1-Synthetic-4, though needing further testing in our trials, could be tested by the TLU in 1992. 2-ATP-90 needs Iurther testing in comparison with Coca on soils with low available lP, but it show,; good potential for release. 3-Synthetic-3 should be further tested on faini in the Foumbot area ain( in other transitional altitude (approximately 1000in), high fertility areas. 4-Shaba should be made available to farmers in the West and Northwest Provinces and should not be restricted to the Adamawa Plateau.Another inteesting result of this trial was; the non-significant (P<0.05) variety x location interaction for yield when a combined analysis was calculated using Nfonta and Mhang Mbiroi data. It re-cimplmasizcs the need for the Highland Maize Researchers to better ITn-! . nmd th, r-oir,', f1(renrs th,! ffort the pnrfor m'ice of our w'riefi,.s.This \"'ill ..ad, noi only to noit cificicni. sclectio by die blccdcrs, but to bctter targeting o1 varietics to farmers by the TLU.Of the t\\vo NVT High Altitude trials only the one at Mbiyeh was harvested, and poor soils aln:1. e, ly Ugi -T, i. i all pl,ts contrib 'ed v' ,r yields ,t 1v, t site. At ipper farm cattle and shCep grazed oh the maize, dai.aginig all plots;. Entries in the trial were the following: cycles 0, 1 and 2 of the High Altitude Population (HAP); Pool 9 Synthetic, one parent of HAP; NDU Tocal: and Coca ts , control at Upper Farm, and a farmers local variety as a control at Mbiyeh. The mean yield of the trial at Mbiyeh was 2.9 T/HA and there was no signific ,nt difference (P<0.05) between the yield of the entries nor of any of the other characteristics noted al th. tine of harvest. All entries in the trial at both locations were infected with Phacosphaeria Lcaf Spot (PhjgLph m .nri is), a discase about which little information exists. Heavy infections with this disease were found in farmer's fields throughout the high altitudes of' Cfcroo (> 15109m), in 1991. It appea's that forthcr breeding efforts for this area ,.ill have to include selection for resistance to Phacosphaeria Leaf Spot. A better understanding of its epidemiology and effect on yield are required.Hybrid trials for 1991 included two, 18 entry Advanced Trials sown at Foumbot, Nfonta, Babungo and Mbang Mbirni and four, 56 entry preliminary trials sown at Foumbot, Babungo and Mbang Mbirni. Plot size, spacing, thinning and harvest was the same as for the NVT's except that the Preliminary Hybrid Trials had two row plots with both rows harvested for yield determination. Good results were obtained from all trials with trial yields mean ranging from 7.8 T/HA for the Preliminary Hybrid 3 trial at Babungo to 12.0 T/HA for the Preliminary Hybrid 1 trial at Mbang Mbirni.In the Advanced trials (Tables 5-8) two of the five hybrids recommended last year for pilot production, 88069 x 87036 and 88094 x M 13 1, were again among the highest yielding. An outstanding mean yield of 10.19 T/HA for 88091 x 87036 in Advanced Hybrid Trial 2 was -ignificantly (P<0.05) higher than any other entry in the trial and was 131% of the open-pollinated control, Synthetic-4. Based on these results and field observations of our trials by researchers of Pioneer Hybrid International the following inbreds were sent to Pioneer, Garoua where they are being multiplied: 87036, 88069, 89274, 87014, 88094, 89258, 88091, 89302, 88030, 89182, M 131.While the results of our trials indicated that this program has bred high yielding hybrids with good agronomic and grain characteristics, the adaptation of the inbred lines to commercial hybrid production needs to be tested. It is only through collaboration with seed producers that this unit will be able to adequately test these inbreds and determine which will be used to produce hybrids for Cameroonian maize producers.Preliminary Hybrid Trial results (Tables 9-16) indicate that rapid progress in yield potential continues to be made through selection of new inbred lines. Whereas, in past years the control Variety ZS 206 was among the highest yielding hybrids in the trials, in 1991 at least 20 hybrids in each of the four trials ranked higher than ZS206. In the four trials a total of twenty-two hybrids had a mean yield significantly (P < 0.05) greater than ZS 206, and all possessed a better score for ear rot. The following hybrids were retained for 1992 Advance Hybrid trials and are being made in the off-season nursery:Trial l: 1.DS-Days to Silk, PWIIPlant floight, rP-Pr Heigh , H(.--Husk Cover, PA-P]ant Aspect, FJ:, spect, ER=Ear Ear Pot; fo\" ;'I I to F rating I I i. good, poor. 5 i.,; 2. .iore enUy x lou:ation interacLioni is,iqjifcaiL, itisused to calculate thc standard error, LSD and the significance of entry.- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- l.Nfonta and Kbang covbined location RCBD analysis showed no variety xlocation interaction.2.Commercial hybrid.3.Variety xlocation interaction used to calculate standard error, LSD and significance of variety. 1.DS=Days to Silk, PH=Plant Height, EH=Ear Height, HC=Hupk Cover, PA=Plant Aspect, EA=Ear Aspect, ER=Ear Rot; for all 1 to 5 rating scale 1 is good, 5 is poor. 2.Commercial hybrid. 3.Where variety x location interaction issignificant, it is used to calculate the standard error, LSD and the significance of variety. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Table 5: Grain yield of the 18 entries inthe Advanced Hybrid I trial sown as a lattice in4 replications at 4 locations inCameroon in1991.  ----------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------- - ----------------------------------------------------- l.DS=Days to Silk, Pl=Plant Height, EH=Ear Height, HC=Husk Cover, PA=Plant Aspect, EA:Ear Aspect, ER=Ear Rot; for all 1 to 5 rating Ecales 1 is good, 5 is poor. 2.Commercial hybrid 3.0pen-pollinated variety. 4.RCBD nultilocational analysis where variety x location interaction is significant, it is used to calculate the standard error, LSD and the significance of variety. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- l.bV Days to Silk, PI:Plant Heighi, Elf !ar Ilight, I-usk Cover, PAWPh~ni Asport, LA Ear Aspect, ER Lar Rot; for ,]I to 5 rdting scales 1 isgood, 5 ispoor 2.Commercial hybrid 3.Open-pollinated variety. 4.RCBD multilocational analysis where variety x location interaction issignificant, itisused to calculate the standard error, LSD and the significance of variety.Table 9: Grain yield of the 20 highest yielding entries and controls inthe 56 entry Preliinary Hybrid 1 trial sown as a lattice in 3 replications at 3 locations inCaueroon in1991.  I.RCBD nultilocational analysis.2.Connercial hybrid sown as two entries.3.0pen-pollinated variety.4.Variety x location interaction used to calculate standard error, LSD and significance of variety.- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -----I--------------- LR=Ear Rot; for all I to 5 iating scalos 1 isoood, 5 ispoor. 2.Commercial hybrid sown as two entries. 3.0pen-pollinated variety. A.PCBD oultilocational analysis where variety x location interaction issignificant, itisused to calculate the standard error, ISD and the significance of variety. 3.0pen-pollinated variety. 4.Variety x location interaction used to calculate standard error, LSD and significance of variety.- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -n---------n-n-U--..-uni-nn nnn---w------------------------- l.DS=Days to Silk, PH=Plant Height, EH=Ear Height, HCHusk Cover, PA=Plant Aspect, EA=Ear Aspect, SR=Ear Rot; for all 1 to 5 rating scales 1 isgood, 5 is poor. 2.Commercial hybrid sown as two entries. 3.Open-pollinated variety. 4.RCBD multilocational analysis where variety x location interaction issignificant, itisused to calculate the standard error, LSD and the significance of variety.- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------1.RCBD multilocational analysis. 2.0pen-pollinated variety. 3.Commercial hybrid sown as two entries. 4.Variety x location interaction used to calculate standard error, LSD and significance of variety. 2.Open-pollinated variety.3.Connercial hybrid sown as two entries. 4.RCIPD multilocational analysis where variety x location interaction issignificant, it is used to calculate the standard error, LSD and the significance of variety.Table 15: Grain yield of the 20 highest yielding entries and controls in the 56 entry Preliminary Hybrid 4 trial, sown as a lattice in3 replications at 3 locations, inCameroon in1991.     ----------------------------------------------------------1.DS=Days to Silk, PH=Plant Height, EH=Ear Height, HC=Husk Cover, PA=Plant Aspect,EA=Ear Rot; for all 1to 5 rating scalnR I Is good, 5 in poor. 4.RCBD multilocational analysis where variety x location interaction issignificant, it is used to calculate the standard error, LSD and significance of variety. The lowland maize breeding unit covers the need cf all areas in Carncroon that are less than 1000 meters above sea level in elevation. This include 9 provinices out of ten. The agro-ecological zone covers are:i) The lowland humid forest; ii) The lowland humid transitional zone; iii) The guinea savanna zone (lowland moist savanna); iv) The soudan savanna zone and the south sahel zone.The main objective of the unit is to provide high yielding and stable varieties which are adapted to each of' the agro-ecological zones, and are acceptable to farmers. To achieve this goal, the units work is divided into five main subgoals: i) Evaluation and recommendation of varieties; ii) population improvement, iii) line development; iv) hybrid and synthetic varieties development; v) multiplication and maintenance of breeder and foundation seed.In 1991 the lowland maize breeding unit carried out a total of 243 trials. This represented a 7% increase over the 1990 trials. One hundred and seventy eight (178) of these trials evaluated 2401 genotypes. This represented a 27% decrease in number of trials as compared to 1990 and about the same number of genotypes evaluated. The 1991 trial names and numbers tested are presented in Table 1.Eighty two (82) out of 178 evaluation trials were done in 8 savanna locations while 96 trials were in 8 forest locations. 58% of the 178 trials had a coefficient of variation (C.V %) below 20%. About 30% of the 178 trials had a C.V between 20% and 30%, and finally 11% of the trials had their C.V % higher than 30% and were not included in means calculations. These percentages were not different from those obtained in 1990.The 1991 testing locations (16 in total) and land area (37 ha) used is presented in Table 2. Land area used in 1991 was almost double that of 1990. This was due to the increase in second season trials.Population improvement in 1991 used 4 schemes. Half-sib, mass selection, Full-sib selection and S, testcrosses selection. Just like in 1991, 12 populations were improved for agronomic characteristics. In addition, 15 new varieties were developed and advanced to F 2 . Those varieties consisted Vr the best variety crosses developed in 1991 as well as varieties obtained by recombining lines from different heterotic groups.Among the single cross hybrids iested, 16 had at least 15 %yield superiority over the best open pollinated. However, only half of them were 20% better than the best open pollinated.In 1991, 486 inbred lines were screened under artificial striga infestation. About 8% of them showed moderate tolerance for striga.Finally, seed multiplication in 1991 used 8.5 ha of land. This represented a 15% increase.  Due to space limitation data tables are not included. Detailed results are available upon request.Qhj ciive : To identify a high yielding and stable varieties (or release.Material and Method : 2 sets of N.V.T were conducted. One early set, N.V.T(E/I) made of 14 entries. Seven of these entries were of intermediate maturity cycle and the seven others were early. The second set of N.V.T were a late set made of 18 entries. Five of these entries were hybrids. All N.V.T were planted at 53300 plants per hectare. Entries comprised 4 rows per plot and were replicated 4 times. RCBD were used in all the trials. This trial was conducted in 7 locations during the first cropping season and in 3 during the second season. Grain yield ranged from 3.3 t/ha in Ebolowa to 5.0 t/ha at Foumbot. Coefficient of variation (C.V %)ranged from 20.3% obtained at Mile 17 to 32.8% in Ntui. The two best entries were of intermediate maturity cycle: CMS 8503 (5.4 t/ha) and BSR Syn 1(5.0 t/ha). The best early white entry was CMS 9015 (Pool 16 DR) with 4.8 t/ha. The best yellow entry was CMS 8806 (4.8 t/ha). P 3 Kollo which was an introduction from Niger and which was suppsed to be drought tolerant yielded the least (2.2 t/ha). Across 87 TZUT-W (3.5 t/ha) whici, was the 1990 best entry was disappointing. This was attributed to its poor germination. (13000 plant per hectare).During the second season except for ACR 87 TZUT-W (3.5 t/ha) all the varieties yielded less than 3 t/ha. All intermediate maturing varieties also outyielded the early entries. Pool 16 DR (CMS 9015) was still the best early variety with 2.1 t/ha.The N.V.T. (E/l) was conducted in 8 savanna locations. One of the site (IRZ Sanguere) was artificially infested with striga seeds. Results showed that grain yield ranged from 1.5 t/ha in striga infested field at IRA Sanguere to 7.0 t/ha on non-infested field in Sanguere. The coefficient of variation ranged from 14.7% at Mayo Galke to 33.5% under striga infestation at IRZ Sanguere. CMS 8503 (6.6 t/ha) and BSR Syn 1(5.8 t/ha) which are of intermediate maturity cycle outyielded EV 8931 SR (5.8 t/ha) and CMS 9015 (5.5 t/ha). P 3 Kollo (4.5 t/ha) had a better performance in savanna, reaching 6.4 t/ha in Sanguere and Maroua. This was an indication of its dryer area adaptation. E.V 8931 SR which has the same genetic background as CMS 8802 was better than CMS 8806 by 0.2 t/ha. Most of &,e early trials were planted at 65000 plants per hectare. Syn E 2 (5.0 t/ha) was the best striga tolerant variety, with a 4.0 rating out of 9, for striga symptoms, and 89 striga plants per plot. The second best under striga was Syn E with a 5.5 rating.In both forest and savanna zones, the 2 top intermediate maturing varieties were CMS 8503 and BSR Syn i. In addition, Pool 16 DR (CMS 9015) remained the best early white variety while, CMS 8806 is still the yellow early entry to recommend. However, Syn E 2 and Syn E, need to be further tested for their potential as striga tolerant varieties. This trial was evaluated in 7 forest locations during the first growing season and in 3 locations during the second season. Mean grain yields ranged from 4.2 t/ha obtained in Ebolowa to 7.5 t/ha in Yaounde. C.V. ranged from 12.4% obtained at Yoke to 32.6%. The best entries were 8321-18 Exp, 42 and Pioneer yog 62 with 7.4 t/ha. However, these two hybrids yielded the same as the best open pollinated variety Suwan I (W) which is the white version of CMS 8 04 (6.8 t/h). The two pioneer varieties yog 62 and yog 66 yielded at least 10.0 t/ha in Foumbot. The lowest yield variety was TZB S.E (6.2 t/ha) which is a soft endosperni variety.During the second season lean grain yield at the 3 locations were very low. This was attributed to an early drought that hit all the trials 2 weeks belore flowering. The best hybrid was 8321-18 (3.8 t/ha) followed by Pionneer yog 67 (3.6 t/ha).This trial was conducted in 8 savanna locations. At IRZ Sanguere, the trial was artificially inlfested with striga seed. The results showed that the mean grain yield ranged from 3.3 t/ha at Agri-LaLgdo to 7.0 t/ha in Sanguere. C.V varied from 12.4% in Sanguere to 34.2% at ILagdo and IRA San\" ucre under stri a int'estation. The five hest varieties were hybrids. The best of them wyore 8321-18 x Exp, 7-1 (7.0 t/hgt). The best opern pollinated variety %,s Suwan I (NV) \\ ith 6.7 t/hl. Here atgain TZB SF 2.8 t/ha was the lVCst yielding variety. This was partly attribftled to its Iocst plant tmld (14400 plant pcir Ihectare). 832 1-18 x I-xp 7 and 8321-18 were the two bcst strioga tolcrant varieties with 3.7 and 4.7 striga symptom rating, respectively. However, CMS 8704 atld 832 1-18 x Exp 7-1 showed the least striga plants per maize plant (I.4). Maroua and SoucotundloU who had more than average rainfaill in 1991, revealed an average yield of 6.2 t/ha and 6.8 t/ha respectively.Hybrids were inl general superior to open pollinated. But the observed dil'ferences were not significant. However, an 18% yield advantage was obtained between the best hybrid and the cultivated CMS 8501 in savanna zone. Surprisingly, Suwan I (W) 6.7 t/ha, was the 1991 best open pollinated in both savanna and forest zone. CMS 8704 and TZUT as open pollinated, showed sonic potential as striga tolerant varieties.Objective : To identify the best hybrid for release.This trial comprised 17 hybrids and I open pollinated variety (CMS 8501). It was conducted in 8 locations (4 in forest and 4 in savanna). The trial also occupied 3 locations during the second season. Mean grain yield ranged from 4.3 t/ha in Touboro Linder striga infestation to 8.4 t/ha in Sanguere. C.V ranged from 11.2% in Ntui to 23.4% in Touboro.In the forest zone, the best hybrid was 8321-18 x Exp, 24 (8.1 t/ha) with 35% yield advantage over CMS 8501 (6.0 t/ha). In savanna, the best hybrid was 8321-18 x Exp, 20 (7.1 t/ha) followed by 8321-18 x Exp 3 7 (7.0 t/ha) with 16% and 15% yield increase over CMS 8501 (5.1 t/ha) respectively. These yield advantages coriesponded to 2. 1t/ha yield advantage in forest and 1.0 t/ha yield advantage in savanna zone. The overall mean showed 8321-18 Exp, 24 (7.4 t/ha) having 21 % yield advantage over (MS 8501 (6.1 t/ha). This corresponded to an 1.3 t/ha yield advantage.During the second season, 13 hybrids exhibited more than 20% yield increase over the best open pollinated CMS 8501 (2.6 t/ha). Yields in general were very low (3.3 t/ha). This was attributed to early drought experienced in Ntui and in Ebolowa. This last location had acid soil. The two best entries were 8321-18 Exp, 1 (4.0 t/ha) followed by 8321-18 Exp, 24 (3.7 i/ha).Objecti : To identfiy the best white single crosses to be included in N.H.T.Three groups of these materials were evaluated in 1991. All groups were tested in 4 rows/plot and 4 replications. The design used was a RCBD. All agronomic practices used were the same as the one used in testing open pollinated. All gro!Aps also had CMS 8501 or Ndock 8701 as open pollinated check.Group 1 (1368) Materials here included, lines from the NCRE population crossed with IITA 1368 which is Tuxpeno derived line. This trial were evaluated in 4 locations during the normal growing season and 3 locations during the second season. Grain yield ranged from 6.5 t/ha in Ntui and Soucoundou to 8.3 t/ha in Yaounde. C.V. varied from 15.2% in Soucoundou to 17.4% in Sanguere. Two hybrids exhibited at least a 10% yield increase over the check Ndock 8701 (7.3 t/ha). These varieties were 1368 x NCRE 91-93 (8.5 t/ha) and 1368 x 58 88 (8.0 t/ha). The best hybrid had a 1.2 t/ha yield advantage over Pionneer yog 67.Treatments consisted of 18 hybrids. Nine of them consisted of NCRE lines crossed to 9071, which is a temperate derived iITA line. Resulls revealed that 4 single crosses had at least 12% yic Id advantage over the open pollinated Ndock 8701 (7.8 /ut). 'This corresponded to at least 0.9 t/ha yield increase. This trial was conducted in 2 locations during fhe normal growing season and 3 locations during the second season. The best single cross vas NCRE 56-58 x 9071 (9.5 t/ha). This was followed by NCRI 46-48 x 9071 (9.3 t/hai).Both varieties had at least 19% yield increase over Ndock 8701. This represented at least 1.5 t/ha yield increase.Material used in this trial consisted of 21 hyhrids and I open pollinated CMS 8501. The hybrids were made of NCRE lines crossed with 5012 which is a sub-temperate derived IITA line. This trial was evaluated in 4 locations during the normal growing season and in 3 locations during 1,. zecond season. All second se,:on trials were hit by drought two weeks before flowering. Mean grain yield range(] from 3.8 I/ha a( Ndock to 7.5 t/ha at Sanguere. C.V. Naried from 20.7% obtained in Sanguere to 33.0% in Ndock. In forest locations, 5012 x 14-16 (7.2 t/ha) outyielded the other entries, while 5012 x 91-9.4 (6.5 t/ha) was the best entry in savanna. The overall mean grain yield not taking Ndock into account revealed 5012 x 77-79 (7.6 t/ha) as the best cross in this group. This variety had only 10% yield increase over (he check CMS 8501 (6.9 I/ha).Ol¢_cfve :To obtain high yielding single crosses among lines from different heterotic groups.MethloLs. :Randomly selected lines from each group were randomly mated. The F, were evaluated in two sets. The advanced set and the new set. The advanced set included material previously selected in 1990. All F, were tested in single row plot, 3 replications. The design used was a RCBD.The advanced set included 43 entries and 3 checks. Trial mean were 6.0 I/ha in Ntui and 7.3 t/ha in Sanguere. C.V. for both locations were under 20%. The 8 selected lines had their ear aspect tinder 2.0. The best single cross had a 18% yield advantage over CMS 8501. This corresponded to a 1.4 t/ha difference in yield. The two pioneer checks yog 62 (8.1 I/ha) nrd yog 66 (7 1 I/ha) were not that different fiom the open pollinated check CMS 8501.New set of single crosses among lines from different heterotic group comprised 2 sub sets. Both sub-sets had 40 entries. l)ata were obtained a!NMi an(d Sanguere. In the first sub set, the 3 best entries outyieldcd CMS 8501 (7.9 t/ha) by ai least 1.0 f/ha. In the second sub set, the 2 best entries outyielded CMS 8501 (7.8 t/ha) by at least 1.2 t/ha. Most of the selected single crosses from the first sub-set originated from crosses between group 3 and group 1. The second sub-set had its best hybrids from crosses between group 3 and group 2.Objective To measure if high yielding crosses are obtainable between lines from la posta population, Cameroon mid altitude lines and lowland lines. In addition, it was necessary to know in which heterotic group la posta lines belong.Methods : About 18 laposta lines were randomly crossed to some advanced NCRE lines (Expl, Exp 3 ). In addition, random crosses were also made between laposta lines and NCRE lines of different heterotic group. Finally, the same type of crosses were repeated using mid altitude lines here called highland material (HLM) with the same NCRE lowland lines.All F, were tested in single row plot, 3 reps. 2.2.4.1.9 LAPOSTA HYBRIDS Seventy-two single crosses were obtained from crosses between 18 laposta lines and NCRE lowland lines. These crosses were evaluated in two sets at two locations. In the first set that included 44 entries, 1.4 t/ha grain yield difference was obtained between Sanguere and Ntui evaluation. The 2 best crosses involved line 4 and 5 of laposta. These 2 hybrids yielded at least 1.2 t/ha over CMS 8501 (7.4 t/ha). This corresponded to at least 16% yield difference.In the second set, trial means from the two locations were not that different. However, at least 1.0 t/ha yield differences were recorded between the two best hybrids and CMS 8501 (7.4 t/ha). This represented al least 14% superiority of' hybrids over open pollinated.A total of 53 crosses between mid-altitude lines and lowland lines were made in 1991. Those crosses were evaluated in two sets. The first set which included 30 entries were evaluated in one mid-altitude site (Foumbot) and 2 lowland sites (Ntui, Sanguere). The result showed that the performance of highland x lowland materials are better in Foumbot (8.9 t/ha and C.V. = 15%). In this site 6 out of 7 selected hybrids had their yield potential over 10.4 t/ha. The best crosses had 3.4 t/ha superiority over the check Ndock 8701. This high yielding crosse HLM 4 x gp 2 26 (11.2 t/ha) also yielded 10.8 t/ha in Sanguere and was in general 30% superior to the check.The second set tested in two sites also revealed that the same HLM 4 crossed to NCRE gp 2. 8 yielded 10.9 t/ha in Sanguere, while HILM 5 crossed to the same NCRE gp 2 8 yielded 10.6 t/ha. This was an indication that mid altitude lines crossed to lowland lines will express their full potentiality either in mid altitude ecology or in savanna zone. In this second set, 24% yield superiority was recorded between the best hybrid and the open pollinated check CMS 8501. This represented a 3.0 t/ha difference.O)je jye About 15 yellow inbreds lines were crossed to 3 IITA yellow lines: 4001, 9450 and 9848. Due to poor seed sets, only 18 F, which had enough seed were evaluated at 3 locations. Ntui, Sanguere and Foumbot in single row plots. The average trial means were high; 9.I f/ha. Six single crosses yielded at least I10.0 t/ha and had at least 19% yield supcri( rity over' thC lpen pdl italcd check CM S 8704 (8.4 I/h;). he best crosses had 48% yield increase over the check. This represented a 4.0 t/ha yield difference.The second yellow hybrid trial consisted of 24 entries tested at two locations. Material consisted of Suwan I 5 lines (CMS 8703) crossed to 9848, 9450 and 4001. Results showed that nie hybrids were better than CMS 8704 (7.8 t/ha). However, only one hybrid had 14% yield advantage over the open'pollinated. This was 9450 x Suwan 1. 179 (8.9 t/ha). This represented a I. 1 t/ha yield superiority.The EV.T. in 1991 was made of introduced trials from IlTA, SAFORAD and Pioneer.Qjectiv The objective of the E.V.T's was to identify new varieties that would enter the N.V.T or new traits donor source that could be used in the population improvement program.This trial originated from IITA and comprised 10 entries tested at 2 locations. All entries were from an intermediate maturity cycle (100-110 days). The results revealed yield superiority in Sangiere (7.2 t/ha) as compared to Ntui (5.6 t/ha). This was partly attributed to higher planting density in Sangucre (70000 plant/ha) as compared to Ntui (53300 plants/ha). The best entry was E.V. 8744 SR BC6 (7.6 t/ha) which yielded 8.4 t/ha at Sangucre.This trial is being conducted in 20 African countries. It originated from IITA and colipised Iwo ('aneI.rooulliat entlies: ('MS 8710 ((tJus:mi x gene Pool ), intd Ndock 8701, InCameroon, this trial was planted infour locations. Crain yield ranged from 3.7 I/ha in Mayo Galke to 7.9 t/ha in Sanguere. C.V. varied from 7.3% in Sangucre to 23.4% in Mayo Galke. The best entry in 1991 was an hybrid from NCRE program: 8321-18 x Fxp, 13 I (6.8 I/ha). The two besl olpcn i,llinatcd wetc IF.V 8722 SR 1WC'6 (6.2 t/ha) and (iusal x gene Pool (CMS 8710) with 5.9 If/ha. The poorest entry in ('ameroon was Okomasa (5.2 t/ha) proposed by the Ghana program. These results were similar to 1990 findings obtained in 15 African countries where the best entry was F.V 8722 SR (4.2 f/ha), followed by two Cameroonian varieties CMS 8710 (4.1 t/ha) and Ndock 8701 (3.9 t/ha).This trial was conducted in two locations and comprised 9 entries. The results showed that 8644-31 (5.5 t/ha) which is a hybrid outyielded other entries. The best yellow open pollinated was Suwan I-SR BC5 (5.5 t/ha) which is an improved version of CMS 8704 (4.5 t/ha).This trial originated from SAFGRAI) and comprised 9 extra-early varieties (less than 85 days). The check used was an early variety C(MS 9015. This trial was conducted in 3 savanna locations. Mean grain yield ranged from 5.6 t/ha in Sanguere to 6. 1t/ha in Maroua. C.V. varied from 7.1% in Soucoundou 1 16.3% in Maroua. Average yield was 5.9 t/ha. This was attributed to higher plant density used at planting (7(XXX) plants/ha) and to early sidedressing (25 (lays after planting). Variety ranking was highly correlated to plant density at harvest. The best extra-early variety was T'ZF., W-SI,-IWC3 F (6.8 t/ha) with 650(X) plant per hectare harvested. The last variety was TZFF-Y (3.9 I/ha) with 5(XXX) plants harvested per hectare. TZEF-Y (5.8 t/ha) which was previously selected had 1.0 t/ha less than the best variety.2.2.4.1.17 R.U.V.T. EARLY This trial also originated from the SAFG;RAI) program anti had 14 entries. Those entries were supposed to have some tolerance to drought. This trial was planted at three savanna locations at 7(XXX) plants per hectare. The results showed a very high correlation between plant density at harvest and yield. The average grain yield accross the 3 sites was 7.0t/ha with an average of 61400 plants harvested per hectare. Trial grain yield ranged from 6.8t/ha at Maroua to 7. 1t/ha at Soucoundom. C.V varied from 10.2% at Soucoundou to 15.4% at Maroua. The best variety was FlI'6(7.8t/ha) from Burkina-Faso program. This was followed by Maka-SR BC 3 F'C 7.5t/ha). TZF comp 3 x 4 (5.8t/ha) ranked last.This trial originated from IITA and consisted of II white hybrids and 3 open pollinated varieties. The trial was planted at 4 locations.Mean grain yield varied fron 5.3 l/ha in Mayo Galke to 6.9 t/ha in Sanguere. The C.V. ranged from 10.9% in Ntiii to 14.4% in Mayo (alke. All hybrids outyielded the open pollinated varieties. The best hybrid was 8705-6 (6.6 I/ha) which is a three way cross. 8516 12 (5.8 tlha) usually tested as check in NCRIF trial was disappointing.This trial consisted of'6 hybrids and 3 open pollinated checks. The trial was planted at 3 locations. C.V obtained in Yaounde (35.3%) was unacceptable. The best varieties were 8644-32 (7.2 t/ha) and 8044-31 (7.2 t/ha). These hybrids had KIu 1414 SR as one of the parents. These 2 hybrids had a 1.8 I/ha yield superiority over the check Across 85 TZ SR-4-1 (5.4 t/ha). -To increase yield potential of already released varieties.In 1991, breeding methods used in population improvement included:-Variety crosses with a trait donor source.-S, tl.,tcrosses and selection of outstanding fiamilies For recombination.-S, inbred line recombination t-F hcerolic Pools and expcr-ilental varieties developnevllt -Half-sib recombination to improve major release varietiesThe objective of this program was to increae the yield potential of already released varieCfi, hy inclusion of complementary genes. In addilion, evaluiion of Ihe variety hybrids would allow !i variety classification vis-,-vis file 3 hclcn)tic p)ols. x 1368. Also, 9071 was efficient in improving Pool 16 DR (32% heterosis) and DMRESR-W (16%) in the 2 savanna locations, 5012 was the best tester for TZESR-SE (27% high parent heterosis), Pool 16 DR (37 %) and DMR ESR-W (37%). Variety crosses obtained by crossing those 3 varieties with 5012 yielded 7.5 t/ha; 7.0 t/ha and 7.0 t/ha, respectively.In general, \"ZUT-W (6.4 t/ha) which is an intermediate variety was better than all the variety crosses. Those varieties will be advanced to F 2 and F 3 and will be evaluated again as experimental varieties. Ingeneral, the high yielding variety was Ndock 8701 x 9071 (8.5 t/ha) followed by Suwan I (W) x 5012 (8.2 t/ha). It was also noticed that 5012 was efficient only in savanna zone while 9071 and 1368 would improve the performance of the varieties in forest zone.The objective of this trial was to evaluate the potential of the 9 introduced acid tolerant populations from Madagascar and to classify them into the 3 heterotic pools.The trial consisted of 35 entries made of 10 parents, 3 checks and 22 crosses tested in I acid site (Yaounde) and 3 non-acid soil.On acid soil (Nkolbisson), the best parent was Hp 27 (2.9 t/ha), followed by Hp 374 (1.9 t/ha), Hp 04 (1.7 t/ha) and AF 1066 (1.7 t/ha). In crosses, Fl-p 33 x 1368 (5.2 t/ha). This represented a 371% yield increase over the pare~t 141p 33 (1.4 t/ha). Hp 374 x 1368 (0.5 i/ha) and Hp 53 x 1368 (4.5 t/ha) showed a 263% and 500% yield increase over their respective parents. In general, 1368 crossed to parents had 6 varieties among the 10 types crosses.On nonacid soil, the best parent was AF 1066 (5.5 t/ha). Four parents had at least 5.0 t/ha niean grain yield. In crosses, Hp 05 x 9071 (8.0 t/ha) performed better than check CMS 8501 (6.2 t/ha). Low yielding parents in acid soil (Hp 05, Hp 53) generally combined well in crosses with 1368 and 9071 in non acid soil.Hp 53, Hp 05 and Hp 374 will be retained as parent in backcrossing program for acid tolerance.Two populations were evaluated in 1991 using S, testcrosses method. They were TZE comp. 4 C, and TZL comp 3 Co. In each population 10 families were retained for experimental varieties formation.This trial consisted of 169 entries evaluated in 13 x 13 Lattice design with 4 replications. The selected ten top entries at both site Sanguere and Ntui were based on ear aspect remnant seed requested and others obtained from IlTA will be recombined in 1992.This trial consisted of 5 sets of 40 entries each. The trial was made of early families and evaluated in Maroua. Just like in TZL comp 3 Co, the entries were issued from crossing S, lines of the IITA heterotic pool composite 4 C, with bulk pollen from the opposite pool.From each pool, 2 families were retained primarily for their ear aspect. The result showed that the mean of 10 selected families were 8.0 t/ha fo,' grain yield and 1.6 for ear aspect. The expected gain is 4% for grain yield and 12% for ear aspect.This trial started in 1990. Lines originated from IITA and screened for Busseola tolerance, were advanced to S, in 1990 second season and to S, (luring the first season of 1991 under natural borer infestation. The 84 lines retained were evaluated during the second season at Ntui and at Minkomeyos. Selected lines will be recombined to form a borer tolerant pool. In addition they will advanced to Si for line extraction.The objective of this program is to develop heterotic and trait donor inbred lines. Inbred lines will also serve in improving the open pollinated varieties as well as in developing high yielding hybrids and synthetic populations.In 1991 a total of 1883 inbred lines developed from 21 ipopulations were advanced to new generations. 3 of those populations ('ZI3 SR, Suwan I SR and Crosses) were testcrossed to 1368, 9071, 5012 and TZUT for white, 4001, 9848 and 9450 for yellow. The trial was composed of 4 sets of testcrosses and evaluated at 2 sites. Twenty eight lines and 32 lines were selected in forest and savanna locations, respectively.I. TO identify a variety or hybrid tolerant to striga that could be released. 2. lo identilv striga tolerant inbred lines that could be used as trait donor sources in the breeding program or that could be recombined to form a striga tolerant pool or variety.Two sets each of an open pollinated trial and a hybrid trial were introduced from IITA. 111 1991, these trials vere e\\vluIatCd Wnder artil'icalI infestation of striga. Each hill reCeived an average (f 2000 strigal seeds. St'iga symptoms rating (1-9) were done at 10 weeks and 12 weeks after planting. In addition, the number of striga plants per plot were evaluated at 8 weeks, 10 weeks and 12 weeks. Furthermore, 486 inbreds lines were screened under artificially infested field conditions. These inbred lines were divided into 5 trials by their p~opulation Of origin. Each trials was evaluated in single row plots and 3 replications.The striga hybrid trial included 14 entries tested at two infested sites at Sanguere (IRZ Sanguere and block Karite). Results showed that the best hybrid was 9022-13 STR which yielded 3.4 t/ha and had 3.9 out of 9 rating. This is in fact the new version of already known 8322-13. CMS 8710 which is open pollinated yielded 2.8 t/ha and had a 5.8 rating. The most susceptible line was the usual 8338-1 (0.6 t/ha) which rated 7.0 and had 146 striga plants in the 2 middle rows.The open pollinated trial revealed that the best open pollinated was STR DT-SR which yielded 2.5 t/ha with a 5.1 rating. It was also noticed that varieties with TZII in their pedigree ranked among the best. CMS 8710 in the hybrid trial a 5.7 rating. It was also one with the fewest striga plants. ---------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------------------     yields, toleranit to hi'eascs with ,,'ood response to lertilizers. '[i''' ma]ill priorify now is to improve the advanced lilies alhcadv identificd Ifor grain qualifies anl to dletrmi ne the best combinattion of ertilizer which would make rice production prolitable for the fiarvers.During the 1991 cropping scason, two experi ments on b,',eding were carried out. Th: 1V to compare yield of IR 46 to that of soic elite varictiec and ihe 2nid on the segregating material which istundcrgoiig it's 5'\" generation.iere \\,-:s (oe agronomic trial on improving ph-,plhorus el'ficiency and anothr which studies the frequency of application of P 2 0%.Operation 1: Improve existing lines for grain quality by hybridization.. Findings reported are mainly based on data collected on the advanced yield trial and on the fertilization trial.The cultural practices remained unchanged during the 1991 cropping season. The segregating materials were established in a single plot of 3 m x 5m with 25 cm 25 cm spacing. No protection against disease was utilized. 90-45-40 (N.P.K.) was applied in form of urea, triple superphosphate and nuriate of potash. The plots were weed free during all the cropping season and water level was well managed.For the advanced yield trial, 7 varieties were compared to the check variety IR 46. The design was randomized complete block with 4 replications. Seedlings 35 days old were transplanted at a spacing of 25 cm x 15 cm with 2 -3 seedlings per hill. The plot size was 5 m x 4 m. The optimum rate of fertilizer was used and split into two fractions (90-45-40); half at 21 days after transplanting half at paaicle initiation.The following observations were made.plant height at maturity panicle count/M 2 -Date of maturity paddy yield at 14 % moisture content.For the agronomy trial, the methodology was almost the same as in the advanced yield trial, The organic matter was obtained from rice straw which we made decomposed during 4 months in a pit near the experimental site. The organic matter was applied at transplanting but the N.P.K. fertilizers were applied as previously stated.Seven (7) mediun duration varicties/advanced lines wee testel against JR 46. Significant differenccs were obtained among the varieties. Two test varieties (IR25 898 and Tox 3344) plus 5\"-aricties (advanced) were compared in terms of yield to IR46 and some agronomic pcrfbrmances.All the lines showcd a considerable tolerance to lodging and leaf blast. Those which had the highcst yield also had the longest cycle. For the next season, in addition to the routine screening, we will perform some palatability test to draw the final conclusion.For the segregating population, this trial was initiated in 1988 to incorporate into existing and promising lines/varieties some chat acteristics desired by the consumers. This year was the filth generation and we observed many of F-types within the population in such a way that it was not possible to take into consideration certain parametcrs.This It ial will conlifi n e I,6r frther pirification of, the lines.For the agrononiic trial, the treatments have shown a positive effect of straw yield, plant height, plant cycle and paddy yield. (Table 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)) Among all the treatments T , yielded the highest with an average of 8 t/ha; thus at Guirvidig (T,) thc highest yield was 8266 kg/ha compared to 8114 kg/ha at Yagoua (Y 20).In these localities, the lowet grades were registered by the check treatment and this confirms earlier findings that there's a P 2 0,Qdeficiency in the soils of SFMRY. T 2 which differs From the check only with 45 units of\"P 2 0/ha has almost doubled the yield of T,, but T, sh'-s us also that it is not only necessary to bring Phosphorus but it is also important the way you apply it. This is why the band placement has an increase of almost 500 kg/ha over the broadcast application. T, T,and T6 showed how the soil fertility level can be improved by using organic matter. The ttial will be continued in the next cropping season to confirm these results. The trial on the effect of frequency of phosphate application on irrigated rice will undergo it's 3 d season this year. After this harvest we can begin some analysis.   -----------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------  -----------------------------------C.V. 6.53% L.S.D. = 661.059 L.S.D. 913.9008Mr. BENBOW of UISAID Lind the NCRE Chiel' of Party from Yaounde. We were visited by 'hcirmrs at ou\" on-farm trial at Maga and YagotLa. Dr. Ekokule, entomologist 1rom Marotn assessed insect problems on our trials at maga and Yagoua. Dr. Takow from CJaroua also visited our11 trials and exper imental sites at Magal and Yagoua.The IQ9l rice research activities were focused oil varietal improvement tlirough the development and Iiiaintenance of high and stable yielding rice varieties for release to the farmers, along wilh investigation aimed at determinin, the effect of managenent levels on cost of cultivation and yield perlorinance of the promising rice cultivars. The trials were con(lucted at the main production sites of Niho Plain in the West Province and Ndop Plain in the North West Province where the SODRIM and INVDA projects are located. Prior to I01, the rice research team based in Dschang (We.st Province) extended its activities to the Lagdo and Maga production zones in tie North and Extremc North ol Cameroon. From 1991, this team will limit its activities to the Southern rice production zones while a second rice research tca:,i based in Maroua (Extreme North Province), will cover the Northern rice produclion of Cameroon.The major research goal remains the develop-...nt (,1 new, high and stable yielding agronomically improved rice varieties wilh better grain characteristics and with tolerance /resistance to the major diseases such as blast, sheath lot and glum discoloration diseases and to environmental stresses such as low temperatures prevailing during the cropping season. I'1,oiusands of lines have been introduced and widely tested and many were identified as breeding liles and flew as promising for recommnclided and adopted varieties for cultivation in (-,.h production zone. Agronmic practices have been developed and can now be used by farmers on the released varices.The major shif: in varietal improvement occured in 1988 with the initiation of a breeding Iogram centered on the development of suilable high yielding varieties from local crosses. Many advanced progeny lines can now be tested for their yield performance in the target ecologies.The search of superior rice varieties for Ndop and Mbo plain continued in 1991 with more emphasis placed on selection of promising segregating genotypes from local crosses. Good selections of fixed lines identified from over 10,000 introductions in the rice growing ilf'a4s il 'vel 000 I F, STrcpali n line's from h lal clo.s(1se were I'tl(td anl ItVmced in various trials and generalions in NIop plain and 1lho plain. The ma in constrainls considered when selecting high and stable yielding varieties are low temperature with associated diseases (sheath rol, glume discoloration) in Ndop plain situated at 1200 i above sea level, and diseases such as blast and leaf scald in Mbo plain (700 ni). Varieties with long, slender and translucent grain type are favored during the screening. Such grain characteristics are prefered by local consumers.Promising varieties with these attributes include TOX 3145, TOX 3344, TOX 3145-TOC 34-3-4, in Ndop plain, ITA 222 in Menchum valley and in Mho plain. The research effort will he maintained in the breeding program and the number of trials will he kept at least the same as for 1991 in Mbo Plain and Ndop if appropriate funds are made available.Even though two national Rice Researchers have been selected for further training, two others (one based in Garoua and one in Dschang) are back from USA and will continue on going activities with support of collaborators at the experimental sites. The findings reported are based on results from Upland Rice experiments conducted at Mbo plain (West) aid irrigated rice cxpJci ent conductcd in Ndop plain (Noith West). In Mbo plain the irrigated experiments initially planned from 1991 (July -I)ecember) will be conducted in 1992 (January -June).The cultural practices adopted during 1991 were similar to that of previous years with a slight modification of some procedures due to budget constraints. The procedures for the trials reported were as follows: observational nr:is'ries (ONs) were established in single plots of two to four rows of 5 meters long; observational yield trials (OYTs) were conducted in single plots of 2 to 3 meters x 5 meters. Test entries in ONs and OYTs were each planted in single plots and check entries were replicated after evey tell en lries which allowed for. better comparisons. All rl)licatcd tJals wc )tdndcctd in anidomizcd complete block design (RCBD) with four replications, each plot size being 3m x 5m. Because of' the budget limitation the early and medium duration varieties were grouped in one OYN under upland conditions and piclimimary and advanccd yield trials wete pIut togetder under vanicty trial (VYT). Under irrigated conditions, seeds were raised on wet bed nurseries which were treated with Nitrogen fertilizer only, at the rate ol' 60 kg/ha (N). Twe:ntyone to twentylive day oldseedlings were transplanted at the rate of I -3 seedlings per hill spaced 25 cm x 25 cm for F' plants and segregating population and 25 cin x 15 cm for other trial. Fertilizers were applied at 60 kgN, 40kg FO., and 40 kg K. 2 ( per hectare. P 2 0 and K )., were applied as basal and N in 3 equal splits at the vegetative phase. lHand weeding was done between 20 30 days alter transplanting. No protection againist insect pests and diseases done.was IJnler rainfed upland conditions the seeds were (ihilled in rows 25 cin apart at the rate of*70 kg/ha. A complete Ici tilizer was applied at 60 kg ' N, 80 kg P,(O) anl 40 kg KO. PO, and K 2 0 were applied as basal and N was applied in 3 splits at the vegetative stage. Weeding was done manually (permanent workers) and no pesticide was used.At harvest two border rows were removed along all Ibur sides of the yield plots. Weight and moisture content of' grain were recorded and yield calculated in kilograms per hectare at 14 percent moistme co nitent. Resistance to blast, brown spot , leaf scald, slcath lot, glume discoloration, tolciance to low tcipl)ceature, timrue of 50% flowring, timre of maturity, height and grain type were also recorded. New introductions screened in observational nurseries (ONSs) in 1991 were obtained through INGER-AFRICA. Two nurseries were tested:The entries in the Arican Upland Rice Preliminnary Screening Set were tested against IRAT 79 as check variety and 44 entries with acceptable resistance/tolenance to diseases and gool phennotypic acccplabilily were selected firt her evahtiation in OYT in 1992.'Tlie lintes in African Ul)land Rice Observational nursery were also tcsted against IRAT 79 as check. Twenty nine lines with acceptable resistance/tolerance to deseases and good grain qualities were selected for testing in OYT 1992.Seventy entries were conlpared to two hwl l checks (M, and IRAT 10) in an observational yield nursery. In gcneral the incidence oi leaf' and neck blast and leaf scald wcrc moderate. Brown spot and glume discoloration had limited incidence. Twelve lines were selected for variely yield trial becaise of good yield, acceptable grain quality and good lhilooypic acccpl;iility scores (''ahle 2).  ------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This trial is an international collaboration trial with INGER-AFRICA. Fifteen entries in this trial were tested against IRAT 79 as local check. Five varieties (Tox 1739-101-4-2, ITA 120, IRAT 147, TGR 78 and Wahis 675) gave higher yields than the local check (1481 kg/ha). All varieties had yields ranging from 225 kg/ha to 2191 kg/ha. All varieties had a moderate to high incidence of leaf scald and a low incidence of blast. There was an inmportant infestation of weeds in this trial which to reduced the yields of the unadapted exotic gerniplasin (table 4).Fourteen early duration varieties were tested against IRAT 10 as local check. As in previous years the highest yielding was UPL 41-7 with a yield of 2773 kg/ha followed closely by IRAT 104 and wabis 7 which yielded 2737 kg/ha and 2706 kg/ha respectively. The check variety which matures very early was damaged by birds and had the lowest yield, 832 kg/ha. Weed inf'ertition was high in this trial and significanly reduced the yields (Table 3). All varieties showed a moderate resistance to Leaf and Neck blast, and a high resistance to glume discoloration. Five top yielding varieties will be tested in advanced yield trials early in1992.  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------  -------------------------------------------- The rice breeding program objectives in Ndop plain remained unchanged in 1991 and consisted of developing agronomically improved varieties with sturdy culm, lodging resistance, high tillering with good grain qualities and tolerance/resistance to low temperature, blast sheath rot and glume discoloration. Two observational nurseries, and three yield trials were conducted and segregating populations were evaluated.This is an international collaborative trial with INGER-AFRICA and consisted of 106 entries that were sown in an observational nursery in Ndop plain. This site is s,,'-\"t to shallow flooding and low air/water temperature during the growing season. 1. is environmental condition subjects the entries to low temperature stress from transplanting I harvest, with subseaquent diseases such as sheath rot, glume discoloration and spikelet sterility. Only seven entries had good acceptability scores and were selected for further testing in observational yield trials 1992.In continiation with the testing of advanced lines/varieties selected in prcvious years, one observati onal nursery, one variety yield trial and one national coordinated variety trial were conducted during 1991.During 1991, 57 lines selecled from F 4 -F, progenies of local crosses carryed out in Dschang and Ndop plain and screened in Ndop plain ecology were compared to Tainan V IR 7167-33-2-3 as local check in an observational yield trial. Yiclds of these entries ranged from 1943 kgi/ha for TOC6N3 to 6'216 kg/ha for TOC I 3N5. 'I', two local checks were out yielded by o,:* thirty entries which showed moderate to high incidence of sheath rot (1-. 3), leaf and Neck blast (2-5), good resistance to lodging (c) and a high tillering ability (3-5) (table 5). Twelve of these entries with yields above 4500 kg/ha will be tested in preliminary yield trial 1992.Fourteen selections of medium duration (135-150 days) and late duration (above 150 days) were tested against two local checks IR7167-33-2-3 and Tainan V in a replicated variety trial. Five of the lines were selected from observational yield trial (OYT-1990), nine flor a(lvnccd yield trial (AYT-1990) one froni preliminary yield trial (iPYT-1990) and one from he;id ro'w selcclion (II RS-1990) (Table 6). The chck %,aiiclyIR7167-33-2-3 came second with ai average yield of 5334 kg/h. It was outyiclItd by Tox.31,15-3-3-2 which yielded 5554 kg/ha. 'This check was Iolowed by 1R2061-5' 6-9 (5116 kg/ha). Oveiall 5 varieties including IR7167-33-2-3 made ,,cr 5000 kg/ha. The advanced line Tox3145 IR-34-3-3-2 rccently advanccd from observational nursery I,90, has comparable grain qtalities comlparcd to Tox3145-34-3-2 now multiplied by UNVDA (long, slender and translucent grain). An advantage (f l'ox3 145-3-3-2 over Tox3145-34-3-2 is a more homogeneous flowering.[lie results of the national coordinated variety trial are shown on table 7. Only two varieties had yields above 5000 kh/ha : IR7167-33-2-4 (5413 kh/ha) and Tox3145-34-3-2 (5201 kg/ha). These two are actually recommended for general cultivation in Ndop plain (UNVDA).The breeding program was initiated in 1998 to incorporate desirable characteristics such as suitable agronomic traits go(ld grain properties and resistance/tolerance to low temperature and blast into already identified improved varieties.- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------   ---------------------------------------------------------**Scoring based on the IRRI standard evaluation system for rice 1988. TOC tropical oryza Cameroon. Cameroon nomenclature for varieties developed inthe country. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------  --------------------------------------------------- Disc. Discooration. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------  A total of 868 F, -F 5 segregating lines from Ndop plain and Dschang were evaluated during 1991 season in Ndop. One hundred and fifty individual plant selections corresponding to one hundred and ten populations were made and advanced to the next generation. Thirty nine fixed populations were bulk harvested and will be promoted to observational yield trials in 1992.Reference IRA/NCRE Annual report, 1990 (Rice Breeding Unii).TOCtropical oryza Cameroon. Cameroon nomenclature for varieties developed in the country.The N(CRF (CrealsAgrontmy Research I li[ has as primnary rcspotlillility to conduct agronoimie 'csei'lr On lmaize ill the thrcc provinces (f\" Noith Camewrooin, and i sotghtlil inl two provinlces (Norrth and A-'i mamoa). Since its :reation in 1982, this Ulit has devoted 70% of its rescarch efl'orts to mnaize agronomy and 30% to sorgium Agronomy. Il Northern Cancroon (6 f-13' latitude orh, 160 000) knisi), tife mlaizec'a under traditional aid intensive cultivatlon is estimated to Ile around 70 000 hetarcs while the total area under sorghun production is estimated to be around 430 000 hectares.The nain goals of this research progran are : a) to i(lcr, anrd alleviate the main agrocitilatic anrd nrranagcment constra ints to cereals production in the ma jot cereals -growing zones of the manrlcated arC a t Iolrthern Cameroon h) to develop imHlproved and adapted packages ol agrolnonic practices for iinaize and sorghum and I'r sustainable cereals -based cropping systems. The researchers of this IUnit conducted during lie last 9 years inore thian 400 iheld trials at 8 different IRA antennas and oin f: Itials oin nmize awl sorglhui agronomy. \"[ie ma in research sub ll:cts during that time included : fertilization management, crop establishment, land preparation, plant population densities, planting dates, variety testing, weedlmanagement, i ilrterroppiig aind graded steps of inniroved technlhogies. A lot ol pir gr ess repa iding se, L.r a researc'h subjects hias been acconmplished. Many varieties and .1r i'rurliric pradt ic s have been cxtended to the Iirncr.s by our team in cooperation with Ihe development and extension agencies.In recent yc ars, soil degradation and Striga have become major constraints which constittlc a i: '2at to the sustainability of the cereals -based cropping systemls. It was decided diring NCRI plhiase Ill, to eniphasi/e agronomic research aimred at developirg appro priate conrservation Iarming technolgies and Striga Control on maize and sorglun particularly in the Subhuniid lowland savanna of Nortlhern Canerooni.The IRA/Norlh Planning Meeting held at Maroua in January 1991; an agronomy The following technical papers and reports were prepared by our Unit and some were presented at different meeting.We have prepared in French (then translated into English) 4 production guides \"fiches techniques\" for the maize varieties CMS-8501, TZPB-SR, CMS-8704, SHABA, CMS-8806, and CMS-9015. These varieties have been and are being extended to the farmers in the 3 provinces of Northern Cameroon. These \"fiches techniques\" were distributed to more than 200 farmers and extension agents.We prepared a special report on our 1990 Striga research (30 pages). We have also written 3 technical papers which were presented at different workshops.  Response of maize to different N fertilizer rates under a minimum tillage system in farmers' fields in the subiumid lowland savanna of North Cameroon.A set of on-farm trials involving N fertilization and minimum tillage was conducted during the 1991 cropping season. The main objectives of this experiment were : a) to determine the resl)onse of maize to different N fertilizer rates under a minimuni tillage system in 13 farmers' fields located in the West and South FEast Benou6 regions ; b) to evaluate the pertormance of the newly available maize variety CMS-8704 in different agroecological zones under farniers' conditions ; c) to introduce a system of alley cropping with pigeon peas hedgerows in farmers fields.Tuiie ultimate goal (1this research is to develop practical and appropriate conservation farming techologies in order to achieve and sustain relatively good and stable cereals yields in the lowland savanna. It was decided to intensify the on-farm trials with minimum tillage after the successful testing of this conservation technology on-station and in farmers' fields in previous years.Regarding N fertilization, experiments conducted by our team in farmers' fields indicated that there is a differential response of N fcrtilizer under conventional tillage as compared to minimum tillage. The reasons of this observation are not completely understood. As the studies conducted by our team on N response to maize was conducted mainly under conventional tillage, there was a need to determine the N response under a minimum tillage in a multilocational experiment. The minimum tillage system used in this experiment involved no land preparation with mechanical implements. Only a total herbicide (Paraquat 4 1/ha) was applied at planting time in combination with the pre-ernergent herbicide used by the farmers (Primextra 3 I/ha). Animal traction with ridger was used once during tie cropping season for earthling tip of the soil after applicatioi, of sidedress urea about one month after maize emergence. A mulch was made with the vee,; residues that were killed by the total herbicide at planting.All the plots except the absolute check received the fertilizer rate recommended by SODECOTON and commonly used by the farmers' (84 N + 20 P 2 0 5 ± 15 K 2 0 -I 6S kgs/ha). The treatments consisted of 4 rates of N (0, 12, 24, 48 kgs N/ha) which were applied as urea sidedress application about one month after planting.Maize variety CMS-8704 a newly available yellow grain with high yield potentialwas used as test crop. The tests were carried out in 13 sites located in 6 villages in the West and South Benoue regions. A RC13D was used with' 2 replications per site (methodbloc disperses). Finally a system of alley cropping with pigeon peas as hedgerow was used in an effort to introduce this system to the farmers on an observational basis and get their feedback. 'iis expeii ment d(iorstrated once niore that a reas(nable yield can lie obtained it illnlers fields trlder a ini im tillage system in the lowland savanna ol\" North ('aneroon.T1 he v,,age p, rain yield of' iiaize was 3.32 t/Iia wilh the mnaxi mnm yield 5.5 I/ha obltainvd at Ngong. \"l'hw lowest yield (I .38 I/ha) was obtaincd at I ahoun where serious damage of' Striga occurrcd.As expected, there was a '6;nfilicant response to the additior of N fertilizer. In general, maize grain yield increased steadily as N rates, inreased in all the locations. As com cpared farirners) extra yield to to the second check (rat!; tesedI by the an of inp 1.82 t/ha, (62 %) was recor(led. On the average it was fllotnd thll :one kg of*N was associatld with an extra grain yield of 54 kgs between tile rates (0 12 kgs N/ha) wilh an extra yield of 40 kg of grain hetween he rates (II -22 kgs N/ia) and an extra yield of* maize grain of 28.8 kg N/Ia I etweern ite ites (22 '14 kgs N/Iia).Maize grain yields varied signiicantly according to locations. However, the interaction of N ireatinent and locations was not significant which woild iriply the N responses did not vary significantly wilh location inthis experiment.Regarding the alley cropping, the pigeon peas growth %',as considered satisfactory when planted early in June. The mulch produced under the canopy helped smother weeds. Farmers reaction was, in most cases, positive and appreciated the ftact that pigeon peas produce marketable grain and stakes that can be used for firewood. Pigeon peas recycle nutrients and fix N. Most farmers showed interest in testing Ihis system it' proper technical assistance is available to them. This long-term experiinent which started in 1991 involved the use of' 4 legume forage species : Canvalia er,siformiis, Stylosanthes hamatla, CahpLogonii n ctinoides and Ca ianus ca'.ia. Maize variety CMS-8704 and sorghum CS-95 were used as test crop in this study. The legume species were planted at the same time as maize and sorght, m using a pattern of \" 2 rows of cereals for I row (1'legu mes. The spacing bctween maize rows was I m. The experiment was carried out on a representative Alfisol and moderate amount of fertilizer was used. This system f1. iaterplanted fallo, ccreals/legunies was used in an effort to increase tlie economic Value of' the system and make it more attractive to tie fIariners.The main ohjectives of this experiment were: a)to study the perfl'rnlaice of maize and sorgh u i gra in in intelrplantCd fll low sS)'Stcis with forage legu ine species in a representative Alflisol of suhhu mid ho\\ land savanna b) to dc\\clop suslainable and profitahle systems of cereals (for hu man consmption) and forage (fOr livestock ) while improving soil properties on Alfisols of this region (integration crop/li\\estock).Treatients and results are shown in table 4.4.2a :  -------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------- Trhe observation made on this trial confirm that these legume species are well adapted o the agroclimatic conditions of the sudan guinea savanna as well as to interplanted fallow systems. A significant amount of biomass (high quality forage) was produced by each one of these legume species. When harvested about 45 days after harvesting maize, the average dry matter produced by theses legumes species are a) for CboLpgniL.h was 3 t/ha ; b) for Styho.ao s 4.3 t/ha ; c) .n il.l 8. I t/ha ; and d1)pigeon peas 8.75 t/ha : It is also interc ting to note that Ca.lo-i]m and tlQai! ,i, leaves were looking dry at late November while C'an,,Ui and pigeon p,as stayed green longer. The beneficial effect of these multipurpose legume species included a) production of mulch which protects soil against erosion and favor infiltration ; b) recycling nutrient elements ; c) fixing N d) production of high (piality forage; and e) smother weeds. The pigeon peas produce reasonable amounts of grain for human consumption. More research be conducted in 1992 to evaluate the carryover effects of these leguminous crops. Minimum tillage will be used in this experiment using the mulch produced by these legume species.Subhumid Lowland Savanna.This study which was initiated at Djalingo in 1991 was conducted on an Aifisol of the lowland savanna. It.involved the use of cowpea, pigeon peas, a mixture of pigeon peas plus cowpea, Crotalaria (improved fallow) and monocrop. The planting patterns used were 2 rows of mnai7e (or sorghum) with 1 row of legume species. The interrow spacing between maize was 1 meter. A moderate level of fertilizer was used. The test crops in this experiment were CMS-8704 and CS-95. They were planted at the same time with the legume crops. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of maize grown in an interplanted system with grain legume crops in this agroecological zone. There were significant differences among treatments. Contrary to the forage legume experiment, the monocropping treatments outyielded significantly the interplanted treatments. In the case of maize, yield reduction varied belween 24% (1.4 t,/ha) for the mixture of (cowpea and pigeon peas) and 2%/\" for Crotalaria (0. 12 t/ha). For sorghum, yield reduction varied between 23% (0.44 t/ha) to I1% (0.19 t/ha). This severe yield decrease couhl be partly attributed to the plant competition along with the dry spells during the first part of the --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------season. The association with Crotalaria exhibited less competition while the mixtures of pigeon peas plus cowpeas had the greatest competition causing greater yield loss. It is interesting to note the competition due to the grain yield was greater than that due to the legume forage crops used in the previous experiment. . ---------------- CQton performance intheLowland Savanna.This long term study which started in 1991 involved 2 trials (one hectare each one): one with maize and the other with cotton grown in a rotational pattern. The sustainable technologies tested on both crops were; a) the use of interplanted fallow (wih Canavalia ensilormis) ; b) the use of alley cropping with pigeon peas as hedgerow ; c) a combination of1both technologies ; d) a check (normal practice by the fhrmers). The test crops used in the experiment were 2 varieties of maize CMS-8806 (a medium cycle variety) and CMS-8704 (along cycle variety) and cotton variety IRMA. Inthis report, only the maize yields are reported. The heugerow of pigeon peas was every 6 rows of maize. Treatments and partial results are shown in the table 4.4.2. In the interplanted pattern with Canavalia the pattern was used as previously described. Growth of both maize varieties same was good. There were significant yield differences between both varieties. CMS-8704 produced on the average an extra yield of 1.64 t/ha (40%) which could indicate that the variety CMS-8704 seems better adapted to the competition involved inboth systems. This may be due to the fact that CMS-8704 has drought tolerant characteristics and more vigor as compared to CMS-8806. No significant differences were found regarding the impact of these sustainable agronomic technologies on maize yield. In the p)attern used in this trial, (lie competition for maize/legume species was not strong enough to generate significant yield loss. The biomass production was approximately similar to that produced in experiment A. The Cai-valia covers the ground quickly about one month after maize harvesting which generat .J an approximate amount of 4.5 t/ha biomass.- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This long term study which started in1989 at Djalingo involved a two year rotation system (legune/cereals crops) in asandy Alfisol of tlhe lowland savanna. This experiment was carried out ill one hectare of land using two cereals crops as test crops (Maize TZPIB and sorghum Damougari). Seven preceding crops were uscd :cowpca, groundnuts, pigeon peas, soybean, Crotalaria, cotton and cereals. A rotation systcm cotton/cereals (as practiced by many farniers) was used as check. All the preceding crops were planted using conventional tillagc and harvested in 1990. Following Ihtrmcrs' practices, crop residues were removed from the soil belrc planting the cereals in 1991. The Fertilizer used was for maize ; 130 N + 60 P 2 0, 1 60 K$) I 18 S kg/ha while for sorghum it was 60 N -1 30 P 2 0, 1 30 K 2 0 and 12 S kgs/ha. The main objectives of this study were 1)to compare tbe performance of maize and soighum after several leguminots crops with their performances after cotton ill the Alfisol of the lowland savanna 2) to compare a system of improved fallow management with Crotalaria, with different systems of crop rotation using grain legumes.Treatments and partial results are shown intable 4A.3.  -------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------F In general maize and sorghum growth was good aflter each one of these preceding crops; more so aflter the leguninous species. As expected, on the average both test crops showed a better performance after these diff'erent legume species as comnpared to cotton. The residual ef'cts of the leg, me crops could have been greater if' the crop residues were incorporated. For both test o.raps, the ue f tlhe legume species (preceding CrOps) was associated with super)ior griain yieldS of the lloWing cCeeals as coIviparCd to cotton!cereals (the system ulsCd by lO ft arlmers). \"lhiS maV be partly due to soil N addition fOr N lixation by ihe legume species. Other factors include the bIenelicial impact of the legu me species (n Soil organic matter c( ntcnt, soil structure as well as biological activities.b-There were highly significant differences among preceding crops regarding grain yield. The highest yield for nmaize and sorghum were obtained after Crotalaria (improved fallow). The lowest yields were recorded after cereals (continuous cereal cropping). There were highly significant differences between both crops. c-Contrary to last year, there was no significant interaction between test crops and preceding crops which would indicate that maize and sorghurn showed a similar response after these preceding crops. On the average the response of sorghum to legume crops was greater than that of maize. The best preceding crops for maize and sorghum were Crotalaria and cowpea.As compared to the cotton treatment, the beneficial effect of Crotalaria (n the following cereals yields resulted in an extra yield of 1.06 t/ha for maize while for sorghum it was 1.53 t/ha. These results confirmed the value of Crotalaria as a valuable component in an imiproved fallow system management for the region. Previous experiments conducted with Crotalaria here and in similar regions indicate that Crotalaria tend to fix a significant amount of N, loosen soil structure, increase soil organic matter, reduce weeds infestation, improve crop establishment, and reduce Striga damage in cereal crop. The increase in grain yield due to Crotalaria is associated mainly to higher ear weight or panicle weight and 1000 grain weight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In1990, several crop,; were planted as preceding crops groindnuts, cowpea, soyhean, pigeon peas, cotton, Crolalaria and cercals (maite-sorghum). They were harvested in the same season and crp residucs were removed aller harvest following farmers' practices. In  In all the plots both crops were adversely affected by riga hermonthica. Symptoms of Striga damage including chlorosis, blotching, scorching of the leaves, reduction in stem size and height, in ear size and panicle size were observed in most plots. However the magnitude of Striga damage varied with treatments (preceding crops), varieties and crops. Average grain yields of both crops were considered low which is mainly due to heavy Striga infestation in this site. Highly significant yield differences were found among treatments for both crops and varieties of each crop.A) In the case of maize grain yields varied between 2.09 t/ha and 3.54 t/ha. CMS 8503 (a medium cycle variety) outyielded TZPB-SR (a long cycle variety) although the difference was not significant. The interaction between treatments and varieties was not significant which could imply that both maize varieties responded in similar way to the different preceding crops used in this experiment. The best preceding crop was Crotalaria, followed by cowpea and cotton. As compared to check (continuous maize), Crotalaria treatment produced an extra yield of 1.16 t/ha, (54%) the cowpea treatment produced an extra yield 0.74 t/ha, (37%) and the cotton treatment produced an extra yield of 0.49 t/ha (24%). B) In the case of sorghum the grain yield varied between 0.37 t/ha and 1.17 t/ha. CS 95 outperformed significantly Damougari (21 %). There was no significant interaction between varieties and treatments. The best trap crops for both varieties was Crotalaria, followed by cowpea and groundnuts. As compared to the check (continuous sorghum) the Crotalaria treatment produced an extra yield of 0.69 t/ha, (50 %) the cowpea produced an extra yield 0.49 t/ha (116 %) the groundnuts produced an extra yield of 0.42 t/ha (100%). In general these results confirm the trends found previously.- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.4.5. Effect of different intercroppingpatterns of cereals/legume species on cerealS yields on an alfisol highly infested with striga in the subhumid lowland savanna, This study which started in 1989 was conducted at Karitd in 1991. The test crops used a) maize TZPB-SR and CMS-8503, b) sorghum CS-95 and Damougari. The legume were species used were cowpea, Crotalaria caricea, Casia obtusitblia. According to treatments these legumes were planted with different patterns. In treatment 2, 3, 4, they were planted in the same hill and removed 20 days after crop emergence. The soil was infested with natural and artificial infestation with Striga hermonthica.The main objectives of this experiments were 1) to determine the effects of different intercropping patterns on maize and sorghum performance in an Alfisol severely infested with Stiga hermonthica 2) to compare the monocropping with intercropping patterns in this soil severely infested with .Sigahermonthica. Treatments and partial results are shown in Table 4.4.5m and 4.4.5s.   -----------------------------------------------------------   --------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------- In general, both crops were ncgativcly affected by Striga in their vegctative an\" reproductive organs. Consequently grain yields were low.In the case of maize grain yield varied between 1.08 t/la and 2.25 t/ha. Highly significant differences wcre found between varieties. CMS-8503 outyielded TZPB-SR significantly in this severely infested Alfisol. There was significant differcnce between the .reatments. All the intercropping treatments outyielded the monocropping (control) treatment. The highest yield was obtained in the case of intercrop maize/C t\" obtusifolia. As compared to the check, this treatment produced an extra yield of 0.79 t.ha (61%). The interaction variety x treatment was not significant.In the case of sorghum grain yield varied between 0.47 t/ha and 0.78 t/ha. There was no significant difference between varieties. All the intercropping patterns outyielded the control (monocropping). The best treatment was sorghum intercroped with Cassia obtusilolia. As compared to check, this treatment was associated with a yield increase of 0.32 t/ha (65 9). More research will be conducted on this subject next year. 4.4.6. Effects of different rates and timings of urea sidedress application on niaize and sorghum yield in an alfisol severely infested with striga in the subhumid lowland savanna.This experiment started in 1991 and consisted of the following treatments a) 2 rates of urea sidedress application for maize 100 and 200 kgs/ha for sorghum 50, and 100 kgs/ha, b) 3 timings of urea sidedress application 7 DAP (days after planting), 14 DAP, and 28 DAP. The following crops were used as test crops a) maize CMS-8503 and TZPI,-SR, and b) sorghum Daiougari and CS-95. The soil was infested with StrigA hermonthica by natural and artificial infestation. The main objective of this experiment was a) to evaluate the response of maize and sorghum to different rates and timings of urea sidedress application on an Alfisol severely infested with Striga b) to determine the value of rates and timing of Urea to alleviate the Striga damage on maize and sorghum. Treatments and partial results are indicated in tablcs 4.4.6m and 4.4.6s. Both maize and sorghum crops were adversely affected by Striga incidence in their vegetative as well as reproductive stages. The magnitude of the damage varied with crops, varieties and treatments.in the case of maize grain yield varied between 2.08 t/ha and 4.33 t/ha. CMS-8503 significantly outyicided TZP13-SR in this soil severely infested with Striga. The reverse should be expected in a non-infested soil. The best treatment in this experiment was the use of 100 kgs Urea sidedress application at 14 WAP. The less effective treatment was 100 kgs Urea applied 7 DAP. The interaction variety x treatments was not significant.In the case of sorghum grain yield varied between 0.62 t/ha to 1.64 tlha. Local Damougari significantly outyielded local Damougari (0.27 t/hia, 28%). The interaction treatments x varieties was not significan'. This experiment confirms the importance of rates and timings of Urea to alleviate Striga damage on maize and sorghum in the subliumid lowland savanna. More research will be conducted on this subject to confirn these trends.- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Ne: DAP =Days after planting.Many persons (national and international) came to visit our field trials in 1991. Among them were : 131 farmers, 26 development and extension agents, 20 international visitors. Most of them were quite imp'ressed with the system of alley cropping with pigeon peas hedgrow and conservation farming technologies used in our experiments. As a result, SODECOTON has decided to apply these technologies in 3 observation villages during 1992 cropping season.Sorghum and pearl millet are the major cereals cultivated throughout the. Adamaoua, North and Far North provinces. The importance of these cereals within this region decreases as one moves from the Far North to the Adamaoua province, corresponding closely with the increase in rainfall and longer growing season. Sorghum is grown during the rainy season and in post rainy season, the latter crop known as \"Muskwari\", is a transplanted sorghum grown on residual soil moisture. Millet is grown only in thc rainy season.The goal of sorghum breeding is to increase sorghum and millet production through the development of' high yielding cultivar; resistant to various pests and diseases. Efforts have been directed toward developing short term breeding strategies which included screening of available germplasm and introduction of exotic germplasm 'Irom International Research Center. More than 1900 lines of local gcrmplasm have been evaluated. Another goal is developing long-term breeding strategies which included crossing and screening of segregating materials. More than 450 crosses have been attempted, including local x local, local x exotic, and exotic x exotic, which are at present in Fl, F2, F3, F4, and F5 generations.In 190 1 emphasis was on breeding sorghum for drought tolerance, striga resistince/ tolerance, identify sources Of resistance by screening additional germplasmn (local and exotic), idcntilv shorl cycle and non-photopcriod sensiti\\,e line for pearl millet.Operation 1: Developnent of suitable cultivars of sorghun for different ecological zones. Operation 5: Muskwari germplasm collection, maintenance and evaluation.5.1 Evaluated the various nuskwari collections.entries for agrononic study.Cultivars available with defined traits selection will be made within these cultivars.5.2 Promising varieties will be multiplied.Operation 6: Development of suitable pearl millet cultivars. All results are presented in the report.A large number of diverse breeding lines, elite varieties, preliminary lines and some few hybrids, male and female parents for hybrids production and sources of resistance to various stress factors were evaluated in diflerent nurseries. Selected germplasm accessions and advance breeding lines are under multilocation trial. A crossing program involving local adapted lines, promising exotic lines and sources of resistance to stress factors have been organized.Particular emphasis was placed on striga/varieties development testing and drought. Pearl millet work includted evaluation of local germplasm and mass selection, evaluation of elite breeding material received from other programs to diversify the genetic base of the breeding program. 78 accessions comprised of local germplasm, advanced selections from crosses or introduced material from ICRISAT, India were evaluated and screened for various pests. Multilocation trials were conducted to evaluate early maturing varieties for late sown conditions. A list of sorghum and pearl millet trials and nurseries planted is presented below. A Network of' variety trials at several locations was carried out over a range of were advanced climatic and edaphic environments. The varieties tested selected from breeding material of the program's exotic collection of different research institutes and local gerniplasm.The objectives were: I) Compare the performance of local varieties with that of introduced varieties 2) Compare the performance of advance breeding lines with that of local and introduced varieties.Evaluate the magnitude of the genotype x environment (GE) interaction in the Identify/develop superior varieties/lines that fit into the existing farming system. 4) sorghum growing areas.The first set of these trial aim to evaluate The results of' trials are presented below. the local germplasm. All multilocation variety tests consisted of 19 to 20 entries planted in 4 rows plot with 4 replications. Seed spacing was 20cm apart in a row and 80cm between was collected on grain yield, days to 50% flowering, plant height, plant count rows. Data 1000 grain weight. Fertilizer after thinning, panicle count at harvest, panicle length and 20 Kg P 2 0 5 ; 20 Kg l( 2 0/la) was uniform for all the experiments. application (60 Kg N; and K,0 were applied before sowing. Nitrogen was applied in two split doses whereas P 2 0 F.valuation of Local Getru)plasnil (Guiring)The variation aniong ci,;iiS was highly significant for all traits eCasu rCd, which indicatcs the pCsencC of' significant phellnotyl e variability among the local and i iprovcd varieties tested. The varietal means for all traits are presented in Table I. l'hlic mean grain yield was 4600 kg/ha. lhe hightest yielding genotype was CS 95 (5309 Kg/ha) f'ollowed by Itllbassiri (5125 Kg/lha), Zouayc (5021 Kg/ha), Wongtosho (5021 Kg/ha). All improved ViiCtiCs malurCd early and sufl'ercd hird danage which led to a decrease in yield.A similar tcst with the same cntries was conducted at Yoldeo. )espite the low yield, variety cl'cets were significait for most of the traits. Analysis and means of*different traits are prcsctcd ill 'ablc 2. The ncan grain yield was 2219 Kg/ha. The local variety Zotiayc oltaincd the highest yield of' 3421 Kg/ha, fo'llowCd by S35 (2975 Kg/ha), Wongioslto (2934 Kg/ha), SC 181 (2837 Kg/ha). The late three cntrics did itot difler signil'icanitly fi'rom each other. Thc l)t))r yield of' all imIpro ,cl cultivars can be attril :utcd to grai i loss due to birds cOItbitiCd with delayed harvCstilig.Multilocation Sorghum Variety Trial (Guiring Eiarly) 'l'abl 3 contains the yield anid agronomic data rccorded. Variety effects were significant f')r all traits and coeflicients of variation were low. The mean grain yield was 48,12 Kg/ha. ICSV-1079 and CS-63 were the best yielding entries fllowed by five entries having no significant difference. 'l'icse are l)amOUgari, CS 251, CS 54, S35, CS 130. All these ac Ih 1igh yiCldilg, early maturimig varieties haviIg medium plat height.Analysis and means are presentcd in Table 4. The mean grain yield was 2368 Kg/ha and ranged ['mtn 2531 Kg/ha For CS 233 to 1284 Kg/ha for CS 316. The highest grain yield was obtained from CS 233 and CS 85. There were no significant differcnces aniong the 12 mcdium yielding entries. Most entries were relatively late naturing and tall.'l'wenty cntrics including a check CS 95 were evaluated at Soucoundou. The mean pcl rmancc of grain yield and other traits are prescntcd inTable 10. Considering graili yield, the check variety CS 95 rankcd first yielding 2425 Kg/ha, Followed by CS 61 (2240 Kg/ha), CS 278 (2109 Kg/ha). These genotypes were less attacked by fbliair discase, and all wcre white graill color. All exotic lines were poolr yielder. The average grain yield was 1219 Kg/ha. The effect of variety was significant for' all traits. High variability (CV 35.6%) w;,s observed on yield. This is due to the hetcrogencous naturc of' the field which was formerly )lanted in cotton and a part ol' it in fallow.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------Significant at 5% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The trial was affectcd by drought at planting and at the end of cycle by bird damage, so very hi-gh CVs were obtained for grain yield which rendered the interpretation of data difficult. However, somIe coacIlusiun may be drawn. None of the entries tested was totally striga free. The less suscLptible lines were IS 1534.3, CS-95, ('S-210. The mean strioa emergence levels in the trials was %ery high; 13.31/m 2 . Although the trial was affected by drought, some selection, that vithstood the drought were advanced for further testing. HIigh yielding vari. ties were CS-95. CS-210, 82-S.51-xCS-61. The check varieties S-35 and 1am1Oug:.''ri yieLded \\ery low. S35 was severely aucked by birds.A'13 Obs:h'i Nirerv l-iybrid development is not a major objective of our program. The single purpose was to maintain some germplasni and identify female parents as well as restorers which may help for future brecding-strategies. 56 A/B lines were planted at Guiring. The A lines were bagged soon afwer panicle emergence and % self fertility/seed set was evaluated. Except for 5, all female parents maintained the sterility and didn't show symptoms of sterility was moderate but long smut appeared in severe breakdown. Incidence of various diseases proportions on some entries. Further evaluation of the selected lines may reveal stable multiple disease resistant lines and sterility.A total of 65 single crosses were made during the 1991 cropping season at Guiring. Parents were selected on the basic of defined characteristics (drought tolerance, striga tolerance, disease tolerance, color of the grain and yield). These crosses involved local x local; local x exotic; exotic x exotic.Thirty four FI crosses selected from 1990 hand emnasculations were grown at Guiring. All plants were selfed. The progenies will be grown as F2 in Guiring. Selection will follow in the subsequent generation.Twenty three (23) lines were advanced to F2 generation. The best plants were tagged and harvested. A total of 100 plants were harvested after final selection. These plants were threshed separately. The progenies will be grown as 1,3 in the next generation.Progeny from 74 selected F2 single plants were planted in five rows/plot. About two hundred plants were selected and harvested. All lines were selected for disease tolerance, earliness, height and yield potential.A total of 167 progenies selected during the last cropping season were grown. Selling and selection were followed. At harvest five to six plants were selected within each family. Some lines which did not show desirable characteristics were dropped. The selected crosses will be advanced to F5 generation.Genetic improvement of crop species depends upon the quantum of genetic resources available and the proportion of genetic variability exploited by breeding programs. A prolportion of useful intrOductions could contribute significantly to the improvement of the crop. Therefore, a set of' trials composed of elitc lines from advanced research institutes and dil' Ifrent national progr' ins wCrC carlried out. It was Cncoura oing to find several accessions showing high agronom ic scores, high yielding potential, divergent panicle characteristics and multiple disease resistance. The result of different trials are presented below in brief.Twelve entries were evaluated at Guiring. The effect of varieties was significant for most of the traits. Variety mean and agronomic data are presented in Table 5. The mean grain yield was 2994 ranged from 3912 for CSH II (Hybrid) to (1758 Kg/ha) for IS3693 A group of the first high entries were not significantly different from each other in terms of grain yield even though the maturity cycle was different. The highest yielding entries CH I and C-I 11 are hybrids. S-35 the local check ranked 4th. The high coefficient of variation (CV 23.09) for the trial is probably dr,, to significant genotypic and phenotypic variability among the varieties tested.The test consisted of 27 entries all evaluated at Guiring. The varietal mean is presented in Table 6. It was one of the best tests conducted at Guiring and aimed to compare the performance of' hybrids with that of varieties. The mean grain yield was 3949 Kg/ha ranging from 6700 Kg/ha for ICSH 88065 to 1045 Kg/ha for 5 DX 60. The effect of variety was significant for all characters. The highest yielding entry was ICSH 88065, hybrid. A group of' six entries were found to be high yielding and not significantly different from each other. Four of the six entries were hybrid. These are ICSH 110, SPH 768, ICSH 88065, ICSH 90002. The best high yielding varieties are ICSV 111, SPV 669. The hybrids maintained better plant stands, vigorous growth, earlier flowering and better panicle exertion; but most oo\"hybrids succumbed to charcoal root disease at harvesting time. That led to serve loging. The Check S35 yielded 3795 Kg/ha and ranked 16th.West African Sorghum Hybrid Adaptation Trial (Early Duration) Earlier reports from different research activities reviewers indicated that small farmers could not grow hybrids because the grain yield advantage of hybrids over varieties was not apparent. The chances of identification of high yielding hybrids could be high in a collection of hybrids of diverse origin. This test consisted of 18 hybrids and two varieties used as checks. Grain yield and agronomic data are presented in Table 7. The effect of hybrid was significant for all trait except the number of plant count after thinning. This implies uniform plant stand. Gmain yield were high with overall mean at 4499 Kg/ha ranging from 6000 Kg/ha for ICSH 507 to 9016 Kg/ha for ICSH 89013. The Check variety ICSV 111 and S-35 yielded 4750 Kg/ha, 4641 Kg/ha and ranked 7th and 10th respectively. A group of 15 entries including the two check varieties were found to be high yielding and not significantly different from each other. All hybrids maintained vigorous growth and better panicle exertion.The objectives of early variety trials were to 1) compare the performance of recent early maturity selections with that of some exotics and 2) identify and increase superior varieties for extensive multilocational testing. The trial consisted of 14 entries. Yield and agronomic data are presented in Table 8. The effect of variety was significant and the coefficient of variation relatively high. Grain yields were high, averaging 4388 Kg/ha and ranging from 6112 Kg/ha for 90W 186 to 2008 Kg/ha for ICSV 401. S-35 a \"local\" contribution yielded 4008 Kg/ha and ranked 10th. A group of 8 entries were found to be high yielding and not significantly different from each other. The best yielding were 90W 186, Naga White, CSM 219, CE 314-18, 90W 177, SSV-2.The objective is to identify medium cycle varieties for the intermediate rainfall zone. (800-1200mm annual precipitation). Varietal means are presented in Table 9. The effect of variety was significant for all characters except for plant count after thinning. Mean grain yield was 3450 Kg/ha and ranged from 5095 Kg/ha for S-35 the local control to 270 Kg/ha for blanc de Bagou, a local from Benin. The second high yielding variety was 83-3148-2-1 with 4866 Kg/ha 89 - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------* Significant at 5%Level. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    --------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------.. * Significant at 51 Level.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------The objective of pearl millet improvement program is to identify varieties for the 300 -900 mm rainfll by selecting varieties having the following characteristics :1) Photoperiod sensitive full season varieties that farmers can sow with the early rains as his normally practice.2) photoperiod insensitive early maturing (80 -110 days) varieties for late planting (July) Due to variation in rainfall, the major hust of our research activities is on developing low sensitive/insensitive early maturing varieties. Emphasis is toward selecting for drought tolerance, resistance or tolerance to diseases and pests (downy mildew, ergot), developing adapted varieties and genetic material with high yield potential, stable and thus contribute towards increasing and stabilizing millet production in the region.Two sets of multilocation trials were also carried out across major pearl millet growning areas namely Maroua, Yoldeo, Guetale and Tchatibali. No fertilizer was applied. The plant density was kept at about 42000 plants/ha having a row to row distance of 80 cm and plant to plant distance of 30 cm. At final thinning one plant per hill was maintained for all the pearl millet experiments. Data was collected on grain yield, days to 50% flowering, plant height, plant count after thinning, panicle count at harvest, panicle length, and 1000 grain weight. All analyses were performed using the standard RCB Anova. The first set of multilocation trials was composed of early maturing entries. This trial aimed to evaluate early maturing (80-100 days) entries suitable for late planting conditions (July). Fourteen varieties and four replications were used at each location. The results are presented below in brief. The second set of multilocation trials Sahelien center. These were PMCT trials received from ICRISAT were 6 replicates randomized block design trials composed of 18 entries mostly of early maturing cycle.Rainfall at Tchatibali was characterized by a relatively late start and early termination. However in all experimental sites, rain was well distributed in July, August and up to mid-September. The month of August received unusually high precipitation. Most of the test materials flowered in the third week of September coinciding with rains, but there failure of seed set or \"pollen wash\" effect. Only the late was no flowering types on poor soil suffered drought during the reproductive phase because of early termination of rain.Early maturing entries trials Guiring Table I I contains the means and agronomic data recorded. planting and timely rainfall contributed to high yields.Excellent moisture at The effect of variety was significant for grain yield, days to 50% \"lowering, plant height, panicle length and 1000 grain yield. The mean grain yield was 3137 kg/ha. Entry TKMV 8201 and CPM-17 were the top yielders with overall average yield of 3721 kg/ha and 3634 kg/ha followed by CPM-14 (3453), CPM 18 (3350) and CPM-24 (3346). No significant difference was observed between IKMV-8201 and CPM 17. The maturity and height of both entries were similar. The local check Mouri ranked 12th behind other local varieties Tchaare dart and Gouzouma.The analysis of variance and means of the trial are presented in table 12. The effect of variety was significant for grain yield, days to 50% flowering, plant height, panicle length and 1000 grain weight. The mean grain yield was for IKMV-8201 1461 kg/ha and ranged from 2071 kg/ha to 1168 for CPM-22. The highest seed yield was that of IKMV-8201, an ICRISAT accession at 2071 but was not significantly different from Mouri the check variety which ranked 2nd.  Through the millet research network, a set of 4 pearl millet trials were received from ICRISAT Sahelien center and planted at various locations. Data were collected on grain yield, days to 50% flowering, plant height, plant count after thinning, panicle count at harvest, panicle length, 1000 grain weight. All analysis were performed using the standard RCD Anova. The summary of results are presented below by location.Table 5 contains the yield and agronomic data recorded. This was an excellent test with uniform plant stands. Normal rainfall in planting time (15 July) contributed to above average grain yield. Grain yield were relatively high, averaging 3040 kg/ha and ranging from 3410 kg/ha for ICMV IS 85321 to 2631 for ICMV IS 82271. The effect of varieties was significant for most of the traits. ICMIV IS 88210 was the second high yielding variety. The local check NMouri ranked 10th but was not significantly different from its 9 preceding entries. The average days of 50% flowering were 49 days. All high yielding varieties were of early to medium cycle.Grain yield at GIuctalC were relatively low with an average 1879 kg/ha. The low yields are most probably (Lue to high rainfall in early July. The effect of varieties was significant for most of the traits. CMW IS 89201 had the highest grain yield of 2387 kg/ha and ICNIV IS 91203 ranked second followed by ICMV IS 85321, ICMV IS 88201, ICMV IS 89202. These entries were not significantly different.The effect of varieties was significant for major traits. High variability (CV 28.5%) was observed on yield. This is due to the heterogeneous nature of the field and to high rainfall in mid-July. The genotype ICMV IS 88210 was the highest yielding entry, followed by ICMV IS 82270 and the local variety Gouzourna. The analysis of variance and means over the three locations for grain yield, plant height and panicle length are presented in Table 18. The mean grain yield over location was 2160 Kg/ha and ranged fi'om 2390 Kg/ha for ICNIV IS 89305 to 1930 Kg/ha for ICMV IS 82271. The variety by location interaction was not significant fbr grain yield which indicates that the relative differences among these varieties was consistent over the three locations. The Check variety Gouzouma ranked 4th and yielded better than most introduced lines.- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  The TLU at Bambui is responsible for farming systems research in the Western Highlands, with an emphasis on maize and rice based cropping systems. The, Western Highlands, comprising the North West (NWP) and West Provinces (WP), cover less than 10% of the land area in Cameroon, but contain 25% of the population, and produces over 60% of the national maize crop. The zone is mostly derived savannah, ranging in altitude from 400 to 3000 m, with annual rainfall between 1500 and 2500 mm.The goal of the Bambui TLU is to increase and/or stabilize the productivity of cereal based farming systems in the NWP & WP through the development, release and adoption by farmers of appropriate agronomic packages. Since 1982, significant progress has been made toward achieving this goal with the generation of farmer recommendations for maize and rice, built around new high yielding varieties that have been released and adopted by large numbers of farmers. In farmer managed trials, these recommended practices yielded marginal rates of return well above levels necessary to compensate farmers for the risk associated with adoption of a new technology.Criteria for maize and rice variety testing originally emphasized productivity and disease resistance (on-farm trials, 1982-85). A second generation of varieties, that entered on-farm testing in 1989, have incorporated additional characteristics desired by farmers, a result of TLU feedback to tie breeders. These included harder (flinty) grain for longer storage life, earliness, shorter plants, tolerance to low pH soils, and adaptationi to the high altitude zone for maize; and, enhanced grain quality (long, narrow, translucent grains) for rice, to make it more competitive in the market with imported rice from Asia. An ever growing population, leading to higher crop:fallow ratios, combined with increased farming of steeply sloping and marginal lands, has caused considerable soil erosion losses, a general degradation of soil fertility, and steadily declining food crop yields, only partially offset by increasing use of chemical fertilizers. In response, the TLU has initiated a program of researcher-managed on-farm soil conservation (mainly use of contour bunds for erosion control) and soil fertility improvement (Tephrosia fallow) trials in 1991, incollaboration with the Provincial Delegation of Agriculture Adaptive Research Service and the U.S. Peace Corps 10-year Agroforestry Project. TLU farmer surveys in the next 4 years will be less oriented toward diagnosis and systems description, and more toward assessing technology retention, diffusion and impact.The TLU-Bambui benefitted from the addition of a soils agronomist (Dr. Olu Osiname) in 1991. With this new expertise and experience, the TLU was finally able to address long neglected, albeit critical, soil fertility problems, characteristic of many research zones in the western highlands. Several activities directed at diagnosing soil fertility constraints and relating these to specific soils and soil management practices were initiated, with the ultimate aim of developing effective soil fertility management recommendations.These activities included extensive soil sampling from on-farm maize trial sites, to assist in soil characterization following physical and chemical analysis and their correlation with trial yield results. Additional samples were taken from non-trial farms where farmers use traditional soil management practices (e.g., ankara). Soil sampling and analysis was supplemented with pot experiments to identify nutrient elements limiting crop growth in each soil type. A program of on-station maize fertilizer trials (phosphorus), plus collection and collation of results from previous soil studies and mapping endeavors, complemented the on farm soils research.On-farm trials in 1991 comprised a third year of testing the new generations of maize (mid and high altitude) and rice varieties, and two new agroforestry trials (erosion control and improved fallow) in connection with the just started 10 Year Peace Corps Agroforestry Project; in addition to the normal maize minikit trials. A survey of farmers traditional maize stores, initiated in 1990, was completed, providing reliable estimates of storage losses suffered by farmers in 2 research zones (Ndop Plain and Bui Highlands). Other surveys carried out or in process included a maize variety retention survey of all on-farm trial farmers in 1989 and 1990, and pre-testing of a baseline survey questionnaire for the agroforestry program by peace corps volunteers.With respect to training and extension liaison activities, TLU staff (Mr. Samatana) participated in an orientation course for extension agents in the West Province under the auspices of the National Agricultural Extension and Training Project. Finally, the long awaited maize technical bulletin, produced collaboratively by IRA-Bambui, UCD and MIDENO is finished and ready for field testing.Operation 1: Identify farmers' circumstances and practices. Maize storage losses as a priority constraint in the western highlands of Cameroon has been repeatedly brought to the attention of the TLU staff and MINAGRI extension agents by farmers during surveys and on-farm trial operations. Farmer estimates of actual losses are, however, wide ranging and necessarily imprecise. Information on r:ites and types (quantitative/qualitative) of loss are essential to a number of economic assessments, including: estimates of the economic value of storage losses to the farmer, cost & returns analysis of improved storage technologies (structures or pest control measures), etc.. Farmers have, furthermore, cited \"short storage life\" as the major liability for IRA/NCRE improved maize varieties, because of their tendency toward a softer, dents grain type. In contrast, many of the local varieties have hard, flinty grains and, according to farmers, store better. There was a need to verify and quantify this liability, to justify steering breeder objectives toward harder grain varieties, involving a yield trade-off. The main culprits responsible for storage losses are insects: notably the maize weevil (Sitophils zeamais). It seemed reasonable to assume that softer grains would be more susceptible to insect attack, if not to grain molds, as farmers tell us.To obtain reliable estimates of storage losses under farmers conditions, the TLU initiated a survey of frmers traditional maize stores in Ndop Plain and the Bui Highlands in 1990. The objectives of the survey were to 1) assess real maize storage losses in farmers' traditional stores, 2) identify and characterize insect and fungal agents responsible i0r storageThe study was a collaborative losses, and 3) estimate economic losses due to storage pests. one, with the IRA-Blamnbui Pathologists (Nankam and Ngoko) and IRA-Dschang Entomologist (Asanga) taking responsibi!ity for the second objective'; and the FAO Postharvest Food Loss Reduction Project (PHFLRP) assisting with laboratory processing of storage maize samples.Methods used for assessing storage weight loss were \"Count & Weigh\" and \"Thousand Grain Mass\". Twenty stores each in Ndop and Bui were sampled (10-ears) bimonthly from October through April, after which sampling was done monthly until September or when the store was depleted, whichever came first. Samples were processed for loss assessment at the FAO lab in Bamenda, and subsamples provided for pathology and entomology evaluations. A basic questionnaire was completed for each farmer at the beginning of the survey (see 1990 TLU Annual Report), and \"current status\" questionnaires filled out during each sampling from the store. The former sought basic information on farm household composition, storage methods, and general maize removal and use patterns; the latter, quantities of maize removed in the previous week and how it was used. The TLU developed a model for estimating the value of maize in storage, that was the subject of a paper presented at the 1990 FSR/E Symposium at MSU. 3 The model operates on a number of assumptions about storage practices and attribution of value by the farmer, among which: I) Stored maize undergoes both quantitative (weight) and qualitative (% damaged grains) losses from storage insects, rats and molds, while in the store. 2) Maize is removed piecemeal from the store throughout the storage period (<12 months). 3) Maize is removed to meet target food or sale quantities (Food maize). Feed maize is a by-product of screening (sorting) the Food maize. 4) Quality standards for maize consumed by the household or sold in the market tend to decline as one moves away from the immediate postharvest period and toward the next harvest; as stores are drawn down and prices rise. The quality of feed maize will also decline. 5) Farmers value their maize at the time of end use, or (for the purpose of the model) at the time of removal from the store.Assumptions 1-4 have been confirmed by observation and in conversations with farmers in the North West Province. Assumption 5 is taken to be rational, and justifies the model. [Model specification is described in the 1990 TLU Annual Report.i Data required for model estimation include: 1) Changes in quality of stored maize (% damaged grains) over the storage season.2) Quantitative (weight) loss assessments in each storage period.3) Quantities of maize removed from the store in each period by the farm family for consumption and sale. 4) Quality estimates for food and feed maize over the year. 5) Market prices for maize.All of the information for items 1-4, except quality changes in Feed maize, was obtained for the period October 1990 to September 1991 through the survey. Three years of weekly price series data for 11 markets in the NWP was provided by FAO-PHFLRP.A Grain Type Index based on visual evaluation of the sampled maize ears was developed and used to estimate the effect of grain texture (dents/soft vs flinty/hard) on storage losses, both qualitative and quantitative. The 10 ears of each sample are sorted 3 ways into dents, flinty and mixed grain ears, with the ears in each group accorded a value of 0, 1 and 0.5, respectively. The values are summed and divided by 10, yielding a index value between 0 and 1; where 0 represents pure dent, I pure flint, and intermediate values relative flintiness. The index is a continuous variable suitable for regression analysis.Results and discussion: The survey covered 2 distinct zones (Ndop Plain and Bui Highlands) that differ both in altitude (1150-1300 m and 1400-2400 m, respectively) and storage method (\"banda\" and \"wunchum/nchang\", respectively). Storage losses in the warmer Ndop Plain,.are much more serious. Therefore, a separate analysis was done for each zone. The analysis for Ndop is presented below.Quantitative and qualitative losses: Out of a possible 160 observations in Ndop Plain (20 stores x 8 sampling times through August), 108 were obtained. Early store depletion and farmer absence during sampling visits were among the reasons for the loss of observations. Estimated potential quantitative (weight) losses' for the 20 farmers in Ndop ranged from 0. 1 to 35% (mean=7%); while estimated final qualitative losses (% damaged grains in last storage period sample) ran from 2% to 64% (mean=23%).It is presumed that levels of maize storage losses are directly proportional to the insect population. And because insect populations grow exponentially, the loss curves should similarly represent an increasing loss rate over time, at least up to a point (examples might include exponential, quadratic or S-shaped curves). However, using the survey data, regression analysis showed no significant gains in efficiency of estimation for these functional forms over a simple regression. Therefore, a linear trend line was estimated.Quantitative and qualitative loss estimates were regressed against time in the store (days from 1 October to the sampling date), time in the laboratory (days between sampling and processing dates), and the Grain Type Index. The latter was included, as mentioned above, to determine whether grain type has an effect on storage loss levels. Regression results do not bear out the hypothesis that flintier grains (higher index) are associated with lower losses (implying a significant negative coefficient). On the contrary, the coefficient was not significant (and positive to boot). Explanations might include the following:1) Omitted variables (e.g., initial quantity stored, storage management levels, moisture content variations, etc.),2) Inadequacy of the index (Perhaps it is too subjective; although flintiness and dentiness are easily distinguished visually), or 3) Grain type has no bearing, in fact, on how well maize stores. The first explanation seems the most likely. In any case, it is clear that this question will only be resolved by way of a controlled experiment. In the meantime, we must be guided by farmers' perceptions and assessments in justifying the current grain-type breeding objectives (i.e., flinty grains). Time in store (T,) had a positive effect on quantitative and qualitative loss levels. Days in the laboratory (T,,), in a plastic bag without removing or killing the weevils found in tbe sample, had a similar significant positive effect on qualitative loss, but was not significant for quantitative loss.The loss trend line was re-estimated, leaving out T, and G, after adjusting all observations for losses due to delayed laboratory processing. Because of the wide range in losses experienced, three trend lines were estimated for both quantitative and qualitative losses: mean loss trend (all observations), maximum loss trend (top 25% observed loss levels in each sampling/storage period), and minimum loss trend (lowest 25% observed loss levels in each period){figures I and 2). The minimum weight loss trend is not significantly different from zero, indicating negligible losses for 25% of the farm household maize stores. In contrast, stores having the highest loss levels averaged 31% damaged grains in the last storage period and a 13% potential weight loss.  This compares with a coefficient of 0.22 (i.e. ratio D/W of 4.5) proposed by Adams and Schulten (1978).Using this relationship, curves can be described showing the effect of qualitative losses on the level of economic losses sustained by the farmer, under varying assumptions of maize removal rates, initial stored quantity, changes in food and feed maize quality standards and prices. We now turn to these latter important variables in the maize valuation model.Rates of maize removal and initial stored quantity: Farmers were questioned during each sampling visit about quantities of maize removed in the previous week for consumption and sale. Monthly removal rates were extrapolated from these estimates, giving a range of rates from 161 to 226 kg dried shelled maize equivalent (mean = 180, SD = 22.4) from October to July, and 105 kg in August when all stores with maize remaining were emptied {Figure 3). There is no obvious explanation for the apparent peak in March-April, but assuming a basic household need for 180 kg of food maize per month, there is a mean shortfall of 75 kg (42%) in August. In several cases, the store was depleted in July or even June.Total initial quantity was difficult to estimate at the beginning because oft he farmers storage lcthod of piling maize in the ear with husks in amorphous stacks above the ceiling of the house (\"banda\"). Therefore, it is calculated by combining estimated total quantity removed for food and sale, adding 20% for use as feed maize (levels expected to result from sorting the maize, given mean loss trends presented above and quality standards discussed below), and assuming a 7% weight loss (the overall mean in Ndop). The estimated mean initial stored quantity is 2.5 tons shelled grain equivalent.Food and feed maize quality standards: Quality standards in this instance % mean damaged grains (by weight) permitted in food or feed maize. It is assumed that feed maize will always be of lower quality than food maize, except in the beginning of storage when the maize in the store is at or above food quality standards. Secondly, as stated in the 4th assumption of the storage valuation model, these quality standards are expected to decline over the storage season.To obtain estimates of changes in food maize quality, technicians with FAO-PHFLR Project sampled maize brought to a mill in Ndop for grinding to make fufu, and maize being sold in the weekly Ndop market, at various times during the year. Estimates of % damaged grain were regressed against time to give a quality trend line. The best fit was a quadratic function, which yielded an R 2 of 0.81. Estimated food maize quality varied from 0% damaged grains at the beginning of storage to 7.5% damaged grains in the last storage period. No quality measurcments were obtainable for feed maize; so we used an \"educated\" guess of a quality decline from 10% to 90% damaged grains over the storage season. Prices: FAO-PI-IFLIZIP has becl monitorin1g Ifootdlrolp conmmodity prices in 11 weekly (mostly 8-day) markets in the North West Provincc fOr the last 3 years. From these, 3-ycar mean monthly prices were computed {figure 4}. Shellcd maize prices peak in July (83 CFA/kg), begin dropping as the harvcst progressively Comes in froni higher elevation areas in the Province (August-Noveiber), bottoming out in l)ecenbcr (42 CI-A). This is the normal trend.However, in some years (poor harvest, strong market demand) priccs remain high, peaking at 130 CFA in some markets. In 1988 iii contrast, p)rices remained at or below 35 CFA throughout the year in most markets, reaching a low of 20 CFA. Thcrelore, 3 price scenarios are presented in valuitig storage losses to the flarmIier in the follov ing section: mean price trend {figure 4}, a single high price (100 CFA) and a single low price (20 CFA). Feed maize prices are fixed at 15% oflOod maize price (suggested by Dr. S. Almy ofrTLU-Ekona, in 1990), to reflect a low opportUlnity cost and limited mnaikctability.Estimatcs of tie economic value of sloragp losses: Using the above mean estimates for qualitative and quantitative losses, removal rates, initial stored quantity, quality standards and prices, an estimate of the value of the stored maize to the fariner was calculated employing the valuation model described in the 1990 TLU Annual Rcport. Under these (mean) assumptions, 303 kg of food maize is removed froni the store in the last storage period (August), a surplus of 123 kg; and the total value of the 2.5 tois of stored maize, accumulated over the ycar, is 137,869 CFA.If there had been no losses, and the maize removed at the same rate, the value to the farm family would be 151,780 CFA, with 520 kg removed in August (anl excess of 340 kg that could be sold). This implies a storage value loss to the farmer of 23,329 CFA (i5%).Under assumptions of maximum storage losses (maximum loss trend line, figures 1 & 2), the value loss amounts to 32%, with the store being deplcted in Julie, when only 155 kg of maize is left. Under minimum loss assumltiOls, the Value loss is nCglig!blc.If the farmer wants to speculate and sell all the maize as food and fecd maize at one time, under the above mean loss and price assumptions, she/he can maximize total revenue by selling in July at 179,841 CFA (2134 kg food maize I 220 kg I*cd maize, with a 5.8% real veight loss). However, this is only 37,341 CIPA above total revcnue earned if the maize is sold immediately after harvest and drying, yielding a modest 26% to cover storage costs. Surely storage costs (sorting labor, storage structure maintenance and depreciation costs, interest, etc.) would offset the total revenue gain. Therefore, the farmer would be better advised to seIl all after harvest. If, however, control measures (chemical, herniefic, etc.) can effectively prevent quantitative and qualitative storage losses, the farmer stands to gain a margin of up to 65,000 CPA (46%) by selling in July, part of which could be used to pay for the control measure. After harvest, maize of each variety was put in net bags with a label, and placed in the farmer's maize store. Farmer assessments were elicited at harvest (yield, plant type, ear aspect) and 2-3 months after harvest (storability, cooking quality, taste).Tables 1, 2 and 3 lresent the yicd ind fariier assessmlt results. Pooling results from all mid-altitude locations (table 1), the improved varieties ouityieldcd LOCAL by a mean of 0.5 tons (24%), with KASAI and COCA topping the list. Among the improved varieties, only EARLY WHITE yieldCL less thai the top yielders. Because of the trials that were lost and the resulting loss of degrees of freedom, compounded by high CV's typical of on-farm e;:periments, it was not possible to discern treatment differences at the 5% level in 2 zones when the data was partitioned by research domain (table 2). Even a 1.1 t/ha yield advantage for KASAI over LOCAL in Ndop Plain was not significant. The disparity in the number of trial sites in the three research domains (n=31, table 2) and total trial sites (n=39, table 1) can be explained by the fact that a few trials were planted in mid-altitude areas that don't fall within these domains (i.e., Bali, Fundong and Nwa).The relative performance of each variety across environments is evaluated by regressing its yield against the site mean yield, i.e. modified stability analysis   (Figure 6). Regression lines for all improved varieties, except EAI,,I.Y WI-lTIE: (1)=0.10), are significantly different from the LOCAL regression line (°=0.05); to the extent one can have confidence in: such statistics when \"X\" is partly explained by \"Y\", violating at least one of the assumptions for regression analysis.Farmers assessed the improved varieties, except EARLY WHITE, to be superior to their LOCAL varieties (table 3) at harvest time. Postharvest assessments ranked the varieties as follows: the best storers are LOCAL, SYNTHETIC and ATP in that order; the varieties with best cooking quality are COCA, KASAI and SYNTHETIC 3; the best tasting as ftifu are COCA, SYNTHETIC 3 and KASAI; the best tasting as roasted ears are ATP, EARLY WHITE and LOCAL. The varieties assessed best overall were COCA, KASAI and SYNTHETIC 3; although there are yellow-corn-preferring niches where ATP is highly valued.In 2nd season trials in Bali, none of the NCRE varieties performed better than the LOCAL. Mean yields on 14 farms ranged between 1.9 and 2.3 t/ha. Early White and LOCAL were significantly earlier maturing than ATP and MSR (an average 4-5% lower grain moisture content at harvest). Farmer assessments at harvest favored LOCAL. Bali farmers showed no interest in a yellow variety. So ATP should be excluded from the trials in Bali in the future.On-farm high-altitude maize variety trial:[or a third year, new open pollinated maize varieties for the high altitude zone (above 1500 m) were tested on farms in the Bui Highlands of the North West Province. The trial dlesign was similar to that of the mid-altitude maize variety trial described above (i.e., \"near farmer manalgcd\"). Three new varieties (HAP, IMPROVEI)-NDUJ LOCAL and POOL 9), plus a farmer's LOCAL. variety check, were planted on 27 farms, at altitudes ranging from 1950 to 2200 m. The maize was intercropped with Phaseolus beans, with a uniform application of 100 kg/ha 20-10-10 compound fertilizer at 6-8 weeks after planting. Yield results were obtained from 18 sites. This year's on-farm trial results (table 4) represent a definite setback for the high altitude maize program. It had been hoped that after two years of promising on-farm results (for the HAP variety in particular), and following a third year of verification trials, the first NCRE/IRA improved variety could be released for this important maize growing zone. However, there was no significant yield difference between the new varieties and the farmers' LOCAL varieties. More disappointing yet, farmers ranked the LOCAL variety first when their assessments were elicited at harvest time. The range of trial elevations was too narrow (350 m) to detect a varietal response to altitude. Mid-altitude maize/legume intercropping:Three new mid-altitude maize varieties, ATP, SYNTHETIC pool 3 and EARLY WHITE, which have shown good potential in earlier trials, and the LOCAL variety were compared in an on-station legume intercropping trial at MIonta (Bambui Plain) and Babungo (Ndop Plain). The two Iob .aes in tie trial are field beans (Phaseolusvulgaris) and soybeans (Glycine max). The objective was to study the perlormance of the new mid-altitude maize varieties under a legume intercropping system popular in the North West Province.The treatments consisted of 4 maize varieties and 3 legume regimesnone, beans and soybeans. The experimental design was RCB with all combinations of maize varieties and legume regimes, replicated four times. All plots received the recommended fertilizer rate of 60-30-30 N-P 2 0 5 -K 2 0. Ear leaf samples of maize were taken at silking at Babungo and analyzed Ibr plant nutrient elements.Results showed that legume intercropping significantly lowered grain yields of all maize varieties tested (table 5), with the bean intercrop competing more with the maize than the soybean intercrop (table 6). Higher maize yields under the bean intercrop than under the soybean intercrop at Mlbnta was due to mediocre bean performance at the site. The main cause of maize grain yield reduction was competition for N by both crops (table 7). Maize intercropped with beans showed strong N deficiency symptoms at flowering. Similar N deficiency symptoms by maize intercroppcd with soybeans showed at the grain filling stage.Under good growth conditions, as was the case in Babungo, there were no significant differences among the maize varieties in their effects on legume grain yield. The yield of Beans and Soybeans under sole crop was double the yield obtained under intercropping with maize (table 8). The yiel gain For sole-cropped soybeans was primarily due to a higher number of pods per plant (table 9). Effect of rate, method and time of fertilizer application on a maize/bean intercrop:Earlier farm surveys showed that, on average, farmers use about 100 kg of 20-10-10 compound fertilizer per hectare for their maize crop.The minimum fertilizer recommendation by research is 250 kg/ha. This trial was therefore conducted to verify whether through method and time of application farmers can maximize the benefits from the very low fertilizer rate they can afford.Two rates of fertilizer, 100 and 200 kg 20-10-10 per hectare were banded at planting, sidedressed at 4 weeks after planting or broadcast before ridging. The idea of broadcast before ridging was to verify if such a practice would have a priming effect on the mineralization of nutrients locked up in soil organic matter.The results presented in table 10 show that at Babungo, banding fertilizer at planting was superior to either broadcast before ridging or sidedressing four weeks after planting. The expected priming effect of broadcast fertilizer did not materialize at either rate of fertilizer application.At Mionta hfowve', the yields were very poor and followed no trend. Although the trial was planted late (end of April), it appears that both the rate and timing of fertilizer application test will not be suitable for an environment like Mfonta. The trial will continue next season to identify what method is suitable for which environment. Ankara land preparation system and soil chemical characteristics:Diagnostic Farm surveys and previous on-station field trials have confirmed that the \"ankara\" land preparation system (where grasses are buried and then burnt) improve crop yield mostly during the same season it is prepared. The actual chemical changes taking place in the soil during the process have not been fully quantified.At the beginning of the season, soil and maize ear leaf samples were taken from \"ankara\" beds and adjacent non-ankara plots at 12 locations for analyses. The objective is to verify the contributions of \"ankara\" to the fertility of the soils where the system is practiced and proceed to develop a sustainable technology that would produce the same effect without the destruction of soil properties accompanying \"ankara\". Some results of soil analyses are shown in table 11. Analyses of plant and soil profile samples taken at maize harvest have not been completed.\"Ankara\" land preparation reduced soil acidity. Even though samples were taken about six weeks after preparation, pH changes of up to 0.8 were observed in places. The \"ankara\" effectively neutralized up to 1.28 mneq/100g of exchangeable AL in the soil.A significant feature ot the \"ankara\" system is an increase in exchangeable bases, Ca, Mg, and K. The balance among Ca:Mg:K ratios is an important index of soil fertility. Earlier reports had indicated that a mg/k ratio below 2 may give rise to Mg deficiency especially in basaltic soils. The efficiency of the \"ankara\" system therefore, may depend on the degree of balance it maintains among Ca: Mg: k.The \"ankara\" system seems to improve available P mostly where initial P content is moderate to high. Rapid assessment of soil fertility status of the Western Highlands of Cameroon Soil samples were taken from over a wide range of sites in both Northwest and West Provinces at maize planting. The on-farm maize variety trial sites were included to alk w an assessment of maize grain yield at sample sites. The objective of the exercise was to rapidly determine soil fertility constraints to maize production and make suggestions for a new direction in soil fertility research in the Western Highlands of Cameroon.Maize ear leaf samples were also taken at silking from the on-farm variety trial sites and analysed for plant nutrient content along with the soil samples. Only the results of soil analysis are discussed in this report.The samples were grouped into two sets; those from mid-altitude (1000 -1500m) sites and those from high altitude (> 1500m) sites.Multiple regression analyses were performed on the data using site mean yield as dependent variable and soil parameters as independent variables.The range and means for soil parameters are presented in table 12. The means for soil pH, exchangeable Ca and K are similar for both mid-altitude and high altitude zones. While organic caibon and CEC are higher, exchangeable Mg and available P are lower in the high altitude than in the mid-altitude zone. In both zones, the minimum Value observed for each parameter, except pH, is above the critical level described in the literature for maize production.Regression analysis of mai.,e grain yields against soil parameters showed that exchangeable K in the soil was the most important single factor (R2-= 0.32) influencing yield in the mid-altitude zone. The best correlations with yield were from Ca, vlg and K. Organic carbon gave a negative correlation while correlation with available P was low.In the high-altitude zone, a complex interaction among pH, Ca, Mg and available P control maize yield. The R 2 for this regression was 0.72. Exchangeable Ca in the soil appears to have a strong effect on the availability of Mg and P.The partial results presented above show that the interactions among the basic cations, Ca, Mg and K are strong factors determining the soil fertility status (i.e. ability of the soil to release to the plant the required nutrients in the appropriate proportions) of soils of Northwest and West Provinces of Cameroon. Accomplishlent of the goal to increase maize production requires more than the availability of improved technologies (e.g., better maize varieties). Farmers must adopt the technology for it to be of any use. In the case of an improved maize vailety, one obvious attraction for would-be adopters is a high yield potential. However, as important as yield is to the farner, other factors (varietal characteristics) conic into play when she/he decides whether or not to plant the variety. These include (among others): earliness, plant height, husk tip cover, grain color, grain type, cooking quality aiad taste.The TLU has taken pains to monitor fariners' maize characteristic preferences over the years, and provided guidance to the NCRE maize breeders in the development of new varieties with traits that correspond to these preferences. But when all is said and done, the best proof of adoptability is adoption.One indicator of adoption is retention in subsequent years of the new technology by fairmers who participate in the on-farm trial program. Though less than a perfect measure of adoption, this indicator has the virtue of being easily and inexpensively monitored. The TLU began observing Firmers' technology retention behavior as early as 1987, when a survey was conducted of farmers who participated in the minikit trial program ii all previous years .In 1991, 86 farmers in the mid-altitude zone who had grown maize variety trials on their farms in 1989 or 1990 were visited and interviewed. The results of these interviews were very encouraging. Mean retention rates for the improved maize varieties (i.e., % farmers still growing at least 1 improved variety on part of their farm in a subsequent year) was 91% (table 15). By variety, the highest retention rates were reserved for KASAI (83%), COCA (44%) and ATP (28%). Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the respondents retained only I improved variety, while 23% retained 2 varieties. Although 4 to 8 varieties had been tested on each farm, farmers were disinclined to keep seed and plant more than I or 2 new varietics tile next year. Preservation of the seed was apparently a key problem. This resulted in relatively low retention rates for sonic varieties, which, if tested alone, would probably have been retained by more farmers.The farmers retaining at least I improved variety planted the new varieties on an average 51 % of their maize land That means that the improved varieties were planted on 46%' of the total land area planted to maize on the trial farmers farms. Eighty-three percent (83%) of the trial farmers who had tested KASAI planted it on 43% of their maize-cropped land, or 36% of total maize land for these farmers. For COCA the figures are 44%, 36% and 16%, respectively. For ATP, 28%, 37% and 10%.When assessing specific characteristics of the new varieties, in comparison with the LOCAL (farmer's) variety, the respondents found that, on average, the new varieties do not store as well, but taste better and have superior cooking qualities. One of the mandated responsibilities of the TLU in its goal of improving linkages between research, extension and farmers, is to train extension personnel. This can be met in two ways: 1) short refresher courses, and 2) on-the-job training. During the 1991 campaign, the TLU used both approaches.From 4 through 9 March 1991, the National Agricultural Extension and Training Project (PNVFA) organized a seminar for its extension staff in tie West Province. The objective of this seminar was to train extension agents (AVV) and their supervisors on the new methodologies to be used by the project.The topics covered were: 1) Presentation of the project;2) The Training & Visit approach; 3) Linkages between research and extension; and, 4) The role of agricultural support services (credit, inputs and product markets, ... ) A resource person was invited from the TLU-Bambui (Samatana), to present the third topic. His presentation included: goals of the TLU, description of TLU activities, methodologies used in generating new recommendations, collaboration with extension agents and farmers in on-farn research (including the responsibilities of each partner), research results and current recommendations (e.g., maize varieties), and future research strategies.In the field, extension agents participated in all TLU on-farm trial operations, from selecting participating farmers through trial harvest, yield measurements and eliciting farmer assessments of trial treatments; as well as iniplemnentition maize minikit trials. They also collaborated in TLU surveys (e.g., maize variety retention).Visitors to Bambui in 1991 included: * Agroforestry PCV's Christopher Glaudel, Andrew Jones, James Gleit and David Walsh. * Mr. Werner from Germany (GTZ), re: publication of an FSR/E manual.Mr. Ernest Gibson (USAID/ARD).Ekona TLU is responsible for the Coastal Humid Forest Region of Cameroon. The fLU works to improve food crop production of smallholders in South West Province through diagnosis, of agricultural constraints and opportunities, testing of improved varieties and agronomic cultural practices, and informational liaison between the extension service and IRA.Since its creation in 1986, TLU work at Ekona has focussed on (a) provision of baseline data on smallholder agriculture to guide IRA researcher in food crop and soils, (b) on-farm testing of NCRE maize and IRA/IITA cassava varieties, (c) soil and weed management trials on-station, and (d) post-harvest problems of maize (storage) and other food crops (marketing). liaison with extension has been effected through annual training and planning workshops, collaborative reseaict1 and minikit distributions.The basic approach of the TLU involving a combination of on-station trials, researcher and farmer managed trial in focus villages, and minikit distributions, will continue. However, the operational objectives have been reformulated to more clearly signify TLU priorities. Increased emphasis has been given to biological technologies for enhancing and sustaining farm systems productivity. Agroforestry and fallow management studies will be emphasized in the technology development focus of TLU Ekona.In 1991, the Ekona TLU accomplished some of its major objectives. Focus village meetings were held in February and the TLU annual workshop in March. Both were very successful, with over 80 participants at the workshop. Trials included establishment of researcher/farmer managed: fallow management, alley cropping, egusi beetle control, cassava quality and cassava and maize variety tests test kits, and farmer managed minikits trials. Data for economic analysis were collected for most of the trials. Preliminary results from the cassava adaptability trials have so far indicated that none of the improved cassava can be boiled and eaten without processing. The relative importance of using improved maize, fertilizing and weeding have been established for some sites in S.W. Province. By not using improved maize and not fertilizing with N, a farmer may obtain only 30% of possible maize yield. Suppression of weeds by smothering though effective in control, may reduce maize yield, particularly in moisture stressed situations as in Yoke, 1991-Il. The land productivity study which started March 1990 was completed in June 1991. The results show that average yields per crop under farmers mixed cropping pattern are relatively lower than potential (monocropped). A maximum efficiency gap of 50% was estimated. The twelve market provincial survey was only completed in June. A retention survey for improved maize varieties was carried out in 54 villages in the four main research zones.It is becoming! increasingly expensive to maintain the old Toyota Land cruiser. Insufficient transportation has limited our activities, particularly on bad roads in South West Province. The rains came earlier than anticipated. This encouraged some of the farrmers to plant earlier than we scheduled. Our relationship with the extension agents has deteriorated significantly, due to the discontinuation of financial incentives which they were having while the IITA researchers were at Ekona. This has been overcome by institutionalization of the relationship in a memorandum between MINAGRI and IRA. Operation 1: Feedback information on farming systems and markets. Based on reported diagnosis of farmers circumstances and technical constraints, Ekona TLU set agro-technical goals aimed at addressing three inter-related constraints (1) lack of improved crop varieties required by focus farmers; (2) rapid decline of soil fertility and (3) weed control (Table 1). Deliberately, Table I did not emphasize control of pests (other than weeds which are always present) and diseases. Where ever possible, specific studies on these, such as seed treatments, will be conducted. However, given the high costs of some known chemicals, their unavailability to target farmers and application problems, we found it more practical to assume that to be \"improved\", available varieties should have some level of resistance or tolerance to important diseases and pests. This is a prerequisite to their being tested at farm level. An experiment was set up in 1988 to evaluate the contribution of Leucaena lcucocephala, Gliricidia sepium and sesbania grandillora to N required by maize. In this experiment, the effects of*N application at 0, 20, 40, 80 kg/ha on maize yield were compared with alley cropped maize using the three legumes. Sesbania was dropped owing to non copicing alter first pruning. 'Fhe details of trial design, plot size, cultural practices have been given (See 1990 report). i)uring 1991, the trial was modified to serve as a demonstration of'yield maintenance in a typical poor sandy soil. The alleys were also extended from 5ni long to 12 m and the number of replications fiom 4 to 3. The effects of continuously applying N at 80 kg/ha or lower compared with the alley system on soil physical and chemical properties will be determined. The maize was intercropped with cassava.Maize height: Height of maize planted in leucaena hedgerows are comparable with maize in which 80 kg fertilizer N was applied and this agrees with previous years' data (Table 2). Maize height was maintained in the Yoke soil (a Palaudult with old sedimentary sand). Height in Leucaena plots were comparable to that at 80 kg/ha N whereas that in gliricidia plot was comparable to that at 40 kg/ha N. Lowest heights were at 20 and 0 kg/ha N (Table 2). Imperata Cylindrica (Weed) Control: An important observation which was monitored at Yoke was a reduction of the noxious weed, Imperata cylindrica, in one year fallow of leucuena and gliricidia, particularly of leucaena (Table 2). This study will be followed up and inputs from weed scientists will be sought to better understand Imperata biology and its effective control.Leaf, Woody Stem and N after one year fallow: The leaf weight, length of woody stem of mean diameter of 1.2 cm and estimated N in leaves from one year leucaena and gliricidia prunnings are presented in Table 3. Based on maize growth as indicated by height, the N in leaves alone satisfies the requirements of maize (Table 3) while the woody stems from leucaena and gliricidia is enough to stake 3.04 ha and 2.51 ha of yams, respectively. It is assumed that 2.5m stake length is required per yam at 20,000 yam sets per ha.Results from yellowing of maize leaves (leaf color) as an index of N deficiency showed that maize associated with leucaena and gliricidia were as yellow as that grown at 80kg N fertilizer (Table 3).Establishment of Seedlot Plots: Seed availability is an important requirement of the alley system. Since there was no source of continuous supply in the quantity desired, TLU Ekona commenced a seed lot nursery at two sites, Yoke (SDS) and Ekona center (LV) in 1991. These will also serve as demonstration plots for Alley System of crop production.The Yoke nursery has four entries: Cassia spectabilis, Leucaena leucocephala, Caliandra and the fourth species, pigeon pea, for planted rotational fallow system. Establishment at Yoke was 94% for pigeon pea, 46% for Cassia spectabilis and 83% for Leucaena.At the Ekona Center, Gliricidia, Leucacna, Cassia, Caliandra and Acassia have been established. The nurseries were being established in enough land area and in sufficient replications to superimpose treatments when required for demonstration or research e.g. weed control or soil fertility improvement.Yoke as an imporlant site for Agroforestrvy Research by Ekona TLIJ: Four general research areas (Lower Volcanic, Sands, Mamre and Kumba Corridor), have been recognized by TLU, Ekona as being representative of South West Province's major agricultural zones. (See details in TLU Surveys and Annual Reports). More detailed soil classification of these areas are being studied both from primary and secondary information. Yoke, which is in the SDS, is generally the poorest in fertility (Fig. 1). The top soil is sandy to sandy loam and the dominant weed is noxious Imperata cylindrica. Yoke is therefore a suitable site for Agroforestry research strategy of reclaiming agricultural soils from noxious weeds and for the strategy of making impoverished soil rich enough for crop growth (Table 4). ----------------------------------------------------Table 2: Effect of fertilization and alley system on maize height, leaf color (yellowing) at 5 weeks and Imperata cylindrica at Yoke.  Imperata: 1 = <25% of field infested by inperata taller than maize. 5 = > 75% of field infested by inperata taller than maize. - -----------------------------------.-------------- Three technological components were evaluated on incremental steps in the constraint areas of (1) lack of improved varieties (cassava and maize), (2) low soil fertility and (3) weed competition. This was tested at two focus sites: Yoke ((SDS) dominated by moderately wvell drained sedimentary sandy clay loam (Palaudult)) and unmapped old volcanic soil (LV, Mile ------------------------------------------------------17). Treatments were incremental combinations of improved and local varieties of cassava and maize; improved soil fertility by application of 20-10-10 fertilizer at 300 kg/ha and weed control at three levels: (a) hoe, (b) smothering by intercropping with peanuts at high population (about 120,000/ha) and (c) by applying metalochlor at 2 kg/ha a-i. pre-emergence. They were arranged as 2x2x2x3 factorial and replicated two times at each site.Data were collected on (1) cassava establishment (2) maize leaf color (yellowing) as an index of N scored 1-5 (1 =all leaves yellow to 5 = all leaves green), (2) ground cover (1 = ground bare to 5ground completely covered by economic crop) and (3) weed cover (1 plot completely covered with weeds to 5 no weeds observed). Samples of maize cobs and associated stover yield were also obtained. Plot size was 51n x 6m.Results showed a significant positive correlation between stover yield and ground cover (P0.05, r=0.49). Significant relationships were also observed between maize leaf color and cob yield (P0.01, r=0.69) and also with stover yield (P0.01, r=0.78). The nature of the relationships and their coefficients of determinations, R', are shown in Table 5, Figs 2 and 3. These parameters, though subjective, can be used to evaluate treatment effects in on-farm investigations where facilities may be lacking for their more detailed studies. Since weed effects have been suppressed by treatments, it is not related to maize cot) and stover yields (Table 4). Stover and maize cob yields were highest at the highest treatment factor levels i.e. improved maize fertilized and weed controlled by chemical (HWC), smothering (HWs) or by hoe weeding (HWh) at two periods as farmer would (Figs. 4 and 5). These levels were regarded as H or highest levels. The improved maize variety and fertilizer were excluded, one at a time and are shown as H-MV and H-F. All these were comnpared with a case in which no improved component was added (L) although, weeding was done twice (Table 6). ']'here was moisture stress throughout tile growing period at Yoke particularly following cob formation. This reduced maize growth and yield compared with Mile 17. Nevertheless the L treatments were obviously the lowest yielding. Non inclusion of fertilizer and improved maize also resulted in reduced yields, particularly at Yoke with poorer soil. These preliminary results should be viewed with caution because of the high CV's (70%) observed in the yields collected. Under conditions of moisture stress, it appears that hoe weeding tends to produce highest yields, an indication that associated crops and weeds may compete for moisture. By estimating one component at atime, yield reduction as percent of the highest at Yoke and Mile 17 are shown in Table 6. Tentative inferences from this study are (1) Maize leaf yellowing and ground cover scores are positively correlated with maize stover and cob yields (2) full expression of treatment effects can be obscured by moisture stress particularly if many crops are g.'own in association (3) yield advantages of packages of improved technologies showed that removal of fertilizer and improved variety tended to reduce maize cob and stover yields drastically. Egusi melon beetle (chrysomelidae) remains an important pest. Previous iesearcher managed chemical control studies with three formulations showcd that Marshal ST 25 seed treatment (250 granis egusi seed with 2.5 gm Marshal ST 25) was the best (See 1990 Report).The study was repeated in 1991 under farmer management at Malende (Sandsunmapped soil) and at Kembong (Manife M, of Lobe Series, Orthoxic Tropoudults or Ferric acrisols, acidic soils on old sandy clay deposits). Some egusi seeds available to eleven farmers per location were treated with Marshal while others were not. The farmers were instructed to plant the two lots of seeds separately. At about two-three weeks after planting, areas 6 x 5 m 2 were demarcated to denote treated and untreated plots. All management inputs weeding, fertilizer application if any, time to harvest and crop associations and establishment timing, were according to tile farmers methods. The farmers were advised to harvest the melons from the demarcated plots separately, process them into dry unshelled seeds and store for weighing by researchers.Usable data were collected from only four farmers per site. Data were collected from six farmers at Kembong, M, site, but there were no untreated checks for two farmers (Ndip Stella, 333 kg/ha and Ayuk, 266 kg/ha). The resutts shown in Table 7 indicate that marshal treatment tends to be superior to the check.  -----------------------FARMER --------------------------  ------------------------------------..-------------------------------- The melon yield was significantly higher at Malende than at Kembong, (LSD 0.05= 197). Treatment with Marshal resulted in higher yields at Malende-Fako but not at Kembong (LSD 0.05 = 201) (Fig. 6). High l'armcr -farmer yield variations were observed at both sites and also between treatments which indicate management variations between farms. This led to a relatively high CV (31 %). This trial and the 1990 results are conclusive enough that further studies may not be required, particularly since Marshal ST 25 is not available in local markets.Realizing recommendations by CNRCIP's agronomist and breeders that 8017 and 8034 IRA cassava varieties could be eaten boiled (like yam) and in light of complaints often expressed by farmers, we set out to confirm this finding. Given the fact that high cyanide cassava if consumed without adequate processing could be poisonous, Ekona TLU saw this study as being very important since 8017 and 8034 are already well established in farmers fields.Methodology: In collaboration with village extension workers, four sites were chosen at (a) Malende (Kumba Corridor) (b) lkiliwindi (Kumba Corridor) (c) Fotabe (Mamufe forest) and (d) Kembong (Matufe sands). At each site, a local check representing a widely grown cassava variety was selected. In the KC areas, a local white was used while in MF area, red This experiment shwed that tile softening of cassava root when boiled and yield depend on the age at which the plant is harvested. However, the parameters used are not enough to draw conclusions on eating quality, textural and other requirements relating to cassava utilization. Inputs by food technologists and other disciplines, will be required. 6.2.4. Maize Minikits 6.2.4. Minikits have been our single systematic way of getting farmer feedback about our improved varieties. Since 1987, samples of maize seed have been sent out to large numbers of farmers for field evaluation and also in the various dishes. Questionnaires are included to get their response.In 1990 Ftrst season about 441 samples and questionnaires wvele sent out and only 115 usable forms wee returned which represents a return rate of only 26%. Evalation ,2t'irned: 18 of CMS 8501 (14%), 15 of CMS 8503 (16%), 94 of CMS 8704 (11%), 20 of' C(S 8806 (34%), 14 of Cocoa (70%); 21 of MSR 85 (84%) and 14 of Kasai (70%).97% of the farmers testing the maize were women. About 40% used a local maize variety (derived from highland t),pcs) as hcal check, and the rest used the soft typ,. called calabar white. An insignificant number used farmer improved varieties like Cub in yellow, Ekona white, Yellow and Mixed color.M: I tests (47%) were planted on land continuously in use, the average being 2.8 years sinc last fallow'. About two-thirds (42%) incorporated grass or left it as mulch on the fields. 1\\ ,st farmers planted their maize in April. 73% weeded their fields at least one time with an i:verage of 5.5 weeks after planting (WAP sd 2.89), 19% did a and second weeding averaging, 8.2 weeks after planting (sd 2:5). =The IRA igliland varieties were harvested 1-3 weeks later than locals, and the lowland varieties :wveraged harvesting dates of' 1-10 days earlier than the locals. Harvesting started at 13.5 w( Js on the average and most of the IRA maize was completely harvested by 14 weeks, so ' icir reuse as seed is questionable. Accidental losses were about equal for both local and improved maize, but disease symptoms were more often present on local maize 1 This question may have been misunderstood.The fields were visited four weeks after planting to stake two samples of 7m x 3m each per field but where the farm was very small only one sample 8n x 51n was staked. A trained monitor was selected from each of the villages to be supervising fli. ,armer tlrough all activities on the sample plots until harvest. At harvest, the yields of all tI. -rops in the sample plots were obtained in the presence of the farmers, monitor, extension a, ' and the researcher. Maize yield was converted to dry grain weight at 15% moisture conlt 'IC), groundnuts were measured as fresh pods and as dry grain, egusi melon seL. '.'as approximated from the weight of fresh melons using a standard dry seed weight percent,. which was derived from processing of 18 melon samples of 9-12 kilos each brought from all zones. The two types of Colocasia (lbo coco and country coco), cocoyam (Xanthosoma), yams and cassava yields were weighed as fresh roots anJ tubers.Multiple cropping was a rule. Farmers were found to plant up to eight crops (maize, groundnuts, egusi, ibo coco, country coco, yams, cocoyam and cassava) on the same piece of land in the first season. This practice resulted in very low densities of each crop and comparable low yields (Table 9). The yield differences betwcen a multiple crop and a sole crop was quite wide. However, the lower yields and wider yield gaps were compensated by high land and income equivalent ratios (ILER and IER) of 2.9 and 3.5, respectively (Table 10). This shows that the yield deriN ed fron intercropping system using crop combination considered in this study result in 290% higher total yield than that derived from planting each cr'op in equivalent area as sole cop while the income derived from intercropping tile system using the crop combination resulted in 350% higher total income than that derived from planting each cro p in eqi.ivalent area as sole. Hence a greater dif[fusion rate of IRA improved technologies like cassa\\a cuttings, maize seeds, sweet potato viies. soil management Practices, etc. is expected to increase the values of LER and IER thus upgrading the socioeconomic condition of the South West farmer. A maize retention study of minikit users was carried out between May-June, 1991 in the four key research zones (l.owcr Volcanic, Ku mba Corridor, Sands and Mamfe) of South West Province. The objectives of the study were (i) to evaluate the elfectiveness of the minikit approach in technology dissemination, and (ii) to assess the factors that influence IRA maize retention, use and diff'usion. A list of 174 minikit users out of over 2000 maize minikit varieties sent out since 1987 for whom1 completed evaluation questionnaires had been received was compiled. These users were scattered across 63 localities. The IRA varieties assessed in the study were CMS 8501, CMS 8806 and CMS 8704. With the help of a skilled enumerator an attempt was made to recontact as many of the 174 as possible. But completed questionnaires were obtained for 122 farmers. Maize retention and diffusion patterns were measured using five binary variables: (i) whether farmer kept seed after harvesting the test, (2) whether farmer ever planted the seed, (3) whether farmer was still planting the seed in first season 1991, (4) whether farmer has ever sold sonic of IRA maize, and (5) whether farmer gave or sold seed of IRA maize to other farmers.IRA maize irrespective of the zone and variety yielded more than farmers indigenous variety. Among respondents expressing a preference, IRA maize roasted or as fufu (maize meal) tasted better than the local (Table 11). Almost every farmer (85%) kept IRA seed to plant in the future season and any farmer who did not keep either lost it in the field (pests, diseases, degeneration) or in storage or ate all that was harvested. Over 40% of the participants were still planting IRA maize in 1991 and 50% sold IRA maize, while approximately 50% sold the maize seed to other farmers (Table 12). Consequently farmers were being exposed to IRA maize, and many more were given access to it. Kumba Corridor and Lower Volcanic zones had higher retention and diffusion rates, due to more market outlets for surplus. Higher population densities and high immigrants household size, age of participant, harvesting maize dry and eating it flinty were significantly sold cobs/grain and give/sell associated with retention behaviors (ever plant, plant 1991, seeds) (Table 13). Further analysis of respondent characteristics and retention behavior showed that certain personal characteristics were strongly related to diffusion through However, the pace of variety diffusion through sales may well subsequent sales (Table 14). be increased by concentrating efforts on, for example, female participants rather than male participants since most of the food crop farmers in general and maize farmers in particular in the study area are women (Table 14). Further technology retention research should (beyond sales), while therefore focus on delineation of dimensions of retention behavior attempting to identify a stronger set of explanatory variables. Complementary research is needed on which types of retention behavior most rapidly lead to variety diffusion and Research is also sustained productivity increases by the largest possible number of farmers. needed on the degeneration of the maize varieties. 6.3 TLU MAROUAMaroua TLU has responsibility to improve knowledge of the farming systems of North Cameroon through diagnostic studies and to contribute to the development, testing and dissemination of technologies under farmers' conditions. The zone of action of Maroua TLU is the Far North province and the Mayo-Louti Division in the North province.Within this region, Maroua TLIJ has, in past years, confined pre-extension tests within the cotton-growing (SODECOTON) zones where sorghum, groundnut, cowpea and millet are the major crops. Efforts are underway to extend TLU activities in the Mayo-Sava, Mayo-Tsanaga and Logone-Chari Divisions where the National Extension and Training Project (PNVFA) has become operational.The goal of Maroua TLU is to increase food crop production, improve yield stability, maintain soi' fertility and increase small farmecis' income in the mandate region. In moving toward this goal, TLU has placed emphasis on farm level surveys to identify constraints to stable production, sustainable technology generation on-station, on-farm tests, and training of extension agents.On-farm testing within Maroua TLU consists of thrce levels. First, relatively complex technologies are tested, often using a relatively complex experimental design in representative observational villages with observers trained and paid by TLU. Technologics/praciccs % hich prove adaptable biologically and acceptable to farmers are promoted to regional testing in about 30 widely dispersed sites to cover a wide range of conditions. The design is simplified and tests are observed by SODECOTON and MINAGRI extensi-;n agents. Successful technologies in regional tests are then extended to farmers as minikits. This extremely simple test is conducted by hundreds of farmers who respond to an evaluation questionnaire. A technology is then considered ready when acceptability is high and a technical bulletin is prepared.The resources invested in diagnostic surveys will decrease over the next four years in favour of technology verification. Technology development on-station will focus on soil moisture and striga management for stable sorghum yields. The regional test program will gradually move away from collaboration with SODECOTON in favour of the PNVFA.Five research operations (as listed in the Accomplishments section). were conducted in 1991. As part of diagnostic studies, the agricultural practices survey (3rd year) was terminated in 4 TLU research villages. A survey of storage practices is in progress ; steps were taken to initiate the sorghum marketing study in collaboration with IRA Project Garoua early in 1992. Other surveys planned are in progress (agroforestry survey). Preliminary results of the 1990 adoption survey are reported.Activities under on-station technology generation in 1991 included the following trials:(1)effect of striga treatment on subsequent striga generation, (2)effect of cowpea association on striga population in sorghum, (3)screening cover crops for soil protection, (4) observation of pigeon pea hedgerows and associated crops and (5)effect of muskwari planting date and depth (1990-91).In the four TLU research villages, the sorghum/cowpea association test entered its third (and possibly final year). The land preparation test was simplified in design following farmers' feedback in 1990. The collaborative work of TLU and the IRA/Bean Cowpea CRSP included both testing of four cowpea storage techniques (2nd year) and a researcher/farmer managed cowpea variety test.Regional variety tests with SODECOTON and PNVFA were also conducted for 5 sorghum varieties and 5 peanut varieties. Minikit tests of seed treatment (sorghum) and compound maize were implemented for the third consecutive year.Total rainfall in the Extreme North province was abnormally high in 1991 (800 to 1100 nn) but distribution was typically poor. Drought periods in June caused severe stress to young sorghum and high humidity associated with high rainfall in August caused increased disease pressure in cowpea.Difficulties included 1) arrival of Systems Agronomist after the start of the rains in late May, 2) disabling computer virus, and 3) increasing cost of running aging vehicles and the fact that TLU had to operate with fewer vehicles after turning one over to the NCRE Grain Legumcs program.Operation 1: Improve knowledge of farners' circumstances, practices and institutional framework. A region wide survey was conducted in September 1990 to evaluate the extent of adoption of improved varieties of, and recommended practices for sorghum, cowpea and peanuts and identify factors associated with adoption (or non-adoption) of these practices. A total of 36 villages in the cotton growing zones were selected with a probability proportionate to size (number of farmers). In this report, preliminary results on variety adoption for all three crops and factors associated with the adoption of S35 sorghum are presented. The percentage of farmers in each region (SODECOTON) who planted at least one part of their holdings to new varieties is given in Table 1.- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------------------7---------  ---------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------- agents. Two varieties of maize (CMS 8704 and DMR ESR-Y), meant to be consumed fresh, were tested for the third year. One variety of maize (Pool 16 early in the cropping season, DR) was suggested by the IRA maize breeder for evaluation for the first time for grain production on fertile soils. Seed treatment with thioral was tested for the first year after testing a more expensive insecticide (Marshall) in previous years.- ------------------------------------------------------------------------Evaluation forms were returned by 57% of the farmers testing maize varieties and by 40% of farmers/extension agents who tested thioral treatment on sorghum seed. The opinion of farmers who tested the maize varieties is presented inTable 4. CMS 8704 was appreciated by almost 89% of farmers who responded to the evaluation questionnaire and DMR ESR-Y by 78%. These varieties were especially appreciated for their ability to emerge, taste, and cooking quality. While Pool 16 DR was appreciated for its ability to emerge, its overall appreciation by responding farmers was only 53 %, color and taste being unfavorable points.Seed treatment with thiora! was felt by responding farmers to favorably affect emergence (96%), plant survival (84%), plant growth (77%), disease and insect resistance (64%), striga resistance (54%), and yield (65%).  -----------------------------------------------------  -------  ------------------------------------------------------Note: Intermediate responses (fair) can be calculated by difference from 100.In 1991, regional tests were conducted with peanut and sorghum varieties. All tests involved one replication per farmer.This was the second year of testing peanut varieties developed by the IRA peanut section. Four new varieties with short maturity cycle were compared with two control varieties, the farmers' current variety and one of two recommended varieties (55-437 in drier zones and 28-206 in more humid zones. Twenty eight tests were conducted, 20 with SODECOTON collaboration and 8 with M!NAGRI. All of the tests were harvested without problems in spite of early season drought at most sites.- ----------------------------------------------------------------------There was no consistently superior variety in terms of grain yield except in tile Mayo Louti Division where the recommended variety (28-206) produced 40 to 50% more than the new varieties and 30% more than the locals (Table 5). Note that the local was generally 28 206 of poorer seed quality as reflected in a 7% reduction of stand at 15 days (data not shown).In the Far North province, mean grain yields fell within a narrow range (1.24 to 1.44 t/ha in SODECOTON tests and 1.11 to 1.24 t/ha over all tests). This was the first year in which the improved varieties were tested against 55-437, a variety recommended for the drier zones. IB 77 and 5021 were the best varieties in the 1990 regional tests in terms of grain yield, although M 416 was much appreciated by famers in terms of grain quality. Thus it will be wise to continue testing for another year before progressing to the minikit stage.The short duration varieties produced significantly less hay than the locals (Table 6).The groundnut section team accompanied the TLU on a visit of all tests in August, enabling them to observe their varieties under farmers' conditions and to record the incidence of major peanut diseases.Table 5. Yield of peanut grain inon-farm regional test of peanut varieties, 1991.  -----------------------kg/ha ------------------------------  --------------------------------28-206 ------------------------------------------------- A conluparison of gross benefits was made 10r tile peanut variety test. Since labor at harvest was tie only input tIh'It varied betwCCn treat ments (sign ilica nly higher for the local check), gross benCfits prC hour of harvestilgi (linmiting tiactor) were also ranked as shown in Table 7 For the 20 tests in SOI)ICOTON region. The low yield of M 416 both in grain and hay results in the smallest gross benefit of all the varieties tested. Since these varieties are compared to both the local and improved checks (55 437), eliminating the check varieties places 5021 and K 32 higher in the list of possible substitttes For the checks.- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------farmers' appreciation of these varieties in a po) harvest survey appears consistent with the trend noticed in 1990 peanut variety test with respect to M 416 in particular. They ranked M 416 (57%) and K 3237-80 (39%) as first and second in regard to overall performance. Sixty eightpercent indicated their readiness to adopt M 416 and 46% for K 3237-80. An important reason appevrs to have been the red grain color, large grain size and sweet taste. Farmers' low opinion of 5021 and IB 77 is related to the above criteria and their Purceptilility to diseases (36% of farmers). In sum, despite the low yield and resulting low gross benefit of variety M 416, farnics felt that it fills a particular need.After 3 years of multilocational trials, two short cycle (CS 141 and CS 210) and one purified traditional variety (Gueling), promising stable high yields of good quality grain and stover were identified by the IRA sorghum section for regional testing. These were compared with two control varieties, the farmers' currently popular variety and one of two recommended varieties (S 35 in the Far North province and Djigari for Mayo Louti Division). Twenty eight tests were initiated in collaboration with SODECOTON (20) and MINAGRI ( 8), of which six were abandoned because of uniformly poor stand and growth from early season drotight and insect attack.In general, yields of sorghum grain were excellent since rainfall was very favorable after the early season drought. The improved, short cycle varieties did not perform well in this rainy year (Table 8). Farmers' current varieties were generally best and Gueling performed very well regionally. This supports the view that more local varieties should be incorporated into sorghum breeding since these varieties are adapted to the environment and preferred by farmers for their taste. One year of testing is not sufficient to eliminate the improved varieties, however, in this abnormally high rainfall year. Also CS 141 showed some romise by producing excellent stover biomass in addition to reasonable grain yield (Table 9). Yields of trials followed by MINAGRI agents were very low and five out of eight IIN AG RI trials were abandoned. Site mean yields ranged from 290 to 3180 kg/ha providing sufficient variability to study yield determinants with the existing data. Striga numbers fluctuated considerably from 0 to 371,500/ha at 90 DAP but were not correlated to mean site grain yield.Table 8. Yield of grain inon-farm regional test of sorghum varieties, 1991.  ------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------kg/ha  ------------------  ---------------------kg/ha ------------------  -----------------------------------------------jigari -------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------Number of tests inparentheses.A partial budget was elaborated to compare gross benefits (value of grain and stover) in sorghum variety tests. Since the level of inputs (seeds, fertilizer, seed treatment) was the same across treatments, labor at harvest (although not significantly different among varieties) constituted the only variable cost. Gross benefits per ha and per hour of harvesting (limiting factor) are compared and ranked as shown in Table 10. Variety CS 210 has a much smaller gross benefit as a result of both low grain and stover yield in relation to the other varieties.Table 10. Gross benefits (CFA) of short-cycle varieties of sorghum tested in1991 (SODECOTON, Far North).  ---------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------..  -------------------------------------------------------------..Notes: Sorghum grain evaluated at 55 F/kg inDecember ;stover 75 F/kg and labor at 126 F/hour.All of the farmers were questioned at the time of weighing the harvest about the varieties tested. In terms of overall performance, S 35, Gueling and CS 141 were respectively appreciated by 60, 45 and 40% of the farmers. Reasons appear to be white grain color, stein height and stover yield. The frequencies of farmers who characterized eac', .-' y with respect to certain quality or disadvantages are given in Table 11 to emphasize ft mers' perception and feedback to the station.   The effect of sorghum cowpea association on striga population was not clearly demonstrated. Striga numbers at 90 DAP were 39000/ha for the sorghum pure stands and 27000/ha when associated with cowpea. This decrease of 30% could have been associated with decreasing sorghum density (reduced 25% in association with cowpLa). Future observations should focus on indicators of striga reproductive potential such as numbers of flowers, numbers of mature striga capsules, or some correlated parameter.Sixteen tests were initiated and 14 harvested for grain (11 for stover) in the four TLU research villages. Soil tillage with animal plow was compared to direct seeding (no-tillage) at the mainplot level and three sorghum varieties at the subplot level of a split plot design.The effect of plowing on sorghum grain yield was significant (Table 15). Mean response to plowing on sorghum grain yield ranged from 10% at Djingliya to infinite at Gatouguel and 54% overall. Soil moisture content to 30 cm depth was measured at 15 DAP in the Djigari plots by the IRA soils section. Mean soil profile moisture content of plowed soil was 29% higher than the control. This suggests that plowing increased soil water availability to sorghum during early growth, helping the plant to avoid drought stress.- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The sorghum varieties responded to plowing similarly. Variety itself was not a significant factor. Plowing did not significantly affect stalk yield in the 11 sites where data were available.The trial was then analyzed in terms of costs and returns to plowing versus no plowing for each variety, since variety itself was not a significant factor. Labor use had been monitored on all treatments and showed significant differences between plowed and non plowed plots. There was no other input level varying within a varicty factor, thus gross benefits and labor productivity could be estimated as in Table 16. The percent increase in gross benefits between plowed and non-plowed treatments was 24, 56 and 68% for Djigari, S-35 and the local, respectively. Except for Djigari, the value of production per hour is higher for plowed plots.   ------------------------------------------------------------- An additional important economic advantage of plowing was improved plant establishment as reflected in a 79% reduction in the number of reseeded holes. The effect carried through to plant density at 30 DAP and at harvest (18 and 17% increase due to plowing, respectively). Future tests will include careful observation of erosion which could affect the sustainability of such a land preparation system.Two erect IITA varieties were proposed by the IRA cowpea section. They were compared to the most commonly grown spreading (Vya) and semi-erect (BR 1)varieties. The crop was treated once with insecticide by the IRA cowpea section and a second time by TLU observers. The cowpea team accompanied TLU on a trip to observe all of the tests in September.Yields were generally low during this season probably due to very high rainfall in August, resulting in a increased disease pressure. The IITA varieties did not prove to be well adapted to the environment in 1991. Grain yield of IT86D364 was significantly lower than BRI and Vya and yield of IT86D719 was significantly lower than BRI (Table 16).Of the sixteen tests initiated, grain was harvested from 13 and hay from nine. Hay yields of IT86D364 were significantly lower than those of BR1 (Table 17). BRI surpassed Vya in grain and hay production as expected in these trials receiving two insecticide applications.  ----------------kg/ha -------------  -----------kg/ha   -----------  A major constraint to increased cowpea production is the loss in storage due cowpea weevils (Callosobruchus maculatus). Four storage methods devised by the IRA/Bean-cowpea CRSP project have been tested by TLU with the participation of collaborative farmers in the 4 research villages (Djingliya, Djoulgouf, Zouaye and Gatouguel). The methods include (1) improved traditional practice of storage in ash, (2) storage in pods on a wooden platform \"Danki\", (3) solar heaters and (4) storage of cowpea in sealed clear plastic bags (double or triple bagging).To improve the demonstration value of the experiments, 6-10 farmers in each village were earlier given the varieties BR2 (improved) and VYA (Local) to plant and use the harvest for the experiments. Two farmers were selected for each technique. Except for the pod storage technique on dankis, most farmers had mixed BR2 with VYA or other locals.Ash storage: Farmers using this technique were asked to thresh approximately 30 kg of seed in advance. The necessary wood ash and two traditional containers (canaris) were also supplied. Equal volumes of ash and cowpea seeds were mixed and poured into the canaris, covered with a layer of 3-4 cm and left for 2 1/2-3 month storage.The objective was to have farmers use a variety which has a breakage resistant pod as well as seed resistance (BR2) and determine whether this method offers a recognizable benefit while allowing farmers to compare this storage method to others being demonstrated. Approximately 2 sack-fulls (100 kg) of pods were placed on a danki (BR2 and VYA). Solar Heater treatment: A 3 x 3 m sheet of black plastic was laid cn an insulting mattress of dried weeds directly placed against the ground. Thirty kilos of seeds were spread out evenly on the black sheet, and covered with another 3 x 3 m sheet of clear plastic, with edges folded together to limit air circulation around seeds. The duration of the treatment was about 2 hours (between I I and 13.00 hrs) which normally brings up the temperature inside the plastics to above 650 c. Following the solar exposure, seeds were placed in a double or triple bag of clear plastic (50 kg capacity) and tightly sealed to prevent further bruchid infestation.Triple Bagging: The method is also use singly without other prior treatment. Two or three clear plastic bags were placed one inside the other and 30 kg of cowpea seeds placed inside, tightly sealed so that little to no air space remained.Control Treatment: 30 kg of seeds were placed untreated in a typical harvest bag commonly used by farmers.An important aspect of the demonstration was the artificial infestation of the cowpeas in each treatment with bruchid infested grains from the laboratory. This level of initial infestation (0.5%) was sufficient to ensure that nearly every seed would be damaged by the end of 3-4 months of storage.One obvious advantage o1 all tie Imir techniques is that they are within the capacity of the far'iers to adopt. Ash sorage and storage on dankis are traditional methods that researchers attempted to improve. These two techniques are applicable to the majority of northern Cameroon frarmers who typically produce 100-200 kg of cowpea pet, farm. The recommended \"canari\" which holds about 40 kg of seeds, sells for 1000-1500 FCFA and can last several years. After 2-3 inontis in ash storage, the farmer can earn 6500 FR (40 x 200 F/kg-1500 F) in gross revenue aflter sale.Triple bagging may he suited for boIth small and larger fiarners (1-2 tons). Selling 50 kg of cowpea seeds alter 3-4 month storage can yield 10.000 FCFA mitnus the cost of the sacks (150 x 3 -4.50 F), leaving a gross benefit of1 9550 FCFA.Many fiarmers mentioned tlie diflictlty to acquire plastic bags in the village and the Iact that the bags must remain sealed fiar 3-4 months (thus naking the produce unavailable for home consumrnption) as possible disadvantages of this technique.Solar heating can probably be adapted to suit the needs of most producers. The total investment in black and clear plastic amounts to 7500 IFCIFA. Selling 50 kg for 10.000 FCFA would more than pay fkr (lie solar heater and101r the past Ireatment in plastic storage bags or in canari. Another advantage of' he solar heater is that the investment can be shared by a group of fa rmiers , thUS Iirsvteriig tile cost per person.The same experiment was run in ()ct l,cr IT91 le 4 TIJ villages to confirm the in hI 1990 results and assess farmers' teedlack in a second year. The resounding success of' this collaboralive operation has made it posibh fo0r TIIJ and IRA/CRS project to recommend cowpea storage techniques 10wthe 1992 regi rial testing, one step prior to full extension.Technology generation for conlrol ol . hermnonthica usually focuses on current year control to protect (he sorghumn crop. A successfiIl technology must also reduce striga seed populations, thereby reducing striga presstre in subsequent years.Two Irials to test striga control pnctices: I) Iniegrated approach to striga control, and 2) Herbicide control of st riga, conductcd tit or' two years (1999 1990), the sa me plots and were followed up by a crop of sorghuni in 19 I with intensive observation of S. herrnonlliica to test the long tern elect of' striga control (,I slriga po€ pulation pressure in subsequent years.Were not signific:arttlyv affecled by previous year treatments in the herbicide trial, but previoas ,eai-s ( arlm lratnient had significantly more striga in the integrated approach trial (Table 10). In rcn,,ral, striga numlbers in both trials were related to plot position along the lope and grain and stt'er yield were more related to spittle big infestation Ihan ( sIriga. Since prey'iotls Yt1r-', liiiin variety may influence spittle burg (Prphihts c 1i.alisj poplations, previous sorghum variety influenced yield significantly (Table 20) without affecting s1riga.   --------------t --------------  --------------------------.. /i1 ---------------    - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Striga populations were generally very low in the experimental area with the highest mean count of 2.4 m 2 occurring at 12 WAP. There was no effect of cowpea association on striga numbers and cowpea groundcover was not correlated to striga numbers. However, the number of striga carrying mature capsules was significantly correlated to cowpea groundcover (-0.508; p=0.006). Mature capsule-bearing striga numbers were highest in the pure sorghum treatment (Table 21). Thus while the cowpea may not inhibit striga emergence, shading by the cowpea may inhibit capsule formation leading to a long term reduction in striga numbers.Yield of sorghum grain and stover were not significantly affected by cowpea association treatment. Pure sorghum yielded 735 kg/ha grain and 1.55 t/ha stover compared to 890 kg/ha of grain and 1.64 t/ha of stover for the cowpea association treatments.Groundcover and hay yield were significantly affected by cowpea planting pattern (Table 2!). Groundcover and yield of cowpea grain and hay were lowest when one cowpea plant was left in the hole with sorghum (T). Groundcover and yield were highest with two holes of cowpca (each containing one cowpea plant) per hole of sorghum (T3 through T6 Mean = 69% groundcover; 340 kg grain and 2.2 t hay/ha). Yield was reduced by about 10% on average with one hole of cowpea (containing two cowpea plants) per hole of sorghum (T2 and T8; X = 53% groundcover; 305 kg grain and 1.4 t hay/ha). Vegetative cover is necessary to protect the soil surface from rain drop impact and consequent surface compaction and runoff. We propose planting a forage legume after sorghum establishment which might take advantage of any residual moisture after sorghum harvest. This would increase the likelihood of the soil being covered during the dry season, hindering wind erasion. Ideally, there would be some residue left on the surface at the beginning of the next rainy season so that infiltration, and therefore soil moisture content, would be increased, alleviating early season drought, a major constraint to sorghum production. Soil degradation due to sheet and gully erosion would be slowed as well.   ----------------------------..  Soil surfice temperature reflected tihe degree ol cover by tie species (Fig. 1). In early October daytime soil surface temperature under cowpea was significantly higher than under Canavalia ensifori isor mucuna while C. ensil'ormis with an crect stature, covered the soil less well than the spreading mrcuna. fly November, soil temperature was generally lower thaii in October and mucuna, which has senesced almost completely, no longer provided the best cover.Production of seed of Canaval ia ell fo-_iis and mllucunt was successful with almost 10 kg being produced on about 8(0 i'.While alley cropping is considered I(he :h a iologically sustai,10le cropping system in the hurmid and subhumid zones, it may mt be appr opriate in semi-arid areas. The tree species which are most adapted to dry cr dilions mnav be those which most compete with an associated cnp f0r soil moistrire. \"lius. a rial was conducted to observe tthe growth and response to pruning of pigeon pea ((,a.janus cin)rand the yield of associated crops.Pigeon pea was estab lished linm ,ed wit the onset of (lie rains in 1990 on a ferriginous Al isol in association witi a crop )fC(.pea (41.8 i betwveen hedgerows). In.une, 1991 the pigeon pea was. prined to 30 cin height and himnss was estimated. The prunings were spread in the lleys and peanut varielty 5)0 I was planted there and on control plots without trees. Ma inplots were split fi(r applicati m of I00 kg/ha of triple su'per phosphate. Soil moistu re Iensionmeters were instaled in two ( ' Itle three replications in hodL pigeon pea and control plots at '0 and 25 cmn depth and several distances fn'im the hedgerow. Peanut was harvested from the central rows separately frirni lhe border rows in each plot.Pigeon pea prtrin ioniass, after a noumal rainfall year and a six month dry season, averaged 7410 kg I). M./ha. Pigeon pea regrew well after prning, attaining an average height of 2. I di iring tihe rainy season. Fifty percent of the pigeon pea stand was lost during the first year of growlh ana inadditional was after pruning.Yield of peanut in pods averayed 1.-12 ind 1.62 kg/ha in the central rows of the pigeon pea and control plots, respectli\\,Cly, a decrease 12'%(Table 23). In the border rows, f1* the yield decrease in tie pigeon pea plots was 27%,.. l'his was quite likely a result of competition between pigeon pea and peanit for m(isture in dry periods. Higher soil moisture tension was recorded 20 and 60 cin from pigeon pea hedgerows than 140 cm from the hedgerows or in control plots during dry periods (Fig. 2). This effect was observed at 25 cm depth and only weakly at 10 cii.Yield of peanut in pods averaged 1.56 and 1.43 t/ha with and without !SP, respectively, an increase of 91,.-----in pl&:S -------------------------------P----a  t-------I---Y-------------   -------------------------------------------Yield-------Date Grain Stover Previous 10 Days ------kg/ha --------  ---------------------------------- Nkolbissont LU has the responsibility For fiarning systems diagnosis, on-farm testing, and cxtension liaison in the Center and South provinces. The TLU primarily concentrates ol the Center Province, which encompasses Yaounde, the second largest urban market in Cameroon, and nearly 75 percent of farms in the TLU's inandatcd research zone.The goal of Nkolhisson TLU is to enhance rural incomes and t-x, 2 security through moe iproductivc and sustainal)le crop production systems. Until 1991, research focused on improved maize, cassava, and sweet potato varieties, maize fertilization, weed control, and mixed croppin, pattcrns. Research on these thelnes is near completion and promising aiternatives are being verified through regional testing and demonstrations i, conjunction with the extension service of the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI).Research on agroforestry and planted fallow now constitutes the l)rimary technology development locus of the TLU and this is expected to be the case throughout the 1991-1994 phas;e. Tlhc TLU continues to coml)lement its technology testing program with selected diagnostic surveys but rcsources invc.. :d in diagnostic research are small relative to technology verification and promotion activities.l)uniilg the 1991 cropping seasons, the FLU carried out 12 on-station trials and over 60 larmer managed on-farn trials. Of the 60 on-farm trials, 20 were on alley cropping, 12 on wecd control, and 20 on pkanteJ fallow with groundnut-cassava and sole maize. Regarding the regional tests, the TLU distributed over 1000 variety and fertility tests, aiid ovcr 1500 regional maize adoption tests. Over 70% of participant farmers implemented the tests. llowevcr, due to insufficient supervision and follow up, completed data were collected fIroin only a small percentage of farmers.As part of the regional tests, the TLU provided training to over 50 agricultural delegates in Center and South provinces. During the year, live TLU national counlte)arts left for long-term training in the U.S. and Furope.After carel'ul scrutiny of the questionnaire, the Resource Management Survey got under\\-, i', by the end of the year, and is expected to be completed by mid February, 1992. The extenIsiotn survey was dropped out because it was given a low priority. (T'he obJective of this survey is to identi fyand analyse the availability, distribution and management of village-level resources, and conditions that afTct acceptability and adoption of technology.Thirty one villageN were selected for the survey from the South and Center provinces using stratified randoni sampling method. The survey was to be conducted using a single (one time), group-interview technique.The survey (interview) is inprogress covering 31 villages in both the South and Ccnter provinces, and is expected to be completed in Mid-February, 1992.This is the third and final year of this trial designed to evaluate flat and angle planting (rccomninedcd by IRA breeders) of cassava cuttings for local and improved varieties.During 1990, local and 8034 (improved) were each planted flat versus angle (approx. 45) with two cuttings per hill. Spacing for cassava hills was I x 1 meter. Participating l'aruerS plantcd local groundnu! varieties at their desired population. Farmers, who chose to plant maize, sowed it at low populations (approx. 6000 plants/ha).Cassava tuber yields were obtained fromn six farms in Meyos and Nkol-Fep villages in the forest zone. As observed in past years, planting method had no significant effect on cassava tuber yield (Table 1). The effect of variety on tuber yield was significant. Improved variety (8034) produced 2616 -1204 kg/ha more than the local. The results of this and past trials have consistently shown the superiority of improved cassava varieties (8034 and 8061) over the local. These findings lend support for further testing of the improved varieties in the regional program covering Centre and South Provinces involving faniers and MINAGRI extension services.  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------yield available open-pollinated varieties. This trial, therefore, was to determine yield and economic beneits of hybrid maize relative to the best available opcn-pollinated varieties at different fertility levels.During the First and second seasons, hybrids (8321-18 and 8644-31) and open pollinated (CMS 8501 and CMS 8704) maize varieties were planted at 0,0, 60,0, 120,0, and 120 N,90 P fertilization levels at Minkonieyos and Nui. The treatments were arranged in split-plot design with fertilizer levels as the main plots and maize varieties as the sub-plots. Iach treatment was replicated four times.There were no significant diffcreI,.es between the hyhrid and open-pollinated varieties during the first and second seasons at hoth Iocalions (Table 2). The effect of Fertilizer was only significant in the second season at both locations. Ferti ized plots produced 93 1 -I-263 and 759 :1-268 kg/ha more at Minkoineyos and Ntui, respectively. Interactions between iiaize variety and fertilizer were not significant in either sea: on at both locations.  --------I------------------------------------------------------------------------  '!he re:-illts mimll iariz(ed in Table 3 ,veie obtained froni ive fatrins. D)ue to poor SUDIC'i 1 11))' t: '.c V:I!lage Contact per;son, s'nicn flu incru veeco( all t R U' ratinicits  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------C) U';hlc Q -,~tor DI&Iitfplus ')f ,1 sol ni.e i-. ;!\" stian1diad.' plracice \"Au \"OI asa culutren td fields oil a siniai scale.IIIhi~e SubIStamIfiia IJly uedUCiIjmg labrOl rI'CjLuuiIUlIeuut) by usiig ilklichhor aS d J)reiuuieic 6.4.4. Maize borer control trials (Operation 3) Preliminary field monitoring carrie(l out in 1990 to provide inforination on naize horer incidence, severity and losses in farmers fields (forest and transition zones) showed that severity at harvest was significantly lower in fields where some form of chemical control or marshall \"ed freatrnent was used. Therefore, this trial was conducled to determine the appropriate rates and combinations of carhlo'uran insecticide and marshall seed treatment.Carhol'tran insecticide with or without marshall seed treatnment were factorially arranged in an RCI de!;ign on 23 farms vilh one replication per farm, 12 in Nkolfbep (forest zone) and I I in Kiki (transition zone), dutring the second season of 1991. The treatments incltided lntrealed seeds, no carbofi iran, lreated seeds, no carhofuran; untreated seeds, 0. 1 carhoftran( 10%) g/plant; treated secds, 0. 1 carho furan g/plant; untreated seeds, 0.2 carhofturan g/plant; and treated seeds, 0.2 carhofuran g/plant. 'Fle insecticide treatment,stperi mposed on farmers' fields,were applied as granular shakes at 5 and 6 weeks after phanting in Kill and Nkol-ep, respectively.Seed trcatmenl had sonic positive effect on all the variables listed in Table 4, but only mid season plant densities or stand establishement was significant. Plots with t' :ated seeds had 3600 [ 900 )lanlts/la more than ho, e Willi Untreated seeds. It should be cautioned that the farniers planted at their own densilies and this observation could have been (fue to differences in the initial dcnitics. There were slight yield and financial benefits from seed treatment (7% increase) (table l1). P) Valuation : Fresh ears without husk (135/1,q); qrain (126 frs/!,q) narshall cost -100 FCFA per 50g, does 1R9 to lOOkq of naize seeds. Vatuation is done without taking into consideration the labour cost inmixing the narsha21 to the seed.Although borcr incidence was significantly higher in tie seed treatment plots (5 + I %), proli ficacy and grain yield were highly significant on seed trcatment. Complcmntary on-stationl inonitoring showed that btorer infestations began as early as 2 weeks after planting itl the tralistioli zone, probably explaining why marshall was beneficial. This means that )rotection agaist mllaize borer is imiore imlportant at tile seedling establishment stage. lrolificacy was increased by 0.09 :-0.04 ears/plant and grain yield by 405 -[ 154kg/ha in the treated plots, resulting il financial benefit of\"51,030 FC-A/ha (28%). Carbotfulrn tr'eatment had highly significant effect on prolificacy and inarketable fresh ears, but no ilference between tie insecticide levels in the forest zone (Table 5). 'File treated )lots had Oi avcrage 0. 16 -0.04 more cars/plant and 2530 ± 430 kg/ha (47.6%) more niarketable [el csI ears. This resulted in a financial advantage of 327,705 CFA/ha (87%) over no carlh)uran. Note that the partial benefits were evaluated without taking into consideration the la,'or cost of1 tl)llyilrg the inscCticidC.Thcre was no significant effect of c;rbofuran levels (0. 1 g/plant or 0.2g/plant) on prolificacy or grain yield in the transition zone, and no significant interaction between seed trCatmetCt aind insecticide in both -tones (Table 5).The ai iii of t!is study was to monitor natural infestations in 3 agroecologies so as to gather baseline information relative to the onset of borer infestation, evolution, severity, etc. ill relation to Crop growth in each luc,,tion. This information is useful in designing appropriate control f)ractvxs for the pests. This trial was inipleirented in 4 locations, Ntui (transition), Minkonicyos (serii humid), Nkoemvone (humid) and Mbahnayo (humid) during the first and second season of 1991. Twety-five plants per variety were randomly sampled at 2, 5, 9 and 14 weel:s after planting and various incidence and severity ratings were made. Detailed description of lie mcthods used are given in the entoniology section of this report.In'estations began two weeks afier planting in Ntui with about 40% incidence on CMS 8704; Ihen dropped around 9 weeks after planting when incidence was 52%. Unfortunately, Nali results fOr the 41h sampling date (14 weeks after plafting) were lost due to the IRA strike. However, resel,ts from first season monitoring showed that at harvest Mussidia nvrivenella, a species that bores only ears and not stcm,, was the most important (above 80%) in Ntui at harvest.On the other hand, infestations began later al Mhal myo (3 weeks after planting) but increased sharply reaching a peak of 92 on hoth varieties, 9 weeks after planting (see lowland entomology section). I1orer severity rated by tle total number of larvae and pupae per 25 plants at each samling date, the mean number of' larvae and pupae per plant and percent stein funnelling at 9 and 14 weeks aflcr planling were highest in Mhal mayo relative to Ntui and NIinkomeyos.InMinkoneyos at 2 and 4 weeks at'er planting, infestations were not very important. Peak incidence (54%) occurred at 9 weeks after planting CMS 87041 dropping to 88% 14 weeks afier plunting.As notcd earlier, borer iiffstatiO coinmneinced isearly as two weeks after planting in the Iransition /one and protection ag a ist maizc I orers is more appropriate at (lie seedling establishment phase. Again, the Iir.sl se;siO 0inv:Crvat l(hm that borers ear are more abuindant in this zone at harvest is ()I prime impirla nct bt cise maize is consumed as dry grain. M. nrivenella, tlie most abundant ir Ntu i at harvest completes its life cycle instorage but should not he considered as a storage pest as such because ilie adults live and start the cycle in the field. Any reasonable approach to control should be based in the field and not in storage., ient for Soil Fertility_ Maintennnce and Weed (Operation 4 )Short duration natural fiallov is r1ot efficient in restorin, soil fert ility. Thus, the cultivation (1 IC'mini s plaited [allows ii alternate -easons is expected to improve the nutrient staltus of soils by adding hi logica lly fixed N and recycling nutrients fiom the subsoil to ihe silrfce. ITective vegetation cove r over Soil] during the fallow period will also suppress the growth of weeds anld reduce erosion. Thiis trial had Sesha rinia and Mi(mosa invisa I sesbarin var. inermis as the planted fallow species to add biologically fixed N and suppress tie growth of weeds in maize.The trial was estalished at Minl rkorneyos and Ntui. Natural, Sesha nia and Mimosa fallows estahlished in iarch 1900 witli a mai.c crop, were either burnt (natura! fallow only), inulched or manually incorporated into the soil in March 19 l. Maize (Ndock 8701), Sesbnin Nd/ti were Maize and mosa again planted in ilie residue during tle first season. Sesbania were planled silniltaneously, while 4irnsa was relay planted four weeks after At both locations Ihe elect of fertilizer was highly signi ficant, fertilized Ilots yieding 177 1:1 243 and 1866 1 133 kg/ha more at Minklomeyos and Ntui, respectively. Also at Ntu i, there was a signilicanl interaction between FIertilizer and type of legume on grain yield -Mimosa versus Seshan a. The average effect of fertilizer on Mimosa plots was 2467 -:267 kg/ha, while for Sesbani it was only 1527 1 267 kg/ha.Pigeon pea (Ca janL i s ijan) has shown rapid growth in preliminary trials on station and on airmers' lieds. Inorder to he acccpta hlc to I'orest and iransition zone falrmers, itshould be established with little or no additional labor and should not substantially Compete with food crops. It is tlhrelore necessary to asCss it LIn(ler tle circumstances in which it will be used.OpC promising strategy for sole maize cropping palterns is to intercrop annual leguminous species durii!, flhe Iirst scason, nly ,slightly reducing the maize population, in order to es!ahlish an improved fallow during second season. The ob jeclive of this trial then is to assess fhe effects of second season .Cajia!S_cajan fallow on soil fertility and foliowing sole maize.Maize and pigeon pea were simultaneously planted inten farms each inNkol-Fep and Kiki during the first season. Each farm had two plots; sole maize, and maize and pigeon pea established inalternate rows. Similar to the trial on the station, natural and pigeon pea fallows should be allowed to grvow during the second season.Maize and pigeon pea were well established inseven and six firms in Nkol-Fep and Kiki, respectively. Nearly all tlie seven farmers cleared the natural fallow plots and cut the pigeon pea, and planted crops in hoth plots during the second season. Farmers managed the cutting and mulching operations withiout l'l Jinput. Cut plants had good regrowth and the plots will be ready for cropping (luring the fIrst season in 1992. Simultaneous establishment of leguminous species is not feasible for groundnut-based mixtures, due to inter-species competition. At tie same time, farmers do not appear to be willing to clear and prepare land during second season in order to plant leguminous fallow species. It is possible to establish second season legumie fallows by relay planting leguminous species into first season cassava fields immediately following groundnut harvest.Crotalaria and Desmodium were planted into cassava fields immediately following g'ottndnut harvest during tli first season. The trial was carried out at 12 farms in Nkol-Fep in the forest zone. Each firm had three treatments consisting of Natural, Crotalaria and l)esmodiuni fallows. [he treatments were superimposed oil farmers' own fields and participating farmers were responsible for maintaining the fields.Adequate establishment appears to be the primary constraint on the success of this strategy. Esta')isliment was erratic for both species. This was partly due to poor emergence probably caused by poor seed lots. Further efforts are necessary to find out causes of poor emergence. In the meantime, other options involving species other than Crotalaria and l)esodium should be explored. 6.4.4. Cassia Mulch/Green Manure Trial (Operation 4) Cassi;j spbpcttlis is one of the naturalized trees that grow well and produces a lot of biotiass ilthe forest/transition zones. Its foliage contains about 3 % N on dry weight basis. lBy l)lantilg this ilccrtail arrangenlents with food crops, it is possible to produce N-rich organic matter 1or soil fertility improvement. The advantage of this method is that the food crops call he grown simultaneously with the production of tree biomass on the same field; about 20 % of' the area is occupied by the trees and the rest by crops.Cassia was planted in three different arrangements; single hedge row at 5m intervals, block planting, and double row hedge at 10in intervals at Minkoneyos and Ntui in 1989. The fir'st cutting of trCes was carried out in March 1990 and the treatments were imposed then. The design was split-plot with four replications. The main plots were tree arrangement and the sub-plots consisted ofl maize/natural fallow, maize/Desmodium fallow, and maize/soybeall.Tl'his is the first year of results. As expected, fijaW was well established at both sites. Tree arrangement did not significantly influence biomass production. Consequently, tree arrangement did not significantly imfpact on maize grain yield at either Minkomeyos or Ntui (Tablc 8). Cumulative effect of! Cassia. mulch plus fallow/soybean residue also did not have any significant effect on grain yield at both sites. The impact of mulch/green manure or, soi' properties, and thereby on c.-op yields, is usually expected within Iwo to three years of mulch application. Increased and sustained crop production re!-s heavily on soil fertility. The -'ontinuous use of inorganic fertilizer, in ihe tropics ieads to Fso 'icidification, aluminum toxicity etc, which renders the soil unproductive with time.Leguminous 1>edgerows are potential bio!ogical technologies for improving and sustaining soil fertility. Some letuminous spCie, ar.oie to fix atmospheric n-Ogen. increase biomass production and ac! ,: breaks to ervs:i-'roc()ses. Appropriate arrangemcni of the food crop and tree components ower space ,:nl time is necessary to maximize oeaefiLs and minimize aderse 2ff Is of agriorestry assoc:-Mtiorls.Lu,p__n and CalliandrJa necdgerows were .lanted in farmers' fields to evaluate t,,. effects of the hedgerows or. soil \":-lity and cro, /ield with and without supplementation by second season leguminous fallows.Calliandria seedlings were r!anted at four meter intervals in ten farias each in Nko'. Fep and Kiki (luring the ;Irst season. In each farr,, TLU de:,onstrated the planting of the seedlings to the farmer, who then completed the ;ianting. in Kiki, border hedges, i s:ad of alleys, were established in some fields where ahe areas were too small for alleys. To increase the short benefim, farmers were encouraged to plant food crops duri.g zhL establishment phase of the hedgerows. Farmers were also asked to plant the same Coo crops in similar plot areas wilhoo.ri hedgerows as a control. During the first season of 1992, vihe the hedgerows would have bccn fully established, TLU would compare two cropping patterns with and without hcdgerows: (a) first season cultivation Followed by second season natural fallow (b) first season cultivation followed by second season improved fallow.'he establishment of Calliandria seedlings was excellent in all the ten fields in Nkol-Fep, and alleys arc ready for cropping during the first season in 1992, along with Leucacna fields established in 1990. In Kiki, soils are poorer and establishment has been erratic and poor-. Plots will not be ready for cropping by first season in 1992, fertilizer application to tie hedges has been necessary in order to hasten good establishment. The good establishment obtained in Nkolfep has kindled farmers' interest in the system and their expectations are high.From its previous tests, the TLU has proven that a fertilization rate of 60 kg. N/ha gives significant grain yield and economic benefits. The TLU needs to validate this rate of application at the regional level (South and Center provinces) belore recommending as a profitable and farmer-acceptcd maize fertilization rate. Similar results have also been found with the use of1 composite fertilizer, 20-10-10, in past TLU on-farm trials. Because it is readily available, this fertilizer is widely used by farmers. The objective of this test was to evaluate the yield and economic benefits of the recommended rate of fertilizers (urea and 20 10-10) r'clative to no fertilizer use.Two hundred and four farmers, 4 from each of the 51 agricultural delegations, were idciiified to palticipate in the test. The test was designed with only one replication per site with two treatments: with and without fertilizer. Farmers were asked to implement the test oil any maize variety they prefer to grow.Since data were collected from only 38 hrmers for both fertilizer tests (19% of farmers who received seed), no statistical analysis could be done to make any valid inferences on the findings of the test. Many of the MINAGRI extension agents lacked the motivation and interest to follow up tile tests. Some had difficulty in filling tie Farmer Assessment Surveys. A limited nunber of visits by FLU technicians were not enough to follow up the conLdluct of'the test and the management of the F'armer Assessment Survey.As this was the first experience with MINAGRI extension agents, the TLU has started to make some modifications on how to improve collaborative work with the existing extension system in tile two provinces not covered by MINAGRI's Extension and Training project (PNVFA) funded by the World Bank. During the past two years, two maize varieties (CMS 8704, CMS 8501) have been tested and proven to nerform well in both TIMl's research villages and at the regional level where the varieties were fiistributed to several hundred farmers in different environments (53 villages). This test had to he repeated to confirm past results. The objectives of this study were: a) to confirm the performance of these varieties across the Center and South provinces through regional adoption test, and b)to obtain fr'ers'appraisal on the agronomic and taste characterstics of the varieties.The total number of participating farmers selected for this study was 765 (fifteen from each of the 51 villages). Farmers were given 200 grams of seed from one of the two IRA varieties. Two-thirds of the farmers took CMS 8704 and the remaining third took CMS 8501. Assessment survey questionnaires were also distributed to extension agents of those villages participating in the adoption test. Included in the questionnaires are questions concerning production systems practiced by farmers (slash & burn, plowing, intercropping, weeding, planting dates), an appraisal on agronomic performance (resistance to disease, ear size, number of ears per plant), and an assessment on taste (roasted, boiled, sanga, foufou).Of the 765 participating farmers who obtained IRA variety seeds, 643 (84%) implemented the adoption test. Completed questionnaires with reliable data were received from 60 percent of the farmers who implemented the test.Results of the farmer assessment survey showed that the overall performance of IRA maize varieties have been rated better than local varieties (Table 9). Concerning the agronomic performance, farmers in the Forest-Savana and Semi-Humic' zones preferred IRA varieties. Seventy-eight percent of farmers from the Forest-Savana region rated IRA varieties higher than local varieties for the ear size. The same was true for 68 percent of Semi-Humid Forest zone. In contrast, only 30 percent preferred IRA varieties in the Humid Forest zone.As to taste characterstics, the preference for IRA varieties was much better than local varieties across the three JI-.11 zones. More than two-thirds of the farmers chose the IRA variety, whether the maize was roasted, boiled or eaten as Sanga.  For-Say S.  ------------------) --------- lnforlnation on household characlerstics and cropl-phug practices was also obtaiicd from the maize adoption survey. Table 10 shows fi-.l'rm1ers' croppilig practices by household catcgories (sex, age, .ducational level). leimale f'lkirjrs do more iltercropiping, and slash & burn than their male counterl)a1is. The suwvey also showed that male farmers generally plant late compared to female farmers ( 5 1 vs. 39) percent). Farmers with a higher level of formal education (post primiiary) tend to do less slash & burni and inlercropping than fairmers with no or soe primary education. There is no signilicance dilfereice in cropping practices between young and old lrmeris.   ---------------- - --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.4.4. Regional Maize Variety Test (Operation 5)The Lowland Maize Breeder has identified a) CMS 8806 as the best early maturing yellow variety and b) NDOCK 8701 as one of the best late white varieties tested in several environments (NCRE Terminal Report 1986-90). These varieties need to be validated in farmers fields under farmers' conditions before releasing them to the TLUs large scale adoption tests. The objective of this test is to validate the performance (production & taste) of the varieties and assess farmers' appraisal in relation to local varieties.Two hundred and twelve farmers from 51 agricultural delegations of the South and Center provinces were identified to participate in the variety test. These farmers were given 200 grams of seed for one of the two IRA maize varieties. Fifty five percent of the farmers took CMS 8806, while the remaining 45 percent took NDOCK 8701. Farmers were asked to plant the IRA variety and a local variety in ad jacent plots using whatever cropping practices they like as long as the practice was the same in both plots.Of the 212 farmers who received seed, 157 (74 percent) implemented the varietal test. Because of inadequate supervision and logistics problems, partially completed survey questionnaires were received from only 54 farmers (34%).Although no sound statistical analyses can be done on grain yield and other production traits because of insufficient and unreliable data, some useful information was obtained from the Farmer Assessment Survey. Survey results show that IRA varieties were rated better than local varieties in production qualities, such as germination, ear size and number of ears per stalk (Table 11). CMS 8701 performed relatively better than CMS 8806 for its germination and ear size qualities (67% vs. 50%, and 58% vs. 46%, respectively).  ---------------(percentages of respondents) -------------   ---------------------------------  -------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------*. Renaining %ages are those who indicated not consuming maize inthat form IRA varieties were rated highly For their taste when eaten roasted or boiled (Table 12). Only a snall percentage of farmers (about 20%) cat Foufou made from maize.Overall, the 1991 varictal test results conform with previous TLU tests which showed that IRA varieties were rated better than local varieties in both production/agronomic plerlormallce and lreferences. tasteThe \"FLU will conduct one more confirmation trials (1992) hcloi e releasing those varieties for large scale, regional adoption tests.A seed retention survey designed by the TLU and implemented by a Dschang UL nivelsity student in1990 revealed that adopted IRA maize varieties were diffused mainly through market sales in Nkolfcp and provision to other farmers in Kiki. This finding, coupled with persistent demand by fariners For the largely adopted improved maize variety CMS 8704, prompted the TLU to design and implement an on-larm CMS 8704 multiplication activity.TLU, the lowland maize breeding unit, MINAGRI extension agent and three farmers collaboratively planted maize seed multiplication fields in Nkometou village in the forest zone during the first and second seasons. Each field was 500m 2 . The lowland maize breeder provided foundation seeds, while the \"FLU furnished other inputs (fertilizer, insecticide, quality control,ctc). Planting carried out by farmers was delayed by at least two weeks over neighboring established fields in order to avoid contamination from them, thereby maintaining secd purity. Initially, it was agreed that TLU, participating farmers and extension agent would Clually share the yield or the proceeds from sale according to the task involved the whole process, that is, lnd donor; land preparation; field management; drying and shelling; and inputs and expert advice (TLU and Breeding Unit).  The function of tIle Fconomic Analysis Init (IlA, J)is to provide IRA with a capacity for economic analysis relative to its research and development mandate. Project support is being given for establishment and operation of an Etconomic Analysis Unit in recognition of the challenges being faced by IRA as a result of Cameroon's on-going economic crisis and structural ad.justment.The goal of' fhe I o,'onllic Analy;is Unil is to increase IRA's research etficiency, productivity and impact. The lop priority o the unit is carrying out economic studies for ilst itute-level priority setting and progrramming and for measuring research benefits. To complement its own studies, the ILA [J assists IRA researchers through research collaboration, advisory services and training.  IRA needs information on research rates-of-return for priority setting, and for justifying research funding. Unfortunately, lack of data make it impossible to calculate post adoption rates-of-return to research in Cameroon. A practical alternative is to estimate adoption rate projections for specific recommendations. expected returns based on Nkolbisson TLU research between 1986 and 1990 represents a good case for this type of' study since several recommendations are essentially finalized and data on research costs and per hectare benefits can be accurately determined.The benefit/cost model used was developed by Rudolf Contant and Anthony Bottomley at ISNAR. In the Contant-Bottomley model, costs of producing, delivering and adopting a technology are compared to changes in the value of production. Model implementation requires data on only eight critical factors: annual research costs, duration of research, probability of research success, cost of adoption per hectare, benefits of adoption per hectare, adoption period, ceiling on adoption, and life of the innovation. The last three factors are used to determine the number of hectares on which adoption has taken place, using all assumed logistic adoption pattern. Once hectares have been projected, total benefits and costs of adoption are calculated, and then research costs are netted out--giving complete cost and benefit streams from the beginning of research until end of' the useful life of the resulting innovation. Probability of research success (PRS) is introduced multiplicatively to determine expected adoption benefits and costs since there is a I-PRS chance than research will fail and no adoption will take place.The main modification introduced in this study was use of actual research expenditures rather than projected average annual research costs. In partitioning costs for multi-technology trials, the general principle followed was to include costs for all tests which contributed either genetic material or information used in recommendation development.For variety development, proportional costs were charged on the basis of all varieties retained at each stage of testing. Full trial costs were charged for all variety specific recrossing and selection activities and all on-farm tests carried out for purposes of developing the recommendations.Data on adoption benefits and costs were derived from on-farm, farmer managed trial data rather than estimated. Thus, uncertainty with respect to model results stems mainly from projected adoption rates. Parametric sensitivity analysis was carried out on factors related to adoption (varying base estimates by as much as plus/minus 90 percent).Research costs, model parameters and return results are summarized in Table 1. As can be seen, projected internal rates of returns (IRR) for research needed to develop the TLU's recommendations were quite high. Moreover, variation of uncertain model parameters (ie. all except research costs) by plus or minus 50 percent did not reduce the average IRR for any TLU activities below 45 percent--showing that the findings are robust to substantial divergence in expected adoption patierns. Research on CMS 8704 and waize-urea fertilization have the highest expected returns, due to high per hectare benelits and anticipation that there will be widespread acceptance of* these recommendations. Expected returns to the cassava variety research are reasonable despite low projected adoption rates, since the varieties were \"borrowed\" Ifroi another research area. An imnportant findiags from the fertilizer analyses is the high return to 20-10 10. Even though 20-10-10 is less profilable thaui is urCa, there can be financial beInefits 'o f'armers and society From second best technological options.The most difficult problem encountcrcd in this study was inadequate records on research costs. IRA research cost accounting proccdlures need to be improved if benefit/cost analysis is to be extended to other research units.The primnary o1jcctive of [his research was to distinguish Nkolbisson TLU research villages and zones on the basis of developmiental circumstances rather than crop patterns, thereby illustrating to IRA rcsearchers the iniportance of developmental dynamics and constraints for research priority setting and targeting. A second objective was to develop and illustrate a statistical approach for assessing rcscarch village representativeness.A household characteristics survey was administered in 1989 to 112 households scattered across the Center Province. In 1990, the same survey was administercd to a random sample of* 48 households in Nkof IFep and Kiki--the Nkolbisson TLU's research villages in the developed forest zone and forest-savanna transition zune (see NCRE annual reports for 1989 and 1990). Using these data, 14 indices were formed for measuring various developmental features and constraints. Diffcrences in indices between the TIJ I's research villag ,ere tested using ANOVA. Ten indices were significantly different betwen-villages (P<0.05). Descriptions of these indices and their hypothesized relationships to the TIJ's primary research zones are given in Table 2. The above ten indices were used to estimate a linear discriminant model for the research villages. The same variables were then used to estimate a three group discriminant model using the regional data. The third group encompassed villages from the less-developed and populated forest zone to tile south Yaounde (where there is not a TIM research village). An augmented regional model--with livestock ownership (IVSTCK) added and cash income sources disaggregated into trade (TRADE), coffee or cocoa (COFCOC), and wages (WAGE) -was then estimated. Village representativeness was assessed by comparing coefficients for both data sets using the augmented regional model. 7.4. 1. R_.euJ!s td c twj,.nt At both the village and regional level, the linear discriminant models developed were effective in allocating households to the correct developmental zone. The village model correctly classified all 48 households used in the analysis. When the village model was used for regional classification, 69 percent of households were correctly classified (for a completely different sample and shifting from two to three zones). The augmented regional model correctly allocated just under 80 percent of households.Households in the three group, regional model were distinguished by measurements along two dimensions (factors). The first, and most important, factor corresponds to a development/market integration continuum. This is indicated by the standardized variables having high coefficients for this factor (Table 3).' In classification, the first factor clearly distinguished the forest zone north of Yaounde from the other two, less-developed zones.I COFCOC (involvement in coffee or cocoa production) and INTENSE (index for land intensity) are negatively related to the developmental continuum due to features which are specific to southern Cameroon, ie. cocoa production is relatively more important in less developed areas and hilling/bunding is mainly done on savanna fields in the transition zone.\"rable4: Augmented discriminant model coefficients for regional and village samples Tihe second factor is heavily weighted by variables which distinguish the transition zone from tile less-developcd forest zone. For interpretation, variables with negative signs bor Factor 2 in Table 4 represent distinguishing features of fie less-developed forest zone, as compared to positive coefhtcients which relate to the transition zone.With respect to the first objective, the analysis confirms there are three distinct research zones, distinguishable by developmental patterns and constraints. For priority setting, the mnost rapid acceptance and diffusion of varieties undoubtedly will take place in ile dcnsely-populated, land-coustraiied, market-integrated forest zone north of Yaounde. In the face of reduced research and extension resources, that zone should be the top priority. Secondary priority should l)e given to the transilion zone. Farmers are intensively involved iii crop productiOtn and need assistance. However, diffusion is likely to be slower since households do relatively little crop buying and selling, and do not have as much cash to invest ill new technologies. The t-rest zone to the south of Yaounde should be lowest priority since there is as yet less pressure to change.With respect to the issue of research village representativeness, the results are mixed. The TLU villages are representative of their research zones with respect to severity of land and labor constraints, involvement in trading, relative number of fields, number of crops sold, and intensity of land use (based on direction and size of coel'ficients relative to coefficients for factor I ill regional model). However, the rescarch villages are atypical of their zones with respect to crops purchased (higher in Kiki than in Nkol Fep but usually higher in developed forest zone villages than in transition zone villages), involvement in cocoa aid cotl'ee production (alypically low in Kiki), ianking of weed problems (higher in Nkol [cp than in Kiki but generally higher in transition zone villages), and severity of pest problems (high in Kiki but generally more severe in forest zone villages). For three of these indices, however, Kiki is typical of transition zone villages relative to southern forest villages (based on interpretation of factor 2).To the extent the TIM) does have a problem with representativeness, it could well be due to a lack of forest areas fields in Kiki--with consequent low productivity (due to reliance on savanna fields) and lower than normal involvement in cocoa production.In 1990, a maize retention survey was carried out in Nkolbisson TLU's research villages.Analytical efforts to identify significant relationships between participant characteristics and variety retention or diffusion proved largely unsuccessful, as was reported in the 1990 NCRE annual report. However, strong univariate associations were identified between participant characteristics and subsequent sale of IRA maize.The purpose of this research was to develop and assess a statistical approach for analyzing binary choice models when there is substantial multicollinearity among independent variables. Such a technique is necessary for IRA/NCRF adoption, retention and impact research since household and personal characteristics normally used as independent variables tend to be highly correlated.The analysis is based on all farmers in the TLU's three research villages who participated in maize variety tests during first season 1989 and who were recontacted during the 1990 retention survey. In total, 53 test participants were interviewed in both years. Due to design of the retention survey, the only characteristics included in the analysis were: sex and age of participant, whether participant had any education, size of family, and whether the family had any income from cocoa sales, wage employment or buying-selling. The personal characteristics included arc typical of those generally used in adoption studies. The iacome variables were hypothesized to be negatively related to IRA maize sales since they are substitute activities for generating household cash requirements.A logit model was used, in which the probability of selling IRA maize was specified as having logistic distribution. This is a standard technique for analyzing binary choice decisions. Due to high correlation among the independent variables, only one of eight estimated parameters was significant at a P< 0. 10 level with maximum likelihood estimation of the logit model. Therefore, a principal components regression approach was used. Prior to estimating the logit model, principal components analysis was used to construct two orthogonal indexes representing participant characteristics. Parameters estimated following principal components transformation are biased when small components are removed in order to reduce dimensionality, but the bias is small when individual variables are not highly correlated with excluded components and efficiency for parameter estimation can be greatly increased. The first two principal components accounted for 58 percent of total variation among the independent variables, and all cxcluded components had eigen values less than one. All variables wcre standardized prior to niodel estinmtion, so component coefficients would not be affected by unit and could be compared to assess relative importance. The largest coefficients in the first component were For sex and cocoa revenue. This component distilguishCs male participants having cocoa income from female participants infamilies not having cocoa inconie. The second comlponent distinguished older participants without education and from large fainilies, from young participants who had some education.When the comlponelt (factor) scores were used in the logit model, both parameters were significant at 13<0. 10. A log likelihood test ofl the null hypothesis that all parameters were zero was rejected at P<0.05. However, a relatively small proportion of choice behavior was explained by the niodel (McFadden's R 2 =.15). Consequently, only modest succcss was achieved in correction classification, 64 percent For non-sellers, 68 percent for scllers, anid 66 percent overall.Effects of the original variables on the probability of selling IRA maize are shown in Table 4. Parameters and their standard deviations were derived from parameters of the principal components logit model using component coefficients as weights. Probability effects for binary independent variables are based on differences in probabilities for the two values with all other variables equal to zero (their mean). Probability effects for age and size are based on (he derivative of the logistic function.Not having someone in the family with wage employment and not having any education had the strongest effect on the probability of selling IRA maize. Otherwise, changes in various participant characteristics, including sex and access to other revenue soUrces, alTctcd lithe probability of selling IRA maize by five to eight percent. This section is extracted, with minor modification, from the \"Puzzle Resolution\" paper cited above.The general conclusion of the analysis is that certain participant characteristics do have small, significant effects on the probability that farmers will sell IRA maize, resulting in variety diffusion. In practical terms, the additional stimulus to diffusion would be minor, even if the above effects were confirmed using a separate population. Moreover, targeting on the basis of personal characteristics could result in an impact-equity trade-off, at least with respect to early adopter benefits. Participant characteristics targeting may not necessary for variety introduction, but the adoption literature shows that population characteristicsparticularly revenue access--do affect adoption rates for capital using and/or risky technologies and therefore should be useful in targeting for developmental impact as the TLJ turns to technologies aside from IRA varieties. c-The Soils Laboratory at the Dschiang University Center for our plant and soil samples analyses.Operation 1: Site Characterization Site characterization has been recognized as an essential component of technology development, and is recommended by international research groups such as TSBF (Tropical Soils Biology and flertility) Program and IBSRAM (International Board for Soil Research and Management). In short, site characterization helps target research on specific issues and facilitates transfer of proven interventions to comparable agroclimatic environments. Apart from the soil classification work carried out by FAO for the Western (ameroon Highlands, soil samples have been collected by several workers inthe region serviced by the NCRE and analyzed for different purposes. This study is intended to provide an understanding of the chemical properties of soils from six IRA experimental sites so as to determine how they could be managed for sustainable cropping with respect to use of agrolorestry, improved fallow, or chemical amendments.At each site, twelve bulk samples (each comprising 30 core samples) were collected from a hectare of land in plots that had been under fallow for live years or more. In addition, twelve profile pits (two per site) were dug to examine subsoil fertility and physical obstructions that might affect nutrient cycling by agrolorestry species. Results of ti latter study will appear in subscquent reports. A summary of the major characteristics of' the soils encountered is shown in (Table 1). The soils are grouped into two main classes based on selected properties. Evidently, the class A soils are higher in basic cations (Ca, Mg, and K) and lower in iron and aluminum oxides than the class B soils. Class A soils are f'ound at relatively lower altitudes and fix less l) Compared to the class 13 soils which are located at higher elevations (Fig I, and Table 2). Basing )hoSphorus !'crtilization on the standard phosphorous requirements (SPR) (0.2 ppm of solutionlP) criterion, high amtounts of P will be needed for optimum crop yields. But, this will be too expensive fr f'aoirmers given the high costs of' I fertilizers (146000 CFA/ton), vis a-vis tile current fairm gate prices of agricultural commodities. However, experiences here and elsewhcre have shown that crops and crop varieties differ in their P requirements. For instance, cassava and some maize varietics thrive and produce reasonable yields at levels of sotlution1P much fowci' than the \"standard\" 0.2 ppm. Thus, (Table 2) contains calculated P f'crtilizcr rcquirCCnts f'or attaining lower levels of' solution P (0.005 and 0. 1 ppm) which may be adequate f' low P-demanding crops.Organic carbon correlates positively and strongly with effective cation exchange capacity (ECE-C) in most soils of' the tropics. In the present study, this relationship is valid fi' oily the class A soils with relatively low DCBFe 2 1 3 and DCBAi 2 0 3 values. \"\"he above relationship did not hold for the class B soils where higher values of' FeO 3 and A1 2 0 3 , and low p1-I Values were recorded (Fig. 2 and Table 1). The above supports the established fact that organic carbon plays an insignificant role with respect to ECEC improvement in acid soilIs which are high in iroo and aluminnm oxides. hroni a management standpoint, our results indicate that low pH and high P fixation are among the most important limiting lactors to crop production in the highland soils. Phosphoruslplays a key role in symbiotic nitrogen fixation, therefore, lor a biological N fixing system such as Agroforestry to be successf'ul, adequate P fertilization must be ensured. As well, liming may be needed to raise the soil p-I to levels where Al and Fe toxicities will not be detrimental to crop growth. Experiments \\Vill be initiated in the up-coming seasons to assess yield potentials of major crops using the SPRs at some selected sites.Field observation of this year's trials revealed widespread N deficiency on maize despite high correlation between organic carbon and total N (r=0.8l1-). The problem was more pronounced in the highlands where soil organic matter (SOM) is relatively high, (> 7.0 %.). This thcref'ore, brings into question the quality of' the soil organic matter. Recent advances in soils research have indicated inhibition of' N mineralization and N release from SOM1f'or materials with polyphcnols to N ratio greater than 0.5. The contribution of Agrofbrestry under the prevailing circumstance is to attelIpt to improve the quality of existing SOM by introducing legume species which produce biomass high in N and prcsumably low in ptlyphCnols. Twenty green manure crops were screened lor their potential use as N sources for crop production in a field experiment at three locations, viz: Befang (600m), Mfonta (1300m), and Mbiyeh (2100m).Six species thrived at Pefang. Biomass produced at four months after planting is shown in Table 3. Dolichos, Mucuna and Canavalia survived at Mfonta, and only Lupin thrived at Mbiyeh. The trial at Blefang was continued to determine the N contribution of the legumes to a second season maize crop, planted after incorporation of the legume species. The trial was laid out in a split-plot design, with green manure species as main plots, and fertilizer N (0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 kg/ha) as subplots. There were four replications. Maize growth at 12 weeks after incorporation of legumes showed that Canavalia was superior to the others (Fig. 3). Only the three top legumes were reported. Maize yield was higher in the Canavalia plots, but this was not significantly different from that of the other plots (Fig. 3). The study will continue to e:-amine the residual effect of' the incorporated biomass. This is necessary because the legumes possess different concentrations of N, lignin or polyphenol and may therefore decompose and release nutrients at different rates. Previous agronomic work in the North-West Province has demonstrated the potential of Tephrosia and Crotalaria as improved fallow species. The purpose of this study was to determine nitrogen contribution of the above two species, relay-cropped with maize-bean association. The treatment design was factorial with species at three levels (No species, Tephrosia, Crotalaria), and nitrogen (N) at five levels (0, 30, 60, 90, 120 kg/ha). There were four replications at each of' five sites namely, Mfonta, Babungo, Mbiyeh, Befang, and Upper farm. The above protocol was modified in the course of the season due to poor performance of the species and/or the beans at some locations. The experiment was carried out for two seasons, March-September and September-December.Mfonla: Crotalaria survived and produced more biomass when planted during the March-September cropping season than thereafter (Table 4). Adequate soil moisture as a result of regular rainfall might have contributed to its good performance (luring the season. Tephrosia on the other hand, germinated but died two weeks later. It was replanted four times with seeds from different sources, but without any success. The exact cause of failure of Tephrosia is still unknown but foliar and root diseases are the most probable suspects. Tephrosia was replaced with Crotalaria in August when maize was nearing maturity. Babungo: Tephrosia and Crotalaria performed well at this site. Biomass yields of both legumes were suppressed by intercropped maize at high fertilizer rates (Fig. 4). Biomass yields of legumes were not adversely affected by intercropped beans during the second season. Therefore, it may be practicable to relay crop the fallow species with beans in order to generate sufficient biomass to enrich the soil for tie subsequent crops. Legume species tolerant to shading might be another alternative for association with maize in the first season.Mbiyeh: Teplhrosia otlperformed Crotalaria. The growth of t-e latter was so poor that it was replaced with Sesbania which seems ruore promising.iel'ang: The two species grew well during the first season but biomass yields of both were invcrsely related to N fertilizer as was observed at Babungo (Fig. 4). Second season Crotalaria did extremely well unlike Tcphrosia which was a complete failure. Again, the real cause of failure of rephrosia during the September-December cropping remains season unknown.Upper-Farm: The growth of the two species were too slow to be of any value green as manure crops in this environment. However, Lupin pea that has shown promise at similar elevations (Mbiyeh, and Dzeng) will be considered for future experiments.The test crops, maize and beans responded to N at all the sites except Upper-farm which was dropped (Table 5). Association of maize and beans with the f'al!ow species resulted in reduced crop yields when no fertilizer N was applied, indicating competition between crops and the fallow species for a limited soil N (Fig. 6). A starter N fertilizer or manure may be necessary to offset this initial yield drop. Growth of' second season bean at Babungo after incorporation of green manure is shown in Fig. 5. Bean growth at early flowering and podding stages was significantly butter in the Tep~lrosia plots than in the Crotalaria and control plots. However, at harvest, we noticcd a decline in bean yield above 30 kg N/ha (Table 6). This may imply an overdose of N beyond 30 kg/ha, which might have stimulated vegetative growth of the crop at the expense of the reproductive parts. Until this trend is confirined during the subsequent seasons, it may be spurious to conclude that the excess N came from the incorporated organic materials undergoing decomposition. Benefits of green manuring are usually longterm, therefore, the above results should be viewed as preliminary._pejisfor Soil .,i lrtilijy. Management inAgroforestrv;ysens Two studies were carried out. The objective of' the first was to compare the growth and bioniass yields ofr five species under intensive pruning management. The trial was sited at Befang. The following species were tested: Lcucaena letcocephlila, Calliandraalotlyrsts. Eythrina sjp., Albizia sp., and Mellitia sp. Cutback was done at 7 months after planting (MAP)and every three months thereafter. Data on growth and biomass production are presented inIFig. 8. Leucaena and Calliandra grew more rapidly, followed by Albizia, Mellitia and Erythrina. Biomass production was highest for Calliandra, followed by Leucacna, Erythrina, Albizia, and Mellitia. Wood at weight 7 MAP wias highest for Calliandra, followed by Leucacna and Albizia. The study continues to determine the behavior of the species under intensive pruning management.The secoml study was conducted at Mfonta and Babungo to find out whethier or not initial growth and biomass production of Leucaena could be stimulated with poultry manure. Leucaena was chosen because seeds are readily available from local sources. Treatments were six rates of poultry manure (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 kg/plant) with four replications at each location ina RCB design. Lemicaena was planted inJuly and was cut back in November. This was fbllowed by pruning at four morth intervals. Preliminary results shown in Fig. 9 demonstrate beneficial effects of starter manure on Leucaena establishment in our zone of operation. Plants that received manure had vigorous early growth, produced more biomass, and were more able to withstand moisture stress during the dry season than plants which received no manure. The study continues to compare the economic advantages of using starter manure as opposed to not using it. There is a general misconception that agrofrestry species thrive on any soil regardless of its fertility status. Our findings so ftar dispel that notion.  ---r -----------------ny/kg ------ The main objective of the Grain Legume section is develop and identify grain to legume Varieties, mainly cowpCa, adapted to the northern ecologies of Cameroon. It has been shown that cowpca is one of the most important grain legumes which constitute the main source of cheap protein for most Camcroonians.In the early stages of cowpea research in Cameroon, emphasis has been put on pest management. During Phase I of the Bean Cowpea CRSP Project (1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987), yield !osses have becn established, effective storage methods have been recommended (drums, double bagging, lunigants, etc). During the second phase of the Bean Cowpea CRSP Project since 1987, tie activities have been narrowed down to developing varieties resistant to storage insect pests (C(alIotsolrticlis maculatts and bruchidius atrolineat us).The new approach of the Grain Legume section of the NCRE Project is to develop a broad base system of research on cowpea and minor activity on other legumes. In addition to breeding for storage pests resistance, emphasis will be put on other aspects such as:  The objective of these trials is to identify high performing varieties with good agronoinic characteristics. Most of the trials originated from the IITA Kano sub--station.This trial is composed of 20 varietics. It was plantcd on July 8th 1991 at Guiring, Maroua in four replications. The planting was done in plots of 4 rows, 4 neters long and spacings of 75 cm between rows and 20 cm within rows. The two central rows were harvested for statistical analysis. Data on pod yield, grain yield, fodder yield, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, virus score, number of plants at harvest were recGcded and presented in Table 1.The analysis of variance showcd a significant difference (I %) between varieties for all trails, except for the number of plants at harvest. As far as grain yield is concerned the line 1T86D-719 ranked first (Duncan's multiple Range Test) and yielded 2605 kg/ha followed by 1T87-829-5 (1975 kg/ha); IT87D-941-1 (1766 kg/ha), IT89KD-374 (1650 kg/ha) and IT89KD-457 (1645 kg/ha).Fodder yield is also an important trait in Northern Camneroon because fodder is used for animal feed during the dry season. The line l'l\"89KD-792 ranked first and yielded 3530 kg/ha of dry fodder followed by IT86D-719 (3025 kg/ha), IT89KD-793 (2930 kg/ha), IT90K-348 (2837 kg/ha), and 1T89KD-381 (2775 kg/ha).For virus infestation which was based on visual score (1-5):1 meaning virus free and 5 completely damaged) the line IT86D-719 was the noAt resistant. The lines IT89KD-457; 1T88D-856-10; IT%89K D-363-I showed good level of resistance, whereas lines IT89KD-374, IT89KD-793, and IT89KD-381 were among the most susceptible ones. Although the line IT89KD-374 was badly affected by virus it is still among the best grain yielders as shown earlier. The general tendency is that the resistant lines are the best grain yielders.It could be noticed that IT86D-719 ranked first for grain yield and second for fodder yield. Based on visual observation during the growing season some lines have good potential for both grain and fbdder such as IT86-D-719, 1T87D-829-5, IT87D-298 and IT89KD-363-1.This trial consists of 20 entries and was planted on July 8th 1991 at Guiring, Maroua in 3 replications. Planting was (lone in the same way as in trial 1; plots of 4 rows, 4 m long and spacing of 75 cm between rows and 20 cm within rows. The two central rows were harvested for analysis. Data on pod yield, grain yield, (lays to 50% flowering, days to maturity, virus score, number of plants at harvest, fodder yield were recorded (see Table 2).The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences (1% level) between varieties for pod yield and grain yield and a significant difference (5%level) for virus score. There was no significant difference for other traits.For grain yield, the entry IT87D-590-5 ranked first and yielded 2417 kg/ha, followed by entries TVX 3226 (2378 kg/ha), IT89KD-785 (2345 kg/ha), IT 88DM-363 (2338 Kg/ha) and IT89K1)-374 (2261 kg/ha). For pod yield, the same entries as above were the best yielders. [.ntry IT89KD-784 ranked first and yielded 3133 kg/ha. For virus infestation most of the entries showed a good level of resistance. On a scaie of I to 5 the highest score was 3 which stands for moderately resistant. The entry IT89KD-785 was the most resistant followed by IT88DM-368, TVX3236 and IT86D-715. Entries IT88D-867-11 and IT89KD 391 were the most infested in this trial with a score of 3.0.Although there was no significant difference between entries for feolder yield it should be noted that entry IT88D-867-11 gave the highest yield 3228 kg/ha ard IT89KD-351 gave the lowest yield 1272 kg/ha. As general remarks, water logging was observed in some plots during the crop season and termites damage was also observed in some plots immediately before fodder harvest. These factors could bring other sources of variation for fodder yield than varieties themselves. This is probably a reason why a high coefficient of variation was obtained for that trait.Based on visual observation in the field some lines showed good potential for grain and fodder such as IAR-48, IT883-729. It could be noticed that most of the leaves still remain green while the pods are ready for harvest on entries IAR 48 and IT86D-715 in this trial. 9.4. 1. Cowpea Advanced Varietal Trial 3.The trial was planted on July 8th 1991 in 3 replications at Guiring, Maroua and consists of 20 entries. Plots were 4 rows, 3m long and the spacings were I meter between rows and 50cm within rows. The two central rows were harvested for analysis. Data on pod yield, grain yield, fodder yield, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, virus score, and number of plar, s at harvest were recorded (see Table 3).The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences (I % level) between entries for all traits except the number of plants at harvest where the difference is not significant. For grain yield the entry TVX3236 ranked first and yielded 1813 kg/ha followed by entries IT9OK-373 (1560 kg/ha), IT89KD-444 (1329 kg/ha), IT89KD-374-l (1308 kg/ha) and IT89K-234 (1214 kg/ha). For fodder yield entry IT89KD-354 ranked first and yielded 2648 kg/ha of dry fodder followed by entries IT89KD-337 (2244 kg/ha), IT89KD-453 (2000 kg/ha), TVX 3236 (2000 kg/ha), and IT89KD-355 (1779 kg/ha). For virus infestation entries IT89KD-444, TVX3236, IT89KD-337, and IT89KD-374 were among the most resistant ones whereas entries IT89K'LD-299, I)AN'ILA, APL-1 and IT89KD-355 showed susceptibility to virus. It could be noticed that TVX . 236 which ranked first for grain yield is not significantly diffcrent from the best fodder producer in this trial.Based on visual observation in the field during the s:iason some entries have been identified for further evaluation, these entries are: IT89KD-45'3, IT89KD-337, IT89KD-444 and IT89D-2075. 9.4. 1. Cowpea Advanced Varietal Trial 4. This trial was planted on July 9th 1991 in 3 replications at Guiring, Maroua and comprises of 20 entries. Like: in trial 3, plots were 4 rows, 8m long, and the spacings were lim betwecc rows and 50cm within rows. In this trial two entries KANANNADO and KANO-16% did not flower and ct-e removed from the analysis. Data on pod yield, grain yield, fodder yield, days to 50% flow ering, days maturity, virus score, number of plants at harvest were recorde0d on the two centr: i rows (see Table 4).The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences between varieties for [Odder yield, virus score, flowering date and maturity date. No significant diierence was obtained for pod yield and grain yield. For fodder yield, entry IT89KD-474 ranked first and yielded 2575 kg/ha of dry fodder, followed by IF89KD-448 (2298 kg/ha), IT89KD-245-1 (2239 kg/ha), IT89KD-275 (2060 kg/ha), and IT89KD-251 (1983 kg/ha). For virus infestation entries TVX 3236, IT89KD-256, ITgKI)-448, most resistant were among the whereas entries IT89KD-374, IT89KD-387, KANO late and IT89KD-107-5 were among the Most susccptiblc ones. Although there was no significant difference for grain yield, entry lVX 3236 gave the highest yield (725 kg/ha).Based on visual observation during the season, some entries have been identified For further evaluation. Those entries are: IT89KD-260, IT89KD-260-1, IT89KD-244, IT89KD 256, KANO late, and IT89KD-25 1.It has been observed that for both trials advanced 3 and advanced 4, the spacing of' 1lmx50cni is too wide for this location and could be reduced. Some striga were observed on IT89KD-245, KANO 1696 and TVX 3236. Entry IT89KD 252 seemed to be segregating for virus resistance and maturity date. The trial consists of 20 entries and was planted on July 9th, 1991 at Guiring, Maroua in 3 replications. Planting was done in plots of 4 rows, 4m long, and spacing of 75 cm between rows and 20cm within rows. The two central rows were harvested for statistical analysis. Data on pod yield, grain yield, fodder yield, days to 50% flowering, maturity date, virus score, iumber of plants at harvest were recorded (see Table 5).The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences between varieties ibr all traits except number of plants at harvest where the difference was not significant. For grain yield entry IT90K-300-9 ranked first and yielded 2317 kg/ha, followed by entries IT86D-71I (2171 k(/ha) !'-(Kl)-775 (!972 kg/han ' )KD 307 :1122 kg/ha), and IT90K 102-6 (1400 kg/ha). For J,0fler viol,! enrv !T86D-719 ranked Fi,,i and yielded 4278 kg/ha of dry Fbdder fllowec. :' entries :T()0K 82 2 \\395() kv/ha), ITQ0K-261-3 (3588 kg/ha), IT90K-261-4 (3221 ~LKg~.:.nd ,Y9C\" '02-6 (29( kg/h For virus infestation entries , IT90K-300-Q. I'F99KD-77 'TROIKD-310O, and ',R61)-7)Q ,,ere ;.mong the mosi 'esistarL lines whereav entries IT9GK-5 ;-:, !TO9K-5) ;,1T84S-??46-4. and IT90K-268-8 were among the most susceptible lines.It could he ,bs,-ed 1thaL he best three N'ari,:ics for grain yield were amon: the mo!st, resistant to virus. 11co,,d ,lso be observed that entry T861)-710 ranked second lo gr.air. yield and first for fi'dde.d.A From visial observation, some entries have been identi!'::d for firther evaluatior either because they have good notential for fodder or grain or both. Those entries arc: li ,OK-3 -9-,!....  (l'I .mThe trial was , i,,ly Oth, It was planted a ro vw,. long anO spacine: o1\" 75cm between rows and 20cm within rows. The 2en --..,, vas harvested for analysis. )ata on pod yield, grain yield, virus score, were analvYed (sec_ Table 6).The analysis of \"vaui::ce::-wed 'highly significant differences between the entries fb,:, all traits. For grain yiei entry 1AR48 ranked first and yielded ?355 kg/ha followed by TVI! 347 (2330 kg/ha), IT' 16 (?')0 kg/ha), and V: 4 (2066 kg/ha). For pod yield entry TVIJ 347 ranked !irst nd '.ieded (,2(Y) kg/ha) followed by IAR 48 (3! 30 kg/ha), rVX 3236. (3022 kg/ha) and TVU 36 (2800kg/ha). For virus infestation entries TV'i 347, TVU 563, K-28, IT82FI 16, TV :;6 were among the most resistant lines whereas entry TVi 13000, was the most susceptible Ii Most of the lines s'.,ved ? very good level of , sistance lo virus which is the most important disease in the area. Striga and a few other diseases have been observed on TVU 990. 9.4. 1. Cowpea 't' v,.;xry. rus 1The trial was plante-.nJuly 8th, 19)91 at (Juiring, Maroua in a single replication. Plots were of' Im long anr the spacings were 50cm between rows and 20cm within rows. Data on pod yield, grain y1eiu, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, virus score, number of plant and fo(ldcr yield x-\",,r r-'co(rde(l. A ltat fumntic-. ',,s iheen performed on those data. (see Table 7).The pool yield rarwe(...-. 425 k /ha with tlhe entry IT85F 2805 to 4125 kg/ha with the entry IT821F-16. Vac grain yieil ranged from 350 kg/i. !,) 3?25 kg/ha with the same entries '185\"2805 and ITS2i-16 respectively. The fodder yield rnged from 25 kg/ha with the entry IT84S-2 135 (, 2950 ke/hat with the entry 1T82FI-16. V,/irus score ranged from which means virus free with ihe entry T82E 16 to 3.5 which is near severe infestation with the entry 1\"\"83I)-442. 9.4. 1. Cowpea On-Farm Trial. This is a collaborative research trial with the TLU and the Grain Legume program. 4 varieties 131 1, 1IT86D-719, IT86D-364 and VYA have been tested on farmers' fields in four villages: Djouigouf, Djinglya, Gatougel and Zouaye. Spacings were 80cm x 50cm for Vya and 80cm x 25cm for others. l)ata on grain yield, fodder yield, plant stand at 30 days after planting were recorded. Results on grain yield and fodder yield are presented (see Table 8).On the average, the variety BRI gave the highest yield (541 kg/ha) and is statically sul)erior to IT86D-364 with a grain yield of (370 kg/ha). It is Followed by Vya (493 kg/ha) and IT86I)-719 (473 kg/ha). The analysis of variance location by location showed significant differences between at whereas no significant varieties Djoulgouf difference has been observed at other locations. For fodder yield, the analysis of variance across locations (lid not show any significant difference between entries.The analysis of variance location by location showed significant difference between varieties at )*joulgouf and Zouaye. At Gatougel fodder could not be harvested because of heavy rains. Yields have been generally low on farmers' field due to various factors among which were unusually heavy rains in most areas, and inappropriate crop management.The trial was planted in one replication on July 10th, 1991 at Guiring, Maroua. It consists of 124 entries, half of which are ITA lines and the rest are from local collections or introductions from USA. Planting was done in plots of 2 rows, 6m long and spacings were Iin between rows and 50cm within rows. The whole two row plots were harvested for analysis.Qualitative data such as plant type, leaf color, flower color, pod color, leaf type, pod position, grain color, visual rating for grain yield potential, visual rating for fodder yield potential and quantitative data such as: pod yield, grain yield, fodder yield, number of grains/pod, percent virus free plants, mean pod length, virus score (scale 1-5), days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, 1000 seed weight were recorded on all entries.For qILialitative traits, the observations revealed that there was variation among entries For most of the traits. Two major groups of plant types were observed, a spreading type and erect type. 'he prevailing flower colors are white, pink, and yellow. The leaf type varied from large to small, and from narrow to wide. Differences were also observed on pod color (black, green, and pink). Leaf' color also varied from light green to dark green. A wide range of grain color was observed (white, brown, black). Pod position varied from upright to sp)rceding.For quantitative traits, the stat function of the MSTAT program was performed and correlations between some variables were calculated using the CORR function (see Table 9). The germination was very poor for some entries and had affected the plant stand.Grain yield varied from 17 kg/ha to 1958 kg/ha, fodder yield varied from 42 kg/ha to 6667 kg/ha. Variations were also observed for number of grain/pod which varied from 7 to 18; % virus free plants (from 0 to 100); pod length (9.7cm to 22cm): virus score (1.5 to 5); 1000 seed weight (64,5 grams to 260,5 grams).Simple correlation calculations revealed that there was a significant negative correlation between virus score and grain yield (r ---0.45) and a non significant correlation between virus score and Fodder yield (r = -0. 11). There was also a significant correlation between % virus free plant and grain yield (r -0.51); number of days to maturity and fodder yield (r --0.50). The late varieties have the tendency to produc more fodder. The correlations between plant stand and fodder yield (r = 0.06), number of grain per pod and 1000 seed weight (r --0.12) were not significant.Variation was observed within some entries for their reaction to virus diseases. Based on visual observations in the field and confirmation of yield, 42 entries (34%) have been identified for further evaluation. The best looking two plants in each entry were selected and harvested separately.The overall objective of this program is to obtain the basis for creating new varieties over the long term. Cowpea lines known to have good characteristics have been selected and crossed. Such characteristics are bruchid resistance striga resistance, virus resistance, seed quality (size and color). Some of the selected lines are Vya (local cultivar with good seed quality) BRI (improved line with good seed quality and bruchid resistant), B 301 (striga and virus resistance). A total of 9 lines are involved. 17 different FI crosses and some reciprocals have been obtained and part of the Fl seeds have been planted during off season.The trial was planted on July 9th, 1991 at Guiring, Maroua in a split plot design, with insecticide treatment as main plots, and entries (varieties) as sub plots. Three levels of insecticide treatment (0, 1,2) and 46 entries were investigated in two replications, in plots of 3 rows, 4m long. Data on plant stand, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, virus score, number of pods per plant, number of infested pods per plant, number of insect perforations per 10 pods, fodder yield, pod yield, grain yield, % virus free plant were recorded. Some of the variables were analyzed.The analysis of variance (lid not show any significant difference for the insecticide treatment for all traits, but showed significant difference between varieties for virus score, number of pod per plant, fodder yield, grain yield, number of insect perforations pei 10 pods. The interaction was not significant.Simple correlations and descriptive statistics function were performed on some of the variables (see Table 10). These analyses showcd that there are variations between varieties for most of' the traits. Virus scores varied from 1.5 to 4.5, the number of pods per plant from 10 to 62, f'odder yield from 120 kg/ha to 2663 kg/ha, and grain yield from 113 kg/ha to 1493 kg/ha. No correlation was found between the number of inf'ested pods per plant and the grain yield and between the number of\" insect perforations per 10 pods and grain yield. Significant correlation was found between number of pods/plant and grain yield, (r=0.80), virus score and grain yield (r = -0.40).Since this experinent was a preliminary investigation of the reaction of cowpea lines to different insecticide treatments, it is recommended that it be repeated by selecting fewcr varieties, and those which performed well on the average and especially under no insecticide application. Such lines are IT85F-2687, l'i 85D-35 17, IT82E-16, TVU-1890, l'1\"861)-715 and rT86D-72 1.Based on visual observation, some entries have been identified Ior f'urtiher evaluation. Some of\" these entries are 1\"l82E-16, IT85F-867, IT85-2684, IT82D-889, IT85D-351, IT86D-472, and 'IT84S-2135. A total of 20 entries have been identified under no insecticide treatment. Such entries have good potential fbor either grain yield, f'odder yield or for both. The low insect pressure at Guiring this year and the frequent heavy rains, may explain the non response of the insecticide treatment.The original objective of* these trials was to identil'y sources of' resistance to stiga under natural infestation and at the same time compare the yield potential and other characteristics of' selected lines originating ''oron IITA. Due to the fact that natural tiga infestation was not unif'orm more emphasis will be put on yield potential in the presentation of the results. 9.4.4. Cowvpca Preliminary Trial 4.It was planted on July 10th, 1991 at Guiring, Maroua in 3 replications, and consisted of 20 entries. Planting was done in plots of 4 rows, 4111 long, and spacings of 75cm betwee; rows and 2ocm within rows. Data on pod yield, grain yield, fodder yield, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, virus score, plant stand, and number of striga per plot were recorded. Some of' these data were analyzed (see Table I1).The analysis of' variance showed a significant difference between varieties for grain yield, pod yield, and virus score. No significant difference was f'ound 1or days to 50% flowering, days to maturity and f'odder yield. Striga inf'estation was not unif'ormni, therelore, it was meaningless to analyze the number of striga per plot.For grain yield, entry IT90K-101-3 ranked first and yielded 1639 kg/ha, followed by TVX 3236 (1445 kg/ha) and 1B301 (1422 kg/ha). For virus score entries IT90K-101-4, IT90K-101-3, B 301, 1\"I'90K-81-4 were among the most resistant lines, whereas entries IT9OK-76-4, IT90K-76-6, IT90K-109-1 and IT90K-9 1-3 were moderately resistant. It should be noticed that most entries showed good level o1' virus resistance.  For fodder yield where no significant difference was observed, yield ranged from 372 kg/ha to 1367 kg/ha. Most of the entries lost their leaves at maturity. I'I90K-245 had good grain quality and most of its leaves did not drop at maturity. 9.4.4. Cowpea Advanced Trial 7.It was planted on July 101h, 1991 at Guiring, Maroua in 3 replications, with plots of 4 rows, 4m long and spacings of 75cm between rows and 20cm within rows. 20 ertries were tested. Data on pod yield, grain yield, fodder yield, days to 50% flowering, Jays to maturity, virus score, plant stand and number of striga per plot were recorded (Table 12).The analysis of variance showed significant differences between entries for pod yield, grain yield, fodder yield, and virus score. No significant differvnce was found for other traits. The number of striga per plot were not analyzed. For grain yield .-ntry TVX 3236 ranked first and yielded 2572 kg/ha, followed by IT89KD-107 (2328 kg/ha), IT89KD-453 (2028 kg/ha). For fodder yield entry IT89KD-85 3 ranked first and yielded 2783 kg/ha fbllowed by IT8QKD-453 (2538 kg/ha), TVX 3236 (2272 kg/ha). For virus score entries IT89KD-107, IT89KD-785, 1T88D-856-10 and B 301 were among the most resistant lines whereas entries APL-1, IT90K-59 were the most susceptible lines. Here again, most of the entries showed good level of resistance to virus.The following entries showed various level of susceptibility to striga: IT90K-76, IT88D-6761, IT89KD-453, IT89KD-.,55, IT88D-643-I, IT89KD-338, IT88D 856-10, TVX 3236, IT89KD-95-4, IT88S-678-3, IT90K-109. Based on visual observation during the season some lines have been identified for further evaluation, such lines are IT89KD-B5-3, IT89KD 107, IT89KD-249, IT88D-867-11, IT88D-643-1. 9.4. Seed Production and Varietal Purification.Six varieties have been multiplied at Guiring Station. They included BR1, .RR2, VYA, IT82D-716, IT86D-715, and IT86D-364. They were scored for virus infestation (luring the growing season. 'The best looking plants (virus free and good yield potential) were identified and harvested separately at maturity. Seeds from single selected plant are kept separately and will be planted plant to row next season [ 1 further selection.It was observed that Vya was badly infc:ted with virus. Virus infestation was severe on 1T821)-716 while the infection on BR2 and rT86-364 was mild. 96 single plants we!re selected from Vya, 99 from IT82D-716, 96 from BRI. l()from BR2, 76 from IT86D-364 and 50 from ITR6D-715. The rest of the seeds will be made available for on farm tests during next season.    -----------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------225   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------..  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------* Striga Observed inat least one plot. The Plant Pathology Lnit in Bambui (I IlII) has iesponsibilities to identily maize, sorghum and millet diseases ill their growing Zones and It) m es1 Ille implrtance ofW these diseases iII cl abth(Wilim Wilh the mai/e, sorghul and ulilIt inmprovemcnt leais and develop varieties and/or cultural practices to control diseases in codlaboration willi the agronly teams. The unit is based in Bambui and covers all the agro-ecological zones where these three commodities are grmvni. lihe goal of Plant Patlholho' y I Ir il in Bamlbu1i is t() enhance production of maize, sorgimi, and millet in Cameroom by reducing ':ield losses due to diseases through development of resislant/tolerat genttypes and/or apprlprialc culiural practices. Sources of resistance to some of the main diseases have lieen identified, through field screening techiiiques and incorporate I into seleclcd geLuolypcs or clite lilies.A major challenge facing the PPII during 1091 -, 1Q4 ;s during the previous years will be personell shortages and restricted budgets. Of Ihe two pathologists now available, the most senior will leave 'or PhI). in December 199 1. A technician and laboratory attendant are lte only available personal. Because of this situation, some of the activities, though necessary, mray not be carried out.The activities in the Ilnit were oriented in tlree directions:Population improvement and developm',nt of resistant varieties, Sludy disease epidemiology, pathogen biology, and monitor new diseases, and,Support to other units.IFour operations were carried out as far as popuilation improvement was concerned. Two were on maize and two on sorghtm. As regards the stuidy of' epidemiology of diseases, biology of' pathogens, and t ie monitoring of new diseases, 6 trials weie carried out of which four were on maize and two on11 Sorgilinl.AN (lhe trial%were planted as scheduled. Sorghuim trials planted in the Fxtreme-North, were visited mily once during the cropping season, almost at the stage of' maturity. Because of tihe limited ulinlds and ma np)wer, it wms not possible to visit the trials hei're or at flowering time as recommended by ICRISA'I'. Most o lhe leaves were dried out when we foliar diseases were then missed because it was dil'ticuit to visited !lhe sites. M,'sl of tile differentiate betveen inf'ected and dying leaves because of' the senescence. '['he sorghum breeding and Agronomy learns \"ere very cooperative in monitoring our experiments at Yohli , Ndenkole and Mtula.Maize trials planted at Upper [arni (Banibui) were damaged by IRZ's cows. No significant data were collected at that location.In support of other Units, PPB evalhatcd trials For the tnaize breeding teains based at The details of maize, sorghum and iillet pathology trials carricd out in 1991 are given in table I. Most of the experiments were conducted in replicated trials. Traditional agronoinic practices were used. 20-10-10 fertilizer (150kg/ha) were applied at planting and Urea (100kg/ha) at sidedressing. The rows were 51n long, with 0.25m spacing within rows. Disease incidence and severity were recorded weekly based on a modified James Scale (Actual % area of )lant infected). The results are presented brielly below: Twcnty entries were evaluated for each experiment at Yoldeo. S-35 was the local check. Data on grain yield were not recorded at the preliminary stage of the evaluation. Anthracnose incidence and severity was our main target. Data on the incidence and severity of Antlhracnose and Grey Leaf Spot (the most prevalent disease) are sumniarized in Table 2 and 3. TAM 428, SC 167-14, TX 434, QL-3 (INDIA), 82 BH5718,19, RTX430 84 L5373 were resistant to both diseases -SC328 and SC414-12E w,re susceptible to both diseasesvariable reaction to each one was also noted. 'lie cereals entomology researich unit at Dschang is responsible for research on post harvest gl'.rill problems nationwide but has concentrated activities in the Westecn highland because of limited ncans. A national approach to grain post harvest problems in Cameroon is considered important to lay a basis for future research priorities on the topic. It became necessary for the unit to include some limited research on rice field insects following a retUCSt from thie ric research unit based in Dschang.The over all research goal of the unit is to reduce and maintain post harvest losses of graiun in Cameroon to the bare minimum. foodResearch activities have concentrated on finidilg soltttions to maize storage problems since maize is the most important cereal grain inl Cameroon in terms of toiage and also has the greatest storage losses. Work in the past was mainly on non chemical control methods, but it has become necessary to screen some new stored grain insecticides For use by peasant farmers for quick control of' infested grain since they are tempted to use dangerous products sold in the open market.D1uring tie period, two special reports were written early in the year for two important experiments concltUded at the end of 1990. The two experiments include (a) an experiment to cvaluatc the use ol 3and I l-liter plastic cans with tight-fitting covers for maize storage alld (b) an expri mcia to test the cfficacics of two new grain storage insecticides (SOFAGIMAIN and SUM ICOMBI3) on maize stored under four different methods.In the first experiment it was discovered that tightly covered cans of both sizes effectively control the heavy weevil population in the containers and maintained tle grain in good condition for 12 months. The experiment was repeated using maize of high (17.4% and 20.3%) amd low (13.9%) moisture contents stored in larger containers (25-liter plastic cans).Il the second CxpCiment, it was discovered that tile efficacy of' both products is affected by storage method and climate. A similar experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of one of' the products on maize stored under two major storage methods. [lie results have ben reported here.The CXplrimcnt to idcntify sources of' stoi'ed grain insect pest resistance of some selectcd maize varieties grown and siored in three sites was terminated during the year and (lie restults analyzed and reported here.A cocliuding (eport on tihe fia 'ilers ma izC storage survey conducted in two divisions in N.W. Province in collaboration with TII Bambui is being compiled and partial conclusions have been included in this report.One niajor operation concerning the use of natural plant materials by flarmers for stored grain protection was started during (lie year with farmers questionnaires finalized and contacts made with the personnel of the Ministry of Agriculture in S.W. Province arid TLU Ekona.Mr. Asanga attended a short course on Diseases and Insect Pests of Millet and Diseases of Groundnuits held at ICRISAT Sahelian Centre, Niamey, Niger, 5 -16 August, 1991. A special report of the course was written and circulated.Mr Asanga also attended a workshop on the Regional Research Project on Maize and Cassava (RRPMC) at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria from 9 -13/12/91 and presented three maize Post Harvest Research proposals for funding by the project.The major problems hinlering the execution of operations in the research unit are lack of' technical staff, reliable transport and laboratory equipment. The unit needs at least three Ingenieurs des Travaux Agricoles (ITA) stationed at Buca, Bamenda and 1Bafoussam to coordinate the research activities of' the unit in these three Provinces of major concern and possibly another one in Garoua for the three Northern Provinces. The need of a strong 4W) vehicle exclusively for the Init cannot be over emphasized. If motorcycles could also be provided to the proposed provincial coordinators, then field data collection will be facilitated. A long list of laboratory equipment has always been submitted every year but very few items have been received.Operation 1: Identify the use of natural plant materials by farmers for grain storage pest control. The TLU staff collects and pays for a sample of 10 cobs of maize periodically from each of the monitored f'armers. In 1990, 30 farmers were selected from each of the two zones but were reduced to 20 each in 1991.The samples were sent to the UNDP/FAO Post Harvest Food Loss Reduction Project (Pt-IFLRP) in Banienda for loss i',sessnient and separation of insects. The insects and sub samples were then sent to the entomologist for insect identification and other entomological evaluations. Five sets of samples for Feb., April, May, June and August were received. 11.1.4. Results and Discussion: Apart from identification of insect species, other entomological evaluations such as insect intensities per kg of grain, percentage of insect and mould damaged grain, and percentage germination were not reliable because of the long delays of the samples before they are received. However since the delays affected all the samples, the evaluation data is suitable for comparison.The principal insect pest identified in terms of intensity and severity of grain damage was the maize weevil (Sjtophilus zrni ) particularly in Ndop area where the numbers per kg ranged from 5 to 123 on the average. Other stored grain insect pests identified included the Red Flour Beetle mainly in Ndop, the Angoumois Grain Moth (5.itr[_g cerealella) in Bui and the Square-necked Grain Beetle (_Clkafup quadricollis).Tables 1 -4 summarize the numbers of maize weevils per kg of grain and the percentage of insect damaged grain during each sampling fk;r each area. -Evaluate traditional and introduced grain varieties for storage pest resistance.-Investigate whether there are any differences in insect infestation and damage due to differences in ecological zones. Quantify grain storage losses due to insect and mould damage. 11. 1.4. Materials and Methods: Only maize varieties were evaluated during the period in review. Seeds of old and new maize varieties were obtained from breeders and grown in three sites as follows: 20 varieties in Foumbot and Santchou and 30 varieties in Dschang in March 1990 and harvested in September 1990. Storage was in husk hung in bundles of 20 cobs per replication per variety at random. Six evaluation criteria were used during each observation at three monthly intervals for 12 months terminating in September 1991.11. 1.4. Results and Discussion: Evaluation criteria during each observation included the number of weevils/kg of grain, number of other insects/kg, % insect damaged grain, % mold damaged grain, % grain moisture content, and % grain germination. During the first three observations, husk tightness rating on a scale of I -5 and husk extension in cm were also recorded. For this -eport, three evaluation criteria data (numbers of weevils/kg, % insect damaged grain and % grain germination) at the first and last observations are reported in tables 5 -7.From the evaluation data, it is clear that the insect populations and % insect damaged grain increased tremendously over time while the seed viability measured by % grain germination reduced to unacceptable levels by the end of the experiment. Dschang site which is highest in elevation and coldest among the three sites is su; posed to store maize best but because of the highly infested environment used and artificial heating of the IRA dry house in which the storage was located, insect populations and spoilage were accelerated.A summary of the evaluation data for the three observations using six evaluation on table 10. From the data it is observed that the non treated maize of both criteria is given forms had the higher insect population and more damage than the treated maize over the Untreated threshed maize supported higher insect population and is more storage period.control is obtained damaged than maize stored in cobs. On the other hand better insect pest applied on maize cobs. when chemical is applied on shelled maize than when after 18 months of The second experiment is intended to be terminated in 1992 of storage and it was discovered that storage. One evaluation was done after 10 months there were no live insects in any container.Province. from Farmers' Stores in Ndop and Bui Areas in N.W.       The lowland Cereals Entomology unit is charged with carrying out basic and applied insect pests of maize in the forest region of Southern Cameroon covering the research on South West, Centre, South and East provinces. The main entomological constraints to maize production are Lepidoterous field insect pests seconded by Coleopterous storage pests. A large proportion of maize in this region is consumed fresh and only small quantities are stored as seeds. Consequently priority should be given to solving field pest problems. Storage insects most of their damage indoors (relatively stable environment) and control methods cause developed elsewhere could be applicable here.The goal of the Lowland Cereals Entomology unit is to develop environmentally sound and economically profitable maize insect pest control methods for the rural farmer through an integration of suitable and appropriate cultural, biological, host plant resistance and chemical methods. In 1987, 88, 89, 90 research activities carried out by Mrs. Aroga at Minkomeyos consisted of assessing Furadan (insecticide) for control of stern borers, effects on the dynamics of borer populations and of intercropping peanut and manioc with maize influence of planting dates, land preparation method and soil fertilizati,-)n on borer incidence. In 1989 I)r. Bosque-Perez (I.I.T.A) provided seeds (rating scale also) of some maize Aroga in collaboration genotypes with known resistance to some stem borer species. Mrs. with Dr. Th is assessing the performance of these materials and some local one vis-A-vis natural infestations of Bussolafusca at Minkomeyos. So far, no results or recommendations are available from these activities for on-farm assessment. was In 1990 qn additional Entomologist Ms R. N. Ndemah joined the project and attached to the Nkolbisson TLU. Second season 1990 sampling for stem borers in farmers' maize fields in two agroecologies; semi-humid forest and forest/Savannah transition by the Nkolbisson TIU entomologist revealed marked differences in incidence, severity, impact on This implies or suggests that yield and field management practices between these two zones. stem borer research should be ecologically circumscribed as results obtained in one zone are likely to be in appropriate in another. To complement the above findings, the TLU during 1991 in three agroecologies Entomologist is carrying out on-station monitoring represented in the lowland forest. This to determine the composition of the borer complex and the species largely responsible for losses in each zone.   This activity was a follow-on of' an earlier extensive study carried out during the second season of 1990 in anriuers' fields. The objectives were to monitor natural infestations of these lepidotcrous pests in three agroecologies so as to gather baseline information on: I. The relative abundance of the various borer species and subsequently determine which species is or are largely responsible for losses in each zone.2. When infestations begin, their evolution, severity etc, in relation to crop growth stage in each location (important for type, time and method of control to achieve optimum effects).3. Which locations to recommend to the breeders (hot spots) for screening germplasm for resistance, as no facilities for artificial infestations are available.4. The incidence of natural enemies parasites, predators etc as a first step towards quantilying their role in the suppression of borer populations, as well as diagnose the role of alternate host plants (native grasses) as sources of infestation and refuge for these natural enemies when field maize is out of season.All the above information which has been lacking so far is very necessary for the elaboration of sound and meaningful control measures for these pests. Two plots of 20in x 5m each were planted to the composite maize varieties, CAS 8501 and CMS 8704, within one week in four locations; Ntui, (forest/savannah transition) Minkoncyos, (SeoiIl-humid forest) Nkoemvone (humid forest) and Mbalnayo (humid forest) during the first and second seasons of 1991. Both maize varieties have the same maturity cycle. At 2, 5, 9 and 14 weeks after planting, 25 plants were randomly sampled per variety and various borer incidence, severity, and species composition counts and made. measures RIJJ!.TS l)ue to the IRA strike and other reasons, not all the observations were realized as plamned. -however, findings from preliminary analyses of available data are:At 9 weeks after planting, Sesamia spp and Busseola fusca, were the predominant borers, with ami spp. being the more abundant, especiaily c', CMS 8704 in all 3 of SesamiJa equally high on CMS 850i locationsl Ntui, Minkomeyos and Mbalmayo. At Mbalmayo he inc of.:.cv wa s At 14 weeks after planting, a complex of 5 species: 3 f,:sca S,-,amia spp, EId'a saccharin , Musidia -,.    On the other hand, (lurill , the lr!,( stmpliug-, in Mbalinayo at 3 weeks alter planting, inlestations were low (below 40% ou;(?on S S701 but increased sharply, rearhihg a peak ol 92% on both varicis. \\vccks alt:r planttint,. Iorer sevcrity ratcd by the total number of larvac and pupae per 25 plants at ah samnphi;ig, datc, the maci numbe1r1 1 larvac and plpac per plant :ind percent stem tUnnlclliag2 at Q and 1Iweeks alter planting, werc highest at Mbalmayo, with a mean number of larvae per plant of' 2.72 and 12.13% stem tunnelling on CMS 8501, 14 weeks after planting (Figures 3 and 4 and Table 2). At Ntui and Minkomeyos, after infestations remained less severe throughout the sampling dates except at 9 weeks 1.32 on CMS 8704 at Minkomeyos planting when the mean number of larvae per plant was (Figure 3 and 4 and Table 2).  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------  In Ntli at harvest, over 90% of the larvae encountered were ill the ears of both varicties as opposed to less than 10% in stems. On the contrary in Minkomeyos and Nkoeivone over 66% of the larvae encountered were found in stems except on CMS 8704 in Nkoeinvoie where 56% of the larvae were in ears. 40% of CMS 8501 and 65.4%, CMS 8704 ears had grain with borer damage in Ntui while at Miukomeyos and Nkoeinvone car (a t1nage was less important. Stem tunnelling was most important in Nkoelvone (Table2).Sccol SCa.so)lFrom the descriptions under objectives I and 2 above, Mbahnayo, clearly shows as a hotspot wherc the breeders could screen gerniplasm for detecting varieties with sources of resistance to stem borers. Based on stein damage incidence, severity, and species compositloll, this location had the highest ratings (Figures 1, 2 and Table 2). 1St se_caso m By closely following up the CMS 8704 and CMS 8501 maize adoption plots of the Nkolbisso: 'IL.U regional testing program the following hot spots (based on trial site observations and discussion with farmers) were diagnosed. Nkolkosse, Ngoumou, Evoudoula (sell] i-hniiI id forest), Ngoulemakong, Ngomezap, Mvieng (humid forest) and Bafia town (transition). Tl\"o these sites should be added Nkolfep (semi-humid) one of the TLU pilot villages, wherc infestation were so severe during the first season that farmers had to treat vith insecticide.Qjctive 4 Findings, both from tile field monitoring and on-farl control trials consistently reveal marked differences in incidence and severity of maize borers following locations. Both biotic and abiotic factors account For these observations: Biotic factors, notably parasites, predators and alternate host plants could play a crucial role in the sound and strategic control of these pests. Some hymenopterous and Dipterous larval and pupal parasites were collected. These will be sent via IITA for identification. However, due to work load most of the work planned this will form a major operation. was not realized. Henceforth, is-Cusiol of tile importance of* monitoring, results of the maize borer As a first in.lication control (carbofuran by marshall seed treatment) factorial trial designed and implemented by the Nkolbisson FLU as a consequence of results from preliminary monitoring, confirmed the measures. Carbofuran appropriate control importance of survey:: in developing suitable and at the rate of 0. Ig/plant -,ave both highly significant yield and financial benefits in Nkolfep high whereas Marshall seed borer incidence and severity is very (forest zone), where no seed treatment in Kiki benefits over treatment had both signiticant yield and financial (transition zone) where infestations though lower, begin quite early (see appropriate section under Nkolbisson TLU of this annual report). till now that i3uso la Lusjt was the most to the believe up Secondly, contrary damaging borer species in the lowland ftOrest (evidenced by the B1ussel. screening trials to Musidia sacch an and of resistance at Minkomeyos), Sesni, spp, Eld1a detect sources Cio spp is also ila were the most abundant species in all the locations sampled, n becoming important.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    -------------------------------------------------   At 17 wcks aftier plantli l., oflie 1ilces a reduction of the pe'centage of sound ears. Moreover the proportion of cars slighltly a(lckcd increased (froni 44% to 51 %). Similarly with the ears heavily altacked (O nin I I % l 15%). On the other hand we recorded a decrease in the percentage of ears completely destroyed. Wili respect to average weight, the reduction is significant on!y between sound oar, a11(1 completely destroyed ears.At 19 weeks altier planting, one noles a s:pecial situation. The percentage of sound and slightly attacked ears increases while thal of\" the cars heavily attacked diminishes.Completely destroyed ears were not rec()rdcd.At 2 1 weeks after planling, the percentage of sound cars lowers considerably in favor of ears slightly altacked. The percentage of other categories of ears increase also although weakly.The study of the distribution of species of stem and ear borers encountered at the time of harvest reveals that Mtussidia nigrivenella was most abundant on the maize during the period of h:..:vest. This species would theiofore be more responsible for the losses caused at maturity. This is not surprising when we know that this larva is present on the maize before harvests. Nevertheless, one has noted the presence of soine representatives of S.c and E.s especially in the first harvests. The objective of the study was to determine the different phases of development of the larva:e of three species of stein borers reared on an artificial nutrient regime made of entire plants or parts of plants. At the total, 1463 larvae of B.f., 1726 larvae of S.c. and 215 larvae of E.s. were reared.The results are tie following I. ,l orMpilo yThe eggs are generally laid inegg masses plaques of which the size varies from one species to tile other.The larvae of S.c. are rose on its dorsal part and the ventral section is white with a reddish head and a clear brown thoracic plate. B.f. is white colored with a range of black spolts o1 each side of the body. Its head is dark with a dark head capsule and anus. The larva of E.s. is a dirty grey colored.The iny iph of\" S.c. has an unravelled form colored clear chestnut or yellowish which darkens as development continues. The nymph of B.f. is colored clear chestnut on the abdomen while this coLr is darker on the back. E.s. nymph is smaller.The adult of S.c. is a butterfly colored grey with a tiff of bristles on its head. It is spotted with clear points on the anterior wings. The posterior wings are colored beige. The adult of E.s. is a butterfly colored cream, with a pointed head covered with a tiff of yellow dark bristles, and two dirty yellow antennas. The adult of B.f. has a grey chestnut spotted color. The anterior wings are spotted dark brown with black edges. The posterior wings are a dirty white.The fniiale lays eggs without precise order between the foliar sheath and the stem. These eggs have a cream color which begin to darken 2 days after oviposition. Starting on the 4th day after laying one observes a change of color to rose. The hatching begins on the 7th day and finish on the 8th day.Upon hatching the larvae measure 2mm long and 0.5 mm diameter and have a dark color. This becomes clear as the larva develops, passing through clear violet, then cream. It passes through several larval instars before entering the nymphal stage. This stage can last thirty days. The larvae surround themselves with cocoons formed from debris and 3-4 days later form the chrysalis. The insect remains in this state in least weeks. After this period, the insect exits the cocoon.The female of S. c. lays her eggs invery masses plaques between the foliar sheath and the stem. Hatching begins on the 7th day and finishes one or two days later. The larval stage lasts on average 23 days.At the end of preceding stage the larvas shorten while increasing in diameter. One notes a reduction of length on the order of 30% and sometime more, and an increase of diameter of about 25 %. The larvae weave cocoons from available debris and 3 to 4 days later form chrysalides. About twelve days later adults exit from cocoons leaving them intact.The female of E.s lay their eggs between the foliar sheath and the stem, but also in balls on the surface of the leaves. Hatching begins on the 7th day and finishes I or 2 days later. The larval stage lasts over a month (38 days on average) and the nymphal one 11 days.Eperiment No 4: Study of the Oviposition of Busseola fusca, Sesamia calamistisandThe objective of this study was to follow and compare the development of egg laying of Busseolafusca,Sesamia calamistisand Eldanasaccharina. It was conducted in first and second cropping seasons of 1991.Tables I and 2 present the sites where the eggs of B. f. ; S.c. and E.s. have been collected in the field and in the greenhouse. Examination of these results show the following:In the field, the majority of the eggs of B.f. (53%) have been found on the second leaf. Those of S.c. (53%) were on the third leaf. This is the same as found in 1989, but the behavior of B.f. was different. It was not possible to harvest eggs of E.s. in the field. (2-1 lu e i's were dLpOSited on die iirst day. On (lie secondI day the ovipositioln waS IeduCd to ahioIt 10'% Of that of' tie first day. Oil the third day the harzrt IIItnibe 1 of Hc ., (25 '.,', of tile total) \\.as harvestcd. O\\'ip)ositi)l wvas redlced c ilnii i:., wih tle -dl day, and -. ontinueld until theQ li day which was tile last.\\Vith tle eiale1tC of 11-S. wC notcd laiIalWuois,ituatioii to that elieolulltrcld with B.1.. A large num'be' Of eggs laid (45,A ofl ie total) 'tle first day v, hiChi ltetr dilliliShCd.In general a largo: proplortion of eg,, is dclso tc at the begiluiing and the rate diminiishes unitil it sops one or two day, Ielorc lie dealh of' the Ifeiale. The fiiiale of S.c. Lys more eggs than other species. tK. sceains tW he he least prdifc.  The figures in parenthesus represent thi.273 This study was conducted at Minkoameyos. The objective was the comparison '01,the influence of four rates of carhoftiran, on the rate (),attack, and the distribution of srjecs-:, presents, as well as their sequence of appearnce. This product was appliec 40 clays after planting and the five raies compared are the following: 0kg/ha, 5kg/ha, 10kg/ha, 15kg/ha, 20kg/ha.The product was applied on the maize variCtY,MR planted on plots of 5m x 4.8r with two meters between plots.Table I presents the variations of attack on maize treated at 40 days after planting with From the table it seems that the maize was less attacked by th': Furadan at different rate.very 1itt borers in Ist crop season 1991 compared to the secoaG crop season 1990. There i:treated and untreated plots in difference among the ,iots treated at different rates and amono the 1st season 1991. This is also true when the percentage of stem bored and the yield , considered. A similar situation had already been --corded in the 1st crop season 1990 (ci:. annual report 1990). This seems to indicate tha-in the zone of study ii would not '; profitable to treat maize in the first crop season. Considering table I, it car.bh seen that u:,il 6 weeks after planting, the attacks are similar on ail treatments. That isnormal because tL insecticide treatment has been applied after this period Considering the ati:ks at 9 we'% after planting, one notes a very strong reluction or the rate ,;attacks on the treated plo. The same can made weeks after planting. This ;le.nonstracw remarks be at 12 sbv, effectiveness of the product which increases with rate. This study had the objectives of comparison of impact of three rates of NPK (20-10-10) on attacks of borers, and the evaluation of the influence of fertilization of the soil on the sequence of appearance and species distribution of borers in the zone. The variety of maize used was DMR. The rates compared were the following: 0kg/ha, 100kg/ha, 250kg/ha, 500kg/ha. Table I presents the rate of attacks on maize fertilized with dilfferent rates of NPK in 2nd season 1990. The cxaniination of this table shows: that The rate of attacks were generally higher on plots f'ertilized with respect to the check regardless of the date of observation. This had already been noted in the 1st season 1990 and scens to indicate that of' more vigorous maize attract the insects.The percentage of the stein lcnglh bored is greater in the 2nd season than ile Ist. This is also higher on the fertilized plots with respect to the check. This is not surprising since tile rate of attacks was higher on these plots. One should be able to say that the more the maize is developed, the more it constitutes a source of nutrient for the insects.There were no significant diffcrcnccs aniong the treatncits. This may be due to the fact that tic rates of' fertilizer applied were not sufficient to show differences among the treatments.At 3 weeks after planting, the rpro)ortion of' S.c., was greater in the 2nd season. At 6 weeks after planting it is B.('. that was more abundant. At 9 weeks aftcr planting, E.s. is found in greater nunbers and this continues at 12 weeks after planting. During these two last periods one notes the appearance of M.n. but in very sniall numbers. Ve can therefore conclude that fertilization does not inifluence the sequence of appearance of' the species. NVc note(] some differences in the numbcr of' larv1e per plant among the treatmenls, but we were i:ot able to discern a particular trend.Lxperiment N 7: influence of intercropping maize with peanut on stem borers populations dynamicsThe objcctive ol' this study was to evaluate tile influence of' this practice on stem borer populations dynamic. The influence of' every type of* plot on develpment of' attacks, distribution of species and their sequence of appearance have bccn evaluated and compared.Tables I and 2 present the rate o' attacks oii varieties DMRY and Bafia in the second crop season 1990 and 1st crop season 1991. I tihe second crop season 1990, the rate of' attacks on of the associated maize (treatment 1) were slightly higher than those on pure miaize (treatment 2). This trend is not very clear on tlhe variety h3afia. Oin variety l)MR-Y tile differences arc significant. Inthe first crop season 1991, the rate of' attacks were slightly higher on the associated maize for the two varieties. This is explained in the case of' treatment 1(associated maize) that the plants of maize are more dispersed and more accessible to insects who choose their hosts at random. There appe?..\"r !: be an indication that the planting density influenced the attacks. T z average percentage of the stem length tunnelled in the plots with associated maize were not very different from that of pure maize. One had to remark that on the local variety stem tunnelling on associated maize was slightly superior to pure maize for the two cropping seasons. In the first cropping season 1991 (cf.table 2) attacks were not recorded on the variety Bafia on both types of plots. On the variety DMR-Y, the attacks which occurred were relatively weak, and were nearly identical among the two treatments and during the season. This is not In the second cropping season (table I), these attacks were more severe.attacks the second crop surprising when we know that maize generally suffers more severe These attacks were very little different among the two seasons with respect to pure maize. types of plots, for both varieties. rhis differs from the situatkn noted in 1989. According to the results of that year the rate of attacks were higher on the associated maize. Tle lijecCetage of the stem leiigth tunnol led was relatively low in the 1st crop season on the two varietlies. In the second crop season, it was greater especially on the plots where the mai-e was, asstociated with nianioc. The differences recorded were not significant at the 5% level.The yield of the plots of pure maize was significantly higher al the f5%level compared to iaize/!naioc. An analogous sitLuation had been observed in 1989. These differences should be attributable pa0Il 10 the competition made to maize by tile Inanioc in tile associated plots. The needs of Inanioc arC especially heavy for nitrogen and potassium at the beginning of th \"VaSon. 'hiese t\\,elements a!.aIso %,cryuse ful for maize, above potash whose contribution plays a igv i:i ili;h N'iCls. role l.\"pcrimcniCj_ N Q: Tolerance of varieties to natura! ii estations of stein borers and ear borersThe objective of this study was to compare behavior of 84 varieties of maize under iturll inlfcstal ion of stein borers.'The observatioms were done six weeks after planting. Based on the data collected to his date we have been able to calculate:1) Avoidance as the PercCntagc of Uinfested plants. h) avewae percentage of stein length bored: it was observed that 12 varieties (14%) had more than 10%(0, of their sicns bored. c) avc'agc weig.ht: considering the average weight some significant diiferences were fouti(' 8l1l1t11 tile varictics.We have not been able to find a clear correlation between the percentage of the stems infested and average weight of the cars. Neither was there a correlation betweenthe weight of ear and attacks on the ears.Data was analyzed for the distribution of species of stem borers and ear borers present at harvest. The data revealed that four species (Busseloafiisca, Sesamia calamistis, Eladan saccharina and Mussidia nigrivenella) were present. The total number of insects present was very small. S.c. was most abundant being (36% of the total) followed by B.f. (28.5%), then M.n. (21.5%) and linally l.s. (14%). ","tokenCount":"49759"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8cc185ea5a5f7799b161959c8acd2d81","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43aecc25-6c9c-4ef8-8752-3b783aefeb12/retrieve","id":"-316030452"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b97a0568-a62c-4037-bbad-375d0293c439","pagecount":"28","content":"Livestock, Climate and System Resilience (LCSR) One CGIAR global initiative aims to directly enable 600,000 producers (at least 40% women) in nine countries to better prepare for and manage uncertain futures by improving security of access to resources and adopting management practices that enhance their climate-related adaptive capacities (livestock assets) while ensuring household equity and reducing GHGe intensities.This Initiative aims to address the \"double burden\" that climate change poses for livestock production across Africa and Latin America. Researchers are working with public and private actors to identify existing solutions and to co-create and deliver innovations that quantifiably help producers, businesses and governments adapt livestock agrifood systems to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.• Improving local capacities and inclusion in livestock production through biometric and socioeconomic analysis of proposed on-farm technology packages to support inclusive scaling of resilient low-emission practices. • Developing digital services to manage climate risk and inform decision-making in livestock agrifood systems by co-designing, testing and scaling digitally enabled services that bundle tailored climate information, risk transfer and credit strategies. This Initiative is working in Colombia, Guatemala, Senegal, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Tunisia.1. At least 80,000 households implement climate-smart practices and technologies that enable them to withstand climate shocks, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate benefits for women, as well as men. 2. At least 320,000 livestock producers (50% women and youth) and 13 public and private organizations access climate risk management strategies. 3. Pastoralists and farmers adopt improved governance, management and restoration practices on 500,000 hectares of land used for livestock production. 4. Impact investors, private-sector entities and international finance institutions mobilize US$25 million for socially inclusive resilience-building and/or low-emission livestock agrifood systems interventions. 5. International agencies and policymakers use the Initiative's products to shape at least four policies or investments to strengthen socially inclusive low-emissions livestock production system resilience, including at least three aimed at realizing climate changerelated adaptation or mitigation progress. For centuries, the strategy for alleviating pressure on resources was to move from one area to other. The more recent sedentary land-use leads to overgrazing supported by the massive use of cheap supplemental feed (Martínez-Valderrama 2018). Improper management of arable land and overgrazing, under adverse climatic conditionsdroughts, intense rainfall events, wind storms-has triggered rangelands degradation (Del Barrio et al. 2016). Degradation of rangelands highlight a critical need for the development of appropriate management strategies that enhance the sustainable use of natural resources. Silvopastoral production systems are very important ecologically, economically, and socially. They provide a range of ecological services including nutrient cycling, pollutant filtering, and biodiversity preservation. They also serve as a resource base for livestock production -a key source of income and livelihood. However, these ecosystems are suffering from cultivation encroachment, overgrazing, and harsh climatic conditions; particularly recurrent droughts (Alonso 2011;Chará et al. 2019).Agrosilvopastoral systems (ASPs) provide a range of livelihood services, either directly through forage production or indirectly by the beneficial effects on soil conservation, nutrient cycling, pollutant filtering, and biodiversity enhancement. Agrosilvopastoral systems are also a promising integrated natural resources management system that combines trees, shrubs, crops, pasture, fodder, and animals to improve production and environmental outcomes in pastoral landscapes (Muthee et al. 2022). This integration offers great potential to increase production and diversification, enhance ecosystem services, and support rural livelihoods (Reith et al. 2020). However, efficiently using available resources within these systems is the key to sustainability and this requires indepth knowledge and innovative techniques along with modern management to intensify land productivity (Reyes et al. 2017). Henceforth, improved silvopastoral systems have ample scope to rehabilitate degraded pastures to sustain livestock production, which remains a strong pillar for the livelihoods of the agrosilvopastoral communities (Louhaichi et al. 2021).ASPs in the drylands are more challenging, they are characterized by variable biophysical elements, notably poor soil quality, low rainfall, recurrent drought, high stocking rates, and very poor vulnerable people who constantly cope with food scarcity. In north and central Tunisia, the overexploitation of ASPs is common and dates back to ancient times. Today, valuable resources are not sustainably managed in either social or environmental terms. Improving ASPs is critical. One option is reseeding forage species established on natural pastures (Louhaichi et al. 2022;Slim et al. 2021).To improve the productivity, resilience and livelihoods of agrosilvopastoral communities, ICARDA, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Direction General des Forêts de Tunisie (DGF) initiated a process for developing and implementing interventions in Sbaihia community pilot site. The process involves six steps: i) diagnose site-specific needs, ii) identify obstacles, iii) identify stakeholders, iv) adopt a participatory multidisciplinary approach. v) implement proven technologies aimed at sustainable development of the silvopastoral production system with a focus on climate change adaptation, and vi) enhance the capacity of all concerned parties.The success seen at this pilot site has boosted willingness to scale out this approach to other farmers in the same site and to other areas within Tunisia to improve the livelihoods.To start scaling out, the General Directorate of Forests planned to expand the Sbaihia community pilot site area by including more interested farmers and to repeat the same process in in other sites like the Gueffaya community site with the aim of providing feed and present new livestock feed and forage intervention options.One successful sustainable silvopastoral practice was reseeding ecosystems with sulla (Hedysarum coronarium), a native biannual forage legume species providing feed and grazing biomass for livestock as well as soil and water conservation. However, it was found sulla cultivation adoption is faced with challenges of the inadequate supply of sulla seeds and farmers lack technical knowledge in sulla crop management practices.To overcome these barriers and to scale up, ICARDA and the General Directorate of Forests, in collaboration with the Provincial Directorate of Forestry, developed a program for providing sulla seeds and technical assistance to smallholder farmers.Therefore, travelling workshop was conducted during 19-21 October 2022. Participants were farmers from Oued Sbaihia and Gueffaya, Mannouba Governorate (58 farmers from Oued Sbaihia and 66 farmers from Gueffaya) experts from ICARDA, the General Directorate of Forests, and the Higher School of Agriculture of Mateur.The main objective of the traveling workshop was to increase awareness of farmers about sustainable silvopastoral restoration under changing climate and land use. Specific objectives include 1) demonstrate best practices for introducing forage legume species (sulla), multi-purposes shrub/tree and grazing management and 2) distribute sulla seeds to interested farmers.The Sbaihia community site (36°27′34.86″N, 10°13′52.17″E) is in the Zaghouan Governorate, Tunisia (Figure 1). The target area cover approximately 5,000 ha. Of which around 2,000 ha is occupied by forest land and 100 ha is purely pastoral area. Both are managed by the forestry department (DGF). The surrounding area is private land managed by livestock owners who would be allowed to have their animals graze once the site is rehabilitated. It is characterized by rugged terrain with structural surface limestone outcrops and marl. The altitude ranges from 180 to 200 m above sea level. Soils are shallow (0.5 to 1 m), poorly permeable and often showing crusts with a silt loam texture (47% silt, 29% sand, and 24% clay). The natural vegetation is highly degraded Mediterranean garrigue with very sparse individuals of Olea europea, Eryngium campestre, and Rosmarinus officinalis. The climate is semi-arid with an annual rainfall ranging from 350 to 600 mm. The Gueffaya community site (36°48′31.85″N, 9°37′07.96″E) covers an area of about 10,000 and is located in Mannouba Governerate, Tunisia. (Figure 2). The site includes 400 households and over 2,400 inhabitants representing Gueffaya, Mallaha, Jnaydia, and Lansarine communities. The average annual precipitation is between 400-500 mm. The soil is classified as clayey and gypsum-marl. Native vegetation is dominated by Stipa tanacissima, Lygeum spartum, Rosmarinus officinalus, Thymbra capitata, Calicotome villosa and Plantago albicans. The area is grazed by dairy and beef cattle (300 head), sheep (5,000 head), and goats (800 head). Forty hectares of this area is cultivated with olive trees (2,300 trees), 50 ha have transplanted Aleppo pine, 50 ha have been improved with Acacia, 55 ha with sulla, and 100 ha are covered in old forest plantations (Aleppo pine and Eucalyptus). Mr. Jamel Kailene, Director of Rangeland Development at the General Forestry Administration, welcomed all participants and expressed his gratitude to the community members for their active cooperation in the program (Figure 3). He emphasized the importance of involving all stakeholders to reach the goal of long-term profitability through sustainable productive silvopastoral systems. An important success factor was the active collaboration between international organizations such as ICARDA and national organizations, including development and research organizations (e.g., General Forestry Administration (DGF), Livestock and Pasture Office (OEP), Higher School of Agriculture of Mateur (ESAM) as well as farmers and pastoralists.The success of the participatory approach in the Sbaihia pilot site resulted in transformative changes in the DGF and OEP approaches to including farmers in forest and rangelands restoration and rehabilitation. By applying this approach, all involved parties are winners. The objective set by the government can be achieved, farmers will be trained on how and when and for how long to use resources while their own capacities are enhanced through training and frequent meetings. Overall, the site can be sustainably improved. To reduce pressure on these lands, we started the program of encouraging the farmers to grow their own forage crops with high value for their animals. The farmers participating in the Silvopastoral System Restoration Program can get sulla seeds along with information about cultivation and use.Mr. Kailene added that local communities have a major role to play in this program because they have deep knowledge of their local area and technical, practical, historical, and cultural insights. The engagement of local communities in the program encourages responsibility and accountability by enhancing community ownership of these state lands.Mr. Kailene stressed the importance of these areas as efficient pastures for livestock grazing. The aspect that determines silvopastoral system sustainability is maintaining these ecosystems and their functions. Damaging s site is a loss for everyone.The farmers confirmed that one reason for the absence of pasture management is the lack of water in Oued Sbaihia. There is an existing well, but it needs to be reconstructed. Mr. Kailene pledged that the General Directorate of Forests would ensure the preparation of a watering point for animals.Dr. Sawsan Hassan also emphasized the importance of cooperation between local communities and government and international organizations to achieve the program goals. She expressed her appreciation for the full participation of women in the program and said the commitment of all parties is the key to the success of this program. Dr. Slim Slim reviewed the importance and benefits of sulla fodder, when it should be seeded, and how it should be grazed for best results.Sulla is highly palatable, nutritious and productive forage for ruminant production. It is cultivated throughout the Mediterranean basin, where it is extensively grown as a 2-year forage crop for grazing and/or hay and/or silage production. The species plays a key role in cereal-based systems of semi-arid regions, particularly in organic and low-input agriculture, and is commonly used to enhance the productivity and sustainability of farming systems.One of the main values of sulla is its water requirement coupled to its ability to provide large amounts of palatable forage in steppe areas. There has been a growing interest in sulla due to its excellent adaptability to marginal and drought-prone environments, versatility as a good quality, high-protein forage crop, and its moderate levels of condensed tannins beneficial to ruminant production. Sulla is also a melliferous plant (Appendix 1).The main three points raised during field day are:-A plowing of 20-25 cm is indicated or a passage of chisel to 30-35 cm of depth.-Usually sown from the end of September.-The density per ha is 25 -40 kg of seed in pods.-Depth of seeding is generally superficial from 1 to 2 cm deep.-Sulla is suitable as green forage crop or grazing or for hay or silage.-Sulla should be cut at early flowering as the stems can become woody after flowering and quality will be much lower despite higher yields. -Sulla makes good silage. Including large amounts of sulla in silage (e.g., 75% and above) wilting may be necessary. A good fermentation was achieved when sulla was ensiled at a dry matter (DM) content of at least 35%. -For hay, it should be cut before peak flowering, preferably around 10% flowering.-During the establishment year, sulla should be lightly grazed to ensure good root development and plant density in the second year. -Sulla does not tolerate heavy grazing as the relatively high soft crowns and succulent stems can be easily damaged by heavy grazing. -In its first year, sulla gives about 20 -30 T of green fodder/ha and in the second year it can reach 30 -50 T of green forage/ha. -It should be grazed when it reaches about 40-50 cm in height.-Sulla is best managed by cutting for forage/silage or strip grazing.-When grazing, it is advisable to move large numbers of stock onto small areas for rapid grazing and prompt stock removal when the desired grazing height is achieved.-Since the workshop was interactive, the farmers shared their knowledge of sulla with the speakers and the other participants. The local community has ancient knowledge of sulla benefits and recognize that it is ideal for animal feeding (sheep, goat and cattle) and for soil protection (reinforcement in organic matter and protection against water erosion). However, farmers appear to totally ignore its requirements, exploitation and its conservation. The major problem encountered is the unavailability of sulla seeds in the market, which reduces the overall cultivation of sulla in the region. -After the sulla workshop, farmers wishing to cultivate sulla indicated that they have benefited from a quantity of free sulla seeds (Figure 4) provided by DGF of 20 kg and this from sowing areas of 0.5 to 1 ha. -The aim of distributing the seeds of the sulla for cultivation on private land, in addition to what will be accomplished in the forest rangeland, where the responsibility of each farmer in the success of cultivating the assigned amount of the sulla seeds has been emphasized, which will contribute to providing pastoral stock, which in turn contributes to reducing the pressure on the forest rangeland. -Working to establish the principles of cooperation between the administration and the farmers to ensure the permanence of pastures in the region and good management of the available capabilities. -After that, a dialogue was exchanged between those present, where all farmers welcomed the initiative to implement the aforementioned process and their intention to make it successful, especially since the cultivation of sulla is one of the traditions of the region and that the formation of the GDA (French acronym for the Group for Agricultural Development). will contribute positively to cooperation with the administration. -In conclusion, all attendees pledged to work for the success of the initiative and their desire to organize others training sessions. After discussion and exchange of dialogue between the attendees, the most important recommendations were as follows :• The need to support participatory work between all parties to achieve the goals of sustainable productive silvopastoral systems• The GDA pledged to cooperate with, DGF and research institutions to transfer and disseminate the technical knowledge and management skills of sulla utilization to the farmers• Enhance farmers knowledge on how to grow and utilize sulla through providing technical backstopping and capacity development trainings.","tokenCount":"2547"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"284d62029707126982c5afdbfc435e38","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8580a11d-ff26-444f-9725-6673ac2579f5/retrieve","id":"48899752"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0ef38c4f-17d3-4393-a5d3-9664577cc0f7","pagecount":"4","content":"What is classical swine fever? And why does it matter?Classical swine fever (CSF) is a highly contagious, potentially fatal viral disease that affects pigs. This disease is a major constraint to the development of pig farming systems in northeast India where pig farming is a main source of livelihood for most households. About 80% of households in northeast India rear pigs and pork is a key part of the local diet.A 2011 participatory epidemiological study conducted in Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with support from the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) and Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust (NRTT) showed that pig farmers in India incur huge losses from mortality, treatment and replacement costs-over 2 billion Indian rupees (INR) each year (INR 57.0437 = USD 1 at 28 June 2012) (see Table 1). Recommended measures to control CSF include the use of sanitary prophylaxis (disease reporting, strict import policy, quarantine, routine serological surveillance) and medical prophylaxis (use of a modified live-virus vaccine). India requires a total of 22.26 million doses of CSF vaccine per year, with northeast India alone requiring 7.64 million doses.Currently, the country has about 1.2 million doses of the vaccine, which is less than 1% of the total requirement (Table 2 below). Lapinized vaccine: is developed by serial passage of CSF virus in rabbits, and the vaccine is processed from the spleen and other lymphoid tissues of the infected rabbits.The biggest limitation in the production of this vaccine is its dependence on the availability and continuous supply of rabbits.This vaccine is currently produced by the Institute of Veterinary Biologicals at Guwahati, Kolkata, Lucknow, the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals, Mhow and Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar.Lapinized cell culture vaccine: The lapinized vaccine strain is used to produce vaccine in cell culture. Production of this vaccine does not depend on availability of rabbits and can therefore be made in large quantities. This vaccine is currently produced on 'trial basis' by the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals (IAHVB) in Bangalore.Its commercial production is expected soon after licensing is received from government. It is reported that the Indian Veterinary Research Institute also has developed this technology and is working towards its commercial production. Production and use of this vaccine appears to be the best available choice.The available infrastructure in some of the veterinary biological institutes can be used for this purpose but with additional equipment and capacity strengthening.Cell culture vaccine: Local CSF virus is isolated from the field during disease outbreak and grown in cell culture and attenuated to produce the vaccine. This technology (developed by Dilip Kamur Sharma of Assam Agricultural University) is in the experimental stage.Though this vaccine is of immense value in the implementation of northeast India's regional and national CSF control and eradication programs, its commercial production will take time.Policy recommendation for prevention and control of CSF• To meet the immediate demand, the lapinized vaccine production facilities at the Institute of Veterinary Biologicals (Guwahati, Kolkata, Lucknow) and at the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals, Mhow, should be strengthened with infrastructure and manpower support. This can increase production level from the current 1.2 million doses to 5 million doses within one year.Simultaneously, to meet the country's entire demand, commercialization of the lapinized cell culture vaccine technology through public-private partnership is a next best option. In this context, the plan by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute to commercialize this technology through private firms may be strongly supported.In the long run, the cell culture CSF vaccine should replace the lapinized cell culture vaccine and production of the latter stopped. To produce this vaccine on a commercial basis, the seed virus strain available at Assam Agricultural University (AAU) should be made available to vaccine manufacturers on terms and conditions specified by AAU after its independent validation.There is a need to strengthen the 'cold chain facilities' at the Institute of Veterinary Biologicals, Guwahati and the vaccine storage capacity at the headquarters of each state in the region. Also, portable mini cold storage facilities and transport boxes (similar to those provided under the Government's rinderpest eradication program) should be made available to all veterinary institutions to enable preservation and distribution of vaccines to sparsely distributed livestock populations.Given the limited human resource capacity in state government departments, a system of delivery of vaccination services (including awareness creation) by trained 'vaccination scouts' can be established under the supervision of the animal husbandry and veterinary departments.Strengthening of laboratory infrastructure for rapid CSF diagnosis and initiation of disease control measures by the state veterinary authorities.After bringing down the disease to a considerable level, in the long term, develop a strategy for vaccination at key border points/markets/trade routes and develop quarantine facilities.Movement of pigs from outside the northeast region and from neighbouring countries should be monitored.State CSF surveillance units should be set up in each states directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services and the state epidemiologist with his/ her colleagues should independently investigate all disease outbreaks supported by laboratory investigations. These surveillance units need to have laboratory diagnostics (from Assam Agricultural University AAU), adequate staff and computers, internet and other inputs. A mobile disease investigation vehicle fitted with basic diagnostic laboratory equipments may also be placed at the disposal of field disease investigation teams along with other specialist diagnosticians. Online management information systems should capture information on vaccination, vaccinators, blood samples etc.  ","tokenCount":"896"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ab196cac4835d608b6bcac7e2ef1a4fc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e937de00-7457-4de1-a643-caa718496693/retrieve","id":"-346376925"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"11721210-94f4-4eb6-88eb-c57a735c86bb","pagecount":"103","content":"LPAP working papers contain results of research done by ILRI scientists, consultants and collaborators. The author(s) alone is (are) responsible for the contents.This document is a summary of the results of the preliminary phase of the research project to characterise the nature and causes of land degradation in the highlands of the Amhara Region, and to examine the opportunities for more sustainable land management and development. The preliminary phase is based on literature review, consultations with key officials, brief visits to selected field sites and discussions with farmers and key informants, and analysis of existing secondary data. The aim of this phase is to draw upon what is already known about the problems of land degradation and management to help develop research hypotheses and areas of focus for a community survey of 50 kebeles that was launched in September 1999. The major objectives of the community survey are to identify the dominant 'pathways of development' 1 in the region and to suggest hypotheses about their causes and implications for agricultural productivity, sustainable land management and poverty. The hypotheses generated will be tested using data collected in subsequent household and plotlevel surveys.1. A pathway of development is defined as a common pattern of change (or stagnation) in agriculture and livelihood strategies, associated with its causal and conditioning factors (Pender et al. 1999b). Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) is located in the north-western part of Ethiopia between latitude 9°-13°45'N and longitude 36°-40°30'E, with a total area of 170,152 km 2 . Of the total area, cultivation and grazing land make up 30% each. Forest, shrub, bush and woodland, bodies of water, and wasteland make up 17%, 4%, and 16% of the total area, respectively, and the remaining 3% is taken up by settlement. The total population is approximately 14.4 million, with an average land holding of 1.7 ha. About 35% of the nation's livestock population is found in the region, with the major feed sources being communal grazing lands, fallow lands, crop residues and stubble.Soil erosion. Site-specific test plots andexperiments in 1987 and1988 at Soil Conservation Research Project (SCRP) stations in the region show soil loss rates between 0.04 and 212 t/ha per year. About 29% of the total area of the region experiences high erosion rates (51-200 t/ha per year); 31% experiences moderate erosion rates (16-50 t/ha per year); 10% experiences very high erosion rates (>200 t/ha per year); and the remaining 30% experiences low erosion rates (<16 t/ha per year).Nutrient depletion. Loss of soil fertility is manifested through limited recycling of dung and crop residue in the soil, low use of chemical fertilisers, declining fallow periods, soil and organic matter burning, and soil erosion. Although the farming system in the highlands of Amhara is predominantly mixed crop-livestock, nutrient flows between the two are predominantly one sided, with feeding of crop residues to livestock but little or no dung being returned to the soil.Deforestation. Removal of forests is prevalent and contributes to land degradation. About 20 thousand hectares of forest is harvested annually in the Amhara Region for fuelwood, logging and construction purposes. Since harvested trees are not replaced and, thus, expose the soil, about 1.9-3.5 billion tonnes of fertile topsoil are washed away annually into rivers and lakes due to deforestation alone.The direct causes of land degradation, including declining use of fallow, limited recycling of dung and crop residues to the soil, limited application of external sources of plant nutrients, deforestation and overgrazing, are apparent and generally agreed. Factors underlying these direct causes include population pressure, poverty, high costs of and limited access to agricultural inputs and credit, fragmented land holdings and insecure land tenure, and farmers' lack of information about appropriate alternative technologies. Many of these factors are affected by government policies on infrastructure and market development, input and credit supplies, land tenure, agricultural research and extension, conservation programmes, land use regulation, local governance and collective action, and non-governmental programmes.Considering the nature and causes of land degradation in the region, policy, institutional and technological strategies for more sustainable, productive and poverty-reducing development are identified. The main hypothesis is that the strategies for sustainable development in any given situation depend largely on the comparative advantage of alternative livelihood strategies in that situation. While many factors determine comparative advantage, we focus on three: agricultural potential, market access and population pressure.Agricultural potential is an abstraction of many factors that influence the absolute advantage of producing agricultural commodities in a particular place, while access to markets is critical for determining the comparative advantage of a particular location, given its agricultural potential. Population pressure affects the labour intensity of agriculture through the land:labour ratio, and may induce innovations in technology, markets and institutions, or investments in infrastructure; thus, it affects the comparative advantage of labour intensive strategies of development. These three factors interact with each other in complex ways, and we can classify the highlands of Amhara into eight major types, considering two levels ('high' and 'low') of each factor.In areas with relatively high agricultural potential and good market access, there is strong potential for intensified production of cereals using high levels of external inputs, commercial production of perishable cash crops such as fruits and vegetables, and/or intensive production of commercial livestock products such as dairy and poultry products. There is also strong potential for rural non-farm development linked to agricultural development. Priority initially should be given to intensified cereal production, since the need for food security is likely to constrain farmers' ability to expand production of other (perhaps more profitable) products until cereal production is adequate. Development of credit, and input and output marketing systems will be critical to the success of these pathways.In areas with high agricultural potential that are more remote from markets, comparative advantage is likely to be greater in production of high-value (relative to volume) nonperishable cash crops such as nuts or coffee, and/or intensified production of easily transportable livestock (e.g. small ruminants). Even more than in areas of good market access, farmers' ability to produce sufficient food is likely to constrain their ability to expand production of such products. Thus, high priority should be given to increased cereal production in such areas with food deficits by use of imported inputs (particularly seeds and fertiliser). This may require subsidising the cost of transporting inputs in the near term, as well as medium-or long-term credit to allow farmers to finance investments in perennial crops.In areas with low agricultural potential but good market access, development opportunities are likely to be related to investment in irrigation where feasible and profitable; intensification of cereal production using limited amounts of inputs integrated with soil and water conservation, and organic fertility management measures; intensification of livestock production through improved management of grazing lands and development of private woodlots (especially in lower population density settings); and rural non-farm development. These areas are likely to remain deficit producers of food, and so food aid may be needed in the near term, until the development potentials are realised more fully.Opportunities for agricultural or rural non-farm development are even more limited in areas with low agricultural potential and poor market access. Intensified cereal production using limited amounts of inputs integrated with soil and water conservation practices, and intensified livestock production is likely to be important. Bee keeping may also be an attractive option in some areas, and could be linked to vegetative regeneration in area enclosures (especially in lower population density settings). Food aid and migration are likely to be essential. Thus, policies with respect to food aid, agricultural extension, education and training in non-farm activities, and land tenure will be of particular importance for these areas.The problem of land degradation (soil erosion, nutrient depletion and deforestation) is severe in the highlands of Ethiopia, and especially so in the Amhara Region. For example, soil erosion is a major problem in the region, with the land estimated to be eroding at very rapid rates of 16-50 t/ha per year. Because of erosion, the region accounts for more than 50% of the estimated annual soil loss in Ethiopia (Abegaz Gizachew 1995). The regional government and other organisations are undertaking activities to mitigate the problems and the constraints faced; however, without adequate quantitative information on the magnitude of the problem, causal factors and the effort directed at solving the problem, appropriate policies cannot be effectively designed and implemented.With very few exceptions, research undertaken on land degradation in the Amhara Region has not focused on the economic, social or institutional factors that affect how farmers manage their land. The biophysical dimension of the problem has been favoured. Consequently, policy response to the land degradation problem has focused on the technical aspects, promoting adoption of specific conservation technologies, such as terraces and bunds. While many conservation technologies have shown promising results in terms of reducing soil erosion and runoff, their effects in terms of crop yields are mixed (Yohannes Gebremichael 1989;Sutcliffe 1993, cited in Fistum Hagos et al. 1999). Nevertheless, the returns do not seem to have motivated farmers to widespread and spontaneous adoption of conservation technologies, unless the costs of the investments are heavily subsidised by public and non-governmental support.To address the problem of land degradation in Amhara and its linkages to agricultural productivity and poverty, there is the need to take a broader perspective, both in how the problem is defined and in the set of possible solutions considered. For example, despite reported high soil erosion rates, farmers may be more concerned with productivity in the short run rather than benefits of soil conservation in the long run. Furthermore, the net costs of soil erosion to agricultural production may be lower than the costs of declining soil fertility (Sutcliffe 1993, cited in Fistum Hagos et al. 1999). In addition, the nature and causes of land degradation are likely to vary from place to place. This means that in addition to technical research to identify productive and alternative land management techniques for diverse farming circumstances, research is needed to identify the socio-economic and policy factors that inhibit or favour adoption of more sustainable land management practices. It may be that policy interventions, such as land tenure, land use, infrastructure and market policies, have greater impact than conservation programmes, or condition the potential success of these programmes. For example, lack of credit may reduce farmers' ability to invest in long-run conservation technologies and contribute to farmers' having a short-term perspective (Pender 1996;Holden et al. 1996). Compared with physical conservation technologies, alternative farming practices may be less effective in reducing the total amount of soil erosion per hectare, but more cost effective per unit of erosion reduction and, thus, more likely to be adopted.Notably, the diverse agricultural and socio-economic conditions prevailing in the region should be taken into account. Of particular interest, among others, are population density, market access and agricultural production potential, which vary considerably from place to place and are very likely to have diverse policy implications in different situations. By accounting for this diversity, we hope that the conclusions drawn from this research will have broad applicability.Similar to its sister projects in the highlands of East Africa, the conceptual framework for this research on sustainable land management draws principally from theories of induced technical and institutional innovation in agriculture, which explain changing management systems in terms of changing micro-economic incentives facing farmers as a result of changing relative factor endowments (Boserup 1965;Hayami and Ruttan 1985;Binswanger and McIntire 1987;Pingali et al. 1987;Templeton and Scherr 1997). Additional variables that are also important determinants of resource management have been included. These are inspired by theories of collective action (Olson 1965;Ostrom 1990;Baland and Platteau 1996); market and institutional development (North 1990); rural organisation (Bardhan 1987); and agricultural household models (Singh et al. 1986;de Janvry et al. 1991).Figure 1 illustrates this conceptual framework. 'Pressure' or 'shift' factors at a national or regional level (e.g. population growth, changes in market prices, development of new technologies and changes in property rights) are assumed to induce, within individual communities, shifts in local market structure, prices and/or local institutions (e.g. local labour and land tenure arrangements). The nature of these shifts will be conditioned by community characteristics, which help to determine local comparative advantage (e.g. human and natural resource endowments, market linkages and local knowledge of natural resource management).Source: Scherr et al. (1996, cited in Fitsum Hagos et al. 1999). Figure 1. Conceptual framework to identify land degradation and land management processes.Shifts at the community level induce responses in natural resource management at both household and community levels. At the household level, responses may take the form of changes in land use, product choice, investment and/or land management (intensity, input mix and conservation practices). At the community level, responses may take the form of collective land investments, collective self-regulation of private resource use, changes in management of communal resources, or changes in formal and informal rules of access to natural resources. The net results of these changes in natural resource management are changes in natural resource conditions, productivity and human welfare. Both the responses themselves and changes in the outcome variables, can have feedback effects on community baseline conditions and local markets and institutions, thus contributing to further change and innovation at the local level. 4   4. The aggregate effects (across communities) of local responses and outcomes also have feedback effects on the pressure factors and public policies on a broader scale. In this project, we will not attempt to measure these aggregate effects.Public policies may influence this temporal process at various levels: through the pressure factors (e.g. agricultural research programmes, sector price policies, and resettlement policies); by directly influencing community conditions (e.g. restrictions on natural resource use, land-titling programmes and local credit programmes); by influencing household or community responses (e.g. through technical assistance programmes); or by directly intervening in outcome variables (e.g. nutrition programmes and direct forest management by the state).Currently, available information is not adequate to understand the dynamics of the process and does not provide policymakers with much guidance as to which of these intervention points will be most effective in promoting positive outcomes, key interactions to expect among policies, nor the most appropriate sequence for intervention. Most public action aimed at improving natural resource management in fragile land areas focuses on influencing household, and to some extent, community responses. Yet, it may be more effective to influence local markets and institutions or to invest in community infrastructure, since these may largely determine the nature of household and community responses. However, we have very little empirical evidence that elucidates the relationship between these different levels of policy action, and their effects on key outcome variables. Finding such empirical evidence is a major objective of this project.To comprehend the problem of land degradation in a given context, it is imperative to examine the community baseline conditions such as the natural resource base, human resources, existing institutions and infrastructure base, and how these baseline conditions interact with one another to influence human responses and, thereby, affect productivity, livelihood and the natural resource base. This section, therefore, considers the setting of the land degradation problem in the highlands of the Amhara Region.Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) is located in the north-western part of Ethiopia. Geographically, it is situated between latitude 9°-13°45'N and longitude 36°-40°30'E. It is bounded by the Afar, Benishangul, Oromia and Tigray regions in the east, south-west, south and north, respectively, and by Sudan in the west. The total area of the region is estimated at 170,152 km 2 , which is about one-sixth of the country's total area (BoA 1997).The region ranges from 600 m above sea level (a.s.l.) at Metema, North Gonder, to 4520 m a.s.l. at Ras Dashen, North Gonder, which is also Ethiopia's highest point. The wide range of altitude is a major factor in determining the temperature range of the region. Generally, lowland areas (<1500 m a.s.l.) experience hot temperatures, while highland areas (>1500 m a.s.l.) experience relatively cooler temperatures. For example, in the hot to warm submoist agro-ecological zone, where the altitude ranges from 600 to 1400 m a.s.l., the mean annual temperature range is 21-27°C while in the cold to very cold moist zone, where the altitude ranges from 2800 to 4200 m a.s.l., the mean annual temperature varies from 7.5°C to 16°C (CEDEP 1999).Amhara is made up of four river basins (Abay, Tekeze, Danakil and Awash) and, according to the major geomorphic classification of the country, is comprised of seven geomorphic units. These are: the eastern scarps and lowlands the North Gonder and Wello degraded areas the Gojam and North Shewa plateaus the Tana plain the Abay and Tekeze gorges the western lowland the mountainous and afro-alpine zones consisting of Ras Dashen, Choke, Guna, Abune Yosef, Amba Farit and Adama. About 12 dominant soil types have been identified, with a distribution that is very much influenced by the physiography and geology of the region. The mountainous and degraded landscapes are covered with shallow and stony soils; the undulating and gently rolling areas are characterised by dark red-to brown-coloured deep soils; depressions and flat plains are characterised by black clayey soils; while the foothills consist of alluvial soils. The region is composed of 10 major agro-ecologies (CEDEP 1999) and is dominated (38%) by the tepid to cool moist zone, which has high agricultural potential. 5 Table 1 shows the major agroecologies, area coverage, 6 production constraints and agricultural potential.5. Within the 10 major agro-ecologies, 18 sub-agro-ecologies exist (BoA 1997). 6. There is disagreement about the area representation of the agro-ecological zones as there are several different estimates depending on the source. Figures shown here are from one of the more recent estimates. As agricultural production is mainly rainfed, the pattern and duration of rainfall determine the growing period. The mean annual rainfall varies from 300 mm in the east (Habru and Kobo weredas of North Wello) to over 2000 mm in the Awi zone in the west, specifically, the Banja Shikudad, Sekela and Guangua weredas. Generally, the western parts of the region are characterised as high rainfall and high agricultural potential areas, with precipitation exceeding 1200 mm annually. Low rainfall and agricultural potential areas are found in the North Wello and Wag Hemra zones. The region experiences both unimodal and bimodal rainfall patterns, generally, in the west and east, respectively. In the western part of the region, the growing period varies from a little under 120 days in the North Gonder zone to more than 270 days in the Awi zone. Contrarily, the growing period varies from 45 to 90 and from 60 to 210 days in the eastern and south-eastern parts of the region, respectively (BoA 1997).Of the 4.64 million hectares of the region's total land area that is suitable for cultivation (about 30% of the total land area), 97% is under cultivation, with cereal production taking up 75% of the total area under crops. Grazing land and pastures each make up 30% of the total land area, while forest, shrub, bush and woodland make up 17%. Wasteland and bodies of water account for 16% and 4% of the total land area, respectively, while the remaining 3% is taken up by settlement (BoA 1999a). Within the Amhara Region, the total irrigation potential is estimated at 500,000 ha (CoSAERAR 1999).The total population of Amhara in 1994 was 14.4 million, with close to 90% employed in agriculture and living in rural areas (CEDEP 1999). About 50% of the population is male and the economically active population (people 15-64 years old) is 52%. The population growth rate is estimated at 2.9% per annum (BoPED 1999a). The average farmland holding is 1.7 ha and varies from 0.7 ha in North and South Wello to 2.6 ha in West Gojam (Larsen et al. 1996).Cereals, pulses, oil crops, spices, vegetables and fibre crops are cultivated annually in descending order of area coverage. Teff is the leading crop (32% of area of cultivated cereals) followed by sorghum and barley (13% each), wheat (11%) and maize (7%) (BoA 1999a).Growing teff accelerates soil erosion, as it demands several ploughings for fine seedbed preparation. Rotation of cereals with legumes and other crops is practised in the region to improve soil fertility.Approximately 35% of the nation's livestock population (8.9 million cattle, 7.5 million sheep and goats, 1.39 million pack animals and 9.06 million poultry) is found in the region (BoA 1991 Ethiopian calendar). Livestock provide draft power, food, cash income and manure for fertiliser and fuel. Livestock are also an important form of marketable wealth, and provide farmers with economic security in times of crop failure.The major feed sources for livestock are communal grazing lands, fallow lands, crop residues and stubble. The total annual feed availability from these sources is about 9.1 million tonnes of dry matter, while the total annual demand is 20.6 million tonnes, with a deficit of 11.5 million tonnes (BoA 1997). These estimates suggest that the livestock population is greater than the carrying capacity of the land, due to land degradation and low biomass production. Consequently, the land is exposed to erosion, due to excess removal of vegetation cover and compaction of the soil. Although high livestock stocking rates are often blamed for land degradation, sound livestock management practices, manure application etc. can improve land quality by enhancing soil quality and fertility. However, as long as open access grazing continues and feed production and cut-and-carry stall feeding are not prominent, purchased feed may not count as an important feed source.Although compared with other regions, Amhara has a high population of livestock, values for average annual milk and meat consumption per capita are low at 9.1 and 3.2 kg, respectively, compared with averages of 14 and 10 kg for the nation. This is primarily because cattle offtake is low (about 7%) and average carcass (meat) weights are only 125 kg (BoA 1997).Poverty and undernutrition are very severe in Amhara, especially in drought-prone lower agricultural potential parts of the region. A study in South Wello revealed that 91% of farmers did not produce enough food to last them throughout the year while the remaining 9% produced just enough to last them through the year without any surplus for sale (Zealbowesen Asfaw 1998). In a socio-economic survey of the region by UNECA (1996), the majority (about 58%) of households faced food shortages for 5 to 16 weeks of the year (Table 2); however, more than 11% of households had insufficient food for over 6 months of the year. Marketable surplus, even from the high agricultural and surplus-producing zones, is quite low. For example, in Adet wereda in West Gojam zone, during the 1996-97 crop season, 72.6% of production was consumed or reserved as seed for the next farming season, and the remaining marketed (Tamiru Sebsbe 1998). Table 3 shows the major reasons why Adet farmers are not food self-sufficient. Shortage of farmland and high fertiliser prices were cited by all farmers as the most constraining factor. Soil erosion was mentioned by 57% of the farmers. Biomass supplies primarily satisfy the region's energy requirement. Woody biomass, cow dung and crop residues account for 99% of the total fuel needed for domestic cooking and heating in the household sector (BoA 1997). Rural households are totally dependent on biomass for energy. For example, 58% of the energy consumed by farmers in Adet wereda is derived from fuelwood, 19% from dung and 23% from crop residues (Tamiru Sebsbe 1998). Only about 9% of the region's population (mostly urban) is supplied with hydroelectric or diesel power (BoA 1997). The majority of the people use fuelwood for cooking.Infrastructure, such as road transportation, is not well developed in the region. Hence, pack animals and human portage are the major forms of transport. There are 608, 4239 and 782 km of asphalt, all-weather and dry-weather roads, respectively (BoPED 1997-98). The density of roads in the region is low, standing at 35 km/1000 km 2 area and 0.37 km/1000 population (BoPED 1999b). Development of roads is critical to the availability of agricultural inputs and will tend to reduce the prices paid for inputs and increase the prices received for outputs by farmers. In addition, it helps to move food from surplus-producing areas in the west to foodinsecure areas in the east.5 Land degradation and its impact in Amhara Region Land degradation in the Ethiopian highlands (i.e. areas above 1500 m a.s.l.) has been a concern for many years. Soil erosion, nutrient depletion and deforestation are common, but little has been done to determine their impact on productivity.Loss of arable land due to soil erosion is a widespread phenomenon in the highlands, which account for about 45% of Ethiopia's total land area and about 66% of the total land area of Amhara Region. On steep hillsides, soil losses of and exceeding 200 t/ha per year have been recorded (Kappel 1996). The potential threat of land degradation to the country's fragile economy and food security has been emphasised by several publications (e.g. Wright and Adamseged 1986;Hurni 1988;MNREP 1994: Abegaz Gizachew 1995;Kappel 1996;BoA 1997;NEC 1997;FEC 1998). The threat is credible as about 90% of the population of the Amhara Region lives in the highlands and 90% of the regularly cropped land is found there.Soil erosion by water is the dominant form of erosion. The areas that are severely affected can be found in Wag Hemra and North Wello followed by North and South Gonder, eastern parts of South Wello and northern parts of North Shewa zones. The soil depth in these places is very shallow (Leptosols), soil fertility is poor and farmers squeeze a living from pockets of shallow soils. Gullies are a frequent and permanent phenomenon everywhere in the region.According to CoSAERAR (1997), Kobo, Gubalafto and Habru weredas (all of North Wello) have lost 3700 ha of their 284,950 ha total land area to gullies. In addition to reducing cultivable area, soil erosion and gully formation and expansion reduce the water holding capacity of the soil and, consequently, result in poor crop yields.The Ethiopian Highland Reclamation Study (EHRS) has developed a 1:1,000,000 scale soil loss rate map, which shows the types of soil degradation processes, causes, severity and extent . The map is based on the universal soil loss equation (USLE) and soil-erodibility and land use maps. EHRS assesses the national soil loss rate as 'moderate to high', which is estimated at 30-100 t/ha per year (Wright and Yeshinegus Adamseged 1986). Depending on land use practices, however, the real rate is claimed to be <2 to >300 t/ha per year (Wright and Yeshinegus Adamseged 1986). Based on the EHRS calculations, the region's soil loss rate is estimated at about 58% of the national rate (BoA 1997;CEDEP 1999). Thus, given that the spatial coverage of the region is only about one-sixth of the nation, the soil loss rate per unit area is very high in the region, compared with other regions. The USLE over estimates net soil losses, since it accounts for erosion off plots above but not sedimentation on plots below. Therefore, the net soil loss may be significantly lower than estimated and, consequently, needs to be interpreted with caution. For example, the Soil Conservation Research Project (SCRP) estimates the national soil loss rate at about 21% less than the EHRS estimate (Dawit Kebede 1996). The study, therefore, concludes that the soil loss from croplands in the highlands of Amhara is much less than that estimated by the EHRS. Table 4 shows that about 29% of the total area of the region experiences a high erosion hazard (between 51 and 200 t/ha per year) and 31% exhibits a moderate erosion hazard (16-50 t/ha per year). Although, the highest soil loss rate (>200 t/ha per year) occurs in only 10% of the region, it is estimated that this contributes almost 50% of the total soil mass that is moved (CEDEP 1999). Source: Abegaz Gizachew (1995).The FEC (1998) study indicates that the plain areas of the highlands in Gojam, Awi and the south-eastern parts of the region have a moderate soil erosion hazard. However, as these are currently the most productive and surplus-producing areas of the region, due to the ample rainfall and gentler slopes, these estimates should not be interpreted as though land degradation is not problematic but, rather, as an indication for remedy. Another relevant study conducted in the region is NEC (1997). This study was a soil survey on erosion hazard assessment in the northern parts of the region covering about 56% of the total land area. In the study, 4 zones and 23 weredas were identified as soil and water conservation implementation priority areas.Site-specific test plots and experiments in 1987 and 1988 at SCRP stations in the region show soil loss rates between 0.04 and 212 t/ha per year, which depend on the soil type, slope, vegetation and type of conservation structure (see Tables 5 and 6). Grass cover tremendously reduces soil loss, as runoff is significantly diminished, implying that more water finds its way into the soil. Land under cereal cultivation also had higher soil loss rates than land under legume cultivation (Table 5) and conservation structures significantly reduced soil loss, with fanya juu 7 terraces performing better than graded bunds, but not better than grass strips (Table 6).7. Fanya juu is a type of terrace adopted from Kenya. In Swahili, fanya means 'throw' while juu means 'up'. It thus means, 'throwing up the slope' as opposed to 'throwing down the slope' in the conventional soil bund construction. With fanya juu, less cultivable land is taken up by the structure and benching is faster than the conventional soil bund; however, fanya juu requires a higher amount of labour. Source: Grunder andHerweg (1991a, 1991b). Source: Grunder andHerweg (1991a, 1991b).Loss of fertility is manifested through using dung and crop residues as household fuels and animal feeds, low use of chemical fertilisers, declining fallow periods, soil and organic matter burning (guie), and soil erosion. Even though the farming system in the highlands of Amhara is mixed crop-livestock, nutrient flows between the two are predominantly one sided, with feeding of crop residues to livestock but little or no dung being returned to the soil. For example, in a household level socio-economic survey of the Amhara Region, even though almost all households (90%) fed crop residues to their livestock, only 40% used manure on their farmlands (UNECA 1996). This phenomenon is common in most of the highlands of Ethiopia, where the nutrient balance is highly negative. Deficits of more than 100 kg of nitrogen/ha per year have been reported for the highlands of Ethiopia, compared with only 15 kg of nitrogen/ha per year in Mali (de Wit et al. 1996, cited in Steinfeld et al. 1998). Furthermore, estimates of soil nutrient loss in Ethiopia show a net removal of 41 kg of nitrogen/ha of agricultural land between 1982 and 1984, and losses projected to reach 47 kg/ha by the year 2000 (Stoorvogel et al. 1993).Excess removal of forests is contributing to land degradation. For example, based on population growth (demand) and forest increment (supply), the region recorded a deficit of about 16.6 million cubic metres of wood for fuel and construction in 1996 alone (BoA 1997). About 20 thousand hectares of forest are harvested annually in the Amhara Region for fuelwood, logging and construction purposes. Since harvested trees are not replaced adequately by tree planting, soils are exposed to high intensity of rainfall and about 1.9 to 3.5 billion tonnes of fertile topsoil are washed away annually into rivers and lakes due to deforestation alone (BoA 1997). While there is growing interest by farmers in planting eucalyptus trees, there is a strong debate as to whether eucalyptus should be planted on farmlands or not. Eucalyptus is believed to have a negative soil-moisture impact on neighbouring fields and renders the particular field unsuitable for future crop production. Consequently, current planting is limited mainly to homestead and field boundaries. Reliable data on area coverage, number of trees and annual growth rate of eucalyptus in the region are not available (BoA 1997;AFAP 1999). However, it is argued by many that, existing estimates are conservative. Thus, there is need to update most of the information for proper and effective policy intervention. 88. The Woody Biomass Project is currently making an inventory of trees of different types in the Amhara Region.While a substantial number of research studies in the region (e.g. Yohannes Gebremichael 1989;Kassaye Goshu 1997;Ludi 1997;Azene Bekele 1998;Tamiru Sebsbe 1998;Zealbowesen Asfaw 1998) have examined the rate of land degradation, very few have looked at the impact on productivity. SCRP has monitored soil erosion and impact of many physical and biological soil and water conservation practices in the three research stations of the region (Maybar, Andit Tid and Anjeni). Thus, while ample biophysical data have been generated and are available, little quantitative analysis for policy action has been carried out.The net soil loss from erosion, as reviewed by Kappel (1996), is estimated to range from 20 to 100 t/ha per year, with an annual productivity loss on cropland of 0.1% to 2% of total production for the country (see Table 7). Commenting on the wide variation of the estimates, Kappel (1996) argued that the economic implications of soil erosion in Ethiopia are neither as catastrophic as commonly believed nor negligible. Sutcliffe (1993, cited in Kappel 1996) and Bojo andCassells (1994, cited in Kappel 1996) argued that soil fertility depletion may be a larger problem than erosion in the Ethiopian highlands.  Using 1994 prices, an annual yield loss of 1% of 1992 production was valued at about US$ 7.5 million (Kappel 1996). Belay Tegene (1992), at Gununo experimental station, an SCRP site, showed that there is a high positive correlation (r = 0.92) between topsoil depth and maize yield.As vegetation cover and quality of soil resources deteriorate, the quantity and quality of water resources also deteriorates. A report on the water supply scheme of rural communities in 6 zones revealed that no more than 2.3% of the people had access to safe drinking water (BoA 1997). Many perennial springs and streams had become seasonal. Monitoring the impact of deforestation, soil erosion and conservation efforts on streams and rivers in particular and bodies of water in general is virtually non-existent. The negative impact of sedimentation on irrigation projects in the absence of catchment treatment is evident at the Borkena and Angereb water resources development projects in South Wello and North Gonder zones, respectively.The Ethiopian Forestry Action Programme (MNREP 1994) and the AFAP (1999) also describe the land degradation problem in the country and region, respectively, its causes, impacts, and policy and institutional implications. However, these studies are based on land use in 1984 and, thus, the current situation is likely to be different, due to land-use dynamics.Nevertheless, a worsening scenario is envisaged as increasing amounts of forest, bush, grazing land and marshy areas are brought under intensive cultivation to meet the increase in food demand due to increasing population pressure. Already, degraded steep slopes are grazed continuously and are not allowed to regenerate. This phenomenon is observed especially in South Gonder, and North and South Wello zones, where wet and marshy (riparian) areas, which were used previously for grazing, are increasingly being drained for cropping.6.1 Natural factors 6.2 Socio-economic and institutional factors 6.3 Government policies, strategies and programmes One could argue that soil management represents the underlying problem of land degradation, with soil erosion (Figure 2) and nutrient depletion (Figure 3) being two of the most critical manifestations of unsustainable management, and deforestation and livestock management as key factors affecting these problems. In what follows, we discuss numerous factors that are believed to have contributed to land degradation in the highlands of Amhara. We categorise these causes and responses to the causes, into natural, socio-economic, institutional and policy factors. Of the natural factors causing land degradation, high intensity of rainfall and steep relief are the major ones. The impact of raindrops, with tremendous amounts of energy, on bare unprotected soil starts the process of erosion by water (Hudson 1981;Morgan 1986). 9 The impact of the raindrop causes a splash, which seals off infiltration as the soil pores get plugged with fine particles. Splash erosion grows into sheet erosion and then rill erosion. Eventually, the rills form big gullies, which accelerate the erosion process. The impact of the raindrop depends on the level of soil cover; plant cover is often lacking due to problems of deforestation, over-cultivation and over-grazing.9. The amount of kinetic energy available from the falling raindrop is measured to be 32 times that of the runoff.Variation in natural factors, such as rainfall intensity, is significant. For example, in the tropics, 40% of falling rain is said to be erosive, while in temperate areas only 5% is erosive, due to the difference in intensity and snowfall (Hudson 1981). According to the SCRP calculations, about 80% of the total soil loss is attributable to only 20% of the total rainfall each year (Herweg 1997).Loss of topsoil through runoff is increased by the absence of soil cover, steep slopes and intrinsic soil properties. The problem is particularly serious at the onset of the rains when ploughed fields are without any vegetation cover. Cropping of cereals, particularly teff, aggravates the situation as farmland requires repeated ploughing (heavy pulverisation) before sowing and it remains bare at the onset of the rains. However, teff remains the staple and cash crop for many Ethiopians, it is grown in a wide range of agro-ecologies and the stalks (crop residues) are good sources of feed for livestock. A similar situation exists for finger millet.The types of soil are also a contributing factor. For example, Regosols, which are common in the North Wello zone, are shallow, poor in nitrogen and phosphorus, and have poor water holding capacity. Vertisols and Leptosols are also common in the region. Vertisols, which are found mainly around Lake Tana, have poor drainage when wet, crack when dry and are poor in nitrogen and phosphorus. Leptosols are shallow in depth due to the underlying hard rock and calcareous material (CEDEP 1999).Topography is another factor contributing to degradation. The region is characterised by flat to gently sloping plateaus above deeply incised and dissected valleys, connected by steep and long slopes up to 0.5 km in length. It is on these steep long slopes below the escarpments that gullies originate and extend down to the plain fields. Generally, convex slopes are more susceptible to sheet and splash erosion than concave slopes (NEC 1997).High altitude and cold temperatures in certain areas (e.g. in Meket wereda, North Wello zone) do not favour the establishment of trees and so many people rely on farmyard manure for fuel. With cold temperatures too, manure in particular and organic matter in general takes a long time to break down and so the benefits of using manure on soils are not immediate, as farmers in that area revealed to us.Socio-economic and institutional factors affect land degradation through their impacts on farmers' decisions with respect to land use and land management practices, such as ploughing, fallow, use of manure and other sources of organic matter, fertiliser use, and adoption of soil and water conservation measures. A non-exhaustive list of factors influencing these decisions includes population pressure, poverty, land tenure relationships, the nature of local markets, local institutions and organisations, and farmers' perceptions and attitudes. Each of these is considered below, within the context of the highlands of Amhara.The population of the region is increasing at an alarming rate. In the next quarter of a century, the number of people in the region is expected to reach 32.7 million of whom nearly 26.8 million (82%) will be living in rural areas (CSA 1998b). Population growth can have and has had a deleterious effect on agricultural growth, resource management, and poverty.Land redistribution, which in recent years has been the only means of formally acquiring access to land to accommodate new households, has led to severe fragmentation of plots, a reduction of crop fields and insecurity. Reduction of cropland per capita and insecurity have led to reduction in activities such as fallowing, planting trees and investing in conservation structures, while a reduction in cropland per capita has caused cropping and grazing activities to be shifted to hillsides and ecologically fragile areas. For example, UNECA (1996) found that shortage of farmland was cited by 90% of households interviewed in the region as the main constraint to fallowing.Without adequate alternative sources of energy, population growth increases the demand for fuelwood, which in turn leads to the destruction of forests. It also contributes to the use of crop residues and dung for fuel rather than using them as sources of organic fertiliser to improve the already poor soils. UNECA (1996) revealed that about 94% of the households meet their principal energy demand through fuelwood and dung (Table 8). About 60% of the households did not use manure on their farmlands. When asked why, 73% of them said there was not enough to use as manure (UNECA 1996). The projected demand for energy in the region in 2000 is 20 million cubic metres of wood equivalent. Of this, 64% would be supplied in the form of fuelwood (BoA 1997). Therefore, unless alternative energy sources are exploited and become available, the rate of depletion of forest resources will continue and increase as population and consequent demand for energy increases.Shortage of land has its repercussions on livestock stocking rates. Most of the land that is fertile is reserved for crop production, while grazing of cattle and other livestock is limited to hydromorphic valley bottomlands and marginal deforested hillsides. Hillsides that are supposed to be closed off for regeneration are kept under intensive grazing until they are completely bare and then abandoned. This practice increases the amount of time required for natural regeneration, if regeneration occurs at all. One of the major reasons for keeping a large number of livestock, especially cattle, is to sustain oxen supply for draft power.Irrespective of size of land holding, most households strive to keep their own oxen. For a pair of oxen, it is practice to maintain an average of 12 cattle. Note that not all 12 are kept as a follower herd for replacement, as cattle (and livestock in general) are kept for other reasons. Markets for draft power, which could ease the need for farmers to keep their own oxen, are difficult to establish due to peak demand problems and concerns about treatment of the animals (so one usually has to hire the owner as well). Although the desire for keeping cattle for draft power is high, cattle (livestock) also represent a form of wealth and provide a source of income during drought.The crop-livestock farming system of the highlands shows the interdependence between crop production and animal husbandry. As an adaptation to the expansion of cropland and shortage of grazing land, hillside grazing is practised. Forests have come under severe encroachment not only for direct browsing and grazing, but also for cutting of trees for fuel and construction. Increasingly, hillsides with slopes of 30% or more are being overgrazed and are rarely allowed to regenerate.Population pressure can also have positive impacts on land improvement and soil management. By increasing the value of land relative to labour, population growth may induce farmers to make labour-intensive investments in land improvement and soil management, such as planting trees, constructing terraces, composting and mulching (Tiffen et al. 1994;Pender 1998). For example, before the directive to distribute wastelands to landless households for tree and fodder development became official in the region in 1999, since 1997, some communities in the Wello area had already been distributing wastelands to their landless households for tree-planting activities. Such initiatives are, however, constrained by insecure land tenure and absence of a land market.Poverty is very likely to contribute to land degradation for many reasons. When people lack access to alternative sources of livelihood, there is a tendency to exert more pressure on the few resources that are available to them. Bekele Shifereaw and Holden (1997) showed the intensified pressure on natural resources as a vicious cycle in which resource degradation and drought lead to reduced household assets, and reduced household assets in turn affect degradation in the Ethiopian highlands. Deforestation, and burning of dung and crop residues are increased by people's inability to afford, or lack of alternative fuel sources. Electricity and kerosene are expensive and in most cases not available. Even households with electricity supply avoid using it, except for lighting at night. For cooking, most households prefer the three-stone open fire, which is believed to be only 10% efficient in overall thermal energy production and use. Improved stoves, such as the improved biomass fuel-saving injera stove, which is believed to be 45-82% more efficient than the three-stone open fire, are not used since they are expensive to construct and, generally, not affordable by rural households.As with population pressure, however, there are also reasons to believe that poor people may be more likely to conserve their land. Although there is no evidence to support this in the region, poor farmers may have more incentive than wealthy ones to manage what they have carefully, since they may 'own' little else than the land they occupy. Furthermore, they may have few alternative investments available to them, so they may give high priority to investing in the land. Finally, the opportunity cost of poor farmers' labour time may be very low at certain times of the year, encouraging them to make labour-intensive investments in land improvement and soil management.Investment decisions on land are affected by tenure security (Place and Hazell 1993;Besley 1995;Gavian and Fafchamps 1996). Communal ownership is believed to lead to mismanagement, particularly, over-grazing and inefficient removal of wood for fuel (Shaxon 1981a, cited in Hudson 1981). The ability to transfer land can also provide incentive to invest in land management, as greater transferability increases the farmer's ability to appropriate the value of his or her investments. Land sales and leasing also allow land to be used by farmers who are able to earn the highest return from it, through mobility of scarce factors of production such as draft animals, farm implements, labour and management ability (Pender and Kerr 1999).The systems of land tenure that have developed in the Amhara Region have had varying and significant impacts on land management. From a historical perspective, it is believed that the Ethiopian smallholder is uncertain about his or her security of rights to the land. This has led to cultivation for short-term needs rather than long-term yield. Accordingly, no long-term investments are made that would maintain or boost yields, and this has resulted in ecological damage, which has become almost impossible to reverse.In Ethiopia, before 1974, the relationship between land users and owners was based on a feudal system. Land was owned by the Emperor, who granted tenure subject to feudal obligations. Tenure forms known as gult and rist were practised. 10 Communal ownership of land was generally denoted by the term rist and an individual was entitled to rist rights in a commune if he or she could prove some blood relation to the founding patriarch of the commune. A person who held rist rights was called ristegna. The usufruct rights conferred by rist were generally valid for a lifetime and extended over many generations (Dessalegn Rahmato 1984). However, since any 'legitimate' member's claims were always honoured, frequent redistribution was necessary to accommodate all claims. Often rist rights were challenged by others on the grounds of closer ties to an ancestor.10. In the Amhara Region, gult and rist existed simultaneously. These terms did not imply ownership, but referred to the rights and the duties of the different holders of rights to the same piece of land (Heinrich 1984, cited in Ludi 1997).As Hoben (1973;p.13) put it 'there were always more legitimate descendants of an ancestral first holder than there are [people] who hold fields in the land tract'. Therefore, the potential of being challenged was always there and so the incentive to improve ones rist holding was diminished.The gult was not distinctively different from rist, since it often applied to the same area of land.The difference between the two was in the nature of the tenure, as gult was linked with the legal and political status of the receiver in the grant of tenure. A gultegna was responsible for partial administration and justice at the local level in maintaining law and order and at the same time collecting taxes levied on land, which formed the greatest part of his income.Gultegnas could collect payment from ristegnas in the form of tributes, taxes or labour. Under the gult, as a rule, tax was 20% of the total crop production.Comparing Amhara with other regions of the country, BoA (1997), in its review of the pre-1975 land tenure system, argued that there was a difference in the perception of peasants towards the system. Peasants in Amhara enjoyed more hereditary land-use rights by virtue of their membership in cognatic descent groups or residential communities. It is believed that the communal system that was practised in the northern parts of the country (Gojam, Gonder, North Shewa, Wello and Tigray) was more flexible and accommodating in that the chances for social mobility were greater. Furthermore, landlessness and tenancy were minimised, and, most importantly, peasants were assured security of tenure (Hoben 1975, cited in Dessalegn Rahmato 1984). Empirical evidence is, however, lacking.Upon overthrow of the monarch, the military government (also known as the Derg) in its land reform proclamation of March 1975, declared land as the collective property of the people, redistributed land to farmers, and abolished the system of tenancy and elite rule. Under this new system, all customary and other pre-existing land rights were abolished and land was declared public property. Large holdings that existed under the gult system and under control of the church were confiscated. The maximum holding allowed per household was set at 10 ha, but in practice was usually less than 3 ha due to scarcity of land and population pressure (BoA 1997).Selling, buying, leasing and mortgaging land were legally forbidden. Hiring of labour was also forbidden to destabilise the feudal system. Local administration, known as the Peasant Association (PA, today's kebele administration) was created and charged with the responsibility of distributing and managing common resources, subject to equitable distribution and to accommodate new claimants. Redistribution of cultivated fields to meet the increasing demand by new households led to further fragmentation of farmland holdings and limited farmers' incentive to invest in the land. The PA set common grazing and browsing areas. If a farmer wanted to make use of trees, the PA executive committee had to approve the cutting of trees, even if the trees were on the farmer's homestead. This restriction and others discouraged investment in private tree-planting activities. Later, however, special areas were set aside for community tree-planting activities (woodlots), with seedlings and labour compensation provided by the government and food-for-work assisted programmes. Natural resource conservation activities such as terracing, pond construction and tree planting were planned at the top and handed down for implementation through mass mobilisation.11. In principle, females and males were entitled to farmland when they reached the ages of 18 and 21 years, respectively.The 1975 land reform proclamation also created state farms and producer co-operatives, to form the basis for development and food self-sufficiency. Therefore, most of the good quality and fertile land, including that with high irrigation potential, was set aside for co-operatives.Occasionally, individual farms were confiscated for this purpose.Today, based on the new 1995 constitution, land is the state's property and redistribution is the sole mechanism through which land transfer, to accommodate new claimants, is effected. The differences between the present and previous Derg land policy are that the present land policy allows rural households to hire labour to work on their fields, while land leasing, sharecropping and lending of land are again legal and widely practised. However, buying, selling, and mortgaging land are still prohibited. The last land redistribution in the region was declared and undertaken in February 1997. In that reallocation, as in previous ones, landless and resource poor farmers gained access to farmland, and in some areas (e.g. in parts of North Shewa zone) new landowners were issued some form of document, which stated the name, address, quality of land, and degree or nature of the land fertility. While some farmers felt this was a symbol of ownership, others did not think so and felt that it was only a form of proof to be utilised in case of disputes in the future, as most of the land redistributed had belonged to migrants (abandoned land) and previous Derg officials. When asked if their sense of ownership affected the manner in which they cultivated their land, they responded in the negative. They reasoned that the new landowners were poor and, thus, did not have the resources and ability to exploit the land any differently. Although they did not anticipate any future redistribution, some of the farmers felt that the document represented the completion of the process of 'ownership'. However, those without the document were not pushing for similar documents and had adopted a 'don't ask' perspective, since they felt an equal sense of ownership.In discussions in Meket wereda, as part of a field trip undertaken for this phase of the project, farmers expressed the view that buying and selling of land is 'bad' because of the false sense of security it brings from temporary relief through selling land to satisfy short-term problems. When asked about the unrestricted movement of resources that buying and selling brings, they think it is not an issue, since getting land is not difficult for migrants, even if non-residents are not entitled to 'own' land. Residents of Gubalafto wereda share similar views. They think buying and selling of land would lead to bad decision making. People, especially men, would sell their land and go elsewhere to squander the proceeds while their family members starve to death. Besides, they think that migration is not a good omen, as everybody wants to reside in their place of birth.The regional government has been looking to implement a land-use policy that will reduce, if not eliminate, the inefficiencies (e.g. low productivity and over grazing) surrounding current land use practices. The Regional Conservation Strategy (BoA 1997), as a basis for formulating a regional strategic land use plan, identifies the need for undertaking a regional survey of the major categories of existing land uses and users. Objectives, guiding principles, and strategies to be followed are also presented in the strategy document.The Regional Conservation Strategy document, under the rural land and natural resource tenure and access rights provision, includes the following objectives (BoA 1997):To provide security of tenure for land and natural resource users by clearly defining and strengthening land and other natural resource tenure rights and responsibilities, so as to support sustainable agricultural, pastoral, forestry and fisheries production and sustainable urban development.To undertake as a matter of urgency, studies, consultation and discussion into existing and potential mechanisms for the regulation and management of natural resources.To study the experience of other countries with similar socio-economic conditions with respect to the institutional structures, legal systems and any other interventions for the cost-effective administration of land tenure systems. As a basis for formulating regional strategic land use plans, to undertake a regional survey of the major categories of existing land users and uses: [for example] in smallholder agriculture; in communal lands of pastoralists; and among agropastoralists and shifting cultivators (pp. 16-17).To solve the land-shortage problem and promote afforestation, a land directive was issued in 1998 to distribute degraded communal lands to landless individuals and groups for private development of forest, fruit and fodder. Under this directive (BoA 1998b), recipients are issued a formal contract and certificate that specifies the land area, location (in terms of adjoining holdings), and percentage and type of current vegetation cover. Recipients also agree to develop the land according to set guidelines subject to approval of the kebele administration and agricultural office, usually over a 15-year period for forest and 10 years for fruit crops.Identifying degraded common lands and beneficiaries is the sole responsibility of the kebele administration.The Bureau of Agriculture, through its Landuse Planning and Regulatory Team, has prepared a draft land use policy that has been submitted to the regional council for endorsement. Major components of the draft (BoA 1999d) include provisions for: agricultural development to be based on the land use policy (e.g. set land care obligations for land users; undertake road, dam and other infrastructure development within land use and land care objectives etc.) long-term ownership security and use right (e.g. carry out land mapping and issue land certificates) settlement and resettlement (e.g. such programmes should be based on farmers' willingness and initiative) land transfer and consolidation/fragmentation (e.g. carry out land quality categories and encourage or advise farmers to consolidate their plots through exchanges) establishment of a land administration unit and legal entity to deal with land use studies and administer all land related issues rules, regulations and laws against land abuse formal and informal customary institutions (e.g. recognition of customary institutions by strengthening them to make positive contribution to proper land use) research on land use and impact monitoring (e.g. research on use of alternative household energy sources and organic fertilisers).Institutional and organisational development may have a major impact on land management. 13  The nature and evolution of local rules and norms (institutional development) and the organisations established to make decisions about, or to enforce such rules (organisational development) set the context and constraints within which land management decisions are made. For example, most of the people of Amhara are Orthodox Christian, and subject to the norms and rules of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Among the most important of these norms, from the standpoint of land management, is the large number of religious holidays during which manual labour is prohibited. This obviously affects the availability and cost of labour during the rest of the year and, hence, the ability of farmers to make labour-intensive investments in land improvement or to adopt labour-intensive practices such as mulching or composting and other agricultural activities in general.12. Following other social scientists, we define 'institutions' as 'complexes of norms and behaviours that persist over time by serving collectively valued purposes' and distinguish them from 'organisations', which are defined as 'structures of recognised and accepted roles' (Uphoff 1986). This definition differs from common use of the terms, which often confounds the two terms.13. Based on the definition of institutions given in the preceding footnote, institutional development includes market development as well as changes in land tenure relationships. In this subsection, we focus on other aspects of institutional development.Local rules also have important bearing on the management of common lands. In recent years, many kebeles and gots have established area enclosures, 14 where grazing is restricted to allow natural vegetation to recover, and community woodlots. Although leadership in establishing these areas has been provided by the Bureau of Agriculture and other organisations, decisions about whether to establish such areas and how to manage them are the responsibility of the local kebele administration. However, it seems that local communities do not have any sense of ownership of such common resources and are unclear about what their rights and responsibilities are with regard to management and use of such areas. For example, in one of the kebeles we visited in Tarma Ber wereda, only one got, of the four that comprise the kebele, had benefited from trees grown in the kebele's four woodlots; tree products had been used for house construction and repair for got flood victims in 1999.Perhaps in part because such confusion has limited the benefits farmers have received from the enclosures, as well as the near-term costs caused by loss of access to enclosed areas, some farmers do not favour the concept of enclosed areas. For example, common grazing areas and community woodlots in some kebeles in Meket wereda have been distributed for individual management and use following disagreements about collective management and use.14. A kebele, which is made up of several gots or villages, forms the basic administrative unit in the region.With regard to organisational development, Amhara Region is divided into 11 administrative zones (with Bahir Dar the capital forming a special zone), 15 105 weredas of which 7 are classified as urban, and 3051 kebeles, formerly known as PAs. The kebele administration plays a decisive role in terms of local governance. This role includes: identifying problems; designing areas of intervention and for community action; developing regulations related to resource use; identifying target groups for food aid, food for work, rehabilitation schemes and credit; regulating tax collection and credit repayments; ensuring security; and resolving other minor legal issues. The current administrative set-up is the result of a reorganisation that started in 1995 to reduce the number of weredas and kebeles. This reorganisation may have affected the ability of local governments to reach and implement agreements. Thus, research on the impacts of the reorganisation on local decision making could yield useful insights.15. The other 10 zones are Awi, East and West Gojam, North and South Gonder, North Shewa, North and South Wello, Oromia and Wag Hemra.Other important organisations at the local level include churches, service co-operatives, schools, informal credit groups, and various social and religious groups. The church plays an important role in the economic and social (and of course religious) life of the people. For example, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Evangelical Church (Mekane Yesus) and Baptist Mission Ethiopia have ongoing agricultural development projects in about 62 kebeles.The projects include integrated rural development, food security, and soil and water conservation (see Annex 3 for details). The roles of such and other organisations are discussed later under non-governmental programmes.In the region, different types of soil and water conservation measures (both biological and physical) are practised; however, site suitability of measures has not been assessed. Knowledge of farmers' perceptions and attitudes toward land degradation is an important first step to tackling the problem. Land degradation is not a new phenomenon in the region. It is often claimed that farmers do not fully understand the causes and consequences of land degradation. Nevertheless, farmers frequently undertake traditional methods of soil and water conservation such as simple diversion ditches across their fields to divert runoff and therefore prevent their land from becoming waterlogged.In a recent study conducted in South Wello, Zealbowesen Asfaw (1998) found that 93% of the farmers were aware of the problem of soil erosion, though their perception of the occurrence of soil erosion, based on observation, was low (see Table 9). This may be because most of the erosion had occurred much earlier. However, in a UNECA (1996) study of the region, 88% of the farmers interviewed had observed declining soil depth since they started farming.  In the UNECA (1996) study, farmers were asked to rank their perceptions on the causes of soil erosion. Thirty-one per cent perceived the steepness of the farmland as the major cause of soil erosion while equal percentages of farmers (both 22%) thought that improper cultivation methods and deforestation were the primary causes (Table 10). Zealbowesen Asfaw (1998) found that 66% of farmers thought that soil erosion was severe while 16% thought that soil erosion was not a problem. However, virtually all (98%) of the farmers highlighted the importance of soil conservation for their farming activities, as means of reducing the problem of soil erosion. They undertook soil conservation work during the dry season and maintained this work during the wet season; depending on the slope, mainly contour bunds (stone bunds) were constructed, but the extent of investment was not investigated by the study. In the UNECA (1996) study, however, about 30% of the households did nothing to combat erosion problems, while 40% undertook terracing, 24% planted trees and 10% built check dams to combat soil erosion. Concerning declining soil fertility, UNECA (1996) found that 12% and 24% of households thought that it was caused by erosion and intensive cultivation for many years, respectively, while 58% thought that it was caused by both erosion and intensive cultivation. Furthermore, while only 5% thought that their land was fertile, 44% and 51% thought that their land was moderately fertile and not fertile, respectively, compared with when they started farming.Concluding from the evidence presented in this section, it seems that most farmers are aware of land degradation and many are aware of their own management practices as a cause or possible response to the problem.Policies, strategies and programmes of government play a critical role in affecting farmers' decisions with respect to land management. They influence most of the factors discussed above in crucial ways, as well as having other direct effects on land management. We consider now the past and current policy strategies as they have been implemented in Amhara, and their possible impacts on land management. First, we consider the broad development strategy, and then specific policies and programmes implemented within those strategies relating to agricultural research, extension, inputs, credit, irrigation, marketing, infrastructure and farmers' organisations. In addition, we take a look at non-governmental organisation (NGO) involvement in the region.In The present federal government has developed the Agricultural Development Led Industrialisation (ADLI) strategy to improve the productivity of the agricultural sector, with the primary objective of transforming the economy in such a way that the relative contributions of agriculture, industry and services to economic growth would change significantly in favour of the latter two over time. With more than 90% of the population employed in farming and living in rural areas, there is debate on whether agricultural development will trigger urban and industrial development or, contrarily, urbanisation will trigger agricultural development.The agricultural development policies and strategies for the Amhara Region are based on the national strategy to follow a conservation-based and agricultural development led industrialisation in such a way that accounts for the region's resources and constraints. The major objectives of the five-year development plan, set up in 1996, include:Development of the economic and social sectors of the region in order to produce sufficient food and improve general employment opportunities for the fast growing population.Setting up a better economic management system to withstand droughts and other natural disasters.Laying the foundation for sustainable development in all areas of the region. Among others, the strategies of the plan in achieving the objectives include: promotion of agricultural development led industrialisation along with conservation of the natural resources intensification of agricultural production in high rainfall areas through higher use of inputs, credit and extension service increased agricultural production in drought-prone areas through: the promotion of traditional and small-scale irrigation; wider use of drought resistant seeds, fertiliser, credit and extension services; enhanced conservation practices of natural resources and reforestation efforts; and creation of income-generating activities.Though specific strategies are outlined for different sectors, it seems that the focus is on crop production, with limited attention to the economic potential of livestock and tree products. In addition, implementation and distribution of benefits have been constrained by a host of problems that were not adequately addressed. These include (i) untimely supply of inputs and insufficient quantities; (ii) shortage of farm credit; (iii) the present land tenure system that provides inadequate incentives for farmers to invest in their land; and (iv) inadequate capacity of research and extension systems to effectively generate and disseminate new and improved technologies (CEDEP 1999).For the 48 drought-prone, most degraded and chronically food-insecure weredas of the region, a spatial development approach has been adopted in the design of the Integrated Food Security Programme for 1998 to 2002 to benefit about 2.5 million people living in these weredas (IFSP 1998). The main purpose of the programme is to increase income and food availability of the rural population at the household level.Proposed to start in 1998, several activities were planned in all, or a subset of the areas involved, among others these include: livestock production and health (forage development, breeding, apiculture development) land use (formulation of land use guidelines, training etc.) soil and water conservation (construction of structures, training etc.) agroforestry (nurseries, training, promoting indigenous species etc.) forestry (nurseries, extension, monitoring and evaluation, promoting indigenous species).Table 11 shows the number of weredas and beneficiaries, i.e. the number of people affected frequently by food shortage. Areas affected severely are the Wag Hemra, North and South Wello and Oromia zones, as they include all their respective weredas. In discussions with some programme officials in June 1999, we learned that the programme actually started in 1999 with capacity building. Road construction is next and is expected to start in 2000. At the time, the major constraints were finance and capacity to monitor and evaluate projects.A thorough review of agricultural research (both national and regional) is given in the Regional Research Master Plan (CEDEP 1999). Until 1994, agricultural research in the region took place under a national umbrella and was guided by the Institute of Agricultural Research. Three research centres located at Sheno, Adet and Sirinka, one subcentre at Kobo, and a number of trial sites were set up in the region. The Sheno Research Center, which first started operation in 1968 as a testing site of the Holetta Research Center, focused on highland crops such as barley, wheat and faba bean. Adet Research Center was established in 1986 to cover development activities in the mid to high altitude agro-ecological zones (AEZs), while Sirinka Research Center, established in 1987, covered the tepid to cool moist, mid to high altitude AEZs. At the national level, the federal government had made a number of efforts to develop national agricultural research policies and guidelines. However, it was not until after the National Science and Technology Policy of 1993 identified agriculture and natural resources as priority sectors that the National Agricultural Research Policy and Strategy was adopted (October 1994), with the objective of improving the country's agricultural research capacity.A Research Extension Liaison Committee (RELC), established to enhance researchextension-farmer linkages, has been in operation at the regional and zonal levels for over 10 years. CEDEP (1999) concludes that the committee has not been successful because there has been lack of strong, well-co-ordinated and institutionalised research-extension-farmer linkages, as research is not demand driven. This is because farmers' participation in setting research and extension agendas, and in technology development, has been minimal. Furthermore, the system is not oriented to generate adequate and relevant technologies and to make them available to resource-poor farmers. Thus, although it has been over 10 years since the establishment of the research centres, research is still not well focused and prioritised and does not produce adequate results. In addition, there is inadequate transfer and utilisation of available technologies.In 1994, there was decentralisation and the three research centres located at Adet, Sheno and Sirinka, one subcentre at Kobo, and a number of trial sites were transferred to the regional government. In addition, three SCRP stations at Maybar, Andit Tid and Anjeni were decentralised in 1996, after 15 years of operation at the national level. A fourth research station is scheduled to start operation soon at Sekota, which represents the drier parts of the region. The three SCRP research stations have similar organisational set-ups, which are comprised of seven to eight research divisions and an administrative support unit. The research programmes cover crop science, animal science, soil and water management, agroforestry, agricultural machinery and implements, agricultural economics, and farming systems and research-extension linkages.Despite recognition by the regional government of its importance for making headway in enhancing technology-based agricultural development, until the Regional Research Master Plan was developed in 1999, the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) did not have its own agricultural research policies and strategies. It thus appears that the regional agriculture research system is constrained by lack of policies to generate and disseminate relevant and affordable technologies to smallholder farmers. CEDEP (1999) summarises the deficiencies of the regional agricultural research system as the: limited agro-ecological coverage lack of policy for production and dissemination of technology inadequate research organisation structure and management lack of agricultural research policy.Given the level of land degradation and its impact on productivity, the Regional Research Master Plan (RRMP) proposes that the research focus should be conservation based, which in turn needs to be watershed based. Consequently, highest priority is to be given to research on biological/vegetation and indigenous soil and water conservation practices. The next priority is research on physical soil and water conservation and water harvesting and moisture conservation practices, while low priority is given to research on socio-economic and soil and water conservation incentive systems, and erosion, runoff and modelling. On soil fertility and plant nutrition, the plan proposes fertiliser recommendations to be based on agro-ecology and soil tests vis-à-vis organic matter (manure etc.). On forestry, because of the lack of information on management and economics of forestry, it is suggested that the Gonder Fuelwood/Pole Projects have useful data on costs and benefits of growing plantations on both marginal land and croplands that should be exploited for research.Presently, a board leads the research system with a co-ordinating unit attached to the Bureau of Agriculture. According to the RRMP (CEDEP 1999), separation of the research centres from the federal body has negatively affected the operations of the research centres in the sense that it has reduced the opportunities for technical leadership, peer reviews, consultation and co-ordination of support, especially related to external sources. Furthermore, it has led to inadequacies in the documentation and information services.In an effort to combat degradation and rehabilitate resources, soil and water conservation and forestry activities have been ongoing and have progressed substantially, especially since 1992. For example, only 9000 ha of land was terraced in 1992/93 compared with 219,214 by 1999 (BoA 1991 Ethiopian calendar). These achievements have been made possible through community labour mobilisation and food-for-work programmes. It is estimated that 3.7 million people participated with 34.8 million man-days. Table 12 shows soil and water conservation efforts and other natural resource management practices undertaken in the region from 1992 to 1998. Soil and water conservation practices require a huge amount of labour. Thus, the rate of adoption by farmers has been poor. Physical soil and water conservation activities in the eastern and moisture-stressed areas of the region, compared with the western high rainfall areas, are better maintained and cared for by farmers due to the double advantage of improving soil moisture and soil conservation. In the past, the bulk of soil and water conservation activities were targeted to the eastern and northern parts of the region where erosion and degradation have severely reduced the agricultural potential. The western parts of the region, i.e. the relatively high agricultural potential areas, have not attracted attention. Some people have expressed concern that this could be a mistake, since today's degraded and low-potential areas were once fertile and high-potential areas. However, evidence from SCRP sites shows low (even negative) returns to soil and water conservation investments in higher-rainfall areas (Herweg 1993) because they reduce crop area, harbour pests and cause waterlogging. The majority of planned and implemented activities within the regional soil conservation programme are physical measures such as construction and maintenance of soil and stone bunds, which in aggregate are known as terracing (Lakew Desta 1998;CEDEP 1999). Construction and maintenance of check dams, waterways and cutoff drains are also undertaken, but these are less common, as they are more costly. In the high rainfall areas, proper alignment of terraces with respect to the flow of runoff is a challenge, as there is rarely any integration with drainage structures such as water-ways and cutoff drains. Based on research advice for stone-free and deeper soils in the high rainfall areas of the region, there is a need to shift from conventional soil bunds to fanya juu types of terrace (BoA 1998a). In the planning of soil and water conservation measures, there is progressively increasing support for fanya juu (BoA 1991 Ethiopian calendar). This can be seen by visits to one of the SCRP sites at Anjeni, where fanya juu types of terrace perform and stabilise soil better than conventional soil bunds. The evidence presented in Table 6, however, suggests that grass strips may be better than both soil bund and fanya juu terraces.Most of the soil and water conservation activities in the region are undertaken from the perspective of individuals and communities and not from a watershed perspective. The regional government is in the process of setting a directive to follow watershed approaches, with pilot schemes in four sites. Detailed surveys and project designs have been completed in two of the sites situated in Gubalafto and Sekota weredas in the North Wello and Wag Hemra zones, respectively ( BoA 1999b;BoA 1999f). The key challenge of the watershed approach is to be able to address problems of collective action, especially where multiple communities and stakeholders are involved.Soil conservation measures that are currently being promoted (e.g. soil bunds) have been emphasised to the neglect of indigenous practices and biological ones, and without consideration of the variability of soil, rainfall and slope conditions. There is untapped indigenous knowledge of farmers in areas of land resource management that offers a good base for enhancing conservation. While about 38 different types of indigenous practices in soil and water conservation have been identified at the national level, since 1996, 27 types of practices have been identified in the Amhara Region alone (Lakew Desta 1998). Further evaluation under on-farm conditions is suggested (see Annex 2 for a summary of the different types of indigenous soil and water conservation practices in the region and their respective effectiveness and constraints).In the forestry extension activities, the number of tree nurseries and seedlings produced is increasing; moreover, the seedling survival rate is also increasing and was reported to be 72% in 1999. In 1999, 2302 existing and 1005 new nurseries supplied 297 million seedlings, which were distributed to farmers (BoA 1991 Ethiopian calendar). About 30 of the existing nurseries are grass/legume multiplication centres with agroforestry practices. Improved seedling distribution to individuals, compared with communal plantings, may have contributed to the higher survival rates. There is more room for improvement, although seed shortage and lack of forestry research support are major constraints.In an effort to rehabilitate degraded areas, a directive was passed by the regional government to distribute wasteland on hillsides to individuals and groups for private tree planting and agroforestry. Such tree-planting activities started in January 1999. The plan was to distribute 14,871 ha in 1999. As of June 1999, 9600 ha (or 65% of the planned acreage) had been distributed, benefiting 47,000 individuals (BoA 1999e). The absence of immediate return from conservation and tree-planting activities, in view of the short-term planning horizon of poor farmers, is a major concern for suitable natural resource conservation. However, low opportunity costs of degraded hillside lands and scarcity of wood can lead to high returns from and strong interest in private tree planting in such areas, as has already been observed in parts of Tigray (Fitsum Hagos et al. 1999) and Amhara. Still, for the directive to be successful, the tenure security of farmers undertaking long-term investments has to be assured.Currently, trees are mostly planted in homesteads. On a field trip for this phase of the project, residents of Gubalafto wereda revealed that during the Derg regime, it was forbidden to plant trees on farmlands, since it interfered with the government's policy of land redistribution. Then, in addition to losing their trees, violators were fined 10 Ethiopian birr (EB; US$ 1 = EB 2.07 in 1990). Although it is not current policy, many farmers still believe that planting trees on farmland is banned by the government, especially planting of eucalyptus trees, which is believed to have a negative soil-moisture impact on neighbouring fields and also renders the particular field unsuitable for future crop production (Jagger and Pender 2000). While between 30 and 40 farmers in one of the kebeles planted eucalyptus on croplands in the past, no one plants currently, although some farmers expressed interest in planting. The view on tree planting is entirely different in one kebele of Dessie Zuria wereda, where farmers said they have experienced the negative impact of shading by eucalyptus. Furthermore, they asked 'what shall we eat if we plant trees?' It seems that the idea of food self-sufficiency at the household level has overshadowed the goal of increasing farm incomes. Perhaps the concern of farmers in Dessie Zuria arises because the kebele is in a more remote area where farmers cannot easily sell their tree products to buy food; from this kebele, it takes almost an hour and a half to reach the nearest urban market on foot.Individual vs. community management of natural resources also poses an interesting topic. People interviewed in Gubalafto and Tarma Ber weredas prefer community management (e.g. community woodlots and grazing areas), since their land resources are so small that reallocating them for individual management and use, would lead to very small plots and they would not know where to keep their animals during the day. This view suggests that communal resources encourage farmers to keep a large stock of animals, since most of the farmers expressed that they would be forced to reduce their herds if grazing areas were managed privately, as they could not afford to pay for grazing. Conversely, farmers in Meket wereda preferred individual management and use of resources, especially since they did not have any sense of ownership of communal resources, such as woodlots, because they were hardly allowed to use them. In addition, they felt that even those who were not involved in managing the resources shared in the rare benefits. Common grazing land and woodlots have consequently been distributed in some kebeles for individual management and use.The national and regional policies on natural resources and the environment have objectives to promote improved land husbandry practices and maintain land productivity for sustainable development of agriculture in general, and biomass and productivity in particular. The strategy for natural resource conservation and sustainable land management, among others, focuses on the following:securing land ownership preparing and implementing rural land use policy applying population control policy through an effective rural family planning scheme promoting appropriate water-harvesting technologies for drought-prone areas reducing the cow dung and crop residue share that goes to household energy consumption by promoting fuelwood plantation and conservation of biomass energy resources following watershed-based conservation approaches promoting individual tree plantation promoting changes in livestock production management that will limit the need for free grazing.The draft land use policy, for soil and water conservation purposes, proposes that any land with a slope of 55% or more should not be used for cropping. It also emphasises the needs for reducing livestock stocking rates and improving feed sources. Unfortunately, detailed strategies to achieve the above are not outlined clearly.Nearly three decades ago when the soil conservation programme was started, as a response to the drought episode of 1974, it mobilised affected farmers to construct physical soil and water conservation structures through food-for-work programmes. A lot of emphasis then was paid to level structures as a means of water harvesting. Recently, the emphasis has shifted to the development of appropriate mechanical techniques. Without any socio-economic and socio-cultural assessments, effort and resources were channelled to watershed and subwatershed planning and implementation approaches that emphasised technical solutions and top-down mobilisation campaigns, heavily supported by food-for-work programmes. Through these programmes, large areas of watershed and sub-watershed systems (between 30,000 and 40,000 ha) were involved. After further reevaluation, the watershed and sub-watershed level approaches were abandoned, and a minimum planning scheme, later developed into the Local Level Participatory Planning Approach (LLPPA), was established.LLPPA is a planning approach where the natural and physical problems are assessed and socio-economic problems prioritised. Between 1993 and 1995, over 400 LLPPAs were prepared in the region. Unfortunately, due to the merging of the two bureaus (BoA and Bureau of Natural Resources Conservation and Environmental Protection) in late 1995 and consequent reorganisation of staff and their responsibilities, implementation of the LLPPAs has been stymied severely.In addition to LLPPA, several other methodological tools have been and are being tried in the region at various places. For example, Participatory Agricultural Demonstration Extension and Training Systems (PADETES), another methodological tool, is an approach where soil and water conservation and forestry activities are considered as part of extension packages that are used by Sasakawa-Global 2000(SG-2000). There are a number of NGOs operating in the region and using different participatory methodologies. For example, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) encourages Community Empowerment Programmes (CEPs) and gives a lot of attention to traditional institutions and neglects externally established institutions. The Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA) endorses participatory rural appraisal (PRA), which is a good approach for quick problem identification, analysis and planning, but lacks implementation approaches; however, it is appropriate for participatory planning. Another approach is the participatory land use planning and implementation (PLUPI), which is currently used in Meket wereda (North Wello) by SOS-Sahel. Based on thesis research in the dry weina dega agro-ecology of North Shewa zone, Azene Bekele (1998) has developed a participatory agroforestry approach (PAA); further research is needed to determine its suitability for other agro-ecologies. Generally, however, it seems that there are a lot of methodological tools to choose from. The positive thing about these tools is that they are meant to be participatory and, therefore, involve farmers in development, planning and implementation of technologies in soil and water conservation, forestry, land use etc. However, the extent of farmers' participation and the impact of these approaches on land management are not apparent. Thus, in addition to investigating the impact on land management, research is needed to assess the methodologies to establish, individually or jointly, their suitability for the different agro-ecologies to enhance sustainable land management.Agricultural extension is the process whereby ideas, techniques and materials are communicated to the farming community, and the problems, experiences, needs and priorities of the latter are communicated back to researchers and policy makers. This feedback is a critical missing link in the farmer-extension-research system and cannot be overemphasised. The capability to learn from farmers and to transfer appropriate technologies to users is a critical factor in the development of agriculture.Agricultural extension has a long history in Ethiopia and in the Amhara Region. In 1971, fertiliser trials commenced, complemented by small supervised credit schemes. Concerning this, the Comprehensive Package Programme (CPP) was introduced with the idea of removing selected barriers to production and to promote agricultural development by concentrating inputs and activities in geographically limited areas. Since this technique required a large work force to implement, it was difficult to implement it all over the country. Accordingly, the Minimum Package Programme (MPP) was initiated in 1976 and the Extension and Implementation Development (EIPD) was established under the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), with the aim of increasing peasant production by implementing these MPPs. The idea of MPP is that the farmer is given an integrated support service, which includes extension advice, fertiliser, improved seeds, farm credits, better tools and implements, and improved storage conditions. However, the programme did not benefit farmers located further from all-weather roads. In addition, it focused only on crop improvement to the neglect of the livestock subsector, as the livestock programme lacked appropriate technologies and support facilities.Peasant Agricultural Development succeeded the MPPs and was implemented in surplusproducing areas. This development strategy, which is based on a modified training and visit extension system, recommended by a team of experts in 1983, was first launched as a pilot programme. It was fully implemented in the country in 1989. The effectiveness of the system was criticised because of the large number of farmers to be served by a development agent (with about 1 or 2 development agents to 300 farmers), the short duration of each visit and lack of transport facilities. In addition, the professional competence of the agents was low. This is because the time allocated to train development agents and other extension personnel was often short, too general and had involved little or no practical training on how to approach farmers.A key issue seems to be whether extension should follow an intensive strategy in a few areas or extensive strategy in many areas. Given the limited resources, the criticisms of the extensive approach are predictable, but the question is how can the system reach a large number of farmers without limiting support to each farmer?To alleviate the shortcomings of the previous systems and programmes, the ANRS launched the Participatory Agricultural Demonstration Extension and Training System (PADETES) in 1997. This system is an integrated approach to crop, livestock, natural resources (e.g. agroforestry, soil and water conservation, and forestry) and post harvest technology.PADETES is supposed to be participatory, compared with previous approaches in the sense that demonstrations are carried out on farmers' farms, which are managed by the farmers themselves. The system embraces poor smallholders, has a credit component, involves landless people and rural women, and is meant to fit the complex farming system. However, with the heavy emphasis on fertilisers, it does not seem well suited to drought prone areas unless accompanied by irrigation schemes.The aim of PADETES is to increase food crop and livestock production through an aggressive agricultural extension campaign programme. Farmers who participate in the system receive technical training and the necessary inputs for at least 2 years. Although there is no anticipated end date, it is expected that most farmers will graduate from the system within 2 years and be able to replicate the programme by themselves. Although the programme is an improvement over previous ones, it still has problems. Extension workers have to upgrade their scientific knowledge periodically and have to be able to offer better and current information. The regional and zonal experts are themselves not well equipped to offer technical backstopping to the wereda experts. In addition, facilities and materials, such as improved seeds and seedlings with acceptable quality, are not always available. Demonstrations of full packages attract many farmers, but it has been difficult to satisfy the demand. Despite much effort to incorporate system and participatory approach, the top-down technology development (research) and transfer (extension) paradigm is still in operation, and is believed to have resulted in poor institutional performance of both research and extension services (CEDEP 1999).Research on the impact of the new system would yield useful insights to several questions raised in this characterisation phase of the project. Some of the questions include: How well adapted to drought-prone areas is the approach? How much learning from farmers takes place? How well integrated are conservation and productivity enhancements? How much emphasis is placed on profitable approaches, including adoption of new products? How well are problems and potential of livestock and tree products incorporated?The nature and development of markets for factors of production (e.g. land, labour, draft animals and credit), inputs and outputs can play a major role in determining patterns of land use and land management. Where markets are well developed and competitive, farmers can be expected to respond largely to the profitability of alternative land uses and management options; the outcomes are likely to be relatively efficient, though not necessarily equitable or resource conserving. Where some markets are poorly developed or missing, however, farmers' production decisions cannot be separated from their consumption preferences and endowments (Singh et al. 1986;de Janvry et al. 1991). For example, where credit is unavailable, poorer farmers may not be able to use purchased fertiliser although it may be highly profitable to do so. Where hired labour is a poor substitute for family labour and labour markets are undeveloped, households with more family labour available relative to land will be more likely to adopt labour-intensive practices or make labour-intensive land improvements.Where high transportation costs cause households to produce cereals for subsistence purposes, farmers' response to changing cereal prices at the national level may be negligible.The low density of roads in the region causes serious transportation constraints, which limit commercial production of crops and, therefore, the potential for using purchased inputs (fertiliser and seeds) and credit for the majority of farmers, who depend on traditional means of transportation.Use of low-yielding technologies is one of the factors contributing to low productivity of the agricultural sector. Traditional farming systems are not only low yielding, but they also enhance the mining of major plant nutrients because of lack of replenishment of soil nutrients. At the national level, a new extension system, which is a technology package approach with credit for agricultural inputs, is in effect. The ANRS is one of the regions widely implementing this system with slight modifications. In this system, agricultural inputs such as fertiliser, improved seeds, chemicals and improved livestock are distributed to farmers. The bulk of the inputs are distributed on credit, where inputs are provided in kind to minimise the risk of loan diversion for other purposes. Farmers repay their loans in cash.Development agents assessed the input demand of the farmers based on the number of farmers in the extension programme, anticipated area of cultivation to improved seeds and recommended application rates. The development agents forward the demand information to the wereda agricultural office. After compilation, the wereda agricultural office will submit it to the wereda Input Co-ordination Committee (ICC) 16 and from there, it is sent to the zonal agricultural office. The zonal office approves and forwards it to the Bureau of Agriculture (BoA) through the zonal ICC. The Bureau compiles the respective zonal demands and then sends it to the regional council for credit approval through micro-financial institutions, such as the Amhara Credit and Savings Institution (ACSI) and service co-operatives. The allocation of the approved credit follows the above procedure in reverse order.16. ICC is a government body organised to assess the demand for inputs, screen farmers for credit and then follow up credit repayments.There are two private (Ambassel and Ethiopian Amalgamated (EAL)) and one public (Agricultural Input Supply Enterprise; AISE) sector agencies supplying fertilisers in the region.During the 1998-99 cropping season, Ambassel, AISE and EAL had market shares of 77%, 15% and 6%, respectively. Due to capacity constraints, each supplier operates in only a few zones. In some zones, only one supplier operates. As there is hardly any competition among the suppliers, some remote areas do not get fertilisers on time and farmers do not fully benefit from the credit scheme. Whenever there is more than one supplier, rather than undertaking promotional activities, non-price competition and other means to attract customers are used. For example, EAL and AISE alleged that local authorities intervene in the market in favour of Ambassel by coercing farmers to purchase their fertiliser from Ambassel.Between 1988 and 1991, fertiliser consumption in Amhara Region averaged 20-23 thousand tonnes (Larsen et al. 1996). However, since the new extension system began in 1997, the consumption rate of fertiliser has tended to increase, despite a decrease in consumption rate in the 1997/98 cropping year due to supply constraints and unfavourable rainfall conditions (Table 13). Although there is an increasing trend in the absolute amount of fertiliser used, the overall consumption per hectare in the region is still low and only about 25-35% of smallholder farmers are using fertiliser (Larsen et al. 1996). Table 14 shows average consumption of fertiliser per hectare of land under cereal cultivation and total cultivated land. This table needs to be interpreted with caution, since fertiliser is recommended for improved seed varieties; however, most of the cultivated land is under traditional crop varieties. Therefore, the application rates (kg/ha) for improved seeds are higher than shown. Consumption of fertiliser is constrained by untimely supply, absence of supply in remote areas, lack of competitor suppliers and distributors, unequal access to credit by farmers, packaging problems, crop failure, low levels of infrastructure, high and increasing fertiliser prices, and low farm prices. For example, 22%, 20%, and 40% of households interviewed in a recent survey in the region cited adequacy, availability and high prices, respectively, as the major constraints to using fertiliser (UNECA 1996). With respect to packaging, the fertiliser is packed in 50 kg sacks only, which is quite heavy for farmers who live in inaccessible and remote areas and do not have pack animals. The 50 kg package is also too much for farmers with small land holdings and limited demand for fertiliser, especially those in the north-eastern part of the region. In general, fertiliser marketing and distribution within the region is characterised by delays, shortages and high prices (USAID 1995).Improved seed is transported and distributed by agricultural offices at various levels. There is no private seed distributor in the region. At the national level, the seed sources are Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE), which is state owned, and Pioneer Seed Company, which is privately owned. There are also a government seed multiplication centre and SIDA support programme that supply seeds. Farmers themselves also save a portion of their harvest for seed. To narrow the gap between demand and supply, agricultural offices multiply seeds on a contract basis on farmers' fields. This programme is financed by the World Bank and co-ordinated by the national seed agency. In addition, the SIDA support programme produces seed in East Gojam and South Wello zones. Wheat, maize and teff are the dominant crops for which improved seeds are used. In general, the demand for and use of improved seeds is increasing rapidly (Table 15). ANRS is third among regions of Ethiopia in the volume of improved seed consumption. Improved seed use per hectare of cultivated land is low, but it increased by about 400% between the 1994/95 and 1998/99 cropping seasons (Table 15). Lack of availability and high and rising prices have contributed to the low levels of improved seed utilisation. For example, in a survey of households in the region, 67% and 18% cited limited availability and high prices, respectively, as major constraints to using improved seeds (UNECA 1996). However, use of improved seeds is increasing rapidly (Table 15), suggesting that availability and/or lack of awareness may have been constraints before. It seems that market liberalisation and removal of subsidies are having positive impacts. Benefits may have been constrained by poor infrastructure, lack of bargaining power of farmers and credit institutions demanding that farmers settle their debts immediately following harvest when farm prices are at their lowest. 17 Grain merchants take advantage of the latter by buying at very low farm-gate prices and then selling grain at very high prices in the cities, and even back to the farmers during the lean season. One has to be careful of the implications here since having more grain merchants (and hence more competition) may be a solution, it is not always the lesson drawn from this. 17. Post-harvest repayment of credit is a problem associated with most agricultural loans.Extension advice through field visits, demonstrations and discussions alone are not sufficient for the farmer to adopt new and improved technologies. Farmers in the region face a multitude of problems. Of these, the major ones include lack of capital and purchasing power due to chronic crop failure, especially in the Wello area. The lack of credit reduces farmers' ability to finance purchase of fertiliser and other productive inputs. Currently, to mitigate this and other constraints, the regional government is providing both regular and revolving credit to farmers involved in the extension programme. 18 Occasionally, however, credit is directed to farmers who are not participating in the extension programme. The revolving credit is given usually for 1 year for livestock activities such as improved dairy, sheep and poultry production, and for coffee cultivation. Its main purpose is to diversify the rural economy to enable farmers to generate additional income and be able to cope better in times of drought and crop failure.18. Regular credit is money borrowed from the bank by the regional government on behalf of farmers and on a short-term basis for agricultural input (e.g. seeds, fertiliser and chemicals) purchases and is handled by the Amhara Credit and Savings Institution (ACSI) and service co-operatives. The regional government thus provides the collateral that the farmers cannot otherwise provide. Revolving credit is money allocated from the regional government budget and obtained from NGOs for long-term loan purposes.Credit provided by the government is managed by the Amhara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI), service co-operatives, and agricultural offices at various levels. The credit is extended to the farmers in-kind via a coupon system. Depending on the type of enterprises to be assisted financially, credit is given to the farmers on a group or individual basis without physical collateral. Peer social pressure is used as a collateral substitute, as the group is responsible for any member that defaults. Although credit is obtained on a voluntary basis and the farmers themselves form the groups, there is intensive screening of members by the kebele administration. Depending on the capacity of individual farmers, farmers receive credit with a down payment of 0-25% of the total cost of inputs.Since the commencement of the new extension system, the amount of credit delivered to the farmers has been increasing annually. The major proportion of the loan, which is more than 90% of the total disbursed, is allocated for fertiliser. The loan recovery rate has been encouraging and, on average, it is greater than 95% (Table 16). Although the recovery rate is high, a substantial share of loans is not repaid on the due date. For example, during 1997/98 and 1998/99 cropping years, over EB 5 and 13 million (US$ 1 = EB 7.12 in 1998), respectively, were not paid on the due date. The interest rates charged are 12.5% for credit (inputs) distributed by ACSI and service co-operatives and 10% for those distributed by the agricultural offices using revolving funds. The interest rate that the bank extended to the government is 8%. The difference of 4.5% is subsidised to cover administrative and operating expenses. For example, branches and sub-branches are provided rent-free offices (Hailu Wondafrash et al. 1998). In addition to managing credit obtained by the government for farmers, ACSI provides its own credit and saving services for people in both rural and urban areas at an interest rate of 12.5% for credit and 6.1% for savings. In 1998, ACSI was operating in all zones and 78 weredas (Hailu Wondafrash et al. 1998). Annex I shows financial service operators in the region, their capacity, and constraints. Most banks operate in a few urban areas only with limited patronage because of their stringent collateral requirements, risk avoidance and lack of experience with rural development.The Bureau of Trade and Industry (BOTI) and the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) are jointly engaged in a micro-enterprise development lending programme, which has 11,186 members in 21 market towns in the region and has so far distributed EB 26.9 million (US$ 1 = EB 7.12 in 1998) (Hailu Wondafrash et al. 1998). 19 Although some government bureaus and offices are engaged in microcredit services, they are of the view that it is outside their mandate. For example, BoA is seeking to scale down its involvement in credit administration and has transferred its inputs and credit programme to ACSI and service co-operatives and is only handling non-crop farming extension packages in connection with the revolving credit for long-term projects (Hailu Wondafrash et al. 1998). Besides ACSI and agricultural service cooperatives, women's associations have the potential to help breach the gap between the demand for, and supply of rural credit. Given the limited membership in agricultural cooperatives, women's associations can provide credit to women for both on-farm (draft oxen, fertiliser and seeds) and off-farm (petty trading and handicrafts) production activities. With regards to credit utilisation and repayment, it is noted that women clients of ACSI have demonstrated better performance compared with their male counterparts. The regional administration is currently preparing a legal frame-work for women's associations that will soon be operative when its capacity has been built to a satisfactory level.19. Even though BOTI, DBE, BoA and service co-operatives are engaged in microcredit services, ACSI is the only formal microcredit institution in the region.The quantity of grain traded in the market is extremely difficult to estimate and varies considerably from season to season depending on the production output in different areas.Comparing production level in surplus-producing areas with food requirements, it is likely that only 25-30% of the total grain produced in the region is traded (Larsen et al. 1996). This reflects a high level of subsistence agriculture in the region and/or that the grain market is poorly developed. The former suggests that farmers are not fully oriented to modern farming methods and inputs. However, even when farmers produce surpluses for the market, the transactions costs for participating in the market are too high. Evidence on the share of limited market participation due to low marketable surplus and market access constraints in the region is not clear. For example, Mesfin Wolde-Mariam (1991) showed that 96% of farm households interviewed in South Wello and North Shewa zones said they produce primarily for their own consumption, while the remaining 4% produced primarily for the market. However, farmers generally paid more for farm products than they received for the same items that they sold immediately following harvest. For example they paid 17-75% more than they received for selling grain (teff, barley, sorghum and maize) and 13-25% more for livestock. The extent to which this unfavourable trade is a cause of subsistence agriculture is unclear. Nevertheless, it seems that a combination of subsistence agriculture and limited access to credit, input and produce markets results in low use of fertiliser and other high-yielding and land-improving technologies. Trade in grain seems to be highly affected by the prices, which are greatly influenced by the prevailing prices in the Addis Ababa grain market. Unexpected quantities demanded as a result of interventions by government and aid organisations also cause fluctuations in grain demand and prices in the region. Drought announcements, signalling shortages due to the underlying weather conditions, have also contributed to substantial price fluctuations as farmers hold back their stock and are reluctant to sell (Larsen et al. 1996).Livestock markets, compared with grain markets, are relatively more developed in the region, and particularly so for small ruminants as farmers frequently sell them to purchase household consumer goods and farm inputs, especially at the beginning of the cropping season. However, due to the combination of the free-grazing system and poorly functioning livestock markets especially in remote areas, livestock are kept beyond their optimum productive levels (in terms of producing milk, meat and draft power) where there is no value added from feeding and grazing. The result is overstocking and, consequently, overgrazing.Smallholder irrigation schemes allow higher cropping intensity, reduce crop failure rates, and increase level of profits. They also provide increased sources of income and food security during dry seasons. With gravity flow, pump and open furrow technology, large areas of rainfed lands could be converted to small-scale irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa (Haddad 1997).Irrigated agriculture can play an important role in areas ranging from arid to subhumid, by guaranteeing one or two cropping season during the rains and, possibly, introducing another in the dry season. The region is endowed with large river basins of the Abay (the Blue Nile), Tekeze, Awash and Afar. The total annual discharge is estimated at 35 billion cubic metres, of which less than 2% is utilised for irrigation. The irrigation potential of the Abay and Tekeze river basins is estimated at 195,440 ha (BoA 1997). Table 17 shows a breakdown of largescale irrigation potential in the region. Irrigation data are scant, as most of the irrigation schemes are traditional small-scale systems involving streams and rainfall runoff. Presently, the total area under irrigation is about 69,433 ha, which is about 14% of the region's potential (considering potential for small-scale as well as large-scale irrigation) (BoA 1999a). The majority of this constitutes traditional small-scale irrigation practices. All irrigation currently being practised is surface irrigation, notably, flooding. These methods result in high loss of water and possible health risks such as an increased incidence of malaria. The average yield of irrigated crops is estimated at only 1.4 times that of rainfed cultivated crops, suggesting potential for improvement. Major crops under irrigation are maize, sorghum and vegetables.Established in 1995, the Commission for Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Rehabilitation in Amhara (CoSAERAR) is mandated for irrigation development in the region.The main objective of the commission is promotion and development of smallscale irrigated agriculture to improve food production in more than 40 moisture stressed weredas of the region that are susceptible to drought. By 1998, the commission had completed 24 irrigation water development projects consisting of river diversions, earth dams and pumps. The total command area and beneficiaries of these projects are estimated at 3647 ha and 10,270 households, respectively (CoSAERAR 1999). Since then, there has been a progressive increase in area planned to be irrigated. Feasibility studies of the Kobo-Girana Valley Development Project in the North Wello zone indicate that four reservoirs, two groundwater wells and two diversion weir projects have been identified to irrigate a total area of 10,500 ha (CoSAERAR 1997). When CoSAERAR was established, an ambitious plan was set to create 540 small-scale irrigation schemes (mostly earth dams) in order to irrigate 62,100 ha over a 10-year period; however, this target has subsequently been revised downwards.Siltation is a common and frequently occurring problem that affects dams. This is evident at Borkena and Angereb of South Wello and North Gonder, respectively. Siltation and the limited experience in dam construction and irrigation water management have resulted in some failures. This has also been noticed in the Tigray Region (Fitsum Hagos et al. 1999). The absence of catchment treatment before construction is one of the major reasons for the silting up of dams. After completing the construction of a dam, CoSAERAR hands it over to the community (kebele administration) for management, with advice from BoA. Perhaps joint supervision and management from the outset may reduce the incidence of siltation.With increased yields from irrigation, come problems associated with marketing (storage and transportation), as farmers have no improved storage facilities and often face poor market access. High transport cost and poor market outlets resulting in low farm prices may discourage farmers from practising irrigation, or from adopting higher-value crops and more intensive practices.Livestock production is a major component of the economy of the region. Its contribution to agricultural output in value terms is estimated at 20-30% (CEDEP 1999). In the mixed croplivestock farming system, animals provide food, fibre, finance, employment, draft power, 20 manure and means of transport. They also act as a major source of income and security for most households. As in other parts of the country, livestock ownership determines status and prestige in the society.20. Oxen provide over 95% of the power required.The population of livestock by type in 1995/96 is shown in Table 18, implying a stocking rate of 0.7 tropical livestock units (TLU)/ha of total land area. Compared with other regions, Amhara stands first in the number of goats, second in cattle, sheep, asses, horses and poultry, and fifth in camels (CSA 1998a). Cattle are the most important types of livestock in terms of income, followed by sheep and goats. In a farm survey conducted in the late 1980s in the Gojam area, even though sheep and goats represented less than 10% of the farm capital invested in livestock, they accounted for about 40% of the cash income (CEDEP 1999). Five sheep breeds/strains 21 are found mainly in the highland zones of 2500-3400 m.a.s.l. Among these, the Menz breed is the most suitable to produce wool for the carpet industry. Currently, there are two breeding ranches in Debre Birhan and Amed Guya (North Shewa). There is a plan to establish one more in Gubalafto wereda to improve the Tucur breed (IFSP 1998). Constraints to increased sheep production include: feed shortage; absence of an organised marketing structure; high incidence of disease; lack of data on sheep productivity (especially of local breeds); keeping of large flocks for social prestige; and lack of improved breeds or training in improved management techniques (IFSP 1998).21. The breeds/strains are Menz, Tucur, Simien, Washera and Horro.Next to coffee, skins and hides are second in the nation's foreign exchange earnings (Zewdu 1999, cited in CEDEP 1999). The Amhara Region produces 38,580 hides and 4.7 million skins annually (BoA 1991 Ethiopian calendar). Livestock in the region provide about 16.4 million tonnes of manure annually, equivalent to 114 thousand tonnes of nitrogen, which is being used primarily for fuel rather than manure (CEDEP 1999).In addition to its livestock resource, Ethiopia has the largest bee population in Africa, which is estimated at more than 5 million colonies. This is attributable to the plant diversity and climatic conditions. In 1994/95, there were about 611 thousand traditional, intermediate and improved beehives (CSA 1995). Annual honey and beeswax production are estimated at about 3000 and 300 t, respectively (CEDEP 1999). Unfortunately, apiculture has been on the decline. The total number of beehives declined by 9% from about 691,400 in 1997/98 to 623,000 in 1998/99 (CSA 1998a;CSA 1999). This may be due to deforestation and the elimination of suitable trees for maintaining high quality beehives (CEDEP 1999).The major livestock constraint in the region and the nation in general is feed shortage. The current stock of animals is undernourished, consequently animals show poor growth, low body weights, poor fertility and high mortality rates due to the prevalence of diseases; feed shortages also limit the potential for adopting improved varieties. Feed deficiency in the region ranges from 28% to 40% (BoA 1991 Ethiopian calendar). For the region's 10.6 million TLUs, it is estimated that 22.4 million tonnes of feed is needed for maintenance; however, the supply of dry matter from grazing lands and crop residues can satisfy only 15.8 million tonnes. Feed shortage severely affects the performance of draft animals at the time that they are needed for land preparation and cultivation (BoA 1991 Ethiopian calendar; CEDEP 1999).The major feed sources are traditional communal grazing on natural pastures, crop residues, fallow land and stubble. These sources are generally of poor productivity and quality. They are reportedly low in digestible energy and protein content and do not meet the nutrient requirement for maintenance. The causes of feed shortage are a decrease in grazing land due to expansion of cropland and poor management of grazing land. Grazing is concentrated on slopes and marginal areas where excessive vegetation removal occurs and exposes the soil to erosion. Free grazing on cultivated land after harvest and on fallow land result in soil compaction, low moisture retention, high runoff and, consequently, reductions in crop yields. Feed scarcity is most critical in North Wello zone, where 90% of the feed is derived from crop residues.The incidence of various types of animal diseases is high in the region and the development of veterinary services is poor. Source: BoPED (1997BoPED ( -98, 1999b)).The livestock development strategy of the region's five-year development plan focuses mainly on solving three inter-linked problems of animal husbandry: feed constraints, health constraints and genetic improvement. The strategy is to:enhance the quality and quantity of feed by allocation of sites for grazing, provision of improved animal feed, and improvement of extension services to farmers increase livestock health service coverage to 62% and improve vaccination sources improve productivity of local cows by artificial insemination but also to preserve and improve indigenous breeds.The Regional Research Master Plan (RRMP) on the livestock subsector suggested that a diagnostic survey should be undertaken on the productivity and quality of feed resources, soil and vegetation conditions, number and kinds of animal grazing systems, carrying capacities and problems of feed sources (CEDEP 1999).Lack of enough roads and the poor state of roads in the region constitute major constraints to development. The density of roads is low, standing at 35 km/1000 km 2 area and 0.37 km/1000 population (BoPED 1999b). Although the road network in Ethiopia is less developed than in other African countries (Ahmed and Donovan 1992), that of the Amhara Region is more developed than that in the Tigray (12.9 km/1000 km 2 ) and the Oromia (24 km/1000 km 2 ) regions. Two highways, one each in the east and west, cross the region from north to south and one links the west and east between the Gonder and Wello zones. Feeder roads are few and most of the rural population depends on traditional means of transport, such as pack animals and animal-drawn carts. However, as Table 20 shows, there was a marked improvement in road development and maintenance between 1993 and 1998. For example, routine maintenance of roads increased more than 10 times from 13.8 to 150 km in this period.  54% and 85%, respectively). These services are limited to major towns along the major roads.Under the Derg, agricultural co-operatives were considered the best means to channel basic socio-economic services to the rural communities, and to mobilise local resources and initiatives to promote social welfare at the grassroots level. Generally, most co-operatives do not possess the institutional capacity to effectively provide financial services to their members. This shortfall has been recognised by the regional government which has, in response, created an independent Agricultural Co-operative Affairs Office (ACAO) under the new Proclamation 85/94, charged with restructuring and revitalising weak co-operatives that have been abandoned by corrupt executives. So far, 92 co-operatives have been targeted for restructuring to provide financial services to their members (Hailu Wondafrash et al. 1998).Non-governmental organisations complement government policies and programmes by undertaking various development projects. Currently, there are about 26 NGOs implementing various agricultural development projects in the region. Annex III shows a description of the implementing NGOs, the specific projects, area coverage, number of beneficiaries, project duration, total budgets and the major objectives and activities being undertaken. The various programmes are being implemented in 468 kebeles and benefit over 1.8 million individuals and households. Among the major implementers in terms of number of kebeles covered are World Vision (80 kebeles), Organisation for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara (at least 54 kebeles), Water Action (40 kebeles), SOS-Sahel (35 kebeles), Redd Barna (34 kebeles) and Food for the Hungry International (32 kebeles).In the project sites, many activities are being organised, such as small-scale irrigation, soil and water conservation, tree planting, forage development, credit, extension and capacity building, nurseries and integrated pest management. About 42% of the NGOs are directly involved in soil and water conservation activities, 58% in afforestation, tree planting, and nursery development activities, while 39% are directly involved in forage and improved grazing development. 22 However, the general and common underlying objectives seem to be to increase agricultural production and productivity, to raise disposable income and to improve micronutrient intake and health. While the need for such development projects cannot be overemphasised, there is also a need to assess whether or not they are having positive and sustainable impacts on the livelihoods of the beneficiaries. It is feared that some development activities, especially those organised on a food-for-work basis and of the type employed in mass mobilisation in constructing terraces, and other soil and water conservation structures, may make beneficiaries dependent on the incentives and leave them worse-off when the project is over.22. The actual percentages may be higher since activities undertaken by some of the NGOs were not available (see Annex IIIC).7 Development pathways: Opportunities for sustainable development 23   7.1 High agricultural potential with high market access 7.2 High agricultural potential with low market access 7.3 Low agricultural potential with high market accessConsidering the nature and causes of land degradation as discussed in the previous sections, we seek in our research programme to identify policy, institutional and technological strategies for more sustainable, productive and poverty-reducing development in the highlands of Amhara Region. 24 Given the complexity of factors that influence land degradation and the diversity of situations existing in Amhara, we do not expect that a 'one-size-fits-all' strategy will suffice in every situation. However, there will be common elements to all successful strategies. These include physical security, economic stability, a competitive market environment, land tenure security and investments in physical, human, natural and social capital. Much of what distinguishes different strategies in different situations will be difference in the portfolio of such investments.23. The remainder of this document draws heavily from an analysis developed originally by Pender et al. (1999a) and is similar to the analysis in the characterisation of Tigray by Fitsum Hagos et al. (1999). 24. Sustainable development is a big issue and as such there are many alternative definitions of sustainability and sustainable development (e.g. Pezzey 1992, cited in Hazell and Lutz 1998). Following Hazell and Lutz (1998), and focusing on development pathways for sustainable land management, we define a pathway as sustainable if the amount of income that is extracted for consumption each period can be maintained over time, and that the value of the capital stock (natural, human and man-made) is not depleted over timeIn this section, we take some initial steps towards identifying such strategies, based on the limited information available and hypotheses about the key constraints and opportunities for development, in the different types of situations in the highlands of Amhara Region. Our principal hypothesis is that the strategies for sustainable development in any given situation depend largely on the comparative advantage of alternative livelihood strategies in that situation. 25 For example, in areas where commercial crop production is feasible and economic, the potential to address soil nutrient depletion using large inputs of inorganic fertiliser will be much greater than where subsistence production of food crops is likely to remain the dominant activity. A corollary to our principal hypothesis is that the strategy to promote more sustainable development must be based on the comparative advantages that exist or that may be developed in different locations, with the proviso that local and external conditions can change comparative advantage.25. Support for this hypothesis is provided by similar IFPRI research conducted in Honduras (Pender et al. 1999b). Support for this hypothesis is provided by similar IFPRI research conducted in Honduras (Pender et al. 1999b).Many factors determine comparative advantage and the appropriate response to it. We will focus on three factors that reflect much of what distinguishes the opportunities for agricultural development: agricultural potential, access to markets and population pressure.Agricultural potential is an abstraction of many factors-including rainfall, altitude, soil type and depth, topography, presence of pests and diseases, and others-that influence the absolute (as opposed to comparative) advantage of producing particular agricultural commodities in a particular place. Of course, potential varies depending upon which commodities are being considered. Furthermore, agricultural potential is not a static concept but changes over time in response to changing natural conditions (such as climate change) as well as human-induced conditions (such as land degradation). For simplicity of exposition, however, we will discuss agricultural potential as though it was a one-dimensional and fixed concept. In reality, the multidimensional and dynamic nature of agricultural potential should be considered when developing more specific strategies of development than will be possible in this paper.Access to markets is critical for determining the comparative advantage of a particular location, given its agricultural potential. For example, a community with an absolute advantage in producing perishable vegetables (i.e. total factor productivity in vegetable production is higher there than anywhere else) may have little or no comparative advantage (low profitability) in vegetable production if it is far from roads and urban markets. As with agricultural potential, market access is also a multidimensional and dynamic concept (e.g. distance to roads, condition of roads, distance to urban centres, degree of competition, access to transport facilities etc. may change over time), but we will treat it as a single predetermined variable (though subject to change through investments in roads, for example).Population pressure affects the labour intensity of agriculture by affecting the land:labour ratio, and may induce innovations in technology, markets and institutions, or investments in infrastructure (Boserup 1965;Ruthenberg 1980;Hayami and Ruttan 1985;Binswanger and McIntire 1987). Population pressure thus affects the comparative advantage of labourintensive strategies of development, and returns to various types of investments.Agricultural potential, access to markets and population density interact with each other in complex ways. Population density tends to be higher where there is greater agricultural potential or greater market access, since people move to such areas in search of better opportunities. However, population pressure may have contributed to land degradation in many cases, reducing agricultural potential from what it once was. Market access tends to be better where there is a higher population density, since the per capita costs of building roads are lower and the benefits higher in such circumstances. Market access also tends to be better, where agricultural potential is higher, since the returns to developing infrastructure are greater. Despite these interrelationships, it appears that there is still substantial independent variation of these factors in the highlands of Amhara Region. Given such variations, and the fact that these factors change relatively slowly over time, it is useful to consider how different combinations of these factors influence possible development pathways.We can classify the situations of the highlands of Amhara into a maximum of eight major types, considering two levels of each dimension (agricultural potential, market access and population density). We recognise that there is an unavoidable element of arbitrariness in defining these categories. Agricultural potential is based on the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Committee's (DPPC's) classification of the region into drought-prone and nondrought-prone areas, which is based on the historical incidence of drought and dependence on relief food. Thus, 'high agricultural potential' areas are the relatively higher-rainfall areas in the western and south-eastern parts of Amhara, while 'low agricultural potential' areas lie to the east. 'High market access' areas are those whose capital or major market towns have access to all-weather roads and transport facilities. These areas are those lying on or close to the triangular Addis Ababa-Bahir Dar-Woldiya-Addis Ababa main roads and around Gonder.Otherwise, they are classified as 'low market access' areas. Although relative to other parts of Africa, population density is high in all of the Ethiopian highlands, we consider 'high' population density to mean more than 100 persons/km 2 . Other areas are viewed as 'low' population density. Unlike in Tigray, where irrigation was used as a factor in characterising agricultural potential (due to the limited precipitation), many parts of Amhara have relatively reliable rainfall and so irrigation is considered separately. Thus, we have two subcategories of irrigated high and low agricultural potentials.The eight major categories are presented in Figure 4. For each category, we present hypotheses about what opportunities exist for various pathways of development (see Table 21). The pathways we consider include:Intensification of cereal production using relatively high levels of external inputs, such as improved seeds and fertiliser (the approach being promoted by the extension programme of the Bureau of Agriculture). 26  Intensification of cereal production using labour intensive investments and organic sources of soil fertility in combination with limited use of external inputs.Commercial production of perishable cash crops, such as fruits and vegetables.Commercial production of non-perishable perennial cash crops, such as nuts, coffee or chat.Commercial production of dairy cattle or other intensive livestock, such as poultry. Improved and intensified livestock production through increased forage and fodder production, use of improved breeds, disease prevention and health services etc. Bee keeping.Fishing.Planting and management of woodlots for timber, poles or other purposes (e.g. agroforestry). Non-farm development, such as through development of agricultural processing, mining, manufacturing or other industries. Migration to areas with greater economic opportunities.26. Intensification means increasing the amount of labour, capital and information per unit of land area (Kaimowitz et al. 1998). Therefore, intensification is not limited to increased use of purchased inputs, but also non-traded inputs such as manure and family labour.As will be evident in the following exposition, we hypothesise that most of the variation in comparative advantage in Amhara is due to variation in agricultural potential and market access, with irrigation and population density as important factors conditioning some of the opportunities that are determined primarily by these other factors. We, thus, discuss the four possible categories of agricultural potential and market access under major headings, and discuss how variations in irrigation and population density are hypothesised to condition the opportunities within these major categories.Lowland weredas are those with more than 50% of their total land area classified as kolla, which is traditionally estimated at 500-1500 m a.s.l. Source of area data: BOA (1999a).Agricultural potential is based on Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Committee's (DPPC) classification of the region into drought-prone vs. non-drought-prone weredas. High agricultural potential (HAP) refers to non-drought-prone and low agricultural potential (LAP) refers to drought-prone.Market access is defined by the condition of the road (all weather vs. dry weather) that passes through and links wereda towns. High market access (HMA) implies all weather road and low market access (LMA) implies dry or seasonal weather road. Source of road condition data: EMA (1994).Population density is defined by the 1994 rural population/km 2 of total land area. High population density (HPD) is greater than 100 persons/km 2 and low population density (LPD) is less than or equal to 100 persons/km 2 . Source of data: BoPED (1997-98). Map produced by Land Use and Regulatory Team, Bureau of Agriculture, Bahir Dar.  Areas with high agricultural potential and high market access-such as areas near the two main roads linking Dejen and Bahir Dar, and around Gonder Zuria and Debre Birhanrepresent the greatest potential for agricultural development. Most agricultural strategies are feasible in such circumstances, but the more commercial strategies linked to high-value products, such as production of perishable cash crops and dairy production, likely offer the greatest economic potential in the long run.In the near term, intensification of cereal production using high levels of external inputs is a high priority to farmers in such areas. This will allow rapid improvement in food security and incomes, and will facilitate their ability to invest in production of riskier, but more profitable perishable commodities. This is particularly the case in high population density settings where markets are not yet well developed, since land scarcity may limit farmers' willingness to devote significant portions of their land to even very profitable commercial crops. Increased cereal productivity can also facilitate intensified livestock production by increasing the supply of crop residues available for feeding and freeing up land for fodder or forage production. Conversely, production of cash crops can facilitate increased food crop and livestock production, by providing significant income from a small amount of land (and during the dry season when dry season irrigation is available). This income can be used to finance purchase of external inputs or purchase of improved livestock breeds.In lower population density settings (as in the far western part of the region; see Figure 4), the potential to saturate local markets with increased food grain production will be greater than in higher population density settings (as in the south-western and south-eastern parts of the region). This will remain the case, at least until development of regional and national infrastructure and grain marketing systems facilitate increased trade of local surplus production. Opportunities for improved livestock production by improving management of communal grazing lands are likely to exist. Taking advantage of such opportunities will require effective collective action at the community level to protect and improve management of grazing areas and area enclosures. There are also likely opportunities for profitable production of timber, poles and other tree products in woodlots or natural forests in such areas.Fishing in Lake Tana and associated rivers, and other non-farm development opportunities are also likely to exist in high-potential, high access areas (both low and high population density), particularly through growth linkages to commercial farming activities. For example, employment in input supply, agricultural trading and processing industries will be stimulated by development of commercial farming. Growing demand for construction, financial services and other non-farm sectors will also stimulate non-farm growth linked to growing commercial agricultural activity.In areas with high agricultural potential that are more remote from the main roads and market centres (such as in parts of central, e.g. Estie and Sekela weredas, and northern Amhara), opportunities for commercial agricultural development are more limited, at least until substantial improvements in road and transport infrastructure are made. Travel to these parts during the main rainy season is very limited. Commercial agricultural production may need to emphasise non-perishable high-value (relative to volume) crops, livestock (particularly small ruminants that can be readily transported to market) and/or bee keeping. There may also be good opportunities to reduce the perishability and increase the value:volume ratio of some commodities through local processing, such as by drying fruits or meats. In the near term, such processing efforts will probably need to focus on activities that require little capital (but may be labour-intensive) and that do not involve large economies of scale (otherwise such activities are more economical in larger urban processing facilities).Opportunities for selling surplus cereal production from such areas are likely to be limited by high transport costs relative to the value of the products. A similar argument applies to importing cereals and suggests that farmers will seek to be self-sufficient in food production in such remote areas. Intensifying cereal production using external inputs is likely to be important in achieving this objective (particularly in high population density areas), since using imported inputs is likely to be cheaper than importing food in high-potential remote areas. For example, one study estimated that one quintal of fertiliser produces three to seven quintals of additional cereals in high-potential areas of the Ethiopian highlands (Mulat Demeke et al. 1997, cited in Fistum Hagos et al. 1999).Without improvement in the productivity of food crop production, farmers' ability to take advantage of profitable opportunities to produce cash crops or livestock may be constrained by the need to allocate scarce land to producing food crops, particularly in high population density settings. 27 However, high transport costs and low incomes may limit farmers' ability to improve food crop productivity by use of purchased inputs, suggesting that credit and possibly near-term subsidies on transport costs of inputs may be critical in enabling farmers to escape the poverty trap that they are facing. However, there are inherent problems in administering such dual pricing policy that need to be considered. For example, who (farmers vs. input traders) should get the subsidy and when should the subsidy be removed, are some of the issues that need to be dealt with appropriately.27. For example, the Technical Committee for Agroforestry in Ethiopia (1990) reported that forest coffee production was declining in high-potential areas of Ethiopia as a result of population pressure and expanded food crop production.Bee keeping is less affected by land and cash constraints and thus may be a good opportunity even in densely populated and low-income areas. The major constraints limiting bee keeping in Amhara may be lack of improved beehives, and farmers' lack of familiarity with bee keeping and use of improved technology. The yield from traditional honey production per hive per season is very small when compared with the yield from improved hives (IFSP 1998). In less densely populated areas, improved management of grazing areas and livestock may be a good opportunity to generate increased incomes and increase the sustainability of resource use.In lower potential areas with high market access, such as areas close to the Debre Birhan-Woldiya main road, adoption of more input-intensive cereal production is still very limited. It is likely to remain so, due to moisture stress, except where irrigation investments are being made, such as in Tuhuledere and Gubalafto weredas. Farmers can take more advantage of the soil and water conservation investments that exist in these areas by increasing targeted use of fertiliser and improved seeds to the parts of the fields where soil moisture is greatest.Although there is evidence from Berhanu Gebremedhin (1998) in Tigray and from the Soil Conservation Research Project (SCRP) that yields are increased significantly due to the soil moisture retention caused by conservation structures, such a limited and adaptive approach is not being pursued widely at present. Some farmers in Gubalafto wereda told us that they do not use fertiliser because of inadequate rainfall and also because there is residual fertiliser in the soil from previous applications. For this approach to be economically feasible and widely practised, sources of income to finance input purchases and on-farm demonstrations are needed.Limited use of purchased inputs will be most feasible closer to urban areas where off farm sources of income are available, where industries such as poultry or manufacturing are developing, or where seasonal migration (or remittances from permanent migrants) is common and extension services are already in place. Despite opportunities for some agricultural improvement, however, non-farm development is likely to be the driving force for development in such areas, provided sufficient investments in infrastructure, education and training are made. Rainfed areas close to the major towns of Woldiya, Kombolcha and Dessie are examples of such a situation.In low-potential areas with good market access and low population density, expansion of livestock production may be a good opportunity. Achieving this potential may require the strengthening of collective action institutions to encourage investments in improvements of grazing lands, perhaps by planting and managing fodder grasses and trees in area enclosures. Tree-planting activities in degraded lands may also provide opportunities for significant incomes and welfare improvement where market access is relatively good.The most difficult cases for which to identify development opportunities are areas with low agricultural potential, which are without irrigation and are far from roads and markets, 28 particularly where there is high population density and no significant off-farm sources of income. In some cases, particularly close to forests, bee keeping presents an important economic activity. For example, compared with other areas, Wogera wereda has a high number of beehives, although its honey production is among the lowest, reflecting marketing and/or production constraints. Small ruminants can be efficient users of available fodder resources, and can be transported long distances to market, though intensification of their use will be limited by grazing resources (especially in high population density settings). Tree planting on degraded lands, as mentioned previously, and continued investment in soil and water conservation structures (particularly given relatively low opportunity costs of labour and the greater benefits of such technologies in drier areas) may also have significant potential to improve land productivity. However, high risk may act as a disincentive to invest in conservation even if opportunity cost of labour is low and potential returns are high. Tree planting has been encouraged in the region, with emphasis on eucalyptus. However, efforts should be made to include other species, especially indigenous trees that are suitable for high altitude and cold areas where eucalyptus trees may take a longer time to mature. Thus, despite the existence of opportunities, these strategies seem unlikely to solve the long-term poverty problem facing such communities, unless in high population pressure areas where road development can reduce the risks and enhance production increasing and conservation technologies. Migration (seasonal or permanent) is likely to be an important element of the people's livelihood strategies in these areas.28. For example, most of Gishe wereda is not accessible by road.In summary, despite the many constraints facing agricultural development in the highlands of Amhara Region, there appear to be many opportunities to achieve more productive and sustainable agriculture. Nevertheless, there is a continuing need to develop the non-farm sector as well, and pay particular attention to labour supply constraints imposed by cultural and religious practices, as they may pose a major problem for any kind of intervention. This is because intensive use of labour is common to all the strategies. In the long term, such balanced development of both the farm and non-farm sectors will be the key to achieving more sustainable use of the land, economic growth and elimination of poverty. Having developed hypotheses about pathways of development that may be economically feasible in different types of circumstances in the highlands of Amhara Region, we now develop hypotheses about the policy, and institutional and technological strategies needed to exploit these comparative advantages. We must be clear at the outset that we are only suggesting hypotheses at this point. Development of recommendations for actual strategies must await further policy research at the community and household levels. First, to identify whether the pathways of development that we have hypothesised are actually feasible and desirable in the circumstances suggested. Secondly, to illuminate the constraints and opportunities to achieving more sustainable, productive and poverty reducing development through the development pathways considered above.The first requirement of this strategy is the availability of food crop varieties that will respond well to fertiliser and other inputs under the conditions of the highlands of Amhara. The initial success of the Sasakawa-Global 2000(SG-2000) programme and the government extension programme in higher potential areas of Ethiopia (SG-2000(SG- 1996;;Quinones et al. 1997), demonstrate the availability of such varieties, especially for maize. However, potential yield increases from such varieties are likely to be more limited in the moisture-stressed conditions existing in the drought-prone and low agricultural potential areas.To have the broadest and most sustainable economic impact, promotion of such technologies should account for local potentials and economic conditions as much as possible. As discussed previously, small farm sizes and uncertain rainfall (especially in moisture-stressed areas) can make allocation of half-hectare plots to new technologies a very risky strategy. This is less of a concern where rainfall is relatively assured or irrigation exists, but many farmers even in these circumstances may still prefer to adopt a more gradual or diversified approach, which may be precluded by a fixedpackage approach. In addition, adaptive and participatory research is needed to develop more targeted recommendations for integrated nutrient management practices. Recommendations need to take into account available sources of organic matter, local sources of soil nutrients and potential for leguminous crops or trees (Quinones et al. 1997;Sanchez et al. 1997). The priority for such research in the near term should be high-potential areas where this strategy is most feasible. For the longer term, continued basic research is needed to develop varieties that are suitable for use under lower potential conditions, such as in moisture-stressed and drought-prone environments.Even without targeted nutrient management recommendations based on adaptive research, agricultural extension programmes can improve the usefulness of their efforts by allowing a more flexible approach and learning from farmers. The fixed extension package being promoted by the Bureau of Agriculture (BoA) has demonstrated some impressive results. However, results that are even more impressive might be possible if farmers are given more opportunity to experiment with alternative mixes of inputs, and the results of such experiments are used to inform the development of more site-specific recommendations.The availability of inputs (especially seeds and fertiliser) must also be assured. Although distribution of inputs by the extension programme is attractive as a way of demonstrating the benefits of using such inputs, this is something that can be as or more effectively provided by competitive input markets, at least to places with good market access. The longer-term goal should be to promote development of such markets. This is largely a matter of removing obstacles to such development, such as eliminating foreign exchange and import restrictions, deregulating prices and avoiding interventions by local authorities in private marketing of inputs. Mulat Demeke et al. (1997, cited in Fistum Hagos et al. 1999) estimated that improvements in the competitiveness of the input marketing system in Ethiopia resulting from such changes, could reduce the average farm level price for fertiliser (relative to unsubsidised prices) by nearly EB 20 (US$ 1 = EB 6.71 in 1997) per quintal or 100 kg (a decrease in price of about 8%). Other positive efforts that can help develop such competitive markets include investments in road construction, and improvement and facilitation of the availability of credit to private wholesalers and retailers. Credit can be used to finance purchase of storage and marketing facilities, and working capital stocks.In remote areas where substantial improvements in market access are not likely in the near future, consideration of the most effective means to address poverty and food security should include consideration of subsidising the cost of transporting inputs to these areas (perhaps by continuing government provision to these areas). Since 1 t of fertiliser can yield 3-7 t of additional grain in higher potential areas (Mulat Demeke et al. 1997, cited in Fistum et al. 1999), it is much cheaper to subsidise fertiliser imports than grain imports (through food aid) to such areas as a means of addressing food deficits. The longer-term solution for such areas is to invest in improved infrastructure and education, but people still must be able to feed themselves in the near term.Of course, exporting substantial quantities of grains from remote areas is not likely to be economical due to high transportation costs, and should not be promoted through subsidies. For example, it may require a two-day round trip for a farmer to take a quintal of grain by donkey to the nearest market from remote areas in Amhara. The opportunity cost of this trip (including the farmer's time and additional feed) could easily be EB 20 (US$ 1 = EB 6.71 in 1997), approaching 10% of the value of the grain sold. Probably more important, most farmers in remote areas may simply be unable to sell substantial amounts of grain, even if they produced a surplus, due to limited ownership of pack animals and carts. Thus, it is not a good idea to subsidise fertiliser imports to remote areas that already produce sufficient food for local consumption, since the impact will be to produce a local surplus and depress local prices.These considerations suggest that the priority for a transport cost subsidy for inputs, if it is used, should be remote areas that are food deficit with relatively high potential to use the inputs profitably.An example of such a situation might be in areas where production of non-perishable tree crops may be profitable, but may be limited by the need to produce food crops. In this situation, subsidised inputs for a limited period may enable farmers to intensify production of food crops and invest in increased perennial crop production. Eventually farmers may be able to sustain use of inputs without subsidies through sales of high-value products. In the near term, a subsidy on the transport costs of inputs may not be sufficient to overcome the subsistence constraint if incomes are very low, given the time lags in earning returns from producing high-value perennials. In such cases, longerterm credit or a subsidy on the cost of the inputs (not only on transport costs) may be necessary in the near term, until farmers are able to meet food needs and earn sufficient income to buy such inputs, or until substantial improvement in market access occurs.In areas with high-potential and good market access, subsidies for inputs should be avoided. Such areas are likely capable of producing and marketing sufficient surplus production to pay for inputs purchased without subsidies. The major constraints to increased input use in such areas are likely to be limited access to credit and perhaps limited information, where farmers have not yet participated in the extension programme.In moisture-stressed areas with otherwise suitable soil conditions (particularly areas close to roads and markets), high priority should be given to irrigation investments where irrigation potential exists. The drought-prone areas close to the Woldiya-Debre Birhan main road, where the Commission for Sustainable Agriculture and Environment Rehabilitation for Amhara Region (CoSAERAR) has established irrigation projects, are examples of such a situation. In more remote areas with irrigation potential, priority should be given to investments in roads as well as irrigation, since marketing constraints may otherwise undermine the ability to reap the full benefit of irrigation investments. In low-potential remote areas, the returns to fertiliser and other inputs may be too low or risky for farmers to use substantial amounts of them. Thus, food aid may still be needed in the near term to address food deficits in such areas. In the longer term, alternative sources of income are needed.In all areas where a high external input strategy is pursued, development of rural credit institutions is critical to the long-term sustainability of the effort. Efforts to develop credit institutions, especially microcredit, should focus on areas where there is good potential for a high input strategy. The greatest immediate need is of course for short-term credit, simply to finance the input purchases. However, where surplus production and trade is possible, marketing credit to allow farmers to store and market grain during the dry season is also very important. Related to that, credit to finance investment in grain storage and facilities is needed where inadequate capacity exists. Adequate regulation of private grain warehouses, for example through licensing and bonding, is also needed to assure quality and reliability of the grain stored. Given such regulation, private warehouse receipts can serve as collateral for marketing loans or other kinds of loans. Consumption credit can also be very helpful in promoting increased input use, since it can act as a form of insurance. In areas with sufficiently large production and good market access to support grain milling, credit or equity to finance such investments will also be helpful. The development of equity markets in Ethiopia may be helpful in this regard, as is maintaining a policy environment favourable to domestic and foreign investment in industry.The high external input strategy may facilitate more sustainable land management. Investments in soil and water conservation may be more attractive to private farmers since the value of land and the need to minimise losses of valuable inputs through erosion and runoff will be increased. In addition to direct benefits where such intensification occurs, indirect benefits in other areas can also result. Increased supplies of biomass reduce pressure on forests and grazing areas, and increased incomes provide alternatives to expansion of production onto marginal lands.The impacts of this strategy on sustainable land management, however, are not assured. Soil fertility can be restored through increased use of fertiliser together with greater production of organic material. However, a net increase in soil mining may occur even with greater use of fertiliser, because of increased losses through erosion, leaching and quantities harvested. For example, estimates from western Kenya showed greater nutrient mining on farms where there was more commercial orientation in food crop production (de Jager et al. 1998). Less nutrient depletion was found in cash crop production (e.g. in coffee and tea), suggesting that the profitability of using fertilisers in food crops may be insufficient to prevent such depletion. High negative nutrient balances in commercial annual food crop production have also been found recently in central Uganda (Wortmann and Kaizzi 1998). In contrast, less negative and even positive nutrient balances have been found in a study of eight farms in Kindo Koisha, southern Ethiopia (Elias et al. 1998).Further research is needed on this issue in the Ethiopian context.In summary, to fully realise the potential benefits of a high external input strategy of increasing food production, adequate attention must be paid to factors affecting the feasibility and profitability of input use. These factors include infrastructure, extension, input availability, credit and marketing facilities. In some cases where persistent food insecurity exists, subsidies on the costs of using inputs should be considered as a lower cost alternative to food aid, until these other constraints can be overcome (IFPRI 1995).In lower potential areas without irrigation, the return to using external inputs, particularly fertiliser, is likely to be much more limited. The strategy for intensifying food crop production therefore must rely on a low (not zero) external input approach. In moisture stressed areas, a critical need is to conserve and use the available soil moisture as efficiently as possible, in combination with integrated use of limited amounts of inorganic fertiliser with organic nutrient sources.In moisture stressed areas, investments in soil and water conservation structures such as stone bunds and terraces may have relatively high returns by conserving soil moisture (Herweg 1993;Berhanu Gebremedhin 1998). In addition, there may be good potential to increase production through better management of nutrients where these structures exist. For example, it might be possible to significantly increase production with limited risk by targeting use of fertiliser and manure to the vicinity of conservation structures, where soil moisture is greater. However, the fixed-package approach of the current extension programme has not encouraged such site-specific experimentation. In addition, little adaptive research has been conducted to explore the potential of such integrated approaches to conservation and productivity improvement.Research is also needed to better understand the potential for improving soil productivity through integrated use of organic and inorganic fertilisers in different settings (Palm et al. 1997). Organic sources vary greatly in terms of their biomass productivity and nutrient content, their interactions with soil moisture and inorganic sources of nutrients, and their impacts on productivity; moreover, these issues are not yet well understood in sub-Saharan Africa (Palm et al. 1997). For example, application of organic materials may reduce nutrient availability to crops by immobilising nitrogen or increase nutrient availability by reducing phosphorus fixation. It is also important to recognise that many organic 'sources' of nutrients (such as crop residues or manure produced from grazing crop residues) only recycle nutrients within the farming system, and do not add to the stock of nutrients in the system. As important as such recycling is, to help slow the rate of nutrient depletion, it cannot restore soil fertility. Biological nitrogen fixation by leguminous plants, uptake by trees of nutrients that are unavailable to crops, and transfer of biomass from outside the farm do increase the stock of nutrients available to the farming system, and can be very important components of a low external input strategy. However, these strategies cannot adequately restore phosphorus where it is depleted (Sanchez et al. 1997). Thus, some use of inorganic fertiliser is an essential component of strategies to restore soil fertility and increase agricultural productivity, especially where phosphorus depletion is a major problem as in South Wello due to the practice of guie, soil burning, to release phosphorus.A critical constraint to increased use of organic material in low-potential areas is the shortage of such material and high demand to use it for other purposes (particularly in high population density areas), such as burning of dung and grazing of crop residues. It is thus difficult to address the soil fertility problem in such areas without addressing the larger problem of a shortage of biomass. One way to address this issue is to make better use of degraded lands and communal grazing areas to produce biomass. With the directive to distribute wasteland or degraded hillsides for tree-planting activities, which started in April 1999, there is substantial potential to increase production of trees, helping to relieve local shortages of wood for fuel and construction materials, as well as generating substantial income and wealth. The key to success seems to be to provide the right set of incentives. The community approach to planting woodlots has yielded limited benefits in Ethiopia, whereas allowing individuals to receive private benefits from tree planting (with secure tenure) shows promise of achieving impressive results.For example, leaders of one village in eastern Tigray Region decided to allow private tree planting on a degraded hillside beginning in 1992 (Fitsum Hagos et al. 1999). Very small plots were allocated to each household in the village, and the households were expected to plant trees and to provide good management. In contrast to management of community woodlots, private management has been highly intensive, with large labour investments in clearing rocks and constructing stone bunds around the plots, and even hand irrigation of the seedlings during critical dry periods. As a result, the survival rate of seedlings on the private plots has averaged about 80%, according to village residents. The village has continued to allocate parts of the unused hillside almost every year since 1992. A similar initiative was started in the Wello areas in 1997. The success of these experiences led the regional government of Amhara to adopt a new directive in January 1999, allowing all rural communities to allocate unused hillside wastelands for private tree planting and other conservation uses.The impact of the new directive to distribute degraded land to landless households, and individuals promoting private tree planting and other conserving uses should be investigated. If it does result in a substantial increase in tree planting and harvesting from wastelands, more manure and crop residues can be recycled into crop production, as fuelwood becomes more available. As the general biomass shortage is reduced, the need for the most rapidly growing species (generally eucalyptus) will decline and it may become more attractive to plant other kinds of trees, such as fruit trees, legumes and fodder producing trees. This will increase opportunities for improving soil fertility and intensifying livestock production, and for generating income directly from tree products.Improved management of pasture and grazing areas could also yield substantial benefits. For example, area enclosures are showing good results in terms of regeneration of natural vegetation, but there are common complaints from farmers that they are not benefiting from the biomass being produced (where cut-and-carry, or controlled grazing systems have not been established). In addition, enclosures tend to increase pressure on other unprotected areas, so the net impact on resource degradation is not necessarily positive. To help ensure that positive benefits are achieved and felt by farmers, more intensive management of grazing areas, such as planting and managing improved grasses and trees, is needed. This could be approached by allocating such lands for private grazing use or through better collective management of enclosures.Because of economies of scale in protecting grazing areas and risk spreading advantages of using them collectively, privatisation of such lands may not be optimal (Baland and Platteau 1996).Adverse distributional impacts of privatisation on poorer households may also cause collective ownership to be preferred. However, attaining the benefits of collective management requires effective institutions at the local level. Such institutions do not necessarily arise spontaneously, even when the net benefits of effective collective action are large (Baland and Platteau 1996).Government or other external intervention can help to catalyse the development of such institutions, though this requires a cautious approach that respects local autonomy and concerns. Heavy-handed intervention from external agents can undermine the development of such institutions, causing increased dependency on the regulatory role of such external agents, and possibly increased conflicts in the community (Pender and Scherr 1999). Research is needed to understand better the conditions under which effective institutions for managing grazing lands arise and become sustainable in the Ethiopian highlands, and how the government and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) can help to promote rather than undermine this development. Where it is possible to establish effective institutions to manage grazing lands, intensified livestock production, improved soil fertility management and increased incomes will also likely occur.Another approach that could combine the advantages of private management while retaining the advantages of community control over common grazing lands or area enclosures, would be to provide the rights to manage such areas to an individual or group of individuals within the community. This right (essentially a franchise to manage the grazing land) could be assigned by lottery, through an auction, provided to landless members of the community or through some other procedure acceptable to the community. The individual or group attaining this franchise would then be responsible to invest in improvements in the grazing area or enclosure, enforce restrictions on use of the area, sell fodder and other materials cut from the area, and/or provide grazing services on behalf of livestock owners. Fees for these services could be established by the community as a whole or through negotiations between livestock owners and the grazing area managers. The kebele administration could retain regulatory authority over the management of such areas, ensuring that the managers do not overcharge for what could become a monopoly service, but do take necessary measures and make suitable investments to preserve and improve the quality of the resource. If the performance of the managers were not adequate, the kebele could take the franchise away from the current managers. Such an approach could be pilot tested in a few kebeles before any decisions are made to adopt it more broadly.Organic sources of fodder and crop nutrients can also be generated on cropland. Many practices have been developed for this purpose, such as hedgerow inter-cropping, improved fallows, green manures, composting and planting of fodder or multi-purpose trees (Cooper et al. 1996). High population density and remoteness from markets favours more labour-intensive practices (such as hedgerow inter-cropping or composting) since opportunity costs of labour are lower in such circumstances (Ehui et al. 1990;Cooper et al. 1996). However, the potential of such approaches is limited by the scarcity of water in the low agricultural potential highlands. High population density and small farm sizes will limit more extensive practices, such as improved longer-term fallows. In land scarce settings, planting of trees may be most feasible in particular niches, such as in the homestead plot, on bunds and on plot boundaries. However, planting on boundaries and bunds can also create problems by competing with crops for water and light on the owner's as well as neighbours' fields (Ehui et al. 1990;Cooper et al. 1996). 29 There are also possibilities of temporal niches, such as improved fallows during the short rainy season.29. These problems are particularly acute for eucalyptus, which has led the Government of Amhara to discourage planting of eucalyptus trees on farmland.Despite these possibilities, the potential for increasing flows of organic nutrients into food crop production from such sources is probably lower than the potential offered by better management of grazing lands and wastelands, at least in lower population density settings. In very high population density, low-potential (non-irrigated) areas, the options for increased organic matter production are probably relatively limited. In such cases, development of woodlots, even on farmland, may be a better option for sustainable land use and reduction of poverty (particularly where market access is relatively good and farmers have access to off-farm sources of income). However, discouraging planting of eucalyptus trees on farmland may eliminate this as a feasible option, since eucalyptus is by far the preferred tree because of its ability to grow rapidly, produce valuable products and regenerate even in very dry conditions.Tenure insecurity on farmland may also undermine investments in tree planting, manuring, soil and water conservation structures, and other land improvements. This issue appears to be more of concern in Amhara and other regions of Ethiopia where land redistributions are still a threat, compared with Tigray. Though farmers in most of Amhara now have registration certificates to their land, the sense of tenure security is mixed. Those without registration certificates do not feel any less secure. Surprisingly, some of the farmers with certificates, especially those with large holdings, feel less secure. They reason that their endowment is now known and, therefore, it is easier for the government to carry out redistribution. Thus, many of those without certificates are not asking for them. Restrictions on long-term leasing may also reduce such investments where leasing is common. Land fragmentation, as is common throughout much of the highlands, is likely a major constraint to investment in manuring, mulching or other approaches requiring transport of bulky materials to distant fields. Fragmentation may also prevent investments in land improvements such as planting fruit trees or constructing soil bunds, since these may be subject to theft or damage by neighbours if not easily supervised. For example, Olson (1995, cited in Fistum Hagos et al. 1999) reported cases of farmers in the Kabale District of south-western Uganda surreptitiously undermining terraces on plots of their upstream neighbours, thus 'harvesting' some of the fertile soil that had accumulated in the terrace. Restrictions on land sales and leasing may contribute to the land fragmentation problem. However, the example from Uganda, where such restrictions do not exist, suggests that change of land policies would not necessarily solve it. Nevertheless, a more flexible and dynamic approach to land policy, more secure tenure and access to land will have to be adopted under the umbrella of the constitution. Only when farmers know what their rights are, or even what rights they do and do not have can they make objective decisions. Thus, transparency is required for any policy on land. For example, due to the smallness of current land holdings, further land redistribution is unlikely in the near term. However, while this may be reassuring, many farmers may not be aware of it. Furthermore, the problems of fragmented farmlands and landlessness still need to be dealt with. The prohibition of land sales might limit the ability of farmers to consolidate fragmented land holdings, or the ability of landless people to acquire land, unless land lease markets or other methods of land acquisition work well. Lack of ability to pledge land as collateral may inhibit development of credit markets unless suitable alternative forms of collateral or alternatives to collateral are available.Livestock grazing practices can also have a significant impact on the feasibility of some kinds of land improving investments. For example, free grazing on farmland after the harvest is common in the highlands of Amhara Region. This likely limits the ability of farmers to invest in planting many kinds of plants as biological measures to control erosion and restore soil fertility, since such plants may be destroyed by grazing or trampling. It may also limit the potential of minimum tillage due to soil compaction by grazing animals. Thus, improvements in management of farmlands may depend upon changes in the grazing system and improvements in the management of grazing areas. With regard to minimum tillage, free grazing seems to discriminate against poorer households who lack oxen, both because they receive less benefit from free grazing and because it reduces their options to try minimum tillage. Perhaps policy makers and local leaders should consider allowing households the right to prevent grazing on their cropland even after harvest, or to charge others for the grazing services. However, free grazing does benefit oxless households through animal droppings. Thus, cost-benefit analysis is needed to advise on this issue.Other issues such as fertiliser and credit supply are less important where a low external input strategy is pursued than where a high input strategy is pursued, since such areas will have lower demand for these inputs. Nevertheless, these areas should not be neglected in this regard, since the small amounts of inputs and credit they use may be very important. Other kinds of credit, particularly credit for productive non-agricultural purposes (such as petty trading) and for consumption purposes may also be very important in addressing problems of poverty and food insecurity. Development of road infrastructure, storage facilities and the output marketing system will be less important to such areas as suppliers of food, but will be critical to them as net importers of food.Where there is very good access to markets and irrigation, or sufficiently reliable rainfall, intensive commercial production of perishable fruits and vegetables can be very profitable. The ability to pursue this strategy will likely depend first upon the success of increased productivity of cereal production. Risk-averse farmers with very little land are usually reluctant to gamble on new and highly risky crops, however potentially profitable, unless their food security is assured (von Braun et al. 1991). Such assurance need not depend only on local food production though. For example, small farmers in western Kenya are adopting vegetable crops and importing maize from Uganda. Open trade policies, thus, can be very helpful in allowing such commercialisation to occur. Non-farm income can also provide sufficient food security to allow commercialisation to occur (von Braun et al. 1991). In cases where a potential comparative advantage in cereal production exists, realising that potential can be an important first step towards enabling farmers to diversify into higher-value products. Thus, the requisites of high external input intensification of cereals are also likely to help to promote intensive production of perishable cash crops in such cases. At the same time, income earned from such cash crop production can help farmers intensify food crop production, by enabling them to purchase more inputs. Thus, increased cash crop production and increased food crop production may be mutually reinforcing strategies.One important constraint may be lack of knowledge about such products, especially about their market potential. Technical assistance, emphasising market opportunities for different crops as well as crop management, can be very important. With fresh horticultural products, local markets can quickly become saturated, causing dramatic price declines. Farmers must be aware of the potentials and problems of alternative crops, so that they can diversify their production. Information on prices in local markets, announced over the radio, could also be helpful.Such technical assistance, however, need not come only from government extension agents. Elsewhere in the world, farmers often obtain advice from other farmers, input suppliers or traders.As the input marketing system develops, local suppliers will become more knowledgeable and able to provide advice to farmers. Providing training to both suppliers and farmers could help this process. For some things, however, technical assistance must be provided (or at least financed) by governments, due to incentives facing private suppliers. For example, integrated pest management and organic farming methods may not be adequately promoted (relative to their potential benefit) by private input suppliers, since these methods may reduce sales of agrochemicals. Training is also needed on proper use and disposal of pesticides, which are likely to be used much more widely where there is horticultural development. Taxes on pesticides, so that their private cost reflects their social cost, accounting for negative externalities, would help to promote safer and more efficient use of pesticides, while generating revenue for governments.Where irrigation is used in production of cash crops, conflicts may arise over access to water and management of irrigation systems. Well-functioning institutions are needed to allocate use rights and enforce responsibilities. As with institutions to manage grazing lands (discussed below), such effective institutions may not arise spontaneously, but may be catalysed by appropriate interventions by external agents (Baland and Platteau 1996). However, external intervention may undermine the effectiveness of local management and increase the potential for conflict (Baland and Platteau 1996). Thus, a careful approach to promoting development of such institutions is warranted, taking full account of local conditions and concerns before investing in irrigation schemes or identifying the strategy to address issues of rights and responsibilities. For example, allocation of land in the command area that fails to take account of farmers who have lost access to land as a result of microdam construction could lead to conflicts that undermine confidence in the overall effort, which otherwise appears to be achieving impressive results. Proper planning and involvement of local community councils (kebele administrations) in decision making, from the outset, will likely result in broad support for the effort.Available input supply and credit to finance input purchases are of course important for producers of horticultural crops, as they are for high input production of cereals. Given the high expected returns to such inputs, linking future credit to repayment of past loans can provide a strong incentive to repay. However, since such crops are highly risky (particularly price risk), lenders may be reluctant to lend as much as farmers desire where collateral is limited. This problem is exacerbated by the prohibition on land mortgaging in Ethiopia. However, even when farmers have adequate collateral, they may be reluctant to borrow due to the risk involved, even if the expected profits are high.Alternative institutional arrangements, such as share cropping and contract farming, can be used as a means of reducing risks and obtaining access to short-term capital such as fertiliser and seed. 30 30. The use of these arrangements to obtain capital and reduce risks has been observed in Honduras (Bergeron et al. 1996, cited in Fistum Hagos et al. 1999;Pender et al. 1999b).Tenure insecurity, restrictions on leasing and land fragmentation may limit commercialisation of perishable cash crops for the same reasons cited earlier in discussing factors affecting investments in land improvement. These factors are particularly important with respect to planting fruit trees, which of course requires long-term tenure security, and protection against theft or being cut for fuelwood. Where such security is lacking, investments in fruit trees are likely to be limited to plots near the homestead.Where there is potential for selling processed products and/or export of cash crops, the availability of cold storage, processing and transport facilities may be critical constraints. The availability of electricity is one key constraint affecting the development of such facilities. Commercial credit or equity capital also will be needed. Provision of infrastructure and lines of credit for such purposes, and maintenance of a policy environment that facilitates private investment are, thus, likely to be very important in achieving this potential. Development of processing can also promote contract farming or co-operatives, since processors will seek to assure themselves a reliable supply.There is good potential for more sustainable land management where horticultural production is occurring, but there are also risks. Such high-value, labour-intensive production may reduce pressure on marginal lands by providing farmers' sufficient income on a smaller area of land. It can contribute to agrobiodiversity and help to reduce pest problems if used in rotations with primary staple crops (Pingali and Rosegrant 1995). Horticultural production can encourage investment in soil conservation by increasing returns to such investments. For example, Tiffen et al. (1994) found a strong association between adoption of horticultural crops and construction of bench terraces in the Machakos District of Kenya. The cash income generated by horticultural production also provides incentive and ability to purchase fertilisers, which may restore soil fertility. However, this effect is not assured, since multiple cropping of horticultural crops can rapidly deplete soil nutrients even when fertiliser application is increased. Education and extension efforts can help to address such problems, though farmers may simply find it too risky or costly to apply sufficient amounts of fertiliser to avoid this problem. Production of horticultural (especially annual) crops on steep slopes can also be highly erosive, unless sufficient investments are made in soil conservation. Other potential problems include contamination of soil and water and human health risks caused by agrochemicals, and increased conflicts over water. Applied research and extension related to integrated pest management, integrated nutrient management and water management are critical to minimise such risks and attain the greatest possible benefits from this development strategy.Given the time lags required to receive the benefits of investment, expansion of production of highvalue perennial crops such as nuts, coffee and chat where land is scarce depends upon first assuring food security. Since areas with a comparative advantage in such non-perishable crops will tend to be further from markets than dairy or horticultural areas, reliance on imported food is likely to be more costly than local production. Increased food production therefore must be high priority for such areas, with the goals being elimination of local food deficits and freeing up of scarce land for the production of higher-value crops. The policy and institutional requisites, thus, include those discussed earlier to achieve high-input intensification of cereal production, including consideration of subsidies on the transport cost of fertiliser in the near term until food deficits are eliminated and income from perennial crop production is growing.Many of the requirements for other commercial strategies mentioned earlier are also important for high-value perennials. Investment in roads, land tenure security and land transactions (to reduce fragmentation) are critical. Research and extension to promote use of improved varieties and improved management are needed. Promotion of private nurseries (for example, through availability of credit) can be helpful. Credit to finance inputs and purchase of tree seedlings can also be helpful. Development of processing facilities and assurance of adequate capacity utilisation of such facilities is important, especially for tea, due to its relative perishability (von Braun et al. 1991). The need to assure a sufficient quantity and reliability of supply to make such facilities profitable contributed to the attractiveness of large plantations established by colonial settlers in Kenya. Improvement of alternative institutional arrangements more appropriate to smallholder production, such as cooperatives or contract farming, can help to achieve the same goals. 31 Large processing facilities are less necessary for coffee than tea if coffee is sold in the unwashed form, but the value added in the local economy is reduced. To be able to tap this potential, substantial investments in coffee washing facilities are now occurring in coffee-producing areas of Ethiopia. Maintaining a policy environment conducive to efficient operation of co-operatives and such investments in processing are key to attaining the potential of this strategy.31. While agricultural co-operatives were established widely in Amhara Region in the 1970s, many of them are not functional, as they have been plagued by corruption. Currently, the Agricultural Cooperative Affairs Office (ACAO) has been charged with restructuring and revitalising weak cooperatives.The benefits of development of high-value perennial crops for the sustainability of land use can be substantial. As with annual horticultural crops, the income generated can help reduce pressure to continue producing or expanding onto marginal lands and allow greater use of inorganic fertilisers, while the increase in land values encourages investments in land improvements. 32 In contrast to annual cash crops, high-value perennials are a less erosive land use. Where coffee is grown in shaded conditions, there is good potential to plant other kinds of trees for soil fertility management, fodder and/ or fruit production, increasing the benefits for land management and farm incomes.There is evidence from western Kenya that soil fertility depletion is lower where perennial cash crops, such as coffee and tea, are grown than where annual food crops are grown for commercial purposes (de Jager et al. 1998). As with horticultural crops, however, increased use of agrochemicals poses risks in the production of such crops. Thus, extension and training will play an important role in promoting appropriate practices of integrated soil nutrient management and integrated pest management.32. For example, coffee has played a key role along with horticultural crops in promoting more profitable and sustainable land use in the Machakos District of Kenya (Tiffen et al. 1994).The most widespread technical constraint to intensified livestock production in sub-Saharan Africa is the availability of feed (McIntire et al. 1992;Winrock International 1992). In the densely populated highlands, the prospects for relaxing this constraint through increased forage production in farmlands are limited (except where high-value dairy production exists), given the scarcity of land and food (McIntire et al. 1992). Except in less densely populated parts of the highlands, the potential for increased fodder production in communal grazing areas and wastelands is also limited, as discussed above. Imported feed and feed concentrates are likely to be of limited use, except in very commercialised systems such as urban and peri-urban dairy production. Thus, the prospects for livestock intensification (especially in mixed crop-livestock systems which are common in Amhara) may depend significantly upon the success of intensification of cereal production, which can greatly increase the quantity and quality of crop residues available as a feed source, as well as freeing-up land to be used for increased forage production. This implies that the policy and institutional requisites of cereal crop intensification discussed above are also critical to livestock intensification.Other important constraints to intensified livestock production in the Ethiopian highlands include animal diseases, limited stock of improved breeds, limited availability of veterinary services and other inputs, poor infrastructure, and limited market and institutional development (Winrock International 1992). While it is desirable to address all of these constraints wherever they are binding, priority should be given in the near term to places where there is substantial commercial potential and where the feed constraint is not binding. For example, improved dairy breeds are not likely to be used where adequate feed cannot be assured or only limited commercial potential exists, given their cost and greater demand for feed. Returns to investment in veterinary services, infrastructure and marketing facilities will be much greater where commercial potential exists and feed is adequate than elsewhere. Thus, such efforts should be targeted in the near term to areas close to urban markets, particularly where dairy potential exists, since the returns to this activity are relatively high (Jahnke 1982;McIntire et al. 1992).Development of dairy co-operatives may be a critical component of a strategy to develop dairy production in areas of high market access. Because of the bulky, highly perishable and easily contaminated nature of liquid milk, the transactions costs and risks involved in marketing milk are very high (Staal et al. 1997). Dairy co-operatives help to reduce risks and transactions costs facing individual producers by pooling risk, reducing unit costs due to economies of scale in collection and transport, making inputs available and enhancing their bargaining power. They reduce costs faced by processors by reducing milk acquisition costs and assuring the quality and reliability of the supply. In addition, dairy co-operatives may contribute to the development of social capital; for example, by investing in education and health facilities.Dairy co-operatives are not yet common in Ethiopia. For example, almost all milk is marketed through informal channels in the Addis Ababa milkshed; only 12% is sold to the parastatal Dairy Development Enterprise (DDE) (Staal et al. 1997). As a result, substantial differences exist in prices received by different producers and paid by different buyers. Large producers receive higher prices than smaller producers do, urban producers higher than peri-urban and all producers are willing to accept lower prices if selling to larger and more reliable customers (Staal et al. 1997). Controlling for these differences, farmers with more capital are able to obtain higher prices than poorer ones. These findings suggest that development of co-operatives could help promote smallholder dairy development in Ethiopia, by helping to reduce transactions costs and achieving economies of scale.The Smallholder Dairy Development Project, funded by Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA), has begun to promote development of milk groups for processing and marketing in periurban areas of Ethiopia. 33 Preliminary results from a recent survey of such groups suggest that there are substantial variations in their performance and viability, influenced by many factors (Nicholson et al. 1998). One factor that appears to be particularly important is economies of scale; the largest group studied obtained the highest prices for dairy products and was the most profitable (Staal et al. 1997). Thus, changes in farmers' attitudes towards participation in co-operatives are likely to be an important determinant of their success in Ethiopia. Removal of bureaucratic obstacles to co-operative development and availability of credit could help facilitate co-operative development. 34 Availability of crossbred cattle also must be assured. Government provision of information about market opportunities, and prices and capacity building in co-operative management could also be very helpful.33. Perhaps because of the negative impression farmers have of co-operatives from the politicisation of service co-operatives under the Derg, dairy co-operatives are called 'milk groups' in Ethiopia. 34. For example, government agencies in Ethiopia are reported to have claimed ownership of dairy processing equipment purchased by groups of producers under dairy development projects (Nicholson et al. 1998).Development of other intensive commercial livestock enterprises such as beef fattening, and poultry and pork production is constrained mainly by the need for low-cost feed, though religion also plays a strong role with regard to pork consumption. Where domestic feed supplies are limited, avoiding restrictions on imported feed concentrates could help such enterprises to develop. Once demand for such concentrates becomes sufficiently developed, and domestic production of cereals increases sufficiently, local production of feed concentrates may become profitable. Ensuring a policy environment attractive to foreign and domestic investors could be an important element in facilitating such development. However, keeping of livestock for other purposes and, therefore, beyond their optimum productive levels (for milk, meat and traction) is not likely to make feed concentrates profitable. In the near term, therefore, educating and providing livestock producers with other stores of wealth (e.g. savings) will help to build the basis to achieve those long-term goals.Development of such commercial intensive livestock industries would greatly enhance the availability of manure. Given the high cost of transporting manure, the direct impacts on soil fertility would be limited mainly to areas close to the urban markets where these industries develop. However, the increase in supply of such organic material might be used to develop domestic industries supplying more concentrated fertiliser or fuel, which could have a significant impact even in areas further from the urban market. An attractive policy environment (also for growth in demand for such products) could also help facilitate investment in this type of venture.In more remote areas, fodder production is not likely to occur without improved livestock markets. Therefore, in higher population density areas, opportunities exist for development of small ruminant production and increasing flow of nutrients between crop and livestock (crop residues as feed and manure as fertiliser). In lower population density settings, there will be opportunities for improved grazing land and area enclosure management (discussed previously). There may be market opportunities for increased wool production in the highlands, given investments in suitable varieties of sheep, and in processing and marketing. Public measures to control or eliminate animal diseases are justified in remote areas as well as commercial areas for both efficiency reasons (due to the 'public good' nature of the investment) and to address rural poverty and food insecurity.The primary constraints to expanded bee keeping in Amhara Region are the lack of improved beehives, deforestation and lack of suitable trees, farmers' knowledge and training in this activity, and the availability of infrastructure and facilities for marketing the honey. Given the limited availability of forests, expansion of bee keeping could be linked to establishment and management of area enclosures and to private tree planting efforts on degraded lands, increasing the benefits achieved by such efforts. The policy and institutional requirements for increased bee keeping, thus, include the same requisites as those to promote improved management of area enclosures and tree planting in degraded areas (discussed previously).Other requisites include training and technical assistance in bee keeping and honey marketing, and facilities for canning, storing, transporting and marketing honey. A step in the right direction, is the Integrated Food Security Programme (IFSP) plan to establish in the region one bee-keeping training, material producing and research centre, which will train 500 farmers and 50 development agents annually (IFSP 1998).In areas surrounding Lake Tana, and areas lying along the Nile and other major rivers, fishing activities can be an important source of employment and income. Potential annual fish production from lakes in the region is 16-20 thousand tonnes; however, harvest is less than 1.5 thousand tonnes per year (IFSP 1998). To use fishery resources effectively, it is important to improve traditional methods of fishing to increase fishing capacity as well as transportation services to markets. For fishing areas far from major urban towns, improved methods of preservation (e.g. smoking and drying) are necessary. In general, the strategy is to organise and strengthen fishers so as to ensure sustainable market opportunities, and expand the transportation and distribution network. Other requirements include training programmes to upgrade fishing skills, and access to and availability of necessary fishing gear.In areas close to roads and markets, rural non-farm activities are usually an important source of employment and income (von Braun et al. 1991;Delgado et al. 1994). Where commercial agricultural production is expanding, linkages to agricultural input supply, processing and trading are particularly important. For example, off-farm income exceeds half of total income for farmers in western Kenya (the proportion is higher for lower income farmers), and much of this comes from small enterprises engaged in such agriculturally related activities (Crowley et al. 1996, cited in Fistum et al. 1999). Thus, many of the requisites for this strategy are the same as those discussed previously for the commercial agricultural development strategies. 35   35. Other kinds of rural non-farm development may be related to developments in mining, tourism, manufacturing (e.g. textiles and leather goods) and construction (related to development in other sectors). These types of development have some of their own requirements, which will not be discussed here in detail.Beyond development of commercial agriculture, the key requirements for this strategy include development of infrastructure (especially roads and electricity) and transportation facilities, education and vocational training, availability of credit and savings to help finance small start-up enterprises and equity capital for medium and larger enterprises (access to credit is usually not a problem for larger enterprises). It is important to maintain an environment conducive to investment; for example, by reducing delays in licensing procedures, facilitating purchase or long-term leasing of land and buildings by enterprises in urban and peri-urban areas, reducing taxes and broadening the tax base.Restrictions on labour mobility caused by restrictions on land sales, or leasing or tenure insecurity in rural areas can also be an important constraint inhibiting migration of workers to areas where employment demand is high. However, shortage of skilled workers resulting from low education and inadequate training facilities is probably a more critical constraint. High priority should be given to improved education in all areas and to establishment of training facilities where potential for nonfarm development exists.The impacts of non-farm development for sustainable land management are less direct than the effects of the agricultural development strategies, but may be larger and more profound in the long run. Non-farm income enables households to save and to overcome capital market imperfections that may otherwise cause households to discount the future heavily, limiting their ability to invest in commercial crop production, inputs or land improvements (Reardon et al. 1996;Pender and Kerr 1998). Such development can provide farmers an alternative to continuing depletion of soil, forests and other resources (Pinstrup-Andersen and Pandya-Lorch 1995). However, non-farm development may reduce farmers' incentive to invest in land improvement, by increasing the opportunity cost of their time (Pender and Kerr 1998). It is thus important to promote less labor-intensive strategies of land management (such as planting trees rather than annual crops and hand-built terraces) in areas where non-farm employment opportunities are increasing the value of labour. Land policies that limit farmers' ability to plant trees-such as the periodic land redistributions, restrictions on land sales and leasing (limiting ability to reduce fragmentation) and discouraging planting of eucalyptus trees on farmland in Amhara-may thus have a particularly onerous impact where rapid non-farm development is occurring, by limiting the ability of farmers to adopt this less labour-intensive form of land management and, thus, their ability to take advantage of non-farm employment opportunities.Related to non-farm development is the strategy of migration, both seasonal and permanent. Areas with low agricultural potential and low market access are likely to be particularly large sources of migrants, though migration from all areas of the rural highlands is likely given the high population density and small farm sizes. The feasibility of this strategy depends largely upon commercial agricultural development and non-farm development; thus the requisites of the strategy include the requisites of those strategies. Note that restrictions such as those during the Derg regime on labour movements across regions would make this strategy infeasible. These restrictions have been relaxed and we encountered seasonal migration in some of the areas we visited. For example, some farmers from Meket wereda used to go to Mekelle in Tigray Region between December and June to weave, while others from Gubalafto wereda go to the Afar Region to engage in house construction.There is likely potential for seasonal rural-rural migration within the highlands, from low-potential areas to higher-potential or irrigated areas during the dry season, and in some cases there may be potential for permanent rural-rural migration to reduce disparities across locations (though generally high population density throughout the highlands makes this difficult). Permanent rural to rural migration is already taking place in the region, but the extent at the regional level is not fully known.There has been some migration from Meket wereda to neighbouring Bugna wereda, which is less densely populated. From one kebele alone, we were told that about 20 and 30 people in 1998 and 1999, respectively, were involved. Table 22 shows the distribution of migrants in the region by zone between 1992 and 1995, among 2000 sampled households. Rural to rural migration accounted for most of the migration. Most of the migrants, about 57%, went in search of a job or left due to land shortage or drought, while the remaining left to live with their families, to be closer to school or due to divorce (UNECA 1996). Mobility can provide farmers with sufficient income for survival, but also enables them to leave their marginal lands fallow for short periods. However, the high probability of losing land when a person is not present at the time of redistribution, acts as a disincentive to migration.The need for education and training for people in areas of migration should be emphasised. Land tenure is also a key issue affecting migration. People without secure tenure are unlikely to risk losing their land by taking jobs in the city. The scope for permanent rural-rural migration is affected by host area tenure policies affecting opportunities for land leasing. This will be less important with regard to seasonal migration, although availability of land to establish housing for seasonal immigrants is important. Education policies can also affect possibilities for inter-regional migration. For example, different languages are now being taught in different regions of Ethiopia, which will likely increase barriers to inter-regional migration.In this paper, we have examined the available evidence regarding land degradation in the highlands of Amhara Region and its causes; moreover, we have suggested hypotheses about opportunities for various pathways of development in Amhara and strategies to achieve more productive, sustainable and poverty reducing development via such development pathways.Although the evidence on land degradation and its causes is limited in Amhara, it appears that the interrelated problems of soil erosion, soil nutrient depletion, deforestation and limited soil moisture are the most critical land management problems facing the region, and are inflicting substantial costs in the region.The proximate causes of these problems are relatively well known, and include natural factors such as the rugged topography, thin soils, and low and uncertain rainfall (subject to highly erosive rainfall events) in many parts of the highlands of Amhara. Further research is needed to determine the impact of these other policy areas (and the impact of conservation programmes) and to identify policy strategies to promote more sustainable and productive development.To identify effective policy strategies, we have argued that it is useful to start by considering the comparative advantage of various potential pathways of development under the different types of situations existing in Amhara Region. In areas with relatively high agricultural potential and good market access, there is strong potential for commercially oriented agricultural development strategies, such as intensified production of cereals using high levels of external inputs, commercial production of perishable cash crops such as fruits and vegetables, and/or intensive production of commercial livestock products such as dairy and poultry products.There is also strong potential for rural non-farm development linked to agricultural development in such areas. We have argued that in these areas, the priority initially should be on intensified cereal production, since the need for food security is likely to constrain farmers' ability to expand production of other (perhaps more profitable) products until cereal production is adequate. In the longer term, increased production of higher-value commercial products is likely to bring greater incomes and development in these areas. Development of credit, and input and output marketing systems will be critical to the success of these pathways.In areas with high agricultural potential that are more remote from markets, the comparative advantage is likely to be greater in production of high-value (relative to volume) nonperishable cash crops such as nuts, coffee, tea or chat, and/or intensified production of easily transportable livestock such as small ruminants. Even more than in areas of good market access, farmers' ability to produce sufficient food is likely to constrain their ability to expand production of such products. Thus, we have argued that high priority should be given to increased cereal production in such areas with food deficits through the use of imported inputs (particularly seeds and fertiliser). This may require subsidising the cost of transporting inputs in the near term, as well as medium-or long-term credit to allow farmers to finance investments in perennial crops. In the longer term, investments in transportation infrastructure and increases in farm income will make transport cost subsidies unnecessary.In areas with low agricultural potential but good market access, development opportunities are likely to be related to: investment in irrigation where feasible and profitable; intensification of cereal production using limited amounts of inputs integrated with soil and water conservation, and organic fertility management measures; intensification of livestock production through improved management of grazing lands (especially in lower population density settings); development of private woodlots (especially in lower population density settings); and rural non-farm development. Increased cereal production using limited inputs is likely feasible in such areas, though there needs to be more flexibility and adaptation of the extension approach to farmers' situations. Development of the capacities of local kebele administrations to manage common lands (including grazing areas, area enclosures, and degraded and sloping areas) more profitably will also be critical in these areas. These areas are likely to remain deficit producers of food and food aid may be needed in the near term in many such areas, until the development potentials are more fully realised.In areas with low agricultural potential and poor market access, the opportunities for agricultural or rural non-farm development are even more limited. Irrigation development, although of low priority in these areas, may be a driving force for development where large potential exists, as in the Tekeze and Afar river basins, as generally the returns to such development may be much lower than in areas of higher market access. Development of woodlots may also be limited by lack of market access. Intensified cereal production using limited amounts of inputs integrated with soil and water conservation practices and intensified livestock production is likely to be important. Bee keeping may also be an attractive option in some areas and could be linked to vegetative regeneration in area enclosures (especially in lower population density settings). Despite the opportunities that still exist for agricultural development in such areas, food aid and migration are likely to be essential to the livelihoods of people in these circumstances. Thus, policies with respect to food aid, agricultural extension, education and training in non-farm activities, and land tenure will be of particular importance for these areas.The opportunities for addressing land degradation, while achieving more productive and poverty reducing development, will differ depending upon which pathways of development are pursued. Where commercial agriculture is feasible and profitable, there is strong potential to increase incomes and sustainability through use of high levels of inputs integrated with organic soil fertility management practices and conservation investments. Where commercial agriculture is less feasible, improved soil and water management will depend greatly on development and adoption of integrated resource management practices, linking tree planting, improved grazing land management, and integrated use of soil and water conservation, and organic fertility management measures with limited use of inputs. The success of these efforts likely will depend greatly on adoption of a more integrated, flexible and responsive approach to agricultural extension, and soil and water conservation.Consideration of the key constraints likely to be binding in these different situations discussed suggests a number of hypotheses about where public policy and investment priorities should be placed:1. The highest priority for road development should be areas relatively close to urban markets where there is high agricultural potential or high irrigation potential. The highest priority for irrigation development is also in these areas, particularly drier areas, although supplemental irrigation in higher-rainfall areas can also be very valuable. Such development could enable intensive production of food crops, high-value perishable cash crops and dairy products. Where irrigation investment is occurring, adequate attention must be given to institutional issues, such as how water will be allocated and how losers will be compensated, before physical construction. 2. Where such commercial potential exists, food security is a key to allowing farmers to exploit the opportunities available. Where farmers have substantial off-farm income, they may be willing and able to specialise in cash crop production. However, where such opportunities are more limited (or for more limited income farmers), the risks associated with cash crop production may require increases in food productivity to enable greater cash crop production. Increased cash crop production may also help to promote increased food crop production (by enabling purchase of inputs), so that both food and cash crop production may increase for some time before greater specialisation occurs.Similarly, complementary growth of food crop and dairy production may occur in the early phases of development. Research and extension programmes should recognise and exploit such complementary activities. 3. Assuring adequate provision of inputs and credit, and development of the marketing system are critical to all commercial strategies. Development of processing facilities and marketing institutions (such as co-operatives and contract farming), facilitated by a supportive policy environment, are needed. Research and extension programmes will need to take a broader focus, emphasising market opportunities for new commodities, management of animal health, integrated pest management and integrated soil nutrient management. 4. Second priority for road development should be high-potential areas further from markets, especially where population density is high. There is good potential for intensified production of high-value perennial crops in these areas if roads are adequate. However, achieving this potential first requires assurance of food security, which is likely to be most economical by increasing productivity in food crop production. For the nearterm, subsidies on the cost of transporting fertiliser and other inputs to such areas (if they are food deficit) should be considered as a lower cost alternative to food aid. As food deficits are eliminated and increased, and income from perennial crops generated, such subsidies should be eliminated. A further high priority for such areas is land registration and avoidance of restrictions on long-term land leasing, to reduce problems of tenure insecurity and land fragmentation. 5. For low-potential areas without good potential for irrigation (especially with lower population density), priority should be placed on promoting increased productivity of all land, including grazing lands and wastelands. Cautious efforts by governments and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to catalyse development of local institutions to better manage grazing lands are needed. Contingent upon improved grazing land management, some intensification of livestock production is possible. Increased production of small ruminants may be a particularly profitable strategy. Private allocation of wastelands and sloping lands for tree planting has potential to substantially reduce the biomass shortage in some areas, as well as to increase household wealth and incomes, though the potential for income generation is greater closer to markets. In the near term, food aid may be needed in such areas, though priority should be given to developing alternative sources of income as well as increasing land productivity.  To enable target households to obtain improved access to income generating schemes. To enable target households to adopt recommended agricultural inputs, practices and techniques on their individual holdings.Promotion of coffee and other horticultural production. Promotion of fishery. Provision of assistance to women.To increase crop production/productivity. To improve animal husbandry. To promote income generating activities.Provision of credit for agricultural inputs. River diversion for irrigation. Forage development. Improvement of dairy production. Provision of veterinary services. Improvement of bee keeping.To strengthen agricultural extension and environmental rehabilitation programmes. To guarantee food selfsufficiency.Soil conservation. Afforestation. Support crop production/extension. Support livestock development. Small-scale irrigation development.To increase major agricultural crops and livestock. To rehabilitate the environmental resource base of the target area. To increase the levels of household income of landless women and youth.Provision of better extension service. Provision of irrigation facilities and other farm inputs. Improvement of fodder production. Improvement of environmental protection awareness and knowledge of the direct beneficiaries. Support self-employment through skills training and facilitating credit. Introduction of improved small-scale dairy farming, poultry farming, bee keeping, fruit orchards, seedling production and vegetable production.To improve the health and sustainability of the biophysical environment in selected areas. To increase the capacity of poor/vulnerable communities to meet their basic needs in a sustainable manner by enhancing the productivity of natural resource base.Building of the capacity of community development committees and extension volunteers to lead resource development and protection efforts. Promotion and support of community forestry, soil and water conservation, fodder feeding of livestock and closure of degraded lands. Increasing the diversity and availability of appropriate crop seeds. Promotion of crop diversification and support for sustainable agriculture.To improve the micronutrient and health status of mothers and children through cost effective and sustainable intervention and to build local capacity for the delivery of these interventions.Promotion of vegetable and fruit production. Provision of training for communities and line-office staff. Conducting of seminars/workshops to line-offices/departments concerned. 9.3 n.a. n.a.10.1 To increase the number of hectares of community grazing lands that are covered. To increase the production of noncereal crops by local farmers. To increase the area of community fodder production that is protected by soil conservation measures and/or managed with the cut and carry system. To increase the annual cereal and non-cereal crops production of beneficiary households.Community fodder production. Homestead fodder production. Training of farmers in use and application of fertiliser and improved seeds, the control of pre-and post harvest losses, and the maintenance of the natural resource base. Demonstration of improved farming practices on 'lead' farmers' plots. Provision of basic farm inputs for poor farmers through cooperatives. Improvement of existing small-scale irrigation scheme. 12.1 To secure the survival of parts of the population who are unable to feed themselves, due to poor harvests or insufficient own production capacities. To rehabilitate the natural resources as a pre-condition for the population to regain their capacity for self-reliance. To enhance the population's potential for self-help and food security initiatives through appropriate measures in different agricultural and off-farm spheres. 12.2 To increase agricultural productivity through improved agricultural practices. To improve animal husbandry practices. To improve health condition of livestock and genetic make-up of local breeds.Upgrading the existing nurseries. Undertaking plantation. Carrying out physical, biological and agronomic measures of soil conservation. Protection of crops from crop pests, diseases and weeds. Promotion of community seed bank. Support for vegetable production. Promotion of small livestock production including poultry and apiculture. Support for the provision of veterinary services. Provision of training for selected farmers and Peasant Associations (PAs) mainly in crop production, animal husbandry etc.12.3 n.a. n.a.12.4 n.a. n.a.12.5 n.a. n.a.13.1 To enable the people of Meket wereda to find sustainable solutions to environmental, social and economic problems through their own endeavours. To assist and build capacity of target groups. To improve incomes by provision of external inputs. To improve nutritional value of food for project target group.Empowerment of rural women participating in the project by provision of training related to planning, management etc. of their daily activities. Income generation through vegetable production. Improvement of nutritional quality and quantity of food available to project participants and their dependants. Improvement of traditional methods of fishing and provision of training to women on fishing to increase quantity and quality of fish caught. Improvement of transportation of fish to markets. Purchase and provision of female goats and ewes to project participants.20.1 To increase and improve agricultural production of the peasant farming households. To conserve natural resources.To strengthen the organisational and technical capacity of the local government institutions and the community at the grassroots level.Support crop production by carrying out an integrated pest and disease management survey, providing training to contact farmers and providing pesticides on revolving credit basis. Promotion of livestock production through the provision of clinical equipment and other supplies, and by carrying out an animal disease survey. Support horticultural production by conducting training and providing vegetable seeds.To improve the nutritional cover of the food insecure and vulnerable section of the community.Support afforestation through the provision of tree seeds for the establishment of private tree nurseries. Assist soil and water conservation through the construction of check dams.To strengthen the capacities of community and government so as to improve long-term food security while addressing short-term food security problems.Construction of veterinary clinic. Training of farmers and government staff. Support community and government microprojects.To improve the living conditions of women in the target areas. To create awareness of women's rights and to empower women so that they can participate equally with men in economic, political and social activities. To improve women's capabilities and skills by engaging them in diversified activities and by giving them skills training.Mobilisation of beneficiaries for loan disbursement and to encourage savings. Collection of loan repayments. Training in financial transactions and in keeping accounting records.To rehabilitate degraded lands through afforestation and associated soil and water conservation methods. To produce pole, timber, fuelwood and fodder as well as fruits. ToEstablishment of main and local nurseries. Providing households with tree seedlings for homestead planting. Planting seedlings on farm and grazing boundaries and scattered trees on farms. Planting trees along riverbanks, generate cash income from these products.steep hills and roadsides. ","tokenCount":"34740"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"70200680456169dbfb03957fc9dcaa68","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dd07ef27-d05e-4322-942e-b6a24c37a2d8/retrieve","id":"1538686304"},"keywords":["Phytophthora infestans","resistance inductor","environmental impact","severity","resistance","susceptibility"],"sieverID":"36e95852-3bb1-4347-bd71-5774426a3614","pagecount":"155","content":"Tabla 13. Promedios de la severidad (rAUDPC), rendimiento e impacto ambiental (IA) de las cuatro variedades de S. tuberosum L de las tres zonas evaluadas.Tabla 8. Severidad de la enfermedad de plantas de la variedad Yungay después de la aplicación de inductores de resistencia (IDRs) y fungicidas. Método de la hoja separada (Liljeroth et al, 2010) Figura 1. Síntomas dela rancha en Hojas, tallo y tubérculos. ................................................ 9 Figura 2. Protección de follaje (PPF) después de 1, 2, 3, 7 y 15 días de aplicado los tratamientos contra P. infestans. Método de la hoja separada (Liljeroth et al, 2010). ........ 31 Figura 3. Severidad de la enfermedad evaluada a los 7 días de infectadas las plantas con P. Figura 13. Contenido de fenoles totales (CFT) por 100g de base seca (BS), de tubérculos de cuatro variedades de S. tuberosum cosechadas de plantas tratadas con aplicaciones de 1. La papa es uno de los cultivos más importantes del país, siendo su principal factor sanitario limitante la enfermedad de la rancha. El presente trabajo tuvo como objetivo contribuir con el mayor conocimiento sobre la eficacia de los inductores de resistencia (IDR) como un nuevo componente en el manejo integrado de P. infestans en dicho cultivo, para lo cual se determinó la eficacia de cuatro IDRs comerciales a nivel de laboratorio e invernadero. A partir de los dos mejores se determinó la mejor estrategia en campo para el manejo de la enfermedad en cuatro variedades con diferente nivel de susceptibilidad y en tres zonas diferentes. Para la primera fase se emplearon plántulas de la variedad Yungay, donde se determinó que el mayor porcentaje de protección al follaje fue obtenido por los productos PKplus y Manvert Biolet, además presentaron valores bajos de severidad hasta el día 15 de aplicados los productos (ddap). En el ensayo en campo se emplearon tratamientos a base de aplicaciones solas y/o alternadas de PKplus, Manvert. Biolet y fungicida sistémico/contacto, donde se concluyó que los tratamientos que resultaron efectivos para el control de rancha considerando un bajo impacto ambiental y una tasa de retorno marginal superior al 50% para variedades susceptibles fueron aplicaciones solo de PKplus o PKplus alternado con fungicida de contacto, para variedades moderadamente resistentes y resistentes fueron aplicaciones de PKplus alternado con un fungicida de contacto y solo de fungicida de contacto respectivamente. A nivel del tubérculo se evaluó el porcentaje de tejido necrótico después de inoculaciones con P. infestans y se determinó que no existe una relación entre el nivel de resistencia foliar con la del tubérculo, sin embargo, tubérculos provenientes de plantas tratadas con IDRs resultaron en un menor porcentaje de tejido necrótico.Palabras clave: Phytophthora infestans inductor de resistencia, impacto ambiental, severidad, resistencia, susceptibilidad.La papa es sin duda uno de los cultivos más importantes del país en términos de área sembrada (367,692 ha/anual), número de productores que dependen de ella (730,300), aporte a la economía nacional (11% del PBI agrícola) y consumo per cápita (87 kg/hab/año), así mismo se produce en 19 de los 24 departamentos del Perú, lo cual demuestra su plasticidad en términos de adaptación (INEI, 2012).El mayor factor sanitario limitante en la producción de este cultivo es la rancha, enfermedad causada por el oomycete Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, que a nivel mundial ocasiona pérdidas anuales estimadas en aproximadamente 10 billones de euros (Haverkort et al., 2009).En algunas regiones de los países andinos esta enfermedad es difícil de manejar debido a las condiciones climáticas y a la producción continua del cultivo, la cual debe ser protegida desde la emergencia (Kromann et al., 2008), esta situación es agravada por la baja capacidad económica de los agricultores para manejar la enfermedad (Andrade-Piedra et al., 2009) y la baja resistencia genética de las variedades más comerciales que requieren de aplicaciones periódicas de fungicidas para lograr una producción adecuada (Forbes, 2012;Haverkort et al., 2009).Actualmente el método más utilizado para manejar la rancha es el uso de fungicidas, que tiene un impacto negativo sobre el ambiente cuando son utilizados indiscriminadamente y sin ningún criterio técnico (Haverkort et al., 2009).Un método para disminuir las infecciones de la rancha sin ocasionar un impacto negativo en la salud de la personas y sobre el ambiente, podría ser la resistencia inducida que estimule la autodefensa de las plantas a través de diferentes mecanismos relacionados a la formación de barreras físicas tales como la acumulación de lignina o a barreras químicas como la acumulación de proteínas PR (Proteínas relacionadas con la patogénesis), fitoalexinas y fenoles, así como la activación de genes de defensa de las rutas del ácido salicílico y ácido jazmónico/etileno SA y JA/ET (Jones and Dangl, 2006).Los inductores abióticos, también denominados inductores químicos, actualmente constituyen una nueva clase de pesticidas, llamados \"fungicidas de cuarta generación\" por su efecto completamente diferente al de los fungicidas conocidos hasta el momento, esta diferencia se basa principalmente en el mecanismo de acción de los inductores de resistencia (IDR), ya que en su mayoría son compuestos naturales de origen biológico sintetizadas en laboratorio y que se aplican externamente sobre las plantas (Tremacoldi, 2008).El objetivo general del presente trabajo fue el de contribuir con el mayor conocimiento sobre la eficacia de los inductores de resistencia (IDR) como nuevo componente en el manejo integrado de Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary en el cultivo de papa (Solanum tuberosum L.) y como objetivos específicos: Determinar la eficacia de cuatro IDR comerciales en el control de la rancha bajo condiciones de laboratorio e invernadero.Establecer la estrategia más adecuada para el manejo de la rancha mediante el uso IDRs en condiciones de campo y Determinar el efecto varietal y del ambiente en la inducción de resistencia contra la rancha.La \"Papa\" S. tuberosum L. (Solanaceae) es el cuarto alimento más importante del mundo, superado únicamente por el arroz, trigo y maíz en términos de producción total de alimento, además tiene la capacidad de producir más energía y proteínas por unidad de área que cualquier otro alimento (de Haan, 2012)La papa es sin duda uno de los cultivos más importantes del país en términos de área sembrada (367,692 ha/anual), número de productores que dependen de ella (730,300), aporte a la economía nacional (11% del PBI agrícola) y consumo per cápita (87 kg/hab/año (INEI, 2012).A partir de los años 20 surge interés por conocer la variabilidad genética de las solanáceas y se promueve la formación de expediciones colectoras, llegándose a conocer la serie poliploide de la papa, entre 1926 y 1928, los científicos rusos S.M. Bukasov y S.V.Yuzepchuk colectaron en Perú, Bolivia y Chile (Loskutov, 1999), y en 1939, el famoso taxónomo de papa J.G. Existen dos tipos de expresión de resistencia en plantas de papa contra P. infestans, resistencia cualitativa y resistencia cuantitativa.La resistencia cualitativa es conferida por los genes R, de acuerdo al modelo gen por gen (Flor, 1971), que activa la inmunidad de la planta y desencadena una respuesta de hipersensibilidad (HR) (Kamoun et al. 1999, Jones andDangl, 2006). Los genes específicos R fueron encontrados primero en especies de papa silvestre (S. demissum Lindl.) y después introducidas en variedades comerciales (Black et al., 1953;Malcolmson and Black, 1966).La evaluación de la virulencia no es tan fácil debido a que muchos factores influyen en la expresión de los genes-R en papa, tales como la edad de la planta, posición de la hoja de prueba, fuente del inóculo, medio de crecimiento de mantención del patógeno, concentración de esporas y rango de condiciones ambientales, tales como humedad, temperatura e intensidad de luz (Carnegie and Colhoun, 1982;Hodgson and Sharma, 1967;Rubio-Covarrubias et al., 2005;Sobkowiak et al., 2013;Victoria, 1974).El segundo tipo de resistencia es denominado como general o cuantitativa y está gobernado por múltiples genes, presenta un desarrollo más lento de la enfermedad, la cual resulta en una menor eficiencia de infección, lesiones pequeñas, menor esporulación y un periodo más largo de latencia (Umaerus, 1970;Wastie, 1991).Algunos autores propusieron la hipótesis de que existe algún grado de especificidad de raza para los dos tipos de resistencia, además se ha identificado la adaptación para mayor agresividad del patógeno en genotipos del hospedante con resistencia general (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).La rancha es una enfermedad policíclica, es decir que presenta diferentes ciclos de infección y producción del inóculo durante una estación de crecimiento, así el nivel de infección se espera que incremente proporcionalmente para la cantidad inicial y la cantidad del nuevo inóculo producido durante la estación de crecimiento, así mismo la cantidad de producción de inóculo depende del hospedero, patógeno, el ambiente y las condiciones de manejo (Beaumont, 1947;Goodwin, S.B. et al., 1995).Es el agente causal dela rancha, su nombre se deriva de las palabras griegas Phyto=planta, Phthora=destructor, este patógeno, miembro de la clases Oomyceta, pertenece al reino Cromista, y está relacionado filogenéticamente con las diatomeas y algas pardas (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).La pared celular de los Oomycetes contiene principalmente celulosa y β-glucanos antes que quitina y no contiene capacidad de sintetizar los esteroles, estas características hacen suponer que los Oomycetos han coevolucionado a partir de las líneas diferentes de los hongos superiores como Ascomycetos y Basidiomycetos (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).El micelio es cenocítico, es decir no presenta septas o tabiques que separen el micelio, los esporangios son ovoides, elipsoidales a limoniformes, ahusados en la base, caducos, con un pedicelo menor de 3 mm y semipapilados y su tamaño varía de 36 x 22 µm a 29 x 19 µm. y los esporangióforos son de crecimiento continuo, con un pequeño hinchamiento justo debajo del esporangio (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).P. infestans es heterotálico con dos tipos de apareamiento, A1 y A2; los aislamientos de cada tipo son bisexuales y autoincompatibles, por lo que se han reportado diferentes grados de \"masculinidad\" y \"femineidad\" dentro de este patógeno, así, aislamientos que son fuertemente \"masculinos\" formarán más anteridios que oogonios y los que son fuertemente \"femeninos\" formarán más oogonios que anteridios, mientras que algunos aislamientos presentan tendencias equilibradas (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).Las oosporas formadas en las hojas tienen un diámetro promedio de 30 µm (24 -35 µm) y las formadas en medio de cultivo, entre 24 a 56 µm de diámetro (Pérez and Forbes, 2008a).Los Hinchamientos hifales o clamidosporas no han sido reportados en este patógeno, sólo en un artículo publicado en Rusia se reportan clamidosporas después de un periodo de incubación de 4 a 9 meses en medio de cultivo a 9-10°C (Erwin and Ribeiro, 1996).La forma asexual de P. infestans es esencialmente un parasito obligado en la naturaleza, los micelios pueden sobrevivir por periodos cortos en los cultivos abandonados, pero en general el patógeno requiere un hospedero para vivir (cultivado o silvestre) para la supervivencia a largo plazo y no puede pasar el invierno si el hospedero no está disponible, sin embargo en algunas localidades donde ocurre la reproducción sexual, la oospora puede sobrevivir por meses o años en la usencia de un hospedero (Bashi, 1982;Drenth et al., 1995).La forma asexual se desarrolla en agua libre y con bajas temperaturas, los esporangios germinan indirectamente produciendo alrededor de 8-12 zoosporas uninucleadas y biflageladas y son liberadas cuando se rompe la pared esporangial a nivel de su papila, lo cual permite a las zoosporas nadar libremente (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).Las zoosporas tienen dos flagelos diferentes: uno de los flagelos es largo y en forma de látigo, en tanto que el otro es más corto y ornamentado, con dos filas laterales de pelos en el extremo lo que les permite enquistar sobre superficies sólidas, es decir, se detienen, adquieren una forma redondeada y forman una pared celular, luego, en presencia de humedad, pueden desarrollar un tubo germinativo y penetrar a la hoja por los estomas, o formar el apresorio (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).En la forma sexual los gametangios se forman en dos hifas separadas, por lo que P. infestans es heterotálico, así, ambos tipos de apareamiento A1 y A2, deben estar presentes para que ocurra la reproducción sexual y la unión de los gametos ocurre cuando el oogonio atraviesa el anteridio y ocurre la plasmogamia, esto conduce a la fertilización y al desarrollo de una oospora con paredes celulares gruesas que puede sobrevivir en los rastrojos, bajo condiciones favorables (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b). La diversidad genética generada por la reproducción sexual puede llevar a genotipos más agresivos (Goodwin et al., 1995).La enfermedad aparece primero como lesiones irregulares verde pálidas, cerca al ápice y bordes de las hojas, esas lesiones crecen rápidamente convirtiéndose en manchas necróticas (Figura 1), durante las horas de la mañana un moho blanco que consta de esporas y esporangios del patógeno, pueden ser observados en la superficie inferior de las hojas infectadas, las lesiones jóvenes son pequeñas (2-10 mm), de forma irregular y pueden estar rodeadas por un pequeño halo y a medida que crecen las lesiones, estas se vuelven más circulares hasta limitar con los márgenes de las hojas (Forbes et al., 2014a).En los tallos y pecíolos (Figura 1) las lesiones son necróticas, alargadas de 5 -10 cm de longitud, de color marrón a negro, generalmente ubicadas desde el tercio medio a la parte superior de la planta y presentan consistencia vítrea, cuando la enfermedad alcanza todo el diámetro del tallo, éstas se quiebran fácilmente y en condiciones de alta humedad también hay esporulación sobre estas lesiones pero no muy profusa como se presenta en las hojas (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).En los tubérculos (Figura 1) afectados se observan áreas irregulares, ligeramente hundidas, la piel toma una coloración marrón rojiza y al corte transversal se pueden observar unas prolongaciones delgadas que van desde la superficie externa hacia la médula a manera de clavijas y en estados avanzados se nota una pudrición de apariencia granular de color castaño oscuro a parduzco, en estas condiciones puede ocurrir una pudrición secundaria causada por otros hongos (Fusarium spp.) y bacterias (Erwinia spp, Clostridium spp. etc), provocando la desintegración del tubérculo y haciendo difícil el diagnóstico (Pérez and Forbes, 2008b).Figura 1. Síntomas dela rancha en Hojas, tallo y tubérculos.Fuente Forbes et al. (2014a).La aplicación exógena de inductores de resistencia (IDRs) pueden activar las defensas de las plantas y según Dugé de Bernonville et al. ( 2014) la plena integración de los IDR en las prácticas agrícolas requiere métodos para la rápida y objetiva detección de IDR que sean eficientes y se haya optimizado su aplicación.La inducción de resistencia puede ser obtenida a través del uso de productos naturales, de origen vegetal o fúngico, y esto ha sido una ventaja para permitir una respuesta al ataque de un amplio rango de patógenos, porque no tienen mecanismos de acción específicos (Graham and Myers, 2011;Madhusudhan et al., 2008). Así mismo los elicitores o inductores son definidos como moléculas presentes en un organismo o producidos por la misma planta y cuya función incluye la generación de las respuestas de defensa (Sudhamoy, 2010).Diferentes estudios han mostrado que los inductores de resistencia activan mecanismos de defensa en muchas especies estudiadas. Madhusudhan et al. (2008) empleó pre tratamientos de Acibenzolar-Smethyl (ASM) en plantas de tabaco y tomate y redujo la concentración de Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) y Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), a través de mecanismos que involucran la inducción de genes RdRp (RNA dependent RNA Polimerasa) y AOX (Oxidasa alternativa).Por otro lado la resistencia inducida en plantas de berenjena (S. melongena L.) a Ralstonia solanacearum fue estudiada por Sudhamoy, (2010) quién determino que el incremento en el contenido total fenólico y de lignina en la pared celular en raíces de las plantas fue altamente significativo, así mismo observó un incremento de la actividad de fenill alanina amonio-liasa (PAL) y alta actividad de peroxidasa (POD) después de 24 h de aplicado Quitosan (CHT) yÁcido salicílico (SA).El interés en las moléculas estimuladoras de los mecanismos naturales de defensa de la planta, surgió por su contribución al control de patógenos y plagas, ya que presentan el potencial de disminuir y/o evitar el riesgo de emergencia de poblaciones de patógenos o plagas resistentes a productos químicos, contrarrestar parcialmente los daños químicos ocasionados a la planta por los pesticidas y finalmente originar aumento del rendimiento de las cosechas (Barbosa et al., 2008).Los inductores abióticos, también denominados inductores químicos, actualmente constituyen una nueva clase de pesticidas, llamados \"fungicidas de cuarta generación\" por su efecto completamente diferente al de los fungicidas conocidos hasta el momento (Tremacoldi, 2008). Esta diferencia se basa principalmente en el mecanismo de acción de los inductores, en su mayoría son compuestos naturales de origen biológico sintetizadas en laboratorio y que se aplican externamente sobre las plantas (Tremacoldi, 2008).El inductor de resistencia comercial más conocido es Acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM), análogo estructural y funcional del ácido salicílico, este induce resistencia en varias especies de plantas contra un amplio espectro de virus, bacterias, hongos y nematodos patogénicos, los estudios mostraron una rápida expresión de los genes relacionados a la resistencia, tales como glucanasas y quitinasas cuando se usaron estos productos (Dietrich et al., 2005).Aplicaciones foliares de ASM, solo o en combinación con cobre sobre plantas de tomate y pimiento mostraron resultados prometedores en el control de enfermedades bacterianas (Louws et al., 2001;Romero and Ritchie, 2004).La acción del inductor químico ASM en el cultivo de tomate previno completamente la ocurrencia de síntomas típicos de mancha bacteriana del tomate producida por Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria, la pérdida de electrolitos y los estudios de la dinámica de la población del patógeno confirmaron que las plantas de tomate tratadas con ASM respondieron a la inoculación por elicitores en una HR (respuesta de hipersensibilidad) (Obradovic et al., 2005).La aplicación foliar de ASM en cítricos, fue efectivo contra el cancro bajo condiciones de invernadero, pero las aplicaciones foliares de ASM combinados con oxicloruro de cobre no contribuyeron al control de la enfermedad sobre árboles de naranja dulce en ensayos en campo (Graham and Leite, 2004).La expresión de proteínas de genes relacionados con la patogénesis (PR) (b-1,3 glucanasas) y PR-2, en los cítricos incremento en respuesta a ASM y al ácido isonicotínico (INA), la respuesta de PR-2 y la reducción de lesiones producidas por la enfermedad bacteriana después de la aplicación foliar con estos productos se mantuvo durante sólo unas pocas semanas (Burns et al., 2004), mientras que ASM indujo a la expresión del ácido PR-1 en tomate por 7-10 días (Herman et al., 2007). De la misma forma Louws et al. (2001), confirmaron que las aplicaciones foliares se requieren a intervalos semanales para el control en campo de la mancha foliar producida por Xanthomonas y Pseudomonas en tomate.La eficacia del ácido hexanoico (Hx) como un inductor de resistencia en plantas de tomate contra Pseudomonas syringae pv. Tomato DC3000 fue demostrado por Scalschi et al.(2014), quienes en su trabajo proporcionaron la primera demostración de la respuesta del patógeno a los cambios observados en las plantas después de la aplicación del producto, no sólo en términos del tamaño de la población, sino también de los niveles de transcripción de genes implicados en la detección la patogénesis.Las sales de fosfato dibásicas y tribásicas brindan una protección sistémica contra antracnosis en pepino causado por Colletotrichum lagenarium (Gottstein and Kué, 1998), trabajos posteriores demostraron un amplio espectro de control de enfermedades en pepino usando fosfitos (Mucharromah and Kuc, 1991).Se especuló que los fosfitos básicos aplicados a plantas pueden secuestrar calcio apoplástico, alterando la integridad de la membrana e influenciando en la actividad de las enzimas apoplasticas tales como poligalacturonasas, liberando de este modo elicitores-activos de la pared celular de las plantas (Gottstein and Kué, 1998;Walters and Murray, 1992).En efecto el trabajo subsecuente de Orober et al. (2002) demostró que la inducción de resistencia mediada por fosfatos en pepino fue asociada con la muerte celular localizada, precedido por una generación rápida de superóxido y peróxido de hidrogeno, estos trabajos también detectaron el incremento localizado y sistémico en los niveles de SA libre y conjugada después de la aplicación de fosfitos (Orober et al., 2002).Recientes trabajos sobre la infección de Blumeria graminisen en cebada mostraron que la aplicación de fosfitos en las primeras hojas reduce la infección en 89% en las segundas hojas y que se incrementa significativamente la actividad de fenilalanina amonio liasa (PAL), peroxidasa y lipoxigenasa en las segundas hojas (Mitchell and Walters, 2004).Los fosfitos también muestran un control de enfermedades bajo condiciones de campo, la aplicación de K2HPO4 en arroz reduce la pudrición del cuello causado por Pyricularia oryzae entre 29 y 42% lo cual incrementó la producción de grano entre 12 y 32% (Manandhar et al., 1998), el fosfito (K2HPO4, 25mM) aplicado en cebada en ensayos de campo, redujo la infección por Blumeria graminispor encima del 70% y logro un incremento en la producción de grano de 12% comparado con el control no tratado (Mitchell and Walters, 2004),en pepinos hidropónicos, el fosfito aplicado a 20 ppm redujo la infección por Sphaerotheca fuliginea hasta 91% en número de conidios sobre hojas infectadas (Reuveni et al., 2000) y en papa, en ensayos para el control de la rancha, la eficacia de los productos fosfatados comerciales fue superior a la de los fungicidas de contacto (Kromann et al., 2012).A principios de 1990, la primera evidencia del rol del Silicio (Si) como una barrera mecánica fue reportando en dicotiledóneas. Samuels et al. (1991), uso un sistema patológico fúngico en pepino y demostró que dentro de un corto periodo de tiempo después de que se detuviera las aplicaciones de Si, todos los efectos profilácticos se perdieron.Datos adicionales reportados por Chérif et al. (1992) contradicen el papel pasivo de Si contra la colonización de hongos, aunque el Si no se acumuló en los sitios de infección bajo condiciones de humedad saturada, los pepinos tratados con Si resistieron más eficazmente contra Pythium. Cherif, (1994) propuso que el Si soluble activa mecanismos de defensa en pepino contra Pythium por el incremento de actividad de la quitinasa, peroxidasa y polifenoloxidasa, y el aumento de la acumulación de compuestos fenólicos. El Grupo Datnoff (Rodrigues et al., 2003), trabajó con el cultivo de arroz en Florida (USA), y reportó evidencia citológica de que la resistencia mediada por Si contra Magnaporthe grisea esta correlacionado con reacciones específicas de células foliares que interfieren con el desarrollo del hongo. El mismo grupo asoció la infección del arroz por M. grisea, con laPor otro lado Martinelli et al. (2014) estudiaron la resistencia en cebada, inducida por una inoculación previa de un aislado avirulento de Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei; para ello usaron cepas de líneas isogénicas de cebada y cada uno de las variedades poseían cuatro diferentes genes de resistencia específica, encontrando que la RI se expresa como la reducción del número de colonias formadas, difiriendo en las líneas que llevan diferentes genes de resistencia específicas para la raza, siendo más eficaz en líneas con el gen Mla7 y menos efectiva en líneas con el gen Mla13; cuando la RI fue medida en el último estado de infección, como una reducción en la producción de esporas, el efecto fue mayor en las líneas Mla7 y fue débil en las líneas Mla6 y Mlh.La resistencia en pepinos contra Sphaerotheca fuliginea, inducido por tratamientos con INA también fue dependiente de la variedad, así niveles altos de expresión de RI fue obtenida en una variedad parcialmente resistente y niveles menores en la variedad susceptible (Hijwegen and Verhaar, 1995). Resultados diferentes fueron obtenidos por Dann et al. (1998) en soya, ellos encontraron que la resistencia a Sclerotonia sclerotiorum inducidos por tratamientos con INA o ASM fue mayor en variedades susceptibles, de igual modo mostraron que la resistencia inducida no está relacionada a la resistencia de genes mayores y que las diferencias depende de la expresión de la inducción de la resistencia (Stadnik and Buchenauer, 1999).El efecto de ASM en la reducción de la ocurrencia de mutantes de X. axonopodis pv.vesicatoria que expresan los genes de resistencia mayores (R) en pimiento fueron examinados por Romero and Ritchie, (2004) en experimentos en campo, ellos encontraron el decrecimiento de la severidad de la enfermedad por tratamientos con ASM que fue asociado con la supresión del causal de la enfermedad. Efectos genotípicos sobre la expresión de ISR por PGPR también han sido demostrados en Arabidopsis thaliana, por cepas de Pseudomonas fluorescens WCS417 (Ton et al., 1999;Van Wees et al., 1997) La resistencia inducida (RI) requiere la translocación de reservas del crecimiento y desarrollo hacia las defensas de la planta, las restricciones sobre la disponibilidad de tales reservas pueden ejercer un impacto sobre la resistencia inducida (Heil et al., 2000).En recientes trabajos se demostró que las reservas asociados con el uso de ASM sobre trigo fue mayor, cuando el suplemento de nitrógeno fue limitado, en recientes trabajos, el suplemento de nitrógeno mostro un efecto marcado sobre la expresión de RI en Arabidopsis (Dietrich et al., 2004).Los niveles constitutivos de quitinasa y peroxidasa en plantas inducidas por tratamientos de ASM fueron significativamente menores bajo un suplemento de nitrógeno limitado, aunque la actividad máxima de quitinasa no presentó diferencias significativas en las plantas inducidas, la inducción de la cinética de la enzima fue severamente afectada por la limitación de nitrógeno, además el contenido de proteínas solubles totales disminuyo significativamente durante las primeras 12 h de aplicado el tratamiento de ASM (Dietrich et al., 2004).Por otro lado el desarrollo de SAR en A. thaliana en respuesta a la infección de bacterias avirulentas fue inactivado cuando el proceso de infección primaria ocurrió en ausencia de luz (Griebel and Zeier, 2008) y el efecto de la RI sobre la producción de la semilla fue influenciado por condiciones ambientales tales como el suplemento de nitrógeno, estrés hídrico, y competencia con otras plantas (Dietrich et al., 2005).Se conoce que algunas veces la exposición a estreses abióticos puede influenciar la resistencia de las plantas frente a patógenos, Ayres, (1984), propuso dos posibles resultados de tales interacciones, el primero fue la posibilidad que el efecto negativo del patógeno y el estrés abiótico puede ser aditivos, y la segunda posibilidad es que el estrés abiótico puede alterar la resistencia de la planta contra la infección del patógeno, llevando por ejemplo a mejorar la resistencia. en la época de cultivo de noviembre a marzo del 2017.Se realizó un ensayo preliminar con la finalidad de determinar la eficacia de las dosis comerciales de cada inductor de resistencia (IDR), para lo cual se asperjaron dos plantas de la variedad Yungay con la dosis comercial máxima recomendada para cada producto y después de 2 días fueron inoculadas con el aislamiento POX067 de P. infestans mediante el método de la hoja separada (Liljeroth et al., 2010). Después de 7 días de la inoculación se evaluó la severidad de la enfermedad. Según los resultados obtenidos, se decidió que en los trabajos posteriores se utilice el doble de concentración recomendada en los productos comerciales (IDR´s).Para los experimentos de la hoja separada y planta completa evaluados en laboratorio e invernadero respectivamente, se emplearon foliolos y plantas provenientes de tubérculos de la variedad Yungay de calidad pre-básica, los que fueron sembrados en macetas de plástico de 6\" con sustrato de turba Kekila®. La fertilización se realizó al momento de la siembra utilizando el fertilizante Peters® (20N-20P-20K) y el manejo de insectos fue realizado de acuerdo a la incidencia y nivel de daño.Para los experimentos de la hoja separada y planta completa, los tratamientos fueron aplicados a las plantas 35 días después de la siembra. Se utilizaron 4 inductores de resistencia (IDRs) comerciales PK plus (20% p/p fosfito de potasio), Miconic (47% p/v ácidos orgánicos), Manvert Silikon (30% p/p Óxido de silicio), Manvert Biolet (ácidos carboxílicos), dos fungicidas de contacto (Mancozeb y Propineb) y un tratamiento control con agua (Tabla 1). Debido a resultados obtenidos preliminarmente los inductores de resistencia fueron probados al doble de la dosis máxima recomendada comercialmente. Las plantas fueron asperjadas en el haz y el envés hasta lograr su total de cobertura de acuerdo a la metodología descrita por Eshraghi et al., (2011).Para las inoculaciones realizadas bajo condiciones de laboratorio e invernadero se utilizó el aislamiento POX067 perteneciente al linaje clonal EC-1, grupo de apareamiento A1, gen de avirulencia Avr8,9 y resistente a metalaxyl, el cual fue aislado de la variedad Amarilis en Oxapampa, departamento de Pasco en el año 2000 (Pérez et al., 2001).Después de 1, 2, 3, 7 y 15 días de aplicados los tratamientos en las plantas completas, se extrajeron dos hojas de cada planta, las cuales fueron colocadas en placas Petri conteniendo agar agua al 1% según el método descrito por Liljeroth et al., (2010). Las hojas fueron inoculadas con una gota de 30 µl de una suspensión de esporangios (3x10 3 esporangios ml -1 ) en el envés de las hojas y fueron incubadas en una cámara climática (BIOTRON NK System) a 18°C con un régimen de 12h luz/12h oscuridad. La inoculación en planta completa se realizó 2 días después de aplicados los tratamientos de acuerdo a lo descrito por Orbegozo et al., (2013) a una concentración de 3x10 3 esporangios ml -1 con ayuda de un aspersor manual, con el que se procuró mojar totalmente las plantas tanto por el haz como el envés de las hojas para facilitar su infección. Las inoculaciones se realizaron en cubículos de bioseguridad del CIP bajo condiciones controladas de temperatura 16 -18°C, 80 a 90% de humedad relativa y regímenes de luz/oscuridad de 12h.Para el experimento de la hoja separada se empleó el diseño completamente al azar (DCA), con tres repeticiones y cada repetición constituida por 10 plantas (Tabla 2). Los análisis estadísticos fueron realizados con el programa SAS for Windows Versión 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA) y Minatab 17 (Minitab Inc; USA). Los datos de severidad fueron transformados con la raíz de (X + 0.5).Tabla 2. Fuentes de variación del diseño completamente al azar (DCA).Error 14Total 20Modelo aditivo lineal:\uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56 = \uD835\uDF07 + \uD835\uDF0F \uD835\uDC56 + \uD835\uDF16 \uD835\uDC56 Donde:\uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56 = Es la respuesta (variable de interés o variable media).\uD835\uDF07 = Es la media general del experimento.\uD835\uDF0F \uD835\uDC56 = Es el efecto del tratamiento \uD835\uDF16 \uD835\uDC56 = Es el error aleatorio asociado a la respuesta \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56 Los tratamientos fueron evaluados en cinco momentos diferentes a 1, 2, 3, 7 y 15 días después de aplicados, para lo cual se empleó el diseño DCA con experimentos repetidos (Tabla 3). La homogeneidad de variancias del error entre los días después de aplicados los tratamientos y los tratamientos fue hallado según la prueba de F máximo.Para el ensayo de tubérculo completo, se lavaron los tubérculos con agua destilada y fueron desinfestados por inmersión en una solución de hipoclorito de sodio (2.5 g l -1 ) por 5 min.Tabla 3. Fuentes de variación del diseño completamente al azar (DCA) con experimentos repetidos.Días después de aplicado el tratamiento (D) \uD835\uDC37 \uD835\uDC56= Efecto de los días después de aplicado el tratamiento.\uD835\uDF0F \uD835\uDC57 = Efecto del tratamiento.\uD835\uDF16 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 = Error aleatorio asociado a la respuesta \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 .Para el experimento de planta completa, se empleó el diseño completamente al azar con 7 tratamientos y tres repeticiones, cada repetición estuvo constituida por 10 plantas (Tabla 2).Los análisis estadísticos fueron realizados con el programa SAS for Windows Versión 9.4(SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA).Los tratamientos fueron replicados dos veces, para lo cual se aplicó el diseño DCA con experimentos repetidos (Tabla 4). La homogeneidad de variancias del error entre las dos réplicas y los tratamientos fue hallado según la prueba de F máximo Tabla 4 Fuentes de variación del diseño completamente al azar (DCA) con experimentos repetidos.Réplicas (R) \uD835\uDC45 \uD835\uDC56= Efecto de las réplicas.\uD835\uDF0F \uD835\uDC57 = Efecto del tratamiento.\uD835\uDF16 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 = Error aleatorio asociado a la respuesta \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 .Se realizó una correlación entre los datos de severidad obtenido mediante los métodos de inoculación empleados en laboratorio e invernadero para determinar la eficacia de los tratamientos. Los análisis estadísticos fueron realizados con el programa SAS for Windows Versión 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USAPara el experimento de la hoja separada se evaluó la severidad de la enfermedad a los 7 días después de la inoculación según lo descrito por Forbes et al., (2014) y el tiempo de persistencia o duración del inductor fue calculado por el porcentaje de protección del follaje (PPF) a 1, 2, 3, 7 y 15 días después de aplicado los tratamientos de acuerdo a la siguiente ecuación:Donde x y y son los valores de la severidad de la enfermedad para las plantas tratadas y control respectivamente (Cohen and Gisi, 1994).Para el experimento de planta completa se evaluó la severidad de la enfermedad según lo descrito por Forbes et al. (2014) a los 7 días después de la inoculación.Para los experimentos realizados en campo se emplearon tubérculos de calidad básica de cuatro variedades difundidas de la zona y con nivel de susceptibilidad a P. infestans reportados por de Haan (2012): Yungay (susceptible), Canchan (susceptible), UNICA (moderadamente resistente) y Serranita (resistente). La fertilización fue ajustada en base a los resultados del análisis de suelos. El manejo fitosanitario de insectos y malezas se realizó de acuerdo a la presencia de estas plagas.Para el análisis post cosecha se emplearon tubérculos cosechados de las cuatro variedades y de las tres zonas evaluadasEn los experimentos de campo se consideró la utilización de los dos mejores IDR; además, se incluyó un tratamiento a base de aplicaciones de fungicida de contacto (Propineb) (Tabla 5). Los IDR fueron probados al doble de la dosis comercial recomendada (Tabla 1) en tres regímenes de aplicación: con aplicaciones cada 7 días en la variedad Yungay y Canchan, cada 9 días en la variedad UNICA y cada 11 días en la variedad Serranita, para los tratamientos T2, T4 y T5 se alternaron los productos respetando los regímenes de aplicación según la variedad. El tratamiento DSS (sistemas de apoyo a la toma de decisiones) fue empleado según Pérez et al., (2014) y al T8 no se le aplico ningún producto (control).Para el experimento de post cosecha se utilizó la metodología descrita por Colon et al. (2004). Se realizaron dos ensayos uno de tubérculo completo y el otro de rodajas de tubérculos.Para el ensayo de tubérculo completo, se inocularon los tubérculos con el asilamiento empleado en los experimentos de laboratorio e invernadero. Para los cual se lavaron los tubérculos con agua destilada y se desinfectaron por inmersión en una solución de hipoclorito de sodio (2.5 g l -1 ) por 5 min, se enjuagaron con agua destilada por dos veces y luego fueron dejados a secar a temperatura ambiente sobre papel toalla estéril. Se seleccionaron 10 tubérculos no dañados por repetición y se sumergieron durante 5 min en una suspensión de esporangios (15000 esporangios ml -1 ) de P. infestans. Inmediatamente después, los tubérculos fueron puestos en cajas de plástico e incubados en oscuridad a una temperatura de 16 °C (±2°C) por 13 días.Para el ensayo de rodajas de tubérculos, se cortaron discos de parénquima (4-6 cm diámetro, 10 mm grosor) de 3 tubérculos sanos por cada tratamiento, variedad y zona de siembra (Andreu et al., 2006). Se cortaron 2 rodajas centrales por tubérculo y se colocaron en placas Petri de 14.5 cm de diámetro. Las rodajas de tubérculos fueron inoculados con 20 µl de esporangios (3000 esporangios ml -1 ) y fueron incubados a 18°C en oscuridad por 7 días (Pérez et al., 2014).Tabla 5. Tratamientos evaluados bajo condiciones de campo. Tabla 6 Fuentes de variación del diseño de Bloques con arreglo factorial 4V X 8T.Bloques 2Variedades (V) 3VXT 21Error 62Total 95Modelo aditivo lineal: \uD835\uDC49 \uD835\uDC57 = Es el efecto de la variedad.\uD835\uDC61 \uD835\uDC58 = Es el efecto del tratamiento.\uD835\uDF16 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC58 = Es el error aleatorio asociado a la respuesta \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57\uD835\uDC58 Los tratamientos fueron evaluados en tres zonas, para lo cual se aplicó el diseño DBCA con experimentos repetidos (Tabla 7). La homogeneidad de variancias del error entre las zonas y los tratamientos fue hallado con la prueba de F máximo.Tabla 7 Fuentes de variación del diseño de Bloques con experimentos repetidos.Lugar (L) 2Bloques/Lugar 6 Variedad (V) 3VxL 6VxT 21LxT 14VxLxT 42Error 186Total 287Modelo aditivo lineal: El rendimiento se calculó por parcela y solo se consideró el peso de los tubérculos comerciales (mayor a 50 g). Los tubérculos fueron cosechados dejando de lado las plantas de los bordes El impacto ambiental (IA) fue calculado según la dosificación (Kg o Lt/Ha), concentración del ingrediente activo en cada pesticida aplicado y el número de aplicaciones que se realizaron en el ciclo del cultivo por cada tratamiento (Barona and Andrade, 2013) El análisis económico fue calculado a través de la tasa de retorno marginal (CIMMYT, 1988). El análisis fue calculado para cada tratamiento, variedad y zona evaluada, para lo cual se estimó el costo variable de cada tratamiento (costo del producto empleado y costo de aplicación) y se calculó el beneficio bruto obtenido (rendimientos por hectárea multiplicada por el precio del kilo de papa en campo).La estimación del beneficio neto se obtuvo de la diferencia del beneficio bruto y el costo variable por tratamiento. Los tratamientos fueron ordenados según el incremento de los costos variables y se determinó la dominancia (D) de los tratamientos que presentaron valores de beneficio neto por debajo del tratamiento control. La tasa de retorno marginal fue hallada como la relación entre el beneficio neto marginal (el cambio en el beneficio neto) y el costo marginal (el cambio en el costo). Los valores obtenidos fueron expresados en porcentaje. Se consideró una tasa mínima de retorno marginal aceptable de aproximadamente 50%.Para la evaluación post cosecha en tubérculos completos se seleccionaron aleatoriamente 3 tubérculos sintomáticos por repetición y se cortaron longitudinalmente para evaluar visualmente el porcentaje de tejido necrótico. Los datos fueron transformados con la raíz cuadrada de (x+0.5), para que se ajusten a una distribución normal, ya que algunos valores se reportaron por debajo de 10 y otros fueron cero (Steel et al., 1997).Para la evaluación en rodajas de tubérculos se voltearon las rodajas de papa, se descartaron las que presentaron presencia de bacterias, se retiró la capa superior necrótica y se evaluó visualmente el porcentaje de tejido necrótico (Colon et al., 2004). Los datos fueron transformados con la raíz cuadrada de X para que los valores se ajusten a una distribución normal.Para la cuantificación de fenoles se utilizó la metodología descrita por Burgos et al. (2013).Se extrajo una muestra del tubérculo y se procedió a liofilizar, posteriormente se pesó la muestra dependió del color de la pulpa (0.8 a 1.0 g para muestras de color blanca o crema, 0.5 a 0.7 g para muestras amarillas o rojas y 0.1 a 0.4 g para muestras purpuras), , se agregó 10 ml de 70% de metanol, se homogenizó por 10 s ; el extracto fue filtrado a través de papel Whatman #4, se agregó 10 ml de metanol 70% sobre el residuo y se continuó homogenizando con ayuda de un vortex, finalmente se filtró el extracto y se extrajo hasta un volumen final de 25 ml.Para la determinación de fenoles se tomó 400 µl de muestra en un tubo, se agregó 8 ml de agua destilada y 0.5 ml de 2 N de reactivo de Folin Ciocalteau (Merck KGaA), posteriormente se agregó 1500 µl 20% de carbonato de sodio y se incubó en baño maría a 40°C por 30 min. Para el caso de la muestra blanco o control solo se dispensó 400 µl de agua destilada.La absorbancia fue medida a 765 nm, se calculó la concentración del total de compuestos fenólicos basados en una curva estándar previamente calibrada en el laboratorio de Nutrición del CIP y los resultados fueron expresados en mg de ácido clorogénico/100 g de muestra.IV. RESULTADOSLos tratamientos PKplus, Dithane y Antracol controlaron la enfermedad a la dosis recomendada comercialmente, mientras que los demás tratamientos mostraron porcentajes altos de severidad (datos no publicados).El análisis de variancia de los datos de severidad evaluada según el método de hojas separadas, mostró diferencias altamente significativas entre tratamientos, días después de aplicados los tratamientos (ddap) y la interacción entre ambos factores (Anexo 1).Al realizarse la comparación de medias mediante la prueba de Tukey (α=0.  Tabla 8. Severidad de la enfermedad de plantas de la variedad Yungay después de la aplicación de inductores de resistencia (IDRs) y fungicidas. Método de la hoja separada (Liljeroth et al, 2010).  Figura 3. Severidad de la enfermedad evaluada a los 7 días de infectadas las plantas con P. infestans bajo condiciones de invernadero. Las barras representan la desviación estándar y letras diferentes indican diferencias significativas (p<0.01) entre la media de los tratamientos.Correlación entre ensayos de la hoja separada y de planta completa.Los análisis de correlación nos indican un alto grado de asociación lineal entre los datos de Tabla 9. Severidad de la enfermedad (%) en el ensayo de la hoja separada bajo condiciones de laboratorio y en el ensayo de la planta completa realizado bajo condiciones de invernadero.Severidad  En la variedad susceptible Canchán el tratamiento con el que se controló mejor la enfermedad y durante todo el periodo de cultivo fue con el uso del DSS en las tres zonas evaluadas, seguido de aplicaciones solo de Antracol y la alternancia de aplicaciones de PKplus con Antracol para la zona de Pogzogan (Tabla 11); ambos tratamientos controlaron la enfermedad (menor al 20% de severidad) hasta 89 dds (Figura 6a). En las zonas de Santa Cruz y Aco no se observaron diferencias significativas (p>0.01) entre los tratamientos de aplicaciones solo de PKplus, aplicaciones solo de Antracol y la alternancia de los mismos (Tabla 12 y 13). En la zona de Santa Cruz dichos tratamientos controlaron la enfermedad durante todo el periodo de cultivo (Figura 7a) y en la zona de Aco el tratamiento con aplicaciones solo de Antracol controló la enfermedad hasta 96 dds (Figura 8a).El tratamiento que controlo mejor la enfermedad en la variedad Yungay durante todo el periodo del cultivo en las zonas de Pogzogan y Aco fue el uso del DSS, seguido por el tratamiento de aplicaciones solo de Antracol y de alternancia de Antracol con PKplus y Manvert Biolet en la zona de Pogzogan; que controlaron hasta el día 96 dds (Figura 6b). En la zona de Santa Cruz y Aco no se observaron diferencias significativas (p>0.01) entre los tratamientos de aplicaciones solo de Antracol, aplicaciones solo de PKplus y alternancia de los mismos (Tabla 13). El uso del DSS para el control de la enfermedad en la zona de Santa Cruz no presento diferencias significativas con dichos tratamientos (Figura 7b). En la zona de Aco el tratamiento de alternancia de PKplus con Antracol controlo la enfermedad hasta 96 dds (Figura 8c).En la zona de Pogzogan, todos los tratamientos controlaron la enfermedad en la variedad UNICA hasta el 96 dds y solo el tratamiento de aplicaciones de PKplus controlo la enfermedad hasta el 103 dds (Figura 6c). En la zona de Santa Cruz, los tratamientos con el uso solo de Manvert Biolet y su alternancia con PKplus no controlaron la enfermedad, ya que no presentaron diferencias significativas con el tratamiento control (p>0.01). La alternancia de aplicaciones con Antracol controlo la enfermedad hasta 96 dds (Figura 7c) (Tabla 12), mientras que en la zona de Aco el control fue durante todo el periodo de cultivo (Figura 8c), y estadísticamente no fue diferente de los tratamientos con el uso del DSS y aplicaciones solo de PKplus (Tabla 13).En la variedad Serranita el control de la enfermedad se dio con todos los tratamientos en las tres zonas evaluadas (Tabla 11, 12 y 13) y durante todo el periodo del cultivo (Figura 6d, 7d y 8d).Según el análisis combinado de las variancias de las medias de rAUDPC, la interacción de El mayor rendimiento para la variedad Canchán se obtuvo con el tratamiento de aplicaciones de PKplus alternado con Antracol, sin embargo, no fue estadísticamente diferente (p>0.01) con los tratamientos de uso de DSS, aplicaciones solo de Antracol y aplicaciones solo de PKplus en las tres zonas evaluadas. En la zona de Aco, estos tratamientos tampoco fueron diferentes (p>0.01) con los tratamientos de aplicaciones solo de Manvert Biolet y alternancia de Manvert Biolet con Antracol (Tabla 13).En la variedad Yungay los más altos rendimientos fueron obtenidos con el tratamiento DSS en las zonas de Pogzogan y Aco respectivamente, y con aplicaciones solo de PKplus en la zona de Santa Cruz; sin embargo, estos tratamientos no fueron estadísticamente diferentes (p>0.01) al tratamiento de aplicaciones de alternancia de PKplus con Antracol y aplicaciones solo de Antracol en la zona de Aco, tratamiento de aplicaciones de Manvert Biolet conAntracol en la zona de Santa Cruz y de aplicaciones de PKplus con Manvert Biolet en la zona de Pogzogan (Tabla 11, 12 y 13).En las zonas de Pogzogan y Aco, los tratamientos en los que se observaron mejores rendimientos para la variedad UNICA fueron con el uso del DSS y aplicaciones alternadas de PKplus con Antracol respectivamente, aunque estos no presentaron diferencias estadísticas con los demás tratamientos (p>0.01) (Tabla 11 y 13). En la zona de Santa Cruz el uso del DSS, aplicaciones solo de Antracol y alternancia de Antracol con los IDRs, resulto en mejores rendimientos (Tabla 12).Con respeto al rendimiento evaluado en la variedad Serranita, no se observaron diferencias significativas (p>0.01) entre tratamientos en las tres zonas evaluadas.Según el análisis combinado de variancia de las medias del rendimiento, la interacción de las variedades con los diferentes tratamientos y las zonas evaluadas fue altamente significativa (p<0.01) (Anexo 52), indicando una dependencia de los factores, es decir que el efecto de los tratamientos depende o es influenciado por los efectos de las variedades y de las zonas de siembra (ambiente). El incremento en los valores de rAUDPC produjo un decrecimiento en el rendimiento, estableciéndose una relación lineal, inversa y significativa (p<0.01) entre las dos variables, con un coeficiente de Pearson de -0.75 (Figura 9, Anexo 56).El impacto ambiental (IA) de los tratamientos fue calculado por variedad y zona evaluada.Se observó que en las variedades susceptibles los tratamientos que presentaron mayor IA en las tres zonas evaluadas fueron DSS seguido de aplicaciones solo de Antracol, a diferencia de los tratamientos de aplicaciones solo de Manvert Biolet y de alternancia de Manvert Biolet con PKplus, que tuvieron valores más bajos de IA (Tabla 11, 12 y 13).En la variedad moderadamente resistente UNICA y en la variedad resistente Serranita se obtuvieron también los valores más altos de IA con DSS y aplicaciones solo de Antracol en las tres zonas evaluadas. Los valores de IA fueron mayores en las variedades susceptibles que los calculados para las variedades moderadamente resistente y resistente (Tabla 11, 12 y 13).El análisis económico se calculó solo para los tratamientos no dominantes, ya que presentaron una relación directamente proporcional entre el incremento del costo variable y el beneficio neto obtenido con respecto al tratamiento control.En la variedad Canchán se observó que los tratamientos de aplicaciones solo de Antracol, solo de PKplus, alternancia de los mismos y el uso del DSS, presentaron tasas de retorno marginal por encima del 90%. Por cada dólar invertido en implementar un manejo del cultivo con uno de estos tratamientos se recupera lo invertido y se obtiene un monto adicional superior a $0.90 dependiendo del tratamiento que se emplee (Tabla 15).En la variedad Yungay se obtuvieron porcentajes de tasa de retorno marginal superior al 70% con los tratamientos de aplicaciones solo de PKplus, alternancia de PKplus con Antracol, aplicaciones solo de Antracol y uso del DSS y alrededor del 40% con el tratamiento de aplicaciones de alternancia de Manvert Biolet con Antracol. Por cada dólar invertido en implementar un manejo del cultivo con uno de estos tratamientos se recupera lo invertido y se obtiene un monto adicional superior a $0.40 dependiendo del tratamiento que se emplee (Tabla 14).En la variedad moderadamente resistente UNICA, el tratamiento que obtuvo una tasa de retorno marginal por encima del 25% fue el de aplicaciones alternadas de Manvert Biolet con Antracol y por encima de 100% con los tratamientos de aplicaciones alternadas de PKplus con Antracol, solo Antracol y uso del DSS. Por cada dólar invertido en implementar un manejo del cultivo con uno de estos tratamientos se recupera lo invertido y se obtiene un monto adicional superior a $0.25 dependiendo del tratamiento que se emplee (Tabla 15).En la variedad resistente Serranita se obtuvo una tasa de retorno marginal mayor al 14% en aplicaciones de PKplus con Antracol y mayor al 150% con aplicaciones solo de Antracol y uso del DSS. Por cada dólar invertido en implementar un manejo del cultivo con uno de estos tratamientos se recupera lo invertido y se obtiene un monto adicional superior a $0.14 dependiendo del tratamiento que se emplee (Tabla 15). En la variedad Serranita cultivadas en las zonas de Pogzogan y Santa Cruz no se observaron diferencias estadísticas entre las aplicaciones solo de PKplus, solo de Manvert Biolet, alternancia de ambos productos con Antracol, alternancia entre productos y uso del DSS. En la zona de Aco se observó que aplicaciones alternadas de PKplus con Antracol mostraron porcentajes más bajo de tejido necrótico que en el control (Tabla 16).Según el análisis combinado para determinar el efecto tratamiento sobre las variedades, se obtuvo que el tratamiento con menor porcentaje de tejido necrótico fue el de aplicaciones solo con PKplus, seguido de PKplus con alternancia de Antracol y uso del DSS. Los tratamientos que mostraron mayor porcentaje de tejido necrótico después del control fueron el de aplicaciones solo de Antracol y el de aplicaciones solo de Manvert Biolet (Anexo 80, Figura 10).Los tubérculos de papa cosechados de plantas de la variedad Serranita fueron los que mayor porcentaje de daño presentaron para las tres zonas evaluadas. Las variedades Canchán y UNICA no mostraron diferencias significativas (p>0.01) con respecto al porcentaje de tejido necrótico en las zonas de Santa cruz y Aco (Anexo 89 y 92) a diferencia de lo observado en la zona de Pogzogan (Anexo 84) donde la variedad Canchán presentó mayor porcentaje de tejido necrótico que la variedad UNICA.En las zonas de Pogzogan y Santa Cruz la variedad Yungay fue la que presento menor porcentaje de tejido necrótico, seguido de la variedad UNICA mientras que, en la zona de Aco no se observaron diferencias significativas (p>0.01) entre las variedades Yungay, UNICA y Canchán.El análisis combinado de las tres zonas mostró que la variedad Serranita fue la que presento mayor porcentaje de tejido necrótico, seguido de las variedades Canchán y UNICA, mientras que la variedad con menor daño fue la variedad Yungay (Anexo 98, Figura 11).Con respecto al efecto de los tratamientos, los discos de tubérculos cosechados de plantas de la variedad Canchán tratadas con aplicaciones de PKplus alternado con Manvert Biolet y uso del DSS fueron los que presentaron menor porcentajes de tejido necrótico en la zona de Pogzogan; mientras que en las zonas de Santa Cruz y Aco los tratamientos de aplicaciones solo PKplus y uso del DSS presentaron menores porcentajes de tejido necrótico (Tabla 17).En la zona de Pogzogan, no se encontró diferencias significativas (p>0.05) en el porcentaje de tejido necrótico en los tubérculos de la variedad Yungay en todos los tratamientos evaluados a excepción del tratamiento con aplicaciones solo de Antracol. En la zona de Santa Cruz el tratamiento con el que se obtuvieron menores porcentajes de tejido necrótico fue con el uso del DSS. En la zona de Aco el uso del DSS, aplicaciones solo de PKplus y su alternancia con Manvert Biolet lograron el menor porcentaje de tejido necrótico en las rodajas de tubérculos.En la zona de Pogzogan los tratamientos con los que se obtuvieron menores porcentajes de necrosis de tubérculos de la variedad UNICA fueron a través de aplicaciones solo de PKplus, alternancia con Antracol, alternancia con Manvert Biolet y aplicaciones solo de Manvert Biolet (p>0.05). En la zona de Santa Cruz y Aco la mayoría de los tratamientos resultaron en un menor porcentaje de tejido necrótico excepto del tratamiento de aplicaciones solo de Antracol.En la variedad Serranita, los tratamientos que presentaron diferencias significativas (p<0.05) con el control fueron PKplus, PKplus alternado con Antracol, PKplus alternado con Manvert Biolet y aplicaciones solo de Manvert Biolet en las zonas de Pogzogan y Aco. En la zona de Santa Cruz el tratamiento de Manvert Biolet resulto en un menor porcentaje de tejido necrótico.En todas las variedades y zonas evaluadas, se observó que las rodajas de tubérculos cosechadas de plantas tratadas con fungicida de contacto Antracol presentaron mayor porcentaje de tejido necrótico seguido del tratamiento control (Anexo 99, Figura 11).  No se observó una correlación lineal significativa (r=-0.116, p=0.499; r=-0.018, p=0.916) entre el grado de susceptibilidad foliar de las variedades a P. infestans con respecto a la respuesta de la resistencia inducida por los productos comerciales PKplus y Manvert Biolet en el ensayo del tubérculo completo (Anexo 100). En el ensayo de rodajas de tubérculos, se observó una correlación lineal inversa y significativa (r=-0.644, p=0.000; r=-0.425, p=0.010) (Anexo 101, Figura 12).El análisis combinado de variancias mostro diferencias estadísticas entre variedades y tratamientos, mas no entre zonas. Las interacciones de zona por variedad, tratamiento por variedad y zona por tratamiento fueron estadísticamente significativas (p<0.05) (Anexo 118).El más alto contenido de fenoles (CFT) fue obtenido por la variedad Yungay seguido de las variedades Serranita y UNICA, las cuales no mostraron diferencias entre sí (p>0.05). La variedad con menor CFT fue Canchán (Anexo 120).El análisis de efectos simples mostro que solo la variedad Canchán presentó diferencias estadísticas entre los tratamientos, donde el mayor CFT fue determinado en los tubérculos cosechados de plantas tratadas con Manvert Biolet y el control (Anexo 222, Figura 13), y la variedad UNICA solo en la zona de Santa Cruz presentó mayor CFT por aplicaciones de PKplus, en las demás zonas no hubieron diferencias significativas entre los tratamientos (p>0.05) (Tabla 18). Figura 11. Correlación del grado de susceptibilidad foliar de variedades de papa respecto al porcentaje de tejido necrótico de rodajas y tubérculos completos inoculados con P. infestans, cosechados de plantas tratadas con PKplus y Manvert Biolet.   La activación química de la resistencia a enfermedades en plantas puede representar una opción adicional para la protección del cultivo, esto puede ser una opción complementaria al control químico contra algunos patógenos, donde la resistencia genética no está disponible o no es suficiente o contra patógenos con una historia de adaptación a fungicidas (Andreu et al., 2006).El control de P. infestans a través de la inducción de resistencia en una variedad susceptible Bintje fue reportado por Liljeroth et al., (2010)  Los antecedentes expuestos líneas arriba nos permiten deducir que los compuestos químicos fosfatados (fosfitos) y ácidos carboxílicos (lignosulfonato de aluminio) que actúan en las plantas como inductores de resistencia pueden translocarse a toda la planta a partir del primer día de su aplicación.En estudios realizados sobre la aplicación de Silicio (Si) para el control de enfermedades, Fawe et al. (2001) propusieron que el Silicio (Si) desempeña un rol activo en el refuerzo de la resistencia a enfermedades mediante la estimulación de reacciones naturales de defensa de las plantas. Ferreira et al. (2015) determinaron que el suplemento de Si en plantas de melón mejora la resistencia contra Acidovorax citrulli, además Fawe et al. (1998) determinaron que el Si incrementa la resistencia del melón a Sphaeroteca fugilinea, sin embargo, en nuestros ensayos no se observó control de la enfermedad mediante la aplicación de Manvert Silikon (producto a base de Si), el cual incluso presento valores de severidad semejante al tratamiento control a base de agua.Estas diferencias pueden deberse a que unos de los mecanismos de defensa activados por el Si es el incremento de quitinasas (Cherif, 1994;Chérif et al., 1992;Fawe et al., 2001), el cual no tendría efecto contra P. infestans, ya que al ser un oomyceto no presenta quitina como parte de su pared celular (Perez and Forbes, 2008); además, no se encontraron reportes científicos del uso de Si en el control de rancha.Se ha reportado que el ácido fosforoso es capaz de controlar enfermedades causadas por oomycetos (Cooke and Little., 2002) a través de dos efectos: uno directo, que inhibe la fosforilación oxidativa en el metabolismo de oomycetos (McGrath, 2004) y otro indirecto, que estimula la respuesta natural de defensa de las plantas (Smillie et al., 1989). Lobato et al. (2008) reporto diferentes niveles de protección contra P. infestans mediante el uso de fosfitos, los cuales dependieron de las dosis empleadas y la edad de la planta; además sugirió que el efecto protector del fosfito contra los patógenos puede ser afectado por su forma catiónica y por el genotipo del huésped.En nuestros ensayos el producto comercial a base de fosfitos (PKplus) y a base de lignosulfonato de aluminio (Manvert Biolet) presentaron igual control que los fungicidas de contacto Dithane (Mancozeb) y Antracol (Propineb); sin embargo, en el ensayo bajo condiciones de invernadero se observó que Manvert Biolet presento mayor severidad que los obtenidos por los fungicidas de contacto. A diferencia de lo reportado por Wilhelmus et al. (2010) quienes determinaron que su producto a base de lignosulfonato de sodio presento mejor control que los fungicidas de contacto en plantas de una variedad susceptible. Esta disimilitud podría deberse a que su producto cuenta además con fosfito de potasio lo que podría brindar un mejor efecto a diferencia de lo obtenido con Manvert Biolet.En trabajos realizados bajo condiciones de campo, Wang-Pruski et al. ( 2010) determinaron que para variedades susceptibles Shepody y Russet Burbank las aplicaciones alternadas de fosfitos con fungicida de contacto (clorotalonil) brindaron mejor protección contra la rancha que aplicaciones solo de fungicida. Por otro lado Mayton et al. (2008) determinaron que los fosfitos controlan la rancha a nivel de tubérculos mejor que el fungicida de contacto (clorotalonil), pero a nivel foliar el control fue mejor con fungicidas. En el presente trabajo, se determinó que el mejor control a nivel foliar para variedades susceptibles (Canchán y Yungay), se obtuvo a través de aplicaciones de fungicidas sistémicos y de contacto (DSS), seguido de aplicaciones alternadas de fosfito (PKplus) con un fungicida de contacto (propineb) y aplicaciones solo de fungicida de contacto en las tres zonas evaluadas, sin embargo, no presentaron diferencias significativas con respecto al rendimiento.La zona donde se reportó menor incidencia de lluvias durante el ciclo de desarrollo de las plantas, el tratamiento con aplicaciones solo de fosfitos (PKplus) produjo también un adecuado control de la enfermedad a nivel foliar. Esto probablemente este dado, porque en la zona con menor precipitación la presión de la enfermedad es menor, sin embargo, esto no afecto los rendimientos ya que este tratamiento no fue estadísticamente diferente a los otros tratamientos que controlaron la enfermedad a nivel foliar reportados en las otras dos zonas.Por lo que se concluye que en variedades susceptibles la enfermedad puede controlarse con aplicaciones solo de PKplus o PKplus alternado con fungicida de contacto, además ambos tratamientos inducen rendimientos semejantes a los obtenidos con fungicidas sistémicos y/o de contacto.Con lo referente a la efectividad del uso de Manvert Biolet para el control de rancha en variedades susceptibles, se determinó que bajo condiciones de campo dicho producto no mostró una protección significativa durante todo el periodo del cultivo, además los rendimientos obtenidos no fueron estadísticamente diferentes al tratamiento control, sin embargo, su alternancia con un fungicida de contacto resulto en mejores rendimientos en las tres zonas evaluadas.Estos resultados confirman lo obtenido en el ensayo bajo condiciones de invernadero, donde se determinó que Manvert Biolet presento menor control que los fungicidas de contacto a diferencia de lo expuesto por Wilhelmus et al. (2010). Esta diferencia probablemente pueda deberse a la adición de fosfito de potasio en el producto, ya que existen múltiples reportes de la eficiencia del mismo en el control de rancha (Johnson et al., 2004;Mayton et al., 2008;Olivieri et al., 2012). Además la alternancia con Antracol (propineb) mejora su eficiencia en el control de la enfermedad ya que según Samoucha and Cohen, (1986) el uso de propineb controla efectivamente la rancha en campo, ya que reduce la incidencia de la enfermedad e incrementa el rendimiento.En variedades moderadamente resistentes el control de la rancha mediante aplicaciones de fosfitos fueron reportados Liljeroth et al. (2016) quienes determinaron que el fosfito de potasio en combinación con la mitad de la dosis de fungicida, resulto en un mismo nivel de protección de hojas y tubérculos que los tratamientos con dosis completas de fungicidas.En el presente trabajó se determinó que en la variedad UNICA, los tratamientos de aplicaciones solo de PKplus y alternancia de Manvert Biolet con un fungicida de contacto controlaron la enfermedad al igual que aplicaciones solo con fungicida de contacto. Con respecto al rendimiento estos tratamientos incluidos las aplicaciones de alternancia de PKplus con Antracol no mostraron diferencias estadísticas entre sí. Es decir que para variedades moderadamente resistentes aplicaciones solo de PKplus, alternancia de PKplus con un fungicida de contacto o alternancia de Manvert Biolet con un fungicida de contacto resultan en un control adecuado de la enfermedad, así como la obtención de rendimientos altos.En la variedad resistente Serranita no se observaron diferencias significativas entre tratamientos a base de inductores de resistencia y/o fungicidas de contacto, estos tratamientos controlaron la enfermedad a nivel foliar y produjeron rendimientos estadísticamente semejantes entre sí.Esta respuesta independiente del grado de susceptibilidad de las variedades con los diferentes tratamientos, además de la alta diferencia significativa reportada entre la interacción de variedades por tratamiento, nos lleva a inferir que la expresión de la resistencia es dependiente del grado de susceptibilidad de las variedades, lo cual también fue determinado por Hijwegen and Verhaar ( 1995); Liljeroth et al. (2016);Lobato et al., 2008. Otro aspecto discutido es el consumo metabólico mediado por la activación de los mecanismos de defensa por aplicación de fosfitos, el cual podría afectar indirectamente los rendimientos. Para lo cual Liljeroth et al. (2016) determinaron que el rendimiento no se ve afectado por los tratamientos con aplicaciones de fosfitos, además reportaron una alta correlación negativa entre los diferentes cultivares y años de evaluación con respecto al rAUDPC y al rendimiento, es decir que menores rAUDPC se vieron reflejados en mayores rendimientos. De la misma forma en el presente trabajo también se reportó una correlación negativa entre ambas variables, además los valores de rendimientos reportados por el tratamiento a base de fosfitos no fueron diferentes a los obtenidos por aplicaciones de fungicidas de contacto en las cuatro variedades evaluadas.La selección de la mejor estrategia para el manejo de rancha en campo no solo depende del nivel de susceptibilidad de la variedad y del ambiente, sino también del impacto ambiental (IA) de los productos empleados, así como del análisis costo beneficio de los mismos.Por muchos años, los programas de manejo integral de plagas (MIP) se han enfocado en un método alternativo de control con uso reducido de pesticidas, debido a los problemas de seguridad alimentaria, salud humana, contaminación de aguas subterráneas, etc., para lo cual Kovach et al. (1992) calcularon el coeficiente de impacto ambiental (EIQ) de los pesticidas, como un método para medir el impacto al ambiente (IA), el cual nos permitió determinar los tratamientos con los valores más bajos que fueron a través de aplicaciones solo de Manvert Biolet, seguido de aplicaciones solo de PKplus y los valores más alto que fueron el uso de DSS y aplicaciones solo de Antracol.El análisis económico de los tratamientos se realizó según CIMMYT, (1988), quien propone el método de presupuestos parciales para organizar los datos de los experimentos, la información acerca de los costos y beneficios de los mismos. Este estudio nos permitió determinar que en variedades susceptibles, los tratamientos que presentaron una tasa de retorno marginal superior al 50% fueron aplicaciones de PKplus solo y/o alternado con un fungicida de contacto, así como aplicaciones de fungicidas sistémicos y/o contacto. Para la variedad moderadamente resistente fueron los mismos tratamientos a excepción de aplicaciones solo de PKplus y para la variedad resistente solo se obtuvieron tasas de retorno marginal superior al 50% con aplicaciones con fungicida de contacto.Con todo lo analizado líneas arriba se infiere que la mejor estrategia para el control de rancha en variedades susceptibles, considerando el IA más bajo y la tasa de retorno marginal superior al 50% es mediante aplicaciones solo de PKplus, para variedades moderadamente resistentes es mediante alternancia de PKplus con un fungicida de contacto y para la variedad resistente es mediante aplicaciones solo de fungicida de contacto. Sin embargo, estos datos son muy variables ya que la tasa de retorno es dependiente del costo de venta del tubérculo, el cual puede fluctuar por zona y época del año, así que tratamientos con menor retorno pueden ser alternativas cuando el costo de venta se incrementa.La resistencia a nivel del tubérculo puede ser usado para minimizar el riesgo de infección del tubérculo durante la estación de crecimiento hasta la cosecha, lo cual podría prever la pérdida de rendimientos, así como reducir los niveles de semilla infectada y con esto disminuir la presión de la enfermedad en la siguiente campaña (Flier et al., 2001).Algunos factores contribuyen a la resistencia de tubérculos de papa contra la infección de patógenos, como las barreras bioquímicas y mecánicas presentes en la pared celular del peridermo y del tejido parenquimatoso. Olivieri et al. (2012) determinaron un incremento en el contenido de pectina en tejidos de tubérculos de papa como respuesta a la aplicación foliar de fosfito de potasio frente a Fusarium solani. De la misma forma, Johnson et al. (2004) observaron una disminución en el daño por P. infestans en tubérculos cosechados de plantas tratadas con ácido fosforoso en cuatro variedades susceptibles y una moderadamente resistente. Los resultados obtenidos en el presente trabajo indican también que aplicaciones de fosfitos reducen el porcentaje de tejido necrótico frente a P. infestans, tanto en ensayo de rodajas de tubérculos como en el de tubérculos completos, en contraste al tratamiento control en todas las variedades y zonas evaluadas.Los resultados también mostraron un bajo porcentaje de tejido necrótico en tubérculos provenientes de plantas tratadas con fungicidas sistémicos (DSS) a diferencia de lo obtenido por aplicaciones de fungicida de contacto (Antracol). Los fungicidas sistémicos pueden penetrar dentro del tejido hospedero y translocarse arriba y abajo en todas las partes de la planta (Fernandez-Northcote et al., 2000;Majeed et al., 2011) lo que pudo haber proporcionado una barrera para el crecimiento y desarrollo de P. infestans, mientras que los fungicidas de contacto solo actuaron a través de la superficie sin penetrar en el tejido del hospedante (Dowley et al., 2008;Mantecon, 2007;Rahman et al., 2008).En estudios de resistencia a P. infestans en tubérculos de papa (Sharma et al., 2013;Dorrance e Inglis, 1998) reportaron que algunos genotipos que mostraron altos niveles de resistencia foliar bajo condiciones de campo, se comportaron como susceptibles en el ensayo de rodajas de tubérculos, reflejando una diferencia genética entre la resistencia de hojas y la de tubérculos. Por otro lado Lal et al. (2013) reafirma que la expresión de la resistencia contra P. infestans en los tubérculos no está estrechamente relacionada con la de las hojas.En el presente trabajo, tampoco se obtuvo una relación lineal positiva entre el grado de susceptibilidad foliar de la variedades evaluadas con la respuesta a la resistencia adquirida frente al patógeno P. infestans mediante aplicaciones de los IDRs PKplus y Manvert Biolet en los ensayos de discos y tubérculos completos. Esta baja relación entre la resistencia foliar y la de tubérculos puede estar dada por la disimilitud de los genes que gobiernan la resistencia a nivel foliar y los que gobiernan la resistencia a nivel del tubérculo, tratándose probablemente de nuevos genes R con efectos cuantitativos, que solo serían expresados en el tejido de tubérculos y que la probable respuesta de defensa de los mismos puede estar bajo control de loci de características cuantitativos (QTL) (Flier et al., 2001).Esto podría explicar el hecho que la variedad susceptible Yungay o moderadamente resistente UNICA, fueron los que presentaron menor porcentaje de tejido necrótico en el ensayo de rodajas y no la variedad resistente Serranita, lo que nos lleva a pensar que probablemente dichas variedades cuenten con genes R que solo se expresan en la corteza y/o medula del tubérculo y que la aplicación de fosfito o lignosulfonato de aluminio al translocarse a los tubérculos pudo haber inducido su expresión génica.Diferentes estudios reportaron un incremento en la actividad peroxidasa, B-1,3 glucanasa y acumulación de fenoles como respuesta de defensa de las plantas frente al ataque de patógenos (Daayf et al., 1995(Daayf et al., , 1997)). Otros estudios mostraron que las estructuras fenólicas (lignina) pueden conferir fuerte rigidez a la pared celular de las células hospederas (Fry, 1986) teniendo un rol en la resistencia a enfermedades (Cohen et al., 1990;Ride and Barber, 1987). Además la resistencia inducida por el IDR acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) fue asociada con el incremento del contenido fenólico e incremento de la actividad de las enzimas relacionadas a la defensa en genotipos susceptibles y resistentes de Pisum sativum L. aUromyces pisi-sativi (Barilli et al., 2010). Por otro lado Zhang et al. (2011) determinaron que las múltiples aplicaciones con Acibenzolar-Smethyl (ASM) redujeron las infecciones latentes causadas por Alternaria alternata y Fusarium spp. en melones y esta resistencia fue asociada con la acumulación de compuestos fenólicos.En el presente trabajo no se observó una respuesta clara con respecto al contenido de fenoles totales (CFT) y la inducción de resistencia, ya que solo la variedad susceptible Canchán presento diferencias significativas entre los tratamientos, pero este fue obtenido con el tratamiento control y Manvert Biolet. Esto puede deberse a que el contenido de compuestos fenólicos presentes en tubérculos de papa tiene un amplio rango de variación dependiendo del genotipo, las condiciones de cultivo, el proceso de post cosecha y el almacenamiento (Peña and Restrepo, 2013), así que pudieron haber factores externos no controlados que intervinieron en la producción de dichos compuestos. Los productos PKplus y Manvert Biolet presentaron igual eficacia en el control de la enfermedad que los fungicidas de contacto bajo condiciones de laboratorio. Sin embargo, bajo condiciones de invernadero solo el producto comercial PKplus mantuvo este efecto. Los tratamientos que resultaron un mejor control de la rancha, con el IA bajo y TRM superior al 50% para variedades susceptibles fueron a través de aplicaciones de PKplus solo y/o alternado con un fungicida de contacto y aplicaciones solo de fungicida de contacto. Para la variedad moderadamente resistente fue con aplicaciones de PKplus alternado con un fungicida de contacto y solo fungicida de contacto. Para la variedad resistente fue solo con aplicaciones de fungicida de contacto. La expresión de la resistencia estimulada por uso de IDRs es dependiente del grado de susceptibilidad de las variedades, sin embargo, no determino influencia de la altitud de las zonas, pero sí de la presión de la enfermedad que se reflejó en menor eficacia de IDR en contraste de las zonas con menor presión. La expresión de la resistencia contra P. infestans en los tubérculos no está estrechamente relacionada con la de las hojas. Aplicaciones de IDRs resultaron en menor porcentaje de tejido necrótico en rodajas y tubérculos completos en contraste al controlAndrade-Piedra, J.L., Cáceres, P.A., Forbes, G.A., Pumisacho, M., 2009. Humans Anexo 33. Plantas de papa variedad Canchán, después de 103 días de sembradas en campo.Anexo 34. Plantas de papa variedad Yungay, después de 103 días de sembradas en campo.Anexo 35. Plantas de papa variedad UNICA, después de 103 días de sembradas en campo.Anexo 36. Plantas de papa variedad Serranita, después de 103 días de sembradas en campo.Anexo 37. Análisis de variancia del rendimiento evaluado en la zona de Pogzogan (zona 1). Anexo 47. Análisis de variancia del rendimiento evaluado en la zona de Aco (zona 3). Anexo 75. Análisis de medias del efecto de los tratamientos en el porcentaje de infección en tubérculos completos correspondiente a la zona de Aco (zona 3), según la comparación múltiple de Tukey (α=0.01). Anexo 76 Análisis de variancia de efectos simples de la variedad por tratamiento (VXT) en variedades, correspondiente al ensayo de infección en tubérculos completos en la zona de Aco (zona 3). Anexo 79. Análisis de medias de las zonas de siembra según la comparación múltiple de Tukey (α=0.01) para el ensayo de infección en tubérculos completos. Anexo 96. Análisis de variancia de efectos simples de la variedad por tratamiento (VXT) en tratamientos, correspondiente al ensayo de infección en rodajas de tubérculos en la zona de Aco (zona 3). ","tokenCount":"11935"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"45c8fe4ebcdccb32128378d018f89ceb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d436d8cf-85ee-4add-a7d2-305a58df4225/retrieve","id":"-775576486"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7bd0ae87-29c4-4b06-9e4d-e4fbe13f97b1","pagecount":"128","content":"Women's land rights are increasingly advocated as an empowerment tool to spur development outcomes. However, empirical evidence of this relationship is limited. In this study we use data from peasant communities in rural Peru to explore the effect of the intra-household allocation of inherited land on women's empowerment. Empowerment is modeled as a latent variable measured by different influence indicators using a Generalized Structural Equation approach. We draw on Item Response Theory (IRT) to estimate difficulty and discrimination parameters which can inform policymakers about the impact of empowerment policies on women's types of influences within their households. The empirical approach is consistent with empowerment's latent and multidimensional nature and pays attention to endogeneity issues often present in other empirical studies. We find that although women's land rights increase empowerment, the intra-household allocation of land determines the magnitude of this impact.This thesis is an original work by María José Montenegro Guerra. The research project, of which this thesis is a part, received research ethics approval from the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board, Project Name \"Carbon emission and gender implications of employment in the Upper Mantaro Watershed, Peru\", No. Pro00049912, November 5th, 2014.To my supervisor Sandeep Mohapatra, thank you for being my mentor for the last year. I will never be able to express how grateful I am for having you join this project. Thank you for all the lessons you have patiently taught me, all the knowledge you have shared with me, and for always believing in me.To my supervisor Brent Swallow, I am very grateful for all the support you have provided me throughout my research. I will always be thankful for your company and guidance during my first visit to Peru.Without these three incredible individuals this study would not have been possible; their invaluable friendships are one of the highlights of my degree. Alan, thank you for introducing me to the communities of my study and helping me out when I was in Junín. Mami Iselda and Elena, thank you for making my time in Peru so enjoyable and working so hard collecting the data for my study.Diego, thank you for selflessly devoting so much of your time to help me with all the little details without which this would not have come together. Finishing my thesis would have been a lot more challenging without your help and the free puppy therapy. I want to thank my family for their unconditional love and support which have made all my accomplishments possible. To my nephew Luca, you have made this stage of my life so much more exciting. I would also like to acknowledge everyone in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology (REES) for helping me accomplish this new step in my career. vi Lastly, I would like to thank the staff of the International Potato Center (CIP), especially Cecilia Turin, for collaborating in my research and supporting me during my fieldwork. I would also like to thank the CGIAR: Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) for funding my research.     Decision-making over Buying, Selling, or Transferring Agricultural Land................................................................................................           x Women in developing countries, compared to men, participate less in the labour market, earn lower wages, own less resources and exert less influence over household economic decisions (e.g., World Bank 2012). 1 A growing body of literature has shown that women's empowerment 2 , besides being an end in itself, can offset many of these disadvantages, and as a consequence, also generate a host of development outcomes (e.g., Smith and Haddad 1999;Schultz 2002;Sabroni, Quisumbing, and Ahmed 2013). As an example of the latter, the empowerment of mothers has been shown to increase the human capital of children (Duflo 2003), especially daughters, with salutary effects on future household income. The magnitude of the empowerment-effect on yields is estimated to be large enough to lead a fall in the number of food insecure people in the world by over 150 million (FAO 2011). Consequently, governments and non-profit organizations continue to expend considerable amounts of resources and time on women's empowerment initiatives in developing countries (Harper et al. 2014;Gates 2014).Recent reviews of the literature, however, reveal that there exists remarkably little policy relevant information on the factors that drive women's empowerment (Malhotra, Schuler, and Boender 2002;Allendorf 2007;Trommlerová, Klasen, and Leßmann 2015). Much of the voluminous literature on women's empowerment in developing countries focuses on important conceptual definitions, with empirical components that rely largely on case studies and qualitative analysis (O'neil, Domingo, and Valters 2014). The relatively thin empirical literature on the 1 In most low or middle income countries, females also have a higher mortality rate than men (World Bank 2012).Although, given the same care as males, females tend to have better survival rates than males at every age. (Sen 1990).2 Following the literature, empowerment throughout this study is measured by women's influence or \"say\" over household economic decisions (e.g., Basu 2006) drivers of empowerment has been criticized for having failed to come up with an appropriate measure of the multi-dimensional nature of empowerment (e.g., Samman and Santos 2009). While empowerment is a multi-dimensional construct (e.g., Mason 1993;Kabeer 1999;Kishor 2000;Estudillo, Quisumbing, and Otsuka 2001), standard econometric modelling frameworks, such as regression analysis and limited dependent variable models, accommodate only unidimensional outcomes. This inconsistency has forced empirical empowerment studies to limit their outcome measures to a single dimension of empowerment (e.g., influence or decision-making authority over asset sales), or use an aggregated empowerment score, like the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) developed to track the impacts of the US Government's Feed the Future Initiative (Alkire et al. 2013), that is based on an arbitrary set of weights. Quantitative analyses of the drivers of empowerment have also been criticized by Trommlerová, Klasen, and Leßmann (2015), Samman and Santos (2009) and others, on methodological grounds, such as the inconsistent use of linear estimators in nonlinear specifications and for not addressing the endogeneity of key determinants. 3   The gap in the literature is particularly noticeable in the wake of recent development policies which stress land rights as an instrument for empowering women and spurring development in poor economies. In fact, the recent UN Sustainable Development Goals refer to women's land rights under Goal 1 (No poverty), Goal 2 (Zero hunger) and Goal 5 (Gender equality) (UN 2015). It is often claimed that women constitute, on average, 43% of the agricultural force in developing countries and produce between 60% to 80% of the food (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa 1972; Momsen 1991;Gupta 2009). However, the distribution of land remains highly biased against women. Based on the limited available data, it is estimated that less than a quarter of landholders in developing countries are women. 4 Women also remain dependent on men for gaining access to land, regardless of their own rights (Deere and Leon 2003;Rao 2005). In places such as rural Peru, communal ownership of land, governed by customary laws, norms and practices regarding inheritance and ownership, dictate women's de facto and de jure rights 5 (Budlender and Alma 2011). In such economies, women farmers are believed to have less control than men over services such as credit, inputs and livestock transfers and sales due to fragile or non-existent land rights (FAO 2011).However, while the effect of women's empowerment in spurring growth and development is the subject of a fast growing body of research (Hoddinott and Haddad 1995;Duflo 2003), the effect of women's land rights on women's empowerment is a \"rarely studied\" issue in empirical development economics (Allendorf 2007, p.11). The effect of land rights on women's empowerment is complex, and likely to depend on the social context including how property rights are managed and enforced in the community, as well as on the land rights of other members of the woman's household, specifically her spouse.The overall goal of this thesis is, therefore, to fill the gap in the literature by a) developing a new econometric framework for studying the determinants of women's empowerment and b)using the framework to study the effect of women's land rights on their empowerment. In contrast to the rest of the literature, our approach treats women's empowerment as a continuous latent variable that is unobserved; we observe, instead, a set of influence indicators that represent a woman's authority over a range of different household economic decisions. Therefore, unlike previous studies, our approach allows us to model the multidimensional nature of empowerment (measured by the influence indicators) and simultaneously estimate the effect of a covariate on latent empowerment. It also allows us to calculate the effect of a change in latent empowerment on each influence indicator.To meet our overall goal, we have two specific objectives. First, using a set of primary data that we collected from rural Peru in 2014, we examine how land rights and their intra-family distribution affect women's empowerment. We compare the magnitude of the effect of land rights held by women and male members of their households with the effect of other more commonly recognized determinants of empowerment, such as education. Due to endogeneity issues of using ownership of land and the nature of our study area, we define land rights as inheritance of usufruct rights.Second, we examine how empowerment, conditional on land rights and other determinants, is linked to women's influence over different household economic decisions (e.g., control over credit or distribution of income from livestock). In this context, for each influence category, we estimate a \"threshold\" and a \"sensitivity\" parameter. These two parameters summarize how a policy change that alters women's empowerment may be expected to alter different types of women's influence, each of which may be uniquely associated with a specific development outcome. For instance, it is plausible that while land rights have a positive effect on women's empowerment, they may have different effects on different types of empowerment as measured by the influence indicators. An increase in empowerment may increase women's influence over credit decisions (which is helpful in leveraging better investment outcomes) or alternatively empowerment may increase women's influence over agricultural and livestock decisions (which is helpful for achieving land use change objectives of policymakers rather than investment outcomes). The threshold and sensitivity of an influence indicate how much empowerment is required to turn on a particular influence and, conditional on the threshold point, the sensitivity of the influence to a change in empowerment. Ideally, policymakers would prefer to target women's influences with lower thresholds and a higher sensitivity to achieve development outcomes.Our econometric approach for meeting our two specific objectives is based on item response theory (IRT) which we operationalize using a generalized structural equation model (GSEM) (Skrondal and Rabe-hesketh 2007). Both GSEM and IRT have been applied widely in the psychometrics literature (Rasch 1960;Thurstone 1927;Lawley 1943) and is now is the subject of a small but growing literature in in economics led by scholars' recognition of its immense potential in the applied economic world (most notably see Das and Zajonc 2010). IRT has been applied widely in the psychometrics literature (Rasch 1960;Thurstone 1927;Lawley 1943) but its use has been limited in economics despite scholars' recognition of its potential in the applied economic world (Skrondal and Rabe-hesketh 2007). Since our observable influence indicators are a set of discrete ordered variables which we link to a latent construct of empowerment and subsequently to a set of covariates including land rights, the appropriate framework is GradedResponse Model, a type of IRT that is appropriate for categorical items (Samejima 1997).Specifically, our econometric model has two components. The first \"structural\" component of our model allows us to estimate how changes in land rights and other determinants affect women's empowerment. The estimates from this component help address objective 1 by identifying if land rights are an effective policy lever that can be pulled to catalyze women's empowerment as a development tool. The second \"measurement\" component relates the multiple influence indicators to their underlying level of empowerment. The measurement component of our model allows us to estimate how a change in empowerment shifts different types of influence a woman has over household economic decisions. Thus, the estimates from this part of the model allow us to address objective 2 and identify the types of women's influence that can be leveraged by empowering women through land rights and other determinants.We empirically test the role of land rights in empowering women using data from six different highland peasant communities in Peru. We construct a set of discrete ordered indicators of the level of a woman's influence over the household economic decisions (e.g., influence over credit application and spending or influence over how to spend income from livestock production).Our approach contrasts with the bulk of the empirical literature on women's intra-household decision-making power which typically employs an indicator summarizing women's decisions about one single dimension of empowerment that is easily observable, such as food consumption (Patel et al. 2007), or an aggregated index of empowerment (e.g., Parveen and Leonhäuser 2004).Our study makes several novel contributions to the women's empowerment literature. First, we contribute to the literature on the issue of land rights and women's empowerment. Despite the intense policy attention in recent years given to the issue of using land rights as a means for empowering women in developing countries, there are hardly any studies that validate this claim empirically (Allendorf 2007). Allendorf's (2007) study of this issue in Nepal is a notable exception. However, unlike Allendorf, we use separate information on land inheritance of men, women or both. By using inheritance data for land rights, rather than direct information on land holdings, we avoid methodological problems related to endogeneity of the land rights variables that have plagued other studies such as Allendorf's (2007). Our study also explores the intra-family allocation of land rights and their impact on women's empowerment. Although the importance of intra-family allocation of access to resources is well recognized (Von Braun and Webb 1989;Due and Gladwin 1991;Haddad, Hoddinott, and Alderman 1997), it is rarely explored in the literature on land rights and women's empowerment due to data limitations (see Allendorf 2007). As far as we know, Wiig's (2011) study of land rights on women's empowerment in Peru is the only study that tests the effects of the intra-family allocation of land. However, Wiig's study measures empowerment using a public goods game making it hard to generalize the findings and impossible to draw conclusions about the effect of land rights on different dimensions of empowerment.Second, we apply an econometric approach that is new to the analysis of women's empowerment and that allows us to overcome the problems faced by previous studies on this issue.As far as we know, only one study by Pitt et al. (2006) in the women's empowerment literature has used a multidimensional model of empowerment which, differently from our approach, is based on factor analysis. While we estimate the measurement and structural components of our model simultaneously using maximum likelihood, Pitt et al. (2006) use a two stage approach which is less efficient and with unknown coefficient estimator properties.Third, a strong assumption in most empirical work using ordered choice models is that that the items elicited through a series of survey questions are received in a similar manner by respondents. Our primary analysis uses data on responses given by women on their influence over household decision making. In our context, we are particularly concerned if the answers by women to women's decision-making power questions would be different if the same questions were posed to men. This distortion can occur for instance if the questions have a subjective component and are open to interpretation differently by men and women (see Mohapatra and Simon, (forthcoming) for a detailed example). This phenomenon occurs when survey questions (viz., our influence indicators) that measure a latent trait (empowerment) are received differently by different groups of people with the same value of the latent trait and is called differential item functioning (DIF).Although DIF arises naturally in ordered choice models it is usually ignored in economic studies due to methodological limitations of ordered logit and probit models (Greene and Hensher 2009).In our context, however, it is necessary to check for DIF since it can directly affect the assessment of the impact of land rights on women's empowerment. We address the DIF problem across men and women by estimating a larger IRT model that we use in our analysis with responses on women's influence collected from both men and women respondents. We introduce a gender (sex) variable into the measurement part of our model to look for evidence on DIF and evaluate if our results regarding our main hypothesis about land rights and women's empowerment still holds after accounting for the bias due to DIF.Fourth, our study is also a timely analysis of peasant communities in rural Peru. Recent years have seen a growing concern among policymakers and activists about the stark gender inequalities that mark Peru's rural economic landscape. Gender gaps are most pronounced in rural communities where relative to boys, girls have less access to almost all kinds of productive resource including education, work opportunities, and nutrition (PNUD 2010;Kabeer 2011). The policy response has been focused primarily on increasing women's land rights to reduce these gaps. The most notable of these responses was a massive national program launched in the early 1990s, the Special Land Titling Program (PETT), which focused on distributing land titles to women during its second phase. Since the peasant communities manage their resources collectively and have their own jurisdiction, however, such land reforms permeate into these communities in complex ways, and often meet with limited success 6 .Section 2 provides a background of women's land rights, as well as a literature review of the empirical studies of land rights and women's empowerment. The arguments for using land rights to induce empowerment are also discussed in this section. Section 3 describes the geographic characteristics, communal land tenure systems, and livelihoods of our study area. Our sampling methodology and data collection are described in Section 4. This includes a detailed description of the WEAI tool and how it was implemented in our study. Section 5 provides a literature review of the common methodological and measurement problems of the empirical studies of women's empowerment. Our variables and empirical model are described in Section 6. In particular, we introduce Item Response Theory, describe the structural and measurement components of our Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM) and explain how empowerment thresholds and sensitivities are estimated. The results of our structural component, as well as the empowerment thresholds and sensitivities, are reported in Section 7. The results of our alternative models are also reported in this section. In Section 8 we discuss our results and provide some policy implications of our study. Finally, in Section 9 we discuss our study's limitations and draw conclusions from the results of our study. 6 The PETT program was not implemented in formally recognized peasant communities where land is defined as communal property (Wiig 2013) Section 2: Land Rights and Women's EmpowermentThe objective of this section is to situate our study in the existing literature of women's land rights and empowerment. To do so, we first discuss land rights and how we define them in our study. We then review the empirical work that has analyzed this topic and highlight the methodological and econometric issues in the literature. Lastly, in the second part of this section we review the arguments that support the linkage between land rights and empowerment.Land rights include a variety of legitimate claims to land and its benefits (Schlager and Ostrom 1992;Meinzen-Dick et al. 1997). Most policy attention and researchers focus on effective land rights or claims that are legally or socially recognized and enforced by a village-level or statelevel institution (Agarwal 1994). Although ideally studies should consider different aspects of land rights, such as tenure security or control over land, most empirical studies define land rights as ownership of land due to data limitations (e.g., Allendorf 2007). In our study area it is more relevant to focus on usufruct rights since the peasant communities are the legal land-owning entities. Although traditionally there were no land markets, usufruct rights have been passed down the generations through inheritance. Thus, while land rights in the studies reviewed in this section are defined more broadly, we define land rights as the inheritance of usufruct rights to land.Some studies have examined the direct linkage between women's land rights and welfare outcomes. For example, Panda and Agarwal (2005) found that women in Kerala, India who own land are less likely to suffer from physical and psychological domestic violence. In a study in Honduras and Nicaragua, Katz and Chammorro (2003) also found a positive effect of land rights on households' food expenditures and child education attainment. These studies often implicitly assume that significant coefficients of women's land ownership variables in income or other welfare outcomes are linked to the bargaining power of women, rather than testing for this linkage explicitly. For instance, Deere et al. (2004) found that women's land rights have a positive effect on off-farm income of dual-headed households in Peru. The authors attribute this effect to land right's positive impact on women's intra-household bargaining power. The impact of land rights on off-farm income, however, can also be attributed to other factors, such as relaxed credit constraints of the household that allow women to diversify their livelihoods.On the other hand, studies that use women's empowerment (rather than a household welfare measure) as an outcome variable often include ownership of land in aggregated asset measures as a covariate. For instance, Deere and Twyman (2012) find that women's share of wealth increases the likelihood of symmetric joint decision-making regarding their decision to work and spending income in Ecuador. Similarly, Jejeebhoy's (2000) study of women's empowerment in India uses an index of control over economic resources which includes ownership and control over land and other valuables. This approach, however, makes it impossible to identify the individual impact of land rights.In the absence of solid empirical evidence on the issue, some scholars are of the opinion that land ownership may not necessarily empower women (Kathewera-Banda et al. 2011).According to this view, claiming land rights as a determinant of women's empowerment without empirical evidence disregards the contribution of other factors, such as skills, age, and access to credit, that could have a greater impact on empowerment and thus be more efficient gender policy tools. Moreover, women's land rights may not be empowering if access and control are mediated by men, if land tenure is insecure or if land is infertile (Kathewera-Banda et al. 2011;ActionAid 2013).Although land rights continue to be pushed as a policy to empower women 7 , few studies have attempted to provide evidence of the linkage between land rights and empowerment and challenge the views described above. A problem faced by researchers attempting to causally link land rights and women's empowerment is endogeneity. Often, due to data limitations studies use ownership of land as a proxy for land rights (e.g. Allendorf 2007). Using land ownership as a proxy for land rights is clearly problematic because empowered women are more likely to be able to purchase land since they may also have a higher income earning ability.Ideally, natural experiments would allow researchers to properly identify the causal link between land rights and women's empowerment. However, it is difficult to track land reforms that have exogenously or randomly assigned land rights to women. Wiig's (2013) community level empirical analysis of the PETT program in Peru, to our knowledge, is the only study which uses a natural experimental approach. The study uses land titles before and after the PETT program as a proxy for land rights 8 . The distribution of land titles is argued to be uncorrelated with community characteristics, making the land rights variable exogenous. The analysis includes two communitylevel variables representing the proportion of plots inherited by men and women. The results show that men's inheritance has a negative impact on women's empowerment. The study also finds that joint titles increase women's decision-making, especially for decisions regarding agriculture and 7 In fact, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.a states: \"Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws.\" (UN 2015) 8 Other studies have also used similar approaches to study the impact of joint land titling programs on outcomes such as soil conversation and land inheritance by gender (Ali, Deininger, and Goldstein 2014), women's labor supply (Field 2011), and labor allocation (Nakasone 2011).land-related investment. Although this study does not suffer from endogeneity issues in the sense described above, its analysis of land inheritance is at the community level only. Thus, the impact of land inherited to men could be an indirect measure of the overall gender bias in each community, which could impact whether women's opinions are taken into account at the household level.Where natural experiments are not available, field experiments (e.g., public good games) have also been used to estimate empowerment and test the effects of land rights (e.g., Wiig 2011). However, these experiments are difficult to recreate and their conclusions cannot be easily generalized.In the absence of experimental data some scholars argue that information on the amount of land inherited by the woman is an alternative proxy for women's land rights (Quisumbing and Maluccio 2003;Wiig, Bråten, and Fuentes 2011). The assumption is that acquisition of inherited assets does not depend on the bargaining power within the household and is exogenous to empowerment. However, since inheritance data are usually not available, most studies that analyze the direct impact of land rights on women's empowerment have used ownership of land as a proxy for women's land rights. The first is a study of five Asian countries by Mason (1998). The study ran OLS regressions where the dependent variable was a six item scale indicator measuring women's influence in household decisions. Mason's findings suggest that ownership of land increased domestic decision-making for women in India and Thailand. The second study is an empowerment study using the 2001 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) by Allendorf (2007). Two metrics of empowerment were used in this study: an ordinal variable measuring the number of decisions the woman participated in and a binary variable showing if the woman participated in most decisions or not. These indicators were analyzed in ordered probit and logit models respectively. Allendorf found a positive effect of ownership of land on women's influence over household decision-making that is comparable to the effect of other determinants such as education. Although these studies suggest that increasing land rights is indeed a promising route to promote women's empowerment, they do not address the endogeneity issues of using ownership of land as a proxy for women's land rights.Despite the limited empirical evidence, there are clear arguments for using women's land rights as a tool for empowering women. Several scholars argue that land ownership increases women's security and influence, thereby helping them to take control over household decisions (Agarwal 1997;Haddad, Hoddinott, and Alderman 1997). Manser and Brown (1980)explain this relationship using a bargaining model of intra-household resource allocation where marriage is treated as a cooperative game. In their model a woman's ownership of land, relative to her spouse, would improve her threat point and change the resulting Nash equilibrium in her favor. Thus, a woman with more capital, or in this case land, will have a higher threat point since her fallback position in case of a divorce will be stronger (Manser and Brown 1980).In some situations, a divorce might not be a plausible threat because of the economic or social costs related to dissolving a marriage. In Lundberg and Pollak (1993) bargaining model each individual controls their own income and contributes to a collective good to maximize their own utility taking their partner's contribution as given. The result is a non-cooperative and inefficient equilibrium, or threat point, where the couple might still be better off than if they were divorced.The threat point is determined by each partner's contribution and, therefore, their income. In this context, as long as women control the land rents of their property, land rights can increase their income contribution influencing the equilibrium. This relationship has also been described as the norm of \"perceived contribution response\" (Sen 1990), where the man will be expected to decide more within the household if his income contribution is greater.According to Agarwal (1994), women's threat point is not only determined by their ownership of assets and income contribution to the household. Agarwal (1994) argues that access to external support systems from outside the household, NGOs, or the state increase women's ability to survive outside the household increasing their bargaining power. Furthermore, Agarwal argues that due to social or cultural forces women might not have a \"voice\" in some aspects of life for which bargaining might not happen at all. Thus, contextual factors from outside the household-specifically social and traditions that shape land rights-can also be important mediators of the impact of women's land rights on empowerment.A shortfall of the bargaining models is that they only predict the impact of land rights for women in dual-headed households. However, we can expect the same processes that increase women's bargaining power within their household to impact women's agency as they interact with other members in their households and in their communities. In fact, ethnographic evidence supports these claims. Agarwal (1994), for example, found that widows in Rajasthan, India received more respect and consideration in their communities when they owned land. Similarly, we can expect a single woman's situation within a community to improve if she owns land or other real-estate.The various bargaining models underscore the importance of women's land rights in determining their power. It is important to note, however, that according to these models it is the land rights held by a woman, relative to male members in her household, which matters to her empowerment. However, the intra-family distribution of land rights and their impacts on women's empowerment have been neglected in the empirical literature reviewed above. To our knowledge, Allendorf (2007) is the only author that has tried to include the intra-household allocation of land rights in an empowerment model. Allendorf (2007) addressed the lack of data on intra-household land allocation by assuming that landless women who work in any relative's land belong to the category of \"lives in landed household\" where land rights are held by other members within the woman's household. The other two categories in this study are \"owns land herself\" and \"lives in landless household\". The results suggest that women who own land themselves are more likely to be empowered than those women living in landed households. Even though this approach does not account for the effect of land rights held by husbands or other male members within the \"lives in landed household\" category, these results suggests that the intra-household allocation of land also plays a role in women's empowerment.Thus, despite the focus on land rights as a policy tool to spur empowerment, the direct linkage between land rights and empowerment has rarely been tested empirically. The few exceptions have methodological issues and, hence, empirical evidence is still needed to support the rationale for land rights as a development tool. Our study addresses this gap by directly testing the effect of land rights on women's empowerment using land inheritance, an exogenous measure of land rights.The objective of this section is to discuss how the area's climatic conditions and history of conflicts over land have shaped farmers' livelihoods in our study area. This section is organized in three parts. First, we provide background information of our study area's climatic and geographic characteristics. We then summarize the history of conflicts over land of peasant communities in rural Peru and the tenure rules in these communities. The third sub-section discusses the livelihood activities of farmers in our study area.Our ). Despite its recognition as an area of globally-important biodiversity, nearby mining operations and sewage from surrounding cities have polluted the lake threatening its biodiversity. Since many peasants' communal lands fall within the buffer area of the lake, pollution and water levels also impact peasants whose livelihoods depend on these lands.The area around the lake is characterized by the life zone páramo where grasslands and bofedales, carbon-rich Andean peatlands, domain the landscape. Although there are limited data on the carbon content of the soils in this area, a study suggests that the dry Peruvian Andes might represent 0.1% of the total carbon stored in soils in the world (CIP 2010). There is also evidence that croplands, especially potato cultivation, in the area are expanding due to rising temperatures (De Haan and Juárez 2010). The rate of conversion of natural rangelands has increased drastically with the recent boom of maca. Given the potential contribution of these land use dynamics to carbon emissions, the Government of Peru is interested in implementing a carbon storing environmental services program in this area (CIP 2010).The majority of the agricultural production in Peru is controlled by comunidades campesinas or peasant communities. The communities are institutions with members that organize and manage their lands and assets following traditions and customs. Peasant communities have a long history of struggle over resources, especially land. In the twentieth century, hacendados 9 invaded communal lands forcing the communities to move to lower quality lands. After constitutional changes in 1933, the communities were able to be legally recognized as indigenous communities which provided them with social protection and the means to reclaim their land from the hacendados (Roberts and Samaniego 1978).In the 1970's, land reforms created rural-cooperatives called Sociedades Agrícolas de Interés Social (SAIS), to control the lands expropriated from the haciendas. 10 Many communities opposed the SAIS because they wanted to manage and control the land themselves. All over Peru, peasant communities fought for their independence from the SAIS demanding to receive their lands back (Nuijten, Lorenzo, and Vries 2006). To this day, conflicts over land between the SAIS and some communities are still on-going. In Junín, the conflict between the SAIS Tupac Amaru and the community of Ondores over more than 20,000 hectares has lasted for several years (Nuijten and Lorenzo 2009). The constant, and often violent, fights over land have made community members very protective of their land.In the 1980s Peru suffered under the terrorist regime of the Maoist movement sendero luminoso or Shining Path. Many peasant communities supported the ideals of the Shining Path as they wanted to eliminate the SAIS and return the land to the communities. However, the violent means of the group, which included the public assassination of political and community leaders, public trials, and attacks to the SAIS, instigated a strong fear among the people that is still present today in some rural communities of the Peruvian Andes (Nuijten, Lorenzo, and Vries 2006).Finally, the new Constitution of 1993 and a new Land Law in 1995 allowed for the privatization of communal land creating large changes for the peasant communities. Large scale titling programs following these laws, including a national land titling program known as the Programa Especial de Titulación de Tierras y Catastro Rural (PETT) or Special Land Titling and Cadastre Project, have allowed community members to get titles for lands that are technically owned by the community (Nuijten, Lorenzo, and Vries, 2006). 11 Thus, although these changes increased farmers' tenure security, they also created conflicts and division within peasant communities.Nuijten, Lorenzo, and Vries ( 2006) provide a detailed description of property relations in one indigenous Andean community called Usibamba in the Department of Junín. The following is a summary of the general trends in peasant communities and their communal land tenure systems as described by Nuijten, Lorenzo, and Vries and as informed by our fieldwork.Land allocation decisions, as well as most other decisions affecting the community, are made by the community's executive leaders who are elected every year. The highest authority, however, is the general assembly made up of all community members. Most decisions have to be presented and accepted by the general assembly before being enforced. In peasant communities land is allocated only to community members. Membership is usually granted to children of existing members only since most communities are wary of outside people. Members are expected to fulfill certain duties, such as attending community meetings and participating in communal work parties, in exchange for receiving communal land and other benefits of the community. They can also be asked to participate in community committees as leaders or members. Community members do not receive any sort of financial remuneration for these positions but face pressure to accept them if asked by the community.Notes: Each color represents the villages of each of the six peasant communities sampled in our study Source: Adapted from Benavides Ferreyros, Camino Ivanissevich, and Uganda Gómez ( 2008)The general trend is for communities to grant most members with shared access to the communal lands used for grazing livestock. Most communities have also allocated a smaller portion of their lands to provide members with access to one plot for potato cultivation for their own consumption. There are some elements of private property rights in certain types of communal land. Some families might enjoy usufruct rights of communal land or might have inherited ancestral lands originally allocated to the communities' founders. Although these lands are still legally owned by the community, users enjoy exclusive access to these lands and have a higher sense of tenure security. Inheritance of usufruct rights is usually only allowed in these types of land.It is important to note that not all communities have lands with elements of private property which might limit the livelihood options in those communities. For instance, maca cultivation, a local crop, is mostly found in ancestral lands, even though in theory many communities have not Apply and be accepted by community members Notes: \"+\" indicates \"yes\" and \"-\" indicates \"no\" yet allowed this type of land use. Furthermore, farmers' de jure and de facto rights are often different. Although in theory some communities might not allow inheritance of land, in practice farmers might be able to pass down their usufruct rights to their children. The discrepancy between de jure and de facto rights makes it difficult to account for each community's tenure systems. Table 1 summarizes how communal rules for land use vary across the six communities of our study. The data reported in this table is not an aggregate of individual data collected through our study's surveys but was collected through interviews with community stakeholders. Although the table shows that inheritance of land is only allowed in two communities, the results of our household surveys indicate that inheritance of land occurs in all communities except for Matacancha.The peasant communities in our study area are mainly dependent on livestock production.The majority of the grazing livestock is sheep, but households perceived with having a higher socioeconomic status also raise cattle. Owners of cattle are engaged in dairy production which usually involves their own home production of cheese which is sold in nearby markets. Farmers are also involved in grazing alpaca and llamas, especially in the communities belonging to the province of Pasco. The main product of these animals is wool; however, their meat is also sold and consumed in this area of Peru. Agricultural activities are also important aspects of the livelihoods of these communities. However, potatoes and maca are the only crops that survive the harsh climatic conditions of this area. Potato cultivation for consumption is promoted by the communities through the allocation of plots of communal land for each household. The recent expansion of maca cultivation, on the other hand, has opened new opportunities for farmers who can either produce it or find temporary jobs processing or working in the maca fields.Nearby mining activities as well as urban centers offer off-farm employment opportunities, especially for men, and represent an important force of permanent or temporary migration out of the communities. Women, however, are more restricted to farm activities where they have to endure harsh climatic conditions and take care of their domestic responsibilities. An increase in responsibilities of women within family farms and households as a result of migration of men has also been observed in other areas of Peru (Deere 1982). Many women farmers remain close to their traditions and continue to knit and spin clothing for their households or for additional income.Women occasionally receive opportunities for off-farm work under projects ran by the municipal governments to build or maintain public infrastructure. During our fieldwork, for example, public work in the main roads in the community of Huayre provided many women with temporary waged work.This section is organized in two parts. First, we discuss our data collection process, surveys and the primary data we collected. The second part describes the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) in detail, how it was applied in our surveys, and the data we collected using this tool.Data for this study was collected by the authors with support and input of the International Potato Center (CIP) staff members from October to December 2014. Local enumerators supported the interviewing process through which our data had to be collected due to the community members' mistrust in written documents. The interviews followed a consistent format where all the data in our surveys was obtained through interviews with survey participants. The interviews were recorded and transcribed to our survey forms.Our study area included six different peasant communities surrounding Lake Junín in the High Peruvian Andes. These communities were included in our sample after the General Assemblies of the communities approved our study. Most members in these communities are livestock farmers who spend most of their time in fields far away from their homes grazing livestock. Because of the nature of their livelihood activities, the only way of finding participants was to visit them at their homes either very early in the morning or late in the evening once they returned from the fields. To make our sample random we selected only every other house and attempted several times to reach only those households. To account for the land rights differences our questionnaire included questions related to land use, tenure, perceived security, and inheritance.The data on demographics and assets were collected through household surveys administered to 233 households. To create an individual wealth index we included questions of households' ownership of different durable assets. Our data includes detailed information of the intra-household distribution of all assets, including livestock, land, and capital. Individual surveys were also administered to the main adults in each household to collect data on influence over household economic decisions. To reduce social desirability bias, a pair of enumerators separated the two main adults while they were completing the individual survey to ensure answers were not influenced by potential conflict between household members. In single-headed households only the main adult was interviewed. The individual survey consisted of detailed information regarding the individual's employment and the WEAI. Out of our 320 individual observations, 186 participants were women and 134 were men.We implemented the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) (Alkire et al. 2013) in our individual surveys to get a comprehensive measure of influence in decision-making and empowerment. The strength of the WEAI is that it measures empowerment and agency of both men and women in 5 different domains relevant in agricultural rural communities: (1) decisions about agricultural production, (2) access to and decision-making power about productive resources, (3) control of and use of income, (4) leadership in the community and (5) time allocation. empowerment in other domains (Alkire et al. 2013). In section 5.1 we discuss in detail how the WEAI is consistent with our definition of empowerment.The WEIA has already been applied in various developing countries allowing for a robust comparison of empowerment across countries (Alkire et al. 2013). To make our survey more efficient and avoid overlaps between our household and individual surveys, we modified some questions in the WEIA. Figure 2 shows the domains and indicators collected in our modified survey.In the first domain in our WEIA survey we asked participants about their influence in decisions regarding the distribution of benefits, transactions, and inheritance of land and other productive assets owned or used by their household unit. To measure control and use of income we asked respondents if they had borrowed money from various sources in the last 12 months, and their influence over applying for and distributing that loan. In terms of income, we asked participants if they have funds that are exclusively managed and owned by themselves, how much money they make relative to their partners, and if they receive any sort of pension. In the leadership domain participants were asked if they were members or leaders of various groups including agricultural associations, women's groups, or religious communities, and the extent to which they influence decisions made within these groups. The time allocation domain asked participants to describe the numbers of hours they allocate in all the activities they undertake in a normal day.Lastly, we asked individuals to rate their satisfaction with the time they have left for leisure and resting. Table 2 provides a more detailed description of each component of the WEAI we included in our survey and the assets included in each question. The objective of this section is to highlight the challenges of conducting empirical studies on women's empowerment. First, we review the various definitions of empowerment across the literature. The second part of this section reviews the existing empirical studies and highlights their common measurement and methodological issues. To do so, we first discuss the challenges with measuring empowerment both indirectly using proxies and directly using outcomes or indicators of empowerment, particularly in light of the previous discussion about the conceptual definition of empowerment. We then separately review studies that treat empowerment as an observable variable and those that treat it as a latent construct. Finally, we discuss studies that address the endogeneity issues otherwise ignored in most empirical models of empowerment.According to (Alkire et al. 2013), the concept of empowerment is influenced by a person's experiences, beliefs, aspirations, context and culture. Thus, empowerment has been defined in various ways by different researchers. The following is a summary of the most commonly cited definitions of empowerment.Empowerment is often defined in terms of women's agency or their ability to make strategic choices about their lives based on what they value (Malhotra and Schuler 2005;Sen 1989;Kabeer 1999). Kabeer (1999) is often cited for developing the concept of empowerment further into a process that involves three dimensions: resources, agency and outcomes. Resources refer to pre-conditions such as access to assets or human capital required for women to exercise their agency. These resources have been further divided into sources and settings of empowerment (Kishor 2000). Sources are the assets that improve women's sense of security and thus increase their bargaining power within their household. Settings of empowerment include women's past and current environments which facilitate or hinder their ability to exercise their agency. Agency, the second dimension described by Kabeer (1999) involves the action taken which includes decision-making processes and negotiation. Lastly, the outcomes refer to the well-being outcomes achieved as a result of women exercising their agency. In terms of Kaaber's definition, empirical studies have focused more on analyzing the resources (such as access to assets or income) and outcomes of empowerment (such as child nutrition) often leaving agency aside (Alkire et al. 2013).Other definitions have described empowerment as a more complex concept that depends on more than just individual choices of women. For instance, the Alsop, Bertelsen, and Holland (2006) definition of empowerment involves women's agency as well as their ability to exercise their agency to achieve a desired outcome. Following the Alsop, Bertelsen, and Holland (2006) definition, empowerment is also determined by the institutions that govern empowerment of women and whether they allow women to exercise their agency effectively. Similarly, other scholars have broadened their definition of empowerment to include how external factors and relationships enable women to exercise their agency. Narayan (2002) describes access to information, inclusion and participation, accountability and local organizational capacity as four main aspects of empowerment. Thus, Narayan's definition of empowerment includes people's connections with each other and their institutions rather than focusing on their ability to make individual choices.Despite the different definitions of empowerment, researchers have reached a consensus on certain features of empowerment such as its multidimensional nature (Samman and Santos 2009). According to Samman and Santos (2009), empowerment can be exercised in different spheres, domains and levels. Spheres refer to the institutions that allow women to exercise their agency. Alsop, Bertelsen, and Holland (2006) refer to these spheres when stressing the importance of institutions in their empowerment definition. Domains represent the different areas of life in which an individual can exercise empowerment such as allocating household expenditures, influencing production decisions, practicing a religion, or having freedom of movement. Malhotra, Schuler, and Boender (2002) for instance, suggest that empowerment should occur in the economic, socio-cultural, interpersonal, legal, political, and psychological domains. Lastly, levels of empowerment refer to how individuals can exercise agency at the community, household or country levels (Samman and Santos 2009). Research often pays attention to women's agency exercised at the household level also described as their intra-household bargaining power.From the various definitions of empowerment, we can conclude that empowerment is a complex process that involves individuals and institutions at multiple levels. For this study we will follow the WEAI focus on women's agency and those aspects that relate to empowerment of women in agriculture exercised at both the household and community level (Alkire et al. 2013).Our measure of empowerment and empirical methodology are also consistent with the multidimensional nature of empowerment.One of the reasons for the lack of evidence of the drivers of empowerment is the challenges associated with measuring empowerment. According to Samman and Santos (2009), the majority of empirical studies measure empowerment indirectly using proxies such as land ownership, ownership of assets and education. This approach has been strongly criticized because these factors are commonly considered preconditions of empowerment rather than indicators of empowerment (Govindasamy and Malhotra 1996;Malhotra and Mather 1997;Malhotra, Schuler, and Boender 2002). Alkire (2008) uses asset holdings to exemplify how some of these issues may arise. First, asset holdings might not translate to empowerment in the same way for different individuals. Using asset holdings can also ignore the effect of different pathways, such as inheriting assets vs buying them, through which empowerment is affected. Finally, when asset holdings are used, increases in empowerment from other sources will not be accounted for (Alkire 2008).Only a few empirical studies of the drivers of empowerment attempt to measure empowerment directly (Samman and Santos 2009 provide an overview). Common measures in this literature include influence over household economic decisions, control and access to resources, and mobility which are commonly aggregated into indices (Jejeebhoy 2000). In other words, these studies treat empowerment as an observable variable. Common measures or indicators of empowerment in the literature are: economic, child related, and marriage related decision-making, mobility, power dynamics with husband, and access and control over assets (Jejeebhoy 2000). According to Samman and Santos' ( 2009) review of the literature, the majority of studies use simple dependant variables where the correlates of women's empowerment are analyzed using OLS or logit regressions. A common approach is to ask questions regarding one or more indicators and create a dichotomous variable that is equal to 1 if the woman is considered empowered for that indicator. For example, Hashemi, Schuler, and Riley (1996)   Schuler, and Riley (1996), for example, ran an additional regression in their analysis of credit programs in Bangladesh where the dependent variable is binary and equal to 1 when a woman is considered to be empowered in five or more of their eight indicators of agency.Researchers agree that empowerment is a multidimensional construct with different domains that must be carefully considered (Isvan 1991;Kishor 1995;Beegle, Frankenber, and Thomas 2001;Hashemi, Schuler, and Riley 1996;Mason 1998;Malhotra and Mather 1997;Malhotra, Schuler, and Boender 2002). However, a review of the empirical literature on drivers of empowerment shows that studies commonly use rather simplistic measures of empowerment that often rely on aggregating information from different indicators into one dependent variable. This aggregation forces researchers to overlook the possibility that the determinants of empowerment may have different effects on different facts of empowerment. In fact, drawing from a study by Mason (1998) which provides evidence that the drivers of empowerment have different effects on different empowerment domains, we expect this possibility to be high. It has also been shown that empowerment in one dimension does not necessarily guarantee or enhance empowerment in any other dimension (Allendorf 2007;Mason 2005;Mason 1998). Thus, focusing only on one or a few dimensions could lead to conclusions that are not necessarily applicable to all dimensions of empowerment. Finally, another weakness of this aggregation is that it often assumes that each indicator has the same contribution to women's empowerment. Even those studies that do not make this assumption rely on an arbitrary set of weights used to aggregate indicators into an empowerment variable (e.g., Ross et al. 2015).While most studies use empirical approaches that treat empowerment as an observable variable, fewer studies apply an approach that acknowledges the latent nature of empowerment. Narayan (2005) describes agency as a latent phenomenon that can only be deduced through its actions or results. While most scholars agree with this view, the majority of the empirical work reviewed so far does not have an empirical approach that accounts for the latent nature of empowerment. To our knowledge, Allendorf (2012) and Pitt, Khandker, and Cartwright (2006) are currently the only two exemptions. In a study of family relationships and women's empowerment in India, Allendorf (2012) measures empowerment based on decision-making over expenditures on eight items and mobility to various different places. This study uses exploratory factor analysis to create one factor to measure agency which was then used in an OLS regression.In another study of participation in microfinance programs and women's empowerment in Bangladesh, Pitt, Khandker, and Cartwright (2006) apply a structural equation model (SEM) where their latent empowerment is measured with 72 indicators that measure women's empowerment in various domains including purchasing ability, access to resources, activism, household attitudes, and others. While most studies develop empowerment measures from observed indicators, these studies treat observable factors as indicators of a latent phenomenon. Thus, their approaches are more consistent with the widely-agreed notion that empowerment is an unobservable variable. By including various indicators, instead of aggregating them into one variable, these approaches are also more consistent with the notion of empowerment as a multi-dimensional construct.A final issue in the existing literature is that the vast majority of studies ignore endogeneity issues (Trommlerová, Klasen, and Leßmann 2015;Samman and Santos 2009). To our knowledge there are only three studies that address endogeneity from reverse causality or unobserved heterogeneity by using two-stage least squares (2SLS) methods. Garikipati (2008) instruments the years of membership in a self-help group program in a study of the effect of a microcredit program on women's empowerment in rural India. However, while 2SLS IV is appropriate for linear models, the study applies it in a limited dependent variable context. The second case is a study of the determinants of women's empowerment in rural Bangladesh by (Anderson and Eswaran 2009).The authors correct the endogeneity bias from using women's work activities and earned income by using household-agricultural and health shocks as instruments for their first-stage estimation.Similarly, Trommlerová, Klasen, and Leßmann (2015) also use a 2SLS method to correct for potential endogeneity issues of education, literacy, economic activity and wealth. They found that all their estimates using OLS and logit regressions were still significant except for literacy, wealth and gender. Other studies have not accounted for endogeneity issues but have econometrically avoided endogeneity by using instrumental variables in their estimations (e.g., Imai et al. 2014).We develop an empirical model that solves the issues discussed in this section. We use a Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM) that allows us to treat empowerment as a latent variable observed by several indicators belonging to different domains that are relevant to women's empowerment in agriculture. By using this approach, we are not forced to aggregate the indicators or impose arbitrary weights on each indicator to create an empowerment measure. We also rely on our detailed survey data and use inheritance of land instead of ownership of land in our analysis. Using inheritance is better than using ownership, although there might still be endogeneity across generations. Nevertheless, our inheritance measure is more robust to endogeneity than other measures typically employed in the literature.The following section is divided into three parts. First, we discuss the determinants of empowerment that will be used in our empirical model. This includes a summary of other studies' findings of the drivers of empowerment included in our model. In subsection 7.2 we describe our empowerment latent variable and the influence indicators used in our measurement model. In subsection 7.3 we describe our econometric approach. This subsection describes Item Response Theory (IRT) and how it is applied to our analysis of women's empowerment. Section 7.4describes our econometric model. Finally, we conclude the section by describing some of the challenges in assessing goodness of fit in GSEM models.Based on our field work and review of the literature (e.g., Samman and Santos 2009;Jejeebhoy 2000) we grouped the main determinants of women's empowerment into three categories: assets and wealth, household characteristics, and community involvement. Within the category of assets and wealth we pay special attention to the allocation of land rights within the household to address our first objective. In this section we first review each determinant included in our model and the expected signs. Then, we include a rationale for including each determinant drawn from previous existing studies.We expect that ownership and control over assets would have a positive impact on women's empowerment. According to Doss (2013), assets can increase women's bargaining power by increasing their options outside the household, providing income via rents or through their use in production activities, and increasing their sense of security. Interestingly, asset control has not been consistently found to be a strong predictor of empowerment especially when social norms, religion, or caste systems are important factors in the specific context being studied (Samman and Santos 2009). For instance, Allendorf (2007) found that in Nepal a woman's place in the family structure is a stronger source of empowerment than her control over assets. Lokshin and Ravallion's (2005) study in Russia also suggest that ownership of assets or wealth does not necessarily translate to self-perceived levels of empowerment.Our sample includes peasant communities that are geographically close to each other and share very similar social norms, cultures, and religion. Thus, since these social factors are constant across communities, we expect differences in ownership of assets to have positive impacts on empowerment. Grazing cattle is perceived in the area as a sign of higher socioeconomic status possibly due to the potential for higher costs and earnings from dairy production. We expect that ownership of cows, included in our model as a binary variable showing whether the women's household owns cows, is associated with higher empowerment.We also include individual wealth (wealth index) that accounts for different household and individual assets owned by the woman. Since it is likely that wealthier women have more access to land, it is necessary to separate these two effects to identify the actual effect of land rights on women's empowerment. Our wealth index, therefore, does not include land rights. A positive coefficient on individual wealth would suggest that women's ownership of assets and higher socioeconomic status increase their empowerment. This relationship is expected in a context like rural Peru since women with less economic stress could have more flexibility to allocate their time in other activities outside their homes that could enhance their bargaining power.To determine the effect of intra-household allocation of land rights on empowerment, we include three dummy variables in our first model: woman inheritance, man inheritance, and joint inheritance. These variables show whether the women's household has land inherited by the woman only, by the man only, or by both. The control variable not explicitly included in our model represents women who live in households where no land has been inherited. Land ownership has only been included in three studies where it has been found to have positive impacts on women's empowerment (Allendorf 2007;Wiig 2011;Mason 1998). Following the limited evidence, we expect that women living in households where they are the only ones who have inherited land will be more empowered than those living in landless households. As far as we know, only Wiig's (2011) study in rural Peru has tested the effect of living in households where only the man has inherited land. Following the bargaining literature discussed in Section 2.2, we expect this variable to be negatively associated with women's empowerment since the man is more likely to monopolize decision-making if he has a greater fallback position or income contribution.However, there is a possibility for this coefficient to be positive if women's access to land inherited by other members is empowering in itself. Finally, we expect the coefficient on land rights inherited by both members to be positive since access to land at the household level could provide women with greater opportunities.The first set of household characteristic variables we include has to do with family structure. First, we include two dummy variables, single woman and woman only, indicating whether the woman is single or whether the woman used to be in a partnership that has now been dissolved due to a divorce, separation, or because she is a widow. The coefficients on these variables would show the impact of women's marital status relative to women living in a couple, whether they are in a marriage or a consensual union. In the context of the divorce-threat models of bargaining power, it is expected that marital status will play a role in women's decision-making power. Unmarried women, for example, might be more empowered given that they have the flexibility to continue with their education or work rather than having to engage in domestic chores.However, having been involved in a partnership in the past could also influence women's decisionmaking power. Marital status was included in Kamal and Zunaid's (2006) empowerment study in Bangladesh. The authors found that unmarried women are more likely to be empowered and the effect of marital status surpassed that of education. Even though Bangladesh is an extreme case where the average age at marriage is very low, we still expect marital status to determine empowerment in rural Peru.We also include three variables of family structure. Male adults and female adults are variables indicating the number of other male and female adults (over the age of 15 years old) in the household. We expect the presence of other male adults to have a negative impact on women's empowerment since they could replace women's role in decision-making. The presence of female adults is expected to be positively associated with women's empowerment. Finally, we include children as a continuous variable of the number of children below the age of 15 years old present in the household. We expect the coefficient on this variable to be negative because as the number of children increases the workload for women increases, and their time available to be involved in their household decreases.Education is commonly included in empowerment models and has been found to be an important predictor of different domains of empowerment (K. Gupta and Yesudian 2006;Malhotra and Mather 1997;Hindin 2000). In some cases, the evidence shows that specific levels of education achieved, rather than a continuous measure of years of education, predicts empowerment. Speizer, Whittle, and Carter (2005) showed that having only primary education is associated with male-centered attitudes and beliefs in women in Honduras. Jejeebhoy (2000) and Jejeebhoy and Sathat (2001) also showed that all levels of education were important predictors in Tamil Nadu, India, while in Uttar Pradesh, India and Punjab, Pakistan only secondary education was a significant predictor of women's empowerment.Intuitively, we would expect education to increase empowerment by providing women with self-confidence, awareness, and more opportunities. However, when it comes to household economic decisions, the education level of women relative to their spouse or other male decisionmakers will determine women's influence within the household. Thus, we include the household level variable education difference which is the difference between the man and the woman's level of education. We would expect that as the education gap increases in favor of the man, the woman could become less confident to participate in household economic decisions or to challenge her partner. In contrast, if a woman is relatively more educated than her spouse, we would expect her to have a greater influence within the household. This relationship would work differently for women who are either single or widowed since they might be the only individuals involved in their household's decision-making. To account for this we estimate the education difference between the woman and the oldest man adult in the household who is assumed to take over the role of a spouse as the primary decision-maker. In households where no other male figure is present we set the education gap equal to zero since we assume that there is no education advantage working against or in favor of these women.Finally, we included the member's age as a determinant of empowerment. We expect older women to be more experienced and, thus, have more decision-making power. Many women in our sample, especially those living alone, are seniors and as such have been involved in the communities for various generations. We expect these women to be more respected among community members too.We include two dummy variables to account for community involvement: public speaking and group membership. Public speaking shows whether the woman feels comfortable speaking in community meetings and family disputes. Group membership shows whether the woman is part of any agricultural, social, women's, or religious group. We expect both of these variables to be positively associated with empowerment since greater participation in their community could allow women to be more confident in participating in decisions made at the household and community level.Registration in the community is another factor that could determine women's empowerment. When new households are formed, most communities allow for only one member in the household to be registered in the community. Although the partner of the registered member still enjoys the benefits of belonging to the community, in case of a separation or divorce the registered member is more likely to keep assets, such as land, which are managed by the community. Thus, if a woman is registered she might be more confident in challenging her partner since her fallback position is strengthen by the community. However, women that are empowered are more likely to challenge the commonly patriarchal systems of communities and demand to be registered instead of their male partners. Therefore, we did not include registration in the community as an explanatory variable of women's empowerment because it is endogeneously determined.As mentioned earlier, we treat our empowerment variable as a latent variable that is measured using a set of influence indicators. We consider the influence of women over 13 separate household economic decisions. The 13 influence indicators are drawn from the WEAI questions related to women's influence in 3 broad categories: (1) purchase, sale, and transfer of assets and(2) access to and decisions over credit from the resources domain and (3) control over use of income from the income domain. Each influence indicator indicates the level of influence over an economic decision held by a woman relative to her partner (or in cases when they don't have a partner, other adult decision-makers within the household). Each influence indicator is a discrete ordered variable with five categories indicating whether the decision was made by (1) the man alone (M) (2) the man and another household member (MO) (3) the woman and the man jointly (or in other words an equal balance of bargaining power within the household) (MW) (4) the woman and another household member (WO) or ( 5) the woman alone (W). Category 3 includes scenarios where decisions are made by other members in the household, by members outside the household, or where no decisions are made because there is no access to the specific asset. In these scenarios empowerment is assumed equal between partners. Figure 3 reports the distribution of observations in each category for one of our influence indicators-decision-making over buying, selling, or transferring agricultural land. For this indicator men are the sole decision-makers in 7 households, women are the sole decision-makers in 29 households and there is some type of joint influence in 102 households. Figure 4 reports the distribution of observations for all influence indicators used in our analysis.At the crux of our empirical approach is Item Response Theory (ITR). In many disciplines, scholars are often interested in studying latent or unobservable characteristics. The latent traits can't be observed directly but can be measured using a set of items or questions. For example, a teacher interested in measuring statistical aptitude (the latent variable or trait) can administer a test with several questions (or items). IRT has been used in different applied disciplines such as psychometrics to develop links between observable measures of a latent trait and levels of the Who is the main decision-maker in...latent trait (e.g., Embretson and Reise 2000;Hambleton and Swaminathan 1985;Hambleton, Swaminathan, and Rogers 1991). For instance, IRT is used in educational testing to link students' responses to different items (e.g., questions which require yes/no answers) to their latent ability.Computerized adaptive tests like the GRE and GMAT are based on IRT (Montgomery and Cutler 2013). Other applications of IRT include the estimation of ideological ideal points of political figures (e.g., Martin and Quinn 2002;Bailey and Maltzman 2008) as well as variations of democracy within countries (Treier and Jackman 2008). In the development literature, application of IRT is limited. Das and Zajonc's (2010) study is a notable exception that used IRT to compare the distribution of cognitive skills of 9 th grade children from the Indian states of Orissa and Rajasthan with international benchmarks.IRT can be understood with a simple example from the educational testing literature mentioned above. Standard testing methods report the grade of a student in one specific test and provide a measure of student performance on a test specific scale. Using the standard approach, the test scores of students of the same class offered on two equivalent campuses may not be comparable because they differ in two ways: a) difficulty -questions across 2 tests may have different levels of difficulty, and b) discrimination -questions may differ in their capacity to separate out high ability and low ability students. The higher the discrimination the better the item is at identifying respondents within a narrow range of ability. IRT provides an alternative to standard test scoring methods by identifying the two types of differences and providing a mathematical approach to remove the differences from the scores so all tests are on the same scale.The Item Characteristic Curve (ICC) is the fundamental concept in IRT. Both the difficulty and discrimination parameters are estimated using the ICC, a function that links individuals' item response probabilities to the latent trait. Figure 5 shows a hypothetical ICC for the education testing example. The figure plots the probability of a correct response to a test question or item as a function of underlying ability or the latent trait. The difficulty represents the level of ability at which a respondent is likely to provide a correct answer for an item. That is, the difficulty is the minimum level of latent ability (x-axis) where the probability of a correct response crosses the 50% mark (y-axis). Similarly, the discrimination parameter is the slope of the ICC at the difficulty point (Figure 5).A formal expression for the ICC is given in equation S1 which expresses the probability of success as a function of latent trait lambda (assumed to be \uD835\uDC41~(0,1)), discrimination s, and difficulty d usually with a logistic specification for F: however, that the probability of the woman being the sole-decision maker with respect to each of the four other categories could also be computed. However, for the sake of brevity and the focus of my stud on women's intra-household power, the most relevant categories are women and men as sole-decision makers.Difficulty and discrimination in the educational test literature allow researchers to remove item's test-specific attributes thereby allowing tests to be put on a common scale so that students can be compared for example based on math tests across a cross section of countries. In our case, difficulty and discrimination provide us with novel policy information about each influence indicator. Specifically, they provide information on how different influences, each of which may be associated with a different development outcome, can be harnessed by empowering women.Figure 6 shows two hypothetical ICCs for two influence indicators with different difficulty values:Indicator 1 has a difficulty level that is located farther to the left of the latent variable axis. Thus, in the context of our study, the difficulty measures an influence's threshold or the minimum level of empowerment required to turn on the influence. In Figure 6, influence indicator 1 has a lower threshold than indicator 2, suggesting that less empowerment is required to turn on influence 1 relative to influence 2. That is, it is \"easier\" to turn on influence 1 through empowerment policies.Figure 7 shows hypothetical ICCs for two influence indicators with different discrimination values at their threshold or difficulty points. Influence 2 has a higher discrimination indicated by its steeper slope compared to influence 1. In the context of our study, the discrimination parameter measures an influence's sensitivity or responsiveness to changes in empowerment. In Figure 7, influence indicator 2 is more sensitive to policy interventions that increase empowerment than influence 1. It is plausible that a woman's influence over credit decisions may be highly sensitive to small changes in empowerment while her influence over livestock production may be less responsive. This could be the case even if the influence over livestock sales has a lower threshold or is \"easier\" to turn on. Taken together, policy makers would benefit from targeting influence categories that have lower thresholds and are more responsive. \uD835\uDC44 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 * = \uD835\uDF08 \uD835\uDC56 + \uD835\uDC60 \uD835\uDC56 \uD835\uDF06 \uD835\uDC57 * + \uD835\uDF00 \uD835\uDC57 (Equation 1)In Equation 1, \uD835\uDF08 \uD835\uDC56 is a constant term, \uD835\uDC60 \uD835\uDC56 is a factor loading associated with an influence indicator, and \uD835\uDF00 \uD835\uDC57 is assumed to be logistically distributed. Further, we assume that all items take on the ordered categories, \uD835\uDC58 = 0, … ,4 (where \uD835\uDC58 = 4 is woman as the sole decision-maker). As in standard ordered logit models, the observed outcome of each influence indicator \uD835\uDC44 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 is related to the continuous response \uD835\uDC44 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 * via a threshold model (Equation 1.a). 13 .Therefore, the probability of a woman \uD835\uDC57 belonging to an empowerment category \uD835\uDC58 (e.g., sole decision-maker) with respect to indicator \uD835\uDC56 (e.g., control over credit) is:variables, \uD835\uDC4A \uD835\uDC57 , \uD835\uDC40 \uD835\uDC57 , \uD835\uDC3D \uD835\uDC59 , that represent woman, male, and joint inheritance respectively. The land rights and education difference variables measure the distribution factors that are expected to determine the distribution of power within women's households. The parameters to be estimated are \uD835\uDEFC, \uD835\uDEFE, \uD835\uDF07, and \uD835\uDF08 and \uD835\uDF00 \uD835\uDC57 is a non-systematic error that captures unmeasured determinants that vary across women. The coefficients on the land rights dummy variables represent the effect of each type of inheritance on women's latent empowerment, holding everything else constant.\uD835\uDF06 * = \uD835\uDEFC\uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC57 + \uD835\uDEFE\uD835\uDC4A \uD835\uDC57 + \uD835\uDF07\uD835\uDC40 \uD835\uDC57 + \uD835\uDF08\uD835\uDC3D \uD835\uDC57 + \uD835\uDF00 \uD835\uDC57 (Equation 4)To better understand from a policy perspective what the empowerment thresholds and discriminations mean for peasant communities in rural Peru, we estimated the average level of empowerment in our sample. The mean empowerment level is predicted using the estimates of our GSEM model defined in equations 1 and 4. The predicted mean, estimated using Empirical Bayes, is the mean of the empirical posterior distribution using the estimated model parameters (see STATA manual 14 for more details on Empirical Bayes estimation).Our specification has three potential issues. First, we are not accounting for community effects which could influence the impact of land rights on women's empowerment. Second, our basic model does not consider the amount of inherited land but only includes our land rights dummy variables. Although it would be ideal to have continuous data on land inheritance amounts, the data we collected on hectares of inherited land does not have enough variability in it.Third, as mentioned earlier, a strong assumption in our model in the way the data was collected was that that the influence indicators which were elicited through a series of questions are perceived in a similar manner by both men and women. Specifically, we assumed that a question regarding a woman's influence over a household decision will be perceived and answered in exactly the same way. To account for differential item functioning (DIF), across men and women, as a robustness check, we pool the data using only women's responses that we use for our analysis above, with a dataset where men answered the same questions. The pooled sample contains both couples as well as single-heads of households. We estimate the larger IRT model with the pooled sample and test for DIF by testing the statistical significance of the coefficient on a variable denoting the sex of the survey respondent. The sex dummy variable is restricted only to appear in the measurement portion of the model and, thereby, captures differential attitudes and interpretations of the questions by men and women who have the same value of the latent trait.To address these issues, we ran four additional models to check for the robustness of the land right effects observed in our basic model. The first three additional models have different specifications of the explanatory variables of empowerment in Equation 4and the fourth additional model accounts for DIF. The first additional model includes community dummy variables to take into account community effects. In the second additional model, we account for quantities of inheritance given our data (rather than using binary inheritance indicator). To do so we estimate the average amount of land in hectares that households inherited and created new land rights variables each of which has three categories: no inherited land, amount of inherited land below the average, and amount of inherited land above the average. Given the lumpiness of the inheritance variables this approach allows us to approximate the effect of larger and smaller inheritances without relying on the variability of the data. Our third additional model includes the new land rights variables plus the community dummy variables. Finally, our fourth additional model accounts for DIF. To do so, we pooled our women's sample with identical questions and other household data we had elicited by deploying a questionnaire for collecting a \"men's sample\". In fact, the larger pooled sample is more reliable in the sense that it yields greater degrees of freedom, however, we refrained from using it due to possible inconsistencies across gender in answering the power questions. Our analysis in this model will allow us to do so by explicitly accounting for DIF in the model. We first transformed the men's responses so that they are scaled to measure women's empowerment on each of the influence indicators. In other words, if a man responded that he is the sole-decision maker of an influence, the corresponding score for that man's influence would be a 0 because the woman has no power over that influence. In order to test if there are differences between men's and women's responses, an additional measurement component is added to our basic model. This component relates the responses to each of our 13 influence indicators to the individual's sex through a sex dummy variable (1=woman).Recent advances in the literature allow estimation of Structural Equation Models (SEMs)where the indicators are ordered using generalized structural equation modelling (GSEM). This model allows the simultaneous estimation of the structural (a linear regression of latent empowerment on a set of observed determinants) and measurement component (a series of ordered logits relating our set of women's influence indicators to latent empowerment). In our model, the two components are estimated simultaneously using maximum likelihood (Statacorp 2013). Figure 8 illustrates the linkage between the measurement and structural equations. In the pathway Although there are some options available to determine goodness of fit of latent variable models, statistical tests for GSEM are not available in most software. Ideally, the chi-squared test should be used to decide whether a model should be accepted or rejected. In the chi-squared test the null hypothesis is an exact-fit of the covariance matrix from the model and the observed covariance matrix. A rejection of the null hypothesis could indicate several issues including model misspecification, low sample size to parameters estimated ratio, and causal heterogeneity (Antokanis 2013). Failing to reject the null hypothesis implies that the model's covariance matrix is consistent with the observed covariance matrix. However, even the chi-squared test presents challenges and should be carefully interpreted. For instance, an insignificant statistic does not strictly mean the model should be accepted but significant statistics could also be driven by large sample sizes (Kline 2011). Most software has not fully developed a GSEM feature yet and chisquared tests are usually not available.Other indexes such as the root mean squared of approximation (RMSEA) and the comparative fit index (CFI) are often suggested as alternatives to assess the fitness of GSEM models. However, these statistics are not robust and are also not available in most software for GSEM. The RMSEA is a measure of \"badness\" of fit of the model. When the RMSEA is significant and less than 0.05 the close-fit hypothesis can be accepted. On the other hand, the CFI compares how the model fit has improved in comparison to a baseline model where no parameters are freely estimated. A CFI below 0.95 suggests that there might be a flaw in the model's specification (Kline 2011). These tests are less powerful and should be used collectively to identify flaws in a model (Kline 2011). Some scholars caution against assessing fitness with these tests claiming that it is not possible to know how misleading these estimates are (Antokanis 2013).Thus, experts claim that these measures fall short of the chi-squared test (McIntosh 2012;Antokanis 2013).Because of the software limitations to assess goodness of fit, we employed a series of goodness of fit tests for thirteen regressions where each indicator is regressed on the explanatory variables of the structural equation. We assess the goodness-of-fit tests for these regressions to support our rationale for using each indicator in our measurement model.Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics for the 232 households included in our data. The typical household in our sample has 4 members. Around 29 percent of the households have one or more children below the age of 12. At least one male, other than the women's husband, is present in 34 percent of the households and at least one other female adult is present in 38 percent of the households sampled, possibly because it is common for people to take care of their parents once they become seniors and absorb them into their households. In terms of marital status, 42 percent of the households are headed by a man or woman only, while 40 percent are headed by a married couple. The high proportion of households headed by one individual, who in most cases is a woman, can be partly explained by the lesser opportunities for women to migrate. It is also common for men to abandon their partners after migrating to urban centers for better work opportunities. On the other hand, 18 percent of the households are headed by a couple in a consensual union. Consensual unions are common in the area because they are recognized as a 57 partner for legal matters in the community and the costs of marriage can be high. The table also shows the representation of each community in our sample.Table 4 reports the descriptive statistics of the individual characteristics of the participants of our individual survey by gender. In total we have 186 and 130 observations for women and men respectively. The descriptive statistics show some gender inequalities in respect to education and wealth. The average education level for men is 8.12 while the average education for women is 4.89. In other words, a typical woman did not complete primary school while a typical male completed the second grade of secondary school. The large education gap could result from 58 families forcing young girls to stay at home taking care of the domestic responsibilities or helping out with livestock operations. On average, the wealth index for men is 3.53 while for women it is 2.51. Higher access to education, relative to previous generations, in rural Peru allow young adults to access more opportunities in nearby urban centers creating a flow of young people out of rural areas. Thus, we see a high average age of 57 for both genders.A large proportion of women are registered in the community while only half of the men are registered. Registration in the community can be an important contributor of power within the household since it is common for communities to allocate land to households under the name of the registered member. Although it may seem from these numbers that women have more power and are more represented in the communities, a closer look at the marital status of our sample suggests a different story. The percentage of women that are single, separated, or widowed in our sample is greater than that of men for each category. In particular, the proportion of widowed women is five times that of men. Since a high proportion of women are not in partnerships, it is expected for them to be the members registered in their communities.The descriptive statistics of the women's empowerment drivers that are included in our structural model are reported in Table 5. 14 The mean wealth index is 2.51 with significant variation around the mean across observations. Only 36 percent of the women in our sample live in households that own cows and could potentially be perceived as belonging to a higher socioeconomic class. The majority of women (65 percent) said that they feel comfortable speaking in 14 These statistics are estimated using the 186 women observations only public but only a small proportion (21 percent) participates in social, religious, women's, or agricultural groups. Approximately half of the women's households have other male and female adults present. This could include parents, parents-in-law, or adult children. Around half of the households have children below the age of 12 years. 34 percent of the women in our sample are heads of their households on their own after being divorced, separated, or widowed. In contrast, only 14 percent of our sample is single or has not been in a marriage or consensual union before.In terms of land, the descriptive statistics show some heterogeneity in distribution factors across the women's households. Only 58 percent of the women in our sample live in households where land has been inherited. While there are slightly more women living in households were inheritance has only been acquired through the woman, only 2 percent of households have inherited plots through both male and female adults.Education was included as the difference between education of the main woman and man in each household. On average, women have less education than their partners; however, there is a large variance in the difference of education levels in our sample. The average age of women is 57.51 but there is also a big variation around the mean for this variable.Table 6 reports the results of the structural component (Equation 4) of each of our four models. The coefficients of the empowerment structural equation represent the effect of each variable on the latent women's empowerment.In our basic model (Model I) the coefficients on the woman inheritance and joint inheritance variables suggest that there is a significant relationship between women's land rights and women's empowerment. First, similar to Allendorf (2007) and Mason (1998) we find that women living in households where only women have inherited land are more likely to have greater decision-making power. The finding is consistent with the theoretical arguments that claim that land rights improve the fallback position of women and support the rationale for enhancing land rights as a development tool. Even though it has been argued that having formal rights, such as inheriting land, does not mean women control the land (Doss 2013), our model suggests that inheriting land is sufficient for increasing women's intra-household power. The coefficients on the two other land rights variables provide additional information regarding the intra-family allocation of land rights and empowerment. While the coefficient on man inheritance is not significant, the coefficient on joint inheritance is significant and positive. Our model also suggests that this effect is greater than the effect of providing land rights to women only. Overall, these results provide strong evidence of, heretofore, unnoticed intra-family land allocation effects on women's empowerment.As expected, the coefficient on our wealth index is significant and positive but women's ownership of cows is not significant. Despite comments of community members about cows being a sign of higher economic status, our model suggests that women's perceived status at the community level does not impact their decision-making within the household. In contrast, it makes sense for wealth to be significant and have a positive impact on empowering women since it provides women with more opportunities. For instance, if a woman has the ability to invest in her household's livestock she will probably have a greater influence over the management and revenue from the household's livestock operations.According to our results, neither belonging to a social or leadership group (group membership) nor women's comfort in public speaking (public speaking) have significant effects on empowerment. These results suggest that empowerment at the household and community levels could have different drivers. Alternatively, it is possible that other males in women's households were equally involved in community groups, for example, for which a woman, highly involved in her community would not gain any relevant skills relative to other decision-makers within her household. The results of the household structure variables provide interesting evidence of the allocation of power among family members. We expected male adults and female adults to have negative impacts on women's empowerment since additional adults in the households would normally reduce the woman's opportunities to participate in economic decisions. However, our results show that additional male adults have a positive impact on women's empowerment. It is common for older members to join their daughter's or son's families once they reach a certain age.The positive effect of additional males could be attributed to the presence of a woman's own family member who are males and who support her authority and power in the household. This variable also includes the presence of sons older than 15 years old who might not necessarily replace the woman's place as a decision-maker. In many cases, the new generations are more engaged with off-farm activities which could contribute to male sons not being a threat to women's influence in household decisions. Surprisingly, the effect of additional adult women in the household does not have a significant impact on empowerment. The effect of children in a household has been found to differ across empowerment studies; in our case, the effect is not significant.The effect of woman only, which includes women that are divorced, separated, or widowed, is significant and greater than the effect of any other determinant. This result is expected because our measure of empowerment is the women's influence within the household relative to a partner or any other man. Thus, by not having a partner, women in this category will automatically appear as though they have more power. This dummy variable, along with the single woman variable, will purge out this upwards shift in empowerment. It is interesting to note that the effect of being single is smaller than the effect of having a household headed by a woman only. Our results suggest that the dynamic of power during a partnership, or the process involved in dissolving this partnership, can increase a woman's bargaining power even once the partnership is dissolved.The difference in education levels is a statistically significant determinant of women's empowerment. In other words, an increase in the gap between the woman´s and the man´s education has a positive impact on women´s empowerment. The age coefficient is positive but does not have a significant effect.In conclusion, we find that in our basic model the factors that determine the distribution of factors within the household -intra-household allocation of land and education differences-have significant effects in women's empowerment measured as their influence in household economic decisions. On the other hand, most women's attributes, such as community involvement and age, are not significant determinants of their empowerment which is measured in our model as their intra-household bargaining power. The women's wealth is the only variable that has a significant effect on women's empowerment.The results of our additional models further support that the intra-family allocation of land rights matters for women's empowerment. When community effects are taken into account (Model II and Model IV) the results on the land rights variables change. First, unlike in our basic model, woman inheritance is not statistically significant and man inheritance is negative and significant.Most importantly, however, we see that in both models joint inheritance remains significant and has the greatest effect among the land rights variables. To test if the women's empowerment effect is driven by community norms, we ran an additional model where we interacted the woman inheritance variable with each of the community dummy variables. Since none of the interactions was statistically significant, we can conclude that the empowerment effects we have uncovered are not community specific.Our third additional model (Model IV) also supports the importance of woman and joint inheritance for women's decision-making authority. Since the land rights variables are categorical in this model, the land rights coefficients represent the additional effect of being in a greater category of inherited amount of land relative to not inheriting any land. The results suggest that the quantity of land inherited through the woman or jointly has a positive effect on women's empowerment. In other words, the effect of land inherited on women's empowerment is greater if a woman inherits more land than the average amount of land inherited by women or inherited jointly. Table 7 reports the measurement component (Equation 1) results of the respondent's sex on 11 of our influence indicators. The influence over buying and selling commercial crops and the influence over credit from relatives could not be included in this model due to the lack of variability in their responses. The statistically significant coefficients on the sex dummy variable shows that DIF is indeed an issue in our data and that men and women have inherent differences to the empowerment questions regardless of the empowerment level in the household. This issue is found across all the influences included in the model. The positive sign on the DIF coefficient further tells us that the response to women having influence in household economic decisions is exaggerated when women answer the question rather than men. This could create significant bias in the land rights variable.To determine if our results hold once DIF is accounted for we look at the structural part of our fifth model reported in Table 8. We find that our three land rights variables are statistically significant. The woman inheritance and joint inheritance remain positive, with joint inheritance having the greatest effect on empowerment. The man inheritance variable, on the other hand, is negative. Our results show that inherited land by the man only has a negative effect on women's empowerment. Thus, the findings from this model are qualitatively consistent with our previous results. In addition, a critical finding in the DIF model is striking evidence of a negative externality of men inheriting land on women's empowerment.Overall, we provide some evidence that women's inheritance matters for women's empowerment but we have more robust evidence that joint inheritance matters more. Our additional models provide strong evidence of the intra-family land rights effects.The measurement equation (Equation 1) results from our basic model (Model I) were used to estimate our influence thresholds and sensitivities following the necessary transformations from Equation 3. The estimates reported in Figure 9 represent the predicted mean latent empowerment and the influence thresholds (or their difficulties) which indicate the level of latent empowerment required to make a woman the sole decision-maker in an influence relative to a base category 15influence over buying, selling or transferring agricultural land. The influence types are organized from lower to higher thresholds to ease the comparison between the influence indicators. Since the empowerment thresholds are a function of two random variables (see Equation 3) we can assume that the thresholds are statistically significant if both the discrimination factor and the threshold cut-point are significant. This is the case for all influences except for the influence over credit from relative or friends. Thus, this influence is excluded from our analysis.First, we can see that the predicted mean latent empowerment is lower than any of the empowerment thresholds reported in Figure 9. Thus, on average, women are not empowered enough to be the sole-decision makers in any of the influences. The low mean predicted latent empowerment shows there is significant room for empowerment policies that could benefit the peasant communities in our study.The results show that influence over transfer and revenue distribution of livestock have lower thresholds, that is they require low levels of empowerment relative to the other indicators.These results are optimistic provided that grazing livestock is the main livelihood activity of women; if development programs empower women it is almost guaranteed that women will gain more influence over their most important activity. The influence with the next lowest threshold is the purchase and sale of goods for the household. Influence over agricultural land and influence over expenditures have similar thresholds and are also among the \"easiest\" influences to achieve for policy-makers. Since agricultural land is required for grazing livestock, increasing women's influence on these decisions allows women to be more autonomous in how they manage their livestock activities. Furthermore, knowing that changing women's influence over expenditures made in the household requires relatively low levels of empowerment is helpful for development programs that aim to increase household's well-being through the adoption of specific goods. For example, if a development policy seeks to address health concerns by increasing the adoption of improved stoves, empowering women could be a tool to achieve this goal as long as women havedifferent preferences regarding this technology. In fact, empowerment could be preferred over other policy tools since it would also unleash other positive impacts on women's and household's welfare.The remaining influences have higher thresholds or are endorsed by women at rather higher levels of empowerment. These results provide insights regarding the plight of women in these peasant communities. First, high amounts of empowerment are required to turn on the influence over purchase or sale of vehicles in the household. Women's exclusion from these decisions could contribute to their lack of means of transportation to nearby towns and cities where alternative occupations are available. The exclusion of women from influences that could help them to diversify their livelihoods could further exacerbate their dependence on grazing livestock, placing them in a vulnerable position as resources such as land become scarcer or climatic conditions become harsher as a result of climate change.The influence indicators of production and income distribution from commercial crops also have high thresholds and require high levels of empowerment to occur. These results suggest that it would require more resources to empower women to a point that facilitates their options to diversify their livelihoods or to a point where they can control the production of crops.The influence indicators for applying to credit and managing credit from banks also have high thresholds. It is possible that women's exclusion from these decisions hinders their ability to access any credit. Thus, their possibilities of engaging into activities that require investments (e.g. small businesses) are slim. Finally, the other indicators with high thresholds are the influence over renting out land and influence over controlling the distribution of revenue from rented land. These results raise more concerns about women's wellbeing since renting out land is becoming an important source of income as a result of the scarcity of land.Figure 10 shows the results of the empowerment sensitivities as estimated from our measurement model. These are the discrimination parameters which show, conditional on the threshold points, how sensitive is an influence to a small change in empowerment. In Figure 10 the types of influence are ordered from most sensitive to least sensitive to changes in empowerment. The discrimination parameters are the coefficients reported in STATA. All influences were significant except for the influence over credit from friends or relatives.First, we will focus on the influence indicators that are highly sensitive to changes in empowerment. For these influences, small changes in empowerment would result in large increases in the probability of women having sole decision-making power over an influence. The influences with the highest sensitivities are the influence over buying and selling livestock and theinfluence over income from livestock. This again is optimistic from a policy perspective since policies that empower women would also have a large impact on the likelihood of women influencing the management of their primary livelihoods. The influence over buying and selling goods and commercial crops and the distribution of income from agricultural land are also highly sensitive. The influences on income distribution from commercial crops, buying and selling agricultural land, and expenditures are somewhat sensitive to changes in empowerment.On the other hand, decisions over renting out land and credit from banks have the lowest empowerment sensitivities. In other words, small changes in empowerment would not induce large changes in the probability of women being sole-decision makers in those influences. These influences also have high thresholds and would therefore not be recommended as targets for development policies. Lastly, buying or selling transportation vehicles also has a low sensitivity to changes in empowerment.  Table 10 reports the goodness of fit results for the thirteen ordered logit regressions where each indicator is modeled as a function of the explanatory variables in the structural equation. We can conclude from the chi-square tests for the regressions that the indicators can be directly explained by at least one determinant in our structural model. The only two indicators where the null hypothesis in the chi-squared test cannot be rejected are our two measures of commercial crops. These indicators could be problematic due to the low number of observations producing maca, the only commercial crop in the area, in our sample. Our conclusions about land rights still apply once these indicators are removed from the model.Section 8: Discussion and Policy ImplicationsOur first objective was to determine how the intra-household allocation of land rights affects women's empowerment in rural Peru. The results of our structural component suggest that, as predicted by the intra-household bargaining literature, there is a positive effect of women's land inheritance on women's empowerment. Following the literature, we would also expect that if a man has more land rights relative to his wife or conjugal partner, the woman would have a weaker fallback position and, therefore, less influence within the household. However, the results in our first four models show that the effect of man's inheritance is not statistically significant. This could be because the effect of the relative advantage of male's land rights could be cancelled by the indicate that women in peasant communities in rural Peru might benefit from men's or joint land rights after a separation or divorce for three reasons (1) land inheritance to a spouse is perceived to be an inheritance to the couple as a unit (2) land can be given as a compensation if the man is considered guilty for the partnership ending and (3) land might be given to the woman if she is the primary caregiver of any children. It is possible that effect of the possibility of acquiring men's land after a divorce or separation has a greater impact when there is joint inheritance, making the coefficient of joint inheritance the largest coefficient among our land rights variables. However, a closer examination of our fifth model's results suggests that DIF effects could explain the lack of significant results on the effect of men's land rights on women's empowerment. Our results support the use of land rights to empower women and show that policymakers need to consider the intra-household distribution of land rights to maximize the empowerment effect of development policies.Our findings also provide new information that could be used by policymakers to increase women's empowerment in peasant communities in rural Peru. Women's land rights have been promoted throughout Peru both through policies, the most notable being the PETT program, and through research studies that link land rights to women's empowerment. However, the PETT program did not allocate land titles in peasant communities. Thus, the policy implications from the existing literature that shows a linkage between land titles and development outcomes, including women's empowerment, are not applicable to peasant communities. In contrast, promoting women's or joint land inheritance in peasant communities is a feasible alternative. Since male inheritance is strongly preferred in the Peruvian highlands (Wiig 2011), future empowerment policies could promote women's and joint inheritance. It is possible that achieving this goal requires collaboration with peasant communities so that the institutions regarding inheritance of land rights are not biased against women. For instance, in some of the communities of our study women were pressured into registering as community members under their spouses' name. Some women feared that they would be more likely to lose their inherited land in case of a divorce if they were registered under their spouses' name. The possibility of their daughters' land being taken away could motivate parents to prefer transferring their land to their sons. Ensuring that the norms around transfers of land are not threatening women's land rights could promote the equal distribution of land rights across generations. 16   Our second objective was to explore how women's empowerment is linked to the different types of influences in our model. We identify the influences that would be most attractive from a policy perspective in terms of the level of empowerment needed for women to be the sole decisionmakers over an influence and the influence's sensitivities. Our analysis provides policy-makers with ex-ante information about the linkage between women's empowerment and a desired policy outcome. By identifying the threshold and sensitivity of the influences, policymakers could more easily choose between policy alternatives. In a sense if we think of different development outcomes Y1 (children's education/ nutrition) or alternatively Y2 (entrepreneurship), both functions of women's influences, then one can imagine that the two development outputs use different influences with different intensities. This is similar to the way that physical outputs use labor and capital with different intensities. Understanding the threshold and the sensitivity of each influence Future studies and additional data could also include a stricter definition of intra-household bargaining power by only pooling couples' observations. Given the high rate of migration out of peasant communities, it was often challenging to find both adults in dual-headed households. Thus, our dataset does not contain enough couples' observations to run separate models on couples and single-headed households.As mentioned earlier in this thesis, a limitation of GSEM is the lack of available goodnessof-fit tests in most econometrical software. Although we attempted to justify the validity of our model by running separate goodness-of-fit tests on the empowerment indicators, more appropriate tests would allow us to compare alternative models and improve the model's specifications. Future advances in the available software will be beneficial for future empirical studies using GSEM.Despite these limitations, our results provide robust evidence to support the use of land rights to achieve development goals. We also show the importance of considering the intrahousehold allocation of land rights to increase the effectiveness of development policies. We find that the effect of land rights inherited only by women is significant and positive on women's empowerment. However, the effect of land inherited by both the man and the woman in a household is significant and greater than other determinants of empowerment such as education and ownership of assets. These results remain constant across four different specifications of our model, providing robust evidence of the importance of joint inheritance of land on women's empowerment. One of our additional models suggests that once DIF effects are taken into account, men's inheritance has a negative externality on women's empowerment.We also provide an additional analysis of the indicators used in our model using ItemResponse Theory. Our results suggest that while high levels of empowerment are needed to achieve women's influence over decisions regarding credit from banks and renting out land, these areas are the most responsive to changes in empowerment. Thus, our analysis suggests areas that policymakers can focus on to promote women's wellbeing in rural Peru. In addition, our GSEM methodology allows us to estimate the mean level of empowerment in our study area. Our resultsshow that the mean level of empowerment is lower than all of the empowerment thresholds of our influence indicators. In other words, we show evidence that those influence which require high levels of empowerment, which happen to be the influences necessary for women to access other livelihood opportunities, are not achievable short-run targets for policy-makers. In contrast, given the mean level of empowerment, those influences related to livestock, which are also critical for women given their importance in their livelihoods, are areas where policies could focus on right away.The policy attention and studies on land rights in Peru have so far only focused on the impacts of land titling primarily as a result of the PETT program. Wiig (2013) is the only study that analyzes the impact of joint land titles in rural communities in Peru. However, the findings of Wiig's study only apply to the impacts of land titling on unrecognized communities where land is not owned by the community and the PETT program was able to distribute land titles. Since Peru's focus on land rights has been limited to the PETT program, the potential for land rights policies in recognized communities has received little attention. Despite land in communities being legally owned by the community, our study provides evidence of how inheritance of user rights can still be used as a policy lever to induce empowerment and reach development outcomes.local farmers. However, the future livelihoods in the area might be threaten by the rapid expansion of maca.Although scientific evidence is scant, the production of maca has raised concerns due to its environmental impacts. The land use changes from grasslands to maca plantations are especially concerning. Since the undisturbed grasslands in the High Peruvian Andes area are thought to be rich in carbon (CIP 2010), this land use change could emit significant amounts of greenhouse gasses. The rapid expansion of maca is also concerning because it takes land several years to recover after maca is harvested. Even though most farmers depend heavily on land for their livelihood, the area of land farmers rent out for maca production continues to grow. It is possible that the future of women's main livelihood, grazing livestock, will be threaten as land becomes scarcer and more expensive in the area.The boom of maca has two main impacts on the communities in our study area. First, there is a significant flow of money going into these communities as maca is sold by farmers or as land is rented out to foreign producers. Second, the production of maca is driving land use changes at rates that are likely going to threaten the future of grazing livestock, the main livelihood of farmers, especially women, in the area. The objective of this section is to identify which groups will benefit and which groups will bear the costs of the impacts of the expansion of maca. To do so, we will try to answer two main questions. First, who is benefitting from producing maca? Second, whose livelihoods are likely to be more affected as land becomes scarcer? To do so we will draw from observations from our fieldwork as well as data collected for our study.Producing maca is a lucrative but expensive option for farmers. Only those who can afford the investment costs and have access to land can become maca producers. As a result, relative to foreign buyers, very few local farmers have been able to enter the market. According to our data, 5 percent of women and 10 percent of men local farmers are producing maca (Table 11). These percentages are very low considering the current boom in maca production.The production of maca has two main constraints (1) investment costs and (2) access to land. First, we will try to identify who is more likely to overcome the investment constraints and  enter the market of maca. Figure 11 plots the probability of producing maca for men and women as wealth increases. The probability of men producing maca is higher for every level of wealth.We can also see from the cut-off points that women require a larger amount of wealth to have any probability of producing maca. Thus, this graph suggests that in general it is more likely for men to enter the market especially as their wealth increases and they can cover the investment costs of production.Farmers producing or renting out land for maca are giving up any other alternative use of the land for several years. It is likely that only farmers with more than enough land to cover their grazing livestock needs are the ones that can afford to rent out their land or use their land for maca production. In Figure 12 we can see the probability of an individual producing maca as a function of total area of land in their households. The graph shows a slight increase in the probability of producing maca as the area of land increases. The increasing rate is especially evident in the range of 200 to 300 hectares of land. There are only a few observations of households with access to more than 300 hectares of land. It is possible that households with access to land outside this range are too involved in livestock operations to devote time to the labor intensive nature of maca production. During our data collection and fieldwork wealthier farmers seemed to be the most concerned about the environmental impacts of maca. Thus, wealthier farmers might be against the production of maca either because they are more aware of its environmental impacts or because they do not need the new economic opportunity it offers. Either possibility would explain the lack of maca producers among the largest landowners. With the exceptions of the largest landowners the graph suggests that the probability of producing maca is greater for households with more hectares of land.The expansion of maca is threatening livestock activities by competing with available land for grazing. Thus, to identify whose livelihoods will be more affected as land becomes scarcer we will analyze who is more dependent on grazing livestock. Figure 13 reports time allocation patterns between farm, off-farm, and domestic activities of women and men that are single or in partnerships. First, we can see that men alone do more farm and off-farm work than women alone.This difference could be due to higher work opportunities available for men relative to women or to higher responsibilities of women living alone. For instance, a divorced woman is more likely to look after her children than a divorced man. When women enter into a partnership with a man, however, they do less agriculture and more domestic work. This trade-off is not surprising given the expected gender roles of women as caregivers of the household. While the farm work hours decrease, off-farm work hours surprisingly increase as women enter a partnership. In contrast, when men go into a partnership with women they do slightly more agriculture, more off-farm work, and less domestic work. This again is consistent with the role of women as a caregiver; the man is able to invest more time in work activities as his domestic work burden decreases and is taken over by the woman. In conclusion, we see that in both cases men have greater opportunities to do off-farm work while women's opportunities are mediated by men.The previous graph describes the time allocation between farm, off-farm and domestic activities. In contrast, Figure 14 depicts the proportion of individuals within each group that depend solely on farm activities, solely on off-farm activities, or on both. As seen in the figure, the majority of women, both alone and in partnerships, rely solely on farm activities. In contrast, more than 25% of men alone and in partnerships rely on both farm and off-farm activities. In the case of men in partnerships, only about half of the sample relies solely on farm activities. Thus, we can expect that a greater proportion of women relative to men will face direct impacts as land, an essential resource for their livelihoods, becomes scarcer.The previous discussion suggests that women are not only facing higher barriers to enter the market of maca but will also bear more of the impacts of its production. The descriptive results of our data suggest that women are stuck in farm activities and that a large proportion of women depend solely on farming. Thus, if the expansion of maca creates so much pressure on land resources affecting the productivity of grazing livestock it is possible that women will struggle to transition into other occupations in the future. This scenario would be more optimistic if women could use maca profits and invest them into productive assets. However, we also provide evidence that women might face higher barriers to enter the market of maca. Even if women are able to ","tokenCount":"19675"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"663d0508a37e978fd66cf7f68fd66aaa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b5e8dd5f-b107-4540-bd35-bdc2513a0225/retrieve","id":"361635109"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba74a7c6-7ab9-415b-acfc-89e68cf9dcfc","pagecount":"32","content":"Synthesis of the IDOs, theory of change, and impact pathways of the CRP, including explanation of how the CRP will contribute to common CRP IDOs and so to achievement of the SLOs. Include CRP'S IDOS Table presenting their respective targets and indicators and the specific metrics to be used for each indicator. Describe main change s that may occur over the next 9−10 years that may create discontinuities and influence the CRP's theory of change, partners, research questions, or choice of sites (4 Pages).GRiSP's mission is to reduce poverty and hunger and improve human health and nutrition in rice-dependent populations, and to reduce the environmental footprint and enhance the ecosystem resilience of rice production systems. It aims to achieve this by fostering high-quality, impact-oriented research and development activities at spatial scales ranging from local to national and to global. The extension of GRiSP in 2016 takes on board learnings from the first phase of GRiSP (2011-current) and prepares for the second phase expected to start in 2017. A major development is the formulation of Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs) and their relation to the CGIAR System-Level Intermediate Development Outcomes (SLIDOs) as summarized in Table 1.Quantified global aspirational targets are given in Table 2 (Annex 2) for 2020 and 2035. Some of our concrete outcome targets for specific geographic regions (action sites, see Annex 3) are given below for 2016−2022:By 2016, 60,000 direct \"client households\" in hubs around Jessore, Khulna, Barisal, Faridpur, Mymensingh, and Rangpur in Bangladesh have adopted improved varieties and improved and efficient natural resource management practices for rice, maize, wheat, fish, vegetables, and other high-value crops 1 , which will increase their net income with US$350/household from 2012 level. In addition, through various dissemination-related activities such as demonstration and adaptive research trials, farmers' field days, and farmers' training activities, etc., another 300,000 households will be reached indirectly. By 2018, the adoption of improved rice varieties for irrigated conditions (transplanted and dryseeded) and of improved crop management and postharvest practices by 4 million farmer households on 5 million hectares in South Asia (the western Indo-Gangetic Plain, the central Gangetic Plain, and the eastern Gangetic Plain in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan; and subtropical South India) will lead to a 0.5 t/ha increase in cereal yields. 2 Adoption by another 2 million farmer households in South Asia on 2.5 million hectares will lead to a 1 t/ha increase in cereal yield. At least 30% of adopters of improved varieties and production technologies are women, while at least 70% of adopters of improved post-harvest practices are women. The adoption of improved practices will increase nitrogen and water use efficiency by 30% compared to 2012 levels. At least 5 million tons additional grain will be produced annually, with an additional economic grain value of at least $1.5 billion per year and substantial other savings in terms of energy and other production costs. By 2018, 30 million poor smallholder rice farmers in Asia (Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines, India; and Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Ningxia provinces of China) and Africa (Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, and Ethiopia) have adopted Green Super Rice varieties, which increases their average rice productivity by 20%, and represents a collective income increase of about $1.3 billion per year. We aim to include 30% women among adopters.By 2019, 25 million farmers in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, and Nepal) and Africa (Nigeria, Benin, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, The Gambia, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, and Sierra Leone in West Africa; Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Burundi, and Kenya) have adopted improved stress-tolerant rice varieties (for drought, salinity, and submergence) and accompanying management practices, resulting in an annual increase in income per farm family of 15% (affecting lives of over 100 million people), representing a collective increase of about $1.9 billion per year. About 86% of this increase would be in SA and 14% in SSA. The improved varieties will provide a yield advantage of at least 1 t/ha over the currently grown varieties on farmers' fields under stress conditions. We target at least 30% women involvement in all activities. By 2022, 0.5 million farmer households in Asia (Can Tho and Long An Province, Vietnam; Nakorn Sawan Province, Thailand; Guangdong Province, China; Ayeyarwady Region (Maubin, Bago), Myanmar; Polonnaruwa and Vaunia District, Sri Lanka; South Sumatera and Sulawesi, Indonesia) have adopted sustainable management and postharvest practices, which will lead to a 20% yield increase, 20% increased profitability, increased resource-use efficiency, and a decreased environmental footprint.GRiSP's Impact Pathway (IP) and Theory of Change (ToC) (Annex 1, Fig. 1) are grounded in a historical evidence base, 3 which is taken forward through conceptual and quantitative foresight exercises (e.g., p 24-25 and 180-184 of the GRiSP proposal, and p 69-74, Boosting Africa's Rice Sector).Rural poverty and hunger can effectively be reduced by increased agricultural growth through improved productivity and income. Productivity growth in the agricultural sector also contributes to growth of regional or national economies through \"growth linkages,\" of which an important one is lowered prices of food. Increased productivity leads to increased rice production, which lowers food prices and makes rice more affordable to the poor, for whom rice is a \"wage good.\" The input intensification associated with yield growth results in greater demand for labor and wages. Increased yield and productivity can be brought about by genetic improvement, improved natural resource management, and a combination of both. Genetic improvement consists of increasing the yield potential and/or increasing tolerance (or resistance to) of abiotic stresses (drought, submergence, salinity, extreme temperatures, problem soils) and biotic stresses (pests, weeds, diseases). Although the genetic potential of varieties determines the maximum yield farmers can obtain in a particular environment, their crop management (i.e., soil, water, nutrients, pests, and diseases) determines how much of this yield potential is actually realized. Pathways to increase farmers' income include raising productivity but also reducing the costs of production, increasing the value of production, decreasing postharvest losses, and-for both farmers and poor consumers-reducing expenditures on food (which increases net available income for other purposes). The costs of production can be decreased by improved management that lowers the use of inputs even while holding yield constant. The value of production can be increased by increasing the marketability of rice grains, and by increasing the value and use of by-products such as straw and husk. The value of rice grains can be increased by enhancing physical (e.g., decreasing chalkiness, increasing head rice recovery) or eating quality (e.g., aroma, stickiness, cooking quality) for eating. Increased grain quality can be derived from genetic improvement (e.g., aromatic rice, less chalky rice) as well as from improved postharvest technologies. Finally, reduced expenditures on food can be realized through the lowering of the price of rice.A direct pathway to increasing food security is by making staples more available and at lower costs through technological changes in agriculture, including enhancing the competitiveness of local production. A low price of rice makes it more affordable to net rice consumers in both rural and urban areas. Improved rural household food security can be realized through increased on-farm production and/or increased income (which translates into increased purchasing power). Many of the above-mentioned technologies to reduce poverty contribute to increasing rice food security as well. Enhanced overall productivity, better participation in the value chain, and diversification of farm output will protect farmers from an adverse impact of lower rice prices.Nutrition and health: Human micronutrient deficiencies are relatively severe in areas where rice is the major staple. Increasing the density of provitamin A carotenoid, iron, and zinc in the grains of rice helps to alleviate these deficiencies, especially among the urban and rural poor who have little access to alternatives such as enriched foods and diversified diets. Improving the glycemic index (GI) of rice can potentially contribute to reductions in the incidence and ongoing treatment costs of Type II diabetes, which is reaching epidemic proportions among all population groups across South and Southeast Asia. Reduced pesticide use, through pest-and disease-resistant varieties and integrated pest management (IPM)/ecological engineering practices, helps to reduce health risks to farmers. Recently, the recognition of the presence of heavy metals such as cadmium and arsenic in grain produced from some rice production environments is emerging as health threat.Sustainably managed natural resources: Different pathways exist by which agricultural research can increase the sustainability of rice production, reduce the use of precious resources (water, energy), increase ecosystem services, and reduce negative environmental externalities in rice production such as greenhouse gas emissions and loading of agrochemicals (including pesticides). Increasing the productivity of input use (e.g., water, energy, nutrients) reduces the amount of inputs used per unit production, and hence conserves these input resources. The increase in productivity can be realized through an increase in effective use, or uptake, of the input in question, and by an accompanying reduction in emissions to the environment. Some technological innovations directly target the reduction of negative externalities such as IPM, the use of pest-and disease-resistant varieties, and ecosystem engineering that aim to reduce the application of pesticides in rice landscapes by enhancing natural (bio)control functions and ecosystem resilience. Adapted water and soil management practices can reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Crop diversification in rice-based cropping systems can also contribute to increased sustainability.GRiSP develops-with its partners-products and services, such as genes and markers, breeding lines, improved varieties, improved crop management and postharvest technologies, policy briefs, and training and dissemination materials. Our research to impact pathway for these products follows a \"pipeline\" approach: upstream research results in discoveries and innovations, which are translated into concrete products, which are tested, improved, used, and disseminated with intermediate users, and finally become adopted by end users (Fig. 1). Intermediate users encompass a variety of actors, such as research organizations, extension services, NGOs, and publicand private-sector parties. End users are typically actors along the rice value chain, such as farmers, millers, processors, traders, and consumers. End users can also be input suppliers, such as seed producers or the fertilizer industry (which make use of improved nutrient management guidelines). Partners play a key role in all stages of the pipeline, and there are many feedback and feed-forward loops among research, development partners, and users. In fact, the pipeline is not a linear model; the whole development, assessment, adoption, reassessment, and dissemination process is more like a web. Finally, the targeted results of adoption are the outcome indicators summarized in Table 1.Many possible pathways toward adoption exist at different spatial scales, from local-our action sites-to national and to global. At each spatial scale, products may reach users directly through intermediate users operating at that specific scale, or they may reach users through the process of scaling out and scaling up from underlying spatial scales (Fig. 2). At action sites, GRiSP concentrates its R&D efforts \"on the ground\" with its partners. This can be research taking place at advanced laboratories, at key breeding locations (e.g., multienvironment trials), at experimental platforms, or at development sites where GRiSP-derived products and services are tested, evaluated, improved, and adapted. An example of development actions sites are the Rice Sector Development Hubs in Africa (Fig. 3). Products adopted at the local level (the action sites) can reach more users at larger spatial scales through processes of outscaling and upscaling. The Brookings/IFAD framework 4 emphasizes the importance of learning in an iterative and interactive cycle of scaling up. Following this framework, we recognize that scaling up pathways can follow different \"dimensions.\" In its simplest form, scaling up may expand services to more clients in a given geographical space. It can also involve \"horizontal\" replication, from one geographic area to another. In \"functional\" expansion, additional areas of engagement are added to the existing ones. In \"vertical\" up scaling, activities move from a local or provincial engagement to a nationwide engagement, often involving policy dialogue to help achieve the policy and institutional conditions needed for successful national-level scaling up. Mindful of these various modes of scaling out and scaling up, GRiSP develops and strengthens the \"enabling environment\" for facilitating outcomes at-and across-spatial scales: it takes action to mobilize, strengthen (capacity for research, innovation, and extension), inform, support, and link partners, and to promote equity throughout the rice value chain-especially gender equity. Hence, our outcome indicators refer not only to the adoption and use of new 4 Linn, Johannes F., Artntraud Hartmann, Homi Kharas, Richard Kohl, and Barbara Massler. rice technologies (e.g., new varieties and management practices) but also to the enabling environment (e.g., capacity built, functional delivery systems, learning alliances, value chains, women's empowerment index, etc.). To identify the required enabling actions, we first establish the assumptions associated with each flow step along the selected impact pathway for the specific GRiSP product or service at hand (the middle part of Fig. 1 as generic example) and the risks if these assumptions are not met. From this analysis, we identify the enabling actions we need to undertake to minimize the risks and to ensure the upward flow of products (the right-hand side of Fig. 1). For each of GRiSP's Flagship Projects -and for some specific products-, impact pathways and supporting theories of change were developed to facilitate scaling up and scaling out. At larger spatial scales, such as the national level, GRiSP products may also be taken up, used, and disseminated directly by a variety of partners. Examples are published new genes and publicly available breeding lines that are used by plant breeders across the globe, or management technologies approved for official country-wide disseminationwithout having gone through the process of spatial outscaling.CRPs will deliver its work through a limited number of large \"flagship projects\" with a value of between US$20 and 100 million over the course of the program. Flagships may be either geographically or thematically focused. Summarize flagships and show how they will contribute to the IDOs (3 Pages).Currently, GRiSP is composed of six highly interconnected Themes, which are subdivided into Product Lines. GRiSP's model is that of vertical integration along the rice value chain/research-development continuum. We link and integrate rice research and product development at the lowest spatial scale of molecular biology, through organ, plant, crop, field, farm, and region to the national and global level. In line with the proposed CRP-wide terminology, our Themes will morph into Flagship Projects, which each contribute to multiple IDOs (Fig. 4). To emphasize our focus on results, and to facilitate enhanced results-based management, we have re-formulated our Product Lines into concrete \"results\" that are delivered through clusters of activities. Results are defined by concrete products and services (outputs) and outcomes. This is comparable to our current Product Lines, though with increased focus on results as a management principle 5 . Taking on board lessons learned so far, and changes in the environment, we will refocus the current six Themes into five Flagship Projects. A main change is a new Flagship Project, called \"Sustainable and efficient rice value chains,\" which includes and links the development and delivery of sustainable practices along the whole value chain from production to postproduction-from \"spade to plate.\" This new Flagship Project acknowledges that sustainability and sound environmental practices are not limited to the process of rice production but should include all aspects of harvest and postharvest, such as drying, milling, transport, processing, and marketing-not only looking at rice grains but including rice by-products as well. In this new Flagship Project, elements of current Themes 3 and 4 are combined and expanded with a new focus on integrated value-chain thinking (as also reflected in our IDO #3, Table 1). The proposed Flagship Projects and their results follow: Each Flagship Project includes gender components in its research, product development, and delivery (section 3). Flagship Projects 1 to 3 develop science-based products that contribute to the sustainable increase in productivity along the rice value chain that was identified as a key driver for reducing poverty, increasing food security, increasing health and nutrition, and improving the sustainability of natural resources. Under Flagship Projects 4 (targeting and evaluation) and 5 (outscaling and capacity building), we facilitate and speed up the outcome and impact processes (enabling actions).Flagship Project 1 (harnessing genetic diversity) develops prebreeding tools and products that will be used by geneticists and breeders to increase the effectiveness of breeding new rice varieties. We connect with top-quality and leading advanced research institutes worldwide to ensure that GRiSP remains at the frontier of technology development. Within GRiSP, results from Flagship Project 1 feed into Flagship Project 2. We develop architectures that will enable us to systematically access diversity. We also create new diversity itself, through, for example, the use of new tools such as mutagenesis and TALENS (Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases) and the development of MAGIC (Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross) and NAM (Nested Association Mapping) populations. We discover and validate SNPs, QTLs, and genes, and develop markers linked to important traits for use in variety development. Gene discovery is mostly geared toward increased productivity (including yield potential), resistance/tolerance for biotic and abiotic stresses, and value addition. By 2016, our C 4 project will have delivered proof of concept and will enter the next phase of product assembly.Flagship Project 2 (variety development) develops and tests new breeding tools and new rice varieties with improved properties, such as increased yield potential, tolerance of/resistance to biotic stresses (pests, diseases, weeds) and abiotic stresses (drought, submergence, salinity, heat and cold tolerance, problem soils), improved grain quality, and enhanced nutritional value. We combine tolerances of multiple stresses by gene pyramiding, such as drought tolerance with submergence tolerance. Improved quality encompasses a range of properties that meet increasingly sophisticated and localspecific consumer demands, such as taste, aroma, texture, shape, color, and cooking and processing properties. Especially driven by the increasing size of the middle-income group in Asia, rapid urbanization, and increase in rice trade, quality demands are rapidly changing in time and space. We root our product development in consumer demand inventoried and mapped in collaboration with Flagship Project 4. In terms of healthy and nutritious rice, we develop rice that is high in micronutrients (provitamin A, Fe, Zn) and that has a low glycemic index. Our strategy is to \"mainstream\" (incorporate) healthy and nutritious properties in all major germplasm released and shared with our partners. The development and dissemination of new rice varieties take place in close collaboration with our national and private-sector partners through strong networks and consortia such as the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER), the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR), the Hybrid Rice Research and Development Consortium, the Hybrid Rice Consortium for Latin America (HIAAL), the Africa-wide Rice Breeding Task Force, and the project Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA).Under Flagship Project 3, we develop and deliver improved technologies along the rice value chain for rice production and postproduction. We develop sustainable natural resource management technologies that enable more efficient use of land, labor, water, nutrients, and energy and thus reduce the cost of production as well as its environmental footprint. We specifically develop water-saving technologies to help cope with increasing global water scarcity, as well as management options to cope with climate change and to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses (in collaboration with CCAFS). We develop and implement principles of ecological pest management to control increasing incidences of insect pests and weedy rice. With increasing labor scarcity and labor wages, we develop and promote labor-saving mechanization options such as direct seeding and mechanized transplanting, and combine those with principles of conservation agriculture. Production practices are optimized within the context of whole-farm and diversified cropping systems, including on-farm aquaculture (in collaboration with MAIZE, WHEAT, and AAS). We develop new management practices and new cropping systems that exploit the potentials of new varieties developed in Flagship Project 2. In the postproduction chain, we work with farmers and service providers-especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs)-to develop and implement improved postharvest operations such as hermetic storage, improved drying, parboiling, and milling. The aim is not only to reduce the (often substantial) postharvest losses but also to increase added value through quality improvement and the use of by-products such as straw and husk (e.g., mushroom substrate, energy generation, biochar). We link actors (including farmers) along the rice value chain to improve whole-chain efficiency. We work with colleague researchers from our NARES partners as well as with farmers (on-farm participatory R&D), service providers, and other private-sector partners. Important mechanisms for collaboration are the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR), the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE), the Africa Agronomy Task Force, the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP), and the project Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA).Flagship Project 4 provides gender-disaggregated and critical feedback to all the other GRiSP Flagship Projects, helping these develop well-targeted and demand-driven products and delivery approaches. This Flagship Project also houses the cross-cutting gender research activities (section 3). Core activities involve the collection, management, and analysis of household survey data to provide insight into constraints to adoption, technology targeting, monitoring and evaluation, adoption, and (ex ante and ex post) impact assessment. A market research and value-chain team provides support to Flagship Projects 2 and 3 in product profiling, market segmentation, and market analysis. We develop a Rice Monitoring System to provide real-time area, yield, and production estimates for Asia by combining modern techniques such as satellite-based remote sensing with weather information and crop modeling. We maintain an integrated modeling platform for ex ante assessment, food security, and policy analysis (collaborative activity with PIM). Our tools generate market information that includes trade leads, local prices, policy updates, export quotations, export tenders, seasonal price forecasts, currency market analysis, and trade flows.Under Flagship Project 5, we facilitate capacity building, strengthening of extension and advisory services, and the scaling-up of GRiSP products and services to reach \"impact at scale.\" Hence, there is very close interaction between Flagship Project 5 and all other GRiSP Flagship Projects. Taking results from Flagship Projects 2 and 3, we develop innovative learning and communication tools; web and mobile phone-based advisory services; rice information systems such as the Rice e-Hub tool, the Rice Knowledge Bank, and Ricepedia (in development); and training videos, including some that are co-produced with Digital Green. Partners are trained in the design and use of such tools and stimulated to develop locally adapted versions, such as the national Rice Knowledge Banks. Together with partners, we foster innovation by developing learning alliances and multistakeholder platforms. As technical know-how in \"traditional\" disciplines such as plant breeding, agronomy, soil, water, pest, and disease management, etc., is rapidly dwindling in Asia and spread extremely thin in Africa, we increasingly invest in capacity building through degree training and targeted courses. On an annual basis, we aim to deliver around 100 rice experts at the graduate and postgraduate levels, and-together with our partners-strengthen the capacity of 10,000 to 15,000 local experts through short-term courses. We also invest in capacity building of our own GRiSP staff, for example, on project management, leadership, scholar supervision, and gender and cultural diversity. In collaboration with the public, private, and civil society sector, we develop improved delivery systems for seeds, crop and postharvest management information, and policies. A novel activity is the facilitation of business model development to assist SMEs with the production and use/marketing of new technologies, such as improved storage facilities, dryers, parboiling equipment, laser levelers, and threshers. Important collaborative mechanisms for upscaling and capacity building are the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR), the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE), the Rice Sector Development Hubs in Africa, and projects such as the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). GRiSP operates a special graduate and post-graduate scholarship program, the Global Rice Science Scholarships (GRISS).GRiSP developed an iterative gender strategy that is based on a specific impact pathway and theory of change on how the empowerment of women in the agricultural research for development (AR4D) arena and in the rice value chain (women farmers, postharvest operators, processors) accelerates the delivery of GRiSP's intermediate development outcomes. The term \"empowerment\" integrates the strengthened role of women in the design, execution, and evaluation of AR4D, as well as improved access to resources (e.g., production inputs, knowledge, pro-gender improved technologies) and control over outputs (harvested rice, processed rice, derived income). We recognize that enhanced empowerment of women will take place only after substantial transformative changes have taken place in the mind-sets and behaviors of all actors in the AR4D arena and in the rice value chain, from the grass-roots to leadership levels, among both men and women. Hence, our gender strategy also includes important components of capacity building and training. GRiSP's IDO 6 explicitly includes the improvement of gender equity in the rice sector, recognizing the heterogeneity of rice economies across regions. For example, LAC is a relatively large-scale commercial rice production environment; Africa is small scale, with farmers increasingly commercial and competing with Asian imports; whereas Asia has an extremely diverse set of traditional rice-based cultures. The global GRiSP seeks to create a scientific product-and services-based program that weaves these together. Within this context, all GRiSP Flagship Projects have identified specific entry points to enhance gender equity and promote women's empowerment. In Flagship Projects 2 and 3, we identified main entry points for technology development and delivery that respond to gender-specific needs and preferences: new rice varieties, labor-saving and drudgery-removing practices, postharvest technologies, and business and marketing skills. Cross-cutting and synthesizing gender-specific research is housed in Flagship Project 4, whereas the promotion of transformational changes is specifically addressed in Flagship Project 5. For example, we strengthen women's leadership and agribusiness skills, train women in the delivery of agrotechnologies, target women in training on seed preservation technologies, include women in the development and selection of new rice varieties, specifically reach women as beneficiaries of new stresstolerant varieties, strengthen women's groups in branding and selling rice, and help former combatant women to re-integrate in society through rice production activities. We facilitate transformative changes through the development and dissemination of policy briefs, awareness raising, advocacy events, inclusion of gender aspects in planning workshops, training of own staff and NARES partners on gender and diversity, and working with our NARES partners in developing gender RD&E action plans.CRP's ToCs depend on effective partnerships and it is therefore anticipated greater detail on how the CRPs are working through partnership to achieve the IDOs. Highlight partnership successes to date and how these will be built on in the coming phase, preferably being explicit about the role of partners in research (e.g., leadership on components, management and governance, membership of steering or management committees, etc.). Synthesis of main changes in CRP governance, structure, partnerships that will be implemented between 2015 and 2016. Indicative shares of budget, by partner or partner category, would be desirable (2 Pages).The recent GRiSP Partnership report gives a detailed overview of GRiSP's diverse partnership arrangements. GRiSP strategizes and aligns the rice research for development agenda of its six founding and coordination partners: the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, the lead institute), Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the Centre de Cooperation lnternationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad), L'lnstitut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), and the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). Together, they align and bring to the table mature and highly effective consortia, networks, platforms, programs, and collaborative projects with more than 900 partners from the governmental, nongovernmental, public, private, and civil society sectors. In total, around 17% of the total GRiSP budget of the CGIAR centers flows through to non-CGIAR partners.GRiSP is managed by its Program Planning and Management Team (PPMT), which is chaired by the GRiSP director and in which each coordinating partner has a representative from senior management: the Deputy Director General of AfricaRice, the Deputy Director General for Research of IRRI, Director levels at CIAT, IRD, and JIRCAS, and senior researcher at Cirad. This high-level representation at the GRiSP management level facilitates effective management of GRiSP by-and within-the coordinating partners as these members are in a position to implement decisions taken by the PPMT. Governance is provided by the Board of the lead center, IRRI, and by a GRiSP Oversight Committee, which has a significant representation of external experts, and is chaired by an independent external expert. Center representation draws on the boards of participating centers, while the DGs of IRRI and AfricaRice are members ex officio. The recently concluded Review of CGIAR Research Programs' Governance and Management rated the GRiSP OC as having high independence. Moreover, the 2013 internal audit of implementation and management of CGIAR Research Programs at IRRI headquarters gave the overall implementation and management of CRPs the highest rating possible. Therefore, we propose to continue with the current governance and management structures. Besides our Oversight Committee, GRiSP partners and external experts contribute to planning and implementation processes through the many steering and advisory committees of the various substructures embedded within GRiSP.GRiSP is implemented through a variety of subpartnership arrangements that evolve in size and composition across the impact pathway from upstream research, through product development, to extension and adoption, and to realizing IDOs and impact \"at scale\" (Fig. 5). Typically, the partnership share of pure research partners decreases going from upstream research and basic product development (at the left of the diagram) to dissemination and delivery (at the right of the diagram), while the partnership share of development partners increases. It is important to note, however, that both types of partners, along with various types of beneficiaries, are included at all stages along the impact pathway (especially in the design phase of product development) to ensure relevance to stakeholders' needs.The private sector is rapidly growing in importance in the rice world, and private sector engagement is part and parcel of our research-for-impact strategy. GRiSP seeks out novel and creative ways to engage with the private sector, where it ensures its ability to deliver according to its mission under appropriate terms and conditions. We have four main mechanisms to engage in public-private partnerships. Through Scientific Knowledge Exchange Programs (SKEPs), we engage in joint R&D on specific topics such as prebreeding, research tool development (e.g., survey tools for pest and disease monitoring), technology development (e.g., drying equipment, parboiling), and information generation (e.g., rice production forecasts). Second, the private sector is becoming one of GRiSP's key vehicles to disseminate and encourage adoption of its technologies, such as new rice varieties, management recommendations, and postharvest technologies. The Asian and Latin American hybrid rice consortia are examples that embody both mechanisms. Third, we work with local small and medium enterprises to develop business models for GRiSP technologies, especially in the field of postharvest. Fourth, we engage in capacity building with the private sector through staff training-either directly through courses or as a result of the private sector hiring scholars, PDFs and other staff trained at GRiSP institutes. A new public-private partnership that encompasses a few of the above functions is the Sustainable Rice Platform: a global multistakeholder platform, co-convened by the United Nations Environment Programme and IRRI, to promote resource efficiency and sustainable trade flows, production and consumption operations, and supply chains in the global rice sector. Partners include the food sector, international traders, agro-input suppliers, public R&D, and national government agencies.GRiSP collaborates with the MAIZE and WHEAT CRPs in strengthening cereal-based crop production systems in South Asia; with AAS and WLE in optimizing the use of aquatic resources in Bangladesh and Myanmar; with PIM in evaluating poverty and food security impacts of new rice technologies; with A4HN through the delivery of nutritious \"high-zinc\" rice; with the Genebank CRP on activities to enhance the quality, effectiveness, scope, and global use of the rice germplasm collection; and with CCAFS on the development and delivery of climate-change-proof rice technologies and rice technologies that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Collaboration with these CRPs is mainly done through large cross-cutting projects (e.g., CSISA, Global Futures, HarvestPlus). GRiSP focuses on the development of novel technologies at the level of plant (and below), field, crop, and farm, whereas the other CRPs look at larger geographic scales and at the wider enabling environment (e.g., policies and institutions).As part of the partnerships discussion each CRP should show how they are working with regional partners to pursue effective regional processes through which the CRPs can achieve greater impact at scale (1 Page).GRiSP employs several mechanisms to align itself with priorities and strategies of its main national partners. In Asia, IRRI holds individual consultative planning meetings every 2 to 3 years with most of the Asian countries. For example, in 2013, the 4-year India-IRRI work plan was fully aligned with GRiSP, including allocation of ICAR funds to GRiSP activities in India. AfricaRice is an autonomous intergovernmental association of 25 member countries covering West, Central, East, and North Africa. Its objectives, strategies, and research activities are aligned with those of its member states and are approved by the AfricaRice Council of Ministers. Each year, the meeting of AfricaRice's national experts (the National Expert Committee (NEC) composed of NARES directorsgeneral of the 25 member countries) is an important mechanism for the alignment of work plans with national priorities and programs. In Latin America, the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice, which is convened by CIAT and includes 17 member countries, is the main mechanism for both national and regional coordination.GRiSP interacts closely with all major regional fora and economic communities that have a stake in the development of the rice sector. In 2011, the 33rd meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) communicated that it \"supported the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) … as it represents an important expansion and development of 2008's ASEAN Rice Action Plan.\" The Council for Partnership on Rice Research in Asia (CORRA), convened by IRRI and including senior representatives from research institutions of all Asian rice-producing countries, is an important regional advisory body of GRiSP. In 2013, the Rice Research and Training Center for Central and West Asia became active as a GRiSP network with its first training activities on rice research, hosted by Iran. GRiSP's coordinating centers also maintain close collaboration and interactions with broader regional fora, such as FARA, FORAGRO, and APAARI at the continental level, and CORAF and ASARECA in Africa at the subregional level; higherlevel political bodies and development initiatives targeting food security and poverty, such as CAADP (NEPAD), CARD, ASEAN, and SAARC; Regional Economic Communities such as ECOWAS; and international and regional development funds and banks, including IFAD, the World Bank, ADB, and AfDB (many of those contribute directly as donors to GRiSP through bilateral projects).The year 2016 will be an intermediate year between the end of the current (5-year) phase of GRiSP by December 2015 and the anticipated next phase that will start in 2017. Staying within the overall framework of a vertically integrated program, we propose to implement changes in response to experience obtained in the current 3 years and to major drivers of change (such as accelerated structural transformation in certain regions in Asia, increased urbanization and growth of the middle-income sector and consequent shifts in consumer preferences, increased presence of the private sector in the rice economy, increased emphasis on development outcomes). The most significant change/new element of GRiSP in 2016 will be its transition to a more outcome-driven and results-based management, based on the development and delivery of sciencebased products and services (Annex 3). Our medium-and long-term outcomes are given in Tables 1 and 2, and, based on results reported in 2013, 6 GRiSP is well on its way to achieving these outcomes.In 2016, we will implement a new results framework as an outcome of our \"fasttrack project\" on developing a results-based M&E system. The first step toward resultsbased management is the definition of results and the operationalization of a system to collect and evaluate-on a regular basis-indicators of progress. The results of GRiSP are defined as its concrete products and services (including their underlying scientific achievements), their dissemination and adoption, and the outcomes of adoption. Hence, GRiSP's results are its product pipelines that encompass both outputs and development outcomes. The associated output and outcome indicators are key to managing for results. In terms of output indicators, each year, around 100 milestones are defined for all Products of GRiSP. These are tracked, evaluated, and refined on a yearly basis. Additionally, each Flagship Project will have defined (by 2016) a few key output indicators that track the efficiency of the product development pipeline. For example, genetic gain obtained in multilocation trials is a proposed output indicator in the breeding pipeline of Flagship Project 2. In terms of outcome indicators, we will first have established (by 2016) a register of national-level rice development strategies and aspirational outcome/development targets for the main rice-producing countries. We will have an operational system to track national indicators of progress (\"benchmark indicators\") and specific contributions made by GRiSP. We will have defined key action sites/areas in Africa, Asia, and LAC, with aspirational outcomes and an operational system for collecting indicators of progress for which GRiSP and its partners share responsibility. Besides these key action sites, we will have a number of additional action sites that broaden the spatial scope of GRiSP and serve more specific objectives. Indicators will track and quantify GRiSP's contribution toward product delivery/uptake by end users and intermediate users, and toward fostering the enabling environment for outscaling and for improvement of gender equity, capacity, and resilience of the rice sector. These GRiSP outcome indicators define GRiSP's contribution toward our IDOs, and they will be complemented by rigorous impact and adoption studies that will quantify GRiSP's attribution.In 2016, we will also considerably step up our gender R&D activities. We will have a system in place by which impacts of GRiSP technologies on adopters are gender disaggregated, and consequences of adoption for women made explicit. We will actively promote gender equity and women's empowerment by strengthening women's agribusiness skills along the rice value chain, notably in the production and marketing of quality seed, in branding and marketing quality rice, in parboiling and marketing parboiled rice, and in the delivery of advisory and other services such as mechanized transplanting and postharvest operations.In 2016, we expect to complete a major restructuring of our breeding programs, aimed at significantly enhancing efficacy and efficiency at producing and delivering improved rice varieties. This restructuring will also strengthen the integration between pre-breeding activities done in FP1 and the variety development taking place in FP 2. We will mainstream the pyramiding of multiple stress tolerances and the inclusion of nutritious traits into all our breeding pipelines. For example, any discovered genes or QTLs that confer high density of nutritious elements (zinc, iron, other traits) will be included in all major breeding lines and new varieties shared with our partners so that these traits will permeate national breeding programs, leading to massive and rapid global uptake of nutritious rice \"by default\" (dovetailing with A4HN delivery strategies for health and nutrition). Similarly, genes and QTLs-mainly discovered in FP 1-conferring tolerance of abiotic stresses (e.g., submergence, drought) and biotic stresses (pests, diseases) will be pyramided into new varieties targeted for release into stress-prone areas. Since tolerances of stresses such as drought, submergence, and salinity confer adaptation to some of the major consequences of climate change, these GRiSP products mainstream the delivery of rice varieties adapted to climate change (dovetailing with CCAFS strategies for climate change adaptation). Finally, new genetic populations such as NAM and MAGIC will be fully exploited and used in variety development.Establishment and use of a new Genetic Diversity Platform that enables the prediction of gene-phenotype relations-based on comprehensive data of 3,000 genomes and their phenotypes-by an International Rice Informatics Consortium. Genotypic and phenotypic information of the 3,000 accessions will be made available through this new consortium. This will significantly speed up the discovery of new genes and improved variety development. We will conduct high-density genotyping, enable the use of high-density markers by breeders, and integrate this information into our breeding pipelines. Finally, we aim to expand the collection of 3,000 genomes to 10,000-which will be a key vehicle to capture nonCGIAR global investments in rice genetics.Development and deployment of a suite of modern ICT-based decision support systems for improved crop management. Web-and cell-phone-based media will be used to reach farmers and advisory agents from the public and private sector with information that can help them increase yield and profitability while reducing the environmental footprint and adapting to climate change. We will include criteria for sustainable rice production as defined through the global Sustainable Rice Platform. Development and deployment of a near-real-time information system on national rice production (area, yield, cropping calendar) in Asian countries. Governments, policymakers, and traders will use the information provided by this system to increase the efficiency of trade and add stability to domestic rice economies. The above is a mere snapshot of GRiSP's activities and results in 2016; more details are provided in Table 3 (Annex 2).Best estimates of cost of each of the flagship projects and each of the IDOs should be provided until December 2016. It is understood that there will not be a detailed life-CRP budget, and that not all CRPs have a good sense of the costs of each IDO, but it is expected that CRPs will share their current best estimates for budgets until 2016 (2 Pages).GRiSP phase I was approved for 5 years, from January 2011 till December 2015, with a total budget of US$593.39 million, composed of $382.69 million in Windows 1 and 2 and $210.70 million in Window 3 plus bilateral. The extension proposal for 2016 was mandated by the FC as a bridging mechanism until phase II CRPs would start in 2017. Our total budget for 2011-16 is derived from our current best estimates of W3 and bilateral funding, plus a continuation of the 10%/year increase in W1 and 2 funding as in the approved Financial Plan in 2014-15 into 2016: All Flagship Projects contribute to several IDOs (Annex 1, Fig. 3, Table 4). For example, our impact pathway (Section 1) demonstrates that the yield increase through genetic improvement (Flagship Projects 1 and 2) contributes to increased food security (IDO 1), reduced poverty (IDO 2), and increased resource-use efficiency (IDO 3). Varieties with increased tolerance of heat, submergence, drought, and salinity are adapted to future climates and hence also contribute to IDO 4. In addition, nutritious varieties contribute to IDO 5. Hence, it is not possible to uniquely assign budgets of GRiSP's Flagship Projects to IDOs. Some 63% of the total budget originates from W3 plus bilateral through specific projects funded by donors (usually through competitive processes). The distribution of the budget between W1,2 and W3 plus bilateral is guided by pragmatism to \"get the job done\" or \"to get the result delivered\". For example, the result \"1.4 C4 rice\" receives substantial funding through bilateral grants, and hence, the allocation of W1,2 funds can be relatively small. On the other hand, results such as \"1.1. Conserved (ex situ) and disseminated rice germplasm\" and \"1.2 Enhanced genetic diversity\", receive less bilateral grant funding and, hence, we have allocated relatively more W1,2 funding to these results. Also, with limits on W1,2 funds received (approved), bilateral funding is the only mechanism available to expand activities and the delivery of results. Finally, it should be noted that GRiSP does not decide to allocate bilateral funding to specific results or Flagship Projects; it is a specific donor decision to fund specific activities and/or results.   9 Annex 2. Tables 9.1 Table 1. GRiSP IDOs and their indicators, and the SLIDOs they contribute to.IDO SLIDO Indicator 1. Increased rice production that meets local and global demand 1. Productivity-improved productivity in pro-poor food systems 2. Food security-increased and stable access to food commodities by rural and urban poor Global: production, consumption, and import/export volumes; rice area; average yield; International rice price. National: production, consumption, and import/export volumes; rice area; yield; yield gap; domestic rice price. Action site: yield; yield gap; adoption rates of improved rice varieties and practices to close yield gap; adoption rates of practices and machinery to reduce postproduction losses 2. Increased profitability for rice producers and increased rice affordability for consumers 4. Income-increased and more equitable income from agricultural and natural resource management and environmental services earned by lowincome value-chain actors Global: rice price; economic producer and consumer surplus (modeled) National: rice price; economic producer and consumer surplus (modeled) Action sites: cost of production; local rice price; farmer profitability; adoption rates of improved rice varieties, production and postproduction practices 3. Increased efficiency and value added along the rice value chain 1. Productivity-improved productivity in pro-poor food systems Global: rate of mechanization along the rice value chain; cropping intensity in irrigated areas National: price of locally produced rice versus imported rice; rate of mechanization along the rice value chain; cropping intensity in irrigated areas Action sites: increased resource-use efficiencies during production at farm level; improved postproduction efficiencies that reduce losses and add value at harvest, drying, milling, processing, and storage for value-chain actors; adoption rates of new rice varieties with enhanced value (aroma, improved appearance, reduced chalkiness, appreciated texture, etc.); adoption rates of improved production and postproduction practices; # of successful contractual arrangements along a rice value chain 4.  Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost from micronutrient deficiency decreased by 139,000 (7% reduced burden compared with 2004) through provitamin A rice and by 12,000 (1% reduced burden compared with 2004) through high-zinc rice, in 12 target countries in Asia. d 5 A new generation of 1,000 rice professionals (50%/50% graduate/postgraduate), at least 30% of them women, will have been trained between 2010 and 2020 to be capable of leading the development of the world's rice sector. Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost from micronutrient deficiency decreased by 1,885,000 (92% reduced burden compared with 2004) through provitamin A rice and by 237,000 (12% reduced burden compared with 2004) through high-zinc rice, in 12 target countries in Asia. d 5 A new generation of 2,500 rice professionals (50%/50% graduate/postgraduate), at least 30% of them women, will have been trained between 2010 and 2035 to be capable of leading the development of the world's rice sector. 3 In our results framework, we identify targets and track progress of both output indicators, which track progress in product development, and outcome indicators, which track progress in dissemination and outcomes of adoption of the products. As we follow a pipeline approach to product development (scientific discovery, innovation, prototype, final product), some products are in proof-of-concept stage and others in prototype and final product stage. Output targets are set for each product, but, since research outputs are by nature not very predictable, these targets are \"aspirational\" in character. Output indicators are tracked through annual milestones and through indicators that gauge the efficiency of product development, such as genetic gain in variety development. Many of our output indicators will be collected at research action sites.Outcome indicators are tracked at three levels: (development) action sites, national, and global. At action sites, we distinguish between indicators that track outcomes as a consequence of the adoption of GRiSP's products and services by end users and outcomes as a consequence of adoption by intermediate users. Examples of \"end-user outcome indicators\" are the adoption rates of varieties and technologies, local yield and yield gaps, profitability of rice growing, local women's empowerment index, locally realized resource-use efficiencies, etc. Examples of \"intermediate-user outcome indicators\" are the number of demonstrations of products such as new varieties and technologies, tons of seed produced of GRiSP-derived varieties by public and private partners, the number of training events by partners and their participants, the number of local dissemination materials developed (such as videos, brochures) and used by partners, the number of locally adapted technologies (such as locally produced machinery), and the number of innovation systems, learning alliances, and value chains. Aspirational targets are determined through interactive processes involving GRiSP and local partners.At the national level, we also distinguish two sets of indicators: 1. Indicators for benchmarking specific GRiSP outcomes at their action sites within countries. These indicators are the result of national adoption by end users of improved rice technologies and services that are partly, but not exclusively, derived from GRiSP. Indicators are collected primarily through (inter-)national statistics, supplemented by the use of tools such as modeling, GIS, and remote sensing. Periodic adoption studies will reveal adoption rates and impacts of GRiSP products at the national level beyond their action sites (for example, studies on the spread of varieties with GRiSP-derived ancestry). Example indicators are yield, yield gap, area, production, and import and export volumes. 2. Indicators that track the delivery/use of GRiSP's products and services to/by intermediate users beyond the action sites. The use of \"preproducts\" to develop locally adapted \"end products\" is also included. Example indicators are varietal adoption/diffusion, capacity built (e.g., # of scholars), # of nationally released GRiSP varieties, # of seed lots requested by and shared with partners, the use of GRiSP prebreeding lines/parental lines by national partners, # of nationallyapproved technologies for dissemination, tons of seed produced of GRiSPderived varieties by public and private partners, and # of national policy documents and rice strategies. At the national level, aspirational targets are set by national government policies and rice development strategies. Like at the global level, some IDO indicators and their targets will be obtained through collaborating CRPs.At the global level, there are two sets of indicators: 1. One set provides an overall reference and is used for communicating the global ambitions of GRiSP. These indicators are the result of global adoption by end users of improved rice technologies and services that are partly, but not exclusively, derived from GRiSP. Indicators are obtained by aggregation of international or national statistics, supplemented by the use of tools such as modeling (e.g., global rice supply-demand models), GIS, and remote sensing. 2. The second set tracks the delivery/use of GRiSP's products and services to/by intermediate users globally (i.e., beyond the national level and action sites). These indicators directly track GRiSP's specific contribution to the above global outcome indicators, and complement attribution evidence derived from impact studies. Examples are (general) capacity built (e.g., number of scholars) and the global use of GRiSP products (e.g., number of globally shared seed lots, accessed information, and databases). The indicators are mostly aggregated from national-level data (see above). Aspirational targets are derived from ex ante impact assessment studies by GRiSP and global supply-demand modeling (see Table 2 and Annex 1, Fig. 2). Some IDO indicators and their targets at the global level will be obtained through collaborating CRPs, such as A4HN for IDO 5, Nutritious and safe rice, and WLE for IDO 4, Increased sustainability and reduced environmental footprint.Using this framework, we will continue to strengthen our management for results through the institutes that participate in GRiSP. Within the GRiSP institutes, achievements are already discussed with staff during annual performance appraisals, and we aim to strengthen this by making use of the new indicators of progress (both output and outcome indicators). Results will be discussed concerning product development (including upstream research), product delivery, and the enabling environment (specifically including capacity building and gender). Institutional systems for staff rewards will be linked to the achievement of GRiSP results when staff contribute significantly to the program. During annual GRiSP planning meetings, overall progress is discussed and resource allocations to Result and/or Product teams of Flagship Projects adjusted within existing operational flexibility. The same process takes place within specific bilateral projects that are part of GRiSP throughout the year. GRiSP partners are an explicit part of these processes. As products move along the pipeline from upstream research to delivery, the type and choice of partners are adjusted (see","tokenCount":"8600"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"534961ca8f592e404cdc632950efe8e7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f12cc768-a1d4-4cce-add9-96e6860d68af/retrieve","id":"-1096231507"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"583b767c-a7c3-4cf3-8cf9-c6f3e219eeed","pagecount":"6","content":"There is considerable overlap among these categories. For example, the same document can appear in print form and on the internet; the same messages can be transmitted on radio, television and via video; and videos and presentations can viewed online.You need to communicate two types of information to your clients: Dissemination. You want to deliver information to them about markets, the weather, crops, and other topics that they are interested in.Promotion. You want to make them aware of your services, persuade them to sign up for them, and train them how to use them. See the separate sheet in this series on Marketing your market information service for more. Some channels are better suited to dissemination; others to promotion. Some can be used for both purposes (Figure 1). For example, a display board in a market that shows the latest prices (i.e., dissemination) also advertises your service to passers-by (promotion). Some channels (like social media) have considerable potential for use in dissemination, but are still only rarely used for this purpose.Mobile, internet and broadcast channels all rely on your audience having the right piece of equipment to receive your message: a mobile phone (perhaps a smartphone), computer, radio or television. If they don't have this, they can't use your service.Mobile phones are becoming universal, and increasing numbers of farmers now have smartphones. Tablets, which have a larger screen and more capabilities, are also becoming more common. As bandwidth and network coverage improve, mobile is becoming the usual way for people to access the internet, often using apps rather than classic websites. That opens up major opportunities for market information services.Targeting. You can target specific individuals and provide information depending on the user's current location. That allows you to personalise the information based on each recipient's needs.Speed. You can reach clients quickly: you do not have to wait for the next scheduled radio broadcast or issue of a magazine.Income. You can charge the client for the service.Pull and push. \"Pull\" services are where the client requests information from you by keying in a code or tapping icons on a screen. \"Push\" is where the client subscribes to a certain type of information, and you send it automatically to him or her.Feedback. It provides an opportunity to get feedback from your clients. You can gather information about individuals automatically (for example, their location), or by asking them to fill in a form when they subscribe. But many people are wary about giving information about themselves. Keep the information you ask for very simple, and make sure the request cannot be seen as spying.For these reasons, mobile is becoming a very popular way to deliver market information services. Nevertheless, it has risks: farmers may have phones but not understand how to use their features; they may not be literate or numerate enough to understand text messages; they may lack network coverage or be unable to recharge their phone. Mobile phones seem to be less useful for promoting market information services to potential clients.Social media such as Facebook and Twitter could be used to raise awareness about the services you offer, update people on events, announce new services, and alert clients to news and trends. But despite their potential, they are still underused for such purposes. They do not seem to be used to disseminate market information, though individuals may use them to negotiate deals with trading partners.The websites of market information services generally both disseminate information and promote the service to clients. Some offer a range of current data for free without registration; others invite users to log in to get a free trial.Websites can give users access to a huge range of information: a choice of data on a wide range of commodities and countries, the ability to view graphs or tables, and access to news and other types of information. This can be both an advantage and a curse. Offering lots of options can be confusing, at least for a new user. Some market information service websites seem to be oriented more towards demonstrating programming prowess than to making things easy for the user. Training may be required for someone to become familiar with the site and be able to find the information he or she wants.So when designing your web presence, aim for ease of use. Provide sufficient explanation so the user knows what to do. Give examples of the type of information users can get. Avoid having users enter lots of choices for commodities, locations and time periods, only to be confronted with a \"no data\" message. Keep the bandwidth required low to avoid leaving people in remote areas staring at a blank screen. Make sure users know what is free, and when and how much they will be asked to pay.Displays are open to public viewing -anyone in the right place can see them. Their main use is to raise awareness of your potential clients about your service. Posters, exhibits at open days and agricultural fairs, banners and billboards all announce your services to would-be clients. Rural markets are a good place to contact people.Certain types of displays can be used to carry market information as well as raise awareness about your services. Noticeboards and electronic displays in marketplaces can inform passers-by about prices and weather -and expose them to your logo and promotional messages. Digital kiosks can also invite clients to key in their details and subscribe to your service.Choose the location for displays carefully. Marketplaces, community centres, meeting halls and extension offices are common locations. The managers of such locations may welcome informative, frequently updated displays because they provide a service to staff and visitors.It is hard to use display channels as a source of revenue -but not impossible. Set up a noticeboard in the marketplace, and you can rent part of it out to advertisers. You may be able to persuade sponsors to pay for your banners or posters in exchange for including their logo.Audio-visual channels fall into two groups: broadcast and non-broadcast.Radio and television are broadcast channels. They are a quick way to deliver information to a large number of people. National broadcasters can announce a few prices at major markets; local broadcasters such as community radio stations can carry more prices at nearby markets. Transmitting the information during regular time slots means that clients know when to tune in. The time slots have to be chosen carefully: when farmers are at home, not working in the field.Radio is cheaper than television and may reach a bigger audience of farmers. It is especially useful to reach people who are illiterate or who have little education. Many radio stations broadcast farm programmes that might welcome a segment featuring prices and market news. Call-in programmes allow listeners to pose questions and offer feedback. Listener clubs can help spread messages and raise awareness of your service.Television production is more expensive, and the audience is different: fewer farmers have television (though they may watch a TV belonging to a friend or neighbour). Television is more useful if you need to show visual information, such as weather maps, disease symptoms or production techniques.It is hard to earn money from broadcasts. Some broadcasters may transmit your content for free because it attracts audiences, but others may want to be paid. You may be able to strike a deal with an advertiser (such as an agribusiness firm) or a sponsor (such as a development agency) to pay for the content and broadcasting costs. You may also want to broadcast information in order to gain visibility and attract paying clients to your other information services.Non-broadcast audio-visuals include presentations, video and mobile cinema. Presentations and video are a good way to introduce your services to participants in meetings and training courses. Mobile cinema is essentially a video on wheels: you set up a projector, screen and loudspeakers in a village. You show movies to attract an audience; beforehand (or during the breaks) you can give a presentation or show a video about your market information service. This can be especially attractive in remote locations where residents have few other forms of entertainment.Print media fall into two major groups: those you publish yourself, and those you don't.Self-published. These include newsletters, bulletins, reports, flyers and brochures. You write and design the content (or hire someone to do so), and control the distribution. You can hand out flyers and brochures at meetings and training courses (see below), in markets and at extension centres. They are a good way to raise awareness about your services, and can give more details than a poster or banner. Plus, because you can hand them out to people, you can target them better than is possible with a poster or banner that everyone sees.You can produce a range of reports -weekly, monthly, annual -on the markets you are monitoring. Do a good job with your analysis and presentation, and you will create a reputation for good-quality work. This may lead to larger clients commissioning customised reports on specific markets.You can produce reports in both printed form and online, downloadable as a PDF. Printing and distributing hard copies costs money, but putting the same thing online is essentially free once you have done the writing and layout.You give away flyers and brochures, but you can charge for your newsletters and reports. Many models are possible. You might issue weekly reports for free online, but charge for a hard copy and for monthly and annual reviews with more in-depth analysis. You can sell advertising space. You can cut distribution costs by handing out documents at events where your staff are attending anyway.Can you use printed materials to reach non-literate clients? The evidence says yes. Even if a farmer cannot read or write, he or she can often find someone who can -a daughter, son or neighbour who can read out the text. And you can design graphics that are easy to understand even for non-literate people.Published by others. You can get your content included in newspapers or magazines produced by others. This falls into four categories: advertising, editorial, paid content and public service.Advertising. Here, you pay the newspaper or magazine publisher to include your content. You have to pay for the service, but you can design the advertisement and you control where and how it is displayed.Editorial. Here, you do not pay anything, but you do not control what is said. For example, you might send the newspaper a press release, which leads to a news story about your service.This may be positive or negative -journalists are trained to sniff out controversy! So think carefully before seeking this type of publicity, and plan it carefully.Paid content. The publisher of the newspaper or magazine may decide that the information is useful content for its readers. It may pay you to provide the information on a regular basis.Public service. The publisher may regard the information as useful content for the readership, so will carry it for free, but not pay you anything. You can negotiate to include your logo and a promotional message next to the market data.In an electronic world, is there still a need for faceto-face communication? Emphatically yes. Face-toface has big advantages: instant feedback, multiple channels (visual, audio, body language, gestures, facial expression, tone of voice, eye contact) and tailored messaging. It is invaluable in building trust, persuading, and solving problems. There is evidence that people trust information received from a familiar face more than from an anonymous voice or SMS message over the phone.Face-to-face communication is particularly useful for certain purposes: introducing your services to potential clients, demonstrating how it works, training how to use it, and solving problems. The most effective form of face-to-face is with an individual or a small group. But you can also use it with larger groups by combining it with displays and audio-visual presentations.Arranging your own promotional meetings and training courses is difficult and expensive. So look for opportunities arranged by others: training courses for extension agents, meetings of farmer groups, community gatherings, field days, church meetings and agricultural fairs. Negotiate with the organisers for some time to make a presentation and some space to erect your display and lay out your information materials. Depending on the event, you may have to pay a registration fee, there may be no charge, or you may even get your costs covered as an invited speaker.Word-of-mouth is also effective in transmitting prices and other current market information. If one person in a village gets your information from an SMS or a radio broadcast, he or she may pass it on to neighbouring farmers. This does not earn you any extra income, but it raises awareness about your service. Eventually, the other farmers may sign up so they can profit from the convenience and detail that an individual subscription offers. Remember, your best sales representative is a happy customer.You might consider having an agent in each village to disseminate information to his or her neighbours, perhaps as part of a donor-funded development project. But such agents may expect payment for their work, and they may stop passing on the information if they are not suitably rewarded.Start off with your clients (Figure 3). What types of information do they need? What types of content would they be prepared to pay for? Farmers are interested in prices of particular commodities in nearby markets, while traders or processors may want more detailed information on more markets. See the sheet in this series on Identifying clients and planning services for more.Different channels are suited to different clients. It is hard to use SMS to reach people who do not have a mobile phone, who live in areas without electricity or a mobile signal, or who are illiterate. For such groups, radio or big displays in markets (they can ask a literate person what the notice says) may be more appropriate.For each channel, have a core set of clients in mind. You may design your SMS service for farmers, for example, and your web-based service for largescale traders or market analysts.Each channel is good at carrying a certain type of content. SMSs are good for timely alerts on individual prices at specific markets. A website is good at presenting a range of information in graphic, tabular or text form. Radio can give listeners immediate updates on a few prices, along with a short summary of important trends. Printed reports are good for in-depth analysis, but not for getting information out fast. See the descriptions below for further details.What languages do your clients understand? What languages can they read? Providing tabulated information in several languages is easy: you have to translate each term only once (\"maize\", \"maïs\", \"mahindi\", etc.), and the software can do the rest. But translating textual material (such as market reports) into several other languages requires staff with the right language capabilities, and can be very time-consuming.Use words that your clients will understand. Avoid jargon (such as \"pathogen\" and \"opportunity cost\") and abbreviations that may confuse them. Check that each message is written clearly and succinctly: no waffle, no unnecessary words. People do not want to read a whole page if a single paragraph will do.You may want to use several channels to reach each audience. For example, you may reach farmers with both an SMS service and through noticeboards in marketplaces. You can serve traders both via a mobile-phone app and a website. Using multiple channels gives your service visibility, helps you reach a wider audience, and gives the clients a choice of which channel is most convenient for them.Producing attractive, informative, easy-to-use information takes skill. And putting together a professional video is different from programming a website or writing, designing and printing a newsletter. You will need a range of skills and facilities to produce the information products you need. You cannot have all of these skills in-house, so need to outsource or subcontract at least some of them.Set up a communication unit responsible for managing the information materials that you put out. This unit may have one or more specialists with different skill areas: print, web, audio-visual, etc. Its responsibilities should include: Mobile Internet Display Audio-visual Print Face-to-face Developing a communication strategy for the organisation.Researching audiences to determine their information needs and suitable ways of reaching them.Designing a range of information products to fulfil these needs.Producing some of the products within the unit. For example, the communication team can be responsible for putting together promotional materials such as brochures, presentations and press releases.Designing and coordinating the production of other products by your in-house specialists. For example, the communication unit can design the format for a newsletter; your market analysts provide the content; the communication team then edits the text and does the layout.Managing the production of products or functions that have to be outsourced, such as video production and printing. Gathering and analysing information cost you money. It is information dissemination that earns you income. For each channel, think of how you can turn it into an income stream. This is easier for some than for others:Text messages. You can charge per message or a monthly subscription.Mobile apps and websites. You can charge users to download your app or access certain types of information.Newsletters and reports. You can sell these to subscribers and in bookstores.Radio and television. You may be able to get a donor to sponsor the broadcast of market information.Newspapers and magazines. As with broadcasting, you may be able to find a donor to pay for the printing and distribution.See the sheet in this series on Deciding on your business model for more information on costs and revenues. ","tokenCount":"2931"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"92699fe5868b0250e84363a75b550698","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d1541391-6c0a-4463-b70e-a66f55cccba9/retrieve","id":"1800117448"},"keywords":["collective action","market access","smallholder","livelihood","NTFP","action research","Indonesia"],"sieverID":"4a6e17ab-b781-4a6f-84a5-d4a3fe164208","pagecount":"31","content":"The CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) is an initiative of the 15 centers that belong to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. The initiative promotes comparative research on the role played by property rights and collective action institutions in shaping the efficiency, sustainability, and equity of natural resource systems. CAPRi's Secretariat is hosted by the International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) Environment and Production Technology Division (www.ifpri.org).CAPRi Working Papers contain preliminary material and research results and are circulated prior to a full peer review in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment. It is expected that most Working Papers will eventually be published in some other form, and that their content may also be revised. http://dx.doi.org/10.2499/CAPRiWP73.Throughout the 1970's and 1980's, Indonesia was the world's largest exporter of raw and semifinished rattan, with approximately 80 percent of the world market (Dransfield and Manokaran, 1996;FAO, 2001). Within recent years, rattan and other NTFPs (non-timber forest products) have continued to become important products, which make a large contribution to the state's revenue and create employment. Surveys indicate that rattan income forms a significant part of total household income in South Sulawesi (Prempeh, 1993). The increased market demand should have provided opportunities for those involved in the production and trade of the products to reap maximum benefits. However, the facts indicate that government policies and markets have continued to keep farmers, the collectors of rattan, at a great disadvantage in the marketplace. In 1986 and1988, for instance, the Ministry of Trade and Industry issued policies 4 banning the export of raw material and half-processed rattan. This caused the price of rattan at the farmer level to remain low. In 1986, the price of rattan per kg reached Rp 780/kg and continued to decrease to about Rp 670/kg in 1990, and even lower to about only Rp 250/kg in 1997 (WALHI, 2004). Despite the increased market demand for this product, the current situation shows the average price of rattan at the farmer level in one of the producing areas, South Sulawesi, is only about Rp. 700/kg. 5 1 Heru Komarudin, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) at Jalan CIFOR, Situ Gede, Sindang Barang, Bogor Barat 16680, Indonesia (h.komarudin@cgiar.org) 2 Yuliana L. Siagian, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) at Jalan CIFOR, Situ Gede, Sindang Barang, Bogor Barat 16680, Indonesia (y.siagian @cgiar.org) 3 Ngakan Putu Oka, Faculty of Forestry, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia (ngakan@indosat.net.id) 4 The Ministry of Industry and Trade's Decree No. 274/Kp/XI/1986 and Decree No. 190/Kpts/VI/1988, which ban the export of raw and half-finished rattan products, respectively. 5 Prices are not converted to US$ since there were various conversion rates prevailing before and after the governmental reform (1998). This is only intended to show that the rattan price at the farmer level remain unchanged despite the big changes in the market price.The government policies which either ban or allow 6 the export of raw rattan materials have attracted criticism and protests from large furniture industry associations, NGOs, and rattan farmers. On the one hand, the need to meet the demand for raw materials from domestic industries, which would add value to the processed products, has become the argument of those who favor the ban. On the other hand, others argue that the ban has only provided plenty of opportunities for certain market players to reap the lion's share of profits, while limiting rattan farmers' opportunities to sell their products at a better price. The latter, as many studies show, tend to have a weak bargaining position vis a vis rattan collectors and semi-processing enterprises. The market uncertainties and lack of supporting policies have led rattan farmer groups, as in Luwu Utara district, to get involved in collective efforts to confront the inequity.Collective action is also taking place in another part of Indonesia, in Jambi. Local community groups endeavor to develop another NTFP product, Dragon's Blood (Daemonorops draco), locally known as jernang. It is the finest red-colored resin obtained from a small palm of the same family of rattan (Calamus sp) that grows in the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The natural resin of Dragon's Blood was much renowned in antiquity and was used for diverse medical and artistic purposes, forming a staple of medieval alchemy. The medicinal properties of several resins from Dragon's Blood, mainly the Daemonorops specimens, are ascribed to the presence of benzoic acid, whose antiseptic properties still make for a natural remedy in some modern cultures (Edwards et al., 2004). Jernang is obtained in several ways, the most satisfactory being by steaming, rubbing, or shaking the gathered fruits in coarse canvas bags, to sift out impurities; it is melted by exposure to the heat of the sun. While it has been sold in local and international markets (at least via the internet) as a highly valued product, has not been widely known in Indonesia and in other countries. A report indicates that the demand for jernang has been increasing in many countries such as China, Korea, Japan, the U.S., and several countries in Europe (Anonymous, 2005). In Jambi, jernang has long been harvested traditionally and collectively in natural forests by the local people and the indigenous community, Orang Rimba. As the jernang species has become rare in the forests and people have increasingly encountered difficulty in finding this species, the district government took initiative to promote this species, and local people started to engage in market-led collective action to gather jernang from the forests and cultivate it. This paper highlights findings and lessons learned from examining the role of collective action in helping community groups increase their bargaining power and anticipate the increasing demands for these highly-valued forest products. The main questions being addressed here are how collective action works in NTFP production and how the facilitated collective action could help farmers improve their access to government resources and market. Findings presented are drawn from research conducted in two districts in Indonesia.The research sites are located in two districts, Luwu Utara in South Sulawesi Province and Bungo in Jambi Province (see Annex 1). This study focused its work in some hamlets in three villages, Panply and Sepakat hamlets of Sepakat village, Kumbari and Pulao hamlets of Sassa village in Luwu Utara, and Sungai Telang hamlet of Sungai Telang village in Bungo. Intensive facilitation took place in two hamlets, Panply and Sungai Telang, while interviews with key informants were also held in other hamlets.Luwu Utara District is the largest district in South Sulawesi, constituting almost a quarter of the land mass of the province. 7 Most of the area is mountainous and covered with forest vegetation and a high diversity of timber species. These unique and bio-diverse ecosystems also provide both ecological and financial services for the local communities, e.g. water source preservation, NTPF collection, timber production, eco-tourism, etc. The occupation of the majority of the indigenous people, who mainly live close to forests, is forest product gathering (e.g. rattan or timber) as a supplement to rice cultivation or work in the plantations (cocoa, oil palm or oranges). The fact that more than 31% of the population lives under the poverty line, which is twice as high as the average for districts in this province, shows that the poorest people are living in or near forests. Forest lands and products are financially important for them, as they are the most dependant stakeholders on district forests. Sungai Telang, Bungo District is located on the border between West Sumatra and Jambi Province, in Southern Sumatra. The community groups we worked with live in Sungai Telang, occupying an area of 12,000 ha, 75% of which is overlapping with state-owned lands categorized into production, protection forest, and national park areas. The main livelihoods are farming and collecting timber and non-timber forest products. There are three hamlets and two transmigration areas with a total population of 1,500 people. The community groups have long practiced self-initiated collective action in the form of what are locally known as gotong royong and Pelhin, 8 , and they are also engaged in a government-initiated group, Sinar Tani. 9Initially, the research team worked with two community groups, a rattan farmer group and a jernang farmer group. Table 1 describes the group characteristics which include major activities, establishment, membership and leadership, benefit distribution, and motivation to engage in collective action. As the research progressed, the team engaged in a newly built group, some of whose members came from the previous groups.What activities do the groups undertake? Collect rattan from surrounding forests and sell the products to buyers, often through middlemen.Regularly cultivate their lands in groups, collect wild jernang seedlings from the forests, and establish a jernang nursery or plantation.How were the groups formed and who were the catalysts? Established informally based on their need to collect the forest products; commonly don't have a permanent membership; business owners through their middlemen encouraged the groups to sustain their action.Sinar Tani farmer group was initially established in 1998 when the government provided funds to improve water canals for irrigated rice, and the group activities continued even after government funds ended.There were around 15 groups in the village, each comprising 5 to 10 people, usually made up of family members and neighbours.The group comprises 17 members and all of them are Sungai Telang villagers. In its initial establishment, some village government apparatus (elites) joined the group.Those who have the capacity to access capital and build networks (relations with entrepreneurs and other actors). They are responsible for securing an advance from the business owner. It is common that a leader controls more than one rattan collector group.The group was initially headed by a village governmental apparatus, and over time it was chaired by those having the largest land ownership and access to networks and government resources.Concern with security in the forest and the efficient use of resources (money and other materials); need to meet the minimum amount of products and to collectively stand for a better price.Initially motivated to help members to till their land and collectively use labour resources; later engaged in developing a nursery of a highly valued jernang commodity.The research projects employed the participatory action research (PAR) approach to working with the community groups and engaging government officials (in particular, the District Forestry Service and the District Development Planning Board), district parliamentary members, nongovernmental organizations, and private companies. Techniques used included focus group discussions, key informant interviews, participant observation, and workshops. Going through a repeated cycle of reflection, planning, monitoring and action, the research team helped targeted community groups to get a fairer share of profits from the rattan products and to develop a nursery of the jernang species.The researchers in action research are not detached observers but are engaged in intervention designed to foster collective action. Involving communities in the research allows local knowledge and external expertise to be combined to diagnose constraints and solve problems that are of concern to both communities and to researchers. When done in a participatory manner, action research empowers local people and facilitates social learning (Meinzen-Dick et al., 2004). Figure 1 describes the way the community groups under study have gone through the various steps of learning.Action research helps facilitate social learning among the stakeholders involved. Through these processes, the parties involved exchange views, perceptions, and knowledge, and share their experiences, which finally leads them to find new ways of thinking. Berdegué (2001) stated that once collective action is initiated in response to a system of policy and market incentives, it is the quality of the social learning and adaptive management processes at the local level that largely determine the fate of the concerted action. In this research, various interventions were made in response to agreed plans that built shared understanding and trust. Participant observation was used to build rapport among the stakeholders and obtain confidential information on patterns and methods of natural resource utilization. During the reflection, planning, and action, farmer group members reflected on the problems they were facing, and together with other parties learned ways of finding the solution.Ongoing observation helped in assessing the mutual attitudes and behaviors of the farmers and the outsiders, enabling them to appreciate the other group's values and interests.To seek information on development funding for agricultural productivity and better prices Why are their rattan prices kept low; why did the business owners locate rattan processing unit outside their village To seek other alternative businesses; to establish an inter-village rattan group Why did the group fail to manage the funds; why did elite capture happen; why are some members not joining the group In the research, collective action was understood as what Marshall (1998) defined as an action taken by a group of individuals to achieve common interests. The group might be self-formed or created formally at the instigation of external institutions. The group can have a clearly-defined boundary (or membership) as well as have an arrangement where people join a group temporarily for a short-term period. Besides focusing mainly on community-level collective action among rattan and jernang farmer groups, this research also used collective action to refer to coordination activities and information sharing among local stakeholders aimed to facilitate policy adoption.Knox and Meinzen-Dick (1999) and Di Gregorio et al. (2004) show that collective action can help people improve their welfare and get out of poverty in several ways: people work together to provide local goods and services they would not be able to provide as single individuals, to substitute for missing markets or to help overcome barriers to participation in markets, and to increase their access to higher level institutions to request services or to increase their bargaining power.The importance of NTFP and marketing networks have been comprehensively explored by many studies (Neumann and Hirsch, 2000). Belcher (1998) introduced a production-to-consumption system approach that has been useful for better understanding of the market and the linkages between transformation points and market actors. Many studies indicate that producers (who are mostly the poor and the marginalized) continue to be in weak positions when entering into negotiations with other market players. To improve bargaining power, as Belcher and Kusters (2004) suggest, NTFP producers need access to information about pricing structures, availability of substitutes, quality requirements, and consumer preferences. Small-scale producers may also gain strength through collective action. Some common benefits drawn from working together to market a product are taking advantage of scale economies, maintaining a steady flow of products, preserving an existing market, creating a new market, gaining access to knowledge and professional expertise, and increasing bargaining power.As product marketing is characterized by economies of scale, collective action among farmers can make them more competitive in an integrated supply chain. However, collective action among farmers is difficult to organize, coordinate, and manage (Johnson and Berdegué, 2004). Berdegué (2001) found that market-oriented collective action by small farmers has a role to play only when it is directed at overcoming high transaction costs which impose insurmountable constraints on individual farmers acting alone, but fails when small farmers are simply attempting to improve their position in the marketing of undifferentiated commodities in the spot markets. Disposition to engage in collective action depends not only on the quality of the facilitation approaches used by technical agents at the field level, but on the system of incentives as perceived by farmers, i.e. on the positive and negative changes in outcomes that individuals perceive as likely to result from particular actions taken within a set of rules in a particular physical and social context (Berdegué, 2001).Improvements in income opportunities can be made in the way that people or companies (firms) are organized within an industry horizontally or in the way that firms are linked within a production-consumption system vertically. Improved horizontal linkages can give participating firms a better bargaining position through increased buying and selling power. Horizontal linkages (e.g. cooperatives) can also facilitate cost-sharing for expensive equipment, which is especially important for small-scale, capital-limited enterprises (Belcher, 1998). One of the most common justifications for farmer cooperation is that through collective action farmers are able to counterbalance the market power of their trading partners, leading to more equitable and efficient market outcomes (Galbraith, 1956 as cited in Staatz, 1987).NTFPs had been traded for centuries when people recognized that deforestation was occurring at rapid rates and there was a call for a new appreciation of forest products other than timber. Researchers began assessing both the commercial and subsistence roles of these products.CIFOR's studies carried out in Latin America compared potential income from a variety of forest products (fruits, medicinal plants, and fibers) with the possible income from logging and other land uses. They concluded that over the long term, NTFPs could potentially provide more value. Some aspects of the early studies have since been criticized on economic grounds; however, the research has served to create a wave of interest in NTFPs, and this has led to an increased appreciation of their overall importance for people in both forest communities and cities (Neumann and Hirsch, 2000;Lopez and Shanley, 2004).The relationship between NTFP producers and the markets they supply may range from direct sales to a complex network. Having reviewed various studies of the structure and function of marketing network, Neumann and Hirsch (2000) reveal a number of key points. The assumption that NTFP marketing 'middlemen' (whom many studies recommend bypassing) are procuring excessive profits is challenged when indebtedness and the costs incurred by marketers are taken into account.NTFP markets are extremely dynamic socially, temporally, and spatially, making it difficult to generalize about their functioning. State efforts to reduce exploitation by such brokers have often failed to benefit collectors due to high levels of bureaucratization, inappropriate price setting, and rent seeking by state officials.Citing findings from other studies, Neumann and Hirsch (2000) indicate that some regional manufacturers in the Philippines have attempted to use their collective bargaining power to get more favorable prices for raw material inputs and for sales. Also, gatherers' associations have been formedto apply for rattan cutting permits. Some of these associations have taken on additional functions (storage, semi-processing), but others have merely replaced local traders. In China, the influence of the collective farm tradition has led to much stronger coordination at the level of the raw material producers. Even though the land on which bamboo is grown in Anji County is managed on a private basis, many collective institutions remain in place.The implementation of decentralization in the forestry sector in Indonesia has swung like a pendulum between decentralized and highly centralized control (Dermawan et al., 2006). Once Law 22/1999 on Regional Governance and two forestry regulations 10 came into effect, district heads in many regions including in our two research sites, took advantage of their new authority to issue small-scale timber concessions. District governments were empowered to issue permits for non-timber forest product extraction, to levy a tax or taxes on concession permit holders, and to regulate and implement forest conservation measures and manage the transportation of forest products. Due to concerns over resource degradation and the common failure to provide benefits to local communities, the central government then postponed the implementation of small-scale timber concession by district heads in 2000. 11 The central government then retracted the authority to issue timber permits in 2002, but continued to grant the district heads authority to issue non-timber forest product harvesting permits. Although the issuance of non-timber forest product permits has actually been part of the district's authority for a long time, decentralization has further strengthened the district heads' exercise of extensive power over forest products and their management. In 2001, for example, the district government of Luwu Utara issued a district regulation 12 providing guidance on the issuance of forestry and estate crops business permits. The regulation aims to control the use of natural resources and to create efficient businesses and produce highly competitive products. It covers a variety of forest business types such as timber utilization, community forests, industrial plantation forests, beekeeping, mangrove forests, upstream processing industry, harvesting of forest products (including rattan), etc.One of the business permits, which enables the holders to collect and harvest non-timber forest products legally, is IHPHH Rotan, or rattan harvesting permit. 13 To date, Luwu Utara district government has issued a number of permits as shown in Table 1. The rule stipulates that the permit may be granted to a legal entity (e.g. private companies)and individuals for an area of about 500 ha. The permit is valid for about 6 months and may be extended to another 6 months if the rattan is considered abundant; 200 to 250 tons of rattan per permit can be harvested. Yearly production of rattan from Luwu Utara district can be seen in Table 2 below.Business owners (investors) feel that decentralization has made it much easier to obtain rattan harvesting permits. Instead of having to travel to the provincial capital, they can now submit applications at the district level. The permit holders are also obliged to pay various levies such as reforestation funds, forest resource rent taxes, forest product harvesting permit fees, and third-party contributions. They are required to pay a tax of US$2.17 to the local government and forest resource rent tax or PSDH 14 ranging between US$76 and US$152 for every ton of rattan collected. To ensure that permit holders pay their tax, the district government also obligates them to leave US$4348 with the district office as a deposit. They are also required to establish rattan nursery and to regenerate exploited areas. In the Bungo district, permits for small-scale timber harvesting no longer exist. Once the district head's authority to issue timber licenses was retracted by the central government in 2002, the district head decided not to issue any more permits for harvesting timber from forestlands. In 2002, the local government issued a district regulation 15 that provides existing permit holders with the rights to utilize and harvest forest products, in particular non-timber forest products.In the case of Luwu Utara, applicants for rattan harvesting permits are required to cover the entire costs of the resource inventory, boundary establishment, and timber cruising before they are granted a permit. It is then the business owners with strong capital that can gain benefit from this policy. This condition has limited opportunities for others with less capital. However, the permit Field observations indicate that farmer groups or cooperatives set up by business permit holders were mostly fictitious. The areas for exploitation were just drawn on a map, and no licence holders were reported to be rehabilitating rattan collection areas. In reality, these business owners also look for rattan outside their permitted areas. The District Forestry Service confirmed that they lack the resources to monitor and enforce the rehabilitation requirement.Local communities in the two sites have traditionally collected rattan and jernang from the forests. However, no papers or legal permits have been issued to support this. Even though they have thus far found no problem with harvesting the NTFP products from the forest, their long-term property rights over the resources seem to be unclear and insecure. Outsiders can readily utilize resources existing in their village areas.Communities are generally unaware of the regulations concerning levies on rattan or jernang.Unlike the jernang market where business owners and the collectors tend to negotiate directly, rattan farmers never see the business owners face to face, much less take part in the cooperatives they have supposedly set up. Communities gathering rattan and jernang are generally unaffected by decentralization, apart from its effects on the price of these products. The village head of Sepakat, who himself gathers rattan, stated that rattan prices before decentralization had been relatively good and peaked when the monetary crisis struck in 1998. However, they had begun to decline in recent years as the monetary crisis ended. During a 2004 workshop, 16 the representative of the Indonesian Furniture and Handicrafts Association (Asmindo) contended that rattan prices were affected more by changes in central government export policies than by decentralization. The workshop and subsequent discussion groups also found that:• Local communities have no clear or secure tenure rights over the forest areas from which rattan are collected; • The entry of rattan collectors from outside village has threatened the sustainability of local rattan resources within the village;• The District Forestry Service lacks capacity to conduct periodic monitoring and evaluation of company operations and community empowerment. Due to the lack of supervision, the permit holders are often reported to have exploited rattan from other areas, for which they have no permit;• The business owners' failure to comply with the requirements as put forward in the contract have never been sanctioned; • The business owners complained about illicit payments that they have to make at various checkpoints along the way from their processing and drying unit in Masamba to Makassar;• Rattan farmers lack access to market information and are unaware of changes in price; they lack the capacity to negotiate the price with the middlemen or intermediaries;• Despite the relatively high quality of rattan resources in the area, rattan farmers lack capacity to produce good quality rattan, making the price at the weighting location low. Besides, rattan is a fragile product and should be sold soon after it has been harvested, which may also result in a lower price (jernang, on the other hand, can be stored for a long time and sold at a higher price).The research team worked with rattan farmer groups and catalyzed their collective action activities through group discussion, meetings, and interaction with outsiders, in particular the business owners or those who are granted a rattan production permit by the district government. The team also facilitated interaction and discussion among rattan groups, business owners, and government officials who issued the license. From this, we learned about rattan collection activities and discovered some issues facing the rattan groups and business owners. Activities begin with an order from a business owner with a rattan production permit. Business owners contact villager groups through a local merchant or middleman in the village, telling them that the market value of rattan is currently high. As shown by other studies on NTFPs (Arnold and Ruiz Pérez, 1998;Belcher, 1998), the middlemen then advance money and supplies to the group that go to the forest, with an implicit or explicit obligation on the part of the collectors to sell to that trader, and only that trader. Down payments range from US$54 to US$130 per farmer group; this amount would later be deducted from the total received by the farmers. The middlemen commonly offer larger down payments to strong, young, healthy farmers, on the assumption that they will bring in more rattan.From the down payments, rattan collectors will spend an average of US$16.5 on food and provisions to take to the forest. The collector groups normally spend two to three weeks in the forests, and may move from one location to another. Once the location has been selected, they will go together to that place. Some groups tend to collect rattan from the same location, though they are divided into different groups. Being in a group, they feel that they can help each other. The workers harvest the rattan and pull it to the camp. The collectors soak the rattan and leave it in the river for many days until they are about to go back to the village.They then transport the rattan down the river and bring it to an agreed location within the village. The group's leader will let the middlemen or the business owner know of the arrival of the harvest. The middleman will then inform the business owner that the rattan is ready to be collected.Before sending people out to the village, the business owner who is based in Masamba -the district capital city -will then request the District Forestry Services to issue a forest product transport permit, locally known as SKSHH. With this permit, the business owner will be able to transport the harvest from the weighing place to the company's drying and pre-processing unit in the city. Once the rattan has been dried, the owner will transport and sell it to the buyers or finished or semi-finished product manufactures based in Makassar.There are generally two types of rattan market flow in Panply and other hamlets under study in Luwu Utara. In the first, there are working relations between business owners and rattan collectors along the chain of rattan production and marketing. In the second, a middleman takes part in mediating the two parties, rattan collectors and business owners (see Figure 2). During a 2-3 week trip farmers can collect at least a ton of wet rattan. If the price of wet rattan is US$ 0.08/kg, the average net earnings of one group member (after deducting expenses) are at least US$ 61.10. Interviews revealed that younger men (aged 27-40) can earn between US$ 72.20 and US$ 111.10, minus down payment deductions (around US$ 33.30) for one trip. More family members in the group (father and children) means more money for a single household. What is interesting to note here is that although they work in groups in the forest, earnings for each member are calculated on an individual basis. The members help each other set up the camp, pool the resources, and are responsible for all rattan being rafted in the river to the village, regardless of who the rattan belong to. However, their earnings differ. This is different from another group working on timber harvesting where earnings are equally distributed among group members, except for the leader.A group leader usually gets US$0.003-US$0.005 (depending on business owners) in commission from each kg of rattan collected by the members. Assuming that the price of rattan per kg is US$0.07 and one group member can take back an average of 1 ton of rattan, the leader will obtain US$32.6-54.4, while each member will get US$65.2-US$67.4. One middleman told us that he sells raw rattan to the business owner or rattan permit holders. He earns US$0.01-0.02 (or around 30% of the rattan price) per kg in commission. If a group can produce 10 tons of rattan in an average trip, the middleman can earn US$108.6-217.4 from each group. There are 15 groups in Sepakat village selling to one middleman. The following chart shows the rattan market chain, as adopted from Belcher (1998). One of the obstacles to rattan farmers is unstable local prices for wet rattan. The farmers cannot profit when the price of wet rattan is less than US$0.08/kg. They do not have the equipment or skills to aerate rattan, and this puts them in a weak position when dealing with middlemen. Before collectors go into the forest, the middleman usually tell them that rattan prices are high, US$0.11/kg, which makes them keen to go collecting for him. However, once they bring the rattan back, they have to settle for any price fixed by the middlemen (e.g. US$0.08/kg or less). The collectors cannot do anything except agree to the price. Otherwise, the rattan will rot if it is not disposed of quickly.Besides, the down payment system may well make rattan collectors less likely to complain when they return to find that middlemen have unilaterally lowered the price agreed at the beginning. The down payments make it financially easier for the gatherers to leave their families and collect rattan, but they also weaken the collectors' bargaining power. In responding to this issue, the research team facilitated the group efforts to reflect on those issues and helped them to seek possible solutions. At the village level, the research team engaged farmer groups in sharing their experiences with selling their products to middlemen and encouraged them to think of the importance of being in a group. At the district level, the team engaged government officials and business owners in a series of interviews and discussions to tackle those issues, hoping that there will be a change in government policies that favor farmer groups. Some farmers were pessimistic about getting a better price through joining forces in a village group or cooperative. They thought that the price has been set by the middlemen and there were no other choices than agreeing to the price. Others were optimistic about improving their conditions.They thought that district government would be on their side and supportive of any actions they take since, in their opinion, the government had a mandate to empower local people and to put a priority on rattan production and development. The farmers also heard about the recent effort to improve the rattan permit policy in which the permit holders are required to enter into partnerships with rattan farmer groups in the villages where rattan is collected. This would help the farmers to strengthen their bargaining position.Tallang and Pincara, finally established an inter-group alliance called Kelompok Masyarakat Pemanfaat Hasil Hutan (KMPHH), or Forest Product Utilization Community Group. This group is expected to function as a means of channeling rattan farmers' aspirations to the district government and of representing farmers in bargaining for a good price with the business owners. A set of rules regarding membership, obligations, sanctions and ways to deal with business owners, middlemen, and external buyers were then developed. Now, rattan collectors should first register their group members and report to the village head or the group head whenever they go into the forest. Second, the members should adhere to an agreed price and make every effort to keep middlemen or buyers from paying a lower price. Third, rattan business owners or middlemen should not bring with them rattan collectors from outside the village. They should enter into agreements with local rattan gatherers.Fourth, the members should make a contribution to the group, which will later be used by the members as cash before going to the forests. Some farmers are motivated to join the group as they expect to get a higher return from their improved capacity to bargain with the middlemen. They also wish to find easier to access government resources such as planting material, capacity building, and funding through the group. Once the group has been legally established, they will also be able to obtain their own permit and sell their rattan directly to buyers, bypassing the intermediaries.At the beginning of 2005, our research team started to catalyze a local community group, Sinar Tani, in Sungai Telang village and took them through various steps of reflection on issues they were facing as well as planning actions and engaging in interaction with outsiders. The group members were interested in achieving their shared goals in the area of agricultural productivity and management. One of the agreed plans was to look for alternative approaches that would increase the productivity of their agricultural activities and generate income.Initially, the group members were inclined to further develop rubber plantation as most of the villagers earned income from small-scale rubber plantations and paddy rice cultivation. During the reflection exercises, they discussed the need to regenerate their rubber, prepare their own rubber nursery, and develop a rubber plantation collectively. Having learned about financial difficulties, the members made a visit to the Agriculture and Forestry Offices. The interaction with government officials provided the farmers with a great opportunity to share their views and aspirations and to look into the funding possibilities and accessing information. They became interested in pursuing a district government aid program called Bantuan Usaha Produktif (BUP) that donates US$1000 to each selected community groups throughout the district area to help them develop small-scale business had e 3.2.A government program to promote wide dissemination of this species has made this possible.Once agreed in a meeting, the group members finally submitted a proposal on raising poultry to the district office. Unfortunately, the latter rejected the proposal on the grounds that raising poultry may not be feasible given the failure of this type of business in other areas. The group members were disappointed with this, but remained motivated to submit another proposal on jernang development, which was then accepted by the office. The group members learned about the prospective species of jernang not only from the government officials whom they met, but also from a buyer from France visiting their village. They heard from the latter that jernang from the village and its surrounding a high degree of purity and quality, and that its price continued to increase. The price is US$65-US$76 per kg if the collectors sell the product to village traders (tauke). If they sell it directly to th district market, they will get from US$97.8 to US$130.4 per kg. Though uncommon, the farmers could also get income from the sale of seedlings, the price of which ranges from US$2.7 to US$ The high market value of the product and great interest towards cultivating jernang have made the district government propose to the central government to designate Bungo as the center of jernang, along with the plan to provide funding to the groups. All these developments have motivated the group members to select jernang. The group was granted US$1000 to cultivate jernang seedlings.They were advised by the officials that the fund might be used to purchase polybags and seedlings or to build capacity of their members, but not for paying for labor or buying standard farming tools. The fund was disbursed in two stages. Once the first advance of US$750 was paid and used, an incident took place that challenged the group member's cohesion. Three members of the group, who turned out to be the head and secretary of the village and a member of the village consultative board (BPD), were found to have misused the money allocated for building the nursery in their own interest. A forestry extension agent was also reported to be involved.Other members felt cheated by the incident and were discouraged from making any group efforts. Attempts had been made to persuade the three members to pay back the loan and report the incident to the Forestry Service. However, nothing seemed to work. The three people refused to return the money and made every effort to avoid accusation. This led the Forestry Office to postpone the disbursement of the second payment. Having learned from this incident, the members then reflected on what factors caused the group to fail to meet the initial agreement. The reasons for failure mentioned during the discussions included the absence of transparency in the way funds were spent, the lack of guidance and monitoring from the district forestry office, the ambiguity of rules regarding the type of activities and materials that can be purchased with the funds, and the absence of strict rules contributing to this failure.At the end, they finally agreed to form a new group of ten people, with only one member coming from the previous group. None of them were from the elites. They called their group \"Bukit Lestari Makmur\" and agreed to form a set of rules 18 that reflect their commitment not to repeat the past mistakes. While the Forestry Service has not decided whether the rest of the funds will be allocated to this new group, the members of the new group have started to collect jernang seedlings from the forests. They have now more than 200 seedlings, which they collected in six to seven trips to the forests. They have also developed a schedule for collecting wild seedlings from the forest and agreed to go into the forest once a week in a small group of 5-6 people. Each member has also started to pay the group US$0.3 each month, and they have thus far used these funds to buy nails, polybags, and a lock for a small nursery. Their collective action seems to have been successful in raising jernang seedlings, even without the government's assistance.The research team worked in two communities with groups pursuing a goal of better livelihoods by means of collecting and marketing non-timber forest products. The first community, comprising small farmer groups in Luwu Utara, has traditionally collected rattan and had a relatively long experience with NTFP trading and marketing. Various financial, efficiency, and security reasons were found to have motivated the community members to engage in collective action. The groups were genuinely formed by the villagers without being facilitated by outsiders. While having a long experience with traditional collective action, the second community in Bungo has just recently formed a group to produce jernang seedlings in anticipation of increased market opportunities for this highly marketable product. Financial motivation seemed to have encouraged the members to join the group, though expected earnings from their endeavor are still unclear and unpredictable. Though the initial funding is due to government intervention, the group seems to sustain their activities.Collective action in this research was found to occur at different levels and to have some role in helping farmer groups harvest, market, and develop their NTFPs. Collective action at the level of the farmer groups has naturally played a role in helping farmers pull together attempts to obtain cash advances that allow them to collect rattan from the forests. The development of an inter-group village cooperative offers a great opportunity for rattan farmers to improve their capacity to negotiate a better price and gain access to government permits. Collective action in terms of coordinated activities and information sharing among the stakeholders played a role in district policy adoption that is conducive to pro-farmer rattan trade. Shared interests and strong motivation among the group members to improve their livelihoods have led to the creation of groups based on \"stronger\" collective action.The two groups, however, face almost similar problems. Some members were found to free ride on the groups' benefits. Though collecting rattan from the forests is group work, the amount of gathered rattan is calculated on an individual basis, and the earnings among the members may be unequally distributed. The stronger the farmer, the more rattan he can harvest. Some members have used the advance given by the middlemen to the group for their own enjoyment. They do not go into the forests at all but spend the money in the village instead. The group is also subject to elite capture.Members who turned out to be linked to village government structure were found to misuse the funds in their own interest.The groups in the first case-study attempted to improve their bargaining position through the creation of an inter-group alliance. In order to avoid the group being captured by the elites, the second group opted to establish a new group, without involving village elites. Both groups established strict rules regarding sanctions, which members should adhere to in order to make their effort effective.However, as shown in the two case-studies, it is necessary for the groups to secure external support (government policy and market) to achieve their collective action goals confirming the findings of Ostrom (2000) that individuals cannot overcome collective action problems and need to have externally enforced rules to achieve their own long-term self-interests.As the two groups have just started to engage in collective action, it is too early to see if their strategy for forming stronger groups has resulted in improved prices of rattan and increased potential for jernang marketing. However, recent observation of these groups indicated that a condition that is conducive to improving such prices at farmer level has emerged. One of the middlemen, for example, recognized that he would have difficulty keeping the price low if there were no groups in the village selling rattan at such a price. This became more obvious because the permit restricts their partnership to only the groups in the village. He also expected to be able to increase the rattan price to about US$0.13 per kg, from the current level of US$0.07, an increase of US$0.054, provided that the government gets rid of illegal payments 19 made by oknum (a person in an official capacity who charges the users illegally) along the way from Masamba, the capital city of Luwu Utara district to Makassar, capital city of the South Sulawesi province. 20The results presented in the previous sections have important policy implications. While collective action has the potential for helping rattan farmers in the study sites to get a better price for their rattan products, illegal payments made along the way to the product markets allow the business owners and middlemen to keep the price at the farmer level low. In order to improve the local livelihoods, especially of those whose lives depend on forests, the government needs to improve coordination and enforce rules that would not only prevail in Luwu Utara, but also outside the district.National as well as provincial level initiatives are needed.In the case of jernang, the district government of Bungo should reflect on their policies and programs, and take a closer look at the ways they have or have not contributed to effective collective action in the local communities. There is a tendency among government institutions to spend development funds on groups that are established instantly without paying sufficient attention to how the group has evolved and what motivates the members to get involved in the process. Opportunities should be made available for those who are genuinely keen on working in groups to achieve the shared goals. Furthermore, the government should provide clear guidelines for policy implementation and evaluation, and apply the mechanism for rewarding and sanctioning. It is also essential to encourage participatory monitoring that would involve the group members.To ensure the flow of benefits going to the villagers and to improve the bargaining position of both groups described here, government and other actors (e.g. Asmindo, in the case of rattan groups) should develop the capacity of these groups in the area of group strengthening and organization, financial management, plant propagation, and NTFP marketing. Accordingly, they should openly provide the groups with information updates on the market prices and standards of the product quality along the market chain to ensure equitable terms of trade for NTFP farmers/collectors. In the case of rattan groups, opportunities should also be provided for them to get their own permits to utilize rattan and engage with rattan processing units. As lack of capital is one obstacle to enhancing community capacity and people's bargaining power, government should also encourage financial agencies or banks to provide soft loans to both groups. The export ban on rattan may be necessary to support local industries and create value-addition opportunities; however, the government should also ensure that the ban favors the smallholders by making complementary efforts to keep the price of rattan at the farmer level desirable, for example, by setting up a standard price.This study shows that collective action can help farmer groups harvest, market, and develop their NTFP products. To make the groups' collective action more effective and avoid such problems as elite capture and free riders, the groups devised strategies for the establishment of a higher level organization (inter-group alliance in the case of rattan producers) and a new group (jernang producers), and for setting up strict rules. Action research is critical in fostering collective action and learning that lead the group members to be more organized and cohesive, and other stakeholders to be more receptive to farmers' needs.What can be done to scale up? Engaging in collective efforts has the potential to enhance the bargaining position of smallholders and provide them with a greater access to government resources and influence policies. However, collective action among the rattan and jernang farmer groups will be effective if it is supported by a higher level of concerted efforts among local government institutions, private companies, and other actors. Meinzen-Dick et al. (2001) indicate that collective action at the local level often remains limited in its impact if it is not backed by external support. Therefore, different parties should join forces to enhance coordination, share information, and ensure the development of sound policies that support pro-poor market development.","tokenCount":"7940"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"33be40237ded4dae9fd321b7d1884904","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43c2e3ce-7516-4fc0-9c05-8d21f41c5fca/retrieve","id":"-630094214"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3a11151e-8bf5-4baf-8831-8d8a49b67a10","pagecount":"12","content":"Malgré l'importance du protocole boeuf au titre de la Convention de Lomé, seul un pays ACP -la Namibie -exporte couramment vers l'UE, les exportations en provenance du Botswana étant régulièrement interrompues pour des raisons sanitaires et phytosanitaires (SPS), du fait des lacunes dans les systèmes de traçabilité utilisés. La Namibie, cependant, est en train de diversifier ses exportations de boeuf au-delà des marchés de l'UE, compte tenu des incertitudes dans les négociations internationales d'accord de partenariat économique.Plusieurs pays ACP cherchent à développer la production de boeuf à destination des marchés nationaux, régionaux et internationaux. La croissance rapide de la demande de boeuf en Chine et dans d'autres économies émergentes, les contraintes de l'offre et la hausse des prix ont toutes engendré un regain d'intérêt pour la production de boeuf parmi les pays ACP. Cependant, pour la plupart des pays ACP, les marchés nationaux et régionaux du boeuf sont la clé de la croissance future.Satisfaire aux normes SPS et de sécurité des denrées alimentaires reste crucial pour le développement des exportations, les exportateurs ACP étant confrontés à une concurrence intense de la part de certains marchés.On observe un intérêt croissant des exportateurs américains de morceaux de boeuf de qualité supérieure et des exportateurs Secteur de la viande bovine Des efforts sont également en cours en Afrique de l'Est pour augmenter ce que l'on juge être des niveaux d'échanges commerciaux intra-régionaux étonnamment faibles et pour développer les exportations vers les marchés étrangers, en particulier au Kenya.En Afrique australe, la fermeture du marché de l'UE aux importations de boeuf en provenance du Botswana pour des raisons SPS a eu des répercussions sur les marchés régionaux du boeuf, le Botswana étant en quête de marchés alternatifs pour sa viande de boeuf. Cela a semble-t-il fait baisser les prix locaux du boeuf dans les segments de marché affectés.Alors que les analystes suggèrent que l'ère du boeuf brésilien bon marché est révolue, dans des régions telles que les Caraïbes, il apparaît que de nouveau il y a un intérêt politique pour inverser le déclin à long terme de la production de boeuf locale. Les coûts élevés de l'alimentation animale offrent un contexte qui est loin d'être idéal pour le lancement de ces initiatives.Développements mondiaux du secteur de la viande bovine  ","tokenCount":"374"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ec08f856f6f55f9d26f7239e577aba99","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f72fd8c9-a49b-444d-8921-2beb479cecd2/retrieve","id":"952251062"},"keywords":["More targeted and impactful breeding pipelines aligned with the five CGIAR Impact Areas, namely Nutrition, Health & Food Security","Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods & Jobs, Gender Equality, Youth and Inclusion","Climate Adaptation & Mitigation","and Environmental Health & Biodiversity"],"sieverID":"67aadc44-0c4d-4221-bb03-79af01815afd","pagecount":"1","content":"Investor Dashboard used by research leaders, donors and GI management for investment and resource allocation decisionmaking.Therefore, the CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence was established to provide timely and reliable data, insights, and information to effectively guide decision-making and maximize return on investments in breeding pipelines and seed systems. This initiative entails five intervention areas, referred to as Work Packages. All market intelligence information will be centralized in a novel platform known as the Global Market Intelligence Platform (GloMIP).The Market Segment portal maps focus areas through querying or submitting of evidence to more than 400 seed product market segments (SPMS) across 24 CGIAR crops, and is currently being expanded to host SPMS of non-CGIAR crops as well.The Impact Opportunities portal enables characterizing and identifying impact opportunities across the five CGIAR Impact Areas for countries, regions, crops, market segments and breeding pipelines through an extensive set of sustainable development indicators.The Target Product Profile portal hosts the portfolio of blueprints of future crop varieties that guide breeding pipelines tailored to market segments. The portal displays more than 300 target product profiles (TPPs) that have been submitted to the Breeding Portal.The Investor Dashboard visually represents the projected benefits and returns on investment of current and future breeding pipelines using the breadth parameters from the market segments, depth parameters of the target product profiles and investment efforts in the breeding pipelines.The Product Catalog focuses on positioning new crop varieties in market segments through detailed descriptions of varietal traits and characteristics.The Impacts portal visualizes ex-post impacts of the adoption of CGIAR crop varieties in farmers' fields.GloMIP maps seed product market segments, TPPs, crop breeding efforts and varietal information, and provides analytics for priority setting and investment guidance within and beyond the CGIAR. These are realized through the development of GloMIP's main portals and collaboration with transdisciplinary teams across the CGIAR and partners. ","tokenCount":"306"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a9abce29feec0ba1fd910e841b5dcb14","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/708ac2a8-9f9a-482b-8516-6c072ab4f412/retrieve","id":"2106324630"},"keywords":["AGRIS subject category: E50 Rural sociology / Sociología rural LC classification: S 540","8","C6 P962"],"sieverID":"1cee029b-dd3c-45f4-a7eb-6ca356135514","pagecount":"64","content":"CIAT encourages wide dissemination of its printed and electronic publications for maximum public benefit. Thus, in most cases colleagues working in research and development should feel free to use CIAT materials for noncommercial purposes. However, the Center prohibits modification of these materials, and we expect to receive due credit. Though CIAT prepares its publications with considerable care, the Center does not guarantee their accuracy and completeness.The CGIAR Systemwide and Ecoregional Programs were closed down at the end of 2009. As a direct consequence of this, the PRGA Program was repositioned as a core program of CIAT, with a view to having the Program serve the other research programs of the Center. This final report therefore covers the period from the beginning of 2010 to the closure of the Program in mid--2011. The major activities during this period were:• Organizing the expert consultation and international workshop on Repositioning PRGA in Times of Change (with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).• Producing important outputs from the consultation and workshop:o A global strategy and action plan for gender--responsive participatory research (GRPR) in agricultural research and development o An action plan for incorporating GRPR into the CGIAR Consortium Research programs (CRPs) o A strategy and action plan for the new CIAT--PRGA Program o A workshop report focused on process o An analysis of the demand for GRPR.• Facilitating the development of state--of--the--art papers on GRPR in key areas of agricultural research and related case studies (funded by CIAT--PABRA). • Playing a role in the development, revision and presentation of gender strategies for the newly developed CRPs. • Funding and providing technical backstopping to three small--grant--funded projects (with ICARDA, IFPRI-CONALGODON and PABRA). • Fundraising-an aggressive funding strategy was developed and put in place from the transformation of the program from SWP to CIAT based, with a focus on gender analysis. • Representing CIAT and the gender--sensitive participatory research perspective at the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD), and collaborating with the parallel gender event co--organized by the Gender and Diversity Program (G&D) and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). • Representing CIAT and gender issues at the 55th Meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and the launching of UN Women. • Representing CIAT and supporting the FAO Expert Consultation Team that produced the FAO flagship publication, The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2010-11: Women in agriculture: Closing the gender gap for development.• Following up on the Gender Audit recommendations and strategies to mainstream gender across CIAT (CIAT plan of action on gender mainstreaming in research). • Organizing monthly meetings (2009)(2010) with women scientists to discuss gender research and also gender and diversity (G&D) issues at the Center level.Analysis in Times of Change (CIAT headquarters, Cali, Colombia, June 16-18, 2010) 1  The Workshop on Repositioning PRGA in Times of Change brought together 46 practitioners involved in gender and participatory research. These participants were experts from the CGIAR, national agricultural research systems (NARS), sub--regional agricultural research organizations, NGOs and academia-a broad range of stakeholders from around the world.The participants reviewed a demand analysis, discussed the state--of--the--art and role of gender--responsive participatory research (GRPR) in agriculture, and constructed the elements for a strategy and action plan for the use of GRPR in international agricultural research over the coming years.Over the following months several documents were produced as workshop outputs:• A global Strategy and Action Plan for GRPR • An Action Plan for incorporating GRPR into the CRPs (then known as 'Mega--Programs') • A Strategy and Action Plan for the then new CIAT--PRGA Program • A Workshop Report (focused on the process of the workshop)• A revised version of the Demand Analysis Report. The vision for the future of GRPR is to see timely and rigorous GRPR that is vigilant to changing conditions in the social, biophysical, economic and other spheres, institutionalized in an inclusive multi--stakeholder international agricultural research system (CGIAR, NARS, NGOs, community--based organizations and academia). For this to happen, advocacy needs to be included with research and development to create a coherent whole-as advocacy is not generally considered a strength of the CG System, there is a major role here for other stakeholders such as NGOs. A multiplicity of stakeholders is also needed to ensure critical mass. In practice, GRPR is driven by end-users, and empowers them to address their own needs. GRPR is responsive to changing conditions, whether in the social, biophysical, economic or any other sphere. For GRPR to succeed, scientists and managers need to consider gender in their research practices and evaluation-in many cases they will make changes as great as those they expect from farmers. The timing for institutionalizing GRPR is critical, not only in the face of rapid climate change and food crises, but also with the current 'window of opportunity' afforded by a favorable policy environment, and the plethora of information and technology. 1 A certain amount of confusion may have been created in the naming of the workshop. In the pre--workshop material, the title was 'Repositioning PRGA in Times of Change'; however, in the course of the final development of the proposal for the donor, the emphasis switched from the PRGA Program per se to 'gender-responsive participatory research' in a broader stakeholder context. Consequently, during the workshop and in some of the post--workshop documents it is referred to as 'Repositioning Gender--Responsive Participatory Research in Times of Change.' Later documents then reverted to the original title, but with 'PRGA' spelled out. Various 'Pathways for Success' were identified at the workshop covering such areas as: funding; policies; conditions; culture; partnerships and linkages; awareness--raising and capacity--building; methods; accountability; and evaluation. Details are elaborated in the Strategy and Action Plan (Fernández et al., 2010).The timing of the workshop coincided with the beginning of a major effort to write up documentation for the new Consortium Research Programs (CRPs). Because of this, one whole session was set aside to develop a matrix of recommendations to the CRP writing teams for the incorporation of GRPR in the program frameworks. These recommendations were passed via the director general of CIAT to the other Center directors general for onward transmission to the writing teams. Subsequently, the new CIAT--PRGA Program was involved in preparing the component on Rice research and gender in Latin America and the Caribbean and supported the overall gender strategy for the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP; CRP 3.1). The Program was also asked by CRP focal points to review and contribute to the gender strategies of several other CRPs, including: CRP 1.2 Humid Tropics -Integrated systems for the humid tropics; CRP 3.4 Grain Legumes -Sustainable increase in productivity for global food and nutritional security and sustainable agriculture; CRP 3.5 Roots, Tubers and Bananas; CRP 6 Forest, Trees and Agroforestry -Livelihoods, landscapes and governance; and CRP 7 Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. We see this as a major investment in the future of the CGIAR.PRGA Program provided a small grant to the Pan--Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), in which the CIAT Beans Program is a major player, to determine how environmental and socio--economic circumstances affect the convergence or divergence of men's and women's bean variety preferences. It is well documented that men and women often favor different traits in their choice of crop varieties, and this is sometimes attributed to the stereotype of women growing primarily for food and men growing primarily for the market. The project is looking at four contrasting production zones:• High pest/disease stress and semi--subsistence production (western Kenya)• More erratic rainfall (drought stress) and more subsistence production (eastern Kenya) • High commercialization and low rainfall conditions (northern Tanzania) • High subsistence and high rainfall (northern Tanzania). Three complementary methods are being used:• Community and key--informant interviews • On--farm participatory variety evaluation • Choice experiment--based surveys. Initial results in Kenya suggest that men and women share the top five preferred traits: taste, maturity period, drought tolerance, keeping quality, and cooking time. However, further analysis showed significant differences between men's and women's ratings for some traits and coincidence in others. The majority of women ranked their preference for drought tolerance, early maturity, tolerance to poor soils, better taste, and shorter cooking time higher than men. Conversely, the majority of men rated their preference for grain color higher than women. Men's and women's ratings coincided for pest and disease resistance, good keeping quality, low flatulence, and grain size. In northern Tanzania at Selian agriculture research institute, gender--related preferences closely resembled those in Kenya, but market orientation was the key variable underlying differences in gender preferences. Under subsistence production orientation, a wide range of traits (e.g. early maturing, fast cooking, low flatulence, tasty grain, keeps well overnight, high yield, small grain, cream and red colored grains) were strongly preferred, while a few traits (high yielding, tasty grain, red and brown color, large seed) were important under more commercialized production, which tends to be dominated by men. The project is collecting gender--disaggregated data for valuation of traits and trade--offs (between male and female preferences) from May 2011. In addition, PRGA and PABRA developed 'gender screening criteria' for program/project implementation that were put forward at the ECABREN (Eastern and Central Africa Bean Research Network) meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2010; the guidelines were also shared at the Center level and made available to all Program Leaders. A further training seminar on gender analysis was conducted at CIAT HQ to present guidelines and gender--responsive research criteria.PRGA has a long history of collaboration with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in the area of participatory plant breeding (PPB).In a short time span of ten years, results in participatory plant breeding have substantially exceeded expectations. Three plant breeding programs have contributed to the development of PPB. They account for the majority of publications in an expanding peer--reviewed literature and for the majority of emerging success stories in the field. ... All three have had close interactions with the PRGA (External Review, Walker et al., 2007) PPB is a dynamic and permanent collaboration between plant breeding organizations (national or international) and farmers (including other partners). PPB has made many gains since its formal recognition just a few decades ago; however, there is concern that changes in organizations' priorities and staff may interrupt the flow of germplasm that feeds the participatory program. Evolutionary plant breeding (EPB), initially proposed by Suneson ( 1956), 2 provides farmers with an evolving population that represents a readily available source of new and better adapted germplasm (a sort of living gene bank). The core features of the evolutionary breeding method are \"a broadly diversified germplasm and a prolonged subjection of the mass of the progeny to competitive natural selection in the area of contemplated use.\" Traits relating to reproductive capacity-such as higher seed yields, greater numbers of seeds/plant and heavier spikes-increase in such populations as a result of natural selection over time. In 2010, PRGA Program provided a small grant to the ICARDA PPB programs to further their research into evolutionary-PPB. One large population of barley was developed by mixing an equal amount of seed of about 1600 F2s. This was planted in the fall of 2008 at locations in five countries (Algeria, Eritrea, Iran, Jordan and Syria). In 2010, the population was expanded to 33 villages as most of the farmers recognized the value of such a population as both a crop and a source of varieties in the future. Thus, the project has made available to farmers an evolving gene bank that they can continue to use by themselves or in cooperation with scientists (Table 1). These populations will be 'left' to evolve under the pressure of changing climate conditions with the expectation that, in each location, the frequency of genotypes with adaptation to the local conditions (climate, soil, agronomic practices and biotic stresses) will predominate over time. 2 In Iran, the population was grown in 20 villages in four provinces with the majority in the provinces of Semnan and Kermanshah, where ICARDA also conducts PPB. The project also produced a guide on how to use the evolutionary population, which is being used by the Iranian scientists to produce a film.One hundred and sixty (160) Jordanian wheat landraces and 160 barley landraces from the ICARDA gene bank were evaluated at three locations in Jordan during the 2009/10 cropping season. The evaluation included interviews with farmers (men and women) to document their knowledge about this germplasm. The trial is being repeated in 2010/11. A similar trial was conducted in Iran with 160 barley and 160 wheat landraces from the ICARDA gene bank. Here again, the evaluation included interviews with farmers (men and women) to document their knowledge about this germplasm. The participatory evaluation of landraces has: (1) created awareness among men and women farmers that landraces are available to them and that they can be of value in relation to climate changes; and (2) collected and documented knowledge during these trials, which will become part of the passport data of the accessions that have been evaluated and will therefore be available in the future.There are a number of ways in which an evolutionary population can be used by farmers alone or by farmers and scientists together. The evolutionary population as the farmers' crop: The simplest and cheapest way of implementing EPB is for the farmers to plant and harvest in the same location (Fig. 1) without any intervention. The population will be planted and harvested just like their other crops. As the population will be planted in locations affected by different stresses or different combinations of stresses, the population will become progressively better adapted to each location's combination of stresses (Fig. 1).Once the farmer has satisfied his or her own needs-such as having enough seed for planting the following cropping season, and enough grain for feeding livestock-they may sell part of the seed to one or more neighbors who can start their own evolutionary population to be handled in the same way. It is suggested that at each cycle each farmer stores some seed (minimum 4-5 kg). This is an insurance policy: should something happen that leads to the complete loss of the population (after x years of evolution), using the saved seed will avoid losing all the benefits of the adaptation accumulated in x years-essentially restarting the population as it was after x-1 years of evolution/adaptation. Selection within the evolutionary population: The breeder and the farmers (both men and women) can superimpose artificial selection using criteria that may change from location to location and over time. While the population is evolving, lines or subpopulations can be derived by collecting spikes, panicles, cuttings, etc., depending on the crop concerned. The lines or subpopulations can then be tested as pure lines (in the case of self--pollinated crops), clones (vegetatively propagated crops) or populations (cross--pollinated crops) in PPB, or can be used as multi--lines, or a subsample of the population can be directly used for cultivation. The key aspect of this method is that, while the lines are continually extracted, the population is left evolving for an indefinite period of time, thus becoming a unique source of continually better--adapted genetic material directly in the hands of the farmers.Along with OXFAM America and other EPTD donors, PRGA Program provided a small grant for this short research project conducted by Confederación Colombiana del Algodón (CONALGODON) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2010. This research explored gender differences in cotton cultivation and looked into the perceptions and experiences of women and men with transgenic varieties. With very few exceptions, researchers in the area of impact evaluation of crop biotechnology have only marginally included gender considerations in their work. The objective of this exploratory pilot study was to incorporate gender into quantitative evaluation work. The study used a participatory and descriptive approach to obtain women and men farmers' perceptions and insights. The work was conducted in the main cotton--producing regions of Colombia, where a handful of transgenic varieties have been on the market since about 2004. The participatory exercises developed by the team showed that there are key gender differences that need to be addressed and studied. Despite the widespread perception among male cotton producers that women are not cotton farmers, women do in fact participate in several operations of the crop and some women successfully manage or share with their spouses cotton--production responsibilities. Specific differences in perceptions of transgenic varieties between female and male farmers were also brought to light. Female farmers managing their plots appeared to prefer insect--resistant varieties over conventional ones mainly because these transgenic varieties can reduce the number of male laborers that women would need to hire to spray pesticides, as this task is solely performed by men. Similarly, technologies that potentially reduce manual weedingparticularly if women and children in a household are the ones in charge of this back-breaking activity-can be especially attractive to women. The perceptions can be the opposite for women who are hired for weeding, as this might mean losing additional income not easily replaceable. Both female and male farmers identified the lack of adequate and timely information as the main disadvantage of transgenic varieties. This lack of information seems to be disproportionally affecting more female than male farmers. Female farmers appeared to have more difficulty accessing or sharing information, as they had more time restrictions, particularly if they were also responsible for most or all domestic responsibilities. At the same time, information that actually gets into the hands of farmers seems to be followed more judiciously by female farmers, a fact that potentially translates into better management of the technology. With some important exceptions, perceptions about transgenic cotton varieties appeared to be positive both for female and male farmers. The difference was the way female and male farmers spent the additional resources. Men were more keen to dispose of their profits in leisure activities, while women farmers tended to invest their additional income in their families' nutrition, education and health. All these perceptions demand further investigation and are an eye-opening opportunity of the potential of women farmers as productive cotton producers and successful users of new technologies.Program staff were requested to represent CIAT and gender issues in particular at a number forums, including the following:• ) to analyze and predict convergent/divergent female and male preferences in different scenarios: high stress, good potential and mixed environment conditions, along with various degrees of market orientation and integration-e.g. the PABRA small--grant project (see above). • Developing effective, innovative and 'grounded' models for gender integration through collection of easy--to--understand/shared sets of success stories from CIAT programs and its partners (e.g. tropical fruits, rice, cassava). • Developing a fundraising strategy, based on the priorities established in the new program strategy, including CRPs. • Publish GRPR methods and tools derived from CIAT--PRGA grounded research. The Program's fundraising strategy focused on projects that would look at the gender dimensions of food--security issues (including adaptation to climate change) with a large element of participatory research (primarily PPB). The Program and its partners had identified climate change as perhaps the biggest threat facing resource--poor farmers at this stage in history, with its concomitant unpredictability and extreme weather events.Due to the ongoing CGIAR restructuring process, several of the concept notes were put on hold by the donors, while for some others we were given an indication that they were viable. However, most donors expressed that their preference was first to adopt a general gender strategy at the System level, initially a gender platform, which was not supported during GCARD 2010. This situation delayed the consideration of concept notes that pursued funding for gender research as a whole. A gender scoping study followed that provided guidance and good suggestions for gender research at the structural level and finally the decision was made to review all CRPs for the inclusion of a sound gender strategy. It was at this time that a decision was made by CIAT to close the PRGA Program. Details of concept notes and proposals prepared by PRGA during 2009-2011 are presented in Appendix 5.A year of planning among donors and practitioners culminated in an international seminar and planning meeting at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in September 1996 to look at the priority issues and challenges in the fields of participatory research and gender analysis for technology development. The seminar brought together 50 researchers and development professionals from various organizations around the world-all highly experienced in the fields under review. The participants wanted to stimulate the inclusion of users' perspectives, especially those of women, in pre--adaptive research, as they sensed an urgent need to \"strengthen, consolidate and mainstream gender analysis and participatory research in a high--priority, high--visibility program that recognizes farmer participation as an important strategic research issue.\" It was agreed that resources and knowledge should be pooled to accelerate the development of new methodological tools, capacities and institutional strategies for participatory research. Having already shown leadership in these areas, CIAT convened the new program. At the same time, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) were asked to cosponsor the program, as they seemed likely users of its outputs. This workshop--cum--planning meeting also established an advisory board, comprising elected representatives, one from each interest group considered as a stakeholder, namely:• Donors • National agricultural research systems (NARS)• International agricultural research centers (IARCs)• NGOs • Indigenous knowledge systems • Universities. Three decentralized working groups were established, each with a representative on the advisory board:• Plant breeding group (PBG)• Participatory natural--resources management (PNRM)• Gender working group (GWG). Each working group developed a 5--year work plan, which formed the basis for the annual work plan and budget of the Program. Elements of the GWG work plan were incorporated into the work plans of PBG and PNRM to ensure consideration of gender issues across the board. In December 1996, the then Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the CGIAR approved the establishment of the Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (SW--PRGA), which was subsequently created in 1997. Its goal was \"to improve the ability of the CGIAR System and other collaborating institutions to develop technology which alleviates poverty, improves food security and protects the environment with greater equity.\" And its purpose \"to assess and develop methodologies and organizational innovations for gender--sensitive participatory research, and operationalize their use in plant breeding, crop and natural resource management.\" The approach used in Phase I of SW--PRGA (1997-2002) 3 had four common elements:• Methodology development • Capacity--building • Partnerships and networks • Institutionalization (later referred to as 'mainstreaming'). Over these first 5 years, the Program and its partners demonstrated that participatory research and gender analysis:• Embody rigorous methods that are scientifically grounded, thereby validating the results produced; • Produce broad impacts by producing technologies and resource--management options that are well--suited to end--users' needs, which significantly reduces the possibility of farmers ultimately rejecting the technologies developed; • Produce process impacts in the form of human and social capital, which help sustain rural development and innovation (especially in the case of participatory research); • Are especially beneficial to women, the poorest and marginalized groups, all of whom were frequently overlooked by conventional research; • Are cost--efficient, primarily because of the increased impact and shortened time for technology development; • Were being used by a large and growing number of CGIAR scientists, and there was growing (and unmet) demand for training in these methods.The SW--PRGA conducted and commissioned several key studies, and developed extensive inventories of PPB and PNRM. These enabled the Program to set a global benchmark of the quantity, quality and scope of participatory and gender--sensitive research. The work also enabled it to identify the main achievements of and obstacles to participatory research and gender analysis, plus emerging challenges and issues for further research.An important insight gained through the inventorying process was that the question was no longer whether or not projects used participatory and gender--aware approaches, but rather how well they used them. SW--PRGA raised awareness of the variable nature and potential applications of participatory research and gender analysis. Not all participation and not all gender analysis is the same. SW--PRGA dedicated significant resources to this 'demystification' process, \"not to prescribe any particular type or mode as the correct one, but rather to understand the effect of different modes of participation on the outcomes of research\" (Saad, 2003). In fact, the use of different kinds of participatory approaches leads to 'clusters' of product and process impacts that influence the well--being of rural communities. This information helps researchers make sound judgments on when and how to use participatory and gender--sensitive methods. Cutting--edge research SW--PRGA both supported and engaged directly in research at the 'cutting--edge' of participation and gender--sensitive approaches. Support was mostly in the form of a competitive small grants scheme that enabled partners to bid for small sums of money to conduct their own participatory or gender--sensitive research. During the first phase, the Program awarded at least 26 small grants for participatory and/or gender research in PPB and PNRM. Each small grant recipient produced at least one project report, and several of the projects led to research articles in SW--PRGA--sponsored proceedings.The Small Grants have certainly enhanced the reach of the Program across geographical areas, subject matters and stakeholders. Because of their capacity building and multiplier effects, they have contributed to the progress of the Program in mainstreaming PRGA in the CG System and their partners. (Internally Commissioned External Review, Prain et al., 2000) Evaluation of impacts and costs SW--PRGA assumed that empirical evidence of the impact of participatory research would encourage researchers and research managers to incorporate such approaches in their research. Thus, the Program developed and applied a range of tools to study the impact of PPB and PNRM-in particular, an impact--assessment framework for participatory and gender--sensitive research. The Program analyzed and systematically documented direct comparisons between participatory and other approaches to research (something that had rarely been done before), and then ventured into the new area of studying the effects of participation at various stages in the research process. More specifically, the Program completed five case studies during Phase I. These studies suggested that increasing the degree of farmer involvement and control in the research process:• Leads to increased farmer empowerment • Gives voice to farmers' technology preferences (including those of women farmers)• Speeds technology adaptation • Increases human capital • Increases adoption • Increases farmers' profits. Moreover, the research showed that participatory research reduces the cost of technology development (by avoiding the pitfall of developing technology that farmers ultimately reject) with minimal impact on project operating costs. The Program also provided methodological support and training to partners, especially in the use of its own guide to impact assessment of participatory research and gender analysis (Lilja and Johnson, 2002).A principal aim of SW--PRGA was to facilitate the use of participatory and gender--sensitive approaches. To that end, the Program sought, by various means, to build and network a community of knowledge and practice. Three electronic listservs (e--mail distribution lists) were created:• PRGA--Info for general information and administrative messages;• PBG used by the PBG for active discussion (through the listserv, the Group contributed directly to key Program work, namely PPB Guidelines, and an Intellectual Property Rights study); • PNRM used by the PNRM Group to add continuity to their face--to--face meetings. The Program also established a website, based on its own structure, to provide space for interaction and exchange of information and resources for its communities of practice, including electronic versions of the Program's own publications. A workshop on Participatory Natural Resource Management experiences in 1999 (co-hosted by PRGA Program and the UK's Natural Resources Institute) led to the compilation of a collection of methods and tools, which were made available through the PNRM Group's area on the Program's website. A PRGA Center Liaison was appointed by the director general in each CGIAR Center to disseminate information, research results and small--grant opportunities to CG and partner scientists. Gender focal points were also established in many of the Centers. Learning and capacity--building were essential components of the first phase (and beyond), and the Program conducted numerous training activities. Capacity--building partnerships were an integral part of many of the Program's collaborative research projects, especially within small--grant projects. By the end of Phase I, ongoing demand for training surpassed the resources to deliver it. The Program also provided mentoring and backstopping to small--grant recipients, who were usually obligated to conduct workshops on participatory approaches in their own organizations as part of the funding agreement.Capacity building on the design, planning, and implementation of participatory efforts have implications not only for improving the delivery and impact of research but also for wider human and social capital formation among the actors as well as in the targeted communities. The Program in this regard has made good progress. The effort of two regionally based (Asia and Africa) PRGA fellows has been instrumental. (Internally Commissioned External Review, Prain et al., 2000) International meetings were another mechanism for the exchange and discussion of experiences, knowledge and research findings. Three regional PPB symposia provided regional state--of--the--art analyses, enabled networking among participatory research and gender--sensitive practitioners, and reviewed and revised the PPB Guidelines. During Phase I, a further two international seminars continued to address relevant themes for participatory research and gender analysis. In addition to the achievements documented above, SW--PRGA had also set the stage for its future by identifying the key features of the global state of gender and participatory research. These 'major lessons' formed the foundation for the Program's second phase (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007).• While there was a general and increasing interest in the use of participatory research approaches, there was little evidence that gender analysis was being given due attention. • Among the CG Centers, there was an absence of a critical mass of members who were using equitable participatory research and gender analysis methods. • There was a great and unmet need for capacity--development in the use of these methods. • In cases where participatory research approaches had been applied, there was enhanced learning as a result of experimentation with methods. However, much of the learning and change that accompanied the use of these methods remained isolated from the project cycle and did not extend to the organization level. These factors severely restricted (and still do restrict) the extent to which equitable participatory research and gender--analysis approaches were (and are) integrated into the research process, thereby limiting the extent to which their positive impacts could (and can) be scaled up.The major goal of SW--PRGA's second phase focused attention on mainstreaming gender analysis and equitable participatory research to promote learning and change in CG Centers and NARS, so that they could better target the demands of beneficiary groupsparticularly poor rural women. Over the eight years 2003-2009, the Program helped at least 30 organizations in gender-mainstreaming activities-CG Centers, NARS, NGOs and universities. For many of these organizations, the Program helped them to assess the status of gender or participatory research (or both), often using the Framework for Organizational Analysis of Groverman and Gurung (2001;see PRGA Program Annual Report 2003-04, Appendix 4, or Gurung, 2010), either in the organization itself or in a wider context (e.g. country--wide in China). Other activities included workshops and other training activities on topics such as learning and change, farmer--participatory research, and PPB. Throughout the period, 'flagship' activities were conducted in the eastern Himalayan region and Lao PDR with various NARS and NGOs, and in Eastern and Central Africa with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). The work in Asia started with a project to develop regional capacity in social and gender analysis. This was then followed up by a project entitled, 'Institutionalizing gender-responsive research and development in agriculture and natural resource management through women's networks.' Both projects were funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Meanwhile, initial contact with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the Sub--Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) brought SW--PRGA into contact with ASARECA. A needs assessment in 2003 showed that the NARS of ASARECA lacked capacity to carry out gender analysis. Thus, the project 'Building capacity in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming in the NARS of ASARECA' was initiated, involving eight of ASARECA's ten constituent NARS. In both cases, the work involved a combination of capacity--building, research, mentoring, networking, learning and change.In the Asian context, the second project involved five 'primary' partners who provided support to five 'recipient' partners, with overall project coordination assured by Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN). While the set--up in East and Central Africa saw SW--PRGA taking the lead, with day--to--day issues handled by ASARECA. In all cases, participants conducted organizational analyses of their 'home' organizations and brought these back to workshops, where they developed strategies and action--plans for gender--mainstreaming. They also conducted 'external' research-training and working with rural women's groups in Asia, and conducting gender--analysis mini--projects in Africa. Lessons from Asia highlighted:• The critical role of women's leadership in driving organizational change;• The need for improved innovation in four key areas of organizational change (political commitment, technical capacity, accountability, and organizational culture); • That identifying and building the capacity of change--agents was an effective tool;• That the 'insider-outsider' model works. ASARECA and its NARS identified several 'good practices' for gender--mainstreaming, including:• Incentives for scientists to do gender--sensitive work;• Having a gender coordinator or team;• Documenting case studies;• Gender seminars;• Networking;• Continued capacity--building in participatory research and gender analysis. Gender--mainstreaming is a process, and often takes a long time. All the 'recipient' partners and NARS involved in these projects are continuing in this process. The potential is demonstrated by CARE Laos, which made a determined effort to mainstream gender in its activities in 2002-2004. In 2004/05, PRGA Program helped CARE Laos assess 'best practices' for gender--mainstreaming, and then CARE Laos was involved in the Asian gender--institutionalization project as a 'primary' partner from 2005 to 2008. In 2007, independent initiatives brought SW--PRGA into a much closer relationship with its host center, CIAT. The first of these was the Program's first external review, which recommended that it \"should accelerate its efforts to introduce [gender analysis] into the wider CGIAR System,\" using CIAT as a case study. At the same time, the CIAT focal point of the Gender and Diversity (G&D) Program initiated the building of a new strategy taking as a baseline personnel's perceptions and knowledge. Thus, SW--PRGA conducted a gender audit of CIAT, in close collaboration with G&D Program. The results of this audit and similar gender assessments elsewhere continue to confirm the key lessons from SW--PRGA's first phase (published back in 2003; see above) that gender is not institutionalized, and is insufficiently understood by agricultural researchers. The recommendations of the gender audit were presented at the Center level within CIAT, and some progress made in implementing them. In 2009, the Program was invited to present the results of the audit at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as valuable input into IFAD's own process of conducting an internal audit.Throughout its life, SW--PRGA provided support to impact assessment of participatory research through methodology--development, capacity--building, human and financial resources, and forums and avenues for presentation (workshops) and publication. By the end of its first phase, the Program had identified that simple economic assessment was rarely adequate for gender and participatory research. In addition, there are far more stakeholders interested in such assessments than just donors. Moreover, these various stakeholders often have different requirements from the assessments than the donors. The importance of impact assessment of gender and participatory research is highlighted by its high profile in the second and third PRGA International Seminars (1998,2000) and in subsequent Stakeholder Meetings (2001Meetings ( , 2002)). In particular, the second international seminar focused on impact assessment of gender and participatory research, and 15 invited presentations were delivered to over 100 participants. As funds for large stakeholder meetings dried up in the early 2000s, impact assessment of participatory agricultural research and development still carried enough weight for donors to support two further international workshops. The first of these was the Impact Assessment Workshop co--organized with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico in 2005. The workshop brought together about 30 impact--assessors, mostly from the CG system, and its 'findings' were summarized in a book (Lilja et al., 2006). Moreover, the Program made use of the public domain of the internet to make the presentations, full papers and abstracts available 'immediately,' along with summaries of daily discussions. This medium allowed information into the public domain much quicker than the 'conventional' route of publication, though the organizers recognized the long-term value peer--reviewed journal publication and produced two special--issue journals that presented 12 of the workshop papers (Lilja and Dixon, 2008a, b).Impact assessment is itself an area of impact and is one of the strengths of the program. Impact assessment in the PRGA significantly exceeds expectations in a systemwide or ecoregional program and rivals the amount and quality of work conducted in some of the better CGIAR Centers (in this area). Research on impact assessment has benefited from strong collaboration with other social scientists in the convening center and with economists outside the CGIAR.(External Review, Walker et al., 2007) The last SW--PRGA impact--assessment workshop was co--organized with the Innovation Works program of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the CGIAR Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative. The Workshop on Rethinking Impact: Understanding the Complexity of Poverty and Change was held at CIAT headquarters in 2008, and brought together about 55 R&D practitioners with an interest in assessing and evaluating the impact of agricultural R&D on poverty. This time, only just over half of the participants were from the CGIAR, reflecting the organizers' recognition that the CG has much to learn from outside. Again, papers, presentations and abstracts were made available on--line via a dedicated website. Making even greater use of modern technology, a communication specialist was brought in, and daily newsletters and video--interviews released via email and on--line. A summary of the meeting was published, along with several targeted 'briefs' and 'working documents.' As with the 2005 workshop, the value of peer review was not overlooked, and a special issue of a journal included eight of the workshop papers (Lilja et al., 2010). Moreover, connections made at the workshop resulted in new partnerships for research in this field (e.g. ILAC went on to work on a project with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the UK International Organisation Development Ltd). Taken as a whole, it seems that a majority of impact--assessors active in the field of agricultural R&D and poverty concur that assessment of economic impact is simply inadequate. Moreover, there is a sense that impact--assessments are still widely under-used-they are still commissioned by donors and other stakeholders with an interest in attributing positive developments to project activities, rather than being used by project-implementing organizations to learn and change so as to 'do development' better.It is evident that partnerships were key in SW--PRGA's achievements. During its first phase, the Program engaged in 48 partnership--based activities with 84 partners. In the second phase, it was 30 activities with 40 partners. Many of these were funded by small grants: despite the fact that funding for the competitive grant scheme dried up midway through the second phase, the Program continued to make small grants available to selected partners from its core funding, along with sourcing special project funds from donors and providing 'in kind' contributions of staff time on core budget (see Appendix 3). Partnerships were formed across the spectrum of gender and participatory research stakeholders, from advanced research institutions and CG organizations, through sub-regional organizations, universities, the private sector, national research and extension services, and NGOs, to farmers and communities. Many of which are mentioned elsewhere in this report.The ","tokenCount":"6634"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"35df8e27fe9909b0e9ddc6b6788e9b2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H043387.pdf","id":"-846916709"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c9b3b9d9-78e1-4c0b-b3a2-bea8a1283c84","pagecount":"7","content":"This paper assesses the agricultural water consumption and productivity of the predominant crop paddy rice and wheat for the Indo-Gangetic river basin (IGB) in South Asia. A new approach was adopted in the study to integrate census, remote sensing and weather data to assess crop water productivity (WP) across large scale. The average paddy field ET for rice for major growing period of June 10 to October 15 is 416 mm, which is 70% of rice potential evapotranspiration (ET p , equals to ET 0 *K c ). Average rice water productivity is 0.74 kg/m 3 . The average evapotranspiration (ET a ) and WP of wheat is 299 mm and 0.94 kg/m 3 respectively. Significant variations were observed for the ET a , yield and WP of rice and wheat. The scope for improvement of water productivity could be assessed by comparing hot and bright spots in consultation with factors such as rainfall and topography. It is found while improving yield in long term will finally lead to improved WP, reducing non-beneficial ET from low yield areas is a effective approach to improve WP in short term. Integrated land, crop and water management is the key to sustainable development of the region.Water is one of the most critical inputs to agriculture for human survival. However, the level of water use differs significantly across regions, farming systems, canal command areas, and even farm plots (Molden et al., 2003). It is not clear how water is better used by crops hence contributing to improved productivity with all aspects of efforts, especially in large river basin across countries. To measure the effectiveness of these interventions, water accounting and water productivity analysis are required to understand water-agriculture system, i.e., the relation between water input and agricultural output.There are various sources providing water to meet crop requirement: precipitation, irrigation, ground flux, soil moisture, and air moisture, among which rainfall and irrigation are the two major inputs. These two inputs are somehow monitored at certain level, e.g., rainfall from single station, irrigation diversion from head canal. However, the actual use of these inputs is not clear. One example is irrigation return flow which is often difficult to measure despite its significance in many regions. As many efforts are made to study the fate of return flows on the ground, the remote sensing data interpreted actual crop water consumption provides another way to assess crop water input and the crop productivity which is a response of water input. This approach provides spatially explicit water productivity assessment while avoids going into complex ground processes. This paper presents a simple yet efficient approach to combine meteorological data, ground survey, national census with remotely sensed imagery to assess water use, yield, and finally crop water productivity for the Indo-Gangetic rice-wheat cropping system in South Asia. The spatial variation of water productivity maps was analyzed. Then the WP maps, together with yield, ET maps, and contributing factors, for example, rainfall map, land surface temperature maps were compared. The causes for variation and scope for improvement is discussed.Indo-Gangetic river basin, the most populous basin in the world, covers a huge area of 2.25 million km 2 including Nepal, significant parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and small parts of China and Afghanistan. Diverse climate, topography, and soil conditions exist in the basin. The climate is strongly characterized by monsoon with annual average precipitation varying from less than 100 mm to 4000 mm, most of which occurs during June to October. Three physiographic regions: Mountain areas, plains and delta are found originating from southern slope of Himalayas and extending towards two directions: southwest till Arabian Sea and southeast till Bay of Bengal. Out of the total drainage area, more than 50% (1.14 million km 2 ) is cultivated. Rice wheat rotation is the predominant cropping system in the region, mixed with cotton, sugarcane, pulses, millet, and jute etc. Crop sowing dates and growth length vary according to climate conditions, water availability, farmers habits and crop varieties (Ullah et al., 2001).Rice and wheat are the predominant crops of the basin. Hence this study focused on these two major crops. The methodology adopted in this study involves three steps: crop dominance map to determine major rice-wheat cultivation extent; crop productivity map to map rice and wheat yield at pixel scale; ET map to calculate crop consumptive water use (ET). The water productivity is finally produced by dividing crop productivity map by ET map. Following section gave a summary of each step. Detailed description could be found at Cai and Sharma (2009).Crop dominance map is the very first step to estimate crop yield and analyze ET by crops. Several LULC maps already exist in IGB including USGS Global LULC dataset; POSTEL global land cover map; IWMI Global Irrigated Area Map, and IWMI Indo-Gangetic LULC map. The two IWMI maps provide information for irrigated versus rainfed as well as groups of crops for each agricultural class. One groundtruth mission was carried out in early October to collect information on LULC, irrigation, crop, and social-economic set up. 2730 km were covered in 11 days with 175 GT samples collected. With input of the groundtruth data, all existing LULC data layers were brought together and synthesized to a crop dominance map.Yield mapping involves district wise census data synthesis, and extrapolation to pixel wise using RS images. Three crop production datasets were collected including two from national sources, one from FAOSTAT. The datasets were verified with each other and normalized to the average values of nominal year 2005-06 at district level. Wealth of literatures suggested linear relationship between crop grain yield and NDVI at heading stage. MODIS 250m NDVI maximum value composite image of 29th August 5th September 2005 was used to extrapolate yield from district average to pixel wise employing the linear relationship.ET maps are produced using Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEB) model in combination of weather station data and MODIS 8 day 1km land surface temperature (LST) products. Daily potential ET was calculated using Hargreaves method with data from 41 weather stations across the basin and FAO crop coefficient approach. The point potential ET was then extrapolated to surface using a minimum curvature spline technique. Pixel actual ET was calculated by multiply ET p surface with an evaporative fraction grid generated from MODIS LST data.In this section we firstly present the current status of water productivity values for the predominant crops rice and wheat. The causes for variations were then analyzed together with rainfall, temperature and topography distribution. Finally scope for improvement was assessed by comparing hot spots with bright spots with consideration of limiting factors.Average rice water productivity (figure 1) of the basin is 0.74 kg/m 3 , with minimum, maximum and standard deviation values of 0.2, 2.04, and 0.37 kg/m 3 respectively (1% extreme pixels were sieved). The water productivity variation follows closely the pattern of yield variation. The bright spot of Indian Punjab and adjoining areas, covering 6% of total rice area, have very high water productivity with an average value of 1.51 kg/m 3 . However, as much as 19% of total rice areas have WP less than 0.5 kg/m 3 , which occur mainly in Indian Madhya Pradesh, Bihar states and Bangladesh Dhaka division. Some areas show different trends in WP variation compared to yield and ET map. A high WP strip, around 10-70 km in width, starts from 75.5E, 29N in southern Haryana State and goes towards the east till the Southern Bihar State, India (85.2E, 24N). The yield for this area is relatively low with an average value of 3.2 tons/ha. However, the average ET of the same area is as low as 277 mm, making the WP relatively high. The higher WP values here do not suggest satisfying performance in this case. Rather, it provides interesting clues to reveal the reasons for the differences, the potential for yield improvement, and the possible interventions by scaling up to other areas.The average WP of wheat is 0.94 kg/m 3 with standard variation of 0.66 kg/m3. Due to the extremely low ET in the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states, water productivity in these areas showed higher values despite low yield. These states still cultivate low yielding traditional wheat varieties which incidentally have high cooking quality and fetch premium price in the market. The growing season in these states is also of shorter duration due to shorter winter period and early maturity of the crop. The high yield areas showed high water productivity values although they are not among the highest. The Bihar State in India has the largest areas with lowest WP, which means significant scope form improvement exists here. The downstream of Ganges shows relatively good performance despite high variability in yield.The average rice WP expressed in US dollars in 2005 at local market price is 0.121 US $/m 3 , while for wheat it is 0.148 US $/m 3 . The average WP for sum of rice and wheat is 0.131 US $/m 3 (figure 2). The spatial variation of WP is found to be different both from rice and wheat WP maps. The shared areas of rice and wheat cultivation are influenced by wheat more than rice. However, areas with low wheat WP but high rice WP and the other way around are found in many areas. The rice WP contributed 50.7% to the total WP due to larger cultivation area despite lower WP values (figure 2). Rice and wheat water use and water productivity are relatively low with tremendous variation in Indo-Gangetic river basin. These variations could be explained by many reasons, for example, land fertility, water supply, crop management and climate conditions. This section tries to explore the major factors affecting water productivity in the basin. Figure 3 illustrates some important factors affecting water productivity. The rainfall measured from Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) and the ratio of ET a to ET p , together with yield maps of rice and wheat are compared. It is observed that the rainfall is much lower in Indus Basin in rice growing season but higher in Ganges Basin in wheat season. Both rice and wheat ET a to ET p ratio is higher in high rainfall areas. High rainfall means more water for evapotranspiration. However, it does not necessarily lead to higher yield and water productivity, as shown from the yield maps in figure 3 and WP maps in figure 1. This could be attributed to poor local crop and water management practices; especially the low fertilizer use, traditional varieties and crop disease and pests. Rainfall may occur at anytime. Hence higher rainfall area has more water to evaporate but could still suffer from water stress during crop critical growth period (especially the terminal grain filling stage) which drastically affects the final grain yield accumulation. This is especially true for rice because rice yield and rice water stress (as indicated by ET a /ET p ) showed contradictory trends. Wheat yield and WP follows more closely the trend of ET. Wheat relies heavily on irrigation due to the low rainfall. Hence high yield and WP is always accompanied with intensive input including water.Further analysis revealed weather conditions as reflected by reference ET have no direct link with actual ET. The inconsistence between yield and WP distribution against rainfall and weather conditions shows that the main constraint is not water availability or climate, but the timing of water supply and others on farm management. Well developed irrigation and drainage system together with matching management practices can help to maximize utilization of rainfall and achieve high yield and water productivity. Other land and crop interventions, e.g., leveling, insects and diseases control, fertilizer, variety, are also important factors to be considered along with water management.Scope for improvement could be assessed from the bright spots in comparison to hot spots . The bright spot in Indian Punjab State and adjacent areas, with 5% of basin rice and wheat cropping area, has high WP of 0.190 US $/m 3 . If the basin average value of 0.131 US $/m 3 could be increased to the same as in bright spots. Then the basin could theoretically save 31% of agricultural water consumption with same quantity of production or increase 31% of production with same quantum of water input. Although this is limited by many constraining factors, a little bit increase in WP still has a lot of significance for regional food security.The potential for rice and wheat is different both in terms of magnitude and areas of focus. Figure 4 shows the plots of water productivity to yield and yield to ET a of rice. It could be observed water productivity generally increases with increment of yield, with a relatively lower pace because ET a too increases with yield. The bright spot of Indian Punjab is circled. The yield of this area is so high that it totally changed the slope of yield to ET a (from S 3 to S 2 ). Some other areas also have similar ET a , however, the yield is much lower. The scope for improvement of rice in the region will be to firstly target at the S 2 trend. That is, to improve the yield with similar water consumptions. In this process the water productivity could be expected to increase 15-30%. Final target would be to increase the yield levels of all areas to bright spot values, during the process of which even bright spot might improve, which could lead to another 10-20% improvement. The above estimated potential for improvement is under optimal conditions, which assumes no irrigation water supply constraints, soil fertility could be improved to the same as in Indian Punjab. And land and crop management practices could all be improved at the level of Punjab. However, some constraints, for example soil, are not easy to be eased. Improving yield is a long term approach to improve WP and ensure sustainable development of the region. However, in the short term, reducing nonbeneficial ET from low yield areas is a practical and convenient way of increasing WP and coping with water scarcity.This paper presents the current status and scope for improvement of water productivity of the predominant crops rice and wheat in the IGB. The results, as determined by integrating census, remote sensing and weather data, show that the average water productivity of rice and wheat is relatively low compared to other part of the world. Significant variations were observed across the basin. An extremely outstanding bring spot was found for both rice and wheat in Indian Punjab and the adjacent areas. Further analysis revealed the WP has no direct relation with climate conditions, though it might have low values in areas where rainfall is high and crop performance is poor. Irrigation water management plays critical role in sustaining high crop yield. Other land, soil and crop management practices too are important factors. Assessment on scope for improvement indicates great potential. With reference to bright spot , WP of rice and wheat of the region could be improved 31%, which means a lot more production given same water consumption or much less water use for same production.","tokenCount":"2519"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7645b219b3e3734c66c4aae353d409f9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/03c2fd9a-9745-4586-ad69-d2ad78e02b73/retrieve","id":"-174000860"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a02883c4-b0ab-488f-914c-f2a7024e47d9","pagecount":"152","content":"Name: ………………………………………………………………………………………..My heartfelt gratitude goes to my supervisor Dr. Osumanu Kanton, who immensely contributed to the success of the work through his guidance and valuable suggestions. I also wish to express my appreciation to Dr.Jean-Philippe Venot whose contribution towards this work cannot be left out and the Challenge Programme on Water and Food for assisting financially during my data collection.I wish to extend my profound gratitude to the heads of the decentralized departments in the Bawku West District and that of the NGOs for their time and contribution towards the gathering of data for this study.I again deem it fit to express my thanks to all my friends who in diverse ways contributed to the success of this work.My final appreciation goes to the Dean and the Coordinator of Graduate School, Dean of Faculty of Planning and Land Management and all staff of the University for their cherished contributions. INTRODUCTION  The existence and survival of man and all living things is crucially linked to the availability of water resources. Access to and use of water is basically linked to the existence, health and productivity of human beings (Global Water Partnership Technical Committee, 2003). Water resources, therefore, play a significant role in the development of every country. In an opening statement during the VII session of the World Congress on Water Resources in Morocco 1993, King Hassan II noted, \"Water is an important factor for progress and development and represents the basis of the development of authentic civilizations through the ages\" (Biswas 1993: 3).This notwithstanding, UNDP (2001) reports that 20% of the world's population still lack access to safe drinking water. As human populations and their associated activities increase, there is the driving demand for contemporary water for instance, for industrial uses, drinking, household uses, irrigation and agriculture. With these indivisible functions of water to the wellbeing of mankind lies in the holistic view of the resource and the need to ensure its sustainability for the present and future generations. More so, water security was declared by the Second World Water Forum in The Hague, Netherlands, (2000) as the principal concern for sustainable development in the twenty-first century.Water is a cross-cutting element of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) of the Republic of Ghana and is linked to all Eight of the Millennium Development Goals (Ghana, 2007). Water issues have been at the forefront of political, economic, social and environmental affairs. Managing this resource to sustain it has been a major concern to many governments and international organisations. Today, as water systems and land uses have become far more complex and interlinked than ever before, water remains a medium for integrating local and national economies and between riparian countries with new challenges (Jean-Michel, 2009).However, some recent writers speculate that water would be a 21st century source of conflicts.For example in'' Resource Wars'', Klare states that \"disorder and \"disputes may occur over the allocation of a particular source of supply that extends across international boundaries, such as a large river system'' (Klare,2001:21) .To buttress this point , in her book , Water Wars, Shiva quotes a 1995 predication from Ismail Serageldin , then Vice President of the World Bank that these groups of scholars raised their arguments is the issue of scarcity and sustainability of the resource (water) and this leads to the issue of its utilization and management.As all sectors (including agriculture, environment, health, education, land planning, industry, recreation, transport and energy) are concerned with water, and as water systems and interlinkages become more and more complex, an integrated approach is needed for the management of each national water sector as a whole. This is as a result of viewing socio-natural processes and dynamics as complex and uncertain -as symptomatic of open systems of overlapping hierarchies which has its root in system theory (von Bertallanfy,1968), systems ecology (Allen and Starr,1982) and evolutionary economics (Nelson and Winter,1982).In recent times, it is widely accepted that complexity, variation, and uncertainty are inherent properties of linked social and natural processes, and that natural resources management strategies must somehow reflect these properties in pursuit of sustainability (Hodgson, 1993;Giampietro, 1994;Clark et al., 1995;Funtowincz and O' Connor, 1998) .Various models and theories have been developed to provide general and causal explanations of complex socionatural dynamics. In addition to these theories is management frameworks -prescriptions regarding how knowledge should be produced and used (modes of knowledge production and use) to achieve specified desirable (natural resource management) outcomes. The eventual translation of apprehension into management prescription is a natural final step in scientific knowledge generation which also plays an important empirical ''feedback'' in theory testing (Pickett et al., 1994), so the emergence of such framework for managing complexity in socionatural systems is not unexpected. However management frameworks are normally explicitly articulated as theories, they do, at root make available guidance for interventions that yield benefit or satisfaction and therefore, encompass testable statements about the relative effectiveness of different ways of producing and using knowledge to manage natural resources (Medema et al, 2008).The management of water in its different contexts has typically been assigned to a variety of institutions (public and private) operating independently from one another (Global Water Partnership Technical Committee, 2003).This system eventually lost its importance as many constraints bedeviled the resource. It is also recognized that water in a given water basin is a continuum, hence its use for one purpose affects its availability or quality for others in the basin (Global Water Partnership Technical Committee, 2003).The resource is facing an increasing competition between different uses and users for various purposes. This sometimes can lead to public unrest and inter-state or international tension. Water resources become more depleted as a result of indiscriminate and uncoordinated usage. These reasons have led to the adoption of an alternative system for managing water resources -integrated water resources management.Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) emerged as a popular concept in the water sector in the 20 th century (Saravanan, et al., 2009). Many definitions are associated with the concept of integrated water resources management. The most popular and widely recognized definition is the one given by the Global Water Partnership as \"the process that promotes coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital systems'' (Global Water Partnership, 2000:22). Inherent in this definition is addressing water governance in a larger context through consensus building, and calls for the inclusion of stakeholders at all levels (Jonch-Clausen, 2004).Another definition of integrated water resources management is the one offered by USAID in 2007 as \"a participatory planning and implementation process, based on sound science that brings stakeholders together to determine to meet society's long term needs for water and coastal resources while maintaining essential ecological services and economic benefits (Molle, 2008:134). Integrated water resources management in a related development is particularly concerned with pursuing an integrationist agenda: that is the integrated and coordinated management of water and land as a means of balancing resource protection while meeting social and ecological needs and promoting economic development (Odendaal, 2002). In the view point of the World Bank, integrated water resources management is a \"comb'', in which the \"teeth'' are the water -using sectors and the \"handle\" is the resource itself, defined by its location, quantity and quality (World Bank, 2004).Various countries in the world have embraced the new concept of water resources management and Ghana is not excluded. Ghana until 2007 did not adopt this system of managing her water resources (Water Resources Commission, 2008). The first attempt to embrace it was an integrated water resources management plan drawn for the Densu river (Water Resources Commission, 2008). The involvement of stakeholders at all levels (Jonch-Clausen, 2004) is much articulated into the country's practice of Integrated Water Resources Management as various stakeholders are involved in the River Basin Boards. The participation of these stakeholders is very important in reaching well-managed water resources. This is based on the communicative rationality in which actors in a society seek to reach common understanding and coordinate actions by reasoned arguments, consensus, and cooperation rather than strategic action strictly in pursuit of their own goals (Habermas, 1984).Water resources in the country continue to face challenges and pose health hazards to the citizens. Frequent floods, land and water quality degradation, water shortages in perennial river systems, increase demand for irrigation amongst others in the country takes the centre stage of developmental issues (Water Resources Commission, 2008). This situation has led to seeing water resources in the position that needs conceited efforts from all angles.The high incidence of bush fires in the district which destroys the vegetative cover is a threat to water resources. The vegetation cover around water bodies are usually destroyed by these fires hence resulting in to their drying up. Farming very close to water bodies especially along the White Volta is a major nuisance to sustainable water resources. This happens both in the dry and wet seasons. This is because the silt that is left at the banks of the river is fertile for the cultivation of cereals, vegetables and fruit crops such as water melon. However, as they engage in this cultivation, sometimes lead to the siltation of the river and its concomitant floods and loss of property of all kind. Again the activity of charcoal burning and firewood harvesting in the district is degrading the natural resources base and water resources in particular.The activities of 'galamsey' operators and small scale miners in the district undermine the existence of water resources. They usually wash the gold dust in to water bodies and even the use of mercury devastates the degradation process of water resources and destroys many aquatic lives. Human life is also under a threat as the water bodies are polluted.The district assembly, decentralized departments as well as communities have formulated bylaws to protect and minimize activities that jeopardize natural resources as well as water resources. Among such by-laws include by-laws on bush burning, farming along river banks, felling of trees, using chemicals in fishing, illegal mining, etc. Some non-governmental organizations in the district have also involved in championing the management of natural resources as well as water resources. However, with all these interventions, natural resources and particularly water resources continue to experience various forms of degradation. If all these stakeholders are involved in water resources management and yet the water resources depletion is still a social canker, then it raises eye browse of researchers, government and other development partners.The main research question that the research seeks to answer is: what is the contribution of public institutions and NGOs to integrated water resources management in the Bawku West District?The sub research questions are:i. What is the role of public institutions in integrated water resources management in the Bawku West District?ii. What is the role of NGOs in integrated water resources management in the Bawku West District?iii. What are the challenges facing these institutions as stakeholders in integrated water resources management in the District?iv. What are the ways in which these institutions collaborate with one another?The main research objective is to find out the contribution of public institutions and NGOs in integrated water resources management in the Bawku West District.The specific objectives are:i. To investigate into the role of public institutions in integrated water resources management in the Bawku West District.ii. To find out the role of NGOs in integrated water resources management in Bawku West District.iii. To find out the challenges facing these institutions as stakeholders in integrated water resources management in the District.iv. To find out the ways in which these institutions collaborate with one another in managing water resources.Access to and use of water is basically linked to the existence, health and productivity of human beings (Global Water Partnership Technical Committee, 2003). It is common to notice that water resources are depleting every day in and out as water pollution, siltation of water bodies, perennial drying of river bodies, floods among others are rearing their ugly heads in our vicinities. And with these issues, the management of water resources is so crucial to any nation that is seeking to address these situations hence these issues need to be brought to the fore front of development agenda.This research will provide information to government as well as development partners in water resources management on how to have effective stakeholders' participation. Other researchers can also rely on this study as a source of literature to continue researching into water resources management in the country.The research context is the Bawku West District due to its vast water resources. The White Volta and that of the Red Volta and their tributaries happen to lie within the district. The integrated water resources management has also been modeled for the White Volta and many stakeholders are involved in the management of these water resources.Integrated Water Resources Management is too a broad topic to research into. In terms of integrating the various stakeholders, the study is focusing on public institutions and NGOs in integrated water resources management.One of the benefits of integrating stakeholders at all levels is its focus on the blending of viewpoints (Grigg, 1999). The study focuses on the enabling environment, institutional roles and participation and tries to use these parameters to assess the contribution of public institutions and NGOs in integrated water resources management.Natural resources degradation could be partly attributed to rules, policies, by-laws and regulations governing their management. The success of the Integrated Water Resources Management depends on the policies, rules, regulations and by-laws governing natural resources management in an area. Who formulate these regulations, policies and rules, how it is done and who are involved will largely determine the effectiveness of the by-laws, rules and policies. The study will further consider these issues and how they affect natural resources management in the Bawku West District.The location of the study area is the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region of Ghana.The research was carried out among governmental institutions and NGOs in the district. The district lies roughly between latitudes 10° 30 'N and 11° 10'N, and between longitudes 0° 20'E and 0° 35'E (BWMTP, 2010).The District covers an area of approximately 1,070 square kilometers, which constitutes about 12% of the total land area of the Upper East Region. It is the fourth biggest district in the Region in terms of land area.The District shares boundaries with Burkina Faso in the north, Bawku Municipality to the east, Talensi-Nabdam District to the west, East Mamprusi District to the south and Garu-Tempane District to the south east. The District has a total resident population of 83,034(2000 PHC).The main sources of domestic water supply in the District includes rivers, springs, wells, boreholes, ponds and dams (BWMTDP). Most rivers and springs dry up towards the end of the dry season making water a scarce commodity. The district is surrounded by vast water resources such as the White Volta, Red Volta and their tributaries.The research work is organized in to five main chapters for sequential and orderly presentation.Chapter one provides an overall introduction to study. This chapter includes the problem statement, the research questions and objectives, justification of the study, scope of the study, profile study area and limitations of the study.Chapter two entails literature review on the study. This chapter dealt in to scholarly debates on the topic. Concepts related to the topic have been examined as well as the theoretical bases of the study.Chapter three constitute the research methodology. It outlined clearly the research design, sampling techniques, sampling units and sampling size, sources of secondary data and analysis and presentation of the data.Chapter four presents findings of the research activity. Data collected are analyzed and organized in this chapter in response to the research questions.Chapter five summarizes the main findings of the research, discusses and draws conclusions. The research problem, questions and objectives are revisited under this chapter.The limitations of the study were basically linked to the data collection process. In many cases, it was very difficult getting respondents to interview. There were instances where the researcher would book appointments with some of the heads of the decentralized departments but to be there at the scheduled time and would be told to come another time where he or she cannot even tell when but for you to always resurface to check. For those who were available at a visit do complain of time and would not hesitate to ask how many minutes will you spend with me. With that, I do convince them that I will not delay and would speed up the process.Another challenge faced was in connection with the assembly members. Because some of them stay at their electoral areas, it was difficult reaching them since some the places were far from the district. Despite this, some of them do not even stay within the district as they work at different districts. However, in those cases other assembly members were considered. In some cases the researcher had to travel to their homes and interview them.On the side of the herdsmen, and particularly the Fulani herdsmen the challenge was that they were still afraid to talk to the issues with the view that they are strangers. I have to explain to them and reassure them of the confidentiality of the information given. Their location also poses a challenge in the sense that getting them together as a focus group to interview was not easy.But the researcher had to convince them to sacrifice a little time so as for us to meet.With respect to the NGOs, the challenge was that many of them do not have offices in the district and whiles others are run by just individuals who were not easily accessible. This reduced the number of NGOs interviewed to four since I could meet such other individuals.This chapter is a review of the relevant literature on matters that explicitly explains the issues associated to the topic. Theories, concepts and debates on water resources management are also examined here. It also looks at governmental institutions and NGOs involvement in integrated water resources management and how that will yield sustainable water resources management.The chapter, therefore, gives a review of relevant concepts which is intended to aid in the understanding of the research topic and provides clear issues relating to water resources management and integrated water resources management.The management of water resources has in recent times attracted the attention of many international bodies. In most countries water is administered by a government department, or as a part of a ministry, or treated as a nationalised industry. It is estimated that nearly 95 per cent of water and wastewater services worldwide are provided by public water enterprises (Wolff and Palaniappan, 2004). However, it can be noted that there are variations in the ways the water sector is organised around the world due to the fact that organising the water sector is largely influenced by a country's overall standard of governance, its customs, mores, politics and conditions (Rogers and Hall, 2003;UNESCO, 2006).Furthermore, sustainable water management has become a major issue of concern due to increasing uncertainties caused by climate and global change and by fast changing socioeconomic boundary conditions (Pahl-Wostl, et al., 2007). For some writers, it is believed that much of this crisis is attributed to poor governance and therefore water crisis is seen as a crisis of governance (Rogers and Hall, 2003). The adoption of the integrationist agenda in water resources management in the view of many and especially the Global Water Partnership will enable the world to arrest the situation of depletion of water resources and ensure its sustainability for future generations. However, the Integrated Water Resources Management has been criticized by the scientific community despite the praises given to it. This community criticize the IWRM for its ambiguities, given its operational aims, but at the same time recognizes its innovative, even subversive, qualities which often remained untapped (Biswas, 2004;Jeffrey and Gearey, 2006;McCulloch and Ioris, 2007;Mukhtarow, 2007).The ambiguity of the concept is sometimes used to promote market-based instruments (Molle, 2008). In the beginning of the 21 st century, IWRM became a political currency, stressing the ideological orientation of its promoters. According to Molle (2008:134), \"Indeed, the use of IWRM as a political currency is apparent in the way it is appropriated by all players or actors without distinction. Yet, each category of player emphasizes one of the tenets of IWRM that most reflects its own inclination, ideology or interest (…). For example, supporters of privatization or those who see the maximization of aggregate welfare as priority objectivity promote the 'efficiency' pillar of IWRM and its view of water as an economic resource.Livelihood-oriented NGOs or social activists use the concept as a means to further equity concerns and social agendas\".IWRM is highly recognised for its focus on the concept of local participation, an approach stressed in the Agenda21 of the UNCED. Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General in supporting local participation emphasised that \"without the fullest participation of people at all levels of society the goal of full coverage of Water Supply and sanitation is unlikely to be obtained\" (UNEP 2001:2). This study therefore is of the view that, local participation in water resource management comes out of a growing recognition that where local environmental knowledge is made used of and where communities are empowered and have rights to water resources, there is a greater likelihood of a sustainable water management. The inclusion of stakeholders at all levels (Jonch-Clausen, 2004) is one of the major tenets of integrated water resources management.The existence of power dynamics in social interactions has great influence in the success of integrated water resources management. As different stakeholders interact to reach a wellarticulated decision on managing water resources, their power levels either positively or negatively affects the integration process. Integration of the various stakeholders in the management of water resources is seen by others as a political process (Hofwegen and Jaspers, 1999;Allan, 2006). Ideally, there exist inter-subjectivity of actors (Flyvberg, 2000) through communicative rationality, where actors ''overcome their subjectively based views in favor of rationally motivated agreement\" (Habermas, 1990:315). However, does this exist in the real world situation? The communicative competence of the actors in the integration process is also important. Habermas points out that all sections of society can be easily identified, that they possess equal knowledge and can be included in a communicative action but how this could be done was left untouched.The notion of Integrated Water Resources Management has a long history (Rahaman and Varis, 2005). This notion was disuse in the 1980s because water was not considered at the international agenda. The notion of IWMR was once more taken up at the beginning of the 1990s at several internally and regional conferences (Ferragina, et al., 2002). At this time, IWMR was associated to basin management which was captured by one of Rio's chapter's declaration, Agenda 21:\"Integrated water resources management, including the integration of land and water related aspects; should be carried out at the level of the catchment basin or sub-basin\" (Olivier, et al., 2009). In the view of the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC, 1994)  (Rahaman and Varis, 2005).At the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in 2002, the international community took an essential step towards more sustainable patterns of water management by including, in the WSSD Plan of Implementation, a call for all countries to develop \"integrated water resources management and water efficiency plans\"Building on the Dublin Principle, the Global Water Partnership (2000: 15) provides a more comprehensive understanding of IWRM and refers to it as \"a process, which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems\". The Dublin-Rio statement departs from the sub-sectoral to cross-sectoral water management and embraces a holistic, comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to water resource problems worldwide premised on four guiding principles which includes environmental, social, political and economic concerns. These principles are presented briefly below.Principle 1: Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment. However, this has been contested by some people such as Haggai (2010) saying that fresh water is abundant and cannot be finite as the Dublin principles claimed.This principle looks at the totality of water recognizing the fact that water is a natural capital asset with a fixed quantity yield per time period and therefore needs to be maintained in order to ensure its requirement for the many different purposes, functions, services and users. Also, the effect of human activity on water is explained by this principle. Human beings can reduce the availability and quality of water by actions, such as mining of groundwater, polluting surface and ground water and through changing land use. As such, upstream users must recognize the legitimate demands of downstream users to share the available water resources and sustain usability. This is the catchment approach.Principle 2: Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy makers at all levels. This second principle, which is the focus of my thesis, recognizes the fact that water is a subject in which everyone is a stakeholder.According to the GWP (2000:15) \"Real participation only takes place when stakeholders are part of the decision-making process. This can occur directly when local communities come together to make supply, management and use choices\" or occasionally through market places with the use of appropriate pricing systems. Participation here means more than mere consultation. It should be an instrument that can be used to pursue an appropriate balance between a top-down and a bottom-up approach in IWRM. As we shall demonstrate further, it should be effective participation where all the stakeholders democratically elected or otherwise accountable spokespersons at all levels of social structure and at different levels of water management are represented, and have an impact on the decisions taken. To buttress this, Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General emphasised that \"without the fullest participation of people at all levels of society the goal of full coverage of Water Supply and sanitation is unlikely to be obtained\" (GWP, 2000).Effective participation must be able to exploit all the available consultative mechanisms and stakeholders must recognize that the sustainability of water resource is a common problem and that all parties must be willing to sacrifice some desires as a means for achieving long-lasting consensus and common agreement. For this to be possible there should be an enabling environment which includes the creation of mechanisms for stakeholder consultation, awareness raising, confidence building and education, the provision of the economic resources needed to facilitate participation and the establishment of good and transparent sources of information at all spatial scales; national, basin, catchments; including the marginalized social groups such as the women and youth.Principle 3: Women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water.This piece of work cite with the GWP/TAC in supporting the Dublin principles´ claim that women play a key role in the collection and safeguarding of water for domestic and agricultural uses though they have less influential role than men in management. GWP/TAC continues with the claim that although gender issues have been reflected in many agreements since the Rio conference, the Dublin principle strives to ensure that the water sector is gender aware and that rhetoric is replaced by operational mechanisms and actions to ensure an equitable participation of women in IWRM.Ironically, the Dublin Principle like many others, by stigmatizing the role of women failed to fully recognize that youth just like women exercise a similar role. By their sheer numbers amounting to about 30% of the world population (UNCED 1992) and through their dynamism, skills and energy and their ability to mobilise resources, youth can play a vitally non-negligible role in IWRM.Principle 4: Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good. The Dublin Principle attributes many past failures in water to the fact that water was considered as a free good, or that its full value was not recognized. The principle asserts that water has a value as an economic good. Treating water as an economic good may help balance the supply and demand of water, thereby sustaining the flow of goods and services from this important natural asset. The full cost of providing water includes the full economic cost and the environmental externalities associated with public health and ecosystem maintenance.The full economic cost consists of: the full supply cost due to resource management, operating and maintenance expenditures and capital charges, the opportunity costs from alternative water uses, and the economic externalities arising from changes in economic activities of indirectly affected sectors. The recovery of full cost should be the goal for all water uses unless there are compelling reasons for not doing so.However, critics of this principle of water been an economic good raises arguments such as; the improvement of water infrastructure in the developing world will largely depend on subsidies.The principle of full cost recovery sometimes handicaps developing nations that are striving to provide basic needs by subsidizing their basic water infrastructure (Rahaman&Varis, 2003);water will end up being unsustainable. It is believed that water is a basic human need and access to minimum quantities of safe water (20 liters per person per day) should be everyone's right.Lack of access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and irrigation is directly related to poverty and poor health. The critics went further to look at the issue of equity when it comes to water as an economic good. It has been advanced that in many developing countries, the very poor actually pay a great deal for water relative to their income, but these costs are often hidden. Water is priced by all urban societies, and the poor often have no choice but to pay high prices, spending between 5-10% of their income; however, in contrast in most industrialized countries, the lowermiddle class spends 1-3% of their income on potable water and sanitation (Selborne, 2000). For instance, in the developed countries, households spend about 1% of their income on water; on the other hand, in Onitsha, Nigeria, the poor spend as much as 18% of their income on water (Rogers et al., 2002). However, they do not lose sight of the fact that the principle provides a simple tool for the development of water services in a more efficient direction but that water should not be treated as a market-oriented commodity when it comes to domestic use for very basic needs (Gunatilake and Gopalakrishnan, 2002), particularly for people in extreme poverty.Also, in a counter argument with the principle, it is noted that water management by the public or government organizations also has many success stories; a point in case is in Finland and other European countries (Shen and Varis, 2000) The Dublin principles have gained universal support as the guiding principles underpinning IWRM because it calls for effective participation -the focus of this thesis, a hallmark of the concept of sustainable development developed during the 1992 UNCED conference.The adjective \"sustainable\" stems from a Latin verb \"sustinere\" (to uphold). The corresponding English verb, \"to sustain\", being in use since the late Middle Ages, has meanings such as: to maintain, to keep going, to keep in being, to keep from falling, to carry on, to withstand, to bear, to support life, to provide for life or bodily needs, to furnish with the necessities of life (Little, 1972). Many of these meanings are encapsulated in the term \"sustainable development\" which is being broadly used nowadays. In fact, \"sustainable development\" is an old concept that has been used in the management of renewable natural resources to ensure that the rate of harvesting a resource is smaller than the rate of its renewal. As mentioned in the Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987), \"humanity has the ability to make development sustainable -to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\". This aim should be achieved while minimizing the losses (maximizing the gains) to economic, social and environmental systems.Article 9 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights , states that all people 'should promote sustainable development all over the world to assure dignity, freedom, security and justice for all people'. Sustainable development is defined as development that 'meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'(UN Convention on Environment and Development, 1987). This means not simply the use of resources at a rate which could be maintained without diminishing future levels, but development which also takes environmental and social implications into account. Sustainable development entails 'the integration of economic, social and environmental objectives, to produce development that is socially desirable, economically viable and ecologically sustainable' (B. Nath, L. Hens, and D. Devuyst, 1996). From the view point of these writers, this may involve the prevention of irreversible environmental change.According to the Brundtland Commission (1992) sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The commission further stated that sustainable development should be linked to the goals of distributional equity and social justice -within and between countries as well as generations (Brundtland Commission, 1992). In responding to the definition offered by Brundtland, Rao (2000) argues that this definition addresses the issue of both intergenerational and intra-generational resource distribution, with expressed concern for the poor. He stressed that sustainable development must bring in basic political change in line with an alternative development agenda. As the UNCED (1987: 63,65) states \"The pursuit of sustainable development requires a political system that secures effective citizen participation in decision-making … This is best secured by decentralizing the management of resources upon which local communities depend and giving these communities an effective say over the use of these resources. It will also require promoting citizen's initiatives, empowering people's organizations, and strengthening local democracy\".There are problems associated with these definitions: the term 'future generations' specifies no time limit, and, although it is conventional to argue that sustainable development includes issues of equity, 'socially desirable' is hopelessly vague. In addition, the nature of 'environmental change' is often difficult to predict. Advocates of 'strong sustainability' argue that stocks of natural capital should be preserved, and not traded for human-made capital, while those who espouse 'weak sustainability' would accept such exchanges. Trade-offs can be made between losses in one location and gains in another, or within internationally agreed pollution levels.Agenda 21 concludes that 'indicators of sustainable development need to be developed to provide solid bases for decision-making at all levels and to contribute to a self-regulating sustainability of integrated environment and development systems'.However, it is noted that, the concept Sustainable Development grew out of the sentiments that western patterns of development have not incorporated traditional society-nature relations within the south and inadequately addresses issues of social equity, ecological balance, and overall sustainability.To buttress this claim, Colchester (1994) as cited in Brohman (1996 :201) argue that many projects such as roads, railways, ports, power lines, dams etc typically initiated in the name of development and sponsored by national governments with loans from the World Bank and other international financial institutions have only been clearly beneficial to elite groups linked to these transnationals. Such groups have often used lobbying to further their interest within national and international development agencies. Meanwhile, the poor and the disadvantaged have usually been excluded from the decision-making process and have borne the burden of the costs of these projects. This paper raises the argument that future generations (today's youth)will pay a heavy price for present unsustainable developmentthe benefits of which are currently being monopolized by an elite minority.It is on this regard that Brohman (1996: 307) suggests that attention has recently been focused on issues related to the sustainability of development and he provided the pace for environmental issues to move top on the world agenda. An incentive to this was the 1972 report published by the Club of Rome entitled The Limits to Growth, \"which warned that life as we know it faces a sudden apocalyptic end if development practices are not dramatically changed to respect the earth's physical limits to growth\" (Meadows and Meadows, 1972). This concept of sustainability was further advanced via the works of theorists like Lester Brown (1981) and others at the World Watch Institute who stressed that no international economic order could be viable if the natural biological systems that underpin the global economy are not preserved. short-term profits at the expense of social and environmental externalities, and that instead of partnerships, more state regulation is required to rein in the profit motive: \"Today, in a world that is more unequal, with a small number of transnational corporations dominating each sector and exerting tremendous influence on governments, this concept of 'partnership and stakeholders' perpetuates the myth that there is a collective endeavour, and that all players are equal and conflicts of interest can be resolved by roundtables seeking consensus.\" Many of these critics called for stronger transnational regulations in order to better control multinational corporations in particular.Although several scholars, such as Robert Solow (1974Solow ( , 1986););Redcliff (1991);Keiichiro Fuwa (1995);Vellinga et al., (1995);Harremoes (1996), have attempted fairly useful definitions of sustainable development, this concept similar to the concept of IWRM addressed in this work, may not be possible to define with great precision as well as consensus, but refinements go on.My analysis in this work favours the definition provided by the `Brundtland Report` of The World Commission on Environment and Sustainable Development (WCED) 1987 because it is more generally accepted as a working definition, addresses intergenerational issues, and echoes a basic political change in line with development agenda that secures effective citizen participation of the community which is the central argument in this thesis.The focus of mainstreaming development strategies since the post-world war has been economicgrowth and the top-down diffusion of development impulses (Brohman, 1996). With such thinking, it was believed that economic growth would trickle down from the top and benefit the peripheral population through the top-down process controlled mainly by international institutions in cooperation with the local third world elites. To further his argument, Brohman points out that, national and international experts conceived and designed development projects from the outside without associating the people to whom these projects are supposedly directed and sometimes these people exist mainly in the abstract as socio-economic indicators.Despite the development efforts under taken by many countries since the 1950s, it was noticed that growth was not matching with development objectives. This manifested in the accumulation of growing labour underemployment, especially in agriculture, and rising inequalities in income distribution (Adelman and Morris, 1973); Fishlow (1972); Griffin and Khan (1972). Indeed, by the early 1970s, it was vividly clear that much of the third world growth was accompanied by increased inequality (Griffin, 1989: 165). This means that there was something wrong with the nature of growth rather than the pace of growth as the crucial factor to development. The expected trickling down was not materializing and the widening gap between the rich and poor was exacerbating. This raises questions as whether the top-down approach and its expected results could produce the desired development.With the inadequacies of the economic growth and the top-down experiences, during the First and Second United Nations Development Decade (1961:71, 71-81), many theorists and practitioners of development deliberated and argued on the essence of development. Black's (1991: 20-1) argument that the focus should be on the ´animate` instead of the `inanimate` -on human resources, as measured by quality of life considerations, rather than on material resources.In buttressing the above point, UlHaq as quoted by Brohman (1996:203)  In a related development, Moser (1989) links this to the origins of the concept of ` community development`, which the British used to develop basic education and social welfare during the colonial days. Community participation has been seen by many governments, the United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as critical to programme planning and poverty alleviation (World Bank, 1996). Participatory development really came to the light in the international development projects especially with institutions such as the World Bank in the 1970s (Brohman, 1996: 204).According to Brohman (1996: 204)  IFDA makes a distinction between the first system of political power, which is dominated by the state, the second system of economic power that is dominated by transnational capital and the Third system of people's power, based on voluntary organization, consciousness raising and local action.Since the1960s, public participation has become an increasingly important aspect of natural resource management (Hanchey, 1998a;Chess and Purcell, 1999;Lawrence&Deagen,2001;Redpath etal.,2002;Chase etal.,2004;Darnall andJolley,2004 andBroderick,2005;).This is especially true in relation to issues concerning the management of environmental and health risks (Rowe and Frewer,2000) and is due to the recognition that sustainable natural resource management cannot be achieved without involving the individuals and communities (Johnson etal.,2004:189).However, as Delli Priscolli (1998:62) emphasizes \"the debate over who has sufficient wisdom to rationally decide for society is far from new and in democratic societies is illustrated by the collective wisdom of a body politic which manifest itself through decisions of legitimately elected officials\".Nevertheless, expressions of representativeness also have limits and problems. The increased use of public participation methods signals a shift in how the public becomes involved indecisionmaking processes. This shift, which may be attributed to citizens dissatisfaction with standard models of representation (Melo and Baiocchi, 2006), has resulted in a challenge to develop new forms of involvement in the decision-making process (Edelenbos and Klijn, 2005). Based on experience over the last few decade of the traditional public-meeting format, experts have suggested that participation should move to methods that involve relatively small groups of people (Creighton, 1998b) in intensive and often consensus-based, collaborative processes (Beierle, 2002). Even the term stakeholder involvement denotes deeper more personalized stake in decision making than the more general and impersonal term public participation (Beierle, 2002:739)While there are many definitions of participation, they generally include in some measure the notion of contributing, influencing, sharing, or redistributing power and of control, resources, benefits, knowledge and skills to be gained through beneficiary involvement in decision making.Two volumes on public involvement published by the US Army Corps of Engineers explain how participation has evolved over time. Starting with mere \"public information\", public involvement was formalized in hearing before the decision (Creighton et al., 1992(Creighton et al., , 1998)). Appraisal; Participatory Learning Approaches) (Chambers, 1994). Through the 1990s, additional emphasis has been placed on community involvement in planning, decision-making and evaluation (Mitchell 1999;Sharma and Deepak, 2001). Fleming (1991:37) suggests that participation emphasises the decision-making role of the community. That is through participation the people at the community level will help the decision makers to come out with the right needs designed for them. There is no agreement among planners and professionals about the contribution of community participation to improving the lives of people particularly the poor and disadvantaged. Some completely dismiss its value altogether, while others believe that it is the 'magic bullet', that will ensure improvements especially in the context of poverty alleviation. For instance Gupta (2003) argues that the process of managing stakeholder participation leads to an increase in bureaucratization of existing systems and thus increases costs associated with planning processes. This argument is true for formal participation settings like hearings in the post-planning process but not for informal settings such as in the preplanning process (Uhlendahl, 2009). The more important point of criticism is that the true costs of public participation are still not easy to assess (Andersson etal., 2005). While stakeholder participation offers without doubt, the easiest way of solving conflicts directly (Uhlendahl, 2009), it does not guarantee constructive and sustainable solutions. It is worth noting that the involvement of stake holders does not automatically lead to balanced solutions but the consideration of power play within the actors is important as well.Additionally, the culture and economic context within which new policies are implemented can lead to uncertain and unintended outcomes. Such unpredictable outcomes could contradict the very objective of a participatory process (Lemon, 2001). Finally, this could result in different local policies, which can cause lack of their harmonization at regional and national levels.For others, at the community level, participation helps improve the design of policies so that they are in line with the community's needs and conditions to whom they are directed (Cornia et al. 1987). To the economists community participation is seen as the equitable sharing of the benefits of projects; and social planners definition as community's contribution to decision-making (Fenster, 1993).In the view point of Paul (1986:2), community participation is \"an active process by which beneficiaries influence the direction and execution of a development project with a view to enhancing their well-being in terms of income, personal growth, self-reliance or other values they cherish\". In relation to this definition one may raise questions such as is participation either induced, or spontaneous. Participation in many times is always been promoted in rhetoric but in practice they have generally been either tightly controlled by the state or outside development institutions. There are still fears entertained by most countries that when grassroots organisations will produce popular empowerment beyond state control. These fears are further made explicit when Fowler (1991) stated \"the imposition of outside concepts of participation …has often undermined indigenous forms of political organisation and democratic practice, thereby reproducing paternalistic and authoritarian patterns of domination\". Midgley (1986) as cited by Brohman (1996: 208) argues that spontaneous participation \"comes closest to the ideal mode of participation as it reflects voluntary and autonomous action on the part of the people to organise and deal with their problems unaided by governments or other external agencies\".It is worth noting that many development agencies now use the term participation as their objective to win project favour or donor support as few really put effective participation in to practice. For participatory strategies to begin achieving their potential, the poor need to be genuinely empowered through fundamental changes to the status quo and the distribution of power equitable to all actors including the young people. Madulu (1998) suggested that it is important to involve the local communities in assessing and solving the water problems since they are the ones who interact with their environment and carry out activities that have an impact to the environment. In this regard, they know what is in their best interest and therefore for any project to be accepted and successfully, it has to welcome them on board. Although many researchers agree on the importance of local community involvement in IWRM, the level of involvement is still too low in most developing countries.For Green (1994) community participation in water resources management evolved in the 1980s and this was in a response to the international crises of water scarcity and dwindling resources.As can be noted participation has been a key component of IWRM in practice but the approach nevertheless draws more on the concept of instrumental rationality informed by good will and good data (hence the pivotal roles of the state in empowering people and of experts in providing information) than on the politics of resource management (Allan, 2003;Miller and Hirsch, 2003;Biswas, 2004;Merrey et al., 2007;Molle et al., 2007in Molle, 2008). Conyers (1985) and Moser (1989) see another distinction between participation as a means to improving projects results and participation as an end in itself. For me participation is about empowering people to effectively contribute towards a decision, or an intervention. And in this respect I cite with Conyers and Moster. As UNCHS (1984:6) argues, more people will benefit and the outcomes will respond better to the needs of the beneficiaries with participation as a means to improve project results than with the later because people contribute their ingenuity, skills and other untapped resources.The Asian Development Bank (2001) defines participation as a \"process through which stakeholders share control of development initiatives and of decisions and resources that affect them and determined participation as being one of the four pillars of good governance, and the other pillars being accountability, transparency and predictability. In a related development, the World Bank ( 2006) defines participation as a stakeholder's influence and share of control over \"priority setting, policy-making, resource allocation and access to public goods and services\".According to these institutions, participation is a voluntary process by which people influence or control the decisions. The essence of participation is exercising voice and choice.Local government has a great role in the management of water resources in every country that is practicing decentralization. The second principle of the Dublin principles incorporated the role of local government when it emphasized on participatory approach including all stakeholders at all levels especially at the lowest level in the management of water resources. However, it may be argued that the lowest level could be the community level, the local government level etc. Local government here refers to the lowest tier of government with full-time professional staff, such as municipalities or district assemblies. Following policies of decentralisation in many countries, more and more functions and responsibilities are being devolved to these levels. The main argument driving decentralisation processes is that shifting decision making and finances from central to local government leads to better quality delivery of services, fitting better to local needs, as at that level it is easier to organise social participation (Helmsing, 2002). In further supporting decentralization especially in water control, it is argued that local management can be better adapted to the local context (van Koppen et al., 2005). However, critics of decentralisation argue that local governments are too susceptible to elite capture, and lacking in capacities and resources to provide efficient and effective services (Faguet, 2003).It may also create more dependency than self-reliance, and it may suppress civil society initiatives. Therefore, decentralisation should not only be about local government but also about sharing of responsibilities with communities and enabling their initiatives (Helmsing, 2002), or even to markets, such as in neo-liberal models. The role of state institutions is in those cases more shifting towards regulation. In my view, decentralization promotes participation at the local level and sustainability of projects despite its short comings.Local government specific responsibilities may vary from country to country but Mazibuko et.al., 2004  Local government as in many places is responsible for creating and maintaining a safe and healthy local environment. In practice, this overlaps to a large extent with service delivery tasks such as solid waste management and sanitation. But, it may also include the management of green and blue areas, such as parks.In ensuring that water resources are managed well, the role of NGO's in this sector is very important as any other stakeholder in the management of the resource. The Dublin principles which are the underlying principles guiding IWRM did not leave out the NGOs as stakeholders.The principle two which emphasizes the involvement of all stakeholders at all levels in the management of water resource highlighted the contribution of NGOs in the integration process.Interest group pressure has been identified as a crucially important trigger in the pursuit of integrated water management (OECD, 1989). NGOs especially the environmental ones worldwide have fostered the integrated process in water resources management. In trying to look at the water resources management and its issues, a writer has this to say \"Water management, water scarcity, and water pollution, of course, do have hydrological, technical and physical dimensions, but the main and probably most intricate challenges lie in society and on its members, institutions, and legal system\" (Falkenmark et al., 2004:304). From this point of view, it means that water issues are much attributed to the stakeholders in which NGOs are not left out.In Lake Ohrid which is situated in the Balkan Peninsula, the role of NGOs especially the environmental NGOs is well recognized. NGOs in the region in the past have mostly acted as agents of advocacy and contributors to policy dialogue. For instance, a very large number of small size projects have been implemented in the past throughout the region aiming to generate informed public judgment. This was often done in close cooperation with local and national governments and international donors. For instance, these were the prevailing types of projects that were implemented by the Lake Ohrid Conservation Project (LOCP) involving partnerships between local and state governments on the one hand, and the NGO sector on the other, with financial support from the World Bank.Dryzek points out, however, that environmental NGOs must balance state relationships with external activist strategies. To promote democratic environmentalism, he asserts that the goals of environmental movement organizations must be aligned with the state goals (e.g., economic growth), and at the same time maintain a civic force that challenges the state on political issues (i.e., oppositional civil society) (Dryzek, 1996). More recently in fact, NGOs are trying to complement state and local governments' implementation of development activities, and to a lesser extent, provision of services.The integrated approach of water resources management characterizes some kind of relationships between organisations and across them. As noted there is a relationship between certain kinds of social organization (associations) and the quality of governance (Putnam, 1993). As a water resources governance approach, integrated water management requires certain relationships -relationships with social capital. Social capital characterizes civic engagement and social ties that make for \"better schools, faster economic development, lower crime, and more effective government\" (Putnam, 1995:66-67) or better water resources management, as the case may be.Forms of social capital include trust, norms, and networks (Putnam, 1993). The emphasizes here is the network building component of social capital, particularly networks across the NGO sector as well as networks between NGOs and government. Building networks and maintaining trust are critical in their ability to bring important knowledge, experience and opinions about water resources that, when left out, jeopardize the success of any water management initiative (Dungumaro and Madulu, 2003).Ghana has considerable water resources and is well above the water scarcity level of 1000 /capita/year (Ghana Integrity Initiative, 2011). Ghana water potential is divided into surface and groundwater sources. Surface water resources are mainly from three river systems that drain Ghana, namely: the Volta, South Western and Coastal river systems. The Volta system is made up of the Red, Black and White Volta Rivers as well as the Oti River. The south-western river system is made up of the BiaTano, Ankobra and Pra rivers. The Tordzie/Aka, Densu, Ayensu, Ochi-Nakwa and Ochi-Amissah comprise the coastal river systems. These river systems make up 70%, 22% and 8% respectively of Ghana's total land area of about 240,000 km.Despite the considerable water resources present, water availability in the country changes significantly from season to season as well as year to year. There is variation in the spatial distribution where the south-western and coastal parts have more water than the northern regions.The availability of water per capita is decreasing due to rapid population growth. It is noted that the problem of reducing water per capita is compounded by increased environmental degradation, climate change, pollution of water bodies and draining of wetlands (WRC, 2009).Urban water supplies for both domestic and industrial are tapped almost on surface water, either impounded behind small dams or diverted by weirs in rivers. Surface water quality considerations are becoming increasingly important due to mining activities, urban and industrial pollution problems and agricultural development. The world is increasingly urbanizing. At present about 50% of the world population live in urban centres. By 2025 it is expected that an extra 2 billion people will be added to the urban population and of which about 75% will be in the developing world. The pace of urbanization clearly poses a challenge to those responsible for the provision of basic water and sanitation services so vital for the health, dignity and economic wellbeing of the urban population. However, the percentage of people with access to improved water supply systems stand at 82% of which the urban area represents 90% and the rural area represents 74% as at 2008 (GII, 2011). This means that Ghana is almost achieving the target of the MDG of 78%.For the rural areas, ground water is an important source of water as more than 28,000 boreholes and hand dug wells mostly mechanized have been developed by different programmes nationwide (GII, 2011). The dependence on unsafe drinking water in the country stands at 30% despite the efforts in achieving water as a human right. With appropriate technology and incentives, rainwater harvesting could provide a reasonable amount of water for household and other institutional water needs thereby reducing demand on the pipe-borne system and therefore the resource (Ghana national water policy, 2007).Over the past decade, some initiatives have been undertaken to address some of the problems  Financing in the water sector depends mainly on two sources. These are external funding from donors and the payment of tariffs by users. However, the sector also receives some support from the government. These donors include DANIDA, CIDA, World Bank, DGIS, GTZ, AFD, EU and ADB. These donors provide about 90% of the investment in water sector. For instance, in the year 2007 donor support to the water sector for both rural water supply and urban water supply amounted to $60.27 m and $49.22 m respectively representing 52.2% and 42.8% (GII, 2011). This means that water sector financing in the country is donor driven and the implication is that when there is delay or failure on the part of the donors will mean a failure in the sector.However, budgetary allocations to the sector increased by 36% in a year over the period 2001 to 2006 due to increase in donor support. Meanwhile the level of domestic funding decreased on average per year by 7% in real terms (BNWP, 2008). With the increased in funding, it is argued that funding will not be sufficient to meet the MDGs as this requires some USD 250 million per year (Kokutse, 2009 found in GII, 2011).Water resources management in the country over the past decades has been on sectorial bases. Ghana's experience with IWRM is still evolving, and is gradually included in policies, plans and programmes (WRC, 2009).Water management in the district has a long history dating back to the 1950s. As at the time, the district was part of Bawku. Zebila, now the district capital of the Bawku West District had a water supply system in 1958. The water system came into existence through the efforts of Mr.Asumda Ayeebo who was a native and Deputy Minister of Works and Housing during the 1 st Republic (Bacho, 2001). The management of the water supply system was under the Bawku District Council from 1958 to 1960. By 1961, the District Council was bankrupt and could not afford to pay the workers which led to the taken over of the management of the water system by the Water Supply Division.The management of the water system faced a lot of challenges and could not stand the test of time. This clearly indicates weak organizational and institutional structures coupled with a weak financial base which characterized the period 1958 -1964 (Bacho, 2001).Since then, the district has taken steps in ensuring that its water resources are managed through the formulation of by-laws and as pertain in the country's water policies.This chapter takes a look at all the approaches that were used in the gathering of data in this research process. In the view point of Sarantakos, (2005) This means that the method or approach that one choses has an influence on the research being regarded as science or not. It is also emphasized that the choice and use of appropriate approaches in social research helps in collecting valid and reliable data which you can compare favorably with data obtained from the physical or biological research (Twumasi, 2001).Research design is the conceptual structure within which a research would be conducted. It can also be seen as a general plan of how you will go about answering the research questions, the objectives and specify the sources from which you intend to collect data; indicate the constraints which you will invariably encounter. De vaus (2001) states that, the function of a research design is to ensure that the evidence obtained enables us to answer the initial questions as unambiguously as we can. He went further stressing that obtaining relevant evidence means specifying the type of evidence needed to address the research question, to test a theory, to evaluate a programme or to adequately describe a phenomenon. In relating research design to that of a builder or architect where he or she needs to first of all determine the type of building required, its uses and the needs of its occupants before drawing a work plan, De vaus said in social research the issues of sampling, methods of data collection and design of questions are all subsidiary to the matter of 'What evidence do I need to collect?'. According to Yin (1989: 29) found in De vaus ( 2001), a research design deals with a logical problem and not a logistical problem. In the view of Twumasi ( 2001), research design starts with a conceptual model or hypothesis. He defined his conceptual model as a set of theoretical ideas, hunches or clearlydefined concepts to direct the social researcher in his or her operations.Research designs are usually equated with qualitative and quantitative research methods.Quantitative research has traditionally provided a measurement orientation in which data can beInterview is a data collection tool employed by social researchers where the researcher interacts with the interviewee (respondents) by posing questions and recording the answers. Twumasi (2001:35) defined interview as a method of field investigation whereby the researcher meets his respondents and through the interaction he asks specific questions to find answers to his research problem. He stressed on the important role of interviews indicating that they help the interviewer to check his data and observe what is going on. Interviews also offer the researcher the opportunity to have more control over who answers the questions as it may not be in the case of questionnaire where it may be passed from one person to another (Healey, 1991 found in Saunders et al., 1997). For Kahn and Cannell (1957) cited in Saunders et al.,(1997) an interview is a purposeful discussion between two or more people. Interview involves asking questions, listening, expressing interest and recording what is said. In an interview, the interviewer's presence and form of involvementhow she or he listens, attends, encourages, interrupts, digresses, initiates topics, and terminates responsesis integral to the respondent's accounts (Mishler, 1986 cited in Kreuger andNeuman, 2006). During interviews, the interviewer must always watch out for markers (Kreuger and Neuman, 2006). According to Weiss (1994: 77) a marker is \"a passing reference made by a respondent to an important event or feeling state\".Interview may be categorized in to three main types thus structured interviews, semi -structured interviews and unstructured interviews. Semi-structured interviews were used in this study in soliciting responses from interviewees in the district. Under this type of interview, the researcher will have a list of themes and questions to be covered, although these may vary from interview to interview. This means that the researcher may omit some questions in particular interviews given the specific organizational context in relation to the research topic. Here, the order of questions may also vary or change based on the flow of the conversation. According to Torrington (1991), semi-structured interview allows you at times when a question does not reveal a relevant response to probe the area of interest by using a supplementary question which finds a way rephrasing the original question. Worth noting under this type of interview is the chance provided for the researcher to probe with additional questions to enable him or her get answers to the research questions and objectives. According to Sarantakos (2005) semi-structured interview is a form of interview where the researcher opt for interview structure that is flexible with minimal restrictions which is often in the form of guide and not a rule. Questions asked under semi-structured interviews are mainly open-ended which give respondents the opportunity to express their opinion on the issue at stake.A semi-structured interview can be conducted among individuals, key informants', groups and focus groups. In all, twenty three individual interviews were conducted. The study interviewed individual heads of the decentralized departments of the local government system as well as fourteen assembly members and managers of functional NGOs in the district. Focus group interview is a type of semi-structured interview conducted among a group of knowledgeable people with a group size of usually six to ten people (Twumasi, 2001). Adding emphasizes on the richness of focus group interview or discussion, Blumer said if a small number of individuals are brought together for a discussion and as a resource group, it is more valuable many times over than any representative sample. Such a group discussing collectively their sphere of life and probing into it as they meet one another's disagreements, will do more to lift the veils covering the spheres of life than any other device we know of (Blumer, 1970as cited in Twumasi, 2001).In the study, focus group interviews were conducted among women associations, illegal miners ('galamsey' operators), farmers and Fulani herdsmen in the district. Two focus groups each for women associations and Fulani herdsmen and a focus group for both illegal miners and farmers were interviewed to solicit their responses. Each focus group constituted eight people.Observation plays a very important role in gathering data from the field. It is a data collection tool where information is gathered through close vision or watching of a group with a view to examine certain behavior that could otherwise not be examined through other data collection tools. Kreuger and Neuman (2006) noted that observation involves paying attention, watching and listening carefully in the field. They said the researcher uses all the senses, noticing what is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched. This means that he or she becomes an instrument that absorbs all sources of information. During observation, it is important for the researcher to learn the specialized language of the people that he or she is observing. According to Bogdan and Taylor (1975:53) researchers must start with the premise that words and symbols used in their world may have different meaning in the world of their subjects. They must also be attuned to new words and words used in contexts other than those with which they are familiar with.Observation can be participant or non-participant (structured-where there is a high level of controls and standardizations). Participant observation is the process where the researcher engages himself or herself in the activities of the people he or she is observing and at the same time taking records of what is observed either in the mind or as notes and having the objectives of the study at the back of mind. In participant observation the purpose is to discover those delicate nuances of meanings. Delbridge and Kirkpatrick (1994:37) observed that participant observation implies a research strategy of immersion by the researcher in the research setting, with the objective of sharing in peoples' lives whiles trying to learn their symbolic world. The study employed participant observation in the gathering of data. Things observed included the operations of by-laws and activities the people engaged in.Secondary data refers to data that has been collected for other purposes. Secondary data provides a useful source from which a researcher can begin to answer his or her research questions. It includes both raw data and summaries published and unpublished. A researcher gets acquainted with his or her research topic by laying hands on secondary data. According to Kervin (1992) secondary data could be raw data where there has been little if any processing, or compiled data which has received some form of selection or summarizing. Saunders et al., (1997) building on the ideas of Bryman (1989); Dale et al., (1988); Hakim (1982); Robson (1993) categorised secondary data into three main, thus documentary data, survey -based data and those compiled from multiply sources. The study relied on journals, books, reports, conference proceedings and theses as secondary data. Other sources of secondary data that the study made used of included;internet and articles both published and unpublished.The role of sampling in social research is very important as far as time, financial and logistical constraints, reliability, objectivity and generalization of the research conducted is concern.According to Miles and Huberman as quoted by Punch (2004:54) you cannot study everyone everywhere doing everything. Sampling refers to the process of selecting sample units or elements for a research to be conducted by the social researcher. Throwing more light to the need for sampling, researchers such as Moser and Kalton (1986) and Henry (1990) argue that using sampling enables a higher overall accuracy than does a census.There are basically two types of sampling. These are probability sampling and non-probability sampling. Each of them can be used in the research process depending on whether the research is quantitative or qualitative in nature. However, both can be applied in a particular study as in the case of a mixed research. Probability sampling is the process whereby each and every unit within the population is given an equal chance of being selected (Twumasi, 2001). Non-probability sampling which is associated with qualitative research is a type of sampling procedure whereby the units in a population are not given equal chance of being selected but based on the decisions of the researcher. Under this type of sampling the researcher focus is on how the sample or small collection of cases, units, or activities clarifies social life. Representativeness of the sample units do not matter here as stated by Flick (1998) but that it is their relevance to the research topic rather than their representativeness which determines the way in which people to be studied are selected. For Saunders et al., 1997, the use of non-probability sampling may be necessitated by limited resources or the inability to specify a sample frame. The study solely employed nonprobability sampling in the research process. Non -probability sampling is classified under the following techniques; haphazard or accidental or convenient sampling, purposive sampling, quota sampling, snowball sampling, extreme case sampling, sequential sampling and theoretical sampling (Kreuger and Neuman, 2006:209). Purposive sampling or judgemental sampling helps you to use your judgment to select cases which will best assist you to find answers to your research questions and objectives. According to Neuman (1991) purposive sampling is best used when the sample is small and in cases that are particularly informative. The study used purposive sampling in selecting the heads of the decentralized departments of the district, managers of the NGOs and the regional EPA director. This was done because when it comes to issues of participation by those organizations and the decision making, they are those who are concerned and for that matter will be in the best position to provide responses that will help me find answers to my research questions and objectives. The focus group interviews were selected purposively due to their relevant knowledge in the topic area. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the regional EPA director. This was done due to the fact that the EPA director has relevant knowledge about water resources in the district and directly involve in the management of the resource (Sarantakos, 2005).Sampling unit refers to the element or unit or individual, group or system that a researcher selects to solicit information or responses from. In the view point of Kreuger and Neuman (2006), it is the unit of analysis or a case in a population. This unit can be a person, a group, an organization, a written document or symbolic message or even a social action is being studied.The selection of sampling units is very important in the data collection process since a wrong sampling can affect the quality of the data gathered. The sampling units in the study included the heads of the decentralized departments of the district assembly, the regional EPA director, galamsey operators, farmers, women associations, assemblymen, managers of four NGOs and Fulani herdsmen.Sampling size refers to the total number of units or elements or individuals, systems, or groups that a researcher intends to consider to solicit responses from them. Baker (1994) defined sample as a selected set of elements or units drawn from the population. Determining the sample size for research work is very important as that could affect the representativeness and generalization that may be drawn from the study. The time available and the financial resource base of the researcher must be critical in selecting the sample size. Ghosh (1992) observed that the sample must be small enough to avoid unnecessary expenditure and large enough to avoid sample error.For Kreuger and Neuman (2006) the choice of one's sample size may depend on three; the degree of accuracy required, the degree of variability or diversity in the population and the number of different variables examined simultaneously in data analysis. From the view of point of Sarantakos (2005) the determination of one's sample size depends on the following factors:the paradigm that guides the research, the underlying methodology, the nature of the target population, available time or resources and the purpose of the study. As other researchers pay attention to sample size and recognizing its critical role in the data generated, Patton (1990) says that it rather depends on your research questions and objectives; in particular, what you need to find out, what will be useful, what will have credibility and what can be done within your available resources. Patton further stressed that the validity and understanding that you will gain from your data will be more to do with your data collection and analysis skills than the size of your sample (Patton, 1990).The interviews were conducted among individual heads of the decentralized departments of the district assembly and assembly members who were selected purposively. Twenty-three individual interviews were conducted. In addition to the individual interviews, focus group interviews amounted to six groups was interviewed.Validity concerns with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about (Saunders et al., 1997). According to Kreuger and Neuman, (2006: 184) validity refers to the bridge between a construct and the data. Reliability means dependability or consistency. From the view point of Easterby-Smith et al., (1991) reliability can be assessed by posing the following two questions; will the measure yield the same results on different occasions? And will similar observations be made by different researchers on different occasions? Reliability and validity are important in producing credibility in the research findings. To ensure that the findings of the study are reliable and valid, the study employed interviews and observations in the collection of primary data as well as using secondary data.For any data to be meaningful, the data must be organized and interpreted by the researcher. Data analysis therefore refers to the process of integrating the data together, examining variations and determining the patterns involved. In the words of Twumasi ( 2001) data analysis means a critical examination of the data collected to understand its parts and its relationship and to discover its trends. Data can be analyzed based on two approaches. These are quantitative approach and qualitative approach. The study employed qualitative approach in analyzing the data collected.For Marshall and Rossman (1989) data analysis should start at the time you are formulating a proposal to undertake a qualitative research. They further state that the act of analyzing qualitative data is very likely to occur at the same time as you collect these data as well as afterwards. Qualitative data is analysed by organizing the data into categories on the basis of themes, concepts or similar features (Kreuger and Neuman, 2006).The analysis of the data started with editing the data right after the collection process to check consistency of responses. The data was summarized into categories and themes with cognizance of the research objectives in mind. The data was finally interpreted, discussed and conclusions drawn from the study.This chapter deals with the analysis and presentation of data collected from the field through interviews. The chapter also discusses the results obtained from respondents in other to address the research questions and objectives. The analysis and presentation is done on thematic areas of the role of public institutions, participation, roles of NGOs, enabling environment (bye-laws), challenges, collaborations and networks.There are vast natural resources in the district. The natural resources identified by the study include; rivers, forest, farmlands, trees, wildlife, tourist sites and gold. Common trees include Thorn tree, Triplochiton spp and Anogeissus spp. Dawadawa, Sheanut, Baobab and Kapok are the economic trees identified in the district. The economic trees fruit seasonally and generate income for the people, especially women, and therefore serve as a livelihood activity that supports them to supplement their earnings for living. For example, the sheanut notably create jobs for the women in the district and in Northern Ghana as a whole. The dawadawa equally provide their owners with income and are used as an ingredient for soup preparation. The common trees are used as firewood even though cutting firewood for sale is not allowed in the district. Some of these trees are sparse in their location, especially the dawadawa trees.The forest reserve along the eastern and southern portions of the Red and White Volta, stretching from Widnaba-Tilli area in the District through Binaba-Kusanaba and Zongoiri to East Mamprusi, is a favourable abode of a variety of animals including elephants. This forest reserve and the sparsely inhabited Oncho-freed woodland and the forest belt are the home for many animals in the district. The wild animal resources are severely depleted and their habitats continue to be under siege from various economic activities including land clearing for agriculture, indiscriminate bush burning, hunting for bush meat, logging and mining. The farmlands in the district are suitable for the cultivation of maize, early millet, guinea corn, groundnuts, cowpea, soya beans, bambara beans and tomatoes. Most of the inhabitants depend on these farmlands for their living.The main sources of domestic water supply in the District are from rivers, springs, wells, boreholes, ponds and dams. Most rivers and springs dry up towards the end of the dry season making water a scarce commodity. At such periods water may be obtained from shallow wells.The White Volta with its major tributaries including the Red Volta and minor tributaries are the major rivers draining the district. The population depends on these water resources for agriculture and domestic uses. Dry season farming is common at the banks of these rivers. The district has a total of twenty dams which support domestic uses, livestock production and dry season farming. However, some of these dams are not in good shape and this affects their uses.The district is blessed with a lot of tourist sites. These include Apodabogo and Widnaba Ecotourism sites, Teshie and Soogo Hills, the confluence of the Red and White Volta Rivers, the Red and White Volta Rivers along the eastern and western boundaries of the District respectively, the Red Volta forest reserve which consists of game and wildlife such as elephants and a variety of rare tree species. The study revealed that despite these legion tourist sites, their development is left untouched and this has made them inaccessible. This means that benefits of the tourist sites are not realized by the district which could have contributed significantly to economic development and reduce poverty in the district.The resource gold is found in some communities in the district. Widnaba and Sapeliga are the areas where illegal mining is common even though the activity occurs in other areas.Illegal mining, which is popularly known as \"galamsey\", is common among the people in those communities that the resource (gold) is present even though people from other parts of the district and outside the district commute to these places to engage in the \"galamsey\" operations.These illegal miners conduct their activities with little or no attention to the environment. The deep pits created by the miners are left uncovered after they have extracted the resource. This activity has contributed to flooding situations in some of these areas with its resultant effects of causing soil infertility hence damaging the natural resource (farmland) on which many of the people in the district depends for survival. This flooding situation also causes siltation within the rivers and dams. Worth mentioning is the use of chemicals, such as mercury, in washing the gold dust in water bodies. This phenomenon pollutes the water resources available in the areas and threatens the existence of aquatic inhabitance.Bush fires in the district pose challenge to natural resources management. The physical environment, especially the vegetative component, suffers perennial burning. The study revealed that the bush is usually burnt with varied reasons including hunting for wild animals and birds, to enable economic trees such as Dawadawa and Shea to fruit well, for fresh grasses to geminate for livestock grazing and a way of cleaning their environment. It was pointed out that sometimes the bush is either intentionally or unintentionally burnt by tobacco and Indian herm smokers.However, bush burning destroys trees, wild animals and exposes the land to soil erosion. A lot of tree plantations and forest reserves including the forest belt in the district are burnt every year.The activity which is usually practiced within the Harmattan period continues to pose serious challenges to the management of natural resources in the district. Bush burning also leads to the drying up of some water sources as, in most cases; it destroys the trees around them hence exposing these water bodies to direct sunlight.The study further revealed that farming close to river banks and the catchment areas of dams is common among the people. These practices usually lead to siltation of the rivers and dams. The clearing of the farms here leaves the rivers at the mercy of direct sunlight hence their drying up.Farms are made along the banks of the White and Red Volta and their tributaries. These river banks support dry season farming. This leads to floods and situations where farmlands are now taken by water due to siltation. This activity poses difficulty in efforts to manage these water resources in the district.Indiscriminate felling of trees in the district exerts serious challenge to stakeholders who desire to manage the natural resources. Trees and their branches are usually cut down for the purposes of burning charcoal and fire wood. The activity of indiscriminate felling of trees depletes the forest belt and the forest reserves in the district. It was revealed that some people are always engage in cutting the tree branches and young trees for sale.Floods occur in the district but this is not perennial and not common to all parts of the district.The occurrences of floods cause loss of soil fertility and the siltation of rivers and dams. This makes it difficult in ensuring that water resources are sustained. Farmlands are also destroyed by floods in the district.Again, the use of chemicals in fishing as identified by the study poses a challenge to natural resources management. The water bodies in the district, especially the White and Red Volta and their tributaries, suffer the use of chemicals to enable the fisher get a good catch. The parts of these rivers that are in the forest areas suffer most especially around the Zongoire area. This act pollutes the water and kills all aquatic organisms in the water. This is a natural resource management issue because it destroys the water resources and therefore makes it difficult for the district in ensuring the availability of water resources and their quality in the district.The study revealed that when natural resources management issues emerged, the chief and his elders, opinion leaders and the community members are contacted and informed about the issue.The necessary departmental heads are also informed about the issue. At the community level, these stakeholders are informed and discussed personally by the assembly members. However, at the departmental levels, it is a combination of report writing and personal reporting that is used to inform them. All the 14 assembly members interviewed indicated that they interact with the above actors in order to get their support and help find solutions to the natural resources management issues that are prevailing in the area of their jurisdictions. They said it is only by getting these stakeholders involved that they can address those issues that they are grabbling with. It is revealed by the study that interactions with these stakeholders are not one time action but rather it continues until the issue has been remedied.The situation is not all different from that of the decentralised departments and the NGOs levels where it is discovered that they equally discussed with the necessary departmental heads concerning the natural resources management issues through report writing. They also indicated that the opinion leaders and the community members are always involved when such issues emerge. The involvement of these stakeholders they said is to seek their support in getting the issues solved. They acknowledged that these issues are beyond one stakeholder and therefore all those who have interest in the issues need to be involved.With the focus group discussions with the farmer groups, women associations, cattle herders and \"gallamsey\" operators in the district, the study revealed that natural resources management issues at the community level are discussed and reported to the chief, tindana and assembly members. Their reason for doing so is that the chief, tindana and assembly members are leaders and custodians of the land and the community.As a matter of addressing any of the main natural resources management issues identified in the district, it was revealed that finding solutions to erosion or land degradation could help bring to halt the other main natural resources management issues identified in the district. The respondents advanced that all the other natural resources management issues are linked with land degradation and for that reason if any intervention that targets solving it will be addressing the main natural resources issues in the district as a whole. All the assembly members interviewed, the focus group discussions (farmers, cattle herders, \"gallamsey\" operators and women associations), heads of decentralised departments, NGOs as well as EPA responded that solving land degradation will help solve or minimise the other natural resources management issues.In the management of natural resources in general, and water resources in particular, the decentralized bodies play various roles. The study revealed that all the decentralized bodies in the district contribute to managing the water resources in particular and natural resources in general. It also came to light that some NGOs are involved in managing water resources. As the second principle of the Dublin principles incorporated the role of local government in the management of water resources, all the decentralized departments of the local government institutions affirmed their role as far as water resources management is concerned in the district.The study revealed that the decentralized departments have contributed to the management of water resources in the district and specifically water resources. Those decentralized departments interviewed indicated their role in maintaining the environment. The study revealed that the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Fire Service, Social Welfare Department and Ghana Education Service are not directly involved in the management of natural resources and particularly water resources but rather provide auxiliary services. The study agreed to the conclusion made by Mazibuko et al. (2004) on local government responsibilities in every country.Below are the institutions and their roles as far as natural resources (and specifically water resources) management is concerned in the district.The role of the district Assembly in the management of natural resources as revealed by the study include; the district Assembly is the highest planning authority and plans for natural resources in the district; the district Assembly participates in the management of Water Boards, formulating bye-laws and regulations to protect and conserve the natural resources, educating and sensitizing communities on sustainable use of water facilities; collaborating with other organisations to manage natural resources. The study reveals that the district Assembly does not only play a role as far as managing these resources are concerned but also adds to the existing natural resources base through the assistance given to EPA to plant trees along river banks.The district assembly in managing natural resources in the district faces some challenges which came to light during the study. The district planning officer stated:\"the major challenge we face is logistical constraints. We do not have the right tools, equipment and the means of transport to move about to monitor what is going on\".This confirms the argument raised by critics of decentralization that local governments are too susceptible to elite captured and lacking in capacities and resources to provide efficient and effective services (Faguet, 2003).The issue of attitudes of the people is a challenge to the assembly in managing the natural resources in the district. One of the interviewee remarked:\"we have educated and sensitized them not to farm close to the river banks but they continue farming along these river banks\".Bush burning was further identified as one of the challenges the assembly faces in managing natural resources. Bush fires are common in the district especially during the dry season. Forest reserves, trees and wild animals every year are gutted by bush fires. These bush fires made it very challenging to the assembly to preserve and protect the natural resources available since the bush fires kept sweeping away the natural resources in the district. The bush is usually burnt with many reasons including hunting for wild animals and birds, to enable economic trees such as Dawadawa and Shea to fruit well, for fresh grasses to geminate for livestock grazing and a way of cleaning their environment. It was mentioned that sometimes the bush is either intentionally or unintentionally burnt by tobacco and Indian herm smokers'. Inadequate staff both in quality and quantity included some of the challenges that emerged during the study. The assembly does not have qualified and the required staff to effectively and efficiently discharge their duties. This affects the operations of the assembly since the available staff cannot do all the work as expected. The assembly needs staff that could always go round to monitor and keep records of what is happening to the natural resources in the district. The unavailability of the required staff has contributed to the inability of the assembly to achieve a very successful natural resources management. The activities of \"galamsey\" operators (illegal mining) were not left out as a challenge in managing natural resources. The district continues to experience many illegal mining activities. In order for them to mine the gold deep pits are dug all over and are left uncovered. These illegal mining activities destroy the environment and usually lead to floods during years of heavy rainfalls. Water bodies are equally polluted and aquatic lives suffer death.Farmlands are also destroyed by these illegal mining activities. These have posed a challenge to the assembly in its mandate of maintaining the environment and the natural resources present.The study reveals that MoFA contribute to the management of natural resources in the district in the following ways:i. Farmers are sensitized and educated on bushfires. This is done to equip them with the necessary information regarding the effects of bush fires and what they need to do in order to prevent it from occurring.ii. Encourage farmers to practice natural regeneration by allowing the different species of plants to be grown on their farms. This is to ensure that there are trees left as the people continue to farm and to help prevent desertification.iii. Engage in soil and water conservation by looking at the good agricultural practices and educating farmers to adopt practices such as ploughing along contours and across slopes to reduce soil erosion and maintaining soil fertility, earth bonds and stone bonds.iv. Encourage the people to construct bonds and planting of vertiber grasses and trees to reduce the flow of water into the dams in order to prevent siltation of the dams and drying up.v. Educating and sensitizing farmers not to farm close to river banks. However, it was revealed that the decentralized heads do not know the buffer zone distance. This is because they had different figures for the zone.vi. Encourage farmers to form water users associations. The role of this association is to carry out minor maintenance work on the dams to ensure that the dams continue to function properly.viii. Collaborate with Project for Improvement of Water Governance in the White Volta Basin (PEGEV) to undertake tree planting projects in the district. It was revealed that the project has been successful in some communities' whiles it failed in other communities.However, there are challenges that hinder the effective performances of MoFA in the management of natural resources in the district. These challenges include; siltation of the dams especially in areas where the vertiber grasses is not planted. The objective of MoFA to have water resources available especially dams in the district due to their essence to agriculture and poverty alleviation is always obstructed by the failure to plant vertiber grasses around these dams. This allows a lot of sand to be carried into these dams which result into their siltation and drying up. Also, molding of bricks by the people at the banks of dams and farming within the catchment area of dams contribute to silt the dams in the district. This makes it difficult to continue putting these dams in good conditions so that they produce the expected benefits to the people in the district.The National Disaster Management Organisation in the district performs among other things the following roles in the management of natural resources:i. Educate and sensitize the people on bush burning and the need to stop such practices.The organisation gets the people informed of the bad effects of bush burning and measures they need to adopt in order to stop the practice.ii. Make available fire volunteers at the communities to educate the people and help to bring bushfires under control. These volunteers at the communities monitor the outbreak of bush fires and help put off these fires.iii. Educate the people not to farm close to river banks to prevent siltation of the rivers and its resultant flooding.iv. Encourage the people to plant trees along the river banks to help prevent floods and siltation.v. Educate people on the need to manage dams well so that there will water available at all times for use.The study also revealed that there are challenges bedeviling NADMO in the management of natural resources and specifically water resources. Among the challenges that emerged are; the volunteers at the community level are not motivated to keep them doing their work and lack of logistics to help the organisation function effectively. The volunteers at the communities are not paid. This has made it unattractive for them to continue doing their work and also to attract other people into the volunteerism. The organisation is not financially sourced to reward the volunteers financially. Due to the inability to pay them some token, they are not willing to offer their services at the communities. As a result of this, NADMO has not been able to fight bush fires effectively in the district. NADMO in the district does not have the necessary logistic to fight bush fires when they occur. Logistics such as fire detectives, Walton boots, and protective clothes are lacking and this does not allow NADMO to live up to expectations. The organisation does not have a reliable means of transport to assist them move freely to respond to any urgent natural resources management issues such as bush fires outbreak and also move to communities to educate and sensitize the people.The study revealed that the Ghana Health Service has a role in the management of natural resources among which includes the following:i. Educating the people on water handling and how to avoid polluting or contaminating it.ii. Educating the people on how to use the boreholes well.Iii. Educate and sensitize the people not to defecate around water bodies or rivers.However, it is clear that the Health Directorate's role is specifically on water resources and their quality. Lack of water facilities and non-compliance of the people to the educational and sensitization programmes were identified as challenges facing Ghana Health Services in the management of water resources in the district.The Environmental Protection Agency plays a role in the management of natural resources in the Bawku West District which include the following:i. Ensuring that the vegetative cover such as trees is not destroyed. Educational and sensitization programmes are normally organized for the people to help appreciate the importance and the need to protect the environment.ii. Provide seedlings to schools and people to plant. EPA has engaged in providing seedlings to schools to plant. This is to replenish the environment and prevent desertification.iii. Encourages the protection of water bodies in the district so that they are not destroyed.iv. Encourage the planting of trees around the river banks to protect them from drying up.v. Educate and sensitize the people on the effects of indiscriminate tree felling especially around the water bodies.vi. Provide alternative livelihood activities to people such as bee keeping and providing seedlings to people who want to enter in to tree planting business.With regards to the role of EPA performs in the management of natural resources, there are challenges that it faces which include: attitudes of the people where they do not want to change from what they have been doing. The attitudes of the people towards change especially leaving the things they have been practicing and adopting the new practices affects the agency in its efforts of managing the natural resources in the district. This is because the people are educated and sensitized over and over but they will not stop burning the bush, felling tree and polluting water bodies. Bush fires which normally burn planted trees and destroys the vegetation continuous to pose a challenge to EPA in managing natural resources in the district. The activities of \"gallamsey\" operators in the district also undermine the efforts of EPA in protecting the environment and managing the resources available. These illegal mining activities usually pollute water bodies and degrade the land hence limiting the ability of safeguarding availability and quality of water resources and farm lands. Finally, the study revealed that farming close to the river banks has incapacitated the efforts of EPA in managing the rivers to guarantee their sustainability.The study revealed that Assembly Members are involved in developing bye-laws and regulations to protect the natural resources, especially water resources in the district. Assembly members with the help of their electorates identify issues that adversely affect natural resources management and report them to the assembly for deliberation. During assembly sessions they discuss those issues and take part in forming a committee that looks into the issue and recommends. This means that the assembly members serve as a platform from which bye-laws are made since bye-laws cannot be formulated without the assembly members as they constitute the assembly. All the assembly members interviewed admitted that they contribute significantly to managing the natural resources as well as water resources in their electoral areas and for that matter the district. Assembly members again monitor the natural resources available in their electoral areas. They also educate the people on the importance of natural resources and the need to protect them.The Assembly members' further work closely with the traditional leaders and the community members in addressing natural resources management issues in the district. They also report to and educate their people on decisions taken at the assembly level on natural resources management.The study revealed that there are several bye-laws and regulations put in place to manage natural resources in the district. These bye-laws and regulations are formulated by the district assembly but some communities have their own bye-laws and regulations put in place to manage the natural resources in those communities. The bye-laws and regulations include; bye-laws on bush burning which says under no circumstances should anybody set the bush ablaze and that who so ever engages in this act will be brought to book. Secondly, there is bye-law on indiscriminate felling of trees especially economic trees. This bye-law prevents people from felling trees anyhow and most especially economic trees. The bye-law requires that people go for permit before embarking on tree felling. Bye-laws on illegal mining which do not allow illegal mining were identified. That is miners who have not acquired their operation permit from the Minerals and Commission and EPA should not engage in the activity. However, farming close to river banks is a regulation. This regulation encourages the people to desist from farming on the river banks. Other bye-laws include bye-laws on chain-saw operations which does not permit people to engage in chain-saw operations. Last but not least, the district has bye-laws on using chemicals for fishing which forbids the use of chemicals in fishing.The study showed that the community members or people at the community level, resource users and other stakeholders are involved in the formulation of these bye-laws and regulations through their representatives (Assembly Members). It was revealed that these bye-laws and regulations are working effectively in some communities than in other communities. One of the respondents when asked whether these bye-laws and regulations are working or not had this to say\" \"…………..yes let me say that recently a chain-saw operator was caught operating in the forest and was arrested by the police\".As it was indicated by some of the respondents that the bye-laws and regulations are working, other respondents said these bye-laws and regulations are not working. The following reasons were advanced as why these bye-laws and regulations are not working:i. Political party influence, where people who are found violating these bye-laws are allowed to go scot-free due to their political affiliation to a particular party.ii. The chiefs are sometimes benefiting or \"getting something\" from the culprits and therefore connive and condone with them to continue perpetuating these activities. A case in point is \"galamsey\" operators.iii. The sanctions are not effective and sometimes are not applied.iv. Low education and sensitization given to the people about these bye-laws.v. People are not motivated to bring culprits. A respondent had this to say:\"……in my electoral area some people were caught felling mahogany trees for roofing of their houses and the Unit Committee Members reported them to the police. The chief got up and said the Unit Committee Members were lying and called for their arrest. So in a case like this, no one will report any activity somebody is conducting which is detrimental or against the bye-laws to any person with the fear that he/she will be arrested instead of the culprits\".vi. These by-laws are not gazetted and enforcing them becomes a problem.vii. The fines and charges for violating these bye-laws are too small. For example, when someone is caught burning the bush he/she is fined GH₵20.00 and that of chain-saw operators ranges from GH₵50.00 to GH₵100.00.Generally, when there is a pressing issue or an activity that is going on that affects the people in the district and there is the need for redressing such an issue, bye-laws are formulated to prevent people from going ahead with the issue. The assembly after identifying that issue will deliberate on it during an assembly session. A committee is then set-up to look at the issue and come out with recommendations. Based on the recommendations given by the committee, the assembly will then educate and sensitize the people on that issue and the bye-law before it is adopted as a bye-law in the district.The study revealed that people at the local level are involved in the formulation of these by-laws through their Assembly members who represent them at the Assembly session. The women associations, farmer groups, \"galamsey\" operators as well as Fulani Herdsmen are all involved indirectly through their Assembly Members. The bye-laws are normally adopted for the whole district and therefore acceptance of them by the individual communities is not considered so important. One of the respondents when asked whether the people at the community level accept these bye-laws before they are adopted said:\"bye-laws are not for a particular community. We do not need their acceptance before adopting them.As far as the issue is considered as a social menace and poses challenge to other peoples' existence, the bye-law has to be adopted.\"The study revealed that some of the bye-laws affect the livelihood activities of the people. The law on felling of trees indiscriminately affects farming in the communities. Farming usually demands land preparation which involves felling of trees around the farm plots. However, this bye-law does not allow that, hence affecting farming. To fell trees demands that one goes to the Forestry Commission and EPA for license before cutting down which is difficult to do. The bye-law on illegal mining affects those who are engaged in illegal mining. \"Galamsey\" operators confirmed that the bye-law affect them because that is the only means through which they earn their living and stopping it means that they have nothing to depend on for survival.They said they are very aware that illegal mining is not allowed but they do not have any alternative livelihoods. This bye-law equally affects farmers in the communities especially where the resource (gold) is present. This is because they resort to \"galamsey\" as a means of complementing their farm harvest especially in periods of bad or low harvest and during the dry season.However, it also came up that some of the bye-laws are very helpful to resource users. For example, the bye-law on bush burning allows grasses to grow which is used to roof their houses and to feed their animals.All the NGOs interviewed indicated that they contribute in managing the natural resources in the district. NGOs in the district perform the following roles in managing natural resources:i.Engaging in disaster preparedness with the communities to help reduce the risk of disaster and also prevent them. The communities are educated and sensitized on how to plant trees and prevent bushfires. To ensure that the people or communities are involved in this, trees are provided sometimes to communities and some schools to plant. For example, World Vision has so far provided 2500 grafted mangoes to communities and schools for planting in two years. With regards to reducing disaster and its consequent effects, the communities are taken through vulnerability analysis.ii.The NGOs also support farmers towards sustainable agricultural production and practices by encouraging them to adopt proper land cultivation, use of organic manure and provide them with tools and equipment to prepare compost. This will help replenish soil fertility.iii.The people in the communities are educated and sensitized on how to manage water resources in their communities such that they are available for future use. NGOs in the district not only play a role in managing these natural resources to ensure their availability but have provided communities with boreholes.The Center for Community Development Initiatives has drilled 9 boreholes whilst World Vision drilled 86 boreholes. Still on water resources, NGOs provide facilities for water harvesting to be used in the dry season and providing irrigation systems run by tube wells. The NGOs also encourage the formation of water users association (WUAs) in respect to the dams. These associations are responsible for sharing land fairly to members and to ensure proper utilization of the water.Some challenges were identified by the NGOs as they contribute to managing the natural resources in the district.Lack of commitment on the part of beneficiaries and executive members was identified. The people at the local level (beneficiaries) do not take proper care of some of the projects and allow them to be destroyed. In cases where there are associations such as water users associations, the executives are not committed to their duties. A respondent said the executive members do not like attending meetings and that it is only when people attend meetings that they can deliberate on important issues and the way forward and therefore this attitude affects the proper functioning of the associations.Again, inadequate fund to carry out their roles was identified. The NGOs do not have enough funds to help them implement their natural resources management objectives. For instance most donors do not want to support disaster preparedness programmes but only wait for disasters to occur before funds can be released. To them, this does not help because some of these disasters can always be prevented through disaster preparedness programmes.Another challenge that the study revealed is the perception of the people that everything should be done by NGOs. Due to this perception, whenever community members participate in any activity, they expect to be paid allowances. This perception has also affected the level of communal labour in the communities since they always expect the NGOs to do everything for them.Besides the above challenges, government institutions that have the mandate to manage these resources are not doing their work. These institutions are not interested in the sustainability of the projects that NGOs provide. These NGOs indicated that those government institutions responsible to take up the maintenance and ensuring the projects continuity do not always live up to expectations. For example, some NGOs constructed dams in some communities but after the completion of providing these dams, currently, most of these dams are not functioning properly and that the institutions are not considering their rehabilitations.However, with continuous education and sensitization of the people, building the capacities of the people through training and setting up structures such as committees at the community level,NGOs have been able to continue managing natural resources in the district.All the decentralized departments and the NGOs indicated that they collaborate with other institutions/organisations in order to manage the natural resources in the district. This has confirmed the need for consensus building and the involvement of stakeholders at all levels (Jonch-Clausen, 2004;GWP, 2000). This collaboration is among the decentralised departments, NGOs, traditional leaders and the communities. The collaboration between and among the organisations are mostly in the area of: provision of resources, social mobilization and technical services. The district assembly collaborates in the areas of provision of resources, social mobilization and formulation of policies and preparations of plans. With regards to the NGOs, they collaborate in the area of resources provision whilst Ghana Health services collaborate in the area of technical services provision.The study revealed that there are challenges facing the organisations as they collaborate. The challenges are; lack of accountability of funds given to collaborators where beneficiary organisations are not willing to render accounts of the money given them, some organisations do not always want to participate in the activities of other organisations and whenever they participate they demand \"brown envelopes\" from lead organisation; financial constraints making it difficult for lead organisations to fund the programmes and projects, sometimes the provision of boreholes to the communities are politically motivated; changing of persons who participate or attend meetings with other organisations which make such people unable to contribute fully in most of the time; weak linkage among the collaborators. With regards to the weak linkage, one of the interviewees cited a situation where a Forestry Commission Official sent seedlings to the communities without contacting the Extension Officer and the tree seedlings were not planted.The study indicated that both public institutions and the NGOs involved in the management of natural resources in the district collaborate with each other.The District Assembly provides funds to Ghana Health Services, NADMO and MoFA whilst the  government. However, it was revealed that the consortium is not very active. This relationship in the form of network helps the NGOs and the decentralized bodies to continue managing water resources effectively in the district. The findings of the study also fall in line with that of Dungumoro and Madulu (2003) that building networks and maintaining trust is critical in the ability of NGOs to bring important knowledge, experience and opinions about water resources that, when left out, jeopardize the success of any initiative.Women play a very important role in managing natural resources and more specifically water resources in the world and particularly in Africa. The study revealed that women in the Bawku West District play a role in managing natural resources. They participate in the decision making process of bye-laws formulation to govern the natural resources in the district. During the focus group discussions with the women associations, when asked whether they are involved in the formulation of bye-laws to manage natural resources and issues concerning their management, the respond that came up was:\"yes we are involved because the assembly members represent all the people in the electoral areas and they together with women leaders meet at the assembly sessions where these bye-laws are formulated\".These findings has agreed with the third principle of the Dublin principles that women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water. However, the findings are contrary to the observation that gender and the role women play in water management has been neglected (Schiller, 1992;Rosegrant, 1997;Segreldin, 1995). The findings further support the findings made by the International Water and Sanitation Centre of Community water supply and sanitation in 88 communities in 15 countries where projects run with full women participation are more sustainable than those that do not involve women as partners (Wijk-Sijbesma, et al., 2001). This supports Francis (2003) that women's equal participation in decision making is a requisite for more equitable access to water and sanitation and could lead to services that respond more effectively to men's and women's different demands and capacities.The study again shows that there is no woman among the 34 elected assembly members in the district apart from government appointees. This means that women are less represented at the district level where most decisions on water resources management are taken. The findings confirm the assertion by GWA (2003) that women playing influential roles at all levels over the long term could hasten the achievement of sustainability in the management of scarce water resources but only few make it to the water corridors of power today. The involvement of all interest groups in the management of water resources is key in sustainability of the resource. The findings of the study revealed that all the interest groups or stakeholders in the district are involved in the management of natural resources. All the respondents confirmed their participation in the management of natural resources either directly or indirectly. These stakeholders play their role in managing natural resources and also collaborating with one another in order to have effective management. All the decentralized departments, NGOs, assembly members, women associations, resource users (herdsmen, \"galamsey\" operators and farmers) are involved in the management of natural resources (water resources in specific). This falls in line with UN former Secretary General Kofi Annan's emphasis of local participation that \"without the fullest participation of people at all levels of society the goal of full coverage of Water Supply and sanitation is unlikely to be obtained\"(UNEP 2001:2).The findings of the study brings to light that organizing meetings for other organisations to participate demands extra cost where participating members expect brown envelopes from lead organisations. This confirms that of Gupta's (2003) argument that the process of managing stakeholder participation leads to an increase in bureaucratization of existing systems and thus increases costs associated with the planning processes.The study revealed that the local communities are not left out in the management of the natural resources in the district. This confirms Madulu's (1998) suggestion that it is important to involve the local communities in assessing and solving the water problems since they are the ones who interact with their environment and carry out activities that have an impact on the environment.This chapter presents the concluding part of the research report. It looks at the major findings of the study, conclusion and recommendations.The study discovered that the district is endowed with a lot of natural resources and water resources in particular. Rivers, forest, farmlands, trees, wildlife, tourist sites and gold are the natural resources discovered by the study. The water resources include the White and Red Volta and their tributaries, dams (20 dams), boreholes, dug-out wells and overhead tanks and stand pipes.The study revealed that in the management of water resources and natural resources in general, stakeholders are involved. These stakeholders include; resource users, women associations, decentralized bodies of the local government, communities and some NGOs. This has confirmed the second principle of the Dublin principles that water development and management should be based on a participatory approach involving users, planners and policy makers at all levels.The study discovered further that the decentralized bodies of the local government in the district play a role in the management of water resources. All the decentralized bodies in the district responded that as far as water resources management (natural resources in broader terms) are concerned they contribute to achieving sustainable management of them.Another finding of the research is that some NGOs in the Bawku West District contribute to the management of natural resources, especially water resources. The study revealed that all the four NGOs interviewed indicated their role in the management of water resources in the district. They engage in disaster preparedness with communities to help reduce the risk of disaster and also prevent them. The NGOs also support farmers achieve sustainable agricultural production and practices by encouraging them to adopt proper land cultivation and the use of organic manure.They educate and sensitise the people in the communities on how to manage water resources such that it is available for future use.The findings of the study established that both the NGOs and the public institutions in the district collaborate as well as build networks. All these organisations responded they collaborate with other organisations in managing water resources in the district and that social network is very important in the functioning of organisations. There exists the network of NGOs consortium which serves as a platform for discussions on natural resources management. All the decentralized departments and NGOs involve other organisations in their programmes as a way of building relationships.The role of women in decision making on the management of natural resources (water resources in more specific) is not left out in the district. The study saw that women are involved in natural resources management issues in the district. The focus group discussions with the three women associations indicated that women participate through their representatives in formulating byelaws and regulations to protect and manage the available natural resources, especially water resources.Water resources management in the world has remained very important to governments, development partners, NGOs, and all interested groups. Water resources management in the world has a long history and evolved over time, it continue to attract the attention of every nation. Ensuring that the resource is sustained for the future generations has been the major concern for policy makers, planners and governments. Water resources management in Africa needs to be given much attention if poverty reduction is desired since water is a cross cutting element and remains the most resource that the rural populace depends for their survival.The study sought to find out the role of public institutions and NGOs in integrated water resources management in the Bawku West District. This takes into account the challenges, building of networks and collaborations with these organisations.The findings of the study indicated that the district is endowed with vast natural resources especially water resources. The study expose that bush burning, illegal mining, activities of herdsmen, using chemicals in fishing, indiscriminate felling of trees and farming close to water bodies are the main natural resource issues that the district is grabbling with.In the management of water resources, the involvement of stakeholders such as users, planners, development partners and policy makers is very crucial in achieving sustainable water resources use and management. The findings of the study revealed that the decentralised departments in the district as well as some NGOs play significant roles in the management of natural resources and especially water resources. It came to light that as these institutions contribute to the management of natural resources and water resources in particular in the district, there are challenges that they encounter.The district assembly is a major player in the management of natural resources and for that matter water resource. The bye-laws which protect these resources are formulated by the assembly during its sessions. However, these bye-laws are not functioning properly due to politicization, low fines and charges associated to the bye-laws, lack of motivation on the part of the people to expose culprits, non-gazetting of bye-laws, non-enforcement of the bye-laws, low education and sensitisation and some chiefs conniving and condoning with perpetuators.The study further revealed that women are involved in the management of natural resources and water resources in particular. However, their roles are far from the corridors of water power.To achieve sustainable water resources and natural resources management in general for economic development and water as human right commodity, then stakeholder involvement right from the user down to policy makers must be given the needed attention. Based on this and the findings of the study, the researcher recommends the following to help achieve integrated water resources management as well as sustainable natural resources for the advancement of both present and the future generations. The decentralised departments as well as NGOs needs to be strengthened both in financial resources and logistics to enable them function effectively. There should be education and sensitisation for all the stakeholders to put them in the picture of working together to achieving sustainable water resources management. The district assembly should in consultation with the necessary opinion leaders refine the charges and fines associated with bye-laws. This will discourage perpetuators from involving in those acts. Women should be given more opportunity to participate in water resources management as well as natural resources. They should be positioned at all levels of the decision making processes where policies regarding natural resources and water resources in particular are made. This is because women are carriers of water, main users, family health educators, motivators and agents of change. Government should facilitate the process of giving legal backing to bye-laws that protect natural resources especially water resources. This will allow culprits to be dealt with vigorously whenever these bye-laws are violated. Last but not least the study recommends that further research should be conducted on institutional policies on water resources management.  ","tokenCount":"20351"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5d9d32786ac0b7366bfc7d6eb8b7f868","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0ab33b4b-f457-4ee6-b6ee-e84d90805b02/retrieve","id":"-556533599"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5cee8449-8ee7-4f70-a816-6277eb85cb0c","pagecount":"121","content":"A. Définir les institutions pour la gestion des ressources naturelles B. Les approches pour la gestion des ressources naturelles Conclusion de la 1 ère partie……………………………………………………………………...L'Institut de Recherches pour le Développement est un établissement public à caractère scientifique et technologique. Créé en 1944, cet établissement est placé sous la double tutelle des ministères chargés de la Recherche et des Affaires Etrangères. Présent dans l'ensemble de la zone intertropicale et intervenant dans une quarantaine de pays, l'IRD remplit trois missions fondamentales : la recherche, l'expertise et la formation. Ses programmes de recherches sont centrés sur les relations entre l'Homme et son environnement dans les pays du Sud, avec l'objectif de contribuer au développement de ces pays.L'Unité Mixte de Recherche « G-eau : Gestion de l'eau, acteurs, usages » qui dépend du département milieux et environnement, rassemble également des chercheurs du CEMAGREF, CIHEAM-IAMM, CIRAD, ENGREF et SupAgro. G-eau étudie la gestion intégrée des ressources en eau en élaborant avec les partenaires et usagers des outils de gestion adaptés. L'UMR G-eau est implantée principalement à la Maison des Sciences de l'Eau de Montpellier et secondairement à Bamako (Mali), à Dakar (Sénégal), à Tunis (Tunisie) et à Quito (Equateur).Au sein de l'UMR G-eau, deux chercheurs et leurs assistants coordonnent les activités du « Basin Focal Projet Volta » (BFP Volta) et ont répondu à l'appel d'offre pour le BFP Niger. Ces « Challenge Programs » du Groupe Consultatif pour la Recherche Agricole Internationale visent à fournir une analyse approfondie de chaque bassin autour de cinq thèmes : analyse de la pauvreté, disponibilité et accès à l'eau, productivité agricole de l'eau, contexte institutionnel et possibilités d'interventions. Ces projets d'expertise pour l'analyse de la gestion de l'eau en lien avec la pauvreté à l'échelle d'un bassin versant, touchent à des domaines très divers. C'est pourquoi, les Challenge Programs nécessitent la formation de partenariats internationaux entre plusieurs institutions. Ainsi, l'Ecole Nationale du Génie Rural et des Eaux et Forêts a pris en charge l'analyse institutionnelle des BFP Volta et Niger.Dans le cadre du BFP Volta, un travail d'enquête de six semaines a été réalisé dans le bassin du Nariarlé, un affluent de la Volta blanche (département du Koubri), au Burkina Faso. Dans cette zone, l'IRD de Ouagadougou participe à deux projets : « l'impact du maraîchage et des pesticides sur l'écologie et les communautés aquatiques des réservoirs du Nakambé » (IMPECA) en collaboration avec le Programme d'appui au développement du Secteur Eau et Assainissement du Burkina Faso et « la gouvernance et gestion communale des petits barrages au Burkina Faso » (GoGEBA), projet financé par l'IWMI.La perspective de changements climatiques qui conduiraient à une extension de l'aridité à des zones densément peuplées suscite la crainte d'une sérieuse pénurie en eau des pays de l'Afrique sub-saharienne. Ressource naturelle multifonctionnelle et menacée, l'eau représente une source de risque de conflits avérée. Prenant ainsi le relai de l'inquiétude concernant l'explosion démographique, la question du partage de l'eau constitue un enjeu géopolitique majeur pour cette partie du monde.Au cours du sommet mondial de la Terre à Rio de Janeiro en 1992, la Communauté Internationale a tiré la sonnette d'alarme sur les risques environnementaux et sociaux. L'introduction du concept de « bonne gouvernance » invite les développeurs à considérer les aspects institutionnels dans leurs projets.Par ailleurs, l'UICN estime que près de 1,4 milliards de personnes vivent dans les bassins fluviaux où les prélèvements d'eau sont égaux ou supérieur aux réserves disponibles, ce qui provoque de sérieux dommages environnementaux et sociaux. Comme l'écrit Brüschweiler dans l'InfoRessources, 2003, « il est de notoriété internationale que la crise de l'eau est une crise de gouvernance résultant essentiellement de nos modes de gestion inadaptés et ayant en premier lieu des retombées tragiques sur la vie quotidienne des populations pauvres ».Entendant favoriser la mise en oeuvre des principes de la « Gestion Intégrée des Ressources en Eau », la recherche internationale porte actuellement ses efforts sur une analyse conjointe de la pauvreté et de l'accès et la gestion de l'eau à travers les « Basin Focal Projet » coordonnés par l'IWMI. L'un des objectifs des BFP est d'aboutir à une nouvelle définition de la notion de pauvreté liée à l'eau.Phénomène aux visages multiples, la pauvreté a longtemps été définie de manière réductrice fondée uniquement sur le niveau du revenu monétaire. Amartya Sen, 1999, lui préfère la notion de « capabilité » qui désigne un ensemble de libertés réelles permettant aux individus d'exploiter leurs ressources propres -physiques, naturelles, humaines, économiques et politiques -et d'orienter leur existence. Cet auteur a également contribué à l'élaboration de l'indice de développement humain et sa pensée n'est pas sans influence sur la politique des instances internationales (en particulier de la Banque Mondiale).Conformément à ces perspectives, la question qui nous a intéressée est celle de savoir sur quels fondements institutionnels mettre en cohérence des principes d'actions et des groupes d'intérêts hétérogènes en vue de favoriser une gestion rationnelle et durable des ressources en eau et de lutter contre la pauvreté ? Corrélativement, il s'agit d'analyser les modalités d'insertion des dynamiques écologiques et sociales dans les institutions ? Paradigme le plus partagé en économie du développement, l'institutionnalisme est actuellement inscrit sur les agendas de tous les bailleurs de fonds des projets internationaux. En cherchant à faire converger les efforts de différentes disciplines (écologie, économie du développement, sociologie, histoire), l'analyse des institutions qui encadrent la gestion et les usages de l'eau à l'échelle d'un bassin versant devrait devenir une priorité pour les pays de l'Afrique sub-saharienne.Mobilisant le cadre analytique des systèmes socio-écologiques développé par Anderies, Janssen et Ostrom en 2004 qui permet d'appréhender les dynamiques d'évolutions écologiques et sociales de manière conjointe, notre travail est centré sur l'étude des arrangements institutionnels locaux autour de la gestion de l'eau.Dans ce continent de l'oralité caractérisé par la prégnance des institutions coutumières, les règles d'accès, d'usage et de gestion des ressources naturelles véritablement appliquées localement demeurent mal connues. Nous nous sommes donc intéressées à ces règles ainsi qu'aux modalités de la traduction de politiques publiques définies à de multiples échelles (internationales, nationales et inter-régionales). Il s'est notamment agit d'apprécier l'interaction entre règles coutumières et règles modernes en privilégiant une perspective dynamique. Par ailleurs les questions de l'élaboration, de l'évolution de ces règles et de l'impact de la pression démographique nous semblent fondamentales pour une gestion durable de l'eau des bassins du Niger et de la Volta.Une première partie de notre rapport présentera le contexte institutionnel, méthodologique et théorique dans lequel s'est déroulé ce stage de fin d'étude orienté vers la recherche. Dédiée au « Basin Focal Project » Niger, le chapitre suivant résume les travaux d'analyse et de synthèse bibliographique effectués dans le but de répondre à l'appel d'offre du groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale. Après avoir décrit le contexte géographique, humain et institutionnel du bassin du fleuve Niger, elle mettra en évidence l'hétérogénéité des institutions aux différentes échelles d'analyses. Enfin, la dernière partie de notre rapport est consacrée intégralement au BFP Volta avec la présentation des résultats de l'analyse institutionnelle de la gestion de l'eau d'un petit barrage de la portion Burkinabé du bassin de la Volta. L'alliance a pour objectif de tirer partie de l'agronomie pour réduire la pauvreté, promouvoir le bien-être des populations, stimuler la croissance agricole, et protéger l'environnement. Cinq domaines d'action prioritaires visent à :-Assurer une production durable des cultures, de l'élevage, de la pêche, des forêts et ressources naturelles, -Renforcer les systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole, -Améliorer le patrimoine génétique, -Sauvegarder la biodiversité, -Encourager la recherche sur les politiques ayant un impact majeur sur l'agriculture et l'alimentation, la santé, la diffusion des nouvelles technologies, la gestion et la conservation des ressources naturelles.Le réseau « Future Harvest » regroupe les quinze centres du GCRAI. Chacun d'eux forme une structure autonome et distincte, avec sa propre charte, son conseil d'administration, son directeur général et son personnel.L'international water management institute figure parmi l'un des quinze centres du réseau « Future Harvest » du GCRAI. Cette organisation à but non lucratif pour la recherche scientifique porte ses efforts sur l'utilisation durable des ressources en eau, des terres pour l'agriculture et sur les besoins en eau des pays en développement. Dans le but d'éradiquer la pauvreté, l'IWMI travaille avec des partenaires du Sud, en développant des outils et des méthodes de gestion plus efficace de ces ressources naturelles.Adoptant des approches pluridisciplinaires, l'IWMI axe sa recherche autour de quatre grands thèmes :la gestion de l'eau à l'échelle du bassin versant, -la terre, l'eau et les moyens de subsistance, -l'agriculture, l'eau et l'urbanisme, -la gestion de l'eau et de l'environnement.La gestion de l'eau à l'échelle du bassin versant est le thème clé de l'IWMI parce qu'il comporte un regard à la fois sur la productivité de l'eau et celle de la terre. Cet axe de L'IWMI assure la direction du CPWF pour le compte du GCRAI. D'une part, le représentant du comité directeur siège à l'IWMI. D'autre part, le secrétariat chargé d'identifier les priorités de recherches et de coordonner les projets est accueilli dans les locaux de l'IWMI à Colombo au Sri Lanka.Le CPWF fonde son action sur les trois principes suivants : -Une eau en quantité et qualité suffisante est indispensable à la santé humaine et pour réduire la pauvreté, -Les plus grandes pénuries en eau interviennent dans les zones les plus pauvres des pays en développement, -70 à 90 % des usages de l'eau sont destinés à l'agriculture.Ainsi, l'ambition du CPWF est d'améliorer la productivité de l'eau (détaillé plus bas) à l'échelle d'un bassin versant 1 en cherchant à lutter contre les phénomènes de pauvreté, d'inégalité entre les genres et de dégradation environnementale. Cette initiative multi institutionnelle du CPWF met l'accent sur les partenariats nord-sud et sud-sud et rassemble ainsi des chercheurs scientifiques, des spécialistes du développement et les agences de bassin des fleuves concernés (Afrique, Asie, Amérique Latine).Plusieurs activités sont menées par les CPWF. Les BFP en font partie.Les BFP constituent l'une des activités des CPWF. Limités à une période de deux ans, les BFP traduisent les objectifs généraux des CPWF en objectifs spécifiques à chaque bassin de façon à déterminer des questions de recherches spécifiques. Croisant les données hydrologiques avec les analyses sur la pauvreté, chaque projet de recherche définit les problèmes spécifiques portant sur l'eau et l'agriculture considérant les personnes touchées et l'environnement dans lequel il intervient. Les BFP s'efforcent également d'identifier les moyens de mise en oeuvre de ces projets.Pour établir le lien entre eau, agriculture et pauvreté, les BFP utilisent différents facteurs, et notamment :-La pauvreté liée à un manque de disponibilité et/ou de productivité de l'eau, -La disponibilité de l'eau annuelle mesurée par habitant pour chaque pays. Sous un seuil de 1700 m 3 /hab./an, il s'agit d'une situation de stress hydrique. En deçà de 1000 m 3 /hab./an, l'eau est considérée comme rare, -La productivité de l'eau à usage agricole correspondant au ratio entre la production agricole (en kg) et la quantité d'eau utilisée pour cette production (en m 3 ), -La sécurité alimentaire.A travers ces facteurs, l'idée des BFP est de décloisonner les disciplines en croisant les données existantes afin de mieux appréhender la notion de pauvreté et en particulier de pauvreté liée à l'eau.Les responsables chargés de mener les BFP proviennent d'instituts de recherches internationaux et réputés dits Advanced Research Institutes (ARI) tels que l'IRD. Ils forment des équipes multidisciplinaires (agronomes, hydrologues, hydrobiologistes et socioéconomistes) grâce à des partenariats entre instituts de recherches nationaux voire avec des Organisations Non Gouvernementales (ONG). Ces responsables collaborent avec un coordinateur de bassin appartenant à l'un des centres Future Harvest du GCRAI et le responsable de l'ensemble des BFP de l'IWMI.Les méthodes de travail ne sont pas les même selon les BFP (Cf. II.B. et II.C.). D'une façon générale, les activités consistent à recenser l'ensemble des données existantes sur le bassin, à les traiter pour en fournir des indicateurs de pauvreté, productivité de l'eau attendus visant à développer une base de donnée sous format IDIS qui sera transmise à l'IWMI au Sri Lanka ainsi qu'à l'agence du bassin concerné. Toutefois, l'IWMI est particulièrement intéressé par la base de donnée SIEREM développée par l'Hydro Sciences Montpellier (présenté en 2 ème partie), qui deviendrait celle de l'IWMI.Les BFP ont débutés en octobre 2005 avec quatre bassins : le Karkheh, le Mékong, le Sao Francisco et la Volta. Pour ces bassins, des prestations de gré à gré ont été accordées entre l'IWMI et un ARI retenu. Dans le cas du BFP Volta, cette prestation a été signée avec l'IRD.Début 2006, l'IWMI a lancé une seconde série de BFP mais cette fois-ci par un système d'appel d'offre international. Etant un financeur important du GCRAI 2 , la France a affiché la volonté politique d'être plus visible dans les projets de recherches internationaux notamment, ceux impliquant sa clientèle Sub-saharienne. Le Ministère des Affaires Etrangères français a donc imposé à ses centres de recherches de travailler sur le fleuve Niger en participant au BFP. Suivant cette directive, l'IRD à travers l'UMR G-eau et l'AGRHYMET dont certains membres proviennent de la même UMR, entrent en lice sans parvenir à coopérer. En octobre 2006, l'IRD a remporté l'appel d'offre pour le BFP Niger. Peu de temps après, des chercheurs ont accusé la Banque Mondiale de malversation pour deux appels d'offres ceux du Nile et du Gange. Au mois de décembre suivant, l'IWMI a annoncé l'annulation de tous les appels d'offres de la seconde série de BFP. Dans ce contexte, le département « milieu et environnement » de l'IRD à travers l'UMR G-eau mène les activités du BFP Volta et cherchait parallèlement à répondre une seconde fois à l'appel d'offre pour le BFP Niger, l'ENGREF étant responsable de la partie « analyse institutionnelle » de ce projet.Admise sur dossier par l'ENGREF et l'IRD dans le cadre des BFP, mon stage avait un double objectif : contribuer à l'élaboration de la partie « analyse institutionnelle » de la proposition de projet « BFP Niger » et mener une analyse institutionnelle sur le bassin de la Volta pour le BFP Volta.La méthodologie générale employée est celle d'un travail de recherche avec : -L'appropriation des référentiels théoriques de l'économie institutionnelle des ressources naturelle (4 semaines) -La recherche et l'analyse bibliographique visant à recueillir des données aux trois échelles pertinentes (internationale, nationale et locale) pour l'étude des institutions qui définissent les différents types de droits d'usage de la ressource en eau (4 semaines), -La prise de contacts internes (équipes participant aux BFP) et externes (spécialistes des institutions en Afrique de l'Ouest -2 semaines), -Un travail d'enquête dans le bassin de la Volta pour orienter et compléter la recherche bibliographique (6 semaines), -Une analyse du terrain en corrélation avec les données présentes dans la littérature ( 4semaines), -Une synthèse finale de l'ensemble des activités et analyses (4 semaines).Conformément à ce qui a été défini dans le cahier des charges, ce mémoire comprend donc deux parties distinctes correspondant au travail attendu pour chacun des BFP Niger et Volta.La réponse à un appel d'offre du GCRAI se décompose en deux étapes. La première consiste à écrire une lettre d'intérêt ou « Expression Of Interest » (EOI). Dans le cas où cette lettre est acceptée, l'ARI entreprend de rédiger la proposition complète, appelée aussi « Full Proposal », pour le CPWF, qui constitue la deuxième étape. A chaque étape, un comité externe prend en charge l'évaluation des dossiers.La lettre d'intérêt doit résumer les compétences de l'équipe à travers les six « Work Packages » (WP). Chaque WP correspond à un domaine d'analyse comme suit :-WP1 : Analyse de la pauvreté liée à l'eau, -WP2 : Analyse de l'accès et de la disponibilité liée à l'eau, -WP3 : Analyse de la productivité de l'eau à usage agricole, -WP4 : Analyse institutionnelle, -WP5 : Analyse de la gouvernance, -WP6 : Développement d'une base de donnée spécifique au bassin,Cette lettre a été acceptée en juillet 2007, permettant de passer à la seconde phase, la rédaction de la proposition complète.Dans la proposition complète, l'IWMI exige une explication concise de la démarche utilisée pour obtenir les résultats attendus dans chacun des WP. Bien que l'IWMI propose une méthodologie particulière, celle-ci n'est pas exclusive. Des approches alternatives peuvent être employées à partir du moment où elles sont adaptées et permettent, a posteriori, des analyses comparatives avec les résultats des autres BFP.Sous un format Excel, la proposition complète devait fournir les cinq documents suivants :-Une synthèse générale détaillant la méthodologie employée par chaque WP. La présentation de chaque WP est guidée par des questions posées par l'IWMI attendant des réponses concises en 300 mots maximum, -La présentation de chaque membre de l'équipe, -Les Curriculum Vitae de chacun d'eux, -La matrice présentant les différents partenariats pour chaque WP, -Le budget détaillé, -La bibliographie utilisée, -Des tableaux et figures illustrant ses productions et son expérience du terrain.Déployer ses atouts sans dévoiler ses cartes, est le principe stratégique d'une proposition de projet. Dès lors, l'équipe IRD optimise la valorisation de ses données, compétences et partenariats (Cf. annexe 1 : extrait de la proposition 2007).A un stade déjà avancé, les attentes du BFP Volta renvoient à un véritable travail de recherche. Bien que le BFP Volta ne soit pas articulé en WP, les axes de travail restent les mêmes en accord avec les « objectifs du millénaire pour le développement » (OMD). Ainsi, une analyse des institutions est l'un des produits attendus par l'IWMI. Les études institutionnelles réalisées jusqu'à présent ne le font qu'à un niveau très global résumant les injonctions internationales en matière d'eau et d'environnement ainsi que les cadres législatifs et institutionnels nationaux et les politiques des pays que traversent le bassin de la Volta. Une compréhension plus fine des institutions formelles et informelles semble nécessaire pour saisir leurs impacts sur le phénomène de pauvreté liée à l'eau. Dès lors, un travail d'enquête de terrain s'imposait afin d'approfondir l'analyse.Si l'exercice diffère entre le BFP Niger et le BFP Volta, l'approche conceptuelle qui sous-tend les travaux d'analyse institutionnelle demeure la même, et, dans certaines limites, transposables d'un bassin à l'autre.L'approche par la propriété des problèmes d'environnement trouve en partie ses fondements dans l'économie néo-institutionnaliste hétérodoxe 3 qui cherche à élucider les interrelations complexes entre la performance économique et les droits de propriété (Bromley, 1991). Le système des droits de propriété peut être défini comme « l'ensemble des relations sociales et économiques définissant la position de chaque individu en ce qui concerne l'utilisation de ressources rares » (Alchian et Demsetz, 1973 ;Furubotn et Pejovitch, 1972).En 1990, North élargit la définition des institutions en insistant sur le rôle des structures de croyances : « the institution are the rule of the game in a society… in consequence they structure incentives in human exchange, whether political, social, or economic » (North, 1990). Ainsi, il conçoit les institutions comme « les contraintes établies par les hommes qui structurent les interactions humaines » se composant « de contraintes formelles (comme le règles, les lois, les constitutions), de contraintes informelles (comme des normes de comportement, des conventions, des codes de conduite auto imposés) et des caractéristiques de leur application ».exemples de CPR incluent l'eau, les systèmes d'irrigations, les stocks halieutiques, les forêts, etc.Dans la perspective d'une utilisation durable des CPR, il s'agit de trouver un régime de propriété adapté. Or, ces régimes de propriétés sont sous-tendus par les droits accordés par la société pour un bien particulier. Sur cette base, Ostrom et Schlager identifient cinq droits de propriété pertinents pour l'étude des CPR : l'accès, le prélèvement, la gestion, l'exclusion, l'aliénation (Ostrom, Schlager, 1992).-L'accès correspond au droit d'entrer dans une aire physique définie et de profiter des bénéfices non soustractifs. -Le prélèvement est le droit d'obtenir des unités de ressource ou des produits d'un système de ressource. -La gestion renvoie au droit de réguler les tendances d'utilisation interne et de transformer la ressource par des améliorations. -L'exclusion est le droit de déterminer celui qui aura des droits d'accès et des droits de prélèvement et comment ces droits peuvent être transférés. -L'aliénation se définit par le droit de vendre ou de louer la gestion et les droits d'exclusion.Puis, ces auteurs proposent une typologie des catégories d'usagers en fonction des droits liés aux ressources naturelles (Cf. tableau 1) :Tableau 1: Typologie des droits liés aux ressources ; Source : E. Ostrom et Schlager (1992).« Pour les institutionnalistes, c'est le fonctionnement de ce système d'autorité ; et non la type de régime d'appropriation en place, qui est déterminant dans la qualité de la gestion des ressources (Feeny et al., 1990 ;Ostrom, 1992) ». La surexploitation « caractérise les régimes de propriété déficients qu'elle qu'en soit la nature » (Boisvert, Caron, 2002).Cette typologie a été utilisée pour étudier différents systèmes de gestion de ressources naturelles, notamment dans les pays du Sud.En 1996, Olivier Barrière se saisit de la grille d'analyse proposée par Schlager et Ostrom pour étudier la pluralité des droits d'accès aux ressources naturelles et droits de gestion environnementale dans le delta intérieur du Niger au Mali. Il intègre les différentes échelles d'analyses depuis les préoccupations environnementales de la communauté internationale (Rio, conventions internationales sur l'environnement…) et celles des Etats (lois foncières, aires protégées, décentralisation des pouvoirs…) jusqu'aux règles de gestion locales.Recensant les différents modes d'usage des ressources naturelles dans un espace donné, Barrière introduit la notion d'espace/ressource qui correspond à la combinaison d'un lieu avec un élément naturel, faisant l'objet d'un prélèvement ou d'une exploitation et ayant le caractère de ressource. Les espace/ressources sont caractérisés en tant que fonds 1 ère partie : Un stage recherche dans le cadre de deux « Basin Focal Project » 20/121 patrimoniaux permettant la reproduction du groupe social et la constitution de son identité culturelle (Barrière, 1996).Barrière applique le cadre analytique des droits de propriété élaboré par Ostrom et Schlager, en 1992, à  Tableau 2 : Droits de propriété dans le delta intérieur.L'application de ce modèle à la réalité deltaïque permet une reconstruction globale du système de gestion des ressources naturelles en Afrique. Barrière montre les dimensions écologiques, économiques et socio-culturelles attachées à la gestion de ces ressources-clés.Fondé sur des études de cas dans de nombreux pays du sud (Asie, Afrique, Amérique du sud), en 2004, Anderies, Janssen et Ostrom proposent un cadre conceptuel d'analyse de la robustesse des systèmes socio-écologiques (SES) dans une perspective institutionnaliste. Le concept de SES met l'accent sur les différents liens de l'interaction homme/nature. Ils expriment des interactions dynamiques entre des domaines interdépendants qui co-évoluent comme les fonctions écologiques, technologiques, les valeurs, les institutions, les politiques émergents à des temps, des espaces, des échelles sociales différents.  Si l'on se référe au concept de développement durable, la résilience des SES peut être définie comme la capacité du système à continuer à se développer de façon stable malgré les changements externes et les perturbations physiques ou sociales auxquels il est soumis. Les auteurs proposent d'apprécier la résilience des SES à travers l'analyse des liens des différentes entités de ce modèle. Ostrom avait identifié, en 1990, les conditions à réunir pour assurer la pérennité des institutions gérant les CPR :-Des limites clairement définies, -Une équivalence proportionnelle entre bénéfices et coûts, -Des arrangements par des choix collectifs, -Des contrôles, -Des sanctions échelonnées, -Des mécanismes de résolution des conflits, -Une reconnaissance minimale des droits.Cette analyse insiste sur le caractère dynamique du SES notamment à travers l'analyse des liens entre les différentes entités : ressource, utilisateurs, infrastructures et fournisseurs d'infrastructures. Orienté vers la recherche, ce stage a consisté dans une participation aux travaux menés dans le cadre des BFP Niger et Volta, les attendus ayant été différents pour chacun de ces deux projets. L'investissement bibliographique pour le BFP Niger a contribué à répondre à l'appel d'offre du CGRAI. Dans le cadre du BFP Volta, il s'agissait d'approfondir le volet de recherche consacré à l'analyse institutionnelle en réalisant une étude de terrain. Malgré ces deux objectifs distincts, l'approche conceptuelle et théorique a été identique.   (1996).La température moyenne diminue du Nord au Sud. La moyenne mensuelle la plus élevée est celle d'avril/mai pour l'ensemble du bassin (par exemple : 42° à Niamey) excepté dans le delta final où le mois de mars est le plus chaud. Elle devient basse en août du fait de la saison des pluies.Le taux d'humidité oscille entre un minimum inférieur à 20 % et un maximum de 50 à 60 % dans le Delta Intérieur, le taux maximal atteint 70 % au sud et 90 % à l'embouchure du fleuve. L'évaporation annuelle varie en moyenne entre 1800 mm au sud dans le golfe de Guinée à un maximum de 1900/2200 mm dans la zone sahélienne (boucle du Niger).  Le régime du fleuve Niger varie d'une zone climatique à une autre. Les écoulements dans les différents tronçons du cours principal du Niger sont caractérisés par :-Des crues de septembre octobre bien marquée à Koulikoro, Niger Supérieur, -Des crues amorties et étalées en octobre novembre dans le Delta Intérieur, -Deux crues observées dans le Niger moyen (Niamey), l'une provoquée par les apports des affluents rive droite nigéro-burkinabé, l'autre apparaît en décembrejanvier -Des crues maximales en septembre-octobre observées dans le Niger Inférieur, notamment grâce aux apports de la Bénoué.Il en résulte que le débit moyen du fleuve est très variable. La station de Koulikoro (zone 1), enregistre un débit moyen de 1040 m 3 /s tandis que celle de Niamey (Niger Moyen section Nord, zone 3), seulement 670m 3 /s. En effet, la boucle du Niger est marquée par de très faibles précipitations et une très forte évaporation. Par contre la station de Jebba, (Moyen Niger section sud -zone 4) relève un débit de 950 m 3 /s. Enfin, à Onitsha (Delta Final -zone 5), avec 4570 m 3 /s, le débit moyen augmente substantiellement, grâce aux apports de la Bénoué (débit moyen calculé sur la période 1980-2004, Andersen et al., 2006)).Ces données physiques montrent la complexité du régime du fleuve Niger rendant sa gestion particulièrement ardue.  La population du bassin est principalement nigériane (71 %) suivie par les populations maliennes (8 %) et nigériennes (8 %).Supportant une densité moyenne de 45 hab. /km 2 , la distribution démographique est très irrégulière. Avec de très fortes densités 7 , la vallée du fleuve constitue une zone d'appel migratoire en raison de conditions agro-écologiques favorables occasionnant des conflits sociaux liés à l'exploitation des ressources du bassin. Par ailleurs, la démographie de ces populations, encore à dominante rurale 8 , exerce une pression de plus en plus forte sur les ressources naturelles (diminution de jachères, réduction des parcours à bétail). Ces phénomènes deviennent de plus en plus inquiétants car selon les prévisions du PNUD, la population du bassin augmentera de moitié d'ici 2015 (rapport mondial sur le développement humain, 2002).Considérés comme les plus pauvres de la planète, l'ensemble des pays du bassin du Niger, ont un indice de développement humain (IDH) inférieur à 0,5, les classant ainsi entre les 136 ème (Ghana) et 177 ème (Niger) rangs mondiaux (données PNUD, 2006). Ces mauvaises positions leur permettent de recevoir une large part de l'aide publique au développement 9 .  Entre 1960 et 2004, près  A ces conférences, il faut ajouter les forums alternatifs de l'eau (Florence, 2003-Genève, 2005-Mexico, 2006) ainsi que les forums sociaux, régionaux ou mondiaux, ayant une influence notable pour les Organisations Non Gouvernementales très présentes dans les pays traversés par le Niger.Dans le domaine de l'eau et de l'environnement, les politiques des neufs pays du bassin du Niger reflètent sensiblement les conventions, accords et protocoles adoptés par la communauté internationale à commencer par la Gestion Intégrée des Ressources en Eau (GIRE). Formulée, pour la première fois, lors de la conférence internationale de Dublin (1992), « La GIRE est un processus qui encourage la mise en valeur et la gestion coordonnée de l'eau, des terres et des ressources associées en vue de maximiser le bien être économique et social qui en résulte d'une manière équitable sans compromettre la durabilité d'écosystèmes vitaux » (Partenariat Mondial de l 'Eau, 2000). Elle s'est concrétisée suite au Sommet Mondial sur le Développement Durable de Johannesburg (2002), à travers un partenariat stratégique établi entre le pays africains et l'Union Européenne. Ces partenaires se rencontrent particulièrement au niveau des Bassins Transfrontaliers pour permettre d'atteindre les objectifs du millénaire pour le développement 10 .La conférence de Ouagadougou, en octobre 2003, a été une étape importante du processus, avec l'identification des premiers bassins sur lesquels a démarré la mise en oeuvre de cette initiative (lac Tchad, Lac Victoria, fleuve Orange, fleuve Volta). Ayant investi La coopération française soutient également le Niger. Ainsi, les pays membres de l'ABN signent, en avril 2004, la Déclaration de Paris sur « les principes de bonne gouvernance pour un développement durable et partagé du bassin du Niger ».Depuis cette date, les pays du bassin du Niger ont élaboré des plans nationaux pour la mise en place de la GIRE 11 . Ces plans nationaux sont coordonnés au niveau inter-régional par le Programme d'Action Régional des Gestions Intégrées des Ressources en Eau d'Afrique de l'Ouest (PAR-GIRE / AO) de la Communauté Economique des Etats d'Afrique de l'Ouest.Cependant, la GIRE exige des adaptations institutionnelles dans chaque pays du bassin et à chaque échelon institutionnel afin de rassembler l'ensemble des acteurs du bassin autour de la gestion de l'eau.Depuis les indépendances, les pouvoirs étatiques d'Afrique de l'Ouest ont établi leur propre législation. Cependant, celles-ci sont souvent empruntées des textes hérités de la période coloniale ou sont calquées sur les textes occidentaux. Or, l'eau a été reconnue comme un droit humain seulement en 2002, lors de la conférence de la commission économique et sociale des Nations Unies. L'internalisation de ce droit dans les législations nationales requiert du temps. Mais tous les pays membres de l'Autorité du Bassin du Niger ont adhéré aux principes de la GIRE et plusieurs ont déjà signés les textes législatifs et réglementaires tenant compte de ses principes.Le premier jalon du droit sur l'eau est constitué par la loi nommée « Code de l'eau » ou « Orientation du secteur de l'eau ». Cette loi jette les bases d'une nouvelle réglementation du secteur de l'eau et rendent légitime ces structures en charge de la gestion de l'eau. Il consacre également le principe de domanialité publique de l'eau, précise les modalités de gestion et de protection des ressources en eau en fixant les droits et obligations de l'Etat, des collectivités territoriales, des usagers, de la société civile et du secteur privé.Sur le plan juridique, l'adoption de la GIRE est marquée par un fort engagement de l'Etat dans l'acceptation et la ratification des accords internationaux relatifs à la gestion des ressources naturelles. Toutefois, la GIRE s'appuie sur le cadre institutionnel formel mis en place lors du processus de décentralisation. Or, ces structures n'interviennent que faiblement dans la vie des communautés du bassin car les institutions coutumières dominent encore largement les structures modernes. Par surcroît, la question de l'application de ces lois se pose dans ces pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest où l'oralité et la coutume dominent créant ainsi une dualité juridique qui freine la mise en place de la GIRE localement. Trois mois après le Sommet de la Terre à Johannesburg qui, avait fait de l'accès à l'eau l'une des priorités de la planète, le Conseil des ministres de l'ABN, tenu à Niamey en décembre 2002, a lancé un intense processus de lobbying destiné à attirer l'attention des bailleurs de fonds. Lors du sommet du G8, en juin 2003, les gros contributeurs (BM, UE, BAD, ACDI et la BID) annoncent des financements conséquents. Au plan bilatéral, des engagements complémentaires ont été pris, dont 10 millions d'euros promis par la France. La session ordinaire du conseil des Ministres de Yaoundé (Cameroun), en janvier 2004, établit un nouvel organigramme du Secrétariat Exécutif.La conférence des Chefs d'Etat et de Gouvernement, à Paris en avril 2004, n'avait donc pas pour objectif de mobiliser des financements puisqu'ils étaient acquis mais les moyens d'optimiser l'utilisation de ces crédits. La déclaration de Paris a défini « approche concertée de l'aménagement du fleuve Niger et de l'utilisation de ses ressources en eau » et cherchait à rendre opérationnel le processus de « Vision partagée pour le développement durable du bassin versant du fleuve Niger » (Bouquet, 2004).Quatre organisations sous-régionales axées sur la gestion de l'eau existent et leurs objectifs interagissent avec les activités de l'ABN :La Depuis 1960, les réformes institutionnelles des Etats d'Afrique de l'Ouest ont rattaché l'hydraulique successivement à différents ministères. Aujourd'hui, l'approvisionnement et la gestion de l'eau fait appel à plusieurs organes de l'état 14 parce que les usages de l'eau sont multiples.Par ailleurs, la plupart des pays du bassin ont amorcé, depuis les années 2000, un processus de décentralisation. Néanmoins, la mise en oeuvre de la décentralisation demeure très inégale selon les ministères. Ainsi, ces réformes institutionnelles successives couplées au processus de décentralisation engendrent de nombreux problèmes de gouvernance à chaque échelon décentralisé. Prenant naissance dans ce cadre complexe, la GIRE impose des structures institutionnelles supplémentaires (Cf. annexe 5 schéma du futur cadre institutionnel) avec :- Ces structures ont pour objectif d'harmoniser les points de vues à chaque échelle (bassin, sous-bassin et locale) pour faciliter la gestion intégrée des ressources en eau.Le dernier échelon, et non des moindres, joue un rôle important dans la gestion des ressources en eau. En effet, les institutions coutumières, en imposant leurs règles, normes, valeurs, rites et rituels, s'imbriquent étroitement les unes aux autres et créent ainsi un système de pensée et de comportement spécifique au contexte duquel elles émanent. Ce tout rend ces structures traditionnelles et locales très résistantes à toute transformation externe. A ce propos, De Laiglesia distingue les « slow-moving institutions » des « fast-moving institutions » en fonction de leur aptitude à changer. Les institutions évoluant lentement correspondent aux normes sociales, à la culture tandis que les institutions évoluant rapidement englobent les systèmes légaux et politiques qui induisent des transformations à très court terme, par exemple à travers des incitations liées à l'exploitation d'une ressource naturelle (De Laiglesia, 2006). Cependant, ces incitations se basent sur des régimes de propriété privée. Or, en milieu rural où les systèmes traditionnels dominent, la définition des droits de propriété est plus complexe et reste enchâssée dans un ensemble de spécificités culturelles, historiques et anthropologiques. Williamson qualifie, en 2000, les institutions qui régissent les normes sociales de « embedded institutions » ou « institutions encastrées ».Néanmoins, ces institutions coutumières sont en évolution perpétuelle soumise à des chocs externes physique (changements climatiques, développement d'infrastructure,…) et sociaux (augmentation démographique, urbanisation, nouvelles opportunité de marché, …). Selon De Laiglesia, 2006, en Afrique, la diversité de ces facteurs externes est une source majeure d'hétérogénéité non seulement dans les résultats agricoles mais aussi institutionnels. Comme cela a été présenté dans la première partie, le BFP Niger s'articule en six Work Package (WP). La réalisation de ce projet nécessite l'intervention de spécialistes dans des domaines divers. Bien que l'IRD travaille sur des thèmes de recherche très variés, la formation de partenariats avec d'autres instituts de recherches est préférable.Ainsi, six institutions se sont impliquées dans le projet et ont jusqu'à présent contribué à la proposition (Cf. annexe 2 : matrice des partenaires). Etant l'institution leader, l'IRD à travers l'UMR G-eau, coordonne l'ensemble des acteurs du projet en transmettant les directives de l'IWMI. C'est-à-dire que l'IRD crée des méthodes de travail communes pour les différents partenaires, assure les liens entre les différents WP, supervise et finalise le travail.Le Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation prend la responsabilité du WP1 « Analyse de la pauvreté liée à l'eau ». En effet, cet institut scientifique Australien est l'un des plus réputé au monde et travaille sur des thèmes très diversifiés. C'est avec le département « Land and Water » que l'IRD collabore pour l'analyse de la pauvreté dans le bassin du Niger. En outre, le WP 1 fait intervenir une consultante, chercheur de l'IRD, spécialisée dans la mesure et l'analyse de la pauvreté en milieu rural.Les Suivant les nouvelles directives du MAE, l'équipe du BFP Niger doit collaborer avec l'ABN. Le rôle de cette autorité est de recueillir, à l'issue du BFP, l'ensemble des produits attendus de façon à mettre en oeuvre une GIRE dans son bassin versant. Plus politique que scientifique, cette directive vise à renforcer l'efficacité d'action de l'ABN car la France, via l'AFD et le MAE, en est le principal bailleur.Il ressort de ce montage institutionnel que l'IRD garde la maîtrise de la majorité des WP. Si l'IRD n'a que la responsabilité officielle du WP3, les WP 1, 2, 5 et 6 sont étroitement 36/121 chaperonnés par l'institut à travers soit un rapprochement physique des partenaires (cas des WP 2 et 6) soit en faisant appel à des chercheurs de l'IRD en tant que consultants (cas du WP 1) ou en créant un poste d'accueil au sein de G-eau (cas du WP5).Si la coopération entre institutions doit être vue comme un atout, elle nécessite cependant un effort important dans les échanges de données et autant que possible dans le travail en commun. Dès lors, les liens entre les différents WP ont été bien soulignés dans la proposition. La figure quatre les résume. Dans une perspective à la fois de recherche et d'action pour le développement, l'objectif général du WP 4 du BFP Niger est d'établir les priorités aux différentes propositions formelles des politiques sur l'eau afin de réduire la pauvreté, l'inégalité (économique, entre les genres…) et les dégradations environnementales. Or, la manière dont l'eau est fournie, attribuée, utilisée et gérée, dépend étroitement des facteurs institutionnels autour du bassin.Toutefois, il faut appréhender la notion d'institution de manière large (Cf. définition selon North, 1990 ; 1 ère partie III.A.). En effet, dans les pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest, cette notion englobe politiques, lois, régulations, arrangements et structures organisationnelles, normes, systèmes de valeur, traditions, coutumes et pratiques dont les exercices sont parfois divergents. En outre, ces mêmes institutions doivent répondent aux défis internationaux de gestion de l'eau en cherchant à considérer l'augmentation des conflits pour les ressources en eau.Comment équilibrer les conflits spatiaux (rural/urbain, nord/sud) ou sectoriels (agricole, domestique, industriel, hydroélectrique) de demande en eau et les intérêts concurrents aux différents niveaux (local, régional, national) ?Comment compenser la désappropriation des droits sur l'eau ? Qui sont les décideurs ? Quels pouvoirs leurs sont attribués ?Ces situations compétitives et conflictuelles dépendent largement des institutions qui déterminent les structures d'incitation des bailleurs de fonds et altèrent leur comportement sur la durabilité des ressources naturelles.Pour répondre à ces interrogations, une démarche générale a été proposée par l'IWMI, laissant à l'institut de recherche sortant la liberté d'établir sa propre méthodologie. Cette méthode se décline en cinq étapes :-Bibliographie pour repérer à la fois les principaux facteurs institutionnels impliqués dans l'utilisation et la gestion de l'eau et les principales organisations formelles concernant l'eau et sa gestion, -Evaluation rapide des politiques et des changements institutionnels afin de dégager leur impact sur la gestion de l'eau, -Evaluation détaillée de la gouvernance de l'eau aux différentes échelles (à travers par exemple des études de cas), -Identification des changements institutionnels nécessaires à l'augmentation de la productivité de l'eau de façon à réduire la pauvreté, l'utilisation de l'eau agricole pour la préserver et la rendre plus disponible pour les autres usages, -Mise en forme des résultats qui devront être retransmis aux décideurs.La proposition pour le projet Niger devait synthétiser, en 300 mots, la méthodologie particulière adoptée pour répondre successivement à chacune de ces étapes.Le WP4 doit travailler en relation étroite avec les différentes WP et notamment le WP1 « Poverty Analysis » qui cherche à définir le phénomène de pauvreté selon la notion de « capabilité » développée par Sen en 1999 prenant en compte l'environnement institutionnel. L'avancement des travaux de chaque WP doivent donc être utilisés de façon réciproque. Dirigé par un institut Australien, la collaboration entre WP1 et WP4 rencontre des problèmes de communication. Malgré un budget conséquent, l'ampleur du projet Niger et sa courte durée, ne permet pas de nombreux déplacements pour les chercheurs.Par ailleurs, si certains instituts sont particulièrement performants pour leurs développements théoriques, l'application en terrain africain des concepts mobilisés est moins évidente. C'est pourquoi, le projet BFP Niger a fait appel à des consultants externes pour venir combler certains manques spécifiques.Enfin, l'harmonisation des différents WP pour la réalisation du BFP Niger est ardue dans la mesure où celui-ci doit concilier les sciences pures aux sciences sociales.Fondée sur les développements théoriques de l'économie institutionnelle (Cf. 1 ère partie III.A.), la démarche de l'ENGREF est d'analyser les dynamiques écologiques et sociales en les intégrant dans un même système, pour apprécier la durabilité ou les failles de ce système face aux pressions externes. L'analyse, basée sur des interactions complexes entre l'homme et la nature 15 , est prise dans une perspective dynamique et à de multiples échelles (locale, régionale, nationale, internationale). La synthèse du WP4 rédigée pour la proposition du BFP Niger de 2007 peut être consultée en annexe 3. Cette partie présente les axes de réflexions développés à partir des lectures bibliographiques nécessaires à la rédaction de la proposition.Deux exemples d'arrangements institutionnels pris dans le delta intérieur du Niger vont être présentés de façon à montrer la pertinence du cadre théorique d'analyse (Cf. annexe 4 : tableaux et figures de la proposition 2007).Les arrangements coutumiers dans le delta intérieur En fonction de ses caractéristiques de zone inondable, le Delta Intérieur du fleuve Niger a vu se développer une activité humaine calée sur le rythme de la crue. Activité organisée autour de trois systèmes de production : pêche, élevage, agriculture. Les activités de pêches ont lieu en début de décrue. L'agriculture et l'élevage profitent des terres riches, fertiles et longtemps humides lorsque l'eau se retire. « Un changement d'activité qui entraîne un roulement de groupes ethno professionnels, chacun spécialisé dans l'exploitation d'une ressource » (De Noray, 2003).Le calendrier hydro climatique et agricole est représenté en figure 5.  Enchâssés dans un système social (groupes ethniques et lignages) et un système de valeurs (divinités), les chefs traditionnels établissent les règles de gestion de l'eau. Par exemple, le maître des eaux exerce un véritable pouvoir religieux sur les membres de sa communauté, avec des fonctions économiques et juridiques (Boutillers, 1964). Les chefs de terres ou chefs de pâturage jouent un rôle central dans le partage des terres.En effet, dans le delta intérieur, des sites agro-écologiques sont enclins aux conflits. Les pâturages de décrue sont des espaces où les pasteurs (Peuls ou Touaregs) entrent en compétition avec les agriculteurs (Rimaïbés ou Bambaras). De même, les puits et forages sont également des points centraux autour desquels s'articulent des règles pastorales d'usage et de gestion. De plus, les règles traditionnelles d'accès à l'eau diffèrent selon le genre : les femmes ont un accès exclusif aux puits ; elles ont des droits sur les terres de bas-fonds pour les cultures maraîchères.Cependant ces systèmes socio-écologiques qualifiés généralement de « traditionnels » sont soumis aux facteurs externes tels que les changements climatiques, la pression démographique, l'urbanisation et le développement d'infrastructure. Il faut donc les appréhender dans une perspective dynamique avec notamment, une dimension historique.Initié par les ingénieurs français lors de la période coloniale, l'Office du Niger a été fondé en 1932, dans la perspective de cultiver un million d'hectares irrigués de coton brut afin d'approvisionner l'industrie textile française. Les aménagements hydro agricoles constituent un pilier des politiques de développement agricoles menées depuis le milieu des années 1980 dans différents Etats sahéliens. Les casiers irrigués de l'Office du Niger sont voués à une agriculture intensive essentiellement rizicole et maraîchère mais pas exclusivement car les riziculteurs possèdent parfois des troupeaux de bovins et investissent encore massivement dans le bétail. Par ailleurs, les disponibilités en eau de ces casiers attirent les bergers des zones sèches pour les prairies aquatiques pâturables dites bourgoutières.En dépit des résultats positifs annoncés par le gouvernement malien de ces aménagements (74 000 ha de production de riz de 437 000 tonnes chaque année -chiffre de la campagne [2005][2006], l'attribution de grandes concessions aux compagnies privées entraîne le déplacement de groupes d'éleveurs vers d'autres zones. La cohabitation et la superposition des droits coutumiers et modernes expliquent la confusion dans la définition des territoires de chaque partie et entretiennent un sentiment d'insécurité foncière. Dans l'Office du Niger, les extensions ne parviennent plus à absorber les demandes d'attribution de parcelles tandis que les critères d'accès au foncier restent de plus en plus flous et que le statut des exploitants est fort inégal (Brondeau, 2006).Ces deux exemples soulignent la diversité des arrangements institutionnels existant dans une zone agro-écologique relativement homogène, le delta intérieur, mais également à l'intérieur d'une sous-zone telle qu'un casier rizicole ou un pâturage de décrue. Si le premier exemple relève plutôt des institutions coutumières, le second reste sous le contrôle des institutions modernes. Il n'en est pas moins vrai que les deux exemples ont une connexion à travers la migration des éleveurs qui, exclus des casiers agricoles, amènent leur troupeaux au niveau des pâturages de décrue. Dès lors, il ne s'agit plus d'une distinction entre institutions coutumières et institutions modernes ni d'une échelle locale mais d'une pluralité d'arrangements sociaux au sein d'un environnement composé de plusieurs sous-systèmes.Le principal défi du WP 4 tient à la multiplicité d'interactions dynamiques entre institutions et ce à de nombreuses échelles d'analyses. Impulsés par le modèle de « bonne gouvernance », les processus de décentralisation visent à intégrer les acteurs locaux dans la négociation de ces règles. Toutefois « les pouvoirs étatiques d'Afrique de l'Ouest sont caractérisés par des processus de décentralisation inachevés et des démocraties défectueuses rendant les politiques au niveau local largement non transparentes, laissant place à un opportunisme politique pour le contrôle stratégique des ressources ». (Laube, 2006). Ces défaillances institutionnelles permettent de multiples arrangements et génèrent une certaine confusion pour les différents acteurs. La gouvernance de l'eau devient de plus en plus multi échelles.Il n'existe donc pas seulement trois ou quatre échelles d'analyse comme présentées précédemment mais plutôt un enchevêtrement de réseaux se superposant, s'imbriquant ou se confrontant dans une même localité. De plus, ces réseaux ne possèdent pas de caractère universel mais un pouvoir relatif à l'endroit où ils s'exercent. C'est effectivement en considérant les dimensions spatio-temporelles, socio-culturelles et naturelles qu'une institution prend son sens. Cependant, le déclin ou la pérennité de ces institutions dépend du degré de spécificité au contexte où elle prend naissance ou, au contraire, du caractère universel des jeux de pouvoir entre les acteurs d'un même système socio-écologique.La préservation des ressources naturelles passe par des contrôles, plus ou moins explicites, des institutions à travers des règles et des faisceaux de droits (accès, prélèvement, usage et gestion). L'utilisation de ces ressources naturelles est donc régulée légalement et socialement. L'exclusion de certains utilisateurs cherche à éviter leur surexploitation. Par conséquent, toute menace pour la conservation de ce bien résulte de défaillances institutionnelles. Sur le même principe, la pauvreté est considérée comme le résultat de défaillances infrastructurelles telles que l'enclavement, les problèmes d'accès aux soins, le manque de disponibilités technologiques…et, de menaces exogènes comme l'explosion démographique, les changements climatiques ou l'instabilité politique.Par ailleurs, réduire les inégalités entre les genres est l'une des priorités des Challenge Programs. En effet, depuis l'adoption de la déclaration de Beijing en 1995, la question du genre s'inscrit dans la plupart des agendas des organisations de développement internationales. Cette question est d'autant plus sérieuse en Afrique sub-saharienne où les systèmes d'exploitation sont séparés même s'il existe un système d'échange et d'interdépendance entre les genres. Celles-ci peuvent également être vues comme le résultat de défaillances institutionnelles.D'une part, les projets de développement doivent adapter leurs nouvelles technologies à la réalité sociale de façon à ne pas accentuer les inégalités économiques ni entre les genres localement. D'autre part, les gouvernements et les bailleurs de fonds doivent saisir ces freins institutionnels de façon à mieux cibler les populations lésées avant de définir leurs plans d'action.Le défi de l'analyse institutionnelle dans le cadre du BFP est de saisir ces évolutions de gouvernance.La méthode des systèmes socio-écologiques met l'accent sur « l'émergence, les processus d'élaboration et la pérennisation des règles sans s'inscrire dans le cadre de la règle optimale » (Baron et al., 2006).Toutefois, elle semble limitée pour analyser en profondeur les jeux d'acteurs intervenant autour d'un système qui peut engendrer des phénomènes de coopération, compétition ou conflit. C'est pourquoi, l'approche développée par Trottier en 2005 paraît complémentaire à celle du SES parce qu'elle considère toute la complexité de ces réseaux sans les éclater en catégories (institution formelle/informelle, moderne/coutumière, locale/nationale). A juste titre, elle qualifie, ces réseaux de « constellations hydro-politiques » (ibid).Traversant une large partie de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, le fleuve Niger entretient un régime hydrologique complexe. Les facteurs biophysiques tels que l'aridité du climat, la progression du désert, les changements du régime des pluies pèsent sur les populations subsahariennes. Les  La deuxième partie de ce rapport souligne l'importance de l'étude locale prenant en compte toute sa complexité (naturelle, humaine, sociale, historique, économique). C'est effectivement au niveau local que se répercutent l'ensemble des politiques et directives provenant des différentes échelles. Une étude de terrain devient donc incontournable.Répondant aux exigences du BFP Volta, l'objectif premier de ces enquêtes a été d'étudier les différents usages de l'eau et sa gestion puis de mettre ces observations en relation avec le phénomène de pauvreté. La problématique peut se résumer ainsi :Quelles sont les règles d'accès et de gestion de l'eau à usage agricole au niveau d'un petit barrage ? Quelles sont leurs dynamiques d'évolution ? Contribuent-elles à une utilisation durable des ressources en eau ? Quels sont leurs liens avec la pauvreté ?Menées dans le cadre du BFP Volta, les enquêtes de terrain cherchaient à répondre plus spécifiquement aux attentes du projet plus orienté vers les perspectives d'actions pour le développement, d'où la sous-question suivante :En quoi les institutions bloquent-elles en partie les possibilités d'innovation des paysans désirant améliorer leur productivité de l'eau ?Pour parvenir à analyser les institutions au niveau local et à apprécier leur durabilité à travers l'analyse du système socio-écologique, différents objectifs ont pu être dégagés :-Identifier les différents acteurs autour d'un lac de barrage : les catégories d'utilisateurs, les constructeurs de l'infrastructure, ses financeurs et les gestionnaires de l'eau et évaluer leur niveau de richesse (moyen de subsistance, revenus, pouvoir…), -Comprendre l'élaboration des règles d'usage et de gestion de l'eau de cette infrastructure et la négociation des acteurs autour de ces règles (règles modernes et coutumières) -Retracer l'évolution de l'état écologique de la ressource (avant/après la présence de l'infrastructure) et l'histoire démographique et humaine de la zone d'étude pour appréhender la dynamique du système socio-écologique, -Identifier les différents chocs externes auquel le système socio-écologique est soumis et apprécier le degré de modification du système, -Analyser le jeu des acteurs locaux ce qui nécessite de comprendre les structures hiérarchiques traditionnelles, leur rapport avec les acteurs modernes, -Evaluer la durabilité des systèmes sociaux et écologiques face aux pressions externes.A partir de la formulation de cette problématique détaillée, il s'agit de traduire les questions de recherches en un protocole d'enquête. Cette préparation à la phase de terrain n'a pas cherché à établir une démarche de manière figée, close et définitive mais vise à donner une ligne directrice.Basées sur une démarche constructiviste, les enquêtes ont donc été structurées en cinq phases :-L'exploration (10 jours) : Recherche et lecture de documents et compléments d'information grâce à de premiers entretiens pour préciser les questionnaires. -L'accumulation de données (26 jours) : Phase d'enquête menée par la méthode dit de la « boule de neige », une combinaison des approches « top-down » et « bottom-up », -La réorientation (3 jours au cours de la phase d'enquête) : Premières analyses de terrain et discussions avec les encadrants de façon à repérer les manques, -La vérification des données (3 jours) et l'approfondissement de certains thèmes, -La mise au propre : Analyse du terrain et rédaction.Le travail de terrain effectué au Burkina Faso a duré six semaines du 18 juin au 1 er août 2007, la phase de recueil de données, quatre semaines (Cf. annexe 6 : activités du stage).Ne disposant que d'un mois d'enquête, il fallait restreindre le cadre de l'étude : physiquement (Cf. 3 ème partie I.C.) et méthodologiquement. « Within SESs, this difficulty of interpretation is a problem of defining the appropriate scale of analysis » (Anderies et al. 2004, p.7). L'investigation n'a pas pu prendre en compte l'ensemble du SES pertinent 16 pour en apprécier véritablement sa résilience. Sur le plan écologique, l'étude a été restreinte au lac d'un petit barrage du bassin du Nariarlé un affluent de la Volta blanche et, sur le plan humain, elle a cherché à considérer l'ensemble des populations ayant un impact direct ou indirect sur l'eau de ce barrage. Par contre, elle a insisté sur l'aspect dynamique de ce système car à une petite échelle de temps, une ressource peut être épuisée de façon à maintenir l'ensemble du SES à une plus grande échelle de temps. Comme ces auteurs l'ont mentionné « We distinguish between the collapse or undesirable transformation of a resource, and the collapse or loss of the entire system » (ibid).Le but de la phase d'exploration était d'obtenir quelques éléments de cadrage du terrain d'enquêtes de façon à construire un échantillon représentatif de personnes enquêtées. A partir des catégories d'acteurs définies a priori, les questionnaires d'enquêtes ont été élaborés (Cf. annexe 6).Les données ont été recueillies à travers des entretiens semi-directifs actifs dont les questions cherchaient à ouvrir le dialogue tout en guidant l'enquêté sur le thème de la recherche.Des journaux d'enquête ont été tenus durant tout le séjour au Burkina Faso comportant à la fois le contenu même des enquêtes et quelques éléments d'analyse voire des impressions personnelles. Par ailleurs, la totalité des entretiens a été enregistrée à l'aide d'un dictaphone de façon à ne perdre aucun élément important sous le coup de l'émotion ou de digressions et pour pouvoir sortir du cadre de la conversation lors de la réécoute.Ces enquêtes de terrain en pays mossi ont nécessité la présence d'un traducteur français/mooré car la plupart des acteurs interrogés au niveau local ne parlaient pas, peu ou mal le français.Après cette préparation conceptuelle et logistique, deux questionnaires d'enquêtes ont été élaborés correspondant à deux grands types d'acteurs définis a priori :-Questionnaire destiné aux acteurs des institutions formelles : ministères ou services relevant de l'autorité de l'Etat, société civile (ONG et autorités religieuses), bailleurs de fonds, organisations internationales…, -Questionnaire destiné aux chefs et acteurs locaux : agriculteurs, éleveurs, pêcheurs et tous les utilisateurs de l'eau.Ces questionnaires (Cf. annexes 6a et 6b) ont servi de base aux entretiens. Mémorisés, ils n'ont pas été administrés de façon systématique. L'entretien se déroulait à travers l'instauration d'un dialogue recherché particulièrement les premiers jours d'enquêtes. Ensuite, les discussions s'amorçaient plus naturellement en continuité avec les entretiens précédents (Cf. annexe 7 : Liste des enquêtés).Diverses difficultés propres au terrain africain ont été rencontrées et doivent être évoquées.Les enquêtes se sont déroulées pendant la saison des pluies entraînant une moins grande disponibilité des enquêtés pris dans leurs travaux agricoles (cultures pluviales). La dégradation des pistes par les pluies a occasionné quelques difficultés de déplacement en mobylette.La communication par l'intermédiaire d'un traducteur constitue la principale difficulté du travail de terrain. D'une part, les deux langues, français et mooré, n'ont pas de correspondance parfaite, ce qui nécessite des reformulations. D'autre part, le niveau d'instruction du traducteur limite la richesse du vocabulaire et donc la précision du message. Par ailleurs, la communication avec un intermédiaire entraîne une plus grande distorsion du message. La neutralité du traducteur vis-à-vis des enquêtés importe, autant que le degré de confiance que ces derniers lui accordaient. En outre, la barrière de la langue empêche de saisir le contenu des débats lors de réunions ou conflits villageois et toute la profondeur du jeu d'acteur intervenant sur ce terrain.Enfin, malgré la courte durée du terrain, les risques d'ethnocentrisme et de distanciation existaient. Devenant un acteur supplémentaire sur ce terrain, j'étais vigilante lors de mes conversations, à la position que j'adoptais. L'observation participante est particulièrement à surveiller en cas de conflits. En 2006, 13 730 258 habitants ont été recensés dont 79,7 % résident en milieu rural (chiffres du IVe recensement de la population et de l 'habitation, 2006). Mais le nombre de citadins a presque doublé en 10 ans 17 . Avec en moyenne 6,7 enfants par femmes, le taux annuel de croissance de la population est estimé à 2,4 %. La densité de population est de 49 hab./km 2 . La migration volontaire ou encouragée par l'Etat, a touché 10 % de la population entre 1985 et 1996. L'espérance de vie s'élève à 47 ans. En 2005, le taux de scolarisation dans le primaire s'élève à 44,6 %. Le taux d'alphabétisme des adultes (âgés de plus de 15 ans) est estimé à 32,3 % avec une grande disparité entre hommes et femmes (Ministère de l'Enseignement de Base et de l'alphabétisation, 2005). Enfin, avec un IDH de 0,342, le Burkina Faso est classé 174 ème sur 177 pays.Le réseau hydrographique se divise en trois bassins principaux (Cf. carte 4):-Le bassin de la Volta qui s'étend sur 63% du territoire au centre et à l'ouest. Ce bassin est constitué des fleuves Mouhoun (Volta Noire), Nakambé (Volta Blanche), Nazinon (Volta Rouge) et Pendjari qui se rejoignent au Ghana, -Le bassin du Niger qui occupe 30 % du pays, au nord et à l'est, -Le bassin de la Comoé qui s'étend sur 7 % du pays au sud-est.La pluviométrie moyenne est de 748 mm pour l'ensemble du pays. Le total des ressources en eau de surface et souterraine est estimé à 12,5 km 3 /an dont 8 km 3 /an de surface. Mais en année sèche ce potentiel tombe à 4,3 km 3 /an.Les approvisionnements en eau potable se sont nettement améliorés mais restent insuffisants pour couvrir les besoins des populations rurales et urbaines. En 2002, seuls 51 % des Burkinabés avaient accès aux sources améliorées d'eaux potables.Les prélèvements d'eaux totaux s'élevaient en 2000 à 690 millions de m 3 pour les usages agricoles et pastoraux, 104 millions pour les usages domestiques et six millions pour les usages industriels. Dans le cadre de la gestion intégrée des ressources en eau, le Burkina Faso fait partie de l'ABN et de l'Autorité du Bassin de la Volta crée le 19 janvier 2007.  Le barrage de Toukoumtouré est de 257 m de long sur 3,5 m de large avec une profondeur de 4 m. La retenue couvre une surface de 23,7 ha en période de crue et atteint un volume d'eau de 220 000 m 3 . Construit en 1986, ce barrage n'a jamais tari jusque dans les années 2000, où avec l'apparition des motopompes, le bas-fond devient totalement boueux aux mois d'avril et mai.Administrativement, le barrage se situe dans le département de Koubri de la province/région 18 du Centre dite aussi Kadiogo. La ville de Koubri est le chef lieu de ce département. Les plus anciens mossis des terres de Tanvi proviennent de lignages allochtones, les nakombsés, ce qui signifie littéralement « ceux qui ont été évincés du pouvoir ». Originaires de Tuili, les créateurs de Tanvi ont longé le Nakambé puis ont pénétré vers l'intérieur des terres par le bassin du Nariarlé. Ces conquérants ont assimilé les nyonyonsés, à leurs propres familles formant l'aristocratie royale jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Ces familles possèdent actuellement le pouvoir politique. D'autre part, ces mossis ont usurpé le pouvoir administratif sur la terre au chef de terre, le tengsoaba, du groupe nyonyonsé. Par conséquent, le Naba de Tanvi est à la fois chef du territoire de Tanvi et chef de terre. Cependant, le 20 Les mossis représentent environ la moitié de la population burkinabé. 21 Littéralement « roi du monde ». 22 Lignages autochtones des terres avant l'arrivée des mossis conquérants, les nakombsés (cf. ci-après).pouvoir sacrificiel sur la Terre revient toujours aux descendants des familles de nyonyonsés assimilées.Actuellement, il s'agit du 38 ème Naba de Tanvi (Cf. annexe 9 : succession des Nabas à Tanvi). Celui-ci commande sur une zone limitée :au sud par le Nariarlé (avec les villages de Peelé, Bassi, Petioko, Tansablogo), -à l'est un peu au-delà de la Volta Blanche (village de Zam), -à l'ouest par les terres du Naba de Koubri, -au nord jusqu'au massif du Massili.Administrativement, son territoire s'étend sur les départements de Koubri et de Saaba. La transmission de la chefferie se réalise par la descendance de la lignée du père. Au cours des siècles, le centre de Tanvi, tanvi natenga, s'est déplacé plusieurs fois. En 1950, le centre de Tanvi se situait quatre km plus à l'est que le centre actuel (Cf. carte 7 et figure 7). Originaire de Nahouri, le créateur de Nakamptenga est venu avec son frère cadet briguer la chefferie d'Ouagadougou à la suite de la mort du roi. Le cadet intronisé a récompensé l'aîné frustré en lui donnant la chefferie des enfants du roi (nakam naba) et une parcelle de territoire qu'il choisira et administrera lui-même : les terres de Tanvi. Une fraction de la population ayant formé Nakamptenga, serait venue de Pô et aurait transité par Nobéré, Toécé, Kombissiri 23 enfin Nambe 24 . Le manque d'eau et la présence de la maladie du sommeil les ont rapprochés de Tanvi 25 . L'inexistence de marché à Nambe occasionnait sa dépendance vis-à-vis d'Ouagadougou. Ainsi, Nakamptenga a créé son marché procurant les produits de base pendant les périodes de soudures. Nambe a connu cinq chefs, Nakamptenga six. Le Tapsoaba, ministre des armées du Mogho Naba s'est installé sur les terres de Tanvi à Tassobintinga, département de Saaba. Il y a un siècle environ, une fraction de la population de Tassobintinga s'est installée non loin du centre de Tanvi formant le quartier de Boula. Ces familles ont été assimilées à celles de Tanvi par unions avec les familles royales de Tanvi. Petit à petit, cette population s'est déplacée. On peut estimer que depuis les années 1930, les familles originaires de Tassobintinga sont sur leur emplacement actuel à Boula (Cf. carte 7 et figure 7).En 1955, manquant d'eau, les gens de Tanvi se sont rapprochés d'un point d'eau appelé Yogdoyogdo, se juxtaposant au marché de Nakamptenga (cf. cour actuelle du Naba de Tanvi). A la fin de la période coloniale, entre les années 1940 et 1960, les épidémies de trypanosomiase ont presque été éradiquées. Après les indépendances, il y a eu une recrudescence de cette maladie. Par ailleurs, l'onchocercose sévissait dans le bassin du Nariarlé. Les effets de ces maladies peuvent expliquer de nombreux mouvements de populations.Après l'accession de la Haute-Volta à l'indépendance, la Communauté Européenne a proposé de réaliser 100 retenues (60 seront effectivement construites). L'une d'elle sera Napaghaptenga (1962) à l'aval de laquelle s'est installé le monastère 26 accueilli par le Naba de Tanvi (Cf. annexe 10 : histoire du monastère Saint-Benoît de Koubri). A cette époque, les campements Peuls étaient très nombreux, implantés à la lisière de la forêt classée. Le groupe nyonyonsé a été assimilé aux mossis conquérants les nakombsés en abandonnant le patronyme de Sawadogo pour ceux de Tanvi. Ces nyonyonsés correspondent à l'origine aux tengbiisé ceux qui ont le pouvoir sur la terre. Aujourd'hui, leurs descendants ont perdu le pouvoir administratif et n'ont plus qu'un pouvoir religieux (culte de la fertilité et des rites funéraires), c'est un lignage de sacrificateurs. L'espace agro-écologique a très largement évolué au cours des 60 dernières années. L'IRD a entrepris, dans le cadre du projet IMPECA, une analyse diachronique à partir de photographies aériennes et d'images satellites du bassin du Nariarlé. Des observations générales appuyées par les enquêtes permettent d'affirmer que la zone a été largement déforestée en liaison avec l'augmentation démographique.Par ailleurs, le monastère est l'auteur de 106 barrages dans le bassin du Nariarlé, modifiant fortement la dynamique écologique de cet espace. Cette dynamique est à mettre en relation avec les pressions anthropiques telles que les arrivées de populations par vagues successives et la diversité de ces acteurs particulièrement d'un point de vue socio-économique. De ces deux phénomènes : construction de barrages et augmentation démographique, lequel est la cause, lequel la conséquence ?Autour de Toukoumtouré, l'accès à l'eau a beaucoup évolué au cours des 50 dernières années comme le résume la figure 7. En 1975, un premier puits de 35 m de profondeur est creusé, financé par un français dont le pavillon de chasse se trouvait à côté de la résurgence (Cf. figure 8 -situation 2). Essentiellement, les migrants mossis et peuls prélevaient cette eau.Suite à la sécheresse de 1984, deux migrants du quartier de Toukoumtouré demandent au monastère par l'intermédiaire de la cour du Tanvi Naba, la construction d'un barrage. Financé par le français-chasseur (500 000 F CFA), l'ONG Misereor (6 M F CFA) avec la participation des familles royales (15 000 F CFA), le barrage de Toukoumtouré est construit en 1986 (Cf. figure 8 -situation 3) avec l'aide des migrants de Toukoumtouré essentiellement 27 (Cf. voir le tableau 7).Après cela, le premier puits construit s'effondre. Autrefois, les terres de Tanvi étaient beaucoup plus boisées et très peu peuplées. Néanmoins, le bas-fond de Toukoumtouré était encadré par les anciens centre de Tanvi et de Boula (Cf. figure 7). Quelques terres autour de ce marigot ont été défrichées avant la migration de ces populations. Après la construction du barrage, le pourtour est défriché de façon plus intensive. Les familles originaires de Tassobintinga (famille Bonkoungou) résidant au quartier de Boula ont réoccupés les terres cultivées par leur ascendants suivies par les familles de la lignée du Tanvi Naba (Zapodré ou Tiendrébéogo). Ces familles ont débuté le maraîchage avec des premières cultures de melons et de pastèques 29 . Puis, le maraîchage a évolué vers des cultures nécessitant plus d'intrants : aubergines, tomates, oignons. Enfin, depuis quelques années, des cultures à cycle plus long, papayes et bananes ont été développées grâce aux bénéfices progressifs du maraîchage. De plus, l'utilisation de motopompes a permis la culture de maïs (Cf. carte 8). Il faut mettre en relation les évolutions rapides du maraîchage avec la 60/121 proximité de la capitale puisque plus de 60 % de produits sont écoulés sur le marché de Ouagadougou contre 30 % sur celui de Koubri, le restant sur les marchés de Tanlarghin voire de Tanvi. Quant aux intrants, le marché de Tanvi en est approvisionné régulièrement. Ces données seraient à compléter dans une étude plus approfondie pour montrer l'influence de la capitale sur la circulation des produits pour l'achat comme pour la vente.Actuellement, l'ensemble du pourtour de Toukoumtouré est défriché. Les trois quarts des terrains appartiennent aux membres de la famille Bonkoungou, le quart restant à celles de Tanvi. Avec la saturation de l'espace autour du barrage, les conflits fonciers et de gestion d'eau s'intensifient notamment entre maraîchers-natifs et éleveurs-migrants. En 2004, une évaluation du statut écologique de 23 petits réservoirs du Burkina Faso a été réalisée. La présence importante de cyanobactéries dans certains réservoirs est le signe d'un déséquilibre écologique de cette eau (Cecchi et al., 2005). Ce constat a amené les chercheurs à émettre l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'importance des cyanobactéries est due à la pression anthropique en particulier l'agriculture intensive autour des points d'eau (Leboulanger et al., à paraître). D'une durée de 2 ans, le projet IMPECA, vise à collecter les informations sur les pratiques agricoles autour des petits réservoirs au Burkina Faso.Les usages agricoles Depuis la création du barrage de Toukoumtouré, les agriculteurs ont entrepris des activités de maraîchages avec 11 cultures différentes : papayes, bananes, oignons verts, oignons violet, tomate, courgette, choux, concombre, aubergine sauvage, poivre de cayenne et maïs. Ces activités se déroulent durant les mois sept mois de saison sèche, de novembre à mai.Les parcelles de maraîchages sont irrigués soit par motopompes (11 motopompes recensées), soit par à l'arrosoir (à raison de 4 à 6 sceaux tous les trois jours). Sur 16 maraîchers enquêtés :-9 utilisent uniquement une motopompe. Ce sont les propriétaires des machines dont quatre appartiennent à la famille de Boula, deux à la famille royale de Tanvi et trois sont migrants, -5 arrosent à la main, -2 en combinant les deux méthodes dont trois sont des migrants qui entretiennent des relations particulières avec les natifs (relations sociales particulières).Il existe différentes modalités de prêts des motopompes entre maraîchers selon l'appartenance à une même famille (mais pas toujours) ou les relations sociales entre maraîchers. L'étude de ces relations de prêt n'a pas pu être approfondie.Certains maraîchers utilisent pesticides et fertilisants qui dégradent fortement la qualité de l'eau (voir ci-dessous). Une évaluation des prélèvements en eau pour l'irrigation a été faite sur l'année 2006 -2007. Elle est estimée à 56 900 m 3 / an (Hyrkäs, Pernholm, 2007).Les bovins consomment bien plus d'eau que les ovins, 30 litres par jour (NDSU, 1999). En période de crue, de juin à janvier environ 400 bovins viennent s'abreuver à Toukoumtouré prélevant donc 360 m 3 par mois. Entre février et mars, alors que le réservoir se vide, ce sont 1000 bovins qui viennent boire, consommant alors 900 m 3 par mois. En fin de saison sèche (avril et mai), la consommation est réduite à 150 m 3 pour les deux mois. Au total, 4830 m 3 d'eau serait prélevée chaque année par le bétail au lac de Toukoumtouré. A coté de ces usages, il y a des pertes d'eau par évaporation (estimées à 1,7 m 3 par an) et par infiltration.Hormis les engrais déversés sur les parcelles de maraîchages tels que l'urée, le NPK (15.15.15) et le NPK (23.10.0,5) enrichi en MgO, S et Zn, les pesticides sont utilisés de plus en plus par les maraîchers abondamment.Plusieurs xénobiotiques circulent dont les substances actives sont les suivantes : Lambda Cyhalothrine, Acétamipride, Deltaméthrine, Endosufan, Cyperméthrine, Monochrotophos, Carbofuran, Azadirachtine.A Toukoumtouré, deux pesticides sont fréquemment employés : Lampride (par 65 % des maraîchers interrogés) et Lambda super (48 % des maraîchers interrogés), tous deux comprenant une substance active, Lambda Cyhalothrine renfermant notamment du Paraquat, molécule hautement toxique (voir les résultats de Hyrkäs et Pernholm, 2007). Cette substance a donc été retenue par l'IRD pour des analyses plus approfondies. Les pollutions anthropiques sont effectivement importantes, modifiant la dynamique de l'écosystème. Dès lors, comprendre la configuration institutionnelle régissant le jeu des acteurs autour du barrage devient indispensable à l'analyse de l'évolution écologique de Toukoumtouré et dans une perspective de gestion durable de l'environnement.L'analyse institutionnelle locale invite à examiner le jeu d'acteurs autour de Toukoumtouré. Pour ce faire, une description préalable des institutions coutumières et modernes ainsi que leurs règles de fonctionnement est nécessaire à la compréhension de l'interaction entre types d'institutions aux différentes échelles pour aboutir à l'interaction entre systèmes sociaux et systèmes écologiques.Les chefferies traditionnellesLes chefferies traditionnelles influencent encore largement la vie sociale au Burkina Faso et par conséquent la gestion des ressources naturelles. Ainsi, quelques éléments sur la structure politique traditionnelle mossie et l'historique des chefferies présentes dans le bassin du Nariarlé (Cf. II.A.) importent pour la compréhension du jeu d'acteurs autour de la gestion de l'eau du barrage.Fortement hiérarchisée et sacralisée, la société mossie se structure en fonction de l'histoire de son peuplement. Les pionniers et les plus anciennes familles bénéficient d'un pouvoir plus important. Par ailleurs, il existe différents types de chefs selon leur proximité de la lignée du Mogho Naba.Naba de Tanvi Rimbiga Chef politique et chef de terre (mais le sacrificateur est autre) Naba de Koubri (et frère du président du Burkina Faso) Rimbiga Chef politique (mais le chef de terre est autre) Naba de Nakamtenga Nabiga Chef politique ; se dit aussi chef de terre mais pas pour la population Tableau 9 : Les types de Naba dans le département de Koubri.Ces trois Naba sont intronisés par le Mogho Naba mais ont des origines différentes. Un Rimbiga est un descendant direct du Naba Ouédraogo (conquérant qui a fondé le 1 er royaume Mossi, celui de Tenkodogo). Les Rimbissi ont plus de pouvoir que les autres types de Naba. Nabiga, qui signifie « enfant du chef », est un prétendant au trône qui n'a pas eu le pouvoir d'Ouagadougou. Le Mogho Naba peut alors lui accorder un territoire où il exercera son pouvoir.Il apparaît donc que, sur le plan coutumier, le Naba de Tanvi possède un pouvoir supérieur à celui du Naba de Koubri, lui-même plus influent que le Naba de Nakamptenga (Cf. annexe 9 : succession des Nabas à Tanvi).Cependant, le ministre des armées du royaume d'Ouagadougou, le Tapsoaba, est assis sur les terres de Tanvi. Ce ministre a un pouvoir politique supérieur à celui du Naba de Tanvi 64/121 mais inférieur administrativement car le Naba de Tanvi est également chef de terre, c'est-à-dire qu'il attribue la terre. Par ailleurs, le Naba de Koubri appartient à la famille du président du Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré. Ce fonctionnaire a donc d'un pouvoir moderne supplémentaire. Mais localement, les populations installées sur les terres du Naba de Tanvi lui répondent.Droit sur l'eau et accès au foncier L'historique du peuplement a permis d'identifier les différentes catégories d'acteurs rencontrés lors des enquêtes autour du barrage (Cf. liste des enquêtés en annexe) : natifs/migrants, maraîchers/agriculteurs/éleveurs/pêcheurs, mossis/peuls. Afin de comprendre les rapports de pouvoirs entre ces catégories d'acteurs, les enquêtes ont porté sur les modalités d'accès à l'eau du barrage et des terres de maraîchage.Sur le plan moderne, le comité de gestion du barrage comporte un certain nombre de règles de gestion de l'eau (Cf. annexe 11 et 12) :-Payer la taxe pour tous les usagers, variable selon les activités (maraîchers avec motopompe : 2500 FCFA/an, avec arrosoir : 1000 FCFA/an, éleveurs : 2500 FCFA/an à partir de 10 têtes de bétail), -La pêche est interdite. La retenue d'eau, peu profonde la pêche soulève la vase et les particules, l'eau devient alors inutilisable par les motopompes pour le maraîchage, -Il est interdit de laver les vêtements au bord, -Le maraîchage au bord de la retenue est interdit car il provoque le comblement de la pièce d'eau, -Paiement d'une taxe de 12 500 FCFA/an pour la caisse globale de l'association « Koom la Viim » (cette taxe n'a pas été officialisée dans le règlement intérieur du comité de gestion).Mais ces règles ne sont effectives que pour une catégorie d'usagers les habitants de Toukoumtouré (éleveurs mossis migrants). Pour le groupe de maraîchers, c'est encore la gestion traditionnelle qui prévaut. Or, aucune institution traditionnelle ne régit l'accès à l'eau de façon spécifique (tel qu'un maître des eaux comme vu précédemment avec le cas du delta intérieur). Le Naba de Tanvi ne reconnaît pas l'accès à l'eau des migrants de Toukoumtouré qui, ont demandé la construction du barrage pour des fins domestiques et pastorales, mais seulement les droits d'accès à la terre.Comme le souligne Hodgson en 2004, dans « Land and water right », la nécessité de gérer ces deux ressources de manière conjointe : « les décisions concernant l'utilisation et l'allocation d'une ressource influe directement ou indirectement sur l'utilisation et l'allocation de l'autre » (ibid). De ce fait, les modalités d'accès aux terres de barrage ont été étudiées. Le tableau 9 décrit les différents types de droits fonciers recensés et permet d'en comprendre les relations de pouvoir entre les acteurs.La terre est administrée par le Naba de Tanvi sur l'ensemble de son terroir. Il gère donc l'espace collectivement approprié. Lors d'une nouvelle demande, le Tanvi Naba délègue ce pouvoir à l'un de ses chefs de villages qui se chargera alors d'attribuer un terrain pour accueillir le demandeur sur son territoire. Cependant, le Naba de Tanvi en la qualité de chef administratif de terre se limite à un droit de gestion global de son territoire. Lui-même n'a pas le droit d'exploiter la terre. Par ailleurs, jamais il ne refuse d'offrir une terre à un demandeur. Groupes sociaux de premier rang et émergence de propriétaires terriens Les groupes sociaux de premier rang correspondent à la fois aux aînés des lignées royales de nakombsé et des lignées du ministre militaire, ayant une supériorité hiérarchique dans le système politique mossi. Ces groupes détiennent des droits de gestion et d'exploitation à des degrés échelonnés selon leur âge, proximité au Naba au sein de la famille royale, etc. Ces droits d'exploitation (droit de cultiver, d'aménager, droits administratifs : accueillir, transmettre, exclure) sont en réalité des droits d'usage permanents qui font de leurs détenteurs des « propriétaires » de terre ayant donc la possibilité d'accorder des droits d'usage temporaires (droits d'exploitation) à de tierces personnes (Cf. annexe 14).Force est de constater qu'actuellement les membres de la famille du Tanvi Naba sont considérés comme « les propriétaires » terriens. A l'origine, cette conception « propriétariste » du sol n'existait pas. En effet, seul le chef de Terre était un propriétaire terrien, tous les autres acteurs ne possédaient que des « faisceaux de droits fonciers » (Jacob et al., 2002).La croissance démographique couplée à la présence de retenues d'eau et l'accès facile au marché d'Ouagadougou, induit une pression foncière de plus en plus forte. La création du barrage de Toukoumtouré et l'approvisionnement en eau offre de nouvelles opportunités pour les exploitants. Ainsi, les familles aristocratiques se sont approprié les terres du basfond de Toukoumtouré car ces terres avaient été exploitées par leurs ascendants.Plus récemment, l'arrivée de « nouveaux riches » 30 sur les terres de Tanvi et l'établissement de titres fonciers génèrent la crainte d'être dépossédé de la part de ces groupes sociaux. Ainsi, ces propriétaires terriens permettent à des exploitants (généralement des migrants récents) de cultiver une partie de leur terrain « mais pas tout ! ». En effet, les enquêtes ont montré que les familles aristocratiques de Tanvi, n'ayant pas de revenus suffisants pour investir dans le maraîchage, permettent aux nouveaux migrants de travailler leurs terres par petites fractions. Le morcellement des terres prêtées empêche des investissements lourds (motopompes, cultures à cycle long) de la part des emprunteurs.Lund constate ce phénomène et écrit en 2005 « Au fur et à mesure que la densité démographique s'accroît, les populations tendent à prendre certaines mesures préventives afin de faire valoir leur droit aux terres, par exemple via la culture symbolique de terre en friche ou le prêt de terre à des parents en cas d'absence temporaire » (ibid).Ce ne sont pas toujours les détenteurs de droits de gestion qui peuvent mettre en valeur les terres autour de la retenue : pour pratiquer le maraîchage, « il faut en avoir les moyens ». Les propriétaires de la terre n'ont pas obligatoirement un pouvoir économique. Or, le maraîchage requiert des investissements : semences, engrais, motopompe, etc. On constate que c'est essentiellement la jeune génération mossie, aussi bien native que migrante, qui s'adonne au maraîchage à la fois capable de fournir l'énergie nécessaire aux travaux et bénéficiant d'un petit pouvoir économique.Groupes sociaux de second rang : le simple droit d'usage et les droits délégués A son arrivée, un migrant fait la demande de terre au Naba de Tanvi qui leur accorde un terrain en fonction de l'activité envisagée. En principe, jamais le chef de terre ne refuse la terre à quiconque : « il veut travailler, il demande, on lui donne ! ». En effet, « une ouverture à l'allochtonie est traditionnellement une source essentielle de grandeur démographique et politique du territoire » (Jacob, 2005). Ces migrants n'ont le droit qu'à une seule négociation avec le chef de terre pour une seule activité particulière. Cette négociation est symbolisée par L'étude des institutions coutumières fait ressortir plusieurs différences par rapport à notre système de référence occidental. La notion d'espace géographique est en pays Mossi basée sur l'histoire du peuplement et des conquêtes donc extensible à l'infini. D'autant plus que les populations migrantes sont facilement accueillies en pays Mossi encensant leur grandeur démographique et politique. Néanmoins, l'intégration progressive de nouvelles populations en territoire mossi est à double tranchant : l'assimilation confère une certaine flexibilité des systèmes sociaux mossis face aux pressions démographiques externes mais affaiblit dans le même temps le pouvoir des chefferies traditionnelles qui, dépassées par la modernité, parviennent de moins en moins à conserver leur structure hiérarchique.A cause de la proximité de la capitale, le bassin du Nariarlé attire de nombreux acteurs dits modernes c'est-à-dire répondant aux institutions formelles telles que l'Etat, les organisations de la société civile comprenant les ONG, les institutions religieuses, et les nouveaux riches venant sécuriser leurs titres fonciers sur les terres de Tanvi. a)L'EtatLes politiques, institutions et les aspects juridiques ont déjà été abordés dans la seconde partie à l'échelle internationale et nationale pour l'ensemble des pays Sub-saharien. Ce paragraphe complète la description du cadre institutionnel formel à partir des observations de terrain.Depuis 1960, l'hydraulique a été rattachée successivement à différents départements ministériels burkinabé : Travaux publics, Economie et Plan, Développement et du Tourisme, Agriculture et Elevage, Développement rural, Environnement et Tourisme. A partir de 1984, Thomas Sankara crée le premier ministère de l'eau qui devient en 1995 le Ministère de l'Eau et de l'Environnement. Celui-ci comporte la Direction Générale de l'Hydraulique chargée de donner l'orientation générale du secteur eau.Avant 2002, le ministère de l'Agriculture était dissocié de celui de l'Eau et de l'Environnement (MEE), dont la responsabilité se limitait à la fourniture en eau pour les populations via les constructions hydrauliques (barrages, forages, installation de périmètres irrigués, etc.). Le ministère de l'Agriculture pilotait alors l'exploitation de cette eau à des fins agricoles. Ces deux ministères fonctionnaient de façon indépendante. Si le ministère de l'Agriculture était représenté jusqu'au niveau villageois, celui de l'Eau et de l'environnement n'avait de représentation qu'au niveau régional. Le rassemblement de ces deux ministères en 2002 a posé une double difficulté : D'une part, la fusion a nécessité de faire correspondre à chaque niveau décentralisé les programmes et projets de chacun des ministères avec la création d'une gestion de l'eau décentralisée à partir de l'échelon provincial. D'autre part, cette fusion a imposé la suppression d'un représentant sur deux à chaque niveau de gestion 31 . La nomination ministérielle n'a pas seulement été motivée par le niveau d'étude mais également par des relations sociales et de pouvoir à l'intérieur de ces ministères.L'Etat à lui seul, avec le processus de décentralisation impulsé depuis 2001, tisse une configuration institutionnelle complexe. En ce qui concerne le ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Hydraulique et des Ressources Halieutique, il s'articule en cinq niveaux (Cf. tableau 11) :-Le niveau villageois avec quatre délégués chacun responsable d'un domaine spécifique : agriculture, élevage, pêche ou environnement. Ces délégués sont nommés au village mais ne travaillent pas de façon coordonnée, -L'unité d'appui technique rassemblant 8 villages pilotés par un représentant.Empiètant sur la forêt classée, Toukoumtouré appartient à une zone composée de nombreux migrants 32 , -La zone d'appui technique au niveau départemental avec six membres consulaires élus. Ces agents assurent essentiellement l'encadrement technique des agriculteurs pour l'adoption d'innovation ou projet de développement de l'Etat mais n'agissent pas dans tous les villages, -Le niveau provincial, -Le niveau régional avec les chambres régionales d'agriculture. 33   Parallèlement, l'Etat renforce son administration avec la création de collectivités territoriales ou communes dans l'ensemble du pays dont les limites administratives correspondent exactement aux circonscriptions administratives. Il en résulte une gestion à plusieurs niveaux administratifs avec :-Le Comité Villageois de Développement ou CVD dont le statut n'est pas encore clairement définit. Ce sont toujours les Comité Villageois de Gestion du Terroir (CVGT) qui « oeuvrent » pour le moment avec 18 responsables et un président. Ils appuient différentes activités à travers 18 sous-commissions, allant de l'éducation au foncier en passant par l'hydraulique. -La Commune dont le Maire, élu par l'ensemble des villageois, joue le rôle de médiateur entre les villages et le préfet. La gestion du foncier est dorénavant sous la responsabilité de la mairie. -La préfecture représentant l'autorité de l'Etat au niveau départemental.-Le haut commissaire, au niveau provincial, -Le gouverneur, au niveau régional.Par ailleurs, les Eaux et Forêts relevant du Ministère de l'Environnement et du Cadre de Vie sont toujours actives à Koubri en particulier avec la présence de la forêt classée du Nakambé. Toutefois, ce service de l'Etat ne travaille pas de façon coordonnée avec les autres services décentralisés ni avec les autres acteurs du département. Tableau 11 : Décentralisation des organes étatiques au Burkina Faso.La gestion de l'eau au niveau villageois sera donc assurée par la Mairie et non par le Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Hydraulique et des Ressources Halieutiques.Toutefois, dans la pratique, la gestion des infrastructures hydrauliques est encore largement sous l'influence du Monastère. Bien que depuis 2001, l'ONG BdE prenne la dévolution du Monastère pour la gestion, l'entretien et la réhabilitation de ces barrages. Qualifiant l'action du Monastère de « trop paternaliste », l'ONG belge, Broederlijk Delen (BD), a pris la relève dans ses actions concernant la gestion de l'eau. Motivée par une gestion durable des ressources en eau, l'ONG est convaincue que cette durabilité réside en l'appropriation des ouvrages et de leur gestion par les populations. Selon ses principes, l'ONG BD met en place 12 comités de gestion de l'eau de 12 petits barrages construits par le Monastère dont celui de Toukoumtouré. En accompagnant progressivement ces comités, l'objectif de BD est de promouvoir l'autonomie de gestion de l'eau par les usagers euxmêmes.Le comité de gestion de Toukoumtouré et intensification des conflits Créé en décembre 2003 par l'ONG BD, le comité de gestion du barrage compte aujourd'hui 140 membres (87 cultivateurs, 37 jardiniers, 16 éleveurs inscrits mais aucun pêcheur). Douze représentants sur les 13 appartiennent au quartier de migrant de Toukoumtouré c'est-à-dire au plus près du barrage. Seul le secrétaire appartient à la famille royale assurant leur représentation et leur vigilance. Sous les conseils de l'ONG, deux femmes migrantes ont pris des responsabilités dans ce comité de gestion (secrétaire adjoint + commissaire au compte). Cependant, la représentativité de ce comité de gestion semble assez mauvaise puisque tous les membres sont hommes et presque tous mossis 36 et aucun maraîcher de Toukoumtouré n'y est inclus.Depuis le prélèvement des taxes en 2003, les conflits latents entre éleveurs et maraîchers se sont exacerbés (Cf. récits des conflits en annexe).Par ailleurs, les taxes inscrites dans le règlement intérieur ne correspondent pas à la réalité. Les différences entre taxes prescrites et taxes effectives sont assez significatives des rapports de forces entre les utilisateurs : Il apparaît clairement que les maraîchers ont su abaisser les taxes à leur avantage. Essentiellement Peuls, les éleveurs n'ont, à l'inverse, rien pu négocié.Les taxes ont fait apparaître deux groupes en opposition : -les éleveurs migrants formant le comité de gestion et n'ayant pas d'accès aux terres de maraîchage, -les maraîchers natifs possédant la terre se regroupant entre maraîchers en cas de litige grave. A l'intermédiaire, les migrants arrivés récemment tentent de rester le plus neutre possible.L'association « Koom la Viim » et le conflit avec le monastère Créée par le coopérant local de l'ONG BD en novembre 2004 et reconnue par les autorités en septembre 2005, l'association Koom la Viim reçoit l'appui financier de la part de BD et d'un financement ponctuel de l'ambassade de France au Burkina ; ce qui lui a permis de réhabiliter cinq barrages qui avaient été endommagés en 2005. Koom la Viim prétend avoir été créé par les comités de gestion des barrages et servir de porte-parole ou encore de « chercheur » de financement au nom de ces comités.Cette association impose aux comités de verser une taxe de 12 500 FCFA /an pour les réparations de l'ensemble des barrages pris en charge par celle-ci dont un pourcentage assurera sa pérennité.Mais après l'effondrement de la digue, le monastère a entrepris les réparations sans recevoir aucun financement des cotisations du comité de gestion de Toukoumtouré. Petit à petit, le conflit entre le monastère et l'association s'envenime et se répercute au niveau villageois, les utilisateurs ne sachant plus à qui verser les cotisations. Le manque de transparence au niveau de la caisse du comité augmente la méfiance entre les représentants (migrants) et les maraîchers (natifs) et aggrave leurs relations.Pour la réparation du barrage de Toukoumtouré en 2004, le monastère n'a pas reçu un sou de la caisse du comité de gestion de Toukoumtouré. Accusant ces coopérants « d'apprendre à voler légalement », le frère Adrien « porte plainte contre Koom la Viim et refuse catégoriquement de participer à leurs activités tant qu'il n'aura pas récupéré les 400 000 FCFA investis dans les travaux de réparation » (Frère Adrien, 2007).Avec le motif que seul le monastère est connu des populations de Tanvi, le Naba, impuissant dans cette situation conflictuelle, somme le monastère de ne pas se retirer de la gestion des barrages « l'association n'a pas sensibilisé suffisamment les utilisateurs ».Infrastructure moderne et société traditionnelle Sur le plan coutumier, l'accès au foncier détermine fortement l'accès à l'eau du barrage car le foncier est une zone de contrôle de l'espace et de ses ressources naturelles. Le tableau 13 classe les acteurs coutumiers selon leur accès au foncier, résume les différents accès selon ces acteurs et leurs prélèvements d'eau puis met en relation l'accès à la terre avec l'accès à l'eau.Néanmoins, si la valorisation des terres due à l'implantation d'un barrage par des acteurs modernes entraîne une pression foncière forte et donc, une appropriation des terres par les familles royales, l'accès à l'eau et sa gestion passent également par d'autres processus. Comme évoqué précédemment, les migrants peuvent accéder aux terres près de la retenue avec des clauses sociales particulières. A partir des enquêtes, le constat selon lequel les migrants arrivés très récemment bénéficient d'un accès plus facile aux terres de maraîchage et possèdent relativement plus de motopompes que les familles royales (27 contre 18 %), conduit à penser que ces migrants ont un pouvoir économique plus important que ces familles aristocratiques qui leur permet de mettre en valeur ces terres de maraîchage.Par ailleurs, le contrôle du comité de gestion du barrage par la communauté migrante témoigne d'une tentative de récupération du pouvoir sur l'eau du barrage qui leur était destinée au départ.La mise en place de cette infrastructure a déclenché des processus d'innovations et d'adaptations en chaîne que les organisations traditionnelles Mossi ne parviennent plus à contrôler. En effet, la gestion de barrage n'est pas inscrites dans les prérogatives du Naba de Tanvi « j'ai un territoire trop vaste, je ne peux pas m'occuper des problèmes de l'eau » (Tanvi Naba, 2007). Les organisations coutumières commencent à montrer leurs limites en terme de flexibilité et de capacité à s'adapter aux changements.Le pouvoir séculier à l'interface entre moderne et traditionnel Aujourd'hui, le Monastère s'étend sur plus de 500 ha sur les terres de Tanvi et la signature de son titre foncier est en cours. Cette institution incarnant le pouvoir traditionnel chrétien conserve son influence sur le plan moderne avec l'obtention de son titre foncier. Il constitue également le vecteur de modernité et d'innovation de Tanvi avec la construction des barrages, la mise en place d'une ferme et de périmètres irrigués employant de la main d'oeuvre locale et avec la formation des populations avec des cours de français, de jardinage, etc. Ayant conscience que son action dépendrait étroitement de la volonté du Naba, le Monastère a su tirer parti de la structure hiérarchique Mossi. Reconnaissant l'importance des autorités traditionnelles, il utilise le pouvoir du Naba pour les constructions de barrages. Par ailleurs, en tant qu'acteur moderne, cette autorité religieuse parvient à obtenir des financements externes (des gouvernements, de Rome, de particuliers). En outre, sa grande présence et son image d'institution religieuse sur les terres de Tanvi lui confèrent la confiance et le respect des populations. Cependant, l'entretien de ces barrages ne correspond pas à la vision actuelle du développement qui appelle à une implication directe des populations via une gestion participative.La gouvernance hybride dans le cas de la décentralisation Encore peu visible au niveau local, malgré la proximité de la capitale, l'influence de l'Etat n'est cependant pas inexistante. La présence de fonctionnaires, de commerciaux et de 74/121 ceux qu'on appelle les nouveaux riches implantant leur propriété foncière, témoigne de cette influence. La dynamique de ces nouveaux acteurs traduit les changements politiques de l'échelle plus globale. Conformément aux principes de « bonne gouvernance » de la communauté internationale, l'Etat burkinabé entreprend son processus de décentralisation.Conscient de l'importance et la force des chefferies traditionnelles, l'Etat tente de s'immiscer dans ces structures très hiérarchisées via la mise en place des communes depuis 2006.La menace de ce pouvoir moderne, outrepassant les limites du formel, conduit l'aristocratie royale à participer aux innovations institutionnelles externes, s'imposant à leur structure traditionnelle, de façon à conserver un certain degré de contrôle et maintenir leur système de domination. Ainsi, il n'est pas anodin de voir la famille proche du Naba (généralement ses frères) prendre en charge les rôles administratifs modernes tels que conseillers municipaux, président de CVGT ou une responsabilité dans un comité de gestion de l'eau. On assiste donc à une forme d'hybridation entre pouvoir traditionnel et pouvoir moderne, phénomène observé par Laube lorsqu'il définit « les institutions néotraditionnelles fondées sur l'innovation ou la redéfinition des institutions locales » (Laube, 2006).On peut se demander si le processus de décentralisation ne va pas renforcer les systèmes traditionnels mossis dans la mesure où les familles royales accaparent les nouveaux rôles à jouer offert par la mairie, augmentant le contraste entre les natifs et les migrants, les mossis et les peuls. Au contraire, mis à mal par l'influence du nouveau pôle économique, le pouvoir de ces familles pourrait s'effriter.   Description des liens entre les différentes entités 1. L'accroissement du nombre de maraîchers entraîne :le tarissement de l'eau les mois d'avril et mai depuis l'utilisation des motopompes en 2000, -une forte diminution de la qualité de l'eau due aux intrants et par conséquent la diminution des usages domestiques par les habitants de Toukoumtouré (migrants), -la disparition du stock halieutique couplé à la diminution de la pêche sur ce lac.-Demande de la construction du barrage par les habitants de Toukoumtouré (migrants) au monastère par l'intermédiaire de la famille royale pour une utilisation domestique, -Collaboration entre le monastère et la famille royale pour la construction, l'entretien et la réparation du barrage, -Organisation d'un comité de gestion par l'ONG BD et imposition de règles et de taxes. L'analyse de ces liens doit être complétée avec les principes de pérennité des institutions nécessaires à la gestion durable des ressources naturelles identifiées par Ostrom en 1990 :Les fortes pressions foncières et l'exploitation par des migrants récents témoignent que les limites du socio-écosystème du lac de Toukoumtouré ne sont pas établies.Les maraîchers ont su abaisser les taxes à leur avantage or ce sont ceux qui prélèvent le plus d'eau. A l'inverse les éleveurs ayant un accès de plus en plus réduit payent autant que les maraîchers. Pour éviter de payer les taxes, bien que rare, la pêche se pratique la nuit.Ces arrangements s'organisent en deux groupes: a. le groupe des éleveurs migrants à travers le comité de gestion du barrage mis en place par l'ONG b. et par opposition le groupe des maraîchers face aux conflits croissant.Les taxes sont un moyen de contrôle des utilisateurs du lac de barrages en excluant certains utilisateurs mais ces mécanismes fonctionnent mal et engendrent des conflits. Le responsable du barrage, puis son comité de gestion veille au non respect des interdits mais les règles ne sont pas respectées (ou sont modifiées, cf. la variation des montants des taxes) par les maraîchers qui entrent en conflit avec le comité de gestion.5. Des sanctions échelonnées Lors des conflits entre éleveurs et maraîchers, les maraîchers emmènent les troupeaux à la préfecture.6. Des mécanismes de résolution des conflits En principe, les conflits sont réglés par le comité de gestion du barrage mais en pratique, ils se résolvent soit entre les deux parties -avec parfois l'intervention du président du comité de gestion, soit à la préfecture avec le dépôt des animaux à la fourrière (ce qui est de plus ne plus fréquent), soit, enfin, lors d'une réunion convoquée par le Naba -en cas extrême.7. Une reconnaissance minimale des droits Au sein du comité de gestion, les maraîchers ne sont plus informés des assemblées (car ils n'y participaient pas les premières années), tous les utilisateurs n'étant pas été identifiés ils ne participent pas tous au comité de gestion. Les familles royales ne reconnaissent pas le droit de l'accès à l'eau (à usage domestique et pastorale) des habitants de Toukoumtouré. Les droits et devoirs des maraîchers sont gouvernés par les familles royales.L'analyse des liens met en évidence les dysfonctionnements du SES. L'étude des principes Ostromiens pour la pérennité des SES expose de façon plus explicite la crise de gestion des eaux du lac de barrage de Toukoumtouré. Aussi bien sur le plan écologique (pollution, pénurie d'eau) que humain (conflits violents), la dynamique du système paraît délétère.La méthodologie du SES permet de prendre en compte à la fois les dimensions sociales et écologiques dans une perspective dynamique. Son avantage est d'être applicable pour travailler à différentes échelles. Néanmoins, il est difficile de délimiter le système à étudier dans la mesure où les dynamiques écologiques ne fonctionnent pas en système fermé. De la même façon, les dynamiques sociales ne se restreignent pas aux villages entourant la zone d'étude surtout dans une perspective historique.Par ailleurs, ces situations de crises méritent de s'attarder plus longtemps sur le jeu d'acteurs. Face aux limites de l'approche des SES, une approche plus transversale telle que celle développée par Trottier en 2005, axée sur l'analyse des réseaux semble nécessaire pour compléter ce modèle conceptuel.Avant les indépendances, le bassin du Nariarlé était une zone très forestière et fertile mais encore hostile du fait de la présence de maladies telles que la trypanosomiase et l'onchocercose ainsi que du manque d'eau. Dès son arrivée après les indépendances, le monastère développe les infrastructures fournissant l'eau dans le bassin du Nariarlé. Les famines causées par les grandes sécheresses de 1968, 1973 et 1984 attirent des populations dans ce bassin caractérisé par la proximité de Ouagadougou. Aujourd'hui, le bassin du Nariarlé, totalement déforesté et défriché, souffre d'une démographie qu'il ne peut supporter. L'eau ne suffit plus. Les pressions foncières et le manque d'eau engendrent une crise de plus en plus aiguë.Par ailleurs, cette étude souligne l'importance des institutions coutumières dans la gestion de l'eau et du foncier, en dépit de l'influence substantielle des nouveaux acteurs liés à la proximité de la capitale qui les déstabilisent. Les organisations de la société civile tentent de compenser ces asymétries de pouvoir en imposant la mise en place de comités de gestion, mais ces derniers sont accaparés par les moins nantis. Du fait de la diversité des acteurs et des institutions formelles et informelles, le système semble peu efficace pour gérer les crises, et peut même occasionner des incertitudes croissantes. Comme l'écrit Laube « Cette pluralité juridique et les conflits institutionnels sur les pouvoirs et les ressources entraînent une part d'insécurité pour les citoyens locaux. La légitimité de ces autorités locales va du traditionnel au moderne en passant par le néo-traditionnel. La légitimité des autorités néo-traditionnelles est fondée sur l'innovation ou la redéfinition des institutions locales qui n'ont jamais existés de la sorte auparavant mais sont présentés comme des traditions atemporelles » (Laube, 2006). En effet, toute action pour le développement, qu'ils proviennent de la société civile ou de l'Etat, ne semble réalisable sans l'aval des chefs coutumiers.La construction d'une infrastructure moderne telle que le barrage permettant les cultures maraîchères sur les terres autour du lac de Toukoumtouré initie une série de processus innovants tels que les évolutions des cultures de cycle court à long, l'utilisation d'engrais et de pesticides, l'utilisation de motopompes… Ces innovations débordent les mécanismes de régulation institués par les autorités coutumières qui ne prévoient pas de juridiction spécifique sur l'accès à l'eau.Les prélèvements de l'eau de Toukoumtouré sont limités au fur et à mesure que la pression foncière augmente, par l'exclusion de ceux qui ne possèdent pas de droit coutumier sur la terre. Toutefois, ces avantages coutumiers sont remis en cause par la modernité qui développe d'autres sources de revenus. Dès lors, on assiste à l'effritement du pouvoir des chefferies traditionnelles par ces nouveaux riches. Comme le met en exergue Nimy en 2006, « Avec l'appauvrissement du potentiel de production, l'amenuisement des ressources et la mise en valeur d'autres sources de revenus (commerce, immigration, réparation, religion, éducation), les chefs perdent progressivement leur pouvoir économique et, avec lui, leur capacité de dissuasion. […] Ces nouveaux riches, même dans le contexte mossi où la chefferie est très respectée, constituent de nouveaux pôles d'influence. Le chef ne tient plus ses sujets : ni par la menace, ni par la carotte (sauf exception, il ne peut abuser de son pouvoir et n'a plus grand-chose pour intéresser les villageois, ayant du mal à joindre luimême les deux bouts). » (Nimy, 2006).Néanmoins, l'étude révèle l'incapacité à la fois des institutions traditionnelles et des institutions modernes d'anticiper les changements liés aux innovations.La raréfaction accentuée des ressources en eau, en raison du déficit hydrique et de la croissance de la demande, contraint les autorités internationales et nationales des pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest à prendre des mesures efficaces pour assurer une meilleure gouvernance de l'eau.Cependant notre étude a montré qu'en dépit des avertissements, émis lors du sommet de la terre de Rio de Janeiro en 1992, sur la nécessité de prendre en compte l'environnement institutionnel dans les projets de développement, l'élaboration des futurs cadres politiques, législatifs et institutionnels pour une gestion intégrée des ressources en eau reste encore calquée sur un modèle européen. Comme l'écrit Hugon en 2007, « l'économie du développement traduit un projet modernisateur, occidentalo-centriste, non universalisable fondé sur une conception utilitariste ». Cette conception est à l'origine des transferts technologiques, de la greffe d'un Etat de droit et du plaquage de la démocratie à des sociétés africaines dont le contexte institutionnel diffère substantiellement. Par ailleurs, le nouveau cadre institutionnel pour la gestion des ressources en eau n'a pas été établi en lien avec la gestion du foncier. Or, comme le montre Hodgson, 2004, une gestion intégrée des ressources en eau est indissociable des questions foncières.L'analyse institutionnelle locale que nous avons réalisée en mobilisant la grille d'analyse fournie par le concept de système socio-écologique a fait ressortir deux éléments majeurs : d'une part une forte dégradation de la qualité de l'eau et des terres inondées causées par l'utilisation croissante d'intrants et d'autre part, l'aggravation des conflits sur l'eau laissant percevoir une situation de crise qui, au regard des dynamiques à l'oeuvre, risque de s'exacerber.Les dégradations environnementales constituent l'un des produits (évidemment non attendu) du productivisme agricole, les institutions coutumières ne prévoyant pas de régulations adéquates pour les effets induits par ces progrès techniques. En effet, les infrastructures modernes, telles qu'un barrage (Toukoumtouré), des routes pour un meilleur accès au marché (proximité de la capitale), constituent des changements structurels dont la gestion et l'utilisation échappent aux institutions traditionnelles. Qualifiées de « slow-moving institutions » (De Laiglesia, 2006), ces institutions coutumières ne parviennent pas toujours à s'adapter à des changements technologiques rapides, qui modifient également les organisations sociales. Forts de ce constat, les développeurs s'orientent vers des transferts de règles pour une gestion durable des ressources naturelles.L'imposition d'un nouveau cadre institutionnel formel (à travers le processus de décentralisation et la mise en oeuvre de la GIRE), l'hétérogénéité des actions de la société civile (monastère, ONG) et la résilience des structures traditionnelles face aux chocs exogènes, rendent la gouvernance pour les ressources naturelles au niveau local plus floue. Basées sur les principes de la participation, ces nouveaux systèmes de réglementation contribuent aux « risques de décalcomanie » des pays du Nord vers ceux du Sud (Hugon, 2007). Phagocytées et réappropriées, les institutions traditionnelles s'hybrident au contact des institutions modernes; une telle dynamique institutionnelle semble susceptible de favoriser la confusion dans les règles d'usage et de gestion de l'eau. Sur notre terrain d'étude, le décalage entre ces deux types d'institutions semble de nature à renforcer l'exclusion des groupes les plus marginaux et les inégalités de genre. Une telle dynamique résulte notamment de l'inégale capacité d'adaptation des différents groupes ethniques, lignagers ou familiaux. L'émergence d'une forme de propriété privée joue également un rôle dans cette dynamique d'exclusion de certains acteurs de l'accès à l'eau ou aux terres cultivables qui se traduit par une détérioration de leurs moyens de subsistance ou une réduction de leurs « capabilités » (Sen, 1999). La compétition entre les acteurs dépendants des ressources disponibles pour subsister, pour l'accès à ces dernières devient plus rude et les conflits plus aigus.Si l'on s'accorde sur le fait que les institutions visent, par essence, à définir une place et des interactions entre les agents, à réduire l'incertitude liée aux comportements stratégiques de ces derniers, à faciliter leur coordination, à façonner leurs préférences et objectifs dans le sens de l'intérêt général (Boyer, 2007), on est amené à conclure que la transposition des normes occidentales aux spécificités de contextes africains ne génère pas l'effet recherché.Comment résoudre cette complexité institutionnelle afin de donner une réelle portée aux conventions internationales de façon à ce qu'elles se traduisent effectivement par une amélioration des manières d'agir au niveau local ?Démêler cette complexité invite à discuter du paradoxe du changement institutionnel : Les institutions sont-elles porteuses de changements de façon endogène ou constituent-elles un frein aux changements externes ? Photo 9 : Femme peul à Tanvi, département de Koubri.Extrait de la « Full Proposal 2007 »In your EoI you provided an overview of the team competencies in the six work packages. We ask you now to refer back to the EoI 'BFP Methodological Guidelines' and provide us with a concise explanation of your approach to delivering the outputs of each of the packages. While there is a predefined 'approach and activities', these are not exclusive. Alternative innovative approaches can be included in the proposal, as long as they are supported by a description of their efficiency and effectiveness compared to the methodologies already identified, or are more appropriate for the data available. Having said this, it is also important that there is sufficient complementarity with other BFPs to enable comparative analysis of the data and results with other basins. Your research must provide all of the outputs identified in the BFP Methodological Guidelines that accompanied the EOI. When responding to the various requests below please be cognizant with the 'study process' activities at the end of the methodological paper. Each bullet point should be no longer than 300 words. First state the name of the partner involved before describing your approach and competency in the individual packages.The Niger Basin Focal Project aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the basin through five main themes. Analysis of poverty, water availability and access, agricultural water productivity, institutional context and intervention opportunities will be carried on and integrated to understand the links between these issues. Key basin stakeholders will be involved throughout the project (rapid basin assessment, data collection, feedback on the results and dissemination).On the Niger River Basin, the poor are rural farmers who practice mostly rain-fed agriculture and livestock farming. Issues such as household access to food and water, vulnerability to droughts, environmental security and water related diseases are key factors of the geographical distribution of the poverty. Determinants of livelihoods and vulnerability will be analysed at the local, subbasin and basin level. Several problems of water availability and access arise, such as the upstream-downstream competition and increasing water demand and decreasing flows notably due to recent climatic changes. The Niger BFP will assess the current conditions of water use and test the influence of scenarios (such as population increase, multiplication of water infrastructures, and climate change) on water resource sharing. Spatial and temporal dimensions in the variability in water productivity of different crops and fibres products will be computed from field data and remote sensing works at different scales (regional, sub-regional or local). A particular focus will be put on the complementary agropastoralist activities and interaction between climate and rural societies. This approach will indicate where insecure production occurs and which social and biophysical environments may be involved.On the other hand, in West Africa, the interactions between the national and traditional local levels are central to address land and water management issues in poor rural areas. Thus an integrated institutional analysis will be implemented to ensure that interventions at national and basin scales and traditional local dynamics are compatible. Analysis of key factors of conflicts or success and robustness of institutional arrangements will allow to assess the impacts of water development projects on such a complex web of conflicting and cooperative relationships, with a particular focus on gender issues.Stakeholder analysis and study of past and present interventions will enable to identify waterrelated interventions that could help to improve land and water productivity and reduce poverty in an ecologically benign manner, assess ex-ante the potential impact of those interventions and prepare comprehensive recommendations for different stakeholders.The five thematic analyses will result in the creation of a knowledge base, including a web-based spatial database and gathering such content as the maps created with the analysed variables and the references of the raw data used, under international metadata standard to facilitate dissemination. Finally, through the impact pathways approach, the Niger BFP will contribute to development strategies at the basin scale, with a geographic component (poverty hot spots) and a thematic component (development topics of particular relevance in the basin: the key issues). The project will result in the identification of high potential development actions and research themes in the basin. Despite a general consensus on the need to reduce poverty, there remains vigorous debate on the description and measure of poverty. As a corollary, the WP1 review will synthesise the poverty analysis, vulnerability assessment and resilience or adaptive capacity literatures. Poverty measures current status in a static manner whereas vulnerability analysis predicts impacts on an identifiable population under conditions of specified risks. Proponents argue that the predictive capacity of vulnerability analysis directs development interventions, seeking ways to enhance livelihoods and support institutions in their role of poverty reduction (Cannon et al., 2000). Drèze and Sen (1989) provide the theoretical foundation by introducing entitlements, endowments, capabilities and potentialities as elements of a systematic analysis of vulnerability.The review aims to identify techniques that can bridge the gap between impact analysis and policy formulation.Literature addressing the adaptive governance of water based systems will yield important insights to assuage criticism of assumed static, passive responses by communities to hazards and stressors, and indicate capacities to mediate, resist and adapt. We will focus on the social dimension that enables adaptive water system management, concentrating on cases that describe incremental but large change and investigate social sources of renewal and reorganisation. A primary focus of the literature review is to identify methodologies that enable spatial, temporal and institutional differentiation of poverty at multiple scales. This will allow to mitigate the effects of data aggregation to macro scales which may disguise poverty heterogeneity across the Niger River basin. Insights will provide the basis to evaluate current methodologies that best describe the relationship between priority poverty areas, surface water resource condition and region specific water management. Proposed data sources are summarised in Table 1.Etc… requirements), strategies and specified development priority will be analyzed (PRSP). Legislative texts and governmental organizations will be identified and examined. A rapid assessment of projects and private or public donors' investments (such as African Development Bank) will bring out general trend of top-down orientations.-Using a 'top-down' approach, the study will go down step by step in the law implementation until the local level. Customary laws regarding water resources still play a central role in the livelihoods of the largest part of the Niger basin population determining water access, uses and allocations (Ramazzotti, 1996;Cotula, 2006). The relevant data collected from the survey and studies review will be completed by the results of case studies -performed together with WP3 -in order to explore the problem of merging customary and modern laws. Indeed, the latter remains a critical issue to the improvement of the Niger Basin's institutional efficiency.Approach and activities to detailed assessments -How do you propose to carry out the detailed assessment? What primary and secondary data will be assembled and how will they be analyzed? MAX 300 wordsThe local institutions play a central role in the livelihoods of the Niger basin's population, e.g. for water access (Cotula, 2006). Nevertheless customary rights are often unrecognized by governmental authorities, who face difficulties to enforce modern rights. Therefore, customary rights still prevail but are less secure than modern rights, particularly on land tenure (Schlager and Ostrom, 1992). A particular focus will be brought on this lack of security that proved to have adverse effects on long-term investments in the resource and in the physical structure (e.g. irrigation infrastructure).In order to better understand the consequences of decentralization processes currently undertaken in many countries in the basin (e.g. since 1999 in Mali or 2001 in Burkina-Faso) at the local level, target population will be pinpointed and relevant data from surveys and studies will be collected.Then, a classification of this sample based on socio-economical criteria (in particular using vulnerability analysis from WP1) will be performed. Specific field studies could be carried out to complete or verify secondary data. Decentralization process involves local groups that are not homogeneous but comprise different ethnic groups who face conflicts of interests, in particular involving migrants who are not integrated to the native communities (Hodgson, 2004;Béridogo, 2006). Thus, it is crucial to have a good grasp of the complexity of the web of power relations surrounding water management. Trottier J. ( 2000) developed a methodology to explore \"hydro-political constellations\", where social control over water resources is broken up between a multiplicity of formal, informal, customary and \"modern\" institutions. This methodology will be used to complete the analysis of the effects of institutional attributes on water productivity, poverty, food and environmental security. This approach will be connected with the socio-ecological Systems analysis as proposed by Anderies and al.(2004). Both of them will be implemented through the focus on the case studies described below.out what policies and institutional changes would be required to increase water productivity in ways that alleviate poverty and release water from agriculture for use by the environment and other sectors of the economy? MAX 300 words According to De Laiglesia (2006) \"fast-moving\" institutions encompass legal and political systems. But adoption of innovations or changes in local practices requires policies in adequacy with sociocultural norms (\"slow-moving\" institutions).The analytical framework of \"robustness of socio-ecological system\" (Anderies et al.,2004) will be used to identify high-potential institutional changes -e.g. institutional changes required to increase water productivity in a sustainable way. The results of literature survey (identification of the factors of adaptability of local regimes under the threats of pressures) and of case studies and further investigations on what occurs behind selected local \"success stories\" -e.g. long enduring sustainable community based water resource management system-will contribute to better understand positive dynamic interactions between institutional factors, water productivity and poverty alleviation. Among high-potential institutional changes, women empowerment appears as an important one (Van Koppen,2001). In most of the Niger basin countries the farming system is dual -husbands and wives have separate agricultural production (Cotula,2002). Our case studies will be selected in order to analyse the construction of gendered water and land rights -under both traditional regimes and externally supported water infrastructure -and to assess its impacts on water productivity and poverty alleviation (Van Koppen, 1997,1998). Thus, the following case studies are proposed:• The \"Office du Niger\" (Mali): the good performances of this large scheme of irrigated rice created in 1932, led to have this system considered as an example (Table 4).• The Inner Delta, which was largely documented (Barrière, 2002 ;De Noray,2003 ;Brondeau, 2006) -see Table 5.• The Bamileke region (North-West Cameroon), which hosts efficient agricultural terroirs.Results of relevant success stories and hot spot assessment in terms of robustness and key institutional factors of success will provide a major input into the intervention analysis by WP5.Approach and activities to information packages -What institutional information will be generated and how will it be packaged and disseminated and/or used in the other work packages? MAX 300 wordsThe WP4 will produce the following outputs:-Inventory of policies, projects and literature compilation will form a Data Bank available for all stakeholders of the nine riparian countries, which will be facilitated by the WP6 activities.-In-depth analysis through the inventory of the relevant monographs, case studies and mapping of the legal framework -which would be a mosaic and mixture of modern and traditional, formal and informal laws-will provide a better knowledge on key institutions and their performance in terms of poverty alleviation and food security. Besides, the key factors of conflict or success and robustness will be identified and linked with WP1, 3 and 5.-A conceptual 'Hydro-power' map allows stakeholders to perceive how his/her strategy interacts with those of other stakeholders at the different institutional scales (local, national, regional). A \"hydro-political impact assessment methodology\" will be developed in order to assess the impacts of any water development project on such a web of competitive and cooperative relationships.-Documentation and diffusion of high potential institutional arrangements through policy briefs, working papers, and peer reviewed articles, -Interactive presentation of the results (using for example maps or games) will be submitted to key basin stakeholders, in particular from national departments and NBA with the facilitation of the basin coordinator, -Final write up within the project final reports, including a detailed technical report, an atlas and a summary for policy makers.-Activities will be continuously carried out in close cooperation with other work packages, in particular using the twice monthly activity reports with the other WPs by e-conferencing. Frequent consultation of experts of other CPWF institutional analyses will be sought, e.g. Volta BFP (led by IRD G-EAU) and CP 47 \"Transboundary Water Governance\".First, the proposed approach will deal with the complexity of the traditional institutions and their interaction with the \"modern\" authorities. This is central as the two systems are related to two different types of poor in the basin. Moreover, the traditional authorities have been until now kept aside from development perspectives. It is nevertheless crucial to integrate them as they have an important potential for poverty alleviation. The WP activities will also include an in-depth assessment of the gender-related aspects of water access and productivity, as women are often under-represented in institutional arrangements in spite of their major role in natural resources management and agricultural activities.Besides, the WP4 approach is a dynamic one: the adaptability to change and the robustness of the institutional arrangements will be assessed, in particular with the detailed case studies described above. The role of exogenous threats like climatic conditions (such as droughts in 1983-84), increasing population (as the result of natural growth and migrations), and politic instability (civil war), must not be underestimated in poverty analysis. Such disturbances have been found to cause serious threats to traditional property regimes (Runge, 1992;Bromley, 1992), and understanding of the adaptability to change of long-enduring sustainable water resource property regimes is needed to better understand the institutional dynamic of the Niger Basin. This approach will thus be closely linked to the vulnerability and livelihood assessment (WP1) and the intervention analysis (WP5).Finally the WP4 activities will benefit from the input of other CPWF projects on that issue, e.g. the Volta BFP (led by IRD), in which ENGREF (member of the team) is already involved, and the CP 47 (\"Transboundary Water Governance\") on the Volta and Limpopo basins. Moreover Madiodio Niasse (GWP) has joined the project team and will thus strengthen the basin-specific institutional expertise.Liste des enquêtés Un groupe de conquérants cavaliers, venus de l'est parvint sans doute vers fin du XIVe siècle dans le nord du Ghana actuel et y établit progressivement sa domination: de cette conquête sont nés les royaumes Mamprusi, Dagomba et Nanumba. C'est vers la fin du XVe siècle que sont apparues les premières formations politiques mossies dans le sud du bassin de la Volta Blanche. A l'origine de leur histoire, les Mossis placent un héros fondateur, Naba Ouédraogo (naba: Chef ; Ouédraogo: étalon), fils d'une princesse royale de la dynastie mamprusi. Le peuple mooga (sing. de mossi) actuel s'est constitué progressivement par l'alliance entre les conquérants venus du sud (nakombsé) et les membres des multiples groupes ethniques autochtones, les tengdemba ou «gens de la terre», les nakombsés détenant le pouvoir politique, les tengtemba étant les détenteurs du pouvoir religieux lié à la terre (culte de la fertilité et de rites funéraires). Dès la seconde génération de l'histoire des Mossis, les nakombsés occupent la quasi-totalité du bassin de la Volta Blanche. Au temps des conquêtes (XVIe s.) succéda celui de la formation de royaume, aux dynasties apparentées entre elles. Et de la stabilisation des frontières extérieures du pays mooga, le Moogo (fin du XVI ème -début du XVII ème siècle) ; par la suite jusqu'à la fin du XIXe siècle, la carte politique du Moogo variera peu. A compter du XVIIe siècle, le Moogo est partagé en deux grandes zones d'influence : une zone centrale, la plus importante, dominée par le royaume de wogodogo (Ouagadougou), dont le souverain porte le titre de Moogo Naba (chef du moogo), et une zone septentrionale, dominée par le Yatenga. L'apogée de la puissance mooga se situe au XVIIIe siècle, avec les règnes de Naba Warga à Wogodogo et de Naba Kango dans le Yatenga.L'islam est introduit à la cour de Wogodogo par le Moogo naba dulugu (1796 ?-1825 ?), mais la conversion superficielle d'une partie de la haute aristocratie du royaume n'entraîne aucune modification notable dans les croyances de la population. Dans la seconde moitié du XIX ème siècle, de sérieuses menaces pèsent sur le royaume de Wogodogo: révoltes intérieures, pression, à l'ouest, d'anciens mercenaires d'origines zerma (Niger actuel), qui dominent les populations gourounsi, entre la volta rouge et la volta noir, puis visées de Samori et de ses adversaires européens, Français et Anglais. L'histoire du Yatenga moderne s'ouvre avec le règne de Naba Kango (1757-1787), artisan d'une politique de centralisation du pouvoir. Peu à près sa mort, de graves conflits internes affaiblissent le royaume, tandis qu'à partir des années 1830 les Peuls du Masina (Mali actuel) menacent ses frontières septentrionales et orientales.A partir de 1879, le Yatenga s'enfonce progressivement dans un conflit dynastique qui va bientôt prendre les dimensions d'une guerre civile sans merci, et qui, en 1895, va permettre aux français, installés depuis peu à Bandiagara (Mali actuel), de se poser en médiateurs entre les deux ennemies de l'aristocratie du Yatenga. Le Yatenga devient protectorat français en 1895, sous le règne de Naba Baogo; la même année, les Français pénètrent dans Ouagadougou, dont le souverain, Naba Wobgo, a pourtant signé l'année précédente un traité de protectorat avec un représentant du gouvernement britannique: le royaume de wogodogo passe l'année suivante (1896)   • Ne pas détourner de biens Avec arrosoir : 1000 Fcfa/an -Eleveurs : 2500 Fcfa/an à partir de 10 têtes de bétail • La pêche est interdite. La retenue d'eau, peu profonde la pêche soulève la vase et les particules, l'eau devient alors inutilisable par les motopompes pour le maraîchage.• Il est interdit de laver les vêtements au bord.• Le maraîchage au bord de la retenue est interdite car provoque le comblement de la pièce d'eau.• Paiement d'une taxe de 12 500 Fcfa/an pour la caisse globale de l'association « Koom la Viim », cette taxe n'a pas été officialisée dans le règlement intérieur du comité de gestion.Toute mésentente sera d'abord réglée à l'amiable par le bureau à travers les conseillers. En cas d'impossibilité, le litige sera porté à la connaissance des autorités locales pour résolution.Progressivement, deux groupes se sont formés au sein des membres du comité de gestion : • l'un constitué correspondant aux responsables des différents organes de ce comité essentiellement les éleveurs migrants de Toukoumtouré • l'autre rassemblant l'ensemble des maraîchers essentiellement natifs (les migrants se faisant plus discrets) Le dialogue entre ces deux groupes est impossible. En cas de litige entre maraîcher et éleveur, le règlement se fait soit directement à l'amiable entre les deux parties (mais sans intervention du bureau) soit par recours à la préfecture (ce mode de règlement étant de plus en plus employé depuis 2 ans avec la fourrière). En cas de litige grave (mars 2007), le Naba a convoqué une assemblée générale entre maraîchers et éleveurs Conflits au niveau des fournisseurs d'infrastructure : Manque de transparence au niveau de la comptabilité : Les cotisations sont versés à la caisse population de Kombissiri, une contribution annuelle de 12 500 Fcfa est versée à Koom la Viim pour constituer un fond d'entretien global pour l'ensemble des comités de gestion de barrage. Les réparations sont effectuées par le monastère qui n'obtiendra rien de ces fonds. Situation géographique du fleuve Niger …………………………………….Hydrographie du fleuve Niger et son bassin de drainage ………………… Carte 3 :Situation géographique du Burkina Faso …………………………………… Carte 4 :Les bassins hydrographiques au Burkina Faso …………………………......Localisation du barrage de Toukoumtouré dans le bassin du Nariarlé ......Carte administrative du Burkina Faso et du département de Koubri …….Limites des zones d'influences des différentes chefferies ...………..............Cultures Maraîchères autour de Toukoumtouré (2006Toukoumtouré ( -2007) ) ……………        Evolution de l'accès à l'eau au niveau de Toukoumtouré………………...Les usages de l'eau du barrage de Toukoumtouré ……………………….. ","tokenCount":"20727"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0084839b4d2ece9a90f0348e28f073a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ce7e012e-a430-4812-b010-50e9fd947743/retrieve","id":"1173721740"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a1c0ef5c-f9b5-4e8a-b604-79c9ee4b261e","pagecount":"2","content":"ILRI is supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License ILRI works with partners worldwide to help poor people keep their farm animals alive and productive, increase and sustain their livestock and farm productivity, and find profitable markets for their animal products. ILRI's headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya; we have a principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and 14 offices in other regions of Africa and Asia. ILRI is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (www.cgiar.org), which works to reduce hunger, poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries by generating and sharing relevant agricultural knowledge, technologies and policies.The East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is a regional industry development program implemented by a consortium of partners led by Heifer International. It is currently being piloted in 18 sites in Kenya, 8 in Rwanda and 27 in Uganda. The overall goal of the project is to transform the lives of 179,000 families, or about 1 million people, by doubling household dairy income in 10 years through integrated interventions in dairy production, market access and knowledge application. This brief highlights key results of a baseline survey that was carried out with the objective of providing information on cattle production systems and the current feeding practices in smallholder households in selected sites in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Details are available in the baseline survey report No. 3.Why: To assess the baseline situation of dairy farmers and their communities at the start of the project, and to identify key constraints dairy farmers and market agents face and opportunities for overcoming them through targeted project interventions.Where: Three survey sites in Rwanda and five each in Kenya and Uganda; two control sites in Kenya and one each in Rwanda and Uganda What: Community, household and market agent surveys How: 75 households and 20 market agents sampled per site. Focus group discussions for the community survey; structured questionnaire for the household and market agent surveys.Feed systems for both exotic and local cattle breeds are changing over time. This shift presents opportunities to supplement fodder through provision of high-quality forages and concentrates. A large diversity was observed in the types of feed resources used by dairy households; these included Napier grass, crop by-products, hay, maize stover, weeds and cut grass. Napier grass and other crop by-products were the most commonly used forages in Rwanda and Uganda, while in Kenya, Napier grass and maize stover were most commonly used. Across all three countries, the greatest proportion of farmers (over 90%) sourced fodder from their own farms, though in Uganda, growing of fodder on state land was an important source of fodder for about half (53%) of farmers. Breeding services preferred Overall in all three countries, households preferred to use bull service over AI. However, there were a few hubs where a greater proportion of households preferred AI; these were Mukono in Uganda, Bwisanga in Rwanda and Kabiyet in Kenya.Very few dairy farmers were observed to conserve feed across all three countries. The non-silage based methods of traditional stacking under a shade and stacking in a store were used by the highest number of cattle-keepers.Use of concentrate feed was very low across all countries, especially in Uganda, but was generally higher than 10 years ago. Concentrates were reportedly used by 33% and 12% of cattle-keeping households in Kenya and Rwanda, respectively. In Uganda, only 4% of cattle-keepers used concentrate feed. This result suggests low supplementation to dairy cows which may be one of the reasons for low milk production.Disclaimer: This material was funded by and is the absolute property of the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) Project. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the EADD Project. The mention of specific organizations or their services, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by EADD in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.For more information, contact Ben Lukuyu (b.lukuyu@cgiar.org) or visit the EADD project website at http://eadairy.wordpress.com","tokenCount":"697"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9de2d671ca834dbbcb2f3449061249cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8302d81c-3d04-4775-b8ba-acb0335bd30c/retrieve","id":"424202886"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1c94e117-9200-4bc4-88e8-bd6310bdb026","pagecount":"17","content":"• To set up a transdisciplinary process to develop a mixed-methods research tool for improving the measurement and understanding of important decisions dyads make on agricultural-and expenditure-related matters within the household, and how these decisions influence specific development outcomes • Pilot the tool in Tanzania within the smallholder cassava value chain Key research questions 1. How do dyads (two spouses) make cassava production, processing, trading, and expenditure-related decisions within the household? 2. Who makes these decisions? 3. Why are these decisions made solely or jointly? 4. How do decision-making processes influence specific food and nutrition security and economic outcomes at household level?photo credit• A key aspect of women's empowerment is the participation of women in important intrahousehold decisions• Quantitative assessments often rely on questions on the identity of the decision maker(s) to determine women's participation• And less focus on understanding why women make decisions, how decisions get made, or on women's roles in decision-making processes• Furthermore, questions are often developed using etic (outsider) perspectives, when emic (insider) perspectives are a critical source of information  • Vignette illustrations developed to assist respondents when listening to the vignette stories","tokenCount":"187"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..14e666a1a3833e233caaf8da80b0a2bc4a5477d2
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b8a8c7aebb850c03770fe3f2d0f4181a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a4a0b429-472d-4028-afae-8c0cf107b49b/retrieve","id":"887589525"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"476c8aac-57d3-4650-95af-db25a982147f","pagecount":"16","content":"The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works with partners worldwide to enhance livestock's role in food security and poverty alleviation, principally in Africa and Asia. ILRI is implementing the Livestock and Climate initiative. Livestock and Climate is one of the CGIAR initiatives aiming to enable livestock keepers to increasingly direct their livestock practices to adapt to climate change while improving productivity and reducing GHG emissions from livestock.The purpose of this training manual is to guide field enumerators and supervisors in understanding the survey questionnaire and logistical planning.Based on the results of this survey, we aim to: Identify positive deviant livestock households. The survey data will be used to statistically identify a group of farmers implementing adaptation practices in livestock management in response to climate change that other farmers can learn from.Characterize households at the project sites. The survey data will provide a baseline that will help the research team monitor change and impact during and after project implementation.1The survey will be conducted in Kenyan and Ethiopian highland mixed farming systems for about 40 days in each country.Ethiopia: North Shewa Zone, Amhara Region, covering 3 woredas and 9 kebeles.Kebeles The study population comprises livestock keeper households in highland mixed crop-livestock systems. In Kenya, we target dairy cattle households. In Ethiopia, we target sheep-fattening households.We follow a multi-criteria sampling process. Forests, tea estates and low-scaling-potential wards for Kenya. In Kenya, forests, tea estates and low-scaling-potential wards for Kenya will be masked. In Ethiopia, kebeles that are not part of the pre-selection will be masked. Randomized GPS points will be identified based on the number of households per ward/kebele. In Kenya, 500 GGPS-marked sampling points will be distributed randomly per county after the selection of wards. In Ethiopia, three woredas were selected, as explained below, and then 330 GGPS-marked sampling points will be distributed randomly across the selected three kebeles/woreda.The households closest to the GPS points will be interviewed if they are also using the adaptation practice in question (dairy, sheep fattening) and if the household is willing to participate; otherwise, the next household will be selected.The person responsible for making decisions on livestock is the person to be interviewed, not necessarily the household head. However, if the household wants to do the interview in a group of up to three people, then this is possible.The wards will be selected based on the agro-ecological zone and their scaling potential.The study will focus on dairy production areas in Nandi and Bomet counties Subcounty and wards for the study will be selected based on the agro-ecological potential for dairy production and the potential for scaling feed production and preservation practices.Based on expert knowledge in the two counties, wards within dairy production zones and with the potential for scaling feed production and preservation practices will be selected.Wards with low scaling potential will be masked.Forests and tea plantation areas will be masked.500 GPS points will be randomized and distributed in each county. High-resolution remote sensing images will be used to ensure each point is within a compound or proximate to households.Forty wards out of 55 have been selected in the two counties based on the above criteria.The wards are distributed in 10 subcounties.Enumerators use GPS to identify the household and will confirm if the household is practising dairy production and if they are willing to participate in the interview.A multi-stage sampling technique will be employed. In the first stage, the study area, the North Showa zone, will be selected because the zone is a mixed-crop livestock system with other ongoing projects. The woreda will be selected by choosing one district/kebele (woreda) inside the study area of another ongoing project and two kebeles per woreda outside their study area/kebele. This will allow us to see how much impact a project like this could have in terms of innovations for adaptation.In the second stage, three will be selected out of 23 woredas in the zone, and three kebeles per woreda. In total, nine kebeles will be selected.There will be a discussion and consultation with each woreda of agriculture and livestock offices to identify the specific project implementation kebele. After the initiative's purpose is discussed, the following site selection criteria will be shared: Supervisors, enumerators, and research associates will be trained extensively to collect accurate information. The data collection team will be supplied with all the necessary equipment. Data will be captured using aComputer-assisted Personal Interview (CAPI).All data collectors will be given a tablet with a preloaded ODK form to record interview responses. Data will be submitted to a central server where research supervisors will monitor progress and check data quality.The interviewer occupies the central position in this research; hence, success depends on the work quality of the interviewers and their supervisors.The interviewer's task is to ask questions and take the necessary measures to record the answers. They must make every effort to obtain complete and accurate answers and record them correctly. The survey's success also depends on the respondents' willingness to cooperate.Interviewers must be polite, patient and tactful.In general, the responsibilities of the interviewers include: Respondents should be given sufficient time during the interview to consider their answers.Interviewers should avoid asking leading questions or suggesting answers. They must make sure that answers are clear before they record them. It is not permitted to alter the answers later.If someone refuses to be interviewed, which rarely happens, this is most likely due to a misunderstanding. However, it is also important to respect that decision and refrain from trying to convince people forcefully. Remember to stress the importance and objective of the study at the beginning. Interviewers should remember to point out that the information will be kept confidential.The interviewers should introduce themselves and convey the information in the oral introduction statement to as many family members as possible.The oral introduction statement explains who they are, the purpose of the research and who they are interested in interviewing.Interviewers will offer a small token of appreciation to the participating households. This is a sign of appreciation for the time the respondents are giving to answer questions. The interviewers will ensure each household receives a token at the end of an interview.The The training will include testing the questionnaire in the field with households that meet the selection criteria but are not selected for the survey.The feedback from the test interview will help the research team finalize the Form and ensure that questions are applicable to the context.Observation and supervision throughout the fieldwork are a part of the training and data collection process. The team supervisor plays an essential role in continuing the training and ensuring the study data quality.The supervisor may:observe some of the interviews to ensure that the interviewers conduct themselves well and ask the questions correctly; organize survey logistics; liaise with security agents in respective sites;spot check some of the interview locations selected for interviews to be sure the interviewers interviewed in the correct locations;review each questionnaire on the tablet to be sure it is complete and consistent;provide feedback on data collection errors; and meet each team member regularly to discuss performance and plan field schedules.The interviewers' presence, interest, participation, commitment, and cooperation are vital during the study period. Their supervisors will do all they can to provide them with the necessary information, training tools, and support to accomplish this research. The workload is to be equally divided and the support equally shared. The following study regulations have been establishedand will be strictly enforced:Presence is required for each day of fieldwork.Except for illnesses or critical issues, any person absent from duty from any part of the data collection without prior approval from the supervisor may be dismissed from the study.Arriving late on data collection days will not be tolerated.The field policy is to prepare team members for the fieldwork assigned to them and explain the legal consequences of misconduct.Working in rural areas means driving on non-tarmac roads to reach farmers for interviews. Sometimes, interviewers may have to travel on foot.The team will stay several days away from cities; therefore, hotels may not always be of high standard.Working hours are flexible, but the team should try to use their time in the field to the best effect. However, they should not overcrowd their schedules with appointments, risking that they may be unable to keep them.The teams constantly strive to be punctual and respectful to all respondents.The whole team, drivers, and researchers must work in unison. All drivers, helpers, assistants and researchers, men and women, deserve equal respect.A woman team leader needs to be able to communicate with male team members in the same way as a male team leader.No disrespect or fake accusations will be tolerated by any team members.Any form of sexual harassment will be reported. There is zero tolerance for this kind of misconduct. This can lead to the termination of the work contract.Drug abuse and alcohol consumption are not permitted and can lead to the termination of the work contract.Fieldwork can be challenging. Therefore, the whole team needs to support each other and aim to make it a success. This common goal should unite them as a team.Should any team member experience or witness any misconduct mentioned above, please report this to the team leader.Should the team leader be the one to be reported, then the assigned contact person at ILRI needs to be contacted with evidence of the misconduct.As data collectors, interviewers are a critical part of the study team. This important role also comes with many important responsibilities.Foremost among these responsibilities are following rules and guidelines for ensuring the welfare of the participants in our research.This section explains the components of the informed consent statement.Background and purpose: this section overviews the study and explains who we are asking to participate in this research.Privacy and confidentiality: this section describes everything we will do to protect the confidentiality of the respondents' information. It also explains any risks to the respondents. We must tell the respondents anything that could affect their participation.Voluntary participation: this section informs people that their participation in the survey is voluntary, that they are under no obligation to participate, and that they can end their participation at any time. They will be reassured that their participation will not affect their relationship with ILRI now or in the future.Benefits to the respondent: this research project has no development or intervention component and no long-term benefits based on today's discussion. However, the findings of this research will be publicly available.Research findings will also be used to lobby for more focus on adaptation in livestock farming for better interventions to support local land users in their efforts to adapt to climate change.Request for more information: this section informs respondents that they can ask for additional information about this research anytime.Electronic signature: this section informs potential respondents that there will be a signature after the respondent gets adequate information about the research.This will be done on the electronic instrument on ODK.Regardless This occurs during and after the data collection period. Supervisors will travel with the data collection teams to observe and ensure their teams adhere to the protocol. They are also available for support and additional training and clarification if needed.Regardless of the data management, a research officer will supervise the survey, conduct training, and monitor fieldwork (monitoring data entry and quality checks). The data collection at the field level will be supervised by two supervisors (a project research associate located onsite in the field and one external supervisor),and 12 enumerators will collect data.Weekly online team meetings and ad hoc meetings will be conducted whenever required to monitor the fieldwork. The field supervisors should report daily to the supervisor, who reports to headquarters weekly in both countries.Meeting notes, decisions made during data collection, participant withdrawal, refusal and replacement and any other relevant information should be documented in the shared folder with a clear file name.How to use electronic data collection (ODK)All tablets will be installed with the ODK collect application. In each module, notes are provided to guide the interviewer in understanding the scope of the questions and tips for asking difficult questions. These questions will be discussed extensively during the training, and areas that need to be improved will be addressed. Interviews will take 1 to 1.5 hours. The speed is likely to improve as interviewers get used to the questions. Gratitude and respect: thank participants for their time, cooperation, and the information.Make your phone silent.Never delegate or transfer tasks or responsibilities to other individuals.Tasks are not transferable.Never make negative comments about respondents and their community in front of them or other communities members, even in front of a local guide.","tokenCount":"2092"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"49bbb3ef2239381e34a8d4143b0e99d7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5ae49b1c-adcd-4cb2-96b2-bfefb010fe2a/retrieve","id":"1520868059"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1078e04e-62ae-4285-8301-328f5d395d69","pagecount":"18","content":"Expanding Utilization of Roots, Tubers and Bananas and Reducing Their Postharvest Losses (RTB-ENDURE) is a 3-year project (2014)(2015)(2016)   (IITA), and CIRAD in collaboration with research and development partners. Our shared purpose is to tap the underutilized potential of root, tuber and banana crops for improving nutrition and food security, increasing incomes and fostering greater gender equity, especially among the world's poorest and most vulnerable populations.  This manual aims at describing how to set up a packhouse for extending the shelf-life of fresh cassava roots by using two technologies, namely waxing and relative humidity storage. In combination with another project output, the user guide \"Fresh cassava roots handling for waxing and relative humidity storage\" this is a valuable resource for entrepreneurs and organization willing to establish and run such a processing plant.All opinions expressed in this manual are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of EU and IFAD.Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is an important source of food and income in Uganda, providing about 20% of the calorific requirement. It is one of the ten commodities that have been prioritized by the Ugandan Government in its Agriculture Sector Strategy Plan (ASSP) 2015/16 to 2019/20. Uganda is the sixth largest producer of cassava in Africa with 4.2 million tons produced in 2010 (UNDP, 2012). It is estimated that 60% of the production is destined for household consumption and 40% for marketing (Kimathi, et al., 2007). Nearly 90% of the population consume cassava in different forms at least once daily (MAAIF/FAO, 2011). It is predominantly grown by subsistence farmers as a staple crop on plots of one to three acres (Mugisa, 2010).The market for fresh cassava is growing driven by population increase, urbanization and changing consumption habits. Fresh cassava is widely consumed both in urban and rural areas as a snack and main meal. Fresh cassava marketing is currently an important source of income (Scoping study, 2014). Uganda has a policy of releasing \"sweet varieties\", i.e., varieties with low levels of cyanogens. These varieties are popular, with consumer demand increasing especially in urban areas, thereby providing income opportunities to both male and female growers and traders. Retailing in fresh cassava is dominated by women. Despite its growth in importance, fresh cassava value chain has not realized its full potential in terms of production, utilization and commercialization.One of the major constraints facing the large-scale production and commercialization of cassava roots is the rapid postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD) that occurs within 48 hours after harvest. PPD rapidly renders the roots unpalatable and unmarketable. Consequently, cassava roots need to be consumed or processed soon after harvesting. Short shelf-life severely limits the marketing options because it increases the likelihood of losses, marketing costs, and limits access to distant urban markets. The application of technologies that extend the cassava shelf-life, such as waxing and relative humidity storage, can increase marketing opportunities and incomes for smallholders as well as contribute to the reduction of postharvest losses that affect directly mainly retailers and indirectly all value chain actors.While cassava waxing and relative humidity storage are in commercial use in other countries, the investment requirements and commercial viability in the Ugandan context was unknown.Hence, the cassava sub-project has set-up two packhouses in order to test the two storage technologies in commercial setting and to build the capacities of a farmers' cooperative and an entrepreneur hosting the plants. This was preceded by an initial capacity building activity to expose smallholder farmers to the pre-requisites of packhouse construction, materials of construction, equipment and the operations.The production of this manual is aimed at sharing the experience gained in the process. The manual can guide public and private sector investment in establishing similar cassava packhouses in other cassava producing countries in Africa and beyond. The bill of materials provided are suggestions only and may vary depending on the location and existing unit of measure for sale of construction materials. A packhouse, in the context of this manual, is a physical structure where fresh cassava roots are consolidated and subjected to shelf-life extension treatment(s) prior to distribution to market outlets. Its location is vital in achieving its goal. Packing of fresh cassava roots in high relative humidity containers and waxing of fresh cassava roots for subsequent packing in appropriate containers are the main processing operations from which the name 'packhouse' is derived. However, a number of other steps are carried out before and after packing of the treated roots. The specific activities in the packhouse include weighing, sorting and grading, washing, disinfecting, drying, storing under high relative humidity, waxing, packaging in crates and loading into distribution vehicle for marketing. All of the activities constitute packhouse operations. A packhouse may be simple or modern, and involving more advanced operations and facilities. This manual focuses on a simple packhouse for smallholder farmers' groups, cooperatives and individual traders. An individual farmer or trader can invest in such a simple packhouse. As business expands and operators gain skills and knowledge, they can improve, expand or upgrade it to a modern packhouse depending on availability of space and financial resources. They may also set up a new modern packhouse.In Uganda the fresh cassava value chain is characterized by numerous consolidation or collection centers that are usually managed by rural assemblers. They serve as collection points where fresh cassava is assembled, packed in bags and later on transported on trucks to consumption areas. Until now, there was no packhouse for the treatment of fresh cassava roots for shelf-life extension.Establishing a packhouse for shelf-life extension of the fresh cassava roots requires a careful analysis of a number of factors that would enable important handling operations to be carried out successfully. Below are some of the factors that require attention. PPD occurs immediately after harvest. Therefore, a packhouse should be located within a cassava production zone so as to allow fresh roots arrive quickly for their treatment to commence. Ideally fresh roots should reach the packhouse within four hours after harvest. Another useful consideration is the existence of cassava varieties that are suitable for treatment and acceptable to consumers in terms of the eating quality. The location must be within easy reach for fresh cassava roots, adequate labour for packhouse operation and, possibly, electricity supply.Plate 1: Field varietal identification  It is critical to conduct an analysis of production level and extent of marketing of the preferred cassava varieties that already exist in the area to ensure that the packhouse will have consistent supply of fresh roots throughout the year at an acceptable price. To reduce the cost of construction, the construction site should be relatively flat but with gentle slope to allow run-off of rain water. Swampy or gully erosion-prone areas should be avoided. A packhouse should have good road infrastructures to allow for easy drop-off and pick-up of fresh cassava in crates. A good road network also implies that the packhouse would be easily accessible to a large number of smallholders and traders. Many rural areas in developing countries lack sufficient supply of clean water for processing of agricultural produce. Availability of clean water is crucial for packhouse's operations. Careful analysis should be made to determine water availability. Where there is lack of public supply of potable water, water supply can be ensured by a deep or shallow well depending on location and fund availability.To reduce the cost of drilling a well, it is advised to target areas that would allow for construction of a shallow well. Therefore, before selecting a location for the construction of the packhouse, it is important to assess existing water supply systems in the area. In addition to identification of water sources, it is also crucial to ascertain the amount of water that can be obtained from the well compared to the water requirements of the packhouse, which also depends on the scale of operation that is planned for the packhouse. Conducting a geo-survey of underground water to identify the best spot for constructing the water well will increase the probability of getting enough water and can save substantial money and time. The cost of digging shallow water well or borehole varies from one location to another. The cost should be ascertained for the selected location. Below (Table 1) is the bill of materials for a water supply system after drilling the shallow water well or borehole. In addition to the above considerations, the site and premises should have the following characteristics: Minimal risk of air pollution or contamination  Protection from sun and rain  Dependable electricity supplies  Comfort and safety utilities for workers  Clock-in area and toilet facility.Plate 4: Cassava waxing and drying facilitiesThe essential packhouse operations for waxing and relative humidity storage are shown in the flow chart below (Figure 1). The unit operations are used to determine the types and quantities of tools and equipment necessary for constructing and equipping a packhouse.Careful harvesting of roots from pruned cassava plants The working areas of a packhouse should have the following sections: sorting, washing/cleaning, first measurement, drying, waxing, final measurement and packing areas.The wet section (for sorting, washing/cleaning, first measurement) and dry section (for waxing, final measurement and packaging) are built as a single shed (Figures 2 &3). The warm drying area is built as a separate shed (Figure 4).The floor plan and layout of cassava cleaning and waxing area is shown in Figure 2 and the pictorial view of the shed is shown in Figure 3. The bill of materials for building the cleaning and waxing shed is shown in Table 2 below. The warm-air drying area for drying of roots after disinfection and after waxing operation is shown in Figure 4. The bill of materials for building of warm-air drying shed is shown in Table 3. The following are the basic tools and equipment for the various operations in a packhouse.  The cassava is harvested when pruned (Figure 1) then sorted and carried in crates to the processing area (Figure 2 and 3) where the roots are cleaned and washed using soft bristle brushes, and long tips removed using secateurs, then disinfected in the fungicide tank (Figure 5). Roots are taken to the drying shed (Figure 4). After drying, the roots for relative humidity storage are packed in impermeable bags while the ones for waxing are placed in crates on the pre-waxing stand (Figure 7), waxed in the waxing tray (Figure 6) and finally placed on the post waxing stand (Figure 7) ready for packing and selling. More detailed explanations are presented in the user guide \"Fresh cassava roots handling for waxing and relative humidity storage\".The fresh cassava value chain is currently faced with the high perishability of the roots and subsequently high postharvest losses. The packhouse described in this manual allows for proper undertaking of waxing and relative humidity treatments of fresh cassava roots for extending their shelf-life. The packhouse can serve as a hub for coordination and governance of cassava supply chain in which market demands dictate production practices and activities. Its proper set up in a suitable location can improve market access, facilitate technical and commercial innovations, and ensure successful operation of the business. Ideally commercial arrangements that ensure efficient farm-packhouse-market linkages and coordination offer an opportunity to maximize economies of scale, and improve profitability of farmers as well as the processors involved in the shelf-life extension treatments.","tokenCount":"1883"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"36b3e51a8dd74b3006c122881f88c16e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77390f9e-b35c-4849-9c0a-257271c63728/retrieve","id":"-166301677"},"keywords":["cassava disease detection","deep learning","convolutional neural networks","mobile plant disease diagnostics","object detection"],"sieverID":"1a527829-3198-4255-9231-9563adc4a088","pagecount":"8","content":"Convolutional neural network (CNN) models have the potential to improve plant disease phenotyping where the standard approach is visual diagnostics requiring specialized training. In scenarios where a CNN is deployed on mobile devices, models are presented with new challenges due to lighting and orientation. It is essential for model assessment to be conducted in real world conditions if such models are to be reliably integrated with computer vision products for plant disease phenotyping. We train a CNN object detection model to identify foliar symptoms of diseases in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). We then deploy the model in a mobile app and test its performance on mobile images and video of 720 diseased leaflets in an agricultural field in Tanzania. Within each disease category we test two levels of severity of symptoms-mild and pronounced, to assess the model performance for early detection of symptoms. In both severities we see a decrease in performance for real world images and video as measured with the F-1 score. The F-1 score dropped by 32% for pronounced symptoms in real world images (the closest data to the training data) due to a decrease in model recall. If the potential of mobile CNN models are to be realized our data suggest it is crucial to consider tuning recall in order to achieve the desired performance in real world settings. In addition, the varied performance related to different input data (image or video) is an important consideration for design in real world applications.Conventional plant disease diagnosis by human experts is inherently subjective and limited to regions that can support the required human infrastructure (Bock et al., 2010). Computer vision algorithms show promise to transform this field with the landmark result of a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) winning the Imagenet competition to classify over 1 million images from 1,000 categories, almost halving the error rates of its competition (LeCun et al., 2015). This success brought about a revolution in computer vision with CNN models dominating the approach for a variety of classification and detection tasks. As CNN models become the standard computer vision model to be deployed in real-time vision applications, assessing and reporting whether the results of their performance translates from research datasets to real time scenarios is crucial. Results of different CNN architectures are usually reported on standard large scale computer vision datasets of a million and more static images (He et al., 2016(He et al., , 2017;;Szegedy et al., 2016;Howard et al., 2017). Domain specific datasets like medical imagery or plant diseases, where transfer learning is often applied to CNN models, comprise smaller datasets as expert labeled images are more challenging to acquire (Masood and Ali Al-Jumaily, 2013;Ramcharan et al., 2017).In a recent assessment for a skin lesion classification task, researchers reported the performance of the deep learning model matched at least 21 dermatologists tested across three critical diagnostic tasks (Esteva et al., 2017). This study was done on a labeled dataset of 129,450 clinical images and the researchers concluded that the technology could be deployable on a mobile device but further evaluation in real-world settings is needed. Similar promising results have been shown in studies of plant disease classification (Mohanty et al., 2016;Johannes et al., 2017;Ramcharan et al., 2017) and health care (Miotto et al., 2017). Deploying on mobile devices would also be beneficial in democratizing access to algorithms while maintaining user privacy by running inference offline.Despite the ubiquity of smartphones there are few examples of CNN models deployed on these phones categorizing visual scenes in the real world where performance is affected by input data type and compounded by wide extremes in lighting as is normal in outdoor settings. Clear examples of computer vision in real world settings such as autonomous vehicles (cars and drones) leverage multiple sensors in both the visible and nonvisible spectrum (Floreano and Wood, 2015;Janai et al., 2017). If mobile CNN models are to achieve their promise it is important to recognize the constraint of a single sensor (i.e., camera) and test the performance of a CNN on mobile devices in conditions they are intended to be used in.Here, we investigate plant disease diagnostics on a mobile device. We deploy and test the performance of a CNN object detection model for real-time plant disease diagnosis in an agricultural field. Within each disease category we test two levels of severity of symptoms -mild and pronounced, to assess the model performance for early detection of symptoms. We report precision, recall, F-1 score, and accuracy for mobile images and video to assess how the CNN performs in a real world app with different types of input data.We use the Tensorflow platform to deploy a smartphone CNN object detection model designed to identify foliar symptoms of three diseases, two types of pest damage, and nutrient deficiency (or lack thereof) in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). We utilize the Single Shot Multibox (SSD) model with the MobileNet detector and classifier pre-trained on the COCO dataset (Common Objects in Context) of 1.5 million images (80 object categories). For simplicity, we refer to the CNN object detector model as the mobile CNN model. We employ transfer learning to fine tune the model parameters to our dataset which comprised 2,415 cassava leaf images for pronounced symptoms of each class. The cassava leaf dataset was built with images taken in experimental fields of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in Bagamoyo District, Tanzania. Complete details of this dataset were previously reported in Ramcharan et al. (2017). In addition to the 6 image classes implemented in Ramcharan et al. (2017), an additional nutrient deficiency class of 336 images was included in this work and examples of all image classes are shown in Figure 1.For this study, three cassava disease experts reviewed images and agreed on classifications. Images were then annotated at Penn State University. Initially three different annotation styles were tested to identify class objects: (1) whole leafletobject bounding boxes are drawn around leaflets with visible symptoms and boxes contain the leaf edges, (2) within leafletobject bounding boxes are drawn around visible symptoms, inside of leaflets only, and do not contain leaf edges, and (3) combined inside and whole leaflet-annotation style (1) and ( 2) are combined with the same class labels for whole leaflet and within leaflet bounding boxes. Based on training results to 500 epochs (see Supplementary Material) on two 16Gb NVIDIA V100 GPUs the whole leaflet annotation style recorded the lowest overall loss and was selected to test on a mobile device in the field.We selected three classes for detection in the field -cassava mosaic disease (CMD), cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), and green mite damage (CGM) (Legg, 2012). For simplicity, CMD, CBSD and CGM are referred to collectively as disease in the subsequent text. These diseases were selected as they are the major constraints to cassava production in sub-Saharan Africa (Onzo et al., 2005;Legg et al., 2006). Within each disease class, an IITA cassava disease expert identified 40 validation leaves which were split into 20 mild symptom leaves and 20 pronounced symptom leaves. The work flow design of the experiment is shown in Figure 2. Examples of the leaves in this dataset are shown in Figure 3. The average number of leaflets per leaf was 6, resulting in an average of 120 objects per disease/severity group. Where possible, all leaves for each disease were flagged on the same variety of cassava. First, images of each of the 120 leaves were taken with a study experiment mobile device and model inference was run on a desktop to calculate performance metrics. Second, the mobile app was used for model inference in real time for the 120 leaves in overcast or cloudy conditions during the day. Model inference on the mobile app ranged from 50 to 200 ms. In order to evaluate the performance of the app, while the app was running on the mobile device, the device screen was recorded for 10 s using a free Android screen capture application. For simplicity, recordings of the app running on the mobile device are referred to from here on as \"screen capture videos.\" If weather conditions were sunny, an umbrella was used to shade leaves to obtain consistent light conditions across diseases. Leaves were also wiped to ensure surface was free of water and dirt. The mobile CNN model was deployed on a Samsung Galaxy S5 Android device using the Tensorflow Demo App. The phone was held parallel to the leaf, at a distance such that all leaflets were visible in the frame. A screen capture was recorded for the first 10 s where the model was shown the leaf and bounding boxes were proposed. These videos were then downloaded and used to calculate the real world video performance metrics for the model and this data are available upon request. For all experiments, detection boxes were displayed when model confidence was 85% or greater.The cassava leaf dataset of JPEG images were taken with a Sony Cybershot 20.2-MP digital camera. Complete details of this dataset were previously reported in Ramcharan et al. (2017). For this study, IITA cassava experts extracted 2,415 images from the dataset based on the visibility of the most severe symptoms of each class. This was done to test the potential for the model to learn from the clearest examples of the symptoms and then detect milder symptoms, which would be beneficial for more timely detection of diseases. The dataset totaled seven class   LabelImg (Tzutalin, 2015), an open source graphical annotation tool for manually drawing and labeling object bounding boxes in images, was employed to draw ground truth bounding boxes and create corresponding xml files with stored xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax data for each ground truth box. Images and corresponding xml files were then converted to TFRecord files to be implemented in the Tensorflow environment. TFRecord files combine all images and annotations into one file, thereby reducing training time as it eliminates the need to open individual files. Each of the three models were then trained to 500 epochs.We evaluated the performance of the mobile CNN model built using standard precision metrics as well as a field-based independent evaluation on a mobile device. For the object detector model architecture, we selected the Single Shot Multibox (SSD) model with the MobileNet detector and classifier (Liu et al., 2016). This model was used as it is one of the fastest object detection models available through Tensorflow (Google, 2017). An SSD model performs the tasks of object localization and object classification in a single forward pass-a key component in providing real time object recognition on a mobile device (Mohanty et al., 2016). A pre-trained SSD model checkpoint trained on the COCO dataset (Common Objects in Context) was downloaded from Tensorflow's Detection Model Zoo (Google, 2017) and transfer learning was employed to fine tune the model parameters. COCO is a large scale object detection, segmentation and captioning dataset comprised 330 K images, 1.5 million object instances, and 80 object classes. Each model was trained up to 500 epochs using a batch size of 15 on 2 NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPU's in Azure, the Microsoft cloud computing and storage platform. An 80-20 training-evaluation data split was used as this data partitioning scheme produced the best results for cassava disease classification (Ramcharan et al., 2017). The SSD model parameters were selected as follows: initial learning rate of 0.004, weighted sigmoid classification loss function, and weighted smooth L1 localization loss function between the predicted bounding box (l) and ground truth bounding box (g). These loss functions are computed based on default bounding boxes-a set of boxes with specified aspect ratios. The classification loss function measures the model's confidence in classifying pixels within a default bounding box into one class (Liu et al., 2016). Localization loss measures the geometric distance between a default bounding box and the ground truth annotation bounding box. The overall loss function is a weighted combination of the classification loss (classif) and the localization loss (loc) with the weight for the localization loss, α,set to 1 (Liu et al., 2016) (Equation 1).The maximum number of hard mining examples was set to 3,000, and the ratio between negative and positive examples was left at the default value of 3:1. A positive example is a proposed box with an annotated object of interest and correct box scale. A negative example is a proposed box with no annotated objects of interest and an incorrect box scale. The default box generator was applied to 6 different convolution layers with a minimum and maximum scale of 0.2 and 0.95 respectively. The default boxes were generated with fixed aspect ratios 1.0, 2.0, 0.5, 3.0, and 0.333. The complete details of the SSD model design principles are provided in Liu et al. (2016). In order to perform real time inference on a mobile device, images were resized to 300 × 300 pixels before being fed into the network.Validation results for the model are provided in three ways and results are presented for the three disease classes studied in the field. First, precision and recall results with an 80-20 trainingtesting data split are reported in Table 1. The mean average precision (mAP) is the average across N classes of the true positive class labels divided by the total number of objects labeled as belonging to the positive class (Equation 2). The mean average recall (mAR) is defined as the average across N classes of the number of true positive class labels divided by the total number of ground truth positive class labels (Equation 3). These metrics were calculated assuming the cost of a false positive was equal to no predictions for a leaflet. For the disease classes of interest, the CNN detection model achieves 94 ± 5.7% (mean±s.d.) mAP  4) are also reported in Table 2. The F-1 score takes into account false positive and false negatives as it is a weighted average of precision and recall. The F-1 scores are 0.54 and 0.48 for pronounced symptoms in real world images and video, respectively. For mild symptoms the F-1 scores are 0.26 and 0.25 for real world images and video, respectively.Using the test dataset F-1 score as the baseline for comparison, the results show there is a 32% drop in F-1 score moving from the test dataset to pronounced symptoms in real world images (the closest data to the training data). For pronounced symptoms in real world video the F-1 score is reduced by 39%. Comparing the test dataset to real world mild symptoms the F-1 score drops by 67% for images and video. These results show there is a noticeable drop in mobile CNN model performance from the test dataset to real world conditions with real world images performed slightly better than real world video for both pronounced and mild symptoms.Positive Detections All Positive Detections(2) True Positive Detections Ground Truth Positive Labels(3)We also calculated accuracies for the mobile CNN model on the real world images and screen capture videos. The accuracy is calculated as the percent of the examples the model correctly detects i.e., the proportion of the observations where the predicted and ground truth annotations match.Images and videos were reviewed by a cassava disease expert in order to calculate these metrics. Accuracy results for the mobile CNN model run on 120 images (comprising 742 leaflet \"objects\") of the field experimental leaves are reported in Table 3. For pronounced symptomatic leaves, the model achieves 80.6 ±4.10% accuracy, while for mild symptomatic leaves, the accuracy reduces to 43.2 ± 20.4%. The accuracy evaluation is then repeated using 120 screen capture videos of the mobile CNN model running real time in the field. For pronounced symptomatic leaves, the model achieves 70.4 ± 22.5% accuracy, while for mild symptomatic leaves, accuracy reduces to 29.4 ± 12.2%. Based on class average accuracy, the mobile CNN model does the best with CGM, followed by CMD, then CBSD.Confusion matrices for the real world image and video model experiments give a more detailed analysis on how the model performance changes for different class/severity categories. In the confusion matrix plots in Figure 4, the rows correspond to the true class, and the column shows the model predicted class. The diagonal cells show the proportion (range 0-1) of the examples the model correctly detects i.e., the proportion of the observations where the predicted and ground truth annotations match. The off-diagonal cells show where the model made incorrect predictions.The diagonal cells of the confusion matrices for leaves with pronounced symptoms show the model performs, as expected, much better where the symptoms are pronounced compared to leaves where the symptoms are mild. The biggest drop in accuracy going from pronounced symptoms to mild symptoms was for CMD for both image and video inferences of the model. This result can be due to the distortions of the leaf shape that occur for pronounced symptoms of CMD which are less obvious where symptoms are mild; the leaf distortion effect of disease does not occur for CBSD and only occurs in severe damage by CGM (not captured in this experiment). These results suggest that if symptoms change significantly during the different stages of infection, a model trained on one stage will be less reliable in detecting a different stage of infection of a disease. Comparing the performance of the model on images and video, the model accuracy is not significantly different for CMD and CGM classes but there is a surprising drop in accuracy for CBSD. There is a significant difference in CBSD accuracy for images (M = 0.73, SD = 0.10) and video (M = 0.35, SD = 0.11); t (36) = 6.64, p = 0.0. This may be due to the subtlety of infection of CBSD. CBSD symptoms are not localized on an area of the leaf (unlike CMD and CGM). The contrast in color and patterns of CBSD symptoms is less pronounced than CMD and CGM. This could make CBSD symptoms more sensitive to motion blur and compression artifacts causing frame-to-frame variability, even though videos appear smooth to the eye (Tripathi et al., 2016). The accuracy of the model could be improved with domain adaptation algorithms (Ben-David et al., 2010) to reduce this performance gap. The confusion matrices also show that the mobile CNN model confuses mild symptoms with healthy leaves for symptoms that do not result in distortions in leaf shape. For CMD, the model was very effective in detecting severe symptoms, but very poor with mild symptoms. The leaf distortion that occurs in severe CMD infection makes identification of that class straightforward, but where symptoms are mild and leaf distortion was absent, there was a high level of confusion with CBSD (false positive rate is high for CBSD). This is unsurprising, as the difficulty of distinguishing between mild symptoms of these two diseases is a common problem faced in real-world field situations by cassava researchers.In this study we evaluate the performance of a CNN model deployed offline in real time on a mobile device to detect foliar symptoms of cassava pests and diseases. Using the singleshot detector model, a CNN architecture optimized for mobile devices, we assess the performance of the model to detect pronounced and mild symptoms of 3 disease classes. In both severities we see a decrease in F-1 score comparing the test dataset results to real world images and video. The decrease in performance was mostly due to the decrease in recall as the models overall maintained precision in real world conditions. Accuracy results also reflected the decrease in performance moving from real world images to video. The performance of the model in the mobile video changed depending on the difficulty of the visual diagnostic task. In order to obtain higher accuracy detections, there are a number of potential solutionsfeed the mobile CNN model images collected on a mobile device instead of real time video assessment, train on video images saved directly from the mobile app, or employ domain adaptation algorithms to improve performance. The mobile CNN model also decreased in performance for mild symptoms, with accuracies decreasing more for diseases that change the leaf characteristics considerably during different stages of infection. In order to create a model that can detect mild symptoms of disease, images of mild infection are needed for model training. Collecting these images based solely on visual characteristics may be difficult as some groups of image classes e.g., viral diseases, may look similar to each other where infection is not severe. PCR tests may be needed to complement images to confirm symptoms. This study demonstrates the need to evaluate mobile CNN performance in realistic plant disease diagnostic operating conditions, with multiple performance metrics in order to validate models with data encountered in typical settings. Based on our results, we also recommend mobile CNN models to be used on the specific type of data with which it was trained until sufficient training examples exist from diverse data sources to better capture the diversity of data that occur in the real world.","tokenCount":"3481"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"88e633ad4c23cc751a85ec383c2cebbf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7258f2ef-49b4-4e3c-9b7b-a43641e8e8ea/retrieve","id":"1258094057"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"da6f20ed-1e7c-4612-bae3-4e5628c07454","pagecount":"9","content":"Improving pulses productivity and rural livelihood of smallholder farmers in the Bale highlands of Ethiopia through their integration in the crop-livestock production systemsPulses, which occupy ~13% of cultivated land and account for ~10% of the agricultural value addition, are critical to smallholder livelihoods in Ethiopia as these crops play a critical role in agricultural production, economic growth through income generation and food security. Among the pulses, faba bean, field pea, chickpea, lentil, and grass pea are categorized as highland pulses and grown in the cooler highlands. These crops contribute to smallholder income, as a higher-value crop than cereals, and to diet, as a cost-effective source of protein that accounts for approximately 15% of protein intake (IFPRI 2010). Moreover, pulses offer natural soil maintenance benefits through nitrogen-fixing, which improves yields of cereals through crop rotation, and can also result in savings for smallholder farmers from less fertilizer use. Earlier studies reported feed resources to be the major bottleneck to livestock production in the highlands of Ethiopia. Legumes are also very important in the Bale farming system to break the mono-culture wheat based system that is always suffer from new races of rust damage to the crop. Therefore, crop residues of these crops offer a major source of feed and forage in the predominant crop-livestock system of Ethiopia. While pulses are grown throughout the country on 1.36 million ha with 1.95 million tons production (Table 1), their cultivation (70-90%) is concentrated in the highlands of Oromiya regions. From 1994/95 -2008/09, rates of production growth for chickpea, faba bean, and lentil in Ethiopia were 12, 7, and 15%, respectively. For each crop, the rates of production growth outpaced rates of growth in cultivated land, suggesting parallel gains in productivity. In spite of spectacular productivity gains in the past, the current productivity of pulses falls significantly below the demonstrated potential. For example, current yield of pulses is 1.4 tons per ha which can be increased to 2.5 tons per ha with the adoption of improved varieties and appropriate production technologies like agronomic and pest management practices. This gain in productivity would not only increase smallholder income by 40 to 70% per ha, but would also ensure greater food security through meeting domestic pulse demand (IFPRI 2010). At the farm level, pulses productivity is below potential mainly due to low adoption rate of improved varieties, non-availability of quality seed of improved cultivars, unawareness of farmers about the improved varieties and technologies, and limited use of modern agronomic practices and production inputs.This proposal envisages promotion of improved pulse production technologies along with best bet varieties as a package among the smallholder farmers in the Bale highlands of Ethiopia. The pulses technologies to be promoted in the cool highland areas are best bet varieties of faba bean, chickpea, and lentil in rotation and as intercrop with cereals, integrated nutrient management involving Rhizobium inoculation and phosphoric fertilizers, integrated pest management, and weed control practices including hand weeding and pre-emergence application of herbicides and timely field operations. A farmer's participatory seed production program will be established to meet the local seed demand in the region. Conservation agriculture involving minimum tillage, crop rotation and weed management will also be demonstrated for its role in mitigation of severe topsoil erosion in cultivated highlands through interventions at the individual farm level in targeted areas. We will also assess farmers' current pulses management practices, determine the technical and socioeconomic factors affecting the adoption of pulses technologies, and draw implications for research, extension, and policy. Therefore, the project is built on three major interventions: Augmenting seed supply and other production inputs: Access to production inputs is a key step in bridging the yield gap between current and potential production. Crop production under the diverse agroecological conditions in Ethiopia requires quality seeds of improved varieties that could fit these ecologies.The existing national breeding and seed multiplication capacity is not sufficient to address the critical seed shortages for new varieties at the national level. The state-controlled seed system is characterized by limited production of crops and varieties, unreliable seed quality, and late delivery. For instance during the 2004/05 season, the supply of improved varieties channeled through the formal system fell short of the estimated demand from the regional bureaus of agriculture by 73% in pulses. Less than 2% of the cultivated area is sown to improved varieties mostly due to the high price of improved seeds and the preference of farmers to grow traditional landraces. Farmers participatory seed production will be taken up to adequately supply the needs of small holder farmers at affordable price. Phosphates and other fertilizers will be supplied to farmers, along with knowledge on how to use them effectively. While pulses are grown throughout the country during the main season (June to December)their production during Belg (small rainy season-April to August) is in the Bale highlands. Therefore, the project envisages promotion of improved pulses production technologies in the Bale highlands of Oromiya region of Ethiopia.The major beneficiaries will be smallholder farmers whose livelihood depends on crops and animals. Traders, agro-industries and exporters will also benefit from the improved production of pulses in the region. Expected impact will be increased farm income and livelihoods of rural people with improved nutritional status of the population. We also expect positive impact on natural resource conservation, environmental protection, improved soil health and sustainable growth of cereal based agriculture.Goal: The overall goal is to improve the productivity of crop-livestock production system in the Bale highlands of Oromiya region by integrating all important components of pulses in mixed farming systems.The immediate purpose of the project is to enhance the adoption rate of improved varieties of faba bean, lentil, and chickpea along with the recommended production technologies through knowledge empowerment, technology intervention and input supply. It will also lay the ground for the project under preparation to take off by the following season. The popular varieties along with their production technologies will be demonstrated in five villages per district. A cluster of 20 farmers per village will conduct demonstrations on a large scale. Five districts in Bale highlands of Oromiya region will be selected for project implementation.Availability of high-yielding varieties to farmers is crucial. To achieve this objective, ICARDA international yield and screening nurseries of pulse crops will be evaluated for phenological adaptation, yield traits, disease reaction, and drought tolerance at all the research stations in the region.3. Sustainable seed production system: Village-based seed enterprises will be developed through farmers' clubs/associations. Each popular variety will be grown by farmers' groups with improved production technologies, and genetic and physical purity will be maintained.Human capacity development is extremely important and is a key aspect in the project. Farmers will be trained in groups (farmers' research groups) on new innovative agro-techniques proposed. Village women will be involved in seed storage and value-addition activities. At the grassroots level, extension workers and NGO staff will be trained (trainer's training) on improved technologies. FARM Africa will also give farmer participatory research approach training to DAs and other partners. It will also initiate discussion & sensitise on climate smart agriculure with farmers benefiting from the pilot project.An inception meeting will be organized with EIAR, ORARI and all partners including farmers' groups, individual farmers to check -out the work plan. Field days will be organized at the maturity of the crops.6. Documentation of activities: Reports, booklets, and flyers will be produced during the course of the project. ICARDA in collaboration with Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and Oromia Regional Agricultural Research Institute (ORARI) will implement the project. To date, many varieties have been selected from ICARDA germplasm by Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center that works for Arsi-Bale highlands and Sinana Agricultural Research Center (SARC) that focuses in Bale highlands to support small scale farmers. EIAR and ICARDA have a long experience of working together in accelerating seed multiplication and dissemination of improved varieties. The best bet varieties of lentil (Alemaya, Darash and Chelew), faba bean (Moti, OBSE, Walki), and kabuli chickpea (Ejere, Teji, and Habru) will be demonstrated, and multiplied in collaboration with farmers. This will be linked to the on-going USAID supported project entitled\" Rapid Deployment of high yielding and rust resistant wheat varieties to achieve food security in Ethiopia\" for which EIAR, ORARI and ICARDA have well established structure to reach and work with farmers.ICARDA will manage the fund and coordinate all the activities with its partners and will provide technical backstopping in planning, implementation, data collection, analysis and reporting. Training for development Agents, farmers and researchers will be organized. ICARDA -Ethiopia office follow day to day activities in managing the project in collaboration with EIAR and ORARI. All the technical backstopping required for each crop will be provided by the respective ICARDA breeders, IPM specialists and Seed technologist, Agronomists. EIAR will organize seeds of faba bean, lentil, and chickpea that were nationally released and suitable for Bale highlands. EIAR staff will provide information on varieties and their agronomic packages while ORARI will organize seeds of those varieties regionally released by the Sinana Agricultural Research Center. Sinana will be also responsible to provide and prepare land and manage the seed multiplication and trial plots both at research center and farmers' fields. Inception workshop will be organized as soon as project is approved to make use of this season. FARM Africa will be responsible for organizing farmers' groups including research groups,selfhelp groups for seed multiplication,and farmers extension groups to widely dessiminate the outcome.   ","tokenCount":"1567"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bf9a1687c89a263180585a26893d6f15","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2eb47a31-f844-4567-b540-e4f3c3b8723a/retrieve","id":"968150566"},"keywords":["flow cytometry","chromosome counting","ploidy level","DArTseq"],"sieverID":"046d5053-ddba-408e-bb17-63969f27e59e","pagecount":"13","content":"Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a monocotyledonous herbaceous vine plant grown in the tropics and subtropics. It is a multi-species plant with varied intra-and interspecific ploidy levels. Of the 600 species, 11 are cultivated supporting the livelihood of over 300 million people. The paucity of information on ploidy and the genomic constitution is a significant challenge to the crop's genetic improvement through crossbreeding. The objective of this study was to investigate the ploidy levels of 236 accessions across six cultivated and two wild species using chromosome counting, flow cytometry and genotyping-based ploidy determination methods. Results obtained from chromosome counting and genotyping-based ploidy determination were in agreement. In majority of the accessions, chromosome counting and flow cytometry were congruent, allowing future rapid screening of ploidy levels using flow cytometry. Among cultivated accessions, 168 (71%) were diploid, 50 (21%) were triploid, and 12 (5%) were tetraploid. Two wild species included in the study were diploids. Resolution of ploidy level in yams offers opportunities for implementing successful breeding programmes through intra-and interspecific hybridization.Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a monocot herbaceous vine plant grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe. There are about 600 species of yams of which only eleven are edible and economically significant viz. D. alata (water or greater yam), D. rotundata (white Guinea yam), D. cayenensis (yellow guinea yam), D. dumetorum (trifoliate or bitter yam), D. bulbifera (aerial yam), D. esculenta (lesser yam), D. polystachya (Chinese yam), D. japonica (East Asian mountain yam, yamaimo, or Japanese mountain), D. pentaphylla (five-leaf yam), D. nummularia (Pacific yam), and D. trifida (Cush Cush, Indian, or sweet yam) [1][2][3]. Yam produces starchy underground tubers and ariel bulbils that provide dietary nutrients such as starch, protein, vitamins, and micro-nutrients for those who depend on it as a staple food [4]. In West Africa, yam is a highly priced tuber crop contributing about 15% of the daily per capita calorie intake and about 32% farm income for over 300 million people [5]. West Africa represents over 90% of global yam production [6]. Although yam production Agronomy 2021, 11, 1897 2 of 13 in Africa is 40% lower than that of cassava, its gross economic value exceeds that for all other African staple crops and is equivalent to the summed value for maize, sorghum, and rice, the top three cereal crops [6].Notwithstanding its high value, yam productivity in West Africa is low and has remained stagnant over the last two decades [3]. The low productivity is attributed to a combination of biotic (yam anthracnose, virus, and nematodes) and abiotic (poor soil fertility and drought) factors, as well as underdeveloped agronomic practices and poorquality planting materials [3,4,7,8].Development and deployment of resilient varieties tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses which meet consumer preferences offer opportunities to ameliorate the challenges to yam cultivation. However, varietal development in yam has been slow due to a combination of biological constraints such as non or erratic flowering, non-synchronous flowering, dioecy, polyploidy, high heterozygosity, long growth cycle, and vegetative propagation with a low multiplication ratio [9][10][11]. Yam improvement programmes mainly involves clonal selection impeding speedy genetic progress due to lack of combination of desirable characteristics in a single variety. Therefore, significant yam improvement will need to go through sexual reproduction for combining desirable characteristics. However, the challenges to intra-and interspecific hybridization in yam are mostly related to ploidy level differences, which result in incompatibility, thus preventing the successful transfer of genes because the progeny generation may be partially sterile [3,12,13]. Darkwa et al. [3] reported that the average percentages of fruit and seed sets are 20.3% and 10.5% in D. rotundata, with corresponding values of 28% and 9.3% in D. alata crossing blocks, respectively. The authors attributed the low success of cross-pollination and hybrid progeny generation partly to differences in ploidy level between the parents used in crosses. Several authors reported the occurrence of diploids (2n = 2x = 40); triploids (2n = 3x = 60) and tetraploids (2n = 4x = 80) in yam [14][15][16]. The ploidy level differences limit the choice of parents to cross in producing desirable hybrids that are superior to the currently grown cultivars. It is therefore necessary to establish basic knowledge about yam genetic resources, especially the ploidy status for successful yam improvement program.Polyploidy have distinctly played a significant role in the speciation and evolution of both cultivated and wild plants [17]. Some of the major advantages of polyploidy for plant breeding has been increased vigour, buffering of deleterious mutations, increased heterozygosity, and heterosis (hybrid vigour), in some cases, better than the diploid relatives. The existence of yams with different ploidy levels offers a magnificent system to investigate the impact of ploidy levels on productivity traits to accelerate yam breeding programs. Several studies on polyploidy in yams have correlated with growth vigour, higher tuber yield and increased tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress [18,19]. Attempts have also been made through conventional hybridization to generate intra-and interspecific hybrids specifically among and between D. rotundata, D. alata, D. cayenensis and D. bulbifera using different combinations [personal communication]. However, there was no success in producing viable hybrids in interspecific crosses, and in several of the intraspecific crosses, sterility among the progenies was observed [3,17]. Therefore, all yam breeding programmes exclusively produce diploid varieties. In addition, there is a lack of information available on ploidy status of germplasm collections across all Dioscorea spp. Ploidy determination in yam accessions would therefore facilitate the planning and execution of successful breeding strategies through intra-and interspecific hybridization. For example, breeding in roses is facilitated through careful selection of individuals that produce gametes of similar ploidy level to circumvent restrictions or barriers caused by dissimilar ploidy levels between plants [20].Several methods have been used to estimate ploidy levels in crops [21], the most common among which are chromosome counting and flow cytometry. The flow cytometry technique has been used for determining the ploidy levels of various plant species, including yams [15, [22][23][24][25][26]. The method offers numerous advantages such as non-destructive, analyses of interphase nuclei, and sample preparation from a small amount of tissues (mg).Furthermore, the analysis of large populations of interphase nuclei makes it possible to identify sub-populations differing in DNA amounts and hence recognize mixoploids. In addition, the simplicity, speed, and convenience allow the analysis of many samples in a single day [23][24][25][26]. Flow cytometry, however, analyses nuclear DNA content and not the number of chromosomes, making reliable ploidy screening possible only within a species. Flow cytometry also requires a reference plant with a known ploidy level as a standard for calibration.A chromosome counting technique gives accurate ploidy status of an organism and has therefore been used to confirm the ploidy levels obtained from flow cytometry. It is, however, laborious, with limitations on the number of cells that can be analyzed within a given time and may be prone to errors when chromosomes are small, as in the case of yams. Researchers have demonstrated that genotyping using molecular markers such as SSRs or next-generation sequencing can be used to assign ploidy level, and these levels are generally consistent with flow cytometry [27][28][29]. Therefore, use of molecular genotyping data is another option for analyzing ploidy levels, which has not been widely explored in yam [30,31].Diversity Array Technology (DArT) has become one of the cheap and efficient genotypingby-sequencing platforms characterized by high call rates and scoring reproducibility that has been applied in polyploids such as potato [32] and yams [33]. DArTseq was used in the present study to assess if genotyping data will be useful for assigning ploidy levels to yam accessions representing variable cytotype across different species. It was hypothesized that, with the availability of thousands of bi-allelic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and short sequences across the genome, the rates of heterozygosity, allelic ratios, and multi-SNP haplotype counts would differ among accessions, and this information could be harnessed to assign ploidy levels to individual accessions. This approach will reduce the need for flow cytometry and chromosome counting or could be used as a confirmation tool in ploidy assessments in yams.The objective of this study was to (i) evaluate the ploidy levels of commonly cultivated species of yam and few of their wild relatives; (ii) assess results from chromosome counting and flow cytometry methods with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-genotyping data for consistency; and (iii) identify reference standards for routine ploidy analysis using flow cytometry.A total of 236 accessions representing eight Dioscorea spp. was used in this study. These included six cultivated species viz. D. rotundata (119 accessions) representing 52 accessions from Togo, 51 accessions from Nigeria, and remaining accessions from Ghana, Benin and Cote d'Ivoire; D. alata (82 accessions) representing 44 accessions from Togo, 14 accessions from Benin, 12 accessions from Nigeria and remaining accessions from Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire; D. cayenensis (4 accessions) representing one accession each from Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire; D. dumetorum (6 accessions) representing four accessions from Nigeria and two from Togo; D. esculenta (3 accessions) representing two accessions from Togo and one accession from Nigeria; and D. bulbifera (16 accessions) representing seven accessions from Nigeria and remaining accessions from Togo, Benin, Gabon, Congo, Guinea and Sierra Leone; and two wild species namely D. praehensilis (1 accession) and D. abyssinica (5 accessions, all collected from Benin) (Table S1). The geographical origin of one accession each of D. rotundata, D. alata and D. prahensilis is unknown. Additional information about these accessions can be accessed online (genesys-pgr.org/c/yam accessed on 2 February 2019). All accessions were obtained as tubers from the Genetic Resources Center (GRC) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria. The tubers were shipped to the Centre of Plant Structural and Functional Genomics, Institute of Experimental Botany (IEB), Olomouc, Czech Republic, where they were planted in the greenhouse to generate samples for ploidy analysis by chromosome counting and flow cytometry.Mitotic metaphase spreads were prepared using the dropping technique according to Dolezel et al. [34]. Actively growing yam roots were collected into 50 mM phosphate buffer with 0.2% mercaptoethanol. The collected roots were pre-treated in 0.05% 8-hydroxyquinoline for three hours at room temperature and fixed in 3:1 ethanol: acetic acid at 4 • C overnight. Fixed roots were washed using 75 mM KCl and 7.5 mM EDTA solution (pH 4). Meristem tips were cut off and digested for 90 min at 37 • C using a mixture of 2% pectinase and 2% cellulase in 75 mM KCl and 7.5 mM EDTA solution (pH 4). The protoplast suspension was filtered through a 150 µm nylon mesh and pelleted. The pellets were then re-suspended in 75 mM KCl and 7.5 mM EDTA solution (pH 4), and thereafter incubated for 5 min at room temperature. After pelleting, the protoplasts were washed three times with 70% ethanol and stored in 70% alcohol at −20 • C until use.Five microliters of suspension were dropped onto a slide. Shortly before drying out, 7 µL of 3:1 fixative were added to the drop to induce protoplast bursting. Finally, the slide was rinsed in 100% ethanol and air-dried. The preparations were stained with DAPI (4 ,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) and mounted in Vectashield (Vector Laboratories). These were examined with an Axio Imager Z2 microscope (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany) equipped with a Cool Cube 1 (Metasystems, Altlussheim, Germany) camera, and images were prepared with ISIS 5.4.7 (Metasystems).Flow cytometry was performed following the protocol described by Dolezel et al. [34]. About 30 mg of young leaf tissue was chopped with a razor blade in a glass Petri dish containing 500 µL Otto I solution (0.1 M citric acid, 0.5% v/v Tween 20) [35]. The crude homogenate was filtered through a 50 µm nylon mesh. Chicken red blood cell nuclei (CRBC), prepared according to the methodology described by Galbraith et al. [36], were added to the suspension of yam nuclei as an internal reference standard. After 30 min incubation on ice, 1 mL Otto II solution (0.4 M Na 2 HPO 4 ) [35] supplemented with 5 µM DAPI was added. The samples were analyzed using Partec PAS (Partec GmbH, Münster, Germany) or Sysmex-Partec CyFlow (Sysmex Partec GmbH, Görlitz, Germany) flow cytometers equipped with UV excitation and detectors for DAPI fluorescence. The gain of the instrument was adjusted so that the peak of the CRBC nuclei was positioned approximately at channel 100 on a 512-channel scale. Relative nuclear DNA content of yam accessions was then determined by comparing peak positions of CRBC nuclei and nuclei of the sample. Ploidy level was determined based on the ratio of G1 peak position obtained for a yam accession and CRBC nuclei.The tubers of 230 accessions of cultivated Dioscorea spp. were planted at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria (07 • 29.299 N, 003 • 53.186 E and 224 m altitude) during the 2018 cropping season. Fresh yam leaf samples from all accessions were collected in perforated paper pouches and placed on ice. Thereafter, the samples were lyophilized using the LABCONCO freeze dryer (Labconco Corporation, Kansas City, MO, USA). Genomic DNA was extracted from the lyophilized samples using a modified cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) DNA extraction protocol described by Porebski et al. [37] with some modifications. The quantity of DNA extracted was estimated by comparison with Lambda (λ) DNA marker standard using 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis and Nanodrop 8000 spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Wilmington, DE, USA).Genotyping was carried out at Diversity Array Technology (DArT) Pty Ltd., Canberra, Australia, using DArTseq TM technology (https://www.diversityarrays.com/technologyand-resources/dartseq/ accessed on 2 February 2019). Next-generation sequencing method was used by running the sequencing in the Illumina HiSeq-2500 instrument (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). FASTQ raw sequenced data of each sample were processed using a proprietary DArT P/L analytical pipeline (Diversity Array Technology, Canberra, Australia) to filter out poor quality sequences [38]. The processed sequence data were used in another secondary pipeline (DArTsoft14) to generate SNP calling and its alignment on the reference genome of D. rotundata (Yam_drotundata_chr_v01). The SNP calling CSV file of a total of 82,587 SNPs, provided by DArTseq Pvt Ltd. (https://www.diversityarrays.com/productsand-services/information-technology/lims-at-dart-dartdb/ accessed on 12 May 2019), was used to further filter for call rate (≥70%) and average reproducibility of marker (the proportion of technical replicate assay pairs for which the marker score is consistent; ≥95%), MAF (>0.01) and missing data (≥50%) using R-program and TASSEL v.5.2.37 software [39].Genotyping based on the analysis of SNPs was used as previously described by Gompert and Mock [40] to differentiate diploid, triploid and tetraploid genotypes based on allelic ratios and heterozygosity deduced from DArTseq data. The methodology assumes that genotypes with higher ploidy levels should be heterozygous and represent high allelic ratios. For heterozygous bi-allelic SNPs, the diploid genotypes must harbor one copy of each allele (allelic ratio = 1:1); likewise, triploids must harbor a copy of one allele and two copies of the other or vice versa (allelic ratios = 1:2 or 2:1), and tetraploids should harbor different allelic ratio such as one, two or three copies of each allele (allelic ratio of 2:2, 1:3 or 3:1) [31]. Genetic similarity matrix was calculated between each accession using PLINK (v1.90) [41,42] based on the filtered SNPs across 230 accessions of cultivated Dioscorea spp. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree was constructed with 1000 bootstraps using MEGA6 [43]. Species-specific SNPs were further used to assess the genetic relationship among the accessions across different species and their ploidy levels using a neighborjoining method with a R-package [44].The chromosome counting results regarding the ploidy level were similar to DArTseq, except for accessions of two wild species for which DArTseq data were not generated (Table S1). Of the 230 accessions analysed using both chromosome counting and DArTseq genotyping, 168 (71%) were diploid (2n = 2x = 40), 50 (21%) were triploid (2n = 3x = 60, and 12 (5%) were tetraploid (2n = 4x = 80) (Figure 1; Table S1). Figure 2 represents few examples of the results from chromosome counting wherein TDr2763 was found to be a diploid with 2n = 2x = 40, TDa1030 and TDd3778 were triploids with 2n = 3x = 60, while TDes3038 was a tetraploid with 2n = 4x = 80.       Based on the peak positions of yam and CRBC nuclei on histograms of nuclear DNA amount, peak ratio was calculated for every accession (Table S1). The peaks for the estimation of nuclear DNA content for TDa-1124 (D. alata), TDb-3046 (D. bulbifera), TDd-3806 (D. dumetorum) and TDes-2786 (D. esculenta) relative to the peak for CRBC by flow cytometry are shown in Figure 3. The ratio of G1 peak position between yam and CRBC for D. rotundata accessions ranged from 0.53 (TDr-1585) to 0.76 (TDr-1489) in diploid accessions suggesting differences in genome sizes within these accessions, while, in triploid accessions, G1 peak ratio was 1.00. However, in TDr-1723 and TDr-3671, two diploid accessions based on chromosome counting and DArTseq data, the peak ratio was 1.00 (Table S1), indicating a disagreement between the results obtained from flow cytometry and chromosome counting as well as genotyping data.Agronomy 2021, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 13Based on the peak positions of yam and CRBC nuclei on histograms of nuclear DNA amount, peak ratio was calculated for every accession (Table S1). The peaks for the estimation of nuclear DNA content for TDa-1124 (D. alata), TDb-3046 (D. bulbifera), TDd-3806 (D. dumetorum) and TDes-2786 (D. esculenta) relative to the peak for CRBC by flow cytometry are shown in Figure 3. The ratio of G1 peak position between yam and CRBC for D. rotundata accessions ranged from 0.53 (TDr-1585) to 0.76 (TDr-1489) in diploid accessions suggesting differences in genome sizes within these accessions, while, in triploid accessions, G1 peak ratio was 1.00. However, in TDr-1723 and TDr-3671, two diploid accessions based on chromosome counting and DArTseq data, the peak ratio was 1.00 (Table S1), indicating a disagreement between the results obtained from flow cytometry and chromosome counting as well as genotyping data. For D. alata, the ratio of yam/CRBC peak ratio in diploid accessions ranged from 0.48 (TDa-1471) to 0.61 (TDa-1196 and TDa-1287), while peak ratio in triploids ranged from 0.8 (TDa-1282) to 0.88 (TDa-1008) and for tetraploid accessions, the peak ratio ranged from 1.00 (TDa-1319) to 1.19 (TDa-1137) (Table S1). However, accessions TDa-1177 and TDa-1189, which were diploid and tetraploid, respectively based on chromosome counting and DArTseq data, had peak ratios of 0.88 and 0.51, respectively indicating a discrepancy in the results obtained from flow cytometry and that of chromosome counting and genotyping data. Similarly, accession TDa-1014, which was diploid based on DArTseq data, had a peak ratio of 1.00 (Table S1). The results of TDa-1014 could not be confirmed through chromosome counting as the tuber of this accession did not germinate at IEB, Olomouc, Czech Republic. For D. cayenensis, two triploids and two tetraploids were observed based on chromosome counting and For D. alata, the ratio of yam/CRBC peak ratio in diploid accessions ranged from 0.48 (TDa-1471) to 0.61 (TDa-1196 and TDa-1287), while peak ratio in triploids ranged from 0.8 (TDa-1282) to 0.88 (TDa-1008) and for tetraploid accessions, the peak ratio ranged from 1.00 (TDa-1319) to 1.19 (TDa-1137) (Table S1). However, accessions TDa-1177 and TDa-1189, which were diploid and tetraploid, respectively based on chromosome counting and DArTseq data, had peak ratios of 0.88 and 0.51, respectively indicating a discrepancy in the results obtained from flow cytometry and that of chromosome counting and genotyping data. Similarly, accession TDa-1014, which was diploid based on DArTseq data, had a peak ratio of 1.00 (Table S1). The results of TDa-1014 could not be confirmed through chromosome counting as the tuber of this accession did not germinate at IEB, Olomouc, Czech Republic. For D. cayenensis, two triploids and two tetraploids were observed based on chromosome counting and DArTseq analysis. Flow-cytometric analysis showed peak ratios of 1.00 and 1.33 to 1.38, respectively, in those accessions (Table S1).Based on chromosome counting and DArTseq data, the D. dumetorum accessions were comprised of one diploid and five triploid accessions. Flow-cytometric analysis of nuclear DNA content gave peak ratio of 0.33 in diploid accession TDd-3909, while it ranged from 0.49 (TDd-4118) to 0.51 (TDd-3778 and TDd-3806) in the triploid accessions. All three D. esculenta accessions were tetraploids with 80 chromosomes, which were in agreement with the yam/CRBC peak ratio that ranged from 1.00 to 1.17. Similarly, all 16 D. bulbifera accessions were triploids based on chromosome counting and DArTseq data. Based on flow cytometry, the yam/CRBC peak ratio of one of these accessions was 0.73, while that of the remaining 15 accessions ranged from 1.2 (TDb-3693) to 1.33 (TDb-3084). The results of majority of D. bulbifera accessions were in agreement between flow cytometry and chromosome counting as well as genotyping data.For the two wild species, D. abyssinica and D. praehensilis, all six accessions were diploids based on chromosome counting (Table S1). The flow cytometric analysis resulted in peak ratios ranging from 0.67 (TDab-3884) to 0.73 (TDab-3847 and TDab-3881) in D. abyssinica, and 0.79 in the D. praehensilis accession.All the accessions of cultivated Dioscorea spp. were genotyped using DArTseq for further analysis and assessment of genetic relationship among the accessions. The accessions were grouped into three main clusters (Figure 4). The first group comprised 82 accessions of D. alata, the second group had 6 accessions of D. dumetorum, 6 accessions of D. bulbifera, 4 accessions of D. cayenensis and 3 accessions of D. esculenta while the third and the largest group comprised 119 D. rotundata accessions (Figure 4). The third cluster with 119 D. rotundata accessions had two sub-groups, one consisting of 103 (87%) accessions which are diploids and the other with 16 (13%) accessions that are triploids (Table S1). However, some accessions did not cluster as expected based on their ploidy levels.DArTseq analysis. Flow-cytometric analysis showed peak ratios of 1.00 and 1.33 to 1.38, respectively, in those accessions (Table S1).Based on chromosome counting and DArTseq data, the D. dumetorum accessions were comprised of one diploid and five triploid accessions. Flow-cytometric analysis of nuclear DNA content gave peak ratio of 0.33 in diploid accession TDd-3909, while it ranged from 0.49 (TDd-4118) to 0.51 (TDd-3778 and TDd-3806) in the triploid accessions. All three D. esculenta accessions were tetraploids with 80 chromosomes, which were in agreement with the yam/CRBC peak ratio that ranged from 1.00 to 1.17. Similarly, all 16 D. bulbifera accessions were triploids based on chromosome counting and DArTseq data. Based on flow cytometry, the yam/CRBC peak ratio of one of these accessions was 0.73, while that of the remaining 15 accessions ranged from 1.2 (TDb-3693) to 1.33 (TDb-3084). The results of majority of D. bulbifera accessions were in agreement between flow cytometry and chromosome counting as well as genotyping data.For the two wild species, D. abyssinica and D. praehensilis, all six accessions were diploids based on chromosome counting (Table S1). The flow cytometric analysis resulted in peak ratios ranging from 0.67 (TDab-3884) to 0.73 (TDab-3847 and TDab-3881) in D. abyssinica, and 0.79 in the D. praehensilis accession.All the accessions of cultivated Dioscorea spp. were genotyped using DArTseq for further analysis and assessment of genetic relationship among the accessions. The accessions were grouped into three main clusters (Figure 4). The first group comprised 82 accessions of D. alata, the second group had 6 accessions of D. dumetorum, 6 accessions of D. bulbifera, 4 accessions of D. cayenensis and 3 accessions of D. esculenta while the third and the largest group comprised 119 D. rotundata accessions (Figure 4). The third cluster with 119 D. rotundata accessions had two sub-groups, one consisting of 103 (87%) accessions which are diploids and the other with 16 (13%) accessions that are triploids (Table S1). However, some accessions did not cluster as expected based on their ploidy levels. Information on ploidy, in addition to providing insight into evolutionary history and relationships among cultivated crops and their wild relatives, is useful in designing strategies for genetic improvement. In the present study, we determined ploidy level by chromosome counting and flow cytometry-the two most widely used techniques, and compared values obtained with estimates from genotyping-based DArTseq data. Of the 236 accessions used in this study, discrepancies between the results obtained by chromosome counting and from cytometry were observed in only seven accessions (0.029%). In other accessions (>97%), the results of chromosome counting, and flow cytometry were in agreement, indicating that either of the two methods could be used for ploidy estimation. However, it may be advisable to confirm the results of flow cytometry through genotyping using DNA markers.Dioscorea is one of the most difficult genera for cytogenetic and cytotaxonomic studies [45]. The chromosomes of Dioscorea spp. are small and dot-like, with their length ranging from 0.5 to 2.7 µm at mitotic C-metaphase stage [9,15,46]. Consequently, chromosome counting is difficult and time-consuming. In addition, the chromosomes often tend to clump together, thus making the counting process challenging [22]. Flow-cytometric estimation of nuclear DNA amounts has some important advantages over conventional chromosome counting [47]. The method is rapid, allowing screening of a large number of individuals in one day and does not require dividing cells [24,48]. For ploidy level determination using flow cytometry, it is, however, imperative to have a reference genotype/accession of the same species with already known ploidy [49]. An ideal standard should have a similar genome size as the sample species [49] and similar chromatin structure because the latter also affects DNA staining [50]. Since no internal standard/reference was available at the time this study was conducted, chicken erythrocyte nuclei from CRBC were used for this purpose. The yam/CRBC peak ratio obtained for different species in this study can be used in future rapid ploidy assessment studies in yams using flow cytometry. This approach has been successfully applied in banana [51,52] for large scale ploidy assessment. In addition, our study has identified, for the first time, based on agreement in ploidy number among the three methods used in the study viz. yam/CRBC peaks of the flow-cytometry method, chromosome number estimation through chromosome counting and genotyping through the DArTseq based technique, internal reference standards that can be used in future studies to determine the ploidy status in Dioscorea spp using flow cytometry alone.In the flow cytometry procedure carried out in the present study, both the standard and sample nuclei were processed together before staining with DAPI. This fluorochrome preferentially binds to AT-rich DNA regions, a characteristic that accounts for its suitability for ploidy level estimations. Although flow cytometry is suitable for the determination of nuclear DNA content, we observed variation in relative fluorescence intensity, reflected in the range of yam/CRBC peak ratios within one ploidy level of a species (e.g., D. rotundata or D. alata accessions), an indication of variation in the nuclear DNA content. Such variation has been reported in many plant species, e.g., soybean [53] or banana [54,55]. Future studies on diversity and evolution of yams are required to address the issue of differences in nuclear DNA content among yam accessions of the same species and similar ploidy level. The internal standards identified for each Dioscorea spp. in this study will facilitate this considerably.The majority of the D. rotundata accessions in the present study were diploids (89.1%), results that are in agreement with the findings of an earlier study [56] that reported the segregation patterns of isozymes and SSRs in which most accessions of D. rotundata were found to have a basic chromosome number of 20 (2n = 40). The preponderance of diploids (78%) among the D. alata accessions in this study is also in agreement with the results of another study involving 110 D. alata accessions in which 76% had 2n = 40 chromosomes [57]. In the latter study, 7% and 17% of the accessions were triploids and tetraploids, respectively, compared to 13% and 9% that were obtained in our study. Our results and those of these authors, together with the results of Bousalem et al. [58] on microsatellite segregation in four D. alata genotypes, are in agreement with respect to the basic chromosome number of water yam of n = x = 20. There are very few reports on ploidy assessment in other cultivated and wild Dioscorea species. In the present study, all the accessions of D. bulbifera were triploids based on chromosome counting and DArTseq genotyping. The earlier studies using flow cytometry and chromosome counting reported the presence of tetraploids, pentaploids and hexaploids among D. bulbifera accessions [23,46]. Similarly, two triploids and two tetraploids were observed among the four D. cayenensis accessions in the current study, while Obidiegwu et al. [23] reported the presence of hexaploids and octaploids among 8 D. cayenensis accessions. For D. dumetorum and D. esculenta, the majority of the accessions in the present study were triploids and tetraploids, respectively, while diploids were also observed among D. dumetorum accessions. Similar ploidy levels were observed by Obidiewu et al. [23] among these two species. The six accessions belonging to two wild species, D. abyssinica and D. praehensilis, assessed based on chromosome counting and flow cytometry, were diploids (2n = 2x = 40), confirming the results of Gamiette et al. [15].The DArTseq platform guarantees wide genomic coverage and is not affected by the limitations of meiotic chromosome pairing of hybrids in distant crosses [59]. Genotyping of the accessions of different yam species using the DArTseq platform would elucidate the genomic relationship between wild and cultivated species in yams. Such ploidy information from DArTseq based genotyping has been used to analyze the genomic relationships among diploid and polyploid species Triticeae [60]. Among studies on ploidy levels in yams to date, the present study used the highest number of accessions (236), which involved eight species that consisted of cultivated and wild types. In effect, the large number of accessions and multiple techniques used in our study offer the most up-to-date insight on ploidy in the Dioscorea and the reliability of the techniques for ploidy determination in the genus.Based on the results from chromosome counting, flow cytometry and DArTseq genotyping, internal reference standards were identified for each Dioscorea spp. for future use in ploidy determination using flow cytometry. These accessions are D. rotundata (TDr-1585 and TDr-1922), 14 of D. alata (TDa-1079, TDa-1083, TDa-1145, TDa-1187, TDa-1217, TDa-1240, TDa-1277, TDa-1319, TDa-1439, TDa-1471, TDa-2861, TDa-3271, TDa-4335 and TDa-4346) and one each of D. bulbifera (TDb-3692) and D. esculenta (TDes-3038) (Table S1). These internal standards are currently maintained at the Genetic Resources Center (GRC), IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria as field and in vitro collections.Identifying the ploidy level of a given genotype is important for successful crossing. The findings in this study on ploidy assessment in yams are of significant value and will minimize failures in intra-and interspecific hybridization. Ploidy levels results based on flow cytometry, chromosome counting and DArTseq analyses were in agreement for two accessions of D. rotundata, 14 accessions of D. alata, one accession each of D. bulbifera and D. esculenta. These accessions are therefore useful as internal standards for future ploidy evaluation in yam. This is the first study that identified several accessions in Dioscorea spp. that can be used as internal standards for ploidy determination in yams.The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/ 10.3390/agronomy11101897/s1, Table S1 ","tokenCount":"5150"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4cc91a498930cb8276b8c618358cc586","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/481d4f7a-3715-4310-8b63-3e580baa6c46/retrieve","id":"1340391559"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4a0540af-b599-4324-8811-a4e976833ceb","pagecount":"1","content":"El lulo es una solanacea que está cobrando importancia en el mercado nacional. La principal limitante en su cultivo es el ataque de plagas y enfermedades que requieren de costosos agroquímicos para su control. La transformación genética es una herramienta del fitomejoramiento que permite obtener plantas resistentes a plagas y enfermedades, pero en la actualidad no se encuentran reportes de transformación para lulo. El primer paso para desarrollar un protocolo de transformación es tener un método de regeneración establecido y un medio de micropropagación que proporcione clones vigorosos. En la actualidad solo existe una publicación para regeneración de plantas de lulo que se ha mostrado ineficiente en la regeneración de clones in vitro.El objetivo de este trabajo es escoger un medio de propagación para lulo que permita obtener material vigoroso y desarrollar una metodología de regeneración que permita en el futuro transformar plantas de lulo.  La respuesta de los dos genotipos (Sq y SqE) varió dependiendo de el medio de cultivo utilizado. Las plantas mostraron significativamente hojas más delgadas y cloróticas, además de una escasa emisión de raíces, cuando se cultivaron en los medios y condiciones reportadas por Hendrix y Atkinson, que incluye tubos con cierre hermético (Fig. 1.1). En contraste se obtuvieron plantas significativamente mas vigorosas de lámina foliar ancha, hojas color verde intenso y abundante raíz cuando se cultivaron en los medios ½ MS (Fig. 1.2 y 1.3) y A con un tapón de espumilla en la tapa (Fig. 1.3). Después de aproximadamente un año (doce subcultivos) las plantas en el medio ½ MS presentaron un efecto de decoloración en las hojas y una lenta emisión de raíces (Fig. 1.2 y 1 .3), por lo que se escogió el medio A (Fig. 1 .3) y la condición de aireación como la mejor combinación para obtener plántulas vigorosas que toleran el proceso de regeneración.El intercambio gaseoso favorece el desarrollo de las plántulas de lulo y es un factor que no había sido considerado anteriormente. Con esta metodología se obtienen plantas más eficientes en la fase de endurecimiento en invernadero. En el medio de cultivo reportado para organogénesis de lulo (Hendrix) no se obtuvo respuesta del tejido, por el contrario los explantes sometidos al sonicador y cultivados en los medios HM y Ultzen presentaron brotes organogénicos en láminas foliares y pecíolos. La respuesta organogénica fue dos veces mayor en el medio Ultzen, el cual mostró regeneración en los dos genotipos y los dos explantes (X 2 : 4.9, p: 0.27; X 2 : 16.0, p: 0.001). El pecíolo fue el mejor de los explantes en los dos genotipos, alcanzando un 10.6 % de regeneración a los 55 días de tratamiento (Fig. 2 y Fig. 3.1), comparado con la lámina foliar que obtuvo 0.6% de regeneración para Sq y 4.38% para SqE (Fig. 2 y Fig. 3.2). El medio de micropropagación utilizado para desarrollar las plantas donantes de los explantes, afectó su respuesta organogénica. Pecíolos que provenían de plantas micropropagadas en medio A mostraron un mayor porcentaje de regeneración respecto a los provenientes de plantas micropropagadas en medio ½ MS (Fig. 4 ).Los brotes regenerados fueron subcultivados en el medio A durante 45 días y posteriormente fueron transplantados a suelo en el invernadero donde se desarrollaron saludablemente y similar al material no regenerado y propagado in vitro (Fig 5 .1), y . posteriormente en el campo ( Fig. 5.2) hasta floración y fructificación .Esta metodología es un avance para el desarrollo de un protocolo de transformación genética de lulo. Se obtuvo una metodología de propagación mejorada, con la que se obtienen plantas vigorosas con buena adaptación en la fase de endurecimiento, por lo que puede ser utilizada en la producción comercial in vitro de clones seleccionados y en la propagación masiva de variedades e híbridos. Se desarrolló una metodología reproducible de regeneración de plantas para clones mantenidos in vitro, que permite desarrollar un protocolo de transformación. Actualmente, se trabaja en ensayos preliminares para el establecimiento de una metodología de transformación genética de lulo mediada por Agrobacterium tumefaciens.","tokenCount":"666"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0280b3915590e781896de61b7d3ad4f8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1b0ba19-e844-45eb-bf12-46e0ffe42423/retrieve","id":"635645978"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"10ef8c48-4226-41a3-82e1-1443c1cc14f1","pagecount":"19","content":"Africa RISING is a multi-stakeholder agricultural research program funded by USAID under the Feed the Future Initiative. It was launched in 2011 and aims at improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, in particular women. Africa RISING's program framework recognizes gender as cutting across all research themes. This gender action plan captures entry points for a more pronounced inclusion of gender in various project activities. It was written for the Africa RISING regions in West, East and Southern Africa, namely Ghana, Mali, Tanzania and Malawi.Africa RISING is associated with the CGIAR's Humidtropics Program. The latter pursues three strategic research themes (SRTs) that build upon each other: \"Systems Analysis and Synthesis\" (SRT 1) serve to characterize the situation of households and communities in target areas. Based on these characterizations technologies for \"Integrated Systems Improvement\" (SRT 2) are developed. Finally, improvements are realized in larger areas through \"Scaling and Institutional Innovation\" (SRT 3).The \"Humidtropics Gender Strategy\" of 2014 elaborates on the gender dimensions of these themes together with approaches that aim at reducing inequalities between men and women. Africa RISING reflects Humidtropics' research themes in its research outputs (ROs), which are situation analysis (RO1), integrated systems improvement (RO2) and scaling and delivery of integrated innovation (RO3). As a fourth research output Africa RISING added integrated monitoring and evaluation (RO4) to continuously assess implementation and outcomes of its interventions.With the overall gender strategy being outlined by Humidtropics, Africa RISING's coordination team (for regions led by IITA) saw the need to operationalize gender objectives in an action plan that will guide day-to-day activities and help monitor adequate gender inclusion. The following document is the first gender action plan and therefore places particular emphasis on staff capacity assessment and development. Building adequate gender understanding and skills in all Africa RISING staff is a precondition for reaching the project's objectives such as the advancement of gender-responsive technologies. Objectives will be further promoted by gender-sensitive communication with both internal and external audiences providing equal access to information and dialogue, while at the same time respecting different needs in the target groups. As a consequence, the key results areas described below include capacity assessment and development as well as communications. At the same time, research on scaling activities (RO3) is not part of the 2015/2016-action plan, since the project will dedicate its second phase (starting 2016/2017) to it.The gender person together with the coordination team drafted this first action plan. However, in future gender action planning will involve all research teams to ensure ownership, implementation and mainstreaming in all project areas. Therefore, participatory mechanisms will be put in place. These will include:  Brief presentations of gender-relevant activities, results, needs and questions by each Africa RISING research team at the annual review and planning meeting.  Based on above presentations, discussion and development of further gender activities in the work plans.  Submission of gender-relevant aspects of work plans to the gender person for inclusion in the annual gender action plan and for support and monitoring. Institutionalized gender-related reporting as well as exchange and learning at the annual review and planning meetings will form the basis for participatory gender action planning.Assessing and subsequently increasing the gender capacity of management and staff is of paramount importance for reaching Africa RISING's overall goal of improving the food and income security of particularly women and children. Therefore, from July until September 2015 the gender team conducted a capacity assessment on three levels: On the environmental level, national agricultural policies in IITA-led regions were evaluated in respect to their conduciveness for gender-sensitive research and action. On the organizational level, a focus group discussion with Africa RISING's program coordination team assessed management's capacity to support gender activities through planning, incentives, strategies or other measures. Finally, individual project staffs were requested to complete a survey relating to six core gender capacities and specific training needs and preferences. Results from this assessment will be published in 2016 and will inform a gender capacity development plan.Africa RISING's first research objective aims at a characterization of action communities including their gender relations. Socio-economic data provide insights into the potential impact of sustainable intensification technologies on the livelihoods of men and women. They can also identify constraints and opportunities of women in agriculture and show avenues, through which female farmers can benefit more from research.Three studies are linked to the research output \"situation analysis\". The first relates to baseline surveys Africa RISING and its partners have conducted in the past years. They have produced scattered gender-related data that need to be synthesized, analysed and presented. At present, a team is working on the evaluation of surveys carried out in Tanzania. The report will not only present the results, but also recommendations for further studies (e.g. to fill in gaps). These could for instance adapt the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Survey Tool launched by IFPRI and USAID's Feed the Future initiative. A second study is currently being implemented in northern Ghana. A consultancy was launched that comprises a literature review of gender issues in agriculture in the Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions, gender-separate focus group discussions in six Africa RISING communities as well as qualitative interviews with key informants. It is expected that the consultancy's findings will support a better inclusion of gender aspects into integrated systems research in the coming seasons. NAFAKA, Africa RISING's USAID Mission project in Tanzania initiated a third investigation. A baseline study on vegetable production and marketing generated qualitative and quantitative data on gender aspects in this field. The sample consisted of respondents from Babati, Kongwa and Kiteto districts in Tanzania.Integrated gender research is meant to produce and test innovations that promote agricultural productivity and income in a way that is equally beneficial to women, men and children. Methods of social science research (including participatory approaches) can help to explore whether aspects of certain technologies are conducive or detrimental to gender balance in specific contexts.In 2015/2016 four Africa RISING teams will conduct integrated research, three of them in Babati, Tanzania, and one in Bougouni and Koutiala, Mali. Topics to be investigated will be: gender preferences of improved animal feeding technologies, gender analysis of maize fertilizer technologies and the inclusion of gender aspects into a partial budget study. Research strategies will include qualitative, quantitative as well as mixed-methods approaches.Monitoring and evaluation as on-going learning processes are based on first, a co-ordinated reporting system and second, in-depth analysis of interventions and their achievements. Genderresponsive monitoring ensures that different needs and preferences of male and female farmers are identified and taken into account in research for agricultural development. Continuous assessments and adjustments in respect of gender are meant to contribute to the scalability of technologies. Studies of adoption rates need to be complemented by socio-economic and cultural data in order to understand more about the context (including gender relations) in which adoption/adaptation takes place.In terms of a co-ordinated reporting system, the gender person will be responsible for the annual preparation, implementation and revision of the gender action plan. She will depend on dialogue with the coordinator and chief scientists for strategic orientation as well as reports and work plans from various research teams especially for the second research output, \"Integrated Systems Improvement\". The gender action plan will present results from the previous year and outline how current work builds upon them.For the second part of this key result area, the in-depth analysis of interventions, one follow-up study is presently being carried out. It evaluates the gendered context and outcomes of an Africa RISING intervention (lottery game) that was carried out in three villages in Babati district (Tanzania) in 2013/2014. Semi-structured interviews with female and male beneficiaries provide insights into the lottery game's gender dynamics at the household and community level. It is expected that exchange and cooperation with other scientists following the same intervention will contribute to a better understanding of the events.Africa RISING's communication strategy outlines three objectives: 1. To enrich learning, interaction and exchange between Africa RISING's project teams. 2. To enhance Africa RISING program and project visibility and promote wider use and adoption of research outputs. 3. To contribute to a better understanding of Africa RISING by the donor and their networks.For 2015/2016 the communications expert and the gender person will focus on the following activities: In relation to all three above objectives they will develop or adapt guidelines for gendersensitive blogging. These guidelines will clarify aspects of language, stereotyping, story selection, images and contextualization and will assist the communications team to monitor Africa RISING's media outputs in terms of their gender-sensitivity. With respect to the second strategic objective, R4D platforms are considered important assets for implementing communications activities. In Babati (Tanzania) Africa RISING plans to consolidate its district platform and to establish new platforms on the ward level. The platform team (Per Hillbur, Festo Ngulu, Gundula Fischer) will commission a stakeholder analysis on youth-specific and gender-sensitive organizations in the district. Results will enable the team to include more stakeholders in the platforms that promote gender equality in agriculture. In addition a specific platform team meeting will be dedicated to a discussion on how to establish processes and structures that are conducive for an equitable participation of women and men and various age groups. Newly recruited ward platform facilitators will receive training that comprises gender units.Research Output 1: Situation Analysis Theme: Synthesizing Gender-relevant Africa RISING Baseline Data for Tanzania Principal Investigator: Gundula Fischer, IITA Indicator: Report on gender-relevant data including recommendations for further research submitted Means of Verification: Evaluation of five baseline studies in terms of availability of gender baseline data Description: This activity aimed at establishing how far previous Africa RISING baseline studies in Tanzania had produced gender-relevant data. Five surveys were examined for their level of gender-disaggregation, sample size, methodology and relevance of questions. Results of this evaluation as well as recommendations for future gender research will be published in a report. Findings from this study will not only establish a baseline against which progress will be measured, but will also contribute to a better understanding of men and women's roles in vegetable production and an improvement of training programmes and manuals. Research Output 2: Integrated Systems Improvement Theme 1 (Babati): Crop Management Efficiency; Gender Analysis of Maize Fertilizer Technologies (Tanzania) Principal Investigator: Job Kihara, CIAT Indicator: Gender-specific constraints and preferences in respect of maize fertilizer technologies analysed and integrated into work report Means of Verification: Gender-separate farmer field days with focus group discussions in two villages of Babati district, Tanzania Description: In this theme biophysicists and farmers research the integration of maize varieties, inorganic fertilizer and organic resources. The social science team will support an assessment of gender issues surrounding these technologies through focus group discussions. The results will contribute to the question of how gender-responsive and scalable the investigated technologies are. ","tokenCount":"1792"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a6f48aa3c007f3e8a4b06aef709202a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ef5012ff-0dbc-4fb4-bbe1-1fe449cc2120/content","id":"386100551"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a2436078-6761-4c2f-b26a-4e1704ca731d","pagecount":"245","content":"O International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, conhecido pelo seu acrónimo espanhol, CIMMYT ® (www.cimmyt.org), é uma organização de investigação e formação internacional sem fins lucrativos que, em conjunto com parceiros em mais de 100 países em vias de desenvolvimento, trabalha para aumentar a segurança alimentar, melhorar a produtividade e rentabilidade dos sistemas agrícolas e sustentar os recursos naturais no mundo em desenvolvimento. Os produtos e serviços do centro incluem variedades de milho e trigo melhorados e sistemas de cultura, a conservação do milho e recursos genéticos do trigo, e reforço das capacidades. O CIMMYT pertence e é financiado pelo CGIAR (www.cgiar.org), contando também com o apoio de governos nacionais, fundações, bancos de desenvolvimento e outras agências públicas e privadas.© Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) 2014. Todos os direitos reservados. As designações utilizadas na apresentação dos materiais desta publicação não implicam a expressão de qualquer opinião por parte do CIMMYT ou as organizações que para ele contribuem relativamente ao estatuto jurídico de qualquer país, território, cidade ou área, ou das suas autoridades, nem relativa à delimitação das suas fronteiras ou limites. O CIMMYT incentiva uma utilização justa deste material. Obrigatória a citação da fonte.Na última década registou-se um forte crescimento no número de novas empresas de sementes que surgiram em África, na Ásia e na América Latina. Se forem bem-sucedidas, irão contribuir enormemente para o crescimento económico dos seus países, regiões e agricultores. A utilização de variedades melhoradas de sementes envolve a essência da melhoria da produtividade agrícola e é um dos principais catalisadores no investimento em fertilizantes orgânicos e inorgânicos, conservação de práticas e trabalho agrícolas para assegurar uma maior rentabilidade aos agricultores. No entanto, menos de 50% de todos os agricultores nos países de baixos rendimentos têm acesso a sementes de milho que aumentam a rentabilidade e menos ainda a outras sementes. As empresas de sementes agora emergentes exploram novos mercados, disponibilizam sementes e culturas de variedades mais diversificadas, informam e educam os agricultores: o seu sucesso é fundamental para o sucesso das economias agrícolas.Na qualidade de um dos principais fornecedores de plasma germinativo de milho e trigo melhorados, disponíveis enquanto bem público internacional, o CIMMYT desenvolveu esta publicação como um guia prático para os líderes das novas empresas de sementes de milho. Embora orientado para as empresas africanas, esperamos que o seu conteúdo beneficie as empresas emergentes de sementes de todo o mundo. Ao contrário de outros livros sobre produção de milho, este livro interliga aspetos técnicos e empresariais, e mais importante ainda, baseia-se na experiência de empresários que foram bem-sucedidos na gestão de pequenas e médias empresas de sementes nas condições mais difíceis. Esperamos que a sua experiência e sabedoria, claramente reconhecida, contribua para o sucesso de um número cada vez maior de novos empresários de sementes. Sucesso no sentido de verem o seu negócio de sementes a crescer, o retorno do seu investimento e melhores sementes a chegarem a agricultores que até agora não beneficiavam suficientemente da melhoria das culturas e de sementes de boa qualidade. A importância do fornecimento de sementes para o desenvolvimento agrícola não pode ser exagerada. Para além de fatores ambientais, o acesso a sementes melhoradas e fertilizantes inorgânicos é fundamental para determinar a segurança alimentar e o rendimento dos agricultores e países africanos. No entanto, as indústrias que apoiam o fornecimento destes dois elementos estão longe de dar resposta à procura atual por parte dos agricultores apesar do crescimento recente do desenvolvimento de agroindústrias. No que se refere ao abastecimento de sementes, o setor de sementes em África é diversificado, tanto nas empresas sofisticadas de sementes como nas taxas de aquisição de sementes dos agricultores (tabela 1). Na última década, África assistiu a um aumento de 4 a 5 vezes do número de empresas de sementes que comercializa diversos tipos de semente de milho melhorada (Langyintuo et al. 2008). No entanto, mais de metade da área de milho (ca. 6,7 milhões de ha) está ainda plantada com variedades tradicionais, não melhoradas e de baixa rentabilidade. Além disso, muitas das novas empresas de sementes são pequenas, com uma produção inferior a 500 t de sementes por ano, comercializando-as a uma minoria de agricultores localizados.Tabela 1. Estimativa de procura e oferta de sementes de milho em países selecionados do Sul e Leste de África. Fonte: Langyintuo et al. (2008).Na África do Sul, Quénia, Zimbabué e Zâmbia, a aquisição dos agricultores de sementes certificadas de variedades melhoradas é superior a 70% da área de milho plantada, enquanto na maioria dos restantes países menos de 30% da área de milho está plantada com sementes certificadas (Langyintuo et al. 2008). Os agricultores indicam que a falta de dinheiro ou de crédito, a grande distância aos retalhistas, preços imprevisíveis e pouco atrativos dos grãos (em particular imediatamente depois da colheita) e a falta de informação sobre o desempenho da variedade e de disponibilidade de sementes são os principais desincentivos ao uso de sementes melhoradas. Contudo, na base deste facto está a falta de sementes certificadas de variedades melhoradas, adaptadas e apropriadas disponíveis no mercado. Se estas sementes estivessem disponíveis mais próximas dos agricultores e a preços razoáveis em relação ao preço dos grãos, seria de esperar que os pequenos agricultores as adquiririam e beneficiariam delas.Tal foi largamente demonstrado em países como o Zimbabué, o Quénia e a Zâmbia, onde o preço de compra de sementes híbridas de milho por pequenos agricultores tem aumentado consistentemente ao longo das duas últimas décadas. Por conseguinte, aceita-se em geral que um setor de sementes mais diversificado, geograficamente disperso e competente é fundamental para alcançar o objetivo de aumentar a adoção por parte dos agricultores de sementes melhoradas em África.O setor informal de sementes e os sistemas de fornecimento de sementes de organizações governamentais e não-governamentais (ONG) continuam a desempenhar um papel, em particular nos países onde o setor formal de sementes apresenta um desenvolvimento fraco.Estimativas recentes indicam que 66%-85% das sementes utilizadas por agricultores de baixos recursos na África Subsariana provém de mercados informais (Monyo et al. 2004;Tripp 2001). Em alguns casos, ONG do setor de sementes adquirem sementes de empresas estabelecidas e disponibilizam-nas a preços subsidiados ou gratuitamente a agricultores que não têm acesso ao setor formal de sementes devido à ausência de acessibilidade ou a pobreza. Nas regiões onde as ONG estão envolvidas em sistemas de desenvolvimento de sementes, os agricultores locais estão organizados em cooperativas de produção e comercialização de sementes que produzem pequenas quantidades de sementes para distribuição local. Mesmo num país como a África do Sul, onde o setor formal de sementes é altamente sofisticado, os pequenos agricultores podem ser excluídos. Assim, os sistemas informais de sementes e os sistemas de culturas baseados na comunidade constituem uma fonte significativa de sementes para esses agricultores. Estes sistemas de culturas baseados na comunidade enfrentam muitos problemas de sustentabilidade similares aos das empresas formais de sementes.Por conseguinte, o reforço destes sistemas através da aplicação de princípios de gestão sólidos é necessário para o seu crescimento e sustentabilidade.Embora o setor de sementes africano não pareça ser hoje em dia particularmente forte, existem vários sinais de mudança. A procura de alimentos, rações e fibras de produção local está a crescer em África devido ao aumento da população e à urbanização. As recentes subidas no preço das mercadorias e as contrações económicas mundiais realçaram a necessidade de autoconfiança entre as nações. Por conseguinte, a necessidade de uma maior produtividade agrícola no continente é evidente. Consequentemente, os governos estão a reconhecer a necessidade de estimular mais o setor agrícola; os agricultores estão a procurar mais oportunidades de comercialização dos seus produtos; pequenas empresas agroindustriais estão a emergir, enquanto as grandes empresas de sementes que existem estão a explorar novos mercados em muitos países. Além disso, agências doadoras, organizações internacionais e ONG estão a tornar-se comercialmente mais orientadas na sua assistência ao desenvolvimento. A oportunidade que isto representa para as empresas de sementes e outras indústrias agrícolas de fornecimento de fatores de produção e de transformação alimentar é enorme.A gestão de empresas de sementes difere de muitas outras empresas de produção ou de distribuição. Enquanto as empresas de sementes têm o mesmo objetivo básico de outras empresas, ou seja, a realização de lucros sustentáveis satisfazendo as necessidades dos clientes, existem muitas diferenças na sua organização empresarial, ciclos de produtos, estratégias de marketing e gestão financeira. As empresas de sementes de cultura enfrentam períodos de produção grandes (até quatro anos no caso de determinados híbridos), um período de vendas sazonais concentrado e uma linha de produtos perecíveis sujeita a uma produção regulamentar rigorosa e sistemas de qualidade e vulnerável às tensões ambientais. Além disso, o desenvolvimento e registo de novos produtos envolvem, com frequência um processo longo, enquanto os clientes são diversificados, descentralizados e apresentam uma vasta gama de requisitos de produtos relacionados com o ambiente socioeconómico e biofísico altamente variável de África. Por conseguinte, os empresários de sementes têm de dispor de capacidades particulares em questões como fluxo de caixa de longo prazo e gestão de inventário; produção de sementes; processamento e garantia de qualidade; aplicação de conhecimentos sobre o mercado; e avaliação e desenvolvimento dos produtos.As componentes internas de uma empresa de sementes são também únicas, começando pelo desenvolvimento de variedades e terminando na venda de sementes aos clientes ou agricultores (Figura 1). Cada uma das fases do processo é essencial e está inter-relacionada, mas uma empresa de sementes não precisa de estar diretamente envolvida em cada componente da cadeia. Uma empresa pode concentrarse numa ligação particular ou num subconjunto da cadeia, e subcontratar as outras componentes a outras empresas ou organizações. Em muitos casos, as pequenas empresas de sementes estão simplesmente envolvidas na comercialização e venda das sementes adquiridas noutras organizações.Nesses casos, os produtos (sementes de variedades) podem provir de um Programa Nacional de Investigação, uma Fundação de Sementes ou um centro do CGIAR, enquanto a produção pode ser realizada por agricultores contratados, que também podem processar e embalar as sementes em sacos da empresa. Alternativamente, uma empresa de sementes pode simplesmente comprar sementes a outras empresas e vendê-las diretamente aos agricultores, caso em que atuam mais como agentes ou retalhistas do que como empresa de sementes no sentido mais lato do termo. Independentemente da forma como uma empresa de sementes está estruturada ou em que quantidade da cadeia de sementes está diretamente Uma empresa de sementes é qualquer pessoa [ou grupo] que esteja disposto a produzir e comercializar sementes [de qualidade] certificadas à sua responsabilidade.(Dr. Joe Cortes)envolvida, o sucesso no longo prazo requer que toda a cadeia seja operada de forma eficaz e seja bem gerida para garantir que existem variedades de sementes de qualidade melhorada, adaptada e apropriada, disponíveis para comercializar aos agricultores.A questão então é: \"Como é possível tornar uma empresa única desse género num sucesso?\" A resposta não é, obviamente, simples, nem a gestão de uma empresa de sementes é algo que possa ser aprendido meramente por ler um livro como este. As empresas de sementes são extremamente dinâmicas e exigentes, requerem um empenho, envolvimento, energia e resiliência no longo prazo. O conteúdo deste livro apenas fornece algumas perspetivas e ideias aos gestores de empresas de sementes. Será a aplicação destes preceitos e princípios à empresa individual no contexto da economia como um todo, o aproveitamento da experiência dos gestores e empregados de dentro e de fora da empresa, e a observação, aprendizagem e aplicação das lições diárias a partir da base que fará a diferença.Este livro baseia-se num modelo empresarial simples, onde o objetivo ou visão global da empresa é definido e apoiado pelas três estratégias principais de marketing, produção e finanças. Estas estratégias são desenvolvidas no contexto de um ambiente empresarial e servem de orientação às atividades reais da empresa. Uma vez que a indústria de sementes é Figura 1. As componentes básicas da cadeia de valor de sementes e as principais questões de gestão. dinâmica, os objetivos e estratégias da empresa têm de ser igualmente dinâmicos. Por isso, uma análise contínua do progresso, a avaliação das atividades e a estimativa dos fatores externos devem fornecer aos gestores informação para moldar e melhorar os processos empresariais. Além disso, uma vez que as empresas não são objetos inertes mas feitas de pessoas, os seus gestores não podem negligenciar a gestão de recursos humanos.A natureza de longo prazo das empresas de sementes requer um planeamento cuidadoso de três componentes estratégicas da empresa, nomeadamente, marketing, produção e finanças. O planeamento da estratégia de marketing está relacionado com encontrar um produto apropriado ao cliente. Os gestores precisam de se perguntar quem são os seus clientes, quais são os seus requisitos e como podem conseguir o produto que o cliente deseja de uma forma e a um preço que encoraje o cliente a adquirir o seu produto e não o da concorrência. Em geral, os clientes comprarão os produtos que desejam e, no que se refere a sementes, isto significa fornecer variedades de sementes que sejam adaptadas ao ambiente e estilo de gestão do agricultor, adequadas às suas necessidades, de qualidade fiável, numa embalagem da dimensão requerida, a um preço acessível e num local conveniente. O desenvolvimento desta estratégia de marketing requer, por isso, um conhecimento profundo tanto dos clientes como das variáveis disponíveis, de modo a juntá-las e conseguir uma venda efetiva. Tal pode significar levar o que a empresa já dispõe em termos de variedades para o local onde são necessárias, ou o desenvolvimento ou a aquisição de variedades que os clientes necessitem.Tendo definido a estratégia de marketing, o gestor da empresa de sementes está em condições de desenvolver uma estratégia de produção. Só faz sentido produzir o que os clientes procuram em termos de variedade, quantidade e qualidade. A estratégia de produção, por conseguinte, define o plano de como produzir as sementes a serem vendidas. A produção de sementes envolve, normalmente, uma série de passos, desde as sementes do obtentor, passando pelas sementes básicas até às sementes certificadas, o que requer um mínimo de três estações, uma vez que são três os passos a seguir. Além disso, existem questões relacionadas com produtores de sementes, regulamentos, processamento e embalagem que têm de ser abordadas. Tal requer um cuidadoso planeamento dos seguintes aspetos:• Determinar a quantidade de sementes certificadas, básicas e do obtentor que é necessário produzir para satisfazer os futuros objetivos de vendas; • Contratar e supervisionar os produtos de sementes para plantarem diferentes categorias de sementes; • Processar as sementes numa forma vendável, incluindo limpeza, classificação, preparação e embalagem; • Adaptar o processo de produção aos regulamentos nacionais em matéria de sementes e medidas internas; e • Gerir e manter as máquinas e equipamentos para assegurar um fornecimento atempado de sementes de qualidade.Por último, as estratégias de marketing e de produção têm, ambas, implicações financeiras que devem ser formuladas num plano estratégico financeiro. A estratégia financeira concilia, assim, as estratégias de marketing e de produção em orçamentos de receitas e despesas de modo a comprovar se o plano é rentável. No entanto, a rentabilidade per se é insuficiente para definir o sucesso da empresa, dado que o fluxo de caixa é igualmente importante, em especial para a sustentabilidade. Uma empresa pode ser rentável mas ter um fluxo de caixa negativo devido a uma gestão de caixa cíclica fraca, por ter demasiado crédito mal parado ou ambos. A estratégia financeira analisa, por isso, a forma como as estratégias de marketing e de produção devem ser alteradas para conseguir rentabilidade e um fluxo de caixa positivo. A estratégia financeira elabora esquemas sobre como financiar a produção e o marketing, e desenvolve métodos de supervisão e avaliação de modo a manter a boa saúde financeira da empresa em tempo real.As três estratégias de marketing, produção e finanças estão completamente integradas e, por isso, o processo de planeamento não é linear, mas interativo e dinâmico. O gestor deve manter o equilíbrio das três estratégias no quadro das limitações de recursos e da capacidade pessoal, enquanto adapta e tira o máximo partido do ambiente socioeconómico externo predominante. Os planos não são estáticos, têm de ser flexíveis e ajustáveis, e não terão qualquer valor se não forem implementados com um propósito, paixão e perseverança.Esta descrição da natureza única das empresas de sementes e a apresentação de alguns dos fatores-chave necessários para a tornar num sucesso ilustram que as empresas de sementes não se destinam a empresários que pretendam ter um lucro rápido e fácil. Trata-se de um negócio de longo prazo com muitos requisitos e inúmeras armadilhas. Todavia, é possível ser-se bem-sucedido através do conhecimento, planeamento e gestão da empresa. Os agricultores em África necessitam de empresas de sementes corajosas e empenhadas para que os lucros dos esforços de obtenção públicos e privados sejam disponibilizados para uma produção agrícola melhorada e sustentável. Este livro apresenta-se como um recurso para os empresários de sementes que procuram fazer a diferença nas atividades de subsistência dos agricultores de sementes em África.A aquisição de sementes melhoradas por agricultores africanos, ao contrário do que acontece num pequeno número de países, não é frequente. Com base num inquérito às vendas de sementes em 2007, as taxas de adoção estimadas variavam entre 5% em Angola e 80% no Zimbabué. (Langyintuo et al. 2008). Comparativamente às taxas de adoção observadas por Hassan et al. (2001) em 1997, verificou-se uma diminuição em Angola, na Zâmbia e no Zimbabué, mas um aumento em seis outros países (Figura 1.1). Uma vez que a utilização de sementes melhoradas apresenta um nível tão baixo na maioria dos países, existe um aparente potencial de crescimento da indústria de sementes em África. Fonte: Langyintuo et al. (2008).Os empresários que procurem criar ou desenvolver uma empresa de sementes em mercados com frequências de aquisição baixas enfrentam uma série de desafios sobre os quais podem ter uma influência direta. Estes incluem a aquisição e manutenção de uma carteira de variedades melhoradas, adaptadas e apropriadas, o desenvolvimento e gestão de uma base de agricultores de sementes fiável e a criação de uma rede de distribuição. Tal não minimiza a importância das questões financeiras ou de quaisquer outras relativas à gestão, mas reconhece que sem os produtos, a produção e o marketing, existem poucas, se algumas, perspetivas de crescimento. Além disso, o ambiente externo da empresa terá uma influência significativa na possibilidade e potencial de crescimento. Questões como políticas governamentais relativas a sementes e à agricultura, produtividade agrícola e circunstâncias macroeconómicas representam desafios sérios às empresas de sementes existentes e emergentes. As empresas de sementes individualmente poderão fazer pouco para influenciar diretamente e de forma considerável, bem como melhorar as condições externas ao desenvolvimento deste setor. No entanto, através de atividades de lobby, estratégia e adaptação a estas circunstâncias, o crescimento ainda poderá ser possível.As empresas de sementes têm capacidade para formular a sua estrutura e funcionamento, por forma a otimizar o seu próprio desempenho, ao mesmo tempo que também contribuem para o crescimento da indústria de sementes no seu conjunto. No seio da empresa, os fatores que podem impedir ou promover o desenvolvimento do setor são, por conseguinte, uma das principais preocupações. Embora seja possível enumerar uma diversidade de fatores, existem três que se salientam pela sua importância, nomeadamente, a carteira de produtos, a capacidade do agricultor de sementes e a rede de distribuição.Sempre que uma empresa de sementes desenvolve um negócio num mercado estabelecido ou emergente, uma das principais componentes do desenvolvimento de mercado é a carteira de sementes e de variedades. A maioria das grandes empresas de sementes dispõe dos seus próprios programas de desenvolvimento de variedades, mas para as pequenas empresas tal constitui um desafio significativo devido ao custo e à natureza de longo prazo de obtenção de sementes.Consequentemente, as organizações que fornecem variedades melhoradas, adaptadas e apropriadas, como bens públicos ou em acordos de licença, são essenciais para o desenvolvimento do mercado de sementes.As variedades não têm apenas de ser melhoradas face às existentes, mas têm de ser adaptadas aos ambientes dos agricultores-alvo e apropriadas aos seus requisitos, tendo também de satisfazer os requisitos de mercado da indústria de milho.Na África subsariana, o CIMMYT, o Instituto Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (IITA) e os Sistemas Nacionais de Investigação Agrícola (NARS) fornecem germoplasma público de milho a empresas de sementes. Similarmente, variedades vegetais de leguminosas, milhomiúdo, milho-painço, arroz estão disponíveis através de determinadas organizações, tais como do Instituto Internacional de Investigação sobre as Culturas das Zonas Tropicais Semiáridas (ICRISAT), do Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), do Centro Asiático para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação relativos aos Vegetais (AVRDC), do Instituto Internacional de Investigação sobre o Arroz (IRRI) e dos NARS. No caso de germoplasmas públicos de CGIAR, o seu acesso pode verificar-se de várias formas 1 , seja diretamente como produtos acabados, ou como germoplasma original para programas de obtenção proprietário. Esta última utilização resulta, normalmente, na disponibilização de variedades de elite mais diversas e em maior número, mas em geral acontece apenas em países com programas de obtenção dos NARS fortes e em grandes empresas de sementes. No caso dos lançamentos de variedades diretas de germoplasma público, as empresas de sementes testam e candidatam-se ao lançamento de variedades por iniciativa própria ou realizam a produção de sementes e a comercialização de variedades registadas pelos NARS, numa base formal ou informal.Ao longo dos últimos cinco anos e até 2008, foram atribuídos aos NARS e a empresas de sementes em África direitos para lançar mais de 100 variedades híbridas CIMMYT e variedades de polinização livre (OPV). Entre 2005 e 2008, no sul de África, foram registadas anualmente mais de 90 novas variedades de milho (Tabela 1.1). A maioria destas foi registada na África do Sul, grande parte híbridas. Mesmo excluindo a África do Sul, o número de híbridas lançadas foi quase o dobro de OPV. Embora as empresas de sementes tenham registado um total de 18 OPV nos quatro anos, os NARS registaram 35 OPV, o que indica o seu interesse no apoio à segurança dos pequenos agricultores de sementes.O grande número de variedades registadas na África do Sul é um indicador da natureza dinâmica dessa indústria de sementes. Mas a questão que pode ser colocada é se tal é ou não sensato. Quando se analisa a situação do registo de variedades na África do Sul, é de salientar dois pontos. Primeiro, o setor de sementes sul-africano é altamente sofisticado, com inúmeras empresas de sementes, a maioria das quais com programas proprietários de obtenção, que comercializa sementes (normais e geneticamente modificadas [GM], e variedades de grão branco e amarelo), a agricultores de larga escala exigentes e criteriosos que cultivam milho num vasto leque de mega-ambientes. Segundo, o número de variedades registado todos os anos é acompanhado por um número significativo de retirada de variedades das listas de registo (Tabela 1.2). Em 2008, existiam 441 variedades de milho na Lista de Variedades sul-africana junto da Organização Nacional de Sementes Sul-Africana (SANSOR), mas apenas 25% estavam listadas há 7 anos ou mais, enquanto 40% estavam listadas há 2 anos ou menos e 35% entre 3 e 6 anos (E. Goldschagg, comunicação pessoal, SANSOR 2009). Das variedades retiradas da lista em 2007, 27,5% estiveram listadas durante 7 anos ou mais, 25% durante 2 anos ou menos e 47,5% entre 3 e 6 anos. Quase metade das variedades (52%) estive listada durante apenas 2 a 3 anos.Assim, existe uma rápida rotatividade de variedades na África do Sul, tendo a maioria uma longevidade breve de 2 a 3 anos. Somente as que apresentam um desempenho excecional, tanto em termos de aceitabilidade pelo agricultor e pela indústria de sementes, como em termos de rentabilidade para a empresa de sementes, se mantêm no mercado por mais de 3 anos. Estes dados da África do Sul sugerem que à medida que o setor de sementes cresce e se torna mais competitivo, o ciclo de vida das variedades diminui. Tal é acompanhado pela necessidade de os agricultores estarem mais conscientes das mudanças e avanços nas características e disponibilidade das variedades. Espera-se que as variedades mais recentes tenham um melhor desempenho e sejam mais adequadas a ambientes particulares do que as variedades mais antigas. Por conseguinte, os agricultores têm de ser capazes de escolher variedades apropriadas a partir de um vasto leque de opções. Da perspetiva de uma empresa de sementes, é necessário que os agricultores tenham educação e exista prestação de serviços para conquistar e conservar as vendas, uma vez que não só existe uma vasta gama de opções em termos de variedades da concorrência, como existe também uma dinâmica de variedade intra-empresa que pode ser transmitida aos agricultores. Assim, na África do Sul, não é pouco frequente encontrar áreas de cultivo de milho pontuadas por várias demonstrações na berma da estrada, identificação da variedade em campos importantes e muitas brochuras promocionais atrativas sobre variedades. Daqui é possível retirar lições para a propagação de variedades melhoradas para outros países de África, mesmo nos casos em que as frequências de vendas sejam baixas. Quanto mais agricultores conhecem e se familiarizam com novas variedades, mais provável será que adquiram sementes de variedades melhoradas. Tendo em conta a grande diversidade de ambientes de cultivo de milho, as preferências dos consumidores em África e a significativa necessidade de um número bastante superior de empresas de sementes, o reforço dos programas de obtenção do setor público nacional é um desenvolvimento positivo e necessário que deve permitir às empresas de sementes aceder e comercializar um número maior de variedades adaptadas localmente sem necessidade de gerir um dispendioso programa de desenvolvimento de variedades.Desenvolver e manter uma base produtiva de agricultores de sementes A produção de sementes de milho requer agricultores de sementes competentes que cumpram os requisitos de isolamento e as normas de produção para a certificação de sementes e que atinjam as expectativas das empresas de sementes em termos de rentabilidade (ver a Caixa 1.1). Em muitas partes de África, isto é um dos principais desafios que as empresas de sementes enfrentam porque a maioria dos agricultores realiza a sua atividade em pequenas explorações muito próximas entre si. De uma perspetiva agrónoma, a produção de sementes é, na sua essência, similar à produção normal de sementes, em particular no caso de sementes autogâmicas e OPV, mas requer uma maior atenção ao pormenor, mais trabalho e isolamento suficiente. Por conseguinte, considera-se que as dimensões ideais dos campos para uma produção de sementes de qualidade sejam de 5 a 20 ha, em particular para a produção de híbridos.Os campos muito pequenos (<5 ha) estão sujeitos a maiores riscos de contaminação por pólen estranho, e por isso o isolamento torna-se um fator especialmente importante para os agricultores de pequena escala que exploram culturas alogâmicas. Para uma empresa de sementes, vários campos de sementes pequenos representam maiores desafios logísticos do que menos campos grandes.Verificaram-se alguns casos bem-sucedidos de produção de OPV de milho com pequenos agricultores nos quais comunidades agrícolas foram contratadas para cultivar uma variedade particular (Mkhari et al. 2006). Tal ajuda a ultrapassar riscos de isolamento, mas requer a cooperação e a integridade da comunidade.Não se tem, no entanto, verificado grande progresso na produção em comunidade bemsucedida de sementes híbridas de milho em África, embora isso esteja a ser atualmente tentado na Etiópia. Em princípio, as comunidades que produziram sementes de OPV de milho devem também poder produzir sementes híbridas, desde que os agricultores sejam formados relativamente aos requisitos e disponham das capacidades necessárias. Em particular, a produção de sementes híbridas requer a plantação diferenciada de linhas parentais masculina e feminina, remoção completa e atempada de panículas, remoção de plantas masculinas na sequência da polinização, seleção de espigas na colheita e evitar Caixa 1.1. Considerações empresariais para a seleção de agricultores de sementes.• Grandes explorações agrícolas para permitir as necessárias distâncias de isolamento • Campos de grandes dimensões (5-20 ha) • Rentabilidade de sementes elevada e fiável • Gestão capaz de sementes com um trabalho adequado • Oportunidades de irrigação • Proximidade a boas vias rodoviárias e instalações de processamento de sementes• Custos de formação reduzidos • Qualidade de sementes mais consistente • Custos de transporte reduzidos• Custos e tempo reduzidos para a inspeção de sementes; fundamental se a inspeção for realizada por um número limitado de funcionários públicos • Menos acordos contratuais • Risco inferior de contaminação • Menores custos de produção de sementes • Preço das sementes inferior misturas de sementes durante o descasque. Este processo requer um tempo e trabalho de gestão consideráveis, pelo que a formação do agricultor em conjunto com a supervisão são fundamentais para a produção bem-sucedida de sementes híbridas em comunidade.Por conseguinte, as empresas de sementes em África enfrentam os desafios logísticos da produção de sementes em pequena escala. Simultaneamente, existe a questão da formulação e implementação de acordos contratuais com os pequenos agricultores, em especial num ambiente comunitário. Tem-se verificado inúmeros esforços para desenvolver sistemas agrícolas de contrato com pequenos agricultores com diversos produtos agrícolas, e as empresas de sementes podem encontrar modelos de sucesso a seguir (Kirsten e Sartorius 2002). A definição dos preços das sementes é uma componente particularmente importante da produção de sementes, e com culturas que apresentem uma relação do preço do grão muito baixa, tais como feijão, amendoim, sorgo e trigo, poderá ser difícil garantir a entrega de sementes dos agricultores. Consequentemente, é necessário estabelecer contratos, confiança e pagamentos atempados para permitir o crescimento da indústria de sementes.Os agricultores em África estão extremamente dispersos e, com frequência, distantes das cidades onde se localizam as empresas de sementes. Além disso, uma vez que a maioria dos agricultores cultiva pequenas áreas de cultura e compra, consequentemente, pequenas quantidades de sementes, nenhum agricultor individual ou grupo de agricultores representa uma proporção significativa das vendas de uma empresa de sementes (Krull et al. 1998). Os elevados custos de transação relacionados com inúmeras vendas pequenas tornam as empresas de sementes relutantes em vender diretamente aos utilizadores finais. Assim, os sistemas de marketing de sementes são, muitas vezes, caracterizados por intermediários e uma distribuição mínima para além de centros comerciais. Esta falta de acesso próximo aos pontos de retalho de sementes tem sido citada como uma das principais limitações à adoção de variedades melhoradas por parte dos agricultores (de Meyer, n.d.). As empresas de sementes enfrentam uma dificuldade na distribuição económica, do seu produto a locais que sejam de acesso conveniente para os agricultores.Estima-se que, por exemplo, em Angola, na Zâmbia, em Moçambique e na Tanzânia, sejam necessários mais de 1.700 centros de retalho para vender 1 tonelada de semente de milho a 35% dos agricultores num raio de 30 km de cada centro (Figura 1.2). Os principais fatores que impedem o estabelecimento de uma rede de distribuição dispersa são a infraestrutura de transportes de fraca qualidade nas áreas rurais, os elevados custos de transação devido ao envolvimento de muitos pequenos distribuidores e problemas de estabelecimento de sistemas de crédito fiáveis com comerciantes rurais. Algumas empresas de sementes tentaram ultrapassar esta questão posicionando centros \"grossistas\" em centros rurais estratégicos, onde os pequenos retalhistas das regiões vizinhas podem adquirir stocks de sementes a dinheiro.Outras estratégias têm incluído o encorajamento dos agricultores no sentido de formarem grupos de compras, a nomeação de agricultores como grossistas rurais à consignação, lojas de sementes itinerantes e atividades promocionais para fomentar que os agricultores viajem até centros rurais para adquirir as sementes. Uma outra tentativa foram as feiras rurais de sementes como meio de encorajar o florescimento do comércio informal de sementes em paralelo com o comércio formal, especialmente no caso de legumes e culturas diferentes do milho e que podem ser menos atraentes para uma empresa de sementes. Todavia, continua a existir uma grande necessidade de um pensamento inovador para melhorar a distribuição dos stocks de sementes na África rural de forma a encorajar o crescimento do setor das sementes.Obviamente que as empresas de sementes existem no contexto do ambiente agrícola e socioeconómico do país ou região onde estão localizadas. É, por isso, necessário compreender estes fatores externos e procurar formas de os influenciar para melhorar o desenvolvimento do setor de sementes. Em princípio, três aspetos essenciais que requerem atenção são a regulamentação nacional em matéria de sementes, a produtividade dos agricultores e a indústria de grãos.A regulamentação nacional em matéria de sementes define os padrões de qualidade das sementes e as possibilidades do mercado O estado da regulamentação em matéria de sementes e a sua implementação em África apresentam uma diversidade significativa entre os países (Tabela 1.3). Embora Tripp (2001) tenha reconhecido a necessidade de regulamentação em matéria de sementes para assegurar a qualidade, observou que uma regulamentação governamental rigorosa pode agir como SZ -Suazilândia; TZ -Tanzânia; ZA -África do Sul; ZM -Zâmbia; ZW -Zimbabué. Fonte: P. Setimela, comunicação pessoal, 2008 (data não publicada).desincentivo ao surgimento de um setor de sementes comercial. No momento desta publicação, uma minoria de países africanos dispunha de legislação abrangente destinada a facilitar o desenvolvimento do setor das sementes.Embora a maioria dos países tenha sistemas para o registo de variedades, estes são frequentemente demorados e onerosos. Uma vez que atualmente não existe um sistema de registo de variedades regionais a funcionar no oeste, sul ou leste de África, cada nova variedade tem de ser registada em cada país, apesar do facto de mega-ambientes de colheitas cruzarem as fronteiras nacionais.Por conseguinte, variedades melhoradas amplamente adaptadas demoram muitos anos a serem registadas em países com ambientes e sistemas de produção similares. Tal impede o abastecimento e a produtividade dos agricultores.Poucos países em África dispõem de qualquer forma de legislação em matéria de proteção das variedades vegetais. Algumas empresas de sementes encaram este facto como um dos principais obstáculos à expansão dos interesses empresariais devido ao receio de perder controlo dos recursos genéticos. Este é, particularmente, o caso da produção de culturas autogâmicas e de milho híbrido. Os padrões de certificação de sementes não são equivalentes em todos os países de África e somente alguns poucos dispõem de acreditação da Associação Internacional de Ensaio de Sementes (ISTA), o que frequentemente impede o comércio de sementes entre países. Todavia muitos esforços têm sido realizados nos últimos anos para harmonizar os regulamentos em matéria de sementes entre blocos económicos e associações de investigação (p. ex., WECAMAN, SADC, COMESA e ASARECA). Embora se tenham alcançado acordos a nível técnico no domínio dos regulamentos de sementes regionalizadas, dos procedimentos fitossanitários e do registo de variedades, estes ainda não foram formalizados na legislação nacional e implementados a nível da administração.As rentabilidades das culturas em África são em geral baixas devido a diversas limitações bióticas, abióticas e de gestão. Por exemplo, as rentabilidades nacionais médias do milho variam entre 0,5 e 1,5 t/ha em muitos países do sul de África, onde a utilização de fertilizantes em terra arável é, em média, de 0,009 t/ha. (FAO 2003). Assim, o custo da semente pode representar uma proporção significativa do valor da colheita de grão, dependendo da rentabilidade da cultura e da relação entre o preço da semente e do grão (Figura 1.3). A compra de semente apenas se justifica nos casos em que as rentabilidades sejam elevadas ou a relação entre o preço da semente e do grão seja baixa (Heisey et al. 1998). Pixley e Bänziger (2004), numa avaliação económica da utilização de sementes híbridas e OPV, concluíram que se justificava a preferência por semente de OPV melhorada relativamente a sementes híbridas nos casos em que os níveis de rentabilidade eram baixos (p. ex. inferiores a 1,5 t/ha) e os preços de sementes híbridas e de fertilizantes elevados comparativamente ao preço do grão. A utilização de OPV melhoradas é também particularmente vantajosa Figura 1.3. A proporção da cultura de grão necessária para cobrir os custos da sementes enquanto função da rentabilidade e da relação do preço semente:grão, assumindo uma taxa de plantação de 0,025 t/ha.se o dinheiro economizado pela utilização OPV em vez de sementes híbridas for usado para comprar materiais adicionais, tais como fertilizantes, herbicidas ou contratar trabalho adicional. Por conseguinte, é provável que um aumento da produtividade dos agricultores favoreça o desenvolvimento do setor de sementes.As empresas de sementes podem adotar uma série de estratégias para estimular as vendas de sementes através do aumento da produtividade dos agricultores. O fornecimento de variedades melhoradas está na origem da melhoria da produtividade dos agricultores, mas tal necessita de ser complementado por melhores práticas agrícolas. De facto, uma gestão agrícola melhorada pode dar origem a um maior retorno em termos de produtividade do que as sementes melhoradas per se (MacMillan et al. 1991). Por isso, a demonstração de variedades e atividades de promoção devem ser associadas a informação extensa que promova melhores práticas agrícolas, tais como agricultura de conservação, a utilização de adubos e fertilizantes, plantação atempada, controlo e gestão de pragas.Intervenções que reduzam o preço da semente à saída da exploração relativamente ao preço do grão podem encorajar os agricultores a comprar sementes. Tal inclui uma maior liberalização dos regulamentos de sementes, o apoio a mercados mais competitivos (p. ex., oportunidades de formação e de crédito a comerciantes agrícolas) e investimentos em infraestruturas. Além disso, as empresas de sementes podem implementar estratégias para fomentar a produtividade dos agricultores fornecendo informação sobre gestão de culturas na embalagem das sementes e disponibilizando serviços de consultoria agrónoma aos compradores de sementes. No entanto, a importância de aumentar a produtividade dos agricultores é uma preocupação nacional e as empresas de sementes apenas podem contribuir com uma pequena parte do esforço total necessário. Os serviços nacionais de extensão, o fornecimento de informação e o desenvolvimento do setor de fertilizantes e químico associado às sementes são igualmente importantes para o crescimento do setor das sementes.Mercados de grãos em funcionamento ou indústrias baseadas em grãos de valor acrescentado atuam como um estímulo para a produção de colheitas (Jayne et al. 1997). Em geral, os mercados de grãos estão pouco desenvolvidos em África, de modo que, à escala local, as flutuações de preços são fortemente influenciadas pelos stocks disponíveis de grãos. Adicionalmente, existem poucas indústrias baseadas em culturas nas áreas rurais africanas, para além moleiros locais e pequenos produtos de óleo. Assim é normal que os agricultores enfrentem preços baixos dos grãos durante e após a colheita. Tal pode servir como desincentivo à produção de culturas para além do necessário para uso pessoal. Além disso, as empresas de sementes raramente consideram entrar numa região se não existir um mercado de grãos que absorva a produção adicional de milho sem diminuir significativamente os preços dos grãos (P. Devenish, comunicação pessoal, 2007). Poucas empresas de sementes estão preparadas para se tornar também intermediárias de grãos, assim o desenvolvimento do setor de sementes é limitado pela falta de mercados fortes de grãos.Foi avançada uma série de abordagens inovadoras para melhorar a estabilidade do mercado de grãos em África. Estas incluem bolsas de mercadorias, bancos comunitários de grãos, programas de crédito e o desenvolvimento de instalações de armazenamento nas explorações (Langyintuo 2005). Nos locais onde estas foram implementadas (p. ex. no Quénia e no Gana) verificou-se uma medida de sucesso na estabilização do mercado e consequente estimulação de uma maior procura de sementes. A nível nacional, foram implementados sistemas de preços de apoio e de mercado de canal único com um sucesso variável, mas estas abordagens funcionam, em geral, para reduzir o comércio de grãos livres e o desenvolvimento da indústria baseada em grãos. Uma maior utilização do grão de milho em empresas de criação de gado e em processos industriais, tais como no etanol, amido, óleo e processamento alimentar podem servir para estimular muito a produção de milho e, consequentemente, o setor de sementes.O crescimento do setor das sementes em África não é um processo simples mas complexo que envolve processos de interação e de corregulação. Estes são alguns dos fatores que intervêm, apoiam e influenciam e que determinarão a rapidez e a dimensão do crescimento do setor das sementes. Isto pode ser resumido analisando a cadeia de valor da indústria de sementes (Tabela 1.4). De um modo genérico, a cadeia de valor das sementes inicia-se com o desenvolvimento de variedades melhoradas. Este é um processo moroso e dispendioso, normalmente realizado pelos NARS, CGIAR e algumas grandes empresas de sementes. Os principais constrangimentos que existem são a elevada rotatividade de pessoal nos programas de obtenção dos NARS, infraestruturas de fraca qualidade nas estações de investigação, financiamento inadequado para uma atividade de obtenção de longo prazo e falta de germoplasma apropriado para determinadas culturas e tensões ambientais. No entanto, existem oportunidades para ligar os esforços de obtenção públicos e privados com • Falta de equipamento de processamento• Contrato de processamento de sementes de sementes com empresas• Materiais de embalagem de fraca qualidade de sementes existentes• Instalações de armazenamento de• Instalações de processamento fraca qualidade de sementes comunitárias e/ou baseadas na comunidade de semilla• Formação de produtores de sementes• Empresas de sementes• Empresas de• Grandes distâncias a centros de retalho No entanto, as variedades registadas têm de ser produzidas e comercializadas, e são provavelmente estas componentes da cadeia de valor das sementes que necessitam de maior atenção e inovação. A capacidade de os agricultores produzirem sementes, em especial de milho híbrido, na maioria dos países africanos é seriamente deficiente devido à pequena dimensão das explorações agrícolas, à falta de recursos e a equipamentos insuficientes de irrigação. No entanto, existem oportunidades para reforçar e unir os agricultores às empresas de sementes através de contratos de produção de sementes e da disponibilização de formação e meios para aumentar a capacidade de produção. Na fase de processamento da produção de sementes, o equipamento é com frequência inadequado ou inexistente nas pequenas empresas, mas tal pode ser ultrapassado através da contratação de processamento ou investimentos nas instalações de processamento comunitárias ou do agricultor. Ao longo do processo de produção e de condicionamento, o controlo de qualidade é essencial para garantir que a semente colocada no mercado é de qualidade aceitável.A comercialização de sementes em África requer uma rede de distribuição excelente e extensa, com embalagens adequadamente dimensionadas e a um preço equitativamente relacionado aos preços dos grãos e à produtividade. As políticas governamentais de desenvolvimento rural, crédito agrícola, preços de insumo e de produção e a comercialização de grãos influenciam a capacidade de rentabilidade de uma empresa de sementes. Todavia, a promoção de produtos, a informação aos agricultores e retalhistas e uma resposta informada às necessidades dos clientes ajudarão a garantir as vendas de sementes.Por último, o crescimento da indústria de sementes não pode ser concebido isolado de um crescimento concomitante no conjunto da economia agrícola de África. A semente por si só não é o elemento-chave que irá aumentar a produtividade dos agricultores ou as economias nacionais, mas é um de vários elementos que têm de ser usados para abrir as diversas portas e passagens que impedem o desenvolvimento agrícola e o alargamento económico. Uma vez que o setor privado desempenhará um papel fundamental no setor de sementes, a melhoria da gestão das empresas de sementes tem de ser encarada como a faceta que irá refinar o elemento que é a semente.Não existem fronteiras em empresas, exceto as definidas pelas próprias empresas no contexto dos quadros éticos e legais que existem. Por conseguinte, os proprietários ou gestores de uma empresa têm liberdade para definir o âmbito, produtos, localização geográfica, governança empresarial, modelo empresarial e todas as outras componentes das suas empresas. Quer uma empresa de sementes decida cobrir toda a cadeia de valor ou apenas determinadas componentes, essa é exclusivamente uma decisão de gestão. Da mesma forma, a decisão de uma empresa de comercializar semente de milho, legumes ou uma variedade de culturas, é também somente sua. Contudo, é necessário estabelecer limites; caso contrário, os gestores nunca saberão o quê, onde e como devem gerir os negócios, pelo menos de uma forma metódica e planeada. Assim, para estabelecer ordem nos limites das empresas ou um quadro de funcionamento, os gestores têm de definir a visão de uma empresa e preparar planos estratégicos para tornar a visão numa realidade.Na gestão de uma empresa existem três componentes de base -primeiro, estabelecer uma visão para a empresa; segundo, determinar planos estratégicos que se espera levem a empresa à realização da sua visão; e terceiro, implementar decisões táticas numa base diária para conduzir a empresa na direção da visão.Uma visão é uma declaração do que a empresa pretende alcançar no longo prazo. Esta define a orientação futura da organização e funciona como guia de todas as atividades da empresa. Sem uma visão, uma empresa irá passar por dificuldades. Embora muitos proprietários ou gestores de empresas tenham uma visão para a sua empresa, esta pode não estar claramente formulada ou ser comunicada aos empregados, dando origem a uma determinada ausência de objetivo na atividade dos colaboradores. Por conseguinte, para dispor de uma direção clara, uma atividade coordenada e pessoal motivado, qualquer empresa tem de estabelecer e comunicar a sua visão.O planeamento estratégico é uma ferramenta de gestão para organizar o presente com base em projeções do futuro desejado. Por outras palavras, o planeamento estratégico baseia-se na visão da empresa, tem em conta as circunstâncias internas e externas e organiza a estrutura da empresa da forma com maior probabilidade de lhe permitir realizar a sua visão. O plano estratégico também definirá os objetivos e medidas que serão utilizados para analisar os progressos no sentido da visão. No caso da gestão da empresa de sementes, reconhece-se a existência de três pilares estratégicos de apoio à visão: a estratégia de marketing, a estratégia de produção e a estratégia financeira que, em conjunto, formam a missão ou a forma de formulação e gestão da empresa para apoiar e alcançar a visão.A gestão tática preocupa-se com decisões e ações em tempo real e em curso que levem a empresa pelo caminho no sentido da visão de acordo com os planos estratégicos. Estas atividades táticas de gestão avaliam constantemente a realidade em relação às estratégias, objetivos e medidas de desempenho e ajustam as atividades diárias da empresa de forma correspondente. As decisões táticas incluem a estrutura organizacional, gestão de recursos humanos, controlo financeiro, contratos de produção, atividades de publicidade e promocionais, etc. Isto indica a natureza dinâmica da gestão tática e mostra que sem uma visão e um plano estratégico, a gestão tática será mais uma questão de contingência e reação do que direcional e proativa. Assim, o estabelecimento de uma visão e o desenvolvimento de um plano estratégico definem o cenário para orientar as decisões táticas de gestão que conduzem ao sucesso da empresa.A gestão desempenha um papel facilitador no desenvolvimento e implementação dos planos de negócios. Embora algumas empresas possam usar uma abordagem descendente para definir a visão e as estratégias, o envolvimento de todos os empregados da organização cria, normalmente, uma maior propriedade da visão e uma determinação mais sincera para realizar as estratégias definidas. Da mesma forma, envolver os acionistas participantes e outros intervenientes (p. ex., mercado-alvo, reguladores e decisores políticos) na formulação da visão irá ajudar a alinhar as intenções às possibilidades e requisitos do mercado. Obviamente, quanto mais pessoas estejam diretamente envolvidas no planeamento mais complicado será o processo, mas os gestores podem incluir outros através de contribuições e procedimentos de discussão informais e formais. A chave é fornecer ao pessoal, acionistas e intervenientes uma oportunidade de contribuírem antes de a visão e os planos estratégicos estarem definidos, de modo a alcançar um sentimento de propriedade e empenho dentro na empresa, no seu conjunto. Uma vez que nenhum plano pode ser rígido e porque o futuro é desconhecido, uma vasta participação no exercício de planeamento confere a todos uma avaliação da necessidade de ser flexível na empresa de sementes.Desenvolver a visão é um processo participativo e prospetivo A visão de uma empresa de sementes é uma breve descrição das alterações (internas, externas ou ambas) que a empresa espera realizar em consequência das suas operações. A orientação da visão é o estado futuro desejado relativamente ao âmbito de funcionamento da empresa. Assim, a visão representa uma declaração de inspiração para a empresa, enquanto declara ao mundo a sua razão de existir. Existem muitas formas de chegar a uma declaração da visão -desde um processo de pensamento simples, em alguns minutos, até um exercício analítico complicado e demorado. Seja qual for a abordagem tomada, o objetivo é criar uma declaração que confira à empresa uma direção e uma orientação para o seu trabalho. Apresentamos aqui uma proposta simples e flexível que pode ser adaptada, ampliada ou reduzida, conforme necessário.O desenvolvimento de uma visão envolve uma série de passos que decorrem do processo de responder a uma \"Pergunta-chave\" relacionada com o futuro da empresa mas que é relevante para a situação atual. Essa pergunta pode ser tão simples quanto \"O que deseja a empresa de sementes alcançar com o seu funcionamento?\" ou \"Em que negócios estamos e com que objetivo?\" A natureza da questão colocada depende, em determinada medida, da fase de desenvolvimento atual da empresa e do seu cenário atual (Caixa 2.1). Assim, os gestores de uma empresa têm de dispor primeiro de uma boa compreensão da sua posição presente enquanto empresa e como se enquadra no mercado e no cenário económico do seu mundo imediato e alargado.Por exemplo, uma grande empresa de sementes regional bem conhecida pode estar numa situação em que necessite de consolidar a sua posição atual e assim a pergunta pode ser \"O que é necessário para esta empresa consolidar os seus lucros recentes?\" Alternativamente, no caso de uma empresa pequena e emergente, a pergunta pode estar mais relacionada com como conquistar penetração no mercado e reconhecimento face às baixas frequências de aquisição de sementes e à grande concorrência.A natureza da pergunta pode também depender de uma empresa já ter ou não uma declaração da visão. Se já existir uma declaração, a pergunta pode simplesmente ser \"A nossa declaração de visão reflete adequadamente a nossa empresa?\" Assim, a formulação da \"Pergunta-chave\" propriamente dita necessitará de alguma discussão e reflexão sobre a atividade atual e futura da empresa e será determinada tendo por base a necessidade ou não de uma reorientação radical da empresa ou de uma restruturação das operações atuais.A chave para criar uma estratégia empresarial de sucesso é saber onde a empresa se encontra hoje, tanto interna como externamente. Uma vez definida a pergunta-chave, os passos para chegar a uma declaração da visão incluem: Passo um: Ter uma conversa aberta, usando um ou mais procedimentos estruturados para compreender melhor a natureza da empresa e as oportunidades e ameaças que possam existir. 2 A utilização de flipcharts, cartões, pequenos grupos, troca de ideias, etc., são meios úteis para reunir ideias e perspetivas dos participantes. Tal requer uma facilitação habilidosa, que é frequentemente melhor conseguida por um consultor experiente, de modo a evitar desvios da gestão interna.Passo dois: Consolidar as ideias e perspetivas obtidas em resumos sucintos ou grupos de ideias sob títulos, tais como• Expectativas dos clientes • Promotores de criação de valor• Influências de sucesso• Obstáculos ao sucesso• Benefícios esperados para a empresa. Passo três:A partir destes resumos, coloque as seguintes perguntas e responda-as em poucas frases curtas:1. Com a nossa empresa, que alterações pretendemos disponibilizar aos nossos clientes? 2. Destas alterações, quais são os elementos-chave que irão contribuir para o nosso sucesso?3. O que temos de fazer de forma diferente para alcançar esse sucesso? 4. O que temos de parar de fazer que esteja atualmente a impedir-nos de alcançar esse sucesso?5. Que benefícios esperamos que a empresa alcance desse sucesso?Passo quatro: Escreva uma única frase (ou mais, se necessário) que capte a essência das respostas às perguntas colocadas no passo três. Isto constituirá a base da declaração da visão. Tradicionalmente, as declarações de visão são muito breves e sucintas, mas essas declarações não transmitem, normalmente, muito sobre o impacto que a empresa espera ter ou o que a empresa realmente faz. Assim, por vezes veem-se declarações de visão mais longas de 10 a 15 palavras ou até mesmo de duas a cinco frases (ver a Caixa 2.2). Seja qual for o caso, a visão deve refletir o objetivo, os valores, a competência e os produtos da empresa numa declaração que possa ser facilmente compreendida e lembrada.Passo cinco: Reveja esta declaração de visão para ver se responde adequadamente à \"Pergunta-chave\". Caso contrário, poderá ser necessário regressar ao passo três. A utilização de meios auxiliares, como cartazes, cartões, papel timbrado, calendários, etc., para expor a declaração da visão é importante, mas inadequada.A visão tem de ser a atitude da gestão. Esta tem de a coordenar dentro da organização, de modo a todos reconhecerem que é a razão de base para a existência da empresa. Têm de a transmitir aos acionistas para lhes dar razões para manterem o seu empenho para com a empresa. Têm de a representar perante o mundo, para que os clientes e os concorrentes saibam o que a empresa defende. À medida que a gestão implementa a visão nas suas atividades diárias, esta penetrará através de todos aqueles com quem interage.Não é raro que uma declaração de visão seja introduzida de forma atraente logo após a sua formulação. No entanto, com o tempo, pode tornar-se insignificante e cair no esquecimento. Tal pode ocorrer devido ao facto de a gestão simplesmente não reconhecer a importância e o significado da visão ou porque a intensidade do trabalho de gestão da empresa acaba por colocar a visão de lado. A perda da visão será um dos primeiros passos para a degeneração da empresa. Para o evitar, a gestão necessita de a apoiar ativamente entre os membros da organização. A única forma segura de o alcançar é manter pessoalmente a visão \"viva\" e chamar a atenção para ela em todas as decisões, atividades e processos da empresa. As principais funções dos gestores são planear e organizar a empresa para que avance no sentido da visão À medida que os gestores sustentam a visão na empresa dispõem de um princípio através do qual podem planear, implementar, monitorizar e avaliar as atividades. As decisões diárias e momentâneas que os gestores têm continuamente de tomar têm de ser orientadas pela visão. No entanto, a gestão não é simplesmente uma questão de tomada de decisões. O seu papel é muito mais o de orientar a tomada de decisões em toda a organização. Para o fazer adequadamente é necessário um planeamento e organização cuidadosos e ponderados.Isto envolve identificar e conseguir os recursos disponíveis na empresa e distribuí-los pelas diferentes componentes da empresa de um modo que permita que cada uma das divisões funcione de forma ideal e interativa. As responsabilidades, marcadores de progresso, calendários, serviços de apoio e resultados esperados são especificados e comunicados ao pessoal.Para implementar o plano, a gestão tem um papel de coordenação e liderança que procura motivar as pessoas e distribuir os recursos de modo a que as atividades acordadas possam ser realizadas. Enquanto implementa o plano, as atividades e os resultados têm de ser monitorizados para garantir que o plano está a ser seguido e que os resultados esperados irão ser alcançados. As questões que os gestores têm de monitorizar incluem:(1) se os marcadores de progresso do plano estão a ser alcançados de forma atempada, eficaz e eficiente; (2) se os serviços de apoio relevantes estão a ser assegurados? (3) quais os fatores que influenciaram os desvios ao plano, e (4) que lições podem ser retiradas dos sucessos e falhas na implementação do plano? Esta monitorização assegura os meios para avaliar os progressos e refinar, reorientar e prosseguir atividades que aproximem a empresa da sua visão.Alcançar a visão requer liderança por parte dos gestores, mas também do pessoal em todas as componentes da empresa. No centro de qualquer empresa, mesmo de uma empresa de sementes, encontram-se pessoas. Por muito boa que seja a gama de variedades da empresa, independentemente da dimensão do saldo bancário ou da sofisticação das instalações de processamento de sementes, uma empresa de sementes será tão boa quanto as pessoas envolvidas o forem, bem como a sua motivação e eficácia. Assim, a liderança de pessoas é fundamental para alcançar a visão da empresa.A liderança não é apenas estar num cargo superior e dirigir outras pessoas. Ser um líder é uma responsabilidade séria, com poucos direitos e que requer uma atitude de serviço para com aqueles que se lidera. Um líder faz parte de uma equipa que trabalha para alcançar a visão e, por isso, um líder desempenha um papel interativo, de apoio, de coordenação e de motivação. Uma liderança eficaz depende em grande medida da liderança de si próprio, através de autodisciplina, visão pessoal, motivação e persistência para conseguir uma mudança para melhor, para as pessoas a servir, para a empresa e o mundo.Depois, os líderes têm de exprimir o caráter e a integridade que desejam ver naqueles que lideram. Por isso, o egoísmo, o orgulho, a imoralidade e a desonestidade não têm lugar na liderança. Uma vez que os líderes lideram pessoas, terão tendência para reunir pessoas à sua volta que sejam semelhantes a si ou a moldar as pessoas à sua forma, ao seu caráter e ao seu estilo. As consequências do caráter de um líder serão evidentes nos seguidores e na empresa que gerem. Os bons líderes também reconhecem as forças e as competências da equipa e criam oportunidades e espaço para a expressão dessas capacidades. Quando os membros da equipa realizam o seu papel de forma eficiente, os líderes reconhecem o desempenho e encorajam sucessos futuros. Além disso, os líderes são pessoas que resolvem problemas e criam oportunidades -antecipam, procuram e identificam problemas e oportunidades, tentam ultrapassar as questões e utilizam oportunidades prospetivas.Estas são, então, algumas das características de um bom líder. Nem todas as pessoas as possuem todas ou são líderes natos. Mas estas características podem ser aprendidas e melhoradas. Assim, os líderes também são pessoas que se esforçam por melhorar as suas competências e a aplicação dos princípios de liderança. Apoiam a visão e incentivam as pessoas através de um sentido de serviço e de empenho.A formulação da visão de uma empresa de sementes, ainda que importante, é apenas uma faceta da liderança empresarial. A acrescentar a isso existe a necessidade de desenvolver estratégias para apoiar a visão. Para uma empresa de sementes é necessário definir três estratégias principais; nomeadamente, estratégias de marketing, de produção e financeira. Uma estratégia define, através de regras, orientações e planos de trabalho, o que é necessário realizar para alcançar a visão. A definição de estratégias é um processo repetitivo e interativo entre as componentes da empresa, uma vez que estão todos interligados e encontram o seu ponto central na visão.Cada uma das três estratégias é uma perna de um banco de três pernas (Figura 2.1). Se faltar uma perna, é literalmente impossível alguém sentar-se no banco. Similarmente, se uma perna for mais curta ou comprida do que as outras, o banco será instável e extremamente desconfortável para alguém se sentar. Assim, cada estratégia é igualmente importante para a empresa, e as três têm de ser formuladas no sentido de trabalharem para o alcance da visão. A maioria dos gestores de empresas de sementes é forte numa ou outra das componentes, dependendo da sua experiência, formação e competências, mas tal não deverá ser razão para ignorar as componentes nas quais se podem verificar fraquezas relativas.A ordem do desenvolvimento do plano estratégico inicia-se normalmente com a definição da estratégia de marketing, uma vez que esta estabelece basicamente a gama de produtos e os objetivos de vendas. Com um objetivo de vendas realista, o passo seguinte é definir a estratégia de produção, dado que esta orienta a forma como as sementes vão produzidas, processadas, embaladas e armazenadas de acordo com procedimentos de controlo de qualidade predeterminados. Ao definir os objetivos de vendas, a estratégia de marketing estabelece essencialmente a potencial rentabilidade da empresa, enquanto a estratégia de produção determina as principais despesas da empresa de sementes, em particular as relacionadas com a quantidade de produção. A estratégia financeira constitui o terceiro passo do processo, uma vez que concilia a potencial rentabilidade dos objetivos de vendas com os custos de produção estimados, incorpora os custos indiretos da empresa e determina se o plano será ou não rentável e sustentável. Assim, a estratégia financeira é a que determina se o plano é ou não viável. A codependência das três estratégias é claramente demonstrada por esta descrição, pelo que é necessário que exista um elevado grau de interação e iteração no desenvolvimento das três estratégias. Poderá ser necessário uma série de tentativas antes de se chegar a um plano empresarial realista. De facto, por vezes, poderá requerer uma reanálise e redefinição da visão para que seja mais específica e realista.A primeira parte no desenvolvimento das estratégias de uma empresa de sementes é definir a estratégia de marketing. Com base na visão, será necessário determinar: que produtos serão comercializados, quais os objetivos de vendas a definir, como vender as sementes e a que preço.Esta estratégia inclui também as atividades que identificam, informam, atraem e assistem os clientes; como competir com a concorrência e o que será feito para efetivar as vendas. Os tipos de perguntas que serão respondidos no desenvolvimento de uma estratégia de marketing incluem: • Que melhorias ou alterações têm de ser realizadas à gama de produtos?• Como é que a empresa competirá melhor com a concorrência?• Como será estabelecido o preço do produto?• Que facilidades de crédito podem ser alargadas a grossistas, retalhistas e agricultores?A estratégia de produção assegura a qualidade do fornecimento de sementes A estratégia de produção estabelece o plano de como produzir as sementes a serem vendidas.A produção de sementes envolve, normalmente, uma série de fases, desde as sementes do obtentor, passando pelas sementes básicas até às sementes certificadas. As sementes vendidas aos agricultores são sementes certificadas. Assim, são normalmente necessárias três estações para dispor de sementes para venda, se as três fases forem seguidas. Além disso, existem as questões relacionadas com a contratação de agricultores de sementes que observem os regulamentos de certificação, processamento e embalagem de sementes, bem como procedimentos de controlo de qualidade. Tal requer, por conseguinte, um planeamento prospetivo cuidadoso.A estratégia de produção incluirá as seguintes áreas:• Planeamento da quantidade de sementes certificadas, básicas e de obtentores para satisfazer os objetivos de vendas.• Contratação e supervisão dos produtos de sementes para plantar diferentes categorias de sementes. • Processamento das sementes de uma forma vendável, incluindo limpeza, classificação, preparação, embalagem e armazenamento. • Conformidade com os regulamentos governamentais em matéria de sementes.• Gestão de pessoal (trabalhadores).• Gestão e manutenção de maquinaria e equipamentos.A maioria das empresas espera aumentar a produção e as vendas com o objetivo de alcançar maiores lucros. Como é que o aumento da produção pode ser financiado e como é que as vendas se traduzem em dinheiro? Podem ser necessários fundos adicionais para pagar a mais agricultores de sementes ou pode ser necessário mais capital para adquirir maquinaria de processamento e de embalagem. Por conseguinte, a estratégia financeira alia as estratégias de marketing e de produção num orçamento de receitas e despesas para analisar se o plano é rentável, desenvolve um orçamento de fluxo de caixa para garantir uma liquidez sustentável e depois estabelece a forma como o plano irá ser financiado, monitorizado e avaliado. É necessário considerar os seguintes pontos:• O investimento será rentável? • Como serão financiados os investimentos? • Como se procederá ao pagamento de um empréstimo?• Algumas das ferramentas usadas para desenvolver a estratégia financeira são: • Orçamento de receitas e despesas • Orçamento de fluxo de caixa • Demonstração de resultados • Balanço Cada um destes três pilares estratégicos é apresentado mais pormenorizadamente mais à frente neste livro. Para uma gestão eficaz e para o sucesso da empresa, todos os três pilares têm de ser definidos e geridos de forma ideal e interativa. Uma vez concluídos estes três planos estratégicos, eles constituirão a base da atividade diária de gestão e da análise dos quadros superiores.As declarações de visão e os planos estratégicos são ótimos e necessários, mas não são suficientes. Têm de ser colocados em ação! Além disso, têm de ser aplicados atempada e oportunamente e com um objetivo! Esta é a tarefa da gestão diária, minuto a minuto e tática a realizar por todos os trabalhadores de uma empresa.Tendo a visão em mente e o quadro das estratégias preparado, todos os trabalhadores da empresa estarão prontos para a implementação. Os gestores têm a tarefa especial de liderar e orientar esta atividade através da aplicação, adaptação e melhoria das atividades de acordo com o plano estratégico, o que é necessário devido à natureza variável do ambiente empresarial. Consequentemente, os gestores têm de avaliar constantemente o progresso, identificar problemas e desvios à trajetória pretendida e dispor de uma compreensão atualizada sobre o ambiente interno e externo à empresa.A tomada de decisões é uma função-chave na gestão tática. No centro de uma boa tomada de decisão está um pensamento informado e lógico a partir de uma boa base de conhecimentos da informação relativa à empresa. Isto realça três ingredientes no processo de tomada de decisão: 1. Os gestores necessitam de informações sobre a empresa. A informação não são simples dados, como a quantidade de semente no armazém, o número de contratos com agricultores de sementes ou o saldo bancário atual. São dados classificados, analisados, sintetizados, referentes a outras fontes de dados e interpretados por forma a determinar a importância e a relevância do cenário atual e dos problemas em mãos. Assim, por exemplo, no que se refere à quantidade de semente em armazém, o gestor tem de saber a respetiva desagregação de acordo com a variedade, idade e qualidade em relação aos objetivos de produção originais e às vendas projetadas. Da mesma forma, com o saldo bancário atual, a informação útil inclui a diferença do real relativamente ao orçamento, as atuais necessidades de dinheiro e os influxos de dinheiro esperados imediatamente ou no curto prazo.2. O conhecimento geral sobre empresas de sementes é a base para a interpretação e a aplicação da informação à tomada de decisões. A informação por si só não valerá nada se o gestor não dispuser dos conhecimentos gerais para compreender a forma como ela poderá influenciar a empresa ou oferecer soluções para os problemas enfrentados. Conseguir este conhecimento requer aprendizagem -a aplicação de uma pessoa ao conhecimento das operações internas da empresa, a obtenção de conhecimentos sobre o setor de sementes mais alargado e a economia agrícola, ambos dentro do país e em todo o mundo através dos meios de comunicação, reuniões do setor do comércio de sementes, organizações de serviços agrícolas, mercados de grãos, etc. Quanto mais uma pessoa souber sobre a indústria de sementes e o contexto em que opera, melhor serão as tomadas de decisões. 3. Por último, com boa informação e uma extensa base de conhecimentos, um gestor será capaz de analisar as alternativas e tomar decisões. A importância de uma decisão determina obviamente o tempo e o esforço necessários para reunir e analisar a informação antes de tomar a decisão. No entanto, seja qual for a natureza da decisão, esta requer um bom pensamento e vontade de agir. O pensamento lógico associado a sabedoria permitirá uma boa tomada de decisões. Contudo, as boas decisões não são fáceis. Existe uma série de perigos a evitar, tais como aceitar a primeira opção que parece ser capaz de alcançar o resultado desejado ou ser influenciado por tendências resultantes de emoções, pressão de outros, relutância à mudança, paragem prematura do processo de reflexão, favorecimento de determinados gostos pessoais ou evitar resultados que não envolvam benefícios pessoais. Talvez a pior armadilha não seja tomar uma decisão -tal apenas provocará a persistência do problema ou resultará na possibilidade de a empresa perder uma oportunidade. Se for tomada uma decisão que no final se verifica ter sido errada, isso não é o fim, mas serve como modo de aprendizagem. Embora nem todas as decisões sejam revogáveis ou reparáveis, estas são poucas e, na maioria dos casos, as empresas conseguem ultrapassar más decisões ou decisões erradas e tirar partido dos seus erros.Uma vez tomada uma decisão, esta tem de ser comunicada ao pessoal relevante e implementada com zelo, empenho e de forma atempada. O objetivo de comunicar as decisões é garantir que todos os envolvidos estão conscientes daquilo que a empresa se propõe alcançar. Mais uma vez, é aqui que a liderança desempenha um papel fundamental. Os líderes ou gestores raramente implementam decisões. Pelo contrário, motivam os trabalhadores a alcançar as intenções das decisões. Por isso, o gestor age como treinador daqueles que implementam a decisão, encorajando-os, monitorizando os resultados e incluindo os trabalhadores na avaliação e melhoria do resultado da decisão. Este aspeto da gestão de uma empresa de sementes abrange uma parte significativa das tarefas do gestor e requer, por isso, uma grande atenção com a determinação de ser bem-sucedido.1. Os gestores das empresas de sementes aumentam a sua capacidade de serem bemsucedidos se:• estabelecerem uma visão empresarial do que a empresa pretende alcançar para si própria e para os seus clientes, • desenvolverem planos estratégicos para as funções de marketing, produção e financeiras da empresa, e • conduzirem a gestão diária com tática no contexto do ambiente operacional corrente. 2. A consciência do posicionamento da empresa no cenário agrícola, económico e sociopolítico atua como a base para as operações e o desempenho da empresa. Reunir e interpretar esta informação ajuda a desenvolver e implementar os planos. 3. A visão, as estratégias e as táticas de uma empresa não são um domínio exclusivo dos gestores. Embora os gestores desempenhem um papel importante na criação da visão, na definição de estratégias e na implementação de táticas, a participação de todo o pessoal no processo, pelo menos de alguma forma, contribuirá para um sentido global de propriedade da empresa e de liderança do plano com vista ao seu sucesso. 4. A visão pode ser definida com base na pergunta e respostas dadas a uma \"pergunta-chave\" relativa ao futuro desejado da empresa, tendo em conta o cenário empresarial. 5. As estratégias baseiam-se na visão da empresa, consideram as circunstâncias internas e externas e estabelecem uma estrutura empresarial e modos de funcionamento de médio prazo que permitam à empresa alcançar a sua visão. 6. A gestão tática refere-se à tomada de decisões, organização, motivação e liderança no curto prazo, por vezes até momentânea, dos trabalhadores e dos recursos da empresa para implementar estratégias que permitam progredir na direção da visão. 7. Os gestores devem coordenar a visão, comunicar as estratégias e criar as táticas da empresa, ao mesmo tempo que motivam e lideram os trabalhadores para que ajam de forma coordenada.Uma empresa de sementes vende sementes. Esta pode ser uma afirmação simples e óbvia, mas no centro da questão, que é do que a estratégia de marketing de uma empresa de sementes trata, tudo se resume a vender sementes. Embora simples, a afirmação está contudo carregada de perguntas tais como: Vender sementes a quem? Vender sementes onde? Vender quantas sementes? Vender que tipo de sementes? Vender em embalagens de que dimensão? Vender sementes a que preço? ... Assim, a estratégia de marketing determina:• Que sementes serão produzidas ou contratadas para venda,• A quem, como, quando e onde serão as sementes vendidas, e • Quais são os objetivos de vendas em termos de volume e valor.A estratégia de marketing pode ser considerada como a chave da prosperidade da empresa, porque sem vendas não há receitas e sem receitas não existe qualquer possibilidade de lucro. Além disso, não faz sentido produzir ou obter sementes se não for para serem vendidas. Assim, a estratégia de marketing é o \"pipeline\" da empresa, uma vez que canaliza o fluxo da semente dos produtores aos clientes e serve como meio de gerar valor à empresa.A estratégia de marketing inclui tudo o que é necessário realizar para vender produtos e serviços aos clientes. As duas principais componentes são:  (Langyintuo et al. 2008). Nestes nove países e com base na área estimada de cultivo de milho, a quantidade de semente de milho plantada era de cerca de 295.000 t, mas a dimensão do mercado de semente melhorada era de apenas 103.500 t. O aparente potencial de crescimento no mercado de sementes é, assim, grande, em particular nos países com uma atual taxa de adoção baixa de variedades melhoradas (tais como Angola, Etiópia, Moçambique e Tanzânia).No entanto, os mercados de sementes não são simplesmente determinados por estas macroestatísticas. A semente é comprada para e por agricultores em muitas situações diferentes e espacialmente diversas. Por exemplo:• Um agricultor individual pode comprar 2 kg de semente a um retalhista rural pequeno;• Um filho de um agricultor que mora na cidade pode comprar 25 kg de semente num grande supermercado e enviá-los para a mãe que vive numa área rural; • Uma ONG pode comprar 500 t de semente de OPV embalada em sacos de 12,5 kg para distribuição pelos agricultores recentemente afetados por umas cheias; • Um comerciante agrícola pode adquirir 5 t de semente para armazenamento na sua rede de lojas rurais; e • Um concurso governamental pode solicitar a apresentação de propostas para o fornecimento de 6.000 t de semente para um programa de distribuição de sementes.Cada um destes clientes tem um perfil e necessidades diferentes, embora coexistam todos no contexto de sistemas de fornecimento de sementes de um país que inclui os setores formal e informal e sistemas de sementes guardadas nas explorações. Assim, a identidade do mercado-alvo não é um exercício simples, mas requer uma análise cuidadosa dos sistemas de sementes na gama de mercado de uma empresa. Algumas das perguntas a responder para o estabelecimento e compreensão do mercado-alvo incluem: 1. Perguntas relacionadas com a geografia e o setor agrícola do mercado-alvo. Por exemplo:• Em que área geográfica pretendemos vender?• Qual é a infraestrutura desta área, onde se encontram os principais centros de negócios, centros de serviços de extensão governamental, redes viárias, instalações de transformação de produtos agrícolas e empresas de fatores de produção? • Onde se localizam as principais zonas de produção e os regimes de irrigação? • Quais são as principais culturas produzidas, como são vendidas e quais são os perfis sazonais de preços? • Que ONG operam nesta área e que serviços e programas asseguram? • Quem são as principais figuras políticas e os líderes empresariais na área? 2. Perguntas relacionadas com os clientes na área do mercado-alvo. Por exemplo:• Quais são os clientes desejados -associações, agricultores individuais, associações de agricultores, lojas de retalho, grossistas, agentes governamentais e/ou ONG? • Quais são as características destes diferentes clientes? Diferentes perguntas têm de ser colocadas relativamente a cada tipo de comprador de sementes, mas, em geral, deve reunir-se informação sobre as suas características demográficas, níveis de rendimentos, padrões de compra, padrões de utilização, métodos de cultivo, condições ambientais e estados de risco. • Quais são os produtos de sementes e as características de que os clientes necessitam na área-alvo?À medida que uma empresa de sementes avalia o mercado-alvo, os gestores têm de chegar à conclusão de que é suficientemente grande para garantir o investimento no desenvolvimento de produto, na produção e vendas; tem de ser acessível de modo a que os produtos possam ser facilmente distribuídos no mercado e deve apresentar perspetivas de longo prazo, uma vez que a empresa de sementes tem ciclos longos de desenvolvimento de produto e de crescimento.As oportunidades dos mercados podem vir dos quatro cantos (Figura 3.1). Uma empresa de sementes existe com uma quota de mercado atual e uma gama de produtos particular dentro de um determinado mercado. A primeira oportunidade é aumentar a quota do volume total num mercado existente com a gama de produtos atual da empresa. As principais estratégias de marketing aqui serão competir com a concorrência através da promoção, melhor distribuição, preços competitivos e assistência ao produto. No entanto, conseguir obter uma maior quota de mercado dependerá, em última análise, de a atual gama de produtos e a acessibilidade às sementes serem adequadas às necessidades de produto por parte dos clientes no mercado.Uma segunda oportunidade é lançar novos produtos num mercado existente, quer substituindo produtos obsoletos quer fornecendo novas alternativas aos clientes. Este pode ou não conduzir a um aumento da quota de mercado. O principal objetivo aqui é fornecer aos clientes uma melhor seleção de produtos. Assim, as estratégias que lancem com sucesso o novo produto num mercado competitivo estarão na vanguarda. Estas combinam promoção e fornecimento de sementes, mas das duas, a disponibilidade de sementes é a chave para o sucesso desta estratégia.Muitas vezes um bom produto falhou por falta de semente, enquanto um produto bom e apreciado se venderá a si próprio se os agricultores tiverem acesso à semente.Abrir novos mercados com produtos existentes constitui uma terceira oportunidade para uma empresa de sementes. Estes novos mercados podem localizar-se no país de operação ou em países estrangeiros onde os produtos apresentem um desempenho fiável. Similarmente, temos a oportunidade de entrar em novos mercados com novos produtos. O desenvolvimento destas oportunidades tem de ser antecedido por um ensaio cuidadoso dos produtos para confirmar a sua adaptabilidade e adequação aos clientes visados. Depois, a questão de como entrar no novo mercado adquire a sua importância. Nos mercados estrangeiros, o passo inicial mais fácil é exportar semente da base de origem para o novo mercado e assegurar a distribuição através de um distribuidor local.No entanto, em alguns mercados novos poderá ser necessário estabelecer operações de produção de sementes e escritórios locais. Logo que se estabeleça uma posição num novo mercado, as estratégias de marketing referem-se ao crescimento do mercado através da promoção do produto e da competição com a concorrência. 4. O cliente tem de dispor de acesso ao produto. Este é um aspeto da estratégia de marketing que é possivelmente o mais difícil de definir uma vez que os agricultores estão dispersos por uma área geográfica muito vasta e, enquanto indivíduos, compram quantidades relativamente pequenas de sementes. Por isso é que o estabelecimento de uma rede de distribuição que assegure o acesso fácil dos agricultores às sementes é fundamental para o sucesso.Para o conseguir é necessário formar parcerias, agências ou realizar negócios com comerciantes agrícolas, grossistas, associações de agricultores, ONG, operadores de mercadorias agrícolas e a indústria de transformação de produtos agrícolas. Adicionalmente, o apoio destes distribuidores em termos de facilidades de crédito, informação, assistência a clientes, merchandising, publicidade, gestão de reclamações, promoverá a sensibilização do cliente para os produtos e os pontos de venda.Enquanto considera a forma de permitir o acesso dos clientes às sementes, procure também formas de alargar os mercados a novos clientes. Poderão existir empresas e organizações que foram esquecidas como potenciais distribuidores, tais como supermercados e estações de serviço.O recurso a agentes do agricultor ou a pessoal de vendas itinerante pode permitir um contacto mais estreito com os agricultores rurais, mais do que através de armazenistas de retalho centralizados.As feiras de sementes também têm sido promovidas por ONG como meio de os comerciantes informais e formais de sementes fazerem chegar as sementes aos agricultores. A publicidade através de vários meios, em especial, estações de rádio locais, pode ajudar na medida em que Os agricultores decidem a variedade que compram, mas as empresas de sementes desempenham um papel importante influenciando as decisões de compra através da distribuição e promoção. Quais são então os possíveis impactos de uma escolha certa ou errada de uma variedade por parte de um agricultor? Escolha certa da variedade:• O agricultor tem a melhor hipótese de beneficiar do potencial genético da variedade.• É provável que o agricultor compre novamente semente dessa variedade.• Os agricultores ganham confiança na adoção de variedades melhoradas. Escolha errada da variedade:• É improvável que o agricultor alcance a produtividade da colheita desejada.• É improvável que o agricultor compre novamente semente dessa variedade.• Diminuição da confiança dos agricultores em adotar novas variedades. mesma colheita, tais como OPV e híbridas, seja da mesma empresa ou da concorrência, e colheitas alternativas. Por isso, na definição dos preços das sementes é necessário ter em conta o preço relativo dos produtos e as suas diversas alternativas.2. A relação de oferta e procura é um dos principais fatores na definição do preço, em particular numa economia de mercado competitiva. Segundo Kohls and Uhl (2002), a procura é a \"relação de diferentes quantidades de uma mercadoria que os compradores irão comprar a diferentes preços num determinado momento e local.\" De uma forma simples, quanto mais baixo o preço, mais semente será comprada e vice-versa. No que se refere à oferta, esta é a \"relação das diferentes quantidades que serão oferecidas para venda a diferentes preços num determinado momento e local\" (ibid.). Assim, quanto mais elevado for o preço, maior será a oferta para venda e vice-versa. A curva de procura e oferta indica a relação entre a quantidade e o preço das perspetivas dos compradores e dos vendedores, respetivamente. Teoricamente, o preço de equilíbrio é o ponto em que as relações de procura e oferta se cruzam.A elasticidade de preço é uma medida da recetividade da quantidade oferecida e procurada em relação às alterações do preço (ibid.). Com uma procura elástica de um produto, se o preço descer uma determinada percentagem, a quantidade comprada aumentará uma percentagem muito elevada. Por outras palavras, se o preço descer 10%, a alteração em quantidade comprada será superior a 10%. Inversamente, com uma procura não elástica, a quantidade comprada aumentará uma percentagem menor do que a percentagem da diminuição do preço. A elasticidade da procura está relacionada com o número de substitutos para o produto. As necessidades com poucas alternativas apresentam curvas de procura não elásticas, uma vez que, em geral, os consumidores compram sempre o produto independentemente do preço. Bens de luxo têm curvas de procura elásticas, dado que os preços reduzidos irão, geralmente, aumentar a procura de forma considerável.As curvas de procura e oferta de um produto não são estáticas, mas dinâmicas. Existem basicamente quatro cenários possíveis. Para uma determinada oferta, a procura pode aumentar, de modo que o preço da semente pode subir sem redução das vendas. Segundo, a oferta pode aumentar para uma determinada procura, fazendo com que os preços tenham de ser reduzidos para conseguir a mesma quantidade de vendas. Terceiro, a procura diminui enquanto a oferta aumenta, requerendo mais uma vez a redução do preço para alcançar a mesma quantidade de vendas. E, quarto, o aumento da procura e da oferta, de modo que os preços se mantêm inalterados, mas os volumes de vendas aumentam. Por conseguinte, uma empresa de sementes tem de monitorizar constantemente a oferta de sementes, tanto da sua própria produção, como a do conjunto do setor de sementes, bem como a procura de sementes da comunidade agrícola.A curva de procura de semente de milho pode ser considerada tanto da perspetiva do agricultor individual como da perspetiva coletiva. Da perspetiva do agricultor individual, em particular dos agricultores com pequenas explorações agrícolas, a procura de semente é basicamente fixada pela área do campo e pelos padrões de cultivo.Nos casos em que o alimento de base é o milho, por exemplo, um agricultor plantará uma área de milho com as dimensões que ele considera suficientes para garantir a segurança alimentar da família. Os restantes campos serão plantados com culturas para alimentos complementares (p. ex., amendoim e feijão) e culturas para venda (p. ex., algodão). Só retirará mais terra a outras culturas e a plantará com milho se o mercado de milho for mais rentável do que o de outras culturas. Numa base coletiva, a procura de semente de milho está, por isso, intimamente relacionada com o valor do potencial mercado de grãos e de alternativas de uma agricultura de culturas mistas. Uma vez que cada agricultor cultivará milho por uma questão de segurança alimentar, poderá pensar-se que a procura de sementes não é elástica, mas isso depende da medida e do desempenho relativo das alternativas, tais como de sementes guardadas na exploração, OPV e variedades híbridas. Assim, a curva de procura de semente de milho é elástica, em especial quando se consideram outras culturas alternativas.No lado da oferta, a semente apresenta uma elasticidade relativamente elevada da oferta.Os produtores de sementes responderão positivamente a preços superiores da semente, em particular se estes forem anunciados antes da estação. No entanto, o inverso é também verdadeiro: os produtores de sementes passarão para culturas alternativas se o preço oferecido pela semente for relativamente menos rentável. Este facto tem sido confirmado em países onde os governos impuseram controlos irrealistas dos preços das sementes. Preços baixos legislados que conduzem a uma rentabilidade reduzida asseguram pouco, se algum, incentivo à produção e oferta de sementes no mercado.3. A relação de preço da semente relativamente ao grão e a produtividade dos agricultores influencia a compra de sementes. Assim, para definir preços acessíveis das sementes, um gestor de marketing tem de saber os preços atuais ou esperados dos grãos da cultura a ser plantada e a produtividade dos agricultores em questão. No caso dos agricultores que têm a opção de usar sementes guardadas na exploração, OPV ou híbridas, as relações destas relativamente ao preço do grão influenciará a rentabilidade do break-even necessário para cobrir os custos das sementes (Figura 3.2). À medida que a relação preço da semente:grão aumenta, os agricultores têm de produzir mais grão para cobrir os custos das sementes. Por conseguinte, quanto maior for a produtividade da produção de grão, menor será a proporção de cultura colhida para cobrir os custos das sementes. Similarmente, os custos das sementes representam uma menor proporção dos custos de produção à medida que as rentabilidades e as receitas aumentam. Em geral, se os produtores de milho produzirem mais de 1,5 t/ha, será vantajoso usarem sementes híbridas.Assim, preços mais elevados da semente só serão sustentáveis em mercados onde os agricultores sejam altamente produtivos, os preços do grão relativamente bons e os mercados de grãos acessíveis.  momento, a definição dos preços tem de ter em conta os preços dos grãos e os das sementes e produtos alternativos. Por último, em alguns casos, os preços podem simplesmente ser definidos num nível que assegure a sobrevivência da empresa, caso em que se considera predominantemente o preço break-even.A definição do preço de base das sementes pode realizar-se segundo três métodos, nomeadamente, definição de preços orientada pelos custos, definição de preços orientada pelo cliente e definição de preços competitivos (Kotler e Armstrong 1994; citados por Machado 1996). Em alguns casos, pode existir um sistema de preços administrados, regulamentado pelo governo. Este não tem, forçosamente, de ser prejudicial para a empresa de sementes, desde que os preços sejam negociados de uma forma razoável entre as três partes envolvidas (ou seja, os agricultores, as empresas de sementes e o governo). Seguem-se alguns exemplos de cálculo dos preços das sementes. A definição dos preços tendo o cliente em mente considera outros fatores para além das margens internas necessárias. Em princípio, o preço é determinado estimando que clientes estarão preparados a pagar por certos produtos. Este método terá em consideração os custos de produção e as situações dos agricultores, em conjunto com o valor das sementes em termos de qualidade e potencial genético. Por exemplo, quando o potencial de rentabilidade da cultura de milho aumenta através de uma gestão intensiva e de uma maior aplicação dos fatores de produção, a semente torna-se uma proporção menor dos custos totais de produção.Por conseguinte, poderá argumentar-se que esses agricultores estarão preparados para pagar um preço superior pela semente, em particular se a semente apresentar um maior valor genético do que as variedades alternativas.Métodos alternativos de definição dos preços orientada pelo cliente podem incluir:• definição de preços premium para novas variedades ou sementes com características únicas (relacionadas com genética, embalagem ou revestimento das sementes); • definição do preço das sementes com base numa mistura de produtos disponível, por exemplo, dimensão da embalagem; e • definição de preços reduzidos para atrair novos clientes, em especial onde se estiver a explorar novos mercados ou a conquistar quota de mercado.O mercado de sementes é competitivo. São poucos os casos em que não existem alternativas aos produtos de uma empresa, seja de outras empresas de sementes ou de sementes guardadas na exploração. A definição de preços em relação à concorrência tem de ser efetuada com prudência, tendo em conta as qualidades relativas do seu produto e o posicionamento da marca. Eliminar a concorrência pode envolver uma guerra de preços com poucos vencedores que não os clientes. Além disso, os clientes podem sentirse céticos em relação a produtos com preços consideravelmente inferiores à concorrência porque podem pensar que tal se deve a defeito nos produtos. A definição de preços significativamente acima dos da concorrência, embora possa ser justificável para a sua empresa, pode conquistar pouca simpatia no mercado, exceto se existir um valor real para o cliente. Consequentemente, os preços têm de ser definidos num nível que seja aceite no mercado e que promova as vendas dos seus produtos.Tendo calculado os possíveis preços dos produtos, estes têm de ser introduzidos na matriz do orçamento global da empresa para garantir que se consegue um lucro líquido. Isto requer que a soma dos volumes esperados de sementes vendidas seja multiplicada pelos preços de cada produto, menos os custos operacionais, assegure um lucro líquido suficiente para uma operação sustentável da empresa. Nesta fase, poderá chegar-se à conclusão que os preços são demasiado baixos para alcançar o lucro líquido desejado, tendo de se realizar novos cálculos. Ou, se não for possível ter preços mais elevados, devido às forças de mercado, então poderá ser necessário reavaliar os volumes de vendas ou os custos operacionais.Seja qual for o método que uma empresa de sementes utilize para calcular os preços dos seus produtos, haverá sempre um elemento de \"descoberta do preço\" no mercado (Kohls e Uhl 2002). Este é um processo pelo qual os vendedores e compradores chegam a preços específicos para uma determinada transação, o que está relacionado com os poderes relativos de negociação de compradores e vendedores e das condições de venda. Por conseguinte, o preço efetivo ao qual a empresa de sementes vende os seus produtos dependerá de quem é e onde se localiza o comprador (p. ex., grossista na cidade, retalhista num meio rural ou agricultor individual), das quantidades que estes compradores pretendem comprar e dos termos comerciais da transação. Os agricultores individuais têm menor poder de compra do que os compradores coletivos ou compradores de grandes quantidades. As sementes em embalagens pequenas podem conseguir gerar um preço unitário superior ao das sementes em grandes embalagens ou a granel. A atribuição de descontos, comissões e vendas a crédito tem o efeito de diminuir o preço real. Isto requer que a política de definição de preços seja estabelecida para os diversos tipos de produtos, compradores e transações. Uma vez definida, esta tem de ser comunicada ao pessoal das vendas, a outros departamentos da empresa e aos clientes, de forma a que a venda de sementes decorra sem problemas.A semente é um meio de fornecer potencial genético aos clientes. Uma vez que as sementes são cultivadas num ambiente em constante mudança no que se refere ao clima, tensões bióticas e preferências do consumidor, o genótipo pode ser questionado ou não aceite, em particular à medida que variedades melhoradas entram no mercado. Assim, é provável que uma variedade tenha um ciclo de vida, o que implica quatro aspetos: 1. Os produtos têm uma vida útil limitada no mercado, o que no caso das sementes está relacionado com fatores bióticos e abióticos e a constante mudança do mercado em termos de procura; 2. As vendas dos produtos passam por fases distintas, do desenvolvimento à maturidade, cada uma representando diferentes desafios, oportunidades e problemas para a empresa; 3. Os lucros crescem e diminuem nas diferentes fases do ciclo de vida; e 4. Os produtos requerem recursos de marketing, financeiros, de fabrico, de vendas e humanos diferentes em cada fase do ciclo de vida.Representação esquemática do ciclo de vida de um produto (Figura 3.3). O desenvolvimento de uma nova variedade é um exercício dispendioso e moroso, mas uma vez lançada no mercado, as receitas provêm das vendas. Por conseguinte, espera-se que os lucros cresçam com o aumento dos volumes de vendas. Normalmente, um produto atingirá a sua maturidade quando os volumes de vendas podem, devido a diversos fatores, diminuir. A duração do ciclo de vida do produto e a forma das curvas de vendas e de lucros variarão de produto para produto. Atividades de marketing, especialmente a promoção, podem encurtar a fase inicial, aumentar a taxa da fase de crescimento ou alargar a fase de maturidade. Da mesma forma, o aumento da produção de sementes pode influenciar consideravelmente a duração e a escala de cada fase. Muitas novas variedades simplesmente falharam a penetração num mercado devido à falta de produção de sementes. Além disso, a atividade da concorrência, alterações nas práticas agrícolas dos agricultores ou o surgimento de novas doenças pode reduzir a vida de uma variedade.Figura 3.3. Representação esquemática do ciclo de vida de um produto.Vendas Vendas e lucros 0 A duração média do ciclo de vida de um produto no mercado de sementes está também relacionada com o número de novas variedades registadas anualmente. Em alguns países, o registo de variedades é pouco frequente. Assim os agricultores têm poucas oportunidades de aceder e beneficiar de novas variedades, e os produtos mantêm-se no mercado durante muito tempo antes de existirem novas variedades disponíveis. O oposto é verdadeiro na África do Sul onde as empresas de sementes registam inúmeros produtos todos os anos e quase 75% das variedades no registo nacional têm menos de 7 anos (E. Goldschagg, SANSOR, comunicação pessoal, 2009). No entanto, poucas variedades mantiveram a presença no mercado por períodos muito longos. A mais notável é uma híbrida simples do Zimbabué, SR52, lançada há mais de 50 anos e que ainda é procurada, em particular para o mercado de milho verde cozido na África do Sul.A gestão do ciclo de vida do produto gira em torno da monitorização do crescimento das vendas e da quota de mercado relativa dos produtos. Isto foi formulado num esquema designado de \"matriz de Boston\" (Figura 3.4; Henderson 1973). Um produto começa normalmente o seu ciclo de vida como um \"ponto de interrogação,\" na medida em que requer um investimento significativo para o lançar no mercado mas ainda tem de ser testado e aprovado no próprio mercado. Se o produto atrair a atenção do mercado e o volume de vendas começar a crescer, é considerado uma \"estrela\". \"Estrelas\" são os produtos com elevadas taxas de crescimento de vendas e que têm potencial para aumentar a sua quota de mercado. Os produtos que conquistaram uma quota de mercado relativamente grande são designados de \"cash cows\", uma vez que, em geral, contribuem significativamente para os lucros. De salientar, contudo, que a quota de mercado, por si só, não é uma medida da contribuição de um produto para os lucros líquidos. Um produto com uma baixa quota de mercado pode ter uma maior margem bruta e contribuir, assim, mais para o lucro bruto do que uma quota de mercado similar ou superior mas com uma margem bruta inferior. Os produtos que sejam questionáveis são os que apresentam uma maior quota de mercado mas com uma taxa de crescimento relativamente baixa, enquanto os \"dogs\" são os que têm uma quota de mercado baixa e uma taxa de crescimento baixa.A situação de marketing ideal seria ter todos os produtos como \"cash cows\" ou \"estrelas\", mas normalmente isso não é prático ou possível. Em termos gerais, numa carteira de vários produtos, haverá um ou vários em cada categoria. A maioria do investimento em atividades de marketing deve ser aplicada em elevar \"estrelas\" e \"cash cows\". Se as vendas de um produto começarem a diminuir poderá ser possível \"reinventar\" o produto através de uma promoção (p. ex., com descontos e publicidade) ou modificando-o de alguma forma (p. ex., usando uma nova embalagem ou aplicando uma nova aparência). Todavia, se os volumes de vendas de um produto continuarem a diminuir poderá tornar-se num \"dog\". Neste caso, se não for possível restabelecer as vendas através da produção e da promoção, deverá ser descontinuado tão rapidamente quanto possível para minimizar as perdas. Além disso, uma vez que os produtos tendem a passar por estes ciclos de vida é necessário manter o investimento em investigação e desenvolvimento para assegurar um fornecimento contínuo de novidades no mercado. Se um produto \"dog\" não for rapidamente substituído por uma estrela em ascensão, poderá perder-se uma quota significativa de mercado com os consequentes impactos negativos para o desempenho de empresa.Taxa de crescimento relativa Figura 3.4. A \"matriz de Boston\".Nota: Esta figura ilustra os diversos cenários pelos quais um produto pode passar no seu ciclo de vida, desde o início (\"ponto de interrogação\") passando pelo crescimento (\"estrela\"), maior quota de mercado (\"cash cow\") até ao declínio do crescimento (\"dog\"). Fonte: Henderson (1973).Taxa de crescimento relativa ElevadaAs vendas totais de sementes de uma empresa englobam a soma das vendas de variedades individuais da carteira de produtos. Acompanhar os valores de vendas e a contribuição proporcional de cada produto para o total é útil para gerir as atividades promocionais e definir os objetivos de produção. Se o total de vendas estiver a aumentar ou a diminuir é importante saber quais são os produtos cujas vendas estão a crescer ou a diminuir e quais contribuem mais para a alteração das vendas totais. No exemplo hipotético apresentado (Figura 3.5), as vendas totais nos primeiros cinco anos apresentem um ligeiro crescimento. Embora uma variedade (B) contribua para a maioria das vendas, o aumento total parece dever-se à introdução de uma nova variedade (C). Esta nova variedade ajudou a compensar a diminuição de vendas da variedade A. Do ano 10 ao 15, os volumes de vendas da variedade B diminuíram, mas as vendas totais continuam a crescer devido à introdução de novas variedades. Cerca dos anos 15 a 17, verifica-se o pico das vendas totais, mas nenhuma variedade sobressai individualmente. Três variedades (B, C e D) contribuem, cada uma, com 30% a 35% das vendas.Este exemplo simples serve para ilustrar a dinâmica da carteira de variedades de uma empresa de sementes. As variedades terão um ciclo de vida devido às preferências dos clientes, à influência da concorrência e alterações no ambiente biofísico. É provável que as empresas de sementes que confiam apenas numa variedade ou as que não dispõem de uma estratégia de desenvolvimento ativo de variedades enfrentem problemas de marketing quando o mercado se alterar.  Estratégias de promoção de vendas A promoção das vendas de sementes é a componente mais visível de uma estratégia de marketing. Esta é a forma como a empresa se apresenta a si própria e os seus produtos aos clientes e ao público. Na sua essência, a promoção é a comunicação eficaz na qual o destinatário recebe e compreende corretamente a mensagem transmitida. A comunicação bem-sucedida fundamenta-se na clareza, simplicidade, capacidade de ser recordada e valor de interesse das expressões. No entanto, em qualquer comunicação, existe o risco de má interpretação, de a mensagem transmitida não ser sempre igual à mensagem recebida. Uma má comunicação pode resultar em consequências não intencionais, o que deve ser evitado. Por isso, faça todos os esforços para assegurar uma comunicação positiva.A comunicação vem de uma fonte, contém uma mensagem e é enviada a um destinatário através dos meios de comunicação. Um destinatário de uma mensagem comunicada existe no seu próprio contexto. Isto influencia a forma como a mensagem é recebida. O destinatário tem também determinadas perceções sobre a fonte e os meios usados para a mensagem que irá influenciar ainda mais a forma como a mensagem é recebida. Por isso, na preparação de estratégias de promoção de vendas, não é apenas a mensagem em si que tem de ser determinada, mas é necessário considerar toda a imagem da empresa, o canal de transmissão da mensagem e a situação e circunstâncias dos destinatários. consultadoria agrónoma). A utilização de qualquer destes métodos adiciona custos à empresa, mas pode ser eficaz para o aumento das vendas, quer através de preços mais baixos quer aumentando as decisões do consumidor em comprar o seu produto em vez de alternativas. 4. Os meios de promoção. Existem muitas opções no que se refere ao tipo de meios usados para promoção, mas a seleção do mais adequado depende em grande medida dos pontos anteriores. A utilização de estações de rádio locais é um meio eficaz para transmitir informação a um grande número de agricultores, em particular quando as taxas de alfabetismo são baixas. As mensagens orais são úteis durante o período de compra de sementes. Nas cidades e vilas, os meios impressos e visuais (posters, sinalética, anúncios em paragens de autocarro, etc.) são eficazes na transmissão da mensagem principal sobre os produtos e serve como lembrança aos clientes da existência da empresa e dos produtos.A utilização de materiais no ponto de vendas, publicidade na loja e vendedores com merchandising visa persuadir os clientes a comprar. O contacto pessoal e as apresentações são particularmente úteis em dias do agricultor e grupos de discussão para fornecer informações sobre as variedades. 5. O objetivo da promoção. Com sementes de cultura temos tendência para pensar em estratégias de promoção orientadas para os próprios agricultores pois são eles quem cultiva a semente. Mas, em muitas comunidades, a agricultura é realizada por mulheres que podem não ser quem toma das decisões nas suas famílias. Além disso, em situações onde existe uma migração urbana significativa, quem compra as sementes são frequentemente os migrantes urbanos que enviam as sementes para as suas casas rurais para produção. Uma quantidade significativa de semente não é vendida diretamente pela empresa de sementes ao agricultor, mas através de retalhistas e agentes. Por último, no caso de alguns produtos com características utilitárias particulares, tais como milho doce ou milho bebé, o objetivo da promoção pode não ser tanto o agricultor mas a indústria de transformação de produtos agrícolas. Por conseguinte, uma empresa de sementes tem de determinar onde é que as atividades de promoção terão maior impacto para aumentar os volumes de vendas.As demonstrações de variedades são usadas para apresentar produtos novos e atuais aos agricultores com o objetivo de criar a sua procura. Normalmente, somente algumas poucas variedades novas são demonstradas em conjunto com uma ou duas variedades de verificação conhecidas e mais comuns em parcelas grandes e não replicadas nos campos dos agricultores. As demonstrações do mesmo conjunto de variedades podem ser realizadas em diversos locais, até no mesmo distrito.A escolha das localizações é importante para a promoção -selecionar agricultores de sucesso e com influência, estrategicamente localizados, contribui para a eficácia das demonstrações (ver a Caixa 3.6). Criar uma sinalética grande e claramente legível para as demonstrações assegura que quem passa e os convidados do dia do agricultor possam identificar as variedades apresentadas.A Somente as vendas produzem receitas e lucros. Sem vendas, não existe necessidade de produzir, de realizar investigação ou até de continuar como empresa de sementes. Vender sementes é, assim, realizar efetivamente as vendas que geram receitas e lucros. Na estratégia de marketing, uma empresa de sementes definirá os objetivos de vendas dos produtos de acordo com calendários. A equipa de vendas é depois responsável por garantir que esses objetivos de vendas são alcançados. Os objetivos de vendas só serão alcançados se a equipa de vendas se centrar em atividades que façam avançar o processo de vendas com qualquer cliente, efetivo ou potencial.A maioria das vendas de uma empresa de sementes não será realizada diretamente aos agricultores, mas através de intermediários, tais como grossistas e retalhistas. A equipa de vendas irá, por conseguinte, implementar a sua técnica de vendas com vista a receber encomendas dos intermediários, baseando-se nas vantagens que o intermediário pode obter por armazenar e vender sementes. Os intermediários não estarão tão interessados nas características do produto per se, quanto na potencial revenda dos produtos a clientes e nas condições comerciais que a empresa de sementes lhes poderá oferecer. Conhecer os limites do preço, descontos, termos de crédito e volumes de fornecimento permitirá à equipa de vendas negociar as vendas com os armazenistas. Além disso, a oferta de materiais promocionais, apoio de merchandising e informação no ponto de venda pode ajudar a convencer os intermediários a armazenar sementes.Uma vez que as sementes de culturas só são, normalmente, vendidas por um período curto durante o ano, a atividade de venda efetiva da equipa de vendas será altamente concentrada. No entanto, o esforço de vendas não fica parado durante o resto do ano.Bem antes de se iniciar a época das vendas, os potenciais armazenistas são visitados para explorar vendas futuras, informar os compradores sobre os benefícios e oportunidades de vendas do armazenamento de sementes e formar os diretores da loja sobre armazenamento e manuseamento de sementes. Imediatamente antes da época de vendas reúnem-se as encomendas, negociam-se as condições comerciais e a semente é entregue para garantir que os armazenistas dispõem de stocks suficientes logo que os agricultores começam a procurar as sementes. Durante a época das vendas, os armazenistas são regularmente visitados para controlar os níveis de stocks, os progressos das vendas, o merchandising da loja e a necessidade de mais fornecimentos. A deslocação de stocks de centros de retalho de baixa rotação para centros de rotação elevada, a realização de promoções de vendas de curto prazo em áreas em retração ou estagnadas e a realização de transações de vendas serão uma parte significativa das atividades da equipa de vendas durante esta época. À medida que a época de vendas vai terminando, as atividades incluirão a organização das devoluções de stocks e cobranças. Uma avaliação anual das vendas e do desempenho dos armazenistas fornecerá informação para o planeamento dos futuros objetivos de vendas e atividades.Os serviços de assistência a clientes são necessários antes e após as vendas. Antes de uma transação de vendas, a assistência envolve principalmente o fornecimento de informação que permita ao cliente tomar a melhor decisão relativamente à seleção da variedade ou da quantidade de semente a comprar. No ponto de venda, o cliente espera receber uma assistência que torne a transação numa boa experiência. A assistência pós-venda pode incluir serviços tais como o fornecimento de sementes ao cliente, fornecimento de informação sobre plantação e gestão, acompanhamento do crescimento e do desempenho da cultura e o processamento de reclamações. O objetivo destes serviços é manter e promover relações benéficas mútuas de longo prazo entre o cliente e a empresa. Os tipos de serviços dependerão obviamente de quem é o cliente -se grossista ou agricultor.Um dos aspetos mais difíceis mas cruciais da assistência a clientes é a gestão de reclamações.A forma como uma reclamação é tratada pode determinar se a compra futura do cliente está garantida ou perdida, podendo também ter um impacto muito maior através das interações do cliente com outros clientes. As reclamações na indústria de sementes estão principalmente relacionadas com o desempenho da semente na germinação e florescimento, mas existe uma série de outras situações que podem dar origem a reclamações, tais como a natureza das atividades promocionais, assistência no ponto de vendas, gestão de conta e desempenho do produto relativamente às expectativas e publicidade.A natureza das investigações de uma reclamação depende do tipo de reclamação (Tabela 3.1), mas a chave para uma boa gestão de reclamações é a rapidez, simpatia e honestidade da resposta. Ignorar ou um tratamento injusto de uma reclamação é um caminho certo para provocar um descontentamento ainda maior. Pelo contrário, responda de forma pronta e responsável, como se segue:• Receba as reclamações com respeito e orientado para encontrar uma solução à reclamação e não para a defesa de si próprio perante quem reclama;• Reúna e registe todas as informações relevantes, separando o importante do irrelevante, o factual do fictício, o objetivo do subjetivo; • Recupere, quando apropriado, os documentos da transação, embalagem das sementes e rótulos das sementes; e • Realize investigações com integridade e honestidade.• Informe quem reclama sobre os resultados com honestidade, humildade e soluções.Uma vez reunida toda a informação relevante sobre a reclamação, determine a sua causa real e onde se verificou efetivamente a falha. Mesmo que se conclua que a falha reside no cliente (por exemplo, armazenamento deficiente na exploração) ou devido a condições climatéricas (falta de chuva durante a plantação), use-o como meio de educar o cliente. Quando a falha reside na empresa de sementes, assegure-se que a culpa é assumida de forma honesta e que a restituição é realizada para restaurar a confiança do cliente na empresa. O custo de restituição é, com frequência, bastante inferior ao de um tratamento injusto de uma reclamação. Encare as reclamações como um meio de melhorar o seu serviço e a qualidade da semente, bem como de manter boas relações com os clientes. Não considere as reclamações como uma interação desnecessária e de confronto com um cliente. É útil dispor de um \"formulário de registo de reclamações\" para ajudar a investigação das reclamações e um \"livro de reclamações\" para registar e avaliar a frequência e natureza das reclamações (Anexos 1 e 2). À medida que as reclamações são recebidas e registadas no livro de reclamações poderá surgir um padrão que informa a gestão sobre problemas no controlo de qualidade, em fases particulares da cadeia da semente. Estas poderão ser depois retificadas. Isto também assegura uma medida objetiva sobre o desempenho da empresa relativamente à qualidade da semente no longo prazo e o custo que isso tem para a empresa.No que se refere a problemas de germinação, é raro que a causa de germinação fraca resida na própria semente (desde, naturalmente, que a qualidade da semente seja garantida). Em geral, depois da investigação do armazenamento na loja ou na exploração, das condições de plantação ou de padrões de pluviosidade, constata-se frequentemente que as condições para a manutenção da viabilidade da semente e de uma boa germinação são bem inferiores ao ideal (ver a Caixa 3.7), mas essa não é razão para rejeitar as reclamações de germinação como sendo Tabela 3.1. Reclamações normalmente relacionadas com as sementes e as principais questões a investigar para determinar a causa e a natureza do problema.Insatisfação com a transação • Questões de quem, onde e quando relacionadas com a transação de vendas • Conflito interpessoal ou erros na transação ou ambos?Insatisfação com a conta • Questões de quem, onde e quando relacionadas com a gestão• Pormenores da transação da transação• Condições de crédito e cálculo de juros Quebra da embalagem • A semente foi comprada onde e quando? das sementes• Como foi manuseada a semente?• Quando e como foi embalada a semente?• Qual o número de lote?• A semente foi comprada onde e quando? armazenamento nas bolsas• Quais foram as condições de armazenamento? das sementes• A semente foi tratada quanto a pragas de armazenamento?• Qual o número de lote?• A semente foi comprada onde e quando? sementes (quebra, danos por• A semente foi processada quando? insetos, tratamento deficiente• Qual o número de lote? da semente)• Como foi armazenada e manuseada a semente?• A semente foi comprada onde e quando?• Quando foi processada a semente?• Qual o número de lote da semente?• Onde e como foi armazenada a semente?• Como eram as condições na sementeira?• Qual o número de lote da semente? inesperado• A semente foi comprada onde e quando?• Que práticas de gestão agrónoma foram aplicadas à cultura (data de plantio, fertilizante, herbicidas e pesticidas)? • Quais eram as condições climatéricas (pluviosidade e temperaturas)?• Verificaram-se surtos incomuns de pragas ou doenças?• Qual o número de lote da semente? relativamente ao tipo• A semente foi comprada onde e quando?• Quem produziu a semente e o que indicam os relatórios de inspeção relativamente à certificação? • A semente foi processada onde e quando?• A semente foi armazenada na exploração?• No momento da compra e da sementeira, a semente encontrava-se na embalagem original da empresa? • Existiu alguma possibilidade de mistura de sementes depois da compra e antes da plantação?simplesmente uma falha do agricultor. As reclamações sobre a germinação podem servir como uma forma útil de interagir e educar os agricultores sobre métodos de plantação, enquanto a substituição da semente, mesmo que a falha não estivesse na semente, representa um pequeno custo em comparação com a boa vontade e uma assistência valiosa dada ao agricultor.A semente é viva, delicada e volumosa, sendo normalmente vendida somente durante um período breve durante o ano. Por conseguinte, o sistema de transferência da semente do armazém para o mercado tem de ser conducente à manutenção da viabilidade da semente, satisfazendo em simultâneo os requisitos dos clientes quanto a um fornecimento atempado e suficiente. Embora uma empresa de sementes possa vender ao agricultor diretamente a partir do seu próprio armazém, é mais comum que a semente seja canalizada aos agricultores dispersamente distribuídos através de intermediários, tais como grossistas, retalhistas e agentes. Selecionar os canais comerciais apropriados é, por isso, importante para uma estratégia de marketing de sucesso.Os grossistas ou depósitos de sementes são as empresas que vendem a maioria das suas sementes (e outros produtos) a outras empresas (retalhistas) ou organizações, mais do que diretamente ao agricultor. Os retalhistas venderão a maioria das suas sementes e outros produtos a agricultores.Uma empresa de sementes com um mercado-alvo disperso pode considerar a indicação de uma série de grossistas estrategicamente localizados como uma ajuda para assegurar aos retalhistas rurais um acesso mais fácil a sementes para posterior venda aos agricultores (Figura 3.6). Os retalhistas incluem agentes, armazenistas de sementes, comerciantes agrícolas, a indústria de transformação de produtos agrícolas, supermercados, quiosques e semelhantes.A assistência prestada e as condições comerciais oferecidas a cada um dos intermediários dependerão do volume de sementes vendido e da solvência do cliente. Em geral, os grossistas recebem um crédito de 30 a 90 dias por armazenar semente, enquanto os retalhistas e os agricultores pagam a pronto, por vezes com descontos de quantidade. Em alguns casos, os grossistas ou retalhistas podem receber semente à consignação, mas isso é mais arriscado e difícil de gerir. Normalmente, as empresas de sementes empregam representantes de vendas para gerir as encomendas e transações com os grossistas e para promover o armazenamento de sementes entre os retalhistas. A distribuição de publicidade para o ponto de venda e expositores das lojas promovem a sensibilização e as vendas junto do cliente. Além disso, a formação dos gestores de loja e dos vendedores relativa ao armazenamento das sementes e às características do produto ajudam a assegurar a viabilidade das sementes e as vendas, respetivamente.Considere o seguinte:• A semeadora bloqueou no momento da sementeira.• Taxa muito baixa de plantação por engano.• Espaçamento desigual das filas devido a problemas com a semeadora. • Semente comida por pragas ou pássaros. • Semente roubada. Replante logo que possível.Caixa 3.7. Guia de diagnóstico de florescimento no campo.Escave secções das filas semeadas; procure sementes. • Baixas temperaturas a atrasar a germinação -aguarde alguns dias. • A chuva ou a irrigação atrasadas estão a atrasar a germinação -aguarde alguns dias e verifique novamente.Considere o seguinte:• El suelo está anegado.• Solo muito quente.• O solo secou rapidamente depois da sementeira.• A semente adoeceu.• Condições fracas da sementeira (contacto fraco da semente com o solo). • Condições fracas de armazenamento da semente. Nestes casos considere o replantio.• Pragas no solo ou danos provocados por roedores.• Danos mecânicos provocados pela operação da semeadora. A replantação poderá ser necessária se não existir semente boa em quantidade suficiente.• Temperaturas baixas -aguarde alguns dias e verifique novamente. • Plantação muito profunda -aguarde alguns dias.• Superfície com crosta -parta a crosta, espere por chuva ou irrigue. • Solo com torrões -remova os torrões.• Humidade insuficiente na altura da sementeira -espere por chuva ou irrigue.Considere o seguinte:• Semente velha com baixo vigor.• Condições fracas de armazenamento da semente.• Temperaturas baixas.• Queimaduras provocadas por fertilizantes.• Danos por herbicidas ou pesticidas.• Superfície com crosta -parta a crosta, espere por chuva ou irrigue. Poderá ser necessário replantar.A semente está inchada mas morta e a apodrecer? Semente danificada?Vigor normal mas florescimento lento/fraco? Vigor fraco ou crescimento distorcido?Agricultor Agricultor Figura 3.6. Representação esquemática do fluxo de semente de uma empresa de sementes aos agricultores através de intermediários. Lidar com governos e ONG Em alguns mercados, os governos e ONG podem ser compradores significativos de sementes. A principal vantagem destes intermediários é a tendência que têm para adquirir grandes quantidades de sementes, eliminando assim a necessidade de estabelecer e manter uma rede de grossistas ou de retalhistas. A distribuição através de sistemas governamentais e de ONG constitui também um meio de alargar e promover os produtos de uma empresa de sementes sem gastos significativos em promoção de vendas. No entanto, as desvantagens são o facto de nem sempre serem consistentes ou previsíveis em termos de requisitos de quantidade, uma vez que a sua procura está frequentemente relacionada com assistência a desastres ou apoios políticos através de sementes. O processo de compra de sementes é normalmente realizado através de concursos imprevisíveis, podendo requerer embalagens de dimensões estranhas ou únicas.Adicionalmente, os calendários de entrega podem ser exigentes e as condições de pagamento nem sempre serem as ideais.Os principais aspetos para gerir encomendas governamentais e de ONG incluem:• Envolver as autoridades, doadores e ONG para a compreensão do setor de sementes.• Fornecer informação sobre a disponibilidade do produto, preços das sementes e características das variedades. • Lobby para encomendas antecipadas por forma a ajudar ao planeamento da produção de sementes. • Promover o envolvimento do setor do retalho na distribuição de sementes através de sistemas de vales.• Encorajar uma distribuição apropriada de variedades de acordo com mega-ambientes e requisitos dos agricultores. • Observar normas de certificação de sementes, procedimentos de registo de variedades e normas de boa embalagem para evitar a entrada de comerciantes de sementes falsas ou sem escrúpulos. • Acompanhar as distribuições de sementes e sistemas de ajuda com os representantes da empresa, demonstrações e dias do agricultor para promover oportunidades futuras de vendas junto dos agricultores que recebem essa ajuda.As vendas de sementes podem ser aumentadas pela exportação para países estrangeiros. Na avaliação do potencial de um mercado de exportação, considere os seguintes pontos:• Questões regulamentares. Consegue vender as suas variedades num país estrangeiro? Na maioria dos estados africanos é necessário registar primeiro uma variedade no país antes de esta poder ser comercializada. Os procedimentos de registo são morosos e dispendiosos e, por conseguinte, o investimento necessário tem de ser avaliado face aos lucros futuros esperados. • Estratégia empresarial. Como e através de quem deverá a semente ser vendida? Os mercados de exportação poderão estar relacionados a organizações governamentais e a ONG de assistência através de sementes ou constituírem um meio para estabelecer relações empresariais de longo prazo num país estrangeiro. Os mercados internacionais de organizações governamentais e ONG representam, normalmente, oportunidades de curto prazo que resultam de desastres naturais, mas podem conduzir ao desenvolvimento de perspetivas de negócios de longo prazo. Se o mercado estrangeiro for encarado principalmente como desenvolvimento de negócios de longo prazo, então deverá realizar-se um grande planeamento estratégico relativo ao estabelecimento de parcerias, programas de produção de sementes e marketing. • Procedimentos de importação de sementes. As sementes previstas para importaçãoexportação cumprem os requisitos de importação-exportação? Os requisitos de documentação para a exportação de sementes iniciam-se com a receção de uma autorização de importação do país estrangeiro. Isto irá especificar as condições que têm de ser observadas para a importação das sementes, o que inclui normalmente uma autorização de exportação, certificado fitossanitário, certificado da OCDE de certificação das sementes, um certificado internacional laranja ISTA, uma fatura comercial, uma certidão negativa emitida pelo banco central e documentação de embarque. Para obter estes inúmeros documentos é necessário um planeamento e organização antecipados. • Pagamento das sementes. Como é que a transação se vai realizar? Normalmente, é possível que os produtos não possam ser exportados para um país sem pagamentos antecipados ou garantias de crédito internacionais. Assim, as exportações de sementes têm de se basear em encomendas certas e pagamentos garantidos. • Método de envio. Como é que as sementes serão transportadas até ao seu destino? Os sistemas de transportes transfronteiras ou ultramarinos são muitas vezes lentos e expõem as sementes a condições climatéricas desfavoráveis que podem reduzir a viabilidade das sementes. O transporte aéreo é normalmente proibitivo em termos de custos, exceto para pequenas quantidades de sementes de elevado valor. Por conseguinte, é necessário definir o melhor método de transportar as sementes que assegure a manutenção da viabilidade e da qualidade das sementes.Nos negócios, a concorrência é um facto da vida. Quase todos os negócios têm concorrência e esta é também uma realidade no setor das sementes. As empresas de sementes enfrentam concorrência não só das sementes guardadas nas explorações, mas com o crescimento do número de empresas de sementes em África, a concorrência entre empresas irá aumentar. Para sobreviver, uma empresa tem de conhecer a concorrência que enfrenta e implementar medidas éticas para competir com ela.O mercado de sementes está em constante mudança, tanto em termos de fornecedores de sementes como da natureza das sementes a serem fornecidas. Assim, é necessário identificar as várias fontes de concorrência e as suas características. A concorrência pode vir de:• Importações ilegais, em particular nos casos em que os fornecimentos de sementes locais são inadequados ou dispendiosos e os fornecimentos transfronteiras sejam adequados ou mais económicos. As fronteiras em África tendem a ser bastante porosas, em especial em tempos de escassez, e comerciantes sem escrúpulos podem tentar fornecer sementes sem observar os procedimentos corretos. Essas sementes podem ou não ser de variedade adequada ou qualidade garantida. A intervenção governamental é muito útil no combate às importações ilegais de sementes. • As importações legais podem constituir uma ameaça quando existe um diferencial no preço das sementes ou da qualidade relativamente às fornecidas localmente. Essas importações são normalmente de sementes de qualidade de variedades apropriadas. • Grandes empresas multinacionais com grande capacidade de fornecimento de sementes ou que dispõem de uma genética tecnologicamente avançada. • Pequenas empresas locais que podem ser agressivas ou ter baixos custos operacionais e que procurem entrar nos mercados. • Sementes falsas vendidas por comerciantes sem escrúpulos. Estas sementes são normalmente derivadas de grãos e podem ser vendidas em embalagens contrafeitas. Esta é a forma mais perniciosa de concorrência no setor de sementes, uma vez que não só mina o setor de sementes de qualidade garantida, mas constitui uma desvantagem para os agricultores por lhes dar produtos de baixo desempenho. É necessário contar com o apoio dos governos para eliminar esta forma de concorrência. • As sementes guardadas nas explorações são um fator de concorrência a culturas autogâmicas ou culturas de polinização livre. A concorrência mais perigosa é as empresas emergentes que tentam ganhar a quota de mercado através de técnicas de vendas agressivas ou do fornecimento de tecnologias únicas ou ambas.Para conhecer a concorrência é necessário recolher informações relacionadas com as estratégias de marketing, forças e fraquezas, características do produto e volumes de produção da concorrência. Essa informação nunca estará completa nem será infalível, mas pelo menos dará uma ideia das ameaças enfrentadas e do posicionamento da sua empresa na matriz do setor de sementes (Figura 3.7). Em cada mercado existe uma procura total de sementes, satisfeita em determinada medida por sementes compradas (incluindo programas de apoio e distribuição de sementes), sementes guardadas na exploração (que também inclui sementes falsas) e importações de sementes. Na proporção de sementes plantadas relativamente a sementes compradas derivadas do setor formal, uma série de empresas pode estar a concorrer entre si, com as sementes guardadas na exploração e com sementes importadas. A proporção de sementes plantadas relativamente a sementes compradas diminuirá ou aumentará dependendo dos esforços combinados do setor formal em produzir e comercializar sementes certificadas, do custo relativo das sementes certificadas comparativamente às sementes guardadas na exploração e da economia e das políticas macroagrícolas.No setor formal, poderá existir um líder de mercado, com a maior quota de mercado.Outras empresas de sementes podem ser identificadas como concorrentes, que prejudicam a quota de mercado do líder de mercado ou que alargam as vendas de sementes para se aproximarem ou ultrapassarem a quantidade vendida pelo líder de mercado. Os seguidores que mantém ou perdem a sua quota de mercado ou ainda que enfrentam um declínio das suas vendas não constituem uma ameaça ao líder ou aos concorrentes. Os concorrentes em nichos fornecem sementes a mercados particulares não abrangidos por outras empresas. As estratégias de concorrência de cada tipo de concorrente dependerão do seu posicionamento no mercado. Os líderes tendem a ser defensivos, os concorrentes agressivos e os seguidores passivos. No entanto, conforme anteriormente referido, a proporção de agricultores em África que usa sementes melhoradas é geralmente muito baixa e, por isso, o nível de concorrência entre empresas num mercado desses é inferior à concorrência enfrentada pelas sementes guardadas nas explorações e pelas sementes do setor informal. Por conseguinte, as empresas de sementes devem orientar-se mais para a expansão do mercado, fornecendo sementes melhoradas, do que tentar prejudicar a quota de mercado de outras empresas.Figura 3.7. O mercado de sementes é composto por todas as sementes plantadas pelos agricultores.Nota: Esta semente pode provir de sementes guardadas na exploração (incluindo o comércio informal de sementes), de importações de sementes e do setor formal. Os regimes de ajuda de sementes, se existirem, obtêm a maioria das sementes do setor formal ou das importações de sementes. Se existir mais do que uma empresa de sementes no setor formal, estas podem caracterizar-se como líderes de mercado, concorrentes, seguidores ou intervenientes em nichos. A quota de mercado de cada uma pode crescer ou diminuir comparativamente entre si e em função da quantidade de sementes guardadas nas explorações usadas pelos agricultores.Seguidor Assistência através de sementesCompetir com a concorrência A maioria das empresas de sementes sabe que têm de fazer mais do que esperar que as vendas melhorem.As empresas de sementes têm de ter a noção de que, mais do que esperar a mudança, têm de ter uma abordagem ativa para manterem a quota de mercado atual e aumentar as vendas de sementes, em especial entre os agricultores que nesse momento não usam sementes melhoradas certificadas.Na determinação das estratégias para competir com a concorrência é necessário estabelecer a razão porque os clientes compram da concorrência e não da sua empresa. Os fatores a considerar incluem:• Preço. Os clientes desejam sempre uma \"boa compra\" e, assim, irão sempre comparar o preço (valor) da semente certificada ao das alternativas. • Qualidade. Os clientes pretendem produtos que deem resposta e apresentem um desempenho de acordo com as suas expectativas. • Por isso, considere como a qualidade da sua semente se compara à da concorrência.• Facilidade de acesso. Em geral, os clientes preferem comprar no lugar mais conveniente.A estratégia de distribuição visa colocar as sementes em lugares acessíveis? • Adequação e adaptação das variedades. Os agricultores necessitam de sementes que se adaptem aos seus requisitos. Se a gama de produtos de uma empresa for inadequada, será necessário encontrar novas variedades que sejam preferidas aos produtos da concorrência. • Publicidade. Com frequência os agricultores não dispõem de informações sobre variedades de culturas, as suas características e área de adaptação. Os agricultores também não estão muito familiarizados com os nomes das variedades. • A publicidade e informação ajudam por isso os clientes a ficarem mais informados sobre os produtos. Designar os produtos com nomes locais de memorização fácil ajuda os agricultores a lembrar-se e a reconhecer as variedades entre os produtos da concorrência. • Assistência. Os clientes podem preferir comprar sementes de empresas que disponibilizem serviços agrónomos e uma boa assistência se tiverem problemas.As estratégias de concorrência de cada tipo de concorrente dependerão da sua posição no mercado. Enquanto líder de mercado, as estratégias defensivas serão dominantes. Estas usam táticas de reforço da marca, procuram formas de expandir a dimensão total do mercado e recorrem a meios de promoção para atrair novos compradores dos produtos. Os concorrentes no mercado de sementes irão usar estratégias para aumentar a dimensão total do mercado e conquistar quota de mercado aos líderes e seguidores. Estas estratégias podem incluir políticas de preços competitivos, inovação de produtos, inovação na distribuição, fornecimento de serviços melhorados, imagem de marca e publicidade intensiva. Os seguidores de mercado tendem a imitar, copiar e adaptar as estratégias dos líderes de mercado aos seus próprios produtos e serviços, com algumas melhorias ou variações. As empresas de sementes que operam em nichos de mercado procuram nichos geográficos Por último, cada empresa irá procurar diferenciar-se no mercado através de produtos inovadores, uma marca distinta e fornecimento de valor, mantendo a viabilidade e a sustentabilidade através da gestão de custos, preços competitivos e procura de crescimento do volume de vendas. As empresas de sementes bem-sucedidas satisfarão melhor os clientes do que as suas concorrentes e, por conseguinte, conseguirão crescimento e prosperidade, enquanto outras estagnarão e falharão. Além disso, a atividade competitiva na indústria de sementes conduzirá à disponibilização de uma maior seleção de variedades melhoradas aos agricultores, permitindo-lhes produzir uma vasta gama de produtos para os mercados de matérias-primas e indústria e contribuir para o crescimento da economia agrícola de um país.1. A estratégia de marketing de uma empresa de sementes está principalmente centrada em satisfazer as necessidades dos clientes em termos de produtos de sementes e em competir com a concorrência. 2. Os produtos que uma empresa de sementes vende determinarão os clientes a quem os poderá vender. Se uma empresa de sementes pretender expandir o seu mercado, tal poderá só ser possível se os produtos disponíveis forem necessários para potenciais clientes. 3. Os clientes a quem uma empresa pretende vender sementes determinarão a natureza do produto que tem de ser fornecido. As empresas de sementes têm, por isso, de compreender as necessidades de produtos dos seus clientes e implementar um desenvolvimento com vista a obter os produtos desejados. 4. O produto que uma empresa de sementes vende não é simplesmente a semente, mas inclui muitos aspetos tangíveis e intangíveis relacionados com as sementes, tais como o potencial genético da variedade, a qualidade da semente, a embalagem da semente e os serviços que são fornecidos com a semente. 5. A definição dos preços é um procedimento complexo que considera fatores internos e externos. O preço da semente de uma variedade é sempre relativo à semente guardada na exploração e à semente de produtos concorrentes ou alternativos. Internamente, uma empresa de sementes tem de definir o preço da semente para garantir uma margem bruta suficiente para cobrir as despesas operacionais e assegurar lucros suficientes para a sustentabilidade e o crescimento. 6. A promoção de produtos abrange a comunicação eficaz dos principais atributos de uma variedade e os serviços prestados pela empresa. O objetivo da promoção, em conjunto com o tema, tipo e meios de promoção, tem de ser considerado em todas as campanhas publicitárias.7. Vender sementes traz receitas para a empresa e é um meio de assegurar lucros. As vendas ativas, em particular com intermediários, como grossistas e retalhistas, assegurará aos agricultores o acesso à semente. 8. As empresas de sementes lidarão com as reclamações dos clientes. Estas, embora sejam muitas vezes experiências desconfortáveis, podem constituir boas experiências de aprendizagem e um meio de conquistar a fidelidade dos clientes se forem tratadas com cortesia e profissionalismo. 9. Competir com a concorrência começa por conhecer e compreender as características da concorrência. Somente depois é possível desenvolver uma estratégia para competir. Para ultrapassar os concorrentes, centre-se nas características de produtos que são requeridas pelos clientes e na qualidade do serviço.As empresas de sementes bem-sucedidas não ignoram os requisitos do mercado e procuram continuamente fornecer produtos melhorados para manter e aumentar a quota de mercado. Assim, uma empresa de sementes necessita de uma estratégia de desenvolvimento de produtos para orientar a identificação, registo, promoção e ampliação dos produtos apropriados. O processo de desenvolvimento de produtos começa com a obtenção, onde se cria uma variação genética que permita a seleção dos tipos de plantas desejáveis. O processo de seleção rastreia os traços (características visíveis da planta) requeridos pelo mercado. Isto envolve diversos métodos de ensaio dos novos tipos de planta relativamente às variedades existentes mais populares, de modo a que apenas as melhores sejam mantidas e o seu desenvolvimento prosseguido. Só depois da realização de ensaios suficientes que assegurem um grau de confiança aceitável de que a nova variedade é melhor do que a existente, que satisfaz os requisitos de mercado e que pode ser produzida fiavelmente de forma eficaz em termos de custos, é que o novo produto poderá ser lançado no mercado. Normalmente, o tempo necessário para a obtenção, seleção e lançamento de uma nova variedade varia entre 8 e 15 anos; consequentemente, este é um desafio dispendioso e de longo prazo.O âmbito e o teor de uma estratégia de desenvolvimento de produto dependem em grande medida da situação da empresa de sementes relativamente ao volume de vendas (ou mais precisamente, o valor e a rentabilidade das vendas) e do nível de especialização de mercado (Figura 4.1). O volume de vendas e o preço das sementes determinam o volume de negócios e consequentemente a quantidade de fundos disponíveis para atividades de desenvolvimento de produtos. Assim, uma pequena empresa de sementes com um baixo volume de vendas disporá de menos recursos para gastar num programa de desenvolvimento de produtos plenamente funcional. Uma empresa assim dependerá, por isso, muito do germoplasma público disponível dos centros nacionais e internacionais de investigação agrícola. Mas, o germoplasma público não é apenas útil para as pequenas empresas de sementes. Seja qual for a escala das operações de uma empresa, o valor pode ser extraído de germoplasma público, desde que seja útil no mercado.As empresas de sementes existem no contexto de um cenário de mercado. Um mercado visado por uma empresa de sementes pode ser mais ou menos sofisticado ou especializado. Alguns agricultores podem requerer híbridas simples de elevado desempenho com traços especiais, enquanto outros podem apenas necessitar de variedades de polinização livre porque o seu ambiente de produção é arriscado ou porque não dispõem dos recursos suficientes para alcançar rentabilidades elevadas. Nos casos em que uma empresa fornece produtos a um mercado menos especializado, o germoplasma público pode ser a melhor fonte de variedades melhoradas. No entanto, à medida que a especialização de mercado aumenta e os agricultores se tornam mais perspicazes e exigentes, uma empresa de sementes pode sentir necessidade de realizar acordos de licenciamento com fornecedores de germoplasma comercial se o germoplasma público não fornecer os produtos apropriados. Tal pode ser o caso de traços particulares, tais como do milho amarelo, milho verde, milho para pipoca e milho ceroso, ou em determinadas culturas onde não existem fontes de germoplasma público, tais como algodão, soja, sorgo híbrido e vegetais. está a ser desenvolvido. Alguns ensaios regulamentados e aprovados pelo governo de milho geneticamente modificado foram realizados no Zimbabué e no Quénia, mas no momento da publicação ainda não tinham sido registados nenhuns OGM. Este é um aspeto que o setor de sementes tem de alterar rapidamente num futuro próximo no que se refere ao desenvolvimento e comercialização de produtos se pretenderem que os OGM venham a ser aceites em mais países africanos.Embora os acordos de germoplasma público e de licenciamento possam fornecer fontes úteis e económicas de variedades e traços, uma empresa de sementes pode ainda considerar a possibilidade de estabelecer atividades proprietárias de obtenção. A decisão de realizar um programa de obtenção proprietário é a função de, pelo menos, três aspetos: 1. Volume de negócios da empresa. Como referido, a investigação é uma atividade dispendiosa. As empresas de sementes com atividades de obtenção proprietárias gastam, geralmente, 3%-10% do seu volume de negócios em investigação. Assim, o volume de negócios tem de ser significativo para assegurar fundos suficientes para um programa de obtenção adequado e sustentável. 2. A disponibilidade e a adequação de germoplasma público e licenciável para o mercadoalvo. Em grande medida, o germoplasma público será uma boa fonte de produtos \"prontos\", enquanto podem existir também boas fontes de variedades úteis de outras empresas de sementes numa base de direitos de utilização. No entanto, podem existir casos em que a única forma de desenvolver germoplasma apropriado é através da obtenção proprietária. Todavia, a decisão de iniciar um programa de obtenção só deve ser tomada após uma cuidadosa análise da adequação de outras fontes de germoplasma. 3. Cenário do mercado. À medida que um mercado se torna mais diferenciado e competitivo, uma empresa de sementes pode ter de desenvolver produtos mais únicos que podem requerer um programa de obtenção proprietário. Contudo, mesmo com um programa de obtenção proprietário, o germoplasma público e licenciado pode ser de grande utilidade para o desenvolvimento e lançamento de variedades apropriadas. Quer uma empresa disponha ou não de um programa de obtenção proprietário, isso não invalida a necessidade de ensaios e seleção das variedades. Assim, uma empresa de sementes, independentemente da sua dimensão, tem de dispor de uma estratégia para o desenvolvimento de produtos. Quer a fonte de variedades melhoradas seja de produtos públicos, licenciados ou proprietários, essas variedades têm de ser avaliadas face a variedades de verificação interna e externa. Isto requer ensaios em número suficiente, localizados em ambientes onde serão comercializados e de qualidade adequada para permitir uma avaliação objetiva do desempenho e da aceitabilidade. Quanto mais perto um produto estiver do lançamento no mercado, maior será a participação dos agricultores e utilizadores finais no processo de seleção. Uma das principais causas para a falha de penetração no mercado de um produto novo é o lançamento de uma variedade inapropriada devido a inadequação dos ensaios e da avaliação dos agricultores e utilizadores finais.À medida que uma empresa de sementes cresce em termos de volume de negócios e de rentabilidade, a quantidade de dinheiro gasto em investigação irá, ou pelo menos deveria, aumentar. Um bom exemplo disso é o da Pioneer nos EUA (Figura 4.2). A empresa começou no início dos anos 20 do século passado e nos primeiros 25 anos gastou quantidades relativamente pequenas em investigação porque o mercado se baseava principalmente em variedades de polinização livre e os agricultores não usavam práticas agrícolas avançadas.Por volta de 1950 e 1960, a utilização de híbridas e fertilizantes por parte dos agricultores começou a aumentar, bem como a quantidade gasta em investigação, por forma a testar e selecionar os produtos melhorados que o mercado exigia. No entanto, a empresa ainda se baseava muito em fornecedores de germoplasma públicos, bem financiados e prolíficos. A partir de 1970 verificaram-se alterações significativas. Em primeiro lugar, foi introduzida legislação para conferir proteção das variedades vegetais aos programas de obtenção proprietários; segundo, a concorrência entre empresas de sementes aumentou à medida que os agricultores se tornaram mais exigentes quanto a produtos de elevado desempenho; e terceiro, o valor das vendas de sementes aumentou, o que permitiu a alocação de mais recursos à investigação. Um desenvolvimento mais recente foi a ênfase dada à modificação genética para conseguir resistência a insetos e herbicidas. Por conseguinte, atualmente, a Pioneer é altamente dependente da estratégia de investigação e desenvolvimento proprietários. Estes investimentos em investigação continuam a crescer e em 2009 eram muito superiores aos valores de 1999.  Estratégias de planeamento e de gestão de desenvolvimento de produtosUma vez que o processo de desenvolvimento de produtos é um exercício dispendioso e moroso, uma empresa de sementes tem de orientar e gerir o processo de forma a assegurar o lançamento no mercado de variedades apropriadas e adaptadas. Para desenvolver os produtos corretos, uma empresa tem de identificar o segmento do mercado-alvo e o(s) requisito(s) do mercado nesse segmento (Figura 4.3). Isto irá determinar as questões certas que necessitam de ser trabalhadas pelo departamento de investigação. Por outras palavras, isto define os objetivos do desenvolvimento de produtos. Para alcançar estes objetivos é necessário utilizar as ferramentas certas de forma eficiente.Figura 4.3. Esquema do processo de orientação de uma estratégia de investigação.Nota: O segmento de mercado e os requisitos determinam as questões certas ou objetivos da investigação. Em conjunto com a aplicação das ferramentas apropriadas, serão desenvolvidos produtos que satisfazem os requisitos do mercado.Questões certasNo desenvolvimento da estratégia de investigação para uma empresa de sementes é necessário analisar dois aspetos (Figura 4.4). O primeiro é a importância da investigação. Aqui a questão é \"Estamos a trabalhar nas questões certas?\" O segundo é a eficiência da investigação, em que nos perguntamos \"Estamos a usar as ferramentas certas de forma eficiente?\" A resposta a estas duas perguntas determinará o que será necessário fazer nas atividades de investigação para serem mais eficazes na produção dos produtos certos para lançamento no mercado-alvo.No pior caso de um departamento de investigação estar a trabalhar em questões de pouca importância para o mercado e de forma pouco eficiente, a empresa de sementes tem de reinventar a sua estratégia de desenvolvimento de produtos ou arriscar-se a perder a quota de mercado. Será necessário planear e realizar mudanças sistemáticas ou até drásticas.A estratégia tem de identificar os requisitos de mercado e as atividades de investigação têm de ser reformadas. Quando uma empresa tem uma investigação altamente relevante; por outras palavras, quando as questões certas estão a ser abordadas, mas a eficiência é baixa, então é necessário recorrer a uma estratégia de reforço das capacidades para que as ferramentas certas sejam implementadas de forma mais orientada e eficiente. Por outro lado, uma empresa pode considerar que as atividades de investigação são eficientes; ou seja, muitas variedades novas estão a ser produzidas regularmente a preços razoáveis; no entanto, a importância da investigação pode ser baixa e os produtos inadequados para o mercadoalvo. Neste caso, a estratégia requer reorientação, com ênfase na identificação das questões e objetivos corretos. Por último, se a investigação de uma empresa de sementes for relevante e eficiente, então a estratégia é manter o fluxo a funcionar tão eficazmente quanto possível.África é um continente vasto no qual as diversas combinações de climas, solos e altitudes determinam a adequação e potencial das culturas. Mesmo em países particulares, o ambiente biofísico é altamente variável. Esta variação, no entanto, apresenta padrões quando definidos pela altitude, temperatura média do ar e pluviosidade anual. No que se refere ao milho, foram identificados seis mega-ambientes (Figura 4.5), o que oferece um ponto de partida para a identificação das questões certas para o desenvolvimento de variedades. É improvável que as variedades de milho desenvolvidas para terras baixas secas sejam adequadas a outros mega-ambientes, etc.  Nota: Adaptado de W. Janssen (2001).Em cada mega-ambiente, o milho está sujeito a ameaças e tensões bióticas e abitóticas particulares (Tabela 4.1). Estas determinam o tipo de traços defensivos que uma variedade de milho requer para crescer e prosperar. A seca é uma ameaça particularmente grave nas terras baixas secas e a altitudes médias secas, mas mesmo nas altitudes médias húmidas podem verificar-se secas a meio ou no final da estação. Por conseguinte, a tolerância à seca é um traço de grande importância para todas as estratégias de desenvolvimento de variedades. Ameaças de doenças, como pragas, estão muito relacionadas com os mega-ambientes, mas a obtenção convencional para resistência às doenças é relativamente mais fácil do que para resistência ou tolerância a pragas. Além disso, estes mega-ambientes cruzam as fronteiras nacionais, por isso, desenvolver uma variedade num locale de um mega-ambiente deve permitir a transferência da variedade para outros locales do mesmo mega-ambiente.Tendo determinado o principal mega-ambiente do mercado-alvo, em conjunto com a identificação das principais tensões e ameaças abióticas e bióticas que é necessário mitigar, é possível estabelecer as necessidades dos clientes. Embora a maioria dos agricultores em África seja consumidor direto das culturas que produzem, uma proporção da produção de grão é também consumida por terceiros, variando a sua magnitude de país para país. Numa primeira análise, quando consideramos o agricultor isoladamente, há dois aspetos importantes -o tipo de variedade necessária e as qualidades desejadas do grão.As variedades de milho podem ser de polinização livre ou diversos tipos de híbridas. Em média, as variedades de polinização livre melhoradas rendem 82% em comparação com as híbridas trilíneas melhoradas, e a sua utilização só é apropriada nos casos em que os níveis de rentabilidade do agricultor forem inferiores a 2 t/ha (Pixley e Bänziger 2004). À medida que a potencial rentabilidade dos agricultores aumenta devido a um ambiente ou gestão melhorada, as híbridas demonstram ser normalmente uma melhor opção. Em áreas suscetíveis a secas, as híbridas duplas e trilíneas podem ser consideradas como mais estáveis devido a padrões de florescimento variáveis. Em situações altamente produtivas e bem geridas, as híbridas simples apresentarão consistentemente um melhor desempenho do que outros tipos de híbridas. As híbridas simples também podem apresentar uma tolerância excelente à seca, rentabilidades estáveis e assegurar aos agricultores outros traços úteis. Fatores adicionais relevantes para o tipo de variedade incluem a altura da planta, resistência de carga, dias para a maturação e taxa de seca do grão. Estes traços requeridos têm de ser definidos pelo mercado-alvo.No que se refere às qualidades do grão, as preferências dos consumidores tornam-se relevantes. Características tais como a cor do grão, textura do grão, características de moagem, qualidade da proteína, teor de amido, teor de óleo e características de torrefação ou cozedura são importantes em diferentes mercados. O milho tem uma multiplicidade de usos e, embora os agricultores africanos estejam principalmente preocupados com o  grão para a alimentação, existem outras oportunidades de mercado que as empresas de sementes podem explorar, tais como o milho amarelo para a produção avícola, milho com proteínas de qualidade para alimentação suína, ensilagem de milho para agricultores que produzem laticínios, milho doce para o mercado de vegetais e milho ceroso para aperitivos e produção de amido.Os agricultores estão altamente conscientes das rentabilidades que obtêm com as suas culturas. Da mesma forma, reparam em aspetos como eretabilidade, facilidade de colheita, sabor da farinha do grão e capacidade de armazenamento. Têm também uma longa memória do desempenho das variedades, nomeadamente dos maus desempenhos! Assim, os agricultores apreciam variedades com um desempenho estável, em particular face às tensões ambientais que enfrentam. Estão interessados em ter lucro, mesmo se este for medido em termos de dispor de comida suficiente para o seu sustento até à colheita seguinte. Tudo isto indica a necessidade de fornecer produtos amplamente adaptados e estáveis ao mercado.Os agricultores comprarão as variedades que desejam, por isso é fundamental para uma empresa de sementes identificar claramente quais as características dos produtos que os agricultores desejam.Uma estratégia de desenvolvimento de produtos engloba essencialmente duas componentes principais: obtenção (ou desenvolvimento de germoplasma) e ensaios. No entanto, estes não existem isoladamente entre si ou separados de outras componentes da carteira de produtos (Figura 4.6). A obtenção produz novas variedades, que são testadas para avaliar Figura 4.6. As principais componentes de um processo de desenvolvimento de produtos e as quatro principais equipas necessárias para assegurar um fornecimento contínuo de produtos melhorados ao mercado. o desempenho face aos objetivos de desenvolvimento de produtos. Simultaneamente aos ensaios avançados, as variedades em especial as variedades híbridas, têm de ser avaliadas quando à viabilidade de produção da semente. Somente quando uma variedade é melhorada, adaptada e apropriada ao mercado, e se puder ser produzida de forma viável, é que deve ser promovida para lançamento. As variedades que são promovidas poderão iniciar um procedimentos de registo, e ser lançadas, demonstradas e comercializadas no mercado. Neste processo poderão intervir quatro equipas diferentes mas inter-relacionadas: a equipa de obtenção, a equipa de desenvolvimento e progresso do produto, a equipa de investigação da produção de semente e a equipa de marketing e serviços agrónomos. A existência ou não de todas estas equipas numa empresa de sementes será uma questão de dimensão e capacidade, mas na sua essência, todas as componentes têm de ser funcionais, interna ou externamente à empresa, se se pretender disponibilizar um fornecimento contínuo de variedades melhoradas ao mercado.A obtenção vegetal é um processo de criação de diversidade genética e de seleção dos genótipos desejados da diversidade. No milho, quer o objetivo seja produzir variedades de polinização livre (OPV) ou híbridas, a abordagem geral é usar a obtenção de seleção para obter linhas puras cruzadas para formar novas variedades (Figura 4.7). O germoplasma é recolhido de fontes legítimas públicas ou privadas, sendo usado per se ou combinado com outras fontes através do cruzamento, e as plantas F1 autogâmicas para criar populações F2 variáveis. Ao longo de uma série de ciclos reprodutivos de polinização livre, as plantas maior progresso se se seguirem poucos objetivos de obtenção de cada vez. Quantos mais traços forem selecionados mais difícil será progredir. Assim, o progresso da obtenção é, com frequência, um processo de seleção por passos. 4. Relacionar a obtenção aos ambientes reais dos clientes-alvo. A obtenção de culturas é tipicamente realizada em estações de investigação em condições ideais. Embora as estações possam estar localizadas nos mega-ambientes do mercado-alvo, são bem geridas e nem sempre são típicas dos campos dos agricultores. Por conseguinte, os obtentores têm de criar ambientes de tensão geridos que exemplifiquem uma ou mais das tensões mais comuns que os agricultores enfrentam (ver a Caixa 4.1), e dispor de procedimentos de ensaio que rastreiem os produtos da investigação nos ambientes que existem nos mercados-alvo.Caixa 4.1. tipos comuns de ambientes experimentais geridos para o milho.• Condições de boa fertilização /de sequeiro: As experiências são cultivadas usando práticas agrónomas específicas da localização e ideais. Em alguns casos pode aplicar-se irrigação para assegurar que o ensaio não é sujeito a quaisquer tensões de défice de água. Assim, estas experiências exprimem geralmente a potencial rentabilidade ambiental da localização. • Tensão de nitrogénio gerida: As experiências são cultivadas em campos aos quais foi retirado o nitrogénio do solo através do cultivo de culturas não leguminosas, não fertilizadas durante várias estações e removendo todos os resíduos da cultura após cada estação. As rentabilidades destas localizações são normalmente 20 a 30% das de culturas de milho bem fertilizadas na mesma localização. Nestas experiências é normalmente necessário remover as plantas das bordas nas extremidades das filas, uma vez que estas plantas têm o benefício de ter menos concorrência de outras plantas e um maior acesso aos nutrientes do solo. • Tensão de seca gerida: As experiências são cultivadas durante a estação seca, com irrigação no início da estação para estabelecer um bom plantio. A irrigação é aplicada de acordo com um calendário durante o período de crescimento vegetativo e depois retirada aproximadamente a partir da fase de 10 folhas, de modo que a cultura passa por uma tensão de seca durante o florescimento e o enchimento do grão. As rentabilidades médias são tipicamente de 1 a 3 t/ha. Nestas experiências é importante segregar as variedades de acordo com a maturidade. Além disso, a uniformidade da aplicação da irrigação é extremamente importante para o sucesso. • Tensão de baixo pH e baixo P gerida: Os ensaios são cultivados em campos com uma elevada saturação de alumínio (preferencialmente ~ 60%) e/ou baixas quantidades de fósforo no solo, disponíveis para as plantas (~ 20% dos níveis recomendados). As rentabilidades médias são de cerca de 50% das rentabilidades ideais de milho na mesma localização. • Inoculação/infestação artificial com fatores de tensão biótica: As experiências podem ser uniformemente inoculadas ou infestadas com fatores de tensão biótica, p. ex., E. turcicum, cicadelas para introduzir MSV e brocas do tronco. Na fase após a colheita, o grão ou espigas secas podem ser artificial ou naturalmente infestados com gorgulho dos grãos.Acelerar o processo de obtenção Uma vez que a obtenção de culturas é um processo lento e dispendioso, é aconselhável desenvolver métodos e usar ferramentas que acelerem este processo (Caixa 4.2). Está disponível uma série de estratégias para melhorar a eficiência e reduzir o tempo necessário à comercialização de novas variedades:• Cultive dois (ou mais) ciclos de cultura por ano. Tal é possível se a cultura da estação principal maturar no prazo de 170 dias e estiver disponível uma localização fora da época que permita o cultivo da cultura.Embora o ciclo da cultura fora de época possa não assegurar um ambiente de seleção ideal, oferece a oportunidade de criar cruzamentos de ensaio e de avançar com o desenvolvimento da linha pura. • Comece os ensaios numa fase prematura da obtenção. Quanto mais cedo testar e selecionar os genótipos melhorados, menos germoplasma indesejado necessita de ser transferido. • Assegure uma rotação rápida dos dados -quando dois ciclos de cultura forem cultivados todos os anos, será possível realizar um progresso mais eficiente se o ciclo fora de época for plantado apenas com genótipos selecionados dos ensaios da estação principal. No entanto, uma vez que existe apenas um breve período entre a colheita da cultura de verão e a plantação da cultura fora de época, tal nem sempre é possível. A captura de dados eletrónicos no terreno e software estatístico podem ajudar a ultrapassar este problema.Nos últimos anos, foi dada atenção à biotecnologia como um meio de melhorar o progresso da obtenção. A seleção assistida por marcadores, que usa técnicas de rastreio com base no ADN, tem sido cada vez mais usada, em particular nos países desenvolvidos. As metodologias atuais são dispendiosas e nem sempre transferíveis entre genótipos e, embora se tenham demonstrado muito promissoras e úteis, ainda não têm grande impacto nos programas de obtenção africanos.Outra tecnologia promissora é o procedimento de dupla haplóide. Esta permite a criação de linhas puras homozigóticas duas gerações após o cruzamento inicial, o que em técnicas de obtenção normais demora mais de seis gerações.Caixa 4.2. Ferramentas necessárias para um programa de obtenção eficiente.• Acesso a fontes apropriadas de germoplasma A técnica usa uma linha de indução dupla haplóide para cruzar uma população de obtenção da qual o obtentor deseja extrair linhas. As sementes resultantes apresentam um marcador fenotípico para ajudar à identificação de sementes haplóides, cujos embriões apenas carregam o genoma da população feminina de obtenção. Estas sementes são germinadas e tratadas com um químico de duplicação de cromossomas (colchicina), cultivadas num viveiro e autopolinizadas. A semente resultante é homozigótica. O processo requer boas instalações laboratoriais e de viveiros, mas não é difícil em termos técnicos. A utilização da técnica de dupla haplóide oferece uma boa possibilidade às empresas de sementes de aumentarem a taxa de desenvolvimento de germoplasma.Tanto quanto a obtenção se refere ao germoplasma e a métodos e ambientes usados, o progresso real dependerá em última análise do pessoal utilizado para realizar o trabalho e dos recursos financeiros alocados ao trabalho. Uma equipa de obtenção é constituída por obtentores, pessoal técnico de campo, trabalhadores do campo e pessoal administrativo. As características dos obtentores de sucesso incluem conhecimentos sobre a planta do milho e os requisitos dos clientes, excelentes capacidades de observação, vontade de \"andar pelos campos\", capacidade de liderança da equipa e perseverança. Para o pessoal técnico de campo, um rigor e precisão meticulosos são atributos de trabalho fundamentais. Isto porque os erros e a variabilidade nos campos e nas notas desorganizam e distorcem os resultados levando a más seleções. O trabalho de equipa no âmbito do programa de obtenção é também essencial, não apenas por existir uma multiplicidade de tarefas a realizar em cada ciclo de obtenção e ensaio, mas também porque cada uma dessas tarefas tem consequências em operações e fases da cultura subsequentes.Numa estratégia de desenvolvimento de produtos, a fase de desenvolvimento de germoplasma é seguida por ensaios dos materiais desenvolvidos quanto à sua adequação e adaptação. O desenvolvimento de germoplasma é normalmente realizado com o objetivo específico de incorporar as características (traços) desejadas da planta, tais como rentabilidade, tolerância à seca, tolerância a doenças, eficiência na utilização de nutrientes, etc., no germoplasma para produzir variedades melhoradas. A eficácia e adequação destas melhorias têm de ser avaliadas no campo num ensaio de variedade e programa de verificação. Isto envolve diversos métodos de ensaios e experiências de avaliação da variedade.A importância de gerir os ensaios segundo os mais elevados padrões não pode ser subestimada. Hallauer e Miranda (1988) escreveram, \"As capacidades do obtentor na seleção e a precisão dos ensaios [são fundamentais] para a eficácia do desenvolvimento de linhas e híbridas\" (ênfase adicionada). Os elementos de uma gestão bem-sucedida dos ensaios incluem:• Selecionar o melhor tipo de conceção experimental para alcançar os objetivos do trabalho.• Conduzir as experiências de forma planeada e adequadamente localizadas, bem como assegurar uma execução cuidadosa. • Ter cuidado na recolha da informação mais relevante, rigorosa e precisa para melhor caracterizar os tratamentos. • Usar as melhores técnicas estatísticas que permitam as escolhas mais racionais entre tratamentos.Um investigador pode selecionar entre muitos tipos de ensaios para avaliar tecnologias, ou seja, observações, experiências, ensaios nas explorações e demonstrações. A escolha dependerá em grande medida da fase de desenvolvimento da tecnologia. As novas tecnologias são avaliadas primeiro mediante a observação de ensaios ou experiências estatísticas, antes de serem testadas nos campos dos agricultores com ensaios nas explorações e demonstrações (Figura 4.8). Os principais tipos de ensaios e as suas utilizações são os seguintes (Tattersfield, comunicação pessoal, 2004).1. Observações. As observações são usadas para avaliar tecnologias anteriormente não testadas de uma forma comparativa simples face às tecnologias existentes, normalmente em estações experimentais sob estreita supervisão, de modo a determinar se têm algum mérito. Os ensaios de observação podem ou não ter uma conceção estatística, dependendo dos recursos disponíveis. Por exemplo, se uma nova variedade for criada ou introduzida de outra região, poderá não existir semente suficiente para uma experiência alargada, mas apenas o suficiente para comparar a nova variedade às variedades existentes em pequenas parcelas. Se a nova variedade se demonstrar promissora, poderá ser multiplicada para ensaios adicionais noutros tipos de experiências e em mais ambientes. 2. Experiências. Uma experiência é um método de avaliar estatisticamente tratamentos de forma a obter uma garantia razoável de detetar diferenças significativas (Steel e Torrie 1980). As experiências são concebidas para responder a perguntas específicas, por isso são estabelecidas com algumas necessidades fundamentais: os tratamentos aparecem mais do que uma vez na experiência; o erro experimental é reduzido através do controlo das condições experimentais; são realizados registos relevantes para a(s) pergunta(s) colocada(s); e usam-se estatísticas para avaliar os efeitos do tratamento e a extensão do erro experimental. As experiências agrícolas têm sido tradicionalmente realizadas em estações de investigação, mas nas últimas décadas cada vez mais experiências são realizadas nos campos do agricultor ou em condições que representam os campos do agricultor. As experiências constituem a base dos ensaios da variedade. Tipicamente, uma experiência consiste na avaliação de 20 a 50 variedades face a uma ou mais variedades de verificação. Essa experiência pode ser plantada numa série de localizações para ter uma amostragem de diversos ambientes. A terminologia relacionada às experiências inclui:Unidade ou parcela experimental -A unidade de material na qual se realiza a aplicação de um tratamento. Assim, num ensaio de variedade de milho, uma parcela terá uma variedade particular atribuída.Participação do agricultor na avaliação da variedade Figura 4.8. A sequência normal dos eventos da experiência usados para a apresentação de novas tecnologias aos agricultores.Nota: À medida que o processo avança da esquerda para a direita, o envolvimento do agricultor na avaliação e seleção da variedade aumenta.Tratamento -O ponto de investigação, tal como uma variedade ou quantidade de fertilizante, cujo efeito será avaliado.Réplica -Um conjunto de todos os tratamentos. Uma experiência tem normalmente uma ou mais réplicas.Cada réplica é criada e mantida nas condições mais homogéneas possíveis, mas as condições das réplicas podem ser diferentes entre si.Aleatorização -Em cada réplica, os tratamentos são aleatorizados da forma determinada pela conceção da experiência.Conceção da experiência -A organização estatística dos tratamentos na experiência, determinada pelos objetivos da experiência, o número e a natureza dos tratamentos e as condições nas quais a experiência será realizada.Ensaio -Uma experiência em várias localizações.Verificação -Um tratamento é normalmente conhecido e usado na produção de culturas, face às quais os outros tratamentos poderão ser comparados. As verificações de variedade devem ser de tipo, maturidade e vigor similar às variedades da experiência.Variável (ou traço) -Fator a ser investigado, p. ex. rentabilidade, tempo até ao florescimento, etc.Fase do ensaio -Ensaio preliminar, intermédio ou avançado da variedade, relacionado com a fase de desenvolvimento da linha pura e da avaliação cruzada do ensaio.3. Ensaios na exploração. As experiências são adequadas para estabelecer se existem diferenças entre tratamentos, mas podem nem sempre fornecer informações sobre a adaptação de uma variedade nos campos do agricultor ou a aceitação dos tratamentos por parte dos agricultores. Por conseguinte, os ensaios na exploração foram desenvolvidos para permitir a participação dos agricultores na avaliação dos tratamentos e das variedades. Estes tipos de experiências são realizados em situações muito similares às do agricultor e, com frequência, no campo do agricultor. Os principais tipos de ensaios na exploração incluem ensaios em linha e ensaios \"mother-baby\". Os ensaios em linha avaliam três a oito variedades em parcelas de 6 a 8 filas não replicados no campo do agricultor. O ensaio \"mother-baby\" consiste em dois tipos de experiência, ou seja, um ensaio \"mother\" gerido pelo investigador e ensaio \"baby\" gerido pelo agricultor. Os ensaios \"mother-baby\" localizam-se nos campos dos agricultores. As variedades de milho são, assim, avaliadas nas condições reais do agricultor e criam oportunidades para a comunicação e a interação entre todos os intervenientes, representados pelos agricultores, obtentores, pessoal de extensão e empresas de sementes. 4. Demonstrações. Estas são utilizadas para apresentar aos agricultores variedades ou tecnologias anteriormente testadas e aprovadas. Normalmente, somente algumas poucas variedades são demonstradas em comparação com variedades de verificação conhecidas e mais comuns em parcelas relativamente grandes, não replicadas dos campos dos agricultores. As demonstrações do mesmo conjunto de tecnologias podem ser realizadas em diversos locais. Os agricultores são convidados a visitar e a avaliar as variedades, de modo a familiarizarem-se com elas e a serem encorajados a adotar opções apropriadas nas suas próprias práticas agrícolas. Os efeitos do tratamento no crescimento da cultura são avaliados subjetivamente. Em alguns casos, no entanto, poderão apresentar-se registos de rentabilidades e de características vegetais, mas estes têm pouco valor estatístico ou de comunicação, exceto se o número de localizações de uma demonstração for de 20 ou mais.A investigação da produção de sementes assegura que as novas variedades podem ser produzidas O desenvolvimento de novas variedades, em particular híbridas, não deve ignorar as questões relacionadas com a sua capacidade de produção. À medida que uma nova variedade avança para a fase de registo da variedade, deverá avaliar-se também as características de produção da semente. Os cinco principais fatores que determinam o potencial de produção de uma híbrida são:• Rentabilidade da semente feminina. Esta é uma preocupação fundamental porque tem um impacto significativo nos volumes produzidos e no preço das sementes. Para os agricultores manterem boas receitas por unidade de área, as híbridas femininas de baixa rentabilidade necessitarão de ter um preço superior por tonelada do que as femininas de elevada rentabilidade.• O tempo relativo de florescimento das plantas masculinas e femininas determina as datas necessárias de plantação das respetivas componentes masculinas e femininas. Uma coordenação perfeita entre a largada do pólen masculino e o surgimento feminino é o mais desejável, enquanto uma plantação masculina atrasada é preferível a uma préplantação masculina. As híbridas que requerem datas de plantação masculina e feminina desfasadas só poderão ser produzidas de forma satisfatória com a aplicação de irrigação no momento do plantio. • Características agrónomas femininas, tais como tensão e altura das panículas, resistência à doença, suscetibilidade à carga e dimensão da semente. Plantas femininas que não são muito altas para corte da panícula e que não largam pólen enquanto a panícula ainda está envolvida na folha são desejáveis. • Características de sementes femininas, nomeadamente, resistência ao apodrecimento da espiga, facilidade de descasque, durabilidade da semente (ou seja, resistência à quebra e danos na semente durante o processamento) e dimensão da semente (alguns mercados de sementes preferem determinadas dimensões de sementes). • Características agrónomas masculinas, especialmente uma potencial produção de pólen e duração, resistência ao vírus do mosaico do milho e suscetibilidade à carga da raiz.Um programa de investigação de produção de sementes irá, por isso, analisar as componentes masculinas e femininas das híbridas de elite sob uma vasta gama de práticas de gestão, tais como datas diferentes de plantação, aplicação de herbicidas e regimes de fertilizantes. Os resultados contribuirão para a decisão final de avançar ou não com o processo de registo de uma variedade e o lançamento no mercado.Na sequência do desenvolvimento e dos ensaios das variedades, as que são identificadas como melhoradas e apropriadas têm de ser registadas junto das autoridades nacionais de sementes para que a produção e comercialização das sementes se possa iniciar (Figura 4.9). Na maioria dos países africanos, o registo de variedades baseia-se no \"valor para cultivo e uso\" (VCU) e no conceito de \"distinta, homogénea e estável\" (DUS), ambos discutidos abaixo. No entanto, as modalidades de registo de variedade não são iguais em todos os países (Langyintuo et al. 2008). Na maioria dos casos, o tempo entre a promoção de uma variedade no processo de registo e o registo da variedade pode demorar entre um a sete anos. A duração dos períodos de registo de variedade atrasa simplesmente o acesso dos agricultores às variedades melhoradas, influenciando negativamente a produtividade nacional das culturas no longo prazo (Figura 4.10). Além disso e em especial no caso de empresas de sementes novas, o custo e o tempo necessários para o registo das variedades constituem um obstáculo à entrada no mercado. Assim, as empresas de sementes têm de gerir estrategicamente o processo de registo, assegurando bons ensaios precoces de novas variedades no âmbito do processo de registo e de forma atempada, e sintetizando e apresentando os dados às autoridades de registo de modo claro e convincente.Figura 4.9. Apresentação esquemática do processo de registo de variedades.Nota: O requisito de ensaios de VCU e DUS e o tempo necessário ao processo variam de país para país. A definição de \"distinta, homogénea e estável\" Na maioria dos casos em que um país dispõe de um registo de variedades, cada variedade tem de ser distinguível em termos fenotípicos e designada por um nome único. A base para a definição de variedades é normalmente realizada de acordo com a Convenção da UPOV (União Internacional para a Proteção das Obtenções Vegetais, 2002). Este sistema permite a proteção de uma variedade que é distinta (D) de qualquer outra variedade cuja existência seja do conhecimento comum no momento do registo e que seja suficientemente homogénea (U) e estável (S). A avaliação de uma variedade quanto a ser DUS baseia-se na avaliação das plantas durante o seu crescimento em condições ideais. O procedimento de avaliação produz uma descrição da variedade, usando determinadas características, tais como altura da planta, arquitetura da planta, cor da flor e maturidade.De acordo com a Convenção da UPOV (União Internacional para a Proteção das Obtenções Vegetais, 2002), as definições de distinta, homogénea e estável são as seguintes:• Distinta (D): uma variedade tem de ser claramente distinguível de qualquer outra variedade cuja existência seja uma questão do conhecimento comum. A distinção tem de ser consistente e clara. • Homogénea (U): uma variedade é considerada homogénea se for \"suficientemente homogénea, tendo em conta aspetos particulares como a sua reprodução sexual ou propagação vegetativa.\"A variação que uma variedade apresenta no que se refere a uma característica tem de ser consistente com o método de propagação da variedade. Assim, a variação de uma característica, tal como altura da planta ou cor da seda, é aceitável numa OPV mas não numa híbrida simples. • Estável (S): uma variedade \"tem de se estável nas suas características essenciais, ou seja, tem de se manter fiel à sua descrição após reprodução ou propagação repetida ou, quando o obtentor tenha definido um ciclo particular de reproduções ou de multiplicações, no fim de cada ciclo.\" Similarmente, o artigo 9.º da Ata de 1991 da Convenção da UPOV estabelece que uma variedade \"é considerada estável se as suas características pertinentes não se modificarem após reproduções ou multiplicações sucessivas ou, no caso de um ciclo particular de reproduções ou de multiplicações, no fim de cada ciclo.\" (Note que esta definição não se aplica a rentabilidade, mas apenas a determinadas características fenotípicas.)A determinação de DUS é normalmente realizada pela autoridade nacional de sementes em condições controladas e ideais. Normalmente, para o milho, em particular o milho híbrido ou culturas autogâmicas (puras), um único ciclo de cultivo é suficiente para o ensaio de DUS. Em alguns casos, podem ser necessárias duas estações de ensaios para avaliar a estabilidade (S). Para além do tempo requerido (e possivelmente também dos custos, se existir alguma taxa para este ensaio), as empresas de sementes não devem normalmente enfrentar problemas com o ensaio de DUS.Quando anteriormente combinado é possível realizar inspeções aos viveiros do obtentor, o que é uma consideração importante quando se trabalha com germoplasma proprietário ou quando pode ser necessário o ensaio DUS de material parental. No entanto, para que este processo não atrase desnecessariamente o acesso ao mercado, a estratégia de desenvolvimento do produto tem de ter em conta o aspeto de DUS do registo do produto em termos de calendários e de disponibilidade da semente. O aspeto positivo sobre o ensaio DUS é de que, para além de alguma subjetividade relacionada com a análise das características da planta, logo que uma variedade se demonstre distinguível de todas as outras variedades conhecidas, não existe razão válida para não autorizar o registo da nova variedade.Os regulamentos em matéria de direitos dos obtentores vegetais (PBR) e de proteção das variedades vegetais (PVP) são uma compilação de textos jurídicos que permitem o reconhecimento dos direitos de propriedade de um obtentor ou instituição que tenha desenvolvido uma determinada variedade. Isto protege o proprietário de uma variedade da utilização não informada da variedade para produção de semente e, nalguns casos, para obtenção. Os proprietários de uma variedade podem celebrar acordos de direitos de propriedade de uma variedade protegida por direitos de obtentores vegetais com terceiros. Assim, a legislação de proteção de variedades vegetais assegura um meio de compensar os obtentores pelo investimento realizado no desenvolvimento de variedades.A proteção de variedades vegetais não é o mesmo que o registo de variedades, embora quem registe uma variedade se torne de fato \"proprietário\" e responsável por uma variedade, uma vez que nenhuma variedade pode, regra geral, ser registada por mais de uma pessoa ou instituição. O registo de variedades é essencialmente um instrumento relacionado aos procedimentos de certificação da semente e baseia-se nos ensaios VCU e DUS, enquanto a proteção de variedade vegetal garante propriedade legal de uma variedade ao obtentor da variedade e apenas se baseia no ensaio DUS. Nem todos os países dispõem de legislação comunitária em matéria de proteção vegetal, o que pode ser considerado como um obstáculo à entrada das empresas de sementes nesses mercados. Nos casos em que exista legislação de PVP ou PBR num país, é necessário apresentar um pedido específico desses direitos para além do registo de uma variedade para lançamento comercial.O processo de desenvolvimento de produtos é uma cadeia contínua de eventos desde a obtenção até ao lançamento no mercado. Alguns mercados mudam frequentemente devido a alterações das preferências dos agricultores, dos consumidores e dos requisitos industriais, impactos ambientais e atividades da concorrência, pelo que as empresas de sementes têm de ser ágeis e ativas no fornecimento de produtos. O problema que muitas vezes os gestores enfrentam é a forma de atribuir recursos ao processo de desenvolvimento de produtos de modo a otimizar a saída de produtos novos. Os recursos disponíveis para investigação estão normalmente limitados devido à ênfase comum e correta na produção e no marketing. Mas, demasiadas vezes, a investigação é considerada como um luxo e não como um investimento ou como um custo indireto, em vez de um custo de marketing.Quando a investigação é considerada como parte integrante da estratégia de marketing, receberá então uma atenção e recursos apropriados. No entanto, existirão sempre interesses concorrentes de recursos financeiros limitados de uma empresa. Na tomada de decisão sobre como alocar fundos finitos à investigação, dois princípios podem servir como orientação:Princípio 1: Aplicar os recursos onde eles serão utilizados de forma mais eficiente. Por outras palavras, investir onde ser verificará o maior retorno. Numa primeira impressão, a investigação poderá parecer dar uma taxa de retorno baixa, mas se considerarmos que é somente através do desenvolvimento de produtos e do registo que uma empresa de sementes terá produtos no mercado, é óbvio que o investimento na investigação pode compensar largamente.A chave é investir na investigação para construir uma carteira de produtos da empresa que lhe confira uma vantagem competitiva e permita a penetração e expansão no mercado. Se uma empresa de sementes necessita ou não de um programa completo de obtenção e ensaios foi já discutido acima, mas importa relembrar que, no mínimo, um programa de ensaios será necessário para identificar variedades melhoradas, seja qual for a sua origem.Por conseguinte, o dinheiro gasto em investigação tem de ser em objetivos de produtos claros, tendo em conta a capacidade da empresa e as origens das variedades, medindo o retorno de acordo com o desempenho e o valor acrescentado da variedade. Além disso, o dinheiro gasto em investigação tem de ser utilizado eficientemente. É necessário definir calendários e objetivos rigorosos de desenvolvimento de produtos, bem como definir os indicadores-chave de desempenho. Os gestores têm de saber quanto custa desenvolver uma nova variedade e trabalhar no sentido de reduzir este custo através da melhoria das eficiências nos procedimentos de investigação e da monitorização de despesas.Princípio 2: Aplicar recursos ao processo ou componente mais limitado do fluxo de desenvolvimento de variedades. Isto pode ser avaliado de várias formas. Primeiro, examine a análise de idade, contribuição de valor e quota de mercado da carteira de produtos atual, e avalie o número e o desempenho das novas variedades nas diversas fases do desenvolvimento de produto (ou seja, ensaio preliminar, intermédio e avançado) e na fase de registo da variedade. Isto pode realçar lacunas e deficiências particulares, bem como indicar onde é necessário aplicar recursos para otimizar a disponibilidade de variedades futuras. Segundo, examine o número relativo de filas de ensaio e de viveiro de obtenção, uma vez que isso mostra a ênfase das atividades do obtentor. Em geral, o número de filas de ensaio deve ser o dobro do número de filas de viveiro devido à importância dos ensaios na identificação de produtos superiores. Terceiro, considere as quantidades de semente pré-obtenção e de obtenção, e a produção de sementes experimental, pré-comercial e promocional. A falta dessas sementes tem sido frequentemente a causa do insucesso das novas variedades no mercado. Por último, reflita sobre fatores tais como competência e quantidade suficiente de pessoal, a extensão da utilização de novas tecnologias, o número e localização dos ambientes de ensaio e outros fatores menores que podem fazer uma grande diferença. Um exemplo destes fatores limitativos pode ser algo tão pequeno como bolsas de polinização -sem estas, a obtenção de milho não pode simplesmente ser realizada!1. Para satisfazer a procura dinâmica do mercado de variedades melhoradas, adaptadas e apropriadas, as empresas de sementes têm de desenvolver e implementar estratégias para identificar e registar continuamente novos produtos. 2. As novas variedades de milho e de muitas outras culturas estão disponíveis de programas de obtenção públicos e privados. Por conseguinte, pelo menos, uma empresa de sementes deve manter algum tipo de procedimento de avaliação e registo de variedades. 3. Nos casos em que os fundos o permitam e o mercado o requeira, poderá ser necessário um programa proprietário de obtenção para complementar outras fontes de germoplasma.A obtenção vegetal é um exercício de longo prazo e dispendioso. Por isso, os obtentores têm de ter objetivos claros de produtos relacionados com o mercado, de usar as melhores ferramentas e métodos de obtenção disponíveis e dispor de metas identificáveis para garantir que os requisitos de mercado relativamente a novas variedades são satisfeitos. 4. A obtenção e avaliação de variedades devem envolver sempre o agricultor, em especial à medida que as novas variedades se aproximam da fase de registo. Exceto se as novas variedades tiverem sido aprovadas pelos agricultores, será improvável que tenham algum impacto no mercado. 5. As novas variedades não devem ser apenas avaliadas quanto à adequação ao agricultor e utilidade para o utilizador final, a sua capacidade de produção deve ser considerada, uma vez que isto pode ter uma influência considerável na rentabilidade da variedade. 6. O registo de novas variedades junto das autoridades nacionais de sementes requer que a variedade candidata, através de ensaios VCU, demonstre ser melhor do que uma variedade de verificação existente, pelo menos, em relação a um traço significativo. Além disso, a variedade candidata tem de ser diferente de todas as outras variedades conhecidas, pelo menos, numa característica fenotípica, conforme determinado pelo ensaio DUS. 7. O conhecimento da importância das componentes da atividade de obtenção e ensaios da empresa ajudará os gestores a identificar áreas de fraquezas que necessitam de reforço e fornecem um meio de projetar o escoamento de novos produtos.A componente de produção de uma empresa de sementes inclui, em geral, a externalização ou contratação da produção atual de sementes junto de agricultores, supervisionando esta produção para garantir que os padrões de certificação são observados e recebem a semente em bruto dos agricultores para processamento ou condicionamento em produto comercializável. Por conseguinte, a estratégia de produção planeia o fluxo deste processo para assegurar que quantidades suficientes de sementes de qualidade garantida são produzidas em cada fase do processo de multiplicação de sementes, e que as sementes certificadas são processadas a tempo de concretizar a estratégia de marketing. Assim, a estratégia de produção é um passo fundamental no processo de COMO alcançar os objetivos da empresa de sementes.O processo de produção de sementes inclui uma série de componentes relacionadas e sequenciais que se iniciam com a multiplicação de sementes e vão até ao armazenamento da semente, pronta para venda (Figura 5.1). Uma vez que a maioria das culturas demora entre três a seis meses desde o plantio até à colheita, e normalmente é necessário um número de gerações para conseguir quantidades suficientes de semente para retalho, o processo é longo e integrado, pelo que é necessário um planeamento cuidadoso. As decisões tomadas num ano afetam a quantidade de semente disponível para venda passados dois ou três anos. O plano de produção é, por isso, um plano de longo prazo e integrado, e os gestores têm de considerar esta perspetiva de longo prazo em todas as decisões de produção.A multiplicação de sementes da pequena quantidade inicial que vem do obtentor até à semente certificada que é vendida aos agricultores é um processo multi-sazonal, multigeracional e, na maioria dos regulamentos relativos a sementes, estas gerações de sementes recebem nomes específicos em termos de categorias (Tabela 5.1). Cada geração a partir da semente do obtentor irá declinar, em determinada medida, no que se refere a pureza genética mas se forem observados procedimentos de produção rigorosos, esse declínio poderá ser minimizado. Os procedimentos para a multiplicação de cada categoria de semente estão definidos nos regulamentos nacionais em matéria de sementes e serão discutidos nos procedimentos de certificação, em baixo.Figura 5.1. As componentes do processo de produção de sementes, que se inicia com o planeamento e termina com a semente a ser vendida aos agricultores.Nota: As empresas de sementes estão, em geral, envolvidas diretamente nas fases de planeamento e processamento, mas indiretamente na produção no campo e nas operações de retalho da semente. Durante a produção no campo, as empresas de sementes supervisionam os procedimentos de certificação com os agricultores, implementam procedimentos de controle de qualidade, enquanto a atividade de marketing envolve a distribuição e venda de sementes aos agricultores, normalmente através de grossistas e retalhistas. O plano de produção de sementes está intimamente ligado ao plano de marketing. De facto, o plano de marketing deve determinar o plano de produção e não vice versa. A partir das vendas futuras planeadas é possível definir os planos atuais de produção de sementes com base nas rentabilidades previstas de sementes e nas taxas de sementes das culturas, variedades e sementes parentais a serem produzidas, considerando também contingências para contratempos de produção e uma maior procura nas vendas (Tabelas 5.2 e 5.3). É comum as empresas de sementes planearem produzir 25% a 30% mais semente do que os requisitos de vendas estimadas.No caso de culturas de polinização livre e autogâmicas, o procedimento de planeamento é relativamente simples, uma vez que aumentar a produção é uma multiplicação linear de um genótipo. No entanto, no caso das híbridas, é necessário considerar as componentes parentais e tal pode demorar algumas estações antes de existir quantidade suficiente de semente da híbrida final disponível para venda.\"Seedplan\" -Um programa de folha de cálculo para ajudar no planeamento da produção de sementes O planeamento da produção de sementes pode demonstrar-se uma tarefa complexa se se produzir uma série de variedades híbridas com diferentes sementes parentais. Por exemplo, cada híbridas trilíneas tem três linhas parentais puras mais a semente parental feminina simples da híbrida final. Assim, são necessárias quatro produções de isolamento de semente parental antes de ser possível realizar a produção de sementes. Planos fracos ou erros na produção podem ter consequências negativas nas vendas futuras e, por conseguinte, na rentabilidade.Para ajudar no planeamento da produção de semente, a CIMMYT desenvolveu um programa de folha de cálculo chamado \"Seedplan\". Este programa é um conjunto de folhas de cálculo que permite a um produtor de sementes planear a cadeia de produção de sementes desde a semente do obtentor, passando pela semente básica e até à semente certificada, com base em objetivos futuros de vendas e pressupostos relativos às taxas de sementes e de rentabilidades das sementes parentais. Cópias do programa podem ser obtidas da CIMMYT (www.cimmyt.org).Semente necessária (kg) = Área (ha) x Taxa de plantação (kg/ha) Taxa de plantação (kg/ha) = densidade de plantas (plantas/ha) x peso da semente (kg) / taxa de germinação /(1 -taxa de perda no campo) Área necessária (ha) = Plano de produção de semente (t)Rendimento da semente (t/ha) Nota: As áreas e as produções representam o mínimo necessário e, por isso, um produtor de sementes pode considerar objetivos de produção superiores para ter em conta perdas e rentabilidades inesperadas ou maiores vendas de semente certificada.Nota: Este regime baseia-se numa estimativa de rentabilidade de 4,5 t/ha para a produção de híbrida trilínea, 1,5 t/ha para produção feminina simples, 2,0 t/ha para CML444 e CML395 e 1,0 t/ha para CZL03014, e uma taxa de plantação de 17 kg/ha para a feminina, 8 kg/ha para a masculina e 25 kg/ha para a semente pura. As áreas e as produções representam o mínimo necessário e, por isso, um produtor de sementes pode considerar objetivos de produção superiores para ter em conta perdas e rentabilidades inesperadas ou maiores vendas de semente certificada. Regimes semelhantes podem ser criados para híbridas simples ou duplas.A manutenção da pureza genética e da uniformidade de uma variedade é, normalmente, da responsabilidade da organização que regista a variedade num país em particular, e esta tarefa é, em geral, atribuída ao obtentor no departamento de investigação da organização. O método da manutenção da semente parental depende do tipo de polinização que ocorre na espécie da cultura. As culturas podem ser autogâmicas (tais como amendoins e sementes de soja) ou alogâmicas (tais como milho e sementes de girassol). No que se refere às culturas alogâmicas, as variedades podem ser de polinização livre ou híbridas, mas em cada caso seguem-se diferentes procedimentos para a manutenção da pureza varietal.As sementes do obtentor de culturas autogâmicas são relativamente fáceis de manter e de produzir. O procedimento envolve principalmente o cultivo da variedade da cultura numa parcela isolada e identificada, usando uma origem conhecida de semente do obtentor e eliminando quaisquer tipos diferentes e variantes da cultura plantada sob supervisão do obtentor (Caixa 5.1). A parcela não deve ser plantada num campo que tenha tido a mesma cultura na estação anterior e deve ser aplicada uma boa gestão para alcançar um crescimento ideal. O requisito de distância de isolamento para as culturas autogâmicas é, normalmente, pequeno, dependendo a extensão normal de polinização cruzada. A distância de isolamento recomendada para sementes básicas é, em geral, apropriada (Tabela 5.4), o que para sementes de soja, amendoins, feijão, ervilhas e trigo, significa uma distância de 10 m da cultura contaminada.Durante o crescimento da cultura, o obtentor deve inspecionar regularmente a cultura, em particular na fase vegetativa, no florescimento e antes da colheita, para garantir que a planta está em conformidade com as características da variedade e que não existem plantas diferentes ou variantes. Depois da colheita e da debulha, as sementes devem ser inspecionadas para assegurar que são homogéneas e de qualidade aceitável, bem como Caixa 5.1. Manutenção e produção de sementes do obtentor de culturas de espécies autogâmicas.Cultive uma parcela isolada com as dimensões requeridas usando uma origem conhecida de semente do obtentor. Elimine plantas diferentes ou variantes durante o crescimento e antes da colheita.Semente a granel de plantas colhidas para utilização na produção de semente prébásica ou básica.Selecione uma parte da semente para utilizar como semente progenitora para a produção de semente do obtentor.típicas da variedade. Uma parte da semente é mantida pelo obtentor para multiplicação futura, enquanto a produção de semente pré-básica ou básica necessária é passada para o departamento de produção. A dimensão da parcela necessária para a produção de sementes de obtentor depende do fator de multiplicação da cultura e da variedade e dos requisitos futuros de produção de sementes pré-básica ou básica.Manutenção e produção de sementes de obtentor de culturas de espécies alogâmicas A manutenção da pureza varietal de culturas alogâmicas, tais como variedades de polinização livre de milho e sorgo, pode ser realizada em campos isolados ou sob polinizações controladas. Em qualquer dos casos, a parcela utilizada para as sementes de obtentor não deve estar localizada num campo que tenha tido a mesma cultura na estação anterior. É também necessário um elevado padrão de gestão para garantir que a cultura é cultivada em condições ideais. Durante o crescimento vegetativo, as plantas diferentes ou variantes devem ser removidas para que, no florescimento, não contaminem a variedade pura. A manutenção e produção de sementes do obtentor de uma variedade alogâmica dependem de a variedade ser de polinização livre ou híbrida.Produção de sementes do obtentor de variedades de milho de polinização livre em campos de polinização livre. Quando as sementes do obtentor forem produzidas em campos de polinização livre é fundamental que a cultura esteja suficientemente isolada de potenciais culturas contaminantes para garantir que a semente do obtentor é pura.Podem utilizar-se dois métodos de isolamento. O primeiro é isolar pelo distanciamento à cultura contaminante. Neste caso, a distância entre a parcela da semente do obtentor e outro milho deverá ser, no mínimo, igual aos requisitos para a produção de semente básica (Tabela 5.4). O segundo método é isolar por época, caso em que a parcela de semente do obtentor é plantada próxima mas antes ou depois da cultura contaminante com um intervalo de tempo suficiente para evitar a sobreposição dos períodos de florescimento das duas culturas. No caso do milho, o intervalo entre a plantação da parcela de semente e da cultura contaminante tem de ser superior a 28 dias.No campo isolado, a variedade é cultivada a partir de uma origem conhecida de semente de obtentor para conseguir, pelo menos, 2 000 plantas. A dimensão da parcela dependerá da procura de sementes de obtentor para produção de sementes básicas, mas não é aconselhável cultivar menos de 2 000 plantas. Plantas fora do tipo, variantes e doentes são removidas sob a supervisão do obtentor antes do florescimento da cultura. A parcela pode ser organizada de duas formas: a. As filas masculinas e femininas podem ser identificadas, com as plantas femininas sem panículas antes do florescimento para assegurar a polinização cruzada com as filas masculinas. A semente das filas femininas é cuidadosamente selecionada de plantas típicas e espigas desejáveis, com semente de, pelo menos, 400 plantas agrupadas para a semente do obtentor. A semente das filas masculinas pode ser descartada ou utilizada como semente básica.b. A parcela é cultivada como um campo de polinização livre, sem separação entre filas masculinas e femininas. Pelo menos 600 plantas típicas da variedade são selecionadas do campo e a semente da parte central das espigas é agrupada para semente do obtentor.Depois do descasque, uma parte da semente é mantida para a produção futura de semente do obtentor, enquanto o remanescente passa para o Departamento de Produção para produção de semente pré-básica ou básica.Produção de sementes do obtentor de variedades de milho de polinização livre em polinização manual controlada. Um método alternativo de produção de semente do obtentor em variedades de milho de polinização livre pode ser a utilização de cruzamentos de irmãos ou meios-irmãos com polinização manual. A semente da variedade é cultivada a partir de uma origem conhecida de semente do obtentor para conseguir, pelo menos, 2 000 plantas (Caixa 5.2). Plantas fora do tipo, variantes e doentes são removidas sob a supervisão do obtentor. Polinizações manuais controladas são realizadas recolhendo pólen de plantas masculinas identificadas ou de todos os tipos de plantas típicas e aplicando-o nas flores femininas de plantas típicas selecionadas ou pela polinização de plantas femininas a partir de plantes masculinas individuais. Normalmente deverão ser polinizadas, pelo menos, 600 plantas. As sementes de, no mínimo, 400 plantas intencionalmente selecionadas, típicas e sem doenças com as espigas são agrupadas. É aconselhável descartar a semente das pontas das espigas e conservar apenas as sementes da parte central. Uma parte desta é mantida para a produção futura de semente do obtentor, enquanto o remanescente passa para o Departamento de Produção para produção de semente pré-básica ou básica.Caixa 5.2. Manutenção e produção de semente do obtentor de variedades de milho de polinização livre.Agrupe uma quantidade igual de sementes de plantas selecionadas e espigas de variedade pura para a semente do obtentor.Cultive semente pré-básica em isolamento e elimine plantas fora do tipo e variantes.Guarde 50 a 75 sementes da parte central de cada uma das espigas selecionadas para servir de progenitor para a produção futura de semente do obtentor.Cultive 2 000 plantas. Polinize 500 a 600 plantas selecionadas. Selecione 400 plantas e espigas autênticas.Caixa 5.3. Manutenção de linhas puras de milho e produção de semente do obtentor.Manutenção e produção de sementes do obtentor de linhas puras de variedades híbridas de milho Com variedades híbridas, a manutenção da pureza varietal é considerada na manutenção dos progenitores, o que no caso do milho são as linhas de componentes puras (Caixa 5.3). O primeiro passo na manutenção de progenitores puros destina-se a assegurar que são suficientemente puros e uniformes. O segundo passo é multiplicar as quantidades necessárias de semente do obtentor para utilização na produção de semente pré-básica e/ou básica.A purificação da linha pura é um processo de seleção de espigas por fila até que se verifique uma uniformidade e pureza suficientes para os fins para os quais se pretende a variedade híbrida. Tal pode demorar duas ou três gerações nos casos em que a semente de origem seja proveniente de uma população de linha pura S4 ou S5. Neste caso, cultivam-se 10 ou mais filas de linha pura, das quais se selecionam cinco a dez espigas das plantas que melhor representem a linha e que sejam superiores em termos agrónomos (ou seja, que apresentam o melhor desempenho per se em termos das características desejadas). Estas espigas são cultivadas em filas e ao longo da estação de cultivo, seleciona-se uma fila que seja a mais típica da linha e apresente o melhor desempenho per se. Desta fila, cinco a dez espigas são selecionadas e agrupadas, se a fila for suficientemente uniforme, ou cultivadas como parcelas .Cultive parcelas de espigas em fila, cada uma de 20 plantas. Selecione uma fila que seja mais uniforme e de variedade pura.Selecione 10 espigas de plantas de variedade pura.Repita até estar satisfeito de que essa fila é suficientemente uniforme e de variedade pura.Agrupe sementes de uma fila uniforme.Guarde 250 sementes num espaço fresco para armazenamento de reserva de longo prazo.Semente de obtentor do progenitor.Cultive a área necessária de semente do obtentor. Autopolinize todas as plantas de variedade pura e agrupe sementes de espigas de variedade pura.Produção de semente pré-básica em isolamento.Selecione, pelo menos, 1 000 sementes para utilização como semente progenitora do obtentor.Cultive 200 plantas da linha pura. Autopolinize 100 plantas selecionadas.de espigas por fila, se existir alguma segregação notória na fila (p. ex., com características fenológicas, tais como cor das glumas, forma da panícula, etc.). Mais uma vez, se a linha pura for cultivada em espigas por fila, seleciona-se uma única fila do grupo e as espigas são agrupadas, se a fila for suficientemente uniforme, ou cinco a dez espigas são selecionadas de outra geração de seleção de espigas por fila. Logo que as espigas sejam agrupadas de uma fila uniforme, a semente torna-se na fonte para a produção da semente do obtentor.Da produção de semente de obtentor de uma linha pura, semeia-se a área necessária num campo que não tenha tido a mesma cultura na estação anterior. Plantas fora do tipo são removidas sob a supervisão do obtentor e as plantas típicas e sem doenças são autopolinizadas ou cruzadas por polinização manual. Na colheita, somente as espigas que são típicas da linha serão selecionadas. Destas, uma parte é mantida como fonte para produção de semente do obtentor adicional, enquanto o remanescente passa para o Departamento de Produção para produção de semente pré-básica ou básica.A semente certificada é semente de qualidade elevada e conhecida (qualidade genética e física), consistente, produzida de acordo com as regras e regulamentos de um regime oficial de certificação de semente e para a qual existe um certificado. As regras e procedimentos para a produção de semente certificada são estabelecidos no país no qual a semente deverá ser produzida. O objetivo da certificação é produzir semente com uma pureza genética aceitável mínima e qualidade física especificada em termos de percentagem de germinação, humidade da semente e pureza física da semente. Os procedimentos de certificação baseiamse em normas relativas às condições de crescimento, isolamento do campo, inspeções das culturas, prevalência de sementes de ervas daninhas, proporção de sementes com defeito, percentagem de germinação e teor de humidade da semente. Se um campo ou lote de sementes não cumprir as normas indicadas para a categoria de semente pretendida será rejeitado pela certificação.As normas da produção de semente pré-básica e básica são superiores às da produção de semente certificada (Tabela 5.4), em particular no que se refere a requisitos de isolamento e à percentagem máxima de plantas fora do tipo. As normas são avaliadas em todos os campos através de inspeções de campo e análises laboratoriais. As inspeções de campo são necessárias para verificar a origem da semente original e a identificação da variedade, a determinação do histórico de colheita, a adequação da distância de isolamento (ou época), práticas de produção e para garantir que todos os procedimentos de certificação são observados. Normalmente, são necessárias três a dez inspeções durante a estação, dependendo do tipo de cultura e da variedade. A produção de semente de milho híbrida requer o maior número de inspeções, em especial durante o florescimento, para assegurar que a cultura satisfaz as normas de certificação. Após o descasque ou a debulha, retiram-se amostras da semente para análises laboratoriais para avaliar a pureza da semente, a percentagem de germinação e o teor de humidade. Esta é a fase final do processo de certificação, e se o lote de semente cumprir todas as normas, ser-lhe-á atribuído o estatuto de certificado.As inspeções das culturas de semente para certificação são realizadas por \"inspetores\" ou funcionários da autoridade nacional de sementes ou por inspetores acreditados, contratados pela empresa de sementes. Nos casos em que sejam utilizados inspetores da autoridade nacional de sementes é necessário planear antecipadamente para garantir que as inspeções são realizadas de forma atempada. Muitas culturas de sementes falharam a certificação simplesmente porque as inspeções não foram realizadas no momento certo. Inspetores acreditados pela empresa têm de dispor do equipamento e mobilidade necessários para visitar os campos de sementes, conforme necessário. É possível atribuir aos inspetores um número viável de produtores de sementes durante uma estação ou duas, mas é aconselhável rodar os inspetores entre os agricultores ao longo do tempo para evitar familiaridade e uma diminuição de exigência das normas. O número de campos que um inspetor consegue gerir varia em função da sua dimensão, da distância entre eles e das datas de plantação. A gestão do campo na produção de sementes, com referência particular ao milhoUma vez que a produção de sementes é uma cultura de valor superior do que o grão, o padrão de gestão a utilizar deverá ser também superior. No entanto, em princípio, as práticas agrónomas aplicadas às culturas de sementes não são diferentes de culturas normais, em particular, se forem culturas de sementes autogâmicas ou de polinização livre. No caso da produção de sementes híbridas em que um ou ambos os pais são linhas puras, poderá ser necessário dar uma atenção extra às componentes puras, uma vez que tendem a ser mais fracos e suscetíveis às tensões ambientais (p. ex., doença, tensão decorrente de herbicidas e nutrientes) do que as híbridas.Chaves para uma boa gestão de culturas A gestão de culturas pode ser subdividida em três pontos principais, nomeadamente, oportunidade, observância de padrões elevados e minimização do desperdício dos insumos (Brian Oldrieve, comunicação pessoal, 2005).Oportunidade. A oportunidade tem uma importância extrema na produção de sementes. Todas as culturas de sementes desenvolvem-se segundo uma determinada sequência, da sementeira à maturação, e a gestão da cultura é determinada por este padrão de crescimento. Todas as decisões de gestão têm de ser tomadas e qualquer contribuição tem de ser realizada no momento mais apropriado para a cultura (Figura 5.2).O estabelecimento de uma cultura é, em geral, a fase mais importante de todo o ciclo, uma vez que as decisões tomadas na sementeira influenciam todo o ciclo de vida da cultura. A maioria das culturas de verão, como milho, algodão e sementes de soja, rende mais quando plantadas mais prematuramente do que num momento mais tardio. Nalgumas culturas híbridas, o tempo de plantação masculina e feminina tem de ser desfasado para assegurar a sincronização das flores masculinas e femininas. Nalguns casos de produção de sementes, o isolamento necessário da cultura é alcançado plantando-a num momento suficientemente diferente de uma cultura contaminante para assegurar que nenhum pólen estranho contamina a cultura de semente. Assim, para plantar no momento mais propício e correto, é necessário um bom planeamento. Tal envolve definir prazos para as várias operações, tais como preparação do terreno, aquisição dos insumos, aplicação de fertilizante, data de plantação, etc. O melhor é realizá-lo num calendário bem antes dos prazos e programar o trabalho para cumprir esses prazos, assegurando que tudo o que é necessário está disponível na data de plantação ideal.No entanto, a importância da oportunidade vai para além da plantação em todos os aspetos da produção de sementes. Operações tais como remoção de ervas daninhas, adubação de cobertura, aplicações de pesticidas, corte da panícula nas sementes femininas, remoção masculina nas sementes híbridas e colheita -tudo tem de ser realizado no momento certo, altura em que o trabalho dará os melhores resultados. É um facto estabelecido que a concorrência de ervas daninhas nas primeiras quatro a semanas da vida de uma cultura é muito negativa para o rendimento. Igualmente, as pequenas ervas daninhas são muito mais fáceis de controlar do que as maiores. Assim, a eliminação atempada de ervas daninhas, quando a cultura e as ervas estão pequenas será mais eficaz e benéfica para uma boa produção de semente.A remoção das plantas masculinas na produção de sementes híbridas logo após a polinização reduz a concorrência com as plantas femininas e melhora o rendimento das filas femininas adjacentes. As plantas masculinas podem ser destruídas ou removidas do campo e usadas para ração de gado. Assegurar uma remoção cuidadosa das plantas masculinas evita a possibilidade de misturar sementes masculinas e femininas na colheita.O momento da aplicação de fertilizantes desempenha um papel fundamental na produtividade. As aplicações de adubos para a cultura devem coincidir com os requisitos da cultura. A primeira consideração é a acidez do solo, uma vez que esta tem de ser melhorada antes do estabelecimento da cultura. O fertilizante basal, normalmente constituído por uma mistura composta de nitrogénio, fósforo, potássio e enxofre, tem de ser aplicado antes ou durante a sementeira para que as plantas em germinação obtenham os nutrientes necessários para um crescimento rápido. Da mesma forma, a aplicação de adubação de cobertura de nitrogénio tem de ser realizada de acordo com os requisitos vegetativos do crescimento da planta e das condições ambientais. Uma adubação de cobertura tardia depois do pico do crescimento vegetativo pouco irá fazer para melhorar o rendimento. Poderão também ser necessários micronutrientes para complementar deficiências particulares do solo ou da planta. Nalgumas situações, em particular quando o milho é cultivado em solos ácidos, as culturas de semente de milho híbrido requerem a aplicação de molibdato de sódio, como aplicação foliar logo após a polinização ou como adubação de cobertura após a colheita.As aplicações de pesticidas têm também de ser calendarizadas para assegurar o melhor controlo de ervas daninhas, pragas ou doenças. Tal só pode ser alcançado através de um programa de acompanhamento regular e cuidadoso. Quando as pragas e doenças atingem níveis de limiar económico, os pesticidas têm de ser aplicados sem demora e de forma a assegurar uma taxa de pesticida, volume de aplicação, método de pulverização e medidas de segurança adequados.Com as culturas de sementes, o momento da colheita é fundamental para garantir uma boa qualidade da semente. Se a semente for colhida demasiado cedo e as condições de secagem e armazenamento não forem ideais, a semente perderá rapidamente a capacidade de germinação. Se a semente for deixada no campo tempo de mais antes da colheita, fica exposta a deterioração, ataque de pragas (doenças, insetos, pássaros e roedores) e fica vulnerável a roubos.Gerir segundo altos padrões irá aumentar o potencial de qualquer cultura. Isto implica basicamente precisão e rigor nos tratamentos da cultura.Precisão significa um elevado grau de exatidão ou simplesmente fazer as coisas corretamente.Rigor envolve um desvio mínimo aos padrões ou simplesmente fazer as coisas sem erros.As duas estão associadas. As coisas podem ser realizadas com grande precisão, mas podem ser completamente erradas ou inapropriadas. Por exemplo, uma cultura pode ser plantada com um espaçamento perfeito, mas o espaçamento pode ser demasiado próximo ou demasiado largo. Assim, uma boa produção de uma cultura depende de um trabalho preciso e rigoroso em função de um determinado padrão.No início da estação, as questões fundamentais são a fertilização e a sementeira. Estas duas operações têm uma grande influência no potencial de uma cultura. A quantidade de fertilizante aplicada tem de ser adaptada ao objetivo de rentabilidade da cultura e à capacidade de fornecimento de nutrientes do solo. O fertilizante tem de ser aplicado de forma a obter a resposta máxima da cultura. A aplicação em banda e por baixo da fila de plantação ou a colocação pontual no orifício de plantação junto à semente são os melhores métodos, enquanto os métodos de aplicação total são normalmente ineficientes.O espaçamento entre as plantas no campo tem uma grande influência na rentabilidade. Para cada cultura (e variedade) num determinado ambiente existe uma população ideal de plantas. A resposta média do milho à população vegetal indica que a gama ótima se situa entre 36 000 e 60 000 plantas por hectare (Figura 5.3). Populações mais elevadas podem ser usadas em ambientes de grande potencial ou com variedades resistentes à dobragem e de pequena estatura. As populações mais baixas são adequadas a culturas de seca e variedades que possam ser suscetíveis à dobragem. As linhas puras são frequentemente semeadas com uma maior densidade do que as híbridas devido à sua pequena estatura. O objetivo no estabelecimento da planta é alcançar a população precisa ideal de forma rigorosa. Intervalos e desnivelamentos reduzirão o potencial de rentabilidade, enquanto o nivelamento de plantas com espaçamento uniforme é o ideal.A precisão e o rigor também se aplicam a outros aspetos da produção, tais como o controlo de ervas daninhas, aplicação de pesticidas e colheita. Isto é particularmente verdadeiro nas aplicações pulverizadas de produtos químicos. Um agrónomo de renome, Stan Sheppard, afirmou uma vez que a pulverização de pesticidas é uma das práticas agrícolas mais ineficientes e imprecisas. Os pesticidas químicos atualmente disponíveis têm taxas, épocas e técnicas de aplicação particulares, com as quais os agricultores têm de estar familiarizados e observar se pretenderem obter bons resultados da sua utilização. Esta informação é fornecida nos rótulos dos pesticidas e, naturalmente, em todos os casos é forçoso observar os procedimentos de segurança.Na produção de milho híbrido, o corte da panícula das plantas femininas tem de ser realizado de acordo com as normas e de forma atempada. Quaisquer atrasos no corte das panículas ou técnicas de corte fracas que resultem em tocos ou plantas esquecidas influenciarão seriamente a pureza genética e pode resultar na rejeição da certificação. Desperdício mínimo dos insumos. O terceiro ponto da produtividade é a eficiência da utilização dos insumos. Embora tal possa nem sempre afetar diretamente a rentabilidade de uma cultura, o desperdício reduz a produtividade e a eficiência. Todos os insumos são caros e, por conseguinte, um agricultor não pode simplesmente desperdiçar nada.Mais uma vez, este princípio aplica-se à maioria dos aspetos da produção. O fertilizante tem de ser aplicado sem desperdício. Os produtos químicos das culturas não podem ser aplicados em excesso. A remoção de ervas daninhas deve ser realizada quando as ervas ainda estão pequenas para que a energia não seja desperdiçada. Só se deverá utilizar a quantidade de semente necessária para alcançar a população de plantas desejada. Um bom exemplo de como a semente pode ser desperdiçada é apresentado na Figura 5.4. As rentabilidades do sorgo aumentaram quando a população de plantas foi aumentada para cerca de 15 plantas por m2, mas posteriormente, com taxas de plantação superiores, a alteração na rentabilidade foi insignificante. De facto, com muitas culturas, se se plantar demasiada semente e se conseguirem populações de plantas elevadas, as rentabilidades podem diminuir e a dobragem pode constituir um problema grave. Assim, um agricultor só precisa de semear a semente necessária para alcançar a população ideal de plantas e não mais.As três chaves para a produtividade, nomeadamente, oportunidade, normas excelentes e utilização eficiente dos insumos, aplicam-se a todos os aspetos da produção de sementes. A aplicação destes princípios é uma questão de planeamento e de implementação determinada.Idealmente na semente híbrida de milho, as plantas masculinas devem iniciar a libertação de pólen quando as primeiras sedas das femininas começam a surgir. No entanto, plantas masculinas e femininas podem nem sempre demorar o mesmo tempo a atingir a fase de florescimento. Além disso, a duração da libertação de pólen deve ser igual à duração do surgimento e viabilidade das sedas femininas. Qualquer dessincronização do florescimento masculino e feminino pode conduzir a rentabilidades reduzidas e expor a semente parental feminina a contaminação por pólen estranho (Caixa 5.4). A libertação de pólen e o surgimento de sedas podem ocorrer ao longo de 7 a 14 dias e podem não coincidir se as plantas parentais masculinas e femininas não forem plantadas no mesmo dia. Por exemplo, as sedas da planta feminina começam a surgir antes de as masculinas começarem a libertar pólen (Figura 5.5).De facto, a sedas no exemplo surgiram cerca de quatro dias antes de ocorrer a libertação de pólen, expondo assim a cultura a uma possível contaminação por pólen estranho. O tempo até ao surgimento de 50% das sedas das plantas femininas ocorreu 64 dias depois da plantação e o tempo para 50% da libertação de pólen ocorreu 67 dias após a plantação das plantas masculinas. Para alcançar a sincronização ideal nesta produção híbrida, a planta masculina teria de ser plantada 3 a 5 dias antes da feminina.Para ajustar estas diferenças do florescimento masculino e feminino, os produtores de sementes têm de estar bem informados sobre o tempo que vai da plantação ao florescimento, a duração do florescimento e da produção de pólen da planta parental masculina. Se existir uma diferença superior a dois dias no tempo médio desde a plantação até ao meio do florescimento das plantas parentais masculinas e femininas, é aconselhável ajustar a data de plantação da masculina para assegurar uma boa sincronização. Uma planta parental Dias após a plantação Figura 5.5. Um exemplo do progresso do surgimento de seda em plantas femininas simples e libertação de pólen nas masculinas puras num campo de semente de milho trilíneo.Proporção acumulada de surgimento de sedas ou de plantas que libertam pólen (%)Caixa 5.4. Razões para contaminação genética de culturas de sementes.As principais fontes de contaminação de uma cultura de sementes são:• Mistura de sementes antes da plantação.• Fontes impuras de sementes.• Replante de plantas da mesma cultura no campo das estações anteriores. • Na produção de milho híbrido, corte incompleto da panícula da planta feminina, resultando na autopolinização feminina. • Contaminação por pólen estranha devido a isolamento inadequado. • Uma má sincronização das plantas masculinas e femininas na produção híbrida expõe as plantas femininas a um maior risco de contaminação por pólen estranho.masculina que libertar pólen antes do surgimento da seda tem de ser plantada posteriormente à feminina. Inversamente, se uma planta parental masculina que libertar pólen depois do surgimento da seda tem de ser plantada antes da feminina.Se uma planta parental masculina tiver um hábito de crescimento fraco ou apresentar um período curto de libertação de pólen, é aconselhável plantar a masculina em dois (ou mesmo três) dias consecutivos, de modo a que a libertação do pólen abranja todo o período de surgimento da seda. A plantação dividida da planta masculina é normalmente realizada em duas filas adjacentes numa feminina 6:2: rácio da fila masculina. Para reduzir a proporção de terreno ocupada pelas filas masculinas, as duas filas masculinas podem ser plantadas relativamente próximas, comparativamente às filas femininas. Por exemplo, se o espaçamento normal da fila for 90 cm, as fuas filas masculinas podem distar 45 ou 60 cm, mas 90 cm afastadas das filas femininas adjacentes. No caso em que a masculina não produz uma grande abundância de pólen, o rácio de femininas relativamente às masculinas não deve ser superior a 3:1 se a masculina for uma produtora profusa de pólen (como uma híbrida ou OPV, no caso de uma híbrida dupla ou \"top-cross\"), o rácio de femininas em relação a masculinas pode ser aumentado para 4:1 ou até 6:1. Nalguns casos, pode ser plantado um rácio de 6:2, mas a masculina tem de ser uma produtora profusa de pólen.Na produção de sementes híbridas simples, onde as plantas masculinas e femininas têm um vigor e estatura similares, uma configuração de \"filas ajustáveis\" pode ser viável. Neste caso, a planta masculina é plantada com metade do espaçamento normal entre filas alternadas de plantas femininas. Por outras palavras, as plantas femininas são plantadas com o espaçamento normal entre filas, 90 cm, e em cada segundo espaço entre filas planta-se uma masculina a 45 cm das filas femininas.Assim, o rácio efetivo feminina:masculina é 2:1 mas não é usado terreno extra para as masculinas, conseguindo-se assim uma utilização ideal do terreno. No entanto, neste sistema é importante remover as masculinas imediatamente após a conclusão da polinização para reduzir a concorrência com as femininas.Tentaram-se outros métodos de melhoria da sincronização, em especial quando existe uma diferença pequena entre o tempo de florescimento das masculinas e das femininas, incluindo o seguinte:• Molhar as sementes em água durante 12 a 24 horas antes da plantação pode adiantar o florescimento um a dois dias. As sementes molhadas absorvem água e começam a germinar, ficando por isso vulneráveis a danos se forem incorretamente manuseadas. Molhar as sementes só é viável se for realizado manualmente. • Cortar as folhas com verticilo das plantas masculinas na fase de crescimento V4 a V6 para atrasar o corte da panícula e a libertação de pólen. Tal é eficaz para um atraso de 2 a 3 dias da libertação do pólen. No entanto, se as plantas forem muito cortadas podem produzir panículas pequenas e menos pólen. Se forem cortadas demasiado tarde, o efeito no momento da libertação do pólen será baixo.• Queima parcial das plantas masculinas com herbicidas ou uma chama no V3 a V5 para atrasar o corte da panícula e a libertação do pólen em 2 a 3 dias. Isto provou-se eficaz se a extensão da queima não for excessiva. • Adicionar fertilizante de fosfato e nitrogénio extra na vala de plantação da planta masculina ou feminina para acelerar o crescimento da planta. Tal pode ser eficaz em solos que não sejam muito férteis, mas a aceleração do crescimento da planta apenas provoca o florescimento um a dois dias mais cedo do que se não for aplicado fertilizante. • A aplicação de irrigação uma a duas semanas antes do florescimento garantirá que as sedas surgem no momento esperado, em especial se o tempo estiver quente e seco na altura.• Nos casos em que as plantas masculinas sejam insuficientes devido a falhas de germinação, o pólen pode ser recolhido das plantas remanescentes, agrupado em \"potes\" e aplicado às sedas das plantas femininas. Este é um trabalho entediante porque o tempo entre a recolha do pólen e a aplicação nas sedas tem de ser inferior a duas horas, caso contrário o pólen perde a sua viabilidade.Trata-se da remoção sistémica de sementes e plantas indesejáveis com o objetivo de garantir que a cultura de sementes cumpre os padrões desejados de pureza genética. O processo inicia-se antes da plantação, com a seleção dos campos que estão e irão estar livres de plantas espontâneas, com a utilização de semente de origem genética e fisicamente pura e a manutenção dos isolamentos necessários. O equipamento de plantação também deve ser limpo antes da sementeira para remover sementes estranhas. A fase vegetativa do crescimento da cultura assegura o tempo ideal para a remoção das plantas fora do tipo do campo, em particular no caso de culturas híbridas e de polinização livre, onde a contaminação do pólen pode ser uma importante fonte de impureza genética. No caso das culturas autogâmicas, a eliminação de plantas indesejadas deve estar preferencialmente concluída no florescimento, mas pode continuar até à maturidade. Na colheita, debulha e processamento, é necessário dispor de equipamento limpo e as sementes indesejáveis têm de ser retiradas sempre que possível. As pessoas envolvidas na eliminação de plantas fora do tipo ou variantes têm de estar bem familiarizadas com as características fenotípicas da variedade. As ervas daninhas têm de ser completamente removidas ou destruídas para eliminar qualquer possibilidade de contaminação.• A base da espiga será polinizada, mas com as pontas vazias • A perda de rentabilidade dependerá da percentagem de semente, mas os grãos na base da espiga são normalmente maiores e compensam melhor do que os grãos mais pequenos da ponta. • Espere uma maior proporção de sementes redondas grandes comparativamente a outras categorias de sementes.• As pontas das espigas ficarão cheias, mas com extremidades vazias • Perda em geral elevada de rentabilidade, uma vez que não existem os grãos normalmente grandes da extremidades, mas apenas grãos pequenos nas pontas • As classes de sementes serão maioritariamente pequenas, redondas e grossas, com uma pequena parte de semente plana média.A gestão da cultura de sementes desempenha um papel importante na rentabilidade e qualidade genética da cultura. Se a cultura for gerida de forma apropriada de uma perspetiva agrónoma e as condições climatéricas forem favoráveis, a rentabilidade será otimizada. Da mesma forma, se os procedimentos de certificação forem corretamente seguidos, a variedade será pura ou geneticamente pura. No entanto, a partir da colheita, o manuseamento da semente tem uma grande influência na qualidade física e biológica do produto final. De facto, este é provavelmente o período mais crítico na empresa de sementes, uma vez que diz respeito à qualidade da semente. Assim, a empresa de semente tem de prestar uma atenção particular à colheita e ao processamento (incluindo armazenamento e transporte) da semente para garantir a sua qualidade.A qualidade da semente, medida em termos de percentagem de germinação e vigor (ou seja, viabilidade), melhora da fertilização do embrião até à maturidade fisiológica, altura em que atinge um máximo (Figura 5.6). A qualidade absoluta ou máxima da semente na maturidade fisiológica terá sido determinada pelas condições de crescimento durante o desenvolvimento da semente, mas seja qual for essa qualidade no momento da maturidade fisiológica, será a máxima que a semente alcançará. A partir desse ponto não é possível realizar mais melhorias na viabilidade da semente. Todas as operações a partir da colheita têm, por isso, de ser realizadas de forma a provocar a menor deterioração possível na viabilidade da semente, assegurando ao mesmo tempo que a semente saudável é separada da semente inferior e de impurezas (matéria estranha e sementes de ervas daninhas) para cumprir as normas especificadas para a semente certificada.Caixa 5.5. Corte da panícula do milhouma das fases mais críticas para garantir a pureza genética.• As panículas das plantas femininas na produção de milho de semente híbrida têm de ser removidas antes do início da libertação de pólen. Na maturidade fisiológica da cultura, a semente tem um elevado teor de humidade (entre 30 e 38% no milho) e a cultura ainda terá alguns vestígios de verde no caule e nas folhas.A partir da maturidade fisiológica, a semente seca à medida que o ambiente natural o permitir (Figura 5.7). Quanto mais seco e quente for o ambiente e maior a exposição da semente ao ar, mais rapidamente será a diminuição de humidade na semente. A taxa de seca no campo também aumentará nos casos em que as espigas tenham pouco folhelho; as espigas estarão cobertas por folhas soltas, sendo o seu diâmetro pequeno. A qualidade da semente manter-se-á relativamente elevada e apenas diminuirá um pouco, se isso realmente acontecer, enquanto as condições ambientais favorecerem a manutenção da qualidade da semente.A qualidade da semente diminuirá se as condições ambientais se tornarem adversas, com temperaturas elevadas, humidade elevada (ou humidade relativa elevada), altura em que as doenças da semente e as brocas do grão representam a maior influência negativa para a qualidade da semente. Assim, a colheita da cultura tem de ser programada para assegurar que a semente tem a melhor qualidade possível, o que basicamente significa que a cultura deve ser colhida, se viável, logo após a maturidade fisiológica.A colheita prematura de culturas e sementes nem sempre é possível devido à natureza da semente. Por exemplo, na maturidade fisiológica das sementes de soja, a semente e a planta são difíceis de colher e debulhar e, se tal for tentado, isso pode danificar bastante a semente. Por outro lado, as espigas de milho têm de ser colhidas (mas não debulhadas) com um teor de humidade da semente entre 25% e 30%, sujeitas a uma secagem a temperaturas do ar moderadas (<35°C) e descascadas quando a humidade da semente for inferior a 14% (ver a Caixa 5.6 sobre as formas de determinar a percentagem de humidade). Se a cultura for debulhada por meios mecânicos no momento da colheita, então o teor de humidade da semente tem de ser suficientemente baixo para permitir a debulha, mas não demasiado para que esta operação não permite que a semente lasque e se parta. No caso do milho, a humidade ideal da semente para a debulha é entre 12% e 14%. Se a humidade for inferior a 11%, a ação da debulhadora mecânica provocará muitos danos. Se o teor de humidade da semente for superior a 15%, podem verificar-se danos físicos na semente devido pisaduras e lascas.A colheita manual do milho é comum e permite a eliminação de espigas doentes durante esta operação. Uma vez que este é um processo de trabalho intensivo, requer uma boa gestão e supervisão. Vários métodos foram concebidos para tornar a debulha mais eficiente. O mais simples é recolher as espigas em sacos, transportados para fora do campo à mão ou em camiões.Caixa 5.6. Determinação do teor de humidade da semente.O teor de humidade de uma amostra de semente é a perda de peso quando é seco num forno a temperatura constante seguindo os procedimentos laboratoriais indicados (ISTA 2008). A semente é pesada antes da secagem (peso molhado, W¬1) e novamente depois da secagem (peso seco, W2)¬. A percentagem do teor de humidade da semente é calculada como (W1 -W2) / W2 x 100 Note, o teor de humidade da semente é calculado com base no peso molhado, representando assim a percentagem de água na amostra original de semente. O método mais simples, mas nem sempre o mais rigoroso, de determinar o teor de humidade da semente é a utilização de um dispositivo eletrónico portátil de teste da humidade. Se as espigas forem debulhadas no campo, cada trabalhador deve ser capaz de processar 500 kg de espigas por dia, enquanto se existir uma debulhadora mecânica, os trabalhadores apenas têm de remover as espigas com a casca, podendo o rendimento deste processo aumentar para 1 500 kg por dia por trabalhador (Caixa 5.7). O rendimento da debulha pode ser aumentado se as espigas forem colocadas diretamente num camião ao lado do campo, em vez de colocadas em sacos. O camião pode estar equipado com uma cortina pendurada no centro para evitar que as espigas sejam atiradas por cima do camião. Através da utilização deste sistema de camião, o rendimento do trabalho pode aumentar para 600 kg de espigas por dia com debulha, ou 2 500 kg de espigas com a casca intacta.A qualidade da semente começa a deteriorar-se depois da maturidade fisiológica (Figura 5.6), sendo um processo inextricável que não pode ser parado. Além disso, a deterioração da semente é um processo irreversível -semente má não pode ser transformada em semente boa. No entanto, a taxa de deterioração varia com a cultura, bem como nos e entre lotes de semente de uma cultura. Através de uma boa gestão da semente é possível abrandar a taxa de deterioração. Por isso, devem ser realizados todos os esforços para reduzir a taxa de deterioração de semente. A semente de qualidade baixa irá deteriorar-se mais rapidamente do que a de qualidade elevada, sendo que esta última poderá ser armazenada durante mais tempo do que a de baixa qualidade.A percentagem de germinação de semente é definida como a percentagem de sementes de um lote que se transforma, em condições ideais e num determinado período de tempo, em plântulas normais. Plântulas anormais podem produzir uma radícula (raiz) e pâmpano, mas podem não ser capazes de produzir uma plântula normal. As sementes mortas, obviamente, não germinam. Uma análise laboratorial de germinação estabelece o potencial máximo de germinação de um lote de sementes (ISTA 2008). A percentagem de germinação atingirá um máximo na maturidade fisiológica ou logo depois, e diminuirá com o tempo. A taxa de diminuição depende de uma série de fatores, tais como teor de humidade da semente, condições ambientais e fisiologia da semente. A proporção de plântulas normais, anormais e sementes mortas num lote de sementes varia com o tempo depois da maturidade fisiológica. À medida que a qualidade da semente se deteriora, o número de plântulas anormais aumenta. Com a continuação da deterioração da qualidade, a proporção de sementes mortas também aumenta.O vigor da semente é definido como as propriedades da semente que determinam o potencial de uma emergência rápida e uniforme e o desenvolvimento de plântulas normais sob uma vasta gama de condições do campo. O teste do vigor da semente tem, por isso, o objetivo de fornecer informação sobre o valor de plantação de um lote de sementes numa variedade de ambientes e/ou o potencial de armazenamento da semente (ISTA 2008). Por conseguinte, o vigor da semente não é equivalente à percentagem de germinação. Embora a percentagem de germinação seja relativamente fácil de determinar, uma vez que é avaliada em condições ideais num laboratório, o vigor da semente é mais difícil de estabelecer porque não se Caixa 5.7. Pesos da espiga de milho. Usando sacos de grão comuns de 50 kg:• um saco de espigas debulhadas pesa ~40 kg • um saco de espigas com casca pesa ~30 kg trata de uma única propriedade mensurável, mas de uma característica associada à taxa e uniformidade da emergência. Um lote de sementes pode satisfazer o padrão de germinação mas ter pouco vigor quando semeada num campo com condições adversas. Em termos gerais, o vigor da semente deteriora-se mais cedo e mais rapidamente do que a percentagem de germinação da semente (Figura 5.8).Tal é frequentemente observado nos campos dos agricultores quando adquirem semente velha que satisfez o padrão mínimo de germinação, e que não emerge satisfatoriamente quando semeada, porque podem existir problemas com as condições do solo (mau contacto semente-solo), o método da sementeira (demasiado profundo ou oco), pluviosidade insuficiente ou excessiva ou temperaturas elevadas do solo durante o estabelecimento.Para a manutenção de uma qualidade de semente elevada, a debulha manual da semente é o ideal, mas nem sempre é viável em termos económicos. Um trabalhador consegue debulhar manualmente cerca de 100 kg de milho, sementes de soja ou feijões por dia, mas apenas 30 kg por dia se for amendoim. Uma ceifeira combinada pode conseguir colher e debulhar 50 t ou mais por dia. Estão disponíveis muitos tipos de debulhadoras mecânicas para debulhar as sementes de culturas, mas estas variam no seu impacto sobre a qualidade da semente. Debulhadoras agressivas, abrasivas e de elevada velocidade provocarão provavelmente lascas e a quebra de grãos. Os danos mecânicos da semente devem-se a abrasão e impacto.Os danos por abrasão afetam principalmente o revestimento da semente e decorrem da semente contactar com superfícies ásperas. Danos por impacto podem afetar toda a semente e é uma função da força aplicada à semente, resultando normalmente em lascas ou quebra. Assim, as debulhadoras mecânicas têm de ser operadas a velocidades baixas com uma regulação tão larga quanto possível para minimizar a extensão do dano na semente. Os cantos de contacto no tambor de debulha também devem ser arredondados para minimizar a moagem do grão. As debulhadoras mecânicas equipadas com algum método de limpeza É necessário ter um cuidado especial para evitar danos por perfurações e cortes. O gás fosfina é ligeiramente mais pesado do que o ar e, por conseguinte, dispersa-se para baixo a partir do ponto de aplicação, mas posteriormente espalha-se por toda a área de contenção. Quando se utilizarem pastilhas de fosfina, estas devem ser distribuídas por vários pontos da pilha de sacos ou recipientes, de acordo com a dosagem indicada, para assegurar uma dispersão rápida e uniforme pela semente.As condições ideais para a fumigação com fosfina são uma temperatura do ar de 21°C, uma humidade relativa de 60% e humidade do grão de 12%. Nestas condições, a semente deve ser exposta ao gás durante, pelo menos, cinco dias, mas quanto mais tempo melhor. Quanto maior for a temperatura do ar, mais rapidamente o gás se libertará das pastilhas de fosfina. Se a temperatura do ar for inferior a 15°C é melhor não fumigar, uma vez que a taxa de geração de gás será muito baixa.O gás de fosfina é altamente tóxico quer seja por ingestão, quer por inalação. Por conseguinte, os operadores devem observar precauções de segurança, tais como a colocação de sinais de advertência em volta da área fumigada, usar vestuário de proteção e máscaras respiratórias e proibir o fumo e a geração de chamas. O gás fosfina corrói o equipamento elétrico, enquanto a mistura de gás fosfina e ar é combustível e explodirá se sujeita a ignição. Assim, o equipamento elétrico deverá dispor de uma boa ligação terra para evitar faíscas ou descargas estáticas.Os roedores podem causar enormes danos às sementes. As perdas podem ser reduzidas armazenando a semente em armazéns à prova de roedores, assegurando que os sacos estão em pilhas bem presas para evitar a penetração de roedores no centro da pilha e controlando as populações de roedores com iscas venenosas e predadores (p. ex.., gatos, corujas e falcões). No entanto, a utilização de iscas venenosas é normalmente antagónica à sobrevivência de predadores, devendo-se recorrer a outras estratégias que não se baseiem em veneno.Espaço físico para o armazenamento da semente. Armazenamento de semente de milho nas espigas: A semente de milho pode ser temporariamente armazenada na espiga, em pilhas soltas ou espigueiros, desde que a humidade do grão seja inferior a 13%. As espigas em espigueiro ou em depósitos com um elevado teor de humidade podem criar bolor e ser atacadas por pragas de armazenamento muito rapidamente. A razão é que somente com uma humidade de cerca de 13% é que as sementes e a espiga se encontrarão numa humidade de equilíbrio (Tabela 5.5). Com teores de humidade superiores, as espigas apresentarão um teor de humidade significativamente superior ao da semente, o que promove a proliferação de doenças e o crescimento de insetos. Um fator-chave no Tabela 5.5. Humidade de equilíbrio do grão e de espigas intactas. Fonte: D.E. Maier (1996).armazenamento de milho na espiga em espigueiros é a largura do espigueiro -quando mais estreito for o espigueiro, melhor (2 a 3 m no máximo), de forma a permitir uma ventilação natural suficiente das espigas.Em alguns casos, a semente pode ser seca na espiga. Neste caso, as espigas podem ser colhidas com um teor de humidade do grão de 25% a 30%, e rapidamente transferidas para um secador artificial, onde se usa ar a uma temperatura moderada (inferior a 35°C, cf. Tabelas 5.7 e 5.8) para secar a semente até atingir uma humidade de 12%. A densidade das espigas de milho é de cerca de 480 kg/m3, o que é equivalente à densidade da semente (nas espigas) de cerca de 360 kg/m3. As densidades de outras culturas são indicadas (Tabela 5.6).Tabela 5.6. A densidade aparente do grão de algumas culturas.Amendoim (com casca) 640 Amendoim (descascado) 300 Semente de soja 720 Trigo 760A semente pode ser armazenada em sacos durante períodos prolongados, desde que a semente apresente um teor de humidade inferior a 13%, as condições de armazenamento sejam favoráveis à manutenção da viabilidade da semente (ou seja, fresco e seco), a semente esteja protegida contra pragas de armazenamento, os sacos permitam o intercâmbio gasoso e sejam empilhados de forma organizada. Normalmente, a semente em estado natural é armazenada a granel ou em sacos de 25 ou de 50 kg antes do processamento ou de uma nova embalagem. Uma vez processada, a semente é normalmente ensacada em embalagens menores (25 kg ou menos). Embalagens pequenas de 10 kg ou menos são, com frequência, combinadas em unidades maiores, seja criando lotes de 25 ou de 50 kg ou colocando-as em paletes de 0,5 ou 1 t. Nos casos em que os sacos são empilhados, deverão observar-se as seguintes orientações:Pilhas de 3 m x 3 m com 32 sacos por camada (ou seja, 0,8 t) e até 20 camadas de altura (total de 16 t). Esta pilha terá normalmente oito sacos na transversal e quatro sacos na longitudinal.Pilhas de 7 m x 7 m com 130 sacos por camada (ou seja, 6,5 t) e até 32 camadas de altura (total de 208 t). Esta pilha terá normalmente 13 sacos na transversal e 10 sacos na longitudinal. Alternativamente, pilhas de 3 m x 3 m com 18 sacos por camada e até 20 camadas de altura (total de 18 t).Os sacos devem ser colocados de forma a estarem interligados, com camadas alternadas na transversal para reforçar a pilha. Os lados devem ser inclinados para dentro para evitar a tendência de a pilha cair. Quando estiver a criar uma pilha, o anel exterior de sacos é colocado em primeiro lugar, com um intervalo de cerca de 2,5 cm entre os sacos da camada inferior. Com cada camada sucessiva, o intervalo entre os sacos reduz-se, de modo que a largura do saco reduz a altura. Filas com cerca de 1 m de largura devem ser deixadas à volta das pilhas para permitir a continuação do empilhamento ou a retirada de sacos, inspeção, pulverização de inseticida ou a colocação de panos de fumigação. As pilhas bem colocadas têm uma densidade de cerca de 0,65 t por m 3 .A vantagem do armazenamento da semente a granel é uma utilização mais económica do espaço, uma vez que a densidade da semente a granel é de cerca de 0,75 t/m 3 . Além disso, com silos e transportadores bem construídos a perda de semente é reduzida, sendo necessário menos trabalho no manuseamento da semente e eliminando-se o custo dos sacos de armazenamento. A fumigação torna-se também mais fácil no armazenamento da semente a granel em silos de aço. A desvantagem é o elevado custo de capital, embora este possa ser compensado ao longo do tempo com a economia nos sacos e no manuseamento.Os silos devem ser sempre enchidos e esvaziados a partir do centro para evitar a formação de uma pressão excessiva de um dos lados do silo. Se a altura de queda da semente da entrada até ao fundo do silo for superior a 2 m, devem utilizar-se escadas de sementes no interior do silo para minimizar os danos na semente provocados por impacto. O ângulo de repouso da semente da maioria das culturas é de cerca de 25 °C.Na maioria das situações em África, a semente seca naturalmente no campo antes da colheita e da debulha. Tal é normalmente possível nas culturas de verão que amadurecem no período seco do inverno. No entanto, poderá ser necessário colher a semente quando estiver com um teor de humidade superior ao de armazenamento e proceder artificialmente à sua secagem.A colheita prematura e a secagem artificial da semente tem as vantagens de minimizar as doenças e infestação de insetos no campo, evitando perdas no campo provocadas por pássaros, roedores e roubos, permitindo que o processamento e a comercialização ocorram mais cedo. As desvantagens são o facto de a semente estar mais vulnerável a danos a um teor elevado de humidade, de a secagem mal controlada poder afetar negativamente a viabilidade da semente e de a secagem artificial ser dispendiosa. O milho e o amendoim podem ser artificialmente secos antes ou após a debulha, no entanto a maioria das culturas é seca após a debulha.O método de secagem artificial da semente mais comum é forçar ar aquecido através das espigas, vagens ou sementes, para evaporar e remover o excesso de humidade da semente. O secador de tipo estático (Figura 5.9) é mais adequado a sementes, uma vez que secadores de fluxo contínuo ou de recirculação de grão envolvem uma quantidade significativa de movimento da semente, o que pode provocar danos na semente. No secador estático, as espigas, vagens ou sementes estão paradas durante a secagem e só se verifica movimento no enchimento ou esvaziamento do silo.No entanto, o padrão de secagem nos secadores estáticos pode ser irregular, irregularidade essa que aumenta com a profundidade. Nos compartimentos de secagem estática, a semente no fundo, mais próxima da entrada de ar, secará mais rapidamente do que a semente em cima. A uniformidade da secagem pode ser melhorada assegurando que a semente está limpa, com uma profundidade uniforme de semente dentro do secador e minimizando a profundidade de semente. A profundidade máxima da semente num secador contínuo deve ser de 1 a 2 m no caso de semente em estado natural e de 2 a 4 m no caso de espigas de milho.A taxa de secagem depende da temperatura e da humidade relativa do ar e da taxa penetração do ar através da semente. Uma vez que a semente é um organismo vivo, a temperatura máxima do ar para a secagem da semente é inferior à da secagem do grão (Tabela 5.7). A temperatura máxima do ar também depende do teor de humidade da semente (Tabela 5.8), sendo necessário temperaturas mais baixas com teores de humidade do grão mais elevados.A humidade de equilíbrio do grão ou da semente é também dependente da humidade relativa do ar (Figura 5.10) e da temperatura do ar de secagem. A redução do teor de humidade da semente para níveis aceitáveis em ambientes com uma humidade relativa elevada é difícil. Sempre que a humidade relativa do ar for superior a 50%, a humidade de equilíbrio do grão de milho será normalmente superior a 12,5%. Níveis de humidade relativa superiores a 65% representam um risco grave para o armazenamento da semente no longo prazo, uma vez que a humidade da semente aumenta, tornando-a mais suscetível a deterioração, apodrecimento e até mesmo germinação.  (o esquema não está à escala.)A taxa e a pressão do fluxo de ar necessárias dependem da cultura, se é espigas, vagens ou sementes, da profundidade da semente e da taxa de secagem necessária. Por exemplo, a semente de milho em estado natural requer cerca de ar com três vezes mais pressão do que as espigas, devido à maior resistência oferecida pelo grão solto. Quanto menor for a semente e maior a densidade aparente, maior a resistência ao fluxo de ar através da massa de semente. O aumento do fluxo de ar aumentará a taxa de secagem, mas requererá mais energia para gerar a pressão de ar necessária e mais combustível para aquecer o maior volume de fluxo de ar.O teor de humidade inicial da cultura também influencia a taxa de secagem, porque a taxa de extração de humidade não é uma função linear do teor de humidade. É necessária menos energia para remover a humidade de grão molhado do que de grão seco. Em geral, a taxa de secagem de sementes não deve ultrapassar a remoção de 0,5% de humidade por hora.Está disponível uma série de sistemas de aquecimento de ar que podem usar inúmeras fontes de energia (p. ex., carvão, diesel, espigas). A seleção do sistema depende do aumento necessário da temperatura do ar, do volume de ar a aquecer, da disponibilidade de combustível e do custo do sistema. A secagem solar pode ser possível na secagem de sementes uma vez que a temperatura do ar utilizada é, normalmente, inferior a 35° C. No entanto, é comum utilizar energia de combustíveis fósseis para aquecer o ar dos secadores de sementes. Existe também uma vasta gama de opções de ventoinhas para a criação do fluxo de ar. Por conseguinte, a conceção de um sistema de secagem de sementes é complicada e requer uma consultadoria especializada. Na conceção de um secador é forçoso considerar as seguintes questões com um engenheiro de projeto:• tipo de semente(s) e o(s) tipo(s) de produto (semente em estado natural, espigas ou vagens) a secar • a quantidade de produto a secar, ao longo de quanto tempo • a dimensão e o número de compartimentos • o enchimento e o esvaziamento dos compartimentos • a localização das instalações (acessibilidade, altitude, temperaturas do ar ambiente e humidade relativa durante a secagem) • as fontes de combustível disponíveis • o tipo de permutador de calor necessário • os requisitos de ventoinha Processamento de sementes A semente em estado natural pode não satisfazer os padrões físicos de pureza e germinação requeridos para certificação. Além disso, a dimensão e a forma da semente em estado natural podem não ter a uniformidade requerida pelos agricultores, podendo também ser necessário adicionar produtos químicos e corantes ao revestimento da semente como meio de identificação, para proteger a semente de insetos e doenças e/ou para melhorar o desempenho da semente na germinação ou durante o início do crescimento. Por último, os agricultores desejam normalmente que a semente seja fornecida em embalagens de determinadas dimensões convenientes. O processamento ou condicionamento da semente envolve por isso:• A separação da semente desejada, boa e saudável da semente de qualidade inferior e das impurezas (matéria estranha e sementes de ervas daninhas) para atingir o padrão de pureza especificado para a semente. • Dividir sementes boas em categorias de dimensão e forma uniformes.• Tratar a semente com protetores químicos, corantes e/ou promotores do crescimento.• Embalagem da semente pura e saudável em embalagens com dimensões identificadas.A semente certificada tem de cumprir determinados padrões laboratoriais (Tabela 5.4). Para o milho, estes podem ser resumidos como:• Teor de humidade da semente (inferior a 13%) • Pureza física (99% de semente pura de uma variedade com menos de 3% de defeitos totais)• Dimensão e forma, de acordo com as especificações e tolerâncias apropriadas ao mercado • Pureza genética, determinada pelos padrões de certificação • Capacidade de germinação (germinação mínima 90% por contagem).• Saúde da semente (sem doenças ou insetos).O processamento ou condicionamento de sementes envolve uma série de passos mecânicos para que a semente em estado natural satisfaça os padrões de qualidade requeridos e esperados pelos agricultores (Figura 5.11). Nem todos os passos podem ser necessários, dependendo do tipo de cultura, das condições da semente em estado natural e dos requisitos do agricultor. Depois da debulha, o processamento mínimo necessário, em especial no caso de culturas como a soja e o feijão, é a limpeza da semente para remover sementes muito pequenas, matérias estranhas e sementes de ervas daninhas, seguido pela embalagem em sacos. No caso de semente de milho de OPV, pode seguir-se um processo similar, exceto pelo facto de a semente ser normalmente tratada com produtos químicos antes da embalagem em sacos. A semente de milho de OPV não deve ser classificada em sementes de dimensões diferentes, uma vez que se trata de um processo de seleção que pode afetar a composição genética da variedade. A semente de milho híbrida passa em geral por todos os passos, incluindo a classificação da semente, uma vez que as híbridas têm uma genética fixa e são de valor superior. Em termos genéricos, o número de etapas usadas no processamento deve ser mantido num mínimo, em nome da eficiência. No entanto, em alguns casos, podem ser necessários mais passos -não ilustrados na Figura 5.10. Existem máquinas para retirar as barbas e debulhar culturas tais como trigo, aveia e cevada, escarificar sementes com capas duras, para selecionar sementes de milho pelo comprimento, separação por peso com mesa de gravidade ou aspirador para remover sementes indesejadas (tais como sementes doentes) e separadores de cor para remover sementes com uma cor errada. Processos adicionais requerem tempo e custos extra, mas podem ser justificáveis se melhorarem a qualidade física da semente. Dimensões da semente A semente é normalmente vendida ao peso, mas nalguns casos poderá ser vendida por contagem de grãos. Em qualquer dos casos, o peso da semente é uma característica importante para os produtores de sementes e os agricultores (Tabelas 5.9 e 5.10), uma vez que determina a taxa de plantação. Numa determinada massa de semente a granel existirá um certo número de sementes, dependendo da massa média da semente.Por conseguinte, existirão mais sementes pequenas do que grandes numa determinada massa de sementes. Normalmente, a semente em África é vendida por massa. Uma vez que a semente viável, independentemente da dimensão, germinará e criará uma planta em condições ideais, os agricultores podem preferir comprar semente pequena, porque um saco Tabela 5.9. A dimensão média da semente, número de sementes por kg, população de plantas normal e taxa de plantação de diversas culturas. Os valores atuais dependerão da variedade e das condições de crescimento. Nota: Isto também inclui os correspondentes números de sementes e pesos de sementes de uma variedade de milho típica de polinização livre (OPV), variedade híbrida trilínea (TWH) e variedade híbrida simples (SCH). A percentagem total de sementes para cada variedade pode não somar 100% porque as sementes extra pequenas não estão incluídas na tabela.de semente plantará uma área maior de terreno. Consequentemente, nos casos em que a semente é vendida por contagem de grãos, a massa do saco dependerá da dimensão média da semente e os agricultores necessitarão de comprar um determinado número de sacos para plantar uma área particular de terreno, conforme determinado pela população de plantas.As empresas podem fornecer informações sobre o peso da semente para culturas tais como soja e trigo, mas se não o fizerem, os agricultores têm de determinar o peso médio da semente para plantar a quantidade correta de semente por forma a conseguirem a população de plantas desejada, tendo em conta a percentagem de germinação e as perdas esperadas no campo.O milho é normalmente a única cultura que é dividida em diferentes classificações ou classes de sementes (Tabela 5.10) uma vez que tem benefícios para os agricultores, em particular os que plantam usando meios mecânicos (Caixa 5.9). A definição destas classificações de sementes, conforme usadas no Zimbabué, é ilustrada (Figura 5.12). A largura de uma semente é classificada em larga, média ou pequena, diferenciada pelos crivos de orifícios redondos de diâmetros especificados (Figura 5.13).A espessura de uma semente é classificada em redonda, gorda ou plana, diferenciada pelos orifícios ranhurados de larguras especificados (Figura 5.14). Assim, existem pelo menos nove classificações de sementes, mas pode existir ainda uma divisão adicional de semente extra pequena no caso de algumas variedades.Além disso, nalguns mercados, tais como a África do Sul, é possível realizar também uma classificação de comprimento, em particular nos casos em que os agricultores semeiam usando determinados tipos de máquinas. Embora as definições de classificação, as dimensões dos crivos e o número de classificações possam diferir entre países, o princípio do comprimento, largura e espessura mantém-se o mesmo.Caixa 5.9. Razões para a classificação da dimensão da semente híbrida de milho.A classificação da dimensão da semente híbrida de milho é útil pelas seguintes razões:• Melhora a plantação mecânica das culturas, uma vez que os aparelhos de medição das sementeiras são normalmente concebidos para determinadas dimensões de sementes. • A plantação manual é mais fácil com sementes uniformes em termos de dimensão, uma vez que é melhor manuseada do que quando as sementes apresentam dimensões variáveis. • Uma semente de dimensão uniforme é mais atraente para os clientes e permite-lhes selecionar a dimensão de semente necessária tendo em conta as suas condições de plantação. • A dimensão da semente tem um efeito significativo na taxa de plantação por área unitária.• Se a semente for vendida com base na contagem de grãos, uma semente de dimensões uniformes simplifica a definição dos pesos dos sacos.Nota: As sementes de variedades de milho de polinização livre não devem ser classificadas em função da dimensão, uma vez que tal pode impor uma pressão artificial de seleção à população genética e afetar o desempenho da cultura no longo prazo. As máquinas de classificação de sementes separam-nas primeiro de acordo com a largura, depois pela a espessura e, se necessário, pelo comprimento (Figura 5.15). Em África, a classificação pelo comprimento é rara. Para a classificação de acordo com a largura, o primeiro crivo tem orifícios redondos grandes (11,0 mm). A semente que falha a passagem pelo crivo é classificada como semente grande. A semente de dimensão média passa através do crivo de 11,0 mm e passa largamente pelo crivo de orifícios redondos de 9,5 mm. A semente de dimensão pequena passa através do crivo de 9,5 mm e passa largamente por um crivo de orifícios redondos de 8,0 mm. Qualquer semente que passe pelo crivo de 8,0 mm é classificada de extra pequena.   Uma vez rastreadas as classes de largura da semente, a semente de cada classe de largura passa por crivos ranhurados. A semente que não passa por um crivo ranhurado de 6,5 mm é considerada semente redonda. A semente que passa pelo crivo de 6,5 mm mas não passa por um crivo ranhurado de 5,5 mm é classificada de semente espessa. A semente plana é a que passa por um crivo ranhurado de 5,5 mm.A eficiência e a eficácia da classificação são consideravelmente afetadas pela limpeza da semente quando entra no calibrador, pela taxa de semente transportada para o calibrador, pela velocidade de rotação ou movimento dos crivos, pela área do crivo e a sua inclinação. Quanto mais rapidamente a semente se deslocar através do calibrador de sementes, menos eficaz será a diferenciação de sementes.A semente em estado natural contém uma quantidade variável de matéria estranha, semente danificada e sementes de ervas daninhas dependendo dos métodos de produção e de colheita. A operação de pré-limpeza tenta melhorar a pureza física da semente. Quanto melhor for a pré-limpeza, melhor correrão todas as operações subsequentes. O método mais básico de pré-limpeza é manual, quer retirando o material indesejado e as sementes que não são puras, quer usando simples peneiras.Os pré-limpadores mecânicos usam crivos e ar para remover o material indesejado. Em geral, usam-se dois crivos: um crivo grande de orifícios redondos para remover as partículas grandes, tais como lixo e resíduos da cultura; e um crivo pequeno de orifícios redondos para retirar as partículas pequenas, pesadas, tais como sementes de ervas daninhas, sementes pequenas e areia. As dimensões dos crivos são selecionadas em função da gama de dimensões da semente da cultura. Os limpadores por aspiração usam um fluxo de ar para remover partículas leves \"circulantes\" da sementes. A eficiência da pré-limpeza é afetada por: Características da semente. Distribuição da dimensão da semente. As perfurações do crivo têm de ser maiores e mais pequenas do que a gama superior e inferior normal da amostra da semente.• Teor de humidade da semente superior ou inferior ao ideal pode afetar a extensão dos danos da semente. • Adesividade do grão. A semente tem de estar solta e fluir facilmente.• Taxa do fluxo. O movimento da semente através dos crivos tem de ser suficientemente lento para permitir a separação apropriada da semente de materiais indesejados.• Distâncias entre perfurações. Quanto mais próximo estiverem as perfurações e maior a sua quantidade, melhor a eficiência da seleção. • Controlo de entupimento. Qualquer perfuração que esteja bloqueada provoca uma menor eficiência. Assim, o dispositivo de limpeza dos crivos tem de ser eficiente.• Comprimento e forma dos crivos. Quanto maior for a superfície do crivo, maior será a capacidade e eficiência da seleção. • A inclinação dos crivos e o movimento (agitação) afetam o movimento da semente pelos crivos. Quanto maior for a inclinação, mais rapidamente o grão se desloca através dos crivos e menos eficiente será a seleção. • A profundidade da semente e a sua uniformidade no crivo tem de garantir o contacto máximo entre a semente e o crivo. • Danos nos crivos ocorrem com frequência quando são colocados e retirados.• Devido às vibrações, os pinos podem ficar soltos, o que provoca muitos danos, por isso é importante assegurar uma manutenção frequente das máquinas. • A abrasividade da semente e de outros materiais podem alterar as dimensões da perfuração e, assim, a eficácia da seleção. Por conseguinte, é necessário realizar uma verificação frequente das dimensões da perfuração dos crivos.• O efeito de uma corrente de ar numa partícula ou semente depende da sua forma e peso específico. • A separação em si baseia-se na capacidade de a partícula flutuar na corrente de ar.• A força ascendente da corrente de ar provoca flutuação e a capacidade de suspensão de partículas depende da velocidade e do volume de ar. • A força descendente (gravidade) é utilizada para manter a semente desejada.• A corrente de ar deve ser direcionada através da semente. O material deve fluir de forma constante numa camada uniforme sobre o fluxo de ar. Uma distribuição não uniforme da alimentação de ar ou do fluxo de material reduzirá a eficácia da separação por ar, porque o ar seguirá sempre o percurso mais fácil. • Deve usar-se o volume máximo de ar que não remova a semente desejada.• Um fluxo uniforme de material tem de entrar nas máquinas a uma frequência que a máquina seja capaz de processar. Um recipiente de armazenamento pré-máquina, que funciona como amortecedor e como vibrador-alimentador ajuda durante este processo. • Em geral, quando regular as máquinas, regule apenas uma de cada vez.Uma vez realizada a pré-limpeza e a separação da semente de acordo com a dimensão (largura, espessura e comprimento), esta poderá ainda conter grãos indesejados da mesma dimensão, mas que apenas diferem pelo seu peso específico. O peso específico é o peso da própria partícula. Os grãos indesejados podem ser pedras, grãos doentes e sementes de outras culturas, todos do mesmo tamanho (volume), mas com uma massa diferente. Estes grãos de dimensão similar com massa diferente podem ser separados numa \"mesa de gravidade\" que recorre a uma combinação de ação pneumática e mecânica. A máquina consiste numa mesa com uma superfície porosa inclinada (3 a 4°)C que oscila.A semente é transportada de forma contínua e regulada para o canto inferior da mesa e espalha-se uniformemente pela mesa através do movimento de oscilação. O ar é soprado através da semente, separando o grão em camadas horizontais, com a semente mais pesada em baixo e o grão mais leve por cima. A semente mais pesada está em contacto com a superfície da mesa que movimenta mecanicamente a semente para a extremidade superior, onde é descarregada pelas saídas. A semente mais leve, em suspensão, não é afetada pela superfície oscilante da mesa e desloca-se lateralmente, para baixo sobre a semente mais pesada, na direção da parte inferior da mesa, onde é descarregada pelas saídas.A semente é assim separada em diferentes frações e qualidades. As partículas muito pesadas podem ser pedras, enquanto as partículas muito leves podem ser resíduos da cultura, grãos doentes ou sementes de outras espécies. A boa semente, com um peso específico particular pode, assim, ser capturada nas saídas apropriadas.A gestão da gravidade da mesa requer muita habilidade e experiência porque a mesa de gravidade dispõe de uma série de componentes -o tipo de cobertura porosa da mesa, a inclinação longitudinal e lateral, o ciclo e a intensidade da oscilação e a pressão e distribuição da corrente de ar. A mesa de gravidade é também um processo relativamente lento e pode, com frequência, ser o \"estrangulamento\" na linha de processamento de sementes. Nem sempre é um processo necessário, em especial se a semente em estado natural estiver limpa, for uniforme e sem defeitos ou doença. No entanto, se pretender utilizar a mesa de gravidade com milho, é melhor fazê-lo após a pré-limpeza e a classificação. Contudo, em empresas avançadas de sementes, este passo faz normalmente parte integrante do processamento para garantir a melhor qualidade física da semente.Os elevadores de baldes são muito mais delicados do que os sem-fins e devem ser preferencialmente usados.Os sem-fins tendem a partir e raspar a semente. Quanto mais rápida for a velocidade da ação do elevador de baldes. mais o volume de semente deslocado, mas é também mais provável que se verifiquem danos na semente. Da mesma forma, os transportadores são uma forma eficiente de deslocar semente de um lugar para outro. Na conceção de elevadores e transportadores deverá ser dada uma atenção especial para que a semente não caia de uma máquina para outra ao longo de uma distância grande, uma vez que a força do impacto sobre uma superfície dura de receção dura pode danificar a semente. O dano causada à semente por impacto pode provocar imediatamente quebras e lascas ou originar danos latentes aos embriões. Os dois tipos de danos reduzem a viabilidade e o vigor da semente. Se a semente tiver de cair uma distância grande (> 2 m), por exemplo para dentro de silos, é aconselhável instalar escadas ou espirais para reduzir a altura da queda ou amortecer a queda da semente.As máquinas de processamento de sementes trabalham melhor se forem alimentadas com um fluxo constante de sementes adequado à sua capacidade. Assim, cada componente de uma linha de processamento de sementes deve estar equipado com uma tremonha de alimentação para amortecer o fluxo de entrada de semente e, no ponto de alimentação da máquina, deve instalar-se um mecanismo de regulação para garantir um fluxo de sementes contínuo e regulado. As opções incluem alimentação por gravidade com uma porta ajustável, um balde volumétrico de oscilação, um tapete de alimentação ou um mecanismo de alimentação por vibração. Este último sistema é delicado com a semente e mais rigoroso.A semente pode ser tratada com várias formas de produtos químicos para melhorar o seu aspeto (p. ex, com corantes), protegê-la de pragas, doenças e ervas daninhas (com inseticidas, fungicidas e herbicidas, respetivamente), e/ou para adicionar produtos de melhoria do desempenho (p. ex., reguladores do crescimento e nutrientes). O objetivo de qualquer tratamento das sementes é obter uma distribuição química uniforme do revestimento da semente em cada semente e com a dosagem correta de produto químico. Esta não é uma tarefa fácil uma vez que a taxa de dosagem do produto químico pode ser tão pequena quanto 50 µg por sementes no caso do trigo ou 1 mg por semente de milho. Por conseguinte, os produtos químicos têm de ser diluídos e aplicados com maquinaria especial que assegure uma mistura cuidadosa da semente e o produto químico.O tratamento da semente pode aumentar o teor de humidade da semente no momento da aplicação, em particular se os produtos químicos forem diluídos com demasiada água. Nalguns casos, a semente pode necessitar de ser seca até atingir um teor de humidade seguro antes da embalagem. O tratamento da semente afetará a massa e a fluidez da semente, que pode ser um fator a considerar no processamento, embalagem e sementeira mecânica. O tratamento da semente também envolve a utilização de produtos químicos que podem ser tóxicos, em particular na formulação concentrada. Por conseguinte, devem ser sempre observadas precauções de segurança durante o tratamento da semente.Existem várias formas de tratar as sementes: Desinfeção das sementes -a semente não é completamente coberta pelo(s) produto(s) químico(s) e o aumento de massa decorrente dos produtos é muito pequeno (<2%). O produto químico, normalmente misturado com água e possivelmente com um aderente, é aplicado à semente numa misturadora mecânica durante um breve período de tempo. A quantidade de pasta, o tempo de mistura e a natureza da semente determina a cobertura.Revestimento da semente -a semente é completamente revestida por produto(s) químico(s).O aumento da massa é da ordem dos 2 a 5%. O método de mistura envolve uma combinação de aplicação química, normalmente em pequenas gotículas, aliada à mistura mecânica para assegurar um revestimento total da semente.Revestimento de película da semente -as formas químicas formam uma camada selada completa sobre toda a semente.Peletização da semente -a semente é revestida por uma camada de produtos químicos que envolve completamente a semente, resultando num aumento significativo da massa e das dimensões da semente. A peletização da semente é usada em semente muito pequena para aumentar a sua dimensão por uma questão de facilidade na sementeira ou para aplicar determinados químicos nutrientes.Os principais fatores para o tratamento da semente são:• Cobertura, ou seja, a uniformidade com que a semente é coberta pelo produto químico.• Distribuição, ou seja, a uniformidade da distribuição do produto químico pela amostra de semente. Dependendo de uma série de fatores, as sementes de um lote podem requerer a aplicação de diferentes quantidades de produto químico. As sementes com uma pequena quantidade de produto químico não serão adequadamente tratadas, enquanto as sementes com demasiado produto podem apresentar efeitos fitotóxicos com alguns químicos.• Carga global da semente, ou seja, a quantidade total de produto químico na semente deve estar em conformidade com a taxa de dosagem especificada.A forma de alcançar um tratamento ideal das sementes depende de: 1. A diluição e a taxa de aplicação corretas do produto químico (ou seja, a relação do produto com água e a quantidade de produto aplicadas por quantidade unitária de semente). A taxa de diluição tem de ser aumentada para:• semente absorvente,• semente com uma superfície áspera,• semente com um baixo teor de humidade,• semente de pequena dimensão,• semente suja, e • más condições de mistura.Qualquer água aplicada à semente aumentará o teor de humidade da semente, o que pode requerer a sua secagem se a humidade resultante for superior ao teor de humidade seguro da semente. Normalmente, na semente de milho, a taxa de aplicação da pasta deve ser inferior a 10 ml/kg (ou seja, 1%) para não aumentar significativamente o teor de humidade da semente. Demasiado líquido aplicado à semente pode também fazer com que as sementes se colem umas às outras ou até iniciar o processo de germinação, uma vez que o teor de humidade final aumentará (Figura 5.16). Líquido de menos não assegurará uma cobertura suficiente da semente, resultando numa distribuição fraca do produto químico no lote da semente.2. O tempo de mistura. Quanto maior o tempo de mistura e mais frequente o contacto entre o produto químico e a semente, melhor será o tratamento da semente.3. Orientações para o manuseamento de produtos químicos.• Armazenar os produtos químicos num armazém seguro, fresco e ventilado.• Manter um registo de inventário para monitorizar as questões e a utilização de produtos químicos.• Misturar os produtos químicos com água limpa.• Logo que o produto químico tenha sido diluído, assegurar uma agitação contínua.• Usar os produtos químicos misturados no prazo de 12 horas.• Verificar frequentemente a calibração para assegurar a dosagem correta.• Lavar o equipamento depois da sua utilização.• Observar as precauções de segurança relativas ao produto químico.• Tempos de tratamento da semente prolongados asseguram uma melhor cobertura e distribuição.4. Calibração e gestão das máquinas de tratamento de sementes. Em geral utilizam-se dois tipos de máquinas de tratamento nas instalações de processamento de sementes.a. Máquina de tratamento por lotes (p. ex., tambor rotativo ou misturadora)• São fáceis de calibrar, uma vez que uma quantidade conhecida de semente é colocada na máquina de tratamento à qual é aplicada uma quantidade predeterminada de solução química. • Uma quantidade medida de semente é vertida na máquina de tratamento, digamos 50 kg de semente. • A quantidade certa de solução química necessária para tratar os 50 kg de semente é medida e aplicada na máquina. • A semente e a solução química são agitadas durante um período de tempo predeterminado para conseguir uma boa cobertura e distribuição (tenha em atenção de uma agitação excessiva pode provocar danos à semente). • A taxa de diluição do produto químico pode ter de ser ajustada (ou seja, para alterar a taxa de aplicação da solução) de modo a alcançar uma cobertura e distribuição satisfatórias.b. Sistema de fluxo (p. ex., máquina de tratamento de fluxo contínuo)• Arranque a máquina enquanto o produto químico estiver fechado e registe o tempo necessário para reunir uma determinada massa de semente, digamos 50 kg, no final do tambor. Por exemplo, demora um minuto a reunir 50 kg de semente. • Assumindo que a taxa de dosagem recomendada é de 8 ml de solução química por kg de semente (ou seja, 0,8%), 50 kg de semente requerem 400 ml de solução química (isto é, 50 kg x 8 ml/kg). • Enquanto a máquina está em funcionamento, abra o aplicador de produto químico durante um minuto e recolha a solução química numa proveta graduada. Se o volume de solução química recolhido for inferior a 400 ml, abra a válvula; se o volume de solução química for superior a 400 ml, feche ligeiramente a válvula. Faça os ajustes até que a quantidade correta de solução química será libertada no tempo determinado. • Se o sistema de controlo da solução química for uma válvula, será necessário calibrar o equipamento diariamente antes da utilização uma vez que a válvula pode não ser aberta exatamente na mesma posição em cada ocasião e podem ocorrer alguns bloqueios que restringem o fluxo de produto químico. • Durante a operação do equipamento, monitorize a quantidade total de semente tratada e o volume de produto químico aplicado para verificar a taxa de aplicação, permitindo uma variação de ±5% relativamente à taxa de aplicação recomendada. • Nos casos em que for aplicado um corante de cor com o produto químico, a cor da semente tratada será um indicador visual relativamente bom da taxa de aplicação dos produtos químicos.Os agricultores desejam semente limpa com garantia de qualidade da sua variedade preferida em embalagens de dimensões acessíveis, transportáveis e convenientes para a dimensão das suas operações. No caso das sementes de culturas agrícolas, um agricultor de grande escala preferirá normalmente embalagens com 25 kg ou mais (p. ex., até mesmo sacos a granel de 1 t), porque semeiam grandes áreas com máquinas. Pelo contrário, um agricultor de pequena escala preferirá embalagens com dimensões menores de 10 kg ou menos porque têm campos mais pequenos. Com o milho, 25 kg é cómodo porque plantará cerca de 1 ha de terreno, dependendo da dimensão da semente.Igualmente, 10 kg de semente de milho plantará cerca de 1 acre (0,4 ha). Uma vez que o maior mercado de sementes se encontra entre os pequenos agricultores, a maioria das empresas em África embala a semente de milho em embalagens pequenas de 2 a 10 kg.Algumas empresas de sementes embalam a semente de milho de acordo com a contagem de grãos. Uma vez que a densidade normal da planta de milho é da ordem de 45 000 plantas por ha em áreas de grande potencial, os sacos de sementes contêm 50 000 grãos. Para áreas menores, as embalagens podem conter 20 000 ou 10 000 grãos. Um problema que se pode verificar na embalagem de acordo com a contagem de grãos é o facto de grãos de diferentes dimensões não pesarem o mesmo nem apresentarem o mesmo volume. Assim, podem ser necessárias embalagens de dimensões diferentes para embalar o mesmo número de grãos, dependendo do peso médio do grão.Quando se considera a embalagem de sementes, uma empresa de sementes tem de decidir não apenas as dimensões das embalagens e a proporção de sementes a embalar em cada uma (o que deverá ser definido por estudos de marketing), mas também o material da embalagem e as máquinas de embalagem necessárias para este processo.Os fatores que afetam a seleção do material de embalagem são:• A exposição da embalagem a luz ultravioleta (luz solar) pode provocar a deterioração de alguns materiais, em particular os plásticos, se não forem protegidos contra este tipo de deterioração. • Resistência do material. As embalagens de sementes podem ser transportadas ao longo de grandes distâncias recorrendo a diversos métodos, alguns dos quais podem envolver um manuseamento pouco cuidadoso, o que requer um material durável. • As máquinas de embalagem disponíveis. O sistema de embalagem mais simples é o enchimento de sacos abertos com semente medida em termos volumétricos e o seu encerramento com uma máquina de costura. Isto é possível com sacos de tecido, juta e poliondulado, mas não com plástico. Os sacos de plástico requerem uma selagem térmica. • A qualidade da apresentação da embalagem. Os mercados diferem nos seus requisitos relativos à apresentação, mas em geral quanto mais inteligente e atraente for a embalagem, mais apelativa será para o comprador, mas será também mais dispendiosa. Tipos de materiais de embalagem:• Tecido de algodão, normalmente leve, de fio único, pode ser usado para embalagens pequenas. Estas são normalmente abertas em cima, costuradas e fechadas por máquinas de costura ou à mão, usando cordel. O algodão é poroso, tem uma elevada taxa de transmissão de humidade, mas é relativamente resistente. • Os sacos de juta podem apresentar diferentes resistências e pesos. Estes são normalmente abertos em cima, costurados e fechados por máquinas de costura ou à mão, usando cordel. A juta é porosa, tem uma elevada taxa de transmissão de humidade, mas é relativamente resistente e mais barata que o tecido. Os sacos de juta têm boas características de empilhamento e podem ser empilhados até uma altura considerável, se se usaram boas técnicas.• O papel, quer de qualidade kraft resistente com ou sem reforço à humidade, ou papel de sulfito, que é limpo e brilhante, têm excelentes qualidades de impressão. Embalagens muito pequenas para sementes de vegetais são normalmente fabricadas em papel de sulfito, enquanto para embalagens maiores se recorre ao papel de várias camadas de qualidade kraft. Todas estas embalagens são normalmente sacos colados ou costurados em cima, portanto fechados com uma costura ou cola. O papel tem uma taxa de transmissão da humidade e do ar relativamente elevada, exceto se for revestido com polietileno. O papel simples tem uma baixa resistência à humidade, o que pode ser melhorado por revestimentos ou laminações. Os sacos de papel para embalagens de 10 ou 25 kg podem ser suficientemente resistentes para um manuseamento moderado, mas não para um manuseamento intenso. • O plástico, quer policloreto de vinilo (PVC), polieteno (PE) ou polipropileno é muito utilizado no comércio de sementes. A película de polieteno é normalmente transparente e oferece uma superfície excelente para impressão, mas deve ter uma proteção UV incolor para um armazenamento mais prolongado. A película de polieteno pode ser usada em sacos de sementes de até 10 kg, desde que seja usado um calibre suficientemente espesso.As embalagens devem ser perfuradas para facilitar o movimento do ar para dentro e para fora do saco. A película de polieteno é normalmente fornecida em folhas enroladas e é selada por meios térmicos durante a embalagem. Os sacos de polieteno podem ser suscetíveis a ruturas decorrentes de um manuseamento pouco cuidadoso. O tecido de polipropileno, que pode conter polieteno, pode ser usado para a maioria das dimensões de embalagens a partir dos 5 kg e é forte e duradouro. As pilhas de plástico podem escorregar quando empilhadas devido à sua superfície suave. • A folha de alumínio de diversos tipos de laminados e latas seladas são usadas para sementes de elevado valor, tais como vegetais.Os dois meios de embalar sementes são sistemas volumétricos ou de massa. O sistema volumétrico é concebido de forma a que o volume de semente seja equilibrado em relação a uma massa de semente. Tal pode ser tão simples quanto um \"jarro de medição\" enchido manualmente com semente e vertido para dentro do saco. Sistemas mais sofisticados são enchidos e esvaziados por meios mecânicos, manual ou automaticamente a partir de um reservatório superior de sementes. A principal precaução relativamente aos embaladores volumétricos é a sua calibração regular, uma vez que o recipiente volumétrico pode alterar de volume com a utilização, ou a densidade da semente a granel pode alterar-se em função da variedade, da categoria de semente e do lote de semente. É também importante que o recipiente volumétrico seja enchido com a capacidade correta e completamente esvaziado em cada ciclo. Usando um sistema volumétrico é frequente encher demasiado os sacos de modo que a massa média dos sacos de sementes ultrapassa ligeiramente a massa especificada.Os sistemas de massa podem ser manuais com uma balança ou automáticos com um sistema de enchimento do recipiente de pesagem a partir de um reservatório superior de sementes e esvaziando-o para dentro de sacos.Os sistemas de pesagem são normalmente mais rigorosos do que os sistemas volumétricos, mas também requerem calibrações e verificações de pesagem regulares.Os sacos enchidos por sistema volumétrico ou de pesagem podem ser alimentados na máquina manual ou automaticamente. Os sistemas volumétricos manuais simples, tal como o jarro de medição, são lentos e ineficientes. As melhorias à eficiência verificam-se à medida que sistemas mecânicos e automáticos, cada vez mais sofisticados, são integrados no processo de embalagem. O primeiro passo para melhorar a eficiência a partir do \"jarro de medição\" é dispor de outro reservatório superior de sementes que alimente a semente por gravidade no recipiente volumétrico ou de pesagem, que pode ser enchido e esvaziado manualmente. Os sacos são alimentados no funil de saída à mão, enchidos e transportados para a máquina de selagem de sacos. Instalações altamente mecanizadas são capazes de realizar todo o processo com necessidade de pouca mão-de-obra.Rotulagem. Os sacos de sementes requerem informação específica nos rótulos que, normalmente, inclui a cultura, o nome da variedade, a classe da semente, a categoria da semente (se classificada), resultados de germinação e pureza e o número de lote. Estes requisitos fazem parte da regulamentação em termos de sementes e podem diferir de país para país. Todas as outras informações num saco de sementes são prerrogativas da empresa de sementes, mas são uma componente importante da estratégia de marketing da empresa.As empresas de sementes também rotularão as sementes com declarações sobre as condições de venda e exclusão de responsabilidade. Se a semente tiver sido tratada com produtos químicos, tal deve ser indicado na embalagem, referindo em especial que a semente não deve ser consumida como alimentação de seres humanos ou de animais.As máquinas de processamento de sementes podem ser uma fonte de mistura e consequente deterioração da qualidade se não forem cuidadosamente limpas entre culturas e variedades. Uma inspeção minuciosa da linha de processamento deve ser realizada entre lotes de sementes para garantir que não se verificam misturas de sementes.A manutenção regular das máquinas de processamento de sementes é fundamental. Todas as máquinas são normalmente fornecidas com manuais do operador e calendários de manutenção, os quais devem ser observados. Muitas máquinas, em particular limpadores e calibradores, disporão de várias opções de crivos que serão usados para as diferentes culturas e variedades. Quando não estiverem a ser utilizados, estes crivos devem ser guardados num local seguro e quando proceder à sua substituição é necessário ter cuidado para não danificar os crivos ou a máquina. As partes móveis são normalmente lubrificadas e a aplicação regular de lubrificantes assegurará uma vida útil e eficiência máximas da máquina.Um registo de manutenção e de falhas ajudará a garantir uma manutenção regular e permitirá uma análise dos componentes da linha de processamento que se estejam a desgastar rapidamente ou a falhar com maior frequência. Quando uma máquina falha, é importante determinar a origem do problema, quer seja uma falha puramente mecânica ou provocada pelo operador.As instalações de sementes não operam, em geral, durante todo o ano. Assim, durante os períodos de paragem das atividades de processamento e, pelo menos uma vez por ano, a linha de processamento de sementes deve ser cuidadosamente inspecionada.A segurança tem de ser parte integrante do processamento de sementes.• Segurança mecânica. As máquinas devem ser equipadas com interruptores de paragem de emergência. As peças móveis perigosas devem estar envolvidas por caixas de proteção. • Segurança elétrica. Os operadores têm de se proteger contra choque elétrico e devem observar as precauções aplicáveis durante a manutenção de componentes elétricos. • Controlo de poeiras e resíduos. O processamento de sementes gera poeiras, que devem ser removidas por tubos de extração de ar. A limpeza das plantas também produz resíduos indesejados, que podem constituir um risco de incêndio ou tornar-se um problema de resíduos ambientais. Os requisitos mais básicos de equipamento de uma empresa de sementes incluem um higrómetro de sementes, balança de pesagem, equipamento de limpeza e de tratamento de sementes e um sistema de embalagem. Tal pode ser tão simples quanto um tambor com crivo, um tambor rotativo, um dispositivo de medição volumétrica e uma balança suspensa.No entanto, um sistema assim simples só será suficiente para uma empresa de sementes que produza algumas centenas de toneladas de semente. À medida que a produção aumenta para 1 000 t ou mais, será necessário investir em equipamento de processamento mais eficiente e sofisticado.O equipamento de processamento de sementes existe numa variedade de tipos e capacidades. O significado do termo \"capacidade,\" quando aplicado ao equipamento de processamento de sementes depende muito da composição e do tipo de material que vai entrar na linha de processamento e nas expectativas de qualidade do produto que sairá da máquina. Uma semente em estado natural de má qualidade e expectativas de uma elevada qualidade final irão diminuir a capacidade das máquinas. Da mesma forma, o tipo de cultura terá uma influência clara no resultado. O processamento de milho ou de trigo pode resultar em diferentes capacidades finais na mesma máquina.Quanto se considera a aquisição de maquinaria de processamento de sementes é necessário ter em conta os seguintes pontos:• A linha de processamento atual está a ser usada de forma ideal? Podem ser conseguidas melhorias de eficiência devido a uma melhor organização, melhor gestão da maquinaria ou melhorando a qualidade da semente em estado natural?• Deverá adquirir-se nova maquinaria ou a adaptação da maquinaria existente é suficiente?• As maiores necessidades de processamento podem ser contratadas fora da empresa?• Que componentes são necessários para aumentar a capacidade das instalações de processamento? • O investimento em equipamento de processamento de sementes novo irá requerer espaço adicional, obras de construção, ligações elétricas e desenvolvimento de pessoal?• Quais os custos de adquirir, operar e manter o novo equipamento?• O novo equipamento irá ser usado ao longo do ano?• O novo equipamento poderá ser usado para processar outras matérias-primas?• Quais a opções de financiamento que existem para a aquisição do novo equipamento?• Consegue economizar dinheiro suficiente para realizar um pagamento a pronto?A semente é uma matéria-prima volumosa e viva e o armazenamento e regulação do movimento de entrada e saída de sementes do armazém é um trabalho diário numa empresa de sementes (Caixa 5.10). O espaço de armazenamento é necessário para guardar a semente em estado natural após a entrega e para armazenar a semente que tenha sido processada e esteja pronta para ser despachada. São necessários armazéns separados para os diferentes tipos e categorias de sementes, em parte por questões de segurança, mas também para minimizar a possibilidade de ocorrência de misturas. Os fatores a considerar são:Os armazéns de sementes têm de ser espaçosos, bem ventilados, com um telhado à prova de entrada de água e um pavimento estanque. Preferentemente, as laterais do armazém devem ser vedadas para reduzir a penetração de chuva e garantir a segurança.O espaço necessário num armazém depende da quantidade de semente a ser armazenada.A semente de milho armazenada a granel tem uma densidade de cerca de 750 kg/m3, enquanto a semente armazenada em sacos tem uma densidade de aproximadamente 650 kg/m3. Uma pilha de sacos de 3 m x 3 m x 4 m conterá até 20 t de semente. Deixando um espaço de corredor entre pilhas, um armazém com 9 m de largura por 18 m de comprimento comportará 160 t de semente.A disposição do armazém tem de facilitar uma carga e descarga eficiente da semente, a fumigação e a monitorização da semente em armazém. A semente armazenada deve ser organizada de uma forma sistemática. Um sistema de sacos, colocados em filas, cada uma rotulada e demarcada, ajudará a manter um registo organizado da localização e do conteúdo dos lotes de sementes (Figura 5.17). Os lotes individuais de sementes têm de ser identificáveis e empilhados em separado. Os registos de entrada e saída de stocks devem ser mantidos num controlo de stocks ou cartões de armazenamento (Tabela 5.11), observandose a regra de o primeiro a entrar, deverá ser o primeiro a sair.A semente é um produto valioso e, por isso, o armazém deve ser • seguro, em termos de risco de roubo, • protegido dos elementos (à prova de água),• ventilado, e • fresco.O armazém tem também de ser propício a uma fumigação eficaz da semente para a proteger de pragas de armazenamento. Animais infestantes são uma ameaça séria para a semente, mas difíceis de controlar, exceto pelo recurso a iscas venenosas ou à existência de predadores (gatos e corujas). A limpeza é absolutamente essencial num armazém de sementes, uma vez que qualquer semente perdida poderá constituir uma fonte de alimentação a animais infestantes e pragas de armazenamento.As empresas de sementes não estão em geral diretamente envolvidas na produção de semente no campo, mas contratam agricultores para o fazerem sob a sua supervisão por forma a cumprirem as normas de certificação e os objetivos de produção. Esta relação entre a empresa de sementes e o agricultor é fundamental para o sucesso da empresa e tem de ser encarada como uma relação simbiótica na qual ambas as partes dependem entre si e beneficiam desta relação. Todas as empresas de sementes bem-sucedidas dispõem de uma base de agricultores de confiança, eficiente e duradoura. A relação inicia-se com a escolha correta do agricultor, estabelece-se através de um contrato claramente definido com o agricultor e continua com a assistência que lhe é prestada para garantir que a semente é produzida de acordo com os padrões, recebida a tempo e paga de uma forma que agrade ao agricultor. Figura 5.17. Exemplo da disposição de um armazém para pilhas de sacos com filas aos pares separadas por passagens e percursos de circulação adequados para permitir um acesso, carga e remoção de semente fáceis. Os agricultores variam em termos de competência e capacidade, tornando a escolha do agricultor para produzir semente num fator decisivo para o sucesso. Os fatores a considerar são:• Localização da exploração em relação à empresa de sementes. Quanto mais afastado estiver o agricultor da empresa de sementes, maior será o custo da supervisão da produção e do transporte da semente para a empresa. • Dimensão da exploração. Grandes explorações disponibilizam mais oportunidades de isolamento na própria exploração, sem ter de negociar com vizinhos relativamente à produção da mesma cultura fora da distância de isolamento. Igualmente, explorações maiores permitem também campos de maiores dimensões. • Dimensão dos campos disponíveis. A produção de sementes em campos muito pequenos (inferiores a 5 ha) é possível, mas pode não constituir uma utilização eficiente de recursos, uma vez que quanto mais campos necessitam de supervisão, maior será o custo dessa supervisão para a empresa de sementes. Da mesma forma, campos de sementes muito pequenos são mais vulneráveis a contaminação por pólen estranho. A dimensão ideal de um campo de milho híbrido ainda não foi determinada, mas campos muito grandes (mais de 25 ha) serão, em geral, mais difíceis de gerir do que campos de média dimensão (10 a 20 ha), em particular no que se refere à eliminação de plantas indesejadas e ao corte da panícula, em especial se a mão-de-obra for limitada. Por conseguinte, as dimensões ideais dos campos para a produção de sementes situam-se entre 10 e 20 ha, mas tal não é garantia de uma elevada rentabilidade ou qualidade assegurada -estas dependem da gestão do campo e das condições ambientais verificadas durante a produção. • Ambiente da exploração. O objetivo da empresa de sementes é produzir tanta semente de qualidade quanto possível de tão poucas explorações e na menor área possível. Tal é mais provável de ser alcançado se a produção estiver localizada em áreas de elevado potencial.As rentabilidades do milho são determinadas por vários fatores e, para uma determinada variedade, as rentabilidades variam de exploração para exploração. Isto pode não se dever apenas a condições ambientais adversas, mas o ambiente coloca algumas restrições à potencial rentabilidade de uma cultura de semente. Se o ambiente da exploração for ideal, então a infraestrutura, disponibilidade de mão-de-obra e capacidade de gestão da exploração serão as principais determinantes da rentabilidade.• Infraestrutura da exploração. A produção de sementes pode requerer equipamento especializado, tais como sementeiras, pulverizadores, irrigadores, armazéns e transporte.A sua disponibilidade na exploração ajudará a assegurar que as operações necessárias são realizadas de acordo com um nível aceitável de gestão. Equipamentos de irrigação são particularmente necessários quando se realizam plantações divididas na produção de milho híbrido. • Disponibilidade de mão-de-obra. Na produção de sementes muitas operações são de trabalho intensivo tais como a plantação, eliminação de plantas indesejadas, corte da panícula, colheita e debulha. Se o trabalho estiver limitado e as operações não forem realizadas adequadamente, a qualidade da semente pode ficar comprometida.• Capacidade de gestão do agricultor. Esta é difícil de avaliar, no entanto o aspeto geral de uma exploração, o registo de colheitas anteriores e o posicionamento geral da exploração na comunidade são bons indicadores da capacidade de gestão. Um bom agricultor não precisa de ser altamente qualificado, necessita antes de saber como produzir de forma prática, estar em contacto estreito com as realidades da exploração, ter capacidade de tomada de decisões e responder de modo prático e inovador a todas as variabilidades da agricultura. Idealmente, o agricultor deve dispor também de experiência na produção de sementes e ser capaz de gerir bem a mão-de-obra.Os contratos são acordos legalmente vinculativos entre duas partes. A natureza exata de um contrato de produção de sementes dependerá das circunstâncias, mas incluirá normalmente as seguintes especificações, seguindo uma terminologia jurídica:• Obrigações acordadas pelo agricultor: Acordo em produzir a cultura e a variedade exclusivamente para a empresa de sementes Quota (volume de produto) Quantidade de semente a ser produzida Especificações da gestão da cultura Requisitos de certificação Autoriza a liberdade de inspeção dos campos de sementes por parte de representantes da empresa e autoridades de certificação Forma, método e calendário para a entrega da semente • Obrigações da empresa de sementes Fornecimento da semente parental Apoio à produção e insumos (se aplicável) e termos de reembolso Especificação dos serviços (p. ex., inspeções e consultadoria agrónoma) a serem prestados ao agricultor Preço a ser pago pela semente, incluindo eventuais bónus ou penalizações aplicáveis Método e calendário de pagamentos Normalmente, os contratos especificam também que o germoplasma fornecido pela empresa de sementes e produzido pelo agricultor a partir desse momento continua a ser propriedade da empresa de sementes e que não pode ser usado pelo agricultor para quaisquer outros fins. Uma lista de verificação dos fatores a considerar na redação de contratos com produtores de sementes e um exemplo de um contrato podem ser consultados (Anexo 2).Nos casos em que estejam envolvidos agricultores de pequena dimensão poderá ser necessário ou preferível realizar o contrato com um grupo de agricultores. Tal pode ser com toda uma vila para garantir que todos os agricultores cultivam a mesma variedade e evitar mistura ou contaminação de sementes, ou com uma cooperativa de agricultores por forma a criar um determinado grau de responsabilidade e responsabilização de grupo. Nestes casos, o contrato tem de ser negociado com o representante ou grupo de representantes da vila, com o pleno envolvimento e acordo da comunidade. A vantagem para a empresa de sementes, para além da garantia de qualidade, é o facto de se poderem produzir maiores quantidades de semente, enquanto as negociações, transações e inspeções estão localizadas, simplificando muito mais a gestão do que lidar com vários indivíduos diferentes, cada um cultivando uma pequena quantidade de semente. Para a comunidade, o contrato oferece um certo grau de segurança e pode ser usado como meio para negociação coletiva, assegurando o acesso a crédito e a criação de riqueza na comunidade.Existe uma série de opções para a definição do preço da semente a pagar aos agricultores e o método de pagamento. O ponto de partida básico é determinar o preço pago pela semente.Indicamos aqui algumas opções, nomeadamente:1. O preço é calculado a partir da rentabilidade média da semente e do retorno realista presumido por hectare para o agricultor (p. ex., se a rentabilidade média for de 4,0 t/ha e o agricultor esperar uma receita bruta de 2 400 dólares norte-americanos por ha, o preço da semente é estabelecido em 600 dólares norte-americanos/t). 2. O preço é calculado com base no custo mais a base de margem. Assim, determinam-se os custos de produção da semente do agricultor mais uma margem razoável. Depois, com base na rentabilidade média esperada da semente, define-se um preço (p. ex., se os custos de produção ascenderem a 1 200 dólares norte-americanos/ha, e se considerar uma margem de 50%, então, com uma rentabilidade média da semente de 4,0 t/ha, o preço será estabelecido em 450 dólares norte-americanos/t). 3. O preço é determinado analisando o preço de venda da semente e recuando até ao agricultor, tendo em conta a margem da empresa de sementes, custos indiretos e custos de processamento (Figura 5.18). De forma razoável, os custos indiretos e de processamento são similares para uma híbrida e uma OPV, mas o preço do produtor é definido mais elevado para a híbrida devido à gestão extra, necessária para cultivar uma semente híbrida. Assim, o preço do agricultor das OPV é normalmente cerca de 70% a 80% do preço de uma semente híbrida trilínea.Seja qual for o método usado para determinar o preço do agricultor é aconselhável fazê-lo em consulta com os agricultores, de forma a que o método seja transparente e acordado por todas as partes antes do início do cultivo da semente. Tal ajudará a reduzir conflitos relativos ao preço no momento da entrega da semente.O método atual de pagamento dos agricultores de sementes também varia, a saber • Um preço especificado é pago ao agricultor por tonelada de semente contra entrega. O pagamento pode ser imediato contra entrega ou desfasado um determinado período até à conclusão dos controlos de qualidade. • O agricultor recebe uma parte do valor da semente contra entrega e o remanescente é pago depois da semente ter passado o teste de qualidade ou de ter sido vendida. Este último sistema pode ser usado numa estrutura de cooperativa ou quando o mercado da semente não estiver assegurado. O agricultor partilha assim o risco da comercialização da semente.• O agricultor entrega uma quota (quantidade especificada) de semente pela qual recebe um determinado preço por tonelada. Qualquer semente para além da quota é entregue mas só é paga numa data posterior, normalmente após a venda da sementes. Isto garante uma certa segurança à empresa de sementes no caso de o agricultor produzir mais do que o necessário, mas assegura que a semente é entregue. O agricultor assume assim o risco de excesso de produção. • O agricultor recebe um preço de base por tonelada de semente em estado natural com o pagamento de um bónus por qualidade (p. ex., defeitos, pureza e germinação) ou por cumprir os prazos de entrega. Esta sistema garante ao agricultor determinados incentivos à produção de semente de qualidade de acordo com o calendário da empresa. Uma forma negativa desta abordagem é aplicar penalizações em caso de má qualidade ou de atraso na entrega da semente. • O agricultor recebe um adiantamento de crédito, seja em forma de empréstimos de numerário ou insumos que lhe permitem a produção da semente. Estes créditos são depois recuperados no momento da entrega da semente e os pagamentos em numerário só são realizados depois de compensados os adiantamentos. Neste caso, a empresa de sementes assume algum do risco da produção. Tal pode ser difícil para algumas empresas, pelo que poderá intervir uma instituição de crédito (p. ex., crédito agrícola) que assume o risco. Assistência aos agricultores que produzem sementes A complexidade da produção de sementes, em especial no caso da produção de híbridas e a necessidade de garantia de qualidade, requer que a empresa de sementes disponibilize assistência aos agricultores.Esta assistência pode ser avaliada numa série de áreas:• A primeira assistência que uma empresa de sementes pode oferecer ao agricultor é a inspeção da cultura de sementes para garantir que as normas de certificação são cumpridas. O não cumprimento das normas de certificação é um desperdício de recursos e conduz à frustração e a prejuízos de ambas as partes. Em alguns países, as empresas de sementes podem ser acreditadas para certificar sementes, mas noutros tal não é possível e as inspeções são realizadas por reguladores de sementes. Independentemente do sistema, a empresa de sementes beneficiará do facto de prestar assistência aos agricultores nesta área. • A segunda assistência é consultadoria de gestão agrónoma. A produção de sementes requer uma gestão especializada e os agricultores estão sempre a procurar informação e ajuda para melhorar as rentabilidades e a produtividade. Esta assistência pode fazer parte do serviço de inspeção da semente, mas pode ser vantajoso dispor de agrónomos que lidem com questões relacionadas com gestão de culturas. • A terceira área da assistência pode ser a atribuição de crédito e o fornecimento de insumos.Muitos agricultores capazes podem não dispor dos recursos financeiros para fazer face a uma cultura de sementes e os bancos não estão, muitas vezes, disponíveis para emprestar dinheiro diretamente aos agricultores para a produção de sementes. A empresa de sementes pode ser capaz de angariar crédito para o fornecimento de insumos aos agricultores contratados. O fornecimento de insumos apropriados aos agricultores de sementes assegurará que a produção de sementes não é limitada por falta de insumos.Uma componente importante da produção de sementes é a garantia de qualidade. Esta não é uma questão linear que se verifica no final do processo de produção quando a semente é colocada em sacos, mas tem de fazer parte de todos os aspetos do processo de produção das sementes. A qualidade da semente refere-se à sua adequação à finalidade e à sua conformidade com os requisitos regulamentares. Embora tal seja definido nos regulamentos em matéria de sementes, no final do dia, é o agricultor quem avalia o valor real da semente.Para que uma empresa de sementes tenha a garantia ou a confiança de que a semente que vende irá satisfazer o agricultor é necessário implementar um programa de garantia de qualidade. Este irá especificar todos os procedimentos sistemáticos que é necessário realizar em toda a cadeia para garantir que a qualidade da semente não é apenas um rótulo, mas a própria semente. Todos os aspetos da empresa de sementes têm de ser analisados, documentados e os procedimentos têm de ser descritos para assegurar que a qualidade está integrada no sistema. Todos os empregados devem ter uma compreensão conscienciosa da sua responsabilidade de realizar o seu trabalho com qualidade.Somente desta forma é que uma empresa de sementes poderá confiar que os agricultores receberão semente que satisfarão as suas expectativas.Os sistemas de garantia de qualidade abrangem o desenvolvimento e a utilização de um manual de qualidade, que descreve a política em matéria de qualidade, os sistemas de qualidade e as práticas de qualidade da empresa. A política de qualidade é desenvolvida com a participação dos empregados e da direção da empresa, e especifica o objetivo de qualidade da empresa na produção de sementes. Os sistemas de qualidade envolvem o desenvolvimento de fluxogramas e manuais de procedimentos para cada processo crítico na cadeia de sementes, que serve como base para orientar os operadores e gestores.O manual de procedimentos especifica as seguintes componentes relacionadas com uma tarefa em particular:• O objetivo da tarefa. p. ex. o resultado desejado da tarefa.• O âmbito da tarefa. p. ex. o início e o final do procedimento.• Referências relevantes para a tarefa, tais como documentos, dados, normas e regulamentos relacionados com a tarefa. • Definições de palavras, acrónimos e abreviaturas usadas na descrição da tarefa.• Responsabilidades e autoridades relacionadas com quem está envolvido na realização da tarefa. • Passos de ações que especificam o que tem de ser realizado, quando e por que sequência.Isto está diretamente associado a um fluxograma da tarefa. • Registos da tarefa, incluindo resultados, provas objetivas de que as tarefas foram concluídas e a documentação requerida pelas autoridades regulamentares. • Um fluxograma que fornece uma representação visual do processo da tarefa.Um exemplo de um fluxograma para a produção certificada de sementes é fornecido (Figura 5.19). O fluxograma começa no ponto em que a empresa de sementes não tem produção certificada de sementes e descreve os principais passos e decisões a serem tomadas para conseguir que semente certificada seja entregue nas instalações de processamento de sementes. O pormenor do fluxograma depende da intensidade da definição necessária no processo. Por exemplo, o fluxograma pode ser desenvolvido para cada uma das principais tarefas ou atividades da produção certificada de sementes, tais como inspeções da culturacomo devem ser realizadas e que documentos e informação original são necessários para a realização da inspeção da cultura. Da mesma forma, os fluxogramas podem ser desenvolvidos para as fases de processamento da cadeia de sementes (Figura 5.20), processos laboratoriais, tarefas financeiras e componentes de marketing. Desta forma, toda a empresa estará orientada para a qualidade. Ideias-chave 1. O planeamento da produção de sementes está no centro da estratégia de produção e é concebido para definir as produções necessárias de todas as classes de sementes por forma a satisfazer as previsões de vendas. 2. A produção de semente de qualidade inicia-se com a garantia de que a semente original é da melhor qualidade genética e que os procedimentos de garantia de qualidade são observados ao longo de toda a cadeia de produção da semente. 3. O desempenho no campo das sementes é otimizado por operações atempadas, elevados padrões de gestão e uma utilização eficiente dos recursos. 4. Os campos de sementes de milho híbrido requerem uma atenção especial na plantação das componentes masculinas e femininas, na remoção de tipos diferentes e variantes, na remoção das panículas das femininas antes da antese, na remoção de plantas masculinas depois da fertilização das femininas e uma colheita cuidadosa das sementes para cumprir os padrões de certificação. 5. A qualidade da semente é mais elevada na maturidade fisiológica da planta e posteriormente diminui de forma irreversível à taxa determinada pelas condições ambientais e pelo manuseamento da semente. A taxa de diminuição pode ser minimizada secando a semente para uma humidade inferior a 13% e conservando-a em boas instalações de armazenamento com uma temperatura do ar e humidade relativa baixas, e mantendo a semente livre de pragas, roedores e ataques de doenças. 6. O processamento da semente é realizado para separar a semente desejada, boa e saudável da semente inferior e das impurezas, para tratar a semente com protetores químicos e embalar a semente nas embalagens com as dimensões preferidas pelos clientes. Em alguns casos, tais como no caso do milho híbrido, a semente pode também ser classificada em lotes de sementes de dimensões uniformes. 7. O equipamento de processamento da semente requer uma supervisão constante para conseguir resultados eficientes, uma manutenção regular para aumentar a vida útil da maquinaria e a observância das normas de segurança para garantir a proteção do operador. 8. A gestão do armazém de sementes baseia-se numa organização metódica dos stocks, na utilização de um sistema de registo de stocks e controlo de inventário, em conjunto com fumigação e medidas de segurança para manter a viabilidade da semente. 9. Seleção e contratação de agricultores de sementes capazes e que disponham de bons recursos, bem como assistência a esses agricultores através de informação agrónoma e inspeções das culturas que ajudarão a assegurar quantidades suficientes de semente de qualidade. 10. Os agricultores de sementes são reagem aos preços, por isso os gestores têm de desenvolver um método transparente e justo de compensar os agricultores pela produção de sementes de qualidade.Gestão financeira de uma empresa de sementesA estratégia de gestão financeira de uma empresa de sementes é como andar de bicicleta --quanto mais força se exerce nos pedais e os roda, mais a bicicleta avançará. E, como qualquer ciclista pode confirmar, o esforço aplicado aos pedais depende da carga e da inclinação. Cargas pesadas e uma subida acentuada requerem um esforço, enquanto uma descida e cargas leves tornam tudo mais simples. Mas ainda assim, na maioria das situações, os pedais têm de ser controlados e rodados. Da mesma forma, numa empresa, o fluxo de dinheiro que entra e sai e a gestão desse fluxo são fundamentais para o seu sucesso. Muitas empresas requerem mais dinheiro do que podem gerar e poucas são autossuficientes em termos de fluxo de caixa (Henderson 1973). A estratégia financeira envolve, por isso, avaliar os requisitos financeiros e a viabilidade das estratégias de marketing e de produção (a carga e a inclinação) e a implementação de meios para monitorizar (esforço) e avaliar (velocidade e distância) o desempenho financeiro da empresa. Tal requer o desenvolvimento de orçamentos, a implementação de sistemas de contabilidade e a análise das contas. Associado a isto está o risco de gestão, os investimentos, o capital e impostos.O dinheiro flui para dentro, através e para fora de uma empresa. Todas necessitam de um montante inicial de dinheiro (capital, na forma de numerário ou crédito) para iniciar a atividade. Este dinheiro é usado para adquirir ativos, empregar pessoal e gerar produtos ou serviços que são vendidos. O dinheiro obtido com as vendas pode depois ser usado para criar mais produtos ou serviços, investido no desenvolvimento da empresa ou ser aplicado noutras utilizações, tais como a distribuição de dividendos pelos acionistas. A quantidade de dinheiro (valor líquido) numa empresa aumenta quanto mais dinheiro fluir para dentro da empresa, em vez de para fora dela. Este ciclo de dinheiro para dentro, através e para fora de uma empresa é designado de ciclo de numerário ou ciclo do fundo de maneio (Figura 6.1). O ciclo do fundo de maneio abrange, em geral, um período inferior a um ano e envolve a aquisição de matérias-primas a pronto ou a crédito, transformando-as em produto acabado, vendendo-o a pronto ou a crédito, o que resulta em devedores e na recolha dos montantes devidos dos devedores e colocando o dinheiro recebido no banco da empresa, iniciando-se depois o ciclo novamente.A parte de longo prazo do ciclo de numerário está relacionada com decisões de investimento e estruturação de capital em termos de dívida versus património, bem como com outras questões estratégicas que estão para além do âmbito deste livro.Figura 6.1. Simplificação do ciclo de fundo de maneio de uma empresa de sementes.Contas a pagarOs gestores da empresa têm de aprender a controlar ou a gerir este fluxo de dinheiro em seu benefício. O sucesso ou o futuro de uma empresa depende muito da gestão do ciclo do fundo de maneio. As atividades financeiras de uma empresa de sementes existem no quadro das condições macroeconómicas de um país e estão também altamente dependentes da economia e do ambiente agrícolas. Além disso, as empresas de sementes enfrentam horizontes de planeamento de longo prazo e ciclos de produção longos. Por conseguinte, existe um elevado risco e incerteza que têm de ser geridos, em particular no que se refere ao planeamento futuro, fluxo de caixa cíclico (liquidez) e empréstimos (dívida:património).Seguidamente apresentam-se as ferramentas mais importantes no processo de gestão financeira:• demonstração de resultados financeiros;• balanço; e • projeções dos fluxos de caixa.Estas são apoiadas por outras ferramentas de controlo interno, tal como análise da idade de stocks, devedores e credores; orçamentos e relatórios de desvios que realçam os principais desvios ao plano da empresa; bem como outros sistemas mais operacionais de controlo interno, tais como gestão de stocks de consumíveis, controlo de caixa e gestão de compras.Este capítulo aborda principalmente a análise da demonstração de resultados financeiros, do balanço e orçamentos de tesouraria numa empresa de sementes, salientando as principais questões e controlos com que os diretores se têm de familiarizar.Todas as empresas desejam saber o seu desempenho face aos objetivos financeiros, sendo a questão \"Qual é o resultado?\" A demonstração de resultados financeiros (por vezes designada de demonstração do resultado do exercício ou conta de resultados) é um meio de avaliar o desempenho financeiro de uma empresa e está no centro do exercício de orçamento e de controlo do estado financeiro de uma empresa. A demonstração de resultados é essencialmente um resumo do volume de negócios (também denominado vendas) e de todas as despesas (ou custos) incorridas para realizar essas vendas num determinado período de tempo.A maioria das empresas prefere apresentar externamente relatórios de contas referentes a um período de doze meses, sendo que este constitui o exercício da empresa. No entanto, de notar que a demonstração de resultados pode ser preparada em relação a qualquer período de tempo exigido pelos acionistas; pode ser referente a um dia, uma semana, um mês ou seis meses. Os sistemas informatizados de contabilidade, mantidos atualizados com dados corretos, permitem análises frequentes, quase em tempo-real, da demonstração de resultados da empresa. Os sistemas de contabilidade manual, em contrapartida, geralmente só são capazes de apresentar demonstrações de resultados anuais ou, quando muito, semestrais; mas, mesmo assim, é comum só estarem terminadas alguns meses depois do final do exercício e, portanto, servem mais como avaliação histórica do desempenho da empresa do que como uma ferramenta de gestão em tempo real. Por isso, a implementação de sistemas informáticos de contabilidade é essencial para uma gestão financeira eficaz.O final do exercício que melhor se adequa a uma empresa de sementes para avaliar o desempenho anual do negócio é, idealmente, um ou dois meses depois do principal período de vendas. Nessa data, os custos de produção e de marketing associados às vendas do ano estão, geralmente, compilados na contabilidade do mesmo ano. Além disso, os níveis de receitas e de numerário daquele ano fiscal estão no seu máximo. Assim, estabelece-se o lucro real de uma empresa num determinado ano. Embora o inventário esteja no mínimo após a época de vendas, o que pode não ser muito bom para o balanço, as reservas de numerário da empresa estão no máximo do ano, ou próximo disso, o que terá uma influência sobre o balanço. A data de final de exercício pode, no entanto, ser determinada pelas autoridades governamentais, em geral no final do ano civil. Neste caso, dependendo da sincronia da estação agrícola e do ano civil, pode ou não haver um desencontro de fluxo de receitas e despesas.O volume de negócios (TO) de uma empresa refere-se ao montante líquido ganho com as atividades de venda num determinado período. Para uma empresa de sementes, resulta principalmente da venda das sementes, mas também pode incluir a venda de outros produtos relacionados, como grão e sementes falhadas. Assim, o volume de negócios está relacionado com os principais produtos comercializados pela empresa. Se a empresa vender, por exemplo, o seu antigo mobiliário ou automóveis, a receita obtida não constitui parte do volume de negócios; em vez disso, é classificada como \"Outras receitas\". Do mesmo modo, o imposto sobre o valor acrescentado recebido e os descontos permitidos não fazem parte do volume de negócios.O volume de negócios é o produto do volume de vendas (i.e. quantidade) pelo preço unitário. Assim, o volume de negócios é determinado a partir de todas as vendas de produtos da empresa, seja em numerário ou a crédito, num determinado período. No caso de uma empresa vender mais do que um produto (por ex. diferentes culturas e variedades) pode ser útil dividir o volume de negócios total pelas contribuições das várias categorias (Tabela 6.1). A empresa incorre em custos para produzir produtos para vender. A isto se chama o \"Custo das mercadorias vendidas\" (COGS). O custo das mercadorias vendidas representa os custos diretos de produzir as sementes que foram vendidas para gerar o volume de negócios. Assim, o custo das mercadorias vendidas não é o custo total de produzir todas as sementes de uma empresa num determinado período contabilístico, mas apenas o custo das sementes realmente vendidas. As sementes que foram produzidas mas não foram vendidas são contabilizadas em separado no balanço, como stocks de inventário (um ativo). O custo das mercadorias vendidas é calculado, portanto, como o valor de custo dos stocks iniciais de sementes mais o custo das sementes produzidas naquele período, menos o valor de custo das existências finais de sementes, no final do período (Tabela 6.2).Numa empresa de sementes, o maior componente do custo das mercadorias vendidas é o custo da semente comprada a agricultores de sementes que pode chegar a atingir os 60% do custo das mercadorias vendidas. Uma vez que a maioria das empresas de sementes não produz sementes, adjudicando essa produção a agricultores (agricultores de sementes), o preço do agricultor de sementes é um elemento importante na determinação do custo das mercadorias vendidas. No entanto, o custo das mercadorias vendidas também inclui outros custos relacionados com a produção de semente (por ex. a semente parental, serviços de inspeção, etc.) e com o processamento das sementes de uma forma vendável (ver Caixa 6.1).Tal como com o volume de negócios, no caso de uma empresa de sementes produzir várias culturas e variedades é útil determinar o custo das mercadorias vendidas relativamente a estas categorias. Isto exige um bom sistema contabilístico, para poder atribuir os custos adequadamente a cada categoria.Produto bruto e margem bruta O produto bruto (GP) é determinado como sendo o volume de negócios (TO) menos o custo das mercadorias vendidas. É um cálculo simples. Assim que o produto bruto tiver sido determinado, a percentagem da margem bruta (GM) pode ser calculada como GM = (TO -COGS) / TO x 100 = GP / TO x 100A margem bruta é, portanto, o produto bruto expresso como percentagem de volume de negócios. Assim, a margem bruta indica a percentagem do volume de negócios que resta depois de subtrair o custo das mercadorias vendidas. Empresas com margens brutas elevadas têm tendência a ter lucros elevados, desde que os custos operacionais (despesas gerais) As despesas operacionais (OE) de uma empresa de sementes são todas as despesas incorridas para além e acima do custo direto das mercadorias vendidas e que são necessárias para fazer funcionar e manter a empresa. As despesas operacionais, geralmente, não são afetadas pelo volume de sementes produzido ou vendido. Assim, mantêm-se \"fixas\" ao longo do tempo (i.e., são recorrentes mensalmente) e são independentes dos níveis de produção.As despesas operacionais típicas de uma empresa de sementes incluem os custos de marketing e investigação e os custos de administração (Caixa 6.2), uma grande proporção dos quais é, normalmente, despesas com trabalhadores. Os custos de investigação e desenvolvimento dependerão do facto de a empresa de sementes ter ou não um departamento específico de investigação. Assim, as despesas com investigação podem variar entre zero ou perto de zero e literalmente milhões de dólares, dependendo da natureza do negócio e da necessidade de um programa proprietário de obtenção. No entanto, a maioria das empresas de sementes avançadas atribui uma proporção (geralmente, cerca de 5% a 10%) do seu volume de negócios à investigação e desenvolvimento. estejam controlados. Margens brutas mais elevadas são também um indicador de eficiência no processo de produção e têm um impacto direto na geração de fluxo de caixa. Novamente, tal como com o volume de negócios e o custo das mercadorias vendidas, é possível calcular o produto bruto e a margem bruta para cada categoria de produtos relevante da empresa (Tabela 6.3). A margem bruta tem tendência a manter-se bastante estável ao longo do tempo. Flutuações significativas podem ser um potencial sinal de fraude, de irregularidades contabilísticas ou de problemas graves na definição de preços e gestão de custos. Os custos de marketing são geralmente considerados como custos operacionais numa empresa de sementes, embora estejam fortemente associados às vendas. A questão é que, na maioria dos casos, as atividades de marketing continuam, independentemente da quantidade de sementes vendidas. Os custos de marketing, especialmente os custos de publicidade, podem constituir uma grande proporção das despesas operacionais e, portanto, ser uma área que exige uma justificação clara para as despesas e uma monitorização e avaliação constantes. Um modo de transformar uma parte dos custos de marketing num custo variável das vendas é pagar o pessoal das vendas à comissão, de modo a funcionarem como agentes comerciais da empresa em vez de funcionários.A depreciação é uma estimativa do declínio do valor de mercado dos ativos, à medida que envelhecem e se deterioram e reflete o custo de utilização do ativo para a empresa. Assim, a depreciação reflete a perda de valor das máquinas, do equipamento ou dos automóveis detidos pela empresa. É uma despesa não pecuniária, mas é importante incorporar este \"custo\" nas despesas operacionais, uma vez que estes ativos terão de ser substituídos numa data futura. Contabilizar a depreciação tem o efeito de reservar uma parte das receitas para a substituição do ativo numa data futura. Existem vários métodos para calcular a depreciação, sendo que diferentes tipos de ativos terão ritmos de depreciação diferentes, dependendo do uso, da manutenção e da obsolescência. Embora a depreciação possa ser uma despesa dedutível nos impostos, as autoridades tributárias definem geralmente o limite e o método de determinação da depreciação admissível.O produto operacional (ou receita) é a medição do dinheiro gerado pelas operações da empresa e é um indicador da saúde geral do negócio principal. O produto operacional é igual ao produto bruto menos as despesas operacionais. Com estes dados, a margem operacional (OM) também pode ser calculada: OM = (GP -OE) / TO x 100 = OP / TO x 100Mais uma vez, basta dizer que a margem operacional é, essencialmente, o produto operacional expresso como uma percentagem do volume de negócios. Isto faz da margem operacional uma medida importante da eficiência da gestão. Uma margem operacional elevada indica que a empresa tem um bom controlo das despesas operacionais, alcançando ao mesmo tempo boas margens brutas sobre os produtos vendidos. Uma margem elevada também dá à empresa flexibilidade na tomada de decisões relativas aos preços e às oportunidades de investimento para o crescimento da empresa.Uma empresa de sementes pode obter outras receitas da venda de equipamentos e mobiliário antigo, de vendas diversas de artigos como material promocional ou até de outras atividades de negócios menores. Também podem ser realizadas despesas diversas que não estão diretamente relacionadas com o negócio principal da empresa, como no caso de multas.Estas despesas e receitas diversas não devem fazer parte do produto operacional.Receitas antes de juros e de impostos À margem operacional mais as receitas diversas menos as despesas diversas designa-se de \"receitas antes de juros e de impostos\" (PBIT).Muito poucas empresas de sementes funcionarão apenas com base em numerário; em vez disso, darão crédito aos clientes para facilitar as vendas e contrairão empréstimos para cobrir défices de fluxo de caixa e aquisições de ativos. Podem ser obtidos juros das vendas a crédito ou do investimento de excedentes de tesouraria, ao passo que a empresa pode incorrer em despesas com juros de empréstimos de curto e longo prazo. Os juros recebidos e pagos flutuam de ano para ano. Uma vez que os juros, quer ganhos quer pagos, não fazem parte do negócio central de uma empresa de sementes, têm de ser refletidos como um item de lucro pós-operacional na demonstração de resultados.O montante dos juros pagos é uma indicação da quantidade de empréstimos de uma empresa. Se uma empresa não for capaz de pagar os juros sobre empréstimos, estará numa situação financeira precária. A partir da demonstração de resultados pode ser calculado o \"rácio de cobertura de juros\" para determinar o número de vezes que a empresa conseguiu cumprir os seus pagamentos de juros com as suas receitas antes de juros e de impostos.Rácio de cobertura de juros = PBIT / Despesas com juros Quanto mais baixo for o rácio de cobertura de juros, mais alto será o encargo das dívidas que a empresa enfrenta. Regra geral, uma cobertura de juros inferior a 1,5 deve alertar os gestores para um sobre-endividamento grave e para uma potencial incapacidade de suportar a sobrecarga da dívida, o que pode conduzir a uma declaração de falência.O lucro líquido antes de impostos mostra o que a empresa teria ganho se não tivesse de pagar impostos.Imposto O imposto representa a parcela do Estado sobre os lucros. As taxas de impostos empresariais variam de país para país mas, tipicamente, situam-se entre os 25% e os 45%. O montante devido pode ser reduzido legitimamente com um bom planeamento fiscal, por ex. gastando na qualificação de ativos que beneficiarão a empresa e em despesas admissíveis.O lucro líquido é o lucro residual após a contabilização de todas as despesas e obrigações e representa o que está disponível para distribuição pelos acionistas e para retenção no negócio. É o famoso \"resultado\" que é a derradeira medida do êxito ou fracasso da empresa. Quanto maior o lucro líquido, mais eficiente é a empresa e melhores são as perspetivas de crescimento e investimento. Novamente, a margem de lucro líquido é o lucro líquido como percentagem do volume de negócios.O lucro líquido pode ser utilizado, basicamente, de duas formas. A primeira é recompensar os acionistas pelo seu investimento no negócio e isto faz-se através do pagamento de dividendos. A segunda é a retenção de lucros para reinvestimento e para servir de reserva em caso de calamidades inesperadas. A proporção atribuída a cada um fica ao critério dos acionistas. Os diretores, portanto, determinam geralmente a política relevante de dividendos e de retenção de lucros da empresa.Geralmente, para empresas jovens com perspetivas de grande crescimento, a política de dividendos tem tendência a ser conservadora, uma vez que é necessário mais dinheiro para investir no aumento da capacidade e na satisfação da procura. No caso de empresas maduras, sem grandes projetos de expansão, podem ser declarados dividendos de 30% ou 40% do lucro líquido.Após discutir os componentes da demonstração de resultados é necessário referir mais algumas questões, para as quais a empresa Zambodia Seeds será usada como exemplo (Tabela 6.4). A avaliação de uma demonstração de resultados referente a um determinado período ou quando comparada com períodos consecutivos é realizada em termos dos números absolutos, das margens relevantes (margem bruta, margem operacional e margem de lucro líquido) e de rácios (cobertura de juros).Primeiro, se analisarmos a demonstração de resultados mais recente, a de 2009, reparamos que a empresa obteve uma margem bruta de 42%, um lucro operacional de 18% e uma percentagem de lucro líquido de 11%.Estas percentagens parecem relativamente boas, tal como o rácio de cobertura de juros de 15. Um acionista pode ficar bastante satisfeito com este desempenho se a taxa de inflação atual for da ordem dos 5% a 8% e se investimentos alternativos estiverem a obter um juro de 6% a 10%.No entanto, se as taxas de juro ou as receitas potenciais de outros projetos concorrentes forem superiores, esta percentagem de lucro líquido pode não ser satisfatória. Por conseguinte, os gestores podem ser incitados a melhorar as margens bruta e operacional através de um melhor controlo de vendas e de custos. A análise das demonstrações de resultados, portanto, não só oferece à administração indicadores de desempenho cruciais como também serve para procurar problemas na empresa e determinar estratégias de melhoria. As raízes de todos os problemas financeiros são vendas reduzidas, custos elevados ou ambos. As tendências em receitas e despesas apontam para áreas de preocupação que, quando identificadas, têm de ser exploradas de modo a descobrir-se quais os componentes que não estão a ter o desempenho esperado. No lado positivo, as demonstrações de resultados fornecem o tipo de informação de que os gestores precisam para fazer mais investimentos e recompensar os funcionários e os acionistas.Ao analisar a demonstração de resultados é também útil fazer uma análise break-even, pois esta serve para indicar a viabilidade e a vulnerabilidade da empresa. As despesas operacionais de uma empresa são relativamente fixas, independentemente do nível de produção e do desempenho comercial, mas o custo das mercadorias vendidas e o volume de negócios estão diretamente correlacionados com as vendas (Figura 6.2). A análise break-even pode ser realizada de duas formas: volume break-even ou preço break-even. Cada uma delas é baseada na fórmula do lucro, nomeadamente:Lucro operacional = Volume de negócios -Despesas operacionais -Custo das mercadorias vendidas = TO -OE -COGS Figura 6.2. Relação de despesas operacionais, custo das mercadorias vendidas (COGS), custo total e volume de negócios sobre o lucro ou prejuízo operacional e determinação do volume break-even. Ao comparar as duas análises de break-even, torna-se aparente que a empresa foi mais vulnerável ao preço do que a reduções de volume (Tabela 6.5). Qualquer uma destas duas análises de break-even pode ser realizada em relação a cada linha de produtos, mas as despesas operacionais têm então de ser repartidas numa base ponderada entre os produtos, partindo de um volume ou custo das mercadorias vendidas relativo. Além disso, nem todas as empresas são capazes de determinar o custo das mercadorias vendidas exato por linha de produtos e, portanto, o custo das mercadorias vendidas também pode ter de ser repartido de alguma maneira entre os produtos. A análise break-even de cada produto, juntamente com a margem bruta e a contribuição de cada produto para o lucro bruto total, são bons indicadores de quais produtos são os mais lucrativos e estáveis, quais precisam de melhorar a sua eficiência financeira ou quais devem ser descontinuados.No entanto, em alguns casos, um produto com uma contribuição ou uma margem bruta reduzidas pode ser um produto complementar a uma \"cash cow\" e a sua eliminação da carteira de produtos pode ter um impacto negativo sobre a \"cash cow\". Um exemplo disso podem ser as sementes de soja ou os amendoins, que têm tipicamente margens baixas mas que fornecem aos agricultores uma excelente cultura de rotação com o milho, que tem, geralmente, margens elevadas.O balanço é semelhante a um check-up no médico, uma vez que é uma declaração do estado financeiro da empresa numa determinada data. Resume tudo o que a empresa detém (ativos) e todos os montantes que são devidos a terceiros (passivos). O resultado preferível é que os ativos sejam significativamente superiores aos passivos.O balanço, em termos gerais, é composto por:• capital e lucros não distribuídos,• ativos correntes,• ativos fixos,• passivos correntes, e • passivos de longo prazo.A soma do capital e lucros não distribuídos aos passivos correntes e de longo prazo deve ser igual ou \"contrabalançar\" a soma dos ativos correntes e fixos, e daí vem o termo balanço. O balanço dá uma indicação do bom ou mau estado financeiro da empresa ou, por outras palavras, diz se a empresa está solvente ou não. Também indica se a empresa está numa posição líquida ou não.A liquidez refere-se à capacidade de uma empresa gerar rapidamente numerário para cumprir os seus compromissos financeiros. Os ativos são repositórios de liquidez e são itens tangíveis e não tangíveis que, geralmente, captam receitas para a empresa ou podem ser convertidos em numerário. O grau de liquidez de um ativo é medido pelo tempo que levaria para converter o ativo em numerário. Os ativos que podem ser rapidamente convertidos em numerário são denominados ativos correntes, enquanto os ativos que levariam muito tempo a ser convertidos em numerário são denominados ativos fixos ou de longo prazo.A falta de liquidez não deve ser confundida com insolvência. Uma empresa é insolvente quando os ativos total do negócio (i.e., os ativos correntes e fixos) são inferiores aos seus passivos totais (i.e., passivos correntes e de longo prazo). Por outras palavras, se uma empresa nestas condições vender todos os seus ativos, não será capaz de pagar as suas dívidas. Por outro lado, a liquidez refere-se apenas aos ativos correntes versus passivos correntes. Se os ativos correntes não excederem os passivos correntes mas os ativos totais excederem os passivos totais, então a empresa não tem liquidez mas não está insolvente. Embora tenha dificuldades para cumprir os seus compromissos do dia-a-dia, no longo prazo, se lhe derem tempo suficiente para vender todos os seus ativos fixos, a empresa será capaz de pagar todos os seus passivos. Portanto, a grande distinção é que insolvência se refere a todos os ativos comparados com todos os passivos, enquanto liquidez se refere apenas aos ativos correntes comparados com os passivos correntes.O capital e lucros não distribuídos, também normalmente denominado \"Fundos próprios\" ou \"Capital aplicado\", representam o dinheiro que os acionistas aplicaram no negócio e o lucro líquido que deixaram no negócio depois da declaração de dividendos e de quaisquer outras dotações. Também na categoria de capital encontram-se quaisquer mais-valias decorrentes da reavaliação dos ativos fixos.Os ativos correntes são frequentemente constituídos por:• contas a receber ou devedores,• stocks ou inventários,• numerário e equivalente a numerário (i.e., depósitos bancários e poupanças), e • investimentos de curto prazo.As contas a receber referem-se aos devedores da empresa, geralmente identificadas como o dinheiro devido à empresa pelos seus clientes que adquiriram (sementes, no caso de uma empresa de sementes) a crédito. Os devedores são listados no balanço como ativos correntes, uma vez que se espera que as dívidas sejam pagas dentro de um período de doze meses. Se os devedores não forem geridos adequadamente, podem originar problemas de fluxo de caixa ou mesmo a dívidas incobráveis, o que terá um impacto negativo sobre os lucros e a liquidez. Assim, quanto mais depressa uma empresa cobrar as suas contas a receber, melhor. Quanto mais rapidamente os clientes pagarem, mais depressa a empresa consegue pôr o dinheiro no banco, pagar as suas próprias dívidas ou começar a fabricar novos produtos.O tempo que demora a receber as dívidas dos clientes pode ser medido no prazo de recebimento, determinado pela seguinte fórmula:Prazo de recebimento = Média de contas a receber / Vendas a crédito x 365, sendo que a Média de contas a receber = (contas a receber no início do período + contas a receber no fim do período) / 2 O prazo de recebimento deve ser comparado à política de crédito da empresa para ver se a empresa está a gerir bem os seus créditos. Se, por exemplo, a política de crédito da empresa for de 30 dias, então:• se o tempo de cobrança médio for inferior a 30 dias, significa uma boa gestão e cobrança das dívidas; ou • se a média for superior a 30 dias, significa uma má gestão da cobrança de dívidas.As despesas pré-pagas também constituem parte dos créditos. As empresas, muito frequentemente, pagam mercadorias e serviços antes de os receberem realmente. Exemplos disso são:• Pagamento adiantado do aluguer de um ano inteiro.• Pagamento adiantado de um seguro durante um espaço de tempo.• Adiantamentos aos agricultores de sementes.Embora alguns destes elementos não possam ser facilmente convertidos em numerário, representam ainda assim valores devidos à empresa e constituem, portanto, ativos.Os inventários são mercadorias que uma empresa detém para venda mas que ainda não foi vendida. O inventário das empresas de sementes é constituído, principalmente, por sementes mas também pode ser constituído por materiais de embalagem, produtos químicos de revestimento de sementes e outros consumíveis. As empresas de sementes têm inventários significativos em determinadas alturas do ano, em especial imediatamente antes da época de vendas. Estes inventários podem ser constituídos por semente em estado natural e semente processada e pronta a vender. Após a época de vendas, as empresas de sementes podem ter ficado com os stocks não vendidos. Uma vez que as sementes são produtos perecíveis, tem de ser tomada uma decisão sobre se as sementes ainda cumprirão os requisitos mínimos de germinação quando começar a época de vendas seguinte. Em caso negativo, as sementes têm de ser eliminadas.O valor real dos inventários só é conhecido quando o produto é vendido e, portanto, a empresa tem de fazer uma estimativa do valor para o balanço. No caso de sementes em estado natural, o valor é normalmente determinado como o preço do grão ou o custo da semente, enquanto as sementes processadas podem ser avaliadas ao preço de venda líquido. As sementes que não foram aprovadas no controlo de qualidade devem ser avaliadas ao preço realizável líquido, geralmente equivalente à cotação atual do grão. Embora existam vários métodos para avaliar inventários, no balanço, estes são geralmente declarados pelo custo ou valor realizável líquido, dos dois o mais baixo.Os investidores geralmente querem muito pouco dinheiro preso em inventários, porque estes têm de ser vendidos para realizar numerário e pode não ser fácil conseguir vender. Além disso, níveis elevados de stocks de baixa rotatividade podem levar a prejuízos devidos a obsolescência ou perda de qualidade. Por conseguinte, para as sementes, o princípio de as primeiras a entrar deverão ser as primeiras a sair é crítico para manter stocks viáveis. A semente que é processada e tratada mas que perde viabilidade de germinação representa uma perda de valor significativa.São os ativos que a empresa detém mas que não podem ser usados para financiar as operações do dia a dia. Os ativos fixos são constituídos por itens que têm, em geral, uma vida útil superior a um ano, tal como: • veículos,• instalações e equipamento,• terrenos e edifícios, e • mobiliário e acessórios.Os ativos fixos proporcionam vantagens à empresa por um período que ultrapassa o período contabilístico corrente e são usados no processo de geração de mercadorias vendáveis ou na gestão dessas atividades. Os ativos fixos, exceto terrenos, deterioram-se com o tempo e em função do uso, sofrendo portanto desvalorização. Os valores pelos quais os ativos são listados num balanço são, em geral, conservadores, normalmente calculados como o custo de aquisição menos a desvalorização ou o valor de mercado atual. Em economias inflacionárias, os ativos fixos podem ser avaliados pelo custo de substituição.Outra forma de ativos fixos são os investimentos de longo prazo que a empresa tenciona deter durante mais de um ano. Podem incluir:• Títulos e obrigações de outras empresas.• Títulos de empresas subsidiárias e associadas.• Valores pecuniários reservados para projetos futuros específicos.Os ativos intangíveis são bens que a empresa detém mas que não podem ser tocados, como direitos de obtentores vegetais, patentes, marcas comerciais, nomes de marcas, franquias, goodwill e propriedade intelectual. Estes ativos, embora tenham um papel significativo nas atividades e no sucesso da empresa são extremamente difíceis de avaliar e, geralmente, não são refletidos no balanço.Um passivo é uma obrigação de pagar uma dívida a um mutuante ou outros credores. Representa uma obrigação de pagar a um terceiro. Assim, os passivos são o oposto dos ativos pois representam uma saída de dinheiro e, geralmente, geram despesas para a empresa.Tal como os ativos, os passivos podem ser classificados de acordo com o tempo em que devem ser pagos. Os passivos correntes ou de curto prazo são as obrigações que têm de ser pagas no decurso do ano fiscal seguinte (i.e., geralmente, no ano seguinte), enquanto os passivos de longo prazo são obrigações que serão pagas ao longo de um período de tempo alargado, como os empréstimos de longo prazo, os títulos obrigacionistas e as ações preferenciais.Exemplos de passivos correntes são: • Empréstimos de curto prazo.• Contas a pagar.• Depósitos de clientes.• Pagamentos devidos aos agricultores por sementes recebidas.• Montantes devidos por sementes recebidas à consignação (no caso da produção de sementes, refere-se a um acordo mediante o qual é acordada uma quota de sementes que é paga no ato de entrega, e qualquer quantidade de sementes entregue para além dessa quota só é paga quando for vendida -o produtor, portanto, produz a semente com o risco de não ser pago).Exemplos de passivos de longo prazo incluem:• Títulos obrigacionistas.• Obrigações hipotecárias.• Quaisquer empréstimos cujo pagamento deva ser realizado ao longo de mais de um ano.O fundo de maneio é o montante investido nos ativos correntes, enquanto o fundo de maneio líquido são os ativos correntes menos os passivos correntes. O fundo de maneio líquido deve ser sempre positivo; caso contrário, a empresa terá graves problemas, pois não será capaz de satisfazer as suas necessidades diárias de dinheiro.A análise do balanço tem a ver com a interpretação:• dos valores absolutos,• das relações entre ativos e passivos, e • das \"histórias\" subjacente aos números.Uma vez que o balanço é como uma fotografia do estado financeiro da empresa numa determinada data, é útil avaliá-lo em comparação com balanços anteriores, determinar tendências e também compará-lo com os balanços de organizações de dimensão semelhante. Existem muitas formas de analisar balanços, a maioria das quais implica o cálculo de rácios dentro do balanço e entre o balanço e os dados da demonstração de resultados (Tabela 6.6). A utilização de rácios ultrapassa, em determinada medida, as diferenças em valores absolutos que existem entre diferentes balanços. No entanto, ao comparar ou avaliar rácios, não deve ser esquecido que o numerador, o denominador ou ambos determinam o rácio e oferecem a \"história subjacente aos números\" (Figura 6.3). Portanto, por exemplo, se um rácio diminuir, pode ser porque o numerador diminuiu, o denominador aumentou ou tanto o numerador como o denominador diminuíram, mas desproporcionalmente.Além disso, um rácio por si só não tem grande significado; para ter utilidade para um diretor, o rácio tem de ser comparado com os padrões do setor, com empresas semelhantes e com o desempenho histórico da própria empresa.Tabela 6.6. Lista de rácios normalmente usados para avaliar a saúde financeira de um negócio.Ativos correntes/passivos correntes Mostra quão bem uma empresa é capaz de pagar as suas dívidas de curto prazo usando os seus ativos mais líquidos. Um rácio de 2 é aceitável.Rácio de liquidez reduzida (Ativos correntes -ações)/passivos correntes Teste mais vigoroso da liquidez da empresa, as ações são o menos líquido dos ativos correntes. As ações não são facilmente convertíveis em dinheiro para satisfazer compromissos urgentes. Um rácio de 1 é aceitável.Ativos correntes -passivos correntes O que restaria se a empresa liquidasse todos os seus ativos de curto prazo.e pagasse os passivos de curto prazo.Volume de negócios em ativos fixos Volume de negócios/ativos fixos totais Indica quão bem a empresa está a usar os seus ativos fixos para gerar vendas.Quanto mais elevado for o rácio, melhor, uma vez que mostra que o negócio tem menos dinheiro preso em ativos fixos por cada dólar de vendas.Volume de negócios de inventário COGS/inventário médio O número de vezes que uma empresa é capaz de adquirir inventários e convertê-los em vendas. Um rácio baixo pode indicar um abrandamento nas vendas ou uma acumulação de níveis de inventário.Prazo médio de recebimento Média de contas a receber/vendas a crédito x 365 Um período mais elevado significa um custo mais elevado para dar crédito aos clientes.Existências finais médias/COGS x 365 Número de dias que os stocks foram detidos antes de serem convertidos em dinheiro.Média de contas a pagar/COGS x 365 Número de dias que leva a pagar aos credores.Prazo médio de recebimento mais dias de Mostra quanto tempo demora para que o dinheiro distribuído para aquisições.stock menos Dias regresse à empresa. Quanto mais curto for este ciclo, melhor.Rácio de dívida (rácio dívida/ativo) (Dívida total/ativos totais) x 100Que percentagem dos ativos foi financiada por dívida.Dívida total/equidade total x 100 Mede a proporção direta da dívida para o capital de equidade. Um rácio de mais de 100% indica uma empresa altamente alavancada e nenhum mutuante prudente aceitaria financiar uma empresa nestas condições. Um rácio de 20 a 30% de dívida para é geralmente aceitável.Lucro operacional/despesas com juros Indica a capacidade de a empresa pagar as suas despesas fixas, quando Uma cobertura de está associada a uma elevada alavancagem.Uma cobertura de pelo menos três vezes é geralmente aceitável.Rácio de cobertura de pagamentos fixos Volume de negócios/despesas operacionais Indica a capacidade da empresa em pagar as suas despesas fixas, quando a atividade da empresa diminui.Indica o valor líquido da empresa. Para ter significado, os ativos devem ser avaliados pelo seu valor de mercado líquido.Para ilustrar a análise de um balanço, apresenta-se um exemplo da empresa Zambodia Seeds (Tabela 6.7). Para o exercício de 2009, a Zambodia Seeds teve um valor líquido de 930.000 dólares norte-americanos, que aumentou consistentemente ao longo do período de três anos em análise. O fundo de maneio líquido ascendeu aos 301.000 dólares norte-americanos, com um rácio atual de 2,30, comparado com 2,24 e 2,09 nos dois anos precedentes, respetivamente. Em termos financeiros, um rácio atual de mais de 2 é geralmente considerado saudável, pois significa que a empresa poderia liquidar os seus ativos facilmente liquidáveis e pagar duas vezes os seus passivos num espaço de tempo reduzido. Esta tendência indica um reforço da posição financeira da Zambodia Seeds. Um fundo de maneio líquido baixo pode prejudicar o desenvolvimento do negócio e expor a empresa a dificuldades relativas a credores e a incertezas sazonais.A empresa tem estado a investir em ativos fixos e também aplicou alguns fundos em investimentos de longo prazo; estes, talvez, para oferecer alguma segurança na eventualidade de uma má estação. No entanto, talvez tivesse sido mais prudente canalizar o dinheiro para ativos mais líquidos, especialmente se se desejar aumentar a produção.Os inventários mostram um aumento de ano para ano, possivelmente porque os esforços de vendas não atingiram os objetivos. Do mesmo modo, as contas a receber têm aumentado de ano para ano e podem indicar que a cobrança de dívidas não é tão boa como deveria ser. Estes dois indicadores podem realçar a necessidade de melhorar o desempenho do departamento de marketing e do departamento de controlo de crédito. No entanto, só uma advertência: este aumento pode também estar simplesmente em linha com o crescimento geral do negócio e pode não ser indicativo de quaisquer problemas prementes. Os números não podem ser analisados isoladamente, têm de ser vistos em relação ao que aconteceu no resto do negócio, o que não se pode fazer sem um estudo de caso teórico como este.Em termos dos passivos da empresa, os empréstimos bancários aumentaram de ano para ano, mas este aumento esteve em linha com o aumento geral do negócio. O rácio de liquidez reduzida de um mostra que a empresa é capaz de pagar os seus passivos correntes sem ter de liquidar ações, que levam geralmente mais tempo a transformar em dinheiro, quando comparado a todos os outros ativos correntes. Nota: Estas alterações provocarão um aumento ou uma diminuição de um rácio. As setas ascendentes indicam um aumento, as setas descendentes indicam uma diminuição e as setas horizontais indicam a ausência de alterações no valor do numerador ou denominador. Resumindo, portanto, o balanço e a demonstração de resultados indicam que a Zambodia Seeds está numa posição financeira de um modo geral satisfatória, demonstrando forte liquidez e capacidade de cumprir exigências de curto prazo. As margens de lucro são razoáveis (Tabela 6.4), mas a empresa necessita de controlar as despesas e esforçar-se mais nas vendas.Esta breve análise mostra que é possível avaliar a \"saúde\" financeira de uma empresa olhando para a sua demonstração de resultados e balanço e, como um bom médico, identificando áreas que requerem atenção, para que o negócio não entre em colapso mas, em vez disso, cresça em lucros, liquidez e viabilidade no longo prazo.O fluxo de caixa refere-se às entradas e saídas de dinheiro da empresa ao longo do tempo. Para uma empresa de sementes que vende sementes de culturas agrícolas, é um aspeto particularmente importante da gestão, porque a época de vendas se concentra num curto período do ano, enquanto as despesas ocorrem ao longo de todo o ano, atingindo o seu pico alguns meses antes da época de vendas. Verifica-se portanto um período concentrado de entrada de dinheiro e um período alargado de saída de dinheiro (Figura 6.4). Uma empresa de sementes vende tipicamente o seu produto durante apenas três meses do ano, mas tem de incorrer em despesas ao longo de todo o ano. Por conseguinte, acaba por suportar uma série de meses em que não há entrada de dinheiro no negócio mas em que há saída de muito dinheiro devido à necessidade de pagar salários, custos de produção de sementes e outras exigências do dia a dia. Compreender o ciclo das entradas e saídas de dinheiro da empresa ajuda a gerir o saldo da tesouraria.As entradas em caixa têm de ser superiores às saídas de caixa, caso contrário, haverá um défice de caixa, que resultará na incapacidade de pagar os compromissos na altura certa. Se as entradas em caixa forem superiores às saídas de caixa, isso significa que haverá fundos excedentes que podem ser usados para investir ou expandir o negócio. Figura 6.4. Ilustração gráfica de um fluxo de caixa anual típico de uma empresa de sementes.Nota: Consultar a Zambodia Seeds, na Tabela 6.8, onde a empresa depende apenas de um descoberto bancário para lidar com o fluxo de caixa negativo de setembro de 2009 a janeiro de 2010.Compra e processamento de sementesModos de colmatar a lacuna de fluxo de caixa incluem:• Tentar obter vendas a dinheiro significativas e durante todo o ano.• Faturar prontamente aos clientes a crédito.• Monitorizar atentamente as vendas a crédito e ajustar os limites de crédito adequadamente.• Oferecer aos clientes descontos por pagamento antecipado.• Estabelecer uma política de depósito para todos os trabalhos em desenvolvimento.• Monitorizar as contas a receber e procurar ativamente obter os pagamentos.• Adquirir consumíveis a crédito para pagamento quando o fluxo de caixa estiver positivo.• Encorajar a produção à consignação com os agricultores, produção que só será paga quando a semente for vendida.Como demonstrado (Tabela 6.8 e Figura 6.4), as empresas de sementes terão geralmente uma situação de caixa significativamente negativa durante o período de aquisição e processamento das sementes. Para ultrapassar isto, é necessário um financiamento intermédio de curto prazo, seja sob a forma de um descoberto bancário, empréstimos ou investimento adicional dos acionistas. A preparação de uma projeção de fluxo de caixa robusto, juntamente com uma previsão de demonstração de resultados e de balanço ajudarão a convencer as instituições de crédito ou os acionistas a prover os fundos necessários. Um aspeto fundamental das projeções é que têm de ser conservadoras e realistas.O ciclo de numerário é o espaço de tempo entre o momento em que o dinheiro é desembolsado para comprar matéria-prima para o processo de produção até ao momento em que o dinheiro é recebido pela venda das sementes produzidas. Em termos de uma empresa de sementes, isto significa o período de tempo entre o pagamento de dinheiro aos agricultores pelas suas sementes e o depósito no banco das receitas da venda das sementes por parte da empresa.A fórmula para calcular o ciclo de numerário é, CC = AAI + ACP -APP, em que, AAI = idade média do inventário, ACP = período médio de recebimento (de contas a receber), e APP = período médio de pagamento de contas a pagar.Os fatores fundamentais para reduzir o ciclo de numerário são:• Política de crédito -insistir em prazos de pagamento mais reduzidos.• Período de recebimento -garantir que todas as dívidas são cobradas o mais rapidamente possível. • Período de retenção de inventário -garantir que as existências são retidas o mínimo de tempo possível. As vantagens do arrendamento são as seguintes:• Constitui uma fonte de financiamento não vinculado por crédito.• Na maioria das jurisdições, as prestações são geralmente dedutíveis dos impostos.• Geralmente, não tem cláusulas restritivas (em comparação com empréstimos propriamente ditos). • A obsolescência pode ser evitada.As desvantagens do arrendamento incluem:• Exigência de pagamentos regulares, que podem ascender a um custo mais elevado do que a aquisição e a auto-manutenção. • Pode não existir qualquer valor residual.• Quaisquer melhorias realizadas em terrenos ou edifícios revertem para o locador no final do arrendamento.As empresas de sementes, normalmente, só têm a opção de utilizar contratos de arrendamento para terrenos, edifícios e veículos. Com frequência, o equipamento de limpeza e processamento das sementes não está disponível para aluguer, embora talvez seja possível encontrar outras empresas de sementes que oferecem a possibilidade de trabalho por encomenda (\"toll processing\"). No caso de uma empresa desejar alugar edifícios para instalar equipamento de processamento, os contratos de aluguer de longo prazo, de cinco ou mais anos, oferecem mais segurança do que os contratos de curto prazo. No entanto, o aluguer de armazéns por um prazo curto pode ser útil para o período do ano em que a semente em estado natural é recebida e processada para se tornar um produto comercializável.De um ponto de vista puramente financeiro, a decisão de alugar ou adquirir um ativo através de numerário ou empréstimos pode ser avaliada utilizando técnicas de dinheiro descontado para chegar ao valor atual líquido (NPV) dos futuros pagamentos do aluguer e comparando esse valor com a quantia necessária para a aquisição direta. Se o valor atual líquido dos pagamentos futuros do aluguer for superior à quantia necessária para a compra direta, então é preferível comprar o ativo em vez de o alugar. No entanto, também é preciso considerar as vantagens e desvantagens tanto de alugar como de deter o ativo, em termos do seu efeito sobre o fluxo de caixa, utilidade, rentabilidade e balanço da empresa. Resumindo, o processo de desenvolvimento de orçamentos começa com a determinação de estratégias de marketing e produção para a empresa (Figura 6.5). Estes planos têm muito a ver com os volumes de sementes que têm de ser traduzidos em termos financeiros para criar os orçamentos de vendas e produção. Juntamente com os orçamentos de vendas e produção, o orçamento operacional tem de ser definido.Isto exige a realização de uma estimativa dos custos operacionais da empresa que ocorrem, em geral, mensalmente, como os salários, os custos de funcionamento de veículos, investigação e desenvolvimento, custos de marketing, etc. (Caixa 6.2). Estes três orçamentos -vendas, produção e operacional -alimentam então o orçamento de fluxo de caixa e o orçamento de rendimentos.A orçamentação do fluxo de caixa implica a previsão dos orçamentos de vendas e produção ao longo dos meses seguintes (Tabela 6.8). São estabelecidos objetivos de vendas mês a mês para determinar as vendas mensais. Calcula-se a produção de sementes necessária para cumprir os objetivos de vendas, juntamente com estimativas de preços dos agricultores de sementes, prazos de entrega e cronograma de processamento. Juntamente com os custos de processamento podem ser calculados os custos mensais da produção e do processamento. Os custos operacionais mensais, que serão bastante constantes ao longo do ano, são também discriminados e estimados. Calcula-se também o influxo mensal líquido a partir do volume de negócios menos os custos de produção e processamento, menos as despesas operacionais, enquanto também se contabilizam quaisquer outros custos (como os juros pagáveis ou a aquisição de bens de investimento) e rendimentos (como empréstimos recebidos e receitas diversas).O orçamento de rendimentos acumula os totais dos orçamentos de vendas, produção e operacional numa demonstração de resultados, para determinar a rentabilidade prevista da empresa no fim do exercício. Depois de determinar os orçamentos de fluxo de caixa e de rendimentos, é então possível considerar o orçamento de capital, uma vez que a decisão Nota: As setas indicam a natureza repetitiva da preparação de orçamentos.de adquirir ou alugar bens (ativos) de investimento só pode ser tomada depois de conhecida a posição da empresa quanto à rentabilidade e à sua situação de liquidez atual. Depois de os orçamentos de fluxo de caixa, de rendimentos e de capital terem sido formulados, a empresa está então em posição de determinar as suas necessidades de empréstimo.Desenvolver orçamentos é um processo repetitivo, uma vez que os gestores procuram alcançar um fluxo de caixa aceitável, expectativas de lucro suficientes e adquirir os ativos necessários para o crescimento do negócio. Idealmente, toda a empresa deveria ser envolvida na preparação do orçamento, de modo a que seja \"assumido\" por todos os funcionários. Para tornar o processo eficaz, os diretores têm de especificar os parâmetros do orçamento e dar orientações no início do exercício, de modo a evitar mal-entendidos à medida que o processo se desenvolve e é aprovado. Os parâmetros típicos incluem os aumentos salariais previstos, as taxas de inflação, as expectativas de preços, os subsídios de transporte, etc. Também é sensato ser-se conservador na preparação de um orçamento, não introduzindo estimativas de vendas exageradas e incorporando margens de erro nas despesas.Os orçamentos são estimativas e, portanto, é natural que se verifiquem. Os orçamentos devem ser encarados como linhas orientadoras e devem ser flexíveis na eventualidade de novas informações ou de alterações nas condições macroeconómicas. Ainda assim, os orçamentos não são feitos para serem manipulados mês a mês ou para acomodar erros de má gestão do negócio. Depois de um orçamento ter sido definido, só se devem efetuar alterações se forem realmente justificáveis. Fonte: Adaptado de Campbell (2004).  Os orçamentos são fundamentais para informar os funcionários da empresa sobre as expectativas da direção quanto às vendas e despesas e são necessários para monitorizar o progresso mensal no sentido da concretização da visão da empresa de acordo com as estratégias definidas. As despesas dentro dos departamentos devem ser mantidas em linha com os orçamentos, de modo a alcançar o fluxo de caixa esperado. As vendas, a produção, o fluxo de caixa e a rentabilidade mensais podem então ser comparados com o orçamento, para realçar os sucessos, os problemas e os fracassos. Assim, os orçamentos de uma empresa são uma importante ferramenta de gestão para monitorizar e avaliar o progresso e a rentabilidade.Não é possível listar todos os controlos necessários numa empresa de sementes num capítulo de um livro. Em vez disso, o objetivo é realçar algumas das áreas de risco e as principais áreas de controlo que têm de ser consideradas. Os elementos abordados abaixo não são exaustivos, mas são apresentados porque são de importância material para qualquer negócio de sementes. Se não for aplicado um controlo e uma supervisão adequada a estas questões, o negócio pode rapidamente encontrar problemas.As empresas de sementes armazenam grandes quantidades de sementes e outros consumíveis por períodos alargados de tempo e, por conseguinte, estes stocks estão vulneráveis à deterioração e a perdas. Os stocks devem ser, portanto, mantidos em locais seguros e devem ser implementados procedimentos de controlo de existências.Cada stock deve ter um cartão de stock ou de armazenamento que forneça um meio de registar as quantidades atuais de stocks e as adições ou retiradas de stocks. O registo regular de stocks, pelo menos mensal, é um importante meio de controlo. Folhas de stock, que permitem um registo eficiente de stocks e concebidas de modo a que, para além da quantidade de existências, também sejam anotadas a localização da existência, a cultura, a variedade o tamanho da embalagem e o ano de produção, fornecem informações úteis para os diretores. Os registos de stock são então reconciliados com as entregas e com as vendas (Tabela 6.9) para comparar o nível de stock teórico (de acordo com os registo contabilísticos) com o nível de stock real (de acordo com o registo de stocks).Quaisquer diferenças entre o nível de stock teórico e a contagem real de stock devem ser investigadas prontamente. Uma pequena diferença pode ser devida a perdas de processamento, em especial nos casos em que as existências incluem sementes processadas e não processadas. Uma grande diferença pode indicar:• fraude,• erro de contagem, ou • stocks extraviados.A gestão de caixa num negócio é crítica para o sucesso. No centro dessa gestão está um bom sistema contabilístico que garanta que todas as transações são registadas e reconciliadas regularmente com os saldos bancário e de tesouraria.Do lado das vendas, todas as vendas têm de ser faturadas, com registo da quantidade e o valor dos artigos vendidos. As quantidades físicas e monetárias são, então, introduzidas adequadamente em registos de stock e sistemas contabilísticos.Os recebimentos de vendas em numerário devem ser depositados diariamente no banco, enquanto as vendas a crédito só devem ser realizadas com clientes dignos de crédito e devem ser geridas de modo a garantir que os limites de crédito não são ultrapassados, insistindo em pagamento atempado.Monitorizar a análise da idade das contas a receber e dos montantes devidos e instigar a cobrança de dívidas ajudará a minimizar as dívidas incobráveis.Do lado das despesas, todas as aquisições devem seguir as políticas da empresa, que em geral exigem o seguinte:• Todas as aquisições devem ser autorizadas pelos diretores competentes para o efeito, de acordo com orçamentos predeterminados e com base em duas ou mais propostas de orçamento.• Identificação e seleção de fornecedores preferidos.• Emissão de uma nota de encomenda oficial para as mercadorias.• A aquisição de bens por cheque ou a crédito para aquisições acima de um determinado valor ou em numerário para artigos de baixo valor. • Emissão de uma \"Nota de emissão\" na receção das mercadorias, com uma referência cruzada para o recibo e informações da encomenda. • Introdução das mercadorias recebidas nos registos de stocks.A maior despesa que uma empresa de sementes terá é a compra de sementes. Uma vez que as sementes são geralmente adquiridas a agricultores de sementes contratados, a gestão de contratos, recibos de entrega e procedimentos de pagamento são um dos principais Tabela 6.9. Exemplo de uma reconciliação de stocks mensal. componentes do controlo financeiro. No momento da entrega das sementes, deve ser emitida uma \"nota de receção de sementes\", especificando a cultura, a variedade, o estado de qualidade essencial (p. ex., humidade da semente e percentagem de defeitos das sementes), quantidade total e dimensão da embalagem. Não é incomum que uma empresa de sementes atrase o pagamento das sementes até terem sido realizados testes de germinação nas sementes entregues. Portanto, deve ser definida uma política de pagamentos que será comunicada aos agricultores contratados. Se os pagamentos aos agricultores não forem realizados no momento da entrega das sementes deverá ser implementado um sistema para gerir estas contas a pagar.As empresas de sementes enfrentam um grande ciclo anual de fluxo de caixa, com exigências de despesas significativas na altura da compra das sementes, valores que só são recuperados alguns meses mais tarde durante uma época de vendas relativamente curta. Assegurar o crédito para um período de fluxo de caixa negativo é a principal forma de garantir que a empresa permanece viável. A disponibilidade de crédito para as empresas de sementes e a solvência de uma empresa de sementes são, por isso, fundamentais para o sucesso do negócio.Tanto os mutuários como os mutuantes têm as suas próprias visões do crédito e do risco, sendo necessário que cheguem a um nível mútuo de consenso nos acordos de crédito. Os mutuantes, normalmente, lideram o processo de avaliar e satisfazer as necessidades de crédito dos mutuários pois encontram-se na posição financeira mais forte e têm outras opções para satisfazer os seus objetivos de realização de lucro e de minimização de riscos. Os mutuários têm o papel de convencer os mutuantes de que atribuir-lhes o crédito será uma situação em que todos ganham.Os mutuantes farão uma avaliação do perfil de crédito ou solvência de um potencial mutuário, bem como do empréstimo per se. Em relação à solvência de um mutuário, os mutuantes consideram três aspetos: 1. A segurança do empréstimo, refletida em particular no balanço do mutuário. 2. As expectativas de reembolso e de rendimentos, refletidas no orçamento de fluxo de caixa do mutuário. 3. A capacidade de gestão e o desempenho histórico da empresa, refletidos nas demonstrações de resultados, no perfil da empresa, na carteira de produtos, na força da marca, na quota de mercado, etc.Além disso, quando os mutuantes avaliam o empréstimo em si, preferem empréstimos que seja auto-liquidantes e geradores de ativos (Barry et al. 2000). Os empréstimos autoliquidantes são aqueles que providenciam recursos ao mutuário que lhe permite gerar fundos suficientes para pagar o empréstimo dentro do prazo de pagamento. Os empréstimos concedidos para a produção de sementes são mais passíveis de ser auto-liquidantes dentro do prazo do empréstimo do que os empréstimos para equipamento de investimento, que têm períodos de reembolso mais longos. Um empréstimo gerador de ativos é aquele que providencia fundos para o mutuário adquirir ativos produtivos. Estes ativos conferem ao mutuante alguma segurança, mas os ativos variam quanto à sua facilidade de recuperação.Por exemplo, um empréstimo para equipamento de limpeza de sementes é um empréstimo gerador de ativos, mas o equipamento de limpeza de sementes não é tão facilmente recuperável como um veículo ou terreno. Os ativos também desvalorizam com o tempo e com o uso e, por conseguinte, o seu valor como ativo recuperável diminui a partir da data de compra. O terreno não se desvaloriza, ao passo que os veículos e o equipamento de limpeza de sementes se desvalorizam relativamente rápido.Os empréstimos que são altamente auto-liquidantes e geradores de ativos são os mais desejáveis para os mutuantes (Figura 6.6). Em contrapartida, os empréstimos que não serão utilizados para aquisição de ativos e que não gerarão retorno de caixa ao mutuário têm pouco interesse para os mutuantes. Os mutuantes apresentarão uma preferência intermédia por empréstimos que sejam fortes num critério e fracos em outro. Por conseguinte, o mutuário tem de apresentar um pedido de crédito que satisfaça as preferências de empréstimo e de risco do mutuante, demonstrando ao mesmo tempo um elevado grau de solvência através de uma boa gestão de empresa.Quando se procura angariar fundos é importante preparar um fluxo de caixa realista que demonstre claramente a capacidade de pagamento do empréstimo. Se a projeção de fluxo de caixa mostrar que a empresa não é capaz de pagar o empréstimo, será virtualmente impossível convencer um mutuante a conceder o crédito necessário. Se o fluxo de caixa não for realista, o mutuante pode perder a confiança no conhecimento que o gestor tem do negócio e considerar o risco demasiado elevado para a concessão de um empréstimo.Atualmente, com a proliferação de instituições de crédito à procura de negócio, é sempre útil dispor de uma série de linhas de crédito com vários bancos, para que, quando for necessário fazer um pagamento, possa ser pedido um orçamento a todas as instituições de crédito. Com frequência, isto envolverá uma redução dos custos de financiamento, uma vez que os mutuantes concorrem pelo negócio.Figura 6.6. Preferências do mutuante por combinações de características de empréstimo.Nota: Adaptado de Barry et al. (2000).Não gerador de ativos Gerador de ativosNão auto-liquidante1. Gerir o ciclo do fundo de maneio é fundamental para o sucesso de um negócio. Uma empresa de sementes, em geral, tem um curto período do ano em que a maioria do rendimento é obtido através de vendas, mas as despesas operacionais são recorrentes ao longo do ano, e são necessários grandes gastos para comprar sementes para comercialização antes da época de vendas. 2. A demonstração de resultados é um meio de avaliar o desempenho financeiro de uma empresa ao longo de um período de tempo especificado. A demonstração de resultados fornece informações sobre o volume de negócios, o custo das mercadorias vendidas, a margem bruta, as despesas operacionais e o lucro. 3. Uma revisão das demonstrações de resultados dos últimos períodos fornece informações sobre o desempenho da empresa no longo prazo e serve como rampa de lançamento para o planeamento de orçamentos futuros e objetivos de lucros. A demonstração de resultados também pode ser usada para determinar o volume break-even e os preços de produtos e, assim, estabelecer a segurança que a empresa tem na eventualidade de uma diminuição futurado volume de negócios (devido a volumes reduzidos, preços reduzidos ou ambos). 4. O balanço é uma declaração do estado financeiro de uma empresa numa determinada data. Resume tudo o que a empresa detém (ativos) e todos os montantes que são devidos a terceiros (passivos). A partir do balanço, a empresa pode determinar o valor líquido, o estado de risco, liquidez e grau de solvência. 5. A análise do estado financeiro de uma empresa é realizada através do exame dos números absolutos da demonstração de resultados e do balanço e da utilização de vários rácios calculados a partir destes dados, que são analisados per se e em relação a períodos anteriores e aos padrões do setor. Embora estes dados e rácios sejam úteis para compreender o desempenho histórico da empresa, os motivos para os valores dos números e dos rácios são igualmente valiosos para determinar o desempenho da empresa e as exigências de gestão. 6. O fluxo de caixa refere-se às entradas e saídas de dinheiro da empresa ao longo do tempo.Para uma empresa permanecer viável, as entradas de dinheiro têm de ser superiores às saídas de dinheiro. As empresas de sementes que vendem sementes de culturas agrícolas apresentam grandes flutuações anuais de fluxo de caixa, necessitando em geral de apoio de crédito para a sobrevivência da empresa. Os gestores das empresas de sementes têm de considerar formas de evitar fluxos de caixa negativos significativos. 7. A preparação de orçamentos ajuda os gestores a planear e a determinar as implicações da rentabilidade e do fluxo de caixa na produção e as estratégias de marketing, e oferecem um meio de controlar operações futuras. Os orçamentos de uma empresa são, por isso, uma importante ferramenta de gestão para monitorizar e avaliar o progresso e a rentabilidade. 8. As duas áreas de controlo fundamentais numa empresa de sementes são os stocks e a caixa. As empresas de sementes têm grandes volumes de stocks de sementes perecíveis, que correm o risco de deterioração e perdas. A redução na qualidade dos stocks de sementes pode ter um impacto negativo sobre o valor dos stocks e o potencial de vendas. Uma gestão de caixa que assegure saldos de tesouraria positivos é fundamental para o sucesso do negócio. 9. O negócio das sementes exigirá, provavelmente, grandes empréstimos anuais para fazer face às flutuações do fluxo de caixa. As fontes de financiamento considerarão a concessão de empréstimos que são, ao mesmo tempo, altamente auto-liquidantes e geradores de ativos. Os gestores de empresa têm, portanto, de desenvolver planos estratégicos e orçamentos que tenham um elevado grau de sucesso na quitação de empréstimos, enquanto tornam o negócio lucrativo. 10. É impossível gerir adequadamente a estratégia financeira de uma empresa sem um sistema informático de contabilidade que seja mantido atualizado e que compile todos os elementos principais do negócio. Os gestores que não disponham de dados atualizados sobre os saldos de tesouraria, as receitas, as despesas e o desempenho em termos de lucro, estarão em grande desvantagem.A gestão de recursos humanos é uma componente estratégica do sucesso empresarial, embora nunca tenha sido apresentada como um dos três pilares estratégicos que sustentam a visão da empresa. Isto deve-se à natureza transversal da gestão de recursos humanos. As três principais estratégias, de marketing, produção e finanças, envolvem recursos humanos.Por conseguinte, em muitos aspetos, um negócio só é tão bom quanto as pessoas envolvidas, e gerir as pessoas de uma empresa, portanto, constitui uma função global do negócio.Nem todas as empresas de sementes terão os recursos para contratar um Diretor de Recursos Humanos e, portanto, os diretores da área de produção, marketing e finanças terão de lidar com decisões relacionadas com o pessoal, incluindo a contratação, a atribuição de cargos, a formação, a compensação, o cumprimento da legislação e regulamentos relacionados com os empregados, o local de trabalho e a garantia da segurança e saúde de empregados (e clientes). Esta multiplicidade de tarefas exige indivíduos com capacidades organizacionais e interpessoais fortes, que consigam passar rapidamente da gestão de projetos ou de processos para a gestão de pessoas, sem ficarem sobrecarregados.Nos casos em que uma empresa de sementes tem capacidade de empregar um Diretor de Recursos Humanos (RH) para se ocupar das muitas questões relacionadas com o pessoal (Figura 7.1), terá de ser aceite como parceiro integral e estratégico na estrutura de gestão de uma empresa. Mas, ao mesmo tempo, o Diretor de RH também tem de poder ser um defensor dos empregados perante a administração. Esta defesa inclui a promoção de um ambiente de trabalho onde as pessoas se sintam motivadas, inovadoras, contribuidoras e felizes, ao mesmo tempo que promove métodos eficazes de definição de objetivos, comunicação e capacitação através da responsabilidade. Além disso, a gestão de RH está relacionada com a criação do sentido de pertença por parte de um empregado em relação à organização e à sua visão.O profissional de RH ajuda a estabelecer a cultura e o ambiente organizacional no âmbito do qual o pessoal terá a competência, a preocupação e o empenho para servir bem os clientes. Neste papel, o diretor de RH proporciona oportunidades de desenvolvimento aos empregados e programas de apoio aos empregados, estratégias de partilha de ganhos e de partilha de lucros, intervenções de desenvolvimento organizacional, abordagens para a resolução de problemas devidamente assentes em processos e oportunidades de comunicação programadas regularmente. A avaliação constante da eficácia da organização leva a que o profissional de RH tenha de defender frequentemente uma mudança. Tanto o conhecimento sobre estratégias de mudança como a capacidade de as executar com sucesso fazem do profissional de RH um elemento excecionalmente valioso. Saber como associar a mudança às necessidades estratégicas da organização minimizará a insatisfação dos empregados e a sua resistência à mudança. O profissional de RH contribui também para o negócio ao avaliar permanentemente a eficácia da função dos RH. Para sustentar o êxito global da empresa, os diretores de RH também defendem a missão, a visão, os valores, os objetivos e os planos de ação da empresa perante os empregados. Portanto, a função dos RH nunca poderá ser sobrevalorizada.À medida que uma empresa desenvolve a sua visão e define o quadro estratégico para alcançar essa visão, os diretores identificarão tarefas críticas dentro da estrutura organizacional que otimizarão os recursos humanos da empresa e a respetiva contribuição. Cada tarefa crítica tem de ser definida primeiro e, depois, tem de se procurar o pessoal adequado para executar essa tarefa, e não o inverso. As tarefas críticas são definidas numa descrição das funções, para garantir que cada pessoa empregue para executar uma função está ciente da natureza, das responsabilidades, das expectativas de desempenho e das competências necessárias para a tarefa. Os elementos essenciais de uma descrição de funções incluem:• Nome do cargo (que descreve concisamente o trabalho) • Local de afetação (onde se situa o trabalho) • Estrutura hierárquica.• Objetivo do cargo (que resultados são esperados do desempenho do trabalho).• Tarefas a serem executadas, incluindo a percentagem de tempo prevista para cada tarefa.• Qualificações, conhecimentos profissionais e competências necessárias.• Condições de trabalho, máquinas e equipamento a ser usado, e quaisquer potenciais perigos e riscos associados ao trabalho. • Estrutura de remuneração.• Padrões de desempenho e avaliação.As descrições de funções não são documentos estáticos; são dinâmicos, à medida que o negócio cresce e se desenvolve e à medida que novas tecnologias são adotadas e utilizadas na empresa. Por conseguinte, a revisão regular de trabalhos e tarefas é importante para manter um quadro de efetivos eficaz e informado. À medida que as tarefas se alteram, alguns cargos podem tornar-se redundantes, ser redefinidos ou reestruturados, e o pessoal que os tinha terá de ser transferido para um novo cargo, submeter-se a nova formação ou ser despedido. O objetivo global é garantir que o quadro de efetivos e a respetiva organização sejam adequados para concretizar a visão da empresa.Procura-se empregados para preencher cargos essenciais numa organização. Os cargos e as tarefas têm primeiro de ser definidos, de modo a que a pessoa melhor qualificada possa ser recrutada para assumir o cargo. Nem sempre é necessário empregar pessoas novas ou contratar pessoal a tempo inteiro para executar tarefas críticas, uma vez que existem métodos alternativos de satisfazer as necessidades, como a reestruturação interna da empresa, a subcontratação de tarefas a terceiros e a contratação de trabalhadores temporários. Devido à natureza sazonal do negócio das sementes, a utilização de trabalhadores temporários ou a contratação para certas tarefas, como as relacionadas com ao processamento das sementes e a determinados aspetos da comercialização das sementes (por ex., vendedores), pode ser uma boa estratégia para reduzir os custos anuais com salários.Cada novo empregado que entra para a empresa, faz aumentar os custos totais. De modo geral, é esperado que a eficiência também aumente com pessoal adicional, especialmente se esse pessoal for contratado para realizar tarefas críticas. No entanto, isto pode nem sempre acontecer (Figura 7.2). Por exemplo, para um dado número de toneladas de sementes produzidas ou vendidas, o custo do trabalho por tonelada de sementes será menor se for empregue uma pessoa para executar a tarefa do que se forem empregues duas ou mais pessoas para realizar a mesma tarefa. A eficiência dos custos do trabalho apenas melhora se a produção total for aumentada. Assim, se for empregue uma pessoa nova, esta terá de contribuir para a eficiência de custos ou para a geração de receitas da empresa; caso contrário, a empresa terá simplesmente menos lucro e será menos sustentável. O processo de recrutamento de pessoal para trabalhos definidos inclui: • Perguntas de simulação de trabalho (para avaliar a capacidade de resolução de problemas do candidato e o estilo de relacionamento pessoal) • Exigências do empregado (para verificar as expectativas e as necessidades do empregado).É também dada aos candidatos a oportunidade de fazer perguntas ao painel de entrevistadores. • Os potenciais candidatos são avaliados e aquele que for considerado mais passível de satisfazer os objetivos e o que melhor se adequar às qualificações, competências e experiência exigidas para o cargo é selecionado. • O candidato bem-sucedido é selecionado e notificado por uma carta de nomeação, indicando as condições do emprego e a data de admissão.Ao processo pelo qual novos empregados são introduzidos na organização para se identificarem com e mergulharem na cultura e visão da empresa, chama-se indução. No final de um processo de indução, um empregado deverá conhecer a visão da empresa, como e onde é que ele se insere na organização, o que se espera dele, as liberdades e as responsabilidades do empregado e do empregador. Além disso, o processo de indução oferece uma oportunidade para os outros empregados da empresa se familiarizarem com o novo empregado e o seu lugar na empresa.As principais áreas a abordar no processo de indução incluem:• Visão e missão da empresa • Valores da empresa • Estrutura da empresa • Funções e responsabilidades de superiores e subordinados, procedimentos de comunicação • Regulamentos de segurança e saúde da empresa e do cargo • Marketing, produção e estratégias financeiras da empresa • Procedimentos operacionais • Políticas de recursos humanos (remuneração, licenças, doença, procedimento de queixa, processo disciplinar, etc.).Dependendo da descrição das funções, o processo de indução pode ser um exercício curto e simples ou um processo demorado e intensivo. Tipicamente, quanto mais responsabilidade tiver o cargo, mais longo e rigoroso será o processo de indução.Um empregado é considerado um recurso, um fator de produção, como o dinheiro ou as máquinas, mas o quadro de efetivos é constituído por pessoas e, portanto, é um tipo de recurso diferente. As pessoas são únicas: pensam, são criativas, capazes de aprender, têm emoções e sentimentos e podem responder! Portanto, os recursos humanos não podem ser tratados da mesma maneira que o mero dinheiro ou equipamento. Infelizmente, a confiança pode ser destruída num curto espaço de tempo, através da desonestidade, de promessas quebradas e de falta de apoio e, uma vez perturbada, é muito difícil restaurá-la.Respeito: As pessoas precisam de ser respeitadas, quer sejam diretores quer sejam empregados.Os diretores têm de dar valor aos seus trabalhadores e mostrar que os respeitam. Um diretor perderá o respeito se fugir às responsabilidades ou se criticar os seus trabalhadores indevida ou publicamente.Compreensão: As pessoas desejam ser compreendidas mas é necessário muito esforço para compreendermos alguém, e as nossas perceções das pessoas são muitas vezes influenciadas por fatores externos, devida ou indevidamente. Este aspeto depende, portanto, em grande medida do modo como comunicamos. Quanto melhor comunicarem os diretores e os trabalhadores, mais se compreenderão mutuamente, e mais capazes serão de se valorizar, confiar e respeitar entre si e deste modo trabalhar juntos mais eficazmente para concretizar a visão da empresa.É por isso claro que é preciso uma capacidade especial para gerir e motivar o pessoal e a mão-de-obra, mas há alguns pontos que podem ajudar a consegui-lo. 4 As pessoas são o recurso mais importante de uma empresa. São criativas, mas só serão criativas até onde lhes for permitido ser. Estimular a criatividade na direção certa aumentará a produtividade, tanto do indivíduo como da empresa. Por conseguinte, um diretor deve: 1. tratar os empregados de modo a que eles não tenham nenhum motivo genuíno de queixa ou de insatisfação, e 2. motivar os empregados de forma a que o seu desempenho tenha um elevado nível de produtividade. As pessoas que permanecem como empregadas de uma empresa fazem-no, geralmente, porque retiram satisfação de trabalhar para a empresa. Em contrapartida, a empresa mantém os empregados porque estes apresentam um bom desempenho e contribuem para a concretização da visão da empresa. A avaliação do desempenho é um meio de garantir um relacionamento produtivo de longo prazo entre os empregados e a empresa.A avaliação do emprego é uma função de:• Resultados, ou o que foi alcançado em termos de resultados mensuráveis (por ex., quantidade de sementes processadas ou sacos de sementes vendidos). Esta é uma medida objetiva relacionada com a(s) tarefa(s) da função, tal como descrita(s) na descrição de funções. • Comportamentos ou o desempenho do indivíduo. Isto está relacionado com as competências, o estilo, a maneira de estar e a aparência de uma pessoa e é, portanto, mais subjetivo.De um modo geral, deve ser dado mais peso às medidas objetivas do desempenho, mas a componente subjetiva não pode ser descurada, especialmente em cargos que impliquem muita interação pessoal, como nos cargos comerciais. De facto, nesse tipo de cargos, os dois aspetos podem estar altamente correlacionados.A avaliação de desempenho é uma parte integrante da atividade da empresa. Por um lado, é uma parte constante do relacionamento diretor-empregado, uma vez que o desempenho diário é monitorizado e sendo dado um feedback sob a forma de encorajamento ou de medidas corretivas.No entanto, a avaliação do desempenho é também uma atividade estruturada e formal, que é geralmente desempenhada anual ou semestralmente, em especial relacionada com a remuneração e a promoção. Por forma a garantir que o processo é conduzido satisfatoriamente de modo a alcançar os resultados desejados, existem tipicamente quatro fases: Embora sejam realizados todos os esforços para empregar pessoas competentes nos cargos onde desempenharão tarefas críticas, é raro todos serem perfeitamente qualificados e competentes para realizar tarefas de modo eficiente e eficaz. Além disso, à medida que a tecnologia avança, os empregados podem não dispor das competências necessárias para fazer o melhor uso da tecnologia melhorada ou das novas formas de desempenhar as tarefas. Por conseguinte, para qualquer empresa de sementes é essencial uma formação adequada. Isto pode implicar simplesmente uma demonstração das técnicas melhoradas aos empregados, tal como empilhar os sacos com uma nova correia transportadora ou proporcionar oportunidades de formação especializada, tal como para o funcionamento de um novo equipamento ou a utilização de um software. Seja qual for a situação, um diretor deve garantir que os trabalhadores têm as competências necessárias para desempenhar os seus deveres de modo a atingirem não apenas os objetivos quantitativos mas também a qualidade necessária dos resultados.A formação tem a ver com a melhoria do conhecimento, das competências e da experiência de um indivíduo ou grupo, de modo a aumentar a produtividade e a avançar no sentido da concretização da visão da empresa. O desenvolvimento pessoal não se restringe à formação, mas inclui tudo aquilo que possa ajudar uma pessoa a crescer em capacidade, competências, confiança, tolerância, empenho, competências interpessoais, compreensão, autocontrolo e motivação. A formação não beneficia apenas a empresa, contribui também para a realização e a satisfação do empregado.À medida que os empregados obtêm formação e adquirem novos conhecimentos e competências profissionais, aumentam o seu valor de mercado, ganhando capacidade e poder. A formação também pode qualificar os empregados para uma promoção para cargos de maior responsabilidade e proporciona, assim, um estímulo motivador aos empregados. formadores e na utilização das técnicas de formação mais adequadas valerá a pena. A formação pode ser dada informalmente, dentro da organização, ou formalmente, através da contratação de formadores.A eficácia da formação é medida não apenas pelo custo-benefício da formação ou o número de horas que os empregados assistem às sessões de formação, mas também pelas alterações no comportamento dos empregados, pelo aumento da produtividade e/ou pela melhoria na qualidade como resultado da formação. Além disso, a eficácia da formação e do desenvolvimento implica a avaliação de reduções em fatores como a rotação do pessoal, o absentismo, as queixas do pessoal e as reclamações dos clientes.Os empregados têm de ser recompensados pelo trabalho feito, mas determinar o montante a pagar por um dado trabalho é frequentemente difícil (Caixa 7.6). Ainda assim, a compensação tem de ser justa e suficiente para o trabalho realizado. Basicamente, um empregado deveria ser pago de acordo com o que vale para a empresa, pelo trabalho realizado e pelo empenho e desempenho.A remuneração não é uma arma e sim uma recompensa, e é apenas um aspeto da gestão de recursos humanos e da motivação dos empregados.Alguns dos fatores a considerar na definição de salários e vencimentos incluem:• Oferta e procura. Os empregos variam no número de pessoas disponíveis para ocupar o cargo e, por conseguinte, os níveis de remuneração variam em conformidade. Nos casos em que há mais pessoas disponíveis para um determinado cargo, a empresa pode ter mais margem de manobra no salário ou vencimento atribuído ao cargo. • Escassez de competências. No setor das sementes, existem determinados cargos que exigem competências especializadas, nomeadamente, os relacionados com a produção e o processamento. A escassez de competências entre as pessoas pode exigir a definição de salários e vencimentos mais elevados, para atrair as pessoas com as qualificações e as competências necessárias para a empresa.Recuadro 7.6. Los principios que se aplican para determinar los salarios.1. Los salarios deben fijarse con base en los requerimientos de los puestos (por ejemplo, las habilidades, esfuerzos y responsabilidades) y las condiciones laborales. 2. Los niveles salariales deben ir de acuerdo con los estándares de la industria y del mercado laboral, o ser definidos según las leyes laborales actuales. 3. Cuando existen puestos diferentes pero que tienen los mismos requerimientos, ambos deben recibir la misma compensación salarial. 4. El nivel salarial de un puesto dado no debe variar, no importa quién sea contratado para ocuparlo. 5. Es necesario emplear medios equitativos para compensar diferencias en lo que los individuos saben y aportan. 6. La estructura salarial debe ser transparente y, además, es necesario comunicársela a los empleados, los comités laborales y los sindicatos.Fonte: Adaptado de Beach (1985).• Acessibilidade. Embora os salários e vencimentos constituam, normalmente, uma proporção relativamente pequena dos custos totais de uma empresa de sementes, continua a ser necessário obter lucros sustentáveis, pelo que as empresas não têm a liberdade de pagar salários e vencimentos exorbitantes. Uma vez que os salários e os vencimentos são uma despesa mensal bastante consistente, podem ter um impacto significativo no fluxo de caixa. Além disso, os salários e os vencimentos são geralmente contabilizados como despesas operacionais, influenciando assim os lucros operacionais. Estas podem incluir benefícios como assistência médica, pensões, subsídios de transporte, horas extraordinárias, bónus anuais, etc. Estas regalias têm de ser bem definidas e especificadas aos empregados no momento da contratação, para evitar mal entendidos posteriores. Além disso, as implicações fiscais das regalias acessórias têm de ser determinadas e comunicadas aos empregados. Em determinados trabalhos, os empregados podem receber o usufruto de bens da empresa para desempenharem as suas tarefas, como o uso de veículos ou telemóveis.As condições de utilização destes bens têm de ser claramente especificadas, de modo a que os abusos ou o uso presunçoso não se tornem um ponto de conflito com os supervisores.1. A gestão de recursos humanos é uma parte integrante da gestão estratégica de uma empresa, uma vez que uma empresa não é nada mais nada do que as pessoas empregadas. Uma empresa de sementes pode ou não empregar um profissional de recursos humanos, mas isso não diminui a necessidade de todos os diretores deverem estar capacitados para a gestão de pessoas, para seu bem e para a consecução da visão da empresa. 2. A gestão de recursos humanos começa pela identificação e definição das tarefas críticas da empresa e pela determinação das qualificações e competências que os empregados têm de dispor para desempenhar essas tarefas. Uma empresa não deve empregar mais pessoal do que o absolutamente necessário para desempenhar as tarefas críticas.3. O recrutamento de empregados é uma questão de procurar as pessoas que melhor se adequam aos cargos necessários para a empresa. Assim que as pessoas apropriadas são recrutadas, fazem uma indução, para as introduzir na estrutura empresarial, as familiarizar com a visão da empresa e para se estabelecerem no seu novo cargo. Considerando estes aspetos, uma empresa de sementes tem de ter uma visão para orientar a direção da sua atividade. Sem uma direção clara não é possível um progresso real ou, no mínimo, será difícil medir o progresso. No entanto para fazer progressos são necessárias estratégias. As três principais estratégias para uma empresa de sementes são a do marketing, da produção e das finanças. A estratégia de marketing formula os objetivos de vendas de uma carteira de produtos que é concentrada no cliente e determina meios para alcançar esses objetivos. A estratégia da produção planeia o modo como será produzida, processada e embalada a semente necessária para venda, com uma qualidade que cumpre ou ultrapasse as expectativas do cliente e as exigências regulamentares. Entre a estratégia de marketing e a da produção encontra-se a função da investigação. Esta visa produtos melhorados, adaptados e adequados ao mercado, que possam ser produzidos de forma económica e produtiva. A estratégia financeira determina a rentabilidade das estratégias de marketing e de produção combinadas, em conjunto com os custos operacionais quotidianos das atividades do negócio. Também estabelece meios de financiar, gerir, monitorizar e avaliar despesas, rendimentos, ativos e passivos.Em grande medida, todos os negócios são a soma das pessoas que trabalham na ou para a empresa. A gestão de recursos humanos, portanto, não deve ser nunca negligenciada, independentemente da dimensão e do âmbito da empresa. Os gestores são especialmente responsáveis nesta área, uma vez que identificam as tarefas críticas, recrutam as pessoas para funções para executarem essas tarefas e implementam sistemas para compensar, motivar, avaliar e disciplinar os funcionários.A gestão de indústria de sementes é, por isso, um empreendimento abrangente. Uma análise holística do ambiente da indústria de sementes, em conjunto com um empenho completo na visão, um entendimento claro das estratégias e a dedicação para os deveres de gestão diários do negócio são fundamentais para alcançar um mínimo de sucesso. Este capítulo final apresenta mais algumas ideias sobre assuntos e exigências da gestão geral de uma empresa de sementes.Um diretor-geral de uma empresa de sementes está envolvido na coordenação de todos os componentes da empresa, necessários para concretizar a visão. Isto implica formular e implementar as estratégias de produção, de marketing e financeira, monitorizar e avaliar o progresso, e implementar melhorias para garantir que a empresa progride. Associado a isto está a gestão do capital humano da empresa. De modo a cumprir este papel de multifacetado, os seguintes atributos pessoais são úteis:• No contexto de uma posição de gestão dentro de uma organização foram identificadas duas variáveis de comportamento fundamentais (Blake et al. 1964). A primeira é uma preocupação com ou paixão pela, produção e os resultados, enquanto a outra é uma preocupação com as pessoas e com o seu bem-estar. Estas duas preocupações podem apresentar graus de expressão e a sua combinação influencia a cultura e o ambiente da empresa (Figura 8.1; Caixa 8.1).Os diretores que têm uma preocupação mínima tanto pelas pessoas da organização como pela produção inculcarão, muito provavelmente, atitudes semelhantes nos seus subordinados e colegas, tendo como resultado uma produção reduzida e um estado de espírito deprimido. No caso de os diretores demonstrarem extremos opostos de preocupação pelas pessoas e pela produção, a cultura empresarial pode segui-los. A organização avançará para uma cultura de um ambiente de trabalho confortável (i.e., a \"zona de conforto\" onde a amizade e as boas relações são prezadas, enquanto se espera que a produção aconteça como subproduto de boas relações), ou surgirá uma orientação exclusiva para os resultados (onde se espera que as pessoas se esforcem por produzir resultados mas não se espera que participem em tomadas de decisão nem no planeamento do trabalho). O melhor estilo de gestão é aquele Elevada Baixa Baixa Preocupação com a produção Elevada Figura 8.1. Grelha de gestão que ilustra as combinações do grau de preocupação com as pessoas e preocupação com a produção no ambiente organizacional da empresa.Fonte: Adaptado de Blake et al. (1964). O conceito de cultura da empresa refere-se ao conjunto de princípios e valores subjacentes que são mantidos e defendidos na empresa. É o modo como as coisas são realizadas numa empresa. O ambiente, em contrapartida, referese às interações diárias e à natureza das relações entre as pessoas da empresa. Estes dois aspetos, cultura e ambiente, interagem e influenciam a motivação e a satisfação dos funcionários, bem como o modo como os clientes e o mundo encaram a empresa.Fonte: Adaptação de Burke and Litwin (n.d.) em que se dá uma ênfase quase igual às pessoas e à produtividade. As relações humanas e o bem-estar são considerados importantes, bem como os resultados de produtividade. Para avançar para esta situação, em que as pessoas têm uma participação comum na produção, os diretores têm de analisar primeiro os seus próprios padrões de comportamento, avaliar a eficácia da equipa e diagnosticar as principais áreas problemáticas da organização. Depois disto, podem ser implementadas medidas corretivas pessoais e organizacionais para reforçar a cultura organizacional de melhoria da eficácia da gestão.Não é comum um gestor ser totalmente competente ou capaz de lidar com todas as exigências diárias de gerir o funcionamento total uma empresa de sementes, mesmo que seja pequena. As exigências da gestão das estratégias financeira, de produção e de marketing são imensas, em particular à medida que o negócio cresce. Sempre que um gestor reconhecer uma fraqueza pessoal numa ou em mais áreas, ou quando simplesmente não houver tempo suficiente para dar a atenção necessária a cada componente, seria sensato empregar mais pessoas. Escolher as pessoas certas a contratar para cargos de gestão fundamentais ou para qualquer cargo da empresa, na verdade, é essencial para o sucesso. Demore o tempo que necessitar para definir o cargo, as suas funções, os indicadores de desempenho, as áreas de responsabilidade e as qualificações necessárias.No caso de ser criado e preenchido um novo cargo com uma pessoa adequada, o diretor tem de delegar alguma autoridade no funcionário desse cargo. No entanto, esta delegação de autoridade não envolve uma perda de controlo, receio comum a muitos gestores relativamente à delegação. A delegação implica um tipo diferente de controlo -o diretor já não desempenha a tarefa em si, mas supervisiona e aconselha a pessoa que desempenha a tarefa. Assim, à medida que um negócio de sementes cresce, é provável que o diretor sénior se envolva cada vez mais na supervisão dos funcionários. Nesses casos, os bons diretores estão preocupados com a satisfação das necessidades dos seus funcionários enquanto trabalham no cumprimento das suas funções. Isto exige bons sistemas de comunicação, estruturas de notificação claras, indicadores de desempenho mensuráveis e uma visão claramente compreendida e partilhada na empresa. Acima de tudo, um diretor-geral tem de ter capacidade de liderança.Gestores e líderes não são sinónimos. Estritamente falando, os gestores envolvem-se na gestão dos aspetos técnicos de um negócio, tal como coisas e processos, enquanto os líderes lideram pessoas (Beierlein et al. 2008). Os gestores pretendem principalmente alcançar elevadas eficiências técnicas, fazendo bem as coisas certas. Também garantem que os subordinados têm o ambiente, as ferramentas e os recursos necessários para alcançar objetivos de produção. Os líderes, em contrapartida, procuram atingir o maior benefício possível das atividades das pessoas.Os diretores-gerais de empresas de negócios combinam os dois papéis, mas a liderança é o componente maior, uma vez que a gestão técnica é geralmente delegada nos subordinados.Existem tantos estilos de liderança quantos líderes, e haverá sempre um líder, bom ou mau. Quer se trate de gerir uma pequena equipa de pessoal de marketing ou uma grande empresa internacional, o estilo de liderança de um gestor é fundamental para o desempenho da equipa e da empresa. O comportamento de um líder tem uma influência significativa sobre as emoções de um empregado no trabalho e, por conseguinte, contribui para o ambiente da empresa. Resumidamente, o estilo de liderança refere-se aos padrões de comportamento que um líder usa em diferentes situações. Influenciados pelos nossos motivos internos, valores, ambiente cultural e pelo modo como fomos ensinados, cada pessoa tem inconscientemente tendência a ter um determinado estilo natural de liderança.Os especialistas em gestão desenvolveram vários esquemas de classificação de estilos de liderança. Daniel Goleman (2002), no seu livro \"Primal Leadership\", descreve seis estilos de liderança. Nenhum deles é bom ou mau, mas cada um deles tem um momento e um lugar certos. Um líder extraordinário é capaz de usar uma variedade de estilos de liderança e alternar habilmente entre eles, dependendo das circunstâncias presentes.Um líder visionário motiva através da apresentação à equipa de uma visão de longo prazo bem articulada e pede aos empregados as suas perspetivas sobre a visão. O líder usa um equilíbrio de feedback positivo e negativo, indica para onde ir mas não como chegar lá e deixa assim espaço à criatividade e à inovação dos empregados, na sua luta para avançar no sentido da visão. O desempenho dos empregados é avaliado em relação à visão. Este estilo é adequado quando é necessária uma nova direção e novas estratégias ou quando é formada uma nova equipa.Quando bem utilizado, este estilo terá um efeito positivo no longo prazo sobre o ambiente organizacional. O estilo visionário não é adequado a situações de emergência ou quando se pretende motivar especialistas mais experientes ou pares.Os líderes que têm este estilo ajudam os empregados a encontrar e compreender os seus pontos fortes e fracos específicos, associando-os ao mesmo tempo a objetivos e aspirações profissionais. Estes líderes encorajam também o desenvolvimento profissional de longo prazo dos elementos da equipa. O líder delega missões desafiantes, proporciona instruções continuadas e feedback, e pode, temporariamente, sacrificar os padrões de desempenho imediato a favor do desenvolvimento no longo prazo. Este é um estilo adequado para a construção de competências e capacidades de um indivíduo no longo prazo e pode ter um efeito positivo de longo prazo no desempenho da equipa.A pessoa que tem este estilo de liderança está principalmente preocupada em promover interações pessoais amigáveis, criando harmonia dentro da equipa ou da organização, tendo tendência para evitar quaisquer confrontos relacionados com o desempenho. O líder dá mais ênfase à resposta às necessidades emocionais dos empregados do que às necessidades laborais, dá atenção e cuida da \"pessoa completa\", realçando frequentemente coisas para manter as pessoas \"felizes\" e confortáveis\".O estilo de afiliação melhora o estado de espírito e é adequado, acompanhando o estilo visionário, para motivar em situações de stress ou, temporariamente, como uma espécie de recompensa. Quando usado de modo inadequado, pode evitar situações emocionalmente perturbadoras, como feedback negativo ou provocar o afastamento dos objetivos organizacionais e produtivos.O estilo de liderança democrático constrói o empenho através da participação dos empregados e do desenvolvimento coletivo de decisões, promove o trabalho de equipa, ouve e valoriza as opiniões e confia na sabedoria coletiva. Os empregados têm liberdade para desenvolver a direção adequada para eles próprios e para a tarefa atribuída. O estilo democrático ajuda a gerar novas ideias, construir consenso (envolvimento coletivo) e dá espaço às preocupações dos empregados e às normas. Quando mal feito, em contrapartida, pode ter como resultado muitas reuniões e parecer que se escuta muito mas que muito poucas ações efetivas são realizadas.Estes líderes têm um forte impulso para obter resultados e liderar através do exemplo. Definem objetivos desafiantes e entusiasmantes para as pessoas, esperando excelência e, com frequência, exemplificando-os pessoalmente.Têm expectativas elevadas e contam que os elementos da equipa saibam qual é a lógica subjacente ao que está a ser modelado. No entanto, têm tendência a hesitar em delegar e podem retirar responsabilidade aos elementos da equipa se o desempenho esperado não se produzir rapidamente.Se necessário, arregaçam as mangas e salvam a situação pessoalmente ou dão instruções detalhadas quando os empregados enfrentam dificuldades. A utilização deste estilo de liderança leva a resultados de curto prazo mas, no longo prazo, este estilo pode levar à exaustão e a um declínio no desempenho. É usado, idealmente, para obter resultados com uma equipa motivada e competente.O líder dominador dá muitas diretivas, controla apertadamente as atividades, faz microgestão e espera uma obediência imediata dos empregados. Estes líderes dependem de feedback negativo ou corretivo e motivam através da explicitação das consequências negativas do não cumprimento. Esta abordagem é adequada em tempos de crise, quando é necessária uma ação rápida incontestada e com empregados problemáticos que não respondam a outros métodos de motivação.Se usado em demasia como estilo principal de liderança, desmotiva e provoca exaustão e falta de harmonia na equipa.Não é impossível que as empresas fracassem. O fracasso é uma possibilidade e um risco que todos os gestores de uma empresa de sementes devem ter em consideração e contra os quais se devem proteger. Falando diretamente, um motivo frequente para uma empresa fracassar é a incompetência. Incompetência, significa simplesmente que uma pessoa não tem a capacidade necessária para desempenhar uma função. Felizmente, a incompetência pode ser ultrapassada!A formação e a implementação de competências aprendidas podem ultrapassar a incompetência e prevenir assim o insucesso de uma empresa. Assim, em teoria, uma empresa não tem desculpa para fracassar, pois existem maneiras e modos de obter os conhecimentos, competências e experiência necessários e de os adaptar à situação da empresa. Claro que outros fatores podem fazer com que uma empresa fracasse, que podem ser externos à empresa, como a seca ou dificuldades económicas nacionais. No entanto, mesmo assim, os bons gestores deveriam antecipar estes fatores, fazendo e implementando planos para os ultrapassar.Áreas frequentes de incompetência que podem fazer com que uma empresa fracasse incluem: Em relação às empresas de sementes, o utros fatores que podem levar ao fracasso são:• Estagnação de produto, i.e., falta de desenvolvimento ou de aquisição de novas variedades • Má manutenção dos stocks de semente original (sementes do obtentor), o que leva a contaminação do produto e a variabilidade genética • Más instalações de armazenamento que provocam a deterioração da qualidade das sementes • Falta de atualização relativamente aos desenvolvimentos e tendências agrícolas, de modo que as variedades se tornam redundantes • Más relações com os produtores de sementes Os resultados da incompetência e todos os fatores acima listados levam geralmente aos três maiores algozes de uma empresa, nomeadamente, falta de dinheiro (liquidez), margens de lucro reduzidas e demasiadas dívidas (insolvência). Lucros baixos afetam simplesmente a capacidade de a empresa crescer, investir e acompanhar a inflação. Demasiada dívida, em particular dívida de risco, tem meramente um impacto sobre os recursos financeiros para administrar o negócio. Sem dinheiro, um negócio é basicamente incapaz de funcionar no dia-a-dia, mesmo que os lucros das dívidas quitadas fossem potencialmente elevados. Estas listas devem servir, por isso, como listas de verificação para avaliar uma empresa de sementes. Se alguns dos elementos da lista forem evidentes numa empresa, isso deverá servir de aviso e dever-se-ão tomar medidas corretivas.Este livro apresentou aspetos fundamentais da gestão de empresas de sementes, tal como o desenvolvimento de uma visão de empresa, a definição das estratégias de marketing, de produção e financeira, e o estabelecimento de princípios de gestão de recursos humanos. Os diretores-gerais têm a função de combinar estes aspetos para formar um plano de negócios coerente, que será usado para orientar a atividade empresarial e servirá de motivador para pedidos de crédito.Quando não são realizados ou documentados planos, o diretor perde o controlo do futuro da empresa e sujeita-a aos caprichos de uma gestão de crise, em vez de planear uma sequência de acontecimentos que farão a empresa avançar no sentido da visão. Um ditado comum nos negócios é: \"Se falharmos no planear, estamos a planear falhar!\" Redigir um plano de negócios é importante porque:• Obriga o gestor a atribuir uma ordem lógica a estratégias e atividades.• Obriga o gestor a refletir de forma realista sobre a empresa.• Pode ajudar a impedir que se iniciem atividades com probabilidade de fracassar.• Tornar-se-á o plano de ação vigente, fornecendo orientações sobre como gerir e expandir o negócio. • Fornecerá informações necessárias a outros, em especial quando se pretender solicitar um empréstimo.Há planos de curto prazo e planos de longo prazo. A maioria dos gestores faz planos de curto prazo; por exemplo, diariamente, para fazer com que se executem as tarefas. Em contrapartida, poucos diretores preparam e documentam planos de longo prazo. Os planos de longo prazo são importantes para manter o controlo da empresa e para ajudar a empresa a crescer e a desenvolver-se. O Plano de Negócios é um plano de longo prazo e, portanto, tem de ser preparado com muita premeditação sistemática.Um Plano de Negócios pode ser elaborado de várias formas, uma vez que não há regras rígidas. Ainda assim, deve ser sucinto, compreensível, lógico e bem redigido. O esboço básico de um plano de negócios pode ter as seguintes secções principais:• Introdução,• Sinopse,• Visão empresarial,• Análise do ambiente comercial externo,• Análise interna da empresa, incluindo análise SWOT e outros instrumentos,• Estratégia de marketing,• Estratégia de produção,• Estratégia financeira,• Gestão e administração,• Necessidades e propostas de financiamento, e • Conclusão.As empresas podem ser organizadas numa série de formatos jurídicos e organizacionais diferentes. As formas mais comuns de organização jurídica são o empresário em nome individual (ou sociedade unipessoal), a sociedade, a cooperativa, a sociedade por quotas ou a sociedade anónima (corporação). Quando uma empresa inicia atividade com um determinado formato jurídico, não tem necessariamente de permanecer nesse formato.As empresas podem alterar o seu estatuto jurídico ao longo do tempo e em função das circunstâncias.Um exemplo de uma dessas alterações de estatuto jurídico é a Seed Co Limited, uma multinacional, mas uma empresa local de sementes em África (McCarter 2002). As origens da Seed Co Limited datam de 1940, quando se formou, no Zimbabué, a Seed Maize Association (Associação da Semente de Milho), que reuniu agricultores para produzir e comercializar variedades de polinização livre populares. À medida que o mercado de sementes de milho e de outras sementes de cultivo cresceu, a Seed Maize Association fundiuse com outra associação, a Crop Seeds Association (Associação de Sementes de Cultivo) para formar a Seed Co-operative Company of Zimbabwe Limited; essencialmente, uma cooperativa registada de agricultores produtores de sementes.A Seed Co-op, como ficou conhecida, cresceu ainda mais e, em 1996, a empresa mudou de nome, para Seed Co Limited e passou a ser cotada na Bolsa de Valores do Zimbabué. Desde então, a empresa expandiu-se para uma série de países africanos, estabelecendo unidades de negócio regionais ao abrigo da estrutura da Seed Co Group.A escolha da estrutura jurídica é influenciada pelo número de pessoas que criam uma empresa, pelo tamanho da empresa e pelo modo como os proprietários pretendem subscrever, atrair, conservar e distribuir o capital próprio. A decisão da estrutura jurídica mais adequada também tem em conta a regulamentação governamental e as leis tributárias referentes ao funcionamento das empresas. Portanto, o conselho de advogados e consultores fiscais é útil quando se decide qual a forma jurídica de funcionamento. Segue-se uma breve descrição dos principais aspetos de organizações alternativas.Empresário em nome individual É a forma mais comum de começar uma pequena empresa. A empresa é fundada, detida e gerida por uma pessoa, embora possa empregar trabalhadores. Qualquer pessoa pode ter uma empresa como empresário em nome individual e as formalidades legais exigidas são poucas ou nenhumas. As empresas em nome individual têm nomes como P. Mwangi T/A Super Seeds (onde \"T/A\" significa \"trading as\" (a atuar como)).Vantagens:• A empresa é independente e o proprietário tem o máximo controlo de gestão.• É simples e flexível.• As empresas em nome individual exigem pouco capital para começar.• O proprietário está pessoalmente envolvido e é diretamente responsável, pelo que tem uma forte motivação para ser bem-sucedido.Desvantagens:• O proprietário é diretamente responsável e responsabilizado pelas dívidas da empresa, por isso, se houver uma crise de dívida, o proprietário pode perder alguns dos seus bens pessoais para pagar os empréstimos. • Muitas vezes, sofre de falta de fundo de maneio.• Pode perder continuidade se o proprietário se ausentar.Uma sociedade é uma associação de duas ou mais pessoas que constituem e gerem uma empresa como coproprietários. Também podem ser denominadas \"joint-ventures.\" As sociedades são geralmente limitadas a um pequeno número de coproprietários; já quanto às cooperativas, é comum serem constituídas por muitos coproprietários.Estas formas de propriedade de empresa são comuns em sistemas de culturas baseados na comunidade.Cada membro ou coproprietário de uma sociedade ou cooperativa paga geralmente uma quantia à empresa para gerar o fundo de maneio inicial. Os termos da copropriedade são definidos num acordo ou ato constitutivo de sociedade. Estes acordos definem claramente as funções e as responsabilidades de cada sócio ou membro e o modo como os lucros ou as perdas, os ativos e os passivos serão partilhados pelos proprietários.• As sociedades permitem a uma empresa nova angariar o fundo de maneio inicial.• Os sócios podem contribuir com experiência, conhecimentos, competências, recursos e ideias para a empresa. • As sociedades são um bom modelo para a produção de sementes em pequena escala, especialmente se os agricultores estiverem em zonas contíguas, pois isso permite que todo o grupo cultive uma variedade, minimizando assim a contaminação das sementes. • Os sócios partilham responsabilidades e riscos.• Os sócios partilham lucros.• Todos os sócios são diretamente responsáveis pelas dívidas da empresa.• Por vezes, é difícil e aborrecido tomar decisões.• Diferendos entre sócios podem arruinar a empresa.• Um dos sócios pode fazer muito mal à empresa -isto é particularmente verdade no caso de uma empresa de sementes, em que um sócio introduz outra variedade de sementes no esquema de produção, contaminando assim toda a colheita. • A perda ou a saída de sócios pode provocar problemas de distribuição de ativos e capital.Em alguns casos, indivíduos ou pequenos grupos podem ter vantagens em registar uma empresa como sociedade de responsabilidade limitada. Ao fazê-lo, a empresa torna-se uma entidade jurídica por si própria, separada dos proprietários, embora os estes continuem a ter controlo direto da empresa, na qualidade de acionistas. Assim, a própria empresa, e não os seus proprietários, define o negócio e é responsabilizada por dívidas. Por outras palavras, as responsabilidades (os passivos) da empresa são limitadas aos ativos da empresa. Isto confere uma proteção legal máxima aos proprietários. Os acionistas são os \"diretores\" da empresa da qual dispõem de uma determinada quota da empresa, podendo nomear gestores para administrarem o negócio em seu nome.Esta forma de estrutura jurídica também dá continuidade ao negócio, uma vez que a propriedade pode ser transferida sem interromper o funcionamento do negócio. A empresa apenas pode ser encerrada por ação jurídica.O processo de constituição de uma sociedade de responsabilidade limitada é complicado e oneroso e, portanto, a maioria das pequenas empresas não funciona, nem inicia atividade deste modo. No entanto, se uma pequena empresa se expandir, pode ser vantajoso formalizar a empresa como sociedade de responsabilidade limitada. De facto, para um empreendedor interessado realmente em constituir uma empresa de sementes, provavelmente é melhor começar por formar uma sociedade registada, com o aconselhamento de um contabilista ou advogado competente.Como assegurar o sucesso de um grupo comunitário de produção de sementes Frequentemente, formam-se cooperativas e grupos de agricultores para produzir e distribuir sementes numa base comunitária. Os grupos de agricultores são geralmente boa ideia porque encorajam uma utilização conjunta de competências, mão-de-obra e recursos, aumentando ao mesmo tempo o poder de compra ou de venda através da ação coletiva. Além disso, na produção de sementes, um grupo permite aos agricultores com pequenas explorações agrícolas alcançar o isolamento necessário, se todos os membros de uma área contígua cultivarem a mesma variedade ou se concordarem em datas de plantação isoladas no tempo. No entanto, a formulação e a gestão de grupos é, frequentemente, mais complexa e difícil do que no caso de empresas detidas por um só proprietário. Uma chave básica para o sucesso é procurar manter a unidade e a cooperação entre os membros. Isto pode ser alcançado através do reconhecimento das seguintes questões:• Os grupos funcionam melhor se forem compostos por pessoas com antecedentes, circunstâncias e objetivos semelhantes. • As regras que regulam as atividades do grupo devem ser decididas pelos membros do grupo e devem ser redigidas sob a forma de constituição aceite por todos os elementos do grupo. • Idealmente, todos os membros de um grupo devem ter uma responsabilidade, uma vez que todos podem contribuir com algo e todos têm uma necessidade a satisfazer. • Cada membro tem o seu próprio objetivo ou programa. Devem procurar incorporar estes objetivos nos objetivos do grupo, de modo a que todos os membros fiquem satisfeitos.No entanto, é preciso ter cuidado para que esses motivos pessoais não interfiram com, ou impeçam, a consecução do objetivo do grupo. • É essencial uma boa estrutura de liderança. Os líderes são mais eficazes quando servem e satisfazem as necessidades daqueles que lideram. • Uma comunicação aberta e honesta, que procura entender antes de tentar fazer-se entender, promoverá a transparência e a confiança entre os membros. • Resolver os conflitos assim que estes ocorrem reduzirá a insatisfação entre os membros.Conflitos que permanecem por resolver tendem a evoluir para falta de união. Ao resolver conflitos, devem procurar-se soluções em que todos os envolvidos saiam a ganhar.Devem evitar-se soluções em que uma parte interessada ganha e as outras perdem. É possível encontrar soluções vantajosas para todos sem compromissos, mas exigem esforço e boa vontade da parte de todos os envolvidos na procura da melhor solução. Lembrem-se de atacar o problema, não a pessoa.O ambiente empresarial agrícola é particularmente incerto. Não só as empresas agrícolas e os agricultores têm de enfrentar os caprichos do clima, como o ambiente sociopolítico e económico está em constante mudança. Além disso, os longos ciclos de vida dos produtos e processos de produção não conferem às empresas agilidade de curto prazo. Os gestores de empresas de sementes têm de realizar um planeamento ao longo de horizontes longínquos.Por isso, é difícil responder rapidamente a alterações do ambiente ou da economia.As empresas enfrentam risco e incerteza. A incerteza reflete situações em que o resultado é desconhecido. Pouco se pode fazer em relação à incerteza, exceto tentar introduzir na estratégia da empresa um determinado grau de resiliência. Esta pode incluir aspetos como dispor de ativos saudáveis: rácios de passivos, manter um controlo apertado das vendas a crédito, manter bons níveis de liquidez e stocks de sementes de recurso para contrariar condições climatéricas catastróficas ou para aproveitar subidas inesperadas das vendas. No entanto, algumas destas medidas conservadoras podem impedir ou limitar os planos de crescimento ou de expansão.O risco descreve uma situação em que os gestores são capazes de determinar a probabilidade de resultados possíveis quando ocorrem determinados eventos. Na cultura do milho, por exemplo, a probabilidade de perda de colheitas devido à seca é maior se a seca ocorrer durante o período de floração do que durante o período vegetativo. Ou, a probabilidade de deterioração de sementes é superior se as sementes estiverem armazenadas em ambientes húmidos e quentes. Isto indica, e é bem entendido, que as empresas agrícolas enfrentam os maiores riscos de condições relacionadas com a meteorologia. No entanto, as empresas de sementes também podem enfrentar riscos financeiros, em especial relacionados com pedir ou emprestar dinheiro; riscos legais relativos ao desempenho das sementes e de acidentes; e riscos pessoais, na eventualidade de saída ou perda de funcionários.Uma análise regular da empresa quanto a potenciais riscos é fundamental para a gestão de riscos, avaliando a sua probabilidade de ocorrência e o seu eventual grau de impacto na empresa, bem como definindo estratégias de prevenção ou mitigação para lidar com o risco (Tabela 8.1). Cada gestor da empresa fica responsável por implementar a estratégia de prevenção ou mitigação de riscos. Os riscos considerados como tendo um elevado impacto e uma elevada probabilidade de ocorrência são particularmente realçados e revistos com frequência, para garantir que a empresa faz tudo o que é necessário para reduzir a possibilidade de o risco ocorrer. Os planos de negócios têm de ser implementados atempadamente. Os cronogramas e os marcos importantes ajudam os gestores a monitorizar a implementação e a consecução de objetivos. Devemos comandar o tempo, em vez de deixar que o tempo nos comande a nós. O tempo é um recurso que pode ser usado eficientemente ou desperdiçado. O tempo, em si, não custa nada, mas a sua má utilização pode ser uma despesa irrecuperável. Eis duas dicas importantes a considerar: 1. Faça um cronograma cuidadoso. Comece com os prazos-limite e vá retrocedendo, definindo tempos ou datas realistas para a conclusão de determinadas tarefas. Comunique estes prazos a todos os envolvidos. 2. Estabeleça prioridades entre as atividades. A definição de prioridades é o processo de classificar as tarefas da mais importante para a menos importante. Tenha cuidado para não deixar que o urgente se sobreponha ao importante. As tarefas importantes são aquelas que darão um contributo significativo para o valor da empresa. As tarefas urgentes, geralmente, não contribuem muito para o sucesso da empresa, mas podem consumir muito tempo.Alguns SIM e NÃO importantes relacionados com a gestão do tempo:• Enumerar e priorizar tarefas a realizar Todos os gestores deveriam tentar melhorar o desempenho da sua empresa. Há sempre a possibilidade de fazer as coisas melhor, de modo mais eficaz ou mais eficiente. Numa base contínua, avalie criticamente cada uma das três estratégias do negócio à medida que estão a ser implementadas, procure feedback e opiniões dos funcionários e dos clientes, e use esta informação para rever planos, melhorar estratégias, aumentar as vendas, reduzir os custos, melhorar a qualidade e aumentar os lucros. Uma melhoria contínua é a marca de uma boa empresa.O desempenho que é medido pode ser gerido. Os indicadores-chave de desempenho (\"Key performance indicators\" -KPIs) são, portanto, um meio útil de monitorizar o desempenho da empresa (Tabela 8.1). Podem ser calculados KPIs para uma série de atividades, estados e resultados da empresa. No entanto, é importante salientar que apenas devem ser registados e rastreados os KPIs passíveis de ter um impacto significativo no desempenho da empresa. Podem ser definidos alvos para estes KPIs e o desempenho efetivo pode ser avaliado em relação aos alvos. Os motivos para quaisquer diferenças positivas ou negativas observadas servem como oportunidades de aprendizagem e são um estímulo à melhoria.Planear, implementar, monitorizar e melhorar o desempenho da empresa é um processo de aprendizagem. O primeiro plano pode não se encaixar perfeitamente ou, na sua implementação inicial, uma estratégia pode não funcionar perfeitamente. No entanto, aprendendo com a experiência, a segunda iteração, e as seguintes, podem ser melhoradas. Durante a implementação, o gestor deve estar disposto a ser flexível e a adaptar-se, tendo em consideração os desafios, os erros e os fatores incontroláveis. Acima de tudo, não perca a esperança. Persevere. As recompensas de se adaptar à mudança, lidando com o inesperado e explorando novas oportunidades, valem bem o esforço -não só para o pessoal da empresa de sementes, mas também para todos aqueles que são os seus clientes. Uma empresa de sementes que fornece, de modo rentável, sementes de variedades melhoradas, adaptadas e adequadas aos agricultores terá um impacto significativo no estilo de vida dos agricultores e nas economias nacionais. Esta é a visão para o setor das sementes; este é o objetivo que devemos tentar alcançar.1. A gestão geral de uma empresa de sementes implica a coordenação de todos os componentes da empresa no sentido da visão. A capacidade de liderança é uma necessidade importante para fazer avançar a empresa em direção à visão. 2. Os líderes competentes têm atributos como visão, competências de comunicação, zelo e perseverança, sendo ao mesmo tempo capazes de manter o equilíbrio entre uma elevada preocupação pelas pessoas e uma elevada preocupação com a produção. 3. O insucesso de uma empresa tem como origem a incompetência. No entanto, a incompetência pode ser ultrapassada através da formação, comunicação e aplicação de conhecimentos. Os três principais fatores financeiros necessários para manter uma empresa viva e em crescimento são a liquidez, a solvência e a rentabilidade. 4. Planos de negócios preparados e redigidos constituem uma base sólida para a gestão, servindo ao mesmo tempo como meio de garantir o financiamento das operações e/ou o crescimento. 5. As empresas de sementes devem escolher uma estrutura jurídica que confira à empresa a melhor oportunidade de garantir os investimentos, proteger os seus proprietários, disponibilizar os meios para uma gestão ideal do negócio e para distribuir o capital e os lucros entre os proprietários. 6. As empresas enfrentam risco e incerteza. Incorporar um certo grau de resiliência numa empresa ajudará a evitar a influência de eventos incertos, avaliando ao mesmo tempo o provável impacto e a probabilidade de ocorrência de riscos e instituindo ações mitigantes para cada risco potencial, para ajudar a reduzir a possibilidade de ocorrência dos riscos. 7. O tempo é um bem valioso que não pode ser desperdiçado sem consequências graves. 8. A melhoria contínua do desempenho de uma empresa pode ser alcançada através do rastreio de indicadores-chave de desempenho e da aplicação das lições aprendidas a partir das mudanças registadas.Anexo 2.1. Fatores a considerar na redação de especificações de um contrato. 1. A Empresa fornecerá ao Produtor, livre de encargos, kg de semente parental (doravante denominado \"semente parental\") por hectare para plantação em hectares da exploração. As sementes serão entregues ao Produtor pela fábrica da empresa em data não posterior a . 2. A semente parental será usada unicamente com o fim de produzir sementes para entrega à Empresa e com esse objetivo o Produtor: (a) plantará a semente parental nos hectares supramencionados, em data não posterior a , em terreno adequadamente preparado na exploração, na densidade de sementeira por hectare especificada pela Empresa; (b) o produtor notificará regularmente a Empresa, antes e durante a plantação, sobre o progresso, para evitar/ reduzir erros de plantação; (c) garantirá que o terreno plantado com a semente parental se encontra a uma distância mínima de metros de qualquer outro terreno plantado com milho, que o terreno em questão não foi plantado com a mesma cultura no ano agrícola anterior (salvo aprovação por escrito da empresa) e que o referido terreno está vedado para o proteger contra danos de animais; (d) garantirá que o terreno usado é adequadamente gerido em conformidade com os métodos de conservação aprovados e que tem instalações de irrigação adequadas para complementar a precipitação na exploração, caso esta se revele insuficiente, e utilizará as referidas instalações conforme necessário; (e) tomará todas as medidas necessárias para a adequada fertilização, cultivo e colheita da cultura obtida a partir da semente parental (doravante denominada \"a cultura de sementes\") incluindo a remoção de qualquer crescimento degenerado e fora do tipo, em conformidade com as instruções recebidas da Empresa, ocasionalmente, e para esse fim o Produtor manterá uma mão-de-obra adequada na exploração; (f ) tomará todas as precauções razoáveis contra infestações por insetos e pragas, incluindo a adequada pulverização da cultura com inseticidas e fungicidas, conforme aprovado pela Empresa; (g) garantirá que a cultura de sementes é colhida e debulhada assim que possível após o amadurecimento, dependendo apenas das condições atmosféricas favoráveis, e que se toma especial cuidado para garantir que nenhuma semente é danificada de modo a impedi-la de germinar; (h) tomará precauções contra roubo antes e depois da colheita, incluindo durante o processamento; (i) cumprirá quaisquer instruções dadas pela Empresa, ocasionalmente, relativamente à produção da cultura de sementes;(j) cumprirá os requisitos estipulados nos _____ [regulamentos nacionais em matéria de sementes];(k) garantirá que todos os relatórios de inspeção exigidos para a cultura de sementes são atempadamente obtidos e que o Produtor cumpre os requisitos estipulados nesses relatórios; (l) notificará atempadamente a Empresa de quaisquer ocorrências adversas que possam ter efeitos sobre a cultura de sementes. 3. A Empresa terá o direito, através dos seus representantes devidamente autorizados, a entrar na exploração a qualquer momento razoável, sem aviso, com o fim de inspecionar o terreno a ser preparado, a produção da cultura de sementes, os barracões de armazenamento e outras instalações de manuseamento. Do mesmo direito gozarão os inspetores nomeados pelo governo. As instruções dos inspetores serão estritamente cumpridas. 4. (a) A Empresa pagará ao Produtor a cultura de sementes produzida pelo Produtor e entregue à Empresa, pelo montante mínimo de USD/ t. (b) O pagamento será efetuado no prazo de dias a contar da data de entrega, sujeito ao cumprimento por parte do Produtor do disposto neste acordo e desde que as sementes cumpram os padrões de pureza e germinação exigidos. 5. Todo o material germoplasma (semente parental e cultura de sementes) permanece propriedade exclusiva da Empresa. Qualquer material parental não plantado será devolvido pelo Produtor à Empresa, em bom estado, até ou antes de . 6. A Empresa escolhe domicilium citandi et executandi em , e o Produtor em _______________. Qualquer notificação apresentada por uma parte à outra, ou devida de uma parte à outra nos termos do presente contrato, será realizada por escrito e pode ser entregue nos endereços supramencionados ou enviada por correio registado para os mesmos, e qualquer notificação desta forma deixada ou enviada por correio nos termos acima mencionados, será considerada como adequadamente realizada e recebida e, no caso de notificação enviada por correio, será considerada como entregue no prazo de sete dias a contar da data do correio. 7. Este acordo constitui a totalidade do contrato entre as partes e nenhuma alteração será efetuada ao mesmo, salvo se realizada por escrito e assinada pelas partes do mesmo. 8. Caso alguma das partes cometa uma infração de qualquer um dos termos e condições deste acordo e não a remedeie no prazo de sete (7) dias a contar da receção de um pedido por escrito para esse efeito, a outra parte, não faltosa, terá o direito de anular este acordo, sem prejuízo de qualquer pedido de indemnização a que possa ter direito por incumprimento de contrato ou outros e para reembolso de montantes adiantados. Por cessação deste acordo, a Empresa terá o direito de exigir ao Produtor que destrua sem demora todas as plantas de milho produzidas a partir de sementes parentais fornecidas pela Empresa e a cultura de sementes derivada das mesmas e, caso o Produtor não o faça, a Empresa tem o direito irrevogável de, através dos seus agentes ou representantes, proceder à referida destruição. ","tokenCount":"69153"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"761802200b69b99a8c608ad304bff422","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8d1732f3-3f98-48e7-808f-2a51407f669f/retrieve","id":"2052824384"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ca4f4de0-58cb-41bb-aa54-30dc82dfe56a","pagecount":"6","content":"◼ L'Action commune de Koronivia pour l'agriculture, adoptée dans le cadre de la CCNUCC, est une opportunité pour faire de l'agroforesterie un élément clé de la réponse africaine aux changements climatiques.◼ Nous avons évalué la visibilité de l'agroforesterie dans les processus de MRV de la CCNUCC en examinant les communications nationales, les CDN, la documentation REDD+ et les MAAN des pays en développement, en particulier l'ensemble des pays d'Afrique.◼ L'agroforesterie est plus largement répandue en Afrique que dans toute autre région et de nombreux pays africains entendent l'utiliser pour atteindre leurs objectifs climatiques. Mais en raison d'obstacles techniques et institutionnels, l'agroforesterie est souvent sous-représentée dans les processus de mesure, notification et vérification (MRV) de la CCNUCC.◼ Le fait que l'agroforesterie échappe souvent aux systèmes nationaux de MRV a des conséquences sérieuses. Ce n'est qu'en mesurant correctement les ressources agroforestières qu'il sera possible de donner au secteur un accès aux sources de financement et autres soutiens, pour faire de l'agroforesterie une pièce centrale de la riposte aux changements climatiques.◼ Le soutien considérable accordé à l'agroforesterie tend à suggérer qu'en réponse à l'Action commune de Koronivia pour l'agriculture, les pays africains devraient miser sur l'agroforesterie comme stratégie centrale de leur réponse climatique.  Nous avons évalué l'intérêt que portent les pays à l'agroforesterie en tant que réponse climatique à la quantité de références explicites à l'agroforesterie que contiennent ces documents, ainsi qu'au nombre de mentions concernant des thèmes connexes (tels que le combustible bois). Le degré d'intégration de l'agroforesterie dans les systèmes de MRV des pays a été évalué à partir de leurs descriptions méthodologiques et des résultats présentés. La présente synthèse met en exergue les résultats de cette étude en ce qui concerne les pays d'Afrique.L'étude a établi que l'accent sur l'agroforesterie est plus fort en Afrique que partout ailleurs dans le monde. ","tokenCount":"301"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/9119914504.json b/data/part_6/9119914504.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9d7b425d61de3259dd3512043041615f3a52bba2
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f05b3fbcc6f6e9236ee2a7744e8afdf0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/acf6931e-4b4d-4476-9126-26b8feb7cd7d/retrieve","id":"2133194590"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8b658c0f-5968-4a92-9dd1-844dcc56d8a0","pagecount":"20","content":"Key message Genome-wide association study (GWAS) demonstrated that multiple genomic regions influence grain quality traits under nitrogen-starved soils. Using genomic prediction, genetic gains can be improved through selection for grain quality traits. Abstract Soils in sub-Saharan Africa are nitrogen deficient due to low fertilizer use and inadequate soil fertility management practices. This has resulted in a significant yield gap for the major staple crop maize, which is undermining nutritional security and livelihood sustainability across the region. Dissecting the genetic basis of grain protein, starch and oil content under nitrogen-starved soils can increase our understanding of the governing genetic systems and improve the efficacy of future breeding schemes. An association mapping panel of 410 inbred lines and four bi-parental populations were evaluated in field trials in Kenya and South Africa under optimum and low nitrogen conditions and genotyped with 259,798 SNP markers. Genetic correlations demonstrated that these populations may be utilized to select higher performing lines under low nitrogen stress. Furthermore, genotypic, environmental and GxE variations in nitrogen-starved soils were found to be significant for oil content. Broad sense heritabilities ranged from moderate (0.18) to high (0.86). Under low nitrogen stress, GWAS identified 42 SNPs linked to grain quality traits. These significant SNPs were associated with 51 putative candidate genes. Linkage mapping identified multiple QTLs for the grain quality traits. Under low nitrogen conditions, average prediction accuracies across the studied genotypes were higher for oil content (0.78) and lower for grain yield (0.08). Our findings indicate that grain quality traits are polygenic and that using genomic selection in maize breeding can improve genetic gain. Furthermore, the identified genomic regions and SNP markers can be utilized for selection to improve maize grain quality traits.Maize (Zea mays L.) yields in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are amongst the lowest in the world (FAO 2021). Average yields in this region range from 1 to 3 t ha −1 , well below the global average of around 5 t ha −1 (Prasanna et al. 2020(Prasanna et al. , 2021)). Over a quarter of households in SSA are deemed persistently food insecure, with that figure climbing to 40% during the dry season (Fraval et al. 2019). Furthermore, demand for maize in this region is expected to triple by the year 2050 as a result of rapid population growth (Ekpa et al. 2018). While drought stress and increased climate variability are linked to low yields, low fertilizer use is also a key driver of the maize yield gap in this region (Tittonell and Giller 2013). While average N fertilizer use in SSA by smallholder farmers has increased over the past decade, however it remains very low at 17.9 kg N ha −1 (Jayne and Sanchez 2021). This difference is particularly pronounced on female managed plots which tend to receive less nitrogen inputs than male management plots within a farm (Cairns et al. 2021;Farnworth et al. 2017).For vulnerable populations, increased dietary diversity and consumption of nutrient-rich food is essential for increased nutrition (Poole et al. 2021). However, in more than 20 countries in SSA, maize accounts for more than 30% of calories consumed (Goredema-Matongera et al. 2021). In Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the average per capita consumption of maize is more than 100 kg per person per year (i.e., 300 g per day), roughly half of daily calorie intake (Cairns et al. 2021;Prasanna et al. 2021). High-quality protein sources include eggs, meat, and dairy products, but vulnerable populations in SSA have limited access to these foods and rely heavily on maize as a primary source of protein (Nuss and Tanumihardjo 2011). Average protein supply from maize is 10 g per capita per day in SSA, with up to 35 g per capita per day in southern Africa (FAO 2021). In Burkina Faso Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe, maize provides a greater source of protein than protein derived from animal sources (FAO 2021).Generally, maize grain has low oil (4.4%) and protein (9.1%) contents but a relatively high starch content (73.4%) basing on dry matter measurements (Dei 2017). In temperate maize, breeding has led to significant increase in grain yield. However, grain protein content is estimated to have decreased 0.3% per decade and grain starch content has increased at 0.3% per decade (Duvick 2005). Grain oil content has also reduced over time in temperate maize (Scott et al. 2006). Grain quality is linked closely linked to soil quality (Wood et al. 2018). Maize protein content increases as the level of N applied increases (Zhang et al. 2020). To date, studies looking at the effect of reduced N level on grain quality have used significantly higher levels of N than is relevant to smallholder farmers in SSA. Under low nitrogen stress in SSA environments, previous maize grain quality assessment studies, such as Abu et al. (2021), Ngaboyisonga and Njoroge (2014), and (Oikeh et al. 1998), used N rates ranging from 30 to 120 kg ha −1 . Such application rates are higher than the average N application rates (which is between 12 and 16 kg ha −1 (Heffer and Prud'homme 2015;Sheahan et al. 2014) in smallholder agriculture in SSA. Incorporating grain quality traits into breeding can involve significant costs associated with grain nutrient analyses, morphological characterizations, and associated trait complexities stymie progress in improving maize grain quality. The high-cost requirement of measuring grain quality traits stems from the wet chemistry procedures required to create near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) calibration curves, which are relatively expensive. There is a significant opportunity to assess and employ the potential of genomic selection in the improvement of grain quality traits in maize. This reinforces the need for more rapid progress to improve maize grain quality components (particularly, protein, starch, and oil content) through accelerated and more efficient breeding enabled by molecular markers.The integration of genomic tools such as genomic-wide association studies (GWAS), linkage mapping and genomic selection (GS) with traditional breeding approaches have increased the efficiency of grain quality and Low N tolerance selection. These techniques have been used to identify causal variants for Low N tolerance. Linkage mapping is a common method for locating quantitative trait loci (QTL) based on a segregating population derived from a cross of two parental lines with significantly divergent phenotypes (Xiao et al. 2017). Linkage mapping can be combined with GWAS to provide a more comprehensive strategy for identifying markers linked with a trait of interest, by the discovery of trait linked markers by GWAS and their validation through linkage mapping. The most robust markers can then be employed for marker-assisted selection (MAS). However, the accuracy with which genetic maps are constructed is dependent on the mapping population since doubled haploid (DH) lines, near-isogenic lines (NILs), recombinant inbred lines (RILs), and backcross lines are extremely effective yet to date labour-intensive and time-consuming to generate (Rao et al. 2021). GS has been highlighted as a powerful option for selecting polygenic traits that are difficult to select through MAS. GS can accomplish this by employing genome-wide dense markers for predictions, and therefore can support association analyses to determine the genetic basis of grain yield and quality related traits (Bentley et al. 2014). Galli et al. (2020) reported that GWAS could identify both additive and dominant genetic effects that influence Low N tolerance in maize.To understand how low N stress affects grain yield and grain quality traits such as grain protein, starch, and oil content, this study was performed using a tropical maize population under low N and optimum conditions across multilocation field trials in Kenya and South Africa. The study had the objectives of (i) Assessing the genetic architecture of low soil-N tolerant maize test crosses using their responses to grain quality and yield traits under two management conditions (optimum and low soil N); (ii) Identifying the significant quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) and putative candidate genes and QTLs for quality traits in tropical maize germplasm tested in multiple locations; and (iii) Assessing the potential of utilizing GS in the improvement of grain quality traits.An association mapping panel of 410 tropical maize lines developed under CIMMYT's Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) project (Ertiro et al. 2020a) in collaboration with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) and Agricultural Research Council (ARC, South Africa) was used. The study also evaluated two DH populations from CIMMYT's Heterotic group B (221 lines of CML550/CML504, 115 lines of CML550/CML511), and two DH population from CIMMYT's Heterotic group A (175 lines of CML505/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 and 131 lines of CML536/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2) (Ertiro et al. 2020b). Test cross hybrids were generated by crossing all inbred lines with a broadly adapted CIMMYT maize inbred line tester from the opposite heterotic group.All testcross progenies for both association panel and DH populations were evaluated in three optimal and six low N-stressed sites (Table 1). Experiments conducted in the same site over several years were classified as separate environments (Das et al. 2019;Ertiro et al. 2020a). Kiboko lies within longitudes 37.7235°E and latitudes 2.2172°S, at an elevation of 975 m above sea level. The station receives between 545 and 629 mm of rainfall split in two seasons and lies in a hot, semi-arid region with annual temperature ranging from 16.0 to 33.6 °C. The soils are well drained, very deep, dark reddish brown to dark red, friable sandy clay to clay (Acri-Rhodic Ferrassols) developed from undifferentiated basement system rocks, predominantly banded gneisses (Ertiro et al. 2022). Other location Embu lies at an elevation of 1350 m above sea level and receives an average of 893 mm of rainfall and lies in the foothills of Mount Kenya with annual temperature ranging from 15.0 to 27.9 °C. Cedara research station in South Africa lies 1037 m above sea level and receives an average of 990 mm of rainfall annually. All testcross progenies were evaluated in an alpha-lattice design with two replications. The sites for low N trials were depleted for soil N content by growing sorghum for several years without applying any external N fertilizer. Experiments were planted in one-row plots, with a planting density of 5.33 plants/m 2 (Kenya and South Africa). In each location, two seeds per hill were sown, then thinned to one after emergence. At planting, triple phosphate (46% P 2 O 5 ) was applied to the low N trials at the rate of 50 kg P 2 O 5 /ha. On optimum trials, diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer was used at the rate of 54 kg N per hectare. Optimum trials were top-dressed with urea fertilizer at the rate of 138 kg N per hectare three weeks after planting. All trials under both optimum and low-N were irrigated as required to avoid any moisture stress. Trials under both conditions were kept weed-free and other standard agronomic practices were conducted.Data were recorded for grain yield and quality traits (i.e., protein, oil, and starch contents). Shelled grain yield was measured in kilograms (kg) and converted to tons per hectare and reported at 12.5% moisture. Protein, starch, and oil content were measured using a FOSS Infratec TM 1241 from 500-g samples of grain taken from each plot and are reported as a percentage of whole grain. The FOSS Infratec is a non-destructive whole-grain analyzer that uses nearinfrared reflectance (NIR) to estimate quality parameters. Five 100-g subsamples were assayed and the mean reading for each parameter was reported per plot.Analyses of variance for each biparental population and IMAS panel at each and across locations under optimum and Low-N conditions was performed in the R program embedded in META-R (Alvarado et al. 2020) and ASREML-R (Gilmour et al. 2009). The linear mixed model with the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) was used to calculate all variance components. The study treated replication as fixed effect and all other treatment effects as random.On an entry-mean basis, the broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) was estimated using the genotypic to phenotypic variance ratio from the derived variance components. Furthermore, to determine the genotypic effects of the investigated lines for each and across environments, best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE) and best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) were obtained. For GWAS and linkage mapping, BLUPs were used. On the other hand, BLUEs were used for GS analyses. The classification of the genotypic correlation coefficients followed the guidelines provided by Profillidis and Botzoris (2019). To determine the impact of low N stress on the aforementioned traits, we used a t-test to compare the mean values of the two management conditions. We also determined the percentage change (i.e., decrease or increase) in grain quality trait performance.DNA was extracted according to the CIMMYT highthroughput mini-prep Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide (CTAB) method (Semagn (2014). Following the protocol presented in Elshire et al. (2011), maize DNA samples were genotyped using a restriction enzyme (ApeKI) and 96-plex multiplexing at the Institute of Biotechnology at Cornell University, USA. The Institute of Genomic Diversity (IGD) at Cornell provided raw GBS data for a maximum of 955,120 SNP loci spread throughout the 10 maize chromosomes (Ertiro et al. 2020a). Raw data was filtered for linkage mapping according to the criteria used in Ertiro et al. (2020a) of > 10 percent minor allele frequency (MAF) and no missing data. Furthermore, the genotype data were filtered for GWAS using the Trait Analysis by Association, Evolution, and Linkage (TASSEL v.5.2.7.2, Bradbury et al., 2007) software, with a baseline count of SNPs on 90% and a MAF of > 5% of the sample size as presented in Ertiro et al. (2020a). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was carried out in TASSEL (v.5.2.7.3), as were genetic distances and kinship.In natural populations or association panels, the population structure and relative kinship cause high level of spurious positives during association studies. To assess the effect of population structure, PCA, and the relative kinship (K) on association results in IMAS panel, we used the following statistical models: (1) uncorrected genotypic data only (GLM with G only); (2) GLM with PCA + G; (3) a mixed linear model (MLM) with PCA + K + G; (4) and FarmCPU model. G = genotype (fixed), PCA = three principal components (fixed), K = kinship matrix (random). The R package 'FarmCPU-Fixed and random model Circulating ProbabilityUnification' (Liu et al. 2016) was used for GWAS analysis for all traits. FarmCPU utilized the first three PCs derived by TASSEL as input for GWAS. The kinship was computed using FarmCPU's default kinship algorithm as presented in Ertiro et al. (2020a). The analysis was performed with maxLoop of five, p threshold of 0.1, QTN threshold of 0.1 and MAF threshold of 0.05. The maxLoop refers to the total number of iterations used. The p threshold, QTN threshold and MAF threshold refers to p values selected into the model for the first iteration, the p value selected into the model from the second iteration and the minimum MAF of SNPs used in the analysis. False discovery rate threshold of 0.1 was used to set a significant level in Manhattan plots.The Manhattan and quantile-quantile (QQ) plots, GWAS findings, and a table of marker effects of user-provided variables were all produced by the FarmCPU using the \"GAPIT\" function. To annotate putative candidate genes for traits under study, the physical positions of the significant SNPs were compared with the Maize B73 reference genome version 2 (RefGen_v2), available at the MaizeGDB database (www. maize gdb. org) and functional gene annotations were retrieved from http:// ensem bl. grame ne. org/ Zea_ mays. The presence of the protein-coding genes was searched within the range of 20 kb (10 kb upstream and downstream) in the vicinity of the detected significant SNPs.The four DH populations were genotyped with GBS and data was further filtered to a manageable size using TASSEL software with > 0.10 MAF, < 5% heterozygosity, and 90% the minimum count of the total size (Bradbury et al. 2007;Sitonik et al. 2019). In all the populations, homozygous marker loci for both parents and uniformly distributed polymorphic markers between parents were retained. Linkage maps were constructed by using QTL IciMapping version 4.1 (Meng et al. 2015) in all four DH populations. BIN is an inbuilt tool implemented in QTL IciMapping was used to remove the highly correlated SNPs. This resulted into retain 2699,1962,1985 and 2086 high-quality SNPs in CML550/ CML504, CML550/CML511, CML505/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 and CML536/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2, respectively. These SNPs were used to construct linkage maps using the MAP function. IciMapping used the grouping, ordering, and rippling steps to construct a linkage map.The ICIM is an effective two-step statistical approach that allows separation of co-factor selection from interval mapping process, in order to control the background effects and improve mapping of QTL with additive and dominance effects. The Kosambi genetic distance mapping function which assumes that recombination events influence the occurrence of adjacent recombination was used.For QTL mapping, we used IciMapping 4.1 based on biparental populations (BIPs) module with inclusive composite interval mapping (Meng et al. 2015). BLUP values across environments for each trait in each the DH populations were used in QTL detection analysis. The mapping populations were grouped by the SNPs and the significant difference between the means (P-value < 0.0001) was detected based on the markers that were linked to a QTL controlling the selected target trait (Collard et al. 2005).The highest peak of one LOD that supports the confidence interval was used to declare the significance of the QTL map position on both sides of the QTL (Hackett 2002). A LOD threshold of 3.0 with a scanning step of 1 cM were used to declare significant QTL. Stepwise regression was adopted to determine the percentages of phenotypic variance explained (R 2 ) by individual QTL and additive effects at LOD peaks. The phenotypic variation explained (PVE) by each QTL and together for all QTLs for each trait was estimated. The origin of the favourable allele for each trait was identified based on the sign of the additive effects of each QTL.BLUEs across environments for each trait in each population were used in the GS analysis. The Ridge-regression BLUP (RR-BLUP, Zhao et al. 2012) with fivefold crossvalidation for each trait was used for the analysis. A sample of 4000 SNPs with all data values, equally distributed throughout the genome, and MAF > 0.05 was chosen from the GBS data for the IMAS panel and all four DH populations. Individual DH population and the IMAS set were sampled to form a training and prediction set. The prediction accuracy was calculated as the correlation between the observed phenotypes and genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) divided by the square root of heritability (Dekkers 2007). In each population, 100 iterations were done for the sampling of the training and validation sets.There was significant variation in protein, starch and oil content, and grain yield within all four biparental DH populations and the IMAS panel under optimum and low N stress conditions (Fig. 1 and Table 2). In the IMAS panel and CML505/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 DH pop, yield under low N stress was reduced by 59% and 48%, respectively. In DH pop CML550/CML511, the mean yield under low N stress was 5.45 t ha −1 ; however, this was a reduction of 47% relative to optimal conditions. Low N stress significantly (p < 0.01) reduced protein and oil content (except in DH pop CML505/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2) but had no significant effect on starch content. Although the level of N stress and therefore the reduction in grain yield was the lowest in DH pop CML550/CML511, both protein and oil content had the largest reduction in this population under low N stress.The genotypic, environmental, and genotype-environment interaction effects (G, E and G x E, respectively) were significant at p ≤ 0.05 for yield and quality traits (Table 2). For protein, starch, and oil content under optimal conditions, the magnitude of genotypic variance was greater compared to low N stress conditions. Under low N conditions, the effect of genotype, environment, and G x E interactions on oil content was significant across all genotypes tested. Interestingly, under the same conditions, the genotypic effects on protein content were only significant in DH pops CML505/ LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 and CML536/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2. The G x E effects on protein content and starch content in DH pop CML550/CML511 were significant. The zero estimates of G x E interactions for starch and protein content (observed on DH pop CML550/CML511 under low N stress) indicate that genotypic performance for these traits was stable across the tested environments. H 2 values of each trait under both optimal and low N stress are presented in Table 2. In general, H 2 of all traits was lower under low N stress than optimal, with the exception of starch content which increased under low N stress across all populations.Grain yield was negatively correlated with protein content across populations, regardless of N stress level (Table 3). Similarly, starch content showed a negative correlation with protein and oil content across genotypes and management options. A weak positive correlation was reported between protein and oil content across populations and N levels. The only exceptions were in DH pop CML550/CML504 under optimum conditions where oil content was significantly (at p < 0.01) and negatively correlated to protein content (r = − 0.92**).Protein content had a negative correlation with grain yield (r = − 0.41**) and starch content (r = − 0.54**) in the IMAS panel under optimum conditions. Similarly, a weak positive correlation was observed in the IMAS panel, DH pops CML550/CML504 and CML505/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 between protein content and oil content under low N stress. Starch and oil contents were shown to be significantly (p < 0.05) and negatively correlated under optimum (r = − 0.65) and low N stress (r = − 0.18) in the IMAS panel. The genotypic correlation coefficients for DH pops CML505/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 and CML536/ LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 showed that oil content under optimum conditions had no correlation with protein content (r = 0.00). As demonstrated in Table 3, further significant (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01) trait correlations were established among the phenotypic parameters measured across the management conditions for each set of genotypes. The observed correlations between grain quality and yield can be useful for selection decisions or trade-offs in genotypic selection.From GBS, 337,113 SNPs were produced for the 410 genotypes, in which 77.1% (259,798) remained after filtering using the > 5% MAF and 10% missing per marker criteria (Supplementary Figure S1). The kinship relations among the IMAS panel were determined using the filtered 259,798 SNP markers and depicted as a genetic cluster, indicating that the panel of genotypes are split into four potential genetically differentiated subgroups. The heatmap of the panel's kinships was used to predict the magnitude of the existing relationships in the genotypes: this established that the genotypes were not closely related and that there is no strong population structure (Supplementary Figure S2). Further partition of the population structure of the IMAS panel using STRU CTU RE 2.3.4 is presented in an earlier study by Kibe et al. (2020a) and Gowda et al. (2015). PCA was carried out using 259,798 high-quality SNPs (Supplementary Figure S3). The first principal component (PC1) accounted for roughly 4.5% of the overall variation, whereas the second principal component (PC2) explained 2.5% (Supplementary Figure S3). Calculation of genome-wide LD using 259,798 SNPs showed a significant decline in LD as genetic distance rose, with different rates of attenuation for each of the ten chromosomes (Supplementary Figure S4). Association analyses for grain yield and quality traits evaluated under optimum management were performed to evaluate the effects of different models on the control of false associations (Supplementary Figure S5). For all four traits, the observed P values from the GLM(G) and GLM (G + PCA) models showed the higher deviation from the expected P values is possibly due to either no associations or more false positives were detected. The P values from the MLM (PCA + K) and FarmCPU models were similar and close to the expected P values and are more effective in controlling the false associations (Supplementary Figure S5). With MLM model, between Kinship and some of the markers, the confounding effect is more severe and may results into overfitting of the model. On the other hand, FarmCPU model which uses both the fixed effect model and the random effect model iteratively, able to completely remove the confounding from kinship by using a fixed-effect model without a kinship derived either from all markers, or associated markers. This process overcomes the model overfitting problems of stepwise regression (Liu et al. 2016). Therefore, further in this study we used the results only FarmCPU model for both optimum and low N management conditions. Figures 2 and 3 depict the GWAS findings for protein, starch, and oil content, and yield across the two N managements as Manhattan and Q-Q plots of p-values evaluating the anticipated and observed − log10 p-values. Sixty-one SNPs were significantly (P = 2 × 10 -5 , p = 0.1 False Discovery Rate (FDR)) associated with the protein, starch, and oil content, and yield under optimal conditions and were spread across 10 chromosomes (Table 4). Under low N conditions, 42 SNPs are linked to the aforementioned traits.Under optimal conditions, three SNPs linked with protein content were significant on chromosomes 1 (S1_17679954 and S1_214242607) and 10 (S10_114836465). Under low N stress, however, two different SNPs S3_198394847 and S4_120988951 were associated with protein content. Starch content (low N) was associated with five SNPs, the most significant of which was S5 10542862. Eight SNPs on chromosomes 2 (S2_174345463 and S2_174345465), 3 (S3_180044790), 5 (S5_10542862), 6 (S6_5158703 and S6_60978968), 7 (S8_3430590), and 8 (S7_14465153) were linked with the starch content under optimum conditions. Under optimal conditions, twelve SNPs were significantly associated with oil content, with one-third of these loci located on chromosome 6. Twelve SNPs, with loci on all chromosomes except 4 and 7, were significantly linked with oil content under low N. For starch and oil content at low N conditions, only the significant SNP on chromosome 6 (S6_60978968) was co-detected. The proportion of detected SNPs for the other traits are presented in Table 4. The Q-Q plot for grain yield and oil content under optimum conditions and oil content under low N stress revealed that some observed P-values were more significant as the marker points migrated from the dotted red line towards the y-axis.To elucidate the molecular and physiological mechanisms controlling grain quality traits under optimum and low N conditions, candidate genes were identified (Harper et al. 2016). On all chromosomes, a total of 51 candidate genes were discovered (Table 4). The lowest number of candidates (2) and the highest number (12) were related to protein content under low N and oil content under both optimum and low N, respectively. From these candidates, 80.39% (41 genes) were functionally annotated, whereas 19.61% (10 genes) were classified as unknown proteins. The study revealed four candidate genes with protein serine/threonine kinase activity that play a role in soil N response. Under optimum conditions, GRMZM2G159307 and GRMZM2G104325 were encoded as ATP binding proteins for grain yield and starch content, respectively. GRMZM2G10816 (yield), GRMZM2G070523 and GRMZM2G080516 (oil content) were associated with DNA biosynthesis under low N stress conditions. Under both optimal and low N circumstances, GRMZM2G033694 was annotated in the Histone-lysine N-methyltransferase family. Genes coding for shoot apex development were discovered to be associated with grain yield, protein, starch, and oil content under low N stress.The four populations used in this study for linkage mapping were also used in our earlier study (Ertiro et al. 2020a) which includes detailed information about genetic maps. Table 5 shows the detected QTLs and their positions and genetic effects. In DH pop CML550/CML504, two QTLs each were detected for grain yield and starch content, three QTL for protein content and five QTL for oil content under low N stress. The PVE by these QTL was varied from 4.67 to 22.19% and together the total PVE was varied from 12.5% for grain yield to 47.9% for oil content. In DH pop CML550/CML511, one QTL each were detected for grain yield, starch content and oil content under low N stress. In DH pop CML505x LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2, five QTL were detected for grain yield with one QTL on chromosome 3 having a major effect with 12.17% of PVE. For protein content nine QTL were detected with all individually having minor effects except a QTL on chromosome 3 with 11.78% of variance explained. For starch content, three QTL each were detected under optimum and low N conditions with two major effects QTL on chromosome 8. For oil content three QTL were detected under optimum and six QTL were identified under low N conditions with one common QTL on chromosome 2 across management conditions. Four major effect QTL were identified for oil content on chromosomes 2, 4 and 5 which explained > 10% of the phenotypic variation (Table 5). In DH pop CML536xLapostaSeqiaF64, one QTL each were detected for protein and oil content and three QTL were detected for starch content, with one major effect QTL at chromosome 4 which contributes 20.3% of phenotypic variation for oil content. Comparison of the QTLs across association mapping panel and DH populations revealed several QTLs overlapped for same traits for across optimum and low N conditions, as well as for multiple traits (Supplementary Figure S5, S6). In Chromosome 1, two regions, between 209 to 214 Mb and 268 to 280 Mb had QTL for more than one trait. In chromosome 2, bin 2.03 harboured QTL for both GY and oil content, whereas bin 2.06 has QTL for both Starch content and oil content under both optimum and low N conditions. At chromosome 3, bin 3.06 had QTL for grain yield, protein content, oil content and starch content (Supplementary Figure S5). Further QTL clustering for more than one trait was observed on chromosome 4, bin 3.06 and 3.07, on chromosome 5, at bin 5.02 and 5.05, on chromosome 6, at bin 6.02  and 6.06 and on chromosome 10 at bin 10.06. Significant SNP, S1_269023923 associated with oil content detected through GWAS was co-located with QTL (qOC_01_269) detected in DH pop1. Another SNP S5_11883140 detected for GY in GWAS panel was co-located with QTL qGY_05_15 detected on DH pop2 (Tables 4 and 5).The RR-BLUP model (Endelman 2011) was used to estimate the performance of maize genotypes for grain quality traits for each population (Fig. 4 and Supplementary Table S2). Under low nitrogen conditions, average prediction accuracies across the studied genotypes were higher for oil content (0.78) and lower for grain yield (0.08). In IMAS panel we observed the prediction accuracy of 0.41, 0.38. 0.39 and 0.44 under optimum and 0.35, 0.35, 0.41 and 0.56 under low N conditions, respectively. Interestingly, in DH pop CML550/CML504 outperformed other DH populations in terms of genomic prediction accuracy. Under low N, CML550/CML504 had the best prediction accuracy for protein (0.66), oil (0.73), and starch (0.7) content. The prediction accuracy for protein content was highest in DH pop CML505/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 under optimum (r = 0.69) and for DH pop CML550/CML504 under low N stress (r = 0.66). For starch content under low N, prediction correlation was highest for CML550/CML504 (r = 0.70) followed by the CML536x LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 (r = 0.56), IMAS panel (r = 0.41), CML550xCML511 (r = 0.26) and CML505x LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 (r = 0.23). CML536x LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 had the highest prediction correlation for oil content under low N (r = 0.78), followed by CML550/CML504 (r = 0.73) and CML505x LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 (r = 0.71). CML550xCML511 had the lowest prediction for grain yield (r = 0.08), protein (r = 0.17) starch (r = 0.16), and oil content (r = 0.11).  Significant levels of malnutrition (Christian and Dake 2021) and food insecurity (Giller 2020) continue to be experienced by maize-dependent smallholder farming populations in SSA that cultivate in nitrogen-depleted soils. Unravelling the genetic architecture of grain yield and quality traits through GWAS and GS is critical for the development of superior genotypes conferring high expression of grain quality traits both under optimum and low N stress. This study aimed to understand the underlying genetics of low N stress on grain quality traits by combining GWAS with the IMAS panel, QTL detection, and GS in four bi-parental populations. Grain quality traits, notably protein, starch, and oil content, are critical for reducing the incidence of undernutrition in SSA. Understanding the performance of grain quality traits and associated genetic markers under low N stress can aid in the development of maize lines with high protein, starch, and oil content.Phenotypic analyses showed that protein, starch, and oil content were significantly decreased under low N stress compared to optimal conditions across all tested genotypes. This is consistent with the findings of Liu et al. (2008), who found that in lower N conditions, protein and oil content are considerably reduced. However, the same research reported the opposite for starch content increased under lower levels of N  stress. According to Jahangirlou et al. (2021) andSimić et al. (2020), high N conditions are associated with higher protein content and yield. On the other hand, low N substantially decreases protein concentration and all zein fractions apart from β-zeins, according to research conducted in Zimbabwe by Shawa et al. (2021). The impact of soil nutrient management on oil content was significant in the study of Ray et al. (2019). That study reported that using N as a component in NPK blends increased the quantity of saturated fatty acids while decreasing the percentage of unsaturated fatty acids in grain maize oil. Kaplan et al. (2017) suggested that N fertilizer application in combination with adequate irrigation has a favourable effect on the oil content. However, in SSA due to the impoverished economic situation of smallholder farmers, N fertilization is not currently an accessible solution to combat endemic undernutrition. Therefore, maize lines showing high protein, starch and oil content under low N stress should be considered for incorporation into maize breeding programs targeting the SSA region.In low N stress environments, genetic variability is crucial for the effective selection of enhanced grain quality traits in maize. Ertiro et al. (2020a) asserted that, due to the intrinsic unpredictability of various traits of interest, phenotypic data for trials conducted under low N conditions typically show poor heritability. However, under both optimum and low N environments, our study estimated wide genetic variances and moderate to high broad sense heritabilities. Estimates of heritability ranging from moderate to high imply that the traits have the potential to be enhanced by recurrent selection (Gowda et al. 2021). The influence of G, E, and G x E interactions on oil content was significant under low N conditions across all genotypes examined. The genotypic effects on protein content were significant in some of the genotypes tested (CML505/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2 and CML536/LaPostaSeqC7-F64-2-6-2-2) under low N conditions. The G × E effects of CML550/CML511 on protein and starch content were significant. The detected significant genotypic variation for the assessed traits in this study indicated the possibility of selecting for improved protein, starch, and oil content under low N stress. Among the three grain quality traits investigated, starch content had the lowest H 2 estimate, whereas oil content had the highest H 2 estimate under low N conditions. Oil content's high broad-sense heritability suggests that its narrow-sense heritability may be even greater, implying that significant genetic gain for this trait is attainable.Grain yield had a negative genotypic correlation with protein content in all populations, regardless of N level. This supports Arisede et al. (2020)'s findings that increased grain yield was associated with decreased grain protein content in both susceptible and tolerant maize hybrids when residual soil N was low, despite the fact that tolerant hybrids showed a substantially smaller loss in grain protein content. It is well known that choosing between yield and quality is hard in breeding. The observed relationship between grain yield and quality traits in this research under both optimal and low N conditions imply that selecting for grain yield alone will not increase protein, starch, or oil content. On the other hand, protein content had a significant negative correlation with starch content in all populations, which is consistent with previous results (Liu et al. 2008;Zheng et al. 2021). Thus, to increase grain quality, particularly under low N stress, there is a need to select for both grain yield and grain quality. Obviously, this would be very expensive, and a negative relationship makes breeders balance in the selection of these traits hence the need to investigate the potential of molecular breeding in the improvement of these traits.Association studies targeting protein, oil, and starch content in maize have been conducted utilizing a range of genotypes and marker sets (Alves et al. 2019;Cook et al. 2012;Zheng et al. 2021). The use of GWAS in maize genetics has been highly effective in discovering causal genes for grain quality traits (Zheng et al. 2021). In particular, GWAS is an effective technique for mapping loci linked with complex plant traits in genetically heterogeneous populations (Deng et al. 2021). The power of detection of GWAS is dependent on the LD between the markers and QTL. In outcrossing plant species such as maize, LD declines at a short distance and rapidly (Dinesh et al. 2016). In this study, the LD declined rapidly across physical distance (Kibe et al. 2020a), showing that the IMAS panel has significant genetic diversity and was, therefore, suitable for GWAS.Candidate genes and SNPs discovered by GWAS for maize grain nutrient content can provide critical information for maize breeding efforts focusing on developing highquality varieties (Zheng et al. 2021). In this study, GWAS identified 42 SNPs linked to the grain quality traits studied under low N conditions. However, there were no overlapping SNPs for grain quality traits under low N. Under low N stress, two SNPs on chromosomes 3 (S3_198394847) and 4 (S4_120988951) were discovered to be linked to protein content. Moreover, 12 SNPs with loci on all chromosomes except 4 and 7 were also shown to be substantially associated with oil content under low N stress. The genetic regions identified in this work through GWAS will be increasingly relevant in future breeding approaches for accurate selection of high grain quality and to increase tolerance of maize lines to low N stress.Comparison of SNPs identified in this study under low N and optimum conditions revealed no overlapping of SNPs for grain yield and protein content possibly we were not able to detect the common variants responsible for these traits in different management conditions. Nonetheless, for starch content, all the SNPs detected under low N were also detected under optimum conditions. Whereas for the oil content SNP S6_60978968 on chromosome 6 was consistently detected in both the conditions and also found common SNPs in bin 2.01, 5.03, 6.05 and 9.01 on chromosome 2, 5, 6 and 9, respectively (Table 4). Further comparison of the detected SNPs with the previous studies revealed some overlapping with earlier reported QTL (Wang et al. 2016;Zheng et al. 2021). For instance, SNP S1_214242607 associated with grain protein content under optimum was closely located with marker detected through GWAS (Zheng et al. 2021) and co-located with QTL detected in two populations (Wang et al. 2016). SNP S1_191845162 detected for oil content was co-located within the QTL (bnlg2086-umc1122 interval) reported by Zhang et al. (2008) and Wang et al. (2010. Marker 1_190758142 detected through GWAS for oil content by Zheng et al. (2021) was also located within the same QTL region pointing to the importance of the region for improving oil content in maize. Another SNP S2_148879075 detected for oil content was located within the QTL region (bnlg108-phi092 interval) reported by Zhang et al. (2008). SNP S1_17679954 for protein content was co-located within the QTL detected for oil content on chromosome 1 (umc1685-umc1044 interval) in F 3 population (Wang et al. 2010). Nevertheless, some SNPs did not coincide with earlier reports in terms of their physical location. This possibly due to several reasons like these SNPs might be specific to the population in this study, the variation for quality traits in these populations is different, and different methods used to estimate quality traits in different studies also contribute to variation. However, new specific SNPs detected in this study need further validation, nevertheless, these results can serve as a reference for future studies.We identified 51 candidate genes potentially underlying the molecular and physiological processes governing grain quality traits under optimum and low N environments. The identification of candidate genes based on associated SNPs can aid with the identification of genes important in grain quality performance under optimal and low N environments. Under low N stress, genes coding for shoot apex growth were revealed to be linked with grain yield, protein, starch, and oil content. Peng et al. (2010) asserted that shoot growth, rather than root size, is a good indicator of N sufficiency in maize. The research also identified four candidate genes with protein serine/threonine kinase activity that play a role in soil N response. Protein kinases are well-known regulators of the response of plants to abiotic stresses (Diédhiou et al. 2008;Kulik et al. 2011;Mao et al. 2010). GRMZM2G159307 and GRMZM2G104325 encode ATP binding proteins for grain yield and starch content, respectively. ATP binding proteins are essential for cellular motility, membrane transport and the control of different metabolic activities (Chauhan et al. 2009). ATP-binding has also been reported in several studies to influence the maintenance of homeostasis in plants under both abiotic and biotic stresses (Dahuja et al. 2021;Franz et al. 2011;Jarzyniak and Jasiński 2014). GRMZM2G033694 was assigned to the Histone-lysine N-methyltransferase family at both optimum and low N conditions. It is important to note, however, that these candidate genes should be further validated before being used in breeding schemes. Further functional research on the candidate genes discovered in this study is necessary to validate their possible utility in high grain quality breeding under low N conditions.Linkage mapping in four populations found multiple QTLs for the studied grain quality traits. Zheng et al. (2021) alluded that, numerous grain nutritional quality QTLs in maize have been identified by genetic dissection of nutrient quality over the last two decades using traditional QTL mapping. Despite the discovery of QTLs and genes that confer superior maize grain quality in some studies, further sources of genetic variation are likely to exist among currently unexplored populations. QTL analyses in four DH populations revealed 8, 13, 12 and 15 potential QTLs associated with grain yield, protein, starch, and oil content, respectively. One QTL on chromosome 3 (qGY3_187) for grain yield is overlapped with major effect QTL (qPC3_187) for protein content and located between 180 and 189 Mb, which might be an interesting region to improve both protein and grain yield by considering their negative relationship. Zhang et al. (2015) also identified a consistent QTL (umc1644-phi102228 interval) in the same genomic region for protein content. Another QTL qPC1_115 in CML550/ CML504 which explained 11% of the phenotypic variance was consistent with earlier reported QTL (phi001-umc1988 interval) by Zhang et al. (2015) and qPC10_142 detected on chromosome 10 was consistent with QTL (SYN37373-PZE110095199 interval) reported by Wang et al. (2016) in recombinant inbred line population. There was one major effects QTL (> 10% phenotypic variance explained) for grain yield (qGY3_196), three QTL each for protein content (qPC1_115, qPC3_187, qPC5_67) and starch content (qSC1_180, qPC4_32, qPC8_124) and six QTLs for oil content (qOC2_186, qOC3_60, qOC4_70, qOC5_183, qOC6_133and qOC7_08) were detected in four biparental populations. A major QTL (qSC1_180) identified in DH pop CML550xCML511, explaining about 11.5% of total phenotypic variance and located between 175 and 188 Mb, was consistent with a QTL (SYN367-PZE101031077 interval) observed in a RIL population by Wang et al. (2016). Similarly, another QTL for starch content (qSC8_124) located between 123 and 124 Mb also coincided with earlier reported QTL on chromosome 8 (PZE108069534-SYN19928 interval; Wang et al. (2016)). Similarly, major QTL for oil content qOC2_186 was also overlapped with earlier detected QTL, indicating several consistent regions for quality traits across genetic back grounds which supports their stable nature and is amenable for MAS-based improvement. Overall, several QTLs were consistent with the previous studies indicating their reliability to be used in applied breeding.Comparison of QTLs detected in both GWAS, and linkage mapping revealed clusters on several chromosomes either for same trait under both optimum and low N management as well as for both grain yield and quality traits (Supplementary Figure S5 and S6). Clustering of QTL for grain yield for both under optimum and low N conditions were detected on chromosome 3 between 186 to 200 Mb in DH pop3 and another QTL between 207 to 220 Mb in DH pop3 and GWAS panel. Several SNPs detected in GWAS were co-located within the QTLs detected in DH populations, for instance like for GY on chromosome 6 at 12 Mb and oil content at chromosome 6 at 60 Mb, these results help in further reducing the confidence interval of these QTLs. Focusing on increasing the favourable alleles associated with QTL in this region helps to improve the QTL for both low N and optimum management conditions. Similarly on chromosome 4, region between 140 to 180 Mb harbours QTL for grain yield, protein content and starch content and on chromosome 5 in region between 10 to 21 Mb harbours QTL for grain yield, starch content and oil content. These regions are of most important for simultaneous improvement of both grain yield and quality traits for both the management conditions. Nevertheless, further reducing the confidence interval of these regions helps to get more strongly associated markers for these QTLs which enhance the success rate to improve the multiple traits for both optimum and low N management.GS in tropical maize for various traits of interest revealed moderate to high prediction accuracies in several studies (Azmach et al. 2018;Beyene et al. 2019;Crossa et al. 2014;Gowda et al. 2021). The relative merits of GS over phenotypic selection influence its widespread application in breeding programs ( Beyene et al. 2019( Beyene et al. , 2021;;Kibe et al. 2020a). Moderate to high accuracies observed in this study for the bi-parental populations and IMAS panel offer promise in breeding for quality traits in tropical maize. Under N-starved soils, average prediction accuracies (Fig. 4) were higher for oil content (0.78) and lower for grain yield (0.08) which ascribed to their differences in their genetic architecture as oil content is relatively less complex in nature. DH population CML550/CML504 exhibited the highest prediction accuracy for protein (0.69), oil (0.73), and starch (0.70) content under low N stress. GS prediction accuracy has a direct influence on the degree of trait variation and heritability in each population (Kibe et al. 2020a). This is confirmed by this study, especially for oil content which had the highest genetic prediction accuracy is agrees with high magnitude of genotypic variation and H 2 estimates. Prediction accuracy for quality traits in the IMAS panel was in agreement with various studies on moderately complex traits like resistance for grey leaf spot (Kibe et al. 2020a), common rust (Kibe et al. 2020b), Striga (Gowda et al. 2021), maize lethal necrosis and maize chlorotic mottle virus (Sitonik et al. 2019). In the IMAS panel, the observed moderate prediction accuracy can be attributed to its genetic structure and high LD between adjacent markers, which could also be credited to its moderate heritability. Overall, this study indicates that utilizing a common training population to predict grain quality trait performance under low N stress in many linked but separate populations can be beneficial. In addition, the results also suggest that for complex traits like GY, selective marker-based approaches are less effective to improve their performance, however MAS can help to improve for quality traits irrespective of the management conditions.Compared to grain yield, quality traits are less complex, however, improving them under low N stress conditions through traditional breeding is laborious. Further improvement of these traits through MAS or MABC, there is need of more validation experiments for each trait to confirm the identified genomic regions for their consistency under diverse genetic background and environment, and fine map these regions to have stable markers which is resource intensive. On the other hand, GS is not needed any prior information on trait specific markers but is efficient in predicting lines performance on desired traits. In addition, the major QTL information available through QTL mapping, and GWAS can be incorporated into GS model as fixed effects which further enhance the prediction accuracy for these traits and helps to improve the efficiency in developing high yielding and high protein and oil content genotypes for optimum as well as low N stress conditions. Therefore, integration of GS in breeding program is beneficial to improve multiple traits.To investigate the genetic basis of protein, starch, and oil content performance under low N stress, we employed a single panel consisting of 410 tropical maize lines for GWAS and genomic prediction. QTL mapping was also used to investigate the underlying genetic architecture in four bi-parental populations to better understand the grain quality traits. The genotypic correlations of the grain quality traits investigated indicated that these populations can be used to select better-performing lines under low N stress. GWAS identified 42 SNPs associated with grain quality traits. In addition, several QTLs for the examined grain quality traits were identified by linkage mapping across populations. The genomic regions identified can be used for selection efforts to enhance grain quality trait performance in low-nitrogen soils. Furthermore, the findings showed that including GS in maize breeding can successfully support phenotypic selection to improve grain quality trait performance under low N stress. Future work should, therefore, focus on validating the identified QTLs to enhance the efficacy of maize breeding in SSA.","tokenCount":"8221"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"85975eecddd05ee47de62615341ed64c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4f9f1a9e-8b60-4a85-ac51-56e4110f7be6/retrieve","id":"-1714471622"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ac55a424-61e3-4ac4-858e-d6a406abfaf4","pagecount":"27","content":"A highly profitable investment in agricultural research in terms of return to research is crop genetic improvement. Increases in productivity of principal grains and oil-bearing crops observed during the 20th century have been demonstrated to be due mostly to their genetic improvement (Fehr 1987).Cassava has also benefited from technological contributions, particularly from genetics (Kawano et al. 1998;Kawano 2003), which has enabled the development of new varieties that more adequately meet the needs of farmers and consumers. Colombia possesses one of the few cassava genetic improvement programs found in the world, thus greatly favoring cassava growers in this country. This chapter describes the methodologies used by this program and its most relevant achievements.Genotype refers to all the genetic characteristics of an individual. To a great extent, plant breeding consists of identifying genetically desirable individuals, that is, those that have a superior genotype.Cassava is reproduced vegetatively. Each and every propagule obtained through vegetative reproduction is genetically identical, and constitutes what is known as a clone. This implies that when a desirable genotype is identified, the latter can be multiplied and perpetuated, generation after generation, without genetic segregation occurring. In this regard, cassava and other crops with vegetative reproduction such as sweet potato, potato, yam, and fruit trees offer a great advantage over those that multiply only through botanical or sexual seed.From the genetic viewpoint, cassava varieties are, in fact, hybrids between two selected parents. Cassava improvement starts with thousands of crosses and continues with an elaborate and expensive evaluation process (described in more detail below) to finally identify a few individuals that are genetically superior. Outstanding hybrids result from a cross that produces a unique and specific combination of genes that confers on them the hybrid vigor that characterizes them.An optimal combination will give good hybrid vigor and result in a successful variety (i.e., a cultivar that farmers will plant). Very few combinations of progenitors stand out, which means that thousands of crosses must be evaluated every year. Once a genetically superior cassava plant is identified, it can be multiplied vegetatively to deliver that genetic superiority to farmers.For many other crops, where reproduction is not vegetative, farmers may also plant hybrid materials (e.g., maize, sorghum, and carrot). These hybrids result from combinations of 2 to 4 progenitors that have been specifically identified because when they are crossed, they produce outstanding material, similar to what occurs with cassava. The seed resulting from such crosses is what farmers plant.These hybrids are identified genetically by the term F1 (i.e., first filial generation). Thus, the vigor observed in F1 of a commercial hybrid cannot be transmitted adequately to later generations. If farmers plant seed harvested from F1 (technically identified as F2 or second filial generation), \"degeneration\" can be observed. In other words, the high yield, uniformity, and other desirable characteristics that farmers receive from the purchased hybrid seed are gradually lost in subsequent filial generations. Hence, farmers must purchase hybrid seed year after year. The scientific basis of this \"degeneration\" is genetic segregation, mentioned above.Technically, what occurs with genetic segregation is that the genes present in an F1 hybrid are shuffled, in the same way as a pack of cards are before being dealt. When an individual of any species undergoes sexual reproduction, the genes present in the individual are reorganized. From the evolutionary viewpoint, this is critical because it enables the creation of new genetic forms or recombinations that constitute the foundation of evolution. From the agricultural viewpoint, however, this is sometimes inconvenient, as the shuffling of genes, which creates new genetic forms, destroys that specific, difficult-to-obtain, yet desirable combination of genes once a successful hybrid produces F1 seed. Once a superior hybrid is identified in crops such as maize, the problem of how to perpetuate it then has to be solved, because the option of vegetative reproduction is not available. Hence, cloning would provide great advantage for such commercial hybrids.To multiply a hybrid and produce seed for sale to farmers, the parental lines must be \"fixed\" by producing highly endogamous lines and later crossing them. This procedure complicates farmers' access to hybrid materials and makes them much more costly. In contrast, with cassava, once the genetically superior plant is identified, it can be reproduced vegetatively in such a way that farmers do not need to purchase hybrid seed year after year. However, as described later, the use of inbred parents allows for much more refined processes of improvement. Non-additive genetic effects (dominance and epistasis), responsible for heterosis, can be exploited more efficiently. It also enables the implementation of improvement methods such as backcrossing, which has been, and still is, widely used (Allard 1960;Blair et al. 2007).Vegetative reproduction nevertheless presents some drawbacks: the rate of vegetative multiplication in cassava is very low-one plant produces only 6 to 10 cuttings or stakes-whereas, in sexual reproduction, the rate is usually much higher. For example, a maize cob normally produces about 400 seeds, so that the multiplication rate would be 1:400.Another disadvantage of vegetative multiplication is the frequent accumulation of diseases, especially viral, in planting materials. Once the plant acquires a pathogen (particularly a virus), it is highly unlikely that it can free itself of that pathogen. Hence, all the stakes extracted from that plant will contain the pathogen. Good plant health management of cassava seed is therefore essential, and farmers must be encouraged to make minimal efforts to maintain the health of their planting materials. In contrast, botanical seed, resulting from sexual reproduction, is usually free of viral pathogens.Another adverse aspect of vegetative multiplication is that stakes or trimmed stems require much more care than botanical seed. The conditions under which planting materials are stored will affect plantlets vigor and thus influence the crop's general performance.For the above reasons, this paper gives special attention to the management of cassava vegetative seed to achieve an optimal physiological and sanitary state that maximizes returns to farmers.A final drawback of vegetative multiplication is the volume that planting materials occupy. A 10-ton truck can load enough cassava seed for about 10 ha. The same truck could transport enough maize seed for about 400 ha.The success of a genetic improvement program for a crop depends mainly on:1. Continuity over time 2. Appropriate definition of objectives 3. Implementation of a good improvement scheme 4. Availability of representative environments for evaluationsThis is particularly important for cassava because of its prolonged selection cycle, which typically requires more than 5 years. The rest of the chapter describes this issue in detail, as do other publications such as Ceballos et al. (2004Ceballos et al. ( , 2007a) ) and Morante et al. (2005).In contrast, a selection cycle for grains or legumes can be completed in less than one year. Crop genetic improvement is a continuous and gradual process that requires several cycles to achieve its objectives. As a result, a fundamental need is to ensure that resources will guarantee the continuous execution of the activity.Objectives for the process should be more or less stable, and changes introduced gradually and only when their need has been convincingly confirmed.Plant breeders should adequately define the objectives of their programs. Usually, for most crops and, in this regard, cassava is no exception, the goal is to increase yield per unit area; also to (1) maximize stability of production so that farmers will have adequate food security from their harvest, and (2) maintain or improve product quality so that this better meets the needs of end consumers. Stability of production is important and is achieved when the developed material is genetically tolerant or resistant to the main biotic and abiotic production constraints.Because cassava is usually grown in marginal environments, it is highly susceptible to natural disasters such as drought or prolonged winters. A successful variety must necessarily have qualities that enable it to bear these and other stresses. Each environment where cassava is grown has its own list of factors that limit production. In the North Coast of Colombia, for example, the absence of rains and availability of water form the principal abiotic constraints to productivity. With regard to pests and diseases, mites (Mononychellus tanajoa, M. caribbeana, Tetranychus urticae, T. cinnabarinus, Oligonychus peruvianus), thrips (Frankliniella williamsi), and the stemborer (Chilomima clarkei) pose the most common problems.In Valle del Cauca, in contrast, the availability of water is not such a major problem, which means that, instead of mites, the principal pest are whiteflies (Aleurotrachelus socialis and, to a lesser extent, Bemisia tuberculata). (In other regions of the world, B. tabaci is the main disease vector, including diseases such as the African cassava mosaic disease or cassava brown streak). In some areas of Colombia, cassava bacterial blight (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis) and superelongation (Sphaceloma manihoticola) are also economically significant constraints.All these observations are integrated into the process of genetic improvement for each ecoregion, so that resulting materials will have good levels of tolerance or resistance to these stresses. This activity is fundamental, both to maximize production and guarantee its stability, the latter of which is essential for the farmer's economic survival.Any genetic material produced should also adequately meet the needs of users or end consumers. These can be described as four major destinations for cassava in Colombia (as with the rest of the world), each of which defines specific requirements from the crop. Aspects of quality are becoming extremely important and are described in more detail in the next section.Once defined, the improvement program's specific objectives should be implemented. For this, a good improvement scheme is necessary. Because this issue is complex, it is treated in more detail as this chapter develops.Finally, to identify superior cassava varieties that adapt to the environments for which they are directed, evaluations in representative sites of the targeted environments must be conducted. Here, a compromise must be made on the number of environments that can be handled with the objective of maintaining the widest diversity of situations in which, in practice, this crop is found.For Colombia, six relevant and distinctive environments can be determined for cassava:(1) subhumid Caribbean (Department of Atlántico), (2) humid Caribbean (Córdoba), (3) Orinoquía (Meta), (4) inter-Andean valleys (Valle del Cauca), (5) highaltitude areas of about 1800 m above sea level (Cauca), and (6) humid lowlands (Putumayo). In these six environments, most of the conditions under which cassava is cultivated in the country are represented. They are also representative of most cassava-growing environments around the world.As already mentioned, several industries base their activity on processing cassava roots. These industries need raw material at competitive prices, in constant supplies, and typically possessing good levels of dry matter. These requirements are constant for all industries. However, specific requirements for certain qualitative characteristics exist for different industrial uses (Table 18-1).For these industries, the principal objective would be to produce varieties with (1) high yield potential to enable the production of raw material at competitive prices, and (2) high dry matter content to facilitate starch extraction or the drying of roots. Yellow roots would be more suitable for animal feeds, while white roots are preferred by the starch industry. In planta modification to produce varieties with special starch characteristics offers opportunities and advantages over the chemical and/or physical modification currently carried out to generate starches with special functional properties (Ellis et al. 1998;Davis et al. 2003).Fresh-root consumption. This is the traditional market for fresh roots, which are sold in both open-air markets and supermarkets. For this end use, cassava should be \"sweet\" (low contents of cyanogenic Food-processing industries. This growing sector is represented by pre-cooked and frozen croquettes and fried cassava chips. In these cases, productivity is essential, and root characteristics should be adjusted to industrial requirements. For croquettes, for example, varieties should be \"sweet\", with little fiber and levels of dry matter that are usually higher than for fresh consumption. Sugar levels in roots affect the quality of fried cassava chips.Table 18-1 describes the principal selection criteria according to uses given to cassava in Colombia. Other better satisfaction of farmers' needs as they themselves define them (CIAT 1991).A better comprehension of the needs of different consumers enables breeders to identify the opportunities a given crop offers, and thus make it more competitive or profitable. Such knowledge, in its turn, permits a definition of research objectives not only from the viewpoint of genetically improving crops, but also from other aspects that must accompany and complement the release of new varieties. These principles also are valid, and are being applied, for the cassava crop. Kleese (2000) suggested several factors for consideration when value is to be added to a given crop. These include:The needs of end users should be understood. Through such understanding, areas with potential for exploitation can be identified. In some areas of economic activity, barriers may exist to free exchange of information, stemming from aspects of intellectual property, common in many highly competitive markets.The most obvious opportunities for adding value to a crop occur when the latter can meet needs covered by other ingredients. For cassava, the use of yellow roots (high carotene content) reduces the need for exogenous supplements of carotenes and/or colorings in poultry feeds. It can also be useful in a basic strategy to reduce the awful effects of vitamin A deficiency in humans (Echeverri 2001).Another example that stands out is that, sometimes, added value results by removing a given product, as in the case of inositol in maize. This product links with phosphorus in such a way that it cannot be absorbed by monogastric species. Hence, the phosphorus found in chicken and pig manure from major operations is becoming a true ecological problem. A strategic alternative, in this case, would be to improve the crop to reduce inositol content (and, hence, the quantity of phosphorus linked to it), or, instead, add enzymes that will degrade it. The end beneficiary of these potential solutions would be the environment itself.The need to capture a new added value. Two fundamental aspects of introducing crops with added value are whether the market would pay for the new value, and how the different actors of a given cassava products for human consumption include gari (toasted fermented cassava meal) and fufu (boiled cassava pounded into a paste and eaten with stews and soups), which are consumed in Africa; and farinha (toasted cassava meal) and casabe (a flatbread), which are typical in several South American countries (Cock 1985). Another highly distinctive use of cassava, which is uncommon in Colombia but adopted in countries such as Cuba (García L and Herrera 1998), is the harvest of young foliage. For this use, cassava is planted at high densities and foliage is cut about every 4 months.Bioethanol. This is a growing industry, thanks to price increases in oil and oil derivatives on the one hand and technology developments on the other. Research on the economic and competitive hydrolysis of maize endosperm (before fermentation is begun and distillation carried out) has directly benefited similar processes conducted on cassava roots.Traditionally, the production chain for the food sector has been fractionated so that little or no interaction exists between its different components. Thus, crop breeders interacted only with farmers who purchased their products. Communication was usually very limited between plant breeders, the sector purchasing and selling agricultural products, processors, and, in the final analysis, end consumers.Recently, however, recognition is growing of the need for greater integration among the different components of a given production chain. This principle is influencing policies of agricultural research in Colombia (CONPES 2000), including the case of cassava within the poultry and pig-raising chains. Thus, suppliers of genetic resources are interacting more closely with, for example, merchants of grains and other agricultural products, livestock producers, food processors, and food wholesalers and retailers to discover the specific needs of the different actors.In other words, crop genetic improvement has been reoriented so that its objectives aim more precisely at the needs of end users. Thus, in welldeveloped markets, cash crops seek to better meet the needs of merchants, processors, and consumers of agricultural products. For less developed markets or household consumption, the end user is usually the farmers themselves. In this case, specific participatory research methodologies have been developed to seek 3. For an explanation of this and other abbreviations and acronyms, see Appendix 1: Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Technical Terminology, this volume.production chain would share the additional profits.With respect to the latter aspect, it should be remembered that, in each case, an added value to a specific crop would compete with other alternatives available on the market. Policies being implemented should guarantee that any additional profitability is adequately distributed among the different actors of the production chain to prevent monopolization by one or another.Redefining an added value. For farmers, yield has been the most prevalent way of determining the value of most cash crops. Ideally, the adding of value should be done without it being at the expense of a crop's productivity. For cassava, higher dry matter content and increased carotene content in roots are examples of where value can be added without necessarily reducing productivity. Assuming the simplest case where parity with productivity exists, how and who defines the magnitude of increase in the crop's value? A need must be recognized for which the consumer or processor is willing to pay extra for a product that will be more useful in meeting that need.If this incentive does not exist, farmers will not necessarily adopt a new variety, as happened in the case of quality-protein maize (QPM) 3 . This maize was improved so that, while obtaining yields and grain quality similar to normal maize, it also offered greater availability of two essential amino acids: lysine and tryptophan (Vasal 2000). However, this maize was not extensively adopted because the food industry was unwilling to pay higher prices for it, even though it better met the industry's needs.It is clear that crop genetic improvement can improve a crop's nutritional quality. Maize with its variants of high oil content (Dudley et al. 1974) or high protein quality (Vasal 2000) demonstrates this clearly. Iron and zinc can be added to beans (Beebe et al. 2000) and carotenes to cassava (Chávez et al. 2000). But, would such modifications be sufficiently large to be reflected in changes in the crop's commercial value?In some specific cases, answers to these questions are even more difficult to obtain. For example, in the marketing of transgenic crops (maize and cotton) that carry the gene from the entomotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), numerous factors intervene to influence the final commercial value that these crops have. Production by farmers benefits from the reduced need to apply agricultural chemicals to control insects that are controllable by the gene Bt. The environment also benefits from fewer indiscriminate interventions by farmers. However, public opinion has been manipulated in such a way that, in many cases, the polemics of transgenic crops move away from the specifically technical and scientific to the more philosophical and political, distorting the true value that these products may have.Transgenic crops possess enormous potential for the possibilities offered, in different crops, through the addition of value. For example, the quality of oil in a given oleaginous crop could be modified to benefit human health by decreasing the proportion of the saturated fraction. Transgenesis could genetically alter the rice crop to increase carotene and iron contents (\"golden rice\") (Ye et al. 2000); and reduce amylose content in cassava starch (Munyikwa 1997) to produce waxy cassava that would have enormous potential in the starch industry. But, as well as the undeniable increase in the crop's value from a biological viewpoint, aspects, including psychological, must be considered as they intervene in the definition of the final value that such a crop would have for society.Preserving the added value. This is also relevant. For those products whose added value is easily detectable (e.g., the yellow color of cassava roots with high carotene content), management is simple. However, some characteristics are difficult to detect, as in the case of beans with high levels of iron and zinc. In such cases, an independent marketing chain may be required to preserve the product's identity as having added value. However, this same need would increase marketing costs.Freedom to operate. This refers, mainly, to the growing quantity of legal restrictions that stem from intellectual property rights for different products such as genes, procedures, and enzymes. Sometimes, a vacuum exists in the legislation of numerous countries on the use of genetically modified organisms. In other cases (Argentina, Canada, China, and USA), the regulation of its production and use is lax. In yet other cases (mainly Europe), the production, marketing, and use of food derived from genetically modified crops are highly restricted. Ironically, this situation contrasts with the production and use of drugs and medicines that are also obtained through genetic transformation techniques, but which have not generated as much polemic as the case of agricultural products.As described in Chapter 2 on the plant's morphology, cassava is a monoecious species that has staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flowers on the same inflorescence (Figure 2-5, Chapter 2, this volume). Crop genetic improvement requires, as an essential stage, the development of new genotypes that are superior to those already available at the time of development. New genotypes occur through crosses between progenitors that have been selected for the purpose because they present one or more desirable characteristics. Crossing consists of facilitating the deposit of pollen from one progenitor's male flower onto the stigma of a female flower of another progenitor.In controlled crosses, flowers are handled directly to ensure greater control over pollination. Occasionally, the researcher may decide to carry out self-pollination, whereby pollen from one plant is deposited on the female flowers of the same plant. This, however, is carried out only for research purposes; it very rarely gives rise to a commercial variety.Flowering in cassava is always associated with stem branching in such a way that those cultivars that do not branch, do not flower either. The plants flower preferably during the short days of the year (Jennings 1970). Flowering in this crop is highly variable, influenced by genetic-some varieties rarely flower, while others flower abundantly-and environmental factors-the same variety may not flower in lowlands but will flower exuberantly in mid-altitudes. As a result, the production of botanical seed in a genetic improvement program is highly variable and depends heavily on the combination of progenitors that are to be crossed, as well as the sites and timing of pollinations.After pollination and subsequent fertilization, the ovary develops, forming the fruit, which takes about 3 months to achieve maturity. The fruit is a dehiscent capsule and is either trilocular ovoid or globate. It measures 1.5 to 2.0 cm in diameter, and has six narrow longitudinal and prominent edges (Figure 18 -1). The capsule is hard and has three loculi, each of which contains a seed. Seeds are elliptical and coffee-colored or gray, with black or coffee-colored guttae (or spots), depending on the mother variety (Figure 2-6, Chapter 2, this volume).The production of sexual (or botanical) cassava seed at CIAT involves several stages and options. Understanding the plant's flowering system helps in handling the procedure with maximum efficiency. Seed production includes, in addition to parent selection, hybridization or crossing, seed collection and the seeds' correct coding, storage and treatment, and use of an elaborate planting system.The relatively large size of flowers ensures that controlled pollination in cassava is easy and relatively simple. The female flowers usually open 10-14 days before the male ones of the same inflorescence do. However, female and male flowers of different racemes on the same plant commonly flower at the same time, enabling self-pollination. Flowers usually open at mid-day.During free pollination of flowers, both self-and cross-pollinated seeds may be produced, in proportions that depend on genotype, planting design, type of insects present in the area, and timing of pollination. With some practice and judging from the flower's color and form, predicting which female or male flowers will open during the day is possible. A more effective method is to loosen an unopened tepal of the female flower. If a drop of nectar lies near the tepal's base the flower will open that day (Figure 18-2).When two different progenitors are crossed, the resulting progeny constitutes a family, usually called F1. Because of cassava's high heterozygosity (the genetic heterogeneity present in an individual), each seed produced in an F1 cross generates a genetically For controlled crosses, both female and male progenitors are known, so that the progenies produced constitute a family of full sibs. Selected parents are organized in separated crossing blocks and pollinations are directed mostly between varieties for a single adaptation area. However, they are also carried out between varieties from different areas to transfer and recombine specific characteristics and increase the plasticity of the materials, so that they may adapt more broadly and/or possess better stability in production.For controlled crosses, 10 to 20 plants per selected genotype are used as parental materials, planted in rows with distances between plants being 1 m and between rows 2 m. The latter distance is to facilitate circulation of the people who observe and select flowers ready for pollination each day.Pollination is carried out in the morning after female flowers, likely to be receptive that day, are chosen. They are then covered with cloth bags, measuring 20 × 25 cm, to protect them from undesirable pollen after opening. Those male flowers that are close to opening are themselves collected on the same day in the morning and deposited in plastic or glass bottles, identified with the variety's name (Figure 18-3). The flowers will open in their bottles at mid-day.Pollination is carried out by first finding suitable female flowers and then gently rubbing their stigmas with pollen-bearing anthers (Figure 18-4). As many as three different female flowers can be pollinated by a single male flower. The pollinated flowers are then  identified, using tags on which the crosses are detailed (thus noting the origin of the pollen, together with the date and number of pollinated flowers) (Figure 18-5).Those of the raceme's female flowers that had not opened by the time of pollination are eliminated to prevent later confusion with those that were pollinated.The information of all crosses within one day is tabulated and later transferred to either a card system or directly to an electronic system. Thus, crosses can be organized first by the female parent and then by the male parent, following an alphanumerical order for each clone that was used as a progenitor.Pollinated flowers can be covered immediately with either a cloth or paper bag, but they can also be left uncovered, as, apparently, exposed flowers are rarely, if at all, contaminated by pollen from other sources. However, flowers that are covered after pollination frequently have a low percentage of formed fruits, possibly because the temperature inside the bag increases sufficiently to \"burn\" the flower. After 3 weeks, the formed fruits must be covered with cloth bags to prevent attack from fruit fly (Anastrepha pickeli) and to collect seeds when dehiscence occurs (Figure 18-4). Fruits reach maturity at about 3 months after pollination. For open pollination, only the female progenitor is known, as the pollen may come from any of the surrounding plants. In this case, the possibility exists that, occasionally, self-pollination will occur. Progeny that results from open pollination of the same female progenitor constitutes a half-sib family, as the identification of the male progenitor remains uncertain. Within such a family the plants may have some phenotypic, but fewer, similarities than do full siblings from controlled crosses.Open-pollinated seed can be collected from any cassava planting, but on the condition of having a mixture of numerous and genetically different materials. Different methods exist for increasing the possibility that the source of pollen is the desired one. The most commonly used is to plant a mixture of selected clones in isolated blocks, where they can cross exclusively with each other, while avoiding undesirable varieties. In this case, seeds from individual plants are collected, and records of female progenitors are kept. Such a system is called polycrossing. CIAT uses a system of constructing blocks of polycrosses in which a spatial arrangement is designed to favor homogeneous pollination among the varieties involved. The field plans of the polycrossing plots follow Wright's methodology (1965). With this design, the same possibilities exist for crosses among selected varieties. Planting distances are 1.5 m between plants and 2 m between rows. To ensure that crosses are carried out among the varieties to be crossed, these blocks are surrounded by 8-m-wide barriers of malesterile plants, planted at 1 m between plants and between rows. These barriers reduce pollen flow from one block to another and reduce the possibility of pollen from undesirable plants intervening in the pollinations.Fruits generated by this system are collected when they are sufficiently mature physiologically, at about 2 months after fertilization. At this time, the fruits lose their natural shine, becoming opaque green in color. The peel then loosens readily from the fruit capsule, and dehiscence begins, with the edges separating until they are totally freed. At this moment, the peel takes on a coffee color (Figure 18-1).The dried and sectioned fruits in the bags, which were put in place earlier, are collected from the field and seed is selected after all residues are removed from the peel. The seeds are organized; for controlled crosses, first according to the female progenitor and then to the male progenitor; and, for open-pollinated crosses, to the female progenitor, which is the only one known. The seed is then tested for density in a solution of 2% sodium hypochlorite to eliminate those with lowdensity or are non-viable and also to disinfect seeds of possible pathogens adhering on their exterior.To facilitate data management, a code is assigned to each cross according to the progenitors involved. CIAT uses a code of two letters to indicate the type of cross and the progenitors involved. When the cross is controlled, different letters have been used over time such as \"CG\" or \"CM\". Currently, the letters \"GM\" are being used. Following the letters is a code of up to four numbers that represents a consecutive record of the crosses done at CIAT. This number identifies the family of the full sibs that possess progenitors in common. For example, the family CM 6740 identifies all progeny derived from the cross between M Col 1505 and M Pan 51. The same cross can be made over several years. However, if the same progenitors are used, the progeny produced will always have the same code, regardless of the year in which the cross is made.As each individual of a full-sib family is genetically different from its siblings, the individuals of a single family are distinguished by a hyphen followed by a consecutive number. Thus, CM 6740-7 identifies the clone that was recently released as 'Reina'. In addition to CM 6740-7, numerous individuals within that family were produced, but only the seventh one was superior enough to be released as a new variety. Another interesting example is that of the family CM 3306, which produced excellent progeny that resulted in the release of the variety ICA-Negrita (CM 3306-4). More recently, the Colombian Corporation of Agricultural Research (CORPOICA) released CM 3306-19. In addition, the clone CM 3306-9 showed exceptional performance in Guajira, despite the severe drought conditions that are typical of the region.For seeds resulting from open pollination, the letters \"SG\" were first used but are now replaced by the letters \"SM\". These letters are also followed by four numbers that represent a consecutive index that identifies a given polycrossing plot (i.e., a single group of progenitors), and the mother from which seed was obtained. For example, SM 1219 identifies the whole progeny derived from the mother CG 1450-4 that participated in the polycrossing plots of 1987. The code thus identifies not only the female progenitor from which this half-sibling family is derived, but also the group of individuals among which the male progenitor is to be found.As in controlled crosses, the code for the halfsibling family is followed by a hyphen and a number that distinguishes the different individuals composing it. Thus, clone SM 1219-19 stands out among its half siblings for its superiority in mid-altitude valley environments. Unlike what happens for controlled crosses, the different individuals of an SM family may have different male progenitors.Botanical cassava seed, stored at room temperature, maintains high viability for about one year after harvest. For medium-term storage (i.e., several years), they are conserved at 5-10 ºC and 60% relative humidity.Seeds are packed in small envelopes carrying the names of the cross and its parents, the source of seed, date of harvesting the fruits, and the number of seeds in the bag. During storage, seed is treated with fungicides and insecticides. In addition, drying in an oven at 55-60 ºC for 10 to 14 days is sometimes recommended to eliminate potential risks of pests and pathogens from the seed. Such treatment also helps break seed dormancy, which normally lasts 2 months after harvesting.Little information exists as to the optimal storage conditions for seed. Under normal environmental conditions, germination drops drastically 2 years after seed is harvested, becoming non-existent by the third year (Kawano 1978). However, Martín and Ruberte (1976) found that storage under dry (in calcium chloride) laboratory conditions still produces a good germination rate, even after more than 2 years of storage. At the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria, germination studies (1979) of seeds stored for more than 7 years at 5 ºC and 60% relative humidity found that viability in seeds between 0 and 7 years old had not declined in any way.As mentioned earlier, the management of sexual seed is not difficult, but requires special care, particularly in the first stages of seedling development. The first consideration for sowing seed is the time at which this is carried out. Normally, sowing in trays should be 6 to 8 weeks before the crop is normally planted in the area, so that transplanting to the field coincides with that time. If several planting times are available, one should be chosen, according to convenience or relative importance of each time.Seed is sown in trays, plastic bags, or in a bed prepared in the field. The percentage of germination from sowing directly in the field tends to be low and should be avoided if possible. The most preferable method is sowing in trays with individual compartments for each seedling. Ideally, a compartment should be about 3 × 3 cm and 6 cm deep (Figure 18-6). Trays without compartments are acceptable, but great care is needed to maintain the exact identification of each seed.The planting substrate in the trays may be soil or an artificial mixture. It should be well drained and free of insects, pathogens, or weed seeds. For greater safety, the soil should be sterilized by steaming or fumigation. The substrate should have a good balance of nutrients and, especially, an adequate level of phosphorus. After preparing the trays or bags with soil, the seeds are systematically planted to a depth of about 1.0-1.5 cm. Seed packets should be arranged in ascending order according to the code, and the seeds sown in that order, identifying each family with a plastic or wooden marker that carries the code and faces the first row.To germinate, cassava seed has highly specific requirements, which, if they are not fulfilled, can lead to a very low germination rate. The two most important requirements are suitable temperature and sufficient moisture in the soil or substrate. The optimal temperature regime fluctuates between 25 and 35 ºC in a site where temperatures can be controlled. Otherwise, in a greenhouse or mesh house, temperatures may reach as high as 38 ºC during the day. The substrate should be kept moist, but not saturated. Plants grow best under sunlight with normal intensity and no shade.Six to 8 weeks after sowing, or when seedling height averages about 20 cm, the plantlets are transplanted to the field. The soil should be well prepared and preferably with ridges. Planting distance depends on the selection system implemented. In each transplant site, a small hole is made. Seedlings should be extracted from the tray with minimal damage to the roots, transplanting in the same order that the seeds were sown, that is, in ascending order of the number of the cross. The easiest way to transplant all the seedlings is in serpentine form, planting down the field and returning in the opposite direction. A free space is left between different crosses where a stake is placed carrying their identification.If the soil has insufficient moisture at the time of transplanting, each seedling should be irrigated individually. During the first month, until the plants are well established, adequate soil moisture must be maintained. Also, during this establishment period, seedlings are highly susceptible to damage by cutting insects, slugs, and other animals, which means that protection requires continuous treatment and frequent checks. In areas where thrips cause damage, the plants must be protected by insecticide applications for the first months, until they are old enough to form pubescence on leaf buds (the most common form of resistance).Throughout the cycle, the normal practices of any cassava trial are carried out. Only for the first 2 or 3 months are plants from sexual seed more delicate than those derived from stakes. Once past this period, they achieve an almost normal development.Below, we briefly describe the procedures for the genetic improvement of cassava for specific environments in Colombia. In this section, the reader can better understand the complexity of the improvement system and the need for continuity of adequate resources. Additional information can be found in other publications such as those by Ceballos et al. (2004Ceballos et al. ( , 2007a) ) anSd Morante et al. (2005). A major decision to make in crop genetic improvement is to choose the materials that will be used as parents to produce new varieties that have higher productive potential and better adaptation to the environmental conditions where they will be grown. CIAT has the enormous privilege to be the depository for the World Cassava Germplasm Bank. With more than 6000 varieties from Africa, Asia, and the Americas, the Bank contains a major proportion of not only the current genetic variability of Manihot esculenta, but also numerous wild species from which valuable genes can be extracted. The materials held in the Germplasm Bank were contributed by many countries and, together, are considered as humanity's patrimony. Use of this germplasm permits development of materials not only for Colombia, but also for the rest of the world.Not all genetic variability is usable, as many varieties held by the Germplasm Bank lack characteristics that make them suitable as parents. However, their conservation is considered as a way of guaranteeing the crop's competitiveness or its future use in the event a new phenomenon occurs that the varieties currently disseminated are unable to overcome, for example, when a new disease or pest makes a sudden appearance. Only then will some materials, which had previously not offered any advantages, become valuable genetic resources.A recent situation illustrates the strategic importance of germplasm banks. In several regions of the Departments of Cauca, Valle del Cauca, and Tolima, a whitefly problem had been gradually but constantly evolving over recent years to the point that it became a true constraint to production in these regions.Responding to this growing problem, CIAT began evaluating materials in the Germplasm Bank, in the hope of finding varieties that would offer some type of resistance or tolerance to whiteflies. A variety from Ecuador (M Ecu 72) was identified as having excellent levels of resistance to these insects (Bellotti et al. 1999). In fact, the resistance present in M Ecu 72 was later confirmed to be of the antibiosis type. Accordingly, with support from the Colombian Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), the resistant variety was included as progenitor in crosses for the inter-Andean valley region, where this problem was most severe. The antibiosis of M Ecu 72 is the first source of resistance reported for crops affected by whiteflies.In addition to materials from the Germplasm Bank, cassava clones resulting from genetic improvement begun at CIAT in the early 1970s are also heavily used. For example, many of the genotypes selected as parents had high dry matter productivity per hectare (e.g., M Tai 8, SM 1565-15, and SM 1219-9). Other parents presented excellent qualities for the foodprocessing industry (M Per 183 and SM 1460-1), recognized combining ability to produce good progeny (SM 805-15 and SM 1565-17), or special characteristics such as resistance to root rots (CM 4574-7). An important modification, introduced in year 2000, was a more frequent inclusion of materials that possess a pulp with an intense yellow color, as a result of high carotene content. These materials may possibly have specific industrial uses, as they present low HCN levels (thus reducing the problem of drying cassava for the feed concentrate industry) while providing greater nutritional value. For the snack industry (fried cassava chips), an added advantage is that the product has a more attractive presentation.Another new development with regard to progenitors for use in producing new genotypes is the introduction, through IITA, of African materials that possess resistance to the African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV). Fortunately, this disease does not appear in the Americas, but its insect vector (Bemisia tabaci) has recently been detected feeding on cassava in Brazil, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico (Bellotti et al. 1999). Hence, to introduce resistance to this severe disease before its eventual appearance is to be prudent, particularly as American cassava varieties are highly susceptible to African mosaic. Because selection cannot be made for resistance (as the disease is not present), molecular markers identified at CIAT will be used. The introduced materials were obtained through embryo rescue from sexual seed to ensure there were no risks of inadvertently introducing the disease into the country-as already mentioned, viral diseases are not transmitted through botanical seed. In addition to this precaution, special measures of plant health prevention were taken.Once recombinant cassava seeds are produced, their progeny should be evaluated to select, from the massive number of genotypes, those few that surpass, in one or more characteristics, the best of the currently available materials. This is a slow, costly, but very important process. It gradually reduces the number of genotypes for evaluating, while increasing the quantity of vegetative seed available for successive evaluations and/or multiplications.Cassava is characterized by a notable genotype-byenvironment interaction that results in a marked specificity of adaptation of varieties to specific environmental conditions. For example, varieties for the subhumid Caribbean usually do not adapt to humid Caribbean or Eastern Plains. As a result, selection must be made in each ecological region. In this regard, the country is seen to be highly favored by CIAT carrying out its selection activities in Colombia, as this guarantees excellent adaptation of germplasm to prevalent environmental conditions. For similar reasons, CIAT is highly favored by having possibly available such contrasting environments within a single country.For each ecoregion, an independent evaluation scheme is carried out. Figure 18-7 illustrates the way in which these evaluations are currently conducted for each ecoregion. The sexual or botanical seed is sown in mesh houses to prevent the possibility of transferring diseases such as frogskin and then transplanted to the field at 2 months old (Stage F1).These plantings are carried out in isolated plots to maintain the materials as free as possible of disease vectors (particularly, whiteflies) and thus reduce to the utmost the probability that these materials will contain communicable diseases. At 10 months, these plants are \"harvested\" to produce eight stakes or cuttings. All the stakes from one plant are packed together, suitably identified, and transported to the respective area of specific adaptation (e.g., subhumid Caribbean). On collecting the stakes, roots are reviewed to confirm that they do not have symptoms of diseases such as frogskin. The eight stakes are planted in individual furrows of eight plants in trials known as clonal evaluation trials (CET).The enormous genetic variability, based on so many crosses among selected progenitors, can be appreciated in the CET. To exploit this great variability, several very large segregating families must be evaluated. Currently, between 1500 and 2000 clones are being planted in these trials. As expected, many of these clones will present different, possibly undesirable, characteristics. Hence, at this stage, selection is highly drastic, reducing the number of clones that will pass to the next stage of evaluation and selection to 200-300. As each genotype is represented by a relatively reduced number of plants (up to eight) planted with one replication, selection in the CET is based mostly on highly heritable characteristics (e.g., plant type, dry matter content in roots, capacity to produce storage roots, harvest index, and resistance to certain insects or diseases).   presence of biotic or abiotic factors), whereas other families maintain their leaves over longer periods. This capacity for leaf retention is a favorable influence (dry matter yield is about an extra 2 t/ha), as seen when the families were harvested 6 months later.Figure 18-9 illustrates segregation for resistance to leaf diseases (bacterial blight and superelongation) typical in the Orinoquian Region. In this particular case, stakes of highly susceptible materials were planted to separate plots, which had been planted one behind the other. The plants originating from these stakes served as sources of inoculum, that is, as \"spreaders\", to ensure that disease pressure is relatively high and uniform throughout the whole trial.Once this first selection in the CET is made, thus reducing the number of families to evaluate and increasing the quantity of available seed, evaluations start with larger plots and with replications. As the process advances (Figure 18-7), selection focuses more and more on characteristics of low heritability such as yield. This is because, only through the use of special experimental designs, inclusion of replications, and evaluations across several sites, can the environmental effects influencing the expression of low-heritability characteristics be satisfactorily reduced.At typical harvest time (e.g., February and March in the North Coast) the first two plants in the furrow are harvested to measure dry matter content . This characteristic modifies considerably according to the time at which roots are harvested. As a result, it should be measured in the representative season. The remaining plants are left in the field until the rains begin, when they are then harvested and potential yield evaluated in relation to volume of roots produced. Other variables are integrated into a selection index (SI), which is processed and analyzed by computer to quickly and efficiently choose the best 200 to 300 of 1500 to 2000 genotypes.Cuttings from the remaining six plants and from only selected materials are used in a preliminary yield trial (PYT), with three replications of plots with 10-12 plants each. In other environments, such as the Eastern Plains or inter-Andean valleys, where the dry period is not so marked, fluctuations in dry matter content are not strong. Hence, all the plants of each furrow are harvested when the crop is usually planted. This permits identification of the best clones while all plants are also used as sources of vegetative seed. Stakes from selected materials and not used in the three replications are planted in a separate nursery to serve as sources of planting material for the next evaluation stages.The best 30 to 60 clones identified in the PYT are selected to continue on to the next selection stage, known as advanced yield trials (AYT). These are carried out, using three replications, but with plots of 20-25 plants. From this stage on, harvests are carried out at the optimal and typical time (e.g., February and March for the North Coast) but only for the 6 to 9 plants in the center of the plot . These plants always have all around them other individuals of the same clone and their harvest permits estimating their characteristics more precisely.The remaining 14 to 16 peripheral plants of each plot that were not harvested are left as sources of planting material, and used at planting time (e.g., May for the North Coast). These plants, located on the outside of each plot, are not evaluated precisely, because they are competing with plants of other varieties that may, for example, be more or less vigorous or more or less aggressive. As these plants are affected by their neighbors, their performance is not representative of the variety. They can nevertheless be used as sources of planting material without problems. This distinction is not made in the earlier stages of the improvement scheme because not enough vegetative seed is available for planting plots with 20 to 25 plants.Between 5 and 10 of the best genotypes from the AYT are incorporated into regional trials (RT), which are planted in various representative sites of each ecoregion and with three replications per site. As, in each year, a new selection cycle is initiated, this means that, in a given region and at the same time, all the selection stages as described above can be found growing. Regional trials are conducted continuously. They include the current best clones in each region and cover the different purposes for which they may be destined (e.g., fresh consumption or industry). They also serve as checks.F ig u r e 18 -11. Plots with internal plants harvested and the peripheral plants left standing. These latter will be used as sources of planting material.Those materials that do not surpass the checks are eliminated from the RT after 2 years and new promising genotypes planted after continual identification in the AYT. Ultimately, some new clones will surpass the checks in one or more characteristics in the RT. These materials are then evaluated for eventual release as varieties. This task is typically carried out by CORPOICA.Below, we briefly describe some relevant results of the last selection stages in RT held in different regions of the country. In each case, the calculation of a selection index (SI) is included. This parameter condenses into a single number numerous variables that the breeder assesses. Its use permits even the consideration of variables that may have more weight than others (Baker and Rodgers 1986). The index is currently frequently used, as follows:To remove the problem of the units in which each variable is measured (and which would influence the weight of each in the SI), each variable is standardized, following the statistical formula (Steel and Torrie 1988):where, X i is the average of a given variety, µ is the average of all clones, and σ is its standard deviation.The coefficients of each term (10 for fresh-root yield, 8 for dry matter content, and 3 for harvest index and plant type) reflect the relative importance of each variable within the SI. These weights are subjective and may vary from one evaluation to another.The variables included in the SI formula are the most important, but not the only ones to take into account in the selection process. The materials searched for are not only those with high yield potential (fresh-root yield), but also clones with high dry matter content (%) in roots, as this facilitates starch extraction and the drying of chipped cassava destined for animal feed.The harvest index measures the proportion of the plant's total biomass that is represented by roots. This variable is particularly important in initial selection stages when not enough replications are available for each genotype (Kawano et al. 1998).The fourth factor included in the formula is plant type. This variable is measured by using a visual scale that ranges from 1 (excellent) to 5 (highly undesirable). In this case, low values are preferred, in contrast to the first three variables where the highest values are preferred. Hence, this variable receives a negative sign in the formula.The SI permits ranking the materials to facilitate final selection. In addition to the variables included in the index, other variables (e.g., resistance to pests or diseases) are reviewed. Sometimes, a material with an excellent SI has to be discarded for other reasons that make them totally unacceptable. In calculating, an SI close to zero describes varieties of average performance. When SI is positive, the varieties are superior (the higher the positive value, the greater will be the material's genetic superiority). Similarly, a negative SI reflects a performance that is below that of the average of the materials evaluated (the higher the negative value, the worse is the material's general performance).Caribbean Region. Below we present data from three RT conducted in sites of the subhumid coast: Pitalito, Santo Tomás, and Molineros (Table 18-2), all in the Department of Atlántico. In this table, the clones have been ordered according to their rank in relation to the performance of their respective selection indices in each of the three sites. Of the 60 varieties evaluated, the results of the best 15 varieties are presented, as well as some checks that represent materials available to farmers.Clone M Tai 8, known in Asia as 'Rayong 60', was the result of collaboration between CIAT and the Thai Government (Kawano 1992). Until recently, it was the best material available for industrial purposes and was planted to a large area of the country's Atlantic Coast. Yet, in these regional trials, it occupied tenth place in regional trials, thereby suggesting that a new generation of materials could very soon surpass the excellent performance of M Tai 8. Some of these materials are already being spontaneously disseminated (e.g., CM 4919-1) and others have proven to adapt well to other environments (e.g., SM 1411-5), which stood out in Lower Cauca, in Caucasia, Antioquia). Table 18-2 also shows the poor performance of materials in Molineros (average fresh-root yield of the 60 materials was 13.1 t/ha), compared with Pitalito and Santo Tomás (33.7 and 26.8 t/ha, respectively). This was due to a severe drought at the first site, where it had begun 2 months before the rains normally cease. It is precisely because of such variation, which frequently and unpredictably affects agricultural activities, that evaluations should be carried out in different environments and, if possible, for more than one cycle. Across environments and time, genetically superior materials with stable production are gradually identified. In Molineros, dry matter content (29.1%) was considerably less than at the other sites (34.8% and 34.0%) because the rains began before the normal time. This meant that harvest was carried out when shoot growth was already observed in the plants. Dry matter content in cassava roots declines drastically when growth is reinitiated after prolonged drought, as the plant consumes part of its root reserves.On average, the 15 best clones yielded across the three sites 10.3 t/ha of dry matter, while the averages for the total of the three experiments and for the checks were, respectively, 8.3 and 7.6 t/ha. This reflects the crop's enormous potential for genetic improvement. Even in advanced selection stages, not all materials were satisfactory. A fundamental aspect of this stage is the expansion to include numerous sites. We emphasize that when these materials are transferred to farmers' fields, productivity is usually reduced because of numerous factors, many of which cannot not be controlled by the farmers.In these advanced stages of selection, when the number of materials to select has been considerably reduced, evaluations are started for characteristics that can be measured only in a limited number of progenies. For example, trials may begin on culinary quality and cyanogenic glucoside content to determine whether the cassava is \"bitter\" or \"sweet\". Thus, when the regional trials are finished, the excellent agronomic performance and stable productivity of the genotypes can also be assured, as can be the information on different characteristics that will help define the potential use of these materials (e.g., starch production, energy source for animal feed, and fresh-root market).Another example that illustrates the importance of evaluating materials in different environments is that of the clone SM 1433-4. This material was included among the 60 described in Table 18-2 (but its performance is not shown as it was not among the best 15). This clone performed well under subhumid Caribbean conditions, where reduced precipitations limited the development of bacterial blight (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis). In wetter conditions, however, this pathogen spreads more easily, as happened in the Departments of Sucre and Córdoba, where SM 1433-4 proved to be excessively susceptible to this disease.Eastern Plains. The materials adapted to this environment characteristically tolerate acid soils. Bacterial blight and superelongation (caused by the fungus Sphaceloma manihoticola) are the principal diseases that affect cassava in this type of environment. Many of the materials developed here have performed very well in other regions of the country such as Quindío, Antioquia, Huila, and Tolima.Table 18-3 presents the averages of three RT conducted in Restrepo, Matazul, and La Libertad, all in the Department of Meta. Because of the effects of genotype-by-environment interaction (i.e., differential performance of genotypes in different environments), identifying materials that show excellent development in the three sites was not readily possible. However, CM 6438-14 (released in 2001) and CM 6740-7 (CORPOICA-Reina) performed very well, surpassing the check material ('Brasilera'). Other clones also performed well in this evaluation, as in previous years (SM 1363-11, SM 1821-7, and SM 1143-18). Clone CM 4574-7 also performed well and showed resistance to root rots.Clones CM 4574-7 and CM 6438-14 are particularly adapted to savanna conditions, while clone CM 6740-7 adapts better to conditions that are not as extreme such as found at \"La Libertad\" Experiment Station (Villavicencio), and under the conditions of the Piedemonte, a hilly region lying between the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes and the Eastern Plains. We point out that, except for CM 6438-14, these experimental clones are among those materials selected to participate as parents in crosses to be carried out during year 2000.During 2001, CORPOICA released the clone CM 6438-14, with a name that honors the memory of farmer Juan Vergara, who constantly promoted the cassava crop in the Orinoquia and shared his experience and progressive vision with the team in charge of this crop's genetic improvement. CM 6438-14 (Figure 18-12) has high levels of resistance to bacterial Clone CM 6740-7 or 'Reina' (Figure 18-13) demonstrates its extraordinary potential, both for fresh roots and dry matter. In fact, being unquestionably superior, this material replaces the last cultivar released in the region (CM 523-7 or 'Catumare'). Furthermore, 'Brasilera' had been used until now for the production of pre-cooked cassava croquettes. However, CM 6740-7 has the advantage of a higher dry matter content than 'Brasilera' and a higher yield potential. 'Reina' will serve not only as animal feed but also for the foodprocessing industry.Inter-Andean valleys. This ecosystem shares many characteristics with the Eastern Plains. Some of their sites present acid soils and share the same typical diseases (bacterial blight and superelongation). Unsurprisingly, therefore, clone CM 6740-7 is also an outstanding performer this region. For this type of environment, high dry matter yield is a significant criterion for selection (clone SM 1219-9 has shown excellent potential). Other materials are also being looked at for good culinary quality (landraces M Per 183 and M Bra 383 not only have high yield potential, but also excellent culinary quality and characteristics for the food-processing industry).Table 18-4 presents the yields of the best clones in the RT held at CIAT-Palmira and harvested in May 2000. On average, the evaluated clones yielded more than 7 t/ha of dry matter. The best 10 clones had dry matter yields of almost 10 tons (9.77 t/ha), whereas the five checks (including variety Catumare or CM 523-7) had average dry matter yields of 6.35 t/ha. Table 18-5 presents the results of four consecutive harvests carried out on varieties adapted to this ecosystem, in the Municipality of Jamundí, south of the City of Cali. The first harvest was carried out 7 months after stakes were planted. Even at that time, the crop's general performance was satisfactory overall (average of 11.2 t/ha of dry matter).The consecutive harvests helped identify clones with high-yielding potential in early development. Being a perennial plant, cassava can be harvested at any time without reference to reasons of physiology or senescence to determine optimal time (except for dry matter content, which is lower when the plant renews growth after an adverse condition such as drought).Many farmers find it strategic to have early and late varieties, so that root production is more or less continuous. During these harvests, data on the production of young foliage were also taken. On average, this site presented small variations over time (fluctuating around 8 t/ha), but, depending on variety, foliage production ranged between 6 and 14 t/ha when roots were harvested. This information is also useful for determining optimal harvest times for each variety, taking into account the production of both roots and foliage.When a material demonstrates genetic superiority across numerous environments and over several years, it will be profiled as a candidate for official release by institutions accredited for this purpose in the country. In Colombia, first the Colombian Institute of Agriculture (ICA), and later CORPOICA, traditionally fulfilled this important role. Hence, close collaboration exists between CIAT and these institutions.Two modalities exist for the final evaluation of materials and to confirm their genetic advantages. The traditional scheme involves planting trials with replications over several years at different sites to confirm the new varieties' superiority. In these cases, checks are always planted that adequately represent the best clones available to farmers at that time. A new variety must be superior to the checks in one or more characteristics and must demonstrate sufficient stability across variable environmental conditions. Hence, new varieties can only be officially released after having been evaluated for several years and in different environments, thereby determining its stability and tolerance or resistance to different production constraints, whether of biotic or abiotic origin.   The second way to identify and validate the genetic superiority of materials is through participatory research. With this methodology, segregating materials are delivered to farmers who will then conduct the final selection of materials according to their own selection criteria. This system has the great advantage that, once a variety is selected by a farmer (or group of farmers), it would then not need promoting, as it will usually be immediately adopted by the farmers. It also has the advantage of being more specific to certain more uniform environments (e.g., for a given village district or municipality) than the traditional improvement scheme, which targets broader environments (e.g., the Caribbean or Orinoquian Region). Whatever the improvement system used, the stages described in this chapter are always included. First, parents with desired attributes for exploitation should be selected. The parents are then crossed among themselves to produce a large number of segregating progenies. Each seed resulting from pollination constitutes a new genetic entity, which means that crossing produces great genetic variability. The more costly and slower activity is to select genetically superior materials from the wide variability generated by the crosses. Current technological developments enable selection to be more efficient and effective in terms of the use of resources at hand. Ultimately, of the thousands of crosses made every year, only some clones will be identified by CIAT as being superior. Of these, only some will be released as varieties by CORPOICA.The second half of the 20th century has been witness to a dizzying development of technology in the area of what is now known as \"biotechnology\". Perhaps the most significant characteristic of biology is that the genetic code is universal. This means that the information codified in a bacterium, for example, can be interpreted by most living organisms of the planet, because all use the same code. This has major implications for agriculture.First, if a gene of economic interest exists in any living organism, this gene can be ultimately identified, multiplied, and transferred to a crop where it can be expressed in the same way as it did in its natural environment. This is the case of genes for resistance to insects or herbicides. Second, the technologies developed for one crop can serve for another crop. Hence, cassava has benefited enormously from all the knowledge generated mainly for cereals (e.g., rice, wheat, and maize) and legumes (e.g., soybeans and beans).The tools developed for biotechnology may be grouped into three large categories, each of which has specific uses: tissue culture, molecular markers, and genetic transformation. This is a very dynamic field of research and a detailed description of protocols and updated results goes beyond the purpose of this publication.From the viewpoint of quantitative genetics, the cassava improvement scheme described earlier in this chapter is essentially based on the selection of numerous segregating clones derived from a cross between two progenitors that were selected for a diversity of reasons and purposes. This selection is based on phenotypic characteristics, the variance (σ 2 P ) of which can be separated as follows:A is the variance due to additive genetic effects, σ 2 D is the variance due to the effects of genetic dominance, σ 2 Ep is the variance due to epistatic genetic effects σ 2 E is the variance due to environmental effects (experimental error), as well as all the components of the genotype-by-environment interaction.Only the additive fraction of the variability observed (on which selection of genotypes is based) can be taken advantage of by the present system of recurrent selection. Both σ 2 D and σ 2 E introduce a \"distortion\" because, even though they influence the performance of a determined genotype, their effects cannot be transmitted to later generations, unlike genes that have additive effects.Non-additive components of genetic variance (σ 2 D and σ 2 Ep ) for the main characteristics of cassava have been demonstrated to be highly significant (Cach et al. 2005(Cach et al. , 2006;;Calle et al. 2005;Jaramillo et al. 2005;Pérez et al. 2005aPérez et al. , 2005b)). Hence, whatever method increases the proportion of additive effects in the selection process will greatly increase its efficiency. Another equally valid alternative is to implement an improvement method that can also take advantage of the effects of dominance and epistasis. Some alternatives for improving cassava that may be implemented in the near future are presented below.Improvement schemes that include self-fertilizing stages offer some advantages that have been reported in the literature. With successive self-fertilizations, different loci in the genome are obliged to progressively reach the stage of homozygosis. This is prejudicial for individual performance (particularly for cross-pollinated crops such as cassava or maize), because vigor and productivity will gradually diminish. However, this process has the advantage of eliminating deleterious or undesirable genes from the population that remain \"hidden\" because of the generalized heterozygosity of these types of crops in their natural state. The totality of effects of these undesirable genes is known as the \"genetic load\", which is estimated to be prominent for cassava. However, as progress is made in the degree of inbreeding of segregating populations, the proportion of total phenotypic variance that is additive variance increases (Hallauer and Miranda 1988).Table 18 -6 illustrates the effects of successive self-fertilizations in the distribution of genetic variance. The obvious result is that, with total homozygosis, σ 2 D is eliminated as a component of phenotypic variance. Another obvious result is that the additive effects present in the F1 generation (full-sib family) now has double the influence than in the original situation. From the genetic viewpoint, a homozygotic line is stable (on using it as progenitor, the genetic segregation mentioned previously does not occur), in contrast to what happens with hybrid F1, which, even if it could reproduce vegetatively, its use as a progenitor is affected because the genetic effects of dominance cannot be transmitted to later generations.The industry of maize hybrids is based precisely on the design of the progenitors, which, on combining, specifically produce a material of excellent performance in the field. The process of self-fertilization of cassava thus offers two very attractive advantages: (1) it contributes to the automatic reduction of the genetic load in populations that have been improved in part, and (2) it permits the design of parents for producing more competitive hybrids. Current improvement concentrates on producing and identifying good hybrids from selected progenitors. In the future, such emphasis will produce individuals especially designed to be optimal progenitors and thus generate outstanding hybrids. The great advantage is that this process guarantees a more sustained genetic progress, which is quick, at least from the theoretical viewpoint. Now, some problems exist that explain why, so far, these ideas have not been implemented, principally: a. The genetic load in cassava is so large that reaching high degrees of homozygosis is difficult with plants that can survive. Although this is currently a limitation, it also justifies the urgent need to begin cleaning out the genetic load from the crop as soon as possible. We point out that tolerance of inbreeding can be increased in cross-pollinated crops, as was shown irrefutably for maize. No scientific reason exists to assume that the same cannot be achieved for cassava (Contreras R et al. 2009).b. Because of the cassava plant's peculiar method of reproduction, self-fertilization can be greatly delayed. To achieve a high degree of homozygosis, at least 4 or 5 successive selffertilizations are needed. In cassava, this requires about 10 years. However, a procedure exists that is widely used for other crops whereby totally homozygotic materials, known as doubled haploids can be immediately obtained (Griffing 1975). This procedure normally uses gametophytic tissue, which is subjected to tissue culture that is initially haploid and becomes doubled haploid through the automatic or induced duplication of the number of chromosomes (CIAT 2009).For the reasons given above, changes are planned for the way the cassava genetic improvement project at CIAT will be carried out in the future. Below, we briefly describe the scheme that may be implemented over the next few years. We emphasize that this is only at a preliminary phase of definition and many changes will surely be introduced, depending on how the crop responds at different stages.Important efforts are underway to develop a protocol for the production of doubled haploids through approaches such as microspore, anther, or ovule culture or through wide crosses with Ricinus communis.By definition, to eliminate deleterious genes in each segregating population, its characteristics as progenitor are improved, as the deleterious genes can no longer be transmitted to later generations. Genetic designs exist for improving, in a systematic and efficient way, genes with additive effects, those that, in an integral way, define the general combining ability of each individual or population.Once the genetic load has been successfully reduced in the populations, improvement can start by focusing on producing progenitors that mutually complement each other from the genetic viewpoint. This implies the start of producing materials that, when crossed with each other, will produce exceptional hybrids. This is precisely what occurs when parents of commercial maize hybrids are crossed; the parents have been designed and gradually improved to produce, each time, more productive hybrids with a more stable performance. This process inevitably derives from the definition of heterotic groups, that is, groups that characteristically demonstrate good hybrid vigor when crossed with each other. For cassava, because the presence of heterotic groups has not yet been determined, a reasonable way to begin would be to define the genetic distances between the lines produced during the last stage described above. Once the heterotic groups are defined, we can then begin to effect a selection directed towards taking advantage of not only the additive effects (σ 2 A ), but also dominance (σ 2) and epistasis (σ 2 Ep ). These latter effects are also known as specific combining ability, and the improvement method that can exploit them efficiently is known as reciprocal recurrent selection (Hallauer and Miranda 1988).Recently, notable advances have been made to generate cassava with distinct qualitative characteristics. For the starch industry, mutations have been identified, whereby the starch does not contain amylose (\"waxy\" starch) or it has small granules and higher than normal contents of amylose (Ceballos et al. 2007b(Ceballos et al. , 2008)). Typical characteristics of normal cassava starch have also been studied in detail (Sánchez et al. 2009).In the ethanol industry, the existence of \"sugary\" cassava has been known for a long time. This cassava accumulates sugar polymers simpler than starch. In 2004, Carvalho and co-workers carried out a detailed description of this type of material, which was also identified recently by the cassava improvement project at CIAT. The costs of converting this type of root to ethanol would be considerably lower, but how much energy per hectare this type of cassava could produce is still not clear.In terms of nutritional quality, CIAT first characterized (Chávez et al. 2005) and then triplicated the original levels of carotenoids in roots through a system of rapid recycling of materials (CIAT 2009). In 2008, materials with more than 18 µg of total carotenoids per gram of fresh root had already been obtained. As well as nutritional advantages, high carotenoid contents offer tolerance of postharvest physiological deterioration (Sánchez et al. 2005;CIAT 2008). Variability indices exist for protein contents in roots, even though this type of research requires more precise quantification methods (Ceballos et al. 2006).","tokenCount":"12159"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"454899273f4157858c17450f2815c32a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b1d15492-8166-4878-b19f-0c12fb62cfd0/retrieve","id":"-538486528"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e5c9dafe-9975-4826-bda5-5d067890695c","pagecount":"1","content":"Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Too early to say Description of activity / study: This study presents a method for prioritizing commodities for agricultural research based on the impact on household income and poverty reduction. This approach uses simple partial equilibrium methods to measure the impact of the yield growth on prices and output. Using nationally-representative household survey data on the contribution of each crop to income and the share of consumption in the budget, we estimate the impact on income for each household. These results are aggregated to estimate the impact on average income and on headcount poverty. Finally, these calculations are repeated for thousands of possible allocations of the research budget across the crops being analyzed. The method is illustrated using data on rice, maize, cassava, coffee, and vegetables in the Philippines from the 2012 Family Income and Expenditure Survey. Furthermore, unless there are substantial diminishing marginal returns to investment in crop technology, rice merits the lion's share of research investment.","tokenCount":"167"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1f4c51549a59fbdc4f6834b2c3d928fd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H042689.pdf","id":"74631041"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"16cbea7c-c53b-4604-a4cb-ef984bc05cda","pagecount":"15","content":"Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana (IGNP) was among the first group of large surface water transfer projects taken up in the country aiming to transform the wastelands of Thar Desert in Rajasthan into agriculturally productive zones along with improvement of afforestation and environment, development and protection of livestock/animal health, human rehabilitation and settlement, and economic growth of the poor people of the desert. The project had laudable objectives of \"drought proofing, provision of drinking water, industrial and irrigation facilities, creation of employment opportunities, settlement of human population of thinly populated desert areasi; improvement of fodder, forage and agriculture facilities, check spread of desert area and improve ecosystem through large-scale afforestation, develop road network and provide requisite opportunities for overall economic development\" (IGNB 2002). Over the years, some of these objectives have been adequately met. At the same time, this large transfer of surface water from alluvial plains to a desert region with no natural drainage and over 250 km away leads to a massive spread of waterlogging and salinity, inundation of vast land depressions and adjoining habitations, roads and public property and fast spread of waterinduced animal and human diseases. IGNP presents a great lesson to water infrastructural planners and managers on how inadequacies in planning and operation of large surface irrigation transfers can create negative groundwater externalities of unforeseen magnitude which fail to be tackled by normal quickfix solutions. This paper, a part of the Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project, attempts to diagnose and analyze this problem, and drawing lessons from the past failed-interventions offers a certain viable strategy for IGNP and other large future projects of surface water transfers elsewhere.IGNP is a large water infrastructural project designed for transferring 9.36 Bm 3 (7.59 milion acre feet) of Rajasthan's share agreed under the Indus Water Treaty (1960)/and Inter-State Water Agreement (1981). The water from the Harike Barrage in Punjab is transferred to the western desert region of Rajasthan through a 200 km long feeder canal. The system is designed to irrigate 2.5 Mha of Thar Desert through an extensive network of a more than 9,000 km length of distribution system and 450 km length of main canals. Irrgation in IGNP is developed in stages popularly known as Stage-I and Stage-II. The IGNP Stage-I consists of a head feeder reach of 204 km offtaking from the Harike Barrage, a 189 km main canal and a 3,454 km long distribution system with a culturable command area (CCA) of 541,000 ha. The IGNP Stage-II, commencing with a 189 km main canal, consists of the lower reaches of the project comprising a 256 km long main canal and a 5,606 km long distribution system with a CCA of 1,319,000 ha.The canal network is lined and able to bring large quantities of water to irrigate an extensive area of what was a low-value desert. Land brought into the scheme is allotted to persons applying for land, with a carefully developed system of prioritization of applications to identify the most deserving applicants. Each allotment is 25 bighas (6.32 ha) in area. The applicants with the highest priority are from the region being developed; nevertheless, there have been extensive population shifts into the project area to take advantage of the potential created. Stage-I started receiving irrigation since October 1961 and Stage-II is still under construction.By 2004-05, 559,000 ha irrigation potential was created under Stage I and 510,000 ha under Stage II. Irrigation potential is deemed to be created only when watercourses are constructed, and water is provided through outlets for a murabba of 6.32 ha. Irrigation potential created and utilized for some selected years for Stage-I and Stage-II of IGNP is given in Table 1. The development activities of the command area for the IGNP command, which included, among others, the construction of lined watercourses to the outlets, land leveling and shaping and soil conservation, started in 1974. However, the data clearly indicate a substantial lag period between the release of water through the canals, completion of the watercourses for conveyance of water to the fields and actual utilization of the water. The large amounts of unused water became a major source of inundation of the depressions and subsequent waterlogging.Before the advent of IGNP there was very little irrgated area in Jaisalmer (0.54%) and Bikaner (7%) districts which have now increased substantially in all the four districts (Table 2) under the command. Most of the irrigated area in all the four districts in 2001-02 is from canal irrigation. As a result of irrigation, the net sown area in Bikaner and Jaisalmer districts increased gradually, whereas there is not much change in Sri Ganaganagar and Hanumangarh districts. In 1974-75, the cropping pattern generally followed by the farmers was cotton, pearl millet, kharif (monsoon from May to september) pulses and guar (cluster bean) in the kharif season and wheat, barley, gram and mustard in the rabi (October to April) season. However, with the introduction of irrigation under IGNP, the area covered under cotton, wheat and mustard, and their productivity has increased over the years. The data indicate that the total coverage under kharif and rabi crops during 1974-75 under Stage I was only 258,178 ha, which increased to 653,948 ha in 2000-01, an increase of about 250%. In Stage II, the area under kharif and rabi crops in 2001-02 was 152,859 ha. The area decreased in 2002-03 due to scanty rainfall and less water availability in the canal, but picked up in the subsequent years. The areas under cotton and groundnut have increased whereas the area under pearl millet has decreased (Table 3). In the rabi season the area under wheat, mustard and fodder increased. Yields of cotton and wheat have more than doubled in Stage I (Table 4) and in Stage II the crop yields are still low. Overall, except for the wheat crop, the yield gains have not been very impressive perhaps due to widespread prevalence of waterlogging and salinity and very limited use of groundwater. Studies made in neighboring Punjab showed that areas purely under canal irrigation had lower wheat yields than those with conjunctive and pure tube well irrigation.  Most of the command area of IGNP-Stage I has an alluvial cover of more than 20 m and can be a potential source of groundwater depending on the aquifer characteristics and the quality of recharged water. The tube wells of 250 m depth in unconsolidated formations, covering 95% of the investigated area, are capable of yielding 12 to 120 m 3 /hr for a drawdown from 4 to 15 m. However, the drilling data of Central Groundwater Board (CGWB 1999) and Rajasthan Groundwater Department have exhibited considerable lateral and vertical variations in lithology in the IGNP Stage-I area. In the northeast to southwest directions three main aquifers between the depth ranges of 15-50 m, 45-100 m and 80-170 meters below ground level (m bgl) have been revealed in the investigations down to a depth of 210 m bgl.The formations in Stage-II comprise mainly quaternary (47% of CCA) and tertiary (47% of CCA) formations. The formation of Jaisalmer and Barmer districts contains water that is highly mineralized, but at many places usable for small livestock. The most worrying feature is that beneath the sandy surface soil shale/clay, hard compact friable carbonate nodules and lime-coated gravel with clay are present at varying depths having a poor infiltration rate and behaving as an impervious barrier. In about 30 to 35% of the area under Stage II, the depth up to these hydrological barriers is less than 10 m bgl, being shallower in lift areas and becoming deeper towards the international boundary (CAD 1997(CAD , 1999)). Based on available data, distribution of area having a hard pan layer within 0 to 10 m bgl in different tehsils is given in Table 5.It appears that about 33.4% in flow command and 76.4% in lift command (excluding the Sahwa lift area) are prone to waterlogging due to the presence of the hardpan layer. Due to lack of detailed investigations before the development of the irrigation commands, this particular feature of hydrogeology perhaps did not receive adequate attention during the irrigation planning and operations phase and was one of the major reason for the catastrophic spread of waterlogging and salinity in the IGNP command areas.The deeper groundwater is mostly saline and about 530,500 ha (or 47% of the total area) have groundwater salinities of more than 8 dS/m. About 145,000 ha (or 13% of the area) have groundwater salinity less than 2 dS/m. Deeper native saline groundwater is often overlain by better-quality groundwaters originating from percolation and seepage in the canal irrigated area. Overall, there is very little groundwater irrigation in all the four districts (DoES 1988(DoES , 1995(DoES , 1996(DoES , 2004)). But in the recent years the area under tube well irrigation has been increasing. This may be due to the reduced canal supplies and low rainfall. Rise of Water Levels: With the expansion of area under irrigation, the command area witnessed an alarming expansion of waterlogging and soil salinity. Before the advent of irrigation in 1952, the groundwater table was at a depth of about 40 to 50 m. With the commissioning of IGNP and flow of canals and return flows for the period, an average rise of groundwater of 0.42 m/annum was observed for the two-decade period of 1952-72 (Figure 1). An abrupt rise in water levels was also recorded in Lakhuwali, Naurangdesar, Rampura, Jorawarpura, Bherusari, Manaktheri and Jakharawali. The maximum and minimum rise of water levels was observed as 1.30 and 0.6 m per year in the areas of Suratgarh and Dabli Kalan, respectfully, during the period 1973-93.During a decadal period of 1972-88, there was a substantial rise in water levels up to 1.17 m per year, which could be attributed to return flow of irrigation, high water allowances of 5 m 3 /sec./1,000 acres, excess irrigation applications (Table 6) and filling up of depressions. By 1994/95, the rate of rise was found to be 0.80 m in Stage I and 0.33 m in Stage II. Fortunately, after 2000 a declining trend of groundwater depths is noticed, attributed to less than normal rainfall and poor availability of water supply in canals. Even during normal years, supplies to Rajasthan have been lesser than the agreed quota, but recent years have witnessed a marked reduction (Figure 2). This was also aided by some additional groundwater development by the farmers in Hanumangarh and Bikaner districts under Stage-I and to a lesser extent in Stage-II.  Rise in groundwater levels afflicted large areas with waterlogging and critical water table conditions. The extent of such areas increased continuously up to the year 1997-98 and has shown some respite only in recent years (Table 7). During 1997-98, an area of 23,251 ha was affected with severe waterlogging. The causes of such a spread were both natural and man-made. This region has no natural drainage system and the water transferred is either lost through evaporation (and transpiration) or is stored in the groundwater system. Wherever the groundwater system is exposed to the topographically low areas, pools of surface water are formed. Additionally, about 30% of the area in Stage I and about 45% of  Besides the natural causes, several management and operational practices have also exacerbated the situation: i. Ghaggar river floodwater stored in depressions contributed substantially to groundwater recharge in the neighboring areas.ii. Several inter-dunal low-lying areas filled up with canal water to meet requirements during construction remained unused.iii. Very high water allowance of 5.23 cusec/1,000 acres in Stage I caused high seepage losses from unlined watercorses/field channels and return flows.iv. Uncontrolled high discharge direct outlets from the main canal and branches caused flooding of large areas.v. Absence of gates and controls on minors and watercourses caused flooding of low areas during low/no irrigation requirements.Rise of the water table closer to the surface and inundation of the low-lying areas have caused submegence of agricultural lands and village common lands, submergence of the villages/ habitations, damages to road communication and public utilities and constraints in the choice of crops and loss of production. The damages have taken place extensively in several areas and about 4,000 ha of agriculture, village common lands and government lands have been partly or completely submerged resulting in complete loss of the assets. Waterlogging conditions have resulted in the submergence of 22 villages due to exposure of the hydrostatic line of the groundwater and leakages and return flows from the irrigation system. The main pockets of submerged lands are shown in Table 8. Several of the marooned villages (Rangmahal, Samnala Quarter, Manaktheri, Baropal, Jakharawali, Bherusari, Rawatsar, Dabli Kalan, Dabli Khurd, Lunio ki Dhani, Ghandheli, 13/15 SPD, Kalalon ki Dhani, Jowrapura, etc.) had to be shifted to higher elevations at huge public costs and distress. Large sections of the road systems also got submeged and required repeated raising of road levels. Several schools, hospitals, and other public service utilities also got submeged affecting the society as a whole.  , 2004, 2005, 2007b). In Stage II, out of 182,000 ha utilized for irrigation about 23,000 ha (about 13%) had become potentially sensitive to waterlogging. Some waterlogged areas have completely gone out of cultivation, where the water table is either above the ground surface or very close to the surface. Waterlogged areas have also gone out of cultivation due to salinization. Waterlogging seriously constrains the choice of crops, enhances expenditure on farm operations and strongly affects the growth and yield of crops.To have a better understanding of the existing cropping patterns, sources of irrigation, yield levels and net returns of the farmers in the command, a survey of 253 farmers (184 farmers in Stage I and 69 farmers in Stage II) cultivating an area of 1,241 ha was undertaken during 2007. Salient findings from the farm survey were: i. More than 50% of the irrigated area in Stage I had water tables within sensitive zones during the late nineties. About 10% of the soil surveyed in the command showed high salinity conditions. It is, therefore, necessary to safeguard the gains of IGNP in terms of increased cropped area and production, socioeconomic life of the settled farmers and public utilities from the vagaries of waterlogging and soil salinity. Primary data collected by IWMI (IWMI 2007) showed that 98% of farmers depend only on agriculture for family income and livelihoods. Most of the farmers are marginal to medium with an average cultivated area of 5.58 ha per farm family. Only about 14.6% are large farmers.ii. Canal irrigation (96.4%) remains the major source of irrigation. However, in recent years farmers have shown good interest in tube well irrigation as 44% of the surveyed farmers also owned tube wells. In the early 1990s, the major source of irrigation in these districts was only canal water. The average depth of tube wells is about 38 m indicating that tube wells are shallow and mostly tapping freshwater lenses floating on parent saline water. vi. Waterlogging (28% of respondents) and soil salinity (26% of respondents) are major problems in IGNP with a lot of area submerged under pools of water, cultivation of some areas abandoned and other lands producing much less than crop potential yields. The farmers reported that, on average, the additional expenditure due to waterlogging and soil salinity on practices like field preparation, enhanced seed rate and fertilizer applications is to the tune of Rs 1,095/ha. With the problem of waterlogging and soil salinity, the average cotton crop yields are low at 13 quintal/ha (q/ha) compared to about 15 q/ha in normal soils under Stage I. The same is the case with cluster bean, wheat, mustard and gram. In fact, the reduction in gram yields due to waterlogging and soil salinity is about 50%.vii. The cropping pattern of cotton and wheat gives an average net return of about INR 25,000/ ha/year. The net return from the gram crop is about INR 8,000/ha. In the case of areas affected by waterlogging and soil salinity the net returns are lower by about 25% in the case of cotton and by 46% in the case of the wheat crop.With about 56% of the command having some degree of waterlogging problems, the loss to agricultural economy, with the increased crop production expenses and reduced crop yields, is huge. The problem is also causing extensive social costs as a result of submerged villages and the road network and migration of farmers from affected areas to new areas.Several ameliorative interventions have been attempted on a pilot scale to mitigate waterlogging and salinity in the IGNP command. These interventions, mainly biophysical in nature, included reduction in water allowance and drainage pilots for surface drainage, subsurface drainge, tube well drainage, skimming wells and bio-drainage (CAD 2007a). Most of the interventions faced operational, managemental, finanacial and institutional challenges and could not be upscaled for wider adoption in the command.i. The CAD-installed vertical drainage systems faced considerable problems in terms of infrastructural arrangements for operation, availability of electricity, and a shared institution and have been put under operation for a short period of 2 to 3 years with periodical interruptions in pump operations. Though the results indicated that, to some extent, groundwater levels can be controlled, these projects have been discontinued due to huge costs involved.ii. Installation of the subsurface drainage shows its beneficial effects in reclaiming waterlogged saline soils in a short span of 2 to 3 years in several subsurface drainage projects in the country (HOPP 2001). The subsurface drainage projects installed in IGNP also showed similar improvements. However, the technology is new to the area. The pilot projects need to be operated and monitored for evaluating the impacts and the effects on society and environment including the options for disposal of drainage effluent, which is a major challenge. The costs involved are huge (Rs 30,000 to 40,000/ha) and can be implemented only inder a state-sponsored program.iii. Attempts were also made to decongest the large surfce water pondages. The experince showed that pumping for dewatering the stagnated water bodies is not a one-time activity, but it has to be a perennial one. Further, the cost of pumping of water is also very high.It has been concluded that dewatering through pumping operations would not be an economically viable proposition. Moreover, it is very likely that the decrease in standing water levels achieved by pumping will be nullified with inflows during the seasonal rains and irrigation spills.iv. Bio-drainage with eucalyptus species was also attempted along small stretches of the canals. The experiences were good only along certain patches where the plants survived but failed due to continuous water stagnation. The bio-plantations may be used in certain waterlogged wastelands with suitable species and management practices. It has very limited success for controlling waterlogging of the agricultural lands.v. However, the farmers are taking up tube well irrigation increasingly (especially under Stage I) and the adverse impact of fluctuating canal supplies on cropping intensity could be mitigated to some extent by adopting large-scale conjunctive use. The spread is slow due to higher costs and nonavailability of electricity to run the tube wells. Diesel-operated medium/deep tube wells are less cost-effective.Moreover, most of these scientific interventions were top-down with limited participation of the communities and setting up of effective institutions for asset ownership, O&M and cost and benefit sharing mechanisms. As such, these had limited acceptance and had to be abandoned after the initial enthusiasm for implementation subsided and ground realities were sincerely appreciated.Provision of canals, the distribution system and the application of surface water to such a large area, besides providing direct irrigation benefits, also assists in modification of the groundwater regime. Such groundwater externalities may be both positive in the form of additional recharge and improvements in the water table in a water-stressed area and negative through creation of waterlogging, water-quality problems and soil salinity in previously water-congested pockets. The planning for integrated use of canal and groundwater will mot likely alleviate some of these problems and improve water use efficiency and productivity. Attempts have been made earlier in planning conjunctive use of groundwater and canal supplies for Haryana (Tyagi 2006) and for Punjab (Sondhi and Kaushal 2006) using simulation modeling techniques. Some studies have also been made in IGNP for projecting the problems of waterlogging and soil salinity and evaluating various options for problem amelioration (ORG 1996(ORG , 1999;;NIH 1996).From the experiences of IGNP and experiences elsewhere, it is certain that there are no global solutions to problems of such unprecedented magnitude. It is proposed that according to the extent of the problem, the affected areas may be broadly divided into the following three categories and appropriate measures implemented both on short-and long-term bases.i. Converting water-ponded areas as wetlands: As the IGNP command has no natural and man-made drainage, the inundated areas may be designated as wetlands and used as receiving bodies for the irrigation return flows and surface and subsurface drainage effluents. These wetlands can also be put for economic use like freshwater and saline water fisheries according to the water quality. The alternative plan of transferring such poor-quality water through a dedicated canal to the Arabian sea requires large investments and cooperation of the neighboring country.ii. Enhancing tube well development in waterlogged areas: Areas afflicted with the waterlogging problem may be ameliorated, among others, through appropriate groundwater management practices. A large portion of the command has developed freshwater layers closer to the surface and below, and conjunctive use of canal water and groundwater in this area will result in controlling of the groundwater table. The installation and operation of tube wells by the government have not produced encouraging results. The increasing installation of private tube wells and successful use of groundwater for irrigation by the farmers in the last few canal supply deficit years have shown that the conjunctive use of canal water and groundwater is viable in the IGNP command. However, the results of the conjunctive use on the control of the water table will not be visible in a short time. Longterm planning is required in promoting conjunctive use of canal water and groundwater, which involves : a. Institutional support for delineating the aquifers suitable for tube well installation and identifying appropriate technologies for well construction to avoid rising of saline water.b. Canal supply management practices for providing reduced irrigation allowance on warabandi and subsidies and policy support.c. Priority in energization of the tube wells in the IGNP command can be one of the supports from the government that will encourage the farmers to opt for tube well irrigation.iii. Subsurface drainage for saline-waterlogged areas: The areas with soil salinity associated with saline groundwater require subsurface drainage to leach out salts and maintain a favorable salt balance in the root zone. The pilot projects on subsurface drainage have shown that salinity in the root zones can be quickly reduced when the cropping intensity will increase and crop yield will be more than double. However, this technology requires the participation of a group of farmers having contiguous land parcels and also issues like disposal/reuse of drainage effluent need to be addressed before embarking on large-scale adoption. The already installed successful pilots on subsurface drainage (SSD) systems may be operated and monitored for deriving experience on these issues. Besides the technical operation of the infrastructure, establishing an effective drainage farmer group/ association is crucial for its long-term sustainability.Transfer of large amounts surface irrigation water through an elaborate water conveyance and distribution infrastructure under IGNP helped India to make use of its share of the Sutlej river water as established under the Indus Water Treaty. Availability of water in this dry area helped tremendously in the expansion in cropped/irrigated area and a substantial change in agricultural land productivity, improved socioeconomic conditions, and in the general wellbeing of the local poor and immigrant communities, and greening of the desert area. The advent of irrigation has resulted in rapid changes in the hydrologic regime and groundwater conditions. During the past about four decades, the groundwater levels have risen by more than 1.0 m per year and more than 50% of the command area now has groundwater levels in sensitive zones (> 6.0 m bgl). Substantial areas have gone out of cultivation due to water stagnation/inundation, waterlogging and soil salinity. A considerable loss to the agro-economy is being incurred due to constraints in the choice of crops, higher costs of cultivation and low crop yields caused by waterlogging and soil salinity. Several of the ad-hoc technical measures implemented in the form of pilot projects on the hot-spots have met with little success and acceptance by the farming communities and have been either abandoned or operated on a lower scale. The recent spurt in the development of private tube wells, especially under Stage I of IGNP, caused by deficit canal water supplies as a whole to the IGNP and also opening up of areas under Stage II of the command, have shown a positive impact through lowering of water tables and better crop yields. The waterlogging and soil salinity areas of IGNP require interinstitutional cooperation and action plans with irrigation, groundwater, agriculture and other concerned departments, CAD and other research and development institutions, local NGOs and farmer bodies to develop and implement short-and long-term plans of groundwater management strategy and other innovative ideas. Among the strategies this paper suggests dividing the affected areas into three broad categories and introducing appropriate interventions. These include i) waterponded areas-treat them as wetlands and use appropriate economic activities such as saline water fisheries, ii) waterlogged areas-enhance tubewell irrigation in waterlogged areas and provide policy and institutional support on technology, management of canal water supply and energy provision, and iii) saline groundwater affected areas-provide subsurface drainage for leaching out the salt and create a favorable soil-balance condition at the root zone.The planning, development, implementation and operation of the large and longdistance surface irrigation water transfer and distribution infrastructure under the IGNP have provided several important lessons of enormous cost for all those involved in improving the welfare of people and ensuring food security through large-scale land-and water-centric interventions. Professionals with their defined areas of expertise will draw lessons so as to sharpen the future line of thinking and action. But one thing is certain, which is that all future water infrastructural plans elsewhere and especially those envisaged under the National River Linking Project of India must ensure that while achieving the highest positive impacts the present and future negative externalities must remain at a minimum.","tokenCount":"4397"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"13cc1861a2f6144d75306638ba366049","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/cc204949-79c1-46a4-854f-2284a575f996/content","id":"-957391555"},"keywords":["nitrogen dynamics","conservation agriculture","DSSAT-CERES-wheat","mechanistic crop growth models","crop simulation"],"sieverID":"0cec3db3-3b7c-4fbe-b0f6-58473f24b687","pagecount":"16","content":"Context: Agricultural field experiments are costly and time-consuming, and their site-specific nature limits their ability to capture spatial and temporal variability. This hinders the transfer of crop management information across different locations, impeding effective agricultural decision-making. Further, accurate estimates of the benefits and risks of alternative crop and nutrient management options are crucial for effective decision-making in agriculture.Objective: The objective of this study was to utilize the Crop Environment Resource Synthesis CERES-Wheat model to simulate crop growth, yield, and nitrogen dynamics in a long-term conservation agriculture (CA) based wheat system. The study aimed to calibrate the model using data from a field experiment conducted during the 2019-20-2020-21 growing seasons and evaluation it with independent data from the year 2021-22.Method: Crop simulation models, such as the Crop Environment Resource Synthesis CERES-Wheat (DSSAT v 4.8), may provide valuable insights into crop growth and nitrogen dynamics, enabling decision makers to understand and manage production risk more effectively.Therefore, the present study employed the CERES-Wheat (DSSAT v 4.8) model and calibrated it using field data, including plant phenological phases, leaf area index, aboveground biomass, and grain yield from the 2019-20-2020-21 growing seasons. An independent dataset from the year 2021-22 was used for model evaluation. The model was used to investigate the relationship between growing degree days (GDD), temperature, nitrate and ammonical concentration in soil, and nitrogen uptake by the crop. Additionally, the study explored the impact of contrasting tillage practices and fertilizer nitrogen management options on wheatIn recent decades, Indian agriculture has made significant strides toward achieving self-sufficiency in food production. The dominant rice-wheat cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) region has played a crucial role for ensuring food security (Jat et al., 2019;Sidhu et al., 2019). Wheat, as a major cereal crop, is vital for food and nutritional security globally and in India as well. However, the tillage practices under conventional puddled rice cultivation have many negative impacts on soil health, and wheat sowing and establishment. As an alternative, conservation agriculture based zero tillage (ZT)-based maize-wheat cropping system improves the soil health and facilitates timely planting and establishment of wheat (Parihar et al., 2016). The maize-wheat (MW) system is the third most important cropping system in the region and has the potential to expand in the face of emerging water crisis in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) (Jat et al., 2019;Sidhu et al., 2019). Conservation agriculture, with its core principles of minimal soil disturbance, efficient residue cover/retention, and crop diversification, has scientifically been proven to enhance soil health and boost crop productivity (Jat et al., 2019;Sidhu et al., 2019). Additionally, with better soil condition, ZT improves the plant metabolic activities, yield, leaf area index (LAI), early canopy development and crop root and shoot architecture (Norman and Campbell, 1989;Nayak et al., 2022). Understanding the complex interaction of soil, plant, and atmospheric continuum and its effect on wheat growth and development under contrasting soil and crop establishment methods (as in ZT based vs. conventional maize-wheat system), is a challenging task and it requires extensive field experimentation and simulation exercises for detailed understanding.Nitrogen, in both conventional (CT) and conservation agriculture based zero tillage (ZT), is a vital element for plant growth and development and it is commonly applied through fertilizers due to its widespread deficiency in soil. The economic and environmental costbenefit of fertilizer use is a major challenge in the era of rising production costs and environmental sustainability issues (Rosswall and Paustian, 1984). Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is one of the lowest in cereal-based agroecosystems, with cereals only taking up 40-60% of the applied nitrogen (Herrera et al., 2016). Among cereals, rice and wheat have the least NUE (<30-40%) (Norton et al., 2015;Taulemesse et al., 2015;Herrera et al., 2016). In the pursuit of enhancing grain yield, farmers frequently resort to higher applications of nitrogen (N) fertilizer. Unfortunately, this practice leads to the excessive loss of nitrogen, nutrient imbalance, groundwater contamination and the greenhouse gasses emission, which are detrimental to environmental health and have socio-economic consequences (Hawkesford, 2017;Huang et al., 2017). In order to enhance nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and minimize nitrogen losses, the adoption of novel fertilizer sources such as slow-release fertilizers and urea deep placement (UDP) technology are promising available technology, yet their feasibility in most of the crop production systems are not evaluated. This technique entails the deployment of large-sized fertilizer granules or briquettes of urea super granules (USG), which are positioned at a depth of 7-10 cm in close proximity to the crop's root zone (IFDC, 2013(IFDC, , 2015)). Previous research has demonstrated that these technologies can result in increased crop yields and reduced fertilizer requirements under conventional crop management practices, including traditional intensive tillage methods, among others. However, their effectiveness under ZT-based cropping systems is yet to be fully evaluated for agricultural productivity, profitability, and environmental foot print.To enhance the efficiency of nitrogenous fertilizer use, it is essential to comprehend the crop's peak nitrogen demand and uptake patterns. The fate of mineral nitrogen in the crop-soil system plays a vital role in agricultural productivity and must be carefully managed to optimize crop yields and reduce environmental impact. Considering the complexity and dynamic nature of nitrogen in soil, plant and atmosphere, it is almost impossible to capture and measure the ways it moves in different directions. Indeed, field experiments are valuable in generating useful information for refinement of crop production practices and enhancing crop yield, yet they are costly and timeconsuming. Moreover, in agricultural research and field experiments, some parameters can be particularly difficult to measure accurately. This is especially true for dynamic and complex processes, such as nitrogen dynamics, where precise measurements are crucial for understanding and optimizing crop management practices, especially in contrasting tillage conditions. Additionally, the experimental data may possess certain limitations in devising optimal practical management practices as they are affected by diverse factors, such as observation frequency and sample size (Sun et al., 2013). The limitations and challenges associated with measuring these parameters from rigorous field experiments often require innovative approaches, such as advanced computer based simulation techniques, to obtain reliable data and make informed decisions in agriculture.Dynamic crop growth models simulate crop growth, development and nutrient dynamics to quantify the interactions among the genetic potential of the crop, and environmental factors such as weather, soil, water and management factors in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. These models offer an opportunity to quantify the effect of management factors on crop growth. This quantification facilitates the development of optimal management practices and strategies aimed at improving crop production and enhancing nitrogen use efficiency, specific to particular management and environment interactions. One such model is CERES-wheat in the DSSAT (The Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer) model. Widely adopted, this model allows for daily simulations of crop growth, development, and yield (Jones et al., 2003;Hoogenboom et al., 2021). In recent years, the DSSAT model has been successfully used to simulate the results of long-term experiments (Liu et al., 2011;De Sanctis et al., 2012;Yang et al., 2013). For example, researchers have used these models to predict long-term trends in wheat yields (Timsina and Humphreys 2006;liu et al., 2017), the effects of different N application rates on wheat yield (Wu et al., 2013), crop yields and N dynamics in a 50-year continuous maize production experiment (Liu et al., 2011), simulation of the effects of long-term N fertilization on maize yield and soil C and N dynamics in northeast China (Yang et al., 2013), simulation of SOC dynamics in a low-input maize-wheat cropping system using the DSSAT-CENTURY model (Musinguzi et al., 2014). It is essential to highlight that the CERES-wheat model has not undergone evaluation under differing tillage and nitrogen management practices. Therefrore, to evaluate performance and reliability of CERES-wheat for the simulation of wheat growth, development and soil nitrogen dynamics, we used the CERES-wheat model in our study.The objectives of this study were:(1) to evaluate the CERES-wheat model for simulating the growth behavior of wheat and soil nitrogen dynamics under emerging CA-based ZT practices and application of novel fertilizer products such as urea super granules (USG); ( 2) to assess the capabilities of DSSAT in predicting the response of wheat to different inputs like fertilizer nitrogen under different/contrasting soil conditions (ZT vs. CT), and (3) to understand the effects of N doses on crop growth and soil N dynamics under long-term conservation agriculture based maize-wheat system.The study was conducted in wheat seasons (October-April) of 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 at the experimental field site (block '9B') of the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi (28°40'N latitude, 77°11'E longitude, and an altitude of approximately 228 m above sea level). The site has been in use for ongoing experiments since monsoon/kharif season of 2012 under the maize-wheat system in permanent plots. The experimental site is located in the Indian Trans-Gangetic Plains Zone (Agro Climatic Zone-VI) with a sub-tropical, semi-arid climate. The average annual rainfall of the site is 735 mm, with a hot and dry summer, a wet monsoon season, and a cold winter. The majority of the rainfall, approximately 80%, occurs during the monsoon season (July to September). At the commencement of the experiment, physicochemical soil properties were assessed using standard procedures, as delineated by Parihar et al. (2020). The initial soil properties at the start of the experiment are provided in Supplementary Table S1.This study utilized a split plot design (SPD) with three replications to investigate the growth behavior of wheat and nitrogen dynamics in conventional (CT) and zero tillage (ZT)-based crop management practices. The main plots were divided into two tillage methods: conventional tillage with residue incorporation (CT) and zero tillage flat bed (ZT), while the subplots were assigned four different nitrogen sources and rates viz., N0 (zero nitrogen), N150 (150 kg N ha −1 through urea), GS (50% of RDN + Green Seeker-GS based application of split applied N) and USG (50% of RDN applied as basal through urea super granules + GS based application of split applied N). The detail of treatments is given in Table 1.The CT plots incorporated 30% of the preceding crop residue, while the ZT plots were kept undisturbed from previous years since 2012. The CT plots were prepared with one deep tillage followed by two ploughings with cultivator. Wheat variety HD2967 was planted in 1 st fortnight of November during 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 with a row spacing of 22.5 cm in both ZT and CT plots. At the time of mechanical seeding of wheat, a common dose of 60 kg P 2 O 5 + 40 kg K 2 O ha −1 was applied to all plots as basal. In the control plot (without nitrogen), only P 2 O 5 and K 2 O were applied. In contrast, the other plots received 150 kg N ha −1 (RDN), of which 1/3 rd was applied as basal, 1/3 rd was applied at 37 DAS and the remaining 1/3 rd was applied at 84 DAS. In case of USG, the briquettes were placed in the root zone at 7-10 cm depth. Half dose of RDN, i.e., 75 kg ha −1 was applied as basal, whereas the remaining amount was given as two equal splits at 37 DAS and 84 DAS. Representative grain samples were collected, dried and weighed at the time of manual harvesting of the crop.Periodic measurements of leaf area at 25-days interval were taken using a leaf area meter (Model LI-COR-3100). In this paper, LAI at 90 days after sowing (DAS) is discussed which represents the stage at which the crop attains its maximum LAI values. The leaf area index, which expresses the ratio of total leaf area (one side only) to the total ground area in which the crop is grown, was calculated by dividing the total leaf area by the ground area occupied by the crop. The nitrogen (N) content in the grain and straw of wheat samples was determined using a CHNS analyzer. N uptake was calculated by multiplying the percentage of N in the grain/straw by the grain/straw yield (kg ha −1 ). The total N uptake (kg ha −1 ) was calculated by adding the N uptake in the grain to the N uptake in the straw. At the time of harvest, biomass and grain yields of the crop were recorded following the standard protocol as described by Parihar et al. (2020). The harvesting process was performed manually and grain samples were taken. Subsequently, these samples were oven-dried at 65-70°C for 48 h to remove moisture and then weighed to determine their final yield.In the experiment, the initial soil of the experimental site was identified as sandy loam in texture with a slightly alkaline pH hydraulic conductivity (saturated) of 0.835 cm h −1 , and Alkaline KMnO 4 -N of 152.0 kg ha −1 (Subbiah and Asija, 1956). To determine the soil bulk density (BD), undisturbed soil samples were collected from each plot in triplicate from depths of 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm, 10-15 cm, 15-30 cm, and 30-45 cm before wheat sowing. The soil water content for the same depths was measured volumetrically (gravimetric moisture content × BD) and soil moisture content at saturation, field capacity, and permanent wilting point was determined using a pressure plate apparatus (Klute, 1986). The soil texture parameters (sand, silt, and clay percentages) for the same depths were obtained using the Hydrometer method (Bouyoucos, 1962).For mineral-N (NH 4 + -N and NO 3 − -N) analysis, soil samples were collected randomly at 25 days interval from five locations in each plot from depths of 0-15 cm, 15-30 cm, 30-45 cm, 45-60 cm, 60-75 cm, and 75-100 cm using a soil sampler. The samples were composited for respective depths for each plot. To analyze the mineral-N content, moist soil samples were extracted using 2 M KCl solution. The extraction process involved shaking the samples for 1 h using a mechanical shaker, following the methods described by Bremner (1965) and Keeney and Nelson (1982). The mineral-N fractions in soil were estimated by steam distillation methods (Kjeldahl, 1883), first with MgO for NH 4 + -N and then separately with MgO and Devarda's alloy. The ammonium content in the soil extract was determined by estimating the liberated NH 3 through distillation of the extract using MgO, which creates the alkaline conditions essential for ammonia liberation. Simultaneously, in the same extract, Devarda's alloy (a reducing agent) was added to convert NO 3 − -N to ammonia. The fractions of mineral-N content of the soil samples were then expressed CERES-wheat (incorporated within the DSSAT version 4.8, Decision support system for Agro-technology Transfer) used in the present study is a dynamic mechanistic model that calculates phenological development and growth of wheat in response to environmental factors like soil and climate, and management factors like crop variety, fertilization, planting conditions, irrigation, etc. (Jones et al., 2003).In this study, the CERES-Wheat and the CENTURY-based soil module in DSSAT (version 4.8) (Hoogenboom et al., 2021) were used to conduct simulations. Input required for CERES-Wheat include cultivar coefficients, daily weather data, soil profile data, crop management practices. The crop management data contain crop planting date and density, row space, tillage method and date, fertilization (inorganic and manure) dates and rates, and harvest date, etc. (Hunt et al., 2001). These crop management data were obtained from the data taken from field in rabi/winter season (October-April) 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22.Crop growth in the CERES-Wheat model is controlled by phenologically defined growth stages, which are in turn driven by energy input in the form of growing degree-days (GDD) (Jones et al., 2003). Growth stages are defined in DSSAT in terms of cultivar coefficients, which are specific to both the crop cultivar and the local climate, and must therefore be individually evaluated under the optimum conditions (i.e., minimum stress in weather and nutrients) for the region (Boote, 1999;Liu et al., 2011). The CERES-Wheat model uses seven cultivar coefficients (Jones et al., 2003), three representing early growth (P1V, P1D and P5), three representing grain filling (i.e., G1, G2, and G3), and one representing the phylochron interval between successive leaf tip appearances (PHINT). The genetic coefficient for the HD 2967 cultivar was calculated using the DSSAT-GLUE and subsequently calibration was made using a 'Trial and Error' method by setting up a small change (i.e., ± 5%) of each parameter to produce a close match (within 10%) between simulated and measured grain and biomass yield. The seven critical genetic coefficients and some ecotype coefficients for the model have been calibrated as presented in Table 2.To run simulation in DSSAT environment, four input files are required in the following succession: management file, daily weather file, cultivar file (Table 2), and soil profile file (Supplementary Table S1).Local soil and weather parameters, initial conditions of experiment and management practices were used for running the model. The daily outputs from the model includes: crop growth (growth stage, LAI, biomass and grain yield, % N in grain and leaves), and for each soil layer, carbon, mineral N (NH 4 + -N and NO 3 − -N) and water content. The output file includes overview, evaluation and soil water balance. The outputs are readily visualized using graphical display packages within DSSAT tools (e.g., GBUILD), or by using EasyGrapher, a supporting software program (Yang et al., 2004).The experimental data underwent statistical analysis using analysis of variance (ANOVA), as applicable to split plot design as outlined by Gomez and Gomez (1984). The significance of the treatment effects was assessed using the F-test, and the distinction between the means was approximated by utilizing the least significance difference at a 5% probability level. For the model's calibration, essential crop data from stress-free treatments involving water and nitrogen were selected. This data encompassed days to 50% anthesis and physiological maturity, maximum leaf area index (LAI), soil nitrate, and grain and biomass yield. These details were sourced from two growing seasons, i.e., 2019-20 and 2020-21. To evaluate the model, an independent dataset originating from the field experiment on tillage and nitrogen interaction in 2021-22 was employed. In order to holistically assess the performance of the DSSAT model, a thorough comparison between observed and model-predicted data was executed. This evaluation involved deviation statistics, such as prediction error (PE), root mean square error (RMSE), normalized RMSE (nRMSE, Equation 1, 2 and 3, respectively) and coefficient of determination (R 2 ). Furthermore, a regression analysis was carried out to establish a relationship between the simulated and measured grain yields.Where, P i is predicted value, O i is observed value.Prediction is considered to be excellent if PE value is close to zero.The root mean square error (RMSE) was used to calculate the fitness between the estimated and measured results. The RMSE summarizes the average difference between observed and predicted values (Willmott et al., 1985).The normalized RMSE is expressed as RMSE as percentage over the mean observed value.) Where, Pi is predicted value, Oi is observed value, Ō is observed mean and n is number of samples. The nRMSE (%) shows the relative difference between the predicted and observed data. The prediction is considered excellent, good, fair and poor for the nRMSE<10%, 10-20%, 20-30 and > 30%, respectively (Jamieson et al., 1991).The amount of rainfall received during the crop seasons (October-April) of 2019, 2020 and 2021 was 302 mm, 76.8 mm and 181.5 mm, respectively. The graphical representation of daily rainfall distribution, minimum & maximum temperature and solar radiation during simulation period have been presented in Figure 1. As the rainfall distribution was erratic, the crops were irrigated timely as and when required. The CERES-wheat model employs the concept of growing degree days (GDD) to gage how the crop develops. GDD serves as a gage for the accumulated warmth that aids growth throughout the season. The model also imitates how the crop absorbs nitrogen. This simulation considers various factors like the characteristics of the soil, prevailing weather, and how the crop is managed (Hoogenboom et al., 2021). This particular investigation revealed a tight connection between growing degree days (GDD), temperature, nitrate levels in the soil, and the crop's uptake of nitrogen. At the beginning, when temperatures are low and nitrogen uptake by the crop is slow, along with the initial application of basal nitrogen, the concentration of nitrate in the soil is higher. Around 30 DAS, there's a sharp upswing in the graph representing nitrogen uptake. From roughly 70 to 100 DAS, the rate of nitrogen uptake was decreased. After hitting the 100-day mark post sowing, there was another significant spike in nitrogen uptake.The CERES-wheat model was calibrated by adjusting critical genetic and ecotype coefficients (Table 2) to match the observed biomass and grain yield data for the years 2019-20 and 2020-21. Critical genetic and ecotype coefficients are presented in Table 2. The performance statistics and goodness of fit are shown in Figures 2A, 3, 4A,C, 5A,C,E. Model successfully predicted the days to anthesis (RMSE = 1.08 days and nRMSE = 1.20%) and days to  For other parameters, RMSE and nRMSE were in the tune of 0.28 and 6.69%, respectively for LAI, 11.84 kg ha −1 and 9.39%, respectively for N uptake, and 12.39 kg ha −1 and 13.69%, respectively for soil nitrate.The calibrated genetic coefficients were used to evaluate the model in 2021-22. The observed leaf area and nitrogen fluxes, including observations on nitrogen uptake and initial and in-season soil nitrate, were compared with simulation results obtained using the DSSAT model. The statistical indicators indicated a satisfactory fit, with acceptable values of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and normalized Root Mean Square Error (nRMSE), as depicted in Figures 4-6. This suggests that the DSSAT model provided a reasonable representation of the observed data, evaluating its accuracy in simulating leaf area and nitrogen dynamics for the studied period.The DSSAT-CERES-wheat model simulated wheat cultivar anthesis, and physiological maturity at 89-94 and 139-145 DAS, respectively, in all 3-years. The RMSE values for the observed days to anthesis and maturity were 1.29 days and 1.79 days, respectively (Figures 4B,D). This close agreement between predicted and observed data indicates the model's accuracy to capture the changes in crop phenological stages. The model's simulation could not capture the treatment difference for the days to anthesis and physiological maturity. However, in field conditions, slight variations were observed between the treatment without nitrogen and the other treatments where nitrogen was applied. Anthesis was delayed in the treatments that did not receive nitrogen. For rest of the treatments, the simulated and observed values for anthesis and physiological maturity were consistent (with difference in onset of flowering and physiological maturity being 2 days and 3 days, respectively), indicating the effectiveness of the model. The application of nitrogen prolonged the time required for the crop to attain physiological maturity.The results of our study demonstrated that the DSSAT-CERES-Wheat model effectively predicted the leaf area index (LAI) at various Analysis of the data revealed that the root mean square error (RMSE) for grain and biomass was 387 kg ha −1 and 599 kg ha −1 , respectively, for the evaluation year (2022-23). The wheat yields varied considerably among tillage practices and N fertilizer application levels, where the largest wheat yield of 5.20 t ha −1 was observed under treatment ZT-USG, followed by 5.03 t ha −1 under ZT-N150 treatment. (Figure 2). The simulated grain yields of wheat exhibited a good agreement with the measured values in most treatments. However, there was a slight discrepancy in the N0 (without nitrogen application) treatments in both conventional tillage (CT) and zero tillage (ZT) plots, where the model slightly over-predicted the grain yield. Despite this exception, the model's performance in predicting grain yields for rest of the treatments was accurate. There was a significant linear correlation between the simulated and the measured grain yields with R 2 = 0.96 and 0.98 for grain and biomass yield, respectively, for all crop establishment and N management treatment combinations (Figure 2). Compared to CT, ZT plots obtained higher grain yield, and the model also captured this yield difference between CT and ZT. Thus, the DSSAT model demonstrated excellent agreements in simulating the wheat yield for the treatments with fertilizer N application.In present study we found that compared to NH 4 + -N, nitrate-N is generally the principle form of mineral N in soil. In both the CT and ZT conditions, NH 4 + -N concentrations were very low and the amount of NH 4 + -N increased after the nitrogen application. As per the model's simulation, ammonia volatilization exhibited an escalation whenever there was a higher concentration of NH 4 + -N after fertilizer nitrogen application.In case of soil nitrate, the RMSE and nRMSE values were 12.63 kg ha −1 and 12.84%, respectively, showing the model's ability to accurately predict the soil nitrate level (Figure 5F). Model simulations showed that the soil NO 3 − -N concentration fluctuated greatly with fertilizer application and crop growth stages. Following fertilizer N application, NO 3 − -N concentration increased markedly with the increases of fertilizer N rates. The nitrate concentration displayed an upward slope with increasing temperature. In general, zero tillage (ZT) plots exhibited higher nitrate content in the soil compared to conventional tillage (CT) plots (Figure 6). Among the nitrogen management options, the nitrate content was highest in the USG (urea super granules) plots, followed by GS and 150 N (150 kg N ha −1 ) treatments. The lowest nitrate content was recorded in the N0 treatment (without nitrogen application). Among the nitrogen options, the highest nitrate content was observed with USG plots followed by GS and 150 N.The observed and simulated nitrogen uptake showed a good agreement for evaluation year (2021-22) with an RMSE = 10.43 kg ha −1 and nRMSE = 8.98% (Figure 5d). A perusal of observed data suggested a rapid turnover of nitrate N within the soil-plant system during the rapid plant growth period and the nitrate nitrogen (N) concentration remained highly dynamic. During the initial slow growth of the crop, there was an accumulation of nitrate in the soil (Figure 6). During the peak growth of the crop, i.e., at 60 DAS, nitrate concentration was lower in the soil. At around 85-90 DAS, in spite of nitrogen application, the rise in the nitrate curve was moderate as compared to the initial crop growth phase. After the application of fertilizer, nitrogen uptake exhibited a sharp upward curve in all treatments. The pattern of nitrogen uptake in all 3 years remained similar with the maximum uptake in ZT-USG and lowest in CT-N0 (Figure 3). One noticeable observation was presence of a clustering behavior among the group of nitrogen application methods, such as CT-USG/ ZT-USG behaved in Model calibration (A) and evaluation (B) for yield and biomass using DSSAT. 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1321472 Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 09 frontiersin.org the same direction. CT-GS, CT-150 N, ZT-GS, and ZT-150 N treatments exhibited similar uptake patterns for nitrogen. Similarly, CT-N0 and ZT-N0 treatments displayed comparable nitrogen uptake. However, ZT across all clusters outperformed its CT counterparts, indicating the superiority of zero tillage in terms of nitrogen uptake in all nitrogen management options.In this and next section, we have only simulated data and the discussion is based on the similarity between the simulated results and previous findings. The model simulation revealed that ammonia volatilization exhibited a rise when NH 4 + -N levels were elevated following the application of fertilizer nitrogen. There was a sudden rise of the volatilization curve in the start of the experiment and at around 39-40 DAS (Figure 7). This increment was noticed in all the nitrogen management options across the years and the highest volatilization was observed in case of USG. In case of plots without nitrogen application, the volatilization was negligible. During 2019 and 2020, the amount of nitrogen leaching was negligible (Figure 8). The leaching was triggered slightly in 2021 at around 80-90 DAS, which was coincided with a rainfall event and the application of fertilizer N. Notably, nitrogen leaching was more pronounced in the ZT system when compared to the CT.The sharp rise in the graph representing nitrogen uptake at around 30 days after sowing (DAS) can be explained by two key factors: firstly, there's more nitrate available in the soil during this period, and secondly, the temperature was higher. These favorable conditions synergistically empower the plants to absorb more nitrogen, leading to a substantial increase in nitrogen uptake during this growth phase. The next significant rise in the nitrogen uptake after 100 DAS might be due to the increased temperatures and a growing accumulation of growing degree days (GDD). The advantageous combination of higher temperatures and GDD during this interval substantially enhanced nitrogen uptake by the crop, thereby giving an extra boost to its growth and overall development. So the DSSAT-Ceres-wheat model provides a precious instrument for mimicking and grasping the effects of weather variables on the nitrogen uptake and utilization of this model may facilitate a deeper understanding of how fluctuations in temperature and GDD might influence crop performance. The close agreement between simulated and observed anthesis and physiological maturity dates indicated the model's accuracy to capture the changes in phenological crop growth stages. Our results are consistent with the findings of Ahmed (2011) in which the percent prediction error (% PE) for anthesis and maturity of wheat (using DSSAT-CERES-Wheat model) were close to or equal to zero. The model's simulations illustrated that the treatments did not significantly affect days to anthesis and physiological maturity.  Calibration and evaluation of days to anthesis (A,B) and days to maturity (C,D). frontiersin.org However, in field conditions, slight variations were observed between the treatment without nitrogen and the other treatments with nitrogen which highlights the subtle effects that nitrogen application can have on crop development, even though the varietal characteristics remained the primary drivers of anthesis and physiological maturity. The treatments without nitrogen delayed the anthesis dates but advanced physiological maturity. This observation supports the well-established concept that any stress occurring before flowering tends to increase the duration of the crop's pre-anthesis stage, while stress occurring after anthesis typically reduces the duration of the post-anthesis stage (Gungula et al., 2007;Zhang et al., 2022). This relationship highlights the differential impact of stress on different growth stages of the crop. Treatments with nitrogen application took a longer time to reach physiological maturity, primarily because of the extended nitrogen availability, which led to the expansion of the post-anthesis duration of the crop.The close agreement between simulated and measured LAI values suggested the model's efficiency in accurate simulation of the leaf area index of the crop. These results are in agreement with the results observed by Chisanga et al. (2015). The model also accurately simulated the trend of LAI growth, including the incline up to anthesis and subsequent decline as the plant transferred its photosynthates to the sink. This was consistent with previous research that used the DSSAT model (DeJonge et al., 2012). Additionally, the model was able to accurately predict the higher LAI values in zero-tillage (ZT) plots, which can be attributed to improved nitrogen availability and favorable soil conditions such as lower bulk density and better root growth. These results are consistent with the findings of Parihar et al. (2016). The model slightly over-predicted the grain yield in treatments without (N0) nitrogen application. Previous studies such as Yang et al. (2013) and Timsina and Humphreys (2006) also reported poorer performance of the DSSAT model for without N fertilizer treatments than with N fertilizer treatments. In our study, the initial soil nitrogen level was slightly higher, and the model over predicted the grain yield in N0 plots. This might be due to the DSSAT crop model being more sensitive to initial soil nitrogen conditions than the real crop growth under without N fertilizer conditions. ZT plots recorded higher grain yield than CT, which was primarily due to higher nitrogen availability and uptake due to more favorable soil conditions.It was observed that NH 4 + -N concentration was very low in both the CT and ZT plots compared to nitrate-N. When ammonium is added to the soil, or released from organic matter by mineralization, it is usually nitrified rapidly to NO 3 − -N. This is due to the fact that the diffusion rate of NO 3 − and NH 4 + in the rhizosphere is greatly different, with NH 4 + being adsorbed to the soil solid phase and having an effective diffusion coefficient that is 121 times less than that of NO 3 − -N (Barber, 1995). In both the CT and ZT conditions, model simulations suggested that NH 4 + -N concentrations were similar and the amount of NH 4 + -N increased after the nitrogen application. But instantly it underwent nitrification and converted into nitrate and gradually, its concentration decreased to insignificance. After fertilizer nitrogen application, higher concentration of NH 4 + -N resulted in higher ammonia volatilization. This is because NH 4 + -N acts as a substrate for ammonia volatilization, leading to an elevated release of ammonia into the atmosphere. Earlier (Hu and Li, 1993) and recent work (Miao et al., 2015) revealed that soil ammonium N was small and neither its content (mg kg −1 ) nor its amount (kg ha −1 at a given depth) had correlation with wheat yield.The nitrate concentration displayed an upward slope with increasing fertilizer N rates and temperature, as warmer conditions may stimulate nitrifying bacteria and enhance the Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 13 frontiersin.org nitrification rate. (Figure 6). The findings obtained in this study align with the experimental results reported by Liu et al. (2003) and Zhao et al. (2006). In contrast to NH 4 + -N, nitrate-N exhibits distinct characteristics in soil. Notably, nitrate-N has the ability to rapidly diffuse through the soil and can continuously transport toward plant roots via mass flow, facilitated by the process of plant transpiration. These dynamic properties enable nitrate-N to efficiently supply nutrients to the roots and influence plant growth and development more actively compared to NH 4 + -N. Zero tillage (ZT) plots recorded higher soil nitrate content compared to conventional tillage (CT) plots (Figure 6). This observation can be attributed to two primary factors. Firstly, ZT plots had higher initial nitrate content, contributing to the overall higher nitrate levels in the soil throughout the season. Secondly, the higher available nitrogen and more favorable conditions for nitrification in ZT plots facilitated the conversion of ammonium to nitrate, further augmenting the nitrate content in the soil.During the rapid growth of crop, the soil nitrate concentration remained low and highly dynamic, indicating that it was consumed at a rate comparable to its production. Basal application of the nitrogen resulted in the higher accumulation of nitrate in the soil as the crop uptake was negligible at this time (Figure 6). During the rapid growth of the crop, i.e., at 60 DAS, nitrate concentration was comparatively low in the soil due to higher demand during peak crop growth stage. At around 85-90 DAS, in spite of nitrogen application, soil nitrate did not accumulate. This can be attributed to the fact that there was synchronization of crop N demand and soil supply of the nitrogen. After the application of fertilizer, nitrogen uptake exhibited a sharp upward curve in all treatments. The model's simulations were in agreement with the findings of Jackson et al. (1989Jackson et al. ( , 2008)), further supporting the accuracy of the model. Nitrate-N accumulation in plants is common and considered a safe nitrogen source with no detrimental effects (Wang and Li, 1996;Gruda, 2005), ensuring smooth N nutrition, and vigorous growth of the plants, guaranteeing nitrogen availability (Van der Leij et al., 1998;Li et al., 2009). Consequently, plants with higher nitrate accumulation experience an elongated growth period, allowing them to accumulate more photosynthetic products. This could be the likely reason for the wheat plants with higher soil nitrate and fertilizer N application taking more days to reach physiological maturity compared to plants with lower soil nitrate and no fertilizer N application. The additional nitrogen resources likely support prolonged growth, leading to increased photosynthetic activity and delayed maturity.In our study, ammonia volatilization increased when NH 4 + -N levels were higher after the fertilizer nitrogen application. This phenomenon is attributed to NH 4 + -N acting as a substrate for ammonia volatilization, thereby resulting in an increased release of ammonia into the atmosphere. The rise of the volatilization curve in the initial stage and at around 39-40 DAS may be attributed to the N applications as basal dose and at 37 DAS, respectively (Figure 7). This increment was noticed in all the nitrogen management options across the years and the highest volatilization was observed in case of USG. This outcome can be attributed to the fact that the rate of nitrogen application through USG as a basal treatment was the highest among all the other treatments. This increase in the volatilization rate was also coincided with the higher temperature at both the stages of fertilizer application, substantiating the notion that volatilization is a temperature-dependent and substrate-dependent reaction. In case of plots without nitrogen application, the volatilization was negligible as there was no NH 4 + was available as substrate for volatilization. Ammonia volatilization may also diminish the NH 4 + in soil, reducing the nitrate nitrogen in soil which, in turn, may reduce the subsequent nitrate leaching. Therefore, these loss mechanisms are intricately interconnected, with temperature assuming a pivotal role and acting as the primary catalyst of these reactions.In the years 2019 and 2020, nitrogen leaching was minimal. It may be attributed to the absence of intense precipitation increasing the amount of effective rainfall, and controlled irrigation during the cropping season. Another possible explanation could be attributed to the water-solubility of nitrate, which allows it to leach and subsequently rise through capillary action back to the root zone. The model also incorporates this phenomenon, accounting for the upward water flux facilitated by capillary action. This observation is corroborated by the findings of Godwin and Singh (1998). In the year 2021, the leaching was triggered slightly at around 80-90 DAS, which was due to coinciding N fertilizer application and a rainfall event. The N leaching loss was higher under ZT system when compared to the CT which may be attributed to the higher soil porosity observed in the ZT system. The significance of this information lies in its contribution to enhancing comprehension of crop-soil nitrogen dynamic processes, thereby highlighting the DSSAT model's immense potential in simulating soil NO 3 − -N dynamics.Practical implications of the study's findings and its utility for farmers and policymakersThe comprehensive study's findings hold substantial implications for agriculture, specifically in enhancing crop growth, yield, and understanding soil nitrogen dynamics. The observed sharp increases in nitrogen uptake around 30 and 100 days after sowing (DAS) underscore the critical influence of both nitrate availability and higher temperatures on enhancing crop nitrogen absorption. This knowledge offers farmers valuable insights into optimizing nitrogen application strategies concerning specific growth stages, maximizing nutrient uptake, and subsequently improving crop productivity. The accurate simulation of phenological growth stages by the DSSAT-Ceres-wheat model emphasizes its usefulness in predicting plant development under varying conditions. Farmers can leverage this information to fine-tune cultivation practices, such as the timing of nitrogen application, considering its impact on both anthesis and physiological maturity. Additionally, the model's capacity to simulate leaf area index (LAI) growth and its correlation with nitrogen availability presents a practical tool for predicting plant vigor and adjusting management practices. Moreover, the identification of higher grain yields in zerotillage (ZT) plots due to improved soil conditions and nitrogen availability provides a clear directive for farmers aiming to enhance productivity through soil management techniques.Comparing these results with existing knowledge in weather and nitrogen dynamics reveals nuanced insights. The study evaluates previous research indicating the sensitivity of the DSSAT model to initial soil nitrogen conditions, thereby emphasizing the importance of accurately accounting for nitrogen levels in model simulations. Moreover, the study corroborates the role of temperature in ammonia volatilization and nitrate leaching, emphasizing the need for climateinformed management strategies to minimize nitrogen losses and maximize its availability for crops. The detailed observations on nitrate dynamics underscore the impact of temperature and soil management practices, highlighting the potential for optimizing nitrogen application rates based on these factors to mitigate leaching losses and enhance nutrient use by crops.Policymakers can benefit from these findings by understanding the intricate relationship between weather, nitrogen dynamics, and crop performance. Incorporating this knowledge into agricultural policies can support initiatives promoting efficient nitrogen management practices, potentially reducing environmental impacts associated with excessive nitrogen application. Additionally, these insights can aid in formulating guidelines or advisories for farmers, promoting efficient nitrogen use to optimize crop yield while minimizing environmental pollution risks.In this study, the used the CSM-CERES-Wheat model showcased its efficacy in replicating crop growth and nutrient dynamics across diverse soil environmental conditions for the widely cultivated wheat HD2967 variety. The model demonstrated satisfactory simulation of grain yield, biomass yield, leaf area index, and various components of nitrogen dynamics under different nitrogen management options, both in conventional tillage (CT) and CA-based zero tillage (ZT) systems. frontiersin.orgThe results of this research contribute significantly to the field of agricultural modeling by demonstrating the practical application of the CSM-CERES-Wheat model in predicting wheat growth and nutrient dynamics. By offering insights into the genotype-environmentmanagement interactions, this study aids in optimizing agricultural practices for improved wheat yield in varying climatic conditions. The identified model challenges serve as a catalyst for further refinement, emphasizing the importance of continued testing and fine-tuning using expanded datasets to enhance its accuracy and applicability.","tokenCount":"6892"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"de8f799362085584f8727912c625f7ce","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd345069-c52f-41e3-a974-4035b9b75504/retrieve","id":"-1421366528"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8ab61fb3-bbfa-4bcc-a6b8-ef0fdd47d1f4","pagecount":"1","content":"Commissioning Study: CRP PMU Part II: CGIAR system level reporting Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs: • Enhanced individual capacity in partner research organizations through training and exchange • Increase capacity of beneficiaries to adopt research outputs Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: No Description of activity / study: This is a summative review and synthesis of the numerous capacity development (CapDev) activities implemented by the various Flagships of the Livestock CRP over the period 2017 to 2021 for accountability, learning, and planning purposes. The review was intended to shed light on the success and outcomes of CapDev interventions, the overall difference that the interventions have made, how effective they have been against set outcomes, key lessons learnt, and whether the outcomes were sustainable. A total of 265,823 individuals (24% women) participated in CapDev activities implemented by the Livestock CRP between 2018 and 2021. Kenya registered the highest number of CapDev participants followed, in decreasing order, by the Livestock CRP priority countries of Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. The trainees included CGIAR and national partner researchers, policy makers and regulators, extension agents, farmers, and other value chain actors.","tokenCount":"191"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1ef66f6a963551e2e7d34c8fbfcc166d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9113032c-ad19-40b8-a598-409b5c4e2c97/retrieve","id":"-1837621430"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1e2d4279-d6f4-4452-ad7d-40a3451dea6d","pagecount":"39","content":"(SARD-SC). This project is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and implementation is led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). In this Report we focus on a few of the project achievements from the past one year that the project has been in effective implementation across the four commodity value chains.Even in the midst of the many challenges in implementing a complex project that involves four commodities (cassava, maize, rice, and wheat), four CGIAR institutions (IITA, ICARDA, AfricaRice, and IFPRI), and 20 Regional Membership Countries (RMCs) -Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, some achievements and impacts from the project are already clearly visible in some of the focused RMCs.The Cassava value chain has made giant strides in establishing needed infrastructures for cassava processing and equipment fabrication across different hub countries in which the cassava project activities are focused. Already completed and now fully functional and serving the regional hub of Central Africa is the cassava factory established at the IITA research station in Bukavu, DR Congo. In this report we give some highlights of this establishment and the role it is expected to play in diversifying the uses of cassava in the Central African region.Within the Maize value chain of the project, we go into the analysis of the different Innovative Platform approaches that have been adopted for use in implementing many of the activities of the different commodity value chains. We visit operations in Ghana and Nigeria and follow through on the establishment and operations of these IPs, just as examples of how this can be and are used to link various stakeholders for effective dissemination and use of project technologies.The focus on the Rice value chain is on the introduction and manufacture of farm machinery prototypes to ease labor in farm and postharvest operations and at the same time improve the quality of the products. Capacity building activities which are also an integral part of this project implementation are highlighted in this value chain.With the Wheat commodity value chain, we share the success story of wheat making it unto the Nigerian agricultural transformation commodity list because of demonstrated high yields of adapted wheat varieties evaluated and selected across locations through the project. This is a good example of how the project can impact directly on policy decisions within a country in terms of achieving food security and also making decisions on trade issues.It has been a very busy and effective first year of the project full implementation with participation of the project teams in various field events and visits to project sites to access project operations and plan with national partners for continuous effective implementation. The various commodity value chains have also linked up with young agripreneurs across various hubs to assist with the dissemination of project outputs and demonstrate that youth employment opportunities do exist in agriculture when it is taken up as a business. Activities have included the production and distribution of various planting materials and the promotion of diverse crop uses to different stakeholders across the operational regions.We are already at midway of the project implementation, even though we have just been in effective operations for about one and a half years. We have plenty to demonstrate by way of achievements and shall be taking stock through an upcoming mid-term project review on what needs to be adjusted for continuous effective implementation of the project. We look forward to the outcomes of this project in the years ahead and shall continue to update and highlight achievements in future annual editions of this Report. The project shall also continue to build on the successes and achievements of each year as it strengthens partnerships with the RMCs, welcome new partners wanting to participate in the public goods from the project, while intensifying efforts to improve the livelihoods of all our stakeholders, especially the youths and smallholder farmers of Africa.We will continue to be guided in these efforts by our strategy and commitment to sustainably improve food and nutritional security on our target crops while ensuring that poverty is reduced among the target stakeholders. We will also ensure that the outcomes of our efforts are freely available to all as Regional Public Goods so that no one is left out in benefiting from the project outputs.I wish you all an enjoyable reading.iii Contents 1.Cassava value chain 1 Cassava processing factory established at Kalambo, DR Congo 1 Experts develop capacity of project partners on processing cassava and soybean flour for value addition 4 Project partners acquire skills on the set up and management of Innovation Platforms 62.Maize value chain iv iv! . ! .! .1The SARD-SC project with funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB), has constructed and established a multi-purpose cassava processing factory at the IITA Kalambo station in DR. Congo. The factory, which has four units, will be used for cassava processing, fabrication of equipment, soybean processing and exhibition of various processed products.The first of its kind in the South -Kivu area of DRC, the factory, will among other things, promote food security through conservation and transformation of agricultural produce into marketable processed products. The cassava processing unit will be used for processing cassava into garri and high quality starch as well as some other 20 by -products for household consumption and income generation for the farmers and other stakeholders in the region. The fabrication of processing equipment such as graters, sieves, miller, press, chippers and drying tables will be undertaken in the second unit of the facility.In addition to its statutory functions and purpose, the construction of this factory is significant to the development of DRC 's economy because of the expected extra income the processed products will generate to the farmers. One of the other expected benefits of the factory is the development of the capacity of the local artisans through the acquisition and introduction of new technologies. It will also offer huge employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed young men and women, who will now play major roles in the agricultural processes Scientists and Researchers working with the SARD-SC cassava value chain team in the country will also gain knowledge in processing cassava into many different products.While the factory was under construction, the Bukavu city was palpable with excitement, as the people looked forward to seeing the factory completed and operational. It was eventually completed on schedule and launched on the 5 th of June, 2014, in Kalambo, DRC, with several important personalities from different regions and countries in attendance.The cassava factory.The cassava processing unit will be used for processing cassava into garri and high quality starch as well as some other 20 by -products for household consumption and income generation for the farmers and other stakeholders in the region.The beauty and the importance of the factory attracted the attention of visitors as well as donors represented by the top echelons of donor groups to the launching. The Honorable Ministers of Agriculture from DRC and Burundi, and the South-Kivu Governor as well as the Catholic Arch Bishop of the Diocese of Bukavu, attended the launching and commended IITA for the building and the innovation of processing cassava into various products. Impressed by the significance of the new factory and its benefits on promoting food security and increasing average expected income of farmers in the country, the visitors pledged to support and collaborate with the SARD-SC team and IITA to promote the growth of cassava roots in the country so that constant raw material will be available for the unit.In his remarks at the launch, the South-Kivu Governor, Mr. Marcellin Chisambo, commended IITA and the SARD-SC project for its contribution to enhancing the status of the cassava crop through value addition and establishing a factory to process the crop into various different products. He noted the cassava processing factory would bring about multi faceted advantages to the vicinity by providing job opportunities, developing capacity of the local people and enhancing the income generation of households. Mr. Chisambo pledged his continuous support to IITA and the project for the important agricultural development they have brought to his province.The Director -General of IITA, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga was visibly elated by the construction of the factory and culinary innovations that have spawned the many different cassava products introduced into DR. Congo, during the launching. Through the tutelage of Mr. Samiran Mazumdar, Head, Hotel and Catering Services, IITA, Ibadan, he showed the several culinary delights that can be made from cassava and soybean flour. The DG spoke about the genesis of the innovative steps the institute has taken by incorporating cassava flour into baking of bread and other confectioneries such as cakes, biscuits and several other products. The importance of processing agricultural produce, he emphasized, was for value added as means of reducing importation, creating employment opportunities and raising national revenue.Preceeding DG Sanginga's remarks at the product demonstration unit of the factory was Dr. Bernard Vanlauwe, IITA Central Africa, Director and SARD-SC cassava commodity specialist, Dr. Marie Yomeni, who took some of the visitors, among who were the Rwandan and Burundian Ministers of Agriculture, the Nigerian Ambassador to DRC and the North Kivu Governor to the Cassava exhibition center where they admired and tasted more than 40 baked products from cassava and Soybean flour. Perhaps, for the first time in their lives, the guests tasted various cassava cookies to their delightful surprise. After tasting some of the products, Mr. Chisambo could not help quipping that, \"I did not know cassava could produce very tasteful recipes, I thought I could not swallow a product made from cassava itself but now, I am surprised with this new innovation. I have all the interest to support and promote Cassava in this province.\"On display during the launching were the products made from cassava such as Cassava bread with 40The exhibition center of the factory and 20% flour, cassava Cake, Cassava Doughnuts, Cassava Queen Cakes, Cassava chin-chin, Cassava root fritters, Cassava coconuts Cookies, Cassava Egg Rolls, Cassava Root Croquettes.The IITA women group from Ibadan headquarters, led by Mrs. Charlotte Sanginga and a few representative colleagues, visited the processing center a day before the Kalambo launching event.They had the opportunity to see the women processors from different territories of South-Kivu, accompanied by men who have shown capacity and commitment to work and promote the cassava new products in their households.One of the units of the factory is for the fabrication of assorted cassava processing machines, within affordable costs since they are made with locally sourced materials and using local artisans. Some of the benefits of this unit include the processing of various agricultural produce, and reducing importation of raw agricultural materials. These units are a new source of agricultural promotion in South-Kivu in particular and DRC in general.The processing machines fabricated in the center will serve as prototypes not only for national artisans but also for regional ones from Rwanda and Burundi. The availability of these machines would be extended and promoted to other SARD-SC project regional partners as well as non project partners as regional public goods to enhance their processing of agricultural produce.The launch was followed by a visit to the cassava processing factory from DR. Congo's first lady, Madame Olive Lembe Kabila. She witnessed firsthand IITA's post harvest innovations and cassava and soybean value chain product development IITA is pioneering in the country. She was highly impressed by the use of cassava and soybean flour for baking such as cakes, bread, doughnuts and other culinary delights.Dignitaries at the launching of the cassava factory.Dr Sanginga showing the cassava confectioneries to guests.Perhaps, for the first time in their lives, the guests tasted various cassava cookies to their delightful surprise.In order to develop the capacity of the people on the many ways cassava can be utilized, the SARD-SC project team in DR. Congo organized a Training of Trainers workshop on the techniques of processing cassava and soybean into high quality flour and more than 20 by-products. Participants at the workshop were project's partners who included actors in the cassava value chain-producers, processors and sellers-from different territories, the provincial ministry of Agriculture, private sectors and local organizations.In tandem with the project's component focus on agricultural technologies and innovation dissemination, the purpose of the training was to build the capacity of the people to make edible products from cassava and soybean flour such as cakes, bread, doughnuts and the likes.The facilitators, Mr. Gregory and Mrs. Ronke Popoola, staff of the Hotel and Catering Services of the IITA, Ibadan Headquarters, introduced and taught the participants the versatility of cassava and soybean flour. Some of the areas of training were: How are to make cassava and soy flour from freshly harvested crops from the farm; How to dry the flour, the percentage of flour to add in recipes, the basic equipment and ingredients to use and processing steps among others. in the households. With increased use of cassava and soybean flour for consumption and industrial uses, more farmers would likely embrace planting of the crops . As a result, it would engender increased production of the crops thereby raising the average annual household cash incomes of farmers, while providing a steady source of raw materials for the newly established SARD-SC project cassava processing factory, in Kalambo, for industry and export to other countries.Besides enhancing food security, participants said the training afforded them the opportunity to learn the many uses of cassava and soybean, and other people's culinary culture through the introduction of garri and fufu, made from cassava into DR.Congo. Each of the trainee pledged to train about 50 persons in their territories and organizations.Since the training was done in groups, one group learned about Soybean processing while the other one learned Cassava processing. The processing and value addition skills they learnt would build their capacity to use the processing unit installed at the Kalambo station while the exhibition center would be used to display and market their products.The Democratic Republic of Congo is among the largest producers of cassava in Africa. Unfortunately, apart from the products commonly known as \"Ugali\" and \"Chikwange\" , flour and milk, no other products made from Cassava and Soybean were known by the local population. The use of cassava flour and soy in bakery products and other food products is relatively new though insignificant compared to the enormous potential and opportunities available in the area. Cassava flour and soy are partial replacement of wheat flour in the production of bread, biscuits, pastries and snack crusts. En bref cette formation a pour objectif : Thus, this training was aimed at disseminating the new technology and innovations to the farmers and SARD-SC project partners to enlighten them about the many uses of cassava and soybean crops and flour. The products made from these two crops were very acceptable to the participants, the ordinary people as well as the guests at the launching of the cassava processing factory. Products made from soybean flour were: Soy Sausage Rolls, Soy Muffins, Soy Cheese,Soy Milk, Soy Pastry Pie, Soy Biscuits, Soy Peanut Butter Cookies, Soy queen cakes, Soy oatmeal cookies, and Soy cakes.However, few weeks after this training, 10 participants through their organizations: ACOSYF, ISANDA, FONIMIS, IPLCI, AGIR, GRADEM, PAMED, COOPTRAF, etc. ,including the agro processors' network, held a similar training on the use of cassava and soybean flour for baking for more than 700 people in their respective territories; Mwenga, Bunyakiri, Uvira, Walungu, Kabare, etc. The second day of the training was scheduled for field visit. All the participants visited the Association of Producers and Processors of Cassava (APTM). This visit gave them opportunity to understand how APTM operates and its source of funding.Currently, it is funded by national, international and state Organizations such as the Agricultural Ministry (MINAGRI), USAID, IITA , FPI, FAO, SNV/ Netherlands, with contributions from members through membership fees and grants. The IP has 20 members, with 60% women and 40% men, who work together for the success of its objectives.On the last day, participants discussed their views and experiences on the field visit and synergized for the development of the Innovation Platform.The workshop ended successfully with the participants committed to achieve the following:• Establish as soon as possible all the necessary mechanisms to influence and mentor local farmers working in the Cassava sector to form a platform for innovation value chains; • Mobilize resources, make contribution, employ labors, have land grant and access to equipment and agricultural machines to maximize the production of Cassava to meet the expectation of SARD-SC project and supply a local transformation unit.The purpose of the workshop was to train actors on the Cassava value chain on the implementation of functional and sustainable Innovation Platforms in order to have visible and applicable results in the cassava sector and other operational areas of the project.Attaining the specific objective of boosting maize yield from 2.0 to 2.5 t/ha in target regions of four (Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Zambia) countries and reaching a minimum of 1.5 million smallholder farm families within the shortest possible time means a departure from the norm. Consequently, the traditional researcherextension-farmer approach to technology dissemination, though very quite successful, has not been able to enhance levels of competiveness of the maize crop.Raising maize productivity and market connections using Innovation PlatformsTherefore, the project built its extension on innovation platforms (IPs) for fostering interaction among stakeholders and thus accelerating adoption of technologies.The Innovation Platform (IP) is an informal partnership of public and private scientists, extension workers, representatives of farmers, farmers' associations, private entities, nongovernmental organizations, and government policy makers that communicate, cooperate, and interact based on a common belief that increasing agricultural productivity can assist in improving the welfare of all members of society. An IP operation is based on four pillars starting with the setting-up of the IP to serve as the platform for diagnosing problems and exploring opportunities as well as investigating solutions.The second pillar is ensuring a non-linear, collective, and collaborative interaction among the IP actors as opposed to the traditional linear researcher-extension-farmers transfer of technology while the third pillar is the conduct of multidisciplinary and participatory research that addresses issues identified and agreed upon by the IP actors. The fourth pillar is the cross-cutting issue of capacity building of the IP institutions and members to effectively participate.Three IPs have been established in each of the four countries and baseline surveys conducted. Positive effects of using the IP approach are already being manifested. In this report, we provide details of a well-functioning IP using examples from Nigeria.Oyo axis of the Oyo-Kwara IP in Nigeria LGA Agbonle community has a population of about 7300 people of which 3300 are male and 4000 female; the youth make up thirty percent of the population. The community is laid out in the derived savanna ecology with patches of forest.Most of the men in the community are farmers of a highly diversified range of crops. While about 60% of the women grow soybean, egusi melon, maize, and vegetables, the youth produce mainly maize, soybean, and groundnut. They also engage in using motorbikes for passenger transport business. Information and data generated from the community analyses involving research− extension−farmers°other stakeholders enabled the compilation of action points to be executed by all stakeholders (See table on page 12).LGAs where strong support from government policy makers was displayed in the provision of motorcycles to Extension Agents (EAs) to effectively monitor IP activities.The project is thus committed to building linkages that ensure that technologies generated are relevant in addressing the development challenges. These include increasing the productivity of maize enterprises under a severely deteriorating natural resource base, weak input and output market connections, overcoming the scourge of Striga and stem borers, the high cost of inputs such as fertilizers.This enables the business of farming by improving access to quality seeds of high yielding varieties, labor saving devices, and modern production techniques/tools that are attractive to the youth. Key partners with long- Enhancing IP operations through policy dialog term experience and interests in these issues such as maize commodity associations and feed mills are being co-opted to broaden the engagements and enhance opportunities for participants on each of the IPs. The main objective was to equip the diagnostic survey focal persons/researchers with the necessary qualitative data analysis skills using the NVivo 10 software to analyze diagnostic survey data. Specific objectives were to:• Review progress of the diagnostic survey research activities per country. • Present and discuss the preliminary results. The trainer Participants stated that they were very satisfied with the NVivo training course. They all found that the NVivo software is a new tool that will help them conduct qualitative data analysis and carry out their job more effectively. They found the duration of the training too short and recognized that they need further exercises to be more familiar with the NVivo 10 software.The following recommendations were given by Dr Raboanarielina to the diagnostic survey focal persons during the plenary session of the training workshop:1. Focal persons were urged to train other scientists in order to share the knowledge acquired (i.e., qualitative data analysis using the NVivo 10 software) with their colleagues..and proceed quickly to data analysis and country technical report writing. It is a known fact that farmers' yields fall short of the potential of the improved varieties made available to them. However, the yield gaps in the various countries have not been well documented. In order to determine these yield gaps and what is responsible for them, yield gap surveys were completed in all the 11 project countries (Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Uganda). Soil, straw, and rice grain samples (7−100 farmers per hub, 1−3 hubs per country) were collected by the NARS in the project countries. Thus far, 11,676 soil, straw, and rice samples have been collected. These samples are being analyzed at AfricaRice, Benin for N, P, K content (all samples) and for C content, texture, and pH (soil samples only).Based on preliminary results from the diagnostic survey, yield gap survey, and monitoring tour, together with local experts' knowledge, several constraints were identified (Fig. 3) and the first version of the Hub Facts Sheet was developed to assess rice farming systems in different countries (HubFactSheet: http://www.ricehub.org/).The output of the yield gap survey is summarized in Figure 5 and clearly shows the yield gap in 27 African countries, including the 11 SARD-SC target countries.   improved rice yields by 1 t/ha in Nigeria (6.5 t/ ha with Nutrient Manager compared to 5.5 t/ ha using farmers' practice) and by 1.5 t/ha in Senegal (7.4 t/ha with Nutrient Manager compared with 5.9 t/ha using farmers' practice (Table 1).Thirteen automatic weather stations were provided to 10 countries and local staff were trained on their use to facilitate weather data collection. Data collected in each country was sent automatically to AfricaRice for comparative analysis across countries. Based on this data, the following cropping calendar was developed in the various countries (Fig. 8). The overall objective of the project is to enhance food and nutrition security and contribute to poverty reduction in the Bank's RMCs. The specific objective is to enhance the productivity of and income from the four CAADP priority value chains on a sustainable basis. In real terms, the plan is to reduce food importation from other continents and offer farmers better access to markets, improve livelihoods and tackle poverty through enhanced capacities of beneficiaries in order to achieve sustainable development for the region.Rice value chain of the ASI thresher (Fig. 9) and tested them in farmers' fields. During 2014, the trained fabricators will conduct in-country training of other fabricators jointly with AfricaRice.After the training at NCAM, Hanigha Nigeria Ltd. (based in Kaduna, Nigeria), one of the trainees, produced its own (cheaper) version of the thresher and is currently fabricating at least 10 more for use by the RTA in on-farm demonstrations. NCAM has also produced a rice thresher (Fig. 10) that combines the principles of the ASI and NCAM threshers but is 98% efficient and costs considerably less than both.Desfabeng Co. Ltd., another private company that participated in the training at NCAM, has fabricated one ASI thresher (Fig. 11) which was used for in-country training of local fabricators from Benue, Nasarawa, Kano, and Niger states. Anglophone trainees (Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda) from 18 November to 6 December 2013 (Fig. 12).The workshop combined the exchange of experiences and knowledge among trainees   Realizing that the first and most essential input in wheat production is seed of good varieties, the SARD-SC wheat team started with the identification of potentially suitable wheat germplasm and varieties that would fit the prevailing growing conditions in the target countries. These wheat materials are provided to the SARD-SC wheat participating countries, with the largest number of entries delivered from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) to the hub countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Sudan), as the primary project focus, from which results are obtained.In the 2013−2014 season, a large number of nurseries and yield trials comprising several hundred wheat entries have been evaluated on-farm and in the research sites by the national SARD-SC wheat team of all project participating countries.In Ethiopia, two wheat varieties, Adel-6 and Nejemah-14, selected from ICARDA germplasm, were officially released in May 2013 by the Ethiopian National Variety Release Committee (NVRC) for wider use in lowland irrigated wheat agroecologies of Ethiopia. The two varieties were released for their high yield (> 4 t/ha), good grain quality, and acceptable tolerance to heat and salinity stresses. A further three best-performing wheat lines were also identified as potential candidates for the Ethiopian irrigated lowlands and will be put forward for imminent submission to the NVRC in 2014.In addition, three candidate varieties, suitable for the rainfed highland areas are submitted to the NVRC in October 2013, and the verdict by NVRC is expected in May 2014. The SARD-SC project has been engaged in multiplying seed of those newly released and candidate varieties for quick dissemination and promotion among small-scale farmers of Ethiopia.The SARD-SC teams have already established six innovation platforms (IPs) in different highland regions of Ethiopia, where they distributed improved seed (77 t) of 5 adapted bread wheat varieties that were planted in an area of 644 ha. The on-farm demonstrations of those varieties were thoroughly monitored, and off-types roughed out to further increase the seed and expand production area and adoption in the coming season. Technical support was provided to farmers during harvesting and threshing to assure seed purity.In Nigeria, wheat is mainly grown under irrigation in the lowlands of the northern states of the country, where heat is the major stress affecting plant growth and limiting yield. However, germplasm developed at ICARDA and 23 Wheat value chain tested in similar warm conditions of Sudan and southern Egypt provides a real opportunity to select suitable materials for the lowlands of northern Nigeria. About 246 entries emphasizing wheat productivity under low-latitude, warm, irrigated conditions were sent to Nigeria where they have been grown in sites within Borno and Kano states. Fifty-six entries were identified as promising and selected for confirmative yield testing in the coming season. Additional testing of more advanced materials led to the identification of several breeding lines with yields of over 5 t/ha, a very promising result, given that the national average yield does not exceed 2 t/ha. Demonstration plots of promising wheat breeding lines and varieties combined with proper crop management were established at irrigated lowland sites, resulting in higher grain yield as compared to the usual farmer practice. In particular, bread wheat varieties, Norman and Reyna-28, showed excellent performance with yields of 7 t/ha and 6 t/ha, respectively, and are therefore proposed for release in 2014.The Nigerian team has shared a few kilograms of these varieties with other SARD-SC project target countries (Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) in 2013 for large plot demonstration in farmer fields of those countries. Three other varieties are also identified by the Nigerian team as candidate varieties with a yield of around 6 t/ha, and will be submitted for release in 2015.Accelerated seed increase of these varieties, a key to their quick dissemination and adoption, is enhanced through the established IPs and the training of farmers on rapid on-farm seed production.. Accordingly, a total of 40 t of wheat seed was distributed across the IPs established in Kano and Borno states, reaching over 560 farmers. The Project continues to promote and support seed production to make available to farmers seed of the improved wheat varieties in the shortest time possible.In Sudan, wheat faces the depressing challenges of both heat and diseases that keep yield at a low (2−2.5 t/ha) level, barring wheat from the list of economically competitive crops. Recent research advances resulted in well-adapted cultivars yielding 4 t/ha or above, which is changing farmers' attitude towards wheat cropping.The SARD-SC wheat is contributing to further improve wheat productivity at the farm level, through multi-environment testing, on-farm demonstrations, and efficient seed production. In 2013−2014, over 3800 wheat entries from the national program and international nurseries were evaluated on-station at 46 sites and in farmers' fields across the country to assess their productivity and tolerance to heat stress and prevailing rust diseases.Intensive testing led to the confirmation of superior wheat varieties ElNeilain, Bohaine, and Imam with yields of 4−5 t/ha when grown under proper crop management, versus 2 t/ha for those grown under traditional farmer practices. A new bread wheat variety, Goumria, was released in 2013, based on its high yield, good grain quality, and tolerance to heat and diseases.Production of breeder seed, and pre-basic seed was undertaken for seven released varieties on 10 ha, while accelerated pre-release seed multiplication was performed for nine promising variety candidates on 2.25 ha to assure a sufficient amount of seed for further demonstration and dissemination of these varieties among wheat growers in Sudan in the coming 2014/15 season.Ethiopia: Nejemah-14 (above) and  are both high yielding (> 4 t/ha), moderately tolerant to heat and salinity, and possess good grain quality.SARD-SC wheat in ICARDA is currently working in 12 African countries to bring transformational impact through adapting/ generating, demonstrating, and promoting proven technologies with the participation of stakeholders along the value chain using an innovative approach.Although the country's present average wheat yield at the farm level is only 1-2 t/ha, recent activities through the SARD-SC wheat program in project participating countries revealed that productivity can be dramatically boosted with a yield increase of 4-7 t/ha or more, if improved varieties are used, along with recommended management options.Wheat teams of the SARD-SC Project in all participating countries work closely with farmers, extension services, researchers, and a number of other stakeholders, depending on the country, in their efforts to addressing the From a technology focus to innovation development: Success stories and field days in wheat IP sites needs of all stakeholders of the wheat value chain, and therefore meeting the ultimate objective of enhancing domestic wheat production and curbing expensive imports.Project launching workshops, work plan development events, sensitization meetings, and direct and electronic communication are all tools used to reach this objective.However, field days organized towards crop maturity proved most effective in bringing together the largest number of various stakeholders, including farmers, researchers, extensionists, creditors, input providers, wheat processors, end-users, and most importantly, policy makers. During the past year, SARD-SC wheat held a series of field days and technology promotion events mainly in the three project hub countries and to a certain extent in other partner countries.In Nigeria, the SARD-SC Project held a wheat field day on 11 March 2014 at Kadawa, Kano State under the patronage of the Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, with the participation of over 500 stakeholders, including senior government officials, parliamentarians, farmers, extension specialists, researchers, NGO representatives, input suppliers, millers, and invited guests from ICARDA and project partner neighboring countries (Mali, Mauritania, and Niger).Alluding to the increasing trend of importing wheat into Nigeria, presently valued at 4 billion US dollars, and to the encouraging field results achieved through the SARD-SC Project in Nigeria, the Minister confirmed Government commitment to enhancing wheat production through favorable policy.This will guarantee minimum wheat price, subsidized inputs, and other incentives to make wheat a competitive commodity, which will reduce imports, and create jobs and wealth in the rural areas of Nigeria. He thanked the African Development Bank (AfDB) for funding the SARD-SC Project, and expressed his appreciation of the contributions of both ICARDA and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in the promotion of wheat technologies in Nigeria.The Minister indicated that the target of the Nigerian government is to increase national wheat production from the present 300,000 tons to 1.5 million tons by 2017, thus reducing wheat imports by half. In addition, the \"Wheat Transformation Agenda\" will create one million jobs in the rural areas of Nigeria over the next four years. All participants to the field day warmly welcomed the Minister's speech and firm government support to enhancing domestic wheat production. Dr M. El Mourid, speaking on behalf of ICARDA Director General, expressed ICARDA's great satisfaction and appreciation of the collaborative work with the Nigerian SARD-SC Team, and pledged further ICARDA support to this partnership. The Honorable Minister led Nigerian dignitaries and other invited field-day participants on a tour through the research and farmer wheat fields at Kadawa where they observed and commented on the impressive field performance of improved wheat varieties in farmers' fields as well as research testing sites.In Ethiopia, a series of field days were organized in the highlands of four regional states (Tigray, Amhara, SNNP, and Oromia) during October and November 2013, bringing together several thousand participants. These field days offered a valuable opportunity to the participants for a fruitful exchange of experience and information on the new technologies being promoted by the SARD-SC teams. Many stakeholders attended these field days, including farmers, researchers, extension agents, and representatives of local authorities.   Wheat value chain and skills for the application of the IAR4D concept for generation of innovation, and for setting up and operating of the different IPs in the three hub-countries along the wheat value chain.The workshop in each of the three hub countries was attended by around 55−60 wheat value chain stakeholders and key representatives largely drawn from research, federal and regional agricultural extension offices, universities, parliamentarians, regional administrations, seed producers, farmers unions, microfinance institutions, and flour millers.In each of the organized workshops, the agenda included presentations by a senior facilitator from FARA, a question-and-answer session, working group sessions, and plenary discussions on wheat research for development, challenges, and priorities in the target hub country, with some references to partner countries in general.These training workshops enabled participants from project target countries to have a good grasp of the following key outputs: (a) a better understanding of the IAR4D approach as applied through the IP for the wheat value chain, (b) the needed skills to work interactively on an IP and (c) initiation of the set-up and operation of IPs in participating countries.The training workshop was highly interactive with full and active participation of all stakeholders. The stakeholders unanimously appreciated the concept of the IP approach as an effective forum for multi-stakeholder participation in jointly diagnosing challenges and devising sustainable solutions for generation of innovation and impact along the wheat value chain.Finally, the workshop was concluded by setting clear sharing of responsibilities among stakeholders with defined timelines for successful establishment and operating of the six IPs in each of the three hub countries. The participants also discussed the details of the operations of the IPs, including the setup of IP governance and management framework; and the implementation of the business plan, along with a monitoring and evaluation process throughout the seasons.The plan was made for each of the target regions in Nigeria, Sudan. and Ethiopia. It was indeed impressive to witness the high level of commitment shown by all wheat value chain stakeholders and platform facilitators to successfully implement and scale up the planned SARD-SC wheat research for development activities in the coming years.All in all, this training workshop created a new wave of positive spirit among stakeholders so that, through collective action and partnership, it is possible to reverse the status quo of wheat importation and achieve a transformational impact for Africa to feed Africa within the foreseeable future.The workshop participants expressed their highest appreciation to AfDB for funding the SARD-SC project, and to ICARDA and FARA for bringing such a proven innovative approach to scale up and sustainably promote wheat production, processing, and marketing in the African context.Wheat value chain","tokenCount":"6096"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0465074ed9c6dca6665757f75c59cc0f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/45f1bd74-a057-44d6-828a-d5c86071a9bc/retrieve","id":"332669827"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"680b6b49-cb03-46a1-90fe-60914428db63","pagecount":"8","content":"Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L) is a high-protein food-feed legume grown by nearly 200 million poor crop-livestock farmers on about 5 million hectares in dry areas. Because it is tolerant to drought, disease, and low soil fertility, it sometimes serves as the only available food source for the poor when other corps fail 1,2,3,4,5 . Planting grasspea in rotations with cereals or as a green manure is sustainable. It improves cereal yields and soil fertility 1,6 . Approximately 90% of its total production is in Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan) and East Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea) 1,3 . Production, processing and marketing, by women offer an alternative or extra source of revenue. It is estimated that nearly 0.5 million people in Asia and Africa currently suffer from 'lathyrism', or paralysis of the leg caused by the presence of a neurotoxin (β-N-oxalyl-L, β-diaminopropionic acid or β-ODAP) in the seeds 6, 7, 8. Domestic animals also suffer. The leaves and stems have low or zero β-ODAP content and can be used as fodder without any health effects.Research by ICARDA and partners indicates that the seed β-ODAP content could be reduced through genetic enhancement and improved agronomic practices, but millions of poor farmers in Asia and Africa still grow toxic landraces because locally-adapted low-toxin lines and packages for their sustainable production are lacking 1,2,9 . Also, most national grasspea improvement programs do not have access to cheaper and faster methods to determine seed β-ODAP content. Further research and development is needed to develop adapted low-toxin grasspea lines and options (technological and socio-economic) to encourage adoption by farmer to improve food security, and prevent lathyrism, poverty and associated environmental degradation in smallholder crop-livestock farming systems in drought-prone areas.a) State project purpose simply and directly:The purpose is to develop and disseminate options for the use of low-toxin grasspea as a food-feed crop to provide safe food for smallholder farmers and their livestock and to prevent degradation of the natural resource base in drought-prone areas of Africa and Asia.Specific objectives are to : (1) establish an interest group for research and development on grasspea as a food-feed crop in drought-prone areas in Africa and Asia; (2) organize a stakeholders' workshop to review the use of grasspea as a food-feed and identify benchmark sites and communities for testing and scaling-up options for use of low-toxin grasspea lines as a food-feed crop; (3) develop a project proposal to seek additional funds for research and development; and (5) strengthen the capacity of project partners and disseminate project findings. b) State why the SLP is the appropriate funding mechanism:The SLP provides a forum for inter-center synergy for collaborative research and development on the production and use of food-feed crops for sustainable crop-livestock production.  2) A stakeholders workshop to review the use of grasspea as a food-feed crop and identify benchmark sites and communities representative of the dry areas of Africa and Asia organized and a first draft of the workshop proceedings prepared by the end of the 5 th quarter.3) Database on indigenous knowledge on grasspea and lathyrism, including local methods to treat seeds to reduce toxicity, and constraints and opportunities for grasspea as a food-feed crop for smallholder crop-livestock farmers in selected communities documented by the end of the 4 th quarter.4) A project proposal developed based on the consultations, workshop and surveys by the end of the 5 th quarter.5) Seed of selected low-toxin grasspea lines multiplied and distributed to research and development agencies in participating countries to initiate detoxification of landraces by the end of the 7 th quarter.6) Enhanced capacity and awareness of at least 40 research and development staff, 5 policy makers, and 2 graduate students on production and use of grasspea as a foodfeed crop through the consultations and workshops by the end of the 7 th quarter.Expected outputs from the larger proposal will include: 1) cheaper and faster methods for determining seed β-ODAP content, 2) adapted low-toxin grasspea genotypes, 3) reduction in prevalence of lathyrism, 4) sustainable technological options for the production and use of low-toxin grasspea as a food-feed crop, 5) policy and institutional options for adoption of low-toxin grasspea, 6) strengthened capacity and enhanced information exchange between all stakeholders.12. Potential Impact of Outputs: (Max. 200 Words)Empowering farmers in Ethiopia to produce rural low-toxin grasspea will create jobs and provide additional income.Low-toxin grasspea would provide safe food for humans and feed for livestock in regions where drought is frequent. The availability of high quality feed could result in increased meat and milk production thereby preventing malnutrition.The expected increase in livestock feed from the adoption of low-toxin grasspea lines will reduce grazing pressure on rangelands. The use of grasspea in rotations with cereals and as green manure crop could increase soil organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations and prevent erosion by providing vegetative cover.The SLP seed grant will be used for the following activities over a 2-year period.• An interest group of research and development agencies working on grasspea as a food-feed crop and lathyrism in Africa and Asia will be established through consultations based on information gathered from the Lathyrus and Lathyrism Newsletter and the TWMRF (Output 1).• A stakeholders' workshop will be organized to elaborate the project components, define roles, and select benchmark sites and communities. Invited speaker will review research and development activities, policy and institutional arrangements relating to the use of grasspea as a food-feed crop in the participating countries.Participants will include -community-base organizations (CBOs), farmers' interest group (FIGs), national agricultural research and extension institutes (NAREs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and policy makers. A draft of the workshop proceedings will be prepared (Output 2).• Surveys will be conducted in the selected communities to document local knowledge on production, markets, culinary treatments and use, and experience with grasspea and lathyrism to complement existing data with assistance of graduate students.The survey data will be integrated into Geographical Information System (GIS) databases to characterize the benchmark sites and to identify the recommendation domain. Ex-ante economic impact of low-toxin cowpea will be assessed (Output 3).• A project proposal will be developed based on the information from the consultations, workshop and baseline surveys (Output 4).• Seeds of selected low-toxin grasspea lines from ICARDA will be multiplied and distributed to research and development institutions to initiate detoxification of landraces (Output 5).• Capacity of the partners will strengthened and knowledge exchange enhanced through the workshop, project reports, and graduate training (6).a) State, preferably in quantified terms, what development impact might be achieved in the short or medium term and who are the beneficiaries.Within the two-year project period, a research and development interest group on grasspea as a food-feed crop will be formed, the capacity and awareness of at least 20 research and development staff, 2 policy makers, 2 MSc and 3 FIG will be enhanced through participation in consultations, workshops and surveys. In the medium-term (5-8 years), farmer-adoption of the low-toxin grasspea may prevent the incidence of lathyrism by 10-20%. Also, crop and livestock outputs of resource poor farmers is expected to increase by 20%, household income by 20%, and soil organic carbon and nitrogen by 10% when planted in rotation with cereals or used as green manure.Perceptions of research and development staff, policy makers and farmers through monitoring surveys, number of households adopting low-toxin grasspea as a food feed-crop, land area covered by the low-toxin grasspea, and reported cases of lathyrism., what activities will be undertaken during the project's life to prove impact either ex-ante or ex-post.Monitoring and adoption surveys to provide data for ex-ante impact assessment of the potential rate of adoption.a) Indicate what channels will be employed to ensure technology uptakeThe channels will include: 1) using a community-based participatory approach to allow FIGs, CBOs, NGOs in applying recommended packages on their fields; 2) involving all stakeholders (NARS, NGOs, CBOs, FIGs policy makers) from problem identification through evaluation and monitoring of technologies; 3) organizing farmers' field days, travel workshops, and farmer-farmer visits; and 4) producing easy-to-read extension bulletins, and policy briefs.b) Indicate what methods will be used to upscale the findingsThe project findings will be up-scaled by: 1) involving NARES, NGOs and policy makers in general meetings; 2) the use of local media for passing important messages; and 3) production of policy briefs, advisory notes, and posters in local languages for decision makers.The dry areas in Asia and Africa with annual rainfall ranging from 150-300 mm, covering a land area of more than 200 million hectares, and home to nearly 100 million poor farmers will be the recommendation domain.• There will be political stability.• Landrace grasspea is a significant food-feed crop.• The larger proposal will be funded for 3 -4 years.• Policy makers and NAREs in the participation countries will be supportive because they are already looking for technologies to prevention lathyrism, and reduce food insecurity and poverty in dry areas. • Local and international NGOs and Advanced Research Institutes are willing to participate. Indicate which major donor is being targeted by the seed money period and the amount of funds sought. Explain why the Concept Note has a good chance of success in being turned into a major project proposal. Indicate in a timeframe the plan and milestones that will be achieved in order to submit a concept note and/or a full proposal to the identified donor.• Asian Development Bank and African Development Bank are targeted for about US$981,200 over a period of 3 to 4 years.• The Concept Note has a good chance of being turned into a major project proposal because the seed money will be used to build a multi-institute and multi-disciplinary research and development consortia with complementary capabilities for project proposal development and implementation. The proposed activities will also provide quantitative data and baseline information needed to write the proposal. A similar ICARDA-led project on grasspea was funded by DfID.• Time-frame and milestones that will be achieved to submit a concept note and/or a full proposal are presented with the outputs (see section 11). Details are shown in Table 1. ","tokenCount":"1657"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e87a21d53adc573df4fb8d73b81cc7f9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c18cd851-3c57-4834-99f1-0e783344b6a3/content","id":"260697262"},"keywords":["Breeding zero tillage","Foliar blight","Resistance breeding","Wheat"],"sieverID":"2a55231d-431d-4817-96b4-6fb46defffc7","pagecount":"7","content":"Dastur (anamorph Bipolaris sorokiniana) and Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Died.) Drechsler (anamorph Drechslera tritici-repentis), respectively. In breeding programs where the fungi old names are still widely used (Maraite, 1998), it is commonly referred to this disease complex as helminthosporium leaf blight (HLB). In field conditions of south Asia, the anamorph stage of both pathogens is found. In the case of spot blotch, the teleomorph stage has only been reported to occur in Zambia. The tan spot pathogen teleomorph stage is found in cropping systems where the stubbles decompose slowly and remain on the soil during the next crop orIn south Asia, spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is grown during winter from November-December to March-April. After the impressive progress in controlling leaf and stem rusts in modern varieties during and after the green revolution, foliar blight has recently emerged as the most important biotic constraint of secondgeneration wheat genotypes in warmer areas, in particular in the intensive rice-wheat system which covers 13 millions hectares in the subcontinent. The disease often occurs as a complex of spot blotch and tan spot caused by Cochliobolus sativus (Ito & Kurib.) Drechsler ex season, a situation that is not occurring in rice-wheat system since paddy fields are flooded. In south Asia, the foliar blight becomes more evident in mid-February as a result of rising temperatures and heavy dew that may remain in the crop canopy for several hours on foggy winter days.Yield losses on average up to 15% vary depending on sowing time, years, locations, and stress conditions (Duveiller and Dubin, 2002). Late wheat sowing reduces yield because flowering coincides with the hot winds or high temperatures that occur at the end of the following rabi (winter) season. When the crop is sown after optimum planting time (end of November-early December) or if the soil fertility is low, the effect of disease on grain-yield increases dramatically and may cause up to 34% losses (Sharma and Duveiller, 2003a).Management of HLB has received more attention in recent years because of the urgent need to increase crop productivity and ensure food security in the warmer wheat growing areas of the Indian Subcontinent (Duveiller et al., 1998;Duveiller, 2002). Moreover, concerns have emerged regarding the sustainability of the rice-wheat system in south Asia, its decreasing total factor productivity (Hobbs and Morris, 1996), the role of foliar blight and the need to adopt new tillage technologies to produce rice and wheat at a lower cost. This paper summarizes the strategy used in south Asia toward a better control of foliar blight of wheat.Field surveys are conducted on regular basis in Bangladesh, India and Nepal to assess the incidence of both pathogens. In Nepal, detailed epidemiological studies were conducted for two years (2001-2002 and 2002-2003) at 27º 40' longitude and 84º 19' latitude) to evaluate the possible inoculum source of both pathogens, to observe the symptom initiation and production of B. sorokiniana and D. tritici-repentis spores throughout the wheat season in six genotypes that differed in the level of resistance to HLB. In this study, the amount of air-borne conidia was monitored on a weekly basis during 17 weeks from plant emergence using a Rotorod \" Model 20 sampler (Multidata LLC, St Louis, USA) installed in the research plots to investigate the correlation with conidia formation on wheat leaves.Since the disease severity increases very fast in the field and small differences indicating partial resistance need to be observed, disease evaluation is usually based on the area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) calculated from minimum three field observations. For each disease rating, the percent diseased leaf area (%DLA) can be assessed on the flag (F) or penultimate leaf (F-1) but this method is time consuming. Alternatively, HLB severity can be visually scored for each plot at weekly intervals using the double-digit scale (00-99) developed as a modification of Saari and Prescott's severity scale to assess wheat foliar diseases (Saari and Prescott, 1975;Eyal et al. 1987). The first digit (D 1 ) indicates the disease progress in height and the second digit (D 2 ) refers to severity measured as the diseased leaf area. For each score, %DLA was estimated based on the following formula: % DLA = ((D 1 /9) x (D 2 /9) x 100) Individual scores are recorded over a three-week period. The AUDPC is calculated using the percent severity estimates corresponding to the three to four ratings as outlined by Das et al. (1992) and shown below:where, x i = disease severity on the ith date, t i = ith day, and n = number of scoring dates. The AUDPC measures the amount of disease as well as the rate of progress, and has no units.Because the sustainability of the rice wheat system is questioned, foliar blight severity was also assessed in a long term trial where different level of fertilizers have been used in Bhairahawa (Nepal). Similarly, because sowing time can be advanced by up to 15 days when a resource conserving technique such as zero tillage is used, the effect of sowing time on yield and disease is analyzed to assess the potential impact of changing cropping practices. In a study conducted in two locations in Nepal to assess the effect of stress on disease development, disease severity was compared under optimum and low fertility (Sharma and Duveiller, 2003a).Controlling Foliar Blight of Wheat in South Asia: A Holistic Approach Pre-breeding efforts are conducted at selected hot spot locations in Nepal and Bangladesh. This includes the evaluation of local and exotic sources of resistance to foliar blight in unreplicated trials to assess genetic stocks. Recent introductions include double haploids, exotic materials from warmer areas (China, Zambia, and Brazil) and wide crosses derivatives. After validation of resistance, the materials are made available to cooperators as parental lines for new crosses and are included in CIMMYT's germplasm bank. Another aspect of the pre-breeding effort is the HMN (Helminthosporium Monitoring Nursery), which is proposed on regional basis to evaluate the resistance stability (genotype x environment). The nursery includes parental materials from different geographical and genetic origins that may not have the proper agronomic type for the region, synthetic hexaploids resulting from crossing tetraploid wheat with Aegilops squarrosa (syn. T. tauschii) and a few advanced lines produced by breeders in south Asia. A core of entries remains the same over years to assess any change in resistance but several lines are changed every year.Due to the need of increasing wheat production in marginal areas where the yield gap between farmers' fields and experiment stations is still very high, a new regional breeding effort was initiated to specifically promote materials targeted towards warmer areas. The Eastern Gangetic Plain Screening Nursery (EGPSN), organized in 1997, includes a set of 150 entries proposed by national programs breeders who share their best advanced lines for testing across hot spot locations. Data are summarized by CIMMYT's regional office and returned to cooperators (Ortiz-Ferrara et al., 2003). After evaluation, the best entries are recycled in the national breeding programs or become part of the 'Eastern Gangetic Plain Yield Trial' (EGPYT) before being proposed for release or evaluated directly by farmers through participatory varietal selection (PVS) at the village level. This method is particularly effective as small farmers are able to give their input and choose themselves among a set of advanced materials before new varieties are released, thus increasing the chance of adoption of improved genotypes (Ortiz-Ferrara et al., 2001). Lastly, although fungicide treatments are not a viable option we also assess the benefits of seed treatments on plant establishment by comparing several chemicals available on the local market.Field surveys conducted over several years showed that tan spot is largely overlooked. This reality was particularly well documented in Nepal where P. triticirepentis was isolated easily during four years from samples collected not only in mid-hills where the climate is cooler but also in the warmer lowland areas (Sharma et al. 2003b). Bipolaris sorokiniana isolates, unlike rusts, do not show clear virulence patterns and consist of a continuum of strains differing in aggressiveness (Maraite et al., 1998). The epidemiological study conducted at Rampur, showed that B. sorokiniana could be isolated from plant tissues sampled as early as the seedling stage whereas P. tritici-repentis was isolated on lesions observed at near-booting stage, 10 weeks after sowing. This observation suggests that seed or soil is probably an initial source of inoculum for B. sorokiniana whereas the infection by P. tritici-repentis might result primarily from air-borne spores possibly coming from alternate hosts (Sharma et al., 2003a). Later in the season, air-borne conidia on the spore trap are predominantly B. sorokiniana due to the profuse multiplication of this fungus during secondary infection cycles.In south Asia it is crucial to favor resource conserving technologies allowing farmers to sow wheat early to avoid post-anthesis heat stress and drastic yield reductions. As indicated, early wheat sowing can be promoted by a range of options such as zero tillage or reduced tillage. Zero-tillage facilitates early wheat sowing by up to 15 days which on average translates to improved yields to the extent of 10-25% over conventional practices. However, early wheat sowing appears characterized by higher HLB severity probably due to the high relative humidity and residual soil moisture that prevails at the beginning of the wheat season. In 2002, we observed that AUDPC could increase by as much as 30% in some varieties sown 15 days earlier. Thus, even though yield increases with early sowing when adopting resource conserving technologies, there might be tradeoffs due to lack of resistance to HLB. The effect of seeding date was significant (P<0.01) and AUDPC was lower in late planting (Sharma et al., 2003a).Recent studies of a long-term trial in Nepal showed the important role of potash in reducing foliar blight severity. The AUDPC decreased by 50% when 40 kg of K 2 O was applied in a deficient soil (Regmi et al., 2002). Potassium prolongs the canopy's stay-green character.Many locations in south Asia present potassium deficiencies, and yet most farmers do not apply this nutrient for several socio-economical reasons. Similarly, when farm-yard manure (FYM) is applied (10 t/ha), the AUDPC drops by 30%, suggesting not only that FYM contains a significant amount of potassium, but that copious levels of organic matter are beneficial and reduce disease severity. The study conducted at two locations in Nepal in 2002 (Table 1) showed that foliar blight severity (AUDPC) and yield losses (grain yield and thousand kernel weight) are higher when soil fertility is low, confirming that non-specific pathogens causing foliar blight are favored when the crop is under stress. Genetic stocks are currently tested at specific hot spot sites like Rampur and Bhairahawa to confirm the resistance of parental lines. Some of the best entries are given in Table 2 germplasm such as synthetic hexaploid wheats derived from crosses with Aegilops tauschii and tetraploid wheat.In China, genotypes from Heilongjiang, Sichuan and the Yang Tze River valley are characterized by a very short and efficient grain filling period resulting from the warmer conditions occurring at the end of the growing season in these areas, a trait that may explain a better resistance to foliar blight and again underlines that resilience to stress conditions is important to limit the disease.An analysis of the performance of 17 common genotypes included in the HMN in three cropping seasons (2000)(2001)(2002) is presented in Figure 1 showing a biplot based on decreasing average resistance (higher AUDPC) comparing to an ideal genotype average computed from field observations (Yan and Kang, 2002). Results confirmed the superiority of entries from China and novel sources of resistance such as derivatives from synthetic hexaploid wheats and Ae. squarrosa crossed to Chinese or CIMMYT materials. It also indicates the degree of similarity between testing locations which in turn can help scientists to decide on the relevance or not of testing materials at each of the sites and reduce unnecessary research costs.Interestingly, the best grain yield performance is not necessarily obtained by entries scoring a low AUDPC as shown in recent results from the EGPSN (Ortiz-Ferrara et al., 2003). This observation underlines the importance of general adaptation to the environment, particularly to abiotic stresses such as heat. It also confirms that resistance to foliar blight is still moderate and needs further improvement. No source of resistance gives high resistance in early maturing genotypes, although there are several materials combining high yield and low disease infection (Table 3). Better resistance levels in adapted genetic backgrounds may be obtained through the use of careful crossing and selection methods (Sharma and Duveiller, 2003b).Since the primary source of foliar blight inoculum is not exactly known, appropriate management practices that enhance crop establishment and plant health at an early stage are critical. Options for controlling tan spot and spot blotch include sowing disease-free seed. Preliminary results using fungicide seed treatments indicate that the effect of these seed treatments on the number of infected seedlings per m 2 was not significant.However, there was an effect (P<0.01) on plant establishment and tillering vigor suggesting that these options should be considered. But due to the overwhelming importance of airborne inoculum of this polycylic disease, this effect does not translate in a significant increase in grain yield (Table 4). As presented in this paper, controlling foliar blight in south Asia follows an approach combining epidemiology, pre-breeding efforts, breeding and crop management. Further epidemiological studies are needed to understand the factors promoting disease outbreaks and the causes of its increasing severity in the rice-wheat system of south Asia. Recent studies suggest that the incidence of tan spot is overlooked and not negligible. Germplasm is paramount. Since the disease is rather new, the genetic basis of host resistance to HLB is relatively narrow and presently limited to Chinese materials and derivatives of wide crosses combined to CIMMYT materials. There is a need to broaden the sources of variability and research is needed to identify new resistant materials. Very little is known on the inheritance of resistance genes effective against spot blotch and tan spot and field genetic studies are highly needed. The task is complicated by the similarity of symptoms induced by two pathogens, most probably triggering different resistance genes, and the limited areas where these studies can be conducted on one disease (tan spot or spot blotch) at a time. The role of crop rotation and fertilization seems equally important, but the long-term effects of using new resource conserving cultural practices will need to be monitored. In summary, controlling foliar blight in wheat is complex and requires a holistic approach. It is part of technological packages that make small-scale wheat production more cost-effective and sustainable, particularly in warmer areas. Farmers are increasingly involved in this research process, and the whole production system must be considered. More than ever, controlling foliar blights requires a multidisciplinary team effort.","tokenCount":"2457"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"af81b54311f6a738d87899b9f5da4632","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/219eaa6e-d146-4d25-bfa5-5b2d18d9f993/retrieve","id":"1598239057"},"keywords":["Chiemeke, F.K.","Olasanmi, B.","Agre, P.A.","Mushoriwa, H.","Chigeza, G.","Abebe, A.T. Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Analysis of Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] Genotypes Using Agro-Morphological Traits and SNP soybean","SNP Marker","grain yield","genetic diversity"],"sieverID":"4cc5062f-b3bf-4f67-85ad-647122a7d3e5","pagecount":"16","content":"Background/Objectives: Understanding the genetic diversity of soybean genotypes can provide valuable information that guides parental selection and the design of an effective hybridization strategy in a soybean breeding program. In order to identify genetically diverse, complementary, and prospective parental lines for breeding, this study set out to ascertain the genetic diversity, relationships, and population structure among 35 soybean genotypes based on agro-morphological traits and Single Nucleotide Polymorphic (SNP) marker data. Methods/Results: Cluster analysis, based on agro-morphological traits, grouped the studied genotypes into four clusters. The first two principal components accounted for 62.8% of the total phenotypic variation, where days to 50% flowering, days to 95% maturity, grain yield, shattering score, and lodging score had high and positive contributions to the total variation. Using the SNP marker information, mean values of 0.16, 0.19, 0.067, and 0.227 were obtained for minor allele frequency (MAF), polymorphic information content (PIC), observed heterozygosity (Ho), and expected heterozygosity (He), respectively. Using different clustering approaches (admixture population structure, principal component scatter plot, and hierarchical clustering), the studied genotypes were grouped into four major clusters. Conclusions:The agro-morphological and molecular analysis results indicated the existence of moderate genetic diversity among the studied genotypes. The traits identified to be significantly related to yield provide valuable information for the genetic improvement of soybeans for yield.Soybean is regarded as a \"miracle crop\" because it is a primary source of both oil and protein [1][2][3][4]; it is the fourth most extensively cultivated crop in the world [1,3]. In terms of overall production and commerce, soybeans rank among the world's principal oil crops and legumes [5,6]. Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] has 20 chromosomal pairs with a genome of about 1100 megabases (Mb) in size [7]. It is a self-pollinated crop and hence has low allelic diversity [3,4]. In comparison to other main oilseeds, like rapeseed, sunflower, and peanut, which are expected to grow at 1.4% annually, soybean production is predicted to grow at a faster pace of 1.6% yearly over the next 10 years [1]. Africa accounts for about 2% of the world's soybean production, with South Africa, Nigeria, and Zambia as its major producers [1,8]. This crop has great potential to improve the nutritional health of lowincome communities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), offering an excellent source of protein and essential nutrients [1,9,10]. Soybean roots, as a leguminous crop, also fix nitrogen in the soil through symbiosis with Rhizobium bacteria. This contributes to improved soil fertility, resulting in more sustainable cereal production in rotations, making it a profitable option for SSA agricultural systems, particularly for smallholder farmers [1,11,12]. Thus, it is a crop with a strong potential for expansion in SSA, and its ongoing demand is principally driven by the expanding feed sector for poultry, aquaculture, and domestic consumption [2]. Approximately 170,000 soybean germplasm have been conserved worldwide across 17 nations in order to preserve its genetic diversity, while the Chinese National Crop Genebank has 31,575 accessions [5]. These multiple distinct germplasm collections served as sources of genes that can be used to improve the crop's genetic makeup and have significantly aided production and breeding efforts [5].Based on available evidence, soybean cultivation as a commercial crop in Africa dates back as early as 1903 in South Africa, 1907 in Tanzania, 1908 in Nigeria, and 1909 in Malawi [1,2,13]. Among grain legumes, soybean is in great demand due to its importance in animal feed, human diet, and industrial products such as biodiesel manufacture [14,15]. It is primarily produced in Nigeria for its seeds and used to make soymilk, bean curd, soy soups, soy ogi, and tom brown, among other delicacies [16]. It serves as a cheap source of plant protein in the diets of many Nigerians, particularly children [16]. Due to its ever-increasing demand as a key cash crop for rural households in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regions, concerted efforts are greatly required to improve yields [17,18].Studies have established that soybean varieties with considerable yield performance are needed to sustain production, but their improvement has been limited by low genetic diversity [3,19,20]. Its highly limited genetic base has posed a challenge to the genetic improvement of such an important crop [1,5,21]. Breeding programs always strive to increase the genetic diversity of crops, thereby boosting the potential of populations to develop new varieties [3,22]. Understanding soybean genetic diversity and structure can aid in designing breeding strategies that ensure the development and identification of high-yielding and well-adapted soybean varieties that enhance the yield and production of the crop [23]. One of the earliest and most widely used techniques in genetic diversity analyses is based on phenotypic traits, regarded as the best determinant of taxonomic categorization and agronomic usefulness of agricultural plants [24]. Notwithstanding the success of these approaches, they are not always sufficiently informative, especially when the features are very sensitive to genotype-by-environment interactions. This has spurred academics to develop other methodologies, such as DNA-based marker analysis [1,25].Molecular markers are very trustworthy genetic tools that can support phenotypic description in breeding programs [25]. Over the last few decades, molecular markers used to define genetic variation have evolved from Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (RFLPs) to Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) and then to next-generation sequencing of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) [26]. Nonetheless, due to the high number of markers that can be produced at a low cost, SNPs are increasingly becoming the preferred markers for genetic study and breeding. Additionally, SNPs are the most common sources of variation in eukaryotic genomes and variant calling and are more accurate due to their bi-allelic nature [23,27,28]. Increased genetic diversity may be largely attributed to populations formed by genetic recombination of biparental crossings of different parents [3,5,29]. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine and assess the extent of genetic diversity of these genotypes using morphological traits and molecular markers.In this study, a total of thirty-five genotypes (Table 1) sourced from the soybean breeding program of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, were evaluated.  The IITA Ibadan trial field is located at a latitude of 7 • 30 ′ N, a longitude of 3 • 54 ′ E, and an altitude of 243 masl. The annual rainfall ranges from 1300 to 1500 mm, and the minimum daily temperature ranges between 21 • C and 23 • C, while the maximum temperature is between 28 • C and 34 • C. The test locations represent the humid tropical lowland soybeangrowing agroecology of Nigeria.The site at Zaria is located at a longitude of 7 • 42 ′ E, a latitude of 11 • 04 ′ N, and an altitude of 640 masl, with an average minimum and maximum temperature of 15 • C and 32 • C, respectively. Zaria belongs to the Northern Guinea savanna agroecological zone of Nigeria, and the annual average rainfall ranges from 500 to 1045 mm.The Ikenne site is located at a longitude of 3 The genotypes were evaluated in a 5 × 7 alpha lattice design, each planted in a plot of 4 rows, each 4 m long. All the trials were carried out in the year 2022.The data were collected on traits presented in Table 2. Seeds of the 35 genotypes were sown in the screen house at IITA, Ibadan, for sampling. However, seeds of two genotypes did not germinate, probably due to poor viability and other environmental factors. For the analysis, immature, healthy trifoliate leaves from three-week-old plants were collected from four to five plants of each of the remaining 33 genotypes (Table 1) and kept in a zip-lock bag on ice and later stored at −80 • C in a deep freezer dryer. Prior to genomic DNA extraction, each sample leaf was bulked and lyophilized for 72 h in a Labconco Freezone 2.5 L System lyophilizer (Marshall Scientific, LABCONCO, Kansas, MO, USA) and reduced to a fine powder in the SpexTM Sample Prep 2010 Geno/Grinder (Thomas Scientific, Metuchen, NJ, USA).Intertek-AgriTech (http://www.intertek.com/agriculture/agritech/) accessed 16 January 2024 and LGC oKtopure TM automated high-throughput 'sbeadex TM ' were used for DNA extraction and purification system (https://www.biosearchtech.com/, accessed 16 January 2024), in which the magnetic separation method was used in the 'sbeadex TM ' technique to prepare nucleic acids.The first stage in this process was to homogenize leaf tissue samples in 96 deep-well plates using steel bead grinding. The ground tissue was treated with DNA extraction buffer using LGC's 'sbeadex TM ' kit for plant DNA preparation (https://www.biosearchtech.com/, accessed 16 January 2024). Later on, super-paramagnetic particles coated with 'sbeadex TM ' surface chemistry that attracts nucleic acids from the plant sample were used to purify extracted DNA. Purified DNA was then extracted and used for downstream procedures.All the multivariate diversity techniques, i.e., cluster and principal component analyses, were performed based on the combined mean of the genotypes across the three locations for the various yield and yield-related agro-morphological traits.Hierarchical clustering methods are commonly employed in the analysis of genetic diversity in crop species. The best linear unbiased estimates (BLUES) of the agro-morphological data were used to analyze the cluster dendrogram. The dendextend version is 1.17.1. R software version 4.3.1 of R Core Team 2023 was used for the analyses.Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to determine the contribution of the traits to the observed variations among the genotypes. In this PCA, only PCs (Principal Components) with eigenvalues greater than one were retained. The analysis was carried out using Factoextra version 1.0.7. in R software version 4.3.1 of R Core Team 2023 [30].The generated raw files from the DArT were transformed to hapmap and later to variant call format (VCF). Low-quality markers such as minor allele frequencies <0.01, poorly read depth <5, genotype quality <20, unmapped markers to any chromosome, and duplicated markers were eliminated using the software PLINK 1.9 [31] and vcftools [32]. Finally, a total of 10,630 relevant SNP markers distributed across the 20 soybean chromosomes were retained and used for further analysis (Table S2). Using Plink and vcftools, genetic parameters of SNPs, such as MAF, PIC, and Ho and He, were estimated.The population structure analysis was performed using ADMIXTURE version 1.3.0 [33]. The k-means analysis was used to determine the optimal number of clusters by varying the number of clusters from 1 to 10. The appropriate K value was determined using cross-validation error [34]. In the admixture analysis, genotypes with membership proportions (Q-value) ≥60% were assigned to groups. In comparison, genotypes with ancestry probability <60% were considered admixed [35]. A complementary approach based on PCA and hierarchical cluster analyses was used to understand the relationship among the 33 genotypes. Principal component analysis (PCA) was then conducted to determine the genetic relationships among the evaluated soybean genotypes using FactoMineR [36] and FactoExtra R packages [37]. The Jaccard dissimilarity matrix using the phylentropy R package was used to establish the hierarchical cluster (HC) [38], and a dendrogram was plotted using the Ward D2 method.The cluster dendrogram, based on seven agro-morphological traits of the 35 soybean genotypes, resulted in four major cluster groups (Figure 1). The genotypes grouped in each cluster based on the quantitative traits are shown in Table 3, while the mean and standard deviation of the various traits in each cluster group are presented in Table 4. Cluster I comprised four genotypes depicting a cluster mean plant height of 77.9 cm, highest hundred seed weight (17.3 g), earliest days to 50% flowering (46 days), 113 days to 95% maturity, second highest grain yield of 2685 kg/ha and second lowest lodging (1.69) and shattering (1.71) scores. Cluster II contained nine genotypes with the highest cluster mean value for days to 95% maturity (120 days), days to 50% flowering (51 days), and the lowest cluster mean for lodging score (1.28), shattering score (1.54), and grain yield (2319 kg/ha). Cluster III comprised ten genotypes with the latest days to 95% maturity (120 days), days to 50% flowering (51), the highest lodging score (2.65), and the second highest shattering score (2.79) cluster mean value. The cluster had the lowest 100 seed weight of 12.2 g and a grain yield of 2350 kg/ha. Cluster IV contained twelve genotypes, with a cluster mean grain yield of 2773 kg/ha and the highest shattering score of 2.91. The cluster also displayed the second lowest 100 seed weight (14 g) and days to 95% maturity (117 days); shortest plant height (65.5 m); and lodging score of 2.00. Since cluster analysis grouped genotypes with higher morphological similarity together, representative accessions from a certain cluster may be selected for hybridization with genotypes from another cluster. Where N: number of genotypes in the cluster, DTM: days to 95% maturity, PHT: plant height in cm, D50f: days to 50% flowering, GY: grain yield, HSW: hundred seed weight in g, LSCO: lodging score, SSCO: shattering score, p-value: probability value (≤1%). The PCA revealed two principal components (PCs) with eigenvalues >1 that accounted for 62.8% of the total variation among the studied genotypes (Table 5). PC1 contributed to 34.6%, while PC2 contributed to 28.2% of the total variation. The traits that had a high positive contribution to PC1 were days to 50% flowering (0.498) and days to 95% maturity (0.522). Plant height, grain yield, and 100 seed weight showed a high negative contribution to PC1. PC2 was highly and positively correlated with grain yield (0.417), lodging score (0.538), and shattering score (0.637), while days to 95% maturity (−0.150), plant height (−0.290), and hundred seed weight (−0.010) were negatively associated.  Cluster I 4 G28, G33, G29 and G30 Cluster II 9 G25, G26, G27, G24, G32, G6, G12, G1 and G19 Cluster III 10 G17, G3, G35, G9, G5, G22, G4, G21, G31 and G20 Cluster IV 12 G15, G18, G16,G11, G2, G14, G23, G13, G10, G34, G7 and G8 Where N: number of genotypes in the cluster, DTM: days to 95% maturity, PHT: plant height in cm, D50f: days to 50% flowering, GY: grain yield, HSW: hundred seed weight in g, LSCO: lodging score, SSCO: shattering score, p-value: probability value (≤1%).The PCA revealed two principal components (PCs) with eigenvalues >1 that accounted for 62.8% of the total variation among the studied genotypes (Table 5). PC1 contributed to 34.6%, while PC2 contributed to 28.2% of the total variation. The traits that had a high positive contribution to PC1 were days to 50% flowering (0.498) and days to 95% maturity (0.522). Plant height, grain yield, and 100 seed weight showed a high negative contribution to PC1. PC2 was highly and positively correlated with grain yield (0.417), lodging score (0.538), and shattering score (0.637), while days to 95% maturity (−0.150), plant height (−0.290), and hundred seed weight (−0.010) were negatively associated. Where PC: principal component, DTM: days to 95% maturity, PHT: plant height, D50f: days to fifty percent flowering, GY: grain yield, HSW: hundred seed weight, LSCO: lodging score, SSCO: shattering score.Days to 95% maturity and days to 50% flowering were found to be significantly and positively correlated, as well as lodging score and shattering score (Figure 2). Grain yield was positively correlated with 100 seed weight, shattering score, and lodging score. Plant height positively correlated with hundred seed weight, days to 95% maturity, and days to 50% flowering. Hundred seed weight negatively correlated with days to 50% flowering, lodging score, days to 95% maturity, and shattering score. The principal component biplot was not only able to identify traits contributing to grain yield but also indicated the outperforming genotypes as it helped select genotypes with the trait of interest. Genotypes identified to perform averagely across the seven phenotypic traits, as shown in the biplot, are located around the origin, which includes TGx   A filtered total of 10,630 SNPs distributed across twenty (20) chromosomes of the soybean genome were retained for molecular analysis. The distribution summary of the genetic parameters is presented in Table 6. The minor allele frequency had an average value of 0.162, ranging from 0.125 in chromosome7 to 0.200 in chromosome14. The mean value for the observed heterozygosity was 0.06, ranging from 0.049 in chromosome10 to 0.079 in chromosome13, while the average value of expected heterozygosity was 0.227, A filtered total of 10,630 SNPs distributed across twenty (20) chromosomes of the soybean genome were retained for molecular analysis. The distribution summary of the genetic parameters is presented in Table 6. The minor allele frequency had an average value of 0.162, ranging from 0.125 in chromosome7 to 0.200 in chromosome14. The mean value for the observed heterozygosity was 0.06, ranging from 0.049 in chromosome10 to 0.079 in chromosome13, while the average value of expected heterozygosity was 0.227, ranging from 0.179 in chromosome10 to 0.269 in chromosome14. The polymorphic information content (PIC) had a mean value of 0.185, varying from 0.153 in chromosome7 to 0.210 in chromosome1. The hierarchical clustering based on SNP markers grouped the 33 genotypes into four major groups, which were differentiated by their respective colors, with group I containing six genotypes, group II having fifteen genotypes, group III containing eight genotypes, and group IV with four genotypes. Genotype SY065 belonging to group I was clustered with group II and, therefore, has 16 member genotype clusters; group I has a five-member genotype cluster, group III has an eight-member genotype cluster, and group IV has a four-member genotype cluster (Figure 3).Admixture population structure analysis, at a minimum value of k equal to four based on cross-validation error (CV error), discriminated the soybean genotypes into four clusters (Figure 4). Genotypes with membership coefficients >0.60 were assigned to the corresponding pure groups, which made up the four groups represented by different colors, with group 1 (green) having three genotypes, group 2 (blue) with fifteen genotypes, group 3 (red) with four genotypes, and group 4 (black) having eight genotypes. Those with coefficients <0.60 were assigned to be admixt in the population structure. Admixed genotypes included SY073, SY065, and SY068 (G1, G4, and G17).major groups, which were differentiated by their respective colors, with group I containing six genotypes, group II having fifteen genotypes, group III containing eight genotypes, and group IV with four genotypes. Genotype SY065 belonging to group I was clustered with group II and, therefore, has 16 member genotype clusters; group I has a five-member genotype cluster, group III has an eight-member genotype cluster, and group IV has a four-member genotype cluster (Figure 3).  Admixture population structure analysis, at a minimum value of k equal to four based on cross-validation error (CV error), discriminated the soybean genotypes into four clusters (Figure 4). Genotypes with membership coefficients >0.60 were assigned to the corresponding pure groups, which made up the four groups represented by different colors, with group 1 (green) having three genotypes, group 2 (blue) with fifteen genotypes, group 3 (red) with four genotypes, and group 4 (black) having eight genotypes. Those with coefficients <0.60 were assigned to be admixt in the population structure. Admixed genotypes included SY073, SY065, and SY068 (G1, G4, and G17). Through silhouette K-means analysis, the optimum number of clusters was identified to be 2 (Figure 5), with a sub-population obtained at K = 4. (Figure 6 of the PCA); the first two PCs explained a total cumulative molecular variation of 68.5%, with PC1 and PC2 accounting for 50% and 18.5% of the total genetic variation, respectively, were subgrouped Through silhouette K-means analysis, the optimum number of clusters was identified to be 2 (Figure 5), with a sub-population obtained at K = 4. (Figure 6 of the PCA); the first two PCs explained a total cumulative molecular variation of 68.5%, with PC1 and PC2 accounting for 50% and 18.5% of the total genetic variation, respectively, were subgrouped into four clusters of five, sixteen, eight, and four genotypes in each using the discriminant analysis (Figure 6) as genetically related individuals. The principal components (PCs) established the stability of the potential population structure. The above results were consistent and exhibited good uniformity, as summarized in Table 7, showing that the sample population structure was appropriately identified.  Table 7. Summary of agro-morphological traits and SNPS genetic parameter clustering/grouping of the genotypes.Clustering based on agromorphological traits G28, G29, G30, G33 G1, G6, G12, G19, G24, G25, G26, G27, G32 G3, G4, G5, G9, G17, G20, G21, G22, G31, G35 G2, G7, G8, G10, G11, G13, G14, G15, G16, G18, G23, G34 Admixture population structure G13, G29, G33 G2, G3, G5, G7, G10, G14, G15, G18, G19, G21, G25, G26, G27, G31, G32 G8, G20, G24, G28 G6, G9, G11, G12, G22, G23, G30 DAPC G8, G1, G33, G17, G13 G5, G14, G15, G18, G21, G3, G32, G10, G2, G31, G25, G19, G26, G27, G7, G4 G6, G11, G12, G16, G30, G23, G22, G9 G29, G24, G28, G20 HC G1, G8, G13, G17, G33 G2, G3, G5, G7, G10, G14, G15, G18, G19, G21, G25, G26, G27, G31, G32, G4 G6, G9, G11, G12, G16, G22, G23, G30 G20, G24, G28, G29DAPC: Discriminant analysis principal components, HC; hierarchical clustering.  Clustering based on agromorphological traits G28, G29, G30, G33 G1, G6, G12, G19, G24, G25, G26, G27, G32 G3, G4, G5, G9, G17, G20, G21, G22, G31, G35 G2, G7, G8, G10, G11, G13, G14, G15, G16, G18, G23, G34Admixture population structure G13, G29, G33 G2, G3, G5, G7, G10, G14, G15, G18, G19, G21, G25, G26, G27, G31, G32 G8, G20, G24, G28 G6, G9, G11, G12, G22, G23, G30 DAPC G8, G1, G33, G17, G13 G5, G14, G15, G18, G21, G3, G32, G10, G2, G31, G25, G19, G26, G27, G7, G4 G6, G11, G12, G16, G30, G23, G22, G9 G29, G24, G28, G20 HC G1, G8, G13, G17, G33 G2, G3, G5, G7, G10, G14, G15, G18, G19, G21, G25, G26, G27, G31, G32, G4 G6, G9, G11, G12, G16, G22, G23, G30 G20, G24, G28, G29 DAPC: Discriminant analysis principal components, HC; hierarchical clustering.Cluster analysis grouped the study genotypes together with high similarity within a cluster group and dissimilarity among cluster groups. Genotypes within the cluster showed less variation, whereas genotypes in different clusters showed more diversity. As a result, genotypes from different and distant clusters could be used as parental lines in Cluster analysis grouped the study genotypes together with high similarity within a cluster group and dissimilarity among cluster groups. Genotypes within the cluster showed less variation, whereas genotypes in different clusters showed more diversity. As a result, genotypes from different and distant clusters could be used as parental lines in crossing programs to improve the traits. This helps to choose the most diverse parental lines possible to ensure high genetic recombination and transgressive segregation in the progeny population. Darai et al. [39] studied the genetic diversity of 104 soybean genotypes and reported five cluster groups; Dubey et al. [40], who assessed 50 soybean genotypes, reported 10 clusters; Iqbal et al. [41], who studied 135 soybean genotypes and reported five clusters; Mofokeng [42]; Singh and Shrestha [43] evaluated 20 soybean genotypes and reported five clusters; Sivabharathi et al. [4] assessed 135 soybean genotypes and reported 12 clusters; Vijayakumar et al. [44] evaluated 50 soybean genotypes and reported eight clusters, while Zafar et al. [45] evaluated 123 soybean genotypes and reported 17 clusters.The first two PCs [based on metric (quantitative) traits] with Eigen values greater than one and a cumulative contribution of 62.8% of the total variation were selected as the important PCs. Vijayakumar et al. [44] reported 73.7% of the total variation by the first three major PCs, while Singh and Shrestha [43] reported 84.1% contribution by the first four PCs. Sivabharathi et al. (2023) reported a 79.8% major contribution by the first four PCs, and Kujane et al. [24] recorded a 45.4% major contribution by the first three PCs. In the current study, the first PC that contributed to 34.6% was positively associated with days to 95% maturity and days to 50% flowering. This result concurs with the findings of Singh and Shrestha [43] and Denwar et al. [46], who reported days to 95% maturity and days to 50% flowering to be positively associated with PC1. The second PC that contributed to 28.2% of the total variation was mainly associated with grain yield, lodging score, and shattering score. Darai et al. [39] and Jain et al. [47] reported a similar association of PC2 with grain yield. The strong positive and significant correlation found between days to 50% flowering and days to 95% maturity in the PCA biplot was similarly reported by Denwar et al. [41]. The PCA biplot can be easily utilized in the identification of genotypes that are outperforming based on selection interest. In this study, TGx 1989-19F and TGx1988-5FxTGx1989-19F-13 were both associated with grain yield. Similarly, utilized as in the report given by Kujane et al. [24] and Denwar et al. [46], who reported genotypes PR-165-52, B 66 S 8, Dundee, and N 69-2774 were associated with high oil content, and LD 15-2224, LD 11-2170, LG 14-6201, and LD 14-3214 were associated with 100 seed weight, respectively.Additionally, molecular profiling has emerged as a preferred option in genetic diversity studies due to its reliability and authenticity. Lower heterozygosity and allelic diversity are commonly expected in a population of self-fertilizing species such as soybeans [1,5,48]. The PIC values range from 0.153 to 0.210 with an approximate mean value of 0.2, which can be regarded as moderately informative and implies that the SNP markers have differentiating power since PIC cannot exceed 0.50 in bi-allelic markers [1]. The mean PIC of 0.185 recorded in this study is nearly similar to the 0.199 PIC reported by Bisen et al. [49] based on 16 SSR markers in 38 soybean genotypes and lower than 0.29 reported by Lukanda et al. [3] using 6395 SNPs in 282 soybean accessions. The Ho (0.067) in this study is similar to the 0.066 Ho reported by Liu et al. [50] based on 5195 SNPs in 277 Chinese soybean accessions. Observed heterozygosity found in this study ranged from 0.049-0.079, with an average of 0.067, implying the existence of high genetic variability among the studied genotypes. It is higher than the 0.058 reported by Chander et al. [1] based on the 186 SNPs in 155 soybean accessions and 0.050 reported by Lukanda et al. [3] based on the 6395 SNPs in 282 soybean accessions. In other crops, such as Barley, Yirgu et al. [28] reported a Ho of 0.045 based on a study made using 10,103 SNPs in 105 Ethiopian Barley genotypes. In contrast, the Ho reported in this study was lower than the 0.193 reported by Abebe et al. [5] in the diversity study of 65 soybean genotypes based on SNP markers and 0.33 reported by Lukanda et al. [3] using 6395 SNPs in 282 soybean accessions. Minor allele frequency (MAF) ranged from 0.125 to 0.200 with a mean value of 0.162, implying that further valuable genes can be exploited from the genotypes used in this study [28]. It was lower than the 0.268 MAF reported by Liu et al. [50] using 5195 SNPs, 0.23 reported by Abebe et al. [5] using SNPs in 65 soybean genotypes, and 0.22 reported by Lukanda et al. [3].The average genetic similarity among a set of genotypes measures genetic diversity at the population level [5]. The admixture population structure, DAPC-based principal component scatter plots, and the hierarchical complementary clustering analysis employed in this study differentiated the 33 soybean genotypes from each other, assigning them into four different groups, which shows substantial genetic diversity. Abebe et al. [5], using each of the structural population analyses of admixture ancestry, DAPC clustering, and hierarchical clustering methods, revealed a consistent grouping of the three clusters, each using SNPs, in the study of 65 soybean genotypes. Also, Liu et al. [50] reported two clusters based on a principal component scatter plot, neighbor-joining tree, and population structure with an optimum cluster number (K) of two in the study of 577 soybean accessions using SNP markers.As presented in Table 6, there is a high level of correspondence between the type and number of genotypes clustered by DAPC and HC, while the level of correspondence between the admixture population structure with each of DAPC and HC clustering was moderate. This might indicate that the DAPC and HC clustering can be used interchangeably for the interpretation of the clustering in this study, as they provided highly similar clustering. There was a very low level of correspondence of the type and number of genotypes between the agro-morphological traits and genetic-based clustering. This low level of correspondence might be due mainly to the effects of environment and GXE interaction effect of the studied genotype traits across locations.As a result, these findings suggest that there is genetic variation among the genotypes and show that the markers chosen were insightful and helpful for future research on soybean genetic diversity.In the current study, the genetic diversity among some soybean genotypes was evaluated using both the multivariate analysis of phenotypic traits and single nucleotide polymorphism markers to select genetically complementary and promising parental lines for breeding programs. Variation was observed among genotypes across the studied traits and the SNP genetic data. Population structure, complimented with the discriminant analysis principal component scatter plot and hierarchical cluster analysis, as well as the cluster dendrogram multivariate analysis, has all identified four major groups. This indicates that the soybean genotypes were diverse and, hence, can be utilized for selection in future plant breeding programs.Based on the mean values among the genotypes for the studied traits, most especially grain yield, Custer I and IV could be used to select diverse and complementary parental lines for hybridization.","tokenCount":"4889"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fb736f36161019f31ef542c312ef3ed3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0edcc996-3997-471d-ba96-cf764e4de990/retrieve","id":"-1862279148"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"69eb25b1-3b68-4e9b-97f8-bce67b294f24","pagecount":"22","content":"Crop wild relatives (CWR) can provide important resources for the genetic improvement of cultivated species. Because crops are often related to many wild species and because exploration of CWR for useful traits can take many years and substantial resources, the categorization of CWR based on a comprehensive assessment of their potential for use is an important knowledge foundation for breeding programs. The initial approach for categorizing CWR was based on crossing studies to empirically establish which species were interfertile with the crop. The foundational concept of distinct gene pools published almost 50 years ago was developed from these observations. However, the task of experimentally assessing all potential CWR proved too vast; therefore, proxies based on phylogenetic and other advanced scientific information have been explored. A current major approach to categorize CWR aims to comprehensively synthesize experimental data, taxonomic information, and phylogenetic studies. This approach very often ends up relying not only on the synthesis of data but also intuition and expert opinion, and is therefore difficult to apply widely in a reproducible manner. Here, we explore the potential for a stronger standardization of the categorization method, with focus on evolutionary relationships among species combined with information on patterns of interfertility between species. Evolutionary relationships can be revealed with increasing resolution via nextgeneration sequencing, through the application of the multispecies coalescent model and using focused analyses on species discovery and delimitation that bridge population genetics and phylogenetics fields. Evolutionary studies of reproductive isolation can inform the understanding of patterns of interfertility in plants. For CWR, prezygotic postpollination reproductive barriers and intrinsic postzygotic barriers are the most important factors and determine the probability of producing viable and fertile offspring. To further the assessment of CWR for use in plant breeding, we present observed and predicted gene pool indices. The observed index quantifies patterns of interfertility based on fertilization success, seed production, offspring viability, and hybrid fertility. The predicted gene pool index requires further development of the understanding of quantitative and qualitative relationships between reproductive barriers, measures of genetic relatedness, and other relevant characteristics for crops and their wild relatives.Everyone interested in biological diversity has a sense of what a species is. We recognize collections of individual organisms that look similar and give them common names, distinguishing these individuals from other dissimilar groups. For example, the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus L.) is a North American sea eagle (sea eagles: Haliaeetinae) with a white head and tail and a brown body; it is a very distinctive large raptor within its range. It is easy to recognize as a different species from the larger golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos L.) (booted eagles: Aquilinae) (Lerner and Mindell 2005).A familiar definition of a species is the biological species concept, developed by the ornithologist and evolutionary biologist, Ernst Mayr (1942). The concept states \"species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups.\" The focus of this influential definition (discussed by de Queiroz 2005) is whether populations interbreed or not, or in a more abstract sense, whether there is gene flow between diverging lineages (Petit and Excoffier 2009). This definition can certainly be applied to bald eagles and golden eagles. Even though these birds of prey are sympatric in some areas, they do not interbreed. It is interesting that the biological species concept makes no mention of whether species are morphologically distinct, even though naturalists' identification of species are most often based on visible characteristics (Coyne and Orr 1998).Among flowering plants, it is common to observe groups of closely related species that are difficult to distinguish. These confusing plants also may hybridize and produce intermediate forms in the wild (Stebbins 1950;Grant 1981). Many species closely related to crops appear to belong to hybridizing complexes (Small 1984;Ellstrand et al. 1999;Rieseberg et al. 2007). This ability to produce viable offspring from interspecific hybrids can be advantageous to plant breeders. Owing to the interfertility between crops and their crop wild relatives (CWR), the genetic variation among these resources can be harnessed to introduce traits into crops to meet challenges, including pathogens, stressful environments, and changes in management practices (Hajjar and Hodgkin 2007).Even species that are phenotypically distinct and reproductively isolated from crops may be considered CWR. Research has demonstrated that for many plant species, barriers acting early in the speciation process contribute most to reproductive isolation among distinct species (Martin and Willis 2007;Lowry et al. 2008). Artificial crosses between crops and their wild relatives can circumvent these early-acting barriers, leading to the successful production of viable hybrid offspring.Crops are domesticated plant species (Brozynska et al. 2016) or sometimes complex combinations of more than one species, especially if they are of polyploid origin (e.g., bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) [International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium 2014]). An important goal in plant breeding is to identify the crop gene pool (Vincent et al. 2013), which includes the cultivated forms of the crop species, the wild species of the crop, and the crop's progenitors (Brozynska et al. 2016). Also included within the crop gene pool are closely related species, even if they did not serve as direct progenitors.For some crops, there may be dozens or even hundreds of related congeneric species, for example, in the genus Solanum L. (Vorontsova et al. 2013;Hardigan et al. 2015). It is therefore critical to be able to discern which species are likely to be most successful in plant breeding efforts. To accomplish this, both a foundational knowledge of the evolutionary relationships among crops and their wild relatives and a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between patterns of interfertility and genetic relatedness and reproductive characteristics of CWR are needed.Crop wild relatives are not merely the relatives of crops. All angiosperms share a common ancestor; therefore, all angiosperms are related. The practical implication of being defined as a CWR is that a plant species has some potential to be useful in a breeding program (Harlan and de Wet 1971). There is no taxonomic or evolutionary entity that corresponds to the notion of CWR rather it is a concept specific to crop science and plant breeding.The two main uses of the gene pool concept are to delineate the taxa that are CWR and then to identify levels of interfertility between these taxa and the associated crop. The early and very influential system for recognizing gene pools was developed by Harlan and de Wet (1971). They proposed three tiers of gene pools. The first tier corresponded to the biological species including the crop and, therefore by definition, individuals that exhibited no barriers to reproduction. The second tier included other taxa that could cross with the crop but with difficulty. Harlan and de Wet (1971) alluded to what would now be considered linkage drag, the retention of undesirable traits in the crop-wild relative hybrid (Prohens et al. 2017), making the use of these materials feasible but problematic. Finally, they recognized a tertiary group of taxa that were at the limits of interfertility, which could produce a few anomalous seeds or could be utilized only via radical techniques such as embryo rescue (Jansky 2006). Harlan and de Wet (1971) struggled to reconcile the biological diversity included within cultivated plants and their relatives with classic taxonomic categories, especially at the subspecific level, realizing that equivalent gene pool categories were unlikely.The data required to make the assessment of placing CWR into Harlan and de Wet's gene pool tiers come from crossing studies to establish levels of interfertility. These are very challenging experiments to carry out and require substantial effort. A recent study of reproductive barriers among species of Jaltomata Schltdl. (Solanaceae) (Kostyun and Moyle 2017) provides an excellent example of the magnitude of what is needed to determine levels of interfertility among species. The authors investigated 10 species and performed crosses in a full diallel with typically 6 or 7 individual pairs for each interspecific cross and 8 -10 crosses per pair, resulting in 4,481 crosses. The study included additional control crosses (the number of which depended on the breeding system of the species involved-self-compatible versus selfincompatible).These crossing experiments required a large greenhouse space and a significant investment in time. Furthermore, such controlled cross-pollinations require careful manipulations of the flowers, such as emasculations of the dams, which is tedious (Eserman 2012). Given the tremendous effort needed to determine levels of interfertility among groups of species (Bohs 1991;Smith and Baum 2007;Eserman 2012;Plazas et al. 2016), it is thus not surprising that the comprehensive experiments required to confidently assign species to different tiers of the gene pool are often lacking for CWR, particularly for those related to non-major staple crops.Proposals have been forwarded to use alternative sources of information to assign CWR to gene pools. One system is to use the existing taxonomies for species to assign CWR to gene pools, with the assumption that taxonomic classification in part reflects levels of genetic relatedness (Maxted et al. 2006). The taxon groups proposed by Maxted et al. (2006) included five taxon groups: the crop and its wild conspecifics, followed by members of the same series or section, subgenus, genus, and finally by different genera in the same tribe. The benefit of using the taxon group for designating CWR to different tiers is that more species can be considered with this scheme without requiring extensive experimental data. Unfortunately, this is a very blunt tool for assigning CWR to categories that are meant to reflect levels of interfertility. For example, generic status should reflect taxon group 4. Considering two solanaceous genera, Solanum L. with approximately 1,500 species (Weese and Bohs 2007) and Iochroma Benth. with 24 species (Smith and Baum 2007), it seems highly unlikely that all of the species within each genus represent the same level of phylogenetic relatedness to the other members.One reason genera are not a good proxy for levels of interfertility among species is that taxonomic categories above the species level are arbitrary and therefore often reflect the history of the treatment of the group rather than genetic relatedness. For example, within the tribe that represents morning glories with spiny pollen, the Ipomoeeae, the Old World treatment of morning glories by Verdcourt (1963) retained earlier circumscribed genera within the tribe (e.g., Argyreia Lour., Stictocardia Hallier f.), while in the New World treatment of the morning glories, Austin (1997) dissolved previously recognized genera within the broad and cumbersome genus Ipomoea L. (e.g., Batatas Choisy, which contains sweetpotato, and Pharbitis Choisy). Put another way, levels of interfertility are not uniform for a particular taxonomic level. For example, among 11 close relatives of sweetpotato (members of Ipomoea series Batatas (Choisy) D.F. Austin), levels of interfertility ranged from very high to extremely low (Diaz et al. 1996), whereas among different genera within the Iochrominae, Smith and Baum (2007) reported high levels of interfertility throughout the tribe. Another important observation is that rates of speciation are not uniform across lineages, with some genera capturing high levels of diversity of recent rapid radiations (Kay et al. 2005). Thus, the taxon group proposal, while making an important effort to overcome the limitation set by reliance on hybridization evaluations, does not provide an accurate indicator of interfertility that can be used confidently. Wiersema and León (2016) recognized both the pragmatic challenges of the Harlan and De Wet (1971) gene pool concept and the limitations of a system emphasizing taxonomic hierarchies (Maxted et al. 2006). They proceeded to marshal all available information, including taxonomic investigations combined with phylogenetic analyses and genetic and breeding studies, to delineate CWR and place them in categories of genetic relatedness as an updated approximation of the Harlan and de Wet (1971) gene pools. With this system, Wiersema and León designated the CWR of 208 crops from within 109 genera, based on an exhaustive review of the literature (J. Wiersema, pers. comm.). In the subsequent sections, we outline some of the most important concepts, methods, and sources of data used to inform an updated gene pool concept starting with consideration of the fundamental unit of CWR, the species.Characterizing the complex relationships commonly observed among CWR requires a more encompassing notion of a species than the biological species concept (Levin 1979;Luckow 1995;de Queiroz 2005). Fortunately, after decades of discussion, a unified species concept has been successfully developed (Hey 2006;De Queiroz 2007). An important foundation of this idea is the evolutionary species concept, wherein species are considered separately evolving metapopulation lineages, which are populations with ancestor-descendant relationships that share the same evolutionary trajectory.The important challenge then is to take this unified conceptual view of an evolutionary species and develop an operational approach that allow taxa to be recognized and delineated. The unified species concept provided the needed synthesis bringing together various operational species definitions under a single umbrella (De Queiroz 2007). The insight of de Queiroz (2007) was that a suite of properties could be extracted from the many species definitions and integrated, recognizing speciation as an extended process.Two populations of a single species can be envisioned to diverge over time into two lineages, finally resulting in two clearly separate species. The speciation process is an extended one, where a series of steps cause the daughter lineages to differ to an ever-greater degree (de Queiroz 2007). Between the pairs of lineages, reproductive barriers develop during the speciation process, but not in the same sequence for all species. Diverging lineages may develop different fertilization systems; become adapted to different niches; accumulate random mutations increasing genetic differences; develop diagnosable, fixed differences; become phenetically distinguishable or other changes. Furthermore, a phylogenetic analysis would find the lineages to be reciprocally monophyletic. An examination of gene genealogies for the different lineages would detect some gene histories exhibiting exclusive coalescence of alleles (de Queiroz 2007). At what point along the speciation continuum a researcher defines speciation to have occurred may depend on their area of expertise. From a genetic modeling point of view, perhaps 5% gene flow may be a useful operational criterion (Wiens and Servedio 2000). From a phylogenetic perspective, monophyly might be emphasized (Donoghue 1985). However, a broad approach using all evidence is now considered to be the most informative, allowing the data to tell the speciation story without a preconceived notion of which properties are definitive ( de Queiroz 2007;O'Meara 2009;Fujita et al. 2012;Carstens et al. 2013).Traditional taxonomic research emphasizes morphological characteristics to assign populations to described species. The treatment of Ipomoea in Bolivia (Wood et al. 2015) provides an elegant example of a morphology-based taxonomy. Descriptions and dichotomous keys were provided for 102 Bolivian morning glories species, with distribution maps, line drawings, and photographs for select species. Eighteen novel species were introduced, including a new member of the Batatas group, the closest relatives of sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.).But, when morphological analyses are combined with genetic data, as well as experimental crosses, a more complicated picture of relationships can emerge. The CWR of sweetpotato are considered members of the Batatas group, a hybridizing complex of 16 species distributed from Central United States to northern Argentina (Khoury et al. 2015). In an investigation that represents a snapshot of this complex, 154 Carolina populations representing four species (Ipomoea cordatotriloba Dennst., I. lacunosa L., I. leucantha Jacq., and an undescribed species referred to as \"I. austinii\" [non I. austinii Infante-Bet.]), revealed that I. cordatotriloba and \"I. austinii\" were morphologically distinct from the other taxa, while I. lacunosa and I. leucantha were morphological similar, although with white and purple corollas, respectively (Duncan and Rausher 2013a, b). In contrast, I. cordatotriloba and I. lacunosa, while morphologically distinct, were not genetically differentiated and only exhibited partial reproductive isolation, whereas \"I. austinii\" and I. leucantha were genetically distinct. These complicated patterns of evolutionary relationships are consistent with the expectations of the early stages of the expanded speciation process. A more definitive species delineation for the CWR of sweetpotato thus requires further work to integrate traditional and newer tools to better discern the identities of taxa, with a view of their status within the speciation process.CWR of other crops would be similarly expected to exhibit characteristics of taxa early in speciation. Among the collective populations and species represented by such groups, there may be population structure related to geographic barriers to gene flow, species diagnosed based on subtle morphological features, gene flow that may be ongoing between diverging lineages, and introgressive hybridization that may be occurring. These complications may all occur simultaneously among a group of CWR.Thankfully, the potential to untangle complex evolutionary relationships and determine species boundaries is ever higher, due to the updated synthesis definition of a species, including the useful conceptual framework for the speciation process. In addition, excellent sources of genetic data and a rapidly developing toolkit of analytical methods are at researchers' disposal. A brief description of the most important recent technical, theoretical, and analytical advances is provided below.Genetic analysis techniques, specifically next-generation sequencing (NGS), can provide a wealth of DNA sequence data useful for examining evolutionary relationships (McCormack et al. 2013;Soltis et al. 2013). These methods have made it feasible, with a concerted effort and great expertise, to sequence entire nuclear genomes (Albert et al. 2013). For example, the complex and massive hexaploid bread wheat genome was recently sequenced (International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium 2014). It was particularly challenging because the polyploid AABBDD structure of the genome meant that three pairs of each gene exist. Furthermore, the wheat genome is riddled with repeats from transposable elements, making genome assembly extremely complicated. The near-complete sequence of the wheat genome was developed through a combination of high coverage with short reads from Illumina sequences and long reads from Pac Bio sequences. Approximately 100,000 CPU hours of computer time were required to stitch together the pieces to assemble 15,343,750,409 base pairs into a single genome (Zimin et al. 2017).Whole nuclear genome sequences, especially for crops, are being completed at an amazing pace; at least 30 crop species have been sequenced (Morrell et al. 2012;Brozynska et al. 2016). The rice genome is notable because of its simplicity and has been a model for gene identification. In addition, although it is not a crop, the vast information for the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. provides the foundation for the understanding of the molecular genetics of plants (The Arabidopsis Genome Initiative 2000).Given these advances, quickly and inexpensively obtaining nuclear genome sequences of CWR species to determine evolutionary relationships may someday be possible, although this is not presently feasible (Soltis et al. 2013). Luckily, various methods are being developed that provide valuable information based on a reduced genome sample (Mascher et al. 2013;McCormack et al. 2013;Hirsch et al. 2014). These more limited samples can be obtained by genome skimming, restriction site associated DNA sequencing, and targeted enrichment/gene capture. The strengths and weaknesses of these methods have been reviewed elsewhere (Hirsch et al. 2014;Heyduk et al. 2016).It is valuable to consider the gene capture approach in detail, as this technique may be most informative at population and species levels, making it particularly suitable for untangling the complex relationships among CWR (McCormack et al. 2013;Lemmon and Lemmon 2013;Weitemier et al. 2014;Grover et al. 2015). The foundation of this method for estimating evolutionary relationships is to obtain sequences for sets of orthologous genes for the taxa under consideration. This is a major challenge because many genes are members of large and complex gene families (Morrell et al. 2012).A set of probes (e.g., RNA baits) is designed to target the orthologous genes and to selectively sequence portions of the genome. Ideally, a reference nuclear genome is available among the taxa sampled or for a closely related species. Transcriptome sequences also can be used to develop the probe set, and for this the resources of the OneKP transcriptome project (http://www.onekp.com) are invaluable. At the simplest level, probes can be designed with a collection of expressed sequence tags (ESTs), as was successfully done in a study of the phylogenetics of the Asteraceae (Mandel et al. 2014).After designing a set of probes, these RNA baits are hybridized to the DNA of the taxa included in the study. The hybridized samples are withdrawn from the pool of probes and DNA and are sequenced using a high-throughput sequencer (Illumina). The reads from the selective sequencing are meant to include only orthologous loci, but postsequencing filtering is needed. For example, the reads can be mapped onto the exon reference sequences to confirm that only orthologs are included in the analyses. The aligned sequences from these efforts can then be included in a wide array of population genetic and phylogenetic analyses.The phylogenetic investigation of the palm genus Sabal Adans. by Heyduk et al. (2015) provides a good example of the elements of a targeted enrichment research project. This study examined relationships among a recalcitrant group of 15 species with interesting biogeography. To apply the gene capture approach, a set of 120-bp RNA baits was developed, benefiting from the availability of nuclear genome sequences, specifically from the date palm, Phoenix dactylifera L., and the African oil palm, Elaeis guineensis Jacq. (Heyduk et al. 2015). In addition, information from three transcriptomes assemblies (Cocos nucifera L., Nypa fruticans Wurmb., and Sabal bermudana L.H. Bailey) were available from the OneKP project (www.onekp.com). Together, this information was used to identify 837 exon sequences from 176 nuclear genes. The baits were hybridized with DNA from all 15 Sabal species, as well as two outgroup taxa. The sequences captured (both exon and intron) ranged from 48,965 to 355,729 base pairs. On average 159 of the 176 targeted nuclear genes were obtained among the taxa. The multiple-gene dataset was then analyzed using three coalescent-based phylogenetic methods (STAR [Liu et al. 2009]; MP-EST [Liu et al. 2010]; *BEAST 1.7.5 [Heled and Drummond 2010]). A well-resolved species tree was recovered that was largely congruent among the different coalescent-based methods. The biogeography of these palms also was resolved, identifying a Central and South American clade, a United States clade, and a clade of mostly Caribbean species. However, recent relationships remained ambiguous even with the large multigene dataset. Population-level sampling will be needed to understand the cause of this poor resolution.It would be ideal to have a set of probes available to generate multigene datasets of orthologous loci that could be used for all CWR. But the magnitude of this endeavor is daunting, given the number of species of interest. For example, Vincent et al. (2013) and Dempewolf et al. (2014) estimated there may be thousands of potential CWR species. Animal studies have made use of an almost universal set of ultra-conserved elements (UCEs) that can be employed across a wide sample of faunal diversity (Faircloth et al. 2012). An effort is underway to identify a universal set of orthologous conserved loci in flowering plants (Buddenhagen et al. 2016). However, whole-genome duplication events are common across angiosperms, creating complicated genomes and important genetic differences among lineages (Duarte et al. 2010;Albert et al. 2013;Weitemier et al. 2014). A more feasible alternative is to develop a probe set for each plant order (Soltis et al. 2013). Nuclear plant genomes are already available for 30 crop species that represent 13 plant orders and as such could provide a foundation. However, a question that remains is how far-reaching a single set of probes can be. Comer at al. (2016) demonstrated that the probe set Heyduk et al. (2015) designed for the palm genus Sabal could be applied more broadly to explore phylogenetic relationships among exemplars of the palm subfamily Arecoideae. However, could RNA baits specifically designed for the CWR of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), for example, be equally useful for resolving fine-scale relationships among the CWR of other members of the Solanaceae, such as tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.)? The answer to this question awaits further research.The coalescent model is a stochastic process that can be used to explore relationships among populations, as well as among closely related species, making it excellent for understanding the evolution of CWR. DNA sequence polymorphism data are used to evaluate a wide range of population genetic processes simulated under the coalescent model. A scenario of particular relevance to CWR is when two populations diverge in isolation and where there is no gene flow between them. Population-level divergence of the coalescent process is therefore extended to provide a simple model of speciation or the multispecies coalescent. This model can be used to estimate evolutionary relationships, as well as accommodate other complicated processes, such as migration.Taking a step back, an important model of genes evolving in populations is the Wright-Fisher model of genetic drift (Wakeley 2009). In the simplest case, the frequencies of two alleles at a single locus change from one generation to the next (for a haploid organism, without overlapping generations). Lineages are followed forward through time, and they branch when an individual randomly produces two or more offspring; lineages end when individuals do not reproduce. The result is random changes in gene frequencies from one generation to the next. In the absence of natural selection and mutation, owing to finite population size and stochasticity, one allele will eventually become fixed, while the other is lost. The dynamics of polymorphic loci in this hypothetical population provide a null model that can be used to examine how other evolutionary processes may modify patterns of polymorphisms.The coalescent model is a significant extension of the Wright-Fisher model (Degnan and Rosenberg 2009). This stochastic model of gene evolution incorporates the insight of considering the dynamics of gene histories going backwards in time. In coalescent theory, genetic polymorphisms are the result of genealogical and mutational histories (Nordborg 2001;Rosenberg and Nordborg 2002). Lineages coalesce when individuals are produced by the same parent. For a population of individuals, ancestry is traced back through time, with the number of lineages decreasing, until a single individual is reached, representing the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) (Nordborg 2001). This pattern of gene genealogy provides the foundation for the coalescent approach, with neutral allelic variants mapped onto the genealogy, providing a separate description of the pattern of mutation.The coalescent theory shares the same assumptions of the Wright-Fisher model (discrete generations, constant effective population size within populations, no population structure, no selection) (Rosenberg and Nordborg 2002;Degnan and Rosenberg 2009). This approach provides a springboard for examining how other processes affect the genealogy, such as population subdivision, species migration, hybridization, horizontal gene transfer between species, recombination, changes in population size, and geographic structure (Nordborg 2001;Degnan and Rosenberg 2009). More specifically, simulations model how the genealogy may vary because of different processes, without concern with the random process of mutation. However, the pattern of mutation among individuals carries the empirical information that allows the underlying unobserved genealogy to be compared to the simulated scenarios (Nordborg 2001).For the study of crops and their wild relatives, the primary interest is an expanded version of the coalescent approach --the multispecies coalescent (Liu et al. 2015). In this model, the pattern of mutations and gene genealogies is maintained, and the species tree is added. For example, consider two descendant populations that split and no longer exchange genes with each other. In essence, there are two independent coalescent processes in the diverging lineages. In this scenario, divergence time can be estimated, realizing that all coalescent events must occur in the ancestor. This model of divergence without gene flow can be considered a null model of the splitting of species, providing the bridge between coalescent theory and phylogenetics (Wakeley 2009(Wakeley , 2013)).A fundamental realization with the coalescent approach is that the gene genealogies, or gene trees, are not the same as species trees (Edwards 2009). It is now well established that equating a gene tree with a species tree can lead to misleading inferences (Degnan and Rosenberg 2009). The focus of the coalescent approach is to understand the dynamics of multiple gene trees, nested within the context of a species tree. The signal from these gene trees provides the basis for an exploration of the full range of dynamics among populations and species while paying attention to the processes that give rise to gene tree discordance (incomplete lineage sorting, horizontal gene transfer, hybridization, natural selection, gene duplication) (Degnan and Rosenberg 2009).Two major goals of systematics are to discover and describe species and then determine the phylogenetic relationships among taxa (Wiens 2007;O'Meara 2009). Species discovery using genetic data requires multiple population samples for each taxon. Carstens et al. (2013) provide an excellent review of available methods for species discovery (e.g., Structurama, Gaussian clustering, general mixed Yule coalescent model, O'Meara's heuristic method). An important point of their discussion is that each approach has assumptions that may be violated in some way by the real situation of the study system. Therefore, a suite of analyses should be explored, with a final assessment of species boundaries made from a careful synthesis of the results. It is useful to remember that not all diverging populations are expected to clearly exhibit the properties that demarcate separate species.For the purposes of this discussion, we will consider STRUCTURE, a Bayesian modelbased algorithm that is one of the more popular methods of species discovery (Pritchard et al. 2000;Hubisz et al. 2009). A STRUCTURE analysis for a diploid species employs polymorphic alleles at numerous unlinked loci. Samples of individuals are assigned to clusters based on allele frequencies under Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium (Fujita et al. 2012;Carstens et al. 2013). The number of clusters (k) supported by the data is evaluated in a series of analyses with different numbers of k (Evanno at al. 2005). These clusters are an estimate of the number of lineages supported by the data, and then individuals are assigned to the lineages with varying levels of confidence.STRUCTURE analysis can employ a model with or without admixture (Falush et al. 2003). Including admixture allows individuals to be assigned to multiple lineages and therefore provides an estimate of the level of gene flow occurring between them. If the lineages are interpreted to be separate species, this analysis provides an examination of the strength of species boundaries. A strong example of application of STRUCTURE for species delineation is the investigation of relationships among brinjal (Solanum melongena), scarlet (S. aethiopicum L.), and gboma (S. macrocarpon L.) eggplants and 14 species of their wild relatives (Acquadro et al. 2017). Acquadro et al. (2017) used next-generation sequencing to identify 75,399 polymorphic sites among 76 individuals. In their initial analysis of this large dataset, Acquadro et al. (2017) used fastSTRUCTURE (Raj et al. 2014) to identify four major subgroups, including one that included brinjal eggplant, its wild progenitor, and its close relatives (S. melongena with S. insanum L., S. incanum L., S. linnaeanum Hepper & P.-M.L. Jaeger, and S. lichtensteinii Willd.). However, individuals identified as S. campylacanthum Hochst. ex A. Rich., S. lidii Sunding, S. tomentosum L., S. vespertilio Aiton, and S. violaceum Ortega showed evidence of admixture, exhibiting membership in as many as three distinct lineages. Following the initial analysis for population genetic structure, closer examination of the subgroups was carried out with additional explorations, using fastSTRUCTURE to identify genetically based clusters within these subgroups.Following species discovery, the next step is species validation. Again, Carstens et al. (2013) advocate applying multiple methods to the data (BP&P, spedeSTEM). Bayesian Phylogenetics and Phylogeography (BP&P) provides an example of this process (Yang and Rannala 2010;Rannala and Yang 2017). This is a Bayesian inference procedure for multilocus sequence data, based on the multispecies coalescent. The analysis typically begins with a guide tree, and then various scenarios varying in species number and relationships (topologies) are explored using a Markov chain Monte Carlo search. The maximum number of species is specified at the start, and then posterior probabilities for the nodes of the species tree are obtained, using the sequence data. In other words, BP&P evaluates the strength of various possibilities of species relationships and number of species. The outcome of these analyses is identified lineages. Comparing BP&P to other validation approaches suggests this method tends to oversplit genetic relationships (Carstens et al. 2013). Therefore, it is important to integrate the genetic results with information from biogeography, ecology, morphology, and, when possible, the degree of reproductive isolation to make a synthetic assessment of the number of species and their relationships. With careful examination of the number of species included in the population samples, and their validated relationships, one can proceed with greater confidence to examine phylogenetic relationships among taxa. Various phylogenetic methods have been developed based on the multispecies coalescent model that can complete this final step (ASTRAL, Mirarab and Warnow 2015;*BEAST 1.7.5;Heled and Drummond, 2010;MP-EST, Liu et al. 2010;STAR, Liu et al. 2009).An example of this integrative approach of combining a BP&P analysis with morphological and ecogeographic data is the study of group of rare North American orchids, the Corallorhiza striata Lindl. complex (Barrett and Freudenstein 2011). In this taxonomically challenging group, relationships were examined among two species, C. bentleyi Freudenst. and the widespread C. striata Lindl. The results based on genetic data, morphology, and geography were not congruent. BP&P resolved four lineages: C. bentleyi + C. striata var. involuta (Greenm.) Freudenst. and three distinct populations of C. striata from different regions in North America. In contrast, morphological and geographic evidence supported the separation of C. bentleyi and C. striata var. involuta. The authors settled on recognizing three species, C. bentleyi, C. involuta, and a widespread C. striata s.s. The orchid study not only demonstrates the application of BP&P in combination with morphological and biogeographic analyses but also provides an example of the extended speciation process where different properties were found to delineate various combinations of taxa.These analyses offer new options to resolve long-standing challenges with regard to CWR gene pools. Returning to the CWR of sweetpotato, the Batatas group represents a hybridizing complex, which has challenged taxonomic efforts (Austin 1978;Wood et al. 2015). The characteristics and status of the CWR of sweetpotato may be common for other groups of CWR (e.g., the following are crops and their wild relatives: alfalfa ) where species are diagnosed on disputable characteristics, complex patterns of reproduction have been detected, incomplete barriers to reproduction are present, and cryptic species have been discovered (Small 1984;Ellstrand et al. 1999;Rieseberg et al. 2007;Grover et al. 2015;Hardigan et al. 2015;Bredeson et al. 2016;Acquadro et al. 2017).An evolutionary perspective can inform the understanding of patterns of interfertility among CWR from an investigation of reproductive isolation in plants (Lowry et al. 2008;Baack et al. 2015). Determining patterns of reproductive isolation is at the foundation of understanding speciation. As discussed above, the framework of the extended speciation process portrays a view where along the speciation continuum different barriers develop until species are completely reproductively isolated from one another and thereby exhibit an increasing number of the properties that characterize separate species.To better understand reproductive isolation, different stages of reproductive barriers have been recognized. One of the main distinctions is made between barriers that operate before or after zygote formation (Coyne and Orr 1998). Prezygotic isolating mechanisms involve such factors as differences in ecogeography or elaborate floral structures that result in adaptations to alternative pollinators that act to eliminate gene flow between species pairs before mating takes place (Stebbins 1950). In contrast, postzygotic isolating mechanisms involve factors such as hybrid inviability, where the zygote does not develop into a normal embryo (Stebbins 1950). For plants, a further distinction is made between prezygotic barriers that act prior to pollination (e.g., differences in flowering time) and prezygotic postpollination barriers (e.g., interactions between pollen and stigma) (Tiffin et al. 2001).An important model for understanding the development of reproductive barriers is the Bateson-Muller-Dobzhansky model or Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibilities (DMIs) model, where allelic incompatibilities between diverging species increase, leading to hybrid inviability and sterility (Coyne and Orr 1998;Tiffin et al. 2001;Turelli and Moyle 2007). The model is based on mutations at two or more loci developing in two diverging populations. If the two populations interbreed after mutations have accumulated, some of the genetic combinations will be incompatible. One prediction from the DMI model is that the level of reproductive isolation between species pairs is positively associated with genetic distance, which is thought to reflect time since divergence. In other words, with greater divergence, reduced hybrid fitness is expected. To explore this prediction, Coyne and Orr (1989) used an extensive literature survey of 119 Drosophila species pairs where data were available for at least one measure of reproductive isolation and information was available to estimate genetic distances. From this survey, they found strong support for a positive correlation between reproductive isolation and genetic distance (Coyne andOrr 1989, 1997). This research initiative was extended to other animal groups, and the general trend continued to hold (Mendelson 2003). Moyle et al. (2004) scoured the literature to apply the Coyne and Orr (1989) approach to published studies for plants and found three genera with suitable data. For one group, Silene L., they found a pattern of increasing reproductive isolation with greater genetic distances, consistent with the animal studies (Moyle et al. 2004). However, for the other two genera (Glycine Willd. and Streptanthus Nutt.), the pattern was not as straightforward (Moyle et al. 2004). They concluded that other factors may have contributed to the pattern of interfertility, such as insufficient time to develop effective reproductive barriers (Streptanthus), unusual crossing relationships of individual species (Glycine falcata Benth.), or perhaps genes of large effect causing the patterns of reproductive isolation (Glycine).When considering whether a pair of plant species is likely to be crossed successfully, intuitively one might predict that species very different in appearance will be less likely to produce viable hybrid offspring than similar-looking species. For example, Jaltomata species exhibit striking floral diversity. One might expect the two species with rotate corollas, Jaltomata sinuosa (Miers) Mione and J. antillana (Krug & Urb.) D'Arcy, to be interfertile and similarly for the pair with tubular corollas, J. aijana Mione & S. Leiva and J. incahuasina Mione & S. Leiva (Figure 6.1). The notion is that traits related to floral divergence may have pleiotropic effects on development so that greater overall morphological divergence would indirectly lead to genetic incompatibilities and thereby result in reduced postmating prezygotic and intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation. Kostyun and Moyle (2017) tested this idea in an investigation of 10 species of Jaltomata. They did not find support for floral divergence being a strong predictor of the strength of reproductive isolation. In contrast, a significant correlation between genetic distance and intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation was detected, providing additional support for this general relationship. Animal studies of reproductive isolation have shown that prezygotic isolating mechanisms are often stronger than postzygotic isolating mechanisms and evolve sooner between diverging species pairs (Coyne andOrr 1989, 1997;Mendelson 2003). The results from investigations of suites of individual reproductive barriers between plant species are consistent with findings from animals, with prezygotic isolating mechanisms, both before and after pollination, providing a much greater contribution than postzygotic isolating mechanisms to overall reproductive isolation (Rieseberg and Willis 2007;Lowry et al. 2008). For CWR, it is informative to consider prezygotic isolating mechanisms, such as ecogeographic separation or flowering time differences, to help to explain the diversification of these species. However, for plant breeding purposes, artificial crosses circumvent these prepollination prezygotic barriers to reproduction. Therefore, postpollination prezygotic barriers and intrinsic postzygotic barriers should be the primary focus for the successful utilization of CWR.If the barriers to reproduction are the result of an accumulation of nuclear genetic changes acting in a Mendelian fashion, then the patterns of reproductive isolation would be predicted to be symmetrical regardless of which species serves as the sire and which serves as the dam (Tiffin et al. 2001). However, asymmetry in patterns of reproductive isolation is common in plants based on which species acts as the pollen or seed parent (Tiffin et al. 2001;Lowry et al. 2008;Plazas et al. 2016;Kostyun and Moyle 2017). In a survey of 14 genera, Tiffin et al. (2001) detected significant asymmetries in three life history stages: seed production, hybrid viability, and hybrid sterility. In another review, Lowry et al. (2008) found asymmetries were greatest for postmating barriers, notably hybrid seed set and viability. These asymmetries indicate factors that are likely to contribute to reproductive isolation, including gametophytesporophyte interactions (Pease et al. 2016), problems with endosperm development because of genomic incompatibilities causing defective seeds (Lafon-Placette and Köhler 2016), cytonuclear interactions that may lead to hybrid male sterility (Chen et al. 2017), and others (reviewed in Turelli and Moyle 2007).An interesting example of a gametophyte-sporophyte interaction comes from an investigation of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and its relatives. In a study involving the wild species Solanum pennellii Correll, Pease et al. (2016) identified the molecular genetic basis of postmating prezygotic reproductive isolation. They examined the fascinating system of unilateral incompatibility, where S. pennellii (self-incompatible) pollen tubes can extend into S. lycopersicum (self-compatible) styles to fertilize the ovaries, whereas S. lycopersicum pollen grains are prematurely blocked in the styles of S. pennellii. Using an elegant experimental design, transcriptomes were obtained from a combination of tissues that allowed contrasting gene expression patterns to be used to identify candidate genes potentially responsible for the observed reproductive barriers (Pease et al. 2016).The focus on genetic relatedness of the Wiersema and León (2016) proposal is excellent and represents the best effort to date to use an understanding of evolutionary relationships to categorize CWR across many crop gene pools. However, with many thousands of potentially useful species to evaluate (Vincent et al. 2013;Dempewolf et al. 2014), a more widely applicable and standardized system of assessment would be extremely helpful, building on a quantitative understanding of the relationship between genetic relatedness and patterns of interfertility among CWR. Three components stand out as required to accomplish the creation of this system. The first is to determine to the greatest extent possible evolutionary relationships among CWR, as has been discussed. The remaining components build on the understanding of the evolution of reproductive isolation in plants by developing two quantitative measures of the patterns of interfertility among CWR: observed and predicted gene pool indices.The observed gene pool index can be constructed based on results from crossing studies involving CWR and crops. It is similar to estimating the level of reproductive isolation for studies of speciation by carefully examining all potential reproductive barriers and calculating their cumulative effect (Martin and Willis 2007;Lowry et al. 2008). However, the observed gene pool index places a primary focus on reproductive processes that reduce the level of interfertility related to fertilization success, seed viability, offspring vigor, and hybrid fertility. Separate values are needed based on which species is the female or male parent for each cross due to the aforementioned asymmetries in the action of reproductive barriers. The observed gene pool index should in sum reflect the probability of producing viable and fertile hybrid offspring from a select cross.More challenging is transforming the observed gene pool index into a predicted gene pool index. As in the majority of cases crossing studies have not been comprehensively performed for all species related to all crops, the predictive index ends up in actuality being the foundation for developing an independent and reproducible assessment system.The first step to develop the predicted gene pool index borrows from the approach of Coyne andOrr (1989, 1997) and Moyle et al. (2004) to use available results from the literature to survey relationships between genetic relatedness and patterns of interfertility among CWR and their crop species. Specifically, reproductive barriers related to postpollination prezygotic barriers and intrinsic postzygotic reproductive barriers are of interest. The objectives of the survey are to determine if a broad relationship exists between the observed gene pool index and measures of genetic relatedness (e.g., based on nucleotide substitutions, patristic distances, etc.). However, equally important is to bring attention to those cases that deviate from the general pattern and to consider various factors that may reduce interfertility in these cases, including gametophyte-sporophyte interactions disrupting fertilization, problems with endosperm development leading to inviable seeds, and cytonuclear interactions resulting in hybrid male sterility. There may be a quantitative relationship between interfertility and genetic distance, but an additional qualitative pattern may emerge owing to failed pollination, seeds dying, and hybrids being sterile. Therefore, in addition to obtaining quantitative estimates of genetic relatedness, it is important to identify characteristics of the CWR that may also determine patterns of interfertility, such as ploidy level, mating system, pollen size and style length, properties of the endosperm, and characteristics of the mitochondrial genome.It may be necessary to carry out careful experimental crossing studies coupled with phylogenetic investigations for groups of CWR where a knowledge gap exists. In some cases, the number of populations of CWR to consider may be too numerous to be included in the laborintensive efforts of crossing studies; therefore, a careful exemplar sample should reflect the important characteristics that may determine the pattern of interfertility. Further analyses providing results for various gene pools, and then testing the results across other plant groups, will be necessary to determine whether particular interfertility factors are highly important across most or all groups. With this knowledge, further studies on other groups can be more efficiently targeted.A study of eggplant and its wild relatives (Plazas et al. 2016) provides an indication of the methods needed to develop an observed gene pool index. Crosses were carried out between 6 accessions of eggplant (Solanum melongena) and 19 accessions of 12 wild species, sampling from the three tiers of the gene pool (Plazas et al. 2016). Fruit set, number of seed per fruit, and germination success were recorded with S. melongena as both the female and male parent. Fruit set was as high as 48%, maximum seeds per fruit was 2.7, and in one case 92% germination was observed. From these values, the number of viable seeds produced from 100 crosses can be estimated. For example, the crosses between S. melongena and its progenitor S. insanum would result in 44 viable offspring (17.8% fruit set, 2.67 seeds/fruit, 92.2% germination) with eggplant as the female parent and 55 viable offspring (33.3% fruit set, 2.18 seeds/fruit, 75.8% germination) with eggplant as the male parent.To develop a corollary predictive gene pool index for eggplant and its wild relatives, genetic data obtained by Acquadro et al. (2017) and the phylogenetic investigations by Levin et al. (2006), Vorontsova et al. (2013), andAubriot et al. (2016) can provide the foundation. The taxa sampled by Vorontsova et al. (2013) included many species in the Plazas et al. (2016) study. Based on results from two nuclear genes and a chloroplast marker, Vorontsova et al. (2013) resolved clades that can be used as an estimate of patristic distance. The phylogeny indicates that Solanum melongena was nested with its putative progenitor, S. insanum, with S. incanum as the sister species to this clade. Solanum linnaeanum and S. lichtensteinii were the next closest relatives, whereas S. violaceum, S. dasyphyllum Schumach. & Thonn., S. anguivi Lam., S. tomentosum, S. pyracanthos Lam., S. elaeagnifolium Cav., and S. torvum Sw. were increasingly distantly related and were not part of the eggplant clade.These phylogenetic relationships can be compared with the patterns of interfertility from the Plazas et al. (2016) crossing study, focusing on fruit set with the most complete data (percent fruit set for hybrids with eggplant as the female or male parent, respectively). A general pattern emerges where species more closely related to S. melongena had intermediate levels of fruit set: S. insanum (18, 33), S. incanum (18, 25), S. linnaeanum (9, 48), S. lichtensteinii (17, 18), S. violaceum (5, 0) S. dasyphyllum (24, 11), S. anguivi (15, 34), and S. tomentosum (12, 32). In contrast, more distantly related species had low levels of fruit set: S. pyracanthos (0, 5), S. elaeagnifolium (0, 0), and S. torvum (3, 0). It is intriguing to note that the species that deviated from the general pattern, S. violaceum, was a taxon that exhibited admixture and showed membership in lineages characteristic of three other species (Acquadro et al. 2017). Among the species more closely related to eggplant, no linear trend between genetic relatedness and fruit set was detected. This suggests that factors acting in a qualitative fashion are more likely to be determining the pattern of interfertility among eggplant and these CWR.There is a vast literature on the systematics of crops and their wild relatives, and, in addition, there are decades of crossing studies involving CWR --many more than could be considered here. The greatest gap at this point is the application of a quantitative approach to make a strong connection between evolutionary relationships and patterns of interfertility among CWR. Using published research to explore this relationship, looking for general trends, predictable patterns, and unusual special cases, is sure to provide insight and some surprises. Such a survey will help to identify gaps in knowledge that will hopefully inspire targeted further research. In combination, these investigations hold great promise to contribute to the development of the foundation understanding needed to anticipate with much greater accuracy how efficiently CWR can contribute to crop improvement.","tokenCount":"8126"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3ff7f16718125273eae99a17816241c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/16ab6942-097b-41de-9be1-5d7427b37cdb/retrieve","id":"1327421175"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5958a846-44b7-44a8-a87a-ba93903bc50b","pagecount":"7","content":"In Uzbekistan, livestock production accounts for 40% of agricultural output, of which dairy represents 45%. During the last 30 years areas planted with forage and feed crops have been reduced by 70%, whereas the cattle population has increased by 150%, reaching 15 million head and leading to a significant increase in GHG emissions. Since independence in 1991, the agricultural area has decreased by 33%, with cotton (31%) and wheat (35%) being the main crops. In the past, livestock provided manure for cotton, and forages were planted after the cotton crop, which helped restore soil fertility. With the introduction of production quotas, wheat replaced forages, putting pressure on soil fertility in cotton fields. Delinking livestock from cotton production has led to decreased cotton yields and reduced feed availability. Feed crop area per livestock unit is only 32 m 2 and decreasing (World Bank, 2019).The bulk of livestock products (96% of milk, 94% of meat) are produced by 4.7 million 'Dehkan' farms (Table 1). Private or individual farms account for 3.5% and 3% of respectively milk and meat production. The remaining small percentage is produced by corporate farms (former largescale collective farms). Dehkan farm systems combine small agricultural plots and small-scale animal husbandry with communal grazing and individual watering points. The main feeds are maize (forage) and crop residues (wheat, maize). With only slightly over 8 percent of their sown area allocated to forages, private farms account for over three-fourths of the total area dedicated to feed production (i.e., 333,000 ha). Dehkan farms with almost 95% of the cattle herd account for only 13 percent of the forage area and rely for a very large part on low-quality communal pastures and crop and agro-industrial by-products.Inadequate management of pastures and former irrigated cotton fields has led to degradation (including salinization) with significant reductions in species composition, vegetation cover and palatable biomass, while erosion rates and soil loss have increased (GEF, 2019;World Bank, 2019: Asian Development Bank, 2020). While development potential is limited due to poor governance of land and natural resources, the rapidly growing demand for livestock products is opening up opportunities for poverty reduction by obtaining additional income for poor livestock keepers. These low yields are mainly due to feed (rather than, for example, genetic) constraints. Poor quality untreated maize stover, rice and wheat straw account for a high proportion of cattle diets. Natural pastures are of poor quality due to degradation and salinization. Among Dehkan farmers, 70% grow some feed crops (mainly maize) and 50% have access to (communal) pastures; 91% have to buy feeds, which are expensive and of variable quality. Farmers face administrative restrictions on feed crop production and land tenure issues prevent farmers from investing in land.The current situation is acknowledged in Presidential Resolution No. UP-4243 (28 March 2019) and proposes measures to support livestock enterprises and increase feed supply. District administrations are to allocate land from their reserves for feed and forage crop production. The resolution also proposes to improve feed marketing and supply chains.To assess the environmental impacts and climate change mitigation potential of improved feeds and forages, two scenarios were analysed for Private and Dehkan farms: the current situation (i.e., 'business as usual', or BAU) and a scenario with improved feed and forage options. For each scenario, livestock production, environmental and climate impacts were assessed, and partial cost-benefit ratios were calculated. Analysis was conducted using the CLEANED (Comprehensive Livestock Environmental Assessment for Improved Nutrition) tool (Notenbaert et al., 2016).Table 2 shows the livestock characteristics in each scenario. The BAU scenarios are based on the average production levels and feed baskets as found in the literature (Siegmund-Schultze et al. 2013, FAO 2021and World Bank 2019). The intervention scenarios focus on (1) increasing livestock productivity through increased (on and off-farm) feed quantities, and (2) mitigating environmental impacts through improved nutrient management (legumes), reduced GHG emissions and water use per kg of milk and meat, and carbon sequestration (trees/shrubs). The improvements considered are:• establish silvopastoral systems on-farm (Private farms) or on communal lands (Dehkan farms) with drought resistant and salt-tolerant legume shrubs/ trees. Here, we consider Atriplex spp., but there are also other similar options available for degraded and salinized soils. Shrubs and treeds restore land productivity, contribute to soil fertility, carbon stocks and biodiversity, while also providing income for farmers in the form of fodder, fuel wood, or (Gupta et al., 2009;Walden et al., 2017;Djumaeva et al., 2009); • increase the use high-quality agro-industrial by-products such as cotton seed cake to increase livestock productivity; and • increase on-farm areas of forage legumes and cereal forages (maize, sorghum), also as silage. Livestock numbers and production levels for the different farm types and scenarios at national level are presented in Table 4. The proposed feed and forage options allow for a reduction in livestock (by 20%) while increasing milk and meat output (by 20 to 40%). The environmental climate change mitigation potential are presented in Tables 5 and  6. Land requirements (based on herd composition, production levels and feed basket) decrease by over 10% (see Figure 1). On Dehkan farms, on-farm land requirements reduce by as much as one third, mainly due to increasing the proportions of forage legumes (Lucerne-alfalfa) and forage maize/sorghum in the feed ration.GHG emissions reduce by almost 15%. This is mainly reduced enteric fermentation as a result of increased feed quality and reduced livestock numbers. GHG emission intensity decreases even more (30%). Silvopastoral options increase annual carbon sequestration by up to 2.5 t CO 2 e per ha on Private farms, which can compensate for 75% of the GHG emissions. For the Dekhan farms, these options sequester up to 4 t CO 2 e /ha (off-farm).   The livestock sustainability checklist provides several insights on the outcome of the proposed measures/investments related to environment, productivity, food security and nutrition (Table 7).The key findings are that GHG emissions from livestock can be reduced if livestock productivity increases enable a decrease in livestock populations; and land can be planted to shrubs and trees to sequester carbon if land requirements for livestock are reduced. GHG emission reductions are not the only benefit of improved feed and fodder management. Improved feeding and livestock management could increase farm incomes by about 25%. Vulnerability to climate risks is reduced by using drought tolerant varieties, improving water use efficiency and by managing soils for organic carbon sequestration. While the nitrogen balance is still negative (at -10 kg N/ha), the deficit is reduced by 23%. Off-farm, increased volumes of milk and meat could further provide job creation in processing and marketing because of higher production volumes.Value chains with higher volumes likely have better conditions for improving food safety of livestock products. • To further reduce GHG emissions and land and water requirements, look into possibilities to increase the proportion of monogastric livestock, like poultry, and fish as animal source foods (poultry meat production is less than 5% of beef and mutton production). • Considering the importance of crop residues and agro-industrial by-products for livestock production (60-70% of the feed basket), evaluate options for rotations or intercropping of food and cash crops with forages, and more adequate and strategic use of higher-cost agroindustrial by-products. • Emphasise on-farm forage production, limiting dependence on expensive agro-industrial byproducts and inputs (e.g., fertilizer). This includes pasture and rangeland management (rotation) and the untapped potential local feed sources, such as fallow lands and high-quality tree foliage. • Ensure the production and availability of seedlings of (leguminous) forage trees for silvopastoral systems by establishing regional and local nurseries (GEF, 2019).","tokenCount":"1249"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2ed1dc71d6c5b5bba7552de928dee889","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dfb98a43-b1ce-4f8c-8df8-66fdfde727f6/retrieve","id":"-50090035"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1b29f71c-e13e-48d4-857e-f659b9c2e41c","pagecount":"35","content":"▪ Good agreement in agricultural emissions estimates from different data sources, as they mostly rely on the same activity data (FAO) and emission factors (IPCC).▪ AFOLU and food systems provide more opportunities for reducing emissions than just the livestock sector• End of life / food loss and waste Food loss and waste and embedded GHG emissions in Kenya 7 FAO regions and regional FLW percentages by chain stage• Europe• North America and Oceania• Industrialized Asia• Latin America • intensive (urban areas), semi-intensive (mid-rural), extensive (rural)• informal trade (regional), formal supply chains (rural -> urban markets)▪ FLW may substantially vary between the situations• Farm households trade milk direct to consumers• Some farmers sell milk directly to processors like Brookside, Kenya Cooperative Creameries, and smaller private processors.• Next to that direct trade, co-operative societies, self help group and traders collect and trade fresh milk to processors and consumers.• Some of the local traders own portable milk shops with cooling abilities.• Producer organizations, like the Aldai Dairy Cooperative Society or the Kaplamai Dairy Cooperative, process raw milk into yoghurt, fermented milk, processed fresh milk and other products. Total: ±200 litres, of which ±90 litres is described as forced consumption, non-collection and spoilage.Typical losses in post-harvest chain (transporter)Take-home messages 1.Secondary/typical data may provide some insight, but primary data are required for good understanding of local situation 2.Further developing milk productivity in rural areas may result in increase of forced consumption and noncollection.In order to prevent such inefficiencies, development of milk production system should go hand-in-hand with development of the post-harvest chain.(Moderated by Thom Achterbosch and Laura Cramer)-1-Climate action in Kenya is hampered by substantial uncertainty on emissions from food systems.-2-Better measurement and harmonization are needed across: national inventories, global databases, observations from academia (incl CGIAR).Kenya's emission intensity pathways: forestry, energy, agriculture key for low-carbon path Source: UN Population and Urbanisation prospects, 2018Kenya's Food System vision \"To build prosperity through inclusive, innovative, collaborative and dynamic food systems, that are based on data-driven decisions to ensure access to diverse diets from climate resilient production in every region of the country.\"Four key leading actions:1.Increasing the number of young people and women with access to productive resources that they require to thrive in our food systems.2.Increase the uptake of digital agricultural solutions 3.Improve the diversity of diets including fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat and fish, as well as grains.4.Heighten climate action to build the resilience of our people ","tokenCount":"399"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/9349609376.json b/data/part_6/9349609376.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..dab431f3990cc4a7e06ceb276d1e39cc6f41741c
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d40099e5a5d47e1e9286a2828c9c8ff7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/17fe9f43-ab5f-4654-8c21-c0fdc36b60e7/retrieve","id":"-1379511594"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"df3d0db5-42b6-42c4-87af-48a4a764f23e","pagecount":"2","content":"Financial performance of livestock households in central Botswana: Results of a snapshot survey In December 2012, a snapshot survey was conducted in two villages (Taupye and Thabala) and one semi-urban area (Serowe) in Botswana's Central District. The aim was to characterize, using rapid appraisal techniques, value chain actors' knowledge, practices, structure and performance.The survey included focus group discussions and individual interviews with farmers, butchers, supermarkets and consumers and discussion of the results with stakeholders in February 2013.Enterprise gross margin is computed as total revenue accruing to the enterprise, less total variable expenses incurred by the enterprise. Not all farmers sell cattle every year, so gross margin computation for a single year may be negative if the farmer used purchased inputs and sold nothing. Thus, gross margin calculations are only for illustrative purposes; we cannot infer that some farmers are profitable and others are not.Gross margin by livestock herd size is found to vary positively with livestock herd size. Exceptions are herd sizes 51-100 head and 100-200 head, which recorded lower gross margins than some of smaller herd sizes. Gross margins are negative for those owning less than 20 animals.Farmers' discussion groups identified the following factors as constraints on financial performance:  Limited numbers of veterinary officers to provide sales permits; Technical problems with the bolus, such as read errors and double insertion. The following two problems restrict producers' access to export markets and promote alternative usually lower-priced market channels for cattle. The Botswana Meat Commission's (BMC) monopoly on cattle purchases, making it a local price maker; Exploitation by agents/speculators.Producers claim to be powerless as market decisionmakers, particularly in the face of continuing costs when sales dates are uncertain.Lack of awareness and information about the quality requirements of the markets for beef and small stock, both live animals and meat, is a major problem Despite substantial efforts by the BMC to promote and reward beef quality, the messages seem not to reach producers. For sheep and goats, there is even less information available. This prevents good decisionmaking on topics such as timing of sales, and upsets price negotiations.The following problems directly affect production levels and access to feed on a seasonal basis, thus reducing opportunities to link to market opportunities: Fencing of cultivated lands; Prohibition of integrated farming in some areas.Other constraints identified by livestock producers include animal disease and poor access to drugs and remedies, land and water shortages, high transport costs, and poor access to improved breeds. Many of these issues are the targets of substantial public expenditure so their recurrence among farmers' grievances is of concern.Steps taken by the Competitive Smallholder Livestock in Botswana project include the preparation of a deeper study on producers' financial performance and management decisions, along with identification of key factors affecting them. The project seeks to: better define smallholder livestock production systems and to identify the factors affecting the productivity of smallholder livestock producers and assess their competitiveness  understand and improve conditions for market participation and value addition in markets for livestock, livestock products and inputs  strengthen the capacity of agricultural education and extensionSirak Bahta (s.bahta@cgiar.org) http://botswanalivestock.wordpress.com","tokenCount":"516"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/9379262058.json b/data/part_6/9379262058.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..31885dbf824beffffe8d729faddaa0d9b5c4e666
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3429e7f4a7d449ae0cd974c8ce6fc4a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eed1c4ba-ee46-4ef7-a038-8b7fd208577e/retrieve","id":"386167095"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f0e23b44-0ee3-4484-8945-51aa03139c50","pagecount":"10","content":"There is a limil to the eapacity of any breeding program, and lhe more crosses tha! are made. lhe ,maller the ,izo of each eross. The theory of the optimum numbcr of erosscs in inbrceding crops is brictly reviewed. The !heory is unsatisfactory in detennining the optimum number of crosses, but models lhat take linkage inlo aecounl show Ihat very large populations are needed to recover specified genotypes.Henee, one possible strategy is lo seleel a small number of erosseS lhal are .ansidered favorable and produce large populations from them. This stralegy is idealIy suiled lo Ihe particular ccnstrainls and advantages of participatory plant breeding (PPB). When a breeding program is based on few erosse., lhe choice of parents is crucial ;md [aoner participalory melhods are highly effeclive in narrowing !he choice, Modified bulk-population breeding methods are desirable slralegies in lhe participalory planl breeding of self-pollinaling eraps when combined wilh • low-eross-number .pproach, and a p.rtieipatory breeding program for rice in Nepal ís described.In most, perhaps all, conventional breeding programs for inbred crops on research stations, breeders deal with many crosses each season. Even with fairly Iimited resources many hundreds, or even thousands, ofF 4 or Fslines can be tested. Unless there is considerable researcher input into the layout oftrials in farmers' fields, participatory plant breeding (PPB) has to employ many fewer crosses and entries than conventional or classical breeding. In farmer-designed, farmer-managed trials, each farmer usually grows only one entry (e.g., Joshi and Wítcombe 1996) and the number of particípating farmers thus límits the number of entries. However, a very large population of any entry can be grown, with líttle or no cost, or even wíth a benefit. In PPB, a farmer replaces hís or her cultivar with a population for PPB on land that would normally have been devoted to the crop. The cost ofthis replacement is any decrease in value ofthe harvest caused by the replacement and the benefit ís any increase in harvest value, In contrast, in classícal breeding all the costs of any increase in the area of the cultivated crop are borne by the breeding program. We briefly review the theoretical evidence on the number oY crosses that are required in a breeding progral11-We describe a rice breeding program in Nepal that is using a low-cross-number, hígh-population-size strategy.The optimum number of crosses required in an inbreeding crop was reviewed by Witcombe and Virk (forthcoming) and only a summary is presented here. To calculate the optimum number of crosses, crucial assumptious are required on the rate ofthe inevitable decline in the potential value of each cross as more and more crosses are made. If the decline is very significant (e.g., a few crosses can be identified as having a higher probability of giving desirable segregants than others), then only a few crosses are needed. Ifthe decline cannot be predicled, then many are required. The lack of quantitative data 10 support assumplions on the rate of decline limits Ihe role oftheory in deciding the optimum number of crosses. However, 10 recover specified genotypes, large population sizes are needed that, given a limit to ¡he overall sizc of any breeding program, willlimit the number of crosses. Whether a high-cross-number or a low-cross-number approach should be used depends greatly on the judgment of thc rescarcher as to whether the value of crosses can be predicted with any certainty. In a decentralized breeding program, the target envíronment and the requíred traíts in a finíshed variety are known, and the knowledge of exísting adapted germplasm is considerable. This allows such predietions to be made, so a low-cross-number strategy appears sensible. Many fewer eros ses than are cornmon in most breeding programs will be used, and for all of them there will be logical reasons as to why ¡he cross should have a hígh probabílíty of producing favorable segregants. There will be many fewer crosses than cornmonly suggested from theoretícal calculations that ínvariably assume there is no prior ínformatíon on the value of illIy cross, Le., that al! cr.osses are considered to have an equal chance of success (Yonezawa and Yamagata 1978;Wricke and Weber 1986;Hueho 1996).In a large-cross-number strategy, population sizes are likely to be limited to a few hundred rather than several thousand. In a low-cross-number strategy, population sizes ean be larger and increase the probability that desirable segregants tha! are an improvement over the best parent are recovered. AH that is needed is that the two parents differ significantly for an important trait (a practical certainty) at sorne point in the genome. A segregant tha! has a genome substitution from the other parent al this point will be superior, providing the sum ofthe rest ofthe genome is equal to the best parent The existence of a eros s that canno! give rise to superior segregants is theoretically impossible, although the population size required to recover desirable segregants may be impracticably large. However, ehoosing complementary parents increases the likelihood Ihat there will be a sufficiently high frequency of desirable segregants for thern to be selected.PPB is ideally suited to the strategy ofrigorously selecting parents, using a small number of crosses and employing large populatiQns. Participatory varietal selection (PVS) is the first step in selecting desirable parents. It allows local and introduced germplasm to be evaIuated using participatory approaches; it identifies candidate varieties having suitable traits and determines their acceptability to farmers.A PPB program in an inbreeding crop can start on the basis of one cross or very few crosses. Even with a low-cross-number strategy, the number of crosses eovered will gradually increase over time if one, or a few, new crosses are made each year. This will help to maintain the farmers' interests by a supply of novel germplasm and allows a continuing incorporation of new genetic material from more centraIized breeding programs.Pedigree breeding generates a large number oflines (the selection units) tha! can only be accornmodated with difficulty in a PPB program. The mosl effective rnethods keep the number of selection units to a mínimum, thus allowing one, or an acceptably low number, of selection units per farmer. However, large population sizes can be used because the marginal costs to the program of increasing population size are very low (figure 1). Hence, bulk-population breeding is ideal for PPB, in either its pure form or modified by dividing the population into sub-populations according to farmer-important traíts. Bulk-population approaches have been used with success in classicaJ breeding, e.g., Carver and Bruns (1993) report that 30% ofwheat releas es from a breeding program resulted from bu1k population breeding that took less than 8% of the resources.We are conducting a PPB program in rice, targeted at a [ange of environments in Nepal. These vary from the Terai (alluvíal, low-altítude, fiat land in the southern part ofNepal at about 150 m altitude) in both the main season (sown in June) and the chaite season (sown in February). The breedingprogram is also targeting a range of irrigaled environments up to 1500 m altitude. Only a few crosses have been made during lhe course of this breeding program, which commenced in 1996 wíth two crosses made by lhe International Rice Research Institute (lRRI) at the request of the project and one cross made al the Center for Arid Zone Sturues (CAZS), Bangor, by Dr. D.S. Vírk.AH three crosses ínvolved the upland rice variety Kahnga III as one of the parents. Kalinga II1 was identified in western India in a PVS program (Joshi and Witcombe, 1996). Fanners like it for Íls very short duration and, an unusual traíl for an upland rice variety, íts slender grains. Although it is an upland rice variety adapted to marginal conditions, it is widely adapted even though it was rejected from AH-India Co-ordinated Crop Improvement Program multilocational tríals. It was released for raínfed, drought-prone, cold-susceptible environments only in Orissa, on the basis of trials in that state, but is now widely grown in Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. In PVS trials, it performs extremely well as a chaíle rice in the Nepal Temí under partially irrigated condítions and can be grown as a main-season rice in the low hills ofNepal up to 1000 m under rainfed conditions.One of the erosses made at IRRI was Kalinga III x IR64. IR64 is a longer duration, high-yielding variety adapted to irrigated conditions. At one time it was the most widely grown rice genotype in the world and has occupied the majority ofthe rice-growing area in the Philippines and Indonesia. It has also been released in India forTamil Nadu but is widely grown in other states as wel!, e.g., West Bengal and Haryana. It has wide adaptability, multiple pest and disease resistance, and slender, translucent grains.It is clear that in this low-cross-number strategy, an enormous amount of information is available on the parents. Kalinga III has weak straw and a low yield potential. IR64 has complementary traits: a very high yield potential and it is highly resistant to lodging. It can also contribute pest and disease resistance to Kalinga III, even though this variety has few susceptibilities. In targeting highyield-potential environments, Kalinga III can eontribute earliness to IR64, and beca use of its extreme genetie divergenee from IR64, it is reasonable to expect transgressive segregation for yield in these environments. For the chaite season and somewhat higher-altitude, high-yield environments, Kalinga III contributes cold tolerance.In PPB, an essential part ofthe strategy of selecting appropriate parents is that one ofthem is local!y adapted. Kalinga III has been adopted by farmers for partial!y irrigated conditions in the chaite season. However, it is a niche variety and other eros ses have been made involving lhe most popular chaite rice, CH45, and lhe most popular main-season variety, Masuli.In the early stages of creating the bulk populations, the breeding program for the eros s Kalinga III x IR64 was entirely researcher managed on land rented from a farmer. Initial!y 290 F3 lines ofthe cross were grown in the chaite season of 1998. The progeny rows were highly diverse and they were grouped into six bulks based on their height (tal! or dwarf) and maturity classes (early <110 days seed to seed; medium 110-125 days; and late >125 days). The bulks were named as fol!ows: ED = early dwarf; ET = early tal!; MD = medium dwarf; MT = medium tal!; LD = late dwarf and L T = late tal!. Of these, the performance of the early dwarf proved to be unsatisfactory and it was dropped. Ihe performance of the MI bulk was good but highly variable, so it was further divided into four: MIl = earlier shorter; MI2 = earlier taller; MI3 = later shorter; and MI4 = later tal!er (figure 2).After dropping lhe ED bulk and dividing the MI bulk into four, there were eight bulks. Ihree were then advanced without further division (the two dwarfbulks and the late bulk). However, in five of the bulks, further division was made among the F s seed into grain type, i.e., long, intermediate or short in length. In the F 6 generation, the resultant bulks were grown by researchers and evaluated by farmers (consultative participation). Combinations of maturity and grain types were selected and rejected. For example, in later-maturing bulks that more or less matched the maturity ofCH45, only nonslender types were acceptable. For rice ofthis maturity, the harvest ofwhich coincides with the rains, it is only economic to produce roasted, flattened rice, for which only less-slender-grained varieties are suitable. In contrast, in the earlier groups, al! grain types were acceptable.By the F6 generation the bulks were recognizable by farmers, because most of the plants shared cornmon traits, but the bulks still had significant genetic heterogeneity within them for farmers to be able to make selections. In the chaite season of2000, farmers were given the bulks at the F7 stage and lhe results ofthis farmers' selection wil! be evaluated.As wel! as the modified bulk populations breeding approach, we are al so trying variants of single-seed descent (SSD) such as equal-seed deseen!. In classical breeding programs, SSD is increasingly employed to rapidly and cost-effectively produce homozygous lines. It concentrates Figure 2. An example of rice suh-hulks at the F s stage in the cross Kalinga III x IR64, Chitwan, Octoher 1999. Note the large population sizes (the people in the background are working in the same bulk as the one seen in the foreground) and the two bulks-earlier-maturing bulk MT2 (right) and a later-maturing bulk MT3 (Ieft).seleclion in advaneed generations that are highly homozygous and where selection is more efrcetive thanin earlier, more heterozygous generations (e,g., Delzer, Busch, and Hare1and [1995] and Van Oeveren [1992] in wheat; Fahim et al, [1998J in rice), We have modified SSD to retain even more variation by using equal-rather than single-seed deseent in the earlier selfing generations, It also aUows multiplieation so lhat by the F 5 or F 6 generation, large quantities of seed of each bulk (or sub-bulk) can be supplied lo many fanners, The probability of se1ecling desirable segregants is increased when the entire selection process is replicated across fanners, Participatory techniques mus! complement and caunot replace classical breeding. Somc low-heritabilíty traÍts can only be selected under controlled environments, and modero techniques that facilitate wide crossing, such as embryo reseue, are confined to the laboratory. No single participatory plant breedíng program can hope to screen more than an ínsignificant proportíon ofthe germplasm available in collections of genetic reSOllrces or, for example, attempt to create poplllations with novel resistance traits. Classical breeding is a strategic approach that creates improved parents for Ihe cost-effectíve, adaptive approach of participatory plant breeding.technology generation. Consequently, the ímpact of seven newly released maíze varietíes has been ínsígnificant.It is not surprising lhat most ofthe maize-growing areas in the middle hills ofNepal are covered by the traditional varieties. Either new varielies are no! reachíng a majority offarmers or those farmers with access lO them are not continuing lo use Ihem (Khadka et al. 1993). Pham, Waddington, andCrossa (1989), in lheu review report on the ímpact of germplasm from the Intematíonal Inslitule for Wheat and Maize Improvement (CIMMYT), mentíoned that in most developíng countries, maíze farmers are, by and large, growing the old established landraces.It was Iherefore realízed that it is necessary 10 develop a more efficient and effective approach where researchers, maize breeders, and farmers can work together for a common goal. The need lO bridge Ihe gap between local and scientific knowledge is a necessary prerequisite lo developing an effective maize-improvement strategy. A farmer-participatory approach would involve developing a community-basedadaptive research capacity, achieved by working with groups of farmers, maximizing Ihe use ofrural resources, and utilizing farmers' knowledge in parallel. This approach can bríng farmers' knowledge -(farmers' perspectives) and scienlific ideas (researchers' perspectives) logether (Walker et al. 1997;Sinclair and Walker 1998;Wagner 1993;Joshi 1997). Besides lhe acquisitioo oflocal knowledge, a fuller understandiog oflhe maize-growing environment and how farmers manage scarce resources are major prerequisites for investigation.During the early 1970s, wheo research 00 maize started, Ihere were high expectalions that the development of maize in Nepal would offer better varieties lo farmer •. However it has been realized that Ihe adoption of new varieties by farmers was not as simple as lhe researchers and developmenl workers had thought. The farmer-participatory approach began in response lo lhe inefficient, traditional, top-down approach, where more focus was paid 10 a few researchers' traits of interest ralher Ihan to lhe needs of farmers managing complex and heterogeneous systems.There are many good reasons lo encourage farmers' participation in the process of agricultural research and development (Farrington and Martín 1988;Farrington 1998;Witcombe et al. 1996;Joshi and Witcombe 1996;Witcombe and Joshi 1996;Witcombe and Virk 1997;Sperling and Scheidegger 1995;Sthapit, Joshi, and Witcombe 1996;Subedi, Rana, and Joshí 1997). The complexity of the system i8 only understood by lhe farmers. The traditional approach is deficient both in understanding such systems and in using farmers' talents. The participatory approach will help empower local groups of farmers by enhancing production (through the acceptance of preferred varieties), genetic diversity, and \"togethemess\" (Sperling and Scheidegger 1995;Eyzaguirre and Iwanaga 1996;Chambers and Mascarenhas 1990).As part offarmer-participatory maize improvement, bolh participatory varietal selection (PVS) and participatory planl breeding (PPB) were carried out side-by-side, although the latter is usually initíated when PVS faíls lo identify farmers' preferred genotypes (Witcombe et al. 1996;Joshi and Witcombe 1996). The two activities were carried out al lhe same time in order lO create broad, genelic-based populations simultaneous1y with PVS aclivities so as to offer choices to Ihe farmers as quickly as possible.Fanners' criteria fOf selecting maize genotypes were based on local knowledge. Suítable varietíes were sough! to meet the importan! rraits that were identified as preferred by farmers, particularly those rela!ing to grain size, color and type, plan! height, suitability for agroecologícal niches, and compatibility with the ｳ ｹ ｳ ｴ ･ ｭ ｾ ＠ Varie!ies were selec!ed as suggested by Witcombe et al. (1996) from the releases fOf the same domain (Manakamana-I), for one o!her domain (Arun-l fOf lower hills bu! forthe middle hills a new introduction), and from pre-releases (Population-22 and BA-93-2126#2).Sites were chosen where maize is the important crop fOf household income, in farming systems Ihat were representative in terms of agroenvíronrnental and socioeconomíc conditions, and where ¡here were no political or social obstacles 10 effective researcher-farmer interactions. Marga, Patle and Fakchamara were selected for the farmer-managed, participatory-research (F AMPAR) trials.A total of60 packets (15 of each variety) containing 500 g ofseed were distribuled randomly to 20 farrners at each site to compare with theír local varieties. Therefore, F AMP AR trials of one variety were replicated over five particípating farmers al each site. Farmers were asked lo grow the new varieties alongside their local variety in the same field and under the same management conditions. However, fields for the F AMP AR trials were to be selected mutually by farmers and researchers for their representativeness (not too sloping, not too marginal or too fertile, and with sorne degree of tree shade, if possíble). Periodic farm visits and interactions wíth farmers were made so as to observe performance of varieties at different stages. Assessments of the pre-harvest traits of test varieties were made by joint visits between researchers and farmers to each participating farmer's fields. A wide range of issues, covering field management and performance ofvarieties in the complex and heterogeneous environrnent, were discussed. F arrners' observations of experimental varietíes and their own local varieties were discussed at greater length and were recorded using household•level questionnaires (HLQs). Farmers were asked to harvest both new and local varieties separately and to measure grain yield using their local measurement uruts. They were also requested to store the harvests separately usíng existing practices and to assessievaluate other postharvest characteristics, such as grit-to-flour ratio, graín type and color, cooking quality, taste, and market value. They were also asked to assess fodder quality. AIso as part of the PVS program, demonstration trials were conducted in five different sites (Marga, Patle, Fakchamara, Murtidhunga, and Parewadin). The same four FAMPAR varieties were given to one farmer at each site to grow together with hislher local variety for comparison; 500 g of seed of each variety was given to mrmers to grow on their own farms.Group visits were organized to see F AMP AR trials in the field grown by indívidual farmers in various growing conditíons. The performance ofthe FAMPAR varieties was assessedjointly, and final!y, farmers were brought to see varietal demonstrations to compare al! varieties at one site. At the end of the session, focus-group discussions were organized and views were collected as per questionnaires developed for the discussions. Male and female farrners were grouped separately and discussions were initiated accordingly. Based on the performance ofF AMP AR varieties, farmers were asked to rank the varieties.","tokenCount":"3279"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/9403753964.json b/data/part_6/9403753964.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cbcc1125bca6fd19107e0d4d9a96ec0e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/705bc659-fb5d-4d53-ba35-cc79f85fc97b/retrieve","id":"272002234"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b329f263-4935-47b0-b1cd-68ad71ae6ada","pagecount":"53","content":"The project 'Managing trypanocide resistance in the cotton zone of West Africa: A co-ordinated regional study' seeks to ensure the future efficacy of trypanocides as an effective component of improved integrated trypanosomosis control strategies in the region. To achieve this goal, national research and development institutions, international and regional research centres, and German universities are working in partnership to develop farm-level and regional strategies for reducing the risk of trypanocide resistance. The emphasis is on improving informational and technical supports to farmers, service providers, veterinary professionals and policy-makers that will promote integrated control and rational trypanocide use to reduce the long-term risk of resistance, without compromising the ability of livestock keepers to protect their livestock from the debilitating effects of trypanosomosis.It should not be forgotten that vector control has always been a minority option. Less than 2% of tsetse infested land has been cleared by vector control since the 1970s and trypanocides remain the dominant strategy for disease management. 3 The emergence of resistance to trypanocides threatens this lead strategy and prompts the reappraisal of trypanosomosis control.In this context, a regional project 'Improving the management of drug resistance in the cotton zone of West Africa: A coordinated regional approach' 4 aims to safeguard trypanocides in order to sustain and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in West Africa. One of the objectives is the evaluation of 'best-bet' strategies for the management of trypanosomosis in areas under risk of resistance. In Burkina Faso, two strategies are being assessed, community-based vector control and training of farmers in Rational Drug Use (RDU). 5 Many participatory vector control projects have taken place in Burkina Faso and in none has control survived the departure of the project. It was hypothesized that a higher level of participation would improve long-term viability, and the current project emphasized farmer analysis, farmer decision-making (including freedom to take actions seen by technical advisors as wrong or inadvisable), farmer payment for running costs and rapid phase-out of active project intervention. All financial support ended after six months and communities are now entirely responsible for organizing, carrying out and financing activities. Project staff remain to give advice and to measure the effectiveness, impact and viability of the strategies. Two months after the handover of vector control to farmers the participatory evaluation described here was carried out in each of the four villages.The integrated approach followed by the project had two lead interventions: support to community-based vector control and training of farmers in the Rational Use of Drugs. 8 Each intervention comprised a 'basket of choices' of different tactics. During a participatory planning workshop (described in working paper 3 in this series), farmers analysed these options and chose those they felt were most suited to their needs and means.Screens are pieces of cloth treated with insecticide to kill flies. At the planning workshop, farmers had a choice of whether to use screens and, if so, the number of screens to use and the number of treatments to give.Traps are cloth constructions which attract and kill tsetse flies. They cost more than screens but have been recommended as superior to screens (because farmers can see the dead flies in the traps encouraging them to continue control).Animal baits: Animals treated with insecticide attract and kill tsetse. Insecticides are applied as a dilute solution sprayed on the animal using pumps or a more concentrated formula poured on the back of the animal (pour-on). Sprays need to be applied more frequently, and require water and spraying apparatus; the process of spraying takes several minutes and is sometimes resented by the animal. Pour-ons are easy and quick to apply, no equipment is needed, and applications are less frequent.Training in Rational Drug Use: Trypanocides are the most widely used strategy for trypanosomosis control and the great majority of treatments are given by farmers. Incorrect use of trypanocides lessens effectiveness, wastes money and fosters chemo-resistance.The farmers ranked their preference for the different interventions; the results are summarized in Table 1 below.Traps were not chosen. From the beginning, farmers reported cost was a major issue and the much higher cost of traps relative to screens was considered to outweigh the advantage of direct monitoring of fly-kill.Screens were chosen by all villages, but, reflecting pre-occupations with cost, all villages chose a minimalist strategy where screens were placed only in areas of high risk and re-treated with insecticide only once a year, rather than the more intensive and more effective approaches using larger numbers of screens and more frequent treatments, which had been used in previous projects.Three villages chose to use insecticide sprays on cattle which, though more difficult to use, are much less expensive than pour-ons. One village chose to treat cattle with pour-ons, however, after the first treatment they switched to sprays, as they found pour-ons were too expensive.All villages chose training in Rational Drug Use. Village experts chosen by the villagers using criteria agreed by the project attended a 7-day residential course. In addition, animal health clinics were held in the villages, open to all farmers. During these clinics, practical training was given on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Previous projects on vector control had concentrated on developing and demonstrating technical efficacy. In these, strategies for vector control were chosen by project 'experts' using technical criteria and monitoring focused on epidemiological and entomological parameters. 9 The projects showed that vector control was technically effective; however, long-term adoption was never achieved. Our ex ante appraisal of strategies by farmers found that they traded off technical efficacy against cost and preferred strategies that were less effective but more affordable. Farmers are more interested in improving the use of their existing strategies (use of medicines) than in novel strategies (screens and pour-ons).During the participatory evaluation farmers assessed the strategies they had chosen. It can be seen in Table 2 that order of preference was little changed from the ex ante appraisal, supporting the principle that farmers are good judges of which strategies will prove most acceptable to them. Rational Drug Use interventions were more preferred than community-based vector control interventions. This may reflect community doubts over the sustainability or benefits of vector control. The only change in ranking from the ex ante appraisal was in the respective positions of sprays and screens. Screens were preferred ex ante but after experience with control, sprays were preferred. Enthusiasm and interest in new technologies may have led farmers to over-value this approach in the ex ante assessment. However, when farmers rank sprays, it is likely that they are ranking sprays for combined tick and tsetse control rather than for tsetse control alone. Further exploration showed that farmers have a high willingness to use sprays at times of the year when ticks are a problem, but a much lower willingness to use sprays when ticks are not a problem. Many farmers will not use sprays to control tsetse, but will use sprays to control tsetse as well as other ectoparasites.Box 2: Resistance to trypanocides Chemo-resistance is the ability of pathogens to survive exposure to a defined concentration of an antimicrobial substance. Resistance to antimicrobials is an ineluctable natural phenomenon; resistance has existed since before the introduction of antimicrobials to medicine and occurs to all substances used in non-negligible amounts. Resistance is fostered by high quantity and poor quality of use, particularly by under-dosage of drugs and irregular treatment intervals. While high quantity of use may be justified, poor quality of use is invariably counter-productive.Resistance to trypanocides has been reported since the 1920s 10 and is of growing importance. The most widely used animal trypanocides-diminazene aceturate (DIM) and isometamidium chloride (ISMM)-are nearly half a century old and resistance to these is now widespread. Given the high cost of new drug development (estimates vary from USD 200 to 800 million) 11 and the low value of the African market for trypanocides (USD 20 to 40 million), new products are unlikely to be developed in the short term.Resistance to trypanocides can reach very high levels, up to 100% of isolates in some studies; multiple drug resistance has been reported from more than eight countries, including Burkina Faso. Guidelines for managing resistance to trypanocides have been developed, but have yet to be widely disseminated or meaningfully applied, and awareness and understanding of the issue remain limited.There was a high level of participation by farmers in vector control implemented with project support, with the great majority of farmers being involved in the treatment and placement of screens and in the synchronized spraying of animals. This resulted in good rates of placement and recovery of screens: all screens were placed and 99% of screens were retrieved before the rainy season. Participation in spraying varied from a maximum of 88% of all cattle (season of high tick infestation and subsidized insecticides) to a minimum of 44% of cattle (low tick infestation and full cost recovery of insecticide).Participation can occur at many levels and practitioners have recommended that the term should always be qualified by indicating the level of participation. Several frameworks exist for this and Table 3 gives an example adapted for community-based vector control. A review of previous community-based projects in Burkina Faso revealed that participation was at the lower levels of participation (enquiring, paid-for or at best functional participation) and it was hypothesized that this contributed to the observed low levels of sustainability. In the current project, higher level participation was intended and the assessment by farmers suggests that this was largely achieved. Farmers were asked to identify the actor in charge of different stages of the project, and responses were classified as 'outsiders' (project staff, state veterinary services, CIRDES staff etc.) or as 'villagers' (farmers, local leaders, paraveterinarians etc.). Table 4 shows the responses of farmers in villages where the current project is working compared to the responses of farmers in villages where previous lower-level participatory projects had worked. Proponents argue that participation is not only a moral obligation to beneficiaries, but also a more effective way of doing development. We found that process indicators for participation in vector control in this project were higher than in previous projects in Burkina Faso using less participatory methods, implying that highlevel participatory approaches are more effective than low-level participatory approaches (Table 5). Participation has advantages but is not a panacea, as the lack of long-term duration of participatory vector control amply demonstrates. Some problems with participation are due to lack of understanding of the methodology or lack of incentives to apply it. However, other problems seem intrinsic to the methodology. Factors which negatively influenced the quality and quantity of participatory products in this project were:Partial participation: Communities are heterogeneous and sub-groups within communities have different interests in, and capabilities for, participation. In the case of vector control, livestock-rich farmers benefit more than livestock-poor, also women and those without livestock receive indirect and less important benefits. We found that livestock-rich farmers participated significantly more than livestock-poor ( = 0.001). Partial participation and inequality in benefit distribution can reduce both sustainability and impact.Participation has opportunity costs and may not be affordable for the poorest and the busiest. Our evaluation took place at the end of the harvest season and farmers had to leave this work to attend the meeting. During some evaluations, other communal activities were taking place at the same time, for example, road building and school meetings. The costs of participation place a burden on all and will inevitably exclude some, again reducing sustainability and impact.Participation as negotiation: Participatory evaluations, like all participatory processes, are an arena for negotiation where discourse is a means of influence and expression as much as a means of providing information. In the initial phase, we found that problem and solution identification were heavily influenced by communities' expectations and experience of development. Similarly, information contributed by communities in the evaluation was not a value-free presentation of objective facts, but coloured by communities' satisfaction with project activities and their desire for the project to continue. This probably led to an over-statement of the benefits of the project.Normative bias: In public events, construction of knowledge is influenced by accepted norms and existing patterns of power. People are reluctant to discuss or admit to deviations from socially desirable behaviour. For example, communities reported that all farmers were involved in some activities, while project records revealed participation, although high, was less than 100%. We found that contentious issues such as unwillingness to participate and unwillingness-to-pay were better dealt with in informal community groups or one-to-one dialogue than in the public process of PRA.In total, 161 farmers from four villages participated in the evaluations (Table 6). This was similar to the attendance at the planning workshop (166 farmers participating), and shows a continuing high level of interest in community-based control. There was an average of 1 participant for every 1.3 cattle-keeping households, a level of participation that compares well with that reported in other community-based projects.  The stakeholder assessment was carried out over five days-one day for planning and practice and one day for evaluation in each of the four villages. The project team consisted of a veterinarian, the three animators working in the project villages and two sociologists. The evaluation was open to all villagers interested, and a total of 161 participated.A mixture of tools was used for assessment focusing on the central issues of a) integrating control innovations with current practice, b) evaluating impacts of control and c) assessing long-term viability of control.(Technical effectiveness of control and impacts on animal health and production are being concurrently measured by conventional epidemiological techniques, but results are not yet available for analysis.) In participatory evaluations, indicators are chosen by communities and the criteria we used were those which communities had identified as most important and relevant for them. For example, in the participatory planning workshop, farmers had used Pairwise Comparison Matrices to list and rank the benefits anticipated from vector control, and these indicators were used in assessing the impact of vector control. Sustainability indicators were based on the findings of farmer researchers who visited other participatory projects in Burkina Faso.Analyses followed core PRA principles of visual analysis, semi-structured discussions, appropriate imprecision and group work.Photo-cards were used in most of the analyses with pictures taken in the villages (Figure 1). Farmers found these easy to understand and enjoyable to use. At the end of the analysis the participants interrogated the results (Figure 2). An advantage of visual methods of evaluation is that all participants can see the totality of the analysis. This allows rectification of mistakes and acts as a summary of the findings, facilitating learning and reflection. Evaluations started with traditional greetings and presentation of all participants. Afterwards the objectives of the evaluation were agreed in plenary. It was emphasized that the evaluation was an opportunity for joint reflection on the strong points, weak points and impacts of vector control. It would help the communities assess for themselves the costs and efforts needed for control and the benefits of control, and to decide if it was in their interests to continue with control (sustainability of control). Finally, it was a time to discuss problems encountered and collectively seek solutions.Participants were divided into three groups: opinion leaders, livestock-rich farmers and livestock-poor farmers. In one village (Mbie) there were not livestock rich farmers and only two groups were formed, and for some analyses just one group. This increased the level of participation; when groups are smaller, more people can contribute. It also prevented the discussion being dominated by high-status participants (opinion leaders) and allowed differences between groups to emerge and be assessed.Each group carried out the same analyses allowing comparison between groups and triangulation. If analyses took longer than anticipated, then some analyses were omitted in order to give participants the time they needed. After the group analyses there was time for general discussion, conclusions and recommendations. At the end, the project team and participants ate together, followed by a traditional closing ceremony.In the evening, the project team met to discuss the process of facilitation, clarify and plan for the next day.5 Integrated control of trypanosomosisThe first analysis looked at how farmers integrated the control innovations introduced by the project with their existing strategies of trypanosomosis control. Farmers first listed their different options for control, showing a wide repertoire of strategies. These were grouped in three categories: use of trypanotolerant animals, 1 reducing susceptibility to disease and use of medicines.To these existing or endogenous strategies the project added vector-control innovations (exogenous strategies) treating cattle with insecticide sprays or pour-on, and screens treated with insecticide. The project also supported the existing strategies of use of medicine by farmers and reduction of susceptibility to disease by giving training on Rational Use of Drugs, nutrition and other diseases.After identifying strategies, farmers used stones or objets trouvés to indicate the proportion of farmers using the different strategies. Participants then indicated whether use of the strategy was likely to increase, decrease or stay the same in the future (Table 7).  This analysis showed a high level of integration of strategies: with the exceptions of pour-on insecticides and risk avoidance, most farmers used all control strategies. Farmers were most confident about continuing with medicines and trypanotolerant animals. The level of adoption of the exogenous vector-control strategies was high for screens and sprays. Pour-ons, however, were not adopted or considered to be likely to be used in the future. This option was not popular because of its high cost; only one village had decided to use pour-ons and they had stopped after the first month.For farmers, integrating several strategies rather than relying on one may be a way of reducing risks. However, integration has drawbacks as well as advantages. Farmer perception that other disease control strategies will continue to be needed in the future reduces the incentives for adopting vector control.Farmers went on to evaluate strategies according to the parameters they had earlier defined as most important for them, following the participatory principle of selection of evaluation criteria by the primary stakeholders. These criteria were efficacy, ease of use and low cost or affordability.The project innovations of screens and sprays were regarded as having the highest level of efficacy but lowest level of ease of use and affordability, not a good augur for sustainability.Use of medicines was an attractive strategy. Diminazene aceturate (DIM) scored highest for ease of use and affordability, and medium for efficacy. ISMM scored worse than DIM on all three dimensions, consistent with farmers report that DIM is used by 100% of farmers and ISMM by 38%. The moderate ratings for efficacy are consistent with the fail rate of ISMM of nearly 40% and that of DIM, nearly 20%, found in chemo-resistance studies. Medicines are used even though farmers are aware of poor efficacy; comparison with other strategies suggests they will continue to be used even at considerably higher levels of resistance. For example, the strategy of trypanotolerant animals was used by a majority of farmer even though it was seen as not very effective.The main way of avoiding risk in these villages is watering the animals at dams or pumps instead of the river. This is regarded as only moderately effective, which is logical as it is not always possible to avoid tsetse especially in the rainy season when fly habitats expand. In terms of ease of use and affordability, farmers said dams would be very easy to use and affordable if they existed, but to construct them would be neither easy nor affordable, hence the low ranking given. Watering large herds at village pumps is not practical and none of the livestock-rich farmers were able to adopt this strategy.Use of trypanotolerant cattle is easy and affordable, but not regarded as very effective. The fact that trypanosomosis occurs in trypanotolerant animals (although the disease is much milder) may have led farmers to give a low efficacy rating to this strategy. The first phase of the project found that the prevalence of trypanosomosis in trypanotolerant animals was broadly comparable to that in Zebus. 13 Livestock wealth did not have a large influence on ranking; the main difference being that livestock-poor farmers regarded trypanotolerant cattle as being more effective but less easy and less affordable. This can be explained by the different farming systems. Livestock-rich farmers keep female animals and a mixture of trypanotolerant cattle and Zebus; they can easily and cheaply change the herd composition by selective breeding. Small farmers do not have cows and to change the herd composition they must buy trypanotolerant animals, which is expensive and not always easy. It can be seen that there is no one best-bet strategy; each method has advantages and disadvantages and the blend of strategies chosen will vary with individual needs and capabilities, as well as the changing external context.We went on to look in more detail at the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy. This showed that farmers have an excellent understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of different control strategies; the level of adoption of a strategy depends on trade-offs between benefits and costs. Thus adoption choices represent a dynamic equilibrium that flexibly shifts with changing incentives and disincentives, be they economic, sociocultural, epidemiological or environmental.Strategies with major advantages and tolerable disadvantages are used by all farmers. For example, all farmers use DIM because it works, is widely available and the cost relative to the negative impacts of the disease is low. ISMM, which is more expensive and less effective, is used by fewer farmers.Gives protection (short duration)Disincentives to adoption Some products are ineffectiveMedicine not available in the villageFor strategies which have more disadvantages, the level of adoption represents a point of equilibrium in the trade-off between advantages and disadvantages. For example, the main advantage of trypanotolerant animals (disease resistance) is balanced against their poor profitability, perceived lower production and temperament less suited to draft or herding. No farmers used keeping trypanotolerant animals as their only strategy for disease management although this was an option open to all, and a reasonably effective one.For other strategies, adoption was constrained by external factors beyond the control of farmers. For example, farmers know that using pumps and dams for watering animals (instead of the streams where tsetse flies are found) will reduce the disease. Use of this strategy is limited by the low availability of water infrastructure suitable for use by animals and the prohibitively high cost of building it.This analysis indicates that some strategies are already optimized given the constraints of environment and farmer resources. If strategies are optimized for the prevailing conditions, there is little place for project interventions.The strategies which farmers used widely at present and thought would be most important in the future, namely use of medicines and trypanotolerant cattle, were further explored. Farmers carried out a visioning analysis to describe the future herd structure (Table 9). This found that villagers anticipated a large increase in  Use of trypanotolerant animals is a potential solution to the problem of resistance. However, it seems that even at the very high levels of resistance present in the project villages (40% failure of ISMM and nearly 20% failure of DIM) are not sufficient to incentivize a general shift back to pure trypanotolerant animals given their other perceived disadvantages. However, one group of farmers (livestock-rich) in one village with high levels of resistance (Sokouraba) did foresee an increase in pure trypanotolerant cattle.Use of medicines was also looked at in more depth. Many different medicines are used for trypanosomosis control. These can be divided into three categories.Diminazene aceturate (DIM) is a modern trypanocide of proven efficacy which is used as a curative when individual animals are sick. Many generics are available and, for some of these, product quality is believed to be a problem.Isometamidium chloride (ISMM) is also a modern trypanocide which is used mainly as a preventativegiving protection for 2 to 3 months. Only two generics are available and quality is less of a problem. However, chemo-resistance is more severe than for DIM, probably linked to its longer persistence in treated animals.Antibiotics are not effective against trypanosomosis but tetracycline injections may have some beneficial effects if other diseases are present. Tetracycline capsules for human use are widely available on the informal market and frequently used for animals. These are administered orally or dissolved in water and injected. Given orally, they are ineffective as they are inactivated by rumen micro-organisms; given as an injection, they may be effective against secondary infections (but evidence for this is lacking).Tetracyclines are particularly sensitive to light and heat; many products sold have been exposed to both for long periods and are probably ineffective.Two categories of tablets are widely available: anti-worm drugs and minerals. Farmers do not know brand names and use colour to distinguish tablets-green tablets are most likely to contain albendazole,The major types of trypanotolerant cattle are Hamitic Longhorns (N'Dama) and Shorthorns (several breeds including Baoulé). Recent molecular genetic studies revealed an origin within the African continent for trypanotolerant cattle. 14 The Métis is defined variously with some authors considering it a stable breed formed from crossing Zebu and trypanotolerant cattle, and others using it as a synonym of cross-breed to refer to first generation crosses between Zebus and trypanotolerant breeds. In recent decades, Zebu cattle have expanded southwards, N'Dama populations have grown, and crossing of Zebu and trypanotolerant cattle has increased. 15 There has been concern that farmer preference for Métis will result in the loss of trypanotolerant genes and there is evidence for increasing genetic introgression of Zebu into trypanotolerant populations.orange tablets to contain levamisole, yellow tablets to contain levamisole or tetramisole, white tablets to contain oxfendazole or vitamins, grey and brown tablets to contain minerals; it was not always possible to ascertain which tablets were used. However, neither anti-worm drugs nor vitamins are effective against trypanosomosis, but as for antibiotics, may help if other diseases are present. (Iron may be of some use in case of anaemia and has been marketed as an adjunct to trypanosomosis treatment.) Tablets are generally sold without the original packaging and are easy to fake, so, as for tetracyclines, it is possible that drugs given may not contain active ingredients.Many different traditional medicines are used and it is plausible that some contain active principles but there has been little research on traditional medicines and as yet no clear evidence of efficacy.Table 10 reports the share of farmers participating in the evaluation using different types of drugs to control trypanosomosis. The most widely used drug, DIM, is also the most effective; farmer attitude in preferring DIM is rational. ISMM is less widely used. This is also rational: experts recommend that when resistance is widespread, prophylactic treatments with ISMM should be discontinued and only clinically sick animals treated. 16 Traditional medicines are used widely and confidently; in light of this, their efficacy deserves further investigation. However, it should be borne in mind that many farmers also use modern drugs which have no efficacy against trypanosomosis, so use cannot be taken as an indicator of efficacy. Tetracycline injection 3% 44%The effect of using non-trypanocidal drugs, whether modern or traditional, depends on the accuracy of farmer of diagnosis. If farmer diagnosis is correct, use of non-trypanocidal drugs will result in financial loss to the farmer (price of drug and avoidable losses from disease). If the diagnosis is incorrect and the drug chosen is, by chance, active against the disease actually present, then cures may be obtained. In either case, there will be no effects on the development of resistance to trypanocides. Ongoing studies carried out by this project indicate that farmer diagnosis is relatively accurate.Livestock-poor farmers are more likely to use ineffective modern medicines (antibiotics and tablets). They have less expertise than livestock-rich farmers and less interaction with veterinary services. Informal market sellers often incorrectly recommend tablets as a treatment for trypanosomosis and livestock-poor farmers are more likely to follow this advice, especially as tablets are easier to give than the trypanocidal drugs, which need to be injected.Traditional medicines are used more by livestock-rich farmers. In one village (Sokouraba), none of the livestock-poor farmers (many of which have often only recently started to keep cattle) knew how to prepare traditional medicines, but said they would use them if they knew how to. In this village, all the livestock-rich farmers used traditional medicines, suggesting that communication even within villages can be problematic.ISMM (a preventative drug, recommended for herd treatment) is used more by livestock-poor farmers. For livestock-rich farmers, it would be very expensive to treat all the animals in the herd, and treatments are usually restricted to the most valuable animals. For farmers with a small number of draft animals, prophylaxis• is more affordable and also more urgent, as they do not have surplus animals they can use if their cattle fall sick.Effectiveness, ease of use and cost of drugs Farmers went on to analyse the efficacy, ease of use and cost of drugs (Table 11). In terms of efficacy, modern trypanocides are seen as most effective in nearly all villages, with DIM scoring higher than ISMM. Interestingly, traditional medicines are seen to be relatively ineffective, they were regarded as equally or less effective than tablets and tetracycline, which have no trypanocidal properties. However, traditional medicines score high on low cost and ease of use. In only one village did farmers report problems in obtaining and preparing the products. The inappropriate modern medicines for trypanosomosis (i.e. tablets and tetracycline capsules) were also regarded by the farmers as relatively ineffective. But, they scored highly on ease of use. These products are given orally unlike the effective modern trypanocides which must be reconstituted with water and injected.The ranking of costs in Table 11 was the same for all four villages showing that farmers are well informed on price differentials. The ranks correspond to the prices of the products based on market surveys (shown in Table 12) in which visits were made to 4 of the 10 veterinary practices in the area and prices ascertained. This triangulation supports the accuracy of farmer ranking. For farmers, the ideal medication would be a one-dose oral preparation that is effective, inexpensive and can be obtained in the village. In the absence of such a product, farmers are likely to continue to use ineffective products that have other desirable properties such as low cost, widespread availability and ease of administration, as well as the more effective products. 6 Costs of integrated vector controlControlling trypanosomosis has costs which are often considerably greater than the cash costs of control inputs as measured in most financial assessments of vector control projects. Full opportunity costs, or costs of exchange, include not only price of the control inputs but also the transaction costs of obtaining these. 17 While price is relatively easy to determine, defining transaction costs is much more elusive. Furthermore, unlike input prices which tend to be constant over contiguous areas, transaction costs can vary widely within and between groups and individuals, depending on location, knowledge, skills, networks, institutional setting and other contextual factors. They are especially important for strategies which require the creation and maintenance of new institutions, as is the case for community-based vector control.Analyses based on input cost can be useful in calculating benefit:cost ratios and programme efficiency, but for the evaluation of long-term viability and adoption, transaction costs must also be considered.The five strategies used for controlling trypanosomosis vary greatly in costs. Moreover, some strategies have multiple objectives, for example, sprays are used for tick control, making it difficult to estimate how much of the cost should be billed to trypanosomosis management.Trypanotolerant cattle: Trypanotolerant cattle cost less than trypanosusceptible cattle. In the project villages, a pure trypanotolerant ox can cost as little as USD 150 and a pure Zebu as much as USD 300, although the average difference is less; more detailed studies have found on average the price of trypanotolerant cattle to be 20-30% less than that of a Zebu of similar condition. 18 Trypanotolerant cattle are never bought as a deliberate strategy of control; however, trypanosomosis-control considerations can influence the choice of breed. In the KAP study, 97% of farmers had Métis or Baoulé but only 65% of farmers said they kept trypanotolerant cattle as a deliberate strategy of trypanosomosis management. For livestock-rich farmers whose herds generally contain breeding stock, having some trypanotolerant animals can change the breed profile of their herds without having to buy-in animals.Decreasing susceptibility to infection: Farmers can decrease exposure to infection by avoiding high-risk areas; increasing the nutrition and general health of their cattle will also decrease the severity of disease. Cash costs of these strategies are difficult to estimate. For a nutritional supplementation strategy, an ongoing household study by the project suggests that costs are three to four times that spent on trypanosomosis control. Salt is the major purchased nutritional input and acaricides, wormers and antibiotics the main veterinary products. Again, only a small, and hard to attribute, fraction of this expense can be assigned to trypanosomosis control.Medicines: DIM, which is the most widely-used trypanocide, costs from FCFA 200 to 500 (USD 0.40-1.00) per dose depending on brand and source, and ISMM from FCFA 400 to 800 (USD 0.80-1.60). Farmers estimated that they spend on average USD 41 annually for trypanosomosis control for their herd before the project (USD 16 for livestock-poor and USD 150 for livestock-rich); after the interventions of vector control and training in RDU, this decreased to USD 24.Animal baits: Using the minimalist approach to vector control, cattle received four additional treatments with insecticide per year. These treatments were given at times when ticks were not a problem, and so had no effect on tick control, hence all the cost of spraying can be assigned to tsetse control. (Spraying animals at times during the tick season is left out of this analysis, resulting in an underestimation of the costs of control.)The weighted average cost for additional treatments is USD 4.25 (USD 18 for rich farmers, USD 1.5 for poor).Transaction costs include the costs of creating, maintaining, using and changing institutions and organizations. Applied to the transfer of property rights and establishment or transfer of contract rights, they include the costs of information, negotiation, monitoring and enforcement. 17Screens: Low-cost screens using cheap material were used. These cost USD 2 each and 50 to 70 were placed in each village; we assume that 10% of screens need replacement each year. Screens were treated once per year with insecticide and left in place for six months. Insecticide costs USD 18 per litre-1 litre can treat 20-25 screens. So, the cost of screens plus initial impregnation is USD 4 per farmer. In fact the project met the start-up costs of control (purchase of screens and initial impregnation) and the cost to the farmer was USD 1.A transaction cost common to all control strategies is the cost of acquiring information about the strategy and learning to apply it. This is higher for new and technically complex strategies (animal baits and screens) than for widely-used strategies (medicines, trypanotolerant breeds). Costs will be less for strategies that are consonant with belief systems (treating cattle to protect them) than for strategies that are incongruent with existing beliefs (treating cattle to kill flies). Strategies which require input purchase (trypanotolerant cattle, improving nutrition/health, medicines, animal baits and screens) have transaction costs associated with obtaining and transporting these inputs. (These vary considerably, even for the same strategy, for example, oxytetracycline capsules are available in every village and have little bulk, so the transaction costs of obtaining and using these are low, whereas insecticides for treating cattle and screens are only available in large conurbations, are more bulky and difficult to transport, and more laborious and dangerous to apply.)In addition to generic transaction costs, specific strategies have unique costs:Medicines cannot legally be sold without a prescription or administered by farmers. Illegality of the transaction results not only in higher prices, but also in additional difficulties in obtaining medicines and the information on how to use them.Treating cattle with insecticides is only effective if the majority of farmers treat animals, and if treatments are synchronized. This requires building and maintaining community organizations, which can schedule spraying and monitor and enforce compliance.Screens are a local public good which are enjoyed and provided by the community at large. Provision of screens also requires building and maintaining community organizations. In this case, they must not only organize and monitor activities, but also collect, spend and account for the money of farmers who contribute-often even more problematic.Rigorous methodologies for assessing the transaction costs of trypanosomosis control are lacking. Distance from markets has been used as a proxy for transaction costs of obtaining inputs, 19 but is not entirely satisfactory as veterinary inputs have low-volume and low-bulk and farmers rarely make special journeys to buy products, instead purchasing them when their other business brings them to towns. The entire cost of the journey therefore cannot be assigned to the purchase of veterinary medicines.Time spent in seeking information, in negotiating, monitoring and enforcing communal vector-control agreements, and in carrying out community activities is also a transaction cost. These activities required on average 7.5 days for livestock-rich farmers and 4.5 days for livestock-poor farmers.An idea of the cost of establishing and maintaining community institutions can be inferred from the social pressure needed to enforce participation in community structures. Community-based vector control is a public good; for the individual the most profitable action is to 'free-ride' and enjoy benefits without contributing to its costs. We found that ensuring payments required large amounts of social pressure and well-developed social networks, through which this pressure can be applied. A combination of persuasion, threats, shame-based sanctions and seizure of property was used to enforce contributions. The effort and unpleasantness associated with this are considerable, but difficult to quantify (Box 5). (This also shows the need for local ownership of vector-control; it would be difficult, and perhaps unethical, for external agents to use these force majeur methods to extract payments from poor farmers.)These transaction costs are qualitatively summarized in Table 13. As mentioned above, quantitative values are difficult to assign and will vary between villages and individuals. For obtaining inputs, the price of public transport to the large towns is indicative of transaction costs and, for time spent in control activities, the cost of a day's labour is a proxy. The former varies from USD 2-3, depending on the village, and the latter from USD 1-2.Full opportunity costs of control (consisting of prices of inputs and transaction costs of obtaining and delivering them) were not directly assessed by farmers in the participatory evaluation. Instead a qualitative assessment was carried out in which the efficacy, ease of use and affordability of different strategies were ranked. 'Ease of use' is taken as a global and unitary proxy for transaction costs as perceived by farmers.Chart 1 shows how farmers ranked the strategies. A rank of 1 indicates the highest rating and 6 the lowest.For example screens are seen as the most effective strategy, the easiest and cheapest is the use of curative trypanocides.It can be seen that strategies which are easy to use (low transaction costs) are also low cost (low price). This combination is very attractive to farmers and likely to result in their continuing use even if efficacy ratings are less attractive. Transaction costs do not necessarily parallel prices, and the high correlation between ease of use and low cost may be biased by the method of payment. For example, farmers ranked screens as more expensive than sprays, whereas in fact screens are slightly less expensive than sprays (USD 0.25 less expensive). However, screens are paid for communally and pressure had to be placed on farmers to contribute for screens, while sprays are paid for individually and payments are voluntary, this may have resulted in sprays being perceived as cheaper.Low cost and ease of use were inversely related to efficacy; remember that farmers had already indicated in their choice of strategy that affordability and not efficacy was their over-riding concern, suggesting that the low-price, low-transaction cost control strategies such as drug use, are the most attractive to farmers.Box 5: Social efforts needed to ensure participation in paying for vector controlIn one village, the head man issued a fiat 'If you do not pay, you do not continue to live in this village' .In another village, the community group responsible for control seized the chickens and goats of defaulters, who had to pay before getting them back.In two villages, someone was appointed to go around 'reminding' defaulters of payments due.In another village, the head shamed farmers into contributing, saying 'If you do not pay, I will pay myself the amount. How can I tell her (the project organizer), the next time she comes here, that the people of Sokouraba refused to pay, and there will be no more project interventions. ' Farmers are currently managing trypanosomosis, mainly through the use of drugs and trypanotolerant animals, and, assuming rationality, the perceived benefits must be greater than the perceived costs. Farmers report that they spent on average USD 41 for medicines annually (USD 16 for livestock-poor and USD 150 for livestock-rich). The perceived costs of the strategy of trypanotolerant cattle are more difficult to estimate, but may be equated to the income foregone by not using more productive and profitable trypanosusceptible cattle. While many studies on comparative production exist, a simpler indicator of farmer perception of this cost is the higher market price of trypanosusceptible over the Métis that farmers currently use, found to be 15% in the study by Kamuanga et al. cited above. Combining costs for medicines and foregone income from using trypanotolerant cattle suggests current control is probably costing farmers several hundred dollars per year. Integrating existing control with new strategies (in this case, vector control) has additional costs but is also expected to deliver additional benefits, and if the latter are greater than the former, rational farmers should adopt and continue with the innovations.To find out how farmers valued these additional benefits we used an iterative methodology based on contingent valuation techniques. Emphasis was placed on detailed participatory analysis of actual benefits and a 'bidding' procedure was used for assigning perceived value. Individual questionnaires are usually used for contingent valuation (CV). However, responses to individual questionnaires rarely follow a normal distribution requiring complex statistical analysis, and the presence of outlier results can make interpretation difficult. By using group analysis we avoided these problems, as the discussion process allowed a consensus measure to be chosen (not necessarily the average) and extreme values were rejected. A disadvantage of group methods is the risk of 'group-think' bias and less statistical power.During the planning workshop a year earlier, farmers had identified and ranked the potential benefits of control in order of how important they considered them (column 2 in Table 14). The results of that exercise were used as the starting point for evaluating the benefits of community-based vector control actually perceived by the farmers to date. Farmers revisited the anticipated benefits of control to see which were detectable. In Table 14, the benefits perceived by the different groups in the four villages were evaluated and listed in order of perceived importance by the farmers; each village is represented by a tick or a cross. (In one village, Mbie, all the participants were categorized as livestock-poor and there were no separate groups of livestock-rich or opinion leaders.) Note: A tick indicates that the group collectively agreed that they had observed this benefit after vector control, a cross indicates that the benefit was not noticed, a box that no assessment was made. Each column of marks corresponds to the assessment for one village.Farmers found this analysis easy; they reported that they had noticed improvements in most of the areas. The types of benefits noticed were similar to the findings of the review of previous projects in Burkina Faso (see working paper 2 in this series) and to other studies on the benefits of trypanosomosis control. Livestock-rich farmers were most likely to notice improvements, probably because they have the most animals. Opinion leaders are not directly involved in looking after animals and were less likely to notice changes. Livestockpoor farmers often do not keep cows and therefore did not observe changes in milk production or births.Other benefits noticed by some groups were:Increased price of animals sold because they are in better conditionThe cattle are calmer and easier to look after; so the herder has less fines to pay for straying animals Animals work harder, so less days are needed to cultivate the same area Better human health.Quantifying benefits: Farmers were then asked to estimate the typical differences in animal health and production resulting from vector control (Table 15). Farmers used the year before control as the reference point. Some parameters were difficult to estimate, and there was a tendency to remember the exceptional cases (availability bias). For example, one farmer said that the year before the vector control he lost five animals and this year he lost none, but on further discussion it emerged that most farmers had lost one or two animals, some none. Farmers found it easy to estimate differences in flies, medicine expenditure and deaths.Estimating additional days of draft power and manure was more difficult. Fewer episodes of disease are not directly translated into more days of draft production. In some cases, farmers do not have the other factors of production needed to take advantage of more healthy cattle (land, labour, money for inputs) and better animal health will not result in more days of draft. (In one village, a group reported that cattle worked less days after the intervention as the cattle were in better health and so work which would have taken six days to complete was now done in four or five days.) Livestock-rich farmers have a surplus of cattle and so better animal health was less likely to result in more days worked than was the case for livestock-poor farmers. Yet, in general and on average, less disease resulted in more days of draft power-12 extra days for livestock-poor farmers and 6 extra days for livestock-rich farmers.All farmers reported that they spent less money on treatments after vector control. Yet, farmers continue to spend relatively large sums on medicines. This supports the finding in the analysis of farmer integration of control strategies, that vector control is only a partial substitute for use of trypanocides. While most studies show that expenditure on trypanocidal drugs decreases after vector control, some report unchanged or even increased expenditure. Only livestock-rich farmers keep cows and they noticed an increase in production per herd of around 1.25 litres of milk a day. As farmers have 5-20 cows giving milk at any one time, this corresponds to a small increase of around a tenth of a litre per cow. Benefits this small are unlikely to be marketed, and farmers Changes in manure production were difficult to estimate. Where noticed, these were the result of fewer deaths and hence more animals producing manure rather than increased production per cow.Assigning price and value of control: Farmers were next asked to give an overall estimate of the value of additional control, corresponding to what they would be willing to pay for control. Estimations varied between USD 10 and USD 20 per year, with USD 9.8 as the consensus amount. This value is similar to that obtained by CV using individual questionnaires obtained by Kamuanga et al. in Burkina Faso, i.e. FCFA 5112 (USD 10.22) on average and FCFA 6756 (USD 13.51) for those willing to contribute both money and labour to control), but is much less than the value obtained by taking the market prices of the benefits obtained.In the previous chapter, we suggested that the failure to take account of transaction costs results in an underestimation of the costs of trypanosomosis control; this chapter argues that the benefits of trypanosomosis control have also been over-estimated. This was also a finding of the planning workshop (described in working paper 3 in this series), which indicated that the market price did not represent farmers' perception of the anticipated benefits which they would obtain from control.Possible reasons for this include:Farmers cannot easily calculate the contribution of trypanosomosis control to improved crop production and enhanced income.Benefits from trypanosomosis control may not be converted to cash because other inputs are lacking. For example, cattle are often not the limiting factor for production, and so additional days of availability for work will not necessarily translate into additional crop production.There is uncertainty over obtaining the benefits of control, as none of the strategies are completely effective. (On average, farmers spend less on trypanocides as a result of vector control, but disease is never completely predictable, and some may spend more.)The transaction costs of marketing the benefits of control may be discouragingly high, especially when benefits are produced irregularly or in small amounts (e.g. additional milk and manure).Markets for the benefits may not exist (additional calves) or may not function well because of entry barriers, asymmetries of information, or other factors. 20 There may be inelastic demand for the benefits of control. For example, nearly all farmers plan for the cultivation season and either have their own cattle or arrangements for using draft cattle. If farmers have additional days of traction as a result of vector control, they will not be able to easily market them.Weighing costs and benefitsTrypanosomosis control has costs and benefits, and economic theory predicts that when benefits to an individual exceed the costs incurred, rational farmers will choose to adopt and continue with control. However, while financial benefit:cost analyses of vector control have been almost uniformly positive, and nearly all the benefits accrue to those carrying out control, the long-term viability and spontaneous adoption of vector control is almost uniformly absent. Most benefit:cost analyses of control do not take into consideration transaction costs of control or the fact that farmer perception of benefits may differ from that suggested by analysis of market prices, and our analysis suggests that both of these are important considerations. In this chapter, we present three analyses of the vector-control strategy innovated by the project: a simplified benefit:cost analysis using market prices for benefits and inputs which farmers would gain and pay for assuming spontaneous adoption of the control strategies without a project intervention (a 'without-project scenario'); a benefit:cost analysis including actual costs of the project; and finally an analysis incorporating transaction costs and farmer perception.Conventional benefit:cost analysis typically uses partial budgeting to compare costs of additional control (including revenue foregone) to the value of extra herd output plus costs saved. Costs and benefits are usually based on current market prices, although shadow prices may be used when markets are believed to be distorted or missing. Applying this to community-based vector control gives the values presented in Table 17 for the benefits of control. Using this technique, the benefits of control are estimated as FCFA 63,387 per farmer or a total of USD 27,462 for the four villages. (N.B. farmers may have overestimated the quantity of benefits and more objective information on benefits is also being collected through epidemiological/animal production surveys, but is not yet available.)The costs of additional control are as set out in chapter 6, and summarized in Table 18. These are the costs which farmers would have to meet to continue carrying out control in the absence of a project. The cost of farmer training is not included, as this would not be available to farmers in the absence of a project.Discounting is not used as the stream of benefits and costs are calculated only for the 12-month duration of the project. For similar reasons, a dynamic model of impacts incorporating increases in herd size is not applied.These estimates provide a benefit:cost ratio of 7:1, similar to the results of other benefit:cost studies for trypanosomosis control (typically in the 5:1 to 2:1 range). 21 Simple sensitivity analysis indicates these ratios are fairly robust to likely changes in input prices and somewhat less so to changes in the amount of benefits obtained. 22 Benefit:cost including project costsThe project adopted a participatory approach which is relatively intensive in time and resources. The costs for the nine months of active intervention by the project are estimated as shown in Table 19 (full cost data were not yet available at the time of writing).  As shown in Table 19, the overall cost of implementation was USD 7199 or USD 33 per farmer-household involved in the project. Participatory activities accounted for USD 3743 or 52% of the total costs. (The much greater costs of epidemiological and entomological surveys that were carried out at the same sites during the project-around USD 15,000, or USD 70 per household-are not included in this costing as these were research activities not necessary for implementation.) If farmers had to pay for these costs, vector control would always result in a net loss-the implication is that external support would, at least in this case, be needed for community vector control. The benefit:cost ratio of direct project implementation costs (but as is standard, omitting project indirect costs) is 1:2.4.Benefit:cost including transaction costs and using perceived benefitsFarmers perceive the benefits of control as less than suggested by market prices, and must pay not only the prices of inputs, but also the transaction costs of acquiring and applying these. When this is factored into the analysis based on the estimates generated by the participatory evaluation exercise, the attractiveness of control to farmers becomes very precarious.Farmers value their annual benefits of additional control as worth USD 9.8 1 to them individually, and as the price of control inputs (not including training) was USD 8.25, it is obvious that control will only be attractive if transaction costs of delivering it are negligible or if the costs of control are met by external agents. Unfortunately, transaction costs seem to be considerable; just taking into account the costs most easy to quantify (transport and time spent in control), suggests costs on the magnitude of USD 2-4; the costs of establishing, maintaining and using the village institutions that deliver vector control, and the costs of monitoring and enforcing compliance with control, are certain to be greater. If all transaction costs are factored in, it is possible that engaging in community vector control would result in a net loss for participating farmers. In this case, the project met the start-up costs of control, making control more attractive to farmers-the amount in cash actually paid by farmers was USD 3.25 and so net benefits were proportionately higher.Costs and benefits are both higher for livestock-rich farmers, but as benefits are relatively higher than costs, vector control is more attractive for livestock-rich than for livestock-poor (this is reflected in their higher level of participation, see chapter 3). Screens are less expensive than sprays, especially if projects meet start-up costs, although farmers perceive them as being more expensive.It can be seen that the value assigned to benefits using conventional benefit:cost analysis with market prices for inputs and benefits is much higher than that obtained using opportunity costs and farmer perceptionsthis divergence throws light on the finding that although economic analyses of vector control have consistently estimated positive benefit:cost ratios, farmers consistently refuse to meet the costs of control or to spontaneously adopt it.But it is also apparent that from the point of view of governments or development agents, vector control is an attractive rural development strategy, representing high returns on money invested. Unfortunately, developing country governments seldom have the luxury of paying for all development interventions where benefits exceed costs, and development expenditure decisions are usually based on other criteria than benefit:cost analysis.Northern solutions for southern problems Participatory trypanosomosis projects usually introduce new institutions with the objective of delivering longterm control, and in Burkina Faso as is common in Francophone Africa, this has been the default option. Farmer associations are formed along standardized and formulaic lines (e.g. a management committee of five and a body of members who are supposed to attend regular meetings and make regular contributions to a communal fund). 23 Associations meeting these criteria can be registered with the government. This is an entirely exogenous model of animal health management and it is perhaps not surprising that it has not always worked well in the African context. Associations for animal health seem to be particularly problematic; problems arise even when external support is provided, and in the absence of external support, most associations collapse or turn into private-good institutions.Because of these problems with 'standard model' associations in the context of animal health development, the project decided to avoid a pre-defined model and instead encourage each village to use a system, either new or existing, which they thought would work best for them. The project advised them to avoid certain institutions which are notoriously failure-prone, such as credit, systems requiring regular collection of small amounts of money, committee management of other people's money, unallocated responsibilities and the running of businesses by large and heterogeneous groups. In practice, the institutions used for vector-control delivery in the project reflected an eclectic mix of the institutions available, with considerable variation between villages. These institutions were:Traditional institutions:Chef du village: A hereditary position, the chef is often the descendent of the founder of the village. He is the supreme decision maker within the village and will be responsible, for example, for authorizing a project to work in the village, setting of infrastructure and communal activities such as road repair.Box 7: Problems with animal health associations When the project is finished, all is finished.The project trained over 200 community animal health workers linked to livestock associations. Two years later, no one knows what has happened to them. They have just disappeared into the bush.There are always problems with management of funds.Only a few people are active in the association-they carry out activities for their own benefit and not for the benefit of the association.Managing group money is not easy. When there are problems, you go back and discuss and try again. It takes a long-term commitment-10, 15 years to make an association work.People take the medicine from the livestock association and do not pay.The animal health instruments given to the association belong to everyone and are not used properly.Managing sales and filling in books are very difficult for illiterate people. You need a lot of patience, a lot of time, and you have to keep coming back and helping them to do it properly.People do not feel confident about giving money to the livestock association; they do not trust them to use it to replenish the communal funds.(Representative comments from interviews with state veterinary officers, community animal health workers, and NGO/project staff). 24The village head usually has a council comprising the older men in the village, and decisions are made after consultation with these (gerontocracy). Larger villages are divided into districts, each with a head responsible for decision making.Chef du terroir: Also a hereditary position, the chef du terroir is responsible for the allocation of fields for cultivation. He takes charge of ritual and cultural events and with the punishment of those who transgress the cultural rules and norms. Numerous taboos exist in the villages, for example, some days are considered auspicious and others inauspicious, ritual offerings are made in sacred sites, some types of cultivation are forbidden to some groups, some areas are forbidden to some groups, some types of wood cannot be used and some types of food cannot be eaten by some or all groups.Interest group associations: Relatives, friends, neighbours or age-groups may associate informally for mutual assistance (including tontines and joint labour) and for celebration. There are separate groups for men, women and youths (in many villages, hunters' associations play an important role). Groups may be based on relationship, common interests or common objectives. For example, in one village there is an informal group of rich livestock keepers who clubbed together to buy cattle in order to reduce the transaction costs.Delegate: Appointed by the state and under the prefect, the delegate is the representative of the government administration at the village level. A process of decentralization is underway in Burkina Faso and it is envisaged that the current system of state-appointed administrators will be replaced by locally elected councils.Farmers associations: Development and/or parastatal actors have established groups in all villages. The most active are those of the cotton parastatal, SOFITEX, and most farmers with livestock are members. Associations comprise a management committee (president, vice president, treasurer, assistant treasurer and secretary) and members. Associations fitting government-established criteria can be registered. In large villages, there may be more than one group. Previous projects have established associations of livestock keepers but these are in general not active. A rapid appraisal carried out by the project showed that livestock keepers associations suffered from the usual problems: low participation, lack of literacy rendering accounts non-transparent, lack of individual incentives to motivate participation.Vaccinators have been trained by previous projects in most of the villages, and are active in Mbie and Kotoura. The project organized a study tour at the start of activities and a group of six farmers from each village attended. These participants were selected by the villagers using criteria agreed with the project. In addition, training was given to six farmers per village in Rational Drug Use. These groups of farmers in all cases played an important role in community vector control.In all villages, decision making was devolved to a small group by a process of consensus following from discussions (and in no case formal voting or elections). For some personalities, the exercise of authority is its own reward, and in all cases those who undertook the responsibility for decision-making were community leaders. This both legitimized and enhanced their additional role in vector control. In all cases, one person had ultimate decision making powers, but the actor varied from village to village:Vaccinator and owner of a large herd Mbie Delegate, owner of a medium-sized herdcontribute resulting in failure to provide vector control. In both cases, the higher payoffs achievable from co-operation can be incentives for group management. The wide literature on management of CPRs shows that community management can be effective and sustainable 26 and it is not unreasonable to postulate that the similar institution of community management of vector control can also be viable. Many of the factors propitious to community management 27 are present in the case of community vector control (see Table 21).We divide these into three categories: incentives that encourage participation, facilitators for management and disincentives that punish non-participation. Disincentives for non-compliance in community-managed processes often take the form of social sanctions. In all villages, mechanisms were instituted to allow this; typically payment for control was made a public activity, and contributions and defalcations were publicly noted and sometimes recorded. In all villages, traditional leaders and authorities were involved in the vector-control interventions, which added social importance to the payment. In some villages, these mechanisms were strengthened by additional measures (see chapter 6). African rural communities are 'face cultures' and where external shame results from deviation, higher levels of co-operation are expected. Individuals respond to anticipated shame-based sanctions in the same way as they respond to pecuniary sanctions; they choose a level of co-operation that equates the marginal expected loss in utility due to feeling external shame with the marginal loss in utility due to co-operating. 28 Treating screens with insecticide is a pure public good, non-rival and non excludable; on the other hand, spraying cattle with insecticide is a mixed good as there are private benefits as well as public-good benefits. This is generally seen as an advantage, but in terms of community-based vector control, it has the disadvantage of moving the activity into the private arena. No sanctions were applied if farmers chose not to spray their cattle and it was also much harder to observe compliance. We found that community participation in cattle-spraying was lower than that in screen-placing.Management is easier when resources are clearly defined and easy to monitor. This is the case for the screens providing tsetse control as relatively small numbers are placed in public areas at limited and defined intervals. The vector control activity of spraying cattle is more difficult to define and monitor, and as mentioned above we found that community participation in this activity was lower than in use of screens.Management may be easier when groups are small, however it is also argued that, because group size affects several important variables in different ways (transaction costs, share of benefits received, control costs), it is not possible to propose general predictions on the effects of group size. We found no relation between group size and participation. Social homogeneity has been suggested to facilitate management. Theoretically, the greater ability of the livestock-rich to internalize benefits will increase their willingness to co-operate in the provision of vector control and at the same time diminish the already small propensity of the livestockpoor to invest. Our project confirmed this hypothesis: participation in the provision of vector control was considerably higher for livestock-rich farmers (for example participation at the evaluation for the livestockpoor was 23%, and for the livestock-rich was 72%, difference highly significant (p > 0.001) binomial test).Where institutions already exist or villagers have skill and experience in group activities, management of resources and activities is facilitated. In all villages there is experience in communal management and participation, although some villages have greater capacity than others (Mbie and Sokoroni scoring highly in this respect and Sokouraba and Kotoura lower). Villagers also showed creativity and flexibility in creating rules, for example, in Sokoroine, the inequity in distribution of benefits was resolved by using a headage payment for control so that farmers with more cattle paid more. However, this solution was not followed in other villages, where it was argued that a headage payment would result in some farmers having to pay amounts so large that they would violate the 'fairness' norm and would cause these farmers to withdraw participation to the detriment to all. A sliding scale of payment would be a possible solution, but this was not adopted by the villages, perhaps because of the complexity of calculations.Importance of a common pool resource is a crucial factor in encouraging group management and perhaps the greatest threat to the effective community management of vector control is the lack of incentives to come together to provide group vector control. Farmers are not critically dependent on vector control. They live with trypanosomosis and although losses occur, these are not at levels where the farm enterprise is threatened. Furthermore, farmers have other options for trypanosomosis control such as use of trypanotolerant cattle, risk avoidance and use of medicines. These are private goods with much lower externalities so farmers can internalize more of the benefits. They are provided by individuals avoiding the transaction costs associated with group action, and so are easier to implement than group vector control.In addition the benefits of vector control perceived by farmers are relatively low compared to the costsrepresenting a significant disincentive for participation.Prevention may be better than cure, but it is much harder to sell to poor farmers. Vector control is an insurance measure to reduce losses and the uptake of insurance by resource-constrained peasants is notoriously problematic. It is much easier to get farmers to pay for cure than prevention. (It is perhaps not irrelevant that the global market for human drugs that treat disease is USD 300 billion, while the global market for vaccines (preventative drugs) is USD 5 billion, and analyses based on New Institutional Economics have investigated the underlying factors that make people more willing to pay for cure than prevention, even when this is the least cost-effective option.) 29 Interestingly and depressingly, in none of the project villages do farmers use bed-nets to prevent malaria, though in all villages children have died from malaria in the past 12 months and households pay routinely for products to treat malaria. When people will not pay to prevent a disease killing their children, it may not be realistic to assume they will pay to prevent a similar disease affecting their animals.We conclude that neither community capacity for management nor the public good nature of vector control is a limiting factor for community delivery in the communities evaluated. The relatively weak incentive for group participation in vector control is more likely to be the critical constraint.10 Prospects for continued controlLong-term viability deficits: Structural or process Bait technologies for tsetse control have been in use for over 20 years and their effectiveness is proven and impacts and costs well documented. However, while the questions of 'Does it work?' , 'What are the impacts?' and 'How much does it cost?' have been answered, the questions of 'Who will pay for it?' and 'Is it worth it?'' remain. The answer to these latter questions will determine the role of bait techniques in the control of trypanosomosis. While the revealed behaviour of farmers indicates that they will not pay for it and do not find it worthwhile, debate continues over whether this is due to structural (intrinsic economic disincentives) or process factors (lack of participation). If the latter is correct, then community-vector control is a potentially viable and sustainable institution and merely requires more attention to design and implementation. If the former is correct, then the pursuit of sustainability is an ignis fatuus and external support should be made available where community vector control is justified.There is certainly evidence that many projects which attempted to be participatory, in practice turned out to be top-down and unable to generate local ownership, 30 and recently success, or near-success, has been claimed for high-level-participatory community projects in Côte d'Ivoire. 31 However, the major sustainability deficits in most projects reviewed suggests that the problem goes deeper than poor participation. The main theoretical objections to sustainability is that provision of vector control is a 'Tragedy of the Commons' or 'Prisoner's Dilemma' where the good of freedom from tsetse will be inevitably undersupplied; however, community vector control can be conceptualized less pessimistically as a 'Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma' or a 'Fairness' Game (see Box 8).However, in practice farmers have repeated opportunities to participate in control and certain farmers have a high propensity for participation (are catalysts to start co-operation), so the situation is more akin to a Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma Game. In this game, a reciprocation or 'Tit for tat' strategy is successful. Each player plays the move which the previous player used; so if co-operation starts, it will be reciprocated (and if catalysts exist, co-operation will start). The Fairness Game is another dynamic game strategy which recognizes the importance of the social norm of fairness; the strategy is to co-operate if, and only if, most other players co-operate. In this game, co-operation is the dominant strategy.Box 8: Freedom from tsetse-Prisoner's Dilemma, Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma or Fairness Game?Provision of vector control has been formulated as a classical Prisoner's Dilemma (PD). In a one-shot PD game, neither player can be sure that the other will contribute to vector control and the strategy of non-participation has a higher payoff than the strategy of contributing (see pay-off matrix below). Non-participation is rational from the individual's point of view, but irrational from the point of view of society.Payoff matrix for vector control Note: we assume 2 players, the benefits of control are USD 10 to each player if both contribute, if only one contributes the benefits decrease to USD 7 and if neither there are no benefits. The costs of control are USD 5. It can be seen that the dominant strategy is to refrain from contributingthis is always the best strategy for the individual, however the dominated strategy of contribution delivers the highest overall benefits of USD 20 and pay-off of USD 10. An earlier review of participatory vector control projects in Burkina Faso (see working paper 2 in this series) revealed three key constraints to long-term viability of participatory control, namely: 1) farmers lacked the technical skills to carry out control, 2) farmers could not organize the process of control, and 3) farmers found vector control too expensive.The current project placed special emphasis on these aspects. The transfer of technical skills proved the least difficult of these. However, there were challenges mainly related to the supply of inputs needed for control and lack of information on technical procedures. Despite many years work on just these issues, there is no single manual or reference on how to carry out control with animal baits and screens tailored to Burkina Faso. This information was very difficult to obtain and as yet is incomplete. There were also problems with input supply-the product used for treating cattle came from Côte d'Ivoire and as a result of the disturbances there, the supply was interrupted shortly after the start of the project. The project was able to source alternative products in a neighbouring country, but the price was higher; this option would have been difficult for unsupported communities. The cloth used for screens was also imported and hence not readily accessible to farmers. We have not yet been able to obtain information on locally available cloth that has been tested and determined to be suitable for use.The management of control also did not present major problems, perhaps because of our decision to rely on local, functional institutions rather than introducing western-model institutions which have a history of dysfunctionality when applied to animal health in general, and vector control in particular.The affordability of control was the most challenging aspect. Although control is not expensive, the evaluation revealed that costs are high in relation to the benefits perceived. As the previous two sections set out, we found that farmers rationally place a low value on control as the result of high transaction costs of control, difficulty in measuring benefits, inability to convert benefits to cash and uncertainty in attaining benefits. The analysis suggests that control is affordable and that benefits are higher than costs, but only just. However, control is not likely to represent good value for money given other calls on resources and other options for trypanosomosis control.During the evaluation, farmers undertook a self-assessment of both their capacity to carry out vector-control innovations and their belief in the long-term viability of such interventions. Farmers were generally confident of their capacity to deliver control; there were more doubts over long-term viability. Chart 2 shows the competence scores assigned by the different groups (livestock-rich, livestock-poor and opinion leaders) in the four different villages. The livestock-poor farmer groups were more likely to evaluate their capability as low, and among the villages Kotoura was most likely to give low capability scores.Chart 3 gives the sustainability scores. Farmer groups showed less confidence in the long-term viability of control than in their competence to technically carry out control, as can be seen by the greater number of groups assigning a score of 2 (probably viable) and smaller number assigning a score of 1 (fully viable). Again, livestock-poor farmers have least confidence in viability. As discussed earlier, the benefits of vector control reported by livestock-rich farmers were much greater than the benefits perceived by livestock-poor farmers, and the participation of livestock-rich farmers was also higher. Although all farmers in these villages were 'poor' in terms of dollar-a-day income and development levels, trypanosomosis control will benefit preferentially the less poor, as the poorest do not keep cattle. It will also benefit men mostly as they have greater ownership and control over the resource of cattle. This potential to increase inequity at village level should be addressed during programme design. In this case it had been agreed at the initial meetings that separate training and support on poultry and small-ruminant production would be given to the women.As regards the different components of vector control, management was seen as least problematic, with almost all groups scoring the management structures as fully competent. Farmers felt they were capable of using both screens and sprays, but had slightly more reservations over the long-term viability of these strategies.Financing was seen to be the most problematic area. (However, it is also possible that farmers drew attention to problems with financing as a negotiating device in order to justify continued assistance form the project.) Note: See Charts 2 and 3 for an explanation of the scoring system.In terms of the long-term viability of spraying, it proved difficult to make a distinction between the spraying that most farmers do during the rainy season to control ticks, and the additional spraying proposed by the project in the dry season to control tsetse. The former is primarily a private good, which has the externality of vector control; the latter is a public good (with some benefits to individuals). Farmers found the concept of spraying cows to kill flies much more difficult than the concept of placing screens to kill flies, and the belief that spraying worked by protecting the animal sprayed was persistent (and wrong). The presence of some (minor) benefits for the animal treated (less disturbance flies, perhaps fewer bites from tsetse resulting in reduced risk of disease) further confounds the issue and, for farmers, the individual benefits of spraying are more salient than the collective-good benefits. Hence, when farmers expressed confidence in the longterm viability of spraying, this includes both public-and private-good treatments and likely overestimates the viability of spraying as a means of vector control.Villages with more experience and previous success in participation (Sokoroni, Mbie) tended to rate themselves more highly than villages with less experience and success (Sokouraba, Kotoura). Note: See Charts 2 and 3 for an explanation of the scoring system.Evaluation of long-term viability by the project staff was slightly more pessimistic with viability perceived as unlikely to be achieved in two villages and possible, although problematic, in the remaining two. Note: See Charts 2 and 3 for an explanation of the scoring system.The future of vector controlCommunity, and to a lesser extent project staff, assessment of viability was cautiously optimistic, and this was supported by revealed behaviour of farmers. In all four villages, farmers paid for, treated and placed screens without the financial support of the project-the first time this has happened in Burkina Faso.However, the relatively low perceived benefits from vector control, the high transaction costs of community vector control and the fact that farmers are not highly dependent on it do not augur well for the long-term viability of community-based control. However, the situation is not static, major trends of the last half century-increasing resistance to trypanocides, increasing agricultural intensification and decreasing pressure of infection-may affect farmer's future choices. Resistance to trypanocides renders farmers' preferred strategy of medicine use less effective. However, farmers are likely to continue to use medicines to reduce severity of symptoms and meet the strong cultural imperative of treating in the face of sickness. (They may switch to cheaper and ineffective medicines as the efficacy advantage of ISMM and DIM is eroded.) As resistance increases, other strategies will become relatively more attractive. Already farmers predict cross-breed cattle will increase more than Zebu cattle, and in one village with high resistance, farmers envision an increase in pure trypanotolerant cattle. Increasing intensification will increase the value of the benefits obtained from vector control and make all strategies more attractive. Intensification also increases the proportion of Zebus, making control more necessary. The tendency for risk to decline as land change destroys riverine galleries, and water infrastructure is established reduces the attractiveness of all strategies (but also slows the development of resistance).This evaluation took place in a situation with high but stable prevalence. Farmers live with the problem of trypanosomosis which is not critically jeopardizing their livelihoods and our evaluation indicates that the low perceived return on vector control is the major reason for non-adoption of vector control. However, where large populations of susceptible cattle become exposed to disease for the first time (as happened after the droughts of the 1980s forced southwards migration of pastoralists into tsetse zones), losses from trypanosomosis and hence the benefits from control will be much higher. Unfortunately, the factors encouraging group management-stable, homogenous groups, skills and experience with participation, resource entitlements-are unlikely to be present for recently in-migrated environmental refugees, and in this situation community-managed vector control, though worthwhile, is unlikely to emerge.Participatory evaluation-The processWe found that the participatory approach to the evaluation of community-based vector control was powerful and rewarding. The participatory process allowed self-correction and consensus building in a way that is not possible using conventional questionnaires or surveys; information generated had both internal and external validity. The results of participatory analyses are particularly meaningful because they use indicators important to farmers, and involve farmers in the analysis. The tools are easy to understand and enjoyable to use. Participatory approaches are particularly good at giving insights into farmer perspectives and motivation. They helped explain why community vector control, although highly attractive according to conventional financial analyses is rarely sustainable and never spontaneously adapted. In participatory evaluations, the process is also a product. We found giving farmers space to reflect on benefits and costs, motivated them to continue with the farmer-funded and farmer-organized placement of screens. Another advantage is that evaluation results are available immediately to participants and within a few weeks to other stakeholders. In contrast, formal epidemiological and questionnaire data require much longer times for analysis: in this project, a full year has been needed.There were some weaknesses in the participatory approach. Data presented were coloured by farmers' imperfect detection of changes and their wishes to influence the project. We suspected that the results were biased in this regard, resulting in an over-estimation of the benefits of control. As epidemiological, entomological and production data are also being collected, this hypothesis will be investigated further.Participation is supposed to transform and empower, but we can hardly assert that the participatory process used radically challenged or altered the status quo. There were minor changes; carrying out the activities of vector control resulted in redistribution of power in villages generally favouring the younger, the livestockrich and those willing to take on new responsibilities. It also exposed technicians and government personnel to participatory development, with potentially positive effects on the transparency and accountability of service delivery, but radical change was not easy to detect. In becoming mainstream, has participation lost its power to transgress? In fact we found that training farmers in Rational Drug Use had more potential to bring about institutional change-and to threaten vested interests. For example, after training, farmers felt empowered to assert their entitlement to treat their animals and to question the high prices charged by the private veterinarian.Participation adds substantially to the cost of implementation. In this project, it accounted for more than 50% of project activity costs. Farmers also invested significant time and money in the project. Some fear that participation can add new burdens to communities and allow governments to sidestep their responsibilities.Despite these weaknesses, we continued to find a participatory approach was the only reasonable way to support community vector control.The participatory evaluation found that farmers perceived benefits resulting from vector control in areas they identified as important to them. Vector control was integrated with other strategies for trypanosomosis control. Farmers felt technically competent to carry out vector control using screens and insecticidetreated animals. Village institutions emerged to organize vector control and farmers were confident in their managerial ability.There has been much debate on the conceded poor viability and non-adoption of community vector control. One school of thought holds that this is due to lack of participation in the approach; others argue that there are fundamental and insurmountable economic reasons why long-term viability will not be achieved. This evaluation finds evidence to support both positions. In the short-term, failures may be largely due to lack of participation and poor approaches. The small-scale case study in six villages is a 'proof of concept' experiment; high-level participation was used and for the first time, farmers paid for and placed screens without project interventions. This shows that communities can internalize the skills needed for vector control and manage the process of vector control using existing institutions and that higher-level participation delivers at least short-term viability.However, we conclude that long-term viability is threatened by the low perceived benefits, the high transaction costs and the low priority assigned to control in villages in south-west Burkina Faso. Freedom from tsetse is a non-essential good, which can be substituted for by other methods of trypanosomosis control and which has poor perceived value for money; undeniably cheap, it is not necessarily affordable. And as a preventative measure, it is inevitably less attractive than the option of treating, which in conjunction with the keeping of trypanotolerant cattle, looks set to remain the dominant trypanosomosis control strategy for the foreseeable future.  ","tokenCount":"14087"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1eb4e40ddca914af9ca893a214a00c84","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/95488b4f-c5da-4291-b885-9d69882d8059/retrieve","id":"1876985715"},"keywords":["v.36","n.2","jul-dez /2016 Raízes","v.36","n. 2","jul-dez/2016"],"sieverID":"e441d120-c39a-44bd-8885-f63d29379e8f","pagecount":"10","content":"Este Dossiê é fruto do esforço conjunto de pesquisadores com interesses convergentes, oriundos de diferentes países, instituições e áreas do conhecimento, que participaram do Grupo de Trabalho \"Reavaliando a Aquisição Institucional de Alimentos\" 1 , no âmbito da Segunda Conferência Internacional de Agricultura numa Sociedade em Urbanização, realizada de 14 a 17 de setembro de 2015 em Roma, Itália 2 .O evento teve por foco reconectar a agricultura e as cadeias alimentares com as necessidades da sociedade a partir de questões relacionadas ao estado da arte das pesquisas sobre multifuncionalidade da agricultura, cadeias alimentares locais e relações urbano-rurais. Nesse contexto, o GT foi organizado com o objetivo de discutir a vasta variedade de mecanismos e dispositivos atualmente disponíveis para a aquisição pública e institucional de alimentos saudáveis produzidos por pequenos e médios agricultores ao redor do Mundo, na perspectiva da construção de estratégias alimentares mais sustentáveis, justas e eficientes.Em virtude da qualidade dos trabalhos apresentados, os debates desenvolvidos no GT foram extremamente estimulantes, trazendo diversas contribuições e reflexões sobre a temática da aquisição institucional de alimentos em países de diferentes regiões do mundo, revelando sua diversidade e importância na construção de sistemas alimentares mais sustentáveis. Por isso, na avaliação final dos trabalhos do GT, os componentes resolveram reunir os artigos apresentados numa publicação especializada, elegendo Raízes para tal.Em linhas gerais, os artigos aqui publicados refletem um debate teórico que girou em torno de três questões fundamentais: (i) como a aquisição institucional de alimentos é impulsionada por objetivos históricos, estruturas e processos distintos; (ii) como se configura a agen-1 Coordenado por Camilo Lozano Torres (Wageningen-UR e UFRGS), Luana Swensson (FAO/Roma) e Sergio Schneider (UFRGS).da de aquisição pública de alimentos e as políticas de expansão, estruturas de governança e processos projetados para possibilitar mudanças, coordenação, aprendizagem e adaptação; e (iii) como práticas diversificadas e disputadas de aquisição, fornecimento e consumo podem levar a novas perspectivas ou ações políticas na construção de sistemas alimentares sustentáveis, justos e seguros, numa perspectiva participativa e democrática.É importante ressaltar que os artigos focalizam dois universos distintos, uma vez que os processos em curso nos países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento são diferenciados. Os trabalhos sobre países europeus e da América do Norte mostram que as compras institucionais têm sido adotadas em localidades (municípios) e mesmo países (o caso da Dinamarca) em que há uma pressão de Organizações da Sociedade Civil para alterar ou mesmo amenizar os efeitos do sistema alimentar convencional sobre a saúde da população (especialmente problemas relacionados à obesidade) e ambientais (tais como a questão dos resíduos alimentares). As iniciativas locais estudadas mostram que há dois elementos interligados que são as forças propulsoras das mudanças: o primeiro refere-se ao papel dos atores da sociedade civil, sejam eles coletivos organizados como um movimento social ou mesmo indivíduos que se ligam a iniciativas mais pontuais, tais como companhas de solidariedade ou prestação de serviços; o segundo elemento comum está no fato de que as iniciativas de relocalização dos processos de abastecimento se vinculam a questões mais gerais de defesa da produção e do consumo de produtos sustentáveis ou pelo menos práticas que dão suporte ao lema da sustentabilidade.No caso dos países em desenvolvimento, as estratégias públicas de abastecimento alimentar indicam que a presença do Estado e do poder público em geral é muito mais decisiva e tem um papel central. Na América Latina -e, particularmente, no Brasil onde os estudos aqui publicados se concentram -as políticas inovadoras de abastecimento se filiam a estratégias programáticas mais gerais voltadas ao combate à fome e à redução da pobreza e da miséria, empreendidas por vários governos nacionais na primeira década do século XXI. Destarte, os programas de compras governamentais apresentam um duplo objetivo: por um lado, atuar na segurança alimentar da população de baixa renda e, por outro, fomentar um setor historicamente alijado do desenvolvimento econômico e social nesses países, a agricultura camponesa ou familiar. Nesse sentido, os trabalhos ressaltam que as novas políticas de abastecimento desempenham um papel importante na construção de mercados para a produção familiar camponesa e para a criação de demanda que antes era inexistente, num claro indício de que o Estado não precisa se restringir apenas ao financiamento e à fiscalização, mas pode ter um papel indutor e estimulador no quadro mais geral das relações econômicas e sociais. Um fator fundamental no âmbito dessas novas estratégias de desenvolvimento é a participação social na definição e implementação das políticas públicas e, assim, os trabalhos mostram que os atores centrais desse processo são os governos em seus diversos níveis, e as organizações sociais, especialmente cooperativas e associações de produtores, que interagem em espaços de governança inovadores, como conselhos, colegiados ou fóruns democráticos.Tanto nos países desenvolvidos como nos países em desenvolvimento, os autores identificam dilemas dos processos de aquisição pública e institucional, que podem ser sumariados em cinco questões: (i) o papel, os impulsionadores e as barreiras das instituições responsáveis pelas compras de alimentos na integração de produtores de pequeno porte, assim como mulheres e jovens dentro de mercados institucionais; (ii) o contexto e as dificuldades entre participantes e agentes públicos na elaboração de regras, orçamentos, orientações nutricionais, padrões de qualidade e experimentações em níveis locais; (iii) os impactos de rotação em mercados de alimentos locais, desenvolvimento rural e subsistência de produtores de pequeno porte; (iv) o processo de incorporação da cultura nas licitações públicas; e (v) a emergência/reemergência de cooperativas e dispositivos de organização coletiva dos agricultores.Os pesquisadores também identificam alguns desafios e apresentam um conjunto de propostas para as perspectivas futuras das aquisições públicas e institucionais de alimentos. Um tema que merece ser investigado refere-se à questão das relações de poder entre os atores encarregados de conduzirem as políticas de compras públicas institucionais. Aspectos como a exclusão ou discriminação de produtos e produtores em face do não atendimento da oferta de alimentos aos requisitos da legislação constituem-se, em muitos casos, mecanismos de segregação e limites para o acesso aos mercados. Outro tema que merece ser aprofundado refere-se à questão do aumento da escala e da capacidade de oferta de alimentos segundo os requisitos da demanda. Verificou-se que isolados e sem organização, os pequenos produtores de alimentos dificilmente serão capazes de acessar os mercados locais e abastecer a demanda de forma regular. Nesse sentido, surge a discussão sobre os mecanismos e estratégias mais eficientes de organização dos produtores, de tal forma que possam ganhar escala e atender mais eficientemente aos mercados. Por fim, também emergiu a questão das relações entre os atores privados, uma vez que os mercados alimentares são alvo de forte concorrência, restando em aberto a indagação sobre as condições e possibilidades de competição entre os pequenos produtores locais e as empresas de maior porte.Concretamente, este Dossiê é composto por dez artigos que analisam processos e políticas de aquisições institucionais de alimentos no Brasil, Canadá, Reino Unido, Dinamarca, Itália e pelo Programa Mundial de Alimentos para o Progresso (P4P) da ONU.O primeiro artigo, de autoria de Lozano, Schneider, Swensson e Kelly, ressalta os elementos centrais para compreender as dimensões e os desafios que os programas alimentação escolar enfrentam, fundamentalmente em virtude de seu caráter inovador, a partir da análise de três contextos distintos: o P4P, o programa de alimentação escolar do Brasil e sistemas de compras públicas de alimentos na Europa. Os autores buscam explicitar uma visão geral do que se apresenta em comum nas diferentes situações e evidenciam o potencial transformador mais amplo desse processo em virtude de sua associação com valores como sustentabilidade, bem -estar e justiça social. Concluem que a reforma das políticas publicas de alimentação escolar e o apoio dos governos não são suficientes se as instituições e leis necessárias para a operacionalização dos programas não forem adaptadas às condições locais. Por outro lado, demonstram como as compras públicas ou as estratégias alimentares urbanas podem abrir espaços de manobra para superar restrições fiscais, materiais e de governança, ressaltando que o papel dos atores sociais é essencial e construtivo nesse processo.A partir do enunciado de um novo conceito, \"estrutura mediadora\", o artigo de Stahlbrand -autora laureada com o prêmio de melhor trabalho apresentado na Conferência -propõe uma reflexão sobre a \"transição para a sustentabilidade\" nos sistemas alimentares, enfatizando que recursos, instalações e redes criam uma massa crítica que permite aos produtores \"alternativos\" acessarem os mercados institucionais. Considerando o florescimento recente de projetos alimentares sustentáveis nos países desenvolvidos, mas também a baixa participação de agricultores de médio porte nesse processo, a autora identifica nas universidades públicas -\"instituições-âncora\" -um espaço de oportunidade para a articulação dos dez atores que, segundo ela, compõem a \"infraestrutura mediadora\", assim viabilizando o encontro entre produtores e consumidores nesse sistema alimentar renovador. Daí, o estudo de caso publicado neste Dossiê, que envolve duas universidades inglesas e uma canadense, onde foram entrevistados mais de 60 líderes de organizações não governamentais que atuam para fomentar a aquisição de alimentos locais sustentáveis produzidos e processados por agricultores \"alternativos\".O terceiro artigo, desenvolvido por Mikkelsen e Lundø, analisa um conjunto de políticas públicas voltadas à aquisição de alimentos orgânicos para o abastecimento de serviços de alimentação alocados em instituições públicas na Dinamarca. Registrando que essas políticas (POPPs) possuem grande potencial vis-à-vis a magnitude das compras governamentais na economia alimentar europeia, os autores ressaltam que elas inovam a definição de estratégias agrícolas e alimentares tradicionalmente reguladas pelo mercado. Destacam, ainda, que o engajamento do setor público como \"consumidor político\" a dar exemplo para a sociedade pode vir a estimular o consumo de alimentos orgânicos no país. Assim, pontuam que as POPPs podem contribuir para a construção de sistemas alimentares mais sustentáveis na Dinamarca, mas que só um monitoramento criterioso pode avaliar sua efetividade. Nesse sentido, o artigo se baseia nos primeiros resultados da aplicação de um sistema de monitoramento das POPPs, instituído pelo governo dinamarquês, o qual revelou um significativo aumento no consumo de alimentos orgânicos no país entre 2013 e 2014, notadamente no setor público, aumento este estimulado por ações governamentais que incluem a certificação de serviços de alimentação públicos que oferecem itens orgânicos no cardápio e pela capacitação de trabalhadores do setor. Finalmente, o artigo traz uma relevante discussão metodológica sobre a relação entre o monitoramento de políticas públicas e sua eficiência e eficácia.O artigo de Beltrame, Oliveira, Borelli, Santiago, Monego, Rosso, Coradin e Hunter relata e analisa ações do projeto Biodiversidade para Alimentação e Nutrição (BFN) no Brasil, conduzido numa parceria entre a Biodiversity International, governo federal, universidades, organizações não governamentais e outros colaboradores. O objetivo do projeto é estimular a inserção de produtos oriundos da fecunda biodiversidade brasileira em políticas e programas associados à \"Estratégia Fome Zero\", notadamente o Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA) e o Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE). Nesse sentido, o artigo analisa as oportunidades, barreiras, avanços e desafios para a consecução de tal objetivo por meio da análise dessa pauta em Conferências, Conselhos e Planos Governamentais vinculados à segurança alimentar no país e pelo estudo de dois \"casos\" de inserção de alimentos da biodiversidade brasileira na merenda escolar, o primeiro numa comunidade quilombola de Goiás e o segundo numa comunidade caiçara de Ubatuba, São Paulo. Esses estudos de caso demonstram como as políticas públicas podem simultaneamente proteger a biodiversidade, revitalizar as culturas alimentares tradicionais, promover as economias locais e proporcionar à população acesso a alimentos orgânicos, diversificados e saudáveis.Belik e Fornazier colaboram neste Dossiê com um trabalho que descreve e analisa as compras de alimentos da agricultura familiar para a merenda escolar, no âmbito do PNAE, no maior município brasileiro, São Paulo. Os autores apresentam um foco analítico que consiste em promover incursões mais precisas quanto à capacidade de realização do que preconiza a lei quanto ao abastecimento das escolas públicas municipais paulistanas e avaliam que apesar dos avanços, tal processo vem ocorrendo de forma tímida, necessitando de aprimoramento e superação de obstáculos relacionais entre as instituições, organizações e produtores envolvidos. A pesquisa efetuada pelos autores aponta para a necessidade de equacionar a situação de compras de longas distância para que os objetivos do PNAE sejam atingidos, fundamentalmente no que concerne às compras de produtos frescos e saudáveis no município brasileiro que concentra mais de 900 mil estudantes beneficiários dessa política pública.Caniello, Caniello e Melo, autores do sexto artigo, se debruçam sobre a problemática da aquisição de gêneros da agricultura familiar para a merenda escolar no âmbito do PNAE por meio de um estudo de caso que envolve sete municípios pertencentes ao Território do Seridó, na Paraíba. Relatando pesquisa-ação demandada pelos membros do Fórum Territorialinstância de governança participativa instituída nos quadros Programa Nacional de Desenvolvimento Sustentável dos Territórios Rurais (PRONAT) -os autores analisam os resultados do processo de investigação/intervenção realizado pelo Núcleo de Extensão em Desenvolvimento Territorial (NEDET) em parceria com os atores locais. Partindo de um diagnóstico que ex-plicita claramente a baixa adesão das prefeituras às compras de gêneros da agricultura familiar para a merenda escolar, a pesquisa identifica dois discursos conflitantes (gestores públicos vs. agricultores e suas organizações) quanto às causas desse fraco desempenho. Os autores analisam esses discursos, suas repercussões nos Fórum e nas \"mesas de diálogo\" realizadas nos municípios e os confrontam com evidências empíricas e teóricas para proporem um quadro explicativo da situação analisada.O sétimo artigo, de Pauli, Schulz e Zajonz, analisa a dinâmica do PNAE nas escolas estaduais de um município de porte médio, Santa Maria, localizado no centro do estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Os autores evidenciam a importância do desenvolvimento do Programa vis a vis as percepções dos diferentes agentes envolvidos no processo, porém identificam a fragilidade de elementos infraestruturais das escolas, além da dificuldade em garantir com que todos os recursos do PNAE sejam efetivamente alocados no formato constante nas diretrizes do Programa. Outra constatação parte da identificação de um excesso de burocratização intrínseco à operacionalização do PNAE, o que não permitiria a aproximação efetiva de parte dos agricultores familiares ao Programa com facilidade, o que acaba por incidir noutra ponta, isto é, as escolas enfrentam dificuldades no atendimento qualitativo devido à insuficiência de oferta de alimentos saudáveis nos moldes específicos requeridos pelo Programa.Já Lovo, Santandreu e Lopes Filho analisam a experiência do \"Jardim Produtivo\", espaço produtivo intraurbano, no processo de aquisição de hortaliças por escolas de Belo Horizonte, no contexto do projeto From Seed to Table (FST), promovido pela Ruaf Foundation em várias cidades ao redor do mundo. Os autores mostram uma preocupação que é crucial na literatura especializada e que combina a viabilidade econômica da agricultura urbana e o impacto dessa prática nas condições de vida das famílias dos agricultores participantes desse processo, e percebem que além de sua repercussão positiva na vida das famílias envolvidas diretamente a partir do autoconsumo, essa experiência vem contribuindo na promoção da segurança alimentar e nutricional no município, inclusive permitindo maior desenvolvimento local. Os resultados incitam aos autores a enunciarem a necessidade de incorporação de mais espaços (públicos e privados) para a prática da agricultura urbana.O artigo desenvolvido por Rambo, Costa e Laforga se refere a um escopo mais geral das políticas públicas de aquisição de alimentos. Os autores centram sua análise em três Programas, o PAA, o PNAE e o Programa Paulista da Agricultura de Interesse Social (PPAIS). O caráter inovativo desses programas é discutido à luz de uma abordagem neo-shumpeteriana, cujo destaque focaliza a organização social das famílias, o que potencializa a aprendizagem coletiva incorporadora de novos atores sociais, condição sine qua non à sua participação nos mercados institucionais. Os autores enfatizam ainda a necessidade de revisar os mecanismos de coordenação institucional em prol de um maior aprimoramento desses Programas.Finalmente, Balem, Fialho e Silva demonstram como o serviço de extensão rural público exerce implicação decisiva na viabilização do mercado institucional da alimentação escolar, uma vez que mesmo havendo ambiente político favorável ainda seriam vislumbradas uma série de deficiências na organização social e produtiva dos agricultores familiares. O estudo fornece elementos importantes para a compreensão das relações que se estabelecem entre o PNAE e o potencial da extensão rural, uma vez que no caso pesquisado, a tradição produtiva foi alterada, o que é percebido em diversas regiões brasileiras. Os autores ressaltam a necessidade de ações articuladas entre os mediadores da política pública e a realidade agrícola local, para que os agricultores familiares possam atender de forma satisfatória às demandas institucionais e, consequentemente, estimulando maiores níveis de desenvolvimento. This special issue is the result of a joint effort by researchers with converging interests, from different countries, institutions and areas of expertise, who participated in the Working Group (WG) on \"Revaluing Institutional Food Acquisition\" 2 , during the Second International Conference on Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society, held from 14 to 17 September 2015 in Rome, Italy 3 .The event focused on reconnecting agriculture and food chains with the needs of society considering issues related to the state of the art of research on multifunctionality of agriculture, local food chains and urban-rural relations. In this context, the WG was organized with the objective of discussing the wide variety of mechanisms and tools currently available for the public and institutional acquisition of healthy foods produced by small and medium farmers around the World, with a view to building more sustainable, fair and efficient institutional food strategies.Due to the quality of the papers presented, the discussions developed during the WG were extremely stimulating, bringing forth contributions and reflections on the institutional food acquisition in countries from different regions of the world, revealing their diversity and importance in the construction of more sustainable food systems. As a result, the WG's participants decided to assemble the presented papers in a specialized publication, choosing Raízes to do so.In general, the papers published here reflect a theoretical debate that revolves around three fundamental questions: (i) how institutional food acquisition is driven by different historical objectives, structures and processes; (ii) how this has configured the public food acquisition agenda, the expansion of policies, the governance structures and processes designed to 1Translation: Daniela Moura de Oliveira Beltrame. Technical Revision: Lemuel Guerra.2 Coordinated by Camilo Lozano Torres (Wageningen-UR e UFRGS), Luana Swensson (FAO/Roma) and Sergio Schneider (UFRGS). enable change, coordination, learning and adaptation; and, (iii) how diversified and contested institutional food acquisition, supply and consumption practices may lead to new perspectives or political actions in the construction of sustainable, inclusive, just and secure food systems.It is important to emphasize that the papers focus on two distinct contexts, since the processes underway in developed and developing countries are different. The studies on European and North American countries show that institutional food acquisition has been adopted in localities (counties and/or municipalities) and even Countries (as is the case of Denmark) where there is pressure from civil society organizations to modify or even mitigate the effects of conventional food systems on the health of the population (especially obesity-related problems) and of the environment (such as food waste issues). The local initiatives studied show that there are two interlocking elements that act as driving forces of change. The first refers to the role of civil society actors, whether they are organized collectively as social movements or even individuals who are linked to more specific initiatives such as solidarity or services. The second common element is that initiatives focused on relocating supply processes are linked to more general issues of defending the production and consumption of sustainable products or at least practices that support the sustainability motto.In developing countries the role of the State is critical to support public food supply strategies. In Latin America, especially countries like Brazil, as shown by the studies published herein, innovative food supply policies are embraced by wider programs that focus on hunger and poverty reduction, undertaken by several national governments in the region in the last decade. Therefore, government food acquisition programs have a dual objective: on the one hand, to improve the food security of the low-income population and, on the other, to foster a historically neglected economic and social development sector in these countries, such as the peasants and smallholders. In this regard, the studies emphasize that the new supply policies play an important role in the construction of markets for family farmers by creating a demand that was previously non-existent. The authors clearly indicate that the role of the State can go beyond that of financing and supervision functions by inducing and stimulating economic and social relations in a broader perspective. A key factor that is highlighted in these new development strategies relates to social participation in the definition and implementation of public policies. The papers show that different stakeholders have a central role in this process, but governments at their different levels as well as social organizations, especially cooperatives and producer associations, play a critical role in creative governance spaces such as councils, collegiate or democratic forums.For both developed and developing Countries, the authors identify dilemmas of public and institutional food acquisition processes, which can be summarized as five main issues: (i) the drivers and barriers of institutions responsible for food acquisition and the integration of small producers, as well as women and young people, within institutional markets; (ii) the difficulties and restrictions of suppliers and public agents in the elaboration of rules, budgets, nutritional guidelines and quality standards at the local/municipality levels; (iii) spin-off impacts on local food markets, rural development and the livelihood of smallholder producers; (iv) the process of incorporating culture into public bids; and (v) the role of cooperatives and new collective arrangements for the social organization of farmers.Researchers also identify challenges and present a set of proposals for the prospect of future studies on public and institutional food acquisition. One issue that deserves to be investigated is the power relations among the actors responsible for conducting institutional public food acquisition policies. Aspects such as the exclusion or discrimination of products and producers in case of non-compliance with legal requirements constitute, in many cases, segregation mechanisms and limits to access the market. Another issue that deserves attention is the re-quired increase in the scale and capacity of food supply according to demand. It has been found that isolated and unorganized small food producers are constrained when trying to access local markets and supply demand on a regular basis. In this regard, the emerging question that arises is what are the most efficient mechanisms and strategies for producers' organizations to scale up production and serve these markets more efficiently? Finally, the issue of relations between private actors has also emerged, since food markets are subject to fierce competition, and questions about the conditions and possibilities of concurrence between small local producers and larger companies remain an open issue.This special issue comprises ten papers that analyze processes and policies for institutional food acquisition in Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy and the UN World Food Programme Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative.The first paper, by Lozano, Schneider, Swensson and Kelly, emphasizes the central elements to understanding the dimensions and challenges that school feeding programs face, due to their innovative nature, from an analysis of three different contexts: The P4P, Brazil's school feeding program and public food acquisition systems in Europe. The authors seek to provide an overview of the common ground among the different selected contexts and highlight the broader transformative potential of these processes due to their connections with values such as sustainability, well-being and social justice. The authors conclude that reform of public school feeding policies and government support are not enough if the institutions and laws necessary for the operationalization of programs are not adequately adapted to local conditions. On the other hand, they demonstrate how public purchases or institutional urban food strategies can open up room for manoeuvre to overcome fiscal, material and governance constraints, emphasizing that the role of social actors is essential and constructive in this process.From the statement of a new concept -\"infrastructure of the middle\", Stahlbrand's paper -winner of the best work award at the Conference -proposes a reflection on the \"transition to sustainability\" in food systems, emphasizing that resources, facilities and networks create a critical mass that allows \"alternative\" producers to access institutional markets. Considering the recent flourishing of sustainable food projects in developed countries, but also the low participation of mid-size farmers in this process, the author identifies in universities -anchor institutions -a space for articulation of the ten actors, identified, according to the author, as making up the \"infrastructure of the middle\" which facilitates the encounter between producers and consumers in this innovative food system. The case study involves two British and one Canadian university, where over 60 leaders from non-governmental organizations that promote the acquisition of sustainable local food produced and processed by \"alternative\" farmers have been interviewed.The third paper, developed by Mikkelsen and Lundø, analyzes a set of public policies aimed at the purchase of organic foods for supplying food services located in public institutions in Denmark. It is worth noticing that these policies -Public Organic Procurement Policies (POPPs) -have great potential vis-a-vis the magnitude of government purchases in the European food economy and the authors emphasize that the aforementioned policies innovate the definition of agricultural and food strategies traditionally regulated by the market. They also point out that the engagement of the public sector as a \"political consumer\", by setting an example for society, may stimulate consumption of organic foods in the Country. Thus, they argue that POPPs can contribute to the construction of more sustainable food systems but that careful monitoring is necessary to evaluate their effectiveness. In this regard, the paper is based on the initial results of the application of a POPPs monitoring system, established by the Danish government, which revealed a significant increase in the consumption of organic foods in the Country between 2013 and 2014, especially in the public sector, stimulated by govern-mental actions that include the certification of public food services offering organic items on the menu and training of workers from the sector. Finally, the paper presents a methodological discussion about the relationship between the monitoring of public policies and their efficiency and effectiveness.The paper by Beltrame, Oliveira, Borelli, Santiago, Monego, Rosso, Coradin and Hunter reports and analyzes the actions of the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition (BFN) project in Brazil, conducted in partnership with federal government, public universities, non-governmental organizations and other collaborators. The objective of the project is to stimulate the insertion of nutritious products from native Brazilian biodiversity into policies and programs associated with the \"Zero Hunger Strategy\", notably the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). In this regard, the paper presents the opportunities, barriers, advances and challenges to achieve this objective through an analysis of this agenda in Conferences, Councils and Government Plans linked to food security in the Country and the study of two \"cases\" promoting foods from Brazilian biodiversity in school meals: the first in a quilombola community in Goiás State; and the second in a community in Ubatuba, São Paulo State. According to the authors, these case studies demonstrate how public policies can simultaneously protect biodiversity, revitalize traditional food crops, promote local economies, and provide people with access to organic, diversified and healthy food.Belik and Fornazier collaborate in this special issue with a paper that describes and analyzes the purchases of foods from family farming for school meals in the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) in São Paulo, the largest Brazilian municipality. The authors look at improved ways to promote the capacity for achievement of legal determinations regarding the supply of the municipal public schools of São Paulo. In this sense, they conclude that despite the advances, this process has been occurring slowly, requiring improvements to overcome the relations between the public institutions, organizations and producers involved. The research carried out by the authors points to the need to take stock of the situation of long distance purchases so that the objectives of the PNAE are reached, fundamentally in what concerns the purchase of fresh and healthy products in the Brazilian municipality that concentrates more than 900 thousand students that are beneficiaries of this public policy.Caniello, Caniello and Melo, authors of the sixth paper, deal with the subject of the acquisition of products from family farmers for school meals under the PNAE, by highlighting a case study involving seven municipalities belonging to the Seridó Territory, Paraíba State. Reporting on a research-action approach demanded by the members of the Territorial Foruma participatory governance body set up under the framework of the National Program for the Sustainable Development of Rural Territories (PRONAT) -the authors analyze the results of the research/intervention process carried out by the Extension Nucleus in Territorial Development (NEDET) in partnership with local stakeholders. Based on a diagnosis that clearly explains the low adherence of the municipalities to purchases from family farms for school meals, the research identifies two conflicting discourses (public managers vs. farmers and their organizations) explaining the causes of this poor performance. The authors interpret these discourses, their repercussions in the Forum and in the \"dialogue tables\" held in the municipalities, and confront them with empirical and theoretical evidence to propose an explanatory framework of the situation analyzed.The seventh paper, by Pauli, Schulz and Zajonz, presents the analysis of the PNAE dynamics in public schools of a medium size city located in the middle of the of the Rio Grande do Sul State. The authors highlight the importance of the Program's development vis-à-vis the perceptions of the different agents involved in it. However, they identify the fragility of the infrastructural elements of the schools, as well as the difficulty in ensuring that all PNAE resourc-es are effectively allocated according to their guidelines. Another finding is the identification of an excess of bureaucratization intrinsic to the operationalization of PNAE, which prevents the effective participation of family farmers, and which contributes to another constraint, that is, the difficulties in reaching a good level food service due to insufficient supply of healthy food in the specific ways required by the Program.Lovo, Santandreu and Lopes Filho analyze the experience of the \"Productive Garden\", an intra-urban productive space, in the process of purchasing vegetables with PNAE resources by schools in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, which occurs in the context of the From Seed to Table (FST) Project promoted by the Ruaf Foundation in various cities around the world. The authors highlight a concern that is crucial in specialized literature that the economic viability of urban agriculture is combined to impacts of this practice on participating family farmers' livelihoods in this process. They also point out that in addition to the positive repercussions on the lives of the families directly involved by means of self-consumption, this experience has contributed as well to the promotion of food and nutritional security in the municipality, including greater local development. The results encourage the authors to state the need to incorporate more public and private spaces for the practice of urban agriculture.The paper by Rambo, Costa and Laforga refers to a more general scope of food acquisition public policies, and also focuses analytically on the case of São Paulo municipality. The authors focus their analysis on three programs, the PAA, the PNAE and the Paulistan Program of Social Interest Agriculture (PPAIS). The innovative aspect of these programs is discussed in the light of a neo-Schumpeterian approach, which focus on the social organization of families, which enhances the collective learning that incorporates new social actors, a sine qua non condition for their participation in institutional markets. As was similarly indicated by Belik and Fornazier, the authors emphasize the need to review the mechanisms of institutional coordination for the further improvement of these programs.Finally, Balem, Fialho and Silva demonstrate how public rural extension services can exert a decisive role in enabling school feeding institutional markets, since even with a favourable political environment, a series of constraints in the social and productive organization of family farmers have been observed. The study highlights important elements for the better understanding of the relations that are established under PNAE and the potential of the rural extension since in the case studied traditional production has been modified, as also observed in other Brazilian Regions. The authors emphasize the need for articulated actions between public policy mediators and the reality of local agriculture, so that family farmers can meet the institutional demands and, consequently, stimulate higher levels of development.","tokenCount":"5348"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9569d947fe3216182d55ef2608e16ffb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/904ef449-af3f-4b10-bb20-9f68453d6f88/retrieve","id":"1024527100"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"667702ee-9af8-451a-a099-9bf158300325","pagecount":"1","content":"Ana María Bossa 1* , Andrea Vásquez 1 , Pablo Vanegas 1 , Nini Adriana Bernal 1 , Vivian Bernal 1 , Mariana Schuster 1 , Catalina Escovar 1 , Camilo López 1 Los genes Hev, Ch y SiR fueron amplificados a partir de las variedades de yuca SG 107-35 y MBra685, se clonaron en vectores de expresión para doble híbrido y fueron transformados a Saccharomyces cerevisiae, para producir proteínas carnada. Con el fin de generar proteínas presa, se realizó la transformación de la librería de ADNc de plantas in vitro de la variedad SG 107-35 de yuca, previamente inoculadas con la cepa CIO151 (González & López, 2008). Se llevaron a cabo los matings respectivos para cada proteína y se obtuvieron los posibles interactores. Para su confirmación, se realizó un mating 1:1 y la secuenciación del fragmento ADNc que codifica para las proteínas presa.La yuca, Manihot esculenta Crantz, es la base alimentaria para más de mil millones de personas en el mundo. Una de las mayores limitantes en la producción del cultivo es la bacteriosis vascular causada por Xanthomonas axonopodis pv manihotis (Xam).Caracterizar redes de interacciones entre las proteínas Hevamina, Quitinasa, Sulfito Reductasa y el proteoma de yuca, utilizando la técnica de doble híbrido en levadurasMediante microarreglos conteniendo 5700 ESTs de yuca fue posible identificar 122 genes inducidos en respuesta a Xam, dentro de los cuales los más sobreexpresados fueron los genes Hevamina (Hev), Quitinasa (Ch) y Sulfito reductasa (SiR) (López et al, 2005).Este trabajo se constituye en un primer paso al conocimiento de las vías de señalización inducidas por el ataque de Xam en variedades resistentes de yuca.El descubrimiento de éstos interactores y las funciones en las que se encuentran involucrados, establecen un punto de partida para posteriores análisis que permitan plantear un modelo de las redes de interacciones presentes en la inmunidad de yuca. Esto con el fin último de utilizar este conocimiento en la aplicación de estrategias moleculares para la generación de plantas de yuca resistentes a la bacteriosis vascular.Al Dr. R. Michelmore (UC, Davis) por proveernos los vectores pLAW11, pLAW10 y las cepas AH109 y Y187.A Juliana Gil, por su apoyo metodológico. ","tokenCount":"356"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd1b4acd3f0f0ca8531c832634d8ab47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/49185aed-a918-453c-9e3c-4e89845f1ce1/retrieve","id":"623449557"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0746651d-232f-4c54-86bd-6ae6807b9814","pagecount":"19","content":"This tool has been developed to quantitatively assess the trilogy: perception, consciousness, and determination, in relation to the problem of climate change, within an entity or a functional structure of the administration or civil society, or any organization operating in the agricultural sector. It consists of five components, evaluated quantitatively to calculate a global index/score (Perception, Consciousness, and Determination Index: PCD).The resulting outcome can be used to assess the current state or level of an entity or population, its evolution over time, as well as potential changes before and after the implementation of a climate change-related project. This tool enables policymakers to select appropriate programs and plan specific actions to enhance awareness and sensitivity to climate change before moving on to implementing adaptation and mitigation alternatives.Currently, TACCS (version 1.0) is being tested within certain professional groups. The global climate is changing rapidly, and North Africa is among the most affected regions. The adoption of adaptation or mitigation strategies is closely linked to the level and accuracy of perception, awareness, and understanding of this complex issue. It is uncertain whether all stakeholders and primarily agricultural producers in these countries are currently able to engage and act to address climate change. The literature examining farmers' perception of climate change, mainly in Africa (Moddison, 2007) and Latin America (Gurgiser et al., 2016;Altea, 2020;Fourment et al., 2020), has gained traction, but it is still relatively scarce (Fierros-González and Alejandro López-Feldman, 2021). While most approaches taken are quantitative, they mainly focus on the perception of climatic phenomena rather than the broader concern of climate change as a whole. In our case, we propose a tool that considers individual perception as well as the technical, social, and cultural components surrounding individuals or entities in the context of North Africa. This tool would enable a multidimensional approach to establish policies and action plans regarding climate change.  ","tokenCount":"309"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/9419413536.json b/data/part_6/9419413536.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..27fd1e244512e8ac62b336fd1b3c175b10b7be1a
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8d9533e16c28d8db2502ad53c7ad0b94","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2746f803-2109-45cb-8321-0b4557ff446e/retrieve","id":"1438613601"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8ca550a6-2dc9-4cf8-8441-4d150a955c9a","pagecount":"13","content":"Crop residue management and tillage are known to affect the soil bacterial community, but when and which bacterial groups are enriched by application of ammonium in soil under different agricultural practices from a semi-arid ecosystem is still poorly understood. Soil was sampled from a long-term agronomic experiment with conventional tilled beds and crop residue retention (CT treatment), permanent beds with crop residue burned (PBB treatment) or retained (PBC) left unfertilized or fertilized with 300 kg urea-N ha −1 and cultivated with wheat (Triticum durum L.)/maize (Zea mays L.) rotation. Soil samples, fertilized or unfertilized, were amended or not (control) with a solution of (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 (300 kg N ha −1 ) and were incubated aerobically at 25 ± 2 °C for 56 days, while CO 2 emission, mineral N and the bacterial community were monitored. Application of NH 4 + significantly increased the C mineralization independent of tillage-residue management or N fertilizer. Oxidation of NH 4 + and NO 2 − was faster in the fertilized soil than in the unfertilized soil. The relative abundance of Nitrosovibrio, the sole ammonium oxidizer detected, was higher in the fertilized than in the unfertilized soil; and similarly, that of Nitrospira, the sole nitrite oxidizer. Application of NH 4 + enriched Pseudomonas, Flavisolibacter, Enterobacter and Pseudoxanthomonas in the first week and Rheinheimera, Acinetobacter and Achromobacter between day 7 and 28. The application of ammonium to a soil cultivated with wheat and maize enriched a sequence of bacterial genera characterized as rhizospheric and/or endophytic independent of the application of urea, retention or burning of the crop residue, or tillage.Soil microorganisms are vital in the cycling of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Nitrogen enters an ecosystem through the conversion of dinitrogen (N 2 ) to ammonium (NH 4 + ) by free living or symbiotic N 2 fixators microorganisms. When ammonium is available in soil it is oxidized by ammonium oxidizing bacteria and ammonium oxidizing archaea to nitrite (NO 2 − ) and by nitrite oxidizing bacteria to nitrate (NO 3 − ). Nitrate, which easily dissolves in water, is readily taken up by plants 1 . Nitrifiers play a central role in N cycling and their activity is controlled by environmental factors, such as NH 4 + availability, pH, salinity, water content, temperature and agricultural practices 2 .Conventional agricultural practices (CP) in Mexico include generally monoculture and tillage, with large variations in N fertilizer applied. Crop residue is removed often for fodder or burned. These intensive agricultural practices have reduced strongly soil organic matter content and deteriorated most arable soils 3,4 . Soil organic matter is not replenished as crop residues are removed and tillage breaks up aggregates liberating physically protected organic material. The decrease in soil organic matter and a less developed soil structure reduces water infiltration and the absent of soil cover promotes soil and wind erosion. Conservation agriculture (CA), i.e. minimum tillage, crop rotation and retaining some of the crop residue on the soil surface, has been suggested as an alternative to stop the decline in soil fertility and even reverse it 5 . A long-term field trial was started by the \"International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center\" (CIMMYT) to investigate the effect of different agricultural practices, i.e. tillageand residue management, combined with different N fertilization practices on yields and soil characteristics in the Yaqui Valley (near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora) in north-western Mexico in 1992 6 . In the Yaqui Valley, farmers mainly grow durum wheat (Triticum durum L.) in monoculture during the winter season under furrow irrigation and sometimes maize as summer crop 6 . Crop residue is incorporated through tillage or burned.The field trial had a wheat and maize (Zea mays L.) crop rotation. This study used a subset of treatments with two N fertilizer application rates (no fertilizer versus 300 kg urea-N ha −1 for wheat) and three tillage-residue managements (tilled bed planting with residue incorporated [CT treatment] and permanent beds with residue burned [PBB treatment] and retained [PBC treatment]). Earlier research suggested that the retention of crop residue might lead to a limited N availability in the soil and this might affect C and N dynamics, grain quality and the bacterial communities 7,8 . High urea fertilization rates affect nitrifiers and ureolytic soil microbial communities 9 . For instance, the application of inorganic fertilization enriched Bacillales in the maize rhizosphere 10 . It accelerated the mineralization of soil organic matter the first days after N fertilizer application 11 and stimulated nitrification activity in soil (e.g. 12,13 ). Therefore, treatments were sampled in triplicate and soil from each treatment (n = 6) was amended with 300 mg NH 4 + -N in the laboratory or left unamended and incubated aerobically for 56 days, while emissions of CO 2 , dynamics of mineral N and the bacterial community were monitored. The objectives of this study were to determine how the bacterial communities were affected by (i) the tillage-residue management, (ii) the application of inorganic N fertilizer in the field and (iii) the application of NH 4 + in the laboratory. We found that the application of ammonium to an unfertilized or N fertilized soil cultivated with wheat and maize enriched a sequence of bacterial genera characterized as rhizospheric and/or endophytic independent of the agricultural practices applied.Carbon and nitrogen mineralization. Application of NH 4 + and N fertilizer increased significantly the CO 2 emitted after 56 days (P < 0.05), but tillage-residue management did not affect it (Fig. 1). The amount of NH 4  + in the unamended fertilized and unfertilized soil remained < 10 mg N kg −1 soil. The NH 4 + -N concentration in the unfertilized soil amended with 300 mg NH 4 + -N decreased sharply and was ≤ 18 mg N kg −1 soil in the CT and PBC treatments after 28 days, but still 105 mg N kg −1 soil in the PBB treatment and significantly higher than in the CT and PBC treatments (P < 0.05). The NH 4 + -N concentration in the soil fertilized with 300 kg urea-N ha −1 and amended with 300 mg NH 4 + -N dropped even faster than in the unfertilized and was ≤ 7 mg N kg −1 soil after only 7 days.The concentration of NO 2 − remained < 0.2 mg N kg −1 soil in the unamended soil, but application of NH 4 + increased it sharply (Fig. 1). The NO 2 − concentration reached a maximum at day 3 in both the fertilized and unfertilized soil amended with NH 4 + and decreased thereafter, but the decrease was faster in the fertilized than in the unfertilized soil. The concentration of nitrate remained < 13 mg N kg −1 soil in the unamended unfertilized soil and < 40 mg N kg −1 in the unamended fertilized soil. The application of NH 4  + increased the concentration of nitrate sharply, with the fastest increase found in the fertilized soil. Of the 300 mg NH 4 + -N applied, 135 mg N kg −1 was not accounted for as NO 2 − or NO 3 − in the unfertilized soil and 122 mg N kg −1 in the fertilized soil after 56 days.A total of 3,243,711 joined paired-end, high quality and chimera-free sequences were obtained from the 288 soil samples. Clustering yielded 78,215 bacterial OTUs based on 97% nucleotide similarity cutoff. The rarefaction curves of the number of OTUs versus the number of sequences per treatment were asymptotic (Fig. S1a). As such, a sufficient sequencing depth was obtained and analyzing more sequences would have yielded only a limited number of more OTUs. The average Good's coverage was 83%.Overall, 38 different bacterial phyla, 111 classes, 180 orders, 235 families and 387 genera were detected in the soil. Proteobacteria (relative abundance 51.91%) was the dominant bacterial phylum in soil followed by Acidobacteria (20.48%) and Firmicutes (9.97%) (Fig. S2). Bacillus (6.04%) was the dominant bacterial genus followed by Pseudomonas (4.49%) and Halomonas (4.38%) (Fig. S3).The bacterial diversity dynamics measured in terms of Hill numbers at q = 0, 1 and 2 were similar in the different treatments of the unamended unfertilized and fertilized soil and showed a sharp drop at day 56 compared to day 28 (Fig. S1b). Application of NH 4 + changed the dynamics of the Hill numbers compared to the unamended soil, but there was no significant effect of treatments or application of fertilizer.+ -amended soil as affected by tillage-residue management. A large number of bacterial groups assigned up to the level of genus was significantly affected by tillage-residue management in the unamended and NH 4 + amended unfertilized and fertilized soil (P < 0.05) (Table S1). The PCA showed a clear effect of time on the bacterial community in the NH 4 + -amended soil, but not always the effect of tillage-residue management (Figs. 2 and 3). The perMANOVA analysis showed that time and tillage-residue management had a highly significant effect on the bacterial community structure in the fertilized and unfertilized unamended and NH 4 + -amended soil (P ≤ 0.004, Fig. 2). Additionally, the in-field N fertilizer rate had a highly significant effect on the bacterial community structure in both the unamended and NH 4 + -amended soil and affected significantly the relative abundance of a wide range of bacterial groups (P < 0.001).+ . Application of NH 4 + to soil had a strong, often immediately and sometimes a long-lasting effect on the relative abundance of a wide range of bacterial groups in the unfertilized and fertilized soil (Figs. 4, S4, S5). The relative abundance of the bacterial groups was affected in a similar way, but the effect was mostly smaller in the fertilized than in the unfertilized soil. Some bacterial groups in the N fertilized soil also responded more rapidly to the application of ammonium so they appeared to be better adapted to N applications than the same bacterial groups in the soil that was not fertilized with urea in the field. A sequence of bacterial genera was enriched highly significantly by the application of NH 4 + , compared to the unamended soil in both the fertilized and unfertilized soil, i.e. Achromobacter, Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, Flavisolibacter, Pseudomonas Rheinheimera (Figs. 4 and S5). Sometimes the relative abundance of the bacterial genus showed a sharp increase on only one day when NH 4 + was applied compared to the unamended soil, e.g. Achromobacter on day 28, the effect on others lasted longer, e.g. Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Rheinheimera, while still others were sometimes enriched on certain days while on other days their relative abundance decreased, e.g. Rubrobacter and Steroidobacter. The relative abundance of a wide range of bacterial groups decreased in soil amended with NH 4 + . The effect was mostly small except for the enrichment of members of Bacillus in the unamended soil on day 56.The PCA separated the bacterial community in the NH 4 + -amended soil from the unamended soil most clearly at day 0, 1 and 3 (Fig. 3). It was only after 28 days that the bacterial community in the NH 4 + -amended soil resembled that in the unamended soil. Consequently, the effect of time and application of NH 4 + on the bacterial community was highly significant, but also their interaction (P < 0.05). The effect of application of NH 4 + on the bacterial communities was larger than that of the time considering the F values, but it was for a short period of time, from 3 to maximum 5 days (Fig. 3).Members of only one NH 4 + oxidizer, i.e. Nitrosovibrio, and one NO 2 oxidizer, Nitrospira, were detected in the soil (Fig. 1). The relative abundance of Nitrosovibrio was significantly higher in the fertilized than in the unfertilized soil, but not that of Nitrospira (P < 0.001). Treatment had no significant effect on the relative abundance of Nitrosovibrio and Nitrospira but the application of NH 4 + did on certain days. For instance, members of Nitrosovibrio and Nitrospira were enriched in the NH 4 + -amended soil on day 56.  Principal component analysis (PCA) with the converted sequence counts of all bacterial groups classified up to the genus level using the centred log-ratio transformation (aldex.clr argument, ALDEx2 package 14 ) in the unfertilized soil or soil fertilized with 300 kg urea-N ha −1 left unamended with conventional tilled beds (CT) at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled green square), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled orange square) and at day 28 and 56 (filled brown square), permanent beds with crop residue burned (PBB) at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled green circle), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled orange circle) and at day 28 and 56 (filled brown circle) and permanent beds with crop residue retained (PBC) at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled green triangle), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled orange triangle) and at day 28 and 56 (filled brown triangle) or amended with 300 mg NH 4 + -N kg −1 dry soil with CT at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled red square), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled blue square) and at day 28 and 56 (filled black square), PBB at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled red circle), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled blue circle) and at day 28 and 56 (filled black circle) and PBC at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled red triangle), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled blue triangle) and at day 28 and 56 (filled black triangle), incubated aerobically at 25 ± 2 °C for 56 days. F and p values were determined with a perMANOVA analysis.Soil functional profiles, and carbon and nitrogen pathway genes. Some clear changes were detected in metabolic processes related to the C and N cycling as determined with FAPROTAX (Figs. S6, S7, S8). Tillage-residue management and application of fertilizer or NH 4 + had a highly significant effect on the carbon and nitrogen pathway genes (Fig. S7). Application of NH 4 + increased the relative abundance of some carbon and nitrogen pathway genes sharply sometimes (Fig. S8). For instance, the relative abundance of the potential ligninolysis showed a large increase in the NH 4 + -amended soil compared to the unamended soil on day 0 and 1 Figure 3. Principal component analysis (PCA) with the converted sequence counts of all bacterial groups classified up to the genus level using the centred log-ratio transformation (aldex.clr argument, ALDEx2 package 14 ) in the unfertilized soil left unamended with permanent beds conventional tilled with residue retained (CT treatment) or permanent beds with crop residue burned (PBB treatment) or permanent beds with crop residue retained (PBC treatment) at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled green square), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled orange square) and at day 28 and 56 (filled brown square), or ammonium-amended at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled red square), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled blue square) and at day 28 and 56 (filled black square), and in soil fertilized with 300 kg urea-N ha −1 left unamended at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled green circle), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled orange circle) and at day 28 and 56 (filled brown circle) or amended with 300 mg NH 4 + -N kg −1 at day 0, 1 and 3 (filled red circle), at day 5, 7 and 14 (filled blue circle) and at day 28 and 56 (filled black circle) incubated aerobically at 25 ± 2 °C for 56 days. F and p values were determined with a perMANOVA analysis.but not thereafter, while that of the potential aromatic compound degradation was enriched on days 7, 14 and 28. Application of N fertilizer enriched the potential nitrification, while it was reduced in the NH 4 + -amended soil compared to the unamended soil until day 28 but higher on day 56. The nitrite reductase (nirD gene, COG2146) and COGs related to transportation and assimilation of N compounds were the most abundant, e.g. glutamine synthetase (COG0174), N-acetylglutamate synthase (COG1246) and ammonium transporter (COG004) (Fig. S9). The perMANOVA results showed that N-cycle related genes were highly significantly affected both by tillage-residue management and NH 4 + -N application (P < 0.001).Carbon and nitrogen mineralization. The soil in the CT, PBB and PBC treatments at CENEB was N depleted, even in the soil fertilized with 300 kg urea-N ha −1 for wheat, as application of 300 mg NH 4 + -N more than doubled the emitted CO 2 . Previous findings showed that although the retention of crop residues and fertilization increased yield and wheat grain quality it affected N availability in soil 7,8 . As such, the amount of C substrate available for heterotrophs was high but the mineral N severely limited even in the fertilized soil, i.e. C mineralization was impeded by the lack of mineral N so application of 300 mg NH 4 + -N stimulated strongly microbial metabolic activity. The composition, e.g. N availability, and the amount of crop residue left in the field will determine its decomposition 15 . The maize and wheat crop residues left in the field had a high C-to-N ratio (approximately 80 for wheat and 57 for maize, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (soils.usda.gov/ sqi)) so all mineralized N was immobilized by the soil microorganisms. The soil was so N depleted that more than a third of the 300 mg NH 4 + kg −1 applied was not accounted for after 56 days. Losses of NH 4 + through abiotic processes, e.g. NH 3 volatilization, cannot be excluded but were assumed to be small. The soil was only slightly alkaline (pH between 7.7 and 8.1) and the soil was mixed immediately after the ammonium was applied to reduce possible NH 3 volatilization so most of it was immobilized by the soil microorganisms. The amount of mineral N immobilized in the fertilized soil was similar (i.e. 122 mg NH 4 + -N kg −1 ) after 56 days.Alpha diversity. The effect of tillage-residue management and crop residue on soil microbial diversity is highly variable and depends on environmental and edaphic factors, and soil nutrient dynamics 16,17 . Some studies found a higher bacterial diversity, i.e. the variability of species, in limited or zero tillage compared to conventional tillage 18 , while others showed little or no effect of tillage on both bacterial richness and diversity 19,20 . In this study, tillage-residue management had no effect on bacterial diversity and richness.Application of N sources also affects microbial diversity, but their possible effect depends on soil type and fertilizer rates 17,21 . For instance, Staley et al. 22 studied three urea fertilization regimes on eight different arable soils. They observed only a decrease in soil bacterial diversity at the highest fertilizer application rate, i.e. 500 mg urea-N kg −1 , and the effect depended on soil characteristics. Fierer et al. 23 , however, found that the bacterial diversity was affected by N fertilizer application rates as found in this study. However, application of ammonium to the soil increased significantly bacterial richness.Soil bacterial community as affected by tillage-residue management. Agricultural practices, such as crop residue management and tillage, are known to affect the bacterial community structure 19,24 . Crop residue management and the composition of the organic material left in the field affects the bacterial community 25 . Retaining crop residue in the field provides heterotrophs with C substrate and enriches copiotrophs. The characteristics of the crop residue, such as its lignin and (hemi)cellulose content and its C-to-N ratio, determine its availability for the soil microorganisms and which of them will be enriched. Kraut-Cohen et al. 26 reported that even a single tillage event had a significant effect on some microbial groups. Tillage brings crop residue in direct contact with the soil microbial community and breaks up aggregates liberating previously physically protected organic material 27 . These changes in organic material availability will enrich some microorganisms at the expense of others 28 .Short and long-term inorganic N application did not affect the bacterial community structure in an agricultural soil in Utah 29 , but in this study the effect of N fertilizer application on the bacterial community structure was significant. The length of the experiment, i.e. 20-y, and experimental conditions, such as soil characteristics and agricultural practices, will determine if N fertilizer application will alter the bacterial community structure. In this study, wheat and maize residue, both characterized by a high C-to-N ratio, enriched certain bacteria, such as Bacillus, while application of N fertilizer enriched others, such as Kaistobacter.wheat and maize in rotation, a bacterial community had developed adapted to a limited N availability even in the soil fertilized with 300 kg urea-N ha −1 for wheat. Application of NH 4 + allowed some bacteria to mineralize the C substrate with a high C-to-N ratio. As a result, the bacterial community structure changed immediately when NH 4+ was applied to soil and was clearly different from the unamended soil. At day 5, the bacterial community structure in the NH 4 + -amended soil changed and started to resemble that in the unamended soil so that after 28 days the bacterial community structure in the NH 4 + -amended soil was similar to that in the unamended soil. Application of NH 4 + stimulated the metabolic activity and consecutive growth of specific bacterial groups. Most of these are well known rhizosphere and/or endophytic root bacteria often with plant growth promoting capacity and a copiotrophic lifestyle. Members of Flavisolibacter and Pseudomonas were the first group of bacteria enriched by the application of ammonium with the latter becoming the dominant bacterial genus at the onset of the experiment. Both genera are considered plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) 30,31 . Pseudomonas shows rapid growth and can use various substrates as nutrients with a capacity to survive different stress conditions and therefore is a good colonizer of soil 32 . Its members are enriched in the rhizosphere 33 and have been found abundantly as endophyte in the roots, stems, leaves, pericarp and seeds of tomato plants 34,35 . Most members of Pseudomonas have a large metabolic versatility, such as degradation of aromatics and assimilatory N reduction to ammonium 36 , and they can protect plants against pathogens 30 .Members of Enterobacter were the next bacterial genus enriched when NH 4 + was applied to the N depleted soil. Enterobacter is also considered a PGPR and has also been found abundantly as endophyte in the roots, stems, leaves, pericarp and seeds of tomato plants 34 . Some strains of E. cloacae strains can fix substantial amounts of N 2 and have other PGPR characteristics 37 . Akita et al. 38 reported that the strain E. oligotrophica could grow in nutrient poor (oligotrophic) medium, but its growth was not affected by high-nutrient medium. Interestingly, Niu et al. 39 reported that E. cloacae was a member of simplified synthetic bacterial community that contained seven strains (also Pseudomonas putida) obtained through host-mediated selection of distinctive microbiota assembled from maize roots and it played the role of keystone species in this model ecosystem.Rheinheimera, Acinetobacter and Pseudoxanthomonas were the next bacterial genera enriched strongly in the NH 4 + -amended soil. Members of Rheinheimera (i.e. R. hassiensis and R. muenzenbergensis) have been detected in the rhizosphere of false rye barley (Hordeum secalinum Schreb.) 40 and it was the dominant bacterial genus in the rhizosphere of hardy sugar cane (Saccharum arundinaceum Retz.) grown on organometallic pollutants-rich hazardous distillery sludge 41 . It was also the dominant bacterial genus in the endophyte-enriched root-associated microbiome of rice (Oryza sativa) cultivated in soil for 55 days 42 . Members of Pseudoxanthomonas are also rhizosphere bacteria 32 and the strain P. suwonensis J1 isolated from soil enriched with rotten leaves and wood has been described as a cellulose-degrading bacterium 43 . Dong et al. 34 studied the bacterial community in the rootzone, rhizosphere, phyllosphere and endosphere of roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds of tomato plants. They found that OTUs belonging to Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter dominated in the rhizosphere, > 97% of the sequences in the phyllosphere belonged to Acinetobacter, and Acinetobacter, Enterobacter and Pseudomonas were the most abundant genera in the roots, stems and leaves. Cordero et al. 44 studied the bacterial community in rhizosphere and root interior of canola (Brassica napus L.), wheat, field pea (Pisum sativum L.), and lentil (Lens culinaris L.) and found that Pseudomonas was one of the dominant genera in the rhizosphere and Acinetobacter in the root biome of all these crops. www.nature.com/scientificreports/ At day 28, the relative abundance of Achromobacter, a salt-tolerant PGPR 45 , was much higher in the NH 4 + amended soil than in the unamended soil. Soares et al. 46 reported that A. spanius B1 an endophyte of the invasive common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.) with the capacity to produce indole acetic acid, secrete hydrolytic enzymes, solubilizes phosphate and with antibiosis activity increased common reed growth in soil with a low N content. They suggested that the A. spanius presumably increased the growth of common reed by scavenging nitrogenous compounds from the rhizosphere and transferring them to the plant roots. At day 56, the relative abundance of none of the most abundant bacterial groups showed such a sharp increase as found earlier in the experiment. Contrarily, a range of genera, such as Steroidobacter and Rubrobacter, were enriched on day 56, although earlier, their relative abundance was often lower in the NH 4 + -amended than in the unamended soil. Steroidobacter was described by Valverde et al. 47 as part of a small 'core' rhizosphere bacterial community of welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis Hook.f.). Some members of Rubrobacter have been described as oligotrophic which would explain that their relative abundance decreased when NH 4 + was applied to soil 48 . The relative abundance of a wide range of bacterial groups was reduced when NH 4 + was applied to soil but the effect was small, except for members of Bacillus that were enriched strongly in the unamended soil at day 56. Although members of Bacillus have been found to be abundant in the rhizosphere of crops, such as maize (e.g. Li et al. 36 ), in this study they were not enriched by the application of NH 4 + as other rhizosphere bacteria, such as Pseudomonas or Enterobacter. The enrichment of phylotypes belonging to Bacillus in the unamended soil at day 56 would indicate an oligotrophic lifestyle in the soil studied here.Only OTUs belonging to one ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) Nitrosovibrio and one nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) Nitrospira were detected in the soil studied. Shah et al. 49 reported also Nitrosovibrio spp. as the sole AOB and Nitrosocaldus spp. as the sole ammonium oxidizing archaea (AOA) when studying the bacterial and archaeal community present in the Pine Barrens Forest of Long Island, NY. Sometimes, more than one AOB and NOB have been detected in soil although both Nitrosovibrio and Nitrospira are often dominant 29,50 . In this study, the archaeal community was not studied, but AOA are sometimes more important than AOB and might have contributed substantially to the nitrification process in the soil studied (e.g. 51 ). The OTUs belonging to the phylum Nitrospirae have a triple-layered cell wall and are enriched under drought stress 52 , conditions predominant in the area with little or no rainfall and high average temperature 53 . Nitrospira might also have been benefitted from the lack of nutrients as Liang et al. 54 reported that application of compost, which is normally nutrient rich, reduced its relative abundance.Ammonium provides AOA and AOB with the sole energy for growth. Application of urea as inorganic N fertilizer and its subsequent hydrolysis will provide AOB and AOA with energy for growth and the formation of nitrite provides NOB with energy for growth. As such, the relative abundance of Nitrosospira was significantly higher in the fertilized than in the unfertilized soil. Interestingly, that was not so for Nitrospira although the oxidation of the nitrite as evidenced by dynamics of nitrite and the formation of nitrate was much faster in the first compared to the latter when ammonium was applied to the soil. Ouyang and Norton 29 reported similar results. They found that application of ammonium sulphate did not affect the abundance of Nitrospira nxrB gene determined by real-time quantitative PCR, although ammonium fertilizer application for 4 years significantly increased rates of potential nitrite oxidation determined at 0.15 mM nitrite in soil slurries.Application of NH 4 + enriched Nitrosospira only at the end of the incubation, which would suggest that activity, i.e. oxidation of NH 4 + , occurred before growth. The relative abundance of Nitrospira was higher in the unamended than in the NH 4 + -amended soil at day 14, but enriched in the NH 4 + -amended soil at day 28 and 56. This might indicate that oxidation of NO 2 − , occurred before growth of Nitrospira, but it has to be remembered that no absolute abundance were available. The increased mineralization might have resulted in the growth of heterotrophic copiotrophs, thereby reducing the relative abundance of AOB and NOB. As such, the relative abundance of AOB and NOB might have only increased when the growth of heterotrophic copiotrophs decreased, i.e. day 28 and 56.Soil predicted functional profile. Changes in organic material availability and composition will alter the bacterial community structure and might change its potential functionality 55 . The retention of crop residues together with tillage changes the available C and soil enzymatic activities and functional diversity 56 . Previous studies have shown that reduced or no tillage with crop residue retention increased the soil enzymatic and microbial functional activity related to C-compounds degradation, e.g. carbohydrate and phenolic compounds degradation and urease activity, compared to conventional tillage with or without crop residues in long-term arable soil experiments 57 . In this study, metabolic functions related to the degradation of complex C compounds and metabolism of N-compounds (assimilation and transportation) were enriched by tillage-residue management, but less than by the application of ammonium. Li et al. 58 observed an enrichment of organic-N and N-compounds bacterial metabolism, e.g. nitrification, denitrification and assimilatory nitrate reduction, in a long-term N fertilization experiment.The soil bacterial community structure, diversity and its potential functionality was determined in an arable soil under two contrasting tillage systems (conventional tilled beds remade every year and permanent beds) with crop residue retained or burned and left unfertilized or fertilized with 300 kg urea-N ha −1 . Irrespective of fertilization, the soil was N depleted. Application of NH 4 + increased microbial activity and C mineralization as evidenced by an increase in emission of CO 2 in both the fertilized and unfertilized soil. However, fertilizing the soil accelerated the oxidation of NH 4 + and NO 2 − independent of tillage or crop residue management. The soil bacterial structure was affected more by ammonium application than by fertilization in the field and tillageresidue management, i.e. CT, PBB or PBC. Application of ammonium had an immediate and strong effect on some bacterial groups. Well-known rhizospheric and/or endophytic bacteria with copiotrophic lifestyle, e.g. Flavisolibacter, Pseudomonas, Rheinheimera, Pseudoxanthomonas, were enriched. The C mineralization and N pathways related genes were strongly affected by ammonium application and to a lesser extent by N fertilizer and tillage-residue management. Tillage and crop residue management, and inorganic fertilizer application, i.e. N fertilizer application in the field and NH 4 + addition in the laboratory had a strong effect on the bacterial community in this N depleted arable soil.Study site and soil collection and characterization. Soil was collected in April 2012, from a longterm experiment initiated in 1992 with different agricultural practices at CIMMYT's Norman E. Borlaug experimental station (CENEB) near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico (lat. 27.33°N, long. 109.09°W, 38 m.a.s.l.). The six treatments were: conventional tilled beds with the crop residue retained and incorporated through tillage (considered the CT treatment), permanent beds with crop residue burned (considered the PBB treatment), and permanent beds with crop residue retained (considered the PBC treatment) fertilized with 300 kg urea-N ha −1 for wheat or not receiving N fertilization. The summer maize received a uniform N application of 150 kg N ha −1 in the first years of the experiment. From the summer of 2008 on, no N was applied to the maize in the treatments without N fertilization for wheat, while 150 kg N ha −1 was applied to the rest of the maize. All treatments received 46 kg P 2 O 5 ha −1 for wheat and 50 kg P 2 O 5 ha −1 for maize. The site has an arid climate and a mean annual temperature of 24.7 °C. Rainfall is dominant in the summer, with an average rainfall of 384 mm. Wheat (winter planted crop) and maize (summer planted crop) in annual rotation are irrigated in the furrows between the beds. Details of the field experimental design can be found in Verhulst et al. 6 .Twenty subsamples (500 g) of the upper 0-15 cm soil layer were collected at random from three plots (n = 3) of each treatment (n = 6). The bulk soil was sampled at the tillering stage of maize. The soil sampled from each plot was pooled separately so that 18 composite samples were obtained (n = 18) (Fig. S10a). The field-based replication was maintained in the laboratory experiment to avoid pseudo-replication 59 . The soil samples were left to dry in the greenhouse, homogenized and sieved (2 mm mesh size). The particle size distribution, total C content, water holding capacity (WHC), moisture content, pH, electrolytic conductivity (EC), and mineral N (NH 4 + , NO 2 − and NO 3 − ) were determined (Fig. S10b). Details of the physical-chemical characterization of the soil can be found in Patiño-Zúñiga et al. 60 .Microcosms set up and experimental design. Sixteen 50 g sub-samples of soil (n = 6) from each plot (n = 3) were added to 120 mL flasks and adjusted to 40% WHC. The flasks were placed separately in a 1 L jar that contained a 25 mL flask with 20 mL 1 M NaOH to capture emitted CO 2. As such, a total of 288 experimental units were used in the study. The 1 L jars were closed air-tight and pre-incubated for 7 days. The soil was preincubated to eliminate any possible effect of handling the soil and adjust its water content 62 . The jars were opened and the 25 ml flask with 20 mL 1 M NaOH replaced. Half of the sixteen 50 g soil samples were amended with 1 mL of a 0.5 M solution of ammonium sulfate so that 300 mg N kg −1 dry soil was added to soil (considered the amended soil) and the soil water content was 50% WHC. The other half was amended with distilled water so that the water content was 50% of WHC (considered the unamended soil). The soil of both treatments was mixed. A flask from each plot (n = 18) and amended with NH 4 + or left unamended was selected at random and 20 g soil extracted for mineral N with 80 ml 0.5 M K 2 SO 4 filtered through a Whatman® No 41 filter paper and the mineral N in the extract determined on a Skalar autoanalyzer (Breda, The Netherlands) 63 . A 10 g sub-sample of soil was extracted for DNA and stored at − 21 °C pending analysis. These were considered zero time samples.The jars were closed air-tight and incubated at 25 ± 2 °C for 56 days. After 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days, a flask with soil from each plot (n = 18) and amended with NH 4 + or left unamended was selected at random (Fig. S11). The flasks were opened, the flask with NaOH removed and analyzed for the CO 2 trapped 61 . The soil was removed from the flasks and part of it was extracted for DNA and the rest used to determine mineral N as described earlier.DNA extraction and 16S rRNA gene amplification and sequencing. Metagenomic DNA was extracted from soil using three methods that rely on mechanical and/or chemical/enzymatic lysis [64][65][66] . The first technique used the Hoffman and Winston lysis solution to lyse the microbial cells 64 , the second used lysozyme to lyse the cell walls based on the method developed by Sambrook and Russell 65 , and the third used a thermo/ mechanical technique based on the method developed by Valenzuela-Encinas et al. 66 . The soil was homogenized using a FastPrep24 high-speed benchtop homogenizer (MP Biomedicals, Solon, OH, USA) at 4 m s −1 . The three techniques were used to extract DNA twice from 0.5 mg soil samples from the three plots of each of the six treatments (n = 18), and then pooled to create a metagenomic sample. As such, a total of 3 g soil was extracted per plot, i.e. three extraction techniques applied twice to a 0.5 g soil subsample.The V3-4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene (about 490 bp amplicon size) was amplified using 8-bp fused barcode primers 341-F (5′-CCT ACG GGIGGC WGC AG-3′) and 805-R (5′-GAC TAC HVGGG TAT CTA ATC C-3′) 67 with a two-step PCR protocol \"16S metagenomic sequencing library preparation\" published by Illumina Inc (15044223 Rev. B). Triplicate PCR amplification reactions per metagenomic DNA were done in a MultiGene OptiMax thermal cycler (Labnet International Inc.) under conditions previously reported 19 . The PCR amplification conditions were as follows: initial denaturation at 95 °C for 10 min, followed by 25 cycles of denaturation at 95 °C for 45 s, annealing at 53 °C for 45 s, extension at 72 °C for 1 min and a final extension at 72 °C for 10 min. A no-template control (negative PCR reaction) was included each time a PCR was done. The triplicate PCR reactions (12.5 µL each) were pooled and cleaned using FastGene™ columns (Nippon Genetics, Co., Ltd). Pooled and cleaned PCR products were quantified using the Invitrogen's PicroGreen ® assay with a NanoDrop™ 3300 fluorospectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Suwanee, CA) and standardized at equal molar amounts for later sequencing. As such, a total of 288 metagenomic DNA samples, i.e. one DNA sample from each soil sample, were PCR-amplified and sequenced. Both library normalization and sequencing process was done by Macrogen Inc. (Seoul, Korea). Amplicon libraries were paired-end sequenced using the MiSeq v3 platform (2 × 300 cycle kit) at Macrogen Inc. (Seoul, Korea).16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The 16S rRNA gene sequences were analyzed using the \"Quantitative insights into microbial ecology (QIIME v1.9)\" platform 68 . Briefly, reads from the same samples were demultiplexed based on the 8-bp barcodes and then merged using fastq-join method (100 nt as the minimum overlap region, -j 100). Chimeric sequences were identified and removed using VSEARCH v2.8 69 . Joined paired-end chimeric-free sequences were clustered into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at 97% similarity and taxonomy was assigned by aligning to QIIME's default Greengenes v13_8 database using PyNAST. The OTUs assigned to Archaea were discarded. The functional prediction of the nitrogen cycling related genes was assessed with PICRUSt v1.1 70 using a down-sampled OTU-table to 3000 sequences per sample and using the general \"cluster of orthologous groups of genes\" (COGs) categorization. The PICRUSt analysis was done according to the \"metagenome prediction tutorial\". The standard procedure included (i) normalization of the closed reference OTU table using the normalize_by_copy_number.py script and (ii) the functional predictions with predict_metagenomes.py script (using \"cog\" as the option for the -type_of_prediction). The selected COG identifiers related to nitrogen cycling were obtained from Li et al. 71 . Their relative abundance was calculated based on the total sum scaling per sample. The functional annotation of prokaryotic taxa (FAPROTAX, v.1.2) was used to investigate and map the functional profiles of soil bacterial communities 72 . The relative abundance of each functional role was determined based on the total sum scaling procedure within samples, and modules not related to environmental samples were ignored.Rarefaction curves were made after pooling sequences of all individual soil samples from the same field treatment (n = 6), i.e., CT urea-fertilized (CT300) or unfertilized (CT0), PBB urea-fertilized (PBB300) or unfertilized (PBB0), and PBC urea-fertilized (PBC300) or unfertilized (PBC0). Sequences were pooled using both the collapse_samples.py and alpha_rarefaction.py scripts within QIIMEv1.9 68 as described in \"http:// qiime. org/ scrip ts/ colla pse_ sampl es. html. \"The soil microbial diversity was determined with the Hill numbers at different q orders (q = 0, 1 and 2) using the raw count dataset at the genus taxonomic level as described by Ma and Li 73 . Hill numbers have the advantage over commonly used diversity indices that they maintain the same measurement unit across values, i.e. effective number of species, overcoming the bias due to rare and dominant species and they are comparable with the traditional diversity indices. At higher q orders, diversity values are more sensitive to common species 73 .All statistical analyses were done in R 3.6 74 . An ANOVA test (aov function in \"stats\" package) was used to determine the effect of the tillage-residue management (permanent beds with residue retained and burned and conventional beds), in-field fertilizer application (0 or 300 kg urea-N ha −1 ), and ammonium applied in the lab (unamended or soil amended with 300 mg NH 4 + -N kg −1 soil) on emitted CO 2 and mineral N after 56 days. The Tukey-HSD test using all pair-wise comparison, i.e. post-hoc, was done with the \"agricolae\" package (HSD.test function) 75 . A non-parametric test (aldex.kw function; Kruskal Wallis test) in the ALDEx2 package 14 was used to determine the effect of the treatments on the different bacterial groups using the centered-log-ratio transformed counts, i.e. clr-transformation. The clr-transformation was done using the ALDEx2 (v1.18) package as high-throughput data are compositional 14,76 . A principal component analysis (PCA) was done using the clr-transformed sequence counts to explore the effect of tillage-residue management, fertilizer application, and ammonium applied on the bacterial community structure. A preliminary PCA analysis grouped the bacterial communities of day 0, 1 and 3 together, those of day 5, 7 and 14, and those of day 28 and 56. To facilitate our analysis and better visualize this, similar colours were given to these groups in the PCA graphs. The permutational multivariate analyses of variance (perMANOVA) test was used to determine the effect of tillage-residue management, fertilizer application, ammonium applied and incubation time on the bacterial community structure. The perMANOVA was done using the clr-transformed sequence counts for taxonomic and functional data. Time (days) was embedded in the perMANOVA analysis using \"strata\" argument when tillage-residue management and fertilizer application or ammonium application were used as fixed factors within adonis function. The PCA and perMANOVA tests were done with the FactoMineR 77 and vegan packages 78 . Heatmaps were constructed with the pheatmap package 79 .The effect of ammonium application on the bacterial groups was calculated by a ratio in two different ways. First, when the relative abundance of the bacterial group was higher in the ammonium amended soil than in the unamended soil then the ratio was calculated as: Second, when the relative abundance of the bacterial group was lower in the ammonium amended soil than in the unamended soil then the ratio was calculated as: Ratio = relative abundance of the bacterial group in the NH + 4 amended soil − relative abundance of the bacterial group in the unamended soil / relative abundance of the bacterial group in the unamended soil .","tokenCount":"7268"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"11bc6ee4cca430d10eaf6295ec2d90eb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/79a72533-6235-4e26-9b9a-6b03532f6187/retrieve","id":"-1454964605"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7304cee9-239f-475d-b6fe-9c41eb9d29eb","pagecount":"9","content":"Daniel Rocchi has served as Liaison Officer at the CGIAR Secretariat in Washington since 2005. He was assigned to this position by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. He has a PhD in rural sociology, and held various positions in rural area development and planning, particularly in the French West Indies, before joining in 1999 the General Directorate for Education and Research of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, where he specialized in research administration.n Agriculture and sustainable development,* Jean Boiffin, Bernand Hubert and Nicolas Durand............................................................................................................. It was during the second half of the 20th century that the international community mobilized to combat world hunger. Since then, international agricultural research has been an important mechanism of development aid. The primary objective has been to create conditions conducive to producing adequate food supplies for the world's population. The Green Revolution -to which international agricultural research Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) have made significant contributions, particularly through varietal improvements -is largely the result of this movement.Currently, the problem is far more complex in terms of its qualitative, health, economic, societal and environmental aspects. Instead of focusing efforts on combating hunger solely through increased production, research now recommends approaches that, on the one hand, integrate the various aspects of the problem and, on the other, seek to combine all elements of the solution and, finally, divide project responsibilities among the capable actors. The prevailing view of sustainable development in the international aid agenda over the last few years constitutes the most recent manifestation of this change.In this context of development, agricultural research themes have been transformed and broadly diversified across new disciplinary fields. CGIAR Centers have contributed to these changes and enhanced their capacities in response to these new needs. The newly defined priorities of the CGIAR System, which were approved at its 2005 Annual General Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, are a reflection of this collaboration between previously established fields of excellence and the consideration of new dimensions of sustainable development. The French national research system has also incorporated these changes that link, for example, production with consumption, the local context with the global, and the environment with the economy. The CGIAR and French agricultural research systems, which are among the most important operating worldwide, are therefore better equipped to provide solutions addressing the multitude of situations across the globe. Projects executed jointly by CGIAR and French teams provide a number of excellent examples that demonstrate the capacity of these two systems to create new synergies in both traditional areas of agricultural research and more innovative fields.However, the trend of globalizing scientific issues by categorizing them on the basis of their global challenges also creates a number of difficulties. First is the issue of critical mass, because addressing desertification at the local level does not require the same resources as expanding general knowledge on climate change, even if these phenomena are closely linked. Secondly, it tends to blur borders, remove the asymmetries between the North and South, and finally challenge the justification for scientific research specifically devoted to development. It is already quite difficult to ensure that research that has been done specifically for development actually reduces inequality. As there are very few opportunities for non-specialized research to appropriately and spontaneously improve the welfare of disadvantaged people, research for development remains more than ever a necessity for combating poverty as stipulated by the Millennium Development Goals. To succeed, this research must be broadly supported, including by the most advanced research efforts, to ensure that the latest scientific and technological advances are included in its design and implementation.Thus, through its ripple effect on other actors, cooperation between the CGIAR and the French research system must generate synergies required to overcome the tremendous food, environmental, economic and social challenges of the future. While meeting standards of scientific quality, it must promote international agricultural research that is focused primarily on the specific needs of the South. Its extensive partnership network -extending from the North to the South and including the public and private sectors as well as researchers and civil society -will be the primary guarantee of its success.This publication is an outgrowth of an evaluation solicited by the Comité national d'évaluation de la recherche (CNER) and appears at the initiative of the Commission de la recherche agricole internationale (CRAI). In its findings, CNER recommended that relations between the CGIAR and France be strengthened. This document first highlights a selection of scientific collaboration between teams from the CGIAR Centers and France. It then presents a description of the institutional frameworks in which the two systems operate and the recent changes currently undertaken. Finally it provides a forum for open and varied discussions on the prospects for agricultural research in coming years. In these ways, this document constitutes a solid foundation for working together to broaden discussions on cooperation between the CGIAR and France, and poses the opportunity for drafting a document detailing an operational partnership strategy.Secrétaire exécutif de la Commission de la recherche agricole internationale (CRAI)Scientific partnerships are an exciting aspect of work supported by the CGIAR, combining diverse strengths in a continuing effort to combat poverty and hunger, protect natural resources, and increase wealth creation. I am particularly pleased, therefore, to associate myself with Denis Despréaux, Executive Secretary of the French Commission de la recherch agricole internationale (CRAI), in jointly introducing \"France and the CGIAR: Scientific Partnerships for Agricultural Development,\" published by the CGIAR Secretariat.This publication is a collaborative response by CRAI and the CGIAR to a recommendation from the Comité national d'évaluation de la recherche (CNER) that France should scale up its scientific and financial collaboration with the CGIAR. CNER expressed this view last year in a report entitled \"La recherche agronomique française pour le développement: enjeux internationaux\" (French agricultural research for development: international challenges). The report, which was featured in the July-September 2005 \"Letter to CGIAR Members\" from the Chair and Director, went into specifics in a number of areas and proposed that the focus, structure, and funding of the France-CGIAR partnership should be re-examined, re-invigorated, and intensified.We are fortunate that follow-up discussions on these and related issues could be quickly launched with the help of Daniel Rocchi who has been seconded by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to serve as Senior Liaison Officer at the CGIAR Secretariat. He is the coordinator of this publication. We are indebted to him for a text that is rich in substance, well-focused, and alive with new ideas. It gives readers a snapshot of a productive partnership, points the way to new agricultural research mechanisms, and sets out perspectives on international agricultural research of the future.The quest for renewed forms of scientific partnership is in keeping with the role France has played in the CGIAR from the Group's inception, providing the CGIAR System with intellectual, institutional, and financial support. France and other founding Members believed that the knowledge which sparked the \"green revolution,\" adapted to local conditions, could be effective throughout the world's developing regions. Their optimism has been fully validated by several independent studies -and by observable changes in the lives of the poor who have benefited from the results of agricultural research.However, the application of high quality science and policy advice to solve problems associated with development is not simply a matter of looking back at past achievements. Science continuously looks ahead: identifying new challenges and seeking to overcome them. Despite the tangible impact of agricultural research for development, some formidable challenges remain.For instance:The demand for food could double by 2050, as an additional 2 billion are added to the global population. The demand will diversify, when incomes rise and consumers spend more on better and higher value foods. The need to produce more food will intensify pressure on natural resources which are already under stress.The need for increased production is complicated by global climate change which threatens agriculture with a productivity decline of up to 30 percent in the absence of corrective action. Some estimates predict yield declines as early as in 2020.Twelve million hectares are lost annually through desertification that affects the lives and livelihoods of over 2 billion people in some 110 countries. Deforestation causes land degradation which creates economic, environmental and social hardship for the poorest of the poor who live in fragile environments.Problems associated with water remain acute. Nearly two-thirds of the world's population is expected to live in waterscarce or water-stressed areas by 2025 unless current trends are reversed. Agriculture uses 70 percent of all fresh water. The world is losing biodiversity at unprecedented rates. Some 10 percent of the world's tree species are threatened. The world's marine fisheries are overexploited.Poverty remains a particularly acute problem in Africa. Overall, the global rate of poverty reduction in the last decade was less than a third of what is required to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015. It was six times less in sub-Saharan Africa. More than two million African children die every year before they reach the age of one. At the same time, child malnutrition causes stunting, weak vision, and blindness. Among adults, nutrient deficiency weakens the immune system, thereby increasing the extent and severity of HIV/AIDS, and the spread of other diseases.Global poverty is aggravated and growth blocked by the difficulties that developing countries face in their attempts to secure fair access to fair markets for their agricultural products. The Doha round of talks -widely touted as a \"development round\" --has again failed; and the impact is on the livelihoods of several million farmers in developing countries. To place the issue in perspective, it is useful to remember that domestic subsidies and related support for agriculture within industrialized countries amounted to over $350 billion in 2005 while total ODA that year was less than $3 billion.These challenges cannot be ignored and, certainly, will not disappear of their own accord. The French-CGIAR partnership will therefore remain critical for agricultural research as a pillar of agricultural development, while we focus our actions and resources on confronting these challenges together with our partners in developing countries. The CGIAR System brings to this task, years of accumulated global experience. The people-centered and holistic approach that French institutions adopt strengthens that experience. The CGIAR will continue to be enriched by ideas emanating from the French scientific community. We value in particular the strong philosophical approach to public policy associated with France.We have done much together. We can and will do more.Francisco J. B. Reifschneider Director, CGIAR","tokenCount":"1745"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4a531f0639ab8baf6107dea8fdd8f290","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d3018a07-3ae3-4a78-88c9-55188d07603b/retrieve","id":"-919389216"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"747ff785-dbe0-4890-b623-93a18aac659f","pagecount":"2","content":"Climate change is projected to increase temperatures and the variability of rainfall in Ethiopia-a threat to the already vulnerable livelihoods of millions of potato farming households and other stakeholders in the value chain. The use of improved varieties, and existing technologies and practices could help smallholders adapt to a changing climate while improving yields and reducing dependence on expensive inputs. Smallholders face multiple barriers, however, that prevent their awareness of, access to and uptake of these resources. The Seeds of change project implemented by International Potato Center (CIP) offers a set of strategic interventions to bring about the largescale adoption of climate-smart potato technologies and practices, supporting smallholder producers in Ethiopia to enjoy their benefits equitably.The project purpose is to strengthen farmer access to potato varieties of improved resilience, and to support national research institutes' capacity for continued demand-driven varietal development, adaptation and dissemination, through a responsive and sustainable seed production and distribution network. The project will strengthen potato innovation systems to facilitate farmers' equitable and sustainable access through:1 sustainable local supply of a broad range of climatesmart and disease-resistant varieties;2. increased efficiency in early-generation potato seed production;3. improved capacity of decentralized farmer seed group cooperatives in high-quality seed production;4. validated technologies to increase potato productivity scaled out to resource-poor smallholder farmers;5. the mainstreaming of gender-sensitive methods for access to technologies and knowledge; and 6. strengthened potato innovation systems and partnerships.Improved supply of climate-smart and disease-resistant varieties will be achieved by supporting the ability of national agricultural research systems to undertake participatory variety selection process to facilitate production of desired varieties. This will bring genetic gains to farmers by replacing varieties no longer resistant to disease and unable to tolerate abiotic stress. Among the activities within this approach will be the generation of data to support the formal release of at least four new potato varieties, the seed bulking of preferred clones for distribution to farmer seed cooperatives, and feedback collection and analysis to determine the demand for preferred varieties, taking gender preferences into account.To ensure that recently released advanced varieties are reproduced at the speed and volume needed to support farming households and accelerate their dissemination, the project will address recurrent bottlenecks in earlygeneration seed production. This will be achieved mainly by training, for example, to develop a curriculum that builds capacity for rapid multiplication technologies and increases the involvement of private-sector seed producers.Improving the capacity of decentralized farmer seed group cooperatives in high-quality seed production will be achieved by improving links between cooperatives and early-generation seed producers. There will be business and Potato innovation to scale up climate-smart technologies for smallholders and capacity-building of quality declared seed inspectors to apply standards and protocols. Participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning will assess the cost-effectiveness of decentralized seed multiplier business models.To scale up potato productivity with validated technologies to resource-poor smallholder farmers, links will be made to enable them to access improved varieties. They will be able to maintain seed quality on their farms through, among other topics, training in good agricultural practices, disease management and storage.Gender-responsive methods for access to technologies and knowledge will be mainstreamed. Partners will develop gender-responsive project plans, and gender preferences will be monitored closely during technology piloting.Finally, to strengthen innovation and partnerships in potato production systems, the limited coordination among stakeholders will be addressed. Periodic participatory workshops will be organized, for example, to identify and engage partners from research, business, extension and development sectors, and project partners will implement outreach activities, including participation in trade fairs.Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research","tokenCount":"585"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6ada097f4b048e2e7ee07f1b201b1d02","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b3676e22-4574-4c14-9584-ddc290f870e3/retrieve","id":"828526179"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d2ab1a1a-886a-4c93-999e-9d9b2aac9cae","pagecount":"1","content":"• Launch of sales in collaboration with Oromia Insurance Company SC (OIC), regional government, Borana zone, ILRI and Cornell University in 2012 • More than 6,000 policies have been sold through local microfinance institutions (MFIs) and cooperatives acting as distribution channels since 2014-currently more than 80 MFIs selling the IBLI product in the Borana zone • Extension and education material created for all stakeholders involved in the implementation process • Drought is a covariate shock that erodes livestock assets pushing households into poverty traps.• Poor pastoralists have few available strategies to manage and cope with drought risk related to livestock mortality.• Over 300,000 livestock deaths recorded due to drought in the Borana region, estimated at USD 85 million as of July 2011.• The lack of credit and insurance markets in infrastructure-deficit environments has rendered traditional risk sharing arrangements weakened and insufficient. • Relief to prevent adverse impact of drought, sometimes delayed and/or inadequate.• Risk management instruments that are both feasible, commercially viable and potentially effective in reducing poor pastoralists' uninsured risk exposure, required. Activities, payouts and plans image• Designed to protect pastoralist against drought-related livestock losses.• Index is calculated using a measure of pasture/forage availability recorded by satellites, called the normalized differenced vegetation index (NDVI). • Pastoralists purchase an annual contract with possibility of payout in either February or October.• Contract holders receive payouts when forage conditions deteriorate below a set threshold.• Payouts are made when the forage situation is below the worst 20 percentile.• Payouts are calculated automatically (no individual filing of claims)-hence solving issues of moral hazard and adverse selection.Green Good forage availability. Represents between 65 th -100 th percentile of forage conditions over time. This is above normal and stable forage condition.Forage conditions fall between 45 th -65 th percentiles. Here, the forage situation is around or slightly above normal.Orange Forage conditions are between 30 th -45 th percentile. The division in question is below long term average but conditions are not yet serious.Forage condition is between 20 th -30 th percentiles. Drought situation is serious but not yet classified as severe. At this stage, indemnity will have NOT been triggered.Severe drought conditions. Forage condition are below the 20 th percentile. Indemnity payout have been triggered.This document is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. May 2017.ILRI thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system","tokenCount":"401"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8f84b8e472e0eba717ac70c10529c966","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6c976416-7e30-4d11-b3f3-88629a4fe4c7/retrieve","id":"-919395919"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"32a652a2-1f92-4a65-bacb-a7e1df1592c3","pagecount":"48","content":"Après avoir longtemps cantonné la RSE à leurs départements Marketing ou Communication, les grands groupes de l'agroalimentaire ne peuvent désormais plus échapper à leurs responsabilités vis-à-vis des sociétés au sein desquelles ils opèrent.Unilever, l'un des principaux acteurs du secteur de l'agroalimentaire dans le monde, affirme ainsi avoir inscrit le développement durable au coeur de sa stratégie commerciale. À l'image de ce qui se fait chez la plupart de ses concurrents, le Unilever Sustainable Living Plan partirait du principe qu'\"une croissance responsable est le seul modèle qui réussira dans un monde au sein duquel les attentes des consommateurs et les tendances des dynamiques de marché changent\".Ce géant industriel espère toucher, d'ici 2020, pas moins de 5,5 millions de personnes avec l'objectif d'améliorer les conditions de vie des agriculteurs, d'augmenter les revenus des petits commerçants et d'obtenir une participation accrue des jeunes entrepreneurs au sein de ses chaînes d'approvisionnement. En 2016 déjà, l'entreprise affirmait que 650 000 petits agriculteurs et 1,5 million de vendeurs au détail bénéficiaient d'initiatives promouvant de meilleures pratiques agricoles ou revenus.À Madagascar, par exemple, un programme de soutien aux producteurs de vanille lancé en 2013, en partenariat avec l'entreprise Symrise, l'agence de coopération allemande GIZ et l'ONG Save the Children, aurait ainsi déjà porté ses fruits : 3 000 petits producteurs ont été formés à de nouvelles pratiques agricoles qui ont permis d'augmenter leur production et de renforcer leur autonomie alimentaire ; 160 jeunes ont reçu des formations en finance, en alphabétisation et en calcul ; des parents ont été soutenus afin de couvrir une partie des frais scolaires de 77 établissements.Pourquoi une entreprise comme Unilever, qui compte 169 000 employés, prendrait-elle la peine de former des petits agriculteurs ou d'aider des enseignants de zones rurales malgaches ? La réponse est multiple.Les entreprises peuvent investir dans la RSE (et le faire savoir auprès du public) sous la pression des consommateurs soucieux de la traçabilité des produits, du fait de la législation et des régulations mises en place par les autorités des pays producteurs, ou encore pour obtenir des certifications donnant accès à de nouveaux marchés. Plus généralement, la motivation est économique.Dans son rapport intitulé Better business, better world (en anglais) et publié en janvier 2017, la Business and Sustainable Development Commission estime que les 17 Objectifs de développement durable définis par les Nations unies \"offrent au secteur privé une fascinante stratégie de croissance qui ouvre de nouveaux marchés et, en même temps, aide à résoudre d'importants défis sociauxLes multinationales de l'agroalimentaire intègrent désormais une dimension sociale et environnementale à leurs activités commerciales. Malgré de véritables progrès pour les agriculteurs, beaucoup reste à faire. En pratique, toutes les entreprises n'investissent pas dans la RSE. S'agissant des PME, leur taille ne leur permet pas d'influencer l'ensemble de la chaîne d'approvisionnement dont elles ne sont qu'un maillon. Quant aux grands groupes de l'agrobusiness, ils \"font face à de nombreux défis environnementaux et sociaux\", explique Charles O'Malley, conseiller senior en partenariat du programme \"Green commodities\" du PNUD. \"Si une entreprise agit seule, elle risque de compromettre sa compétitivité\", poursuit l'expert. \"Donc beaucoup du travail en RSE au sein des grandes entreprises se concentre sur la façon de changer les 'règles du jeu' dans l'industrie en général, soit à travers des standards internationaux, soit via la législation nationale.\"La RSE peut surtout s'avérer un puissant outil de sécurisation des chaînes d'approvisionnement. Un porte-parole de Nestlé affirme ainsi qu'\"en investissant dans la création de valeur sur le long terme pour la société, nous nous assurerons de développer notre business de manière durable\". Ce poids lourd de l'agroalimentaire appelle cela \"créer de la valeur partagée\". Comme d'autres acteurs majeurs du secteur, l'entreprise a dû, dans le passé, faire face à plusieurs défis : d'une part, de nombreuses critiques pointaient le travail des enfants dans les plantations de cacao d'Afrique de l'Ouest, d'autre part, les rendements en cacao ont marqué le pas du fait de mauvaises pratiques agricoles, néfastes pour l'environnement. En 2009, Nestlé a donc lancé son \"plan cacao\". Après la mise en place en 2012 du \"Système de suivi et de remédiation du travail des enfants\" (Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System -CLMRS) et l'établissement d'un partenariat avec l'organisation à but non lucratif International Cocoa Initiative, le rapport \"Lutter contre le travail des enfants\" publié en 2017 faisait état d'une réduction de moitié du travail des enfants dans la chaîne d'approvisionnement de l'entreprise. De même, 163 407 membres de communautés ont été sensibilisés aux problèmes liés au travail des enfants, et 1 246 personnes font office d'agents de liaison au sein des communautés. La même année, Nestlé affirme avoir fait bénéficier 431 000 agriculteurs de programmes de renforcement des compétences et avoir offert près de 160 millions de nouveaux plants à haut rendement, l'objectif étant d'en distribuer 220 millions d'ici 2020.Très exposées médiatiquement, les multinationales du cacao investissent énormément dans la RSE. Le PNUD, en partenariat avec le Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) et avec le soutien financier de Mondelēz International, a mis en place le projet \"Environmental Sustainability and Policy for Cocoa Production\" au Ghana, deuxième producteur mondial de cacao, pour un budget de 1,4 million d'euros. Dans ce pays où 800 000 producteurs dépendent de cette filière, 100 000 d'entre eux ont adopté de nouvelles pratiques et 780 000 semis ont été distribués pour réhabiliter 8 600 hectares de forêts.Limiter la motivation des entreprises à de simples intérêts économiques serait toutefois réducteur. \"Il y a eu une énorme prise de conscience des entreprises et une compréhension des problèmes sociaux et environnementaux dans l'agriculture, allant des droits du travail aux droits des humains, en passant par la gestion des écosystèmes\", affirme Charles O'Malley. \"Bien des actions entreprises sont en lien avec les pratiques agricoles, des rendements à la hausse, une meilleure qualité des produits et de meilleurs prix sur les marchés internationaux. Pour les acteurs majeurs, une large part de la RSE et de la stratégie durable est en rapport avec la sécurité de l'approvisionnement sur le long terme. Donc la RSE est un problème très stratégique. Néanmoins, l'agriculture est un marché global et il existe beaucoup d'acteurs dans les chaînes d'approvisionnement, des producteurs aux commerçants et aux transformateurs, qui ne sont pas au courant de ces enjeux ou ne s'en préoccupent pas.\"Certaines multinationales n'achètent rien aux petits agriculteurs, mais auraient sans doute beaucoup à leur vendre si ceux-ci devenaient solvables. Ces petits producteurs \"pré-commerciaux\" sont la cible principale de la Fondation Syngenta pour l'agriculture durable, créée il y a 35 ans. \"Nous voulons aider à générer de bons revenus, d'une part en aidant les petits agriculteurs à améliorer leurs récoltes, d'autre part en leur donnant accès à des marchés lucratifs sur lesquels ils peuvent vendre leurs produits\", explique Paul Castle, responsable de la communication de la Fondation Syngenta. \"Nous ne sommes pas une 'deuxième équipe marketing' pour l'entreprise. Beaucoup des problèmes des petits agriculteurs n'ont rien à voir avec les produits [d'entreprises comme Syngenta]. Ils ont besoin, par exemple, de meilleurs sols, d'une gestion plus efficace de l'eau, de formations agronomiques, de nouvelles formes d'organisation, de liens aux marchés…\" Sur le terrain, les programmes de la fondation ont un impact positif certain sur la vie des petits producteurs (lire Filière prometteuse cherche jeunes entrepreneurs, Spore 188 -https://tinyurl.com/ybvcpkdj).La RSE dans l'agriculture peut aussi être l'oeuvre d'entreprises a priori très éloignées du secteur. L'opérateur téléphonique français Orange, par exemple, a soutenu Abdou Maman Kané, un informaticien nigérien, pour développer sa start-up Télé-irrigation : il suffit aux agriculteurs d'appeler un numéro de téléphone pour déclencher une pompe à eau. L'irrigation des champs peut ainsi se © IKE/UNDP GHANA › Dans les Caraïbes, Sandals Resorts renforce les liens entre tourisme et agriculture Dans les Caraïbes, des sociétés telles que le groupe jamaïcain Sandals Resorts, qui exploite 19 hôtels all-inclusive dans six îles, montrent l'exemple en matière de responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE). En Jamaïque, où le groupe possède 14 propriétés et plus de 70 restaurants, le déficit d'importation de denrées alimentaires atteint environ 1 milliard de dollars dans le secteur du tourisme. Par ailleurs, le rapport de 2015 sur la demande dans le secteur du tourisme indique que celui-ci consomme 820 000 kilos de pommes de terre chaque année. Conscient de la nécessité de réorganiser l'approvisionnement de ses hôtels en denrées alimentaires, Sandals a lancé en mars 2018 un projet pilote d'achat direct de plants de pommes de terre, pour un montant de 22 350 dollars, au profit de cinq producteurs. Cela représente 1 300 sacs de plants, de quoi cultiver 20,5 hectares pour produire, selon les estimations, 341 000 kilos de pommes de terre, soit 40 % de la demande actuelle. Suivant cet accord, les producteurs ont un accès garanti au marché et peuvent attendre la première récolte pour rembourser, sans intérêts, l'achat des plants à Sandals. Sandals estime qu'à terme ce partenariat lui permettra de s'approvisionner en pommes de terre exclusivement auprès de producteurs jamaïcains, ce qui contribuera aussi à réduire ses frais d'importation et à améliorer la qualité et la durabilité de son approvisionnement. Le groupe espère par ailleurs que son projet se développera et que d'autres agriculteurs s'y associeront, l'ambition étant de parvenir à ce que d'ici trois ans une quinzaine de produits soient cultivés et vendus à d'autres opérateurs du secteur du tourisme. Selon Jordan Samuda, le directeur des achats de Sandals Resorts International, \"le groupe Sandals est convaincu qu'il est crucial d'offrir des débouchés aux producteurs locaux, dont la croissance durable nécessite un plus grand soutien du secteur privé\". Le vice-président de Sandals Resorts International, Adam Stewart, a chargé l'équipe responsable de la chaîne d'approvisionnement d'établir une stratégie à long terme pour fournir cette assistance aux producteurs. Cette initiative n'est qu'une première étape, puisque le groupe s'est engagé en 2018 à investir plus de 160 000 dollars par an dans l'aide aux agriculteurs dans le cadre de divers projets en Jamaïque. \"Notre objectif à long terme est de stimuler l'agriculture locale afin qu'elle produise suffisamment pour que Sandals et les autres opérateurs du secteur du tourisme réduisent sensiblement leurs importations\", explique Jordan Samuda.SPORE 189 | 7 faire à distance et à la demande, évitant de transporter de lourds jerricans sur de longues distances, dans ces zones rurales où la disponibilité de l'eau est rare.\"Notre métier évolue, la création de valeur se développe autour des nouveaux usages et services. L'enjeu stratégique d'Orange est d'être le partenaire majeur de la transformation numérique de l'Afrique et du Moyen-Orient. Cela passe par le mobile money, l'énergie, l'éducation, la santé… et bien sûr l'agriculture\", justifie Bruno Mettling, PDG d'Orange Moyen-Orient et Afrique.L'opérateur a ainsi développé toute une batterie de services dits \"projets m-agri\". \"La RSE s'intègre de plus en plus dans notre business. Au fur et à mesure, elle est assimilée au sein de toutes les activités et métiers de chacun, même s'il y a encore du chemin à parcourir.\" Orange est très implanté en Afrique et Bruno Mettling ne perd pas de vue que \"ce grand continent verra sa population plus que doubler d'ici 2050, quand celle de l'Europe continuera de baisser. Avec une telle équation démographique, l'Afrique porte une part de l'avenir de l'humanité et elle doit relever un formidable défi en termes de croissance, d'infrastructures, d'inclusion sociale…\".En 2013, l'ONG britannique Oxfam a lancé sa campagne \"Behind the brand\" (\"Derrière la marque\") qui consistait à noter les performances de dix grandes entreprises de l'agroalimentaire dans sept domaines : transparence, femmes, travailleurs, agriculteurs, terres, eau et climat. À Soweto, en Afrique du Sud, Anna Phosa est l'un de ces entrepreneurs pionniers. Avant de découvrir l'élevage de porcs chez un ami, elle vivait de l'exploitation d'une petite ferme d'élevage de volaille et de production de légumes. En 2004, Anna Phosa a ainsi investi 67 € (1 000 R) dans l'achat de quatre porcs. En six ans, son exploitation a connu une croissance exponentielle grâce à un contrat conclu en 2006 avec \"Pick n Pay\", le géant sud-africain de la grande distribution, pour la vente de 10 porcs par semaine. Depuis 2010, Anna Phosa fournit 100 porcs par semaine, dans le cadre d'un nouveau contrat conclu pour une durée de 5 ans.Pour pouvoir honorer cette commande, l'entrepreneure a demandé un financement supplémentaire auprès de l'ABSA Bank et de l'USAID. Avec les 980 000 € (14,5 millions R) obtenus, elle a pu acheter une exploitation de 350 hectares, avec une capacité d'élevage de près de 4 000 porcs, et engager 20 personnes. \"Pick n Pay a créé des de la production mondiale de viande est du porc.En Afrique, les agri-entrepreneurs récoltent les fruits de la production porcine à petite échelle et à faible coût.ondateur et PDG de Tim Agro, Ismaël Tanko a mis sur le marché ses premières bouteilles de purée de tomates en 2016. Un an plus tard, son entreprise en produisait 30 tonnes pour un chiffre d'affaires de 10 600 € (7 millions de francs CFA). Objectif de production pour 2018 : 150 tonnes.\"L'idée de départ, en me lançant dans la transformation et la commercialisation de purée de tomates, était de régler le problème crucial des pertes postrécolte des agriculteurs et d'augmenter ainsi leur niveau de vie\", explique Ismaël Tanko. À chaque saison des pluies, propice à la culture maraîchère, les producteurs de tomates ne savaient que faire de leurs invendus. En saison sèche, les tomates deviennent rares et les prix augmentent. Ismaël Tanko a donc étudié sur Internet la meilleure façon de conserver le fruit, afin de le vendre toute l'année. Le procédé est simple, décrit-il : collecte au village, tri, lavage, traitement de conservation, broyage et embouteillage.L'entreprise, qui emploie huit salariés permanents et soixante saisonniers, achetait les tomates sur le marché de Lomé, au début, avant de s'approvisionner directement auprès de petits producteurs. Ismaël Tanko envisage désormais d'établir des contrats avec des agriculteurs. \"Chaque producteur aura une rémunération fixe et une commission variable en fonction de la superficie de son exploitation ainsi que de la quantité de tomates qu'il aura réussi à obtenir\", explique-t-il. Une façon de s'assurer, aussi, de la qualité des fruits. \"Sans additifs ni conservateurs\", la purée de tomates est déjà distribuée au Burkina Faso, en Côte d'Ivoire, au Mali et au Niger. Ismaël Tanko ambitionne de vendre ses purées, d'ici fin 2019, dans 24 pays d'Afrique. Son conseil aux jeunes entrepreneurs ? \"Mettre un accent particulier sur deux éléments : la qualité des produits et leur packaging.\" Ensuite, ils pourront rêver de \"tutoyer les sommets\". ■En produisant de la purée de tomate, Tim Agro réduit les pertes postrécolte et offre un nouveau débouché aux agriculteurs.La purée de tomate qui vaut de l'or débouchés pour Anna\", explique Sisa Ntshona, responsable du développement d'entreprise chez ABSA. \"Nous avons pu la financer grâce à ce marché potentiel. Nous n'avons pas octroyé ce financement sur la base des garanties qui sont habituellement demandées, car Anna ne pouvait tout simplement pas en fournir, comme presque tous les entrepreneurs du pays.\"Sur la côte ouest de l'Afrique du Sud, Augusta Thomas ne possède qu'une exploitation de 3 hectares. Après avoir démarré son élevage avec deux porcelets il y a vingt ans, elle est à présent à la tête d'une exploitation de dix truies, ce qui lui permet de nourrir sa famille et de subvenir aux besoins des autres membres de la communauté. Selon Augusta Thomas, la façon la plus simple de gagner de l'argent grâce à l'élevage porcin est de vendre des porcelets sevrés, destinés à la consommation des ménages, à des acheteurs informels. Augusta Thomas réduit ses coûts en limitant à un minimum les frais d'alimentation et en se procurant des sous-produits du blé, habituellement mis au rebut, auprès d'agriculteurs locaux. Ces déchets sont mis à tremper pendant 12 heures et sont ensuite cuits en bouillie, ce qui en facilite la digestion. Elle vend aussi du lisier de porc à 0,7 € (10 R) par sac de 10 kg, ou échange le lisier contre des déchets de fruits et légumes qui enrichiront l'alimentation des porcs en nutriments.L'agricultrice ougandaise Rachel Mubiru a, elle aussi, commencé avec une petite exploitation avicole avant de se lancer dans l'élevage porcin. Après des débuts avec des races locales, elle a constaté que des races exotiques -comme la Landrace et la Largewhitese développaient beaucoup plus vite et donnaient des porcs beaucoup plus grands qui pouvaient se vendre plus cher sur le marché. Son exploitation, désormais lucrative, repose à présent sur un cheptel parental de dix têtes.Anna Phosa, Augusta ancée fin 2017, l'application Feed Calculator fournit aux petits agriculteurs des pays en développement la formule alimentaire optimale pour leur bétail. Pour cela, il suffit de sélectionner les animaux concernés, les ingrédients disponibles au niveau local et leurs prix : l'appli effectue le calcul. Après avoir été testée au Malawi, au Rwanda, en Tanzanie et en Zambie, le calculateur alimentaire a déjà été téléchargé plus de 5 000 fois, avec 80 à 100 nouveaux téléchargements par jour.Dans certaines régions, il est difficile de trouver des produits nutritifs pour le bétail. Par ailleurs, la qualité des aliments composés instantanément est souvent inégale. De plus, l'urbanisation et l'amélioration du niveau de vie entraînent une augmentation de la demande de viande et d'autres produits d'origine animale, comme les oeufs et les produits laitiers. La concurrence féroce sur le marché entre les produits destinés à la consommation animale et ceux destinés à la consommation humaine a donc fait grimper en flèche les prix des aliments pour animaux, qui représentent plus de 70 % des coûts supportés par les éleveurs.Il est beaucoup moins coûteux pour les agriculteurs de prépaper eux-mêmes les aliments du bétail avec des ingrédients achetés localement, mais cela nécessite une recette fiable et une connaissance des proportions exactes de nutriments dont les animaux ont besoin en fonction de leur âge. Les agriculteurs doivent également connaître la valeur nutritive des différents ingrédients disponibles sur le marché local. \"De plus en plus de gens ont un ordinateur dans leur poche\", note Peter Meijer, directeur général de Single Spark et créateur de l'application. \"Nous avons donc eu l'idée de fournir ces informations via une appli pratique et facile d'emploi\", explique-t-il en agitant son smartphone. Pour concevoir l'application, Single Spark a collaboré avec des nutritionnistes, des développeurs de logiciels et des petits agriculteurs de pays en développement.En simplifiant une procédure complexe, l'appli permet aux éleveurs de ne plus passer par les transformateurs d'aliments professionnels. Les économies ainsi réalisées, combinées à la garantie d'une alimentation de haute qualité et de haute valeur nutritive, ont entraîné une diminution des coûts de l'alimentation du bétail de 30 %, ainsi qu'une augmentation des revenus des éleveurs de plus de 50 %. Avant d'utiliser l'appli, Amina Shemshi, une Tanzanienne éleveuse de volaille, vendait 300 poussins entre 71,10 € et 88,88 € (200 000-250 000 TZS) contre 195,54 € à 213,31 € (550 000-600 000 TZS) aujourd'hui. \"J'avais l'habitude de vendre mes poussins à l'âge de 6 semaines, mais maintenant je peux les vendre plus tôt.\" Peter Meijer veut généraliser l'usage de l'appli à un million d'agriculteurs à l'horizon 2020. Jusqu'à présent, les algorithmes de l'application n'ont pu générer des formules que pour l'alimentation des porcs et de la volaille -poules pondeuses et poulets à griller. \"Nous travaillons actuellement sur des recettes d'aliments pour poissons-chats\", indique Peter Meijer. \"En collaboration avec Oxfam Novib, Single Spark teste pour l'heure l'application auprès de 70 élevages de poissons-chats au Nigeria.\"Feed Calculator peut être téléchargée à partir de la boutique Google Play Store et est gratuite pour les petits exploitants agricoles (1 000 volailles ou 10 porcs avec un maximum de six recettes par an). Les agriculteurs dont le cheptel est plus important doivent payer 50 € par an, mais le coût de l'abonnement est amorti en quelques semaines grâce aux économies réalisées. e système numérique de pesage et de chaîne logistique EASYMA 6.0, mis au point en 2014 par l'entreprise Amtech Technologies Limited, permet à 22 000 éleveurs kényans d'obtenir de meilleurs prix pour leur lait et leur donne accès à des services de vulgarisation, à des produits financiers ainsi qu'à des produits d'assurance pour leur bétail.Dans des centres de collecte désignés, un reçu automatique est remis à l'éleveur et le poids enregistré est transmis en ligne au bureau principal du centre de collecte. Les éleveurs sont ainsi payés dès la livraison.\"Avant, le pesage manuel n'était pas très précis. Je perdais 3 000 à 3 500 Ksh (24 à 28 €) par mois\", témoigne Richard Terer, producteur laitier du comté de Bomet. Désormais, \"mon lait est pesé à la décimale près et j'en obtiens le juste prix\".Les transactions sont consignées dans le système, y compris les paiements pour le lait et les déductions pour les approvisionnements en intrants. Le système transmet aussi aux banques des informations relatives aux crédits et aux remboursements. Les éleveurs peuvent ainsi retirer leur argent aux distributeurs automatiques de billets ou dans des points de vente situés dans l'ensemble du pays. EASYMA 6.0 met les éleveurs en lien avec des commerces qui proposent des aliments pour animaux, des produits sanitaires et d'autres services. Les achats sont déduits des paiements lors des livraisons de lait. Cet accès amélioré aux intrants et aux services de vulgarisation, par exemple en matière d'insémination artificielle, ainsi que la confiance croissante des éleveurs dans le processus de pesage et de paiement, profitent aux différents acteurs de la chaîne de valeur. \"Avec une fidélité accrue, nous achetons plus de lait et faisons du commerce avec plus d'éleveurs\", se félicite Richard Soi, PDG de Siongoroi Dairy Plant, qui utilise le système EASYMA 6.0.Le transport de lait sur de longues distances et sur des routes en mauvais état donne aussi lieu à des pertes de revenus pour les éleveurs. La start-up kényane Savanna Circuit Technology Limited a donc créé des unités de réfrigération à énergie solaire pour motos et ânes. Les motos peuvent transporter jusqu'à 100 litres de lait et coûtent 562 € (70 000 Ksh) pièce. L'entreprise a aussi développé l'application Maziwa Plus, qui quantifie le lait livré pour permettre aux établissements de crédit d'évaluer la solvabilité des éleveurs. ■ Des poussins bien surveillés AU KENYA, une nouvelle couveuse permet de diminuer par six le taux de mortalité des poussins et de réduire la période moyenne de maturité de 6 à 5 semaines. La technologie, mise au point par la start-up Arinifu, contrôle en temps réel la température et l'humidité dans la couveuse à l'aide de capteurs numériques et d'éléments chauffants. Reliée à un ordinateur analogique, la couveuse est programmée pour déterminer l'âge des poussins et réguler les paramètres afin de garantir un environnement optimal pour leur croissance. La technologie utilise des ampoules infrarouges écologiques plutôt que du charbon de bois. Les éleveurs peuvent recevoir des informations par SMS, notamment des alertes en cas de panne de courant et des rappels de vaccination.En minimisant les pertes et en maximisant les profits des éleveurs, les nouvelles technologies permettent de transformer l'élevage laitier en une activité de plus en plus lucrative pour les petits producteurs kényans.Des innovations technologiques permettent aux producteurs kényans d'obtenir de meilleurs prix pour leur lait.En Afrique de l'Est et australe, l'adoption de techniques d'agriculture de conservation permet à plus de 235 000 familles d'agriculteurs d'améliorer la santé de leurs sols et de renforcer leur résilience au changement climatique.  La formation des CDCCC a aussi porté sur les méthodes visant à améliorer la sécurité alimentaire. Les participants ont également reçu des semis ainsi que des informations pour choisir des cultures plus nutritives, comme le kumala, le taro, le manioc, le pois mascate et la gliricidia. \"Grâce aux ateliers, j'ai appris à améliorer mes rendements et augmenter mes revenus\", explique May Saskias, maraîchère et mère de trois enfants.Les membres de la communauté se préparent aussi à l'inévitable épuisement des stocks de nourriture pendant la saison des cyclones en utilisant des séchoirs solaires fabriqués localement pour conserver les aliments. ■À Vanuatu, les communautés apprennent à produire des cultures résistantes aux maladies et au climat afin d'améliorer leur résilience au changement climatique.À Vanuatu, l'un des pays les plus vulnérables aux changements climatiques, les populations apprennent à adapter leurs pratiques agricoles et à choisir des cultures adéquates.Une variété adaptée aux terres arides UNE NOUVELLE SOUCHE de blé dur résistant à des températures de 40 °C a été mise au point pour les petits exploitants du bassin du fleuve Sénégal. Cette variété résistante à la chaleur et à maturation rapide a été développée à l'aide de techniques de sélection moléculaire par le Centre international de recherche agricole dans les zones arides (ICARDA). Le long du bassin du fleuve, qui traverse également le Mali et la Mauritanie, les agriculteurs produisent du riz deux fois par an mais doivent laisser la terre en jachère pendant l'hiver, lorsque le riz a du mal à germer. Cependant, selon le Dr Filippo Bassi de l'ICARDA, la culture intercalaire du blé avec le riz maximisera la croissance et pourrait permettre de produire jusqu'à 600 000 tonnes de plus dans ces zones arides. De quoi générer de nombreux emplois et des revenus pour les populations locales.UN COURS UNIVERSITAIRE en ligne gratuit enseigne aux étudiants les principes et les applications pratiques de l'agriculture intelligente face au climat (AIC). Conçu par l'université de Reading, Future of Farming (l'agriculture de demain) vise à \"sensibiliser aux menaces que fait peser le changement climatique sur l'agriculture et l'environnement dans le monde\", explique le chercheur Matthieu Arnoult. Avec des études de cas -en particulier la production laitière et viticolece cours de trois semaines explore la contribution de l'agriculture aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre, ainsi que les obstacles à l'adoption de l'AIC et la façon de les surmonter.n tant que PDG de la Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Parminder Vir a notamment travaillé au lancement du \"Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme\", qui soutient l'entreprenariat africain.La mission de la TEF est de soutenir 10 000 entrepreneurs issus de 54 pays africains avec un budget de 81 millions d'euros (100 millions de dollars US) sur les dix prochaines années. Ce sont les entrepreneurs africains qui créeront les emplois et généreront les revenus qui garantiront le développement économique de l'Afrique. Je me suis donc retrouvée assise à ce bureau en avril 2014, en train d'examiner cette vision extraordinaire et de penser : \"Quel cadre devons-nous mettre en place pour permettre l'institutionnalisation et la démocratisation du soutien aux entrepreneurs ?\" Le cadre issu de cette réflexion est composé des sept piliers du programme d'entrepreneuriat de la TEF. Ces piliers comprennent un programme de formation de 12 semaines intitulé \"Startup Enterprise Toolkit\" (Boîte à outils pour start-up) et destiné à développer la capacité des entrepreneurs à gérer efficacement leur entreprise ; l'attribution d'un mentor expert ; un capital d'amorçage de 4 066 € (5 000 USD) versé à fonds perdus ; une plateforme en ligne permettant aux entrepreneurs de nouer des relations entre eux ; un rassemblement annuel des entrepreneurs, des décideurs politiques et des principaux acteurs du secteur privé de toute l'Afrique lors du Forum de l'entrepreneuriat de la TEF organisé à Lagos ; une bibliothèque d'informations en ligne pour aider les entrepreneurs à développer leurs entreprises ; et, enfin, le réseau des anciens de la TEF, qui s'enrichit de 1 000 nouveaux membres chaque année.Les entrepreneurs et les entreprises que nous soutenons doivent être basés en Afrique et les entreprises doivent être en activité depuis moins de trois ans. À la première ouverture du portail d'inscription, en janvier 2015, le nombre de candidats était de 20 000. Cette année, pour la quatrième édition du programme, nous avons reçu 151 692 candidatures.Beaucoup des entrepreneurs de la TEF évoquent le programme de formation, ainsi que le mentorat et la possibilité de nouer des relations avec d'autres entrepreneurs animés du même esprit et issus de tout le continent africain. Ils ne mentionnent le capital d'amorçage qu'en dernier.Nous faisons évoluer la mentalité des entrepreneurs d'une logique de recherche de subventions à une logique de recherche d'investissements. Un entrepreneur devient seulement prêt à travailler avec des investisseurs quand \"L'agriculture offre d'incroyables possibilités pour les jeunes entrepreneurs africains\"Après 30 ans de carrière en tant que productrice de cinéma et de télévision et investisseur de fonds propres dans ce secteur, Parminder Vir a accepté, à l'invitation de Tony Elumelu, d'intégrer la Tony Elumelu Foundation.des clients acceptent de payer pour les produits ou les services de son entreprise. Le défi consiste à concevoir un modèle commercial capable de transformer 4 060 € (5 000 USD) en 406 000 € (500 000 USD). Un de nos entrepreneurs a participé à la formation et au programme de mentorat, il a reçu le capital d'amorçage et a ensuite judicieusement investi ce capital et sa formation. Un an plus tard, son entreprise de transformation alimentaire générait des revenus de 980 000 € (1,2 million USD).La première année, nous avons été impressionnés par le nombre d'idées concernant l'agriculture. Les entrepreneurs diversifient déjà leurs activités dans les domaines de l'agriculture, de l'éducation, de la formation et des TIC, par exemple, ces secteurs étant actuellement ceux qui se développent le plus rapidement en Afrique.Joel Cherop est un entrepreneur ougandais avec un terrain d'un hectare sur lequel il voulait faire pousser trois types de cultures chaque année, au lieu d'un seul, en canalisant les eaux souterraines. Il y est parvenu et vous pouvez imaginer l'ampleur des revenus qu'il a générés en vendant trois types de cultures par an au lieu d'un seul. Il est aujourd'hui célèbre dans sa communauté, à tel point que le président ougandais s'est rendu en personne dans son village. Depuis, il a formé 50 autres agriculteurs, en les encourageant à se considérer comme des chefs d'entreprise.Un autre entrepreneur utilise la technologie des drones pour pulvériser de l'engrais sur ses cultures et distribuer les semences par la voie des airs. D'autres participants utilisent des applications permettant aux agriculteurs de vendre leur production à leurs clients. Les agriculteurs utilisent déjà des téléphones portables pour suivre le prix des produits de base au quotidien. Sachant que plus de 30 % des entrepreneurs de la TEF viennent du secteur agricole, nous savons que l'agriculture, de la ferme à l'assiette, offre d'incroyables possibilités pour les jeunes entrepreneurs africains.Ce continent a la population la plus jeune au monde. L'Afrique compte plus d'un milliard d'habitants, soit un capital humain énorme. C'est l'exploitation de ce capital et son déploiement au service du développement économique et social du continent qui présentent le plus grand potentiel.Il existe aussi une extraordinaire quantité de ressources naturelles inexploitées : 60 % des terres arables du monde se trouvent sur ce continent. L'Ouganda a un cheptel de plus de 14 millions de vaches, et pourtant ce pays importe des chaussures usagées ! Il y a beaucoup de pays qui cultivent du cacao, mais qui ne mangent jamais de chocolat. Le développement et l'entretien de chaînes de valeur qui exploitent les ressources naturelles disponibles sur le continent africain créeront de nouvelles opportunités pour les entrepreneurs, ainsi que des emplois pour les jeunes.Les technologies offrent un immense potentiel. Aujourd'hui, Internet et les données mobiles coûtent cher, mais la technologie joue un rôle de moteur et de transformateur. Si vous êtes un éleveur d'escargots, un transformateur de manioc ou d'arachides, la technologie peut vous aider à entrer en contact avec des acheteurs potentiels et à chercher un marché pour votre produit ou votre service en dehors de votre zone locale. L'Afrique doit former ses propres développeurs de technologies. Les entrepreneurs actifs dans le domaine des TIC représentent 10 à 12 % de ceux que nous avons soutenus. Ils proposent des solutions extraordinaires, uniques dans leur façon de répondre aux besoins du continent.Il faut diversifier les mécanismes de financement. À l'heure actuelle, les entrepreneurs doivent souvent aller dans une banque et payer des taux d'intérêt extrêmement élevés. Nous devons encourager les investisseurs à prendre certains risques en investissant dans des entreprises en phase de démarrage et à forte croissance dans tout le continent. Les gouvernements doivent aussi privilégier l'entrepreneuriat comme moyen de créer des emplois et améliorer les infrastructures afin de créer un environnement favorable à l'entrepreneuriat dans l'ensemble de l'Afrique. ■ Parminder Vir, CEO de la principale organisation philanthropique d'Afrique, supervise le développement stratégique et la mise en oeuvre des programmes clés de la TEF.Mon conseil, c'est de penser numérique. Si vous produisez du poisson ou de la volaille, par exemple, examinez comment les technologies numériques peuvent améliorer votre entreprise : comment suivre votre processus de production et mieux gérer les paiements, comment atteindre vos clients plus rapidement. Aujourd'hui, l'AgTech, au croisement de la technologie et de l'agriculture, suscite un formidable engouement. Je dirais aux jeunes femmes qui sont parfois moins intéressées par les TIC : ne laissez pas les technologies entre les mains des hommes. Les applications de pointe -comme l'agriculture de précision, l'irrigation intelligente et les solutions technologiques respectueuses du climat -sont nombreuses et créeront de formidables opportunités pour les jeunes femmes et les jeunes hommes dans le secteur agricole africain.Pour aider les femmes des zones rurales, la mesure politique clé est de permettre que les filles de 12 à 17 ans poursuivent des études secondaires. Il s'agit là d'une des principales interventions politiques qui aurait un impact majeur, en aidant ces femmes à sortir de la pauvreté et en leur ouvrant des portes et des opportunités.Des réseaux d'incubateurs ou de centres d'innovation financés par le gouvernement, avec un accès gratuit à l'Internet, aideraient davantage de femmes et de jeunes à créer des start-up AgriTech et à faire avancer la révolution numérique agricole. Ces dernières années, le gouvernement éthiopien a établi environ 2 000 centres de jeunes dans le pays. Ces centres peuvent devenir des lieux où les jeunes prendront le temps de réfléchir aux problèmes auxquels le monde est confronté et ainsi développer des idées en vue de la création de leur propre entreprise.Il n'existait pas de centre de ce type dans le pays. Les idées qui ont un réel potentiel innovant, évolutif et transformationnel ne sont pas suffisamment identifiées, et la capacité d'alimenter et de mettre en oeuvre des idées et d'investir dans celles-ci fait défaut. Le soutien va prioritairement aux micro-entreprises et au micro-entrepreneuriat, qui sont souvent des entreprises traditionnelles à faible risque ayant besoin d'un financement à court terme. Mais qu'advient-il des idées à haut risque et très novatrices avec un impact potentiel très grand ? C'est le problème dont je suis tombée amoureuse : comment entrer dans cet univers d'idées un peu folles et aider les entrepreneurs à réaliser quelque chose d'important ? Cette question m'a passionnée car j'ai créé une bourse de marchandises, une initiative ambitieuse qui s'est diffusée et qui a eu énormément d'impact.Miser sur l'incubation de start-up et l'investissement dans des idées innovantes à un stade très précoce est risqué. Les échecs, qui font partie de l'apprentissage de chaque entreprise et de chaque entrepreneur, sont nombreux. Toutefois, créer une plateforme d'investissement de capital d'amorçage pour des entreprises à risque nous impose d'essayer de limiter les risques associés aux investissements. J'avais assez de relations et de contacts dans l'agriculture ainsi qu'une grande expérience dans l'agrobusiness pour maximiser les chances de succès.En outre, ces trois dernières années, le nombre de start-up AgTech a explosé. Le secteur AgTech est aujourd'hui considéré comme la FinTech de demain, en témoigne l'intérêt qu'il suscite chez les investisseurs Avant de fonder blueMoon, Eleni Gabre-Madhin a créé la bourse éthiopienne des matières premières pour stimuler le commerce et les revenus des petits producteurs de café. L' évolution rapide des TIC offre aux jeunes entrepreneurs de nouvelles opportunités dans le secteur agricole. Toutefois, avant de devenir profitables, les agroentreprises émergentes doivent surmonter de nombreux obstacles. Trading et Armajaro utilisent les services de Farmerline pour mieux gérer l'ensemble de leur chaîne de valeur en Afrique de l'Ouest. L'application Paytime de Farmerline propose aussi aux institutions financières des sources alternatives de données qui peuvent servir de garantie pour les agriculteurs sans antécédents de crédit. En offrant une gamme de services ciblant divers segments de clientèle, Farmerline est devenue rentable en trois ans. \"Le développement de différents flux de revenus et l'exploitation de divers segments de clientèle constituent une stratégie gagnante\", résume Ken Lohento, coordinateur senior du programme TIC4Ag pour le CTA.Dans le marché de plus en plus saturé des TIC4Ag, les aspirants agripreneurs doivent, en plus d'identifier divers flux de revenus, effectuer des recherches avant de lancer leurs cyberactivités. C'est en identifiant les lacunes du marché que les start-up peuvent espérer prendre l'avantage sur leurs concurrents. \"Vous ne pouvez pas dire que vous êtes un entrepreneur avant d'avoir effectué d'intenses recherches sur votre idée\", a rappelé, dans une récente interview pour Spore, Parminder Vir, PDG de la fondation Tony Elumelu.Sokopepe, une entreprise sociale kényane, est conçue pour combler le manque de registres précis des activités agricoles et résoudre les difficultés que cette lacune fait peser sur les agriculteurs demandant un crédit. L'entreprise a créé FARMIS, un système d'information pour la gestion des registres agricoles, afin d'aider les petits exploitants agricoles à commercialiser leurs activités en générant des comptes rendus de leurs tendances en matière de productivité, leurs profits et pertes saisonniers, ainsi que leurs prévisions de revenus.Avec les données de ces registres, Sokopepe connecte les agriculteurs aux marchés pour leur permettre de vendre leur production en gros tout en les reliant à des fournisseurs d'intrants, des régimes d'assurance et des institutions financières. \"Je serais disposée à payer pour les services de Sokopepe parce que je considère cela comme un investissement et non comme une perte\", a expliqué Agnes Kendi Mwaki, une agricultrice kényane. Le service FARMIS de Sokopepe comble de toute évidence un manque au sein des TIC4Ag, ce qui a permis à l'entreprise de maintenir un taux mensuel de croissance de ses utilisateurs de 5 %. Elle compte à ce rythme atteindre son seuil de rentabilité en 2020, date à laquelle elle espère réunir 60 000 agriculteurs adhérents.\"En plus de vous assurer que vous avez des flux de revenus fiables, le plus important est d'offrir quelque chose qui apporte une valeur réelle à la clientèle\", conseille Ken Lohento. Le développement de services fondés sur les TIC à valeur ajoutée pour les agriculteurs exige que les entreprises testent les produits et recueillent des commentaires d'utilisateurs afin d'adapter les services, avant de se lancer à plus grande échelle. Ignitia, qui fournit par SMS des prévisions météorologiques quotidiennes aux agriculteurs ghanéens par le biais de son service iska™, est l'exemple d'une entreprise ayant suivi et réussi ce processus. En 2013, après la première saison d'activité d'iska™ en période pluvieuse, Ignitia a recueilli des commentaires sur l'utilité et la précision de ses prévisions en contactant des individus et des organisations d'agriculteurs utilisant le service. Verdict : 93 % des adhérents consultaient les prévisions lorsqu'ils planifiaient leurs activités agricoles quotidiennes et le taux de fidélité des utilisateurs dépassait 95 %, sans doute en raison de la grande précision (84 %) des prévisions. sont des internautes actifs, soit seulement 29 % de la population du continent.Bien que les tests aient donné des résultats positifs et que les prévisions météorologiques soient fournies en quatre langues locales, l'analphabétisme reste un obstacle important à l'adoption du service. Ce problème courant rend indispensables la surveillance et l'évaluation constantes de l'utilité des services pour garantir que les modifications apportées aux produits améliorent réellement les services proposés.Farmerline prévoit des visites de suivi aux communautés agricoles locales utilisant ses services toutes les six à huit semaines, pour mesurer l'impact de ses messages vocaux et offrir des formations supplémentaires en langue locale sur l'utilisation de sa technologie mobile. Même lorsque les services audio sont proposés dans la langue locale, de nombreux agriculteurs des zones rurales n'ont aucune connaissance technologique et ont du mal à accéder aux informations sans formation.Des formations à la vulgarisation en face à face pour l'utilisation des TIC devraient être intégrées aux stratégies de commercialisation des start-up TIC4Ag. Wefarm, le plus grand réseau numérique du monde pour agriculteurs qui leur permet de poser des questions liées aux meilleures pratiques agricoles et d'y répondre par SMS et en ligne, organise des formations pour en faciliter l'usage et promouvoir la relation d'utilisateur à utilisateur. L'une des principales difficultés a été de convaincre les agriculteurs que le réseau est utilisable gratuitement, dans la mesure où beaucoup de petits producteurs ont eu recours à des services avec des coûts cachés.Wefarm forme des agents de vulgarisation à la promotion de la plateforme et capables de former d'autres agriculteurs. La plateforme organise aussi des journées de formation en concertation avec des coopératives agricoles et des campagnes radiophoniques pour sensibiliser le public à son offre de services.Wefarm a amélioré ainsi la confiance des agriculteurs en sa plateforme, qui compte plus de 720 000 adhérents agricoles au Kenya et en Ouganda ; 80 % des utilisateurs déclarent que le service leur est profitable. L'entreprise bénéficie en conséquence d'un taux de fidélité de 90 %.  Étant donné les coûts et les infrastructures nécessaires pour fournir l'éventail de services du MUIIS, cette prestation serait impossible sans la formation de partenariats avec des organisations dotées des capacités appropriées. Les partenariats sont donc également utiles pour partager une partie des coûts de la prestation de services et de la commercialisation, un aspect important pour les agroentreprises qui démarrent.Il n'est pas facile de se procurer les capitaux permettant aux start-up TIC4Ag de démarrer, en particulier dans les régions ACP, ce qui rend d'autant plus cruciale la nécessité d'avoir une structure de coûts claire et un modèle d'activités réalisable pour que les cyberentreprises agroalimentaires puissent optimiser leurs chances d'obtenir un prêt ou une subvention.Seules les start-up qui ont réfléchi à toutes ces questions seront prises en considération pour l'attribution d'aides de la part des pépinières, des programmes d'entreprenariat, d'investisseurs providentiels et d'institutions financières. ■ Publié récemment par le CTA, Guide de l'agripreneuriat digital : La voie du succès pour les jeunes entrepreneurs des pays ACP (https://tinyurl.com/ybhaacgn) offre des informations détaillées aux jeunes intéressés par l'e-agrobusiness. L'entreprise doit aussi créer des liens avec ses clients. Dans l'ICT4Ag, même si les services sont souvent accessibles sur des téléphones portables, les agroentreprises oublient souvent de les rendre attrayants et se concentrent plutôt sur le prix des produits, l'accès aux marchés, les indicateurs d'alerte rapide, etc. Or, quand votre entreprise crée des liens, les gens peuvent interagir et discuter du produit, apprendre et partager des idées. Vous insufflez de la vitalité et créez des formes de soutien au sein de votre groupe cible.Les entreprises peuvent reposer sur une approche B2B (\"business-to-business\") ou B2C (\"business-to-customer\"). Avec cette dernière, l'entreprise s'adresse directement à l'agriculteur. Pour des raisons de durabilité, il peut s'avérer justifié d'intégrer les deux modèles, ce qui assure de multiples sources de revenus et permet d'attirer différents partenaires. La clé du succès est de concevoir un modèle d'entreprise fondé sur plusieurs sources de revenus.Le modèle B2B privilégie les paiements de masse. L'approche B2C implique en revanche le versement de plus petits montants -des abonnements -ou le recours à un système de prépaiement pour les services de SMS et appels individuels. Les entreprises sont aussi prêtes à payer pour avoir accès aux données des clients. Nous pouvons, par exemple, fournir des données agrégées anonymisées sur les plus de 500 000 utilisateurs de notre plateforme, soit une nouvelle source de revenus à exploiter.Si vous faites partie d'un PPP, vous ne vous occupez pas de tout, ce qui réduit les capitaux nécessaires. Pour développer notre appli mobile, mAgri, nous nous sommes associés à des opérateurs de téléphonie mobile. Nous n'avons pas eu à développer notre propre base de clients puisque l'entreprise partenaire en disposait déjà. S'associer à une grande entreprise reconnue permet à une start-up d'être plus crédible et de profiter de la loyauté des clients envers celle-ci.La vulgarisation ne consiste pas seulement à apprendre aux consommateurs comment utiliser le service, mais aussi comment utiliser les téléphones portables ou la technologie USSD (données de services supplémentaires non structurées) auxquels nous avons recours.En outre, disposer d'un service clientèle en face-à-face peut aider à renforcer la confiance des utilisateurs dans les fournisseurs de services. Grâce aux services de commercialisation et de formation sur le terrain, les utilisateurs rencontrent les personnes derrière le service et peuvent nouer de meilleurs liens avec l'entreprise, ce qui leur donne un peu plus de confiance dans le produit et contribue à encourager l'adoption des services.Stephanie Lynch Martin Stimela, directeur de Brastorne Enterprises, qui propose des solutions TIC pour l'agriculture africaine.approcher la production rurale des consommateurs urbains : telle est l'ambition de la start-up sénégalaise Sooretul -\"ce n'est plus loin\", en wolof. Sa plateforme de vente d'aliments locaux et bio, lancée en 2014, vise à rendre les produits du terroir accessibles aux habitants de Dakar.Demandeurs de produits transformés, prêts à l'emploi, normés et bien présentés, les consommateurs urbains se montrent aussi exigeants sur la traçabilité et l'éthique des produits. \"Il y a eu une prise de conscience comme quoi le local était un levier pour l'économie sénégalaise\", explique Awa Caba, cofondatrice de Sooretul. Mais, \"dans les supermarchés de Dakar, on trouve davantage de produits importés que de produits locaux transformés\".Pour les quatre fondateurs de Sooretul, tout a commencé en 2011, à l'occasion du concours Imagine Cup, lancé par Microsoft. Encore élèves ingénieurs en informatique à l'École supérieure polytechnique de Dakar, ils créent une plateforme de promotion et d'information sur les produits de la pêche, de l'élevage et de l'agriculture à l'attention des producteurs. en septembre 2014, la plateforme est finalement consacrée au e-commerce. La PME Sooretul est lancée grâce aux fonds propres de ses fondateurs et à une bourse du Fonds de développement du service universel des télécoms.Pour les transformatrices, la collaboration avec Sooretul est aujourd'hui synonyme de soutien matériel, de plus de visibilité et d'accès à une nouvelle clientèle urbaine. Avec plus de 7 millions de personnes connectées à Internet au Sénégal, SPORE 189 | 25 les femmes rurales éloignées de Dakar ont accès ainsi à un nombre considérable de clients via la plateforme numérique de Sooretul. Ces PME dirigées par des femmes ont ainsi plus que doublé leur chiffre d'affaires mensuel.\"Beaucoup de ces femmes travaillent depuis leur unité de transformation et n'ont pas accès aux technologies nécessaires, notamment pour faire la promotion de leurs produits\", souligne Awa Caba. \"En zone rurale, elles n'ont pas forcément de lieux de vente à proximité. La vente en ligne était alors la solution la plus indiquée.\" Ce nouveau marché permet aussi aux coopératives d'étoffer leur offre et d'adapter leurs produits. \"Grâce aux commentaires des clients qui sont livrés à domicile, on peut orienter les transformatrices vers l'amélioration ou la création de nouveaux produits\", poursuit Awa CabaIl a fallu convaincre les transformatrices de se lancer dans le commerce sur Internet, mais les premières difficultés furent surtout administratives. \"Le concours Microsoft a réveillé notre esprit d'entrepreneur, mais, au début, l'administration était le plus dur\", retrace l'entrepreneure. \"Notamment, les questions de fiscalité posent toujours problème car le Sénégal n'a pas de régime adapté aux start-up. Sur le papier peut-être, mais les taxations pour une jeune entreprise qui ne gagne pas encore d'argent sont rédhibitoires. Les deux premières années, nous avons dû travailler de manière informelle, on ne gagnait pas assez d'argent pour payer les taxes.\"Aujourd'hui, la PME fait partie du réseau d'entrepreneurs Enablis, au sein duquel elle profite de conseils juridiques sur les contrats avec les fournisseurs, la restructuration de l'entreprise ou l'aspect commercial.En phase de croissance, Sooretul a vu ses ventes tripler entre 2015 et 2017. Ses revenus sont issus de trois activités : la vente en ligne, un service traiteur pour les entreprises lancé en 2016 et surtout un partenariat avec DIGITAG, une agence qui propose un service de marketing digital des produits. Parmi ses clients, Sooretul a pu compter sur l'USAID, qui accompagne quatre plateformes de producteurs et de femmes transformatrices à travers le Sénégal. \"Après avoir développé de nouveaux produits avec les transformatrices, l'USAID a fait appel à nous pour en assurer la promotion.Pour cela, nous créons des vidéos de recettes de cuisine qui mettent en avant le produit, mais aussi la transformatrice\", explique Awa Caba. DIGITAG est pour l'instant la plus grande source de revenus de Sooretul.En novembre 2016, Sooretul a aussi reçu une subvention de 15 000 € du CTA, en tant que lauréate du premier prix de la compétition Pitch AgriHack dans la catégorie avancée. Un soutien qui a aidé à développer l'entreprise. Depuis, le nombre de fournisseurs a été élargi de façon à travailler avec trois nouvelles coopératives de femmes et répondre à la demande des clients pour des produits particuliers. Un véhicule a été acheté pour faciliter la livraison de produits plus volumineux. Par ailleurs, Awa Caba optimise ce soutien pour développer des partenariats en dehors du Sénégal : Sooretul est en train de finaliser des accords pour répliquer le modèle de la plateforme et des partenariats avec des producteurs locaux en Côte d'Ivoire et a commencé à vendre ses produits à un grossiste asiatique.Cela ne suffit pas encore à être rentable. \"Jusqu'en 2017, les prix que nous pratiquions étaient compétitifs par rapport aux supermarchés Casino et City Dia. L'arrivée d'Auchan a changé la donne, ils ont cassé les prix. Le client a le choix : notre argument est la rareté, l'origine locale et la spécificité du produit plus que son prix\", fait valoir Awa Caba.Afin de soutenir la croissance de la start-up, le CTA a aussi invité Awa Caba à participer à des évènements qui ont offert à Sooretul une visibilité internationale. Des partenariats commerciaux en France ont ainsi été explorés, les produits de la PME ont été présentés à Genève lors d'une réunion sur les investissements sociaux. Enfin, les dirigeants de la start-up ont pu interagir lors d'évènements organisés par la Banque africaine de développement.La PME cherche désormais des investisseurs pour acquérir plus de matériel, accroître son activité, professionnaliser le personnel mais aussi en recruter pour répondre à la montée en charge du travail. Une campagne de communication intitulée \"Je consomme local\" devrait être diffusée sur les réseaux sociaux et à la télévision, afin de mieux faire connaître Sooretul. Objectif : être présent dans les grandes capitales africaines. ■ L'e-agriculture des Caraïbes se cherche un modèle durable Le modèle d'activités Revofarm est né de la volonté de son cofondateur, Ricardo Gowdie, de permettre à sa mère, négociante sur les marchés jamaïcains, d'accéder à une plus grande variété de cultures. \"Un Jamaïcain sur trois est agriculteur, alors que l'agriculture ne contribue que pour 6,5 % à notre PIB et que le pays importe chaque année pour environ 800 millions d'euros de nourriture\", explique Ricardo Gowdie. \"Beaucoup des plus de 200 000 agriculteurs jamaïcains recensés vivent dans la pauvreté et n'arrivent pas à atteindre leur seuil de rentabilité. Nous voulons donc rendre l'agriculture plus attrayante et durable en réduisant le coût des intrants et en maximisant la production, afin de dégager davantage de profits pour les agriculteurs.\"En 2014, la production agricole annuelle a diminué de 30 % après des mois de sécheresse accompagnée de feux de brousse. Ricardo Gowdie aspire donc aussi à enseigner aux agriculteurs comment atténuer les impacts du changement climatique sur leur production agricole.La première étape a été de s'inscrire à \"Start Up Jamaica\", un concours d'accélération de l'entreprenariat et de l'innovation organisé dans toutes les Caraïbes. Classé dans les trois premiers, Revofarm a gagné un stage de trois mois en 2014 à Oasis500, une pépinière d'entreprises de Jordanie. En novembre 2014, l'équipe de Revofarm a représenté la région dans la partie sud-américaine du concours hackaton du CTA organisé au Pérou. Avec le mentorat d'experts, l'équipe a précisé ses flux de revenus, commencé à établir sa clientèle et cherché à améliorer la durabilité de son modèle d'activités.\"Dans l'espace TIC4Ag, le cheminement vers la rentabilité est long, mais nous approchons du but\", assure Ricardo Gowdie. \"Pour l'instant, notre récompense est de constater combien la technologie a aidé les agriculteurs à améliorer leurs processus de plantation et de vente et à augmenter leurs revenus. Notre principal service consiste à fournir un accès aux données, pour lesquelles les agriculteurs paient une cotisation. Notre second service, plus récent, relie les agriculteurs à de nouveaux marchés. Il n'est pas encore générateur de revenus, mais il semble prometteur.\" Revofarm s'est associé avec aWhere, qui fournit des prévisions météorologiques par satellite en temps réel, des indices de présence des ravageurs et maladies et des données agronomiques sur le stade de croissance des cultures. Ces services constituent une partie des principaux coûts d'exploitation de Revofarm avec la recherche, le développement et la technologie SMS.Malgré les progrès réalisés dans les e-services, l'un des principaux enjeux pour les agroentreprises caribéennes fondées sur les TIC est le faible taux d'alphabétisation des agriculteurs. Revofarm a surmonté cet obstacle en travaillant surtout avec de jeunes agriculteurs innovants. Pour toucher 100 % des agriculteurs jamaïcains, Revofarm a réorganisé son modèle d'activités en incorporant la technologie SMS à ses logiciels. L'entreprise a aussi fractionné ses services en trois solutions adaptées pour permettre aux agriculteurs d'acheter ce dont ils ont besoin et qui convient à leur budget, en combinant les options suivantes : renseignements sur les marchés, données météorologiques et agronomiques et liens avec les marchés. L'entreprise collabore aussi avec des ONG comme la Jamaica Castor Industry Association, qui va utiliser ses services pour fournir des informations quotidiennes sur les marchés à ses membres.\"Avec notre technologie, nous espérons rendre l'agriculture plus prévisible, ce qui permettra aux agriculteurs, et à nous-mêmes, d'accéder plus facilement aux financements\", explique Ricardo Gowdie. \"Notre ambition est que 300 000 agriculteurs utilisent notre système de données d'ici 2030 et qu'ils augmentent leurs rendements de 30 %, ce qui diminuerait la facture des importations alimentaires de la Jamaïque et améliorerait le PIB. notre durabilité, nous prévoyons d'ajouter de nouvelles lignes de produits et de créer notre propre matériel de surveillance afin d'offrir des systèmes intégrés de surveillance sur le terrain pour les exploitations agricoles.\"Market Movers, de Trinité-et-Tobago, est aussi reconnue comme une agroentreprise numérique de premier plan. En 2016, sa croissance, l'une des plus rapides au niveau local, lui a valu le prix du jeune entrepreneur émergent de l'année d'Ernst & Young. Depuis sa formation il y a une dizaine d'années, l'entreprise, qui était à l'origine une plateforme en ligne de distribution au détail de fruits et légumes frais, a ajouté à sa clientèle des grossistes et professionnels tout en élargissant sa gamme commerciale aux produits laitiers et de commodité. Son principal concurrent à Trinité-et-Tobago, HubBox Grocery, livre aussi des produits frais, mais Market Movers garantit la fraîcheur de son offre en s'associant avec des agriculteurs et propose des produits sans pesticides. L'entreprise n'offre plus de livraisons gratuites, qui constituaient ses plus importants frais de fonctionnement. Après avoir fidélisé des ménages, des professionnels et des individus soucieux de leur santé, l'entreprise a vu des firmes d'agrotransformation s'intéresser à son activité depuis qu'elle propose des solutions commerciales pour l'exportation.\"Au début, notre plus gros problème était l'accès à des liquidités, en particulier quand nous avons commencé à offrir l'option vente en gros qui exige d'importantes facilités de crédit\", explique David Thomas, le directeur général de Market Movers. \"Pour nous établir durablement à ce niveau, nous avions besoin de nouveaux flux de revenus. De nombreuses entreprises avaient du mal à commercialiser leurs produits dans les magasins locaux et à les exporter. Notre créneau a toujours été l'agroalimentaire et nous avons donc décidé d'utiliser notre expérience dans ce domaine pour aider les entreprises de transformation agroalimentaire.\" Market Movers a alors lancé deux nouveaux services commerciaux pour aider ces entreprises à se préparer pour l'exportation en leur offrant des solutions d'e-commerce via Internet et des options de création d'emballages conçus pour les marchés internationaux. Grâce à ces nouveaux services rémunérateurs, l'entreprise a pu atténuer ses problèmes de trésorerie et améliorer sa rentabilité. En 2016, Market Movers a créé Caribbean Papaya -le premier produit local de commodité à base de fruits congelés à Trinitéet-Tobago -sous sa marque Farm & Function. ■La plate-forme interentreprises jamaïcaine Agrocentral simplifie la communication entre les gros acheteurs, tels que les agrotransformateurs et les restaurateurs, et les agriculteurs. Les utilisateurs paient des frais de service mensuels pour accéder à ce \"guichet unique\" d'outils où ils peuvent créer et automatiser des commandes, suivre les quotas d'exigences des produits et mesurer leur activité. Les acheteurs placent leurs commandes en ligne et les fournisseurs sont avertis par SMS, e-mail ou téléphone. Les principaux coûts commerciaux pour l'entreprise sont donc la maintenance du site web, les services web et les télécommunications. Selon Janice Mcleod, cofondatrice d'Agrocentral, le principal problème tient au fait que les parties prenantes considèrent que son équipe est jeune et donc inexpérimentée. Ceci a compliqué la recherche de nouveaux clients, lors des réunions individualisées, par le biais du site web de l'entreprise ou à travers les médias. \"Les entreprises agrotechniques doivent innover ou disparaître\", dit Janice Mcleod. \"En 2013, nous avons démarré en tant que système de communications pour renforcer l'information des agriculteurs. La fragmentation du paysage agricole a toutefois rendu difficiles la collecte des données et l'accès à celles-ci.Nous avons donc décidé de remonter dans la chaîne de valeur pour recueillir l'information auprès des acheteurs. Notre clientèle est essentiellement en Jamaïque, mais nous avons un client à Abuja, au Nigeria, et nous prévoyons une augmentation de nos exportations. Pour la conquête des marchés internationaux, nous visons l'Afrique parce que son niveau de développement technologique est semblable à celui des Caraïbes.\" Agrocentral est aussi en train d'explorer les avantages de l'incorporation des technologies blockchain (BCT) dans son site web. La BCT est un système décentralisé de tenue de registres, mis à jour en temps réel (Lire Innovation numérique : La révolution annoncée des technologies blockchainhttps://tinyurl.com/y7jwdxsw). Janice Mcleod estime que \"nous pouvons utiliser la BCT pour gérer notre base de données de transactions économiques afin de recenser la fréquence et la ponctualité des paiements. Cela nous permettra de définir comment les utilisateurs paient pour ce service, les agriculteurs pourront partager leurs performances en tant qu'acheteurs, et nous pourrons déterminer quels sont les agriculteurs les plus performants -ce qui nous permettra de préciser quelles sont les entreprises les plus fiables\".\"Nous espérons rendre l'agriculture plus prévisible, pour accroître l'accès au financement pour les agriculteurs et nous-mêmes\"Un nouvel accord commercial panafricain prometteurEn République démocratique du Congo, de jeunes entrepreneurs ont ouvert des centres de transformation du manioc afin d'offrir des opportunités d'emplois aux agriculteurs locaux, aux femmes et aux jeunes.James Karuga L a transformation du manioc par de jeunes diplômés a créé des débouchés à 500 agriculteurs de la région de Bukavu, en République démocratique du Congo (RDC). Depuis 2015, le groupe Kalambo Youth Agripreneurs (IKYA) de l'Institut international d'agriculture tropicale (IITA), qui compte 21 membres, achète du manioc à ces agriculteurs et le transforme en farine. Celle-ci est vendue 0,8 € (1,540 franc congolais) le kilo à des supermarchés, des ménages locaux et des centres nutritionnels, à raison de 2 tonnes par semaine en 2018, contre 900 kg avant.Auparavant, les agriculteurs de Bukavu vendaient leur manioc de l'autre côté de la frontière, au Rwanda, où il était transformé en farine et revendu.Pour permettre la transformation locale et créer des emplois pour les jeunes et les femmes de la région, l'IITA a fourni à IKYA des capitaux de démarrage et a offert une formation sur la valorisation du manioc, ainsi que des plants de qualité et des machines pour la transformation en farine. Huit centres communautaires de transformation du manioc (CCPC) ont été ouverts dans tout le pays.Pour répondre à la demande croissante, IKYA achète de la farine de manioc transformée auprès des CCPC après s'être assuré de la qualité du produit. Dans la région de Katana, IKYA a acheté 14 707 kg de farine de manioc à l'un des CCPC entre décembre 2015 et septembre 2016, générant ainsi un revenu net de 955 € (1,8 million FC) pour ses membres.En 2017, IKYA s'est lancé dans la transformation de la farine de maïs. Cinquante jeunes agriculteurs du district de Kamanyola ont été formés à la production de grains de maïs indemnes de toute maladie. Des jeunes agriculteurs -les Jeunes Entrepreneurs de Kamanyola (JEK) -se sont aussi associés à IKYA pour la construction d'un centre de production de farine de maïs dans le district, qu'ils approvisionneront en maïs. Ce partenariat devrait faire passer la capacité de production d'IKYA de 7 à 25 tonnes par semaine, accroître l'offre de farine de maïs dans la province et augmenter les revenus d'IKYA et des JEK. Par ailleurs, IKYA pourra exporter le produit vers les pays voisins, comme le Rwanda, tout en créant indirectement des emplois pour 200 jeunes chômeurs dans le secteur de la production de maïs.IKYA est l'un des 14 groupes d'agripreneurs basés en RDC, au Kenya, au Nigeria, en Ouganda, en Tanzanie et en Zambie qui bénéficient depuis 2012 des services d'incubation de l'IITA. Les jeunes reçoivent un accompagnement à l'élaboration d'un plan d'agroentreprise bancable en vue d'un financement par des institutions financières, des donateurs ou des business angels. Les treize autres groupes gèrent des entreprises d'horticulture, de production de lait de soja, de transformation de manioc et de patate douce, d'aquaculture, de fabrication d'aliments pour poissons, d'agriculture contractuelle, de formation agricole, de commerce de céréales, d'élevage de volaille ou de commercialisation en ligne. Leurs entreprises ont fourni des revenus à plus de 300 jeunes diplômés et permis à plus de 2 000 jeunes de développer leurs compétences. ■ En République démocratique du Congo, de jeunes agripreneurs ont mis en place des centres de transformation du manioc, ce qui a créé des opportunités d'emplois pour 500 agriculteurs.  La MCFCSL a vu la demande des acheteurs internationaux augmenter de 100 % depuis l'obtention de la certification IG.Après l'obtention de certifications d'indications géographiques (IG) pour des produits agricoles de République dominicaine, Jamaïque et Trinité-et-Tobago, les prix ont augmenté de 200 % et la demande de 100 %. Au bonheur des agriculteurs.La disponibilité accrue de semences de qualité au Cameroun permet aux petits exploitants agricoles d'améliorer leurs rendements et leurs revenus et d'accroître l'autosuffisance alimentaire du pays.Elias Ntungwe Ngalame P our améliorer la productivité agricole au Cameroun, plus d'une vingtaine d'exploitations de multiplication de semences de maïs, de manioc, de haricots, d'ignames et de bananes plantains ont été créées par la Southwest Development Authority (SOWEDA) à Buea, en collaboration avec les organisations paysannes locales. Ces exploitations assurent un approvisionnement fiable en semences résistantes et à un coût abordable aux petits exploitants. En 2017, plus de 70 000 tonnes de semences de maïs, 20 000 tonnes de semences de haricots et 15 000 tonnes de fragments d'ignames ont ainsi été distribuées. Depuis le lancement du projet en 2014, 63 groupements agricoles de la région du Sud-Ouest, comptant plus de 70 000 membres, en ont bénéficié.Les graves sécheresses qui ont eu lieu entre 2012 et 2015 ont diminué la disponibilité en semences de qualité et fait grimper leur prix. Le prix des semences de tomates, par exemple, a quadruplé, atteignant 240 € (16 000 FCFA) pour un conteneur de 5 litres. Les agriculteurs qui ont rejoint un groupe d'initiative commune de la SOWEDA peuvent en revanche en obtenir au début de chaque année au prix de 75 € (50 000 FCFA) pour 5 litres. Ils reçoivent aussi des intrants gratuits. \"Nous pouvions parfois nous procurer des semences de qualité auprès des centres de recherche agricole, mais à des prix trois fois plus élevés que ceux des exploitations de multiplication semencière aujourd'hui\", explique Julius Takem, producteur de manioc à Buea.Depuis 2014, Adolph Njokwe, petit producteur de maïs, utilise la variété améliorée SOWEDA, qui arrive à maturité en 90-100 jours, contre 130-150 jours pour la variété traditionnelle. Depuis, le rendement de ses terres agricoles de 1,6 hectare est passé de 3,5 à 8 tonnes. D'après Divine Nkeng, un autre agriculteur, \"les semences assurent un bon rendement même pendant les périodes de sécheresse, ce qui n'était pas le cas de celles que nous utilisions auparavant\". Selon le gouvernement, plus de 30 000 petits exploitants de la région du Sud-Ouest ont ainsi augmenté leurs revenus de 25 % grâce à l'augmentation de la production.Les représentants de la SOWEDA reconnaissent que le programme est confronté à certaines difficultés. \"Pour lutter contre l'aggravation de l'insécurité alimentaire, nous devons absolument trouver des partenaires qui soutiendront la création et la diversification des possibilités de multiplication semencière au Cameroun\", explique Samuel Tangu, responsable du projet de soutien à l'autonomisation économique et à la sécurité alimentaire dans l'est du pays. Les exploitations de multiplication semencière couvrent déjà les six divisions de la région du Sud-Ouest et elles vendent à présent leurs semences aux agriculteurs d'autres régions. \"Nous nous réjouissons de l'augmentation du nombre d'exploitations de multiplication semencière, car les agriculteurs d'autres régions du pays s'intéressent de plus en plus aux semences à haut rendement\", souligne Christopher Ekungwe, délégué à l'agriculture et au développement rural pour la région du Sud-Ouest. ■ © SETH LAZAR/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO 30 000 agriculteurs ont augmenté leurs revenus deen ayant un meilleur accès à des semences adaptées.Grâce à un approvisionnement régulier en semences de qualité et à des prix abordables, les agriculteurs ont vu leurs rendements augmenter de façon significative.n Zambie, la production biologique de piments et d'ail améliore les revenus de plus de 800 petits agriculteurs, qui vendent leurs récoltes à Lumuno Organic Farms, une entreprise de transformation située dans le district de Chongwe, à l'est de la capitale Lusaka. Celle-ci fabrique des produits à valeur ajoutée, dont des sauces au piment et à l'ail et au piment.Une décennie après sa création en 2007 par Khama Mbewe, l'entreprise Lumuno Organic Farms produit plus de 20 000 bouteilles de sauce chili nature et à l'ail par mois et pèse plus de 420 000 €. \"L'agriculture, c'est l'avenir de la Zambie\", affirme Khama Mbewe.En 2012, une subvention de partenariat stratégique de l'USAID a permis à Lumuno d'acquérir les technologies et les équipements et de former son personnel. \"Avec cette subvention, nous avons modernisé notre chaîne de production de sauce chili et établi un réseau de sous-traitants pour accroître notre capacité de production et passer de 9 000 à 20 000 bouteilles de sauce chili par mois\", s'enorgueillit Khama Mbewe. Les contrats de sous-traitance ont le mérite d'accroître la production de Lumuno, mais également d'offrir aux petits maraîchers un marché durable et fiable pour leurs récoltes. \"Avant, je ne cultivais de l'ail et des piments que pour notre consommation personnelle, alors qu'aujourd'hui j'en produis sur 80 ares. Par comparaison avec le maïs, ce sont des cultures plus rentables, qui demandent moins de main-d'oeuvre\", se félicite ainsi Mercy Banda, 49 ans, productrice de piments et d'ail.Plus de 500 agriculteurs ont suivi une formation sur la production biologique de piments et d'ail et les activités d'après-récolte, un programme mené par Lumuno Farms en partenariat avec le ministère zambien de l'Agriculture. \"Des agents de vulgarisation nous ont donné des cours sur la gestion des cultures, de la préparation de la terre aux activités d'après-récolte\", explique Chisomo Phiri, bénéficiaire du programme de sous-traitance. \"Je n'ai jamais autant appris de toute ma carrière dans l'agriculture.\" La brigadière générale Emelda Chola, par ailleurs secrétaire permanente de la province de Lusaka, explique que les petits producteurs de maïs devraient envisager de se diversifier et de se tourner vers des cultures à haute valeur ajoutée, comme les piments et les fines herbes, et félicite Lumuno d'avoir signé avec le Comité de liaison Europe-Afrique-Caraïbes-Pacifique un contrat de 40 000 € (470 300 kwacha environ) pour la formation des petits exploitants agricoles à l'agriculture biologique.L'entreprise emploie 15 personnes à temps plein et plus d'une centaine de saisonniers. L'accroissement de sa production lui a aussi permis de fournir les supermarchés locaux de la chaîne Spar et d'entamer des négociations avec la chaîne zambienne ShopRite. Lumuno écoule sa production sur le marché national et exporte sa gamme novatrice E n Zambie, un nouveau contrat à terme (voir l'encadré, page 35) devrait permettre aux agriculteurs, aux négociants, aux banques et à d'autres acteurs du secteur agricole de se protéger contre la fluctuation des prix des céréales. Date prévue du lancement par la Bourse de Johannesbourg (Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JSE) et la Bourse des matières premières de la Zambie (Zambian Commodity Exchange, ZAMACE) : mai 2018.Ces contrats, libellés en dollars, seront cotés à la célèbre JSE. Pour la première fois, les participants pourront bloquer les prix des futures livraisons de céréales produites et stockées en Zambie. Les premières céréales concernées seront le maïs blanc, puis le blé et le soja. Afin d'encourager la participation d'exploitants plus modestes, chaque contrat sera établi pour 10 tonnes de céréales, moins que le lot standard de 100 tonnes prévu par la JSE. Chaque année, cinq contrats seront lancés aux mois de mars, mai, juillet, septembre et décembre, sur une durée de 12 mois coïncidant avec les périodes de récolte et de production.Selon Chris Sturgess, directeur des produits à la JSE, les participants qui souhaitent acheter un contrat à terme devront s'acquitter d'un acompte, ou \"marge\", qui devrait s'élever, au départ, à 10-12 % du prix convenu pour un lot.En Zambie, la volatilité des prix du marché céréalier met en danger toute la chaîne de valeur. Raphael Karuaihe, responsable des produits à la JSE, espère que l'achat de cette garantie évitera au producteur de vendre ses produits précipitamment sur un marché faible.\"Il existe très peu d'arrangements contractuels entre le secteur agroalimentaire et les petits agriculteurs travaillant dans la commercialisation des produits de base et aucun ne prévoit de prix pour la pré-plantation\", confirme Rob Munro, de Musika. \"Si les acheteurs, les négociants et les transformateurs pouvaient couvrir leurs propres positions sur le marché, ils pourraient donner une fourchette de prix à leurs petits fournisseurs, ce qui aurait un impact très bénéfique sur le marché. Les agriculteurs seraient sereins face aux accords d'exploitation et aux prix, et la finance pourrait se développer sur une base plus solide.\"Actuellement, seuls les contrats à terme bilatéraux permettent aux négociants tels que la société de services agricoles AFGRI de gérer le risque des prix en Zambie. Ils achètent aux agriculteurs des céréales à un prix et à un tonnage fixés à l'avance, les récupèrent au moment de la récolte, puis les vendent aux meuniers dans le cadre d'un accord similaire. Les nouveaux contrats à terme \"bénéficieront tant aux agriculteurs qu'aux négociants, aux meuniers, aux transformateurs et aux investisseurs\", explique Joof Pistorius, responsable du marketing des céréales au sein de l'AFGRI Zambie.Au moment de proposer un prêt aux agriculteurs en échange d'un récépissé d'entrepôt, les institutions financières auront également la possibilité de se servir de ces contrats pour se prémunir contre la baisse du prix des céréales par rapport au montant initialement prévu, explique Jacob Mwale. Elles pourraient ainsi être incitées à financer davantage de récépissés d'entrepôt et à proposer des tarifs plus concurrentiels.Le lancement de contrats à terme sur le marché céréalier zambien, en mai 2018, vise à aider les agriculteurs et les autres acteurs du secteur agricole à se protéger de la volatilité des prix. D'autres pays pourraient transposer ce modèle.Le bon fonctionnement d'un marché à terme pourrait renforcer le marché des produits de base au sens large. Selon Rob Munro, les plus petits acteurs du secteur profiteront \"de meilleurs accords d'exploitation, d'une plus grande visibilité sur les prix et d'un marché moins chaotique\".Même si Joof Pistorius encourage le concept des contrats à terme, il reste sceptique quant à leur fonctionnement au sein du marché actuel. L'Agence de réserve alimentaire de Zambie (Food Reserve Agency) achète régulièrement et directement aux producteurs du maïs à des prix gonflés, ce qui les dissuade de respecter les contrats passés avec les acheteurs commerciaux. L'année dernière, le gouvernement a également imposé des contrôles aux frontières, empêchant le blocage des exportations de maïs, avec pour corollaire des excédents locaux et la chute des prix, passant de 219 € à 97 € la tonne.L  Le CAPC souligne que les entreprises africaines doivent s'acquitter de droits de douane plus élevés pour leurs exportations à l'intérieur du continent africain -6 % actuellement -que pour leurs exportations en dehors de l'Afrique. Selon la Commission économique des Nations unies pour l'Afrique (CEA), les échanges intra-africainsL'établissement d'une zone de libre-échange continentale devrait changer la donne en stimulant le commerce intra-africain. Pour que le continent en retire des avantages les modalités de cet accord devront être négociées et les dirigeants africains se mobiliser durablement en sa faveur.SPORE 189 | 37 pourraient augmenter de plus de 50 % si les droits à l'importation étaient supprimés, et même doubler, si les barrières non tarifaires étaient également réduites.Les petites nations ne peuvent toutefois pas affronter la concurrence des économies plus grandes et plus développées. Dès lors, il est essentiel que \"l'accord apporte de réels avantages aux pays enregistrant différents niveaux de développement\", souligne le Centre international pour le commerce et le développement durable. Le Plan d'action de l'UA pour le renforcement du commerce intra-africain (Boosting Intra-African Trade, BIAT), qui a identifié sept domaines programmatiques, peut jouer un rôle dans ce sens. Les membres de l'UA peuvent utiliser ce plan pour donner la priorité aux réformes politiques requises dans ces sept domaines et tirer ainsi profit de l'accord ZLEC. Comme le souligne la CEA, le plan d'action BIAT complète l'accord, le premier se concentrant sur les contraintes pesant sur l'offre au niveau du commerce intra-africain et le second sur l'accès au marché et les contraintes pesant sur la demande. Une évaluation réalisée par la CEA a toutefois montré que le plan d'action BIAT est confronté à trois grands obstacles : un manque de structure institutionnelle, l'absence de mécanismes de suivi et d'évaluation, ainsi que des ressources insuffisantes.Un autre problème, souligné par la CNUCED, est lié au fait qu'environ 80 % des échanges commerciaux intra-africains transitent déjà par au moins une des huit Communautés économiques régionales (CER) existantes. Pour Asmita Parshotam, experte du commerce international et du développement à l'Institut sud-africain des affaires internationales (SAIIA), \"tout dépendra de la capacité du nouvel accord, qui vise à consolider les efforts régionaux et continentaux, à supplanter certaines CER, ou du moins à intéger, à terme, l'une ou l'autre d'entre elles\".L'une des pistes qui permettrait à certains pays de commencer à tirer profit de l'accord ZLEC consiste à intégrer, dans un premier temps, leurs produits dans les chaînes de valeur régionales. Le secteur agricole est concerné en premier lieu. Bien que l'agriculture fournisse jusqu'à 60 % des emplois en Afrique et représente 25 % du PIB du continent, la part des produits agricoles dans le commerce intrarégional est assez faible -moins de 30 % selon la CNUCED. \"L'agriculture est un secteur dont la productivité pourrait être considérablement améliorée, en particulier grâce au renforcement de l'agroalimentaire et de l'agrotransformation\", affirme Richard Kamajugo, directeur principal de l'environnement commercial chez TradeMark East Africa. \"Depuis 2000, le marché africain (commerce intra-africain) a en effet contribué à concurrence de plus de 50 % à l'augmentation des exportations de produits alimentaires transformés des pays africains.\"En 2006, la Déclaration de l'UA du Sommet d'Abuja sur la sécurité alimentaire a appelé à promouvoir le commerce intra-africain du riz, du maïs, des légumineuses, du coton, du palmier à huile, du boeuf, des produits laitiers, de la volaille et des produits de la pêche au niveau continental. \"En facilitant le commerce et en diminuant ainsi les coûts de transaction, l'accord ZLEC renforcera les chaînes de valeur régionales\", souligne Richard Kamajugo. \"Les taux de croissance de plusieurs produits agricoles devraient également augmenter.\"Toutefois, l'adhésion à l'accord semble présenter moins d'avantages pour certains pays. Richard Kamajugo fait observer que \"l'accord ZLEC devra absolument être complété par des mesures favorisant l'intégration des groupes vulnérables dont les capacités et les compétences sont trop limitées pour qu'ils puissent s'intégrer dans des chaînes de valeur à plus grande échelle. Ces mesures devraient notamment être axées sur la simplification des procédures commerciales, par exemple les exigences relatives aux règles d'origine, l'offre d'un soutien pour le respect des normes phytosanitaires et la reconversion des entreprises, afin qu'elles puissent se concentrer sur leur compétitivité à l'exportation\". Pour Asmita Parshotam, \"la mise en oeuvre de l'accord ZLEC nécessitera une volonté politique, ainsi que des ressources techniques, financières et humaines\". ■ T itulaire d'une licence en informatique de l'université Babcock, au Nigeria, Kasope Ladipo-Ajai a renoncé à un emploi salarié pour fonder sa propre entreprise. Six ans plus tard, OmoAlata fournit chaque semaine 500 à 700 sachets de condiments biologiques à des revendeurs de Lagos. Pour Spore, elle retrace son parcours.Au Nigeria, la plupart de nos mets sont préparés à partir de produits alimentaires frais, ce qui prend beaucoup de temps. Les citadins occupés et les gens qui travaillent n'ont pas le temps d'aller acheter des aliments et de mixer tomates et piments. J'ai vécu cela quand j'étais salariée, et c'est ce qui m'a incitée à faire des recherches : j'ai commencé à imaginer OmoAlata.Notre premier produit a été le mélange pimenté OmoAlata de tomates, oignons et piments frais mixés qui forment une pâte conditionnée et congelée. Les tomates et les piments entrent dans la composition des repas pratiquement partout au Nigeria. Bien qu'OmoAlata signifie \"vendeur de piment\", l'entreprise conditionne dans les règles toutes sortes d'aliments consommés au \"Pour réussir, il faut une image de marque forte\" SPORE 189 | 39 Nigeria à l'intention de ceux qui sont intéressés par l'aspect commode des produits et acceptent de payer pour ça. Au final, ce que nous vendons, c'est de la commodité.Notre usine est à Lagos. Au début, nous nous approvisionnions sur le marché libre, ce qui nous posait de nombreux problèmes concernant l'origine de nos matières premières alimentaires. Nous nous fournissons désormais auprès d'agriculteurs biologiques installés en périphérie de la ville, ce qui nous permet de garantir qu'aucun engrais ni produit chimique n'est utilisé.Fin 2016, notre capacité de production est passée de 500 à 5 000 paquets par mois. Nous ne produisons pas encore de telles quantités parce que notre activité est en cours de croissance. Je veux qu'OmoAlata devienne le plus gros conditionneur de produits alimentaires du Nigeria et soit connu dans le monde entier. Le plan à court terme est de commencer à exporter vers les USA en 2018 et, je l'espère, vers le Royaume-Uni en 2019. Je prévois aussi d'ajouter deux autres produits à notre offre actuelle.Il est vital d'avoir une commercialisation adéquate et de développer une bonne image de marque. N'importe qui peut créer une entreprise, mais c'est la construction d'une image de marque forte qui conditionne sa réussite. Chaque petite entreprise doit apprendre à optimiser les fonds, même modestes, dont elle dispose pour la commercialisation. J'ai contacté le propriétaire d'une petite société de communication commerciale -360 Degrees. Lorsque je prévois une tournée de représentation, je l'emploie comme consultant et nous accomplissons nous-mêmes les démarches, ce qui nous a permis de promouvoir efficacement nos produits à moindre coût. Lorsque les gens vont voir notre activité en ligne, cela leur donne une idée des objectifs d'OmoAlata. Nous ne les avons pas encore atteints, mais nous construisons notre image de marque.Le principal problème, pour de nombreuses entreprises nigérianes, est l'approvisionnement électrique, nécessaire à l'usine et dans nos bureaux et entrepôts. Nous devons donc utiliser des groupes électrogènes, ce qui coûte très cher. Nos produits doivent rester congelés avant l'utilisation, ou au moins réfrigérés, parce que nous n'ajoutons pas de conservateurs.Les délais de paiement imposés par les commerces de détail sont un autre enjeu capital. Quelques magasins paient immédiatement, mais la plupart attendent d'avoir vendu tous les produits fournis et commandé davantage de marchandises avant de régler celles qu'ils ont déjà vendues. Cela crée de réelles difficultés de trésorerie pour les petites entreprises. Malheureusement, tant que le produit n'aura pas atteint le statut de grande marque, nous ne pouvons rien faire à ce sujet.Il ne faut jamais avoir peur de ses rêves. Si je m'étais appesantie sur la difficulté de mon entreprise, je ne me serais jamais lancée. Donc commencez avec ce que vous avez. N'attendez pas qu'un gros coup se présente. Avec mon partenaire, nous avons commencé petit à petit et ça a été très dur. C'est encore difficile. Nous avons souvent du mal à payer les salaires et les factures. Mon partenaire a un autre travail à temps plein et je dirige également une autre entreprise. J'ai aussi maintenant un bébé de quatre mois, mais j'ai dû retourner au travail avant ses deux mois. Je dois aller à l'usine, organiser les achats auprès des agriculteurs. Il faut se démener sans arrêt.Beaucoup disent que l'entreprenariat est fantastique, mais c'est aussi énormément de travail. Je dirais donc à toutes les jeunes femmes qui veulent se lancer dans les affaires de ne pas se laisser aveugler par l'apparente facilité du monde de l'entreprise. Mais si elles sont prêtes à travailler de manière acharnée, qu'elles sont passionnées et qu'elles sont sûres de leurs objectifs, alors qu'elles persistent et elles y arriveront. Sans persistance, toute entreprise échouera. ■OmoAlata fournit 500 à 700 paquets de mélanges de piments biologiques aux commerçants de Lagos chaque semaine.e Tableau de bord de la transformation de l'agriculture en Afrique (Africa Agriculture Transformation Scoreboard, AATS) et le Rapport inaugural d'examen biennal sur la mise en oeuvre de la Déclaration de Malabo permettent de dresser un bilan des progrès et des difficultés de l'agriculture africaine. Explications avec le Dr Godfrey Bahiigwa, de l'Union africaine (UA).L'AATS fait partie du Rapport inaugural d'examen biennal, issu de l'appel aux États membres de l'UA, lancé dans le cadre de la Déclaration de Malabo, à oeuvrer avec leurs partenaires pour promouvoir la responsabilité mutuelle concernant les actions et les résultats qui stimulent la transformation agricole de l'Afrique. Chaque pays est évalué en fonction de 43 indicateurs concernant les sept engagements de la Déclaration de Malabo.Une note sur 10 a ainsi été attribuée à chaque pays. Pour 2017, une note de référence de 3,94 a été fixée comme note minimale indiquant qu'un pays est en passe de réaliser les engagements de Malabo à l'horizon 2025. Le Rwanda a enregistré les meilleurs résultats, avec une note globale de 6,1, suivi du Mali avec 5,6 et du Maroc avec 5,5. L'assemblée de l'UA en janvier 2018 a salué la performance de ces trois pays.Les indicateurs concernent différents aspects des engagements de 2014 en faveur de la transformation de l'agriculture, comme par exemple l'engagement d'allouer au moins 10 % des dépenses publiques à l'agriculture d'ici 2025. À cette fin, nous avons examiné le montant des dépenses publiques de chaque État consacrées à l'agriculture en 2015-2016. Tout pays y affectant 10 % ou plus était sur la bonne voie, tandis que tout pays qui dépensait moins de 10 % ne l'était pas et obtenait donc un mauvais score.La Déclaration de Malabo inclut aussi l'objectif d'une croissance annuelle de 6 % dans le secteur agricole et d'une réduction de 50 % des pertes après récolte d'ici 2025. Nous nous sommes également engagés à faire passer la malnutrition sous la barre des 10 %. Un score de moins de 3,94 aujourd'hui ne signifie pas qu'un pays ne respectera pas ses engagements. Cela permet simplement de mettre en lumière les domaines à améliorer d'ici 2015.Seuls Nous avons pu nous faire une idée de la progression des pays, et formulé des recommandations. Chacun des pays est confronté à des défis différents, Depuis 1993, Le Déméter propose chaque année des analyses prospectives sur l'agriculture, l'alimentation et le développement dans le monde. Dans son édition 2018, l'un de ses quatre dossiers est consacré aux huiles végétales. À l'image de l'ensemble des matières premières agricoles mondialisées, les filières oléoprotéagineuses reflètent en effet les échanges internationaux et leur contexte géopolitique. Quatre plantes assurent 85 % des huiles végétales mises en marché sur la planète : le tournesol, le colza, le soja et la palme, avec une forte dynamique pour ces deux dernières. Sous les tropiques, ces filières ont connu un développement fulgurant durant les vingt dernières années, à tel point que certains auteurs n'hésitent pas à parler d'une \"révolution des huiles tropicales\". Mais cette révolution génère des controverses, notamment au sujet de la déforestation (soja au Brésil, palme en Asie) et des modèles de développement agricole (agriculture familiale contre agrobusiness).L'essentiel de la production d'huile de palme est le fait de deux paysl'Indonésie (35 des 65 millions de tonnes) et la Malaisie (19 millions de tonnes) -mais des plantations se développent en Afrique.Originaire du golfe de Guinée, le palmier à huile y reste surtout une production locale. Seuls le Cameroun, la Côte d'Ivoire et le Nigeria ont une production significative en volume. La filière coprah est quant à elle en pleine mutation : elle a toujours eu une composante de production villageoise, 95 % des productions de noix de coco sur la planète étant issues de petits planteurs de moins d'un hectare (10 millions de planteurs), et bio de fait dans leur immense majorité. Si l'Asie domine la production (81 %), l'Afrique assure 9 % de la production mondiale, l'Amérique du Sud et les Caraïbes 5 %, comme l'Océanie. La filière coprah a connu son âge d'or dans la seconde partie du XIXe siècle quand elle a remplacé les graisses animales dans la production des savons en Europe. Mais le marché se contracte depuis une trentaine d'années et les efforts de recherche doivent être accentués tant sur la productivité des cocoteraies que pour lutter contre les maladies. L'engouement pour l'huile de coco pourrait contribuer à la relance.Le dossier Déméter propose aussi des entrées sur la consommation des huiles. Les auteurs relèvent, par exemple, certains aspects culturels. Ainsi, l'huile de coton raffinée, peu connue dans les pays occidentaux où elle n'a longtemps été utilisée que pour lubrifier les petits mécanismes (notamment les machines à coudre), est très consommée dans les pays producteurs. ■ Je ne connaissais rien à l'agriculture -ma spécialité est le développement international -mais je savais que la majorité des femmes vivant en milieu rural travaillent dans ce secteur. C'est pourquoi j'ai créé Mama Rice en 2016 : pour les soutenir. La plupart des femmes africaines pratiquent une agriculture de subsistance et je veux les aider à améliorer leurs rendements, à produire des cultures de qualité qu'elles pourront vendre à un bon prix à des gens comme moi. Mon entreprise soutient près de 11 000 productrices de riz dans le nord de l'Ouganda. Je fournis à ces jeunes agricultrices des intrants et des semences à crédit et je leur offre un marché garanti pour leur production. Ce modèle d'entreprise leur convient et semble vraiment bien fonctionner.Comme la majorité des femmes africaines travaillent dans le secteur agricole, il est important qu'elles aient des modèles féminins, non seulement pour les inspirer, mais aussi pour leur servir de mentor. Dès lors, plus il y aura de femmes qui réussissent en tant que chef d'entreprise, plus il y aura de soutien disponible pour les autres femmes ambitieuses.Une étude récente a établi qu'en Afrique 80 % de la production agricole provient des petits agriculteurs dont la majorité sont des femmes des zones rurales. Le travail tout au long de la chaîne de valeur pour produire des denrées alimentaires est effectué par des femmes. Pourtant, quand il s'agit de vendre et de commercialiser leur production, les hommes interviennent souvent et emportent alors tous les profits. En investissant en faveur des femmes entrepreneurs, vous savez que l'argent sera réinvesti dans l'industrie et qu'il profitera aux femmes, à leur ménage et à leur communauté.Toutefois, dans beaucoup de pays d'Afrique, les femmes ont des problèmes de garantie : nous avons du mal à accéder aux services financiers parce que nous ne possédons légalement aucune propriété. Selon la loi, je ne possède rien dans mon pays, pas même mes propres enfants. Il est vraiment nécessaire de mettre en place des mécanismes de financement plus inclusifs et innovants, qui permettent aux femmes d'avoir accès au crédit pour pouvoir créer des entreprises agroalimentaires rentables.Un autre problème important à résoudre est celui de la formation et du renforcement des capacités. La majorité des femmes qui lancent leur propre entreprise agricole n'ont aucune expérience commerciale. Je constate que beaucoup d'entreprises agricoles dirigées par des femmes ne possèdent pas les technologies disponibles pour améliorer leurs activités, ni la capacité d'utiliser de telles technologies. Par exemple, bon nombre de femmes doivent encore prendre le risque de ramener dans leur village l'argent qu'elles ont gagné au marché. La technologie, le renforcement des capacités, les services de conseil aux entreprises et l'accès au capital sont des éléments essentiels pour permettre aux femmes de réussir dans l'agribusiness.On pense souvent que les femmes constituent une catégorie homogène. En réalité, il existe beaucoup de groupes de femmes différents, présentant différents profils et potentiels. Je cherche surtout à aider les jeunes femmes qui sont marginalisées par la société, qui n'ont pas fait d'études et qui ne sont pas mariées, mais qui sont mères célibataires ou qui ont dû fuir la guerre. L'année dernière, j'ai acheté un peu plus de 700 hectares de terres que j'ai redistribués à des jeunes mères que leur famille refusait d'héberger. J'ai donné environ un demi-hectare à chacune pour qu'elles puissent cultiver des produits et je leur ai offert un marché immédiat pour les vendre via Mama Rice. D'après mon expérience, ce sont souvent ces jeunes femmes qui travaillent le plus dur et qui obtiennent les meilleurs résultats car ce lopin de terre représente tout pour elles. Dans les débats sur les difficultés rencontrées par les femmes dans l'agriculture, nous ne devons pas oublier cette catégorie de femmes qui sont considérées comme des parias dans notre société. ■ Créer des réseaux de femmes leaders en agribusiness qui serviront de modèle et de soutien aux autres.Augmenter les opportunités de formation en gestion des affaires pour les femmes.Développer plus de mécanismes financiers inclusifs.Visitez les pages Opinion sur le site de Spore pour lire l'avis d'un troisième spécialiste sur le sujet. Un nouveau débat est mis en ligne tous les mois. Au sein du Groupe SEDIMA, spécialisé dans la production et la vente de poussins, de poulets, d'oeufs, d'alimentation animale et d'équipements pour l'aviculture, nous avons érigé la mixité en valeur. Cela nous permet de profiter de sensibilités multiples et de construire un développement positif.Traditionnellement, l'entreprenariat féminin était plutôt informel et communautaire à travers des micro-activités. Ceci était dû à la nécessité, pour les femmes, d'avoir une activité génératrice de revenus pour subvenir aux besoins de leurs familles. Longtemps, les femmes étaient cantonnées à des activités en aval, notamment dans la petite transformation de céréales. Aujourd'hui, la tendance a nettement changé. Il se dit que 62,9 % des femmes entrepreneurs au Sénégal ont créé leur entreprise par opportunité plutôt que nécessité. Malgré tout, je suis convaincue que nous, femmes entrepreneurs, sommes confrontées à des difficultés plus importantes lorsqu'il s'agit de l'accès aux soutiens financiers et non financiers de l'entrepreneuriat.Du point de vue de la promotion de l'entreprenariat féminin en agrobusiness, le Groupe SEDIMA a pris une double option. Premièrement, nous participons activement aux initiatives dont la vocation est de soutenir l'autonomisation des femmes. Il y a aujourd'hui pléthore de fondations, associations, clubs d'investissement et autres solutions offertes aux femmes auxquelles nous participons. Deuxièmement, nous avons mis en place un programme de promotion de l'entreprenariat dans l'agrobusiness, qui implique du tutorat et des soutiens techniques, ainsi qu'une aide sous forme de garantie de débouchés. C'est dans cette approche que nous avons notamment mis en place un programme de fermes intégrées au Groupe SEDIMA.Le principe est d'apporter aux entrepreneures en aviculture des poussins, une prophylaxie, de l'alimentation et, en fin d'élevage, de racheter toute la production et de l'abattre industriellement dans notre entité. En fin de chaîne, nous assurons la distribution d'un poulet prêt à cuire premium que nous aurons co-élevé, co-exploité et co-distribué avec nos fermes intégrées. Nous contribuons ainsi à développer la solidité des affaires de nos partenaires et aussi à développer notre entreprise.Avec un soutien approprié, les entrepreneures peuvent acquérir la confiance nécessaire qui leur permet de gagner leurs premiers clients et partenaires. Il est important de rapprocher les acteurs financiers et non financiers pour mettre en place un accompagnement hybride et multiforme afin d'atteindre cette nouvelle génération d'Africaines, qui ont compris que c'est maintenant qu'il faut entreprendre dans l'agrobusiness en Afrique. ■ Anta Babacar Ngom, directrice générale de SEDIMA","tokenCount":"15276"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bf8254d9ee390b67036106620de2ddaf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a1bfeb4b-cfc0-4d53-8576-38e97b2ea775/retrieve","id":"1874863955"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f16e56b6-ead5-4889-b867-c0299cf8df26","pagecount":"1","content":"Background Despite the abundance of edible biodiversity, both wild and cultivated, malnutrition and food insecurity persist in Busia County, Kenya, where poverty indices range from 63% to 74% and 25% of children younger than 5 years are stunted, 11% are underweight, and 4% are thin for their age. Much of this biodiversity, used in traditional food preparations, has the potential to provide access to key micronutrients for healthy and balanced diets and to act as an important source of community resilience to climate change and economic turbulence. Yet, low consumer awareness of the value of local biodiversity, poorly developed value chains, and negative perceptions of traditional foods have led to the disappearance of many nutrient-rich species and the shift to unhealthy diets. We aimed to show that heightened knowledge of the value of biodiversity and improved value-chain efficiencies can help to conserve biodiversity and improve local food systems.","tokenCount":"148"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/9454850782.json b/data/part_6/9454850782.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fb09e7897bb73bbf279b226ccdb9a81d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c569f4a6-85e7-4dfc-8a22-af30c93d2587/retrieve","id":"-1947665401"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"960b2996-0faa-4b06-a86a-0b20079cfefc","pagecount":"59","content":"La investigación en campos de agricultores incluye las etapas diagnóstico, planificación, experimentación, evaluación y recomendación, Este document~ trata sobre parte de la etapa de planificación, La etapa de planificación usa la información que resulta de un diagnóstico de la zona objetiva, incluyendo: las opiniones de agricultores e investigadores sobre cuáles son los problemas; información sobre las prácticas de los, agricultores; información sobre las circunstancias de los agricultores; y la evidencia que se necesita para identificar las causas probables de los problemas, Combina esta información con resultados experimentales del área (especialmente si no es el primer año de investigación en campos de agricultores en la zona). Se hace énfasis en que el proceso de planificación sea igualmente válido para un programa que todavía no comienza experimentación local o para uno con muchos años de trabajo terminado.Por medio de la planificación, una lista de reuchos problemas aparentes (que puede ser largo en el pri~er año) es llevada finalmente a detalles de pocas actividades (ensayos y quizás estudios diagnósticos adicionales) de alta prioridad. Además se identifican actividades que necesitan atención en las estaciones experimentales. Los pasos en la planificación son: l.Hacer una lista de los problemas que aparentemente limitan la productividad del sub-sistema 2.Eliminar problemas de baja prioridad o los que no tienen solució\" técnica algunaIdentificar las causas de los problemas 4.Diagramar las interrelaciones de las diferentes causas y problemas Evaluar las posibles soluciones para facilidad de inveRtig2\"-:. \".':') t facilidad de adopción y baneficio potencial 7.En base a (6), identificar les soluciones de mayor prioridad para 12 investigación adaptativa en campos de agricultores (id ent i ~ica'también soluciones que no estén disponibles todavía y que necesitan que se desarrollen tecnologías en la estación o en los campos de agricultores; e identificar necesidades para diagnóstico adicional)Asignar las soluciones de alta prioridad a ensayos, tomando en cuenta les tipos ap'rcpiados de ensayo (que tengan diferentes objetivos de investigación) e interacciones probables 9.Reducir las actividades propuestas para concordar con los recursos disponibles 10. Definir el diseño experioental, tratamientos. y manejo de cada ensayo Procedimientc5 para pasos 1 a 7 se han descrito eÍectl,\\Tnmente el: íltr2 parte (CI!>fl' 1YT, 1985). Este documento sugiere procedimientos para pasos 8 a 10 y, a través de ejemplos, discute más a fondo algunos de los inte~r0gRntes que surgen.Su: meta entonces, es ayucar a los investigadores en campos dE::agricultor€:s a ejecutar más 2:€ctivameDte su tra.bajo dentro de los recursos disponibles.ASlgnación de posibles ~01uciones a los tiFOS de e~sayC'sEl paso 6 del proceso de planificación puede h2.her t7éh8jf~do s0b~e un:~ lista de 10 a 20 soluciones posibles. El número de soluciones que pase al paso 8 dependeri de los recursos que el equipe d. investigación a nivel de finca tenga a su disposición, pe re típicamente oscilará entre 6 y 12. En lugar de trabajar con una lista muy certa en el paso 8, es mejor dejar la eliminación de algunas de estas soluciones hasta que sus requerimientos en Lérminos de recursos ya se hayan estudiado; algunas serán más fáciles de probar que otras con poco uso de recursos. Se debe recordar también que un ensayo puede acomodar v2rios tipos de solución (p.e.variedades pueden aparecer como soluciones a diferentes problemas, pero todas podrán acomodarse en un ensayo de variedades).Los tipos de ensayos a los cuales se les pueden asignar soluciones son aquellos descritos en el marco metodológico adaptado por el CIAT (Woolley y Pachico, 1987) a partir de aquellos desarrollados por otros investigadores, y se resumen en el Cuadro l.Los criterios mediante los cuales se asignan posibles solucione.s a un ensayo particular son! urgencia de la soluc.ión, confianza en la efectividad de la solución e interacciones probables con otras soluciones en estudio. Si se desea, éstas pueden evaluarse en la clase de formato presentado en el Cuadro 2.Aquellas soluciones que tienen una alta probabilidad de interactuar entre sí d\"eben agruparse por lo menos una vez en el !:lismo ensayo para averiguar si, en las recomendaciones que eventualmente salen, algunos componentes tienen siempre que usarse juntos.Ocasionalmente puede ser aconsejable incluir en un ensayo una variable que no estaba en la lista de posibles soluciones, pero que tiene una alta probabilidad de interacció~ con otra variable íncluída en los ensayos.Es apropiado mencionar e respecto a las interacciones.cuales casi toda variable propuesta para estudie puede interactuar t,~,' otras.Como ejemplo, considere la siguiente lista para la sjeméré simultánea de maíz y fríjol.Variedad de maíz t variedad de í:-íjol, der,sidad de , maJ.z, densidad de frijol, conerol de enfermedades folia:ces, fertilización, control de i~sectos foliares, tratamiento de le semilla de fríjol con fungicida, insecticida para el fríjol (o maíz) aplicado al suelo y control de malezas.Es posible que todos estos factores puedan interactuar:el equipo de investigación tiene que decidir cuáles de las in~eracciones es probable que sean tan fuertes que, por ejemplo, hagan que los niveles de fertilización encontrados como económicos para la variedad tradicional de fríjol sean inapropiados para una nueva variedad. La producción de interacciones fuertes también dependen del rango de exploración que se esdi considerando para un factor.Por ej emplo, la variedad de maíz y la variedad de fríjol pueden interactuar si tanto el maíz COmo el fríjol (ya sea de hábito de crecimiento trepador o arbustivo) Los recursos son escasos para la investigación en campos de agricultores.soluciones en un solo ensayo, sin perder información irr.portante sobre interacciones.La mayor parte de esta sección se refiere al manejo de un gran núme!'( \" factores dentro del mismo ensayo. Sin embargo, vale la pena mencionar ~U\", incluso en los ensayos unifacroriales (ej., ensayos de variedades, ens2yos También será útil revisar la lista de posibles soluciones para colocar en el mismo ensayo a) aquellas que los agricultores considerarían alternativas directas, incluso si los investigadores normalmente las evalúan en fo1:'t\"la separada v , b) aquellas que difícilmente interactuarán pero ínplicará:1 pocos tratan:ientos y podrían conducir a un ahorro de reC'1r'S0S si Sf' probaran en el mismo ensayo.El punto (a) se ilustra con la posibilidad de combinar fríjol de diferentes h&bitéS de crecimiento, madurez y/o colores de semilla en el mismo ensayo. paree as e ma z gran es tres repet:ic:lOnes por :inca para obtener una precisión adecuada en los datos del maíz; la siembra del fríjol en el ensayo grande que resultó implicó mucho trabajo. Por consiguiente, Se decidió utilizar el fríjol para evaluar la eficacia de seis tratamientos de semilla contra pudriciones radicales en el área. Entonces el ensayo para fríjol se diseñó con seis tratamientos en subpar~elas en ~ada parcela principal de maíz, lo cual todavía permitía un tamaño adecuado de la subparcela de fríjol. En el caso del maíz, el ensayo se analizó como un diseño de bloques completos al azar, con tres repeticiones x seis cultivares. En el caso del fríjol, se analizó como un diseño de parcelas divididas en el que las parcelas principales midieron los efectos de cada cultivar de maíz sobre el fríjol, y las subparcelas midieron los efectos de los tratamientos de semilla sobre el fríjol. De esta manera fue posible diseñar el ensayo, sin tener que cosechar el maíz por subparcela, puesto que no se esperaba un efecto del tratamiento de la semilla del fríjol sobre el maíz.Como \"norma a la mano 11 t es útil tener presente un límite de 16 tratamientos para un ensayo estándar a nivel de finca.Por consiguie\"ilte, el número máximo de factores que pueden acomodarse en un arreglo factorial completo 4 de tratamientos es cuatro (2 = 16).Si se espera poca interacc Ión entre factores, pero hay un gran número de f actores en estudio, pueden ser útiles los diseños llamados \"más uno\" y \"menos uno\". Estos pueden compararse y contrastarse de la siguiente manera: En el diseño menoS uno, la práctica promedio de los agricultores también debe incluirse como testigo; en el diseño más uno, puede ser útil, más no esencial, incluir la práctica completa (i.e., Práctica de los agricultoresAunque la serie de tratamientos Hmenos uno ll ha sido muy utilizada por algunos investigadores, realmente sólo es útil para determinar el erecto de eliminar uno de los componentes de un paquete.Como los agricultores generalmente adoptan paquetes paso a paso (ej., Byerlee 1> Hesse, 1982), el interrogante planteado por la serie menos uno usualmente no es pertinente.El arreglo más uno prueba individualmente el efecto de cada factor adicionado solo a la práct:ica actual de los agricultores. Es útil para los ensayos exploratorios o para los ensayos de verificación, cuando es difícil predecir el orden en el cual es factible que el agricultor adopte las prácticas.En la práctica, quizás sea más apropiado un diseño \"paso a paso\" para los ensayos de verificación, siempre y cuando se pueda predecir el orden probable de adopción de los componentes tecnológicos, 1.e...Práctica de los agricultores + A 3.Práctica de 105 agricultores + A + B 4.Práctica de los agricultores + A + B + CPráctica de los agricultores + A + B + C + D En este caso, el orden de facilidad decreciente de adopción es: A, B, e, D. Sin embargo, si se sabe que e y D interactúan y que deben adoptarse simultáneamente para que funcionen, quizás el tratamiento 4 deba eliminarse de la serie presentada anteriormente.Cuando se agrupen en el mismo diseño de ensayo potencial más de cuatro factores con posibles interacciones (como puede ocurrir algunas veces para los ensayos exploratorios en una área donde se sabe poco acerca de los limitantes a la producción), existen una serie de opciones: diseñar dos ensayos factoriales completos con alguna superposición de factores; utilizar un erreglo factorial parcial; o utílizar un diseño confundidc.  c. cuando el agrupamiento de las subparcelas con un mismo tratamiento en una parcela principal ahorre espacio en un ensayo en campos de agricultores. Por ejemplo, en ensayos con asociaciones de maíz-fríjol trepador, el fríjol puede probarse en parcelas de dos hileras sin bordes laterales, pero el maíz requiere parcelas de cuatro hileras.Por 10 tanto, un ensayo de tres cultivares de maíz x cuatro cultivares de fríjol en tres repeticiones requerir~a 36 parcelas de cuatro hileras si se establece en bloques corr.plercs al azar con un arreglo Íactorial de tratRmientos (caGa uno de los 36 tiene sus propios borces para el maíz), pero solamente nueve parcelas principales de ffiaiz de 10 hiler2S si se establece en un niseño de parcelas ¿í'liclidas (CEde , 1 e parcela principal consistiría de cuatro subparcelas de frijol de dos hileras ~ mas una hilera de borde en cada extremo de la parcela principal) .La Figura 1 compara diseños de bloques completos al azar y de parcelas divididas que han sido utilizados para dos ensayos similares de verificación. En un ensayo de lineas de fríjol x fertilizante, se utilizó un diseño de bloques completos al azar, pero cuando el ensayo fue de lineas de fríjol x tratamiento de aspersión, fue necesario utilizar un diseño de parcelas divididas con una pérdida correspondiente de precisión en la medición de los efectos de la aspersión.A partir de la información en las secciones 2 y 3, será posible hacer una lista corta de los tipos de ensayos propuestos, la estructura aproximada de los tratamientos y las soluciones a las cuales corresponden, como en el ejemplo del Cuadro 5. La lista corta también debe incluir estudios especiales identificados como necesarios durante el proceso de planeación c. Si se eliminan actividades completas, éstas deben corresponder a soluciones que recibieron prioridad menor en el proceso de planeación o que están bien representadas en otros tipos de ensayos.No se deben eliminar los ensayos que proporcionan soluciones confiables a problemas urgentes: la promoción con agricultores Ce investigadores) en sus campos de una región recibe gran ayuda si se observa que se están logrando progresos.Aunque en primera instancia esta primera etapa pueda parecer trivial, con frecuencia es solamente a este nivel que el investigador se hace consciente de un problema de diseño o ejecución que no era evidente cuando se estaban acomodando las soluciones en los tipos de ensayos.El uso de un modelo para las descripciones de ensayos ayuda a asegurar que todos los detalles necesarios se• están considerando. En el Cuadro 6 se presenta un modelo utilizado y gradualmente modificado por el CIAT en los últimos años y puede ser de utilidad.El tipo de factor incluido en el ensayo generalmente servirá de título útil (\"ensayo de variedades ft exploratorio\" en lugar de \"ensayo de variedades x fertilizantes x densidadx control de enfecmedades foliares con tratamientos de semillas en parcelas adicionales\"). Algunas veces la etapa de investigación y los factores incluídos pueden ser combinados en forma útil (\"ensayo de verificación de la nueva variedad Y con y sin un cambio en el manejo por los agricultores\").Será de mucha ayuda anotar ésto para clarificar el pensamiento, especialmente en lo que respecta a los objetivos.Estos pueden beneficiarse al escribirse como una serie de puntos separados y numerados. La forma de expresión depende del estilo de prosa de cada cual, pero se sugiere que sea conciso. Deben contener una afirmación que describa los objetivos de esa etapa de la investigación (ej .• \"identificar material genético promisorio para el área X con el fin de reducir la cantidad evaluada en el futuro\"; \"identificar factores limitantes para la producción y sus interacciones entre aquellos identificados en el diagnóstico\"; \"identificar niveles econónicos del factor Q\"). También deben relacionar al ensayo con trabajos anteriores en el dominio de recomendación (eh,m \"repetir el ensayo de dosis de fertilizantes realizado en 1982 y 1983 en vista de los resultados contrastantes que se obtuvieron\";\"verificar qué tan promisorias son las tecnologías A y B identificadas en los ensayos de niveles económicos en 1984\"). Las aspersionES fc'liares de cultivos son extremadamente difíciles de incluir como variables experime~tales, especialmente cuando la práctica de les agricultores ya incluye algunas aspersiones. Er. primer lugar, se requieren tamaños de parcela grandes para evitar desviaciones de la aspersión o movimientos de patógenos, tal COmO se discutió en la sección 3.En segundo lugar, el tipo de estrategia de aspersión debe especificarse.Si está acorde con un calendario de tratamientos. pueden ser aplicadas por los investigadores al hacer visitlls a intervalos regulares. Sin embargo.si depende de las condiciones climáticas, que es lo más probable que ocurra (Jos agricultores generalmente tratan de asperjar después de las lluvias y no ar.tes), o de la identificación del momento en que se alcanza el nivel umbral económico de la plaga, se necesitarán visitas muy frecuentes por parte de los investigadores. Al investigar se le plantea un dilema: si el agricultor aplica según criterios de escogencia, pero el investigedor utiliza una programación por calendario, para hace'!:' que la realización de los ensayos sea logísticamente más factible, el beneficio (si lo hay) de los tratamientos del investi.g2dor será subestimado. Si al agricultor se le solicita aplicar ;:ocos los productos el mismo día (o días) según sus criterios, es posible que los productos se.an mezclados accidentalmente o intencionalmente.Si el investigador aplica todos los tratamientos, incluyendo el \"testigo de los agricultores\",. ya no será un verdadero testigo y la ventaja de los tratamientos del investigador puede ser sobrestimada. En tTIS2yOS de verificación con so~C' ¿os tratamientos de aspersión, se han legrado exitosamente aplicaciGTIe:::: de é.:r.~os productos por parte de los agricultores en algunas áreas (claro está que es difícil verificar ésto a menos que los productos tengan apariencias diferentes cuando se sequen sobre las hojas, o a menos que se le adicione un tinte a uno de los productos). Sin embargo, ha habido otras experiencias en las que los agricultores han mezclado los productos para ahorrar tiempo o para beneficiar la totalidad de la parcela con la tecnología ofrecida por los investigadores. La posibilidad de una participación precisa por parte del agricultor (ya sea en ensayos de verificación o en ensayos con tratamientos más complejos) probablemente aumentaría si el agricultor participa en el diseño de los tratamientos o si se le convence que realmente vale la pena distinguir los efectos de los productos.La situación se complica aún más si se prevén como tratamientos diferentes números de aplicaciones de uno o varios productos.Cuando cualquier factor cuantitativo esté presente en tres niveles o más, es aconsejable que estos niveles sean ortogonales entre sí; en otras palabras, que dividan el espac io de exploración en proporciones iguales.Esto hace que la interpretación de los resultados sea mucho más fácil.En los trabajos básicos sobre sistemas de cultivos asociados es usual incluir monocultivos de cada cultivo para permitir obtener un estimado del beneficio ofrecido por los cultivos asociados (mediante el cálculo del Uso Al igual que el tamaño total de la parcela, también debe especificarse la parcela que se cosechará. Su tamaño dependerá de la anchura de los bordes.Típicamente, en ensayos en campos de agricultores sobre fríjol voluble, Se siguen las recomendaciones de Davis et al (1983)  agricultores, obviamente implica lo anterior.Ocasionalmente, el orden esperado de la adopción paso a paso por los agricultores puede conducir a un ensayo cuyos obj etivos exijan modificar la práctica normal en las variables no experimentales.Por ejemplo, en el distrito de Ipiales, Colombia, se han realizado ensayos de fertil izantes, desde el primer año de la experimentación en campos de agricultores con una línea prom1sor1a (su superioridad se confirmó en otros ensayos realizados simultáneamente y después de más trabajos se ha liberado), con tratamiento de la semilla y con control de enfermedades foliares.agricultores como variables no experimentales. Hay dos ereplos Gue sirven para ilustrar ésto.En algunas áreas de las tierras altas del Perú, el maíz se siembra en reaneras son bajas en frijol (aproximadamente 2 plantas/m-).La respuesta de los investigadores a esta serie de circunstancias ha sido la siguiente: a. La semilla utilizada en todos los ensayos se origina de ensayos en campos na agricultores del ano anterior en la misma área de trabajo.En el caso de líneas recién introducidas ésto no es posible:, de tal manera que los resultados del primer año se utiliz.an con cautela, puesto que las ventajas observadas pueden deberse a la calidad de la semilla y no B diferencias gen€ticas.En la wayoría de los e:lsayos en parcelas peqlJeñas~ la der:sídBd de semillas f-e::;br.e.das es ligeraüente superior en cc::,.paT2cié.n con las densidades de semilla utilizadas por 105 agricultores, pero no se hace raleo o resiembra, para así alcanzar poblaciones establecidas simil2res a aquellas obtenidas por los agrict.:.lcores después de la resiembra.c..En los primeros años, la semilla se tra taba en ensayos en parcelas pequeñas, en un esfuerzo por mantener rr.ás uniformes las densicades establecidas de una parcela a otra. Sin e~bargo, esta práctica dejó de hacerse puesto que se observó que existía tolerancia genética a los patógenos, incluso cuando ésto no se conocía ances. El tratamiento de la semilla se evaluó en otros ensayos er. canpos de agricultores y generalmente no fue efectivo, entonces és to f ac íli tó la decisión de abandonar esta práctica como práctica no experimental.(En una área rendimientos donde el tratamiento de semilla sí aumentó los considerablemente, quizás sea necesario considerar ésto como una recomendación potencial y seleccionar variedades en su presencia, mientras se continúa en forma separada la búsqueda de variedades que den buenos rendimientos en se ausencia).Los pasos descritos representan una respuesta del investigador, aún en evolución, a una serie de circunstancias difícíles, y sirve para ilustrar los principios para tratar variables no experimentales. En sistemas con fríjol arbustivo, la práctica de los agricultores de sembrar a una alta densidad sin tratamiento de semilla y sin raleo o resiembra, era más fácil de imitar por parte de los investigadores sin temer á perder ~uchas parcelas.5.9 Datos que se tornarán Es aconsejable hacer una lista de los datos que se tomarán cuando se esté diseñando el ensayo. Si los recursos son limitados, nuestra experiencia indica que se deben tomar menos datos a partir de un mayor número de localidades de un tipo particular de ensayo hasta que el número de ensayos sugerido en el Cuadro 1 sea alcanzado, en lugar de tomar más datos de menos locali dades. Esto debido a que es más importante obtener una muestra adecuada de campos que conocer todo en detalle acerca de solo uno o dos campos.También observamos que muchos de los datos tomados quizás nunca sean utilizados en la interpretación o en los informes. Un juego de datos estándard para cualquier ensayo, son las observaciones necesarias para medir el rendimiento (peso del grano y humedad). el número de plantas establecidas después de la germinación y el número cosechado. Por lo general, los recuentos de plantas no están sujetos a análisis de varianza, (excepto en ensayos de tratamiento de semilla o densidad de semilla), pero permite verificar rendimientos de parcela inusualmente altos o bajos.Otros tipos adiciona1 es de datos de parcelas que pueden ser útiles en ciertos tipos de ensayos son: severidad de ataques por insectos o patógenos; volcami ento de plantas; tiempo hasta la madurez y su unifo~idad en un cultivo; altura o vigor de las plantas, especialmente en cultivos asociados en los que uno le sirve de soporte al otro. En ensayos ~anejados por los agricultores, o ensayos de con parcelas grandes l 'Pt,ecen tm:;arse dates por parcele sobre la !:'a~c ¿e obra o la canticad dE: productos utilizadus, con el fin de hacer un .s.r;':;líEis de costos y be~~ficios real en vez de estj~ado.Hay otros tipos de datos que no se toman a nivel de plantas y que son importantes para la interpretación del ens::!:yc. Incluyen r.otas sobre el plan de campo de cada ensayo para indicar las partes que san infértiles, que están inundadas, que están sujetas a sequía o que han sido dañadas por animales domésticos y descripciones de cada sitio (análisis y descripción del suelo, detalles sobre el manejo dado por el agricultor y el cultivo anterior, altitud, pendíente y, cuando sea posible, precipitación durante el ensayo).Las situaciones de las fincas con frecuencia conducen a una posiciór. irregular de las parcelas en el campo la cual no se puede determinar hasta el momento de la siembra. Sin embargo, hemos encontrado que los diagramas de los trazados preferidos, de acuerdo con sí el campo disponible es plano o pendiente, son extremadamente útiles para tener presentes la forma y el tamaño del lote que debe solicitársele al agricultor colaborador. Los diagramas no SOn planes de campo, puesto que no asignan tratamientos a las parcelas.l,a escogencia de la forma para cada repetición resulta de U:1 esfuerzo para obtener la máxima homogeneidad posible dentro de cada una (y, adicionalmente, dentro de cada bloque incompleto, si es que éstos se utilizan). Las causas más comunes de heterogeneidad en ca~pos de agricultoTes corresponden a variaciones en la fertilida¿, textura y humedad oel suelo. Generalnente J pero no exc lusi vamente, todos estoS factores varían con la posición vertical en una pendiente. Al e:;':2T:'!jnar un lote experimental en prospecto, es importante observar si hay otros signos que ayudan a la identificación de áreas con condiciones similares (crecimiento de un cultivo anterior o de malezas, color o textura del suelo, la descripción del campo hecha por el agricultor). La asignación de las repeticiones debe basarse en la pendiente solamente en ausencia de tales evidencias, y utilizando las siguientes pautas: los tratamientos luego deben organizarse de tal manera que cada uno tome una muestra del rango total de condiciones prevalecientes en el campo escogido.Por consiguiente, en contraste con las repeticiones en ensayos repetidos a r.ivel de cada localidad, las parcelas deben trazarse en la dirección del gradiente detectado y no paralelo a él. Se puede utilizar la misma estrategia para asignar parcelas dentro de cada repetición de un ensayo repetido.En el caso de un diseño de parcelas divididas ubicado en un gradiente de fertil idad, debe hacerse una serie de ese agencias (Figura 3), pero será nejor ubicar las parcelas principales y las subparcelas en el sentido del gradiente dentro de cada repetición, si la forma de la parcela 10 permite.   • • --      ..  )' des\\'enté.ijes.","tokenCount":"3952"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9b4892467fff97c7db2b90fe4c056393","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/FTA/Geospatial-Data-Quality.pdf","id":"1807485421"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6e34afb1-bca8-4a53-9696-a7c325cfab6a","pagecount":"6","content":"In this document, the term 'geospatial data' is used to refer to data that provides information on the location of features, attributes, and often temporal information as well. Different types of geospatial data can be produced for different purposes and through different processes.Types of geospatial data considered in these guidelines include: a. Vector data: data consisting of points, lines and polygons;b. Raster data: data consisting of pixels, with each pixel having an associated value.Geospatial datasets are collected from many sources and channels with different methodologies and techniques.Throughout this document, geospatial data quality management can refer to the validation of errors relating to potential discrepancies arising from:Different types of data: the many spatial data formats need to be evaluated to ensure appropriate and consistent data values;• Unintended changes and modifications to geospatial datasets, such as deletion of features;• Errors during data transfer.• Set the culture of practice based on guidance, and delegate specific responsibilities as appropriate;• Are accountable for ensuring that, should they leave their organization during the life of the project, the data stays with the project.• Maintain records of geospatial data and ensure these records and the geospatial data and materials are securely stored;• Make the geospatial data available to other researchers via open or negotiated access as appropriate and in accordance with the requirements of research funding bodies and CIFOR's Research Data Management Policy;• Ensure that, where projects span several institutions, an agreement is developed at the outset covering the ownership and storage of geospatial data and primary materials within each institution in accordance with CGIAR policies and guidelines;• Ensure that adequate back-up, archival and monitoring strategies are in place to prevent the loss of geospatial data and primary materials, and associated delays in completing research.• As subject specialists, must understand the technical framework underlying data quality evaluation, improvement and management activities in their respective area;• Ensure overall geospatial data validity, integrity and conformity of information gathered by their portfolio;• Oversee and implement geospatial data quality procedures.• Responsible and accountable for all data access made through their user accounts and the subsequent use and distribution of the data.To ensure quality is achieved to the highest standard, geospatial data should be assessed and evaluated based on the selected standard. These guidelines adopt the standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for assessing geospatial data quality.There are two levels of assessment:• The first level of assessment is performed by the GIS specialist as the producer of geospatial data. This level of assessment is based on data quality checks based on given data specifications (Annex 2).• The second level of data quality assessment is performed by geospatial data consumers (researchers and data users) where feedback is taken from consumers for improving data quality. Geospatial data quality assessment results should provide:• The conformance or non-conformance status of the geospatial data to data quality elements and sub-elements;• Interpretations of results to draw conclusions about data quality;• A dataset of acceptable quality even when one or more data quality elements fail to meet requirements. Documentation is mandatory to record such acceptance.It is mandatory for geospatial data producers to document data quality in the dataset's file and metadata. An additional report may be created to provide a detailed statement on data quality.Documentation should have appropriate content, including:• Reference to the geospatial data quality assessment procedures;• Methods applied for geospatial data assessment;• Comparisons and interpretations of geospatial data quality assessment results; The level of completeness can be gauged by the extent to which the completeness of objects (entities) in the real world are represented through the model in the spatial dataset.Explains the extent to which a real-world object (e.g., a river or road) can be represented by a geospatial datasetExplains the extent to which information on a model from the real world (in the form of a data attribute) is complete (An example of an incomplete attribute for river data, for instance, is a missing river name)Explains the formal structure the spatial data should have, data format and metainformation for instance Logical consistency Logical consistency in a dataset can be explained as the absence of conflict in the dataset in relation to its spatial data's correctness in representing the real world.Inconsistencies occur when two or more pieces of data or information disagree or are incompatible with each other.Explains data value consistency (actual data) or the rule(s) governing the data value (statement of data value)Explains the consistency in the format when data is stored in a databaseExplains the degree of adherence of a feature's geometry characteristics to specified rules (for instance, a road should use a connected line) during the mapping process. This includes transformations, which often omit the geometry characteristics of an object Positional accuracy Positional accuracy can be defined as how well the data represent positional accuracy (the level of accuracy of any adjustments must also be known)Explains how close the coordinates (on a map) are to the location of the object in the real world, and in the event of any error, that error should be within the acceptable valueExplains how close the relative position of a feature in a dataset is to its position in the real worldExplains how close the centre of a pixel is when ground truthing Temporal accuracy The temporal information that accurately describes a geographic phenomenon.There are three essential time elements for geospatial information: event time, i.e., when a change occurred; observation time, i.e., when the geographic phenomenon was observed; and transaction time, i.e., when the data/ information was stored in the database. Quality in temporal accuracy can be defined as: a. Accuracy of temporal references b. Consistency in relation to the order of events c. Validation in relation to time Thematic accuracy Thematic accuracy is correctness in classifying features and the accuracy of data attributes.Accuracy based on a comparison of the class assigned to a feature (real-world representation) or its data attributes to the real worldThe accuracy of facts about features, including agreed history, information on measurement, and results of interpretation/analysis. Attributes are usually represented in tables where rows correspond to features and columns present accurate information on an attributeAccuracy is gauged based on the correctness of qualitative data, such as name or classAccuracy is gauged based on the correctness of quantitative data, such as level of elevation","tokenCount":"1041"}
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diff --git a/data/part_6/9464825752.json b/data/part_6/9464825752.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9b1baf545941bc747da192344d33cb2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d79acd78-659c-4e2e-beae-9f2214f19f2d/retrieve","id":"271477684"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"708577ad-cb04-441b-8307-3c8cbd4e63ee","pagecount":"12","content":"Cookies are a popular snack worldwide, but the presence of gluten in most wheat-based cookies poses problems for people with gluten intolerance. Furthermore, gluten-free products are often deficient in nutraceuticals. This study investigated the potential of two traditional Indian rice landraces, Kalanamak and Chak-hao, as alternative cereals for producing whole grain gluten-free cookies with enriched bioactive compounds. The study also evaluated the influence of whole grain rice flours (WGRFs) and different sweeteners on the physical and biochemical properties of the cookies. The substitution of refined wheat flour with WGRFs significantly affected the physical and chemical properties of the cookies. WGRF cookies were generally crispier and had a lower spread ratio resulting in higher sensory evaluation scores. The added health benefits of WGRF derived cookies are likely due to the inherently higher levels of bioactive compounds such as quercetin equivalents with higher hydrogen peroxide scavenging (HPS) capacity and antioxidant activity derived from 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) in Chak-hao rice and jaggery. This work shows that WGRFs from Kalanamak and Chak-hao could be viable alternatives to refined wheat flour for producing gluten-free cookies with enhanced nutraceutical benefits.Rice (Oryza sativa L.) has been a fundamental part of the human diet for thousands of years and has played a significant role in the green revolution to achieve food security in Asia. However, the milling process removes the outer bran and embryo, which results in white rice grain with a high glycemic index and reduced nutrient content (Anacleto et al., 2019). In contrast, brown rice is an unpolished whole grain that contains more dietary fiber, amino acids, phytosterols, phenolics, and bioactive compounds compared to white rice (Brotman et al., 2021;Tiozon et al., 2021). Additionally, pigmented rice varieties, such as red rice, black rice, and purple rice, have been found to be even more nutrient-dense than brown rice due to their enriched antioxidant properties (Itagi et al., 2023;Mbanjo et al., 2020). Kalanamak, which gets its name from the black husk (kala) and salt (namak), is a prominent landrace from Uttar Pradesh. Chak-hao, a black rice accession, is a fragrant variety of sticky rice, which derives its name from its delicious taste (Kowsalya et al., 2022). Both of these landraces are widely cultivated in geographical indicator regions. Our previous research has shown that popped rice made from these landraces retain high levels of phytochemicals and antioxidants, making them not just flavorful, but also nutritious (Itagi et al., 2023). Due to changes in lifestyle and socioeconomic conditions and increased awareness of their nutritional benefits, pigmented rice, as a stand-alone food product or as an ingredient in food products, has attracted increased attention in recent years (Itagi et al., 2023;Kasote et al., 2021). Therefore, the deployment of geographical indicator (GI)-tagged rice landraces can help in the development of additional rice food products with unique and desirable traits to diversify the consumer demands.A considerable proportion of the world population exhibits intolerance and sensitivity to gluten, which is an integral component of grains belonging to the Triticeae tribe such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats. The development of a gluten-free (GF) diet to cater for people with gluten intolerance and celiac disease has been undertaken by studying alternative starch sources from grain outside of the tribe Triticeae (Vici et al., 2016). Due to the increased prevalence of gluten intolerance and celiac disease, the market for GF foods are projected to reach almost $24 billion by 2027 (Aguiar et al., 2023). It is well known that rice is extensively used to make GF foods, but most of these prior studies used refined white sugar and commercial rice flour normally made from polished rice, which is rich in starch and lacks nutrients (Paz et al., 2020). Because of this, GF diets usually lack adequate levels of essential nutrients, including micronutrients and bioactives, which can have a number of negative health implications. To ensure that people receive the best dietary intervention, it is crucial to develop GF food products derived from whole grain of nutritious rice varieties or landraces and assess the nutritional value of foods that fall within this diet group (Vici et al., 2016).Functional foods and nutraceuticals, that offer benefits beyond meeting caloric requirements, are becoming more and more familiar to consumers. Cookies are a widely consumed snack that is crunchy and sweet, which are either baked or fried. In general, cookies are handy and have a long shelf life and these are created from a blend of ingredients including flour, sugar, eggs, and fats (Giuberti et al., 2017). Jaggery is a natural sweetener that is popular in India due to its perceived health advantages, wherein the majority of the vitamins and minerals present in sugarcane are retained. Hence substituting white sugar with sweeteners like brown sugar and jaggery in cookies offer extra functionality and health advantages (Iqbal et al., 2017).Despite vast research on the role of rice in a GF diet, traditional whole-grain Indian rice landraces have not been fully investigated to test its potential to develop GF-free functional foods and cookies. Additionally, little information is known about the physicochemical, functional, and nutritional qualities of landraces when they are added to food matrices. The goal of the current work was to create formulations of novel, functional, nutraceutical-rich, gluten-free whole grain rice flour for making cookies using two well-known, GI-tagged, aromatic Indian rice landraces (Kalanamak from Uttar Pradesh and Chak-hao from Manipur) and raw sugarcane products (jaggery and brown sugar). Cookies made as a result were examined for their physical and chemical properties, nutritional content, nutraceuticals, and sensory qualities. The findings of this study will offer useful knowledge for manufacturing GF high-quality convenience snacks from Indian rice landraces that are nutrient-dense and palatable.Popular GI-tagged landraces Chak-hao (black aromatic waxy rice) and Kalanamak aromatic rice (non-pigmented) were cultivated under well-maintained irrigated conditions during the monsoon season of 2021 at the International Rice Research Institute South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) experimental farm in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Paddies were dehusked, milled and prepared rice flour according to Itagi et al. (2023). The refined wheat flour (RWF), salted butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and jaggery available in local standard brands were purchased from the local market (Varanasi, India).The Paddy Osaw Industrial Products,Pvt. Ltd.,Indosaw,Ambala,Haryana,India) was used to de-hull around 1 kg of paddy. Rubber rollers had to be adjusted in order to produce dehulled whole grain rice.Grain that had been dehulled was washed and dried. The dehulled rice grains from the Kalanamak and Chak-hao varieties were processed in a laboratory mill (UDY Corporation, Cyclone Sample Mill, Screen-0.25 mm, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA) to make rice flour and sieved to a particle size of about 1 mm. The rice flour samples were stored in airtight containers in a refrigerator (4 • C), before being subjected to product formulations.Analytical grade reagents were utilized to measure nutritional components. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST®) (Gaithersburg, MD, USA) provided the standard reference material (rice flour, 1568 b). Methanol and hexane of HPLC grade were procured from Fisher Scientific Co. in India. Takadiastase, DPPH (1,1diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical), and Folin-Ciocalteu (FC) reagent were provided by Parke, Davis and Co., Ltd. in the United States and SRL (Sisco Research Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., India), respectively. Merck, India, provided the sodium hydroxide, other reagents, solvents, and standards for fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. All aqueous solutions were prepared using ultrapure water (Milli-Q water purification system, LAB Q Ultra, India).Cookies were prepared following the Approved Method 10-50D (AACC, 2000) with slight modifications on ingredients: RWF (control) and WGRF (from Kalanamak or Black rice) (100 g), salted butter (65 g), water (12-14 mL), sweetener (white sugar, brown sugar or jaggery) (50 g/100 g) and chopped cashew nuts as toppings (2 g/100 g). The creaming process of the salted butter and powdered sweetener was carried out in a planetary mixer (Berjaya laboratory in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Subsequently, flour and water were added to the mixture. The cookie batter was portioned using a standard tablespoon and manually shaped into circular forms. The baking process was conducted in a commercial baking oven (Arise Equipments, New Delhi, India) that had been preheated to a temperature of 180 • C, for 18-20 min. After cooling for 30 min at ambient temperature, the cookies were subsequently transferred to an airtight container made of clear polyethylene terephthalate (PET). A comparative analysis was conducted to assess the physical, nutritional, nutraceutical, and sensory attributes of cookies prepared using Kalanamak and Chak-hao WGRF in contrast to those made with RWF.The MC of flour and cookie samples (2 g) was determined according to the AOAC (1990) approved method. The a w of samples was measured using a Model Series 4 TE water activity analyzer (Aqua Lab, Meter Group Inc., Pullman, WA, USA). The experiments were conducted in triplicates (Itagi et al., 2023).Using an analytical balance (GR-202, A&D Co., Japan), cookie weight was calculated. A digital Vernier caliper with 0.001mm accuracy was used to measure the cookies diameter and thickness. The diameter/ thickness formula was used to calculate the spread ratio (SR) of cookies after baking (Naseer et al., 2021). A colorimeter (Chroma Meter CR-410, Konica Minolta, Inc., Osaka, Japan) was used to assess the color of the cookies. The measuring head was placed in the center of each sample after the instrument's calibration was completed using a reference standard that was white in color. Color values using the CIE L* a* b* scales were recorded using five samples for each cookie formulation. Following that, the mean values were documented as L* = lightness (100 = white, 0 = black), a* (-a* = greenness, +a* = redness), and b* (-b* = -blueness, +b* = yellowness) (Selvakumaran et al., 2019). The browning index was calculated following (Klunklin & Savage, 2018).The texture analysis of cookies was conducted to determine their breaking strength, utilizing a TA. XT plus texture analyzer (Stable Micro Systems Ltd, Surrey, UK) equipped with a 50 kg load cell. The peak force required to break a single whole cookie was recorded and the average value of ten replicates was reported (Pal et al., 2019).The Kjeldahl method was employed to determine the protein content (Kjeltec™ 8200, Kjeltec, Foss, Sweden). The fat was extracted with petroleum ether (40-60 • C) through a Foss ST243 Soxtec Extraction Unit and quantified through gravimetric analysis (Itagi et al., 2023). The determination of ash content was carried out through the incineration of the samples at a temperature of 550 • C (AOAC, 2000). The estimation of total carbohydrate in the samples was carried out following FAO (2003, p. 77) and the Gross Energy (Calories/100 g dry matter) was calculated based on the methods outlined by Ganogpichayagrai and Suksaard (2020).All the trace mineral compounds and metals were quantified using an ICP-MS (Agilent 7800 ICP-MS) by following the prior protocol outlined in Itagi et al. (2023). For the vitamin analyses, finely ground samples (5 g) were weighed in a 100 mL volumetric flask, added with HCl (30 mL, 0.1 mol/L), and incubated at 120 • C for 30 min. Then, the pH was adjusted to 7 with NaOH (0.1 N). Takadiastase (5 mL, 1 mol/L) was added, followed by overnight incubation at 35 • C. The sample was diluted to 100 mL with distilled deionized water and filtered (0.22 μm, PVDF Whatman filter paper). A 10 μL of the filtrate and standards were analyzed using LC-MS/MS that had an autosampler and MS detector (Agilent Technologies, 6470 Triple Quad LC-MS/MS). This system was equipped with a 1.8-μm Agilent ZORBAX RRHD Eclipse Plus C-18 stationary phase in 3.0 mm × 100 mm formats. The mobile phase of gradient delivery composed of a mixture of solvent A (water: formic acid, 100:0.3, v/v) and B (methanol: formic acid, 100:0.3, v/v) and had a flow rate of 0.50 mL/min (0-0.4 min, 1% B; 0.4-6 min, 1%-45% B; 6-7.5 min, 45-90% B; 7.5-9min, 90%-1% B). The standard vitamins B1, B2, B5, and B6 appear at 0.96, 7.2, 4.8, and 2.2 min retention times (Rezaei et al., 2022).The Megazyme K-TDFR kit (Megazyme Wicklow, Ireland) was utilized to evaluate the levels of total dietary fiber (TDF), insoluble (IDF), and soluble (SDF). The computation of IDF and SDF was performed utilizing the Megazyme Mega-Calculation method (Itagi et al., 2023).The total starch was conducted utilizing a Megazyme assay kit specifically designed for total starch (Megazyme K-TSTA, Wicklow, Ireland) (Itagi et al., 2023). The determination of amylose content was conducted in accordance with the methodology outlined by Cuevas et al. (2018), and the categorization of samples was based on the contents as described by Graham (2002). The quantification of the overall quantity of soluble sugar present in the cookies was carried out using the anthrone method as described in Roy et al. (2021).Oryzanol extraction and estimation were done following the method described in Itagi et al. (2023). The findings were reported in mg per 100 g, and all subsequent measurements were taken with the same spectrophotometer.2.8.6. Estimation of total phenolic content and antioxidant potential 2.8.6.1. Extraction of phenolic content. A 1g sample was subjected to extraction using 10 mL of petroleum ether in an ultrasonicator (PCI Analytics, India) for 15 min. After centrifugation (5 min at 2520×g), the supernatant was decanted and collected. The polyphenols were extracted from defatted samples following Itagi et al. (2023). 2.8.6.2. Total phenolic content (TPC). FC reagent (800 μl) and Na 2 CO (7.5 g/100 mL) (2 mL) were added to 200 μl of sample. Then, the sample volume was increased to 7 mL with deionized water and then left to stand in a lightprotected environment for 30 min. The absorbance was taken at 725 nm. TPC was reported according to Itagi et al. (2023). 2.8.6.3. Total flavonoid content (TFC). The extract (1 mL) was diluted to 5 mL with ultrapure water, followed by the addition of NaNO 2 (5 g/100 mL) (300 μl). The mixture was incubated for 5 min. Next, AlCl 3 (10 g/ 100 mL) (600 μl) was added, and the mixture was incubated for an additional 6 min. A 2 mL NaOH (1 mol/L) was added, and the volume was adjusted to 10 mL. The quantification of TFC was performed by measuring the absorbance at a wavelength of 510 nm, and the resulting values were expressed as milligrams of catechin equivalents (CE) per 100 g of the sample, as previously reported by Itagi et al. (2023). 2.8.6.4. Total anthocyanin content (TAC). A mixture comprising of 2 mL of potassium chloride buffer (0.03 mol/L, pH 1.0) and 2 mL of sodium acetate buffer (0.4 mol/L, pH 4.5) was introduced to 20 μl of extract.Following a 15min incubation period, the absorbance was quantified at 550 nm and 700 nm relative to a blank sample consisting of ultrapure water. TAC was recorded in terms of milligrams of cyanidin-3-glucoside (C-3-G) equivalents per 100 g of the sample (Itagi et al., 2023).2.8.6.5. Total antioxidant capacity. The extract (500 μL) was combined with phosphomolybdenum reagent (0.6 mol/L sulfuric acid, 28 mmol/L sodium phosphate, and 4 mmol/L ammonium molybdate) (1.23 mL) and incubated at 90 • C for 90 min. The total antioxidant capacity was reported as quercetin equivalents (QE) per 100 g of the sample at an absorbance of 695 nm (Itagi et al., 2023).2.8.6.6. Hydrogen peroxide scavenging capacity (HAS). The extract (0.4 mL) was combined with 40 mmol/L H 2 O 2 (0.6 mL). The mixture was diluted to 2 mL with 50 mmol/L sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) and then incubated for 40 min at 30 • C. The findings were reported as mg quercetin equivalents (QE) per 100 g of sample (Itagi et al., 2023).2.8.6.7. DPPH radical scavenging activity. The DPPH assay was conducted on 500 μL of extract according to Itagi et al. (2023). The results were represented in terms of % DPPH radical scavenging activity.A 200 μL of volume of freshly made FRAP reagent (300 mmol/L acetate buffer (pH 3.6):10 mmol/L 2,4,6-tri (2-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine solution:20 mmol/L FeCl solution, (10:1:1, v:v:v)) was added to 20 μL of extract. At 620 nm, the mixture's absorbance was measured after 5 min at 37 • C incubation. Results were expressed as mmol/L Trolox Equivalents per gram of material (Tomasina et al., 2012).2.8.6.9. Targeted bioactive profiling. The defatted samples were used to extract the phenolic compounds. One milliliter of 80% aqueous methanol (acidified with 1% HCl) was added to a 50 mg sample. After sonication for 10 min at 120 W, 800 μL of the supernatant was collected and centrifuged (28000×g, 10 min). Extraction was done twice, and the pooled supernatant was filtered through a 0.22 PVDF membrane filter, then subjected to liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to profile and identify phenolic compounds. The HPLC system used in this study was an Agilent 6470 Triple quad LC/MS System (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) equipped with column C18, 2.1 × 100 mm, 1.8 μm which was used for phenolic compound separation. Mobile phases A and B were composed of solvent A (water: formic acid, 100:0.3, v/v) and B (methanol: formic acid, 100:0.3, v/v), respectively. The flow rate was set at 0.40 mL/min (0-0.5 min, 10% B; 0.5-5 min, 10%-40% B; 5-12 min, 40-80% B; 12-15 min, 80%-2% B) and the column was maintained at 40 • C. An aliquot of each sample solution (10 μL) was injected into the system equipped with an ESI source and a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS/MS). The ESI source and the MS/MS were operated in the negative ion and positive ion multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) modes, respectively. All measurements were conducted in duplicate. Calibrations with R 2 = 0.99 were used.FA content in samples was analyzed following a method by Jarukas et al. ( 2020), with slight modifications. Powdered samples were extracted with hexane (1:7, w/v) in a shaking water bath (65 • C, 30 min), then centrifuged at 7000×g for 15 min. Total lipid fraction was recovered after solvent removal in a stream of nitrogen. The samples were then derivatized using 2 mL of 7% (v/v) BF 3 in methanol and 1 mL of toluene and placed in a warm bath at 80 • C for 45 min. After the addition of 5 mL of distilled water, the trans-methylated FAs were extracted with 1 mL hexane. The aliquot of the hexane phase was analyzed by gas chromatography. An Agilent 7890B gas chromatograph (Agilent Technologies, USA) with a Flame-Ionization Detector was used to separate and quantify FAs. One microliter aliquot of the hexane phase was injected in split-mode onto a DB-Wax column (30 m × 0.25 mm ID, 0.25 μm DB-Wax (J&W 122-7032)). The injector temperature was set at18 min. The carrier gas was Hydrogen. Detector gasses were Hydrogen: 40 mL/min; Air: 450 mL/min; Helium make-up gas: 30 mL/min. An electronic pressure control in the constant flow mode was used. The FAME calibration standards were used for the quantification of FAs in the various lipid extracts.A hedonic sensory evaluation was conducted on cookies made from whole grain rice flour. The evaluators were 27 volunteer staff members from ISARC (Varanasi) (untrained), ranging in age from 23 to 58 years and including both male and female participants. Each of the panelists has provided their informed consent to partake in the study. The sensory evaluation was conducted within the confines of the sensory and product development laboratory at CERVA. The cookies were prepared in advance of the sensory evaluation and were subsequently stored at ambient temperature. In the context of sensory evaluation, the samples were presented in their entirety on white plastic dishes that were labeled with codes. The panelists were then served the samples in a randomized sequence. The panelists were furnished with distilled water and unsalted crackers to rinse their palates in between tastings. The cookies underwent an evaluation process that assessed their surface color, surface cracking pattern, crumb color, texture, mouth feel, flavor, aroma, and overall acceptability. The evaluation was conducted using a nine-point hedonic scale which ranged from \"like extremely\" to \"dislike extremely,\" corresponding to the highest and lowest scores of \"9\" and \"1\" respectively (Naseer et al., 2021).The experiments were performed in triplicate (n = 3), unless stated otherwise, and the results were reported as the mean values along with their standard deviations. Data from the results were analyzed statistically using one-way ANOVA, followed by a Tukey's post hoc test (P < 0.05) using R statistical package, version 4.2.1 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria). To reveal a distinct clustering between data sets, the principal component analysis (PCA) scores plot was used. The correlation between physical properties and texture profile, nutritional composition, bioactives, and antioxidant activity for each rice genotype was analyzed by Pearson's correlation. All data visualizations were performed using the R statistical package.Kalanamak from Uttar Pradesh and Chak-hao from Manipur are popular GI-tagged Indian rice landraces that are renowned for their aroma and superior grain quality (Kowsalya et al., 2022). The bran and broken rice (byproducts of the rice milling process) of these two landraces are likewise known to possess higher nutraceutical properties. Rather than being used as a low-value commodity for fodder, these byproducts could be instead leveraged as raw material in food applications with enriched functional properties for different value-added product development purposes. In this study, whole grain rice flour derived from the well-known aromatic rices, Kalanamak (greenish brown) and Chak-hao (black rice), and raw sugarcane products (jaggery and brown sugar) were used to explore novel formulations of nutraceutical-rich gluten-free cookies. The physicochemical, nutritional, and sensory properties of these cookies were compared with that of refined wheat-based cookies and discussed.Along with texture and flavor, the surface color of a baked product is a crucial factor in the initial acceptability of baked products among consumers. The flour and sweetener had remarkable and complex effects on the color formulation of the resulting cookies, as shown in Fig. 1. A higher L* value, which indicates lightness, is observed in refined wheat flour (RWF) and Kalanamak whole grain rice flour (KWGRF)based cookies than in black whole grain rice flour (BWGRF)based cookies. RWF cookies made with white sugar were noted with the highest L* values, which could be attributed to the typical light color of well-milled wheat kernels. The lower L* values of all BWGRF cookies, on the other hand, can be attributed to the presence of pigmented bran in the present study. These findings align with previous studies by Joo and Choi (2012) and Jang et al. (2010) that observed a decreasing L* value with increasing rice bran substitution in a cookie formulation. Moreover, the L* value of Kalanamak whole grain rice flour white sugar (KWGRFWS) cookie was not substantially different from refined wheat flour white sugar (RWFWS) cookie and was similar to that reported by Joo and Choi (2012) for cookies made from commercially available rice flour. Differences in rice flour color were attributed to their polyphenols, which relate to the purple color of the rice grain (Buenafe et al., 2022;Klunklin & Savage, 2018). The L* values generally decreased with the addition of jaggery as it contains reducing sugars that could participate in the Maillard reaction. Chand et al. (2011) reported that reducing sugars in jaggery typically increases with storage regardless of the storage conditions. The Maillard reaction, which occurs during the baking process, is another factor that affects the final color of baked food items (Giuberti et al., 2017). This reaction could result in reddish-brown hues from the interaction of reducing sugars with proteins and explain the lower L* value of 60.49 for refined wheat flour brown sugar (RWFBS) cookie compared to a higher value of 67.00 for Kalanamak whole grain rice flour brown sugar (KWGRFBS) cookie (Ryan & Brewer, 2006). All WGRF cookies had significantly lower redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) compared to RWF cookies, with BWGRF showing the lowest values for both parameters. The differences in a* and b* values were presumably correlated with the differences in the amino acid profile and content of reducing sugars responsible for the intensity of the Maillard reaction (Torbica et al., 2012;Zucco et al., 2011).The physical and chemical characteristics of RWF and WGRF from Kalanamak and Chak-hao rice, and their corresponding cookies were shown in Table 1. The WGRF samples exhibited lower moisture content (9.93% and 10.13% for KWGRF and BWGRF, respectively) compared to RWF (13.71%). These findings are consistent with previous studies that have also reported lower moisture content in rice flour relative to wheat flour (Islam et al., 2012;Rai et al., 2014;Torbica et al., 2012). Moisture content is a crucial consideration for flour storage since flour with a moisture content exceeding 13% is more prone to microbial deterioration (Oppong et al., 2021). Accordingly, the moisture content of WGRFs in the present study was below the threshold level, indicating that both flour samples (BWGRF and KWGRF) have a satisfactory shelf life. Due to water evaporation during baking, which results in the distinctive crusty features of cookies, all cookie formulations exhibited considerably lower moisture content in PC1 than flour samples (Fig. 2b). Regardless of flour type, the moisture content values of cookies prepared with jaggery were up to 51% higher than those prepared with refined white sugar. This distinction may be ascribed to the hygroscopic character of inverted sugar and the presence of mineral ions in jaggery (Lamdande et al., 2018;Rao & Singh, 2022). Apart from moisture content, the water activity (a w ) also exhibited lowest in cookies, in comparison to flour (PC1,  Values are expressed as the mean of three (3) replicates for moisture content, a w , total amylose, and total sugar, and ten (10) for thickness, diameter, spread ratio, weight and, hardness parameters ± standard deviation; \"-\"-Not applicable parameters; Different lowercase and uppercase letters denote a significant difference (P < 0.05).Fig. 2b). All cookie samples had values in the range of 0.28-0.35, while the wheat flour exhibits less than 0.85. Interestingly, the KWGRFWS cookies have the lowest a w value (0.22) (Table 1). Lower MC and a w values are crucial for extending the shelf life of the final product and reducing the risk of foodborne illnesses. In addition, appropriate packaging materials are also necessary for quality preservation and shelf-life extension (Itagi et al., 2023;Yildiz & Gocmen, 2021).The term \"hardness\", which describes the amount of force used to distort a sample, is measured among various cookies. In general, the hardness values of RWF (3.97-5.01N) and BWGRF (3.97-5.40N) cookies were comparable. Interestingly, all KWGRF cookies had a low breaking point (2.25-2.49 N) (Table 1). The contribution to PC1 (Fig. 2b) was significantly influenced by the hardness value and spread ratio, which accounts for the characteristic features of the cookie samples. These results are consistent with those of Yildiz and Gocmen (2021) and Paz et al. (2020), who reported a reduction in hardness values when substituting rice flour for wheat flour in a cookie formulation. In addition, these studies attribute the high hardness values to the higher protein content of RWF compared to WGRF. Proteins on the surface of starch granules function as adhesives, which strengthen the starch-protein bond in cookie dough and increase the overall hardness of the cookie (Ryan & Brewer, 2006). In addition, a higher DF content may also enhance the texture of cookies. This was the case with GF cookies made with almond flour (Yildiz & Gocmen, 2021). Likewise, BWGRF had a DF that was up to 49% greater than the other two flour types, which may explain the higher hardness values of BWGRF cookies. Yildiz and Gocmen (2021) propose that DF can reduce the amount of free water in the dough, thereby decreasing the resulting spread ratio of cookies.Differences in starch, DF, and protein proportions in the flour could account for the dimensional property variations (Mudgil et al., 2017). Diameter, thickness, and spread ratio are typical parameters used to determine cookie quality. The cookies in the study varied in diameter (37-40.44 mm), with significant differences observed primarily among KWGRF cookies (Table 1). In addition, the WGRF substitution led to an increase in the overall thickness of the cookies. These changes are reflected in spread ratio values. In general, cookies with a higher spread ratio are regarded as the most commercially appealing (Giuberti et al., 2017;Mudgil et al., 2017). Table 2 suggests that replacing RWF with WGRF resulted in a slight reduction in the spread ratio of cookies. However, the spread ratio values of BWGRF cookies were almost equivalent to those of the control, indicating that they are commercially viable. Additionally, BWGRF cookies were heavier than RWF and KWGRF cookies. Ryan and Brewer (2006) observed that cookies made with low-protein flour tended to be smaller in diameter and have lower spread ratios, indicating denser properties.Although RWF had the highest protein levels (13.24 g/100g), followed by BWGRF (12.41 g/100g), and KWGRF (10.55 g/100g), the cookies derived from the flour has substantially lowered the protein content (Table 2). RWF cookies contained protein ranging between 7.90 and 8.50%. Compared to KWGRF cookies (7.09-7.80 g/100g), BWGRF cookies retained higher protein levels (7.17-8.50 g/100g). Prior studies reported cookies made from rice and wheat flour of regular varieties (Islam et al., 2012;Klunklin & Savage, 2018;Torbica et al., 2012). Also observed was a significant difference in the total carbohydrates of the flour samples. KWGRF was found to have the highest carbohydrate level (74.15 g/100g), which was 3% and 4% higher than BWGRF and RWF, respectively. Variations in flour carbohydrate content could be attributed to differences in protein and lipid content (Oppong et al., 2021). However, in this study, only protein showed a strong positive correlation with total carbohydrates (Fig. 4b). All cookie samples exhibited a significant drop in carbohydrates, which may be ascribed to amylose and amylopectin leaching from the starch granules when it swells during the thermal process (Itagi et al., 2023).The fat content of flour samples ranged from 0.87 in RWF to 3.34 g/ 100g in KWGRF (Table 2). These differences in lipid content are primarily attributed to the presence of bran components in both WGRFs, which are virtually absent from RWF due to the nature of processing (Ciccoritti et al., 2017;Oppong et al., 2021). The addition of extra fat resulted in an increase of total fat in the range 25.83-27.76 g/100g (Table 2). The fat content of resulting cookies remains higher, regardless of the sweetener used (Klunklin & Savage, 2018).The fatty acid profile of BWGRF and KWGRF cookies generally contain higher levels of unsaturated and polyunsaturated FAs such as oleic, myristic, linoleic, linolenic, and gadoleic acid (shown in Fig. 5a), compared to RWF and RWFbased cookies (Supplementary Table 1). Unsaturated and polyunsaturated FAs are crucial in reducing cholesterol levels which provides various health benefits (Ciccoritti et al., 2017;Joo & Choi, 2012;Kasote et al., 2021;Ruan et al., 2015). Among the fatty acids profiled across samples, oleic acid is particularly abundant in WGRF and its cookies (Fig. 5d). This is particularly the case in KWGRF.Several studies suggest that oleic acid is the most prevalent fatty acid in rice bran (Joo & Choi, 2012;Ruan et al., 2015). Ash content across flour samples ranged from 0.64 to 1.90 g/100g. Similar trends were observed among the cookies. The ash content contributes to the distinction of BWGRFJ cookies from other cookie samples (PC2, Fig. 2b). Cookies made with jaggery had more ash content (1.80-2.20 g/100g) than those made with brown sugar (1.19-1.44 g/ 100g) and white sugar (1.19-1.44 g/100g). Similar results were observed by Lamdande et al. (2018) when substituting jaggery for sugar in a muffin formulation. Previously, it was reported that white sugar has an ash value of approximately 0.015% (McKee et al., 2015), while brown sugar and jaggery have values of approximately 0.20% and 1.56%, respectively (Lamdande et al., 2018). The ash content reflects the mineral, fiber, and inorganics remaining in the sample after it has been heated to a very high temperature, eradicating moisture, volatiles, and organics compounds (Altındag et al., 2015;Islam et al., 2012). Values are expressed as the means of (3) replicates for total carbohydrate, protein, ash, energy, fat, and minerals two (2) replicates for fiber and vitamins ± standard deviation; Different lowercase letters between rows denote a significant difference (P < 0.05).ICP-MS data of flour samples revealed varying mineral concentrations between samples (Table 2). KWGRF flour samples had the highest Mg content (1692 mg/kg), followed by BWGRF (1491 mg/kg) and RWF (428.1 mg/kg). The K, Fe, and Zn values in BWGRF were substantially higher than those in the other two varieties of flour. Interestingly in the baked cookies of BWGRF made with white and brown sugar, the Mg and K levels were reduced, and substituting with jaggery maintained the Mg and K levels to the same basal level as in the flour. The mineral content of jaggery-sweetened cookies was found to be generally higher than that of white and brown sugar. For instance, KWGRF cookies with jaggery offer the highest % daily value for Mn per 32g serving (26.99%, KWGRF with jaggery). In PC1, Fe distinguishes KWGRF jaggery-formulated cookies from the other formulations (Fig. 2a). KWGRF jaggeryformulated cookies could provide a 6.26% daily value of Fe per 32g serving. The enhanced mineral content in KWGRF and BWGRF cookies could therefore be attributed to the application of mineral rich WGRFs and the inclusion of jaggery in the formulation. During dough preparation and baking, jaggery crystals dissolve as a result of their interaction with water molecules. This may have caused micronutrients from jaggery crystals to migrate throughout the cookie matrix resulting in mineral-rich cookies (Verma et al., 2019). The presence of vitamin and mineral-rich rice bran in pigmented varieties as compared to non-pigmented varieties also likely accounted for these results (Ciccoritti et al., 2017;Oppong et al., 2021). Lamdande et al. (2018) made comparable findings on muffins formulated with jaggery. In many regions of Asia and Africa, jaggery has a well-established reputation as a nutraceutical due to its abundance of essential amino acids, antioxidants, phenolics, minerals such as Mg, K, Fe, Zn, and Cu, and vitamins. This nutrient-dense profile made jaggery a suitable substitute for white and brown sugar (Lamdande et al., 2018;Rao & Singh, 2022).The WGRF cookies, regardless of the sweetener used, generally retained the highest levels of B-vitamin (B1, B2, B5, and B6) than RWFbased cookies (Table 2). The vitamin B5 content of cookie samples ranged from 1.66 to 0.54 μg/g, with the BWGRFJ cookies containing the most vitamin B5 and RWFBS cookies containing the least. BWGRFJ cookies also retained the highest vitamin B2 (1.43 μg/g) and vitamin B6 (1.73 μg/g), while BWGRFWS and KWGRFWS had the highest vitamin B1 level (0.71 μg/g), among cookie samples examined in the present study. These results are predominantly attributed to the presence of bran components in both WGRFs, as these components are a known abundant source of B-vitamins, which provide a variety of health benefits (Kasote et al., 2021;Tiozon et al., 2021).Table 3 presents the levels of γ-oryzanol, phenolics, and total antioxidant capacities in flour and cookie samples. In general, our findings concur with previous research indicating that whole grain rice is an abundant source of bioactive compounds. Furthermore, pigmented whole grain rice is far superior to non-pigmented rice with enriched nutraceutical properties (Goufo & Trindade, 2014;Itagi et al., 2023;Kasote et al., 2021;Tiozon et al., 2021). BWGRF (37.56mg/100 g rice flour) had 4-folds and 1.7-folds more γ-oryzanol than KWGRF and RWF, respectively. γ-oryzanol distinguishes jaggery-sweetened BWGRF cookies (48.82 mg/100 g rice flour) from the other formulations (PC2, Fig. 2b). These BWGRF cookies had 35% and 105% γ-oryzanol than KWGRFJ and RWFJ cookies. Previous reports have shown that γ-oryzanol concentrates on the rice bran (Goufo & Trindade, 2014;Kumari et al., 2015). The presence of bran in both WGRFs may account for the high oryzanol content of the resulting cookies. Recent research evidence suggests that γ-oryzanol may alleviate obesity and cognitive impairment, highlighting its importance to bioactive rice research (Mastinu et al., 2019;Masuzaki et al., 2019).There was a general decline in the levels of total phenolic compounds (TPC) upon baking. Be that as it may, in comparison to RWC cookies with added refined white sugar, the cookies made from KWGRWS have 2-folds higher phenolics and BWGRWS cookies have 5-folds higher phenolics content (Table 3). Interestingly, the KWGR and BWGR formulated with jaggery not only retained the highest levels of phenolics, but also flavonoids, and anthocyanins (Table 3; Fig. 3b). The TPC value of BWGRFJ cookies (178.1 mg GAE/100g) was 1.5 times greater than in KWGRFJ cookies, 6 times greater than in RWFJ, and 8-times greater than that of RWFWS cookies, which is the formulation with the lowest TPC observation. The total flavonoid content (TFC) of the BWGRF-based cookies had a higher total anthocyanin content (TAC) than cookie samples derived from other flours. In addition, the TAC values of BWGRFJ cookies (434.2 mg C-3-GE/100g) were 13-folds greater than those of RWFJ cookies, which had the lowest TAC results. Antioxidants derived from pigmented rice protect vital lipids, proteins, and DNA from oxidative stress. Therefore, the potential of the antioxidants to combat free radicals was assessed through in vitro techniques (Goufo & Trindade, 2014;Tiozon et al., 2021). Across antioxidant capacity assays (total antioxidant capacity, hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity (HAS), DPPH radical scavenging activity, and FRAP), phytochemical rich BWGRF consistently demonstrated the highest values (289.4 mg QE/100g, total antioxidant capacity; 275.1 mg QE/100g, HAS; 79.06%, DPPH; 8.56 mM TE/g, FRAP). A study conducted by Iqbal et al. (2017) on the antioxidant content and capacity of raw and processed sugars showed that jaggery had 118 and 138 times more phenolic compounds than brown and white sugar, respectively. The DPPH radical scavenging and reducing power of the samples followed a similar pattern. Retaining higher levels of TPC, TFC and TAC correlated strongly with antioxidant properties (Fig. 4a). This is further supported by the strong positive correlation between bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacity, especially hesperidin, rutin, ellagic acid, and quercetin with FRAP and DPPH (Fig. 4a). Heating starch in water causes the granules to rupture. Phenolic and bioactive compounds in the matrix could complex with starch molecules either through inclusion (where the compounds are captured within the starch helices), or non-inclusion (where the compounds are trapped between the helices) (Sudlapa & Suwannaporn, 2023). This complexation process occurred during baking. These results highlight the potential of formulating nutritionally superior GF-products from whole grain rice and nutrient-dense sweetener such as jaggery.The sensory properties of cookies produced using WGRF and RWF with three different sweeteners (white sugar, brown sugar, and jaggery) were evaluated, and the results are presented in Fig. 6. KWGRF cookies sweetened with white sugar were rated the highest in all sensory properties (8.00) except for crumb color (Fig. 6c). The panelists preferred the crumb color of BWGRF cookies with jaggery (8.00), followed by RWF with white sugar (7.85). In terms of surface color (8.00) and cracking patterns (8.00), BWGRF cookies formulated with jaggery were a close second to KWGRF cookies with white sugar. For aroma, the panelists showed the highest preference for KWGRF cookies with jaggery (7.89). The preference for mouthfeel in KWGRF and RWF cookies (both versions of sweetened with white sugar), could be due to a clean mouthfeel without any residue formation, attributed to lower TDF compared to BWGRF cookies. Similar findings were reported by Baumgartner et al. (2018) on cookies made with dephytinized oat flour. Yildiz and Gocmen (2021) argued that gluten-free bakery products have weaker sensory properties and may not meet consumer expectations due to their harder structure, darker color, unpleasant appearance, and dry-sandy feeling in the mouth compared to conventional gluten-containing products. However, our results suggest that KWGRF and BWGRF cookies, particularly those made with white sugar and jaggery, could compete with RWF-based cookies and thus may be more preferred by consumers.The whole grain cookies made from GI-tagged rice landraces, Kalanamak and Chak-hao, offer distinct sensory qualities and are nutritious that are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, minerals, fiber, and bioactive compounds. The Chak-haobased cookies retained the highest levels of phytochemicals with greater antioxidant activities and adding jaggery as sugar alternative exhibited higher levels of Fe and helped to retain higher antioxidant compounds upon baking. These cookies demonstrate good shelf-life stability with a w levels under 0.85. Although gluten-free formulations spread less than the wheat control, sensory evaluation suggests that acceptability of KWGRF and BWGRF cookies are comparable to RWFbased cookies. The rising demand for nutritious foods provides manufacturers an opportunity to diversify their products to cater to specific markets. Future research can explore the development of more gluten-free functional foods using Kalanamak and Chak-hao rice, catering to both local and global demands. Investigating packaging and storage options is also essential for maintaining shelf stability and nutritional quality.All panelists granted informed consent before taking part in the study. The research protocol was explained to the panelists, detailing the cookies and their ingredients. Panelists could opt out of evaluation sessions without needing to explain their choice. Evaluations were conducted at the Center of Excellence in Rice Value Addition, Product  ","tokenCount":"6774"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ea252a9d2b07d931fe0a387abc4f2770","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4b50dc2e-310b-47d3-a70a-370efd81a085/retrieve","id":"936708781"},"keywords":["Competitive Ratio","Actual Yield Loss","Intercropping Advantage","Jigawa and Kano States"],"sieverID":"8778343d-1d1d-4dfe-80f6-e378a77b7a7a","pagecount":"7","content":"This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contexts will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instruction, formulae and analysis should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.The mixture of two or more crops in the same field during their life is referred to as intercropping. Intercrops are arranged base on farmers' preference and choice of main crop, the way the crops are arranged with respect to distance between strips, number of crop combinations, life cycle and type of crop is usually referred to as intercropping system. Intercropping results to both intra and inter-specific competitions (Spitters, 1983). These competitions are intensified when poorly or uneven planting configuration/pattern existed; and this leads to unjustified plant competition for resources. Competition may be too intense among some plants and less among others. The productivity of intercropping system depends to a large extent on the nature and magnitude of plant competition and distance between intercrops (Harper, 1977). High competition between the crops manifests in growth, total dry matter production and yield performance of the competing crops. This is best addressed through spatial manipulations of the intercrops and this of course increases the overall system efficiency (Awal et al., 2006;Zhang et al., 2008).Millet-groundnut intercropping is the very common practice among the small scale farmers around Kano and Jigawa providing staple and income respectively. The yield was found to be sub optimal owing to faulty crops arrangement; it was against this background this studies was conducted and aimed at assessing and identifying intercropping system that is argonomically and economically feasible.This experiment was conducted at the experimental field of Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Minjibir and the second at Rahama town at Dutse. The treatment combinations were two varieties of millet, four varieties of groundnut planted in two intercropping systems. The total plot size was 5.0m x 4.5m from which 15m 2 was demarcated to measure yield of intercrops; this was laid out in split-split plot design with 4 replications. Using different formulae proposed by many researchers, Intercropping efficiencies and economic evaluation were deduced from measured yield and analyzed using Genstat 17 th edition. Means of treatments were separated using Tukey HSD test.Aggressivity as proposed by Gilchrist (1965) and competitive ratio by Willey and Rao (1980) were two indices used to determine the intercrops competition.Aggressivity of millet (Am) = Actual yield loss (AYL) is the proportion of yield loss or gain in intercrops in comparison to the respective sole crop, i.e. it takes into account the actual proportion of the component crops with its pure stand. Actual yield loss (AYL) was calculated by the following formula proposed by Banik (1997).Where: Y = Yield per unit area. Z = Sown proportion, Subscripts m and g refers to pure stand (sole crops) of millet and groundnut, and mg and gm refers to intercrops respectively.AYLm and AYLg are the partial yield losses; they represent the proportionate yield loss or gain of the millet and groundnut species respectively when grown as intercrops, relative to their yield in pure stands. AYL is therefore the sum of the two partials. \uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC3F\uD835\uDC5A \uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC3F\uD835\uDC54.Intercropping advantage (IA) was calculated using the following formula:IA = (\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC5A \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC3F\uD835\uDC5A) + (\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC54 \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC3F\uD835\uDC54) Where: IA= Intercropping advantage Pm = Unit price of millet. Pg = Unit price of groundnut.Table 1 shows the results of differences between the intercrops in terms of ability to compete for growth resources, this is quantified by aggressivity and competitive ratio. From the result, competitive ability (aggressivity) was determined by crop arrangement not by component crop. At Dutse, millet was more competitive at 2:4 system; contrast to Minjibir where 2:2 system gave millet higher ability to compete. As millet exerts its competitive pressure, groundnut aggressivity is reduced at the same magnitude. Higher numerical values of aggressivity denote greater difference in competitive ability as well as larger difference between actual and expected yield in both crops (Billore et al., 1992). At Dutse, groundnut aggressivity was significantly lowered at 2:4 system while at same arrangement at Minjibir, groundnut was more competitive and aggressivity was significantly low (-0.19) at 2:2 system. This is confirmed by Ghosh (2004) in a groundnut-cereal intercropping systems (maize, sorghum, and pearl millet) that the cereals were the dominant species in most cases.The assessment of economic feasibility of intercropping systems was done by employing the concept of Intercropping Advantage (IA). IA as an indicator of the economic feasibility of intercropping systems, specified that the values of IA were higher and positive under 2:4 system at both trial locations (Table 1); this implies that the system is more economically feasible, whereas the other mixture, which had negative value, showed an economic disadvantage. Also, the advantage of 2:4 intercropping system found in this study can be attributed to the better utilization of growth resources which resulted from better competitive ratio and agrgressivity. Dhima et al. (2007) and Caballero and Goicoechea (1986) discovered that great competitive ability of wheat to exploit resources in association with common vetch led to increase the overall system advantages.Competitive ratio (CR) indicates the ability of competition of one component crop over another under intercropped condition. The CR value over unity indicates the component as a good competitor while less than unity as a poor competitor when grown in association (Jedel et al., 1998). The CR varied significantly with the variation in crop combination and planting configuration. The result indicated that at Dutse, among the millet varieties, Supersosat have higher value of CR; meaning it is more competitive that Dankaranjo when grown in association with groundnut. Also the CR difference values for the two systems suggested that at 2:2 the competitive ability of one crop was far higher than the other, and this decreased the CR value (to -0.29). Under 2:4 system, competition is relatively milder and thus CR value was higher (1.18); indicating that the crops have a fairly comparative ability for resources competition. Meanwhile, at Minjibir (Table 2), both crops were indicated to be good in terms of competition when grown in association. When the crops were associated at 2:2 system, CR difference value was higher (1.05) and decreased (to 0.69) as the spatial variability was increased at 2:4. In most cereallegume intercrops, the cereal species are shown to be the dominant in the system and have significant advantage over the legumes when it comes to resources competition. Das et al. (2012) in a cereal-common vetch experiment discovered that values of CR for cereals were greater than for common vetch indicating the dominance of cereals under these crop mixtures. The CR of cereals can only be decreased by increasing the proportion of the common vetch in the mixtures and it will increase the CR difference which will practically give the crops similar chances for competition.The concept of actual yield loss determines the advantage or disadvantage of the individual crop and the intercropping system. A positive AYL value indicates the efficiency while negative one denotes non-system efficiency. According to Banik et al. (2000), the AYL index gives more precise information than the other indices on inter and intraspecific competition of the component crops and the behavior of each specie involved in the intercropping system. The AYL is the summation of partial AYLs of millet and groundnut. Among the millets at Dutse, partial AYL was shown to be significantly higher when Supersosat was used for intercropping. Yield advantage of intercrops is mostly dependent on the partial AYL of the cereal component; Banik (1996) and Banik et al. (2000) indicated that a yield advantage for common vetch was probably because of the positive effect of cereals on common vetch when grown in association, it was also revealed that in the experiment that cereal crop was the dominant one because the partial AYL of cereal was greater than that of common vetch. In this experiment 2:2 system was also negative indicating the disadvantage of the system which resulted in significant yield loss than 2:4. This agrees with the findings by Das et al. (2012) that among intercropping treatments wheatlentil at 3:1 and wheat-chickpea 3:1 row ratio scored negative values indicating the disadvantage of the crop combination and planting configuration. Table 1:   ","tokenCount":"1430"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c152e35283d66937774cf2321971731e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/71c5ce98-91c2-4654-acd0-a1ab3bccd84a/retrieve","id":"-365834107"},"keywords":["decision rules","deforestation","agriculture","ad-hoc farm simulation model"],"sieverID":"a66aa44f-3267-4de0-93ea-36fcd0928312","pagecount":"42","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.The Amazon hosts the largest area of tropical forest in the world, with very high levels of biodiversity (Foley et al., 2007;Malhi et al., 2008;Lu, 2009). Peru has the largest area of Amazon forest after Brazil (Lu, 2009). The annual estimated extent of deforestation between 2001 and 2014 in Peru was 103,819 ha, mainly concentrated in the departments of Ucayali and Madre de Dios (MINAM, 2015). The Peruvian Amazon is therefore undergoing rapid and uneven economic growth, alongside alarming rates of deforestation and increasing land use change (Galarza and La Serna, 2005;Miranda et al., 2016). Slash-and-burn agriculture, expansion of oil palm plantations and pastures, legal and illegal logging, land clearing and road expansion have been cited as drivers of deforestation in Ucayali in the past 20 years (Alvarez and Naughton-Treves, 2003;Salisbury and Fagan, 2013;Porro et al., 2015), with cocoa expansion recently keeping pace. Gutierrez-Velez and DeFries ( 2013) argued that 75% of the expansion of high-yield palm oil plantations between 2000 and 2010 occurred in old-growth forests. These forests not only host an immense diversity of flora and fauna of major intrinsic value, but also have a monetary value that could contribute to the local economy. In particular, according to the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute, carbon stocks are a major but unexploited economic asset of the Amazon, estimated at US$ 2.8 billion (IIAP, 2009). Importantly, Ucayali's forests can provide ecosystem services that are crucial for local food security, as sources of wild fruits, bush meat, medicinal plants and firewood (Murray, 2006.;Porro et al., 2015).The World Food Summit defined food security as a condition that exists 'when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life' (FAO, 1996). Food security has four pillars, availability, access, utilisation and stability, which need to be achieved simultaneously. Food availability includes a sufficient supply of food; access includes physical and economic access to food (including entitlements and cash income, respectively); food utilisation involves having the energy and nutrients necessary for a healthy life; and food stability requires that the other three requirements are fulfilled throughout the year and in all years despite economic or political instability (FAO, 2008). Each pillar of food security depends on the provisioning and sustainable use of ecosystem services, which support food production, provide wild foods, deliver resources for income generating activities (to acquire food), and ensure a diversified and nutritional diet in the region ( Richardson, 2010;Cruz-Garcia et al., 2016).Consequently, deforestation is a major threat to food security in the Peruvian Amazon, where, between 2010 and 2014, a quarter of children under five suffered from chronic malnutrition (Ministerio de Salud, 2014). It is crucial to achieve food security in a way that is environmentally and socially sustainable (Godfray et al., 2010;Richardson, 2010), particularly in Ucayali, where 56% of the population is vulnerable to food insecurity (MIDIS, 2012).Interactions between ecosystem services and food security are usually analysed at aggregated levels (Thrupp, 2000), while research on their trade-offs was recently reported to be insufficient (Cruz-Garcia et al., 2016). Understanding trade-offs between food security and forest ecosystem services at household level is particularly urgent in regions where multiple social and environmental drivers are leading to resource depletion. Although deforestation in the Amazonat a large scalehas largely been driven by companies, larger land owners, the construction of roads, and reinforced by national policies (Dammert, 2014;Fraser, 2014), small-holder mestizos (who are settlers from non-Amazonian regions of Peru) have been linked to deforestation as a way to ensure land tenure rights within a politicalecological context where demand of land for commercial agriculture and extractive activities is high (Alvarez and Naughton-Treves, 2003;Porro et al., 2015). For instance, mestizos in Ucayali have cleared a great extent of their forest to establish palm oil plantations (Gewin, 2018). However, mestizo households still possess some forest patches within their land in which they maintain various useful tree species. Despite the importance of these forest patches to supporting household livelihoods and food security, they often cut down trees for firewood or sell as timber (Cruz-Garcia, 2017). While they recognize the importance of forest ecosystem services for both food security and income generation, to the best of our knowledge, the trade-offs between forest exploitation and food security have not been yet assessed at disaggregated level. This is necessary given that disaggregated analyses at household level can provide critical knowledge on sustainable and locally appropriate management of ecosystem services (Daw et al., 2011;Reyers et al., 2013;Poppy et al., 2014). Such research would not only enable analysis of the sustainability of existing forest exploitation practices but also their effects on food security. It would also deepen our understanding of the factors that influence farmer's management decisions concerning trade-offs at the forest-agriculture interface, i.e. between agricultural expansion and forest conservation.Whole farm modelling tools make it possible to represent and analyse the trade-offs and synergies concerning household's decisions on farming management practices (Rodriguez et al., 2014), and are useful tools for quantifying the trade-offs between ecosystem services and food security (UNEP, 2011). Some whole-farm modelling tools (Börner et al., 2007;Jourdain et al., 2014) have been used to analyse the effect of different policies on ecosystem services management and food security. These were mainly optimization tools that enabled the definition of the optimal allocation of resources for a set of constraints, maximizing economic or environmental objectives (Börner et al., 2007;Jourdain et al., 2014). However, the assumption underlying these tools is that the decision process used by a farmer under this set of constraints is optimal, a condition that is rarely met in real-life decisions. Consequently, the challenge is to describe forest exploitationas a management strategy applied by farmers -which may be sub-optimal under imperfect information and resource constraints (Andrieu et al., 2015).Simulation tools can analyse such management strategy without making assumptions about the efficiency (or optimality) of a farmer's decision-making process (Sempore et al., 2015). Compared to optimization, simulation describes the functioning of existing systems and/or analyses their medium-to long-term dynamics under different scenarios. Rule-based simulation models are a specific category of whole-farm simulation models which make it possible to analyse the specific effects of farmers' decision rules on farm performances (Le Gal et al., 2011).The aim of this paper is to analyse the trade-offs and synergies between the four pillars of food security and forest exploitation at household level among mestizo communities in Ucayali, in the deforestation frontier of the Peruvian Amazon. In this study, forest exploitation refers to forest clearing for the extraction of wood, or for the establishment of commercial agriculture. Forest exploitation is one type of management among other forest management practices with varying degrees of impact on forest ecosystem services. The study was framed around the concept of food security instead of other relevant concepts such as food sovereignty (which is intrinsically related to agricultural biodiversity and embedded in the political ecology of the region), in order to align it to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Certainly, achieving food security (major component of Goal 2) and environmental sustainability (Goal 15) are key components of the SDGs (FAO). This study aims at contributing to the understanding of their interrelations, which could be useful for future interventions and policies focused on achieving the SDGs in the region. In order to shed more light on the trade-offs, a farm level simulation modelling tool was developed and used to (1) analyse the current trade-offs and synergies between food security and exploitation of the forest comparing different types of farming systems; and (2) to explore alternatives for minimizing these trade-offs, and provide policy insights.The Ucayali region is located in the central-eastern part of Peru and is the second largest department in the country, covering an area of 102,400 km 2 . In 2012, the total population was 490,000 (Porro et al., 2015), with an estimated 27% increase between 2000and 2015(INEI, 2010)). About 60% of the population lives in the capital, Pucallpa. Ucayali is the main center of the Peruvian timber industry (Ramos Delgado, 2009). Agriculture contributes to 19% of the regional production (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, 2012). Crops such as cassava, plantain, papaya and rice account for 78% of the local production, and are grown mainly for household consumption with the surplus for sale. Cash crops, including oil palm (supported by government incentives and formerly by international cooperation), cocoa and coffee (supported by the increasing demand for exports), and camu camu (Myrciaria dubia (Kunth)), are rapidly expanding (Pacheco, 2012;Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, 2012;Bennett et al., 2018). Coca is also produced in an estimated area between 2,000 and 3,000 ha (DEVIDA, 2014). This crop, when grown illegally leads to a significant bias in the analysis of livelihood outcomes as it is an unaccounted, non-transparent and non-quantifiable source of income.Mestizos account for 80% of the population in Ucayali, and the rest are indigenous communities.Mestizos mainly depend on agriculture, livestock, and forestry (Porro et al., 2015). Mestizo families have mostly settled near the Federico Basadre highway or along the banks of the Ucayali River and its tributaries. The highway, which connects the city of Pucallpa to Lima (860 Km), was built in 1945 (Pimentel et al., 2004). Mestizos make combined use of different environments in the farming-forestry system, including agricultural fields, forests (which are mainly secondary), fallow fields and home gardens (Cruz-Garcia and Vael, 2017). Results of previous studies in the region suggest that deforestation is correlated with wealth: mestizo farmers in highly deforested non-remote areas are wealthier than indigenous farmers, and that both remote and non-remote mestizo households derive significant income from the sale of timber (Pacheco, 2012;Gutiérrez-Vélez and DeFries, 2013;Porro et al., 2015). In terms of food security, chronic malnutrition in Ucayali is higher than the national average (Guevara Salas, 2009).Data for the present study were collected in October 2014 (24 individual interviews) and in February and August 2015 (two-round survey of 58 households) in three mestizo communities, La Union, Pueblo Libre, and Yerbas Buenas, all located near the Federico Basadre road (Figure 1, Table1). The communities were selected as part of a replication study (Blundo et al., in preparation) of a previous study carried out in 2000 and described in Murray (2006). At that time, these communities were part of an international research project in Ucayali on the development of an ecosystem approach to human health assessment, and were selected by local experts as representative of the main livelihood strategies of mestizo households in the region.  The simulation modelling tool was designed to simulate different proxies of the four dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilisation and stability. The tool was developed and applied in five complementary steps (Figure 2):-Step 1: Individual interviews were conducted with farmers at the study sites to understand the functioning of farming systems and the farmers' main decision rules.-Step 2: A typology of farming systems in the three communities was built to understand the diversity of farm structural characteristics and secondary forest exploitation practices, based on information collected during the household surveys.-Step 3: A conceptual model was designed to represent the different farming systems identified in step 2.-Step 4: The model designed in step 3 was developed and parametrised using collected data in steps 2 and 3, and regional literature -Step5: The tool developed in step 4 was used to analyse, for the different types of farming systems found in step 2, the current trade-offs between the different dimensions of food security and the exploitation of the forest area. The individual interviews were based on diagram flows (Diarisso et al., 2015), which are discussion support tools that help define the intensity and determinants of the flows of biomass between cultivated and uncultivated areas, and the rationale for forest clearing. Interviews were conducted with 24 farmers in three meetings, one per community. Farmers were invited to participate in the meetings by local farmer leaders in the three communities, previously instructed to invite 8 to 10 women and men farmers for each meeting. Only individuals for whom farming was the main production activity were invited to participate. Each meeting had 7-8 participants and lasted an average of 2-3 hours. Three researchers conducted the interviews in parallel. During each interview, farmers were asked to individually prepare a diagram describing and mapping the management of different landscape elements and associated flows of biomass among them. To this end, each farmer was asked to start by drawing the location of their house and main geographic reference points. Then, they were asked to draw the different land areas to which they had access and use or maintain (including forests and agricultural fields). Finally, they were asked to draw the flows of biomass among the different components of the map. Each farmer worked on her/his map with a researcher, who provided the necessary support to enable him/her to draw the map, ensured that the map included all relevant details, and enquired about the flows between the different areas: determinants, triggers, intensity, and periodicity, subsequently used to understand the management decision rules concerning the different elements of the landscape. All the participants did this exercise freely, having given their prior informed consent.Data collected in surveys of 58 households conducted in two rounds, one in February (wet season) and one in August (dry season), 2015, were taken from a broader longitudinal study aimed at analysing dietary and land use changes (Blundo Canto et al., in preparation) and used as quantitative data for the modelling tool. The sample was a replication of a study conducted in 2000 and described in Murray (Murray, 2006.), who interviewed all households with children aged 1-10 living in the four mestizo and in the four indigenous communities that formed part of her research program. The current study focuses on three of the four mestizo communities, only those located along the road, in order to model trade-offs and synergies between food security and forest exploitation of households living in upland ecosystems subject to similar economic and environmental constraints. All the original households were contacted.Participants gave their prior informed consent and participated freely. The survey was conducted in two rounds and included the following modules: socio-demographic, economic, agricultural production, forest exploitation, food security, and land use change, with a recall period of 6 months. For Step 2 we used responses from the modules on: 1) farm income (how much did they spend on inputs for agricultural production, including livestock, and how much did they gain from selling these products in the past six months); 2) agricultural production (for each area with crops, planted trees, or livestock, which crops, trees or livestock did they produce in the past six months and which was the extension in hectare.); and3) forest exploitation (for each forest area, within or outside household properties, how many plants and animals did they harvest, gather, collect or hunt and how much wood or timber did they extract in the past six months). A database was built using Stata (StataCorp, 2013) and analysed in Microsoft Excel.We applied multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) (Greenacre, 1984) and hierarchical clustering (HC) to data collected in the household survey to identify the main types of farming systems based on the structural characteristics of the farm and including exploitation practices related to the secondary forest using ExcelStat. Numerical variables were transformed into categorical variables according to the data distribution (average and quartiles). The explanatory (active) variables were the structural characteristics of the farms (total area, area used to cultivate the main crop, and number of livestock).Dependent variables (area of secondary forest and exploitation) were used as supplementary variables (Table 2). Socio-economic and demographic variables, including household dependency ratio, number of contracted workers, number of family workers, number of income sources in addition to agriculture and livestock farming, were used in the first round of the MCA as supplementary variables but were subsequently deleted since they did not explain the variations found in the first two factors. HC was performed using the outputs of the MCA. The results of the MCA show the main factors contributing to the dispersion of observations. The HC procedure was consequently applied to produce main types of farmers (see section 3.1). We used Unified Modelling Language (Magnus and Eriksson, 2000) to represent a virtual farm composed by a forest area, livestock, and the different cropping areas found in different types of farms defined in the previous step (Figure 3). For each of these components some key characteristics and functions were selected in order to be able to calculate proxies for the different dimensions of food security:-Availability: the proxy for this dimension was biomass production by the different crop and livestock components of the farm (tons of seed/grain/cattle meat or litres of milk) and the forest area owned by the household (only for households that own forest);-Access: the annual income (US$) of the farm was used as a proxy for economic access to food (Gregory et al., 2005). The physical access to food, which is related to access to land, was not included since the study only focused on land-owner farmers who are the ones who can make decisions about their land (landless were excluded).-Utilisation: the proxy for this dimension was energy estimated by the kcal ratio of household production to their needs (%) as proposed by Hammond et al. (2017). Although utilisation also includes nutrient intake, and that it has been recognized that both energy and nutrient intake are the result of good care and feeding practices, food preparation, dietary diversity, intra-household distribution of food, and clean water and sanitation, only the consumption of adequate energy (necessary to meet the physiological needs of family members) was taken into account for this study (FAO et al., 2018;FAO, 2006). This was calculated as the ratio of the estimated calorie supply of the different components of the farm (crop, livestock) and the forest area owned by the household, to the overall estimated calorie needs of the household (based on the size of the household and the ages of its members). The ratio is below 100% when the farm and the forest cannot cover the calorie needs of the family, otherwise it is more than 100%. For the calorie supply of crops, we only considered the main staples cultivated in the biggest areas at the study sites: plantain, cassava and maize. We assumed the households first satisfy their caloric needs and then, once these are satisfied, sell the surplus;-Stability: the coefficient of inter-annual variation in income and the inter-annual variation in production were used as a proxy for stability. We developed an object-oriented modelling tool for more flexibility (thus making it possible to add or delate components without changing the other components of the modelling tool). We used Python a freely distributed interactive, object-oriented programming language (http://www.python/).The aim of the modelling tool is to simulate the trade-offs between the management of the forest areas and the different dimensions of food security. For that, the simulation tool consists of a biophysical submodel, which simulates the productivity of the different household components and a decision submodel, which simulates the main decision rules that determine the dynamics of the system.The biophysical sub-model focuses on the biophysical components owned by the household, which include the different areas the household uses to ensure their food security, including agricultural fields, grassland and forests (Figure 3). The sub-model is composed of five modules: farm, crop, grass, forest and livestock.This module calculates the nutritional household kcal ration (eq.1), the age dynamics of the family, and the annual income of the farm.where Cal is the kcal ration (%), GYcrop is the yield of the staple crop used for self-consumption, SCrop is the area used to cultivate these crops (ha), NVCrop is the average nutritional value of the crop (kgCal.kg -1 ), ForestP is the food produced by the forest, NVForest is the average nutritional value of forest products (kgCal.kg -1 ), AnimalP is the production of meat and milk by the cattle owned by the household, NVMilk/Meat is the nutritional value of the milk or cattle meat(kgCal.kg -1 ), N_Family is the size of each age class in the family, and NR is the nutritional requirement per person per year (kgCal). For the dynamics of the family, we considered that children and adolescents change age class of every five years (Table 4). The annual income of the farm (GM) is the difference between the income and the cost of cropping and livestock systems, and the sales of wood and timber when forest is cleared.Although 7% of farmers grow a large number of crops, we focused on the specific roles of six crops in the farming systems, because they account for about 80% of the production in the average cropping system (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, 2012). Plantain and cassava are grown for household consumption and for sale; maize is grown for household consumption and sale; oil palm, citrus (lemons and oranges), and cocoa, are cash crops. To estimate grain yields for these crops, we considered the effect of rainfall on yields, as variations in river flows contribute to uncertain productivity and profitability in the region (Labarta et al., 2007), and can have direct effects on food security. To estimate the effect of rainfall on yields, we analysed the Pearson correlation between existing regional (INEI, 2015) annual yields and rainfall (Table 3) between 2002 and 2013. We found a correlation between rainfall and yields of cocoa, oil palm, maize, and lemon. The correlation between rainfall and plantain yields was low, which does not prove no dynamics exist, but rather that, for the data used, other factors such as management or soil characteristics have a greater effect on yields. We consequently used the linear correlation equations (eq. 2, 3, 4, 5) to estimate the effect of rainfall on cocoa, palm, lemon, and maize yields (Ycrop, t/ha).For plantain and cassava, we used a single average value corresponding to the average yield reported by the households surveyed (Table 4).  For oil palm, we considered that production begins in the third year after plantation with an average yield of 400 kg/ha, increasing to 4 t/ha, 8 t/ha, and 11t/ha from the third to the sixth year of the crop, equation 3 was used from the seventh year of simulation (Gobierno Regional de Ucayali, 2012).This module simulates the production of grass as animal fodder, based on the work done by Vela )where NCoh is the size of each animal cohort, and AMR is the reform mortality rate, according to Bartl et al. (2009).where Ncalves is the number of calves, AC is the annual calving rate, and CMR is the calf mortality rate according to Bartl et al. ( 2009).where FodB is the fodder balance, StockCrop is the fodder stocks made up of maize stalks (kg) calculated in the Crop module, YGrass is the yield of the grazing area (kg/ha), SGrass is the surface area of grazing land (ha), DR is the fodder requirement of each cohort (kg/day). This module also calculates milk (PMilk) and meat (PMeat) production.where YMilk is the milk production per animal according to Sheen and Riesco (2002), D is the duration of lactation according to Bartl et al. (2009).where RR is the replacement rate of cows according to Bartl et al. (2009), YMeat is the yield of edible meat per cattle according to OEEE-MINAG ( Oficina de Estudios Económicos y Estadísticos Ministerio de Agricultura, 2011).At our study sites, the forest is used for hunting, to collect leaves and firewood for own consumption or sale. Although it has been reported that mestizo farmers from Ucayali also gather wild fruits from the forest (Cruz-Garcia and Vael, 2017), the amount of gathering events reported in the household surveys was low. The mapping exercise during the individual interviews indicated that forest is usually considered by farmers as a reserve of land that enables them to increase grazing and cropped areas when needed, and a reserve of wood to sell when required. In the forest module, a cleared hectare of forest is consequently associated with the average value of marketable wood (Sears et al., 2014).Type 3 farmers with highest diversity, practice hunting (Table 5). To provide a proxy for this activity we chose \"carachupa\" (or nine-banded armadillo, Dasypus novemcinctus), which was the most frequently hunted animal in the forest according to the household survey. We found that they extract one \"carachupa\" each five hectares: this value was multiplied by its calorie content (Table 4). Nutritional value of milk (kcal L -1 ) 495 (Murray, 2006.) Nutritional value of cattle meat (kcal kg -1 ) 305Crop Nutritional value of maize (kcal kg -1 ) 361 (Murray, 2006.) Nutritional value of plantain (kcal kg -1 ) 122Nutritional value of cassava (kcal kg -1 ) 121Average yield of plantain (kg ha -1 ) 12,400 (INEI, 2015) Average yield of cassava (kg ha -1 ) 13,900 (INEI, 2015) Forest Nutritional value of one \"carachupa\" (kcal) 172 (Murray, 2006.) Marketable wood (US$ ha -1 ) 450 (Sears et al., 2014) 2 The costs for cocoa vary according to the year of the crop, the first year includes the cost of stablishing the crop, and subsequent years include maintenance costs 3 Tropical Livestock Unit, animal of 250 kg of live weightThe decision sub-model simulates a virtual farmer and monitors the clearing of the forest according to the state of the biophysical sub-model. The management decisions made by the virtual farmer have an impact on the food security dimensions simulated by the biophysical sub-model through feedback loops.A series of simplified decision rules (in the form of \"If conditions then action\" rules) was developed for each type of farming system based on the individual interviews (see section 3.1).To understand the functioning of the modelling tool, a sensitivity analysis was conducted on input data and parameters with the highest uncertainty (parameters estimated from the literature). In both cases, we assessed how variations of -10 or + 10% affected the simulation results compared to the default value. The sensitivity analysis was conducted of changes in parameters (sale price of oil palm seed, maize, and plantain, yield of oil palm, maize, plantain, cocoa and citrus, annual calving, calf mortality, reform, and replacement rates) and input data (number of cows, area of maize, oil palm, plantain, grassland) for each type of farmer. This analysis enabled us to understand which parameter and input data have the most effect on the income of each type of farmer. Changes of +10% and -10% were applied to the default values defined in Tables 4 and 6. Sixty-eight simulations were run.The dynamics of the different types of farmers were compared for 10 simulated years in order to analyse the current trade-offs between the different dimensions of food security and the exploitation of their forest area. The simulations used rainfall data from the Aguaytia station (latitude: -9.02, longitude: -75.30, altitude: 270 m) from January 2003 to December 2014. For these simulations, we built virtual farms considering the structural characteristics of the different types of farms, but assuming that they all started with the same total area, forest reserve area, and family composition. Expansion of cash crops at the study sites is largely supported by favorable public policies and incentives, especially for oil palm (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, 2012). Therefore, we modeled a decrease in oil palm prices for farmers cultivating oil palm, in order to simulate the effects of macroeconomic changes that could affect the sale prices, such as a decrease in public incentives or a drop in international prices. The sale price of palm oil in the region has been increasing since 2000, but with variations that can lead to an inter-annual variation and a 50% decrease in the average price (Figure S1), so simulating such an event is indispensable. To better understand the sustainability-related issue facing these farmers, we simulated the effect of a 50% decrease in the sale price of palm oil.The first step of the study allowed to understand the rationale for forest clearing. Indeed, four of the seven interviewed livestock breeders in this first step did not own any forest. They cleared the forest for pasture as the herd increased, leading to an increase in demand for fodder. Oil palm (one of seven farmers) and -more recently -cocoa (five of the seven) have been introduced by these farmers as an alternative to livestock production because of the reduced productivity of grazing areas. Farmers producing oil palm (12) declared having started its cultivation in the 2000s as a result of government subsidies and other incentives to cultivate alternative crops to coca. In these farms, the residual forest area may still be relatively high (> to 50% of the total area of the farm for five of the twelve farmers)but is mainly considered (nine of the 12 farmers) as a land reserve where the forest could be cut to increase the area for oil palm or other cash crops. Three of the 24 farmers mentioned that the clearing of residual forest areas was linked to domestic shocks (illness, increasing educational expenses, and so on, which encourage the farmers to clear forest for alternative uses).The second step of the study permitted to identify four types of farmers. Indeed, the results of the MCA showed that the first two factors combined explained 67% of the dispersion of observations (Figure 4).The first factor dissociates farms with livestock and grazing areas (to the left) from farms with no livestock. The latter presents high crop diversity (all crops except oil palm), and more intense use of the forest, as they extract leaves and firewood from secondary forests. The second factor mainly dissociates farmers with large cropping areas, secondary forest, who cultivate oil palm (to the bottom) from farmers with small cropping areas who do not cultivate oil palm (at the top). The HC procedure produced four main types of farmers which we named according to their main characteristics:-Type 1: \"livestock farmers\", -Type 2: \"moderately-diversified crop farmers\" -Type 3: \"highly-diversified crop farmers\" -Type 4: \"oil palm farmers\"The main characteristics of each type of farmer are summarized in table 5. These characteristics correspond to the prototypal farmer in each class, and other farmers in the same class may differ. According to the first two steps of the study, virtual rules for forest clearing were defined for each type of farmers:-Type 1: if the fodder balance is negative in two subsequent years then an area of x will be cleared and grass planted -Type 2: if the income is negative in two sub-sequent years then an area of x will be cleared and cocoa will be introduced -Type 3: same decision rule as type 2, the difference between the two types being more crops are cultivated -Type 4: if the income is more than US$ 1,300 (which corresponds to the average oil palm utility according to Gobierno Regional de Ucayali ( 2012)), then an area of x will be cleared and oil palm will be introducedThe specific size of the cleared patch can be adjusted to take into account the structural differences between types of farmers. The structural characteristics of the farm are used as inputs for the modelling tool.  The sensitivity analysis showed that for type 1 farmers, results were more sensitive to changes in the initial size of the herd than changes in the values of the animal reproduction parameters, rainfall or grassland area (Figure 5). For this type of farmer, increases in the replacement rate and mortality rates lead to a decrease in income. Provided that all the farmer's forest area has not yet been cleared, each decrease in the production of the grassland area per animal unit is offset by a decrease in the forest area and consequently a change in this input data had no impact on income.For type 2 farmers, income is highly sensitive to changes in the area under plantain and maize. Decreases in plantain and maize areas increase the farmer's income because of the decision rule that introduces cocoa production after two consecutive years with a negative income. The introduction of cocoa increases the average income.For type 3 farmers, income is mainly affected by changes in price, yield, and area under cocoa and citrus.The surplus from maize and plantain is low, consequently changes in areas, price, and yield of these crops do not affect income.For type 4 farmers, an increase in the sale price, yield, and area under oil palm has a positive effect on income. As mentioned above, changes in yields, areas or in the price of maize and plantain do not significantly affect income. The simulations showed that each farming system leads to specific performances at a 10-year horizon depending on the dimensions of food security, on specific trade-offs within these dimensions and between the food security dimensions and forest exploitation (Table 7, figure 6). None of the simulated farms had a positive impact on all the criteria considered. Type 1 shows the highest stability linked to the lowest coefficient of variation of income and a relatively low coefficient of variation of productivity.The low coefficient of variation in income is related to regular sales of animals. Despite being stable, this income (economic access) is one of the lowest due to increased purchases of fodder over the years (because of the growth of the herd linked to a positive natality rate). Type 2 achieves full satisfaction of the utilisation dimension, but the lowest stability, leading to a high coefficient of variation in income.This system mainly produces staple crops and income depends on the surpluses that are sold. Type 3 also satisfies the utilisation dimension, does not lead to deforestation, and has one of the highest stability rates and income. Type 4 has the best economic performance enabled by the cultivation of oil palm but does not satisfy the utilisation dimension (only 26% of the caloric needs fulfilled), and its stability is one of the lowest because this type of farm is completely dependent on sales of palm oil. In addition, 20% of the forest is cleared at the end of the 10 simulated years.  This scenario led to a decrease in the annual income and an increase in the coefficient of variation of income linked to high economic losses during years with low rainfall (Table 7, Figure 7). Consequently, the threshold of 1,300 US$ which triggers deforestation (section 3.1) was not reached and no forest was cleared.- The simulations presented in this paper made it possible to quantify the trade-offs between food security and forest exploitation in mestizo communities, and showed that the different decision rules identified by the farmers can lead to rapid deforestation. Indeed, our simulations showed that the management practices of cattle breeders, oil palm farmers, and moderately diversified farmers led to deforestation over the 10-year simulation period. Consequently, for these types of farmers, the forest was gradually undergoing deforestation. Residual forest area at the end of the simulation period amounted to only 28% of the original forest area for livestock farmers, 80% for oil palm farmers, and 94% for moderately diversified farmer types.Conversely, the strategy and decision rules of very diversified farmers did not lead to forest clearing over the simulated 10-year simulation period. Such results highlight the contrasting dynamics in mestizo communities that lead to specific forest exploitation patterns (Porro et al., 2015) and the importance of carrying out disaggregated analyses with different farmer types, even within relatively small spatial areas. Specific trade-offs were found among the dimensions of food security, and between these dimensions and forest exploitation for the different types of farmers identified. Our simulations showed that there is no ideal type achieving best performances in all food security dimensions and with respect to deforestation simultaneously. Nonetheless, crop diversification appears to be the strategy that best supports all four dimensions of food security, especially utilisation and stability, allowing income stability (but not necessarily income increases) with low rates of deforestation. These results are in agreement with those of multiple studies highlighting the importance of agricultural biodiversity to achieve food security, and sustainable food and farming systems (Thrupp, 2000;Frison et al., 2011;Bioversity, 2016;Jones, 2017;Zimmerer and de Haan, 2017). These findings also emphasize the need to incorporate strategies based on agricultural biodiversity as part of initiatives and interventions that aim at achieving the SDGs 2 and 15 in the Amazon.The less diversified strategies of the other types of farmers produced high values in one dimension of food security, such as income (related to food access), but generated substantial trade-offs in the other dimensions. For moderately diversified farming systems, that are subsistence-oriented, there are tradeoffs between availability and utilisation on the one hand, and access and stability on the other. For oil palm farmers, there are trade-offs between economic access on the one hand, and availability, utilisation, stability, and forest clearing on the other. For livestock farming systems, there are trade-offs between stability on the one hand, and access, availability, utilisation, and forest clearing on the other. The livestock farming system faces the highest constraints since the constant increase in the number of livestock requires expanding the grassland areas. Such expansion is mainly based on the availability of forest areas, which are becoming increasingly scarce. A similar conclusion applies to oil palm farmers where the dynamics of the system is largely based on the availability (and decrease) of forest areas.Additionally, we simulated changes in the sale price of palm oil, a cash crop that has undergone major expansion in recent years in the region. Such price changes can be the result of changes in subsidies, public incentives or market shocks, and decreasing trends for oil palm prices have been reported in recent years. Our simulations showed that such price changes have strong adverse effects on the income stability of oil palm growers, especially when associated with unfavourable rainfall patterns, but stimulate reduced deforestation rates in the medium term.Although it has been reported that mestizo families in the study sites know a variety of species of wild fruits from secondary forests, agricultural fields and home gardens (Cruz-Garcia and Vael, 2017), we found that gathering of forest fruits was minimal. This could be related to the reduced availability of forest and the increased orientation of the production towards monocropping and markets. In addition, some farmers make use of destructive harvesting practicesi.e. cutting down trees to collect fruitseven for tree species they perceive to be decreasing in abundance (Cruz-Garcia, 2017). In this context, it is necessary to promote sustainable management practices that ensure the conservation of forest species that can play a major role on food and nutrition security, and raise awareness about their potential contribution to nutrition.Deforestation in Ucayali is driven not only by small and medium producers but also by large enterprises, logging and mining activities (Fort and Borasino, 2016). However, focusing on the effect of individual decision rules of small-scale farmers with respect to forest clearing can provide guidance for policy makers who aim to prioritize specific farming systems. If food security and income stability with low deforestation rates are a priority, systems based on the diversification of agricultural production and the conservation of forest appear to be appropriate. On the other hand, if the objective is to increase income and the promotion of oil palm farming systems is selected for that, policy makers should be aware that this would involve a higher risk of income instability linked to low agricultural diversification, and high price volatility associated with high deforestation rates.We built an ad-hoc modelling tool (Affholder et al., 2012) that allowed us to both synthetize our knowledge on the functioning of farming systems in the deforestation frontier (steps 1, 2 and 3) and to analyse the interaction between forest exploitation and food security at household level (steps 4 and 5).The tool built did not aim to represent the whole complexity of existing farming systems but rather to zoom into this complexity, by focusing on the consequences of farmer's management decisions (these decisions were identified based on the interviews and surveys conducted with different types of farmers).Consequently, the simulation outputs were not expected to provide an exhaustive representation of reality, but to support the comparison of different types of farming systems in relation to forest exploitation and food security. A major benefit of using a simulation tool is that it allows the exploration of the multiple effects of a particular change in the environment or in the productivity of farming systems (i.e. the sensitivity analysis and scenarios explored related to the reduction of oil palm prices). The role of simulation tools for synthetizing existing knowledge and exploring new conditions has been highlighted by several studies (van Ittersum and Donatelli, 2003;Affholder et al., 2012).Agent based models have been developed to analyse socio-environmental systems (Iwamura et al., 2016) and are particularly relevant to evaluate interactions between agents and their collective management of resources. In our case study, which was conducted with mestizo communities in Ucayali, the forest is considered by farmers as a private resource, often cleared to ensure land tenure rights or to obtain an additional income, rather than as a collective resource. The modelling tool we built was based on context specific data, but the method we used for its development was cost-efficient: the data corresponding to the variables used for the bio-physical sub-model was collected in standard farmer surveys or derived from the literature. The decision-making rules describing farmers' behaviour have been collected using focus groups, interviews, and surveys.Different socio-demographic variables, such as off-farm employment or the size of the family could produce variations within each 'type' of farmer. However, they did not explain variability within the data when the typology for this particular study was built and consequently were not included in the modelling tool. . Factors such as disease or the death of a family member, or children continuing their studies after school, are economic shocks at household level that might influence farmers' decisionmaking, thus could be incentives to cut down trees to obtain extra income. We discussed these factors in the step 1 of the study but did not include them in the modelling tool.The object oriented structure makes it simple to introduce more complexity in the modelling tool (Andrieu et al., 2015) even if this is not always desirable since it is generally associated with more assumptions and increased errors (Passioura, 1996).There are some aspects that could be incorporated to the simulation tool in future studies. For instance, seasonal stability in addition to inter-annual stability. Likewise, future studies could also explore the consequences of forest exploitation on nutrition, which is certainly relevant in the context of micronutrient deficiencies and the increasing need of diverse diets. In addition, home gardenswhich play an essential role in the food security of rural households (Galluzzi et al., 2010) were not analysed separately but were included in the analysis as a component of the farm. Future modelling could distinguish the contributions of home gardens and cultivated fields as complementary environments for achieving food security. Finally, the present study paves the road for future simulations on the tradeoffs between food security and forest exploitation in other scenarios, for instance, under increased incentives to improve the quality of pastures or the genetic quality of livestock, or under new incentives such as payment for forest conservation and reforestation.We developed a methodology based on five complementary steps to facilitate the analysis of the tradeoffs and synergies between food security and forest exploitation at household level among mestizo communities in Ucayali. First, we identified decision making rules with farmers; second, we conducted farm household surveys; third, we built a typology of their main characteristics; fourth, we developed an ad-hoc modelling tool that makes it possible to analyse current trade-offs and synergies between the four pillars of food security and forest exploitation for the different types of farming households, and five we applied the tool to compare the different types of farming systems found in the study sites. Four main types of farming households were identified based on their crop and livestock diversity: livestock farmers, moderately-diversified crop farmers, diversified crop farmers, and oil palm farmers. For all four types, the forest mainly represented a set aside area to support potential growth of agricultural production. However, over a ten-year simulation period, farm diversification appears to be the strategy that best supports forest conservation and all four dimensions of food security, particularly utilisation and stability.This study makes an innovative methodological contribution to the existing literature, by showing the importance of agricultural biodiversity to achieve food security through the combination of participatory methods, structured surveys, multivariate analysis, and simulation tools. This tool allows to quantify the role of farming practices on food security and forest exploitation, which provides important insights for policy makers. Further research could focus on improving the modelling tool used in this study taking into account additional variables (e.g. to have a more detailed assessment of the different dimensions of food security), and to simulate other scenarios, such as conservation incentives or agricultural subsidies.belonging to their neighbours and neighbouring communities. The 5-km diameter was selected to capture the presence of nearby forest, either private or protected which might be used by these communities. The forest cover was estimated using the percentage of area with 60% or more canopy for each community. Given that the most recent information concerning areas with 60% or more canopy dated from the year 2000, this information was estimated for 2014 using data on the percentage of deforestation for the 2001-2014period (Global Forest Watch 2016). Global Forest Watch uses Landsat satellite images with a 30 m resolution. Sixty percent canopy was chosen rather than 30% canopy (which is too low to capture actual forest cover) following the recommendations of Hansen et al. (Hansen et al., 2000). In addition, the area under oil palm plantations (obtained from images of Google Earth from 2010 to 2013) was deduced for the Peruvian communities, where palm oil is increasingly popular, in order to have better quality data. Although the data was corrected for oil palm plantations, the forest cover might also include some extensions with fruit trees or timber plantations, and primary forest is not differentiated from secondary forest.","tokenCount":"7725"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fcd65173d93fef87f1f967514036a2c1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor-icraf.org/publications/pdf/reports/Kenya-Legal-Policy-Framework.pdf","id":"-19024491"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ccb09af4-8b58-45c7-a8b8-30194ccc5f25","pagecount":"33","content":"CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.orgWe would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.This paper evaluates the integration of three high-level categories of the 13 principles of agroecologyresource efficiency, resilience, and social equity and responsibility-into Kenya's Constitution and 14 sectoral strategies, policies, and laws. Policy, legal, and strategy documents were analyzed to identify enabling and exemplary provisions and barriers to the agroecological transformation of Kenya's food system. Kenya has a raft of laws, policies, and strategies that integrate agroecological principles and support the agroecological transition of the food system. These include provision for: i) integrated soil and plant health; ii) re-design of farms and landscapes through integrated soil, water and management, and the integration of crops, trees and livestock to support farm diversification; iii) enhancing climate resilience; iv) strengthening co-creation of knowledge and ensuring equity through participation of local communities in the food system. The focus on achieving high cereal yields, bolstered by public subsidies for mineral fertilizers and hybrid seeds, limits the investment in agroecological approaches. Despite a raft of enabling and exemplary provisions, uneven distribution of resources and inconsistent implementation present veritable barriers to agroecological transition. More importantly, there is a need to strengthen institutional mechanisms for consultation and cooperation between the national and county governments to ensure the agroecological transformation of food systems nationally.Food systems influence animal and human health, livelihoods, household well-being, and overall economic, ecosystem, and planetary health outcome. The agricultural sector is the backbone of Kenya's economy, contributing 33% to the GDP, 65% of national exports, and employing over 40% of the total population and 70% of the rural population (FAO,2019). Smallholder farmers dominate the sector. For example, more than 95% of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed are grown domestically, mainly by smallholders, and are supplied mostly by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through informal supply chains (World Bank, 2013).Kenya's laws, policies and strategies on the environment and natural resources are informed by or written to align with the global commitment to sustainable development, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its predecessor Millennium Development Goals, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Wetlands, and the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification. Similarly, Kenya's agricultural laws, policies and strategies have been influenced by the precepts of the Green Revolution from the dawn of the colonial era to the present time, with a strong emphasis on commodity crops, cereal monocultures and heavy reliance on chemical inputs. Like elsewhere, reference to sustainable agriculture is very recent and has primarily been shaped by the Agenda 21 action plan, which emerged from the 1994 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which emphasized the need for sustainable agriculture practices to protect the environment, conserve natural resources and ensure food security. strategies to build resilient food systems (crops, livestock and fisheries) through sustainable management of land, soil, water and other natural resources. Moreover, since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the World Bank has significantly ramped up its engagement and investment in climate-smart agriculture (CSA), with a focus on increased productivity through improved management of inputs, increased resilience and reduced emissions.In 2004, the Kenyan government launched the Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (SRA), whose vision was to transform Kenya's agriculture into a profitable, commercially oriented, internationally and regionally competitive economic activity that provides high-quality, gainful employment to Kenyans. In 2010, the government launched a successor strategy, the Agriculture Sector Development Strategy (ASDS), with a vision of a prosperous food-secure nation. In 2019, the Agriculture Sector Growth and Transformation Strategy was launched with three objectives: increase producer income, increase agricultural output and value addition and build household food resilience. Remarkably, little progress has been made in two decades. The challenges of food security, transforming agriculture from subsistence to farming as a business-agribusiness, markets, efficient use of inputs and agricultural credit and rural poverty -persist. Moreover, Kenya's food system is defined by an incomplete transition to the agro-industrial model, as evidenced by low per capita fertilizer use, soil nutrient mining, low adoption of improved germplasm, low investments in irrigation and vulnerability to climate change.Unsurprisingly, Kenya's progress towards ending hunger and ensuring food security and nutrition is slow.The proportion of people severely food-insecure increased from 15% to 38% between 2016 and 2022 (FAO et al., 2023). According to the Kenya Household Budget Survey, 32% of the population is below the food poverty line, with rural areas recording the highest incidence at 35.8% 3 . Climate change and land degradation threaten to aggravate an already dire situation that is further enfeebled by an agriculture sector that is constrained by poor access to appropriate and affordable financial services, especially for small and medium-scale producers, low levels of public investments in critical infrastructure like irrigation, rural roads, energy, research and extension services, weak intersectoral policy and investment coordination and enervating bureaucratic and political inertia.Transforming agriculture and food systems in line with SDGs is an imperative that can no longer be ignored or postponed. In recent years, there has been increasing demand to produce more food and achieve agricultural production while enhancing nutrient use efficiency, improving soil health, conserving biodiversity, being resilient to climate change and being socially inclusive and economically fair. In facing this challenge, agroecological approaches (HLPE, 2019) play a pivotal role by connecting resource use efficiency, resilience and social equity of food systems from production to consumption. Increasingly, agroecological principles have become a framework for agricultural transformation in countries like Uganda and Tanzania 4 , mainly in contexts where civil society organizations, through multi-stakeholder platforms, actively advocate for change. This analysis evaluates how public policies, laws and strategies integrate agroecological principles and support or impede incentives for the agroecological transformation of Kenya's food system. Specifically, the analysis aims to identify i) enabling provisions, ii) exemplary provisions that go beyond the agroecological principles, and iii) gaps and limitations to effectively integrating agroecology principles into policies and strategies. This report will serve as basis for policy dialogue among the relevant stakeholders, including civil society, policymakers, farmers, farmer organizations, researchers, and development partners. Its aims are to: i) encourage the implementation of supportive and exemplary provisions that facilitate the agroecological transformation of food systems and ii) to motivate a review of policies to address current barriers and gaps hindering this transformation.Assessing agroecological integration in policy involves evaluating how well agricultural policies incorporate agroecological principles. The laws, policies, strategies and laws are assessed to determine the extent to which they align with High-Level Categories of the 13 Agroecological Principles, namely: i) resource efficiency, ii) resilience, and iii) social equity and responsibility (Table 1). We also analyzed the alignment and coherence of the Constitution and relevant sectoral laws, policies and strategies (e.g., agriculture, food and nutrition land use, environment, water, soils, climate) to determine whether they support or hinder agroecological transitions. It identifies enabling and exemplary provisions, barriers, and gaps that impede agroecological transition. The analysis comprised the following steps (See Figure 1): a. Identify laws, policies, and strategies for agriculture, the environment, natural resources, climate change, trade, and related sectors. The documents were accessed through government websites or official publications.b. Criteria for document inclusion. This included explicitly mentioning one or more of the 13 agroecology principles, sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, and land use management. The Agricultural Policy 2021, launched by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives, aims to transform Kenya's agricultural sector by addressing key challenges and promoting sustainable growth. The main objective of the policy is to improve food and nutrition security and maximize incomes. Specifically, the policy aims to protect and conserve biodiversity and promote wise use of natural resources that support sustainable agriculture.Concerning improving resource efficiency, it touches on integrated soil management practices to improve soil fertility, including using farmyard manure, thus recycling and reducing dependence on external inputs. In terms of strengthening resilience, the policy recognizes aspects like integrated soil fertility management, use of farmyard manure, water harvesting and conservation, crop diversification, management of farm-level biodiversity conservation, functional diversity, including farm forestry, economic diversification and pasture management.In securing social equity and responsibility, the policy emphasizes the involvement of youth in agricultural value chains through the promotion and participation of youth in agribusiness, value addition, and related activities. The policy also addresses resource governance through the conservation of water catchment areas and riparian areas. However, there are critical gaps in the co-creation of knowledge and the reembedding of food systems in local economies. Moreover, current policy provisions are oriented toward top-down extension services even though the policy recognizes the utilization of both scientific and indigenous knowledge. Moreover, there is a focus on international and regional markets, consistent with the commodity crop export focus.In recognition of projected climate change effects on rainfall and soil moisture regimes, the policy makes explicit provisions for mechanisms for investing in irrigation and irrigation infrastructure, including water harvesting and conservation to increase water productivity, including the development of strategies to provide incentives for efficient water use including recycling for crops, livestock and fisheries. In this regard, the policy provisions are exemplary and go beyond the agroecology principles.The Agricultural Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS) was launched in Kenya in 2019. The Strategy has three objectives or anchors: i) increase producer incomes; ii) increase agricultural output and value addition; iii) build household food resilience. Over the next five years, the Strategy seeks to increase small-scale incomes by 35%, increase agricultural output and value add by 6% and boost household food resilience. The approach promotes strengthening resilience through crop diversification, cultivating nutritious traditional crops, and climate-smart natural resource management practices, including soil health and catchment protection measures. The provisions of fodder, feed management, index-based insurance, and animal health are exemplary regarding the animal health principle.The Strategy promotes participation and fairness through collective marketing and price negotiation. It prioritizes livelihood and income protection through cash transfer programs. It provides basic infrastructure (water, energy, roads, markets) and cold chain storage and marketing services as critical pathways to poverty reduction and rural development. The Strategy advocates for the use of e-vouchers for the purchase of animal feed and seed and the compulsory use of lime, in addition to inorganic fertilizer. However, there is a need to consider repurposing public subsidies for mineral fertilizer and hybrid seed to include complementary organic resources such as high-quality compost and manure, as well as agroforestry and legume germplasm.Research in Kenya is conducted by both public and private institutions, with the National AgriculturalResearch Systems (NARS) serving as the legal and guiding framework. The overall objective of the policy is to develop a modern agricultural research system framework that will contribute to food and nutrition security and socioeconomic development. The policy promotes research on the sustainable use and conservation of natural resources, including land, forests, flora, and fauna, ensuring ecosystem preservation and utilization for societal benefit.The Strategy is committed to knowledge co-creation and advocates for harnessing the best science, technology and indigenous knowledge. The policy recognizes the value of integrating the best scientific advancements, technological innovations, and indigenous knowledge to develop holistic solutions to complex challenges rooted in empirical and local knowledge. The policy recognizes the need to document and protect agrobiodiversity resources to ensure initial owners and managers share associated benefits. Furthermore, the policy's advanced integrated information and communication technology system and knowledge management strategy are crucial for facilitating the shift from a technologyintensive food system to an agroecological food system. This new system will be driven by integrated science, technology, place-based ecological knowledge, and adaptive innovation. The policy promotes broad stakeholder participation through a comprehensive consultation, collaboration and partnershipbuilding framework.This Act was developed in 2013 and revised in 2022 to consolidate the laws regulating and promoting agriculture and establish the Agriculture and Food Authority. The Act provides guidelines for preventing soil erosion, protecting water catchment areas, maintaining soil health and conserving landscape-level biodiversity. This involves issuing national guidelines for controlling or eradicating noxious and invasive plants, ensuring responsible land management practices and equitable resource access. Under this Act, the national government may prescribe guidelines requiring, regulating or controlling the afforestation or re-afforestation of land and drainage, including the maintenance or repair of drains, gullies, contour banks and terraces. To ensure farmers' effective participation in the agricultural sector's governance, the Act requires close consultation with all registered stakeholder organizations to develop policies or regulations before making any major decision.The objectives of the FNSP are: (i) to achieve good nutrition for the optimum health of all Kenyans, (ii) to increase the quantity and quality of food available, accessible, and affordable to all Kenyans always, and(iii) to protect vulnerable populations using innovative and cost-effective safety nets linked to long-term development. The objectives of the policy are deliberately framed in broad terms to provide room for advocating higher priority interventions and developing operational and management strategies to support, for example, nutrition-dense production systems, incorporating high levels of farm biodiversity, increasing land productivity and integrating approaches an institutional and governance models that expand social inclusion and equity. The policy recognizes soil fertility decline, high input prices, pests and diseases, climate change, and inappropriate land use. These concerns speak to both input efficiency and strengthening resilience.In response to the challenges identified, the policy promotes sustainable food production systems with a focus on increasing soil fertility, agro-biodiversity, organic methods and proper range and livestock management practices; the production of nutrient-rich foods -crops, livestock, fisheries -through diversification of production systems; support for efficient and sustainable irrigation management systems; agroforestry, afforestation and re-afforestation to enhance livelihood systems and environmental resources; rainwater harvesting, water reuse and investment groundwater and irrigation; investment in the development of wholesale and retail markets, including infrastructure to enable food move efficiently between, local and regional of production and demand, and; the integration of climate change adaption, including access to quality weather and advisory in agricultural development.Regarding social equity, the policy promotes inclusive input and output markets and affordable financial products, especially for pastoralists and fisherfolk. Furthermore, the policy encourages the adoption of effective nutrition interventions, creating awareness to ensure all Kenyans have equitable access to nutritious diets and promoting healthy lifestyles throughout the life cycle, including developing and disseminating national food and dietary guidelines and lifestyle education. In an exemplary provision, the policy advocates for an Agricultural Development Fund and advocates for a 10% allocation of the national budget to the food and agriculture sector.The goal of this Strategy is to restore productive capacity and build resilience in the agricultural resource base while contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation through enhanced agroforestry practices. The Strategy seeks: i) to promote agroforestry for soil and water management in combination with practices such as soil restoration structures, no-till farming, cover crops, nutrient management, manuring and sludge application, improved grazing, and efficient irrigation; ii) promote the application of indigenous agroforestry knowledge and practices, innovation and technologies which correspond to the diversity of indigenous peoples and their different contexts; iii) promote agroforestry for sustainable intensification (multipurpose trees) of production of critical staple foods with environmental resilience; iv) create an agroforestry fund (revolving fund) for the value addition opportunities that can provide seeds and incentives for women, youth, and other vulnerable groups to start and scale up agribusiness.The National Agricultural Soil Management Policy 2020 provides an essential framework for promoting sustainable soil health management. The policy recognizes the need for organic carbon recapitalization, encourages the use of organic fertilizers and advocates for a legal regulatory framework for biofertilizers.Moreover, the policy recommends discontinuing Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) basal compound fertilizer, whose application accelerates secondary acidification in iron and aluminium-rich tropical soils.The policy promotes integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) practices, such as using organic resources, proper management of manure, creating a regulatory framework for organic fertilizers, and establishing standards and guidelines for organic fertilizers. Furthermore, the policy emphasizes capacitybuilding initiatives aimed at building capacity on biofertilizers, establishing culture preservation centers to serve as reference banks for biological material and educating farmers on using bio-fertilizers for soil management and producing organic farm inputs.The policy envisages farm-level re-design, promotes farm planning community-based soil and water conservation efforts, and encourages the adoption of agroforestry through increased access to highquality agroforestry planting materials. Moreover, the policy supports identifying and mapping all degraded soils and enables long-term investment in land rehabilitation by integrating land rehabilitation into national programmes and projects. The policy also advocates strengthening the Public Complaints Committee for environmental degradation-related issues. It also calls for integrative approaches to natural resources management (NRM), including more sustainable land use for agricultural production.The NCCRS was realised in 2010 through a collaborative initiative of government agencies, civil society, and the private sector. The Strategy advocates for enhanced financial and technical support for crop diversification through the Orphan Crops Programme so that indigenous and more drought-tolerant food crops like cassava, millet, sorghum, and sweet potatoes can be re-introduced into the farming systems.The Strategy promotes mulching, manure, and crop residues to enhance soil carbon storage and reduce GHG emissions.The Strategy also promotes agroforestry, the application of conservation agriculture principles of minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations, thus addressing land degradation by building soil and stone bunds, creating grass strips and contour levelling, and incorporating trees or hedgerows.Such measures aim to increase rainwater infiltration and reduce run-off during floods and soil erosion.The Strategy promotes inventorying indigenous knowledge that has conventionally been used by local communities to cope with erratic climate and to manage livestock diseases in pastoral systems.The Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy aims to build the resilience of agricultural systems, minimize emissions, enhance food and nutritional security and improve livelihoods. The Strategy recognizes that poor soil health (low pH, low organic matter, low water retention, land degradation, low fertility and low productivity) undermines resilience and contributes to the food system's vulnerability to climate change. The Strategy proposes integrated soil and water management to enhance resource efficiency, including water storage and conservation. The strategy proposes measures such as protecting riparian reserves and wildlife corridors and managing invasive species to strengthen resilience at the broader landscape level.The Strategy recognizes the limited capacity of women, youth, and vulnerable groups to participate in and adopt climate-smart agriculture practices. The Strategy notes that the productive assets of these groups are also exceptionally vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The establishment and management of conflict, especially in arid and semi-arid lands, is proposed as a mechanism to ensure women and vulnerable groups are protected from resource conflict-induced dispossession of production assets and destitution. Other measures to strengthen resilience while securing social equity include early warning, preparedness and response to extreme weather events and using index-based insurance to protect productive assets.The National Land Use Policy offers a framework for recommendations and principles designed to ensure the maintenance of land for land use planning, environmental management and sustainable production in the utilization of land resources, mainstreaming of gender and special interest groups in land use More importantly, the policy recognizes that \"land has an important spiritual value, for it is not merely a factor of production; it is first and foremost the medium which defines and binds together social and spiritual relations within and across generations.\" In this regard, agroecology and the policy share a commitment to ethical responsibility towards the land and past, present and future generations; hence, both agroecology and the land policy recognize the need to foster ecological balance and resilience and embrace the notion of humans as stewards/caretakers, not masters of the land and nature.The Water Policy recognizes that Kenya is a water-scarce country with low annual renewable freshwater availability, which is declining. The policy further notes weaknesses in water resources and limitations in water harvesting and storage against the sector targets and expectations. The policy provides a framework for sustainable management, financing, harvesting, and storage and equitable, efficient, and universal access to water supply for domestic, economic use and ecosystem sustenance.Key policy directions relevant to agroecology include i) the mapping, protection, conservation and management of wetlands and riparian catchment areas; ii) the implementation of sustainable water resource management interventions into land use, physical planning and development control systems;iii) participation of the private sector, civil society, and citizen engagement in water resource management, development, and the monitoring of water abstraction; iv) the integration of implementation of catchment and ecosystem management activities into irrigation projects and other water storage investments; v) mechanisms and resources to enhance gender consideration and equity in water sector planning, decision making and implementation; vi) resources for the management of conflicts in all water sub-sectors and implement measures to encourage and enhance the use of alternative dispute resolution methods including negotiations, conciliation or mediation.The overarching objective of the policy is to utilize livestock resources for food, nutrition security and improved livelihood while protecting the environment. The Policy aims to address the diminishing availability of rangeland resources by proposing measures to address overgrazing, diversification of feed resources, animal health, invasive plant species, pests, and declining soil health. The policy seeks to i) provide for a gene bank for the conservation of germplasm from locally adapted and indigenous breeds;ii) identify a broader range of forage types that facilitate optimum productivity per unit area of land in various agroecological zones; iii) promote appropriate grazing management strategies, including irrigated forage production and put measures to mitigate the effects of pests and diseases and manage invasive plant species; vi) institutionalize the involvement of the communities in planning and development and use of rangeland resources.The overarching goal of the policy is to enable a better quality of life for the present and future generations through sustainable management and use of the environment and natural resources. The policy seeks to achieve this goal by providing a framework for an integrated approach to planning and sustainable management of Kenya's environment and natural resources.Under the policy, the government will: i) develop and implement a national strategy for the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded forest ecosystems and water catchment areas with active community involvement/participation; ii) promote sustainable use of freshwater and wetland resources and the conservation of river and lake ecosystems through development and implementation of river basin management plans; iii) promote efficient adaptation measures for productive and sustainable resource management in Arid and semi-arid lands; iv) promote and support ecological and organic farming to maintain soil fertility; v) develop and implement an environment-friendly livestock production policy that takes account of livestock mobility and communal management of natural resources; vi) strengthen community participation in fisheries resources management, including the protection fish breeding grounds and implementation of closed seasons regulations where necessary; vii) document and value natural capital, promote incentives for payment of ecosystem services and development a monitoring and reporting framework of the use of natural capital; viii) develop mechanisms to ensure the benefits from genetic resources, including intellectual property rights, technology, and traditional knowledge, are shared equitably with local communities residing in regions where the genetic material originated.The National Agroecology for Food System Transformation Strategy draws upon and shall be complimented by several other guiding national and sectoral policies and strategies reviewed in this report. The strategy is an attempt to consolidate various sectoral pieces policies and strategies into one comprehensive document by systematically integrating and harmonizing disparate provisions and frameworks into a unified, coherent strategy to promote the agroecological transformation of Kenya's food systems. This consolidation ultimately fosters streamlined and effective governance framework, promoting clarity and coherence in the regulatory environment.The Strategy aims to promote a sustainable transformation of Kenya's food system to ensure food and nutrition security, climate-resilient livelihoods and social inclusion for all. The Strategy is anchored on five objectives, which include fostering an agroecological transition to resilient and sustainable agriculture and food systems; promoting sustainable consumption of healthy and sustainable diets; enabling environment and incentives for transition and scaling of agroecological practices; strengthening research, innovation and training to foster co-creation and co-learning, and; enhancing social equity, inclusion and participatory governance in the food system.The Strategy seeks to i) Foster the transition to a resilient and sustainable food system through agroecological approaches; ii) promote sustainable consumption and a transition to diverse and healthy diets; iii) create an enabling environment and incentives for scaling agroecological approaches; iv) strengthen research, innovation and training to foster co-creation and co-learning to support agroecological transition; v) enhance social equity, inclusion and participatory governance in the food system.The Strategy advocates bolstering local production and incorporating organic inputs such as manure and compost into current nutrient delivery systems to enhance farm resource efficiency-similarly, the strategy advocates for water use efficiency and enhanced investments in water storage and harvesting. The Strategy advocates for incentives for local research, quality control and standards for biological and organic inputs. The strategy promotes on-farm diversification through integrating, where appropriate, crops, livestock, trees and fisheries to strengthen the resilience of food systems. Furthermore, the Strategy supports collective action and landscape planning to balance food production and livelihood objectives with ecosystem service and biodiversity conservation imperatives at the landscape level.Regarding social equity and responsibility, the Strategy is aligned with the provisions of the Constitution.It recognizes all citizens' socioeconomic and cultural rights, with particular attention to the needs of women, youth, persons living with disability, and minority or marginalized communities. The Strategy seeks to facilitate access and control of productive resources by strengthening mechanisms that secure access to productive resources, including conserving indigenous/locally managed seeds and livestock breeds.This paper evaluated the integration of three high-level categories of the 13 principles of agroecologyresource efficiency, resilience, and social equity and responsibility-into Kenya's Constitution and 14 sectoral strategies, policies and laws (Table 1). More specifically, the documents were analyzed to identify enabling provisions, exemplary provisions and barriers to the agroecological transformation of Kenya's food system. The enabling provision refers to policy, strategy or legal statements or commitments explicitly or implicitly aligned with one or more of the 13 principles under the high-level categories. We define exemplary provisions as statements or commitments that go beyond or exceed what is contemplated or envisioned in the 13 principles. Barriers and gaps are cited to illustrate potential areas of improvement to align policies and actions to support agroecological transition.Enabling provisions for agroecological transition identified under resource efficiency include the integration of organic and inorganic resources for soil fertility management that would simultaneously enhance agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (Vanlauwe et al., 2010)  Provisions that strengthen resilience fall under measures to enhance soil and animal health, biodiversity, More specifically, the National Agricultural Soil Management Policy promotes integrated soil fertility management and recommends discontinuing the use of DAP basal compound fertilizer, the application of which accelerates secondary acidification. Furthermore, the policy advocates for capacity-building on biofertilizers, establishing culture preservation centres to serve as reference banks for biological material and educating farmers on using bio-fertilizers for soil management and a legal regulatory framework for biofertilizers. The National Climate Change and Response Strategy advocates for tree-based intercropping using agroforestry and enhanced financial and technical support for crop diversification through the Orphan Crops Programme to promote the re-introduction of indigenous and more droughttolerant food crops like cassava, millet, sorghum sweet potatoes into the farming systems. Moreover, the policy also supports minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation. Under the National Agricultural Soil Management Policy, the government commits to coordinate the linkage of watershed management to restore the health and fertility of the soils to respond to climate change.The Constitution of Kenya guarantees equality and freedom from discrimination. It grants women and men equal treatment and opportunities in political, cultural, and social spheres. The Constitution further obligates the State to protect and enhance intellectual property and indigenous knowledge of communities' biodiversity and genetic resources and encourage public participation in environmental management, protection and conservation. Similarly, the National Agricultural Research System Policy provides an enforceable incentive framework to facilitate equitable sharing of intellectual property rights benefits among researchers, institutions, communities and industry.The Agriculture Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy promotes participation and fairness through support for collective marketing and price negotiation and prioritizes livelihood and income protection through cash transfer programs. Under the National Climate Change Response Strategy, the government is committed to effectively managing conflict, especially in semi-arid lands, to ensure women and vulnerable groups are protected from resource conflict-induced dispossession of production assets and destitution. The National Food and Nutrition Security Policy supports measures that improve security and access to land and water resources, especially for women, older persons, pastoralists, and child-headed households, to have access to land, water and associated benefits.The National Agroecology Strategy for Food System Transformation promotes the consumption of diverse, safe, and healthy diets in communities. It supports the documentation and information sharing on traditional foods and associated cultures. Furthermore, the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy promotes the adoption of effective nutrition interventions, creating awareness to ensure all Kenyans have equitable access to nutritious diets for healthy lifestyles throughout the life cycle, and supports the development and dissemination of national food and dietary guidelines and lifestyle education packages regularly with revisions at least every five years.In an exemplary prevision, the National Agroecology for Food Systems Transformation Strategy advocates for incentives for local research on inputs and practices, regulation for organic inputs (quality control and certification), credit for MSMEs investing in the production of organic inputs, and the repurposing of current subsidies to promote adoption and use of organic inputs and agroecological practices by farmers. The National Agricultural Soil Management Policy provides for developing a regulatory framework for organic inputs, including certification, quality standards, and traceability.Furthermore, the National Climate Change Response Strategy promotes scaling research in inoculants to improve nitrogen and phosphorous availability in acid soils and enhance soil biological resources.To enhance soil health, the National Climate Change Response Strategy advocates using inoculants to improve soil nitrogen and phosphorous availability and enhance soil biological resources. The National Agricultural Management Policy supports the maintenance of a comprehensive inventory of soil biota, capacity building, and soil biodiversity training.Regarding animal health, the Livestock Policy promotes strengthening national disease contingency plans to address transboundary animal diseases and coordinate the implementation of surveillance and control programs for local, national, regional and global disease challenges. The policy also advocates for the conservation of germplasm from locally adapted and indigenous breeds, enhancement of fodder or animal feed management through the cultivation of diverse forage crops, and better grazing management strategies like rotational grazing systems.The National Agricultural Soil Management Policy provisions recognize trees as an integral part of diversified farm production, providing diversified income options while contributing to carbon sequestration, soil fertility improvement and soil and water conservation. Hence, the government will support agroforestry extension and improve farmers' access to quality agroforestry planting materials.Moreover, the National Agroforestry Strategy provides an agroforestry fund (revolving fund) for value addition opportunities, which can provide seeds and incentives for women, youth, and other vulnerable groups to start and scale up agribusiness.For landscape-level biodiversity, the provisions in the Water Policy for mapping, protection, conservation and management of wetlands and riparian catchment areas, the implementation of sustainable water resource management interventions into land use, the institutionalization of the involvement of the communities in planning, and development of and use of rangeland resources under the Livestock Policy, river basin-level planning under the National Environment Policy are exemplary and complementary of the provisions of the National Agricultural Soil Management Policy, which focus of on overall landscape processes, beyond the farm and field levels. Under the National Land Policy, areas of public land identified as having a high public value (such as watershed protection, critical botanic or wildlife habitat and or landscape values, cultural significance, road reserves for potential future highways, etc.) will not be allocated for other use. The government also commits to map and document all environmentally fragile and marginal land and outlaw encroachment, tilling and keeping livestock on marginal lands.The Land Use Policy recognizes that \"land has an important spiritual value, and is first and foremost the medium which defines and binds together social and spiritual relations within and across generations.  Committee may establish sectoral working groups or committees to implement its functions effectively.For example, the Sector Working Agriculture Group (SWAG) provides a forum for coordinating the national and county governments' policies, legislation and functions in the agriculture sector.Kenya's devolved government system offers potential benefits such as policy responsiveness, relevance, and more robust citizen engagement and participation, but it presents significant challenges for consistency and coherence. For example, the counties of Muranga, working with partners, have written and passed an agroecology policy and acted even before the national government launched an agroecology strategy. Other countries like Kiambu and Vihiga are at an advanced stage in developing agroecology policies and laws. It is important to note that county initiatives to formulate agroecology policies and bills are not coordinated. There is no national framework to support county-level policy processes.A review of the Muranga and Kiambu Agroecology Development Acts reveals striking differences. For example, each county has its definition, which differs from the definition of agroecology in HLPE (2019).The Muranga Act encourages the uptake of organic farming and organic products. In contrast, the Kiambu Act focuses on promoting the uptake of agroecological farming practices, inputs and agroecological products in the county. The Muranga Act establishes an Agroecology Board accountable to the county governor and assembly. The critical function of the board's broad powers includes advising the county government on agroecology, regulating the agroecology sub-sector, and marketing and promoting agroecology. In contrast, the Kiambu Act established a Desk Office-Agroecology whose roles included advising the director of crops and providing secretarial and liaison services to the Kiambu agroecology multi-stakeholder platform.Furthermore, there are capability challenges in county government finance management that have broad implications in policy formulation and implementation. Independent institutions such as the Office of the Auditor General and the Office of the Controller of Budget as well the National Treasury have cited gaps in the control and management of public resources across all 47 counties 6 . The challenges include weak linkage between planning and budget formulation, inability of county governments to adhere to public procurement procedures, non-adherence to principles of fiscal responsibility, pilferage of public resources, weaknesses in human resource management and weak oversight by County Assembly.Despite some of the provisions noted above, existing policies and implementation mechanisms are The National Food and Nutrition Security Policy notes that diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, obesity, heart diseases and some cancers are on the rise. In response, the government supports the promotion of healthy food, diet, and exercise. However, the policy does not provide any measures such as i) standards and labelling; ii) restrictions on marketing of unhealthy beverages; iii) support for farmers' markets urban agriculture; iv) school and workplace nutrition programs; v) subsidy and tax incentives to promote production and sale of fruits, vegetables and whole grain.As is evident, horizontal integration is lacking across sectors and even between departments or divisions within the same industry. This often leads to fragmented decision-making, inconsistent actions, uneven distribution of resources, and lack of or diffuse accountability for results and outcomes. For example, provisions for landscape level management, including protection or riparian buffers, wetlands, hill slopes, water catchment, biodiversity and fragile rangelands, are contained in the Land Policy, the National Environment Policy, the Water Policy, Agriculture Policy, and the National Agricultural Soil Management Policy. Moreover, the effectiveness of institutions responsible for policy implementation is shaped by political economy factors, including weak governance structures, the balance of power and the dynamics of political competition and interest among and between different sectors, departments and divisions, which often undermine the capacity of institutions to services, enforce regulations and address implementation challenges.While the county-level efforts are laudable and should be supported, developing sub-national agroecology laws, policies and institutions without a national framework and coordinating mechanism pose significant risks. These risks can lead to inefficiencies and inconsistencies that hinder the effectiveness and equity of policy implementation, which can undermine a coordinated agroecological transformation of food systems on a national scale.Kenya has a raft of relevant laws, policies, and strategies that integrate agroecological principles and support the agroecological transition of the food system. These include provisions: i) for integrated soil and plant health; ii) for complementary use of organic inputs; the re-design of farms and landscapes through integrated soil, water and management, and the integration of crops, trees and livestock to support farm diversification; iii) to enhance climate resilience; iv) that strengthen co-creation of Vanlauwe, B., Bationo, A., Chianu, J., Giller, K. E., Merckx, et al. (2010). Integrated soil fertility management: Operational definition and consequences for implementation and dissemination.Outlook on Agriculture, 39(1), 17-24. https://doi.org/10.5367/000000010791169998","tokenCount":"6108"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4cb831dd8e2eb62d8b738f41043cc045","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/WPapers/CIFOR-ICRAF-WP-9.pdf","id":"-838946651"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6f910a5a-2cd8-4de6-953b-3d852082c8ca","pagecount":"36","content":"We would like to thank all donors who supported this work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: https://www.cgiar.org/funders/ Any views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of CIFOR-ICRAF, the editors, the authors' institutions, the financial sponsors or the reviewers.Deforestation, particularly in tropical regions, is the most important source of greenhouse gas emissions from the land-use sector, and accounts for approximately 10-12% of global emissions (Griscom et al. 2017). In this context, decision makers such as governments of forest-rich countries, governments of countries importing forest-risk commodities, and private companies operating in the supply chains for these commodities have committed to actively combat tropical deforestation (Lambin et al. 2018).These decision makers have relied on a large and heterogeneous set of policies and measures to curb deforestation and forest degradation. Despite these efforts, tropical deforestation continues and even increases in some regions (Vancutsem et al. 2021). As one of many possible explanations, policies and measures are not implemented in contexts in which they are likely to be most effective. For example, payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes are often implemented in buffer areas of protected areas (Chervier and Costedoat 2017). However, PES schemes are more effective when implemented away from protected areas (Robalino et al. 2015).The burgeoning scientific literature on the impact of forest policies and measures on deforestation is generating an increasing evidence base on the way context influences policy impact (Börner et al. 2020). This literature suggests that the causal impacts of policies stand in a complex relationship to context and policy characteristics (Ferraro et al. 2011;Börner et al. 2017;Chervier and Costedoat 2017;Cisneros et al. 2022). However, there is no synthesis of which contextual or policy characteristics hinder or strengthen the impacts of conservation policies. This leaves policymakers with virtually no tools to make informed decisions. Either they will fall into the trap of a \"one-sizefits-all\" approach or pursue a general call for \"context matters\" without the knowledge base to design and implement approaches based on that context (Ostrom et al. 2007;Ostrom and Cox 2010;Young et al. 2018).This paper forms part of a larger study on deforestation diagnostics, which seeks to identify middleground theories on the way context characteristics influence the effectiveness of forest policies and measures. Middle-range theories enable identification of common causal mechanisms and conditions that trigger, enable, or prevent policy effectiveness across diverse settings (Meyfroidt et al. 2018;Oberlack and Eisenack 2018;Hoffecker 2021). This diagnostics approach has, in turn, three main building blocks (Angelsen 2022): (i) a set of deforestation context archetypes, (ii) a set or typology of relevant policies and measures, and (iii) a pool of evidence on the effectiveness of policies and measures implemented in particular contexts. This paper deals with the second building block of the diagnostics approach. Establishing a typology of forest policies and measures is necessary because of the large diversity of policies and measures available to decision makers in the real world and the limited pool of evidence of the impact of each specific policy and measure. It is, in turn, justified by the commonalities in the underlying theory of change (ToC) of some forest policies and measures that, once identified, could be used to make assumptions about common contexts of effectiveness. Studies that have attempted to create typologies of forest measures and policies usually rely on predefined policy types. Hence, they do not describe methods and criteria used to categorize forest policies and measures into broader types ( Angelsen 2010;Börner et al. 2017;Agrawal et al. 2018;Pirard et al. 2019)either by neglecting extension, marketing, and infrastructure, generating alternative income opportunities, stimulating intensive agricultural production or by reforming land tenure. The second set aims to increase either extractive or protective forest rent and-more importantly-create institutions (community forest management. They also generally fail to cover the diversity of policies used to achieve their deforestation reduction commitments.In this paper, we develop and apply an archetype analysis to identify a typology of forest policy and measures. Archetype analysis is a methodology to create typologies based on identification of \"reappearing but nonuniversal patterns that hold for well-defined subsets of cases\" (Eisenack et al. 2021). A comprehensive archetype analysis characterizes each type by three elements, namely \"a configuration of attributes, a theory or hypothesis that explain the relation between the attributes, a set of cases where it holds\" (Eisenack et al. 2021). Archetype analyses have been used on an increasing range of topics in sustainability research, including land systems and deforestation (Meyfroidt et al. 2018;Buchadas et al. 2022), governance and institutional change (Oberlack and Eisenack 2018) and social-ecological systems (Pacheco-Romero et al. 2022). However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of archetype analysis to the underlying ToCs of forest policies and measures.In this section, we build on Eisenack et al. (2021) to characterize the three elements based on which the policy typology will be created. We frame the universe of cases of policies and measures considered, create a generic ToC of forest policies, and finally identify attributes of forest policies and measures we will use. To characterize these elements, we reviewed the scientific literature that produced typologies of forest policies and measures. We also reviewed various national and subnational strategies from three major tropical forested countries, namely Peru, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Appendix 1 presents the list of references reviewed).The universe of forest policies and measures used in existing typologies is generally narrow. For example, some studies focus solely on policies influencing either the demand (Bager et al. 2021) or the supply of the forest-risk commodities' supply chains (Pirard et al. 2019). Reviewed typologies also tend to focus on policies and measures directly affecting land use. Few studies also include more general development policies that are known to significantly but indirectly affect land-use change (Angelsen and Rudel 2013;Pfaff et al. 2013), or supply chain policies and measures (Lambin et al. 2018).Defining the boundaries of the universe of relevant forest policies and measures is a balancing act. On the one hand, a narrow definition of forest policies and measures is problematic because it does not reflect the diversity of policies and measures used by decision makers to reduce deforestation in the real world. For example, some national or subnational deforestation reduction strategies of major tropical forested countries include measures linked to avoiding road construction or promoting family planning that are rarely included in reviewed typologies. On the other hand, a too broad definition of forest policies and measures is also irrelevant from a deforestation diagnostics perspective. Most public policies affect forest use directly or indirectly. As an example, devaluation/depreciation of national currencies may stimulate the export of deforestation commodities (Arcand et al. 2008). However, it would be unreasonable to suggest that exchange rates could be considered a forest policy as the effect is largely unintentional.In our case, we use the following encompassing definition of forest policies and measure: any policy, programme, or action aimed at changing or significantly affecting the behaviour of forest-related actors and thereby directly or indirectly contribute to avoiding deforestation. The primary objective of policies and measures included in our study is hence not necessarily to reduce deforestation but rather to influence the behaviours of actors who impact, directly or indirectly, the fate of tropical forests (see Table 1). As a result, we include policies and measures such as agricultural policies, rural development policies, and infrastructure development (roads) to the extent they are implemented in forested landscapes and thus influence the behaviours of forest dwellers. Using this definition, we identify a broad universe of forest policies and measures in the literature reviewed (including key strategies in target countries), as presented in Appendix 2. We acknowledge this list is not exhaustive and could be supplemented in the future.Some studies reviewed classify forest policies and measures according to a specific theoretical framework. For instance, Angelsen and Rudel (2013) use the forest transition theory in combination with a von Thünen-inspired land rent theory. They emphasize the structural drivers of deforestation and their evolution over time to classify forest policies according to which main driver they target. Alternatively, Börner et al. (2020) build on an institutionalist approach to human behaviour. This conceptualizes multiple types of rationality underlying the adoption of pro-environment behaviours to define three types of forest policies: incentive, disincentive, and enabling.Our approach is also theory-based. On the first level, we rely on a ToC to help identify patterns in the way they are supposed to bring about change. At a second level, theories (e.g., theories of human behaviour) are used to characterize the various parts of our generic ToC (cf. the next subsection). Overall, this approach allows that policy solutions are rarely influenced by a single type of theory or paradigm, as illustrated with the case of PES (van Noordwijk et al. 2012)the non-provisioning part of ecosystem services, target alignment of microeconomic incentives for land users with meso-and macroeconomic societal costs and benefits of their choices across stakeholders and scales. They can interfere with or complement social norms and rights-based approaches at generic (land-use planning.Given the diversity of policies and measures considered in this study, we need to work at a relatively high level of abstraction (Börner et al. 2020). We organize a generic ToC according to the main steps identified in the theory-based evaluation literature (Weiss 1997;White 2009;Niel et al. 2019;Börner et al. 2020)design, and implementation, our theory of change explicitly acknowledges context. Screening over 60,000 abstracts yielded 136 comparable normalized effect sizes (Cohen's d. A ToC is indeed conceptualized as a way to formalize causal mechanisms in a logical order, from actions implemented (inputs) to their direct consequences (outputs), their intended results (intermediary and long-term outcomes), and ultimately their final desired social and/or biophysical impacts (final impacts) (Niel et al. 2019). Our generic ToC is presented in Figure 1, and the specific content of each step is described below. It differs from other ToC of forest policies and measures formalized in the literature (Niel et al. 2019;Börner et al. 2020;Tritsch et al. 2020). Specifically, it emphasizes the activation of psychological precursors (motivations) as the direct consequence of implementing policies and measures (see below and in section 2.3).Reading Figure 2 from left to right, we first consider that the implementation of forest policies and measures corresponds to our generic input. Second, we argue that forest policies and measures are generally implemented to modify the decisional environment of target actors to trigger specific psychological precursors conducive to behavioural change less detrimental to forests (generic output). In this paper, we build on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the concepts of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, the internalization of extrinsic motivations, and human basic needs to account for the diversity of psychological precursors targeted by forest policies and measures (Deci and Ryan 1985). The SDT has been widely applied in the field on natural resource conservation and management (Rode et al. 2015;Ezzine-de-Blas et al. 2019). Appendix 3 summarizes concepts from the SDT used to build our typology of forest policies and measures. Third, we conceptualize behavioural change as our generic intermediary outcome. The nature of the behaviour targeted depends on the actor targeted by a given policy or measure. Fourth, forest policies and measures aim to mitigate at least one assumed cause of deforestation and forest degradation in the long run, either directly or indirectly (Roe et al. 2015). We refer to assumed causes to recognize that some policies and measures may target causes for which no consistent link with deforestation has been scientifically demonstrated (Busch and Ferretti-Gallon 2017). Following the literature using the open standards for the practice of conservation (Eshoo et al. 2018;Boshoven et al. 2021Boshoven et al. , 2022) ) we thus consider the mitigation of causes of deforestation as our long-term outcome. Lastly, the targeted generic main impact of all forest policies and measures that we include in our study (as per our definition) is deforestation and forest degradation reduction.Forest policies and measures implemented (transfer of material incentives or information)Change in behaviour of targeted stakeholder(s)Source: Authors' construction.The literature reviewed identifies an important difference between common approaches to archetype analysis. Archetypes can be identified either at the level of building blocks (e.g., attribute of policies' causal mechanisms) or at the level of cases (e.g., policies themselves) (Oberlack et al. 2019). For example, Agrawal et al. ( 2018) follow a \"building blocks\" approach. After defining three main dimensions of forest policies -information, institutional, and incentives -they concede that most real-world examples of forest policies are a mix of these dimensions or ideal-types. Following a \"cases\" approach, Pirard et al. (2019) categorize each policy by exactly one archetype. We opt for a \"cases\" approach to archetype analysis that builds on the description of attributes of cases to create mutually exclusive types of forest policies. Such an approach is more informative and more easily used by policymakers, who usually make decisions at the level of policies and measures.We consider three attributes of forest policies and measures that characterize the three central steps of our generic ToC: actors, psychological mechanisms, and the forest threat targeted. We do not identify an attribute for the first and last steps because the first step (inputs) corresponds to the object of our analysis, i.e., the forest policies and measures that we want to classify. Meanwhile, the last step (impacts) is common to all policies and measures included in our study (no variability). In turn, we create a list of sub-attributes for each of these three main attributes (Table 1) using the SDT (Deci and Ryan 1985;Grolnick et al. 1997;Deci and Vansteenkiste 2003), the literature synthesizing the various actors targeted by deforestation reduction policies and measures (Bager et al. 2021) and the theoretical literature synthesizing causes of deforestation (Kaimowitz and Angelsen 1998;Geist and Lambin 2002;Angelsen and Rudel 2013;Busch and Ferretti-Gallon 2017).We acknowledge that a given forest policy and measure can be characterized by several subattributes of the same attribute. Nevertheless, to be able to categorize each policy and measure into a single type, we identify a dominant sub-attribute for each forest policy and measure and each of the three central steps of the ToC. As a result, we can characterize each policy or measure as a combination of three dominant sub-attributes based on which we will build our typology.Actors targeted by forest policies and measuresLand/forest owners and users producing forest-risk or forest-friendly commodities and products, in three main subgroups: (i) small-scale, subsistence-oriented farmers, (ii) medium/large-scale market-oriented farmers, and (iii) companies.Stakeholders involved in the value chains of forest-risk or forest-friendly commodities and products who are not producers or consumers (e.g., input suppliers, slaughterhouse, agro-industrial multinational companies, etc.).End-users of forest-risk or forest-friendly commodities and products, including private individuals and public entities in producing and importing countries.National and subnational governments, as well as national and subnational public administrations, ministries, offices, agencies of forest-rich tropical countries that have mandates related to land use.Actors involved in the movement of capital, assets, and financial resources that eventually affect land-use changes in tropical countries. Includes private and public entities, such as banks, investors, insurance companies, asset managers, and pension funds.One of the main externally regulated motivations in the SDT (Appendix 3) is that people behave to increase access to a reward that is often in the form of material benefits. This mechanism is associated with policies such as subsidies or PES.One of the main externally regulated motivations in the SDT (Appendix 3) relates to the idea that individuals respond to fear of punishment for not complying with standards or restrictions set by laws or norms (Karp and Gaulding 1995). Authority figures such as the state typically have the power to induce obedience or compliance through coercion. This motivation is generally associated with command-and-control policies such as protected areas.This is linked to one of the basic needs of the SDT (Appendix 3): that humans try to satisfy a feeling of social belongingness, i.e., a subjective feeling of inclusion or acceptance into a group of people. Thus, they tend to conform to behaviours they believe are valued by peers or society at large (Leary and Cox 2008). It includes sources of motivation such as social approval, image, shame, pride, guilt, reputation, and honour, which are triggered by this mechanism (Rode et al. 2015). This type of motivation is typically associated with informational policies such as consumer awareness campaigns or disclosure initiatives that aim at revealing a mismatch between a company's behaviour and broader societal values.This is linked to one of the basic needs of the SDT (Appendix 3). It assumes that people try to satisfy a feeling of competence, i.e., to be effective in their interactions with their environment. It is very much linked to the concept of self-efficacy, i.e., \"people's beliefs in their capabilities to exercise control over their own functioning and over events that affect their lives\" (Bandura 1977).It is also linked to the idea that people are more likely to implement a given behaviour if they feel competent enough to do it successfully. This mechanism is typically associated with capacity-building initiatives, such as technology extension programmes.These policies and measures aim to increase perceived or captured use and non-use values of standing natural forests (Pascual et al. 2010) or increase the benefits of forest-friendly activities that contribute to reducing deforestation and forest degradation (e.g., sustainable timber harvesting practices, agroforestry) and/or enhance the provision of forest ecosystem services.These policies and measures aim to reduce the benefits of activities that generate deforestation, forest degradation or loss of forest ecosystem services, including agricultural expansion and unsustainable logging.Weak governance These policies and measures aim to address underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation associated with governance failure such as weak law enforcement, corruption, and open access conditions.These policies and measures aim to address underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation associated with human and economic development, such as lack of alternative income sources and growing population.These policies and measures aim to address underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation associated with inadequate levels of demand for forestrisk (too high) and forest-friendly (too low) commodities and products.Depending on the purpose, the various attributes can be further split into subcategories, e.g., different subgroups of producers, supply chain actors or end-consumers. In some cases, this may be critical for policy impacts. A typical example is the differentiated response by subsistence vs. commercially oriented farmers to policy or market changes e.g., Angelsen (1999). The introduction of higher yielding agricultural technologies among subsistence-oriented farmers may reduce the need for agricultural land expansion. Meanwhile, it provides market-oriented farmers with an opportunity to increase profits by expanding their agricultural land area.This section presents results of the classification of the policies and measures identified in the references in Appendix 1. The 35 policies and measures included in this study are listed in Appendix 2. We present two levels of aggregation, with two and three common dominant sub-attributes, respectively. Increasing the level of aggregation reduces the within-type homogeneity of underlying ToCs. However, it allows for reducing the number of types and thus increasing the likelihood of identifying enough evidence for the impact of each type.Our classification is based on the characterization of each policy or measure included in our sample with three dominant sub-attributes. To avoid a subjectivity bias, each author individually identified the dominant sub-attributes of each forest policy and measure independently. Results of this coding process were compared and any difference was discussed until an agreement was reached. Some policies such as multistakeholder forums or taxes target a particularly large spectrum of stakeholders, making it impossible to identify a dominant type of actor targeted. In these cases, we add a \"multiple\" category. Results are summarized in Table 2.At a first level, Table 2 (column 5) presents 20 different combinations of dominant building blocks. These 20 combinations correspond to disaggregated but homogeneous types of policies and measures. All policies and measures in a given type share the exact same three dominant subattributes (see Table 2). To identify types at a higher level of aggregation, we ran a cluster analysis on our three attribute variables using RStudio (Version: 2022.07.2+576) and the Cluster package. We use the Gower distance to calculate the dissimilarity matrix (Gower 1971) and then run a bottom-up approach to cluster analysis (agglomerative). The Gower distance measure is recommended for categorical variables. Figure 2 shows the results of the cluster analysis, including the short names of our policies and measures at the bottom. Depending on the height at which we cut the dendrogram, we obtain a number of policy types that ranges from 20 at height=0 (our disaggregated types) to 5 at height=1. We chose an intermediary level of aggregation that corresponds to a height of approximately 0.6 in Figure 2. This provides the best balance between (i) within-type homogeneity -types that share at least two common attribute levels, and (ii) a relatively low number of types -10 broad types. These broad types are described below following numbers reported in Figure 2 and in the last column of Table 2. Four broad types target producers in forest-rich countries:• Type 1 includes policies and measures targeting the prospect of rewards as a source of motivation, typically economic incentives such as PES.• Type 2 includes all policies and measures associated with the setting of restrictions on land use and a punishment mechanism for producers who do not comply with these restrictions, typically command-and-control measures such as protected areas.• Type 3 includes only one policy, namely environmental education. It differs from other policy types targeting producers as it relies on a different type of motivation, i.e., the satisfaction of social belongingness.• Type 4 includes includes policies and measures aimed at changing producers' behaviours by influencing their competencies/capabilities. All policies and measures based on a clarification or transfer of tenure rights such as community forestry schemes fall under Type 4. It also includes policies with a strong development aspect such as integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) and infrastructure development. This classification of policies targeting producers reflects how paradigms underlying the conservation of natural resources evolved from commandand-control to economic incentive solutions (Gómez-Baggethun et al. 2010;Boisvert et al. 2013), before slowly integrating lessons from the psychology literature to diversify solutions (Belinga et al. 2021;Gutierrez-Castillo et al. 2022).Two broad policy types target government actors or multiple stakeholders that include government actors and aim to improve the governance of tropical forested countries:• Type 5 encompasses policies and measures that intend to bring about change by increasing linkages between multiple stakeholders, especially in multistakeholder platforms. The literature has heavily advocated for collaborative environmental governance and solutions (Bodin 2017;Reed et al. 2020) and increased linkages between actors have proved to influence deforestation outcomes locally (Wright et al. 2016).• Type 6 encompasses policies that specifically target government actors of forest-rich countries and are aimed at improving governance. This type reflects the recognition that national and subnational authorities play a major role in tackling deforestation. This can be tracked in the literature on decentralization of natural resource governance (Larson 2002) and the more recent literature on jurisdictional approaches (Seymour et al. 2018). Policies and measures belonging to Type 6 aim to improve governance by implementing good governance principles such as accountability or participation (Lockwood 2010) or by creating economic incentives to curve policymakers' decisions (Busch et al. 2021).Two broad types encompass forest policies and measures aimed at curving demand for forest-related commodities and products:• Type 7 targets end-consumers, thus reflecting the increasing recognition of the role played by public opinion and consumption behaviours in driving change, especially among intermediate supply chain actors' behaviours (Lambin et al. 2018;Belinga et al. 2021).• Type 8 encompasses policies and measures targeting intermediate supply chain actors, recognizing the importance of international trade in driving deforestation and the increasing role played by a relatively small number of multinational traders and retailers in forest-risk commodities' supply chains (Walker et al. 2013).The two last broad types can both be used to influence the behaviour of a broad spectrum of actors.• Type 9 encompasses policies and measures aimed at limited captured values of forests and benefits of forest-friendly activities through the transfer of economic rewards. Unlike Type 1, Type 9 policies and measures target a larger spectrum of supply chain actors, especially investors and intermediate supply chain actors.• Type 10 corresponds to policies and measures to reduce the benefits of forest-degrading activities through use of economic sanctions and that can target a broader range of supply chain actors, i.e., generally producers and intermediate supply chain actors.Middle-range theories can be formulated to summarize the conditions under which forest policies and measures are effective in halting deforestation and forest degradation. A key element towards such middle-range policies is a typology of forest policies and measures. Forest policies and measures sometimes share common characteristics or theoretical underpinnings about how they are supposed to bring about change, which makes it possible to cluster them in a way done in this paper. We have demonstrated how archetype analysis as a methodological approach can advance the study of the diversity of forest policies and measures. This is similar to how it has proved well-suited to develop middle-range theories of institutional diversity (Oberlack and Eisenack 2018). Our approach adds to the forest policy typology literature because it is based on a methodology that is bottom-up, systematic, replicable and that can accommodate a large number of cases.Overall, we identify and characterize 10 broad types of forest policies, as reported in Table 2 and Figure 2. The pool of policies and measures used in our archetype analysis is not exhaustive. However, it is arguably large enough for the types identified to be relatively robust to the inclusion of new cases under the current conditions of policy diversification. We anticipate the typology identified may evolve as new forest policies and measures emerge to consider scientific advances and changing societal conditions. For example, the same analysis 15 years ago might not have found the same typology. In particular, we might have missed demand-side policies or policies triggering 'alternative' psychological mechanisms such as social belongingness. These have only recently emerged following the intensification of international trade combined with a swelling knowledge base that quantifies distant causes of deforestation (Munroe et al. 2019), and the multiplication of attempts to apply social psychology theories to the field of natural resource management (Stenseke 2018).Breaking down forest policies and measures into attributes and sub-attributes linked together by a generic ToC is at the heart of our archetype identification strategy. This feature makes our empirical approach suitable for integration into a diagnostic framework aimed at analysing the conditions of effectiveness of forest policies and measures. A diagnostic framework aims to support identification of the specific causes of a problem and the conditions under which this problem develops that are key from a problem-solving perspective (Young 2002). An essential aspect of a diagnostic framework is its ability to break down complex systems into relatively independent lower-level elements. This facilitates characterization of complex systems and analysis of patterns of interactions between sub-elements and how these interactions affect overall system performance (Ostrom et al. 2007).Conducting an archetype analysis of forest policies and measures is one step towards completing such a diagnostic framework and eventually formulating middle-range theories about what policy works in what context.A. Definitions\"Voluntary transactions between service users and service providers that are conditional on agreed rules of natural resource management for generating offsite services\" (Wunder 2015). Encompass both user and government-financed PES.\"Ecotourism is a specific kind of tourism, distinguished from nature tourism and outdoor recreation by its conservation and development goals. Tourism, when designed and practiced as ecotourism, can benefit wildlife and biodiversity, create incentives to protect landscapes, and support local communities\" (Stronza et al. 2019).Programmes that \"accredit goods and services that have met defined process standards meant to protect the environment and social welfare in the places of origin\" (Lambin et al. 2014). Generally associated with either a premium price or a preferred market access incentive. Include private schemes such as sustainable palm oil certifications by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil or sustainable timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and geographical indications.\"a negotiated, legally binding agreement between individuals who own property and a second-party organization (e.g., state agency or nongovernmental organization such as a land trust). A conservation easement restricts specific activities on the property in order to meet the owner's goals and the organization's conservation objectives\" (Farmer et al. 2011).Avoiding the construction of new road infrastructures or favouring the closing of existing roads to avoid deforestation or impact on biodiversity-rich areas (Angelsen 2010).\"Initiatives that aim to manage and conserve natural resources including biodiversity with socioeconomic development components or goals\" (Brandon and Wells 1992). Some have understood this as conservation approaches that include the use of socio-economic investment tools to achieve conservation objectives\" (Minang and van Noordwijk 2013).Transfer of income to poor households that is conditional on taking specific actions, usually related to education and health. \"Conditional cash transfers aim to enhance human capital and thereby reduce the intergenerational transfer of poverty\" (Ferraro and Simorangkir 2020).\"Compensating for losses of biodiversity components at an impact site by generating (or attempting to generate) ecologically equivalent gains, or 'credits', elsewhere (i.e. an offset site). Offsets can be achieved in two main ways: (1) via averted loss from ongoing or anticipated impacts (e.g., avoided deforestation or degradation) at a site through the removal of threatening processes and ( 2) by enhancement of a degraded site through restoration and rehabilitation ('restoration offsets')\" (Maron et al. 2012). The Environmental Reserve Quotas (CAR) was conceived as an offset mechanism (Soares-Filho et al. 2016).Government measure aimed at imposing limitations on land-based development activities by enacting a temporary suspension of new land-related rights by public authorities. A prominent example is Indonesia's moratorium on new oil palm, timber, and logging concessions (Busch et al. 2015).\"A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values\" (Dudley 2008).\"The term embraces a wide range of different management approaches, from highly protected sites where few if any people are allowed to enter, through parks where the emphasis is on conservation but visitors are welcome, to much less restrictive approaches where conservation is integrated into the traditional (and sometimes not so traditional) human lifestyles or even takes place alongside limited sustainable resource extraction. Some protected areas ban activities like food collecting, hunting or extraction of natural resources while for others it is an accepted and even a necessary part of management\" (Dudley 2008).\"Land use zoning results from a spatial planning process that divides a territory into zones with different rules and regulations for land use, management practices, and land cover change. In and of itself, zoning does not promote sustainability but supports legal land use regulations for different units of a landscape\" (Lambin et al. 2014). It includes setting the boundaries for forest estate.\"Encompasses approaches, tools, and programs that develop and support environmentally related attitudes, values, awareness, knowledge, and skills that prepare people to take informed action on behalf of the environment\" (Ardoin et al. 2020). It targets numerous groups, including those that may be marginalized.\"Comprise public land of which the access, management and exclusion rights are granted to non-government actors for conservation purposes, typically for a specific period of time\" (Schleicher 2018). It is generally associated with the prospect of direct payments made to keep the forest intact.Policies that promote recognition of tenure rights. Recognition, in this context, implies a legal process aimed at formalizing, through law or de jure process, rights that are already being held through customary, informal or de facto mechanisms (Fitzpatrick 2005).Forest management approaches where governance is devolved to local community groups or institutions, to varying degrees (Bowler et al. 2012).Scheme through which the state \"gives a company the exclusive right to exploit timber resources over clearly-defined boundaries in its private domain for a specified period. In return, concessionaires must meet several requirements in terms of taxation or provision of public goods\" (Lescuyer et al. 2012).Interventions that promote the use of family planning in order to lower fertility rates (Sellers 2017).Schemes that \"transfer public revenue between governments within a country based on ecological indicators. Here, 'ecological' refers to ecological public functions of governments, which encompass both nature conservation and abatement of environmental pollution. EFTs may transfer revenue 'vertically' from higher-level to lower-level governments or 'horizontally' between governments at the same level. EFT may be 'general-purpose' transfers to subnational government budgets that can be spent on any priority of recipient jurisdictions, whether ecological or non-ecological. Or they may be 'specific-purpose' transfers earmarked for a particular ecological use, for example, reforestation or water treatment\" (Busch et al. 2021).\"Debt to foreign countries and to international banks may encourage forest loss.Debt-for-nature swaps try to address this by reducing international debt, typically in exchange for establishing a conservation trust fund within the debtor nation\" (Pfaff et al. 2013).Conditional loans attach specific reforms -improved law enforcement, expanded parks areas, economic policy changes -to lending from governments and multilateral financial institutions (Pfaff et al. 2013).\"Any political act in which a central government formally cedes powers to actors and institutions at lower levels in a political-administrative and territorial hierarchy\" (Ribot et al. 2006). \"Political decentralization involves the transfer of power to actors or institutions that are accountable to the population in their jurisdiction\" (Ribot et al. 2006).Policy reforms aimed at influencing benefits and costs from corruption linked to the use of forests, including in particular to reduce opportunities to generate excessive private rents through bribes, increase penalties and/or the likelihood of being discovered and punished (by increasing accountability and transparency) (Tacconi et al. 2009). In Brazil, exposing corrupt politicians by making results from financial publicly available records reduced their reelection chances (Ferraz and Finan 2008).These reforms often need to take place outside the forest sector to regulate how political parties are financed, regulating lobbying, judicial reform, the establishment of anti-corruption commissions and free media (Tacconi et al. 2009).The criteria governments set for their purchases of forest-risk products (Brack 2013). An example is the EU Renewable Energy Directive (EU RED) according to which all biofuels used in the EU must comply with sustainability criteria (Walker et al. 2013).\"Requirements on industry, requiring companies to put in place procedures to minimize the chance of them handling illegal products, as in the EU Timber Regulation and the Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Act\" (Brack 2013).Initiatives, which involve public and/or private attempts to increase the availability of information on behaviours harmful to the environment (Tietenberg 1998). \"Disclosure initiatives have been instituted by civil society, often with the backing of financial institutions (banks, pension funds, asset managers, insurance companies and foundations), to emphasise the importance of full information and disclosure throughout the supply chains\" (Walker et al. 2013) and by governments (Cisneros et al. 2015).Marketing strategy aimed at changing consumption (i.e., reducing the consumption of deforestation-risk products or increasing the consumption of forest-friendly products) by increasing consumers' awareness about environmental sustainability and informing them about the benefits and risks of products and services (Dangelico and Vocalelli 2017). This can lead to boycotts, i.e., an organization calling on consumers to avoid purchasing a particular product or brand (Walker et al. 2013).Programmes aimed at enhancing the adoption of technologies and practices that reduce the demand for timber such as cookstoves (Chan et al. 2015) or increase the supply of off-forest timber such as agroforestry (Minang et al. 2014).A model that directs public finance to de-risk and mobilize private or other sources of finance for sustainable development, concessional finance, and green bonds. This can be used to access private capital to fund more sustainable agricultural practices (DeValue et al. 2022).Satellite-based system for real-time detection of deforestation. Such free deforestation alerts reduce the cost to policymakers of monitoring forests, thereby reducing the cost of implementing deforestation policy (Moffette et al. 2021). The act of monitoring can encourage compliance with laws (Rasmussen and Jepsen 2018). It is the key tool for targeting law enforcement activities in the Brazilian Amazon (Assunção et al. 2017).\"Bilateral agreements between consumer and producer countries to establish licensing systems designed to ensure that only legal products enter trade between the two, and improve forest governance in the producer country, such as the voluntary partnership agreements currently being negotiated and implemented under the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative\" (Brack 2013).Such a programme \"is intended to reinforce producer-country government reforms that aim to improve forest governance\" (Pfaff et al. 2013).\"Purposefully organized interactive processes that bring together stakeholders to participate in dialogue, decision-making and/or implementation regarding actions seeking to address a problem they hold in common or to achieve a goal for their common benefit\" (Sarmiento Barletti et al. 2020).Environmental subsidies are economic transfers by a legislator intended to reduce the costs of activities that help protect the environment or reduce the use and extraction of natural resources (European Union 2015).Tax relief measures are \"arrangements and provisions in general tax schemes, with the explicit aim of providing positive financial incentives steering the taxpayers' behaviour in a more biodiversity-friendly direction\" (Ring and Schröter-Schlaack 2011). \"Usually applies reduced rates or exemptions conditional on certain 'biodiversity-friendly' requirements that the taxpayer should fulfil\" (Ring and Schröter-Schlaack 2011).Tax levied on an agent causing an environmental externality (environmental damage) as an incentive to avert or mitigate such damage (Hansen and Lund 2018). This also includes tariffs, i.e., a tax to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports. In this category, we also include both user fees (economic mechanisms that secure revenues from users of biodiversity and ecosystem services) and the reduction of subsidies (for agriculture in particular).Policy that makes the concession of rural credit conditioned upon proof of compliance with legal requirements that contribute to protect the environment.A prominent example is Resolution 3545 published by the Brazilian Central Bank in 2008 (Assunção et al. 2020).In these agreements, brokered by civil society, a significant proportion of an industry agrees to avoid purchasing products arising from a particular area or from deforestation in a specific area (Walker et al. 2013). \"The soy moratorium in Brazil took shape shortly after an NGO report linking illegal deforestation to soy fed to chickens sold in major fast food chains\" (Lambin et al. 2014).","tokenCount":"6350"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dc253a2fb0294bb50f5c16608161448b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/66aa57f3-75bf-4cb5-ba01-08c5a16e2ba3/retrieve","id":"-1094282187"},"keywords":["biodiversity mainstreaming","institutional food procurement","food and nutrition security"],"sieverID":"67c44c33-997a-42fb-83ed-c0a963fa7c6a","pagecount":"15","content":"The Brazilian Food Procurement Program (PAA) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) were identified by the GEF-funded Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project (BFN) ¹ as policy instruments with the greatest potential for diversifying institutional food procurement and improving diets while supporting family farming. This paper discusses the opportunities identified for mainstreaming biodiversity through PAA and PNAE, targeted activities undertaken as well as two case studies. The first case study presents findings linked to the implementation of the PNAE in quilombola communities in Goiás, while the second describes results of the inclusion of Juçara fruits (Euterpe edulis Mart.) in school meals in São Paulo. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the key barriers to better biodiversity mainstreaming and institutional food procurement together with some recommendations.Brazil, one of the largest economies in the world, still faces major challenges in the fight against extreme inequalities, particularly income distribution. Many Brazilians are among the World's poorest. Further, large segments of the population still suffer various forms of malnutrition and diet-related illnesses. Over the last decade, patterns of food purchases by the Brazilian population have changed significantly. Assessment of individual food consumption from a Family Budget Survey (Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares -IBGE 2011) carried out between 2008 and 2009 showed that, on average, Brazilians consume less than 120g of fruit per day (including fruit juice), an amount that is considerably lower than the WHO recommended intake of 400 g per day (WHO, 2003) and recommendations published in the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population (2014). Over the last 30 years, natural food items have been replaced by processed, high-sodium, high-calorie diets, both in urban and rural areas. In addition, measures of nutritional status gathered over the last 35 years from anthropometric survey data (weight, height, mass body index) (IBGE 2010) indicate that, while overall the alarming undernutrition rates observed in the poorest regions of the country have significantly decreased, women of reproductive age and children under five years of age still suffer from anaemia and vitamin A deficiency. Surprisingly, women and children living in urban areas are currently more affected by these deficiencies. In addition, overweight and obesity trends are on the rise regardless of age, region or economic class. Rapid increases in weight gain are observed even for children under 5 years of age. In children between 5 and 9 years of age, as well as in adolescents, the overweight prevalence is three times higher than it was 20 years ago. As for the adult population, overweight indices have been constantly increasing since the mid-1970s, and half of the Brazilian adult population is currently considered overweight.Despite harbouring approximately 18% of global plant diversity, Brazil's agriculture and food security are, to a great extent, reliant on exotic or introduced biodiversity. Since the colonial period, Brazilian agriculture has been based on products destined for foreign markets. Until the 1960s, two main classes of products (coffee and some other agricultural commodities (rubber, cocoa, cotton)) accounted for the majority of the exports (Bacha & Carvalho, 2014;Pereira et al., 2012). From the 1960s, agriculture was progressively transformed into a modern and more diversified production, aligned with the \"Green Revolution\", consisting of the intensive use of machines and inputs, with the main goal of increasing productivity. This evolution was related both to international market changes and to domestic agriculture policy (Bacha and Carvalho, 2014;Redin & Fialho, 2010). However, this modernization process has been directed to large commercial farms, potential buyers of industrial products and those with access to rural credit, and was focused on richer areas of the country (South, Southeast and Centre-West), leaving poorer regions (North and Northeast), small holders and polyculture on the sidelines (Agra & Santos, 2001).Nowadays, although more diversified than in the past, the main rural economic activities in Brazil are still based on a few (mostly exotic) species, such as sugar cane, coffee, beans, rice, soy, orange, corn and wheat. The last agricultural census (IBGE, 2006) showed that farms with more than 1,000 hectares occupied 43% of the total area of agricultural properties in the country and represented only 1% of the total number of properties, while family farmers represent 84,4% of properties and occupy less than 25% of the total area. However, family farming guarantees food production for the domestic market, providing around 70% of the foods consumed in the country.According to Schneider et al., (2016), there has been intense debate and controversy regarding the practices, processes and logic that underlie the conventional system of food production and consumption, resulting in criticism about ways of producing and consuming food. On the production side, there are sound arguments supporting the search for alternative and more sustainable practices, which could contribute to both the improvement of small farmers' living conditions and the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the natural resource base on which our food system depends . On the consumption side, criticism highlights food waste and overconsumption, which ultimately affects food safety and the health of populations.The solutions to these problems are complex. While there is no quick fix, single answer, Brazil's considerable wealth of underutilized biodiversity does offer one option that could contribute to a sustainable solution. The Amazon alone, which accounts for 40% of the Brazilian territory, holds the largest biodiversity in the world -much of it still undiscovered -yet the habitats where it is found are increasingly under threat. Paradoxically, this biodiversity is potentially highly nutritious and exploring this underutilized food source could provide sustainable solutions to diversifying food production and tackling nutritional disorders and other malnutrition problems. Diet and food-based approaches which promote and increase the consumption of nutrient-dense and non-staple biodiversity and foods are important in addressing malnutrition problems identified in Brazil., Native species, many of which are already used at the local or regional level, may provide alternatives for market insertion, due to the growing demand for new product options, notably those related to a healthier diet. Several species native to Brazil are known as important food sources of local and regional relevance, such as cassava (Manihot esculenta), pineapple (Ananas comosus), peanuts (Arachis hypogaea), cacao (Theobroma cacao), cashew (Anacardium spp.), cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum), passion fruit (Passiflora edulis), Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) and açaí (Euterpe oleracea) to name some. The vast majority of other native biodiversity species are largely neglected. Although this situa-tion is gradually changing with growing interest in the economic value, food and nutrition potential of native biodiversity, and the quest for alternative food production models, there is still a long way to go to better mainstream biodiversity for food and nutrition in Brazil.At present there are many barriers and obstacles in Brazil, as there are elsewhere, preventing the better integration of biodiversity for enhancing food and nutrition security (Hunter et al., 2016). These challenges include: the knowledge and evidence gap that exists around native biodiversity and its nutritional value; limited capacity and research partnerships to address this; making this information widely available and in formats that meet the knowledge needs of a wide range of actors (from nutritionists to senior policy makers); establishing policy platforms and revising policy and regulatory frameworks; identifying and developing markets both public and private; and, promoting greater awareness and understanding of the nutrition and food benefits of native biodiversity (Hunter et al. 2015). This paper highlights how these challenges are being tackled in Brazil through improving knowledge, partnerships and alliances as well as awareness and understanding of the nutritional value and multiple benefits of native biodiversity. Specifically, it highlights how this is being brought to bear on already existing government initiatives and public policies that regulate and guide procurement and distribution of food, thereby creating a better enabling environment for biodiversity mainstreaming for food and nutrition security.The Zero Hunger Strategy was set forth by the Brazilian Federal Government in 2003, with the goals of ensuring the human right to adequate food to those people that have difficulty to access food, promoting food and nutritional security, and achieving social inclusion and citizenship. It has been highlighted as an innovative and successful multi-sectoral institutional framework in addressing poverty and malnutrition (Maluf et al., 2015;Chmielewska & Souza, 2011). A number of initiatives were launched or strengthened under this program to increase access to food for the poorest Brazilians and to support small-scale and family farmers, as a strategy to strengthen domestic markets and promote sustainable development (see Box 1 for an overview). At an early stage of the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition (BFN) Project, the partners involved -which included representatives of the ministries of the environment, agriculture, social development, agrarian development, education and health -identified this already established federal multi-sectoral institutional framework and associated federal initiatives and policies as a strategic opportunity to enhance the mainstreaming of biodiversity for improved food and nutrition outcomes. As a first step, the Secretary of Biodiversity and Forests from the Ministry of Environment -the executing agency for the BFN Project in Brazil -spent considerable effort in raising awareness and understanding about the project, its objectives, expected outcomes and planned activities and funding support. This included regular visits to all relevant ministries and institutions to explore opportunities and synergies, to establish alliances and partnerships, and to discuss roles, responsibilities and issues around funding and co-financing. A project governance mechanism -the National Steering Committee -was established to coordinate and manage this partnership transparently and included the above-mentioned ministries as well as representatives of the National Supply Company (CONAB), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRA-PA) and the National Food and Nutrition Security Council (CONSEA). Through partnership with these institutions, the BFN project team was involved in a series of national activities promoting the importance of biodiversity for food and nutrition within the following Federal Government Initiatives: the Food Procurement Program (PAA), National School Feeding Program (PNAE), Minimum Price Guarantee Policy for Sociobiodiversity Products (PGPM-Bio), National Plan for the Promotion of Sociobiodiversity Value Chains (PNPSB), Development of Organic Agriculture (Pro-Orgânico) and National Food and Nutrition Policy (PNAN), though the PAA and PNAE were of particular interest (Figure 1). Both PAA and PNAE contain useful entry-points for potentially improving nutrition or livelihoods with links to native biodiversity and this was seen as one of many strategic interventions by the BFN Project in Brazil. In 2009, the PNAE decreed that at least 30% of the food purchased through its program must be bought directly from family farmers (Brasil, 2009). These initiatives include incentives of up to 30% in the price of organic or agroecological produce and prioritize the purchase from settlers of the agrarian reform, quilombolas and indigenous communities, while also supporting the work conducted by family agriculture organizations to rescue, produce, store, and distribute seeds of local or traditional varieties through the purchase of seeds produced by farmers and donation of these seeds to families and communities experiencing uncertain access to food. This creates new opportunities for the use of resources from the various Brazilian ecosystems, promotes the opening of \"institutional markets\" for biodiversity products while providing incentives for the management and sustainable use of Brazilian food and agricultural biodiversity (MMA, 2006).Paraphrasing Sunderland (2011), the term \"biodiversity\" linked to food and nutrition security can be seen to include three components: ecosystems, the food species that grow therein (wild or cultivated, e.g. inter-species diversity) and the genetic diversity within each species, that is the variation in nutrient content existing among cultivars, breeds, and varieties of the same species (or intra-species diversity), which forms the basis of biodiversity for food and nutrition. Combinations of these species and varieties/breeds within our diets are mostly able to fulfill optimal human dietary needs as well as provide a local solution to diet-related nutrition and health conditions. However, realizing the potential of biodiversity to achieving improved and sus-tainable nutrition outcomes along with economic development is a challenge and there remain many barriers to creating more effective enabling environments for mobilizing biodiversity for food and nutrition (Hunter et al. 2016). It requires sustained efforts and activities focusing on strengthening the evidence base, improving policies, markets and governance as well as building capacity and raising awareness. Each of these areas represent the core components of the BFN Project and improving and demonstrating the evidence base and value of biodiversity was identified as the first key step on the road to better mainstreaming. If decision-makers and the general public are provided with the necessary tools and are able to recognize biodiversity's value in general, there is a better chance they will be interested in its conservation and sustainable use. More specifically, without detailed nutritional information on local biodiversity it would be very difficult for it to be considered in either the PAA or PNAE, or other relevant initiatives, in a significant manner. Given Brazil's vast wealth of biodiversity, it was essential to be strategic in terms of the numbers of species targeted and as a starting point it was critical to undertake a prioritization process. To align with another well-established federal initiative, the Project opted to work with 65 native fruit species, which had been previously identified and prioritized by the Plants for the Future, an ongoing initiative coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) that aims to survey, document and promote the conservation and sustainable utilization of neglected/underutilized plant species with economic value or economic potential. Nutritional composition analysis work of the selected species is being carried out in partnership with public Universities and research institutes across the country: the Federal Universities of Goiás (UFG), Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Pará (UFPA), Federal and State Universities of São Paulo (UNIFESP and USP) and Ceará (UFC and UECE), National Institute of Amazonian Research (IN-PA) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA). Currently, over 100 students, professors and researchers are working on activities developed in partnership with the BFN Project.By working in a decentralized way, capacities are being developed in different Brazilian regions, facilitating the setting up of \"Regional Centres for Food Composition Data\" and also raising awareness among students, researchers and professors about the importance of food composition and biodiversity for food and nutrition. These groups act as multipliers within education and research institutions, building additional human capacity and also operating as opinion leaders and policy advisors. Some of the Universities engaged are Collaborating Centers on Food and Nutrition (CE-CANEs), linked to the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) and provide research and technical backstopping to those involved with PNAE. By providing technical assistance and capacity building for municipal managers, school managers, nutritionists and cooks responsible for implementing PNAE, the partnership is likely to favor the inclusion of biodiversity in school meals, as seen in case study 1.Native to Brazilian flora, juçara (Euterpe edulis Mart.) is a dominant palm tree of the Atlantic Forest, its distribution spanning from the south of Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul (Iaderoza et al., 1992;Henderson, 2000). Years of illegal palm heart extraction have led the species close to extinction in nature reserves (Iaderoza et al., 1992;Mac Faden, 2005). Recently, in an attempt to promote the conservation of juçara and add value to the forest remnants of the Atlantic Forest, the Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Atlantic Forest (IPEMA) partnered with family farmers in the region of Ubatumirim in Ubatuba (São Paulo, Brazil), to revive the traditional extractive activities carried out by \"caiçara\" communities (native populations liv-ing in the Atlantic forest) and set up a cooperative for the processing, freezing and marketing of juçara fruit pulp for human consumption: http://www.projetojucara.org.br/gastronomia-jucareira-2/. IPEMA is also trying to revive interest in the consumption of the fruit by introducing juçara into school meals. The pulp is highly nutritious, due to high concentrations of phenolic compounds and mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids (Borges et al., 2011;Silva et al., 2014). Its vibrant purple color and mild flavor also make it highly palatable and easily acceptable by children, allowing its introduction into Ubatuba school menus. Recipes were developed and collected in the publication \"Culinária Juçareira\" and cooks were trained on how to use the pulp in school meals while maintaining its nutritional characteristics intact (IPEMA, 2012).Forty family farms in the city of Ubatuba are now benefiting from the marketing and processing of frozen juçara pulp according to the guidelines set by the National School Feeding Program (Brasil, 2009). This case study demonstrates how public policies can simultaneously protect biodiversity, revive traditional food cultures, promote local economies and provide the population with access to organic, diverse and healthy food. Schools can also become the focus of nutritional and environmental education activities, thus strengthening the benefits derived by the sustainable use of native food biodiversity, ensuring food sovereignty, the human right to adequate food and local economic development.Nutritional composition studies were initially carried out through compilation of national food composition data available in scientific literature, food composition tables, documents and reports from local universities and Research Institutes using methodologies developed by FAO/INFOODS (the International Network of Food Data Systems of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations). Training workshops were provided to postgraduate students and university professors who worked directly with the data compilation. As of December 2015, nutrient data was collected for 44 prioritized species and the literature review revealed the lack of data for dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals for most fruit species. As a second phase, nutrient data is being generated by undertaking food composition analysis for all prioritized species for which information is missing or incomplete.Preliminary results available from the data compilation reveal that many of the prioritized native fruits are rich in nutrients. Compared with the five most commonly consumed fruits in Brazil (banana, orange, apple, papaya and watermelon) (IBGE, 2011), some native fruits score higher in terms of content of dietary fiber, calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamin C and vitamin E. For example, vitamin C content in 100g of the edible portion of four native fruits -camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia), mangaba (Hancornia speciosa Gomes), cagaita (Eugenia dysenterica) and cashew (Anacardium occidentale) -were found to be higher than amounts contained in 100g of common varieties of papaya, orange, banana, watermelon, and apple (Mendes, 2015) (Figure 2). Three of the partner universities (UFG, UFC and UFRGS) are also developing recipes using prioritized species to foster their inclusion in school meals, other public/social programs and also the private gastronomy sector. Additional activities include assessing and documenting traditional knowledge and use of the species by traditional communities and identifying challenges for the effective imple-mentation of initiatives that may favor traditional communities and the sustainable use of biodiversity (as shown in case study 2), capacity building (so communities can benefit from native biodiversity), development of information material and awareness raising activities Case study 2: Pnae imPlementation in quilombola Communities in goiás, inCluding barriers for the integration of national CurriCulum guidelines for quilombola sChools Partnering with the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) was instrumental in establishing some of the main on-the-ground barriers and opportunities for introducing traditional foods in school meal programs. Particularly interesting is the case of the quilombola communities from the Central Region of Brazil, descendants of the quilombos -runaway African slave communities -who are a self-proclaimed ethnic and racial group with a common history of resistance and oppression (IN-CRA 2009). Once suffering from undernutrition, a recent study carried out in quilombola schools in Goiás (Cordeiro et al. 2012) showed that children between six and nineteen years of age were more likely to be overweight (17.2%) than undernourished (1.3%), especially students attending urban schools (28.2%) (p<0.05). The households where they came from (75.2%) were also found to experience mild food insecurity. This case study set out to establish whether the National Curriculum Guidelines for Quilombola Schools, developed by the National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE), could be used to diversify diets, revive food culture and improve livelihoods in quilombola communities in Pombal, Goiás. These guidelines provide schools in quilombola areas with 50% more funds than other schools for the purchase of school meals, establishing that school management takes into account the ethno-cultural background and habits of the students in both education activities and school meals. However, these pre-scriptions, it seems, have remained largely on paper with little or no field implementation. Three visits were made to each of the two schools between 2014 and 2015 to assess the level of exposure to and awareness of the guidelines by members from the quilombola community, school managers and nutritionists from two schools in Pombal. A survey of school meals offered by these schools was also carried out to establish just how much fruit biodiversity was available in 20 select quilombola communities for possible introduction in school meals. Loss of food options were documented, specifically whether some of the edible species identified as nutritionally important were: 1) cultivated or naturally present in the communities; 2) consumed regularly and why; 3) viewed as a \"childhood food\" or \"food of the past\".Preliminary results showed that, despite reporting familiarity with the guidelines, school managers mostly disregarded recommendations contained therein when developing the school curricula and planning the Pedagogical and Political Project (PPP) each school is required to prepare. Activities centred on quilombola culture are few and poorly integrated within the school curricula, which is partly due to the lack of literature or educational material on the subject, and quilombola food culture is also rarely taken into account in school meal planning and preparation. Regarding available fruit biodiversity, most respondents from the community (76%) declared consuming the fruits since childhood, recognized fruit consumption as a healthy dietary habit and the production of these species as a possible income-generating activity. Seventeen fruits species prioritized by the Project are produced in at least one community (pequi, mangaba and barú are found in all communities), among other fruits and vegetables, and are collected only for personal consumption. However, all respondents reported a decline in fruit consumption within their communities, especially among younger generations, and that consumption of local fruits is low due to availability of other types of food, particularly processed foods, which are more convenient to obtain. In conclusion, although many fruits from native biodiversity are available naturally in the quilombola communities evaluated, they are not benefiting from their nutritional and income-generating potential.It is evident that the effective implementation of the National Guidelines for Quilombola Schools represents a major challenge. On the one hand, it offers great potential for the mainstreaming of biodiversity and food culture in education while on the other, it is a complex and challenging task for managers at all levels. Qualified teachers are required to develop the PPP and expert nutritionists trained to incorporate traditional foods into school menus.Education interventions will be implemented in one of the schools, composed primarily by quilombola students. Capacity building activities targeting teachers and school staff will help integrate the National Guidelines for Quilombola Schools in the school curriculum and raise awareness of African and quilombola history and culture. Technical advice to these communities and other family farmers can help with this. The involvement of institutions such as SESC (Social Service of Commerce) and EMATER (Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company) is key for the effective production of diversified quality products based on local biodiversity. Once traditional farming communities seize this opportunity, the PNAE and PAA could guarantee the purchase of the products, thus strengthening economic development and contributing to improve the quality of the school meals by increasing the use of regional ingredients and promoting greater biodiversity conservation.The nutritional information and recipes generated in partnership with the universities will be made available through a Nutritional Composition Database hosted by the Information System on Brazilian Biodiversity (SiBBr) at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI). With reliable data on local and regional biodiversity, policymakers can demonstrate the value of these species as a source of livelihood and income for family farmers and communities. Similarly, the nutrition benefits of native biodiversity within diversified diets can be demonstrated to consumers. The Database will provide important evidence for the inclusion of nutritious species in food procurement programs like PAA and PNAE and other public policies targeting food and nutrition security and the promotion of healthy and diversified diets.Among supporting activities to highlight this knowledge and encourage the promotion of foods from Brazilian biodiversity in PNAE and PAA were the organization of workshops with technical staff directly involved in implementing these policies at the Federal level, such as FNDE, responsible for the coordination of PNAE. In addition, a partnership was established with the initiative \"Educating through School Gardens and Gastronomy\" (PEHEG), executed by the Centre for Excellence in Tourism/University of Brasilia (CET/UnB) and funded by FNDE. This initiative aims to diversify school curricula using school gardens and gastronomy as educational tools and to promote healthy eating habits, appreciation of regional ingredients and recipes, learning of cooking techniques as well as experiencing flavors, food textures and aromas. PEHEG also trains professionals involved with PNAE to act as facilitators and agents of change promoting healthy eating habits and sustainability. In 2014, the PEHEG network consisted of 10 hubs, each one comprising 30 municipalities on average, with at least 3 professionals in each municipality responsible for multiplying the technical assistance provided by CET/UnB and working directly with schools. The BFN Project team has collaborated closely with CET/UnB to mainstream biodiversity into PEHEG's activities, organizing workshops for PEHEG personnel, contributing to the development of new training materials used in the municipalities and advocating for the inclusion of native biodiversity tree nurseries as well as the growing of non-conventional leafy vegeta-bles in school gardens, through collaboration with EMBRAPA Hortaliças.During the 5 th National Conference on Food and Nutrition Security (CNSAN) an interactive workshop was organized by the BFN Project to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity for food and nutrition. CNSAN is the forum where guidelines and priorities for food and nutrition security actions are set and communicated to CONSEA to inform policy making. Encouragingly, the reference document for the 5th CNSAN incorporated biodiversity as one of the main aspects related to food and nutrition security and the 2015 Policy Letter, the main outcome from the annual conference, included several recommendations related to the sustainable use of biodiversity to achieve food sovereignty and security. Some of the recommendations focused especially on expanding public policies and actions to guarantee self-sufficiency to family farmers through agroecological practices and promotion of biodiversity, such as creation of organic seed banks and promotion of market chains for nonconventional vegetables and native fruits. Further efforts to mainstream biodiversity into public policies affecting the PAA and PNAE include the development of the National Plan for Food and Nutritional Security (PLANSAN 2016(PLANSAN -2019) ) and lobbying to include biodiversity as one of the solutions for combating food and nutrition insecurity in specific population segments, particularly traditional peoples and communities.The Project also participated in the development of the National Pact for Healthy Food (Decree n. 8553/2015) (Brasil, 2015), which aims to enhance the supply, availability and consumption of healthy foods to combat overweight, obesity and diet-related illnesses and where there is huge potential for promoting organic and agroecological products from family farming and from native biodiversity. Further, many of the actions included in the pact are related to the implementation of PAA and PNAE and these will be multiplied nationwide since they can be integrated by the states, Federal District, municipali-ties, civil society organizations, international organizations and private sector.Technical inputs and institutional support to promote and strengthen sociobiodiversity within the National Plan for Agroecology and Organic Production (PLANAPO) were provided, through participation in the National Agroecology and Organic Production Committee (CNAPO) and the Interministerial Chamber of Agroecology and Organic Production (CIAPO), which also includes representatives from the PNAE, PAA and other initiatives.Procurement programs are also closely aligned to the Food and Nutrition National Policy (PNAN), coordinated by the Ministry of Health. Within the framework of the PNAN and in order to increase the opportunities for mainstreaming biodiversity into federal procurement programs, BFN participated in a series of activities emphasizing the strategic role biodiversity can play in contributing to food and nutritional security and in promoting enhanced conservation and sustainable use. This resulted in the new edition of the book Brazilian Regional Foods (MS, 2015) including a chapter on \"Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition\". The goal of this publication is to promote greater awareness of the different species and varieties of fruits, vegetables, legumes, tubers, cereals, herbs found in Brazil and to showcase regional foods combining recipes and nutritional information. It also encourages the development and exchange of culinary skills, reviving the very act of cooking. For its development, several cooking workshops were organized regionally with support from public universities and professionals linked to schools, social assistance programs, secretaries of health, food and nutrition security councils, non-governmental organizations, among others.Included in the PNAN is the \"Health in School Program\" (PSE), which was also identified as a key entry point for promoting biodiversity. This program fosters visits by primary health care professionals to public schools and provides capacity building for school teachers and managers for the development of ed-ucational activities. Activities are carried out to monitor eating habits and nutrition and to promote healthy eating behaviors consistent with the dietary guidelines for Brazilian children, which impact directly on PNAE. New training materials for the implementation of PSE are being developed, including booklets targeting teachers and health care professionals. To promote the inclusion of biodiversity, technical contributions were made to ensure that biodiversity is included in all training materials with considerable attention drawn to regional foods, particularly native fruit species and their roles in promoting better health and nutrition.In 2014, the new version of the \"Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population\" (MS, 2014) was launched by PNAN, aimed at promoting food and nutrition education actions and national food and nutrition programs and policies in Brazil. The drafting of this new edition involved a complex process with six key steps, the participation of more than 400 people including the BFN project team, who contributed by highlighting the importance of biodiversity for food and nutrition. The new dietary guidelines now take into account healthy diets derived from socially and environmentally sustainable food systems. It highlights the importance of forests and biodiversity conservation, offering reasons to base diets on many varieties of natural or minimally processed foods mainly of plant origin. The guidelines support municipal and farmers' markets, street vendors, and other places selling fresh foods, including those produced by organic and agroecological methods. Besides, it mentions the need to expand inter-sectoral actions that positively impact on the determinants of health and nutrition. It focuses on importance, survival and expansion of family farming, which is closely related to and supported by PNAE and PAA.As a result of the actions described above, many changes in behaviors and attitudes are already evident within the ministries and federal institution partners of the BFN Project. One example is the Multi-year Bud-get for 2016-2019(Brasil, 2015)), approved by the National Congress in December 2015 that included many objectives, targets and initiatives related to the sustainable use of biodiversity and sociobiodiversity for food and nutrition. Specifically, for the PAA and PNAE, these include: promoting the inclusion of sociobiodiversity products in public purchases from family farming; expanding the inclusion of family farmers in agroecological, organic and sociobiodiversity production systems, with emphasis on the production of healthy food; and, increasing management capacity and promotion of innovation in organizations and collective enterprises related to sociobiodiversity to generate income and achieve sanitary and environmental requirements.One major outcome from the Project is the list of native sociobiodiversity species published in Ordinance Nº 163, from 18th May 2016, signed jointly between MMA and the Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger (MDS). This document is an important step in mainstreaming biodiversity for enhanced food and nutrition security in the country, and means that \"Brazilian Sociobiodiversity Native Food Species of Nutritional Value\" are now officially defined and recognized. It is expected the Ordinance will facilitate the greater procurement of sociobiodiversity species and their integration into programs like school feeding, and it should also contribute to greater incentives for family farmers through mechanisms such as premium prices for sociobiodiversity within the PAA. Ultimately, it is hoped that the official identification of sociobiodiversity species will facilitate better monitoring and tracking of biodiversity within the PAA, PNAE and PGPM-Bio, something that has been a challenge to date.To identify the current status of biodiversity for food and nutrition into food procurement programs and as a way of measuring their institutional market potential, the BFN Project carried out a preliminary analysis of the expenditures incurred by the PAA, PNAE and also PGPM (Minimum Price Guarantee Policy) -that has one \"branch\" focusing spe-  Results show that food procurement programs and PGPM are indeed purchasing foods derived from native biodiversity and delivering to target beneficiaries, proving to be strategic channels for the promotion, conservation and sustainable use of such biodiversity. However, the study also highlights that the volume of resources currently deployed for the purchase of native biodiversity products is still only a fraction of the total expenditure on foods in general. An increase in expenditures for biodiversity products on PAA was observed from 2013 to 2014, but it is still early to correlate this increase directly to any of the actions of BFN Project.The BFN Project has contributed substantially to creating a better enabling environment for the inclusion of biodiversity into public policies related to food and nutrition security. Still, the wider mainstreaming of biodiversity for food and nutrition faces many barriers, and one that affects most of the activities at the federal level is the high turnover of policy makers at partner Ministries, which often undermines project efforts directed at engaging relevant sector policies and requires fresh lobbying with newly appointed staff.Another barrier is that biodiversity is usually viewed through a conservation lens and is seldom recognized as a strategic resource for health and nutrition, for improving livelihoods and generating income opportunities. Although the initiatives related to food and nutrition security that were created/ strengthened under the Zero Hunger Strategy mention the importance of local agrobiodiversity (including traditional crops and wild species) as an option for fighting hunger and malnutrition on paper, its conservation and use remains largely confined to the environmental sector.The lack of an adequate monitoring system to track and assess the purchase of biodiversity food products by national food procurement programs is another shortcoming, which is also a result of the poor understanding of the definition of \"biodiversity for food and nutrition\". One of the outcomes from the BFN Project that may tackle these barriers is the official list of sociobiodiversity products, recently launched by the Interministerial Ordinance 163/2016. For the effective implementation of this ordinance on food procurement programs, next steps should include the establishment of clear incentives for the production, commercialization and marketing of the sociobiodiversity products listed, such as a differentiated price to be paid for these products within PAA and PNAE, considering the ecosystem services present -and similar to what is being done for organic products, that receive an increase of 30% in the price paid -as well as inclusion of more species among those favored by PGPM-Bio.In addition, ongoing and future capacity building and awareness raising activities with policy makers are fundamental to the wider mainstreaming of biodiversity for food and nutrition. While the mandatory expenditure of 30% of FNDE funds on products from family farms is seen as a crucial entry point for the inclusion of greater biodiversity and diverse foods in general, data from FNDE (2015) clearly shows that in 2014, 3345 out of 5534 (60%) of Brazilian municipalities did not reach this amount, and 23% reported that purchases from family farmers were non-existent. Procurement in big cities still represents a major challenge, as only 0,06% of FNDE funds were spent on products from family farmers in São Paulo, 10,02% in Rio de Janeiro, 14,9 % in the Federal District and 29,72% in Belo Horizonte, four of the biggest metropolitan areas in Brazil.Regarding aspects related to the production and supply of biodiversity food products for the PAA and PNAE, the unfamiliarity and lack of recognition of these foods by the population in general -and, as consequence, of those responsible for the purchase in schools or municipalities -is also a major barrier, and may be considered a simple reflection of the agro-food system that prevails in the country and of the history of the school meals program.Since its creation in the 1940's until 1993, the execution of PNAE was centralized by the federal government, which was responsible for planning and developing menus, purchase and distribution of all the foods to municipalities and schools (FNDE, 2016). The centralization favored the acquisition of industrialized ready-to-eat foods, such as biscuits, packed beverages and canned foods, which may have reflected on the structure of canteens in schools and how school meals are perceived. Therefore, since many schools are more used to buying processed foods, it is al-so a challenge to fit the structure and requirements of schools for the reception and proper preparation of foods from native biodiversity.Furthermore, food procurement programs, especially the food purchased for school meals, require regularity of supply, compliance with sanitary quality standards and homogeneity, criteria that are not always easily achieved by the products derived from native biodiversity. Most of the fruits prioritized by the BFN Project and listed on Ordinance 163/2016 are not domesticated and cultivated, are available only in small amounts, irregularly and often only by extractivism. Some of these foods may be strongly affected by factors that can diminish the visual quality and homogeneity of the product. Many of the products are also highly perishable and demand care in the production, processing, transportation and storage. Therefore, they require considerable investment to gather, prepare and cook. This often means additional challenges for competing with industrialized products, easier to prepare and which in many cases may be cheaper.To tackle these barriers, it is of paramount importance to work closely with producers and their cooperatives/associations in order to build capacities on best practices of production and handling of foods in order to guarantee the achievement of quality and sanitary standards and aggregate value to their products. To this end, a series of booklets on best practices for the collection of wild, organic native foods were published in 2015 by the Ministry of Agriculture, and new booklets for sustainable collection of species prioritized by the BFN Project are being developed by the Secretary of Extractivism and Sustainable Rural Development (SEDR) of the Ministry of the Environment (MMA).Further attention to capacity building with those responsible for the purchase of foods for the PNAE and PAA, and planning and preparation of school meals is essential to enhance the use of foods derived from biodiversity. Tools and methods are needed to map local products and their seasonality, diversi-fy purchases by these procurement programs and thus provide diverse and quality diets to schools and other institutions. To this end, an online course to promote the mainstreaming of biodiversity for food and nutrition is under development, and will contain theoretical background as well as practical examples, tools and methods to effectively include biodiversity in school meals and nutrition education activities. ","tokenCount":"6489"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5b373a42ca43425a79968164f7eafe4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b7491340-24e4-4e14-8e5e-47895fd25d3a/retrieve","id":"-651344639"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8b27f455-dd65-4593-bc45-89653f461aeb","pagecount":"13","content":"La idea de una Unidad de Semillad DeMíJ~l~~A la mente y en el corazón de un hombre, quien desde joven tuvo vocación por este campo y desarrolló una profunda conciencia sobre la necesidad de sistemas de semillas efectivos en los países en desarrollo, al ofrecer servicios de asistencia técnica lejos de su país y de su hogar. Este hombre llamado Johnson E. Douglas (q.e.p.d.) publicó sus primeros conceptos en 1975 en la revista Seed Science and Technology, bajo el título \"International Seed Production and Technology Development: A Challenge to Improve\". En este documento sugirió la formación de centros especializados que apoyaran el desarrollo de la industria de semillas en regiones claves del mundo en desarrollo. Este hombre, quien consagró su vida profesional al desarrollo de sistemas de semillas, recibió el primer premio mundial de semillas otorgado por la Federación Internacional de Semillas (FIS).En 1977 el Comité Técnico Asesor (TAC) del Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional estableció el concepto de que el desarrollo de la industria de semillas era esencial para la producción y diseminación de semillas de las variedades mejoradas por los centros nacionales e internacionales. En dicho documento se lee lo siguiente: \"Las semillas seleccionadas tienen un efecto significativo en la producción, pero la organización de los sistemas de producción y distribución de semillas seleccionadas de variedades mejoradas es tristemente deficiente en la región. Por tanto la capacitación en estas tecnologías debe ser prioritaria en los programas del elA T y debe ser accesible al personal de las empresas productoras de semillas\".Estos documentos permitieron apreciar que la falta de personal capacitado para llevar a cabo las diversas actividades especializadas en los sistemas nacionales de semillas constituía una limitación frente al paso acelerado que habían tomado la investigación y la liberación de variedades mejoradas de los sistemas nacionales e internacionales de investigación agrícola.En dicha época, trabajaba también en el CIAT un hombre llamado Alexander Grobman, quien tenía un amplio conocimiento sobre las dificultades de transferencia de tecnologías genéticas por falta de sistemas efectivos de abastecimiento de semillas. Este hombre también ha consagrado su vida profesional al fortalecimiento de los sistemas de semillas, habiendo sido reconocido por ese mérito con el tercer premio mundial de semillas. Con este breve historial, deseo transmitir la idea de que la Unidad fue conceptualizada en su origen por personas que habían tenido una vivencia real de los problemas, lo cual se refleja en la naturaleza de las tareas y la visión de desarrollo de la Unidad de Semillas.Finalmente, en octubre de 1977, la Fundación Rockefeller asignó al Dr. Johnson E. Douglas para liderar un proyecto especial en el CIAT. En enero de 1979 la Cooperación Técnica Suiza (COTESU¡ decidió apoyarfinancieramente un proyecto de semillas del CIAT. Es así como el CIAT se constituyó en el primer centro en emprender una tarea nueva dentro del sistema internacional de investigación agrícola, en cooperación estrecha con las organizaciones semillistas públicas y privadas en América Latina.Sus objetivos respondieron a dos períodos. El primer período respondió a la percepción de la falta de recursos humanos en los sistemas organizados existentes. Dada la necesidad de aplicar urgentemente lo que ya se conocía, en este período se dio énfasis al fortalecimiento de los recursos humanos en tecnologías de semillas. Para llevar a cabo estas actividades la Unidad contó con campos, una moderna planta, un laboratorio, salones; apoyo científico y logístico dentro del CIA T; y una total colaboración de las organizaciones públicas y privadas de Colombia, país anfitrión del CIAT.La segunda etapa se inició en 1987 con el trabajo de los evaluadores de la Unidad conformados por el Dr. John Pino, miembro de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de los Estados Unidos; el Dr. Daniel Blanc de COTESU, Bolivia; y el Dr. Johnson E. Douglas. Después de estudiar los resultados de esta evaluación, el CIAT elaboró un documento oficial titulado \"The CIAT Seed Unit: CIAT Management Recommendations on the Nature and Future of the Seed Unit.\" Dicho documento identificó como el reto más importante el desarrollo de sistemas de abastecimiento de semillas para los pequeños agricultores.El documento mencionado identificó la necesidad de investigación en la organización de sistemas de abastecimiento, el desarrollo de tecnologías de semillas en pequeña escala y la capacitación especializada en la organización de sistemas de abastecimiento de semillas. La Unidad, como parte del CIAT que trabaja con frijol y yuca, que son cultivos de los pequeños agricultores, respaldada por el personal de los programas, tomó este reto como su misión principal en este segundo período. A continuación se presentan sus actividades principales en forma breve.Esta actividad tuvo como propósito el fortalecimiento institucional de los organismos que llevaban a cabo las funciones esenciales en los sistemas nacionales. Este objetivo se persiguió a través de seminarios, cursos y capacitaciones individualizadas.1.1 Seminarios y talleres. Estos eventos fueron dirigidos a líderes cuya actividad era la planificación, la dirección y la evaluación de los sistemas nacionales y sus componentes esenciales. Es decir, fueron dirigidos a las personas responsables de tomar decisiones políticas y estratégicas. Se constituyeron en un mecanismo efectivo para el análisis de problemas comunes, el intercambio de experiencias yla identificación de enfoques exitosos. También facilitaron la interacción de profesionales del sector. La Tabla 1 muestra los temas tratados en estos eventos.Por haber reunido líderes de programas afines y con preocupaciones comunes, estos eventos permitieron analizar los temas en profundidad y formaron un excelente mecanismo de intercambio de información entre países y entre el sector público y privado. Permitieron conocer experiencias sobresalientes de Europa y Norteamérica. También fueron un buen mecanismo para obtener informaciones especializadas que se publicaron en forma de memorias.1.2 Cursos. Se patrocinaron cursos en la sede y se dio apoyo a cursos colaborativos en países/subregiones (Tabla 2). La relación de cursos permite establecer que habiéndose iniciado con la tecnología de semillas como temario principal, gradualmente se fueron diseñando cursos orientados a profesionales que llevaban a cabo funciones espeCializadas dentro del sistema total de semillas, i.e., semillas básicas, control de calidad, acondicionamiento, mercadeo, etc. Esto significa que en la cultura (América Central y Zona Andina).-Desarrollo de Sistemas de Pequeñas Empresas de Semillas (PES) (América Central).-Development of Rice Seed Supply Systems Based on Small Seed Enterprises (Caribbean).10 TOTAL---~-------\" En colaboración con JUNAC; 2, En colaboración con la ISTA; \" En cooperación con ALES; 4, En cooperación con el Ministerio de Agricultura de Uruguay; 6 En colaboración con ASCOES y eIICA; ',En colaboración con DIGESA, ICTA y PROFRIJOL . . . -Producción de Semilla de Yuca 3de la Unidad siempre existió la búsqueda de relevancia de sus cursos a las necesidades de la región, como veremos a lo largo de esta presentación.A partir de 1987, para apoyar el desarrollo de sistemas de abastecimiento con base en pequeñas empresas de semillas, se organizaron eventos más específiCOS por medio de los cuales se promovió el manejo de semillas en pequeña escala. Se considera que gracias a estos avances el CIAT no sólo ha aportado al fortalecimiento de los sistemas empresariales ya organizados.También inició un nuevo camino para el desarrollo de sistemas de• abastecimiento de semillas para pequeños agricultores. Este último tiene el objetivo de ayudar a cerrar la brecha entre la investigación en desarrollo de variedades y la gran mayoría de los agricultores pequeños que todavía no han cosechado los frutos de las tecnologías genéticas modernas.la Tabla 3 muestra la distribución de la capaCitación por especialidades y la intensidad dada a cada área. Debe notarse que los temas responden a las necesidades de los clientes en la región y difieren considerablemente de los cursos ofrecidos en otros centros espeCializados en semillas. la Tabla 4 muestra las modalidades como se trató de llegar a la audiencia. Se puede observar la gran intensidad dada a la capacitación no sólo en el CIAT, sino también a los cursos en países/regiones específicas y a la colaboración prestada a cursos organizados por otras instituciones.la Unidad también dedicó recursos para proveer cooperación técnica a algunos proyectos y programas nacionales que la requirieron; para investigar la generación de metodologías de relevancia internacional; para producir semillas originales (semilla básica) de nuevos cultivares, especialmente de pastos, frijol y yuca; y para preparar publicaciones en español. La prOducción de semillas originales se realizó en estrecha colaboración con el personal de los programas de investigación del CIAT.Este despliegue de actividades fue pOSible gracias a la flexibilidad de que gozó la Unidad como proyecto especial y a la colaboración de expertos en diversas especialidades. A pesar de que es probable que se omitan algunos nombres, quiSiera reconocer el apoyo recibido de los Ores. Don F. Grabe, Harold Youngberg, Edward Hardin y Joseph Park de Oregon; leroy Everson de lowa; Robert Griffiths y Donald leatherdale de Inglaterra; Robert Waugh de Colorado; Frieda Wertman de California; William Cable de Indiana; la Srta. Helen Low de Australia; Ores. James C. Delouche, Hunter Andrews, Howard Potts, Edgar R. Cabrera y Charles Baskin de la Universidad de Mississippi; Ores. Fernando Gómez, Alejandro Mendoza, Fabio Polania y Edgar Iván Estrada de Colombia; Ing. René Velásquez de Guatemala; Ores. Carlos  Muy especial fue la contribución de las organizaciones públicas y privadas de un país anfitrión bello y acogedor como lo es Colombia, que ha puesto a disposición del mundo semillista de América Latina sus campos, sus plantas, sus laboratorios y la experiencia de un personal con gran vocación de colaboración.La constante búsqueda de relevancia y la colaboración de expertos en diversos campos permitió que la Unidad de Semillas del CIAT pudiera lograr varios avances y hacerse un centro líder en este campo en el sistema internacional de investigación agrícola. A continuación se describen algunos de estos avances.de semillas que se identifican como el eslabón que conecta la investigación en tecnologías genéticas con los usuarios finales. Se entienden mejor los papeles del sector público y privado en el sistema total.Esta nueva conciencia lleva implícita un sentido de urgencia, lo cual se manifiesta enla formulación de nuevos proyectos y nuevos enfoques. Se formaron centros especializados; se establecieron foros nacionales, regionales e internacionales. Hoy en día no es raro encontrar líderes en el sector agrícola nacional e internacional que piensan que la inversión en las• investigaciones fitogenéticas sin el desarrollo paralelo de la industria de semillas es una mala inversión. Al otro extremo de la cadena, tampoco es raro encontrar agricultores que saben que una buena cosecha se inicia con la siembra de buenas semillas.Es así como las semillas mejoradas y el desarrollo de sistemas efectivos para su abastecimiento son hoy en día un elemento esencial en la agenda de la modernización de la agricultura en la región.Este logro se percibe tanto a nivel de líderes como a nivel de profesionales especializados en llevar a cabo funciones específicas. Citaré algunos de los nuevos líderes: Ing. Felipe Orozco, quien participó en la formulación de la nueva ley de semillas en México; Ing. César Moyano, empresario privado y miembro del Comité de Semillas en Chiclayo, Perú; Ing. Claudio Fuentes, quien promovió el desarrollo de la primera pequeña empresa de semillas en Colombia; Ing. Edgar Iván Estrada y Dra. Amanda Ortíz, quienes coordinan el Programa Internacional de Maestría en Sistemas de Semillas en Palmira, Colombia; Dr. Silmar T. Peske, quien contribuye al inicio del primer programa de Doctorado en Semillas en Brasil; Ing. Jorge Rosales, quien es el motor para la organización del XIV Seminario Panamericano de Semillas; y muchos otros.Además de líderes, los sistemas nacionales de semillas requieren personal especializado para llevar a cabo las diversas funciones especializadas. Esto incluye el personal que opera programas de semilla básica, personal de empresas de producción y comercio de semillas, personal que dirige plantas de beneficio, personal que trabaja en las organizaciones de certificación, y personal que trabaja en centros universitarios especializados, en laboratorios de semillas, y en las nuevas pequeñas empresas de semillas, etc. El personal que ha sido capacitado y está cumpliendo las funciones en cualquiera de los componentes arriba mencionados está equipado con principios, métodos y herramientas nuevas.Un estudio realizado en 1985 mostró que el 70% del personal capacitado en semillas se mantenía en este sector. No existe razón para pensar que esta tendencia haya variado, aunque es evidente que con el proceso de privatización se observa un mayor movimiento de los recursos humanos del sector público al privado.La Unidad de Semillas inició sus actividades con tecnologías biológicas como el fundamento de la capacitación. Rápidamente adaptó su programa para atender las necesidades de los componentes esenciales del sistema total, incluyendo po./íticas y estrategias; programas de semillas básicas; programas de certificación; y el desarrollo de asociaciones. También planteó la problemática de semillas en situaciones de mercados atomizados, como es el caso de los pequeños agricultores. Es decir, la Unidad se dio cuenta de que las tecnologías biológicas, aun cuando son imprescindibles, no son suficientes para desarrollar sistemas de semillas. De esta manera se incorporó la visión del conjunto y de interdependencias en el sistema.Esta visión, considerada esencial para el futuro, se consolidó con la formación del primer Programa Internacional de Maestría en Sistemas de Semillas, recientemente fundado en la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, en Palmira, y con la formación de la empresa privada de Servicios Internacionales para Sistemas de Semillas (SERVISEMILLASl, en Colombia. Estas nuevas visiones de sistemas son evidentemente innovaciones frente a los esfuerzos biotecnológicos con que se atacó el problema de semillas en el mundo en desarrollo. En este sentido estos programas son los primeros de su género.Los pequeños agricultores, quienes constituyen mercados pequeños, dispersos y riesgosos necesitan diversos cultivares y especies. No pueden ser atendidos por empresas agroindustriales grandes por razones técnicas y económicas. Sin embargo, el reto de la transferencia de tecnologías genéticas a este sector de agricultores persiste y sigue siendo un reto para la sociedad. La Unidad de Semillas, gracias a su enfoque más específico a partir de 1987, presenta una propuesta capaz de conectar a estos agricultores con las fuentes de tecnología por un lado y con los mercados en expansión por otro. La propuesta en su concepto central consiste en pequeftas empresas de semillas. Hoy en día existen pequeñas empresas piloto en varios países que desarrollan actividades competitiva mente dentro de sus pequeños mercados locales. El concepto y la metodología serán temas de publicaciones que el CIAT está preparando.El Dr. Jairo Correa, en una presentación en el curso de Capacitación para Capacitadores, decía que la información es poder. América Latina, por su idioma, tiene un limitado acceso a la abundante información generada en otros idiomas. Esto en parte se ha aliviado con las publicaciones formales e informales producidas por el CIAT. A pesar de estos avances, en general la brecha de información persiste. Por ejemplo, en los últimos años han aparecido informaciones útiles para profundizar nuestra capacidad de análisis de los sistemas y para buscar propuestas innovadoras para el futuro. Este problema necesita superarse.El CIA T ha llegado a la conclusión que ha contribuido a iniciar un proceso que deben continuar otras organizaciones, como se puede observar a continuación: \"Aunque la tarea de desarrollo de sistemas de semillas no está terminada, el CIA T considera Que ha hecho tanto como puede hacer un Centro Internacional de Investigación Agrícola. Dado que este proyecto ha sido visualízado de inicio como algo temporal, no será parte del plan operativo formal del futuro del GIA T. Es asi como la Unidad cesa sus actividades en este año (1992) con la certeza de que ha sido un esfuerzo recompensado y también con la confianza de que las organizaciones privadas, gubernamentales y no gubernamentales están en la posición y con el deseo de continuar la tarea iniciada \". * Por lo tanto, la Unidad de Semillas del CIAT cesa sus actividades con el sentimiento de haber cumplido con las tareas encomendadas. Pero a pesar de los avances, persisten barreras que impiden el abastecimiento y el uso de más y mejores semillas. Existen nuevos retos en el camino. Es mi esperanza, que las tareas iniciadas por hombres sabios, quienes nos antecedieron deben ser continuadas. Es un reto que planteo a las generaciones jóvenes de semillistas porque el día de mañana tendremos más gente que alimentar. * Comunicación oficial interna del CIAT.","tokenCount":"2675"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4d5428b6a040a6e5f815ac8291218256","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/19ea6348-b1d2-4d96-9996-3c11045fbd94/retrieve","id":"-164936443"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0a2fb646-c747-4b92-9683-d215e24764c1","pagecount":"2","content":"Bakanae disease caused by Fusarium fujikuroi Nirenberg (teleomorph Gibberella fujikuroi (Sawada) Ito in Ito & K. Kimura) is among the diseases limiting crop yields and quality in major rice growing areas worldwide. Bakanae was first detected in Japan in 1828 (Ito and Kimura,  1931)  but was isolated thereafter in China, India,have been sequenced, and data processing is currently ongoing. The genetic variability of F. fujikuroi isolates from Cote d'Ivoire and Kenya will be assessed. If genetic variation is detected, steps will be taken to determine the origin of the isolates, develop efficient diagnostic tools, and assess whether the existing variation in both countries poses a threat to rice production in the region. Subsequently, biosecurity measures will be developed to contain its spread to other countries in the region.","tokenCount":"128"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"30dac26858b5f040dd27d9955ffe10ca","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/69fcbbf5-523d-4fb6-8430-74720e693d10/retrieve","id":"1178187985"},"keywords":["Adaptation","climate change","crops","model integration","modelling frameworks","uncertainty"],"sieverID":"1afef806-c6e9-4c9e-bda7-6de5753dcf26","pagecount":"15","content":"Assessments of the relationships between crop productivity and climate change rely upon a combination of modelling and measurement. As part of this review, this relationship is discussed in the context of crop and climate simulation. Methods for linking these two types of models are reviewed, with a primary focus on large-area crop modelling techniques. Recent progress in simulating the impacts of climate change on crops is presented, and the application of these methods to the exploration of adaptation options is discussed. Specific advances include ensemble simulations and improved understanding of biophysical processes. Finally, the challenges associated with impacts and adaptation research are discussed. It is argued that the generation of knowledge for policy and adaptation should be based not only on syntheses of published studies, but also on a more synergistic and holistic research framework that includes: (i) reliable quantification of uncertainty; (ii) techniques for combining diverse modelling approaches and observations that focus on fundamental processes; and (iii) judicious choice and calibration of models, including simulation at appropriate levels of complexity that accounts for the principal drivers of crop productivity, which may well include both biophysical and socio-economic factors. It is argued that such a framework will lead to reliable methods for linking simulation to real-world adaptation options, thus making practical use of the huge global effort to understand and predict climate change.Crops exhibit known observed responses to weather and climate that can have a large impact on crop yield (e.g. Porter and Semenov, 2005). Since atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to rise at rates that are both unprecedented (Siegenthaler et al., 2005;Spahni et al., 2005) and alarming (Anderson and Bows, 2008), efforts have been made to understand the implications for crop production. These efforts are primarily based on climate models, which use spatial grids with resolutions typically of the order of a hundred kilometres. Such simplification of the spatial heterogeneity of processes has direct implications for the assessment of the impacts of climate change. Some of these assessments are performed at the regional scale (referring here to from tens to a couple of hundred kilometres-commensurate with climate model grids). In contrast, location-specific methods have also been developed, to account for the variety of climatic and non-climatic stresses on crop productivity often not observable at aggregated spatial scales. It is at this smaller field scale that crop models were originally designed to operate (for reviews, see, for example, Sinclair and Seligman, 1996;van Ittersum et al., 2003), resulting in applications in decision support (Boote and Jones, 1998) and 'discussion support' (Hansen, 2005).This review examines the use of crop and climate models in climate change research. As with the bulk of the literature, it focuses primarily on crop yield, which has the greatest impact on food security. By their nature, regional-scale assessments lend themselves more clearly to generalization than do local-scale assessments; hence the focus here is primarily, though not exclusively, on larger scales. The methods used to link crop and climate models are examined, including the implications of the disparity in spatial scale between these two types of model. Recent progress in modelling methods and in our resultant understanding of the impacts of climate change is reviewed. Questions are asked regarding how we can generate useful information on impacts and adaptation with the methods reviewed. Finally, future trends and challenges are identified, leading to concluding comments and recommendations.Overview Simulation models act as a surrogate laboratory. They are a particularly important tool for understanding climate change and its impacts, since only one physical realization of climate is possible, thus limiting the amount of observed data available for comparison with model output. (This is in contrast to the forecasting of weather, which can be tested repeatedly against observations.) A number of different methods can be used to link crop and climate models. Figure 1 summarizes the methods discussed herein (a more detailed review is presented by Hansen et al., 2006). The box labelled 'climate model' represents a range of models, from short-term local-scale numerical weather prediction to longer term simulations of climate change. These models are based on the same fundamental physics, and efforts are underway to carry out and present weather and climate simulation as part of a 'seamless' continuum, such that the commonality of methods across weather and climate prediction is strengthened and made more clear to users (see, for example, Challinor et al., 2009b). For this reason, all model-derived climate and weather information is represented in this simple fashion.Climate model output can be used with crop models either directly (Mavromatis and Jones, 1999;Challinor et al., 2005a, b, c) or via some post-processing. In the latter case, a weather generator (Semenov and Barrow, 1997) may be used, and/or the change in climate simulated using a model can be applied to observed climate (Zalud and Dubrovsky, 2002 compare the two methods;Southworth et al., 2002 use both methods). Results when using processed output are sensitive to the underlying assumptions (Mearns et al., 1997;Mavromatis and Jones, 1998). Unprocessed climate model output has the advantage of being a consistent representation of climate, thus avoiding the need for such assumptions. The corresponding disadvantage is that any errors in the climate model may have implications for the simulation of crop growth. For example, climate models tend to overestimate the number of rainy days whilst underestimating amounts of rainfall (i.e. 'drizzle'), and may also fail to represent the observed month-to-month variation in rainfall; some of these biases are easier to correct than others, and this can affect crop simulation (Challinor et al., 2005a). However, model error may not be overly problematic: Challinor et al. (2005c) found predictability in crop yields using climate model output both with and without correction of bias in the simulation of mean climate.As well as dealing with climate model error, postprocessing can deal with the disparity in spatial scale between climate and crop models (see, for example, Hansen and Jones, 2000;Challinor et al., 2003Challinor et al., , 2004)). The former uses a grid that is coarse relative to the spatial scale at which field-scale crop models typically operate. The disparity can either be ignored (Trnka et al., 2004) or it can be dealt with by downscaling climate model output (Wilby and Wigley, 1997;Kidson and Thompson, 1998;Wilby et al., 1998). With or without downscaling, it is clear (Moen et al., 1994;Faivre et al., 2004) that regional prediction using crop and climate models cannot rely solely on methods developed as part of the longer standing tradition of crop simulation at the field scale. Whilst the results of field-scale models can be compared directly with regional-scale yields (Yun, 2003;Nain et al., 2004;Xiong et al., 2007), it can be argued that this requires design or selection of crop models that have a low input data requirement (Priya and Shibasaki, 2001;de Wit et al., 2005). An alternative is to take a field-scale crop model and make it applicable to the regional scale through one or more procedures, such as calibration (Chipanshi et al., 1999;Jagtap and Jones, 2002), aggregation of inputs (Haskett et al. 1995), and aggregation of outputs from multiple subgrid simulations. This latter method can use either simulations sampled by varying model inputs such as planting date and crop variety (Jagtap and Jones, 2002;Irmak et al., 2005) or else simulations explicitly carried out at the subgrid scale (Thornton et al., 1996).Estimates of yields at the regional scale can also be made by designing a crop model that operates on that scale. Such a model may be empirical, with weather variables used within a statistical regression of output from a field-scale crop model (Iglesias et al., 2000) or of observed yield data (Lobell et al., 2008). The use of regressions of field-scale crop models can introduce significant errors through the linearization of the equations for crop yield and/or an inability to account for subseasonal climate variability (Challinor et al., 2006). More generally, the validity of empirical methods under climate change is limited by the necessity of using data outside the range for which the models were fitted. Also, statistical models have no explanatory power to enable understanding as to why certain changes have occurred. This is one reason why process-based regional-scale (or large-area) methods have been developed.Large-area crop modelling resulted mainly from the need to simulate the impacts of climate variability and change on crops in a process-based fashion using the output from climate models directly (i.e. without any downscaling). The rationale for such techniques (Challinor et al., 2004) lies in the combination of the benefits of empirical approaches (low input data requirement; validity over large spatial scales, thus avoiding site specificity) with those of field-scale process-based models (validity under a range of environments, including climate change). The development of metamodels, based on existing simulation models, takes a similar approach, but for simulation at the field scale (Brooks et al., 2001). The focus here is on larger scales, at which the modelling methodology is based upon a number of principles.(i) A basis in observed relationships. Where a response to climate variability exists in observations, the possibility of simulating that response also exists. Challinor et al. (2003) examined observed relationships between yield and climate in India at a number of spatial scales, and concluded that large-area modelling (i.e. using the same grid as climate models) of that response was possible. Such empirical studies are prone to the risk of confounding causality (Bakker et al., 2005); this is the reason that subsequent modelling should be based both on physiological processes and at an appropriate level of complexity. The limited length of historical records means that studies of observed relationships have focused principally on year-to-year variability (e.g. Challinor et al., 2003;Kumar et al., 2004). However, climate change implies longer term relationships, and these are beginning to be explored (see Lobell and Field, 2007).(ii) Appropriate complexity. The crop modelling community has long been aware of the dangers associated with modelling at a level of complexity unwarranted by the degree of uncertainty and potential error associated with the parameterizations used (Monteith, 1996). The greater the number of processes simulated, the greater the number of potential interactions between them and the number of parameters that require calibration, thereby increasing the potential for error. Sinclair and Seligman (2000) discuss this issue using the concept of hierarchical levels of biological organization, from molecules to ecosystems. They argue that it is rarely justified for a crop model to simulate processes more than one hierarchical level below the level of immediate interest, because of the 'burgeoning complexity inherent in increasing the number of lower hierarchical levels'. Therefore, if yield is the variable of interest, then only the mechanisms near to the yield-determining processes should be simulated. This approach reduces the risk of overtuning a model to one environment (i.e. confounding causality), which can result in a lack of applicability in other environments. The spatial scale and complexity of a model are related, as discussed by Challinor and Wheeler (2008b) and Tubiello and Ewert (2002).(iii) High fraction of observable parameters. In order to avoid overtuning, parameters should, where possible, be based on observations. This means that the parameterizations used are directly testable. Empirically determined parameters can be based entirely on processes (Challinor et al., 2004), or else a semi-empirical approach can be used, for example with a process-based plant water stress index being empirically related to yield (Potgeiter et al., 2005). Care should be taken not to use parameters observed for the current climate in situations where their value may have changed, as occurs for some processes under climate change. For current climates, discrepancies between the yield simulated by process-based models and observed regional yields can be minimized through a process-based yield gap parameter (Challinor et al., 2004) or an explicit error metric (Casellas et al., 2009). The choice of calibration method and the level of model complexity have implications for the reliability of model simulations (see later).The principles above result in large area-crop models differing substantially from field-scale crop models. Largearea models tend to be less complex and have fewer parameters, and fewer non-observable parameters in particular. For example, the model of Challinor et al. (2004) simulates leaf area growth by using a parameter specifying the maximum rate of change of leaf area index, rather than simulating the appearance of individual leaves. The model uses transpiration efficiency, another observable parameter, to simulate the accumulation of biomass, rather than employing leaf-level assimilation equations, as most fieldscale models do. Such an approach is appropriate in waterlimited environments; a parallel approach in the UK might employ radiation-use efficiency.As with any model, large-area crop models should be used judiciously. By design, they have the advantage of being both process based and applicable over large areas. However, their focus on the influence of weather and climate, and their basis in observed relationships, means that large-area crop models do not currently simulate the non-climatic determinants of crop yield. These non-climatic stresses contribute to the yield gap, which is the difference between the potential yield for a current crop variety (i.e. under the given climate and for optimal agronomic practices) and the corresponding observed farm yields (see, for example, Herdt and Mandac, 1981;van Ittersum et al., 2003). These observed (farm and regional) yields include the effects of weeds, pests and diseases, and air pollutants such as tropospheric ozone. Where variability in yield is driven by these factors, rather than climate, or where there is high subgrid spatial variability in weather (see Baron et al. 2005), the rationale for large-area modelling may be undermined. However, the significance of the climate signal tends to be greatest at regional scales (Challinor et al., 2003;Bakker et al., 2005). Thus, the proven ability to simulate current yields (Challinor et al., 2004), together with assessment of skill under likely climate change conditions (Challinor et al., 2005d), has built confidence in the use of large-area models as part of efforts to simulate the response of crops to climate change.Under climate change, inherent uncertainties in the predictability of climate limit the precision with which impacts can be assessed. Furthermore, the response of crops to elevated carbon dioxide is not known with precision at field and larger scales (Ewert et al., 2002;Tubiello and Ewert, 2002). Quantification of uncertainty is therefore an important endeavour in climate impacts research (see, for example, Challinor et al, 2009b). Estimates of ranges of yield impacts vary across studies (see, for example, the review of Luo and Lin, 1999). The simulated responses of maize in Africa to a doubling of carbon dioxide, for example, can be as broad -98% to +16%, or as narrow as -14% to -12%. These ranges have been determined using different methods and are therefore not directly comparable (Challinor et al., 2007). Ensemble modelling is a technique that enables more objective quantification of uncertainty. It is commonly used in climate change prediction, which is based on estimates of future emissions of greenhouse gases, and on the simulation of the resultant influence on climate. Multiple climate simulations, known as ensembles, are used to sample the inherent uncertainties in this process. Uncertainty in model structure can be assessed by using more than one model (Randall et al., 2007) or by varying model parameters (Murphy et al., 2004;Stainforth et al., 2005). These ensembles of climate simulations can be used with crop models, and sometimes weather generators, to produce an ensemble of crop yields that captures uncertainty due to climate simulation (Trnka et al., 2004).The response of crops to any projected climate also contains uncertainties (see, for example, Mearns, 2003). Inputs to crop models, such as the choice of variety and planting date, can be varied in order to produce an ensemble of crop simulations (Jagtap and Jones, 2002;Irmak et al., 2005). Large-area modelling studies have been carried out where both crop and climate parameters have been varied, thus permitting a better estimate of total uncertainty and of the relative contributions to that uncertainty (Challinor et al., 2005b(Challinor et al., , 2009a)). Large-area crop modelling is well suited to this approach, since it operates with direct climate model output. Studies using this technique have contributed to our understanding of the key processes that are likely to reduce crop yield, and the quantification of associated uncertainty.Direct impact of atmospheric composition: Elevated levels of carbon dioxide and ozone will have direct impacts on crops: C3 crops are likely to accumulate more biomass, and both C3 and C4 crops are likely to use less water as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase. These processes have received much attention from both experimentalists and modellers in recent decades. Significant increases in plant growth and yield due to CO 2 elevation have been reported from controlled, semi-controlled, and open-field experiments for a range of crops, and to a lesser extent for crops grown in the field (Kimball et al., 1983(Kimball et al., , 2002)). Many recent studies modelling the impact of climate change on crops have simulated the effects of elevated CO 2 ; however, the number of free air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiments available to validate these models under field conditions is still limited (Tubiello and Ewert, 2002).It has been argued (Long et al., 2006) that crop models overestimate the effect of CO 2 on plant growth and yield, as a result of the CO 2 -related model parameters being mainly derived from controlled and semi-controlled experiments, which typically show a higher CO 2 response than observed under field conditions. However, there is growing evidence that crop models are able to reproduce the observed crop responses in the FACE experiments (Ewert et al., 2002;Asseng et al., 2004;Tubiello et al., 2007a). This evidence is contributing to an ongoing dialogue (see Ainsworth et al., 2008a). Progress in modelling CO 2 effects on crops at the field scale will mainly depend on the ability to improve simulations of leaf area dynamics as compared with photosynthesis or radiation-use efficiency (Ewert, 2004). For modelling CO 2 effects at larger areas, the relative importance of other factors, such as diversity in climate, and soil and crop management including land-use change for explaining yield variability (and possible interactions with the effects of elevated CO 2 ), need to be better understood (Ewert et al., 2007).Crops are subject to multiple stresses, so that analysis of climate change alone provides only a partial view of likely future crop yields. In order to produce robust results of climate change impacts, a range of drivers need to be assessed. Such assessment is beyond the scope of this review. However, one further environmental variable that affects crop yield is considered here. We choose ozone since it is a second atmospheric gas that can have serious implications for yield. Atmospheric ozone is formed in the Earth's lower atmosphere through sunlight-driven chemical reactions involving volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. It is a strong oxidant that is harmful to plants and crops. Exposure of plants to elevated ozone concentrations can result in acute visible injury, which may have economic implications for food producers, as the damaged crop commands a reduced market price or cannot be sold at all (Velissariou, 1999). Plants chronically exposed to enhanced ozone take up an increased flux of ozone through their leaves, resulting in reduced capacity for photosynthesis and accelerated leaf senescence (McKee et al., 1997). Protection mechanisms allow the plant to repair ozone damage and detoxify leaf tissue, meaning that plant function can remain unaffected up to a threshold value of ozone uptake. The reduced photosynthetic productivity and allocation of plant resources to these mechanisms leads to reduced carbon assimilation for plant growth, and a reduction in biomass and crop yield (Mauzerall and Wang, 2001;Emberson et al., 2003). At higher ozone exposures, plant protection mechanisms may be overwhelmed completely, and ozone entering the plant can result in direct damage to plant tissue. There is also evidence that exposure to enhanced ozone reduces the nutritional value of crops. European wheat crops have demonstrated an ozoneinduced reduction in protein yield per area grown (Piikki et al., 2007).Ozone is likely to play an increasingly important role in determining crop yields as anthropogenic sources of its precursors continue to increase in developing economies, leading to increasing background concentrations, especially in the northern hemisphere. Studies suggest large enhancements in surface ozone over SE Asia, central Africa, and tropical South America over the next 50 years under projected emissions and climate changes (Royal Society, 2008). Many of these regions are those where food security is already at risk from rising populations, loss of cultivated land, and climate change. Reductions of 5% in current yields due to ozone enhancement have been estimated in China, and projected to rise to 30% by 2050 (Long et al., 2005). A wide range of sensitivity to ozone damage is exhibited between crop species and between strains within a species (e.g. wheat) (Ainsworth et al. 2008b). This may make it possible to reduce ozone impacts on crop yield and food security through the targeted planting of more ozoneresistant crop strains.Progress to date in modelling ozone and its impacts includes global-scale estimates of future ozone impacts on crop yield over the next 30 years, based on modelled surface ozone concentrations (on a one degree square spatial grid) and an exposure-based ozone damage relationship (Van Dingenen et al., 2008). Yield losses for wheat and rice in India and for wheat in sub-Saharan Africa were found to be particularly significant. These results are subject to large uncertainties, due to application of ozone exposure-damage relationships over large scales, uncertainties in modelled ozone, and choice of exposure index. Some local experimental data indicate that ozone-induced crop losses exceed those predicted by the large-scale model predictions, which rely on US-based exposure-response relationships. Additional uncertainty stems from the reliability of modelled surface ozone fields. These rely on estimates of ozone precursor emissions, which are particularly poorly constrained in developing regions of the world such as Asia and Africa. The sensitivity of future ozone concentrations to climate change is also poorly understood, and depends on future land-use change, and how natural emissions from the biosphere, and the stratospheric flux of ozone to the lower atmosphere, will respond to future climate. These impacts are not well understood and are currently only rudimentarily considered by current generation atmospheric chemistry-climate models.Indirect impact of atmospheric composition: As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and climate changes, crops in the majority of regions will increasingly be grown in a warmer environment. These increases in mean temperature are already resulting in longer growing seasons (Rosenzweig et al., 2007), although there is no indication that this is having a positive effect on yield, at least up to 2002 (Lobell and Field, 2007). Projections of the future impacts of warming seem to indicate a negative response of crop growth and yield to 1-2 °C warming at low latitudes and small beneficial response at higher latitudes; yet large uncertainties remain (Easterling et al., 2007).Mean temperature, together with photoperiod (Nigam et al., 1994), determines the rate of plant development. The fundamental thermal time response functions that determine the rate of crop development (Challinor et al., 2004) suggest that warming will decrease both duration and yield, at least up to the optimum temperature for development. However, since a given response function of development rate to temperature may not fit observations (Zhang et al., 2008), care should be exercised in their use. Challinor and Wheeler (2008b) showed that differences in the form of these response functions, particularly at temperatures beyond the optimum temperature for development, mean that different models can respond very differently to increases in mean temperature.In addition to large-scale changes in mean temperature, regional changes in climate will probably affect crops. These regional changes, particularly where they involve rainfall and/or variability in weather (as opposed to changes in mean quantities, such as season-mean temperature), are particularly difficult for a climate model to predict. Examples of potentially important regional changes include atmospheric humidity, which affects assimilation and alters transpiration efficiency (Kemanian et al., 2005). This process may be very important in determining future yields in India (Challinor and Wheeler, 2008b) and other regions. There is also evidence that anthropogenic aerosols and other air pollutants have changed the optical properties of clouds, with resultant implications for solar radiation and hence agricultural productivity (Stanhill and Cohen, 2001).The short-term events that are most likely to affect crops are extremes of temperature (Wheeler et al., 2000) and drought, particularly during anthesis. Challinor et al. (2005d) reported reductions of up to 20% in both observed and simulated crop yield when a 6 d heat stress event was imposed on groundnut. The importance of subseasonal variability in rainfall is illustrated in Figs 2 and 3. Figure 2 shows that whilst rainfall during the development of the crop has a clear influence on observed yield (44% of the variance explained), the crop model simulations (55% of observed variance explained) suggest the importance of other processes. One such process is likely to be the subseasonal variability of rainfall. This can be illustrated by noting that 2 years with different yields (44% lower in 1981 than in 1975), but with very similar total rainfall (see Fig. 2), have different subseasonal rainfall distributions (Fig. 3): the timing of rainfall in the 1975 season is such that water availability during pod filling (from ;50 d after planting) is likely to be higher than that of 1981. This indicates the beneficial value of considering important processes in large-area models.The predictability of the above indirect influences of increased atmospheric greenhouse gases varies across environmental variable and across space. Temperature is generally more predictable than rainfall, for example, and consensus across climate models in tropical seasonal total rainfall tends to be weaker than consensus at mid and high latitudes. The lead time of a forecast also affects the predictability: any prediction of weather beyond a few days contains inherent uncertainties, which can amplify as the predictions are made further into the future. At multidecadal time scales, it is uncertainties in the concentrations of greenhouse gases that limit predictability. Further discussion on this topic can be found in Challinor et al. (2009b).Interactions between biophysical processes: Crop yield is the result of many non-linear interactions between a range of processes, including those outlined above. Experimental field studies and crop models are two complementary tools that can be used to examine these interactions. The importance under field conditions of interactions between elevated CO 2 and other factors such as ozone exposure and temperature, water, and nitrogen stress is not fully understood. Evidence from field experiments is limited and also points in different directions.Consider as an example the interaction between water stress and CO 2 . From a physiological perspective, waterstressed crops are expected to show greater CO 2 stimulation than well-watered crops. This expectation has been cited in the literature as a reason for believing that rainfed cropping systems will benefit more from elevated CO 2 than irrigated systems (IPCC, 2001;Easterling et al., 2007). Tubiello and Ewert (2002) showed that for a range of models and observations, water-stressed crops did indeed show a greater percentage increase in yield under elevated CO 2 . However, when Challinor and Wheeler (2008a) reviewed FACE metaanalyses and presented results from a range of crop models, this response was not seen consistently in either the models or the observations. Detailed analysis led to the preliminary conclusion that the relationship between water stress and assimilation may vary with spatial scale. The associated level of model complexity was also shown to be a factor. Despite the lack of a consistency across studies, model comparison studies with the few experiments available have shown that, at the field scale, crop responses to elevated CO 2 can be satisfactorily reproduced for a range of models under a range of conditions of water availability (Ewert et al., 2002;Asseng et al., 2004), nitrogen supply (Jamieson et al., 2000), and ozone exposure (Ewert et al., 1999;van Oijen and Ewert, 1999).Ozone also interacts with the environment in a way that alters its effect on plants. Since these interactions are nonlinear, assessing the response of crops to future ozone concentrations requires consideration of future changes in atmospheric CO 2 and other environmental variables affecting plant function and stomatal conductance (Fuhrer, 2003;Ashmore, 2005;Harmens et al., 2007). The interaction between ozone and CO 2 is mediated by stomata, which, in addition to admitting ozone, allow CO 2 , water vapour, and oxygen to pass in and out of the plant during photosynthesis and respiration. Increased atmospheric CO 2 reduces stomatal conductance, and the flux of ozone into the plant, and can provide additional carbon for repair and detoxification against ozone damage (Royal Society, 2008). The interactions between ozone and carbon dioxide have implications for the way in which ozone damage is modelled. Dose-response relationships based on ozone flux are preferable to atmospheric ozone exposure (e.g. accumulated dose over a threshold of 40 parts per billion, AOT40; see Fuhrer et al. 1997), since they are able to account for the varying influences of temperature, water vapour, radiation, soil water, phenology, and atmospheric ozone on ozone uptake. With exposure-related indices, different meteorological and environmental conditions may result in a given atmospheric ozone exposure producing different crop impacts. In addition, several studies have shown that plant response is more closely related to stomatal ozone flux than to a time-integrated atmospheric ozone exposure (Pleijel et al., 2000). This puts a high priority on the development of coupled process-based models that explicitly calculate the stomatal flux of ozone into the crop, and its dependence on a range of environmental drivers. Limited efforts have so far been made to model ozone effects at the explanatory process level, accounting for interactions with other factors such as CO 2 and climate (Ewert et al., 1999;van Oijen and Ewert, 1999;Ewert and Porter, 2000;van Oijen et al., 2004). The validity of these approaches for large-scale applications awaits further testing against reliable experimental data. Such data are still scarce (van Oijen and Ewert, 1999; see also Long et al., 2006) and are urgently required for a range of important crop species under a range of climatic conditions.Abiotic stresses are also likely to interact with biotic stresses. For example, the effects of ozone on plant function (allocation of resources to ozone resistance) and structure (e.g. leaf damage) may leave plants more susceptible to damage from pests, disease, and extreme weather, which are themselves likely to be affected by global climate change. Detailed discussion on biotic stresses is beyond the scope of this review.How can the progress highlighted above be used to generate useful information? At least two conditions apply (see Patt and Gwata, 2002): useful information should be both reliable and relevant to the user of the information. The existence of complex interactions such as those described above presents a challenge to the reliability of process-based crop models. As shown above, mechanistic modelling necessarily involves a reduction of real-world processes to a set of fallible rules. A model that is too simple will fail to represent some of the interactions that strongly influence output variables. A model that is too complex will have more parameters than can be constrained by observations, increasing the risk of reproducing observations without correctly representing the processes involved. Some parameters are not directly observable, and must be inferred as part of the calibration procedure. The risk of overtuningwhere the right answer is obtained for the wrong reason, due to an excess of tuneable parameters that cannot be related directly to observations-is compounded by the existence of non-linear interactions in biological systems. A range of observations under a range of conditions is therefore needed to ensure that each of these interactions is correctly represented. When an overtuned model is run in a new environment (such as under climate change), the errors may be large. This implies that, despite the progress highlighted above, we should be wary of being overconfident in our assessments of the impacts of climate change, especially where it is based on the 'validation' of a model followed by subsequent 'black box' use of that model (see Monteith, 1996). Judicious model choice and calibration are therefore crucial, as is the evaluation of historical performance (Easterling et al., 1996), if our simulations are to be consistently accurate (i.e. reliable).Calibration parameters may be process based, acting on, for example, leaf area index (Challinor et al., 2004) or soil fertility (Boote and Jones, 1998). Calibration may also be applied to model output as a yield correction factor (Jagtap and Jones, 2002;Casellas et al., 2009). A range of more detailed approaches have also been tried and compared (Irmak et al., 2005). The potential for overtuning means that calibration should be performed by using observations of as many growth variables as possible. For example, leaf area index can be used in addition to yield (Guerif and Duke, 2000;Jones and Barnes, 2001). Internal consistency checks are also very important in spotting unrealistic simulations. Possible checks include radiation-use efficiency and specific leaf area (where these are not input parameters; see, for example, Challinor et al., 2004). Checks such as these can be combined with the methods outlined above: observations can be used to constrain ensembles of crop simulations (Challinor and Wheeler, 2008a). This approach can result in a reduction in the associated uncertainty from the estimates with unconstrained ensembles, as shown by Challinor et al. (2008a). That study, which accounted for both crop and climate uncertainty, also showed that, for the region and crop studied, doubled CO 2 without adaptation was highly likely to result in a reduction in yield. Thus quantifying uncertainty does not preclude relatively certain statements. Ensemble methods can ensure that we avoid unwarranted precision in our simulations, and observations can ensure that we avoid unnecessarily large uncertainty ranges.Once we are confident that our estimates of climate change impacts are reliable, they can be used to create information relevant to the adaptation actions taken by stakeholders. Challinor (2009) discusses this topic at length, and assesses the potential for adaptation to climate for a crop in India. In that study, a number of existing model results were used to assess the extent to which genotypic variation might be used to adapt to climate change. The requisite crop genetic properties determined from the simulations were compared with those of existing germplasm. Interestingly, a separate study showed that under doubled CO 2 in India, the uncertainty in the simulation of adapted crops may be greater than that of non-adapted crops (Challinor et al., 2008a).When considering adaptation, it is important to consider how weather and crop yield forecasts will be used, and what spatial and temporal scales will be the most appropriate for the users. Useful weather/climate forecasts can range from a few days ahead for some crop management decisions, to decades in the future for infrastructure and strategic planning. For example, ensemble climate modelling can be used with crop models in order to predict crop yield a season ahead of the harvest (Challinor et al., 2005c). Information should also be provided in relevant formats (Stone and Meinke, 2005). Whether the information best suited to users is based on computer-intensive systems, or on less high-tech systems such as observational networks and capacity building, depends to a large extent on the particular users considered (see, for example, Patt et al., 2005). In Africa, for example, a prudent way to address the threat of climate change may be to focus on strategies for coping with climate variability, rather than longer term climate change (Washington et al., 2006). This may mean a greater focus on in situ and remotely sensed observations as well as consideration of the multiple stresses that act on food security (Gregory et al., 2005;Haile, 2005;Verdin et al., 2005).In the seasonally arid regions of the developing world, people are particularly vulnerable to interannual and intraseasonal rainfall variability, through dependence on rainfed agriculture. The skill of forecasts is also often higher in these mid-latitude regions than it is further north (DTI, 2001). Hence the potential benefits of climate forecasting may be particularly high in tropical regions, where there may be strong relationships between climate and impact variables such as crop yield (see also WCRP, 2007).Having reviewed progress in modelling the impact of climate change on crops, and examined how reliable and useful information may come from this endeavour, what can be said of the progress needed in the near future? Part of generating relevant and reliable information is synthesizing knowledge effectively and applying it appropriately. One of the tools that enables this endeavour is the hardware on which models are run. Ongoing increases in computer power create the potential for increasingly sophisticated modelling techniques. For climate and impacts modellers, this presents a choice (see Challinor et al., 2009b): increase the complexity of the model, increase the number of simulations, or increase the spatial resolution. Increases in complexity are subject to the constraints identified earlier.Increases in the number of simulations create larger ensembles and hence more objective quantification of uncertainty (see above). Increases in spatial resolution will permit analyses across a broader range of spatial scales. This in turn may create one of the ingredients in a synergistic modelling approach that aims to increase the accuracy and reliability with which yield is simulated.Efforts to synthesize knowledge on the response of crops to climate change have increased in recent years (see Easterling et al., 2007;Tubiello et al., 2007b). These studies, which review existing modelling efforts and try to form a consensus, are an important part of the process of increasing our understanding. They are faced with a difficult task, since each of the individual studies tends to use only one method for one region, and for a limited number of crops (see above and Challinor et al., 2007). In order to address this, some crop model intercomparison studies have been performed (Jamieson, 1998;van Oijen and Ewert, 1999;Jamieson et al., 2000;Ewert et al., 2002). These have shown that simulations differ across models, due to significant differences in the structure of the models. For example, some models are based on the concept of radiation-use efficiency, whilst others are based on water-or nitrogen-use efficiency; some models emphasize sink development, whilst others focus mainly on sources. Clearly, the structure of a model and the processes considered, including their relative importance, are determined by the aims for which the models are developed. These aims are in part determined by the region for which the model was developed, since there are considerable regional differences in the factors determining crop responses (Reidsma et al., 2009b).As a result of this spatial heterogeneity in the determinants of yield, several studies show that crop models have difficulties in reproducing yields at multiple sites (Ewert et al., 1999;van Oijen and Ewert, 1999), farms (Ewert et al., 2002), and regions (Reidsma et al., 2009a). Unsatisfactory model performance at the regional scale can be due to the inappropriate consideration of factors and processes determining yield variability (Reidsma et al., 2009a) and/or the aggregation of input data which may inconsistently reproduce the spatial variability of growing conditions (e.g. climate and soils) within a region (e.g. Hansen and Jones, 2000). Also, factors explaining spatial yield variability across regions can be different from those explaining temporal variability within regions (Reidsma et al., 2007(Reidsma et al., , 2009b)). Thus, there is no single modelling approach that performs equally well across regions.Similar reasoning can be applied to simulation across a range of spatial scales, since this is another determinant of the structure of a model. For some scales and regions, climate may be the dominant determinant of crop yield.Where biotic stresses (see, for example, Tubiello et al., 2007b) or other non-climatic processes dominate, there may be no observed relationship between climate and crops; here, more detailed site-specific modelling may succeed in demonstrating predictability (Gadgil et al., 2002;Carbone et al., 2003), by explicitly including determinants of yield variability other than climate. Bakker et al. (2005) showed that the significance of the climate signal increases with spatial scale, suggesting that non-climatic factors such as management or soils may become more important at smaller scales.Given the importance of scale and geography in determining crop productivity, perhaps the greatest challenge for future syntheses of knowledge on the response of crops to climate change is the balance between generality and specificity in region and scale. Reducing complexity to the most important yield-determining factors and processes may result in different region-and/or scale-specific models. This in itself may reduce the generality of the results. Efforts to improve synergy between crop modelling approaches must therefore choose whether to emphasize generality or specificity. Increasing generality has been proposed by Yin and van Laar (2005), who developed improvements to the underlying physiological relationships in the GECROS model, resulting in wider applicability across a range of conditions. Adam et al. (2009) propose a generic modelling framework that assembles regionalscale models depending on the regions and the relative importance of the determinants of yield in those regions.The ensemble techniques reviewed above are an attempt to avoid unwarranted precision (i.e. specificity). The techniques have been used to examine the form of the response of crop yield to mean temperature (Challinor et al., 2008a). The results showed that the response derived from an ensemble systematically varying both climate and crop responses to elevated CO 2 can have a different form from that derived from a study synthesizing a range of disparate results (that of Easterling et al., 2007). The results also showed variation in response of crop development and yield to mean temperature across a range of crop models. Similar techniques were used by Challinor and Wheeler (2008a, b), who used a crop simulation ensemble combined with sensitivity analyses on two other crop models. Coupled with observational studies, approaches such as these can be used to understand the fundamental biophysical processes determining crop yield across scales and across regions.Biophysical processes are not the only determinants of crop yield and productivity. The role of socio-economic drivers is increasingly being realized by the climate and impacts modelling community. Efforts to increase the reliability, and also the relevance, of predictions are therefore beginning to draw on a parallel body of work that has explored the influence of human action (e.g. adaptation) on crop productivity. Unsurprisingly, these studies show that productivity relies on capital and labour inputs and a range of other factors (Mendelsohn, 2007). Such factors may trigger a range of inseparable responses in yield, including stepchanges (e.g. policy, infrastructure, pest), smooth trends (e.g. technical innovation), or cyclical changes (e.g. crop rotation, rainfall). Drawing on development studies, and household/village-scale livelihoods work in poorer parts of the world (see, for example, Adger, 1999), a range of more qualitative data suggests that the way farmers adapt to climatic problems results from the complex and unpredictable interactions between society and the environment (O'Brien and Leichenko, 2000).Much of this work has involved asking key informants about how weather-related problems were overcome in the past. As such, these studies tend to use participatory methods (Dougill et al., 1999) and find their intellectual foundations in the work of Amartya Sen who studied the causes of 20th century famines and presented his 'food entitlement theory'. Sen concluded that those socio-economic factors that constrain an individual's ability to switch entitlements are more important in creating a famine than simple meteorological anomalies (Sen, 1981). Food entitlement theory has been expanded on by researchers doing field work where key interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires are used to conduct studies on how households and villages adapt to overcome weather-related problems (Bebbington, 1999). Researchers have explored how household members switch between different livelihood strategies (Scoones, 1995), and found that by diversifying their income sources householders can become less vulnerable to climate variability (Hageback et al., 2005). Thus far, however, it has proven difficult to 'up-scale' results from these field studies, and current attempts have only generated quite general and qualitative conceptual frameworks (Turner et al., 2003;Ericksen, 2008).Recent studies have analysed relationships between farm characteristics and yield variability (Reidsma et al., 2007(Reidsma et al., , 2009b) ) across regions in Europe. As evident from these studies, farm intensity, farm size, and land use have been identified as important characteristics for explaining a significant part of the spatial and temporal yield variability. It was also shown that farm diversity in a region can strongly affect (and cancel out) the climate signal (Reidsma and Ewert, 2008). Considering these farm characteristics in a model evaluation study revealed that some of the deviation of the simulated regional yields from observations could be explained by these characteristics. Yet, the integration of this information into biophysical models remains difficult (Vincent, 2008).In order to bring socio-economic and biophysical approaches together and develop formal mathematical models of climate impacts on food security, those socioeconomic factors that limit or enhance production and adaptation can be identified and quantified using the same spatial scale as climate models and large-area crop models. Work supporting this has been undertaken by characterizing those socio-economic factors that, in the past, seem to have buffered harvest from drought (Fraser et al., 2008) and the development of indicators of socio-climatic exposure (Diffenbaugh et al., 2007). Simelton et al. (2009) have shown that regions may be vulnerable to drought due to land, labour, or capital constraints, and that, as regions develop economically, the source of vulnerability may shift from economic constraints to a lack of land or labour. However, these results are preliminary; more work is needed to understand fully how socio-economic processes influence climate-crop relationships, and trends in production, at the regional scale. Once this has been done, the socio-economic and biophysical aspects of crop productivity can be examined together using state-of-the-art methods and at common spatial scales, resulting in more holistic assessments of climate change impacts and adaptation. Methodologies are therefore required that can integrate the main food system processes (Schmidhuber and Tubiello, 2007;Tubiello et al., 2007b) and suggesting adaptation options that take account of the full range of stresses on agriculture (see Howden et al., 2007;Morton, 2007). Integrative work such as this needs to be based on an understanding of fundamental processes and their associated uncertainties (see above).The challenges identified above have focused principally on increasing the reliability of simulations. How can we go about increasing the relevance of the information produced by crop and climate models? Closer links with efforts to develop adaptation options would seem to be an effective way to do this. For example, plant breeding operates on a 7-10 year time scale, producing the varieties that are best adapted to the environment (Austin, 1999). This time scale is unlikely to be sufficient to prepare for the increase in extreme events expected under climate change (see Randall et al., 2007). Also, plant breeding cannot take place at all the locations where adaptation to climate change will be needed. Just as judicious use of crop models can complement field studies, there is the potential to link simulation studies more closely to plant breeding and other adaptation measures. Such methods could be used to identify the regions where newly bred varieties may perform well, thus broadening their domain of applicability. They also provide a tool for making the simulation studies relevant to a specific adaptation endeavour. A sequence of links is likely to be needed in order to connect simulation and plant breeding; existing concepts [e.g. ideotypes (Donald, 1968;Sylvester-Bradley and Riffkin, 2008)] may prove to be a useful part of this.Efforts such as these can only be carried out with the will and ability of a range of scientists. Our understanding and modelling of climate impacts is based on fundamental physics, biology, and chemistry, and the interactions between them. Our ability to predict is therefore dependent on the quality of our single-and cross-disciplinary research. Similarly, our ability to inform adaptation will depend upon the extent to which we can combine all relevant scientific analyses into holistic assessments. Just as there are many successful studies linking crop and climate science (Huntingford et al., 2005; see also Slingo et al, 2005), it should be possible to link simulation studies more closely with a range of adaptation endeavours.There are many complex processes and interactions that determine crop yield under climate change. These include the response of crops to mean temperature, the interaction between water stress and CO 2 , and the interaction between ozone and a range of environmental variables. As a result of this, and of the importance of scale and geography in determining crop productivity, perhaps the greatest challenge for future syntheses of knowledge on the response of crops to climate change is the balance between generality and specificity in region and scale. It is clear that climate impacts research requires appropriate degrees of integration and specialization (Challinor et al., 2009b). To date, efforts to generate knowledge for policy and adaptation have been largely based on syntheses of published studies. Synergistic approaches are now needed that include the following.(i) Reliable quantification of impacts uncertainty. This should be carried out as objectively as possible and is likely to include the use of crop simulation ensembles and/or sensitivity analyses. Since the quantification of uncertainty does not preclude a high degree of certainty regarding some statements, there is every reason to believe that this approach will prove to be productive.(ii) Techniques for combining diverse modelling approaches and observations. A focus on processes, employing a range of models and observations in order to increase our understanding of non-linear interactions, is likely to be an effective strategy for reducing uncertainty. Coupled modelling approaches are likely to form a part of this strategy, since non-linear interactions between yield-determining processes may result in complex coupling between; for example, atmospheric composition and climatic drivers. Observations are also important: whilst ensemble methods can ensure that we avoid unwarranted precision in our simulations, observations can ensure that we avoid unnecessarily large uncertainty ranges.(iii) Judicious choice and calibration of models, including simulation at appropriate levels of complexity that accounts for the principal drivers of crop productivity. Even when a range of models is combined in some way, judicious choice and use of models is required. Since no one model can claim to represent reality entirely accurately, models should not be calibrated or run as 'black boxes'. Thus different models may be used for different regions, depending on the relative importance of driving variables in these regions. Also, modelling methods are needed that can account for both the biophysical and socio-economic determinants of crop productivity.In addition to providing a new paradigm for the generation of knowledge, such an approach will lead to reliable methods for linking simulation with adaptation.Thus we can move beyond synthesizing knowledge and begin to make the best use of the huge global effort to understand and predict climate change.","tokenCount":"8403"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"40f3dc10584f440b62b430f045891e04","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e42c2c4e-e36f-4e0b-a0aa-fc0a0f50bcaf/retrieve","id":"1208258242"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"83acd585-9c26-42e8-b5b9-766a99f8fefd","pagecount":"31","content":"La concurrence étrangère et les problèmes logistiques conduisent à une surévaluation des cours des engrais -au détriment des agriculteurs qui ne peuvent assumer des coûts d'approvisionnement aussi élevé.Interview de André Bationo Spécialiste en sciences du sol (TSBF -Nairobi)* et coordinateur de AFNET** Introduction: La fertilité des sols africains n'a jamais été aussi menacée. Outre les contraintes climatiques et biophysiques, les sols souffrent aussi du manque de moyens des agriculteurs pour les entretenir. Ce constat a été au coeur d'un séminaire organisé par le CTA aux Pays-Bas en novembre 2003. Isabelle Biagiotti a interviewé à cette occasion le Dr André Bationo et recueilli son plaidoyer pour une approche globale et intégrée du problème de la fertilité des sols.«Si on prend la somme… Fin de la bande :…l'efficacité de l'eau.» Durée de la bande : 5'09 *TSBF est un institut spécialisé dans l'étude des sols et de leur fertilité au sein du Ciat -Centre international d'agronomie tropicale. Il est basé à Nairobi, Kenya. Contact Internet : www.ciat.cgiar.org **AFNET est un réseau africain de scientifiques travaillant sur la fertilité des sols.Contacts : TSBF c/o World Agroforestry Center, United Nations Avenue, Gigiri, PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya. Tel : + 254 2 524754 -5 -66 Fax : + 254 2 568713 Mail : A.Bationo@cgiar.orgBationo : Si on prend la somme des sols au sud du Sahara, on se rend compte que chaque année nous perdons 4,4 millions de tonnes d'azote qui sont perdus pour l'agriculture, pour la production agricole. En même temps, pendant que nous perdons jusqu'à 4 ,4 millions de tonnes, ce que nous utilisons comme azote, ne représente que 0,8 millions de tonnes d'azote par an.Et est-ce que ceci veut dire que c'est uniquement un problème de gestion humaine ou est-ce que d'autres facteurs entrent en ligne de compte ?Bationo : C'est beaucoup de facteurs, pourquoi ces pertes, c'est énormément de facteurs. C'est sûrement dû en grande partie à l'impossibilité des paysans d'investir pour remplacer ces éléments qui sont perdus.Et donc qu'est-ce qu'il faut faire pour inverser cette tendance pour que les paysans puissent agir positivement sur leurs sols ?Bationo : C'est un problème extrêmement complexe qui n'a sûrement pas de réponse très simple, bien entendu. Maintenant que le problème a été bien identifié, c'est de trouver tous les voies et moyens, par exemple, je ne sais pas, un système de crédit approprié de façon à ce que les paysans puissent investir et pouvoir maintenir leur sol pour une production non seulement durable mais une productivité beaucoup plus élevée. Biagiotti : Qu'est-ce qui explique que finalement ces importations extérieures elles soient meilleur marché que la production locale ?Heffer : C'est pas qu'elles soient forcément meilleur marché parce que en fait en Afrique, c'est la région où on trouve les engrais les plus chers au niveau de l'agriculteur, les prix pouvant être deux, trois fois, voire cinq fois, supérieurs aux prix par exemple qu'on trouve en Europe. Ce sont essentiellement liés après à des problèmes de transport et de distribution au sein des pays. Que les engrais arrivent d'un autre pays africain ou d'un autre continent, il n'y a pas vraiment de grosses différences de prix, ils sont sensiblement voisins. La différence de prix entre le prix de détail des engrais en Afrique et par exemple en Europe ou en Amérique du Nord ou en Asie, c'est essentiellement lié à des problèmes de logistique, de transport au sein des pays et de défaillance souvent des réseaux de distribution.Est-ce que dans un séminaire comme celui-ci vous avez un message particulier à faire passer ?Heffer : Comme je vous l'ai dit, un des gros problèmes c'est le manque d'infrastructures qui contribue à cette différence de prix des engrais mais également aussi des autres intrants agricoles en Afrique par rapport aux autres régions et cette différence du ratio entre le prix des intrants et le prix des produits de la récolte en Afrique par rapport aux autres pays, donc ce ratio est beaucoup moins intéressant en Afrique ne contribue pas à une utilisation accrue des engrais et de nombreux autres intrants agricoles améliorés par les agriculteurs africains. Donc là c'est vraiment un message que j'ai fait passer ici, on a insisté, plusieurs personnes l'ont dit par ailleurs, et la meilleure façon d'améliorer ce ratio, donc de rendre les intrants agricoles plus intéressants, serait notamment d'améliorer les infrastructures, donc mettre en place des politiques visant à développer des infrastructures routières ou ferroviaires, également promouvoir l'esprit d'entreprise donc permettre aux petits entrepreneurs ou aux petites coopératives également de se lancer dans le détail, la vente de détail des engrais parce que ça manque cruellement et également d'organiser après les marchés pour la collecte des produits de la récolte, qui là aussi manquent cruellement. Le marché des engrais aujourd'hui, c'est un marché ouvert. Comme on a eu à l'entendre durant ce séminaire, c'est un marché plus ou moins géré par des cartels donc de producteurs. Ce que je peux vous parler statistiquement chez nous au niveau de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, qu'il y a au fait une industrie qui est une des plus grandes, sinon la plus grande de la sous région, c'est-à-dire de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, et qui pourrait desservir toute l'Afrique de l'Ouest tout en réduisant le coût de ces intérêts là au niveau des producteurs. Donc c'est pourquoi je disais tantôt, je formulais tantôt une recommandation en disant qu'il fallait qu'il y ait plus de collaboration Sud-Sud afin de pouvoir réduire un peu les coûts de ces intrants.Biagiotti : Et qu'est-ce qui fait qu'aujourd'hui cette industrie elle n'arrive pas à fournir des produits accessibles aux producteurs locaux ?Ndiaye :On n'a pas de prix bas parce que, effectivement, il y a plusieurs prétendants sur le marché qui viennent d'origines différentes. Notamment il y a des producteurs qui nous viennent de l'Europe, de l'Est comme de l'Ouest, qui viennent d'Afrique. Donc, nous on a des coûts plus réduits parce qu'on a des coûts de transport moins élevé, on a des coûts de main d'oeuvre moins élevés mais nous sommes obligés d'être à la remorque de ces gens qui nous viennent de l'extérieur et qui mènent les prix à un certain niveau. Donc là, nous ne pouvons pas baisser. Mais si les marchés ou les offres nous étaient adressés directement, avec ce dialogue Nord Sud Sud dont j'ai parlé, on pourrait nous quand même donner des en tout cas à des prix acceptables pour le paysan.A votre avis, quels sont les acteurs qui peuvent le plus changer les choses ?Ndiaye :Il faudrait que l'on puisse arriver à mettre une jonction entre les producteurs africains, c'est-à-dire de la sous région Sud Ouest et les fabricants d'engrais de la sous-région. Je dis ça peut être des décisions politiques, avec les politiques pour s'en mêler entre les gouvernements et dire. Je veux dire une chose que j'ai oublié de vous dire, c'est que aujourd'hui, beaucoup de pays africains, certains pays africains du moins, sont actionnaires au niveau des Industries chimiques du Sénégal, notamment le Cameroun que je connais, la Côte d'Ivoire, etc. Donc ces pays-là ils ont un réel intérêt à acheter l'engrais, qui est d'ailleurs un engrais de très bonne qualité, et qui pourraient se vendre dans les pays-là limitrophes à des coûts moindres.","tokenCount":"1202"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b8aa054147b5ee43a27be4e5be4859aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bed7a1a1-0a31-438b-b6e4-76281aca2403/retrieve","id":"-1977369510"},"keywords":["Climate information services","Rwanda","Seasonal climate forecast","Maproom"],"sieverID":"99d884ea-a25d-47b2-8b4e-bd5e3b1b9ed9","pagecount":"17","content":"CCAFS Workshop Reports aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Asher Siebert is a Post-Doctoral Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University, New York, USA. Contact: asiebert@iri.columbia.edu.Alison Rose is the Science Officer for Flagship 4: Climate Services and Safety Nets of CCAFS and is based at IRI at Columbia University. Contact: arose@iri.columbia.edu.  The purpose of the visit was to contribute to the forecast for MAM 2018 season with forecasts for seasonal total rainfall, rainy day frequency and onset date and share some insights on forecast verification methods for SOND 2017 forecast.Prior to coming to Rwanda, Dr. Siebert had participated in the GHACOF 48 in Mombasa, Kenya. At a side meeting, he made a presentation on the technical side of the ICPAC Agriculture and Food Security Maprooms. At Meteo Rwanda, Dr. Siebert delivered his presentations from the GHACOF and gave a presentation that he had given at the American Meteorological Society conference in January on the climatology and SOND 2017 forecast.Dr. Siebert also discussed and provided training on several other topics. This included the station and gridbox based approaches to forecast verification and covered probabilistic forecast verification methods in CPT.Mr. Steven Higiro from Meteo Rwanda gave his forecast presentation from the GHACOF.This forecasting approach used multiple platforms: CPT as a tool, multiple GCM outputs, GEOCOF and the WRF regional model. Further discussions focused on a consensus forecast for Rwanda for subsequent dissemination.In the week prior to the training (February 5-9), Mr. Higiro spent time in Kenya working with regional partners at ICPAC during the pre-COF. In the pre-COF process, scientists at ICPAC guide national meteorological service representatives of each country to create forecasts using CPT with multiple GCM outputs, GEOCOF and the WRF model. These multiple factors are brought together and evaluated by ICPAC scientists in order to produce the seasonal consensus forecast for the region; the individual national representatives use their own analysis to produce a consensus forecast for each nation. While this multiple-tool approach may have some advantage in exploring many approaches to forecasting, the output of the different tools can often be contradictory (with one tool suggesting above average rainfall while another suggests below average rainfall for the same geographic region and season).Additionally, because of the short time involved in producing these multiple forecasts, there is not always adequate time to evaluate the hindcasts and gain a clear picture of the skill of each method. As a consequence, there may be an impulse to \"average\" the output of the different tools in order to arrive at a \"reasonable\" consensus. But this approach may, at times, omit important skill evaluation, which might rule some platforms out of consideration altogether while simultaneously emphasizing the value of other platform outputs.Using this pre-COF process, Mr. Higiro produced a forecast map for Rwanda that anticipated near normal to above normal conditions in the northern and northeastern region of Rwanda, with near normal conditions for much of the rest of the country (except perhaps the southwest corner). This was largely consistent with the official GHACOF statement. See Figures 1 and 2 below. Mr. Higiro also produced forecasts for the rainy-day frequency and onset date using this multi-factoral pre-COF process. Dr. Siebert was not involved with the pre-COF process. Prior to and during his trip to East Africa, he completed several different predictor-predictand analyses exclusively using CPT and high resolution observational data as the predictand (using both ENACTS and CHIRPS).The forecast he found to have the highest empirical skill leaned more towards drier conditions than the GHACOF consensus forecast or Mr. Higiro's forecast. He also made a forecast for rainy day frequency (which also leaned towards fewer than normal rainy days). He shared his forecast parameters with the trainees, so they could reproduce the same output through their own CPT analysis. The summary graphic for this forecast is shown in Figure 3. Both anecdotally and empirically, the SOND 2017 season was observed to be above average rainfall and above average rainy day frequency in most parts of Rwanda. The forecasts made by Dr. Siebert were evidently fairly close to being correct with relatively small errors (not more than 15% average error across 13 stations for the SOND 2017 season). Furthermore, anecdotally, rainfall in January and early February continued to be above average, in spite of weak La Niña and weakly negative Indian Ocean Dipole conditions. This is somewhat unusual because, in most years, January and February are somewhat drier than SOND and, in many cases, La Niña conditions and negative Indian Ocean Dipole conditions are associated with below normal rains in much of tropical East Africa. The IRI seasonal forecast, as of early February 2018, anticipated a gradual transition over the coming 3-6 months back from the weak La Niña conditions towards more ENSO neutral or even El Niño conditions. In light of these environmental and observational factors, the GHACOF consensus statement and the Twahirwa to hone Mr. Higiro's forecast in subtle ways to prepare it for dissemination (rather than advocating his own drier forecast). This was a judgment call both based on time considerations and on scientific confidence (while the goodness indices and historical performance of his forecast seemed robust, the drier forecast for MAM 2018 seemed to be at odds with environmental conditions at the time).On February 17, there was a smaller working session consisting of Mr. Higiro, Mr. Twahirwa, Dr. Siebert and Director General of Meteo Rwanda, Mr. John Semafara. During this session, the process of extracting site-specific probability distributions for individual locations within the country was illustrated and the director general seemed particularly engaged in learning about this feature of CPT and making sure that Meteo-Rwanda staff take advantage of that capacity in the future.Several key conclusions have emerged regarding the next phase of the project related to capacity building, skill assessment of forecasting platforms, and data access and usage.1. Capacity Building: Building the capacity within Meteo Rwanda to make high quality objective seasonal forecasts was articulated as a key goal for the next phase of the project.This approach to seasonal forecasting should be based on the best sources of predictability for each season. Furthermore, this forecasting approach must produce statistically downscaled user-oriented information that can be made accessible through maprooms. Another objective of the next phase of the project is to enable Meteo Rwanda staff to upload the output of these forecasts into Maproom format independently of IRI. Objective skill assessment must also be feasible for future forecasts. All of these objectives can be facilitated by the use of CPT.Skill assessment of the forecasts in operation and retrospective forecast validation/hindcast validation were also articulated as goals for the next phase of the project.There is a need to evaluate the skill of the different platforms used in the pre-COF process objectively and compare those approaches with a more careful analysis of CPT based forecasts of regional observed datasets (such as SST and ENACTS). Earlier training at Meteo Rwanda done by Dr. Siebert (in September 2017) illustrated how to use many features of CPT, including, the evaluation of the skill of a CPT forecast. This training also instructed Meteo Rwanda staff on how to extract daily-derived variables from the IRI data library and from the Meteo Rwanda data portal.Another immediate issue for Meteo Rwanda seemed to be that not all forecasting officers had reliable access to the ENACTS data or had been using the ENACTS data in their forecast analysis. At this point in the project, the value of the ENACTS data has been demonstrated and all Meteo Rwanda staff who have a responsibility pertaining to seasonal forecasting should access these data and factor them into their seasonal forecasting efforts for all related forecast variables. While other data sets can be used in conjunction with ENACTS for exploration and comparison, ENACTS data uses considerably Meteo Rwanda station data than any global product, and should thus be mainstreamed into Meteo Rwanda's operational forecasts.","tokenCount":"1329"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4e022d38eb145e5de91135d7a1cba7ed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a0a8776a-0fec-4d80-a097-8e1f40dc1972/retrieve","id":"-1014685625"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"def50337-ff5d-427a-b565-f24b3612cc69","pagecount":"11","content":"This meeting was convened with the primary objective of gathering essential feedback from secondary partners. These partners are poised to play a pivotal role in the utilization of the EiA (Excellent in Agronomy) solutions, leveraging their extensive network of farmers. The agenda encompassed in-depth discussions on EiA's cutting-edge agronomy tools, exploring feedback, and planning engagement.The session commenced with a warm welcome from Alpha Kamara, the Station Head of IITA Kano. His address underscored the profound significance of collaborative efforts in addressing the pressing issue of food insecurity among Nigeria's farming communities. Christine Kreye, the Focal Lead for EiA in Nigeria, presented an overview of the EiA project, providing valuable insights into its broader scope beyond Nigeria's borders. To ensure a productive engagement, Thompson Ogunsanmi, the Scaling Specialist in EiA on the SAA use case, facilitated the interactions with the partners. He ensured their suggestions and inputs were captured and integrated into next stepsThe partners represented a diverse array of organizations, each with a unique contribution to the shared objectives of the meeting. Among those present were KADA, OCP, GIZ, Smart Agribus, ANA, Kano ADP, INDORAMA, Notore, LIWEED, the Kano Innovation Platform, as well as dedicated teams from IITA/EiA and SAA. Partners' expectations for the meeting were:1. Gaining insights into the functionality of EiA tools. 2. Hoping for a user-friendly app for Extension Agents (EAs) and farmers. 3. Acquiring proficiency in utilizing EiA tools for fertilizer recommendations. 4. Being equipped with novel innovations to enhance farmers' productivity, especially in rice cultivation. 5. Developing familiarity with digitalized tools for EiA. 6. Expanding their knowledge regarding the EiA project. 7. Seeking improved E-extension tools to assist Extension Agents in delivering new agricultural technologies.Agenda Review: Meeting's objectives, outputs, and deliverablesThe meeting's objectives were aligned with participants' expectations. The meeting aimed to introduce new partners to the project and showcase both completed and validation-required tools. Partners were urged to adapt and ensure the tools' sustainability. EiA sought to enhance partner engagement and establish pilot programs using the tools to gather input from partners, extension agents, and farmers. A follow-up strategy included user pilots, farmer scaling, data collection, and organized learning events. The meeting would also address the full engagement, coordination, and ongoing involvement of partners post-meeting.The meeting facilitated comprehensive discussions, fostering a shared understanding among participants regarding the intended outcomes and actionable steps to be taken to drive the project forward. The meeting aimed to achieve specific outputs and deliverables that align with EiA's objectives and partners expectation:Stakeholder Understanding and Engagement:• Participants gain a clear understanding of the purpose and benefits of EiA tools.• Establish a well-defined engagement process with partners, outlining the types of EiA tools involved.• Ensure stakeholders are familiar with all EiA tools, including their user interface, functionalities, and navigation. • Obtain confirmation from stakeholders on the tools' relevance to their work.• Collect feedback on the value of consolidating all tools into a single interface, such as a chatbot.• Educate stakeholders on how EiA tools can be seamlessly integrated into their work, tailored to various contexts (e.g., existing farmers' networks, diverse scaling channels). • Provide partners with insights into potential opportunities and challenges associated with tool integration. • Agree on a plan for user experience (UX) interactions with Extension Agents of partners.Dissemination Strategies, Action Plan, and Follow-up:• Develop strategies to effectively integrate AKILIMO tools into stakeholders' operational frameworks. • Establish an action plan outlining roles, responsibilities, and timelines for initial pilot projects or trials, specific to each partner. • Create a comprehensive follow-up plan to ensure continuous support, communication, and progress tracking with stakeholders. • Identify clear communication channels for participants seeking further information or assistance.• Establish structured data collection procedures in collaboration with partners.• Define mechanisms for data sharing that align with the preferences of both partners and EiA. • Discuss and establish the roles and responsibilities of each partner as the foundation for a successful partnership.The Excellence in Agronomy (EIA) TOOLS in the SAA NG/ATAFI Use CasesDuring the meeting, an update on the development of the tools in the SAA NG Use Case was provided by Christine Kreye. She provided a comprehensive overview of the progress made so far.. The tools that have been created to address critical agricultural challenges. For making impact, and for their successful implementation the active involvement and support of partners is required.Updates on Rice, Maize and Cassava Tools Tijjani Kamaludeen explained the Nutrient Expert ToolThis tool empowers researchers, extension experts, and farmers to formulate site-specific fertilizer recommendations by factoring in diverse agronomic variables.. Although a prototype web version is accessible, the team is working on a lite version for easier use in the field and compatibility with other formats..Thompson presented an in-depth overview of the AKILIMO/Fertilizer Recommendation and Scheduled Planting tools for cassava. These tools, collectively known as AKILIMO, as part of the EiA initiative. He highlighted various products of AKILIMO, with a specific focus on two key aspects: fertilizer recommendation and scheduled planting and harvest as decision support tools. The fertilizer recommendation tool is designed to provide farmers with precise guidance on the optimal amount and type of fertilizer to use for their specific crops and conditions. This helps farmers maximize their yields. The scheduled planting and harvest tool helps farmers determine the most suitable times for planting and harvesting their crops. This ensures that crops are planted at the right time to achieve optimal growth and yields.The AKILIMO App AKILIMO App was displayed by Josephine Fasakin using the fertilizer recommendation example, she demonstrated how to use the App by asking participants to 1 st download the App from google playstore (only on Android phone). She explained how the fertilizer recommendation tool gives site specific recommendations tailored for individual farmers' fields. She demonstrated the use and emphasized that Kano is not part of location of coverage as this is basically for cassava, but the framework has also been developed for other crops (e.g., Maize, Rice, Potato etc)• Demo of combination of tools for rice and maize for Kano Helen Peter led this session with clear explanation that this is just a demo version and must not be used in generating recommendations for farmers. She began by demonstrating how to generate planting window recommendation for maize. The result was presented with the suitable varieties for the specific planting window. The participants followed through the process using their android based smartphones. In the same manner, the planting window for rice was generated.The fertilizer recommendation tools for both maize and rice were also demonstrated. Partners practiced generating recommendations for different farm sizes using different target yields.The process went further to explain the economic analysis with the expected profit that can be attained. It was explained to partners that the profit made was based on fertilizer cost alone as other management cost can less the profit margin. Partners appreciated the simplicity of the tool and showed interest in using the tools.An integral part of the meeting was the practical hands-on session, during which participants actively interacted with the tools. Our partners provided invaluable feedback, sharing questions and observations that will be instrumental in refining and improving the tools. The EiA-SAA Usecase Team is fully committed to integrating this feedback into the development process, ensuring that the tools align closely with the needs and input of end users. Some of the questions comments, and feedback raised during the session were as below:• Remote Generation of Recommendations: Partners raised the question of whether it's possible to generate recommendations remotely, without the necessity of being physically present on the farm.• Fertilizer Recommendations for Benue: The recommendations indicated use of single fertilizers in Benue, deviating from the initial selection of Urea & NPK 15-15-15. Partners sought clarification on this adjustment to ensure that the recommendations are tailored to the unique needs and conditions in Benue State• Target yield should now be calculated based on farmers' field size, measured in tons per farmer field area, rather than in tons per hectare as in the current version. To implement this change, we need to restructure our approach to asking questions. First, we'll inquire about the farmer's field area. Then, we'll ask the number of bags the farmer aims to produce from that field. The tool will automatically adjust and calculate the target yield in tons per hectare based on this information.• Another important consideration is the potential expansion of the tool to encompass a broader range of rice varieties, rather than exclusively focusing on FARO 44 we are checking the options with AfricaRice. From the partners we would need a list of the popular rice varieties for irrigated and favorable rainfed lowland conditions• It would be beneficial if the tool could consider the application of a certain quantity of fertilizer during the nursery stages when generating recommendations. We need to discuss what the best approach here is • Some partners questioned the practice of applying fertilizers during the vegetative/reproductive stages instead of at planting (for rice)The participants have expressed their keen interest in using this Decision Support Tool (DST), believing that it will be instrumental in guiding their planting time decisions. One notable observation made by the participants is the complete removal of generic varieties' names from the recommendations. They also suggest including a more extensive list of rice varieties. Additionally, they have emphasized the importance of regularly updating the recommendations to ensure sustainability, covering more areas beyond the current project target regions.Preference for Simplified Recommendations: Many partners expressed a strong preference for receiving recommendations in a simplified format, without the need for detailed or technical complexities. This preference aligns with the practical nature of agricultural extension workers, where quick and straightforward guidance is often more effective to help them. The partners believe that concise recommendations will enable them to make informed decisions more efficiently and implement them in the field with greater ease. Simplified recommendations are seen as a practical and user-friendly approach to enhance the tool's usability Accessibility via iPhones: During discussions, partners raised the question of whether the tool could be made accessible through iPhones for generating recommendations. This query stems from the recognition that smartphones, particularly iPhones, are widely used among agricultural stakeholders, including, extension agents, and partners. Making the tool compatible with iPhones would provide greater flexibility and convenience, as it would allow users to access and utilize the tool directly from their mobile devices. This consideration underscores the desire to enhance the tool's accessibility and usability, ensuring that it aligns with the technological preferences of the partners.  We would need to check this with the relevant digital partner once we are good to go with major components of the MVP for all 3 crops.The partners recognized the potential synergy between their existing initiatives and the EiA tools. They intend to leverage their ongoing efforts and resources to create a seamless connection with the tools in various geographical areas where they operate. For instance:• OCP (3000 Farmers): OCP, operating in Benue, Kaduna, Kebbi, and Nassarawa, envisions integrating SAA/ATAFI tools into their ongoing initiatives. With the capacity to mobilize 3000 farmers for pilot programs. Scaling continues for AKILIMO in Benue pilot for RAL in Kebbi and Nasarawa Incorporating these EiA tools into these partners' ongoing initiatives holds the promise of not only enhancing their projects but also fostering responsible and sustainable practices across various sectors and regions. This collaborative effort becomes a commitment to impact on communities.Preliminary Planning:• Defined Objectives: The partners collectively agreed we have specific pilot's objectives with desired outcomes, ensuring alignment with the mission and expertise of each organization. • Scope and Contributions: Discussions were held to establish the scope of the pilot and the roles that each partner will play in its execution.• Collaborative Data Gathering: All secondary partners suggested the need for collection of baseline data from the selected farmers in their respective regions. • Data Consistency: Measures to ensure collected baseline data is consistent, accurate, and representative of the current situation across locations.• Joint Design Effort: The partners suggested to designing the pilot's structure, timeline, and resource allocation. • Interventions and Tools: A consensus was reached regarding the interventions and tools that will be tested during the pilot, leveraging the expertise of each partner.• Extension Agents (EAs) Training: There will be training of all EAs of partners in 3 locations (Makurdi, Zaria and Kebbi) and this is tentatively agreed for the month of October • Use Experience(UX): UX should be combined with training of EAs • Number of EAs to train: At least 4-5 EAs will be trained and partners will be responsible for step down training with other staff in their respective organizations • Collaborative Implementation: The pilot will be executed through joint efforts, including workshops, training sessions, and engagement activities conducted by all partners. • Feedback Mechanism: A collective feedback mechanism will be established to capture insights from farmers and refine the interventions as needed.• Consistent Data Collection: Partners will collaboratively gather data throughout the pilot, ensuring standardized methods across all regions. • Unified Analysis: The collected data will be aggregated and jointly analyzed to assess the impact of interventions compared to baseline data.• Tools for data collection: EiA developed tools were agreed and this will be part of the training to be organized• Shared Results: Outcomes of the pilot will be shared among all secondary partners through joint feedback sessions. • Lessons Learned: Partners will collectively discuss lessons learned and validate the outcomes, contributing to a refined approach for scaling.• Informed Decision-making: A joint decision will be made based on the pilot results and insights provided by Indorama, Notore, OCP, Kano ADP, KADP, Nasarawa ADP, Benue ADP, Kano Innovation Platform, LIWEED, and Agribus. • Ready for Scaling: The decision to proceed with scaling will be made collectively, considering the effectiveness of interventions and readiness of partners.• It was agreed to have quarterly meeting virtually and face to face. Where there is need for urgent meeting, everyone will be notified • Contact person will be appointed per partner for further engagement. The contact person will be ICT savvy and also ensure data uploads• Specific Goals: Establish specific goals for the initiative per partner to be involve.• Formalize partnership agreements with each partner stating expectations from both sides to strengthen our collaborative efforts.• Develop a pilot programme and an associated action plan to kickstart the process effectively. • Agree on strategy for collecting and sharing data, both for the pilot phase and beyond, to inform decisions and progress. This should be part of the partnership agreement. • Document how to address challenges, communication, and coordination to stream all engagement and smooth execution of our initiative.• Indorama meets Christine in Ibadan for further discussions (2nd week of September)• Meeting presentation to be shared with partners by 22nd August (done)• Meet quarterly and if the need arises call for an emergency meeting.• User Experience and Pilot commencement training for EAs to run in 3 Locations: 1. Nasarawa (Makurdi) 2. Kebbi, 3. Kaduna (Zaria). The tentative date is 2nd or 3rd week in October. • Total number of farmers for pilot per partner (500-1000) and number of EAs to be trained per partner will be communicated to each partner. • Draft partnership agreement will be shared with partners by IITA from 18th September 4, 2023 • OCP to share partnership template in use before 18th September.• Data sharing policy to be integrated into the partnership agreement.The meeting concluded with a sense of eager anticipation for the upcoming development phase. The next steps involve training partner extension agents and lead farmers in the use of these tools. Mr. A.M Emmanuel, the Program Manager of Nasarawa ADP, emphasized that the evolution of these tools will facilitate easy access to comprehensive agricultural insights, thanks to their enhanced user-friendliness. He described the meeting as a testament to the synergy between technology and agriculture. Furthermore, he highlighted that the introduced EiA tools have the potential to revolutionize farming practices, leading to improved livelihoods for farmers and contributing to sustainable agricultural development ","tokenCount":"2651"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"52a6c190916a04e3adcc2885c0eea9e5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fe40a957-b2c8-4827-8764-6d05d54cc278/retrieve","id":"661161632"},"keywords":["Financial services e.g. Insurance","credit facilities Agriculture Finance Corporation SACCOs Mobile Banking-Safaricom Banks e.g. Equity","KCB"],"sieverID":"bc31e864-e893-43fe-9a2e-3839cb60e656","pagecount":"25","content":"Step 3 On-going and promising/potential CSA practices are proposed by stakeholders to address each consequence.Step 2 After identify a key hazard (2) in the county for the value chain, for each key activity negative consequences and their underlying factors are identifiedStep 1 For each stage in the value chain, three key activities are selected 1. Does this value chain offer low entry barriers for women, men and youth? 2. What is the engagement of women, men and youth in the value chain? 3. Differential impacts of climate risks to women, men and youth? 4. Underlying factors that limit women and youth time and capacity to engage in the value chain?   ❖High food poverty and food insecurity rates despite dominance in food crop production; need to boost production for affordable and nutritious food.❖Low access to water and energy resources, pointing out to investment in infrastructurewater connectivity, and rural electrification ❖High youth and women involvement in agriculture space that can be exploited e.g. Markets Establishing financial literacy and credit access programs in the sector will improve their ability to adopt climate-smart technologies, innovations and management practices.Agriculture's overall profitability and resilience are affected by lack of access to agricultural markets. As a result, the adoption of CSA practices and technologies will be significantly influenced by improved market systems.Climate and market uncertainty will necessitate initiatives to improve access to information and advisory services to assist actors in making informed decisions. ","tokenCount":"236"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"90848e6906ba8cdd90a24839eb9290d5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c0464ba9-3251-45d8-98fe-ca2d159cf261/retrieve","id":"1402479081"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9d303cfb-4969-4a8b-8c92-d544484c1b41","pagecount":"2","content":"Increasing the availability and efficiency of water use for agriculture is an important strategy for improving agricultural productivity in most Sub-Saharan African countries. Enhancing sustainable small scale irrigation, especially in the dry season, has major potential for both economic returns and improved family nutrition.The Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation (FTF-ILSSI) project is a central focal point of the USAID investment strategy to foster improved, efficient methods of supplying water to small holder farmers. FTF-ILSSI was begun in August 2013.A Ghanaian farmer irrigates her vegetable seedlings by hand,Through research the project aims to contribute to increasing food production, improving nutrition, accelerating economic development and protecting the environment.The project team pursues these objectives in Ghana, Ethiopia and Tanzania by identifying, testing and demonstrating, and evaluating technological options in small-scale irrigation and irrigated fodder. Research is supported by ongoing dialogue with key stakeholders and capacity development. The project involves stakeholder driven field studies to evaluate small scale irrigation (SSI) interventions and household surveys to assess the impact of SSI on nutrition, economic status and gender related issues. An integrated suite of analytical models, the Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS), is used to plan, evaluate, and interpret results from the field studies.Field Research: Research in farmer's fields is underway in all three target countries. In Ethiopia, the second cropping season is underway; in Tanzania and Ghana, first year studies have been initiated. Multiple water delivery and distribution systems are being evaluated in collaboration with national university partners. Initial data on small scale irrigation systems have been acquired and are being used in modeling results at multiple levels of scale.Household Surveys: Baseline household surveys involving groups of farming families living in the field research areas have been completed. These provide data on family nutrition, the economic status of the farming enterprise and gender aspects of small scale irrigation. The preliminary results of these initial studies have been presented in multiple international meetings. These studies will be followed by a second round of surveys to evaluate the impact of small scale irrigation at the household level.The IDSS is being used to assess the consequences of small scale irrigation interventions on production, and on environmental and economic outcomes. Initial model results have forecasted the availability of water and other natural resource inputs for citing small scale irrigation studies.In the first quarter of year three, prior to field research, (ex ante) studies were completed examining the impact of alternative SSI technologies for the regions of all three countries where field research and household surveys are being conducted. National summaries have been completed for all three countries. These studies provide a quantitative and randomly determined (stochastic) estimate of the consequences of introducing a variety of small scale irrigation interventions.Analyses, using field and survey research results (ex post), of the impact of SSI based on emerging field and survey data have been initiated and will be used in the second half of year three to provide quantitative estimates of the impact of constraints to adoption of SSI and options for mitigating them.and other residents in surrounding areas. This training considers these audiences as practitioners of the ILSSI methods and includes development of supporting infrastructure such as microfinance and maintenance of irrigation and related equipment. Collaborators in partner universities have been trained in the use of household survey instruments. The latest training workshops for the IDSS were held in Ghana and Ethiopia in February 2016. Seventy one trainees were involved in the Ghana, and 104 in the Ethiopia, workshops (including 15 women overall). In Ethiopia, a follow on advanced IDSS training workshop was conducted as well as individual consultations with previous trainees who are now using the IDSS in their research. Graduate students and faculty members who are involved in field studies under their parent universities are being mentored in biophysical and economic research methods and in the use of the IDSS for analyzing the results of their field studies. 17 masters theses, that are directly related to these studies, were produced in the last year.Collaboration with other FtF and related Programs: In Ethiopia, there is co-location at several sites and active collaboration with Africa RISING field studies and plans for applying the IDSS to Africa RISING results. ILSSI and the FtF Nutrition Innovation Laboratory, along with Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia were awarded a contract by the FtF Sustainable Intensification Laboratory to study the impact of sustainably intensified production systems on household nutrition. A pilot study was initiated with the FtF Horticulture Innovation Laboratory to apply the IDSS to the analysis of results from farm level studies in Uganda. ILSSI is collaborating with ILRI's Canadian government funded study on Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) in the application of the IDSS to field and survey results. Initial discussions are underway with the FtF Soybean Innovation Lab on collaboration to evaluate the IDSS in assessing the impact of their genetic research in Ghana.For further information please visit the ILSSI website: http://ilssi.tamu.edu or contact ILSSI Project Leader, Neville P. Clarke: n-clarke@tamu.edu","tokenCount":"836"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05a29640b00975013e1b8f83283e8cc0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bb87d4ba-f51f-4201-8fa1-dc19d05b3990/retrieve","id":"1035469207"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"95cc7bda-1d79-46e3-8788-f8ffe7bc019f","pagecount":"49","content":"Islands of Peace (IDP) is a Belgian NGO created in the 1960s. It is a pluralist association, with no religious, philosophical, ideological, or political ties. Currently IDP works in Benin, Burkina Faso, Peru, Uganda, and Tanzania. IDP also conducts activities in Belgium such as advocacy and development education. The intervention of IDP in Africa's overall objective is to enable people to pursue their own sustainable development process independently and with dignity. In its countries of operation, Islands of Peace facilitates local, reproducible, and sustainable development led by disadvantaged populations with their representatives and local authorities. Islands of Peace is an NGO specialized in the support for local development. Its interventions target vulnerable rural communities for whom the IDP programs tackle food insecurity.• Christopher Mutungi (IITA) The Africa RISING partnership with Iles de Paix (IDP) seeks to deliver to farmers postharvest technology packages that improve the productive social, human, and economic conditions of smallholders in Karatu District. The goal is to contribute to sustainable family farming and responsible food systems. The partnership involves a Research in Development model for innovation delivery and scaling. This has two components: (i) introduction of the technologies in IDP's action villages using a mother-baby demonstration (demo) approach whereby learners (farmers) train their peers in a cascading model backstopped by Africa RISING; and (ii) joint research activities by Africa RISING and IDP to (a) address specific technology challenges and (b) build the capacity of partner staff and farmers. At postharvest level, the objective is to contribute to food and nutrition security through improved practices for the handling, processing, and storage of harvested produce. The aim is to transfer to farmers, processors, and other stakeholders validated technologies for improved postharvest management to reduce food losses, increase food safety, enhance nutrition, and raise the quality of produce by the following methods:• Demonstrating improved harvesting, handling (drying), processing, and storage techniques for maize and legumes. • Providing technical backstopping for identification and deployment of varieties with superior postharvest characteristics. • Identifying postharvest challenges within local farmer contexts and recommending best practices.During the current reporting period, the following activities were undertaken; the action sites are shown in Figure 1.• Activity 1: A workshop to disseminate results and review activities of the collaboration was held. • Activity 2: A refresher training for lead farmers and KE staff was conducted.• Activity 3: Postharvest training materials were prepared and provided as part of capacity building for Kilimo Endelevu staff to be able to scale-up postharvest management technologies-two technology briefs and three brochures on postharvest and aflatoxin management in Swahili language were made available. • Activity 4: Participation at the Karatu 2019 seed fair organized by Kilimo Endelevu (with other partners). At this event, we showcased postharvest technologies exposing them to more than 800 farmers. • Activity 5: Dissemination of postharvest messages via mobile phone short message service (SMS) on Mwanga platform to farmers in the action villages was continued.These activities were winding-up actions in the eight (8) action villages (Bashay, Kainam Rhotia, Changarawe, Chemchem, G. Lambo, Slahhamo, Buger, and Kambi simba) that we started with in July 2018, and involved mainly strengthening the capacity of Kilimo Endelevu staff and lead farmers to expand scaling activities in these villages and others (Figure 1). Four Kilimo Endelevu staff and 20 lead-farmers attended the workshop (Figure 2, Table1). The aims were to: 1. Share results of postharvest demonstrations trials. 2. Gather feedback regarding performance of the demonstration trials.   The majority of farmers (66%) liked the metallic silo more than the bags. Unlike the bags, the silo could not be damaged by insects or rodents and was able to store more food in a confined space. However, we also noticed that 27 out of 35 households (77%) participating in the demos were unable to accommodate the 500kg silo because it was too large to pass through the door, otherwise they would have to do with modifications or adopt a smaller silo. Farmers were interested in local availability and suggested that having it manufactured locally would probably make it cheaper. There were also queries regarding durability; farmers felt that it was too light and thought it would be attractive if manufactured from a stronger material. While the metallic silo generally performed well, some farmers reported flour at the bottom of the silo after emptying, which suggests that some insect activity occurred although farmers perceived this to be insignificant. A main concern regarding the hermetic bags was consistency of quality from batch to batch (season to season). Farmers who had applied the technology before noted that bags introduced in past years were stronger and offered better grain protection. According to farmer ratings, the single liner AgroZ bag performed better than the double liner PICS bags in the demonstrations. Some other farmers observed that the bags were not suitable for beans, arguing that bean weevils (bruchids) punctured the bags with more ease than maize weevils. This observation was reported in the literature where certain insect species (e.g., Callosobruchus maculatus and Prostephanus truncatus) chewed holes through the liners 1 .There were differences in overall grain damage levels determined in the villages (Figure 3). The villages located at the higher altitude: Buger (1686 -1725 m.a.s.l), Kambi ya Simba (1545 -1626 m.a.s.l), and G. Lambo (1474-1486 m.a.s.l) had higher damage levels compared to those located at the lower altitude e.g. Chemchem (1219 -1240), and Changarawe (1375 -1440 m.a.s.l). Statistically, however, the effect of village was not significant (P = 0.254). Our earlier studies to compare the physical quality of grain stored in two contrasting agro-locations i.e. high altitude vs. cooler low altitude villages in neighboring Babati district also showed higher insect damage levels in former 2 . The low altitude zones would be favorable for insect multiplication because of warmer and more humid conditions. The cooler conditions may also encourage mold and insect damage due to low rate of drying. Thus, the higher overall grain damage recorded in the highaltitude villages may be attributed to the effect of interaction of temperature and relative humidity on insect population development, as well as progression of other forms of bioactivity.The cultivated varieties and farm practices may also have contributed to the observed differences 3 .. Further data analysis will reveal the kind of damage that was predominant in these villages.The performance of different hermetic storage technologies is shown in Figure 4. There was no difference between villages (P = 0.641). Further statistical analysis (Figure 5) also showed that the three technologies did not perform differently (P = 0.628). . The mean grain damage levels were 8-9%, which translated into physical quantity losses of 4.4 -4.9% at 7 storage months (See Figure 5). The losses were reasonably low. However, two other interesting observations were made. First, insects survived in the containers. The populations were lowest in the Agro Z bag, and on average, highest in the metallic silo. The resultant grain damage by insects followed the same trend. Generally, however, the insect populations and grain damage were rather low except in a few cases where the damage exceeded 5% which is considered significant because above this level the grain can attract appreciable price discounting in the market 4 . It is not strange that the insects did not have huge impact on grain damage because the activity of the insects was reduced by the relatively low oxygen conditions 5 . Thus, the insects also did not feed ravenously or multiply as fast as in the control bags. Nonetheless, the presence of active insect activity signals that sound handling and management of the technologies by farmers must also be ensured, especially because farmers would require to open the containers more frequently.Insect infestation from the field should be as low as possible and this can be achieved through timely harvesting and proper drying practices e.g. drying on mats. Grain must be properly dried before storage, and re-infestation during the intermittent opening of the containers should be prevented. Proper sealing should be ascertained after each opening. Farmers can also plan their grain withdrawing intervals e.g. every 4 weeks to minimise loss of the conditions necessary for preserving the grain. This planning can also improve the useful life of the containers especially the bags that weaken with every tying and untying.A second important observation was that both hermetic bags had insect punctures but the double liner PICS bags were more damaged by insects than the AgroZ bags, suggesting that the latter performed better (Figure 6). The AgroZ bags are made of micro-multilayer sheets forming a single hermetic liner. Both the field observations and farmer observations as well, have implications for scaling. When the hermetic bags are extremely damaged by insects after a single use, then they are no longer attractive to farmers; research has shown that air-tight bags should be reusable for at least 3 seasons to be economically attractive 6 . Air-tight bags with insect holes are ineffective. Some studies, however, argued that the grain filled in leaky bags may restrict oxygen movement and contribute to protective effect depending on the grain size and fill depth 7 . According to Baoua et al. 8 , PICS bags continued to be effective in preventing postharvest losses despite localized breaks in the air-tight seal of the bag. The maximum number of insect holes that would potentially render the bags useless is unclear and would be worth investigating; it depends on many factors including the grain parameters, and also the hole parameters including the size and storage conditions. The issue of quality consistency of the hermetic bags should be followed up with the private sector manufacturers. If not, a technology that in principle is very useful may disappear from the market. . On the other hand, metallic silos are profitable for farmers who need bigger storage capacity and have surplus grain for sale, and are certainly also attractive to farmers based on a host of other non-monetary considerations such as stability and a one-off investment; these aspects are being investigated in further socio-economic studies.     This activity, which was requested and financed by Kilimo Endelevu, was conducted in Karatu.The aim was to build the confidence of lead farmers to be able to spearhead scaling actions including setting up of technology demonstrations and forming postharvest committees as a mechanism for increasing advocacy and improving accessibility of the technologies in the villages. The numbers of persons trained (Table 2 and Figure 7); at least two lead farmers from each village trained. The training covered the following aspects:• Improved postharvest technologies and their contribution to improved grain quality.• Improved drying and grain moisture verification, threshing, and storage.• Grading and classification of grain lots based on physical quality parameters.• Grain quality standards and specifications for grains (East African grain standards).• Sampling and grain quality assessment techniques for small-scale farmers.• Aflatoxin and the pre and postharvest mitigation approaches.• Storage hygiene and store management. Eight short messages, which included actionable tips and reminders on good postharvest practices (good harvesting procedures, threshing and drying; sorting prior to bagging, improved storage techniques; aflatoxin control approaches; store preparation and storage hygiene) were disseminated. The present reporting period coincided with harvesting season. We therefore used SMS to deliver customized content (Figure 8) in the national language, to 42 lead farmers in the action villages who have access to a mobile telephone. Mobile telephone technology presents an opportunity to expand extension services to many farmers at low cost. It has the advantage of accuracy as standardized technical information is transmitted without distortion. This way, it is effectively reinforcing knowledge acquired through practical demonstrations.Traditionally, agricultural extension has been delivered through rigid channels such as print media and word of mouth by extension workers. These channels do not allow timely updating of content with new knowledge; they are slow, information may reach farmers outside the intended timeline; and are limited in scaling because extension officers can only reach a limited number of farmers per season. In the coming months, village postharvest committees will register and obtain the consent of new farmers across the villages to take advantage of these benefits. The fair presented an opportunity to showcase and display Africa RISING postharvest technologies to more than 800 farmers (Figure 9). • During this reporting period, the partnership with Iles de Paix improved the ability of Africa RISING to reach out to over 800 farmers and 10 extension workers and 17 media houses. .  Part II: Vegetable production activities Farmer evaluation of improved management practices was conducted in Kainam Rhotia and Kambi ya Simba in Karatu. Women and men were separately asked to rate the contribution of the practices on production (yield), economics (profit), environment (pesticide use and soil fertility), human condition (vegetable consumption and diversity), and social aspects (labor sharing, control of crop output, and conflict of resources between husband and wife). Farmers perceived that IMP practices had a better effect on increasing productivity, profitability, and human conditions with less effect on environment and social aspects (Annex 5b). One success story was published and can be accessed here: https://avrdc.org/from-trainee-to-model-farmer/A baseline survey was conducted in Karatu. Baseline data will be used in estimating the impact of nutrition education on household welfare. The Difference in Difference (DID) method, which requires baseline and end line survey data, will be employed. Baseline data was collected from 487 farmers (236 project beneficiaries and 251 controls). Baseline results are presented in Tables 5-9 and Figure 9. Findings indicate that the common vegetables grown in Karatu include Ethiopian mustard (27%), Chinese cabbage (17%), African nightshade (14%), onions (11%), tomato (9%), and pumpkin leaves (7%) (Table 7). Onions were mainly grown in control villages (16%) compared to beneficiaries' households (6%). Traditional African Vegetables (TAVs) such as Jute mallow, spider plant, kale, okra, and standard vegetables (sweet pepper and French beans) were hardly grown in Karatu, providing a good opportunity to introduce them to farmers. On average a household produced 861 kg of all vegetables per season and 81% of the produce was sold.Baseline results showed that farmers still lack knowledge about the nutritional content of vegetables and their health benefits. More than 80% of the households would like to increase vegetable consumption while 60% of the households indicated that they have a plan to increase consumption of vegetables among family members. The main foods consumed by the households were cereals (100%); spices, condiments, and beverages (97%); vegetables (98%); oils and fats (93%); sweets (83%); legumes, nuts, and seeds (55%); and fruits (8%) (Fig. 14). Meat products (i.e., poultry, offal, fish, etc.), eggs, milk and milk products were rarely consumed by many households. For example, about 1 percent of the households consumed eggs, while less than 10% consumed fish/seafood, milk, and milk products. Similar findings were reported in Mbarali and Bahi districts. The average Household dietary diversity score (HDDS) was 6.15, which means that on average, households consumed six food groups over the preceding 24 hours (Table 10). Intervention households (6.33) had a higher dietary diversity score (P < 0.01) than control households (5.98). HDDS varied by village (Table 10).Nutrition training was conducted from 18 to 28 August to equip participants with knowledge and skills on food groups and better feeding practices to reduce undernutrition among households in the project area. Major activities include providing information on the importance of eating diversified foods, recipe preparation, ways to add value of their farm produce based on relationship between plant health and human health and tips/approaches to change dietrelated habits that would ultimately improve nutritional status. In total, 332 farmers (52% women), 10 staff from NGOs, and eight government extension staff were trained (Table 11). The participants per village are presented in Table 11 while photos are provided in the appendix. Improved management practices (IMP) combine technological packages of good quality improved seed, healthy seedlings, and good agronomic practices (GAPs), which can increase yields and incomes of smallholder farmers. Research followed a randomized complete block design (RCBD) to make it easy to conduct experiments with small-scale farmers. Farmer evaluation of improved management practices was conducted in two villages in Karatu. Women and men were separately asked to rate the contribution of the practices on production (yield), economics (profit), environment (pesticide use and soil fertility), human condition (vegetable consumption and diversity) and social aspects (labor sharing, control of crop output and conflict of resources between husband and wife). Feedback meetings were done with farmers from Kainam Rhotia and Kambi ya Simba     The objective of Africa RISING is to increase vegetable production and consumption of diverse nutrient-rich foods by poor rural households in Tanzania. To achieve this objective, the project is offering capacity building to farmers and partners (NGOs-IDP, Ministry of Agriculture, and food kiosk/restaurants). The training focuses on improved management practices and nutrition education. Therefore, a baseline survey was conducted in Karatu in July 2019. The baseline survey helped to achieve the following objectives: (1) To estimate the impact of improved agricultural practices on yield and income from vegetables at farm level; (2) to test uptake of nutritious recipes by food kiosks/village restaurants; and (3) to estimate the impact of nutritional education on farmers nutritional knowledge, attitude and practices (KAPs), income, and household nutrition. The difference in difference (DID) method was applied to estimate the impact of nutrition education on farmers' welfare. The DID method is widely used to minimize selection bias with individual level panel data. The method requires baseline and endline survey data. Data was collected from 487 farmers (236 project beneficiaries and 251 control). In this section, selected baseline results are presented.Out of the farmers sampled 62% were male while 83% were male-headed households; 83% of these households were married with children (Table 6). On average, households owned 5.96 acres (6 acres by beneficiaries; 5.8 acres control). Few households had access to either private or public extension services with only 24% having access to agricultural information and support. The situation is similar regarding participation in agricultural training (31%). Households allocated on average about 0.181 acres to vegetable production and 46% had home/kitchen garden for vegetables. There are no significant differences between beneficiaries and the control thus these two groups can be used to estimate the impact of nutrition education. The most commonly grown vegetables in Karatu include Ethiopian mustard (27%), Chinese cabbage (17%), African nightshade (14%), onions (11%), tomato (9%), and pumpkin leaves (7%) (Table 7). Onions were mainly grown in control villages (16%) compared to beneficiaries' households (6%). Traditional African vegetables (TAVs) such as jute mallow, spider plant, kale, okra, and standard vegetables (sweet pepper and French beans) were hardly grown in Karatu, providing a good opportunity to introduce them to farmers. Table 8 shows the total vegetable production per household per season in Karatu. On average a household produced 861 kg of vegetables (mainly top 5 vegetables in Table 7) and 81% of the produce is sold. Postharvest loss was very low at 4% because most of the farmers sell at the farm gate. However, yield, income, market participation, and postharvest losses varied by type of crop (see Annex 7, Tables 13-17). There was no significant difference between beneficiaries and control in terms of production, sales, and utilization indicators (Table 8 last column). Overall, 62% of the farmers knew that vegetables contain nutrients needed for growth and health while 38% did not know (Table 9). It is surprising that about 16% of farmers indicated that vegetables have similar nutrients. Only 6% of the farmers correctly named vegetables that are high in iron. These findings show that farmers still lack knowledge about the nutritional content of vegetables and their health benefits. Although, 88% of them believe that it is important to eat vegetables everyday but are not aware of the minimum amount they should consume per day.To improve overall health, the World Health Organization (WHO) advises that an individual should consume about 200 g of vegetables (minimum of 400 g of fruit and vegetables, which is equivalent to five 80 g servings (World Health Organization, 2003)) 9 . About 80% would like to increase vegetable consumption while 60% of the households indicated that they have a plan on how to increase vegetable consumption in their households. Usually the consumption of vegetables in developing countries is in the range of 20-50% of the minimum recommended level, and this is largely attributed to unhealthy diets, poverty, and food insecurity in developing countries (FAO, 2019) 10 . Previous findings in Babati showed that 32% household members consumed less than the recommended level 11 .Further, most of the vegetables are bought from the market (90%) or obtained from home gardens (39%) (Annex 7, Table 12) 12 . About 82% of the farmers consider that their daily diet does not contain all food groups needed per day while 77% believe that their foods do not contain sufficient nutrients. Thus, it is important to conduct training to increase nutrition knowledge among farmers' households. During the reporting period, nutrition training was done in eight villages and an additional eight villages will be trained in 2019/2020. The food groups consumed by the households were cereals (100%); spices, condiments, and beverages (97%); vegetables (98%); oils and fats (93%); sweets (83%); legumes, nuts and seeds (55%); and fruits (8%) (Fig. 14). Meat products (i.e., poultry, offal, fish, etc.), eggs, milk, and milk products were rarely consumed by many households. For example, about 1 percent of the households consumed eggs, while less than 10% consumed fish/seafood milk and milk products. Similar findings were reported in Mbarali and Bahi districts 13 . The average HDDS was 6.15 which means that on average, households consumed six food groups over the preceding 24-hour recall period (Table 10). Beneficiaries' households (6.33) had a higher dietary diversity score (P < 0.01) than control households (5.98). HDDS varies by village (Table 10).  11) and photos are available in annex 5a-1d.After the baseline survey, nutrition training was conducted in eight villages from 18 to 28 August 2019. Nutrition training equipped participants with knowledge and skills on food groups and better feeding practices to reduce undernutrition among households particularly, children under 5 and women of reproductive age in the project area. Major activities include provide information on the importance of eating diverse foods, recipe preparations, ways to add value to their farm produces based on relationship between plant health and human health and tips/approaches to change diet-related habits that would ultimately improve the nutritional status. In total, 332 farmers (52% women), 10 participants from NGOs, and eight government extension staff, and 16 restaurants/food kiosks were trained (Table 11). The participants per village are provided in Table 11 while photos are provided in annex 5a-1d. IDP, WorldVeg, and other partners organized a Seed and trade fair on 30 August 2019. The objectives were: (1) to gather and reach as many farmers as possible in Karatu District to celebrate the value of farmer seed and to raise awareness on the threats placed on multiplying seed and the implications of these threats;(2) to give farmers a venue to voice their opinions and formulate their own policy priorities in the matter; and (3) to put farmers and stakeholders who champion the continued existence of farmer seed to Karatu in the spotlight and recognize their role as food ambassadors (Photos of the event are included in the annex 5d). Two new recipes were developed during nutrition training (Annex 6). • Based on the research protocol, 128 farmers were selected to host demonstration trials. However, due to shortage of water in some areas only 64 farmers with access to water were selected to host demonstration gardens. Both, biometricians from IITA and WorldVeg approved this change.• It was not possible to assess the adoption of vegetable-based recipes by food kiosks within the reporting period. Therefore, uptake of the recipes will be assessed in 2019/2020. • The partnership with the Kilimo Endelevu program (Iles de Paix) has enabled Africa RISING to reach out to farmers and extension staff with improved technologies in Karatu District. The partnership has improved Africa RISING nutrition and agronomic research and enhanced scaling efforts by providing information regarding the livelihood status of the farmers and vegetable production. Through this collaboration, IDP will be scaling out the improved technologies (improved vegetable seed and good agricultural practices) to new regions (IDP will scale these technologies in eight new villages).• IDP staff have been trained on agronomy, postharvest management, and monitoring and evaluation. IDP will now maintain a beneficiaries' database (specifying the interventions in each village) to improve the scaling efforts and even track the spreading of the technologies and non-adoption of the disseminated technologies.• Field days enabled more farmers to learn from on-farm research trials in the target villages. It provides farmers the opportunity to learn, share experiences, and encourage them to adopt new technologies. Village field days are not only cost effective but also farmer participation is higher than centrally organized field days. Men actively participating in cooking at the village. Photo credit: Inviolate Dominic/World Veg.Ingredients (1-2 servings)• 1 kg pumpkin leaves Grind the mixture of garlic and ginger finely 5. Sort groundnuts and grind finally to flour or blend (For good taste use roasted groundnut, grind or blend) 6. Put the vegetables in a cooking pan, add carrots, onion, tomatoes, and ground garlic and ginger in a cooking pan, add water, salt, curry powder and cover well 7. Boil the vegetables for about 10-15 minutes or until well cooked 8. Stir the mixture well 9. Mix the groundnut flour with a mixture of water and stir well 10. Add the mixture of groundnut to the vegetable mixture; stir well, 11. Bring to the boil and stir well for 5 minutes 12. Season to taste; serve while hot with rice, stiff porridge or any other staple food Note: You can use coconut milk or milk instead of groundnut.• 3 medium size carrots • Put cooking oil in a cooking pan, fry lightly then add dagaa, fry for 2-4 minutes then add tomatoes, ground garlic, curry powder, ginger and salt; stir until soft. • Add African eggplant, okra, and carrots and stir well • Add water (optional) stir and cover the pan for 10-15 minutes, and simmer until the vegetable is soft or well cooked. • Mix the groundnut flour with a mixture of water and stir well • Season to taste and serve hot with ugali, rice, or any staple Note: Depending on the availability of groundnut you can use coconut milk or milk. ","tokenCount":"4384"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d72aadca367bd25fba2c65b0a58b43c6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1faed787-3ba1-4ced-b280-0d39416cfd90/content","id":"146840076"},"keywords":["Carbon stock Carbon fractions Carbon budgeting Crop yield Conservation agriculture IGP, Indo Gangetic plains","RWCS, rice wheat cropping system","CA, conservation agriculture","S1, scenario 1","S2, scenario 2","S3, scenario 1","S4, scenario 4","OC, organic carbon","SOC, soil organic carbon","C stock, carbon stock","TOC, total organic carbon","CMI, carbon management index","NT, no tillage","CT, conventional tillage","MBC, microbial biomass carbon","DHA, dehydrogenase activity","FDA, flouroscein di acetate activity","AlkP, alkaline phosphatase activity"],"sieverID":"3ed34caf-4289-4534-afb2-e6365cb0f6b6","pagecount":"11","content":"In the context of deteriorating soil health, stagnation of yield in rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) across Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) and environmental pollution, a long term field experiment was conducted during 2009-2016 taking four crop scenarios with conservation agriculture (CA), crop intensification and diversified cropping as intervening technology aiming to evaluate the sustainability of the systems. Scenario 1 (S1) represented conventional farmers' practice of growing rice and wheat with summer fallow. In scenario 2 (S2) and scenario 3 (S3), legume crop was taken along with rice and wheat with partial CA and full CA, respectively. Conventional RWCS was replaced with rice-potato + maize-cowpea cropping system with partial CA in scenario 4 (S4). The S3 scenario registered highest total organic carbon (TOC) stock of 47.71 Mg C ha −1 and resulted in significant increase of 14.57% over S1 (Farmer's practice) in 0-30 cm soil depth after 7 years of field trial. The S4 scenario having intensified cropping systems recorded lowest TOC of 39.33 Mg C ha −1 and resulted in significant depletion of 17.56% in C stock with respect to S3 in 0-30 cm soil depth. The TOC enrichment was higher in S2, S3 and S4 scenario in the surface soil (0-10 cm) compared to S1. At lower depth (20-30 cm), the TOC enrichment was significantly higher in S2 (12.82 Mg C ha −1 ) and S3 (13.10 Mg C ha −1 soil) over S1 scenario. The S2 and S3 scenario recorded highest increased allocation of TOC (3.55 and 6.13 Mg C ha −1 ) to passive pool over S1. The S2 (15.72 t ha −1 ), S3 (16.08 t ha −1 ) and S4 (16.39 t ha −1 ) scenarios recorded significantly higher system rice equivalent yield over S1 (10.30 t ha −1 ). Among the scenarios, S3 scenario had greater amount of total soil organic carbon, passive pool of carbon and higher system rice equivalent yield, thus, is considered the best cropping management practice to maintain soil health and food security in the middle IGP.Rice-wheat is the major production system covering an area of 13.5 million hectares across the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of south Asia (Ladha et al., 2003) and feeds about 1/5th of world population (Saharawat et al., 2010). But after impressive gain in production due to various inputs used and adoption of improved agronomic practices during green revolution, now the sustainability of the system is questionable. Conventionally grown rice and wheat are highly money, water and energy intensive. Conventional rice requires puddling and seed bed preparation, which needs more water and labour; and in turn breaks soil aggregates exposing the soil for oxidation of organic carbon (Mondal et al., 2016). Although puddling has its advantage in terms of better weed control, lesser percolation loss and providing anaerobic condition to rice, it leads to delayed sowing of wheat, which requires well drained soil with good tilth. Kumar et al. (2008) reported 8% yield reduction in wheat yield when grown after puddled transplanted rice in comparison to wheat grown after direct seeded rice under unpuddled condition. Conventionally grown rice-wheat leads to depletion of SOC at the rate 0.13 t ha −1 yr −1 from 0 to 0.6 m depth of eastern IGP (Sapkota et al., 2017). Declining soil health, decreasing water use efficiency and environmental pollution are major sustainability issues of RWCS (Bhatt et al., 2016). Sequestering soil organic carbon (SOC) is the key strategy to improve soil health and mitigating climate change. Furthermore, increased allocation of SOC into passive pools of longer residence time helps to achieve higher carbon sequestration in soils (Mandal et al., 2008). Pragmatic solution of the aforesaid concerns is conservation Agriculture (CA), which includes practices like reduced tillage (or no tillage), residue incorporation and crop rotation. These practices are needed to be adopted by integrating into a set of appropriate management condition for reversing loss of soil organic carbon (SOC).In the beginning no tillage (NT) practice was aimed to conserve soil, moisture, to reduce cost of production (Holland, 2004). Beyond this, the practice has multiple benefits in increasing the overall system performance. Jat et al. (2014) reported significantly higher rice-wheat system grain yield in conservation tillage as compared to conventional tillage (CT) practice in IGP of India. Carbon is the central element that determines soil fertility through mediating the release of various plant available nutrients in soil, thus determines yield of crops. Simultaneously, it improves the soil resilience through buffering various soil properties, which provide good soil environment for plant growth (Chan, 2010). In addition to this, higher SOC improves microbial activity and better physical environment in soil, thus ensures better health of soil. Number of studies has reported increase in carbon content in soil under NT to CT. However some other studies showed that NT can only accumulate carbon in surface soil upto few centimeters of depth (0-20 cm) and that increase in carbon is counteracted by depletion of carbon in lower depths (20-25 cm) (Dolan et al., 2006). When whole soil profile was taken into account NT didn't accumulate additional amount of carbon as compared to CT, except in the upper soil layer (0-10 cm) and only there was change in SOC distribution in different layers of soil in NT in comparison to CT (Luo et al., 2010;Novak et al., 2009). Some researchers found that the increase in organic carbon in soil under NT is not too large as expected compared to CT (Virto et al., 2012). The role of NT in increasing carbon in soil has been questioned in recent studies (Ogle et al., 2012). This is an important researchable issue, which needs to be assessed thoroughly for identifying stable SOC sink upto lower depth of soil along with system performance.Evidences from research suggest that inclusion of legume in cereal-cereal rotation enhance soil quality and raises organic carbon level in soil (Ghosh et al., 2012). It greatly enhances SOC status of soil when adopted along with CA practice (Lal, 2004). Growing cover crop like summer mung bean (Vigna radiata) during intervening period (period from wheat harvesting to sowing/transplanting of rice) has tremendous capacity to improve land and water productivity through in-situ soil moisture conservation (Bhatt et al., 2016). Researchers can therefore, think of increasing SOC level in soil though crop intensification, by adding legume crop in RWCS or through some alternative diversified cropping system, which will provide economic benefits to farmers. But there coexists two contrasting concepts in this regard. One postulates that crop intensification result into addition of more biomass carbon, thus, enhances SOC. Another suggests that intensification leads to depletion of organic carbon through returning only fraction of organic carbon fixed by photosynthesis. In addition to this, the added residue facilitates the microbial decay of organic matter resulting into degradation of soil aggregates (Janzen, 2006). A number of researches have been carried out by including a legume crop viz. mung bean in RWCS under CA practice to evaluate its yield benefit and SOC. But, the studies on the subject are very scarce which evaluated some alternative diversified cropping system in terms of yield and SOC status.Total organic carbon (TOC), which is composed of labile and recalcitrant fraction, cannot give sufficient information about mechanism of carbon accumulation and loss. Labile carbon fractions are sensitive to small changes in SOC (Xia et al., 2010) and greatly influence microbial transformation process in soil (Haubensak et al., 2002). The relative proportion of the aforesaid fractions determines the quality of soil and forms the basis for study of carbon dynamics. Under CA practices carbon dynamics study is highly dependent on soil type and climate. Long-term experiment forms the basis of assessment of long-term changes in SOC and sustainability of agricultural production systems (Ladha et al., 2003). It is also argued that perceiving the overall process is more important in tropical and subtropical condition in general and in IGP in particular, because these regions are inherently low in organic carbon and production system is highly vulnerable (Mandal et al., 2007;Patil et al., 2014).Keeping these facts in view, in the present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the four different cropping scenarios of CA and crop intensification practices including farmer's practice of growing rice-wheat, rice-wheat-mung bean and an alternative diversified cropping system for yield and carbon stabilization capacity in middle IGP. This investigation was made to address the issues of declining soil health and yield stagnation in conventional rice-wheat cropping system and we have tried to answer the following questions: (1) Is CA superior over farmer's practice in terms of crop yield and carbon stabilization? (2) Is intensive cultivation practice with mung bean in RWCS or alternative diversified cropping system can be adopted as an alternate superior technology in terms of TOC build up and crop yield?A long-term field experiment was initiated in winter season 2009 taking four cropping system (scenarios) varying in crop rotation, tillage, establishment method, residue management, and other management laid out in a randomized complete block design in three replications at experimental farm of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna (located between 25.5941°N , 85.1376°E and an altitude of 50 m asl) in Bihar, India. The study was carried out for a period of seven years (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). The research station falls in middle IGP of India having subtropical humid climate. During the experimental period, the distribution of rainfall over time and intensity in the rainy season was very erratic. The lowest rainfall (626 mm) was recorded in the year of 2009 and 2010 and the highest (1172 mm) in 2011with average rainfall of 902.2 mm. The lowest minimum temperature (6.5 °C) was recorded in January 2012 and the highest (39.8 °C) in April 2010. Generally, maximum temperature exceeding 35 °C was observed in month of April and May and the lowest was observed in January. Rise and fall of maximum temperature is controlled by thunderstorm activity during summer and that of minimum temperature by passage of western disturbance in winter. The average monthly temperature (Tmax and Tmin) and rainfall distribution is presented in (Fig. 1). Before start of experiment a crop of puddle transplanted rice was grown on the experimental land to homogenise the site. After harvest of the crop the land was levelled and divided into 12 plots of equal size of 0.2 ha each. The experimental soil is old alluvium with texture of surface soil was silty clay. The basic soil properties at the start of experiment including fertility status of soil and method followed for analysis are given in Table 1.Scenario 1: This scenario represents traditional farmers' practice in which farmers take two crops in a year (rice and wheat) (Table 2). Field remains fallow during summer and wheat (Triticum aestivum) is sown in mid December after harvesting of long-duration rice (Oryaza sativa) and with ploughing of fields 3-4 times. In case of long duration transplanted rice, nursery is sown in 3rd week of June, followed by transplanting after 30 days. Subsequently, harvesting is done in last week of November. By that time soil moisture got depleted, hence, it take additional 15 days of time to get congenial soil condition for wheat sowing after ploughing of soil and giving one irrigation. This delays the wheat sowing, resulting in yield reduction. However, to maintain uniformity in different scenarios in this experiment, instead of taking long duration variety in S1, we had taken a medium duration variety (135-140 days) of rice in all the scenarios. Rice in this system is puddle transplanted. The sowing and harvesting time of all crops in different scenarios is depicted in Figs. 2 and 3.Scenario 2: This scenario was outlined for increasing the system productivity and to enhance SOC status. Mungbean (Vigna radiata) was introduced to cover the intervening period (summer fallow covering the  * TPR-CTW: conventional till puddled transplanted rice-conventional tille wheat; TPR/MTNPR + R-ZTW + R-CTMB + R: conventional till puddled transplanted rice/machine transplanted non puddle rice with residue-zero till wheat with residue-conventional till mung bean with residue; ZTDSR + R-ZTW + R-ZTC/ZTMB + R: zero till direct seeded rice with residue-zero till wheat with residue-zero till cowpea/zero till mung bean with residue; NPTPR/ZTDSR + R-CT(P + M)/ZTM + R-ZTC/ZTM + R: non puddle transplanted rice/zero till direct seeded rice with residue-conventional till potato and maize intercrop/zero till mustard with residue-zero till cowpea/zero till maize with residue.period from 1st week of April to 2nd week of June), which has the advantage of extra income to farmer, soil moisture conservation and addition of carbon to soil (Table 2). Wheat was timely sown (third to fourth week of November) to ensure optimum yield. Partial CA practice (soil was puddle for rice transplanting, while wheat and mung bean were sown in ZT) was adopted with less soil disturbance. On 5th year and onwards mechanical transplanting of rice was done after one dry tillage to address the issue of labour scarcity and for minimal soil disturbance (Fig. 3). It also facilitates transplanting of younger (15-20 days old) rice seedling ensuring sufficient time for timely wheat sowing. The sowing and harvesting time of all crops in different scenarios is depicted in Figs. 2 and 3. Scenario 3: This system was also designed for increasing system productivity, increasing carbon storage in soil and offsetting carbon from environment. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) was grown in intervening period. Full CA practice was implemented with no soil disturbance (Table 2). On 5th year onwards cowpea was replaced with mung bean and full biomass was retained on soil surface after harvesting of pods (Fig. 3). The reason for replacing cowpea with mung bean is its fewer market prices in comparison to mung bean and high labour requirement in its picking, which increased the production cost and ultimately incurred less profit. The sowing and harvesting time of all crops in different scenarios is depicted in Figs. 2 and 3.Scenario 4: This scenario was designed to evaluate the effect of diversified intensive cultivation on system productivity and SOC status.Wheat was replaced with potato (Solanum tuberosum) + maize (Zea mays) intercrop (Table 2). Cowpea was grown in intervening period. On 5th year onwards potato + maize intercrop and cowpea were replaced with mustard (Brassica juncea) and maize respectively, to lessen the fertilizer and water use (Fig. 3). Potato + maize intercrop was labour and water intensive with more soil disturbance. After normal rainfall event, it requires additional 5 number of irrigation of 6 ha cm each, hence total irrigation water required for one ha of crop is 30 ha cm. In contrast, mustard can be grown successfully in few rainfall events and with two additional irrigations of 6 ha cm each, hence total irrigation water required is 12 ha cm. It also allows one maize crop thereafter before rice. Forty percent anchored residues were kept in both maize and mustard. The sowing and harvesting time of all crops in different scenarios is depicted in Figs. 2 and 3. Apart from this, crops in all scenarios were grown according to the recommended agronomic practices (Fig. 4).Composite soil sample (soil sample were collected from ten randomly selected points within a plot) from 0 to 10, 10-20 and 20-30 cm depth were collected in the year 2016 after harvest of winter crops with the help of soil auger. The samples were air-dried and passed through  *Nursery seeding for transplanted rice was done on the same day as on DSR was sown. In case of transplanted rice 30 days old seedling was used for transplanting Fig. 4. Total active (AP) and passive pool (PP) (Mg C ha −1 soil) of soil organic carbon in 0-30 cm depth soil as affected by different tillage and crop management practices followed under four scenarios. Different small letters denote significant difference among the values of C stock, AP and PP between the scenarios. The vertical lines above the bars represent the standard deviation. S1 (TPR-CTW): conventional till puddled transplanted rice-conventional tille wheat; S2 (TPR/MTNPR + R-ZTW + R-CTMB + R): conventional till puddled transplanted rice/machine transplanted non puddle rice with residue-zero till wheat with residue-conventional till mung bean with residue; S3 (ZTDSR + R-ZTW + R-ZTC/ZTMB + R): zero till direct seeded rice with residue-zero till wheat with residue-zero till cowpea/zero till mung bean with residue; S4 [NPTPR/ZTDSR + R-CT(P + M)/ZTM + R-ZTC/ZTM + R]: non puddle transplanted rice/zero till direct seeded rice with residue-conventional till potato and maize intercrop/zero till mustard with residuezero till cowpea/zero till maize with residue. Scenario details are given in Table 2, Figs. 2 and 3.2 mm sieve for analysis of total organic carbon (TOC) and its fractions. Sub samples of the collected soil were taken and stored in a freezer at 4 °C for analysis of biological properties (enzymatic activity) of soil.Total organic carbon of soil sample was analysed by improved chromic acid digestion method through externally heating the sample at 135°C for 30 min (Haenes, 1984). The standard Walkey and Black (1934) method is based on oxidation of organic matter by K 2 Cr 2 O 7 with H 2 SO 4 heat of dilution. Due to less heat of dilution the method was associated with incomplete recovery of SOC. It has been reported that the standard Walkey and Black (1934) method accounts for 60-86% recovery of total soil organic carbon as a result of incomplete oxidation (Walkey and Black, 1934). Thus, to overcome the problem of less recovery of SOC, TOC in soil was determined by improved chromic acid digestion method (Haenes, 1984).Different fractions of TOC were determined under an increasing gradient of oxidising condition using three sulphuric acid (H 2 SO 4 )aqueous solution ratio of 0.5:1, 1:1 and 2:1 corresponding to 12, 18 and 24 N H 2 SO 4 , respectively (Chan et al., 2001). Carbon oxidized by 24 N H 2 SO 4 equivalents to oxidisable carbon obtained by standard Walkey and Black (1934) method. The amount of carbon thus estimated leads to partition of TOC into the following four different organic carbon pools of decreasing oxidisability.Fraction I (very labile): organic carbon oxidisable under 12.0 N H 2 SO 4Fraction II (labile): the difference in carbon oxidisable under 18.0 N and 12.0 N H 2 SO 4Fraction III (less labile): the difference in carbon oxidisable under 24.0 N and 18.0 N H 2 SO 4Fraction IV (non-labile): the difference between TOC and carbon oxidisable under 24.0 N H 2 SO 4Active pool of organic carbon was computed by adding fraction I and fraction II, whereas, passive pool of organic carbon was determined as addition of fraction 3 and fraction 4. Active pool of organic carbon represents amount of organic carbon present in easily oxidisable form in soil. Whereas, passive pool of organic carbon is resistant to decomposition, thus, it has higher mean residence time in soil. Hence, from soil carbon sequestration point of view storing more carbon in passive pool is important.The size of organic carbon stock for all pools of SOC was calculated by multiplying their respective SOC value with bulk density and depth of soil as:Where, SOC is expressed in g kg −1 soil, BD in Mg m −3 , depth in m and C stock in Mg ha −1 .Through carbon budgeting, quantitative increase or decrease in total, AP and PP C stock of S2-S4 was calculated over S1 in 0-30 cm depth of soil through following formula (Mandal et al., 2008):Similarly the percentage increase or decrease of respective C stocks (total, AP, PP) of S2-S4 over S1 was also calculated using the following expression (Mandal et al., 2007):Where, C org stands for total/AP/PP C stock (Mg ha −1 soil) of in S2/S3/ S4 and C ct represents total/AP/PP C stock (Mg ha −1 soil) in scenario 1. 0.3 stands for 30 cm depth of soil expressed in m.The data generated through carbon budgeting provides us a clear understanding of the allocation of increase or decrease in total C stock under S2-S4 over S1 in 0-30 cm depth of soil to their respective AP and PP.Microbial biomass carbon (MBC) in soil was measured by the method of Nunan et al. (1998) with some modification as mentioned in Parihara et al. (2016). Dehydrogenase activity in soil was estimated by the procedure outlined by Casida et al. (1964). Fluoresein diacetate (FDA) hydrolytic activity in soil was determined using the procedure mentioned by Green et al. (2006). Alkaline phosphatase activity was determined following the method Tabatabai and Bremner (1969).At crop maturity, wheat and rice were harvested and threshed with a combine harvester in all the scenarios except S1. In S1, wheat and rice were manually harvested at ground level, and threshing was done using a plot thresher. Mustard, mung bean and maize were harvested manually. Mung bean pods were picked manually at 7-days intervals, and the plants were left in the field after harvest. Grain yields of wheat and rice and seed yield of mung bean, mustard and maize were determined by manually harvesting four areas of 5 m × 4 m in each plot from within each grid cell, giving a total harvested area of 20 m 2 in each plot. The harvested area for yield estimation was 5 m × 6 m for mustard, maize, and mung bean in four locations in each of the four grid cells. Grain yield of wheat, maize, rice, and mung bean was reported at 12, 14, 14, and 12% grain moisture, respectively. The yields of all non-rice crops were converted to rice equivalent yield using Eq.(1) for the estimation of annual total system yield. In addition, the yields of crops (mustard and maize) in S4 were converted to wheat and mung bean equivalent yields using Eqs. ( 2  ( )Mungbean equivalent of maize yieldwhere MSP of cereals, oilseeds and pulses is the minimum support price in Indian rupees (INR) fixed by the Government of India. Here, we report the yield of crops for the last three years, because from that period some changes in the scenarios were made.No above ground crop residue was incorporated/retained in S1, while S2-S4 received crop residues (Table 2). For biomass estimation of crop residue in S2-S4, 1 m 2 area of above ground residues retained/ incorporated was cut manually from three locations in net plot giving a total harvested area of 3 m 2 in each plot.The data generated were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique to know significant difference among treatments. Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) test was used for multiple comparisons among the treatments at p < 0.05 using SPSS programme (ver. 16.0). Similarly, correlation analysis was carried out using the same statistical software.Long term CA practice significantly influenced TOC stock in different scenarios and depths (Table 3). Scenario 3 (full CA) recorded significantly higher TOC stock (47.71 ± 2.46 Mg C ha −1 soil) as compared to other scenarios in the total depth of soil studied. On the contrary, S4 (diversified cropping system with high cropping intensity) showed significantly lower C stock (39.33 ± 2.40 Mg C ha −1 ) than all other scenarios. On an average, TOC stock in different scenarios follows the order: S3 (47.71 ± 2.46) > S2 (43.91 ± 0.84) > S1 (41.65 ± 0.13) > S4 (39.33 ± 2.40 Mg C ha −1 soil). Maximum accumulation of SOC (19.41 ± 1.84 Mg C ha −1 ) in top depth of soil was observed under S3 followed by S4 (16.56 ± 1.71 Mg C ha −1 ), S2 (16.53 ± 0.78 Mg C ha −1 ) and S1 (16.22 ± 0.60 Mg C ha −1 ) and SOC accumulation reduced in lower depths (Table 3). In 10-20 cm depth significantly low SOC was observed in S4 (12.61 ± 0.10 Mg C ha −1 ) and statistically at par values of SOC were obtained in rest scenarios (S1-S3). In 20-30 cm soil depth significantly greater SOC accumulation was recorded in S2 (12.82 ± 1.10 Mg C ha −1 ) and S3 (13.10 ± 0.21 Mg C ha −1 ) in comparison to S1 (10.36 ± 1.07 Mg C ha −1 ) and S4 (10.16 ± 0.80 Mg C ha −1 ).Across all the scenarios, comparatively higher proportions of different oxidisable fractions were found in top soil and decreased with depth increment except in fraction IV, where higher value was obtained in lower depths under S2 and S3 (Table 4). The magnitudes followed the order: fraction I > fraction IV > fraction II > fraction III in S1 and S4, and fraction IV > fraction I > fraction II > fraction III in S2 and S3. S3 recorded significant higher value of SOC under fraction I (16.21 ± 1.59 Mg C ha −1 ) and fraction IV (18.93 ± 2.12 Mg C ha −1 ), while, S1, S2 and S4 registered higher SOC under fraction II and fraction III. Considerable variation was also obtained in AP (active pool) and PP (passive pool) SOC under different scenarios as a result of difference in oxidisable fractions (Fig. 4). S1 and S3 recorded significantly higher SOC under AP than S2 and S4 and constitute 58.30 and 50.75% of their respective C stock. Similarly, in terms of PP SOC S2 and S3 which are significantly different (S3 being superior to S2) were statistically superior to S1 and S4 and constitute 47.63 and 49.25% of their respective C stock. The ratio of AP to PP followed the order of S1 (1.40) > S4 (1.23) > S2 (1.10) > S3 (1.03).There was net build up of TOC in S2 (2.27 ± 0.73 Mg C ha −1 ) and S3 (6.07 ± 2.34 Mg C ha −1 ), which accounts for 5.44 and 14.56%Table 3 Depth wise (0-10, 10-20, 20-30 cm) distribution of total organic carbon stock (Mg C ha −1 soil) (Mean ± SD) as affected by different tillage and crop management practices followed in four scenarios. Different capital letters and small letters denote significant difference among the values of total and depths respectively, across the scenarios.Organic carbon fractions (Mg C ha −1 soil) (Mean ± SD) of different degree of oxidisability in different depths (0-10, 10-20, 20-30 cm) of soil as affected by different tillage and crop management practices followed in four scenarios. 0-10 cm 10-20 cm 20-30 cm Total 0-10 cm 10-20 cm 20-30 cm total S1: TPR-CTW 2.41 ± 0.29 b 2.68 ± 1.01 a 1.35 ± 0.23 a 6.45 ± 1.11 A 4.05 ± 0.75 b 4.75 ± 0.75 a 2.12 ± 0.75 b 10.92 ± 1.09 C S2: TPR/MTNPR + R-ZTW + R-CTMB + R 2.42 ± 0.44 b 2.13 ± 0.32 a 1.21 ± 0.17 a 5.77 ± 0.58 A 4.63 ± 0.04 b 4.88 ± 0.40 a 5.63 ± 0.83 a 15.15 ± 0.99 B S3: ZTDSR + R-ZTW + R-ZTC/ZTMB + R 1.91 ± 0.29 b 1.25 ± 0.20 a 1.41 ± 0.11 a 4.57 ± 0.11 A 7.21 ± 2.47 a 5.64 ± 0.50 a 6.08 ± 0.61 a 18.93 ± 2.12 A S4: NPTPR/ZTDSR + R-CT(P + M)/ZTM + R-ZTC/ZTM + R 3.12 ± 0.53 a 2.21 ± 1.08 a 1.10 ± 0.45 a 6.42 ± 1.66 A 4.51 ± 1.71 b 3.38 ± 0.80 b 3.35 ± 0.70 b 11.24 ± 2.62 C increase over S1, respectively (Table 5). But opposite effect was observed in S4, where net depletion was recorded in comparison to S1 and the magnitude was −2.32 ± 0.61 Mg C ha −1 . Further, carbon build up was also computed in AP and PP SOC. The result revealed that all scenarios (S2, S3 and S4) registered negative build up of SOC in AP and positive build up in PP. The order of magnitude was S4 (−2.61 ± 0.83 Mg C ha −1 ) > S2 (−1.28 ± 0.02 Mg C ha −1 ) > S3 (−0.06 ± 0.01 Mg C ha −1 ) for AP and S3 (6.13 ± 2.09 Mg C ha −1 ) > S2 (3.55 ± 0.75 Mg C ha −1 ) > S4 (0.30 ± 0.05 Mg C ha −1 ) for PP.The effect of different management practices on soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and enzymatic activities such as dehydrogenase (DHA), flouroscein diacetate (FDA) and alkaline phosphatise activity (AlkP) are given in Table 6. Gradual decrease in MBC and enzymatic activities were observed with depth increment. Significantly greater FDA was observed in S3 (49.54 ± 2.07 mg flouroscein kg −1 soil h −1 ) and S4 (48.12 ± 0.56 mg flouroscein kg −1 soil h −1 ) in 0-10 cm depth than S1 (43.51 ± 1.57 mg flouroscein kg −1 soil h −1 ) and S2 (44.96 ± 1.67 mg flouroscein kg −1 soil h −1 ). The highest MBC in 0-10 cm soil depth was recorded in S3 (89.32 ± 3.46 μg C g −1 soil) followed by S4 (88.17 ± 3.27 μg C g −1 soil), S2 (83.76 ± 0.75 μg C g −1 soil) and S1 (69.87 ± 2.52 μg C g −1 soil). S3 and S4 were found to be statistically at par and were significantly higher than S1 and S2. Value of MBC for S1 was significantly lower among all scenarios.Rice grain yield in the year 2013-14 was significantly higher in S2 (6.4 ± 0.24 Mg ha −1 ) than rest scenarios and S3 (4.8 ± 0.18 Mg ha −1 ) and S4 (4.6 ± 0.21 Mg ha −1 ) recorded significantly lower rice grain yield than both S1 (5.5 ± 0.36 Mg ha −1 ) and S2 (6.4 ± 0.24 Mg ha −1 ) (Table 7). However, in the year 2014-15 significantly higher rice grain yield was observed in S3 (7.5 ± 0.14 Mg ha −1 ) than rest scenarios. In contrast to year 2014-15, in year 2015-16, significantly lower rice grain yield was observed in S3 (5.6 ± 0.45 Mg ha −1 ) than S2 (6 ± 0.23 Mg ha −1 ) and S4 (6.2 ± 0.30 Mg ha −1 ). On the contrary, wheat grain yield was significantly enhanced under S3 in individual years and mean of years. Moreover, S2 (4.8 ± 0.18 Mg ha −1 ) showed significant higher mean wheat grain yield than S1 (4.3 ± 0.31 Mg ha −1 ) and S4 (4.5 ± 0.23 Mg ha −1 ), which were statistically at par. The mean wheat grain yield followed the order: S3 > S2 > S4 > S1. Unlike to both rice and wheat grain yields, mung bean grain yield was found significantly greater in S4 (1.8 ± 0.10 Mg ha −1 ) than all other scenarios and S3 (1.4 ± 0.05 Mg ha −1 ) produced significantly more mungbean grain than S2 (1.3 ± 0.05 Mg ha −1 ). Again, although much variability in mean grain yields of different crops were  obtained in different scenarios, when system productivity in terms of rice equivalent yield was compared, S2, S3 and S4 showed statistically at par values and were significantly greater than S1and the order followed: S4 (16.39 ± 0.84 Mg ha −1 ) > S3 (16.08 ± 0.58 Mg ha −1 ) > S2 (15.72 ± 0.61 Mg ha −1 ) > S1 (10.32 ± 0.67 Mg ha −1 ).Maximum increase in TOC stock under S3 might be due to the highest addition of crop residues coupled with conservation tillage (Ghosh et al., 2012;Das et al., 2013). Ploughing of soil causes breakage of macro-aggregates into micro-aggregate and silt and clay size particles inside soil (Beare et al., 1994;Bronick and Lal, 2005) exposing protected organic carbon inside macro-aggregate for oxidation (Six et al., 2000). In S2 and S3 summer fallow period was utilised through cultivation of leguminous crop, which resulted into augmentation of SOC. This finding was in line with the result reported by (Ghosh et al., 2012). Past studies also revealed that fallowing lessens SOC through reduction in recycling of non-harvested crop residue into the soil (Calegari et al., 2008) and SOC is enhanced by increasing cropping intensity (Hutchinson et al., 2007) by adding more crop biomass in soil. Conservation tillage with residue incorporation slows down the decomposition rate of added residue increasing organic carbon concentration in soil (Dick, 1983). In the present set of experiment also stabilization of organic carbon in soil was found to enhance with increasing amount of crop residue added (Table 8) and adoption of higher level of CA practice (Table 2). Thus, lower TOC stock was observed in S1 in comparison to S2 and S3, where CA and crop residue retention was practised. The lowest TOC stock value was recorded in S4, which shows the effect of cropping system and quality of crop residue added. Adoption of partial CA and following highly nutrient exhaustive cropping system (Maize and Potato intercropping) in initial 4 years of experiment under S4 might deplete organic carbon from soil and the effect counterbalanced the positive impact of CA and crop residue addition. In addition to this, increasing crop diversity in S4 increased diversity of carbon substrate though litter fall, this in turn could increased microbial biomass, microbial diversity and decomposition rate (Bardgett and Shine, 1999;Gartner and Cardon, 2005) leading to netYear wise, mean of years (mean ± SD) and system grain yield (mean ± SD) as affected by different tillage and crop management practices followed in four cropping system scenarios.Rice yield (Mg ha −1 ) Wheat yield (Mg ha  deletion of SOC in the scenario. Higher microbial activity could also result into break down of aggregates with concomitant depletion of SOC.The principal cause of higher enrichment of SOC on top depth was more crop residue addition on top soil in comparison to soil of lower depth. Along with this, the root growth is limited by lesser nutrient and microbial activity in lower depth resulting in lower total addition of crop residues in lower depth (Ingram and Fernandes, 2001;Sharma et al., 1992;Tiwari et al., 1995). SOC declined along the depths in all scenarios but it varied significantly among the scenarios (Table 3). The reason for variation in depth distribution of SOC in different scenarios could be attributed to higher root biomass addition in lower depth through legume crop under S2 and S3 (mungbean) (Ganeshamurthy, 2009). Additionally, legumes in cropping system leads to increase in amount of water soluble carbon in soil (Mazzarino et al., 1993;Campbell et al., 1999) and some dissolved organic matter (DOM), which is released though decomposition of crop residues inform of soluble intermediate into the soil solution may be translocated to lower depth (Guggenberger et al., 1994) increasing organic carbon in 20-30 cm soil under S2 and S3. In contrast to S2 and S3, negative build up of carbon over S1 was recorded under S4 in 10-20 cm; this may be due to the cumulative effect of elimination leguminous crop from last three cropping cycle, of adopting nutrient exhaustive cropping system for initial 4 years and of higher decomposition of SOC by addition of diverse litters. Analysis of C stock values in 0-30 cm depth of soil and its depth distribution across the scenarios explicitly explained the fact that CA practice and crop intensification augment SOC status in general as in S2 and S3, but it fails to do so where there is increase in cropping intensity with nutrient exhaustive crops and without legume crops as in S4. Thus, it can be concluded that management practices followed under S3 was best among other scenarios for enhancing SOC and for better soil health. These evidences fulfilled part of objective of our study.Higher proportion of different oxidisable fractions in top soil was due to higher microbial activity arising from addition of mineralizable organic matter in form of crop residues (Kaur et al., 2008;Naik et al., 2017). To this an exceptionally higher SOC observed under fraction IV (non labile carbon) in lower depths of S2 and S3 was possibly due to rapid conversion of crop residue biomass and labile carbon fractions (mung bean root and DOM) to recalcitrant form, and its persistence under favourable condition of moisture and minimal soil disturbance (Sreekanth et al., 2013). Besides this, the added OC in lower depth got chemically stabilized though silt and clay fractions of soil in form of more stable carbon (Lutzow et al., 2006), resulting in significant higher total carbon in fraction IV under S2 and S3. The aforesaid causes served the major reasons for getting two different order of magnitude of carbon under four different fractions across the scenarios. Higher SOC content was recorded in fraction II and fraction III under S1, S2 and S4 in comparison to S3. This could be due to conversion of labile carbon to more resistant fraction under anaerobic condition prevailing in transplanted rice in S1, S2 and S4. This finding is in agreement with Ghosh et al. (2012), who reported higher SOC in fraction 3 under transplanted rice condition. Significantly higher AP SOC recorded under S1 and S3 due their significantly higher labile carbon content, but under different fractions. Higher labile carbon content in S1 and S3 were due to their significantly higher SOC content in fraction II and fraction I, respectively. Similarly, PP SOC was recorded significantly higher in S2 and S3 due to their significantly higher SOC in fraction IV. Lowest AP SOC to PP SOC ratio in S3 suggests that S3 is superior in carbon sequestration and maintaining soil quality.Microbial parameters (MBC, FDA) were found to be increased with increase in residue carbon addition. Fresh residues supplied readily mineralisable and hydrolisable carbon for better microbial growth.With depth increment decline in all microbial parameters studied were due to decrease in supply of carbon input. This section emphasized that management practices followed in S3 was superior to that of other scenarios in increasing both labile and non labile carbon in soil. Thus, S3 was best from soil health and carbon sequestration point of view. It provided some insight to distribution of SOC in different pools, thus fulfilled the SOC stabilization part of our objective.Positive values of total and PP SOC and negative values of AP SOC in carbon left in soil and carbon build up percentage under S2 and S3 demonstrated that there was increase in allocation of PP SOC and decease in allocation of AP SOC of total increase in SOC over S1. This suggested that the management practices followed in S2 and S3 promoted more SOC in PP and less SOC in AP after seven years of CA and crop intensification practice. However, very low negative value of AP SOC under S3 is negligible and increase in allocation of PP SOC sufficiently higher (1.73 times) than S2, thus, it can be concluded that S3 was the best management practice in enhancing both labile and nonlabile carbon in soil. Positive value of PP SOC and negative value of AP SOC in soil under S3 does not mean that there was no increase in SOC in AP under S3, because here all data were calculated in reference to S1. In fact, S3 maintained statistically at par value of AP SOC with S1 and was statistically superior to other scenarios in terms of PP SOC (Fig. 4). Carbon budgeting analysis gave more insight to carbon stabilization in different scenarios as affected by different cropping systems and management practices and provides evidence for carbon stabilization part of our objective.Significantly higher rice grain yield in S3 in year 2014-15 than all other scenarios could be due to many benefits derived out of CA practices namely, improved soil moisture retention, better aggregation and bulk density and ultimately due to enhanced SOC content with better nutrient recycling in S3 having ZT-DSR with residue retention. In addition to this rice grain yield was significantly greater in S1 and S2 than S4 in the same year, indicating that puddling provides better micro environment like anaerobic condition, less weed competition and less percolation for more growth and productivity of rice. Significantly lower rice grain yield in years 2013-14 and 2015-16 under S3 were due to yield reduction as a result of high rainfall and mealy bug (Psedococcidae spp.), respectively. Direct seeded rice (DSR) generally matures one week before transplanted rice and root system of transplanted rice hold soil more firmly than that of DSR. In year 2013-14, during 40th and 41st standard meteorological week there was occurrence of heavy rainfall along with wind. At the same time, DSR in S3 and S4 was in milking stage, while transplanted rice in S2 was in panicle initiation stage. This caused DSR heavier than transplanted rice; consequently, the rainstorm caused lodging of DSR crop in S3 and S4 resulting in yield reduction. In year 2015-16, there was higher proliferation of Brachiaria spp. (a grassy weed, which acts as alternate as well as collateral host to Mealy bug) in S3, because, in DSR generally higher proliferation of weed is observed in comparison to transplanted rice. Consequently, partial yield loss in S3 was observed as a result infestation of Mealy bug. However, in S4, where DSR was also adopted higher proliferation of the above mentioned weed was not there. This may be due to diversified cropping system adopted in S4. In fact, weed seed bank dynamics in soil depends upon the previous crop and management practices followed in the particular system. Hence, the cropping system and management practices followed in S4 might not have allowed that particular weed in the DSR crop. The mean rice grain yield did not show any significant difference among the scenarios. Improvement in labile carbon fraction, C stock and better soil physical condition were some favourable factors created by CA practice responsible for the significant increase in wheat grain yield in S2 and S3 in comparison to S1 and S4. Jat et al. (2014) also reported higher ricewheat system grain yield under ZT-DSR and ZT-wheat in comparison to CT-rice and CT-wheat in eastern IGP. Significantly higher mung bean equivalent yield in S4 was due to higher maize minimum support price in comparison to mung bean. Besides, statistically at par values in system grain yield observed under S2-S4 was due to higher grain yield obtained in separate crops in each scenario. Lowest system yield in S1 was due to poor soil and crop management practices. This section fulfilled our crop yield evaluation part of our objective of the study.Moreover, Laik et al. (2014) working on same set of experiment reported higher water productivity in S2-S4 in comparison to S1 and followed the order: S4 > S3 > S2 > S1. In addition to this they also reported the highest benefit cost ratio in S3 due to the lowest cost of crop cultivation associated to it.The present experiment established that CA practice enhanced carbon stock upto 0-30 cm depth of soil, which is evident from increase in carbon stock in S2 and S3 in comparison to S1 (farmers practice). In this study, with increase in cropping intensity carbon stock was enhanced under S2 and S3 but declined in S4. This result emphasizes that carbon stock in soil not only depend upon amount of crop residues returned to soil but also depend on quality of crop residue, which varies according to crop selected in a particular cropping system. The present CA based experiment caused an increase in TOC stock in lower depths (20-30 cm) with stabilization of SOC in passive pool compared to small or negligible increment in SOC in some past studies. Inclusion of pulses in the cropping systems caused an enhancement of SOC in lower soil depths and identified as sink of OC, hence, increasing cropping intensity with legume crop is highly recommended. The S3 scenario proved to be highly efficient in terms of enhancing carbon sequestration and labile carbon in the system. Although, S4 performed well in terms of system grain yield, but it was not sustainable due to low SOC content. Hence, cropping system and management practice under scenario 3 was adjudged as the best among the four scenarios in maintaining higher carbon build up and stabilization resulting in better soil health and food security. However, in the future studies some alternative diversified cropping system should be evaluated in Indo-Gangetic Plain of South Asia, which will be profitable to farmer as well as sustainable from environment, soil health and food security.","tokenCount":"7335"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8472c00e804da13f72151b969c5e920a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9b1caeaa-fb8a-4e8a-aa5d-7f62ecbebcb9/retrieve","id":"409312150"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2dbdbf2b-4db0-4d36-ba99-6e03e9c491a8","pagecount":"23","content":"The Strengthening Adaptive Capacity of Extensive Livestock Systems for Food and Nutrition Security and Low-emissions Development in Eastern and Southern Africa Project is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and is being implemented in Kenya, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. The project aims at supporting stakeholders engaged in extensive livestock systems in Eastern and Southern Africa to design and implement scalable, sustainable interventions that promote adaptive capacity and food and nutrition security of men and women livestock keepers while reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from livestock production. The project Is committed to being gender-responsive and attaining social inclusion in all interventions. To ensure a systematic approach to embedding this commitment into the project activities effectively track progress, an overarching cross-programme Gender Equality Strategy has been developed. The objective of the strategy is to understand how to address social and gender dynamics that exist in communities under extensive livestock systems in East and Southern Africa. Proposed strategies include collective actions and enhancing women's leadership in existing structures under extensive livestock systems. The strategy will serve as a guide to the project's work throughout its lifespan and is informed by the fundamental gender and social inclusion principles of the programme. This Gender Strategy defines a series of priority areas of strategic action for ILRI and its partners' gender-responsive engagement in implementing its research activities at household, community, and national levels.Understanding gender and other social inclusion dynamics in the analysis of the 'impact' of livestock interventions in extensive livestock systems is at the core of the project. Gender is also central to the scientific knowledge generated by the project and the management of the research process to ensure that women's experiences and perspectives are considered in research activities, stakeholder engagement and policy dialogues on the research findings.The Gender Strategy aims to provide systematic guidance to the project implementers for strengthening engagement on gender-related aspects of the project by ensuring an inclusive approach that considers women's perspectives, including their specific needs, and promotes gender equality to achieve gender equality and equity in extensive livestock systems effectively. This strategy outlines the specific research activities to be carried out to ensure that gender is integral to the research process, monitor progress in implementing the strategy and learn lessons during the implementation of project activities. 1 1. Background and Conceptual Underpinnings for the Gender Strategy Women in the livestock market encounter various challenges, including (i) limited access to resources: land, finance, Despite these challenges, women play a prominent role in managing small livestock and poultry, contributing to household dietary diversification through eggs, milk, and meat production ( Despite the potential benefits, the project acknowledges the limited understanding of gender dynamics within community-based breeding programmes and their impact at the household level. Recent studies highlight the significance of gender relations in influencing household member roles in livestock management, decision-making, and participation in cooperative activities (Mulema et al. 2019). This project recognizes the need for further research to address the gender gap in knowledge and ensure equitable participation and benefits for all within communitybased breeding programmes. By fostering collective action, promoting improved practices, and addressing gender disparities, the project strives to contribute to a more resilient and inclusive livestock sector in Eastern and Southern Africa.The Gender Equality strategy recognizes that the participation of smallholder farmers, particularly women, is crucial for our project's success. Women constitute the majority of smallholder farmers and food producers in ESA.However, they often face challenges due to lower social status, limited access to resources, and heavy household responsibilities. The project recognizes that empowering women is a key to its success. To achieve significant and lasting improvements in the lives of smallholder farmers, our initiatives must prioritize innovative approaches that engage, empower, and invest in women for the long term. This requires thoughtful consideration of the needs of all beneficiaries-women, men, girls, and boys-to ensure project impact and success and to invest in women for sustainable change.This strategy adopts a gender mainstreaming approach, aiming to mitigate challenges to women's empowerment by promoting inclusivity in programme design and implementation across all project activities. This ensures that gender considerations are integrated throughout the project lifecycle, from planning and resource allocation to monitoring and evaluation, ensuring a systematic gender mainstreaming for inclusive development in the pastoral and agropastoral communities practicing extensive livestock systems. Agricultural productivity in many Sub-Saharan African countries is generally low, and it is even lower for female farmers for who agrifood systems make up 66% of their employment, 60% for men in the region (FAO 2023). Furthermore, the agriculture sector is underperforming in many Sub-Saharan African countries, and one of the key reasons is that women do not have equal access to the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive (FAO 2015). due to rapid population growth, increased urbanization, and the growing demand for high-value animal-source foods (Otte et al., 2019). Given that rangelands 2 , including those in ESA, are not naturally suited to many other types of agricultural production; these changes could be expected to provide opportunities for extensive livestock keepers to meet the predicted future demand for livestock products.4However, the relative distance of most rangeland communities from urban centers, poor linkages to markets and access to other services, compounded by the impacts of climate variability and change, present ongoing developmental challenges for pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities in ESA (Godde et al., 2020). These challenges highlight the need for extensive livestock-keeping households and communities to build greater adaptive capacities to absorb and/or buffer the impacts of shocks on their system, FNS and livelihoods ( • Empower women in leadership: Prioritise women's leadership roles and decision-making power in governance structures across all project areas.• Strengthen gender-transformative approaches: Advocate for and implement policies and systems that actively dismantle gender inequalities and promote women's empowerment within these livestock systems.• Gender-responsive interventions: Ensure project interventions are tailored to meet the specific needs, interests, and challenges both men and women face.• Inclusive participation: Encourage and facilitate the active participation of both men and women in all project activities, including capacity-building initiatives.• Economic empowerment: Increase women's control over their income and resources, enabling them to participate more meaningfully in economic activities.• Resource access: Improve women's access to critical agricultural and productive resources, such as land, livestock, and financial services.• Equitable household dynamics: Promote fair allocation of resources, roles, time, and benefits within households and communities, fostering greater gender equality and shared responsibilities.• Shared childcare: Support and empower men and women to share childcare responsibilities more equally, enabling women to participate more actively in project activities and decision-making.• Sustainable ownership: Ensure the project fosters a sense of ownership and promotes the long-term sustainability of project initiatives among both men and women. 6 3. Guiding Principles for the Gender StrategyTo attain gender equality and equity in extensive livestock systems, women's ownership of livestock and taking part in leadership positions at all levels of project activities, in both research and implementation, is crucial. For example, women could be encouraged to take up leadership positions within the existing livestock associations or cooperatives at the community and research level. There will be activities related to strengthening researchers' capacities for gender-and socially inclusive research through training.For this to happen, women should be accorded the primary responsibility to identify, drive and direct priorities, strategies, and activities that affect them. They must be appropriately capacitated to discharge the responsibility effectively. Inclusivity of women is key to advancing project activities and processes, necessitating that the needs and experiences of women are considered. Project activities should aim to promote women's equal participation in all activities. Also important is to ensure engagement by men and boys as partners in understanding and promoting women's participation, inclusivity, and ownership. These are key to the sustainability of project outcomes.Women are not a homogenous group but represent a wide range of roles and identities, including age, urban or rural habitats, socioeconomic backgrounds, disability, and legal status, among others. This diversity needs to be considered when conducting gender-responsive programmes.Coherence is key to ensuring coordination among different aspects of the project. Coherence and coordination among different stakeholders strengthen a common understanding of and approaches to gender equality at both conceptual and practical levels and strengthen consistency.This section highlights the top ten characteristics of gendered research 3 :• Gender roles and relations: Taking gender issues into account throughout the entire research process. Gender roles are the socially constructed roles that women and men assume because of being born male or female, which imply different norms, standards, behaviors, and opportunities for each. Gender relations are the relations between men and women that may be affected by power balances.• Gender analysis: Systematically gathering and examining data and information on gender differences and social relations to identify, understand, and redress inequities based on gender at each stage of the research process. Fundamental to this process is the availability of sex-disaggregated data • Gender vs. women: Getting the definitions straight: Do not equate \"gender\" with \"women\" and understand that \"women\" are not a single homogeneous group but are differentiated by class, ethnicity, age, sexuality, 7 religion and sexual orientation.• Inclusion and diversity: Involving all the actors ensures a diverse group, reflecting the community's makeup, paying particular attention to including the voices of marginalized groups.• Changing the research process: Doing research in a way that empowers women, including bottom-up research techniques. Doing research with people rather than on them or for them The management of rangelands should benefit both male and female livestock keepers, as well as differing livestock contexts and needs.Equal access to local tolerant breeds adapted to climate stress, heat, and diseases.Promote access to market information and market opportunities among livestock keepers, Knowledge, information and capacity-building Supporting career progression for women in the extensive livestock project team.Strengthening researchers' capacities for gender-and socially inclusive research.Conduct mixed-method studies to understand gender roles and other social factors influencing livestock technology adoption or promotion. Data collection from livestock keepers could be from life stories that include the voices of livestock keepers to understand in depth why certain things are happening.Conducting research to identify gaps in the targeting and effects of promoting livestock interventions with men and women within the project areas.Source: Adapted from Adaptation Good Practice Checklist (IFAD 2016)• Conducting research for policy advice: Ensuring that evidence on gender is central to policy dialogues and that men and women livestock keepers are appropriately supported to have their voices in policy and community dialogue sessions, which might be at local, national, and regional levels.The Strategy has adopted a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Model, which works with a continuum from GESI blind to GESI transformative. Gender-Blind refers to the failure to recognize that the roles and responsibilities of men (or boys) and women (or girls) are assigned to them in specific social, cultural, economic and political contexts and backgrounds (UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women, 2020). While Gender transformation refers to efforts to change gender and social norms to address inequalities in power and privilege between persons of different genders to free all people from harmful and destructive norms (UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women, 2020).8The GESI model below (Diagram 1), as adapted from UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women (2020), illustrates a spectrum that can help programmes categorize their level of ambition and achievement. Therefore, the project will be gendersensitive, as shown in Diagram 1, by promoting gender equality and social inclusion while focusing on transformative approaches and using collective actions while seeking to establish sustainable change to accountability pathways for marginalized groups. The above outcome will be achieved through research actions framed within the broad outputs specified below. These outputs incorporate gender-empowering and transformative approaches to gender integration and attention to gender equity:• Leadership and empowerment of women in existing cooperatives and associations prioritized: Women will be encouraged to take up leadership positions in existing livestock associations or cooperatives as a way of promoting agency Ensuring that evidence on gender is central to policy dialogues and that men and women are appropriately supported to have a voice in policy and community dialogues at local, national, and regional levels.Gender is central to the scientific knowledge generated by the project; therefore, integrating gender transformative and social inclusion approaches in all interventions, from research design to implementation, is important.Understanding gender and other social dynamics throughout the project cycle is critical to ensuring that women's experiences, perspectives, and specific needs are considered in research activities, stakeholder engagement and policy dialogues on the research findings. This will lead to the attainment of gender equality and equity in extensive livestock systems.Based on the foregoing, research evidence from the project will identify context-specific leverage points about livestock extensive systems to ensure that the positive impacts of project outcomes are equitably maximized and risks equitably minimized for male and female actors in livestock marketing, range land management, communitybased animal breeding and animal health. In this regard, the key leverage points and research questions will be premised on the integration of gender equality results across the project's course, specifically interrogating issues of leadership and empowerment of women in governance structures and decision-making, policies and systems for more gender-transformative approaches in extensive livestock systems; whether and how interventions match the needs and interests of men and women; extent and effectiveness of participation of both men and women in project activities; whether women exercise access to and control over incomes, including agricultural and productive resources; whether and how allocation of resources, roles, time and benefits at the household and community level is exercised between men and women; whether and how men and women take part in equal responsibilities in household and childrearing activities, and sustainability and ownership of the project by men and women.Research findings will be disseminated to or inform engagement with targeted sections of duty bearers and project beneficiaries to inform the design of more gender-equitable and socially inclusive interventions in livestock extensive systems in ESA. Underpinning the project activities will be capacity building, including training the project team and 11 farmer groups to enhance the application of this knowledge and information to design and implement more genderequitable interventions. Diagram 2 shows a generic impact pathway for the Strategy, illustrating how programming the integration of the gender transformative approach into the research activities through the project outputs and outcomes will influence programme impacts. The livestock market faces several challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, poor animal health resulting from a lack of veterinary services, inefficient feeding systems, and limited access to finance and technology. In addition, the sector is vulnerable to climate change and other environmental factors, such as droughts and floods.Women face several challenges in the livestock market, including limited resource access, poor market infrastructure, and security concerns. They also suffer gender-based discrimination in the livestock market, including unequal pay, limited access to credit, and limited decision-making power. Access to education and training in livestock production and marketing limits their ability to participate in the market and take advantage of new technologies and practices.The livestock market is characterized by poor infrastructure, including inadequate roads, markets, and storage facilities, making it difficult for women to transport and sell their livestock. Sometimes, they must rely on men to sell their animals. Women also face difficulties accessing veterinary services and other resources that can help them maintain the health and productivity of their livestock.To address these challenges, there is a need for strategies and interventions that empower women's opportunities in the marketing sector by mainly addressing the following research questions:To what extent is promoting women's involvement in livestock marketing promoting agency, such as freedom to make decisions?• Who makes decisions on livestock marketing?• How do proceeds from the sale of livestock and livestock products get used at home? Are there any nutritional benefits?• Do women and men have access to markets?• Is there infrastructure that men and women access?• Do women have access to marketing information?• How do gender norms and differential gender opportunities in the targeted communities affect women's participation in livestock systems at the community level?• What do women need to increase their benefits from livestock sales?The project will employ strategies and interventions based on a comprehensive understanding of the existing landscape to address the challenges hindering women's participation in livestock marketing. This will involve investigating crucial research questions, including:• Impact of livestock interventions on women's economic empowerment: This analysis will explore how various livestock interventions, such as access to loans or breeding programmes, impact women's economic independence and decision-making power.• Livestock marketing decision-making: Identifying who makes key decisions regarding livestock marketing within households and communities will highlight potential power imbalances and areas for intervention.• Allocation of proceeds from livestock sales: Understanding how households utilize income generated from livestock sales, focusing on gender distribution, will reveal potential inequalities and opportunities for equitable use.• Market access and infrastructure: Examining existing disparities in market access and related infrastructure (transportation, storage facilities) for men and women can inform strategies to bridge these gaps.• Access to marketing information: Assessing the availability and flow of market information to both men and women will reveal potential knowledge gaps that can be addressed through targeted interventions.• Gender norms and women's participation: Analysing how cultural norms and unequal opportunities impact women's involvement in livestock systems at the community level will be crucial for designing inclusive and empowering initiatives.• Gendered use of proceeds and nutritional benefits: Exploring how women and men utilize income from livestock sales at the household level, particularly regarding nutritional needs, can reveal potential gender disparities and inform interventions to improve household well-being.• Increasing women's sales benefits: Identifying specific areas where women's participation and decision-making can be strengthened within the livestock marketing process will ultimately lead to strategies for maximizing their economic returns.13The following strategic actions are critical to attain gender equality and equity in livestock marketing:• Establish measures to provide equitable access to market information, such as prices, demand, and supply, with a deliberate focus on women.• Regularly disseminate market information through various channels, including those easily accessible by women, such as community radios and farmer clubs.• Implement activities to enhance and promote the participation of women and small-scale producers, including targeted training, outreach programmes, and access to credit facilities.• Build partnerships between livestock producers, traders and buyers to promote knowledge sharing, networking, and market linkages, specifically focusing on women's groups.• Invest in women's savings and loan services to enhance members' access to finance and boost women's capital investment.• Create and utilize ICT and digital platforms to enhance the visibility of women livestock farmers and their produce. Requirements and conditions for upscaling have also just begun to be explored.• Conduct a study to understand whether men and women are empowered by rangeland management activities using the Climate Women Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI). This will help to understand the following:- Research by consortium members has shown that gender is highly relevant to improving disease management and human health outcomes (Mulema et al. 2020). There is evidence of the high prevalence of mortality rates from certain diseases in East Africa. For some major diseases, there is evidence of impacts on individual animal productivity, such as milk yields and herd productivity (Megersa et al. 2011). This strongly suggests that reducing morbidity and mortality could have significant impacts on FNS (whether through consumption or income pathways), adaptive capacity (by enhancing the livestock asset base) and GHG emissions (Kipling et al. 2020).In general, the lack of evidence of animal health interventions' effects on GHG emissions impedes linking animal health to climate change policies nationally, regionally, and globally. The main reasons for these knowledge gaps relate to 'knowledge silos' between disciplines. In the case of GHG emissions associated with disease, this is a new topic that is just beginning to attract attention globally.The Gender Strategy aims to ensure that women's experiences and perspectives are effectively considered in animal health interventions, with a focus on the following key issues:• How have men and women benefitted from community-based animal health programmes in terms of access to vaccines and animal health information?• How do men and women access vaccines and information related to animal health? (We want to know if women work as groups or as individuals and if they utilize economies of scale).• What support regarding training, outreach or access to resources do women need to access vaccines and information on animal health?• How do cultural norms affect women's and men's participation in accessing animal health programmes?","tokenCount":"3386"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"38a0df911217fdd1063b21b0510828bc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/09948877-7e96-455f-82c6-4718e121f8e0/retrieve","id":"-1573417265"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"39880e2f-3e59-4cd8-b710-7128091e7888","pagecount":"27","content":"RTB-CIP: CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB), led by International Potato Center (CIP)of roots in the soil, bitterness as a protection against rodents, and high starch content for preparation of fufu.Although farmers in Nigeria's South South region used only local landraces, farmers in other study sites dynamically combine those with new germplasm from the formal system. Because of a longer dry season, not all farmers are able to cover their need of planting material from their own fields alone. Despite using technologies for storage of cassava stems, there is still a demand for stems from relatives, friends, and neighbors; local traders and seed markets; and agricultural development programs. Differentiation of farmer categories by the size of their cassava fields showed no explainable pattern of different seed-sourcing behavior. Across the study population, the shortage of planting material and farmers' interest in trying out new varieties were identified as entry points for the DSMs of the BASICS project. Further research on seedsourcing dynamics, however, is needed to create a clear profile of stem buyers. We emphasize the importance of understanding the dynamics and the involvement of various actors in informal seed exchange to harmonize the work of DSMs in a seed system.Characterizing Nigeria's cassava seed system and the use of planting material in three farming communitiesUsing better varieties and higher quality seed 1 in farmers' fields is one pathway to enhance agricultural productivity and food production. Root, tuber, and banana crops (RTB crops) make a particular case: they play an important role in food security but, because of their vegetative propagation via stems, roots, tubers, or suckers, their seed system is quite different from the seed systems of \"true\" seed crops. High potential for reuse by farmers, low profitability margins, bulkiness in handling and transport, and quick perishability of the planting material make them unattractive for commercial breeding and private sector seed programs. Despite large investments over several decades (Alene, Abdoulaye, Rusike, Manyong and Walker 2015), the public sector has not been able to meet the expectations in these crops. And although international crop improvement programs have contributed to breeding and release of improved varieties (ibid.), several studies show that farmers are still largely acquiring seed from the informal seed system (McGuire and Sperling 2016; Sperling and McGuire 2010). The complexity of seed systems-including its formal and informal actors and prevailing practices of farmers in multiplying and sourcing seed-needs to be understood in order to archive a larger impact of formal seed interventions (Almekinders et al. 2019). Especially for RTB crops, where the market for planting material is still limited, it is key to understand farmers' demand for clean planting material and more productive, nutrient-rich varieties. In this article we look at the context of a project that aims to build an integrated and economically viable cassava (Manihot esculenta) seed system in Nigeria.Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world (FAOSTAT 2017). In the western part of the country, the commercial production and processing of the crop into starch, sweeteners, ethanol, high quality cassava flour, and dried chips industries are increasing. Developing industrial products by using a value chain development approach to replace imports of raw materials and to create export commodities are anticipated as major drivers for Nigeria's cassava transformation plan (GoN 2012). Yet the majority of cassava is produced and consumed as a staple crop by smallholder farmers across all agro-ecological zones of the country, in particular 1 In this article we use the term \"seed\" not only in its \"true\" botanical meaning, but also in reference to planting material of vegetatively propagated crops. These include stems, roots, tubers, and suckers.in the southern and central regions. Harvested cassava roots can be stored for only a few days without spoilage. Therefore, most farmers process the roots quickly after harvest, work that is done mostly by women in the households. In processed form cassava products can be used for household consumption over a few months or sold in the market. The main traditional cassava-based staple foods in Nigeria are gari, fufu/akpu, and lafun. Gari, the most popular product in Nigeria, is a granular flour made by roasting fermented cassava. In some regions the flour is mixed with palm oil to enrich the product's look, consistency, and taste. Fufu/akpu is a fermented wet cassava paste, widely consumed in eastern and southwestern parts of the country. Lafun is a fermented, dried cassava flour commonly used in southwestern Nigeria.Between 1970 and 2010, 65 improved varieties were released in Nigeria (Alene et al. 2015). From the beginning of that period, large-scale interventions, such as the World Bank's support of the Agricultural Development Project and the International Fund for Agricultural Development's (IFAD) grants, supported the distribution of planting material of these improved varieties (Oparinde et al., 2016). Recent studies on the adoption of improved cassava varieties and released landraces in Nigeria identified adoption rates of 46-60% (Alene et al. 2015;Tahirou et al. 2015;Wossen et al. 2017). However, the reported uptake rates vary considerably between studies and different regions in Nigeria. For example, Wossen et al. (2017) identified adoption rates of 79% in the South West region compared with 31% in the South East. Several studies recognize the difficulty in correctly identifying and distinguishing cassava varieties by farmers and formal seed experts, resulting in different estimates of adoption rates (Oparinde et al. 2016;Tahirou et al., 2015;Wossen et al. 2017). Genetic fingerprinting has shown a large rate of misclassification-that is, farmers believe they are cultivating a local landrace although it is an improved variety and vice versa (Wossen et al. 2017). Another issue is that the nature of reporting of adoption rates in these studies reflects neither the intensity of growing improved cassava varieties on farmers' fields nor the dynamics in replacing varieties with newer ones, measured as varietal turnover (Spielman and Smale 2017). From the aspect of implementing public seed delivery programs, a major challenge was long transports of planting material, which resulted in high transaction costs and losses (e.g., damages during loading and off-loading, drying out due to long exposure during transport periods). Therefore, the distribution process was assumed to be often ineffective and below the expectation in reaching out to farmers' fields (Bentley et al. 2017). Across different studies it is recognized that the outreach of improved cassava varieties did not reach its full potential and that initiatives for sustainable seed system development are required.The project \"Building an Economically Sustainable, Integrated Seed System for Cassava in Nigeria\" (BASCIS), 2 funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, began in 2016. The project aims to build a sustainable seed system for Nigeria via developing a network of seed entrepreneurs engaged in commercial sale of cassava planting material that is produced with high-quality standards as certified by the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC). The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB), led by the International Potato Center (CIP), coordinates the project, which is being implemented in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI), and Catholic Relief Service (CRS). The project consortium implements activities that aim to develop a cassava seed value chain from breeder seed to sellers of certified commercial seed. A special focus of the approach is on the integration of the private sector into the cassava seed value chain. BASICS uses a processor-led model (facilitated by Context Global Network of USA) to leverage large-scale industrial producers as conduits for market-led dissemination of improved varieties in a root buy-back arrangement. It also facilitates the establishment of decentralized stem multipliers, called village seed entrepreneurs (VSEs), in Nigeria's South South, South East, and North Central regions. The VSEs have access to early-generation cassava seed from foundation seed producers which they multiply and sell to farmer-clients in the vicinity. In the scope of further shaping the VSE model, there was a concrete need to understand farmers' demand for cassava seed, prevailing seed-sourcing practices, and already established forms of cassava stem trade in the project regions.There is very little empirical information in the scientific literature on how farmers manage cassava stems, used as seed, on their farms. It is generally assumed that farmers use stems for planting from their own farm because of the ease of propagation, the relative robustness of the crop when it comes to degeneration, and the fact that stems as nonedible parts of the plant have no competing use. Lynam (unpublished manuscript) considered cassava as a crop with the lowest cost of propagation by farmers and where availability of planting material is usually not a constraint. Nevertheless, recent studies indicated substantial off-farm sourcing of seed by smallholder farmers in Africa (Adam et al. 2018;Almekinders et al. 2019;Kansiime and Mastenbroek 2016;McGuire and Sperling 2016). In the context of Nigeria and BASICS, it is not clear how that demand is reflected in potential seed markets and what the client profile in the project region would look like. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to understand better the local cassava seed system, including farmers' practices of using cassava seed, their sources, and actors involved. In addition, the study aimed to identify potential entry points for VSEs in the BASICS project to strengthen the seed system. Our objective was not to present a picture of practices that is representative for Nigeria as a whole, but to present some cases that show a variation of situations that exist and how this links up with the wider functioning of the cassava seed system in Nigeria.Studies on the adoption of improved cassava varieties are mostly based on a larger sample of respondents and aggregated data across different cultural and agro-ecological zones (e.g., Wossen et al. 2017). Those studies often do not show the variations in outcomes between different regions, social groups, and gender (e.g., Oparinde et al. 2016). In contrast, our study focused on variations in context and social differentiation of farmers through the use of an explorative research design, combining qualitative data from rapid rural appraisals via focus group discussions (FGDs) and a relatively small sample size of quantitative data in three farming communities in Nigeria. Expert interviews from workshops and meetings provided insights into the wider landscape of the Nigerian cassava seed system. All data were collected within the scope of monitoring activities of the BASICS project. The primary focus of this exercise therefore was an understanding of the context of farmers' cassava seed use and stimulating a joint discussion of findings with the study team.A study team consisting of the authors of this article carried out fieldwork and expert workshops from August to December 2017. During a scoping visit we identified study collaborators, defined research objectives, and jointly developed a study design to address the initial research questions. After a preliminary data collection phase in October 2017, we met to (1) discuss the first findings with a larger group of experts from NRCRI and BASICS partner organizations and (2) develop questionnaires for a survey in a second study phase in November/December 2017.For the collection of field data in two phases, we selected three study sites in the BASICS project area. These In the study preparation phase, we held two FGDs with farmers from Imo State and Benue State who were associated with the BASICS project on how they would differentiate cassava farmers in their communities. On the basis of these discussions, we defined three categories of cassava farmers: small (size of cassava fields < 0.5 ha), medium (size of cassava fields 0.5-2 ha), and large (size of cassava fields > 2 ha). In each study site gender-balanced FGDs served as an entry point to the community and helped to explore the local context of farming and growing cassava. As part of this effort we carried out a survey based on farming households that reflected all defined farmer categories via purposeful sampling. The survey contained questions on household level and were administered to both women and men (40% and 60%, respectively). In addition to collecting data from farmers in the communities, the study team carried out semi-structured interviews with cassava stem traders in the vicinity of the study sites (Table 1).Between the two study phases, the study team held an expert elicitation, which was guided by the RTB Multistakeholder Framework (RTB 2016). A group of 16 participants-8 from NRCRI, 2 from CRS, 2 from CIP, 2 from Wageningen University & Research (WUR), 1 private seed entrepreneur, and 1 CRS consultant-jointly analyzed the cassava seed system. The analysis was based on empirical data from the preliminary study and a matrix for seed system diagnosis from the RTB Multi-stakeholder Framework. We analyzed recorded data from FGDs and expert meetings with qualitative content analysis, grouping mostdiscussed topics and most-prominent issues that were mentioned. The structured data from surveys in the three farming communities were collated into a spreadsheet and analyzed with descriptive statistics, using Microsoft Excel®. We did not apply statistical analysis on the survey data, as our objective was not representativeness but a comparison of different study sites and categories of farmers within the sites.Resource persons from IITA headquarters in Ibadan, ADP agents in the study regions, and knowledgeable farmers in the study sites supported the identification of cassava varieties via their local names and characteristics.Currently, the cassava seed system in Nigeria is largely an informal one that, according to the key experts, shows a vibrant stem trade involving multiple actors of both the formal and informal seed systems (Almekinders, Pircher, and Obiesan 2017). Farmers make up the largest and most diverse group in this system, and continuously source and share cassava stems among each other and with a wider group of actors in the seed system. NRCRI and IITA, formal actors in the system, are considered as the key institutions for the introduction of improved varieties and early-generation planting material into the seed system. Both institutions have adopted a commercially driven approach, in which they engage private sector seed entrepreneurs for multiplication and sale of foundation seed and certified seed. NASC holds the mandate to certify breeder seed, foundation seed, and commercial seed. Another formal sector player is ADP. Despite being constrained by funds for purchasing and distributing cassava seed, the network of ADP extension agents has an active role in stem trade. The agents currently act as brokers in the system by facilitating stem sales among farmers and between farmers and stem sellers. NGOs, churches, and local governments are hubs, in which cassava seed is purchased and distributed for free to farming communities. Interviews with VSEs in the study preparation phase showed that a large part of their seed turnover is based on institutional sales, which offer attractive payment modalities, large transaction volumes, and reliable sales for the entrepreneurs (Walsh, unpublished workshop report 2017).The link to and between farmers is built by informal seed traders. These range from small farmer traders, who sell 50-100 bundles (a unit for 50 cassava stems 1 m long) a year to large commercial traders, who sell 2,000 bundles or more a year. Interviews with 17 stem traders across Imo, Akwa Ibom, and Benue states indicated that 82% of the traders sell improved varieties and 52% sell local varieties. The traders disclosed that the majority of their customers buy planting material from them either because of the good quality of stems or because they are looking for new varieties. Some 76% of the traders indicated that their clients ask for specific varieties, which included local (e.g., '6-Months') and improved ones (e.g., the recently released variety 'TME 419' and biofortified vitamin A varieties). In FGDs clients of BASICS VSEs reported cases in which larger farmers act as traders in the system. For example, one large cassava grower in the region irrigates his farm and thus is able to sell cassava stems to farmers in the vicinity during the dry season when many farmers are short of seed.Drawing a seed-flow map with participants of the workshop illustrated that a communication network (largely facilitated by using mobile phones) is the backbone of cassava stems brokerage. After identifying potential suppliers, farmers (stem buyers) and traders organize transport to farmer fields via trucks, pick-ups, or motorcycles. Workshop participants also reported large-scale transactions between traders across longer distances (e.g., between different states). Sellers, who are situated along frequented roads, commonly flag the availability of stems on their farms by putting a pile of stems next to the road. In most cases, buyers organize transport and harvest the stems from the sellers' farms themselves. In some areas in Nigeria (e.g., acrossBenue State and some sites in Imo State), specialized cassava stem markets exist where traders and seed producers offer planting material for sale.Across all study sites (Figure 1), individual interviews with farmers indicated that all households in the communities are headed by a male, except those that are widowed. The role of men and women in decisionmaking for varietal choices, identifying sources for planting material, and marketing of produce varies between the study sites. In Umuohuodi and Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, these decisions are mostly taken together by men and women, whereas in Ashina they are taken mostly by men. The three study sites also show considerable differences in cassava-farming practices, marketing, and use of stems. The reasons behind the differences were explored in FGDs in the communities and further discussed with key informants. Most important aspects are different agro-ecological zones (e.g., longer dry season in Benue State), size of landholdings, connection to markets/traders for cassava products, and cultural food preferences. In Cassava is typically grown in the rainy season (March/April-October) and processed into gari, fufu, and tapioca (a form of processed root for starch production) for home consumption and sale to traders on the nearby market. Farmers usually do not apply fertilizer and grow cassava as mixed cropping together with vegetables, plantains, and sometimes yam. Large areas of land are available and mostly communally owned. Personally owned lands exist and are used for cassava cultivation, too. The community is not well connected to the ADP office; cassava stems are commonly sourced from small traders and on the local market on the day of Eke (every four days).Ashina (located in Benue State) is situated in the savanna zone with a considerably shorter growing season (May-October), followed by 6 months of dry season. The interviewed cassava farmers own large areas of land (up to 15 ha), which they cultivate with cassava, soy, sorghum, rice, yam, groundnut, and vegetables like pepper and okra, and fruit trees (e.g., citrus). Cassava and soy are considered to be main crops. Roots are predominantly processed into akpu and gari for home consumption and sale on the market. Markets for seed and produce of cassava and other crops are more developed than in the other two study sites. For example, starch as a by-product from processing and cassava chips are sold to traders in the outreach of the farming community. An ADP agent actively involves farmers in the community in extension activities and provides them new, improved cassava seed. Through a seed exchange scheme, the farmers have to share the same number of cuttings they receive from ADP with other community members after their first harvest. In addition, commercial traders sell cassava stems in large quantities, and farmer-traders in the vicinity sell small amounts of stems next to the roadside.Farmers at all study sites typically plant cassava on mounds or ridges or directly in the soil and mix it with other crops (e.g., maize, sorghum, soy, beans, yam). They use cuttings 20-30 cm long as planting material.Depending on the variety and prevailing climate, the roots are harvested after 6-12 months. It is common to harvest piecemeal, gradually harvesting smaller portions of the fields, and/or in bulk, harvesting larger portions of the field at once. Almost all farmers across all study sites indicated that in the last 12 months they harvested piecemeal. For example, farmers harvest one or two rows of their cassava field every week. Across all study sites, only a few (6%) farmers harvested in bulk, citing as reasons the need for cash to solve domestic challenges or to make larger investments like building houses, or to prevent cassava roots from decaying after heavy rainfall. Some farmers leave roots longer (up to 2 years) in the soil as a strategy to extend the availability period, labor constraints for harvesting, or to wait for the rainy season when they can plant the stems.The harvest regime also affects the availability of stems for planting. Piecemeal harvesting allows farmers to continuously use stems for planting after harvesting their cassava fields gradually. Particularly the large and medium farmers across study sites stated that they have another strategy: they reserve a portion of their cassava fields for harvesting stems for planting the remaining area. Other widespread strategies for using ownplanting material are ratooning, which refers to cutting one or more stems while leaving the cassava root in the soil, and milking, which refers to harvesting the root only partially to allow the stem to re-grow. To conserve seed during the period between harvesting and replanting stems, farmers apply practices like digging a hole and covering stems with soil or with palm fronds to provide shade. In Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, some farmers reported planting stem cuttings in nursery beds during the dry season before replanting them on their fields.In Ashina, which has a longer dry season than the other study sites, some farmers plant the cassava stems in swampy areas to conserve them until the planting season starts.Farmers at the three study sites grow a portfolio of one to six different cassava varieties per farming household, which they distinguished as local or improved varieties. When scrutinizing how local varieties initially reached the community, it was shown that many of those varieties were formally released a long time ago and considered \"local\" by farmers. We therefore do not apply the terms local/improved to varieties in the following sections of this article. The interviewed farmers used local names for most of the varieties planted.For some varieties farmers used different names (e.g., they use the names '6-Months' and 'Give Me Chance'for the same variety). In Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, farmers used the local name 'Long John' for a variety because of its distinctive stem architecture with a non-branching and very straight stem. A follow-up revealed that the variety is formally known as 'TME-419'. The local ADP agent explained that some farmers are not aware that both names refer to the same variety because they have received the variety from different sources.In FGDs farmers described the characteristics of their most popular varieties in the studied communities (Table 2). All varieties in use have traits that farmers like and traits they dislike. For example, farmers in Umuohuodi explained:Nwaocha is very good for fufu as the color is usually brighter than other varieties. It is the preferred variety for fufu and gari [indicating high starch content. However,] … it is often eaten by rodents because it is sweet unlike other varieties.'Abeokuta' matures earlier than other varieties. [However,] … it absorbs plenty of water in the rainy season and retains small water during the dry season.'Ahunna', when matured, the stem usually starts drying from the top; it dries quickly and breeze easily affects it.In Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, farmers explained that the variety 6-Months / Give Me Chance is grown in almost every household because it matures within 6 months and yields are reasonably high. However, the variety does not store well underground as it decays relatively early. A follow-up on the variety revealed that the variety was never formally released in Nigeria. Farmers acquired it from on-site field trials that IITA conducted in 1976, and it spread in the region as discovered by a survey IITA conducted in 2009 (Peter Iluebbey, pers. comm., IITA).Farmers described the variety 'Long John' ('TME-419') as \"sweet,\" referring to a non-bitter type and therefore often eaten by rodents. To protect cassava roots from rodents, farmers also valued bitter-type cassava varieties. The farmers did not appreciate the earlier established varieties 'Ekauya', 'Paya', and 'Afiokpo' and gradually quit planting them.FGDs across all study sites indicated that farmers are interested in trying out new cassava varieties (Table 2).This was confirmed in the survey, where farmers at all study sites and in all farmer categories stated that their main motivation for sourcing seed off-farm was to \"try new varieties\". For example, four out of five farmers in Ashina who obtained seed from other sources than their own fields in the last 12 months did so because they wanted to try new varieties. Not all responses of farmers at the other two study sites could be attributed either to variety or to quality of seed (e.g., indicating \"my own stems are not yielding well anymore\").However, \"new variety\" was explicitly mentioned by farmers from all study sites and categories. Study participants in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo reported a new variety, called 'Stainless', for which we were unable to identify its formal name. The Akwa Ibom ADP recently introduced the variety, which is mostly in the hands of medium and large farmers. In FGDs participants explained that those farmers share seed of the variety with other farmers in the community and, on some occasions, ask for money for the stems. Similar patterns of variety diffusion in communities were reported in FGDs in Ashina. In Umuohuodi, however, the varieties in use seem more static: Farmers recalled the varieties 'Nwaocha' and 'Agric' to be in the community for about 10 years. The other varieties have been there for much longer, which farmers were unable to trace back. Release dates/date of identification were identified from http://my.iita.org/accession2/accession/TMe-7 and http://seedtracker.org/cassava/index.php/released-cassava-varieties-in-nigeria/The most common pattern of variety diffusion within-and to a smaller extent also between-communities is based on informal seed-sharing among relatives, friends, and neighbors (RFN) (Table 3). Data from questionnaires and FGDs identified ADP and traders as entry points to the communities. Ashina is well connected to ADP, and some farmers received new varieties directly from the local agents. For example, a farmer said she was referred by the local APD agent to an IFAD-funded program from where she received 500 bundles of stems of a new variety ('TME 419'). In Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, the ADP agent provided farmers with new varieties and entered into an agreement to supply a part of the yield back to ADP or to appointed farmers in the next seasons for further dissemination. In Umuohuodi, which is poorly connected to ADP services, more farmers reported that they received new varieties for the first time from traders and local markets. Farmers across all study sites use cassava seed from multiple sources in a single season: their own fields, RFN, the ADP, and traders. The dominant source of stems was farmers' own fields. Off-farm seed sourcing varied considerably between study sites and farmer categories (Table 4). In Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, most small and medium farmers sourced stems from their own farms or in a combination of own-and off-farm, whereas the majority of large farmers sourced exclusively from their own farms. In Umuohuodi and Ashina, most farmers sourced planting material exclusively from their own farms. The group of large farmers in Umuohuodi was the exception: a larger percentage sourced their planting material in a combination of own-and off-farm. In the second study phase, data on the volumes of cassava stems from all seed sources were collected from farmers. The analysis shows that the majority of stems were sourced from their own fields (Table 5), reflecting a lower intensity of use for seed that is sourced off-farm. Only the group of small and medium farmers in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo received a considerable amount of stems off-farm, in particular from RFN, with 32% and 18%, respectively. In Ashina and Umuohuodi, smaller amounts of stems were sourced from RFN, ADP, and traders/local market. Across the different study sites and farmer categories, no clear pattern of the amounts and sources of seed appeared in the sample nor in FGDs with the communities. The most frequently reported reason for off-farm seed sourcing in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo and Umuohuodi was the shortage of planting material from their own fields (reported by 10 of 20 farmers in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo and 9 of 15 farmers in Umuohuodi). Farmers explained that they were short of planting material due to theft, infestation by termites, inadequate availability of own stems, and the need for more stems to expand farms.This was followed by the interest of trying a new cassava variety (reported by 7 of 20 farmers in Ibiaku NtokOkpo and 4 of 15 farmers in Umuohuodi). In Ashina most farmers stated that they source seed off-farm because of their interest in trying a new cassava variety (reported by 7 of 11 farmers), followed by the shortage of planting material from their own fields (reported by 3 of 11 farmers). The latter was due to plans by all three farmers to expand their farms. Few farmers (1 of 11 in Ashina, 3 of 20 in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, and 2 of 15 in Umuohuodi) mentioned \"due to old stems\" and \"poor quality of cassava stems\" as reasons. Farmers did not mention disease infestation or other reasons that would indicate a degeneration of seed in the individual interviews nor in the FGDs.The major off-farm source across all study sites is RFN (Table 5 and Figure 2). According to interviewed farmers, it is normal to share seed without payment within the community. They explained that this is rooted in the culture of cassava farming in Nigeria; but in some places this custom has changed over time. In Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, farmers indicated that in some parts of the community farmers are allowed to take cassava stems from fields without prior agreement with the owner as long as the stems are used for planting in one's own fields and not for commercial purposes. In other parts of the community, it requires negotiation and possibly payments in cash or in-kind (although in-kind payments were reported only by five farmers across the whole sample). These farmers explained that they received seed in exchange for either other seed or labor on other farms.With increasing commercialization of the cassava sector, cash transactions for sharing seed with RFN have become more common. In Ashina farmers explained that while they share with subsistence farmers in the community for free, the commercial farmers are expected to pay for the stems. Next to seed exchange with RFN, farmers across all study sites sourced stems from traders and via seed exchange schemes from ADP. In Umuohuodi the presence of the ADP was weaker than in the other study sites, with only one transaction in the study population. Instead, a larger share of cassava stems was sourced from traders and the local market (LM) (0.25 and 0.18 transactions/farmer, respectively). In Ashina, where many farmers source from ADP (0.14 transactions/farmer), traders had a relatively small share of the seed market (0.04 transactions/farmers). Sharing seed is common across farmers from all study sites (Table 6). Data from our survey show that although these farmers commonly shared seed within communities free of change, larger transactions are mostly paid for in cash. Farmers in Umuohuodi indicated that they share cassava stems with business partners from other communities. These traders buy from the LM and from individual farmers and ask for specific varieties, such as 'Abeokuta' and 'Nwaocha'. In Ashina and Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, sharing seed was facilitated by ADPs, in which farmers were requested to share seed with other farmers after receiving new varieties from the program.  A comparison of data from seed sourcing and seed sharing indicates that, although a large share of farmers exclusively source from their own fields (Table 5), most farmers (80-100%) share seed with several other farmers in the community (1.4-3.2 transactions/farmer). This information shows that the selected farmers in the survey are \"net sharers\" of cassava seed. The effect is most visible in Ashina, where about 80-90% of farmers exclusively use planting material from their own field and about 80-100% of farmers share seed with RFN and ADP. In FGDs some farmers indicated that they engage in seed trade and some have created profitable businesses with stem trade in the community. Our data show that in Ashina the \"net recipients\" of cassava seed, who require plating material from others, were absent in the survey sample as well in FGDs.The cassava seed system. The cassava seed system in Nigeria consists of multiple actors, interrelations, and multidirectional seed flows. Carrying out a pre-study and a multistakeholder workshop in which results were discussed enabled our study team to identify most influential actors and seed flows in this system. Although this rapid assessment could not deliver in-depth data, the diagnosis provided valuable insights into the diversity of the cassava seed trade. A comparison of different study sites showed that agro-ecological conditions and cultural preferences not only shaped farmers' behavior for selecting varieties, sourcing, and sharing planting material. They also resulted in the emergence of trading structures, such as specialized cassava seed markets in Benue State and Ibiaku Ntok Okpo. And though the existence of these seed markets in many places of Nigeria was reported in the multistakeholder meeting, the study of farmers' seed-sourcing behavior also showed that a considerable number of stems in Umuohuodi were actually sourced from the local market. This situation is also reflected in a cassava monitoring study, which reported that 6.8% of stems in the North, 5.2% of stems in South South, and 12.8% of stems in South East are bought on the \"cassava market\" (Wossen et al., 2017). An analysis of multiple channels for seed sourcing in the study communities suggests that the absence of ADP in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo and Umuohuodi created a gap that was filled by informal traders.This shows the dynamics of interconnected local and formal seed systems (Almekinders, Louwaars and de Bruijn, 1994;Coomes et al., 2015;McGuire and Sperling, 2016) and farmers adapting to seed market structures by making use of multiple delivery channels (McGuire and Sperling 2013).Social differentiation. Out of the three study sites we found clear differences between the farmer categories only in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo. There, the intensity of off-farm seed sourcing increases from large farmers to small. Wossen et al. (2017) found a similar pattern and explained this effect by the amount of available stems on farmers' fields. Sperling and McGuire (2010) found a significantly higher share of poorer farmers sourcing seed of different crops and in different African countries from informal markets. They explained this by poorer farmers being dependent on off-farm sourcing due to a shortage of seed, whereas richer farmers engage in these markets only if they are looking for new varieties. In Umuohuodi and Ashina, the three farmer categories did not show a significant pattern of variety use, seed sourcing, or seed-sharing behavior. Owing to the availability of larger areas of land and possibly less intensified cassava production in those study sites, the described effect of \"small farmers running out of stems\" might not appear. Therefore, in such a context our approach of using the three defined farmer categories did not capture the socially differentiated seed use.Another aspect that stands out is the enlarged presence of \"net sharers\" of cassava stems in Ashina and to a lesser extent in the other study sites. This indicates that our sampling strategy did not include \"net recipients\" of cassava stems, who presumably depend on off-farm sourcing.Use of different varieties and preferences. As found by Nuijten and Almekinders (2008), variety-naming by farmers can result in different names for one variety in use and possibly multiple varieties with the same names. We observed that farmers used multiple names for the same variety, such as 'TME-419'/'Long John' and '6-Months'/'Give Me Chance' in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo. The case of referring to multiple varieties with one name was not observed in our study. However, because we did not use genetic fingerprinting, we cannot be completely sure which names the reported varieties in use actually corresponded to. Although there remains some level of uncertainty on variety identification, we can conclude that the three study sites differ strongly in the varieties that farmers grow. In Ashina and Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, farmers grow older-presumably welladapted-varieties and combine them with varieties that have been released relatively recently. Some farmers reported gradually disusing older varieties that were replaced with new and better performing ones.Umuohuodi, in contrast, is characterized by the use of landraces and disconnected from varieties that have been introduced by formal actors in the seed system since the 1970s. Although traders have contributed to the influx of varieties in Umuohuodi, farmers did not adopt or try cassava varieties that were released recently.This could indicate a lack of improved germplasm that meets the demands of farmers in this community. The limited access to germplasm and slow varietal turnover could also indicate a low degree of innovation in the seed system due to regulatory reforms (Spielman and Smale 2017). Both conditions provide entry points for seed interventions, such as BASICS.Farmers in all study sites use a mix of varieties that is maintained due to various desired traits that are not available in a single variety alone. Depending on the specific conditions of cassava farming and use of roots, farmers valued short maturity for early harvest, long storage of roots in the soil, bitterness as a protection against rodents, and high starch content for preparation of fufu. The prevailing mix of varieties used in all study sites reflects varietal choices that are adapted to agro-ecological conditions, cultural preferences, and existing market opportunities (Bentley et al. 2017;Pircher et al. 2013;Tadesse et al. 2017). Farmers in all study communities expressed interest in trying out new cassava varieties, similar to those reported by Bentley et al. (2017). Although the social differentiation of farmers at the three study sites did not show different patterns of diffusion, farmers in Ibiaku Ntok Okpo indicated that new varieties are first grown by larger farmers and then shared with others in the community. Similar diffusion patterns and seed-sharing behavior from wealthier farmers to poorer were also observed by Almekinders and Ronner (2016) and Tadesse et al. (2016). Deeper insights into the flows of varieties within the study communities would, however, require further study and a targeted approach for the tracing of seed.Off-farm seed sourcing. The majority of interviewed farmers sourced the largest part of cassava planting material from their own fields (62-97% of the stems used across study sites). Predominant seed sourcing from own farms was also found in other studies on cassava (Kansiime and Mastenbroek 2016;Lynam, unpublished manuscript). Nevertheless, a considerable amount of farmers in all study sites sourced seed off-farm, as also described by other studies on cassava (Kansiime and Mastenbroek 2016;McGuire and Sperling 2016).Degeneration was not a driver for the interviewed cassava farmers to source seed from RFN, ADP, and traders.This can be explained by the absence of crop diseases that can cause stem degeneration. The largest threat to cassava production is cassava brown streak disease, which is currently present in east and central Africa buthas not yet affected west Africa (Patil, Legg, Kanjuand Fauquet 2015). Most important factors for off-farm seed sourcing were the interest in new varieties and the shortage of seed on farmers' own fields. The limited storage period of cassava planting material seems to be an important factor in the latter. Cassava farmers in Ghana indicated a maximum storage period of 7-8 weeks, depending on the type of storage (Osei, Taah, Berchieand Osei 2009). Farmers in this study use adapted technologies for seed storage and harvest their crop piecemeal (which results in continuously having cassava plants on their fields) in order to source planting material from their own farms. Yet others depend on additional seed sources such as RFN and, to a smaller extent, from traders. Depending on social norms and ties between farmers, these transactions are paid for, inkind, or free of charge-findings similar to those on the acquisition and distribution of sweetpotato vines in Tanzania (Adam et al. 2018).Implications for the BASICS project. The study shows an examination into the formal and informal seed system identified important entry points of BASICS VSEs. First, there was a widespread interest of farmers in trying out new cassava varieties and finding varieties that meet multiple preferences of farmers. Second, the demand for planting material is strong due to a shortage of seed.Farmers in all study sites use a mix of varieties in which they combine multiple traits (e.g., short maturity for early harvest, long storage of roots in the soil, bitterness as a protection against rodents, and high starch content for preparation of fufu). These farmers request specific varieties to add further traits to their current mix of varieties. Their demand for new cassava varieties therefore depends highly on the local context, preferences, and varieties that are already in use. To ensure the provision of varieties demanded by their clients, the VSEs need to be empowered to influence early-generation seed producers. Demonstration plots, accessible by farmers in the vicinity where they can compare varietal traits and select varieties to test on their own fields, create an opportunity for exposure (Bentley et al. 2017).Larger amounts of stems sales and long-term profits can be realized by tapping into the market of cassava seed that farmers buy due to the seasonal shortage of planting material. As argued above, small farmers might be more likely to run out of planting material than farmers with larger cassava fields. The demand for stems is currently covered by (paid) seed exchange between RFN, traders, and seed markets, with stem trade facilitated by ADP. Informal traders have established and manage profitable cassava seed enterprises. Offering certified seed that is true to variety would be a value proposition of traders to their clients. Enabling informal traders to sell certified seed could be realized either by integrating them into the formal seed value chain as VSEs or by acting as seed distributors in partnership with VSEs. Advanced knowledge of the multiple informal actors and institutions is needed to establish a collaboration that creates mutual benefits and assures coexistence of VSEs and informal seed actors in the system.Further research. The explorative character of this study opened up two issues that require further research.Studying social differentiation with a survey of different farmer categories gave us insights into the social structure; however, it did not fully explain the social dynamics in the three study communities. This understanding is essential to create a profile of (recurrent) stem buyers who have the purchasing power to buy from VSEs. In-depth research on social differentiation and local dynamics of cassava farmers and the associated seed-sourcing behavior is needed to complement and explain further the findings of this study.Studying the cassava seed system and farmers' seed-sourcing behavior showed that informal seed traders can play an important role in the seed system by, for example, substituting the lack of formal structures. In addition, Rachkara et al. (2017) and Sperling and Mcguire (2010) emphasize the untapped potential of traders in the seed system. For projects like BASICS, it is crucial to understand the dynamics and different actors in informal seed trade and harmonize the establishment of and support to decentralized seed multipliers within existing structures.","tokenCount":"7174"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"84d107ba8e180c22bab5c6af0b4f9cc4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/49452e84-cc84-40cd-ae9b-71352629ff79/content","id":"987386259"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"58cd040f-12cc-489b-a110-121baed15fbb","pagecount":"12","content":"Tackling social and environmental challenges requires communities that can create, integrate, use, and contextualise diverse knowledges. The Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) seeks to respond to these challenges through collective action enabled by experimental and inclusive approaches. This paper focuses on examining the kind of knowledges, structures and practices required to build a knowledge infrastructure (KI) for TIP, taking the TIP Conference 2022 as a case study. The conference aimed at building a sustainable and inclusive KI for systemic transformation pathways, providing the basis for a TIP KI framework. The framework includes tangible and intangible infrastructures that support broadening and deepening networks, learning, unlearning, and aligning visions. These are the constituent elements to build communities of practice that can integrate knowledge towards transformation pathways. Furthermore, the paper explores how conferences can contribute towards transdisciplinary and action-oriented research as part of their developing strategies.Tackling climate change through a socially just transition to a cleaner, safer and peaceful world is now a global aim. Such a transition is impossible without innovation, new (types of) knowledge creation, and systems change. Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) is an emerging research and action field aiming for the systems change required to address the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). TIP addresses social and environmental challenges through an experimental, inclusive, and participatory approach in line with the sustainability transitions literature (Schot and Steinmueller, 2018). Such an endeavour requires collective knowledge gathered through shared infrastructures that allow negotiation, merging, and integration, with a range of convergence (allowing diversity of knowledges) to advance in transition pathways and transformative actions (Lukkarinen et al., 2023). The alignment of visions contributes to the coherence of knowledge across varied academic and non-academic communities that usually have siloed and fragmented resources, and practices (Monstadt et al., 2022). Nevertheless, the attributes and challenges of knowledge integration in an ever-expanding research community are hardly discussed (Preuß et al., 2021). We argue that we need to enhance the knowledge creation and integration processes related to sustainability to achieve systems change and the SDGs.Creating actionable knowledge necessitates collaboration among a diverse array of persons with varying perspectives, expertise, interests, and objectives. This collaboration can be effectively facilitated by the presence of knowledge infrastructures, enabling the formation of constellations of actors who share common goals and objectives. Knowledge infrastructures (KI) are sense-making platforms that contain specific assets (such as books, software, hardware, virtual platforms, forums, etc.), means towards individual and collective capacity building (seminars, organisational units, specific initiatives, etc.), and purposes (justice, sustainability, regional development, etc.) translated into actions in the community knowledge domain (Caniglia et al., 2021;Huddleston et al., 2022). Edwards (2010) defines knowledge infrastructures as robust networks of people, artefacts, and institutions that generate, share, and maintain specific knowledge about the human and natural worlds. In that sense, KIs favour the connection of otherwise fragmented communities and stewards to share knowledge over time and across the boundaries of stakeholder organizations (Pearsall et al., 2022).In this paper, we delve into the role of a specific experimental environment in shaping the components of a KI for TIP. Specifically, we focus on three key aspects: the types of existing knowledge, the tangible and intangible infrastructures, and the specific practices vital for constructing such a KI. We propose a framework for conceptualising and building a KI using the design and results of TIP Conference 2022 as our case study. In that sense, our framework emerges retrospectively from the analysis of the Conference.The 2022 TIP conference took place between 17th and 21st January 2022, with the aim of building a sustainable and inclusive KI for TIP. Grounded in a formative evaluation approach to TIP (Molas-Gallart et al., 2021), the organisers established a Theory of Change (ToC) to inform the conference's design and evaluation. This ToC articulated key assumptions underlying the conference, namely, that a sustainable KI for TIP could be advanced through the creation of a digital experimental space aimed at facilitating knowledge alignment and learning, as well as fostering communities of practice by expanding and enriching professional networks. Learning and unlearning were critical processes for both elements.Since the KI for TIP framework emerges from the analysis of our case study, the paper has a structure reflecting the inductive process we followed. In Section 2, we provide an in-depth description of our case study, including the conference's Theory of Change and the monitoring, evaluation, and learning plan. Section 3 engages in a comprehensive discussion regarding how the results of the conference contribute to three pivotal components of a KI for TIP. Moving on to Section 4, we introduce our KI framework for TIP. Lastly, Section 5 offers primary conclusions and broader implications from our findings.The development of TIP has been a collaborative effort among various groups of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. In 2018, the innovation and transition academic networks Eu-SPRI, 1 Globelics, 2 STRN, 3 and TIPC 4 researchers initiated a series of inter-network dialogues. These dialogues reinforced the importance of building networks and addressing the complex challenges of systems transformation. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, the first TIP conference was launched in November 2019. The conference aimed to advance a global research agenda for TIP, featuring over 60 projects from a diverse set of actors. At that point, TIPC had been running for two years, and there was evidence that TIPC could become a temporary space for integrating knowledge in transdisciplinary communities of practice. The conference results were organised and further elaborated in a TIP research agenda, which included themes on conceptualisation, actors, contexts, and operationalisation of TIP (Ghosh and Torrens, 2020).In January 2022, the TIP community convened its second conference organised by TIPC and Eu-SPRI, seeking to lay the foundation for a robust knowledge infrastructure dedicated to TIP. The conference was delivered in a virtual format that not only broadened accessibility and participation but also harmonised perfectly with the community's core values of inclusivity and collaborative engagement.There was a wide variety of participants related to location and background, including 884 delegates from 5 continents and 71 countries, as seen in Table 1.The TIP Conference 2022 served as a temporary space for exploring unconventional conference formats, as was expressed in the call for participation. 5 The invitation was extended to early career and senior researchers, practitioners and policymakers, industry practitioners, development agencies, grassroots innovators and entrepreneurs, NGOs, media, and investors. The organisers called for initiatives in different stages of development, also inviting participants to use the conference space to develop ideas into experimental projects by making use of the digital platforms provided. Organisers encouraged the presentation of collaborative contributions in different formats, such as panels, pitching transformations, demonstrators of ongoing transformative initiatives, and collaborative exercises to gather collective intelligence using interactive methods. The option to propose other formats was also opened. The conference did not ask for a registration fee to avoid access barriers and make the space open and available to anyone interested. Expressions of interest to present at the conference included a description of the team, aims, objectives, methods, and results (if applicable) of the initiative, format for delivering the session, and personal aims to be part of the conference.Drawing inspiration from the socio-technical transitions literature, which posits that groundbreaking innovations often arise from experimental practices among a diverse range of actors in niche spaces (Smith and Raven, 2012), the TIP conference was conceived as a proto-niche where the organisers could test new approaches to the theory and practice of TIP, particularly to: the conceptualisation of innovation for transformative change, the role of experimentation, from experimentation to mainstreaming and embedding, the role of landscape events, policy and governance for transformative change, inclusion and role of transformative actors, geography of transformation pathways, evaluation of TIPs, and the definition and use of knowledge infrastructures for transformation. Furthermore, the conference acted as a shielded space, allowing actors to develop alternative practices within their organisations to come together, break isolation, build networks, learn from the community, and navigate different expectations. In other words, the conference was designed to foster the creation and nurturing of a niche, as conceptualised in transitions theory (Ghosh et al., 2021).The conference organisers placed a strong emphasis on experimentation as a way to challenge traditional approaches to knowledge production and dissemination. In addition to the usual scientific and executive committees, they formed an experimentation committee (EC) tasked with designing, implementing, and evaluating innovative strategies throughout the conference. To guide their efforts, the committee developed a ToC for the conference, using the TIPC approach to evaluation (Molas-Gallart et al., 2021).The ToC defined a long-term goal, outcomes, outputs, and activities, outlining associated assumptions for each outcome. In TIPC's methodology, an \"outcome\" refers to changes in people, organisations, and institutions, which also involves the related processes to get there. Outputs are concrete results obtained by a series of intended tasks or activities. The ToC was used to design the conference and its evaluation strategy.A representation of the conference Theory of Change can be seen in Fig. 1.The four TOs for assessing the conference's contribution to building a KI for TIP were: 1) broaden and deepen the network of actors pursuing transformative initiatives; 2) learning and unlearning among participants triggered before, during, and after the conference; 3) mapping and aligning a broad pallet of visions and expectations about transformations; and 4) non-traditional conference approaches to transcend blockages that hinders transformation pathways.The definition of the four outcomes was rooted in transitions theory. Transitions, by their very nature, are intricate, multi-actor processes that demand deliberate strategies to facilitate the expansion of social networks comprising a diverse spectrum of actors working collaboratively, deepening their actions into concrete alternative solutions. Within these networks, actors engage in a dynamic exchange of knowledge, skills, and capabilities, marking what is termed \"first-order learning.\" Furthermore, these interactions lead to critical reflection, adaptation, and the cultivation of new visions and perspectives that challenge established worldviews, a phenomenon referred to as \"second-order learning\" (Ghosh et al., 2021;Van Mierlo and Beers, 2020).These processes embody a dynamic interplay of diverse visions and expectations concerning the manifold possibilities inherent in various change pathways. This diversity is essential for the exploration and refinement of various alternatives, ultimately culminating in the convergence toward desirable transitions (Raven et al., 2010;Sengers et al., 2019).Guided by the ToC, the MEL plan developed practical actions before, during, and after the conference for each outcome.A summary of the data collection methods used for the MEL plan can be seen in Table 2. The number of survey respondents reflects the response rate filled in voluntarily. Before the conference, emails were sent to all delegates asking them to complete a survey to gather their interest in attending the different sessions and their expectations related to the conference. During the conference, emails were sent daily to all registered participants asking them to have an asynchronous reflection on their learning process by commenting on their experience in the sessions about changing their assumptions, questioning their knowledge, how comfortable they felt expressing their critical opinions, and their overall impressions of the sessions. Likewise, each day after the end of all sessions, an email was sent to the session owners to share their observations on the level of interest of the participants, the depth of the discussions, the creation of new ideas and definitions, the quality of listening to each other's ideas, participation of different backgrounds and knowledge, if there were contradictory visions and their ideas on how to advance on their initiative after the conference. Concerning the interviews, the experimentation committee looked into the most active participants in the conference and selected a sample of them with different levels of seniority, gender, background, areas of specialisation and geographical location to gather a variety of visions.Regarding the interpretation of the findings, we want to explicitly state that the number of responses in the data represents only a fraction of the total participants, especially concerning the surveys, given that these were voluntary to fill in. This leads to some limitations regarding a valid generalised statistical interpretation of the survey results, considering representativeness, increased variability, and risk of bias. To counteract this, the survey results have been triangulated with other data sources, such as the observers' reports, interviews, and data collected from the digital platform. Together, they provided valuable qualitative insights into critical elements required to build a TIP knowledge infrastructure.For the first outcome (O1), a broader and deeper network of actors pursuing transformative initiatives, a baseline of the speakers' network who presented initiatives and were part of the central panels, was created. During the conference, the organisers gathered data on potential new networks through 1) the digital conference platform that had a feature to start writing, voice and video chats among participants; 2) networking-themed tables, which were dedicated spaces set at specific times every day of the conference, without any other sessions happening concurrently. The purpose of these tables was to encourage networking of people interested in similar topics; 3) Analysis of chat interactions in the parallel sessions among delegates and speakers.Surveys for delegates and speakers were sent during the conference. The purpose was to identify potential network expansion as a conference product. After the conference, the organisers applied a post-conference survey which included questions related to broadening the current network as an effect of the participation of the delegates in the conference (broadening networks) and inquired if the conference helped to mobilise actions within current or expanded networks (deepening networks). In-depth interviews and observation of the different conference spaces also provided data for O1.Two guidelines (for session convenors and observers) were developed to foster learning and unlearning (or the process of questioning views, practices, values and routines leading to changes in behaviours) triggered before, during, and after the conference (O2). For session conveners, the guidelines encouraged openness to diverse knowledges and active listening through facilitation; for a group of observers that joined each session, the guidelines were directed to capture know-what, know-how, and know-why or first-order learning and deeper reflections  and discussions leading to second-order learning among the sessions participants. There were also, on each day of the conference, short sessions for 'live' reflection and learning to explore the delegates' perceptions, reflections, and experiences related to the conference outcomes. On the last day of the conference, results from the series of sessions were presented in a plenary session to explore whether the conference supported the creation of a sustainable KI, and to help identify blockages to transformation pathways. After the conference, questions related to the expansion of knowledge integration, strengthening of interactions, and change in attitudes were included in the postconference survey. The findings from the survey and observations related to learning reported by the observers contributed data for O2.To monitor the third outcome O3, diverse and misaligning visions/ perspectives that can be adapted and contextualised, delegates expressed their expectations and visions about transformation before the conference through a survey. There was also an analysis of the initiatives submitted and accepted at the conference to explore the diversity and plurality of the visions and perspectives about the meaning of transformation. The programme design intentionally put together in the sessions a diverse range of actors from academia, policy, NGOs, and mixed organisations to encourage generative dialogues. The speaker's guide encouraged openness and disposition to listen to others' points of view and put forward their ideas for discussion. The observers tracked how diverse and open the sessions' discussions were. Lastly, the postconference survey and in-depth interviews included questions such as participants' disposal to participate, express their points of view, debate perspectives, and generate reflections related to the meaning of transformation in different contexts and socio-technical systems.Lastly, the outcome of setting non-traditional conference approaches as a mechanism to transcend blockages that hinder transformation pathways (O4) was monitored by the compounded effort from the other three outcomes. The conference approach was non-traditional (i.e. different from modern (online) academic conferences) in several ways. The conference was set up to deliberately encourage not just the transmission of scientific information but further reflection by participants on how the conference themes resonated with their work. In this way, the conference aimed to stimulate second-order learning processes in participants (in which participants question their conceptions and norms). Through a pre-conference process, a theory of change for the conference was developed; the theory of change provided the framework for the conference design. Besides traditional knowledge-sharing sessions with pre-defined speakers and a listening audience, the conference design included daily sessions for interactions, reflection, and networking, as well as digital communication channels for participants (opened preconference and maintained post-conference). The experimentation committee had a plenary session to explain the conference design, implementation, and evaluation, produced a report and integrated different communication channels to keep the conversations and reflections open after the conference.This section maps the results of the executed MEL plan for the conference. We first discuss how the conference contributed to learning and unlearning among participants (O2) and aligning diverse perspectives on TIP (O3). We then analyse how the conference fostered broadening and deepening networks of actors pursuing transformative initiatives and their learning processes (O1). We then reflect on the materiality of the infrastructure and how it contributed to the intended outcomes. We address how non-traditional conference approaches can aid in transcending blockages that hinder transformation pathways (O4) in Section 4.The pre-conference questionnaire and the analysis of the initiative forms sent to the conference provided a view of the expectations of participants and their motivation to participate, summarised in Fig. 2.The conference delegates were motivated by the prospect of gaining knowledge about different aspects of TIP theory and practice. Some expectations were oriented to key conceptual areas of the TIP research agenda (Ghosh and Torrens, 2020), and others were more nuanced around the learning and experimentation processes.Regarding the diversity of knowledge, according to the postconference survey results, a majority (65 %) of presenters at the Conference perceived that a good mix of academic and non-academic knowledge was shared. One interviewee (I6) in the in-depth interviews remarked that they especially liked that not only academic knowledge was shared through the presentations but that there was a \"multi-level conversation\".Despite the majority of academic participants, the conference was designed to foster the integration of different kinds of knowledge, not only codified academic knowledge but also knowledge acquired through practical experiences. The observers reflected that academic initiatives inviting policymakers as panellists exemplified the openness to other kinds of knowledge, willingness to go beyond theories, and willingness to make their policy research more relevant. Assessing the quality of the transdisciplinary discussion spaces that the conference provided, the observers reported that the conference organisers, facilitators and session speakers demonstrated a reflective approach to learning and unlearning by showing openness and acceptance of positive and negative feedback. This is further validated through surveys. 68 % of the speakers who responded to the survey shared positive feedback on the extent to which new ideas and alternative definitions to problems and solutions were shared.However, evidence showed that less structured spaces where participants with similar interests gathered were more dynamic, and participants felt more inclined to share their perspectives openly. The observers noted that \"…in 'small groups, rich discussions where nobody had 'control' over the conversation (for example, speakers or experts), participants felt safe sharing critical thoughts and personal experi-ences… Here, the conversations grew deeper.\" This quote shows that the idea of space is more nuanced than the digital platform itself, relating it to people and attitudes -one where the participants feel safe to voice their knowings, unknowings, and understandings, which is critical to build a knowledge infrastructure. All the sessions had moderators who played a vital role in creating this safe space. The degree of moderation differed across sessions. In some sessions, moderators restricted themselves to timekeeping, whereas in others, they intervened with a remark or question that triggered further comments and reflections. They also encouraged the audience to speak or engage in chat functions, which often empowered participants to say something, which is an important enabler for diverse knowledge inputs.Concerning visions of transformation, looking into the submitted initiatives, we identified four main clusters that showcase diverse meanings about what transformation implies:1. A systemic approach to social problems that can be solved partially through science and technology, highlighting the importance of connecting industrial practices, learning and capabilities needed to approach complexity. 2. Context-based experimentation that matters both in space and scale.There was an emphasis on looking at micro-processes as essential to understanding and triggering transformative pathways and fostering cross-sectoral learning. 3. The relevance of governance to empower communities, citizens, and grassroots organisations by creating inclusive, participative, collaborative spaces leading to reflection and transformation.4. Need to build a robust knowledge infrastructure that includes different types of knowledge and allows learning among different actors and sectors.We note that each of these clusters contains multiple themes, interconnections, and significant overlaps, e.g. the focus on inclusivity and learning is present in multiple articulations of visions. This highlights what transformations mean: even arising from diverse sources, meanings can converge towards the complexity of fostering transformation, which requires a systemic approach to experimentation that distinguishes different contexts and governance approaches. The knowledge infrastructure cluster highlights the need for convergence mechanisms and platforms for sense-making, sharing, networking, and learning.When asked about the diversity of visions on transformation, most of the session conveners expressed that they did not encounter any contradictory views or perspectives in their sessions. They attributed this to the programme's design, emphasising the alignment of views over contradictions. However, some participants felt discouraged from debating contradictory ideas due to the limited communication channels, which were mostly restricted to chat messages. Furthermore, the short duration of the sessions may have been another reason why there was little opportunity to explore contradictory visions. Overall, there was a sense of homogeneity in the knowledge shared during the sessions. One respondent to the post-conference survey wrote how the conference  \"To invite more critical comments, the sessions could have focused more on questioning assumptions underlying [the research], the limits to the knowledge presented and why there is a need for other disciplines, [and] stakeholders to come in and contribute.\"However, attitudes of being open to 'other' kinds and sources of knowledge, including those from outside academia and professional fields, were observed in sessions where the topic was not focused on theoretical concepts but action-oriented problems. For instance, speakers shared case studies of policy practices and compared them across contexts to derive policy-relevant learnings. There was also a session that displayed participatory videos made by local communities in Colombia. In this session, one of the social leaders presented their experience and view on the role of innovation in transforming their community.While there was no heated debate among participants with conflicting perspectives, their attitudes and openness to diverse perspectives shed light on the potential for developing a knowledge infrastructure (KI) for TIP. According to the speakers' survey, most (65 %) believed that a balanced blend of academic and non-academic knowledge was shared during the event. In an in-depth interview, one participant (I4) noted that there were many practical insights in the sessions and that it made them reflect on integrating different theoretical frameworks into their own research. These findings demonstrate that participants from different backgrounds contributed diverse experiences, resulting in a mix of knowledge communities at the conference.Similarly, to the question, \"Did the conference space (think of the design of the sessions, the composition of participants in the sessions, etc.) trigger new problem definitions, new conceptualisations, alternative narratives and methodologies?\" participants reported that a diversity of ideas, frameworks and methodologies were shared during their sessions. The graph below exemplifies this:Overall, the organisers deliberately designed processes to include contents, spaces and methodologies to foster second-order learning in terms of knowledge, attitudes and interactions following principles of reflexive monitoring in action (Van Mierlo et al., 2010) and social learning (Beers et al., 2016).In Fig. 2, we can see a network analysis of the initiatives presented at the conference by the authors.Fig. 4 shows the network of people collaborating in different clusters. The node size represents the number of connections of the person, and the arches represent the connection with other people through their coauthorship in the initiative proposals. The network shows prominent clusters from people based in European countries and within European countries, with very interconnected nodes from Nordic countries. TIPC researchers collaborate amongst themselves but also connect with authors from different regions. The map provides a view of the social constellation of the conference from the teams presenting initiatives. It is worth highlighting that some of the bigger nodes in the map are nonacademic actors working in policy or intermediary organisations. Moreover, 93 % of the participants who participated in more than 5 sessions reported that they expanded their network.The conference offered informal spaces for building trustworthy networks, which created conditions for holding fluid conversations and showing honest, direct, and mutually challenging knowledge exchange among delegates, according to the observers' report. Looking at these results, we can see how the sessions stimulated interactions, even between participants who were meeting for the first time. Given the characteristics of the call for initiatives and the diverse origins and backgrounds of participants, the conference gathered different participants who shared ideas and engaged in discussions both at the sessions and through the platform tools.The strength of the network building was also associated with the depth of the discussion achieved when panellists knew each other from before. Panellists built their arguments at a higher level, implicitly based on the assumption that the basics are known and long debated, challenging each other as continuing from and building upon previous conversations. Such panel sessions which were otherwise deemed as not so inclusive were also the space where listeners experienced more depth in the topics discussed. Such implicit understanding indicates the initiation of building trust and it is a stepping stone towards strengthening networks.While the speakers expressed during the conference survey that they were sceptical about the best possible outcome of the sessions in terms of broader engagement, the opportunities for following up conversations in the networking sessions, and the chat and video chat functions of the platform presented further options to expand networks. The data gathered through the digital platform where the conference was hosted, shows how individuals reached out to each other through direct chat messages and video calls. The option of 'Let's chat on Slack' had 88 clicks, and for the networking tables, 112 messages were sent, gathering 303 participants in the digital rooms. In general, at least 127 messages were exchanged, and 615 connections were made through the conference platform. This data shows how the social constellation evolved and changed, revealing interactions between people, some of whom were  previously disconnected from one another. However, to broaden and deepen these networks a durable infrastructure is necessary, which goes beyond a temporal space, such as a conference. This is one of the aspects highlighted and considered before and after the conference.73.3 % of speakers reported in survey responses that their sessions had less than 30 participants and that the level of interest and enthusiasm among the participants to contribute to the discussion was very good (9 %), overall good (45 %), OK (30 %), and could be significantly improved (16 %). The surveys, interviews, and observers' reports showed positive feedback on listening to each other's points of view in a respectful environment. Participants felt they were being listened to when they shared their experiences based on ongoing practices.The number of sessions attended by the participants also had an impact on learning. The post-conference survey showed that among the participants who attended more than 5 sessions, the majority found the conference space to be conducive to triggering new problem definitions, new conceptualisations, alternative narratives, and methodologies.To the question, Did you feel: \"what I know needs serious questioning\" at any point during the conference so far?\", which intended to capture second-order learning, two-thirds of the comments on open-text answers indicate that the respondents acquired new knowledge/visions, new insights and understanding by hearing perspectives from experts and practitioners. There was also a positive comment about the increase in taking up TIP thinking and the decline of a conventional \"modest witness\" perspective (regarding visions).To the question, Did the TIP conference 2022 provide a space for mutual reflection? an outstanding majority responded yes to this question. This was later supported by an interviewee (I5) who reflected that it was helpful to see that other people in similar research and practice fields struggle with the same questions and issues.A critical part of building a KI is not only to build a network but also to sustain it. The conference participants offered several suggestions: to keep the communication and the platform alive, either continuing to have monthly or bi-weekly virtual sessions or organising discussions around shared challenges. It was also said that having an event once a year which brings back the people in this working/research area and where they can talk about their progress and milestones and share their experiences would be conducive to maintaining communication and collaboration. A Slack channel 6 to keep the conversation ongoing was created during the conference, and it is still open to the participants. During and after the conference, when delegates were asked whether they wanted to keep the discussions ongoing after the conference, for instance, through Slack, a clear majority of 71 % of respondents responded \"yes\". In contrast, only 15 % answered \"to some extent\", and 14 % answered \"no\". Also, as a result of the conference and to build a durable knowledge infrastructure and nurture the new and previous networks, the organisers created the TIP Knowledge Community hosted in the TIP Resource Lab, 7 where people, places and practices are connected, providing open access for consultation and inclusion of transformative initiatives.The conference was a significant milestone in providing resources for building a knowledge infrastructure. The digital space was essential for networking, learning, and unlearning, but it was only one of the means that enabled the experience. The design, planning, and logistics were the base of bringing this infrastructure to life. From its inception, the conference was deliberately designed as an enabling space for sharing experiences. The learning sessions were particularly noteworthy in this regard, taking place every day and welcoming all delegates to reflect on and share their thoughts on their experiences related to the conference's activities. These sessions were structured around each of the conference's outcomes, providing a focused and engaging way to discuss and learn from one another.Moreover, the programme structure, including the format of the sessions, was carefully planned. Long presentations are not congruent with transdisciplinary conversations as they can restrict active dialogues and be dominated by one individual or a particular perspective. A detailed guideline for the speakers on how to maximise inclusive reflection in their sessions was crucial to foster interaction. The programme overall intended to create rich interactions fostering attitudes of trust, openness, and urgency to act.There was also a diversity of channels and ways the digital space was used during the TIP Conference 2022. Within the conference platform, several features were mobilised to enable conference participants ample opportunities for networking, learning and knowledge exchanges. One interviewee (I7) remarked that this was a conference, \"strongly supported by the virtual experience of different formats smartly used to create a maximum of interaction between different attendees\". They added that \"learning happened through creative engagement with the use of various applications such as MIRO, Mural board, Slack and other methods of knowledge exchange in various sessions. Creativity (such as the use of Mural and MIRO, and Slack), empathy, and acceptance of different viewpoints ensured that the needs of conference participants were met.\" The table below shows the features of the digital platform used to create further engagement.All interviewees agreed that the digital space of the conference provided some opportunity to talk without barriers and to express their personal opinions freely. They describe a very good experience and praised the open interactive format: \"It was made very easy and possible to share ideas, to get answers on ideaseven in the live stream format via chat and in the Zoom sessions directly and in the breakout sessions even on a 1:1 basis.\" (I7)Although most delegates had very good experiences with sharing their opinion and being equally respected, the observers' report highlights that there are still power dynamics at play and dominance exercised through the technological platform either by those who are more experienced and proficient in using digital platforms or by those regarded as experts in a certain topic. This was particularly observed in engagements through the chat function, where experts' input was accepted or, at least, less disputed than other inputs from people with less influence. The provision of digital infrastructure does not, therefore, guarantee equal and fair participation. However, this can be potentially mitigated through the active role of the session moderators.Regarding temporality, providing alternative channels for keeping the discussions open is a way to attempt to strengthen the KI. However, as one interviewee interestingly remarked (I3), keeping the interest to expand new knowledge given the scarcity of resources, mostly time, is challenging even if the platforms are provided.Building a sustainable and inclusive KI to foster systemic transformation pathways was the long-term goal of the conference. We showed how the conference's ToC set four outcomes that could contribute to that purpose (Fig. 1). In the previous section, we analysed three of the four outcomes: the ones related to networking, learning and integration of diverse perspectives on transformation. The fourth outcome (O4) stated that non-traditional conference approaches can be a mechanism to transcend blockages that hinder transformation pathways. With that purpose, a ToC and a MEL plan were developed by the organisers following an experimental approach. The extent to which O4 was advanced can be only partially seen, as was reported in Section 3. However, we can distil from the case study that broadening and 6 Access to the channel through https://join.slack. com/t/transformativ-nsj4333/shared_invite/zt-2glpykaab-bDcTH7~qr~OIP tA8vRjo1Q7 Access in https://tipresourcelab.net/knowledge-community/ deepening networking is crucial to building communities of practice, that aligning diverse visions towards transformation pathways contributes to knowledge integration and that learning and unlearning are central for resilient and action-oriented communities that address sustainability challenges. As remarked by Cornell et al. (2013), learning takes place through the co-production of knowledge from the engagement of multiple and diverse actors, enabling joint problem framing, knowledge integration and experimentation. Research collaborations that include scientists from different disciplines, as well as non-academic stakeholders from business, government, intermediary organisations, and civil society, are crucial to overcoming transformational failures (Lang et al., 2012: 26;Ghosh et al., 2021) and conferences are a good platform to foster these collaborations. Critical arguments for this new type of research collaboration on complex sustainability problems that transcend disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches are: 1) Complex challenges require constructive input from various communities to ensure that essential knowledge from all relevant disciplines and actor groups is incorporated; 2) Addressing complex systemic problems necessitates knowledge generation that extends beyond mere problem analysis placing an emphasis on formulating strategies and visionary approaches that serve as guiding principles for effective interventions; 3) collaborative efforts between researchers and non-academic stakeholders increase legitimacy, ownership, and accountability for the problem, as well as for the solution options (Lang et al., 2012:26). Creating spaces where communities of practice, formed by people who engage in the process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavour (Wenger, 1998(Wenger, , 2002)), is critical to foster transdisciplinary collaboration supported by a knowledge infrastructure, in this case, for TIP.In this section, we introduce our framework for constructing a KI for TIP. Drawing upon the insights gleaned from our comprehensive case study, we recognise the importance of materiality, manifesting through both tangible and intangible infrastructures, in facilitating the formation of communities of practice that continuously advance knowledge integration. To establish vibrant communities of practice, the orchestration of collaborative activities and the sustained mobilisation of agency over an extended period emerge as pivotal components.When it comes to knowledge integration, it is imperative to empower members within the community of practice to articulate their expectations and engage in experimentation with diverse solutions aimed at aligning concrete evidence. This process is instrumental in promoting both first and second-order learning and unlearning, creating fertile ground for challenging assumptions and reevaluating problems and solutions. In Fig. 6, we visually depict the intricate interplay of these essential elements that serve as guiding principles for our analysis.A starting point for building a KI is to acknowledge that there are many types of knowledges: codified and tacit, from different communities, and with different types of access. Knowledge is also held at an individual level and transformed across groups. Hence, a KI requires the integration of such a diversity of knowledges. Diversity refers to the breadth of knowledge categories in an interdisciplinary research field (Liu et al., 2012). Diversity can also be mapped through knowledge from academic and non-academic backgrounds and knowledge practises in different cultural contexts (Preuß et al., 2021).Knowledge integration requires the articulation and convergence of different bodies of knowledge, emphasising the formation of a 'meaningful constellation' (Liu et al., 2012). In transition research, knowledge coherence is best seen when the expectations of multiple actors are aligned. In an organisational context, knowledge integration is defined as \"the capability to assimilate the insights from the dialogue with stakeholders and to transform this knowledge into the organisational processes\" to adapt to changing environments and uncertainties (Veldhuizen et al., 2013: emphasis added). This definition emphasises assimilating and transforming theory-driven and problem-oriented knowledge for solving 'real world problems ' (Zierhofer and Burger, 2007), which is directly related to transdisciplinary practices. It also connects with the idea of 'Integration and implementation sciences', where different disciplinary 'stakeholders' collaborate and apply this newly combined knowledge to solving societal and sustainability challenges (Bammer, 2005). Hence, a KI does not only include constellations of diverse knowledges, but also knowledge conversions, which Fig. 6. A Knowledge Infrastructure for TIP.contravenes the mono-disciplinary and specialised practices of knowledge production among academic elites (Nonaka et al., 1996).We observe that temporary settings, such as conferences, have the potential to facilitate the fusion of academic and non-academic knowledge, providing resources for knowledge exchange, wherein collaborative problem-framing and developing shared visions become indispensable elements.As illustrated in the previous section, this format has proven effective in encouraging participants to reconsider the boundaries, scope, and transformative potential of transdisciplinary knowledge infrastructures, ultimately paving the way for profound changes and innovative solutions.According to (Wenger, 1998(Wenger, , 2002)), communities of practice share three elements: 1) A shared domain of interest: Membership implies a commitment to the domain and, therefore, a shared competence that distinguishes members from non-members; 2) The community: In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other by navigating challenges, and share information from their areas of practice that might be helpful to others. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other; they care about their standing with each other. 3) The practice: Members of a community of practice put their knowledge into practice and produce new knowledge from their practice in a virtuous cycle. They develop a shared repertoire of knowledge and resources: experiences, stories, tools, and ways of addressing recurring problems-in short, a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction. The combination of these three elements constitutes a community of practice. Furthermore, developing these three elements in parallel cultivates such a community.Therefore, a KI designed to support the TIP community of practice places social learning at its core, promoting ongoing processes wherein knowledge translates into actionable outcomes. This transformation extends to individual and collective realms. By fostering networking and aligning collective visions, the community enhances its capacity for impactful action. Furthermore, it unlocks its potential to drive transformation within unsustainable socio-technical systems, directly influencing their contexts. As illustrated in our case study, when individuals who share common interests and are connected through similar networks convene, robust and enriching debates ensue. Participants gradually become more comfortable voicing their disagreements, offering compliments, or providing critiques, thus fostering a culture of knowledge integration.Lastly, communities of practice must have spaces that facilitate encounters among diverse groups, encompassing differences in location, nationality, gender, experience, seniority, and background. The monitoring of these communities' expansion can be accomplished through various methods, such as network analysis, surveys, or interviews. Our case study exemplified the practical application of these methods within a specific context, namely, a conference setting.We argue that knowledge integration and transformative communities of practice are core elements for building a sustainable and inclusive KI for systemic transformation pathways. Such a KI for TIP requires digital or physical (tangible) spaces and deliberate designs (intangible spaces) to foster its realisation, such as the TIP conference 2022.In day-to-day use of the word, knowledge infrastructures are books, libraries, classrooms, or science labs. These are tangible or hard infrastructures. For knowledge integration, digital platforms are often the hard infrastructure that facilitates the assimilation of diverse knowledge into integration, transfer, and translation. The tangible materiality of a knowledge infrastructure includes platforms where communities share informational, educational, organisational, and cultural resources (O'Dubhchair et al., 2001). Those platforms should allow a broader base of knowledge producers to challenge, rethink and rewrite the past, present and imagined futures of a rapidly changing social world in an open and interconnected way (Edwards et al., 2013). The materiality and durability of knowledge infrastructures are underlined by ways of gathering, creating, integrating, and transforming knowledge constellations. Enabling open spaces, be they physical or digital, to strengthen actionable alternatives proposed by communities of people who experiment and learn together is critical to the durability of the KI.The intangible elements of a KI constitute robust networks of people and institutions (Edwards et al., 2013) that develop capacities, communication styles, social norms, and ethical considerations around power structures that influence the qualification and value of knowledge (Anderies et al., 2019). For example, we discussed how the conference enabled, to an extent, the formation and strengthening of knowledge constellations. However, the restrictions of the platform (letting participants intervene by video and voice in plenary sessions) and the predominance of academic knowledge hindered further knowledge exchange and contributed to power unbalance. This finding reminds us that neither the tangible nor the intangible aspects of knowledge infrastructures are neutral, as they are constantly negotiated and shaped by knowledge communities (Kranzberg, 1986, O'Dubhchair et al., 2001).The conference intended to build upon the previous dialogues, conferences, and knowledge domains on TIP and further conceptualise and set bases to create a KI that generates, maintains, and integrates knowledge to achieve social, cultural, economic and environmental outcomes (Huddleston et al., 2022) towards the transformation of unsustainable socio-technical systems. In that regard, the conference was successful as a milestone in providing intangible and tangible resources to hold a TIP community of practice. However, the success of this endeavour can only be seen in the further development of the TIP community and the sustained and collective effort to maintain and keep shaping the KI.We propose that a KI for TIP is built on the foundations of an inclusive knowledge system that includes transformative communities of practice and new ways of knowledge integration. The TIP Conference 2022 provided elements to reflect further on the concept and practice of building a KI for TIP. Despite all the efforts around the TIP conference 2022, a KI for a broad and complex research area such as TIP cannot be built with one milestone, such as a conference. While the journey has started and has gained momentum, the next step of such a journey is maintaining, nurturing, and institutionalising the infrastructure. Institutionalising, in the literature on sustainability transitions, implies stabilising and standardising practices, making them mainstream and permanent and making durability a critical aspect. Hence, institutionalising a KI for TIP means putting further efforts into sustaining the infrastructure. Durability is ensured by keeping the infrastructure dynamic -ensuring that the infrastructure co-evolves with the knowledge while simultaneously being mobilised for furthering knowledge integration and application in the real world. Currently, multiple efforts and endeavours are emerging from the TIP community to institutionalise this knowledge infrastructure: e.g. creating the TIP Resource Lab that shares tools, actions and learnings from the past years of the TIP Consortium's policy experimentation and evaluation work; building a 'network of coaches' who are mobilising the tools and learnings from the Resource Lab; a TIP Knowledge community, which embodies the very definition of the 'TIP community of practice' -a complex database of people and projects, across places. These initiatives enable future collaborations, joint research funding, and advancement of the heterogeneous knowledges of TIP beyond the lifetime of the TIP Consortium.Since the conference was designed to be a milestone towards building a TIP KI, the monitoring and evaluation process tracked changes in knowledge, attitudes, and interactions as important blocks for learning and unlearning before, during, and after the TIP conference. The conference was positioned as an \"Agora of social learning\" (Schauppenlehner-Kloyber and Penker, 2015), providing a dynamic and participatory space where individuals and groups came together to exchange knowledge, experiences, and ideas related to a specific topic or issue. In that sense, the conference extended and reinforced other platforms, such as the TIP Consortium and the academic networks involved, to foster collaborative learning, enabling diverse stakeholders to interact, share insights, and co-create solutions. The conference served as an \"agora\" by providing a gathering space, emphasising the open and inclusive nature of the learning environment.Our data analysis has unveiled several critical factors that either facilitate or hinder the construction of such a Knowledge Infrastructure. Among the pivotal enabling factors is the rich tapestry of knowledge diversity, encompassing academic and practical expertise. The dynamic interplay of diverse perspectives and expectations must be thoughtfully addressed and harnessed during the knowledge integration process. When looking at hindering aspects, we highlight the need to acknowledge and actively address existing power dynamics among participants within the KI. Despite creating open and collaborative spaces, academic hierarchies often intersect with the perceived value attributed to the voices of different knowledge contributors. As such, developing mechanisms aimed at inviting and safeguarding the inclusion of a multitude of voices should be an integral part of KI construction.The theory of change developed before the conference does not perfectly align with the components of the knowledge infrastructure (KI) discussed in this paper. To clarify, our understanding of \"what a KI is\" was constructed retrospectively, drawing from the conference analysis where establishing a KI for TIP was a central theme. For example, developing a community of practice, a key element of the KI for TIP, emerged from observations during the conference. This retrospective approach enriched and strengthened the conference findings, making them more robust and applicable across contexts.This paper also serves as a reminder of the untapped potential of academic conferences. We have problematised the purpose of an academic conference, experimented with it, and stretched the diverse possibilities for transdisciplinary action-oriented research conferences to be impactful. Techniques and lessons from organising and participating in the TIP Conference 2022 may be valuable for those in other academic fields to connect research and higher education with impact.","tokenCount":"7815"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a48ffae3127fafd87dc9a9f34d667634","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/308a8632-9755-48a8-b18b-a9c22154f33f/retrieve","id":"-783693837"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"398c5210-adc7-4327-876d-88bdebe5fd73","pagecount":"1","content":"How much agrobiodiversity and associated knowledge is maintained • on-farm? How is it distributed on the territory and how can it be best monitored? Purpose of a Red List for Cultivated SpeciesRed lists are instruments to monitor biodiversity as well as to inform and alert decision makers and the public for its proper conservation.For cultivated species, the ultimate objective of monitoring is to secure • their effective use by people so as to sustainably meet their livelihood needs, as well as to prevent genetic erosion in order to ensure future options for the diversity present in locally cultivated varieties. This objective is quite different from that pursued through the IUCNRed Listing approach for wild species, where attention is directed towards the conservation of the species itself.The taxonomic unit being monitored by conventional Red Lists is the • species, whereas for cultivated species the monitoring unit needs to be the variety, because its unique and distinctive combination of traits and associated knowledge is what needs to be conserved. When use of a variety has declined dramatically and its benefits are • no longer reaching the local users a large, such a variety in real terms is de facto already lost. Listing it into a Red List for cultivated species would be very helpful to guide its rescue, promotion and effective use, in order for it to continue contributing to human wellbeing.Raise awareness on dwindling of Plant Genetic Resources The world´s food basket is today shrinking at an alarming rate and most concerning is the reduction in the number of species and varieties used by humankind for food and nutrition, which raises serious concerns about the sustainability of feeding the world today and in the future. Yet, whereas we deploy consistent efforts in monitoring the status of wild biodiversity, very limited is the research in monitoring diversity of plants used by farmers, assess threats of genetic erosion, understand how diversity is helping farmers in coping with climate change, etc.. Documenting and monitoring agrobiodiversity on farm is fundamental for enhancing its sustainable use and prevent losses of both genetic diversity and indigenous knowledge to happen before it is too late. These actions are also consistent with the predicaments of important international conventions and agreements, such as the CBD (Art. 7), the ITPGRFA (Art. 5), and the FAO GPA for PGRFA (Activity 18). However, except a few recent attempts of limited application, research on monitoring and Red Listing of cultivated species is still very poor. Reasons for that include the sheer number of crop species and varieties on-farm, the difficulty in assessing their distribution, the dynamic nature of cultivation deploying diversity in different ways, the absence of farmer-based mechanisms to which to anchor a monitoring system, and the lack of supportive policies such as those related to access and use of information generated from these efforts. Currently, an international UN Project supported by IFAD and the CCAFS Programme of the CGIAR is being implemented in Nepal, India and Bolivia.Red Lists for Cultivated Species why we need it and suggestions for the way forward Padulosi S., P. Bala Ravi, W. Rojas, S. Sthapit, A. Subedi, E. Dulloo, K. Hammer, R. Vögel, M.M. Antofie, V. Negri, N. Bergamini, G. Galluzzi, M. Jäger, B. Sthapit, R. Rana, I. Oliver King, N. WarthmannOnly in cultivation the evolutionary and dynamic processes are at play, which ensure adaptation of species and varieties to ever changing biotic and abiotic stresses. Many plant species simply cannot be conserved ex situ in seed gene banks, because they produce no seed at all or non-storable seeds.Conserving all species useful to humankind in ex situ gene banks is prohibitively expensive. Species of local importance may never command national or international attention.Only on-farm use will preserve the wealth of indigenous/traditional knowledge associated with them. This knowledge relates to their  To minimise genetic erosion and its impact on sustainable agriculture by monitoring key elements of genetic resources conservation and the various factors causing genetic erosion, and assembling information to enable remedial or preventive action to be taken.To determine the underlying causes of genetic erosion. To encourage monitoring at the national, regional, and global levels. To establish mechanisms to ensure that information is transferred to appropriate points designated as responsible for analysis, coordination and action. On-farm conservation makes important contributions to the conservation of ecosystems and landscapes, which they are an integral and representative part of.Strengthening peoples' capacities to safeguard agrobiodiversity and associated indigenous knowledge (IK) is also a strategic way to contribute towards their empowerment. These interventions will allow them to better play their role as custodians of biodiversity and IK in line with the expectations of the CBD (Art. 8) and of the International Treaty for PGFA (Art. 6).","tokenCount":"783"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"306ae1e321f7ce5c28ca450cec4328f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c1ecbe6c-d3b5-4497-bced-fdbff524738b/retrieve","id":"1573242830"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"caf8a4cb-017c-4bfb-9946-07adb19e3a2b","pagecount":"8","content":"The Approach The pattern of usage clearly indicates the nature of the problems faced by livestock farmers and requirement for actionable content.The pattern of usage clearly indicates the nature of the problems faced by livestock farmers and requirement for actionable content.• Add mineral mixture to the feed of a cow to increase growth, fertility, vigour and milk production & fat %. Give one tablespoon full of mineral mixture every day• 2 months before calving stop milking the pregnant cow. Feed 1.5 kg extra cattle feed & handful of mineral mixture/day. Give plenty of clean drinking water.Dear Farmer, if you are currently producing azolla, take care of it in order to keep optimal daily production. Add a mixture of 20 g. of super phosphate (a match box) of fertilizer and about 1 kg of cow dung every 5 days. Half a match box mineral mix can also be added at weekly intervals to enhance the nutritive content. About 10 buckets of 20 litres (25-30 % of the pit water content) to be replaced with fresh water once every 10 days to maintain long term production. The water discarded can be used in a vegetable garden. About 5 kg of bottom soil to be replaced with fresh soil once a month. The pit bed to be cleaned, the water and soil replaced and new azolla inoculated, once every six months. Spread 30 g. (a matchbox full) of finely ground neem seed cake spread on the azolla or spray a 5 ml of neem oil (a tea spoon full) in one litre of water with the addition of two drop of liquid soap, to control white fly infestation. To control growth of fungi, add 10 g. (one table spoon full) of Copper Sulphate to the water. Do not use chemical pesticides. They can be toxic to your animals. An azolla pond is also a breeding place for mosquitoes. Cover the pit with a mosquito net. This will also prevent frogs from eating the azolla. Use half or one Kg a day, as harvested from the water pit and feed it directly or mixed with other feeds or straws to lactating cows. ","tokenCount":"358"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1d48b95758e88b9fc9e70856a58a9def","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/61c86dc9-98e8-4a15-8528-db5f5fbd2fa4/retrieve","id":"1351008454"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4db9e983-40b8-48a8-9f5a-ff6b4976f3df","pagecount":"100","content":"!ITA's research agenda is subdivided into a portfolio of 14 projects (Annex 1), around which these project annual reports B.re prepared. These projects address different aspects of attaining sustainable increaEles in productivity of dominant farming systems and utilization practices in the various agroecologies of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Research and training activities carried out in the 14 projects are being implemented together with national program partners in order to increase the well-being of resourcepoor people in SSA through higher levels of food production, better income, and nutritional status, and reduced drudgery particularly for women. Additionally, UTA serves as the convening center for the Ecoregional Program for the Humid and Subhumid Tropics of Sub-Saharan Africa (EPHTA) and the Systemwide Program on Integrated Pest Management (SP-IPM).The project logframe is presented in Annex 2.Highlights from all projects can be foun,! in Annex 3, which thus provides an illustrative overview ofIITA's research activities and achievements for the year.Annex 4 shows the agroecological zoneB of sub-Saharan Africa in which IITA conducts research.showing multiple resistance to the major diseases and pests including cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), and good quality characteristics were selected for further evaluation.The Government of Uganda officially released three additional CMD-resistant cultivars of UTA origin as NASE 10, NASE 11 and NASE 12 (MH95/0414). NASE 12, a selection under high CMD and the Ugandan variant of CMD (UgV) infection pressure at the ESARC regional germplasm program fJr the mid-altitude ecologies, has consistently shown no symptom of the diseases (score of 1) indicating near immunity, and it has excellent cooking quality, low cyanogen:.c potential and good agronomic characteristics in addition to multiple pest resistance. Over 100,000 ha of improved CMD-resistant cultivars of UTA origin is now grown by farmers in Uganda. In Western Kenya, cultivars SS4 and Migyera continued to be multiplied at primary (79ha.), secondary (31ha), and tertiary (339ha), respectively. A total 2,395,000 planting stakes required to plant about 450 hectares have been dlstributed from the 7 initial primary sites. In Rwanda, cassava planting material has been generated from five secondary sites to plant about 200 ha.In collaboration with the Institute of Plant Sciences (ETH), Switzerland, organogenesis based-cassava regeneration system has been successfully transferred to UTA and used to regenerate for the first time a wide range of African cassava germplasm. Cyclic somatic embryogenesis, organogenesis, and plant regeneration were achieved in more than 10 selected African cassava gel'mplasm (8 African cassava landraces and 4 improved genotypes). In addition, the highest transient GUS expression was obtained with the combination of the landrace TME 8 and GV3101 when the compatibility of four Agrobacterium strains with three African cassava landraces was screened. The regenerated plantlets have successfully been established in the field with a survival percentage ranging from 60% to 100%, and so far, no abnormalities were observed in these plants. Antibiotic sensitivity study using five cassava genotypes also showed that at 15 mg!l hygromycin in the culture madium, both callus and shoot bud formation were arrested. Information obtained from these studies will serve as a basis for future transformation studies.Collaborative work with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has shown that a dominant gene (CMD Z), controlling a new source of resistance to CMD and different from the most extensively used gene for resistance to CMD derived from interspecific hybridization, is flanked by the SSR and a RFLP marker, rGYll and rSSRY28, at 9 and ScM, on linkage group R of the male-derived molecular genetic map of cassava. The groundwork to isolate CMD2 by positional cloning, using candidate genes and BAC contigs in Nigerian cassava land races is being undertaken.Bulk segregant analysis made up of 10 most resistant and 10 most susceptible Fl progenies derived from the cross TMS 30555 (susceptible) x TME 7 (resistant) were screened with 140 RAPD, 150 SSR, and 104 AFLP primer combinations (64 combinations of EcoR1IMsel +3 primer pairs and 40 combinations of Apa 1ITaq 1 +3 primer pairs), and only one SSR primer consistently showed distinct differences between the resistant and susceptible plants, after screening the members of each bulk, the parents and the entire mapping population. Regression analysis indicated that this marker contributed 59% of the total variation in the population for resistance to CMD. The primer was then used to screen 2<1 cassava clones with varying levels of resistance to the disease, to confirm its usefulnesB as a marker associated with resistance to CMD, and the results showed difference between some resistant clones and TME7 with respect to that marker. The resistant clones 58308 and TMS 30572 (extensively used sources of resistance in the breeding program) and TME 8 did not have this marker suggesting that different genes may control resistance to CMD.Six genotypes (30572, 30001, 91102324, 92/0427, 9210057 and TME 1) evaluated in the field for resistance to root rot disease under natural infestation at 6, 9, 12 and 15 months after planting showed that at 6 and 9 months, there was no significant difference in the reaction of the genotypes to root rot. At 12 and 15 months the genotypes differed significantly in theil' reactions to root rot and there was a significant increase in the percentage root rot with increase in plant age. The rate of increase in percentage root rot was higher in TME 1 and 92/0057 than for the other genotypes.Two components of the cassava market survey (market chain and industrial uses) in Uganda were completed and the result are being used to devise the research agenda in Uganda based on market opportunities and potential to engage partners in new areas of research such as collective marketing with producers, development of trade associations and also public-private sector consortia. In addition, the cassava-based processing equipment developed at ESARC were technically reviewed in collaboration with FAO and a web-based catalogue on prices, fabricators, output, numbers of equipment sold and technical drawings of these equipment are being compiled.To expand the marketing opportunitiell available to smallholder farmers, reduce their dependence on traders, improve the quality of intermediate cassava products and encourage take-up of cassava as input by a variety of end-users, a pilot processing plant in western Kenya has been initiated with the installation and testing of five processing equipment (manual chipper, manual and motorized graters, screw press, hammer mill) and tested.A website (www.cgiar.org/foodnet) established for the food network of East Africa (FOODNET) to avail regional partners with information about current events in the network and to provide a site for eoUating project and associated research and development (R&D) information has been taken as the template for the recent construction of 14 regional network websites, which comprise the ASARECA portfolio.The capability of NARS and NGOs to undertake cassava research and development was enhanced through three training workshops on cassava processing techniques; report and proposal writing; and cassava mosaic disease monitoring and diagnostics; as well as courses on rapid multiplication of cassava; commercialization and enterprise development for cassava and sweet potato planting materials production and distribution; cassava and sweet potato processing, products and market development; monitoring and impact assessment of root crop technologies; and virus elimination and detection for 123 technicians, extension workers and researchers in East and Southern Africa.Cassava provides more than half of the dietary calories for over 200 million people in sub Saharan Africa (about half of the total population). It also contributes substantial amounts of protein, minerals (iron and calcium) and vitamins (A and C) through consumption of the leaves. It is Africa's food insurance: it gives stable yields even in the face of drought, low soil fertility and low intensity management. It can remain in the soil until needed, spreading out food supply over time, helping avert the tragic \"boom and bust\" cycle of oversupply that is follo•Ned by famine. The low input requirements of cassava in particular and its ability tc, survive the devastation of drought and armed conflicts have made it thrive where otr.er crops have failed. As a low cost carbohydrate source, cassava thus plays a food security role. In addition, data collected by the Collaborative Study of Cassava in Africa (COSCA) in 563 villages scattered across 11 countries, which account for over 80% of cassava production in Africa, have shown that cassava generates cash income for the largest number of households in comparison with other staples. Potentially, cassava is therefore a cash crop rather than a subsistence crop in Africa.UTA's founders invested in crop improvement on the premise that tropical food crops, had received insufficient research attention and would probably show a large response to dedicated efforts in crop improvement. This hope was borne out in cassava, as much higher yielding, pest-resistant cultivars (particularly to bacterial blight and mosaic disease) were quickly developed and rapidly adopted by farmers wherever planting material became available.However, the increase in population and competition for land in SSA calls for innovations in food production and utilization technologies. The trends in the socioeconomic as well as the physical environment in Africa favor the increased production of cassava. As cassava production expands, there is equally the need for expansion of utilization and commercialization to make a range of food, feed, and industrial products from cassava quantitatively and qualitatively competitive with other high energy foods and imported items. Increased reliance on it as an energy food and its entry in the animal feed and in other industrial applications will provide incentives that will motivate farmers, processors and consumers to expand production and utilization, respectively.Despite the proven track record in cassava improvement, many challenges remain. Diseases (cassava mosaic disease, bacterial blight), insects (mealybug, grasshoppers, termites), mites (green spider mite, red spider mite) and nematodes still take their toll, occasionally in epidemic proportions in both traditional and new areas of production. As environments in which cassava could be cultivated are impoverished by overuse or devastated by new diseases or pests, there is the urgent need to protect and broaden its genetic base in order to ensure food security in the future. The early introductions made by the Portuguese in the 1500's in West Africa and in the 1700's in East Africa were not ample enough to transfer into Africa the wide genetic base existing at the center of origin of the species. Germplasm introductions from Latin America and its utilization in partnership with CL<\\T are needed to further broaden the germplasm base of cassava by providing unique sources of variability not currently available in Africa. There is even more need than ever to tap available gene pools, particularly those adapted to harsh environments. In addition, most of ou earlier breeding work was carried out in the lowland humid tropics. Germplasm adapted to the other agroecologies is also needed, particularly the cool mid-altitude and the dry savannas. Also, the considerable diversity of African cassava cultivars is yet to be fully exploited, particularly to tap on the genes for resistance to the major pests and diseases as well as the preferred food quality characteristics and plant architecture.The high water content of the root, and associated spoilage and high transport costs make post-harvest processing laborioUE and costly. Also, the cyanogenic potential of the crop could pose a health risk if the eontent is high and the roots are not properly processed before consumption, and if I;he nutritional status of the population is poor. Availability of high quantity and quality dry and safe products with long shelf life is necessary to support the development of cassava-based agro-industries.The biochemical and biophysical bas:is of biotic and abiotic stresses, culinary and nutritional quality and cyanogenesis, yield physiology and stability, as well as attributes of adaptation need further investigation. The genetic basis and inheritance, as well as the mechanisms and environmental influences of these important attributes are also largely unknown. Specific genotype,: targeting end-uses in the animal, starch, confectionery, textile and pharmaceutical industries are yet to be identified and adopted in Africa. Cassava genotypes with cliffel'ent flour characteristics for various end-uses are needed. Cassava leaves are also preferred vegetable in many countries but lack of continuous assessment for their food !l.ld feed quality attributes has slowed efforts for improvement. The suitability of the leaves (foliage yield and digestibility) of cassava genotypes, and utilization of residues (e.g. leaves, peel) for the livestock sector need to be exploited. Increased utilization in animal feed, starch, confectionery, textile and pharmaceutical industries can reliably be ascertained with improved and constant supply of cassava. In addition, biotechnological tools, where appropriate, would be applied for more rapid and efficient caseava improvement. Finally, our system of germplasm exchange, building institutional capacity and collaborative research with the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and Advanced Research institutes, as well as a sustainable system of multiplication and distribution of clean planting material:! need to be intensified in order to align better with our partners and ultimate beneficiaries, the African farmers.Source populations for traits of major importance to cassava production and food systems in sub-Saharan AfricaUsing new diversity effectively require,3 extensive intercrossing and selection. The wide range of target agro-ecologies, farming systems, utilization patterns and consumer preferences for cassava in SSA demands that a number of different recombining populations will have to be handled. Back-up special populations are essential as feeders of agroecologically broad-based populatlons.On-going and future activities Satellite back-up populations for multiple pest resistance, low cyanogenic potential (CNP) and culinary quality (mealines!.), nutritional quality (zinc, iron and B•carotene enriched roots) and high dry mat1;er (DM) continue to be improved through hybridization, evaluation, selection and recombination. Several crosses and backrosses were made for these special trait populations in Nigeria in 2000 (Table 1) for evaluation in the 2001 seedling nursery. In addition, the introduction, evaluation, and utilization of germplasm from Latin America continued in 2000, in collaboration with CIAT. Several crosses, incorporating resistance to caS3ava mosaic disease (CMD), were made between African adapted gene pools and earlier introductions from Latin America. Selected individuals or families from each cycle of selection can be used as sources of new cultivars at any stage in the selection program or incorporated into elite breeding populations. Ploidy manipulation gives breeders ve,,!atility in moving genes between ploidy level and between related species. Polyploid breeding in cassava has opened up new and often unexpected avenues in plant breeding and genetics with new chromosomal structures, new genetic expressions, new breeding methods and new cultivars. Since cassava is a vegetatively propagated crop, polyploid cassava can take advantage of vigor due to heterosis effects which can be optimized by maximum degree of heterozygousity at three of four different alleles at a locus, and last permanently, provided that no somatic mutation occurs in the cultivars.Hybridization between spontaneous Ca!iSaVa tetraploids with low dry matter percentage (DM%) and improved diploid cassava~enotypes with high DM% have resulted in the selection of triploid genotypes with very high fresh root yield, but low DM%. The success of polyploid breeding in cassava, lies in the efficient production of improved triploids with desirable traits. This can be achieved by crossing the improved sexual and asexual tetraploids with improved diploids of different genetic backgrounds. Such combination exploits high heterosis and brings abou:; the optimum ploidy level required for high yield potential. Ploidy manipulation through unilateral and bilateral polyploidization and somatic polyploidization continues to be implemented for the diversification of the polyploid gene pools of cassava to enhance further improvement. In 2000, additional tetraploid x tetraploid crosses resulting in 28 families and 388 seeds were made in Ubiaja among somatic and sexual tetraploids of improved clones and African landraces for evaluation in 2001. Cassava root is a major source of energy in human and livestock diets in the tropics, while protein is the most limiting m;.trient. Identifying cassava clones with higher storage root protein content could improve the protein to energy ratio in diets of millions of people and their livestock.Hybridization between a low cyanide cultivar 94/0239 and a wild Manihot species (Manihot Iristis), known to contain about 6 to 8%, provided 6,000 true seeds which were evaluated in the seedling nursery in 1999. In January 2000, the seedlings were harvested, and only 74 plants, which ]:roduced storage roots, were planted in a clonal trial and harvested at six month after planting. Samples of peeled storage root of the genotypes were oven-dried and ground to pass through 1 mm screen for N determination and conversion to protein content. Total storage root protein content among the genotypes ranged from 1.4 to 5.8%. Nbe of the genotypes had protein content greater than 3 %. Of these 9 genotypes, fresh root yield ranged from 1.6 to 17.6 t/ha, DM% ranged from 21 to 39%, root size ranged from small to big, and CMD reactions ranged from a score of 1 (resistant) to 3 (moderately susceptible), while and CGM reactions ranged from a score of 2 (moderately resistant) to 5 (highly susceptible). These genotypes were planted for further evaluation.The extent of variation in storage root protein content was also assessed in the cassava breeding collection and advanced trials, Total storage root protein concentration varied widely among the genotypes of the varwus trials. The mean, minimum, maximum and standard deviation of the various trials are shown in Table 2. Three of the trials (UYT (Multiple Pest Resistance 1), UYT (Poundable), and UYT (Yellow Roots) had the highest mean and maximum protein content. The genotypes in these specific trials will be further assessed in 2001 to confirm the results of 2000. In the humid forest zone, selection emphasizes tolerance to high soil acidity, low soil phosphorus and low solar radiation as well as resistance to CGM, CMD, CBB and CAD.In the forest-transition and southern Guinea savanna zones, soil constraints are fewer but selection for resistance to CGM, CMD, CBB and CAD is still important. In the midaltitudes, initial vigor and rapid growth under cold air temperatures as well as resistance to CBB, CMD and tip die-back take priority. For the Northern Guinea and Sudan savanna zones, types are sought which survive under severe water stress, show high initial vigor and growth rate, and good leaf retention (stay-green) under drought; and secondarily, resistance to pests and diseases. For all agro-ecosystems these desired traits are sought in a background of good agronomic and eating quality. Selected superior individuals or families from any cycle of selection are candidates for advanced testing and distribution to National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS).The standard selection scheme for germplasm evaluation starts with a seedling nursery at one breeding site within an agroecology. Selections from these nurseries are cloned and evaluated in successive trials -prel:.minary, advanced and uniform yield trials. With each evaluation, selection is made for p'~rformance with respect to ecological adaptation, reaction to pests and diseases and quality of the produce at each site. At the uniform yield trial stage more than one locatio:1 is used as testing site within the agroecology.The selection scheme also provides for the progressive multiplication of planting material starting from one seedling in the nursery. Three clones (TME 14, 95iSE-00087 and I91f2327) out of 13 clones evaluated in multilocational trials in 4 locations in Uganda (Namulonge, Masafu, Kumi, and Kigumba) with farmers' participation, combined good storage root quality, high yjeld and high levels of resistance to CMD, and were selected for more extensive on-farm trials.At Mtwapa, Kenya (lowland ecology), 2,lOl clones with multiple resistance to the major diseases and pests, including CBSD and good quality characteristics were selected for further evaluation.At Alupe, Western Kenya, the fresh root yield ranged from 0.7 tlha in MM96/2673 to 32.2 in MM96/3665 in the clonal evaluadon trial of recent clonal introductions, and from 7.7 in MM96/5739 to 37.6 in MM96/4570 in performance 1 evaluation trial (Tables 3).In the clonal evaluation trial, over 42% of the clones had equal to or higher than 40% dry matter. In the performance   A georeferenced survey of farmers' fielels in 16 states across the humid forest and moist savanna agroecological zones (major ca'lsava growing ecologies) was carried out between November 1998 and September 1999 to determine the distribution of cassava root rot disease in Nigeria. Field and laboratory experiments were carried out at UTA, Ibadan to: (i) evaluate the relative importance Jf the various root rot pathogens associated with cassava, Cii) assess the variability in the population of the most important pathogen of cassava root rot disease, (iii) assess different laboratory assays for evaluating cassava genotypes for resistance to root rot d:Lsease, (iv) evaluate the reactions over time of selected cassava genotypes to root rot dlsease on the field, and (v) evaluate the local and improved cassava germ plasm collection for resistance to root rot disease.Cassava root rot disease symptoms were widely distributed in the two agroecologies. A complex of fungal pathogens were isolated and the pathogenicity of Botryodiplodia theobromae, Nattrassia mangiferae, Fusarium spp (F. solani and F. oxysporum), Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolonifer, Penicillium oxalicum, Sclerotium rol/sii, Trichoderma spp and Macrophomina phaseolina was established. Two of the fungi pathogens (B. theobromae and N. mangiferae) were identified as the major root rot pathogens of cassava in Nigeria. B. th!,obromae was widely distributed across the two ecologies, and isolated from 74.8% of a total of 115 samples. It was rated highly virulent in the virulence test with root slice assay. The second important pathogen (N. mangi/erae) was isolated from only 13.N% of the total sample was moderately virulent and spread across the two agroecologies.Variability was observed in the population of 84 isolates of B. theobromae, collected from diseased root samples. Three types of mycelial growth patterns were identified (pale olivaceous grey, olivaceous and leaden black) on potato dextrose agar. Principal component analysis of the data collected on the isolates showed that the first 6 principal components had eigenvalues greater than 1.0 and accounted for 73% of the total variation among the isolates. The early and late growth rates on different culture media and the conidia size of the isolates were the major characteristics for delineating the different isolate groups. Cluster analysls identified five isolate clusters detached at a coefficient of 0. A georeferenced field survey of cassava bacterial blight disease (eBB) was carried out in the 36 states of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital between the months of October and December 2000, and eBB-infected leaves and stems samples were collected from 127 farms. Severity of eBB on cassava in the farms was scored on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = no symptoms and 5 = severe damage. Morphological and biochemical characterizations of the isolates were also carried out. The severity of the disease on cassava was high (score 4-5), medium (score of 3), and low (score 1-2) in 38.6%, 38.6% 22.8 % of the farms, respectively. Of the farms with high eBB-disease severity of cassava, 43% were from the southern .tates, 29% from the middle belt, and 27% from the northern part of the country. Gram-staining of the 256 isolates obtained from the samples showed that only 70 of them were gram-negative. Sixty-seven out of the 70 isolates were catalase-positive with mucoidal growth on sucrose-pectone agar (SPA) media, indicating that these were Xar..thomonas campestris. The sugar utilization and growth characteristics of these bacterial isolates differentiated them into 63 Xanthomonas campestris pv manihotis, 4 as Xanthomonas campestris pv cassavae, the causal agents of eBB. Three other isolates out of the 70 were gram-negative and catalase-positive but without mucoidal growth on SPA media and are yet to be identified. Pathogenicity tests and molecular characterization of the isolates will indicate possible strain variation of the two pathovars of Xanthomonas campestris. The evaluation of the local, earlier improved and newly improved germplasm will be evaluated for resistance to the pathogenic isolates.Screening existing improved and \\(lcal cassava germplasm for resistance to the cassava root scale by R.H, A.D.The evaluation the improved and local germplasm of cassava at the Humid Forest Ecoregional Center in Cameroon for reBistance to the cassava root scale was initiated in 2000. However, the pest had a clumpe(l distribution under natural conditions that year in the farmers' field were the trial was situated and reliable data on sources of resistance was not ascertained. The evaluation will be repeated in 200l.Establish multilocational Considering the high level of interaction between cassava genotypes and their environments, multi-site testing and site specific selection is required to improve the effectiveness of the enhancement program. Also, a good understanding of the relative importance and pattern of responseJf cassava genotypes, environments and their interactions in target agroecologies is needed to enhance the development and adoption of improved cassava cultivars. Various multilocational and collaborative multi-national trials were established in 2000 to identify promising and stable cassava genotypes for various traits of interest. These trials are constituted to generate information on the performance of a range of elite cassava I~enotypes in the region. In this way the extent of genotype x environment interactions and possible pathogen variations could be estimated. They also served as a means of delivering germplasm to NARS for evaluation and possible identification of suitable cultivars.In 2000, a new set of multilocational trials were constituted in Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad, and are yet to be harvested. Cassava is known for its adaptation to different environmental conditions due to its ability to grow under conditions considered sub-optimal for the majority of other food crops. In spite of its broad adaptation, cassava cultivars find optimum physiological expression of their genetic potential within relatively narrow ranges of biophysical conditions. Potential production of a (:ultivar would thus be attained only when the environmental attributes of the ecology for which it is targeted meets its physiological requirements. The success of identifying stable genotypes for desirable traits or specific genotypes for target environments from field research where both main effects and interactions are important, depends on a good understanding of GE interactions and the effectiveness of the statistical tools used to explain the patterns in the data, estimate the traits of interest as accurately as possible and select truly superior genotypes_ GE analysis, stability and adaptability studies of yield and its components, pests and diseases of new improved cassava genotypes developed in various agroecologies is regularly assessed to identify those wib high and stable performance for such traits as well as those with specific adaptation to target environments. The characterization of genotypes as well as environments enables the plant breeder to target cultivars to specific environments as well as rationalize testing and selection sites. GE interaction in cassava was studied using 10 genotypes in a multilocational trial in Uganda at 3 different (low, mid and high) altitudes for 2 years. The study investigated the magnitude of GE interaction and diagnosed the underlying causal factors of the GE pattern. The analysis of variance indicated that the effects of environment, genotype, and GE interaction were significant for storage root number, storage root size, storage root girth, fresh storage root and dry yield, but not for dry-matter content. Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model was then used to assists the selection and zonation of the environme:ats into homogenous ecosystems.The environment, genotype and GE interaction accounted for 52.5%, 28.7% and 18.8% respectively of the sum squares for storage root yield while it was 21.6%, 39.6% and 38.8% respectively for storage root number. Storage root yield was more sensitive to environmental changes than storage root number.The AMMI analysis and bi-plot interpretation indicated Migyera as an unstable high yielding genotype. SS4 was not adapted to high altitude. TMS I 92/0067 had, on average, good yields and was stable across altitude (locations). TMS I 92(0057 was found to have high yield and broad adaptation. Although poor yielding, the genotype TMS I 92/0397 was found specifically adapte,d to the high altidude environment. The mid altitude location (Namulonge) was found to be more stable for selection than the low altitude (Bulisa) and high altitude (Kapchorwa). GE interaction was found to be very important in cassava storage root yield. Temperature was observed to be one of the underlying causal factors of the GE interaction. Environments with low temperatures (high altitude first and second seasons) caused a large negative contribution to GE effects, while environments with high temperatures caused large positive contribution. It is deduced that the GE interaction caused production delay of genotypes sensitive to temperature and was severe when temperatures were low, because more days were required for completion of the vegetative development prior to the tuberous root filling process.Disease (pathogen) elimination and mlcropropagation of selected germplasm by S. 'l.N . . in collaboration with AD., J.d'A.H. and Nigerian Plant Quarantine Services.During 2000, plantlets of 30 cassava genotypes derived from meristem culture were transplanted and established in pots in an isolation room for virus indexing and certification. The 30 genotypes tested negative for cassava mosaic virus both by inoculation to Nicotiana benthamiana Hnd enzyme linked immunsorbent assay (ELISA) performed on both cassava and innoculated N. benthamiana leaf samples. They were all certified by the Nigerian Plant Quarantine Services. This gave a total of 438 cassava genotypes, which were certified freE from virus infection and are available for distribution. The range of cassava germplasm available for distribution represents selections targeted for different agroe'!oIogies: humid forest, moist savanna, and dry savanna. A total of over 20,000 plamlets were produced, and used for distribution, production of ministakes, and as stock cultures for further propagation.In 2000, 37 selected cassava genotypes were subjected to rneristem culture for pathogen elimination. Plantlets were obtained from 18 genotypes. In addition, meristems of four genotypes had green growth and may develop into plantlets thereafter. The regenerated plantlets were subcultured for initial multiplication. Moat of them were acclimatized and planted in isolation room for virus indexing. They will be certified in 2001.A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of physiological adaptation of cassava to a range of agro-ecosystems from the humid forest, forest transition, moist savanna, dry savanna, semiarid and mid-altitude agroecologies aims to strengthen the selection and adoption process of improved cassava clones. Physiological studies on cassava emphasize the adaptation of ,;assava clones to the different abiotic stresses experienced in each of these ecologies_ The adaptation characteristics include tolerance to low solar radiation, soil acidity and l(,w soil phosphorus (humid forest zone); tolerance to drought varying from mild to severe stress (forest transition to semiarid zone); early season wet, mid season drought or late season wet soil stresses (inland valleys); and tolerance to low temperature (mid-altitudes). The genetic variability and genetic control of these traits and biotic stresses enahles the plant breeder to formulate an efficient breeding strategy. To optimize the USE of genetic variability, heterotic and combining ability relationships should be determined. The bases for adaptation to biotic stresses and the elucidation of the interaction of biotic with abiotic stresses would also enhance the breeding process. Development and refinement of screening methods is a prerequisite to the efficient determination of genetic variation of source materials in breeding programs.On-going and future activities Investigations of exotic phytoseiids and cassava plant interactions have followed three tracks. In the first track, we relied on field surveys in conjunction with other M. tanajoa biocontrol implementation activities and on screening of the IITA cassava germplasm collections, in Ibadan, Nigeria, and in Serere, Uganda, to identify cassava cultivars with favorable apex characteristics (e.g., hairy, large and compact apices). In the second track, a subset of the identified cultivars were selected along with a set of unfavorable cultivars thus providing a wide range of characteristics affecting T. aripo abundance. These cultivars were then tested in common and replicated on-station and farmer field experiments, where regular observations were made on the abundance and severity of M. tanajoa, T. aripo, and several other biotic constraints, as well growth rates of the various cultivars. At 12 months, storage root yield and above ground biomass were estimated. In the third track, we condllcted greenhouse and laboratory experiments to understand the mechanisms underlying the effect of cassava cultivars on T. aripo preference.Preliminary analyses of the data from field experiments support previous observations that T. aripo prefers cultivars with large hairy apices. In addition, T. anpo abundance appears to be positively correlated with the number and size of the bracts (small vegetative tissue) at the base of the petioles of the immature leaves in the apex. Of the cultivars tested in Benin and Nigeria, the following classification has been developed: high preference -TM8 92/0326, Agric, Oko Iwayo; medium preference -TMS 91934, Somidoloro, Odongbo; low preference: Heleru, Amala, and TM8 30572. In field surveys, and other evaluations in eastern and southern Airica with the cultivars 'Kabushi' (Zambia), Fernando Po (Mozambique) and 192/00067 (Uganda), it is found 192100067 combines good CMD and M tanajoa resistance with preferred traits for T. aripo and good cooking quality of fresh roots.On-going laboratory experiments have lIhown that T. aripo stays and survives longer and produces more eggs on excised tips of the hairy cultivars Agric and T:\\1S 92/0326 compared with the glabrous cultivars Odongbo and TM8 30572. Additional field, greenhouse and laboratory experiments on the effects of foliar exudates and cyanogenic potential on the development, survivorship and persistence of T. aripo on cassava cultivars are on-going.by J.A. w., A. D. in colloboration with R. Ru \"aihayo, D.s. O. Osiru and P. NtawuruhungaExperiments were conducted to determine genotypic performance of cassava under different altitudes; and investigate the cause-effect relationship of yield performance.The first was a potted experiment which was conducted at Namulonge to determine the morphological and physiological determinants of yield performance using two genotypes from five sources of origin viz. East African lowland, mid-altitude and highland, and West Mrican lowland and mid-altitude. The following genotypes were selected and used: East Africa lowland (Nyarukuhi, Nyarubekane), East Africa midaltitude (Migyera, 884), East Africa highland (Eala 07, Kir:rumukwe/Serere), West Africa lowland (TMS 81101635, TMS I 92/0057) and West Africa midaltitude (TMS I 92/0067, TMS I 92/0397).In the second experiment, a field study using the same cultivars was conducted at three locations of different altitudes (Bulis.l: 650m, Namulonge: 1250m and Kapchorwa: 1750m). This aimed at growth and de'relopment processes with conventionally known performance components for a period ,)f 15 months during 1997/1998 growing season and 9 months during 1998/1999 growbg season. For both experiments, a randomized complete block design was used with thl:ee replicates.The potted experiment revealed variability among genotypes in all the agronomic characteristics evaluated. The results indicated significant differences (P<O.OOl) among sources of origin in sprouting ability, plant height, leaf area, storage root formation and differentiation. For the majority of plant traits (total root number, potential root number, root length, total leaf area), the genotypes within sources did not differ significantly. Plant height was expressed exponentially and was significantly (p<O.OOl) correlated with all plant characteristic:l. The high altitude East African cassava had a meristem length significantly (P<O.Ol) longer than other sources while the mid altitude (West African) cassava had the larg•~st meristem width. The width of the apical meristem was significantly (p<O.Ol) correlated with all plant traits except dry matter content of storage roots, indicating that the apical meristem plays an important role in controlling plant development and storage root differentiation. The results also revealed starch accumulation in all genotypes by 10 weeks after planting (W AP) except for the genotypes from the low altitude (l:ast African) source that showed poor root enlargement and a generally poor perfol~mance.Principal component analysis did not reveal discontinuity among the genotypes. Early tuberization was detected in Migyera, SS4 and TMS 81101635 and were considered early bulking genotypes, while Nyarukuhi Hnd TMS I 92/0397 were characterized by late bulking genotypes.In the field experiment, plant height growth behaved allometrically rather than exponentially, as observed in the potted experiment. Plant height growth curves indicated that the midaltitude site wal the best followed by the low altitude and the least was the high altitude. Mid altitude (West African) source was the tallest at both low (Bulisa) and mid (Namulonge) altitude locations, while the high altitude (East African) source was the tallest at high (Kapchorwa) altitude. Crop growth rate (CGR) was lowest in the high altitude compared to low and mid altitude. The maximum CGR obtained at 12 months after planting (MAP) for the altitude was 41.2g/m 2 /week compared to 53.lg/m2/week for mid altitude and 75.lg/m2!week for low altitude. Migyera, SS4, TMS I 92/0057 were the best for storage root number formation. At 12 MAP, TMS I 92/0057 had the highest fresh storage root yield, 38.1 t ha• 1 at mid altitude and 47.4 t ha• 1 at high altitude while 'PMS I 92/0067 (54.7 t ha• l ) was the best at low altitude. The low altitude site was most suitable for storage root yield. Prediction of storage root yield by these quantitative traits evaluated did not provide adequate information to explain its complexity.Dry matter percentage in roots was not correlated with storage root yield. However, it was significantly and positively correh.ted with leaf area (r = 0.56, P < 0.001) and negatively correlated with storage root size (r = •0.25, P < 0.001). Storage root dry matter percentage increased with altitude. Sugar content (%) and cyanogenic potential were found to he higher in storage roots at high altitude than at low and mid altitude. Stomata open in larger numbers at mid and low altitude than at high altitude due mainly to the temperature factor. N) significant difference among genotypes was observed for stomata number, phctosynthesis rate, stomata conductance and transpiration.Broad sense heritability (h2) of storal~e root yield was relatively low. Storage root number, size and girth were found to bE the most important yield components with high direct path coefficients of 0.530, 0.454 a::J.d 0.217 respectively.The genetic variation in performance was observed among genotypes due to differential production efficiencies exhibited among genotypes at each location and across locations.Assessment of genetic variation, diversity and establishment of heterotic relationships, and gene complementarity for desirable traits among African landraces and improved germplasm by scientists named in each subsection by A.D. -in collaboration with 1. Fawole, A. Raji Diversity analysis of a crop is fundamental to the optimal use of genetic resources in broadening the genetic base and subsoquent systematic exploitation of heterosis. The genetic relationships among 500 cassava cultivars from different parts of Africa were analyzed with various multivariate techniques based on 35 agrobotanical traits. Differentiation of the cultivars into 12 cluster groups was obtained with cluster analysis. Further analyses with canonical discriminate analysis and principal component analysis showed that there is an appreciable amount of variation in the germplasm, but there was also considerable overlap among cluster groups. Genetic distances between clusters groups were mostly small, except for thJse between cluster group 5 and 11, 5 and 2, and 5 and 9. Agronomic, canopy and storage root quality traits were the principal discriminatory characters for groupin(( cultivars together, and this could have been attributed to adaptation to similar climatic conditions, farmer's selection for particular root quality traits over a long period or common ancestral population. It was evident that farmers' cultivars may not be unique to the particular place of collection, because there is a high degree of turnover of cultivars grown by farmers, who are continually introducing new genotypes with desirod attributes from neighboring villages, regions and countries. The results also indicated that an expanded germplasm collection might be necessary to ensure a broader !renetic representation of African cultivars. A molecular analysis of the germplasm is being conducted to provide complementary information that will increase the resolving power of diversity analyses.A study was conducted to determine the extent of genetic diversity within a collection of African cassava cultivars resistant and susceptible to cassava mosaic virus disease (CMD) and to determine different sourCE,s of resistance to CMD. A dendogram of genetic distances grouped the 78 cultivars intc> 5 group suggesting five sources of resistance with some similarity between two sour,:es of resistance and the susceptible landraces.Close associations were detected for some of the resistant landraces suggesting the possibility of duplicates. The analysis of genetic diversity performed on the cultivars partitioned into the cluster groups, revealed high levels of variation. On the average, 3.12 alleles per locus were detected and the probability that any two randomly sampled alleles in a given cultivar were different, was 0.50. The FrS values for cultivars within cluster groups indicated an excess of heterozygosity. The estimate of heterozygosity within cultivars was 0.58. The amount of genetic differentiation (GST) was 0.07, and was lower than what is expected for outcrossing plants. The low levels of genetic differentiation suggest that the MriCllll cassava germplasm is not well structured genetically and that the SSR markers may be poor predictors of population differentiation of resistance to CMD in cassava.Cassava mosaic virus disease (CMD) is the most important disease of cassava in Africa, causing severe economic losses. The glmetic stock, clone 58308, has been extensively used in breeding for resistance to the iisease, but recently, several African landraces have been identified as new sources of'resistance to the disease which could be used could be used to diversify resistance. Gene complementarity among 70 segregating Fl crosses between resistant by resistant, resistant by susceptible, susceptible by susceptible parents including clone 58308 was assessed for their potential uses in a breeding program. The genetic materia:.s were evaluated on the field for their symptom severity to CMD in 3 CMD•occurring environments. Mean disease severity scores of the progenies suggested polygenic inherit.mce and both parents of a cross contributed effective factors to their progenies. Eesistant phenotypes were detected in crosses between susceptible parents, which suggests that resistance in these sources may be due to recessive genes. The presence of tranilgressive segregants in the crosses of some of the parents may suggest evidence for the polygenic control of resistance to CMD. Different alleles in different parents may be involved and are cumulative for degree ofresistance. Allelic differences were detected between 58308, the most extensively used source of resistance, and some of the resistant improved clones and landraces and between the landrace TME 1 and other resistant landraces.A North Carolina Design II mating scheme involving four improved clones as females and nine landraces as males was used to produce their 36 F1 hybrids. The parents and their hybrids were evaluated for their reactions to CAD at 12 MAP under natural infection at Ibadan (a high infection zone) in 1998 and 1999 cropping seasons. The objectives were to determine the reLative importance of GCA and SCA, estimate heterosis, and compare line and topcrJss for resistance to CAD. Results showed that GCA of the female parents accounted for a greater proportion of the total genetic variation. All the improved lines except 30572 contributed significantly to GCA effect for resistance and showed higher negative GCA effects. TME 3, TME 6 and TME 11 were the best male general combiners for reElistance. The female parent, 30572, and the male parent, TME 7, were poor general ccmbiners. Significant negative SCA effects also existed among the crosses. Eleven crOSHes had significant negative heterotic effects. The per se performance of the parents waE' not significantly correlated with their topcross performance (r = 0.32) and the relativH magnitude of the ratio (GCAI(GCA+SCA» was 0.67, indicating that progeny performance cannot be predicted based on parents per Be performance alone. For the enhancement of cassava resistance to CAD, careful selection must be placed on the female parents, Hnd selection based upon many testers to identify specific combiners that would g~ve high~r levels of resistance.There are two different options to establish the cassava plants after removal from the humidity chamber: cassava plants are clirectly transplanted to seedbeds after hardening in the humidity chamber (T1); and CElssava plants, after removal from the humidity chamber, are transplanted to black polyethylene bags filled with top soil and kept under shade for further growth of 4 -6 weeks before transplanting to seedbeds (T2). The second option is more laborious and involves extra cost. A study was conducted to compare these 2 options in relation to the percentage establishment and plant growth measurements after transplanted to seadbeds. Two genotypes were used, TME 596 and TME 594. There were 3 replicates for each of the treatments (Tl and T2). For TME 594, each replicate had 12 plants whereas for TME 596, each replicate had 15 plants. The results showed that there was no sign:.ficant difference between the two treatments in plant establishment, plant height, and number of nodes and leaves per plant (Table 6),This indicated that it might not be necessary to have the intermediate step of transplanting to polyethylene bags filled with topsoil as in T2. This will not only save coat but also avoid the risk of breakin~; the plants during the extra steps of handling.The results also showed that there was significant difference between the two genotypes in terms of number of nodes and leaves per plant (Table 7). TME594 had higher number of nodes and leaves per plant than TMI~596 and hence more vigor. It was observed that sufficient and regular watering was the most important factor contributing to the success in establishment in the field. Selected in vitro plantlets of cassava aft~r acclimatization in the humidity chamber were planted in protected screenhouse in pc ts filled with treated soil or directly to treated soil. They were regularly monitored visually for the presence of diseases (virus, fungus, and bacteria) and pests. During the growing period they were inspected by the Nigerian Plant Quarantine Officials. Before harv~6ting of the minis takes, samples were randomly taken from each genotype and tested for possible presence of pathogens. Ministakes were prepared from those that tested negative, and were treated with insecticides two days before packaging for delivery.In 1999/2000, more t.han 500 cassava v.rus•tested plantlets (26 genotypes) were planted in pots under protected screenhouse after the hardening. Another batch of about 350 plantlets of 9 genotypes was planted after hardening in treated soil under protected screenhouse. The genotypes included selected germplasm from Sierra Leone (SL80f40, CARICCAS I and CARICCAS II). It WilS found that plants that were planted after the main rainy season (July/August) had l~ss attack by fungal and bacterial diseases than those grown in the main planting Beason (April) did.by A.L . . in collaboration with A.D.This activity was not undertaken in 2000 because of lack of funding to develop the prediction equations at the University of Florida.Development of regeneration and transformation system of cassava Eighteen cassava genotypes selected among African cassava landraces and improved genotypes were tested for their ability to undergo primary somatic embryogenesis. Meristems and immature leaf lobes were tested on picIoram-based embryo induction medium (P•CIM), and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid based embryo induction medium (2,4•D-CIM). Results showed that there was no significant difference in the overall primary embryo induction between thn two types of explants. Nevertheless immature leaf lobes gave significantly higher number of explants that produced higher number of embryos/cluster (5-10 per cluster and above 10 per cluster). The frequency of embryo induction was genotype dependent. P•CIM was superior to 2,4-D-CIM in the induction of somatic embryogenesis.When the embryos induced on both media were transferred to the maturation medium, there were differences in the frequer.cy of maturation among the genotypes tested (range: 38 -100%).Cyclic somatic embryogenesis was successfully established and maintained for 11 Mrican cassava genotypes on P-CIM, and will provide source materials for transformation studies.Plantlets were regenerated from 6 Mrican landraces via organogenesis through direct shoot induction from cotyledon piece!! of maturing somatic embryos. Although the percentage of explants that formed shoot buds was reasonably high (range: 13•81 %), the average number of plantlets formed per responding explant was low (ranged from 0.07 to 12). This indicated that in order for this system to be used for an efficient transformation system, there is a need to improve the conversion of induced shoot buds to plan tlets.The susceptibility of cotyledon explantB of maturing somatic embryos was tested using four Agrobacterium strains, EHAl05, GV3l01, AGLl, and LBA4404 harboring the pCAMBIA1301. Cotyledon pieces of maturing somatic embryos of 3 cassava landraces (TME 8, TME 127, and TME 13) were nsed. Transient GUS assay was performed on the explants after inoculation and co-cult.lvation with Agrobacterium. Results obtained showed that compatibility between the genotype and Agrobacterium strains varied among the genotypes and the Agrobacterium strains. Although all the cassava genotypes were susceptible to most of the AgrobHcterium strains, TME 8 was more amenable to infection than the other two genotype, •. The percentage of GUS positive explants and number of blue spots per explants was higher in TME 8 than the other two genotypes.In most cases, the highest responses, ill terms of the number of blue spots per explant, were recorded with Agrobacterium strain, GV3101, in aU the cassava genotypes tested.In terms of the percentage GUS positive explants, EHAI05 and GV3101 were higher than that of LBA4404, but there was no significant difference between EHA105 and GV3101. Transformation studies using the combination of TME 8 and GV3101 is underway. primer pairs)_ Only I SSR primer consistently showed distinct differences between the resistant and susceptible plants, after !lcreening the members of each bulk, the parents and the entire mapping population. llegression analysis indicated that this marker contributed 59% of the total variation in the populatioil for resistance to CMD. The primer was then used to screen 23 cass£,va clones with varying levels of resistance to the disease, to confirm its usefulness as a marker associated with resistance to CMD_ The results showed differences between some resistant clones and TME 7 with respect to that marker. From a collaborator in Denmark, Dr. 3 irger Moller, we obtained two genes (CYP79D1 and CYP79D2) obtained from a Colom bian cassava cultivar an d coding for the enzyme catalyzing the fir st committed step of the biosynthesis of cyanogenic glucosides in cassava. These genes were found to b,) present in all 46 cassava genotypes that were teste d. However, the degree of expression of the two genes varied in each genotype, but the results were not clear e nough to distinguish between low-cyanide and high-cyanide cassava cultivars. We tried RAPD marl:ers, and out of 60 primers tested, four gave good polymorphism and two of these were :;elected. Fig. 1 shows the polym orphic response obtained with the primer OPT-07850.Low-cyanide High-cyanide Fig. 1. R..A.P D electrop horetic profiles of 17 accessions of Maniho t eseulenta genomic DNA amplifi ed with prime r OPT -07850. Lanes 1 to 12 are for low-cya nide cultivars and lanes l 3 to 17 are for h igh cyanide culti' Ta rsAs cassava becom es a cash cr op, ident Lfication and targeting of areas combining high production potential a nd market opportu nities becomes necessary. The development of ge notypes for intensive commercial pr oduction and utilization systems will then be nee ded. The deve lopm ent of robust seed-base d production methods fo r large scale, and intensive commercial production and mechanization is desirable for the modernization of the crop. As cassava is also a highly he terozygous plant, sib mating or selfin g for one or a few ge ne rations should unmask de • .eterious recessive genes during eval uation, a nd recombination after selection will capitalize on both additive gene action and heterosis.Genetic male sterility has also been ,3hown to facilitate efficient hybridization, and enhance hybrid production. Investigations of these options in cassava will in the long term produce information for the use of true cassava seeds or hybrid seeds as an alternate propagation technique.On-going and future activities Farmers' ability to respond to declining soil fertility/fallow periods by replacing more susceptible crops with cassava is constrained by its long cropping cycle. The currently available improved cultivars attain their maximum yield at 12 to 15 months as opposed to 22 to 24 months for local cultivars. According to COSCA, farmers require cultivars that can be harvested as early as six mJnths. Selection for early bulking genotypes that can be harvested as early as six months after planting, and with sustained bulking up to 12 months after planting in the uplands is being emphasized. Several promising genotypes have been identified with potential for early and sustained bulking up to 12 months.Selection for ease of peeling and uniform root conformation for mechanized processing by A.D., J.A. W, WK.Uniform storage root conformation (thick rind, short neck, medium•sized compact, conical and short roots enhances both pre-and post-harvest handling of cassava, and will also facilitate mechanization of the crop. Emphasis was given to continuing selection for the above traits in all bref,ding trials. Most of the improved breeding lines obtained so far possesses many or all of these attributes. This activity will continue to be emphasized in breeding trials.by A.D., MA., J.A. W, WK .. This experiment was put on hold in 2000 because of budget constraints.Evaluation of breeders linus for responsiveness to fertilizers) by A.D., J.A. W, WK.This experiment was put on hold in 20(>0 because of budget constraints.by A.D.Assessment of comparative yield, quality, and agronomic performance of 'seed' from open, controlled hybridization and cuttingsA trial with a new set of lines and their seed populations was planted in 2000 at Mokwa, Nigeria, but due to the long dry spell after planting, germination was poor and termite damage affected establishment, and thE trial was terminated.Development of S-lines of genetically diverse parents and conversion of African adapted clones I)f cassava to male sterile lines by A.D.Selfed line selection in cassava unmasks deleterious recessive genes and fixes desirable recessive genes before recombination. additional SI•lines of selected and genetically diverse cassava parents were genera:;ed (Table 8). These will be evaluated in the seedling nursery in 2001. Several selfed lines were also advanced to the next generation for evaluation and selection of potential parents for testcrosses.Preliminary analysis s of 87 lines obtained in 1999 using SSR marker indicated that these lines still had appreciable amount. of heterozygousity.  Improved postharvest tI~chnologies for expanded utilization and increased commer(~ialization in the food, feed and industrial sectors Background Agricultural development efforts in SSA are being aimed at increasing income and socioeconomic growth through agro-processing, commercialization and development of more profitable agro-enterprises. An important aspect of ensuring that cassava is viewed as viable farming enterprises, rather than a crop of last resort, is the need for greater attention to the broad area of postharvest including primary processing, product development and marketing. A key requirement is to stimulate consumer demand for cassava products. In this way, in addition to satisfying their immediate domestic food needs, farmers will have confidence tha-; there are assured outlets fox-their produce, and associated cash earning opportunities.The wide range of technological pathways of traditional processing leads to an equally wide range of products that vary from one another in taste, appearance, texture, convenience of preparation into food, nutritive value, and other quality characteristics resulting from physical and microbial contamination. These processing technologies cannot assure consistent quality prodLcts, economies of scale and labor productivity.The extent to which the potential mark~t for cassava may be expanded depends largely on the degree to which the quality of various processed products can be improved to make them attractive to middle and high income earners, and various markets, without significant increases in processing costs.Technological, institutional, social and organizational interventions designed to strengthen and expand the marketability, quantity and quality of cassava products will contribute to increased food security aI.d to the income generation capacity of cassava farmers and processors. Market/sub-sector analyses to identify opportunities, determine constraints, assess needs for transforming cassava from subsistence into broad-based commercial commodities will enable the commodity programs to propose areas of technological, institutional, organizational and policy options to effectively target its research development activities and disseminate end-user preferred technologies for equitable commodity sub-sectors. This will enable cassava products to be developed as a widely traded commodity that contributes to the economic growth.The potential demand for starch and stftrch-derived products in a number of industries (food-based, textile, pharmacy, brewery, ply woods, packaging, battery making, glue and other adhesives etc.); root, foliage and o:her plant parts in different feed industry lines (poultry, dairy, pigs etc.); and details of cost savings by import substitution with cassava need to be analyzed. In addition, the fundional (physical, chemical and sensory) varietal characteristics of importance to the various applications in high demand in the food and non-food product markets will contribute to the development of cassava cultivars that meet specific market opportunities.Improved processing, storage and pac:~aging technologies for smallholder farmers and processors will contribute to increasin~' cassava root availability, reliability and quality, and thus stabilizing prices and facilitating trade.Linking small-scale cassava farmers and processors to existing, improved, or new growth markets will establish the capability and capacity to integrate research and development activities on cassava production, processing, and marketing to capture the market potential for the crop. The assessment of costs and returns of technologies (existing and new) with potential for increased trade through improved prioritization, monitoring and assessing impact accrLling from increased production, value addition, commercialization and utilization needn to be addressed.On-going and future activities EARRNET has initiated sub-sector alalyses for cassava in six countries (Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo).FOODNET is also conducting a series of market surveys with the ASARECA networks and is developing a protocol for rapid market analysis to determine the demand and supply chains for a given commodity.In addition, SARRNET has initiated its sub-sector analysesl market studies for cassava and sweet potato in three target countri,~s (Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania) in guiding its market led approach to commerciali2ing cassava and sweetpotato. The secondary information has been compiled at a draft level and the next stage is to do the market chain analysis and industrial survey. Cassava roots are well known for contaLning very low levels of proteins. Since they are consumed extensively as dietary energ,y source in the cassava growing belt of Mrica, sometimes contributing more than 50'* of the caloric intake, minor increases in their protein content would make a significant contribution to the dietary protein intake of cassava consumers. Since 1993, the cassava breeding program has initiated a program to cross cassava with Manihot tristis, a wild relative of cassava that is known to store large amounts of protein in the roots, w:.th the objective of producing hybrids that would possess the food quality characteristics of cassava and the high protein content of M trisitis. Back•crosses were made in 1994 and 1995 and have been evaluated yearly for their agronomic as well as food quality characteristics. We report here the levels of protein in the roots and leaves of the 2,4 cassava hybrids and we compare them to the protein content in roots and leaves of normal cassava genotypes (Table 9). The mean protein content in the roots of the hybrids was found to be 10.29% ± 2.99 (on dry weight basis) and in the leaves it was 30.83% ± 2.22, compared to values of 7.20% ± 1.75 and 32.77% ± 3.45 in the roots and leavef! of 46 normal cassava genotypes. The protein <:ontent of the hybrids ranged from 5.97% to 18.08% while the range was 4.32% to 12.58% in normal cassava. The highest root protein (18.08% dwb) content was found in genotype 941I00lO and correspond to about 6% protein in the fresh roots. Hybrid genotypes 941Ioo19 and 95110014 had root protein content exceeding 15% on dry wet basis or about 5% on fresh weight baeis. These levels are significantly high and are comparable to the protein content of c<3reals on dry matter basis. The retention of the protein during processing and the nutritional quality of these proteins remain to be evaluated. A major concern relatsd to the utilization of cassava leaf as food is the residual amount of cyanogenic compounds in cooked caHsava leaves. It is well known that cassava leaf contains extremely high levels of cya:~ogenic glucosides linamarin and lotaustral in which upon lead to the formation of cyanohydrins which breaks down to hydrogen cyanide. Linamarase, the enzyme nsponsible for the breakdown of cyanogenic glucosides is present in cassava leaves in very high amounts. The removal of cyanogenic compounds from cassava leaves during two types of processing cassava leaves into traditional foods was investigated. The :first method investigated is common in countries with high cassava leaves consumption Euch as Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. In this method, cassava leaves are washed, blanched by pouring boiling water over them or passing them briefly oyer a hot metal plate, and then pounding the blanched leaves in a wooden mortar and cooking them in water. The second method investigated is found in some parts of Nigeria, particularly in the part of Edo State, the state of origin of the student involved in this research. It consists of scrubbing the leaves prior to grinding and cooking. Table 10 indicates the percentage reduction in cyanogen content at each processing step for the two methods and for leaves from two popular cassava cultivars. The data shows that both methods achieve the same high level of cyanogen reduction by over 99%, although the pounding stage reduces the cyanogen content by 90% compared to only 75% for the scrubbing method. These levels of cyanogen reduction are in agreement with earlier findings. In collaboration with the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricultural Science and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya ESARC/EARRNET is implementing functional quality analysis of 832 advanced genotypes from the regional germplasm program for potential end-uses and markets. Preliminary results reveal wide genotypic differences for storage root functional characteristics indicatin~ suitability of cassava for a variety of end uses in the food, feed and industrial sectors.The extent to which processing conditions affect the physico-chemical characteristics of cassava flour and its bread-making potential was investigated. A split•plot design was used with peeling and no-peeling of roots as the main plots; the treatments were fermentation in water, fermentation in El bag and no fermentation; sub• treatments were 4 levels of size reduction: a) roots longitudinally split in half, b) roots transversally cut in large chunks, c) shredded roots and d) grated roots. Physico-chemical analyses, including proximate composition, star.:h characteristics, rheological properties and pasting behavior of flour obtained from ';he 24 treatment combinations were conducted. The flour from these treatments were used as partial substitute (10%, 20%, and 30%) of wheat in the production of composite bread. Such bread were evaluated by a sensory panel made up of 5 men and 5 women.The results indicate that the flour extraction rate is lowest when roots are peeled, grated and fermented in water (22%); fermented chips, chunks and slices have an extraction rate of 26%. Peeled cassava left to ferment in a bag have an extraction rate of 26-28%, while non-fermented peeled roots have an extraction rate of 31%. Extraction rates for cassava roots that are process.ed without peeling varies from 25 to 37%. They are highest when no fermentation is a~plied, and lowest when the roots are grated and fermented in water. The specific density of the flour obtained varies from 0.45-0.52 when the roots have been fermented with or without the peels; it varies from 0.53-0_64 when the roots are not fermented or are left to ferment in a bag.The color of cassava flour is strongly influenced by whether they are processed with or without the peels. Cassava roots procee,sed after peeling give flours with a bright white color. The pH of the flour is lower than 5 when the roots are fermented in water and higher when they are fermented in a bag or not fermented at all. However, grating the roote has a reducing effect of the pH of t.he flours for all treatment combinations.The residual protein content in cassava flour is considerably reduced (0.65%) when the roots have been fermented in water after peeling while it varies from 0.94% to 1.88% in all other treatment combinations. The fermentation process has also a significant reducing effect on the ash content oJ the flours. On the other hand, the residual carbohydrate content was greater in flour obtained from roots that had undergone fermentation. Total reducing sugars were considerably reduced to 0.66%-0.91% in flours from roots that were fermented in wat,r without peeling and to 0.61%-0.66% in flours from roots that were fermented in water after peeling compared to 4.51%-5.74% in flour from unpeeled non-fermented roots and 4.28%-5.09% in flour from peeled non-fermented roote.The amylose/amylopectin ratio was higJler in flour from roote fermented in water: roote fermented in water after peeling gave the highest amylose ratio (23%). The treatments did not affect the gelatinization temperature of the flour, which was about 76.5°C. The peak viscosity of the flours was highest in flours from roots fermented in water, probably because of these flours higher amylose ratios.The flour were used to make compoe.ite bread and the quality of the breads were evaluated by a sensory paneL The data are being compiled and analyzed. The causation of tropical ataxic polyneuropathy (TAN), a neurologic syndrome of polyneuropathy, gait ataxia, optic atrophy and neurosensory deafness, has been associated with cyanide released frora residual cyanogens in foods processed from cassava roots. Association of frequent consumption of cassava foods and high prevalence of TAN has been shown in epidemioloi;1cal studies of several communities in Nigeria. Thiocyanate, the major metabolite of cyanide, has been shown to be elevated in the affected population providing strong indirect evidence of exposure of the population to dietary cyanide. However, the average amount of cyanide absorbed into systemic circulation from ingested cyanogens aEi well as the kinetics of cyanide and thiocyanate, the major metabolite of cyanide, are unknown. This study was conducted to determine the average amount of cyanide absorbed from ingested residual cyanogens in gari, its disposition, and elimination in a sampl'\" of healthy young adult~.Twelve healthy adults were given a meal of 150 g of gari containing cyanohydrin with 128 flmol maximum releasable cyanide~ ions. Concentrations of cyanide in erythrocytes and plasma, and concentrations of thioeyanate in plasma and saliva were determined at baseline, and following the meal every 15 mins for one hour, hourly for 4 four hours, and 2 hourly from 4 to 12 hours. Excretion of thiocyanate was determined in the urine 12 hours before the meal, at two 6 hourly periods after the meal and finally from 12 to 24 hours after the meal.At baseline, geometrical mean concentration of cyanide was 1 IlmollL (0-1) in erythrocytes, and 5 ,..mol/L (2-17) in plElsma, while thiocyanate was 37 ,..mollL (22-61) in plasma, and 449 ,..molfL (17B-913) in saliva (Table 11). Cyanide peaked in plasma at 10 jlmollL (2-26) in 8.4 hrs (range 8-10), and returned to baseline in 11.8 hours (10-12), but concentrations remained unchanged in erythrocytes. Thiocyanate peaked in plasma at 46 J.lmolfL (32-88) in 7,3 hours (4-10), and returned to baseline in 12.5 hours (10-24), while it peaked in saliva at 744 jlmollL (266 -1839) in 7,1 hours (2-10) and returned to baseline in 12.7 hours (8-24). Excretion of thiocyanate in the urine increased from 1.6 jlmollL (0.7-3,0) at baseline to 2.0 ,..molfL (0.9•3.4) during the first 6 hours after the meal and returned to 1.5 f1mol/L (0.7-2.7) 12 hours after the meal. Twelve f1mol (2-31), about 9% (2-24), of ingested cyanide was absOl.'bed into systemic circulation.Less than 10% of ingested cyanide was absorbed into systemic circulation, but the elimination from the plasma was slow suggesting that frequent consumption of foods with high residual cyanogens would lead to accumulation of cyanide. The kinetics of dietary cyanide may have implications for the causation of TAN.  Various cassava plant parts were preserved for utilization as livestock feed as follows:1. Cassava peels (sun dried and milled)2. Cassava chips (sun dried and milled;.3. Cassava whole leaf (sun dried and milled)4. Cassava seed cake (roasted and milled)5. Cassava chips ensiled (pre-dried for 8 hours, ensiled under anaerobic conditions for 5 weeks, dried and milled)6. Cassava leaf ensiled (pre-dried for 3 hours, ensiled under anaerobic conditions for 5 weeks, dried and milled)7. Cassava feed composite of peel, ch!ps, leaves, and seed cake (1-4 above) in equal proportions)The proximate composition and cyanogenic potential were subsequently assessed. The various plant parts and their combinations varied in term of nutritive value (Table 12).Whole leaf (sun dried and milled) and seed cake (roasted and milled) had the highest protein content of roughly 25%. Ensiled. cassava leaf (dried and milled) had the highest fat content of 6.7% and was followed by whole leaf (sun dried and milled). Crude fiber and ash contents were highest in the cassava seed cake (roasted and milled). Cassava peels (sundried and milled) had the hit:hest moisture content. For all cases, except for the cassava seed cake (roasted and milled) and cassava peels (sundried and milled) which were not assessed, the cyanogenic potential was less that 5 mgllOOg of fresh weight, which is the recommended sa£~ limit. The cyanogenic potential of the ensiled cassava leaf was not detectable. The poultry industry absorbs over 90% of manufactured livestock feeds in Nigeria. The supply of maize, which is a major comp'ment of such feeds, has been drastically reduced due to high cost and competing needs for it from other industries. Cassava stands as a viable alternative to maize in the feed-milling industry because a combination of cassava roots and leaves could provide an optimal balance of energy and protein in the feed at a reduced cost. Pigs, which are commonly fed palm kernel cake (PKC) could greatly benefit from the addition of the cassava root-leaf mixture to improve the performance of pigsThe problem of cassava usage for liv,~stock feeding has been related to its form of presentation. In the European Union where cassava is popularly used in livestock feeding, the cassava is palletized. \\Vher,eas in a few farms and feedmills where it is used in Nigeria, it is presented in a milled form thus creating problem of dustiness in feed mills and respiratory disorders in the aEimals consuming the feed.The present study was designed to evaluate the performance of layers and growing pigs on maize, milled or palletized cassava based rations. The trial aims at comparing performance on conventional maize baE.ed ration and new cassava formulations in the rural livestock farm setting. This activil;Y aims at obtaining cassava rations that can be packaged for promotion to farmers in Nigeria and other tropical countries.A total of 48 laying birds of the Isa Brown strain were weighed and allotted to three treatment groups and paired in battery cages. There were 16 birds per treatment; with four replicates of four birds each. The birds were offered maize, milled cassava, or palletized cassava rations as in TablE' 13. Feed and water was offered ad libitum.Weekly feed consumption and daily egg production were determined. Body weights were also measured at four weekly intervals. Biochemical parameters measured include blood cholesterol and nutrient digestibility. :E:gg quality characteristics were also monitored. The trial lasted eight weeks. For the pig feeding experiment, a total of twenty growing pigs were allotted to five treatment groups with two replicates of two pigs each. They were offered a commercial cereal based ration, threshed cassave. ration, milled cassava based ration, pelleted cassava based ration and palm kernel cake (PKC) which is the rural farmer ration (Table 14). Pigs were offered the ration as supplement to a bulk of palm kernel cake (PKC) in a ratio of 4: 1 PKC to supplement. Feed and water were provided and libitum.Weekly body weight and feed consumption were obtained. Serum cholesterol was also measured on termination of the study aJ'ter eight weeks trial.Whole cassava storage roots and leaveil were harvested from UTA experimental plots. They were washed and separately threshed, sundried with occasional turning of the tubers for a period of between three and seven days. They were then left to dry in a glass house before being milled into powder using a hammer mill. The dried milled storage roots and leaves were then, thoroughly mixed in a ration of 4:1.For the pelletized ration, a locally fabricated meat mincer was used to obtain the pelletized compound feed after treatmeLt with hot water, which was added in a ration of 4 parts. The performance records (Table 15) revealed that feed consumption was highest on the cassava pellet while those on the cassava mash were similar to the maize based diet. The hen day production was however poorest with cassava pellet diet. This trend is explainable by the higher feed consumftion on cassava pellet based diet which resulted in higher body weight of 1.9 kg as well as a high level of serum cholesterol of 146.8mg/100ml which is an indicator of higher fat deposition. The cassava pellet diet therefore promotes higher body weight I~ain but lower egg production. Certainly, the egg production can be improved upon throul:h incorporation of cheep fibrous ingredients into the pellet and feed thus giving a dual advantage of reduced feed cost and high egg production. The higher body weight !:ain on the cassava pellet diet also shows its potential for broiler production. Egg q'Jality characteristics were similar on the diets. Remarkably, the yolk color was supel'ior on the cassava pellet diet as compared to others. Feed cost per tonne was lower by about Nl,OOO on the cassava diets as compared to the maize (Control) diet. The performance records as in Table 16 show the superiority of pelleted cassava diets to others in terms of the body weight gain. Feed consumption was similar with an average of 2.5 kg/day on all treatments. Cost of feed was increased by supplementation of farmers' Palm kernel cake based diet with cassava or cereal by products. However, considering the period of attainment of a finisher body weight of 100 kg, it will take only 195 days or 6.5 months to attain 100 kg weight on the pelleted cassava diet aa compared to about 360 days or 12 months on thE! farmers' diet. A poorer response on the milled and threshed cassava diets further supports the need for adoption of pelletized feeds in pig production in Nigeria. While the cholesterol level was highest on the pelleted cassava diet, it should be noted that those values are within normal limit in grower finisher pig. Cassava can replace maize in lay'~r8' with reduced feed cost and satisfactory performance even when presented in a milled form as the dustiness is controlled through oil supplementation. Pelletized cassava ration has high potentials for layers if such diets contain fibrous ingredients to reduce fattiness in layers. Improvements in feed consumption and body weight shows high potentials in its use for broiler production. Improved egg yolk color 011 pelletized cassava diet shows the advantage of cassava leaf incorporation in such diets. Supplementation of the local farmers' diet of PKC with cassava in the milled, threshed or pelletized form improves body weight gain.Pelletizing cassava for pigs confers the advantage of a higher feed conversion, faster growth rate and reduction in period of attainment of market weight of 100 kg from about 12 months to 6.5 months.by I.K.Processing equipment (5) were purcha!,ed and delivered to Swaziland and Zimbabwe in the last quarter of year 2000. The installation of the equipment and operationalizing the pilot processing center is underway in these two countries. Cassava and sweetpotato multiplication and production plots have been established with the participation of farmers near the centers to provide raw materials for processing. Demonstration of processing techniques and exhibition of processed products and recipes have been carried out in selected communities and activities are expanding to other communities. Several field days have been conducted by local technicians and scientists in Swaziland and Zimbabwe with support from the ploject on cassava processing and utilization.by S.F., J.A. W, w.K.To expand the marketing opportunitieEl available to smallholder farmers, reduce their dependence on traders, improve the quality of intermediate cassava products and encourage take-up of cassava as input t,y a variety of end-users, a pilot processing plant in western Kenya has been initiated with the installation and testing of five processing equipment (manual chipper, manual ar.d motorized graters, screw press, hammer mill) and tested.The cassava-based processing equipment developed at ESARC were technically reviewed in collaboration with FAD and a web-based catalogue on prices, fabricators, output, numbers of equipment sold and technical drawings of these equipment are being compiled.Agronomic practices for sustained production of improved cultivarsCurrent farm level yield increases from adoption of improved cultivars, while substantial, do not realize the full yield potential of the new and improved cultivars. To achieve the full benefits of these impJ'Oved cultivars, it is necessary that smallholder farmers improve their crop management practices. To achieve this, participatory on• farm research to develop 'best practices' needs to be emphasized, but more critically, the capacity to translate, package and disseminate the results of this research to increasing numbers of smallholder farmers must be expanded throughout the region through partnerships.Cassava cultivation is expanding into the savannas as well as into some non• traditional areas of East and Southern Africa. Few data exists on the cropping systems, and little is known about cassava cultivation and its interaction with the prevailing systems. Also agronomic practices tend to be area specific, depending on the local soil type and weather, and other biotic and abiotic factors as well as sociDeconomic circumstances. A sustainable expansion of cassava in the savannas and other areas must lay emphasis on the dominant cropping systems to attra.ct the interest of the farmers. An understanding of the interactions between improved cassava genotypes and prevailing cropping systems can help in developing better ,:ultivars to be used in these agroecologies. Thus attention should be given to the crop al:ronomy and quality of planting material for the purpose of promoting systems of production that can sustain crop productivity in the longer term in these areas.Although cassava as a crop performs relatively well under harsh conditions, research has demonstrated profitable responses to improvements in crop and soil management. Cassava requires relatively little nitro~:en to achieve high yields, so that it responds to no more than lOOkglha of nitrogen after which diminishing marginal returns set in. Phosphorous is the most important nutrient for obtaining yield increase in cassava. It has slso been shown that cassava extracts more potassium from the soil than any other element. Potassium availability also affects tuber quality, since its deficiency leads to lower dry matter and starch content and consequently higher cyanide content. The relationships between the nutrient uptake and what the plants return to the soils by way of debris under continuos cultivation is not clearly understood.With increasing population pressure and continual degradation of the physical environment, increasing proportion of cassava cultivation is being done under very marginal conditions: unstable climates, unreliable rainfall, fragile, degraded poor soil.To sustain productivity under such a declining resource base calls for an evaluation of existing production practices and devE>lopment of improved management systems for both traditional and non•traditional cassava production areas. Various collaborative breeding experiments (on-station and on-farm) continued to be planned and executed, and monitored jointly with NARS partners including farmers, women organizations and NGOs in Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Chad. The active participation of end• users (e.g. farmers and processors) in the research and development process ensures, among other things, the relevance of the outputs to the end-users and increased the potential for adoption and impact.Twenty-five new genotypes were sele~ted from 6 trials harvested at 2 locations -Farakoba and Fada in Burkina Faso by 113 farmers and processors from 12 villages in Burkina Faso. Five of the genotypes, 91102324, 92/0067, 9210427, 91102312 and 4(2)1425 are being tested in on farm trials.Two hundred and fifty-five farmers from five villages (60% were women) evaluated and identified 36 new cassava cultivars from six on-station trials in Chad.In Niger, 190 farmers comprising 82 men and 108 women from 10 villages evaluated and identified 35 new genotypes from 4 on-station trials.Sixty-five farmers from Mallam Madori in Jigawa State, Nigeria evaluated and identified 25 new genotypes for the semlarid zone from 5 on-station trials.In Burkina Faso, 4 genotypes, 92/0057, Alice local (selected landrace from Nigeria), M94/0177 and 9410270 produced 30.2, 25.0, 24.6 and 20.1 tlha of fresh storage roots, respectively in 40 community• based on-farm trials involving 55 farmers' co-operatives across 15 villages. The 2 local checks had yields of 9.2 and 10 tlha. Apart from the farmers retaining planting materials to grow on larger areas, these on-farm trials of improved clones also provided planting materials, which benefited over three thousand farmers.The mean root yield of 12 improved gell>Jtypes evaluated by 700 farmers in 55 villages in Chad was 20.2 tlha with a range of 7. Five clusters of sites (Gulu, Mukono, Lira, Luero and Kumi) in Uganda with a total of 80 farmers, each receiving 5 clones we re selected for on farm evaluation using an augmented design. It is anticipated that this arrangement will facilitate researcherfarmer collaboration, farmer particip 9.tion in early identification of cultivars and improve technology uptake pathway.Similar trials are being conducted in W'lstern Kenya. Fourteen elite clones multiplied in 1999 are being tested on-farm using nn augmented design. Preliminary results from these trials indicated that over 90% of the entries have consistently shown no symptoms of cassava mosaic disease.Four cassava cultivars currently under multiplication were established in January, 2000 in a field trial in Mudzi District with the collaboration of World Vision International. The trial will be harvested in January 2001 and the farmer-preferred cultivars will be multiplied in the area for distribution. Preliminary results indicated that the local cultivar (SMART) and one improved cultivars (M7) performed well. It is expected that another trial with 10 IITA improved cultivars will be established in the District next season. Three-year cassava yield data obtained from crop mixtures were analyzed in this study.The cassava mixtures were cassava + yam + maize + pigeon pea, cassava + maize + pigeon pea, cassava + pigeon pea, and. sole cassava. All were grown in a randomized complete block design replicated trice in two locations of different land use history. The objective was to assess the performanc:e of cassava in the selected crop mixtures over three years. The soil management technique involved returning the crop residue to the plots. The two locations were a virgin forest cleared in 1998 at the inception of the project and the UNN farm that had been under cultivation for more than 25 years earlier. Generally there were large reductions in root yield between the first and second crop year but there was a very slight increase in root yield between the second and the third year except in plots where all the crops were combined. At the forest location and between 1998 and 1999, the average root yield reduction across the crop mixtures was 42% with the highest reduction of 50% obtained from the sole cassava plots and the least 32% from plots where all crops were combined. At the UNN farm the mean root yield reduction was >70% with 81% obtained from cassava + maize + pigeon pea as the highest and 63% from plots that carried all the crops as the least. The mean reduction in harvest index (HI) over the same periocl and location was low. Between 1999 and 2000 there was <10% average increase in root yield across the crop mixtures and locations. Reduction in root yield, however, ooeurr od in plots that carried all the crops. There were increases in harvest index especially at the forest location with a mean of >65%. On the other hand, there was an average reduction of HI at the UNN location. The overall trend from 1998 to 2000 showed that the mean reduction in root yield was about 35% at the forest location, 70% at the UNN location, increase in HI of about 60% at the forest location and a reduction of about 20% at the UNN location. The extent of yield reduction in both locations clearly showed the need for supplemental mineral fertilizer application for the sustain ability of the system in bc,th soils.No results to report in 2000.byG.T.No results to report in 2000.Response of cassava to N, P, and K on degraded terre de barre soils in southern BeninThe 'terre de barre' soils of southern Benin and Togo have good physical properties but are known to be naturally low in exchangeable K, an important nutrient for cassava. A trial was initiated on 15 farmers fields (repetitions) on a relatively fertile 'terre de barre' site (Hayakpa 2°08'E; 6°33'N). The objectives include validation of critical K levels as well as estimation of recycling of Kin eassava litter. Litter traps measuring 1 m' were located in unamended, K only, and NPf~ treatments of ten repetitions. Other treatments include NP, NK, and PK combinations. Our working hypothesis is that K is the limiting element for cassava root production. Irdex leaves for critical K levels are the youngest fully expanded leaves (YFEL) at 6 MAP. Cassava cultivar BEN 86052 is being used. The trials were established in May, 1999 and weeds were very well managed. Monthly litter collection began at 5 months after plaating (MAP) and dry matter of four plants was estimated in each plot at 6, 9, and 12 M!\\P.Leaf litterfall was an important fraction of the total dry matter. At 6 MAP mean cumulative leaf litter accounted for 14;0 18% of total dry matter and at 9 and 12 MAP cumulative leaf litter was 25 to 30% of total dry matter, amounting to more than 3 tlha (Table 17). Nutrient concentration in the litter was estimated at 9 MAP. Assuming the same nutrient concentrations throughcut the year, the nutrient recycled to the Boil in litter was approximately 5 kg P, 40 kg K, and 80 kg Nlha (Table 18).There was no significant response to N, P, or K fertilizer on the 15 fields on which the test was conducted. Fresh storage root yield by field averaged from 14.3 to 24.4 tJha and storage root dry matter yield was 4.3 tc' 7.5 tlha. Because cassava did not respond to N, P, or K it was not possible to estimate critical soil levels of these nutrients. The fields were relatively fertile. Organic carbon ranged from 8 to 12 g/kg and clay content was 100 to 180 g/kg. Mean Bray'! P was 6.1 ppm (std dev. 1.6) and mean exchangeable K was 0.13 cmol(+)/kg (std dev. 0.04). Exchangeable Ca was 6 cmol(+)/kg (std dev. 1.2). Note that P was applied as TSP, which contains 12 to 16% Ca. Although the response to K was not significant, some evidence that K was limiting includes:• K concentration in the youngest fully expanded leaves at 6 MAP responded significantly to K application, from 1.7% without K applied to 2.0% with K applied. But these levels are in the sufficient range as proposed previous authors.• Storage root yield increase from K application averaged approximately 1 tJha when exchangeable K was 0.13 cmol(+)/kg or below while on average mean storage root yield did not increase with K application if exchangeable K was above 0.13 cmol(+)/kg.Table 17. Cumulative cassava litter dry matter (Mglha) and proportion (%) of total plant dry matter in 10 farmers' fields in southern Benin ------6 months --------. ----9 months -----------12 months ------ This activity was put on hold for lack of a good Ph.D. student to undertake the studies.Nutrient Management for Hlgh•Yielding Cassava in the Derived Savanna and Southern Guinea Savanna by 0.0., O.TThe agronomic performances of newly improved high yielding cultivars such as 91102324 with multiple disease resistance in various agroecological zones have not been adequately studied with respect to nutl'ient management. A trial was initiated in 2000 to determine the \"critical nutrient requirements\" of Nand K for such cultivar and thereby design economically optimal rates of fertilizer for the derived savanna (DS) and southern Guinea savanna (SGS). The trials involve factorial fertilization rates of N up to 150 kg ha'] and K up to 300 kg ha• t . The other aspect ofthis activity is to design a proper nutrient management package that involves the use of chemical fertilizer, animal farm yard manure, and nutrients recycled from cassava plant residues. A preliminary report on this activity will be available at the end of 2001.Recognizing the growing importance of cassava research in Africa over the years, a mutually beneficial collaboration through meetings, workshops, newsletter, exchange visits, training and technical backstopping are essential to build the institutional capacity of our NARS partners and contacts between personnel working with the crop. A website (www.cgiar.org/foodnet) eSlablished for the food network of East Africa (FOODNET) to avail regional partners with information about current events in the network and to provide a site for collating project and associated R&D information has been taken as the template for the recent construction of 14 regional network websites, which comprise the ASARECA portfolic.A training workshop on cassava procee.sing techniques was conducted and attended by 15 participants, mostly home economists from Lesotho and Swaziland. Several processing demonstrations were carried out in Swaziland and Zimbabwe with the aim of expanding the utilization of cassava_ On-ground training of farmers in rapid multiplication techniques and agronomic practices of both cassava and Bweetpotato were also carried out in Swaziland and Zimbabwe.Training and field days in the West :ilnd Central Africa by NABS -in collaboratiolt with A.D. and P. nona.Farmers' field days were organized in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Nigeria during the harvesting of trials. Farmers and farmers' groups, women organizations, other endusers and stakeholders e.g_ NGOs were exposed to improved genotypes, 'best bet' production practices and expanded utili:~ation of cassava.In Burkina Faso, new production and processing technologies which included presprouting stakes in polythene bags to reduce termite damage, early planting to reduce the period of stress on cassava, and use of organic manure to improve soil fertility were demonstrated to 113 farmers from 12 villages_ In addition, women were taught to process cassava into couscous and to make confectioneries from unfermented cassava from four regions (Coyah, Kindia, Mam)n and Dalaba) to produce an estimated 150,000 planting stakes for distribution to farmE,rs in 200l.In Niger, planting materials (5000 stakes) of 4(2)1425 and M85/01887 were supplied to additional farmers in two villages (Barna and Tara). At Lossa and Bengou, 50,000 stakes of five improved cassava cultivars were produced. Fifteen thousand stakes were used to establish new multiplication fields on-station, and 20 000 stakes were multiplied in farmers fields. The rest was distributed to farmers through the extension service unit ofINRAN and through NGOs (SIM International and World Vision International).In by NARSin collaboration with, J_A. W. and W.K.In collaboration with various stakebolders, all EARRNET member countries are implementing rapid multiplication and distribution of improved planting material to accelerate impact at the farm level. In Uganda, over 100,000 hectares have been planted to at least four improved CMD-resistant cassava cultivars throughout the country.In Rwanda, planting material generated from five secondary sites (Kibungo, Kanzenze, Kibayi, Makingi and Rutobwe) have been made available to plant about 200ha. In addition, about 120,000 cuttings of five improved cultivars (NASE 3, TME 14, 19110057, 95NAl0063 and MH95/0414) were introduced into Rwanda from NAROIIITA collaborative program via open quarantine facilities to be planted in Kibungo and Nyagatare for in country observation before multiplication and distribution to farmers.In Western Kenya, cultivars SS4 and Migyera continued to be multiplied at primary (79ha.), secondary (31ha), and tertiary (339ha), respectively. Despite the serious drought experienced and damage due to termitos, sprouting was reported satisfactory. So far, a total of 2395 bags (2,395,000 cuttings) expected to plant about 450 hectares have been distributed from the seven initial primary sites.In Madagascar three locally developed H63, H43 and H59 are being multiplied in collaboration with CARE internationaLby NABS -in collaboration with, J. T. and M.A.Multiplication and distribution of ca,ssava planting materials in Zimbabwe and Swaziland by I.K. -in collaboration with NABS Nine cassava cultivars (X.\\f4, XM6, M7, TMS 82/30555, TMS 82/00075, and TMS 82/00061 and 3 local cultivars in Zimbabwe, and one local cultivar (Mnyasa) in Swaziland are being multiplied for distribution. In Zimbabwe, about 52 ha of multiplication have been established and 51,000 cuttings have been distributed to growers. Three primary and six secondary sites have been established. Multiplication activities will be expanded at the present sites and new sites will be established. Organizations (NGOs) such as World Vision and Africare have also established multiplication plots in their constituencies using materials from the primary sites established. These organizations have plans to expand their multiplication area and conduct on-farm trials during the next season.In Swaziland more than 5 ha of the ca;;sava cultivar, Mnyasa, are under multiplication in two primary sites. The materials p:~oduced will be used to expand the area under multiplication to 20 ha and the remainhg materials will be distributed to the farmers.by All scientists EARRNET The regional EARRNET Agronomist visited Karama station in Rwanda from 9-12 August, 2000 to provide technical backstopping to the Cassava program. Dr. Khizzah reviewed the germplasm at Karama and made a number of recommendations for new introductions and selections. He visited again the program in November to assess the farmers cassava fields identified for a possible source of cassava cuttings to fulfill a special request of 5,000,000 cuttings by the Ministry of Agriculture. The fields visited by him were found to have a high infestation of cassava mosaic virus, and he recommended that these fields should not be as a source for supplying the cuttings_ IITA-ESARC As considerable concern has been expressed about the continued spread of the new and more virulent form of the cassava mosaic virus within the Great Lakes Region. Dr. James Legg, a virologist from !ITA-Uganda, visited Rwanda to conduct a disease survey in collaboration with ISAR scientists, to ascertain the disease status in the country.Results indicated that most of the eassava growing areas of Rwanda, have a low incidence of mild to moderate cassava mosaic disease (CMD). This form of the disease is largely propagated through planting diseased cuttings. In the Umutara prefectme, and also in Kibungu prefecture, there is a low incidence of moderate to severe CMD, which has been recently introduced through whitefly infection. This zone is considered to be an expansion of the CMD pandemic into north-eastern Rwanda from the bordering areas of southern Uganda and north-western Tanzania known already to be affected by the pandemic.In addition, backstopping was also :provided to the National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRl) in Nigeria in the identification and nomination of genotypes for the statutory National Coordinated Research Project (NCRP) trials required for the release of cultivars to farmers and participation in the joint evaluation of performance of improved cassava clones.The coordinator of this project attended the Annual Steering Committee Meeting of the Root Crop Networks and provides technical backstopping to the coordination office and member countries on cassava research and development. Project members also provide technical advice and assistance to the networks coordination office and member countries.by A.D., N.M., I.K., N.M. J.A. W. S.F, S.K .. J\".L., R.H. M. T.Recognizing the growing importance of root and tuber crops research in Africa, National and UTA scientists working on root crops have developed a mutually beneficial collaboration through meetings, workshops and symposia. The aim of these forums are to evaluate research results, and plan future research taking note of research successes and failures; exchange new knowledge; standardize procedures; assess research needs; and plan future collaborative research through steering committee meetings, root crop collaborators meeting, root crop work,hops and symposia, scientist exchange visits, technical backstopping and monitoring wurs, and newsletters.Collaboration with CIAT continues to be strengthened through exchange visits and joint activities/proposal writing, and germplasm exchange for the enhancement of cassava research and development in SSA.In 2000, a meeting was organized to explore the possibilities for establishing closer links between !ITA and CIAT in relation to research and development activities on market analysis and agribusiness development for cassava in Eastern and Southern Africa. The request for assistance from the CIAT's Rural Agro-enterprise Development project was made by the SARRNET project following the events that occurred after the steering committee meeting in Malawi, March, 2000. At this preliminary meeting, the CIAT team made three visits to (i) Ibadan, Nigeria (IITA headquarters), (ii) Kampala, Uganda (UTA regional Center for Eastern and Southern Africa) and to (iii) Lilongwe, Malawi, headquarters of the SARRNET project. The objectives of these meetings were to (i) introduce the CIAT team to the !ITA cassava research and development team, (ii) provide the CIAT team with a clear understanding of the new R&D strategies being developed at IITA (West and Easter!:, Africa) and in particular to (iii) review the strategy and activities of the second phase of the SARRNET project and seek ways to shift the SARRNET research agenda towards a more market driven approach. It was also the desire of the IITA management that although the input from the CIAT group would focus on the activities in Southem Africa, the effects of the interaction with the !ITA scientists would also percolate into the thinking and research implementation plans of cassava R&D in all zones of IITA operations.Reports by FAO and others in 1999 and 2000 on the western and eastern parts of the country indicated that there had been a dramatic decline in the health status of cassava and that annual production was significantly decreasing. It was a matter of concern as it was likely to worsen the existing food deficit given that cassava is a staple food for 70% of the population. Several cases of famine and serious food insecurity had been reported in some regions. Moreover, it was also reported that in addition to traditional diseases and pests, other strains of cassava mosaic virus as well as other unidentified pests were constraints to cassava production and that this situation required urgent and concrete measures. In recent years, CMD has also caused devastation to cassava production in East Africa following the rapid spread of a new and abnormally virulent form of the disease• causing virus.In the light of this, a Consultative Group composed of representatives of FAO, the Ministry of Agriculture, donors, INERA scientists, the private sector, and other partners in the DRC invited a team of scientists from IITA (2 cassava breeders, a virologist, and 2 entomologists) to visit the DRC. The purpose was to assist in the assessment of the phytosanitary status of cassava in the country, and participate in the development of an action plan to reinvigorate cassava cultivation. The UTA team, INERA scientists, and FAO staff collectively undertook field visits in December 2000 to Kinshasa and Bas Congo provinces. Cassava fields were f.ssessed in the Plateau de Bateke (150 km from Kinshasa on the road to Kikwit), Kinflhasa, and between Kinshasa and Boma in the Bas-Fleuve District, Bas•Congo. In all be fields visited, CMD•infected leaf samples were systematically collected and DNA extracted for appropriate analysis at IITA after the visit.The field visits and findings of the IITA team confirmed the alarming phytosanitary situation of cassava in the country. As opposed to other African countries, all the diseases and pests reported in Africa were found in the fields visited. CMD was the most widespread and damaging constraint. Symptoms of CMD observed in the cassava cultivar 'Sedi' in the Plateau de Bateke were identical to those associated with the CMD pandemic in East Africa. The occurrence of both severe and mild CMD symptoms in different plants of the same cultivar susgested that more than one cassava mosaic virus and/or virus mixtures occur in the DRC. Laboratory analysis was also carried out at IITA after the visit on virus samples collected from 30 plants throughout the areas assessed in the western DRC. The results showed that there is a fairly strong indication that the Ugandan variant of East Afri8an cassava mosaic virus (EACMV•Ug) occurred virtually throughout the areas sampled. Overall, it was unanimously recognized that farmers in the DRC were suffering from major losses in cassava production caused by diseases and pests. In addition to the prevailing insecurity situation and the resulting disturbance of trading activities, the ph:rtosanitary situation of cassava has compounded the general food insecurity in the country.In the light of the findings, the followin,: recommendation were made:• Establish decentralized and primary, secondary and tertiary rapid multiplication sites and distribution system of CMD•resistant cultivars in strategic locations in all the most recently affected areas in 11 provinces in the DRC• Develop a multilateral•funded program to address present constraints in cassava production as the basis of sustainable production• Establish a multi•institutional collaboration framework for the implementation of the multilateral•funded program. Institutional partners will be FAO, SEcm, UTA, INERA, the relevant Technical Services Departments of the Ministry of Agriculture, NGOs, and the private sector• Assess the status of cassava disease:l and pests in all the accessible areas in the ORC and plant quarantine needs for cassava germplasm.• Capitalize on the multilateral funded program and institutional collaboration in order to develop a foundation seed program and distribute new high yielding germ plasm for specific uses. The program should also include the rehabilitation of the tissue culture facilities at M'Vuazi, the development of new technologies for a management system of various diseases and pests, the adoption of sustainable production and new cassava marketing approaches in the ORC, and capacity building in cassava research and developmentThe IITA team had the opportunity to report the findings of the visit and present their recommendations to the Government of the DRC, and to the international community during a planned feedback session wit;:} local representatives of donors in the country, and international and local NGOs. The representatives of the international community, already aware of the precarious food Bituation of the populations in ORC, notably in major cities such as Kinshasa, welcomed the recommendations presented by the IITA team. It was unanimously acknowledged that cassava is a key food crop for the great majority of the population and that thEre is an urgent requirement to adopt a coherent strategy in the face of the situation. The team was requested to submit in collaboration with the other partners, FAO and SECID, a proposal for a multilateral funded program. To effectively utilize the limited root crops resources in the East and Southern Africa region, EARRNET and SARRNET bring• together root crop researchers in the respective regions, and link them to UTA and other relevant organizations for technical assistance.The coordination offices of the two networks collaborate with institutions that contribute to strengthen capacities of national programs to effectively and efficiently address their cassava research objectives.The coordination of the Multiplication Project for Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho was fully implemented in all aspects ranging from administration, scientific matters, and public relations. Three quarterly reports were submitted to UTA, Donor and distributed to NARS. The financial reports were also regularly submitted. New collaborators were identified for multiplication and distribution of planting materials and plans to establish nurseries discussed. The project in collaboration with NGOs in Zimbabwe (World Vision International, Africare, SALlmD TRUST and ORAP) has established multiplication plots and diE,tributed planting materials to farmers in areas affected by droughts and floods in Mud.zi, Mutoko, Manicaland, Tsholotsho, Shurugwe, and Beitbridge accounted for >70% variation in cassava. root yields and harvest index. Both soil physical and chemical properties contributed but the former (particularly macroporosity, microporosity, total porosity and bulk density) contributed more. Selected soil variables also accounted for >70% variation in yam tuber yield and shape index of tubers especially in 1998. In both crop years chemical properties appeared to dominate over the physical ones. Soil variables accounted for between 51 and 97% of variations in maize grain and stover yields. The only exception was the 44% obtained at the forest location in 1998. Soil pH, total exchangeable acidity and microporosity were particularly important contributors to the variations in both maize yield parameters. The contributions of soil variables to pigeon pea yield parameters were particularly low « 50%) except in 1999 at the forest 10catiJn where seven soil variables accounted for over 85% variation in seed yield. Generally from the study it was obvious that soil variables were important determinants of yield variations in the four crops. It was also shown that physical properties should always be included in this kind of analysis. Again the number of soil variables selected generally increased when the level of soil properties was low as was the case with the cultivated site Vs forest site, and 1999 Vs 1998 analysis. Thus increasing the number of soil variables used and partitioning them into more homogeneous units helped to improve the results obtained using the procedure. In Africa, the whitefly transmitted African cassava mosaic geminivirus CACM\\!) constitutes a major threat to the live of millions of people that depend on cassava as a major component of their carbohydrate diet. A survey was carried out between 1996 and 1997 on a field planted in three raplicates with five clones of cassava at the International Institute of Tropical Agrkulture, Ibadan, located in a transition forest, to determine the effects of cassava genotype and climate on the development of ACMV, and changes in B. tabaci population. Cassava genotype and climate, and their interactions have significant CP<O.Ol) effects on the population of B. tabaci and the development of ACMV. Incidence of ACMV was significantly (P<O.Ol) higher in clones 81101635 and 9210520 than in TMSI30572 and 94/023~, while 91102327 showed the highest resistance.Positive correlation between incidence and severity of African cassava mosaic virus was observed, but they did not however corr'llate with whitefly population density. Crop yields obtained from crop mixture!1 grown in a newly cleared virgin forestland were compared with those from a previously eultivated farmland (UNN farm). The aim was to assess how the performance of the crop!; and their mixtures varies between the two sites without additional soil amendments. The study was on the commonest staples in the area, cassava, yam, maize and pigeon pea as pure stands and all four combined. as well as cassava + maize + pigeon pea and cassava + pigeon pea intercrops. Both the sole and crop combinations were grown in a ranccomized complete block design in three replicates in the two locations for 2 years. Various yield parameters and soil properties were measured for the period. Generally a greater number of soil physicochemical properties were considered agronomically better in the forest than in the previously cultivated land. These soil properties may constitute the driving force for significantly (p:s0.05) higher crop yields in the forestland and include: macroporosity, bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, coarse sand content, pH, soil organic matter, total N, exchangeable acidity and Fe as well as base saturation. In both years, the highest cassava root yields were obtained from either cassava + maize + pigeon pea or cassava + maize intercrops (not from sole cassava plots) even though the only significant (p:s0.05) difference obtained was between cassava + maize + pigeon pea and all four crops combined, and at the UNN farm only. rhis suggests that it is even disadvantageous to grow cassava as a sole crop in the area Cassava root yield reduction in 1999 relative to 1998 was higher (70%) in the UNN fa.rm-than in the forestland (40%). There was no significant difference due to crop combination on yam tuber yield in both locations in 1998. However, in 1999 sale yam plots gave significantly higher yields than cassava + yam + maize +pigeon pea plots. Increase in tuber yields was obtained in 1999 over 1998 in both locations but it was smaller «3%) in the forest than in the UNN farm (27%).There was no significant difference due to crop combination on maize grain yield. The pigeon pea yields obtained from sale pigeon pea plots in the forest locations in both years were significantly (p :s 0.05) higher than those obtained from the other plots except in the case of cassava + maize + pigeon pea in 1999 where the difference was not significant. With the land equivalent ratio (LER) obtained ranging from about 1.16 to 3.66, the study shows clearly that it was much better to grow the test crops in mixtures than in pure stands. The number of ClOpS in the mixture should, however, not exceed three as an additional crop led to depressed LER. The recommended intercrop mixture was, therefore, cassava + maize + pigeon pea. To determine the occurrence of variants of African cassava mosaic virus 316 cassava leaf samples were collected from mosaic affected cassava plants in 254 farmers' fields in 1997 and 1998, covering the humid fore$t, coastal/derived, southern Guinea and northern Guinea savannas and semiarid and arid agroecologies of Nigeria. The samples were tested in triple antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using a panel of monoclonal antibodies against the virus; 29 reaction patterns were observed which, in cluster analysis, gave nine serogroups at 0.80 Jaccard similarity coefficient index. Isolates of serogroups one, two, four, and eight were widely distributed while those of the other serogroups were restricted to certain agroecologies. Four representative isolates of serogroups one, two, and eight produced distinct symptoms in biological assays. Polymerase chain rea~tion test indicated that the four isolates belong to two strains with members that can produce mild and severe symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana Domin. The random distribution of these variants in the agroecologies, especially in the humid forest, derived/coastal. and southern Guinea savannas makes such agroecologies suitable for the selection of resistant cassava clones against ACMV. Axillary buds and bark samples of re'sistant, moderately resistant, and susceptible (control) cassava genotypes naturally infected under field conditions and artificially inoculated by grafting in the greenhous,~ were indexed for African cassava mosaic virus using enzyme•linked immunosorbent assay and polymerase chain reaction. This was to determine the distribution of the virus within the plant, thereby elucidating the response of the genotypes to virus movement. Significantly more bud and bark samples tested positive to the virus on the susceptible genotype TME 117 than on the resistant TMS 30001 and TMS 91(02319 and the moderately resistant TMS 30572. Virus titre was significantly lower in buds of the two categories of resistant genotypes than in those of the susceptible control. Buds of the main stem were significantly more infected than those of primary and secondary branches under field conditions but such a gradient was not obvious with bark samples. Shoots that recovered from symptoms on the field and in the greenhouse had no virus in theil: buds but some of their bark samples tested positive. There was significant interaction between cropping season and stem types in the detection of virus in the bud and bark samples. Also significant was interaction among cropping season, genotypes, and stem types in virus detection in bark samples of TMS 30572 and TME 117. Resistance to virus movement was established in the resistant and moderately resistant glJnotypes, and seemed to be directed towards keeping the axillary buds virus-free. 'Ibis probably explains reversion in the crop, in which infected stems of resistant gen.)types could sprout into healthy plants in the subsequent generation. To determine the relationships between symptom severity and virus concentration, and tolerance to disease, cassava genotypf's with different levels of resistance to African cassava mosaic virus were assessed under natural infection by the virus in 1997/98 and 1998/99 cropping seasons. The disease !leverity was lowest significantly (P < 0.05) on the resistant (R) genotypes than on the moderately resistant (MR) and susceptible (S) genotypes. However, genotype NR 8083 (R) was as diseased as TMS 30572 (MR). The moderately resistant genotypes were significantly (P < 0.01) less diseased than the susceptible genotypes. Nevertheless, similar virus concentrations were observed in TMS 30572 (MR), NR 8082 (MR), TMS 91934 (S), and TME 117 (S) as determined by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay. Also similar virus concentrations were found in NR 8083 (R) and TMS 91934 (S). TME 8 (R) recorded the lowest virus concentration, which was significantly (P < 0.05) different from those of the other genotypes. There was significant interaction (P < 0.05) between cropping season and virus concentration in all the genotypes except TMS 30572. Yield loases by the genotypes were proportional to their disease severity scores. Tolerance to the disease was, therefore, not established among the genotypes. The severity of symptoms expressed was not necessarily a reflection of the virus concentration in the genotypes, which suggests a resistance response to symptom development. In a diagnostic survey in 1997 and 1998 to determine the status of cassava mosaic begomoviruses in Nigeria, East African cassava mosaic virus (EACMV) was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique in double infections with Mrican cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) in 27 out of 290 eassava leaf samples of infected plants from 254 farmers' fields in five agroecological zones. One plant had EACMV alone. This and the doubly infected plants occurred in the humid forest, coastal/derived and southern Guinea savannas but not in the northe:m guinea savanna and arid and semiarid zones, Doubly infected plants were more sev'lrely diseased than those with single infection. Three EACMV variants were observed based on cluster analysis of the reactions of the 28 isolates with five primers specific for the detection of Cameroonian and East Mrican isolates of EACMV. Type 1 variant occurred in the three agroecological regions where the virus was detected, while type 2 wan limited to the coastal/derived savanna and type 3 to the humid forest region. The prel3ence of doubly infected plants and variants of EACMV in the three agroecologies make these regions suitable for the selection of resistant cassava genotypes.     Project 2};> The virus causing banana die-back was detected with primers designed against nepoviruses using RT-PCR, and its field spread as well as that of banana streak virus (BSV) , genus Badnavirus, was confirmed using monoclonal antibodies. Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), genus Cucumovirus (subgroups A and B) and associated symptoms in hybrids and landraces and severa'[ weed hosts are more prevalent than previously recorded and may account for some of the BSV-like symptoms.};> Unidentified hymenopteran egg parasitoids and dipteran larval parasitoids of banana weevil were detected in Sumatra (Indonesia), the area of origin of the pest, opening prospects for classical biological control.};> An improved procedure to observe meiotic chromosomes was developed and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fragments specific for the A and B genomes were cloned and sequenced to make more specific primers. An AFLP fragment associated with fruit parthenocarpy was identified by bulk segregant analysis of a diploid population.};> Breeding triploid plantain from diploid parents through unilateral sexual polyploidization (2n gamete) was achieved, and resistance to Radopholus similis was identified in 12 diploid hybrids that had been selected for resistance to black Sigatoka and good plant and bunch characteristics. A BSV-tolerant secondary triploid plantain hybrid (TM3x 26636-2) with high yield, excellent fruit characteristics, and resistance to black Sigatoka was derived from R BSV-susceptible primary tetraploid hybrid.};> An efficient genotype-independent in vitro regeneration protocol from apical shoot meristems was developed and standardized; transient expression of GUS (uidA) gene was achieved by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.};> Eight scientists in Cameroon were trained on virus diagnostics, two scientists in Rwanda on nematode identification, and one technician from Benin on cultivar evaluation. A workshop was organi~:ed to set up a strategy for delivery of improved hybrids to farmers in Nigeria. Adopti,m of technologies to reverse the decline in banana plantations was achieved through farmer participatory evaluation of soil fertility conservation techniques and weevil'Xlntrol through residue managementImproving cowpea-eerea\\ systems in the dry savannas };> Over 500 new cowpea breeding lines were developed and tested at selected locations and promising lines were selected. Of these, IT97K-499-39, IT97K-608-14, IT97K-366-1, IT97K-560-1, IT97K-568-18, IT97K-li68-19, IT97K-556-4, IT98K-277-1, IT98K-423-13, and IT98K-131-1 were outstanding. Major differences were observed between varieties for grain and fodder yields under po,)r fertility_ };> IITNILRI/ICRISATlKano Agricult'lral Development Project participatory trials revealed 100-300% gross economic uuperiority of the improved 2 rows cereal: 4 raws cowpea strip cropping system compecred to the 1 raw : 1 row traditional intercropping system. This was found ideal for crap•-livestock integration, and feeding of residues from the improved system resulted in higher weight gain in sheep.}> Farmers showed great appreciation for improved cowpea variety IT93KZ-4-5-6-1-6 for its resistance to Striga in Abomey plateau of southern Benin where the local varieties are highly susceptible.}> Major differences were observed among cowpea varieties for protein content, cooking time, and seed hardness.}> A total of 139 sets of cowpea international trials and 225 sets of special nurseries were sent to international collaborators.}> Extra-early maize varieties 97TZEE-Y2Cc1 and 97TZEE-Y STR and early-maturing soybean varieties TGX1871 }> Some maize varieties were compared at 0, 30, and 90 kg Nlha at 2 sites in the Guinea savanna in Nigeria, The latest cycle of selection from the low N-tolerant pool (C3) produced consistently higher yields than a widely grown open-pollinated variety, TZB-SR, at all levels of nutrient supply. This variety also yielded as high as an N-efficient commercial hybrid, Oba Super II, at all N levels and had good agronomic features, }> A study was conducted to quantify the effect of phosphorus fertilizer and a soybean variety that stimulates the germinat:.on of Striga hermonthica on the emergence of this parasitic plant in subsequent maize crop in 3 farmers' fields, The results showed that this soybean cultivar reduced Strig.) parasitism on a succeeding maize crop and its effect on emergence ofthe parasitic plant increased with P application to the preceding soybean crop, }> A study was conducted to estimate the contribution of early-season cowpea to a lateseason early-maturing maize in a double cropping system. Maize grain yield from a plot preceded by early-season cowpea wae higher than the maize grain yield from a plot that received 30 kg Nlha. Thus, planting eowpea in the early season with adequate P supply appears to supply a small amount of N for the succeeding cereal crop in a double cropping system, » To improve the capacity and efficiency of NARS scientists to generate and transfer appropriate technologies in West and Central Africa, an impact assessment workshop, an advanced statistical computing 'course, and a monitoring tour to Nigeria and Cameroon were organized in 2000. In addition consultation visits were made to Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Chad by the WECAMAN Coordinator and selected Steering Committee members.» To strengthen the capacity of NARS scientists to generate and transfer appropriate technologies to farmers, a total of $197 300 was allocated to the collaborative research projects in member countries through the African Maize Stress and USAID projects. Through the funds, stress tolerance screening sites in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and Benin have been improved and made operationaL Also, quantities of seed of early and extra-eu-Iy varieties were produced in member countries through the community seed production scheme.Improving yam-based systems » A stakeholder analysis in Benin Republic showed that only experienced male yam growers are involved in the domestication of wild yams. The main reason for domestication is to select more productive varieties and to rejuvenate the pool of genetic material. The principal criterion for the selection of wild yams for domestication is the similarity of their leaves to those of cultivated varieties (58% of respondents).» Dioscorea mottle virus from D. alato was fully characterized and confirmed to be a member of the genus Comovirus usinl: serological, biological, and molecular techniques; the two strains of the virus (causing mottling, mild chlorosis, and necrosis) can be detected using IITA's monoclonal amibodies.}> It was demonstrated that D. alata plants that flower behave as quantitative short-day plants and that duration from the end of dormancy to flowering can be predicted.}> Short-day treatment applied at th,\" early stage of plant growth promoted rapid enlargement of tubers in D. rotundata, D. alata, and D. cayenensis. Differential responses of species and varieties were observed, suggesting the potential of the treatment in distinguishing between early-and late-maturing varieties.}> About 60% success was achieved in the grafting of vines from different yam varieties using the approach method. This sets the stage for further studies on yam flowering.}> One RAPD marker linked to a locus with a major effect on resistance to yam mosaic virus genus Potyvirus in D. rotundala was identified.» Three varieties of D. cayenensis were certified for export following meristem culture and virus indexing. Over 19000 minitubers of D. rotundata, out of 21 000 produced from virus-tested tissue culture plantlets, were delivered to NARS partners.}> The techniques for production of dry yam \"chips\" and the preparation of dishes based on yam flour were introduced from western Nigeria and Benin Republic to Burkina Faso, north Cameroon, and Cote d'Ivoire in order to add value to yams in urban markets.>-A press release on LUBILOSA was launched during International Centers Week in Washington creating a large amount of international publicity.>-Elevated levels offuugal infection among populations of accidentally introduced cassava green mite have been measured in tw) experimental release sites of exotic isolates of the pathogenic fungus Neozygites floridana in the Republic of Benin.>-The importance of UTA's insect collection was reflected by an increasing number of working visits by both regional and internationally recognized taxonomists. }> A number of cowpea breeding lines gave higher yields than local lines under no spray conditions at 3 sites in Nigeria. However, none of the lines was best at all locations, indicating possible G x E interactions.>-An Achishuru-type locallandrace cowpea line was found to exhibit resistance to flower thrips. Plant damage was low and similar to another landrace (Sanzi) from Ghana.Crosses were made to accumulate thH resistance.:0> Two plants, Tephrosia candida amI Dioclea guianensis, have demonstrated their potential for in-field mass production of the exotic thrips parasitoid Ceranisus femoratus at the UTA-Benin station. » A cross-sectional study of 480 one-to five-year-old children across Benin and Togo found that 98% had aflatoxin in their blood, with levels increasing in months after weaning. Blooda±1atoxin was significantly related to the use of white maize as a weaning food.» The success rate of a simplified scouting program to detect damaging infestations of Prostephanus truncatus in grain stores, when applied to field data from 1997-98 and 1999--2000, was more than 97% when P. truncatus was present in the store. » Advanced generation inbred lines with resistance to Sesamia andior Eldana were identified.~ The methodology for improving on levels of resistance to downy mildew (DM) attack was standardized. A maximum of 3 to 4~ycles of Sl selection will upgrade DM resistance to 95% in DM converted populationE.  when groundnut yields are usually poor, soybean and cowpea out•yielded groundnut by an average of 63% and 132%, respectively, in 12 farmer fields in 4 benchmark villages. Yields of best soybean, cowpea, Hnd groundnut varieties correlated with soil exchangeable aluminum.> A minimum estimate of 345 kg of herb aceous legume seed consisting of 271 seedlots was distributed to international agricultural research centers (IARCs), NARS, and NGOs during 2000, mainly for experimental evaluation. An additional 410 kg of seed was supplied to NGOs for multiplication and distribution. Private companies and NGOs are willing to pay for the seed, indicating; active investment in cover crops.> In the preliminary demonstration trials of cover crops for soil improvement, pestlweed control, and livestock feed, 7 or more cover crops were tested in 4 pilot sites in collaboration with NGOsINARS. At one site in Nigeria where extensive tracts of land have been abandoned by farmers becau$e of Imperata invasion, Mucuna suppressed this weed better than the other legumes. This confirms that Mucuna has the potential to reclaim stretches of impoverished land.> In a long• term fallow experiment at lbadan, 1 year of Pueraria fallow was better than natural and Leucaena fallow in maintaining the maize grain yield. Leucaena fallow was best in maintaining soil organic matter. While 1 year of fallow increased grain yield, 2 and 3 years offallow resulted in a smaller increase, with no difference between 2 and 3 years offallow.> At the end of the 1999-2000 dry season a total of 433 kg of herbaceous legume seed was harvested and stored from seed multiplication plots at Ibadan, and 118 kg from plots at the Institute of Agricultural Research, Zaria. The seed constitutes a resource for researchers, and development and eKtension agents who wish to further evaluate and multiply seed.> Almost every activity under this project is carried out jointly with NARS partners including NGOs. Many students from national universities are conducting research under the project.Improvement of high intensity food and forage crop systems > With phosphorus (P) and potassium IJ{) applied, cowpea yields at Adingnigon on \"terre de barre\" plateau (dominant soil Nitosols) in the southern Benin benchmark were still low in spite of a good variety and adequate protection from insects. Organic matter addition gave a dramatic increase in grain yield from 131 kglha in 1999 to 539 kglha in 2000.> The cowpea cultivar IT•90R-59 was tolerant to low-P soil and was able to deplete the stable P fraction (non•Olsen•P) in t;:J.e rhizosphere in P•deficient soils in the derived savanna in Nigeria.> The response to P addition was related to the Olsen•P content for most soils in the derived savanna and in the norther::! Guinea savanna villages, showing an inflection point near 12 ppm Olsen•P.> Evidence from trials with 15N•la•oelled fertilizer indicated that although direct interactions between nitrogen (N) fertilizer and particularly low quality organic matter were substantial, this was not consiEtently reflected in improved synchrony between N fertilizer supply and uptake by a maize crop. The impact of direct interactions between N fertilizer and high quality organic material, whether incorporated or surface applied, was shown to be minimal.:.-Medium-and late-maturing soybean resulted in an addition to the soil of 4.2 kg Nlha, whereas the early-maturing varieties resulted in depletion of the soil N reserve by 5.6 kg Niha in a cereal-legume rotation.:.-An efficacious cultivar of soybean reduced Striga hermonthieo parasitism on a succeeding maize crop and the effect was increased by P application to the soybean in 3 farmers' fields in northern Nigeria.Development of integrated anmlal and perennial cropping systems :.-At the launching, Project 13 research activities on the reforestation of degraded lands through the creation of tree-based livelihood assets by small farmers were presented and endorsed by the stakeholders. Project activities addressing the rehabilitation of degraded lands under the umbrella ;md funding of STCP are slated to begin in Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Cameroon in 2-J01.);. In Cameroon and Nigeria, the project is implementing reforestation establishment trials with 70 households. In Cameroon :aybrid oil palm and multistrata cocoa systems establishment is being targeted to de::orested Chromoloeno odorota bush and Imperata cylindrica grasslands.);. Based on interactive needs analysis by the 30 farmers participating in the cocoa agroforestry trial, a consensus waEI reached to include the indigenous fruit trees Dacryodes edulis, Ricinodendron heudelotti, and avocado trees, and the timber species Terminolio iuorensis as upper canopy permanent shade component. Temporary shade treatments include a plantain and cooking banana species of Musa and the fast-growing legume Inga edulis. In 2000, cocoa was planted under this shade canopy and soil nutrient trials were implemented to address the issue of fertility constraints on degraded lands. In addition to the agronomic data, lahor and input costs are being gathered in order to calculate establishment costs and returns.Impact, policy. and systems analysis }> Results from food demand surveys i.n major cities of northern Nigeria indicated that each household consumes an averal~e of 5 kg/week of cowpea. This and other results were used to make projections on the future demand and supply of cowpea in Nigeria.The projections indicate a deficit of about 2.5 million tonnes for 2005 and 2010 and about 2.4 million tonnes for 2015. A minimum average yield of 1200 kg/ha versus the current 530 kglha is required in 2015 for production to meet the growing demand for cowpea in Nigeria.» Patterns of household food expenditures in the dry savanna indicated that food expenditure constitutes about 56% of total expenditure. Rural households experienced food stress for 7 (high expenditure group) to 9 (low expenditure group) months in 1 year.» A survey in the western highlands of Cameroon targeted about 100 cowpea traders from both rural and urban markets. Wholesalers and semi-wholesalers were more inclined to treat their stored product compared to retailers. Some traders (42%) used synthetic chemical products. Actellic was the chemical most widely used (57% of traders).Traditional methods include the use of wood ash, pepper, and tobacco leaves. Four variables were significant in explaining the decision to adopt or not adopt chemical pesticides: education level and ageJf the trader, proximity to urban centers, and infrastructure for storage.» A comparative economic analysis of the management of speargrass in the derived savanna of Benin using cover crops integrated with hand weeding and chemical control indicated that the net returns were 2,5 to 7.4 times higher in maize plots that received glyphosate than in weeded plots. Weeding consumed 62-74% of the total budget invested in crop production.» Agricultural transformation in the northern Guinea savanna has occurred in the past 30 years. Changes were noticed in I;he land use systems (with maize and soybean becoming increasingly important), productivity of major crops (maize, sorghum, soybean, and cowpea), and rural capital assets (roads, rural markets, and population), However, changes in total population did not modify the social structure of the household. Increase in fertilizer use was closely associated with the changes in land use systems and capital assets, » Participatory poverty mapping involving 462 heads of households and 298 housewives in the cowpea growing area of northern Nigeria resulted in the definition of 3 wealth classes: rich (13% of farmers), middh, class (60%), and poor (27%).» A total of 109 scientists from 16 sur-Saharan African countries received specialized training on methodologies for the measurement of impact and the evaluation of agricultural technologies. This training covered multivariate techniques for data analysis, methods for market analysis, and quality control in manufacturing and servicing of improved agro'processing equipment. Ecoregional program for the humid and subhumid tropiCS of sub-Saharan Africa l> The EPHTA Benchmark Area concept has been accepted by both IITA and the NARS.The benchmark areas have become the key areas for UTA's on-farm research and testing.l> Because of limited resources, the research plans of EPHTA have largely been implemented through I1TA core activities. EPHTA faces the challenge of finding supplemental funding in order to increase activities with the NARS.l> In the Degraded Forest Benchmark Area in southeast Nigeria, stakeholder interest and involvement have resulted in participatory development, evaluation, and dissemination of improved crop production technologies. Technologies such as hybrid yams and improved cassava, sweetpotato, rice, and maize varieties have been evaluated and farmers' selections made based on their food preferences and cash returns.l> A workshop on multivariate analysis was held in Cameroon in May 2000 to introduce EPHTA NARS member researchers to the concept of domain delineation in resource management research and upgrade their skills in the use of multivariate techniques for the analysis of data from the reSOl:.rce management surveys conducted in EPHTA benchmark areas. All of the 6 EPHTA benchmark areas were represented by a least 2 researchers per benchmark area.l> An example of successful introduction of a new technology through collaborative research with farmer involvement is the use of leguminous cover crops in short fallow systems to control weeds and restore soil fertility in the derived savanna benchmark area in the Republic of Benin.l> The adoption and rapid expansion of soybean in Kaya village in resource domain 3 of the Northern Guinea Savanna Benchmark Area in central northwest Nigeria is another success story during the year.An.lex 4","tokenCount":"21704"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4dcfb392483c7534294f4dbb8effe5c7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd1b6fb8-1900-4d51-a076-24d5544042c3/retrieve","id":"1223502708"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a7bda14e-ecfa-4f74-8cb8-eeeac85755e1","pagecount":"13","content":"4/12 In two separate interviews, John Weru and Henk van Cann emphasise the need to educate people about using blockchain technology 14 Eva Oakes describes Choco4Peace's experience building a network based on blockchain technology in the cocoa sector in Colombia.24 Farmshine is rebuilding the agriculture value chain infrastructure in East Africa using blockchain technology.The first big impact came with barcodes, which made it possible to track items through a value chain. Then came handheld mobile data collection devices, more affordable sensors to track conditions, followed by the internet to transform links with consumers. Mobile phones now take over many of these roles. Barcodes have been replaced with RFID and QR codes. Despite this progress, there are still many challenges relating to the traceability of products and transparency in supply chain management. Database systems managing transaction records were managed in isolation, not open to all the other stakeholders in the chain; they were open to fraud, and transactions were difficult to secure.One technology apparently has the potential to provide answers to a number of issues in agriculture, from farmer IDs to smart contracts, from traceability and improving certification, digital payments, insurance, consumer feedback and improved logistics. It is the blockchain.The articles in this issue begin by providing a history and defining the blockchain. We learn why more people need to be educated on the blockchain before choosing how to use it.Common themes recur in these cases. The blockchain is often a background addition to existing processes in the value chain and lends itself to recording transactions, thus ensuring issues of provenance and allowing certification. Applications use a mixture of public and private blockchains About the authors Chris Addison is senior programme coordinator, Data4Ag and Ken Lohento is senior programme coordinator, ICT4Ag at CTA in Wageningen, the Netherlands.Editorial depending on the context, but a number seem to choose private blockchains so they can be integrated into existing systems and provide fast transaction recording and privacy in transactions, especially when the technology is deployed to support a specific supply chain network.Nearly everyone in this issue agrees that some knowledge is needed before moving to select a solution. IBM suggests asking five questions: Is the protocol open source and openly governed? Who will be part of the network? What use case will drive the transactions on the network? And is the technology modular and easy to use? These questions mean assessing whether the system will need to be a public or private blockchain, and which function the system should be optimised for. If the main issue is traceability, this will clearly lead to a different approach than for value transfer (involving cryptocurrency or tokens).We hear about projects being implemented around the world, such as the case of traceability in the Caribbean using BreadTrail and the use of blockchain in the cocoa sector in Columbia. We also hear about applications in Africa, particularly covering electronic payments, including an attempt to rebuild the agricultural value chain in East Africa. We learn how blockchain benefits and challenges smallholder farmers in Africa and how it has the potential to reduce value chain losses. The company Goldman Sachs estimates that blockchain could facilitate global savings of up to US$6 billion per year in business transactions.Apart from the benefits that the technology can generate, its limits and fallacies are also discussed in this issue.1. Promote agricultural value chain engagements, as well as the use of digital technologies in the agricultural sector, two key elements critical to blockchain adoption in agriculture by farmers and agribusinesses;2. Educate key stakeholders, including financial institutions, businesses, start-ups, and policymakers, about blockchain technology, so that they can seize its benefits; 3. Work closely with leading country-level outgrower and agricultural finance schemes to test blockchain solutions; 4. Support developers and startups to engage in the blockchain space, notably by creating actionable training programmes, massive online open courses and training of trainer activities; and 5. Develop ecosystems promoting blockchain in agriculture in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific countries.As a response to some of the recommendations made, CTA has launched a series of activities. A knowledge platform will be created which will promote blockchain use cases in agriculture and favour collaboration with international initiatives such as those put in place by the European Commission. In addition, CTA will launch a call for proposals on blockchain in agriculture in ACP countries. •One technology apparently has the potential to provide answers to a number of issues in agriculture, from farmer IDs to smart contracts and traceability… It is the blockchain.The objectives of the workshop included developing a better understanding of the opportunities provided by the blockchain and its relevance for the agricultural sector. We always say, 'don't buy anything you don't understand.' But people like to speculate and they will lose money. Especially the initial coin offerings (ICOs). I'm concerned about the ICOs. They tend to present themselves in a low-profile manner, but what it ultimately comes down to, in meetings or conferences, is 'buy my ICO'. That's a shame, because there's a big difference between looking for the blockchain's real added value, say in the agricultural sector, and doing an ICO. Because in the 98% of the cases, the ICO is worthless.Q How is blockchain technology developing in Europe? I don't travel enough to other parts of the world to be able to make a strict comparison, but my gut feeling tells me we're doing well with the blockchain. Of course we're using it from a privileged position: we have bank accounts, we have passports. So we will use it differently than someone in Tanzania, for example, or in Venezuela. But when it gets to them they will be better at using it than us, and probably quicker too. And it will get to them, in fact it's already Q How did you become interested in the blockchain? I co-founded Blockchain Workspace, and also Blockchainbird, because at the time most of what me and my partner were hearing at meetings and conferences about the blockchain was technical. You could see in the eyes of the people visiting these meetings that they didn't really understand why this had all been created and how it was developing. We started looking for ways of making it easier to explain to people, often by way of analogy.We also run a few blockchain labs in Leiden and Amsterdam. What we try to do there is teach each other how to use these analogies. For example, we like to use the analogy of the first mass-produced car, the T-Ford. Though no one drives one anymore, it had an undeniable impact on transport. Before the T-Ford, people moved around by horse. The bitcoin is like the T-Ford, the new innovation on the block, while the Fiat currencies are the horse. rural areas in Africa, for example, to pick up on this they need to have a mobile phone.Q A smartphone? Yes, a smartphone. And they need to have an energy supply, solar energy for example, to charge the phones but also to have an internet connection. You don't need an internet connection all the time. You can tend to your herd or crop and make a transaction on your phone -to wherever in the world, it doesn't matter -and once you get back to your internet connection the transaction will be broadcast. Some people think we need an internet connection everywhere in developing countries but that's not true.To answer that, let me revert to the bitcoin/T-Ford analogy again. The T-Ford paved the way for other newcomers, cars that have very smart ways of doing quick, cheap transactions. In other words, there are quicker cryptocurrencies, and the Lightning Network on top of the bitcoin is meant to address this problem as well.Q Is it just a matter of speed? I'm thinking of something like m-pesa, which is quick of course. Is the difference the transaction fee? No, the difference is centralisation. M-pesa is a company and they have centralised services. The key question you need to ask yourself is: where is there a wish to eliminate the trust factor? If we trust m-pesa as a company and can trust that company for the coming decades, why would we use the blockchain? Why use the bitcoin? There's no need to. But if you want to eliminate trust, then you can use the blockchain and the currency on top of it.So always ask: who don't you trust? Let me give you another analogy to make it more tangible. If there's a fire extinguisher somewhere in this room, chances are it has been audited and checked. There's an auditor, who comes by once a year to do a check, take a picture and put it in his database. And as long as it's there, you can ask them to provide that information from that audit. But as soon as there are serious problems -the building burns down to the ground, for example -where do all of these people end up? Usually in court. At that point, people may have a reason to be less open about their data. So there's potentially a point in time where we lose trust. And perhaps we have good reason to lose trust because depending on the situation there may be a lot of money involved or culpability. Now suppose we would have had a blockchain beforehand, then we could have eliminated trust. It's a very easy task. You demand that the auditor take his data at some point in time -after an audit, for example -and make a proof of this data, which you put on the blockchain. You can do that: put any amount of digital data there and make a fingerprint of that data on the People need to understand the basics. The technology offers great freedom but with this freedom comes great responsibility -so you have to do your estate planning.happening. Because as soon as somebody has a mobile phone or access to a mobile phone, even if it's just a single mobile phone for an entire village, people can create virtual identities with it. That's where it all starts. As soon as you have a virtual digital identity then you can start to use the first blockchain applications. So to answer your question, Europe may be slightly ahead of certain parts of the world, certainly in the attention we're giving the blockchain, but I wouldn't dare to say we're ahead in terms of evolution. You can't say where we'll be in two years.Q What needs to be done to get farmers and small agribusinesses in a country such as Tanzania to fully realise the merits of blockchain technology? We quite simply need to start by giving farmers access to a digital keychain. A keychain would give them access to an account in which they can receive cryptocurrencies. Why? Because it gives them a chance to play with it. They'll probably learn faster than we think. Or if they don't, their children will. Because that's what we're seeing in Europe as well. People over the age of 30 aren't necessarily so keen to get into the blockchain, but the youngsters are. From 16 years onward, people are spending huge amounts of time and money on cryptocurrencies. And they won't go back to centralisation anymore. They already feel the vibes of decentralisation, so for farmers in blockchain.To use another analogy: a couple of centuries ago, people would write a letter, put it in an envelope and then seal the envelope with wax. And that sealed letter would eventually be put somewhere safe, and that's the blockchain. In the future they might need that letter again. Once opened you could see who signed the letter. That's the only true application of the blockchain. Nothing else. You can't feed your dog with it.How important is it for people to know how the technology works? That's a good question. I would say they need to understand the basics. The technology offers great freedom but with this freedom comes great responsibility -so you have to do your estate planning. And that means key management. It means that you have to have decent copies, on decent mediums, in decent locations. There's a three-toone rule for that: three copies, at least two mediums, at least one other geographic location. That's what you do with the keys. There's a complex world behind blockchain technology, and while we don't need to know every detail about the inner workings of the machine, it would be handy -to use the car analogy again -if we could recognise the fuel tank, the carburettor and the electrical engine. To know that the engine didn't start because there's no spark, so to speak. • Henk van Cann is co-founder of Blockchain Workspace, an organisation based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands that provides training on the blockchain to make the technology understandable to a broad audience. Henk spoke to ICT Update about the need to educate people about the blockchain before they start using it and judging it, and why trust is one of the key drivers for moving away from centralised systems and towards blockchain technology.Using the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Framework, Nikolet Zwart has analysed a use case of adding value through the local processing of food by multinational agribusinesses to illustrate the usefulness of any kind of blockchain analysis.A gribusiness wishes to transform value chains: make them shorter, more transparent, inclusive, traceable and preferably digitised. Though not the solution in itself, blockchain technology can provide the key to this transformation. Indeed, business models and value chains need to be entirely rethought, whereby the so-called 'distributed ledger' of the blockchain can be used to ensure transparency and inclusion.This can be illustrated by analysing a use case, using the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Framework, developed by Oxford University. This framework helps to assess the usefulness of any blockchain application.Many of the food products of multinational food companies are produced in the South, shipped back to the North to undergo treatment (e.g. coating, drying and cutting), after which these products are too expensive to be sold in the South.To break this cycle, local Southern suppliers of farm inputs to farmers and subsequently the farmers themselves may be enabled to do the processing locally to add value for the exporting food companies. This will reduce the prices of the products, resulting in higher profits for the food companies and domestic markets that are created bottom up. The supplier can buy or lease a processing device, such as a drying tool, coating tool or cutting tool, on credit.When the supplier sells the processed products, the credit can be redeemed. Using the additional proceeds the suppliers can buy fresh produce from other farmers in the neighbourhood for domestic sales, create a stock, and thus gradually expand their business and strengthen the farmers' community. In the event a certain food product requires registration or certification by a national authority, this can be done via the distributed ledger of the blockchain as well.Our use case consists of five or six predictable, repeatable processes that lend themselves well to automation, namely:• a supplier buying or leasing the processing tools;• the transfer of credit from the fund to the supplier;• the supplier buying the fresh produce of the farmer;• the processing of the fresh produce by the supplier; and, if needed • its registration or certification and the sale of the processed food to an exporting company.The processes will run for a long time, in different emerging countries where at present few processed products, if any, are sold. But gradually suppliers and farmers will be able to lift themselves out of poverty. All value chain players in a specific sector will take part in this approach. This will ensure that already volatile markets are not disrupted by new technologies. Instead these new technologies will help to create stable, bottom-up markets.In all five processes conflicts or disparate data would be remedied by one party or a limited number of parties. The fresh produce, the processing tools, and the processed products represent a high value, as do the loans, and even the potential registration or certification by a national authority (which represents value to the food processor, to the national government and to the planet).Since the suppliers perform their activities on contracts with multinational food companies on the one hand and smallholder farmers on the other hand, and these contracts are interrelated, immutable records are a requirement. The same applies for any necessary license payments for the technologies, in-app payments, the registration or certification, and the micro-loans.If you take all of these elements into consideration, then the blockchain is an appropriate tool for the envisaged use case. The next step is to figure out the best way to actually apply blockchain technology.Blockchain technology consists of several layers: the protocol layer, the network layer and the application layer. With regard to each of these layers decisions have to be made and different parties and expertise need to be involved.Decisions need to be made in the protocol layer about whether to use a public or a private blockchain. The design expectations need to be clear: how fast, flexible and user friendly should the blockchain technology be? Do we need to use or create a developer community or do we have our own developers that can do the job?In our case there is a need for a private implementation of the blockchain. The several transactions require privacy and security. We will need a permissioned version, which means that anyone using the blockchain will need permission to read information, transact and write new blocks on the chain. This permission will be controlled by the consortium formed to serve the blockchain.Since it will be a complicated blockchain with many interconnected transactions it should have great flexibility in speed, programmability and functionality. In the end we hope to reach millions of suppliers and farmers in the South to make it easy to become part of the blockchain. A consortium can be formed for developer resources and other technical capacities, involving technology universities and the private sector.Decisions need to be made in the network layer about the computers and other devices on which the blockchain will run, or the 'node'. How will these devices be integrated with the technology that is already being used? How much data needs to be stored?The nodes will be run by the suppliers, the fund and the multinational food companies (and potentially also the national authority).Read access will be given to everyone on the different blockchains. Write access will be given to everyone on the blockchains as well, however only for their own transactions (smart contracts). With regard to registering through a national authority, only this authority will be authorised to write and everyone (even outside the blockchain) will be able to read.Any farmer, even illiterate ones, any supplier and any (local or global) corporation should be able to access the blockchain in their daily activities just as easily and quickly as possible. The device used should be robust, weather resistant, cheap and preferably handheld. The technology integration should enable suppliers to perform the calculations via their in-house systems, while performing their commercial activities.The data storage requirements regarding network capability, archiving and regulation will be high, since all transactions will be stored on the blockchain for a long time for the sake of traceability, transparency and knowledge building. The national authority will need to have an extensive data storage capacity as well.Decisions need to be made in the application layer with the users of the application in mind. How does this new technology fit in present behavioural patterns and existing workflows?The application is going to be used by many stakeholders, who differ a lot in background, culture, education and profession. This means that the application should be flexible, easily accessible, simple to use, and attractive for non-technical persons. It should include educational resources, such as train-the-trainer courses on different topics, and early warning systems.We will make use of existing organisational structures as much as possible since we involve the suppliers as key actors to develop farmers' communities and enhance food security. The present workflow of all actors will be digitised via smart contracts on mobile devices. The behavioural changes necessary to implement this use case will be included in an extension package (train the trainers on the same devices that will be used for the blockchain entrance and smart contracts).The analysis in this article has led to the formation of actual consortia aimed at setting up blockchain technology in emerging countries, including in the multinational seed business, and between Southern women groups. Publicprivate partnerships enhancing food and water security via blockchain are also being considered, for which we are seeking public funding. Please contact Nikolet Zwart if you are interested in joining. After all, in the field of blockchain decentralisation and inclusion are key. •The application is going to be used by many stakeholders, who differ in background. So it should be flexible, accessible and easy for non-technical persons to use.Nikolet Zwart is an independent lawyer specialised in public-private partnerships in agribusiness, the creation of tools, and the use of technology for inclusion and gender equity, based in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The blockchain: opportunities and challenges for agriculture Nathalie Toulon Nathalie Toulon from the AgroTIC Digital Agriculture Chair in France discusses the many ways in which the blockchain can potentially change agriculture, for example by enhancing trust, transparency and efficiency, and several pitfalls to take into account. Like any new technology, the blockchain should not be viewed as a panacea. For it to serve development, it will need to mature. T he blockchain is being heralded as a new approach to data storage and transmission that has great potential for agriculture, both for agribusiness and consumers. It is undoubtedly attractive, combining cryptography to guarantee the integrity and permanence of data, a peer-to-peer architecture that avoids centralising intermediaries, and principles of collective governance where each player can access transactions and guarantee their legitimacy. As such, the blockchain promises increased trust, transparency and fluidity of transactions within multi-stakeholder systems.Not surprisingly, issues of traceability in the supply chain are the first uses being explored: blockchain is above all a ledger technology. It's an effective tool for verifying proof of existence, full records, and the ownership or origin of exchanged information.Food giants Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Unilever and Walmart have already joined up with IBM to explore the potential of blockchain for traceability. The French group Carrefour is also counting on it for its chicken quality line, as well as eight other quality lines, such as eggs (from hens reared without antibiotics), oranges (without pesticides after flowering), tomatoes (without herbicides) and Norwegian salmon (without antibiotics or GMOs).The aim is total traceability: to store data about the location of production and slaughter, product storage and transportation in such a way that it cannot be tampered with, allowing one to retrace the steps to the source of any problem more quickly. As the blockchain is linked with the connected objects, it also facilitates real-time alerts (failure to respect a designated temperature, for example).Furthermore, the blockchain can be used for certification. By integrating smart contracts (computer programs that run autonomously as soon as certain criteria are met) the technology promises to reduce procedural delays and costs, and systematise controls. The aim is to bring this traceability all the way to the consumer to restore public trust, which has taken a beating as a result of a succession of food scandals, particularly in Europe and the United States.Bureau Veritas, an international certification company, recently presented Origin; the 'first blockchain-based label to give consumers a complete end-to-end proof of a product's journey, from farm to fork'. This is done by making data available to consumers through QR codes placed on products.As mentioned, the blockchain is a way to earn trust and therefore develop greater synergy between players in the same network: each player feeds into his or her data and has access to other members' data without anyone having exclusivity. 'The use of blockchain only makes sense,' says Emmanuel Delerm, project director at Carrefour, 'if several people work on it. Its distributing and decentralised character is what is essential.'From traceability imposed by public authorities, we move to a 'value added' traceability for companies, embracing a logic of strategic management of the value chain. The PlayitOpen start-up, for example, offers companies a web application associated with the Ethereum blockchain, reporting on their commitments to sustainable development during the production of goods and services. These commitments become digital assets (sponsorship funds, carbon, trees, quality certificates, etc.), which can be traced and exchanged. This tool was mobilised by the PUR Project company through the 'International Platform for Insetting' for an action aimed at supporting agroforestry.In early 2018, the Louis Dreyfus Company, Shandong Bohi Industry, ING, Société Générale and ABN AMRO announced they had completed 'the first full agricultural commodity transaction using a blockchain platform'. ThisThe blockchain is a way to earn trust between players in the same network: each player feeds into his or her data and has access to other members' data without anyone having exclusivity.transaction of agricultural commodities included a full set of digitised contract documents and automatic datamatching, thus avoiding task duplication and manual checks. The transaction demonstrated significant efficiency improvements for all participants in the chain. It reduced the time spent on processing documents and data fivefold, introduced real-time monitoring, a shorter cash cycle and reduced the risk of fraud.As an open register recording of who sells what, who buys what and at what price, the blockchain offers solutions to small producers who struggle to understand markets and benefit from fair remuneration. The peer-topeer network can enable transactions from sellers to buyers without intermediaries and therefore without commission.AgriLedger, a philanthropic initiative, applies the technology to create a circle of trust around small farmer cooperatives in developing countries. The company offers a mobile application connected to the blockchain to record transactions, a service bundle to plan product distribution more efficiently through a better understanding of markets, as well as secure identity management and a value 'safe', allowing small producers to access the world of banking services, micro-payments and loans.Another example in the area of facilitating access to loans is Twiga Foods, which offers a mobile procurement platform for sales outlets, kiosks and market stalls in Africa. It has collaborated with IBM in Kenya to offer a pilot micro-credit application for food vendors. Traders enter their procurement purchases from mobile devices. Their creditworthiness is assessed and then blockchain technology is used for the administration of the loan until acceptance of repayment terms.By offering lower management and transaction costs, the blockchain is seen as a technology that provides an alternative to traditional agricultural insurance. It allows the development of index insurance, particularly in developing countries: compensation could be triggered for all farmers in a given area without expert intervention as soon as an indicator threshold is reached (such as the number of days of drought), under conditions defined in advance and written in a blockchain. This development is still in the idea stage, however, and still needs to be tested.Finally, blockchains and smart contracts will definitely play an important role for tomorrow's connected farming, whether for communication between connected objects and micropayment management linked to the actual use of objects (as proposed by the Filament start-up, for example), or to ensure greater transparency in the sharing of agricultural data. The issue of managing farmers' consent in the use of data is currently being explored in France by the CASDAR project -an agricultural and rural development programme -('Multipass' project), which will test the blockchain as a way of building greater trust.There are many potential uses of the blockchain in agriculture, but there are several areas in which we must remain vigilant:• Societal: The blockchain can only work if all the links in the chain feed into it and decide together how it will evolve. By eliminating certain intermediaries, new structures of power will be established and roles will be redistributed. A balance needs to be struck. AgroTIC blockchain studies English version: goo.gl/TMvFFD French version: goo.gl/4xX4Pz• Regulatory and legal: The legal framework of the blockchain remains vague. In the case of developments in the financial sector, there are still questions about the legal value of the 'ledger', about responsibilities in the event of poorly designed smart contracts, and about the adaptation of tax and commercial regulations. • Technical: Technologies come into play, but questions still remain about scaling up. Today, the blockchain exists mainly through proof of concept addressing a limited number of users. It needs to prove it can perform (speed of transactions, storage capacity, volume of the ever-growing chain) for a wider audience. There are also questions of interoperability, in particular regarding the integration of blockchains into existing information systems. We also need to improve our understanding of the blockchain. In order for it to be used transparently, companies will need to understand its benefits while remembering that this type of technology is not a panacea. 'It can't do everything by itself,' says Alexandre Stachtchenko, co-founder of Blockchain France. 'While it knows how to manage digital assets extremely well, as soon as physical products come into play, it becomes necessary to add QR codes, connected objects, sensors... The blockchain is only an architecture that catalyses all these technologies.'In the end, the blockchain is one technical option among several others. There are big differences between public blockchains that revolutionise relationships of trust and private blockchains that remain 'under control'. Furthermore, there are many situations where this technology is not appropriate. It is therefore important to have a clear vision of the needs and to understand how the blockchain can contribute to these needs.The explosion in new digital technologies such as the blockchain raises many questions for economic actors who need to adapt. The AgroTIC Chair, a French 'business chair' type of mechanism, was created to build strong links between the world of research and business in order to support the digital transition of agriculture. Since November 2016, three French agricultural education and research institutions (Montpellier SupAgro, Bordeaux Sciences Agro and Irstea) have joined forces with 24 'sponsor' companies from the world of farming and digital technology, as well as technical partners, to lead actions of collective interest contributing to the development of digital agriculture. At the request of its members, the AgroTIC Chair therefore took an interest in blockchain technology, in order to study its opportunities in agriculture, resulting in a study that is available in both English and French. After outlining the basic principles, the study sheds light on the key issues facing this technology by presenting different cases of its use. It also highlights the obstacles to its adoption and underlines the fact that it still needs time to mature in order to go beyond the stage of 'excessive hopes' to reach that of 'real advantages and concrete applications'.Beyond the technological aspects, the blockchain raises broad questions on the digital transformation of a particular sector (the roles participants play, the definition of added value and the evolution of production and distribution networks). Given the need for strategic thinking, it is important for the various players to work together to take better charge of the blockchain issue. For this, collective experimentation and demonstrating proof of concept is without a doubt the best approach. •We also need to improve our understanding of the blockchain. For it to be used transparently, companies need to understand its benefits and remember that this technology is not a panacea. Interview John Weru is a Kenya-born writer, blogger and co-founder of PayHub East Africa. In a conversation with ICT Update, John talked about the rise of cryptocurrency, the potential of the blockchain to improve efficiency in the agricultural value chain in Africa, and the urgent need to educate people about the technology itself and the economy that it is creating.Q Now the blockchain is becoming more accepted and known, people are looking for other ways to use it. What do you believe is its potential in the agriculture sector, for example? Personally I am working on a project in agriculture, and what I'm trying to do is explore the possibility of the blockchain being used to improve the agricultural value chain in Africa. Right now, about 30%-40% of harvests in African agriculture are lost. And that's mostly because of inefficient value chain systems. So when it comes to things like being able to move commodities from one place to another there is quite a bit of loss. The problem is that a lot of the information that you need to make those decisions and improve the value chain is held up in companies and what you generally call information silos. Access to this information is very limited though.So one of the projects that I'm working on would enable all the players in a value chain to be able to pull their data together onto a blockchain which can then be used to track the movement of commodities across the entire value chain. Of course that involves quite a number of actors and different kinds of technology. But that's how I see the blockchain being used: to improve efficiency.Q What challenges are facing cryptocurrencies? Some people are concerned about their apparent volatility. What I've noticed about cryptocurrencies is that there's a lot of exuberance and very little education. Right now most of the people who are getting into this space or who want to invest in bitcoins are doing so because they think they can make a lot of money. Very few people I meet are able to really have a discussion on what it is that drives bitcoin and its underlying technology. In fact, few people are interested in having that conversation. In their minds it's all about how to make money.This actually gives the technology a bad name. The volatility in my view is the function of the lack of two things. A flexible and accommodating public policy. And second, an educated consumer. If we had educated consumers who are aware of what it means to put their money into bitcoin, then we would have a much more stable currency.But I see this technology as something that can solve a lot of problems in Africa. That's what we at PayHub are trying to do in East Africa, to offer solutions that are practical and relevant to where we live. So my only wish is that we had more education and less hype. It's especially important that we look at other ways of using the blockchain, such as in agriculture. I see a situation soon where there will be a convergence between cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and 3D printing to create whole new solutions and products that maybe right now we cannot conceive. But for that to happen we need the enabling environment, an environment where people are educated, where people are skilled, where people are trained, and where we have government policies that aid rather than interfere with the technology. • continent. It's expensive to send money here: until very recently the charges and transaction fees could amount to as much as US$10-US$15 per transaction. The bitcoin and the blockchain seem to be making that easier for those of us who don't live in our country of origin. So it's from that angle that I -and many othersgot interested in the bitcoin and what it can do.Q Banks have been reluctant to accept cryptocurrency, fearing it almost, though some seem to be embracing it now. What are your thoughts on the establishment's role in blockchain technology? I frankly don't see where the fear comes from with banks. Let's understand one thing: the whole cryptospace is not going anywhere. You cannot undo the idea, it's already out there. And you cannot deny that the cryptospace will also need some kind of regulation. I think both parties will have to meet somewhere in the middle. And here I'm not only including the central banks but I also have in mind commodity trading commissions and regulators. And that is because bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have a dual nature. They can function as currencies and they can also function as commodities. Now what we need in the industry are rules. The ones who are best placed to make those rules basically are the central banks. So I don't really see a situation where banks need to be unduly worried.I'll give you another example from my home country. When m-pesa was launched, the banks in Kenya were similarly reluctant to embrace it. But the central banks decided to give this new technology space to see what it can do. Ultimately, it managed to address the enduring problem of financial inclusion. Before m-pesa only about 20% of Kenyans had bank accounts. After m-pesa that percentage must have risen to 70 or even higher. So m-pesa solved a problem that banks were not able to solve by themselves.It's always my view that technology is judged by its ability to solve a problem. The fact that the cryptospace is growing so quickly does demonstrate that there must have been something in the market that it's responding to or that people are responding to. So I see them as being complementary.Q How did you originally get interested in the blockchain? My interest in the blockchain began with a news report on Al Jazeera in late 2014. That was the first time I had heard about the technology and what's behind it. It was around that time that I also learned about somebody who had bought 5,000 bitcoins at less than a dollar each, so he's about US$5 million richer now. Naturally that got me curious and I wanted to see what this is all about. So that's how I got involved in the bitcoin and the blockchain space. I started out by blogging about it. I wrote for a bitcoin exchange and for a number of bitcoin news websites. And from there I never looked back. I also started coding blockchains: I got a book and tried to see if I could code blockchain on my own. So I started to find ways of immersing myself more in the technology.Q You are co-founder of a company called PayHub. Did that emerge from your interest in blockchain technology? Yes, actually it was a convergence. The original founder of PayHub Solutions, headquartered in France, has been involved in the fintech space for quite some time. So when we started chatting and I told him about my interest in the blockchain, we agreed that this was probably a technology that was worth watching, especially in view of the fairly poor financial systems in Africa. We thought it would be a good idea to see what we can do with it. We started by wanting to enable financial inclusion on the African continent.Q Many people immediately think of bitcoin when they hear the word blockchain. How did the bitcoin come about? The founder of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, wrote a white paper back in 2008. In it he explains the idea behind blockchain technology and what it's designed to do. It's more or less a consensus mechanism that bypasses the traditional third party that acts as a go-between in financial transactions. So I understood it from that perspective. Especially in the wake of the financial crisis the world was going through, I understood that blockchain was designed to solve that problem by ensuring that transactions are done by consensus and in a very transparent, open and public way.That was an interesting approach. I personally don't have any political agenda as to why I got involved in the blockchain, but I did see it as a solution to many of the problems that we're encountering, for example sending money on the African I frankly don't see where the fear comes from with banks. Let's understand one thing: the whole cryptospace is not going anywhere.I see this technology as something that can solve a lot of problems in Africa.are unsustainable agricultural practices. According to the International Cocoa Organization, up to 40% of cocoa crops are lost annually due to incorrect conservation and upkeep. Not only is it, under current circumstances, impossible to translate the potential of cocoa production into the global market, but unsuitable practices hinder the amount of cocoa available for export.In Colombia, the potential for cocoa is not only unique in terms of quantity but also quality. The Colombian cocoa sector is known for the production of cocoa 'fino aroma', a specialty cocoa which is rising in demand from international buyers distinguished from mass-producing companies in their qualifications they take into account when buying cocoa.'Fino aroma' cocoa is typically used in the production of gourmet and high-quality chocolates, products for which demand has undergone explosive growth with no signs of decrease. Buyers of this type of cocoa emphasise the quality of the chocolate, while taking into consideration sustainability and ethics. As consumer preferences are shifting towards demand for better quality, origin, specific flavours, higher sustainability and traceability, a niche market has been established in which buyers interact directly with producers to maintain long-term relationships.Choco4Peace is using hyperledger blockchain technology to allow the production of cocoa in Colombia to proliferate, while addressing a deficit of cocoa in the international market and bringing smallholders out of both cocaine production and poverty through access to finance. Blockchain technology is implemented through a combination of decentralised phone applications supporting an inclusive economic network, which aggregates smallerscale cocoa producers with chocolate makers, socially oriented investors and stakeholders such as sustainable development service providers.Cocoa producers in these post-conflict regions previously had little access to financial resources due to obstacles in the form of communication, transportation, product quality, corruption and more. Rural areas are particularly prone to these kinds of challenges, especially in the case of Colombia, where weak institutional power allowed guerrilla groups to overtake these areas and encourage the production of cocaine, while diminishing the livelihoods of the residing communities.Where weak institutional power prevents the government's attempts to alleviate poverty and boost development efforts, Choco4Peace's use of blockchain technology steps in. The Colombian government has recognised the issue of the prevalence of coca growth and has pledged money to volunteer smallholders willing to transition from the cultivation of coca to that of cocoa. However, due to the government's lack of capacity, the amount of funds they are offering farmers are not sufficient for smallholders to be secure in this shift. Recognising this issue, Choco4Peace's blockchain platform uses blended finance, combining funds and tools offered with those of the Colombian government, enabling the private and public sector to collectively finance cacao entrepreneurs' ventures.After identifying willing and capable producers, Choco4Peace's programme provides smallholders with capacity building tools such as insurance, training, technology and certification services in order to transform them from high-risk investments to low-risk investments. These steps not only serve as preparation for access to investors and financial resources, but additionally, they promote principles of sustainability. These tools instruct Eva Oakes describes Choco4Peace's experience building a network based on blockchain technology in the cocoa sector in Colombia. The main aim is to get smallholders out of both cocaine production and poverty through access to finance. B lockchain technology, increasingly known as the dark horse bringing sustainable solutions to shortages and inequalities in the agrifood industry, largely holds the tools needed to stop world hunger while addressing development issues on an international level. By aggregating investors and producers within integrated economic networks, blockchain technology has bridged an often hard-to-cross gap, bringing together suppliers attempting to meet a rising product demand and producers in developing countries who lack the means to both find buyers and export their product.Recognising the need of using blockchain technology, Choco4Peace, a start-up company based out of Montreal, Canada and Bogotá, Colombia, has begun creating such a network in Colombia's cocoa sector. Colombia is currently the fifth producer of cocoa worldwide, and third in Latin America. The cocoa is grown by approximately 38,000 families, with 90% of production being carried out by smallholders rather than large commercial agriculture companies.Despite the high propensity for cocoa growth, with Colombia's Cocoa Development Ten Year Plan 2012-2021 reporting around 660,000 hectares of terrain available for growing cacao, Colombia's export potential is currently marginal, comprised of only a handful of producers capable of fulfilling certification requirements. Many of Colombia's potential cocoa crop lies in largely rural, hard-to-access post-conflict regions formerly occupied by guerrilla groups operating before the peace agreement in 2016. Occupancy commonly forced farmers in these regions to farm coca for the production of cocaine, and focusing on the production of cocoa was economically and logistically unfeasible.Also contributing to Colombia's modest export potential smallholders to use sustainable cultivation practices with the goal of yielding higher crop productivity, improving quality, preventing the misuse of land and denigration of soil and maximising crop cultivation while natural resources are conserved. Through the blockchain, the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of cocoa producers' sustainable farming practices are made visible through an accumulation of data, recorded on a transparent hyper-ledger platform. In collaboration with the IXO Foundation, an organisation using blockchain to provide a trusted global information network to encourage impact investors, Choco4Peace seeks to measure and generate a proof of impact through the accumulation of data based on interactions within the economic network. Blockchain technology's ability to store and provide extensive data is used as a means to build trust, incentivising investment in areas of need around the world as investors can see directly the impact their contribution makes.Choco4Peace's project targets rural smallholders in postconflict areas, but more specifically within this criteria, Choco4Peace focuses on the empowerment of those most in need; women, youth and indigenous people, all of whom have suffered the impacts of Colombia's long war, and are willing to transition from cocaine production to cocoa cultivation . These producers, once identified and provided with the tools and training necessary, are entered into the economic platform, where they are aggregated with chocolate makers, investors and stakeholders.The blockchain's ability to record all transactions allows both buyers and consumers to trace the cocoa's origin, ensuring trust, traceability and transparency, qualities often absent in relationships between investors and smallholders in rural and often unstable areas. The use of this technological platform additionally reduces time and cost and increases cooperation by removing the necessity of communication through 'middle man' third parties, as increased transparency within interactions decreases the number of necessary actors.Blockchain technology makes the possibility of smallholder integration within larger economic networks possible, impacting deficits not only in the international market but also at a micro level. By providing smallholders with access to finance, farmers and their families previously suffering from impoverishment, malnutrition and a general lack of resources due to both location and weak state infrastructure, are empowered by entrepreneurship through the growth of cocoa. Through Choco4Peace's use of blockchain technology, chocolate, a widely-appreciated commodity throughout the world, is quite literally being used for the construction of peace, as blockchain technology provides a way for producers to build lives with dignity, transitioning from the production of cocaine to that of cocoa. Access to markets, fair prices and transparent and traceable trade, made possible by blockchain technology, make this positive transition feasible, bringing chocolate to the world while diminishing the harmful impacts of the cocaine industry and empowering those living in Colombia's post-conflict regions.How sweet is chocolate for peace... • Blockchain technology makes it possible to integrate smallholder integration into larger economic networks..Eva Oakes (eva@ choco4peace.org) is a communication strategist with Choco4Peace, based in Montreal, Quebec.Above: Cacao harvestThere is an important footnote to mention about the open character: there are public and private blockchains. Knowing the difference is key. Bitcoin is an example of a public one and it is the most open ledger. Hyperledger is a private one. They do different things very well. So before assuming that everything is open and transparent to everybody on a blockchain, find out about the blockchain's specifics and governance structure. Who has access to what? Find out whether it belongs on the right or the left side of the picture below.A final key point about the blockchain that everybody should know is that it is only a part of a set of technologies. The blockchain is nothing on its own. The blockchain exists with old-school databases like Excel sheets and ERP systems, with application programming interfaces that allow exchange between different systems, and most importantly, user interfaces or apps, or decentralised apps. The last three refer to the kinds of apps that you would find on your devices. Their functionality makes or breaks the impact of the underlying technologies as they make it possible for you and me to use technology properly.The blockchain indicates a new generation of technology. In fact, it is less about the blockchain and much more about decades of research and breakthroughs in security that have culminated in the next level of database technology. It entails a different approach to storing information. Whereas we previously could only transfer information over the internet, we can now safely transfer value from one user to another. This implies a completely different dimension of databases.There are three technical reasons why you should start experimenting with the blockchain:1. The truth: The blockchain encrypts information into code. This encryption cannot be removed, altered or omitted. This is essentially what establishes the truth, and hence trust between parties. It is this trait that makes it so vital for agriculture.In our experience the blockchain solves the data ownership problem, a key limitation to digitisation in agriculture. It gives data ownership back to users, as users have full ownership, control and transparency over their data. Data is replicated across several unrelated points, and no single point can act as gatekeeper and blur ownership issues. Users who store information on the blockchain retain access to it through encryption keys that they alone own, independent of the service or application that generated it.n 2017, The Fork -an Amsterdam-based company working on blockchain for global food chain developmentdeveloped, reviewed and commented on about 20 applications of the blockchain in agriculture. After briefly explaining what it essentially is, we will summarise its value for agriculture -which is different to what is often communicated -as well as its limitations, and how you can start experimenting with it.The blockchain is basically a dataset of transactions, a ledger. It is a combination of 'a database' with 'the network', and an advancement on 'cloud computing'. There are at least four new characteristics to this database that jointly explain why there is a hype about the blockchain.First, it is essentially open, and public. Anyone who is authorised can read and write to the database. Second, it is auto-synchronised. All copies of the database are exactly identical and are synchronised immediately and simultaneously. Third, it is immutable. It requires some time to realise what impact this characteristic can have on supply chains. It is permanent. Once information is entered, it can never, ever be deleted, changed or tampered with. For supply chains in general, but specifically for agriculture, this is of immense value. Fourth, it is distributed across the network. This is why these types of technology are increasingly being referred to as distributed ledger technology.The fact that it is a distributed technology suggests it is part of our next industrial revolution. We live in a society in which most business models are decentralised, such as Uber, Airbnb and Facebook. Technologies such as the blockchain enable distributed business models. This is why it has tremendous disruptive potential.The blockchain is a distributed system. It is about rules with no ruler. Read that again. Rules with no ruler. There is no central party in control. Everybody is in control. The rules are embedded in the system itself, into the code. This makes the blockchain very robust and scalable. Track and trace was already very doable, but with a decentralized blockchain it is much more scalable and reliable.There are also three business reasons why it is a matter of when you start, rather than if:1. Risk management: because everybody in the network has the same information at the same time, and because you have accurate information, rather than information in hindsight, risk management will record unseen improvements.2. Operational efficiency: only in part due to auto-synced information, efficiency gains have recorded a staggering 80% improvement (in finance, where implementation is most mature). Efficiency is also attributed to smart contracts. Smart contracts are pieces of code that automate if-then causalities.with more decentralised structures, information travels faster and becomes more accessible to more people -ideally everybody -and transparency increases. It becomes much more visible who does what for which remuneration. Ownership is better organised, and it is far more difficult to hijack a system for individual purposes.Blockchain has one of the strongest, if not the strongest, value propositions in the supply chain and more so in agricultural supply chains. Overall, supply chains have low levels of trust. The more complex they are, the less trust there is between parties, and the more expensive the transactions are. Agricultural supply chains are one of the most complex supply chain domains and suffer from very low levels of trust. Through the above mentioned reasons, the blockchain has the potential to impact this drastically in the next five years.Why not the blockchain? Of course, there are many concerns and limits regarding this new technology. The blockchain is still in its infancy. It is essentially what the internet was 20 years ago, meaning there is more we do not know than we do know. There are many misconceptions, ambiguity in definitions, mixing up of concepts and certainly many scams. For now, we can offer three disclaimers:1. Do not implement the blockchain at scale. You will have to re-do and transport to other, newer, better technologies.We have better, more efficient solutions for that.Do not be misled by so-called experts, there are many scammers out there. Certainly do not let technology dominate or blind common business sense.There are three tastes currently. Either start with an existing product like steemit, a blockchain-driven social media platform. Buy and tweak a ready-made solution such as AgUnity, a mobile app that records and transacts incorruptible truth using blockchain technology. Or start with the technology from scratch. Choose your first experiment wisely though. We see four critical criteria here: complexity, high costs, information asymmetry and trust issues. •Marieke de Ruyter de Wildt is founder of The Fork, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, whose mission is to 'help you integrate blockchain technology in food supply systems'.Prenafeta-Boldú and Agusti Fonts work at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) in Barcelona, Spain.Blockchain appeared in our lives as a modern technology that promises ubiquitous business transactions among distributed untrusted parties, without the need of intermediaries such as banks. Several ongoing projects and initiatives now illustrate the impact blockchain technology is having on agriculture and suggest it has great potential for the future.A s blockchain technology gains success and proves its functionality in many cryptocurrencies, various organisations are attempting to harness its transparency and fault tolerance to solve problems in scenarios where numerous untrusted actors get involved in the distribution of resources. Two important areas are agriculture and the food supply chain.In December 2016, the company AgriDigital successfully executed the world's first sale of 23.46 tons of grain on a blockchain. Since then, over 1,300 users have been involved in the sale of more than 1.6 million tons of grain over the cloud-based system, involving US$360 million in grower payments.The success of AgriDigital has served as an inspiration for the potential use of this technology in the agricultural supply chain. Agriculture and the food supply chain are closely linked, since agricultural products are used as inputs in multi-actor distributed food supply chains. Indeed, the global food chain is complex, bringing together farmers, warehousing, shipping companies, distributors and grocers.Not only is the system inefficient, it is also imprecise. When you buy a vegetable at your local grocery store, the brand listed on the sticker may have no idea which farm the vegetable came from. The initiatives where blockchain technology could be used to solve real-life practical problems fall into two categories: supporting small farmers, and food safety and integrity.Supporting small-scale farmers and small cooperatives is currently by far the best way to improve efficiency in developing countries. There are several initiatives pursuing this path, three of which stand out in particular. AgriLedger describes itself as 'a Mobile App that records and transacts incorruptible truth using blockchain technology'. It uses distributed cryptoledger and mobile apps to create a circle of trust for small farmer cooperatives in Africa.The American organisation FarmShare focuses on creating new forms of property ownership, community cooperation, and locally self-sufficient economies. It aims to use the blockchain to 'tokenize shares, incentivize volunteers, optimize resource sharing and minimize food waste'. OlivaCoin is a platform for the trade of olive oil. With its own cryptocurrency and traceability system, it aims to support olive oil producers by reducing overall financial costs, increasing transparency and giving them easier access to global markets.Food safety is about handling, preparing and storing food in ways that prevent food-borne illnesses. Food integrity refers to the fairness and authenticity of food in food value chains both at the physical level and the digital level. The digital level should provide reliable and trustworthy information on the origin and provenance of food products at the physical level. Food safety and integrity can be enhanced through higher traceability. Using the blockchain, food companies can quickly trace outbreaks back to specific sources, which could mitigate food fraud.There is an impressive list of companies that have started to use the blockchain to safeguard food safety and integrity. Cargill uses it to let shoppers trace their turkeys from the store to the farm that raised them. Walmart, Kroger and other companies have partnered with IBM to integrate blockchain technology into their supply chains. Coca-Cola has employed it to identify cases of forced labour in the sugarcane supply chain. Carrefour is using blockchain to verify standards and trace food origins.Other examples include Downstream beer, which calls itself the world's first blockchain beer. It uses blockchain technology to reveal production information. 'Paddock to plate' is a project designed to track beef and protect Australia's reputation for quality production, using BeefLedger as a payment platform. JD.com traces the production and delivery of beef raised in Inner Mongolia. GoGo Chicken is tracking chickens with an ankle bracelet, putting the information collected online. The Grass Roots Farmers' Cooperative uses blockchain to trace how animals are raised. Intel has released a demonstration case study showing how Hyperledger Sawtooth, a platform for managing blockchains, could facilitate seafood supply chain traceability.In January 2018, the World Wildlife Foundation announced the Blockchain Supply Chain Traceability Project to crack down on illegal tuna fishing. Ripe.io harnesses quality food data to create the Blockchain of Food. Consumers can use BreadTrail (as featured in this issue on page 22) to inform themselves of a product's origin. Finally, the 'blockchain for agrifood' project has developed a proof of concept application targeting table grapes from South Africa.Blockchain technology offers many benefits, providing a secure way to perform transactions among untrusted parties. To improve traceability in value chains, a decentralised ledger helps to connect inputs, suppliers, producers and buyers. In particular, blockchain is suitable for the developing world, where it can support small farmers by providing them with finance and insurance and facilitate transactions. Although small farmers supply 80% of the food in developing countries, they rarely have access to insurance, banking or basic financial services.There are various barriers and challenges for the wider adoption of blockchain technology. A case study in the Netherlands revealed that small and medium-sized businesses are too small or lack the expertise to invest in the blockchain by themselves. Current uncertainties are preventing individual parties from developing a convincing business case. With respect to education, there is a lack of awareness about the blockchain, and training platforms are nonexistent.Moreover, an important barrier is regulation. The current experience of cryptocurrencies indicates that they are vulnerable to speculators and massive price fluctuations. So without some form of regulation, cryptocurrency is not a trusted means yet for use in food supply chains as a comprehensive solution. And there is still a lack of consensus among policymakers and technical experts on how to use blockchain technology and carry out transactions based on cryptocurrency.In the meantime, it is hopeful that blockchain technology is being used by so many projects and initiatives. Together they aim to establish a proven and trusted environment to build a transparent food supply chain, integrating key stakeholders into the supply chain. Of course, as with any relatively new technology, there are still many issues and challenges that need to be solved. Blockchain technology must become simpler to understand and use. A number of start-ups have been working in this space, such as 1000 EcoFarms, which developed an entire platform to make it easier for farmers to use the blockchain.We also need to address various issues on the public research agendas, while governments should invest more in research and innovation to develop evidence for the added value of the technology and design a clear regulatory framework for blockchain implementations. The near future will show if and how these challenges can be addressed by governmental and private efforts, in order to establish blockchain technology as a secure, reliable and transparent way to ensure food safety and integrity. There is an impressive list of companies that have started to use the blockchain to safeguard food safety and integrity.technology for the value chain of whole tuna. The aim is to eradicate illegal fishing in order to prevent the depletion of the natural tuna population, but there is also a focus on eliminating the slave labour prevalent in the fishing industry.Caught tuna is directly labelled on the vessel with a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip through which the fish can be traced to the processing company. To lower barriers for smaller players in the value chain, expensive RFID chips are substituted by cheaper QR codes that are also accessible to consumers.This code is fixed to the tuna so consumers can use their phone in the (super)market where the tuna is sold, from which they can access relevant data connected to a particular fish. Since the stored data is accompanied by proofs on an immutable blockchain, the customer can be sure that the location and circumstances for which data has been stored has not been tampered with as no actor along the chain is able to change the data.In some developing countries proving who you are and what you own might be a challenging endeavour. For example, in India hundreds of thousands of civil cases take place every year concerning land ownership, and it is estimated that huge amounts of money are being paid in bribes at land registrars across India. The state government of Andhra Pradesh has partnered with Swedish start-up ChromaWay to apply the blockchain for a more transparent, resilient and secure registry.In Ghana, BenBen Ghana has created a platform to capture transactions and verify land ownership data, enabling smart contracts through the blockchain to make sure land records are found or remain unchanged. Their aim for the future is to create smart mortgages. Factom (an American company) has piloted a project to document land ownership in the Honduras. This creates a safer environment for registration of land ownership, mortgages and contracts.It should be noted that these developments usually attract a great deal of interest and they are greatly pushed by the desire for examples of applying this innovative technology. However, applying the blockchain for land registry is a process that might take years before true progress can be made and the abundance of attention for this innovation may be counter-productive in this respect. Nonetheless, it is worthwhile pursuing these developments because certainty in landownership is important for boosting local economic development.One of the areas in which blockchain technology has strong potential is establishing a cost-effective reward system for services that might otherwise not be monetised. Think, for example, of a combination of validation algorithms of performance and payments in the form of tokens. Tokens can be online monetary units that can be programmed for specific purposes. As they are online, they can be accessed from any device with internet access. This creates more direct payments where 'payers' could be assured that their spending is distributed to the right cause or person depending on the setup of the program.Tokens can be used to pay, to reward or to create a new type of funding. Through the years we have seen examples where a payment for ecosystem services had been set up, but payers were not willing to contribute to the fund as this would be managed by entities that they deemed unreliable, Sander Janssen and Jaclyn Bolt discuss the potential of blockchain technology for agricultural devlelopment by way of multiple exampls, arguing that it needs to be combined with a strategy for digitisation, targeted capacity building of its users and an impact-driven approach.B lockchain is a promising digital technology that offers new and interesting possibilities for agricultural development. It has several features that make it potentially useful for a range of interesting applications, especially in situations where no current digital information and data management solution for transactions exists. These particularly interesting features all focus on increasing trust: transparency of transactions, immutability and incorruptibility of transactions, distributed governance in a large network, possibilities for objective validation of achievements and low operating and transactional costs. Depending on the configuration of the blockchain and the type of applications, some of these features might be more relevant than others. We can think of several interesting applications for agriculture and social development for which we will highlight the most promising applications.Consumers have grown used to tracking and tracing through value chains with eco-labels and certification systems. But at the end of the chain, regardless of the involved labels, it is difficult for consumers or stakeholders to verify what has happened to a product along the way. Furthermore, certification processes in value chains are not always consistently reliable. What the blockchain could offer is more certainty about the integrity and correctness of the information accompanying goods. A nice example is the development of applying blockchain technology in the tuna value chain.A consortium of the World Wildlife Fund (New Zealand, Fiji and Australia), ConsenSys, TraSeable and Sea Quest Fiji is setting up a provenance system based on blockchain not cost-effective or corrupt. Using tokens, we can create an infrastructure for direct payments specified to an assigned goal and validating the goal achievement against objectively verifiable criteria.For example, citizens or visitors of natural areas could pay for specific tokens, associated with specific parks they like or appreciate and could make the pay-out of the tokens on the condition that certain quality characteristics are achieved. Or farmers could be motivated to invest in field borders with trees if nearby citizens can reward them in a cost-effective way through tokens.Finding out exactly what has transpired is fundamental in the field of insurance. An insurance company wants to be sure of the true events and losses before pay-out can take place. At times this process can be tedious and long for the receiving parties, such as smallholder farmers. In recent years developments have focused on making this process more efficient, for example in index insurances where weather data can be combined with remote sensing. However, human intervention is still necessary for the verification of the data used. The blockchain makes it possible to establish predefined requirements, for example through smart contracts. This leads to advantages in efficiency, cost saving and reliability benefitting both farmers and the insurance company.Several organisations are recognising the advantages of blockchain for insurance, for example Etherisc. Etherisc is building a platform for decentralised insurance applications, for example for crop insurance for smallholder farmers. Its aim is to develop a peer-to-peer risk platform that enables groups to build their own insurance risk pools and insurances on the platform. Smart contracts enable automated pay-outs (crop insurance) triggered by drought or flood events reported by government agencies.Etherisc also wants to offer more affordable and accessible protection against the risk of death or serious illness of a community member offering more immediate emergency payment helping to get through critical times.The transparency of the used blockchain infrastructure allows all participants of the value chain to audit all of the data and the used technology autonomously. This creates trust among all participants.Until now, blockchain technology has mainly been a promising technology. Even though it has just passed the peak in the Gartner's Hype Cycle (see 'Related links' below), which provides a graphic view of the maturity, adoption and business application of specific technologies in many application domains, it needs still to develop a great deal in agrifood.We think its applications should not be technology driven. Producers should rather facilitate stakeholder engagement to understand how data and information relate to the value perceived by consumers. Developing successful applications not only means working on the blockchain technology itself, but especially on the governance and organisational structures for the collaboration, digitisation and standardisation of data and information -in combination with other technologies such as remote sensing and big data analytics.The blockchain needs to mature, which can only be done through partnerships with the right players, and by implementing and testing it. We believe that blockchain technology offers potential for development if combined with a strategy for digitisation, targeted capacity building of its users and an impact-driven approach. •The blockchain needs to mature, which can only be done through partnerships with the right players, and by implementing and testing it. Article agreed price, and buyers must trust that farmers will grow the quantity and quality of crops they require. Likewise, banks must have confidence that individual farmers are creditworthy, and farmers must believe that the crop insurance they purchase will pay out following the occurrence of drought or flooding.Based on the above ideals, Farmshine is rebuilding the value chain infrastructure in East Africa. We connect each actor in the value chain on a fully transparent platform, beginning with the farmers, who are provided with a digital identity and fully traceable record of transactions. Each activity is recorded, including the quantity and quality of the crops delivered at harvest as well as the successful repayment of loans. Much like a CV or credit score, this enables farmers to build a reputation among buyers and service providers, and thereby increase their access to better market opportunities.Our strategy is to identify each broken link in the agriculture supply chain -the points where smallholder farmers are underserved or even exploited -and replace them with beneficial processes and service providers. Without such a comprehensive solution, farmers are unlikely to escape from the middlemen or, ultimately, from the cycle of poverty perpetuated by the current system.The activities of each actor are recorded on an underlying blockchain layer, providing a traceable history of the entire value chain. In this way, accountability is built into the platform. The reputation score of each actor signifies their reliability to potential clients or suppliers, and builds trust among unknown parties. We also use blockchain technology to record the provenance and physical condition of crops after harvest. As crops are aggregated in the field, each bag is given a QR code, which is scanned at a series of checkpoints. The weight, quantity, humidity and other information is recorded on the blockchain. This provides the buyer with a comprehensive record of each harvest, while enabling farmers to establish their reputations as reliable suppliers.Although we believe this model represents the future of the agriculture value chain, technology can solve only part of the problem. In order to optimise the quality and quantity of farmers' production, field agents are needed to provide support, such as training in conservation agriculture. To this end, we employ our own agents while also partnering with NGOs and UN organisations. These partnerships are mutually beneficial, as development agencies generally provide training to farmers but do not connect them with buyers. Moreover, their projects are finite and often lack a sustainability component. By connecting farmers to our platform, development agencies can provide their farmers with sustainable trading opportunities among trusted value chain actors.By providing farmers with a digital identity, traceable production history and direct access to buyers and service providers, our platform helps to transform subsistence farmers into market-connected traders. This transition is the essence of sustainable development. • Chris Mimm explains how Farmshine is attempting to rebuild the value chain infrastructure in East Africa. Farmshine connects actors in the value chain on a fully transparent blockchain platform, providing them with a digital identity and fully traceable record of transactions.I n many developing world countries, the agriculture value chain is aligned with smallholder farmers. Access to credit, inputs and trade is largely controlled by middlemen, who extract a disproportionate amount of income while providing little value in return. They charge exorbitant interest rates on small loans, horde the limited market information to which they have access, and offer farmers below-market prices for their crops.Large commodities buyers are likewise affected by value chain inefficiencies. Because they lack a direct connection with individual farmers, many buyers are unable to influence which crops the farmers plant in a given season. In East Africa alone, this disconnect results in hundreds of thousands of tonnes of unmet demand for commodities each year. Similarly, seed producers have little indication of which crops smallholder farmers will plant in the coming seasons, resulting in seed shortages for those crops in highest demand.In order to connect and align the interests of each actor in the value chain, such as farmers, buyers, banks, seed suppliers and other service providers, the value chain infrastructure must be redesigned for the modern economy. The price that buyers will pay for a crop should be conveyed before the planting season, directly from the buyer to the farmer. Loans and other services should be offered to farmers with complete transparency. And farmers should become entrepreneurs -market-connected traders who can choose which service provider or buyer to work with based on their reputation and history of trade.The essential component of this improved infrastructure is trust. Farmers must trust that buyers will pay them the In order to connect and align the interests of each actor in the value chain, its infrastructure must be redesigned for the modern economy.","tokenCount":"12389"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bfc16ad6cfb24d40ed5c77a301c31f74","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e5334c5e-ec68-429f-90d6-2d8647a3efaa/retrieve","id":"847382184"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9c902a7a-ebd9-470c-9b7c-f56633d3a544","pagecount":"19","content":"In developing the content of this Training Module on Biofortification, SONATA Learning worked with the Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) project team and various technical specialists from CIP and partners (CIAT, CIMMYT, IITA and HarvestPlus) in reviewing existing technical content and resources relating to biofortification, added new knowledge from various scientists, experts and practitioners, and designed the training of trainers module which reflects Adult Learning Theory (ALT) and instructional design principles and practices. The BNFB project deeply appreciates the work and commitment of SONATA Learning, CIP and project partners (CIAT, CIMMYT, IITA and HarvestPlus) in developing these instructional materials.The expertise of technical module reviewers is greatly acknowledged. These reviewers include Robert Ackatia-Armah (CIP); Jen Foley (HarvestPlus) Penina Muoki (CIP), Joyce maru(CIP), Hilda Munyua (CIP), and Godfrey Mulongo (CIP). The photographs and resources used throughout this learning module came from a wide range of sources and institutions and we thank these institutions for kindly making them available for us to reuse.Biofortification is the process of increasing nutritional value of food crops by increasing the density of vitamins and minerals in a crop through either conventional plant breeding, agronomic practices or biotechnology. It is one of the key nutrition interventions that addresses micronutrient malnutrition among populations / groups who consume most of the staple foods that they produce, especially the poor, rural, and other vulnerable populations. Often, they have limited access to diverse diets, supplements, and commercially fortified foods that provide essential micronutrients necessary for ensuring healthy and productive lives. Adoption of biofortified food crops such as vitamin A rich orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP); provitamin A (PVA) maize, high iron and zinc beans and vitamin A cassava, is an effective way of addressing micronutrients malnutrition because it is sustainable, cost-effective and culturally acceptable.The Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) project is a three-year project (November 2015 to October 2018) implemented in Nigeria and Tanzania and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The goal of the project is to accelerate and support scaling up of biofortified crops for food and nutrition security and to help reduce hidden hunger by catalyzing sustainable investment for the utilization of biofortified crops (OFSP, PVA maize, high iron beans and vitamin A cassava) at scale. BNFB develops institutional, community and individual capacities to produce and consume biofortified crops. The objectives of the project are to strengthen the enabling environment for increased investments in biofortified crops and to develop institutional and individual capacities to produce and consume biofortified crops.To sustainably support the implementation of BNFB's capacity development efforts, the project has developed a training of trainers (ToT) module titled Training Module on Biofortification: A Sustainable Solution to Hidden Hunger. The module includes a PowerPoint presentation, an annotated facilitator's guide and a handout for participants. It is useful for setting the context or as an introduction to biofortification during training on specific biofortified crops, for example the ToT module on Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sweetpotato, the ToT module on ProVitamin A Maize: A Biofortified Solution for Vitamin A Deficiency and the ToT module on High-Iron Beans: A Biofortified Solution for Iron Deficiency. However, it is also self-contained and may be delivered independently if that is more appropriate for the target audience. Partner institutions; academic institutions and other users are encouraged to adapt and reproduce these instructional materials and where appropriate, integrate the teaching and learning into existing curriculum. This module is designed to potentially serve a wide variety of audiences (nutritionists and agronomists, policymakers, extension workers, community development workers, farmers etc.). Not all the materials will be relevant to all audiences but facilitators can adapt the content to their audience and facilitation best practices. To ensure sustainability and wide reach; BNFB will apply a cascading approach in the delivery of training; where key experts (agriculturalists, nutritionists, health workers, marketing and gender experts) will attend more detailed ToT workshops. The experts trained will then become primary facilitators and drive the agenda for biofortification. They will in turn deliver shorter version courses and step-down the training to various levels of audiences (secondary and tertiary). This trend will continue until the training cascades down to \"farmer trainers\" who finally train the end users in their communities.This module greatly contributes to BNFB's efforts in strengthening institutional and community capabilities to produce and consume biofortified crops (entire value chains) and to reach a critical mass. Upon completing this module, participants should be able to:• Explain how biofortification can address micronutrient malnutrition among vulnerable populations • Compare biofortification to other common interventions for micronutrient malnutrition • Summarize the process that breeders follow to produce biofortified varieties of staple crops • Outline strategies for promoting biofortified crops to farmers, consumers and partner organizations • Describe the ways that international, national and local stakeholders can help to make biofortification sustainable over the long termThe 'Biofortification' module is divided into units and sub-units, as follows: • Mobile phones off • In addition to lecturing, there will be opportunities for discussions and asking questions.-To keep things moving, we might have to cut some conversations short and move on to the next topic -Not everyone will get to answer every question, but everyone will get multiple chances to speak and be heard throughout the session -If one or two people are answering every question, we will politely ask them to give someone else a chance to speak. • As participants in this learning experience, we need to:-Share our ideas without fear of criticism, and listen to the ideas of others without criticizing -Engage in discussions without arguing -Help other participants and accept help from others -Create a safe, supportive environment for everyone to learn -Have funBy the end of this unit, participants should be able to:• List and describe the three types of malnutrition This unit introduces the basic concepts of micronutrient malnutrition and biofortification.• Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious public health issue Unit 3 -Developing Biofortified CropsBy the end of this unit, participants should be able to:• Explain how the Biofortification Priority Index (BPI) helps researchers prioritize development of biofortified crops • Summarize how micronutrient targets are set for biofortified varieties • List causes for micronutrient losses • Describe the characteristics that make a variety appealing to farmers and consumers • Outline the major stages of the breeding process • Explain why breeders might 'fast-track' the release of certain varietiesThis unit reviews the process for developing biofortified crop varieties including selecting promising crops and countries using the Biofortification Priority Index, setting nutritional targets and the steps involved in breeding and testing new varieties.• The Biofortification Priority Index supports data-driven decision making about which crops to develop for which countries • Nutritional targets are set based on the needs of women and children -the most vulnerable groups -and must account for micronutrients lost during storage, processing and/or preparation • Breeders must also account for agronomic qualities and consumer preferences • Selectively breeding varieties with the desired traits involves years of work, developing \"parent\" lines, testing their nutrient content in the lab as well as their performance in the field • Breeders might \"fast track\" release of promising varieties that do not fully meet the targets, in order to help vulnerable populations benefit from biofortified crops sooner Unit 4 -Fostering Demand for Biofortified CropsBy the end of this unit participants should be able to:• Identify key stakeholders for biofortification initiatives • Differentiate between different seed systems, and summarize the advantages and disadvantages of each for biofortification • Suggest activities to promote farmer adoption of biofortified crops, particularly for your country/region • Suggest activities to promote consumer adoption of biofortified crops in your country/region • Develop promotional messaging for different stakeholders and identify the best channels for reaching audiences in your country/region • Identify partnering opportunities to promote biofortification in your country/regionThis unit focuses on strategies for supporting the introduction of biofortified crops within a country and influencing farmers, consumers and partner organizations to support biofortified crops.• Biofortification cannot succeed if farmers do not grow biofortified crops and consumers do not purchase and eat them • Ensuring a secure seed system is critical (if farmers cannot acquire seeds, they cannot grow biofortified crops): the best way to accomplish this depends on the type of plant and local economy • Emphasizing the agronomic qualities of biofortified varieties is often an effective way of promoting adoption among farmers • Consumers generally prefer the sensory qualities of biofortified varieties, and providing them with nutrition information can further increase demand • There are many possible channels and media for distributing promotional messages, though studies have shown that broadcast media such as radio is often more cost-effective than delivering messaging face-to-face • Potential partners for promoting biofortified crops include local governments, seed companies, NGOs, multilateral organizations and various participants in the agricultural value chain (e.g., food processors)Cooking with PVA maize (Breakout Groups)Ingredients for the dough: • Sieve the flour together with baking powder and rub in a bit of oil.• Add the salt and mix properly.• Add water gradually until mixture reaches stiff consistency.• Roll out dough and cut into the shape of samosas.1 Tomato 1 Onion 100g HIB beans 1 Green pepper 1 tsp curry or spiceMethod:• Wash and slice all ingredients for the stuffing.• Mix ingredients with salt and curry or spice. o This mixture is not cooked, because most of the vegetable nutrients would be lost.• Put the stuffing into the cut samosa shapes and seal shut.","tokenCount":"1565"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4a2fa8a8f222dd3f37b755ceafddd6c6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d1a334b3-a0ce-4982-95ba-502ed3c55231/retrieve","id":"-1331832047"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f752c7db-0cda-418d-a97b-e863fd1eaf0b","pagecount":"23","content":"The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is leading the CGIAR research initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender Inclusion (SAPLING), which will be implemented in various countries, including Nepal. This initiative aims to contribute to transforming livestock sectors in target countries to make them more productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable. Within SAPLING, the genetic component on dairy productivity plans to establish a dairy genetic gain platform in Nepal along the lines of the Africa-Asia Dairy Genetic Gains (AADGG) platform, and to strengthen the capacity of the national system for long-term sustainable dairy development.From 26 November to 3 December 2022, representatives of partners in the SAPLING initiative from Nepal visited Kenya with the following objectives:• To interact with the AADGG program team and understand ongoing activities related to the genetic improvement of livestock at ILRI;• To understand how the AADGG program integrates activities with different partners in Kenya, including local government authorities, cooperatives and farmers;• To understand the operation of the Dairy Farmer Assistant (DFA) model and discuss options for its adaptation to farming systems in Nepal;• To review proposed collaborative activities and prepare a draft work plan for planning 2023 activities;• To identify and develop draft terms of reference for national partners (Nepal Agricultural Research Council and National Livestock Breeding Office under the Department of Livestock Services) in planning for the adoption of the AADGG platform for Nepal.The visit was organized for collaborators from institutions involved in the genetic improvement activities to be implemented under the SAPLING Nepal initiative. Partners from SAPLING Nepal partner institutions during their visit to the ILRI campus in Nairobi, Kenya.Each institution involved in the collaboration made a presentation when the Nepalese team visited ILRI's headquarters in Nairobi. A brief introduction was provided on the research facilities available for genetic studies at ILRI. Researchers heading projects using these facilities presented their work, methodologies, and some outcomes and implications of various activities. These included: 1. Whole genome sequencing laboratory and the facilities available for use by the scientific community from all over the world; 2. The biorepository for systematic storage of livestock tissues (blood, hair, and serum) and the database on the samples 3. The Liquid Nitrogen plant for the continuous supply of Liquid N2 to the livestock tissue storage facility 4. Different research projects in the laboratories, including:• The haemo-biome, a high-throughput diagnostic tool for detecting economically important livestock haemo-parasites • Tolerance, a novel approach to controlling East Coast fever. The institute's mandate is to conduct basic, applied, and adaptive dairy research for enhanced productivity, competitiveness, and improved livelihoods in the country and the region. It has the following broad objectives:1. To generate and promote technologies and innovations for demand-driven dairy product value chains;2. To develop and promote markets and marketing strategies for dairy product value chains;3. To facilitate and advocate policy options for enhancing demand-driven dairy product value chains;4. To strengthen the capacity for implementing dairy product value chain research; and 5. To enhance the availability of knowledge, information and technologies on dairy product value chain research.This unit implements various projects related to dairy improvement. The KALRO Naivasha farm hosts a large herd of pure-bred Sahiwal cattle and other exotic breeds (Holstein-Friesian, Ayrshire and Jersey) crossed with the Sahiwal. Over time, the Sahiwal that originated in South Asia has adapted to the environment and is now considered a local breed in Kenya. The animals are hardy but do not produce as much milk as the Friesians.Crossbreeds of Sahiwal and Bos Taurus are very popular in the country. Thus, KALRO produces and markets F1 crosses between Sahiwal and Friesian, which are mostly black and white in colour but are able to produce higher amounts of milk than the pure-bred Sahiwal.It was notable that as a government institution, KALRO has been responsible for conserving the genetics of locally bred cattle by maintaining pure-bred herds and providing crossbred animals to other livestock keepers. This is a good model that could be adopted by national institutions in Nepal. In Kenya, typical smallholder farmers own 4-6 cattle and one hectare of land. The KALRO station has established a unit farm to demonstrate to smallholder farmers how six cows can be managed under a 90% forage-based feeding system on a one-hectare holding. This model is worth replicating in Nepal. The main objective of the demo is to determine costs of milk production and enhance efficiency of production under smallholder conditions as many farmers in Kenya obtain an estimated 50% of their incomes through dairy enterprises.On the demo farm, one cow of each of Friesian, Friesian-Sahiwal cross, Sahiwal-Jersey cross plus two heifers are kept in a shed made of locally available materials. The hectare of land is planted with sorghum, napier-desmodium intercrop, lucerne and sweet potato vines to meet the feed requirements of the six animals on an annual basis. Napier and desmodium are a main source of feed under small holder farming systems in Kenya.Data is recorded regularly on forage yield, inputs, feed intake (forage and concentrate), milk yield, fertility, body weight changes, and the costs of labour and veterinary care. The data is used to generate statistics and information on production in the demonstration unit.Results from analysed of the data in line with the study objectives and methodology used are presented on a poster board in simple language that farmers can easily understand even in the absence of scientists. The results illustrated in the demo so far show that the main cost incurred by farmers is labour (52%) and that the cost of producing one litre of milk is 34.80 Kenyan shillings (KES) 1 . 4.3 Dairy goat unit at KALRO Dairy goats, mainly Alpine and Saanen breeds, are reared under a semi-intensive system with low-cost housing units on the KALRO farm. Routine vaccination is provided against foot and mouth disease, caprine porcine pluro pneumonia and entero and deworming is done every three months.Breeding bucks, kids and does are kept separate. Each kid is tagged for identification immediately after birth and weaned at three months. Data recording, analysis and documentation are undertaken regularly to guide decisions on selection and improvement of different attributes in the animals.Table 5: Pictures from the goat unit at KALROYoung dairy goats at the KALRO station Goat housing units at the KALRO stationThe team from ILRI, KALRO, and Nepal was welcomed by the leadership of the Nandi County department for Agriculture and Cooperative development that consisted of officials from different disciplines, including animal breeding, animal nutrition, veterinary services and communication.Officials from the livestock department, KALRO, ILRI and Nepal made brief presentations on their key roles and objectives related to dairy development. It was very clear that in order to succeed in implementing national genetic improvement programs, there must be commitment at the political level. As reflected in its programs and engagement with farmers, the Department of Agriculture and Cooperative Development in Nandi County is keen on implementing the AADGG model. Visits were also made to different types of farms as listed below:1. Commercial cattle farm: a semi-intensive farm with more than 10 cows 2. Smallholder farm: a traditional farm with 3-5 cows and limited land for fodder production 3. Smallholder farm and fodder supplier: traditional farm with 3-5 cows and abundant land for fodder production to supply its own cattle and sell surplus to other farmers in the cooperative who have a deficit.It was evident that all the farms visited were members of the cooperative society and were aware of their roles and responsibilities in the collaboration with KARLO, ILRI and the county agriculture department. The farms were served by Dairy Farmers Assistants (DFA) trained through the AADGG program. This collaboration is central to the success of the cooperative model.In the initial implementation phase of the DFA model, the AADGG program provides seed money over four months. After this, mechanisms are put in place through the cooperative to sustainably support the DFAs. The farmers pay one shilling per litre of milk sold to the cooperatives to go towards sustaining the services of the DFAs. In addition, the AADGG program provides continuous technical support in line with needs evident through data collated. The key roles of the DFAs are as follows:• Provide technical and management services to farmers. Each DFA manages 50 cattleraising farmers, each owning an average of 3-4 cows. In total, they manage an estimated 200 cows each. • Keep records on animals and production systems using AADGG tools.• Provide advice on regular management systems for farmers.• Support farmers in developing business plans for their dairy enterprises.• Support the work of the county AHAs and veterinarians • Support collaboration and cross-learning among the farmers.• Provide feedback on individual cows to farmers using tablets/mobile apps linked to the AADGG platform 5.1 Challenges and opportunities on the farms visited:• The DFA model is highly appreciated.• Preparation and storage of silage and hay can be done for the whole year.• There is inadequate water for animals.• Farmers face a shortage of money although they can access financial support through Sacco societies at a low-interest rate. • Protein-based legumes are in limited supply. Group photo taken during discussion of ADGG at a farmer's house 6. Feedback and lessons from the field visits 6.1 KALRO Naivasha 1. One-hectare smallholder model for six dairy animals: this model was commended as viable, sustainable, and adaptable for profit maximization in small-scale dairy production. 2. Use of local materials for dairy goat structures at KALRO Naivasha: the local materials used to construct dairy goat units greatly reduced the input costs. The dairy goats were comfortable and production was optimal. 3. Product-based emphasis: prioritization of the quality of inputs was evident, mainly in breeds and feeds for both dairy goats and cows. 4. Crossbreeding strategy: maintaining the 50% Sahiwal + 50% Friesian crosses coupled with their exemplary performance under pasture system was remarkable.6.2 Ol'lessos Farmers' Cooperative Society 1. Provision of resources for farmers: the remarkable role that the cooperative plays in integrating farmers, the Sacco, feed systems, government services, private sector services such as agrovets, and other actors in the dairy value chain were outstanding. 2. Promptness of data collection using the ODK tools: the real time data flow made the cooperative a one-stop data solution. 3. Efficiency in data capture: the practicality of how cooperatives are involved in data capture and collaboration in data generation among cooperatives, researchers, the local government, KALRO, and farmers was remarkable. 4. Farm business plan development with DFAs: the DFAs assisting farmers to develop business plans using a profit and loss approach based on the available resources and limitations was noteworthy. 7. Critical elements that could be adopted for Nepal's SAPLING initiate (take-home messages)1. Have one entry point for the national recording system.2. Provide clear terms of reference for implementing partners.3. Coordination between research, extension, and development partners.4. Involve cooperatives in data capture (upgrade cooperative societies in Nepal).5. There exist opportunities to involve students in data capture to ensure high-quality data collection.6. Adopt the DFA model to assist farmers in overall farm management.7. Stratification in the production system as demonstrated in Ol'lessos Cooperative Society, where different farmers were geared to different objectives, including small-scale farming, commercial farming, and fodder production.8. Keep it simple initially then add elements with time. This is critical for the buffalo production systems where both milk and meat are important products for the country. The program could begin by monitoring body weight and milk yield, generating genetic correlations between milk composition traits, and identifying and promoting use of the best bulls through the AI supply.","tokenCount":"1913"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f9e10181edf914746230ebbc70f72502","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/afa094c0-6401-4914-8a5f-4e13d72d23a0/retrieve","id":"-1791620276"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f3892e90-cfcf-40e0-9c5b-a4aff99ec44a","pagecount":"9","content":"This publication has been prepared as an output of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) led by IFPRI. Any opinions expressed here belong to the author(s) and are not necessarily representative of or endorsed by CGIAR, IFPRI, or PIM.Investment in strategic foresight research and practice is seen as a valuable activity across many different sectors. Businesses that use foresight to improve \"future preparedness\" demonstrate greater levels of profitability and growth (Rohrbeck and Kum 2018). Given both observed and anticipated impacts of climate change on agriculture and food systems, strategic foresight to guide policy and investment decisions has become commonplace and is applied to a large cross section of key questions within the sector, including by decision-makers in low-and middle-income countries and their development partners (Prager and Wiebe 2021;Lowder and Regmi 2019).While foresight approaches have, indeed, become commonplace and addressed a range www.pim.cgiar.org• Foresight analysis related to food systems has expanded rapidly in recent years, broadening from earlier work focused on agricultural production to include multiple dimensions of food systems, the synergies and trade-offs between these different dimensions, and enhanced understanding of the challenges related to climate change, nutrition, and the environment.• More work is needed to address these complex and dynamic issues and to better capture aspects related to livelihoods, gender, equity, and resilience in the context of rapidly transforming food systems.• Sustaining and enhancing the role of foresight requires investment in data collection, data management systems, model development, and analytical tools to support improved representation and assessment of future food systems performance.• Making this work useful in informing decision-making also requires investment in human and institutional capacity, both within and outside CGIAR, to embed improved analysis in ongoing and iterative dialogue processes with stakeholders and decisionmakers.of potential futures, there are still opportunities to improve in both research and practice. A recent set of reviews commissioned by the Independent Science for Development Council of CGIAR suggests several critical gaps. They highlight the need to emphasize analysis of future agriculture systems in relation to poverty reduction, jobs, livelihoods and, especially, the need to consider these issues with a gender lens (ISDC 2020, 3). Other pressing and future priorities highlighted by the ISDC include consideration of shocks and their impact on food prices, as well as the need for trade-off analysis as an integral part of foresight to help identify links (both favorable and adverse) among different policies and investments (ISDC 2020, 10).Given that strategic foresight serves a multitude of roles, a range of foresight approaches are being developed both within and outside of CGIAR to support similar big-picture views and a range of methods are being used to \"do\" foresight. Thus an important question emerges: What is the best way for foresight to grow and evolve with CGIAR to maximally support CGIAR beneficiaries, the development investment community, and CGIAR itself? (2020) on sex-disaggregated employment -further unpack the nuanced differences between investment strategies in terms of potential goals, including desired food security, economic, environmental, and social outcomes. These issues are further explored from a forward-looking systems perspective in a new collection of working papers on the future of food security, nutrition, and health (Chan et al. 2021), land and water systems (Gotor et al. 2021), income and employment (Kruseman et al. 2021), and synthesized by Wiebe and Prager (2021).While the above studies illustrate the wide range of questions addressed by the CGIAR foresight community, they also shed light on some key areas where there is opportunity to improve. In each of the studies, for example, there are different types of baseline analyses that serve as the counterfactual to the possible investment scenarios. Such baselines depend heavily on the assumptions in the underlying shared socioeconomic pathways (Hasegawa et al. 2015 These examples illustrate the wide range of ways in which foresight has been integrated into strategic processes, both by CGIAR and its partners. At the same time, there are many opportunities to continue refining the approaches and increasing the overall capacity of CGIAR and partners to respond effectively, efficiently, and equitably to the challenges that lie ahead.Looking ahead and drawing on the findings of Chan et al. (2021), Gotor et al. (2021), Kruseman et al. (2021), and Wiebe and Prager (2021), we see three principal areas for consideration in relation to the ongoing development of CGIAR's foresight capacity. These areas include metacapability, thematic and methodological issues, and emerging issues.The CGIAR system must co-evolve both in relation to the most pressing challenges as well as the needs of its national partners. Similarly, foresight capacity within the system must evolve to (re)orient quickly around key questions and core capability, while simultaneously anticipating and preparing for future needs of both the system and its partners. This continual reassessment and anticipatory capacity are known as metacapability (Furlong and Johnson 2003).One of the primary mechanisms to do this is enhanced collaboration and integration with a wide range of national partners, donor agencies, and stakeholders around the world. The engagement strategy in the new Foresight Initiative expressly incorporates this modality, spanning both internal and external partners.Central to the enhanced partnership model is an extended set of communities of practice (CoPs). These CoPs, including groups of specialists in different thematic areas (such as crop improvement and climate science) and specialists in different organizational contexts (such as policy and NARS), will enhance knowledge management and information exchange among foresight practitioners and decision-makers. Crucial to the knowledge management activities will be the newly launched CGIAR Foresight web portal (https://foresight.cgiar.org/). A core ambition of the new Initiative is to also enhance measurement of the effectiveness of different foresight approaches. The Foresight Initiative will develop new approaches to quantify and measure how foresight works -and how it could work better -within different decision-making environments; this information, in turn, will feed back into the foresight process and be used to help chart the course for future activities.As highlighted by the ISDC (2020), foresight capability must become fully embedded within the entire CGIAR system. This implies both system-level foresight (that is, foresight commissioned by and for the CGIAR system management) as well as systemwide foresight (that is, foresight developed by and in collaboration with the full set of One CGIAR Initiatives). The Foresight Initiative is a core collaborator in both processes, with a primary responsibility associated with addressing current and future partner needs and foresight capability, while recognizing that foresight-related work will be central to the activities of many other CGIAR initiatives as well.In addition to metacapability at the organizational level, foresight readiness and agility also require ongoing investment in maintaining the basic foresight tools, skills, and core capacity needed to respond quickly to diverse policy challenges. These include routine updates of model parameters and data to ensure that forward-looking analyses are grounded in the best available current information.Beyond maintaining up-to-date tools, improved and new foresight capabilities are required to keep up with a rapidly evolving food system. The food system is vastly more interconnected than ever through telecoupling, complex capital flows, trade, dynamic social and institutional ties, and common resource use (Eakin et al. 2017). Inroads have been made in applying this approach (Wyckhuys et al. 2018), but further advances are required. Critical to advancing this capability will be improved understanding of consumer behavior. Consumer preferences are driving demand for both commodities and food products, and these preferences themselves are evolving as a function of megatrends such as increasing wealth, urbanization, and market integration.As markets become increasingly integrated, future supply chain disruptions are of greater concern. Anticipating the effect of different shocks -whether looking at the food security implications associated with COVID-19's effect on the supply chain (Laborde et al. 2021) or its adverse impacts on incomes, employment, and food security (Arndt et al. 2020) -will become increasingly critical with increased globalization. Couple this with increased climate variability and increasing complexity around the governance needed to respond to these challenges, the necessity for foresight becomes dramatically clear. Improved capability is needed to parse the implications of different shocks to increase resilience while considering the trade-offs associated with different precautionary approaches.In using foresight to better understand the likely effects of shocks, we are also better positioned to prepare for the risks associated with compound extreme events co-located in space and time (Zscheischler et al. 2018). Larger-scale compound events such as \"multiple breadbasket failures\" (Gaupp et al. 2019;Anderson et al. 2019) require similar inspection, especially considering the telecoupling and implications of trade already noted.Trade brings with it a number of additional considerations that foresight analyses can help unpack. Increasing emphasis on producing the \"the right crop in the right place\" underscores the need to look at the local and regional capacity and trade-offs around GHG mitigation and food security (Hasegawa et al. 2018) as well as considerations of labor and total factor productivity.While quantitative strategic foresight is a proven tool for exploring alternative, plausible futures, there are several emerging areas that will likely drive new thinking on foresight. A marker of many these emerging issues is their fundamental multidimensional nature.First, while some dimensions of climate change are reasonably well understood, the mid-to longterm implications for the intersecting agricultural, pest and disease, and biodiversity frontiers remain relatively unexplored. Farming system geographies are going to be continually changing alongside niches for pests and disease, and ecological niches for different plant, animal, and microbial species. All these issues have implications for the \"right-crop, right-place\" question and, coupled with the shift toward a food systems perspective, drive us toward questions on how to better anticipate \"good fit\" agricultural systems that are more inclusive and that consider local context. With this more holistic consideration, we will be able to better understand how to improve overall future resilience of the agriculture and food systems.As mentioned, consumer demand, trade, and global markets will significantly drive the shape of future agricultural systems. Consumer demand will likely evolve much more rapidly than production systems, and therefore, we must be capable of using foresight to examine the intersection of these faster and slower processes Finally, there is need to bring foresight to support the increasing attention to themes at the intersection of climate security and food systems.From failing food systems as a driver of conflict to conflict disrupting food systems and food supply, questions of climate security will become increasingly prevalent in some regions around the world. This, coupled with the previously described geopolitical changes, suggests foresight approaches can be co-developed with the climate security community to better understand how climate-related conflict may disrupt food systems or respond to targeted food systems interventions.If the last decade of foresight activities in support of CGIAR has taught us anything, it is the importance of systematically discussing and preparing for the future. Strategic foresight helps foster this dialogue and creates a space for comparing ideas, the potential impacts of different policy and investment strategies, and the trade-offs and synergies among different development trajectories. With some creativity, the inclusion of appropriate partners and stakeholders, and the development of new methods and approaches, foresight can inform strategic decision-making in One CGIAR and its partners to help shape development pathways toward improved nutrition, livelihoods, equity, and climate and environmental outcomes.","tokenCount":"1851"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"df56fefc496efdd77034a8103fb6813d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7d41055e-c34b-4ec3-8051-28d804326ffb/retrieve","id":"-1761110968"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"75876752-0e9c-4fc3-a66a-89b0a9abb616","pagecount":"22","content":"The sixty-fourth Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF64) was organized virtually and in person from 22-24 May 2023 at Skylight Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The main objectives of the forum were to provide feedback on the performance and impacts of the March to May 2023 season so far, present a consolidated objective regional climate outlook for the JJAS 2023 season, and then deliberate and provide implications of the JJAS 2023 outlook to climate sensitive socioeconomic sectors in the region. The forum brought together climate scientists, researchers, decision-makers, and users from vital socioeconomic sectors, governmental and non-governmental organizations, development partners, and civil society, among other stakeholders. The main GHACOF64 event which was held on 24 th was preceded by sector-specific workshops that focused on the co-production and co-design of climate services, feedback on impacts and measures taken during MAM, lessons learned, and co-design of forecast-based interventions and mitigation measures for the coming season. GHACOF is preceded by a 1-week climate scientists' workshop that bring together forecasters from RCCs, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), GPCs among other invited participants. The scientists' workshop commonly referred to as Pre-GHACOF was help from 15 th to 19 th May 2023 at ICPAC, Nairobi. The regional as well as the national objective seasonal forecasts were produced during this workshop, and the regional forecast was the main input for GHACOF64. The forum was organized by IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) in collaboration with the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of ICPAC's participating member countries and was supported by partners. The forum was held within the framework of the IGAD regional strategy for mainstreaming climate information in vital socioeconomic sectors for disaster risk reduction and sustainable development under the theme: \"Climate Services for Anticipatory Action\". The three dayevent attracted online and in-person participants, of whom 115 attended in person at the Skylight hotel in Addis Ababa. ICPAC will continue to organize GHACOFs as one of the most effective ways to strengthen the dialogue between producers, users, and all climate services value chain actors and proactively innovate and improve efforts to deliver better services to build resilience in the region.ICPAC organizes GHACOFs 3 times a year to provide climate outlook for the 3 main rainfall seasons (MAM, JJAS, OND) in the region. COVID-19 pandemic brought about the shift in how these workshops are held with current formats being hybrid. The workshop adopted different formats of interaction including presentations in plenary and group discussions. The GHACOF64 workshop held in Addis Ababa comprised of fully in-person participation during the first 2 days and a hybrid format on the third day. The forum was supported by the European Union funded Climate Services and related applications (ClimSA), Coproduction of Climate Services for Eastern Africa (CONFER), projects funded by the European Union, the AICCRA project financed by the World Bank, and the Government of Ethiopia.The forum was held within the framework of the IGAD regional strategy for mainstreaming climate information into key socioeconomic sectors for resilience and sustainable development. It brought together representatives from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), global climate centers, regional partners, decisionmakers, and users from critical socioeconomic sectors. The government of Ethiopia was represented by the minister in charge of Water and Energy. average surface temperatures across most parts of the region. The forum provided a structured means for users, researchers, and climate services providers to interact at the regional level to ensure that user needs for the seasonal prediction are met.Mr. Zachary Atheru began the session by emphasizing the importance of co-production, co-design, and co-delivery of climate information services within the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF). He noted that GHACOF, which started 25 years ago in 1998, has recently been revamped to incorporate these collaborative approaches. He stated that the theme for this year's GHACOF is \"climate services for anticipatory actions.\" and highlighted the significance of communication and user engagement in achieving a common understanding between scientists, information brokers, and users. This collaborative approach is crucial for improving the use and application of climate services. He emphasized the need to develop climate services tailored to specific target audiences and integrate them into socio-economic sectors, programs, policies, and development plans. Mr. Atheru also underscored the increasing risks posed by climate change and variability, calling for adaptation and resiliencebuilding efforts across sectors. He encouraged maximum interaction and learning during the two-day session leading up to the main GHACOF event on May 24th, 2023.Mr. Calistus Wachana made a presentation on the need to enhance the usability of GHACOF's outputs, such as seasonal forecasts, advisories, and mitigation measures, as well as the summary for decision makers. Revamping GHACOF processes was recommended as a way to achieve this goal and catalyze the usage of other ICPAC climate products. Mr. Wachana highlighted the progress made in identifying climate information needs and prioritizing products for enhancement during GHACOF 60. GHACOF 62 further identified specific improvements required for these products, while GHACOF 63 addressed usability gaps and proposed solutions.He pointed out that several usability gaps were identified and the proposed solutions aimed to address these gaps through the development of fit-for-purpose products through co-production processes. It was suggested to improve forecast accuracy and include user-relevant information such as onset, cessation, and dry spells. Sector-specific User Interface Platforms (UIPs) were proposed to address interpretation issues and avoid scientific jargon. Translation of climate information into French and Arabic was deemed necessary, and user feedback was emphasized as important for continuous improvement.It was also recommended that sector focal points identify data needed to overlay with climate information to understand impacts and develop relevant advisories.Mainstreaming climate services at the national and subnational levels was also highlighted as a requirement. Greater engagement of National Sector Focal Points (NSFPs) beyond GHACOF was encouraged to support NCOFs and subnational level activities.The development and support of global, regional, and national UIPs were deemed essential to enhance the usability of climate information while horizontal and vertical interactions and engagements were emphasized to scale up the usability of climate information. These platforms aim to facilitate the development, delivery, and use of climate information to support robust.Mr. Wachana concluded by emphasizing that well-developed and strengthened regional sector UIPs would enhance the interpretation, communication, dissemination, application, and feedback of GHACOF's outputs. They would also serve as a stepping stone for revamping sector impact reporting. Additionally, he stressed the need to strengthen the roles and responsibilities of NSFPs during GHACOF preparation, advisory co-production, and the development of decision makers' summaries. Integration of climate change into GHACOFs, NCOFs, and subnational climate outlook forums (SNCOFs) processes was considered crucial.Ms. Viola Otieno presented on the concept of Anticipatory Action (AA) and its significance in translating early warning into actionable measures. She emphasized that while early warning information is readily available from various sources, the challenge lies in taking early action. She raised the question of accountability when early warnings are not acted upon. Although AA does not have a universally agreed-upon definition, it generally involves acting ahead of predicted hazards to prevent or reduce acute humanitarian impacts before they fully unfold. Pre-defined triggers, pre-agreed actions, and prearranged financing are the components of AA. Pre-defined triggers rely on forecast and risk information, while pre-agreed actions refer to embedded action plans and standard operating procedures. Pre-arranged financing involves pre-allocated funds automatically released for targeted interventions.Ms. Otieno provided a summary of statistics from the global anticipatory action report, which indicated that a total of US$53.2 million has been spent on AA, with US$26.3 million allocated to the IGAD region. Approximately 1.9 million people have been reached through AA interventions with five countries in the IGAD region having active AA frameworks, while seven countries are in the process of developing such frameworks.She highlighted IGAD's efforts in advancing AA, including organizing regional multisectoral anticipatory workshops to ensure a shared common understanding of AA, consolidate AA experiences across humanitarian, development, and government sectors, and develop thresholds and triggers for AA. ICPAC has also developed a regional roadmap for AA. Ms. Otieno stressed the importance of linking forecasts with prevailing conditions in different sectors, understanding the \"what, when, and who,\" and making AA more practical on the ground to reduce emergency response and losses.Dr. Tufa Dinku's presentation focused on IRI's NextGen seasonal and sub-seasonal forecast system, flexible forecast presentation, and the associated challenges. He pointed out that the NextGen forecast system utilizes global ensemble forecast products, which can transform climate forecasting at regional and national levels. It allows customization of global model outputs to local and regional data, as well as user-relevant variables and threshold exceedances. The system also facilitates the automated generation of operational rolling forecasts at national and regional levels.The flexible forecast presentation enables the exploration of the probability of total rainfall exceeding or falling below a given amount for the upcoming season. It provides locationspecific information and allows for the extraction and comparison of specific locations, providing decision-makers with more specific information for anticipatory action.He noted that flexible forecast products have been integrated into maprooms at regional and national levels in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) region, including Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya. Training on the flexible forecast tool has been conducted, and the products are already included in their respective systems. However, it is important to ensure regular updates of forecast products. The main challenges however, with the product is that it uses single forecast output instead of the average of three forecasts outputs used by ICPAC and national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs).Mr. Anthony Mwanthi provided an analysis of the climate performance during the MAM (March-April-May) 2023 season in Eastern Africa. The forecast indicated a higher chance of below-average rainfall, with above-average rainfall being the next likely outcome in most parts of the region. Temperature predictions suggested that the northern sector would experience warmer than average conditions, while parts of the equatorial and southern sectors would be cooler than normal.The onset of the rainy season was compared to climatology onset, revealing that most areas experienced an early onset by 1-2 weeks. However, some areas recorded a late onset. Dekadal analysis using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) showed that rainfall peaked in most areas by the second dekad of March. The season's rainfall was triggered by Cyclone Freddy, which tracked from northwest Australia. During the first and second dekads of April, a dry spell was observed in South Sudan and Uganda. However, the third dekad of April saw region-wide enhanced rainfall, with Kibre Dehar in Ethiopia recording 230 mm of rainfall in a single day. Several stations in the region reported new extreme rainfall events in April.Overall, the rainfall during March to May 2023 ranged from normal to severely wet across the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) region. The occurrence of tropical cyclones and the influence of the Madden-Julian Oscillation were attributed to the extreme rainfall. Subseasonal forecasts were identified as valuable tools for providing important updates within the season, capturing sub-seasonal variability that cannot be captured in seasonal forecasts.During the discussion session, Mr. Oliver Kipkogei raised a question regarding the implementation of Anticipatory Action (AA) in the region, considering competing priorities such as finance, livestock, and crop insurance. Ms. Viola responded by acknowledging the fragmented implementation of AA, primarily conducted on a pilot basis or through projects. She pointed that their recent meeting aimed to bring stakeholders together, identify existing governance and policy structures, and anchor AA. Pre-financing remains a significant challenge, but funds are available under the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The establishment of a disaster fund and the implementation of low-cost AA at the community level, in collaboration with meteorological services and disaster centers/offices, were highlighted as key steps to strengthen resilience.Mr. Kassa Fekadu posed a question regarding the disparity between the MAM 2023 forecast of below-normal rainfall and the observed extremely wet conditions in most areas. Mr. Mwanthi explained that the forecast only showed the dominant category, with a 50% likelihood for below-normal rainfall, but there was also a 35% likelihood for abovenormal rainfall. He also noted that predictability in the weekly and 10-day outlooks is improved through dynamic downscaling after the seasonal forecast is issued. The explained that seasonal forecast cannot account for the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) or land-atmosphere interactions, which are better captured in sub-seasonal forecasts and through dynamical downscaling hence users should update their operations using the sub-seasonal forecasts.Mr. Kanyiike Tom inquired about the parameters used in the NextGen forecasting system, whether it was gridded or vector, and the practicality of the approach. Dr. Tufa explained that two tools were presented: NextGen for downscaling information and developing forecasts using PyCPT, and the Flexible Forecast presentation for optimizing forecast utilization through Maprooms. Training on these tools has been conducted for ICPAC staff and staff in the meteorological services of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. He clarified that NextGen uses gridded data at 4-5 km resolution, and the outputs in the form of graphs and maps can be downloaded for specific applications and use.This section provides a summary of the impacts of MAM season on the different sectorsMr. Oliver highlighted that MAM rainfall in the region has generally been abundant, supporting early-season crop growth, pastoral vegetation re-generation, and water reservoir replenishment. Despite these positive factors, prolonged droughts and other drivers have eroded livelihoods, and recovery will take time. Acute food insecurity remained high due to climate-related extremes, conflict, insecurity, macro-economic challenges, and forced displacement. Acute malnutrition levels were also concerning, with cereal price in March 2023 in BR, ET, RW, SD, SSD increasing by more than 50% compared to the recent five-year average.Positive impacts were reported in (ETH, SSD, UG, RW, BR, TZ, KE, SOM, SD, DJ) include good crop prospects, relief for drought-stricken regions, availability of short-term crops and vegetables, and favorable conditions for sunflower, maize, and beans production. However, negative impacts such as flooding, landslides, soil erosion, postharvest losses, dry spells, pests, diseases, and high market prices were observed. These challenges affected crops, infrastructure, and livelihoods across various regions.The first initiative that was done is dissemination of climate information through organized stakeholder. Other initiatives that were done include; a). Subsidized Fertilizer Program: Governments (KE, TZ) supplied subsidized fertilizers to farmers. In Kenya, over 5 million farmers registered to benefit from the e-voucher program, enabling them to access fertilizers at a subsidized cost. b). Timely Distribution of Agricultural Inputs: ETH and BR emphasized the importance of timely distribution of agricultural inputs to farmers. Regular scouting and follow-up of crop production fields were conducted to ensure efficient utilization of the inputs. c). Weather Forecast-based Agriculture Advisory: ETH, RWD and UG, developed and disseminated weather forecast-based agriculture advisories and updates. These advisories were delivered through different channels, enabling farmers to make informed decisions within the season. Sub-national climate outlook forums were also organized for co-production of regional forecasts and advisories (UG, KE The rainy season was short in BR, while above-normal rainfall was observed in DJI. Substantial rains with an early onset were witnessed in SOM, resembling the wetness of the 1997 Deyr season. Above-normal temperatures were observed in April and May in SDN. The Lake Victoria basin experienced a delayed onset of rainfall, with most rainfall occurring from mid-April to the first weeks of May. Prolonged dry spells were observed in the northern and west Nile regions of UG.Several measures were implemented to address the impacts of the MAM season. These included early dissemination of climate information to stakeholders, rainwater harvesting, maintenance of water pipes, and flood control measures. Water resources monitoring and flood advisories were implemented in KE and SSD. Catchment protection campaigns through tree growing and restoration were conducted in KE. Water trucking, borehole establishment and rehabilitation, and water treatment initiatives were undertaken in ETH.Dr. Dereje noted that the MAM season brought both positive and negative impacts in the reporting countries. Above-average rainfall led to improved pastures and animal feed availability. However, there were also negative impacts. Flash floods occurred in northern and southern parts of KE, displacing households and causing livestock deaths. Livestock diseases such as CBPP, CCPP, PPR, and FMD were reported in several countries with tick-borne diseases, and Brucellosis emerging in DJI. Flooding in ETH and SSD led to the death of emaciated animals. SOM experienced river flooding, animal displacement, and decline in animal body condition. Uganda witnessed localized episodes of flash floods and increased weeds affecting pasture quality.In order to reduce the impacts, disease surveillance was conducted continuously, and timely vaccinations were administered against transboundary diseases. Water harvesting and conservation of fodder were promoted in areas with abundant pasture and crop residues. Awareness creation about weather forecasts was increased in UG, KE, ETH, and DJI. Additionally, restocking efforts were undertaken in affected areas of ETH and UG. These measures contributed to improved livestock health, increased resilience among pastoralist communities, and better utilization of available resources.A participant asked for clarification on how the deficit in the required funding for response (3 billion) was met given that the governments were only able to mobilize 8 million dollars.Mr. Ouma responded that the needs-in the region are more than what the countries are able to support and are therefore depending on donors.A participant also wanted to understand why the IPC analysis for Ethiopia is not indicated and Mr. Belihu clarified that no recent analysis has been done for Ethiopia. It was also suggested that since DRC is not part of ICPAC, it should be masked out in the IPC analysis presentationsMs. Eunice delivered an informative presentation on the seasonal forecast for JJAS 2023 season over Eastern Africa. The presentation began with an overview of the background on the rainfall distribution in space and time as well as the significance of the season and showed that the JJAS contributes more than 60% of the annual total in the northern parts.She noted that the spatial and temporal distribution follows the north south movement of the rain belt with gradual decrease in rainfall starting in September. She also explained the different thresholds used to define below normal, normal and above normal rainfall categories. To visualize the forecast, Eunice utilized a color-coded scheme to represent normal, above-normal, and below-normal thresholds.In terms of forecast generation methodologies, the forecast is produced using three methods; linear regression, canonical correlation analysis and the logistic regression. These three methods are applied on individual models from the global producing centers (GPCs) and the results averaged to give the consolidated objective outlook. The JJAS outlook showed that there are high chances for wetter than usual conditions over northern and southern coastal parts of Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, cross-border areas of Sudan-South Sudan-Ethiopia, and coastal Kenya. Dr. Peter Johnston's presentation was aimed at helping users get a better understanding and interpretation of probability forecast. Dr. Peter delved into the concept of probability and its significance in interpreting forecasts. He emphasized that a forecast is inherently probabilistic, prompting the question of how to effectively understand its implications.Using the example of a forecast indicating a high probability for below-normal rainfall, he sought to clarify its meaning. Dr. Peter introduced the idea of making sense of probability by discussing three distinct probabilities by spinning a when with 3 colors (white, yellow, and green). He explained that the yellow probability signifies the highest likelihood of below-normal conditions. By spinning the wheel a number of times, different outcomes were achieved, and this showed that despite below normal had the highest chance, the other outcomes were a possibility. In general, he stressed the importance of presenting a forecast in a format that highlights the highest probability. This enables the end user, whether in agriculture or other fields, to make informed decisions such as fertilizer application or seed selection based on the probability. Finally, Peter emphasized that the end user must consider the \"what if\" scenario and make decisions based on the forecasted probabilities.Dr. Tufa's sought to understand what is considered normal and whether there is be a normal season and Peter explained that normal is determined by analyzing long-term data over a 20 to 30-year period, establishing a general tendency or average. Normal conditions represent what is expected based on this long-term average in a typical year. Dr. Peter emphasized that every location has its own range of highest and lowest values, and the normal average is calculated from that range.Regarding the participant's question about planning and dealing with the probabilistic nature of forecasts, Dr. Peter emphasized the need to adjust decision-making and embrace anticipatory action. He highlighted that seasonal forecasts provide an outlook, and planning should involve a deeper analysis of the monthly distribution. Brenda suggested a phased approach, including early warning message dissemination to communities, as part of an anticipatory action plan.Mulualem Abera from the Ethiopian Meteorology Department raised concerns about a potential mismatch between the first section and the summary of Eunice's presentation, specifically regarding the late onset and normal rainfall in Northwestern Ethiopia. He also wanted to understand if cases of flooding will be observed and which months in Ethiopia are expected to be dry. Eunice clarified that she had mentioned an early to normal onset. She explained that questions about flood vulnerability should be addressed by hydrologists in the water sector, as short-term forecasts are more suitable for capturing floods. Dr. Hussien added that northwestern Ethiopia is expected to experience belowaverage conditions in June and September, with an extended dry spell.The opening ceremony was graced by Mr. Zecharia Atheru, representing ICPAC Director Dr. Guleid Artan, along with Mr. Kinfe H Mariyam, Deputy Director General of Ethiopia Meteorological Institution, and H.E Dr. Eng Habtamu Hefu, Minister for the Ministry of Water and Energy.Mr. Kinfe welcomed the guests to the 64 th Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum in Addis Ababa. He highlighted the impact of climate change, emphasizing the occurrence of extreme events such as the recent five failed seasons that have been followed by an extremely wet March to May season that has resulted in flash floods in the region. He mentioned that the Ethiopia Meteorological Institute is the authorized institution to provide weather and climate forecasts and has been organizing climate outlook forums for the past three years. Mr. Kinfe expressed the importance of early warning followed by early action and praised ICPAC for their efforts in capacity building, not only for meteorologists and scientists but also for various sectors. He expressed gratitude to ICPAC for their support in providing timely and high-quality climate services and early warning information. He concluded by thanking the organizers on behalf of the Ethiopian government for selecting Addis Ababa as the venue for the forum.Mr. Zachary Atheru, representing the Director of ICPAC, conveyed apologies on behalf of the director for his absence and warmly welcomed the participants. He highlighted the key activities conducted over the past two days, which included assessing the March-April-May season and analyzing the anticipated impacts for the June-July-August-September season. Mr. Atheru emphasized the significance of this season, as it contributes nearly 60 percent of the annual rainfall in the northern part of the Greater Horn of Africa. He noted that due to the changing climate, extreme events have become more frequent, resulting in either drought or floods in the region. Addressing these extreme weather patterns requires effective planning, resource sharing, and climate action, particularly in agriculture through climate-smart practices.Mr. Atheru emphasized the need for preparedness to handle extreme weather events in the region, considering the changing patterns of La Niña and El Niño. He acknowledged that after three years of drought, the anticipated shift to a different weather pattern could bring some relief to communities, but it also carries the potential for increased damage.As part of ICPAC's mandate, Mr. Atheru highlighted their commitment to producing timely and high-quality early warning information for member countries.He acknowledged the positive impact of sectoral climate assessments and forums hosted by ICPAC, which have facilitated significant improvements in understanding climate dynamics and informing decision-making processes. Mr. Atheru emphasized the importance of continued innovation and fostering dialogue between climate scientists and stakeholders across the region. In his conclusion, he expressed gratitude to stakeholders such as the European Union for their continued support to the center and the Greater Horn of Africa. Mr. Atheru closed his address by expressing his appreciation to all participants and wished them a successful and productive GHACOF 64.H.E Dr. Eng Habtamu Hefu, the Minister for the Ministry of Water and Energy, delivered his welcoming address at GHACOF 64 and on behalf of the Ethiopian government, he expressed gratitude for the choice of Addis Ababa as the venue for the forum and extended a warm welcome to all participants. He acknowledged the significance of the forum, which was convened following the region's worst drought in recent history.Minister Hefu highlighted the wide-ranging impacts of the drought on various sectors in Ethiopia, including agriculture, water, tourism, wildlife, hydropower, and health. With the upcoming June-July-August-September season being crucial for the member states of the Greater Horn of Africa, the minister expressed eagerness to receive information on the expected seasonal outlook and how the lingering effects of La Niña or El Niño might influence the season.He emphasized that the forum provides an opportunity for scientists and climate information users to collaborate and develop strategies to mitigate risks and minimize the impacts of extreme weather events. Minister Hefu commended ICPAC for its efforts in enhancing the capacity of users and acknowledged the center's contributions in delivering early climate information and services.In his concluding remarks, he urged member states to expand their support and collaboration with ICPAC, emphasizing the importance of their collective work for the future. Minister Hefu extended his well wishes for a successful forum and encouraged participants to explore the diverse beauty of Ethiopia. He officially declared GHACOF 64 open.This session on focused on the state of global climate systems and their expected impacts in the coming season.Dr. Stefan Lines presented several key findings:• April was identified as the fourth warmest month globally and the warmest April ever recorded. This trend suggests an increased likelihood of a warmer year in 2023.• The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) currently exhibits a positive temperature anomaly. The official status of ENSO is neutral but gradually approaching an El Niño phase. • According to models, there is a 90 percent chance of an El Niño developing during the JJAS season. • The data indicates a high probability of a moderate El Niño occurring.He noted that although the influence of ENSO on East Africa rainfall is limited during the March-April-May (MAM) season, it has a significant influence during the JJAS. A La Nina phase is associated with enhanced rainfall and vice versa. He also pointed out that El Niño is associated with increased chances of wetter conditions in October-November-December (OND). If El Niño develops, it will likely bring changes and potentially lead to wetter conditions in OND 2023. El Niño is expected to cause a significant temperature increase of about 0.2 degrees Celsius in the region.The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) also has a slight connection with East Africa during the MAM season, but it does not have a clear influence on the JJAS season. However, it does impact the OND rains.Ms. Bahati Musilu represented the media sector and pointed out its role and their needs going forward as they seek to improve delivery of climate services. She emphasized integration of the forecast into national planning. She also applauded the countries who utilize National Climate Outlook Forums (NCOFs) and Sub-national COFs to engage different sectors and share information on their expected actions during the season. The media plays a vital role in bridging the gap between scientific information and communities. They deliver the forecast, breaking it down and even translating it into local languages for better understanding. Social media, particularly WhatsApp, emerged as a popular method for sharing weather and climate information, allowing for feedback and questions from the public.Moving forward, there is a focus on implementing anticipatory action by telling stories that connect people with expected climate events and assist governments in making informed policy decisions. The network of climate journalists in the Greater Horn of Africa (NECJOGHA) was highlighted as a valuable resource that should receive support for capacity building and further outreach. Scientists are encouraged to be available and willing to answer questions and participate in interviews. The media's involvement should extend beyond information dissemination and include journalists specialized in different sectors throughout the entire process, from planning to delivery of climate information.Dr. Omondi who is the project Manager of the RICCAMA projects informed the participants that the RICCAMA project, aimed at strengthening the resilience of member states in the region to climate change, will be ending on the 31st of May after four years. He pointed out that the project aligns with Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.Since the project is ending, the focus now shifts to creating awareness and implementing the project's initiatives in the member states. Several issues related to climate change will be addressed and implemented. The region is expected to adopt a consolidated and structured approach to tackle climate change challenges. Dr. Philip, in his remarks, expressed the hope that the participants present will become advocates for the project upon returning to their respective homes. Their support in creating awareness and facilitating implementation is crucial for the project's success. After his brief address a clip showing a sustainable way to restore degraded land by involving the community was displayed. The clip is a documentary that collates all the best practices and lessons learnt from countries in the region.Mr Kenneth Mwangi presented an update on the inter-regional coordination platform for the management of desert locust and other transboundary pests in the region citing the need by IGAD Member States to strengthen the platform. He highlighted key achievements of the platform as well as the needs assessments, capacity building and resource mobilization. He further explained that the platform is looking into deploying drones in agriculture and pest control as planes are increasingly becoming expensive.Mr. Atheru addressed the participants on behalf of the director. The director in his closing speech noted that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF), which has grown significantly since its inception. The first outlook took place in South Africa in 1997, followed by the Eastern Africa outlook in February 1998. Over the years, the RCOF forum has expanded to a global scale. He stated that a recent review of RCOFs recommended that the regional outlook forum should encompass a broader range of climate-related aspects, moving beyond just climate outlooks. The goal is to reform the forum, allowing for discussions on various climate-related topics. This shift necessitates a greater utilization of climate information, with the aspiration of providing services to a wider audience.Dr. Artan also acknowledged that the process of developing climate services has evolved from global to regional to national levels, with the ultimate aim of reaching the community level. ICPAC is currently engaged in creating a regional framework for Climate Services, taking into account the recently released guidelines by the World Meteorological Organization in 2022. The first step in this process is the development of user interface platforms, particularly for the water sector, which is currently under discussion with member states.He also noted that co-production is an essential element of the framework, emphasizing structured collaboration among various sectors. The regional outlook forum serves as one of the user interface platforms. Countries are encouraged to develop their national framework for climate service, with Ethiopia having already made progress in this area, while Kenya is in an advanced stage of development.He emphasized that climate services extend beyond meteorological services and require collaboration from all sectors. The overarching goal is to deliver climate services to all stakeholders effectively.Mr Fetene Teshome, Permanent representative Ethiopia with WMO made the press release.IGAD'S Climate Prediction and Applications Centre today announces that the June to September 2023 forecast shows high chances of drier than usual conditions across the northern parts of the Greater Horn of Africa. Accordingly, Djibouti, Eritrea, central and northern Ethiopia, western Kenya, northern Uganda, and much of South Sudan and Sudan are expected to receive insufficient rainfall until the end of the season.ICPAC's analysis also indicates an increased likelihood of warmer than usual conditions over the entire region, particularly over northern Sudan, parts of southern and central to western Ethiopia, central and northern Kenya, central and northern Somalia, and coastal parts of Tanzania.The June to September rainfall season is particularly important for the northern regions of the Greater Horn of Africa, where it contributes to more than 50% of the annual total rainfall. Dr Guleid Artan, ICPAC Director, called for heightened vigilance \"as this forecast could very well increase food insecurity in the region. Depressed rainfall, coupled with warmer than usual temperatures, are likely to affect crop productivity, with the risk of crop wilting and a hastened decline in pasture and water availability\". He asked IGAD's partners to \"stay mobilized and continue to respond to the crisis where 49 million people are still highly-food insecure in the IGAD region.\"In most parts of the region, above average rainfall was recorded during the March to May (MAM) 2023 season, bringing some respite to the communities most affected by five consecutive failed rainfall seasons in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.Hussen Seid, Climate Modelling Expert at ICPAC explains that: \"It is now very likely that we will transition from La Niña to El Niño between July and September. At this stage, there is no indication of the strength or duration of El Niño, but in general it is associated with depressed rainfall between July and September in the north of the region and wetter conditions between October and December in the equatorial parts. So, we must get prepared for much wetter weather towards the end of the year. ICPAC encourage its users to consult its weekly and monthly updates that have a high degree of predictability\".ICPAC is a designated Regional Climate Centre by the World Meteorological Organization. Its seasonal forecast is based on an analysis of several global climate model predictions customized for the Greater Horn of Africa. In this instance, ICPAC's scientists have produced a consolidated forecast from seven models which increases its reliability, and the forecast indicates a drier July to September 2023 season.The GHACOF64 is now officially closed.Thank you for your participation to all participants/ Ethiopia for Hosting/ICPAC staff/Skylight hotel.","tokenCount":"5713"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"974f97726c869e9d270ee1bd6210d6a7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/570d978d-c722-44b4-961d-cfab86041e48/retrieve","id":"-1026345101"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"901489e1-0ede-41af-96aa-399beae6989f","pagecount":"149","content":"HU, thank you all. I am also indebted to all classmates in the department of RDAE and graduate colleagues at Haramaya University for making my stay pleasant and ever memorable.I wish to extend my gratitude to enumerators, the precious 120 sample farm HHs, key informants and private service providers in Alaba for devoting their valuable time during the data collection. I would like to thank my friends, Adugna Enyew, Takele Taye from Norway, Mammo Lodamo, Asefa Bilhatu, Tigist Beyene and Ademe Ayalew for their encouragement through emails and phone calls to accomplish my study successfully. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS v BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii LIST OF TABLES xiii LIST OF FIGURES xv LIST OF APPENDICES xviand assistance in general and for giving me the courage and endurance to start the graduate studies and finalize this thesis in particular.My greatest thank and heartfelt appreciation goes to my major advisor Tesfaye Lemma (PhD) and co-advisor Ranjan S. Karippai (Prof) for allowing me the opportunity to work with them, for their insightful contributions to my professional development, and for their kindness and support. Without their assistances, the completion of this paper would have been hardily possible. I am especially grateful to Dr Tesfaye Lemma, for his guidance, encouragement, and patience. I will always appreciate the brotherly example he set in my life.I would like to express my thanks for ILRI/IPMS project for covering the research expenses and graduate stipend that helped me to concentrate on the thesis research work. I would like also to thank many people in Alaba especially staffs of the woreda Agricultural Extension Work Process and Alaba IPMS project. I also owe my deepest gratitude to Abebe Shiferaw, Bereket Dindamo and Shemisu Mohammed of the IPMS, for their valuable assistance from the project. My special gratitude goes to Anteneh Girma and Zerihun (ILRI-Statistician) for all supports they were giving me at their disposal. Bereket Dindamo deserves my special thanks for accommodating and made my stay in Alaba pleasant. My sincere acknowledgment goes to Afework Daniel, Tesfaye Soka and Addisu Tutuno who made my stay in Alaba and Addis Ababa feeling as if at home.In addition, World Bank Librarians and DAs of the Alaba WoARD deserve the same. I am also indebted to Girma Deressa for making the necessary arrangement of time for data collection and undying support from a distance. It is unfair not to mention my poor and uneducated mum (Bontole Tantu) and dad (Muke Munaje) whose crucial decision to invest part of their meager resource in my education had laid a base for me to reach where I am today. Fortunately, my mum's dream and determination to educate me until I reach FiguresEthiopia is one of the poorest nations in the world, where agriculture is the basis of livelihood for the majority of the population. Real per capita income is very low, currently estimated to be 140 USD per year. Poverty is widespread with an estimated 44% of the total population living below the poverty line in the 1999/2000 and poverty incidence is much higher in rural areas than urban areas (FDRE, 2002). Agriculture contributes 50% of gross domestic production (GDP), employs 85% of the population and the main incomegenerating sector for the majority of the rural population. Despite the potential for market oriented agricultural economic development, smallholder farming performance and its contribution to poverty reduction and economic development has remained very low (Getahun, 2004). One, among many, of the reasons for this is lack of effective agricultural services delivery. To ameliorate the challenges and realize the potential of the sector, decades of efforts have been made to improve the provision of supportive services such as, credit, research and extension, post harvesting services and marketing of agricultural products but most of the service provision activities have been mainly carried out by the public sector through various development projects (Azage et al., 2006).Since 1991, Ethiopia has set forth a comprehensive economic development strategies that target economic growth and poverty reduction through efforts designed to promote a market-led transformation of the agricultural growth. Thus, PASDEP places a great emphasis on commercialization and diversification of agricultural production and exports, active private sector participation in supporting rural subsistence farming moving to small scale market-oriented agriculture. Hence, the focus of the agricultural support service delivery has to move from subsistence-orientation to a kind of service that supports improving the productivity and market success of smallholder production systems (FDRE, 2002). Besides, pluralism is required in service delivery with increasing involvement of the private sector, NGOs and farmer groups/cooperatives. Globally, public monopoly in production of inputs and service delivery has recently become under serious challenge. The service reform trends include decentralization, costsharing and complete privatization/user fee. A range of pressures, both internal and external are forcing a re-examination of public agricultural services. Hence, the world is experiencing a situation where many countries are finding it necessary to implement and experiment with different reforms including the option of complete privatization of agricultural services. However, appropriate service delivery reform and institutional arrangements in service delivery is context specific.In Ethiopia, the agricultural service delivery system assessment revealed a weak demand side since farmers and communities are not well organized to be able to analyze their real needs and demand and validate it in view of their own resources. On the service provision side, the public sector has retained its monopoly and few emerging non public service providers are not working towards to the required level of effectiveness and efficiency (Puskur and Hagmann, 2006). This may result from factors such as regulatory environment, business linkages and lack of public support that affect organizational and institutional set ups to support, organizing and respond to demands. Hence, the need for understanding and analyzing the prevailing opportunities and challenges for the emergence of vibrant private service delivery systems is imperative. It is also equally important to look into the possible roles of and mechanisms for public support to private service development for efficient and equitable functioning of the service provision. This study contributes towards the same direction.In recent development strategy, Ethiopia has set forth a comprehensive set of development objectives that target economic growth and poverty reduction through strategies designed to promote a market-led transformation of the rural economy. PASDEP places a great emphasis on commercialization of agriculture, diversification of production and exports, and private sector investment in order to move the rural economy beyond subsistence farming to small scale market-oriented agriculture. However, past efforts of public agricultural service delivery system did not lead commercialization of smallholder agriculture moving (FDRE, 2002). Hence, with the main thrust of commercialization, to move a subsistence-oriented agriculture of the country to more productive and marketoriented production systems, the agricultural supportive service has to be transformed and should become more responsive, client-oriented and demand-driven.After years of neglect, there is now renewed interest in privatization of agricultural services in many developing countries. However, the issue of how best to provide and finance private services remains controversial. This needs understanding the roles and capacity of the public and private sector, and civil society while ensuring demand-driven service delivery to meet the needs of farmers and making service provision more efficient and financially sustainable to maintain equity among poor female farmers and other marginalized groups have access to services. In view of this, the need for involving private sector either fully or partially supplementing public sector service delivery is being increasingly recommended in Ethiopia (World Bank, 2005).Private sector development and the performance of private sector activities is now seen as crucial to economic growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. However, past experiences in many developing countries with contracting out indicate that it often takes time for NGOs and small private-sector enterprises with the ability to provide adequate services to emerge. This indicates the importance of public supportive services for the emergence and development of small private enterprise. Further, government has a critical role to play to create an enabling environment for private sector investment in various aspects through, among others, capacity building, appropriate regulatory frameworks and the implementation of competition law. Therefore, it is important to understand various mechanisms of public support to promote the development of vibrant private sectors in service provision. These have to remain public goods that the government will need to provide for the proper functioning of the market. As private enterprise is a prime engine of growth and development, it needs the public support that enhancing governance and the rule of law to attract more and broader private investment (Kurokawa et al., 2008).In the past, most developing countries have implemented various strategies from revitalization within the existing public service to privatization to reform publicly dominated agricultural services. These reforms have revealed that a public sector monopoly in provision of agricultural services is no more justifiable. As a result, many developing countries are taking various measures to improve national service delivery systems through the involvement of private service providers. This has created a growing trend for a state to move from being a simple provider of services to work of regulatory, quality assurance and capacitating and scaling-up the participation level of private sectors and farmers and their organization so that they would gradually shift from a passive beneficiary clients to active partners in service delivery (Rivera and Qamar, 2003).Beyond improving the investment climate, the public can do more to support the private sector including expanding access to public goods and more importantly supporting and capacitating private sectors for efficient and equitable provision of services.Providing adequate and stable funding for agricultural service in developing country has been a major problem due to lack of funding and other problems. In order to solve this problem, privatization of agricultural services is seen as a tenable policy option to meet problems associated with publicly funded agricultural service in developing countries.This needs the redefinition of the role of the public sector in the provision of service and the shift in financing the service system from government to producers. It is important to know that these shifts are not without risk and complication. This is because an excessive move to discard public sector roles in imperfect markets is often leading to chaotic market conditions and manifested by moral hazard and adverse of selection (Kurokawa et al., 2008). Thus, the public sector should also play an important role in ensuring fair and equal treatment of all groups in a society, especially the poor and disadvantaged; and a principalagent problem in the sense that the community is hiring private service providers to accomplish service delivery. This requires strong institutional mechanisms for regulating the behavior of agent, enforcing ethics and regular dissemination of information to minimize the information asymmetry. Hence this needs building a much stronger investment climate through the promotion of a stable, efficient and harmonized legal business framework, provision of infrastructure and increased access to finance including strong support for the development of rural micro-finance. However, while these private service providers are more common in the western world, they are slowly emerging in developing countries.The Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian farmers project in Alaba Pilot Learning Woreda (PLW), in collaboration with public and NGO actors has initiated the private service delivery system such as private crop protection and community animal health workers' services. However, there is no systematic assessment of this initiative has been made to learn lessons and develop a strategy for scaling out successful experience. There are a number of issues that need to be investigated. On the one hand, farmers should have effective demand for privately provided service, and on the other hand, there is a need for workable organizational and institutional arrangement to support the response to demands. More importantly, private service provision ought to be financially viable to survive and grow. It is also necessary to understand service users and potential users perceptions about quality and benefit of private services. Therefore, this study was initiated to address this knowledge gap with respect to private service delivery in Alaba PLW from pluralistic service delivery perspective.The general objective of the study was to assess the opportunities and challenges for private service provision both from users and provider's point of view.The specific objectives were: to assess perceptions of service providers about the opportunities and challenges to enter and expand the service, to assess the coverage and commercial viability of private spray and CAHWs service providers, to assess perceptions of potential users and the level of satisfaction of users with the accessibility, effectiveness and benefit of privately provided services; and to assess the farmers' ability and willingness to pay for private crop protection and CAHWs service in the study area.The study was designed to address the following research questions:1. What are the challenges and opportunities for emergence and expansion of private service provision? 2. What are the extent of service coverage and commercial viability to service providers? 3. How do the private service providers perceive the entrance and expansion of private service delivery? 4. Why some farmers use privately provided services and others don't?Due to the large number of PAs in the district, the potential limitation of the study was that it is focused on four purposive samples of rural PAs. Moreover, lack of information at the grass root level and update in a timely manner constituted a major constraint for the study.The study also limited in depth owing to time and financial availability.It focused mainly on finding out the potential challenges and opportunities of providing private service in general and private crop protection and community animal health service in particular. Finally, it is important to note that Ethiopia is diversified in agro-ecological, socio-economic, and cultural environment, and the study being location specific in nature, its results may not be generalized to the zonal or regional level with blind recommendation. However, the recommendations and policy implications of the study can be used for the areas of similar contexts and as a basis for further studies.Alaba district is purposively selected being one of the Pilot Learning Weredas of IPMS, the sponsor of this research, and it is where both private crop protection and community animal health services coexist. The public sector agricultural service in which Ethiopia have invested large sums are achieving only limited impact but face unsustainably high recurrent costs. Further, the fundamental promise of public sector service that low income farmers are unlikely to obtain private services unless it is provided by government is increasingly being challenged. The significant contributions of the crop protection and livestock health services to the Ethiopian economy have been studied by different authors (Admassu et al. 2005). However, through a review of the literature and a series of informal discussion with major actors of the sector, it has been found that, despite its importance, it has not been studied to as great extent within the context of challenges and opportunities to private service delivery. But, determining the challenges and opportunities with regard to the capacity of the service providers' will help emphasis the strengths and weaknesses of existing services delivery system and will provide foundational data to potential providers and policy makers. However, currently, little information is available to this regard. Therefore, this study was conducted with the intention to fill this gap and its findings provide various insightful learning for service providers, researchers and students interested in similar research theme for further investigation and contribute to improving private service delivery system in the district.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one deals with the background, problem statement, objectives and significance of the study. Chapter two reviews various literatures related to the main research topic. Methodological issues including the study area description is presented in chapter three. The fourth chapter puts the results of the study and discusses their interpretation. The final chapter summarizes and concludes the thesis and forward possible policy implications and recommendations.In this chapter the key concepts and ideas pertinent to the theme of the thesis are discussed. In addition relevant empirical research and their findings are reviewed in order to inform the current analysis.CAHWs: are community members formally/informally trained by NGOs, CBOs or veterinarians who serve in the local communities in provision of animal health services (DVM, 2001).Privatization: is the act of reducing the role of government or increasing the role of private sector in delivery of services or in the ownership of assets.Market Orientation: when extension services relate to productivity and marketing advice and linking farmers to national or international markets and additional support systems.Demand: is defined as what people ask for, need and value so much that they are willing to invest their own resources, such as time and money, in order to receive services (Sanne, 2006).Private sector development is crucial for growth, development and employment creation in Africa. This is being recognized by donors in their support programs for the private sector (Kurokawa et al., 2008). Private sector investments have grown faster than official development assistance; in the early 1980s, yet, few developing countries attract 80 percent of private sector investments; it is necessary to catalyze private sector investments to the others. In Asian countries the focus in the past has been on project-lending to governments and on public sector-led growth; the current financial crisis has renewed appreciation of the private sector's role as an engine of growth. Strong challenges, including globalization, technological changes, the rise of e-commerce, continuing poverty, and population growth continue to press forward the need of private sector. The private sector is needed and suited for sustaining rapid growth. The emerging Asian countries experience shows that growth is the most powerful weapon against poverty and to create jobs that use labor-the main asset of the poor.The private sector in Africa is diverse. The private sector's contribution to both employment and GDP shows a strong positive correlation with GDP per capita. Thus, as countries grow richer, there is an increase in the labor force employed in private enterprise and overall, they make a larger contribution to GDP. There are different views about the dynamic contribution of private sectors to grow. On the one hand, private enterprise may contribute to competition and entrepreneurship. Some argue they are more productive as long as key challenges are removed, and some argue private enterprise are better at generating employment, and hence at reducing poverty (Kurokawa et al., 2008).Private investment in service delivery can also create fiscal space and relieve pressure on public budgets, thereby enabling governments to redirect more resources to social spending. Private sector participation in infrastructure can also improve the delivery efficiency of essential services and extend these to where there is poor. Private provision of goods and services with public financing can also be well-suited to the social sectors, where the private sector can be engaged to operate not-for-profit social facilities, e.g., schools and health facilities (ADB, 2000). But, the private sector cannot be expected to undertake extensive poverty interventions on its own. However, in recent years major changes in rethinking of the role of state have taken place in development strategy. For decades the state was considered to be central to any development effort. Recently, development economists increasingly call for a new role of the public sector moving away from state interventions in economic activities and unleashing the creative forces of private entrepreneurship. Given the weaknesses of government services as regards efficiency and accountability and the ubiquitous challenges to public funding, the retreat of the state up till outright privatization appears to be an obvious solution.There are three components of the rationale for public support for private sector development. First, there is the premise that private sector development is good for growth. Secondly, the private sector is affected by growth challenges of a different nature and magnitude (e.g. they may have less access to formal sources of external finance).Finally, the challenges are due to market failures so that, in principle, there is a role for government to address these.Public support for private sector development is justified when markets fail to allocate resources efficiently. Markets fail to allocate resources efficiently when property rights, which define the control over assets and rights, are incomplete. There are various types for public support for private sector development. In principle, the existence of market and coordination failures justifies public involvement in private sector development. Again, the scope and type of public intervention large in theory. Despite a strong theoretical case, it is important to underline that public support may fail to improve private sector development.This could be for several reasons. First, it seems questionable to assume that governments can have perfect information and perfect foresight, or better information than private firms. Investment climate reform might address market failures by establishing rules and regulations when they are lacking. Secondly, government intervention can also suffer from moral hazard problems (Stiglitz and Uy, 1996 as cited in Kurokawa et al., 2008). The development of new technology and adoption of existing technology is characterized by externalities which cannot be fully appropriated. Thirdly, there can be private non-market means that can solve market failures. Joint action may raise collective efficiency, by internalizing externalities. Fourthly, addressing national coordination failures based on scale economies is probably the most far-reaching, but also the riskiest. Finally, government intervention carries the risk of misallocation and rent-seeking behavior. The public sector that is supporting the private sector need to assess the benefits and weaknesses of each approach and weigh up their respective risks. Public can provide support at least at three levels:• The macro level (Policy): this refers to the overall investment climate and enabling environment which can be shaped, amongst other things, by the government policies and regulatory frameworks.• The meso level (Institutional): which refers to labor and capital markets at the national, regional or sectoral level. Public initiatives at this level aim to improve the functioning of markets are often come under the rubric 'making markets work.' • The micro level (farm-household): this refers to a single business unit or a collection thereof. Private sector support at this level may be in the form of a business development service or firm specific assistance (e.g. in value chains).The World Bank's World Development Report (World Bank, 2005) on Investment Climate emphasizes the need for creating an enabling environment for private sector development, and argues that there needs to be a right balance between market and government failures, and that enabling environment reform essentially addresses both market and government failures. Several donors agree that effective private sector development is good for pro-poor growth and that further support for the investment climate is required to achieve this.The new strategy for private sector development (PSD) has three integrated strategic thrusts which capitalize on capabilities and experience in both public and private sector operations (ADB, 2000). These include:These include sound and stable macroeconomic management elements such as appropriate competition policy; investment, trade, and price liberalization; reduced barriers to competition; well-functioning financial and capital markets; flexible labor and land markets; good physical, social, and technological infrastructure; equitable tax systems; pension and insurance reform; sound environmental and social standards; and legal and judicial systems that protect property rights, enforce contracts, and provide for dispute resolution. This takes instruments like policy dialogue, economic and sector work, program loans, project loans, technical assistance, co-financing and credit guarantees.In order to create business opportunities, it needs active private sector participation in donor-financed public sector projects through contracts for supply, management, concession, and leading; well-designed with poverty reduction impacts; and donor supported privatization programs. Program loans, technical assistance, co-financing, and credit guarantees are the possible instruments this to take.This category should target on private sector projects with development impacts or demonstration effects; and priority to infrastructure facilities, investment funds, specialized financial institutions for small and medium-sized enterprises and pilot health and education projects. The instruments are loans without government guarantees, equity investments and co-financing (ADB, 2000).The pursuit of the strategic thrusts should focus primarily on three priority areas of operations: governance in the public and private sectors; financial intermediation and public-private partnerships (PPP). These three areas of operational focus represent the key vehicles for promoting private sector development and pro-poor growth in context of developing countries. In each areas of operational focus, concentration should be on activities in which it has underlying comparative advantages either governance in public and private sectors, commercialization and privatization, and corporate governance.Whereas, financial intermediation should focus on financial institutions and markets, local currency financing, investment funds, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The PPP concentrates on physical and social infrastructure development, and agriculture and rural sector development. To implement these fundamental changes, two important operating principles will guide the delivery of public supports and concentrate the development organization's efforts on where it can contribute best. Think PSD in public sector operations which entails deliberate efforts by public sector operations to improve the enabling environment for the private sector and to use the experiences of private initiatives as inputs to these efforts; it means asking systematically whether components of public sector projects can be undertaken by the private sector; it also calls for \"crowding in\" the private sector. The second principle is think development impact in private sector operations which entails an orientation to achieve greater development impact, and work with governments to take deliberate steps to reduce poverty.Based on nature, agricultural service can be categorized into public or private goods. The concept and principle for analyzing public and private goods is of particular importance when we deal with agricultural services. Two criteria determine whether a good or service is closer to being public or private, the principles of excludability and subtractability (rivalry). Excludability applies when access is denied to those who have not paid for the product, while subtractability applies when one person's use or consumption of a good or service reduces its availability to others. A purely private good is characterized by high subtractability and excludability and a purely public good has low subtractability and excludability (Table 1). In between public and private goods are toll goods and common pool goods. According to Umali and Schwartz (1994), toll goods are e.g. coded TV broadcasts and semi privatized high ways and a common pool good can be a beach, lakes etc. Ill-defined property rights, in turn, prevent private contracts on the production and exchange of a public good or service and hence its supply. Private sectors will not provide public goods, because it is difficult to restrict their use or make people pay for using them.Public goods, therefore, are chronically undersupplied setting narrow limits for their commercialization (Kurokawa et al., 2008). This public good problem can only be overcome by collective institutions and full-fledged privatization is excluded. The public good problem may also appear where a particular service is of private good nature in principle, but its production and use affects public interests. This is the case of externalities, which arise when individual actions affect others. However, from privatization point of view services further can be classified into the following three categories.Services recommended for privatization fall into four categories depending on whether they could be left to the private sector or whether they require initial or continuous government support and /or regulatory supervision. They could use either of the following forms; services to be left wholly to the private sector; services to be left to the private sector with initial public sector support; services requiring regulatory supervision by the government; or services requiring continuous government support and regulatory service.The distinction under this category is based on whether the services can be contracted to a commercial agency and whether they can be subjected to full or only partial recovery depending on the location of the beneficiaries of the service. They include: services to be contracted to the private sector; services to be subjected to full-cost recovery; or services to be commercialized and strengthened as full-cost recovery (GTZ, 1999).This category consists of those services which should exclusively be delivered by the public sector because either: public sector has a distinct comparative advantage over the private in service delivery; or public policy dictates that the public sector directly discharges the service in fulfillment of the social contract; or the service falls under the natural mandate of a restructured and rationalized public sector. This class consists of two categories: services that require relocation within the government; or services to remain in the domain of the MoARD.According to Umali and Schwartz (1994), animal health services cannot and should not all be privatized. Instead, a policy of selective privatization should be pursued. The services that are purely private goods should be shifted to the private sector as the first step. Then other services can be slowly transferred to the private sector. They suggest that, to achieve this, the government should lower trade barriers, remove price subsidies on publicly provided drugs, eliminate restrictions on private practice, subcontract services to the private sector, promote livestock and crop insurance plans, create a suitable environment for the development of smallholder producer organizations, and provide targeted, subsidized delivery in areas where animal health services are necessary but unprofitable for private providers. In this connection, FAO (1998) has pointed out that, even when services are recognized to be a state responsibility, they can be and often should be delivered by the private sector with supervision from the state authorities. As long as private practitioners can make a decent living, some services should be provided by private practitioners and not the staff employed by government. The government may also encourage private financing of the delivery of public or common pool services through judicious use of information and regulation. Hence, considerable opportunities exist for governments to overcome the fiscal constraints that presently limit the efficiency and quality of service delivery in developing countries by privatizing many of the activities that are presently being executed by the public sector.There is widespread agreement in the literature that conventional approaches of private service delivery may not be suited to marginalized and resource-poor areas. These areas rather require approaches that can overcome the structural constraints of high transaction costs and low demand for services resulting from poor awareness and subsistenceorientated production systems. A number of alternative models have emerged that are effective in addressing the issue of service delivery in poor areas. These include CAHWs, producer associations, community-based crop protection services, SHGs etc. These kinds of groups can be very useful for improving access to private services in poor areas and the government can play a significant role in promoting and facilitating them. However, mostcountries have yet to develop the supportive institutional and legislative frameworks that are necessary for these groups to be successful (Ahuja, 2004).It is a myth to say that poor households in remote areas are not willing to pay for services at all: in a number of such areas, some of the NGOs are already charging a fee. In southern Sudan, for example, CAHws have been providing treatments and vaccinations on a cost recovery basis. In areas where there are genuine problems in paying, the government has the additional responsibility of nurturing the development process in a way that empowers the farmers to demand quality services (Ahuja 2004). This implies targeted subsidy to poor or building partnerships with local NGOs and channeling some of the public funds through them. This requires an effort that aims at community empowerment and awareness building to generate demand for these services.  (Carlsson et al., 2005). In connection to this, a large number of insect pests have been recorded to affect major crops in Ethiopia, but only a few of these are considered to be of economic importance. Crop protection service is totally undertaken by ministry of agriculture, except for individual effort on farmers' plots.No producer developed so far to license the private sector in crop protection. Although there is legislation governing pesticide registration, clear guidelines on the importation, testing, and use of pesticides, legislations have not been enforced effectively. Another issue in crop extension is pesticides restricted in industrialized countries are observed while widely used in Ethiopia. Furthermore, no pesticide has been officially banned in this country.According to World Bank (2002) livestock services can be grouped into two major functional categories: health and production services. Health services include curative and preventive services and the provision of pharmaceuticals. Curative services include the provision of clinical care, while preventive services consist of vaccination, vector control, and disease control measures such as quarantines and movement restrictions. On the other hand, production services include research and extension relating to improved livestock husbandry and the provision of input supplies such as seeds, feeds and artificial insemination (AI). Production services try to improve livestock productivity by such means as genetic upgrading of livestock through artificial insemination, the improved formulation of feeds, the use of improved forages and changes in management practices.Consequently, the major players that shape the livestock services sector are veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals, herders, consumers, government, NGOs in developing countries, and private entrepreneurs providing specialized services. In some countries, the limited number of trained veterinarians and their unwillingness to serve in remote rural areas has made paraprofessionals very valuable. Increasing competition in the livestock sector market has led to complementary livestock services extension, designed to promote and strengthen customer loyalty and expand market shares (Umali et al. 1994). Theyforesee strong support for livestock development in the near future as there is now increasing realization, that livestock development programs can play an important role in reducing rural poverty in the developing world. Second, the demand for animal products in the developing world is growing fast, and it can be expected to continue. Recent projections show that over the next twenty years, the demand for meat in developing countries will increase by about 2.7% and the demand for milk by 3.2%.The World Bank (2002) prefer to focus on specific approaches to extension that have appeared in the last three decades as an attempt to overcome some of the weakness inherent in the public extension systems. These include Training and Visit, decentralization, privatized extension and Farmer Field Schools (FFS). In contrast, Rivera et al (2001) distinguishes between a variety of public sector reform strategies supporting the new paradigm market-driven income-generation (Table 2). According to this distinction, market reforms encompass four major reform strategies. These include: revision of public sector systems, pluralism, cost recovery and total privatization. Public service delivery is in many cases characterized by low efficiency of service delivery, isolation from customers and low degree of client orientation, lack of accountability and poor guidance by policies and weak public demand and control. The still dominant model of a public service -combining funding and service delivery -has been questioned for quite some time. Alternative institutional arrangements and forms of service delivery are emerging (Box 1). In the evolving arrangements, private and third sector organizations take a role both on the supply as well as on the demand side of the service system. Cost recovery and commercialization of public services indicate a greater role of non-public actors on the demand side, whereas subcontracting and, at the extreme, full-fledged privatization leaves the supply of services to market actors.Most goods actually fall in between the private / public distinction or are affected by some public concern. Hence, in most cases the provision of services requires the participation of obligations that govern the way in which economic units cooperate and/or compete.Institutional arrangements are embedded in the institutional environment that is the set of fundamental political, social and legal ground rules that establishes the basis for production, exchange and distribution (Box 1). For a private market to function, a strong state is needed enforcing property rights and contracts. A weak state may be tempted to undermine market development by arbitrary confiscation or rent extraction (GTZ, 1999).Efficient market functioning requires strong institutions and organizational arrangements, and it is therefore very useful to discuss the economic issues together with the larger political economy and the issue related to governance because this can be one area where future thinking in service delivery will need to focus. Farmers make economic decisions.The first principle of economics must therefore be the point of departure in thinking about the most efficient way of organizing service delivery. The first fundamental theorem of welfare economics states that 'if there is no externalities, both buyers and sellers have symmetric information, there are no increasing returns to production, all buyers and sellers take price as given (that is no one has any market power), and there are no transaction costs'; then the competitive equilibrium is pareto-efficient. This result significantly influenced early thinking on the delivery of services (FAO, 1998) which in turn drove the policy for service delivery in many countries around the world in eighties and nineties.Public Sector: Services that have a significant public good component such as compliance monitoring, quarantine, quality control, planning for emergencies and reporting to international bodies and neighboring countries, oversight of safety, import and export inspection of inputs and certification according to international standards; regulation, monitoring and support of other partners, accreditation of personnel, creation of enabling environment for the private sector and general formulation of policy should remain the responsibility of public sector to deliver the service (Ahuja and Redmond, 2001).Private Sector: Pure private goods which do not involve any externalities or moral hazard problems should be delivered by private firms.Services such as continuing education and training, research, extension and advisory services should be provided by partnership.In Malawi the saving from increased livestock production in areas where CAHWs were active was $57,000 in the year 1998-99. Farmers with CAHW services were more likely to afford a tin roof, window glass, horse cart, plough and radio, than farmers without access to CAHW services. Similar result was reported from Afghanistan where CAHW programs reduced mortality by 5% in calves, 10% in lambs and 38% in kids, compared with control areas without CAHWs. The benefits to farmers estimated to be $120,000 per district per annum, while the costs of the program were $25,000 per district. In Kenya farmers without access to CAHWs reported 70% more cattle deaths than those farmers who had access to CAHWs. The decrease in mortality provided benefits worth $48 a year to each farmer using CAHWs (Holden 1997 as cited in Leyland and Catley, 2002).Considering CAHWs from an economic perspective, the issue of transaction costs is paramount. The research in Senegal pointed out the comparative advantage of CAHWs in many areas, that in the current economic climate, they appear to be the only economically viable mechanism for delivering veterinary services. It also describes the emerging institutional linkages between private veterinarians to CAHWs and a mechanism for extending the ethical commitment of the veterinary profession into remote areas, and of reducing the government's transaction costs in coordinating CAHWs to provide public goods. This shows CAHW systems are the most economically efficient way to provide privatized veterinary services. Despite evidence of the impact of CAHWs, relatively few countries have officially recognized this level of support to CAHWs systems through appropriate policies and legislation.There are now more than 1500 government and NGO-trained CAHWs in Ethiopia (Wolmer and Scoones, 2005). Despite improved communication and collaboration, significant policy and institutional challenges remain. And, as Ethiopia's privatized system of CAHWs becomes more established, there will also be questions of affordability for poorer users, the need to identify who is excluded, and how to reach them.In the Afar Region of Ethiopia, (Pan African Rinderpest Campaign) PARC demonstrated that CAHWs can carry out rinderpest vaccination rapidly, effectively and cheaply. In 1995, in neighboring districts of the Afar region, a CAHW project vaccinated 70,000 cattle using 22 CAHWs, 2 veterinary service staff, 1 vehicle and no cold chain. The efficiency of vaccination was 84%. No outbreaks of rinderpest have been reported since this campaign and the area has now been declared provisionally free from disease. The conventional government vaccination teams vaccinated, concurrently, 140,000 cattle using 14 vehicles, 56 staff and a full cold chain. The efficiency of vaccination was 72%. In Somaliland CAHWs achieved 95% vaccination efficiency using heat stable rinderpest vaccine -the highest efficiency reported in Africa since the PARC began (Mariner et al. Leyland and Catley, 2002).In Ethiopia, in 1996 an unknown respiratory disease of camels was first reported by an Afar CAHW to local PARC authorities. The disease subsequently spread to the Ogaden, Somalia and northern Kenya. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Ethiopia received very few reports of rinderpest from the Afar pastoral area due to the paucity of staff in the region and limited contact between the veterinary services and the pastoral community.Numerous reports of epidemic rinderpest were received from more sedentary communities surrounding the Afar, who had more regular access to services. This information bias led authorities to further focus rinderpest control resources around the Afar area but not in the Afar. When it was realized, through active surveillance, that the Afar was the endemic area, a CAHW system was introduced that resulted in appropriate surveillance and vaccination control efforts. Rinderpest was eradicated from Afar and the surrounding communities within 3 years (Mariner et al. 1994 as cited in Leyland and Catley , 2002) The market efficiency argument also rests on the assumption that both buyers and sellers take prices as given which, in turn, is based on the assumption of many buyers and sellers in the market. Most service markets in developing countries are likely to violate this condition especially in poor remote areas. Whereas it is feasible to generate some competition among the service providers in high potential high density areas, the effective aggregate demand in poor marginal areas is often not adequate to support many providers leading to monopoly situations. While competitive bidding at short intervals can dissipate the monopoly advantage conferred by contracts (Ahuja and Redmond, 2001); this leads to the role of state in establishing transparent processes and institutional structures to facilitate efficient functioning of the market.The first fundamental theorem requires that both buyers and sellers know and do not know the same thing. But in developing countries where there is imperfect market, the service providers have significantly more information advantage than the user and there are incentives to exploit the rents to that information. This asymmetry of information leads to two types of market failures-moral hazard, and adverse of selection. Although Umali and Schwartz (1994) and others recognized the problem of moral hazard, according to them this problem was likely to be limited to functions such as drug quality control in animal health service. The problem of opportunistic behavior can be minimized through contract design, administration and requires defining the quantity and quality of the service as well as specifying the condition under which the service will be delivered.The first fundamental theorem of welfare economics is a pure efficiency result than equity.According to Ahuja and Redmond (2001), it completely side-steps the notions of fairness, distribution and equity, and is obviously silent about the welfare of those who are excluded from the market. Due to the importance of services in supporting the livelihoods of poor farmers throughout the developing world, and the assumption that the market will exclude poor due to poor paying capacity, the governments in a large number of countries chose to build and heavily subsidize large systems and networks for delivering even those services that could be most efficiently provided through the market. A large number of African and Asian countries opted for that route to maintain equity.A number of empirical studies have been conducted by different people and institutions on agricultural supportive services worldwide. The studies are mainly concentrated on describing the operation and effectiveness of the current government dominated service delivery system, experience of transforming the public services, demand for private service, and farmers' willingness to pay for service. But studies conducted on private crop protection spray service are minimal.In its first phase, between 1994 and 1998, a consultative process initiated within the Ministry but involving only a few external stakeholders. These services were then classified according to whether the services were in the nature of public or private good as a starting point. This was meant to assist in determining which of the services should continue being rendered by the public sector and which ones should be privatized and handed over to the private sector where the private sector was in a position to profitably, effectively and sustainably deliver the services. In the case of those services that were of a public good nature, it was recommended that they should continue being rendered by the public sector but should be strengthened for greater effectiveness, efficiency and economy of delivery. Most of these services are those that have to do with creating an enabling environment for private sector development. There were, however, some services which, though being of a private good nature could not be effectively delivered by the private sector. This depended on the existence of a vibrant private sector establishment and the capacity of the service recipients to pay for the services (GTZ, 1999).Under the umbrella of the Neuchâtel Initiative, Uganda showed the first exemplary advances in the decentralization and reform process in the African context. A very common problem with privatization is in many cases lacking clarity of policies and strategies. In some cases privatization is seen as the corollary of the prevailing market ideology, as the case in Peru and Uganda or models are simply copied and transferred from one country or region to another one where the basic conditions are not yet in place (GTZ , 1999). Rather than leaving the initiative to the market, the issue is or should be an improved interplay between the state and civil society. In many developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, we encounter a prevalence of market failure problems.The room for privatizing public agricultural services is very limited. In Ethiopia subsistence orientated farming and diversity of areas, the ensuing small market sizes and rural poverty are ubiquitous problems preventing the development of service markets.There is a need to pursue an active policy of supporting private sectors.Long-term sustainability of demand-driven services requires continuous capacity building of farmers, their organizations and providers. It is important to emphasize that the sustainability of such systems requires that basic economic principles are respected; if service delivery systems are to be sustained, costs must be recovered from the users. Cost recovery through direct charges has several advantages. It provides the right incentives for the providers to deliver the services that the farmers want, makes them accountable to the farmers, and builds in a genuine quality control mechanism. It requires the existence of backstopping institutions (Sanne, 2006). The main principles for demand driven service delivery systems are: services shall be driven by user demand, accountable to the users and should have a free choice of service providers.Estimates of the Willingness to Pay (WTP) for services are often used to assess the demand for those services which are not traded in the market. These estimates are derived from either the direct survey methods such as contingent valuation or methods which are based on the observed behavior of the buyers in related markets. These methodologies are appropriate for cases in which farmers are not familiar with fees for private agricultural services. Some authors have recently questioned the use of WTP estimates for policy purposes on the grounds that it is the ability and not willingness which should form the basis of social policy (Ahuja and Redmond, 2001). This is because the principles such as willingness to pay may not take into account the problems connected with the ability to pay. The majority of previous studies focus on the willingness to pay of services.Conversely, the intention of the affordability parameter is to assess the ability of poor households to pay for services.In light of the changing environment in terms of privatization, an increased emphasis on private delivery of services and a change of attitude towards institutional innovation helps to see clients as capable of demanding the services they need, rather than being mere beneficiaries (Sanne, 2006). Frameworks and strategies cannot be prescriptive and universal as before, but must be flexible and adaptable to fit the diverse local realities which people find them in. The framework put service provision to comprise three levels of intervention, those that should not be addressed individually and in isolation but rather be regarded as a system and seen as interdependent. Thus, the first and second levels must be addressed simultaneously for the planning of interventions for improvement and change of the system (Ehret et al., 2005). The policy level not only sets the rules and defines mandates but creates an enabling environment which allows the system to function andit is hoped -that development will happen (Figure 1). The three levels are:  This section describes the approaches and methods employed for data collection and analysis. The first sub-section of this chapter presents the description of the study area.Then the details of methodology used to conduct the overall study were discussed in subsequent sub-sections.Alaba district is one of the 13 zones and 8 special districts in SNNPR and located 315km south of Addis Ababa and 85km southwest of the regional state capital, Hawassa (Figure 2). The woreda is geographically located 7 Agriculture is the mainstay of the district with two types of farming Systems: teff-haricot bean and pepper-livestock farming system. Economically active population of the woreda (15-55 years of age) are 44%, of which, 54% are male and 46% are female. Ethnically, there are about 6 major groups in the woreda, but Alaba and Grarage are the dominant constituting about 81 and 10% of the total population, respectively. The altitude in the woreda ranges from 1700 to 2149masl.Rainfall is a major limiting factor in agricultural production in the area that drought observed recurrently affecting many HHs. The annual rainfall varies from 857 to 1085mm, while the annual mean temperatures also vary from 17 to 25 O C. Agro ecologically, the woreda is dominantly classified as dry weina dega. The area receives a bimodal nature of rainfall where the small raining season is between March and April while the main takes July to September. As the reliability of the rain is low between March and April, farmers usually raise pepper seedling to be transplanted during the main rainy season. Major crops growing in the area, including maize, teff, wheat, pepper, haricot bean, sorghum and finger millet (WoARD, 2008). Alaba is situated close to the four big market cities of Wolaita, Hoseana, Shashemene and Hawassa at a distance of, respectively, 70, 64, 62 and 85km.This is a descriptive study of private service delivery in the Alaba special woreda of Sothern Ethiopia. Group discussion with government experts and service providers and HH survey with service users and non-users were used to determine the research design.Qualitative methodology was the major tool to achieve the objectives with the advantage Ten interviewers were trained to administer the interview instrument. Training for the enumerators included a detailed explanation of the objective of the study, concept of interview instrument and guidelines to be followed during the interviewing. Pre-testing was done in Wanja PA on 10 HHs after which two questions were dropped for being short of clarity. The interview schedule had 44 questions (15 close-ended with some being likert-scale type, and 29 open-ended). The questions covered various relevant topics (Appendix 12, 13 & 14). The questionnaires were administered in Amharic for those who were literate and in the local language (Alabigna) for those with difficulties in the Amharic language. The questionnaires were administered in December 2009 in order to make use of free time of the respondents before congested with and distorting of information for fear of the for-coming Fourth National Election agenda of the country. For the group interview of experts, key informants and providers; the researcher was fully involved in discussion whereas in HH survey the role of the researcher was facilitator and moderator. Two types of group interviews (FGD and KIG) were used in order to grasp information as much as possible. Group interview were developed for each group of participants: government experts, formal and informal service providers. Fourthly, HH structured interview (Appendix 12) were administered for service users and non-users.Finally the data were crosschecked by triangulation of various aforementioned tools.Interview to each HH took on average 2hr to administer. Content validity (appropriateness of instrument for measuring what they are supposed to measure) and reliability of the instruments were important considerations taken in determining the credibility of the study. For this purpose, expert from ILRI-IPMS project and from Haramaya University, Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension and the researcher were reviewed the instrument.The study consumed both primary and secondary data. The primary qualitative data were gathered from focused group discussion, key informant's interviews, informal discussions with individuals, case studies and personal observations. The primary quantitative data were also generated through interviews with the sample HHs. In addition, relevant secondary data were collected from available reports from Union, woreda Knowledge Center and NGOs; records from providers, government polices and strategies documents from WoARD, IPMS Alaba Pilot Learning Site survey, and internet websites. More emphasis was given to the qualitative data to capture all relevant information required and to have an in-depth insight of the problem under analysis and have the potential to cover wide aspects of service delivery and are easy to use in questionnaires for farmers.A review of the instrument by the expertise preceded the data collection for ethical soundness. Then each PA contacted with a translated version of the informed consent letter prior to interview which describes the approximate amount of time that participation in the study would require and no compensation for their participation. Of the total population targeted for the study, 96% of the original population was interviewed due to the fact that it was not possible to interview sick, displaced HHs. The primary data collection were started through KIG discussion including Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), HH survey by using pre-tested interview schedule, focus group discussion (FGD) with checklists and finally case studies.Quantitative data collected from the HHs survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics with the use of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The responses to the raw quantitative data were coded and stored using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in order to avoid respondent anonymity. These were imported into SPSS (version 13.0, Analytical Software Inc., St. Paul, MN, USA) and summarized while qualitative responses were tallied and finally prioritized in order to determine trends and patterns in the data and draw conclusions. It were also described, analyzed and interpreted on the spot during data collection to avoid missing of relevant information.In this chapter, the results of qualitative and quantitative analysis that was conducted to address specific objectives of the thesis are presented and discussed. The chapter has been organized into five sections. Section 4.1 provides background information on demographic, personal and socio-economic characteristics of the different wealth categories of sampled HHs while sections 4.2 and 4.3 discuss, respectively, crop production system of study PAs with special attention to challenges and opportunities related to crop protection services, and providers' capacity and use of private crop protection services and its willingness to pay. Sections 4.4 and 4.5 deal with, respectively, livestock production systems while focusing on the challenges and opportunities related to livestock health services, and CAHWs' capacity, use and coverage of services and respective willingness to pay.First of all, key informant farmers group have tried to identify the terminologies for three local level wealth categories and accordingly kabatamo, mererancho and butichoo are terms for such category. The group suppose that the highest socio-economic class locally called kabatamo which is equivalent as better-off; the next class termed as mererancho and equivalent as middle economic class and finally the least economic class termed as butichoo and equated as poor. Following the identification of socio-economic category, the group moved to set local wealth ranking criteria. Accordingly, the local proxy indicators of wealth are elaborated upon the agreed sound of the group.Livestock is an important indicator of household's wealth position and is the farmers' important source of food, draught power and more importantly a cash income for crop cultivation for which the spray service is available. For example, a HH who own pair of oxen have comparative advantage for timely preparation of crop land, hire labor for exchange of oxen service, rent-in more land or enter in to sharecropping arrangement with poor. Given the flat topography and cash crop dominated production in all study PAs, horses for cart and donkeys for transportation play an important role for a HH to engage in petty trade thus to build better livelihood. According to the group, the livestock products such as butter, milk, calf, shoats and poultry selling is an important income source to livestock owners to cover the health cost of large animal assets such as oxen and cows.Hence, a household with large livestock holding can have good access for more income and it is one of the main cash sources to purchase private services.Land with its all dimensions (size and fertility) is the single most important resource and a base for any economic activity especially for rural HHs. For example, farm size influences households' decision to cultivate cash, subsistence crops or rear animals for which there is improved private service. Hence, land holding was hypothesized to have positive and significant relationship with use rate of private services.The type of house with all its facet (type of roof and construction material) was a proxy indicator for socio-economic status of a HH. The number of children who are educating or employed was another indicator for wealth position and benefits from it like remittance is considered as non-stopping income for the parents. In addition, the HH asset indices of land holding and livestock ownership were used (Table 5 & 6) to strengthen the analysis done by KIGs of farmers which is more of subjective. Debeso PA is with least value of these both assets and which is further confirmed when the majority (80%) were categorized as medium or less (Table 3a). Whereas, Lay Bedene PA is relatively richer with 70% of its population were categorized as medium or better-off in contrast to Debeso PA where the majority (53%) are poor. Having identified the three wealth classes, the key informant farmers groups in each four study PAs sorted out the sample HHs list into three wealth categories. As a good indicator of labor force endowment, family size (Table 3b) and age structure are important parameters in differentiating rural HHs. The average family size of the sample households was 6.1 persons with standard deviation of 2.4. The average family size of the study area is relatively higher as compared to that of the district which is 6 persons per HH. Interesting observation from Table 3b is the average adult family size shows that better-offs and medium HHs have more adults than the poor. Further, the survey data set was disaggregated by sex of heads of the HHs to scrutinize whether the observed wealth differentiation follows sex line i.e. if there is any association between wealth class and being female-headed or male-headed HH. The study was conducted on 25 and 95 female and male-headed HHs, respectively. From 25 FHHHs in the sample 56, 24 and 20% were, respectively, categorized as poor, medium and better-off HHs (Figure 3). In contrast, 38.9, 33.7 and 27.4% of male-headed HHs were categorized as poor, medium and better-off HHs respectively. This clearly depicts that FHHHs are over represented in the lowest socio-economic stratum in terms of access and ownership of human and non-human (land, water, farm implements and livestock) assets, however, the latter is more constraining than the former in context of current population pressure. Sex of sample HHs has important dimension as agricultural activities intensively use male labor. Labor was considered a critical factor in rural differentiation, as particularly expressed by the FHHHs. Most of the time, the poor in study PAs are the elderly, the sick or the FHHH. Because of labor shortage, they usually rent-out their land or give to sharecropping. The educational status of HH head is key as it influencing ability to access and use information to make informal decision in crop and livestock production and marketing.The highest illiteracy rate (60%) was reported in one of far PA, Lay Bedene than Debeso due to the fact that the latter is easily accessible to education on account of proximity to main road to Addis. In addition, the education level of head revealed interesting information that in near PAs (Asore and Hulegeba Kuke) where the majority, 60 and 56.7%, respectively, HHs have got at least non formal education perhaps on account of their proximity to service center, Kulito and this clearly bolds how rural differentiation based on distance affects access to education hence decision to or not to use private services. Furthermore, own observation during data collection revealed that some sampled HHs in study PAs face difficulties to express their service demands in a clear and structured manner. This is specifically true for the underprivileged, the poor, the women and the minorities. Under these conditions it is very difficult to come up with a service delivery concept that takes only demand and can still be managed economically and sustainably. The chi-square test of education shows significant variation among HHs at less than 10% (Table 4). Hence, in order to develop demand-side of service market, rural education for all subgroups of the clientele has to be promoted.Farmers with higher experience in livestock and crop production appear to have often full information and better knowledge and supposed to use private services (Rahmeto, 2007).With respect to the respondents' farming experience, the most experienced farmer in the sample had 45 years whereas the least experienced farmer had four years of experience in  There is one farmer union in the district, Mencheno, which is supplying various agricultural inputs and purchasing agricultural produces from members when the price of commodities falls in market. Even though there are 129 cooperatives (Appendix 3) in the district, none is of private in nature and only 16.7% of sampled HHs are members of cooperatives. Table 4 shows that cooperative membership for better-off is higher (32.3%) than either of medium or poor classes. The chi-square test for cooperative membership shows significant variation among HHs at less than 5%. In addition, the farmers associations in every PA are not well organized to prioritize their needs. Whereas the public sector is characterized by division due to political affiliations and favoritism and bureaucratese are the major inhibitors for vibrant private sector development. There are only 15% of sampled HHs were model farmers for demonstration with significant variation at less than 1%.The better-off class own comparatively bigger, fertile and irrigated land with mean holding of 1.6ha, though land in all PAs is flat (Table 5). These HHs are the one who rentin from or enter share cropping with poor who have no oxen or cash access. To assess the livestock ownership, TLU per HH was calculated and the sampled household had an average of more than 3 TLU. Lay Bedene PA is endowed with mean TLU of 4.6 (Table 23a). The majority (97%) of better-offs were having at least one ox while the same holds third for the poor (Table 6). Thus, difference in the livestock ownership between PAs had an important implication in the decision to use the private services. The PA level DA and farmer-to-farmers discussion and observation, respectively 82.8 and 100%, are the two top most important sources of knowledge and information on agricultural services to farmers in study PAs (Table 7). When there is frequent contact with extension agent, the greater is the possibilities of HH head being influenced to use quality private services. Whilst extension is supposed to have a direct influence on service use rate, weak extension visit by DAs for diffusion of information and technology further exacerbated the marginalization of female in private sector development. This clearly bolds the existence of weak public extension system in the district that uses direct contact only with a relatively small group of well-to-do model farmers. In a nutshell, the critical observation of Table 7 reflects that the better-off class have by far more participation in farmers' field day and experience sharing visit to other areas. This second section presents an overview of crop production system of the research PAs.It explores whether there is any difference across the PAs with regard to land use patterns, key challenges in crop production, access to inputs, services and market, and the degree of participation in crop production for the market. These features are important as they may influence the demand for and use of services, particularly private crop protection services.Cereals are the most widely grown crop in all study PAs and produced by almost all HHs and shares 62.3% of the total cropped land area (Figure 4), followed by pulses and spices which together account for about 25% of the total cropped land area in study PAs and elsewhere in the district. Table 9a shows the spatial variation of crop production pattern across study PAs. Vegetables such as chat and potato are mainly produced in PAs near to Kulito market, Hulegeba Kukie 14 and Asore 13.3%, and accounts 12.5% of total cropped land area whereas cereals are dominantly produced in PAs far from Kulito, Debeso 66 and Lay Bedene 65%. Hot pepper and chat (Catha edulis) are the major cash crops both in terms of area covered and revenue generated in four PAs covered by the study. Producing chat has thus become a viable and important alternative to ensure continued cash income.Chat production has another advantage: it can be harvested at least twice a year under rainfed agriculture and five times per year under irrigation. This implies that HHs have a well-distributed flow of income. This improved income, in turn, maintains the effective demand for private spray service to produce these cash crops. Chat is a perennial tree crop mainly grown in Alaba thus majority of people chew young fresh leaves of chat as a stimulant. However, chat is blamed for decreased productivity, as people wastes valuable working time sitting and chewing it for hours.HHs in the study PAs produce crops for different purposes, such as for food, feed, seed or sale. Although, crop production for feed and seed is not common in the study area, about 70% of the cereal produced was used for direct HH food consumption and 25% is for generating HH cash income. For example, maize being the major cereal produced in the study area with mean area coverage of 0.5ha, accounting for 37.5% of total area allocated to cereal, is the major crop for both HH consumption and cash generation. It is produced by almost all households (99%), followed by teff, with 81.7% of teff grower. Haricot bean is produced by 51.6% of sampled farmers and stands the first among the pulses and the community call it \"the poor man's meat\" due to its high protein content, which compensates for the protein deficiency that could have occurred with low income HHs. Teff is another important cash crop in the study area mainly produced for sale for 91% of sampled HHs and is the primary crop for which modern crop protection service, particularly herbicide, is available. However, maize is increasingly becoming the leading staple crop for consumption of sample HHs. Both teff and maize are the leading cereal crops but maize preferred to teff for its lower price of food for poor and feed, for instance, higher nutrient value of stover for animal feed among the sample HHs either as dry or green stover.Own observation indicated an interesting crop sowing pattern in Debeso PA which is mid crossed by main road to Addis, farmers deliberately sow some plot of maize land lately than normal cropping season in order to fill the feed shortage gap for fattening oxen for meskel holidays with young nutritive maize green stover. Due to the fact that sorghum is a drought resistant crop, it is mainly produced in Debeso PA with mean area coverage of 0.31ha and its stover is an important feed in dry months as it is annual crop and crosses all months of the year. Input use exhibits great variation over study PAs and crops produced. Despite its far location from Kulito town, HHs in Debeso PA dominantly use inputs for subsistence crops perhaps due to lack of irrigation access, farmers in Debeso opted to use all inputs for subsistence than cash crops. While other near PAs substantially used improved inputs for cash crops production. More than 39% of HHs in 2008/9 used inorganic fertilizer for any type of crop in any one season (Table 9b). But the use of DAP is more common than urea in Asore and Hulegeba Kuke PAs where 23% of HHs in each reported their land is poorly fertile. Despite the extension efforts to increase fertilizer use in the district there is still a considerable proportion of farmers who are not using it. Part of the reasons for less likely use of fertilizer is its sky rocketed price, risk of drought as the response to fertilizer is very much related to the amount of moisture in the soil, especially for urea, and it is usually delivered late and in short supply. As the study PAs are in the Rift Valley of the country, they receive low amount of rain affecting the use of fertilizer besides other factors. The heavy dependency of agriculture on rainfall and lack of labor saving technologies forces female-headed HHs (20.8%) to put more labor in specific period to complete a given agricultural activity. For example, transplanting and harvesting of pepper against unusual rain in harvesting season needs to be conducted at one time with sufficient labor.Due to this reason, they used to rent-out their land to those HHs who have more labor or able to hire labor or have oxen. They make such linkage mechanism because majority of farm activities such as hoeing and threshing of cereals need oxen. Another arrangement is they opt to cultivate those crops which cannot be hoed but threshing performed in exchange of threshed crop yield to labor. The survey clearly revealed the role of women in performing most of the farm tasks ranging from weeding crop field to harvesting. It was noted that if only weed infestation is high or a wife is pregnant or not physically strong, HHs may participate in free reciprocal or hired labor exchange to complete the task more quickly. Free labor exchange is hardily possible to FHHHs from the fact that they do not have labor to reimburse for used. Women are usually growing horticultural crops such as chat and local cabbage on small plots of land close to their home. In richer households, farming activities may be performed wholly or partly (80%) by hired labour. However, in the study area, only 8% of FHHHs were able to hire labor which were only for threshing while their male headed counterparts hired for range of activities such as land preparation, weeding and livestock husbandry. According to farmers FGD, most of the laborers come from neighboring districts of Wolaita and Hadya.As the main road to Addis crosses the district and its proximity and fortunately midsituated to main big cities of Wolaita Sodo (70km), Hossaena (64km), Shashemene (62km) and Hawassa (85km), most of HHs are cosmopolite, agricultural productivity depends by large on agricultural information and input utilization. Cash crop production is intensive type in all accounts, for example, improved seed (64%) is basically used for cash crop production than subsistence crops. In contrast, majority (79%) of labor hired by sample HHs is allocated for subsistence than cash crops (Table 9b), while irrigation is totally said to have not been practiced in study PAs except for Asore and Hulegeba Kuke PAs which border Bilate River for short distance.However, more than 67% of the respondents reported the increase in yield trend of either crop. A lot of things are also contributing to this. Soil erosion, the main factor for nutrient depletion, is not an issue of all HHs in study area as their land is fairly flat hence about 81.7% HHs considering their land is fertile (Table 5) and the inherent soil fertility and moisture is maintained. For long period of time HHs in study PAs were known for and content with exchange of local seed each other which is resistance to pests and disease and yield is relatively better. The inter-cropping of legume with cereal crops and agro forestry practices such as planting trees in the farm field for efficient utilization of nutrient niche is mainly practiced by sample HHs. Use of crop residue and animal dung while animals are kept on crop field after harvesting is also another on-farm input contributing soil fertility thus improved crop yield. Another important input for subsistence crop yield increment is having more than 66% HHs at least an ox. The price of cash crops has also been rising, for example, chat enjoys a relatively stable domestic price, while cereals suffer from fluctuating price. In the domestic market it is quite evident that chat chewing has became a recreational activity in all study PAs and now also forms part of the culture of the urban youth in Kulito.For many HHs in the study PAs, crop yield signifies storing wealth, a cushion for food shortages, and a source of fertilizer, fuel and cash. Despite the existence of possible opportunities, the sector has not yet attained its full productive potential. The HH survey summarized the top three opportunities with varying degree of importance for subsistence and cash crops. These opportunities include the availability private crop protection services, market demand and land, in order of importance, for subsistence crops, and the availability of market demand, input and land for cash crops. The presence of formal and informal crop protection service comes first because crop pests and disease are in all studyPAs. Market demand stands the second as the district is mid situated from big markets in vicinity, and on account of topography every PAs are accessible, crop yields even bought from field.The major constraint for crop production in study PAs is environmental factor among which drought, without spatial variation over PAs and type of crops, is the most important and ranked the first though some crops such as sorghum is tolerant to drought. Rainfall has been a major limiting factor in agricultural production in the area. Even worse, accordingto key informant farmers, the district has experienced recurrent droughts every ten years, while nationally every three to five years, probably attributed to uneven distribution and erratic rainfall. Despite the recurrent drought, flood has also been a major problem in Debeso PA where the latter induced as a result of dominantly flat topography in Debeso.The second important challenge is pests and disease, while the third important constraint, in order of importance, is lack of draught power as more than 43% of HHs in Hulegeba Kuke and Debeso PAs have own no ox.Due to the presence of private input shops, culture of local seed exchange mechanism and seed multiplication trail, next to market demand, input availability is an opportunity to cash crop producers in the study PAs. As a result of distance from service market and relatively higher land size, land is comparatively better advantaged than input availability for Lay Bedene PA. Likewise, drought, pests and disease and cost of inputs, in order of importance, are the major challenges for cash crops. More than 20% of HHs (Table 9c) in each PA reported the importance of pests and disease for cash crops such as hot pepper, chat, potato and teff. Crop yield loss associated with pests and diseases is one of the major constraints in all study PAs where the hot humid weather aggravates the growth and propagation of these pests than elsewhere. An interesting observation is that input cost is a problem for cash than subsistence crops. As HHs mainly used fertilizer for cash crops (Table 9b), the high input cost and its short supply is ranked as the third major challenge to cash crops highlighted in HH survey. In general, Table 9c has tried to describe the salient opportunities and challenges to crop production with the intention to facilitate the detail examination of private service development in the subsequent analysis. Among the constraints crop pests and disease have been ranked the second and perceived as the major problem for both subsistence and cash crops across study PAs.The HH survey has identified the major pests and diseases with varying level of importance over study PAs and crop type as weed, stock borer and wollo cricket to cereals and early and late blight to vegetables and spices are the major pests among the group and others are listed in Table 9d. This is more justified when the importance of herbicide ranked the first in response to first ranked weed infestation. In addition to modern crop protection, majority of HHs who could not afford the cost of chemicals are still preferred to use mechanical hand weeding and land management. In general, from pests of subsistence crops, army worm was reported only from Asore while wollo cricket not reported from Asore only. Similarly for cash crops, aphid was only mentioned in Hulegeba Kuke. The existence of higher family size and oxen ownership (Table 23a) in Lay Bedene PA is further justified when land preparation comes the first traditional crop protection practice.As the preceding section shows (Section 4.2.2), crop pests and diseases are among the major production constraints in the study area. In the study PAs and elsewhere in the country, the public sector is the main source of inputs and technical assistance for crop pests and diseases control, especially when epidemic large outbreak would occur. In addition, the farmers have their own indigenous crop protection measure and there are also some farmers in the community who informally provide crop protection service using purchased modern agro-chemicals. At one hand, traditional and informal crop protection measure may not always effective, on the other hand the use of chemical inputs raises issues relating to effectiveness, human health and its impact on the environment.In response to this, Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project together with Alaba WoARD has initiated the concept of community-based crop protection service in workshop organized for input delivery and accepted in Alaba as one alternative of providing spray service since three years and pilot-tested in the study area to assess its feasibility for scaling. Hence, this section deals with both the supply and demand sides of the private formal crop protection service. Qualitative and quantitative empirical evidence are presented and discussed on both the supply capacity of the formal private providers and the demand for the service, including the levels of satisfaction with the performance of the service by farmers who are users or potential users † † and by other stakeholders like the WoARD, IPMS and research centers. Therefore, in the context of private service delivery, the current private spray providers are the role model to scrutinize their human, material, technical and financial capacity and learn lessons.To provide private crop protection service which is effective, safe, environmentally sound and financial profitable and sustainable, the providers need various capacity. The capacities need for such service provision comprise of human, financial, and † † The word 'potential users' here to cover cases where currently they are not using the service (e.g., because they do not perceive the quality of services to justify using the service), but where reasonable analysis suggests that they able to use at a price that would cover the providers' full costs of supply yet still be low enough to permit profitable delivery by providers.social/networking capacity of the providers for accessing knowledge/information, finance/credit and inputs/material resources.The first, perhaps most important, component of capacity required for the service delivery is human capacity, i.   Particularly the training on bio-pesticide (Appendix 7) and IPM was undertaken with the intension to introduce and capitalizing the habit of using of low cost and environmentally friendly disease control practice among the communities. To this end, IPMS and WoARD have shouldered the lion share to offer these trainings. According to the discussion made with providers, however, the DAs based at FTCs in which this study was carried out were not yet geared to perform any training to providers. The countable impact of the training to providers was towards their competence and perception towards service delivery. For example, so far they used to spray while chewing chat, but now they wear their safety measures properly.Further assessment of the perception providers about the skill-orientation and practical usefulness of trainings revealed all providers (100%) have perceived the training on operation and maintenance of knapsack sprayer and handling of agro-chemicals as the most skill-oriented and practically very useful (Table 11). On the other hand, the training on crop protection principles and agronomy practices was perceived as the most theoretical-oriented.However, according to discussion with providers, the selection process of training topics didn't include the providers, too short training duration and contents usually do not align with the need for ever-changing and contextual skills. Moreover, there are missing wings that the training program did not addressed, yet vital to better capacitate the providers include post harvest, coffee berry disease and extension education services. Hence, it is important to provide full package trainings to providers which also contests with the finding of Ashworth (2005) who indicated that another area likely to emerge in the future is a revolution of business entrepreneurship and professional training for private sector development.  The availability of store and essential basic equipment and materials is another important constituent of the capacity needed for safe and environmentally sound yet effective crop protection service delivery. During bringing the spray providers into being, equipment kits and chemicals were given on credit base through Menchon union, which had received funds from the IPMS Credit Innovation fund. Unlike the CAHWs, the spray providers were supplied with equipments and essential protective measures for appropriate handling and application of chemicals (Appendix 8). This sounds good because it had impacted positively. At one hand, it has absorbed start up shocks, on the other hand, it helped the providers better perceived and trusted by the community for their safe and low risk of service compared with informal providers' service. This ignited the other informal providers to follow the same path and make necessary care for their health and environment.The providers' access to materials and other utilities assessment reported that they frequently mentioned the difficulties they went through during launching the process of accessing agrochemicals, equipments and technical supports. They frequently face the shortage and even absence of chemical inputs in their vicinity. For example, the provider in far PA, Debeso, was frequently reported the incidence of regular and sporadic coffee disease and bring the diseased coffee sample to the WoARD crop protection desk (now work process) but the response to respective chemical was none except dreary walk to WoARD. On the other hand, the terms of access to chemicals varies following the pattern of demand for various services (Figure 6). Providers do not store chemicals at their stock due to lack of separate storage room and sufficient capital. Although the providers were attached to Union and WoARD Input and Marketing Work Process, the supply of chemicals is usually ad hoc and come very late after the disease or pest had caused sizeable damage. Moreover, there is no retailer channel in rural far PAs where majority of providers and users reside, disease incidence is more prevalent and outbreak report isdelaying. Yet, interviews with private input providers suggest that cash constraints, which limit most traders' ability to stock sufficient amount, would need to be addressed to maintain supply.The assessment of perception of providers regarding the timely availability, quality and costliness of the chemical inputs is summarized in Table 12. The survey has identified the three major sources of agrochemicals in the study area. Accordingly, the private input shops (Appendix 1) ranked the first for their timely availability followed by the Mencheno Union shop. This is because private shops are always open and chemicals available in kind and quantity. Hence, the providers have reported their strong linkage with them to maintain supply of chemicals. For quality of chemicals, providers selected Union shop as the best of all because in public store chemicals usually stay more than two and three months before dispatch but is not the case for the Union. The overall assessment of chemical price also indicated that WoARD is preferred to others because the WoARD absorbs all its transportation and personnel expenses and sells chemicals at reasonable price unlike the private dealers where price is too costly as they transfer all costs to buyers.This calls for trade and professionally licensing and ensuring regular renewal of license for providers so that they can access chemicals and necessary equipment at reasonable price from wholesalers and hence, maximize profit margins from their practice. The experts' group also perceives the importance of licensing as the regulatory bodies have the power to remove licenses from providers who contravene regulations and perform poor.Nonetheless, the issue of certification and licensing has revealed a weak linkage and did not get any attention. Based on the typology of linkage, the providers made four types of linkage such as linkage for input and material, regulation and certification, knowledge and information and linkage for finance and credit (Figure 5). The first two were already discussed in section 4.3.1.1 and 4.3.1.2. The actors' linkage analysis has revealed the very limited and ad hoc knowledge linkage, usually a resource person for training. For example, research centers were training on principles of crop protection and demonstrating crop protection practices on farmers plot. However, the linkage for research and extension is missing. Despite the existence of many NGOs actors, their interaction with private spray providers was often absent. They interact occasionally with providers and their engagement in systematic and continuous experimental social learning and scaling up/out successful experience is often debatable. One exception is the partnership between IPMS in facilitating and latter attaching the providers to unions and private input shops to sustain the access to knowledge, credit and input services.Credit and finance linkage also mainly focus on production inputs such as fertilizer and improved seeds rather than on equipments, chemicals inputs and operating capital.According to providers' survey, they started business as formal private entity with credit Community from Mencheno Union. The Union has also made strong linkage for finance and mobilized a total credit of birr 39,050 in kind. IPMS has been admired for its strong linkage in facilitating to access to formal credit and knowledge sources. However, the effectiveness of these linkages have been limited due to the neglect in addressing nontechnical hurdles related to institutions and market for improving service delivery.Own attempt to observe and review the providers' record keeping & its nature has revealed how different the providers are. IPMS together with WoARD had developed recording formats of achievements. Accordingly, the provider in Hulegeba Kuke who has relatively better recording system and separate format for revenue and expenditure for most of specific services may be due to his better education level than the provider in Debeso PA who had very low education has revealed poor recording system of cases even not differentiated into type and amount of users and extent of hectare covered has created difficulties to trace its success rate. This is also coupled with the very weak follow up of focal persons to handle the system informative. Hence, the information is not often timely reported to decision makers and shared with the end users and lacks backward and forward linkage.Since launching the service, the providers have accumulated various assets in the form of fixed and working capital. The current asset value has increased for majority of the providers (Table 13). Having cell phone (56%), purchase of additional knapsack sprayer (44%) and outstanding loan are particularly intended to expand service delivery.or Understanding the perception of providers, with respect to challenges and opportunities they currently posses to perform their role help learn their capacity to deliver full and effective services. In line with this, the following favorable motivating conditions (opportunities) about their capacity were summarized.• Technical and material assistance and the devotion of some NGOs to support providers are highly motivating conditions.• They perceive themselves as a physician to crop as veterinarians to animals that they are proud of their profession when they put on all their safety measures.• The benefit (in form of profit & work experience) from practice further strengthening their capacity.• Existence of private input shops for chemical inputs and unions for credit access and mediating role of IPMS is also an important opportunity.• While delivering the service meanwhile they are developing social capital within the society.It is also imperative to assess the potential supply constraints of providers. Based on discussion with providers on the constraints facing their day-to-day practice, the top 3 constraints with regard to their capacity were discussed as follows. Weak enforcement of regulatory framework had exerted significant negative impact on the system. The providers were reported as many of the chemicals supplied never had labels other than the name of the product and its manufacturer. Own observation and informal discussion with district experts indicated that products that are supplied without enough information about their intended use. These have brought various localized impact on the environment. The providers also recounted the most resistant to herbicide and aggressive weed, parthenium, which was supposed to be introduced as result of weakly quarantined improved seed.Modern crop spray service in the district is delivered by different partners including public, formal and informal private providers while traditional service provided by individual farmer on his own farm. Currently, formal and informal private spray services are dominant among them. However, the public takes the part only when there is a significant witness for crop loss. For example, epidemic army worm infestation (Table 15), which has the potential to threat food security at HH and district level.In addition to modern crop protection measures, the sample HHs also use various indigenous crop protection measures. The use of bio-pesticide and cultural agronomic practices are the dominant methods among the HHs for termite pest (Table 15). In postharvest services, on account of its availability and affordability, the use of traditional methods overweighs the others. However, these practices lack formal and regular documentation for promotion and scaling while in the meantime strengthening and integrating with modern methods. Another important observation is that the community are using pre-harvest services both for subsistence and cash crops whereas post-harvest services only for subsistence cereal crops indicating lack of post harvest service for cash crops despite the latter is easily perishable than the former.The charging rate for crop protection services shows variation within and between services. Within the service, the charging of both pesticide and herbicide now frequently fluctuating in response to price of chemical inputs (i.e. responding to market forces).Viability is a function of charging and demand for services. Between the services, charging for pesticide is higher than that of herbicide. As cereal crops are the major crops in study area, the demand for herbicide is also higher than that of pesticide. As a result, the viability of pesticide is governed by charging rate whereas that of herbicide governed by demand for service. This tells us where the balance is to maintain the service delivery within poor society. For a given service, the charging rate of formal providers is incomparable as this service is not common by the public sector but higher than that of informal providers. Because services for latter have the characteristics of low dose, ineffective, poor quality usually expired and adulterated with excess water, pepsi and coffee which also creating a problem of adverse of selection to users.Because of the seasonal nature of disease incidence, the service demand also follows the same pattern (Figure 6). Post Harvesting Service (PHT) mostly demanded in months demand for services has its own impact on delivery efficiency. As a result, some providers switch on-and-off to other options of businesses like cattle and/or pepper trading leading to difficulty in maintaining the service in remote PAs.The herbicide coverage (110ha) with its focus to cereals and pulses is wider than that of pesticide (35ha) which is more confined to cash crops (spices, vegetables and chat) and rarely to others (Table 16). Based on service category, pre harvest service coverage which encompasses herbicide and pesticide is wider than that of post harvest services which only takes fungicide for weevil. This locates where the gap is in order to strengthen both supply and demand-side. Regarding to provider, the service provider in H.Kuke has covered wider area perhaps due to relatively better education level (Appendix 9), own mobile cell phone to serve on call basis whenever there is peak demand particularly for herbicide and physically young strong to travel by bicycle than that of Debeso PA who lacks these qualities. Out of the total 23 PAs covered by the providers, the coverage of extended PAs accounts for 52.2% (beyond the PAs they were originally assigned). In the district, the total PAs covered by formal providers is only 29% (Appendix 9) despite the presence of informal providers in every PA (Figure 7). The use rate of spray service shows certain variation over PAs and wealth categories (Table 17). In both PAs the better-off HHs rarely use spray services (at most 37.5%) than poor and medium classes due to the fact that majority of better-offs having their own knapsack sprayer. This is because the equipment is available in Union and shops and the cost is affordable to them. Regarding to service category, the use rate of herbicide is more than that of pesticide, which is also more than fungicide use thus confirming similar finding of providers recording in Table 17. This herbicide dominance than pesticide further contests with where lack of commercialized production to support private practice mentioned as important constraint in Table 14 and indicating staple crops dominated production than cash crops which need pesticide. The poor in both PAs are not using fungicide because they do not have grain stock. Among the various crop protection services being delivered, only herbicide is analyzed as a showcase of commercial viability on account of its demand by majority of HHs. The data that was subjected to Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) include cash inflows, outflows, area covered and treatment and labor charging. The cash benefits and the costs of the business were obtained from the providers' cash flow reports for the year 2008/9 for which relatively sufficient data was found and the analysis for possible financial relationship between income and expenditure is summarized in Box 2.CBA was based on information that the service provided on seasonal base and the number of service days are limited, the data is actual and obtained from providers recording.Given Data: Chemical cost is to be covered by user; business started with formal credit of 400Br at 7% interest rate, the chemical used is herbicide (2-4-D); average service days =110days/year i.e. 5 peak months with average of 22 working days per month; depreciation cost of equips is ignored; Take 1 Ha=4timad. Given these information: Thus, for a hectare = 4timad * 3 (from 2 above) = 12 containers required. The user customer pays 12*5Br (from 1 above) = 60 Br.The provider gains 60Br/ha/day and, annual income is 110*60=6,600BrExpenditure: There are 20 knapsack containers can be prepared from 1L of 2-4-D chemical. In 110 days in a year, 110ha require 66L of 2-4-D. 1) On average 1L of 2-4-D costs 30Br. Total cost is 66L*30Br = 1,980Br.2) Maintenance cost for knapsack sprayer and nozzle (accessories)=1000Br3) Labor cost of 2Br per container gives= 2640Br per year (from 3 above). 4) Loan pay to loaning institution=400+(400*0.07)*12=400+336=736BrAverage net income from the service per year for individual provider = 7,000 -6,356 = 644Br/year or the B/C= 7000/6356=1.10 i.e. B/C ≥ 1. This indicates that, if the current service delivery trend continues, the spray service would remain financially viable even if the current costs of chemical inputs increased by 10%.Source: Own Computation, 2010Table 18 shows the variation of perception of HHs within and between PAs. HHs in H.Kuke PA (71%) were better satisfied with the service due to better performance of the provider than HHs in Debeso PA (63%) where HHs feel some shading of dissatisfaction.In both H.Kuke and Debeso PAs better-offs were better perceived an increase in crop yield, 87.5 and 83.3%, respectively, than middle and poor classes because they had comparative advantage to use service from different sources (from private and their own spray services with normal dosage and recommended frequency). The same reason holds true for effectiveness. In general, the better-off and middle class HHs in both PAs were better perceived for all indicators under investigation than the poor who mostly use the service with poor quality and lower frequency from informal providers. Overall, the coverage of PCPS is herbicide dominated, sufficiently satisfied the nearby PAs particularly the better-offs and middle class users.The service users more positively perceived traditional practice for its availability, timeliness and environmental safety and used by majority of poor but criticized for its affordability as it consumes more labor than others (Table 19). Nonetheless, in the worst scenario when pest and diseases have the potential to threaten food security, it is advisable to use chemicals in economic way (Save the children, 2001). On account of their quantity and access to chemicals from black market, private informal are better perceived for timeliness, affordability and availability than formal providers. However, as an output of formal trainings and presence of safety measures, in contrast, private formal are better perceived for environmental and human health than informal providers. In general, the service is better for its accessibility for all providers. However, improvement in other indicators and progress monitoring that involves users in defining the performance criteria to be monitored would contribute more positively. When services are delivered in remote rural PAs, it is notoriously difficult to evaluate.Because they take place within challenging and rapidly changing milieu, where information is usually scarce, unreliable and difficult to collect. The priorities of providers, understandably, are often been output rather than impact and learning. Thus, thorough and valid assessment is usually impractical. However, without credible evaluation it's difficult to show that services delivered in remote PAs met objectives or made a worthwhile impact. Recognizing the importance, hence, the SWOT analysis for private crop protection service (Table 20) conducted jointly by WoARD experts and key informants from IPMS.Table 20.SWOT analysis of PCPS Strengths and benefits of delivery system Weaknesses of delivery system• Provision of quality service to users in For the future expansion and sustainability of service delivery, it is important that the system should focus on these strengths. The provision of startup kits & later attachment of providers to unions and introduction of bio-pesticides use showed up as an important strength of the system. So, the system has to keep on it and build at their good reputation in the community. Especially linkages with private input shops, Union and WoARD and IPMS are important, as these maintain supply of essential resources and need to be cultivated. Absence of female providers perhaps due to cultural burrier was highlighted as an important weakness. But they are more efficient even more than the professional provider if given adequate and relevant trainings. This will increase their knowledge on farming activities, give them an opportunity to income, and enhance their status within the HH and the community as a whole. On the other hand, the seasonal nature of demand for service and lack of both professional and trade licenses for providers are important threats that may dissolve the sustainability of the system. Hence, this finding has significant implications for determining where the crop protection service delivery system in study PAs and elsewhere in the district and should focus its effort.In general the following lessons were learnt from the existing PCPS practices:• PCP service can easily affected by any shocks because they directly deal with the most vulnerable group in the communities whose livelihoods are purely smallholder subsistence farming.• The crop sprayer operated single person enterprises have been expanding to hire two or more labor to share load during peak time while the CAHWs has remained single person enterprise.• The farmers are willing to pay for various crop protection services if the services would improve their income as farmers and empower them financially.Crop protection services in the study area are already being paid for by the users. Payment has been started for the services that bring an immediate benefit to the users and substantial profit for providers, such as pesticide and herbicide services. As far as output of the service is considered, reports from providers were encouraging as it reduced yield loss (Section 4.2.1). However, private service delivery has the potential to exclude poor and marginalized groups who are unable to pay. Thus, alongside the potential merits of privatization, it is imperative to recognize the perceptions of the affected groups, the poor, while the extenuating factors peculiar to crop protection service users and non-users may be critical and will be discussed in this section.Willingness to pay for the service was gauged on the basis of the assessment of service fee and perceptions of users/potential users on the prevailing charging rates for specific services. Majority (51.7%) of the current herbicide users and non-users perceive the prevailing charge is reasonable though the users overweigh the proportion (Table 21). On the other hand, about 63.3% of pesticide users perceive the current charging is higher to them in fact non-users outweigh in contrast. Majority of non-users perceive the current charge is higher (45% for herbicide and 77% for pesticide) and are not using the service.In both services very few proportion of HHs (13% for herbicide and 11.7% for pesticide) perceived the current fee is lower and prepared to pay a little higher fee for quality services i.e. 6.25 and 11.86 Br for herbicide and pesticide respectively (Table 22). The survey revealed that the respondents are willing to pay for quality services despite the difference in amount of fee for various services. The reason pointed out by HHs (35% for herbicide and 63.3% for pesticide) were they couldn't afford the current charge but could pay if the service charges could be reduced. This group of respondents is willing to pay for herbicide 2.99 and for pesticide 5.00Br, with standard deviation 1.1 and 1.49, respectively, due to the reason that they can't afford more than the stated fee. On account of proximity to main road to Addis and big market cities, livestock fattening and marketing in Debeso and Hulegeba Kuke PAs is important source of cash income. This is more envisaged when low proportion of HHs, nearly 57% in each PA, own draught oxen. The low TLU in these PAs further justifies that these HHs have opted to marketing of livestock than storing as wealth. Due to nearness to Kulito market and having more improved breeds (Table 23b), about 90% of HHs in Hulegeba Kuke PA sale more than 55% of butter while consuming the remaining proportion in house. As a rule of culture, milk is not sold at all in any interviewed HHs in any PAs. Population of equines is very low particularly those used for transportation of human such as horses and none of the HHs owned mule. This is because all study PAs are topographically fairly flat thus 56.7% of HHs own bicycle for transportation perhaps due to lack of feed and high cost to purchase mule. From 48.3% of HHs who owned equines, in 46.7% HHs, the equines reported are only donkeys pointing the dominance of donkeys as pack animals. ‡ ‡ 1 Tropical Livestock Units (TLU)= 250 kg live weightAs farming in all study PAs is mainly subsistence oriented and mixed crop-livestock production system and open grazing is more common and stall feeding is almost nonexistent, HH survey was attempted to consider only some inputs as real inputs. Crop protection like weeding of crop fields also yields feed. As discussion to key informant farmers, use of communal grazing was common usually right after collection of crops from the field and the average grazing hours in the study PAs is 7 hours/day during harvesting, and in dry season when there is no pasture, the time of grazing on communal fields is increased to 10hours/day. On-farm improved fodder production is not common, only 7.5% of sampled HHs, except for Asore and Lay Bedene PAs where the IPMS introduced male goat breeds for mating. For part of this reason and where 23 and 17% of model farmers were found in Asore and Lay Bedene respectively, in general, these PAs are more intensive in livestock input use. These PAs are also with relatively better access to animal health service when Asore on its proximity to public health center and presence of CAHW, and Lay Bedene with an active and competent CAHW. This finding further confirms the impact of CAHWs service on animal husbandry in changing farmers' attitude to use more livestock input than other PAs. In sum, more than 86% of HHs in these PAs reported that overall cattle yield is increasing for which improved livestock health services had positive contribution. Most farmers use crop residues as stubble as they do not collect and feed their animals in the field. Collected crop residues are usually used when there is shortage of natural pasture and stubble. Purchased feed is not common for rural HHs. With the expansion of cropland, which has reduced the availability of natural pasture, crop residues are becoming increasingly important in all study PAs. In each PAs only few (14%) model farmers who are using AI service on their account of targeting improved breeds by WoARD (Table 23b). Only in few PAs farmers were using watering trough for livestock, otherwise, livestock are mainly watered in community ponds and few use Bilate River. Herding and watering are the major activities that require labor in livestock management. Out of 64.2% HHs hired labor for various agricultural activities, only 7.8% goes to livestock management while the rest allocated to other agricultural activities. FHHHs rely heavily on family labor for milking and barn cleaning than hired labor. In general, improved input use trend shows relatively greater amount allocated to large cattle than small ruminant animals.Among opportunities to the development of livestock sector, sampled HHs put animal health care and its coverage at the top of the list and they were listened recommending the necessity of improving its delivery. Nearly 41% of livestock owners reported the availability of livestock market as the second most important opportunity, ranging from 7% of farmers in Asore to 17% in Debeso PA. Lung worm/ parasite (Lung worm / parasite (10) Lung worm/ parasite (20)Lung worm/ parasite ( However, the problem is more serious in Asore and Lay Bedene where many farmers, 20% in each, reported the problem and specific diseases are summarized in Table 23d.Due to the risk associated with livestock production as result of recurrent drought and disease outbreaks that incur high social and economic disasters in study area, communities in Asore and Debeso PAs have established coping mechanisms for HHs through traditional livestock insurance mechanisms by raising money to affected HHs. Own observation and historical analysis of HH profile in study PAs shows where crop loss due to diseases, pests and natural calamities have been compensated through food and cash aid indicating support to agrarian communities seldom considered feed aid and compensation to losses of livestock in all sampled HHs. The next problem, in order of importance, is serious shortage of water where majority of HHs watering in ponds of poor quality water and which is further justified by the communities ranking of internal parasite as the second most important animal health problem. The temporary indigenous response to shortage of water is to move their animals to the neighboring PAs where there is perennial river and to highland PAs within and outside the district. The second option is to sell animals to decreasing their animal population. Sale of animals is starting from the gestate cows with the intension to make easy transport of animals for long distance in search for water and feed and to minimize the competitions for feed among animals.Despite the seasonal pattern of improved animal health service delivery, 53% of HHs perceived antibiotic oxytetracycline treatment as the first among improved animal health care measures in response to the first ranked anthrax animal disease.As reported in the previous section (Section 4.4.2), disease is one of the major constraints of livestock production in the study area. The public sector is the main provider of animal health diagnostic and treatment service and periodic vaccination against large scale outbreak of animal diseases. The livestock keepers also have their own indigenous knowledge of dealing with animal health problems and can access service from private sources, particularly veterinary drugs. However, publicly provide animal health service are not easily accessible on time, its coverage is limited and often the essential vet drugs are not sufficiently available, On the other hand, traditional methods of treating animal disease may not always effective, and the purchase and use of vet drugs from market, often from informal suppliers raises concerns relating to effectiveness, human health safety and environmental impact.The Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project had conducted participatory assessment on the challenges and potential for improving animal health service in selected PAs. Subsequently, IPMS in collaboration with an Italian NGO (LVIA) and Alaba WoARD initiated the concept of community-based primary animal health service delivery through trained Community Animal Health Workers' (CAHWs) and at experimental level in selected PAs including the study area. This section deals with both the supply and demand sides of the service that has been provided by the CAHWs since three years or so ago. Qualitative and quantitative evidence are presented and discussed on both the capacity of CAHWs for primary animal health service delivery and the demand of users for the service. The results of the assessment are scrutinized on the levels of satisfaction with the performance of the service by farmers who are users or potential users as well as by the other key stakeholders such as Alaba WoARD, IPMS and LVIA.Like crop protection service, the provision of primary animal health service by CAHWs, which is effective, safe, environmentally sound and financial profitable and sustainable, requires capacity. The capacity need for such service provision comprise human or personal capacity of the service providers, financial capacity, and network and linkage of CAHWs for accessing essential knowledge/information, finance/credit, material/inputs. continuous upgrading of capacity and skills of the CAHWs, which go beyond the technical training. Table 25 provides the summary of different formal trainings conducted to build the capacities of the CAHWs. Since the initiation of the service three years ago, at least 7 formal trainings were organized and conducted to build the capacities of the CAHWs: basics of animal health service (organized by LVIA for 3 weeks); practical demonstration of animal anatomy (organized by IPMS and WoARD for 3 weeks); the role of CAHWs Source: Discussion with CAHWs, 2010: N=4The specific topics covered by the trainings include topics such as use and handling of drugs including issue of environmental and human health, operation and maintenance of equipments, disease calendars and ethno-veterinary practices both on practical and theoretical sessions. Unlike crop spray providers, CAHWs have been provided with certificates that enable them to formally provide the service, though not licensed. The result of the assessment on the perceptions of the CAHWs about the skill-orientation of the trainings they attended revealed that only two of seven trainings were rated 5 (highly skill-oriented) and found practically useful. The CAHWs also felt that there were important gaps still needed to be addressed such as skill for the provision of animal vaccination and extension education related to animal health.An investigation result about the major sources of knowledge and information regarding recommended drugs and equipment shows, in order of importance, formal training, CAHWs-to-CAHWs knowledge sharing and information from animal health assistances (AHAs) based at FTC as the main sources. In similar fashion, the sources for knowledge and information regarding drugs handling and storage and use, disposal of unutilized/expired drugs and container were found formal trainings organized by LVIA, IPMS, regional BoARD, research institutions, labeling by drug suppliers on the containers and advice by drug vendors.Regarding quality and safety assurance, supervision and monitoring is done primarily by the WoARD, Animal Health and Production Work Process. Other institutions such as IPMS and Farm Africa are providing technical backstopping. However, the discussion with CAHWs and other key informants revealed lack of professional license from WoARD and trade licenses from trade and industry office and weak recognition and supervision of public sector to ensure quality CAHWs service. The weak attention given by process owner to supervise CAHWs in this case was reported to be due to a combination of low motivation and transport constraint in public sector which is further manifested when CAHWs lack clear professional and geographic delineation about their roles and responsibilities. For example, the CAHW in Gerema PA conducting minor operations, while that of Rokenen PA is not reporting at all.Material and equipment capacity in terms of store and essential basic facilities for transportation and communication is another component to capacity of CAHWs. During inception, LVIA has provided various materials and equipments, and start up drugs channeling through WoARD. However, the provision was not complete and lacking appropriate safety measures, shelves and separate rooms for safe storage of drugs which was clearly manifested when CAHWs using plastic sheet as a hood for abdominal examination, and storing drugs in boxes of clothes. A CAHW from Asore PA also reported lack of cattle crush and the injure from cattle and equines in the course of castration and examination. Whilst this is the fact, yet, CAHWs are delivering substantial services closer to the rural community with missing safety facilities and equipment.The assessment on CAHWs access to materials and other utilities reported the difficulties they went to access and use adequate and reliable sources of drugs, equipments and technical supports. They frequently face the shortage and even absence of drugs in near reach. The terms of access to drugs varies following the pattern of disease incidence and respective demand for services (Figure 9). All CAHWs do not have a habit of storing drugs at their stock for time of short supply perhaps in fear of expiration, lack of separate storage room and sufficient capital. The access to drug from WoARD is occasional and usually come very late after the disease caused significant damage. Moreover, there is no drug retailer channel in rural far PAs to maintain reliable supply where majority of livestock keepers reside and disease incidence is more prevalent.It is also imperative to assess the perception of CAHWs with regard to the timely availability, quality and costliness of the drugs purchased from different sources and the comparison is presented in Table 26. Currently there are three potential sources of drugs in the study area. Accordingly, CAHWs ranked the private vet drug vendors first for its timely availability followed by the Mencheno Union input shop. This is because private vet drug vendors are always open and drugs are available in kind and quantity. For case of quality of drugs considering expiry date, chemical composition and prescription and direction for use CAHWs selected WoARD as the best than others because public sector purchase drugs from well known source and supply with careful handling and perfect direction to use. The CAHWs discussion further evaluated the costliness of drugs and preferred WoARD to others because drugs purchased at reasonable price since it absorbed all its transportation and personnel expenses unlike the private vendors where they transfer all costs to buyers. But in all cases CAHWs are taking the third and fourth prices and cannot purchase from wholesalers at factory gate price due to lack of trade license. NB: Score is calculated by assigning 5 for excellent, 4 for very good, 3 for good, 2 for poor and 1 for very poor. Then multiply % of observation by the score and finally adding the total observation; N=4 Source: Own Computation, 2010Thus, CAHWs require being trade and professionally licensed in order to access drugs and necessary equipments at reasonable price from reliable sources so that maximize their profit margins from their practice.The availability of means of transport is important to facilitate mobility and timely response to acute animal disease and for easy access to reliable sources of drugs. CAHWs in their discussion also pointed the problem with having mule for transport as its cost of purchase is very high and supply of feed is difficult, hence, all CAHWs, except the one in Gerema PA who has bicycle, render the service on foot. The discussion has also proven the importance of communication facility, however, only the CAHW in Asore PA having cell phone and serving on call basis. As a result, advice or help often arrived too late for CAHWs in far PAs. Overall, lack of transportation and communication capacity has exerted particular impact on reporting and referring system.Own personal observation and informal discussion with experts about the use of drug containers and expired drugs disposal indicated that all CAHWs are either reusing (syringes and needles) or selling the containers for handling water and oil/gas for local kuraz. The CAHWs did not report the availability of expired drugs as they do not store drugs for long period. But some of the effects pointed out in the discussion were the death of bees and poultry as they drunk the washed out water of containers, morbidity to other animals when calcite (tick control) contact with grass if applied while the animal is in the grazing field.Access to credit and soft loans defined as low-interest loans with less-stringent conditions, plus supplementing income from horn and hoof trimming service (Appendix 10), were perceived as paramount important for CAHWs. One plausible explanation for this is that CAHWs perceived access to credit and soft loans as critical because of the high start-up costs, which according to Talib (CAHWs focal person in WoARD) were as high as 740 USD (in December 2009) for CAHWs service delivery in study PAs. However, the current agricultural credit service in the study PAs and elsewhere in the district is promising in promoting access to private sources of credit through farmer unions such as Mencheno. This was reduced the transaction costs for CAHWs at start up of the service.Based on the typology, the CAHWs made four types of linkage viz-a-viz linkage for knowledge and information, input and material, regulation and certification, and linkage for finance and credit were presented in generic linkage map (Figure 8). During inception CAHWs were made strong linkage for knowledge and information with LVIA (now phased out). But IPMS soon take over the responsibility and supporting with the relevant  infrastructure influence interaction with experts, the speed of advice from experts and referring of serious cases was enhanced.As far as the current asset value accumulated is considered, since the inception of the service, CAHWs have accumulated various assets for service delivery in form of fixed and working capital. The survey showed an increase in current asset for some of CAHWs (Table 27). Purchase of additional equipment, construction of separate house for drugs (most recent) and outstanding loan are rather an investment asset for service delivery system. Whereas bicycle and cell phone are part of operating capital help further expand the service territory. Transport facility, bicycle 1 25Owned cell phone 1 25Bought additional equipment 1 25Source: CAHWs survey, 2010The perceptions of CAHWs regarding their motivating factors to continue and expand the delivery scope were assessed and hence all CAHWs share similar perceptions on course of service delivery. Here, the following perceived opportunities of CAHWs regarding their capacity were summarized.The existence of private sector and the district existing extension service is an opportunity to support the service delivery • Existence of private input shops address constraints to availability of drugs to some extentExistence of Mencheno Union for credit service delivery is an opportunity to be exploited.The IPMS and WoARD effort for facilitation and training • Huge public investment in deploying 48DAs, 13AHAs and 5vets in animal health field, judicious use of 30 FTCs in the district are another niche to be utilized.The emerging NGOs such as Farm Africa supporting animal health service delivery system • The current government investment in public goods (roads, telex and rural electrification) has numerous opportunities for communication and transportation facility.Based on CAHWs group discussion on supply constraints (Table 28) facing the delivery practice, the following constraints were identified, ranked and the top 3 were discussed in detail.     Like PCPS, the demand for CAHWs service follows a seasonal pattern (Figure 9). In line with this, March, April and May are months in which disease outbreaks are more observed and characterized by serious scarcity of animal feeds thus animals lose their immunity.  Similarly, tablet selling for de-worming is highly demanded by the users through July to September as it is the period for fattening oxen for Meskel holiday sell (date of true Cross found). Antibiotic treatment service is highly demanded from January to June because it is onset of belg rain which gives rise to the emergence of soil born disease and pathogens are being active.CAHWs covering on average radius of 13km (in case of Asore PA for which public clinic is near covered 7PAs in 2 districts) on foot from their homes, with exception of one CAHW of Gerema PA who had his own bicycle covered up to 23km and 17PAs in 3bordering districts (Appendix 10). In contrast, public vet coverage depending on means of transport or not; they cover a radius of 40 km on daily basis on motorbikes compared to when they are on foot (in wet season) they could cover only a radius of 6km. Table 31 shows CAHW in far PA, Lay Bedene, is covering large livestock indicating increased use of community due to lack of other animal health service option than community in Asore who has public clinic in a very near reach. In all listed services, cattle are the dominant users of the service indicating strengthening the missing services to other species such as poultry and equines. In general, the service area coverage of the CAHWs depends on their mode of transport, the demand to the service, health condition of CAHW, and levels of practice diversification.   Moreover, most animal diseases are transboundary in nature, it needs an integrated effort in all these adjacent districts if the objective is to deliver improved animal health services.One of the plausible solutions to this is for public to encourage and support the participation of more service users / livestock keepers themselves and promoting existing informal providers in the delivery of the serviceThe service use rate based on HHs wealth group shows certain variation over PAs (Table 32), HHs and specific types of services. All the better-off class in Lay Bedene PA was service users of any type at anyone season where it is only 85.7% for Asore due to the nearness to public animal health service with better quality and their ability to cover the transaction costs to use public service. Even though tablet purchase is requested by all users, it is the only service dominantly used by poor in both PAs as due to its lower price of charging than other services. In case of other services which have higher charging, they opted to use traditional castration and local medicines instead. Overall, the CAHWs service covered relatively wider PAs and cattle dominated than other animal species such as equines and poultry and different across PAs depending on their mode of transport and seasonal pattern of demand for service.In conventional service delivery system, many attempts have failed to address important technical, social and financial sustainability. Financial viability refers to the degree in which CAHWs manage to minimize the costs of service delivery and maximize revenue from the practice and the better for CAHWs (Kaberia, 2002) and presented in Box 3.Varieties of service are currently delivered by formal CAHWs in study PAs. However, only antibiotic treatment selling was used to analyze CBA for commercial viability of the service. This is because both demand and supply of this service is relatively better than others and used as a showcase to see financial viability of services being delivered. The data were obtained from CAHWs recording of the year 2008/9 for which relatively sufficient data was found.CBA was based on information that the service is being delivered in off-farm base and the number of service days and hours are limited, the data is actual and obtained from CAHWs recording.Given the following data: Service charge is to be covered by user; business started with formal credit of 300Br at 7% interest rate and this is revolving capital over months, Service being delivered = Antibiotic i.e. oxytetracycline 20% (long acting) selling; average service required =20 head/month i.e. 240head/year; depreciation cost of equip and labor cost ignored; personal and transaction expenses were also ignored. The service fulfill the condition that the BCR must be equal to or greater than one, however, it looks for that financing of the practices and revision of their profit margins needs to be done to maximize the profit. Because CAHWs service is risky and susceptible as detrimental external factors such as drought and financial crises are likely to shake it easily.Currently, little is formally documented as to the perceptions of service users towards the quality, satisfaction and effectiveness of CAHWs services and about the implications of envisioned service delivery market in the study PAs. Table 33 shows the variation of HH perceptions across HHs and between PAs categories. The better-off HHs in Asore PA were not satisfied with the effectiveness of service which may be due to poor competence of the CAHW for which users' ability to differentiate the quality of specific services and use of public service in near reach contributed a lot. On contrast, the majority of better-off HHs (92%) in Lay Bedene PA reported the satisfaction with effectiveness with the service. NB: Score is calculated by assigning 5 for excellent, 4 for very good, 3 for good, 2 for poor and 1 for very poor. Then multiply % of observation by the score and finally adding the total observation; N=120Source: HH Survey Result , 2010A very useful tool for evaluating service delivery system which also incorporates district experts and key informants from Farm Africa and IPMS is the SWOT analysis.Accordingly it analyzed the CAHWs service delivery system from the external appraisal of opportunities and threats, and an internal appraisal of strengths and weakness and summarized in Table 35.  In order CAHWs to remain a viable player in animal health service delivery system, all stakeholders must become increasingly more nimble, more strategic-thinking, and well attuned to changes in their delivery and constantly adapting their institutional structure and culture in order to capitalize and utilize existing opportunities that are a good fit to their strengths, mitigate their weaknesses and reduce their vulnerability to external threats to their continued survival and relevance.In general the following lessons were learnt from the existing CAHWs practices: • Seasonality of demand to CAHWs services, where the pattern is regular, can be capitalized on by stocking necessary drugs during such periods to maximize the profits.CAHWs if the objective is to make the system effective.• Diversification of services to CAHWs reduces vulnerability & spreads overheads over number of services • Lack of business skills on the part of CAHWs has been the major constraints on maximization of profits.• Unlike the crop protection service, the role of public in animal health service delivery is very visible indicating us the right positive alignment of public to the segment where the providers are only few than where the suppliers are relatively saturated.CAHWs services are already being paid for services like antibiotic treatment. All the respondents were subjected to survey of the current service charge and found that the large proportion of antibiotic service users (46%) perceive the current fee is reasonable, whereas majority (42.5%) of non-users complaining that the prevailing service charge rate was higher (Table 36) perhaps owing to their low economic status. Almost two fold of respondents (i.e. 21%, Table 36) than either of spray services users (at most 13.3%, Table 21) perceived antibiotic service charge is lower. This implies these users might have satisfied based on their understanding of the benefits they derived from. The 39% of nonusers still believe that the price is reasonable but cannot afford service charging thus indicating price revision in order to bring them into users group. Table 37 shows the differently perceived mean willing to pay for antibiotic service. The survey revealed the majority of respondents (37%) perceive current charging is higher and willing to pay the mean amount of 14.15Br. Those also who perceived the current charge is lower willing to pay 16.54Br for antibiotic due to the reason that they can't afford more than the stated fee whereas 42.5% agreed that the current fee is reasonable to continue the service use which particularly outweighs for users (Table 36). This implies the existing CAHWs are few in number and not filling the demand which is clearly inferred when relatively larger proportion of CAHWs service users (21.7%) than either of spray services were still willing to pay a higher fee than the current charge. the grounds that it is the ability and not willingness which should form the basis of social policy (Ahuja and Redmond, 2001). This is because the principles such as willingness to pay may not take into account the problems connected with the ability to pay. The respondent's assessment of their ability to pay is presented in Table 38. The data show that 74.3% rated themselves as just able to pay, while 17% rated themselves as well able to pay the said price. This is a very important finding because these farmers could be further strengthened to be able to pay for quality services. This opportunity could be used in promoting the interest for participation of farmers in financing the current fiscal constrained public service delivery. Nonetheless, they indicated the preferred modes of payment in response to a question on how they would be willing to pay for future. About 33.6% would like to pay in group with other farmers those willing to pay personally to the service providers constitute 57.4%. This implies the absence of farmer's cooperatives in rural PAs as result majority of the respondents are not members of it and opted to pay personally due to fear of credit at any other time later. But this direct pay in person would expected as important incentive to encourage the providers. The conditions which could make farmers pay without complaint in which the majority (82.4%) agreed was improved income from crop and animal production. This finding corroborates with that of Van den Ban (2000) indicating that potential users are willing to pay for private services if the various private services would improve their income as farmers and empower them financially. This is because, though currently they are paying for services, their improved income would suggest availability of funds from which they could conveniently pay for the services whenever the fees higher than the current rate may introduced. This needs the service delivery system should go beyond mere increase in yields to include good marketing services for guaranteed income increase to pay for services. This is an important condition attached to WTP for private services by farmers.Subsidized private services could, therefore, be a viable another option here, which may be explored in the provision of effective and sustainable services particularly to poor HHs. This is because there are cases where subsidized service delivery performs better than public service delivery on the principle of free of charge. This would have has three-fold benefit: at one hand, due to lower services charge the current non-users come to be a user.On the other hand, the service providers maintain the delivery of essential services because it is financially viable as higher demand arise as result of some of the cost is covered by the public. Thirdly, it is advantageous for the public since subsidy is relatively better than free supply of services to resolve the current fiscal constraint. Thus, here it needs the involvement of public sector to support the service delivery by subsidizing the service fee thus the non-users became users when the public share the charge up to the point which is feasible to the service provider, yet affordable to poor. But this should only be considered, according to experts discussants, when service use is economically profitable i.e., when there is a strong crop and livestock response that service use remains profitable. Otherwise the discussants agreed that the correct way to subsidize services under the current strategy of agricultural-led market development of Ethiopia may be indirectly through improvements in institutional setup, infrastructure and marketing rather than directly through price subsidies.The study was conducted to investigate the opportunities and challenges of existing private crop protection and community animal health workers service development in Alaba district with the aim of exploring ways of developing demand-driven service delivery system in the sector to support the envisaged smallholder transformation. The specific objectives of the research were to assess: i) the perceptions of service providers about the opportunities and challenges to enter and expand the service; ii) service coverage and commercial viability; iii) the perceptions and level of satisfaction of service users and potential users; and iv) the farmers' ability and willingness to pay for both private crop protection and CAHWs services. The primary data was collected from 120 randomly selected farm households from four PAs representing the near and far PAs in reference to Kulito market. This was supplemented by information from participatory rapid appraisal and review of government policies and strategy documents. Qualitative and quantitative methods were deployed to analyze the collected data. Descriptive statistics was used to measure the mean willingness to pay in the future.In the study PAs and elsewhere in the country, the public sector was found to be the main source of inputs and technical assistance for crop pests and diseases control. In addition, the farmers have their own traditional methods and there are also formal and informal private providers by using purchased agro-chemicals. Both traditional and informal providers were questioned for issues such as effectiveness, human health and its impact on the environment. Recognizing the issue, since three years ago, the formal providers were introduced as one alternative of providing demand-driven service. In response, the survey has assessed their supply capacity and found that these providers are different in their capacity. Accordingly the survey has revealed that all providers are male over 36 years old where their educational level ranges from grade 1 to 10 with average of grade six. In addition the providers were supplied with various credit, equipment and essential protective measures for appropriate handling and application of chemicals which was further backed by technical assistance, monitoring and supervision services from public and private actors in the system. Private crop protection service providers in Alaba perceived three major opportunities about their capacity: technical and material assistance and the devotion of some NGOs to support providers in capacity building, the benefit in terms of profit & work experience from the service provision, and the existence of private input shops to acquire the necessary chemicals. The perceived supply-side constraints include: unfair competition with informal providers who are likely to undercut price, the public sector (WoARD) weak chemical use regulation enforcement mechanism to deal with informal providers, and limited access to training in technical and financial business management. Hence, overcoming the perceived constraints and seizing the opportunities call for specific technical, policy and institutional interventions.The main private formal crop protection service in the research area is herbicide spraying primarily focusing on the major cereal and pulse crops; and pesticide application is limited to cash crops. The pre harvest service coverage encompasses more clients than that of post harvest services. The latter is often requested by better-off households who produce cash crops. Unlike the poor and medium classes, the better-off households rarely use private spray services. This is due to the fact that the majority of better-off housed own knapsack for crop spraying. The service coverage also varies across the PAs. For instance, the coverage of private formal crop protection service in H.Kuke PA is wider than that of Debeso PA. This is attributed to the summative of two factors: performance of provider expressed as better educated and young personality to respond timely and travel by bicycle, and the relatively higher demand from better-off HHs for cash crops in H.Huke than Debeso. In this thesis, among the various crop protection services being delivered, only herbicide is considered in service financial viability analysis as it represents the main service provided privately. The result indicates that private herbicide service provision is financially viable even if the current costs of chemical inputs increased by 10%.Both service user and potential user farmers have favorable perceptions for traditional crop pests and diseases control methods for its availability, timeliness and environmental safety, and thus currently practiced by the majority of poor. The traditional crop protection methods are often labor-intensive hence poor households with abundant labor and less capital tend to prefer traditional crop protection methods to the modern, chemical options. Private informal providers were perceived better for timeliness, affordability and availability than formal providers. However, as a result of formal trainings and presence of safety measures, in contrast, private formal providers were perceived better for environmental and human health than informal providers. Regarding individual service users, the HHs in H.Kuke PA were better satisfied with the service due to better performance of the provider than HHs in Debeso PA where they feel some shading of dissatisfaction. Overall, the better-off and middle class HHs in both PAs were better perceived for all indicators under investigation than the poor who mostly use the service with poor quality and lower frequency from informal providersThe assessment of willingness to pay for the service about service fee and perceptions of users/potential users on the prevailing charging rates for specific services has revealed that majority (51.7%) of the current herbicide users/potential users perceived the prevailing charge is reasonable whereas about 63.3% of pesticide users perceived the current charging is higher. The survey regarding mean willingness to pay for quality services has revealed 35 and 63.3% of users/potential users for herbicide and for pesticide, respectively, were willing to pay if the service charges could be reduced.• It is revealed that the training selection program lack qualities of involving providers in selection of topics, too short/long training duration and contents usually do not align with skill and context dynamism and missing aspects of knowledge domain. Hence, it is important to provide full package trainings to capacitate providers to enable them competitive, vibrant and responsive to demand. This has to be also backed by linking the providers with various actors, while strongly focusing on non-technical hurdles related to institutions and market, so that they can access and use the opportunity that resides in other actors.• For the future of the providers, it is important that they have to seize the existing opportunities at their hand. In order to avoid unfair competition between the formal & informal providers and the associated ineffectiveness in service delivery, it is imperative to enforce legislation with particular emphasis to licensing. Unlike CAHWs services, PCPS is quite new, needs service standards and guidelines. Establishment of regional chemical input quality control can increase farmers' confidence in providers and protect adulterated service and formal service providers against competitors.• Systematic monitoring and documenting the existing private crop protection initiatives while paying attention to the effect of these initiatives would increase the role of the private sector in supply of services as well as reducing the role of public in the delivery of services is crucial. This needs scaling best practices, seizing opportunities, and addressing the challenges to financial viability, safety and environmental sustainability of private service delivery in innovative ways. The gradual retreat of public sector in PCPS than CAHWs is an indicator to this while shifting its focus to services which are non-delegable and not viable to private sector. Relieving the public from the service delivery would lessen the burden of woreda expertise to focus more on information and knowledge broker, and in facilitating linkages of providers with institutional services.But the re-treat of the public sector has to be complemented by measures to improve the framework conditions for service markets.• It is undisputed that the stakeholders should give special consideration to remote and low potential far PAs where the service coverage is low and that are not attractive to the profit oriented providers. The government should clearly define tasks division between the various actors (private formal and informal) in the system bearing in mind that in far remote PAs some flexibility may be required in the privatization exercise such as intervention through price subsidy so that the current non-user poor FHHHs and marginalized groups would become user.• Although the respondents batter perceived all crop pest and disease control methods for their accessibility/availability, the improvement in other indicators and progress monitoring that involves users in defining the performance criteria to be monitored would contribute more positively.• It is revealed that majority of users in the study PAs were willing to pay for private services if it will improve their income as farmers and empower them financially. This is logical because improved income would suggest availability of capacity to users/potential users from which they could able to pay for the services whenever the fees higher than the current rate may introduced. Therefore, the service delivery should go beyond mere increase in yields to include good marketing facilities and other income generating schemes for sustainable income increase as desired by the users and this is an important condition that should be attached to WTP for private services by users.The key lesson for the study PAs, and indeed the whole of district, from the existing initiative is the fact that CAHWs involvement in primary animal health service provision is encouraged to solve the problem of the current budgetary constraint of public sector.However, the assessment result of their capacity revealed the current CAHWs are lacking the minimum critical facilities and inputs for proper primary animal health care service provision. Although all CAHWs are males, they vary in their age and level of education.Overall, they lack the public supportive services such as technical backstopping and supervision, business training, protective safety measures, transport and communication facilities and trade license despite the presence of professional certificate. Lack of transportation and communication facilities was found to be the major factors hindering reporting of cases and timely information (backward and forward) flow as result some two CAHWs were quite dropped-out of the system. They are also poorly linked with respective actors in the system, except that of linkage with Mencheno Union for financing and IPMS for knowledge and information, other wings reveal weak linkage.The demand-side is particularly weak where farmers are not well organized to be able to analyze their real needs and demand quality services. From perspective of supply-side, the pluralism aspect is absent that CAHWs interact occasionally with other actors, working as non-farm business and hence prefer profit-orientation to client-orientation, and the process owners are not performing to their effectiveness. CAHWs are also not yet organized into cooperatives to capitalize their experiences and to influence policy at higher level. On the policy-side, it was analyzed that policies are not converging towards a common and shared agenda to enforce regulatory frameworks.In the study area, numerous opportunities were identified to promote CAHWs services in alternative ways include: the existence of district extension service, existence of private input shops address constraints to availability of drugs, and the current government investment in public goods (roads, telex and rural electrification) has numerous opportunities for communication and transportation facility. Likewise, weak enforcement mechanism to deal with competition from informal providers, lack of training in technical and business management, and lack of capital and input services were the main constraints faced CAHWs. But many of them were found to be non-technical, but lie in realm of policies and institutional challenges over range of CAHWs services.The service coverage varies over PAs with the domination of public and formal CAHWs.Unlike the spray service, the role of public sector is very substantial indicating us the right positive alignment of public sector to the sector where there are only few providers than where the suppliers are relatively saturated. Like PCPS, the demand for CAHWs service follows a seasonal pattern and service charging varies overtime in response to price of drugs. Overall, the CAHWs service covered relatively wider PAs and cattle dominated than other animal species. It also varies over PAs depending on their mode of transport, distance from Kulito market, performance of CAHW as function of his formal education and physical strength to travel by bicycle and timely respond to demand. All the better-off class in Lay Bedene PA was service users of any type at anyone season where it is only 85.7% for Asore with comparative advantage of public animal health service in near reach. Among services, tablet selling is mostly requested by poor since its price is lower to them.Among the services, antibiotic treatment selling was subjected to analysis of its commercial viability to CAHWs and revealed it is financially viable even if the current costs of drugs increased by 14%.The assessment of perception of user and potential user farmers about the service depicted that better-off HHs in Asore PA were perceived the service is ineffective which is attributed to users' ability to differentiate the quality of specific services and compare with public service in near reach than that of Lay Bedene. Service users were perceived the performance of CAHWs more positively for availability, timeliness and quality of services whereas traditional method was also appreciated by majority of HH for its affordability.The survey of WTP were revealed that large proportion of service users/potential users (46%) perceived the current fee is reasonable, whereas nearly 44% of the current nonusers reported that the prevailing service charge rate was higher perhaps owing to their inability to pay. WTP estimates are currently questioned for policy purposes on the grounds that it is the ability and not willingness which should form the basis of social policy. In this regard, the assessment of their ability to pay (ATP) has revealed that 74.3% rated themselves as just able to pay the said price. The conditions which could make these farmers pay without complaint in which the majority agreed was if the various private services would improve their income as farmers and empower them financiallyThe recent efforts of Alaba WoARD, LVIA and IPMS to promote private service delivery in study PAs and lessons learned from the existing CAHWs delivery system lead to conclude that government have a very important role to play in promoting the expansion of CAHWs service delivery beyond the current territory. This entails provision of various capacity building services to CAHWs and services that will stimulate users to demand various quality services. This is because until there is serious commitment to provide these basic public services, any public supportive services are unlikely to have any lasting impact on CAHWs service delivery.• There is room for more direct contribution of communities in building the capacity of CAHWs to ensure that a minimum level of service delivery can be maintained in PAs such as Debeso and HKuke where this service would simply not be available. This is because, if affordable services are accessible and available for individuals, the services of CAHWs contribute to increased income at HH level. In this case, the service delivery would go beyond a pure economic client to customer orientation. The public support that train CAHWs on financial management and to evaluate their profitability over time, taking into account ever increasing drugs price, can improve their decisionmaking concerning on business management.• Without a well organized demand-side, service delivery will remain ineffective and depend on the good will of CAHWs losing the quality of being demand-driven.Likewise, without strong supply capacity of CAHWs who are capable of responding effectively to the demand aired by users, the system will be ineffective too. This in turn needs continuous capacity building scheme while analyzing the different levels and developing them together to manage change within these and across.• It would be good if CAHWs would get involved in new linkages. Examples are linkages with drug wholesalers and factories. Until now, these linkages are missing, but they could form a partly solution for shortage of drugs that CAHWs currently facing.Hence, a better definition of linkage strategies is a fundamental approach in improving the performance of interaction among these actors.• It was recommended that the CAHWs service delivery system should control its perceived weaknesses and cultivate the opportunities at hand. On the other hand, it should respond to the threats to get the most out of its strengths and pave the way for new entrants and expansion of services.• In order to fill the gap of current shortage of CAHWs where service coverage is poor, involving more livestock keepers themselves and informal providers in primary animal health service delivery is another option. But this need to be supported with appropriate legislative and policy frameworks. To this regard, issues as far ranging as standards and certification, policy and institutional issues are increasingly vital.• As sustainability is linked with commercial viability; financial aspects and income opportunities for CAHWs in study PAs are even more important. Even though the CAHWs service is financial viable it should look that revision of their profit margins needs to be done to maximize the profit. Private businesses are risky and susceptible as detrimental external factors are likely to shake it easily.• The paper recognized one important issue for consideration when CAHWs service is being initiated -the perceptions of the affected groups. Although respondents may share similar perceptions, extenuating factors peculiar to specific service may be critical and will have to be considered. This is because sustaining a privatized service delivery will depend not on the benefit derived alone, nor on the perception of or ability of the recipient to pay, but also on the cumulative purchasing power of both user and potential user groups. This needs designing the service delivery system which is targeted and context-specific Private crop protection service -----------private animal health service -----------------Rating: 1=very dissatisfied, 2= dissatisfied, 3= fair, 4=satisfied, 5=very satisfied 5. What are the actual results / your view about the likely results of the use of the service? 5.1. Private crop protection: 1= reduced crop loss-------Q, 2=increased product quality.Please get the farmer's estimate of incremental benefit as a result of reduced crop loss and/or improved grain quality.5.2. Private animal health service-1. Reduced mortality, 2. Improved productivity (e.g.weight gain, milk production, etc). Please get the farmer's estimate of incremental benefit as a result of private animal health service availability & use.Description Reasons Which element of the private protection service do you wish to continue with? Which specific private protection service do you not wish to continue with? Which specific private animal health service do you wish to continue with? Which specific private animal health service do you not wish to continue with? 7) Have you ever encountered any symptom(s) of health impairments resulting from pesticide application? 1. Yes 2. No: 1. eye irritation 2= skin irritation, 3= nausea, 4= headache, 5= vomiting 8) Have you observed any change in biodiversity such as decrease/increase in weeds/invasive plant species, insect pests, mosquitoes, beneficial insects, mammals and birds, etc)? Please provide details.Willingness to pay for private crop protection and veterinary services delivery Description: Scenario 1 or 2 (which will be randomly administered to 120 HH) Scenario 1: This is specifically designed to discourse strategic behavior As you know in your area, the cost of providing crop protection and veterinary service to the farmers has mostly been financed by the government and provided free of charge.However, lack of funds, cost ineffectiveness and lack of impact is now becoming a major obstacle in providing these services. In view of this, private crop spray providers and CAHWs have initiated to introduce cost recovery mechanism to the farmers through some user charges of birr X to ensure financial sustainability of service delivery and to build genuine quality control mechanism. We want to know your response with the existing payment and your willingness to pay per hectare spray/de-worming (if you are not satisfied with the existing payment) so that high quality services can be provided. Your answer cannot change the plan that the government has to delivery these services in the future.Scenario 2: This is designed to capture any strategic behavior by the respondent in answering willingness to pay questions.As you know in your area the cost of providing crop protection and veterinary service to the farmers has mostly been financed by the government and provided free of charge.However, lack of funds, cost ineffectiveness and lack of impact is now becoming a major obstacle in providing these services. In view of this, private crop spray providers and CAHWs have initiated to introduce cost recovery mechanism to the farmers through some user charges of birr X to ensure financial sustainability of service delivery and to build genuine quality control mechanism. Thus, we want to know your response with the existing payment and your willingness to pay per hectare spray/de-worming (if you are not satisfied with the existing payment) so that high quality services can be provided.1 Is the existing actual charge rates (X) for different crop protection /animal health services is reasonable? 1=Yes, 2= No 2 If NO for Q1, would you be willing to pay a little different fee than actual for high quality spray/CAHWs service and enhance maximum production from crop/livestock production? 1. Lower and go to Q5 2. Higher and go to Q43 If the answer for Q1 is Yes, why? 1.I can't afford more than this 2.It is the fee the service deserve 3. I do not believe in improving the service delivery through paying 4.The government has to fund to cover the remaining fee 5.Other (specify) __________ 4 Would you be willing to pay BX birr per hectare/de-worming? Where BX>X.Yes=1 if yes go to (6), No=2 if no go to 5 Would you be willing to CX birr per hectare/de-worming? Where CX<X.6 Yes=1 if yes go to (6), No=2 if no go to 7 What is the maximum you are willing to pay per visit? -----------------------8 What is the main reason for your maximum willingness to pay the fee stated in number 6 above? 1) I could not afford more 2) I think it worth that amount 3) Other (specify)","tokenCount":"25769"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"61245b9b612fd2b03b8fe4935c2fed3f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2eb93484-a7d4-4358-8f11-973c5461e8e2/retrieve","id":"1256250914"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"906e04cb-4ff0-41bf-bf63-9f44581753ff","pagecount":"6","content":"Con materiales mejorados y/o comerciales de frijol de los paises de América Central, desde 1962 se habla establecido en la región, una red de ensayos de rendimiento auspiciada por el programa cooperativo centroamericano para el mejoramiento de cultivos alimenticios, PCCMCA.Estos ensayos dieron como resultado un provechoso intercambio de materiales comoPorrillo 1, Porrillo sintético, México 80 y Jamapa.El programa se reiniciO en 1981 con el vivero centroamericano de adaptación y rendimiento, VICAR, como un proyecto de la mesa de leguminosas de la Reunibn XXVII del PCCMCA en Costa Rica; mediante este vivero se mantiene entre el CIAT y los programas nacionales de los paises participantes un FLUJO permanente de materiales mejorados, comerciales comunes, lineas promisorias y testigos locales que se someten a prueba en las diferentes localidades para obtener informacibn sobre su comportamiento.Los ensayos se han dividido segan el color del grano de los materiales probados en dos grupos:.. grano rojo\" y \"grano negro .. ;en cada uno de estos se incluyen variedades que representan los diferentes gustos de los consumidores en cuanto a color, ｴ ｡ ｭ ｾ ｯ ＠ y brillo del grano, asi como dos testigos locales. En vista de la importancia de las caracterlsticas nutricionales y tecnolagicas, como componentes de la productividad de los cultivares, desde 1982 el Instituto de Nutric:ibn de Centroameric:a y ｐ ｡ ｮ ｡ ｭ ｾ ＠ <INCAP> c:omenzb a efectuar los ｡ ｮ ｾ ｬ ｩ ｳ ｩ ｳ ＠ quimic:os y fisic:os para tales c:arac:terlstic:as en los materiales del VICAR, en forma paralela a la evaluac:ibn agronbmic:a.2.2.1.Conocer el comportamiento de los materiales en un rango amplio de ambientes.Para seleccionar progenitores e incluirlos en los planes de cruzamientos de los programas nacionales.Como medio para la transferencia horizontal.Se ha realizado transferencia horizontal con Jos siguientes materiales:Grano rojo: RAB 204, RAB 50, Centa Izalco, DOR 364.Grano negro: ICTA Precoz 3, ICTA CU 85-15.ICTA Ostua, Negro Huasteco, El vivero ･ ｳ ｴ ｾ ＠ abriendo cupos cada aho para que los programas nacionales puedan incluir sus nuevos materiales. ","tokenCount":"333"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fc62994f7887238a4f8d59fbabea91ed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2bdcbcf7-b774-4543-9c23-7f54db0a44c3/retrieve","id":"-2128827698"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f963ee3e-4106-4038-80b2-8ec37841e361","pagecount":"12","content":"An experiment was conducted to examine the performance of pearl millet under different nitrogen (N) fertilizer rates in two locations in the semiarid zone of Nigeria. e objective was to evaluate the effects of different N rates on pearl millet yields, waterand nitrogen-use efficiency, and profitability. Grain yield increased by 23, 26, 32, 32, and 27% and by 38, 41, 54, 58, and 56% compared to unfertilized plots when applying 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 kg Nha −1 in Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively. Similarly, stalk yield increased by 4, 3, 9, 9, and 9% and by 16, 24, 36, 40, and 37% compared to unfertilized plot when applying 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 kg Nha −1 in Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively. e variations in GY that could be explained by TWU and NUE were 28% and 26% in Minjibir and 46% and 41%, respectively, in Gambawa. ere was a strong and positive correlation (R � 0.81 and R � 0.95) between WUE and GY across N-fertilizer rates and pearl millet varieties in both locations. An increase in N-fertilizer levels increased WUE, confirming the optimal application of 60 kg Nha −1 in Minjibir and of 80 kg Nha −1 in Gambawa. Similarly, the highest net economic return (NER) of US$610 ha −1 was obtained at 60 kg Nha −1 in Minjibir and the highest NER of US$223 ha −1 was obtained at an application rate of 80 kg Nha −1 in Gambawa. Break-even yield was above 1000 kg ha −1 , signifying that average farmer with a mean yield of less than 1000 kg ha −1 produces millet at a loss.Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) is droughttolerant and early maturing with high water-use efficiency, but productivity may be greatly influenced using appropriate nitrogen (N) inputs for maximum profitability [1]. Pearl millet provides grain for human consumption and stover for livestock in the arid and semiarid tropics [1,2]. It has high nutritional value and exceptional tolerance to drought and high temperature [3,4]. Under semiarid conditions, rainfall and soil fertility dictate crop performance and cropping patterns [5,6]. Pearl millet flourishes satisfactorily and can be cultivated under low rainfall (200-250 mm), which makes it one of the most reliable cereal crops in the arid and semiarid tropics [7,8]. e annual pearl millet production in Nigeria between 2014 and 2016 ranged from 1.15 to 1.55 million tons, representing about 5% of total world production with the average yield of 903 kg ha −1 , which ranked Nigeria as the third world's largest producer after Niger and India [1]. In Nigeria, pearl millet is grown primarily for grain used for human consumption. e stover is also of great economic importance for livestock feed, building materials, and fuel. Although average pearl millet yields worldwide are lower than the average yields of other cereal crops [4], improved agronomic practices and varieties have been found to lead to more efficient use of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), water, and nutrients, especially N, resulting in a significant increase in grain and stover yields [9].Despite the fact that the crop can be grown in low rainfall belt, studies have shown that millet production in West Africa is primarily constrained by limited water supply that determines the amount of water used for growth and productivity [10,11]. Rainfall and soils are the major environmental resources that merit detailed analysis, in the efforts to increase millet production [11]. e inadequate supply of plant nutrients by most farmers restricts the efficient use of limited rainfall, and this results in unstable low productivity of millet [5]. Similarly, studies have shown that greater water-use efficiency could be achieved through efficient use of fertilizers [11,12], without underestimating the role of plant genetics [13]. Additionally, demand for food by the growing population in Nigeria will require that we increase resource-use efficiency of water and nutrient for cereal crops including pearl millet. Among the nutrients, N is the most limiting nutrient for cereal production on degraded semiarid soils although P is also a major problem [5]. Monitoring plant N to ensure an adequate supply for plant requirements is necessary to have optimum growth, improved NUE, and to reduce N losses [14]. In rainfed cropping systems, adapting N management to water constraints may help to mitigate N losses and therefore increase NUE. In its simplest definition, NUE is the grain yield per unit of supplied N [15]. It is affected by several factors and processes including N uptake, translocation, assimilation, and remobilization [16]. NUE is an important target for crop improvement [17], though crop-specific management strategies may be required. Improvement of NUE is a way to efficiently use inorganic fertilizer, which is an essential prerequisite for the expansion of crop production into marginal lands with low nutrient availability [18]. e understanding of NUE in pearl millet across the growing areas is very important for economic, environmental, and productivity reasons [19]. is is due to unbalanced application and high cost of fertilizer or fertilizer availability, which constitute a big constrain to resource-poor farmers in Nigeria [20]. In addition, with the advocacy of improved production practices and cultivars, the use of nitrogen fertilizers is increasing quantitatively, but responsive yields to N are substantially fading over the years in all crops [19] including pearl millet [21]. us, balancing the N rate, WUE, and yield is an important problem in dryland farming systems. Classical reviews of fertilizers and efficient use of water for maize [6] concluded that, in most cases when the water supply is fixed, any management factor that increases yield would increase water-use efficiency. It was reported in [11] that under Sahelian conditions, 84% increase of WUE in millet (grain yield per mm rain) is due to the application of mineral fertilizers. e application of N increases WUE by 15% and grain yield by 400 kg over control for sorghum crop cultivated under rainfed condition [22]. Although improvements in yield may be brought about by judicious applications of fertilizer, a better understanding of interactions among precipitation, fertilization, and crop production is essential for efficient utilization of water resources and N-fertilizers [23]. A good plant N nutritional status enhances millet tolerance to drought and enhances morphological traits, thereby increasing yields [24]. With average or above rainfall, N application and high plant density increased millet grain yield four-to fivefold. Nitrogen application increased stover production by 33% in a dry year and by 100% in a wetter year [25]. N supply of ∼30 kg Nha in two split applications achieved good yields in average and wet years, with only a small yield reduction in the drought year [25]. A moderate increase of N supply for sorghum was reported to improve water-use efficiency (WUE) under semiarid environments [12]. To attain high stable yields of pearl millet by smallholder farmers that will deliver higher profitability in the region would therefore require combinations of improved varieties, optimum amounts of fertilizer, and good cultural management practices for efficient utilization of limited water. ere is limited information on the response of new improved diverse millet varieties to applied N in terms of grain yield (GY), total water use (TWU), nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE), and water-use efficiency (WUE). e objectives of the trial were to assess the direct effect of nitrogen application and varieties on productivity and water-and nitrogen-use efficiency of pearl millet and to identify optimal N-fertilizer rate for higher profitability of pearl millet production relative to the study areas.e experiments were conducted during the 2014 and 2015 growing seasons at two sites within the semiarid region of Nigeria. e first location was ICRISAT research field situated within the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) station, Wasai village, Minjibir Local Government Area of Kano State (latitude 12.17 °N and longitude 8.65 °E 455 m ASL), while the second location was within farmers' field in Gambawa, Gumel Local Government Area of Jigawa State (latitude 12.625 °N and longitude 9.325 °E, 370 m ASL). Both sites are located in the Sudan Savanna agroecological zone where soils are mainly sandy and loamy of low fertility [26]. e trials were conducted in different parts of the research farm (Minjibir) and farmers field (Gambawa) in the 2 years. Undisturbed soil samples were randomly taken at a depth (0-20 cm) prior to sowing for each location in both growing seasons. Soil samples were analysed at the Soil Science Department Laboratory, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. ey were analysed for particle size distribution, organic carbon (OC), pH, and other chemical properties as described in [27].e experiment was a split plot design with four replications. e main plot had six nitrogen (N) fertilizer levels (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 kg ha −1 ), and the subplots randomised within the main plots had three pearl millet varieties (Jirani, Super SOSAT, and local control). e details of the varieties used (Jirani, Super SOSAT, and local) have been described by Ajeigbe et al. [1]. e gross size of each subplot was 15 m 2 (5 m long by 3 m wide). is consisted of four ridges 5 m long spaced at 75 cm apart. Planting was done at 50 cm between plants, giving a total plant population of 26,667 hills ha −1 .e land was harrowed and ridged at 75 cm apart and sown on 7 th July in Minjibir and 10 th July in Gambawa in 2014 cropping season while in 2015 growing season, the experiments were sown on 3 rd July in Minjibir and 22 nd July in Gambawa, respectively. Sowing was done by placing 5-7 seeds per hole at a depth of 3-5 cm and seeds were thinned to two (2) plants per hill between 2 and 3 weeks after planting (WAP). e N-fertilizer (urea) was applied in two splits (at planting and 4 weeks after planting (WAP)), while 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha −1 and 30 kg K 2 O ha −1 were applied during planting across N-fertilizer levels as single super phosphate and muriate of potash, respectively. Weeding was carried out manually to keep the fields weed-free. e two centre rows (7.5 m 2 ) in each subplot were taken as the net plot, and data were collected from these net plots. In both locations, leaf chlorophyll contents were measured at 3 and 6 WAP using a SPAD-502 portable chlorophyll meter (Minolta, Tokyo, Japan). All chlorophyll meter readings were taken midway between the stalk and the tip of the leaf. Leaf area index (LAI) at 6 and 9 WAP was measured with Accupar LP-80 portable canopy analyser. Days to 50% flowering and physiological maturity were recorded when 50% of the plants per plot have flowered and 80% of the plot attained maturity. Plant height was recorded and taken as the mean of five randomly plants/plot at maturity and measured from the ground base of the plant to the tip of the panicle. At maturity, stalk from the net plots was cut at the base and laid on the ground to sun dry until a constant weight was obtained. Panicles were separated from the stalk and sun-dried until a constant weight was obtained (this took about 2 weeks) which was recorded as panicle weight per plot. e panicles were then threshed, and the weight of grains was recorded as grain weight per plot. e dry stalks were weighed and recorded. ese were extrapolated as panicle, grain, and stalk yield per ha (kg ha −1 ), respectively. A thousand seeds were picked per plot using a seed counter and weighed using a sensitive scale and recorded as 1000seed weight. Harvest index (HI) was computed as the ratio of grain yield (GY) to the total aboveground dry matter (TDM).e estimation of total water use (TWU) for each N-fertilizer level between sowing and physiological maturity was calculated. Firstly, we applied equation (2) to compute daily evapotranspiration (ET o ) using the daily records of minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and solar radiations observed from the automatic weather station near the field experimental plots (<2 km radius). Other parameters are constant values based on the agroecological zone of reference.ereafter, the cumulative reference evapotranspiration (ET o ) was computed from sowing to physiological maturity multiplied by a recommended crop coefficient (K c ) for pearl millet [28] as described in equation ( 1). e Penman-Monteith equation was used to calculate daily reference evapotranspiration (ET o ) equation ( 2). e variables of this equation were described in FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper no. 56 [29].e method is of quite good accuracy and is usually used for calculations of evapotranspiration from farmlands:where ET o is the daily reference evapotranspiration (mm day -1 ) from sowing to physiological maturity, R n is the net radiation at the crop surface (MJ m -2 day -1 ), G is the soil heat flux density (MJ m -2 day -1 ), T is the air temperature at 2 m height ( °C), u 2 is the wind speed at 2 m height (m s -1 ), e s is the saturation vapour pressure (kPa), e a is the actual vapour pressure (kPa), e s − e a is the saturation vapour pressure deficit (kPa), D is the slope vapour pressure curve (kPa °C-1 ), and c is the psychrometric constant (kPa °C-1 ).From the above daily ET o computed, cumulative values from sowing to physiologically maturity at each N-fertilizer level were derived.Total water use (TWU) obtained from equation ( 1) was used to calculate water-use efficiency (WUE) in equation (3). Water-use efficiency refers to the ratio of water used in plant metabolism to water lost by the plant through transpiration and soil evaporation (evapotranspiration). Water-use efficiency was calculated for only final grain yield at harvest maturity, using the following equations [30]:where Y is the grain yield (kgha −1 ) and TWU is the total water use at a different level of N (mm).e nitrogen-use efficiency was calculated using the following formula [16,31] and reported as kg grain/kg N applied:where Y f is the grain yield (kg/ha) in the fertilized plot, Y c is the grain yield (kg/ha) in control plot, and N a is the nitrogen (N) applied (kg/ha).Partial budgeting analysis was used to estimate the net income and benefit-cost ratio [32][33][34] for both sites. e economic analyses were performed to compare the profitability of producing pearl millet varieties under different N-fertilizer rates in both locations based on the current agronomic practices. e average pearl millet prices at the prevailing market price were surveyed at harvest in the study areas. e millet grain and stalk value per unit were determined based on the prevailing price in the different locations and extrapolated for value per ha based on their respective yield per ha, assuming there was no cost borne for storage. e total cost of production (TCP) is the cost of all recommended and variable inputs including labour that was used per treatment. ese include expenditure towards land preparation, seed and sowing, fertilizers and their application, harvesting, threshing, and bagging. Total revenue (TR) is the total value of the grain and stalk harvested from the plot. Net economic returns (NERs) are the difference between TR and TCP. Benefit-cost ratio (B : C) is the ratio of NER by TCP (B : C � NER/TCP). Break-even yield was calculated by dividing the cost of production by the average market price of pearl millet at each location.All the data collected and computed were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using GenStat analytical tool (19th edition). Year, N-fertilizer levels, and variety are taken as factors to determine their effect and interactions on different variables. e treatment means that were significantly different at 5% were compared using least significant difference (LSD).e relationship between the characters evaluated was established at LSD (5%) probability [35]. In addition, regression analysis was used to establish the relationship of TWU and NUE on grain yield across the N rate as an expression of their contribution. 1 presents the results of the soil analysis of the experimental sites at profile depth (0-20 cm). e soil texture is characterized as sandy to sandy loam; soil pH is slightly acidic (5.5 to 6.4).e soil organic carbon (OC) content was generally low, and higher values (1.96 g kg −1 and 2.59 g kg −1 ) were recorded in each year in Minjibir compared to Gambawa (1.45 g kg −1 and 2.01 g kg −1 ) for 2014 and 2015, respectively. e total nitrogen content was 0.16 and 0.70 g kg −1 at Minjibir, and 0.12 and 0.70 g kg −1 at Gambawa while the available phosphorus varied from 3.9 to 4.5 mg kg −1 in both seasons.e intensity and total rainfall were high, indicating daily rainfall ≥40 mm for many days in 2014 (827 mm in 34 rainy days) compared to 2015 (598 mm in 38 rainy days) at Minjibir (Figures 1(a) and 1(b)). In Gambawa (Figures 1(c) and 1(d)), the rainfall received in both seasons were close with the total amount of rainfall 440 mm with 34 rainy days in 2014 compared to 2015 (500 mm in 28 days). As shown in Figures 1(a Index, and Plant Height. Table 2 shows the effect of N-fertilizer and pearl millet varieties on leaf chlorophyll (SPAD readings) content, leaf area index (LAI), and plant height in both locations and growing seasons (2014 and 2015). Significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) were observed among the N treatments for SPAD readings at 3 WAS. SPAD readings were significantly higher at N rates of 80 and 100 kg Nha −1 than at other N levels in both locations. Similar observations were made at 6 WAS in Gambawa. ere were no significant differences among N treatments for SPAD at 6 WAS in Minjibir. In both locations, there were no significant differences in SPAD readings at 80 and 100 kg Nha −1 . ere were also no significant differences among the varieties SPAD reading at 3 and 6 WAS except for SPAD at 6 WAS in Minjibir, where the local variety recorded the highest mean SPAD value of 50.1.N-fertilizer level had no significant effect on LAI at 6 WAS and 9 WAS in Minjibir. N application, however, significantly influenced LAI at 6 WAS in Gambawa. At both sites, there were significant differences among varieties for LAI at 6 WAS. At 9 WAS, there were significant differences among the millet varieties in Minjibir but not in Gambawa. Super SOSAT recorded the highest mean LAI of 2.2 and 2.6 at 6 WAS and 9 WAS, respectively, in Minjibir and 1.8 at 6 WAS in Gambawa. Plant height was not significantly affected by N-fertilizer level in Minjibir, but significant effects were observed in Gambawa (Table 2). e plant height at Gambawa increases with increase in N-fertilizer levels up to 60 kg Nha −1 and a further increase in fertilizer reduced the plant heights. Super SOSAT recorded the highest mean of 190 cm in Minjibir, while the local variety recorded highest plant height value of 176 cm in Gambawa. In both locations, Jirani recorded the lowest mean height of 157 and 143 cm.Efficiency.e mean grain yield (GY), stalk yield (SY), harvest index (HI), total water use (TWU), and water-use efficiency (WUE) of selected pearl millet varieties grown under different N-fertilizer levels in two locations over two growing seasons are presented in Table 3. N application significantly affected mean GY in both locations. Grain yield increased with increasing N-fertilizer rates. e highest mean GY of 2273 kg ha −1 at Minjibir and 1714 kg ha −1 at Gambawa was obtained at the application rate of 80 kg Nha −1 . e lowest mean GY was recorded at 0 kg Nha −1 in both locations. ere was no significant difference in GY among the pearl millet varieties in both locations. Stalk yield (SY) of millet varieties was not significantly affected by N application in Minjibir, but there were significant differences among the varieties in Gambawa. At 80 kg Nha −1 , the highest mean SY of 3944 kg ha −1 was recorded at Gambawa. e SY increased significantly with increased N-fertilizer and peaked at 80 kg Nha −1 ; then, a further increase in N reduced SY. e local variety had the highest SY with mean values of 4872 kg ha −1 at Minjibir and 4069 kg ha −1 at Gambawa. N application did not significantly affect harvest Index (HI) at Minjibir. In Minjibir, HI increased with increased N level and peaked at 60 kg Nha −1 and a further increase in N level reduced HI. ere were significant differences among the N rates for HI in Gambawa. Application of 80 kg Nha −1 and 100 kg Nha −1 recorded the highest mean HI of 0.26 each, while the lowest mean of 0.21 was recorded for 0 kg Nha −1 at Gambawa. e variety Jirani had the highest mean HI of 0.35 and 0.29 for Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively.ese values were higher and significantly different from those of the other pearl millet varieties used in both locations. Significant differences were observed among the N-fertilizer levels and millet varieties for TWU (Table 3).TWU value generally decreases with increase in the N-fertilizer level in both locations, but it was more evident in Gambawa than in Minjibir. Among the N treatments, unfertilized plots had the highest TWU in both locations  (286.3 and 380 mm in Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively), while the local control had the highest TWU among the millet varieties in both locations (303 and 335 mm in Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively). Similarly, Jirani recorded the lowest mean TWU in both locations (250 and 270 mm Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively). e quadratic function obtained by regression analysis (Figure 2) described the relationship between grain yields and TWU across the N rates and pearl millet varieties in both locations. e coefficient of determination (R 2 ) implied the variation of grain yield based on the contribution of TWU indicated 27.7% at Minjibir and 46.3% at Gambawa. e results suggest higher water demand for pearl millet production in Gambawa than in Minjibir. Table 3 further reveals a highly significant effect of N-fertilizer levels and pearl millet varieties on water-use efficiency (WUE) in both locations. e results show that N-fertilizer levels increased WUE until it reached 80 kg Nha −1 after which it slightly decreased in both locations.ere was no significant difference for WUE between 60 and 80 kg Nha −1 in Minjibir. In Gambava, WUE however differed significantly between rates of 60 and 80 kg Nha −1 .e highest mean WUE of 8.2 kg ha −1 mm −1 (Minjibir) and 5.7 kg ha −1 mm 1 (Gambawa) was obtained at 80 kg Nha −1 .e lowest mean WUE of 5.4 kg ha −1 mm −1 in Minjibir and 2.3 kg ha −1 mm −1 in Gambawa was recorded at 0 kg N ha −1 . WUE differed significantly among the varieties with Jirani producing the highest mean of 7.94 and 4.96 kg ha −1 mm −1 in Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively. ere was a strong and positive correlation (R � 0.81 and R � 0.95) between WUE and GY across N-fertilizer rates and pearl millet varieties in both Minjibir and Gambawa (Figure 3).  e result shows NUE decreased with increase in N-fertilizer levels. ere were also significant differences in NUE among pearl millet varieties in both locations. In Minjibir, Super SOSAT recorded the highest mean NUE (27 ± 5.7 kg grain/kg N) at 20 kg Nha −1 . In Gambawa, the local variety had the highest mean NUE (23.5 ± 4.9 kg grain/kg N), while the lowest mean NUE (21 ± 5 kg grain/kg N) was recorded for Super SOSAT at 20 kg Nha −1 . e quadratic relationship between GY and NUE indicates strong associations (Figure 5). However, the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) which expresses variation of GY by the contribution of NUE suggests 26.3% yield variations at Minjibir and 40.9% at Gambawa.e effect of nitrogen fertilizer application and millet varieties on the economics of millet production in the semiarid zone of Nigeria is given in Table 4. Nitrogen fertilizer application significantly affected the mean total cost of production (TCP), total revenue (TR), net economic returns (NER), benefit-cost (B/C) ratio, and break-even yields of millet production in both locations. e total cost of production increased directly with the increase in nitrogen rate, while other economic variables depended on the effect of the N level on productivities. e TR increased from 797 and 363 USD/ha (Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively) at 0 kg Nha −1 to 1078 and 764 USD/ha (Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively) at 80 kg Nha −1 above which the value dropped. In Minjibir, the increase in N-fertilizer rate increased NER up to 60 kg Nha −1 , and thereafter, NER declined significantly, while in Gambawa the increase in N-fertilizer rate increased NER up to 80 kg Nha −1 , and thereafter, NER declined significantly. Local variety (597 and 217 US$/ha) and Super SOSAT (567 and 223 US$/ha) in Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively, had similar NER which were significantly higher than NER obtained by Jirani in both locations. In Minjibir, highest benefit (1.33) was obtained at 20 kg Nha −1 though it was not significantly different from 40 kg Nha −1 (1.23) and 60 kg Nha −1 (1.27). However, in Gambawa, the highest B : C (0.64) was obtained at 80 kg Nha −1 though it was not significantly different from 60 kg Nha −1 (0.60), 100 kg Nha −1 (0.49), 20 kg Nha −1 (0.43), and 40 kg Nha −1 (0.42). Among the varieties, while there was no significant differences between Super SOSAT and the local varieties for B : C in both locations, the two were significantly higher than Jirani.Expectedly, the BEY increased with an increased level of nitrogen fertilizer application in both locations. Significant differences were obtained among the different N application rates (Table 4). e control (0 kg N/ha) had the lowest (1058 and 1073 kg/ha in Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively) BEY, while 100 kg N/ha had the highest (1467 and 1556 kg/ ha in Minjibir and Gambawa, respectively) BEY. Each treatment had BEY that was significantly higher than that of N level below it. ere were no significant differences among the millet varieties in both locations for BEY.is study evaluated the productivity, water use, and economic benefits of pearl millet at different N-fertilizer rates in the semiarid region of Nigeria. e two sites are located within the Sudan Savanna zone, and the total rainfall and distribution during the two growing seasons (2014 and 2015) differed significantly. e analysis of soil chemical properties suggests that soil fertility such as soil organic carbon (SOC), total N, and available phosphorus were relatively low in both locations but still higher in Minjibir than in Gambawa.e low SOC and total N analysed from both sites indicated a need for nitrogen fertilizer application for profitable cereal production. e differences in fertility status and rainfall of the two sites accounted for the differences in grain and stover yields, TWU, and WUE between the two locations and year. e results agreed with the findings of Sivakumar and Salaam  [11] that millet yields in Sahelian region are driven largely by the climatic pattern (especially rainfall distribution) and soil fertility status during growth stages. In addition, the sandy to sandy loam soils found in both sites promote good permeability of roots into the soil. e soil texture retains less water, which suggests that good establishment and growth of millet can only be favoured by rains that are more frequent during the cropping season that can at least partially meet the continuing high evaporative demand while keeping the rooting zone wet and offer the possibility of a rapid movement of the wetting front towards the stored water. In addition, the results at both sites confirmed close interaction between water use and nutrient applied on growth and yields resulting in a significant increase in GY, SY, and HI due to different N-fertilizer levels. Our study found that the application of N at 80 kg/ha enhances wateruse efficiency leading to a greater increase in yield relative to that in evapotranspiration [12,36,37]. e results of our study show that N requirements for millet may be site-specific with the optimal application rate of 60 kgNha −1 for Minjibir and 80 kg Nha −1 for Gambawa. At the optimal rate of 60 kg Nha −1 , grain yield increased by 32%, 12%, and 8% compared to the applied rate of 0, 20, and 40 kg Nha −1 , respectively, in Minjibir. Similarly, at the optimal rate of 80 kg Nha −1 , grain yield increased by 58%, 31%, 28%, and 8% compared to the applied rate of 0, 20, 40, and 60 kg Nha −1 , respectively, in Gambawa. e optimal N rate observed at Gambawa was compared favourably with that reported in the study conducted in southern India which indicated that higher growth, yield attributes, and yield of pearl millet can be obtained by fertilizing the crop with 80 kg N/ha [38]. However, a study in a similar environment in West Africa [25] reported a response at 30 kg N/ha and a significant plant population by N-fertilizer interaction as well as N-fertilizer by rainfall interaction. As observed from this study, blanket N rates should not be applied by farmers in all locations even within the same agroecological zone, but rather the N application should be based on the knowledge of inherent soil fertility and rainfall amount and distribution. e results are in agreement with many other studies including that of Joshi et al. [38] who demonstrated a parabolic relationship between N and grain yield which implies that when N rate surpassed a certain threshold, the grain yield greatly decreased. However, the study found that under certain conditions, increased N application rates may reduce TWU, thereby increasing WUE as was clearly observed in Gambawa. WUE did not significantly differ between N rates of 80 and 100 kg ha −1 , which indicates that excessive N application had no favourable effect on WUE.e maximum WUE corresponds to the maximum grain yield in both locations, which implies that the higher WUE by pearl millet crop would result in higher yield gain with less water demands [11]. Meanwhile, when evapotranspiration is less affected by management, any factor that increases yield will increase WUE. In addition, N-fertilizer could be seen as beneficial to the rapid early growth of leaves leading to higher SY across different N-fertilized treatments compared to unfertilized N treatment. e direct evaporation from the soil on the millet field varied between 35 and 45% of rainfall, with the higher proportions occurring in the lower rainfall [39].us, strategies such as the use of fertilizer, which can promote rapid early growth, can contribute to the reduction of soil evaporative losses and increased WUE. NUE significantly decreased as a linear function with increasing N levels with the application of N at 20 kg Nha −1 having the highest NUE values at the application rate of 20 kg Nha −1 .is result was in agreement with several studies reported on various crops, e.g., sorghum [12,40], millet [41], and maize [42].is shows that higher NUE is recorded at lower rates of N application than higher rates of N application. is agrees with the findings that NUE in pearl millet declines because of an increase in rates of N application [43,44]. e NUE may be increased if farmers apply N in 3-4 splits such that N is applied at several peak demands and wastage in the form of leakage is minimised. e economic analysis revealed low TCP, TR, NER, and B : C for unfertilized plots compared to the different N-fertilizer levels in both locations. erefore, to increase the productivities of pearl millet farmers, input and judicious use of the inputs are necessary. Low input specifically low N-fertilizer input to pearl millet production in the semiarid zones may result in low labour productivity for farmers particularly in a drier area (e.g., Gambawa site) due to low nutrients in the soil (e.g., organic carbon, total nitrogen, and available phosphorus). Our results suggest that farmers in Minjibir can profitably grow pearl millet between N rate of 20 and 60 kg ha −1 leading to the same benefit-cost ratio (B : C � 1 : 1.33 to 1 : 1.27) while in Gambawa it can be extended to 80 kg Nha −1 (B : C � 1 : 0.43 to 1 : 0.64). is implies that farmers in Minjibir would make US$ 1.3 on every US$ 1 invested by applying N-fertilizer at 20 kg Nha −1 and US$ 1.27 on every US$ 1 by applying N-fertilizer at 60 kg Nha −1 . It is therefore necessary to increase the NUE of pearl millet especially at the higher N application rate. Agronomic strategies such as plant population, number of split fertilizer application, and type of N-fertilizer applied should be investigated to increase the NUE of applied N in pearl millet cultivation. e work of other researchers [25] has shown that N application and high plant density increased millet grain yield four-to fivefold. e break-even yield at the current price indicates that farmers must produce significantly higher grain than 1000 kg/ha −1 even under no fertilizer input.is implies that majority of farmers are producing at a loss considering that the present average yield of pearl millet in Nigeria is 801 kg/ha [2] to 850 kg/ha [45].Our study has shown that N fertilization affected the growth, grain yield, stalk yield, TWU, WUE, and NUE of the two improved and local pearl millet varieties tested in both Minjibir and Gambawa. e economic analysis also showed that TR, NER, and B : C were significantly affected by nitrogen fertilizer application as well as pearl millet varieties. Dissemination campaigns of improved pearl millet production technologies should be encouraged to increase adoption and pearl millet on-farm yield since an average farmer may presently be producing at less than the break-even yields.ere were significant differences in grain and stalk yields of the pearl millet varieties tested, between the two locations irrespective of N-fertilizer rates applied. is is probably due to differences in total rainfall and distribution and the inherent soil fertility in those two locations. ere was a strong interaction between water use and nitrogen supply on pearl millet varieties, resulting in an increase in WUE. It is therefore clear that the use of chemical fertilizers, particularly nitrogen, is advantageous for the profitability of pearl millet production in the semiarid zone, by applying appropriate dose in order to meet the crop and soil demand for higher productivity. Based on the study, we therefore recommend that farmers in Minjibir and other similar wetter areas of semiarid could apply N between 40 and 60 kg ha −1 for pearl millet. Meanwhile, at Gambawa, the application rates of 60 and 80 kg Nha −1 is recommended for pearl millet for higher productivity and profitability.","tokenCount":"5798"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ada7f963a5362efda20fcce511437503","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4bcbfab3-01b5-4fd3-9dc4-f128dd5ad50e/retrieve","id":"-1971822638"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7eebe145-252b-4def-8992-45a5fce09c72","pagecount":"24","content":"Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) offers new ways for strengthening learning and change both at community, project and institutional level. PM&E can and has been used for various purposes, including project planning and management, organizational strengthening and learning, understanding and negotiating stakeholder interests, and the assessment of project outcomes and impacts. For example, at community level, PM&E systems can serve as a tool for strengthening the local capacity to track changes, assess the effectiveness, environmental sustainability and livelihood impacts of their projects. The process involves scientists and communities negotiating and agreeing on what changes they expect from projects; what they need to do to achieve these changes; what local and scientific indicators will track these changes; and which success and failure factors need to be monitored to ensure that the projects are on track. This research project seeks to investigate whether PM&E systems can contribute to improving project performance, ownership, and success; strengthen local decisionmaking processes; and enhance accountability of formal R&D organizations to communities, thereby improving the delivery of outputs and outcomes. The paper presents lessons and experiences from establishing and applying PM&E systems at both the community and project levels within the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). It details the process of establishing the PM&E systems, including strategies for stakeholder involvement, identification of community indicators for empowerment, enhanced capacity, and differences in local indicators for men and women.Preliminary results from this study indicate that scientists are beginning to apply the PM&E process to engage their stakeholders in joint planning, developing common objectives and vision, and in collectively assessing progress. Scientists are paying more attention to issues and concerns of stakeholders and are adjusting project outcomes, outputs, and indicators based on stakeholder priorities. At the community level, PM&E data is being applied to adjust project activities, reflect and make decisions on various aspects of community initiatives, and to plan and monitor the implementation of activities. Additionally, communities are using these systems to hold R&D institutions accountable to their priorities, through effective communication and feedback mechanisms.These results demonstrate that integrating local indicators with project level indicators provides a more holistic view of the benefits and impacts strengthens information feedback process between communities and R&D systems. This process also provides indicators for measuring the often hard to measure process level outcomes such as empowerment from the perspectives of the communities. Developing indicators and negotiating them with different stakeholders allows for the impact to be measured from the perspectives of different project stakeholders including women, the marginalized and the resource poor.The earliest evaluations was applied in the field of education as a means of evaluating performance in schools and the personnel when human capital was identified as a key factor in industrial production process. (Guba and Lincoln 1989). This later led to the development of programme evaluation as a distinct filed of professional practice aimed at evaluating large scale development programmes. This was aimed at identifying what was working and what was worth funding. While early evaluation purposes primarily focused on supporting funding decisions, and the generation of knowledge concerning effective human action, a new role gradually emerged: Evaluators were called for not only to offer definitive judgments, but also to provide feedback and to help in improving programmes during their implementation (Patton, 1997). Freire argued that evaluation was based on the belief in the emancipatory potential of an explicit process of reflecting on and learning from one's actions (Freire 1970;Fals Borda 1979, 1982, 1987). By the mid-1970s, interest in evaluation had grown to the point where professional organizations were formed in various countries (Patton, 1997). In the USA, growing concerns about federal budget deficits and the rising neo-liberal ideology in the late 1980s and early 1990s, cut backs were made to both government programming and development programmes.The interest in reducing government interventions and making remaining projects more effective and accountable, gave new impetus to evaluation, and was the predominant theme during the first International Evaluation Conference in 1995. Today the role of evaluation extends beyond accounting processes in the public sector, as many organizations in the private and independent sectors face similar challenges relating to reputation, legitimacy, quality management, organizational effectiveness etc. (Raynard 1998). A feedback loop is a circular arrangement of causally connected elements, in which an initial cause propagates around the links of the loop, so that each element has an effect on the next, until the last 'feeds back' the effect into the first element of the cycle. In a broader sense, feedback has come to mean the conveying of information about the outcome of any process or activity to its source (Capra, 1996).The earliest evaluations focused largely on quantitative measurement of clear and specific goals and objectives. The methodology employed to date has been almost exclusively scientific, grounded in the positivist assumption that the evaluator can stand outside the arena of the observed and generate objective information about the state of affairs. Evaluators and researchers took the position that their task was merely to design studies, collect data and provide the results to decision-makers, without any responsibility for the use of the evaluation findings. By the late 1970s, the alternative qualitative / naturalistic paradigm became a major focus of evaluation discussion and debate (Guba 1978;Patton 1980), and concern about the non-use or under-utilization of evaluation findings became predominant (Patton 1978).Among the multitude of existing approaches there are three innovative perspectives that have emerged among evaluation professionals are reviewed:(i.) Fourth Generation Evaluation which was proposed by Guba and Lincolon (1989) as a methodology that moves beyond previously existing conventional measurement-, description-, and judgment-oriented evaluation techniques.The authors argue that evaluation has a social, political and value-oriented character, and findings are not 'true facts' but constructions. As a consequence, fourth generation evaluation is grounded in a constructivist inquiry paradigm, and requires an involvement of various stakeholders in determining what questions are to be asked and what information is to be collected. The outcome of evaluations is an agenda for negotiation rather than a set of conclusions, recommendations or value judgments. (ii.)Empowerment Evaluation, which was put forward by David Fetterman, AEA president in 1993. Fetterman defined empowerment evaluation as the use of evaluation concepts and techniques to foster self-determination. Through selfassessment and a group's knowledge of itself, it achieves accountability onto itself as well as to others (Fetterman 1994;Fetterman et al. 1996). The use of evaluation to mobilize for social action and empower participants certainly draws from the action research tradition of Freire and Fals-Borda. As the term 'empowerment' carries an activist connotation, it frequently provokes negative reactions among formal researchers and evaluators. (iii.) Utilization-focused Evaluation takes a more pragmatic stance (Patton 1978(Patton , 1986(Patton , 1997)). Utilization-focused evaluation begins with the premise that evaluations should be judged by their utility and actual use, i.e. the focus is on intended use by intended users. The evaluator facilitates judgment and decision-making by the intended users rather than acting as a distant, independent judge. It is acknowledged that no evaluation is value-free, and therefore it has to be clarified whose values will frame the evaluation. Utilization-focused evaluation does not advocate any particular evaluation content, model, method, theory, or even use. Rather it is a process for making decisions about these issues in collaboration with an identified group of primary users. Intended users are more likely to use evaluation findings if they understand and feel ownership of the evaluation process and findings, and if they are actively involved. Using evaluation to empower participants is seen as one of its many possible purposes (Patton, 1997). (iv.) Participatory monitoring and evaluation which incorporates beneficiary involvement in monitoring and evaluation, participatory M&E, is viewed as a logical extension of the other dimensions of participation (e.g. Uphoff 1991;Germann et. al. 1996;UNDP 1997;Abbot and Guijt 1998;Estrella and Gaventa 1998;Estrella et al. 2000) Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation PM&E draws from 20 years of participatory research traditions including participatory action research (PAR), participatory learning and action (PLA), Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), and farming systems research (FSR) and farming participatory research (FPR). By the 1980s, concepts of participatory monitoring and evaluation had already entered the policy making domain of larger donor agencies and development organizations most notably the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA), the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD) and the World Bank. (Howes 1992). Outside the field of development, PM&E can also trace its beginnings in the private sector where there has been growing appreciation for individual and organizational learning (Raynard 1998).PM&E involves stakeholders including local people in deciding how progress should be measured, in defining criteria for success and in determining how results should be acted upon (Guijt & Gaventa, 1998). PME strives to be an internal learning process that enables people to reflect on past experience, examine present realities, revisit objectives and define future strategies by recognizing differential stakeholders' priorities and negotiating their diverse claims and interests (Estrella et al., 2000). In these processes the local people are involved in developing indicators to measure change, in collecting and analyzing the data, and making a decision as to how to adjust the activities. PM&E is not a tool but a diverse constellation of approaches, methodologies and techniques. PM&E is not just a matter of using participatory techniques within a conventional monitoring and evaluation setting. It is about radically rethinking who initiates and undertakes the process, and who learns or benefits from the findings (IDS, 1998).PM&E systems provide a framework for collaborative learning and for involving project clients, participants and partners in the M&E process. PM&E produces important benefits including valid, timely and relevant information for management decision-making and project improvement within R&D institutions. It leads to improved accountability; examines assumptions on what is progress; can lead to contradictions and conflict; but can also be empowering by putting local people in charge, it helps in developing skills, and showing all stakeholders that their views count.At the heart of PM&E are four broad principles: (1) 'Participation' -which means opening up the design of the process to include those most directly affected, and agreeing to analyze data together;(2) the inclusiveness of PM&E requires 'negotiation' to reach agreement about what will be monitored or evaluated, how and when data will be collected and analyzed, what the data actually means, and how findings will be shared, and action taken;(3) which leads to 'learning' that becomes the basis for subsequent improvement and corrective action; and (4) since the number, role, and skills of stakeholders, the external environment, and other factors change over time, 'flexibility' is essential.Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation can be summarized as a continuum of observations, information gathering, analysis, documentation, and assessment for tracking changes and critical learning at different stages of the research and development process, conducted by and for the various stakeholders of the project. The goals are to adapt M&E tools to make them more accessible and relevant to local stakeholders; to develop an appropriate PM & E system at the community level that can improve the decision-making capacity of local communities; to involve local communities in monitoring and evaluating progress and impacts of project --assessment of achievements/ impacts over a longer period; to enhance the flow of information and provide feedback to different levels (such as, group, community, project managers, between farmers and R&D systems).PM&E has also been defined as a process of self-assessment, knowledge generation and collective action in which stakeholders in a program or intervention collaboratively define the evaluation issues, collect and analyze data and take action as a result of what they learn through this process. Philosophically, participatory monitoring and evaluation seeks to honour the perspectives, voices, preferences and decisions of the least powerful and most affected stakeholders and local beneficiaries. Guijt and Gaventa (1998) have defined PM&E as an approach which involves local people, development agencies, and policy makers in deciding together how progress should be measured and results acted upon while McAllister and Vernooy (1999) say that it is the systematic collection of information pertinent to the orientation and results analysis of the project that allows for a self-critical view and facilitates the reformulation of activities during their course. In defining PM&E the World Bank (2002) indicates that it is a radical new way of assessing and learning. Estrella and Gaventa (1998) and Guijt and Gaventa, (1998) write that the issues which affect the interest in PM&E include the trend in management circles towards performance based accountability, the growing scarcity of funds, the shift towards decentralization and devolution of central government responsibilities and authority to lower levels of government, necessitating new forms of oversight to ensure transparency and to improve support to constituency-responsive initiatives and stronger capacities and experiences of NGOs and CBOs as decision makers and implementers in the development process.The CD-PM&E approach builds on the concepts and ideas developed by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (Estrella et al., 2000;Guijt & Gaventa, 1998), the PIM concept developed by Germann et al. (1996), and more recently by Probst (2002). Probst's work focused on using PM&E as an instrument to support systematic reflection, learning, the generation of knowledge and process-oriented management at the community level. In community driven PM&E, community members themselves identify their own objectives and initiate activities to achieve these objectives. They develop their indicators for measuring progress towards achievement of the objectives; indicators to assess change, are in charge of the data collection and analysis, and finally use the PM&E results to adjust their activities. Community indicators are based on local experiences, perceptions and knowledge. The purpose of the community driven PM&E is to empower the local community to initiate control and take corrective action and to basically empower them to improve their social well-being. This type of PM&E approach is unique because of the emphasis on developing a system that is managed and supported by local communities, for their own purposes.Community driven helps capture differences and different viewpoints from different groups within a community who may have different perspectives, aims and objectives. These differences may be due to their experiences, their social and cultural situations such as their wealth, gender among other things. By promoting participatory approaches, it gives the rural people a voice in their community. It is an important vehicle for increasing participation and improving accountability. Appropriate forms of PM&E help the local people manage their own affairs better, take more control of the projects and their aspirations and increase the likelihood that project-supported activities will continue after the project ends. It enables the community to look systematically at what they want to achieve by deciding their own goals, what they have done in that they reflect on their achievements, what they still need to do i.e. what action has to be taken and what changes they have seen by capturing differences and different viewpoints on their indicators. The amount of local control over the process can be assessed by considering who makes decisions (researchers or local people, and which local people or groups), who implements the activities, who analyses the information, and who is the research ultimately for-who will use the results of the research and how (McAllister, 1999). This paper analyses experience with establishing project / institutional level and community-based PM&E in three countries; Uganda, Malawi, and Kenya and gives the results and changes that have been achieved at institutional and community level as a result of these systems. The objectives of this work were;• To strengthen PM&E systems within R&D projects to critically analyze and understand the institutional learning and change process, to increase self-learning, cross learning, and to evaluate impacts; • To establish an appropriate PM&E system at the community level that allows local people analyze and interpret change, to learn from their own experiences, to adjust strategies accordingly and to systematically evaluate progress and • To develop strategies for the institutionalization of PM&E in R&D organizations 2. Methodology: The PM&E process Figure 1 shows the steps that are involved in establishing PM&E both at community level and institutional level. The back and forward arrows between the two systems are steps were the two interface or feed into each other. Although the process is drawn as though it were linear, it is cyclical and the use of PM&E results lead into the planning process and into another cycle of monitoring. The reflection process occurs at most of the different stages of the PM&E process. As teams develop and agree on what to monitor, they are reflecting on past experiences and deciding what is achievable and what is not. Reflection at the end of the PM&E cycle enables the team to look at the key achievements and to plan a way forward. These steps are briefly described below.2.1 Engaging stakeholders and deciding the objective of the PM&E Stakeholder or multi-stakeholder analysis is the approach and procedure for gaining an understanding of a system by means of identifying the key actors or stakeholders in the system and assessing their respective interests in that system (Grimble and Chan, 1995). Stakeholders include all those who affect, and/or are affected by the policies, decisions, and actions of a system. Involving all stakeholders is critical to developing successful PM&E systems, integrating different perspectives from those within the community, R&D systems and project participants, and creating ownership in the process. A stakeholder analysis (for further details see Rietbergen-McCracken, J.and D. Narayan. 1998.) is used to identify stakeholders' interests, their roles and responsibilities and the participation strategy necessary to involve them in the process. A PM&E stakeholder  Pali et al, 2005 analysis ensures that key stakeholders are not left out in the PM&E process and is also an important step in the sharing of roles and responsibilities for PM&E. An example of the results of a PM&E stakeholder analysis is given below.  shows an example of one of the graphics that was developed by a community and used to collectively develop a common understanding of what monitoring and evaluation is, and why it is important to the community. In many instances communities will chose to draw another more appropriate graphic, depicting their farming systems or their specific cultural context.Stakeholders begin implementation of the PM&E process by developing a common vision and agreeing on measurable results and processes that need to be monitored and evaluated. A systematic process for developing results can apply an 'impact chain' (which includes impacts, outcomes, outputs, processes and activities of the project). In the impact chain, several activities contribute to an output, several outputs contribute to an outcome, and several outcomes contribute to an impact. The impact chain also includes processes, such as approaches, strategies, and methodologies that are applied to achieve results, and describes what is happening to (and between) stakeholders while the project is being implemented.Visualization tools (such as force-field analysis and the river code) are used to enable communities to develop shared goals and a common vision on what to monitor. The river code is a role-play (acted out by the community members) that enables them to analyze their current situation (one side of the river), their desired future situation (the other sideGermann et al 1996 of the river), what they need to do to move from the current to the desired situation (steps to cross the river) and the strategies they need to employ (how to cross the river). In force field analysis the community uses a diagram to think about and record their opportunities, and the constraining factors, in reaching their goals (for more on these tools see Hope and Timmel, 1996).Indicators are pieces of information that help you understand where you are, which way you are going, and how far you are from where you want to be (Hart 1995;McSweeney 1996). They are a means to track progress towards achievement of results over time as and compared to targets, to measure beneficiary or client satisfaction and communicate results to stake holders, and to measure actual results against planned or expected results in terms of quality, quantity and time lines. Selecting the best indicators is not always easy because it is a balancing act between choosing locally-relevant factors, and those that can be applied more widely and the more stakeholders that are involved. Additionally, indicators should capture intangible as well as tangible changes particularly in participatory projects that value factors such as personal and social development.The concept of indicators for community driven M&E is discussed using graphics and familiar stories from the farmers' lives (such as signposts to the market, for example).Community indicators for measuring change are developed during a brainstorming session of groups of farmers for each result or objective. Small group sessions ensure that there are contributions from the majority of the members of the community, representing its diversity. Different members have different perspectives on the indicators, influenced by their involvement in the project, their gender, wealth status or their expectations of a particular activity.At project level, the PM&E plan as shown in Table 1 synthesizes the results and their indicators and include information requirements, baselines and targets for indicators, the frequencies and responsibilities for data collection, analysis and reporting. Roles and responsibilities are guided by PM&E interests, type of data, source of data, and ease of data collection. Special emphasis is placed on developing targeted baselines that provide a starting point from which to measure change, to develop realistic targets, and to assess whether change has occurred or not. At community level, a committee is elected by the group and charged with the responsibility of data collection, analysis and providing regular feedback to the community. This process involves a) the development of criteria for the selection of committee members; b) facilitating the development of simple tools for data collection, and c) training the committee on how to manage the PM&E processes (for example, when to collect data on the indicators, how to analyze, when to report).A range of different tools is used to collect, analyze and document data, which includes both qualitative and quantitative tools such as focus group discussion, participatory impact diagrams, resource maps, social maps, and institutional maps. Simple registers, records, questionnaire surveys, and process journals can also be used. Stakeholders decide which tools should be used to collect information on which indicators, how sampling will be done, who should collect and analyze information on which indicators, how frequently this will be done and how the information will be shared.Communities manage the process of M&E using simple tools for collecting and analyzing data. Some common data collection tools include resource maps to collect baseline data and registers to record participation in community activities, visitors' books to record linkages with others, and input, output and account registers to record enterprise profitability. The community performs simple analyses on their data (for example attendance levels data to demonstrate trends) with the assistance of the facilitator.This is a process that helps the teams and the community to analyze what is working, what is not working and why. Reflection allows members to reflect on the progress of the project towards achieving its goals and to adjust activities as required. It provides a forum for exchanging and evaluating information; and it allows community members to systematically review their activities. Reflections need to be carried out for each result (or activity or process) and its indicators, one at a time. This can be done using simple graphics or questions to examine the results of any data analysis. Some useful four questions to use in reflection are• What have we achieved this season/ this year etc?• What worked well?• What did not work well?• What do we need to change? Decisions are made within the group about the implications of the analyzed information for stakeholders and on decision-making within the project. The results of the reflection are used to make decisions and to adjust activities if and when need be so that monitoring and evaluation is a learning process. At community level, the committee charged with the responsibility of data collection analyses the information with the facilitation of the community facilitators and shares it with the rest of the community (those collecting information and keeping records). 3 Results and Discussion: Using the data from PM&E for Enhanced Decision-makingStakeholder participation: Inclusion of different stakeholder perspectives in monitoring and evaluation Through a direct participation in the monitoring and evaluation process, the PM&E process has allowed the different stakeholders involved in the projects project to better understand each other's views and values, and to design ways to resolve competing or conflicting views and interests. Scientists especially have benefited from getting community perspectives and contributions in terms of what their objectives and desired expectations are as well as providing more qualitative indicators for measuring progress to supplement the usually very quantitative measures that they use for monitoring.Through this process, differences in indicators have emerged between the different stakeholders, between farmers and scientists and amongst farmers themselves especially between men and women (see Table 2), youth and the elderly, between different wealth levels and cultural backgrounds. For example, in Kitale, Kenya where communities are relatively well off with larger land sizes and large numbers of livestock, the indicators of improved food security are diversity of foods available for consumption and quantity food that households have in storage. On the other hand, in Mtwapa, Kenya where households are relatively poorer, the indicators for improved food security are increase in number of meals per day from one to three and availability of food throughout the year (no emphasis is made on quality). Although these indicators are related, their expressions reflect differences in well being of the different communities. Some indicators are very specific to ethnic groups reflecting differences in culture and beliefs. For example, increased ceremonies are a common indicator of increased food availability among the Kenya coastal communities where ceremonies are part and parcel of their culture while this does not come up as an indicator with other communities. There were however still a lot of similarities in community expectations and indicators across different communities which provides an opportunity for a comparison of indicators across different sites and communities. Some of the most common expectations and indicators are given in Table 3. Given all these differences in perspectives and expectations, one of the key roles of facilitation in the PM&E process has been to ensure that all these differences are not conflicting and do not lead to parallel monitoring systems by ensuring that they are negotiated, understood and integrated in the monitoring and evaluation process. The path from knowledge generation to knowledge utilization is direct in CD-PM&E because the same actors are involved in all activities. Once PM&E information is collected and analyzed the next step is reflection process that enables the community to discuss and communicate their PME results; provide a forum for exchanging and evaluating information; allow community members to systematically review and look back to the start of their activities, comparing it with where they are currently and to understand what has changed; and to allow all members to reflect on the progress of the project and to adjust it as required. Different tools have been used in the data analysis and presentation. Simple graphs, tables, role plays help to enhance the community understanding of the progress made their achievements and what needs to be adjusted. Figure 3 shows a group register as a data collection tool while figure 4 shows a monitoring and evaluation committee at a farmer field school in Mtwapa, Kenya presenting a graph showing the trends in attendance by the group members.Through the data analysis and reflection process, communities are:• Using the PM&E information to calculate costs and profits from production activities, • Improving participation in group activities because the information shows who is and who is not participating in group meetings and activities • Keep group members active: In instances where indicators for results are measured across farms/households, the PM&E process acts to exert peer pressure to push other group members to meet the same goals. For example, farmers visiting each other will have the urge to improve what they are doing to compare with others. • Reorienting how a project is being implemented: During a reflection meeting in Malawi, Chisewu Village of Kasungu realized that not all community members would benefit from the project in one year. After the reflection meeting community members who had benefited decided to contribute an additional seed to the community to ensure that other members of the community would also benefit. • Recognizing/acknowledging achievements by group.• Finally, through failure and success factors identify the process aspects that can strengthen or weaken the project. Indicators for success and failure factors bring out some negative aspects such as lack of transparency, gossiping, and other negative group aspects. So the group starts taking account of these aspects as the group is managed. • Taking corrective measures at opportune moments, especially in relation to how the groups' funds are managed. For example, during a reflection exercise a farmer field school in Mtwapa Kenya realized that some officials of the group were mismanaging funds from a group income generating activity. This led to the group putting in measures to ensure accountability. The results of a reflection process, by the group and some of the recommendations made are shown in Figure 5. PM&E at the project and institutional level has led to increased learning and better organization in the way the institution manages the research-development process and in the monitoring and evaluation. Scientists identified several aspects in the way in which they are engaging with communities: (1) An important change noted was that before the initiation of the PM&E system, scientists would develop a project and then take it to the farmers for implementation, however, now scientists are discussing and prioritizing issues with communities. The scientists feel they are now more practical and realistic and are better addressing the needs of the farmers they work with. This is also reflected in the level of community understanding of what the scientists are doing with them. (2) Through the development of the 'impact chain' the projects have become more impact oriented especially within the adaptive research projects. Scientists are beginning to use questions such as 'so what?' as a strategy of orienting projects towards impacts. (3)The sharing of roles and responsibilities in the process is creating openness and reducing the suspicion that sometimes exists between scientists and communities. (4) A systematic process for generating, managing, collecting and analyzing data has led to a more robust PM&E system at the project level, which has improved project management. For example in KARI Mtwapa, a similar activity reporting format has been developed which is currently being applied across 5 projects. This format ensures that a comparative analysis can be conducted across projects and information on progress of activities can be collated and aggregated in a systematic manner.As a result of the reflection process and the use of PM&E information, project activities and outputs are reviewed periodically and adjusted where and when necessary. Our results indicate that the PM&E systems have led to changes in the project implementation process. These changes vary from aspects such as better targeting of the beneficiaries or stakeholders, to more complex changes such as the addition of activities, adjustment of methodologies, as well as revision of the project objectives. For example in a Soya bean project in Kitale, Kenya, an activity on community multiplication and bulking was included after the team including research, extension and the farmers realized that the activity was crucial to the achievement of the results (increased incomes from sale of soya beans and improved nutrition) during a reflection meeting. They realized that the activity was crucial to the achievement of results although it had not been planned for during the project development. As farmers define future objectives they are able to bring in new activities that help them achieve these expected results. They are able develop a strategy and a sequence of activities that are required to realize these objective.While it has been very easy and straightforward to develop indicators and measure benefits from technological options, the development of indicators for benefits of participatory approaches has not been always easy. One of the key results of participatory processes is empowerment. There have been some attempts to measure empowerment especially in studies that want to demonstrate the impacts of an intervention on empowerment (Kabeer, 1999). Through the results from our work in Malawi and Uganda, communities have identified different indicators to measure empowerment from their own perspective: Empowerment entails a process of change from the inability to make a choice to a situation where persons can make choices. Different types of empowerment stand out: social and cultural empowerment, economic empowerment and political empowerment. Another distinction is between choices that have to do with allocation of resources (both physical and the rules and norms that govern the allocations), and choices to do with the freedom of action, bargaining, or negotiation and capacity to define their life choices. These choices may be strategic choices or non strategic choices.Rural agro-enterprises geared towards increasing household and especially women's incomes have led to women's economic empowerment. Women have access and sometimes have control over money that they can use at their discretion. The economic empowerment also sometimes creates empowerment in terms of negotiation and bargaining power by the women and a break from cultural traditions that are demeaning to women. For example, a woman in Malawi said: \"Before when I did not make any money of my own, I had to kneel down several metres away from my husband and beg for money. Now he recognizes that I have some money of my own and we can now negotiate on equal terms. I use the money to buy things that I need for myself and the family. I can buy some lotion for my body, clothes for me and my family. I do not have to ask him for money every time I need a small item like a matchbox\"The choice to make decisions is not only reflected between men and women but also between traditional and political authority and the people. As one young man in Malawi put it: \"The village headman makes all the decisions to do with the village, even sometimes to do with our households. I would like to see everyone participating in making decisions on issues to do with our village and people making decisions on their household issues\"The indicators vary across sites and countries and depend largely on several factors• levels of poverty Disempowerment is very linked to poverty. When people are poor, the choices they have are limited and their indicators of empowerment are linked to these limited choices. In Western Kenya, where poverty levels are relatively high women gave indicators of economic empowerment as having money to take care of basic necessities without having to ask from their husbands such as toiletries, match boxes et. In Kitale, Kenya which is relatively better off, on of the indicators was that women would have their own bank accounts in their names.• cultural traditions, religion and status of women in the society Empowerment is linked to cultural values, religion and beliefs which in turn define the status of women in that particular society. In Malawi where cultural beliefs dictates that women do not speak out in front of men and have to kneel down when they talk to the men, indicators of socio-political empowerment included the ability of women to speak and negotiate their ideas with men without having to kneel down, women speaking out during meetings and sharing their ideas and women being involved in the decision making processes in the community.Table 6 gives some indications of indicators from men and women for different types of empowerment.Common indicators across communities Economic empowerment  Women have small business of their own from which they can use money to fulfil their own needs (basic necessities such as matchbox without having to borrow)  Acquire personal bank accounts for their money in their names  Women can organise and establish revolving funds Socio-Political empowerment Internal (household and community)  Equal representation in committees -having women who are active and effective in major committees in the community  Women have the capacity to buy clothes or use their money without requesting for permission from their husbands  Women being able to contribute and say their ideas in community meetings  Women and the youth are involved in decision making processes at the household and in the community. Decisions are not only made by the elderly men and the village authority Links with others  Capacity to approach the extension worker  Capacity to negotiate for higher prices  Self reliance in looking for services that the community members require e.g finding seed, market, and services from other organization  Women and youth are to be found in key decision making bodies in the communities and outside Access to physical resources and the rules and norms that govern themWomen to have their own plots which they can deicide how to use.Ability to use their own moneyFreedom of action, bargaining, or negotiation and capacity to define life choices  Girls will be going to school and not for early marriages Women to be self reliant  Women can go out to distance markets buy goods and come to sell in the community without any restrictions (freedom of movement)3.6 Linking PM&E to impact assessment Impact assessment is the systematic analysis of the lasting or significant changes-positive or negative, intended or not-in people's lives brought about by a given action or series of actions. It is an evaluation of how, and to what extent, change had occurred. Monitoring and Evaluation are essential parts of impact assessment, especially if the focus is on learning and change. The three processes overlap and are, in fact, interrelated activities as part of a continuous learning process. As you monitor you also evaluate by making judgment, reflecting and correcting. It is difficult to carry out impact assessment activities successfully if the more basic task of monitoring and evaluation and their immediate effects are not done properly. Our rationale and the results for linking PM&E to impact assessment are;• To establish causal linkages between project interventions and their outcomes This is been achieved through continuous follow up of the activities, the effect these activities and the changes that occur as a result. Participatory impact diagrams have also been used to establish causal linkages between activities and their outcomes. An example of an impact diagram is shown in Fig. 6.• Incorporate participatory tools and user perspectives in impact assessment The desired results are developed using participatory tools such as the river code during the PM&E process. Indicators for these results are developed with all stakeholders and are used to determine the progress made towards the achievement of these results. Other participatory tools such as the Participatory impact diagrams mentioned above are used to get use perspectives of the changes both positive and negative.• Emphasis on different types of changes By linking PM&E to impact assessment and incorporating participatory tools, different types of impacts are captured, subjective as well as objective changes, tangible as well as intangible changes, negative as well as positive changes and changes on different categories of participants and the community such as the men, the women, children and the youth.• Learning from impact assessment A reflection process is integrated into the impact assessment to allow for learning and making adjustments based on the results. Impact assessment does not therefore become and end in itself. By discussing or interpreting the participatory tools such as the impact diagram, participants ask questions such as why is this result happening? Who is it happening to? What should we do about it?The PM&E process has shown that when stakeholders such as farmers and the extension are involved in all stages including the development of the results and activities to be monitored, the indicators that will be monitored, the type of data to be collected and how it will be collected, it leads to a more robust monitoring and evaluation. The involvement of stakeholders in PM&E however requires a lot of negotiation, prioritization of issues and strategic collection of data for PM&E. More often the question has been to what extent or at what level different stakeholders should be involved. There is however some key issues that requires consideration to make the PM&E process more effective. These include but are not limited to:• Promoting a culture of reflection and learning One of the key objectives of PM&E is to promote learning and use of information for decision making. Learning is however not an automatic process in organizations. People can feel threatened by the results PM&E. It can affect power structures by giving more decision making to more disadvantaged and less powerful people such as communities or the disadvantaged within communities. As a result of this, a change in attitude from one of being protective to one of being open to learning should be cultivated. The process should be given time and should not be rushed. It also implies that PM&E should not be seen as a one off activity but as a culture and a way of doing things.• Scaling out the PM&E and impact assessment process How do we reach more communities and more projects with PM&E? One of the approaches and the easiest is to integrate PM&E into methodologies and approaches that projects are using in their implementation of activities, for example integrating PM&E into the FFS approach or the FRG approach. This means that as project teams implement the FFS curriculum, PM&E is part and parcel of the curriculum. This will of course imply refining the PM&E process so that it is shorter and easier to apply. A second approach is to apply the indicators from one community into communities with similar characteristic (cultural, socio-economic, ethnic, etc) or use results and indicators from other schools with similar technologies and geographical area to introduce new schools to PM&E. This however has its shortcomings as the communities may not have as much ownership to the results \"imported\" from other schools or communities compared to if they developed their results themselves.• Integrating gender and equity into PM&E With participatory research, gender and equity concerns are central to the implementation process. More often than not, gender and equity has not been reflected in the PM&E performance frameworks. Gender and equity issues including participation, empowerment, changes in gender relations need to be negotiated by both the project teams and the communities so that they become part of the PM&E process.• Negotiation and sharing roles for PM&E Data collection needs to be a shared responsibility between researchers, extension officers and farmers. Teams however need to be careful so that none of these become overwhelmed with the data collection. For example farmers should not collect data that is not of interest to them but only to scientists. Information should also be shared across all stakeholders; for example scientists should share their information with farmers and vice versa. A common assumption with regards to data collection by farmers has been that once farmers know the indicators they should collect data on, they will get on with it. More often than not, the capacity of farmers to collect and analyze data has to be built. This should however not be taken to the extent that researchers give farmers long complicated forms or data sheets in which to record data as this may deter them from collecting the data.• Standardization and comparability Indicators and questions from PM&E will differ between projects if they are defined in a participatory way, which may make it difficult to compare outputs and outcomes of different participatory approaches between projects There are many challenges in setting up and implementing PM&E systems. Ensuring that PM&E does not just become a technical process-develop results, indicators, collect data and analyze. The learning aspect of PM&E needs very strong emphasis so that there is a balance between focus on the implementation and on the learning and the use of PM&E data to take corrective measures and make decisions. Establishing and supporting PM&E systems is an expensive process, both in terms of time, human capital and material resources for initiating and sustaining M&E, and also because of the intensive facilitation required in the initial stages. In most cases, organizations will not have the skills that are required to support the process and these skills may need to be built before the process can take off. Due to the involvement of different stakeholders, strategies need to be developed to involve these different stakeholders. For example for CD-PM&E the use of graphics, identification of local vocabulary for some of the technical terms should be done.This paper analyzes experience with establishing and supporting PM&E processes both at community and project level in three countries in Uganda, Malawi, and Kenya. Our in initial results indicate that there are several important aspects in establishing and supporting these systems: (1) Developing a capacity building strategy for PM&E. This includes applying diverse tools and methods that can encourage active participation of all members, such as graphics, role plays, stories from the farmers' daily lives, and identifying local vocabulary for the technical terms. (2) Ensuring that indicators are negotiated information is only collected on those indicators that are relevant, from the perspective of the different stakeholders. (3) The initial stages of establishing PM&E systems at require a strong mentoring and follow-up component from facilitators to ensure appropriate establishment and skills enhancement. (4) The Community-driven PM&E system provides relevant information that communities can use to improve the functioning of their projects, communication within the group, and for informed decisionmaking. ( 5) Integrating community indicators with project level indicators providing a more holistic view of the project benefits and can strengthen information feedback process between communities and R&D systems. (6) The PM&E system must include a communication system that allows information to be exchanged between the stakeholders and to be interpreted so that it can form a basis for taking appropriate decisions (7) Linking PM&E to impact assessment improves the process and allows for more reflection and learning making the results of the impact assessment useful for future improvements (8) Involving different stakeholders especially communities in PM&E improves the measurement of the benefits of participatory processes such as empowerment, capacity and organizational skills.","tokenCount":"7728"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d5eac4668da45917f08611d35bc737ae","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4a2fb40d-1265-4f72-a8aa-2345e58cfa7c/retrieve","id":"1222001342"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"26c4076c-bf13-4288-b545-52590b9a2389","pagecount":"26","content":"The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project is supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. IDA helps the world's poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people's lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world's 76 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Annual IDA commitments have averaged about $21 billion from 2017-2020, with approximately 61 percent going to Africa.The authors also want to express their indebtedness to UNECA, which was willing to upscale WISER products under the AICCRA project with the aim of benefiting smallholder farmers in the SADC sub-region. Finally and yet importantly, we wish to acknowledge Dr. Han E. for his helpful discussions on CAMDT to make enhancements in the model in order to try it with other crop cultivars.The negative impact of hydro-meteorological hazards on the agricultural sector often leads to food insecurity. It is, therefore, incumbent upon policymakers to formulate appropriate strategies aimed at minimizing the effects of hydro-meteorological hazards on communities and economies. Hence, there is a need for timely and tailored climaterelated knowledge, information and products that support decision-making to reduce climate-related losses and enhance benefits.A series of studies have been commissioned by the ACPC-UNECA and its regional partners, such as CCAFS, under the WISER program to demonstrate the SEB of CIS in the agricultural sector. One such effort was conducting a study on Enhancing Forecasting Capacities and Developing Crop Capability Prediction Models in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, where CIS-based DST has been developed. This DST is a critical tool to guide policymakers and communities in making science-informed decisions for optimum productivity through improved efficiencies in agricultural production systems and contributing to minimizing impacts of hydro-meteorological hazards. To operationalize this tool, however, there is a need to conduct a concerted capacity development across the SADC sub-region and beyond.In this regard, AICCRA, in collaboration with the ACPC and WMO, took the capacity development initiative and commenced roving the ToT workshop. Therefore, the first ToT workshop was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 13 -15 July 2022, where about 20 experts were drawn from MSD, MLAWRSF, UoZ, WUA and FNC of Zimbabwe attended.After providing a conceptual framework about the CAMDT/DSSAT platform, hands-on exercise on data management: quality control and missing values, a template specific to CAMDT/DSSAT, data acquisition and model descriptions (assumption and uncertainties) and model analysis (simulation and validation) were given to the ToTs. The methodology for crop capability prediction is accessible and in formats that make the information actionable.Participants' feedback showed effective skill transfer on the model and its outputs, thereby becoming proficient in utilizing the tool. They also rated the training as a useful, relevant innovation that will benefit communities. However, they suggested that there is room for model improvement by including local conditions and local cultivars. It was indicated that the time allocated to the training was short of practicing and fully interpreting outputs from the model analyses. The steps included in the training manuals are very useful, but participants called for a simplified programme-assisted procedure so that users with little computer knowledge can appreciate the usefulness and applicability of the model.In conclusion, the full implementation of the crop capability prediction models and its timely application will significantly save many socioeconomic sectors as productivity improves, given the central role agriculture plays in the region. This will engender a policy environment conducive to better investment in CIS to accrue its uptake and use in agriculture and food security.Natural climate variability and man-induced climate change are the most critical factors affecting land and water resources and significantly impacting agricultural production and food security. Agricultural crops, like other plants, generally depend on light, temperature, moisture, and carbon dioxide concentration to produce grains and other products. The levels of climate inputs, particularly rainfall, vary between locations and years, partly due to natural climate variability and climate change. Temperature and water supply also vary over the long term, with major implications for crop production and the livelihood of crop producers. Besides agricultural inputs and cultural practices, crop management is about managing climate risks to have financially viable and sustainable agricultural systems. Moreover, climatic effects on crop production could influence agricultural trades, with implications for national and global food security. Therefore, it is important to find ways of estimating crop yields before the harvest to manage or control the adverse climate risk impacts on the economy and vulnerable communities.In Sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture plays a key role in food security and employment, contributing to gross domestic product (GDP) typically between 20 and 40%. However, the sector is predominantly rain-fed and dominated by smallholder farmers. The productivity of the smallholder farmer is more than four to five times below the wellestablished potential levels in commercial settings. Similarly, the cost of production is relatively high in the case of smallholder farmers compared to its return. Hence, there should be efforts to make significant improvements toward reversing this region's largely uncompetitive agricultural production systems. In this respect, there is a great potential for increasing agricultural productivity by using tailored Climate Information Services (CIS) in supporting farm strategic and tactical decisions, thereby increasing the sector's contribution to GDP. Moreover, crop growth modeling and simulation can be used as decision-support tools in agricultural research and production systems.The crop growth simulation models have been evolving since the 1960s, with much promise for greater usability in the 1980/90's. Models used in agrometeorological studies, for instance, are developed to substantially improve the income, reduce soil degradation, reduce dependence on off-farm inputs and exploit local market opportunities of resource poor farmers in the tropics and sub-tropics as per objectives of IBSNAT (International Benchmark Sites Network for Agrotechnology Transfer) that began in 1982 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA. IBSNAT was an attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of understanding options through systems analysis and simulation for the ultimate benefit of farm households across the globe. The major product of IBSNAT was a Decision Support System for Agro-Technology Transfer (DSSAT) (Jones et al, 2003).The DSSAT has been largely used as a research and teaching tool where its products enable users to match the biological requirements of crops to the physical characteristics of land to provide them with management options for improved land use planning (Kazeem and Rasaq, 2015). DSSAT has the potential to substantially reduce the time and cost of field experimentation necessary for adequate evaluation of new cultivars and new management systems. Moreover, it helps decision-makers by reducing the time and human resources required for analyzing complex alternative decisions (Tsuji, 1998).DSSAT was developed to operationalize this approach and make it available for global applications although there are several crop simulation models that have been developed from many academic and research centres across the globe (Hoogenboom et al., 2019). Hence, crop models can be developed at various levels of complexity depending on the objective of the modelling exercise.Crop growth simulation models require inputs of weather parameters such as solar irradiance, temperature and rainfall as these variables affect crop phenology. However, the skills for usable accuracies of climate forecasts are on seasonal timescales, typically three months. A need to find ways of marrying seasonal climate forecasts (SCFs) with crop simulation models is, therefore, critical to develop crop capability prediction models. Seasonal forecasts, when connected to crop simulation tools, can be used to assess implications for crop productivity as well as to guide crop management decisions (Capa-Morocho, et al, 2016). Tools that can objectively assess the value of CIS in decision making in socioeconomic areas that are sensitive to climate variations such as water and humanitarian assistance planning are also available. Crop prediction is benefiting in applying seasonal climate forecast (Coelho and Costa, 2010), confirming the use of seasonal climate forecasts earns good benefit cost ratio. Hence, weather generating models can be adapted for crop capability prediction using probabilistic seasonal climate forecasts (Hans and Ines, 2017) and greatly benefit decision support in agricultural and food security sectors.The Climate Agriculture Modelling and Decision Tool (CAMDT) was used in tandem with DSSAT for the crop yield prediction modelling. CAMDT is a computer desktop tool designed to guide decision-makers in adopting appropriate crop and water management practices that can improve crop yields under a given climatic condition. It was originally developed using data and environmental conditions, yield calibrations and production system management for the Bicol region, Philippines (Han et al., 2017). The model works on Python platform. The CAMDT tool enables the stakeholders to have an overview of the feasibility of a desired prediction horizon (farming season) and offer scientifically backed advice to the farmers in the particular homogeneous rainfall zones. Used to specify the period for which SCF is released, the prediction horizon can be set for two to six-month period. CAMDT uses the prediction horizon set for Nov-Jan (NDJ), Dec-Jan-Feb, (DJF) or Jan-Feb-Mar (JFM) depending on when the users run the CAMDT. The observed weather data in CAMDT to run the DSSAT should be done a month before the planting date. The weather realizations downscaled from probabilistic SCF will be used for the periods NDJ, JFM, FMA, etc. The weather conditions beyond the SCF availability are generated based on climatology.In this context, DSSAT has been used for more than 30 years by researchers, educators, consultants, extension agents, growers, private industry, policy and decision makers, and many others in over 174 countries worldwide (https://dssat.net/). This package incorporates models of 16 different crops with software that facilitates the evaluation and application of the crop models for different purposes. Crop simulation modelling approach can also contribute to assessments of the effects of future global climate change, thus helping in the formulation of national policies for mitigation purposes.Other policy issues, like yield forecasting, agribusiness planning, operations management, consequences of management decisions on environmental issues, can benefit from the modelling efforts. By applying CIS in crop yield prediction modelling (CAMDT-DSSAT combination), farmers can avoid losses that might result from unforeseen inter-annual climate variability; and they can maximize productivity more efficiently under conditions of favourable climatic patterns when these are predicted in advance.Climate information services (CIS) in agriculture aims to provide a full range of advice regarding climate and its impacts on crops, livestock, fisheries, and management practices to prevent, reduce and/or manage climate risks in agricultural production systems. This tailored information assists farmers in making management decisions to minimize the risks and benefit from the opportunities of our variable and changing climate. Thus, CIS in agriculture provides valuable information to agricultural support services/institutions, suppliers, local cooperatives, or community-based organizations to help farmers make practical, feasible, and relevant decisions under the changing climate.Despite rapid scientific and technological progress in climate, small farmers do not use much of the available weather and agrometeorological information, which results in poor productivity. To address this gap, the UNECA, in collaboration with its regional partners, commissioned a study to develop a series of simple and robust scientific tools, methods, and services that can guide planning and policy to better understand climate impacts on food security and livelihoods. The study was conducted in three southern African countries, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. The study developed a methodology or tool for predicting crop capability in the various agro-ecological zones to enhance agricultural productivity and food security. The tool was validated in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, by a range of experts from Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.This tool is essential to save millions of dollars in enhanced agricultural productivity, identify deficits/surpluses with unprecedented time leads, and provide enormous potential to assure food security to nations. Livestock producers can also use the information on weather and climate patterns to plan for the optimum numbers of animals in a given piece of land at any particular time. For instance, if a drought is forecasted, it helps farmers make evidence-based decisions to destock or buy extra stock feed to see the animals through the drought. Farmers have often had to see their herds decimated by droughts because of poor planning caused by a lack of knowledge of the availability of climate prediction services. Hence, there is a need to develop a cadre of experts who will ensure the application of optimum CIS in specific sectors using this crop yield prediction model tool.In this regard, there is an urgent need to train both producers of climate information and end-users in the proper application of CIS to mitigate the adverse effects of climateinduced hazards and benefit the economy. It is, therefore, imperative to provide the much-needed tools for producers of CIS and the end-user community from agricultural and related sectors regarding crop capability prediction. As a continuation of the previous efforts, the Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA), in partnership with UNECA-ACPC, aim to establish a cohort of CIS practitioners and users to help communities improve their efficiencies in agricultural production systems. This will be through roving a ToT workshop in Zimbabwe, followed by Malawi and Mozambique. The specific aims are to train experts on:• forecasting and crop capability prediction tool to benefit policymakers and the user community for the strategic provision of appropriate inputs to the Agriculture (livestock and crops) and Food Security Sector;• Strengthening the platform for collaboration by key stakeholders involved in the production and application of timely climate information;• Strengthening capacity for improved production, better access, and sustainable operations for CIS;• Developing a methodology for predicting crop capability in the various agroecological zones to enhance agricultural productivity and food security; and• Hands-on exercise on modified CAMDT/DSSAT crop yield prediction model using country data.Dr Murombedzi of the ACPC welcomed all the guests and participants to workshop. He touched on the importance of embracing CIS in addressing climate change and its impacts, with special mention to SADC. Dr Makarau from the WMO-ROA congratulated AICCRA and UNECA for their efforts, in respectively, for supporting capacity building through ToT and developing the tool. This ToT workshop is essential to prepare the groundwork for the operationalization of the tool so that communities could be benefited from it. The WMO representative noted that agriculture is the mainstay of Africa's economy and such decision-making support tool will have significant importance in guiding pre-planning and on-farm planning. This initiative is, therefore, consistent with WMO's five pillars and affirms his commitment for such kind of initiative.Ms. Manzou R, Director of MSD, welcomed everyone and applauded all institutions involved in the development of DST for agriculture and food security sector. She noted that the mandate of MSD is to protect lives and properties from extreme weather and climate impacts and expressed her believe that such DST will play a critical role in addressing MSD's mandate.Factoring CIS into policy, planning and practices are crucial for Africa to achieve its socioeconomic development aspirations such as building resilient society, enhanced trade competitiveness, reduced poverty and sustainable economic growth. They are also important to shape our understanding of climate risks and guide decision-making across scales. However, accelerating the uptake and use of CIS require an enabling environment that enhances investments in the production of CIS.The key barrier to managing current and future climate risks are limited availability and accessibility of timely, reliable and relevant weather and CIS by large numbers of climatevulnerable people. The mismatch between available information and what is needed to support on-the-ground decision-making is another barrier that reduces resilience to climate risk and thereby weaken adaptation efforts.She commended AICCRA and UNECA for their works on the crop capability prediction tool for SADC countries as the region's economy is mainly agricultural based. In this regard, MSD noted the need to support end users in areas of:• forecasting and crop capability prediction tool to benefit policymakers and the user community for the strategic provision of appropriate inputs to the agricultural (livestock and crops) and food security sector, taking into account specificities of agro-ecological zones;• strengthening the platform for collaboration by key stakeholders involved in the production and application of timely climate information; and• strengthening capacity for improved production, better access, and sustainable operations for CIS by end-users.MSD will, therefore, continue to play its roles in the production, analysis, translation and dissemination of timely and tailored CIS to the end-users. For that, she applauded the recent development at MSD in installing and operationalizing three radars in Harare, Bulawayo and Buffalo Range with more to follow in order to respond to users needs. As part of fulfilling the Minamata convention, MSD is also working to replace the existing infrastructure in all 47 observational stations with automatic weather equipment.Mrs Manzou reiterated MSD's commitments for such and similar capacity building initiatives and declared the ToT workshop is officially opened.In order to set the scene, Dr Bradwell G. made a presentation on the conceptual framework of crop capability prediction modelling and the following main points highlighted:-Overview of weather and CIS and their utility for crop yield prediction, -Motivation for developing actionable DST in agriculture, -Brief overview of methodology, -Concepts and application of DSSAT, -Rationale for using CAMDT.There was also a presentation on the summary of the manual, which is a combination of three User Guides to be used in tandem. The crop capability prediction modelling platforms used in this User Guide are the CAMDT as the weather generator for the DST for Agro-technology Transfer (DSSAT), the crop weather simulation model. CAMDT/ DSSAT platforms are very sensitive to the data formats. In this regard, there is a need to manipulate the climatological data for exporting into CAMDT/DSSAT programmes to be compatible for ingestion into these environments. For instance, using the example of data downloaded from NASA website (https://power.larc.nasa.gov/data-access-viewer/), there is need for downloaded daily climatological data to be manipulated into and across both MS Excel and CSV environments. The necessary steps to be followed in order to make the data formats compatible with CAMDT/DSSAT are also presented.Trainees were provided with the three user-guide manual. The trainers made demonstrations on the key steps in CAMDT/DSSAT analysis based on the manual. The participants were then taken through the steps that are important in running the simulation of crop yield prediction.Participants were taught data collection frameworks for crop yield prediction modelling, in particular, the template specific to CAMDT/DSSAT. Participants were shown the steps to be carried out in order to run simulations of crop yield prediction, data analytics including quality control and missing data issues. This was a participatory session with questions seeking clarifications on steps to follow to rectify errors that occurred at times. In order to for participants to be able to process the data from the identified website, CAMDT/DSSAT software were uploaded onto their laptops and tested. Once the softwares were installed and working, participants were shown to the data sources site, NASA. From the website, they downloaded the required data for ingestion into the CAMDT/DSSAT platform in order to generate the crop capability predictions. These data were historical daily climatological parameters (solar irradiance, minimum and maximum temperatures and rainfall) for specific meteorological station for the period January 1 1984 to 31 December 2021. This period was used because development of crop yield prediction model requires at least continuous 30 years of daily data in four parameters.Participants were shown how download data in CSV format and saved into MS Excel to enable the necessary processing as per the requirements of CAMDT/DSSAT. The data were then split into complete period -39 years daily data as one file, WTD, and another set of files with individual yearly data, WTH. In order to do that more efficiently, the following digiSoft tools were used:Accordingly, participants were able to split Excel Workbooks into: \"WTD file\" with all the downloaded rows of years and climate data (one) and \"WTH files\" where each file holding data for a single year (making a total of 39 files).After the participants split the data into WTD and WTH formats, they were shown 'how to export the files'. This entailed use of digiSoft tool set macro: basExportSheets2PRN.basParticipants were also shown the procedure on how to rename files so that these were compatible or ingesting by the CAMDT/DSSAT system for further processing. In this regard, they used the \"Bulk Rename Utility\", which required participants to carry out three basic steps to complete the renaming exercise.Participants were introduced to model descriptions and model analysis. Participants experienced some challenges in installation software due some inadequacies in their hardware. These were resolved through assisting with the downloads to ensure that all the participants had requisite software on their laptop computers.Participants were shown how to create two folders in the C: directory of the laptop and name them CAMDT and DSSAT. Within the CAMDT folder there were sub-folders for: Rice; Maize and Sorghum under which each were sub-folders for the respective meteorological station, down to two sub-folders at the same level of hierarchy for above-normal rain and below-normal rain. These were the working directories where CAMDT would be pointed to for necessary information to simulate rice yield predictions depending on whether the anticipated seasonal forecast for the station in above-normal or below-normal rain. The results from the simulation would be output to the respective working directory.The 2017 edition of CAMDT is only automated for the RICE crop and was originally developed to model rice production in the Philippines, mostly the PILI meteorological station. The participants were shown how to add working directory related to their meteorological station into file \"CAMDT_2017_0310-py\". There were two optional environments, MS Windows Explorer, which was a default one; and a Command Prompt, which is more general and a prerequisite environment for conducting simulation of nonrice crop capability predictions. Participants were showed how to run Python programme as it displays the GUI, which is laid out clearly in the Manual (User Guide 2). Participants familiarised with CAMDT displaying some of interesting outputs (predicted yields, water stress and gross margin) easily.Digitron made changes to some of the CAMDT system file in order to make it simulate other crops capability prediction. These changes were provided in the User Guide 3 of the Manual. In this regard, trainers demonstrated the necessary additional procedures to the participants for them to manipulate to enable them to run the CAMDT in order for it to simulate non-rice cereals like maize and sorghum. Participants were shown how to copy the successful outputs of the working directory as per an appropriate seasonal climate forecast, say that related to above-normal rain into a corresponding working directory for the new crop variety. After that, participants were shown to make the necessary changes to some of the rice output files. This was so that respective working directory now had the specifications of the new cereal maize or sorghum such as the cultivar variety type its variety number, its population distribution at planting. Once the working directory had these new specifications, participants were made to run CAMDT as if it was simulation rice. The outputs were now for the respective crop, either maize or sorghum. The participants were shown how to process the outputs further in order to display graphical information on the non-rice cereal.i) Need to specify specification on the compatibility of the computers: It could be difficult to have homogenous computer systems for the training of this nature as some computers had difficulties running MS Windows and Excel efficiently, periodically slowing down and freezing. Hence, specify the computer specification compatible to the phyton software for the follow-up ToT workshop.ii) Need to use of LCD by the trainers: Some participants recommended having a page from the training manual constantly displayed on the projector as required.However, this might be virtually difficult when trainees have different speeds due to varying user proficiency and individual computer performance. In order to abate such challenge, participants provided with step-by-step User Manuals to refer to, though only available on soft copy, which slowed them down as they constantly switched from User Manual to the modelling software and back.iii) Need for automated procedure: The taxing formatting and preparation of NASA data proved tough for some users who less conversant with MS Excel. Digitron will continue to find ways of streamlining the process, with the objective of developing an automated module and hoped this would be ready for the next workshop. Participants this ToT workshop will be apprised of such developments and will be provided with new codes as necessary.iv) Need to customize the model to capture local crops: The capacity in DSSAT is there but localization of crop varieties will require obtaining the specifications from the Ministry of Agriculture and other stakeholders such as the country's Seed Houses. DSSAT is not limited to the three crops shown in the demonstrationsrather over 20 crops that can be modelled.v) Need to strengthening linkage with policy makers: There is need to look at how to strengthen relationships between policy makers, stakeholders, practitioners and end users -last mile. The models believed to help end-users if efforts made to disseminate information from the model outputs swiftly and effectively. A case in point is -how long it took for information to reach communities.There is a need to upskill producers and users of CIS through a Training of Trainers workshop.On behalf of AICCRA, Dr Teferi commended the participants for their dedication to duty in efforts to understand the workings of the model. He also acknowledged the trainers in their efforts in skill transferring. He expressed readiness of AICCRA and partners to source for resources to continue with scaling up this activity to other countries.On behalf of WMO, Dr Makarau noted the enthusiasm of the participants in efforts to learn the skills of the trade in crop yield modelling. This would help in the acceleration of capacity development efforts for the operationalization of the tool so that its benefits reach the last mile, the rural community. On their part, WMO was ready to engage other partners to get resources in order support the initiative of capacity building through review of the outcome of the implementation of the tool in countries. He thanked everyone for their dedication in acquiring skills in the crop yield prediction modelling for the purposes of furthering climate resilience of communities.Dr Yosef Amha reaffirmed continued support of these initiatives by AICCRA and its partners. From the feedback received, the ToT workshop can be rated as a success but the model needs improvement to include local conditions and local cultivars. He finally thanked the organizers, trainers and participants for their dedication and commitments and declared the closing of the ToT Workshop.For more information, contact: • Dr. Bradwell GARANGANGA bjgaranganga@digitron.co.zw; bjgaranganga@gmail.com • Mr. Trymore NYAKUTAMBWA: trymoren@digitron.co.zw; trymoren@gmail.com • Dr. Yosef AMHA (amhay@un.org)","tokenCount":"4414"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"940d392a6510db626889508f40ca96af","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/60b6322e-14a4-44e9-9647-2aea9c7f8ae0/retrieve","id":"-586288119"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"537d2e35-542f-498e-8e99-3a520c77e0a4","pagecount":"6","content":"1. Meso or middle level institutions (government, nongovernmental) and community-based organizations are critical in restoration delivery pathways. They contribute unique knowledge, know-how and relationships to restoration.2. Evidence of meso level institutions' involvement shows significant deficits with major implications for scaling-up capacity during implementation of restoration.1. Sensitization/awareness raising is needed at meso level.Proactive involvement and engagement are also needed in the currently missing middle. International platforms and mechanisms working on restoration need to ramp up engagement of meso as well as local organizations (including community-based organizations) and bring them into the dialogue and discourse.2. Massive capacity building investments are required and would perhaps yield more returns than any other type of investment, especially if connected to restoration innovations and enterprise.3. In addition to regular agroforestry and forestry extension services, special enterprise development and business extension services are required.4. Sustained training and learning through networking and knowledge platforms are needed to accelerate uptake or restoration at meso level.To achieve global restoration goals, the involvement of actors is required at all levels. While evidence that international and national actors are involved, the same cannot be said of sub-national governments, community-based and nongovernmental organizations (CBOs, NGOs), the community, and private enterprise. The absence of this critical meso level of institutions is what is referred to as the \"missing middle\". They are necessary for scaling-up restoration, and this stateof-affairs is likely hampering replication of well documented best restoration practices as well as limiting capacity to scale up. This may place in jeopardy the path to global restoration. This policy brief elucidates the \"missing middle\" challenge for restoration and provides ideas to overcome it.The world urgently needs to restore huge swaths of land to meet the demand for ecosystem services and is targeting 350 Generally, Guariguata and Evans (2020) call for collaborative and participatory monitoring of landscape restoration that involves multiple stakeholders.We argue here that following the issue attention cycle concept (Downs 1972), in the early phases international and large NGOs are very important in raising awareness and advocating on the issues. (Figure 1a). They are also important given their strong capacity to do the \"heavy lifting\" on design and piloting (in collaboration with local institutions), as well as catalyzing policy changes. But once we reach the implementation phase, a critical mass of meso level and local institution involvement is needed as shown in Figure 1b. Ten years into the Bonn Challenge, the engagement of meso level organizations should be heading towards the critical mass needed if implementation and scaling up is to work. However, the evidence suggests that this is not the case, and this needs to be corrected.Evidence of meso level institution involvement shows a significant deficit  shows that over 50% of projects did not demonstrate evidence of involvement of local or meso level partners (see Figure 3). About 30% of the projects showed involvement of International and local partnerships, which while commendable, is still not optimal for a decentralized system in which counties (the meso level) have a significant stake in land and natural resource management.  The relatively low participation of private sector stakeholders in landscape restoration is a cause for concern since they influence funding, investments, political engagement, implementation, and market dynamics. There is a growing consensus that public finance may not be adequate for the growing global restoration needs and that additional private investment is necessary (Gutierrez and Keijzer, 2015;Faruqi and Landsberg, 2017;Löfqvist and Ghazoul, 2019;Wainaina et al., 2020). Private finance is becoming a significant option as commercial restoration business models emerge, and it also offers certain advantages, including faster decisionmaking and the ability to scale financing as work expands (Faruqi and Landsberg, 2017). Many stakeholders in restoration-entrepreneurs, project managers, governments, and non-profit organizations-do not have a strong grasp of what private financiers look for when making investment decisions (Faruqi and Landsberg, 2017).Investment in landscape restoration will only be attractive to private financiers only if in addition to meeting the environmental viability, the restoration activities are economically viable (Wainaina et al., 2020). A sustainable avenue for private financing in restoration is through investing in nature-based enterprises. However, these nature-based enterprises are usually high risk due to relatively long payback periods. Hence, the need for blended finance in restoration (Löfqvist and Ghazoul, 2019). Opportunities for private investment or blended finance (with shares of both public and private finance) are likely to increase as a project transition towards the sustainability phase (ITTO, 2020). Also, investing in building capacity is vital, including training on business advisory skills. These can help in de-risking these enterprises.According to Gutierrez and Keijzer (2015), meso level organizations have an important role in accessing innovative financing sources to address the gap in national and international forest restoration financing and to translate these into sound action. This will require continuous adaptation to an evolving finance market. For example, WeForest WF, an environmental NGO, is financed by the private sector, and to a limited extent, by private individuals. Since 2010, WF had mobilized nearly 140 private companies from 24 countries to invest in a portfolio of reforestation and restoration projects designed to increase tree cover along with social, economic, and other ecological benefits (Gutierrez and Keijzer (2015).Current capacity of meso level institutions is low investments (Löfqvist and Ghazoul, 2019). Involvement of these meso level institutions is also necessary to ensure the sustainability of restoration projects in the long run.However, involvement of these in restoration is still low.  (Bloomfield et al., 2019).Continuous training of restoration professionals is also key but, this must be supported by financial aid to cover trainee attendance costs, and by enabling policies increasing demand for restoration (Meli et al., 2019).We recommend the following to be thought through and developed to unlock the missing middle challenge for restoration.Sensitization / awareness raising / and engagement of meso level stakeholders is needed Extensive investments will be needed in knowledge and learning platforms as well as partnership platforms that are tailored to the needs and reach of meso level organisations.Leveraging mobile platforms and mobile internet connectivity might be key.Special enterprise / innovation development and business extension services are required -in addition to regular agroforestry and forestry extension services Tremendous investments will be needed to catalyze the engagement of the private sector enterprises in restoration.This will require initial investment of public money to catalyze and de-risk restoration efforts but also to direct private In addition, we need to think about developing business extension services at local level i.e., individual and landscape levels. These need to encourage the development of community and individual green enterprises that can serve restoration. In much the same way as we have developed extension services for forestry and agriculture, we need green land-based business extension services. These will differ from the classic support that traditional banks and micro-finance institutions provide and will tremendously advance restoration.Exploring a workable set of incentives across scales might help unlock engagement of meso and local level institutions. Utilizing an inclusive approach under its different challenges and through collaborative action groups, anyone can sign up and contribute impact-oriented ideas and innovative solutions to world challenges and SDG attainment roadblocks as well as build alliances with like-minded exponents.A good example is the Trillion Trees Challenge. On the basis that the earth formerly had 6 trillion trees that have today been reduced by half and the degradation continues, the ","tokenCount":"1211"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a2f852372fb633d6287e21b6f49fcce9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6a47b8ed-44b6-45a8-8c62-91df42748a44/retrieve","id":"-1365584191"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f2a68c8c-f2c8-4c8f-a240-025e528c3e55","pagecount":"12","content":"ILCA's HIGHLANDS PROGRAMME aims to find ways of improving the overall productivity of mixed smallholder farms in the highlands by increasing the technical and economic efficiency of livestock enterprises. Particular emphasis is given to enhancing the complementarity of the livestock and crop components. A substantial part of the work of the Programme focuses on topics related to animal traction, including studies of the use of oxen worked as singles rather than pairs. Ploughing in the Ethiopian highlands is traditionally done using paired oxen; but surveys showed that half of the smallholder farmers in the highlands owned either one or no oxen. During 1983 ILCA's team developed a yoke and harness and modified version of the local wooden plough, the maresha, suitable for use by a single ox of local breed. On-station testing showed that an adequately fed ox could cultivate in a day 60 to 70% of the area ploughed by a pair.Field days were organised for local farmers from the Peasants' Associations around ILCA's research stations in the Ethiopian highlands. After the field days, farmers were invited to try the adaptation of the traditional method on their own farms at their own risk and expense. ILCA provided assistance in retraining oxen to work as singles, then closely monitored the use of single oxen on the test farmers' land through twice-weekly visits. By October 1983 more than 140 farmers had approached ILCA for assistance in ploughing with a single ox.Subsequent crop yields on the test farms were similar for land cultivated with single or paired animals. The time taken for cultivation by single oxen was around 30% more than by oxen pairs. Oxen worked as singles require more feed per head than paired oxen. Research is therefore planned to investigate whether a short duration forage legume can be sown during the early rains prior to the usual cereal or pulse crops in order to have high-quality feed available for draught oxen when it is most needed.The widespread use of the single ox method of ploughing could dramatically reduce the number of oxen needed to support food crop production, thereby increasing the feed resources available for each working animal. The technique does not put subsistence crop yields at risk and requires only minimal investment-the new yoke and harness can be made cheaply from local materials, while the modifications to the maresha can be done at home or by the village blacksmith.If uptake occurs on a large enough scale, the new technique will have far-reaching implications for the smallholder farmers of Ethiopia who are among the world's poorest people.ILCA's Highlands Programme follows a farming systems approach to research. This integrated and problem-oriented approach stresses on-farm technology testing and appraisal, complemented by relevant station research on individual components in cases where greater experimental control is advantageous.To date, research in the Highlands Programme has focused on Ethiopia, a country accounting for almost half of the total African highland zone. Ethiopia also has the largest livestock population in sub-Saharan Africa with some 26 million head of cattle, 24 million sheep, 12 million goats, 7 million equines and 1 million camels. The great majority of the cattle, sheep and equines are found in the highland areas of the country.Of the total area of Ethiopia (1.22 million km 2 ), half is made up by highlands above 1500 m in altitude. Some 80% of the total human population of about 38 million live in the highlands. Agricultural conditions vary widely throughout the country, according to topography, climate and soils. However, the highlands are generally temperate and comparatively favourable for both crop and livestock production.Since the mid-1970s, rural development has been organised in a socialist framework. However, collective farming accounts for less than 5% of the total area cultivated. The bulk of agricultural output is still produced by individual subsistence smallholders who have 'farming rights' over the land they till 1 .1. In Ethiopia, land is not individually owned, but is allocated by the Peasants' Association (PA) of which each farmer is necessarily a member. The size of individual allocations, comprising several plots depends on family size, local population density and the policies of the local PA. Land distribution takes account of the different fertility levels of the soils within the land area of the PA. Each PA has on average 250 members and controls around 800 ha of land.ILCA's field research in the Ethiopian highlands has concentrated on the central highlands where smallholder mixed farming is the dominant mode of production. Rainfall here averages between 600 and 1200 mm/year, of which about 70% falls in the main rainy season between July and September. Farm sizes range from 0.5 to 5 ha, and around 80% of all farm produce is used for subsistence consumption. About two thirds of the cultivated land is sown to cereals; most of the remainder is sown to pulses. The proportion of fallow land in different parts of the highlands is quite variable. In some areas almost no land is fallowed, while elsewhere fallow periods of up to 12 years following 3 crop years are common.The major crops grown are teff, wheat, barley, maize, sorghum, horse beans, chickpeas and field peas. Grain yields average between 500 and 1000 kg/ha sown. Access to modern inputs is limited; for example fewer than 10% of farmers regularly use either chemical fertilizer or improved seed. Most farmers own livestock and a typical farm inventory includes two oxen, a cow, a few sheep and a donkey. As most livestock manure is used as household fuel, only small amounts are returned to the fields.Cattle are kept mainly as a source of draught power and for manure. Milk, meat and hides are less important byproducts. Livestock are privately owned, and as such are an important form of investment and financial security. Usually only oxen are used for cultivation. Productivity of all livestock is low, reflecting an under-exploited genetic resource and generally inadequate nutrition, particularly during the extended dry season of up to 7 months each year. For example, milk offtake from indigenous Zebu cows kept under traditional management rarely exceeds 400 kg for lactations of 7 months and calving intervals average 2 years. Sheep also are comparatively unproductive as, along with cattle, they are subject to heavy endoparasite burdens and to extended periods of nutritional stress.The basic objectives of the Programme's research are to find ways of improving the overall productivity of mixed smallholder farms by increasing the technical and economic efficiency of livestock enterprises. Particular emphasis is given to enhancing the complementarity of the livestock and crop components. Results and experiences of the research in Ethiopia will, in many cases, have direct relevance to other highland smallholder situations in sub-Saharan Africa.In addition to research undertaken at ILCA's headquarters in Addis Ababa, field work is carried out in two study areas where research stations have been established: around Debre Zeit, 50 km south of Addis Ababa at an altitude of 1800 m, and around Debre Berhan, 120 km northeast of Addis Ababa at an altitude of 2800 m. The area around Debre Zeit is intensively cultivated with virtually no arable land kept fallow. Teff (Eragrostis teff) is the principal cereal grown. Debre Berhan is representative of the higher altitude zone of the country. Frosts, hail and a shorter growing season, in addition to low soil fertility cause the area to be less productive than Debre Zeit. Most of the land cultivated around Debre Berhan is sown with barley.The Programme has allocated a substantial part of its resources to studies on various topics related to animal traction. Work on the research stations includes the evaluation of different cultivation systems using oxen of local origin and crossbreds, the technical and economic efficiencies of using crossbred cows for both draught purposes and milk production, the use of oxen worked as singles rather than as pairs, and the working efficiency of oxen subject to nutritional stress. Different harnesses and yokes are also being developed.This paper reports the experiences with on-farm trials to assess the use of oxen worked as singles rather than pairs.The primary contribution of cattle to agricultural production in the Ethiopian highlands is as a source of draught power. ILCA's surveys have shown that animal power 2 used for crop-related work averaged more than 1000 hr/farm/year. Most of this power was supplied by oxen, but other cattle were sometimes employed for threshing. Some 60 to 70% of the total animal power input was for seedbed preparation and planting, with approximately 350 hr/oxen pair used for these purposes.2. Not including power supplied by donkeys, which are used mainly for transport of agricultural products.Throughout most of the Ethiopian highlands the land is tilled using a pair of oxen of one of the indigenous Zebu breeds 3 which pull the locally-made traditional cultivation tool, the maresha 4 . The power output of oxen pulling this plough is dependent on their body weight, nutrition and health status, the terrain and soil condition, depth of ploughing, working speed, pass number 5 , the training of the animal and the skill of the handler. Depending on the soil type and the crop, the land is cultivated up to six times before planting.3. An ox in working condition weighs approximately 250-300 kg. 4. The maresha is constructed by the farmer from wood and has a metal tip for penetration. This plough does not turn a furrow like the conventional mould board plough, but disturbs the soil to a depth of about 15 cm. 5. Ploughing using the maresha is done perpendicularly and diagonally across plots. Pass numbers refer to the number of cultivations done in the season.Oxen are commonly worked for 4 to 9 hr/ day, depending mainly on the time available for soil preparation 6 . Traditionally, animals within the Debre Zeit area are worked throughout the day with few breaks. In contrast, farmers in the Debre Berhan areas normally give their oxen a rest period at mid-day during which animals are watered and fed.6. Shorter working days are often associated with longer distances to watering places and with watering frequency which varies with season.A major constraint to crop cultivation in Ethiopia is the unequal distribution of oxen/household. Available data for the Debre Berhan area indicate that half the farmers owned two or more oxen, around 30% had one and 20% owned no oxen. In the Debre Zeit area relatively more farmers had two or more oxen, but around 25% of the smallholder had none or only one ox. These results from the two ILCA study areas are representative of the national situation as, according to one study (Ministry of Agriculture, 1980), around 29% of Ethiopian farmers have no oxen, 34% one, 29% two, and 8% three or more. Since oxen are traditionally paired for work, more than 60% of the farmers have to rent or borrow one or two animals for cultivation.A farmer owning fewer than two oxen has various ways of overcoming this problem of inadequate draught power. For farmers with one ox, the usual arrangement is a mekanajo agreement with another farmer also having one ox, whereby the two oxen are used on the partners' fields on alternate days. The drawback of this strategy is that often the ploughing season is so short that the draught capacity is insufficient to allow both farmers to plough at the optimal time. In many locations, especially where soils have a high clay fraction, cultivation can only start after the beginning of the rains because of the difficulty of tilling dry soil. Moreover, the changing of handlers of the pair of oxen and the pairing of different animals causes a substantial reduction in the tractive power developed. It is also often difficult to find a partner living close by.Another widely used strategy called minda is for the farmer to rent one or two oxen in exchange for grain or human labour. Around Debre Zeit it has been observed that farmers with one ox rent another ox from farmers with surplus oxen, at an annual cost of 200 kg of grain or some 15% of total farm production. A farmer can also use an ox of another farmer in return for 1 day's field labour. If a farmer has no oxen, the common exchange system is to give 2 days of human labour for every day a pair of oxen is borrowed. Sometimes oxen will be rented on a cash basis, usually US$ 1.50/day for a pair, and US$ 2.50/day if a handler is included.ILCA's surveys have revealed that the number of oxen owned by a farmer strongly influences the area cultivated and the cropping pattern. The cropping pattern is most strongly influenced if the draught power inputs for land preparation vary substantially among crops. This favours the selection of crops with lower power requirements (e.g. pulses instead of cereals) by farmers with less than two oxen. For the study area around Debre Zeit, for example, substantial differences were observed among ILCA's control group of outside farmers in the crop year. These are summarised in Table 1. These results show an approximately liner relationship between the number of oxen owned and the area cultivated. The differences in cropping pattern reflect the need for more intensive land preparation for cereal crops compared with pulses, and therefore higher labour inputs and draught power. Furthermore, the market value of cereal crops is about twice that of pulses. Together these factors mean that farmers with less draught power at their disposal sowed less land, and also had lower incomes than their counterparts with an adequate supply of draught power.Around Debre Berhan the situation was somewhat different. The dominant crops in that area all require similar labour inputs for land preparation. The effect of ox ownership on the amount of land cultivated was smaller than around Debre Zeit and the cropping pattern remained similar for farmers with different supplies of draught power.In both study areas there was no apparent effect of level of ownership on crop yields. This suggests that the problem of timely cultivation is largely overcome when a smaller area is cultivated and farmers choose to safeguard yields on smaller areas rather than risk lower yields over a larger area, which can happen if seedbeds are poorly prepared. Thus the availability of draught power is a major factor affecting food production and income distribution in the Ethiopian highlands.The tacit assumption by farmers that two oxen are needed for cultivation has precluded solutions to at least some of the production problems associated with a national shortage of draught animals. ILCA had some prior experience in the use of crossbred oxen worked as singles, but these animals are much heavier than local oxen (average liveweight of 500 kg as opposed to 280 kg for local oxen). Elsewhere in the world other animals such as buffaloes and horses have been worked as singles, but their liveweights are also much greater than those of the local Zebu oxen used in Ethiopia. However, ILCA decided to experiment with the use of local Zebus as singles for crop cultivation.During 1983 ILCA developed a yoke and harness and a modified version of the local wooden plough (maresha) suitable for use by a single ox of local breed. The traditional neck yoke designed for an ox-pair (Figure 1) was replaced by a simple, 'inverted V'-type yoke and a swingletree joined by two traces made of nylon rope. A simple metal skid was attached under the shortened beam to overcome the tendency of the modified maresha to penetrate the ground at an oblique rather than an acute angle. No particular technical difficulties were encountered during the on-station trials which showed that an adequately-fed ox could cultivate some 60-70% of the area ploughed by a pair in a day. Depth of cultivation was slightly shallower than with the traditional maresha, but the desired depth could be achieved by making extra passes. The work output of the singles was considered to be adequate to warrant starting onfarm trials.In each of the study areas, ILCA's team then organised field days for farmers of the PAs around the research stations to demonstrate the new technique. Local government officials and extension workers and a total of around 150 farmers attended. After the demonstration farmers were invited to try ploughing with the single ox. Many did so, and although the general consensus was that this modification of the traditional system could have its benefits, farmers were doubtful about the ability of local oxen to work singly for extended periods.Farmers were invited to try the adaptation of the traditional method on their own farms. They were to do this at their own risk and expense but ILCA was to give technical advice and assist in training of the animals to work singly. For those who did not want to modify the implement themselves, ILCA offered to sell the necessary implements at US$ 5 each, to be paid immediately after the next harvest. At the end of the field day at Debre Berhan 19 farmers volunteered to test the modified maresha; at the Debre Zeit field day 12 farmers volunteered.ILCA held training sessions in which the volunteer test farmers were assisted in retraining their ox previously used as one of a pair. Most oxen adapted without difficulty while others needed up to 2 days' retraining. In April 1983 these farmers started their land cultivation.ILCA closely monitored their performance and started a data recording system. The farmers testing the single ox were visited twice weekly and data were collected on land holding, cropping pattern, inputs and outputs by plot, cultivation details and feeding levels for the work oxen. Farm assets, personal data and livestock inventories were also recorded.More farmers became interested in the technique as the season progressed and wanted to join the research programme, but in order to have complete records and to allow for a proper evaluation, ILCA's team limited its involvement with these farmers to technical advice on how to make and operate the implement. By early October 1983, over 140 farmers had approached ILCA for assistance in ploughing with a single ox, and many of these had been experimenting on their own.The single-ox farmers were generally young and innovative. Most belonged to the Amhara tribe.The average age of the 31 test farmers (i.e. those farmers whose performance was closely monitored through the data recording system) was 32 years. During the previous crop season, 18 of the test farmers had a makanajo or minda agreement while 13 owned a pair of oxen. All test farmers who previously had mekanajo arrangements reported that making this arrangement took much of their available time, and delayed the time of planting, possibly resulting in reduced crop yields.The average farm size of the farmers testing the single ox in 1983 was 1.9 ha (all cultivated) around Debre Zeit and 2.5 ha (of which 1.4 ha was cultivated) around Debre Berhan.Around Debre Zeit, because soils are heavy and rainfall is essentially unimodal, cultivation for the main cereal crops has to be done within a very limited period. Around Debre Berhan the rainfall is more uniformly distributed over the year (weakly bimodal) and soils are lighter than at Debre Zeit, so that ploughing can be done almost year-round.Around Debre Berhan, however, only 50% of the arable farm land is cultivated each year. The shortage of draught power is therefore a much more pressing and crucial problem at Debre Zeit than at Debre Berhan.Some technical problems arose during the farm trials. The original metal skid was not strong enough for work in stony fields and it had to be replaced by one of thicker metal. Also, farmers at Debre Zeit initially worked their single animals only 2 to 3 hr/ day for fear of exhausting them. Farmers, however, observed ILCA's nutrition trials where oxen are worked singly for 4 to 5 hr/ day without tiring 7 . As a result the farmers gradually increased the hours they worked their animals.7. Nutritionally-stressed oxen are worked as singles on farmers' fields under research supervision in these particular trials. Their performance is being compared with the work output of well-nourished oxen. The stressed animals are fed 75 % of the level of the well-nourished oxen.Animal nutrition was perceived as a problem by the test farmers. The animals worked as singles required extra feed and therefore many farmers supplemented the normal ration with feed concentrates (wheat bran) which are available locally. In some cases, when the farmer was unable to afford these concentrates, ILCA supplied short-term credits to be repaid immediately after harvest.Concurrently with this on-farm testing, the Ethiopian Government began a drive towards cooperative production in the Debre Zeit area. Farmers had to work 1 or 2 days/week on the land owned by the cooperative. However, these farmers are followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church which prohibits field work on around 160 days each year. Thus the number of days available for cultivating their own fields was sharply reduced.The unexpected reduction in the time available for the preparation of their plots, combined with their natural caution about the new technique, resulted in all the test farmers using a mix of single and traditionally paired oxen.Around Debre Berhan where farmers can cultivate almost year-round, timeliness is not so important. As a result, farmers have greater opportunities of finding additional oxen for cultivation. However, soil fertility is a major problem in the area and many fields have a high percentage stone cover. Farmers encountered difficulties in using oxen singly on plots where the stone cover was above 50%, so they resorted to the use of pairs on these fields. Also, the first cultivation on land being cropped after an extended fallow phase of 10 to 15 years proved difficult for oxen worked as singles, and several farmers preparing these plots opted to do the first cultivation with the conventional pair. The 1983 crop year began later than usual at both Debre Zeit and Debre Berhan and was further shortened by comparatively early frosts at Debre Berhan. Grain yields at Debre Berhan observed by ILCA in 1983 were approximately one third of long-term average yields. Yields in 1982 also had been well below average. The combination of poor yields in 1982 and a late start to the 1983 season contributed to the farmers' cautious response to the single ox method of cultivation. This effect was not so pronounced at Debre Zeit where crop yields in both 1982 and 1983 were similar to the long-term average.At Debre Zeit the average total area cultivated per farm by the test farmers was 1.9 ha of which 3050 m 2 (16%) was cultivated with a single ox, and 1.6 ha (84%) with paired oxen. At Debre Berhan, the average total area cultivated was 1.4 ha of which just under 1000 m 2 (7%) was cultivated with a single ox and 1.3 ha (93%) with ox-pairs. Almost all the land cultivated in 1983 with a single ox was sown with cereals: at Debre Zeit with teff or wheat, and at Debre Berhan with barley or wheat.Table 2 summarises the time taken for land cultivation for teff and barley at Debre Zeit and Debre Berhan using paired oxen and oxen worked as singles. The time taken for cultivation by single oxen was around 30% more than by oxen pairs. Crop yields were similar for land cultivated with single or paired animals. These are summarised in Table 3. The slightly higher yields at Debre Berhan on plots cultivated with single oxen could be due to farmers using land of higher fertility for their experimentation. A major problem reported by farmers using oxen as singles was that they required more feed/head/day than paired oxen. This claim is being investigated in station-based studies as it has implications for the subsequent adoption of the change to the traditional system. Additionally, the oxen are usually worked in Ethiopia at the end of an extended dry season when the animals are most prone to weight loss when worked and when animal feedstuffs are at a premium. For these reasons research is planned to investigate whether a short duration forage legume can be sown during the early rains prior to the usual cereal or pulse crops in order to have high-quality feed available for draught oxen when it is most needed. Although the marginal value of feed at this time of year is high, it is expected that this additional crop will be accepted by the farmer if it can be grown without prejudicing the production of staple foods. This forage crop option will be tested on-station in 1984.The seasonality of animal feed supplies affects the productivity of all livestock, not only working oxen, so the Programme is undertaking other research to minimise the effects of this constraint. This work includes the evaluation of fodder trees and shrubs in the Debre Zeit area where the area of fallow land is minimal and where the strategic location of trees and shrubs will interfere minimally with land sown to annual crops. The Programme is also studying low-cost ways of raising the productivity of fallow land in the Debre Berhan area. The carry-over effect on the subsequent crop phase of higher-yielding fallow lands will allow intensification of both crop and animal production in this higher altitude area.Widespread use of the single ox could dramatically reduce the number of oxen and their attendant breeding and replacement stock needed to support food crop production, thereby increasing the feed resources available for each working animal. Not only would grazing pressures be reduced, lowering the risk of environmental degradation, but the nutritional status of the remaining oxen would improve. Also, more timely cultivation of larger areas of land would lead to increased food crop production and allow more balanced cereal/ pulse rotations to be practised.The single-ox technique has two other major advantages which make the prospects for its uptake most encouraging. First it does not reduce subsistence crop yields, and second it requires minimum investment-the new yoke and harness can be made cheaply from local materials, while the modifications to the maresha can be carried out at home or by the village blacksmith.If adoption occurs on a large enough scale, the single-ox technique will have far-reaching implications for the smallholder farmers of Ethiopia, who are among the world's poorest people.","tokenCount":"4367"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1d78e74b8e1948c1b9360f083786475b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/11c5aa3d-f87d-4ef2-8301-1ab224b1f47a/retrieve","id":"-2032884847"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bfb38543-259f-4cb8-a65b-f9d7fd7ae722","pagecount":"10","content":"To understand the effects of COVID-19, the political crisis, and other shocks on Myanmar's agricultural wage laborers (those workers relying on casual labor in agriculture), we rely on data from three rounds of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey and two rounds of the Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey, fielded in 2021 and 2022.A recent assessment of labor market effects of the twin crises in Myanmar indicates that 1.1 million fewer women and men are employed in 2022 compared to two years earlier and more workers are in precarious employment with irregular working hours and lower pay (ILO 2022). While agricultural wage income is very important in rural Myanmar, especially for landless laborers and small farmers, there is little known on how agricultural laborers have been affected by the twin crises in Myanmar. Agricultural laborers are often amongst the most vulnerable in rural areas in any country. They have no job security, are paid low wages, and, for landless laborers, cannot rely on food grown on their own land. This is also the case in Myanmar. Previous research -before the twin crises -showed a rapid growth in agricultural wages contributing to the widespread uptake of mechanization in the country, driven by migration opportunities (Filipski et al. 2020). But that transformation has seemingly come to a halt (MAPSA 2022a). In this Research Note, we present results and analysis on the importance of agricultural wage laborers in Myanmar, their wage evolution over the last two years, and asses the level and changes in a range of welfare indicators.To do this assessment, we rely on a number of different datasets. First, we rely on three rounds of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS). These surveys were implemented by Myanmar Survey Research (MSR) through phone interviews in each quarter of the year 2022. The survey intends to monitor household and individual welfare through a range of different indicators. A novel sampling strategy in combination with the development of household and population weights allows for estimates that are nationally and regionally representative (MAPSA 2022b).Second, we rely on two rounds of the Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey (MAPS). The MAPS is a sub-sample of the MHWS, focusing on the agricultural activities of households that were identified as crop farmers in the MHWS (MAPSA 2022b). This survey was implemented by phone over the period February/March 2022 (after the monsoon) and August/September 2022 (after the post-monsoon/pre-monsoon period).Third, to assess the evolution of food prices, we use data from a panel survey of food vendors that has been implemented since the middle of 2020 (MAPSA 2022c). These data allow us to create a representative rice price for the country as well as food price index. We use these measures as deflators of the nominal wage. 1We first assess the importance of agricultural wage laborers in Myanmar's national and rural economy. Questions were asked in the 3 rounds of the MHWS if the household relied on any agricultural work in the 3 months prior to the interview. In round 3, 26 percent of households in Myanmar reported relying on agricultural wage labor as a source of income. For rural areas, this amounted to 34 percent of all households. Percentages were slightly higher in the last round than in previous ones as the third round was conducted during the monsoon, the main agricultural season in the country.Households were also asked to indicate if they considered agricultural wage income as their most important source of income. In the third round, 12 percent of the national and 16 percent of the rural population indicated agricultural income as their most important source of income. Table 1 illustrates that agricultural wage income is more important than non-agricultural wage income in rural areas (13 percent of rural households indicated non-agricultural wage income as their most important source of income). Within agriculture, wage income from crop agriculture is much more important than wage income from livestock, fishing, or aquaculture. Source: Myanmar Household Welfare Survey, rounds 1 (in Q1), 2 (in Q2) and 3 (in Q3)We further compare agricultural wage income by state/region (Table 2). Agricultural wage income is especially important in the Dry Zone as seen by the share of households that report agricultural wage income to be their most important source of income -29 percent in Magway and 19 percent in Sagaing (both important conflict-affected areas) -but it is also shown to be important in conflict affected areas (Kayah and Chin), possibly because of the recent displacement of households in these areas, which then often need to rely on casual agricultural wage labor as a source of income. In MAPS, we asked to what extent farmers depended on hired labor in the cultivation of their cops and how the use of agricultural labor had changed over the last year (Table 3). Few differences are seen over the year and between seasons. More than three-quarters of the farmers rely on hired labor for their agricultural activities, indicating their importance in Myanmar's agricultural economy. In the post-monsoon/pre-monsoon season, farmers were asked if they had changed the number of hired laborers on their fields. We see few changes in hired labor use. If anything, more hired labor has been used, possibly because of the increasing cost of mechanization in the last year (costs increased by more than 50 percent), pushing farmers to increasingly employ labor for some of these tasks that were done before through mechanization. Farmers were further asked to indicate the difficulties that that they had in accessing laborers. Most farmers indicated no difficulties. If difficulties were reported, they mostly concerned 'not enough laborers or laborers not available' (18 percent of farmers) and the lack of access to laborers on time (14 and 15 percent of farmers in the monsoon and pre-postmonsoon period). The MAPS survey asked wages for men and women for different periods of the year and for previous years. Nominal wages are found to have changed little over the last two years (Figure 1). For the monsoon period in 2022 (August/September), daily agricultural wages for men were about 7,100 MMK/day (2.4 USD per day -at the informal market exchange rate) and for women about 5,500 MMK/day (1.8 USD per day). Wages for men and women increased by 12 percent over the last year (and 25 percent for men and 19 percent for women when compared to two years ago). While we see relatively small changes in nominal wages over this period, this does not paint a true picture of agricultural wage laborers' purchasing power. As reliable price inflation numbers are lacking in rural Myanmar, we estimate 'real' wages through adjustment by a food price inflation index, and by converting wages to kgs of rice and to USD (using market exchange rates).Figure 2 shows that the cost of food -the most important item of poor people's expenditureshas increased substantially over the last 2 years. Relying on the results of prices regularly collected with a large sample of food vendors in the country, we see that the costs of a basic food basket increased by 67 percent over the last two years, by 58 percent compared to a year ago, and by 24 percent compared to 3 months earlier. 2 This illustrates the rapid changes in the prices of foods in recent months. As rice is the most important staple in the country, rice prices are also presented in Figure 2. Rice prices at the end of the period studied were 62 percent higher than two years ago, and 42 percent higher compared to a year ago, i.e. slightly lower increases compared to the changes in the prices of the overall food basket.Source: Food vendor surveys We use three measures to derive estimates of what real wages constitute (Figure 3). First, when we take the costs of a food basket into consideration and calculate the purchasing power of agricultural laborers' wages, we find that these \"real\" wages have declined by 27 percent for men and 30 percent for women compared to two years ago. Compared to one year ago, the decline amounted to 29 percent. Second, when wages are expressed in kilograms of rice that agricultural workers can buy, wages of men and women declined by 22 percent over the last year (from 9.3 kgs to 7.3 kgs for men and from 7.3 kgs to 5.7 kgs for women). Third, we also express agricultural wages in USD. During the monsoon of 2020, the mean wage paid in Myanmar was 4.2 USD/day for men and 3.5 USD/day for women. In the same period in 2022, these wages had fallen to almost half that level, by 44 percent for men (to 2.4 USD/day) and by 47 percent for women (to 1.8 USD/day). In the last year alone, a decline of 39 percent was seen.While the real wage gap between men and women was 21 percent two years ago, this gap had widened to 28 percent at the end of 2022, when measured in terms of local food costs, kgs of rice and USD, indicating that women agricultural laborers have suffered more than men from the twin crises. We further present median nominal wages in the monsoon season by region and state for men in Figure 4 and women in Figure 5. A number of patterns stand out. First, there is significant variation in wages between states/regions in the most recent monsoon. Agricultural wages of men were 67 percent higher in Tanintharyi (where wages are highest) compared to most of the Delta and the Dry Zone. For women, salaries are 60 percent higher in Kayin than in major agricultural zones, i.e. the Delta and the Dry Zone. Second, the differences in wages between states/regions are increasing over time. The largest difference in wages between states/regions was, during the monsoon of 2020, only 40 percent for men and 50 percent for women. Increasing insecurity, restrictions on mobility due to curfews and checkpoints, and increasing transport costs might have led to more segmented agricultural labor markets during the monsoon of 2022 compared to the monsoon of 2020. Third, during the monsoon, we see higher wages in better-off areas (Yangon), as well as in states/regions where international out-migration is relatively easier (states/regions bordering Thailand, such as Kayin), and in areas most affected by conflicts (Chin, Rakhine, Sagaing) given that workers need to be compensated for the risks incurred in such areas. We compare welfare indicators of agricultural wage laborers to the rest of the rural population and assess how these measures of welfare have changed since the beginning of 2022. We rely on three measures, i.e. asset poverty, income poverty, and diet diversity (MAPSA 2022d). Table 4 illustrates that agricultural wage laborers are significantly poorer than the rest of the rural population.Approximately 73 percent of agricultural laborers belong to the asset poor-category. This compares to 39 percent for the rest of the rural population. While 19 percent of the rural population belongs to the asset-rich category, only 3 percent of the agricultural wage laborers are asset-rich. Other welfare measures show similarly poor welfare rankings compared to the rest of the rural population. In the most recent survey round, 66 percent of the rural population was estimated to be income poor but among agricultural wage laborers, it was 85 percent. One third of the agricultural wage laborers had unacceptable food consumption levels as measured by food consumption score indicators compared to 20 percent for the rural population as a whole.Moreover, we see a worsening of the welfare measures of agricultural laborers over time. At the beginning of the year, 80 percent of the agricultural wage laborers were evaluated to be income poor. That had worsened by 5 percentage points in the third round. Food security also worsened as the share of households with acceptable food consumption levels deteriorated by 9 percent. Part of this decrease might be explained by the crisis situation in Myanmar, but part might also be due to seasonal effects as the middle of the year is considered the lean period in the country. While the agricultural sector has shown substantial resilience over the last two years, the different shocks (COVID-19, the coup, increases in input prices, declining farm profitability, and other shocks) are causing increasing strains on the sector and for those making a living from it. Casual agricultural wage laborers are often among the poorest of all households and they have experienced substantially lower wages and worsening income and welfare due to the crises in Myanmar. To improve welfare of agricultural workers, a number of interventions could be considered. In the shortterm, agricultural laborers would benefit from assistance. An expansion of cash-for-work programs focused on agricultural activities would allow them to assure more reliable incomes. It would also address the shortage of agricultural labor in many areas, an important issue reported by a substantial share of crop farmers. In the longer-term, there would be a need to reform policies to improve land access to such agricultural laborers, who are often landless.","tokenCount":"2150"}
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